It’s great to have you join us for Tuesday’s podcast. Today our Bible focus is Luke chapter 14 v1-14.

Chapter 14 is set in the home and around a meal table. As a whole, Luke’s Gospel contains more meal-time scenes than all the others, but what we see in chapters 14 and 15 in particular is not just teaching in a home, around a meal table, but also teaching about our homes, and how we use our meal tables.

REFLECTION:

When we look at Jesus’ life, we see that he spent the majority of his time in 3 places: with the crowds, in the synagogue, and in homes. In our context this could best be applied as: in the world, in the church and in our homes.

If we want to be more like Jesus, we have to live more like Jesus – we need to create and cultivate God’s kingdom in the world, we need to commit to being in church on Sunday, and we need to understand what it means to develop a discipling culture in our homes.

In his commentary on the Gospel of Luke, Joel Green has a whole chapter entitled “Table Practices/Table Talk” where he explains that Jesus didn’t accidentally end up teaching in people’s homes or spending so much time eating with others by chance; but that this was an intentional part of his ministry, where his deeds and actions were deliberate and for a purpose.

Luke chapter 14 v1 says, “One Sabbath, when Jesus went to eat in the house of a prominent Pharisee, he was being carefully watched.”

The Pharisees were carefully watching Jesus to try and catch him out. However, as we look at Chapter 14, let us carefully watch Jesus, and see what he was purposely and deliberately wanting to teach us and show us around the meal table.

In the culture that Jesus was living in and speaking into, the meal table wasn’t just a place where you ate food. It had a central function in re-enforcing and hopefully enhancing, a person’s social standing (as seen in verse 7). It was used to maintain a political system of obligation. There was no such thing as a free meal – but rather an invitation always came with strings attached, as is explained in verse 11. And finally, who you ate with was controlled by a host of rules regarding religious or ritual purity, with many people being declared unclean or unworthy to eat with.

The meal table was therefore exclusive. It was all about establishing an in-group and securing your place and status within this. Inviting someone for a meal was about what you could get in return. Those around the table were the pure and blameless ones, whilst those excluded were sinful and shamed.

These are strong words and it is unlikely that we instantly want to connect with them, and say, “Yes, that’s what my meal times are like!”

But, as we think about growing deeper with God, let’s ask ourselves some deeper questions:

– How often do we ask those outside of our immediate family to eat with us? Are our meal tables equally exclusive? If we do eat with others, is it just “our group” or “our friends”?

– Do we subconsciously make our meals about social status or improving our standing in community? Serving Jamie Oliver’s latest recipe or the new food craze (avocado or kale anyone?), makes us look so much better than sticking a pizza in the oven.

As I sit writing this, the phrase “An Englishman’s home is his castle” also springs to mind. Do we see our homes as the place we retreat to? Where we can pull up the drawbridge and keep out the world?

Jesus’ words in Luke Chapter 14 don’t really give us this option however – in verse 12 he quite clearly says “When you give a luncheon or a dinner…..” not If.

So, if practising hospitality in our home and around our meal table is a given, how can we do this more and who can we invite?

Is there someone new, or someone we don’t know very well, on our street or in our workplace that we could invite round for coffee or a meal?

Perhaps we do have people round,

Welcome to the Foundations daily podcast. My name is Helen, and I’m part of the team here at STC Sheffield. It’s great to have you join us this week as we continue our journey through the Gospel of Luke. Today our passage is Chapter 13 v 18-35, and we will be focusing on the first two verses:

“Then Jesus asked, ‘What is the Kingdom of God like? What shall I compare it to? It is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his garden. It grew and became a tree, and the birds perched in its branches.”

REFLECTION:

I wonder if you made any New Year’s Resolutions, and if you have managed to stick to them? My resolutions are the same every year: eat less chocolate, and try to reach the bottom of the washing basket at least once in the next 52 weeks! Those of you working full time, with 3 kids, know this last statement is more of a fantasy than a resolution!

However, at the beginning of this year I felt God asking me to reflect on 3 questions. These were: Where am I called to create something with God? What am I cultivating? And how am I helping others to flourish? In today’s Bible passage, we see these same three themes: Create, Cultivate and Flourish.

As Christians we all have a calling, and that is to see the Kingdom of God grow and become more evident here on earth. The way we live out or express that calling is different for each one of us, but the calling itself is the same – we are called to help create the kingdom of God.

