The Road Less Traveled

Gospel: Luke 9: 43-45

Throughout Jesus' time with his disciples he repeatedly told them that he would be handed over to the religious and political leaders of the day and put to death.  Every time Jesus mentioned this to them the disciples refused to listen to it.  This message did not fit with their idea of what the Messiah should be; it did not fit their own ideas for themselves as they hoped to be the future political and religious leaders in Jesus' kingdom.

Throughout history this drama has played out repeatedly and to the same outcome.  Only a very few follow Jesus to the cross.  Everyone else is more than happy to follow after the miracles, the big crowds, the glow of the resurrection.  But they are notoriously absent at Jesus' trial and at the cross, or they have indeed become the political and religious leaders of their day and have consorted to have Jesus put to death once again.  They have become the persecutors instead of the persecuted.  

Today we face the same words of Jesus about his fate, about our own fate.  What will we decide? We can follow the well-worn road of convenience, or we can take the road less traveled, the one Jesus walked, the one that leads more surely to the reign of God. 

Touched by an Angel

Gospel: John 1: 47-51

A person need not be fully open to the promptings of God in order to be visited by an angel in our lives.  The opening of Luke's Gospel recounts two instances in which the angel Gabriel comes to visit people in order to do what angels are commissioned to do: provide a message from God about what they are called to be and do.  

First, Gabriel visits Zechariah in the holy of holies in the Temple in order to announce to him that he and Elizabeth will bear a son called to a great mission.  Zechariah doubted the angel and was made mute; the mission was going to take place regardless.  By contrast, Gabriel next visits Mary to announce to her that she would be the mother of Jesus, a mission she accepts with great humility.  In this acceptance Mary becomes a great cooperator in the work of God on earth.

In our own lives God visits us each day to provide us with a message about our mission of mercy on earth.  We have the choice to be like Zechariah, to doubt and question God's will for our lives, or we can be like Mary, open and accepting of God's message for her and a great cooperator in God's work in the world.

Idle Curiosity

Gospel: Luke 9: 7-9

Herod was curious as to who Jesus was; he wanted to see him and perhaps a spectacle or two, some miracle.  But Herod was not willing to leave the comfort of his palace to seek out Jesus.  His curiosity was a mental exercise; he would not go to where Jesus was - in the poor villages of Galilee; along hillsides, seashore, and wild place; at tables with sinners and the dregs of society. Herod would not see Jesus until the latter's trial, and then Jesus would not speak to him at all.

How often are we like Herod?  We have our curiosity to know Jesus and we entertain various theories from the comfort of our homes and the smugness of our complacency.  But we are not at all comfortable venturing out to see where Jesus truly is - among the poor, the sick and infirm, at the tables of sinners, and in out of the way places with crowds of people hungry for food and hungry in spirit.  When Jesus does come to our place of comfort, it is bound in chains for an imminent death, and he has nothing to say to us.

To find out who Jesus really is requires us to leave our comfort zones and to encounter Jesus in difficult places, places of discomfort for the many who live there.  Once we encounter Jesus there we cannot, we must not, return to the comfort of our palaces.  We must be where Jesus is.

Good News and Healing

Gospel: Luke 9: 1-6

Today's Gospel may come as a shock to many as it relates to the mission statement of the Church and of every Christian.  It bears little resemblance to any church strategic planning sessions where mission statements are crafted or much of the work we claim to do in Jesus' name.  For Jesus gives it to us plainly: preach good news and cure people of their diseases.

To preach good news: the reign of God has come, mercy has been extended to all and in turn we must show mercy to others.  To cure diseases: to be among God's people as Jesus was in order to heal others.  God's kingdom and good news are not proclaimed from distant palace balconies through abstract decrees.  God's kingdom and good news are proclaimed around a table through the sharing of a meal. It is proclaimed in our encounter with the infirm and poor.  

If Jesus were to have undertaken a capital campaign, what would it look like? Would it be to construct a grand cathedral and clerical residence? Or would it be to send people out to heal others and provide for their needs in body, mind, and spirit?  Today we have the mission statement from Jesus that informs our choices in such matters.  

