Hello Pilgrims of faith, those who travel the road toward God. Chapter 6 of Luke has a couple of words of encouragement for us on the pathway. Luke ch. 6 starts out with the disciples gathering wheat to chew on as they walk. The Old Testament was about sharing for the needs of those on the road, so it allowed for the taking of food, but only enough to consume then, not carry off for later. The disciples were allowed to do what they were doing. But for the Pharisees, who jumped all over them for doing this on a Sabbath day. But Jesus reminded them of when David needed food, he got the bread on the altar table for his friends. Knowing the Bible can be of big help when we get to a variety of situations that need resources for the deciding.
I'll continue to urge everyone to start or reconnect to a daily reading plan for Scripture. There are so many out there that can be very helpful. Type in Google search for a "one year Bible" and you will get pages of suggestions, you can pick your version of scripture, the kind of reading you want etc. In You Version app on my iPad, I've chosen to read a book at a time year Bible. So I read the whole book of the Bible a chapter at a time, with a Psalm of Proverb thrown in for variety and a prayer suggestion. I've just read through Genesis, Mark, and Exodus, and I'm now in the book of Acts. It's a good way to keep the story together in my mind and still know that I'll read the whole Bible through this year again.
Back to Luke ch. 6, Jesus finds a man with a withered hand in the synagogue on a Sabbath. The Pharisees circle around like vultures on a road side kill, waiting to see if Jesus will break the sacred Sabbath law. He challenges them to look at the poor man with a withered hand. "Is it right to do good or to do evil on the Sabbath?" "Should we ignore a person in pain, because it's the day of worship?" To not do good is like doing evil, don't you think? you could help but didn't, leaving the poor man in pain when you had the power to help. Jesus heals him.
Maybe we have withered parts of us that need God's touch and healing and going to worship should be the place were we can reconnect to God and be healed. God wants to heal us, rather than seeing us suffer still. Our withered part, could be an experience we carry around that should be forgiven, and yet it lingers on and poisons our future, because we can't forgive and let go. Maybe our withered part is unanswered prayers, we have begged God to do something for us or for a loved one and it hasn't happened yet. Maybe our withered part is a disappointment from an experience we had with others, or we didn't get the job we were hoping to get, or our children made choices we would not have wanted them to make. The loss can be overwhelming, the grief can be around for a long time. So we need to bring that to Jesus for healing. Sometimes the healing is in our attitude. The pain could be what shapes us into what God wants for us. Remembering that St. Paul prayed three times for the thorn in his flesh to go away and God answered no, because, Grace is better, and in your weakness, you depend on God's strength, which is so much better. Even if we don't think so at the moment. See another example of knowing the whole story, you can find help in any moment or any issue. (2 Corinthians 12:7-9)
On with the story, Jesus goes up to the mountain top to pray for his selection of disciples to become apostles. There are many disciples, students of Jesus and his teaching. Jesus is now ready to make some leaders and to be sent out when Jesus is finished with his earthly ministry. So he prays all night long and then chooses the twelve. We try to do the same thing in the life of our congregation and yours. Prayer is an absolutely essential component of who is selected to be a leader in the church. We ask God to be the one who can show us who that should be.
The helpful part of this moment is that Jesus chose Judas to be in that group. He chose one who he knew would betray him in the end. He demonstrated what he taught in the sermon he was about to give, to love your enemies, to turn the other cheek, to accept those who were not going to do you any favors. A lesson he was willing to share with us, in choosing Judas for his apostolic team. Prayer made it possible for him to get along with the betrayer. Prayer will help us to make it through difficult places too.
Come back later for the rest of the story. But hopefully as we read a chapter a week, we will discover we can get a lot of help for our pathway.
Blessings
Pastor Jeff
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