Ordinary Time

Pause

Vocation is, you could say, what’s left when all the games have stopped. It’s that elusive residue that we are here to discover, and to help one another discover.

Rowan Williams in A Ray of Darkness: Sermons and Reflections (1995)

Listen

But as it is, God has placed each one of the parts in the body just like he wanted. If all were one and the same body part, what would happen to the body? But as it is, there are many parts but one body. So the eye can’t say to the hand, “I don’t need you,” or in turn, the head can’t say to the feet, “I don’t need you.” Instead, the parts of the body that people think are the weakest are the most necessary.

1 Corinthians 12:18-22

Think

When it came time to join the marching band at the end of our freshman year of high school, all of my friends signed up. I, however, had stopped playing the clarinet after the eighth grade. When I thought about the fun all of my friends would be sharing during rehearsals and parades, I started to feel sad and lonely. I then noticed an empty slot on the sign-up sheet: honor guard. Although I could not join the marching band as a player, I could join as a flag-carrier. While my friends tooted their horns and beat their drums, I carried the country’s flag at the front of the band.

It’s easy to think playing a trumpet or a snare drum would be more important in a marching band, but we would not have been able to march in parades without the flag leading us. The Reign of God is like a marching band: many instruments, many roles, many people. Some play an instrument, others carry a flag. Each have a unique and important role.

Columba Maynus

Pray

God, you’ve given me gifts to use for the upbuilding of your Reign. Inspire me to use my gifts, alongside others, to work for justice, peace, and unity among all people. Amen.

Go

Go, a disciple, called and sent.

Go, a disciple, equipped for justice.

Go, a disciple blessed

in the strong name of God:

one holy and undivided Trinity.

Amen.