Faithful, Grief, and Forgiveness

 

 

 

There is a balm in Gilead

‘A BALM IN GILEAD’
"There is a balm in Gilead to make the wounded whole; 
there is a balm in Gilead to heal the sin-sick soul. 
These words were sung by those who, like Jeremiah, 
longed for that balm and did not find it present."

 

18My joy is gone, grief is upon me, my heart is sick. 19Hark, the cry of my poor people from far and wide in the land: "Is the LORD not in Zion? Is her King not in her?" ("Why have they provoked me to anger with their images, with their foreign idols?") 20"The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved." 21For the hurt of my poor people I am hurt, I mourn, and dismay has taken hold of me. 22Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then has the health of my poor people not been restored?

1O that my head were a spring of water, and my eyes a fountain of tears, so that I might weep day and night for the slain of my poor people!

Jeremiah 8:18-9:1

image001.png

Grief or The Adams Memorial

SAINT-GAUDENS, Augustus

1891

Rock Creek Cemetery

Washington, D.C.

United States

 

https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/diglib-fulldisplay.pl?SID=20220917168183506&code=act&RC=55690&Row=23

 

The Adams Memorial is a grave marker for Marian Hooper Adams and Henry Adams.



Henry Adams, who traveled to Japan ostensibly to find inspiration for this memorial, particularly wanted elements of serenely immovable Buddhist human figures to be contrasted with the waterfall-like robe associated with Kannon. … Saint-Gaudens's name for the bronze figure is "The Mystery of the Hereafter and The Peace of God that Passeth Understanding," but the public commonly called it Grief – an appellation that Henry Adams apparently disliked.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adams_Memorial_(Saint-Gaudens)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Moral certainty is always a sign of cultural inferiority. The more uncivilized the man, the surer he is that he knows precisely what is right and what is wrong. All human progress, even in morals, has been the work of men who have doubted the current moral values, not of men who have whooped them up and tried to enforce them. The truly civilized man is always skeptical and tolerant, in this field as in all others. His culture is based on “I am not too sure."

~ H.L. Mencken

 

     

 

 

Misunderstanding a culture’s symbols

is a common root of prejudice.

~ Dan Brown

 

 

 

 

 

May be an image of 7 people, segway and monument.jpeg

Dottie and Jack Alexander in Gloucester, Massachusetts, with some of their RV friends.

 

IMG_9474.jpeg

Anna Marie Nelson, Anne Vickstrom, and I had brunch before going to the Arvada Center.

Thank you, Lynn and Jim Gilbert!

 

Who Will Be the Next to Die in The Mousetrap?.jpeg

 

 

IMG_9489.jpeg

Rotary Recycle Day - Pastor Richard

 

IMG_9496.jpeg

 

There was also an area where many made windmills to use to greet our High School students when they return to school after the shootings.IMG_9483.jpeg

Connie Ning, Joan Spalding, Patti Stone

 

image018.jpg

Click here for some wonderful pieces of wisdom!

 

  



Few people can see genius

in someone who has offended them.

~ Robertson Davies

 





September 21, 2025  Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost - Year C - [Prop. 20C] 

Previous OPQs may be found at:

     http://www.dotjack.com/opq.htm



 

1Then Jesus said to the disciples, "There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was squandering his property. 2So he summoned him and said to him, 'What is this that I hear about you? Give me an accounting of your management, because you cannot be my manager any longer.' 3Then the manager said to himself, 'What will I do, now that my master is taking the position away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. 4I have decided what to do so that, when I am dismissed as manager, people may welcome me into their homes.' 5So, summoning his master's debtors one by one, he asked the first, 'How much do you owe my master?' 6He answered, 'A hundred jugs of olive oil.' He said to him, 'Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it fifty.' 7Then he asked another, 'And how much do you owe?' He replied, 'A hundred containers of wheat.' He said to him, 'Take your bill and make it eighty.' 8And his master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly; for the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light. 9And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into the eternal homes.

