5 February 2026 - when nothing is more than something

Today's Readings
(Audio) 

He instructed them to take nothing for the journey but a walking stick
–no food, no sack, no money in their belts.

The command of Jesus helped them to internalize the fact that this was not ultimately their project, but his. They weren't directed to use of such authority as they themselves had as individuals, but rather to rely on the authority they received from Jesus himself. Could this authority have still been operative with stick, food, sack, and money in tow? Clearly it could have. But it would have been much easier for them to fall into their own methods of planning and problem solving, as though those faculties were decisive in whether or not they could achieve success. But they were not merely political activists canvasing the nearby towns with persuasive rhetoric. They were representatives of the kingdom of God, pushing back the darkness, taking the world back from the unclean spirits to which it was in bondage.

We may be more or less willing to make due without certain comforts when we have no choice. But how ready are we to willingly give them up when, strictly speaking, we don't have to do so? Are will able to choose to set aside our comfort for the sake of seeing the kingdom advance, to open ourselves more to the power and authority of Jesus at work within us? To which we say, why not both/and? Why not comfort and commission, pleasure and purpose? Why not keep our food, sack, money, and walking sticks unless there is a situation where we are forced to do without them, rather than giving them up willingly? But we probably know ourselves well enough to recognize that we are so susceptible to addiction to comfort and pleasure that without a rather formal and rigorous act of the will at the beginning we won't have the freedom to choose the kingdom over comfort when we are put to the test. We should remember that when we are asked to give things up it is not usually because the things in themselves are bad. It is rather so that we may attain to a greater degree of freedom.

Everything we insist on bringing with us on our journey comes with the cost of maintaining it, whether that is financial, social, or merely emotional. The more we are free to do without the things that the world considers to be required the less those things will be able to steal our joy. What facets of our lives have we made into requirements that we could in fact do without? What security or comfort do we insist on providing for ourselves rather than trusting in the Lord to take care of us? Is there some kind of simulation or training exercise we could undertake, as did the disciples in today's Gospel, in which we could practice choosing the kingdom first and relying on God to a greater degree?

Whatever place does not welcome you or listen to you,
leave there and shake the dust off your feet
in testimony against them.

We may insist that we aren't really that addicted to comfort or pleasure. But say what we will about those, one thing we undeniably have trouble doing without is the affirmation of others. If we think about it, we realize Jesus could have always and only sent his disciples to situations where they could be successful. But that wasn't his plan. His mission for them included the eventuality that they would face rejection. Not only did this completely frustrate their human need to control the situation, it also did not supply most of the reward that such a journey could offer on the human level. But there was still a reward to be had. The Father who sees in secret would repay them for the faithfulness to his Son. And yet the rewards of the kingdom are only available for those who are not overfull of the rewards of the world. The sweetness of the kingdom is only desirable to those whose palates haven't been ruined by the things of earth. But Jesus helps us learn to desire his rewards, and retrains our taste to appreciate the good things he offers. At least, he is willing to do so. Let us then learn to cooperate with this plan of his, if not immediately and all at once, at least with ever growing maturity.

 

Shane And Shane - Psalm 34 (Taste And See)

 

4 February 2026 - homecourt disadvantage

Today's Readings
(Audio) 

 King David said to Joab and the leaders of the army who were with him,
“Tour all the tribes in Israel from Dan to Beer-sheba
and register the people, that I may know their number.”

David sinned because this census revealed a lack or decrease in his trust in God, and a desire to ensure that he had power comparable to that of other nations. In this sense a census was only useful as a comparative metric of power of a human and military sort. 

Is he not the carpenter, the son of Mary,
and the brother of James and Joseph and Judas and Simon? 

The neighbors and relatives of Jesus thought that he was too much like them, too normal, in other words, to substantiate the astonishing way with which he taught. David was not content with Israel as it was and those in Nazareth where not content with Jesus as he was. They both desired some extraordinary measure of the proof of the power in which they were asked to believe. Had David been humble enough to trust in the Lord, even though the power of the surrounding nations seemed intimidating, he might have avoided a plague that decimated "seventy thousand of the people". Had those in Nazareth been sufficiently humble before Jesus they might have recognized that there was more to him than meets the eye. Instead, they assumed that Jesus was on the same level as all of them, because to all appearances he seemed to be. And they took offense that anyone on their level would apparently presume greatness in the way that he did. If he was so great, they might have thought, he ought to have been more obviously distinct, his greatness more readily distinguishable. He ought to have been obviously out of their league rather than, apparently, one who was an equal footing with them.

Jesus said to them,
“A prophet is not without honor except in his native place
and among his own kin and in his own house.” 

