ten::one

(a homily)

Disciples can be stupid sometimes. So quickly we can go off in directions never intended for us. Seeking our own place, our own desires, our own merits, we forget our humble call to be the least. And so a child needs to be placed in our midst. "Here, O wise ones, is the greatest in the kingdom, the one who rely on others for all things, relies on grace to receive provisions."

We are so forgetful. As such, God has put people among us with better memories, thoughts of the heavenly city where justice and peace and love reside. God is taking us there. God is even asking us to be builders, giving us the gift of the Holy Spirit. God hears us when we groan in recognition of our stupidity, our sin, our forgetfulness and uncanny ability to think more highly of ourselves than we ough. Too easily we are captives, exiles from our very selves, the people we are meant to be.

So, we find ourselves here. A table is set before us, a table of remembrance. Stupid as we may be, we may yet be found with the mind of Christ, a mind driven by humility and other-centeredness. At this table, in the work done here, we become the body of Christ, a presence of God's grace in the world. May we approach the table with humble memories and thoughts of a heavenly residence, a place where God's will is done on earth as in heaven, where we forgive and are forgiven, where we are no longer anxious but at peace with ourselves and one another, able, therefore, to welcome the child and the stranger as beautiful sings of God's presence among us. With this renewed thought process let us go forth to work, to listen, to the call of God, to be a prayerful presence in the world.

(Zechariah 8:1-8, Psalm 102, Luke 9:46-50)