Dressers of Sycamores
The readings this week remind us of one of the core beliefs of being Catholic: our lives belong to God, and his will comes first. Given that, each reading tells this a little differently. To begin with, the first reading shares the story of Amos’s work as a prophet. Unlike some of the more well-known prophets, though, we see in Amos the story of someone who appears just to be an everyday, “normal” person. He doesn’t seem to have formal training. There is no grand announcement or life-defining event. Instead, he is a simple “shepherd and a dresser of sycamores” whom God simply told to go and prophesy. The fact that the priest of Bethel doesn’t want him, too, is merely a side note in history. He may have described himself similar to the way that former U.S. Speaker of the House John Boehner saw himself: “just a regular guy with a big job.”
In the second reading, Paul writes to the Ephesians reminding them that God did, in fact, choose us to be his own through Jesus Christ. In doing so, he bestowed upon us certain gifts, graces, forgiveness, wisdom, and his whole heart. Not only are we called to be his, we were gifted the tools to do so to the best of our abilities.
Finally, in Mark’s gospel we are told the story of Jesus sending out the twelve. While these were the directions given to the apostles, they are also given to us as well. We are to go out into the world, to share the word of God, and to place our faith completely in him, not even taking food or money, and to leave the places we are not welcome not with revenge or hate, but simply to shake off the dust.
We are all just regular people, too, just dressers of sycamores. But like Amos, we all have big jobs to do.
–Jon Taylor
Send Us Forth are reflections written by St. Matthew parishioners and friends.