Start a Lectionary Conversation - September 8, 2024
Sixteenth Sunday after pentecost
Does God’s love have boundaries? The readings for this week suggest it doesn’t. God’s love is for all people - poor and rich, insiders and outsiders. It is shocking in its inclusion. These passages are difficult, but we hear in them clearly our calling to embody and live out God’s shocking, all encompassing love in the world.
These questions are meant to start a conversation - either during or before worship, in a sermon, a newsletter, Bible Study, or just between a person and their journal. If you’re using the questions, I’d love to hear how!
Gospel: Mark 7:24-37
The first half of this reading is one of the most difficult in all the gospels as Jesus compares a Syrophoenician woman to a dog as she begs for her daughter to be healed. The lesser known second half of the reading also sees others advocating on behalf of another - a deaf man who seeks to regain his hearing. In our communities, it would be valuable to talk about how we understand Jesus’ response to the woman. But to start, you might ask one another, can you think of an example from your own life when you needed to do something very hard on behalf of someone you loved?
1st Reading: Isaiah 35:4-7a
Isaiah sees that restoration of body and seemingly impossible healing, like the healing in the Mark passage, will follow God’s saving of God’s people. What impossible healing do you ask God for? The mending of divisions? The end of wars?
Alternate 1st Reading: Proverbs 2:1-2, 8-9, 22-23
When have you been blessed in your generosity?
The psalmist contrasts God with human kings and authorities. God is the one who executes justice, feeds the hungry, sets the prisoners free, and heals the blind. What does this image of God say about how leaders should govern?
2nd Reading: James 2:1-10
James challenges us not to show partiality between rich and poor in either our communities of faith or individual lives, yet most of us are probably guilty of ignoring the pain of poverty at some time. Why is it so difficult to live out this aspect of faith?
