The call for each of us to live lives of goodness cannot be taken lightly.  In just 10 weeks we will come to the end of the Church Year and during these weeks will focus on the end times and judgment.  It should give us great comfort though that the final Sunday is Good Shepherd Sunday. The image of the Good Shepherd—of one who will leave the 99 and go in search of the lost one gives us a huge clue into the heart and mind of our loving God—of, in fact, the way we will be treated—our God will always come searching for us, no matter how far away we may have strayed.

The call to each of us during these final weeks of the Church year will be to seriously look at how we can grow closer to our God who loves us beyond all imagining.  We will see in the upcoming weeks, beginning today, that people in privileged positions seem to be passed over in favor of those who appear to be “undeserving.”  The workers in our Gospel message, who were hired at the end of the day, seem to have acquired the first place.  In truth, they were probably the workers who weren’t as capable for whatever reason—and had been standing there all day waiting to be hired but were not chosen—kind of like choosing up sides for the ball team; the smallest, seemingly less competent players are always chosen last.

This is a good time for each of us to ask ourselves whether our love is only extended to the people that we like and who are good to us, or do we have place in our hearts for those who are different, who are difficult, who may in fact live in fear of what life will do to them, thus they put on a “hard, unfriendly face” to the world.  Last week, one of you, mentioned POTUS, the President of the United States, without actually mentioning his name.  The gist of the comment was that you found him, hard to love.  You aren’t alone in that and perhaps we need to spend some time understanding where he came from, and while not accepting many of his unpresidential ways, trying to find a place in our hearts for what is unfinished in him and at least pray that he will grow into the position.

Isaiah definitely does not take lightly his duty to call the Israelites and ultimately, us, to conversion. His whole message is to give up our unloving ways and return to God.  The Israelites have this wonderful history of being in covenant with God—which, as we recall, means that God has promised to be their God and they will be, God’s people. They, in other words, are the chosen of God and should be faithful as God is faithful. And just so we can understand Isaiah’s task here, he isn’t speaking to the people because of random failings, but about a clear pattern of turning away from God and living less than good lives.  Isaiah is challenging them to make an “about face”—to begin again to live humble and good lives. Do we hear his call today to do the same?

This challenge to return to God is laced throughout the readings today.  Also, within the challenge of returning to God is the warning about not being smug in our “apparent” goodness.  We recall the words of the Pharisee from the Gospel, “Thank God I’m not like the rest of these people!”

Some of you may be watching the Ken Burns and Lynn Novick film, The Vietnam War that began this past week.  It was perhaps smugness and righteousness on our parts as Americans that allowed us to become so entrenched in this South Asian country.  We reacted to a long-held fear of Communism, making many ill-conceived decisions that were so detrimental to our country and to Viet Nam, a nation that had struggled for many years before we arrived, to simply be free of foreign interference.  Viet Nam was fighting a civil war and we missed that most important fact. Like our own civil war, it was for them to fight to become the country they needed to be.

There is clearly more of this “smugness” going on in the Gospel reading today, but for now, let’s focus on God’s eternal response to this covenanted people and to us.  We need to remember that to make a covenant with someone was a solemn promise—something not to be taken lightly.  So for this people to turn their backs on God was really an act of betrayal. But even in the face of this betrayal, God is forgiving and merciful and pardons their sins once again.

The psalmist then offers praise and blessing all his days because God’s goodness is unfathomable, even beyond human understanding.  We get a sense of this in our Gospel reading today. It’s a reading that most of us on a purely human level find hard to get our heads around—giving the person who worked only one hour the same pay as the one who sweated and labored in the heat of the day.  Really, the only way to understand it is through our hearts.

If our faith goes no deeper than what is just and fair and right on a human level, we will never understand Jesus and his mission on this earth.  A bit of “going to the heart” would have aided us greatly in our conflict in Viet Nam.  Jesus, in all the Scriptures of the New Testament is about telling us that we are loved mightily by our God—a God who will never be out-done in generosity, love or mercy.

This loving God wants to share goodness with all and could it be that those who find it easier to maneuver in this world are being passed over for those who seemingly have so much less? For all the times that these workers stood the entire day waiting to be hired and were passed over, could it be that the owner (God) is telling us that all the debts will be settled or perhaps evened-up one day?  This was the thinking behind the old Negro Spirituals—that one day, there would be justice. Could it be that for those of us who smugly bask in our goodness; God might be instructing us to bring everyone into the fold—to remember that divine goodness is extended to all—clearly demonstrated in this Gospel reading, today.

When I think of this reading and its message, that indeed God’s goodness is meant for all—no exceptions, I find it hard to believe that any church ministers of any kind or denomination would even dare to exclude anyone from the table of communion—for any reason, if that person wants to receive.  Communion means, in its best sense, “unity” and that it would ever be used as a power play to control the People of God, is nothing less than, sin. The Winona Interfaith Council, of which Dick Dahl and I are members, operates out of this message—that all are welcome and acceptable.