A Big Family

Gospel: Luke 8: 19-21

In ancient religions the primary point of access to the deity was through lineage and ancestry.  To belong to a family that derived from one of the gods, or in the case of Israel to be a descendant of David and Abraham was to have access to God.  Everyone else did not belong to that deity, did not enjoy the protection and care that deity offered to those who belonged.

But today's reading has Jesus overturn all that thinking.  When told of his family's presence, Jesus makes clear that belonging to God's family is not about being a relative or having lineage with anyone.  It is solely about doing the good deeds of God on earth, of offering the same mercy that God has shown us, of loving others as God loved us.  In this way, access to God is open to everyone without qualification.  No one is excluded.

There is never a point in our lives when we are not in need of God's mercy, not in need of God's love.  There are no upper class "faithful" Christians.  There are just sinners in need of God's mercy, and if we seek this mercy we must in turn show this mercy to others.  This is what it means to belong to God's family, a household of people looking to love one another and show mercy to one another each day. 

No Secrets

Gospel: Luke 8: 16-18

We live in an age where almost the entire world is captured on CCTV.  All our actions on electronic devices is monitored and recorded; all of it can be retrieved and accessed.  There are no longer any secrets that are hidden from the world.  To watch people hatch schemes to hide things is like watching children play a game of spy.  They must know it is all just that - play acting.  

In a very real sense, however, our world has always been like this.  There is nothing we can hide from God or from ourselves.  We try and run from our actions like Cain, but we cannot hide from God or our own selves.  We can try to lie to ourselves and God about ourselves, but this leads to all sorts of bad consequences.  Often we try to justify our actions and make them appear to be good, but this too is folly.  There is only one healthy path - to own our deeds, repent over the bad ones, rejoice over the good ones, and be honest, authentic people.

Everyone of us has a light God has placed within us to discover and reveal.  It is for us to seek and make known to ourselves and the world.  It is not defined by another or by some external code or theory.  Everyone has a light, everyone has a good to be discovered and revealed.  Only an authentic, honest self can find it and cultivate it and make it known with God's help.  

A Just Society

Gospel: Matthew 20: 1-16

Today many a sermon will assert that the parable of the workers is not about social justice but instead about God's mercy, overlooking the fact that it in fact could be about both.  The fact that some of the workers were not hired until late in the day is not their fault.  In a society where day laborers are the dominant worker class, it was very common and Jesus chose this scenario because people were all too familiar with it.

An economy built on day laborers where they are only paid for the work they do is one that is steeped in poverty and exploitation.  Day laborers are utterly dependent on these wages to provide for their families.  In our world they are exploited and go hungry; in the kingdom of God all are provided for so that they have a daily wage able to sustain lives.  Our justice cares for the rich land owner; God's justice provides for all.

Which kingdom is ours?  Do we find ourselves extolling the rich men of our day, voting to make sure the masses pay them to build new stadiums? Or are we working to create a society where a living wage is provided for all regardless of what they do? Yes, this parable is about God's mercy, but it is also about our own and the extent to which we extend that mercy of God forward as we are required.   

The Hopeful Farmer

Gospel: Luke 8: 4-15

God is one with endless hope, and today's Gospel highlights that fact.  In the parable of the sower, the farmer (God) spreads seed on all sorts of terrain, even on areas where there is no possibility at all of producing any fruit.  Why does the farmer do this?  It is not a story about a farmer, but one about God, a God who is ever hopeful and who gives the same love and grace to all people of all places.  

What is more, we are not inanimate soil, but we are dynamic human beings capable of change, growth, and transformation.  And it is the seed that God provides us - God's grace and love - that is capable of realizing such transformation within us.  God promised our stony hearts would be changed to natural hearts, and so this seed that God sows can change the rocky soil to rich, productive soil as well.  

