Daily Liturgy and Scripture

If you ever wanted to read what a pastor’s heart should look like, this is it. Not only is Paul grieved that outsiders are trying to lead this young church down the wrong path, he also feels like he’s going through “labor pains” with them all over again. That’s a real love for your people. Many times, we may be tempted to cut people out of our lives who become too complicated. But not Paul. He sti...

Paul is making an appeal directly to this young church that Christ is enough. Really, by himself, completely enough. He is pointing out that the covenant is God’s, the promise is God’s, and the mediation is also his. God is the maker and keeper of his own promise, starting with Abraham and fulfilled in Christ. Nothing further is required. If our faith is in Christ, then we are part of the promise.

Being in the body of Christ doesn’t mean always agreeing with one another about everything at all times. This moment from Paul and Peter is a good example. Both men were founders of the church, both equally important. (And as Paul says, God doesn’t play favorites!) But when Peter loses his way a bit, not supporting the Gentiles when the Jewish cohort shows up, Paul isn’t having it. The picture is...

Today we depart from the Gospels and go over to the letters of Paul. The Galatian church was probably one of the first that Paul founded after meeting Jesus, but it encountered some difficulty after he left. We will see that a group of Jewish evangelists show up to try and convince the new Christians that Jesus isn’t quite who Paul said he was. Paul opens by reminding them where he has been, his c...

Do you sometimes feel like Jesus is being playful? This moment with the two apostles on the road to Emmaus certainly seems to be proof of that. To hide his identity and seem to know nothing of himself is certainly not what you would expect from a man who has just conquered death. Yet there he is, letting them tell him all about how hopeless things are before revealing his identity and disappearing...

The resurrection is a pretty crazy idea, no wonder the Sadducees didn’t believe in it. But neither did the disciples, really. They certainly didn’t react like it was a possibility. Even after hearing Jesus tell them what would happen, it was a pretty far-fetched idea. But that resurrection is what sets Christianity apart, and it’s part of our great hope. We do no fear death, because we know that t...

It’s impossible to miss the two types of covenant happening in these scriptures today. As the Hebrews come back home to Canaan, God’s promise to give them a home is borne out in the blood of their enemies. Sadly, that was the price of keeping that promise. When Jesus comes, things are different. No more do his people take up the sword and cut down their enemies. Instead, Jesus sacrifices himself.

It’s bizarre how Jesus’s accusers twist and turn their approach. He is arrested as a revolutionary, but before the end of the experience, the people prefer to release an actual revolutionary instead of this man who never hurt anyone. Certainly his words were powerful, and they offended and divided the people. At the end of the day, they would rather see a violent man go free than face the truth of...

While it wasn’t strategic, it seems strangely appropriate that the scripture of Peter’s failure falls on the same day as one of the great encouragers of the early church: Barnabas. We all fail, and we all need encouragers. Perhaps the spirit of the early church, working together and encouraging our brothers and sisters (especially when they fail), could be do us all a little good good in this mode...

The incarnation meant that God included the entire race of man in his own story. Jesus became human, born of a human, living among humans… and today, betrayed by a human. It would have been out of place for Jesus’ sacrifice to suddenly be brought about because a legion of demons killed him. At every step, even the worst hour, the story of Jesus became God living among us.

There was meaning in Jesus’ death, it wasn’t just an awful tragedy that happened to God’s Son. It was ordained as a part of God’s plan, and Jesus is God. He wasn’t surprised or shocked, he was moving toward the cross out of love. Before we get there, though, the apostles are going to get some pretty hard lessons. They were important enough that Jesus prayed for their preservation, since they were...

Not a lot of good news in what Jesus is foretelling today. The destruction of the Temple is the most devastating blow imaginable to the Hebrew people, and the killing of many is just as horrible. But Jesus isn’t speaking in parables now. This really did happen, just a few decades after he foretold it. During this time, there also came several false Messiahs, all of whom also met some pretty horrib...

