Sun. Sept. 9 (J. Evan Kreider)

Evan Kreider spoke on Luke 14:25-33, noting that this passage contains phrases that were formerly absolutely shocking, but are now so common that we think of them as ordinary language. Yet if you take the risk to live your life according to this gospel, it will change your life. Jesus, perhaps tiring of the crowds that followed him everywhere expecting miracles as entertainment, might have dismayed them when he told them that family - and its approval - must come after faith in God, not before. This, of course, denies the first of the ten commandments to “Honour thy father and mother....” Yet Jesus himself put his own calling above family approval, leaving the family construction business to pursue the life of the itinerant preacher. His radical thought was rewarded with hanging on the cross. As radical as it was then, the cross has become utterly safe for us - we hang them in our churches, we wear them as jewelry around our necks. Would we wear a pendant with a little electric chair on it? Jewish history in Jesus’ time was violent and the cross was regularly used to kill rebellious Jews at the whim of the Romans. Are we truly willing to take up the cross? Who will go to Afghanistan next week to take the place of the slain Korean missionaries? Evan spoke directly to the students attending, imploring them to use their intellect at school, but also at home, in the church, in their faith life. Inquire rigorously, and do not accept the trite answer. Evan noted that churches which ask relatively little of their members grow large, while churches which ask attenders to pay the full cost of discipleship are destined to remain small. PGIMF supports this inquiry into your faith and your intellect. Nobody asked harder questions than Jesus did - and humanity 2000 years later still struggles with those questions. Join us. [AP] Listen to the sermon audio MP3 recording from Sunday Sept. 9th using your browser's preferred media player.