They’re convinced that this is the best that money can’t buy – the deaf hear, the blind see, the dead are raised. They’ve heard all about Jesus, they’ve maybe sampled his goods, the life in God – they’ve felt the quality, they’ve taken it off the rack and maybe even slipped it on to see how it fits.
In today’s Gospel lesson Jesus is approached by three bargain-hunters – men in the market for spiritual reality, browsing the displays for that missing ‘thing’ that will fill their souls and quench their thirst. If you’re looking for a bargain, if you want to do some haggling, then there’s one place you should not go. Three years ago, I watched, mortified, wishing the ground the open up, while she talked a leather goods merchant in Florence down from $1,000 to $70 for a very smart handbag. My British reserve just doesn’t want the embarrassment of lowballing a vendor at a flea market. Greater love has no one than to give away their priceless ancient Roman sculpture so that the general public can enjoy looking at it. Just now I told you that Laura was a regular human being, but I’m not sure she is, because instead of selling the bust of Pompey, she gave it to the San Antonio Museum of Art. They duly identified him as Pompey the Sixth – the son of Pompey the Great, who was a renowned Roman general and statesman around 100BC. And she approached that great relationship guru, Sotheby’s, to examine Pompey and find out his story. Then, last month, just out of curiosity, she decided to dig into Pompey’s past, the way you do when someone has been sitting on your coffee table for four years. At the time of buying him, Laura didn’t know his name or his story, but hey, that didn’t matter. All he had was a head and shoulders but nonetheless, Laura liked the look of him, and paid Goodwill $34.99 for the right to take him home, plonk him down on the coffee table, and feast her eyes on him until her heart was content.
Laura was flesh and bones, a regular human being, and Pompey, well Pompey was made of marble. I mean, literally, they were made of different stuff. Laura and Pompey were made of very different stuff. But age wasn’t the only challenge their relationship had to overcome.
Pompey was clearly getting up there in years, but being a deep person, Laura thought the age-difference did not rule out a friendship. The guy turned out to be a bit older than he looked in his eHarmony profile. They met in Goodwill four years ago, probably not the first friendship to form and blossom in a thrift shop, but certainly one of the most unusual. She made them with her new Italian friend, Pompey. Last month Laura Young from Austin, Texas made the headlines. THIRD SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST JUNE 26th, 2022 LUKE 9:51-62
0 kommentar(er)
