Leaning Into Luke

 

On another sabbath he entered the synagogue and taught, and there was a man there whose right hand was withered.  The scribes and the Pharisees watched him to see whether he would cure on the sabbath, so that they might find an accusation against him.  Even though he knew what they were thinking, he said to the man who had the withered hand, “Come and stand here.” He got up and stood there.  Then Jesus said to them, “I ask you, is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the sabbath, to save life or to destroy it?”  After looking around at all of them, he said to him, “Stretch out your hand.” He did so, and his hand was restored.  But they were filled with fury and discussed with one another what they might do to Jesus.  Luke 6:6-11

First the grain and now the healing.  Does Jesus not know how to turn down the temperature rather than elevate the tension in the room?  Why does Jesus keep poking the bear and provoking people?  And what will the children think when he keeps on trampling on the rules we have been trying to teach them?  (That last question was a joke, by the way).

But, this passage causes me to pause and ponder, what would Jesus challenge me on?  What precious peril of righteousness to do I cling to, convinced I am right, which Jesus might call me to let lose my grasp upon?  We all want to have the right way, but Jesus seems to challenge religious understandings, so what might he say about our church?

Those are difficult questions?  But heartfelt ones.  Scripture doesn’t only confirm us, the words of scripture can challenge.  The wisdom I hold onto is the second I think I have scripture understood, I should be sent back to the start, do not pass, “Go,” and do not collect two hundred dollars.  I don’t know why Jesus is trying to push the boundaries of what was kosher and clean.  I do not know why Jesus is provoking people.  I do know that I want to be careful to assume that God is on my side and to stay open to God’s work in the world.  And, if the answer when I read scripture is too often, “Yup, got it all under control.  Nothing to see here.”  There is probably something sacred to see there which might change me.

How might I stretch out my hand, empty my heart, open my life so that Jesus’ wisdom and God’s light of love can shine brighter?

May that question sit in my life and your life today with more than a trace of God’s grace.  Amen.

Leaning Into Luke

 

One sabbath while Jesus was going through the grainfields, his disciples plucked some heads of grain, rubbed them in their hands, and ate them. But some of the Pharisees said, “Why are you doing what is not lawful on the sabbath?”  Jesus answered, “Have you not read what David did when he and his companions were hungry?  He entered the house of God and took and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and gave some to his companions?”  Then he said to them, “The Son of Man is lord of the sabbath.” Luke 6:1-5

Jesus was out for a Saturday stroll.  He had been to Temple to worship, pray, sing, and even enjoyed a cookie and cup of coffee at fellowship time afterwards.  So, he decided to continue his worship with a walk out in the beauty of God’s creation with his disciples (more on them later this week).  I guess that snack after the service didn’t last, linger for his friends.  Their stomachs started rumbling and grumbling, they saw some grain, plucked/picked some to enjoy a sandwich right there.  When suddenly from out of now where some Pharisees jump out.  Were they playing hide and seek?  Were they hiding behind a wheat stalk?  We know they said, “Caught you red handed!”  Insert frownie faces and fingers wagging here.  Jesus replied, responded by saying, “Well, David ate the Bread that was for God.”  That is what the bread of Presence was.  It was food that was left on the altar in the Holy of Holies in case, I guess, God got hungry?  Only King David one time decided that God was okay with sharing some of the holy manna with him.  Like a friend who reaches across the table at a restaurant with his fork to “test, try, taste” some of your entrée or snags a French fry from you when you look the other way. 

I believe that scripture has moments of holy hilarity that are meant to teach, tell us something through laughter.  I wonder if one truth to carry from these words is that we can get caught up in rules, regulations, and the right way rather than staying open to God.  Sometimes we are so convinced to the point of complacency with our ways.  Plus, our minds tell us that it is too hard to change.  And, this helps us feel like we are in control.  I felt that with this pandemic and constantly washing my hands as something to cling to in the midst of an invisible virus floating around.  The Pharisees, by the way, are not the bad guys.  They are more like Jesus.  Just like I can be frustrated with those who are slightly different then I am with those who are distant and disconnected and diametrically opposed to my understandings. 

