Pentecost 22 (A): The Equalizer

That's right, and so we begin.

This is the 22nd Sunday after Pentecost, the last Sunday in October.

So at St. Albans, we'll be kind of wrapping up our stewardship campaign and hopefully seeing a great harvest.

But in Leviticus, we are talking, and by the way, it's right before All Saints.

So clergy that are listening to this, if you haven't gotten your necrology ready, you know, now's the time.

All right, so Leviticus 19.

It skips a lot of verses, which are basically the Ten Commandments with some other stuff added, laws, rules, commandments.

But God is telling Moses, here's some stuff you got to do.

And the section we have here today, verses 15 to 18, are basically what does holiness look like for the people of Israel? And like I said, it's a lot of things that they sort of skip, but it kind of wants us to key in on these verses here at the end.

You shall not render an unjust judgment.

Don't be partial to the poor or defer to the great.

So no favoritism for anyone.

Judge your neighbor with justice.

Don't slander.

Do not profit by the blood of your neighbor.

Don't hate in your heart anyone of your kin.

And don't take vengeance.

Don't bear a grudge.

Love your neighbor as yourself.

So that's the key verse, Leviticus 19, 18.

And this is what Jesus is going to quote in Matthew's gospel at the end of our readings for today.

So this is where he's getting it from.

He didn't just make it up.

He's drawn on the text.

But Jake, this is a passage.