Journey's Weekly Homilies

Journey Catholic Community         Gen. 12:1-4
2^nd Sunday of Lent                          2Tim. 1:8-10
2/24/02  Homily: Nancy                   Matt.17:1-9

There are three readings, three small excerpts from the richness of our scripture.

There are three points that can be brought to light from each of these three readings.

I can tell you that when this much “three-ness,” this many things come in threes, as a homilist, you get really happy inside.  There are some very powerful homiletics teachers in the world, even in the Catholic world, who will tell you that THREE points in a homily is enough.  They will tell you that THREE ideas is the perfect organizational plan for the preacher.  They might even tell you that THREE is a great number because of the Holy Trinity, who knows?  What I know is what my grandfather used to say. 

Pastor Henry O. Bannister used to tell about Brother Cyril, from Georgia, who went around the region preaching revivals.  He was powerful in his preaching, many people seemed to wake up and change their lives after he had been in town.  Many would say that he always made three points, in every homily…and maybe that was the secret of his success.  Pa Bannister would say that maybe that was so….but it was also true that Brother Cyril chopped off his little finger from his right hand while he was cutting a watermelon when he was a kid.  And all he had was three fingers to hold up. 

So, remembering what we learned from last Sunday’s consuming story about Jesus and his rejection of a pretend salvation by mystery, or by miracles, or by the supposed power of false authority, today we see him inviting three friends, and climbing a mountain.  Aha!, we might say, something unusual always happens when they go up on a mountain. 

And we would be right to say that.  But we would also be able to say THREE important things:

1.      God takes the initiative

2.      A promise of strength is there for us.

3.      We are sent on a mission, a journey.

These three important things are brought to us today, in all three readings.

First…

 it is God who takes the initiative.  We are not gathered here today primarily because of anything we have done, but because God has called us, sustains us in our calling , and gives us strength to be here.  In many of our conversations, on Journey retreats, and in the meeting circles when we gather to do the work of the community, so many times I have heard us ask the question of why we are here.  And the answers seem to echo each other, we know that we are called somehow, each of us.  We know that if we come here we continue to build up the hope of the reign of God.  We know that hearing the scripture stories again and again keeps us awake, keeps our hope alive. We know that we cannot answer the call alone, and so we gather to  see one another’s faces and hear each other’s voices, to feed our hunger, to face our fear, and to laugh together.

The stories today are filled with that richness we need. Abram and Sarai were people of wealth, they had the power and respect of their community.  They were NOT looking for a suitable place to move to. They were not searching for an adventure in their old age.  But God took the initiative, God said “Go from your country…to a land that I will show you.”  Is that message from God the one we will hear today?

In the letter from Paul, today, he reminds Timothy that his call was from God, and NOT because of any good works on Timothy’s part.  We hear his clear message: “…called us with a holy calling, not in virture of our works but in virtue  of God’s own purpose…” If there is any raging ego in us today, any false pride about how it might be that the clouds are opening over OUR heads, and God is announcing to the world how pleased God is with us, then this scriptural message will balance us back into reality.  Our call is by virture of GOD’s purpose, not our own.  

And in the gospel stories, which we know so well, the disciples were not wandering around looking for a Messiah, they were busy into their lives, doing what the day required of them.  And God took the initiative, and they dropped their nets and followed Jesus.  And now, Jesus takes the initiative, and invites them to come up on a high mountain.  God’s initiative is for a purpose, once again God tries to get through their thick skulls with a message about who Jesus truly is.

First, God takes the initiative.  In plain language: God calls us, sends us to a new country.

We are supposed to get up and go, even if we are afraid of the unknown.  God’s promise is clear, and faith demands it. 

Second…

A promise of strength is there for us.  In the Hebrew scriptures, and in the epistles and gospels we hear every time we gather, over and over we hear the promise that our God is offering.  We WILL have what we need for the journey.

Today we hear how Abram and Sarai are promised that their seed will prosper.  They are called to trust God’s initiative, to trust that if they pick up and go to this new reality, the blessings promised will be sufficient. It seems like miracle, doesn’t it, from our perspective?  Powerful people like Abram and Sarai, people who likely had spent their LONG lives, so far, taking control and being in control themselves.  Suddenly they are called to relinquish that control, to leave everything that was comfortable and familiar. They set an example for me that challenges me in the deepest part of myself.  I don’t know if I can follow their example.

We also hear, today, Timothy being reminded (in case he had life and death fears) that Jesus Christ has abolished death, and restored life.  There again, is the promise of God’s merciful grace when we “share in suffering for the gospel.”  The word “suffering” puts us into a tailspin, doesn’t it?  I might be able to “suffer” for the sake of my children or my friends, but suffering for the sake of the gospel?  That is quite another challenge altogether.  How shall I hear this promise on a day like today?

Perhaps if we could have been there with Peter, James, and John, seen a vision and heard the voice from heaven saying, “This is my son, the beloved one.”... perhaps if we could have seen Jesus standing between Moses and Elijah, the Law and the Prophets, shining with the light of all that the law and prophecies have taught us, perhaps we too would have felt the promise of strength flow into us.  The promise of strength flows from that transfiguring,  transforming light onto our brothers the apostles, and they are rightly afraid. I believe I would have joined them in that fear.  Whenever we are given a glimpse of the power of our Creator, we fall silent, we are humbled.  We know somehow that we are called to do the work of God on this earth, but we know that we are not God.    I know that my heart and soul are comforted with the image of Jesus touching them, and saying, “Rise, and have no fear.”  The promise of strength is there for us.

First, God takes the initiative.

Second, a promise of strength is there for us.

Third, we are sent on a mission, a journey.

This is what we are celebrating today:  our conviction that God has called us, not as individuals, left to face our lives alone, but, like Abram and Sarai, as a “great nation,” as a community of Jesus’ disciples.  Jesus is the embodiment of all these promises and this calling which we inherit from our ancestors in faith, Abram and Sarai, Timothy, and Peter and James and John.  All these symbols of God’s presence are transfigured for us today, alive with new meaning if only we have the courage to see and hear.

 Jesus was transformed, as was Moses on Sinai.  And with him in that transfiguration vision was Moses, bringing into full view the collective memory we carry of God’s life-giving laws. And Elijah was there, symbolizing the prophets who came before us, people who have lived the history of our faith and stood up with courage to speak when the world in which they lived did not practice the justice that God’s law called into being.  These two, holding in their presence the truth of the hope that waits for the People of God...these two speak with Jesus.  The vision ends, and what is left is Jesus.  By becoming a follower of this man, we follow the One, the embodiment of God’s design for us in the new law, and God’s call to us to become the new prophets.

We celebrate today this calling.  We are the ones who have been touched by Jesus, we are the ones who must rise up from our fear.  Whatever lies ahead, there is nothing ordinary about it.  If we think we can go on living what we call our ordinary lives, we have missed the point. We are being invited up the high mountain.  We are invited to join in a common vision.  We are to bring a straight line of meaning to the intersections and criss-crossings of our lives.  We are called to go forth from our fixed mental boundaries, from our limited senses of what it means to be sisters and brothers.  We are called to an open-bordered land God will show us.  It doesn’t matter how many fingers we have lost along the way.

The call for us is the same as for Abram and Sarai, the same as for the disciples, “Go from your country and your kindred…to the land that I will show you.”