Leviticus 19:1-2, 15-18

The word ‘holy’ as used in much our Scripture is often interpreted to mean, ‘distant’ and ‘not of this world.’ And so we are invited to understand the reasons and significance for tithing part of our income for the poor and the church. For we are called not to be wrapped up in the material returns of this world and to remember that it all comes from God. So we are invited to put some distance between ourselves and our ‘earnings’ – sharing with the poor and those in need. And so we try to obey God’s commandment to be holy, just as the Lord our God is holy. Not presuming to be like God but rather striving to emulate the standards of God’s holiness.

Psalm 1

The imagery of trees and streams of water resonate well with us who are blessed to live in this beautiful land. But the Psalmist invites us to appreciate as well that those who fully trust in the Lord are not only blessed, but also are as rare as were trees and streams of water in the arid environment of early Palestine. More common was the dry chaff blown about by the wind. And so today, we are called to stand upright, affirming our joyous trust in the Lord and acting on that trust through pursuit of justice in our world. With God’s help, let our ways be righteous.

1 Thessalonians 2: 1-8

Rather than merely preaching to the converted, Paul spread the Gospel to audiences who were often ambivalent at best. In the face of great opposition and persecution, Paul remained steadfast – more concerned with pleasing God than pleasing the societies in which he lived and worked. How often today are we temped to go along to get along, compromising our faith in order to avoid conflict, dismissal, or even persecution? Let us follow Paul’s example – spreading the gospel with gentle courage, making demands as apostles of Christ, and standing up to the test that God poses for our hearts. And thus we come to share not only the Gospel but ourselves in the sure knowledge that our ministry is not in vain.

Matthew 22: 34-46

Matthew’s gospel narrative repeatedly depicts Jesus as a teacher in the Judaic tradition, who confounds those basking in reputations of formal authority. The great religious scholars of the day remained bound by the limits of their formal knowledge and traditions. And Jesus knows the formalities as well as they do – was there any doubt that Jesus would know what are the greatest commandments? But when invited to understand that the authority of the savior of the world is not limited by kinship with David (a delicious juxtaposition to the first seventeen verses of Matthew that recite Jesus’ lineage to David and Abraham), the Pharisees are silenced once again. For they are unable to grasp that Jesus’ authority is not about the lineage, but about love.