Weekly Readings Reflections: 3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

Sunday, January 20, 2019

Our readings for the 3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time are:

I wish that someone had taken notes when Ezra the scribe interpreted the word for the Israelites that day.
If Ezra had done that reading some other time, some other circumstance, how do you think that interpretation would have been different?
Who is it in our day, who interprets God's Word for us?
How do they qualify for that role?
How do we?

Just how does the Word of God guide you?
What practice(s) do you use to allow that Word to speak to you?
What would you say is the distinction between knowledge of God's Word, and wisdom?
Is that Word static, that is never changing, or dynamic in your life?
How does that Word come to you?

Reader's Digest used to publish an occasional article titled "I'm Joe's <fill in the organ here> as a way of personalizing the various organs of the body. The article would then give you a first-person account of what it's like to be that part of Joe's body, and often, how that organ would prefer to be treated, if only Joe would listen.
How did you get into the ministry/ministries that you are in today?
Are you still giving life in that calling, or are you doing it just because that's what you have always done?
How do you know when it's time to move on?
Who does that moving, you, the Spirit, those around you in ministry ...?

You have to wonder what made Jesus announce Himself in Nazareth. Certainly that was not any sort of a media hub or place of note. Those who knew Him growing up doubtless expected Him to settle down, and live out a normal life.
What sort of expectations did you grow up with?
Did you end up fulfilling all of those expectations?
Did your parents ever tell you that you were, in some way, special?
How did you discern what "special" meant?
Is that destiny still unfolding?

Shalom!

Weekly Readings Reflections