Living out of thankfulness

Readings for the 20th Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 23 Sunday 10th October. 2010

Jeremiah 29:1, 4-7 and Psalm 66:1-12 [or 2 Kings 5:1-3, 7-15c and Psalm 111 ]

2 Timothy 2:8-15 & Luke 17:11-19

Leprosy has a sort of romantic attraction for many Christians

but in reality that romanticism is ill-placed.

It is as romantic as AIDS in the modern context

and as socially stigmatising as skin cancer

or any disease which has disfigurement associated with it.

The story (Luke 17:11-19) has not only some interesting reflections to make about seeking healing from God

...Do we for example live out of the thankfulness of answered prayer?

Or do we quickly forget that God desires healing for us all?

This story reflects that 9 out of 10 people

forget to give thanks to God.

and my estimation would be that that is about right!

But the story also tells us that God's healing is not confined by religion,

it isn't just confined

to who we think

God should be disposed towards.

God's concern is towards humanity and not just to Jews or Christians,

white or black.

It is not just to be nice to children

or those who say their prayers

God's concern is for the whole of humanity.

God's grace, the free gift of eternal life,

is without bounds

and is offered to all.

It is a reminder to us that we should be no less open.

That our compassion needs to be challenged beyond the bounds of niceness.

We are to be open to be compasssionate

beyond the bounds of our own social caste or religion.

The world is not like this.

9 out of 10 people get this wrong.

Prejudice

We witness prejudice in all manner of ways.

I sat with someone this week in hospital and listened while his wife told me

that the staff were fabulous

except for the Indians

who you just couldn't understand.

I found myself thinking of the many many Indian doctors and nurses

who have served us well in this country

and just shuddered.

This week

Can you reflect on where you make judgments

based on prejudice rather than compassion and mercy?

Invite the Holy Spirit to let you do better than this and to show you how?

God who is truth and love

grant to us your people

the wisdom and compassion

to act justly and with mercy

in the name of the guiltless Jesus

who died that all people might know the love of God.

Amen

Daring to trust

Reading for this Sunday 6th September: Pentecost 14, Proper 23.Proverbs 22, Psalm 125, James 2, Mark 24-37

It may help us at this time to realise that the woman we read about in these readings , (The "Syro Phoenician Woman" lived in that coastal region to the north of the modern state of Israel and west of modern Syria that has often been under the pall of the war.
Bearing in mind that many of those peoples who live there today trace their antecedents back well over the 2000 years of the common era (CE), it is conceivable that her living descendants have been caught up in today's conflict.
And the readings reminds us that tension between different ethnic groups was there at the time of Christ, as it is there today. It is a sadness but a truth.
They remind us too that we fickle humans are open to prejudice of all sorts, economic, gender-based, class oriented, religious and of course the stupidity of racial prejudice
Even Jesus is caught up in it. "It is not fair, " he says of this woman's daughter, "that I should take the food that is meant for the Jews and feed it to the dogs!"
None of us would take too kindly to our children being referred to as dogs. he is no doubt using a common idiom. Speaking as he had been brought up to speak of his near neighbours.
We fall easily into that trap ourselves when we talk of Indonesians, Aborigines, even (perhaps in an earlier era) Poms!!
The common bond
There is, however, a resilience about this woman (which we see in the people of today)
that causes her to persist with Jesus, and her persistence is rewarded.
Coupled with this we read a story about another persistent man, who was deaf. And who, like many of the profoundly deaf, had a speech impediment.
Such people, too, have a resilience which is at times admirable and also a little intimidating
stemming, on their part, from years of prejudice and misunderstanding with which they ahve had to deal.
What we see in these two stories is the invitation to transcend our prejudice
and to put our trust in Jesus.
To take the next step of faith and move forward.
Sometimes this will take us quite of our comfort zone.
Other times it will just be one more step along the road we go!

The woman has to wrestle with Jesus.
Is he trying to establish just how determined she is?
Is he forcing her to get to the root of what she really wants?
Spiritual Directors and the works of the saints will tell us this is a key understanding
in our journey of faith,
understanding what really makes us tick,
establishing what it is that we really want.
For this woman she really has to fight for her daughter,
for this man he has to be prepared to sit quietly with Jesus
and put aside his anxiety.

I ask myself...what is it that I really want?
Am I so clouded in my vision (prejudice)
that I fail to see what I really want.
Am I so frightened by life, by failure, by weakness, by depression, by confusion....you name it, it's there...
that I find it impossible to trust
even God.

The stories remind us that this would seem the way to go.
Not the way of putting your trust in human vanity
of being impressed by wealth or human achievement
as we so easily are,
but rather by taking the next step along the road with Christ.

For this woman it is quite a vigorous struggle with Jesus.
For this man it is being taken to one side.
What will it be for me or for you this week.

This week
Allow God the opportunity that we so often deny
to let us take the next small step.
What prejudices are guiding our thinking at this stage in our life
...am I frightened of the future
...am I dictated to by the past
...do I fail to see the goodness in some people because of my bias or narrowness
...am I closed to God because I like the easy life...

God does not demand that our life be turned upside down every moment of every day
some days will be rough
most days we are just to keep on moving on.
Not, mind you, standing still.
Maybe just the next small step.

