You have no idea ...

Morning: Psalm 103; Ezekiel 47:1-12; Luke 1:1-4

Evening: Psalms 67, 96; Isaiah 52:7-10; Acts 1:1-8

Today is St. Luke’s Day. Luke is ‘the beloved physician’, often associated with the work of healing. His greater gift to history, though, was his decision to write his Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles. He may have wondered, as he did so, what impact his efforts might have. Could he ever have imagined that we would still be reading his words today? Ask yourself: “What will I do today for the purposes of Christ?” You have no idea ... what a difference your small act of faithfulness will make in the world. Trust that possibility.

 

What is the cross I carry?

Morning: Psalms 148, 149, 150; I Corinthians 10:1-13

Evening: Psalms 114, 115; Matthew 16:13-28

When people say, in clichéd fashion, “It’s the cross you must bear”, they may miss the spirit of Jesus’s words: “Take up your cross and follow me.” The difference is one of intention. The reluctant long-suffering of the cliché refers to unchosen, unwelcome personal burdens, things I just cannot avoid. There are such burdens, and I must bear them. They are different, however, from the cross which Jesus calls me to take up. He calls me to the willing offering of my life’s energy in service to the better world which he embodies. In that, I want to invest myself.

 

Mountaintop moments are to equip you to serve

Morning: Psalms 20, 21; Acts 28:17-31

Evening: Psalms 110, 116, 117; Luke 9:37-50

Soon after Jesus’s mountaintop transfiguration - where his face shines and God’s affirmation of him rings out - he tells his disciples that he will be betrayed. He will confront the powers-that-be and they will do him harm. The disciples don’t get it. Instead, they argue about which of them is the greatest. Jesus takes a child and teaches them, “the least among all of you is the greatest”. Humility, not greatness, is life’s goal. True greatness is expressed in serving others. The great do not ask, “Who is the greatest?” but rather, “How may I be of service?”

 

 

The human face of God

Morning: Psalms 16, 17; Acts 28:1-6

Evening: Psalm 22; Luke 9:28-36

In the New Testament, people start to see Jesus differently. Something shifts in what he means to them. On the mountain, Peter, James and John see him transfigured; his face shines. They see him as God’s “Son”, God’s chosen one. Later, St. Paul says being “in Christ” is no longer regarding him from a human perspective ... When that happens, it is like a New Creation has begun; your world is transformed. Jesus offers and invites you into a new world ... I find him trustworthy, because I see in him what one writer calls “the human face of God.”

 

One simple daily decision

Morning: Psalm 18:1-20; Jonah 3:1-4:11; Acts 27:27-44

Evening: Psalm 18:21-50; Luke 9:18-27

‘Yesterday is gone; tomorrow may not be; but I have today.’ I copied this into a notebook during my adolescence. It’s clichéd but it gets me moving ... no regrets, no hoping for the wrong things, today is enough. When Jesus says, “Take up your cross daily and follow me,” he is not talking about momentous, life-changing, once-and-for-all decisions. He is calling me, whatever happened yesterday, simply to decide for today - that I will live not for myself but I will lose myself for others and for the world. One day at a time. One decision at a time.

 

Who is this about whom I hear such things?

Morning: Psalm 119:1-24; Jonah 1:17 – 2:10; Acts 27:9-26

Evening: Psalms 12, 13, 14; Luke 9:1-17

All my life I have wondered about Jesus with questions like King Herod’s: “Who is this about whom I hear such things?” Jesus acts with such authority, clarity and mystery; he is intriguing. Pious, clichéd notions about Jesus conceal him rather than reveal him ... If you go beyond religious hype about Jesus and experience him in his simplicity, you will (like the 5000 whom he fed) be awestruck. Awe is the only adequate stance before Jesus, as you begin to learn about who he is. I have only begun to encounter him really. There is still time ...

 

Challenging hidebound traditions & moving on

Morning: Psalms 5, 6; Jonah 1:1-17a; Acts 26:24 – 27:8

Evening: Psalms 10, 11; Luke 8:40-56

Jesus raises a dead 12-year-old girl and heals a woman with a menstrual disorder. He touches a corpse and a menstruating woman! This is shocking for his society - both actions rendered him ‘ritually unclean’. Yet here Jesus opens up a future of possibilities for both women, indeed for all women who experience the confining constraints that society may impose on them. Jesus routinely defies traditions that have lost their meaning and that now just hold people captive. Laws that may once have served a purpose grow moribund. Discipleship means knowing when it is time to move on.