We are a small Episcopal Church on the banks of the Rappahannock in Port Royal, Virginia. We acknowledge that we gather on the traditional land of the first people of Port Royal, the Nandtaughtacund, and we respect and honor with gratitude the land itself, the legacy of the ancestors, and the life of the Rappahannock Tribe. Our mission statement is to do God’s Will in all that we do.

Commentary

Gospel, July 17, 2022 – Mary and Martha

“Christ in the House of Mary and Martha” – Vermeer (1655)

The Gospel reading is here.

Let’s set the scene. We are in the long travel narrative in Luke (9:51 — 19:28). Jesus “set his face to go to Jerusalem” (9:51) and instructs those who would follow that the journey must be their first priority (9:57-58). Jesus sends the seventy ahead with no provisions for the journey and insists they depend on the hospitality of those in towns who welcome them (10:1-11).

Immediately preceding the stop at Martha’s home, Jesus tells a story about a man on a journey who is beaten and left to die. He is saved by an unexpected merciful neighbor (10:30-37). The story of “the good Samaritan” confirms that the journey to Jerusalem is dangerous, and that disciples might welcome the compassion of someone who, in other circumstances, would be considered undesirable.

This week we are in a seemingly peaceful setting – Jesus is invited into the home of Mary and Martha who live with their brother Lazarus in Bethany not far from Jerusalem. This is only reference to Mary and Martha in the synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke). The two sisters and their brother, Lazarus, figure prominently in the fourth gospel, but hardly at all in the synoptics.

This is one of 3 mentions of this family:

1. Jesus was their guest – this week. Luke 10:38-42

2. John 11:1-44 When Lazarus had died, Jesus came to Bethany. Martha, upon being told that He was approaching, went out to meet Him, while Mary sat still in the house until He sent for her. It was to Martha that Jesus said: “I am the Resurrection and the Life.”

3. John 12:1-8 About a week before the crucifixion, as Jesus reclined at table, Mary poured a flask of expensive perfume over Jesus’ feet. Mary was criticized for wasting what might have been sold to raise money for the poor, and again Jesus spoke on her behalf.

On the basis of these incidents, many Christian writers have seen Mary as representing Contemplation (prayer and devotion), and Martha as representing Action (good works, helping others); or love of God and love of neighbor respectively.

Martha like the Samaritan is welcoming and is doing what women then were supposed to do – getting the house ready for the visitor. However, she is overwhelmed. We don’t how many guests there are. Where Jesus goes there are at least 12 other guys following him…and then the gravity and reality of the invitation comes crashing down on her. She is distracted. By contrast, Mary is sitting at the master’s feet, intent on listening to him but not lifting a finger to help.

Martha wants Jesus to tell Mary “get with it” and help out. Instead Jesus turns the tables and praises Mary saying “Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.”  

So what’s going on here ?  There are a variety of interpretations 

1. The Kingdom is being brought to all and in particular women

Jesus is crossing Jewish cultural bounds – he is alone with women who are not his relatives;  a woman serves him; and he teaches a woman in her own house.

Women were not supposed to sit with teachers as the disciples did.  Mary is assuming a male role – at the feet of Jesus.

In the first century, rabbis did not teach women. Outside of being instructed in their proper gender roles according to custom and law, women received no education.

Both in the previous story, the Samaritan and this story, they are moving beyond boundaries. The Samaritan for Luke illustrates the second commandment (‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’). Mary exemplifies the fulfillment of the first commandment. ‘You are to love God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your energy, and with all your mind.’   

2. How do we deal with rivalries ?

The Martha and Mary story is just another in a series of instances of the disciples letting rivalry get in the way. This is similar to James and John and their discussion of  “whom is the greatest?”  in Mark, Chapter 9.

Martha asks Jesus to intervene. “Tell her then to help me.”   Martha has considered by some to be a “control freak.”

Jesus doesn’t mince words in his response. Calling her by name not just once but twice, in a manner that sounds more like a parent than a friend, he describes the situation.

The rivalries that we live in are the things that distract us. Jesus calls us out of these rivalistic relationships and into the Kingdom. Without the rivalry we can still attended to the daily demands of life, but maybe without seeing ourselves as victims of someone. 

3. A further study in hospitality 

Hospitality, sharing a meal in particular, is a prominent theme throughout Luke and how one is received or not.  In the narrative world of Luke, hospitality is multi-dimensional. According to this gospel account, we see hospitality from the perspective of receiving hospitality as well as extending it to another. Hospitality in Luke’s world is not limited to sex, religious preoccupation or county – it is open to all.

In this story, we expect Jesus to affirm the one who welcomes them into her home and prepares all that is needed to make them comfortable.

Yes, serving is encouraged too and follows naturally from following Jesus. This serving, however, is not drudgery, and is not to be accompanied by anxiety, distraction, worry, and trouble.  

This story is a clarification of hospitality in the Samaritan story. Both Mary and Martha are doing.  Doing is not the only thing. Eternal life is not gained in just the doing, but in the receiving – in hearing and believing.

4. Another alternative?

Mary & Martha’s story is a story about priorities and choices.  

It’s about choosing to make God a priority in our lives and not merely the façade of God in our lives a priority.

Often we get consumed with making sure everything is in its place and there is a place for everything.  

What is the most important thing we should be doing in the context of our daily activities ?

It’s about choosing to allow God to shape us into the people God needs us to be and then allowing God to use us to impact those around us in healthy, up-lifting, God-inspired ways.

What God wants for us is to become comfortable at his feet and “engage in the task” of sitting and listening as he reminds us of how really good life can be – even when life is not going as we have planned. And as we sit and remember what God promises, then we can go out and do as God wants. 

In Eugene Peterson’s, The Message, Jesus’ words to Martha are, “Martha, dear Martha, you’re fussing far too much and getting yourself worked up over nothing. One thing only is essential, and Mary has chosen it – it’s the main course, and won’t be taken from her.”

“Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.”

What really matters is how these two responded to God’s presence in their midst.

Thinking about God’s word as the “main course” in the feast of Life, however, doesn’t give that immediate sense that listening is better than doing. Instead, it places these two activities in balance. The word calls for us to both sit and listen AND to go and do. 

Since this story is about “turning the tables” one further extension of that is to consider Jesus the host and not Martha. Jesus is the host, not Martha or Mary or anyone of us, and he spreads the word like a banquet to nourish and strengthen us. The word has within it commands both to sit and listen, and to go and do. We “sit on our salvation,” but then scatter into the world and work of daily life. 

We must balance the role of food-preparer with that of friend and listener. Her actions are actually causing separation from Jesus at the same time she is drawing her into the home. 

As with previous weeks, there is an urgency involved.

The key is that there is an urgency to the kingdom. In Chapter 10 we saw several weeks ago, there is no time to rest; no time to bury the dead, even a parent; no time to say goodbye to family; no looking back (10:57-62). it. We might consider Martha’s concern for hospitality as similar to the “distractions” Jesus names at the outset of the journey to Jerusalem. Seeking God’s Kingdom is the first priority above all else, even the common customs of hospitality. 

If you look carefully, Jesus doesn’t say anything about not cleaning house or preparing dinner. He is not saying people should not have “many things” to do. Martha’s issue is not that she is a busy person. She is distracted by her many tasks and missing the fundamentals of having a chance to hear the gospel.  

