Lectio and Luke 19

This week, our spiritual discipline is Lectio Divina-Holy Reading.

The purpose of Lectio Divina is to listen closely to the Biblical text, asking what it offers to us today, in this time and place. It can be done individually, or as a group, the text can be read silently or out loud, but the story is at the center.

Read the text once. Pay attention to what jumps out at you. Which words of phrases, images or ideas catch your attention? Why?

Read the text a second time. Pay attention to what emotions the text sparks in you. What do you feel in the text and around the text?

Read the text a third time. What suggestions, guidance, commands, invitations do you hear in this text? What is it inviting you to do?

Monday: Luke 19:28-40
Tuesday: Isaiah 50:4-9
Wednesday: Psalm 31:9-16
Thursday: Philippians 2:5-11
Friday: Luke 22:14-38
Saturday: Luke 23:26-49




The triumphant entry into Jerusalem, Luke 19:28-40 is the official text for Palm Sunday, but because in American Protestant Christianity, the tradition of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday are not usually a key part of the worship life of the church, many congregations focus on Jesus' passion the week before Easter, so as to not skip over the darkest part of the Gospel story, so I'm glad to be coming back to the text again today.

As I read the text a first time, the phrase that jumps out at me is "the whole crowd of the disciples."  Some of the other Gospels (*John*) speak of a great crowd coming out of Jerusalem to celebrate Jesus' arrival. This feels more like street theater-the crowd of disciples making noise coming into the city to draw attention to this teacher, met with the disapproving tsks of the Pharisees, but undeterred on their march to the temple.

As I read the text a second time, I notice the joy of the disciples, delighted with what God is doing, and I notice the contrast in verse 41 of Jesus' tears, weeping over Jerusalem.   There is something, I think, valuable when we remember to care for those who are weeping when others are joyful, triumphant in victory, and we remember the deep joy of the universe when the world looks dark.

As I read the text a third time, the most obvious commandment is to praise (so that the stones don't have to), but the one I keep hearing is the command give to the two disciples, sent ahead to snatch someone's baby donkey.  Assertiveness with strangers is not one of my gifts-I would be horrified to have this assignment, because my mind would be filled with all the ways that things could go wrong. It is good for me to hear that sometimes God requires ridiculous things, and all I can offer is the lame excuse 'the Lord needs it'.

What do you hear in this text?