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All posts for the month January, 2003

Ordinary 3

Posted by Father Tom Boyer on January 26, 2003
Posted in: Homily.
January 26, 2003  
Jonah 3:1-5 + 1 Corinthians 7:29-31 + Mark 1.14-20  
Zebedee sits there and watches them leave;a father who has provided them with everything; a loving home;an education that will feed them and their children some day; boats, nets, and even hired hands to help.Along comes’this carpenter’s son, and they’re gone.Years of patient teaching,and after five minutes’ talk with that man from Nazareth, they’re off chasing a dream.  
Zebedee stays at the boat.Is it because he was not called? Is it because he was too old?Maybe he could have gone. Maybe he should have gone.Maybe he should have stopped them. Now he has to tell their mother.But maybe he knew all along that there were other things to do than fish. Perhaps the world was getting bigger. The Romans and their ways were changing everything. And so they left him mending the nets.  
It’s not just a Gospel story. It’s ours as well.If it isn’t boats and nets they leave, it’s the church or school.Those left behind, like Zebedee are left to ponder the truth that God’s ways are not our ways.And so we pick up this Gospel today to ponder the mystery of “Call”, to reflect upon the wonder of our discipleship;and look at the truth.  
I have begun to believe that this is the mystery of who God calls.  It is not Zabadee. He was already successful by the standards of his day: a boat or  two, hired hands, at least two sons, and who knows what else? I suspect that he wasn’t called because all of that would have gotten in the way He would have been telling Jesus what to do, how to do it, where to go, and who to talk to Instead, God calls tho e who have nothing to lose, and even less to give. As it turns out, they are lot like that figure from the Old Testament who stands before us today, an unlikely candidate for greatness and God’s work. He is full of opinions, self-willed, talks too much, and is very full of himself. God seems to have a distinct preference for the unlikely Perhaps they are more open to God’s plans than their own.  
I have begun to believe that the wonder here is that discipleship is not first a call to do something, but rather an invitation into a relationship, a companionship that is wider and more powerful .than family and much more productive than a job.  
I have begun to believe that the truth we may discover here is that God calls us to be something before we ever do something. Discipleship with Jesus is a relationship that once accepted changes what we do d        why we do it. Whether it is Jonah, the sons of Zebadee, or you and me; it’s about relationship first, and then about mission. What the disciples of the Gospel learn, and what Jonah learned the hard way is that the mission is God’s. Excuses, claims of inadequacy, fear, or any doubts about the mission at all are misplaced because they spring·out of the suspicion that we are the ones who will make it work. What we discover in the whole of this Gospel is that messengers, the disciples, are in themselves weak and inadequate. But that’s not the point. The success of the mission has nothing to do with the virtue, the strength, or the lack thereof on the part of the disciple. The success lies in the One whose word sends them forth.  
To follow Jesus does not mean to “walk behind” in the world from which this Gospel springs. In that world, it meant to “follow” another in an intellectual, moral and religious manner That kind of following grew out of a relationship between the leader and the follower I lik_  to imagine that there were other days in Galilee when the boys came home, and that old Zebadee and his wife welcomed them and listened with great joy to the stories they told and the wonders they saw I also like to imagine that from time to time when they came home and sat ·down at the kitchen table, they brought with them Jesus whose presence blessed that home their work and their love. That day in Galilee, Jesus was inviting the sons of Zebadee to enter into such a relationship with him. When we proclaim this Gospel in this room today, he does the same.  
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Testament who stands before us today, an unlikely candidate for greatness and God’s work. He is full of opinions, self-willed, talks too much, and is very full of himself. God seems to have a distinct preference for the unlikely Perhaps they are more open to God’s plans than their own.  
I have begun to believe that the wonder here is that discipleship is not first a call to do something, but rather an invitation into a relationship, a companionship that is wider and more powerful .than family and much more productive than a job.  
I have begun to believe that the truth we may discover here is that God calls us to be something before we ever do something. Discipleship with Jesus is a relationship that once accepted changes what we do and why we do it. Whether it is Jonah, the sons of Zebadee, or you and me; it’s about relationship first, and then about mission. What the disciples of the Gospel learn, and what Jonah learned the hard way is that the mission is God’s. Excuses, claims of inadequacy, fear, or any doubts about the mission at all are misplaced because they spring·out of the suspicion that we are the ones who will make it work. What we discover in the whole of this Gospel is that messengers, the disciples, are in themselves weak and inadequate. But that’s not the point. The success of the mission has nothing to do with the virtue, the strength, or the lack thereof on the part of the disciple. The success lies in the One whose word sends them forth.  
To follow Jesus does not mean to “walk behind” in the world from which this Gospel springs. In that world, it meant to “follow” another in an intellectual, moral and religious manner That kind of following grew out of a relationship between the leader and the follower I like to imagine that there were other days in Galilee when the boys came home, and that old Zebadee and his wife welcomed them and listened with great joy to the stories they told and the wonders they saw I also like to imagine that from time to time when they came home and sat ·down at the kitchen table, they brought with them Jesus whose presence blessed that home their work and their love. That day in Galilee, Jesus was inviting the sons of Zebadee to enter into such a relationship with him. When we proclaim this Gospel in this room today, he does the same.  
…  

