{"id":1893,"date":"2016-08-21T12:25:41","date_gmt":"2016-08-21T16:25:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/?p=1893"},"modified":"2016-08-21T12:25:41","modified_gmt":"2016-08-21T16:25:41","slug":"21st-sunday-in-ordinary-time-year-c-homily-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/21st-sunday-in-ordinary-time-year-c-homily-2\/","title":{"rendered":"21st Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C – Homily"},"content":{"rendered":"

21st<\/sup> Sunday in Ordinary Time<\/a>
\nIsaiah 66:18-21
\nPsalm 117:1, 2
\nHebrews 12:5-7, 11-13
\nLuke 13:22-30<\/p>\n

Who is welcomed into the Kingdom of Heaven?<\/p>\n

The Jews saw themselves as a chosen people, the only ones who would get into the Kingdom of Heaven.\u00a0 They did little to share the faith with others.<\/p>\n

So, it would sound astonishing to them to hear Isaiah speak as a prophet of the land and say that the Lord will gather people from \u201cdistant coastlands,\u2026 bring all your brothers and sisters from ALL <\/strong>the nations,\u2026 from the east and the west, and from the north and the south, and will recline at table in the Kingdom of God.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n

Really?\u00a0 ALL the nations?<\/p>\n

Yes, all the nations.\u00a0 We MUST make salvation by God\u2019s mercy known to all.\u00a0 We need to \u201cgo out to ALL the world and tell the good news<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Is this easy?\u00a0 No, as Jesus says we must enter through the narrow gate.<\/em>\u00a0 Being disciples requires effort on our parts.\u00a0 It requires discipline.\u00a0 It means confronting our trials with God at our side.<\/p>\n

I want to talk a little bit more about what it means to \u201cconfront\u201d our trials.\u00a0 I don\u2019t mean to go out and confront people who we think cause our trials.\u00a0 When I say \u201cconfront\u201d I mean that move forward into what challenges us trusting that God walks with us.\u00a0 With this trust in God we are made stronger.<\/p>\n

When we move forward in faith against trials we also serve as a witness to others that we really do believe, not just when things are good but in all things.<\/p>\n

Being people of faith requires effort.\u00a0 It STARTS with coming to church each Sunday but that is not all it requires.\u00a0 To those who said, \u201cWe ate and drank in your company and you taught in our streets<\/em>\u201d Jesus replied, \u201cI do not know where you at from.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n

It is not enough just to show up.\u00a0 We need to take what God has given us and be good stewards by using our time, talent, and treasures to tell the good news.\u201d<\/p>\n

Different people have different gifts.\u00a0 At different points in our lives, we can use what we have been given differently.\u00a0 For instance, a young teen may shovel snow for their elderly neighbor while the elderly person who is infirmed helps by praying for others and offering up their sufferings for the salvation of the world.<\/p>\n

The newly retired person may find themselves with all kinds of free time to be able to volunteer in ways that help others.<\/p>\n

For those who work, it can be making sure we do a good job even when it doesn\u2019t seem to have to do with our faith.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t matter what we do.\u00a0 For instance, farmers are very important to us.\u00a0 Without farmers, we would have no food to eat.\u00a0 Without custodians, our bathrooms could be in awful shape leading to sickness.<\/p>\n

Of course, we all need to learn how to talk about faith.\u00a0 I believe the most important place to start is by telling others what draws us to church.\u00a0 Why is it we come here?\u00a0 Then we go out and tell the good news.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

21st Sunday in Ordinary Time Isaiah 66:18-21 Psalm 117:1, 2 Hebrews 12:5-7, 11-13 Luke 13:22-30 Who is welcomed into the Kingdom of Heaven? The Jews saw themselves as a chosen people, the only ones who would get into the Kingdom of Heaven.\u00a0 They did little to share the faith with others. So, it would sound …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘21st 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],"tags":[188],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMTPk-ux","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1893"}],"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=1893"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1893\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1894,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1893\/revisions\/1894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}