Tag: Luke

Deep Background (November 27, 2012)

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…Opening To…

Hills, stars,
White stars that stand above the eastern stable.
Look down and offer Him.
The dim adoring light of your belief.
Whose small Heart bleeds with infinite fire.
Shall not this Child
(When we shall hear the bells of His amazing voice)
Conquer the winter of our hateful century? (Thomas Merton)

…Listening In…

During the rule of King Herod of Judea there was a priest named Zechariah who belonged to the priestly division of Abijah. His wife Elizabeth was a descendant of Aaron. They were both righteous before God, blameless in their observance of all the Lord’s commandments and regulations. They had no children because Elizabeth was unable to become pregnant and they both were very old. (Luke 1:5-7; context)

…Filling Up…

Yesterday, I said that this Advent (and this pre-Advent week), we’d be looking in depth at Jesus’ birth narrative as found in the Gospel according to Luke. Each day, we’d take a few more verses and by Christmas, we’d have finished the whole thing. Now, you probably know the story pretty well: there’s a star and shepherds and angels and magi and Mary and Joseph and no room in the inn. Oh, yes, and the baby Jesus. (At least, that’s one way to tell the story, and we’ll discover in a few weeks that some of those elements aren’t in Luke’s story.)

But first, we’ll begin with a few people who are in Luke’s story, people you may have never heard of. In fact, you just might be wondering who the heck these Zechariah and Elizabeth people are. Why does Luke start with them? They certainly aren’t main characters, so why are they the first we meet?

Luke is doing here what might nowadays be called “deep background” on his main subject, Jesus. Before we meet Jesus, we meet his mother, Mary, and his earthly father, Joseph. Before we meet them, we meet Mary’s cousin Elizabeth and her husband Zechariah, the parents of John the baptizer. Luke knows that later in the story, John will be an integral character in pointing toward Jesus’ messiah-ship. So, being the good scholar he is, Luke digs into John’s past and finds a story nearly as miraculous as Jesus’ own.

You know right away that the story is miraculous by the way Luke sets it up: “They had no children because Elizabeth was unable to become pregnant and they both were very old.” Sound familiar? It should because it’s almost exactly what Genesis says about Abraham and Sarah before they become pregnant with Isaac. The birth of Isaac was the beginning of the fulfillment of God’s sweeping promise to Abraham. By putting the birth of John in line with this tradition, Luke is signalling to us that God is getting ready to make good on another promise – the coming of the messiah.

…Praying For…

Dear God, you always fulfill your promises. Help me to put my whole trust in you so that you can use me to continue carrying out those promises. In Jesus Christ’s name I pray. Amen.

…Sending Out…

I leave this moment with you, God, keeping awake and alert for the revelation of your love for this world.

Theophilus (November 26, 2012)

Published on by Adam ThomasLeave a comment

…Opening To…

Hills, stars,
White stars that stand above the eastern stable.
Look down and offer Him.
The dim adoring light of your belief.
Whose small Heart bleeds with infinite fire.
Shall not this Child
(When we shall hear the bells of His amazing voice)
Conquer the winter of our hateful century? (Thomas Merton)

…Listening In…

Many people have already applied themselves to the task of compiling an account of the events that have been fulfilled among us. They used what the original eyewitnesses and servants of the word handed down to us. Now, after having investigated everything carefully from the beginning, I have also decided to write a carefully ordered account for you, most honorable Theophilus. I want you to have confidence in the soundness of the instruction you have received. (Luke 1:1-4: context)

…Filling Up…

Because of the way the calendar falls this year, Advent doesn’t start until next Sunday, which is weird because it usually starts the Sunday after Thanksgiving. That means there are only 15 weekdays during the season, which is not enough to do what I plan to do. So I hope that you’ll forgive me for starting an Advent series a week early. Remember that Advent is the season of the church year during which we prepare for the coming of Christ – both as the infant in the manger and as the one coming once again in great power and glory.

This Advent, we are going to work slowly – very slowly – through Jesus’ birth narrative as found in the Gospel according to Luke. During church, we read the scriptures that will appear in the “Listening In” section over the course of just two or three Sundays. Here during devo180, we are going to cover the same material over 20 days – the entirety of Advent plus this week! We will look at just two to four verses a day, and who knows, perhaps you will find pieces of the story that you’ve never heard before or that strike you in a new way. That is my hope and prayer for myself and for you.

For today I have chosen the very beginning of Luke’s account of the Gospel. While not strictly part of the birth narrative, the opening lines of the Gospel give us a clue as to what Luke is attempting to do. Luke is a scholar. He tells us that he has tried as best he could to present an accurate account of the life and message of Jesus Christ. While first century scholarship differs a great deal from today’s, we can be assured that Luke has put his whole self into his endeavor. Writing this Gospel was his passion. Reading it can be ours.