Once again, trying to stump Jesus his adversaries dig themselves a hole. (Keep in mind they were trying to show the ridiculousness of the resurrection primarily.) Not only does Jesus answer their question, he adds a little ridiculousness of his own: “Okay, smartie. So how is David’s son his Lord?” He wasn’t trying to beat them with logic. He was trying to take them beyond it. The law can only get...

“Give Caesar what is Caesar’s, give God what is God’s.” This event with the coin is certainly one of note. Not Just because Jesus silenced those who questioned his authority, but because he got to the root of something deeper: while a coin bears Caesar’s image, we bear God’s image. Those who challenged him wanted him to say something that would anger the powers, and Jesus turned their argument on...

Much has been made of this scene of Jesus driving merchants out of the temple. From a justification of losing your temper to a denial that Jesus was mad at all, many sermons have guessed at what has happening here. I think one thing is certain: what Jesus was about was Kingdom business, not earthly business. To have earthly business going on at what should have been the center of the Kingdom’s bre...

There are no bystanders in Jesus’ Kingdom. His parable makes this pretty clear. There is also an interesting truth in the statement made by the servant who did nothing with his investment: he was afraid of the King. So afraid he did nothing. Is this how we feel about God? Are we too overwhelmed by the idea of him to even find the place we fit in the Kingdom? If that’s how you feel, remember: even...

I don’t think it’s a mistake that this Zacchaeus story comes so quickly after the story (yesterday) of the rich young man. The rich young man was probably well-respected, known as good, and upstanding in his community. Zacchaeus was the opposite of all of those things. “Notorious sinner” is probably kind language for most of the things he was called. His response is also the opposite of the rich y...

It’s easy to miss Jesus drawing a line between the law and his Kingdom in is conversation with the rich young man. The young man is certainly looking to tout his righteousness in the beginning, and Jesus really makes it easy for him to brag about his own goodness. But our goodness is never enough, and it’s not our ticket into the Kingdom. The law is always only enough to shine a light on our failu...

This passage in Luke about people being taken and left is certainly one that has had many interpretations. Often, this visual gets lumped into the “left behind” discussion, the spiriting away of the church as many believe. It’s possible that’s what it means, but the passage sits in the midst of many parables where Jesus uses the image of a person to unveil a deeper truth. I looked to some of the w...

Today we remember Mary visiting Elizabeth, the leaping of a baby John the Baptist in the womb, and the indelible connection that God made with humanity. In Jesus, God became one of us, and John the Baptist was the one who made the way. John’s leaping in the womb at Mary’s entrance shows the connection God made in that incarnation. It was more than a casual appearance. Everything was about to chang...

When Jesus sent the lepers to the priests, he wasn’t just telling them to go to the doctor. A priest had to verify that someone was healed, and this allowed them to re-enter the community. Not only was Jesus giving them their healing, he was making them part of their families and synagogues again. Maybe they were so excited at that prospect, only the Samaritan bothered to come back and give glory...

Jesus has a lot to say about the law to those who consider it the most important thing. First he affirms that he did not come to replace it. Then he tells the story of a wealthy man who was unable to use what the law and prophets offered to avoid Hell. Remember the audience: the Pharisees also had the law, and were deeply immersed in it. At the end, when Jesus finishes the story by saying, “Moses...

Remember where we left off yesterday? Luke 15 gave use two parables that show how God takes the initiative to bring back the lost. Today we have the story of the lost Son, and in this case the father doesn’t go out to get the boy. The boy starts out where he needs to be, but leaves. Remember who he’s talking to, though: the Pharisees and religious leaders who said Jesus was diminishing himself by...

Jesus’ two stories about those who are lost work together. In one, the seeker is after something that is alive, a sheep that can run away. But in the other, the seeker is after an inanimate coin. This is intriguing. Certainly the sheep could be blamed for what he did, but the coin probably just got lost by circumstance. The important part is this: it is the seeker who matters. In both cases, the p...

You really must wonder if Jesus got invited to a lot of parties. It seems like he most often uses them as object lessons for the people who were probably most popular. Nonetheless, here he is, once again taking the opportunity to try and teach those around him what a servant’s heart looks like. Not promoting ourselves flies against so much of what seems natural. Yet our Savior, God himself, consis...