And so if God has this generous hope in providing grace and love to all, we must live in the hope that the seed God provides will accomplish its intended goal and produce abundant fruit within us.  These hopeful aspirations lead to hopeful deeds - a hope that our deeds of love and mercy have good effect in a world that often seems hopeless to so many.  That is how God's seed multiplies and bears fruit: God lives in hope and this hope takes root within us bearing deeds of hope in our world. 

Jesus Called Women

Gospel: Luke 8: 1-3

Today's Gospel names three among many women who followed Jesus from town to town just like the men Jesus called to follow him.  That these women are mentioned by name is itself significant, for it represents the fact that they were regarded highly as leaders in the early Christian community.  Their witness of faith they provide throughout the Gospels is indispensable.  

It is Elizabeth and Mary who are the first to be called and the first to believe amid skeptical men.  It is the Samaritan woman who is the first to proclaim Jesus to an entire town and bring them to faith in him.  It is Simon's mother-in-law who is the first to provide diaconal service to others.  And it is Mary Magdalene and these other women who alone remain at the cross and the first to preach the resurrection of Jesus to the others.

Today we are engaged in a conversation on the role of women in Church life and ministry.  As women are made in God's image and likeness and as they are temples of the Holy Spirit through grace, it is illogical to suggest they cannot be icons of Christ in service to the Church.  The central issue of church life in our time is access to sacramental life and whether we think it important for all people or only for a few.   

One Table, Two Encounters

Gospel: Luke 7: 36-50

A Pharisee invites Jesus dine at his house; Jesus accepts and enters, but does not receive the customary washbowl as is customary and required by the laws of hospitality.  Despite this, Jesus sits at table with the Pharisee, whereupon a woman of ill-repute comes along to wash Jesus' feet with perfume and dry them with her hair.  This goes beyond the customs of hospitality; it is generous good-will.  Jesus overlooks her sins and even forgives them because she showed great hospitality and love.

The Pharisee had objected to the woman's presence, though one might wonder of her presence in his house in the first place, but that is exactly the point.  The Pharisee's objection is hypocritical, and his invitation to Jesus was insincere.  In spite of all that Jesus enters a house full of sin in order to share a meal so that an encounter of transformation can take place, one that occurs within the woman, but not in the Pharisee.

Our houses of worship are full of sin - our own individual souls and our communal gatherings of church.  In spite of this fact, Jesus comes into our dwelling places in order to dine with us, in spite of our inhospitable welcome, in spite of the presence of sin - in the hopes that his presence might transform us in some way as it does for this woman.  In every encounter we can be the woman or we can be the Pharisee in our response to Jesus' presence at our table within our house.

An Open Table

Gospel:  Matthew 9: 9-13

Two things are instructive about the call of Matthew to follow Jesus.  The first is that Matthew is at his job as a tax collector - just as Peter and the others were at their jobs fishing - when Jesus comes and calls Matthew to follow him.  There is no qualification, no preconditions - just the simple invitation to follow.  Matthew, like the others, will grow in his relationship with the Lord over time.  It will never be perfect, but it will be authentic and sincere.

The second point is that once Matthew has followed the Lord, he finds himself as open to others as Jesus was to him.  He holds a feast and invites tax collectors and prostitutes to the meal with Jesus, and they find transformation at that table.  By contrast, the Pharisees, the self-proclaimed faithful ones, cannot find transformation at Jesus' table because they feel they have nothing to change, for in their mind they and they alone are worthy to be there.  They have no room to let in others, to have mercy on them as Jesus did.

So, today we have a choice, just as Matthew did.  We can have a table open for all, merciful to all, or we can have a table of the frozen faithful ones.  One is a table of mercy and forgiveness, the other is a table of self-congratulation and criticism of others.  Matthew provided a table as an example for us in our life, one for us to imitate as followers of the Lord Jesus. 

An Act of Charity, A Call to Justice

Gospel: Luke 7: 11-17

Jesus raises up the only son of a widow.  We marvel at the miracle but ignore the underlying story and what Jesus is really doing in this scene.  The man was the only son of a widow, her only source of legal protection and means of support.  His death means abject poverty and vulnerability for her in a male dominated society that ignores the plight of widows and the poor.  By restoring his life, Jesus saves hers from a cruel fate.

