Stop Your Whining

 October 5, 2025  Luke 17:5-10

 

I have to say, this scripture isn’t my favorite.

There’s not a ton to work with here.

 

First there’s this faith the size of a mustard seed metaphor.

There are a few mustard seed stories from Jesus.

There’s the one where the kingdom of God is like a mustard seed

that grows into a tree and birds come and nest in it.

It’s fun and there’s a lot to talk about  in that one.

That’s the one everyone remembers.

Then there’s this one which is different.

Mustard seeds.
There isn't very good art for this parable.

If you had faith the size of a mustard seed,

you could raise up a tree and put in the ocean.

In Matthew it’s a mountain. In Luke it’s a tree. Same point. Meh.

It seems to be insinuating that since

I can’t do those things,

I don’t have even that crumb of faith.

 

And then there’s this confusing thing with slaves.

And not thanking them, and not welcoming them to the table.

Which seems very contrary to other messages

that Jesus has given us about banquets and the last

shall be first and all. Not much there either.

 

The commentaries on it weren’t very interesting.

I think every time this has come up,

I’ve chosen to do something else.

But not this time! Lucky you.

I tell you this to let you know that I worked hard this week,

even though I just came back from vacation.

 

So Jesus teaching has been tough on the disciples.

He’s presented them with a lot of

difficult concepts and thoughts.

He’s heaped a lot of hard parables on them

about the poor and serving either God or wealth.

He’s told them about divorce.

He’s told them that they need to forgive a person

seven times a day if they repent.

And finally, in response to this

the disciples say, in this reading today

“Increase our faith”. In other words,

We can’t do all this hard stuff.

Increase our faith so we can get it done!

Make us more faithful so we

can achieve all this stuff you’re

saying we should do.”

And Jesus tells them about the faith the size

of a mustard seed.

 

A lot of people make this into a lesson

that says, “just make a greater spiritual effort

and you’ll do amazing things” which I saw a lot of

in my research. Which bothers my Lutheran sensibilities.

But you can’t blame anyone

for coming to that conclusion.

 

Really, Jesus seems to be saying that if you honed

your faith enough, then your could develop

telekinetic powers. Like the force in Star Wars

when Yoda was teaching Luke Skywalker

to lift his crashed plane out of the swamp.

 

But I don’t see anywhere else in scripture –

Old Testament or new—

where we’re working towards that objective.

And frankly, Jesus didn’t lift that tree or that mountain,

and put it in the ocean either so that goal

doesn’t make any sense.

I think that most people read this

mustard seed metaphor and think that

Jesus is telling us that we don’t have enough faith.

And if we had just a little more we could do great things.

But what if Jesus is actually thinking

that we have plenty of faith?

Like we already have faith the size of a cocoanut,

or faith the size of a Watermelon?

What if Jesus is saying to those poor disciples,

that they have all the faith they need and more.

That actually sounds more like Jesus to me.

 

In other words, “stop whining about

what you need more of, or what you’re lacking

and just do the work you’re called to do.”

 

Which brings us to the second part of the

lesson for the day, where Jesus talks

about slaves or servants.

Jesus is basically going a long way to tell the disciples this:

“You don’t get congratulated for doing

the work you are required to do.”

 

When I was little, like 6 or something, I guess,

I was eating at my grandparents house and

I said, all jubilant and congratulatory

“I finished my mashed potatoes”

And my grandmother joked with me and

said, “what do you want? A medal? They were delicious”

And that’s what I think Jesus was telling the disciples

with the second part of the gospel.

 

So the bottom line of this gospel for today is:

 “Stop whining. You don’t need more of anything.

Just do the work you were called to do.

What do you want a medal?”

 

Even though I know that Jesus is scolding the disciples,

I find this interpretation refreshing and freeing.

 

At least he’s not telling them to get more faith,

which is kind of nebulous and basically unachievable.

He’s telling them they have enough, and they are enough.

And he’s telling them to get off their hineys and do their work.

I get it.  The people of God always seem to be

whining about something. We always need more:

more faith, more money, more people, more leaders,

more organization, more strategic plans, more talent,

more youth, more vigor  . . .

We can’t do the work unless we have more, Jesus!

 

And Jesus goes, “look if you cut everything

that you already have by 90%, you could do miracles.

