From the Lectionary for 17 August 2025 (Proper 15C)

Luke 12:49-53 (English Standard Version)

“I came to cast fire on the earth, and would that it were already kindled! I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how great is my distress until it is accomplished! Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. For from now on in one house there will be five divided, three against two and two against three. They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”

~

"There is [...] one saying of Jesus that switches the whole meaning of fire and it gives an indication of how he was changing [John the Baptist's] entire symbolic scheme [of the fire of judgment]. He said, “I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing! There is a baptism with which I must be baptized, and how great is my anguish until it is accomplished” (Luke 12:49-50).

"The image of setting fire to the whole earth is very different from [John the Baptist's metaphor of] burning the separated chaff. It is also connected to a baptism that Jesus has yet to undergo, and so is diverse from John's meaning. John's promise of a baptism with “spirit and fire” refers to the final cataclysm of God's in-breaking in history. The water baptism at the Jordan that he offered stood as a powerful symbolic alternative to fire, the possibility of entering into a repentance and purification that pre-empted this fearsome eventuality.

"Jesus' putting together of “fire” and “baptism” in respect of something he had still to undergo suggests that he accepted John's symbols but at a deeper and decisive level he opted to bring the crisis down on himself in a totally exceptional sense. He would thereby release fire on earth, but in a transformed, generative sense. Here we have the absolutely characteristic gesture of Jesus that unites an apocalyptic viewpoint with something else, something that changes the orientation and content of apocalyptic itself."

- Anthony Bartlett, Virtually Christian, pp. 233-34

~

"[H]uman desire, rivalry, competition, which had previously been kept in some sort of check by a system of prohibitions, rituals, sacrifices and myths, lest human groups collapse in perpetual and irresoluble mutual vengeance, can no longer be controlled in this way. This is the sense in which Jesus' coming brings not peace to the earth, but a sword and division. All the sacred structures which hold groups together start to collapse, because desire has been unleashed.

"So the sacred bonds within families are weakened, different generations will be run by different worlds, give their loyalty to different and incompatible causes, the pattern of desire constantly shifting. All in fact will be afloat on a sea of wrath, because the traditional means to curb wrath, the creation by sacrifice of spaces of temporary peace within the group, has been undone forever.

"The only alternative is to undergo the forgiveness which comes from the lamb, and start to find oneself recreated from within by a peace which is not from this world, and involves learning how to resist the evil one by not resisting evil. This means: you effectively resist, have no part in, the structures and flows of desire which are synonymous with the prince of this world, that is to say with the world of wrath, only by refusing to acquire an identity over against evil-done-to you."

- James Alison, Broken Hearts and New Creations, pg. 44

~

In his video homily for this week, James Alison makes a number of interesting connections and observations that subvert to some extent the usual interpretation of this passage:

- the "fire" to be kindled can be linked to the tongues of flame on the people on the day of Pentecost (Act 2); this fire is destructive in regards to the human way of violence, but is also generative of God's way of forgiveness and peace, as suggested also in the passage quoted just above from "Virtually Christian";

- the Greek work translated as "distress" (v.50) has a root of 'hold fast' or 'press together' so can be thought of as holding back of emotion, feeling constrained or compelled; hence it is not necessarily a 'negative' emotion but can be seen as related to Hebrews 12:2, "for the sake of the joy that was set before him."

- what is interesting about the number 5 is that it is the lowest number which can be divided in more than one way *unevenly*, so it draws attention to the way society normally divides to create peace: 4 against 1, not 3 against 2; hence Jesus' prophecy can be seen, in a way (this is my own extrapolation), as a prediction of modern democracy, where peace in society is not reached by the mob in unifying against a 'scapegoat' other, or by the one dictator imposing his will by force on the many (1 against 4), but instead reached through acceptance of the decision of the majority (slim as it may be) - an 'uncomfortable' peace, if we can even call it that, as we know too well these days.

- the familial antagonisms mentioned are notable as being democratic, two-way, which subverts the hierarchical antagonisms spoken of in Micah 7:6 (which Jesus is clearly alluding to), where it is the son, daughter, daughter-in-law, who are condemned for opposition to their elders.

Alison concludes:

"So the notion here [from Jesus] is: “I came to bring fire, I wish it were all kindled. How tough it is to constrain what I want to give until it is completed.” And what he wants to give is going to look to some awfully like wrath, but in fact it's the possibility of living without wrath in the midst of a world that is going to become visibly or apparently more wrathful. But we're going to know where the source of peace and unity, real peace and real unity is.

"And the challenge for us - and that's going to be the challenge we see in the next couple of passages in Luke is going to be - how do we interpret which side to be on? How do we interpret where the path to looking for real unity, a real togetherness, respecting all the differences between fathers/sons, mothers/daughters, mothers and daughters in law - all those real differences that are shown up by collapses in culture, collapses in generation, impossibility to keep fake unity together.

