Today’s Readings: Psalm 17; Genesis 45:1-15; Luke 7:1-17; Acts 20:1-16; Psalm 20
I’m in the process of preparing for two memorial services next week. One thing that I usually do at memorial services is provide for the opportunity for individuals to say a few words about the deceased person. I do this primarily for one reason. You see when most of us know someone, there’s usually one particular aspect of that individual that we know well (i.e. Uncle Jerry’s sense of humor; Cousin Melinda’s intellect, etc). That one aspect often comes to define the entire person for us. At a memorial service – when lots of folks gather who knew the individual in a variety of ways – the shared remembrances remind us that the departed individual was so much more complex than we may have realized. I love reading the various Gospel accounts of Jesus for a similar reason, for each of the accounts reveal a different aspect of Jesus’ nature. In this morning’s passage form Luke, for instance, we are introduced to a wonderful aspect of Jesus that often gets minimized: Jesus’ sense of compassion. This aspect is particularly lifted up in the second half of the reading where we hear the story of Jesus’ encounter with a widow who had just lost her son. In the midst of the funeral procession, we are told that “when Jesus saw the [widow who had lost her son], his heart broke. He said to her, ‘Don’t cry.’ Then he went over and touched the coffin” (Luke 7:11-12 – The Message). What a tender and beautiful side of Jesus! In this day and age when many will point toward other sides of Jesus (i.e. the angry Jesus throwing the money-changers out of the Temple, the culture bound Jesus refusing the Syro-Phoenician woman’s request for healing, or the apocalyptical Jesus who points toward the time when the wheat will be separated from the weeds), it’s important to claim the deeply compassionate Jesus – for that is the side of Jesus that pulls together all of the other pieces for me. Til next time…
I’m in the process of preparing for two memorial services next week. One thing that I usually do at memorial services is provide for the opportunity for individuals to say a few words about the deceased person. I do this primarily for one reason. You see when most of us know someone, there’s usually one particular aspect of that individual that we know well (i.e. Uncle Jerry’s sense of humor; Cousin Melinda’s intellect, etc). That one aspect often comes to define the entire person for us. At a memorial service – when lots of folks gather who knew the individual in a variety of ways – the shared remembrances remind us that the departed individual was so much more complex than we may have realized. I love reading the various Gospel accounts of Jesus for a similar reason, for each of the accounts reveal a different aspect of Jesus’ nature. In this morning’s passage form Luke, for instance, we are introduced to a wonderful aspect of Jesus that often gets minimized: Jesus’ sense of compassion. This aspect is particularly lifted up in the second half of the reading where we hear the story of Jesus’ encounter with a widow who had just lost her son. In the midst of the funeral procession, we are told that “when Jesus saw the [widow who had lost her son], his heart broke. He said to her, ‘Don’t cry.’ Then he went over and touched the coffin” (Luke 7:11-12 – The Message). What a tender and beautiful side of Jesus! In this day and age when many will point toward other sides of Jesus (i.e. the angry Jesus throwing the money-changers out of the Temple, the culture bound Jesus refusing the Syro-Phoenician woman’s request for healing, or the apocalyptical Jesus who points toward the time when the wheat will be separated from the weeds), it’s important to claim the deeply compassionate Jesus – for that is the side of Jesus that pulls together all of the other pieces for me. Til next time…
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