The shortest passage in our readings today drew the most out of me in terms of reflection on my relationship to God.  I think all the lessons are about our relationship to God, but John 10:27 says it best.  “I know my sheep; they hear my voice.”  It is as simple and direct as the parable Jesus tells us about the two sons.  It is about what we do, not what we say that matters.  The Lord knows us by the way we follow him.

But the lessons today do more than just admonish us to act on our faith.  They give us some insights into why that is often so difficult even for people of faith.  The Old Testament lessons reveal that we often get our relationship with God on the wrong track, making it difficult for us to keep our ears tuned to the shepherd.  Ezekiel reminds us that we are tempted to think about our relationship in a legalistic sense.  But God was telling us long before Jesus came to tell us again, it isn’t about how little we sin.  The message here is that God will always forgive us, if we repent and change our ways.  That is why the parable of the two sons lifted the example of the one who changed his mind and decided to do the will of the father as the best example.  He was not only readily forgiven, but he was the model son.  That doesn’t easily fit with our way of thinking. 

It is certainly true that the Lord’s ways are not our ways, or we would not have so much difficulty with the vastness of God’s love and forgiveness.  The Psalm today reminds us that we so often think that God will be pleased with us if we try to live upright lives, but we don’t always follow through with that.  And even when we do, that leads us to worldly pride, and it makes us judgmental of others.  That leads us away from God.  Instead we are to acknowledge our own failures and remain humble in following the Lord’s ways.  That leads us to be compassionate to others, just as the Lord is compassionate to us. 

In the New Testament reading, we see that following Jesus is about learning how to live humbly, regarding others as more important than ourselves, and to do nothing out of selfishness.  We are to look out for other’s interests and not our own.  Today I pray that the Lord knows me by the way I follow him, not by how upright I appear to be in the eyes of the world.