"So that I think is this week's challenge to remember that the gift of the Holy Spirit is the most destabilizing entrance of the Spirit, of the Creator, into our midst. It leads to a constant world of re-signifying, of making all things new, of working out how, in whatever space of disaster or catastrophe we are, as fake unity collapses, we can begin to usher in the new world."

- James Alison, from video "Homily for Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time 2022 C" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmtBy0KnqGw)

[Source of quotes from Anthony Bartlett and James Alison's Broken Hearts and New Creations, and for analysis and discussion on all the lectionary texts for this Sunday: https://girardianlectionary.net/reflections/year-c/proper15c/]

From the Lectionary for 10 August 2025 (Proper 14C)

Luke 12:32-48 (NRSV Updated Edition)

“Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions and give alms. Make purses for yourselves that do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

“Be dressed for action and have your lamps lit; be like those who are waiting for their master to return from the wedding banquet, so that they may open the door for him as soon as he comes and knocks. Blessed are those slaves whom the master finds alert when he comes; truly I tell you, he will fasten his belt and have them sit down to eat, and he will come and serve them. If he comes during the middle of the night or near dawn and finds them so, blessed are those slaves.

“But know this: if the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”

Peter said, “Lord, are you telling this parable for us or for everyone?” And the Lord said, “Who, then, is the faithful and prudent manager whom his master will put in charge of his slaves, to give them their allowance of food at the proper time? Blessed is that slave whom his master will find at work when he arrives. Truly I tell you, he will put that one in charge of all his possessions. But if that slave says to himself, ‘My master is delayed in coming,’ and begins to beat the other slaves, men and women, and to eat and drink and get drunk, the master of that slave will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour that he does not know and will cut him in pieces and put him with the unfaithful. That slave who knew what his master wanted but did not prepare himself or do what was wanted will receive a severe beating. But the one who did not know and did what deserved a beating will receive a light beating. From everyone to whom much has been given, much will be required, and from the one to whom much has been entrusted, even more will be demanded."

~

"It is important to see that Jesus is not telling us to give up desires. The heavenly Abba has a profound Desire for a deep union of love with each of us, a union God would have us share with each other. If God is comprised of God's Desire, then it follows that we creatures are created with desires. What Jesus is doing here is redirecting our desires from the desires of rivalrous avarice towards God's Desire that is without rivalry. Isn't every fight, ultimately, over what we think we are entitled to as our inheritance? Yet aren't we all offered the whole world to be an inheritance rather than a bone for contention? Since these rivalrous desires embroil us with our rivals, the material inheritance we are fighting for is destroyed as if by moths. Of course, each rival blames the other for being the thief that has stolen the treasure.

"Jesus then shifts to an admonition to be ready for the Master's “return from the wedding banquet.” (Lk. 12: 36) If we servants are alert and ready to greet the master, the master will wait on us as Jesus waited on his disciples at the Last Supper. This little feast shared by master and servants is an image of the treasure our hearts should be set on. The progression of vignettes and admonitions throughout this chapter suggests that the best way to be prepared for God's coming is to set our hearts on treasure that moths cannot consume and thieves cannot steal. Fundamentally, being alert for the “master” consists of serving one another in the same way that the master serves us when he comes.

"The following little parable is comical and a bit threatening. The master who serves those who wait for him is transformed into a thief breaking into a house in the middle of the night. (vv. 39–40) If our hearts are not set on the treasure of serving one another, but instead we fight over our inheritance and try to gather it into bigger barns, then the God who serves us will be quite alien to us and will be perceived as a thief, a burglar. If our rivalry deepens as it does in the still more threatening parable that follows, so that our rivalry causes us to “beat the other slaves, men and women, and to eat and drink and get drunk,” (vs. 45), then the gracious master will indeed rob us of our victims.

"God is both a burglar and a gracious master who serves. God only breaks in to take away all that draws our hearts away from God and from each other. What this burglar leaves in return is a treasure well worth setting our hearts on."

- Andrew Marr, Abbot of St. Gregory's Abbey (Three Rivers, MI), from blog post titled “The Burglar Who Serves.” (https://andrewmarrosb.wordpress.com/2016/08/05/the-burglar-who-serves/)

~

"[W]e begin today's Gospel which starts: “Do not be afraid, little flock.” That's actually the only place where this phrase comes in any of the Gospels: little flock. It's this affectionate note. Jesus talking to his disciples here, that is this affectionate note, “For it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” And I think that that's really what is behind the whole of this passage that's coming up, which can be a very very difficult passage. Because it's asking us to sink into something which isn't evident and which is really absolutely central to the Christian faith, which is the notion that underneath everything that is there is a good pleasure in doing things for us, that there is someone who wants our wellness, wants our flourishing, wants our happiness, our safety.

