Annie Vallotton: Good News Bible, 1976
Galatians 6:(1-6) 7-16
More Than Theory
It’s clear Paul offers no prescription
For living well, like this description
Of bearing one another’s burdens,
While taking up one’s own load, certain.
But populations can’t be thriving
When members, each with each is striving
To be one who outdoes the other,
Or who another’s joy would smother.
Instead, Paul says, if Christ you’re sowing,
His love will back to you be flowing,
So, let us not in love grow weary,
For love from God is more than theory.
Scott L. Barton
My friends, if anyone is detected in a transgression, you
who have received the Spirit should restore such a one in a spirit of
gentleness. Take care that you yourselves are not tempted. Bear one
another’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. For
if those who are nothing think they are something, they deceive themselves. All
must test their own work; then that work, rather than their neighbor’s work,
will become a cause for pride. For all must carry their own
loads. Those who are taught the word must share in all good things with
their teacher. Do not be deceived; God is not mocked, for you reap
whatever you sow. If you sow to your own flesh, you will reap corruption
from the flesh; but if you sow to the Spirit, you will reap eternal life from
the Spirit. So let us not grow weary in doing what is right, for we will
reap at harvest-time, if we do not give up. So then, whenever we have an
opportunity, let us work for the good of all, and especially for those of the
family of faith.
See what large letters I make when I am writing in my own
hand! It is those who want to make a good showing in the flesh that try to
compel you to be circumcised—only that they may not be persecuted for the cross
of Christ. Even the circumcised do not themselves obey the law, but they
want you to be circumcised so that they may boast about your flesh. May I
never boast of anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the
world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. For neither
circumcision nor uncircumcision is anything; but a new creation is
everything! As for those who will follow this rule—peace be upon them, and
mercy, and upon the Israel of God.
+ + +
2 Kings 5:1-14
Unless You Change and Become Like Children
The unsung girl, unnamed, enslaved,
Ensured that Naaman would be saved
From what oppressed him day and night,
Despite his military might.
She spoke, which then set into motion
What made in Israel a commotion
With first, the king, then Naaman, too,
Who thought Elisha had no clue
About a high and mighty cure -
Except, the Jordan made him pure,
With skin just like a little boy's!
Which goes to show, it took no poise,
God's healing power to portray,
Since mighty love is child's play.
Scott L. Barton
(2016)
+ + +
2 Kings 5:1-14 and Luke 10:1-11, 16-20
Our Salvation's Story
We'd love to see the glory of God's work performed outright;
Thus Naamann scoffed at what Elisha offered for his plight;
But flashy deeds and fancy baths are hardly Yahweh's style,
Instead, a God whom you might trust makes grace a thing
worthwhile;
And likewise, when the seventy were jazzed at their success
At demon-casting-out, since, first, the Twelve had just been blessed,
They learned (and so might we) that flashy deeds are not
God's glory,
But, rather, knowing that we're loved is our salvation's
story.
Scott L. Barton
(2013)
Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Aram, was a
great man and in high favor with his master, because by him the Lord had given
victory to Aram. The man, though a mighty warrior, suffered from leprosy. Now
the Arameans on one of their raids had taken a young girl captive from the land
of Israel, and she served Naaman’s wife. She said to her mistress, “If only my
lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his
leprosy.” So Naaman went in and told his lord just what the girl from the land
of Israel had said. And the king of Aram said, “Go then, and I will send along
a letter to the king of Israel.” He went, taking with him ten talents of
silver, six thousand shekels of gold, and ten sets of garments. He brought
the letter to the king of Israel, which read, “When this letter reaches you,
know that I have sent to you my servant Naaman, that you may cure him of his
leprosy.” When the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes and
said, “Am I God, to give death or life, that this man sends word to me to cure
a man of his leprosy? Just look and see how he is trying to pick a quarrel with
me.” But when Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his
clothes, he sent a message to the king, “Why have you torn your clothes? Let
him come to me, that he may learn that there is a prophet in Israel.”
So Naaman came with his horses and chariots, and halted at
the entrance of Elisha’s house. Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying,
“Go, wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored and you
shall be clean.” But Naaman became angry and went away, saying, “I thought that
for me he would surely come out, and stand and call on the name of the Lord his
God, and would wave his hand over the spot, and cure the leprosy! Are not Abana
and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel?
Could I not wash in them, and be clean?” He turned and went away in a rage. But
his servants approached and said to him, “Father, if the prophet had commanded
you to do something difficult, would you not have done it? How much more, when
all he said to you was, ‘Wash, and be clean’?” So he went down and immersed
himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God; his
flesh was restored like the flesh of a young boy, and he was clean.
+++
After this the Lord appointed seventy others and sent them
on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to
go. He said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few;
therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. Go
on your way. See, I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves.
Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals; and greet no one on the road. Whatever
house you enter, first say, ‘Peace to this house!’ And if anyone is there who
shares in peace, your peace will rest on that person; but if not, it will
return to you. Remain in the same house, eating and drinking whatever they
provide, for the laborer deserves to be paid. Do not move about from house to
house. Whenever you enter a town and its people welcome you, eat what is set
before you; cure the sick who are there, and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God
has come near to you.’ But whenever you enter a town and they do not welcome
you, go out into its streets and say, ‘Even the dust of your town that
clings to our feet, we wipe off in protest against you. Yet know this: the
kingdom of God has come near.’ “Whoever listens to you listens to me, and
whoever rejects you rejects me, and whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent
me.”
The seventy returned with joy, saying, “Lord, in your name
even the demons submit to us!” He said to them, “I watched Satan fall
from heaven like a flash of lightning. See, I have given you authority to tread
on snakes and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing will
hurt you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice at this, that the spirits submit to you,
but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”
