A reading of the holy gospel according to Saint Luke. On one occasion, in a certain town, a man full of leprosy came to Jesus. And seeing Jesus, he bowed down to the ground and said to him, Lord, if you will to do so, you can cure me. Jesus stretched out his hand to touch the man and said, I do, will it be cured? At once, the leprosy left the man.
And then Jesus said to him, don't tell anybody about this, but go and show yourself to the priest. That was the law. Offer for your healing what Moses prescribed. That, our lord says, should be a proof for them. The reputation of Jesus spread more and more, and great crowds gathered to hear him and to be cured of their maladies.
You can guess which one came first. And, Jesus often retired to deserted places and prayed alone. Remember what I said yesterday. This is the gospel of the lord, the good news. In the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit, amen.
With all the awesome none happenings of this week so far, I cannot reconcile what we find on every single piece of metal money. I think that statement's true. I'm not sure that it is. But on most of our metal money, we have a phrase in god we trust, And that's our money. I'm amazed that the civil liberties union have hasn't struck out at that.
But as of the latest coins I've seen, there it is, in god we trust. And yet, you and every every Mohammed shouldn't say that, but every Muslim, if he's a Muslim, can say the same thing and very much so, in god, I trust. Allah. There's nobody who uses words, uses them more strongly in favor of god than a a Muslim. Their big objection to the to the infidel gentile or westerner is that we believe in god, that we're polytheist because of the trinity.
And yet, when you have the world, the whole western world, and a lot of the middle eastern world dangling in a precipitous course towards catastrophe because whoever wins is there's gonna nobody will win. There's gonna be thousands of people lost. Not that I reckon that is a great loss, but the point is it's a fact, and some people think it's it's an important one. And yet, with all this talk, when did you hear any reference to god almighty? I didn't hear I haven't heard a single one.
Somebody, yesterday recounting what was what didn't happen at Geneva said closed out by saying something, and I think it was a congressman. And he he closed his well chosen remarks with something like, he referred to prayer. That's the only thing I've heard. Now that doesn't mean it didn't happen, but as I say, it certainly didn't come. I haven't heard it on the on the national news programs.
You see, fun stuff me. We all say that in we should here our little group here this morning, we say in god we trust. And especially we say in our lord Jesus Christ we trust. And I think any one of us here this morning could refer to the New Testament where Christ talks about himself being the good shepherd, when he talks about how valuable we are, and he compares us to the sparrows and lilies of the field and all that stuff, you know. Every one of us here is very well acquainted with that.
Very well acquainted with it. I'm sure I'm set I'm I'm I'm on shared ground when I say that. But when it comes down and I'm speaking I'm not speaking to you. I'm speaking to myself. When it comes down to the nitty gritty, acceptance, or confrontation, whatever word you want, with realities and love as they affect me, how operational, to use that word, how operational is all of this so called faith we have in our savior as the good shepherd, that nothing happens without his consent, that not a hair of our head falls without his knowing it?
You know, we this is we we know all of this, but how does it come into our gut reaction, into what Newman called real ascent? He he had a very facility in shooting himself in the foot. But the thing is, how does that actually come down into my reaction to life and what life brings daily? And the answer is, sometimes maybe a lot, sometimes not at all. And sometimes it's very hard even to to think it's true.
After all, think of this. When Christ was I can never get over it. When Christ, who's the son of god, with full knowledge on the cross, felt deserted by his heavenly father. And he even said it, why have you abandoned me? Boy, they are brutal words, believe me.
Because sometimes when the going is roughest, that's exactly how we feel, that god has abandoned me. And whenever you feel that way, look at the cross, and you will know in what good company you are. You're with Jesus. In the name of the father, and the son, and the holy spirit. Amen.