22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

Our readings for the 22nd Sunday of Ordinary Time are:

1. Jeremiah 20: 7-9
   
2. Psalms 63: 2, 3-4, 5-6, 8-9
   
3. Romans 12: 1-2
   
4. Matthew 16: 21-27
   

• Honesty in prayer
  
• Maybe we feel that God will be offended.  After all, these days it seems as though just about everyone is offended by something/someone.  Maybe we think that God, in all of His glory, is not interested in how we really feel.  But the great heroes of the Bible gave God a piece of their minds, and did so frequently.
• Have you ever been angry, frustrated with, or disappointed in God?
• Did you talk to Him about your feelings?
• How do you think that made God Feel?
• Did you think to ask Him?
  

• Longing for God
  
• What is it about God that attracts you?  Is it the sense of purpose that you find in His service, maybe the community that He has called you into, the sense of being part of something bigger than just yourself, or is it more personal?
• Think of three things that are essential to who God is that you want more of in your life.
• For each of those, what stands in your way, why do you feel you don't have enough of those right now?
• Imagine what it would be like for you to have those blessings in abundance.
• Pray that vision.
  

• Transformational theology
  
• I found this meditation on the wounds borne by the risen Christ.  It's a little lengthy, but very well done.
• Is there an experience or even a full chapter in your life that you would rather never happened at all?
• How has that part of your past affected you since then?
• Do you think that God wants to heal that, or transform it?
• How might God use that part of your past to make you a better person today?
• How can you help God in that soul work?
  

• The resilience of humility
  
• Take note that this Gospel immediately follows Peter giving voice to his recognition of just who Jesus is.  Seems rather ironic that poor Peter goes from head of the class to almost a suspension in just a few verses.  A more humble response on his part might have been something like "Lord, I'm terribly confused and astonished.  Help me in my confusion."
• What are some things in your life, your perspective, that have limited what you can accept from God in your life?
• Do you think that you would be better able to accept those things, be more free in your life now than you were then?
• Can you think of any way to cultivate resilience (call it flexibility, or even "rolling with the punches") in your life?
  

• Preparation for Reconciliation
  

1. Where is God offering me a chance to speak up/speak out on His behalf?
2. Am I pursuing my God-given longings in life?
3. What blocks my trust in God?
   
4. Where is God calling to me to more freedom?

Shalom!

21st Sunday in Ordinary Time

Our readings for the 21th Sunday of Ordinary Time are:

1. Isaiah 22: 19-23
   
2. Psalms 138: 1-2, 2-3, 6, 8
   
3. Romans 11: 33-36
   
4. Matthew 16: 13-20
   

• Finding your place
  
• Shebna was the king's right hand man, a person of enormous influence in Israel.  But Shebna was looking for more than even that position was due.  Shakespeare tells a similar story of tragic out of control ambition in Macbeth.
• What are your ambitions for your spiritual life?
• Do you think that you'll be ministering the same exact way that you are today in another five years?
• If God suddenly called you into some other role, even some other place, how would you take that?
• Do you think that God might be calling you to anything to prepare you for that next chapter in your life in His service?
  

• Celebrating God in prayer
  
• God's greatest act of ongoing love for us is to help us continue to unfold, continue to grow, continue to become more like Him, and in so doing become more like that man or woman that God made us to be.
• Intercessory prayer comes down to asking God to be true to God's own nature in our lives and the lives of others.
• We often see psalms reminding God of who God is, as a preamble to a request.  Got needs no such reminding, but we often do.  How do you remind/celebrate God's character?
• Is it a loving response on your part to invite God to act from His central character, His personality in our world?
• Would you have it any other way?
  

• Foundations of trust
  
• In our age, cynicism is a national pastime.  We sneer at anyone who trusts those in authority to do the right thing for the right reasons, we hesitate to believe what we hear, no matter who we hear it from.  For many, trust is equal to naivete.
• Why do you trust God?  Is it because He has proven Himself?  Because you have heard testimony of God's trustworthiness from others?  Is it because you have no choice but to trust?
• Does God have to explain Himself to us?
• Why not?
• Do you think that you could be happier if you trusted more?
• What is holding you back from that greater trust?
  

• Lonely at the top
  
• It's hard to know what went through Peter's mind when Jesus broke the news to him that he was going to be in a position of authority in the Kingdom.  Being a good Jewish boy, I'm sure one thing that crossed his mind was "Mom will be so proud."  Or perhaps "Maybe now, those rotten brothers of mine will show me a little respect."
• To what extent is your congregation/parish a family for you?
• To what extent is your family a community for you?
• Have you ever found ways to support those in authority?
  

