Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B 3rd October 2021.
Lectionary Readings: Genesis 2 v18-24; Psalm 8; Hebrews 1 v1-4, 2 v5-12; Mark 10 v2-16.
Bonds of love.
Jesus said, “I promise you that you cannot get into God’s kingdom unless you accept it the way a child does.” (Mark 10 v15).
Babies and young children (and adults?) are attracted to people who show love and affection towards them. Over time, a bond of trust develops, sustained by mutual expressions of love and affection, which leads to long-lasting relationships.
Jesus said, “People who are like these little children belong to the kingdom of God”. (Mark 10 v14b).
Jesus wanted his disciples to understand that the kingdom of God is founded on bonds of love.
We love because God loved us first. (1 John4 v19). We, like children, respond to the warmth of his love for us. Jesus taught that if we love God and love others, we would be obeying the two most important commandments of the Law. (see Matthew 22 v37-40.)
In his first letter, John speaks of love as the key to knowing God.
My dear friends, we must love each other. Love comes from God, and when we love each other it shows that we have been given new life. We are now God’s children, and we know him. God is love, and anyone who doesn’t love others has never known him. God showed his love for us when he sent his only Son into the world to give us life. Dear friends since God loved us this much, we must love each other. (1 John 4 v7-9,11.)
The writer of Hebrews underscores this message in today’s passage about our place in God’s family, as brothers and sisters of Jesus. Jesus and the people he makes holy all belong to the same family. That is why he isn’t ashamed to call them brothers and sisters. (Hebrews 2 v11).
The psalmist wonders why God cares for us when he compares the size of human beings to the visible universe. I often think of the heavens your hands have made, and the moon and stars you put in place. Then I ask, “Why do you care about us humans?” (Psalm 8 3,4a).
The writer of Genesis suggests that God cares because we are loving made in God’s image, a part of God’s creation. We are beloved, trusted to be stewards of His creation and encouraged to nurture love in and for all creation. In so doing, we partner God in creating the right conditions so that all may thrive and reach their potential within God’s plan for our common good.
Alan Gaunt speaks of the nature and mystery of God in this hymn:
(Singing the Faith, hymn No 3).
Eternal God, your love’s tremendous glory cascades through life in overflowing grace,
to tell creation’s meaning in the story of love evolving love from time and space.
Eternal Son of God, uniquely precious, in you, deserted, scorned and crucified,
God’s love has fathomed sin and death’s deep darkness, and flawed humanity is glorified.
Eternal Spirit, with us like a mother, embracing us in love serene and pure:
you nurture strength to follow Christ our brother, as full-grown children, confident and sure.
Love’s trinity, self perfect, self sustaining; love which commands, enables and obeys:
you give yourself, in boundless joy, creating one vast increasing harmony of praise.
We ask now, complete your image in us; this love of yours, our source and guide and goal.
May love in us, seek love and serve love’s purpose, till we ascend with Christ and find love whole.
Bible quotations are taken from the Contemporary English Version.