Luke 6 - Foundations - AYWJ 13

For an hour or so most mornings, you can find me at a Planet Fitness. Going to the gym has become one of my regular practices over the last few years and I definitely “feel it” if I miss a day or two. I’ve noticed something curious, though, as I have gone to different PFs, especially ones built more recently. Just outside the main entrance is Psalm 118:22 inscribed into the bricks. Psalm 118:22 says, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone.” I haven’t found anything about this about why this is etched in from PF’s perspective but it spoke to me this morning reading in Luke 6.

This is Luke’s telling of the Sermon on the Mount/Plain. There’s echoes of similar teachings in Matthew 5-7 but there are also some significant differences. Luke’s is shorter and the Lord’s Prayer and the Beatitudes have very different “feels” to them. Luke’s feel more “earthy” and here-and-now - promises and pleas for what is happening right here, right now. Luke finishes this teaching with the well known teaching of Jesus about building on a foundation of stone rather than shifting sand. That teaching has often been shared in isolation from the rest of what has come before but as I read the whole today, the foundation is what Luke has just been sharing of Jesus’ words - Kingdom living - sharing and serving, loving enemies, praying for those who persecute us, avoiding hypocrisy, and bearing good and beautiful fruit. If we lived lives built upon that foundation, that’s a cornerstone to build on. But how much of that goes against what we see lived out around us, especially that part of serving and sharing and loving our enemies. It is a lot easier to hold onto what is mine and continuing to demonize those who are different from us. But I think if we live from these foundations here in Luke 6, it makes a much stronger foundation than anything else.

So I guess that the Spirit speaks not only through the Scriptures but also through a purple and yellow fitness center...