Jesus, our brother gets right to it in today’s gospel from Luke—he minces no words—he is simple and direct—the words from the prophet Isaiah “are fulfilled today in your hearing!”   His message is not what the people expect—Jesus reads from Isaiah about the long-awaited Messiah and basically tells them that he is the One that they have been expecting!  Talk about speaking your truth!  The story today stops short of the peoples’ ultimate reaction to Jesus’ words, but we know they weren’t very accepting of what he had to say.

We are told that the omission of this part of the story in today’s gospel is helpful in order that we can join with the people hearing it to decide how we will accept Jesus’ claim.  It is always good to put ourselves into any story from Scripture and check out our own reaction to it in order to make the story come alive for us.  Is it asking too much to see God in another?

The first reading from the less familiar book of Nehemiah describes another liturgical setting. The people of Israel are just back from exile and they are out of practice in the ways of their God. They realize that their lives haven’t been reflective of what God asks of covenanted people and they are grieving over their unfaithfulness.  Nehemiah, being the good prophet that he was gently tells them not to weep, but to learn from their mistakes and to move on. He reminds them that most of all, their God is merciful—a good message for all of us.

The point about being less than we are called to be is a good one to look at in our daily lives as we reflect on who we are as Jesus’ followers.  In my personal life; I find I can at times make critical statements impulsively, not fully understanding what a loved one’s intention might be.  Just because someone acted similarly in the past doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t be given a chance to prove themselves once again as our God does with the exiles in today’s first reading from Nehemiah.  I find in myself the tendency toward harsh tones in ways that I wouldn’t do with the public, so I must question myself about how I do, in fact, love, those closest to me.

So friends, the two liturgical settings of today’s scriptures can be compared to our own; we hear the Word, and then we must make sense of what has been proclaimed—allow the words to come alive through the power of the Spirit.  The words of Scripture were always intended to come alive in each generation—the intention, I believe, is that we would in our own time need to make sense of what was handed down. Luke’s gospel is a good example of this, for all of it is a handing down of tradition as Luke wasn’t one of the original followers of Jesus.

The question we need to ask is, “Do we take the words of Scripture to heart, make them our own, or do we act like Jesus’ neighbors and say, that can’t be meant for me?” The messiah can’t come now, not in my time and certainly not in the person of my long-time neighbor!  You can’t ask me to believe that! If we keep with this train of thought, then the accusations and disbelief can continue—the challenging message is meant for someone else. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if those running for office, those already in Congress, really listened to each other,  tried to understand what the rhetoric in the other is really all about—is there truth there or just politics.

The challenge is there today for myself as a minister of the Word—how do I break open the words—do I take seriously my calling to wake us up to take with conviction these words of old and make them come alive, today? My job is not to just repeat the story back to you—serve up milk toast, but to give you food to chew on.  Perhaps, at times, the food will be hard to digest, but hopefully, it will be a menu of many delicacies  that will fill your body, minds and spirits for the week.

In this regard, a bit of a reminder—much of what I give you isn’t law, certainly not always accepted by the Church—but new insights intended to help us grow.  The Spirit leads us to that—to really “chew on,” as it were, the words of Scripture, be challenged by them and ask questions and expect answers.

I am reminded of the interview that Joan Chittister did with Oprah Winfrey for her Sunday morning show, Super Soul Sunday where Joan speaks about the differences in the faith systems in our country and world.  She asks Oprah, and I paraphrase; why is it, if we all believe in one God and all the major faith systems say they do; why would we expect “that-one-God”  to be giving different messages? She says, it will necessarily all be about truth, goodness and Oprah adds, “Love, that is the language,” to which Joan wholeheartedly agrees. It is this kind of shared wisdom, discussion and questioning that we must expect and look for in a Church led by the Spirit of God!

The words of Scripture and especially, Jesus’ words, are timeless and are meant for every age—they do not grow old—each age is intended to take his words and apply them to the contemporary world.  Paul’s words to the Corinthians today are an example of this.

Paul uses the metaphor of the body to speak of the differences within the community of believers.  The church at Corinth is struggling with the different manifestations of belief within their community—those who speak in tongues, those who heal and so on.  They are fighting among themselves over who is most important.

Paul clearly tells them—just like your bodies, wherein each part and function is important, so in your community of believers—the manifestations of grace are meant for a reason, for a purpose.  Accept each and grow from it—just as your eyes have a function—your ears—the blood that surges through your heart and veins; in the community of believers—all the gifts are important, the small and seemingly, large. Together, we do something great!