The man in verse 19 has a mustard seed. It is tiny, brown and dry. In the palm of his hand it would seem insignificant and uninspiring. He could have looked at that seed and thought nothing great would ever come from it.

But the man took a step of faith. He planted it.

Rather than leaving it as a tiny, dry seed in a packet, he chose to put it in the soil.

He chose to work with God to create something new, to release the potential of the seed, to discover what it would grow to become.

And so the first question from these verses is where am I, or what am I, called to create with God?

We may not be a farmer with a mustard seed……perhaps you’re an accountant balancing the books, a shop assistant stacking shelves. Perhaps we are just trying to reach the bottom of the washing basket. We may look at what God has given us to do, and think that it is uninspiring and insignificant.

But today, be encouraged that this is not how God sees us. God sees us as co-workers, people he wants to partner with. He has a plan to create something of the Kingdom of God with us and through us. It might just need us to take a step of faith first.

The second thing we see in this short passage is linked to cultivation.

When the farmer looked at the mustard seed, he wouldn’t necessarily be filled with joy. I have never grown a mustard tree, but the internet tells me that it is wise to keep them in pots in a greenhouse for 3 years before you plant them outside. 3 YEARS! That is long haul gardening! And even after that, the tree can grow to 20ft high and 20 ft wide. Growing a mustard tree means a commitment to years of tending and pruning.

The story of the woman kneading dough, gives us the same sense of commitment. In the NIV it says there was “a large amount” of dough. However, the actual translation makes it clear that there was enough to feed about 150 people! Kneading one loaf is strenuous, let alone the time and effort it would take to work yeast through 30 kilos of dough.

Jesus’ words are a reminder that we are called to create; but also to cultivate…..and cultivation takes time, effort and commitment.

The farmer could have thought of the long years of labour ahead and put down his trowel. The woman could have looked at the huge amount of dough, and just walked away. I could think that reaching the bottom of the washing basket is impossible, and give up before I even get started.

Hello and welcome to Friday’s podcast.

This week in Luke’s Gospel, we’ve been reflecting on Jesus’ words to the people he encounters on the road. And at the heart of what Jesus has been saying – whether it’s rebuking the Pharisees and lawyers, warning the crowd or instructing his disciples – is that God calls us to live a better, a more fruitful life. God wants us to grow. To grow in confidence in who he is, and how we live out our faith in response to that.

As we end this week, we move from focusing on what the signs of spiritual growth look like: a confidence in our expressing our faith, trusting God, living generously – to asking the deeper, more underlying question and that is – How do we change? How do we grow?

REFLECTION:

Our reading today is Luke 13: 1-17. We’re going to focus on verse 6-9 which is a parable Jesus uses:

“A man had a fig tree growing in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it but did not find any. So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, ‘For three years now I’ve been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?’

“‘Sir,’ the man replied, ‘leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll dig around it and fertilize it. If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.’”

As we saw yesterday, Jesus provokes a response in people. Jesus’ mission here on Earth was about bringing change to society and the vehicle he uses to do that is through bringing about change in our lives.. The issue is we, in our humanity, often don’t want to change– but actually as we see in today’s reading – it’s also something we can’t really achieve just by ourselves.

The man who owns the vineyard, a classic image for God used in the Bible, comes seeking fruit. It’s kind of obvious when you think about it. You plant a tree; you want to see some fruit! We were created to bear fruit. We go back to creation and God’s mandate for human life is to…. , Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth’ (Gen 1:28). Jesus tells his disciples –‘I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit (John 15:16).’

We were created for a purpose! God wants us to grow.

Here’s the challenge though from this parable: The man looking after the vineyard says look, ‘Leave it one more year, until I dig around it a bit, put on some manure, see what happens – if it’s not grown any fruit by next year then you can cut it down’. That word ‘if’ used there in the passage already seems to be a resignation here that the tree won’t actually end up bearing any fruit at all.

Why? Because we can’t manufacture true growth. We can’t ultimately change ourselves all on our own. Sure, we can try a bit harder. We can get more disciplined. We can read our Bible a bit more, get a bit more proactive in praying for others, make a bit more of an effort chatting to new people in my community, maybe start serving on a team at church – all really good things and all things that God wants for our lives but…if I’m the one constantly making it all happen, it’s all a bit forced, a bit mechanical. And the thing that is reliant on keeping all that going…is us and our own will power. Our own will power is finite. We are, by our very nature, inconsistent. Things get in the way. Obstacles come along. Challenge hits us. We get stuck!

