Mmm, grab your Bible and have a look at the passage before you read any further.

Welcome back. Now, that’s an interesting evangelism approach by Jesus, wouldn’t you say? I don’t recall Assistant Bishop Stephen Schultz promoting this kind of approach in his Prepared to Go workshop! I kinda want to say, “Steady on Jesus. Maybe just tone it down a little. At least to start with. How about leading in with a bit of an amusing anecdote? Help them to catch the vision."

But, then, who am I to tell Jesus what to do? I guess he knows what he’s doing.

[apologies - no sermon audio recording available]

With the rain bucketing down around us it’s hard to imagine that many parts of the state, and the country, remain in drought. The green shoots pushing through the soil often mask a land still crying out to be quenched. Perhaps it’s the same with our own lives? Our outer visage sometimes doesn’t tell the full story.

This Sunday we join with congregations around the district for a service of prayer and praise in acknowledgement of drought on the land. As we cry out to the Lord to bring rain, replenishment, and refreshment to the land, we might also ask for the same to happen in our own lives.

Words have always fascinated me. Words hold such power. They have the power to destroy and the power to bring life. All the more so when it is God’s words . . . and God’s Word. One word in particular intrigued me from the Gospel reading for this Sunday. In the original Greek the word is prosfwnew (prosphoneo). It’s not a particular common word, nor is it particularly interesting in itself. It just means ‘to call out to’, ‘to address’. But, in Luke’s Gospel it is used only twice and both times with the meaning ‘to call to oneself’.

When Jesus chooses the twelve he ‘calls his disciples to himself’ (Luke 6:13). Then, in this story, Jesus ‘calls a crippled woman to himself’ (Luke 13:12). There were other words Luke could have used but he chose this word to describe both situations. Fascinating. Intriguing. For me, at least.

Well, whatever else that might mean, one thing is for sure: on both occasions Jesus’ call turns nobodies into somebodies.