December 15th
I think many of us can identify with the frustration that Jesus expresses in the gospel today: we are ‘damned if we do and damned if we don’t!’ The children, in Jesus’s word picture, cry out: ‘we played the pipes for you, and you wouldn’t dance; we sang dirges and you wouldn’t be mourners.’ (Mat 11: 17) You just cannot please some people and that is dangerous, especially as we attempt to come to a sense of a new normality in our Covid-19 world. We could have a feeling that we had better not do anything in case we upset someone; change is not easy and some cope with it better than others. However, we need to cope with change in all aspects of our life from work and schooling to sport and relaxation-life. Thankfully our experience of Advent 2023 is totally different to the lockdown Advent of 2020. We need to ensure that we all have a proper work-life balance and that the rest times, that Jesus called for, are put into our busy schedules: we are not ‘possessed’ (Mt 11: 18), nor are we ‘gluttons’ or ‘drunkards’ (Mt 11: 19). All of us involved in pastoral ministry will know that we are not going to please all of the people all of the time, but we must not let the fear of making a mistake put us off. What do you do to encourage and build up? Do you pour cold water on any new initiative? Are you so selfish that you cannot open your heart to change and a different approach? Let us pray today for balance and a spirit of acceptance-it will go such a long way in these changing times.
Today: take time to realise how you can make a difference in the lives of others, as there is a ‘time for every purpose under heaven’ (Pete Seeger’s ‘Turn Turn, Turn’)
Reflect on the song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4983sAoLdM
We can pray:
To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted…..….. A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance….….. a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing. (Ecclesiastes 3)