There is another way for us to view change/growth and that is that it becomes a way of life. Our actions, our behaviours, our lifestyle are simply a response to what’s happening on the inside. On Monday – we were reminded of the truth that God brings change and that he does so from the inside out.

We can’t change ourselves; God changes us.

When we look at the Old Testament we see how God’s people were incapable of truly changing and still God gives them this promise: I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your h...

Hello and welcome to Thursday’s podcast.

Today’s passage is Luke 12: 49-59. Our focus verse for today is v51 which I’ll read for us now. Remember these are Jesus’s words to the crowd that have gathered around him.

‘Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division.’

REFLECTION:

I have had the great privilege of being able to serve some of our local secondary schools over the past two years, primarily through leading and supporting the work of Christian Unions. In one of the schools I’m in, we’ve started Youth Alpha, an introduction/refresher to the Christian Faith, with the Y7/8 lads. This week, we looked at, ‘Jesus – who is he’. Being in that session, listening to the students’ questions, and for some the challenges levelled against what they were hearing about Jesus took me back to my own experience of Alpha some 7 years ago now. I remember listening intently to the others on the course – some of whom who weren’t shy in making their opinions known.

The person of Jesus Christ has and always will provoke a response in people. Jesus constantly challenged the status quo. He totally polarized opinions. He said and did things which were considered controversial. He said he was God. Indeed, he was crucified for it.

Jesus asks the crowd who have gathered around him – Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division. As I listened to the students in that Alpha session this week, I was reminded again of the truth of what Jesus says here – as uncomfortable as it is for us. It’s not that Jesus didn’t come to bring peace. He did! He is described as the prince of peace. The one who reconciles us to the father. The Apostle Paul writes about a peace that Jesus offers us – a peace which the world cannot understand or provide. However, it’s clear from this passage, and indeed many others as we read the Gospels together, that Jesus can also be described as the great divider – amongst people. Jesus came not only to bring salvation but to bring division – as people decide whether or not to follow him.

Rather than focus on the why Jesus causes this divide, which we haven’t got the time to fully do justice to in this short podcast, let’s consider how we might respond again to this challenge today.

One response, as we saw on Monday, might be withdraw, to hide our faith in Jesus for fear of being disliked, shunned or just considered plain weird!

I was recently really challenged by this as I’ve been approaching secondary schools about something called the Higher Tour – which involves groups of gifted musicians/evangelists leading creative sessions with the students. It’s set to be the largest youth mission in our region for many years. Already 31 secondary schools are signed up across our region, and the vision is to reach 50. Please do continue to pray for this work! And as I’ve been contacting school about the tour, the temptation has been, at times, to talk about how this work will enrich the PSHE and RE curriculum, yes… that it will have a massive impact in terms of a student’s sense of self-worth, yes… but to not mention Jesus – until the very end at least. Thankfully, the vision of Higher is so clear and bold, I’ve simply had to do so and be up front about that from the beginning to avoid being disingenuous. Some schools have signed up straight away, others have asked really good questions about how the bands present the Christian faith and how that works in their schools, some schools have heard it’s a Christian initiative and said no.

All the team who are supporting the fantastic Gospel work of this tour can’t change how a school’s senior leadership team will respond when we mention Jesus. As hard as it is, it’s actually reassuring to know that. We ourselves cannot convince someone that Jesus is who he says he is and that we all need to receive Him as Lord and as our saviour. Thankfully,

Welcome to Wednesday’s Foundation Podcast.

This week, we’ve been looking at Jesus’ teaching in Luke’s Gospel and we’ve been asking the question –what does growing in God look like? On Monday, we looked at how open we are about our faith. Yesterday we considered what it means to live generously. Today – we are thinking about what it means to trust.

REFLECTION:

It was recently our Naomi’s 3rd birthday and I took her, at her request, to one of her favourite places – Hillsborough Leisure Centre. That girl knows how to roll! She loves to swim. We’ve got her pink arm bands which she’s a huge fan off – partly because of the colour but also mainly because they mean she can float around without us holding her the whole time. When we first got them, she used to try to clamp herself on me the moment I’d try to let go of her. It took quite a few attempts but eventually we got there. Just kicking and floating on her own across a tiny gap. Now she’s at the point where she can travel across the whole pool and takes great delight in racing around the entire thing. She doesn’t even think twice about letting go anymore.

