I think all of us at some point in our lives have someone—maybe our parents, a teacher, a certain group—someone we wanted so much to just love us as we were. We want someone who knows everything about us, all the good stuff and all the bad stuff, and who still wants us anyway.

Sometimes our world tell us: She’s too Black, he’s too White, they’re too conservative, they’re too liberal, you’re too old, too young, too dark, too different, you’re not holy enough, you’re divorced, you’re gay, you got pregnant, you messed up. Whatever you are, you are NOT ENOUGH.

Today, Christ says, enough! Enough of all of this fear, enough of all these barriers we’ve created. We have work to do, and we can’t do it if we’re divided.

In the Gospel, Jesus doesn’t care about barriers, or rules, or laws if they are meant to separate us. He doesn’t care about tradition if it’s meant to put other people down. In today’s story, all Jesus cared about was the Samaritan woman and her people. In those few moments, he showed her by his words and his actions that no matter what she thought, no matter what society thought, and no matter what the law thought, in his eyes she was enough.

image from 4C roman catacombs - notice no beard on JC
http://www.teamrcia.com/2011/03/enough%E2%80%94a-scrutiny-homily-for-the-woman-at-the-well/

Tomorrow’s worries

The sermon on the mount, so called

tells me that I should be content,

satisfied with all the blessings

that God has freely strewn

upon my privileged path.

So I am. And I am grateful.

My worries for tomorrow

are slight; I seldom dwell upon them.

I have clothes in my wardrobe,

food in my larder,

and money in my term deposits;

not huge, but enough.

I try to live generously;

sometimes I succeed.

But still I am angry,

for I know that there are some lilies

in God’s fields who are not arrayed

like Solomon in all his glory,

and that, unlike the birds of the air,

the barns of some are profoundly

and painfully empty

whilst others install locks

and pay for extra security measures

lest a few grains of their abundance

should somehow be lost, or shared.

And there are people for whom

the stores of fear never fail

who still set sail on wooden boats,

whilst grey steel ships

decked in colourful flags

as sent out to patrol anxious coasts

fearful for tomorrow.

© 2011 Ken Rookes
Thought I'd do a new one!