My friends, three years ago, I shared a quote from Miriam Williams in an article for the National Catholic Reporter (NCR) where she stated some fine wisdom to address our Scripture readings today: In a piece entitled, A Strong Faith Can Handle the Test of Startling Questions, she is responding primarily to religious evangelicals and other conservatives who want to have their faith all laid out for them—do this, do that and you’re saved! Williams writes that [she] “believes a strong faith can handle the test of ‘tough meat’ when it comes in the form of startling questions” (my apologies to my vegetarian friends).
She continued: “What if God sees nothing wrong with women delivering the Gospel? What if homosexuality isn’t a sin? What if the Bible is literary, but not literal?” She goes on, “I chew, I listen for God in the bites. I digest. I am energized and satisfied, even as I wonder how much longer so many people will feel full on theology that starves them.”
My friends, I feel that Williams’ words here are a perfect answer to today’s readings; so let’s look at them more closely. In the first reading from Numbers, Josuah complains to Moses that two of their group, Eldad and Medad, not present when God’s Spirit came upon them, are now “prophesying” too. Jesus encounters the same sentiment in today’s gospel from Mark in the words of apostle John who seems to be speaking for the rest of the apostles that people not of their group are speaking in Jesus’ name.
Jesus here, as Moses before him, has to teach his followers the “deeper’ truth in each situation. Moses prophetically says, “If only all of God’s people were prophets!” Jesus, in his own, but different words, affirms his Old Testament brother’s sentiment, and says more, “Anyone not against us, is with us” [!]
What both Moses and Jesus seem to be saying and doing in these two encounters, is trying to move the people of old, and we in the present, are included in this as well, to see beyond our human tendency to look one dimensionally, getting stuck in “surface ideas,” instead of “going deeper,” and rather than being “possessive” of God’s message, “letting” the message “go where it will,” doing good.
And my friends, isn’t that really what our Christian life is all about? To welcome strangers, regardless of their religious/spiritual leanings, to our table of love—here? To welcome the Spirit-led ideas of all, to “chew on” them, as Miriam Williams has said, and perhaps come to a new understanding? That is why I always invite your comments to my homilies, because I truly believe that God’s Spirit speaks to us all as we listen to the Word.
James, in today’s 2nd reading is, in like manner, encouraging the hearers of his words to go deeper, looking at a specific area of their lives—the material riches that they have accumulated. He seems to be saying, the “riches” in themselves, are not wrong, but what you do with them,” is. There should always be the sense, especially when we have more than we need, to be aware of others who have less, or perhaps very little of the world’s goods, and then, be willing to share.
James really minces no words in saying that if the gifts we have, don’t compel us to share with those who have not, then we have missed Jesus’ message, and should perhaps rethink our lives.
So my friends, I would like now to go back to that overriding idea of the three readings today—that of being a prophet. I think we Christians, raised in the Catholic church before the Second Vatican Council have learned well the idea that we “should know our place” and I believe women, traditionally have come to this idea even more so than men, and that is due to “patriarchy” in the Church, as well as in society, with the ”glass ceiling” that we women always come up against.
So, the idea of any of us women, or men, being a “prophet” in our own time, might seem, a bit, “out there!” But a close read of today’s Scriptures would seem to say, “not so.” Moses is clearly “longing” in the first reading that, “all of God’s people [would be] prophets!”
Perhaps a definition of “prophet” would be in order here. The 1st definition of “prophet” in most sources is—“one who foretells the future.” The 2nd meaning given is of someone speaking about, “changing the lives of the people” that the prophet is speaking to, and this was said to be, “a more central part of their mission.” The 2nd reading today from James is a prime example of this.
My friends, I believe that when any of us speaks what, in our hearts, we seem to be given to say, even if we are ridiculed for it, we are speaking as a prophet. Again, that is why I always invite your thoughts following the readings and my homilies.
Jesus calms his apostles in today’s gospel who are worried about “those not of their group speaking and acting in Jesus’ name.” He basically tells them that any “action for good” done in my name can never be wrong. It would seem that we should always be ready to be a prophet. Each of you, choosing to be part of All Are One Catholic parish, led by a woman priest, which is not accepted by the powers-that-be within our Church, is acting as a prophet, and especially so, when you speak to others about your involvement here.
The Church that most of us grew up loving, to some extent, has in its hierarchy chosen to squash the actions of would-be prophets by instilling the “fear of god” into them, when what they are saying goes against the hierarchy’s need to be in control of the message. I will always remember Bishop Harrington of the Winona diocese, writing to me after my diaconal ordination, and before my priestly ordination, asking me “to recant” my actions, because “I would be confusing the people.” For me, it was a decision of saying “no” to him, or to God, and I couldn’t say “no” to God.
Thus, my friends, I think each of us must always be ready to be a prophet, because we never know when God’s call is going to come! And being a prophet is not, as in today’s gospel, about following a protocol, or “the crowd,” but about, “speaking the Word” –we are all called to that!
On a personal note, I grew up a faithful and faith-filled Catholic, and as I said earlier, “before Vatican Council II, we all pretty much deferred to “Father” as if to God, so that when I became more sure that I was being called to priestly ordination, in order to be a pastor, and the hierarchy said “no” to me, I was at a bit of a loss, until one day, a Southern Baptist minister who was also my (CPE) Clinical Pastoral Education instructor said to me, that I didn’t need anyone’s permission to do what God was asking—calling me to do.
Thus my friends, let us pray for each other to have the strength to respond to God’s grace, speaking what God indeed gives to each of us to speak, and to do! Amen? Amen!
All Are One Church 
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