Love God With All Your Mite.
The Widow's Mite
(In this story, Yeshua teaches the reality of relativity: “That poor widow has given more than all those rich men put together!")
Thanks for sending this fine reflection.
Not surprisingly, I will add my own two cents.
"The Man Born Blind": Jesus Overturns The Core Supposition Of The Ancient World
James' Epistle: "Judgment Without Mercy Will Be Shown To Anyone Who Has Not Shown Mercy"
I also bring to your attention an article by Matt Taibbi which friend Jim Sanfilipo recommended during last night's conference call with Fran Vito.
Reading it, I laughed out loud half a dozen times.
It is, by turns, insightful, hilarious and tragic.
I also bring to your attention an article by Matt Taibbi which friend Jim Sanfilipo recommended during last night's conference call with Fran Vito.
Reading it, I laughed out loud half a dozen times.
It is, by turns, insightful, hilarious and tragic.
Matt Taibbi: "R.I.P. GOP, How Trump Is Killing The Republican Party"
Matt Taibbi: "R.I.P. GOP, How Trump Is Killing The Republican Party"
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2016/06/matt-taibbi-rip-gop-how-trump-is.html
Love
Alan
Love
Alan
On Wed, Jun 1, 2016 at 10:54 AM, JT wrote:
From: DKDate: Wednesday, June 01, 2016 9:35 AM
To: Unspecified
Subject: Back to the Sundays of Ordered Time -- This Sunday, the 10th Sunday of Ordered Time
Two thought come to mind in reading this Sunday’s Scriptures.
1. Bad things happen – this Sunday, the worst to a wife and mother. The partnership of marriage is broken by the death of the spouse. The hope of living in family is crushed when an only child, a son to be depended upon in the widow’s declining years, dies. Was this because of the sinfulness of the Widow of Zarephath: was it due to the sinfulness of the Widow of Nain? How quickly we want to find God striking us down for something bad we did. We saw this among the conservative Evangelicals at 9/11. Blame was placed on the sinfulness and “unchristian” government and liberal thinking on abortion, on homosexuality. 9/11 became God punishing the United States for its sinfulness. So it was with the widow of Zarephath. She had been led to believe by the culture in which she lived, that the death of her husband and the death of her son were due to some unknown, unrealized sin of hers. It was God cursing her, making her suffer. However, if we think about it, disasters that strike us individually or as a community, or a people come from two sources. We all recognize that nature itself is incomplete – tectonic plates continue to shift causing devastating and murderous earth quakes. There are storms – even though in part defined by scientists as part of a climatic change, though clearly not all – that destroy years of hard work, memories, and human lives. These arise because nature itself is not perfect, not yet finished in its development. But then there is also the terrible maliciousness and self-centeredness of humanity itself toward other humanity.
2. The second thought is that despite what humans think, what humans do, what happens in nature, God always responds with mercy and compassion – not tyrannical punishment, not giving in to vengeance, not being hurt by our insensitivity, our pride, our violent nature. God stands ready to lift us up once again into fullness of life. Most of us would rather swelter in self-guilt. We tend to look for punishment rather than mercy. Yet the good news, the Gospel that God gives us, is about mercy, an extended hand-up. We fail to see it, we reject it. And why is that? It is because we want desperately to believe that we get to where we’re going by our strength, by our will power, by our wealth, by our power, by our influence. For most of us “rugged individualists” who depend on ourselves, our wake-up call is when we suddenly realize we are not in control. It is for us to live our lives depending on God for our dignity and worth. My personal deepest issue is feeling a lack of worth and dignity when I am ignored, overlooked, forgotten, made to believe I have no worth by others. When in fact I find myself living in God those fears, those desperate attempts at being noticed fade away in His light. When in fact, despite my best efforts, there is failure handed to my life, it is then that I find myself beholding to God’s loving mercy. God doesn’t cause my problems. My own inabilities, lack of understanding and the insensitivity of others to my plight, the bad will extended to efforts I consider worthwhile, and to people I rub the wrong way -- all make me realize what I am isn’t much unless I find what I am in the Living God. It is there I find God who loves his creation, who considers every piece of his creation as essential to his Dream.
That, I think, is the lesson for this week. Good and bad things happen – it is only in the light of God’s merciful love for each of us that gets us through it all and encourages us to grow closer and more intimately with God. In that growing intimacy, there is peace ---- but never an end to the struggle until we’ve completed the course of our life, till we’ve completed our journey to the Living God.
C and D
On Wed, Jun 1, 2016 at 10:54 AM, JT wrote:
From: DKDate: Wednesday, June 01, 2016 9:35 AM
To: Unspecified
Subject: Back to the Sundays of Ordered Time -- This Sunday, the 10th Sunday of Ordered TimeTwo thought come to mind in reading this Sunday’s Scriptures.1. Bad things happen – this Sunday, the worst to a wife and mother. The partnership of marriage is broken by the death of the spouse. The hope of living in family is crushed when an only child, a son to be depended upon in the widow’s declining years, dies. Was this because of the sinfulness of the Widow of Zarephath: was it due to the sinfulness of the Widow of Nain? How quickly we want to find God striking us down for something bad we did. We saw this among the conservative Evangelicals at 9/11. Blame was placed on the sinfulness and “unchristian” government and liberal thinking on abortion, on homosexuality. 9/11 became God punishing the United States for its sinfulness. So it was with the widow of Zarephath. She had been led to believe by the culture in which she lived, that the death of her husband and the death of her son were due to some unknown, unrealized sin of hers. It was God cursing her, making her suffer. However, if we think about it, disasters that strike us individually or as a community, or a people come from two sources. We all recognize that nature itself is incomplete – tectonic plates continue to shift causing devastating and murderous earth quakes. There are storms – even though in part defined by scientists as part of a climatic change, though clearly not all – that destroy years of hard work, memories, and human lives. These arise because nature itself is not perfect, not yet finished in its development. But then there is also the terrible maliciousness and self-centeredness of humanity itself toward other humanity.2. The second thought is that despite what humans think, what humans do, what happens in nature, God always responds with mercy and compassion – not tyrannical punishment, not giving in to vengeance, not being hurt by our insensitivity, our pride, our violent nature. God stands ready to lift us up once again into fullness of life. Most of us would rather swelter in self-guilt. We tend to look for punishment rather than mercy. Yet the good news, the Gospel that God gives us, is about mercy, an extended hand-up. We fail to see it, we reject it. And why is that? It is because we want desperately to believe that we get to where we’re going by our strength, by our will power, by our wealth, by our power, by our influence. For most of us “rugged individualists” who depend on ourselves, our wake-up call is when we suddenly realize we are not in control. It is for us to live our lives depending on God for our dignity and worth. My personal deepest issue is feeling a lack of worth and dignity when I am ignored, overlooked, forgotten, made to believe I have no worth by others. When in fact I find myself living in God those fears, those desperate attempts at being noticed fade away in His light. When in fact, despite my best efforts, there is failure handed to my life, it is then that I find myself beholding to God’s loving mercy. God doesn’t cause my problems. My own inabilities, lack of understanding and the insensitivity of others to my plight, the bad will extended to efforts I consider worthwhile, and to people I rub the wrong way -- all make me realize what I am isn’t much unless I find what I am in the Living God. It is there I find God who loves his creation, who considers every piece of his creation as essential to his Dream.That, I think, is the lesson for this week. Good and bad things happen – it is only in the light of God’s merciful love for each of us that gets us through it all and encourages us to grow closer and more intimately with God. In that growing intimacy, there is peace ---- but never an end to the struggle until we’ve completed the course of our life, till we’ve completed our journey to the Living God.C and D
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