The 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time at St Mark the Evangelist Church in Norman, OK

September 8, 2002

Ezekiel 33:7-9 + Romans 13:8-10 + Matthew 18:15-20

In Roman Catholic tradition, the “REAL PRESENCE” is a significant issue. It is a matter of faith. Yet for many that idea is focused only on the Sacrament of Eucharist. To leave it there, to think that this is the only “REAL PRESENCE” is to live one’s faith in a very passive and very incomplete way. The promise of Jesus recorded for us in Matthew 18 is a promise of presence, but it is not a presence reserved only for the Eucharist. It is a presence to be felt deeply in the human heart, acknowledged humbly in human life, and celebrated joyfully in the reconciliation of those who have been isolated, alienated, and broken by sin. I would suggest to you that Matthew is proposing that the experience of real presence that Jesus offers is first to be found in forgiveness. Those of us who have known in our lives the experience of reconciliation, the overwhelming peace and powerful joy that fills the human heart at the moment of reconciliation with another have known the presence of Christ as really and as surely as anyone. They have seen the victory of love over anger and hate and hurt.

This world and this church are filled with people who long for the presence of Christ; who seek him; who have felt his absence; who know the suffering of alienation and estrangement. Some in this world seek him, or what Christ provides in money, power, prestige, and privilege. Some come here week after week to begin their search for God, to sustain and renew it, or to bring it to a joyful close. No matter where, the longing and the search for God continues day in and day out.

What we proclaim as church, what Matthew announces as Good News is that it is possible to know the real presence of Christ, and we may live in that presence by the power of forgiveness. The heart of the Gospel text that we proclaim this day is the remarkable promise of Jesus: “Wherever two or three are gathered in my name, I am in their midst.” Do you hear that ancient Biblical language: “I AM?”

This is Matthew – Old Testament images and references are important. This is “I AM” speaking – this is “I AM” revealing where he is to be found. This promise is not simply about the power of prayer, but in the context of this Gospel, much, much more. Sin isolates and estranges us from one another. It leaves us in alone and impossible to “gather as two or three.”

Reconciliation breaks through that isolating barrier, and in that coming together, “I am in your midst.”

This promise is not a recipe for prayer. It is an invitation to discover the presence of Christ. The very identity of and essence of Church is found in the reconciling experience. Forgiveness and Healing is what we are, and it is where we first discover the one for whom we long in the depth of our hearts. Reconciliation is the ministry of Jesus Christ. It is where he is to be found and where His glory will first be discovered.

Only after there is reconciliation can we move into the union and peace of the Eucharist. In ritual this is why we begin with: “Lord Have Mercy”. In ritual it is why we reach out to each other in peace before we come to the altar. To do this in ritual, it must be so in life itself. In as much as we are reconciled and at peace with each other, we shall be in the Presence of Christ.

The 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time at St Mark the Evangelist Church in Norman, OK

September 1, 2002

Jeremiah 20:7-9 + Romans 12:1-2 + Matthew 16:21-27

It would be easy to think that this Gospel is about Peter, but I don’t think so. The easy way is rarely the right way, or the way that is going to take us deeper into what is revealed or into what God is saying to us through His Word. It is more difficult to focus on Jesus in these verses than on Peter. We understand Peter’s reaction. It is our own. Nothing in his history; nothing in his scriptures; nothing in his tradition prepared him for a Messiah/Hero who would suffer disgrace. We do not connect with Peter here. There is nothing to be gained by identity with him or his attitude.

We know things differently. We have seen and come to believe in the Messiah, Jesus. We are not invited by this Gospel to follow or imitate Peter, but rather, Jesus Christ. In the structure of Matthew’s Gospel, the very next story is the Transfiguration; but up to this point, Peter is in the dark. He has no clue about how things are going to work out. We do. Jeremiah is the clue that opens this Gospel for us and shifts our focus from Peter to Jesus. He is the prophet who meets opposition, is ridiculed and mocked, yet stays with God’s plan because in the first chapter of Jeremiah God says: “…have no fear before them, because I am with you to deliver you.”

