Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“He said to them, ‘When you pray, say:
Father…”
NL Daily Devotion for Sunday, May 26, 2024
by Madison Johnston, Clergy Stuff
Main Idea: God wants us to be able to center in the divine and to channel the divine so that we can prioritize well as we navigate the ordinary—the everyday.
As Jesus is traveling and practicing his public ministry, he takes some time to visit Mary and Martha in Bethany. Mary sits at Jesus’s feet as soon as he arrives, ready to hear what he had to say and to learn from him. But Martha is busy with all of the tasks around the house that she thinks are important to finish in order for Jesus to stay there. Jesus encourages Martha to take after Mary’s example, not because what Martha is focused on is unimportant, but because there is a different kind of importance—and necessity—behind setting your mind and your heart on abstract things.
Immediately after this, Luke Chapter 11 begins. Jesus is praying, and when he is finished, a group of his disciples ask him to teach them to pray. This passage is his answer. How perfectly appropriate that it mashes up something as transcendent as the kingdom of God with something as mundane as daily bread. It’s a version of Mary and Martha all over again.
Luke Chapter 11, Verse 2 opens what we now refer to as The Lord’s Prayer, calling out to God the Father and asking, before anything else, that God’s name set the tone for our day, our encounters, our engagements and our ventures. Other translations and interpretations go with “God the Parent,” “God the Creator,” or “God the Foundation”... no matter the exact semantics, God’s hope for us in prayer is that we can wrap every detail of our lives in God’s name and presence so that we can look at it with new eyes and approach it with a newness of spirit—reset, renewed, and ready to learn.
