Ordinary Time

Pause

Sabbath \ SA – bihth \ noun

A special day of resting that we think we’re bigger than, even though God is not.

from Crazy Talk: A Not-So-Stuffy Dictionary of Theological Terms (2008)

Listen

Looking around at them with anger, deeply grieved at their unyielding hearts, he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” So he did, and his hand was made healthy. At that, the Pharisees got together with the supporters of Herod to plan how to destroy Jesus.

Mark 3:5-6

Think

Just a couple of generations after the life and ministry of Jesus, an early Christ follower named Irenaeus said: “The glory of God is a human being fully alive.” I’ve often been struck by the beauty of this quote, particularly in the context of today’s scripture. Jesus chose to help this hurting, broken, unnamed man to be fully alive by healing him. The response of the Pharisees was to conspire to use Jesus’ loving work to bring him down.

How often do we fail to see the beauty in life and focus instead on our own manipulation of events to our own benefit? Jesus chose to celebrate the glory of God by helping someone to be more fully alive. What’s not to love about that? How can we go and do likewise?

Tony Vincent

Pray

God of life, you call me to an abundant, full life of grace. Use times of Sabbath for your purposes, not simply my own. Help me to spread the grace that I have received to help others live fully and glorify you. Amen.

Go

Words of life, words of hope
give us strength, help us cope;
in this world where’er we roam
God’s ancient words will guide us home.

from “Ancient Words” by Lynn Deshazo (2001)