Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity AD 2025

When school children play dodgeball or any other team sport, it usually involves picking teams. Usually, the two best players are appointed captains of the opposing teams, and they take turns picking players for their teams. The ones who are picked first are proud, but the fewer there are to choose from, the more embarrassing it becomes for them. And almost always, in the end, there is one left who no one wants on their team…

Today’s Epistle also speaks of being chosen and called. It is a divine calling that is higher than being selected even for the best team in any sport. It is a calling that is higher than being awarded the Nobel Prize or being elected as a senator or president. It is a calling to live and walk as a child of God, bearing witness to Him and His grace in word and deed.

It is a vocation that inextricably includes “lowliness and meekness, long-suffering and forbearing one another in love.” Our divine vocation should not make us proud, like being selected for the dodgeball team, but rather humble, knowing that our Captain has chosen us not for our worthiness, but for his grace.

Part of this grace is that there is no one He does not want on His team – yes, we are all miserable and unworthy, but He has chosen and called us all nonetheless. Let us not let His call go to waste – either because we consider ourselves too good or too poor for His team. “For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.”