Gospel Reading for Sunday of Proper 9: Year C
“Nevertheless, do not rejoice at this, that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” (Luke 10: 20)
Before we get to the above quote, Jesus says twice for them to eat whatever they are served and to not go from house to house, and whether they are welcomed or not, to let them know that the kingdom of heaven has come near. Jesus wants us to be fully with the people that receive us. Jesus wants us to fully be with them in their homes and at their tables. And if this can’t be, let them know still, that it does not stop the oncoming of the kingdom of heaven.
This kingdom of heaven is the new place of our citizenship and where we belong if we love the Lord and follow in God’s Ways. This is where our Christened names are filed. We should rejoice that our names are on the rolls of heaven. I don’t think it means that we got everything right, but whatever is amiss in us will be straightened out when we get there.
This is still our Independence Day extended Weekend. We celebrate our temporal citizenship as Americans who are free to govern ourselves by majority rule as made manifest by the vote. Scripture informs us that the majority does not always get it right. The majority wanted Aaron to make a idol calf to worship for the people in the wilderness (Exodus 32:1 – 6). Likewise, it was the majority of the people in Jerusalem who insisted that Jesus be condemned to death (John 18:35). We have much to be thankful for as Americans. Our Independence freed us from the tyranny of a monarch so that we could start our own self-governance. However, even in that governance, not all were treated as equals. We are getting better. We are evolving. Over time we are truly becoming more Christ-like even given that we were not founded as A Christian nation, but rather an independent nation.
America, I believe, is that city shining on a hill as stated by our former President Ronald Reagan. We are a light to the nations. When we lift our voice to God in prayer, we can’t know how God will respond. We only know that God “will” respond. Like Naaman of 2nd Kings 5 for today, we must listen and obey God’s leadership and let go of our own preconceived ideas about how God should respond to us. We must live into what it means to be the “land of the free and the home of the brave.”
When doing all the good that we can do, following the commands of Jesus, we will see amazing things, amazing transformations taking place in people. We will see Jesus at work in the people we take Jesus to, and see them transformed. And we will notice that evil begins to diminish like Satan falling from the heavens; the heavens where we will reside forever. It’s all part of God’s plan and it is truly marvelous in our eyes.
As we listen to what the Spirit of God is saying to us, let us live to love and to serve, and to teach others to love and to serve, while pondering anew what the Almighty can do. John
Let us Pray: (BCP p. 230)
O God, you have taught us to keep all your commandments by loving you and our neighbor: Grant us the grace of your Holy Spirit, that we may be devoted to you with our whole heart, and united to one another with pure affection; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
onewhoponders 