Book: Luke

The battle between good and evil must be fought within our own hearts each and every day. This is why our works can’t save us, because we can’t possibly do anything on our own merit to earn our salvation. Only one person lived that perfect life, and that was Jesus Christ, the God-man, who offered himself up as a sacrifice to God for our sins, and not for ours only, but for the sins of the whole world.

Our earthly lives are fleeting, and most people have great difficulty with that – a lament which is echoed by the author of Ecclesiastes. To cope with our mortality, so many of us resort to vanity – pride in our own achievements or appearance, and devoting our lives to worthless things. We pile up possessions on earth which we cannot take with us when we die. But our most prized possession should in fact be God. As the famous hymn says, “we are rich in things, but poor in soul.” But as Luke’s Gospel challenges us, we must instead be rich towards God.

A person who is held captive by ideology will use his end to justify any means. This is why we see our own social and political discourse breaking down today – ideology, not reason and the love of Christ, is what controls both sides of the debate. We as a people have been taken captive by philosophy and empty deceit. Listen as the Rector discusses Paul’s warning to the Colossians, and to us today.

What are you anxious about? By virtue of living on this side of the veil of tears, the list is long. Sometimes our anxieties are big: the safety and security of our country; the rising tension in national politics; the kind of future our children and grandchildren will be born into; the state of the economy (“did you hear we hit another 40-year high for inflation?”); nuclear war; natural disaster; widespread disease. We are anxious about many things. This is why the story of Martha hosting Jesus at her home is memorable to us, because it is relatable. Being anxious is normal, but it is not helpful. Listen as the Rector explains how we can focus on that which is necessary by the power of prayer.

If we don’t do what we ought, and if we don’t give due diligence to doing the things we should, then we are going to fall down, susceptible to the powers of sin. There is a fatigue currently affecting believers to do this due diligence in the midst of a culture of increasing opposition to the Gospel. We can only overcome spiritual fatigue by trusting God at His Word and resting in his Son Jesus Christ. Listen as the Rev. Galloway instructs us to overcome spiritual fatigue by following in the example of the Good Samaritan.

When we live like the rest of the world around us, it is because our idea of ministry is too small, our heaven is too small, and our Christ is too small. Indeed, without the Ascension there is no reason to rejoice at all. But thanks be to God, that is not the case. Let us go forth with great joy, just as the disciples did, for our savior Jesus Christ has ascended into heaven, and he will return in the same way as he departed.

Paul explains to the Philippians how Christ is the ultimate example of counting others as more significant than yourself. Christ’s entire life, in fact, was singularly oriented toward His willing humiliation and death on the Cross, a perfect sacrifice for our sins, to the Glory of God the Father. Jesus, of all people to ever live, had every excuse and every means to exalt himself and save his life, and yet He laid His life down without grumbling or complaining. Let us examine ourselves, therefore, against Christ’s perfect standard of humility.

The LORD says through the prophet Isaiah, “I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert… for I give water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink to my chosen people, the people whom I formed for myself that they might declare my praise” (Isaiah 43:19, 21). We all have wilderness experiences in our lives, but God will never leave us or forsake us, and it is the mark of the Christian to praise God even when everything life appears to be going wrong.

Much has been said about the parable of the prodigal son, but the end of so many who teach this passage is to read themselves into the text and ask “which son are you?” While there is nothing inherently bad about this type of reading, the point of the passage goes much deeper than that. The Rector explains how this parable challenges us to be better ambassadors for Christ.