We begin our liturgy with the singing of the refrain from “Gather the People”:
Gather the people! Enter the feast!
All are invited, the greatest and least.
The banquet is ready, now to be shared.
Join in the heavenly feast that God has prepared.
The hospitality that we sing about, and hopefully that we experienced as we entered the church today, is the same hospital-ity that we hear about in the first reading. We don’t have the name of the woman, but that she was ‘of influence’, and she built a room in her house for the Prophet Elisha. Whenever he was in Shunem, he dined with her and her husband, and then stayed with them in the room she had made for him.
Here I go on a little side note: anyone know where Shunem is? Google it! Shunem is south of Nazareth, and southwest of the Sea of Galilee. The Philistines camped in Shunem before they fought Saul, who was camped on Mount Gilboa. It was after this battle that Saul died.
In the Gospel passage, we hear about taking up our cross to follow after Jesus, as well as doing righteous deeds for others in the name of Christ. We each have our part to play in this life. During Communion, we sing “We Are Many Parts” that speak of this ideal. “We are many parts, we are all one body, and the gifts we have we are given to share.” Are we doing righteous deeds in our own lives in the name of Christ?
As we conclude our service, we go forth singing “We Are Called”:
We are called to act with justice, we are called to love tenderly,
we are called to serve one another; to walk humbly with God.
Have a great week doing just that: walk humbly with God!