22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time (Proper 17), Year C

So we can say with confidence,
“The Lord is my helper;
     I will not be afraid.
What can anyone do to me?”
~Hebrews 15:6
 
“But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”
~Luke 14:13-14
 
Rose, o pure contradiction, desire
to be no one’s sleep beneath so many
lids.
~Ranier Maria Rilke
 
It is the Sabbath. Jesus is heading to the house of a religious leader, and everyone has their eye on him. No wonder. He keeps doing it wrong; he keeps breaking the rules. Not long ago he healed a bent-over woman on the sabbath. Healing was considered a work—a red line for supposedly virtuous religious types. And he only continues to reimagine the Sabbath in light of God’s love.
 
So they are watching as he heals another, a man with dropsy. We would know it today as edema. Swelling that indicates underlying diseases, and possibly malnutrition. “Does the law allow for healing on the sabbath?” Jesus wonders.
 
If there is any wondering on the part of the watchers, they don’t show it. They are too busy, it turns out, elbowing their way into the best places at the sabbath banquet. That’s what Jesus notices. He notices the direct relationship between pursuit of self-interests and malnutrition and warring and all sorts of unsettledness. “When you give a banquet,” he preaches, “invite the poor…and you will be blessed” by the Lord who is our helper.
 
Pure contradiction. Could such a thing really be true? Do we dare believe it?
 
Enter into worship.
 
Readings: Jeremiah 2:4-13 † Psalm 81:1,10-16 † Hebrews 13:1-8, 15-16 † Luke 14:1, 7-14
 
About the Art: Sarajevo Rose. https://sarajevoroses.net/ [retrieved August 18, 2025]. Original source: https://sarajevo.travel/en/things-to-do/sarajevo-roses/484.
 
Sarajevo Roses pay a unique tribute to the Siege of Sarajevo and those who were killed during one of the most tragic episodes in the city’s history. During the Siege of Sarajevo, from 1992 to 1995, tens of thousands of grenades fell on the city, leaving many deep marks behind.
 
The grenades that struck the asphalt left characteristic marks that resemble a flower. After the war, these “flowers” were filled with red resin, in recognition of the horror Sarajevans endured during the longest-running siege of any city in modern history. These preserved marks are called “Sarajevo Roses”.

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