So the task we find in this text is to focus on Jesus Christ, to wonder how he was able to remain faithful,

and then draw from his story the strength, the knowledge, and the understanding to do the same. We must avoid the temptation to trivialize or minimize his trust in God by the thinking that because he was Divine, he had it made. The Divinity of Christ did not keep him from fear, doubt, or anxiety. Minimizing his full humanity robs this text of its power to transform and encourage us. Just as Peter had to surrender his preconceived ideas about a messiah, we must surrender any idea that proposes that good, holy, just, and faithful people should be free of suffering, free of fear, and free of doubt.

If we live in this life, we are going to know those things, and having terrible things happen does not mean that we are bad, being punished, or that God has turned away from us. In the face of tragedy and suffering there is no reason to think God has left us. On the contrary, these times are the greatest occasions to discover just the opposite. That is what Jesus found, and what Peter had to learn. He learned it by going to Jerusalem with Jesus. He learned it by going all the way, and losing his life in order to find it, just as the master did before him. “Losing” one’s life does not always mean the ultimate act of martyrdom.

None of us lives a day without losses. Things do not happen the way we had planned. People do not say what we expect. Disappointments and frustrations pile up, and the best made plans fall apart. Large and little losses can make those who bear them bitter and cause them to complain that life is not fair. But this is what we learn from Jesus on the way to Jerusalem. Losing one’s life can mean finding one’s soul. These losses can set us free, and when we are free like Jesus to surrender to and embrace the will of God, we shall know what Jeremiah knew, believed and lived: that there is no reason for fear because God is with us.

The 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time at St Mark the Evangelist Church in Norman, OK

August 25, 2002

Isaiah 22:19-23 + Romans 11:33-36 + Matthew 16:13-20

We stand in the face of raw power today. It is a power greater than any known source of energy. Greater than the universe and its boiling stars, greater than the fusion of atoms, greater than the wind and the sea and all that is in them. It is the source of the greatest cures and miracles and healings. It is the power exercised by Christ Jesus, rooted in the faith, and given to those who will call it by name and embrace its potential.

It is the greatest of the miracles. It is greater than anything we’ve heard so far in Matthew’s Gospel. It is greater than water into wine or the raising of Lazarus. It is greater than walking on water. It is greater that restoring sight to blind people or strength to the lame. It is the power given to those who have named Christ their Lord and accepted the new identity that Christ has come to bestow upon his believers. It is the power of Forgiveness.

The greatest weapons used by the greatest armies have no power to bring peace. The power of wealth, privilege, and position are inadequate. We cannot buy, bribe, force, nor reason our way to peace in Ireland, the Middle East, Central America, in our families, between friends, nor in our hearts. It only has one source: Forgiveness.

The power of forgiveness is the gift Jesus provides in the Gospel today. It is the turning point of Matthew’s Gospel. Having been dazzled and awe struck by the things that Jesus has done, we will, in the weeks to come shift our attention toward Jerusalem and what will happen there. The seed is planted in us that bears fruit in understanding the Passion and Death of Christ as he experienced it and rose from it. The power he had to rise above the betrayal, the abandonment, the hatred, the questioning of his motives and sincerity, his own wonder about God’s care for him all are wiped away by the power he used as he was nailed to a cross: “Father, Forgive them.”

We are a church, as Matthew says, founded by and upon the power of forgiveness. Not one of the apostles more clearly models that truth than Peter, who no sooner answers the question: “Who do people say that I am?” than he says in the courtyard of Pilate: “I do not know the man.”

Peter, and you and I know about forgiveness. We want to have it all the time, but are often too give it. We are church gifted with an ancient and wise tradition rooted in a ritual we fail to use wisely. Lately some have chosen to hide in the crowd and enjoy the convenience of “Communal Penance Rites” and while those rites might well maintain a level of communal prayer and demonstrate our public confession of need; they leave unattended a greater need of confession. I have often found it curious that many find healing and discover the deep meaning of the Incarnation not in their churches, but in A.A. or other Twelve Step Programs where they come to the awareness of God’s healing presence in the confessing community of those who dare to search for healing.

None of us can really feel loved and cared for when we have to hide our sins and failings. The expression of love from another gets blocked when our minds say: “If you only knew the feelings I have sometimes or the things I’ve done, you wouldn’t be saying you loved me.

