St. Luke's Blogs

When I was a little boy, I played a lot of games, as all little children should do.  I was blessed to have good friends who lived in my neighborhood and often we would spend day and night playing these games together. As I look back on those days, one game seems to stand out.  That game is the game of “hide-and-seek”.  I bet we played this game and its many variations at least a million times.  I thought about that game as I read again the beautiful words that appear in the prophet Jeremiah’s book, “You will seek me and find me”. 

The people of northern Michigan were excited that the annual National Cherry Festival had returned after a year off due to COVID-19. People came from all around to enjoy the festival. With Lake Michigan as the backdrop, it was planned to be a fun and exciting event. The festival was off to a great start until a malfunction took place on one of the large carnival rides…

“One day Jesus was teaching, and Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there. They had come from every village of Galilee and from Judea and Jerusalem. And the power of the Lord was with Jesus to heal the sick. Some men came carrying a paralyzed man on a mat and tried to take him into the house to lay him before Jesus. When they could not find a way to do this because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and lowered him on his mat through the tiles into the middle of the crowd, right in front of Jesus.” – Luke 5:17-19
I must admit this has always been one of my favorite passages of scripture. In one brief story, Luke offers the church a beautiful visual of the love we are called to have for our neighbors. The story begins with Jesus teaching the experts and ends with everyone bewildered by what they have witnessed.

So he arose and went to Zar′ephath; and when he came to the gate of the city, behold, a widow was there gathering sticks; and he called to her and said, “Bring me a little water in a vessel, that I may drink.” And as she was going to bring it, he called to her and said, “Bring me a morsel of bread in your hand.” And she said, “As the Lord your God lives, I have nothing baked, only a handful of meal in a jar, and a little oil in a cruse; and now, I am gathering a couple of sticks, that I may go in and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it, and die.”  And Eli′jah said to her, “Fear not; go and do as you have said; but first make me a little cake of it and bring it to me, and afterward make for yourself and your son. For thus says the Lord the God of Israel, ‘The jar of meal shall not be spent, and the cruse of oil shall not fail, until the day that the Lord sends rain upon the earth.’

“but when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of deeds done by us in righteousness, but in virtue of his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal in the Holy Spirit, which he poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that we might be justified by his grace and become heirs in hope of eternal life.”

I can think of few images of grace as powerful as Jesus standing at the opening to the tomb that held Lazarus. The days leading up to Jesus’ arrival at the opening of this grave were filled with sickness, death, mourning, and a deep questioning about where Jesus was and just what he was planning on doing.  The family of Lazarus and the disciples were all concerned, and they were looking to Jesus for help.

In 1988, Derek Redmond was a member of the British team at the summer games in Seoul. He was just moments away from running when he injured his Achilles tendon. He was forced to withdraw from the Games. Years of hard work and dreams vanished in a moment, all because he was injured.  This was devastating, but it did not deter Derek from pursuing his dream. He rehabbed and began training so that he could once again go through the process to become an Olympic runner. His hard work paid off and in 1992, he was selected to represent Great Britain in the Barcelona games. Derek took his place at the starting blocks…

Whenever a friend is getting ready to leave on vacation, it’s pretty standard to say, “I hope you have a great time!” But listening to Wendy’s sermon about everything that went wrong on our first family trip to Red River, New Mexico, made me realize something: I hope you have a bad day…

It is often said that, “The Lord helps those who help themselves.” This popular phrase in our culture represents our acknowledgment that God is at work in the world while promoting individual responsibility and self-reliance. This common phrase contains a nugget of truth within it, but it is not found in the Bible. The Lord helps all. God’s grace and mercy are available to all people. That is why the Apostle Paul writes in the book of Titus, “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all.” (Titus 6:2) God has given each of us “help” in more ways than we can possibly count…

“For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another. For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”