23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

Our readings for the 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time are:

1. Jeremiah 20: 7-9
2. Psalms 95: 1-2, 6-7, 8-9
3. Romans 13: 8-10
4. Matthew 18: 15-20

• The hazards of speaking out
• It's easy to tell ourselves that someone out there will have the courage to speak up about some corruption that has caught our attention.  But if everyone feels that way, nothing gets said, nothing gets done.
• You no doubt can think of a number of things going on around you that are wrong.  If you were told that you could make a big difference in just one of them, which would that be?
• Where would you start in trying to solve that?
• What would be the risks?
• How do you know that you are not the one to address that wrong? 

• Trust
• There are several different dimensions of trust, each of which supports the others.  First there's trust that God's will always offers us opportunities to draw closer to Him.  Then there's trust that drawing closer to God is, ultimately, the best thing that can possibly happen to us.  Finally, there's trust that God will reveal Himself to us in a manner that we can understand and act on.
• How has God revealed Himself to you over the years?
• Would you be open to Him revealing Himself by some very different means than what He's used with you in the past?
• Do you think that God's revelation is harder than it really needs to be?
• What to do you do to actively seek His will for you?
• What do you do to make sure that you're hearing Him rightly?
• How has that worked out for you? 

• Debt of love
•  Maybe you have a heart big enough to love the world, I'm afraid that I fall short of that.
• Who are some folks in your life that you ended up being called to love that you would not have chosen?
• How did you come to realize that?
• How did your generosity change them?
• How did your generosity change you? 

• I'm here for you
• We live in a culture that celebrates rugged individualism, self-reliance, the "self-made man" (at least in conservative circles) is held up as an ideal.  And all of that has its place.  But, like everything else in life, there is such a thing as "too much of a good thing."
• Have you ever felt called to help someone else see their own error, their own sin?
• Has anyone else ever ministered to you in that way?
• Why do you think that sort of loving connection between us is so rare?
• What can/should we do to improve?
• What can we do to safeguard against creating a community of busybodies?  Even if those busybodies have the best intentions in the world? 

• Preparation for Reconciliation
• Where might God be calling me into a prophetic episode?
• What/who do I really trust in my life?
• Who might God be calling me to love in a new way?
• Where might God be calling me into a deeper partnership with Him?

Lost

 

One of the mother goats in my herd died yesterday of thirst.

She looked at me with her eyes clouded with dehydration,

Trying to nurse her newborn kid who was too weak to stand.

Meanwhile, nothing but sand and rocks in view in all directions.

 

I tried to rekindle the excitement of  our escape from Egypt.

That magical night when anything seemed possible.

I pictured in my mind when we thought we were trapped -

Trapped between the Red Sea and Pharoh's wrath.

 

I remembered the days that we spent in front of Mt. Horeb.

Listening to God and Moses communing in the distance.

Wondering what was going on, how long it would go on,

And most of all, what our future held for us.

 

None of that was any help as I watched my dying herd.

Knowing that my family was not far behind.

And wondering where I, my tribe, my nation, had gone wrong.

Was it God, or Moses, our own sin?

 

We were promised freedom from slavery.

And a land flowing with milk and honey.

Which turned out to be populated by war-like giants.

And the freedom seems to just be freedom to starve.

 

No clear way forward, no way to return.

And we cannot just stay here to die.

I wonder what purpose God had for bringing us here.

I wonder what He is telling Moses over yonder.

 

I hate to go back into the tent and face my family.

They were counting on me to lead them, 

Show them the way.

And I have nothing to say, nothing to give them.

 

I have to believe that we're still following the same God.

The one who called us out of slavery to worship Him.

The one who gave us Moses to lead us.

The one who journeys with us in the Tabernacle.

 

It's just so hard to slack your thirst with just belief. 

 

Shalom!