The Baptism of the Lord

Posted by Father Tom Boyer on January 13, 2003
Posted in: Homily.
January 13, 2003
Isaiah 42: 1-4,6-7 n+ Acts 10:34-38 + Mark 1:7 11  
It is only the seventh verse of Mark’s GospelThe whole of this Gospel to this point has been occupied by John the Baptist. Only his voice has been heard.Up to this point, Matthew and Lukehave been busy with Shepherds, Astrologers from the East, Old folks in the Temple,visions, dreams, and angels. None of that for Mark.The identity of Jesus the Christ will come from the Prophets and the Scriptures themselves.What angels announce in Matthew and Luke is spoken by a voice from tom open heavens. Loaded with images of Old Testament hopes,these five verses tell the end of the story at its beginning.  
What a Roman centurion will proclaimon a hill outside Jerusalem at the end of this Gospel, a voice from the heavens proclaims in the Jordan.What happens to the veil in the Temple at the end occurs in the heavens at the beginning.Tom in two, the secret and everything that was hidden is made known.What only you and I and Jesus know in the first chapter is known to all by the last.It’s as though the story is being told in reverse. We know the ending at the beginning.  
What Mark gives us here in the first chapter of the first Gospel is the faith of the community from which he writes.This voice that speaks so clearly is the voice of their faith and what they have come to believe.The identity established here in this first chapter is more than the identity of Jesus of Nazareth.It is their identity that is about to be made known.It is more than the troubling relationship between Jesus and John that is explored here.It is the relationship of the new Israel (the dove) to God that is being revealed and unfqlded.  
What we discover here is the end of the storyKnowing what Jesus has been given, we know now what he has to give.This Jesus, having been given the Spirit will give that Spirit to others.This Jesus who has made himself onewith those who seek repentance by choosing to be Baptized has a unique relationship with God that he will sharewith those who will come to the waterThrough this story, Mark not only reveals the identity of Jesus, but he invites those who share his faith in this Son of Godto orient their lives toward this Spirit-filled Jesus.He is the one who can guide and lead us into God’s new and decisive way of Salvation.There is no other way to get there.  
Just as hedied for us, he is baptized for us. He had no need of Baptism,but his willingness to go down into the water just like his willingness to go down to death brought him God’s affirmation and the Spirit.That spirit will next drive him into the desertwhere he will know temptation and emerge the victor.  
That’s the end of the story, Victory for those who are filled with the Spirit.It can be the end of our story as well,but to get there we will have to go down into the water, into the desert,and into the mystery of this one who is servant and son. When we confess who he is, we know what we can become. “Son of God” is a significant title for Jesus in Mark’s Gospel.It not only signifies the identity of Jesus and what he shall become as he is led by this spirit;but it reveals what we shall become by that same spirit poured out upon those who see themselves as one with him.And so, today it is not angels, prophets, old folks in the temple, shepherds, astrologers, or dreams that reveal Jesus Christ,but you and me.The voice to be heard today is ours.The lives to be filled with the spirit are ours.The victory over temptation, evil, and death is ours,and for this we have every reason to give thanks, and praise, and glory.

Epiphany of the Lord

Posted by Father Tom Boyer on January 6, 2003
Posted in: Uncategorized.

January 6, 2003

Isaiah 60:1-6 + Ephesians 3:2-3,5-6 + Matthew 2:1-12

The question put before us by Matthew today is whether our relationship to Jesus is still a quest that springs from the deepest longings of our hearts. The quest to find Jesus makes restless every human heart, and who knows how or where people find Jesus? Some spend their whole lives looking without success, perhaps because they are blinded by their expectations.

This rich and ancient story we tell on the Twelfth Day of Christmas speaks of our quest and our expectations. It speaks of our quest because so much is revealed about us by our longings and the things we seek. It speaks of our expectations because where we look and what we look for affects what we find.

One star in a black night sky captured their attention because they were looking. Something different for them was a cause of wonder that led them to Christ. Not put off because the one they sought was not found in the great city of Jerusalem or its palaces, they found Him in insignificant Bethlehem in an ordinary house with his very ordinary mother.

This is a profound tale with a treasure of wisdom. Not everyone who looked at the sky that night saw what those astrologers from the East saw. Something more is required to recognize what is different and be willing to wonder and follow it. Too many of us look for what is the same; for what is not different, for what is predictable and expected. When something out of the ordinary occurs

or someone out of the ordinary moves through our lives, we shy away, are threatened, and avoid the challenge to our controlled and predictable existence. Those who avoid what is unexpected or different may very well never find Christ Jesus.

Blinded by expectations, the people of this story may well have missed the presence of Christ. Their willingness to go to Bethlehem, their wisdom to listen to the Scriptures, and their openness to any possibility brought them to Christ.

I suspect that when they returned home, their friends and family were a little amazed and a little amused. “What did you see?” they were probably asked. When their report was so simple, ordinary and humble, they must have been thought of as fools. But this is the beginning of the Good News some still consider foolish. The “gift” of this story may not be Gold, Frankincense, or Myrh. The “gift” they possess may be the wisdom to be unthreatened by what is different and unexpected with the willingness to look deeper into darkness. The “gift” they possess may be the ability to get beyond expectations and be surprised to discover the presence of God in people and places that seem to have nothing to offer.

When that happens, the ones who seem to have the most to offer, the ones bearing gifts end up being the ones who receive the real Gift of God. Our quest for Christ Jesus will reveal our expectations and challenge their limits. It will reveal the deepest longings of our hearts. If we long for palaces and their riches, for that security and the confidence that we know the way, we shall not have learned much from these companions of ours whose story we tell today.

On the Twelfth Day of Christmas our wise companions lead us into the mystery of the Incarnation; into the mystery of a God who will be revealed in the simple and the ordinary, the different and the unexpected. We may seem a bit foolish to believe this, but only in the eyes of those who can never wonder in the dark.