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All posts for the month January, 2001

Ordinary 4

Posted by Father Tom Boyer on January 28, 2001
Posted in: Homily.
January 28, 2001
Jeremiah 1:4,5,17-19 + 1 Corinthians 12:31,13:13 + Luke 4:21-30  
“As Christ was anointed priest, prophet, and king, so may you always live as a member of his body, sharing everlasting life.” These words from the Rite of Baptism. They were said over each one of us as we were anointed with Holy Chrism: anointed into a priestly people, prophetic people, and kingly people. The first reading today from Jeremiah’s first chapter draws our attention to one of the three qualities or roles we are called to and anointed for in Baptism. While the text seems extremely personal and unique to Jeremiah’s experience, even a quick look at all the prophets, Jesus included makes it clear that there is nothing unique about Jeremiah’s experience except his particular spot in history. Prophetic people seem to share the same lot in life. Sadly, the violent end to which most of them come and the miserable suffering that marked some of their lives is all we can see and remember. As a result, it’s not hard to understand why so few are willing to take up their mantel. I suppose it is the same thing with priestly role. If all you can see or want to see is how hard it is, how lonely it can be, it’s notdifficult to understand empty seminaries. Too bad it’s hard to see how wonder-filled and how fulfilling it really is. Believe, me I would never have lasted 33 years if the good stuff didn’t out-weigh the bad. But it’s prophets we are about this week, not priests nor royals. The fact is, there is a great deal more to the role of a prophet than suffering misunderstanding, rejection, and hostility.  
There is in us all, planted as seed at Baptism a little bit of the prophet, and what the Word of God proposes to us today is that we might nurture that seedling along a little more in our prayerful assembly today. It has something to do with how we see things.  
Everyone knows that the world has both beautiful and ugly angles; that people are a mixture of good and bad; that the world is an imperfect place; that progress is measured by inches and by decades. So, some people expect justice to be delayed, honesty to be expensive, the rich to prosper, and the poor to be always with us. But not the prophet. The prophetic in us is scandalized by injustice and impatient in its face. The prophetic are affronted by  evil.  
If you listen to Jeremiah, the country he thought was ruining the whole world measured about 25 by 20 miles square! The people he criticized for universal evil numbered about 15,000. That many people and that much evil is about the size of one or our larger neighborhoods. Such immoderate excitement on the part of the prophet! But, that’s the way it is with the prophetic. They don’t see things the way the rest of the world sees.  
To the world, a single act of cheating in business is slight; and it doesn’t hurt any one. To the prophet, it’s an economic disaster. To the world exploiting a poor person is harmful to them and someone should put a stop to it, but to the prophet it is a deathblow to the welfare system. What is to the world, just an isolated episode is to the prophet an instance of systemic evil.Does the prophet see to much or does the world see too little? There in lies the difference.  
The prophet shuns the average and abhors compromise. For the prophet, no one is just enough, honest enough, faithful enough, good enough, or holy enough. The prophet does not travel the middle of the road. Others may suffer from loneliness, but the prophet is overwhelmed by the divine presence. Others would separate their world or some things in this world from God; but to the prophet, that is a fairy tale and an act of insolence.  
On the day of our Baptism, someone anointed us to be prophet. What a happened to us? Too much compromise? Too much mediocrity? Too much middle of the road? The only result of that is all too obvious: injustice, poverty, loneliness, and half lived lives that never begin to reflect the grandeur of God nor resonate with the voice of God.  
Jesus heard the words of Jeremiah and he believed them. We have heard them too. Let me repeat them: “I am with you to deliver you, says the Lord.” If we believed that to be the “The Word of the Lord”, we would probably be a little more prophetic, and what began on the day of our Baptism would have begun to make a difference in the face of injustice, poverty, and loneliness.  

