When I was in primary school we were taught the saying, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me”. As the years have passed it has become clear to me that this is simply not true. Our descriptions about other people matter as do their descriptions of us.

In this edition, we are looking at the story of Zacchaeus who is the subject of name-calling and denigration.

The Parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25–37) is so well known that I hardly need to take up space here repeating or paraphrasing it. The legacy of this story is that a Samaritan is universally understood as a good person who helps others, a good neighbour. Newcastle Anglican’s own welfare agency scarcely needs a mission statement; the name says it all.

While there are quite a lot of women in the Biblical narrative, they aren’t usually front and centre and there can be a lot of confusion about who they are and what they did.

Ruth is told as a domestic love story, yes. But it models a truth people everywhere are experiencing currently in heightened ways day by day. Factors beyond domestic control shape the stories we live. The friendship of Moabite Ruth and her Judean mother-in-law Naomi unfolds against famine, and in the days when the judges ruled. According to the book of Judges, this was a time of ‘decline and anarchy in Israel.’[i] The marginalised are apt to become more so in circumstances of famine and self-interested government. Ruth and Naomi are both widows, refugees and each at first an alien in one another’s countries, properly on the margins.

The peasantry prospered in Israel;
they grew fat on plunder,
because you arose, Deborah,
arose as a mother in Israel. Judges 5.7

By Bishop Charlie

By Father Rod

As I drive, I often listen to podcasts.  Included on my favourites list are some current affairs programs.  I find it helpful to listen to the different perspectives offered by various reporters as they analyse the events of the day.   Listening in this way, to what I think of as trusted news sources, helps to develop a deeper understanding of current events.  I also note on these programs that they speak of other news outlets and the audiences they broadcast or write for.  The bottom line?  One event can be viewed from a number of angles. 

Let’s begin with the idea that the people writing the psalms had no sense of the coming of Jesus. Their focus was elsewhere. This approach allows us to hear the words in their initial context and as Jews today might pray them.