2008 22nd Sunday August 31
1- God is so enticing we cannot help yielding to him; his Word is so powerful in those who receive it in faith that it burns within them like a fire. (First reading – Jeremiah 20:7-9)
2- Once we have sought God and truly found him we burst forth into joyful praise. (Psalm 63) and we offer our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God. (Second reading – Romans 12:1-2) We will pick up our cross of putting aside our ambitions and plans and we take on the plan of God. (Matthew 16:21-27)
3- We need to examine our idea of what Jesus should be in our lives and what we think he should do in and for us. Are we so focused on an earthly conqueror image of Jesus or have we grasped the revelation of him as Suffering Servant who offered himself out of love for all?
4- Are we disciples of Jesus following and obeying out of love and commitment to him? Or, are we mere servants acting as though we could earn anything from him? Are we in grace or are we still labouring under the law?
Don’t compare; don’t compete
In the early days of the recent Olympics our Canadian athletes were criticized because they had not yet won any medals. What many of the critics forgot was that our athletes had broken well over 30 Canadian records and many had achieved personal best performances. By the end of the Olympics Canadian athletes had won 6 more medals than in the last Olympics four years ago, and 8 more medals than those of eight years ago. This is a reminder that we should not compare our Christian walk with that of anyone else; nor should we compete with one another. We are responsible to Jesus for one thing: to seek him and his will for us and then to commit ourselves to do our personal best with the help of the Holy Spirit as our guide and our ‘trainer.’ If we compare we will tend either to look down on others or on ourselves. That will lead either to pride or depression, ambition and aggressive behaviour even in ‘ministry.’ If we compete with our fellow Christians rather than encourage them and uplift them, we harm the Body of Christ.
Jesus is our standard. He did not look to others for his self worth or for their affirmation. Jesus went directly to the Father and depended on his time with the Father to inform and empower his life and his activities. “I say what I hear from the Father.” “I only do what I see the Father doing.” “I always do what pleases the Father.” Who are you looking to for direction and affirmation? A good spiritual director can help us grow in our life in Christ, but ultimately we each need to hear from God whether through a spiritual director or directly in quality time spent with God in prayer and in the Word of God. Come to God so he may reveal his will for you; faith begins where the will of God is known.
1. God is attractive and enticing
God in his holiness, majesty, power, goodness, mercy and compassion is so enticing. To truly know him is to love him and to want more of him. Once you have come to experience his presence and his marvelous love for you personally, you will never be the same. Once you have this experience of God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – you will be transformed and you will want more of him and will want to please him in all that you do. The Lord will cease being merely one of the things in your life; he will become the focus of your life – truly the alpha and omega, the first and the last and everything in between. Seek him and you will find him; seek him with all your heart and he will let you find him already with you.
Jeremiah had this experience and went forth proclaiming the word God gave him to deliver to the people. The Word of God did not make Jeremiah popular with the rulers, nor with the people. So great was the opposition that at one point Jeremiah determined not to prophesy any more. However, Jeremiah could not deny the presence of God in his life nor the authenticity of the message God gave him to proclaim. So, whether the message was popular or not, Jeremiah was so deeply enticed by the Lord God that he had to proclaim the message, so powerfully it burned within him.
Beloved, God waits lovingly for you! God longs to reveal himself to you as he really is, not some mere image we may have of him. “Be still and know that I am God” is his message to you. Know me as I AM, and know who you are in me.
2. Discovering God leads to joyful praise and worship and loving service
We are each invited to discover God as he really is and to discover his love for us, and, all he has done for us and provided for us in Jesus Christ. We are invited to discover his overflowing love for us personally, a love that gives us immense worth in his eyes. That discovery is meant for us to have a good healthy self-esteem: if God loves me that much I must be worth much. We do not base our worth on anything we may have done but on God himself and what he has done for us in Jesus Christ. Our confidence is in him, not in ourselves. Jesus did it all; now we can freely receive from his bounteous grace and goodness. As we put ourselves in his hands, bit by bit, we will be transformed as the Holy Spirit, through the Word of God, renews our minds. Our life is a gift from God; what we do with our lives is our gift to God. Speak this truth to yourself: “I have a Father in heaven. He knows my name. He loves me. He cares for me. I am safe in his hands, in the shadow of his holy presence. He has a plan for my life, a plan for a future full of hope. He has given me his Holy Spirit to teach me and guide me. God loves me!”
In that revelation let your heart overflow in thanksgiving, in praise and in worship, in rejoicing and exultation. Alleluia!
3. Examine yourself and your ideas about Jesus
We need to examine our idea of what Jesus should be in our lives and what we think he should do in and for us. Are we so focused on an earthly conqueror image of Jesus or have we grasped the revelation of him as Suffering Servant who offered himself out of love for all? 1 Timothy 2:5-6 reminds us: “For there is one God; there is also one mediator between God and humankind, Christ Jesus, himself human, who gave himself a ransom for all--this was attested at the right time.”
4. Freely committed disciples or half-hearted servants?
Are we disciples of Jesus following and obeying out of love and commitment to him? Or, are we mere servants acting as though we could earn anything from him? Are we in grace or are we still labouring under the law? Have we accepted by faith the salvation the Father has provided for us in Jesus or are we still trying to earn his approval? Have you had the revelation of Col 1:12: “giving thanks to the Father, who has made you worthy to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light.” Are the words in the canticle of Zechariah burning within you? “He promised to show mercy to our fathers (and by extension to us, to me) and to remember his holy covenant. This was the oath he swore to our father Abraham (and by extension to us, to me): to set us free from the hands of our enemies, free to worship him without fear (without fear of Him, without fear of others who might oppose us, and without fear that he might find us unworthy), holy and righteous in his sight all the days of our life.”
God is merciful and faithful to all who come to him in faith. You and I can’t earn his approval but by faith we can receive it through Jesus Christ our Lord. He has redeemed us. We owe everything to him and thus should freely and lovingly offer ourselves to him as a living sacrifice acceptable and pleasing in his sight. What a gift he has given us!
To conclude: don’t compare and don’t compete. Look to Jesus as your standard and example. Seek wholeheartedly after God and let God entice you with his attractive transforming love and merciful grace. Let that personal revelation of his love for you draw you more and more deeply into his very being and let his Word take deep root within you and burn within you as a fire of truth that you must spread to others. With the help of the Holy Spirit become transformed by the renewing of your mind. Let the mind of Christ be in you, not the mind of the world so that you may discern and do what is the will of God – what is good and acceptable and perfect. Go in the grace and love of God. He is with you; live conscious of his abiding presence with you and in you. He is Emmanuel, God with you.
Jesus is Lord.
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Jeremiah 20,7-9
