3rd Sunday Year B

3rd Sunday Year B – I have called you by your name. Come! Follow me!

 “The time has come and the kingdom of God is close at hand. Repent and believe the Good News.”

I had the good fortune, in fact the blessing, to be able to visit this past week, some of our parishioners who are currently housebound due to age and/or ill-health . I feel it was a blessing because the meetings lifted me up. They shook me up and made me realise how good life is and how great God is.

I was able to chat with four to five people about their need to seek God when and if they needed any help. These conversations explored people’s feelings of being left alone or feeling isolated and at times maybe forgotten. They also explored their frustrations at not being able to do much or as much as they previously could and how this left them feeling in part useless or a drag and burden on their friends and families.

We explored together our great and shared vocation of being called by name by God to come and do his will. Come and do His will whatever that may be and in whatever way, shape or from that we could. “I have called you by your name. You are mine.”

God doesn’t call any of us to be useless, or to be a burden or a drag. Neither does he want any of us to feel that we are. We are all chosen by God, as Christ chose his apostles, to come and follow Him, and to fulfil our destiny with Him, whatever that may be.

But to do this we have to take on and take up a Godly-view of our lives and the living of those lives.

These parishioners pointed out to me the need for us to see with new and fresh eyes the gifts that God has given each and every one of us, spread out before us every day. I was speaking of the joy of seeing a back garden filled with snow and of how all it needed to be perfect in my eyes was a for a robin or two to appear and fill me with immeasurable joy.

And right there and right then, that is exactly what happened. Two robins appeared and proceeded to flit and float about the garden’s statues in what appeared to be a mischievous and merry way. It was miraculous and it was also every-day.

It was miraculous in that I was wishing it and then there they were. It was every day because, well because it is winter and when should we expect to see robins and snow together?

It was miraculous because it illustrated what we were talking about. The need for us to be open and aware of the beauty of God’s creation all around us – and to appreciate it when and where we encountered it. God Has called us by name to come and follow Him and to be fully aware of His creation and all of the beauty that it involves.

We are called by name to come and seek Him out as and when we need help: any form or sort of help. He is there always to offer us the help that we need, as and when we may need it. We simply have to reach out to Him and ask and then try to seek out some peace and quiet so that we can hear Him when replies to us. We need to remember and realise that He may not speak to us through a rolling clap of thunder or accompanied by shafts of lightning. He will speak to us through the soft and gentle murmuring of the breeze.

He will speak with us and to us, through whatever form is best and most suited to us and our positions. He will speak with us through our friends, our families, our neighbours, our carers and through their words and their actions. When we seek help from the Lord He will deliver.

There is nothing that is too great or too complex for Him. He knows each and everyone of us by our own individual names. He knew us before we were born and He knows every step that have taken or will ever take. Equally, He knows every stumble or fall that we might make and knows how we need to be picked up, dusted off and helped to go on our way again.

All we need to do is to believe in Him. To trust in Him. To put all of our cares and worries to Him with the sure and certain knowledge that He will take care of us. He wants us to feel useful, to feel fulfilled; to feel wanted and needed and always, always, always, to feel loved.

God does not say, “I have called you by your name. Come, follow me.” – with the aim or intention of ignoring us in our hour or moment of need.

God is the personification of love, of care, of patience and of determined support. He is the exemplar of committed accord. He delivers what He says that He will deliver – if, if – we but put our trust, our love, our care and our patience to Him.

We need to be open with Him about where we have gone wrong and where we need help. We need to feel able and welcomed to come to Him in sorrow and repentance for any and all of our failings knowing fully and completely that He will pick us up and carry us along in His loving arms until such time as we are able to do so on our own.

“The time has come and the kingdom of God is close at hand. Repent and believe the Good News.” I have called you by your name. You are mine. Come! Follow me! Here I am Lord. I come to do your will.

Bidding Prayers

1.      That we hear God when He calls out to us to come and do His will and then respond with our every fibre. Lord in your mercy

2.      That we make and take time to listen to others calling out their needs so that we can respond in a Christ-like way, with love and care. Lord in your mercy

3.      That we reach out to our fellow parishioners to see where and how we can offer the  help they need, as and when they need it. Lord in your mercy

4.      That there is an increase in peace and harmony across our war-torn world, especially in the Ukraine and Middle-East. Lord in your mercy

5.      That all parishioners who are sick in any way are comforted by our prayers and loving actions. Lord in your mercy

6.      That those who have died recently find eternal rest with the Lord. We remember especially David Dobson whose funeral is soon. Lord in your mercy

7.      That Mary joins her prayers with ours as we now say together, Hail Mary. . . .