Ordinary Time

Pause

God wants to be known. Across the ages since the beginning of creation, God has wanted to be made known in a real and personal way among humankind. Still today with us, God wants to be known.

In God’s great bigness and mighty justice, in swift glimpses we catch of Divine glory on display, in the life and witness of a community living their faith out loud, and in spite of all efforts to suppress the reality of God, God is made known.

How are you allowing God to be made known in your life today?

Listen

Then the Pharisees went and plotted to entrap him in what he said. So they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that you are sincere, and teach the way of God in accordance with truth, and show deference to no one; for you do not regard people with partiality. Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?”

Matthew 22:15-17

Think

God becoming known can have obstacles. Some people don’t want God to be made known.

Jesus walked this earth proclaiming that the Kingdom of God is at hand. With this message, he met great resistance. Of all people, the religious leaders of the day sought to destroy his message. This passage is a prime example of how the Pharisees tried to stop God being made known.

This “entrapment” of Jesus was a plotted event. The Pharisees devised the scheme. Surely Jesus wouldn’t put the emperor above God! But would he rank the emperor second and risk the safety of people to the emperor’s response?

God becoming known will always meet resistance. As befuddling as this may sound, the source of true love and grace is not always wanted. Why? Because God becoming known requires us to align ourselves to the character of God that we find in Psalm 99 – qualities of justice, equity, and righteousness.

Jamie Mackey

Pray

Lord, help me to choose your ways this day. Not my personal agenda, but your way of life. Amen.

Go

Go in the presence of God.

Go in the fullness of God.

Go in the reality of God.

Go in the love, grace, mercy, and truth of God.

Go with God made known in your life.