The time was now. Jesus decided he was ready to choose his
twelve apostles. Just advertising in the newspapers didn’t seem
thorough enough. So Jesus decided to hold an Olympics from which the
twelve would be chosen. The people came from all over. The
competition was fierce. Jesus had to judge all the events.
First came the prayer event. People had practiced and it showed in
the speed with which they could recite the words. Some articulated the
words with utmost precision. Some used big impressive words. Still
others expressed lofty ideas. But when it came time for a winner to be
selected, Jesus chose none. There didn’t see to be any heart in their
prayers. They were just words.
Second came the worship event. These contestants, too, had done
their homework. Some wore beautiful garments. Some used lots of
incense. Some emphasized music. Others incorporated gestures. But
again, when it was selection time, there was no winner. There didn’t
seem to be any heart in worship. It was too showy. Third came the teaching event. This was a prepared group. Some
came with elaborate posters. Some came with long, well ordered talks.
Some came with DVD players. Others came with their small groups to
demonstrate process. Again, no winners. There was no heart in
teaching. The methods seemed more important.
So, the Olympics ended. No winners, no apostles. Exhausted after
his long exasperating ordeal, Jesus went down to the lake to cool off and
relax. Then the miracle happened. He saw people fishing. Now there
were some people who put their hearts into what they were about. So he
chose them!
Remember… the first disciples of Jesus were ordinary people.
They weren’t great public speakers, scholars, kings or saints. They
weren’t presidents, theologians or ordained ministers. They were
fishermen. A tax collector. Common field workers. Who, by God’s
power, and their openness, made great things happen! What about us –
Could great things happen through us? Yes — By God’s Power and Our
Openness!
Archive for the ‘Ordinary Time’ Category
The First Disciples of Jesus 1-26-2020
Sunday, January 26th, 2020Behold God is in Our Midst 1-19-2020
Sunday, January 19th, 2020The character of John the Baptist is someone we usually meet
around Christmas but over the last two weeks he has played a major role
in launching Jesus on his three-year mission. Some scholars say John
the Baptist’s role was to point people to Jesus… “Look! There’s the
Lamb of God…Look! God is in our midst.” Pointing people to Jesus
and then getting out of the way and letting Jesus work in people’s lives.
I believe that this Sunday reminds us that as baptized Christians it
is our role to point people to Jesus and to get out of the way like John the
Baptist. We may do this in very different ways than John the Baptist,
but we need to do it each in our own way.
An eight-year old boy is facing surgery. He asks his doctor,
“What’s it like to die?” Neither the doctor nor anyone else on the
medical staff can answer this question directly – but one hospital
employee can. She isn’t a doctor or nurse or child psychologist. She
cleans the floors. One night the boy asks her, “Are you afraid of
dying?” She puts down her mop, looks up from the floor and replies, “Yes, I am, but I do something about it.” She talks to the boy as an
equal, not as a superior. She tells him that she believes in God and finds
comfort in the words of Jesus. The two talk for a long time. She has put
the boy at peace simply by listening to him. Behold, the Lamb of God…
A high school student is struggling with his algebra homework.
The frustration builds and the teenager slams the book shut. His father
comes into the kitchen and asks if he can help, but the teenager says,
“They didn’t even have algebra in your day.” Defeated and angry, the
boy goes off to bed. At 4:00 A.M., his dad shakes his son awake and
sits him back down at the kitchen table. The father, who works two jobs
as a janitor and a chauffeur, sat up all night to read the algebra book
from cover to cover. He worked the problems through until he
understood them enough to be able to explain them to his son. With his
dad tutoring him, the student finally grasps the equations and completes
his homework. That night, a father taught his son much more than
algebra. Behold, the Lamb of God…
Within a month, she had lost both her father and her mother. It
was something neither she nor her husband knew how to deal with. She was devastated; getting through the days was often more than she could
handle. He thought he might be able to lessen the blow by being a more
attentive spouse or more romantic husband. He felt more and more
inadequate at not being able to do something to alleviate her grief. Then
the night came for them to see the musical Wicked. The tickets had been
bought months before. The two lead sang a song that always reminded
her of her mother. That’s when he realized his role: to be there to hold
her hand, to have Kleenex at the ready, to let her know he would be
there when the music ended and the lights came back on. Behold, the
Lamb of God…
I close…
In every act of selfless generosity and humble compassion, the
Lamb of God walks in our midst. Everyone of us – of every profession
and age group, possessing every talent, skill and ability – has been
called, as the Baptizer was called, to point to the Christ, the Lamb of
God, dwelling among us and walking with us in our doubts, our hurts,
our fears. John declared his witness in preaching and baptizing at the
Jordan; our witness can be declared in less vocal but no less effective vehicles: in our compassion for others, in our uncompromising moral
and ethical convictions, in our everyday sense of joy and peace.