Even in our relationship with God, there is forgiveness to share, and I’ve come to discover in recent years that it isn’t bad to forgive God now and then and keep alive a relationship of love and trust. “I will give you the keys.” says Jesus. With them, we can unlock more than the Kingdom of Heaven. We can open the human heart and the wounded soul. We can open the boundaries of hatred and dissolve generations of memories that retell and repeat atrocities of the past. We can recreate broken friendships and restore unity. Best of all, with this gift and this power, we can endure every trial, know peace and embrace love.

The 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time at St Mark the Evangelist Church in Norman, OK

August 18, 2002

Isaiah 56:1, 6-7 + Romans 11:13-15, 29-32 + Matthew 15:21-28

It is the third of a series of miracle stories leading us to what is probably the most significant event in Matthew’s Gospel outside of the Passion Narrative. It comes next week.

Like two before, this one is not what it seems to be on the surface. A deeper look at the text; the setting, the characters, the narrative conversation, and the interplay of words and deeds gives us reason to see and hear more than what Mark provides in his earlier telling of this story.

With Mark, it is a simple matter of a miracle cure.

With Matthew, we have reason to wonder: “Where is the miracle?”

There are seven verses here. Only one of them is devoted to a cure. Jesus says: “Let it be done for you as you wish. And the woman’s daughter was healed from that hour.” That’s all there is to it.

But six other verses concern Jesus and the disciples revealing what may seem to be a rather shocking attitude of disinterest and dismissal.

The first clue that there is something really important here is the language. Matthew uses terms that are archaic for his time. Tyre and Sidon, Canaanite, Son of David, God of Israel: these terms are not in use at the time in which Matthew sets the story. It would be like referring to someone from the State of Georgia as a “reb” or a “Confederate.” The only possible reason for using that kind of language would be to suggest some other inference or some other reference by the language. These terms in Matthew’s text are old, out of date, and heavily rooted in Old Testament overtones that would suggest that the attitude here is an old one – an old prejudice that has been around for a long, long time.

Even Jesus seems subject to this prejudice. He doesn’t look so good in this situation. The one who proposes leaving 99 and going after the 1 who is lost is about to pass by this woman without even a word. He won’t even acknowledge her presence! The disciples, with the most disgraceful of motives, force him to deal with her because they’re tired of her pestering. They don’t like her either.

Now if you stand back and look at this picture, ask the question:

“What is more significant and surprising here, the cure of this woman’s daughter or the fact that Jesus and these disciples change their mind and decide to share what they have with someone they don’t particularly care for?”

This is a miracle story all right, but it is not the miracle we might first suspect. While the story certainly has some historical elements, it reveals more about us, the early church, and Jesus Christ than we may be comfortable with seeing.

At the same time it reveals something of God as well.

Unpleasant as it is to admit, most of this world is under our table waiting for some scraps to fall. We are very conscious about what is ours, and we are very determined to keep it. This Jesus of history and his disciples are very conscious of their privileged position among the “Chosen People.” They are Jews, not “Canaanites.” They are very aware of their power and their privilege.

In the story, I believe they heard the voice of God. It sounded like a woman foreigner who came begging, not for herself, but for her child. The miracle is: their change. What they considered theirs alone, they decided to share, perhaps not for the best reasons at first, but eventually they got it right. Perhaps we may be hearing the voice of God calling to us from under the table, across the border, or with an accent.

The miracle stories are not all told, and the best of them are not about healing. They are about conversions and changes in the human heart. They tell of enemies that begin to speak to one another, of ancient distrusts and prejudice collapsing in the face of grace and the real truth about our relationship to one another and our God.

Perhaps we might listen today very quietly and carefully to see if God is calling out to us, and hope that God has not and will not, like the woman of the Gospel, give up on us.

The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary at St Mark Church in Norman, OK

August 15, 2002

Revelation 11:19-12:6 + 1 Corinthians 15:20-27 + Luke 1:39-56

Song, Prayer, and Scripture weave together to make this Feast. In some ways, they all three boil down to a lot of words: words sung, words spoken, words heard.

As a result, I’m not sure we can really get the point. It’s almost as though there is simply too much here, certainly too many words. Words of John in the Book of Revelation,

words of Paul in First Corinthians, words of Luke in the Gospel, all trying to awaken in us the Spirit and Faith of this woman whose faith and trust in God changed the face of the earth.

