Pentecost +23 Sunday – C1

Pentecost +23 Sunday – C1

Year C
Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4 or Isaiah 1:10-18

Imagine a later Habakkuk in an earlier Sodom or an even later (your location here). Habakkuk could be anywhere religious veneer is of more value than compassion or where preemptive violence rules the day. (Actually, these two conditions bring out the worst in each other.)

How different would the vision be for what it means to live your faith? Though not explicitly stated in this passage, would not both Isaiah and yourself spell out that vision as (1) refraining from harm, (2) the doing of good, and (3) the putting of yourself and your community into an active relationship with G*D that (1) and (2) above might be sustained?

All three of these actions work together. A question for today is which of these three active holinesses needs to be reenergized where you are to break a cycle of decline from deep insight into surface forms?

= = = = = = =

come let us argue
invites G*D and saints
our way through
qualities of leadership

let us call one another
to account and change
in the face of
violence and promise

may this challenge
lead us beyond
our current comprehension
of religion and perfection

our standard now becomes
continual reduction of violence
compassion that fatigues not
and honest relational encounters