Like the lawyer last week in the Good Samaritan, Martha is focused on “me.” “Why do I have  to get the house ready, while Mary gets the best role.”  We see this is in many churches. “Why does so and so get to do this while I alway have to wash dishes.”

 The author of the blog “Theological Stew gets the heart of the matter: “But here’s what I see in this. Martha was so busy with her eyes on what Mary was doing that she wasn’t being faithful to her own calling. The interesting thing is that Martha could have been just as close to Jesus doing what she was doing as Mary was sitting at his feet. She just didn’t see it.”
 

What Mary gets that Martha doesn’t

Colossians 1:15-29 – “Christ in You” “This mystery that has been hidden throughout the ages and generations but now is revealed to God’s saints… is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” —Colossians 1.27-28 A poem by Steve Garnaas-Holmes “Never mind the lonely trek across the desert to find your elusive teacher, nor does your Savior have to come to you. The Beloved lives inside you, breathing here, moving in you, moving you, the silence shimmering in your lungs, the heat rising, pulsing, pushing, straining to get out and love this crazy world. “The life in you is of God. The Chosen One is in your blood, your flesh, even your wounds, bleeding sometimes, and when you bleed you bleed glory, and when you are weary the splendor of God rests, and when you suffer the Gentle One silently accepts your lashes, and quietly rises again and again. “The Beloved lives inside you, working miracles, or speaking to you in that silent language, or sometimes sitting still, eyes closed, with a little smile, or maybe just relaxing, looking around, being at home. We have to look inside to see our own unique gifts that are a part of our community . These appear in soul searching as a result of our faith if we take the time to search them out. And we have to be ready to receive the gifts of others as well. Martha as well as May has the opportunity to receive God’s grace through faith through their identification with Christ. Martha needs to see that she needs nourishment. She needs to be “renewed in faith and strengthened for service.” Jesus is the host with many gifts to give. We have to take the time to “get it.” This scripture represents Paul’s dealing with those in Colossae who believe that obedience to the law through the Torah provided the basis for God’s promised blessings. Not so, says Paul. When a person believes in Christ, Christ enters into their being and they receive, as a gift, the full benefits of Christ’s death and resurrection. Thus with “Christ in us” we possess the “hope of glory.” We can all share in his glory It was his effort to preach and incorporate the Gentiles into the body of Christ.

Christ in the House of Mary and Martha – Johannes Vermeer

The painting is inspired by Luke 10:38-42 where Jesus enters the home of Mary and Martha. It happens after the Good Samaritan. The passage only occurs in Luke’s Gospel.

Martha greets Jesus but is preoccupied with tasks. Mary chose listening to the teachings of Jesus over helping her sister prepare food. Jesus is friends with this family who live in Bethany. Later, just before the crucifixion, Jesus will raise Mary and Martha’s brother Lazarus.

The three figures are bound in a circular composition. Circular compositions were frequently employed to unite complex figure groupings and impede the viewer’s eye from straying aimlessly around the picture If, however, the implied circle becomes too influential, the observer may feel subliminally entrapped. As a remedy Dutch artists often included a sort of escape route Vermeer provided a similar visual relief in the half-opened doorway  to the dark recess of the upper left-hand corner of the composition.

The work is known for the handling of light and shadow. The play of light on different surfaces such as the loaf of bread or the different fabrics  (Mary seated) is noted. There is color contrast in Mary’s clothing. Martha is statuesque with her downcast eyes. She seems to ignore Jesus pointing. The painting seems to be echoing the last verse. But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.”

Dutch interior paintings are their own genre in the 17th century. Many of the paintings focus on love and/or the virtues of domestic life, the latter appropriate for this painting.  The Dutch had fought a ware for independence culminating in 1648 The new Dutch Republic was the most prosperous nation in Europe and led European trade, science, and art. A distinctive feature of the period, compared to earlier European painting, was the limited number of religious paintings. Dutch Calvinism forbade religious paintings in churches, and though biblical subjects were acceptable in private homes, relatively few were produced.

This is one of the largest and  earliest surviving paintings by Johannes Vermeer (1632-1675). It is also his only known work of a biblical subject though he was a specialist of interiors. It was done between 1654-1656.

Around the time that he painted this picture, Vermeer married Catharina Bolnes, the youngest daughter of a wealthy Catholic in Delft, Maria Thins. This match would have required Vermeer’s conversion to Catholicism, and the young couple soon moved in with the bride’s mother. Given its large size, it is likely that Christ in the House of Martha and Mary was a specific commission, possibly intended for a clandestine Catholic church in Delft or for a Catholic patron, perhaps even Vermeer’s mother-in-law.

Commentary, July 10, 2022

 Theme – God’s call challenges us to obedience, compassion and action for justice

“The Good Samaritan” – Van Gogh (1890)

The lectionary readings are here  or individually: 

First Reading – Deuteronomy 30:9-14

Psalm – Psalm 25:1-9

Epistle – Colossians 1:1-14

Gospel – Luke 10:25-37 


Today’s readings focus on God’s call challenging us to obedience, compassion and action for justice. In Deuteronomy (Track 2), Moses assures the people that God’s call to obedience is not too difficult nor is it hidden. Paul writes that Christ, the image of the invisible God, is our Creator, Sustainer and Reconciler. Jesus answers a lawyer’s question by telling the story of the Good Samaritan.

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What we say about ourselves is not nearly as important as how we live out what we say—how we live out our lives with Christ. We are called by God throughout scripture and tradition to care for the poor, the outcast, the oppressed, and the marginalized—but throughout our history and scripture, we have found ways to make excuses. We have put ourselves before others and have justified our way of life, while others around us and in the world continue to suffer. We cannot remain ignorant of the struggles of others. Eventually, justice catches up to us

Moses warned the people in the wilderness, and they did not listen. Jesus questions the lawyer who wants the right answer to be given, who wants to speak aloud the truth, and helps him to realize that it is about a love that shows mercy, a way of living towards others. How are we living out our faith? Are we just saying what we believe in? Is it more important to have the right statements of faith, or is it more important to do what Jesus has called us to do and live out our faith?


How often have we passed by persons in need or deferred social involvement to keep our own schedule ? We are not bad persons either; we simply place our broad spectrum vocational callings ahead of the concreteness of God’s call in the present moment.


Our challenge is to grow in stature, so that we can creatively and lovingly balance our personal and institutional responsibilities, including our self-care and care for families and congregations, with the unsettling challenges to go beyond our immediate responsibilities so that we may become God’s partners in healing the world. Jewish mystics remind us that to save one soul is to save the world. From a God’s eye view, this means to care for our loved ones and ourselves as well as those who are loved by God and beyond the walls of our communities. This will lead to agitation but our agitation will find completeness and comfort in feelings of wholeness which emerge when we join our well-being with the well-being of our most vulnerable local and global companions.


II. Summary


First Reading – Deuteronomy 30:9-14


The book of Deuteronomy is presented as Moses’ farewell address to the Israelite people gathered at the border of the promised land. The book is a reinterpretation of Mosaic instruction (the Jewish Torah or Law) to deal with the situations of later history. It, or the core of it, was probably “the book of the law” found in 621 BC, which sparked Josiah’s reforms (2 Kings 22–23). It emphasizes the continued relevance of Moses’ teaching to each generation. In its real purpose, Deuteronomy is about starting over, hoping to get it right and keep it going this time, where “it” is national identity expressed through loyalty to God’s law.