A few insights to ponder:

Where are moments you feel fed literally and figuratively?

What ways do you cling to control so much that your knuckles turn white?

Who might the Pharisee be in your circle?  Those who are close by, who you care about, but who sometimes push all the buttons?

May God’s wisdom guide you and God’s love ground you this day as we let this story speak and sing to our story.  Amen.   

Leaning Into Luke

 

He told them this parable: “No one tears a piece out of a new garment to patch an old one. Otherwise, they will have torn the new garment, and the patch from the new will not match the old.  And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined.  No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins.  Luke 5:36-38

As we wrap up and wind down the first full week in February, Jesus offers a truth that you cannot put new wine in old wine skins.  We know that life has changed and is changing since February 2020.  At this time, one year ago, we were hearing about COVID, but had not fully felt the weight yet – although there was concern hovering in the air.  At this time, one year ago, we had not witnessed the murder of George Floyd.  We had resisted the collective, communal lament that is needed in the face of discrimination in all its heartbreaking, soul aching forms.  At this time, one year ago, we did not think an angry group would break into the Capital in order to stop our elected leaders from certifying the election.

If we knew then what we know now.

Then, again, if we did, perhaps we would not have had the courage to live moment-by-moment; step-by-step.  We cannot fully know the future, it unfolds as we encounter the present moment.  I believe when we prayerfully live in the present, with openness, we are able to find the traces of grace we need for the next right step.

Today, I invite you to take a long view of life and ponder prayerfully:

1. One learning from this last year.  Where are you tasting and sipping new wine?

2. How is that new learning fitting into your life – does it feel like you are putting new wine into old wineskins?

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.

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.

Leaning into Luke

 

After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi sitting at his tax booth. “Follow me,” Jesus said to him,  and Levi got up, left everything and followed him. Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them.  But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged to their sect complained to his disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” Jesus answered them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”  Luke 5:27-32

Jesus had just healed someone, he headed out of the house where he was at and there is a tax collector.

That ominous sound you hear is because tax collectors were looked down upon and pushed to the fringe of polite society.  The soundtrack that should accompany the words, “Levi sitting at his tax booth,” would be like the theme song to Jaws or what played every time Darth Vader walked into a scene in Star Wars.

Tax collectors were not the heroes or sheroes in Jesus’ day.  The reason was that they worked for Rome.  The money you gave to the tax collector financed the Caesar who thought he was a god.  You felt the weight of the boot of Rome on your neck.  Some scholars suggest that the tax rate in Jesus’ day (between Rome, Herod, and temple taxes) could have been as high as 90 percent.  Ouch.  Suddenly, us saying that we have the worst taxes ever doesn’t hold as much truth.

Jesus goes and calls Levi to follow.  Think of a person you see as a villain, the least likely candidate for Person of the Year…Jesus calls him/her?  Before Jesus preached, “Love your enemy,” he practiced it right here and right now in the passage.  Levi throws a party and all his tax collector friends with their calculators, glasses, and number jokes (like why is six afraid of seven? Because seven, eight, nine – read as seven ate nine.)  When the Pharisees question the company Jesus is keeping, Jesus says that someone whose halo is shining doesn’t need polish.  Someone who thinks s/he has it all figured out, is not going to listen. 

One of my favorite quotes right now is that the more you know, the more questions you have. The more you learn, the more you realize how much you fail to grasp.  Amen to that!  I don’t see clearly.  I make a ton of mistakes and miscues and miss moments of the movement of God’s grace.  Levi and I might have more in common than I care to admit or accept. 

Where in the above description did you find yourself with a new insight or idea?  Where did you find yourself shaking your head in disbelief?  Was there anything above that frustrated you?

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.