Behold, God is in our midst! Amen
Count On It 11-17-2019
Sunday, November 17th, 2019One night in 1983, over 100 million television viewers saw the
movie The Day After. Filmed in Lawrence, Kansas, it portrayed what
that city would be like after a nuclear attack.
Just before the film began, a warning flashed on the screen, saying,
“Because of graphic portrayal of nuclear war, this film may be
unsuitable for children. Parental discretion is advised.”
The warning was well given. For during the next 128 minutes, the
movie showed shocking scenes of death and destruction. The script, too,
was shocking and disturbing. It made us realize that the possibility of a
nuclear attack was greater than we had ever imagined.
The words and images of today’s gospel are reminiscent of the
words and images of that film.
Jesus portrays for us, graphically, the destruction of Jerusalem and
the Temple. For Jews, the destruction of these two things was equivalent to the end of the world. Precisely for this reason, the Church uses this gospel passage as
one of its readings for the end of the liturgical year. It wants us to reflect
on the end of the world.
It wants us to reflect on that moment when the world, as we know
it, will pass away.
It wants us to ask ourselves, “How prepared will we be for that
moment when it comes?”
A few stories to help us reflect…
John was a building contractor for a construction company. His
specialty was large luxury homes.
To increase his income, John routinely cheated on the materials
that went into the homes. He was so clever at concealing these shortcuts
that he joked to a close friend that even he couldn’t detect his own
shortcuts.
Sometimes his cheating reached such a proportion that the homeowners were in fairly serious danger because of the under
constructed electrical systems and the like. The building contractor’s shortcuts were especially dangerous in
the final home he built. Even he worried about some of the things he did
in that home.
You can imagine his utter consternation, therefore, when the
company gave the contractor this home as a retirement gift. It would be
the home in which he and his wife would spend the rest of their years.
How is this story a parable of life? What corners are we cutting in
our life, figuring nobody will be the wiser for it? Speak to God about
the shortcuts in our life.
In April 1987, Hall of Famer Mickey Mantle was returning by
plane to his home in Dallas. Suddenly he began to sweat and have
difficulty breathing. The thought flashed into his mind: “I’m having a
heart attack!” He summoned a flight attendant and was given oxygen.
When the plane landed, he was rushed to a hospital.
Later, Mantle told an Associated Press correspondent about dream he had while he was in the hospital. “I dreamed I died and went to heaven. Saint Peter greeted me. I
said, ‘I’m Mickey Mantle.’ He said, ‘Really? Come in, God wants to
see you.’
“I went to see God, and he said, ‘We can’t keep you here because
of the way you acted. But do me a favor and sign six dozen baseballs.’”
When the humor of Mantle’s dream subsides, truth emerges: No
one will escape God’s judgment, and no one will get VIP treatment in
that judgment.
What frightens us most about standing before God in judgment?
Speak to God about this fear, and ask God how we can overcome it.
I would like to close with these few words, think of them when you
start worrying too much about anything. Especially about when the end
of the world might happen.
If God were to drop us a postcard today, I think he might write,
“My dear sons and daughters I love you in Jesus more than you can ever
know. Through the human nature of my son I share all of your life with
you – even the sickness and failure and pain, even the final cross and the knowledge of death. Not all, or even many, of the crosses you will put up with in life are of my making. Believe me, I grieve over them just as
much as you do. But in the midst of it all, I will be there. I will be there
with you. I will be there for you. And a relationship will be forged
between us that earth and time and heaven and hell will never be able to
break. I love you. True, bad things are bound to happen – but never the
worst. I will always have you, and you will always have me. Count on
it!”