God, however, did not work through typical or recognizable structures of human power. He did not need vast numbers to ensure military victory. He could work through David precisely when David was at his best, humble, trusting, and faithful, when he might have, to others, appeared weak. And he could work through Jesus because and not in spite of his humility. It was his willingness to forgo that glory that was rightly his that allowed him to come close enough to help us (see Philippians 2:1-11). But that humility was a liability when it came to his recognition by those who were proud. This hiddenness of the activity of God required faith to recognize, and sufficient humility to open oneself to that faith. One needed humility before the idea of the possibility of something greater than oneself, greater than the normal terms of worldly greatness, even while that something appeared too weak to accomplish anything. Because, to those with faith, that weakness availed much:

So he was not able to perform any mighty deed there,
apart from curing a few sick people by laying his hands on them.

Phil Wickham - House Of The Lord

 

3 February 2026 - too late?

Today's Readings
(Audio) 

"My son Absalom! My son, my son Absalom!
If only I had died instead of you,
Absalom, my son, my son!"

The world seemed to be broken in ways that could never be fully redeemed. Struggle, even among family members like David and Absalom, was a reality that did not seem likely to somehow conduce to some greater good. Then the finality of death seemed to negate all remaining possibilities of deriving some good from all of the evil. By the time the messiah arrived on the seen it seemed like it was probably too late for the world. How could he, even he, possibly make good on all the suffering, sin, and death, that marked human history?

My daughter is at the point of death.
Please, come lay your hands on her
that she may get well and live.

The implication from Jairus that if Jesus didn't come soon it would be too late. There were some things in this world that could be overcome.  Sometimes sickness could be cured, or disability healed. But death, it was thought, had an absolute finality that could not be challenged. Jairus's hope was that Jesus would come to save his daughter before she died. In his mind every minute, every second counted. 

Jesus, aware at once that power had gone out from him,
turned around in the crowd and asked, "Who has touched my clothes?"

Jesus, however, was not flustered by the apparent time constraints placed on him by others. It wasn't that had wanted to see Jairus squirm, so much as it was that he wanted him to witness something greater and so understand something deeper and more life changing. With him, there was no such thing as too late. With him, there was no problem so permanent that he could not resolve it. 

The lady with the flow of blood had been afflicted for twelve years and no doctor could help her. This too seemed like an unsolvable problem. But one faith filled touch of the hem of Jesus's garment and she was healed. 

The threshold of 'too late' is when we think we have to give up because there is nothing that can be done. We think a disease, or death, or some other problem is permanent. Seeing something for so long in one condition, like the many dead who don't arise, or a lengthy illness spanning the course of many years, makes us think that it will always be in that condition. We believe that if it were a fixable problem it would have already been fixed. We are suspicious of a God that doesn't give us what we want when we want it. But Jesus constantly reveals that his timing is better than our own. It's difficult to quantify in a utilitarian calculus. It's easy to argue that it would have been better for the little girl not to die in the first place. But then that household could not have learned of the power of the resurrection. So too could God have sent someone to heal the woman sooner. But then she would not have had the opportunity to have her faith in Jesus confirmed. The suspicious part of us wonders if these are really greater goods than a life of uninterrupted comfort. And, we confess, we'd probably choose comfort given the choice. But at the same time we suspect that the faith that resulted from the timing of Jesus was more than worth it for the people involved. There is a mystery, yes. But there is no denying the way these individuals were changed.

Ike Ndolo -  Awake, O Sleeper

 

2 February 2026 - presentation accounted for

 

Today's Readings
(Audio) 

But who will endure the day of his coming?
And who can stand when he appears?

Who indeed was able to endure the day of the coming of the Lord to his temple? He came in the form of a helpless child born to parents so poor that they could not bring the standard offering of a lamb and a pigeon or turtledove, though perhaps in some fashion, he himself was the lamb that they offered. Only people who had prepared their hearts were able to stand when he appeared. Others missed the significance of the moment entirely.

This man was righteous and devout,
awaiting the consolation of Israel,
and the Holy Spirit was upon him.

Simeon not only knew about the promises of God. He desired them. Many others were vaguely aware that some messenger of the covenant was coming, perhaps even soon. But it did not make them particularly more attentive to the small and almost hidden way in which it happened. Simeon seemed to not only have learned about it but to have allowed the Holy Spirit to reveal it to him personally. Thus, what others expected only generically, happening out there somewhere else, Simeon anticipated personally. Yes, he was righteous and devout. But those factors alone weren't the whole story about why he recognized the coming of the Lord, or, in particular, why he found such fulfillment when it happened. It was because the Holy Spirit was upon him in such a way that what others experienced as mere factual historical data became deeply personal to him. The Holy Spirit can make the same difference for us when we study revelation, especially the Scriptures. The righteousness of Simeon was not rigid, nor his devotion merely performance. Rather, both represented his openness to the work of the Spirit within him. 