Leaning in to Luke

 

17 One day Jesus was teaching, and Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there. They had come from every village of Galilee and from Judea and Jerusalem. And the power of the Lord was with Jesus to heal the sick. 18 Some men came carrying a paralyzed man on a mat and tried to take him into the house to lay him before Jesus. 19 When they could not find a way to do this because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and lowered him on his mat through the tiles into the middle of the crowd, right in front of Jesus.  20 When Jesus saw their faith, he said, “Friend, your sins are forgiven.”  21 The Pharisees and the teachers of the law began thinking to themselves, “Who is this fellow who speaks blasphemy? Who can forgive sins but God alone?” 22 Jesus knew what they were thinking and asked, “Why are you thinking these things in your hearts? 23 Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? 24 But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” So he said to the paralyzed man, “I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.” 25 Immediately he stood up in front of them, took what he had been lying on and went home praising God. 26 Everyone was amazed and gave praise to God. They were filled with awe and said, “We have seen remarkable things today.”  Luke 5:17-27

The titles that appear in section breaks in your Bible are not original.  The Gospel writers didn’t have chapter titles.  As a matter of fact, if you have ever seen the Dead Sea Scrolls or writings from the time of Jesus there was no punctuation or vowels or even spaces between the consonant letters.  This sentence would look like this: thssntncwldlklkths.  Sort of makes my head hurt honestly. 

Since the titles of section breaks were added later, we have a permission slip to let our own imaginations loose with our thoughts on what a particular passage of the Bible might be titled.  If I had been asked, I might give the section of Scripture above this title:

I get by with a little help from my friends (you are going to be singing that all day long).

Or

Hold up your corner.

Both titles are important.  The first emphasizes that all of us stand on the shoulders of others.  There is no self-made man or woman.  You are who you are because of your family and friends – past and present.  You exist because workers grow food that you buy at the store or restaurant take out.  You drive on roads someone else plotted and planned and paved.  You live in a house, or at least I do, that I did not build.  I was taught by teachers who shaped and formed ideas.  I know what it is like to be on the mat, because others have carried me.  I know I am still carried by the love of family and our church.

And there are moments I try to carry others too.  I do this with my kids.  I do this when someone in our church is grieving or hurting.  I try to hold up my corner in these morning meditations and by supporting causes I believe in.  I seek to hold up my corner in sharing/shining my light where I can.

Healing happens in moments where we support each other, care for each other, and are willing to be supported by others.  Healing is dynamic.  There is a difference between healing and cure.  I can still struggle physically or emotionally, yet at the same time feel like the weigh of the wound is not as heavy because of those around me. 

Where are you helping and who is helping you?

Let the question above sing to you, soak into you, and let your life respond and react to this question 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.

Leaning in to Luke

 

 While Jesus was in one of the towns, a man came along who was covered with leprosy. When he saw Jesus, he fell with his face to the ground and begged him, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.”  Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” And immediately the leprosy left him.  Then Jesus ordered him, “Don’t tell anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them.”  Yet the news about him spread all the more, so that crowds of people came to hear him and to be healed of their sicknesses. But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.  Luke 5:12-16

There is such a humanity woven into this passage.  You have the passionate plea of a person who has suffered, struggled, and deep in his soul longs to be well.  You have Jesus’ willingness to embrace and enfold the one who was hurting (and considered untouchable because of the skin disease) with a tender hand laid upon this Son of God’s shoulder.  You have the gentleman being asked not to share, only to then Tweet out and post to social media a selfie with a before and after.  Insert Jesus shaking his head, muttering and mumbling, “You ask people to do one thing.  One simple thing!”  Then Jesus decided to get away to pray.

A couple of questions:

1.      Where does it hurt today?  Where is there pain that throbs physically or emotionally or spiritually or communally? 

2.      Where do you long for help and healing, long for a loving touch or to feel the brush of angel’s wings with the sacred stirring, supporting, strengthening you?

3.      What Good News of God’s grace can you not but help share?  Where has been that moment where hopelessness doesn’t seem like it has the last word over the last few days?

4.      Finally, do you find the space and place to pause, to breathe and be, to get away and pray?

The power of Scripture is not only for our minds, but our whole lives to encounter and experience.  The power of Scripture is not in these words you are reading from me, but when you let the words from Luke above be embraced and embodied and expressed in your life.  Let this passage read your life today, connect you to this bigger story of God’s love.

Go back to the four questions above, hold them, enter them, let your life respond and react to them.  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.