{"id":2582,"date":"2018-07-08T12:14:34","date_gmt":"2018-07-08T16:14:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/?p=2582"},"modified":"2018-07-08T12:14:34","modified_gmt":"2018-07-08T16:14:34","slug":"14th-sunday-in-ordinary-time-year-b-homily-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/14th-sunday-in-ordinary-time-year-b-homily-2\/","title":{"rendered":"14th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B – Homily"},"content":{"rendered":"

14th<\/sup> Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B<\/a>
\nEzekiel 2:2-5
\nPsalm 123:1-2, 2, 2-4 (2cd)
\n2 Corinthians 12:7-10
\nMark 6:1-6
\nJuly 8, 2018<\/p>\n

One might think that people from Jesus\u2019 \u201cnative place<\/em>\u201d would welcome him with great fanfare as the hometown boy.\u00a0 If somebody becomes famous today, their hometown often puts up a big welcome sign with the person\u2019s name on it, give them a parade, or give them the key to the town.<\/p>\n

Jesus gets none of that.\u00a0 Instead we hear they are \u201castonished<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0 They think<\/em><\/strong> they know him well as the carpenter and as Mary\u2019s son.\u00a0 Because they think they know him well, they are not open to his full identity or believing in his wisdom or power to do \u201cmighty deeds.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n

For us, their disbelief might seem foolish because we know Jesus to be the Messiah.\u00a0 Yet, do we not sometimes look at people in a similar way?\u00a0 For example, if we know someone to be heavy drinker, do we believe them if they say they are now sober?\u00a0 If we know someone to be a quiet person, are we open to them becoming a great public speaker?<\/p>\n

What about ourselves?\u00a0 If someone asks us to do something new, are we open to the possibility of it?\u00a0 If someone asks us to do something outside our comfort zone, would we even consider it?<\/p>\n

What if the someone asking is God?<\/p>\n

We see it in Moses and prophets. \u00a0If you read the stories of many of the prophets, you will see that when they receive a calling from God, many, if not all of them, immediately offer a reason as to why they can\u2019t do it.<\/p>\n

Speaking to Ezekiel at his calling, God even tells Ezekiel how hard it will be because the people to whom he is sending Ezekiel are \u201chard of face and obstinate of heart.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n

When we are asked to do something new or more challenging, we might rush to come up with a list of weaknesses that keep us from being able to do.\u00a0 Some of those weaknesses can be real.\u00a0 For these, we must be honest with the person asking us to do it.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, if it is God asking us, then we can trust that God will give us what we need.\u00a0 God chooses to work through the weak that we might know it is by God\u2019s grace that good things happen.\u00a0 If the person is able to do it on their own, we might fail to see God\u2019s presence in it.\u00a0 On the other hand, if we see them do something we don\u2019t think they are capable of, then we know it comes from God.<\/p>\n

We might also think about what it means to succeed in doing what is asked of us.\u00a0 If someone asks us to help them move something, success is achieved when the object is in its new place.\u00a0 If the object ways 100 lbs., we might know it is too heavy for us to move.\u00a0 Then success for our part might come not in moving it ourselves but in helping them find someone who can move it for them.<\/p>\n

If God calls us to move an object, if we can move it ourselves, we do.\u00a0 If we can\u2019t move it ourselves, then we look for someone who can and the object gets moved.<\/p>\n

What about if God asks us to share what he says to us with people who don\u2019t come to church?\u00a0 Here we might think that success is achieved when the person begins coming to church regularly.\u00a0 That would signify success but is it the only way success is achieved?<\/p>\n

What did I say God asked of us?\u00a0 To share what he has said to us with others.\u00a0 While the ultimate goal is to get them to belief, that wasn\u2019t what I said God asked of us.<\/p>\n

It is our role to tell them what God means for us in our lives.\u00a0 It is our role to tell them anything God directs us to say to them but then we are to leave it in God\u2019s hands.\u00a0 If God asks us to do more, then we do more.<\/p>\n

We are not to give up if people don\u2019t start coming to church.\u00a0 We share what we have to offer about our faith.\u00a0 It is their free will to choose how to respond.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

14th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B Ezekiel 2:2-5 Psalm 123:1-2, 2, 2-4 (2cd) 2 Corinthians 12:7-10 Mark 6:1-6 July 8, 2018 One might think that people from Jesus\u2019 \u201cnative place\u201d would welcome him with great fanfare as the hometown boy.\u00a0 If somebody becomes famous today, their hometown often puts up a big welcome sign …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘14th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B – 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":[9,82],"tags":[472],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMTPk-FE","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2582"}],"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=2582"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2582\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2583,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2582\/revisions\/2583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}