40 Days 2019

When he noticed how the guests chose the places of honor, he told them a parable. “When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, do not sit down at the place of honor, in case someone more distinguished than you has been invited by your host; and the host who...

Luke chapters 1-11 tell of the birth, baptism, and beginning of Jesus’ ministry on earth through Luke’s perspective. In reading these chapters, instead of focusing on one particular verse or chapter, I had questions that came from reading all these chapters. I...

And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. “Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? For if you lay the foundation and are not able to...

“But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your...

Certain that we are not enough just as we are, we contrive unhealthy strategies (that we dress up as justifiable, or socially acceptable). In efforts to make ourselves more acceptable, more secure, more likely to stay connected we construct fresh forms of confinement: competition and comparison, people pleasing, rules for inclusion and exclusion, perfectionism, or emotional extremism that renders us inflexible and calloused, or perennially fragile. When sucked into the primal fear of unbelonging—being left out, excluded, disowned—we become sick in every sense of the word.

Luke’s story of Jesus contains elegant prose and moving poetry. Many have noticed the parallelism between Jesus’ actions in the gospel and the apostles’ actions in Luke’s sequel, Acts. Echoes from the Hebrew scrolls reverberate around the halls and homes and paths...