[Propertalk] Proper 8b 2018 - part 2 a

[Robert P Morrison]

Back to the old cut and paste!
Here's the first part of the second part.
Bob

	 Or, in a more directly affecting way, it reminds us of all the
people of the world. 

	 Don’t tell the Russians! Don’t tell the Chinese! Don’t tell
the North Koreans! Don’t tell anyone from another country, or indeed
State, with which the U.S. and we ourselves may be in tension! Don’t
let people know that we are dependent on other individuals for life,
that there are such crises not only in the Columbia Gorge but across
the nation. Because, if this was widely known, not only would there be
embarrassment, but also there would be a strong possibility that there
might be severe economic, political and personal consequences. 

	 David said as much as he lamented the death of David and Jonathan.
Above all, he said “Don’t let the Philistines know that the
country is so weak. They’d try to move in and pick the country
apart, tribe by tribe, until the whole nation was overrun and
demoralised.” 

	 David had been anointed king quite some time before this, of course,
but the nation had been embroiled in a horrendously destructive civil
war. The death of Saul wouldn’t patch things up quickly either. It
would take a tremendously careful programme of compassionate diplomacy
WITHIN the country and intentional efforts of healing all the would
before the people would start to find its strength and moral compass
again. 

	 It was to be a difficult task, and it would be made so much more
difficult if foreign outsiders – if such there were – knew that
Israel was SO vulnerable, that the people were SO distraught. 

	 But surely that’s a risk we have to take. After all, if we hide
our failures, if we don’t admit that we’re weak in one or more
ways, then we’re not being honest and we cannot begin to find
reconciliation, we cannot begin to find healing. 

	 If the monks of White Salmon didn’t admit to the world that if
people didn’t give, then they wouldn’t eat; if they didn’t
disclose their vulnerability, then they wouldn’t be able to help us
to discover or re-discover how closely linked are the lives of every
one of God’s children. 

	 And if the citizens of White Salmon, or we and our own communities,
aren’t alert and open to the fact that people DO depend on us for so
much, as we depend on others, then, similarly, healing cannot begin. 

	 The way that we love one another DOES, DIRECTLY, affect how we love
God. As Jesus pointed out, no one who spouts off against a brother or
sister; no one who takes advantage of a sister or brother; no one who
ignores the needs of a brother or sister, can say that she or he
loves. It simply doesn’t compute. 

	 Even a bunch of radishes, or a couple of ears of corn, or some tea
to make up a drink – it takes SO little to begin to love our
neighbours, because whatever we do by making a response acknowledges
that we care about what happens to that person and, just as David
prayed for the people, it allows renewal, re-formation to occur in us.


	 It doesn’t matter whether the need is new, like the illness and
death of the synagogue leader’s daughter, or the incredible chronic
condition of the woman who came up to Jesus in the crowd. Both of
these are neighbours. Both deserve a response of love. And, while
we’re at it, the friends of the synagogue leader need help too. No
one, no matter who; no one is to be ignored, or belittled, no matter
who that person is or what she or he has done. ALL are children of
God, and ALL are our neighbours. __

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