There is no question that the COVID pandemic has changed everything. We are still in the early days of assessing all the long-term effects, but one early observation is troubling. Doctors and mental health professionals are noticing a dramatic increase in anxiety and depression in people.
The story tells itself. As Jesus speaks, who cannot envision the rich man he describes? There he is. He’s got the big luxurious house in the gated community. He is described as wearing purple. Purple cloth was extremely expensive due to the painstaking way in which it was made. The purple dye was harvested from little glands on certain kinds of sea snails.
We have chosen the words of our theme this morning very carefully. “Wealth management strategies.” We hear words like this quite often in our culture. There is an entire industry built around wealth management. Experts write books about it. Recognized gurus on the matter travel the land putting on 2-day seminars teaching eager attendees the “secrets” of successful wealth management.
Has it ever occurred to you that God’s love is such a special and unique thing that it has to have its own word? The word I am referring to is “grace.” “Grace” doesn’t just mean a feeling of affection for someone, but grace is affection for someone who is completely unworthy or undeserving of such affection. It is this grace of God that is the moving force behind all of his saving activity: It is by grace you have been saved…(Ephesians 2:8).
Today we have Pastor Phil Merten leading our worship services. Pastor Merten serves in the Wisconsin Lutheran Institutional Ministries program. His work involves prison ministry.
I suspect all the “A-listers” were on the guest list. Anybody who was anybody was likely invited. After all, this was dinner at the home of ranking Pharisees. We know from the verses that are not included in our text that there were legal experts in attendance and also other Pharisees. That’s why one of the guests who was invited strikes us as a bit of an outsider.
At the center of every religion is something called “righteousness.” For our purposes let’s define “righteousness” as the condition of being right with God. The goal of religion is to answer the question in the heart of man, “How can I be right with God?”
The family was all gathered in the lawyer’s office on the right day at the right time. It was the day for the reading of the will. No one thought they would be here. But George had died suddenly. Massive heart attack. Never saw it coming. George was leaving a huge fortune to someone in that room. His wife is there. And so are his two ex-wives. All five of George’s children are there.
Thank you to the many donors in our community. Our first blood drive was July 26, 2022 from 12 – 5 pm. The blood drive collected 48 pints of blood. We are grateful to our generous community who gave of their time to support such a worthy cause.
“Lord, teach us to pray.” There is something very significant and profound about that little word “teach.” It confesses something. It confesses that we don’t know how to pray! It is true that every human being comes into this world with what is called a “natural knowledge of God.” People are born “theists,” not “atheists.” People know there is a God.
