Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time, September 7, 2025
(click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
Blood
I miss the stories of Genesis, Exodus, and even Judges that filled the lectionary for the last few months. Maybe I miss especially Judges, with its bloody stories that clarify the difference between good and evil rather than muddying it, at least at first sight.
Margaret and I are watching Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot murder mysteries, one a day until our BritBox subscription expires on September 14. Hercule might see through the veil like no one else does, until the end. The good guys turn out bad, while the bad guys turn out good, and often I close my eyes in resignation, remembering Paul’s simple statement, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” But then I think of the stern statement from Hebrews: “In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.” Your blood, mind you, not someone else’s blood.
This rare willingness to shed your own blood can inspire – this sacrifice for the good of another in obedience to God’s two greatest commandments to love God and love your neighbor as yourself can take my breath away.
In one of his shorter letters Paul writes to his old friend Philemon and asks forgiveness and grace for one of Philemon’s slaves, a man called Onesimus.
Have him back forever,
no longer as a slave
but more than a slave, a brother,
beloved especially to me, but even more so to you,
as a man and in the Lord.
Perhaps as a slave Onesimus shed blood in the service of his master. Many slaves did just that. He might also have run away. Many slaves did that too. In America their gospel songs rang with remembered suffering. Nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen … steal away to Jesus, I ain’t got long to stay here. Everything, especially music, matters more when blood flows from open wounds. Your blood, mind you, not someone else’s blood.
Here’s another poem from my man in Maine:
Psalm 139
Where can I go from your spirit?
Or where can I escape your presence?
If I sit in church, you are there;
if I find myself in prison, you are there.
If I go on retreat in the desert,
or stand in protest and face soldiers,
even there your hand shall lead me;
your steady hand shall hold me close.
If I say, “I’m afraid this chaos will consume me,
for fear wraps itself around me,”
even the night is not dark to you,
for you shine as bright as the day;
your light changes even the darkness. – Steve Garnaas-Holmes
When I watch Prime Video’s “Story of David,” I witness good and evil often christened with blood along with the touch of the Holy Spirit. David’s psalm, carried into 2025 by the poet, is David’s reminder to himself, amidst the blood and evil, of God’s constant presence in all of it.
Who can know God’s counsel,
or who can conceive what the LORD intends?
For the deliberations of mortals are timid,
and unsure are our plans.
but when things are in heaven, who can search them out?
Or who ever knew your counsel, except you had given wisdom
and sent your holy spirit from on high?
And thus were the paths of those on earth made straight.
People say God suffers along with his children. I think they’re right.
Why wouldn’t He?
(Wisdom 9, Psalm 90, Philemon, Psalm 119, Luke 14)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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