Sunday Lectionary: Doers of the Word
Twenty-Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time: September 25th, 2011
The readings this week focus on God’s mercy and exhort us to humility and obedience in following God’s way. There isn’t much technical stuff to deal with in these passages. Instead, these readings are an opportunity for the group to share with one another their struggles in this area and to encourage one another.
“There are two ways, one of life and one of death; but a great difference between the two ways”
– The Didache, c. 65 AD
Reading I: Ezekiel 18:25-28
This section of Ezekiel comes from a longer section entitled “The soul who sins will die” where Ezekiel affirms personal responsibility for one’s own soul and the Prophet outlines all the things that Israel must not do . This long section concludes with the passage below. God affirms that He is indeed just and that, in sinning, it is Israel that is disrupting the right order of things. However, God also affirms that He takes no pleasure in the destruction of sinners. He continually holds out His offer to those who will repent, that he will forgive their sin and spare their life.
Thus says the LORD:
You say, “The LORD’s way is not fair!” Hear now, house of Israel: Is it my way that is unfair, or rather, are not your ways unfair? When someone virtuous turns away from virtue to commit iniquity, and dies, it is because of the iniquity he committed that he must die. But if he turns from the wickedness he has committed, he does what is right and just, he shall preserve his life; since he has turned away from all the sins that he has committed, he shall surely live, he shall not die.
Possible Questions:
- What is the complaint of the Israelites?
- What is the Lord’s response through Ezekiel?
- How is God’s mercy demonstrated in this passage?
- What is the main exhortation of this Reading?
