Ordinary Time

Pause

Dear friends, let’s love each other, because love is from God, and everyone who loves is born from God and knows God.

1 John 4:7

You are beloved as a member of the family of God, just as you are.

Listen

People were bringing children to Jesus so that he would bless them. But the disciples scolded them. When Jesus saw this, he grew angry and said to them, “Allow the children to come to me. Don’t forbid them, because God’s kingdom belongs to people like these children.”

Mark 10:13-14

Think

I still remember being scolded for happily whistling ABBA tunes during class while learning my spelling words in 1st grade. Although I probably needed to be redirected so I didn’t disturb other learners, being scolded felt way harsh!

In today’s passage, the disciples, the closest students of Jesus, think they know better than Jesus himself and try to limit access for others to the fullness of God’s blessings. When people were actively bringing others to Jesus to share in his blessing, the disciples were not only trying to stop that but also were scolding people. Way harsh!

Yet Jesus spells it out for the disciples. Jesus celebrates (instead of scolds) that children were seeking to be close to him. The kingdom of God belongs to them too!

God continually makes God’s very self available to all, lavishly offering justice, mercy, and love.

What learning might we need to do in order to widen our embrace as God calls us to? How can we move from scolding to celebrating others as the family of God today?

Molly Logan

Pray

Loving God, spell it out for me today. Redirect me when I think I know better than you do. Forgive me when I’m too quick to scold others instead of admitting my own need to learn your ways more lovingly. Help me to use my gifts, be it whistling a tune or some other goofy talent you bless me with, to welcome others to your embrace and blessings in joy today. Amen.

Go

This is love: it is not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son as the sacrifice that deals with our sins.

Dear friends, if God loved us this way, we also ought to love each other.

1 John 4:10-11

As a beloved member of the family of God, choose to be that love to our world today.