RCL Readings Sunday 11 July 2010
Amos 7:7-17
Psalm 82
Colossians 1:1-14
Luke 10:25-37

You would think that a message of living lovingly and compassionately would always be a welcome message. We all want others to show us love and compassion, yet showing love and compassion is personally costly and often involves taking a strong stand against injustice and hypocrisy.

Amos has a vision of the Lord standing by a wall with a plumb-line in his hand (Amos 7:7-17), a stark image of God in the midst of his people ‘measuring’ them against his ways and finding them wanting. It is an uncomfortable message that Amos delivers and the priest at Bethel seeks to persuade him to take his message elsewhere. How do we measure up to the divine plumb-line? Do we think the uncomfortable message always applies elsewhere and for others rather than a challenge to us? Do we prefer to ignore the challenge or are we prepared to live in ways that reflect the Kingdom of God? I think confession is called for and the mark of true confession is the willingness to live differently. Are we also willing to be the Amos’ and not be persuaded to take the message elsewhere but to challenge a society that in so many ways accepts attitudes and policies that don’t build relationships that enable community?

The Gospel reading (Luke 10:25-37 – the Good Samaritan) is so familiar that there is a real danger of thinking we know what it is all about. We see ourselves as being the Good Samaritan, but are we? This is a subversive story told against the religious leaders and those who thought themselves to be godly people. By holding up a Samaritan as being the truly godly person in the story Jesus is challenging national stereotyping. There is a great danger today in the current national and international crises that confront our society to fall into the trap stereotyping – it is always the ‘bad’ stories and examples that lodge in the mind. Where are the ‘good’ stories and examples, who are the ‘Good Samaritans’? What would it mean for you to be a ‘Good Samaritan’?

Our reading from Colossians (1:1-14) is a model for our prayer. Thanksgiving for all signs of faithfulness to Christ (v.3); sharing and delighting in the testimony of faithful discipleship (v.4); recognising and rejoicing in the fruit of God’s Spirit at work in the world and within the Church (v.6). Take time to look for and recognise these things within the life of the Church – they are there and we should rejoice in them. Then pray for the Church using verses 9-12 as the words of your prayer and as you do so visualise yourself and members of the Church.

“For this reason, since the day we heard it, we have not ceased praying for you and asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of God’s will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you may lead lives worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, as you bear fruit in every good work and as you grow in the knowledge of God. May you be made strong with all the strength that comes from his glorious power, and may you be prepared to endure everything with patience, while joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light.”

RCL Readings Sunday 4 July 2010
2 Kings 5:1-14
Psalm 30
Galatians 6:1-16
Luke 10:1-11, 16-20

Last week’s reading from 2 Kings 2 saw Elisha picking up the mantle of the prophet Elijah; the readings from 2 Kings now jumps to chapter 5 and the healing of Naaman. Elisha is a prophet in Israel and Naaman is the commander of the king of Aram’s army (Syria) – these two kingdoms had existed with an uneasy peace for some years and a number of skirmishes. On one such raid a young girl had been captured and she was now the servant of Naaman’s wife. Naaman has leprosy and it is the foreign servant girl who has the courage to speak of the prophet Elisha. As the incident unfolds there are some interesting pointers to human nature! The king of Israel thinks that his neighbour is picking a fight (2 Kings 5:7) – he suspects the motives behind the generous gesture and request. When Elisha sends a message out to Naaman to wash in the Jordan Naaman takes offence, expecting special treatment befitting his status (v.11&12). Again it is ‘lowly’ servants that speak the challenging word (v.13). In this incident Naaman’s servants and his wife’s servant girl are just as much prophetic voices as Elisha. In the light of this some pointers for reflection and prayer:

• do we – as individuals & as a nation – jump to wrong conclusions, suspicious of other’s motives? Pray for a willingness to see the best in others/other nations, a generosity of spirit to seek & accept help from others;
• do we listen to the voice of the outsider and the ‘lowly’?
• do we expect certain things because of our perceived position & status, or are we willing to see all as equal in the eyes of God?

Paul, concluding his letter to the Galatians (6:1-16), speaks of the care they are to show for one another – a care especially for the community of faith but not limited to that community (v.10). A care that is willing to seek to restore those in error (v.1), share the burdens of others (v.2), do right (v.9) and “work for the good of all” (v.10). This is to be marked by a spirit of gentleness (v.1), humility (v.3) and perseverance (v.9).  Pray for the pastoral work of the Church – for those who have particular responsibilities within it and also for your role in caring for others. How might we all “work for the good of all”? Pray for those who have a prime role as a carer for others – how might we/you support them, share their load, and enable them not to become weary?

The Gospel reading (Luke 10:1-11, 16-20) records the ‘mission of the seventy’. There is a sense of urgency and focus about this mission which echoes last Sunday’s Gospel where, when Jesus encountered ‘closed doors’, he “went on to another village” (9:56). In today’s reading the seventy are to work where there is an open welcome and to move on where there is not (10:10). This may seem harsh but there is a big task and few labourers (10:2). What are the priorities for the Church’s mission today? Pray for the Church, at national & local level, as it seeks to discern priorities and use resources effectively. Pray that we may hear the prophetic voices (as in the 2 Kings passage), that we may have the characteristics mentioned by Paul in his letter to the Galatians, and that we may be focused and use our resources effectively as in the Gospel.