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In Sunday’s reading from Matthew, Jesus begins his ministry not in triumph but in the shadow of John’s arrest, a beginning that feels like an ending. He does so in Galilee, on the margins, in mixed places where identity feels thin, and empire presses hardest. In other words, Matthew tells his community that you don’t have to be in Jerusalem or in the center for God to find you, because the kingdom begins in places you’d least expect. It is a word of grace.
When Jesus calls those first disciples, there is no backstory, no qualifications, no moral résumé. The emphasis falls entirely on his initiative, not their heroism. “Follow me” is not a task but a direction; he doesn’t hand them a job description; he gives them a trajectory. “I will make you fishers of people.” The transformation is in the future tense, and the work is his. As he moves through Galilee, Matthew ends the scene with a sweeping summary of teaching, proclaiming, and healing every disease and sickness. The kingdom arrives not as ideology but as embodied mercy.
I'm really looking forward to Sunday, when our deacon-in-training will preach.
Weather permitting. Father Karl
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