Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost; 26 September 2021; Proper 21B (RCL); Esther 7:1-6, 9-10, 9:20-22; Psalm 124; James 5:13-20; Mark 9:38-50.
I did my Clinical Pastoral Education as a chaplain intern at the Massachusetts General Hospital. I was assigned to the rehabilitation floor, so we dealt with patients who had longer stays than most. One of the young men I encountered was a teenager (maybe 16), who was having his hand reconstructed. He had taken this passage literally, and laid his hand on a railroad track, because he did what teenaged boys do. I have a hard time hearing this passage, without recalling that young man.
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