Daily Liturgy and Scripture

The disciples have asked for a tool that brings them into the presence of God, which is what prayer does. Jesus responds by giving them that, and much more. He also shows them the goodness of God, that the God they serve is better than the best of earthly parents.

Jesus is confronting two seemingly good people in the passage from Luke. The expert in the law seems to be fishing for a compliment, and Martha seems to be fishing for justification. He gives neither what they are after. Instead, he helps them step outside themselves, outside their definition of what it means to be "good." In the Kingdom of Jesus, it isn't about being better, but abo...

That Jesus ascended to the right hand of the Father is more than a trick or a simple event, it is a completion of his work. He ascended to the throne of Heaven because that is who he was: the King of our Kingdom. That Kingdom, with the life of Christ as our template, is the place where we learn to be his Body here on earth.

The disciples offering to call down fire on others is a bit arrogant. They are basically saying, "we know Jesus, not them. This is the only real group of disciples." It's interesting that after they want to rebuke the outsiders, Jesus turns and rebukes them. They are still a little mired in the idea that God is only working with one group of people, but the Kingdom has already grown.

Jesus's Lordship is important, because it is the thing that sets him apart as unique among all founders of religion. He wasn't a man who had a unique perspective on God, he was God. Seeing Jesus is seeing God, and walking with Jesus is walking with God. The life of Jesus is the life of God, and this is why his life is a standard for us to chase after.

Jesus was teaching some difficult lessons to the apostles, but they needed to know this stuff so they could build the church. Instead of sending them out as lords over others, he sent them out to be dependent on others. When it came time to feed the crowds, he told the apostles to take care of it. All of this was with the help of power of another kind-- his power-- and learning to use that power t...

Jesus finds people falling at his feet several times in this passage. The healed woman and the demon-possessed man are there after they are healed, in gratitude. Jairus is there before his daughter is healed, begging Jesus' help. This remains a good model for us as well: both before and after God's work appears in our lives, our job is worship. What God does is up to God, but our role does...

"The knowledge of the secrets of the Kingdom." That sounds like a pretty big deal. What makes the disciples so special? Some have imagined this as a supernatural imbuing, some kind of special thing that was passed on in Jesus's secret society. I think it may be simpler than that, however. I think it maybe the very fact of living with Jesus, and the advantage that the disciples have i...

The story of the woman who broke an extravagant gift for Jesus has been sung and preached of many times. Perhaps because it seems far beyond our capacity? This woman and the widow who gives all she has (which we read in Mark and will read again later in Luke) are examples of those who follow Jesus recklessly and with abandon. It's a high bar.

Tha passage of the prophetic torch between John and Jesus was intentional. John knew that someone was coming after him to bring completion to the work he started, because John knew he was not a savior. This is why Jesus had to be exactly who he was: a mere man could not have done the work of God, of John would have sufficed. What Jesus did was work only for God.

With the centurion, Jesus makes an astounding confirmation: God is with all those who put faith in Jesus. This was a pretty big deal, because the covenant with Abraham was for one family line, not all family lines. Jesus is ushering in a new covenant, fulfilling the old one, and establishing a new family under his own name.

Jesus is making a new way of understanding the world, and it is not about money or power. This is a pretty radical departure even from the Jewish world. and it was an almost reckless abandon of worry for self in light of loving God and neighbor. Of course, this was modeled by Jesus himself. It if looks like he is asking us to go first, giving before we have received, we should remember the servant...

Jesus being lord of the Sabbath does not mean Jesus is more important that the Sabbath, but it does mean that his life reframes the meaning of that day. It was never meant to be a legalistic day, where you must measure and watch your every move to make sure you do nothing wrong. Jesus brought life to the Sabbath so it could be seen above all else, that communion with God should be whole-hearted.

The new Kindgom Jesus is bringing won't fit into the old mold. This is why it was important for Jesus to come as a person: the news needed to be conveyed, and the best way to give that news was to live it out in front of others.

Jesus isn't creating this new kingdom in isolation, he didn't come to build a wall around himself. He is making others whole, restoring them to their community (which is one of the purposes of the sacrifice after being healed of leprosy), and he is recruiting others to lead. This is what we call the Church now, but it is still the Kingdom of King Jesus, and it works like no other organizat...

The way in which Jesus brings his Kingdom into the world is ludicrous. He doesn't toot his own horn. In fact, when those from the spiritual realm who know who he is -- even though they are his enemies-- try to say who he is, he stops them. Because that Kingdom would not be brought about by making other feel conquered and riding around as a victor. It would come by bringing wholeness to the wor...

Jesus certainly had the human experience. Temptation, rejection, and even attempted murder. Hopefully none of us will ever experience that last one, but whatever we face, we can feel confident that we are understood by our Savior.

There may be a few familiar names in this list of Jesus’s genealogy, and for good reason. This list is full of promise, including Abraham, the object of God’s first covenant. Jesus was situated in a time and in a family, he was introduced into the line of mankind and did not hatch from the earth or fall from the sky. He was a person, God made man, God among us.

Not just anyone can be a Messiah. John brought the first signs of the Kingdom into the world, and not all of those were convenient for those around him. For Herod, it was confrontational. Everyone had their own adjustments to make to walk in step with that way. Even John would eventually step aside to make way for Jesus, God himself, who could fully bring that Kingdom to bear.

Even Jesus's early life was moving through God's purposes. From the intersections with people who had devoted themselves to God to his seemingly defiant behavior on the trip to Jerusalem, the unfolding plan of God was always traveling with him.

While Jesus’s birth was humble, it still required messenger whose first words must be, “don’t be afraid.” While Jesus absolutely came to show us what life can be, and to live that life in front of us, his God-ness is still central to who he is. The angels showed up to make sure that balance was struck.

The birth of John seems uncomfortable for everyone. His father unable to speak, his mother ignored when she tries to name him and the people who are there with her arguing that she can't name her child what she has chosen to. John would bring the prophet's voice to disrupt lives in the future, and God's purpose for him started even from the beginning.

God is extending his unfolding plan to people, and John the Baptist will be among the first. You almost get the sense that Jesus and John are working together even before birth, and they certainly pick up that connection in adulthood. What Jesus would complete, John would begin.

The birth of John was important as an introduction to God's unfolding plan. Once again, God does something that doesn't seem to make sense: this is unfolded to a man who is immediately unable to speak of this grand unfolding. Maybe God has a sense of humor, or maybe God is content to allow things to unfold slowing, coming together in small revelations. Whatever the case, Zechariah had plen...

Even in his resurrection, Jesus doesn't do things the way that a worldly victor would do them. Did he rise and melt away his enemies? Did he even make a big deal about it? No, on both counts. Nobody is even there when he rises from the tomb, and the first witnesses are women who were doing the work of preparing the dead. He tells them to pass the word along, and then he later appears to the ha...