Sunday, September 27, 2020

26th Sunday in Ordinary Time

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

First Reading: Exodus 17:1-7
Psalm 78:1-4, 12-16
Second Reading: Philippians 2:1-13
Gospel Reading: Matthew 21:23-32

The liturgical color for the day is: Green

Exodus 17 – to place ourselves in the narrative, we are Moses in this grand old story.  Collectively that is who we are: Moses.  Together God has given us this task of delivering this people to the Promised Land.  Oh Moses, you and I, we better hear it—God has a plan; God has a way.  Right here in the middle of COVID-19, everything in flux, and no clue about what the future holds for congregations: God has a plan for us.

What is that plan?  It is right in the text. What is the instruction? GO ON AHEAD!  Go on ahead.

Just at that very moment when we, oh Moses, just at that very moment when we are anxious and fearful—it is into that moment that God sends us on ahead.  Where the world says stop—God says go!

So that is the first instruction for our leadership towards the Promised Land.  Get that, leadership—we are called to lead others to the Promised Land.  Just at that very time when we tend to hold back and not want to move forward—God calls us forward leading us forward in spite of our level of fear and anxiety.

You best not think God is only calling you take care of your own business—God is calling you to lead others to the Promised Land of belief and life in Christ—it may be people in your own family that God is calling you to.  The reality of it is God is calling you.

Do not hang back thinking that someone else will do it—you are called, appointed, and ordained in your baptism to be the one.  And your anxieties and fears had better not hold you back because God is clear here with the instruction: Go on ahead! 

I hear people encourage others these days with the simple words, “You got this.”  And you do, because God’s got us!  Go on ahead.

Rev. Dr. Daris Bultena
General Presbyter and Stated Clerk