“Sometimes prayer is understood as a way of getting out of whatever your vision of eternal torment might be. Sometimes prayer is understood as getting God to give us what we want. But Jesus seems to tell one curious disciple that prayer can be a way to change what we want.”
How are we going to save the planet? It seems like I read an article on this every week with new advice — almost like a new dietary fad: “follow this one wacky tip to melt your belly weight and stop climate change.” The answers feel more hollow all the time, as clickbait is wont to feel.
I say the parable of the Samaritan’s kindness is a migrant story. It’s another story set very intentionally along a road, and one that very intentionally includes a foreigner. And it’s told on the heels of seventy of Jesus’s disciples’ having been sent on an empty-handed mission through their world to see where they find welcome and where they do not.
God’s healing often comes even and especially in the midst of the imperfection and messiness of our lives. It does not always come on our terms or in ways that we expect.