Because Simeon responded to the Spirit what the Psalmist wrote was true for him: "Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart" (see Psalm 37:4). We can see that this is very much what happened when we read Simeon say, "Now, Master, you may let your servant go in peace, according to your word". We respond to verses like this pious assent of our intellects. But can we actually imagine it being true, imagine someone desiring the Lord so much that just to see him was enough to fulfill the entire purpose of his life? But that is what happened. And Simeon was not unique. There were others like Anna, who, after seeing Jesus, "gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were awaiting the redemption of Jerusalem". She was so moved by his coming that she couldn't help but speak of him. 

Perhaps a part of the message of the Feast of the Presentation is that we too should look to the Lord to find our joy, that we should delight ourselves in him, and that his Spirit really can cause or hearts to correspond to him to the degree that we find in him the fulfillment of our deepest desires, completely and forever.

Newsboys - Joy

 

 

 

1 February 2026 - blessed assurance

Today's Readings
(Audio) 

Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

The beatitudes are obviously counterintuitive from a worldly perspective. Generally, if asked how to obtain kingdoms, comfort, land, or other rewards, we would guess that the easiest way would be through power and wealth. How might we receive mercy? Perhaps through emotional appeal or even deception. How might we see the vision of God? Perhaps through some exclusive calling, since Moses at least was allowed to see God's back, or through pursuing the secret knowledge of the Gnostics. How might we be regarded as children of God? Such a designation was typically reserved for kings and emperors. Normally persecution would be a hindrance to receiving a kingdom. But here it is part of the process according to the expected program. In this beginning of his Sermon on the Mount Jesus upends all of our intuitions about how to attain blessedness.

The beatitudes are counterintuitive for another reason as well. For disciples who have been formed in the Gospel of grace, and trained to recognize anything that reeks of Pelagian achievement through our effort, this program of Jesus for how to attain fulfillment at first seems a little too closely tied to the formula of first doing one thing to attain a result, as though we earned it. Where in this program is there room for God's grace? Yet perhaps it is there, beneath the surface, as an assumed prerequisite. One beatitude should suffice as an example. 

Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.

This is reminiscent of the Our Father in which we pray to be forgiven because we forgive. But if we look at this in the larger context of the Gospel of Matthew we will also encounter the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant (see Matthew 18:21-35). In it, the servant did not earn the forgiveness of the master. It was wholly unearned and unmerited. It was only on this basis that he was judged on whether or not he would show mercy to others. In order to actually obtain and enjoy the mercy he had already received he had to be willing to show that same mercy to others. So too with us and this beatitude. It's not like the mercy we are able to show to others comes out of nowhere, or that it is generated by our moral striving. It is rather a result of the fact that we have already received mercy from God, that he in fact acted merciful toward us before we could do anything to deserve or even desire it.

If we are called to spiritual poverty it can only be because of Our Lord Jesus, "became poor, so that through his poverty you might become rich" (see Second Corinthians 8:9). The reason our mourning can lead to joy as because Jesus did not despise shedding tears for our sake for the joy that was set before him. He now allows our tears to share in the merit of his tears so that his joy may become our own.

The beatitudes, then, require grace to attain. They never give us boasting rights. We cannot brag about what great peacemakers we are, or the degree to which we have despised wealth, or even the purity of our hearts. Paul was clear on this point and we should be as well. All is gift. All is grace.

It is due to him that you are in Christ Jesus,
who became for us wisdom from God,
as well as righteousness, sanctification, and redemption,
so that, as it is written,
"Whoever boasts, should boast in the Lord."

The Dameans - Beatitudes

 

31 January 2026 - asleep in the boat

Today's Readings
(Audio) 

A violent squall came up and waves were breaking over the boat,
so that it was already filling up.

We too sometimes encounter storms that cause us to fear, if not for our lives, at least for our identities, and our ability to maintain our way of life. And this happens regardless of whether or not we are where we are because we listened to Jesus say, "Let us cross to the other side". Following him was not only no guarantee of smooth sailing, but seemed to be the main factor that led us to the place where the storm occurred. The fact, frequently confirmed by life experience, that Jesus does not lead us around stormy weather, may cause us to suspect that either he is not all-knowing, and therefore didn't see it coming, or not all-powerful, and therefore unable to do anything about it. We know, of course, that he was not directly at fault, that creation is still fallen, awaiting "freedom from its bondage to corruption" and "the freedom of the glory of the children of God" (see Romans 8:18-25). But what happens to our faith in the times when Jesus appears impotent before such forces? Do we lose our ability to believe that such a redemption is really on the horizon?

Jesus was in the stern, asleep on a cushion.
They woke him and said to him,
“Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?”