Luke weaves together a string of texts from the Psalms, and he puts them in the mouth of this young Hebrew woman in the story of her visit to Elizabeth.

It is a chapter filled with extraordinary poetry when words and images dance with life and promise. Among those words, leaping from the psalms come ten words that say it all,

that give purpose, meaning, and motive to our assembly today. They are the reason why we are here today at noon and not having lunch at mid – day on a Thursday in August.

They are the reason we are here tonight and not at home clearing the supper table. They are the reason why we are here, in Norman, Oklahoma.

They are the reason for all that we do. Many of us have learned by memory ancient prayers and sacred words that have the power to turn our minds to God.

The Lord’s Prayer, the Hail Mary, the Prayer before meals, the Act of Contrition, the Creed, the Memorari, the Angelus, and the list goes on into cultural traditions. Late in my life, I learned another prayer, Mary’s prayer, more authentic, more deeply rooted in our Jewish/Christian tradition than any of the others.

It is prayer the Church lifts up to God every evening of every day. It is the test of this day’s Gospel. If you haven’t learned it, begin today. If it seems too long to learn quickly, then get one verse and go from there. Get it right, and say every day. Simply speaking those words should pull us to our knees in humble gratitude, or bring us to our feet in wild joy. The one verse that captures the spirit of the whole prayer is the reason we are here today or tonight, the reason we have come to sing, to pray, and hear the Word of God………………

“God who is mighty has done great things for me.”

If anyone asks you why you went to church today: Or why you go to church every Sunday, Why you give, why you pray, why you sing, why you have hope, or joy, there is only response.

It is the reason for this day, for this season, for this place: “God who is mighty has done great things for me.”

The 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time at St Mark the Evangelist Church in Norman, OK

August 8, 2002

1 Kings 19:9-13 + Romans 9:1-5 + Matthew 14:2-33

It takes some thinking to figure out where the miracle is.

It is not Jesus walking on water.

That image is an old one found in the Old Testament: in Job 9:8, Psalm 77, and Isaiah 43. God walks on water. No big deal here. That surprised nobody in Matthew’s church who knew his or her scriptures.

Keep the story in context. We are dealing here with Food provided by God last week, and a water passage this week.

These are serious Exodus events: food in the desert, passage through water.

But there is a miracle here, and like last week, this one concerns a change in the disciples rather than something Jesus did. Last week they stopped their whining about what they didn’t have and celebrated what they did have. This week think of it this way as I propose an alternate reading to this Gospel story, and you will get the point and see the miracle…….

“Peter got out of the boat and began to walk on the water toward Jesus. But when he saw how strong the wind was, he became frightened; and, beginning to sink, he turned around and swam back to the boat while the other disciples threw him a line and pulled back on board.”

Or maybe it could go this way:

“Take courage, it is I, do not be afraid.” Peter said to him in reply, “Lord, if it is you come over here and get in the boat.”

The miracle here is not about Jesus. It is about a fisherman getting out of a boat in the middle of a storm, and what happens to him because of it. If he had stayed in that boat, or turned back when it got really scary, nothing would ever have happened. But he did not stay in the boat, and because he was willing to take the risk and get out; because he reached out to the Lord who was reaching out to him, Peter experienced the power of God, and for moment, I believe he stepped into the Kingdom of God.

Peter had to leave the boat and risk his life on the sea in order to learn both his own weakness and the almighty power of his Savior. Only by doing so did he come to faith. It cannot be different for us. We all sit in our little boats, thinking we are safe and sound, but those boats rock and they sink. They get swamped, and they turn over. The stock market fails us. Our houses burn down or blow away. Health fails. A loved one dies, or we find ourselves abandoned or divorced. Friends turn on us. We lose a job. We sit in our boats, and Jesus walks by, and he invites us to get out, because faith does not mean sitting and waiting. It means getting free from everything except God alone, knowing and acting as if only God can save, protect, and get us home.

