Feb. 19, 2017 (full size gallery)
This past week we had the Village Harvest Food Distribution on Feb. 15 serving 110 a lower number than the previous month. We have a behind-the-scenes story on it.
Saturday Feb 18 was the Vestry retreat in the morning at St. George’s where they tacked a variety issues about the church and where it is going. Earlier in a Vestry meeting on Feb 13, Becky Fisher was elected as senior warden and Helmut Linne von Berg as junior warden. Congratulations – and condolences at the same time- both demanding jobs.
This Sunday we had 31 parishioners. Feburary 19’s weather was closer to spring in April. The daffodils were open at least a week early. Catherine took an opportunity at the announcements of reviewing our 3 hymnals – the 1982 hymn book the staple, "Lift Every Voice and Sing" a hymn book that reflects other Protestant traditions, "Wonder Love and Praise" an extension of the 1982 hymnbook and reflecting the entire Anglican tradition.
Today’s readings urge us to go beyond our obligations to the challenge of loving. In Leviticus, God’s calls the people to be holy and to live in love. Paul reminds the Corinthians that all things belong to those who are in Christ. Jesus declares that for his disciples unselfish love shows that we are God’s children. It is about growing relationships.
The Gospel presents the last two of the six antitheses (5:21-48) from last week. This is a continuation of last week when the text took up the first four:
1. You shall not commit murder.
2. You shall not commit adultery
3. You shall not divorce
4. You shall not bear false witness.
The fifth antithesis (5:38-42) amends the limiting letter of the law in favor of a spirit of generosity and forbearance. The principle of retaliation (Exodus 21:24) was originally intended to limit the pursuit of boundless vengeance in a blood feud. Jesus’ command is to forego all acts of retaliation.
Jesus’ asks the disciples not to resist the insulting back-handed slap, to allow a creditor to take not only their coat (the undergarment) but even their cloak (the heavy overgarment), to go an extra mile when the Roman troops forced them to carry their gear, and to make their resources readily available to those in need.
The final antithesis, on being a good neighbor and love of one’s enemies, is the most challenging of all. Jesus’ quote echoes Leviticus 19:18 which commands the love of neighbor, but there is no command to hate one’s enemies, which justifies doing evil to them. The call to “be perfect” echoes Leviticus 19:2. The word “perfect” translates a Hebrew concept meaning “be complete, whole, undivided, and conforming to God’s will.”
Leviticus and Matthew both talk of dealing with the poor and your neighbor which includes resident foreigners. In the former While pagan peoples left the harvest on the “edges” (v. 9) of the fields to honur a god, Israelites are to leave it for the needy and for resident foreigners (“alien”, v. 10). We are not to harvest completely and leave nothing to waste; instead, we are to stop our harvesting before we reach the farthest boundaries of our fields so as to welcome the poor and stranger, who live at the margins, to take their share.
The sermon with the Book The Lemon Tree used the neighbor theme in the readings.
A house connected two families, Jew and Arab in an Arab town of al-Ramla in Israel. The Arab family, the Kharis who build it and the Jew family Eshkenazi who lived in it and created a new life for themselves. The Arab revisited the home.
“On that day, a bond was forged between Dalia and Bashir, and the rest of the book describes their friendship in the context of the history of the conflict between their people, the Arabs and the Jews over the land of Palestine, a conflict that is still unresolved and still going on today—a conflict that seems to have no end in sight.
“And yet, in spite of their disagreements, the two of them continued to meet over the years. Bashir’s whole family came to visit the house in al-Ramla. His father, with tears streaming down his face, ran his fingers over the leaves of the lemon tree that he had planted so many years ago. The Eshkenazis sent lemons home with him. When Dalia was pregnant with her child, the Khairis travelled to the hospital to bless her and wish her well in her pregnancy.
“Our enemy,” she said softly, “is the only partner we have.”
“We couldn’t find two people who could disagree more on how to visualize the viability of this land. And yet we are so deeply connected. And what connects us? The same thing that separates us. This land.”