S U N D A Y
Love Our Minds: Week 13 of Ordinary Time
We’re more than one-third of the way through Ordinary Time! For these seven weeks, following Bobby Gross’ excellent outline for Ordinary Time, we’ll consider a cycle of God’s love that alternates between permission to love ourselves and the imperative to love our neighbor. This week we are contemplating what it means to love our minds as we love ourselves.
Sunday’s scripture
Isaiah 56:1–8, Psalm 67, Romans 11:13–24, Matthew 15:21–28
The scripture readings for today combined with the readings for the rest of the week (listed below) contain a deep, deep mystery. In Romans, Paul asks, “Who has known the mind of the Lord?” In Corinthians, he assures us, “We have the mind of Christ.”
In the Gospel passage, we listen with Jesus to Simon Peter’s proclamation, “You are the Messiah, the son of the living God!” Deep calls to deep, and we recognize the truth of this statement. In Jesus’ response to Peter, we resonate with his delight, “You didn’t get that answer out of books or from teachers. My Father in heaven, God himself, let you in on this secret of who I really am.” (The Message)
As the community of Jesus’s followers who’ve been following in Peter’s footsteps ever since, we are also familiar with the tension of what our inner selves know to be true and the cognitive dissonance of living in a broken, anxious world. I speak to this mental fatigue in the excerpt from The Spacious Path that I’m sharing this week (listen to me read on audio, if you prefer). The data I provide gives us a glimpse into what many of you know firsthand: our minds are exhausted.
We are experiencing levels of collective weariness that many people describe as unprecedented, yet the long history of the people of God—from Job to Mother Teresa and countless others— reveal stories of people who held together great faith and an intimate understanding of deep mental anguish.
—Tamara Hill Murphy, The Spacious Path
Throughout each week of Ordinary Time, I’m featuring songs from The Porter’s Gate because their body of work feels like it could be a soundtrack for the devotional outline in Living the Christian Year. Today’s song is one of the new releases for a collaboration with Sanctuary Mental Health Ministries, an album of songs about mental health and faith.
The album hopes to center “around the lived experience of people who are often marginalized in churches and by modeling life-giving and healing ways for congregants to talk (and sing) about mental health challenges.”
Why create a worship album focused on the theme of mental health challenges? … how can we help people hold on to God’s presence at all times and in all circumstances—including experiences of mental health challenges?
I chose today’s image by Caitlin Connolly because it’s one I often think of when I’m feeling bombarded by anxious thoughts. How does the image resonate with you? Listening to the opening lyrics of today’s song, in what way do you sense Jesus inviting you to love your mind in his restful way?
When I am lost inside my mind / Sing me the hope I cannot find
