June 26 2006

2 Kgs 17:5-8, 13-15a, 18 Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, occupied the whole land and attacked Samaria, which he besieged for three years. In the ninth year of Hoshea, king of Israel the king of Assyria took Samaria,and deported the children of Israel to Assyria, setting them in Halah, at the Habor, a river of Gozan, and the cities of the Medes. This came about because the children of Israel sinned against the LORD, their God, who had brought them up from the land of Egypt, from under the domination of Pharaoh, king of Egypt,and because they venerated other gods. They followed the rites of the nations whom the LORD had cleared out of the way of the children of Israel and the kings of Israel whom they set up. And though the LORD warned Israel and Judah by every prophet and seer, “Give up your evil ways and keep my commandments and statutes, in accordance with the entire law which I enjoined on your fathers and which I sent you by my servants the prophets,” they did not listen, but were as stiff-necked as their fathers, who had not believed in the LORD, their God. They rejected his statutes,the covenant which he had made with their fathers, and the warnings which he had given them, till, in his great anger against Israel, the LORD put them away out of his sight. Only the tribe of Judah was left.

Ps 60:3, 4-5, 12-13 R. (7b) Help us with your right hand, O Lord, and answer us.
O God, you have rejected us and broken our defenses; you have been angry; rally us!
R. Help us with your right hand, O Lord, and answer us.
You have rocked the country and split it open; repair the cracks in it, for it is tottering. You have made your people feel hardships; you have given us stupefying wine.
R. Help us with your right hand, O Lord, and answer us.
Have not you, O God, rejected us, so that you go not forth, O God, with our armies? Give us aid against the foe, for worthless is the help of men.
R. Help us with your right hand, O Lord, and answer us.

2 Cor 5:14-17 Brothers and sisters: The love of Christ impels us,once we have come to the conviction that one died for all;
therefore, all have died. He indeed died for all, so that those who live might no longer live for themselves
but for him who for their sake died and was raised. Consequently, from now on we regard no one according to the flesh;
even if we once knew Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know him so no longer. So whoever is in Christ is a new creation: the old things have passed away; behold, new things have come.

Mt 7:1-5 Jesus said to his disciples: “Stop judging, that you may not be judged. For as you judge, so will you be judged, and the measure with which you measure will be measured out to you. Why do you notice the splinter in your brother’s eye, but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove that splinter from your eye,’ while the wooden beam is in your eye? You hypocrite, remove the wooden beam from your eye first; then you will see clearly to remove the splinter from your brother’s eye.”

This Gospel reading is often quoted by people who funny as it seems use it to be critical of another person for acting in a way that they think is judgmental. It is a silly and sad part of human nature that somehow it is such an easy thing to see what another person should do. It is not so simple to look in the mirror and see what I can do. I am the only person that can really change myself.

I must stop and pull back throughout the day and reflect on acts and conversations and listen to my heart to see when I have slipped into this foolish way of living that is not God's way of love. It is a constant process of learning and relearning to look to myself and tend to my ways first. To give advice is something that I avoid. I would rather discuss the sides and options of a matter with a person but not suggest what their decision should be. There is so much of who a person is that is known by God and that person and I feel that what I see is only the "tip of the iceberg" I respect and reverence the God in others.