a prophetic voice-

(Preached at Nazareth Lutheran Church on July 24) Luke 11:1-13   There is the story of a devout old monk, the abbot of a monastery, who was a powerful pray-er, a man of great faith who had a deep relationship with God through his prayer life. Now, it seemed that he was often bothered by mice playing around him when he prayed, which he found very distracting. And so, he got a cat and kept it in his prayer room to scare the mice away. Interestingly, he never saw the need to explain to his fellow-monks why he had the cat, so one day as he walked down the monastery corridors, he was surprised to realized that each of the other monks had a cat in their prayer rooms. It seems that after seeing the abbot with a cat, the others thought that having a cat was the secret to powerful praying.   Amusing story, it’s true. But there are many Christians who seem to believe that they have to do something special in order for God to hear

(Preached on July 3rd at Nazareth Lutheran Church, Rural Hall, NC)   Once again, in this Sunday’s reading from Luke, we are presented with a vision of discipleship, one which presents following Jesus as, well, not at all easy to do. We meet Jesus sending out the seventy…people he had chosen and appointed…and how significant that must have made them feel… sending them out two-by-two…okay, so far so good, at least they won’t have to go it alone. But then he gives them their instructions, and what should have been a kind of pep talk, a motivational speech, went something like this… ”I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves.” Now wait just a minute, Jesus,” can’t you hear them saying- or at least, thinking? But he doesn’t stop there: “Carry no purse (which means no money), no bag (you mean we won’t have a change of clothes?), no sandals (Hold on there, Jesus. We’re supposed to go bare- footed? On this hot, hard, dusty ground?)     And he doesn