3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

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

1. Nehemiah 89: 2-4a, 5-6, 8-10
   
2. Psalms 19: 8, 9, 10, 15
3. 1 Corinthians 12: 12-30
   
4. Luke 1: 1-4, 4: 14-21
   

• Covenant people
  
• When the children of Israel returned to their land after the Babylonian captivity, I'm sure that many of them felt a great relief to be "home".  But home for them was more than a location, it was a covenant.
• What makes you feel "at home"?
• How long does that "at home" feeling take when you lose a job, have to move to a new place, pick up with a new circle of friends, get a paradigm that has served you for decades suddenly shifted out from under you?
• When was the last time that you had to leave "home" and move on?
• How did that change you?
  

• The Law of the Lord
  
• Just what all is included in the Law of the Lord?
• Is that Law completely fixed, never changing?
• Is that Law the last word on what makes for sin in our lives?
• Can any one of us ever know the whole Law?
• Should we ever know the whole Law?
  

• You are needed
  
• The culture that we find ourselves in tells us that our worth is strongly attached to what we are able to do, the tasks that we can perform.  When you meet a person for the first time, its one of the first questions that comes up: "what do you do?", rather than "who are you?"
• Do you think that God values any of us more than others?
• If so, what is the criteria that He uses for such valuation?
• If so, what does He use that assigned value for?
• Why do you think that He might make someone who is of lesser value?
  

• The power of the Spirit
  
• God calls us His children to continue the ongoing incarnation of Jesus to earth.  We can only achieve that through the Holy Spirit.  Easier said than done.
• When is a time when you really felt the Holy Spirit working with/in/through you?
• What was your contribution to that work of the Holy Spirit?
• What had you done to prepare for that?
• Was the work successful?
• How do you know?
  

• Preparation for Reconciliation
• Where is home for me?
• Where does my sense of sin come from?
  
• Who am I becoming in God?
  
• Where might God be calling me to "let go and let God"?
  

A Land Ravaged

I remember when we were led away from here so many years ago.

This land had been our home for generations by then.

Every valley and hill like an old friend that you know you can trust.

I remember hearing the song of birds, the babbling of the streams,

The ewes and rams greeting one another in the morning stillness,

The whisper of the breezes through the olive trees.

All of creation was so ordered, and abundant.

But we lost our way without ever leaving home.

We forgot who we really were, and why we were here.

And now, the vineyards are ruins.  The irrigation ditches clogged.

Once beautiful farms are all but erased by time and neglect.

Fields once bursting with abundance produce nothing but thistles.

Yes, there is a great deal of work to be done here.

Work that is for younger hands and backs than mine.

But before that can truly begin, there is other work needed.

We need to find our soul.

Remind one another of who we are, and always have been.

Remind one another of the faithfulness of our Father.

That work of the prophets in our midst -

That is something that I can lay claim to.

Not just because I am old, and have memories.

But because I never forgot what it means to be God's child.

Shalom!