Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time
Looking Good

Don’t you love it when the underdog wins? When the Cardinals beat the Yankees for the championship or the Blues beat the Redwings, or the Rams beat anyone? Even when I watch a game with no St. Louis teams playing, I still like to root for the underdog. That is what I like about today’s Gospel: the last will be first and the first will be last.
Some say that Jesus  was referring to the Jews, God’s  chosen people, whom Jesus called first to be his disciples. When they rejected him, the call went out to the Gentiles, who became followers. Or perhaps in Jesus’ time, he was talking about the leaders of the Jews, the scribes and Pharisees. These refused to follow Jesus, while ordinary Jews who did not feel threatened by Jesus’ teaching became disciples.
In a way, you can understand why the leaders rejected Jesus. They made a nice living out of the offerings made by ordinary Jews. As long as they could decide who could enter the temple, they had a nice income flow. They were smart enough to include the poor, by asking them for smaller offerings. And who could argue with them? They worked for God. How dare Jesus say that they would be cast out, while people from the rest of the world would enter the Kingdom of God!
And how about us? Remember that the Gospel was not written for non-believers. Are we threatened by Jesus’ message? Just as the scribes and Pharisees considered themselves important in God’s eyes because of their office, do we consider ourselves “saved” because we call ourselves Christians? Do we respect all people, or just the ones we like? Are we generous to the poor, or just to our friends? Do we give good example to the people we work with? Do we follow our conscience or do we follow the crowd?
Entry into the Kingdom of God is not a fashion statement. We don’t get there by looking good. We are invited by Jesus to be last on earth so we can be first in the Kingdom.
Tom Schmidt

Short Version
Don’t you love it when the underdog wins? When the Cardinals beat the Yankees for the championship or the Blues beat the Redwings, or the Rams beat anyone? Even when I watch a game with no St. Louis teams playing, I still like to root for the underdog. That is what I like about today’s Gospel: the last will be first and the first will be last.
Some say that Jesus  was talking about the leaders of the Jews, the scribes and Pharisees. These refused to follow Jesus, while ordinary Jews who did not feel threatened by Jesus’ teaching became disciples.
In a way, you can understand why the leaders rejected Jesus. They made a nice living out of the offerings made by ordinary Jews. And who could argue with them? They worked for God. How dare Jesus say that they would be cast out, while people from the rest of the world would enter the Kingdom of God!
And how about us? Remember that the Gospel was not written for non-believers. Are we threatened by Jesus’ message? Just as the scribes and Pharisees considered themselves important in God’s eyes because of their office, do we consider ourselves “saved” because we call ourselves Christians? Are we generous to the poor, or just to our friends? Do we follow our consciences or do we follow the crowd?
Entry into the Kingdom of God is not a fashion statement. We don’t get there by looking good. We are invited by Jesus to be last on earth so we can be first in the Kingdom.
Tom Schmidt