A Poem a Sunday

Pentecost 14-C

August 21, 2016

St. Luke 13:10-17 - New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

Commentary: Where do you draw the line?  What does the line mean to you?  Imagine any line that divides and Christ will be on the other side of that line.  Reflect on your own and the Church’s boundaries.  How do we respond to the radical grace of God? 

Jesus Heals a Crippled Woman

10 Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. 11 And just then there appeared a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years. She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight. 12 When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, “Woman, you are set free from your ailment.” 13 When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God. 14 But the leader of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had cured on the Sabbath, kept saying to the crowd, “There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured, and not on the Sabbath day.” 15 But the Lord answered him and said, “You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger, and lead it away to give it water? 16 And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, to be set free from this bondage on the Sabbath day?” 17 When he said this, all his opponents were put to shame; and the entire crowd was rejoicing at all the wonderful things that he was doing.

A Poem a Sunday

Pentecost 14 - C

Boundaries

“Color in the lines, Mary!”

“Stay within the lines, Eliot!”

“We need walls. 

There is no country

without walls.”

“Paint by number,

within each shape.”

Creative compassion

smashed!

Follow the rules

without question

or chaos ensues…

Bent woman enters the Synagogue to pray.

Too bad it is a Sabbath Day.

Watering your donkey or ox is OK

but wait until tomorrow to ease her day.

Rules, laws - we must obey

unconditional love cannot have its way.

So, Dear Christian:

Are you law abiding,

or does love trump

rules that stifle the common good?

Hate your neighbor across the border,

but take your weekly Sabbath rest.

Say your grace every day at table

while 16,000 hungry daily face death.

Yet the healing Christ

opens up a way

where compassion

has the last say.

Oh, Dear Church,

do not play it safe.

Break the rules

and live out grace.

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