the adventures of retirement
From Sunday’s Lectionary (Mark 10:42ff) – “So Jesus called them and said to them, “You know that among the Gentiles those whom they recognise as their rulers lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. But it is not so among you; but whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.”– a bit different, eh?
To me, parts of the Job passage in next Sunday’s lectionary read like an agenda for science…. measuring the earth and so on. God challenges Job with the sheer amazingness and incomprehensibility of creation. I don’t think it’s disrespectful to try and understand nature: in a way it can be like an act of worship, a way of celebrating what is. And there will always be new mysteries – it’s like peeling an onion eternally.
The other option for an Old Testament reading is about the suffering servant. Who is the servant? The faithful person or prophet? The people of God? Jesus? Any and all of those – even when not in the writer’s intention. That is, sadly, what it’s sometimes like to serve God in a world of enmity. There is a mystery here too – that the nature of God’s love for us is such that love hurts, even for God. Our God is no stranger to pain and suffering.
This was in an obscure place on a wall near the canal. But we will not forget those who died at their work. To forget is to put future generations in danger.
An unexciting morning walk today, not much wind, no rain, warmish for October, no sun; perfect.
Less unexciting, I saw a deer. That happens quite a lot, and cheers me … although others, like farmers and drivers may be less cheered.
“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” – the opening of Psalm 22, from Sunday’s lectionary, is reported to have been quoted by Jesus in his time of utter desolation on the cross.
The Psalm continues (v6) “But I am a worm, and not human…” Dehumanised. How else would we be able to hurt or kill people if we didn’t dehumanise them first? It’s familiar territory at first, we apply labels like ‘scrounger’ or something based on faith or nationality or ethnicity. Then step by step we care about them less and less, and their lives mean less and less to us.
But Jesus is the ‘worm’, the less-than-human, the Godforsaken one. By identifying with people in that condition, what is he saying to us?
Last night, for the first time I could remember, I avoided watching the ten o’clock news, because it made me unhappy. I felt like a loser in my own country.
It will pass.
Meanwhile, small worlds are, as usually happens, filled with good will and kindness.
And this all remains God’s world.
God we thank you for the skill and hard work of all the people who have brought us to the point where there is an approved vaccine for malaria.
Hard to know what to say about the Amos reading in Sunday’s Lectionary. Just read it, then read it again.
Not only did Amos have the unpopular message of God’s concern for people in poverty, he was also a foreigner – doubly hated.
…as are many who say similar things today.
Because of signal limitations, blogs may be limited or absent for a few days.