2.2.25 Luke 6:1-11

2 February

Prepare

Heavenly Father,

As I come before you today, I lay down all my cares, worries and burdens before you, knowing and trusting that all things are in your hands. Lord, help me to take captive every anxious thought, releasing it into your loving care. 

Calm my mind, still my heart and show me how to rest in your presence. Teach me to be still, to listen and to find peace in knowing that you are in control. I place my trust in you.

Thank you for the gift of this day, which now lies open before me. Help me to use it well. 

And now, as I open your precious Word, send your Holy Spirit. Speak, help me to hear your still, small voice and help  to obey. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Read Luke 6:1-11

One Sabbath Jesus was going through the grainfields, and his disciples began to pick some heads of grain, rub them in their hands and eat the kernels. Some of the Pharisees asked, “Why are you doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?”

Jesus answered them, “Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? He entered the house of God, and taking the consecrated bread, he ate what is lawful only for priests to eat.

And he also gave some to his companions.” Then Jesus said to them, “The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”

On another Sabbath he went into the synagogue and was teaching, and a man was there whose right hand was shrivelled.

The Pharisees and the teachers of the law were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal on the Sabbath. But Jesus knew what they were thinking and said to the man with the shrivelled hand, “Get up and stand in front of everyone.” So he got up and stood there.

Then Jesus said to them, “I ask you, which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?”

He looked around at them all, and then said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He did so, and his hand was completely restored.

But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law were furious and began to discuss with one another what they might do to Jesus.

Reflection

Sometimes it can be quite hard to see the relevance of passages referring to the law, the rules and regulations which governed religious life through which the people of Israel sought to earn the favour of God.

It's obvious to us that the legalism of the Pharisees was stopping people being aware of need and responding in love.

Of course now, through the teaching of Jesus and the sacrifice he made on the cross, we know that eternal life is given to us through grace and cannot be earned. We also know that Jesus looks into our hearts as he calls as to love God and love our neighbour.

But are there times, I wonder, when we allow our full and busy lives, even our religious habits to stop us seeing the needs of others and responding?

There is a wonderful story about a training college for the ministry which gave a series of students precise time slots they were to deliver a sermon to an assessment panel in a chapel. They also hired an actor to dress as if he was homeless and to sit on a bench by the path to the chapel moaning in distress. Student after student, preoccupied with rehearsing their sermons as they hurried along, walked past him without noticing. Only one stopped to ask him if he was OK.

Evangelist J John also often recounts how, the day after coming to faith as a student, he noticed a homeless person as he walked to lectures. He asked the man how long he had been there? ‘Four months’ came the reply ‘and you have walked past me every day’.

If we allow him time and space, the Holy Spirit will reveal to us situations and people in need of our time, our love, our prayers and our action but we are only able to hear the Spirit and respond if we build sufficient margin and space into our lives, something which I know I constantly fail to do, and walk with Jesus through each day, asking Him to lead us and following his agenda rather than our own. 

Be

Let us be still before God and ask Him to bring to mind a person or group of people to whom He is calling us to minister or a situation in which

He is calling us to act, perhaps bringing reconciliation or working for a just outcome.

Lord, thank you. Show us now how to respond.

Become

And now let us ask God to help us to become more observant, and more available to Him. 

Do

We pray together - Lord, show us what changes we need to make to our lives, make us more sensitive to the promptings of your Holy Spirit, show us how to walk through each day in relationship with you and fill us with your mercy and compassion that we may be a blessing to others. Amen.

Practice

I suspect that many of us start each day by lifting up to God the problems, challenges, meetings and the like awaiting our attention – working through our agenda. Perhaps we need to start by asking Him for His agenda.

What is He is calling us to do? A friend of mine does this by sitting and praying just four words – ‘Lord, I am here.’ – and then sitting in silence before Him.