Ordinary Time

Dec 10 2024

Only God Lasts Forever

The Sermon on the Mount in Matthew gives us the sayings about who is blessed: the poor in spirit, the meek, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, etc. Today we get Luke’s version, the Sermon on the Plain, where Jesus adds, “Woe . . . woe . . . woe . . . woe . . . .”

Why does Jesus use the word “woe” more than anyone in the Bible? I had to go look that up. The Greek term for “woe” is an interjection of grief. It sounds like this: ooo-AH-ee: it’s kind of like a moan, a noise that you make when you are in sorrow or distress. My great-grandmother might have moaned “woe” or “alas.” But nowadays? What word do we have? Maybe a deep gut-wrenching “Whoa”? Or “Oh my gosh!” Or “Oh no!” (or less-printable things). Woe is not an expression of condemnation. Jesus is grieving for those who trust in things that don’t last. Those who are full will be hungry again. Those who are well thought of, well, their reputation could crash.

Jesus knows that anything can happen. Woe is not just for “those folks.” A tree can fall on your swing set in the night. A neighbor who was robustly healthy dies suddenly on Tuesday. A friend who is eight months pregnant loses her baby. You’ve seen it. Life is tenuous. We travel a world of woe. Sometimes we mess up. Sometimes it just comes upon us. “Woe” happens.

If this life is all there is, St. Paul tells us today, then we are the greatest of fools, the most pitiable of people. We believe there is more, an eternity that matters.

Things don’t last. God does. That’s what we can rely on. Jesus knows our struggles to trust through the trials and the blessings of life. He moans in grief for us: ooo-AH-ee. Maybe we should take up that cry, too?

Consider/Discuss

It is the middle of February, starvation season in many agrarian cultures, funeral season in many churches. This is a difficult time to hear of “woe.” Yet Jeremiah and the psalmist tell us to plant ourselves securely, like trees by running water, the water of God. How can you plant yourself in the waters of God in your current life situation?
In Greek it is ooo-AH-ee. There doesn’t seem to be a consistent word that we all use in English. What word or expression do you use to release gut-churning unhappiness? What do you say?

Living and Praying with the Word

Jesus, you moan over the sorrows in our world. We moan, too. There is a time for everything—a time to laugh and a time to weep, a time to live and a time to die. You know the vagaries of life. Help us not to grieve you.

In the middle of winter’s barrenness, we rejoice that you have overcome the woes and the difficulties. You have given us your resurrection. Death and pain are not the final answer! Help us to trust in that. Come, Holy Comforter, and groan within us. Then bring us your peace.

Dec 10 2024

Scripture Study for

This oracle from Jeremiah draws on wisdom motifs to warn the people about relying on foreign powers protect them from external enemies. A contrast is drawn between those who act foolishly (who are “cursed”) and those who act wisely (who are “blessed”). Those who act foolishly follow the ways of the world, relying on political and military alliances, for example, to see them through difficult times, rather than turning first to their God. For Jeremiah, this is manifest infidelity to the covenant relationship, the result of which is never good. On the other hand, those who see first to their relationship with God can be assured that all they need to survive and thrive will be theirs, if only they will trust.

Paul has reminded the Corinthians that Christ was raised from the dead. Nevertheless, it appears that at least some of them do not even believe in the resurrection of the dead. Somehow, they become Christians without accepting this indispensable feature of Christian faith. Paul points out to them that if there is no such thing as resurrection, then Jesus was not raised from the dead, rendering everything about their Christian faith pointless. Because their sins have not been forgiven, and they have no hope for life with God after this life, they are the most misguided and “pitiable” people imaginable. The foundation of the entire Christian life is the resurrection of Christ, without which none of it stands or even makes sense.

In the Beatitudes, Jesus draws on traditional wisdom forms to teach what makes one “blessed” and what doesn’t. Blessedness is traditionally seen in prosperity, comfort, and good social relations. Jesus does not deny this, but he insists that the seeds of such blessedness mysteriously lie in their opposites for those who are faithful to God (as were the prophets). Thus, those who suffer now in faith are in fact already blessed. On the other hand, those who are now comfortable and prosperous are in spiritual danger, because their current “blessedness” is deceptive, carrying as it does the seeds of destruction if it is allowed to impede or divert from living within the will of God.