• Preparation for Reconciliation
  

1. Where is God offering me more profound humility?
2. Why do I pray?
3. What blocks my trust in God?
   
4. Where is God calling to me to support my leadership in love and respect?

 What are you building?

By nature, I am a strategist.
I like to see the big picture.
I want to know where the matter in hand fits in.

Others I know are content to do as they are told
Asking only that the expectations they are held to be clear.
The work itself being reward enough.

I try to pray the prayer of unknowing:
God, I have no idea where this effort is going, when it will get there, or what will happen -
What matters is that my hands and feet are bringing me closer to you.

But a part of me, a part that I believe is God-given, craves assurance.
Assurance that today really matters.
Assurance that what I am pouring my heart into will amount to something in the end.

And so I pray that I can find that assurance in trust.
Trust that God has a plan, that I am part of that plan.
And that all of His followers are part of that plan along with me, unseen though they may be.

Even if you and I disagree, I have come to believe that God can be using both of us.
And on my better days, I can just believe that God needs both of us -
Keeping watch over each other in a dynamic tension that is both painful and creative.

And I have come to believe that what looks like a reversal, a failure, a death
Can be transformed, reawakened, resurrected to new life if I but trust enough -
Trust enough to enter that dark valley in the first place.

I doubt the big picture will come to me in a flash.
I only hope that I am attentive as God reveals Himself in the time ahead.
And that I will learn to need a blueprint less and less -

As God executes that plan in me more and more.

Shalom!

20th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Our readings for the 20th Sunday of Ordinary Time are:

1. Isaiah 56: 1, 6-7
   
2. Psalms 67: 2-3, 5, 6, 8
   
3. Romans 11: 13-15, 29-32
   
4. Matthew 15: 21-28
   

• House of Belonging
  
• Fr. Greg Boyle tells us that the typical gang member does not feel powerful, nor strong, nor vengeful.  Their most prevalent emotions are shame, unworthiness, outcast.  The gang gives them a place to belong, to find family.  All of us have those needs.  Some of us are lucky enough to find the fulfillment of those needs in ways that are healthy, holy.
• Where do you belong, ultimately?
• How long have you belonged there?
• What makes you so sure that this is where you belong?
• What and who does that sense of belonging inspire you to do, to be?
  

• We're all in this together
  
• John Donne said it well here.  None of us is immune to the loss of another, no matter the nature of that loss, be it their life, their courage, their very heart and mind, their peace.
• Who in your life do you depend upon most?  Who are those who enrich your life the most?
• How do you support them in their daily walk with God?
• None of us can be there for everyone.  And yet, every Sunday we bring people, situations, communities before God entreating His help that we lack the resources to help.  How can we be truly authentic in such prayer?

• Mercy unimaginable
  
• God is merciful.  Ultimately, God is the font, the source, the genesis of all mercy.  The best that we can do is pray for mercy that we may show that mercy.
• When have you seen great mercy?
• What was so great about that mercy?
• Was that mercy easy for the person showing that mercy?
• How would you suppose that we could learn to be more merciful?
• Does learning to be more merciful frighten you?
• Why not?
  

• Heroic humility
  
• So many of us these days act as though we are entitled, that God (or someone acting on God's behalf) is duty bound to give us one thing or another because we ask for it, or because we have been obedient in the past, or because we have heard that God showers blessings on His faithful.
• What are some things that you are sure will come to you as God's child?
• What makes you think that those are coming your way?
• What would happen to your faith if those things did not come your way?
• Why?
  

• Preparation for Reconciliation
  

1. Where is God offering me a home that I might not see just yet?
2. What is God asking me to shed from my life today?
3. How has God's faithfulness made me who I am today?
   
4. Where is God calling to me to walk on the water with Him?

 Prosperity Unforeseen

The old gardener pulled his handkerchief from his pocket and mopped his brow.
Casting his gaze off into the distance as he thanked his Maker for another sunrise.
His hoe in his hands so familiar that it was an extension of his bone and sinew.

Setting to his work again he continued to cultivate the ground, -
Feeling the rocks and roots along the way, gently removing them in preparation.
Preparation for the flowers that he knew needed to be planted soon.

Else the seeds would not receive their allotted rain and sunshine in time -
In time for them explode in a riot of color, quietly praising their Maker once again.
Joyous witnesses of His faithfulness in every petal and leaf.

Living for the day, never worrying over what tomorrow will bring.
Knowing only that God will provide what is needed when it is needed -
Needed to advance, strengthen them in due course and seasons.