Ordinary 3

Posted by Father Tom Boyer on January 21, 2001
Posted in: Homily.
January 21, 2001  
Nehemiah 8:2-4,5-6,8-10 + 1 Corinthians 12:12-30 + Luke l:l-4;4:14-21  
Ezra reads to the people. Jesus reads in the Synagogue. Priests and Lectors read in the churches. Another President reads his speech. Judges read their verdicts. We read and we talk: words, words, and more words. “Poor little talkative Christianity” is the way one writer has described us. In the last six weeks, only the most zealous political fans could be inspired and sustained by the words that have been spilled on us from Florida to confirmation hearings to inaugurations and farewell speeches. It’s as though we are beginning to think that Words could make a difference, that Words could feed the hungry, that Words could pay the drug bills for the elderly, that Words could stop gun sales, child abuse, and violence in our schools; that words could make and keep peace; restore respect for life, or stop the state sanctioned killing in McAlister this month.  
Yet there must be some power left in words, because there are things we won’t talk about, like campaign finance reform, and issues in our church that we’re not supposed to talk about, and words we’re not supposed to use to describe another race or culture because we want to be “politically correct”. All of which tells us that there has been no loss of power in spoken words. The power to hurt and sting, power to destroy a reputation, the power to deceive is still there. We know the power of silence too, silence in the face of injustice and wrong doing; the power of words not spoken when forgiveness is asked or refused, the power of words withheld affirms again and again the power of Word.  
Nehemiah understood it, and so did Jesus. Thepeople knew the power of the Word from Nehemiah as they were moved first to remorse and repentance, then exhorted to joyful celebration in acknowledgment of the Words God had spoken to them in the Law. They were words which expressed God’s care for them, God’s love for them, God’s presence among them as they faced the discouraging challenge of restoring what had been lost through their unfaithfulness. That scene from the prophetic reading was probably the first public worship assembly following their return from exile. You can imagine the emotional impact upon the old ones and the young ones as the ancient Word of God was proclaimed again after so long a silence during their oppression in  defeated exile. Those words Nehemiah spoke set them free again.  
Luke knew the power of the Word too as he give us this scene with Jesus in the synagogue. Ifwe had read on just a few more verses, we’d get the whole picture, because in that synagogue on that day following the commentary Jesus gives to the text he has read, the congregation rose up and nearly killed him on the spot as they threw him out of town. Those folks listened with open ears but with closed hearts. Luke knew the power of the Word.  
It’s all about words today, the Word of God, the Word tha.t leads to truth. It is a life-giving and life-challenging word spoken through Nehemiah, Paul, and Luke. It is a word that says: “Now is the time: to be cleansed from the darkness of sin and selfishness, to be illuminated by the truth of who we are and what we are as people who receive the Word of God”. It speaks of conversion and proclaims not just a year of favor or jubilee, but a never-ending time of jubilation that speaks to more than the forgiveness of financial debt in the third world. It speaks of the debt we sometimes refuse to forgive by our hard hearts and long held grudges. There is more to be forgiven than financial debts.  
It’s all about words today, the word we speak as well. Words like: “I’m sorry. Thank you. I forgive you. I love you. You did well. I’m proud of you. You’re good….” Springing out of the hearts and minds that have been filled with the Word of God, there is comfort to the sorrowful, courage for the fearful, guidance for the lost, clarity for the confused, strength for the weak, and affirmation for the faithful.  
It’s all about words today: God’s and ours. We should have a lot to say if we’ve been listening to what God has had to say. Here in the middle of winter in the first year of a new millennium, it’s probably time to start saying it, and when we do, we will finally be free and filled with Joy.  

Ordinary 2

Posted by Father Tom Boyer on January 14, 2001
Posted in: Homily.
January 14, 2001  
Isaiah 62:1-5 + 1 Corinthians 12:4-11 + John 2:1-11  
If we take a step back into the Old Testament reading today, we can take two steps forward much deeper into the Gospel reading for this weekend. I believe that there is away of looking at the scriptures that should allow us to think of them and read them as love letters – messages from a devoted, loving God for human people who are loved, and chosen, and longed for just like any lovers who express their tenderness, their passion, and their fidelity. That, I believe, is what we have here.  
In many of the world’s cultures, the marriage of two people results in a change of name. It is a change that signifies, in a public way, a change in their status as the two become one. In the ancient world out of which comes Isaiah, name changes served a similar purpose. The name was more than just a way to tell people apart. It expressed the uniqueness of the individual. A change in personal name indicated a change in the person and/or their direction and purpose in life. The scriptures are full of those changes reflected in names: Abram became Abraham, Simon became Peter, just to point to a couple of those occasions.  
Isaiah is writing at the end of a very turbulent time, speaking words of hope to a dejected and disheartened people. Political changes have given then a new lease on life and signaled a new beginning and a reconciliation with the God to whom they were wedded. Their oppressors had mocked them with names like: “Forsaken” and “Desolate”; and Isaiah suggests that they now have new names like: “My delight” and “My spouse.” The people who had once played the harlot by chasing after other gods, were now being courted again by their first love.  
Heard in within the tradition of these Old Testament images and dreams, the writing of John today takes on a deep and powerful character that is far more significant than it might at first seem to provide. For the gospel is not about Cana, about Mary, about miracles, about water, wine, jugs, or marriage between a husband and wife. It is a “sign” story, which is technically more than a miracle story – they’re not the same. This story is not told to fill us with awe as the miracles do; but to point us in a new direction to show us that we live in a new time and a new relationship.  
It is   not  the  old  relationship of a fearful subject before a God  power, vengeance, and demanding authority; but a loving bond  like marriage between people who are passionate, loving, longing  for each other’s company, companionship, and presence.  
With a wonderful and subtle shift in metaphor, Isaiah concludes his vision with a renewal of the promise that sets us up to hear this gospel with a new heart: “Your Builder shall marry you” he says.As Creator, God called us into being.As Redeemer, God saved us from the consequences of sin. As Spouse, God gives us a new name, a new identity, a new destiny.Like Israel, we know that this is almost too good to be true, more than we ever could have hoped for, or imagined.In some ways, this image of “spouse” is more exciting and promising than that of “parent”, because the spouse comes from a choice; two people freely choose to commit themselves one to the other. It is also a relationship that is creative and fruitful because out of that relationship comes life and love.  
Given all of the possibilities of this image, these love letters we share today fill us with hope, renew our hearts, and give us reason to rejoice, because the sign tells us that as long as we remain in this marriage of faith, we have a great day coming, and one of us is determined to stay no matter what we do.