From the Lectionary for 28 July 2024 (Proper 12B)

John 6:1-15 (NRSV)

After this Jesus went to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, also called the Sea of Tiberias. A large crowd kept following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing for the sick. Jesus went up the mountain and sat down there with his disciples. Now the Passover, the festival of the Jews, was near. When he looked up and saw a large crowd coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?” He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do. Philip answered him, “Six months’ wages would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little.” One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But what are they among so many people?” Jesus said, “Make the people sit down.” Now there was a great deal of grass in the place; so they sat down, about five thousand in all. Then Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated; so also the fish, as much as they wanted. When they were satisfied, he told his disciples, “Gather up the fragments left over, so that nothing may be lost.” So they gathered them up, and from the fragments of the five barley loaves, left by those who had eaten, they filled twelve baskets. When the people saw the sign that he had done, they began to say, “This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world.”

When Jesus realized that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain by himself.

~

"[I]n John's Gospel Jesus has already [...] performed a number of signs in Jerusalem. The last one, in the chapter immediately before this one, being that of the beggar at the pool, the Sheep Gate, Bethesda. The man who'd been there for 38 years and he enabled this person to walk. [...] So when it says here that people came from other places because of the things he'd done with sick people, this was one of the signs that they were talking about.

"And what was the sign? Well for 38 years this was someone who had been almost the 40 years of the time in the wilderness and was finally being given a chance to walk just before the 40 years were up, so that he could come into the the kingdom, the Promised Land. So people have picked up that what Jesus was doing was not simply 'miracles' but they were miracles pointing towards something that God was doing, something historic, that there was a an active communication going on; not just a wonderful thing but a wonderful thing pointing towards God doing something big. That's what the signs are. So we have that in the background to what is about to happen now in John's telling of the feeding of the 5000.

"He has in common with Mark that Moses and Joshua are very much in the background, and not only but we'll see other prophets as well. But also the sense that people were aware of this. So after Jesus has been in Jerusalem he's preached, if you like to Egypt, to the institutionally tough place, and now he went to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, also called the Sea of Tiberias, so now he's back in the north. He's gone across the sea, which is all you need to know - left Egypt, gone across the sea.

[...]

"So Jesus like Moses has gone across the sea. Other people come along as well because of the signs. Jesus goes up a mountain and sat down there with his disciples. Well this was actually what Moses had done: initially his first trip up the mountain was with his elders and they feasted before the Lord. Remember that this was what Jesus had been planning to do with his disciples in Mark: taking them up to a place to give them some rest, but now they found that lots more people are coming.

[...]

"“Now there was a great deal of grass in the place.” So two points here. “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down by green pastures.” So here is the lord literally making the people lie down in green pastures. But also there was a great deal of grass “in the place.” 'The Place was also a standard word for the Temple, and remember that Jesus has already foretold the end of the Temple [in John's Gospel]. He's not celebrating the Passover in the temple, he's celebrating the Passover back in the wilderness. He's fulfilling the original purpose of the Passover, and he's going to be sharing what it all means. And he's taken them to a place, and he's having them lie down - they are reclining, this is the position of free people, not slaves.

[...]

"Interesting, in John's Gospel it's not that he blesses [the loaves], breaks them and then hands them over to the disciples to do the distributing. Here he is the distributor: he distributes them himself. And I think that John is making the point here that it's he himself who is distributing himself, and that that's, if you like, what is going to be worked out in the rest of the chapter: What is this real distribution that's going on? Who is distributing? What does it mean?

"When they were satisfied he told his disciples [to] gather up the fragments left over so that nothing may be lost. So they gathered them up and from the fragments of the five barley loaves left by those who had eaten they filled 12 baskets. So the five barley loaves which have replaced the five pillars of the law, they have been eaten, the fragments have filled people and they've filled 12 baskets. The whole of the people of Israel has been filled, has been satisfied.

[...]

