Sixth Sunday of Easter

Year 3: May 21, 2017

Preaching Text: Galatians 1:13-17;2:11-21

Big Bob, Little Bob by James Howe

(Written for ages 4-8)

Comment: The Jewish Christians weren’t sure the Gentile Christians belonged in the community if they were unwilling to adopt Jewish practices, such as circumcision. In his commentary upon this text, pastor Michael Danner highlights the questions: “Who is ‘Gentile’ to my ‘Jew’ [and] can we accept that in accepting Jesus we are called to accept all those that Jesus accepts?”  The story of the two Bobs beautifully illustrates these struggles of acceptance. Big Bob embodies societal gender expectations while little Bob is anything but a stereotypical boy. Pairing their story and eventual acceptance of one another alongside Paul’s encouragement for acceptance in Galatians challenges us to consider whether we turn away or accept those who are different from us.

Thanks to Noell Rathbun, Minister of Children, Families and Liturgical Arts at Grace Baptist Church, Richmond, VA for writing the Lectionary Links this week.

Lectionary Links (NL): May 21, 2017 by Storypath is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.