Go God’s “Love going” Way

<p class="MsoNormal"> <!-- [if !supportLists]-->1.            <!--[endif]-->Readings</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <!-- [if !supportLists]-->a.            <!--[endif]-->First Reading Amos 7: 7 - 8</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <!-- [if !supportLists]-->b.            <!--[endif]-->Second Reading Matt. 23:23</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <!-- [if !supportLists]-->c.             <!--[endif]-->Third Reading Deut.16: 18 -20                       </p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <!-- [if !supportLists]-->d.            <!--[endif]-->Gospel Luke 13: 10 - 17</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <!-- [if !supportLists]-->2.            <!--[endif]-->Sermon Go God’s love going way</p> <p class="MsoNormal">The people of Israel were suffering in Egypt, forced to labour, building cities temples and tombs. They cry out against this injustice and God hears their cries and rescues them giving them a leader called Moses. God rescues them because God sees their suffering and because years ago God made a promise to the founder of their community, a man named Abraham and his wife Sarah, to make them a great people, a powerful country. So God sees the suffering of forced labour and remembers the promise and rescues them. They are not especially good people or especially bad people, but God is good and compassionate. God cares about injustice and people suffering, and God keeps promises.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">          So God says to them “I have rescued you because I saw your suffering and I keep my promises. I want you to respond to others in the same way. I want you to be honest, to run fair courts, to treat each other, neighbours, and foreigners just how I treated you. You were once slaves and strangers and hard done by. I want you to be compassionate, to stand up against injustice and keep your promises. Go my way. Use honest measures, create honest courts, treat the great and mighty and the small and powerless just the same.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">          Over 1, 000 years later a disabled woman, held captive by her body is in a synagogue, a Jewish mee