When we limit our understanding of what it means to be a disciple or an apostle to membership in a group of 12 men who lived 2,000 years ago, we can easily forget to heed Jesus’ call to us to follow and serve him today.
We limit the power of Jesus’ call to use our gifts to serve the neighbor if we somehow think we can’t be like Peter, James, Mary Magdalene or Martha. The disciples were more like us than we realize. They were ordinary, working-class people. Yet God worked through all these imperfect followers of Jesus to proclaim the good news and serve a world in need.
This message is an excerpt from “Everyday disciples” by Rebecca Sheridan in the May 2019 issue of Gather magazine. Today is the ninth Sunday after Pentecost. We remember Clare, abbess of San Damiano, who died in 1253.
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