August 25, 2013

Bulletin August 25, 2013 21^st Sunday in Ordinary Time C

Isaiah 66:18-21; Hebrews 12: 5-7, 11-13 Luke 13:22-30
I was trying to think where it started with me...maybe because I was the youngest of five and as my sisters and brother said, repeatedly, ‘You were spoiled.’ I denied it of course but later on I would say something like ‘Eat your hearts out’...whatever that means. But I felt I was special. I think this is not unusual; most like to feel that they are wanted, special and needed. When I carry that over to my faith, my religion and my interpretation of Scripture, I could end up in all sorts of trouble.
Scripture tells us how God formed a people, special to Himself. And He did this so that they would be an example to the rest of the world of God’s love and deep care for everyone. “I will be your God, you will be My people” is the constant theme in the Old Testament. The New Testament sees Jesus telling everyone that they are dearly loved by God and important to God. John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him might not perish but might have eternal life.” These mean that all of God’s creatures are special, but how easy it is to take this out of context and feel that ‘I am the important one’ and if I am the ‘important one’...this one or that one isn’t.’

Living the Word expresses this succinctly: “We have all run into it on occasion—that sense of entitlement some (maybe even we!) have presumed, a claim to be treated differently, as ‘special.’ It can be due to a relationship, a skill, a reward, or simply a gift. God’s sword cuts thought any such claims today with two strong images.

The first image is found in Hebrews. No talk of being father’s ‘little darling’ or mother’s ‘favorite pet’ here. We get a comparison of God as a father who disciplines His child, even ‘scourges’ every son He acknowledges. Now that certainly is a tough image to take, especially in a culture so attuned to the horrors of child abuse. But the time of the Letter to the Hebrews was a different culture, subscribing to the old adage ‘Spare the rod and spoil the child.’ What is important is the notion of discipline. So let’s set the scourge aside and take up the issue of discipline—the discipline necessary to run a race, to ‘strengthen your drooping hands and your weak knees, (to) make straight paths for your feet, that what is lame may not be disjointed but healed.’ Healing what is weak is the goal of this discipline.

The second image is Jesus as the gatekeeper who is telling us that the gate into the kingdom is a narrow one, so strive (there’s that note of discipline, again) to enter it. Jesus isn’t into numbers and doesn’t answer the question asked. He simply urges us to be strong enough to get through the gate. And any claims of ‘You knew me years ago, Jesus’ or ‘You knew my mother and grandmother’ won’t matter. Furthermore, prepared to be surprised when you see at who is getting through the gate into the kingdom.

The bottom line today: Strive, discipline yourself—feeling entitled won’t get you in.”
I want to feel important, and I am in God’s eyes; I want to feel that I am needed, and I am in God’s plan; but this dictates that I am doing what Jesus told me to do. This requires that I learn more each day about this God who is crazy in love with me. This requires that each day that I spend time with God and reflect on where He is leading me. This requires each day that I am Jesus by the way I live and interact with those in my life. If I’m all out for ‘Peter’, I am not aware of Jesus.
The expression that Jesus uses—the narrow gate—is a metaphor that implies directness openness and honesty. It means that each day I’m living life and there are wonderful times and also crises and problems. It means that I have to face each of them as they cross my path and I do this with Jesus’ teachings. Jesus emphasizes this with His teaching that makes people know the door is always open. But I have to be careful with this because it is the door of ‘I’m special.’ This is the way that says, ‘I will get at that tomorrow’...it’s the door of procrastination, of not wanting to face up to things, especially all the commandments and law of love of Jesus and of being Him to those in my life. It’s the door that says, ‘I’m the exception, aren’t I?’ It’s the door that says ‘I know what Jesus taught and I really don’t think that this/that teaching applies to me in this particular circumstance.’ Well Jesus told the Scribes and Pharisees right to their faces that they were hypocrites. He very calmly told Pilate at His death sentence that a mere Roman procurator had no power over Him at all. He challenged simple fishermen and laborers to leave their families and their occupations and do an impossible task. So Jesus isn’t talking about ‘the easy life.’ Jesus is talking about being a ‘laborer’ in the ‘vineyard’. And this is hard work...I have to expect that my hands will become dirty and my back will hurt from being outside and the elements won’t always be agreeable and the plans and people won’t always be conducive to accepting God’s love. But that is the task, the mission for me and for each person. Jesus defined ‘His family’ as those who HEAR the word of God and ACT on it. (Lk 8:19-21). The question about ‘Who will be saved’ is a very important and it is a very valid question. The answer Jesus says very bluntly “that it is in this life that you are either in the kingdom of God or out of it...You will not be given the chance in the after-life to enter what you refused or neglected to enter while here on earth.” (Fr, Joseph Donders) And the one at the door will be welcomed when the voice says, “I know you” because of how you were Jesus and lived accordingly. So I reflect on:

• What is my faith asking of me at this point in my life?
  
• Do I faithfully reflect on Scripture, especially the Gospels to see the values that I am called to live by?
  
• I experience God’s kingdom when I am being Jesus. How does this feel? Do I reflect on this and express my gratitude for the grace that I received to be Jesus?
  

And Sacred Space 2013 says,

“Sometimes we like to picture Jesus as gentle and forgiving, not because of what scripture says about Him, but because it seems to allow us to relax. I accept that Jesus places a challenge before me in telling me about the narrow door. I acknowledge that there are choices I must make, and I ask Jesus’ help.

I speak to Jesus about my joys and hopes, my anxieties and difficulties, listening for His voice as I come to know my own life better.”