Notice that he addresses his Gospel to “Theophilus.” While this might have been a real person, it is more likely that Luke is addressing this to all of God’s people, for “Theophilus” means “beloved of God.” And that means Luke’s Gospel is addressed to you.

…Praying For…

Dear God, because you love your creation, you sent your son to us in great humility. Help me to live my life with the passion you have instilled in me, following the example of your son. In Jesus Christ’s name I pray. Amen.

…Sending Out…

I leave this moment with you, God, keeping awake and alert for the revelation of your love for this world.

Collages (November 22, 2012)

Published on by Adam ThomasLeave a comment

…Opening To…

If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, “thank you,” that would suffice. (Meister Eckhart)

…Listening In…

After he took his seat at the table with them, he took the bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. Their eyes were opened and they recognized him, but he disappeared from their sight. They said to each other, “Weren’t our hearts on fire when he spoke to us along the road and when he explained the scriptures for us?” (Luke 24:30-32; context)

…Filling Up…

About six years ago a woman broke my heart, thus spiraling me into the worst year of my life: I sunk into myself, hardly spoke to my friends, and rarely left my futon. I couldn’t let go of the vision of the future life that I had invented for myself. I couldn’t understand why God would take away the person that I thought was going to be my wife.

What I didn’t realize at the time is that God doesn’t comprehend our lives in the limited linear fashion that we do. When this woman broke up with me, my vision of the future became firmly cemented in the past. My future was empty, or so I thought. But I think that God comprehends our lives as a whole – not as a series of events. We view our lives as though flipping through the pages of a magazine, one to the next. God sees our lives as collages, in which all the pages are pasted together.

So today, I invite you to give thanks for something in your past that didn’t seem like a cause for gratitude at the time. Reflect on how this event fits into the overarching narrative of your live. I give thanks now that I didn’t marry this woman, because the person I would go on to marry was living in another state at the time. I just hadn’t met her yet. But God already knew her. God had already pasted her page into my collage. I would reach her in time. Thanks be to God!

…Praying For…

Dear God, you know our pasts, our presents, and our futures. Help me to take the long view of my own life, trusting in your directing creativity to lead me on the best paths, even when they seem difficult at the time. In Jesus Christ’s name I pray. Amen.

…Sending Out…

I leave this moment with you, God, eager to look for your blessing in my life and eager to be a reason that others give thanks to you.

Bigger Barns (November 8, 2012)

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…Opening To…

I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer… I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me… Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain. (Frank Herbert, Dune)

…Listening In…

Then he told them a parable: “A certain rich man’s land produced a bountiful crop. He said to himself, What will I do? I have no place to store my harvest! Then he thought, Here’s what I’ll do. I’ll tear down my barns and build bigger ones. That’s where I’ll store all my grain and goods.” (Luke 12:16-18; context)

…Filling Up…

Jesus assures his disciples that their fears are baseless because their accumulation of stuff will not help them enter the kingdom of God. This assurance runs counter to the fashionable reasoning of the day, which stated that the more stuff you owned, the more blessed you were. “God obviously favors that person,” ran this line of thinking. “Just look at all the stuff he has.” Not too much different from today, I’m sad to say.

But Jesus changed the rules. Remember the story that the verse above is quoted from? Jesus tells a parable about a rich fool. His land produces more than his barns could hold, so he decides to tear down those barns and build larger ones. The more stuff I have, the more secure and comfortable I will feel, he tells himself. Surely, this man would have been considered blessed in his society. But he dies the very night he planned to erect larger storehouses, and he surely couldn’t take his barn-loads of stuff with him. The rich man’s folly shows the misguided lengths to which people will go to ward off deprivation, the root cause of fear.

But Jesus shows his disciples another way to face their fear. Rather than accumulating stuff, give it away, he says. Face deprivation by depriving yourself of the things you think you can’t live without. And you’ll discover pretty quickly that you can, in fact, live without those things.

I’m sure that you’ve heard this interpretation before, perhaps so many times that you tune it out now. And if you’re like me, you really aren’t any closer to facing the root of fear than you were the last time you heard someone talk about this. I know for myself that I used to be able to fit all my possessions in a 1992 Mazda Protégé. When I moved to Massachusetts, I needed every square inch of a 14-foot U-Haul. With more stuff comes more fear of loss, more fear of that stuff not being enough. But fear is only one side of the story. We’ll finish the tale tomorrow.

