In Luke 15 people are coming to listen to Jesus and those in power - the Scribes and Pharisees - grumble. They don't like it. So, Jesus shares his perspectives on rich people and that's what I've preached on the last two weeks. Before this Pr. Tom had set these lessons up beautifully by talking about Christians as "pointless people." (As in those who don't keep score about human sin or virtue.) If you think about it, this is all pretty challenging to the system we live in!

Sunday we'll take one last crack at it. This week's Gospel Lesson is Luke 17:5-10. "The apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith!" The Lord replied, "If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it would obey you." Faith, you see, doesn't come in a six pack or by the pound. We either live in faith and God does amazing things or we don't. We're "pointless people" in this sense, too. It's not like some people have more faith than others and so can do great things. No! It's always God who does great things. People of faith just trust the promise.

See you Sunday!

Pr. Dave Brauer-Rieke

P.S. Spoiler Alert! - Sunday, October 9 Pr. Tom and I are starting a six week preaching/worship series on . . . (Surprise!)

(Remember when Bp. Jaech was here August 28 and your former pastors surrendered the authority of the font/baptism, the pulpit/Word and the altar/Holy Communion? Who did they give it back to, and where did it go?)