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Tuesday 31st
Week OT
The Institute
November 3, 3015
TYPES OF
OPPORTUNITIES ++++++++++++++++++++++
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“Opportunity
knocks only once,” the saying goes
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One ought to be alert, ready, and available when
the knock comes
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Missing an opportunity is regrettable, but those
alert and ready to take it are the blessed by our culture
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Today’s Gospel, though, complicates things &
and invites us 2 consider whether culture’s version of opportunity & blessedness
matches that of the K/G
PRIORITIES +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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We hear, “Blessed
is the 1 who will dine in the K/G”
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This pronouncement at table prompts Jesus to
tell a story about those who are invited to the dinner
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A 2nd opportunity comes a-knockin’
for those first invited and they seize it
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With sights set on prosperity and enjoyment on
this 2nd opportunity, they find themselves too busy and therefore
unavailable 4 the blessedness of dining in the Kingdom
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The poor, though, and the blind, the lame, the
alley and hedgerow dwellers are available
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Because they have nowhere else to go and nothing
to lose, they are ready for real
opportunity with nothing else to distract them
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Can we learn from them?
APPLICATION +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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Paul seems to think so and offers good advice to
all who desire to recognize the K/G when it does come a-knockin’
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He advises,
“Don’t B haughty. Associate w/ lowly”
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That means establishing bonds of mutual
affection among us, honoring each other
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With regard to those who might be labeled
“lowly” among us, we might try to see things from their perspective
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Or we might not disdain performing lowly tasks
CONCLUSION
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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If we take Paul’s advice, if we say with the
psalmist, “I busy not myself with great
things,” then a great opportunity is sure to present itself to us
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It may come a-knockin’ in some veiled form this
very day.
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