By Colleen O’Sullivan
For I do not do the good I want, but I do the
evil I do not want… Miserable one that I
am! Who will deliver me from this mortal
body? Thanks be to God through Jesus
Christ our Lord. (Romans 7:19, 24-25a)
“You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of
the earth and the sky; why do you not know how to interpret the present
time?” (Luke 12:56)
Piety
Hear,
Lord, the prayers we offer from contrite hearts.
Have
pity on us as we acknowledge our sins.
Lead
us back to the way of holiness.
Protect
us now and always from the wounds of sin.
May
we ever keep safe in all its fullness
the
gift your love one gave us
and
your mercy now restores.
Enough blue in the
sky to patch a sailor’s pants – a sure sign,
according to my grandmother, that the clouds would give way to a sunny
day.
Red sky at night,
sailors’ delight. Red sky
at morning, sailors take warning – a saying I’ve heard all my life that often
pans out. If the sunrise is deep red gorgeous,
it will likely rain at some point during the day. A beautiful sunset with lots of red is almost
a guarantee of nice weather the next day.
Jesus is right. Even without the
benefit of the National Weather Service or Doppler radar, people have always
been fairly capable of predicting the weather by observing the signs around
them. But then Jesus goes on to wonder
why those same people, who are so observant about the next day’s forecast,
can’t discern the presence of the Kingdom of God in their midst.
Here we see Jesus talking to the crowds, not just his disciples. By now, he hopes that at least a few of the
disciples have some clue to his identity and his purpose for being on
earth. He is painfully aware, however,
that the majority of the people he’s addressing in this gathering have no idea
who he is or why he’s journeying from village to village, healing, teaching and
preaching, nor do they really care.
They’re there to be entertained.
The Kingdom of God is all around them and they don’t see it or feel it!
If you are reading this, I’m assuming you’re not among the clueless
crowd Jesus is talking to. We know who
Jesus is. We know what he’s done for
us. We see and feel his presence in our
lives.
Then we come to Paul’s words to the Romans. And we have to admit that even though we are
able to discern Christ’s presence in our midst and know how Jesus wants us to
live our lives, there’s always that huge stumbling block – SIN. We truly want to follow in Jesus’ footsteps,
but something keeps pulling us off the path, luring us on detours to places we
never meant to go.
“Help!” we call. “We’re
lost. We can’t find the way. We’re sorry we left the marked route. Can anyone lead us back?” And along comes Jesus, who picks us up, dusts
us off, takes us by the hand, and leads us back to where we got off-track. And does it time and again when we do the
evil we do not want. “Thanks be to God
through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Action
What is it that derails you on your journey with Christ? For many of us, if we’re honest with God and
ourselves, it’s often the very thing we least wanted to do. When you are praying today, ask for Jesus’
forgiveness and for his deliverance from whatever it is that conspires to
separate you from him.
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