Thursday of the Twenty-second Week in Ordinary Time
Every now and then Jesus (or God or Mary or the Holy Spirit) shows up in our lives in ways we cannot expect. And sometimes in ways we don’t want. And he/she makes demands.
One fall a number of years ago, I participated in a gathering of Mennonite Church USA leaders. At the time, I was among the denomination’s leadership. The fact that I was a member of the leadership was very unusual given the tilt of that denomination toward leaders with deep roots in its ethnic heritage. I had no such roots.
It turned out that our meetings were convened in a Catholic retreat center not far from Fort Wayne, Indiana. It was a beautiful place with a gorgeous chapel, lovely guest residences (despite incredibly tiny showers), and a fascinating gift shop (lots of cool items there I did not understand at the time). We Mennonites could not resist taking advantage of the acoustically blessed chapel and so we spent a number of hours singing hymns acapella in four-parts (it’s what Mennonites do) at the direction of a very gifted choral director from a Mennonite college. Over the days of that retreat we discussed vexing issues facing the denomination. Many or most of them centered around how to try to hold together a tiny denomination that was being ripped apart by culture-war questions of whether it was necessary to jettison congregations that welcomed LGBTQ members.
One night I found myself at the edge of a beautiful pond at that Catholic retreat center. And God or Jesus or Mary or the Holy Spirit (I can’t say who) made an intervention. And s/he told me—go! Love! Be loved! Listening to that call cost me more than I can measure or recount here. And it gave me more than I can ever say.
Every now and then Jesus (or God or Mary or the Holy Spirit) shows up and calls on us to live in a brand-new way that we could have never anticipated. And like the disciples, we gotta go. Whether we become convicted that we have to love and be loved no matter what (as I did), or we have to preach the gospel of peace and love to a culture seemingly hell-bent on killing itself, or we have to radically re-evaluate our life path and convictions—whatever it is, when Jesus calls we gotta go.
Forget the crowds. There will always be crowds. And they will usually not get Jesus. Even seemingly devoted Christians may not get Jesus. Nevertheless “lower your net” and see what grace and love and peace Jesus brings to “a sinful man” or woman. Amen.
- Sue Trollinger