Luke 16:1-13 

Agnus Day, by James Weinstein

comic.jpeg

Agnus Day appears with the permission of www.agnusday.org

 

image004.jpg

 

 

Prayer of St. Francis

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:

where there is hatred, let me sow love;

where there is injury, pardon; 

where there is doubt, faith;

where there is despair, hope; 

where there is darkness, light;

where there is sadness, joy.

O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek

to be consoled as to console,

to be understood as to understand,

to be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive,

it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,

and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

Amen.

0:09 / 1:09

 

image017.jpg

 

LECTIONARY

Jeremiah 8:18—9:1 

Psalm 79:1–9 

1 Timothy 2:1–7 

Luke 16:1–13

 

THE WORD:

The parable of the shrewd business manager is one of the most difficult parables of Jesus to grasp.  At first reading, it appears that Jesus is condoning extortion and larceny.  But Jesus admires not the manager’s lack of scruples but his decisiveness and ingenuity in taking control of his situation.  We admire those who use their intelligence, charm and pluck to get ahead in this world.  Jesus’ parable challenges us to be as eager and as ingenious for the sake of God’s reign, to be as ready and willing to use our time and money to accomplish great things in terms of the Gospel as we are to secure our own security and enjoyment.  Jesus appeals to the “children of light” to be as enterprising and resourceful in pursuit of reign of God as this steward is in making a place of himself in this world.  We must restore money as the means to an end and not as the end itself; we are only stewards of our Master's property.

Christ warns his hearers not to trust in wealth for its own sake but to use wealth — whatever form our “wealth” takes — to establish the Father’s kingdom of compassion, reconciliation and justice in our midst.  

 

First Reading Jeremiah 8:18-9:1

18My joy is gone, grief is upon me, my heart is sick. 19Hark, the cry of my poor people from far and wide in the land: "Is the LORD not in Zion? Is her King not in her?" ("Why have they provoked me to anger with their images, with their foreign idols?") 20"The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved." 21For the hurt of my poor people I am hurt, I mourn, and dismay has taken hold of me. 22Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then has the health of my poor people not been restored?

1O that my head were a spring of water, and my eyes a fountain of tears, so that I might weep day and night for the slain of my poor people!

Psalm 79:1-9

1O God, the nations have come into your inheritance;

they have defiled your holy temple;

they have laid Jerusalem in ruins.

2They have given the bodies of your servants

to the birds of the air for food,

the flesh of your faithful to the wild animals of the earth.

3They have poured out their blood like water

all around Jerusalem,

and there was no one to bury them.

4We have become a taunt to our neighbors,

mocked and derided by those around us.

5How long, O LORD? Will you be angry forever?

Will your jealous wrath burn like fire?

6Pour out your anger on the nations

that do not know you,

and on the kingdoms

that do not call on your name.

7For they have devoured Jacob

and laid waste his habitation.

8Do not remember against us the iniquities of our ancestors;

let your compassion come speedily to meet us,

for we are brought very low.

9Help us, O God of our salvation,

for the glory of your name;

deliver us, and forgive our sins,

for your name's sake.

Second Reading 1 Timothy 2:1-7

1First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone, 2for kings and all who are in high positions, so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity. 3This is right and is acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, 4who desires everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. 5For there is one God; there is also one mediator between God and humankind, Christ Jesus, himself human, 6who gave himself a ransom for all-this was attested at the right time. 7For this I was appointed a herald and an apostle (I am telling the truth, I am not lying), a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.

Gospel Luke 16:1-13

1Then Jesus said to the disciples, "There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was squandering his property. 2So he summoned him and said to him, 'What is this that I hear about you? Give me an accounting of your management, because you cannot be my manager any longer.' 3Then the manager said to himself, 'What will I do, now that my master is taking the position away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. 4I have decided what to do so that, when I am dismissed as manager, people may welcome me into their homes.' 5So, summoning his master's debtors one by one, he asked the first, 'How much do you owe my master?' 6He answered, 'A hundred jugs of olive oil.' He said to him, 'Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it fifty.' 7Then he asked another, 'And how much do you owe?' He replied, 'A hundred containers of wheat.' He said to him, 'Take your bill and make it eighty.' 8And his master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly; for the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light. 9And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into the eternal homes.