Weekly News | 8.1.25

Sunday's Passage is the Parable of the Rich Fool

Read Luke 12:13-21 slowly.

What do you notice about the speakers and the audiences?

What can you observe about wealth or possessions?

Pliny the Younger was perplexed. Becoming governor of Bithynia and Pontus meant inheriting a number of cases of people accused as Christians. In writing the Emperor Trajan for advice, Pliny shared his understanding of Christians, noting that: 

“[T]hey were accustomed to meet on a fixed day before dawn and sing responsively a hymn to Christ as to a god, and to bind themselves by oath, not to some crime, but not to commit fraud, theft, or adultery, not falsify their trust, nor to refuse to return a trust when called upon to do so. When this was over, it was their custom to depart and to assemble again to partake of food — but ordinary and innocent food.”

“Ordinary and innocent food.” Or, as another translation puts it, “a harmless meal.”

On August 17th we return to two services (9AM and 11AM). Immediately following the second service, we will join together for “a harmless meal” (sign up here to bring some “ordinary and innocent food”). This time is affectionately known as our “Fall Kick-Off”, a time to regather from the comings and goings of summer.

The first stated reason Jesus appointed the Twelve was “that they might be with him” (Mk 3:14). There is a richness to that being with, that loving nearness to Jesus. And we know that nearness involved a lot of “harmless meals” along the way.

But a harmless meal in the company of Jesus, a harmless meal in the company of his people, was anything but innocuous. The potency of these meals fostered a community of worship that threatened emperors. The kinds of people Jesus gathered to eat would offend and would heal. Given the variety of backgrounds represented within the Twelve, it is easy to imagine awkward silences and a lot of learning how to enjoyably eat together. And yet this ordinary, subversive eating was a means of God’s transformation.

At Church of the Cross, we are a people shaped by “harmless meals”, by our feasts as a community and by the many meals along the way as we follow Jesus. 

It is through these harmless meals we are offered and we extend hospitality. It is through these meals we are gathered to those we did not choose but to whom we are bound for Jesus’ sake. 

And it is at these meals we in fact partake - amidst the chaos and the awkward moments - in a foretaste of the kingdom. 

Mark your calendars! I look forward to feasting with you.

Sarah+

P.S. A friendly reminder that this Saturday is our Parish Quiet Day. Details are below, but consider this an opportunity for centering attentiveness to the Spirit. As life in Austin ramps up in a variety of ways, may it root us in the reality that we are not under the thumb of the competing demands of the day, but follow in the life-giving and sacrificial way of Jesus.