Proper 5, Year C

Above:  Design Drawing for Stained-Glass Window for Bogart Community Church in Bogota, New Jersey, with a Text, “A Light to Lighten the Gentiles,” Showing the Presentation in the Temple

Image Source = Library of Congress

God, Who Surprises Us and Crosses Barriers

The Sunday Closest to June 8

The Third Sunday after Pentecost

JUNE 5, 2016

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The Assigned Readings:

1 Kings 17:8-16 (17-24) and Psalm 146

or 

1 Kings 17:17-24 and Psalm 30

then 

Galatians 1:11-24

Luke 7:11-17

The Collect:

O God, from whom all good proceeds: Grant that by your inspiration we may think those things that are right, and by your merciful guiding may do them; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

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Some Related Posts:

Proper 5, Year A:

http://ordinarytimedevotions.wordpress.com/2010/11/20/proper-5-year-a/

Proper 5, Year B:

http://ordinarytimedevotions.wordpress.com/2011/08/03/proper-5-year-b/

Prayer of Praise and Adoration:

http://gatheredprayers.wordpress.com/2011/03/05/prayer-of-praise-and-adoration-for-the-third-sunday-after-pentecost/

Prayer of Confession:

http://gatheredprayers.wordpress.com/2011/03/05/prayer-of-confession-for-the-third-sunday-after-pentecost/

Prayer of Dedication:

http://gatheredprayers.wordpress.com/2011/03/05/prayer-of-dedication-for-the-third-sunday-after-pentecost/

1 Kings 17:

http://ordinarytimedevotions.wordpress.com/2011/08/06/week-of-proper-5-tuesday-year-2/

http://ordinarytimedevotions.wordpress.com/2011/11/10/proper-27-year-b/

Galatians 1:

http://ordinarytimedevotions.wordpress.com/2011/10/30/week-of-proper-22-monday-year-2-and-week-of-proper-22-tuesday-year-2/

Luke 7:

http://lenteaster.wordpress.com/2012/06/09/devotion-for-the-sixteenth-and-seventeenth-days-of-easter-lcms-daily-lectionary/

http://ordinarytimedevotions.wordpress.com/2011/03/24/week-of-proper-19-tuesday-year-1/

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Widows were among the most vulnerable members of society in biblical times.  So the sons raised from the dead in 1 Kings 17 and Luke 7 were crucial because they were males.  Each son had to support his mother financially and protect her from other threats.

I detect another thread in the assigned readings.  Elijah received help from a widow at Zarephath, in Gentile territory.  She was quite poor yet God provided for the widow, her son, and the prophet. Then the prophet raised her son from the dead.  And Paul was the great Apostle to Gentiles.  Who would have expected someone with his background to accept that mission?  In modern parlance, he had been more Catholic than the Pope, so to speak.  God is full of wonderful surprises.

And we play parts in many of those surprises.  Dare we obey God’s call on our lives to become willing instruments of blessing upon others?  Will that call send us into what (for us) is Gentile territory?  If we define ourselves as this and others as that, what will such assignments mean for our identity?

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

JULY 8, 2012 COMMON ERA

THE SIXTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST, YEAR B

THE FEAST OF BETTY FORD, U.S. FIRST LADY AND ADVOCATE FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE

THE FEAST OF ALBERT RHETT STUART, EPISCOPAL BISHOP OF GEORGIA

THE FEAST OF BROOKE FOSS WESTCOTT, ANGLICAN BISHOP

THE FEAST OF SAINT GRIMWALD, ROMAN CATHOLIC ABBOT

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