Daily Liturgy and Scripture

Where do we take our refuge? Psalms says we should take it in the Lord. In Luke, Jesus is facing a group of religious leaders who take shelter in their power, but Jesus calls to attention their lack of love for God, their willingness to destroy his Son. Certainly, there have been many steps leading up to that point. Years of focus on power have led them to this point. Where are they now? Wishing to control the people they are literally ready to kill the vineyard owner's son. That his no refuge. They have run for cover in a crumbling structure.

When Jesus tells a story it's often important to clarify which of the characters we should pay attention to and which ones are just story pieces. In the story of the nobleman who gave his servants money to care for, we should particularly look at the action of the servants more than the nobleman. We should also remember that they weren't working with their own money, it all belonged to the nobleman. Such is the case with us: we are part of a world that is all God's and a church that Jesus founded. Our part is to take what we have been given and increase the boundaries of the Kingdom.

Sometimes it's hard to see beauty, but God puts it in front of us all the time. From a blind man who could literally see nothing to a tax collector who swapped greed for the glorious picture of God's economy, Jesus opened the eyes of many, revealing a better way.

A good balance today in the scripture between sacrifice and the riches God provides. Isaiah paints a word picture of the prosperity God wants to bring his people, while Jesus tells a rich man that he needs to become poor. In both cases, We must remember to put ourselves in God's hands. Trying to do the work of God on our own pitiful energy will never do.

What keeps us from seeing the Kingdom of God? Fixing our eyes on the kingdom of the world. It may not be bad things, it could very well be good things that we love too much. It may even be family. Jesus is clear when he talks about entering the Kingdom. No one who looks back for something they they love more is ready.

What do the people of God look like? They look compassionate and sacrificial, just as Jesus did. But how do we respond to this great gift of God, admission to his amazing kingdom? With gratitude. People who are grateful for what they have act differently than those who think they are entitled. They do not act haughty, they do not hold their status over others. If we are to become the true citizens of Heaven, we should do no less.

The passage about the rich man and Lazarus is often taken as a literal picture of Hell, and maybe it is. I don't think that's the point Jesus was trying to make, though. Where do we want our reward to be? Do we want to scrape together all the goods we can on earth, or do we want to build up treasure in Heaven? Lazarus had no choice; he was without goods and without means. But the rich man, who Jesus does not bother to name, did have a choice. He had options, and he chose to lay up his treasures on earth. Certainly, most of us have the same choice. While we may not live in a golden palace, there's a good chance that we're among the wealthiest in the world.

Isaiah and Luke are more connected that we may initially think today. Isaiah is talking about including outsiders in worship, and then turns to his own to point out how unfit they are as a holy people. Luke gives us the well-known parable of the prodigal son... and the other son. It is in the son who stayed home, who never broke the rules, where we may find a hard lesson for ourselves. Do you see the major difference in the relationship the two have with the father? The younger son goes out rambling, but his thought is to return to his father. The other son, the one who symbolizes the chosen people of God, gets mad because there was not party for him. But what does he say? "You never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends." In the party he wishes he had, he celebrates with his friends and not his father. We must be careful not to do the same. It's easy to get so focused on our own tribe that we forget that our most important connection is with out heavenly Father.

How do we count the cost of something that hasn't happened yet? It's impossible to know what laying everything on the line for Jesus will mean, and it's possible many of us would never commit if we knew what that cost would mean. So what does Jesus ask for, if not seeing the future? He asks for daily faith and obedience. He asks that we consider everything else secondary, so if the most important thing is following him, anything else that falls away is a cost we can pay. To pay that cost, though, we must learn to pay a little every day.