Mtr Taylor Devine

Dear Friend,

Our office gospel today is found within a sequence of parables – “ask and it will be given, search and you will find,” “in everything do to others as you would have them do to you, for this is the law and the prophets,” and “enter through the narrow gate.”

We always hear about Luke being the methodical Gospel, but the arc of these few chapters seems quite methodical to me! In chapter 6 we have teaching on almsgiving, fasting, wealth, in chapter 7 on pursuing Jesus in the day to day, and the latter part of 7 seems to pivot with today’s passage. This pivot is back toward the source and end of all these acts. None of these good works can be done by us alone, but the good that we do can be prospered by grace.

“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell—and great was its fall!”

The rock from whom we draw any stability and strength, Jesus, is the same one who cares to show us how to live a life day to day, and to ascend to heaven in glory. Parables help us to see ways that God is so very many things and yet one. May the solid rock on which we stand be both things - a strength and a comfort this day.

-Mtr Taylor