The Gospel this month focuses on faith in dialog with the disciples on the way to Jerusalem. Jesus spins several parables How to increase faith? How to apply it? What are the benefits of faith? How we should maintain it and not lose heart ? Most of all, how do we act around others whom we think are different from us. In some cases we may not think they are as righteous as we are. There are some unique parables this month, several found in no other Gospel but Luke’s Gospel.
October 5, 2025- Pentecost 17 – Luke 17:5-10
Luke connects a pronouncement about faith to an example about how demanding it can be to live as a disciple.
Faith is considered in the context of the small mustard seed. The apostles said to Jesus, “Increase our faith!” Jesus replies “If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, `Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you. The image about the tree is a great exaggeration, emphasizing that the issue is not the power of faith, an unquantifiable concept, but the power of God. Faith commands according to God’s will
Faithfulness, endurance, patience—these are the themes of walking the faithful life with God. Luke consoles us with the good news that even minimal faith will suffice in the face of both worldly concerns and our own particular challenges
The second parable distinct to Luke places the disciples request increase our faith, in a social context. The story is about preparing a meal for a slave which ordinarily would not happen The disciples service is like the service of a slave. If they follow Jesus and his ways, that should be enough to trust him and to have faith, just as a slave ought to do in their society of that day. The benefits is that simple service can feed many. Think of this in connection to the Village Harvest!
October 12, 2025- Pentecost 18 – Luke 17:11-19
Jesus provides a geographical location region between Samaria and Galilee on the border on the way to Jerusalem. However, a map would indicate that it is no on the way to Jerusalem. Jesus is going out of the way to deal with10 lepers.
The Jewish Community in Galilee thought of the Samaritans as outcasts, someone not to associate with. Although they had the same scriptures and followed the purity laws, the Samaritans did not worship in the temple in Jerusalem, and those in Galilee. Here Jesus meets ten lepers. These lepers may not have had the specific disease that we now know as Hansen’s disease; in biblical times, leprosy was a catch-all term that could be any one of a number of contagious maladies. Those that suffered from leprosy were ostracized from the community and were untouchable until they were well again.
It follows a typical pattern: Jesus is passing through; there is a cry for help. Jesus notices and responds, and healing happens. The lepers are commanded by Jesus to go show themselves to the priests, which was part of the healing ritual involved in being able to come back into the community. All of them had faith to believe they would be healed. They obeyed Jesus and they were healed. The tenth is vocal and thanks Jesus at his feet unlike the other nine. . Not only is he ostracized because of his disease; he’s also ostracized because he’s a Samaritan – a double outcast
The differences soon disappear Jesus says. “Your faith has made you well.” The word that Luke uses here for “well” is the same word that’s used for “salvation.” The tenth leper is not merely healed of his disease, but is made whole and transformed in the presence of God. Jesus asks us to meet those we fear and even hate to do the same.
There is something for us. Just because we’re on our way to something else does not mean that Jesus can’t intersect us. Faith is the distinctive behavior that separates out the Samaritan (and others) and sets them on their way to a new destination as it can for us.
October 19, 2025- Pentecost 19 – Luke 18:1-8
How can we get close to God? Prayer ! Is prayer only a list of wants or is a real encounter?
Faith is not just a journey, but a struggle. We all struggle at times with doubts but we perhaps struggle even more with being in community with one another. In the process God is with us if remain faithful to God’s ways. And while we may not change others, we may change the world for ourselves, and through persistence justice, peace, and hope may come.
Luke 18:1-8 contains the parable of the Widow and the Unjust Judge. A widow asks a judge to act in her behalf. For some time he refused to do anything on her behalf. But she is persistent and the judge relents
The widow’s persistence is what pays off in the end, not a change of heart by the judge. The unjust judge is someone whose concerns are all worldly, centered in this age and characterized by self-interest and evil. The judge’s motives are not so high – he just wants to shut her up so she doesn’t wear him out so he makes the decision in her favor.
Jesus relates this parable to the coming of the Kingdom The preceding chapter ends with predictions about the coming of the Kingdom of God (17:20-21) and the Day of the Son of Man (17:22-37). We need to look toward the long haul rather than seek simple answers to prayer. Our faith must also be persistent even in times of doubt and struggle—we may not change the minds of others, but we change ourselves. God is persistent with us, constantly reaching to us, and we must be the ones who change and turn towards God. Given the difficult times in which Luke records this parable the question becomes even more poignant – can you endure the suffering of the present time so that you can witness the end time?
October 26, 2025- Pentecost 21 – Luke 18:9-14
Today’s readings define lowliness and celebrate its virtue. In Jesus’ parable, two men come to pray but only the humble man leaves justified by God.
Jesus uses the example of a Pharisee and a tax collector, figures that would have been common in his day—a Pharisee would have been someone who was respectable and a tax collector would have been despised; he uses these figures and flips the stereotype—the Pharisee ends up being the one who is self-righteous, looking pleased with himself and it is the tax collector who is humble, looking for forgiveness from God Like last Sunday, Luke lifts up the lowly
Jesus’ parable contrasts two styles of prayer: the first, by the Pharisee, is loudly self-righteous. The second, by the tax collector (another social reject), is a plea for God’s mercy to a sinner. The prayers themselves are distinctive with the one emphasizing the innate righteousness of his situation, and the other recognizing his sinfulness. The Pharisee’s biddings all begin with “I am”, while the Publican simply acknowledges that he is a sinner.
The Pharisee in today’s story seems truly thankful. According to the beliefs of the times, he shows an honest and laudable desire to contribute to the coming of the kingdom by fulfilling the law. The tax collector, whose occupation branded him as an extortioner and traitor, knows he has no merits of his own. He throws himself on God’s mercy and It is he who is “justified” (v. 14), that is, accepted, made right with God.
Caught up in his self-made goodness, the Pharisee closes the door to the grace of interdependence on a power more loving than himself. In contrast, the Tax Collector knows that he cannot survive apart from divine gracefulness. He throws himself on God’s mercy, knowing that mercy alone can save