Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost
Watchword for the week — Jesus said, “All who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted.” Luke 18:14
Sunday, October 26 — Jeremiah 14:7-10,19-22; Psalm 84:1-7
2 Timothy 4:6-8,16-18; Luke 18:9-14
Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in your power to do it. Proverbs 3:27
If a person with gold rings and in fine clothes comes into your assembly, and if a poor person in dirty clothes also comes in, and if you take notice of the one wearing the fine clothes and say, “Have a seat here in a good place, please,” while to the one who is poor you say, “Stand there,” or, “Sit by my footstool,” have you not made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? James 2:2-4
Beneficent Savior, we know that your ministry was among the people. You made peers of the tax collectors and the prostitutes, and you were a friend of fishermen. May our own communities include the overlooked, building bonds of love, where all too easily there could be dismissal and exclusion. Help us every day to live into the promise of your all-inclusive grace. Amen.