Today’s passage is Luke 12: 22-48. Here’s what Jesus says in verse 29-31:

And do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink; do not worry about it. For the pagan world runs after all such things, and your Father knows that you need them. But seek his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well.

This passage is Jesus’ famous teaching on what it means to not worry and at the heart of it is this word: trust. What does it mean to trust someone? It’s something to do with the confidence we place in something. It’s a choice we make. It’s who or what we look to.

God asks us to trust him. In this passage, Jesus is effectively saying to his disciples – the world tells you to focus on the material things – clothes, food, money, possessions. To look to yourselves – what I need. What I can sort myself. To look inwards. God’s desire is that we would trust him. That we look to him. Why? Because as we saw yesterday, when we are too busy focusing inwards; it’s difficult for us to look outwards. When we are consumed with worry about me, about my life, my needs, we find it difficult to serve God, to share his love, his hope with those around us.

The question God asks us this day is: Where are you looking? Verse 31 says this: Seek first his kingdom and the rest will be added to you. Jesus says this – Look to me. Look to God. How often though is it that before we look to God, we look to me, to us. We focus on things we need rather than one who meets our need. This inhibits our ability to grow, to live like Jesus.

Hebrews 12:1-2 say this: Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.

Whenever we go swimming, I notice how Naomi – as confident as she is with her arm bands on – keeps needing to look around, to look back, to look to me for reassurance, to check I’m still there. That I haven’t left her. And then confidently she kicks on.

Each day, we have a choice. We can choose to look to ourselves or we can choose to trust Jesus. What we find is that as we look to him, as we read his word, as we turn to him in prayer, as we choose to live for Him, our trust in him grows and we can begin to throw off all the things that weigh us down, hold us back and run after the things God has for us this day knowing that he is with us and we can trust him.

PRAYER:

God, thank you that we can trust you. That you are a good good father and that we are your children. Help us to trust you this day Lord whatever it is we need, whatever it is that we face at this moment, what we really need is you. Help us to fix our eyes on you Jesus, so that we may run with perseverance the race that you have marked out f...

Hello and welcome to Tuesday’s podcast. Whether you are on the way to work, to school, having breakfast with the kids, taking a break from revision or just finding 5 minutes in a busy day – our prayer is that God speaks to us through his word and that we are encouraged and inspired to live like him.

We’re in Luke’s Gospel. Much of this section of Luke’s account is Jesus speaking and teaching those that are following Him and those that he encounters on the road – essentially revealing to them what it looks like to live the God life, the life God created us to live.

As we looked at yesterday and indeed as we have been doing this year at STC, we see that God wants us to grow. To become more like Christ.

With that in mind, today we’re thinking about what it means to live a generous life.

REFLECTION:

Our reading today is Luke 12:1-21 which can hear read out in full at the end. Today’s focus verse is verse 15: Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.”

Jesus then tells a parable to illustrate his point. The story Jesus tells centres on a wealthy man, someone with an abundant harvest. In ancient Jewish culture, an abundant harvest would have been seen as a great blessing from God. However, rather than be generous with the bumper crop he now has, the rich man stores it all up. In fact, he even goes to the trouble of building bigger barns to store the entire extra produce that he has.

Here’s a question to consider: What stops us from being generous?

Jesus’ words to his disciples and to us today are this – Life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.

Jesus, as he does throughout the Gospel, talks lots about possessions, about money, about what we have and how we are to view all of that. This parable focuses on a man who typifies the human condition, which is to want to acquire, to store up, to build up wealth. To make for ourselves a comfortable future. To look after number one. Whichever way you look at it, the focus is on me!

However as we can see from the end of this passage – this is not how God calls us to live. The rich man in the parable is rebuked for living this way and ultimately brought to judgement.

When our focus is us, looking after me, storing things up for ourselves, we can’t live generously. The two cannot go together. Jesus put it like this: No one can serve two masters: Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. (Matthew 6:24)

This passage asks us a question – Who are we serving?

When we are constantly seeking to serve ourselves, we run out of room for others and for God! What we see with this parable is a picture of a man who thinks he has lived well. That he has it all. He looks at his store houses stock piled high full of grains and goods and says – this is enough for me. But actually what does he have? His world although appearing big is actually a very small one. It’s just him and his stuff. There’s no mention of anyone else. There’s no room for them. And certainly, no room for God.

