Sermons by Rev. Jason S. Glombicki (Page 11)

Before we get too deep into this gospel reading, I’m wondering who has heard this parable before? Well, let me first give the sermon I usually hear on this text. It goes like this… We have two people. One is a Pharisee, a Jewish leader who is exceedingly righteous and judgmental, and the other is a tax collector, a traitor of his people, who is humble and contrite. While you might think the righteous one following God’s rules has the best relationship with God, it is the tax collector who is justified with God. So, the takeaway, be humble. Amen…

There are some people who love their commute, but I’m not one of them. I’m the person who sees driving from one place to another as, generally, a waste of time and an inconvenience. If I’m honest, driving is probably the place where I commit most of my sins–not in a road rage kind of way, but more so as a passionate fan watching a football game on TV. I vocalize to myself that the car in front of me needs to go faster, or I start shaking my head a someone running a red light, or I think something too inappropriate to say in a sermon…

I need to confess that I don’t like today’s parable. It’s been a thorn in my side all week, and you’re probably getting the fourth rewrite of this sermon, but honestly, I stopped counting on Friday, so I don’t know. What makes me most uncomfortable is that I cannot seem to find the “gospel.” And when I say “gospel” I mean it in the Lutheran sense–the good news, that reminder of God’s grace, the recounting of God’s love, the thing that picks me up when the world kicks me down.  Instead, this parable has a lot of fire and brimstone, a lot of talk about an afterlife, and it is based on the actions of the rich man and Lazarus…