Today’s reading comes from Moses’ third address (chaps. 29–30). In this scene, as in others in the book, we see the author leading us away from a classic mythological view of God’s wisdom and direction to a new place wherein God’s teaching is evident and approachable. The people are promised restoration and renewal of the covenant. Following the verses that promise a continuing prosperity, we are led to the feet of the Law, the commandments of God. It is here that Israel will encounter the living one, not in the gifts of God’s blessing


They will enjoy the blessings of obedience (v. 9) if they seek, follow, serve and obey the lord with the total intensity of their whole being (v. 10). God has drawn near and revealed the guidelines that are necessary for living a life pleasing to God. God has already placed these deep within us. Our task is to discover and live them.


What God is asking of them is not too difficult, nor is it far-fetched; but rather, it should become second-nature, because the word is very near them (vs. 14). God delights in us when we are faithful, because we are concerned about the same things God is concerned about. Moses’ hope is that the people remember that the same God who brought them out of Egypt, and gave them manna in the wilderness, and gave them the commandments so that they would know how to follow God’s ways will not forget that God is always with them. Moses’ hope is for the people to remain faithful as God has remained faithful.  


Psalm – Psalm 25:1-9


Psalm 25:1-10 is a prayer for God’s guidance in this life. This psalm seems to describe the intimacy of God’s wisdom and Law as the Deuteronomist has done in the Old Testament reading this week.


The psalmist seeks God’s protection and help, but also prays for wisdom and insight in how to follow God, seeking forgiveness for where one has made mistakes in the past. The psalmist sings praises for the way God teaches us and gives us direction, and if we are faithful, we will understand God’s faithfulness.


This is an acrostic psalm, each verse beginning with a successive letter of the alphabet – one of nine in the collections of the Psalms.. It is in the form of a personal lament and contains the usual cry for help (vv. 1-3), plea for guidance (vv. 4-5), expression of trust (vv. 6-15) and presentation of the psalmist’s plight (vv. 17-19) in a prayer of vindication (vv. 16-21). The psalm may have been written for general use by any worshiper.


In verses 4-5, the psalmist asks God to teach him truth. He recognizes that his adversaries, both external (vv. 2) and internal (vv. 7), are strong enough to triumph over him. His fear of the lord compels him to acknowledge that God alone can make him into a person of true righteousness (v. 9).


There are images of a journey in these verses, with the central image of the psalmist attempting to walk in the ways of the Lord (see “He guides” (verse 8) and “All the paths” (verse 9). God is pictured here not only as one who shares wisdom, but also as one who forgives when we have forgotten the wisdom.



Today’s reading is the first of a sequence of four Sundays from the letter to the Colossians. The letter to the Colossians addressed tendencies among the Colossian Christians to merge differing beliefs. They had apparently adopted additional teaching, ritual observances and ascetic practices from various sources–Judaism, the pagan mystery cults and speculative theosophy–in order to supplement Christianity and thereby ensure salvation. The letter asserts the entire sufficiency of Christ and of redemption through him.


Today’s reading follows the outline of the beginning of most of Paul’s letters: salutation (1:1-2), thanksgiving (1:3-8) and prayer of intercession (1:9-14). The Colossians are reminded of the gospel they learned from Epaphras (4:12f; Philemon 23). Paul prays that they may be open to God’s will and be strengthened by God to lead moral lives; the connection between knowledge of the gods and ethical behavior was not always made in the pagan religions.


The use of such words as knowledge and wisdom may be a deliberate appropriation of terms used by the mystery religions in order to claim them for Christ. In the Graeco-Roman world at this time there was a general sense of being imprisoned in the world and subjected to evil spirits; thus, many different groups promised deliverance through esoteric knowledge and practices.


What we hear is a message of encouragement, that we no longer live in the power of darkness but in the reign of Christ. The author begins with blessing the Colossians with God’s strength and endurance from God, that they may bear fruit and be pleasing to God and to others. Paul proclaims that it is God who “has delivered us from the dominion of darkness” and it is his Son “in whom we have redemption” through baptism. There is no need to propitiate other powers.


Paul wants them to continue in their knowledge – he mark’s it out: God’s will, spiritual wisdom, understanding. And he prays that there me fruits that come from the faith that they so boldly exhibit. There is a hint of trouble to come, Paul is no Pollyanna, “and may you be prepared to endure everything with patience.” Suddenly at verse 13, the focus shift from the faithful to the faithful Jesus, “in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” This is the foundation of the discussion that Paul will have with these people, and which we shall listen in on during the coming Sundays.


Gospel –  Luke 10:25-37 


Last Sunday the Seventy (or Seventy-Two) were sent out, and when they returned the reported about the things that they had seen. Now we shall meet a character who cannot see. But it is not just the young lawyer who cannot see, the characters in the parable Jesus tells also cannot see.


Today’s reading illustrates the challenge of Christian discipleship in relationship to others. Luke 10:25-37 is the familiar parable of the Good Samaritan. The greatest commandment is listed in all four Gospels in some variation. In Luke’s version, it is not Jesus who answer the questioner with the Greatest commandment, but it is Jesus answering a question with a question—when the lawyer asks “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”


The scholar’s question to Jesus about how to summarize the Jewish Law was one frequently posed to rabbis, who commonly replied with the second part of the answer, taken from Leviticus 19:18b (“you shall love your neighbor as yourself”). The first part is taken from the Shema (Deuteronomy 6:4-5 (“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.”) which was part of the daily morning prayer of the Jews.


Jesus responds with, “What is written in the law?What do you read there?” Jesus is telling the lawyer to look up what is in the law himself. The lawyer picks up on this dance of questions and responds to Jesus – “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.”


He waits for Jesus’ response, “You have given the right answer; do this and you will live,” the lawyer asks another question, “And who is my neighbor?” His concern about the Law is really about his concern about survival. Even though he knows the answer about God, neighbor, and self, he doesn’t know how to enact it.


Then Jesus tells the parable. By attaching the story of the Good Samaritan, Luke illustrates in a memorable way what the love of a neighbor requires. This also reinforces the Christian application of the Jewish covenant commandments to all persons. In looking for God, we must also see the neighbor, and the neighbor is the last person that we might expect. Usually “the neighbor is the one we would rather avoid.


Jesus asks the question at the end “Which of these three was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?” That is the final question asked, and the lawyer finally has to answer, “The one who showed him mercy.” Love is about showing mercy, and love is about doing justice. This is the way of God, the most important commandment: to love God and to love our neighbor as ourselves, and the way of love is justice and mercy.


Thus a neighbor was a fellow Jew or a resident alien who was under their protection (Leviticus 19:34). The parable turns the question around, from neighbor as object of love to neighbor as one who shows love without defining or delimiting the recipient. Like God (Luke 1:78), like Jesus (Luke 7:13), like the prodigal’s father (Luke 15:20), the despised Samaritan has compassion upon the one in need and acts decisively to rescue the sufferer from the difficult situation.


Today the whole world has become our neighborhood. Scenes of the overwhelming needs of strangers strain our eyes and assault our senses. Crime in our city streets and on the highways has become so common and violent that some of us do not dare be good Samaritans nor teach our children to be friendly to strangers.


Moreover, vast social machinery now exists for taking care of the needy. Many of us give, either voluntarily or under some compulsion to support those agencies and organizations that are the caretakers of social needs. Our social conscience is able to stay alive in this way without too much personal involvement.


So what sense can we in our day make of the one-to-one setting of the parable of the Good Samaritan? The question now seems to be the same one the lawyer asked of Jesus: “Who is my neighbor?” Or, whom are we obliged to help?


