Scripture Reflections for the Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Year B, Lectionary 95
We recognize the storm in our lives but do we recognize God with us? We are certain of the danger and fears of our lives but how certain are we of Jesus, Son of God, who offers us peace? Like Job we may focus on the evil surrounding us and try to make sense of it but all we need to do is focus on God's power, might and love that is present in the world. And when we realize that God is Lord over everything we too can rest with Jesus through the storms.
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: Baptism • Boat • Calm • Chaos • Church • Control • Creation • Disaster • Divinity • Environment • Faith • Fear • Grace • Hope • Identity • Job • Peace • Prayer • Question • Refugees • Rest • Revelation • Sea • Ship • Storm • Suffering • Trust • Wake • Water • Worry •
“Do we think of our lives as lives in Christ, living in between two worlds, or do we tend to think of ourselves and make our decisions as if this world was our home or, or our ultimate destiny?”
“His interest was not mainly about what his followers would know but his interest was more about who his followers would become”
“Because sometimes the only prayer that we can pray is to listen”
“The problem for the disciples was not the storm, the problem is that they did not have the faith to believe that God would get them through the storm”
“It has to be the love of Christ that forces us, that pushes us, that drives us to do and to be who and what we are called to do and be”
“Jesus perhaps is sleeping on a cushion in order to tell you and me to relax, that everything is okay. We don't have to panic, that everything's going to be okay even in the midst of the storm.”
“There are storms, that's called life, but today's readings are all about how Christ is deeply present in our storms no matter what”
“Such a faith does not mean certainty, it means the courage to live with uncertainty”
“God is with us, we are held through crisis, through chaos, through suffering and through all we do not understand”
“God is always in the blessing business, God is always in the change business, God is always doing something new in our life”
“Jesus put you in the boat and if he put you in the boat he's going to make sure you get to the other side”
“Indeed we know Jesus has been with us all throughout but when you're so caught up and focusing on the storm you miss what Christ is doing in our midst”
“In the depth of their suffering the refugees...hope not only in the mercy and in the compassion and saving help of God Almighty, they also hope in the compassion and in the saving help of their fellow human beings”
“It is in troubles, it is in problems that we come to discover God, that we come to realize the role that God is playing in our lives”
“these are not coincidences, they clearly manifest the fact that Jesus through his actions and his words is revealing himself to be the Lord come as man...He does things in the New Testament that God does in the Old Testament.”
"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