…Praying For…

Dear God, you know that accumulating stuff is no way to get rid of fear. Help me to know this truth in my life and fill myself with more of your blessings instead. In Jesus Christ’s name I pray. Amen.

…Sending Out…

I leave this moment with you God, ready to face my fears with the knowledge that you are with me.

The Root of Fear (November 7, 2012)

Published on by Adam ThomasLeave a comment

…Opening To…

I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer… I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me… Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain. (Frank Herbert, Dune)

…Listening In…

“Don’t be afraid, little flock, because your Father delights in giving you the kingdom. Sell your possessions and give to those in need.” (Luke 12:32-33a; context)

…Filling Up…

When our childhood fears reared their ugly heads, our parents told his to face them. That’s how to defeat fear, they said, and we believed them. Then we got older and that advice started to seem flimsy because the fears are so real. But Jesus gave us the same advice, so maybe we should listen to it!

But before we get to that, we first need to address where fear comes from. The root of fear is deprivation, the feeling that there is a lack of something. We fear when something has the potential to become scarce. We fear when we perceive that there is not enough of a certain something. Supply and demand economic theory is based squarely on this reality. The root of fear is deprivation. You can trace all fears to this specific cause, even though specific fears may appear quite differently.

Fears manifest themselves one way or another depending on the nature of the deprivation. If you are afraid of the dark, you fear a scarcity of light. If you are afraid of getting turned down by your crush, you fear the loss of the dream you’ve created for yourself. If you are afraid of contracting a terminal illness, you fear being deprived of a long, healthy life.

You can trace all fears to specific deprivations, and by confronting the sources of scarcity, you can face your fears. Jesus identifies the disciples’ source of fear when he says to them, “Don’t be afraid, little flock, because your Father delights in giving you the kingdom. Sell your possessions and give to those in need.” Jesus assures them that their fears are baseless because their accumulation of stuff will not help them enter the kingdom of God.

…Praying For…

Dear God, you offer abundance, but usually I see only scarcity. Help me to let go of fear by seeing your abundance in my life. In Jesus Christ’s name I pray. Amen.

…Sending Out…

I leave this moment with you God, ready to face my fears with the knowledge that you are with me.

Stuff Happens (November 1, 2012)

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…Opening To…

Sometimes the Lord rides out the storm with us and other times He calms the restless sea around us. Most of all, He calms the storm inside us in our deepest inner soul. (Lloyd John Ogilvie)

…Listening In…

It was now about noon, and darkness covered the whole earth until about three o’clock, while the sun stopped shining. Then the curtain in the sanctuary tore down the middle. Crying out in a loud voice, Jesus said, “Father, into your hands I entrust my life.” After he said this, he breathed for the last time. (Luke 23:44-46; context)

…Filling Up…

If God is always with us and wants what’s best for us, why do storms happen at all? Why isn’t everything just good all the time?

There is no easy answer to these questions, and my self-imposed word count won’t even scratch the surface, so rather than trying to answer them, I think I’ll just examine the premises behind them for today.

Storms happen. Bad stuff happens. We all know that this is a fact of life. This fact leads us to a choice. We can deny God’s existence, which would mean that there’s no problem with bad stuff happening because there would be no God to prevent it. Or we can affirm God’s existence – and affirm God’s utter goodness – and this leads to the question we are wrestling with.

Let’s choose the second option. God exists and God is good. But bad stuff happens. This leads us to another choice. Either God allows the bad stuff to happen, which seems to deny God’s goodness. Or God has no control over the bad stuff happening, which seems to deny God’s omnipotence.

You can see how this is very tricky.

Or perhaps there’s a third option, which is the one that I would argue the experience of Jesus Christ shows to be true. Bad stuff happens. But God is there. Good stuff happens. But God is there. Stuff happens. But God is there. In Jesus’ death on the cross, the worst of storms assailed him. In his resurrection, he showed us that not even the worst storm was a match for God’s presence. God does not cause the storm, but God does cause us to be able to weather it.

…Praying For…

Dear God, you sustain me both through my storms and my sunny days. Help me to put my trust in you, so that I may know that through your strength I won’t drown, no matter how high the waves. In Jesus Christ’s name I pray. Amen.

…Sending Out…

I leave this moment with you, God, praying for the faith to sustain me through all of life’s storms.

Offering This Action (September 6, 2012)

Published on by Adam ThomasLeave a comment

…Opening To…

Give yourself fully to God. He will use you to accomplish great things on the condition that you believe much more in His love than in your own weakness. (Mother Theresa)

…Listening In…

Jesus said, “Be dressed for service and keep your lamps lit. Be like people waiting for their master to come home from a wedding celebration, who can immediately open the door for him when he arrives and knocks on the door.” (Luke 12:35-36; context)

…Filling Up…

Even more specific than the day ahead of us is the immediate action ahead of us. And while it is tenaciously difficult to remember to do this, we can offer each of our actions to God, as well as our lives, our years, and our days. To do so we have to install a new spiritual practice into our lives, one that adds a step to our actions.

