Daily Liturgy and Scripture

Jesus' miracle at the wedding seems like a big display, but it's not. Hardly anyone knows he has even done it. The master of the banquet doesn't and no mention is even made of the bride and groom. Who knows? The apostles and the servants. This is certainly the way Jesus would continue to operate: the Kingdom slips in among the least and lowly.

Jesus' divinity is opening up to the world even as he called the first disciples. This will not be a constant, because Jesus couldn't reveal everything to everyone. In this moment, though, he is showing a little of who he is to these early apostles. And all of them, as he told Nathaniel, are certainly going to see much more than that.

The book of John was written well after the other gospels, and is full of Jesus’s divinity. Of course, Jesus doesn’t levitate a foot off the ground the whole time. He’s still God Among Us, and the incarnation of Christ among people is just as important as the fact that Jesus is, in fact, God. And to kick things off, the apostle John, author of this book, presents John the Baptist. These aren’t the...

It would be great if we could make the Gospel say what we wanted, wouldn't it? But that isn't the way it works, and we should avoid teachers who always seek to "tickle our ears." As Paul goes through his list of companions who have wronged him, it is clear that he hasn't been concerned about impressing anyone. He preaches the unfiltered Jesus, and that is the call of all disciples.

It is no small thing to follow Christ, and there will always be those who say they do, but actually do not. We will all be known by our fruits, because the Spirit produces fruit in the life of one who follows Christ.

It really seems in this passage that Paul doesn’t like women much at all. Remember, though, that this wasn’t written to us. In the Ephesian congregation where Timothy was pastor, there was apparently an ongoing problem of order and pride. Paul is centering on the women’s issues here, because in that culture, it wasn’t customary for women to teach. A wealthy woman coming into the church would need...

Paul is writing his young protege, Timothy, from prison. It sounds like Paul needs some encouragement himself (having been abandoned by a few people), but this is perhaps the time to pass along encouragement to others. That bond of love, made possible by the moving of the Spirit, is what holds the body of Christ together.

Unity in the body of Christ doesn't come without some work, and Paul leaves Titus with a set of insights for how to complete that work. It is Christ who serves as our life and our example, but the Spirit knits together all of the body of Christ and makes us a true community. 

Paul isn't challenging Titus to upend the entire social structure of Crete, but to form a Christian subculture within that society. The roles of women, men, and slaves are already set in that place. In the body of Christ, however, those roles can look different. The peace and harmony that Jesus brings is unique, and we seek the same thing today in our own societies.

Good behavior is not the path to salvation, but it should be the quality of someone who is following Christ. Particularly in alignment with the two greatest commandments to love God and love your neighbor, those who wish to be leaders in the Church should show what Jesus looked like through their own example as much as possible. As Paul was depending on Titus to establish a new church in Crete, it...

The Church should indeed look unique. This handling of the rich (which is not universal, there were devout wealthy Christians as well) is a little unexpected. Not to be a slave to money, Timothy is instructed by Paul to do so because sharing among the early Church was one of its trademarks, and greed could derail that quality of life.

We have a new kind of family in Christ: fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters. Each of us should look to fill one of those roles for someone, and look for those who will be that family for us. We need fathers and mothers to guide us, brothers and sisters to walk with us. This is what makes the body of Christ, and we are all joined together in the Spirit. (For this cycle in Psalms, I am reading...

In Timothy and Paul's age, it was rare for younger men to be set in positions of authority above older ones. Paul's instruction is particularly important to Timothy for that reason. Still, a life of devotion speaks for itself, and within the body of the Church, the rules are certainly different than elsewhere. (For this cycle through Psalms, I am reading from Robert Alter's poetic translation, "Th...

Those who work in God’s house need the trust and confidence of the Church, so it can’t be just anyone. Our families are sometimes our most difficult relationships, so it’s not surprise that those relationships are a proving ground for deacons and elders in the early church. For, as it says, how can someone lead in the Church if they can’t lead their own family?

Paul's command to women in this verse has ruffled more than a few feathers. Perhaps the things that we might need to remember in this verse are: 1. This is not our time. 2. Paul was not trying to solve women's equality, but he certainly mentored his share of important female leaders (Priscilla, Phoebe and Junia to name a few). 3. Pauls' concern in this verse is church order, and that can be accomp...

Paul is writing to his star pupil, Timothy. This instruction was a great primer in healthy church life, because that’s exactly what the young pastor would have needed to nurture. Paul keys on his Jewish scholarship by showing that the Law still has a use, to point us away from the things we shouldn’t do. This isn’t the end of the story, of course. We also need to lean on Jesus for the path upon wh...

The book of Philemon is a fun little journey into the world of the early church. If Paul met Onesimus in prison, then there is a good chance Onesimus did something to get there. He may have stolen from his master, or perhaps something else. Whatever the case, Paul is asking for Philemon to take a different approach than was his right, and that’s the life of the Church. Even if we might have the ri...

You have to admire Paul's resolve. Put in jail for preaching, left there for years, shipwrecked, stoned, and snakebitten. After all of that, he's right back at it, preaching again. He's even using his struggle to draw a crowd, and for good measure. New believers are formed, the Kingdom of God is growing. Would that any of us would have such resolve in our calling. (For this cycle through Psalms, I...

Jeremiah 29:7 (bonus verse, not in our reading today) says, “Seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.” Paul was a diligent student of scripture, and I wonder if he may have had this verse in mind in places like Malta where he prayed to heal people and became an object...

It must have been a real treat to be Paul's jailor, with God on his side. Of course, God is preserving Paul for a great work... but sometimes, Paul becomes a real told-ya-so kind of guy. I guess spending 2 or 3 years in jail with no clear reason will make you a little testy. Even a testy apostle is used by God, though, and it was a fortunate thing for the crew of this ship in this shipwreck. God c...

There is a LOT happening in this verse. Paul is finally before a higher ruler, but clearly Festus is still present. Agrippa was Jewish but still a Roman ruler, and Paul even challenged him on his Jewish-ness (which could be seen as a bit of a challenge, maybe?). In the midst of this, his story is still of his conversion, of course including the detail of his work with some of the very men who were...

Paul must have been a bit of a personality among the Romans. The prisoner who was always in prison, yet whom nobody knew where to put. For years he was there, waiting for his appeal to the highest court, but even those who were supposed to send him there didn't know how to approach it. And so he sat. Paul must have been a man of some patience as well, waiting for the time to come. Though it was no...

Although Paul is stuck with corrupt politicians, he isn't wasting the opportunity. It's impossible to know the influence that the Apostle had on these men, but Paul was a man of powerful words. God may have had Paul exactly where he needed to be, infiltrating the Spirit among the upper ranks of Roman governance. (For this cycle through Psalms, I am departing from the NIV and reading from Robert Al...

Paul is in an actual legal fight now (probably preferable to the physical fights he has come from), and even before Felix he is still preaching. Here with all the players of his troubles, he brings together the Old and New Testaments to show once again how it all comes together in Jesus. That's a different approach than many might take, as choosing to fight for our own lives might take precedence...

The plot against Paul is truly a nefarious one. The Asian Jews and the Sanhedrin have both failed in their attempts to bring him down, and now this group of assassins are after him. It's almost like an action movie. Luckily, even in these dire times, God still made a way. It's ironic that it's Rome, the secular power that crucified Jesus, now saving Paul. God is nothing if not creative.