Ordinary Time

Pause

Hear what Jesus says:

Love God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great law.

And the second is similar: Love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.

Listen

But even beyond that, I consider everything a loss in comparison with the superior value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. I have lost everything for him, but what I lost I think of as sewer trash, so that I might gain Christ and be found in him. In Christ I have a righteousness that is not my own and that does not come from the Law but rather from the faithfulness of Christ. It is the righteousness of God that is based on faith. The righteousness that I have comes from knowing Christ, the power of his resurrection, and the participation in his sufferings. It includes being conformed to his death so that I may perhaps reach the goal of the resurrection of the dead.

Philippians 3:8-11

Think

Paul was in your face and edgy. He called out people on their bad behavior that hurt others in the church. He didn’t have much patience for sugar-coating hard news. He used profanity in his letters (although we edit it in our modern translations). He spent a great deal of time in prison.

Paul shares in this letter that he once believed certain things about how to be faithful to God. And now, after hearing the message of Jesus, he counts some of those beliefs as sewer trash (one of those translations to a nicer word).

Paul is a wonderful example of how, as disciples, we are all called to recognize we do not have all the answers. Some things we believe now are wrong. All truth, as Paul might say, is partial. As we live, as we engage with Jesus and other people, we encounter new things. We learn, and we grow. Our growth in Christ will mean we will look back on our choices and beliefs and see some of them were wrong.

Laurie Brock

Pray

Sustain me, O Lord, in your Holy Spirit. Give me courage to discern my beliefs and to be open to other aspects of your truth. Correct my beliefs that are wrong. Affirm my faith when I am aligned with your perfect love, and grant me wisdom to follow your teaching into new insights as I continue my life of faith. Amen.

Go

We are Christ’s presence of love in the world.

How will you share this love with those you meet today in what you think, in what you say, and in what you do?