24th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Our readings for the 24th Sunday of Ordinary Time are:

1. Isaiah 50: 4-9a
   
2. Psalms 116: 1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 8-9
   
3. James 2: 14-19
   
4. Mark 8: 27-35
   

• Caring about the important stuff
  
• I think that it's a natural consequence of maturation that things that once were so important dim in significance, life becomes simpler, and despite the fact that the prescription on our trifocals becomes ever stronger, our inner vision becomes clearer.
• What is something that used to be very urgent for you that no longer matters very much?
• How did that change in your attitude come about?
• Do you wish that you did not have to go through that transition?
• Maybe you wish that transition had come about much earlier?
  

• Brought low
  
• We want to triumph in life.  Losing is for losers.  If you cannot score at least the occasional triumph, maybe it's because you're not trying hard enough, you're not smart enough, or you're just trying the wrong things.
• When was a time in your life when you felt as though you could not hang on any longer, as though you were caught in the perfect storm with no way out?
• Obviously, you made it.  How?
• Where was God in all of that?
• How did you come to find Him in your perfect storm?
  

• Doing the next needed thing
  
• Ministry has ragged edges.  I remember Fr. Greg Boyle relating a story in Tattoos On the Heart about a homey who's refrigerator broke down.  The refrigerator was old, not worth repairing, and the homey in question was barely making ends meet.  When Fr. Boyle heard that, he dropped what he was doing, and went shopping with that young man to find a replacement refrigerator that he could afford.
• What is a touch that you have given someone, or that they have given you, that was totally outside of any "normal" ministry that either of you were involved in?
• Why do you think that happened?
• How did you respond?  Were you fearful, excited, honored, repelled, ...?
• Why do you think that you reacted that way?
• How could you be more open to such encounters?
  

• Asking the right questions
  
• The Bible is full of mighty heroes who got it mighty wrong.  It has to make you wonder what God was really looking for in that situation.  We think that we have God figured out, that we know His essence, and then He goes and does something totally unexpected.
• Has God ever shocked, even offended you?
• How did you respond?
• How did God respond to your response?
• What did you learn from that experience?
• Do you think that there might be yet more learning ahead for you from that experience?
  

• Preparation for Reconciliation
• Where is God inviting me into more freedom?
• Am I willing to hit rock bottom to serve God?
  
• Where is God waiting for me to touch or be touched outside my comfort zone?
  
• Where is God calling me to be bold in following Him?

Looking Out for Jesus

Jesus can do some pretty scandalous things.

Talking to a Samaritan woman

Touching a leper

Healing on the Sabbath

Eating with tax collectors.

Makes you wonder whether He goes out of his way

To go where no one else will go for fear.

Fear of what will be said of them

Fear of how their family will respond

Fear of the reactions of the local village.

You wonder what Jesus might say

If you asked Him to dial it back just a little.

Try to do something conventional

Just once.

Keep everyone else on their toes.

But no, He goes charging off into the unknown.

No looking back, no second-guessing.

Eyes flashing resolute

Pace quickening in anticipation

Hands open to receive whatever comes His way.

He's so vulnerable that way.

Rejection is often all that He receives.

Word makes its way back to his family.

And you wonder whether He makes them weep -

The same way that He makes you weep.

Jesus, free me from trying to protect you.

Free me from my fear that shackles me.

Give me your lion heart.

That I may follow you with boldness.

Wherever that may be.

Shalom!