Pentecost 6c - Conclusion

Isaiah 66:10-14; Psalm 66:1-9; Galatians 6:1-18; Luke 10:1-11; 16-20

Since Pentecost 6c is not particularly patriotic making these texts fit the 4th or vice versa will no doubt appear forced. On the other hand faith and freedom belong together so maybe it won’t be such a stretch. Isaiah’s vision of the comfort of consolation offered at the bosom of Jerusalem reminds me of Lady Liberty whose lamp lifted beside the golden door beckons the homeless, tempest tossed, huddled masses yearning to be free. Psalm 66 remembers the providence of God when the children of Israel between an army and a wet place passed through the waters on foot. We remember our beginnings as a people whose victory over tyranny of king and empire hung in the balance in the winter of ’76 and only by the grace of God has the government of the people, by the people, for the people not perished from the earth. Paul’s word to the Galatians, “you reap what you sow” is the necessary word of caution and correction for each of us and in a larger sense the nation whose greatness is derived from its capacity for goodness. And finally in the Gospel the seventy sent out return rejoicing in their power which is temporary until Jesus points them to a greater truth, that God is the recorder of names in the final kingdom come. We also can become enamored by power and prestige and holding tightly to the temporary miss the eternal truth. Nations rise and fall but the word of the Lord stands forever. And so on this Pentecost 6c 4th I am proud to be American by birth and Texan by choice, but eternally grateful to be a child of God by grace.