And here it is important to remember and perhaps rephrase what Paul is saying.  In his time, it was common to speak of healings, speaking in tongues, interpreting the tongues, so that in our time; we may think this doesn’t apply to us. My friends, “healing” takes many forms. We “heal” with our generous out-reach to those less fortunate; the Home Delivered Meals that our parish will again partake in this year in February, monetary donations to local, national and international organizations working to uplift peoples’ lives, cooking for our Catholic Worker homes with a parish monthly meal, through kind words and gestures on a daily basis in our daily encounters.

I came upon a new initiative as I was preparing this homily that speaks of inventive ways to “heal” in our local communities. The organization, Sandy Hook Promise, began by the parents and family members of the 26 students and teachers who were killed by gun violence three years ago are committed to the idea that their loved ones did not die in vain, and have put forth a new proposal for schools entitled, Start With Hello.  The idea behind this proposal is that students would reach out to others who they perceive to be alone and isolated and simply start with greeting them, “Hello.”  The program will be inaugurated February 8-12, 2016 and evidently hundreds of schools are already signed up to take part.  It is thought that whatever causes someone to strike out against those they associate with has to have something to do with their feelings of alienation. The promise that Sandy Hook parents made to their children is that they will do all they can to assure that such violence will not be wreaked again on other children.

Paul’s letter to the Corinthians also addresses “speaking in tongues” and again, we may think this has nothing to do with us—we would be wrong there too. We each have the ability to, in a sense, “speak in tongues” by standing up for what we believe in, speaking the word of truth when in a group and no one else will.  When we speak our bit of truth; we empower others to do the same, thus “interpreting the tongues” and growing together.

The people that Paul is writing too seem to be caught up in competition over whose gift in ministry is best rather than just doing something!  Paul tells them that life is too precious to quibble over who is doing what—our task is to simply do something!  None among us can do it all, even though we might feel inclined to try. Our task is to do our part.  And what our part is, changes over time, but we always have a part to do!  This weekend, we have a final chance to vote for our board—if you haven’t yet voted, please do!

And finally, let us pray friends, that like our brother Jesus, we will be present to do the part that God has asked us to do, and to do it in way that no one else can do, because no one else is us—we have a unique gift to give and we must give it! Amen? Amen!

 

Today friends, we are being asked to consider our lives as Jesus’ followers in the context of a wedding—the commitment of two people, one for the other.  We all love weddings; or at least, we love the idea of weddings.  Weddings signal new life—new hope—a time of promise; two people being willing to trust and commit their lives to each other—two individuals becoming one in their gift to the other.  Those of you who are married or have a significant relationship, or who have watched your children or friends marry; know the hope and promise of such times.

Wedding vows speak of “loving in sickness and in health, in good times and in bad—until death.”  The commitment speaks of intimacy. A wedding, for all these reasons and more is simply a time of great joy, and a promise of hope.  It is a time of deep emotions for parents, family and friends.

Today we find ourselves at the wedding feast in Cana. Being that Jesus and his disciples were invited; we can assume as does Marjorie Holmes in The Messiah that Jesus probably knew those getting married—they were probably friends or extended family members.  The fact that Mary, his mother, could say to the attendants, “Do whatever he tells you,” and as a woman in that culture, be listened to, only makes sense if in fact as guests, Mary and Jesus had some importance.  This was early in Jesus’ public ministry—Scripture tells us that this was his first miracle, so it wasn’t his fame that caused the attendants to follow his commands and in fact, if he had been famous, he probably wouldn’t have been invited due to his presence morphing the event.

On a purely human level, that time for Jesus, his mother and his disciples had to have been very moving—not only the intimacy of a wedding, the love expressed by people that Jesus and his mother no doubt knew, but the beginning of his public ministry of miraculous love shared for all.

The reading from Isaiah also speaks of our God’s love for each of us in the context of a wedding. We are told that God loves us in just the same way, with the same intimacy that a newly married couple have for each other.

When you think of the love and caring of a newly married couple, when everything is very dear, tender, hope-filled for all that life will bring and reflect that this is how our God loves each of us, as the prophet tells us today; this is quite an awesome thing!

When you think too of some of the best love stories you know of; there is many times a reckless moment when the one in love will just throw caution to the wind and blurt out their love because now it finally has to be said, even if the love is turned down.

