For Sunday
Proper 29A
Collect
Almighty and everlasting God, whose will it is to restore all things in your well-beloved Son, the King of kings and Lord of lords: Mercifully grant that the peoples of the earth, divided and enslaved by sin, may be freed and brought together under his most gracious rule; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.
Amen.
Reading
Reflection
Twenty chapters after saying
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven,”
-Matthew 5:3
Jesus rests his case before the court of public opinion. This is an argument he has made throughout the gospels—that the kingdom of heaven is for people who care for people—comes to its conclusion at a show trial with the powerful inheritors of a kingdom of earth.
Jesus’s vision—that our love for God is mirrored in our love for people—is clearly represented in Christian thought. Perhaps more than in our action.
The cutting truth in this final teaching, however, is that it isn’t sufficient that we think the right things, or have the best intentions. But we are to do the right things. And particularly in support of those with less opportunity, power, or influence.
Receiving this reminder over the weekend of Thanksgiving offers its own insight. Giving thanks is a practice of humility; it directs us to see ourselves in relationship with others. To see our neighbors as partners in a divine project of grace, hope, and love.
And with the right vision in place, we might have everything we need to be of humble service to all of those divine neighbors.