Why does God so desire that we live generously? Because it’s what he does. John 3: 16 – For God so loved the world that he gave his only son… God knows what it is to give. Jesus himself says that he came to serve and not to be served. If we want to learn what it is to live like Jesus, then being generous is a good place to start.

Proverbs 11:24 (The Message) says this: The world of the generous gets larger and larger: the world of the stingy gets smaller and smaller.

God desires that we grow – grow as people, grow as his church, grow his influence in the world. Being generous leads to growth. God’s act of generosity, of total sacrifice on the cross made a way for his revolution of forgiveness and love to spread.

Hello, and welcome to a new week of Foundations Daily. My name is Liam, I’m part of the team here at STC and it gives me great pleasure to be with you this week as dig into God’s word and seek to discover Him more. Last week, my colleague Casey shared some of his reflections from Luke’s Gospel. If you missed those, do take the time to listen back.

REFLECTION:

A bit of context. We’re in the middle of Luke’s Gospel account where Jesus is headed towards Jerusalem – the place where his mission here on Earth culminated. His mission, as we discover in Luke Ch 4 is to seek and to save, to restore and redeem, to make a way for people to know God and live the life they were created for. Much of this section focuses on what Jesus says and what he teaches people – those who are following Him and those that he encounters along the road to Jerusalem. His teachings helps us better understand what it means to know God, to grow in our relationship with Him and to do the things he does. Excitingly, this is something we as a church are actively engaging with through some something called the Grow Project. With this in mind, let’s look at our focus verse for today:

v33: “No one lights a lamp and puts it in a place where it will be hidden, or under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, so that those who come in may see the light.”

Jesus, who’s primarily talking to his disciples here, begins by making the point about a lamp and a stand. The lamp itself is probably a metaphor for Jesus and his mission. A mission we too are given when we receive God’s forgiveness, invite him into our lives and our welcomed into his family. We, the church, join with others in receiving Jesus great commission to go and make disciples, to grow God’s kingdom.

We, followers of Jesus, are the lamp. Each of us, as little Christ’s, carry Him with us, in us and as we live like him reveal something of who he is – wherever we go and whoever God has placed around us. We shine as a light to the world. It’s probably a very well known analogy to us. We read this and we think about Jesus teaching about us being salt and light in the Sermon on the Mount.

What is God saying to us today through this? Well, I think it has something to do with living an authentic life of faith.

I recently saw a video clip of a Christian leader talking about evangelism – about how we share our faith and he started by asking this question. Do others know I’m a follower of Jesus? My family? Friends? Colleagues? Class mates? Does what I say, what I do point to the fact that I’m his disciple? Do they match up?

That’s a really tough question isn’t it? Because if truth be told, and maybe this is just me, we sometimes find ourselves holding back, hiding what it is that we believe, who that it is we are – when we are in certain situations, places or around certain people. We hide the light. I know I sometimes do! Jesus says this is not the way God wants us to have to live our lives – to live our life in boxes. To shrink back. God wants us to grow!

He wants us to grow. To grow in our relationship with Him. To grow in our confidence in who He is. To trust Him. To learn from Him. To be like Him. And being like Him means representing Him. Paul talks about it in these terms – we are Christ’s ambassadors, as if he were making his appeal directly through us.

Transformation with God is always from the inside out. He puts his Spirit in us and therefore we are changed. Look at the Pharisees and the lawyers that Jesus addresses later on in this passage whilst at a meal. What’s projected to the outside world does not match what’s happening in their hearts.

As we come to Jesus, and receive his forgiveness, and invite his Spirit into our lives each day we are changed, from the inside out. We are filled with him – the light of the world- and as we live for Him we reveal that light to a broken, hurting and dark world.

Hello, and welcome to the STC podcast. My name is Casey Strine, I’m a member of the STC staff, and I’m excited to be sharing a few of my reflections on the Gospel of Luke with you this week.

REFLECTION:

Today, we will look at Luke 11, verses 14-32, focusing on verses 27-28.

In this passage, Jesus first casts out a demon from a person who had been mute. Once the demon leaves their body, they can speak again. Some people see Jesus perform this act and believe he is the Son of God; others accuse him of being a trickster or some sort of magician. When the inevitable argument ensues, Jesus shuts it down by saying something that blows the minds of the audience. As a teacher, I wish that I could respond to a hard question with such an awe-inspiring tour de force just once in my life—hopefully while my lecture was being recorded. Anyhow…

Jesus’ response produces an exclamation of praise from the crowd. One woman cries out that Jesus’ mother is blessed for having brought Jesus into the world and having raised him to be the man that he is. It’s a very nice thing to say.

