21st Sunday in ordinary Time Year A 23rd August 2020
Lectionary Readings:
Isaiah 51 v1-6 The Lord will bring comfort
Romans 12 v1-8 Christ brings new life
Matthew 16 v13-20 Who is Jesus?
The Invisible Mentor
The person of God not mentioned explicitly in today’s readings is the Holy Spirit.
Jesus implies that the Holy Spirit is at work in the mind of Simon Peter, when Peter identifies Jesus as ‘the Messiah, the Son of the Living God’. Jesus says “Simon, you did not discover this on your own. It was shown to you by my Father in heaven”.
Paul urges us to ‘let God change the way you think. Then you will know how to do everything that is good and pleasing to him.’
Isaiah prophecies that ‘God’s teaching will cause justice to shine like a light for every nation’.
All three passages can be linked to the promise that Jesus made to his disciples as recorded in John 14 v26. ‘The Holy Spirit will come and help you, because the Father will send the Spirit to take my place. The Spirit will teach you everything and will remind you of what I have said while I was with you.’
In the letter of James, (Chapter 3 v 17), he writes; ‘Wisdom that comes from above leads us to be pure, friendly, gentle, sensible, kind helpful, genuine and sincere.’
Paul talks of these qualities as gifts of the Spirit. (1 Corinthians 12 v4 and Galatians 5 v22)
He says that ‘the Spirit has given us life, so we should follow the Spirit’ (Gal 5 v25)
Questions
- Are you willing to let God help you with your thinking, and your decision making?
- Are you willing to listen to the prompting of the Holy Spirit?
- Are you willing to let your actions and speech be guided by the Holy Spirit?
- Are you willing to think of the Holy Spirit as Jesus’ gift to you, in the form of a mentor?
- Have you ever considered yourself as ‘a chip off the old block’? (see Isaiah 51 v1!)
Bible quotations are taken from the Contemporary English Version.
Thanks to Mike Peck for submitting these reflections