Jesus offered no formula to help us make categorical decisions. Implicit in the parable was the only guideline we have—Christ’s loving concern for the individual and willingness to take action to change the situation.


Love is the only energizer and director of our activities that we can trust to guide us. We can know who our neighbor is only when we know who God is. When God’s word is in our hearts and God’s Spirit in our lives, we are able to respond to the needs around us.


Jesus ended the lawyer’s speculative approach to the meaning of life. The parable reversed the lawyer’s question from “Who is worthy of my attention?” to “To whose need must I respond with the love that God shows to me?”


It is by God’s light that we see God’s image in the faces of our brothers and sisters. It is by Christ’s Spirit within us that we extend aid and comfort to them. Real redeeming work, whether for the body or the soul, requires costly, self-sacrificing effort. We pray for grace to bear Christ’s love to all left bludgeoned and abandoned beside the road.

Van Gogh’s Depiction of the “Good Samaritan

From Author of this article

Vincent Van Gogh’s dynamic and intimate portrait of the Good Samaritan is based on the French painter Eugene Delacroix’s similar painting. Van Gogh painted his own version of Delacroix’s The Good Samaritan while recuperating at the asylum of Saint-Rémy after suffering from two mental breakdowns in the winter of 1888-89.

At the time, Van Gogh was feeling spent and fragile and this sense of helplessness colors both figures at the heart of the painting. The broken and attacked man can barely get up on the horse. His muscles appear limp, depleted of any strength that could help him sit upright. All the man appears capable of is clinging to his rescuer. Likewise, the Samaritan seems to be barely able to summon up the strength to lift the man on the horse. By imbuing the painting with his own brokenness, Van Gogh creates a moving depiction of Christ’s solidarity with us in our human weakness. Christ humbles himself, taking on the form of a slave (Phil 2:7). And we, like this robbed man, can do nothing without Christ who strengthens us (Phil 4:13).

In some of the earliest  interpretations of the parable by early Church theologians, most famously by Augustine, the Good Samaritan is an image of Christ. The two coins with which the Samaritan pays the innkeeper are the two commandments: to love the Lord Our  and to love our neighbor as ourselves. During this Lenten season, we strive to love God more through purifying our lives of distracting loves of lesser things, and we strive to love our neighbor more through positive actions of charity and almsgiving.

As we meditate on this image of the Samaritan lifting up the weak robbed man, let us ponder what weaknesses we need Christ to heal in us this Lent. How is Christ seeking to reach us, even in our weakness? And how, through acts of almsgiving, can we be Good Samaritans for our neighbors in need this Lent?

On May 8, 1889, exhausted, ill, and out of control, Vincent Van Gogh committed himself to St. Paul’s psychiatric asylum in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, a small hamlet in the south of France. A former monastery, the sanitarium was located in an area of cornfields, vineyards and olive trees. There Van Gogh was allowed two small adjoining cells with barred windows. One room he used as his bedroom, and the other was his tiny studio. While there, Van Gogh not only painted the surrounding area and the interior of the asylum, he also copied paintings and drawings by other artists, making those paintings his own through modifications he made to the painting’s composition, the colors and, of course, the brush strokes.

One of the artists whose works Van Gogh copied and modified was the Dutch Gold Age painter Rembrandt van Rijn. The Good Samaritan by Rembrandt drew Van Gogh’s attention: in which a Samaritan man hoists a wounded man with a bandaged head onto a horse to be taken to an inn for recovery.

When Van Gogh was admitted to the sanitarium in St Remy de Provence, he had become so difficult, so sick that the townspeople of Arles, where he had been living and painting had given him the name “the red-headed madman.” After a psychotic break during the visit of fellow artist Paul Gauguin, Van Gogh was all but put out of the town. With the help of a couple of people, he eventually made his way to the sanitarium in St Remy de Provence where he copied and modified Delacroix’s painting of The Good Samaritan.

If viewers were to see the two paintings – Rembrandt’s and Van Gogh’s side by side – the first thing that would strike you is the light in Van Gogh’s painting and the darkness in Rembrandt’s. Though not sharing the bright colors of his paintings in Arles, Van Gogh’s painting of The Good Samaritan, is well lit which means we can make out things more clearly in the painting.

The Good Samaritan – ‘What must I do to inherit eternal life?’

This is one of the most practical Bible lessons.

“Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? This is a basic, universal question that is asked by almost all human beings, even today. In Mark and Matthew, the question is more of a Jewish question. That is, “What is the greatest/first commandment of the law?” Mark and Matthew were asking a fundamental Jewish question; Luke was asking a fundamental universal question.

Luke was written to a larger world which he knew as a follower of Paul. This was the first time the idea of Dt 6:5 (“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength”) being combined with Leviticus 19:18 (“Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as yourself.”)

Jesus is challenged by a lawyer. The lawyer’s presence and public questioning of Jesus shows the degree of importance his detractors are placing on finding a flaw they can use. The lawyer is trying to see if there was a distinction between friends and enemies. Luke in the Sermon on the Plain (Luke 6:20 “But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.”) had eliminated the distinction and the lawyer was trying to introduce it again. As Jesus’ influence with the crowds continues to grow, the alarm of the religious establishment grows as well.

His first question is “what must I do to inherit eternal life.” Jesus answers, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.” The lawyer follows up with a second question, also a very good one. If doing this, i.e., loving God and loving neighbor as oneself, is a matter of eternal life, then defining “neighbor” is important in this context. The lawyer, however, in reality, is self-centered, concerned only for himself.

Jesus shifts the question from the one the lawyer asks — who is my neighbor?–to ask what a righteous neighbor does. The neighbor is the one we least expect to be a neighbor. The neighbor is the “other,” the one most despised or feared or not like us. It is much broader than the person who lives next to you. A first century audience, Jesus’ or Luke’s, would have known the Samaritan represented a despised “other.”

Read more: The Good Samaritan – ‘What must I do to inherit eternal life?’

Read more…

Of the four characters in this story (besides the robbers and the victim) – the lawyer, levite, priest and Samaritan – the first three were known in Jewish society. The Samaritan is the outsider.

The idea of being a “Good Samaritan” would have been an oxymoron to a first century Jew. During an ancient Israeli war, most of the Jews living up north in Samaria were killed or taken into exile. How can the Samaritans be anything but “bad”? Jews would do anything to avoid these people. However, a few Jews, who were so unimportant that nobody wanted them, were left in Samaria. Since that time, these Jews had intermarried with other races. They were considered half-breeds by the “true” Jews. They had perverted the race. They had also perverted the religion.

Note also that the Samaritan acts not to receive anything for himself (like self-justification). He responds to the needs of the man in the ditch and his actions cost him — time and money. The others can’t go beyond their limited role in society. The levite can’t touch the injured because of laws against uncleanness. The priests (Pharisees) are more concerned with rules and structures. We must look beyond the mores of society.

The verbs used with the Samaritan are worth emulating: to have compassion others; to come (near) to others; to care for others; to do mercy to others. It is not enough just to know what the Law says, one must also do it. To put it another way, it is not enough just to talk about “what one believes,” but “what difference does it make in my life that I believe.”

The man in the ditch may represent us. Brian Stoffregen quotes Bernard Scott in Jesus, Symbol-Maker for the Kingdom. “Grace comes to those who cannot resist, who have no other alternative than to accept it. To enter the parable’s World, to get into the ditch, is to be so low that grace is the only alternative. The point may be so simple as this: only he who needs grace can receive grace.. all who are truly victims, truly disinherited, have no choice but to give themselves up to mercy.” And we are victims in our own way.