Jesus has no time for it. Indeed, he corrects the woman. The blessed, Jesus declares, are those who hear the word of God and obey it. That is hardly controversial. Still, why does Jesus feel the need to redirect attention from the very kind sentiment about his mother to this exclamation about attending to God’s message?

Luke’s Jesus has a singular focus for that which builds the kingdom of God. Luke’s Jesus actually runs the risk of being a bit gruff and annoying with this laser focus. On Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday we saw a number of people reminded by Jesus that their focus should be equally locked on what it takes to build the kingdom of God. Nothing else matters to Jesus—to the point that he is rather harsh in telling people so. Perhaps that is a good reminder for us.

I do want you to notice, however, the way that Jesus invites women into this task. Whereas most of the people that appear in chapters 9, 10, and 11 remain anonymous, the few characters that are identified are women. In our passage from Wednesday, we see that Mary and Martha feature prominently. They are the ones who speak to Jesus, hear from Jesus, care for Jesus, and receive the hard lesson Jesus wants to give.

After the Lord’s prayer in our passage yesterday, Jesus tells a story about a hypothetical parent asked for a fish or an egg by their child. The parent remains unidentified, but in the ancient world it is most likely this would be a mother. Jesus explains the way that God responds to our prayers by likening God to a mother.

Finally, in today’s passage, it is another woman who cries out to Jesus and provides the motivation for what he has to say. Yes, Jesus corrects her for expressing a misguided sentiment; still, it is a woman who engages Jesus, and to whom Jesus responds with a helpful lesson.

Luke reminds us time and time again in his Gospel that women play an important role in the kingdom. For all the talk of kings, priests, prophets, and teachers of the law in the New Testament, Jesus builds his kingdom through both women and men. Indeed, for Luke, it is the women who are the best models of what it means to follow Jesus faithfully.

Today, as we end this week, who is one woman in your life that offers you a model of how to follow Jesus? Pray for her. Pray that she would know the impact she has had on your life. Perhaps, go one better than that: tell her or send her a quick message to let her know of that impact. Encourage her by making it clear that she is teaching you how to build God’s kingdom on earth, just as Luke taught so many people in the first century how to follow Jesus through the women he describes to us.

READING: Luke 11:14-32

Jesus was driving out a demon that was mute. When the demon left, the man who had been mute spoke, and the crowd was amazed. But some of them said,

Hello, and welcome to the STC podcast. My name is Casey Strine, I’m a member of the STC staff, and I’m excited to be sharing a few of my reflections on the Gospel of Luke with you this week.

REFLECTION:

Today, we will look at Luke 11, verses 1-12, focusing on verses 1 to 4.

This passage begins with one of the disciples doing an odd thing that probably doesn’t seem odd to us at all. One of the disciples—Luke does not tell us who she or he is—asks Jesus to teach them how to pray. This seems like an obvious thing to do. I mean, who wouldn’t ask Jesus how to pray? And yet, it is one of the very rare times that the disciples ask Jesus to teach them something. Yes, of course, Jesus is almost always teaching them something. But it is what Jesus decides to teach them, not what the disciples ask for Jesus to teach them. This is different.

It tells us something about what Jesus’ disciples thought they needed to know. And it tells us why too—because John the Baptist had taught his disciples how to pray. This unknown disciple asks, at least in part, because she or he doesn’t want to be less informed than John’s disciples. Jesus obliges.

What ensues is perhaps the most well known set of words in the English language. For hundreds of years some form of this prayer has been part of Christian tradition and worship services. Even people who have hardly ever been to church can often recite it word for word from memory. The risk of that is we forget to think about what it actually means.

For one thing, there is its title: though we often call it the ‘Lord’s prayer’, many times it is called the ‘Our Father’. The latter title definitely obscures the main theme of the prayer; the former title can as well since we often forget to think about what we mean by Lord.

This is a prayer addressed to a king, dealing with a kingdom, placing the person praying it in the position of faithful servant of that king. Thus, it begins by addressing God as father, a term that would have had royal connotations in first century Judea. Yes, of course, father was also a term for one’s actual parent, but in this context it was clearly a way of speaking about a king.

