The man is in the wilderness. He has grown weary and tired from the chase. The day has grown long and the sun is beginning to set. There is no one and nothing else around, and he has no provisions for the night. In his weariness, however, he lays on the ground and falls asleep. For a pillow, he uses a stone.

Of course, with that last line, you know of whom I speak. Jacob, the youngest son of Isaac and Rebekah, the younger of the set of twins with Esau. Jacob was born clutching his brother’s heel. Esau was born first, and he was born covered in red hair, hence his name Esau, which means “hairy.” Jacob, ever in conflict with his brother and desiring what he had, was born with his hand on Esau’s heel, as if trying to trip him up coming out of the womb and gain the advantage for himself. Therefore, he was given the name Jacob, meaning “he cheats.” Esau won the race out of the womb and won the inheritance of his father by right—birthright. (cf. Genesis 25:19-26)

What a family, huh? “Meet my sons, hairy and cheater.”

Jesus said, “Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division.” Three are divided against two in one house, father against son, mother against daughter, in-law against in-law. And all of this because of Jesus.

Jesus is the reason or cause for the division. Some in a house will believe in and confess Jesus to be the Savior of the world; others will not. And while those in the household may say that they love each other—and that’s not always a given—internally, they are most certainly divided with hostility. It’s not just father against son, etc., but vehemently so. In some cases, this division even results in abandonment, disowning, and divorce.

A cursory reading of today’s lessons reveal that they are about faith. There is a theme of taking God solely at His word, of full reliance and trust in God simply because He says a thing is so.

One of the things it seems that St. Luke tried to teach Theophilus (and, of course, every Christians and lover of God) is the importance of prayer. From the prayers of praise and thanksgiving from Mary, Zechariah, and Simeon in his first two chapters, to showing that Jesus was Himself a man of prayer who sought His Father’s aid during significant times in His ministry (check out chapters 3, 6, 9, and 22, among others), St. Luke’s Gospel is filled with prayer.

If anything, from St. Luke’s account, the disciples should have learned of the importance of prayer by observing the discipline with which Jesus prayed and the frequency of His prayers. Jesus would often depart to a solitary place and pray to His Father in heaven. He prayed to His Father in Heaven because He was the Son of God and a Man of faith. He prayed to His Father because He relied on His Father for everything that He needed. His disciples observed this in St. Luke’s Gospel; every Theophilus should find this hard to miss when reading St. Luke’s Gospel.

I have heard it said, “If we had a scheduled day, we would be able to get a lot more done in a day.” That is to say that if everything—and I mean everything—that you needed to do were scheduled, you could and would get much more done. Whether or not that’s the case, it is an indication that people these days have something to do at just about every hour of the day. There’s barely time to sleep. It seems, and it just may be the case, that people today are a busy people, busier than ever.

Busyness interferes with leisure. When there’s so much to do, there’s little time for fun. As mentioned once already, busyness can also take away from time to sleep. But, busyness can also take time away from doing nothing, playing a game, reading a book for fun, enjoying some down time with friends, going to the pool, riding your bike to nowhere in particular…leisure.

Busyness can also take away time from worship. Therein lies a real danger. You can get so caught up in doing what you’re “supposed” to do—taking care of business—that you forget about, ignore, or flat-out neglect worship. You can get the doctrine of vocation so wrong that you believe you are doing right when you miss worship because you are doing what you do.