Scripture Reflections for the Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time
Year A, Lectionary 121
God's judgment and decisions are inscrutable. God allows us to be stewards and have positions of power but we must continuously be grateful and understand where those privileges and gifts come from. As long as we recognize God, God's glory, and God's grace bestowed upon us we can be faithful servants administering God's work in this world. Yet, in moving away from God we will fall and fail in our ministries by abusing our positions and no longer serving God but ourselves.
Hate feeling lost on Sundays at church? Searching for a better explanation of the Bible than what you hear from your pastor's sermon? Check out the following collection of audio, video, and text commentaries from various Christian experts for a better understanding of today's scripture that deal with: Authority • Caesarea Philippi • Call • Choice • Church • Divine • Evangelize • Experience • Faith • Freedom • Grace • Hell • Hesed • History • Humility • Identity • Inscrutable • Key • Keys • Messiah • Ministry • Mystery • Peter • Pope • Power • Relationship • Repent • Resurrection • Revelation • Rock • Shebna • Sin • St. Augustine • St. Monica • St. Teresa of Calcutta • Steward • Transformation • Trust • Understand • Worry • Worship •
“So all created things have their source, their origin in God and that's why he's inscrutable, that's why his judgments are unsearchable. That's why there's a transcendent element to God that we can never fully comprehend.”
“They want to have an experience of Jesus, the one we claim to know, the one we claim to believe in...For if the world does not know Jesus it is my fault and if you are baptized and you're listening to me now it is your fault. The world wants to experience Jesus in us.”
“we never give up on Christ's power to redeem us, to forgive us. We never give up on his mercy and on his love and so the gates of hell cannot prevail against us.”
“We don't always feel ready for what we're being called to but that's not ours to worry about. I can just picture Jesus looking right into Peter's eyes and saying you are enough Peter because you are mine. All we need to do is take that courageous first step into his grace trusting who he is.”
“This gospel therefore gives us room to recognize and celebrate other disciples past and present who are authorities in faith for us. They may not be in positions of authority...but they are individuals whose lives accurately attest to Jesus as the Christ, Son of the living God.”
“if the definition of god, with a small 'g', is that which we dedicate our whole lives to, do we always make that choice every day of our lives?...If a god is the very thing that we dedicate our lives to is that where our attention is always drawn?”
“Jesus was teaching Peter that the true way of authority is not exercising power over others but giving of oneself so that others may flourish”
“How many times in our lives has Jesus given us an opportunity to not only say who we think he is but to show the world who we really believe he is?”
“It is not enough to get it right, it is important to know the source of your getting it right. It is also important to be sure that you remain connected to the source of your getting it right. So when you are successful know where your success comes from and remain connected to that source.”
“The glory and power of this messiah will be manifested not through military might but through the cross”
“This is something established by Jesus himself on Peter as the foundation stone of his church and it reveals to us that the papacy, far from being a medieval invention, is something that is thoroughly rooted in Judaism and thoroughly rooted in the will and the intention of Jesus himself”
“when you and I become entrenched by lots of other things, it's not that other things are bad but we have to have the discernment to be able to figure out what other things transform us and what other things enslave us”
“are we going to use the gifts we have received, the power that we have to either build a monument to ourselves or to bring people into the kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ”
“Who is Jesus to you? Is he the one you go to and then if he doesn't answer you in a microwave minute you get mad at him? Is Jesus the one who you set a little time aside on Sunday morning and then the rest of the Lord's day is your day? Or is Jesus the center of your life? Is he your joy?”
"we're not immune to tragic events or to illness or to anything. We just have a different, I guess, we just have a different way of approaching it and that's through the lens of faith."
In the latest episode of the 1 Christian 1 Topic Podcast "Faith Amidst Tragedy," we have a conversation with Liz on faith, suffering, and prayer. More