So, again, perhaps more questions than answers, but keeping our eyes on Jesus will always show us the way—I remind us of this often, but it is so true.  Our way of doing things is always lacking, because most of us are never without some selfishness.  I am presently reading Joan Chittister’s book, Called to Question, a small volume that addresses some of the smugness that the rule-keepers among us live under. It is convenient to have all the answers to all the questions—questions that many times, we as church denominations have asked and answered without any input from God. What happens when questions arise that don’t fit the neat, little answers? Chittister, in her book challenges us all to ask such questions and to see that the answers respond to the needs of all in our present world.

Most of us have to work quite hard to keep ourselves out of the equation, of whom God loves and why.  But our God is always about extending justice to all—to everyone who asks and God’s justice, unlike ours, is grounded in mercy.  Isaiah prophesies   today—“My ways are so far above yours!”  And that is why this parable today is so perfect—by human standards, it makes no sense, but by divine standards—it is so completely of God—for God’s love is insurmountable!  Amen? Amen!

 

My friends, we are faced this week with our purely human selves and our responses as humans to what life brings.  While it may be purely human to respond to hatred, lack of mercy, violence of all kinds with more of the same; it isn’t what our brother Jesus, who was fully human and fully divine, asks of us as his followers.  We see in the Scriptures that at the summit of his earthly life on Good Friday; Jesus chose to forgive those who had treated him so badly.

Thinking more fully on Jesus’ response to the ultimate suffering of the cross, he asked his Maker, his Abba, to forgive them because they did not know what they were doing.  Perhaps that may be a way for all of us to forgive the wrongs done to us in this life—that the perpetrators of evil didn’t know, nor understand what they were doing.

Most of us have lived long enough to know that the Old Testament formula of “an eye for an eye” does not bring resolution or peace, but only more of the same.  Jesus tells Peter in today’s gospel that he must forgive 70×7—or in other words—always!  Forgiveness must always be our response to evil done.

A more present day prophet, Martin Luther King Jr., as we recorded last week said, “Only love can bring an end to hate; only light can bring an end to darkness.”  It would seem that we are called to more than a human response.

Jesus struggled too with his humanity—to love as he saw his God loving, responding to his world in more of a divine manner.  Jesus, like us, encountered peoples’ ignorance, arrogance, lack of mercy, selfishness—that was what the cross was all about and all the hate called forth the very best in him—rather than hate the perpetrators of the cross—in the end, he simply loved them.

We have to wonder how many who played a part in his actual death, who may have watched him die, were ultimately affected for the good.  Scripture doesn’t tell us, but I believe; they had to have been changed for the good.

This past week, our country remembered the 16^th anniversary of September 11^th 2001 when our country was attacked with the bringing down of the Twin Towers in New York City.  I was moved more this year by what the suffering all those years ago has done to some of the children of the more than 3,000 who died that day.

Rather than holding on to the rage, the violence—the ultimate grief, some of these children, now adults, have chosen instead to follow in their parents’ footsteps, reaching out to save rather than kill or hurt others.

The two wars of the last 16 years, one fought in retaliation, one basically out of greed, in the lands, hearts and minds of the “enemy” with victims on both sides are still going on today and only love, only light can bring an end to the hate, to the darkness.  Only forgiveness—only forgiveness can ultimately bring peace.

We have to do unto others as we would want them to do unto us the Golden Rule, the prophets of all times, Sirach, Jesus, all the rest tell us so passionately.  Maybe the greatness of this country is yet to be realized when we give up our weapons of mass destruction and invite the rest of the world to do the same.  We have no ground to stand on asking North Korea to give up theirs, yet hold on to ours.

So friends, on this 24^th weekend in Ordinary Time when we hear from the psalmist that our God “is tender and compassionate, slow to anger and most loving,” and Paul tells us that, “we don’t live for ourselves,” we have no simple answers to these very complex questions of living out our humanity coupled with that in us that is divine, only that we keep our eyes on Jesus and as his followers, see the light that will lead to peace.

 

My friends, the framework for this homily I put together six years ago and it’s there that I am beginning today, updating to this present time.  Paul, in his letter to the Romans tells us that love is the fulfillment of the law and the other readings confirm this notion. That may sound easy as it rolls off our tongues, “Love is the fulfillment of the law,” but we need to ask ourselves just what that means and how would it look in our lives, yours and mine if we lived as though we believed it!

Would it mean that if I truly love—behaving in a loving way; I wouldn’t have to keep any laws—does the act of loving supersede the law?   In the best sense, laws are intended, to make life more orderly, fair, safe, and just for everyone.  What I as an individual think and believe—is that how we should do things? or do I need to take what others think into account as well?  What ultimately should be the measure for how things are done?