So just go and do your miracles.

And don’t expect a medal for it.”

And I find this kick in the pants kind of comforting.

 

Because we’re in pretty difficult times here in the country:

it seems like hate is winning more than ever before,

wars and terror are ruling the day,

the American government doesn’t believe

in the first amendment any more,

It’s turning against its citizens.

It seems like spite and cruelty are what

we’re teaching our children.

Things we’ve valued for so long,

and took for granted are slipping away

every day that passes.

 

Not to mention the normal, regular

issues that we still have of

poverty, racism, and violence

Not to mention everyone’s individual

health problems, financial problems,

personal problems, relationship problems.

 

And sometimes I feel very unprepared,

unqualified, and ill-equipped  to face all the

issues we’re up against.

 

I think a lot of us feel like we don’t have the skills,

or the words, or the patience, or the will or the faith,

to do what needs to be done at this moment.

I want to say, “Jesus, increase everything

in me to face this moment and all these trials”

 

And Jesus says, “Stop your whining.

You have more than enough.

Just do what the lord requires of you,

Do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God.

– and don’t expect a medal.”

 

So maybe this isn’t such a bad gospel for us.

It reminds us that we are more than enough

for this moment and we have all we need.

 

And it also reminds us that even if our

faith is small, or under strain,

or even non-existent at times, that’s okay.

 

Because God will do the heavy lifting.

God will pick up that metaphorical

mulberry tree and throw it in the ocean.

God will set things right again.

God will restore this earth and our joy

and give us back our hope.

 

As the Psalm today says,

“Commit your way to the Lord;

put your trust in the Lord,

and see what God will do.”

We Are Lost

 Luke 15:1-11

September 14, 2025

 

The Pharisees and scribes are wondering why

Found Coin
Lisa Konkol

Jesus eats with those people.

Obviously the wrong people.

The tax collectors and sinners and the like.

Apparently, they are not up to snuff for them.

And in response, Jesus tells them this parable.

 

Jesus asks them:

“Which one of you, having a hundred sheep

and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine 

in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost?”

The answer in the Pharisees heads: No one would do that.

 

Today, we might get all sentimental and say,

“of course you would do that.”

Because we’re thinking of them like a pet,

they’re cute we named it George.

But if you have 100 of them, they’re not pets.

They’re business.

 

A reasonable shepherd would not leave 99 of

his sheep by themselves and go looking for one.

The other sheep would get lost too, it would be a big mess

and financially devastating.

 

And Jesus also asks:

If you lost a coin (that was worth about an hours pay)

Wouldn’t you spend a whole day of work looking for it,

and then when you found it, throw a party

(which probably cost more than the value of the coin you found?)

Would that be a wise thing to do?

The answer is no, a practical person wouldn’t do that either.

None of these make much financial sense, the math doesn’t work.

You’re gonna eventually go broke if you do any of that.

 

You don’t risk losing 99% of your flock just to find one percent.

You don’t spend the value of two coins trying to find one coin.

The math just doesn’t add up.

 

Last week, Jesus asked his followers if they calculated

the cost, but it seems from this kind of talk that Jesus

was not very good at calculating costs.

The religious leaders must have that Jesus was crazy

to even suggest it.

 

And that is the first point of Jesus stories today.

He’s just not that good at math.

 

And that’s because math doesn’t apply.

Because Jesus isn’t talking about sheep and coins.

He’s talking about people.

 

Now if you look at people only like numbers

and their benefits to society and to your goals,

like the religious leaders were doing,

then Jesus was doing a terrible job.

He’s not calculating the cost or considering

who he is being seen with and how

It is going to affect him in the long run.

He’s not considering what this will do to

his reputation and to his brand.

 

It just doesn’t make good sense to go looking

for one lost one if you’re talking about sheep and coins

if you’re talking about objects, possessions, things,

the math doesn’t add up.

 

But if we’re talking about lost children,

then it makes complete sense.

God doesn’t see people as commodities

and return on investments.

God sees us as people as beloved children.

So Jesus, as a reflection of God,

doesn’t use math or accounting to

figure who he should eat with.

 

He knows this is will probably cost him.

It’s going to cost him his honor and reputation

in the religious community,

and, in the end it will cost him his life.

But the cost doesn’t matter.

