Listen, weakness and acceptance

The readings explore the problems of preaching the Gospel that people do not listen which we hear in Ezekiel. That your message is not accepted by those who know you the most Jesus and trying to be strong when in fact there is much learning in weakness Paul. 

Like the modern world there seems to be a frustration in getting the message home. There are three key words that I would like to explore in the readings today: Listen, weakness and accept. 

Listen:

We live in a fast paced and quick society. Everyone is in a rush. There is instant communication where we can send a text message across the world and receive it in seconds. In the past we would write a letter or two and then expect a reply in a few weeks time. Now you send an email I the morning and are disappointed and worried about what has happened. Because we move so fast, because we perceive that we do not have time we have forgotten to listen. Even sometimes our prayers have become talking to much. I often say Listen Lord your servant is speaking rather I am listening speak Lord. We have forgotten to use our ears we have forgotten to listen. This means that we take time to stop, to rest and to listen. The most productive part of my day is the time I spend in the Church listening to God praying in silence with no words. When I do this, ad its not easy, I am energised for the day I can really listen to the Lord. But, it is not a listening with just our ears it is a listening with our hearts allowing the word of God to penetrate our hearts to hear not just with our ears but what is this message saying to me. 

Weakness: 

Strength is also something that we have come accustomed with. To live with weakness and understand our own venerability is also something that we do not recognise in todays society.  Paul words are striking and counter cultural in our weakness we find our strength. To understand who we are and our limitations means that we can grow in his love. God works through our learning about ourselves and God’s love for us. We can then use our weakness in proclaiming the Gospel. Paul describes that is with the grace and support of the person of Jesus that we can go through and understand our weakness. This links it back to what we previously saw about prayer and listening. Our weakness in our strength only because it is through the power of Jesus and the Holy Spirit. 

This leads us on the final challenge that we see in the Gospel. Jesus found it hard to proclaim the Good News he realises that they are finding it hard to accept him questioning his integrity and who he was. Sometimes it is hard to proclaim Jesus the radical teaching of Jesus sometimes means that people do not truly understand the message. Jesus try his best and finds it impossible to do any miracles there. Why? It all links to the last phrase “ He was amazed at the lack of faith” To work miracles means that there must be faith. Jesus had to accept that there was a lack of faith there. 

On Friday I met four young people who had spent a year working with the Poor and vulnerable. They described to us that sometimes this work was hard that some found it hard to accept they were doing this work in the name of Jesus. They understood and grew through prayer and the help of Jesus understanding their weakness.