Matthew 18:14 - So, it is not the will of your father in heaven that even one of these little ones should perish.
And here we are reminded that Jesus is still holding a child in front of them. The arms and the feet and the eyes represent the many ways we hurt children, women, people of color, homeless people, immigrants. These people are just as necessary to the body of Christ as they are to our society! We need them or we will burn in the (metaphorical) fires of Gehenna.
The sheep represent them in a different way. God, our father rejoices over all her sheep. Every last one. Most especially when they have been found. When we remember to support them and fight for and with them for their rights to be treated as people. We are the sheep when we remember to turn away from pride and gluttony, from lust and jealousy, from envy and sloth. When we remember to turn to God who in turn, turns us toward his less fortunate sheep.
My prayer is that I will always be turning to God's less fortunate sheep through his love and mercy.
B
Monday, February 27, 2017
Saturday, February 18, 2017
Searching
Matthew 18:13 - And if he finds it, truly, I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine who never went astray.
Several things strike me here. God is always searching for the lost, which is all of us at one time or another. Yet, God is also always rejoicing over those found. In a continual cycle of rejoicing, searching, rejoicing. God loves us so much that She is always searching for us - for we are all lost in some way. Searching, challenging, comforting, pushing, loving, feeding, guiding, and rejoicing in us and with us.
In this time, joy has become a necessity rather than a sometime event. We need to find joy to give us the energy to fight and resist.
B
Several things strike me here. God is always searching for the lost, which is all of us at one time or another. Yet, God is also always rejoicing over those found. In a continual cycle of rejoicing, searching, rejoicing. God loves us so much that She is always searching for us - for we are all lost in some way. Searching, challenging, comforting, pushing, loving, feeding, guiding, and rejoicing in us and with us.
In this time, joy has become a necessity rather than a sometime event. We need to find joy to give us the energy to fight and resist.
B
Monday, February 6, 2017
The Lost Sheep
Matthew 18:12 - What do you think? If a person has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does that person not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that was lost?
God will risk it all to save even one. That seems counter intuitive to me. Yet, this question shows how important sheep were to the shepherds and by analogy how important we are, or how important children are, the vulnerable ones of society to God. God wants us to risk losing the life, friends and family we have to search for those whom God loves and society has cast away. That is not an easy or insignificant thing to do. It takes God's gifts of courage and grace. Let us pray for those today.
B
God will risk it all to save even one. That seems counter intuitive to me. Yet, this question shows how important sheep were to the shepherds and by analogy how important we are, or how important children are, the vulnerable ones of society to God. God wants us to risk losing the life, friends and family we have to search for those whom God loves and society has cast away. That is not an easy or insignificant thing to do. It takes God's gifts of courage and grace. Let us pray for those today.
B
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