He goes on to say “the parable of the Good Samaritan may be reduced to two propositions: In the Kingdom of God mercy comes only to those who have no right to expect it and who cannot resist it when it comes. Mercy always comes from the quarter from which one does not and cannot expect.”

Stoffregen says “I have usually taken the second interpretive approach to this text. We are the ones in the ditch and the Samaritan represent God — God who is both enemy and helper. Our sin makes God our enemy. Yet, in the parable, the “enemy” gives new life to the man in the ditch. The “enemy” expends his resources (apparently unlimited) for the care of the half-dead man.

“The problems with the lawyer is that he couldn’t see God as his enemy. He hadn’t recognized the depth of his own sinfulness. (He wants to justify himself and probably had a bit of pride that comes along with that.) He was too strong and healthy. He assumes that he has the ability to do something to inherit eternal life. He assumes that he can do something to justify himself. He is not helpless in the ditch. He thinks he doesn’t need God’s grace.

“God also gets into the ditch of the dead. On the cross, God died. There is the resurrection “donkey” who transports us to the heavenly “inn” where there is complete recovery from all pain and suffering.”

“I also noted in this sermon that at times we might identify with the innkeeper. In the parable, the Samaritan used the innkeeper to continue the healing process the he had started. The Samaritan promised to provide everything that the innkeeper would need to care for this man. Sometimes God helps us out of the ditch directly. Sometimes God uses other people.”

In the end our neighbor is everyone.

Jesus said to him, “You have answered rightly. Do this and you will live. We don’t repeat the words – we need live them as they had at the time. It is part of living a transformed life in the Kingdom away from structure of society that inhibit us and put blinders on us.”

Commentary, Pentecost 4C, July 3, 2022

The lectionary readings are here  or individually: 

I. Theme – God’s Call and Response to us, being sent out on mission

First Reading – Isaiah 66:10-14
Psalm – Psalm 66:1-8
Epistle – Galatians 6:(1-6)7-16
Gospel – Luke 10:1-11, 16-20 

Today’s readings focus on the Christian experience of being sent by Jesus to continue his mission. This Sunday’s lectionary readings reflect on God’s call and our response, and how this affects the shape of grace and healing in our lives.

Isaiah speaks words of peace and hope for God’s people because God’s love never fails. Paul closes his letter to the Galatians with some final counsel on behavior within the Christian community. Luke tells of the mission of the 70 disciples and their success in defeating Satan.

How do we live out God’s faithfulness in our lives? How do we witness to others? When we read of the message to the seventy, Jesus is not calling them out to condemn and cause fear but instead to heal and proclaim Good News. God has brought Good News through Jesus Christ, but it is human beings who have drawn the dividing lines. It is human beings who will not receive the message of peace, who turn away from God’s love, who restrict and condemn others. God desires restoration, healing, and forgiveness, and offers us new life, if we choose to accept

Transformation emerges through a dynamic process of divine-human call and response. Our openness and efforts make a difference to the quality and extent of God’s presence in our lives. As scripture says, Christ is always standing at the door, knocking and seeking our attention and partnership in the quest for planetary and personal wholeness. Whether and how we the open the door to God’s graceful, intimate, and visionary energy can make all the difference in the world.

The central message this week is simple but significant – do not despise the saving power of small things. God’s commitment to justice, restoration and healing is proclaimed strongly through the Psalms and Isaiah’s song, but the way God’s saving work comes into being is often through small, ordinary people and actions

The picture of God’s care and comfort in Isaiah is that of an ordinary, familiar domestic scene – a child being nursed by its mother. Galatians speaks about the work of following Christ in the every day terms of our relationships with one another (correcting each other and sharing burdens), taking responsibility and doing good for all. And Jesus sends his disciples out to share the message of God’s reign, while accepting hospitality along the way – a very ordinary practice for travelers. Even when they celebrate overcoming demons, Jesus downplays it.

The power of the church to bring wholeness to society is in the grace, kindness and mutual encouragement that comes form living as the letter to the Galatians instructs. And, in every individual, the willingness to receive God’s grace and healing through ordinary means frees us to become channels. Our impact is often less about how we structure our services or what kind of music we use or how “prominent” we are in our community. Often it is in the quiet work of nurturing care and service within our community, and in doing the slow, transformative work of growing into caring, serving Christ-followers in our homes, workplaces and sports clubs (as Galatians calls us) that ultimately determines how effective our ministry is.

When, instead of pointing fingers at “the world” we are willing to accept its “hospitality” speaking blessing, and offering grace and mercy and justice in every situation and with every person (as the disciples were called to do), then people begin coming to us to learn more about our faith and the One we follow. But, if we fail to do this, then no amount of words or programs will be enough to compensate for our lack of grace and goodness. It’s significant that, even when the disciples were told to “shake the dust off their feet” when they were not received in a village, they were, nevertheless instructed to tell the people that God’s Reign had come to them. It was not that they were “judging” the people, so much as using a graphic and powerful image to challenge them about what they had rejected. God’s love and grace remained available to the people. In the same way, we can confront the small injustices in our communities, while still offering grace. And, in the end, what is important is not the dramatic confrontations, but the people whose names are “written in heaven” – who have discovered life in the dream of God.

In practical terms, this move toward “ordinary justice” has very significant implications. If we are to reverse the impact of climate change, it will take small but significant shifts in the habits of many ordinary people. If our world is to become more peaceful, it will mean ordinary people must learn to understand and respect one another, recognizing our common humanity. If wealth is to be equitably distributed, it will mean changing the values by which ordinary individuals live from consumerism to simplicity and from accumulating to giving. If these shifts were just taken seriously by Christ-followers alone, the impact would be nothing short of miraculous. As Christians around the world join together in peace-making, hospitality, taking responsibility for the change we can bring and doing small acts of goodness, the Gospel message is preached clearly and powerfully, with very few words necessary.

The one reading that appears to be out of place is the alternative Psalm (66) – but here the focus is on the Exodus, which, although proclaimed through retelling the miraculous story, is about the very ordinary human longing for liberation and salvation – which is, of course, the essence of the message that Jesus’ disciples would have preached.

II. Summary

First Reading – Isaiah 66:10-14

Background – It’s hard to pin down the context and author of this passage, from the third great division of the book of Isaiah, chapters 56-66. It would make sense to assume that some godly person spoke this to exiles returning from the Babylonian Captivity. (That was the period, also called the Exile, when many, but not all, residents were taken away from Judea and held in Babylon for a couple of generations in the sixth century B.C.E. We know from the second part of Isaiah, chapters 40-55, that the rebuilding of their hometown Jerusalem was disappointingly slow.)

Apparently the people were losing faith that God would restore things for them, for the prophet is almost defensive in his assertion “the Lord’s power shall be known to his servants.” And the imagery is quite extravagant. It’s as if the prophet himself is whistling in the dark, to stave off doubt and despair.

Today’s reading develops the image of Jerusalem as the once desolate mother who in the end-time will be the source of all joy and nurture. Its structure is like that of a psalm where an initial idea (joy) is contrasted in the next strophe with opposite idea (mourning

Isaiah 66 explicitly uses feminine imagery to refer to God. As Isaiah often does, Yahweh’s tender care for the people is compared to that of a comforting mother (42:14, 49:15, 66:9). This image of God as a mother carrying her child, comforting a child who is sad or hurt is extremely nurturing and needed for a community that was coming out of exile. Yahweh’s covenant bond is rooted in a love that never fails. The desolate and discouraged people will be comforted and their sadness will turn to joy.

