Daily Liturgy and Scripture

Remember that Jesus was sending out his apostles seemingly empty-handed? Now we discover the encouraging part of that charge: they are to be treated as someone would treat him. Even today, we remain Christ’s ambassadors if we are carrying on his life. We are valuable to him as more than vessels, though. We are co-laborers with God in this great undertaking.

The way Jesus equipped his disciples seems like madness. Go with nothing? Not even an extra shirt? None of us would even go on an overnight trip to see a relative under such circumstances, and yet Jesus sent his followers out on mission in this way. Why was that? Maybe because the Kingdom of Jesus isn’t about ruling others, but about a race to the bottom. To be a servant of all, we must certainly...

Jesus came to bring wholeness, and that spirit traveled with him so powerfully that it healed even those who touched him. (One woman, anyway.) This is a great picture of the life of Jesus: it was a life so full, it brought fullness of lives to those with whom he came in contact.

You have to love the inclusion of Matthew’s houseguests in his gospel. It was all the wrong people, according to the proper decorum for religious leaders. You get the feeling that Matthew just invited the people he usually spends time with, and Jesus came right to the middle of one of Matthew’s regular parties. It was so upsetting, that those who knew the more acceptable type of people called him...

Sometimes, even when Jesus brings good things to his community, it's really inconvenient to those around him. Such is the case with the pig herders, and that (plus their loss of income) was probably why they wanted him to leave. It's reasonable. But the thing that was going on that they missed was worth catching, even if it came at great cost.

Jesus is building a different kind of Kingdom. In this one, the wounded are restored, the outsider is welcome, and those who think all they require is a family name may find themselves as the outsiders. It’s a radical inclusion that was unique to Jesus, and there is still nothing like it.

The Kingdom of Jesus is very different from the kingdoms formed by us. In that Kingdom, there is plenty to go around, goodness flows between its citizens, and God is judge of all. It’s not an easy place to be a citizen of, because we have to learn to lay aside the notions we have about the way we would make it. Once we learn to live there, and keep practicing the life of that Kingdom, we will find...

Those who become citizens of the Kingdom of Jesus will learn to think a different way. By setting their minds on things above, they will stop focusing so much on the things that concerned them before their citizenship. Jesus talks about food and clothing, which are two of the most fundamental needs we have. What would it be like to be more focused on God than on our basic needs? It would be like J...

Our audience for worship and piety should be God alone. To use it as a prop for our own reputation and become a holy braggart is NOT the objective. As Jesus says, people who use holiness as a way to be seen by others have received their reward: the praise of others. But we should not seek out the praise of others, only the eye of God. Even then, it is not our righteousness that catches God’s eye,...

Jesus seems to be making it HARDER to be holy. Why do that? It is because following the letter of the law is not the way to salvation. We are all sinners, in dire need of grace. When we become convinced of our own special holiness, we lose sight of that. Our best hope is to realize that we do nothing to save ourselves, and lean on the love of God as our salvation.

The Sermon on the Mount is some of Jesus’s cornerstone teaching. It is not meant as some kind of checklist.. “be poor in Sprit, be pure in heart, etc.” but as an endorsement of the least among the people. This is why it is connected to having greater righteousness than the Pharisees (and notice that he said that the Law still stands). Having greater righteousness of the Pharisees is not about poli...

Jesus begins his ministry by spending time in the desert, confronted by the devil. This was necessary because the time Jesus spent with the Father was the defining trait of the life he showed us. He was often slipping away to spend time in prayer and fellowship with the Father, and this enabled the rest of his work to have its impact.

Just as Joseph played an important role by guiding his family through dangerous times, so John also plays an important role by preparing the way for Jesus and then baptizing him. But why did Jesus need to be baptized? He had no sin to confess, and he didn’t need to accept himself as Saviour. Perhaps it was because just as he would eventually go before us in resurrection, now he goes before us in t...

Joseph was more than a passive observer, sitting on the sidelines watching Mary raise the Son of God. He had dreams that kept his family safe, and that makes him a pretty important person in this story. And not only was the title family safe from murderous rulers, he was also causing prophecy to be fulfilled as he went.

It was important for Joseph to accept Jesus as his son. Not only because the child Jesus needed a father for practical reasons, but also to pass on the birthright of David. The genealogy we read yesterday would be a moot point without Joseph taking this measure. If you think back to the situation of Jacob and Esau where Esau gave away his own birthright for a bowl of beans, the passing of a family...

Reading Jesus’s genealogy tells us two things. First, that he was indeed a real person, with real people in his family line. Second, it tells us that these people were not all saints. Looking through that list, there are prostitutes and scoundrels, nobles and villains. At the end of it, though, is Jesus. From plain people, all kinds of them, God can bring the greatest results. It’s fortunate that...

Jesus asks Peter three times if he loves him, a mirror of the three denials of Peter at Jesus’s arrest. It was important for Peter to know that he was reinstated before his Lord. Much would be asked of him in the coming years, including the death to which Jesus was alluding. Indeed he was back in the good graces of Jesus, and never left.

Resurrection is the thing which finally proves, beyond a doubt, that Jesus was who he claimed to be. Not only that he himself was raised from the dead, but that he shows us our own future. It is also encouraging that, in this passage, he had compassion on Thomas. Even those slow to believe are not left behind.

That Jesus was laid in a tomb belonging to someone else is highly appropriate. His birth also occurred in a place other than his home, and he owned almost nothing. Jesus embraced worldly poverty because his wealth was truly in a Kingdom other than this world. Because of this, no follower of Jesus will ever think it’s too hard to follow Jesus because they don’t have enough money. Jesus’s house will...

Pilate doggedly insists on calling Jesus, “king.” Of course he is right. It’s interesting, now, how the roles begin to reverse between the Roman state and the religious state in Jerusalem. Pilate calls Jesus a king, but the religious state insists on the deaths of not only Jesus, but the criminals with him. Pilate has tried to show mercy, but the religious state will show none. People are not perf...

There is a lot of meaningful overlap happening in this trial of Jesus. The Jewish leaders take him to a government leader, who recognizes that he is a king. Jesus, who cannot be so easily defined, talks instead about the Kingdom itself. Would Pilate have been so tentative about executing him if he didn’t recognize something unique about him? At the end, the people prefer a man of violence, Barabba...

As Jesus starts the road to the cross, his followers are also tested. Peter’s denial is a sad central part of this story, especially since Peter is often the one that pipes up and swears that he will die with Jesus. When the chips are down, he loses his nerve. Don’t worry, though. Jesus will come back to him, and the story isn’t over yet.

Jesus is preparing the next stage of God's plan for the world:  the passing of the torch to his apostles and the church. Of course, he is not leaving them alone. They are part of God's plan, and so God is with them. This was always the plan, there is no plan B.

Jesus needs his apostles to clearly understand what is about to happen to him and to them, so it’s time to be clear. He has been talking about the Spirit, but the coming of the Spirit is contingent on him returning to the Father. They will be caught up themselves in the Trinity, because the Spirit will be among and in them, and the Father will sustain them.

If you want to know what the Holy Spirit is all about, the section is for you. Revealing that Jesus is true, that the Father and Son are working together, and that God will always reign. This Spirit, coming at Pentecost, was and is the presence of God among us. Just as those who saw Jesus in the flesh had the physical Son of God, we still today have the Spirit of God in and around us. We are his p...