Ordinary 32A

A friend of mine in the area hosts gatherings with community children. All are from immigrant families now living locally. Earlier this summer, one of his long-time friends, a Presbyterian missionary, asked if the children could send birthday cards to people from Cameroon who are in US detention centers. I was clueless to the fact that since 2016, over 3000 Cameroonians have been killed and over 730,000 civilians displaced...the missionary shared a detainee’s letter of thanks with the children in which the Cameroonian used the word “Ekwueme.” My friend did some research and discovered that “Ekwueme” is a hymn, sung partly in English and partly in Igbo (an eastern Nigerian language). “The God who says and does. You are the living God, there is none like you.” The children have been singing it ever since. When the missionary relayed that news to the detainees – some in detention, some on parole, some on the verge of a perilous forced flight home – they burst into singing, amazed that this familiar hymn had made it to the States and was now being sung by children here. Without a doubt, the song will continue to strengthen the resilience of the Cameroonians...

We know the expression “fear of the unknown.” These readings and today’s gospel offer us instead “hope” in the face of the unknown. We are not frozen with fear or mired in fruitless speculation, we know exactly what must be done– justice, God’s justice. And while busy doing it, we also get prepared no matter when the “bridegroom” arrives. It’s the difference between being “wise” and “foolish.”

In the cartoon “Dilbert,” the boss says, “I have good news and bad news. The good news is—half of you will be getting a big raise. The bad news is—half of you will be let go.” Everyone sits and stares at him for a minute. Finally, someone says, “It’s the same half isn’t it.” The boss replies, “Yeah, we ran the numbers. We can’t afford the raise.” Each of our Scripture lessons mentions, or at least alludes to, an idea that is usually referred to as either, “The day of the Lord,” or “The coming of the Lord.” And the question is: “Is this coming day of the Lord good news or bad news?”...

She had been fine when we had seen her last, only a week before. Sure, life at age 89 moved at a slower pace, but my mother-in-law still managed to work the daily crossword in ink, share lunch with friends, and enjoy visits from the children who addressed their crayoned artwork “To Grandma-the-Great.” The text messages we received that morning were entirely unexpected. Mama’s at the hospital…Doctor says she’s dying…Get here as soon as you can. Although we were caught off guard by the events that unfolded over the next 16 hours, my mother-in-law was not. For as long as I’d known her, she had taken seriously Jesus’ command in this week's Gospel reading: “Keep awake, for you do not know the day or the hour.” Always a planner, she had been preparing for most of her life. Everybody dies, after all, and she intended to be ready...

("Have you ever wondered why films like Captain Spaulding, Duck Soup, and A Night at the Opera seem to revolve around Groucho Marx unleashing a string of insults at a stuffy society matron? It was not merely because such a character was the perfect foil for the Marx Brothers' anarchic brand of humour; or, indeed, because they were getting a cheap laugh at the expense of someone else...")

("The narrative world of Flannery O'Connor's The Violent Bear It Away is full of overpoweringly visceral, sudden inbreakings. Old Tarwater is a backwoods prophet who had been called in his early youth and had set out for the city to proclaim the destruction awaiting a world that had abandoned its Savior...")

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You're gonna have to serve somebody Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord But you're gonna have to serve somebody...

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