"“Your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” In other words, there's a hugely powerful project going on, and we're already on the inside of it. It's as we're being given something and because we're being given something that we are then expected to behave in certain ways. This is incredibly difficult I think psychologically for any of us to get into because we are inclined to worry, we are inclined to strive after things and it's very very difficult to, what it says next: “Sell your possessions and give alms, make purses for yourselves that do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven.” In other words, to treat anything that we have as something that is worth much more as we give it away. That our real treasure is what we've given away, and therefore is our contribution to other people rather than anything that we have. Psychologically that is incredibly difficult.

"You get an unfailing treasure in heaven where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. And then this line which sounds very beautiful but is in fact terribly challenging: “For where your treasure is there your heart will be also.” Well, this is a shocking Gospel message, particularly at a time when we're hearing about a financial recession, collapse going on all around us, prices going up, inflation etc etc. Worrying about our treasure here on earth is a full-time business for many of us. What on earth does it mean to have such confidence in what we are being given that we can happily give away and carry on giving away? And regard what we have given away and therefore no longer control as what our treasure is - something outside our control. That is incredibly difficult and yet that is the image of God which Jesus is giving us.

"But there is something being brought into being in the midst of us and it is brought into being in the degree to which we learn to give ourselves away, and that it's in the giving ourselves away that we have treasure. Oh so painful because where the tyre hits the road is always where I haven't got enough. How can I give away if I haven't got enough? And this seems an incredible challenge, an incredibly difficult challenge to that - to live, to dwell in the sense of an abundance that is prior to us, which is what faith is all about. Such that we are not frightened to give away.

[...]

"So I think [...] the notion of so much more being available to us that we can trust in what is being given to us, and that as we trust it we actually become someone. And as we become someone we can entrust more to others. And that this which is a gift, it's massively prior to us. It's what turns us into becoming capable of rejoicing.

"It does mean that we acquire responsibilities with it. It is as it were any failures can't be mitigated. And that is frankly very challenging. As someone who has often fallen asleep, and sometimes got drunk, I hope not beaten other servants but who could well be regarded as someone who's often asleep at the wheel. What does it look like to be alert, alive with our belt girdled and our lamp lit so as to be able to be ready for the service when the Lord comes? This I find a very very challenging Gospel."

- James Alison, from video "Homily for Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time 2022 C" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5ddiEqx7Tk)

[Source of link to Andrew Marr's blog post, and for analysis and discussion on all the lectionary texts for this Sunday: https://girardianlectionary.net/reflections/year-c/proper14c/]

From the Lectionary for 3 August 2025 (Proper 13C)

Luke 12:13-21 (NRSV Updated Edition)

Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.” But he said to him, “Friend, who set me to be a judge or arbitrator over you?” And he said to them, “Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.” Then he told them a parable: “The land of a rich man produced abundantly. And he thought to himself, ‘What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?’ Then he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.’ But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God.”

Colossians 3:1-4 (NRSV Updated Edition)

So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on the things that are above, not on the things that are on earth, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory.

~

"In 1998, [before the Sunday of Proper 13C,] the big news story of the week involved a $295 million power ball lottery. We have these great conversations with ourselves about how we would use that money. We, of course, would give most of it away, wouldn't we? We fool ourselves about being beneficent, loving people by how we would reach out to others from our own little Paradises where we are in complete control.

"The fact that we have this habit of talking to ourselves about what we would do with such lottery winnings is a great clue that we are in the same boat as the rich fool, when we allow ourselves to play such games. How did we get into such a state?

"Genesis 2-3 shows us. First of all, it shows us that Paradise is living life in creative dialogue with the Creator. The man and woman walk and talk with God in the garden. But one of the creatures intervenes as a rival to God, and the man and woman listen to it instead, placing themselves in rivalry with God. We lose Paradise when our primary dialogue partners become other creatures or ourselves.

"But through Jesus Christ, right at the moment of death, the one thief [on the cross in Luke 23] opens his life to dialogue with God and is immediately in Paradise. Isn't this of what Paradise consists? Life in dialogue with God's desire?"

- Paul J. Nuechterlein, from Reflections and Questions on the Luke 12:13-21 (link in comments below)

~

"I am attempting to describe for you the form taken in my life by the irruption of the extraordinary grace which I received [...] Of course, I am describing schematically something which was a non-schematic whole, and which I have taken several years to begin to understand. First there was the perception of the absolute non-involvement of God in all that violence, then the perception of my non-innocence, and of my idolatrous and violent manner of having been caught up in all that. And then, at root, what began this whole process of beginning to untie myself from the idols I had so assiduously cultivated, what I had never dared to imagine, the profound “Yes” of God, the “Yes” spoken to the [...] boy who had despaired of ever hearing it.