We see in the first reading today that God knows how things should go—that indeed each of us must listen to the Word and respond accordingly.  Ezekiel’s task is to make sure that the Israelites hear the Word.  What they do with it once it has been preached to them is apparently their business—their choice. God will not force anyone to hear the Word and act accordingly.  Our loving God simply offers and then we have to choose.

We get a strong message in all the readings today of how God would like us to respond.  That is the beauty and the heartbreak of it—that God loves us so much—wants us to choose the most loving way for ourselves and others—but will never force us.  Psalm 95 proclaims the message, “If today you hear God’s voice, harden not your hearts!”   This psalm gives us the sense of a very relational God, one who shepherds the flock.  The people who originally heard this psalm were a pastoral community—they were shepherds and they understood their connection to the sheep as a very intimate one because they would literally lay down their lives for their sheep—this was their livelihood—and if God’s love for them and for us was/is like that; wow!– that is a wonderful thing!

Our responsibility then, is to not harden our hearts, but trust that all will be well in our lives even when things seemingly aren’t.  A God who loves us in such an intimate way will never leave us, but will walk with us, loving us until we find the way out of darkness as the first hymn today so beautifully spoke of—sending us comfort and assistance in the form of family-friends-colleagues.

You each were invited to take a stone today when you arrived—a reminder to us that our hearts are sometimes made of stone.  The Scriptures throughout the year give us several times to reflect on this theme—that we basically need to “soften up!” Perhaps the stone can be a part of your reflection this week in that regard, as we continue to make the efforts to “get out of our boat.”

In today’s reading from Romans, Paul says that our only debt to another is to love them.  In that loving, we have fulfilled the law. Will that loving always be easy? No. Sometimes it will mean speaking the truth even when that is hard, as Jesus instructs in the gospel today—sometimes the law doesn’t go far enough, doesn’t keep everyone safe, isn’t just for all and lacks mercy. Pope Francis said as much yesterday in Colombia.

So, this brings us full circle to my original question to all of us—what would it look like in our lives if LOVE truly, every time, fulfilled the law?

• I believe if LOVE truly ruled over law, we would take care of our poor; no one in this great country or around the world would ever be without the basics of food, clothing and shelter. And the thing is, our world is capable of feeding, clothing and sheltering everyone—we just have to decide to do it!—to make it a priority.   And this underscores the importance of making alliances around the world so that we can get to the root causes of why so many people suffer needlessly.
• I believe if LOVE truly ruled over law, we would wage peace, not war—we would find a way to talk to each other, both as countries and as individuals—again the need for making alliances. We wouldn’t be wasting time playing school boy games, flexing our muscles as our response to aggressive actions, at home and abroad.
• I believe if LOVE truly ruled over law, the seminaries would stop teaching male clerics that Jesus is only fully manifested in this world through men. It is time that ordained male clerics stand in unison with their female colleagues and friends, proclaiming the Christ that they see there! In fact, it is time that men across our world, those in power and control take a second look at the women around them and see their capabilities and give them equal pay for equal work. Our Church leaders could be instrumental in this task—“Shortage of priests”—indeed! Yes, there is work to do so that the Jerome Kulases of this world would stop proclaiming untruths about women, namely that, “there are no women priests” as he stated this past week in a letter to the editor of the Winona Daily News.

• I believe if LOVE truly ruled over law, everyone, absolutely everyone would be welcome at the communion table—no exceptions.
• I believe if LOVE truly ruled; the responsibility to pay for the benefits of freedom would be equally shared in our country—that the rich and the big corporations wouldn’t be exempt.
• I believe if LOVE truly ruled; the president and Congress would do the work of the people with compassion and justice for all—a current example is the DACA program (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals). In another letter to the editor this past week, in both the Winona Daily News and The Post, author Jean Gunderson wrote about the ability we have as a nation to do the right thing for the greatest amount of people, citing current programs that make life better for the disadvantaged among us, including DACA. In conjunction with our question this week of determining what LOVE perfecting the law would look like, Gunderson’s use of a quote from Martin Luther King Jr. seems appropriate: “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that.  Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”

Friends, the days when life was really simple–do 1-2-3 and heaven is a shoe-in are really over, if that was ever true at all. In following Jesus’ admonition to love one’s neighbor, Paul takes this to mean, everyone—not just the neighbors and family members we like and agree with, but the cranky, disagreeable and aggravating ones too!

When we go that extra mile to follow the law to love over following the law to obey, we really have chosen the harder part as Paul suggests—that is why he can say that love is the fulfillment of the law.  Our brother Jesus, it was suggested by one of you, was the first, perfect example of living completely the law to love.  Love can be very satisfying—it was designed by our loving God that way to allow us to have a heavenly experience even here on earth. Love can also be very demanding at times—there will be crosses to carry as we heard last Sunday from Jesus, but if we truly are about loving in his footsteps, then we will be willing to carry the crosses.