Simply the Sermon for July 27, 2025: Seventh Sunday after Pentecost

Our Bible readings for Sunday, July 27, 2025 are Genesis 18:20-32; Colossians 2:6-19; and Luke 11:1-13. Hospitality and prayer are our foci this week. Persistence in prayer is encouraged by Jesus and wins the attention of God when Abraham intercedes for Sodom. The life of the baptized—to be rooted and built up in Christ Jesus—is to be nurtured with prayer. God hears and answers prayer and so strengthens God’s own. “When I called, you answered me; you increased my strength within me.”

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Simply the Sermon for July 20, 2025: Sixth Sunday after Pentecost

Our Bible texts for Sunday, July 20 are Genesis 18:1-15; Colossians 1:15-28; and Luke 10:38-42. We hear the story of Martha and Mary of Bethany as Jesus and his disciples drop in for a meal and a rest. 

Perhaps the church, at its best, is “all ears.” God urges the faithful, again and again, to “listen up!”—to heed the word that gives life. So it was with Abraham and Sarah, Mary and Martha, and the early church at Colossae. So it is today as we join the assembly to hear the word of God, the word of life.

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Simply the Sermon for July 13, 2025: Fifth Sunday after Pentecost

Our texts for Sunday, July 13 are: Deuteronomy 30:9-14; Colossians 1:1-14; and Luke 10:25-37 (sometimes known as The Good Samaritan").

To love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind is to reflect God’s mercy in both seeing and responding to one’s neighbor. That mercy found its most profound expression in the “gospel that has come to you”—namely the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. That gospel mercy comes to us again today: at the font, at the table, and from the pulpit. It is very near to you. Who would be neighborly with you that you may not recognize?

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