December 4, 2016: “Consecration: Dedication”

An audio file of the sermon from December 4 is available at this link.

The Scripture readings are Deuteronomy 8:10-18 and Matthew 19:16-39.

“Usually Jesus goes from one thing to another. He says what he says, he does what he does, and mostly he lets other people sort it all out. He lets you figure out what it means if you can (and usually most people can’t). And meanwhile he finds someone else to help, someone else to teach, someone else to heal, someone God isn’t finished with yet however dire their life may look.

“But the encounter he had with the rich you man has Jesus thinking. Sometimes, when you’re a teacher, you realize that something just now went by too quickly, and you need to stop and call the class’s attention to it; unpack it a little, make sure everyone got all they could out of it. That happened here. He had this interaction with the young man who had a lot of wealth, and that young man may have benefited from the conversation. We aren’t told. But whether he did or didn’t, Jesus recognizes that others can learn from what just happened. Maybe the disciples didn’t act as surprised or troubled by the conversation as he thought they would be. So he stops and pushes the rewind button to make sure everyone grows as much as they can from what they just saw.”

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