Crowd Sourcing

Gospel: Luke 11: 15-26

Crowds are irrational groupings of people moved solely by emotion.  At any given time a crowd may randomly be right about an issue, but they would not know why and could not reliably be trusted to be so in the future.  Crowds believe all sorts of wild things, from the various slogans of political movements to unwarranted beliefs about sports teams.  Crowds are important to those who control such movements and franchises in wielding power and controlling the populace.

Today's crowd shouts that Jesus casts out demons by the power of Satan.  Such an assertion is irrational, as Jesus' response to them shows.  Jesus may convince a few people from the crowd to peel away and follow him, but overall the makeup of a crowd will remain largely the same.  The crowd will not listen to reason.  Their wild assertions become tenets of a creed built on emotion, in this case emotion against Jesus, and it will use whatever slogan, whatever allegation its handlers can create that will stick against Jesus.  

Occasionally we will see the disciples swayed by the crowds.  They have to decide whether to join the crowd or to follow Jesus.  The same holds true for us today.  We can allow ourselves to join the rabble and emotion of crowds, following all sorts of ideologies and positions.  Or we can remain fixed on the person of Jesus, imitating his way of life - the way of mercy, loving kindness, and service to others that brings healing, deliverance, and nourishment to all we encounter.   

Inter-Dependence

Gospel: Luke 11: 5-13

Today's Gospel portion is remote from many people's experiences.  In an age and nation where grocery stores are open around the clock, when groceries and any known thing can be delivered right to our door, we cannot understand the dynamic of asking a neighbor for some things we need unexpectedly.  In fact, for a long time the idea of inter-dependence has been under attack from a culture of independence and rugged individualism, self-interest, and a mocking of the common good.  

It is little wonder then that we find the idea of dependence on God or anyone else for anything as an utterly foreign concept.   The day of collective prayer is still Sunday, but only in autumn when our betting interests and the welfare of our football team is at stake.  We might seek divine intervention on lottery day, fantasy football, and sports gambling, but otherwise we take a rather Pelagian view of the spiritual life where we can take care of ourselves and we need no one.  

Yet the image Jesus presents to us is one where we mutually care for one another, a world where a need can be met at any time through the help of others in our life.  Along those lines the need for God in the spiritual realm is ever required - not for our Santa Claus list of wants but for our moral and spiritual growth as persons so that we might be like God, ever ready to help another when they are in need of loving kindness and mercy.

Learning to Pray

Gospel: Luke 11: 1-4

Today's Gospel portion provides us with two shocking discoveries.  The first is that John the Baptist taught his disciples to pray, and the second is that Jesus' disciples ask him to teach them how to pray.  It seems rather startling that people who have grown up in a religious tradition where prayer is ubiquitous would feel the need to find someone to teach them how to pray.  It reflects the fact that something was lacking in that culture that was failing to meet a need among the people.  

Very often in highly organized religious systems prayer becomes so formal and elaborate that it sails over the head of most people.  When multi-volume tomes on prayer and the spiritual life are published making the exercise even more complex and convoluted, it is evident that a religious tradition is far afield in in the matter of greatest intimacy and personal import for people.  If a tradition cannot meet the need, people will look elsewhere to have that need met.

So Jesus provides us with a prayer that is both intimate and simple.  We are to address God in intimate, personal terms.  We are to talk about our daily needs, relationships, and concerns, not grandiose ideas of abstraction.   We are to entrust ourselves to a loving God.  That's it.  We can use the words he gave us or use our own that reflect these ideas.  The prayer Jesus gave us reflects the fact that God is near us in our daily lives and so loving that terms of intimacy are encouraged.