Forward Movement is an official, non-profit agency of the Episcopal Church whose mission is to create compelling content for Christian living. Since 1935 we have published the quarterly devotional Forward Day by Day, as well as pamphlets, booklets, and books that encourage and nourish people in their lives of prayer and faith.
WEDNESDAY, November 3 (Richard Hooker)
Luke 13:10-17. When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, “Woman, you are set free from your ailment.”
A leader of the synagogue pointed to the woman with the evil spirit. To him, she was nothing but an object lesson. He rebuked Jesus, pointing out that there are proper times for healing and that the Sabbath day of rest is not one of them. Jesus, however, ignored the rules because here was someone in need. Neither did he philosophize about how people took precedence over principle or sermonize about how specific needs close at hand are more important than abstract causes. He simply healed the woman.
One of the ways we keep people at arm’s length is by putting them in groups. Then they become abstractions—old people, young people, racial groups, national groups, political groups, conservatives, liberals. Whenever we box people into groups (“You know how they are!”), we protect ourselves against personal encounters that may seem threatening to us but which are essential to Christian love. It is impossible to love an abstraction.
Not Jesus! He said to the woman, “You are freed from your ailment.” (2000)
PRAY for the Anglican Legal Advisers’ Network (ACLAN) and the Diocese of Jebba (Province of Ibadan, Nigeria)
Ps 72 * 119:73-96; Ecclesiasticus 43:23-33; Revelation 16:1-11
View the daily Lectionary Readings at Satucket.com.
Or view the Bible passages at Biblegateway.com.
A Meditation for Pentecost
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Today's lesson is a two-for-one for me; because I frequently have to remind myself to not "...keep people at arm's length ... by putting them in groups."