13th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Year B:  July 1, 2012

First Reading: 2 Samuel 1:1, 17-27

Sweet, Sweet Memory by Jacqueline Woodson

(Written for ages 5-9)

Comment: David sings a song of lament over the death of Saul and Jonathan. Any of us who have experienced loss understand the need to grieve. Grief is expressed in many different ways in our lives. David expresses the root of his grief as distress over the loss of one beloved. He sings a song remembering how those he loved have died. Others spend time with friends and family weaving together the songs of lives well lived, the notes of memories strung together, playing the song of one beloved. In many ways, Woodson’s book is a song whose refrain is the sweet, sweet memory of Grandpa’s words: “life goes on and on.”

Second Reading: 2 Corinthians 8:7-15

The Man Who Caught Fish by Walter Lyon Krudop

(Written for ages 5-9)

Comment: “For you know the generous act of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich.” Jesus is the example we are called to follow. We are called to lives lived generously, seeking a fair balance, where each would have enough. The Man Who Caught Fish is what some might call a trickster’s tale. The king becomes obsessed when the stranger who comes to town gives everyone one fish. He does everything in his power to receive more because he is the king. In the end he gets all the fish, but not in the way he’d hoped. This is truly a story of one who is rich becoming poor in order to learn what it is to be generous and to have enough.

Gospel Reading: Mark 5:21-43

Under the Lemon Moon by Edith Hope Fine

(Written for ages 5-9)

Comment: In this text, both Jairus and the woman seek Jesus for his healing touch. For anyone who has been sick or loved someone who was sick, it’s not too difficult to imagine the desperation these people must have felt. Nothing else had worked, Jesus was likely their last hope. What was it like to seek him? To find him? To witness a cure? In a small way, readers experience a similar quest and miracle as they follow Rosalinda on the path to heal her lemon tree. When all the advice has been followed and the tree is still ill, she desperately seeks La Anciana, the Old One. Eventually her persistence and faith lead to healing and hope.

This week’s Lectionary Links were written by regular contributor Noell Rathbun-Cook.

Lectionary Links: Sunday, July 1, 2012 by Storypath is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.