Scripture Reflections for the Thirty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time
Year B, Lectionary 152
Part of loving involves listening and if we say we love God then, are we hearing God speak to us? Are we reordering our attention and concerns to prioritize the Lord in our lives? Jesus, God incarnate, is telling us to love our neighbors as well and this too involves us listening to others. Are we open to pulling back our ego to make space for God and others?
Hate feeling lost on Sundays at church? Searching for a better explanation of the Bible than what you hear from your pastor's sermon? Check out the following collection of audio, video, and text commentaries from various Christian experts for a better understanding of today's scripture that deal with: Absence • Baptism • Challenge • Commandment • Commitment • Community • Eternal • Exclude • Fear • Fellowship • Healing • Kingdom • Listen • Love • Neighbor • Offering • Prayer • Priest • Reconciliation • Relationship • Ritual • Sacrifice • Saint • Seperation • Shema • Unity • Voice •
“What Hebrews is revealing here is that the priesthood of Jesus Christ and the sacrificial offering of Christ, although it takes place in time and in history, isn't bound by time and history because he takes that offering up into eternity as the high priest forever”
“Love is the thing that keeps us moving forward to be able to see who in our world and in our community needs some assistance, needs some attention, needs to be seen”
“Perhaps we only love God as much as we love the person we like the least”
“not only are we not far from the kingdom of Heaven but the kingdom of Heaven is at hand for us if we but let God in”
“only when we receive that eternal offering, the offering of God's very self to us, might we receive the grace, finally, to love God with all that we are and to love our neighbor as ourself”
“prayer is that living relationship of love with God. Once the relationship starts to dwindle, the prayer goes and especially daily prayer, that's the first place to go. And then, and then disobedience becomes more and more easy to carry out”
““You are not far from the kingdom of God.” Note, he is not far from it but he is not in it. To be in it means more than knowing that love of God and of our neighbour is the greatest of all the commandments. To be in the kingdom of God means both knowing and living it.”
“Oh, do we love the Lord? God is saying 'if you do, don't tell me, show me.'”
“For there are so many people who climb mountains, cross oceans, pass through fires in search of God but one place they never go to search for God is in their neighbors”
“Before we can love our God with our whole being, we must practice active and wholly listening. We must open ourselves to the movements of the Spirit to the little fires of God around us who are calling us to attention.”
“You see, time is winding up, you and I better get our priorities straight. For job number one is, what? To love the Lord...with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your strength, with all your soul”
“When you think about it, besides God's love for you and God's grace, what more do you need in this life?”
“And so Jesus has come to offer the perfect sacrifice. The invitation he has offered to us now is not to offer a new sacrifice but to connect to that which he has done once and for all on the cross.”
“Let us have space for those who disagree and find our connections before the Divine together in a love that overflows all bounds”
“today's readings are a call to us to reflect and question where we are relying on social norms and structures rather than moving closer to the kingdom of God by loving our neighbor”
