Pentecost +3 Sunday – C4
Years C
Luke 7:36 - 8:3
Stories are never meant to carry the whole freight of a lesson. Who would be loaned 500 coins if they were not expected to be able to pay it back in full. Likewise with 50. The more one has to pay back with, the higher the loan possibility (in theory).
To be forgiven 500 coins worth to one person may be the equivalent of being forgiven 50 coins worth to another.
Simon might be said to have judged rightly in absolute terms, but in relative terms he might also be said to have judged less than rightly - without relationship, mercy, or compassion. Is forgiveness forgiveness or is it caught in the same economic thinking as we apply to everything else in our culture?
What would it have taken from Simon for Jesus to commend him for judging mercifully instead of rightly? And from you?
= = = = = = =
greater forgiveness
equals greater faith
so we set up equations
for the living of life
we love to measure
we measure love
according to one standard
and then another
does this act mean I'm loved
more than ever before
or is it now all over
rapturous catastrophe
when we can back away
we see a weeping woman
and all this right thinking
equates to nothing
I see this entry was written during the previous Lectionary cycle. We are now living in a time, just three years later, when it has become obvious that "500 coins" could be given to a person with no realistic idea of whether they could possibly be paid back. Many people who accepted loans as a sign of blessing now groan and struggle like the weeping woman under the burden of those obligations.
ReplyDeleteNice put-together. Each time through the cycle there is still an insight to be implemented. There would be more joy for a lectioneer and less job security if there were evidence of such implementation having been done rather than simply an analysis made and opportunity given. Keep pedaling.
ReplyDelete