It’s worth it.

 

And this is good news for us.

Especially today.

Especially this week.

Because we are obviously lost.

This country as a whole is lost.

 

We have been lost to violence in all its forms.

We had a young woman randomly killed in Charlotte.

Yet another school shooting in Colorado.

From September 7th-13th there have been

455 gun deaths in the United States.

Which is horrifying, but actually average.

We have shown time and time again that we

love unregulated assault weapons more than we love children.

 

And then there was the killing of this

Political Commentator Charlie Kirk on

Wednesday which has caused a lot of fervor.

Now Charlie Kirk was not someone to idolize as some are doing.

His words were filled with dangerous rhetoric

He said that Democrats and liberals should be destroyed,

that gay and lesbian people should be imprisoned,

that transgender people were violent,

that black people were better off in slavery.

He couched all this in enough Christianity and

selective history and charisma to sound reasonable and faithful

but his words were divisive and dangerous

and not Christ like at all.

 

AND his killing is awful.

 

We can believe both things.

I did not like or respect Charlie Kirk,

I don’t believe he should not be celebrated or honored.

I thought his words were harmful.

And I also think that killing him was harmful.

 

Free speech is a basic right in this country,

and political violence is a special kind of horrible,

no matter who the victim or perpetrator is.

And as Christians, we’re called to love our enemies

and pray for those who cause harm to us.

 

But the response to this killing in this country

was to raise the temperature

and call for more political violence.

From so many people, including the president.

 

More violence is not an answer to violence.

We think it’s going to solve our problems,

or ease our desperation and fear.

But it just spirals us further into desperation and fear

and right into the hands of Satan every time.

 

We are lost.

We had so much promise as a country, but face it.

We are lost.

We’ve turned against ourselves and we decided

that consuming and destroying our own people

is the way to some kind of glory.

 

The columnist, David Brooks wrote an article and he said:

“we live in a fragmented society made up of individuals who have no conception of the common good, no way to come together to pursue a common good, no way to persuade one another what the common good might be, and indeed most of us believe that the common good does not and cannot exist.”

We are lost.

 

And when I’m in my worst and most hopeless,

I really feel like maybe this whole social experiment

of the Untied States might be a loss.

If I were calculating the cost, I sometimes think it might be better

if God just destroyed it all and see what grows out of the ashes.

 

In the first reading from Exodus.

We hear how the people that the God saved

from slavery in Egypt have turned on him.

God saved them, brought them to the promised land,

He was writing up the 10 commandments with Moses up

on Mount Sinai. Then while Moses was delayed

coming down from the mountain for a couple days,

they got worried about things and instantly turned.

Moses own brother Aaron had them melt all their gold jewelry

and they formed a golden calf for them to worship.

 

God took a break from the 10 commandments and

checked to see what was happening with the Israelites

at the bottom of the mountain and he gets really mad.

He calls the people stiff-necked, stubborn, won’t yield, hopeless.

God tells Moses, “get out of the way,

and let me consume these people with fire.

I’ll start all over again, and you and I will make a great nation.”

 

God’s plan was to wipe them out and start over again.

And I get it.  The minute they have some free time

and some fear, they turn on God and worship

some false god. It sounds a lot like us.

 

But Moses negotiates with God and says,

what would the Egyptians say?

That you brought the people out just to kill them?

 

And then Moses reminds God of God’s promises

to Abraham, and Isaac, and Israel,

Moses reminds them of the people that God loved.

These are your children.

And God changed God’s mind about the disaster

that he planned to bring on the people.

 

There’s a lot more wrangling: Moses gets mad at the people.

He breaks the 10 commandments.

He has to go back up the mountain and make them again.

God sends a little plague to remind them whose boss.

Moses implores God for forgiveness.

They make a new 10 commandments.

And they again restore the covenant

between God and God’s people.

 

It’s a complicated story like life is. It seems like God and

the Israelites are both negotiating how this whole

relationship will go forward.

But in the end, God clings to this description

which he declares when the 10 commandments

are finally presented:

 

“I am the Lord, a God merciful and gracious,

slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness”

 

This is God’s chosen identity from then out.

And God really lives into it going forward from there.

And this is the identity of God that

Jesus has come to share with us, and help us understand.

God is not a god of destruction, but is

abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.

