Ordinary 28

The Twenty-Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time 2017 – Cycle A Isaiah 25:6-10a; Psalm 23; Philippians 4:12-14, 19-20; Matthew 22:1-14

How adaptable are you?

How easily do you change course when either sudden changes happen in your daily life or on a larger scale.

Consider our parish.  We will be gathering and worshiping God in this gym for five and half months when all is said and done.  It has been interesting to hear people’s responses to worshiping in a gym rather than in the church.  Many positive comments have been made while I understand that some people have abandoned us or are disgruntled because of the displacement of the community.  People have bounced well with Baptisms, Funerals and Marriages being celebrated in the gym or in another Christian Church.

Consider our daily lives.

The computer freezes and the printer won’t work just as we need something now!  An event lasts longer than we planned and we are frustrated.  We are caught in traffic and are late for an appointment.  Your ideas, which you think are very good, are rejected wholesale in a meeting.  A child wakes up sick.  We wake up sick.  An unexpected phone call.  A family member or friend dies.  The car starts making uncar–like sounds.  (How much will this cost?)  The physician’s office calls to cancel and reschedule an appointment that you’ve taken the morning off from work for.  You just realized you have scheduled a number of events at the same time.

This is what in the parish office we call a “God day”.

How do we respond to such situations?  Do we get angry?   Do we bounce with things?  Do we act frustrated?  Do we see the humour in it all?  Are you and I the son from the parable a couple of weeks ago who says “No!” but eventually changes our mind and does what “God” the Father asks?

My initial response on “God days” is usually not very pretty.  My “God days” often consists of Fox or Chestnut Nursing calling for an anointing.  Someone walks off the street and wants to speak with a priest. (But I have a homily to prepare!!!)  There is an emergency at Bassett and they cannot get the priest in Cooperstown.  (But that’s an hour away just in traveling!)  A death in the parish.

Once I realize that I am having a “God day” and anything I had planned will not get done, I take a deep breath and go on.  The deep breath is important.  It is breathing in the Holy Spirit.  The breath is accepting God’s gifts needed for what God has in store for us today.  And you know what?  Everything else either eventually gets done or not.

They always told us in seminary that the interruptions, the unexpected phone calls, the unexpected people at the rectory door WERE ministry.  But ministry is not just for priests it is for every Christian.

Paul had a lot of “God days” mostly related to his ministry as a preacher of the Gospel.There were times when he did not have enough to eat and knew hunger.  Other times he ate by his own ingenuity or the generosity of others.  Sometime his physical needs were satisfied and other times his needs went unmet.  Either way Paul credits Jesus with strengthening him for whatever the situation.  “I can do all things in Christ”.  Paul is open to the movements of the Holy Spirit as Jesus reminded us: “The wind, – the spirit – blows where it wills, and you can hear the sound it makes, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes…”  [John 3:4]  That is the definition of a “God day”.

As we reflect, how often do “God days” draw us out of our self-interest and self-centeredness into the lives of others?

How often do “God days” invite us to rethink our priorities?

How often do “God days” call us to trust and depend not on ourselves but upon God?

How well do you and I adapt and bend when the wind blows?