For those of you who are fans of the British Series, As Time Goes By, you are aware of  two main characters, Sandy and Harry.  They love each other, but never quite get around to saying it until Harry; a rugby-playing police officer gets a promotion and is being sent to Canada.  He can’t imagine leaving Sandy behind and wants to take her with him as his bride, but is a man of few words and waits until the day before he is to leave and in fact within hours of his flight to blurt out, and now he has no lack of words, his love for Sandy and the fact that he really can’t live without her. She is thrilled of course that he has finally found his voice and she says, “Yes.”

My friends, this is how, we are told today, our God loves us—as a lover in search of the beloved, always keeping her/his eyes on us. But our God, says the prophet, loves us even further—our God will not rest until justice happens in each of our lives. Our God is relentless in this the prophet proclaims. In this I am reminded that in the State of the Union address given on Tuesday night by our president, Barack Obama; we heard the same message—he will be relentless in pursuing justice for all those in this country who need it—for healthcare, for education, for safety from gun violence, for care of our planet, for peace between nations, for safety from terrorists.  He challenged his hearers and especially his opponents in Congress to do the same because, “it’s the right thing to do.”

He will be thwarted in his push for justice just as Jesus was in his time, just as we will be in ours—that is the push and pull between good and evil that our free wills afford us.  Jesus’ task, our president’s task (and political parties don’t matter here), and our task will be to constantly keep speaking truth to power for justice for all.

And our God will keep pursuing us relentlessly so that we know that we are loved.  We know the history of the covenants or promises between the Israelite people and God—the promises were made, but the people always fell short of their commitment to God.  But we see that God is always willing to take them, and us, by extension, back.  As Isaiah tells them, tells us; we are God’s delight.  Just as spouses trust in one another and give freely of their love and their lives to each other; our loving God gives to us.

God takes great pride in us—we, each of us, are the apple of God’s eyes, and our loving God will go to any end to show that to us. We will see sign after sign as we move through the Church Year of a God who considers you and me so important that leaving the 99 behind to search for us when we are lost, will not be out of the question.  We will see the face of God in the woman who turned her house upside-down looking for the coin that was lost—looking for us!

The example of this great love that God has for us is clearly shown at Cana—Jesus is not only aware of the shortage of wine, which, by the way, I always need to point out, his mother informed him of—but he supplies it and most generously—a wonderful example to me of “couple” or co-ministry each doing their part, one seeing what the other doesn’t  and supporting each other for the good of all. In addition; we need to be aware, and not miss the deeper meaning of the wedding feast.  In John’s gospel, the miracles are all called “signs” to indicate to us and make clear this deeper meaning.

In Celtic spirituality there is an idea known as a “thin place.”  This can be a time, place or event where for a very brief moment our humanity is embraced by the mystery of the divine and we are filled with the wonder of God.  It can happen when we least expect and in the most ordinary of times.  A wedding feast could be one of these times.

Couple love, in whatever way that is found—love unselfishly given is always a wonderful sign of God’s love for us.  Jesus chose such an event to perform his first miracle—a sign showing the abundant love of God for each of us.  God’s love and compassion for each of us is not just enough, but it is over-the-top as shown in Jesus’ gift to the new couple. How embarrassing it would have been had the wine ran out.  Jesus supplied the wine—made enough and more than enough. God always wants the best for us. When we trust in our loving God, we too will receive all and more than we need.

And what is it that we might need?  Most of us look for meaning in our lives—what is it that I am to do?  Where is my place?  Earlier, I said that Jesus showed us signs that had deeper meanings that we must not miss.  The wedding feast at Cana, the first of his signs lets us know that new life abounds in the Spirit of God.

The stone jars filled with water were for ceremonial washing—Jesus takes something common to the people and makes it into something new—free flowing wine was a sign of eschatological fulfillment that was expected in the end times.   Jesus is signaling that the fulfillment can come now, in our lives.

My friends, each of us is important; each of us has a God-given task to perform—to bring new life and love to our world.  This is the fulfillment that Jesus points to.  Paul tells us in his letter to the Corinthians that the Spirit is “manifested” in each one of us for “the common good.” We think back to the Epiphany celebrated a few weeks ago—the manifestation or “showing forth” of something great.

Let’s pray together today that each of us will have the strength in this New Year to do our part to make life more abundant for all. My friends, our Christian faith calls us to make a difference where we are now—it is what we are called to. Our world is in need of more of those “thin places” where the wonder of God shows through! May we all be blessed today and may we be relentless in seeking justice for all. Amen? Amen!