"And there, indeed, I found myself absolutely caught, because this “Yes” takes the form, not of a pretty consolation for a spoiled child. Rather, from the moment it reached me, the whole psychological and mental structure by which I had built myself up over all the previous years, began to enter into a complete collapse. For the whole structure was based on the presupposition of a “No” at the center of my being, and because of that, of the need to wage a violent war so as to cover up a fathomless hole. The “I”, the “self” of the child of God is born in the midst of the ruins of repented idolatry.

"A further point in this narrative, if you can bear it. In the months following this incident, I had to give a theology course. I called the course: “Fix your minds on the things that are above,” taken from Paul's letter to the Colossians. Ironically, I managed to give the whole course, which has even been published in book form, without tumbling to the significance of the verse which follows the one I had chosen: “for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.”

"But it was exactly this that, at last, I was learning. The whole of my previous life had been marked by an absolute refusal to die. The absolute refusal to take on my baptismal commitment.

"Of course, because I was unable to imagine that my “self”, the “I” who will live forever, is hidden with Christ in God. And that was why I had to fight all those battles. The “I” who was present in all those battles was the old Adam, or Cain, a “self” incapable of understanding that it is not necessary to seek to shore up for itself a place on this earth, to found a safe space, to protect itself violently against violence. The “I” of the risen one only becomes present when, at last, the old “I” is put to death. [...]

"In its place, being something rather like a still small voice, something which I can in no way possess, nor grasp, is the “I” from which I now start to live. The “I” that is hidden with Christ in God, little by little, and somewhat tentatively, begins to build a new life story in the midst of the ruins of the previous collapse."

- James Alison, Faith Beyond Resentment, pp. 39-40

~

"[The 'rich fool' in the parable] by himself is in a purely solitary bubble, everything is concerned with his [soul/self], it's the only thing that matters. He doesn't seem to be aware that the land giving abundantly is already God giving abundantly. And if God gives abundantly, maybe what God is that he should be a good administrator and be able to give more things to the poor people so that they are able to get food at cheaper prices this year because of the abundance, that they should share in the abundance. But no, his thinking is entirely based on 'how is this going to work out for me?'

"And this brings us back to the question of the inheritance [at the beginning of the Luke passage]. The presupposition is, there is abundance, there *is* an inheritance, there is an abundance of harvest. What is it going to look like, not to have someone decide for us who to give what - that's a question of clash of rights and is impossible to work out, especially among brothers - [but] who is going to get with the program of sharing abundance? Who is going to, rather than storing up treasures for themselves, which leads to nothing at all, because their [life] can be required of them at any moment, who it is who are able to use what they have been given to spread God's generosity? That's the only question [...]

"So this is part of the transformation of desire which is so much part of St Luke's gospel. It suggests that there is always something prior to us, always an abundance. It's never self-starting, never starts with [myself], it's always 'someone has given something to me, how am I going to share it, how am I going to spread it out?' Being rich towards God means allowing myself to become the channel of God's riches to reach others."

- James Alison, from video "Homily for Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time 2022 C" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2j-1uWX9K0)

[Source of quotes from Paul Nuechterlein and James Alison's Faith Beyond Resentment, and for analysis and discussion on all the lectionary texts for this Sunday:https://girardianlectionary.net/reflections/year-c/proper13c/]

From the Lectionary for 27 July 2025 (Proper 12C)

Luke 11:1-13 (NRSV Updated Edition)

He was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.” So he said to them, “When you pray, say:

Father, may your name be revered as holy.
    May your kingdom come.
    Give us each day our daily bread.
    And forgive us our sins,
        for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us.
    And do not bring us to the time of trial.”

And he said to them, “Suppose one of you has a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, for a friend of mine has arrived, and I have nothing to set before him.’ And he answers from within, ‘Do not bother me; the door has already been locked, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything.’ I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything out of friendship, at least because of his persistence he will get up and give him whatever he needs.

“So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. Is there anyone among you who, if your child asked for a fish, would give a snake instead of a fish? Or if the child asked for an egg, would give a scorpion? If you, then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

~

"Prayer is a gift from a loving God who truly does care about what we desire and invites us to share those desires. God wants us to ask and promises to answer. The talking part of prayer is generally the easier part, however. Our desires - or what we think we desire - is usually up-front for us and easy to ask for. It's the listening part that is perhaps more difficult. What is God's answer? Even more pertinent ... : What is God's desire?