"So Jesus withdraws again to the mountain by himself: Moses's second trip to the mountain by himself. Jesus is re-enacting Moses, the beginning of the Passover as he's about to teach people about the Bread of Life."

- James Alison, from video "Homily for Sunday 17 in Ordinary Time, Year B" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-MmNz9cBv4)

[For further discussion and reflections on all this week's lectionary texts: https://girardianlectionary.net/reflections/year-b/proper12b/]

From the Lectionary for 21 July 2024 (Proper 11B)

Jeremiah 23:1-6 (NRSV)

Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! says the Lord. Therefore thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning the shepherds who shepherd my people: It is you who have scattered my flock, and have driven them away, and you have not attended to them. So I will attend to you for your evil doings, says the Lord. Then I myself will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the lands where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their fold, and they shall be fruitful and multiply. I will raise up shepherds over them who will shepherd them, and they shall not fear any longer, or be dismayed, nor shall any be missing, says the Lord.

The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety. And this is the name by which he will be called: “The Lord is our righteousness.”

Mark 6:30-34 (NRSV)

The apostles gathered around Jesus, and told him all that they had done and taught. He said to them, “Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.” For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. And they went away in the boat to a deserted place by themselves. Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they hurried there on foot from all the towns and arrived ahead of them. As he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things.

~

"The apostles (meaning the original twelve who have been sent out) have returned from the surrounding towns where Jesus had sent them two by two. They are excited by what they have been able to do. They have healed people, cast out unclean spirits and taught them things. They tell Jesus all about it. There is a frenzied, harried quality to the scene. The text says ‘Many people were coming and going so there was no time to eat.”

"The disciples appear distracted and over-stimulated. They are not calm and centered. They can cure people and people flock to them. They are like rock stars who find themselves at the center of people’s adulation. Diversions are everywhere and they are speeded-up to the point of not stopping to eat. Out of balance and ignoring their basic human needs, they are playing with emotional fire.

"Jesus, seeing their condition says, “Come by yourselves to a secluded place and rest for a while.’’ He has to get them away from the milling crowds or they will lose connection with their God-given inner reality. Their souls are in danger. They will lose their sense of grounding and get carried away by the crowds of demanding people, coming and going. Large crowds of people, even admirers, powerfully affect us and not necessarily in good ways. It is almost impossible to resist them. We get entranced and find ourselves thinking and behaving in ways we would not think or behave on our own. Jesus knows he must get them away to a secluded spot for their soul’s sake.

[...]

"Jesus pulls his disciples out of the crowd and gathers them into a boat and then gets in himself. He leads them across the lake toward a deserted place. But their attempt at crowd evasion fails. “Many people saw them leaving and recognized them, so they ran ahead from all the cities and arrived before them.” When they arrive at their secluded destination the crowds are there to greet them.

"[...] This didn’t turn out like I expected. Maybe Mark has something else in mind and knows something we don’t. Maybe he knows Jesus has to get the disciples away from the crowd and together around him or they will succumb to the desires of the crowd. Maybe the center of Jesus’ intention was not getting them to a deserted place, like we have thought, but getting them away from the crowd and reassembled with Jesus as their center. I can’t find words strong enough to express the importance of this. Getting the disciples into the boat with Jesus and getting them out to sea away from the crowd mattered way more than their destination. He has to break the gravitational pull of the adoring, demanding and ultimately dangerous crowd or he will lose the disciples.

"This is all extremely important and mirrors the choice we face today and have faced throughout history. Will we follow Jesus or will we go with the culture? It seems clear to me that the culture is the crowd and at the deepest level has no shepherd. We will either follow the “shepherd-less” crowd or we will follow Jesus.

[...]

"Back to the text where the story as taken a shift: “When Jesus arrived and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd.” Jesus could be open to the crowd because he had already accomplished his purpose in getting the disciples away, centered on him and back in touch with reality. That happened in the boat while they were crossing the lake. Ironically, Jesus had already been a shepherd to his disciples by leading them away from the crowd. [...] As for this leaderless crowd, they are wandering, searching, defenseless, vulnerable, dangerous and lacking in perspective. How does Jesus respond? “Then he began to teach them many things.”"

