DAILY DEVOTIONAL

Wednesday, November 28, 2018

Since many have undertaken to set down an orderly account of the events that have been fulfilled among us,  just as they were handed on to us by those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the word, I too decided, after investigating everything carefully from the very first, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus (Lover of God), so that you may know the truth concerning the things about which you have been instructed. – Luke 1:1-4

One of the issues I have with Fundamentalists and Biblical Literalists is that thought they claim to be Biblical, they actually do not respect the scriptures to be what the scriptures claim for themselves.  This opening of Luke’s Gospel is such a vivid example, though it is seldom referenced by the literalists for it confounds their man-made doctrine of Divine dictation and inerrancy.  I am one who respects the depth, the complexity, the layers of time, the presence of both the authors and audiences in the text, the sense of history, and progress of the scriptural mind.

Luke states that “many have undertaken to set down an orderly account of the events that have been fulfilled among us.”  Yes, apparently many authors and Christian communities undertook the challenge of writing a gospel, a story of the good news brought to life in Christ.  Some have survived and became part of our Bible; some were not chosen to be included among the writings that were compiled into the Bible at a much later date; some were probably written but have become lost in the past.  The Gospel of Luke was chosen as trustworthy by a gathering of Christian elders a couple of centuries later.

Luke states that he is compiling an orderly account of what others have reported about the events that have been fulfilled among us.  And here we catch a glimpse of that which Divinely inspired … not the words in the text but those events that took place among us.  It is not the account of the words that were inspired… rather it was the moments that were experienced and the lessons that were taught.  Scripture becomes inspired when we allow it to revive the moments of which the scriptures give an account.

Luke speaks of the truth; Luke writes about the truth; Luke points to the truth; but the account he writes is not truth in itself.  The Truth is the human experience of the coming together of the human and the Divine in the life of Christ and in the life of those continued on with the Life of Christ within their own.  Luke says that he chose to write an orderly account … not God, but Luke himself, surely as one known as a Lover of God.

Loved Ones, though there are many who try to make the Bible the fourth member of the Godhead, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, and Bible, the Bible is a gathered account of people like Luke who sought give an account of the inspired moments that took in our midst.

Read the scriptures daily, but do so in full appreciation of their depth, individual integrity, their context and their purpose, and their experience of those moments of which they write.

Always in Christ’s Service,

Father Charitas de la Cruz