Jerusalem is also seen as a nursing mother caring for her children. The people who have been in exile are like lost children, who have been searching for their mother, but their mother, God, has also been searching and waiting for them. God has not forgotten them, and God will rejoice with them.

Verses 15 and 16 are an oracle of judgment upon the lord’s enemies, who are the idolatrous in Israel (v. 17) rather than the Gentiles, who will come to worship God (66:18-23). God’s judgment will be carried out by fire and sword.

Psalm – Psalm 66:1-8

Psalm 66:1-9 recalls God’s deliverance of the people from Egypt, and they recall this deliverance in song and praise. This is the God of the living, the God of life, who restores life when it is taken, who renews all things. The people remember God’s acts of deliverance in history and find hope in the stories of old. It is a psalm that centers on God, and the foundational acts of Israel as a people.

This psalm of praise and thanksgiving is divided into several parts, which may have been composed or used at different times. The first part (vv. 1-4) is a hymn to God. All of the earth is invited to sing praise to God Verses 5-12 give thanks for the deliverance of people through God’s saving power, as shown in the crossing of the Red Sea and/or the Jordan (v. 6). The acts of God were not just past history but were made present through recollection and reenactment in the liturgy. So the exodus events became a way to understand the return from exile in Babylon (vv. 10, 12). Likewise for Christians, this psalm speaks of participation, through baptism, in Christ’s resurrection.

Epistle –  Galatians 6:(1-6)7-16

Galatians 6:1-16 ends our series of readings from Paul’s letter to the churches in Galatia. Paul has been arguing against those that have received the false Gospel, that requires Gentile converts to keep to the Jewish law first, and Paul has been angry with leaders such as Peter who have been hypocrites about what they practice and how they are seen.

Leaving behind the discussion and arguments concerning freedom and the law, Paul turns to issues of practicality within the Christian life: a) dealing with those who have transgressed (Paul argues for “gentleness” and taking up another’s burdens.

This means to restore one another with a spirit of gentleness (in other words, to forgive) understanding and the sharing of difficulties, to work together for the good of all. b) “Sowing good – in the Spirit”, arguing that we should in our works of righteousness do that which is right, working for the good of all, and c) Knowing that in which to take pride. He warns that it is not born of the traditional pride of circumcision, but rather the cross of Christ.

Paul’s blessing to them is that they remain strong in Christ, and that all are a new creation in Christ, where the law, where the divisions of Jew and Gentile, male and female, slave and free do not exist any longer. Christians are submitted to “the law of Christ,” not a legal code but a Persno

Paul urges the community to provide for its teachers and to persevere in doing good. He summarizes the theme of the letter, declaring that it is participation, not in circumcision, but in crucifixion with Christ (2:19, 5:24) and thus in the new creation, which is the Christian’s only glory. This is the true continuity with the past. Those, both Jew and Gentile, who follow Christ, are the true chosen people, “the Israel of God.”

Paul himself bears the evidence of this commitment to Christ; the word translated “marks” is in Greek stigmata, meaning a scar (2 Corinthians 4:8-10) or a slave’s brand of ownership. The use of stigmata to refer to the marks of the crucifixion came much later. He closes the letter, which began so harshly, with a blessing upon the recipients.

Gospel –  Luke 10:1-11, 16-20 

The larger reading is made up of five smaller units: a) Instruction for “the Seventy” (verses 1-12), b) The Impenitent (not in our reading, excepting verse 16) (verses 13-16), c) The Seventy return (verses 17-20), d) a Thanksgiving (not in our reading) (verse 21), and e) Blessings (verses 22-24 also not in our reading). Our reading focuses in on the mission of the seventy and what the learned in their service.

The first part, the mission of the 70 disciples, is recorded only by Luke. This reading recalls a similar mission of the “Twelve” in the previous chapter ( Luke 9:1-5). What is the meaning of the numbers? The twelve are the disciples, of course, their number symbolic of Israel. The number seventy (“seven” denoting perfection, and the multiplication by ten indicating a great number) was a term used to describe “the Nations”. Thus these couples are sent out to all the world.

Luke understands their mission as foreshadowing the later mission of the Christian community to the world. They are to go out two by two as witnesses into the harvest, the final gathering of God’s people. They are to rely upon God to protect and provide for them.

Jesus sent 70 disciples out to towns he was about to visit, warning them he was sending them out “like lambs into the midst of wolves.” Jesus was able to survey that sorry landscape, the dusty roads, abject poverty and skeptical people and see a golden field, glowing richly with harvest. He tries to convey his vision to his followers, makes them his forerunners, and instructs them in actions he himself would be likely to take.

There are practicalities to be observed: simplicity, focus, observation, and thankfulness . They are to travel light and bring peace to each household they visit. They come bringing no goods with them, nor an agenda, but simply to say, “Peace to this house! If they are not received, they are to wipe the dust off of their sandals, which Jesus already told the twelve to do in their previous mission in 9:1-6.

They should be adaptable, following local eating and drinking customs, not demanding special treatment. Curing the sick, they should encourage people that God’s reign was close enough to touch, even in their midst. Their primary message, then is one of healing and encouragement.

This passage today contains also when the seventy have returned. They are called to go and share the Good News and to do deeds in the name of Jesus that proclaim that Good News. They are not called to condemn, or to preach hellfire and brimstone like John but rather leave the worrying about who receives the message of God’s love up to God. That’s not their concern. Their concern is to do the Good News: to preach, heal, bless, and bring the message of peace.

Rejection, it appears, was not to change the focus of the journey – namely the message that the kingdom of heaven was at hand. Jesus counsels persistence and non-attachment. Your work is not about your success or achievement but faithfulness to God and the well-being of those whom you serve. If people treat you well, be faithful, and let the power of God flow, enriching and deepening their lives and possibly even transforming their bodies and social standing. If people turn their back on you, scorning your message, continue on your journey, letting go of any sense of failure or desire for revenge. We are responsible for the fidelity of our message and our spiritual well-being; the rest is up to the gentle providence of God and the decisions of those to whom we minister.

We can reasonably assume from this scripture that the disciples also had some bad experiences, although Luke reports only the disciples’ immediate success, from which they returned in joy. Jesus told them their joy was misplaced. The divine protection and power they experienced was only a fringe benefit. True joy comes from knowing “that your names are written in heaven.” Furthermore, he gives them a steely strength from which to draw. They are empowered to do great deeds, to confront evil and remain unharmed.

Their urgency calls attention to the belief in the nearness of the promised end times, and their poverty and peaceableness echoes that urged by Jesus in the Sermon on the Plain (Luke 6:29-49). For Luke, “peace” is particularly associated with the salvation Jesus brings (1:79, 2:14, 29, 7:50, 8:48, 19:38). There is to be no quibbling over dietary rules (such was an issue in the Gentile mission, for example in Acts 11:1-18, Galatians 2:11-14 and 1 Corinthians 10:25).

The disciples proclaim Jesus’ own message, “the kingdom of God is at hand for you” (10:9, 11, 11:20), rather than the Christian post-Easter proclamation about Jesus. The final defeat of Satan that will characterize the end times is foreshadowed by their mission and begins to occur because of it. 