- Thomas L. Truby, from sermon delivered on July 22, 2018 (https://girardianlectionary.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Truby-Proper11-2018-No-Time-to-Eat.pdf)

~

"Last time, if you remember, Jesus sends out the disciples two by two and gives them instructions and that's where the Gospel ended last week. This Sunday they come back and gather around Jesus. In between [in Mark's Gospel], there's been the story of [the death of] John the Baptist. [...] All of this fits into an Old Testament pattern. Let's remember that before we were looking at how Moses had sent out visitors to the promised land the spies. Joshua had done the same. And we're moving through the last chapters of the book of Numbers, which we'll see in just a second when we come to the most important line in today's Gospel which is: “He had compassion for them because they were like sheep without a shepherd.” That's a direct quote from the book of Numbers and we'll see why that's important.

"Because what happened before Joshua, which is to say Jeshua, which is to say Jesus, started taking the people into the promised land, there were various deaths. First of all, there was the death of Aaron, the High Priest. And with the death of Aaron the High Priest, we get a hint of the death of John the Baptist who, remember, was of a priestly family. So it's not for nothing that John the Baptist's death is described here. And then of course Moses dies towards the end. Actually, he dies in Deuteronomy, his death is not described as such in the book of Numbers. But in the book of Numbers, it does very very clearly say that he's going to die and this is what's really important for today's Gospel: “The Lord said to Moses, go up this mountain and see the land that I've given to the Israelites. When you see it when you've seen it you also shall be gathered to your people as your brother Aaron was because you rebelled against my word in the wilderness of Zin.” Okay, Moses spoke to the Lord saying, “Let the Lord the God of the spirits, of all flesh appoint someone over the congregation who shall go out before them and come in before them, who shall lead them out and bring them in, so that the congregation of the Lord may not be like sheep without a shepherd.” [...] What's really important in today's Gospel is that Jesus is enacting the fulfilment of Moses's prayer. It's the Lord himself who's come as a shepherd.

"[...] Mark's Gospel follows various incidents in Joshua's career, which wasn't entirely successful. Jesus's enactment of Joshua is going to be far greater than that because it's the enactment of the Lord himself. But before it's got to be made clear that the One whom Moses prayed for is here. We get this in the very first verse of today's Gospel when the apostles come back. It says, the apostles gathered round Jesus - [...] it's the same verb from which we get the word synagogue. And you remember last time that Jesus left the synagogue for the last time - his three synagogue visits in Mark's Gospel - and started working outside the synagogue. So here they are gathering around Jesus. One greater than Moses is here.

[...]

"“He saw a great crowd and he had compassion for them.” This is the Yahweh word 'splanchnizomai' - he was gut-wrenched for them, he had his tripes wrenched, gutted before them. This is the word referring to the Lord's feelings, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And that's the direct quote from the book of Numbers. So he'd come visitating hoping to see that the first Joshua's work had been done, but it hadn't: the sheep were like sheep without a shepherd. Joshua turned out not to be, and his successors had turned out not to be, those who are capable of leading people in and out and giving them pasture. [...] This is Mark saying very strongly: we've done the visitation, now the One who is the true Yeshua. The true One whose name means Yahweh Saves, has come amongst his sheep and he's going to teach them, he's going to show them how to go in and out and find rest. And not only his immediately chosen ones but all those who are around him.

[...]

"So let's call to mind the shepherd amongst us, ask him to show how he's shepherding us, ask him to allow us to share in that shepherding of others, so fulfilling the mission which the new Joshua is always bringing into being as he takes us into the promised land."

