doing my bible study lesson tonight, i came across these verses from Proverbs, a book i don't always find so inspiring:
"Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in your power to do it. Do not say to your neighbor, 'Go, and come again, tomorrow I will give it' - when you have it with you."
Seems like a no-brainer sort of reading, doesn't it? Yet, I think we need to hear it, live it, especially as a nation. How much good is it within America's power to do? And how much good is withheld from others?
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Sermon for the Tenth Sunday after Pentecost, Year B, "Picnic and a Boat Ride," John 6:1-21 (Proper 12B, Ordinary 17B)
Sermon 7/28/24 John 6:1-21 Picnic and a Boat Ride Our gospel lesson today is a text that’s probably familiar to most of you, at least some...
3 comments:
I think this is an admonition to individuals. Giving away other people's stuff isn't generosity.
Tom Harrison
I don't think so - just like any organization has collective funds and collective resources to direct (like a church, for instance), nations also have a collective identity and collective responsibility. that seems pretty obvious to me.
I think that this is an admonition to everyone and everything.
Countries and people alike have a moral responsibility to help the others around them. Granted, Sanctimonious, we can't collectivize the farmfields and burst open the vaults. Good thing that's not what the verse is saying.
What I mean to say is that we have a moral obligation to help our neighbors, rather that involves lending a circular saw or donating money to deserving charities. Our governments, too, have a moral obligation to make sure that we hold up our collective responsibility to make sure that suffering shall be ended, or at least drastically abated.
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