September 23, 2007

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17^th Sunday after Pentecost

Please Read Luke 16:1-13

Read also Jeremiah 8:18–9:1; Psalm 79:1-9; 1 Timothy 2:1-7

No slave can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth."

Luke 16:13

          EMANCIPATION         .   

I like to think of myself as a free man.

But am I truly free?

I am enslaved to clock and calendar,

to passions and pleasures,

to numberless numbered accounts

and a thousand and one

claims and commitments

that keep me in shackles

of my own making.

If truth were told,

I’d have to say

it is myself that binds me in slavery. 

And yet, it is those commitments

across the panorama of my life

that define me,

manifesting themselves

in daily relationships

and giving life its texture and meaning.

So then, how do I deal with

competing claims to my attention?

I suppose I will never free myself

totally;

But if I can learn to organize my time,

my days and hours,

and regulate my passions and pleasures,

and offer each up to God

as living sacrifice,

acknowledging the Deity

as my sole Master,

then, only then,

will I begin to know

the joy of true freedom.

--- rvc

*** D I S C L A I M E R ***

The Weekly Lessons are based on the lectionary texts for the week – usually the Gospel lesson. They are not designed as a formal commentary.  Rather, they are the personal reflections and original compositions of The Relay Online editor, Rev. Robin Van Cleef, and offer a jumping off point, using the scriptures as triggers to thought, imagination, and (we hope) empowerment.  As you read them, let your own imagination play, and let the Spirit speak to you, leading you where it will.  The Gospel Lessons reflected on this site may not be copied, reproduced or otherwise manipulated elsewhere on the internet without the expressed consent of the author.

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