July 25

July 25--Luke 18

If we try to read the Bible as if it is an assignment we risk rushing the Holy Spirit as it tries to speak to us. The 18th chapter of Luke's gospel could be studied for a full week and its depths still would not be fully plumbed. Having said that, I encourage you to read the chapter with a prayerful spirit, asking God to speak to you that which you need to hear.

Luke 18 begins with lessons on prayer. So often this passage is misunderstood and God is misrepresented. It is easy to read the first eight verses and come away with the belief that we need to be persistent in order to get God's attention. That is not, though, what the text is about. It is not a allegory but a parable. In telling the parable Jesus is using something called a "study in contrasts." He reveals this in verses 7 and 8. Unlike the widow who does not have a relationship with the unjust judge, we have arelationship with God through Christ. Unlike the unjust judge who cares for no one, God is a God of perfect love, and as I John reminds us, perfect love casts out fear. God loves us. God wants to be in a relationship with us. The study in contrast is this--if an unjust judge who cares for no one can be persuaded to do the right thing, how much more willing is God who loves you? In other words, we never need to doubt that God hears our prayers and is responsive to us. (Of course, just because God hears and is responsive does NOT mean that God can be our cosmic "Santa Claus"--but that is a different lesson.)

The second lesson on prayer reminds us that, in the words of those great theologians the Berenstain Bears, we aren't "such a much." In other words, we ought to leave the judging to God. Prayer is an act of humility. God does not "grade on the curve." The error of the Pharisee (the one that Jesus' listeners would called "religious" and "truly pious") was that he couldn't see his own "sin"--the log in his own eye--because he was so focused on the speck in the eye of "the tax collector." In prayer we invite God to help us in self-examination, to acknowledge that we are spiritually broken and in need to healing. As we are reminded in II Corinthians, God's strength is made perfect in our weakness. The more that we can empty ourselves of pride, the more room there is for God in our lives.