Leaning Into Luke

 

They said to him, “John’s disciples often fast and pray, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours go on eating and drinking.”  Jesus answered, “Can you make the friends of the bridegroom fast while he is with them?  But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; in those days they will fast.”  Luke 5:33-35

This is another human moment in scripture.  The religious people are comparing and competing who is being more faithful.  The religious people are trying to prove that their haloes shine brighter and bolder than others.  The religious people are pulling others down to prop themselves up.  What breaks my heart is the previous three sentences are as true today as when Luke wrote down the words above.  Churches constantly compete and compare worship attendance and budgets.  How many new members they gained in the last month?  The boasting and bragging sounds like the pastor thinking s/he is the “Thou” referred to in the hymn “How Great Thou Art,” rather than God.

Part of what I hear Jesus saying to us anew and afresh is that we cannot prove faithfulness.  Not by fasting.  Not be praying angelically.  Not be faithfully writing a morning meditation each day.  Faithfulness, the surge of the Spirit within, is creative and will call us to connect with others.

Yet, hearing this is not easy for us, because we want to think that our way of practicing faith is the correct way.  Recently, I was sharing about different biases we all have from author Brian McLaren.  We have a complexity biases in that we like simple explanation to a complex truth. We can’t see what we are unwilling to see, and we don’t want to be vulnerable.  Also, our brains are wired when something gets too hard, our “logic” tells us to stop and justifies it.  Our brains are comfortable and wants to maintain the neuro pathways that are there.  We are aware that change takes effort and energy to forge new understandings.  This is one reason why New Year’s resolutions are so difficult.

Is there an understanding of faith that might need to be let go of right now?  Is there part of faithfulness that isn’t connecting you to God’s grace?  Is there a place where you feel like you are going through the motions without feeling the movement of the Holy?

Let the questions above sing to you, soak into you, and let your life respond and react to these questions today.  Lean into Luke and sense the way Luke’s wisdom is seeking to be lived out in you.

And may God’s grace, peace, and love be with you now more than ever.  Amen.