12th Sunday in Ordinary Time (A)
INTRO: ASK: Are you afraid of anything???
THE PURPLE PEOPLE EATERS
Our parents painted our young boy’s room “purple” and my mean sister kept creeping me out that it would now bring the purple people eaters to my room at night when we were sleeping…aghhhh!
I was sooooo afraid at night!
I AM ALSO AFRAID OF POWER TOOLS
Power tools
Just can’t go there with tools like that!
Jesus tells and instructs the church (or His TWELVE) to NOT BE AFRAID and He says so: 3 times in this Gospel…..
1. Fear no one
2. Do not be afraid of those who can kill the body, your Father HAS YOU, so STOP being afraid
3. So, do not be afraid
At the time of Christ, after His resurrection, followers were afraid to be CHRISTIAN. The reality was that they were really AFRAID to be CHRISTIAN; because PERSECUTION was taking place. People were picked on!!! MARTYRED even! That was the major sport in Rome’s Coliseum. Evil and Cruel.
TODAY PEOPLE ARE BEING PICKED ON BY OTHERS AND for me THAT’S FRIGHTENING!!!!
People are picked on:
⦁ With the coronavirus
And people are picked on:
⦁ Because of the color of their skin!!
These are both evil and cruel in our world today!!!!
In our gathering here it should be all about our MIND-SET and our HEART-SET to live better lives in this world with these cruel and evil things and hopefully to eradicate these cruel and evil things.
Acknowledging God will give you and me the correct perspective to live lives that are beautiful and in His image.
Acknowledging that God can work through me and you to give us the patient endurance attitude with this world pandemic is notable and healthy.
And acknowledging, accepting that God can produce in us the most charitable attitude to love all our brothers and sisters and give up the cruel fighting that is going on is what Jesus asks of all of us.
God changes lives if we want that. God corrects our mind-set and our heart-set!
CONCLUSION
It is to the world’s best interest that we take seriously the work of God in our lives and ask Him to lead us, change us, produce in us, and recreate in all of us His most peaceful and charitable ways; to BE NOT AFRAID of what the world is experiencing, but, to be bold accepting His power into our minds and into our hearts!