Tuesday Toast - Sermon Recap and Scriptures for Sunday
By Rev. TJ Lucas
My beloved suggested that since Labor Day festivities with the family caused me to miss the Monday Manna post (our weekly sermon recap and dwelling in word with next week's scriptures) that I post a Tuesday Toast! I thought this was such a cute play on words and lets take it a touch further. Toast is bread that has been heated but toast can also mean a celebratory word shared with a drink. So raise your glasses, coffee mugs, tea cups, and water bottles...today I want to toast Labor unions that are still fighting hard for their communities. My mom has been in a union her entire working career in the medical field and I have seen how weakened they have become with corruption and unethical business practices infiltrating the nursing home system. Yesterday, I felt a rush of pride and a touch of sadness as my family and I sought parking at a local Labor Day festival at Northmoreland Park. For the first time I noticed how many unions had come together in our region to put on this event and make it affordable for families. For example, the Zerbini Family Circus was in my hometown nearby to which we attended and admission was $20 per person. At the festival, the same Circus (slightly shorten show) was there and for $5 ride all day pass, it included the Circus, petting zoo, and rides. That was definitely a steal! And it was because these labor unions united in sponsoring this family event so that in an economy that threatens to rock us even more with news of tariff changes coming from Canada, we see we can make life affordable when we come together.
Now I have absolutely ZERO interest in POLITRICKS from any direction. I say politicians are all wings of the same bird scavenging over our lives. What I will say is this--our Sunday sermon relates to the state we find ourselves in as a people. This past Sunday we looked to Ezekiel 33 where God named a watchman over the people to warn them for God says, "I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that they turn from their ways and live."
But in a world of social media eco-chambers, misinformation, propaganda, and billionaires who profit over our divide--to be a watchman and call out truth to power is a dangerous place to be. God says, it is even more dangerous to remain silent. For if God has called one to warn others of the danger around them and they do not, judgement will come upon the one who stands at their post and says nothing.
Be warned though, this passage is not an invitation for self-righteous Christians to stand upon the wall above others and name what they believe to be the sins of others. We must each discern our sins with God. Confession either alone or collectively helps us unburden our hearts in the way of Christ on our timing. Many people have turned away from the church for gatekeeping the faith and shaming people out of the spaces that should hold God's love. Jesus reminds us to remove the plank from our own eye before calling out the splinter in another's.
So what do we do with this passage? We can't remain silent and we can't speak in judgement. How shall we warn people? The warning of the prophet is one of cultural criticism. What is pulling people away from God and one another? Within the church--its pride, self-righteousness, and fear in my humble opinion. The institutional church is dying. Traditional, local houses of worship such as the one I serve are fading into irrelevance because as a whole people have grown to distrust them. Corporate models of church rose fairly rapidly and with big numbers--churches like Elevation Worship for example. But this didn't transform the church into revival. It simply channeled the death rattle of it into the consumer culture model we are most comfortable with. Think of WalMart--closed out all the small mom and pop stores with a corporate model that initially was more appealing, convenient, and more affordable. Then they bought out Dollar General and now what do you seem across the suburban and rural landscapes of our country now? Dollar-freaking-Generals. And the affordability of these entities have fallen to the wayside because they dominate the market now. For example, I went to Wal-Mart to buy cotton elastic waist shorts for someone thinking they should cost around $5 there. Nope. $20! Ok pastor, what in the world does this have to do with Sunday's sermon?
Well, a lot because until we can learn to emotionally regulate ourselves well enough to see what is really happening in our midst (corporate greed and manipulation trickling down into how we are in community with one another) and come together across our differences, the powers that be will continue to divide and conquer over us in every faucet of our lives. And while I can't promise we can take on big corporations--though our unions used to be able to do that--what I can say is when you learn to regulate your emotions through your faith, centering yourself in God, and opening your eyes to the truth around you then you can start to transform your own heart, your own home, and perhaps your own community in the way of Christ.
