Readings:
Leviticus 19, 1-2, 17-18, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
Psalm 103, The Lord is kind and merciful. (Stanza 2, one of the best)
1 Corinthians 3, 16-23, You are the temple of God.
Matthew 5, 38-48, Love your enemies.
"Welcome in, Everybody," say Olivia and her dad, Cory.
Observations on Leviticus
What : the 3rd book of the Bible and one of the 5 books of the Torah.
Who: a compilation of sayings accumulated over centuries, not Moses, as was thought for some years.
Date: sometime after the Exile in Babylon, ca. 555 before Christ.
"Don't forget me," says Tori, "Come in, Folks."
Subject: rules about how to live, how to worship, and the penalties for transgressing. This is based upon 2 beliefs:
- The world has been created good, but is vulnerable to sin.
- Enactment of proper ritual makes God present and ignoring proper ritual compromises the harmony between God & people.
Some unique rules:
- Cursing, death. 24.14
- Unkempt hair, God will smite you. 10.1
- You will not tatoo yourself, 19.28
- Trimming your beard. 19.27
- Cutting the hair on the sides of your head. 19.27
Today’s Subject: the best line in the whole work, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” 19.18
Sources: Good News Bible, Wikipedia
The Offertory Team, Bill, Ray, Bernadette, and Richard.
I want to help people. That’s what I’m for.
Ever hear of a guy named Clarence Griffith? I read about him in the Dallas Morning News recently. Three things are unique about him.
- He was born in 1913. Know anybody that old? 104 years.
- When he was 94 he received triple heart bypass at Baylor, Dallas.
- Ever since his recuperation he regularly goes to console and help people in the Baylor cardiac waiting room. He gets them coffee, food, and offers them support, praying with them or just letting them talk. He says, “That’s what I’m for. I want to help people.”
Leo, our Candle Lighter of The Week.
For me, Clarence Griffith has accepted that, “The Lord is gracious and merciful, never gets angry and is abounding in love.” Moreover, he is making himself live that image.
Last week we looked at infinite demand that was followed up with promises of hell. A fear based program.
This week we look at a different infinite demand equally challenging. The demand is to get rid of fear in our relationship with God using that description, and to help others to do so.
The Team.
This is one of the biggest reasons I have been and am a priest, and even a psychotherapist, to help others get rid of fear in our relationship with God.
Which leads me to three demands presented by Matthew. If you reflect upon it, these three are a result of knowing that our God is gracious and merciful, never gets angry and is abounding in love.
The Wedding, Patricia and John.
First, Matthew says, using his favorite little figure of speech, ‘You have heard it said, but I say to you…’, when someone hits the left side of your face, offer the right and don’t resist the person who is evil.
Is this insanity or what? Has it ever been tried? Yes, you say, by dead people. Impossible. This is the message of the pacifist, a person mostly ridiculed by the rest of us. Know any? Sure, John Dear, once a Jesuit, Roy Bourgeois, once a Maryknoll.
I wonder what would happen if we really did this. I confess I have not been able to get there.
Congratulations, John, I am so happy when I am not the only one with tears up here. Must be because you come from Australia. Double congratulations.
Secondly, give to the person who asks from you. Another tough one. How do you feel passing the men & women begging at stop lights? I, for one, feel horrible, even though I know they have a number of shelters, like The Bridge and Austin St. Shelter. I can work in those places and know that we as a community help them, but I still feel horrible passing those people on the corner.
Thirdly, love my enemy. I really don’t have any serious enemies that I know of.
"I, Patricia, take you, John in marriage. I promise to be true to you in good times and bad, in sickness and in health. I will love and cherish you all the days of my life."
Despite failure to live up to these demands, which are infinite, our God is still infinitely accepting, specifically gracious and merciful, never get angry and is abounding in love. Moreover, relevant to our weakness, he says in the following line, “Not according to our sins does he deal with us.”
104 year old Clarence Griffith is showing people this image of God in the Baylor hospital waiting room.
Who shows this image to you?
To whom do you show the image?
The Kiss.