TGBC: just do it

The Good Book Club
Thursday, March 15. Luke 17:1-10

Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Occasions for stumbling are bound to come, but woe to anyone by whom they come! 

It would be better for you if a millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea than for you to cause one of these little ones to stumble. Be on your guard! 

If another disciple sins, you must rebuke the offender, and if there is repentance, you must forgive. And if the same person sins against you seven times a day, and turns back to you seven times and says, “I repent”, you must forgive.’

 The apostles said to the Lord, ‘Increase our faith!’ The Lord replied, ‘If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, “Be uprooted and planted in the sea”, and it would obey you.

 ‘Who among you would say to your slave who has just come in from ploughing or tending sheep in the field, “Come here at once and take your place at the table”? Would you not rather say to him, “Prepare supper for me, put on your apron and serve me while I eat and drink; later you may eat and drink”? Do you thank the slave for doing what was commanded? So you also, when you have done all that you were ordered to do, say, “We are worthless slaves; we have done only what we ought to have done!” ’

Thoughts for Thursday. One, two, three sayings, and four. They seem unrelated. Luke’s sticky notes from his sources don’t especially fit elsewhere, so he puts them here as Jesus makes his way from Galilee to Jerusalem, Jerusalem being of ultimate beginning and ending importance in Luke’s account of Jesus as prophet. From a literary perspective, placing these sayings here helps make it a long trip. All of these teachings are also seen elsewhere in the gospels, set in various contexts.  


The teaching about forgiveness rings a bell: I may  forgive seventy-seven times, or seventy times seven; but I don’t like the idea of forgiving the same person over and over again, especially if it’s for similar offense. How can I deal with this? Jesus is actually saying, “don’t bother counting, just do it.”



P.S. We are in Tallahassee kitty-sitting this week while four beloveds are in Rome for spring vacation. Except for Tuesday afternoon & Wednesday morning back home in PC for monthly EfM supper, an indescribably delicious Seder dinner that included lamb, chopped liver, matzo, and flourless chocolate cake from a Jewish bakery here in Tallahassee. Wednesday morning Kristen's car to shop for new headlamp bulbs; doctor's appointment for right ear that has abandoned me, treated and now improving. Celebration of Dan Smith's life and goodness. Back in Tallahassee on Wednesday evening exhausted - - bring plants inside against forecast freeze, then hors d'oeuvre of scrumptious chopped liver on rice crackers and sipping world's best martini, then supper of leftover lamb. Early to bed, early to rise. Coffee, blogpost while orange cat prowls round, keeping arms length while surveying me suspiciously.

 DThos+