Commentary, June 26, 2022, Pentecost 3

The 2019 sermon was derived mostly from Psalm 16 is about “True Freedom”, apropos with July 4 coming up this week.

“True freedom is from God, the gift that God has freely given us through the liberating life, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus…

“In Psalm 16, the psalmist helpfully describes the true freedom that comes from knowing and living as if God really is our Lord.

“When God is our portion and our cup, we will never go hungry.

“When we accept God’s gifts to us, we dwell in God. Even if we have no place to lay our heads on this earth, we are at home in God and cared for by God.

“When we bless the Lord, who gives us counsel, we come to know God’s wisdom, because God teaches our hearts, so that we are no longer are held captive by or distressed by the erratic and unpredictable tyranny of human wisdom that is uninformed by God’s love.

“When people betray us and those tools of anger and revenge seem to be the only way out of our prisons of resentment and distress, remembering that the Lord is always with us will keep us from falling on our own swords as we try to take out our enemies.

“Therefore, the psalmist says that even in the worries and sorrows of this life, “my heart, therefore is glad, and my spirit rejoices; and my body rests in hope.”

Our readings this week are about focusing on the mission of establishing God’s kingdom presence in the world in contrast to a focus on one’s own desires and in an atmosphere of great change. Rev. Canon Lance Ousley of the Diocese of Olympia has said this about today’s readings. “Stewardship is not only about the giving of one’s self and one’s resources, but it is also about living our lives “by the Spirit” devoted each day to the presence of God’s kingdom here and now through sharing ourselves and our resources for this purpose. For those who do, they will find the nearness of God’s kingdom come on earth.”

The readings show different responses to change. In the Old Testament reading, Elisha accepts the mantle of leadership from Elijah whose mission was soon to be over which he did not complain about. He seems sanguine about it. We sang today the hymn in Levas “Trust and Obey” relevant for this scripture. In the Gospel passage while Jesus knew what lay ahead in Jerusalem, the disciple did not and this became a learning process but it wasn’t as smooth in the Old Testament reading. Discipleship was not for cowards. Paul is the consumate teacher spelling out the role of disciples in the reading from Galatians and what is not discipleship. Discipleship is “fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” Discipleship is NOT “fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these.”

The Gospel reading begins a large section of Luke’s gospel, the great travel narrative (9:51–18:14) telling of Jesus’ journey from Galilee through Samaria towards Jerusalem. Today’s selection, which is filled with explicit and implicit references to Elijah, continues to broaden the sense in which Jesus was perceived as a prophet.

It is the turning point of Luke’s account, where Jesus “resolutely set his face toward Jerusalem” and his destiny there. Luke packs the passage with explicit and symbolic statements about the costs of being Jesus’ disciple, in view of Jesus’ journey toward his death. To prepare us for hearing the gospel challenge, the church recalls the call to discipleship of Elisha.

Commentary, June 19, 2022, Pentecost 2

Today’s readings focus on the understanding of how Jesus’ presence changes our lives. Isaiah describes God’s necessary judgment and promise of final deliverance and cleansing for the people. The psalmist yearns for God’s presence, especially in times of suffering. Paul writes to the Galatians of their unity and freedom in Christ Jesus. Jesus’ begins his mission to the Gentiles with the expulsion of many demons.

1. Old Testament – Isaiah 65:1-9

Today’s reading comes from near the end of the second part of Isaiah’s prophecy (chapters 40-66) that is primarily composed of words of consolation and encouragement for the exiled Jews. But even here, the Jews are reminded that they must show the proper reverence for God. The long history of improper conduct in response to God’s sacred presence in their midst cannot be forgotten. It will certainly bring God’s judgment.

But as Isaiah emphasizes over and over, this moment of judgment will give way to a time of blessing and restoration for the chosen people and their land. God’s loving faithfulness overrides the demand for judgment and punishment. So, despite the long catalogue of the people’s failures in relation to God, Isaiah once again affirms God’s promise of fidelity and restoration.

2. Epistle -Galatians 3:23-29

This passage is part of Paul’s message that faith in Christ fulfills the law of Moses. Through baptism into Christ, all are now “children of God” (v. 26), the Old Testament designation given to anointed kings (Psalm 2:7) and to the whole people of Israel (Exodus 4:22).

Verses 28-29 are probably based upon a baptismal liturgy. The baptized clothe themselves with Christ and adopt a new personality and a new way of life. Even today the new white baptismal garment reminds us of our incorporation into Christ’s body, the church. Baptism makes us all God’s children and so heirs of the promises to Abraham made long before the law was given to Moses.

The sermon in 2019 took up the above passages.

“What brings God joy? God’s great hope is that we come to know, through Jesus, that all our divisions have come to an end and that we are ONE in Christ Jesus.

Paul says it this way. “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male or female; for all of you are ONE in Christ Jesus.”

“I like this idea that we are all one in Christ Jesus, because our oneness points toward the Trinitarian nature of God—one in three and three in one, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

“When we are one in Christ Jesus, we are showing to the world what God is like—God, Son and Holy Spirit dwelling in eternal intimacy, One God. That’s why Paul says that we in the church are clothed in Christ. Christ Jesus and his healing, freeing love—Christ Jesus is our uniform. The man possessed by demons in today’s gospel who ran around naked and lived in the tombs ends up clothed and in his right mind at the feet of Jesus after Jesus sends the demons out of him. Jesus has clothed this man with healing love.

“Since the days of the early church, people who decided to follow Jesus and to become a part of the church spent several years in preparation, and when the day of their baptisms came, they took off their old clothes, and entered the water naked. After their baptisms, they came out of the water and were clothed in white robes. Everyone could see that they were now clothed in Christ. And everyone rejoiced.”

“Baptisms are joyful. We are celebrating because we get to witness the person being baptized getting dressed up in Christ. The person being baptized gets to put on the uniform that we are already wearing.

“Yes, good news, a cause for celebration, now and in the world to come! Our places are waiting for us, and our robes are ready.

“The Good News is news we want to share, like the man who has been freed of his demons and clothed in Jesus’ healing love, who goes and proclaims throughout the city how much Jesus has done for him.

“So remember, when we rejoice in our ONENESS, God rejoices too! And God’s joy makes our joy complete.”

3. Gospel – Luke 8:26-39

Jesus turns his attention to the Gentiles by crossing the Sea of Galilee into their territory. From the Jewish perspective, such a ministry would demand enormous cleansing since Gentile territory would have many possible sources of ritual impurity or “uncleanness” that would prohibit Jews from taking part in worship services. Thus it is not surprising that Jesus confronts a man who is possessed by a multitude of demons—so many that they are identified as a legion (the name for a large Roman military unit of 3000 to 6000 men).

The dramatic healing is only the prelude, though, to the further development of the characteristics of Jesus’ mission. Jesus confronts the demons, requires that they reveal their name—thus giving Jesus power over them—and then grants their wish to infest a herd of swine rather than return to the underworld.

The community is rightly afraid of a man like Jesus who has demonstrated the power and control over demons. This kind of power could be very upsetting to their community and its traditions. So because of their fear, they ask Jesus to leave. The healed man, knowing how his life has been changed for the better, wants to follow Jesus and continue to be with him. Jesus, however, speaks the words that might become the guideline for all his followers, reminding them that the first and most obvious place for their mission is their own household.