- James Alison, from video "Homily for Sunday 16 in Ordinary Time 2021" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5uViLwIiSs)

[Source of link to Tom Truby sermon, and for discussion and reflections on all this week's lectionary texts: https://girardianlectionary.net/reflections/year-b/proper11b/]

From the Lectionary for 14 July 2024 (Proper 10B)

Mark 6:7-13 (NRSV)

He called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. He ordered them to take nothing for their journey except a staff; no bread, no bag, no money in their belts; but to wear sandals and not to put on two tunics. He said to them, “Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave the place. If any place will not welcome you and they refuse to hear you, as you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them.” So they went out and proclaimed that all should repent. They cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.

Ephesians 1:7-19 (NRSV)

In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and insight he has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

In Christ we have also obtained an inheritance, having been destined according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to his counsel and will, so that we, who were the first to set our hope on Christ, might live for the praise of his glory. In him you also, when you had heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and had believed in him, were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit; this is the pledge of our inheritance toward redemption as God’s own people, to the praise of his glory.

I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, and for this reason I do not cease to give thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may perceive what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the working of his great power.

~

"[T]he point of Christ’s coming, and of our redemption was the bringing into being of a new fulness, a uniting of heaven and earth, a fulness in which we should be sons in the Son (Eph. 1:1-12). The revelation of this mystery includes the guarantee of an inheritance of which we shall take possession (Eph. 1:13-14). The author is particularly keen that his hearers have their understanding of revelation widened: “having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints” (Eph. 1:18). That is to say, they are encouraged to center their imaginations on what is coming to them.

"They are also encouraged to know “what is the immeasurable greatness of his power in us who believe, according to the working of his great might” (Eph. 1:19). These two are not separable realities (they are the same sentence in Greek): the centering of the imagination on the inheritance is what permits the working of the great power in those who believe. The same idea is worked through again when the author tells his hearers that they were once dead through sins (full participants in the world of death-oriented desire), but have been made alive (participants in the beneficent [imitation] of life), and raised up to the heavenly places, as awaiting the immeasurable riches of God’s grace. It is because they are being given something through the opening up of their mind to the deathless creative generosity of God that they are saved, not because of any moral struggle of their own."

- James Alison, The Joy of Being Wrong: Original Sin Through Easter Eyes, pp 229-30

~

"Today's Mark's Gospel continues straight off from where we left it last Sunday. Last Sunday, if you remember, we were in Jesus's hometown and his relatives and homes people did not seem to be aware of [...] the possibility of a prophet being in their midst. [Just as] Miriam, for instance, had not understood Moses's presence as a prophet and so she had been turned into a leper for a week. Immediately after that incident in the Book of Numbers, Moses chooses twelve people, one from each tribe, and sends them out to spy on the land - the land that they're later, under Joshua, going to occupy, the land filled with milk and honey, the Promised Land.

"So when Jesus sends out the Twelve, this is very clearly the next moment in the enactment of Moses and Joshua which we're going to be following through the next chunks of Mark's Gospel. Remember, Moses sent the people out to spy. Jesus sends them out to preach and to heal, to preach and to cast out demons. [...] In other words, this is not spying, this is a visitation. This is to see if everything's okay in what should now be the Promised Land, living the life that the Lord had wanted to give the Lord's people. That's the question, if you like: what's really going on in the land? So not spies but people who are going to have to go very very carefully.

"And we see that he sends them out two by two. Okay, this is very important because for any announcement to be made it needed to be backed up by a witness. So they are going as witnesses. They're going to be angels, that's to say messengers, and they're going to be acting as witnesses, and they're going to be giving a report of what they found. Now, the most famous two angels who were going to be witnesses, who were going to give a report of what they found, were the angels sent to visit Sodom. And in fact, that's in the background to today's story as we'll see. So they're going to be making an angelic visitation, and he's asking them in fact to occupy a very angelic position. They're going to be very very vulnerable.

