#ordinary 18

[rivikah]

Bread and fish

This week’s reading is not a part of the same story as last week’s parables. Although only a few verses separate them, the narrative suggests that some time has passed and some physical distance exists between these two pages. Even so I find it interesting that the feeding of the five thousand uses bread and fish. We just heard parables about bread and fish. It’s not surprising really. These…

Bread and fish

[rivikah]

Useless

The parable of the rich fool is prompted by a request that Jesus rule on an inheritance dispute. The man asking wants Jesus to make his brother share an inheritance with him. Jesus clearly doesn’t want to get in the middle of this, but it’s not really that surprising that someone would ask. A respected authority who doesn’t really know either party and can be expected to be neutral could be a…

Useless

[rivikah]

Nostalgia

After the miraculous feeding, Jesus goes to Capernaum. In my understanding, this is a little bit of a home base for much of Jesus early ministry. It’s a town mentioned repeatedly through all four Gospels. Some people who were at the feeding of the 5000 that we read last week track him down there and they have this kind of tense conversation. I think it’s pretty clear why they start of on the…

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[rivikah]

Anger

#Lectionary Post:

We’re into the Sermon on the Mount. In this particular segment Jesus attempts to unsettle his audience by telling them its not enough to just refrain from murdering people. How you treat others still matters even if no one ends up dead, even if you never come to blows. But somehow, over the last couple thousand years, its been turned into a way to treat people badly while silencing your…

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