We might well wonder why Jesus did not change this social order and structure.  But we forget that this world was given to us humans to cultivate and tend.  In performing this miracle Jesus calls our attention to the injustices we have created in our society, and he invites us to do something about it.  We can't raise the dead, but we can create a social order that protects widows and the poor so that such a situation does not exist again.  It should not take a miracle to have this widow protected in society when we have the means to do so within ourselves to provide.  

So let us marvel and rejoice at this miracle and this woman's good fortune, but let us also see what Jesus calls us to do.  What situations in our world are within our power to save others from economic exploitation and injustice? Whom can we raise up and spare others from a world we have made cruel by our self-interest and indifference?  

A Tale of Two Prayers

Gospel: Luke 7: 1-10

The synagogue officials come to Jesus, telling him that the centurion - a foreign occupier - has a valuable servant in need of healing.  They state that Jesus should do this for the centurion, for he is worthy: he has done all these favors for the local religious community and because of all that he ought to have this healing come to his servant.  

By contrast, the centurion approaches Jesus and states that he is not worthy at all to receive anything from God.  If God wills it, God can heal his servant, and on that reason only is healing affected.  It is this prayer that Jesus hears, for it expresses a faith greater than that which he heard from his own people who went on and on about merit and quid pro quo.  

There are only two prayers God hears in the Gospels: this prayer of the foreign centurion - "Lord I am not worthy..." - and that of the sinful Publican - "Be merciful to me, a wretched sinner." These prayers and not those of worthiness and merit are the ones that rightly declare our true status before God as creatures ever in need of a mercy we do not deserve, but one given as God's free gift of love.   

How Many Times?

Gospel: Matthew 18: 21-35

How many times in our lives have we come before the Lord begging for mercy? In every liturgy we begin with the penitential rite where we ask pardon.  Every night in the Liturgy of the Hours we make an examination of conscience and ask God for forgiveness for this day's sins.  How often have we been to the sacrament of penance asking for mercy over and over, repeating the same sins again and again?

And yet how often are we merciful to other people? How often have we been given a meaningless penance of a few prayers that does not challenge us to be merciful to others.  How often we neglect to be merciful! How many grudges, private hopes for vengeance, and enmities we bear against others.  How much violence, warfare, retribution, and meanness.  How often we look down upon those in need - people we have put in a position of need - so that we might appear better than they!

Jesus made it clear that there is only one condition for salvation and entrance to God's kingdom, and that is showing mercy to others.  It is not about proper creedal statements or precise theology; it is not about attendance at church or at the "right" liturgy; it is not about attending Christian schools or building shrines.  It is solely about showing mercy to other people.   

What Are We Doing?

Gospel: Luke 6: 43-49

"Why do you call me 'Lord, Lord' and not put into practice what I teach you?"  Good question.  The answer is not a good one.  In ancient times towns and villages were regularly overtaken by conquering generals.  Townspeople would like the streets as the army approached and shout "Lord, have mercy!"  This was a way to curry favor with the new general in the hopes he would spare them and share some of his war booty with them, which generals would do in order to create good will among the people.  

In short, we shout 'Lord' to curry favor with the deity, to promote our own self-interest in avoiding punishment and perhaps calling down favor upon us.  We may even do what the deity says to us, but only because it promotes our self-interest and for no other reason. If we feel that the deity's command does not suit our interests we set it aside and seek mercy later on.  This is a transactional relationship and not one of love at all.

We do not do what Jesus asks because we do not love.  We treat him as any other transactional relationship we have in life.  That we treat anyone else in a transactional way is itself problematic because we do not see them as persons, as images of God, as another Christ.  The law of love is designed to change all that in us.  Jesus taught us to call God 'Father' not 'Lord', a title of love, not fear. 

