Mount Calvary Sermons

SIXTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST 2013 LUKE 9:51-62 I really wanted a rug. A nice sandy-colored, modestly patterned, home-spun rug, the kind that adorned the camel I had ridden the previous day. But as I stood in the Tunisian marketplace my heart sank. There were so many to choose from, and so many vendors, each with pound signs in their eyes. They saw this out-of-his-depth British tourist nervously surveying their stalls, and assumed I was overwhelmed by the prospect of haggling over a rug. And they were absolutely right. I knew it was the done thing. They start absurdly high and I shake my head, make a face like I'm outraged, and begin to walk away. Then they call me back and make a new offer; I still play hard to get, so they keep coming down. I fake boredom and eventually they ask me what I want to pay. Then, when I tell them, they pretend to be deeply offended, and relate the story of their aged mother who made this rug by hand despite her failing eyesight and astronomical medical bills. And we end up meeting