Scripture Focus: Luke 12.41-48
41 Peter asked, “Lord, are you telling this parable to us, or to everyone?” 
42 The Lord answered, “Who then is the faithful and wise manager, whom the master puts in charge of his servants to give them their food allowance at the proper time? 43 It will be good for that servant whom the master finds doing so when he returns. 44 Truly I tell you, he will put him in charge of all his possessions. 45 But suppose the servant says to himself, ‘My master is taking a long time in coming,’ and he then begins to beat the other servants, both men and women, and to eat and drink and get drunk. 46 The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he is not aware of. He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the unbelievers.

47 “The servant who knows the master’s will and does not get ready or does not do what the master wants will be beaten with many blows. 48 But the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows. From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked. 

Reflection: Friendly Neighborhood Christians
By John Tillman

In Spider-Man’s origin story, Peter’s uncle, Ben Parker, tells his super-powered nephew, “With great power comes great responsibility.” Versions of this idea floated around our culture for many years. Before Ben Parker, Churchill and both Roosevelts said similar things. There’s even a version in an early Superman film.

However, Stan Lee cemented “with great power” into our culture through Spider-Man comics of the 60s and 70s, and it became a defining theme for Peter Parker’s moral compass and the Marvel universe. Whether knowingly or unknowingly, the aphorism is a good paraphrase of Luke 12.48.

Ben Parker shared his wisdom with Peter at a moment of confusion in his life. Jesus shared his version with Peter, his often confused disciple. Peter was confused about the parable of watchfulness. Who was Jesus saying should be watchful?

Jesus answered by continuing the parable, starting with a question, “Who then is the faithful and wise manager…?” (Luke 12.42) Jesus says the faithful manager feeds the other servants and cares for them. This is echoed later when Jesus commands Peter to “Feed my sheep.” (John 21.17) By contrast, the wicked manager feeds himself to excess and abuses both men and women.

Many people love to costume themselves as heroes, but they have no humility and serve only their own interests. These fake heroes are wicked managers who demand loyalty and immunity rather than taking responsibility or submitting to accountability. In society and the church we have many leaders who dominate and abuse rather than serve and feed. Jesus warns, they will be harshly judged.

So, are these warnings just for powerful people? Just for the world? Just for the disciples? They are for “everyone who has been given much.” (Luke 12.48)

Jesus’ disciple Peter had little power or influence. Perhaps you feel the same. However, we have been “given much.” Neither Peter Parker nor Peter the disciple knew what was in store for them or what power was at work in them. Don’t forget what we’ve been given. 

We have the Holy Spirit of God within us, the gospel to take with us, God’s word to guide us, and a world in need before us. Don’t try to be a hero. Just be a faithful manager of what you have and where you are. You don’t need to be a “hero” influencer or leader. Don’t underestimate the power of being a “friendly neighborhood Christian.”

Divine Hours Prayer: A Reading
Jesus taught us, saying: “Beware of false prophets who come to you disguised as sheep but underneath are ravenous wolves. You will be able to tell them by their fruits. Can people pick grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles? In the same way, a sound tree produces good fruit but a rotten tree bad fruit. A sound tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor a rotten tree bear good fruit. Any tree that does not produce good fruit is cut down and thrown on the fire. I repeat, you will be able to tell them by their fruits.” — Matthew  7.15-20

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime by Phyllis Tickle.


​Today’s Readings
Zechariah 3 (Listen 1:48)
Luke 12 (Listen 7:42)

Read more about Christ, the True Hero
“With great power comes great responsibility” is a rephrase of Luke 12:48.
The deeper truth of Spider-man’s proverb is that the powerful are seldom responsible.

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Scripture Focus: Luke 11.5-8, 11-13
5 Then Jesus said to them, “Suppose you have a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; 6 a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have no food to offer him.’ 7 And suppose the one inside answers, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is already locked, and my children and I are in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything.’ 8 I tell you, even though he will not get up and give you the bread because of friendship, yet because of your shameless audacity he will surely get up and give you as much as you need. 

11 “Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? 12 Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion?  13 If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” 

Reflection: Reluctant and Evil Givers
By John Tillman

Jesus often highlights reluctant or evil givers when teaching about prayer. 