If there is any doubt about that, it is dispelled by the second petition: your kingdom come. I’ve never said that to my biological father. And, unless Prince William or Prince Harry very randomly happens to be listening in today, none of you have ever said that to your biological father either. This makes it clear we are speaking about a royal dominion. That makes sense of why we ask God to make his will done on earth as it is in heaven. That’s what happened in an ancient kingdom where the King was really in control: everything worked according to the King’s command.

Next, we ask for our daily bread. That might sound like an odd thing to ask from a king, but it really isn’t. Essentially, we are asking for the King of the realm in which we live to feed us from the abundant goods of this kingdom. We’re being humble, so we just ask for bread. But, verse 13, the final one of the passage, indicates that we can trust God will give to us generously, providing more than we ask for in this prayer.

Then we ask for forgiveness of our sins. Why? We are asking this King to be merciful and gracious to us when we fail. As we saw on Monday, the call to follow Jesus comes with very, very high demands. Since we know we’ll fail to measure up on some occasions, we ask for grace in advance.

Likewise, we promise to show the same sort of mercy and grace when we are the ones impacted by the failures of others. Indeed, the logic of the passage is that we presume the King will only treat us this way if we are radically committed to treating other people in this way. It is a classic quid pro quo, but one that is ordained by God.

Finally, we ask for the King to protect us from situations that encourage us to fail in our responsibilities to the King.

Hello, and welcome to the STC podcast. My name is Casey Strine, I’m a member of the STC staff, and I’m excited to be sharing a few of my reflections on the Gospel of Luke with you this week.

REFLECTION:

Today, we will look at Luke 10, verses 25-42, focusing on verses 41-42.

This passage contains one of the most well known stories in the Bible: the parable of the Good Samaritan. Maybe I’m crazy, but I’m not going to talk about it. If you want to know what I think about that part of the passage, then I’d encourage you to listen to what I said about it two years ago during one of our Holy Week meditations.

Today, I want to talk about the story at the end of the passage where Jesus engages with Martha and Mary. This story is also familiar, so you might know it too. When Jesus arrives at the home of Martha and Mary, two of his disciples, they respond to his presence very differently. Martha makes herself very busy with all the tasks in the home that need to be done. We’re not told what they are, but given the presence of Jesus and a sizeable group of his followers who may not have eaten for a while, may need places to sleep that night, and probably a good deal of cleaning up after, we might have a guess at the size and shape of Martha’s task.

Mary, by contrast, ignores all this and sits at Jesus’ feet to listen to his teaching. Indeed, this choice not only makes Martha’s job larger, but infuriates her. Martha goes to Jesus—clearly the most influential person in the house—to point out the issue and ask for some help. One might conclude this makes a lot of sense, and that Martha has chosen the better course of action. Recall, this passage comes immediately after the parable of the Good Samaritan, a story in which the model person is the one who gives of his time, money, and effort to care for another person. That summary makes it sound like Martha is doing what Jesus has just commanded.

However, Jesus says exactly the opposite. He tells Martha that she is distracted and that there is only one thing of real value happening in that house at this moment: Jesus is teaching, and everyone—including Martha—should listen.

In this situation, where no one appears to be in serious need, Jesus explains that the most valuable thing on offer is his teaching. Luke is trying to tell us is that in each situation it is our call as followers of Christ Jesus to ask what is it that Jesus would have prioritised. It is not always easy to know, but it is what we are asked to do.

Sometimes the Christian life is described as being formed into the image of Christ Jesus. That is to say, God calls us to try to think, feel, and act like Jesus would so that we will carry on his ministry in this world. Retraining our mind, emotions, and bodies to follow Christ is the definition of Christian formation. Being more Christlike is, at its most basic level, teaching ourselves to be joyful about those things that make God joyful and heartbroken about those things that make God heartbroken.

In this situation, Jesus explains that it is the time spent with him, hearing his teaching, that will bring joy. Martha’s work, by contrast, causes her worry and produces relational tension.

Why does Luke put these two stories right next to one another when they seem in some way to contradict each other? I think that he wants us to see that the Christian life cannot be just acts of service for others, though those are essential to it. Likewise, the Christian life cannot be just listening to the teaching of God, though that is a crucial part of following Christ Jesus. Rather, the Christian life formed in the image of Jesus is one that includes both, attempting to keep them in balance.

What is God saying to you today about where your life could be more Christlike? What thing is God asking you to prioritize, perhaps against your natural instincts, in order to be more like Christ Jesus?