{"id":1765,"date":"2016-01-31T12:16:02","date_gmt":"2016-01-31T17:16:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/?p=1765"},"modified":"2016-01-31T12:16:02","modified_gmt":"2016-01-31T17:16:02","slug":"4th-sunday-in-ordinary-time-year-c-homily","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/4th-sunday-in-ordinary-time-year-c-homily\/","title":{"rendered":"4th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C – Homily"},"content":{"rendered":"

4th<\/sup> Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C<\/a>
\nJeremiah 1:4-5, 17-19
\nPsalm 71:1-6, 15, 17
\n1 Corinthians 12:31-13:13
\nLuke 4:21-30
\nJanuary 31, 2016<\/p>\n

In the last two weeks, I have spoken about using what God has given us in time, talent, and treasure to help our church be all it is meant to be. This is good stewardship.<\/p>\n

I have talked about how we need to ask God to guide us in knowing how we are to use what we have been given.\u00a0 Why ask God?\u00a0 Because he is our creator.\u00a0 What does he say to Jeremiah?\u00a0 \u201cBefore I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I dedicated you.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n

God has known us even before<\/em> we were conceived in our mother\u2019s womb.\u00a0 God knows what talents we have.\u00a0 God knows how much time we have to contribute.\u00a0 God knows what treasure we have.\u00a0 God knows us better than we know ourselves.<\/p>\n

It is important to realize that, as Paul wrote in last week\u2019s second reading, we are all many parts making up one body.\u00a0 We each have a different role to play.\u00a0 What we can do is important.\u00a0 However, it is not the most important thing.\u00a0 As Paul writes, if we do not have love we are nothing.<\/p>\n

It is love that should be our motivator.\u00a0 In Jesus\u2019 days on Earth, people \u201cwere amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth.<\/em>\u201d\u00a0 We should be amazed.\u00a0 The words are to motivate us in God\u2019s way, the way of love.<\/p>\n

In part of hearing about stewardship the last two weeks, we have heard about our appeal to increase our Sunday collections from members of our Stewardship Committee and Finance Council.<\/p>\n

Today is the day we ask you to make a commitment about the treasure aspect of your giving for the coming year.\u00a0 Before we do that, I want to make what I feel is a very important distinction between giving and contributing.\u00a0 You could simply think about what you put in the collection each week as helping us to pay our bills.\u00a0 We all have bills to pay but if we only see it as paying the bills, I believe we miss something.<\/p>\n

Yes, what you give in the collection helps pay the bills but it isn\u2019t just to pay the bills.\u00a0 Why do we get bills?\u00a0 Because we are here to do the work of God.\u00a0 In today\u2019s world, that requires money.\u00a0 When you share your treasure with our church, you are contributing to the ministry we do.\u00a0 It is not <\/em>about money.\u00a0 It is about mission<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Now, we have talked about our appeal the last two Sundays and you should have received a mailing with a letter and brochure this week.\u00a0 I hope you had a chance to read them.\u00a0 If not, I will just repeat what was said that we aren\u2019t asking for money for some new ministry or construction.\u00a0 We need more money to simply pay our bills.\u00a0 What we are asking today is for you to increase what you put in the first collection.\u00a0 If we are able to increase our collections, then I won\u2019t spend so much time worrying about our bills and can work on what is really important.\u00a0 We aren\u2019t asking for you to increase what you put in the second collection (you can).<\/p>\n

So, having said all this, I\u2019m going to ask you to fill out your commitment card now\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

4th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C Jeremiah 1:4-5, 17-19 Psalm 71:1-6, 15, 17 1 Corinthians 12:31-13:13 Luke 4:21-30 January 31, 2016 In the last two weeks, I have spoken about using what God has given us in time, talent, and treasure to help our church be all it is meant to be. This is …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘4th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C – Homily’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[82,49],"tags":[161,128],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMTPk-st","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1765"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1765"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1765\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1766,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1765\/revisions\/1766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}