"He ordered them to take nothing for their journey except the staff, it says here. That's the translation, but in fact the Greek says: except a single staff, except a lone staff. And certainly, this is not a walking stick, this is a staff which is a symbol of authority. [...] And I wonder whether if you send out two people with one staff between them, a single staff, this is not actually key to the learning exercise that they have to undergo as preachers, because they're going to have to work out for themselves and agree peacefully who is going to hold the staff and act with authority. But also if they are set upon by brigands, there's only one staff, so who is going to defend the other? In other words, they're going to have to talk together to work out how not to be in rivalry with each other. I think that's part of the instruction that's going on here. [...] But just remember that staffs bring with them issues of authority, this is the Mosaic preaching, this is coming to us to see whether Moses's law has been, is being lived and how well it's being lived, and to teach the two of them to work out for themselves how to give witness.

"No bread - they are to be fed by others, they have to be dependent. No bag, no money in their belts. [...] To wear sandals, so not boots, which were kind of a macho symbol, sandals - these are the vulnerable people's clothing. And not to put on two tunics. In other words, if anybody stole their tunic, they would be left naked. In Matthew's Gospel, we have Jesus's instruction on what to do if someone steals your tunic - give him your shirt. In other words, allow yourself to be made vulnerable because that's the only way that you'll disarm people. So he's asking them to go out and bear witness preaching repentance and casting out demons. But in order to do that they have to be in an angelic position, they have to be extremely vulnerable as were the angels who went to work out what was going on in Sodom.

[...]

"[T]hey've been sent out to give this message of repentance in preparation for the coming of the Kingdom. In other words, get yourselves ready: the great forgiveness, the great new Kingdom is coming in. “They cast out many demons and anointed many who were sick and cured.” What is it that put them in the position of being able to heal and cure, what is that enabled them, to tell the truth? Well, this extreme vulnerability, and that's something which is absolutely emphasized by Jesus in his instructions to them. [...] [T]he vulnerable messenger only speaks truth in as far as they are vulnerable - this is one of the great secrets of the Gospel. The power of the Gospel is preached in weakness."

- James Alison, from video "Homily for Sunday 15 in Ordinary Time 2021" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPgkTrcVOrI)

[Note that Mark 6:7-13 is the Roman Catholic lectionary Gospel reading for this Sunday. The Protestant (Revised Common Lectionary) Gospel reading is the following passage, Mark 6:14-29.

Source of quote from James Alison's The Joy of Being Wrong, and for discussion and reflections on all this week's lectionary texts: https://girardianlectionary.net/reflections/year-b/proper10b/]

From the Lectionary for 7 July 2024 (Proper 9B)

Mark 6:1-6 (NRSV)

He left that place and came to his hometown, and his disciples followed him. On the sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astounded. They said, “Where did this man get all this? What is this wisdom that has been given to him? What deeds of power are being done by his hands! Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?” And they took offense[1] at him. Then Jesus said to them, “Prophets are not without honor, except in their hometown, and among their own kin, and in their own house.” And he could do no deed of power there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and cured them. And he was amazed at their unbelief.

[1] Gr. skandalizō : to cause to stumble; to offend, shock, excite feeling of repugnance

~

"The hometown crowd recognize his wisdom and miraculous power but are unable to believe it because of their preconceptions. [...] They know his family and therefore it is impossible that he could be what he appears to be. Their ambivalence is well-described as “scandal” (6:3), because the dynamics of scandal are the dynamics of [...] the model that both attracts and repels. [...] Mark tells us it is the state of the hometown crowd in Nazareth with respect to Jesus. The proverb that a prophet is honored everywhere except in his own home sums up the scandal. Envy is the power of the model/obstacle to attract and repel at the same time. The crowd wants to be like the other and to destroy him, because he is so pleasing.

