The Narrow Path

  Tuesday, April 1, 2025 Psalm 74 Exodus 2 Luke 18:15-30 What Must I Do? (Luke 18:18) As we read through the Gospel according to St Luke this Lent, we find ourselves today on the precipice of Jesus’ final days. We have been travelling with him from his birth, seeing and marvelling at him, for he has done all things well. Soon Jesus will enter Jerusalem for the final time and complete his purpose in life; that he was born to die. There will be arguments and disputes with various vested interests in the Holy City, and wisdom will spill from his lips like water from a waterfall. But his final lessons before he enters the viper’s cave surround the danger of the love of money. His last words to the normal people living in the regions outside the big smoke are to love God and serve him, and beware the fact that to enter the kingdom of God while wealthy is the most difficult thing in the world. This is a tough lesson to learn. Our politics are all about who ...

  Monday, March 31, 2025 Psalm 59 Exodus 1 Luke 18:1-14 Going Home Justified (Luke 18:14) A couple of weeks ago we heard a great quote from Jesus, one that we should always have sitting at the front of our mind, that “everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” (Luke 14:11) Today, we hear him say the exact same thing, yet in a different context. Jesus is teaching the same thing in both places, and that is why this saying appears both times. This second occasion of the saying comes after some discussion by Jesus about 1. the second coming, and 2. prayer. The apparent warning is that both of these topics have in themselves the danger of pride. A telling line is when Jesus concludes the section of prayer and muses to himself, “when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?” (v. 8) An important aspect of faith is trust – and trust does not sit will with pride. We also remember that in the middl...

  Saturday, March 29, 2025 Psalm 69:1-16 Genesis 50:7-26 Luke 17:20-37 Observance: John Keble, priest (d. 1866) There The Vultures Will Gather (Luke 17:37) I love this saying of Jesus. It makes absolutely no sense. The passage we have just read makes perfect sense – the kingdom of God is revealed in Jesus, not by reading tea leaves or the latest news from the Middle East. And since the kingdom of God is revealed in Jesus, we should be focusing on him, because the day of his return will be like the Great Flood or the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. But this line about the corpse and the vultures seems out of place – what does that have to do with anything that has come before? Perhaps we could do a little bit of Bible study and look if this saying appears anywhere else. And what do you know – it does. Job 39:26-30 is almost exactly what Jesus says in Luke 17:37, if we account for the difference between the ancient Greek of Luke and the ancient ...

  Friday, March 28, 2025 Psalm 71 Genesis 49:22-50:6 Luke 17:1-19 Increase Our Faith! (Luke 17:5) Something that may have gone past without you noticing as you read the Gospel of Luke (as it has myself) is how Jesus is now being referred to as “the Lord”. There doesn’t seem to be a specific point at which St Luke switches from calling him Jesus to calling him Lord; it is more of a gradual change. But isn’t it an interesting move, showing how good of a writer he is: the book began with St Luke the scholarly historian, looking to present an ordered account of the things which have happened. Then, as Christ does more and teaches more, the image of this Jesus we are learning about begins to come into clearer focus, until finally St Luke just comes out with it: Jesus is Lord. We have been working through this gospel for awhile now. And we have noticed that, while it contains collections of different events, these events all seem to follow general themes. Bubblin...

  Thursday, March 27, 2025 Psalm 68:1-20 Genesis 49:1-21 Luke 16:14-31 Forcing His Way Into The Kingdom (Luke 16:16) Today’s verse for the day is a curious one. If you have some spare time today, I would encourage you to go online and compare all the different ways that different Bibles have translated it, particularly the last bit. Your own translation might be one of the more gentle ones: that everyone is being strongly urged to enter the kingdom of God. Perhaps yours is a bit more forceful: that everyone is now forcing their way into the kingdom of God. Maybe you have a more boutique translation, suggesting that everyone that is entering the kingdom is under attack, or is entering into the kingdom of heaven violently. It is a tricky word to get right in English; perhaps we could be a little Shakespearean and accept the King James version, that everyone is pressing into the kingdom of God. It calls to mind images of train carriages in Japan, when it pull...

