Knowing The Word in Luke

Advent: New Year, New Gospel

The Season of Advent begins a new year in the Church calendar. In our lectionary—a three-year list of scheduled readings—the Gospel for this year is Luke. This week we switch our weekday devotional emails from The Psalms to Luke. Luke was an evangelist concerned with leading people to faith in Jesus based on a reliable record of historical facts, facts he collected for his Gospel and for the Book of Acts. In them he expresses the thought that God is working out his purposes in Jesus and the believers who follow him.

This Advent, I want to suggest we all turn our eyes upon Jesus. He says, “Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.” Let us listen to Jesus’ voice and read Scripture and pray to the Lord, asking him what we should be doing in our own lives to be more Christlike. We can turn to Jesus the King and listen to his voice.

During this last week in prayer and reading I heard Jesus speaking to me in Luke’s Gospel: “Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take out the speck that is in your eye,’ when you yourself do not see the log that is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother’s eye.”

Jesus died on the cross for each of us hypocritical sinners because his sacrificial love is also unconditional. None of us deserves the benefits of the cross, but we all receive them by grace. Now is a good season, as we prepare for Christmas, for us to focus on sacrificial love and building one another up, knowing that Jesus is always in the midst of us. And when we love one another and build each other up, we honor him.

I will begin including readings from Luke on Thursday. The next two days will include introductory material to his Gospel.

Prayer:

Gracious Father, we pray for thy holy Catholic Church. Fill it

with all truth, in all truth with all peace. Where it is corrupt,

purify it; where it is in error, direct it; where in any thing it is

amiss, reform it. Where it is right, strengthen it; where it is in

want, provide for it; where it is divided, reunite it; for the sake

of Jesus Christ thy Son our Savior. Amen. (BCP)