The fact that the storms of life leave Jesus unruffled does not at first inspire in us great confidence. Rather, it leaves us indignant, as though he does not understand what we are enduring. And yet, he is with us in the boat. He is enduring the same storm. He is simply so rooted in his Father's love that the storm cannot overcome his peace. From his perspective, the fact that we are terrified is the surprising thing. He wonders, "Why are you terrified? Do you not yet have faith?". And we must concede, that in this sense of the word, we must not yet have it, not like that, or to that degree. However, even in spite of the disciples' lack of faith, their fear was unfounded because they were together with Jesus since they had obeyed his word. He himself would ensure they were able to cross to the other side as he commanded. 

What, then? Ought they have been indifferent to the storm and the sinking of the ship? Should they all having been asleep while the ship met an untimely end? Part of the difficultly was that they did have to engage with circumstances that were being their ability to control. We can hardly blame them for wanting Jesus to intervene. But their fear was actually a further manifestation of the storm itself, not only outside now, but inside themselves as well. It meant there was more for Jesus to rebuke when he rebuked the wind and the sea. He had to speak calm into the hearts of his disciples as well. 

They could, however, have interpreted the situation differently. They could have realized from the fact of Jesus being a sleep that they had nothing to fear. Perhaps they themselves would have been able to let the peace of the sleeping Christ work through them to calm the storm. But even if they had to wake him up, they would have been able to do so calmly, without the risk of rash responses and bad decisions to fear brings.

“Who then is this whom even wind and sea obey?”

This is what we can call the high Christology of the Gospel of Mark. They knew, and Mark, wants us to know, that there was only one whom the wind and sea obey. Only of God was it said, "You rule over the surging sea; when its waves mount up, you still them" (see Psalm 89:9). Who, then, was Jesus? The implied answer, while unstated, was obvious.

Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the LORD.”
Nathan answered David: “The LORD on his part has forgiven your sin:
you shall not die.

Sometimes the storms we face are temptation, or even the consequences of our own sin. At such times especially we need to trust in the Lord to deliver us. Precisely because our storms cannot harm him he is positioned perfectly to deliver us, to reawaken his divine power within us, and speed us on our way to the far side of the sea.

Audrey Assad - How Can I Keep From Singing?

 

30 January 2026 - starting small

Today's Readings
(Audio) 

Of its own accord the land yields fruit,
first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear.

Although we can try to create good conditions for growth, we cannot directly bring it about through our efforts. We want to ensure, as much as possible, that the soil is good and deep, that there aren't too many rocks or thorns to interfere. We can, perhaps, water it and fertilize it. But beyond that, anything we do is more likely to interfere with growth than to assist it. We have to, at least in some measure, leave it alone and trust in God's process and timing. There is an implication that, if we forget this, we will be distressed by the fact that much of spiritual progress is unseen and hidden, and that this will prompt us to take actions that are unhelpful or even harmful. When we don't get results on demand we will be forced to reckon with the reality that it isn't all up to us. We must learn to do the things we know to do and then surrender the whole project into the hands of God.

It is like a mustard seed that, when it is sown in the ground,
is the smallest of all the seeds on the earth.

The Kingdom itself, when still a seed, seemed unlikely to grow enough to realize all of the covenant promises of God. Jesus, the grain of wheat that died to give life, did not seem sufficient to address the major challenges that faced humanity in general or Israel in particular. Neither did his disciples or the results of their early work seem so impressive that anyone could have anticipated the fruit they would bear in the future. The implication of this parable is somewhat similar to the previous one. We should not be discouraged by the way things look early on. But the nuance is different. We should not be afraid to attempt things, even if they are small. We cannot predict the way little things done with love may one day change the world. This is a call to excellence in small matters. But a corollary is that we ought to stop problematic behavior will it is still small, and sin while it is still venial. 

At the turn of the year, when kings go out on campaign,
David sent out Joab along with his officers
and the army of Israel,
and they ravaged the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah.
David, however, remained in Jerusalem.

David's failure to go with army, as was expected of kings, started off as something that seemed small. But it gradually snowballed as he next failed to keep custody of his eyes in the presence of Bathsheba and from their went on to become an adulterer and a murderer. It is fortunate for him and for us that the good seed of the Kingdom was ultimately God's project, else those events cause us to imagine that the project had failed. But the seed was still there, growing, as David proved later through his heartfelt repentance.

So, in summary, the lessons are, 1) never give up because of how things look, 2) don't neglect good things just because they seem too small to make an impact, and 3) don't dally with sin, even if it appears relatively innocuous at first. The payoff of faithful is small things is too good to miss.

But once it is sown, it springs up and becomes the largest of plants
and puts forth large branches,
so that the birds of the sky can dwell in its shade

The largest of plants that puts forth its branches for is the Church, which provides shelter for all the birds of the world, including ourselves. But in mysterious ways, everything done with love and faithfulness helps to facilitate the growth, as we ourselves become branches on the vine, living stones in the sacred temple of the Body of Christ.

Newsboys - Secret Kingdom