The text for this week’s sermon is Luke 7:36-50 from the Narrative Lectionary.

The story tells of a moment when Jesus was invited to a dinner party at a Pharisee’s house and a “sinner” barged into the party. The way Jesus handles both the Pharisee and the “sinner” tells volumes about the Gospel and the Kingdom of God that Jesus invites us to indwell.

I will preach on it this weekend. Several pictures have already emerged in my imagination, so I will be drawing, writing, and reflecting on them over the next two days.

Today, however, I want to share a podcast that I listened to this week from Tim and Jon at the Bible Project that connects well with the text. Jon offered his second story that highlights a man named Harvey Turner from Reno, NV. Harvey talks about how he turned to a life of drugs and street Rap music when he was a teenager and how he discovered the love and grace of God through Jesus during that time. He wrote a book called Friend of Sinners: An Approach to Evangelism.

Keep in mind that Tim and Jon have a similar conservative Evangelical background to mine and they are pushing some of the boundaries from within that space. To my Lutheran colleagues, this may seem like foreign language, especially regarding the framing of the term “evangelism.” I think the Bible Project lives in the same “radical middle” space that I try to indwell.

Listen to the Podcast HERE.

Check out Harvey’s book (full disclosure, I haven’t read it, so there’s that).

more on the Luke narrative tomorrow…

Pin It on Pinterest

Share This