Dec 10 2024

Following the Awe

Again this week we have the call of a prophet, Isaiah of Jerusalem. The scene is God’s “throne room,” the Holy of Holies in the temple. The fearsome seraphim, whose name means “burning ones,” act here as the agents of God’s purifying action to prepare the prophet for his mission. In the presence of the thrice-holy God, Isaiah recognizes the depths of his sinfulness as well as that of his own people; all of them are “unclean.” The burning of Isaiah’s lips not only prepares him for his role, but foreshadows what God has in store for all of Israel, if they will only allow themselves to be purified by the God who graciously sends this prophet to them.

In his Letter to the Corinthians, Paul has addressed a number of ways in which his audience has failed to recognize or has forgotten important truths about the gospel and the path of Christian discipleship. It is thus fitting that Paul concludes his letter by reminding them of the central and most fundamental truth of the gospel he has preached to them, which is the death and resurrection of Christ. The basic content of the gospel is summed up neatly: Christ died for our sins, but was resurrected, a verification that Jesus was the Messiah sent by God. This central reality was then proclaimed by those who met the risen Christ, including Paul himself, whose own ministry has been nothing but a work of God’s grace.

After announcing his mission to fulfill God’s promises to Israel, Jesus now encounters Simon and other fishermen, who have just arrived home from a disappointing night of fishing. Simon’s response to the command to go back out reveals both a natural tendency to operate according to human expectations (we didn’t catch any fish all night, why would we catch some now?) and openness to something beyond them (at your command I will lower the nets). The result is, of course, symbolic of what Peter and the others will be able to do once they learn to overcome their dependence on human ways of thinking, including the assumption that an imperfect and even sinful person cannot do God’s work.

Dec 10 2024

Scripture Study for

Dec 10 2024

Listen to the Voice

I have been proclaiming the wonderful deeds of Jesus since I was a girl. Even if they threaten me, I will stand up and tell. His love changed my life. His story must be told:

My job was to tend the fire outside the synagogue entry. I was just a girl. Every Sabbath, the men arrived to talk and argue about the law. They never saw me. On this day, he saw me. He smiled at me as he went inside.

The coals of the fire glowed red and orange. I placed another log on the flames. I heard his voice: “The Lord has sent me to set captives free,” he said, “to give sight to the blind.” My heart pulsed like the embers in that fire. This was love. The men were awed at his preaching. He sat. He said, “Today, this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” The silence was thick. I knew it then in my heart. This was the One we had been waiting for.

His preaching was not enough for some. My father’s brother asked him to do a special miracle just for Nazareth. I knew my uncle, who only wanted something to boast about. That was not love. That was cold. Even a young girl could see that. I started to object, but my father muttered, “Be still!” Jesus saw their coldness. His eyes looked sad.

They grew angry. They wanted to hurt him. I don’t know how he got away. But he did.

They can behead me if they like. I will be faithful to my call to speak of him. There has never been anyone so loving as Jesus. I will not be still. Like Jeremiah, I will speak! God will be with me, with a love that radiates like a fire in my bones.

I will speak!

Consider/Discuss

Today’s Gospel story is like a family reunion gone wrong. Jesus has come home. And some of his neighbors are not content simply to hear him preach, even though “gracious words came out of his mouth.” They want their native son to put them on the map with signs and wonders. Jeremiah the prophet also found himself unwelcome in Israel. What is it about human nature that we listen least to those who are closest and are most impressed by those from far away, especially more than fifty miles away? Why do we do that?
We are all called to speak of the love that we have received. Evangelization is not just for priests and preachers. In the early church, ordinary people told the story of Jesus, even if it meant death, even if it meant being ostracized by family. How are you and I called to speak today?

Living and Praying with the Word

Living Word, thank you for vocal cords. Texts and emails are fine, but thank you for the warmth of a voice. There are some voices that we no longer hear, ones that we hope to hear, and voices that we haven’t always appreciated until they are silent. Help us to savor the voices of those who love us, those who are close by. Help us to really hear them. They are a gift to us. Thank you for the gift of voice. Help us to use it well.