Gospel
Jesus said to the people in the synagogue at Nazareth:
“Amen, I say to you,
no prophet is accepted in his own native place.
Indeed, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel
in the days of Elijah
when the sky was closed for three and a half years
and a severe famine spread over the entire land.
It was to none of these that Elijah was sent,
but only to a widow in Zarephath in the land of Sidon.
Again, there were many lepers in Israel
during the time of Elisha the prophet;
yet not one of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.”
When the people in the synagogue heard this,
they were all filled with fury.
They rose up, drove him out of the town,
and led him to the brow of the hill
on which their town had been built,
to hurl him down headlong.
But he passed through the midst of them and went away.
Naaman in our Old Testament reading wanted to see his healing materialize from a dramatic supernatural motion of event. He expected that God could only work that way. It wasn’t until he was finally convinced to wash in the Jordan that he was cured. And then he believed.
Then in our Gospel the people of Nazareth who knew Jesus as the son of Joseph the carpenter had trouble believing him. They had seen Jesus grow up. So they could not open their mind and hearts to understand that the Son of God was standing before them. Instead, they wanted to do what the world would eventually do…kill him.
How many times do we only want help from God on our terms. We even tell him in prayers how he will help us. If it doesn’t happen that way we don’t believe God is present.
We do not want help through ordinary means. We want it to look supernatural and dramatic. Unlike anything we have seen. It should be out of the ordinary.
But God often uses the ordinary to do extraordinary things. He uses ordinary people like you and me to help others.
And I think God does do dramatic supernatural things for us everyday though.
He changes hearts of the one who follows Jesus who then reaches out to others to help.
The miracle is when the ordinary person does something extraordinary. They choose to do the will of God and love others as themselves. And the poor finds relief from their suffering. The lonely hears a kind word.
The fearful find someone to be with them and comfort them.
When we allow God to work through us we become the miracle for many other people.
Maybe we don’t look special.
Maybe we don’t wear special garments and maybe look just like the guy next door…because we are.
Jesus was the son of Joseph. But he was also the son of God. He was the Christ.
We are called to be Jesus Christ for others. To make a miracle happen we just have to follow the will of the Father. Then we will see true miracles and find our life becomes one of joy and peace and love. We see a profound change in others as we help them but we also see a profound change in our lives too.
Deacon Tony Pynes 
Leave a comment