"O God, you so loved the world that you gave your only-begotten Son to reconcile earth with heaven: Grant that we, loving you above all things, may love our friends in you, and our enemies for your sake; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen."
Psalm 31:9-16, Jeremiah 18:1-11, 18-20, and Matthew 20:17-28
One of the many aspects that gives me joy out of the Gospels are the accounts involving the disciples. They are ordinary men of deep faith, and they are very human. Because it was a group of disciples, we can be sure that the twelve of them (or however many there may have been at a given time) did not always get along well. I'm sure there was grumbling and disagreement and maybe even some resentment amongst them. God bless them all; those disciples are so much like us. The passage for today takes this grumbling to another level with the meddling of the mother of James and John.
Naturally, the disciples become frustrated at them and their mother for assuming that Jesus would elevate them to either side of him in place of the others. I imagine, though, that the Zebedee boys were as embarrassed as their companions were frustrated. As a result of this Jesus reminds them all that their places in the kingdom will be places of service, and their honor will come in their service.
Sometimes we might find ourselves in groups where we don't always mesh well with the folks around us: at work, at school, or in other organizations. Whether it's a personality conflict or past struggles, putting aside differences for the sake of the whole isn't always easy. As we pray in our collect for today, though, we see that when we put aside our differences and can love those with whom we struggle, we don't do it for ourselves. Instead, though, we do it because of our love of God. This won't make the task any easier, but hopefully it helps us to find a way to make peace with difficult relatinships.
1 comment:
Do you ever find yourself in a situation where you are supposed to work on a project with someone you really would not want to work with, but you are stuck. Have you ever yielded to the temptation to get there early, and get all the work done before that person shows up. The trap really is in some respects whether the goal was to get something completed or to build a team to do the work.
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