Homily for the Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Scriptures for today's Mass
This is
the third week of our message series on How To Vacation.
We've
looked at vacations from a variety of angles:
-
vacation as a kind of reward that we've earned
-
vacation as something that's owed us
-
vacation as a gift -from God
- to be shared
and used, wisely and well
-
vacation as a time to grow rich in what really brings us peace,
what
truly satisfies us,
vacation
as a time to grow rich in the things that really matter,
in the
things that really matter to God.
We spend
a lot of time getting ready for vacation, planning and packing,
and we invest
a lot of hope, expectation and anticipation
in our
vacation time
AND… as
we all know, those hopes, those expectations
are often
more real in theory than in our experience.
Sometimes
a vacation doesn't deliver what it promised
and we
find ourselves going back to work
wishing
we could have a do-over vacation -
or a
vacation to rest up from our vacation!
Last week
we looked at vacation as an opportunity
to open
ourselves to experiences, to gifts, to a kind of treasure
that's in-exhaustible.
Sometimes
we need a vacation from all the
]draining,
exhausting realities in our lives.
We spent
some time last week asking, probing, trying to discover
just what
are the things we really treasure -
we did
that in response to Jesus who said:
"Where
your treasure is, there also will be your heart…"
Those are
strong words from Jesus -
he's
asking us to do some deep soul searching
but its
two main words are "treasure" and "heart"
and those
are beautiful words to consider.
But how
about this week? Talk about upping the ante!
Today,
Jesus says to his disciples and so, to us:
"I have come
to set the earth on fire,
and how I wish it
were already blazing!
…Do you think that
I have come to establish peace on the earth?
No, I tell you,
not peace but rather - division."
Is this
the same Jesus who just last week spoke to us
of hearts
and treasure?
Yup! The
very same Jesus!
Jesus who
says he came for -- division…
What can
he possibly mean by that?
He means
that if we take him at his word,
if we try
to take seriously the inexhaustible treasure his word,
if we
take his word to heart and try to live by it -
if we try
to do all of that
there
will be some people who misunderstand us
who don’t
get what we’re about,
even some
who will reject us and our way of life,
who’ll
want no part of what we're all about
because
we follow the word of Jesus.
And if
you think I’m being overly dramatic here,
just
consider how often you and I are, well… “quiet” about our faith,
how often
we don't speak about our relationship with Jesus,
how often
we don't bring our beliefs - and why we believe as we do -
into
conversations.
Are we
sometimes "quiet" for fear of being misunderstood,
for fear
of being ridiculed or rejected?
Jesus’
words about coming for division are strong.
But they
were even stronger in his day
when
one's personal safety, welfare and place in society
were all
intimately bound up with one's family
- and
being connected, being part of that clan.
In Jesus'
time, apart from your family - you were lost -
you were
nothing - you were no one!
We can
relate to that in our own experience as well, can’t we?
Who among
us doesn’t know how strong - and how fragile -
can be
our family relationships and how much rides
on their
strength or fragility.
And how
those very relationships can provide us
with the
greatest and deepest joy
or be the
source of the deepest sadness in our lives?
Strong
family and friendship ties are to die for!
Weak and wounded
relationships break our hearts.
What
Jesus is saying here is that if we follow him
we may jeopardize
the ties that bind,
the ties
that ensure our safety and security,
our
connectedness with others,
our acceptance
by others.
So,
here's the important distinction for us to make:
Division
isn't Jesus' purpose or mission
but it is
an inevitable side effect, a consequence
for those
who take his word, his mission to heart.
This
shouldn’t surprise us too much.
We all
know how voicing our strong beliefs about serious matters
will join
us to those who share our convictions
but distance
or even separates us, from those who don’t.
Who among
us hasn't experienced precisely this dynamic?
in the
contemporary political climate?
Jesus
says:
From now on a
household of five will be divided,
three against two
and two against three…
I think
we know what he means!
Consider
how careful we’ve become
in our
families and among friends, around the holidays
at
Thanksgiving Day dinner or at Christmas time
- or at
cookouts on a summer vacation -
how
careful we’ve become about what we say,
what
topics we bring up, what conversations we begin -
precisely
because we know that certain names or words or topics
might
easily divide a household or a gathering of people
who would
be otherwise sharing a good time together.
To be
clear, when Jesus calls us to join him,
he isn’t
instructing us to be controversial jerks at the dinner table.
Jesus is,
at heart, a man of peace and reconciliation.
But Jesus
is reminding us that division is a consequence of his mission
and though
the path he walks and invites us to walk with him
is not an
easy path - it's worth the hardship.
Yes, it’s
gonna be hard, he says.
There are gonna be obstacles and pain and conflict and more,
but the
mission is worth it. Following him is
worth it.
Now, Jesus
isn’t suggesting that we go out cause division!
But it
might be helpful for each of us to ask ourselves:
“How and when has my faith and my expression
of it
been
strong enough and clear enough
that I’ve
bumped up against this "consequence of division"
precisely
because of what I believe?”
Or even
more basically,
“Do my family members and friends, do the
people I work with,
know what I believe,
do they
know what moves my heart,
what
shapes my deeds and conduct?
Or do I
keep my beliefs under wraps, avoiding any conflict.
Do I try
to keep peace at all costs,
even at
the cost of being true to what I believe?
Do I
settle for artificial harmony)
(little
more than the absence of overt conflict)
- and call that "peace?”
I realize
that I'm speaking here about a terrain littered with land mines!
In a
culture like ours that prizes both tolerance and political correctness,
it often
seems that all views are to be respected and accepted -
except for those views that
everyone is expected to know
are un-acceptable.
It's a
tough playing field where Jesus leads us.
And as on
any team, each of us is going to have different
roles,
responsibilities and assignments.
Our first
task is to know the game and how it's played.
Then we
need to know what position each of us is playing.
Then we
need to practice - to hone the skills we need
to
contribute to the team's effort.
And
finally, we need to take to the field and get in the game.
Any
effort less than this will leave us on the sidelines -
or even
outside the stadium.
Perhaps
the task before us is this,
At home,
at work, at school, on vacation, the task is:
to be
peaceful - not angry, vengeful or arrogant;
to be
peaceful in the ways we're faithful
to Jesus
and his mission,
to live
with any division that comes - NOT by walking away -
but by
bearing the burdens faith may lay on us;
not by "growing
weary, not by losing heart,
but rather by persevering
in running the
race that lies before us,
keeping our eyes
fixed on Jesus"
and on the
inexhaustible gift of his word.
Vacation
might be just the time to reflect on these things,
to see
what we need to do, you and I, each of us,
to grow
in those things that really matter, that really count,
those
things that bring us real peace,
-- even
if that peace is served up in the midst of division;
time to
grow in those things that truly satisfy us,
time to
grow in the things that matter
and
especially to grow, to become rich, in what matters to God...
One of
the greatest benefits of any vacation
is the
gift of time, time we don't usually have available to us,
time for
doing some of the things we most want to do.
Pray with
me today at the Lord’s Table
that each
of us might find time this summer
to ponder
how our faith brings us peace,
how it
makes us one with so many
even as
it may distance, separate and divide us from some others.
The most
important, beautiful and worthwhile elements of our lives
come at a
price, at a cost, at a premium.
Let's not
hold back from giving what we need to give
to be
faithful to the Lord who offers us more
than any
other person or thing can promise or deliver.
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