Ordinary Time

February 16, 2023

Scripture Reading:

2 Peter 1:16-21

For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we had been eyewitnesses of his majesty. For he received honor and glory from God the Father when that voice was conveyed to him by the Majestic Glory, saying, ‘This is my Son, my Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.’ We ourselves heard this voice come from heaven, while we were with him on the holy mountain. –2 Peter 1:16-18

How do we describe the indescribable? How do we convey the magnitude in our lives of God’s gift of God’s Son to open wider the door of God’s blessings and love? No cleverly devised myths but eyewitness accounts were passed down to us, and each of them conveys a different description based on the witness’s needs at the time and Jesus’s response to those needs.  Thomas wanted proof; Peter wanted to take action. Martha wanted help cooking dinner for Jesus, but her sister, Mary, just wanted to sit at his feet and take in every word he spoke. The centurion asked him to heal his servant, but as a person of power, he readily recognized one with greater power and understood Jesus just needed to say the word, and his servant would be healed.

We live in a world of cleverly devised false accounts and half-truths, posing to be the truth. We waded in such grime throughout the 2022 election cycle and barely got the chance to observe Christmas before it started again targeted at the next election cycle. Jesus tells us in John 8:31-32, Then Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, ‘If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.’ Later, Pilate recognized the weak nature of politics in the following discourse with Jesus at Jesus’s trial before Pilate,

Jesus answered, ‘My kingdom is not from this world. If my kingdom were from this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here.’ Pilate asked him, ‘So you are a king?’ Jesus answered, ‘You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.’ Pilate asked him, ‘What is truth?’ (John 18:36-38)

We continue to search for truth today, and finding it demands our close communion with God as we strive to be in the world but not of the world so that we can share the love of God freely with all the people of the world, all of whom are made in the image of God.

Prayer: Open our hearts and minds to your truth and your way of living. Amen.

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.