And God is going to stick with all God’s children,

no matter how stiff-necked we are.

Maybe it would make more sense on paper,

to just give up on the whole thing.

But we remember from our stories today,

that Jesus wasn’t very good at math.

 

God isn’t good at calculating the cost when

it comes to his children.

 

Jesus, why do you do this,

Why do you welcome sinners and eat with them?

Why do you entertain these stiff-necked

people who disappoint and follow false idols?

Why do you waste your time with the likes of us?

Because Jesus was sent to find the lost.

The lost sheep,

lost coins,

lost people,

and lost countries.

And God won’t give up until the lost are found.

 

 

Take Up Your Cross

Luke 14:25-33 September 7, 2025

 

Jesus seems to be getting very real with the crowds

that are following him.

Back in chapter 6, he was comforting to the crowds

telling them that the meek were blessed.

He was feeding another 5000 people in chapter 9.

But then, in chapter 12, the crowds got an earful

when he told them that he didn’t come to bring peace,

but he came to bring division.  

Then he called them hypocrites.

 

Now, after he’s left the Pharisees house again,

after another awkward dinner party,

the crowd is still following him and Jesus

tells them that they should hate their whole family

or they shouldn’t bother chasing after him.

 

It’s almost as if he’s trying to get rid of them.

Or at least weed out the idly

interested ones from the committed ones.

But he’s telling them the truth:

There is a cost to being a disciple.

 

Now, we Lutherans love talk about free grace

and the unconditional love of God –

and that is absolutely true we are forgiven and loved

just because God does that. It’s God’s way.

We’re all going to heaven. Don’t worry about that.

 

But once we know that, and start to live in gratitude

to the one who has saved us, that life of gratitude comes at a cost.

Which Lutherans don’t really spend a lot of time talking about.

 

Jesus says to the crowds,

Let me tell you about that now, because

I don’t want a bunch of half-way followers who

chicken out when the going gets tough.

So he tells them about the costs up front.

I don’t know that most people are inclined to do that.

 

So there’s this church on the way from Austin to Dallas

And it used to have this big sign on the front of it,

that you could see from the freeway and it said,

“30 minute worship, guaranteed!”

Now there’s nothing wrong with a 30 minute worship service.

It’s no worse than a 60 minute worship or a

90 minute worship or a 2 hour worship.

 

But having an advertisement like that – that promotes

the short length of the worship – is kind of promising that your

relationship with Jesus will only take 30 minutes out of your life,

or 60 minutes, or two hours or whatever.

 

You can get this whole discipleship thing over and

done with in little or no time.

This won’t hurt a bit, you can just pop in and pop out

All God wants from you is to 30 minutes – and a little money of course.

In other words, I can give the minimum effort and still get all the benefits.

 

It sounds good I guess, it’s sold quite a few people

since the sanctuary there is pretty large.

But it’s kind of the opposite of what Jesus was doing here.

And according to Jesus, what that church was doing was

pretty much false advertising.

 

Jesus says there will be a cost.

And it’s not just going to be 30 minutes of your weekend

and a few dollars out of your bank account.

God wants you.

All of you.

God wants your body, mind, and soul.

There will be sacrifices.

 

Often in Christianity, we forget about our own sacrifices.

We focus on Jesus sacrifice, on his cross.

We say things like “he paid it all for me”

“The price for my sins was paid.”

As if Jesus was crucified just so we could be comfortable.

 

But Jesus tells us today that as followers,

we will be picking up our own crosses.

There will be a cost. We don’t all have to die.

But there will be a cost, and that cost might be pretty high.

 

“Whoever comes to me and does not hate father

and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters,

yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple"

 

This was not embroidered on a pillow

in your grandma’s house, was it?

There is NO church between Austin and Dallas

has a big sign with this on it. 

That would not be good advertising.

But Jesus tells the crowds this right away.

 

Now why would Jesus tell people this anyway?

Families are good, we love our families.

Fathers and brothers and sisters and wives and children

are awesome and are seen by some as

the pinnacle of commitment and Christian life.

But Jesus says we are to hate them.

 

Now I don’t like it when we preachers say that

Jesus really didn’t mean what he said.

But I really do think that Jesus is using hyperbole here.

He’s exaggerating to prove a point.