A Parent’s Loss

 

Gospel: John 19: 25-27

 

We do not have a word that names a parent who lost a child.  Children who lose their parents are orphans; spouses who lose their beloved are widows and widowers.  But there is no word to name a parent who loses and child, and yet it is all too common an occurrence.  The grief of a parent over the loss of a child is incalculable.  People who gave life to this person are powerless to prevent the loss of that life; the people who have been with you and who have known you all your life now are at the final moment of the life of their child. 

 

It is for this reason that Mary can truly be mother of us all.  She has been at every stage of her son’s life and can empathize with parents in every situation.  She can rejoice at the birth of a child, understand the fear and vulnerability of a refugee caring for their child, feel the toil of those eking out a living in humble poverty under an oppressive regime, and finally empathize with the pain of a parent who sees their child die and face unjust treatment from religious and political leaders. 

 

Today’s feast is for all those in our world facing such sorrow as a parent: the sorrow of the refugee fleeing a lawless country and coming to a heartless one; the struggle of the poor mother raising her children in poverty in a land indifferent to her plight; the mom who sees her child killed in yet another act of senseless gun violence.  Mary is the model for them, a refuge and comfort of their sorrows and struggles. 

To Save the World

Gospel: John 3: 13-17

"God did not send his son into the world in order to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him."  We are shocked to hear these words of the Lord, for we do not hear them often from those who claim to be "faithful" Christians.  From them we hear only words of condemnation of all things they deem to be worldly.  The voice of the Lord reaching out in loving appeal to the world is not heard over the shrill voices of incessant condemnation.  

More startling yet is that when salvation of the world is discussed, it is always in terms of everyone accepting the rule and power of the self-proclaimed "faithful" Christians.  It is not a salvation through Jesus but through this self-anointed group that has come to equate itself with Jesus.  Such a posture is one of pride and idolatry.  

Today's feast is a reminder of where our salvation lies - in the cross of the Lord Jesus and in no other place.  It is a reminder of every human being's status before God as one utterly sinful and in need of God's mercy, as one without any merit and saved by grace alone, as one who is not faithful but one ever saying with Peter, "Lord, I believe.  Help my unbelief." 

Feed Them Yourselves

Gospel: Luke 6: 20-26

Jesus presents in stark contrast the life and fate of the rich and poor.  For the rich, they have made earth their heaven and deprived the vast multitudes of much happiness here.  But in the kingdom of God, their fate will be much different.  By contrast, the poor of this earth who have suffered the exploitation of the rich will find relief in God's kingdom.  

One might well ask why God does not provide this justice here on earth.  We forget that God entrusted the earth to our care, and God, unlike us, is faithful to the bargains he negotiates.  So the question is really one for us: why don't we provide justice for all on this earth? Why are we so miserly in caring for the poor and ever ready to give more and more to the rich?  

When the vast crowds followed Jesus into a deserted place and lacked food, the disciples asked Jesus to feed them, but he replied: Feed them yourselves.  We can ask God to feed the poor, but we will get the same answer: feed them yourselves.  It is our job given to us by God, and we do not do so.  We have the means at our disposal, but we continue to persist in this injustice.  Where our treasure is, there is our heart... 

Defining the Mission

Gospel: Luke 6: 12-19

Jesus spends all night in prayer; the disciples do not.  Then, Jesus chooses twelve helpers - but for what purpose? We are obsessed with them being chosen; we fixate on their authority and power - but we ignore the real question: why are these people chosen, what were they chosen to do.  They were chosen to help in the ministry of Jesus, but what does this mean?

The Gospel text tells us: when they come down the mountain they are met by a large crowd in desperate need of healing.  Jesus sets about healing others, but what of the twelve?  What are they doing in this scene? Are they encouraging and leading others to Jesus to be healed? Or were they too busy reveling in their new status and position? 

This same challenge is posed to us today, for we too are called by the Lord Jesus to help in his ministry.  We have the opportunity to bring others to him for healing, or we can revel in our status and position, concerned more with fitted cassocks and grand rectories than clothing the poor and housing the homeless.  Jesus came down the mountain to heal and serve others.   

