Luke 12:22-34

Instead, seek His kingdom, and these things will be added to you. (v. 22a) I kept thinking yesterday about our reading from Matthew and our “needs” – food, drink, clothing, shelter. In both yesterday’s and today’s readings Jesus is telling us, “…do not be anxious…”. That one word, “anxious” appeared six times in yesterday’s reading and three times today. I think “anxious” is the first half of Jesus’ teaching, but God’s kingdom is the main focus! A couple of days ago Bruce commented on the “woes” passage: “I’m taking these verses to mean the condition of our hearts… centered on Jesus, His teaching, His love.” That’s also wisdom for today’s reading about anxiety and our needs. Check the “condition of our hearts” – focus on the kingdom of God and not our needs. Work to satisfy those needs, but “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you…”! [Brief musical interlude…!] Especially in today’s world, as Archbishop Beach reminds us over and over, “Do not worry!”

See also: March 15 / Luke 12:22-34

Matthew 6:16-34

We’re not to worry about food, drink, clothing? In today’s world? What about the hundreds of thousands of homeless people in our cities? (Jesus mentions “housing” elsewhere: Foxes have dens, and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.) (Mt. 8:20) We have poor in our own country who have to decide between paying rent or buying food or filling prescriptions. What is Jesus’ answer for them today? I know His answer – His answer is “us”. We take care of them. But how? We have homeless shelters, food banks, soup kitchens, government programs. But look at what COVID has done to millions of families!! We’ve already spent $4 trillion on a number of federal programs to meet these needs and President Biden is asking for $2 trillion more. We’ve let the government supplant the churches in taking care of society’s needs. How did that happen? Did the church abdicate its responsibility? What to do? What is Jesus’ answer for today?

See also: March 12 / Matt. 6:16-24; March 13 / Matt. 6:25-34

Matthew 6:1-15 and Luke 11:1-4

Two years ago I did a small contrast between Matthew’s and Luke’s “Our Father” prayer (see the second link below). One item that I didn’t mention – maybe that I didn’t notice – was that Matthew includes an additional “request” sentence that Luke completely leaves out: …Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. (Mt. 6:10b) And it’s a prayer that we pray so often – “Lord, your will be done.” And it was Jesus’ prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane, …not My will but Yours be done. (Mt. 26:39, Mark 14:36, Luke 22:42). Thinking further about that “request” prayer. We tend to pray that prayer for both “yes” and “no” outcomes to our own prayers. That is, both Democratic and Republican Christians were praying that prayer in the last presidential election: “Lord we pray that Biden will win, but Your will be done”, “Lord we pray that Trump holds on, but Your will be done.” And we mean it, no matter the outcome. After the 2016 election result Democrats were praying, “Ah well, God is in control.” Then in 2020 Republicans were praying the same prayer. Maybe we should just forget our own wishes and begin our “need” prayers with “Your will be done…”.

Reward. That word is mentioned five times in Matthew’s first six verses today. Three of those passages refer to rewards from the Father: “…no reward…” in verse 1 and “…your Father Who sees in secret will reward you.” in verses 4 and 6. The other two references are to earthly rewards, reflected as praise and recognition by others. The NASB translation adds a strong emphasis that the ESV lacks: …they will be praised by people … < and > they have their reward in full. (vv. 2b, 5b) My Study Bible notes, “The honor they receive from people is all the reward they get.” That’s a strong statement – that’s all we get…!!

See also: March 11 / Matt. 6:1-15; March 14 / Luke 11:1-4

Luke 6:20-36

But woe to you who are rich, … But woe to you who are full now, … But woe to you who laugh now, … But woe to you when all people speak well of you… (vv. 24-26) I always cringe a bit when I read these verses; Carol and I are (relatively) rich, well-fed, happy, with hundreds of friends. Is Jesus speaking directly to us? What is His message to us? He told the “rich, young ruler” to Go and sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow Me. (Mark 10:21) Neither of us feels that “calling”. So what is Jesus saying to us?

See also: March 10 / Luke 6:20-36

Matthew 5:27-48

Today’s 22 verses were covered in three sections two years ago. Comments linked below for all three…

Words for today: But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you… (v. 44) Not since the Civil War has our nation seen such a split in our citizenry. We see it in our politicians, where the Senate is split 50-50 and the House majority party has a minimal edge. Lawmakers on both sides espouse bipartisanship, until it comes down to modifying “my” demand and compromising or conceding to the other side. But the problem is not only at the top – our population is also split between conservatives and liberals/progressives. We had some harsh words in a few Men’s Group discussions before we decided to silence our political leanings.

But frankly there is something different about our congregation. I could not tell you of the political leanings of 90% of the members of our congregation. Only a few make themselves known – and often this the result of bumper stickers on their vehicles. Yet even when there is known disagreement among us, I feel that we love each other and that we can “agree to disagree”. Jesus tells us to pray for our enemies. If only we would…!

See also: March 7 / Matt. 5:27-32; March 8 / Matt. 5:33-42; March 9 / Matt. 5:43-48

Matthew 5:1-26

Today’s 26 verses were covered in three sections two years ago. Comments linked below for all three…

We often refer to Jesus contrasting the “letter of the law” with the “spirit of the law”: You have heard that it was said…, but I say to you…” (vv. 21a, 22a). And we do it ourselves, trying to see if we are interpreting a “law” correctly. The speed limit is 70 and I typically set my cruise-control somewhere between 75 and 79. I’m not interpreting the law differently here – I’m purely breaking the law! But I live with myself. But this “letter vs. spirit” rings loud today when current and former members of our Supreme Court want to hold fast to the exact words that our forefathers wrote in our Constitution. They are looking at the “letter of the law” as put forth in the late 18^th century and amended numerous times thereafter. I tend to disagree with those justices quite regularly, wondering if that “letter” passed more than two centuries ago applies in the same form today. I’m in over my head, but it is intriguing to me that the letter of the law vs. the spirit of the law is an issue unchanged from two millennia ago.