"Jesus taught us to pray ... : Our Father in heaven, may we get your name right, honoring your reputation. Your culture come. Your loving desire be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today the bread we need today (not hoarding tomorrow's bread, too). Forgive us our sins so that we might give up our desires for vengeance and live in the light of forgiveness with others. Save us from the trials of being made the victim, and deliver us from such evils when they come upon us. Amen

"We imitate Christ in praying this prayer as the model prayer. But what I want to ask is: is prayer itself the central means by which we listen to God's desire and learn to model God? Was this the crux of Jesus' prayer life? And now we, his disciples, model his prayer life as the means by which we, too, can become obedient to God's desire?"

- Paul Nuechterlein, from "Reflections and Questions" on Luke 11:1-13 (link in comments below)

~

"This week our Gospel continues directly on from last week. Last week, we had Martha and Mary, and here we have Jesus on prayer [...] Jesus was praying in a certain place and after he had finished one of his disciples said to him: Lord, teach us to pray as John taught his disciples. So it's interesting that Jesus was doing something by example, that he didn't start off by telling his disciples to pray. It was their desire to imitate him that led them to ask. And that's always the first thing we'll see with the prayer: his insistence is about asking. It's very very strong, even stronger in Luke's Gospel than it is in Matthew's. So the first thing is, his presence doing something produces in them a desire to be in some way like him and to do what he's doing. [...]

"So then Jesus does speak to them. And again, we're so used to thinking, 'this is Jesus teaching about prayer,' but what we fail to notice is that he says very little. It's very very scarce what he actually says about prayer. “When you pray, say: Father.” In Luke's Gospel, it isn't even 'Our Father who art in heaven,' as it says in Matthew. It is just: Father. In other words, the whole thing starts from the resting place, a place of complete confidence in one who is doing something, which brings something into being, from whom all desire can come. That's the starting place: a very simple word: Father.

- James Alison, from video "Homily for Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time 2022 C" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2FBg0T8isE)

~

"[I]magine yourself as highly malleable, being stretched between two force fields, two patterns of desire. What the “Our Father” is doing is inducting you into a pattern of desire within which you may be found, one which will enable you to inhabit the “being stretched” which is how the desire of the Other other brings into being the daughter or son who is learning to pray.

[...]

"[Your will be done, on earth as in heaven.] So, may Your pattern of desire be achieved, here in our midst, amongst all these things that we are so often quick to reject, to despise, to tire of, be bored of, made to despair by. Your pattern of desire which already has and is a huge rejoicing and delight, a huge benevolence and peaceful longing, a real reality upon which our small reality rests, and from which it so often seeks to cut itself off, incapable of perceiving itself as the symptom of so much glory. May we be taken onto the inside of this pattern of desire.

[...]

"[Rescue us from evil.] The pattern of desire into which we are being inducted by the Lord's Prayer recognizes evil, but only as that from which people can be delivered. Rather than its being a thing in itself, it is only known in its being left behind to curve down on itself, never to be given oxygen by being dignified with a concentrated gaze. But the real force in the universe is not evil, but love, and love really does want to rescue us, to bring us out of our tendency to enclose ourselves in smaller and smaller spaces, to bring us into being."

- James Alison, Jesus the Forgiving Victim, Essay 9: “Prayer,” pp. 427-33

~

"[T]he difference between a fish or something doing them good, or an egg, and those beasts is very very obvious. But in terms of our pattern of desire - are we so clear about that? Are we so clear that the Father is the sort of person who actually wants us to have good things? I think we sometimes think that maybe he's giving me a scorpion because it's good for me, or a snake because it'll whip me into action? Don't we moralize the bad image we have of the One who wants to give us? Then we find it really difficult to actually believe that God does want things that are good for us.

"So it's our insistence in actually learning to imagine the goodness that he wants for us, and carrying on wanting it, that is central to what God wants for us. This is why we must pray. And Jesus makes this point: “If you then who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children” - in other words, you know how to screw each other up, you know how to have dysfunctional family relations, you know all these things, and yet even you can distinguish between good gifts and bad gifts of your children - “how much more will the heavenly Father give Holy Spirit to those who ask him.”

"Holy Spirit - what is that? This is the pattern of desire that is, if you like, opened up by the desirability of what is good that actually enables us to imitate what is going to do good for us, and which then strengthens our longing and our wanting so that we can carry on insisting until we are turned around and find ourselves actually possessed by what it is like to be God towards all things that are and discover ourselves, owning it, receiving it, having 'knocked' for it, finding it.

"So this element which St Luke gives that the heavenly Father is giving, not 'the good things' [as in Matthew 7:11] to those of who is asking, but gives Holy Spirit. Rather than as a compensation, think of it as that what is wanted is the pattern of desire. That's what Jesus asks us to receive through prayer: to learn and to enter into the pattern of desire which runs us in such a way that we will not be hurt, that we will not be subjected to cruel self-moralisations, that our longings will be satisfied and will be enabled to carry on wanting more and more because that is what the Creator longs to give us."

