Fourth Sunday after Pentecost 2011 Notes

OK — far from a sermon, but as I said: I have to get back on the preaching horse. Here are the notes I drew up when I wasn’t swooning over Google+. I’ll try for more next week.

The text from St. Peter’s letter describes the humility and respectful regard Christians ought to give their (spiritual and literal) elders. A few words about humility are in order because of common and inherited misunderstanding and abuse. Humility takes cultivation and may be identified with the question, “are my needs consistent and able to accommodate the needs of others” including food, water and goods, but also a fair place in the social world, esteem, justice and care. Using the common phrase, a humble outlook means the world “is not all about you.”

But this can be taken too far. For those who are chronically without the means of living — material, social and spiritual — the call to humility can be read as (or imposed as) a means of control. If humility is way to govern the desire to outstep others, then it must also be enjoyed as a way to uplift and encourage those who have been left behind. See the celebration of the woman who found the lost coin. [Reference to the other text for the day.]

That’s about how far I got.

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