I don’t know that he wants us to actually hate

our father and mother, spouse, and children, and brother and sister.

 

Jesus has said many other places to love one another.

Even to love our enemies. And I’m sure family is included in that.

Sometimes they’re the ones we need to learn to love the most.

 

So I don’t think that Jesus is telling us to hate anyone actively:

to stop talking to them, or call them names, or egg their houses,

or sign them up for embarrassing magazine subscriptions.

 

But Jesus is saying that being a disciple

sometimes does cost us our relationship with our families.

The path that God leads us on sometimes puts us at odds with

the people we love the most.

Sometimes as a disciple, we are asked to put God’s will

before the will of our families.

Jesus is telling us to be ready for that choice.

 

Jesus is saying, contrary to the belief of many, many Christians

today, that family is not always the

highest priority in a Christian life.

Doing God’s will is.

And sometimes, doing God’s will can cause

division in our families.

 

In Jesus time, family was everything.

Blood lines, kinship, country, common lineage, descendants,

were the most important thing.

Things were basically black and white.

You were part of our family, clan, or religion or you weren’t.

and often that meant that you were the enemy.

Family was the priority

 

But Jesus was in the process of creating a family that was not based

on race, or nationality, or religion, or blood line.

Jesus was creating a family based on the love of God

which reaches across these lines and knows no boundaries.

Things were no longer black and white, gentile or Jew,

My family or yours. Jesus was reorienting people towards

God’s Kingdom and God’s priorities of justice and grace.

 

The divisions were being blurred and

Jesus told his followers that their loyalties were to a larger family,

the commitments of Jesus followers are to the least,

to the poorest, to the outcast, to the most rejected ones,

which sometimes meant helping out

and standing up for the ones outside your own family or clan

maybe even against your own family or clan.

  

And that could lead to a division with

father, mother, sister, brother, or child, cousin, or everyone you know.

That could lead to losing your identity,

your security, “all of your possessions”, as Jesus puts it.

That was the cost of building the tower to quote the parable.

 

And Jesus tells the people in the crowds that if they

can’t handle that, then they should just stop following.

Unlike most salesmen, Jesus is just telling us 

all the possible costs up front.

 

In Jesus time, making a choice for God’s family

over and against your own family, or country,

or race could be immediately costly.

And today, that risk is still there.

 

As Christians, we are asked to recognize the humanity

and rights of those different from us, whoever we are.

To be compassionate to those of other races,

other countries, other backgrounds and religions.

We’re asked to stand up for the rights of immigrants, refugees,

the poor, the hungry, the underfed, the underrepresented.

We’re asked to stand up for gay, lesbian, and transgender people.

We are asked to stand up for our neighbors.

 

This has become controversial.

More controversial than it was even in the recent past.

More controversial than it needs to be.

How many of us have kept silent with family

and friends about these basic tenants of Christianity

just to keep the peace? Just to avoid arguments?

I know I have certainly done it.

 

Jesus is telling us that, as his followers,

keeping the peace is not our priority.

It’s actually not even one of our goals.

Jesus is actually telling us to not keep that peace

and to speak up for our brothers and sisters in Christ.

 

At the least, this could lead to some uncomfortable discussions.

At the most it could cost us even more.

Jesus wants us to consider that and be ready for that.

God doesn’t just want 30 minutes of us.

God wants all of us.

Jesus wants us to take up our crosses and follow.

There will be sacrifice involved. Which is painful.

 

But every time we give up part of our lives

for the sake of the gospel,  we receive this new life,

one that is full and complete. 

And we receive a new family and friends in Christ.

 

And when we put ourselves out there for the Gospel like we have,

when we do God’s work, we come close to the heart of God. 

And anyone who has been close to the heart of God.

knows that there is nothing that compares with that.

 

Dying to yourself, and rising with Christ. 

Losing your own priorities and taking up God’s. 

That is what taking up our cross means.

Dying hurts.

But rising makes up for what has been lost. 

 

And something that is given up for God is not actually given up 

In the end, it is something that is gained. 

We forfeit ourselves but we gain the whole kingdom 

Not just in heaven.

Not just after we’ve died - but here and now. 

 

Jesus has warned us fair and square.

This is going to cost us. 

But he also promises,

the more we lose, the more we get.