Luke 14- Personal Difficulty

"If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters - yes, even his own life - he cannot be my disciple. Anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple." - Jesus

"The Christian faith has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried." - G. K. Chesterton

"It's never easy." - Will Williams (You probably don't know him, he taught graphic arts at good ol' LLHS.)

So, what about this:

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." - Jesus (Again) (This time from Matthew 11:28-30)

So, how do things go from difficult to easy? Where is that transition? When we carry our own burdens: our family and friends and even our selves, life is hard. But, we get used to this hardship and when we are faced with putting it down it becomes even harder. How can I possibly stop worrying about my parents? I've always taken care of my wife and kids!?! If I don't look out for number 1, who will? Putting down these burdens is hard. We want control and the power that comes with it. It is hard to get, hard to keep and hardest to put down.

This is where the light and easy comes in. When we finally put these things down and give them to Jesus things become easy... until we are tempted to take them up again and need to put them down again. It is a daily cycle that we all wrestle with: pick it up, put it down, pick it up, put it down, pick it up, put it down. In this spiritual weight-lifting, we get stronger the longer the weight lies on the floor.

Luke 14 - On Food and Guests

Jesus goes into several discourses about food, banquets and guests. First, he talks about where you should sit if you are invited - humble yourself or you will be humbled by someone else. Second, he talks about who you should invite - those who can't pay you back. (And here I am, just after sending out my wedding invitations that included instructions on how people can pay us back. Don't forget the Ikea gift card option!) Third, he says the people who were invited won't show up anyway, so the people who get to enjoy the feast in the end are the crippled, blind and lame.

My question is, how strongly is the banquet metaphor tied to the Kingdom of God?

It seems very nice to simply equate the banquet invitation with the sharing of the gospel. Then, I'm perfectly okay inviting only friends and relatives to my wedding, as long as I'm sharing the gospel with those who can't pay me back. Sharing the gospel doesn't financially cost me anything, but inviting strangers to my wedding does.

The same rings true for choosing where to sit. If I'm talking about the kingdom and I'm going to be in the presence of Moses and Elijah and David of course I'm going to take the crappy seat in the corner - that's obviously where I belong. But, if that means day-to-day life I've got some thinking to do. We don't often fight over the best seats at dinner (at least not in my house), so what are the modern equivalents? The people we hang out with? The people we share with? The things we buy? The things we piously refrain from buying and let everyone know we refrained from buying? The people we help? The people we tell about the people we help?

All of these?

Luke 13 - Blatant Disregard

The Pharisees come to Jesus and warn him that Herod is out to kill
him. Jesus simply shrugs off the threat and says he has work to do.
When I read this and see the boldness and certainty it fills me with
courage that slowly turns to doubt.

It emboldens me in my current choices and situation. But over time my
selfishness and greedy desires start to creep in. I think about the
things I have given up and wish for them back. My boldness fades and
the seeds of doubt creep in.

That's why I also need to read about Jesus' time of struggle in the
garden. I'm not alone in my struggle. Jesus has been here too.

Luke 13 - Second Chances

"For three years now I've been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven't found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?"

"'Sir,' the man replied, 'leave it alone for one more year, and I'll dig around it and fertilize it. If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.'"

How many chances have we been given to produce fruit?

Three years worth?

One more year?

How much soil have we used up?

How much do we deserve?

How much do we receive?

Luke 11 - Scary

"Woe to you experts in the law, because you have taken away the key to knowledge. You yourselves have not entered, and you have hindered those who were entering."

The scary part is when you consider that these guys didn't know they were doing this. They thought they were right, just like Saul before Jesus called him out. We sometimes meet people and they are so sure they have the "key to knowledge" that we think they must. The truth is they can be completely wrong. Certainty does not equal correctness.

Luke 11 - Scruples

"Woe to you Pharisees, because you give a tenth of your mint, rue and all other kinds of garden herbs, but you neglect justice and the love of God. You should have practiced the latter without leaving the former undone."

Are we just checking off a list or really bringing about God's kingdom?

Luke 11 - P.R.A.Y?

Maybe you've heard or read or practiced the P.R.A.Y. model of prayer. If not, it is a model that gives some guidelines on how to talk to God. It goes like this:

P - Praise. Tell God how great he is.

R - Repent. Admit the stuff you've done wrong to God and turn from it.

A - Ask. Let God know what you want for yourself and others.

Y - Yield. Relax, be quite and listen for God's response to your prayer.

If we look at this model in relation to Jesus example of prayer in Luke 11:2-4, what do we find?

P - "Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come"

R - "Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us"

A - "Give us each day our daily bread." "And lead us not into temptation"

Y - ?

Okay, How about Matthew 6:9-13?

P - "Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven."

R - "Forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors."

A - "Give us today our daily bread." "And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one."

Y - ?

I'm not seeing Y as modeled specifically in prayer.

Have we added Y to prayer as an expedient to making this more like a conversation?

Do any of you practice this model regularly and if so, how does the Y part go for you?

Have we added Y to prayer because it is easier to do it there than in the rest of our lives?

Personally, I've never had an experience where I've prayed and heard God speak (or move or influence or prod) specifically when I yielded. Instead, His voice has reached me when I've yielded in other parts of my life.

So, I'm yielding now (Not to God, but to you) so I want to hear your voice. What do you think about this?