"The scandal of the hometown crowd makes it impossible for Jesus to work a miracle there. A miracle requires faith and he could find no faith in Nazareth. There is a progression in the treatment of faith — from the bleeding woman, who exemplifies it as the act of the single individual called out from the crowd, to the family of Jairus, which emerges from the crowd, to the crowd at Nazareth, which absorbs Jesus into itself and refuses to recognize any power outside itself. “And he marveled at their lack of faith” (6:6). [...] The social role of Jesus makes it impossible that he could be anyone other than the son of their neighbors, despite the fact of his wisdom and power. This is the scandal of violence, which substitutes false distinctions for true."

- Robert Hamerton-Kelly, The Gospel and the Sacred, pp. 95-97

~

"These are his hometown folks. They'd obviously heard of him, his reputation had gone around. And they're astounded to hear him teach. But is there astounding in the sense of “gosh, this is amazing” or is it astounding in the sense of “what on earth is this?” It's not at all clear, the verb is not clear. They're clearly astounded. Later we're told they were scandalized and that's going to be a key word.

"But then it is said, “Where to this man all these things? Whence” - rather - “from this man all these things?” So the great question: Whence? “What is this wisdom that has been given to him? What deeds of power from his hands are becoming?” So they want to know more, they're expecting something from him. But interesting each one of these words run them in reverse: whence all these things? This is the way of referring to the Lord. Where is the wisdom that he gives? It's the Lord who gives wisdom. What deeds of power are ... are becoming from his hands? It is the Lord whose deeds of power come from the Lord's hands. And of course, this is the language - of wisdom and the power - are very definitely the words referring to God. It's God's wisdom and God's power. [...]

"So, if you like, here we have the family completely misreading who is in their midst. It's the reverse of a sign, they've reinterpreted everything backwards, so that “whence does he get this?” - they're imagining him as the object rather than as the subject, one who is bringing all things into being. Who gave him this wisdom that he is the source of wisdom making it available to us? What about these works of power from his hands? It is the one whose power brings things into being that is amongst them. Of course, none of them can see that.

[...]

"And it says, “and they took offence to him” - “and they were scandalized by him” - “they were caused to stumble by him.” So this is of course, at the centre of this, this is what is the psychological dynamic that causes the understanding of God to be completely reversed. Well, it's that obsessive relationship of wanting  to be close to and wanting to be far from, imitating and being in rivalry with at the same time, being locked into imitative rivalry with somebody. That's the 'scandalon', that's what it's like when you're too close and therefore you can't see. In Matthew's Gospel Jesus actually gives the phrase: blessed is he who is not scandalized by me, meaning: who is able to take sufficient distance from me that the relationship is not all screwed up by this mixture of imitation and rivalry because then you never get to see who I am. All you get to see is the person you need to bring down in order to think of yourself as okay and you're permanently locked into that. So that's to be avoided here.

[...]

“And he could do no deed of power there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and cured them. And he was amazed at their unbelief.”

"That's a very strange, very striking phrase, the Lord in his visitation come for the third and final time [in Mark's Gospel] to the synagogue, to the house of Israel, longing to see if the faith was alive - the faith of Abraham, of Moses, of Jeremiah, of Isaiah [...] - if that faith was alive. And seeing, no, they just got bogged down in petty family squabbles and were unable to see the big picture.

"And of course, this is us. How easy it is for us far to prefer the squabble of our jealousies, our obsessions - political, social, religious - and not see the One who is in our midst, who is wanting to work signs. You can do very little signs, especially on those who are vulnerable and not important and not relative like he does with the cured here. But then he has to move on and find others who will hear his word and do it. And so, that is what's going to happen from now on, this is his, if you like, sad farewell.

"Would it be the same if he turned up in one of our churches? What must we do to undergo having our scandal removed, so that we're able to hear the wisdom and see the signs by which the Creator is bringing people, groups, things, to life in our midst, and understand by whom we have been visited?"

- James Alison, from video "Homily for Sunday 14 in Ordinary Time 2021" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqblllhpQAs)

[Source of Robert Hamerton-Kelly quote, and for further discussion and reflections on all this week's lectionary texts: https://girardianlectionary.net/reflections/year-b/proper_9b/]