M3M: September 4, 2008 Theme: Religion and Spirituality: twin ideas?
OPENING: #12 Beloved, Whom I Long For
PRAYER: #38 Let Go, Let Be
TABLE: #1 A Feast for All the People
SANCTUS: #31 Holy, Holy, holy One1
CLOSING: #71 We are Children of the Fireball
A Reading from the Christian Gospel: Luke 10: 30-36 The Message, paraphrase
Jesus answered by telling a story. “There was once a man travelling from Jerusalem to Jericho. On the way he was attacked by robbers. They took his clothes, beat him up, and went off leaving him half dead. Luckily a priest was on his way down the same road, but when he saw him he angled himself to the other side. Then a Levite religious man showed up, he also avoided the injured man. A Samaritan traveling the road found him. When he saw the man’s condition, his heart went out to him. He gave him first aid, disinfecting and bandaging his wounds. The he lifted him onto his donkey, led him to an inn and made him comfortable. In the morning he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper, saying “Take good care of him. If it costs any more, put it on my bill. – I’ll pay you on my way back.’ What do you think? Which of the three became a neighbor to the man attacked by the robbers?”
Hear what the Spirit is saying to the Church.
Thanks be to God.
A Reading from the Sufi Tradition: “Stop Being So Religious,” The Gift, Hafiz, Daniel Ladinsky, trans.; p. 119
What
Do sad people have in
Common?
It seems
They have built a shrine
To the past
And often go there
And do a strange wail and
Worship.
What is the beginning of
Happiness?
It is to stop being
So religious
Like
That.
Hear what the Spirit is saying to the Church.
Thanks be to God.
A Reading from the Continuing Revelation of God to People of Faith: Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time, Marcus Borg, p. 56
The inclusive vision incarnated in Jesus’ table fellowship is reflected in the Jesus movement itself. It was an inclusive movement, negating the boundaries of the purity system. It included women, the untouchables, the poor, the maimed and the marginalized, as well as some people of stature who found his vision attractive. It is difficult for us who live in a world in which we take for granted an attitude (or at least as an ideal) of nondiscrimination to appreciate the radical character of this inclusiveness. It is only what we would expect from a reasonable decent person. But in a society ordered by a purity system, the inclusiveness of Jesus’ movement embodied a radically alternative social vision.
Hear what the Spirit is saying to the Church.
Thanks be to God.
