Meditation on This Sunday's Readings in "A Women's Lectionary for the Whole Church"

The readings for this Sunday, Oct. 3, 2021:

2 Samuel 13:  1-16, 21-22

Psalm 103:  1-17

1 Thessalonians 2:  9-12

Mark 10:  13-16

This Sunday's Gospel will be familiar to those of us who have been going to church awhile.  I think of it as the verses that launched a dozen versions of a sappy picture of Jesus with lots of children gathered round.  In the Sunday Schools of my childhood, those children were dressed in modern clothes.

The ancient world was not a kind or easy place for children, and I know that 21st century children inhabit a harsh world too. Still, I think that modern people have trouble comprehending how much Jesus has come to overturn the various power structures.  Children would have been at the bottom of the power structure of his day--and ours.  And yet, Jesus welcomes them.

The reading from Samuel shows how treacherous the world is when the family structure is set up to protect the powerful.  The rape of King David's daughter is not easy to read, and it's even worse to realize that the rapist is her brother, and the family not only doesn't support her afterward, but the male family members are instrumental in the abuse.  Here, too, modern readers might correctly feel like nothing much has changed.

But the good news of both the readings from the New Testament is that the old order is being dismantled.  God finds us worthy, even if we're like children who have done nothing particularly special, children who have no particular value.  Through this new way, God's way revealed through Jesus, we can find a new family, one who will cherish us and nurture us--just the way that God will cherish us and nurture us.