just imagine

 

Why would anyone blog on a gray-day like this, a colorless Monday morning after Fourth of July weekend? 

Maybe because Life is a Gift and Life is Good. How might life is good be Life is Better? Maybe if we could see into the Present Future an hour ahead and change it to avoid slips and falls and car crashes, and so little girls could be evacuated from imminent flooding.

Generations of civilization would have been different, there would have been no "Let's Remember Pearl Harbor," and most of us would never have been. There would have been no Wreck of the Annie & Jennie. The Present Future: just an hour's awareness of what the future would be if we didn't change it: would we change Creation if we could? 

Nonsense and impossible with today's sciences, but Who knows and What if? The Present Future: a glimpse into the immediate future an hour before it happens and while it's still changeable. 

Just an hour.

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Anyway, here's our gospel reading for next Sunday, a most popular parable:

Luke 10:25-37

Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus. "Teacher," he said, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?" He said to him, "What is written in the law? What do you read there?" He answered, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself." And he said to him, "You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live."

But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?" 

Jesus replied, "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan while traveling came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, having poured oil and wine on them. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, `Take care of him; and when I come back, I will repay you whatever more you spend.' Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?" He said, "The one who showed him mercy." Jesus said to him, "Go and do likewise."

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Who is neighbor? The people I hate because they are not like me. The parable can be and has been convoluted in innumerable ways, but that's the bottom line. We hate and shun the Samaritans for all sorts of rational, justifiable, historical reasons, but Samaritan is neighbor, Imagine That.

There is no longer Jew or Greek, Black, Brown, or White, Slave or Free, Red, Blue, Boss or Employee, Immigrant or Native: all are Neighbor.

The gospel is not always Good News.

RSF&PTL

T89&c