The road to faith passes through obedience to the call of Jesus: “Come.” The only possible way to be a disciple of Jesus is to take the step. We saw it last week when they were willing to find out what Jesus could do with what they had. We see it again this week as we discover what Jesus can do if we are willing to get out of the boat, so to speak. The miracle at which we marvel this week is what God can do for those who will get out of their boats and reach out to the one who calls. The miracle is what happens to Peter or anyone for that matter who imagines that they are losing it all, and will reach and out and cry out: Lord, Save me.”

The story ends with the winds dying down and the disciples bowing down before Jesus in adoration. In a historical sense, this does not make sense because Jesus has not yet risen from the dead. The title: “Son of God” could not have occurred to them yet, but Matthew gives us a glimpse of the end of time. Those who trust in God rather than their boats, those who reach out after responding to their call, are at peace. They shall be found in the Heavenly Kingdom.

None of us will ever know what God can do for us much less know what the Kingdom of Heaven is like unless we get out of the boat and go toward the Son of God.

The 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time at St Mark the Evangelist Church in Norman, OK

August 4, 2002

Isaiah 55:1-3 + Romans 8:35-39 + Matthew 14:13-21

The first of two miracle stories is our focus in liturgy today; and after them comes a miracle of another sort. There is so much going on here! There has been a violent death in the family of Jesus. Herod has murdered John, the cousin of Jesus. In grief Jesus seeks solitude, but it isn’t to be his. The crowds come on foot the long way around the lake, and his grieving time is cut short by a show of mercy and compassion. There is a triangle here of interaction: Jesus, the Disciples, and the Crowd. There is Jesus, there are those in need, and there are those in service.

Matthew has something to say about all three of them.

In Jesus we see compassion and mercy revealed through an act, a prayer, and a command that for any Christian of the Table is thoroughly Eucharistic. The verbs used here are not a coincidence: take, bless, break, and give.

In the crowd we see the world, hungry for Jesus, longing for food, searching for Messiah. They make every effort and try every way to find him, even when he seems to be in hiding. They are not disappointed.

In the disciples, we see ourselves. While there may be some of the “crowd” in us, let us not avoid the challenge of discipleship by being more comfortable among the crowd. Our search is over – we know who we are, we are here after all, in this church today. It is too easy to sit back and just be fed. It is time to go to work – to hear what he says to us. “Give them something to eat.”

We see in these disciples something of ourselves, and we’ll see it next week as well. “Five loaves and two fish is all we have.” they say. “It is not enough.” they think. All they can think about is what they do not have, and so they fail to see what they do have in the one who is with them. What an insight into human nature! Whining about what they do not have, these very human disciples, very much like us, do not see what can be done with five loaves and two fish and with Jesus Christ. If left to themselves, they will send everyone away in misery and disappointment and fend themselves; and they would never see what God can do.

Jesus will not let it be so. In the Greek version of Matthew, the command that Jesus gives them is the strongest and most harsh form of the verb. It is as though he literally screams at them: GIVE THEM SOMETHING! Stop whining about what you don’t have! That attitude and a focus on what is lacking suggests that somehow God does not provide – and somehow what God does provide is going to run out, or be inadequate. Disciples of Jesus Christ cannot think that way or act that way.

God uses what we bring, but we cannot make manifest a God of compassion and walk in the footsteps of a merciful Jesus if we are holding out, holding back, fearful that we shall run out or not have what it takes. This Gospel goes to the heart of the matter when it comes to faith and trust in Jesus Christ. Those people trusted him – they went out of their way and sought him at great cost and great risk. The least they can expect is that disciples will give them what they have come to find. There is not a lot left over – there is no hint of abundance here if you understand the measure proposed. The little bit left over is not much when compared to the amount consumed. This Gospel does not talk about abundance and grand, huge, displays of some extra ordinary proportion. It talks about simple things like fish and bread the basic stuff of life. This Gospel talks about mercy and compassion, about the role of disciples, and about their attitude and way of looking at what they have and why they have it. In the end, it is about little people and little things with which God will accomplish great things.

The miracle in this story may not really be what at first we thought it to be. The miracle here may not be about fish and bread, but about attitude and compassion, generosity and trust. I suspect that after the food was cleared away, the ones most touched, changed, and filled with wonder were the very ones who thought that they had nothing. The crowd just simply went away.

