Reflection for October 19, 2011

(See the readings below)

Oooh, I really feel for those poor Pharisees. Their God is so very small. Really just a big bossy person. But then, don't I do the same thing when I judge myself and others in a shame-based way? Can't I too learn to be a better person?

Gracious loving God, help me to see your face in everyone I meet. Help me to allow my poor image of you to grow ever bigger, ever more. Help me to let you be BIG!

Namaste

Readings for today:

Lamentations 2:8-15

1 Corinthians 15:51-58

Matthew 12:1-14 (NRSV)

1 At that time Jesus went through the grain fields on the Sabbath; his disciples were hungry, and they began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. 2 When the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, "Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath." 3 He said to them, "Have you not read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? 4 He entered the house of God and ate the bread of the Presence, which it was not lawful for him or his companions to eat, but only for the priests. 5 Or have you not read in the law that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple break the Sabbath and yet are guiltless? 6 I tell you, something greater than the temple is here. 7 But if you had known what this means, 'I desire mercy and not sacrifice,' you would not have condemned the guiltless. 8 For the Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath." 9 He left that place and entered their synagogue; 10 a man was there with a withered hand, and they asked him, "Is it lawful to cure on the Sabbath?" so that they might accuse him. 11 He said to them, "Suppose one of you has only one sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath; will you not lay hold of it and lift it out? 12 How much more valuable is a human being than a sheep! So it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath." 13 Then he said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." He stretched it out, and it was restored, as sound as the other. 14 But the Pharisees went out and conspired against him, how to destroy him.