God's Temple

Gospel: Luke 6: 6-11

Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath, to preserve life? Jesus asks this pointed question, one that will inform the rest of the Gospel of Luke.  In what does the worship of God consist? In today's story we find people gathered at Temple for Sabbath worship of God as is customary.  But Jesus invites us to the temple God created for honoring him - the human person.  By healing this man with a withered hand Jesus offers true worship to God.

This same message is found in the parable of the Good Samaritan later in the gospel.  It is the Good Samaritan, not the priest and Levite, who fulfills the law and gains eternal life.  The elements of temple worship - oil and wine - are more appropriately used to worship God in caring for the body of one in need, the body created in God's image and likeness, a body that is a temple of the Holy Spirit.  

Any ritual worship in a temple or church that does not lead us to care for the temple of God in the human person is false worship and taking God's name in vain.  We worship God most fully in caring for those in need, in honoring God in other people who are made in God's image and likeness.  Every day, then, is a Sabbath day.  Every day is a day to do good, to worship God in caring for our neighbor. 

Treating the Outcast

Gospel: Matthew 18: 15-20

So what do we do with a case of someone who offends against the community, one who has done wrong and needs to be corrected? Jesus presents us with a process for one who will not hear private correction or even that of others and the church community: we are to treat them as one would a tax collector or a Gentile.  

We might be inclined at this point to treat such a person harshly, as tax collectors and Gentiles were not regarded very highly.  But consider how Jesus treated Gentiles and tax collectors: he healed Gentiles and fed them when hungry.  Jesus ate meals with tax collectors and prostitutes, inviting them to such meals! He did not exclude them, shun them, or excommunicate them.  He invited them to meals and healed their infirmities.  

The teachings and instructions of Jesus are very much like the parables he uses: they often teach us to do the exact opposite of what we might expect and what the world might do.  We are not to be vengeful people seeking retribution and punishment; we are to always be seeking the way of restoration and transformation for all people, even the one who offends us the most. 

The People are Starving

Gospel: Luke 6: 1-5

Across the globe people starve and those with excess and plenty hoard for themselves, restricting access to food, health care, and other necessities of life for everyone else.  We may hold a canned goods drive here and there, but by and large the needs are not met and the people continue to go without, continue to live with the pangs of hunger and hearts of desperation.

Across the globe fewer and fewer people have access to the sacraments, and people starve spiritually.  We continue to restrict ordination to pseudo-celibate men who reject the permanent diaconate, laypeople distributing communion to those in hospitals and shut-ins, and any other opportunity to expand access to the sacraments.  The people starve and we restrict access to spiritual food even further.

Today's Gospel reminds us that the needs of the people are of greater importance than the privileges of the rich and the arbitrary privileges of the ordained who think God only for themselves.  The people are starving.  What are we going to do about it?  That is the challenge of today's Gospel.  That is our call to answer.   

We Are Family

Gospel: Matthew 1: 1-16

All of us have eclectic families with a wide range of personalities and characters.  Every family has its saints, and every family has its rogues.  Jesus' family is no different.  Today's presentation of his family tree shows heroes like David and scoundrels like, well, David too.  There we find true Israelites, descendants of Abraham, as well as foreigners who find their way into the family.  This family tree is a microcosm of Israel's history: it is not white-washed or sugar coated.  It represents the best and worst of humanity.

Our families, for better or for worse, define us as who we are - both biologically through our genetics and socially in this way in which we were raised.  To embrace our past is to embrace all of it - the good and the bad, not hiding any of it.  That is the greatness of the Biblical tradition: it is brutally honest in preserving all the history, the good and the bad in all its glory and shame.  Those who would have it otherwise do a disservice to the tradition and to humanity at large.

Today's feast celebrates the birth of one of the greatest figures in the tradition in the person of Mary, the Mother of Jesus.  But in giving us the Gospel text of Jesus' genealogy the feast is also a reminder that our past and our family is not all glorious and immaculate like Mary, that it is a collection of people good and bad who, through God's mysterious providence, brought us Jesus and the definitive revelation of God on earth.   

