Overwhelmingly, the most common reason for people coming to church is because someone invited them. 79% begin attending a local congregation because someone whom they know and trust said “Why don’t you come to church with me this Sunday?” Let me ask, why did you first come? Who invited you?
Worship was endangered in the Temple, and worship may be endangered today as well. Too many people are selling out their worship experience to the dictates of the culture. Worship may be endangered because of a loss of habitat, a loss of a setting which is conducive to worship.
Who do you look up to? The problem is, whether your heroes are Presidents or statesmen, inventors or scientists, missionaries or philanthropists, they all have feet of clay, and, sooner or later, are apt to disappoint you. The Christian faith has an answer: Jesus Christ.
Kodak had a series of television commercials that highlighted moments that just had to be captured on film--"Kodak moments." In today's Gospel, we read about just such a Kodak moment in the relationship of Jesus and his mother. It is a classic moment—the kind that often occurs between a mother and her adult son.
Our culture is no friend to prayer, except prayer that reinforces the status quo. But all authentic prayer is response to God, and God has been known to be a change agent. Moreover, prayer acknowledges our dependence on God, and our culture is uncomfortable with dependence.
Are there parts of your life that are old and obsolete? Is your normal routine not working as well as it once did? Are you out of synch with the world around you? Has someone moved your cheese? Then listen up:
Today, not all the news about God’s Good News is good. The Word is under assault every day… and not only from the mockers, the bigots, the anti-Christian zealots and the secular establishment. The world has always been a formidable obstacle to the word, but so too are the flesh and the devil.
This story reveals a secret about life. Miracles happen. Signs of Jesus at work appear all around us. They happen whether or not we acknowledge them. They benefit us whether or not we notice them. Yet it's a joy to see these signs for what they are and believe in the one to whom they point.
The common thread through these events is the authority of Jesus. He taught with authority. He rebuked demons with authority. He even rebuked a fever with authority. Jesus speaks to nature and nature listens and obeys. Jesus speaks to spiritual powers and they obey. A little word from Jesus has authority over all things.
Jesus is needling his hometown congregation—bringing up episodes in their history when the people of God refused to recognize a prophet in their midst, but that prophet was acknowledged by such unlikely sorts as a pagan widow or an enemy general.