God's Chosen Ones

God’s Chosen Ones – Twenty-Ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time Year C

In seventh grade I began at a new school where I did not know anyone.  That first week the gym teacher picked me as one of the captains for kickball.  Not knowing anyone, I chose people who had been kind to me that week.  As it turned out, none of them were athletes.  Despite this disadvantage, our team played very well and we almost won, losing only by one run.  Everyone was surprised at this outcome, and I have reflected often on this incident from my youth.  I believe that my non-athletic friends played well because they were chosen.  Their usual experience had been that they were chosen last after all the better players were selected for teams.  Hence, they really were not wanted on the teams previously; they were there because they had to be chosen.  But in this one instance they were chosen first because they were wanted and valued, and they rose to the occasion.  Today’s readings ask us to reflect on being chosen by God.

Moses was the great leader of the Israelite people, called by God to lead this insignificant group of people out of slavery and to freedom in a land all their own.  In the account from the first reading, we find God’s chosen ones beset by a powerful enemy.  The Israelites had no human reason for thinking success would be theirs, and yet they proved victorious that day.  God had chosen them, and in this moment they were reminded of this fact.  By constantly being aware of our election by God we can overcome any adversary in our spiritual lives.  This account, as the early church fathers remind us, is not about war and conquering armies, but rather about our battles in the realm of the spirit.  The reality of God’s election for us provides us the inspiration we need to succeed in the spiritual life.

The Gospel text for today provides us a second example of divine election.  Widows were powerless and vulnerable people in biblical times.  So, when Jesus tells the story of a widow pleading for justice in a legal dispute, we must recall that the widow had no expectation of success in her case.  In fact, the judge does not even rule in her favor based on any notion of justice or mercy, but solely because he wanted the woman to stop bothering him.  The point of the story is that Jesus sides with the widow, just as God had done many times in the Hebrew Scriptures.  She becomes for us an example in perseverance in prayer, for she knew that while human law and judgment may be against her, God favors the poor and powerless and chooses them as His own.  Her confidence was in God alone, and so it must be for us.

Pope Francis reminds us that as followers of the Lord Jesus we must not seek to occupy spaces of power, but instead seek to be present in processes.  Divine election is about a process of ongoing growth in knowledge and love.  It is not about possessing power so that we might lord it over others and dominate them.  The task of evangelization is about the processes of relationships with others in mutual respect and dialogue, not in occupying space in pugilistic apologetic.  The model of relationship sees divine election as an ongoing process that never ends, thereby honoring the fundamental mystery that is God.  Apologetic without the balancing effect of relationship tends to see divine election as completion, that our own position is secured and we must do nothing but set up defensive walls of conflict with others who are not thus chosen by God.

The stories of failure by the Israelites in their relationship with God and the constant failures of the disciples during Jesus’ public ministry represent the importance of process and relationship.  God continually stays in relationship with His people; Jesus continues the relationship with His disciples.  The failures of God’s people in each instance occur when they see election as completion rather than ongoing relationship, for such an attitude leads to idolatry and injustice by those who hold it.

As we strive to remain in right relationship with God and one another, the examples of salvation history can help us understand the meaning of God’s choice in our lives.  We pray together for the ability to remain conscious of God’s election for each person:  “Let us pray to the Lord who bends close to hear our prayer.  Lord our God, Father of all, you guard us under the shadow of your wings and search into the depths of our hearts.  Remove the blindness that cannot know you and relieve the fear that would hide us from your sight.  We ask this through Christ our Lord.  Amen.” 

Vending Machine Theology

Vending Machine Theology – 27^th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year C

Most people regard our relationship with God as akin to our relationship with a vending machine.  With a vending machine, we put money in the slot, select our preferred snack or beverage, and we have what we want and what we perceive we need at that moment.  Analogously, many people think of our relationship with God as putting in our prayer to God, making our selection, and then getting what we want and what we perceive we need at that moment or sometime thereafter.  When we do not get what we want, we get angry at God or we create some apologetic answer about God’s time God saying no.  The readings today suggest that we abandon such apologetics and seek a deeper understanding of our relationship with God.

The prophet Habakkuk is frustrated at God’s inaction with respect to his prayer.  The prophet sees violence all about, and he implores God to come at once to solve the myriad of problems that beset Israel and Judah.  Habakkuk has inserted his prayer, but God has not reacted in the way the prophet thought.  Instead, God provides the prophet a vision of what will come in terms of deliverance, but God provides no timetable for the fulfillment of this vision.  God promises that it will come, and that the just one will live because of his faith in God.  This vision, of course, is Messianic in nature and will not be fulfilled in Habakkuk’s time or in any time soon thereafter.  However, the fulfillment is not important for the prophet.  God has promised life for those who are faithful and just in every generation.  The prophet will see Israel and Judah besieged and the people taken into exile, but those who remain faithful and just in these circumstances will live.

This message of fidelity and justice is the theme of the second letter to Timothy.  The Messianic promise has come in the person of Jesus, and yet the people of God continue to face hardships.  Why?  The promise of the prophets did not consist of the absence of hardships, but rather the ability to endure them with faith while persevering in justice.  Jesus the Lord has given us an example of how to live in the midst of hardship and persecution:  we are not to resort to violence or any other human tactic.  Instead, we must suffer as Jesus suffered, for in His death and resurrection He has given us “power and love and self-control.”  Is this not what was promised in the prophetic age?  Yet, we continue to complain about hardships and suffering.  How little is our faith.

The disciples in the Gospel passage today realize their lack of faith, and so they ask Jesus to increase their faith.  They have inserted their prayer, and now they await the attainment of their selection.  However, Jesus responds to them in the same enigmatic way He always responds in such situations, and it remains for us to discern what Jesus intended.  He responds that if they had faith it could move mountains, but since they lack such faith what are they to do?  Jesus then tells us the parable of the servant who serves both in the fields and in the house, not seeking any reward for the servant is merely doing what he ought. 

The image of servant is not one we readily take to in modern times, and yet it is the only apt image for the life of faith.  We expect the life of faith to be one of ease, warm feelings, and joyful experiences.  The prosperity gospel has taught us to expect such – and riches on earth besides!  And yet Jesus tells us that if we want our faith to increase we must decrease in our own estimation of ourselves.  Jesus the Lord left His heaven to become a human being.  He was born of humble human origins in an obscure part of the world.  He bent down to wash our feet – something not even a servant would do for his master.  In the end, Jesus died a humiliating death for our redemption.  The Lord Jesus Himself became even less than a slave for us, and yet we expect to live like kings and use God as a vending machine! 

Pope Francis recently stated, “The ministers of the Gospel must be people who can warm the hearts of the people, who walk through the dark night with them, who know how to dialogue and to descend themselves into their people’s night, into the darkness, but without getting lost.”  Jesus calls us to humble service, not haughty triumphalism and pugilistic apologetic.  Jesus has given us an example to follow in the path of humble service, for in this service we will find the answer to all of our requests for an increase in faith.

As we gather together to find strength and inspiration in the journey of faith, we pray:  “Let us pray before the face of God, in trusting faith.  Almighty and eternal God, Father of the world to come, your goodness is beyond what our spirit can touch, and your strength is more than the mind can bear.  Lead us to seek beyond our reach and give us the courage to stand before your truth.  We ask this through Christ our Lord.  Amen.”