Sunday, October 10, 2021 – 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time

The Revised Common Lectionary passages for the Lord’s Day are:
– First Reading: Job 23:1-9, 16-17
– Psalm 22:1-15
– Second Reading: Hebrews 4:12-16
– Gospel Reading: Mark 10:17-31

The liturgical color for the day is: Green

I knew of her poverty.  Others had clued me in—I needed no clues.  She always said to me, “Tom”—eventually I just gave in and let her call me Tom.  “Tom, you did not get your due.  It is not until the 3rd.”  The 3rd would have been when her next Social Security check came.  Almost every Sunday, she said it: “Don’t you worry now, you’ll get it.  You’ll get your due, Tom.”  After she was swept into the great eternal Church, we learned that she left a sizable estate to the church.  Such was what she meant when she said, “You’ll get your due, Tom.”

*

That young man that walked away from the Lord.  Jesus looked on him and loved him.  He loved him enough to invite him to see the reign of God as beyond all the accumulation of his life.  He loved him enough to invite him to step forward in such a way that he would follow Jesus.  But the man did not have it in him.

It is the question: Do we have it in us to follow?  And as we consider that we see in Job and Jesus that God can be trusted.

Our orientation is to be on the faithfulness of God that pulls us beyond our “many possessions” and frees us to follow where Christ leads.  When we free ourselves of all that which keeps us from following Jesus, well then, Tom, we have our due.

Go. Sell. Give. Follow.  Then, Tom, we have our due.

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Rev. Dr. Daris Bultena
General Presbyter and Stated Clerk