Scripture Reflections for the Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Year A, Lectionary 97
Are we welcoming God and people who carry God's Word? Can we see the divinity in people and offer our help as they continue on their journey and mission from God? It's not about being charitable to others with our money and resources but rather being hospitable to others because we see that they are God's children and bear God's image. In prioritizing God we can truly love and care for others.
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: Accepting • Baptism • Blessing • Clergy • Cross • Death • Disciple • Ego • Elisha • Eucharist • Faith • Family • Fear • Generosity • Good • Help • History • Holy • Hospitality • Jonah • Journey • Justice • Kingdom • Laity • Love • Mission • Priority • Prophet • Receive • Relationship • Reward • Serve • Share • Sight • Sin • St. Therese of Lisieux • Suffering • Union • Welcome • Worship •
“Baptism is that powerful because the Passion of Jesus was that powerful, right. Baptism is that filled with grace because the resurrection of Jesus was that filled with grace.”
“So he's demanding divine love, the kind of love that God alone can demand on the part of his disciples”
“Jesus did not say to those people 'don't love your mother, don't love your father, you shouldn't love your son or your daughter because if you love them then you don't love me'...'you need to learn to love as I love, you need to learn how to give that selfless sacrificial love that brings humanity together'”
“If we worship anything or anyone else apart from God we are guilty of idolatry. That includes placing something as sacred as our family ahead of God. So Jesus is saying that the call to discipleship is preeminent, it must come before every other commitment in our lives”
“to truly love God is to love self. The love for self then manifests in how we treat others. My love for God causes me and calls me to see my goodness and my worthiness...since I focus then on love I feel good about myself, and when I feel good about myself I can't help but share it. Evangelization.”
“It's about a realization that I'm part of an enormous communion that's held by the divine”
“Good people when they are being good easily forget about their own needs but the good thing about it is the more they forget their own needs the more other people remember their own needs”
“that is a scary thing to become a disciple, from the word 'discipline' meaning 'teachable.' And if we are to be a disciple, people of God, we have to be teachable.”
“the cross is a symbol of the hospitality of Jesus Christ”
“if we set aside the time...where we can be alone with God, I promise you if we make the time, God shows up. God always shows up. In fact God is waiting for us in places and spaces like that.”
“What does it take to receive others into our life? What does it take to receive God? What do we sometimes have to put aside? What are the fruits of hospitality and how is God reaching out to receive us?”
“is following Christ easy? No. So we need his help, right? So we have to be open to his help, we have to be intentional about that.”
“we must first learn to love, learn to see, learn to accept, learn to raise up all that God has placed before us”
“When we decide to prioritize our material possessions over the needs of the vulnerable we're not loving Jesus. The same is true when we choose not to help those in need or speak out for the downtrodden because we're afraid of rocking the boat or losing our social capital.”
“I don't know about your house but if you come once you're a guest, if you come twice or three times you're a frequent guest. But if you come more than three times you are a member of the family. St. Paul wants us to know that by our baptism we're members of God's family and that comes with some rights and responsibilities.”
“we tend to find more pleasure in finding faults and in broadcasting what we see as failures on the part of the servants of God than we do in investing spiritually and material in the ministries of the servants of God”
“every time we come into contact with one another, every time we talk with the Word of God with one another that's the cup of cold water right there”
"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