Ordinary Time: Thursday, July 19, 2007

Old Testament Lesson

1 Samuel 20:24-42

The story of David and Jonathon show us the power of friendship, the power of loyalty, and the power of doing what is remember. The only chance Jonathon had to be king would be if he were to follow his dad. If David were king, that would change line. So, if Jonathon were thinking only of himself or of power, there is no way he would have wanted to spare David. He would have been working with his father to destroy him.

But, David was his friend. That meant more to Jonathon than any type of power. In life, if have a friend that we are willing to stick by, even to the detriment of our ourselves, then that is a good life, and that is a good friend. We should all pray that we have a friend so close. And that type of friendship comes only through God.

New Testament Lesson

Acts 13:1-12

As good United Methodists, this is one of the passages where we get the biblical foundation for the appointment process. Paul and Barnabas didn't say in this passage that they felt called to a certain place, the church placed hands upon them and "sent them out." Now, there was no Bishop, no DS, none of the things that we associate with the appointment process in the UMC, but this where we get the Biblical notion for the church "sending" out the preachers to the place where the church feels like they can be most effective.

Is it the only system with a biblical justification? No, but this a passage where Methodists can say, that is where we get the idea of sending out preachers from.

Gospel Lesson

Mark 2:23-3:6

Notice the teachers where not hoping Jesus would do good so that good would be done; they wanted to accuse Him. They were already looking for something to hurl against Him. They wanted to trip Him up. In life, do we look for the positive others are doing? Or do we focus only the negative? Do we only want to see what others are doing wrong? Those that opposed Jesus would not turn to Him partly because they already had their minds made up about Him.

Let us be careful in life not to make up our minds before we meet someone. They missed Jesus because of this. They missed the very presence of God because of this. Who knows what we could miss ourselves.