Fishing: A Parable

Gospel: Luke 5: 1-11

The story of Peter fishing is a parable on his - and our own - spiritual lives.  Peter spends all night fishing and catching nothing - an entire block of time in complete darkness, relying on our own lights, and coming up empty.  At dawn we encounter Jesus who suggests to us a different approach.  We are exasperated and tired; we are skeptical of the advice.  But because it comes from God, from a place of generosity and love, we try it.  And we succeed beyond anything we have ever accomplished previously. The light of faith enables us to do so much more.

This encounter with the Lord prompts two simultaneous impulses: thanksgiving and remembrance of our lack of faith.  The gratitude enables us to see ourselves as we are: creatures utterly dependent on God.  Our sorrow for our lack of faith inspires us to continually do better in our lives, to walk more faithfully with the Lord each and every day.  These two movements of the heart are at the core of authentic faith.  

Peter's entire life is encapsulated in this fishing scene.  How often have we seen him have great success when guided by the light of the Lord Jesus, and how often have we seen Peter have great failures relying on lights of human invention.  Yet Peter continues to persevere and follow the Lord.  Our life is encapsulated in Peter's - the successes, the failures, and hopefully perseverance in following the Lord. 

The Model Disciple

Gospel: Luke 4: 38-44

Once again the Gospels provide us with a woman as the one to model the appropriate response to receiving the mercy of Jesus in her life.  Peter's mother-in-law is beset with a fever; Jesus comes to heal her.  What is her response? To serve other people.  This unnamed woman shows us the way to respond authentically to the presence of God in our lives - to go and serve other people.

Throughout the Gospels Jesus will tell people whom he has healed to not tell anyone about it.  The scholars say this is the "Messianic Secret" motif, but this is false.  Jesus is giving us a lesson about authentic discipleship and response to receiving God's mercy.  It is to go and serve other people, not to go about telling others about it.  For in telling others it is not really about bringing people to Jesus; it is about ourselves and our own egos.  It is in reality bringing others to ourselves.  

To bring others to Jesus is to serve them as Jesus served others.  It is to be like Peter's mother-in-law - serving so faithfully that we do not even know her name, for it is in reality Christ who serves and it is Christ who is being served in our neighbor in need.  Take leave of the Christian media empires and cottage industries.  They have made their money; they have their fame and power.  They have received their reward.  Instead go about extending mercy to others and make no name for ourselves. 

Our Comfortable Demons

Gospel: Luke 4: 31-37

A man possessed by a demon enters a house of worship.  Everyone in town seems to know the man as he has been so for some time.  The authorities both religious and civil know him too.  He can't be helped, say these authorities; it's his own fault he finds himself in this situation; we can't help everyone; he just has to cope with it.  And so everyone becomes accustomed to this situation, accepts it, and consigns this man to this fate.

But along comes Jesus who upsets this comfortable arrangement of convenience.  In removing the demon from the man Jesus announces the exact opposite of the authorities of his day (and ours): this man matters; he can be helped; we ought to help him; and everyone can be helped.  Such a statement is a shock to people in Jesus' time, as well as our own times.  

What demons do we tolerate and accept as a given in our society? Whom have we written off as not able to be helped or cared for?  What people in our society do not matter to us? Today's Gospel is a challenge to us to expand our love and our circle of concern.  Those we thought unreachable or beyond help are reachable and can be helped.  How many conditions we once thought beyond repair are now fixable? How many more can be so if we just follow the example of Jesus and look for a way? 

The Prophetic Mission

Gospel: Luke 4: 16-30

 

The Gospel of Luke has Jesus begin his public ministry in his home synagogue reading the message of Isaiah on the prophetic mission to provide good news to the poor, healing to the blind and lame, and a year of jubilee from the Lord.  He then tells the audience that he has come to fulfill this mission in his time and in this place, reminding them that prophets of the past did likewise to unlikely places: Elijah and widow of Zarephath; Elisha and the leper from Syria; and now Jesus to Galilee and beyond. 

