“Response-able”
By Rev. Michael Stonhouse
Meditation – Tuesday, October 29, 2024
Luke 11: 27-36 (Forward, p. 92) CEV p. 1075
What is Jesus ‘getting at’ in the conversations recorded in today’s passage? One thing, namely, that observing what He was doing, being around during His ministry, even giving birth to Him or nursing Him in His infancy, were simply not enough. What really mattered was hearing and obeying God’s message.
Here Jesus offers two very strong allusions from the past. The Queen of Sheba travelled a long way to hear Solomon’s wisdom and yet even that wisdom, great as it was, pales in comparison with my wisdom. And the people of Nineveh, known for their impiety, were wise enough to respond to Jonah’s preaching, and yet here is something far greater than Jonah, and these present folk will do nothing of the sort.
And so these people persist in their blindness, persist in their darkness. And why might this be? We are told, in this passage, that a refusal to truly hear God’s word, respond to it and obey it, is the contributing cause—in other words, stubbornness. May this not be true of any of us.
Forward notes: “But he said, ‘Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it!’” (verse 28)
“How do you bless someone?
“I have always wondered about this question. The term ‘bless’ is rather general and often subjective, so it can mean many things. For instance, in the South, ‘Bless your heart’ is code for an insult.
“Someone helped me understand blessing in a more tangible way: to bless someone is to help them breathe a little bit easier, even for a second. This new perspective has helped me be more intentional about blessing my neighbors. The blessings can be as small and trivial as sending someone an uplifting text or picking up a coffee tab to as grand as rebuilding someone’s home after storm damage.
“We are invited and called to be a blessing. Whenever we make someone’s life slightly better, we’re following God’s word and command.
“And it’s cyclical. Oftentimes, when we bless someone, we end up being blessed, too.”
Moving Forward: “How will you bless someone today?”
A concluding note: I would have never known this meaning of ‘bless your heart’. I would have taken it as a compliment. Here is what one source has to say abou‘Bless your heart’ is a phrase common to the Southern United States. The phrase has multiple meanings and is used to express genuine sympathy but sometimes as an insult that conveys condescension, derision, or contempt. It may also be spoken as a precursor to an insult to mitigate its severity. Meanings range from sincerity to exasperation, and are primarily imparted through context and tone. While common in the South, it is primarily used by individuals who wish to ‘be sweet’ and do not wish to ‘act ugly.’