- James Alison, from video "Homily for Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time 2022 C" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2FBg0T8isE)

[Source of quotes from Paul Nuechterlein and James Alison's Jesus the Forgiving Victim, and for analysis and discussion on all the lectionary texts for this Sunday: https://girardianlectionary.net/reflections/year-c/proper12c/]

From the Lectionary for 20 July 2025 (Proper 11C)

Luke 10:38-42 (NRSV Updated Edition)

Now as they went on their way, he entered a certain village where a woman named Martha welcomed him. She had a sister named Mary, who sat at Jesus's feet and listened to what he was saying. But Martha was distracted by her many tasks, so she came to him and asked, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her, then, to help me.” But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things, but few things are needed—indeed only one. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.”

~

"Those who interpret this story as contrasting the active and contemplative lives take Jesus' gentle reproach of Martha as indicating that she is distracted from him by her busywork. But if Jesus is not offended by Martha's attention to work instead of him since Jesus does not put himself in rivalry with such work, then the words mean something else. I suggest that Jesus is pointing out that Martha is not distracted from Jesus by her work; she is distracted from her work by resentment of her sister. Mary, for her (better) part shows no sign of being distracted by Martha.

[...]

"It isn't a matter of being active or contemplative; it's a matter of being focused on Jesus without resentment. [...] If we are focused on Jesus, we will be attentive to our neighbor without rivalry or resentment, which will set us at Jesus' feet."

-  Andrew Marr, Abbot of St. Gregory's Abbey (Three Rivers, MI), from blog post "Mary and Martha at the Feet of Jesus" (http://andrewmarrosb.wordpress.com/2013/07/16/mary-and-martha-at-the-feet-of-jesus/)

~

"Jesus [...] gently chides Martha to take the 'better part', the better course for steering clear of the unproductive way she has chosen. Martha should imitate Mary's focus on learning from Jesus, the way of steering clear of rivalries. He is the one person above all in whom our focus and fascination can begin to untangle us from our webs of rivalry. He is the one who came to do the desire of his Father without rivalry."

- Paul J. Nuechterlein, from Reflections and Questions on the Girardian Lectionary page for this week (link in comments below)

~

"[I]n the Greek it says “the better part” [v.42], the Aramaic [version of Luke] apparently is “a better part” and that's quite an important distinction. “Which will not be taken away from her.” Now again there appears to be a pun here, since part is portion or lot, it's the same word that was the Levitical lot for the sacrifice. But also it's a pun with the word for worrying, so 'maris' is a portion, and 'marimna' were all of the things that you're distracted about. [...]

"So it seems, and of course this is speculative, I'm relying on my old friend Duncan Duret and his extraordinary reading of this passage, that Jesus is effectively saying to Martha, “You want help with doing the waiting, but really I just want to wait upon you.” In other words, 'wait or to be waited upon' is more the is more the sense of Jesus' pun at this stage. He's saying that the whole point here is to allow yourself to be waited upon, not to do the waiting. And that of course fits in with other phrases in Luke's gospel where apparently the one who appears to be the guest who is in fact the host. So this is a typical entry of Jesus into a home and reversing the role of host and guest - it's the guest, the apparent guest, who is in fact the host. And this happens frequently and Jesus talks about this, that this is what will happen - the disciples are those who allow themselves to be waited on: the master comes in and sets them down at table then waits on them himself.

"So it's rather an odd thing because we're so used, if you like, to a pious version of this in which Mary is being told, 'yes it's right to sit around and do nothing' and Martha is being told, 'don't get worked up about house business and feeding me'. So we think, oh yes also contemplative is right, acting is less good. It actually appears that it's much more a question of, “I am the one who wants to feed you, are you going to allow yourself to be fed by me?” It's the reversal of positions that's the key thing here, and reversal of positions is particularly important from those who get disturbed about liturgical things, wanting to get everything right and making everything look classy and beautiful and brilliant, whereas the real question is not the classiness, the brilliance, the beauty, but whether the person concerned is being served. Because it's the host who wants to be the waiter, and that's the real way you show love and respect for the Word, allowing yourself to be waited upon and transformed into a sharer of the waiter's word, the waiter's richness, the food that the waiter is giving.

"So something like that seems to be what's going on. It says “Mary has chosen a better part,” talking about the portion, the different sorts of portion, the non-worried portion, which will not be taken away from her. And the 'not being taken away' makes perfect sense if one understands that she has become, if you like, a symptom of God's giving, of the Word's speaking. She's allowed herself to be taken up into the being served, which is how God wants us to grow.

"[This is] what I call the 'secondariness', that is the real sign of discipleship, when we're aware that we are secondary to someone doing something for us rather than being concerned about how we need to be in order to get something done for other people. This is, if you like, the rich account of Jesus teaching secondariness as being our portion and our lot, and the richness and creativity that comes from accepting secondariness."