For you prayers:
In the time of quiet, perhaps early in the day

LORD LET ME CONFRONT MY OWN SELF TODAY
AND TO ENCOUNTER YOUR CALL TO ME
LET ME HEAR YOUR CHALLENGE
WALK IN FAITH
AND GIVE ME COURAGE TO RESPOND, YES!

Reading s for next Sunday

get real - you do not have permission to park your brain

Readings for Sunday 11th November, Proper 27 (24th Sunday after Pentecost) -Haggai 1:15b-2:9 and [Psalm 145:1-5, 17-21 or Psalm 98] (or Job 19:23-27a and Psalm 17:1-9 ) 2 Thessalonians 2:1-5, 13-17; Luke 20:27-38

The Gospel reading for today is decidedly curious
but perhaps in election time we should not be so surprised or puzzled by it!
Jesus is asked a question by some antagonists
they are neither interested in the answer
nor in any real engagement with Jesus.
They are trying to get him to put his foot in it.
This happens on a number of different occasions in the Gospels,
and we might reflect
it happens a lot in day to day life.
We talk, but are not interested in listening.
We say a lot of things
but we need to also pay attention to more than the words.
Classic Question
The question that Jesus is asked is no doubt a 'classic'
He is asked it by Sadducees, who were one of the major parties at the time.
They differed from the popular party, the Pharisees,
to which Jesus probably belonged
in that they did not believe that life continued after death.
This was a key part of Jesus's teaching.
The question that they ask:
If a person has been married multiple times
and if this resurrection is true
then who will the person be married to after death
when everyone is dead and husbands and wife
are all living happily ever after in this supposed resurrected bliss
It is sort of amusing and clever (on one level)
but simply blind on another.

It is like many of the political questions that we hear at this time.
Not designed to elicit an answer
rather trying to expose a weakness
It is not about hearing the truth;
it is rather about struggling with versions of right.

Are we aware
That we ourselves are like this
that we often choose what is a view of 'right'
to engaging with truth.
Perhaps the infuriating things about the election
remind us of this.
How we are often more judgemental of the person or the party
than what is being said or done?

Maybe that is what politics is about.

It is rather more serious I suspect
when we do this in our lives
when we dismiss our husbands and wives
children and friends
sisters and brothers
workmates and neighbours
because of who they are....
rather than responding to what they do or say.
This encounter reminds us that there can be no end of game playing
(we are reminded of this in election mode )

THIS WEEK
we invite the Spirit to show us where prejudice has become our way of operating
rather than judgment or discernment

pray for the grace and perception to be more discrimnating
and for the will to put it into practice.

And if I tempted am to sin
and outward things are strong
do thou, O Lord, keep watch within,
and keep my soul from wrong
Isaac Williams
Victorian Hymnwriter

Fighting prejudice; winning wholeness

Readings for Proper 23 Sunday 14th October.

Jeremiah 29:1, 4-7 and Psalm 66:1-12 [or 2 Kings 5:1-3, 7-15c and Psalm 111 ]
2 Timothy 2:8-15 & Luke 17:11-19

Leprosy has a sort of romantic attraction for many Christians

but in reality that romanticism is ill-placed.

It is as romantic as AIDS in the modern context

and as socially stigmatising as skin cancer

or any disease which has disfigurement associated with it.

The story (Luke 17:11-19) has not only some interesting reflections to make about seeking healing from God

...Do we for example live out of the thankfulness of answered prayer?

Or do we quickly forget that God desires healing for us all?

This story reflects that 9 out of 10 people

forget to give thanks to God.

and my estimation would be that that is about right!

But the story also tells us that God's healing is not confined by religion,

it isn't just confined

to who we think

God should be disposed towards.

God's concern is towards humanity and not just to Jews or Christians,

white or black.

It is not just to be nice to children

or those who say their prayers

God's concern is for the whole of humanity.

God's grace, the free gift of eternal life,

is without bounds

and is offered to all.

It is a reminder to us that we should be no less open.

That our compassion needs to be challenged beyond the bounds of niceness.

We are to be open to be compasssionate

beyond the bounds of our own social caste or religion.

The world is not like this.

9 out of 10 people get this wrong.

Prejudice

This week we saw a curious little incident

which indicates how easily we are seduced

to be partial, racist and selective in showing mercy.

It is our enlightened view that although criminals need to be punished,

the days of the death penalty are behind us.

I think this is a view that accords with God's universal generosity and mercy.

When we see our politicians on both sides

saying

"No death penalty"

except for those who we call "terrorists" or who kill Australians

then we are allowing the sort of discriminations

that Jesus himself stands against.

Why do they do this?

They do this because substantial parts fo the electorate do indeed make this sort of discrimination.

I want to say that Christians need to stand against this.

As we follow and worship a man who was himself killed

not for any guilt of his own

but because of political process gone mad

we should be the first to stand against such political machinations.

Political expediency is not the standard we follow.

Christian mercy is.

This week

Can you reflect on where you make judgments

based on prejudice rather than compassion and mercy?

Invite the Holy Spirit to let you do better than this and to show you how?

God who is truth and love

grant to us your people

the wisdom and compassion

to act justly and with mercy

in the name of the guiltless Jesus

who died that all people might know the love of God.
Amen