Friends, last weekend we talked about the importance of doing extraordinarily well our ordinary tasks—that therein lies our salvation, our happiness, our mission as Christians, baptized followers of our brother, Jesus, the Christ.

That theme of attempting to live extraordinarily well our ordinary lives—making the best of whatever comes our way is a goal worth striving after.  The readings this week speak to this goal and really are about being our best selves.  Let’s take a closer look.

In the first reading from Deuteronomy, the writer talks about the fact that prophets are called by God to speak God’s words.  The responsibility of the rest of us is to listen, and then try to do our piece, which might indicate a change in the way we do things.  We might wonder how we will know who the prophet that we should listen to is.  We get an idea about this from Mark’s Gospel today in the person of Jesus.

Mark tells us that “Jesus taught with an authority that was unlike their religious scholars.  I believe most of us know truth when we hear it.  We stop and reflect something like, “Wow, that is right—I have thought that this needed to be said, and now someone has said it!”  The prophet does not care what speaking the truth might do to them, but just knows that they must say, do this particular action.

Just this morning, one of our women priests shared a story about a woman in Los Angeles who recently, under the heading of #Timesup posted a homily that she wrote advocating that every church, mosque, synagogue or otherwise, places of worship, include women in its leadership as priests, rabbis, imams, and so on, concluding with traveling to Rome to post this message on the doors of the Vatican.  She makes a point of saying that she does this not in the name of any religion, but having been raised as a Lutheran feels that she has license for this action.  Her basic message overall is that “Time is up” and that women too are called!  On the political scene, would that our elected officials would be more prophetic and less selfish—would think less about getting re-elected and more about doing, in this fashion, what is right!

If we are to be more like our brother Jesus; we will need to look with compassion upon one and all that we see suffering in our world.  Jesus, in all his miraculous cures did what he did out of compassion for the one suffering.  It was never about him, his fame, his glory—but about alleviating the suffering that was ever present in his world.  I always cringe when I hear of someone “wanting” a position of power.  Those who are called to serve others don’t necessarily want that position, albeit; they may be willing to serve.

In today’s gospel, it was about expelling a demon that made a young man’s life so miserable.  In Jesus’ time, the people spoke of a person who was ill, not well, as being possessed by a demon.

Anyone who has struggled with an addiction of any kind, or known someone who has,   knows of the “demon” that it can be.  I reflect on the compassion of Jesus and his desire to alleviate the suffering that people live with, especially when it is from no fault of their own when I try to make sense of the actions of our pope this last week.

You will recall that this is in regard to the Chilean man who was abused by a priest , abused again by a bishop who covered up the crime, abused a third time when he came forward to speak of the crime and object to the naming of bishop one who had witnessed the crime when he was a mere priest.  And to add to the victim’s pain, the pope has essentially called him a liar stating that he will not remove the bishop because there is no evidence.

This old loyalty of always believing the cleric over the victim speaks of clericalism, not compassion.  Francis has done great damage because now it is highly unlikely that others will come forward only to be called liars. No apology over hurting the victim will suffice until Francis can hear, really hear, the truth.

The psalmist cries out today, “If today you hear God’s voice, harden not your hearts.” It would seem that Francis has hardened his heart in this regard. The National Catholic Reporter speaks of him having “a blind spot” with regard to this issue.

Paul, in his letter to the Corinthians today is concerned about the difficulty of doing the right thing, of letting anything stand in the way of hearing the Word of God and acting upon it.  He takes issue with marriage for that reason, not because he is against marriage, but he prayed that those listening to him “would have no worries.”  Also, we must remember, as we discussed last week, Paul believed that they weren’t long for this world, that Jesus’ Second Coming was to be soon, thus, be single-minded, don’t let anything get in your way of devoting yourself entirely to God.

It would seem that Jesus had something else in his mind, when he left this earth, physically.  We should never forget that he said, “Don’t be afraid, for I am with you always, helping you to enjoy the gift of life, to share it with others, to look with compassion on those who have less than you, to speak your truth whether it be to presidents or popes.  All this is about living our ordinary lives, extraordinarily well! Amen? Amen!

One of the great spiritual documents of Hinduism, the Bhagavad-Gita teaches us a great truth, “On this path, effort never goes to waste, and there is no failure”—in other words, attempting to do our best is always success.

