August 24, 2025
11th Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 16, Year C – Mark Winward
When Jesus saw her, he called her forward and said to her, “Woman, you are set free from your infirmity.” Then he put his hands on her, and immediately she straightened up and praised God. – Luke 13:12–13 (NRSV)
Last week I said that if a Lectionary selection is confusing, difficult to understand, or hard to believe, that’s exactly what the preacher should be focusing on. This is one of those Sundays. And because today’s Gospel account is particularly difficult for us to swallow as 21st century Christians, I think it can get in the way of the real message behind the story. This morning, I want to suggest that there are three different levels we can view this Gospel account of Jesus healing the disabled woman.
First, this story addresses the reality of spiritual burdens. Particularly in the West, we tend not to consider the possibility that some conditions are not just physical but also carry a spiritual dimension. We treat sickness as merely sickness, and violence in people as merely violence. Yet I think most of us can recall individuals who are so weighed down spiritually—perhaps because of abuse or poor self-image—that their physical demeanor reflects that heaviness. The daily burdens we carry can snowball over the years into spiritual outcomes that sometimes express themselves physically.
Still, to focus only on spiritual burdens sidesteps most troublesome aspect of this passage.
Live
August 17, 2025
10th Sunday after Pentecost – Proper 15 Year C – Mark Winward
Jesus said, Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division… [families] will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law” – Luke 12:51, 53 NRSV
Today’s Gospel presents some of Jesus’ harshest words—verses that might not be most preachers’ first choice. It has always frustrated me that when a reading contains something difficult to hear, hard to believe, or seemingly incomprehensible—and the preacher dodges it. But that’s exactly what the preacher should be addressing. So it is in that place we find ourselves with today’s Gospel reading.
If we were to list ten of the hardest sayings in the Gospels, today’s passage would undoubtedly make the list. Jesus’ declaration that He came to bring fire, a distressing baptism, and division—even within families—are hardly comforting words. Quite frankly, we’d rather imagine Jesus as a peacemaker than as a home breaker. And it hardly helps to dismiss these sayings as “not authentic to Jesus.” They remain in the Bible—Scripture that the Church, through the ages, felt led to include in the canon.
My hermeneutic—that is, my approach to interpreting Scripture—is to ask: What does the text say? What did it mean? And what does it mean to me? It’s been said that “a text without a context is a pretext.” Be wary of any preacher who quotes multiple verses without considering their surrounding context.
August 10, 2025
9th Sunday after Pentecost – Mark Winward
Audacious Faith
At first glance, today’s readings may seem unrelated. But look closer, and a thread begins to emerge—one that ties Isaiah, Hebrews, and Luke together. Woven through each passage is an audacious faith: a bold, risk-taking trust in God we are called to live out.
In Isaiah (1:1, 10–20), the young prophet is blunt with God’s people. Their outward good works, he says, are meaningless without an inner change of heart. Offerings without repentance are empty. Prayers without transformation go unheard. Instead, Isaiah calls them to something deeper: “Learn to do good; seek justice; rescue the oppressed” (v.17). True worship is not just ritual—it’s the transformation of both heart and action.
Hebrews (11:1–3, 8–16) picks up this theme, focusing on Abraham’s faithfulness. This chapter is sometimes called the “roll call of the heroes of the faith.” But as my old professor Reggie Fuller would say, “The Bible knows no heroes… heroes are witnesses to their own achievements; whereas in Hebrews 11 the great figures of salvation history are brought forth, not for their heroism, but for their faith.” He defined faith as “taking a risk to trust God at God’s word when God makes promises about the future.”
The challenge is that Hebrews 11:1 is often misunderstood. The NRSV says, “Faith is the assurance (hypostasis) of things hoped for, the conviction (elegchos) of things not seen.” Yet those Greek words are never used that way anywhere else in the New Testament.