  Wednesday, March 26, 2025 Psalms 65; 70 Genesis 48 Luke 16:1-13 Unrighteous Wealth (Luke 16:9) Jesus’ teachings on wealth continues, and today we have a real corker of a parable! A financial manager had been scamming his boss out of money, and when he was found out, he doubled down and scammed him out of even more. Instead of getting his comeuppance, the dishonest manager gets a promotion because of his deviousness. The rich man sees the villainy of his manager and, as a fellow villain, can appreciate the manager’s skill at wickedness. The point of this parable lies in why the dishonest manager was ripping off his boss. He wants to be welcomed into people’s houses after he loses his job, and so he buys friends with his master’s money. This here is why this parable is so wonderful. Jesus, at the end of this parable, reminds us that all wealth is, ultimately, God’s. Everything we have has been given to us by God. We may have done something to receive ...

  Tuesday, March 25, 2025 Psalms 62; 63 Genesis 47:13-31 Luke 15:11-32 Observance: The Annunciation to the Blessed Virgin Mary It Was Fitting (Luke 15:32) Usually when Jesus gives us a parable it is easy to find the one lesson and dwell on that. However, every now and then he will give us one like today’s Parable of the Prodigal Son, leaving us with a feast of lessons. I’m sure most of us have heard multiple sermons and read multiple reflections on this parable. As Solomon famously said, “there is nothing new under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 1:9), so instead of treading over common ground, let’s instead take advantage of the fact that we are reading this in context: specifically, the context of yesterday’s learning about God and wealth. Insofar that today’s parable might be the hinge between yesterday’s parables and tomorrow’s, we might benefit from looking at where wealth appears in the Parable of the Prodigal Son. The younger son sees his wealth i...

  Monday, March 24, 2025 Psalms 56; 57 Genesis 46:26-47:12 Luke 15:1-10 Observance: Oscar Romero, archbishop of San Salvador (d. 1980) More Joy In Heaven (Luke 15:7) Today we begin a dive into some of Jesus’ most well-known and most beloved parables. The idea of God as our shepherd, going out into the open country until he finds us, is of such comfort that superlatives defeat us. Same too with the woman searching the house, seeking diligently until every last one of us has been brought into God’s kingdom. But let us be particular about these images Jesus is using. First, he speaks of a shepherd and his sheep. Then, as now, sheep and money are pretty much the same thing. A single sheep can do a lot: a lifetime of wool, or a prize breeder to make more sheep, or food for many families for a long time. A single sheep is a valuable thing, and if this were not a parable – that is, a story about heavenly things – we might miss out on the soul comfort and only s...

  Saturday, March 22, 2025 Psalm 51 Genesis 45:16-46:7 Luke 14:15-34 Observance: Thomas Ken, bishop of Bath and Wells, teacher (d. 1711) Filling The House (Luke 14:23) Stopping to think for a moment about what the future might bring can get a bit overwhelming. Not so much futuristic thoughts about things like what we might have for dinner, or if we have enough fuel in the car. But thoughts about the future in light of eternity: about great movements of the Holy Spirit bringing about widespread conversion; and what it means to be an eternal soul who will one day inhabit eternity. It is a little like being a small child and going into a big city for the first time. For a kid from the suburbs of Brisbane, my first time in the Sydney CBD was dizzying. I could stand on the footpath and just look up and up and never see the top of the skyscrapers without falling over backwards. When Jesus asks us to consider the fact that we are being invited into etern...

  Friday, March 21, 2025 Psalm 50 Genesis 45:1-15 Luke 14:1-14 Observance: Thomas Cranmer, archbishop of Canterbury, martyr and liturgist (d. 1556) Friend, Move Up Higher (Luke 14:10) Since we touched on biblical gender roles yesterday, perhaps we could lean into them a bit more today. We are reading through St Luke’s gospel verse by verse, so there is a bit of context that allows us this liberty. However, Jesus is not giving us explicit doctrine like, say, St Paul does. Rather, we have here some general rules that can help us. We know that we have been given license, as Christians, to lean into whatever makes us men or women; God is the fullness of that which makes us his image, after all. But lest we get carried away with the darker urges that fight inside us, let us take to heart what Jesus is saying today. Jesus likes a good feast; this much we know. And so he puts our relationship with God and one another in the context of a grand feast...

