4th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Our readings for the Second Sunday of Ordinary Time are:

1. Jeremiah 1: 4-5, 17-19
2. Psalm 71: 1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 15, 17
3. 1 Corinthians 13: 4-13
4. Luke 4: 21-30

1. Ready or not ...
• God doesn't wait for us to be ready, just willing.
• When are some times that, looking back now, you can see that God moved in your life before you really felt ready for that change, that movement?
• How did you manage to get out of your comfort zone?
• What were the rewards?
2. You rock!
• If someone were to tell you that you are a rock in their life, what would you think that they mean?
• Do you think that God sends others into our life to be that rock for us?
• If someone did tell you that you are a rock for them, how would that change things for you?
• Shouldn't you live that way all of the time anyway?
3. Hope and endurance meet
• Thinking back on the tough times in your life, were they all about just putting your head down and plowing through, or was there something else animating your passage through those seasons?
• Do you feel that there is always hope?
• What would that hope be in, or for?
• As you've matured, has your hope grown stronger?
• Why is that?
4. Claiming your identity
• You've just stepped into an elevator and there's only one other person there.  They turn to you and ask "who are you?" totally out of context.  How are you going to answer them in the next 10 floors on that elevator?
• Now let's say that you are at a religious education conference.  Same scenario.  What would you say then?
• Change the scene again, you find yourself standing next to someone at a funeral.  You don't know this other person, but they turn to you and ask the same question.  How would you answer them?
• Why are the answers different?  What is the same about them?  What does that say about who we are from one situation to another, what face of Christ we are revealing?

Preparation for Reconciliation:

1. Am I willing to pray to be indifferent to my present circumstances, be willing to pick up and venture into unknown territory for God?
2. Am I really bearing the responsibility for those who are counting on me, both the ones that I'm aware of and the ones that I am not?
3. Am I willing to follow God even if I feel utterly lost?
4. Am I willing to be bold in my ministry? 

Shalom!