 

The people did not want to hear this message.  Why? The region already had a string of Messiah figures who stirred up the people, only to have the Romans come and make things far worse than before.  Besides, they knew Jesus.  He grew up among them: where is he getting all this?  He’s a poor kid with a carpenter for a father – what does he know?  Better to be rid of him than deal with all this.  And yet he disappears from their midst just as they were about to throw him off a cliff.

 

To follow the Lord Jesus is to take up the prophetic task; that is part of the baptismal anointing.  In every age it is a thankless task to bring good news to people that religious authorities would rather be excluded from God’s love and mercy, and certainly excluded from the church community.  To provide ministry to the marginalized is to invite the scorn of religious authorities and their worldly cohorts of political and economic power.  But every year is a year of Jubilee -a year of mercy, forgiveness, care for the poor, correcting injustices, extending the kingdom’s realm ever wider to include all.  

Misreading the Bible

Gospel:  Matthew 16: 21-27

Those who read the Bible as a book of apologetic that exists for them to support the positions they already hold have trouble with passages that do not fit the narrative.  Last week apologists preached endlessly about Peter's primacy as the rock.  But what of this week where Jesus calls Peter a Satan for not judging rightly?  What will the apologists preach this week?

What if we consider the fact that the Bible was not constructed as a book of apologetic but as texts for meditation and reflection, a book wherein we find the story of our life as being similar to those we find in the texts of Scripture.  How often have we had our high moments like Peter last week where we have it all figured out, only to have our low moments like this week where we find ourselves rebuked by the Lord.  What did Peter do? He stayed with Jesus and kept working on his relationship.  Over time he got better, though he would still have his failures.  But he stayed with the Lord and improved over time.

It is in relating to Peter in our own story that we derive real and authentic meaning from the Bible.  His story is our story; his journey is like ours.  What can we learn from Jesus' interactions with Peter that can help our own journey of faith? This is what the Bible is meant to do for us - bringing us to a constant reflection and meditation on our life and our story of faith in relationship to the story of God's interaction with his people across the ages. 

A Talent Unused

Gospel: Matthew 25: 14-30

Everyone has had the experience of seeing a promising young person not achieve their potential and squander a great talent they had been given.  We are sad at such a loss for them and for those who may have benefited from that talent.  By the same token, there is great joy when we see a promising young person achieve their potential, cultivate a talent, and derive great benefit for themselves and others.  

Not all of us have the same talents and abilities in arts or sciences, music or language skills.  We are all different in these things.  But every human being is equal in one talent and ability, the only one that matters - and that is the capacity to love; to serve and care for those in need, to extend mercy to others.  To fail to cultivate this talent is to fail at life itself.  All our accomplishments in athletics or business or medicine matter not if we failed to love others and show mercy to our neighbor.

Whatever our other talents might be in this areas of human skill we are to use them in service to others; we are to use them to extend the love of the Lord Jesus outward into the world.  That is how talents multiply and double in value.  That is our task in the world as disciples of the Lord Jesus. 

Finding Wisdom

Gospel:  Matthew 25: 1-13

It is folly indeed to bring a torch but not any fuel; for us it would be like having a flashlight and no batteries.  We might ask others to share their batteries with us, but that is a foolish request.  The batteries would be of no benefit to them or us.  Our only recourse would be to go and buy batteries at a store that sells them.  In so doing we miss the wedding at which we were supposed to be attendants.  Not a good look.  

The women who did have oil wanted to help, but they knew they were not able.  The unwise women had to go to the source of oil.  If the torches are symbols of our souls and the oil a symbol of grace, then we cannot find such fuel from other human beings but only from the source of grace itself.  We find it in God alone.  Just as the true disciple leads a person to the Lord and then leaves, so our task is not to try and provide oil for others but to lead them to the source of oil itself.

The wise person knows they are not the source of their own wisdom, nor are they the source of wisdom for anyone else.  The wise person knows where to go in order to find wisdom, and they know where to lead others so that they may obtain wisdom for themselves.