sermons & Illuminations

First Reading: Hosea 1:2-10
In Sunday’s Gospel, we hear Luke’s version of Jesus teaching the apostles to pray, using the familiar Lord’s Prayer. Listen for hints of God as a parent figure in the day’s other readings. Our Track One first reading opens a passage from the prophet Hosea that sounds even more grim and angry than the language we’ve been hearing from the prophet Amos in the past two weeks. Hosea tells a story that sounds very strange to modern ears: God orders him to marry and have a child with a prostitute, a shocking metaphor meant to warn Israel that it faces destruction as punishment for having forsaken God’s ways. But the final verse offers hope, promising that the descendants of Israel, as numerous as the sand of the sea, will be children of the living God.

Psalm: Psalm 85
Echoing Hosea’s description of an angry God, Psalm 85 sings of the grateful relief of a thankful people. In the exile, they had feared that they deserved God’s fury and wrathful indignation. But now they look forward to the mercy and salvation that they hope to receive from a God who remains faithful as a loving father, regardless of their sins. When we listen to God, the Psalmist sings, we hear mercy meeting truth while righteousness and peace join in a kiss.

Second Reading: Colossians 2:6-15 (16-19)
The author of the letter to the Colossians, writing in Paul’s name, reminds the people to be thankful for the faith and blessings we have received through Christ. This letter to the church in Colossae, a Greek community of new Christians who may have been wrestling with the pagan beliefs of their culture, warns of false teachings. “Festivals, new moons or sabbaths,” the author points out, are only a shadow of what is to come through Christ.

Gospel: Luke 11:1-13
When Jesus teaches us to pray, he calls us to be righteous, just as the ancient prophets demanded of Israel: Honor God’s name, share our food, forgive our debts, do to others as we would have them do to us. Do these things and we help build God’s kingdom, not only in Heaven but right here on Earth. Having taught his followers this prayer, he didn’t stop there, but went on in the following verses to talk about prayer in language rich in metaphor. How do we read his words about a persistently demanding friend who won’t give up asking his neighbor for bread at midnight until the neighbor gives in? Perhaps this underscores the importance of sharing our bread and loving our neighbors no matter what the circumstances. Just as God opens the door when we knock, so should we do the same for our neighbor.