Emotional health is lacking in society. Jesus knew this and modeled different because learning to regulate what we feel isn't a soft skill — it's the very thing that keeps disagreement from turning into violence, accountability from feeling like an attack, and conflict from requiring us to dehumanize the person across from us. Jesus modeled exactly this in Gethsemane: he brought his anguish to God in prayer long before the armed crowd ever arrived, and because he had already done that work, he could stand in the middle of his own arrest and heal the ear of the very man who came to take him, instead of reaching for a sword like Peter did. That is the whole sermon in one image — a watchman so at peace with God that his warning becomes rescue instead of violence. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, writing from a Nazi prison in the middle of a real apocalypse, said the church is only the church when it exists for others; we live that out not by shouting louder from the wall, but by doing our own Gethsemane work first — examining our hearts, breathing before we speak, and bearing one another's burdens instead of adding to them. So today, whatever alarm you've been ignoring in your own life, or whatever trumpet you've been blowing in pride instead of love: God's arms are open, His mercy has no expiration date, and it is never too late to turn around and live.
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So now that we've recapped our message from Sunday, let us prepare our hearts for the week ahead and for the scriptures to come. Find a lot of value in the spiritual practice of lectio divina AKA dwelling in the word. As I was modeling it in some live videos on our Facebook, I adapted the instructions a little bit. So I'm going to put those adaptations here cuz I feel like it makes the practice just a little bit more accessible.
Please remember that this way of reading the text is a spiritual practice. It is not reading it for historical context or theology or anything that is academic. This is purely trying to tune your ear to hear a word from God. It is supposed to deepen your relationship with God and make reading your Bible less daunting.
Steps:
Lectio — the Inhale
Read the passage through once, slowly. This is your *lectio*. I like to think of it as a holy inhale of the Word. Remember the Divine breath of God carries and sustains each of us through our whole day. So just breathe it in. Let the words settle into you before you do anything else with them.
Meditatio — the Word That Shimmers
Read it a second time. This time, you're listening for one word or phrase that shimmers for you — something that catches, that stands out, that you can't quite let go of. You don't have to search for it. Just notice what finds you.
Oratio — Talking It Over
Now sit with whatever shimmered, and talk to God about it, openly and freely. You can read the text again before you do this, but you don't have to. This is your practice. Take these instructions and adapt them to whatever feels most natural to you. Let the prayer come out of you however it wants to. If we're doing this with other people this is also when we share out loud what stood out to us and what it's stirring in us.
*Contemplatio — the Exhale*
And finally, let it go. Rest in it. This is your exhale, your *contemplatio* — you're done working the passage now, you're simply resting in God's presence and letting whatever shimmered for you do the work in your daily life. You will find that whatever stood out to you in your time with God. In this practice, we'll find a way to speak to you as you go by your regular day. Just don't force it. It will come as you deep in and strengthen this practice.
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Below are the scriptures for this upcoming week summarized in one line so you can select one more easily or you can find them in their entirety here:
Exodus 14:19-31: God protects the fleeing Israelites, parts the Red Sea for their safe passage, and drowns the pursuing Egyptian army.
Psalm 114: A poetic celebration of nature trembling in awe as God miraculously led Israel out of Egypt.
Exodus 15:1b-11, 20-21: Moses and Miriam lead the Israelites in songs and victory dances praising God for destroying Pharaoh’s forces.
Genesis 50:15-21: Joseph forgives his fearful brothers for selling him into slavery, reassuring them that God turned their harmful intent into good.
Psalm 103:(1-7), 8-13: A psalm praising God for His boundless compassion, mercy, and willingness to forgive human sins without holding grudges.
Romans 14:1-12: Paul instructs believers not to judge or look down on each other over personal practices, emphasizing that all will answer to God alone.
Matthew 18:21-35: Jesus tells the parable of the unforgiving servant to illustrate that believers must extend boundless, heart-felt forgiveness to others just as God has forgiven them.
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