Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Jan 30 2025

Gracious Living

How many times have we taken to heart the opening greeting often used at Sunday Eucharist: “May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you”? To live graciously is to live within and out of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

In today’s reading from the Second Letter to the Corinthians, Paul commends the community for excelling in many ways but expresses the hope that they will excel in imitating the gracious act of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is referring to their acting in imitation of Christ’s self-emptying. Christ who was rich in divinity became poor by pouring himself out for others. In self-offering, he gave himself both in ministry and especially on the cross, that others might be freed from the power of sickness and death.

Today we see Jesus graciously reach out to two desperate women. One had been hemorrhaging for twelve years, making her continually “unclean,” so she could not be in any contact with friends or family, or worship with others. She had lost everything, was truly impoverished. The other was a twelve-year-old girl whose frantic father had come for Jesus to heal her. To both women Jesus showed the gracious love of God, a healing touch restoring them to life.

The book of Wisdom states that God did not make death. God calls us to live graciously, generously. In Christ’s death and resurrection we glimpse the divine plan: that we die to self so as to live in God.

Consider/Discuss

What does being gracious mean?
How have you known the grace of God?
Can you see ways in which God’s grace can touch others through you?

Responding to the Word

Amazing, gracious God, look kindly on us and fill us with your grace. Expand our hearts so we might be generous to others as you have been to us. Bless our days that we might spread the light of your life to those who feel trapped by the darkness.

Jan 30 2025

Scripture Study for

The claim that God did not make death calls to mind the story of the first sin, which brought death into the world. The Wisdom author’s view of immortality is influenced by both the Jewish idea of covenant bond and the Greek concept of immortality. He claims that “justice is undying.” Since this immortal justice characterizes the covenantal relationship of human beings with the immortal God, this relationship is undying as well. The author further argues that, though mortal by nature, as images of God human beings were meant to be imperishable.

Paul pleads with the Corinthian community to come to the assistance of less fortunate Christians. He exhorts them to embrace this new venture with the same enthusiasm that they have shown in other areas of Christian living. He then turns to the example of Jesus, who willingly relinquished life itself for the sake of the Corinthians. He is merely asking that they give out of their abundance, for this is the basis of Christian sharing. Paul assures them that those with whom they are generous have riches to share as well. These may not be material treasures, but they are resources for which the Corinthians have need.

The Gospel reading consists of two healing accounts. A distraught father throws himself at the feet of Jesus and pleads for the life of his daughter. While on his way to heal her, a woman suffering from a hemorrhage seeks a cure by touching Jesus. Both stories demonstrate the faith in the power of God working through Jesus. The healing of the woman, though performed in public, was really a private affair. The raising of the girl, though accomplished in private, was in danger of becoming widely known. At the heart of each of these stories is the invitation to faith in Jesus and his power over sickness and death.

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.

Jan 27 2025

Scripture Study for

In the book of Wisdom we see the fruit of centuries of reflection on the meaning of the first chapters of Genesis. Wisdom insists that in God’s original plan humans were immortal; this is, at least in part, what it means to say that they were created in God’s image (Genesis 1:27). It was only because of the machinations of the snake, now identified as the devil, that humans experience death. But this is certainly not what God, who is resolutely opposed to death, wants for humans. The larger point of the Wisdom passage is to warn people to be faithful to God and thus not to “court death by your erring way of life” (1:12).

In his letter the Corinthians, Paul now turns to his collection for the Christians in Jerusalem. He challenges them—who “excel in every respect”—to excel in giving also. Here they should look to the example of Christ, from whose generosity they have been enriched. One way to show their gratitude is to share other forms of “riches” with the struggling church in Jerusalem. He seals this appeal with a reference to Exodus (16:18), which refers to the distribution of manna in the wilderness. The point is clear: any abundance the Corinthians enjoy is a gift from God, which is meant to be shared equally by all of God’s people.

In both stories of the longer form of the Lectionary reading, the role of faith—trust in Jesus’ will and ability to save—is central. The woman believes quite simply that if she touches Jesus’ clothes, that will be enough to cure her. Jairus approaches Jesus with absolute confidence that by laying his hands on his daughter, Jesus will save her from death. Most notable about both of them is the fact that neither hesitates or hedges. Neither says, “If you can,” or “If he will,” or gives any other expression that would serve to prepare prepare them to be disappointed if Jesus refuses or somehow fails to save.

Jan 12 2025

A Season of Generosity

It might seem to be a funny time to be talking about death. Right now, much of the northern temperate region is in full flower: roses are blooming, peach trees are setting fruit, and rivers are flowing. Thinking about death belongs to those dark and gloomy days in mid-January when it is so dreary.

But Jesus talks about losing our lives. And it is June: bright, happy, generous June. How are we to make sense of that paradox? Losing life, when we are surrounded by so much life?

Perhaps, though, life is made up of small deaths. To die to self, to make ourselves do what we don’t really want to do, actually seems easier in June. It is an almost playfully die-to-self time, time to take the hand of a child and go look at the grasshoppers when you know that the guests are about to pull into the driveway and the dishes are not washed; time to call an elderly friend when it will use up an hour of your life; time to say yes to an adult son or daughter even when it may cost a lot.

June is the time to strive for the greater, the more expansive, the honorable. The way that we choose to live is the way that we will die—with our hands wide open or with our fists tightly closed. Jesus’ call to generosity, to give ourselves away, can blossom because of the buoyancy breaking all around us. How can we not be more conscientious today when the bees are working so hard to make honey? Give a cup of water to a little one? Certainly. Take up the cross, Jesus? Surely. Die to sin, St. Paul? Indubitably. It is June. Lord, your glory and your grace are here. We can do that!

Consider/Discuss

God’s bounty is all around us. What can we do today to be more generous?
When was the last time that you looked at the grasshoppers? The clouds? The birds in a tree? Take a moment and do something “unimportant” with someone you love.

Living and Praying with the Word

Creator God, sometimes we forget how buoyant your salvation is. Grace us today with time to savor all that you have given us. Sometimes we walk on by something that is so beautiful. Thank you for the stars. Thank you for babies’ toenails. Thank you for the smile on my friend’s face. Thank you, most of all, for being our lavish God.