29th May 2016 – Sunday 9C

Yes, I know this is so last week, but last week was a busy/dizzy week and this only came together early this morning. (And yes, I’m starting to work on this week’s readings – with a much quieter week in view.)

LUKE 7:1-10
Some elders came to Jesus with a plea
to heal a Roman soldier’s dying slave.
But on his way there came a call to stop:
“I am not worth your presence in my house;
please simply speak the word, effecting cure.”
His faith was such that Jesus was amazed:
a Gentile, used to order and command,
now helpless, pleads a case of human need.

In faith we walk with faint but eager steps
and eager in our offers to assist;
yet silent when we might have asked for help,
in order to conceal our own deep need.

This liberating story told by Luke,
illuminates the folly we sustain
in covering our helplessness today,
relying on our self-sufficient ways
and might be open to the gentle grace,
the love, the holy other we name God.
        © Jeff Shrowder, 2016.
 
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