TWENTY-FOURTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME C

[cappie]

The Lectionary readings for today include two stories: the first  from  the Old Testament (Exodus 32:1, 7-14) about Moses and God upon the mountain and the second the New Testament story of Jesus eating with tax collectors and sinners and his story of the Lost Sheep, the lost coin and the prodigal son.

 In the first reading  Moses has gone up the mountain to receive the laws God has for God’s people. The people get restless because Moses has not returned, so they press Aaron (Moses’ brother) into service and have him make them a God to worship-a Golden Calf — and they blame Moses for bringing them out of Egypt into the wilderness to die. God sees what is happening to the people of God and becomes very angry. God tells Moses, “ Leave me, now, my wrath shall blaze out against them and devour them.”

There seems to be some confusion here. It was God who instructed Moses to lead God’s people out of bondage into the Promised Land, but now God is blaming Moses for their failure. God goes on to say that God will consume his straying people with fire, but the Almighty will do good things for Moses because Moses has remained faithful.

That’s when Moses, goes to work.   Moses reminds God  ‘Lord,’ he said ‘why should your wrath blaze out against this people of yours whom you brought out of the land of Egypt with arm outstretched and mighty hand? 

Moses says,   “ Remember Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, your servants to whom by your own self you swore and made this promise: “I will make your offspring as many as the stars of heaven, and all this land which I promised I will give to your descendants, and it shall be their heritage for ever.” (In other words, these people are lost and need to be forgiven and guided.)  “So, the Lord relented and did not bring on his people the disaster he had threatened.” Moses won his case. The Hebrews are lost, but God continues to fulfill the promise of guiding them to Canaan with Moses’ leadership.

The second story (Luke 15) tells us that Jesus spends time visiting and eating with sinful folk, which did not sit well with the self-righteous Pharisees. As they rebuked him, Jesus tells them three parables. The Good Shepherd, the Lost Coin and the Prodigal Son. I will concentrate on the first, The Good Shepherd. A shepherd who had one hundred sheep and lost one of them. He leaves the ninety-nine and goes to find the one lost sheep and rejoices when he finds it. This would have been hard for the Pharisees to understand because they even had laws that forbade them from doing business or having social connections with sinners.

The fact that Jesus would share his life with all types of people gives us hope because we are told in the second reading, “ Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1 Timothy 1:15). Our Lord, as the Good Shepherd, takes delight in the ninety-nine righteous people and gives them the reassurance of God’s love, but our Lord is also willing and able to search for the lost soul. And speaking of being lost and sinful, the Apostle Paul in his first letter to Timothy says that “ even though I used to be a blasphemer and did all I could to injure and discredit the faith. Mercy, however, was shown me,”  foremost of all sinners, he has been forgiven and called into ministry.” He was lost but was definitely found.

There are times when we all feel like lost sheep because of our inner feelings and desires or when we have not acted according to our standards. Jesus knows this will happen to each and every one of us, and when it does, he reaches out in love and compassion to guide and direct us back to the fold.

God forgave the people of God in the wilderness and through God’s son, Jesus, there is much rejoicing when a single lost soul is found and either finds or returns to the flock.

Thank God for Moses and his counsel to the Almighty, and also for Jesus and his wonderful compassion and insight into the human soul. He has certainly blessed, guided, and sustained all us-straying sheep of his flock.

 These readings from Scripture are comforting because we are invited to eat at the Lord’s table with him at communion, sinners though we are. We were lost and have been found, forgiven and called to minister to others in his name.

 

[little2add]

35 minutes ago, cappie said:

the Prodigal Son

I ❤️ this lesson 

it gives me hope for my child that we can someday reconcile. 

Edited September 10, 2022 by little2add