 

 

My friends, as you can see, the Church Year, with the readings for this week, has taken a major leap forward.  We are not at the crib anymore, but are suddenly thrust into the public life of our brother Jesus.  The seeming bliss of the crib, even with its ardors, is over, and now; we find Jesus on the brink of all that his Abba has called him to—his reason for becoming Emmanuel-God-with-us.

The overriding theme of the Christmas Season has been hope—a hope that with new life; change, goodness and renewed love and compassion for all, is possible. Whenever new life comes to us; we instinctively feel this hope.  Symbols like the star, shedding light in the darkness of our seeming chaos are comfort for our souls so in need of that comfort amid wars raging around our world, amid so much death and suffering in our country—lives unmercifully taken out of fear and mental illness and so much of it due to a proliferation of guns in the hands of our people.   Hope springs eternal that as we move from the crib in Bethlehem to the waters of the Jordan, that new life is possible.

In order for us to understand the true significance of Jesus’ baptism, it is good to look at what John’s baptism “of repentance for the forgiveness of sins” was really all about.   It was a different experience for Jesus, than for the others who came to John. We believe Jesus to have been without sin, so why would he subject himself to this ritual of cleansing that made sense to the common people who were accustomed to ritual cleansings and the symbolic inner value that it represented?

We perhaps make the event too simple as well as Jesus’ entire human life if we simply label him, “without sin.”  If we in fact do this, do we not take his humanity away?  To be human means that we are imperfect by nature—we are susceptible to that which isn’t perfect.  The true gift of Jesus our brother was that he took on our humanity, our imperfection, to show us the way to live an imperfect existence, perfectly.  So, it was necessary to immerse himself in our life completely, to step down, as it were, written about so beautifully by Paul in his letter to the Philippians, chapter 2—“His state was divine, yet he did not cling to it.”

It has been suggested that he also took this opportunity to receive divine affirmation for his messianic mission.  We hear—“this is my Beloved, on you my favor rests!”  Just as Mary perhaps needed Elizabeth’s affirmation that the Child she carried was indeed who the angel said he would be—“Who am I that the mother of my God should visit me?”  The voice from heaven that we hear about in the Scriptures today was an ancient Israelite way of referring to divine communication.

So we see the stage is being set for our brother Jesus, one perfectly “with us” taking on our existence in its entirety, complete with all the joys, sufferings and frustrations and when he comes out of the water, Jesus is fully ready as servant, prophet and priest to bring justice to the nations, to open the eyes of the blind, to bring out prisoners from confinement, as Isaiah has so beautifully described the role of the servant/Messiah for us today.

This description, read today from Isaiah, of what it is to be a servant is a wonderful definition and call to each of us as baptized Christians to move among God’s people doing what we can, what we must, to make sure that Jesus’ justice—God’s justice, is there for all. Bringing justice is what Isaiah’s servant does—nothing less.  So how do we do this we might ask?  A prime example this next year comes for each of us as we prepare to vote in national elections for new leadership. We have a responsibility to vote for those candidates who will bring the most justice to the least among us.  We reach out of our comfort and help where we can, whenever we can.  The psalmist prays today, “Our God will bless the people with peace—our gift, my friends, for being servants. The evangelist Luke, in the reading from Acts today, reminds us that “Jesus went about doing good works and healing all who were in the grip of the Devil.”  Our brother Jesus calls us likewise to be our best selves—bringing peace, not chaos into peoples’ lives. In addition, welcome should always be on our lips, to invite, to include more—everyone in fact, in God’s love.

With that in mind, I would like to invite once again, as in the past, for each of you to take one of my cards and in your wanderings throughout the next weeks, invite someone who may be without a church family, or frustrated with where they are, to come and be with us.  And don’t worry what people do or say—we, each of us merely need to invite, to welcome, and the Spirit will take it from there.

If we look at Jesus’ life, we see too that there was much chaos to deal with, but if he has asked us to continue his work—to be his hands, eyes, ears and heart for the world, then we can be equally sure that we will not be left alone.  I take great hope from Jesus’ promise, before he physically left us, that, he would be with us always—we shouldn’t be afraid.

So, my friends, Christmas is over—we can’t continue to look back at the babe in Bethlehem, the innocent, sweet child;  but we must move forward now with the adult Jesus who is calling each of us to be the change our world so badly needs. Today calls each of us to consider our own baptisms and what that action ultimately means in our lives. Most of us were baptized as infants, a gift our parents gave us.  Now, as adults, as followers of our brother Jesus, we can no longer be complacent as when we were infants. In the words of my friend, Fr. Paul Nelson, “We are called to dignity, to rise above excuses in life, to engage our best selves.” Amen? Amen!