Pastor’s Letter: July 10, 2022

Pastor’s Letter: July 10, 2022

8 Jul 2022 | Posted by: chadmin

The July 10 bulletin is available online. 

Dear friend,

On this 15^th Sunday in Ordinary Time, we read about a Jewish Scholar of the Law testing Jesus. The Gospel stories typically involve two types of classes within the Jewish community. Jesus engages and discusses the faith with the Jewish religious authority and the general populous. The Jewish religious authority are the professional religious including the Scribes, the Pharisees, the Scholars of the Law, the Pharisees and the Sadducees. While there were religious and political disagreements between some of these groups in the First Century, these groups had different authority, education, economic and social status than the general Jewish layman.  The conversations between Jesus and the religious authority take on a much different tone than the preaching Jesus gives to the general population. Much of this has to do with the way the religious authority tested Jesus and the way in which Jesus saw them misusing their authority over people. Jesus was asked, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus patiently returns this question with a question to this man’s training. He answers with the Shema, a passage from the Book of Deuteronomy that calls all Jewish people to listen and know that God is one and that one God should be loved above all things while loving neighbor like oneself. This would be the most important command for the Jews in the First Century and today. Jesus agrees and seeks to move on.

However, this man wants to justify himself before Jesus and maybe the crowd in the story. He asks, “who is my neighbor?” Truly this is an important question. If a non-believer is not my neighbor, then I don’t have to treat him well. If only my neighbor is someone that agrees with me, a family member, or someone I like, it does affect how I think, respond, and love. Jesus responds with the parable of the Robber’s Victim or the Good Samaritan. Essentially the parable challenges the expectation of the crowd to treat even one’s enemy as a neighbor; to love everyone the same as the self. This challenge from Jesus is radically different than the religious authority taught or personally practiced, yet they understood the common sense of the argument and the spiritual challenge.

We generally talk about how the mission and Cross of Jesus was to save humanity, but we are called to allow the teaching of Jesus to change us. The Gospels record the messages and truth of Jesus as a challenge to our preconceived notions and our stagnation in spiritual growth. We can all get better. We can all do more spiritually. We can all love better. We can all forgive more. We can all put in the effort to love – even those we said we could never love, or forgive. As Jesus states, the Christian is one who follows through on using one’s own time, talent, and treasure in service or an enemy. Not that we need to go looking for such opportunities, but may the Lord challenge us to see the opportunities to grow in our willingness to love and serve as God loves and serves us. Have a great week.

God bless,

Father David