Anytime we are about to take an action, we go through several steps. Our minds weigh various outcomes. Then we make a decision. Then our bodies grind into motion. Then we act. Sometimes these steps happen in the blink of an eye, like when reacting to a traffic light changing. Sometimes they are drawn out, especially if the action is some sort of life-altering one, like figuring out which college to go to.

Our new spiritual practice adds a step at the beginning of the whole process. Before engaging in the normal series of steps, give to God the action you are contemplating. Before we know if our actions are going to succeed or fail, before we know the consequences, if we pause and give them to God, then we actively invite God into the process that leads to the actions being taken. Rather than reporting to God after the fact, we become aware of God all the way through.

Notice how this will affect the kinds of actions we decide to take. An acquaintance is being bullied in the lunch room. You could join in the bullying or sit back and let it happen, or you could stop, give the impending action to God, and realize that neither of those choices is the kind of offering you desire to make to God. The tiny moment of offering the impending action to God might help you intervene.

When we take on this spiritual practice of mindfully and prayerfully giving our actions to God, we will find that God is so much more present in our lives. God will be no more present than God was before, but our awareness of that presence will be heightened. And our actions will more frequently conform to the life-giving way in which God yearns for us to walk.

…Praying For…

Dear God, you are always sending your will for me into my heart and soul. Help me to pause and discover that will before I act, so that I may invite you into all of my activities. In Jesus Christ’s name I pray. Amen.

…Sending Out…

I leave this moment with you, God, hopeful that I will have the desire and grace to give myself to you.

The Hinge (April 26, 2012)

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…Opening To…

A marvelous and mighty paradox has thus occurred, for the death which they thought to inflict on Him as dishonor and disgrace has become the glorious monument to death’s defeat. (St. Athanasius)

…Listening In…

Jesus said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you—that everything written about me in the Law from Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures. He said to them, “This is what is written: the Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and a change of heart and life for the forgiveness of sins must be preached in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. Look, I’m sending to you what my Father promised, but you are to stay in the city until you have been furnished with heavenly power.” (Luke 24:44-49; context)

…Filling Up…

Day eight of ten of our celebration of the Resurrection and our last day with Luke’s account of the Gospel. The verses above are the hinges that link the Gospel according to Luke with the Acts of the Apostles, which is Luke’s sequel. (This gets confusing when looking at the way the Bible is laid out because John interrupts Luke’s story.)

Notice here that Jesus links the past with the future through his words. He reminds the disciples that he let them know what would happen way back before any of it went down. But they didn’t understand then, so he makes sure they understand now. In the Gospel’s version of the Vulcan mindmeld,* Jesus opens their minds to all the stuff about him (just as he had down with the two disciples on the road to Emmaus).

Then he gives them a charge to preach forgiveness to all the nations, beginning in Jerusalem. He echoes this charge at the beginning of Acts (since the last chapter of Luke and first chapter of Acts overlap). This charge happens in the present.

Then he moves to the future: “Look, I’m sending to you what my Father promised, but you are to stay in the city until you have been furnished with heavenly power.” With these words, Jesus lets them know that the Holy Spirit is coming to empower their lives – but not until after Jesus ascends to heaven.

With this passage, Luke links his two books, which are really just one long story. There’s the past, the present, and the future. And then there’s us – followers of Jesus spiritually descended from those first followers. We, too, are Jesus’ witnesses. We, too, have the “heavenly power” within us. We, too, are called to preach forgiveness and reconciliation. So let’s get out there and go.

…Praying For…

Dear God, your Son gave us a mission and the power to fulfill it. Help me to live everyday of my life with your call pulling my heart where you would lead. In Jesus Christ’s name I pray. Amen.

…Sending Out…

I leave this moment with you, God, rejoicing that you raised your Son from the dead and showed me that nothing in all of creation can separate me from your love.

* Mindmeld. Sorry, non-Trek fans for throwing that bit of vocab at you.

