People's Prayers: Prayers of the People: To DO or Not To DO ~ Proper 21, 18th Sunday after Pentecost '23 Yr A

For Sunday, October 1, 2023; Readings: Ezekiel 18:1-4, 25-32; Psalm 25:1-8, Philippians 2:1-13,

Matthew 21:23-32

As I live, says the Lord God, this proverb shall no more be used by you in Israel... For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, says the Lord God. Turn, then, and live. [Ezekiel 18:3, 32]

Show me your ways, O Lord, and teach me your path. Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation. [Psalm 25:3-4]

Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus... [Philippians 2:3-5]

Jesus said to [the Pharisees]: "Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are going to the kingdom of God ahead of you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed in him; and even after you saw it, you did not change your minds and believe him. [Matthew 21:31b-32]

As we journey through this life, in times such as these, do you, like me and the ancient Israelites, wonder from time to time – “Is the Lord really here, among us?” How much more difficult for us to know God's presence in our own times without being certain if the message we are trying to understand is from an ancient self-proclaimed prophet, whom we can only assume is truly “of God,” or, if it is in the way Jesus bested those righteous, letter-of-the-law chief priests and elders, until they seemed to best him by execution. Yet what do we really know of God? So much of our “knowledge” has been about teaching us the austerity of rules and regulations on avoiding evil and wickedness. Yet, Ezekiel tells us in this passage for today, as he did just a few weeks ago in chapter 33:11, that God takes no pleasure in the death of anyone.

Many of us would say, with a doubt or two creeping in, that we believe God is with us, even without concrete visual sightings of God's presence. But the days are busy and fraught with stress in ordinary routine, the toll of personal trials, and all the current craziness in the world at large. It's likely that we rarely stop and question the location of God in the midst of a Monday afternoon or Thursday night before bed, in an angry or frustrating conversation in person or social media, or even and perhaps especially, in the happiest of occasions. Some weeks it's all some of us can do to find God on Sunday morning in Church as we attend in person or online. But for me, this week's readings say God is here with me, with us, so then, where am I with God? How am I following? In other words, do I just plod along in life without conscious attention to how I express the faith I claim?

Faith is as faith does, actions always tell the tale – just think of the parable of two sons in this week's Gospel. I need to be mindfully awake and present in a given moment, to think through how what I am doing or what I have done, expresses how close to or far from God I am. Is it my personal and unconscious wilderness that allows me to keep God absent while I’m in pursuit of my selfish ambitions and agenda, while I am judging others as less worthy than me, and while not contemplating how to take on the mind of Christ?

Humility in the face of all that God has done is part of Paul's message. Jesus reminds us that it isn’t always the high and mighty legal eagles that have all the answers. It isn’t always the lowly and those we choose to see as less worthy that are less actively faithful. How often do I say I’ll do something and then don’t, or, change my mind and do? Stop, Breathe, Hear, Listen… The message – the Word – is simple enough for everyone to understand. We aren’t likely, in this life, to see in order to believe and we, like the disciples at the beginning, are called to let faith be our guide. Let us each remember, when we're on that road paved with good intentions, to pay attention to God’s presence, in and through Christ and the Holy Spirit, within and around us. Who we think we are might surprise us. When is our yes or our no really maybe? We are not what we say we’ll do. We ARE what we DO. Self-sufficiency is more hindrance than help in discovering Who is among and within us.

LET US, GOD’S PEOPLE, PRAY

Leader: ~ O God of our Salvation, fill us with the knowing of Your loving presence each day of this life as we strive, in humility, to take on the mind of Christ.