As Was His Custom

Jesus had certain habits. It can be strange to think of them that way, but ponder these two. One was a practice that took more time and shaped a whole day for Jesus. The other took only a few seconds but no doubt gave him the time he needed to think and reorient.

Habit 1: the habit of connecting with God in community after a busy week.

The scripture teaches that “on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom" (Luke 4:16). Another word to translate custom is habit. Wherever he was on the sabbath, he gathered with the local community for worship and learning. It would take a good part of his day, but it was super important to him.

Habit 2: creating space to think before teaching.

How many times does Jesus start of a teaching with some version of this line: ““What shall I compare the kingdom of God to?” (Luke 13:20)? There’s a wonderful audio version of the Bible by Inspired By Media Group that has the entire New Testament read by famous African America actors and artists. When they come to this particular verse, it’s so well done: the person reading Jesus asks the question in a pondering sort of way, pausing to think. And you get the sense that this is exactly what Jesus was doing - he was creating a little space as people were asking him questions so that he could gather his thoughts and reorient towards what God might want him to say.

In the message yesterday we talked about Macro-Practices (as in Habit #1) and Micro-Practices (as in Habit #2). What are the Macro- and Micro-practices that are part of your spiritual life? (HERE is the short blog Bill wrote about Micro-practices).

Ask God to give you the grace to be open to learning some new practices this week and finding ones that fit you well.