- James Alison, from video "Homily for Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time 2022 C" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZzzvs4gshU)

[Source of Paul Nuechterlein quote and link to Andrew Marr's blog, and for analysis and discussion on all the lectionary texts for this Sunday: https://girardianlectionary.net/reflections/year-c/proper11c/]

From the Lectionary for 13 July 2025 (Proper 10C)

Colossians 1:9b-12 (NRSV Updated Edition)

[W]e have not ceased praying for you and asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of God’s will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, as you bear fruit in every good work and as you grow in the knowledge of God. May you be made strong with all the strength that comes from his glorious power, so that you may have all endurance and patience, joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light.

Luke 10:25-37 (NRSV Updated Edition)

An expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he said, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” He said to him, “What is written in the law? What do you read there?” He answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind and your neighbor as yourself.” And he said to him, “You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live.”

But wanting to vindicate himself, he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and took off, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan while traveling came upon him, and when he saw him he was moved with compassion. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, treating them with oil and wine. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, ‘Take care of him, and when I come back I will repay you whatever more you spend.’ Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?” He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”

~

The key link between the two passages above is the word "inherit."  Is "to inherit eternal life" the same as "to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light?"  Do we think 'to inherit eternal life' is something restricted to the future, something that will only be given to us after we die?  It seems that Paul is suggesting in Colossians that it is something we participate in now, and (following George Macdonald and many others) I think a far better rendering in English of 'ζωή αιώνια' (zoe aionia) is "life eternal" ie. the life of God, which is that to which we are called, that shown to us most perfectly in the life of the One we follow.

~

"'Inheriting eternal life' is a more interesting phrase than it might seem to those of us whose first reaction is that it is a simply another way of saying 'what must I do to go to heaven?' Inheriting is what the ultimate insiders did (in those days, sons, but not daughters) and 'eternal life' was a way of referring to the life of God. So St Luke frames the parable [of the Good Samaritan] as a discussion of what it looks like to become an insider in the life of God.

[...]

"As death loses its power, so commitment to the flourishing of what is fragile and precarious becomes possible, and our relationship with time changes. I don't know about you, but pledging yourself in an open-ended manner to make good on the hospital expenses of a severely injured person without any guarantee of payback for yourself is mostly a terrifying possibility. What is to stop you being 'taken to the cleaners' for everything you've got?

"But what if time is not your enemy? If time is not your enemy, then what you achieve or don't achieve, whether you are 'taken to the cleaners' or not, is secondary, and whatever you have will be for the flourishing of the weak one for as long as it takes, since you know that you will be found there.

"Being on the inside of the life of God looks like being decanted, by a generosity you didn't know you had in you, into making a rash commitment which makes a nonsense of death, of worry, and of the panic of time, because you know that you want to be found in loving proximity to what is weak and being brought into being."

- James Alison, "Jesus the Forgiving Victim", pp 528; 549-50

~

"So notice that the question which Jesus answers is not actually the question which the lawyer asks him - the lawyer asked him “who is my neighbour” and Jesus puts the question at the end, “who turned out to be neighbourly towards someone.” In other words, the definition of neighbour is not best thought of as to whom am I limited, or to whom I'm obligated, as a minimum in order to be a decent person. It is better seen as, what is it like actually to create neighbourliness in an ongoing and sustained way for someone. That's what being a neighbour is. The neighbour starts from the other, not from you wondering you know how that other fits into your life. It's the other who alters your life that is the key thing.

"Now Jesus has answered the question about inheriting eternal life here and the really interesting thing is that the Samaritan, who's obviously the model for this one, he's been taken by surprise. He's come across somebody lying alone, he has been moved by him. He has given of himself in caring for him and he's prepared to give himself even more. He's so excited to be found to be doing these things and actually found something real in life, looking after this person and actually being prepared to run the risk of, you know, picking up the hospital bill at the end which could be very considerable. He's ready to give himself [like] that because he's discovered what it's like to share the life of God. It's better to give yourself away even if you don't really know where that will take you.

"That's what it looks like to inherit the life of God: creating neighbourliness, giving yourself away even in ways that you can't control, being prepared, as it were, to put yourself at risk in order to do that, [the Samaritan] has discovered what it is like to inherit eternal life. It means being on the inside of the life of God.

"So Jesus asks this question to the lawyer who says, and it's difficult to tell whether he's just being loyally exact or whether he doesn't want to say the word “the Samaritan,” because the lawyer answers when he's asked, ... “The one who showed him mercy, mercy not sacrifice. The one who showed him mercy, that was the one who created neighbourliness.”

