Ordinary Time

Jan 27 2025

Making a Difference

A preschooler reaches up and beams, “I love you, Mommy.” A young father stops the homilist and says, “Your preaching has helped me to trust God more.” A cashier looks at the hospital chaplain with tears in her eyes and murmurs, “Thank you for your kind words on the day that my husband died.”

There are few things so rewarding as making a difference in someone’s life. To touch people’s lives warms the giver’s heart. The elation of helping others is very real.

Today, Jesus sends the apostles out two by two. Imagine the excitement to be given the authority to do the “mighty deeds” of the Teacher! The delight at seeing demons fall, the euphoria of healing the sick, and the conversion of the broken-hearted—can you picture it? That had to be exhilarating.

The prophet Amos was sent from taking care of his sheep to prophesy to the people of Israel. To be on a mission is motivating. Fire burns within and propels us forward: “Come on! Let’s go!”

Those moments of elation keep us giving. The satisfaction of helping others keeps us going. Yet Jesus provided the Twelve with nothing for the journey. They were not permitted to be self-sufficient. They had to work in solidarity with one another. Why? Perhaps Jesus knew the temptations to grow proud and to get puffed up, to feel heroic. The human emotion of being on a mission is just part of the story. God is the Hero of heroes. St. Paul says that we are chosen for a purpose, God’s purpose. We serve for the praise of God’s glory.

It is the living God who wants to be at work through us. That is the supreme cause for rejoicing. Imagine that joy!

Consider/Discuss

Over and over again, we are free to choose whether to serve others or serve ourselves, whether to give glory to God or to ourselves, whether to follow God’s purpose or our own. Within one lifetime, those daily choices form who we are and what we become. What would you like to do today?
Tell stories of grace. How has someone warmed your life? Whose mission has gladdened the way you see the world? How has God been at work through others to hearten and heal and encourage you?

Living and Praying with the Word

Holy Spirit, you have poured love into our hearts. You are the strength and the power beneath our acts of kindness and compassion. We do nothing without your grace. Jesus, you look upon our bravery; you look upon our meager efforts to serve you; you look upon our “mighty deeds,” and you smile a thousand smiles. For you love us. You know that it is serving others that makes life worth living. Heavenly Father, you have created us that way, and so you give us those opportunities to make a difference for each other. Thank you, Holy Trinity, for your grace. Thank you for your mercy. Thank you for your kindness.

Jan 27 2025

Scripture Study for

Amos has been preaching in Bethel, an important cultic site that featured a golden calf, set up by Jeroboam as a rival cult to Jerusalem (1 Kings 12:26–31), and thus “the king’s sanctuary.” Amaziah addresses Amos as if he were a “professional” prophet whose earns his bread by prophesying. Such prophets were often suspect, since their “prophecies” could be geared to favor whoever paid them. Amos insists that he is not a professional prophet; he had a job from which he was taken away by God to perform the dangerous task of preaching in places like Bethel. The rhetorical point is to affirm that Amos is a genuine, because reluctant, prophet, not one seeking to profit from his task.

Paul begins his letter the Ephesians by bringing into focus the divine plan, which the church has been formed to announce. The language of being “chosen” and called to be “holy and without blemish” recalls God’s creation of Israel. In the case of both Israel and the church, God has redeemed and forgiven because God is rich in grace, but also for a larger purpose, “the mystery of his will,” which is now revealed to be to “sum up all things in Christ.” The church, then, is not a collection of individuals, but a people called forth by God for a purpose, which, when fully known, will lead to the “praise of the glory of his grace.”

Despite the faithlessness he has recently encountered, Jesus now sends the Twelve out with the authority to do the “mighty deeds” he has been able to do for those who have faith. They are taking almost nothing with them, which is both an expression of trust in God’s providence and a sign that they are not seeking profit from their work. This is also why they are told to stay in the same house that welcomes them, rather than to accept any offers they may receive for nicer accommodations—another sign they would be looking out for themselves rather than the Kingdom and the people to whom it is proclaimed.

Jan 27 2025

This Is the Day—to Take a Chance

Jesus seemed to be a failure. He came to his hometown. They had heard about his miracles. They wanted him to be a local sensation. But he only did a couple of healings. To their faithless eyes, he looked like he might be a failure.

St. Paul likewise seemed to be a failure. He wrote that he had a thorn in his flesh and prayed three times for it to go away. Yet God did not take it away. Did Paul not have enough faith? At first glance, that might seem to have been the case.

Today, Christianity may look like a failure. There are fewer avowed Christians in Europe and a growing number for whom it doesn’t matter in the U.S. Jesus is a prophet without honor in our society.

You and I, we might be in a time of failure, too. A relationship may have crashed. A job may have bombed. An institution that we trusted has revealed its brokenness.

What are we to do with failure? It can bring us low. Failure hurts. Let us not be afraid to wrestle with God about that. The core of our faith is the cross. Hanging on that wood, Jesus was an utter failure. The cross hurt.

Then God did something completely new and raised Jesus from the dead. Who expected that?

Through the Resurrection, God transforms failure into hope— hope that our shortcomings will be redeemed, hope that what is dead will live again; hope that God will re-create all things afresh.

For God defines success differently. Like a perpetual inventor, God risks new things. Every time a baby is conceived, God tries again. Ninety-nine percent of the species that have ever lived on this earth are now extinct. The Creator tries again.

When we are low, the Holy Spirit tugs at our hearts to strengthen our hope. We too can try again. What did Paul hear in prayer? “My grace is sufficient for you.” History is long. God is continually at work.

