33^rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

Year A:  November 13, 2011

First Reading:  Judges 4:1-7

You Can Do It!  By Tony Dungy

(Written for ages 4-8)

Comment:  This passage is the introduction to the very exciting story of the defeat of Sisera in the book of Judges.  However, this passage ends with the foreshadowing of the event by prophetess and judge, Deborah, who assures Barak that God will draw out Sisera and “will give him into your hands”.  While we don’t get to see the event in this passage, what we do see is God providing the opportunity for Barak to succeed.  God’s ways are ways of success.  God provides possibilities for God’s people just as God does for a young man, Linden Dungy, in You Can Do It!.  Linden doesn’t feel he has any skills at all, but a chance toothache and visit to the dentist show Linden the path of success that God has for him.  God “gives it into” his hands.

Second Reading:  I Thessalonians 5: 1-11

Fireflies by Julie Brinckloe

(Written for ages  4-8)

Comment:  Paul writes to the Thessalonians of the perils of the darkness, of its powers, but then he reminds them that they need not fear for they are the “children of light’.  Because of this, they can live in light of God and Jesus and continue their good example of faith and love.  In the book Fireflies a young boy joyfully catches fireflies on a summer night—he sees the beauty of their light in his jar.  But when they are trapped in that jar in his bedroom, their light begins to fade.  He does not give in to a selfish desire to keep them to himself, and instead he lives as a child of the light and lets their light back out into the world.

Gospel Reading:  Matthew 25:  14-30

The Little Yellow Leaf  by Carin Berger

(Written for ages 4-8)

Comment:  This passage is the very familiar parable of the talents.  Each servant is given a different amount and when their master returns the first two return it plus interest and are praised, but the third buries the single talent in the ground and never puts it to any use, and so he is punished.  The main focus is on using the gifts and “talents” that God gives you wisely and joyfully—not buried in the ground.  In The Little Yellow Leaf, although late fall has come and the frost is arriving, one little yellow leaf clings to a tree, afraid to let go, to do what it is supposed to do, what it was made to do as a leaf.  Finally, another leaf encourages it and they float through the air together and enjoy the sights and sounds of fall, doing exactly what leaves were made to do, just as we should do what we were made to do with our talents.

This Lectionary Links post was written by Union Presbyterian Seminary alumna Sara Anne Berger.

Lectionary Links: Sunday, November 13, 2011 by Storypath is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.