Some of the more familiar themes or teachings of the Scriptures are easy to dismiss because we’ve heard them so often. The 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time is one of those situations. The Scriptures tell us to hear the good news of God’s love and forgiveness for us and go out to all the world and spread that good news. How many times in our lifetime have we heard that same message? We might have several attitudes towards familiar things. One might be a sort of a been there done that attitude. One might be that this message is for somebody else because we’re not smart enough, trained enough or influential enough. Another might be tinged by shame or embarrassment about something that we’ve been involved in in life and truly believe that God could never use us to spread the good news. All of those things are excuses to not do what the Scriptures tell us to do. If we are willing to quit using excuses, then we each have to answer two questions. The first is asking: “Who is it that is sent by God to spread the good news?” The second is asking: “Where are we supposed to spread the good news?”
Each of us is formed in the image and likeness of God and so each of us, through that relationship, is sent by God as disciples on a mission. For those of us who were baptized, by the nature of our baptism we are sent by Jesus to do the work that He began on the earth. It doesn’t really matter how old or young we are, we are sent. It doesn’t matter whether we’re the greatest sinner in the world or if we believe that we are the poorest person walking the face of the earth. Think of all the categories that we’ve been using for excuses not to be in mission for Jesus Christ in the world and they simply don’t count what it means for us to be called by God. The only group that Jesus thought would have a difficulty being His disciples are people who are self-righteous. We all have a bit of that in each of us, but if we let that control and form our lives, it makes it impossible to be a disciple if we believe that we are better than others or don’t need the assistance of others, we’re not able to be in mission for others.
I have been a public figure for much of my adult life and it is clear to me that almost everywhere I go someone knows who I am, even if they don’t catch my attention or say hello. But truly, all of us are public figures with someone. Unless we purposely hide our life so that we can’t be responsible for how we live, each of us set an example that other people observe. Many of us believe that we share the good news of Jesus Christ, primarily by the words that we speak or the good deeds that we do or the rules that we follow. The primary way we share the good news is in the way we treat ourselves and other people. If people observe a peace and love about how we interact with others, they feel drawn to understand the source of that peace and love. If they experience hospitality from us, it opens them up to us if they choose. If we are in familiar places like our families, our churches and our neighborhoods, we know that people are observing how we treat others. Even on vacation or in restaurants, there’s always somebody watching how we interact with each other how we love or hate and how we welcome and listen. The way we treat others who wait on us, clean our hotel rooms or collect our trash, tells others who are observing the depth of our character. And so this weekend we are told, go out to all the world, every corner of it, and every one of us, and spread the good news.
