20^th Sunday in Ordinary Time | 10^th Sunday after Pentecost | Proper 15

The Revised Common Lectionary passages for the Lord’s Day are:

First Reading: Isaiah 5:1-7
Psalm 80:1-2, 8-10
Second Reading: Hebrews 11:29-12:2
Gospel Reading: Luke 12:49-56

The liturgical color for the day is: Green

To pay attention is to attend to our lives.  We attend to our lives by making decisions constantly about how things will work for us.  We don’t just get up in the morning and wait and see what comes along.

Living faithfully involves making deliberate decisions.  It involves our putting our whole selves into it.  We cannot make deliberate decisions by just letting life happen.  The Jesus of Luke’s Gospel is a Jesus that demands we attend to really being a player in determining how we will live.

Hard decisions are always part of the Christ-like life.  We will be called to make hard decisions over and over again.  It won’t be that we make one today and we’re good to go for a year or two.  We are called to make hard decisions over and over again this week!

Will we go along with the crowd?  Will we speak up when see injustice?  Will we just be quiet and stay in our corner thinking that no one will notice, or at least not notice this time? 

Making hard decisions is done daily.  Will we take the easy way out?  Will we go the hard way?  Will we live with integrity?  Will we do it even when no one is watching? 

God has expectations of us—Jesus does not let us off the hook of paying attention to those expectations.

—

Rev. Dr. Daris Bultena
Chief Imagination Officer
General Presbyter and Stated Clerk