PRAR

The Good Samaritan

By Ms. Marilynn Knott (Retired Commissioned Minister)
Chair, Commission on Faith in Action
Member, Crown Heights Christian Church, OKC

Luke 10:25-37 tells the story of a lawyer asking Jesus what he must do to gain eternal life and Jesus asks him back “What is written in the law?” The lawyer’s answer was one must love God and to love our neighbor’s as ourselves. Jesus concurred with the lawyer, but the lawyer was not satisfied. He wanted to know the limitations regarding who was considered a neighbor and who was not. I fear our society invests much time in parsing the definition of our neighbors.

Jesus answered him by telling a well-known story, The Good Samaritan. We even have laws that use those terms to limit liability when a person in good faith tries to help someone in distress. We must make decisions regarding who our neighbors are and whether they are someone we can love all the time. If not, why not? You are invited this week to delve deeper into the story of the Good Samaritan, an outcast himself as far as the Jews were concerned.

Every type of prayer form may not be meaningful to everyone. Trying something different though can sometimes help us move out of our comfort zones and into a richer relationship with God.

Lectio Divina which is Latin for “divine reading” is an ancient prayer type based on scripture readings. It is intended to generate communion with God and to increase knowledge of scripture calling participants to study, ponder, listen and pray from scripture. You are encouraged to read all of Luke 10:25-37 perhaps more than once and perhaps from more than one translation to understand the context of the scripture.

The Lectio Divina process seems most helpful when using briefer segments of scripture. After reading the full scripture select a verse or two on which to center. You might want to start with Luke 10:30b-31: A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. Using this scripture or another of your choosing follow these prayer steps:

• Sit comfortably, take a few deep breaths, relax, and clear your mind of anything distracting you.
• If possible so that it does not disturb others, read the scripture segment aloud slow enough for comprehension of each word while retaining the continuity of the scripture. Watch for a key phrase or word that jumps out to you or has a special meaning.
• Read the scripture again to yourself again watching for key words or phrases. Read from a personal perspective as well as the perspective as one who is a part of the Body of Christ.
• Now reflect on the word or key phrase that you identified. Open you mind, heart, will, and senses as you ponder the word or phrase. Allow five minutes for this contemplation.
• Silently tell God about what you experienced in the contemplation.
• If you wish you may want to journal about your experience.

If this was a meaningful experience, you may want to try it with some other scriptures from the story like Luke 10: 33-34 But a Samaritan while traveling came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, having poured oil and wine on them. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him.

A Dog and His Meat

By Ms. Marilynn Knott (Retired Commissioned Minister)
Chair, Commission on Faith in Action
Member, Crown Heights Christian Church, OKC

This year we are celebrating the 500th anniversary of the Christian Reformation. Martin Luther brought to a head the corruption that was choking the church from being the force God intended it to be. It seems we do not heed well the lessons of history. Although the issues differ, the strangling behavior continues as we ignore what is right in front of our eyes and take no action to correct it.

I must say as we considered calling Oklahoma Christian Churches (Disciples of Christ) to a season of prayer regarding racism, we were seeing social media posts saying, “thoughts and prayers are not enough.” When this phrase is stated hollowly as a means of withdrawing from action, I agree with those who are offended by it. However, a quote from Martin Luther provides a different perspective:

Ah, if I could only pray the way that dog looks at meat. –Martin Luther

Prayer is an active verb and one should never pray unless he or she is willing to respond to God’s answers. I once had a tiny eight-pound dog who loved everybody and was mild mannered. Yet, one should never come between a dog and meat. I had just fixed my dinner plate and sat down at the table to eat when the telephone rang. As I rose to answer the phone, my dog apparently jumped onto my chair and snatched my pork chop. When I returned to the dining room, he was chomping down on it. I do not know why I did it, but I attempted to take it away from him. It is amazing how feisty and illusive an eight pounder can be.

Anytime we pray we are charting a path to personal action. God is not in the business of waving a magic wand to solve our woes. God will show us the paths we might take to solve issues both as individuals and as communities of faith as we strive, in partnership with God, to fulfill God’s vision of a world ruled by love. As Luther worked with dogged determination to end corruption in the church, we must work to end racism and other forms of bigotry in this world.

Meditation on Racism

By Rev. Bill Inglish (retired)
Member, Disciples Christian Church, Bartlesville

Other than Mickey Mantle, my first childhood sports hero was basketball player Bob Cousy. A guard for the Boston Celtics in the 50s and early 60s, Cousy was known as “the Houdini of the Hardwood” for his sleight-of-hand passing, ability to look one way while throwing another, perplexing his opponents and setting up easy baskets for his teammates.

But despite Cousy’s exceptional talent, the Celtics didn’t become the NBA’s dominant team until drafting six-foot-ten Bill Russell, who became one of the greatest defensive and team players in the game’s history. Together, Cousy and Russell made the Celtics a force to be reckoned with, a dynasty.

Now Cousy was white and Russell black, but Cousy didn’t have a bigoted bone in his body. At a time when black players were almost a novelty and Jim Crow’s segregation was the law of the land, Cousy was known by blacks as being a good guy—despite never taking a public stand against racism or associating off the court with his African American teammates.

Russell, on the other hand, was a proud, opinionated black man who wore his anger on his sleeve, taking a public position on civil rights, being forcefully outspoken about his support for Dr. Martin Luther King and the struggles of blacks for equality—a stance that in those days did not win him the admiration of white fans in many places, including Boston.

Though Cousy and Russell were teammates and friends of a sort, they were never close, not when they played together, not after their careers ended, seldom seeing each other through the years. But at the age of 87, Cousy felt the need to apologize to Russell, doing so in a hand-written letter, saying that he wished he’d said more or done more to express his sympathy for Russell’s plight and that of other African Americans.

Racism in America is not now what it was when Cousy and Russell were becoming basketball legends—a black man has, after all, been twice-elected president—but racism has hardly been defeated. Prejudice is alive and well, and hate crimes are clearly on the rise, targeting not only African Americans but also Muslims, members of the LGBTQ community and other minorities. And in the midst of it all, I find myself identifying with Cousy.

I am a white, 68-year-old male who has never been the victim of discrimination a day in my life. I have a handful of black, Muslim and LGBTQ acquaintances, but I’ve never stood with them in any meaningful way to witness for equality and justice. And though I’ve thought to myself that I should say more and do more, I’ve appeased myself by saying I will pray for them.

But then I think of the admonition of our denomination’s founder, Alexander Campbell: “To get on your knees and pray for anything that you will not then stand up and work for is an insult to God and a disappointment to yourself.”