The unjust judge (Luke 18.1-8) doesn’t care about God or humanity. He is not motivated to establish justice or righteousness as we hope our judges would be. Instead, only the widow’s relentless pestering finally gets him to rule in her favor and, even then, only because he fears she will resort to violence.

Today’s passage gives the example of a friend and neighbor. The friend would presumably help his neighbor in normal circumstances, but the request is inconveniently timed. He and his family are already in bed. He’s tired. It’s late. He doesn’t even want to get out of bed, much less come to the door. And he certainly doesn’t want to rummage in the dark for the food his neighbor requests.

Jesus also theorized about an evil giver, a father who, instead of giving something good to his children, gives something awful. Jesus says that even though his listeners are evil, they still give good gifts to their beloved children. But the evil giver offers a snake instead of a fish or a scorpion instead of an egg. He gives harm instead of health or help.

Jesus acknowledges that our experience of the world includes evil and injustice. He knew very well, and so do we, that sometimes fathers, mothers, or authority figures give harmful things to those in their care. The evil giver in Jesus’ parable is theoretical. However, sexual and spiritual abuse survivors have directly experienced this kind of evil.

These negative examples provide contrast to God’s generous nature. God is not a reluctant giver, an evil giver, or one who gives only when it is convenient for himself. When we come to God in prayer, we come to a good father who rejoices to supply our needs and never rebuffs our requests.

When we wait or do not get what we ask for, we can shamelessly keep asking in faith, knowing that God has what is best for us in mind. To paraphrase Tim Keller, if we knew what God knows about what is best for us, that’s all we’d ever ask for. The Holy Spirit’s intercession makes up this gap on our behalf.

And when we suffer from evil in any form, Christ not only suffers with us but promises that all evil will be turned to serve a good purpose or utterly destroyed.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons
Then shall all the trees of the wood shout for joy before the Lord when he comes, when he comes to judge the earth. — Psalm 96.12

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime by Phyllis Tickle.


​Today’s Readings
Zechariah 2 (Listen 1:41)
Luke 11 (Listen 7:33)

Read more about Equally Skilled Hands
The good shepherd will defend his flock and put an end to evil, crushing sin like a snake underfoot.

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Scripture Focus: Luke 8.17-18
17 For there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be known or brought out into the open. 18 Therefore consider carefully how you listen. Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what they think they have will be taken from them.”

Reflection: The Unhidden Agenda
By John Tillman

I still remember the first time I saw the music video for Michael W. Smith’s “Secret Ambition” at a summer youth camp in Glorieta, New Mexico. A Christian music video? We were mesmerized. 

Our generation was still singing, “Video killed the radio star,” and now we saw a high-production-value video of Jesus being killed. The song emphasized that Jesus went to his death purposely and resolutely. It brought the dusty theological concept of the messianic secret to life in a slickly produced video. “Nobody knew his secret ambition was to give his life away.”

The messianic secret is the idea that Jesus kept his true identity and mission a secret from the wider public. This fulfilled prophecy, as Jesus points out in Luke 8.10, but it also made his mission possible. He had to be rejected, betrayed, and crucified. So he hid his teaching in parables and only allowed “those with ears” to hear. He scattered seed on hardened, stony, or thorny ground, knowing it would not survive or sprout.

The parable of seeds and soils can sometimes make us think one’s soil is their destiny and nothing can change it. We can become fatalistic and cynical and doubt the gospel’s power.

However, a related parable follows the parable of the seed and soils. After speaking about closed ears that cannot hear the truth and hardened hearts that cannot receive the seed, Jesus speaks about light and sight.

Christ’s secret ambition was to go to the cross, but now, his public command is to take the light of the gospel to all places. The messianic secret was never meant to stay secret. These hidden things are meant to be discovered, and these concealed things are meant to be revealed.

Jesus hid his victory in the suffering of the cross and his indestructible life in the shroud of the grave. For a time, Jesus was the light hidden in a clay-jar tomb. But now, like Gideon’s torches, the clay pot is shattered, and the light is revealed. (Judges 7.16-20) The cat is out of the bag, and he’s the Lion of Judah.  

