Did the Sermon Make Sense?
My original plan for Sunday’s sermon was to connect the text (Luke 17:11-19) to our current spiritual discipline emphasis on generosity. But I must be faithful to the Holy Spirit and the text, not my own plan, and they took me somewhere else: how Jesus seeks and sees the invisible. The invisible can be people who live on the margins of society, like the 10 lepers from the text, or anyone who experiences any combination of physical, social, economic, political, or spiritual isolation—any of us suffering on invisible islands behind visible masks. When we “see” that Jesus “sees” us deeper than what is visible, as the Samaritan leper did, we experience faith that leads to salvation and full restoration. Saved people—followers of Jesus—then become those who seek and “see” other invisible people. That is what I preached, and I pray that message was heard. If I could go back and add an emphasis, it would be that our first response to salvation is to worship at the feet of Jesus like the Samaritan leper. Every other response takes a backseat. Yet our actual pattern of gratitude and generosity shows that as a church we aren’t running first to Jesus. We aren’t even running to the church, much less to Jesus. We are running to Amazon, Starbucks, and nights on the town. If only half of us would stop and give back to Christ instead of the next latte, or new pair of shoes, or even a cheap tube of lipstick, we could DOUBLEthe financial impact of our church in saving the lost, left-out, and left-behind in our community.
Does that make sense?
I look forward to celebrating in worship and gratitude with our church family Commitment Sunday, this Sunday, October 16th 10am followed by celebration luncheon.
