February 9, 2025 - Fifth Sunday After Epiphany - The Centurion and the Widow

Last Sunday Creator moved to the Narrative Lectionary instead of the Revised Standard Lectionary readings. This was a move Pastor Ray planned to make for Creator and was decidimg on the right time to do it at the time he passed. During this trial period we will engage with the Narrative Lectionary reading and Psalm reading as opposed to reading three or four Bible passages in the service. The announcement went out this week.

There are two stories given in the Narrative Gospel. The first account is related to a Roman centurion in Capernaum who seeks Jesus' help to heal his slave. In her sermon Pastor Emillie highlighted similarities these stories shared, namely concerns about authority and that both the centurion and Jesus act from compassion  The centurion shows his compassion to his slave and the Jewish community as they say he built their synagogue. His response to Jesus when the centurion knows Jesus is on his way to his house reveals a remarkable understanding of authority and faith, which leads Jesus to praise him as having greater faith than anyone in Israel.

Pastor Emillie pointed out that this doesn't fit our modern assumption of what a Roman would do as an oppressor. The centurion is a Gentile, yet he displays greater faith than the Jewish people around Jesus. This anticipates the inclusion of Gentiles in God’s kingdom, a major theme in the New Testament. There is a foreshadowing of the centurion who recognizes Jesus' authority at the cross. 

As far as the second story Jesus’ response to this widow’s suffering is not abstract or intellectual; he feels her despair on a visceral level (in fact, the Greek word usually translated “compassion,” splagchnizomai, comes from splagchna, which means “intestines”). She does not ask for a miracle. A deep, gut-wrenching compassion leads Jesus to act on her behalf. We see this pattern elsewhere in Luke, as well.

This is the first of three instances of the actual word “compassion” in Luke (Luke 7:13; 10:33; 15:20). All three depict one person first experiencing another person’s suffering and then acting on that person’s behalf. Here, Jesus raises the widow’s son (Luke 7:13); in the Parable of the Good Samaritan, the Samaritan cares for a robbed and injured man (Luke 10:33); and in the Parable of the Prodigal Son, the father feels compassion for his wayward son and rushes out to welcome him home (Luke 15:20). Pastor Emillie called the parable as a reference point as well.

Catholic priest and spiritual writer Henri Nouwen describes Jesus’ life of compassion as the “path of downward mobility" — Jesus chooses pain, rejection, persecution, and death rather than the path of “upward mobility” toward power, authority, influence, and wealth. Jesus did not reach down and lift the poor up from above. He became poor — he suffered with — and according to Luke, Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection are precisely what enables redemption — indeed, relief from suffering — for all humanity. This is a message that we can heed now as our country is being tempted to not be compassionate.

Pastor Emillie underscored the temptation our nation is being put through by quoting the right Bishop Mariann Budde's sermon at the Washington National Cathedral prayer service a couple of weeks back where the Episcopalean bishop addressed the new president directly. She reminded him that mercy (which springs from compassion) is an essential quality of leadership. She asked him to be merciful on the fearful, the poor, and the marginalized. She was criticized by many for not citing a Bible passage in this reminder.

Everything that Bible readings convey, whether they are the Narrative or Revised Lectionary readings, are meaningful to what America is going through right now.