Ordinary Time 17: Jesus Calms the Storm

Tim started his sermon today, reminding us about Hegel’s ideas about the importance of the “other” in our ability to grow in self-consciousness. He also taught us that in first-century Jewish Palestine, the “other” was the Gentile.

Who are your “others?” Which do you feel most resistant to moving closer to? Why? What insights might the nature of or patterns in your list be able to provide for you?

When he talked about the disciples’ response to the sleeping Jesus, Tim taught about the importance of cultivating the ability to recognize the presence of God.

How does one go about doing that? How can you do that? What might you say to someone who asked you to teach them? Where and when have you found the most growth in cultivating your own ability to recognize the presence of God? When do you find it to be most challenging?

Toward the end of his sermon, Tim talked about the idea of the weightiness of some Christians. He used the metaphor of the moving sand dunes in Cape Cod to illustrate his point. He said that a person who can name accurately the anxiety all around us in our world without getting sucked into it, is someone with a weighty presence. He also shared a quote from Dallas Willard: “Instead of counting Christians, we should weigh them.”

When you consider this concept, are there people who come quickly to your mind? Who are they or what do they have in common? Can you put other words to the nature of that weightiness in those specific individuals?

What impact has that weight quality had on you as you have been in relationship with those people? What do you know or suspect about how those people came to be people of such a quality? What does it tell you about what you or others who desire to cultivate and mature in that quality might aim to pursue or avoid?