The week school starts back often marks a return to the familiar pace of “normal life,” even for those without school-aged kids. Vacations wind down, morning traffic picks up, and we all begin settling back into our routines. For some, that shift feels like a bit of a letdown; for others, it can be a relief.

Wherever you find yourself, relieved or reluctant, I can’t wait to see you this Sunday as we gather as a church family to worship, pray, and hear from God’s Word. It’s one of my favorite weekly rhythms.

This Sunday, we continued our series, Stories and the Storyteller, with the Parable of the Good Samaritan. This well-known story of a Samaritan who generously helps a stranger in need is so familiar that the word “Samaritan” has become shorthand for someone who shows compassion. We often hear it as a gentle nudge toward kindness to others.

But for Jesus’s original audience, the story was anything but gentle. It was radical, culturally provocative and deeply challenging. The hero of the story was someone they would have instinctively viewed with contempt, not admiration.