The 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time at St Mark Catholic Church in Norman, OK

July 28, 2002

1 Kings 3:5, 7-12 + Romans 8:28-30 + Matthew 13:44-52

Matthew comes now to the end of Chapter 13, and the next discourse is about to begin: a discourse on Discipleship. His Jesus has drawn us in side. The parable of seed sown everywhere was spoken to the crowds by the lake side, and the final parable of the net is spoken from within to those who have asked and sought the meaning of these parables and shown desire to find the kingdom of heaven. For some that effort is as easy as tripping over something that was right in front of them. For others, it is a labor of desire that goes on and on. In either case, we have learned that it takes “Understanding” that has nothing to do with cognitive awareness, but rather with a commitment to act out what we believe.

What Jesus hands on to those who have shown their desire to go in, to go deeper, to ask the big questions about the meaning of his teaching, and to seek understanding in the face of scorn and ridicule is WISDOM. It is his gift in Chapter Thirteen to those who will now become his disciple/companions. Be wise enough, says Jesus, to know that the reign of God is more important than any other value. Be wise enough to give yourself to that reign in all you are and all you do.

As the Gospel will continue to unfold, we shall see this Wisdom in Jesus. We shall see this Wisdom as Jesus personified. The Liturgy this day gives us hints from the Old Testament about this treasured gift in the story of Solomon. It urges us to be like the scribe at the end of this chapter who can reach into that Old Testament to bring forth this Wisdom and give it life in Jesus Christ.

This “Wisdom” is not the same as “Intelligence”. Smart people are not necessarily wise people. Those who possess Wisdom know how to live, how to distinguish right from wrong, truth from a lie, what brings goodness from what brings harm, what is authentic and what is false. The Wise can recognize and pursue true and lasting values like the people in the story Jesus tells us today.

The mind, the heart, and the attitude of Jesus Christ must be ours if we are to be Wise and possess the treasure that he has come to give us in himself. In Him we shall become wise enough to serve others as he served, indiscriminately, without playing favorites, and always without judgment. This in the end is what it shall be to live in the reign of God. We shall take the long view in this world, looking toward what has begun among us and what it shall become. We shall judge the true value of everything and everyone in terms of eternity. In other words, what will this person, this experience or even this joy or this suffering mean to us at the end? Will it pass with us to the other side? If not, the wise will ask if it is worth all the effort, energy and attention we are tempted to give. We shall, if we become wise, leave most matters to God who is Wisdom and to Jesus who is Wisdom Incarnate. The more we put on Christ, the more wisdom we shall possess, and perhaps the best evidence of our growth in that wisdom is to ask for it in our prayer.

The 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time at St Mark the Evangelist Church in Norman, OK

July 21, 2002

Wisdom 12:13, 16-19 + Romans 8:26-27 + Matthew 13:24-30

“How far do you want to go?” was the question I posed to you last weekend. The lure of Chapter Thirteen continues with more parables of the Kingdom: parables that requires some information leading to understanding for those who want to step more deeply into the Kingdom of God. Without that information, we are left with silly riddles that do little more than entertain like riddles do for those who enjoy superficial intellectual guessing games.

There is a distinction drawn all through this chapter between the disciples, who understand these parables and those others who are not given understanding. This distinction is at the heart of chapter 13. One group has gone in, the other is content to simply look, but as Jesus says, they don’t see. Beneath these parables collected by Matthew and woven together to reveal the truth of God’s working presence in our midst is the subtle invitation to move deeper into “understanding” which does not mean an intellectual awareness, but rather a commitment that involves faith and obedience, a moral commitment that involves our deepest selves. These are not parables that tell us how to live. They are not about what the Kingdom of God will be like in the future, but rather about what is happening right now. Since the Word of God is alive in our midst, these parables speak to us about this year and this very hour. These parables speak to our understanding.

We are warned today about the difference between simply “hearing” the Word of God and “understanding” it. The commitment to which we are called, the commitment, which is pure gift to those who want and seek it, is threatened less these days by persecution than by secular scorn. You know what that sounds like: “You don’t really believe all that stuff do you?” For Matthew’s crowd it was more political and physical persecution, for us, it is scorn and ridicule. The effect is the same. The cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches are still able to choke the word. If anything, this chapter ought to drag us to our knees and wrench from our hearts a prayer for the gift of understanding that what we believe with our minds might be acted out in our daily behavior. These parables challenge us to leave behind a pedestrian, pragmatic, everyday world that treats God as irrelevant or like a tamed mascot and enter a new world where God is the primary reality, where God is working even though human eyes cannot perceive the reality.