  Thursday, March 20, 2025 Psalm 48 Genesis 44:18-34 Luke 13:22-35 Observance: Cuthbert of Lindisfarne, bishop and missionary (d. 687) The Narrow Door (Luke 13:24) If we could make a list of the top books every person should read, we wouldn’t be alone. There are many who have thrown their opinions out onto the internet; often in these sorts of lists we find the Classics, like Homer or Seneca or Tsunemoto. Others might let their personal preferences lead them in a more obvious way, favouring the Medieval Scholastics or Puritan Divines. When it comes to Christian lists of “must reads”, the best ones encourage us to read accounts of the early church. Because when we do, something jumps out very strongly about the first generations of Christians, such as the missionaries that came out of the Mediterranean into the barbarian north. That is, theirs was a very masculine Christianity. It was a faith with hairy knuckles and a stoic approach to the comforts...

  Wednesday, March 19, 2025 Psalm 45 Genesis 44:1-17 Luke 13:10-21 Observance: Joseph, husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary And She Glorified God (Luke 13:13) There has been and continues to be much discussion about the mechanics of revival itself. I’m sure I am not the only one who loves hearing stories from missionaries of miraculous healings in tiny villages behind Timbuktu and entire communities therefore coming into the kingdom of God. These accounts have the aroma of romance about them; of divine winds blowing miracles into still places and divine light blazing into dark places. If we want to learn how to read the signs of the times and know what we should be doing, then it seems a good thing to learn from others. Miracles, which happen all the time, shouldn’t be chased for the sake of them, however. As much as I would like miraculous healing for a toothache or a sore throat or a dodgy knee, the reason for God performing miracles is more impor...

  Tuesday, March 18, 2025 Psalms 41; 44:1-9 Genesis 43:15-34 Luke 13:1-9 Observance: Cyril of Jerusalem, bishop and teacher (d. 386) Well And Good (Luke 13:9) Jesus is continuing his words on revival, and he is continuing to bring together two facts that shouldn’t necessarily work together at the same time. Yesterday’s paradox came about from the bringing together of God’s sovereignty and human responsibility. Today Jesus brings the urgent need for repentance together with God’s patience. The order in which these two seemingly opposite facts come is what brings them into clarity. Jesus begins with the urgency for repentance: “but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish” is such a common phrase of his that Saint Luke records him saying it twice. And the circumstances are horrific. Jews, faithfully offering sacrifices, were attacked by Roman soldiers and butchered in the temple. Meanwhile, a tower in the city had fallen, crushing the people in t...

  Monday, March 17, 2025 Psalm 40 Genesis 43:1-15 Luke 12:49-59 Observance: Patrick, bishop, missionary to Ireland (d. 461) A Fire Already Kindled (Luke 12:49) I sometimes wonder if, in our age of magically heating stove tops and freely-running hot water, that we don’t really have a good grasp of what Jesus means when he speaks of sending fire upon the earth. How he wishes the fire were already kindled – would we even know what that looks like? It seems as if an interpretation of these words that would lead us to thinking of revival is a smooth ride. Revival – that wonderful word, that concept just slightly beyond reach of our wildest imagination – the fire that Jesus would send upon the earth. A supernatural movement of God, whereby not only neighbours and friends turn towards Christ in passionate devotion, but even we ourselves are brought out of our current spiritual stupor. Jesus came to send fire upon the earth – and how we wish it were already kind...