So What does this say to us ? Lutheran minister David Lose wrote the following this week:

“I was struck very much by the tail-end of verse 27: “he did not live in a house but in the tombs.” The details of this man’s life are already bleak. Completely dominated by what has mastered him, unable to restrain himself or be restrained, naked and alone, we discover he is also homeless, abandoned, and lives among the tombs; that is, among the dead, in a wasteland, in territory considered unclean, unsafe, and unapproachable

“Horrible. And yet, if we’re honest, not unfamiliar. There are very likely folks in your congregation who have experienced homelessness or been on the brink of that experience. Others “live in the tombs” and in the place of death more metaphorically, but no less painfully. Those trapped by mental illness or addiction. Those in abusive relationships. Those who feel terribly alone. Those who feel that something they’ve done, or something that has been done to them, disqualifies them from acceptance. Those who have been rejected because they do not conform to the norms and identities with which we are most comfortable. Those who struggle to find any sense of value in themselves or purpose in life.

“And the list goes on. Indeed, broadening what it means to “live in the tombs” in this way, there is likely not a single person who has not had this experience.

“What’s easy to overlook in this odd story of eventual healing is that this whole encounter between Jesus and this man lost and living in the tombs is the result of a nearly inexplicable and totally unnecessary detour. This larger scene is set in motion by Jesus’ decision to cross to the other side of the lake. Luke’s narration makes it sound so incredibly happenstance: “One day, Jesus got into a boat with his disciples, and he said to them, ‘Let’s go across to the other side of the lake’” (v. 22). That’s it. No rationale, like pressing crowds or the need for rest. It’s not a shortcut to some ultimate destination. And no plan or purpose is made apparent. Just a desire to cross from the familiar to the unfamiliar, from the known countryside of Capernaum and Galilee to the land of the Gerasenes… and to this man.

“Which may mean that Jesus’ whole point with this detour is to seek him out. To rescue him from his occupation, to return to him his life. While it may seem utterly unnecessary to us, that is, it is absolutely necessary, even crucial, to Jesus and his mission. This is what Jesus does – seeks out and finds the lost. Even more, this is who Jesus is – the one who is: the one who brings good news to the poor, proclaims release to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind, and lets the oppressed go free (4:18).

“And here’s the thing: Jesus is still doing that. He is still going out of his way, still taking the long route, still crossing boundaries, still daring to meet us in the middle of our tombs, in order to heal and restore us. To put it another way, if Jesus goes so far out of his way to encounter this one man, what will keep him from seeking us out, from meeting us where we are and accepting us as we are, from inviting us to come out of the tombs, from daring us to imagine life in abundance, from bidding us to share the news of what has been done for us. The answer, in short, is nothing. Nothing will keep Jesus from reaching out to us, finding us, accepting us, releasing us, calling us, loving us. Nothing.”

The Connection – Sunday, June 19’s Gospel, Juneteenth and World Refugee Day (June 20)

Luke 8:35–39

Image is from
Léonard Gaultier (artist) French, 1561 – 1641, Scenes from the New Testament

Sunday is Juneteenth, the day in 1865 when enslaved people of Galveston, Texas, learned they were emancipated, although it had been the case since 1863. This observance is “about the journey and achievement of African Americans — from a horrific period of sanctioned enslavement to the pinnacle of human endeavors” (Juneteenth.com). So, it is fitting that Sunday’s Gospel (Luke 8:26-39) is about healing and freedom: A man possessed by demons, ostracized and “living in the tombs,” is made whole by Jesus. It’s the drowning pigs story

Today, we tend to understand demons as a metaphor for personal struggles — such as addiction, disease, or chronic illness. But demons can be systemic in society as well, such as our country’s addiction to guns, white supremacy, and income inequality. These societal demons perpetuate the fear that keeps us divided. We see systemic fear of freedom in Sunday’s Gospel as well. The Gerasa community is seized by fear at the man’s healing and restoration, and they banish Jesus, the healer and restorer.

Juneteenth is a time to celebrate what has been done to make our world better for all and reminds us to recommit ourselves to the healing work we need to do before we can all truly be free. It also reminds us to attend to the systemic forces that prevent change, keep oppression in place, and distract us with the falsehood that one person’s freedom must be another person’s loss. As the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”—Ruth Frey

Jesus disturbed the comforted and comforted the disturbed – Ryan W. Clayton

The story of the Gerasene demoniac in Luke pushes us to reflect on questions of identity. Immediately preceding this story, Jesus calmed violent wind and raging waves with a word. His disciples ask, “Who then is this, that he commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him?” (Luke 8:25) Who is this, indeed? He masters the storm when the disciples cry out for help, he masters the demons when they cry out to be left alone. Junteenth gave a legal identity to those caught by slavery.

Juneteenth is also related to World Refugee Day.

Junetenth is about personal freedom. World Refugee Day also proclaims the value of each person as a unique child of God and commit ourselves to the healing and wholeness of all persons.

There is a community element as well. As the Bishop of Atlanta writes “God rejoices when we celebrate the truth-that we were made for each other and for God’s glory. “How good and how pleasant it is for brothers and sisters and siblings to dwell together in unity.”

Juneteenth also preserved the integrity of the family by allowing families to stick together without the possibility of being sold. World Refugee Day remembers and honors the families and individuals made homeless by disasters, wars, poverty, and intolerance around the world

Easter 7, May 29, Commentary

In today’s readings, we catch a glimpse of the glorious unity of God’s people. This week is the seventh Sunday of Easter, and the Scriptural texts reflect the tensions and juxtapositions that are so characteristic of this time in the Church calendar. We read of freedom from bondage, extravagant divine power and sovereignty, the eternal and eschatological reign of Christ, and the invitation to respond to Christ – to live in the unity and love at the heart of the Christian story

At the same time, such triumphal and exuberant words and themes may be experienced as alienating, clanging loudly in the ears of those who do not experience freedom, joy, belief, and love. This is a tension worth remembering, acknowledging, and grappling with openly and honestly: how do we recognize and affirm the reality of the Gospel’s power and the centrality of Christ’s life-giving love, even while we (and parishioners) may be existing in darkness, pain, doubt, bondage of all forms?

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Meditation for March 16, 2020

Meditation for March 16

In Psalm 80, the psalm appointed for today, the psalmist prays, “Restore us, O Lord God of hosts; show the light of your countenance, and we shall be saved.” To “restore” something is to return it to its original state; to renovate something old to a good state of repair.
The psalmist’s petition reminds us that in all things, God is the One who can and will restore and save us. And the light of God’s face is shining all around us. But sometimes, in our own blindness, we miss the light. This week, open your eyes and look around. Look for the light of God’s love shining in the faces of the people who love you. Look for the light of God’s love shining in the beauty of this early spring season. Look for God’s love shining in the ways that people are determining their actions based not on their own needs, but on the good of the community. Look for God’s light shining in the sacrificial work of those on the front lines of our health care system. Look for the ways that God’s light is shining in new possibilities and ways of being the church, to fully restore us to our mission of loving God and our neighbor here and now, under these new circumstances. God’s light IS shining, and we SHALL be saved.

Prayer based on Prayer for the Absent in The Book of Common Prayer
O God, your merciful and compassionate love reaches around the world: We humbly ask you graciously to behold and bless those we love, even though we cannot gather as one body to worship you during these uncertain times. Defend us all from the dangers of soul and body; and grant that we all, drawing nearer to you, may be bound together by your love in the communion of your Holy Spirit and in the fellowship of the saints, through Christ our Lord. Amen.