Sunday, October 15, 2023

Twenty-Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time

The Revised Common Lectionary passages for the Lord’s Day are:
– First Reading: Exodus 32:1-14
– Psalm 106:1-6, 19-23
– Second Reading: Philippians 4:1-9
– Gospel Reading: Matthew 22:1-14

The liturgical color for the day is: Green

The calf was not so much a replacement for God as it was a means of making God be what they wanted.  They wanted a God who was accessible.  They wanted a God who was at hand.  They wanted a God who was in their view—they wanted a God where you could see God’s edges and form and shape.

They panicked in the silence.  They panicked because “meanwhile” as they were waiting, they could not handle the “in the meantime.”  It unhinged them from the whole of God.  In trying to grasp God, they lost the faith to which God had called them.

We live in the meantime.  We live in the silence.  We live in the wilderness.  We live in this in between, and this already, but not yet.  This is liminal space.  We live in the meantime.  And what we do in the meantime matters.  What we do in the silence matters.

Will we, like they, convinced that God has abandoned us try to construct our own view of reality?  Will we, as they should have done, trust?  Will we?  Will we trust when confronted with the great silence?  Will we trust in the meantime?

It is clear.  When we improvise, and when we go it alone—we become limited by our limited view.  Will we trust in our limited view, or will we trust in the God who is behind the silence?  In the meantime, will we trust?

—

Rev. Dr. Daris Bultena
General Presbyter and Stated Clerk