A quote for Sunday

To allow oneself to be carried away by a multitude of conflicting concerns, to surrender to too many demands, to commit to too many projects, to want to help everyone in everything is itself to succumb to the violence of our times.

-Thomas Merton 1915-1968

Velaqez - Mary and Martha

The asylum seeker

Seeing and Doing

This is what I find so interesting about the role the Samaritan plays. I mean, if this parable really was just another morality tale, I think the Samaritan would be the guy in the ditch. Then we'd have a classic "love you enemies" story. You'd know the rules: help those in need, and bonus points because it's a Samaritan. But that's not the way Jesus tells it. In Jesus' version, the Samaritan is the one who notices – who actually sees – this beaten man and by seeing him is moved to pity. The Samaritan, that is, is the one who recognizes that when it comes to the question of who is our neighbor, there are no rules. Our neighbor, it turns out, is anyone in need. Where does such vision come from? It apparentlydoesn't come from one's ethnicity, one's religion, ones training, or one's station in life. How else can we explain that a Samaritan saw this when the priest and Levite did not? Having the eyes of faith to see that all people are children of God and anyone in need is your neighbor must be a gift of God, it must be a matter of faith, it must start with seeing, and only then move to doing.

Which is where you come in, Working Preacher. You see, my problem generally isn't knowing what I should and shouldn't do. It's having the vision to see the person in need not as a burden, but as my neighbor, to recognize in the face of another's need not a hassle, but an opportunity, an opportunity to show the mercy I myself have experienced in Christ. My problem isn't a lack of information; it's a lack of faith. What I need from a sermon, finally, is not an instruction manual or life-coaching session but a cornea transplant. I need new eyes. I need the eyes the faith to see in others my neighbors, other children of God loved by God just as I am loved.

from http://www.workingpreacher.org/dear_wp.aspx?article_id=371

Who is my neighbour?

Who is my friend? O God, scatterer of ignorance and darkness, grant me your strength. May all beings regard me with the eye of a friend, and I all beings! With the eye of a friend may each single being regard all others! -Yojht Veda, XXXVI,18 quoted from Life Prayers, ed. Elizabeth Roberts and Elias Amidon Prayer is meaningless unless it is subversive, unless it seeks to overthrow and to ruin the pyramids of callousness, hatred, opportunism, falsehoods. -Abraham Joshua Heschel 1907-1972

Corinne Vonaesch - The good Samaritan

Portrait of You as the Good Samaritan • by James B. Janknegt

Click on the image for a larger version

A Winter communion liturgy

Found at

http://www.rexaehuntprogressive.com/liturgy_collection/year_c_liturgy_collection/year_c_liturgies_-_pentecos/pentecost6c472010.html

CELEBRATING COMMUNITY: SACRAMENT OF HOLY COMMUNION
Offerings
Our offerings for the work of ministry in this place and beyond,
and our gifts of bread and wine, shall now be received.

Presentation The people stand, as they are able as the gifts are presented
May these gifts be receive in all graciousness.
For it is in hope and thanksgiving that we offer them.
The people sit

Thanksgiving
God is the heart of life.
All And we are the heartbeat.
May your hearts be filled with thanks
and praise and songs of joy.
All We rejoice in the miracle of life
and delight in our participation. SWeinberg

We give thanks and praise for all that is good in the world.
For that mystery we name God
and call the creator of heaven and earth and all that is.

For the person we name Jesus
and his message of peace, justice and inclusiveness
that is the realm of God.

For the renewing strength and freedom of the Spirit
always present on the breath of life
All We give thanks for the love, peace and justice,
for prosperity, strength and freedom,
and for the presentness of God in the midst of life.

God of winter, the unpopular, slandered season, we praise you.
God of lightning, wind and storm, we praise you.
God of brisk winter mornings, frosted back lawns and stark hillsides;
of warm socks, coats and gloves,
raincoats, umbrellas and warm fires, we praise you.

So we join our celebration to all people, saying:
All Holy, holy, holy, re-creating God,
heaven and earth are full of your glory.
Hosanna in the highest.
Blessed is the one who comes in the name of God.
All Hosanna in the highest.

Breaking of bread/Sharing of wine
We remember the time when Jesus faced
difficult decisions and destructive forces:
- in the days and nights of his searching,
- in finding ways to free others from images and ideas
that kept them captive and dependent and fearful of God,
- in breaking down social and religious barriers,
- in facing failure,
- in facing death (MMorwood/pns)

When we too experience the winter of our lives
may we find the courage to let go
and trust in your guiding, warming light.

And we remember
Jesus has shown us that life is stronger than death.

And as we eat together at this table
we remember the words and the actions of that meal...
He took bread, gave thanks, broke it,
and gave it to his friends.

He poured a cup of wine, offered thanks for it,
and shared it also with his friends.

Ancient symbols.
Common acts.

Response
Jesus, human like us,
All reveals to us our true identity, temples of God's spirit.
Jesus, human like us,
All reveals God present and active throughout human history.
Jesus, human like us,
All reveals God-always-with-us in our everyday loving.
Jesus, human like us,
All challenges us to let his story be our story also (J Nelson-Pallmeyer/wsj)

Communion
So we break and share bread and drink wine,
pledging ourselves to allow the spirit that moved in Jesus
to move freely in our lives.
The bread and wine is served

After Communion
God of amazing grace,
in the cold of the winter months
we are grateful for your presence, warming us.

We pray this presence will strengthen us
to follow in the way of Jesus, in this city.

for your powerpoint

Like lambs among wolves

This is an extract from a sermon from http://www.journeywithjesus.net/Essays/20070702JJ.shtml on this Sunday's gospel reading. I found it very powerful.

"There remains on Earth––have you noticed?—the very real threat of powers and principalities. There remains the temptation to see ourselves as special, others as less than human; to kill in the name of the nation and tribe. Satan has fallen like lightning, but the armies of empire are not destroyed. And still the kingdom of God is very near.

A helicopter hung overhead. The police bullhorn bleated at us to disperse. “Watch,” said Mzwanele, and through the haze of smoke I saw a ten-year old girl, her dress whipping around her knees, dancing in front of the tanks.

Out of nowhere, out of everywhere, people began to sing in harmony and clap, and with a deep collective sigh the whole crowd began to move forward singing out of the stadium, dancing toward Calvary, the place of the skulls.

The kingdom of God is very near. Entering that kingdom is as simple as welcoming a stranger into your house, and saying, “Peace be with you.” It is as difficult as welcoming a stranger into your house, and saying, “Peace be with you.” The air is full of tear gas, and the streets of this world are full of broken children, and the Kingdom of God is very near.

Iraq.

In South Africa fifteen years ago, in Baghdad this afternoon, in a hundred slums tonight where armies and gangs rage, the Son of Man is going up to be glorified.

He is walking with the disciples directly into the line of sharpshooters, leaving behind violence and the temptations of power. She is contemplating revenge, rejecting it, offering a stranger a cup of tea as she prepares to be killed. He is refusing to strike the prisoner; she is bandaging the burnt child. He is turning his back on the empire, the nation, the flag, the tribe.

There is violence all around us. But Christ is here, and we are singing.

Kingdom come.

Alleluia."

Namaan and the river

Found this quite different picture of Namaan on the Net. I quite like the way he has painted the transforming power of the water. The painting is by Cody Miller.