Consider/Discuss

Jesus was not afraid to be innovative. He lived in a risky way. The living God was willing to die on the cross. Sometimes we are afraid to try something to which God calls us because it is risky, because we might fail. How many God-inspired opportunities do we miss because of our fear? How could we flex our risk-muscles today?
What troubles come when we are too successful? Throughout history, when Christianity looked like it was “winning,” power tainted the practice of faith. What if Jesus had allowed the people to make him their king? Imagine how the history of the world would have been different if Jesus had “succeeded” instead of “failed.” Where would we be today?

Living and Praying with the Word

Lord God of all creation, it feels as though we are in a season of failure in the Church in the Western world. We have moved away from a time of success, when there were many cultural supports for Christianity. Thank you for this “failure.” Thank you for shaking us out of business as usual. Jesus our Savior, you are still very real. You are still here. You know the broad sweep of history. You yourself have seen what can arise from failure. Holy Spirit, come! Come to us! Grant us new ardor and new ways to proclaim the time-tested gospel. Purify us to live wholly for you, today, this day, for this is your day, when you make all things new.

Jan 27 2025

Scripture Study for

The reading from Ezekiel occurs in a vision of the divine glory, in which he is told to speak to Israel, now undergoing hardship at the hand of Babylon. The prophet is sent to the people to proclaim to them what God is doing and why. Yet God knows that the people will not listen to Ezekiel, because they, like their ancestors, are rebellious. Nevertheless, the prophet is sent to speak God’s word, which must be proclaimed regardless of the people’s willingness to hear it. The proclamation of God’s word is not dependent on whether it will be heard or not; it is God’s word to the people, and therefore must be spoken.

Toward the end of his letter to the Corinthians, Paul “boasts of the things that show my weakness” (11:30). Although he has himself had “an abundance of revelations,” he also knows himself to be profoundly weak, as evidenced by whatever it is he calls the “thorn in the flesh.” Christ allows this thorn to remain, despite the fact that it is “an angel of Satan,” to prevent Paul from falling into the trap of relying on himself rather than on Christ. It is a great paradox that acknowledging weakness, and the hardships and struggles this entails, allows believers to let the power of Christ work in them, making them strong (because they realize that it is not in fact their strength, but Christ’s).

In last week’s Gospel, when Jesus brought to life the daughter of Jairus, the people had ridiculed him, an expression of their lack of faith. Here again Jesus encounters a want of faith in his hometown. Although they acknowledge the wisdom of his teaching and the reality of his “mighty deeds,” the people can only see Jesus as just a local boy. The “offense” they take at him may indicate a sense that he is trying to “rise above his station.” Their disbelief, grounded in their own idea of what is proper or possible, is self-fulfilling, in that it prevents Jesus from bringing to bear in their lives the full power of God.

Jan 27 2025

Answering the Invitation

It came early that day. She was weary of it—the constant flow of blood, draining her of strength, setting her apart from life. She could still hear the singing from the wedding last night. Her niece . . . She buried her head into her elbow and wept so hard that her stomach hurt. Her brother’s child . . . Just a baby when she—the unclean one—had last been allowed to hold her, now married. All those years . . . She would just spend the day lying on her mat. Again.

And yet . . . a beckoning within her said, “Get up.”

No. The wedding reawakened the other memory, the newborn in her arms . . . the boy, if he had lived, who would also be old enough to wed . . . and the bleeding they couldn’t stop at his birth. Still cannot stop. No, she would stay here.

And yet . . . she had heard it yesterday. “The healer is coming.” She tried not to let hope arise within her. “If only . . .” She had thought it every time she had tried a new physician. And they had only made it worse. No, not again.

And yet . . . maybe this time? She had heard of the demoniac being healed on the other side of the lake.

“If only . . .” The voice of reason said, “No, you can’t go out there. You are unclean.” But the song from the wedding echoed within her: “The Lord is my strength and song . . . , and he has become my salvation.”

The urge in her heart grew into an overwhelming ache in her stomach: “Oh, God, please . . .” Why was she saying yes to this? She wove through the crowds, hidden beneath her mother’s scarf, glad to be small. Her mouth mumbled, “If only I could touch him.” She knew no man could touch her. “If only I could touch the hem of his garment.”

And then . . . she did.

Consider/Discuss

The woman with the hemorrhage was set apart through no fault of her own. Her pain is the pain of all of those on the “outside.” Injustice like this should unsettle us. Some who are reading this are on the outside, hurting. Others are on the inside, singing and dancing at the wedding, unaware of those who are distanced. (Some may be in both places at different times.) How can the Holy Spirit awaken our awareness of “the other” so that we live with greater compassion?
Faith is not a psychological trait that we manufacture within ourselves. God is the source of faith. Faith is first a gift, a (sometimes subconscious) movement of the Holy Spirit rising within us. That inner beckoning becomes a dance of call and response between us and our Creator, as the woman in the story experienced. Faith grows as our yes responses grow. Faith shrinks as our no replies compound. What about today? In the grace of God, to which of these will we say yes today—the urges toward fear, doubt, and despair, or the beckoning toward faith and hope?

Living and Praying with the Word

Jesus, you looked Jairus in the eye and whispered, “Just have faith.” You did not sling that phrase at him like a slogan, but you offered him an invitation to look into your eyes and trust you. Look us in the eye also, especially when we are hurting. Help us to whisper yes back to you. Deep inside us, stir the enthusiasm of your presence, here, now. Help this to become a summer to give you our yes. Thank you for your healing tenderness.