A Time Between

For the past couple of months, I have been working on a project with a few of my fellow CCO staff, headed up by my colleague Jennifer Rash.

During her recent (and current) sabbatical, Jennifer was inspired to invite interested colleagues to work with her to produce a devotional booklet covering the period between Easter and Advent, appropriately titled A Time Between. Working with the Revised Common Lectionary, each of us were assigned a few weeks' readings upon which to reflect and write.

One of my assigned weeks was July 30, 2006, the 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time. (Ordinary Time. I love that.) The passages all have to do with God's extraordinary provision, and while the Matthew 25 passage about feeding the hungry, clothing the naked and visiting the imprisoned was not among that day's readings, it kept popping into my mind, and therefore, found its way into my draft of that day's reflection.

I just received an email from my cousin John today, in which he offers a new perspective on that same passage:

The bread which you do not use is the bread of the hungry; the garment hanging in your wardrobe is the garment of him who is naked; the shoes that you do not wear are the shoes of the one who is barefoot; the money that you keep locked away is the money of the poor; the acts of charity that you do not perform are so many injustices that you commit. —St. Basil

This theme keeps cropping up for me. I suspect there's a reason for that.

In this season of New Year's resolutions (of which I've made none, at least not formally), it seems fitting to contemplate the power of these words. And to start living like I believe them.