“They were expecting Jesus to pause and say, “Finally, a good Jew came by…” or, “Finally, a lawyer came by…” That would have held up a mirror of recognition to his listeners. They would have thought. “Oh, I’m a good Jew… I would have stopped to help the man too!” But, that is not what Jesus said. Instead, Jesus called them a bad name. He called them Samaritans! (Did you hear the collective gasp?)”
“I know that in some cultures, it’s customary for an error to be made somewhere in the product to show that a person made it and not merely a machine. I love that concept, but in my own work, it’s hard for me to make a mistake I can see and not fix it.”
“Requests for help are spread throughout the Book of Common Prayer. Sometimes we ask for direct help for ourselves, sometimes we ask for strength to help others. Help is shown as merciful and joyful.”
His respect for the person as vessel for the Holy shows in everything he says. “Listen with the ear of the heart,” he instructs. And, from his Rule, Chapter 53: “All guests who present themselves are to be welcomed as Christ, for he himself will say: I was a stranger and you welcomed me.”
“Running in the rain may not sound like your idea of fun, but a southern summer rain is warm and lonely in that lovely sort of way. I ran, and the drizzle fell to silence, like snow in winter, the graceful hush stilling both ocean and soul. I ran, and thought only of beauty and love and God, of friends and grace and kindness, of the past and present and future.”
“Behold. Be still. Know: I am, I am, I am. Refuge.”
(Based on Psalm 46)
“Joseph is us, perhaps a whole lot richer than most of us, but still us. And he does what he has to in order to honor the body of his beloved, if sometimes perplexing, teacher according to the rituals of his people. And he takes a big risk with the Roman authority and his own Temple authority to do it. He is, indeed, a good and righteous man, or at least working on it.”
“Today we have a story about Jesus’s advance team. It’s hard to know what their aspirations or hopes might have been but Jesus gave them the same advice that we gave our 20th century advance team: Travel light!”
“If a wineskin got a hole in it, it would be patched with the hope that it would hold the wine added to it. Just because something had a hole in it did not mean it could be discarded and a new one procured to replace it.”
“From their point of view, they saw Saul babbling to himself, falling to the ground, and arising blind. They were not expecting to have to care for a blind man on this trip, and there had to be more than a little fear on their part.”