  Saturday, March 15, 2025 Psalm 37:1-17 Genesis 42:18-38 Luke 12:35-48 He Will Serve Them (Luke 12:37) I must make a confession: you are reading or hearing this reflection about a week after I wrote it. As part of my own daily discipline, I make sure to read these readings in advance, and spend time enjoying them for myself before sharing them with you. Therefore, I am sitting here in the prayer workshop, reading about Jesus’ unexpected return, looking out at an approaching cyclone. The lead up to this cyclone has been a good lesson to the soul. Perhaps the bigger danger was not so much the prospect of levitating deck furniture, but cabin fever. Waiting in our homes as the storm kept being delayed, evening would come, and we would all feel a little bit silly having stayed inside for a whole day because of nothing more than some light rain and an overcast sky. Is this not what Jesus is talking about, but with regards to the work of the kingdom of God?...

  Friday, March 14, 2025 Psalm 34 Genesis 42:1-17 Luke 12:22-34 As Small A Thing (Luke 12:25-26) It is one thing to say, “this is how we ought to be”, such as we have over the past couple of days. We recognise that we have two faces, one that faces inwards, and the other outwards. We also recognise that Jesus is teaching us to make those two faces one and the same, so that there is no hypocrisy, but that everything we say in private is what we would be happy to say in public. But that just raises the next question: how might we go about this? Today, as Jesus continues his teaching, he explains this too. And in his classically sublime way, he brings it back to a wider principle with broader application: we are not to be anxious about anything in this life. Consider his priorities: adding a single hour to our lifespan is but “a small thing”. Far greater is the effort to acquire things, like clothes or money. Surely, as wise and spiritual people, we should thi...

  Thursday, March 13, 2025 Psalm 35:1-17 Genesis 41:37-57 Luke 12:8-21 What To Say? (Luke 12:11-12) Today, Jesus is continuing his teaching about how we ought to bring our thoughts and our words into alignment. We begin with some words of his that have caused no end of discussion and angst: that there is something we could do that is beyond the scope of his forgiveness. Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is unforgivable, a saying of Jesus that appears in Matthew and Mark’s gospel, as well as being referred to in Hebrews and 1 John. This is a terrifying concept – that there is something for which Jesus does not forgive. The Biblical testimony would seem to teach us that this is the only thing for which we cannot be forgiven, so let’s get that out of the way. The vilest offender who truly believes, a pardon from Jesus that moment receives. Let us continually remember that the forgiveness of God is readily available for all who turn to Jesus. So wh...

  Wednesday, March 12, 2025 Psalm 31 Genesis 41:1-36 Luke 11:45-12:7 Of Greater Value (Luke 12:7) As much as I love reading through the lectionary, it has to be pointed out that our break between yesterday’s and today’s second reading misses the divine humour. Jesus, worked up in his condemnation of the Pharisees, hears the voice of a lawyer: “when you say these things, you are hurting our feelings too, you know.” Turning around, Jesus doesn’t skip a beat: “thank you for reminding me! And as for you lawyers…” There is an admirable confidence that comes from someone who, in their spirit, knows that they are speaking the truth. We all have ideas in our heads; when they come out into reality through our words and deeds, the cooperation between the two creates something sublime. Plainly stating what we know to be true is sometimes not as easy as it sounds, however. We cannot always trust what is in our head, because it might not be rational thought, but a...

  Tuesday, March 11, 2025 Psalms 28; 29 Genesis 40 Luke 11:29-44 Inside And Out (Luke 11:40) When it comes to offensive teachings of Christianity, we have plenty to choose from. But perhaps the most offensive of all is the fact that how we behave is a secondary issue. Moral and upright behaviour is important; don’t misunderstand Jesus when he refers to that which we ought to have done anyway (Luke 11:42). It would seem, however, that this is the easy bit. Even the Pharisees wash the outside of the cup; even the wicked know how to give good things to their children. Everyone instinctively knows, to some broad degree, the difference between right and wrong when it comes to human behaviour. Even so, says Jesus, did not he who made the outside make the inside also? The offensive bit about Christianity isn’t orthodox understandings of things like human sexuality, or politics, or economics, or anything like that. Those bits all flow downstream of the one b...