You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. (v. 14) This verse, especially the second half always strikes Carol and me, as we recall travels around Europe where castles are always perched at the top of a hill, making for a more sound defense against attack. But in central Italy we saw this verse even more striking, where entire (small) cities were high on a mound above the flat countryside below. The most prominent landmarks were the church steeple and the protective wall built around the city. These cities could not be hidden; they could be seen from miles away!!

I was struck by Jesus’ three-fold comments regarding “You shall not murder”: But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother…; whoever insults his brother…; and whoever says, ‘You fool’… (v. 22) Jesus does not leave a lot of room for me to deny breaking that commandment!

See also: March 4 / Matt. 5:1-12; March 5 / Matt. 5:13-20; March 6 / Matt. 5:21-26

Matthew 12:15-21, Mark 3:7-19, and Luke 6:12-19

Alphaeus. As Jesus chose His apostles, …He appointed the twelve…, and James the son of Alphaeus… (Mark 3:16, 18a; Luke 6:13,15a). I thought I recognized that name. Sure enough, in Mark’s previous chapter: And as he passed by, he saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, “Follow me.” (Mark 2:14) So we have both Levi and James (the Lesser) as sons of Alphaeus. Could they be brothers? Mark seems to be following his story chronologically, so mentions of “the son of Alphaeus” in consecutive chapters is surely strange! Yet another oddity on Alphaeus is that a number of Biblical scholars claim that Alphaeus and Clopas (whose wife was at the foot of the cross; compare Matthew 27:55-56 and Mark 15:40 with John 19:16) and Cleopus (whom Jesus met on the road to Emmaeus) are all one and the same Alphaeus. This discussion may be somewhat trivial, but the more we read and study Scripture, the more we make these interconnections!

See also: March 1 / Matthew 12:15-22; March 2 / Mark 3:7-19; March 3 / Luke 6:12-19

Matthew 12:1-14, Mark 2:23-3:6, Luke 6:1-11

Today, more verses (37) than our average 20-25, especially following on last week’s all in the teens. Three accounts of Jesus and the Sabbath on three days in 2019…

He said to them, “Which one of you who has a sheep, if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not take hold of it and lift it out? (Matthew 12:11) Matthew is the only writer who has Jesus asking that question in the context of this healing of the man with a withered hand. I was surprised to read here about a sheep falling into a pit. I have more often remembered a similar verse from Luke in the context of Jesus and a different healing on the Sabbath, And He said to them, “Which of you, having a son or an ox that has fallen into a well on a Sabbath day, will not immediately pull him out?” (14:5) John is the gospel where Jesus is the Good Shepherd; I was surprised to find this “sheep” item in Matthew.

And He said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.” (Mark 2:27-28) Again, one distinct item that appears in Mark but not in the other gospels. In fact, I could not find Jesus making this statement anywhere else. We talked a lot about “sabbath rest” last year when we were reading Hebrews. I find great joy in Jesus reminding us that He has given us this one day a week for rest – The Sabbath was made for man – and that we should take that rest. There are so many people today who are forced to work on Sunday, like medical people and first responders. However, our society has changed so drastically over the past many years that Sunday is like any other day. Sunday is probably a bigger shopping day at Kroger than any other day of the week except maybe Saturday. And other places are open too: restaurants and bars, museums and zoos, etc. Thank God for places like Chick-Fil-A, even though I’d love to get one of their sandwiches after church on Sunday…!!

See also: February 26 / Matthew 12:1-14; February 27 / Mark 2:23-3:6; February 28 / Luke 6:1-11

Matthew 9:14-17, Mark 2:18-22, and Luke 5:33-39

Another day with three short readings, parallel accounts of the “fasting” issue from each of the three Synoptic gospels. And again, as with yesterday, in our readings two years ago each of these Synoptic gospels covered three events together in one or two readings. We did not make the parallel “compare and contrast” readings like we are doing this year. In my own comments on these readings two years ago, I did not comment on this “fastings” issue that we discuss today, so no link below.

Each of the gospels has a different group asking Jesus the “fasting” question. In Matthew John’s disciples pose the question; in Mark it’s “the people” (who had observed John’s and the Pharisees’ disciples fasting); and Luke reports that “they” asked the question, with the Pharisees and scribes as the antecedent before the pronoun. But no matter who asked the question, I wonder if the real issue was some measure of jealousy over Jesus’ disciples “living the good life” while John’s and the Pharisees’ disciples were depriving themselves and living with a greater measure of self-denial. If so, their “jealousy” would defeat the whole purpose of fasting which should be focused on repentance, self-denial, prayer – activities in which one engages as he/she wants to grow closer to God. Ironic…!

And no one after drinking old wine desires new, for he says, ‘The old is good.‘ (Luke 5:39) (Only Luke makes this statement.) Jesus is making a true statement here, that people prefer old wine to new. However, my sense is that Jesus is extending that statement to reflect His new teaching compared to the old teachings of the Pharisees and scribes. There is naturally resistance by both the Jewish leaders and their followers to the change that Jesus is demanding. But aren’t we the same? We choose a church that suits our preferences, our needs. Then as our church grows, people come, people go, the church changes. For the most part we change with it, but occasionally those changes are more dramatic and we move on to where we believe we’ll find “greener pastures”. We saw this happen at St. Andrew’s when we went to the one unified service and saw a number of departures. Now we’re moving forward with David’s resignation and searching for a new rector. How will St. Andrew’s people handle this change? We need to pray for what lies ahead for us.