Journey's Weekly Homilies

Third Sunday of Cycle B
February 01, 2004
Homily by: Jim

Jeremiah 1:4-19
Corinthians 12:31-13-13
Luke 4:21-30


Words, cherish them, imprint them on your heart . . .

As you know we usually  have three passages from scripture to consider every Sunday and these passages are linked one to the other with a theme which runs through them. Sometimes it is rather difficult to tell what the compilers of the Lectionary consider to be the theme, but today, at least to my understanding, one theme or topic is the spoken word and other forms of that verb speaking, to speak, speak out, also saying, etc.

I want to look briefly at all three scripture passages this evening. Each of them has a way of complimenting one another and together they make a statement that may be important to us.

Take first the situation, that of Jeremiah.  He is called by God to be a prophet  ". . . before you were born  I consecrated you (says the Lord); I appointed you a prophet to the nations."

Being chosen for this high post ought is an honor, but Jeremiah doesn't respond as if he thought it were; he doesn't say: "Thank you Lord for calling on me. I'm ready."

No, not at all; he seems not to offer an excuse, "I do no know how to speak, for I am only a youth." So Jeremiah says he can't take the job because he's only a youth. Since when has youth been an excuse for not speaking out--even if we are talking about what occurred 2.500 years ago?

So then the Lord puts words into Jeremiah's mouth and sets him over nations to pluck up and to break down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant, according to the text.

Jeremiah finally gets the message.

The Lord concludes, "They shall not prevail against you, for I am with you, says the Lord, to deliver you.

We are like Jeremiah. We are reluctant to speak, we temporize, and ask, "Was I really called to do this work?

What work?   Again, the work of speaking out, owning up to who we are and to what I  have been led.  We speak words carefully wrought because God has chosen me to speak.

OR  am I to remain silent and meditate quietly on the words for a great length of time? That is a possibility, and no one would take it from you, although not being ready can be the pattern of a lifetime.

We see the opposite in the Corinthians.  I thought  Corinth was an empty word  until I discovered recently that it had been  a lively, prosperous city, the Las Vegas of the ancient world.  And immediately I felt the rightness of the image.   All that talking, much of it so empty, referred to in Paul's charge that I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal even if I speak in human languages and in angelic tongues.

One gets the impression that many in that community talked too much, claiming what is not their own, falsifying, dissembling until Paul enters in by writing his famous letter.  Everyone appears to be talking; few to be listening.

Once realizing that, we can ask ourselves:  Was I called on to speak up and did not? Was I asked to share my thoughts and insights, but I wasn't present?

We live at a time when Right Speech, to borrow a Buddhist term, ought to be held sacred, but we hardly know what right speech is. Masses of people no longer believe their government, their church, believe in God or in one another. God says, "I have appointed you a prophet of nations." Do we mean to challenge God by ignoring his annointing ?
These issues are hard to deal with, but we must take them on.

So why do people not speak out? Perhaps there are some that are genuinely  inexperienced, but there are those too who don't speak out because they are afraid to change things, because they claim they do not have time to get involved; the 'becauses' can go on an on.

In what way do I live Jesus' saying, quoting from today's Gospel: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord as anointed me to preach good news to the poor."

Jesus speaks to the synagogue  where  the members wonder at his words which he speaks, but then a change of heart,  "And they rose up and put Jesus out of the city . . ."

Jesus himself makes the case for one who must speak out at all costs; we  see him doing that throughout the gospels, but it is here   when Jesus speaks out in this Gospel even if it means being  put out of his own city as the result of his words.

In what way do we share His courage, or do we participate at all?

We find ourselves at a time when we need to speak out, to share what we know.  I can ask myself " Am I letting others down when I do not speak, either because I am not there or refuse to speak."

We will all have a perfect chance to be present, to listen and speak a week from today;  at 4 PM there will be a community meeting here at St. Stephens.  We are gathering to continue to involve the whole community in the decisions we face in the future.

Let us be present to one another; let there be a two to hear each other, let there be two dozen to to hear two dozen more. You have anointed our lips for speech and I have a holy obligation to help others by offering my thoughts and views.

Let me not be the clanging cymbal or the hollow gong; let my words become from the center where God has touched me. Let me love so that if I give away all I have, I am still rich in that love.