The Twenty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time (C), August 25, 2019 - Luke 13:10-17 and Jeremiah 1:4-10

Luke 13:10-17

James Tissot: Woman with an Infirmity of Eighteen Years

1886-1894, Brooklyn Museum, NY

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Some people just seem to live

So they can play the “Gotcha!” game;

It gets demoralizing

How hate, they constantly inflame;

If you would do otherwise,

If you’d stand up to some crass hack,

Remember you’re not the first,

And Jesus, Lord, still has your back.

Scott L. Barton

Comeuppance of a Blowhard

The indignant leader

Huffed and puffed

When the bent-over woman

Raised her head,

Blaming the victim

For being in the right place

At the wrong time.

He didn't even have the dignity

To address the woman,

Much less the man who healed her.

And he kept it up.

(Don't you hate it when that happens?)

So Jesus let him have it.

And he brought the house down,

While the woman smiled

With dignity.

Don't you love it when that happens?

Scott L. Barton

(2013)

Now [Jesus] was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath. And just then there appeared a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years. She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight. When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, “Woman, you are set free from your ailment.” When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God. But the leader of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had cured on the sabbath, kept saying to the crowd, “There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured, and not on the sabbath day.” But the Lord answered him and said, “You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger, and lead it away to give it water? And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the sabbath day?” When he said this, all his opponents were put to shame; and the entire crowd was rejoicing at all the wonderful things that he was doing.

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Jeremiah 1:4-10

Annie Valloton: Good News Bible (1976)

Knowing Who You Are

Oh, what a job a prophet has,

To say things people hate to hear,

At least, until you're dead and gone,

When maybe, then, you'll be endeared,

Your words, enshrined, your praises sung -

Except you won't be here to know!

But Jeremiah chanced that touch

Would be the word of God bestowed.

Do you believe in destiny?

Sometimes, it seems quite heavenly.

Scott L. Barton

(2016)

Now the word of the Lord came to me saying,

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, 

and before you were born I consecrated you; 

I appointed you a prophet to the nations.” 

Then I said, “Ah, Lord God! Truly I do not know how to speak, for I am only a boy.” But the Lord said to me, 

“Do not say, ‘I am only a boy’; 

for you shall go to all to whom I send you, 

and you shall speak whatever I command you.

Do not be afraid of them, 

for I am with you to deliver you, says the Lord.” 

Then the Lord put out his hand and touched my mouth; and the Lord said to me, 

“Now I have put my words in your mouth. 

See, today I appoint you over nations and over kingdoms, 

to pluck up and to pull down, 

to destroy and to overthrow, 

to build and to plant.”