"So yes, obviously the lawyer doesn't want to admit that it was one of 'them bastards' who's the good guy in this story, but the whole point of this story is that we have been able to retell it and retell it and retell it in every conceivable different generation, according to who [the] annoying irritating other to whom we cannot attribute good is, and we can imagine them learning to rescue us, creating neighbourliness for us and saying, ah that's eternal life.

"Which then may prepare us to be able to recognize others in situations of extremity, and so enter into eternal life. It's the surprise and the excitement and the joy of discovering the life of God in mercy and not in sacrifice."

- James Alison, from "Homily for 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time 2022 С" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWerd_9ceMs)

[Source of quote from "Jesus the Forgiving Victim" and for analysis and discussion on all the lectionary texts for this Sunday: https://girardianlectionary.net/reflections/year-c/proper10c/]

From the Lectionary for 6 July 2025 (Proper 9C)

1 Corinthians 1:20-29 (NRSV Updated Edition)*

Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scholar? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided, through the foolishness of the proclamation, to save those who believe. For Jews ask for signs and Greeks desire wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to gentiles, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For God's foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God's weakness is stronger than human strength.

Consider your own call, brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to abolish things that are, so that no one might boast in the presence of God.

Luke 10:1-11; 16-20 (NRSV Anglicised)

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 labourers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers 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 labourer 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.”

~

"So yet again: when it said before he sent them to every place where he himself intended to go [10:1], perhaps this is more of the sense that they are if you like, the sacramental presence of himself. And in as far as the people, the local people receive them they are receiving him, and in as far as they are receiving him they are receiving God, because God has made himself known in this weak presence who will later reveal himself to be the crucified One.

"So after they've had this trip to the local places, the seventy returned with joy saying, “Lord, in your name” - in other words, you being there in person - “even the demons submit to us.” In other words, by entering these places with a weak presence, actually, they've been able to undo some of the terrible fake forms of power that had possessed and bound people, some of the terrible forms of vibration. It only needed people to be able to be present and weak without fearing being run out for demons and all the structures of possession which depend on throwing out in order to make good. They submitted to them. The power of God comes in weakness.

"And then Jesus says this wonderful line: “I watched Satan fall from heaven like a flash of lightning.” This is a key verse in Luke which appears again in the Book of the Apocalypse in a slightly different form, the notion that Jesus is present as weak in the world as one about to occupy the place of shame of death, of violence, the one who's about to be thrown out. His strong occupation of that is the same thing as the de-transcendentalizing of evil. Evil ceases to be a celestial form, it now becomes an anthropological form, wriggling about on the earth whose structure and whose working is known. It can be defeated by people who are happy to remain weak because they know they are held by God, who are not tempted to react with violence and anger and strength, thinking that that makes them better warriors against this thing.

"So evil has lost its transcendence. “See, I've given you authority to tread on snakes and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy.” And this may refer to actual snakes and scorpions which do exist in that part of the world. It may also refer to the constellations which had names of snakes and scorpions and which were thought to be signs of the heavenly powers, of these semi-demonic powers that control things but in a closing-down way. So again Jesus is saying it's the actual whole power of transcendence, even the heavens, are of being undone because I can see that the power I have given you works.

"Jesus rejoices, they rejoice. Then he says, “Nevertheless, do not rejoice at this that the spirits submit to you” - in other words, it's not merely your achievements that are the key thing - “but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” And this is this wonderful sense proper to the Hebrew world that who you really are is being given to you from on high. It's being, as it were, unfurled in your life. And if you are able to occupy this space of weakness, of precariousness, it's because you're being held in place by heaven, your name has been written there, it is inscribed.

"This is part of the new reality that is coming in. You are going to be a sign of that new reality coming in. So the name being inscribed in heaven is not a reference to someone with a pen, it's a reference to the reality of your being, as it were, already held elsewhere and starting to unfold in this world as you make a witness to what it's really like."

- James Alison, from video "Homily for 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time 2022 C" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3acWt-Maa4)

~

"I think that “but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven” and “consider your call” [1 Corinthians 1:26] mean the same thing: they are getting us to turn our imaginations towards the one who calls or who writes our names rather than to what we achieve. [...] What indeed does it say that I was called? Not about me, but about the one calling? What does it say of his spaciousness, his power, his gentleness, the security which he offers, that it becomes possible not to have to construct a story which makes clear sense, not because of a paucity of meaning, but because of an excess."

- James Alison, Undergoing God, pp 97-98

* Note that the 1 Corinthians passage is not part of the lectionary for this week, but I have included it because it is referenced in the quote above from Undergoing God, and also because of the link to Alison's mention of "weakness" in the homily.

[Source of quote from "Undergoing God" and for analysis and discussion on all the lectionary texts for this Sunday: https://girardianlectionary.net/reflections/year-c/proper_9c/]