One Choice
I’d like to take you down a culinary path this morning. Think about beans, specifically red kidney beans. If you eat them, when and how do you eat them? Many of us might first think of chili. Others a cold bean salad. Then there are refried beans, commonly served with Mexican food. In New Orleans, red beans and rice are the traditional meal on Mondays.
In our culture, we tend to think of beans as an ingredient in a recipe or a side dish. But for much of the world, beans are the main dish. They are inexpensive and nutritious. They are the primary source of protein and high in dietary fiber, as well as rich in essential minerals like iron and folate.
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Change, No Change
This passage from Hebrews says, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.” What does that actually mean?
Let’s take a moment to think about how much has changed since the time Abraham settled in the Land of Canaan. In Abraham’s time, about 1900 BC, the bronze age, the region had large families or tribes that were mostly herdsmen and semi-nomadic, moving their flocks around in the region. There was some agriculture and there were a few cities, but they were small. Damascus, Syria for example, was around 1,000 to 2,000 people. They had no written language, no written law, and only basic tools and weapons. The chariot was the technological edge.
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Availability
There is a lot to consider in today’s Gospel, particularly Jesus’s healing touch and his teaching about what honors God on the sabbath. But let’s not rush past the opening sentences.
“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.”
Here she is, crippled and unable to stand up straight, and going to church. We must not rush past her effort, which is an expression of great faith. Even now, we are among people who make a similar effort, people for whom it takes a great deal of time and struggle to get ready for and get to church.
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