Monday, July 9, 2007

The Proper of Yesterday: Pentecost VI


Yesterday was The Sixth Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 8C in the liturgical calendar. We heard the story of the Syrian general Naaman and his leprosy, a final warning and benediction in the letter to the Galatians , and the Sending of the Seventy (or maybe 72) in the Gospel. Of course we celebrated the Presnese of Christ among us in the Holy Communion, and had a nice coffee hour as well.

I will be supplying (i.e., substituting - I don't know why we use the word "supply" in this context) at All Saints' Hoboken next Sunday, while their rector is on vacation. They have two services and the lessons are here. I welcome ideas on how to make the Parable of the Good Samaritan relevant in 2007 when so many of us have heard it so often. Maybe we just need to keep hearing it to make it sink into our heads and into our hearts.

RFSJ

1 comment:

Troglodyteus said...

The vic probably screamed for God’s help while the robbers where beating the shit out of him and lifting all of his worldly goods. De profundis clamo ad te domine. Moses in Deut tells us that God will turn to us if we turn to him. Same thing in Zac 1,3, Malachi 3,7, Prov 8,17, and James 4,8. I turn to him and he sends me a Samaritan?

Does it tell us that God notices things we do and stuff we should have done? (commission vs omission) Omissions are harder to call. If we seek to be tighter with Christ maybe we have to watch both sides of that line.

Could Christ have used greater hyperbole than including a Samarian? Weren’t his own buds shocked to find him actually talking to a Samarian woman at the well? I don’t know if the parable is anything more than it seems. I do know that Christ put great emphasis upon it.