Centering our love on the unloved
Proper 5A | Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26
We have arrived once again to Ordinary Time. We’ve been in Lent and Easter for weeks and weeks, but now we’re here in the seasonless season counted in weeks after Pentecost. Ordinary Time. The regular kind.
One of the joys of Ordinary Time is that we get to go through the gospel story in relative order, and so today we pick up the narrative thread toward the beginning. Now, where we were way back in February was in the middle of the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7), where Jesus casts a vision of the Kin-dom that is eminently challenging to those in power. It is a passionate, captivating, and beautiful vision.
Our gospel then jumps into the middle of chapter nine, so we miss quite a lot of story. And a lot of stuff we already know. But there’s something to seeing these pieces rub against each other that connects it and makes it all come alive. Like, I could easily sum up chapter eight by saying that there’s a bunch of healings. But that would mean skipping over the healing of a gentile, which expands the conversation beyond the Hebrew people, and the stilling of the storm, which is a shocking display of raw power. Jesus pushes the boundaries and challenges expectations.
For a limited time, you may find the audio here.
