Tuesday 13 March 2007

Today we continue with parables in Luke's gospel. Remember this will not be a commentary - in fact, it may take a few days to move through any one parable.

Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus. "Teacher," he said, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?" He said to him, "What is written in the law? What do you read there?" (Luke 10:25-26)

Well we could start by questioning the lawyers motives in his testing of Jesus. Let's not. Rather, note that Jesus doesn't appear to question him either. Nor does Jesus give a lecture on what one must do. Here we are blessed again with the way Jesus honors others and takes the time to be engaged but also to engage. Too often it is easy to simply not listen and bite back or assume motives or allow ourselves to be threatened by questions...even if they are a bit testy. Jesus honors the lawyer by asking for his take on the question. What might Jesus and others in the room learn from this lawyer and what discussion might begin because of he asks such a basic question that most people would not ask because it is assumed that we should all know the answer. The lawyer is not simply asked for the rule...the measure...the law as it is written. The lawyer is asked to address himself to what the letter of the law says. "What do you read there?" Obviously he reads the words that he knows are printed on the scrolls. But...what do you read in those words on the scrolls...what life do you read...what relationships do you see...how is this about life and what is the life it contains?

Connection: Being patient with those who question and those who seem to be wondering about who we are and what we do and what we intend to do or why we do what we do may bring all of us into a deeper dialogue about the wideness of God's Reign and the people within it.

Lord God, by your law you direct us into new life. By your gracious rule you hand us life and invite us to enter it. Then in the midst of the direction you place before us, you give us the freedom to listen and wonder and review and reconsider...and then you wait with us as we take our steps out into our lives. Your grace is our foundation upon which we often stumble and fall and yet it is there to cushion our fall and lift us up again into your embrace. Amen.