And this idea is important for us to keep in mind as all of the readings this week have a sense of urgency—the message is really that, time is short; we should not waste a minute of it doing anything less than the good that each of us is called to by our baptisms. And when did our country, especially, need to hear this message more.  I find myself responding to the nightly news with less than a positive response and I am often reminded by my “better angels” to not go down that same path that I abhor. When so-called leaders act with ignorance, intolerance, racism and other evils; I must remember former first lady, Michelle Obama’s words, “When they go low, we go higher.”

Jonah the prophet, in today’s first reading is told to, “Get up, preach [to the people] as I do to you—or in Jesus’ words, “Come; follow me!” Jonah is told in no uncertain terms, [Respond] “in obedience to the word.”

Paul, in his letter to the Corinthians continues the urgency of doing the “right, now!”  In Paul’s time, there was the sense that the Second Coming of Jesus was upon them; that the world as they knew it was coming to an end soon—their time here was short and should not be wasted.

And again, in Mark’s gospel, we hear that “the time of fulfillment “is at hand.  This sense of urgency might be likened to the national movement, #Timesup that demands of us that we be our best selves and do unto others what we would want done to ourselves in regard to sexual abuse and domination of women in all walks of life.

Mark continues with Jesus’ words, “We are to change our hearts and minds.” This reminds me of a commentary I read this past week containing the worry that our country is losing its moral sense—forgetting what we stand for, being willing to accept boorish, selfish and mean stances from our leaders without saying a word—almost as if there is nothing we can do! The commentary urged its readers to remember what our country was founded upon—a nobleness that shone a light to the world and ask if we want to let go of that.

I think sometimes we have the feeling that the problems are too great for us to make a dent in, that we don’t have a chance in making a difference—that we don’t have what is needed to change hearts and minds, to be prophets in our time, but our God has always chosen people who seem less than equipped to do what is needed.

We only have to look at the Scriptures today to see that—Jonah was an unlikely prophet—he ran from God, in the opposite direction of the place God wanted him to go before he headed to his mission in the belly of a whale—you will recall that all of this happened prior to our Gospel selection today. Now whether this story was true as written or part of the imagination of the writer in order to teach us a truth, the point is that our God believes in each of us and will not keep trying to have us respond and live up to our potential.

Paul had to be struck off his horse before God could get his attention! Even Jesus, exegetes tell us, in his humanity had to struggle to know completely who he was, what he was to do and when.  He appeared to the people, in the beginning, as we spoke of here last week, as one like others—John had to point him out and name him as the one they had been waiting for.

So what is it that makes us people who can make a difference?  We must look to our brother Jesus for the answer.  He was one who continually asked his Abba to show him the way—he prayed for guidance and strength—he took the time to become a model for others to follow. Paul, throughout his ministry prayed, “I believe O God, help my unbelief.”

Jonah’s time in the belly of the whale, or again, some other kind of confinement, intended to help him see beyond his own needs,  must have been quite instructive to him and given him the courage to do what he had first run from because once he got to Nineveh, he seemed, in his preaching, to be someone the people couldn’t ignore, for we are told that from the youngest to the oldest, the people began to fast and pray in order to become the people God had called them to be.

When Jesus walked the earth, one of the main professions was fishing—several of his first disciples were fishermen and in Jesus’ call to them, he said he would make them, “fishers of humankind.”

Our task, my friends, is to make Jesus’ call fit our own lives.  From the Scriptures today; we have seen that we must make their message our own.  None of us are in the fishing trade, but each of us is called within the profession we have chosen to model Jesus to our world.  Whether we are teachers, nurses, farmers, business people, in any of many trades, moms and dads, grandparents, wives, husbands, pastors, athletes, students, congress people, writers, actors or any of many other professions; we will be called through all of that to be our best selves, to live our lives extraordinarily well.  That is what people will see in us and attract them to do the same.

The gifts of living our lives extraordinarily well will be obvious to those around us: peace, love, understanding, kindness generosity, patience, mercy, and so on and we will be irresistible.  Not that we always do it perfectly, but that we try!  And as the wisdom of the Bhagavad-Gita teaches, we will always be a success!

People will want to know what makes our lives so meaningful and we can humbly tell them that we try to walk in the footsteps of our brother Jesus and that it makes all the difference. Amen? Amen!