Let me leave you with one detail, one fact, which might bring these parables to life as they did those to whom they were first spoken. “Three measures of flour” could, in our time, be thought of as “three cups”. But the fact is, “three measures” is actually about fifty pounds! With that much dough, bread for more than one hundred people would have come from her oven. It hints at the bounty of the heavenly banquet. It acknowledges that God, the leaven, is at work in ways no one can see, and reminds us that the outcome of God’s activity is more and greater than we can imagine or accomplish on our own. This parable and the mustard seed parable insist that God’s action in the world whether perceptible or not is nonetheless real and will in God’s own time come to bear fruit. This Kingdom is not something that will suddenly appear full blown without some prior activity. It is happening right now.

In every case through chapter thirteen, the human response is a significant issue. Like buried treasure, God’s activity is hidden and must be discovered. Like a pearl of great value, it must be sought in order to be found. The Kingdom of God is not something we acquire like a piece of real estate. It is not something we possess, it is a sphere into which one enters. It is a participation in the rule of God that must be total. Those who want to be there, who want to participate in the Kingdom of God, must go all the way in. They cannot just see. They cannot just hear. They must understand. For that we ought to pray now and in the days to come.

The 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time at St Mark the Evangelist Church in Norman, OK

July 14, 2002

Isaiah 55:10-11 + Romans 8:18-23 + Matthew 13:1-23

Bob Dylan wrote a short parable for the cover of his album John Wesley Harding. Three kings are trying to understand the new Dylan recording. They visit a wise man and ask him to tell them what it means. “How far would you like to go in?” asks the man. “Not too far.” Reply the kings. “Just far enough to say we’ve been there.”

“Just far enough to say we’ve been there.”………

It could be the story of our lives when it comes to the Kingdom of God. “How far would you like to go in?” It could be the story of our lives with the Word of God. Some will say, “Just far enough to say we’ve been there.”

With these thoughts, we get an interesting “take” on the Parable today from Matthew 13. We are going to be in this chapter for the rest of this month, and I am wondering how far you want to go. You will not go far if you only hear it in here. THE PATH. You will simply be able to say you have been there.

If you pick it up and read it at home the rest of this month, you will have gone a little further. ROCKY GROUND AND THORNS.

If you read it, pray with it, listen to it, and it influences the way your live and what you do the rest of this month, you will have gone all the way in. RICH SOIL.

A parable that originally revealed something about the sower gets retold in the midst of a community that has begun to experience what Jesus himself knew first hand: the unyielding rejection of his works and words by the scribe, Pharisees and other religious authorities of his day; the superficial enthusiasm of the crowds who hung around when he fed them and entertained them, but were no where to be found when he didn’t do what they wanted, his own family’s misgivings about his mission, and the confusion and lack of comprehension on the part of his own closest friends and disciples. Talk about Rocky Ground and Thorns!

Between the time Jesus told a parable about a sower who was generous in sowing the seed far and wide, and the time Matthew took the story and retold it in the midst of their experience of rejection and misunderstanding and superficial commitments on the part of many, the parable becomes an allegory about the harvest. We would do well to embrace the whole picture from parable to allegory remembering the sower-God that Jesus reveals with an invitation to imitate that generous mission, and the soil into which it is sown with its encouragement to be rich soil – open to what is sown in our hearts, and anxious to see a great harvest spring for our faithful lives.

We are a believing community invited to be renewed in our efforts at hearing, bearing, and living in accord with God’s good Word. Isaiah speaks to us today of the power of that Word to create, to inform, and to realize what has been promised. “How far would you like to go with that Word?” I ask you today. If you want to do more than simply say you’ve been here, then take no offense and be not surprised when it gets tough to be faithful to that Word and be recreated and reformed by it. The promise we proclaim on this day however, is that those who will go all the way in will know a harvest greater than ever before imagined. How far do you want to go?