{"id":8671,"date":"2024-01-24T00:00:59","date_gmt":"2024-01-24T00:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/burnheadchurch.com\/?p=8671"},"modified":"2024-01-18T21:41:30","modified_gmt":"2024-01-18T21:41:30","slug":"wpcu-2024-day7","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/burnheadchurch.com\/?p=8671","title":{"rendered":"Week of Prayer for Christian Unity – Day 7"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jesus said: \u201cWhich of these three, do you think, was a neighbour?\u201d (Luke 10:36)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Lord, show us how to respond to our neighbour<\/h2>\n

Additional scripture passages<\/span><\/h3>\n
    \n
  • Philippians 2: 1-5<\/li>\n
  • Psalm 10: 17-18<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    Commentary<\/span><\/h3>\n

    At the end of the parable, Jesus asked the lawyer: who was the neighbour to the man who was robbed? The lawyer replied \u201cthe one who showed him mercy\u201d. He does not say \u201cthe Samaritan\u201d and we might imagine that the hostility between Samaritans and Jews made that answer hard to admit. We often discover our neighbours in the most unexpected people, even those whose very name or origins we find difficult to utter. In today\u2019s world, where polarised politics often set those of different religious identities against one another, Jesus challenges us through this parable to see the importance of our vocation to transgress borders and walls of separation.<\/p>\n

    Like the lawyer, we are challenged to reflect upon how we live our lives, not merely in terms of whether we do good or not, but whether, like the priest and the Levite, we are neglecting to do mercy.<\/p>\n

    Reflection<\/span><\/h3>\n

    Them,
    \nthose people,
    \npeople like that,
    \nyou know\u2026<\/p>\n

    But you don\u2019t know,
    \nthat\u2019s the point,
    \nbecause you don\u2019t want to know.
    \nThey\u2019re not important,
    \nas long as they know their place.<\/p>\n

    Thanks be to you, dear God,
    \nthat your interfering mercy
    \nhas put us in our place
    \nfor those others.<\/p>\n

    Prayer<\/span><\/h3>\n

    Holy God,
    \nyour Son Jesus Christ came among us
    \nto show us the way of compassion.
    \nHelp us by your Spirit to follow his example,
    \nto serve the needs of all your children,
    \nand so witness together as Christians to your ways of love and mercy.
    \nWe pray in Jesus\u2019 name. Amen.<\/p>\n

    Questions<\/span><\/h3>\n
      \n
    • Personal:<\/strong> How can you \u2018do mercy\u2019 today?<\/li>\n
    • Local:<\/strong> What borders and walls of separation need to be transgressed in your locality?<\/li>\n
    • Global:<\/strong> How should the Church share the gift of mercy with the world?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      Go and Do<\/span><\/h3>\n
        \n
      • Personal:<\/strong> Learn some basic phrases in the language of a group of people new to your area, and use them.<\/li>\n
      • Local:<\/strong> Think of ways in which your church or group of churches can receive from the people they help.<\/li>\n
      • Global:<\/strong> Discover the ways Christians, churches and people of other faiths have been merciful to those who would have least expected it.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

        \n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

        Jesus said: \u201cWhich of these three, do you think, was a neighbour?\u201d (Luke 10:36) Lord, show us how to respond to our neighbour Additional scripture passages Philippians 2: 1-5 Psalm 10: 17-18 Commentary At the end of the parable, Jesus asked the lawyer: who was the neighbour to the man who was robbed? The lawyer […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8648,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/burnheadchurch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8671"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/burnheadchurch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/burnheadchurch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/burnheadchurch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/burnheadchurch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8671"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/burnheadchurch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8671\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8678,"href":"https:\/\/burnheadchurch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8671\/revisions\/8678"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/burnheadchurch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8648"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/burnheadchurch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/burnheadchurch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/burnheadchurch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}