Deep in meditation, he removed his gloves, immersed his hands in the fecund earth
Feeling the fertility, the warmth of the sun captured in the soil, the occasional worm,
Thanking God for the eternal Now ever within reach, savoring it, and letting go.

Marveling as the soil fell from his outspread fingers
That the letting go had more joy than the gathering ever could,
That richness was found in giving, rather than receiving.

He prayed a short phrase with each seed that he sowed,
Commending it to its Maker and his,
Reveling in their mutual kinship, their mutual creatureness.

Setting the hose nozzle to spray, the gardener gently watered the garden -
Marveling at the rainbow created in the mist, communing with Noah of so long ago.
Praying "blessed are you Lord, God of all the earth.  Thank you for your bounty."

Knowing that the seed, the soil, the water, the sunlight, his skill -
All were gifts from the same quiet source.
Bowing his head in worship, he knew belonging and rootedness all over again and marveled.

Shalom!

19th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Our readings for the 19th Sunday of Ordinary Time are:

1. 1 Kings 19: 91, 11-13a
   
2. Psalms 85: 9, 10, 11-12, 13-14
   
3. Romans 9: 1-5
   
4. Matthew 14: 22-33
   

• If you're going to fail, at least be epic about it
  
• Elijah had hoped to expose Baal as a false god, and his prophets as deceivers.  Instead, all that he did was arouse the ire of Israel's queen who put him at the top of the most wanted list.
• When have you been discouraged in your walk with the Lord?
• What was the challenge to you at that time?
• What made you lose hope?
• Where did you find hope eventually?
  

• Salvation in the moment
  
• Salvation from our sins is certainly a central truth of our relationship to God.  But sometimes it's too easy to miss the present promise of that salvation.
  
• What are some things that you've been saved from in your walk with God?
  
• How did that salvation come to you?
  
• What did you have to do to receive that?
• What of that particular salvation do you think that you could possible share with others?
• Do you think that others would appreciate that gift from you?
• Why does that matter?
  

• God's fingerprint
  
• God is faithful.  God's faithfulness is for the long haul, eternity in fact.  Even when we are not actively following God, he is there, present, giving, waiting, healing, and speaking to us.
• What are some of your earliest memories?
• Do you think that God was there with you in that time?
• In prayer, get in touch with that divine Presence at that moment in your life.  We are children of eternity, in meditation we can touch those moments.
• Do you find any comfort, solace in that Presence?
• If you could talk to God during that experience in your life, what would you say?
• What's stopping you?
  

• Focus
  
• I've loved this story of Peter walking on the water to meet Jesus for as long as I can remember.  No one but Peter would challenge Jesus that way, no one but Peter would jump from the relative safety of the boat so impulsively.
• What are some doubts that you have had in times past?
• What caused that doubt?  Was it bad past experiences, something that you read, your own fears?
• How did you find the faith to carry on?
• How did God save you?
  

• Preparation for Reconciliation
  

1. Where is God offering me hope that I am to afraid to accept?
2. How can I live God's salvation more deeply today?
3. How has God's faithfulness made me who I am today?
   
4. Where is God calling to me to walk on the water with Him?

 Come, Walk With Me

There is nothing like looking death in the face with others
To bind you to them, and them to you.
Each of you baring your soul, each of you totally honest.

In my prayer, I put myself into the boat with Peter.
I hear the shrieking, maniacal wind's tortured lament.
I hear the timbers of our little boat groaning under the strain.

I know that we are near done.  There are no options.
And an odd calm comes over me as I resign all hope of survival.
My eyes rest lovingly on the friends that I have known so well.

Suddenly, off in the distance, where he has no business being,
Walks a man towards us, through the thunderous chaos.
He claims to be Jesus, but there's no way to tell.

And suddenly, my calm yields to longing, to be by His side.
Jesus, who has made my life make sense again.
Jesus, who has taught me that I am loved for all my impetuous words and deeds.

Even if my last breath is the one I take by His side,
It's better than cowering in this boat.
It's better than the comfort of a sinking ship

I vault over the side, scarcely touching the heaving gunwales  of our craft.
Love for Him sends me running across the crashing waves.
And for a moment, I forget myself in Him.  I find myself by being lost.

Suddenly, I see that there might be a tomorrow for me after all.
And with that, my brimming love gives way to fear.
As I wonder what it is that I'm really doing here on the water.

I come to this shore at dawn when I get the chance.
Smell the water, hear the birds, watch the fishermen.
And remember the feel of those strong arms bearing me out of the water.

And resolve to walk with Jesus a little more today.
Let my love for Him propel me through my fears to His side.
Just one more step on the trackless water.

Just one more step.

Shalom!