Really Human (April 25, 2012)

Published on by Adam ThomasLeave a comment

…Opening To…

A marvelous and mighty paradox has thus occurred, for the death which they thought to inflict on Him as dishonor and disgrace has become the glorious monument to death’s defeat. (St. Athanasius)

…Listening In…

While they were saying these things, Jesus himself stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” They were terrified and afraid. They thought they were seeing a ghost. He said to them, “Why are you startled? Why are doubts arising in your hearts? Look at my hands and my feet. It’s really me! Touch me and see, for a ghost doesn’t have flesh and bones like you see I have.” As he said this, he showed them his hands and feet. Because they were wondering and questioning in the midst of their happiness, he said to them, “Do you have anything to eat?” They gave him a piece of baked fish. Taking it, he ate it in front of them. (Luke 24:36-43; context)

…Filling Up…

Today is day seven of ten with the Resurrection appearances. Notice how similar the scene above is to its analog in the Gospel according to John. Jesus stands among the disciples, declares peace to them, then shows them his wounds because they need just a little more before they trust that it’s really him.

But Luke takes the scene one step further – to prove that he really does have internal organs, especially an esophagus, stomach, and intestines, Jesus eats some fish in their presence. (Jesus roasts fish on the beach in John’s account, so there’s a bit of a parallel there, too). I can just see the disciples walking around Jesus, examining him, perhaps seeing if they could put their hands through his ghostly immateriality. But, he’s not a ghost, of course. He’s really there – a physical being and yet more than a physical being because he’s also a resurrected being. Maybe that’s why they had trouble believing it was really him – because in the Resurrection, Jesus was more than himself.

Or to put it another way, in the Resurrected Jesus, the disciples could see more clearly the kingdom of God made known on earth. No wonder they had trouble deciding if he was really human. He was really human – fully human in a way no human had ever been. In seeing him in the power of the Resurrection, they realized how far they still had to go on the path, how much more they could be, how much more growing God had in store for them.

When we meet Jesus in our lives, how often does the encounter end without us desiring to change for the better? I think the safe answer is never. That’s because the power of the Resurrection pulls us closer to the God who makes us better than ourselves just by bringing us into God’s presence.

…Praying For…

Dear God, you sent your Son to earth to show us what you dreamed for humanity. Help me to live as part of that dream, drawing on the riches of Christ’s grace to be the best version of myself I can be every day of my life. In Jesus Christ’s name I pray. Amen.

…Sending Out…

I leave this moment with you, God, rejoicing that you raised your Son from the dead and showed me that nothing in all of creation can separate me from your love.

Unsung (April 24, 2012)

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My apologies for missing the Devo yesterday. There was a glitch that I didn’t catch until late (actually, my mother caught it when she texted me wondering if I was okay.) So here is yesterday’s Devo today — this week will all be pushed back one day and the final Devo of the series will run next Monday. Again, sorry about yesterday. –Adam

…Opening To…

A marvelous and mighty paradox has thus occurred, for the death which they thought to inflict on Him as dishonor and disgrace has become the glorious monument to death’s defeat. (St. Athanasius)

…Listening In…

Then Jesus said to them, “You foolish people! Your dull minds keep you from believing all that the prophets talked about. Wasn’t it necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and then enter into his glory?” Then he interpreted for them the things written about himself in all the scriptures, starting with Moses and going through all the Prophets. (Luke 24:25-27; context)

…Filling Up…

Week two of our celebration of the Resurrection, `cause one week just isn’t enough. (At church, it takes seven.) Last week we were in John all week because John has the most fully realized resurrection appearances. This week we’ll touch on Luke and Matthew. (Mark doesn’t have any.) So, without further ado, what you read a moment ago is from Luke’s wonderful, amazing, fantastic, and other-words-that-mean-really-great story about Jesus meeting two of his followers on the road to Emmaus.

Many, many things make this one of the loveliest stories in the Gospel, not the least of which is Jesus appearing to these two people – Cleopas and an unnamed companion – who are essentially nobodies in the Gospel. This is their one and only appearance. They have followed Jesus; they even number themselves as members of the “group” to whom the women who went to the tomb belong. And yet they never take center stage until now.

And it is to these unsung disciples that Jesus opens up the scriptures. He tells them all about himself using the words of the prophets of old. And still they don’t recognize him. Not until he breaks bread with them at the table that evening. Then their eyes see him and they realize how their hearts had been burning within them when he was teaching them on the road.

Sometimes, we don’t realize that we’ve had encounters with Jesus until later, until something jostles our faith into the right spiritual alignment to notice Christ on the road with us. But the truth is that Jesus is always on the road with us, always speaking truth into our hearts, always making us burn with fire. We just need to have the eyes the disciples had when they communed with him.

…Praying For…

Dear God, you are always walking the way with me. Help me to follow where your footsteps lead and always along the paths that lead to life and light. In Jesus Christ’s name I pray. Amen.

…Sending Out…

I leave this moment with you, God, rejoicing that you raised your Son from the dead and showed me that nothing in all of creation can separate me from your love.