17th Sunday after Pentecost - October 2, 2022
Satisfactory… That is a word that has lost its power over time.. When I was in school and report cards came out, we were given various grades, as children are now, to show mastery or the lack thereof of a certain subject…
However, the reporting was far less dramatic than it has become…if you had completed the work and were performing at your grade level, then you received a grade of satisfactory…Not excellence or A thru F, but simply satisfactory or and if there was work still to be done…unsatisfactory…
I usually could keep on my grade level except in conduct… all my teachers agreed that I was too outgoing and talked too much and worst of all laughed too much…
How in the world could a child laugh too much… I know; I know…
But my point being… we were pleased with satisfactory completion of a task…
During this same time period, I was blessed with a grandmother that lived with us… She and I were roommates and I loved her presence; the odor of her perfume; her contagious laughter; the very being of her.
I am certain that it was through this lady that I learned to love God and the church
She was a seeker and went to church every Sunday morning for the early Eucharist…7:30 Holy Eucharist!
I started going with her when I was 7 years old and continued until I was 17… the year she died…
She taught me how to pray…to love and seek the Holy One…And most of all she convinced me along the way that I was satisfactory
Every year she wrote me a note, telling me that I was a satisfactory gift to her…….not perfect; not the best of the four children; not the most talented; not the prettiest…
She was trying to tell me that I had grown and sought that year to be the person God called me to be at that time in my life …I was me, I was her Miss Jo; but no more or less…I still love and cherish that word:
Satisfactory
What in the world does that have to do with our Gospel assigned for today… I believe everything…
Jesus is on His way to Jerusalem in this 17th chapter of Luke and is calling His disciples to be the people of God that Jesus knows they are capable of being…
He is speaking to them and showing them through His ministry that they are created to be who God is calling them to be…they were each chosen and they have all the natural gifts necessary…
Jesus wants them to begin to grasp the importance of His message and what will be required of them if they are to participate in the coming of the Kingdom of God…
This message for the Disciples is very difficult for them to hear…and it is not understood by them because they crave more than being who they are created to be…
They want favor and Jesus is trying to make it clear that greatness is not required or expected of them…