The 14th Sunday of Ordinary Time 2021

Today is Sunday the 4 July, beginning the 14th week of Ordinary time.  

Audrey Assad and Josh Garrels sing, ‘Wood and Nails’.  

Today’s reading is from the Gospel of Mark.  

Mark 6:1-5

Jesus left that place and came to his hometown, and his disciples followed him.  On the sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astounded. They said, "Where did this man get all this? What is this wisdom that has been given to him? What deeds of power are being done by his hands!  Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?" And they took offense at him.  Then Jesus said to them, "Prophets are not without honour, except in their hometown, and among their own kin, and in their own house."  And he could do no deed of power there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and cured them.

Jesus returns to his hometown…. he comes as a teacher.  Yet his teaching is greeted not with wonder, but with contempt!  Can you recall a time when you’ve felt too quickly disregarded or dismissed by those closest to you, those who know you too well?  What did that feel like?  

Now turn the tables for a moment….. Can you identify those around you, people you know well, who all too often get disregarded or shouted down?  “Oh it’s only so-and-so, he would say that”.  How important would the message have to be before you took them seriously?  

As you hear the reading again, imagine the scene, see the faces of the people from Jesus’s hometown.  Listen to what they say about him.  Could such an amazing man come from such an ordinary town?  

I ask God now for whatever I feel I may need, an increase in faith perhaps, or maybe the ability to see God’s power and love in all the ordinary things, as well as the amazing things around me.  I talk to God, and listen to what he has to say to me.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.