What was once the messianic secret is now the unhidden agenda of the gospel. Now is the time when the light of Christ shines openly. Come to him while the light shines.

Lift up his light so that he may draw all humans to himself.

Divine Hours Prayer: A Reading
Jesus taught us, saying: “The lamp of the body is the eye. It follows that if your eye is clear, your whole body will be filled with light. But if your eye is diseased, your whole body will be darkness. If then, the light inside you is darkened, what darkness that will be! — Matthew 6.22-23

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime by Phyllis Tickle.


​Today’s Readings
Haggai 1 (Listen 2:39)
Luke 8 (Listen 8:09)

​This Weekend’s Readings
Haggai 2 (Listen 3:49), Luke 9 (Listen 8:05)
Zechariah 3 (Listen 3:37), Luke 7 (Listen 5:40)

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Read more about An Amazed Faith :: Worldwide Prayer
Help me, my Lord, to always carry in my body
Your death, so that your life may be revealed
In me daily…

Scripture Focus: Luke 7.6-8
2 There a centurion’s servant, whom his master valued highly, was sick and about to die. 3 The centurion heard of Jesus and sent some elders of the Jews to him, asking him to come and heal his servant. 4 When they came to Jesus, they pleaded earnestly with him, “This man deserves to have you do this, 5 because he loves our nation and has built our synagogue.” 6 So Jesus went with them. 
He was not far from the house when the centurion sent friends to say to him: “Lord, don’t trouble yourself, for I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. 7 That is why I did not even consider myself worthy to come to you. But say the word, and my servant will be healed. 8 For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” 
9 When Jesus heard this, he was amazed at him, and turning to the crowd following him, he said, “I tell you, I have not found such great faith even in Israel.” 10 Then the men who had been sent returned to the house and found the servant well. 

Reflection: Miracles for the Undeserving
By John Tillman

Deserving. Undeserving.
Faithful. Unfaithful.
Believing. Unbelieving.

These themes run through Capernaum and are especially highlighted in the story of the centurion and his servant.

The Jewish elders who came to Jesus said the centurion was “deserving” of a miracle. Why? Because he loved “their nation” and financially supported their place of worship. They liked him because he helped them. 

Who deserves a miracle? Good people? Benefactors? Public servants? Important people? People we like?

In short, no one. God owes no one miracles. The centurion doesn’t deserve a miracle for being “one of the good ones,” and the Jews don’t deserve one either. Miracles are acts of mercy, not spiritual reimbursements.

That doesn’t mean the centurion didn’t show good qualities. One of the centurion’s best qualities is that he recognized that he was undeserving. His humility shows in his sending servants to stop Jesus from coming to his home. His repentance shows in his acts of mercy and service to the town. His faith shows in his recognition that Jesus did not need to be present to act in mercy.

The amazing detail of this story is not that Jesus did the community a solid by paying off the nice guy who did nice things with a nice miracle. It is that the outcast Gentile, working for the Empire, representing a man who thought himself to be God, recognized that Jesus, not Caesar, was the ultimate authority. The centurion calls Jesus “Lord.” But the insiders, the Jews, the people worshiping the God who sent Jesus and called him “My beloved Son,” did not recognize Jesus’s authority. They rejected him as Lord.

Jesus did many miracles in Capernaum. However, Capernaum was not a place of great faith. Jesus would condemn the area for persisting in unbelief despite all the miracles he did there. (Matthew 11.23-24)

No one is deserving, yet Jesus does miracles for the undeserving. No one is completely faithful, yet Jesus is amazed at the faith that he finds on the earth. Those who should believe—who saw miracles—rejected faith. Those who have reasons not to believe—being the “wrong” race, party, or having the wrong job—are found among those who call Jesus “Lord.”

The gospel is the ultimate miracle. None of us deserve it, yet Jesus offers it to us. Call him Lord, and come under his authority.

Thank God that he does miracles for the undeserving.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons
Blessed are they who do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled. — Matthew 5.6

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime by Phyllis Tickle.


​Today’s Readings
Zephaniah 3 (Listen 3:38)
Luke 7 (Listen 7:14)

Read more about Josiahs Need Zephaniahs
The next generation needs us to model condemning our past sins, confessing them, and being free. Josiahs need Zephaniahs.

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