There’s a story I once
heard from Amy-Jill Levine, who’s probably the foremost Jewish scholar of the
gospels around. It’s about how she first learnt what we call the Lord’s Prayer.
It was in her public elementary school in the fifties, when they would start
every day with the Our Father, followed by the pledge of allegiance, followed
by the Star-Spangled Banner. As a child, she didn’t think there was anything
odd about that prayer, although it wasn’t one she could ever remember hearing
in the synagogue, because it seemed so like the ones her family prayed there
and at home. Calling God Father, talking about the holiness of God’s name,
talking about food, and forgiveness; this was exactly how they prayed. And it
wasn’t just Amy-Jill as a child unable to pick up on some subtlety; this is a
very Jewish prayer.
Sunday, July 28, 2019
Sunday, July 21, 2019
Jesus hungers to speak with us – Luke 10:38-42; Gen 18:1-10a
Sixteenth Sunday in OT, Year C; Holy Infant parish.
One parish I used to be a
part of would serve a meal one Saturday each month for those who were homeless
or who otherwise knew food insecurity. It was normally kind of an assembly line
type set up, which is a very efficient way of feeding a lot of hungry people in
a reasonably short period of time with limited volunteer resources. But, for
the meal that fell during the Christmas season, they got a lot more people
involved, and did two sittings of a family-style table service meal. Each table
would be hosted by parishioner. That host would bring trays of food from the
kitchen, would make sure each bowl or plate or jug of goodies circulated around
the table. They’d also be responsible for making conversation, for welcoming
the people they were dining with, and listening to them. They would also
explain why Christmas means so much to us, why when the stores are packing
their supplies away, we keep on celebrating, and why we want to celebrate with
them. More than one type of hunger was fed at those meals.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)