Sunday, August 25, 2019

21^st Sunday in Ordinary Time/Proper 16/11^th Sunday after Pentecost

First Reading: Jeremiah 1:4-10
Psalm 71:1-6
Second Reading: Hebrews 12:18-29
Gospel Reading: Luke 13:10-17

The liturgical color for the day is: Green

We have a limited view of ourselves.  We hang on to that fear that God is not nearer than the next breath.  We hang on to our isolation.  But God says, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you.”

Jeremiah had to step up and step out.  Jesus stepped up and stepped out.  Jesus stepped into the reign of God when he did not wait for the right day.  Jesus stepped into the reign of God when he did not wait for the woman to ask for help.        

Jesus saw the woman.  Jesus helped her.  Jesus stepped out of the old norms and expectations and stepped into the reign of God where the world was repaired in the healing of the woman.  It was the new possibility and not the old limitation that God brought about in Christ.

It is the way of the cross.  The limitations of the world do not count—it is not the limitations of the world that have the last word.  That last word become the first word in God’s raising up new life from the limitations of the world.  We are that new life in the world.  We are that possibility and through us we can have confidence that God goes before us and God’s word will come through.

God is with us.  In our baptism we have been called, appointed, and consecrated.  We have been set apart and God is with us—before we were formed God was already with us.  When we live into that we are becoming the disciples God calls us to be.

Rev. Dr. Daris Bultena
PTF General Presbyter