11th Sunday in Ordinary Time. 14.6.20
Lectionary Readings:
Exodus 19 v2-8a. Moses at Mount Sinai.
Romans 5 v1-8 A new life for God’s people.
Matthew 9 v35 – 10 v8 Jesus has pity on people.
Are you part of the problem or part of the solution?
That is the underlying question I think is being posed by Jesus to his disciples in the gospel reading.
Jesus looks upon the crowds with pity; seeing them as being in desperate need of good leadership, “sheep without a shepherd”, (Matthew 9 v36). He also sees them as a ‘large crop waiting to be harvested, but the workers are few’, he laments. He advises his disciples “to ask the Lord in charge to send out workers to bring it in”. (v37).
But Jesus knows that God has already supplied the answer to such a request, as we read in the passage from Exodus. “If you will faithfully obey me, you will be my very own people….. you will be my holy nation and serve me as priests. (v5-6).
Centuries later, on our side of Easter, Peter picks up on this theme in his first letter (1 Peter 2 v5).
“You are God’s chosen and special people. You are a group of royal priests and a holy nation. God has brought you out of darkness into his marvellous light. Now you must tell of all the wonderful things that he has done”.
Peter encourages his readers (Christians facing persecution) to believe in the promises of God contained in the ancient scriptures they have inherited as followers of Jesus. To believe that they are indeed God’s chosen people, called to be a means of blessing; to be a part of the answer to their own prayers for the welfare of others, including those who persecute them. Peter is convinced that by doing so they will strengthen their faith.
In the passage from Romans, Paul, writing from bitter experience, reinforces this point as he writes about ‘A new life for God’s people’. A life that despite any amount of suffering, is worth persevering with, for as he says “suffering helps us endure, endurance builds character, which gives us a hope that will never disappoint us. All this happens because God has given us the Holy Spirit who fills our hearts with love”. (Romans 5 v3-5).
Our character, (the sum of all the qualities which make up our personality) is being re-fashioned, in a good way, by the work of the Holy Spirit working within and through us.
If you ask the Lord to send in workers to help with the harvest, God is likely to gently remind you that he has equipped you (with his Holy Spirit) to be a part of his solution for the world’s ills, and an answer to your own prayer.
Bible quotations are taken from the Contemporary English Version.
Thanks to Mike Peck for submitting these reflections