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27th Sunday OT 2008 It’s among the strongest human emotion to feel rejection. A person drops their friend. An employer sacks their worker after many years of faithful working. Couples break up. Neighbours fall out after living together for many years in friendship and instead and warm is the coldness of rejection. Rejection can be a terrible thing. You don’t fit in, you are of no use, you are unimportant, you are out in the cold, you are not part of the plans. All of the worst feelings about yourself come out: unimportant, not valued, of little use. I am unloved. In the Gospel we hear of a parable of rejection. Despite the pleas of the landowner to do what is right, he is rejected. He sends his servants , but they are rejected. In the end he sends his son to persuade them, but he too is rejected and killed. It is a strong parable in which Jesus recognises that he will be rejected by the men of his time and by many thereafter. He is like a stone which a person looks at and feels and rejects as no use and throws away, but in actual fact is the corner stone, the key stone, without which the building cannot stand. That is our experience in the faith, he is the key stone, without him everything would fall down. Without him everything would be built on sand, everything would be swept away if rains and wind should come. He is our refuge, he is our strength. We have not rejected him, thrown him away We know down through the ages people have rejected God. For us who have not rejected God we wonder how that is possible. How is it possible to reject the thing that creates us? How is possible to reject the one without whom the world would have no meaning? If you say that the sky in the heavens doesn’t exist, does it means it doesn’t exist? If you say that the sun doesn’t exist does that means it is no longer there? If you say that the ground below your feet doesn’t exist , does it mean that it is not there? What a marvellous thing free will is but what a terrifying thing it is too. That we could reject God, that we could cut ourselves off, that we could decide. That we could look, feel, look again and throw God away, he doesn’t fit into our plans, other things are important. That feeling that many have thrown away the keystone is repeated and terrifying. Lest we bit a complacent. It is possible to choose God and yet make God in our image. It doesn’t disturb us, it doesn’t make us different, we don’t have to choose. God is of course God and God is not of our own making. It is possible to reject him at another level. You have him and it doesn’t make a blind bit of difference, because you have shaped him to suit you. We have the power to reject God but the strange thing is that God doesn’t reject us. He loves us, forgives us, cares for us. he doesn’t throw us away, like something that doesn’t fit in. He constantly reminds us that he loves us, we are his child, we are the works of hands, we are special in his sight. Prayers of the Faithful 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time Priest We are reminded that God is a God of compassion, mercy and forgiveness, He does not reject us but calls us his children. With faith and confidence we entrust the desires and prayers of hearts to Him Intercessor We pray that the Church may be a sign of God’s love in a world in which so many are rejected Lord hear us We pray for all who feel themselves rejected in life – that in the life of faith they will feel themselves loved by God Lord hear us For countries of the third world who so often feel themselves treated with the cold shoulder of rejection – that justice and mercy will flourish for all God’s people Lord hear us For people who have rejected God in their life – that they may find Him who is the centre and the heart of all things. Lord hear us For those who feel laid low by long term illness, especially all those who are alone in their suffering. Lord hear us For all who have died, especially Annie Glancey and all those whose anniversaries occur at this time Lord hear us Priest Heavenly Father, In you we hope. In you we trust. In you we put our confidence. Top Comment on this Homily |