2022 Year C Proper 15 - August 14, 2022
The Challenges of Following Jesus
The Jesus we encounter in the Gospel this week is a fierce and somewhat disturbing Jesus, not one who comforts and soothes but one who has challenging and distressing things to say. Jesus is on the way to Jerusalem – to his death on the cross. He had been upsetting the social order with his teachings and was disturbing some pretty powerful people in the process. I think he knew where his path led, and he is warning his followers then and now that following him can be dangerous and painful and even might require you to separate yourself from friends and loved ones.
Luke wrote to strengthen the faith and to embolden and encourage the people who followed Jesus and his teachings. They lived in times that were contentious and divisive and who, even through risk and difficulty, strove to follow the Way of Jesus. Like them, we live in unsettled and unsettling times. And like Luke’s audience then, as we hear his words, we remember that we are the People of the Way, the Jesus movement for our time. So maybe what Jesus is saying today is not as radically different from what Jesus has been saying all along. In God’s realm each one matters and we are commanded to love one another, no matter what the cost, as we strive to bring God’s realm on earth into being.
+The Rev. Dr. Kate Hennessy-Keimig
Watch Mtr. Kate’s full sermon here. (Time stamp 25:54)