Jesus Not So Meek and Mild This Time

It is so good to be back home with you in this House of God following vacation time wherein I played some serious golf,  devoted extended periods of time to my new baby grandson and his family in Cambridge,  and just returned from a great trip to the Colorado Rockies visiting family and old friends.  It was a good vacation – and it is nice to return FROM a beautiful vacation spot in God’s creation TO … a beautiful vacation place that we in New Hampshire call home. 

  But,  my first day back I was standing on line in Larry’s hardware store here in town, in my ratty shorts and tee shirt, still on vacation, when a local acquaintance in front of me, AN OLDER LADY OF  IRISH DESCENT,  turned, caught my eye, and blanched saying, “ Oh, I wish I hadn’t seen you today, I haven’t seen you lately.”   I tried to smile though I was feeling suddenly very uncomfortable and I said, “Well, I’ve been out of town in Colorado on vacation.”   “DID YOU RUN INTO ANY IMMIGRANTS?” SHE SAID WITH OBVIOUS DISGUST.   “You mean people like you and me whose forebears were welcome here?” I SAID.    “YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN”, SHE REPLIED. “AND I’M JUST GLAD I’M OLD AND YOU’LL BE PAYING FOR THEM WHEN I’M GONE.”    Then I heard myself reply to her, “I have no problem contributing to the well being of others in my nation, so I’m OK with that.”    SHE ANSWERED, “WELL YOU’RE A GOOD PERSON, AND I’M NOT.”  Then she changed the subject quickly and asked pleasantly how my vacation was – how was the family etc.    

   WHAT WAS IT JESUS SAID IN TODAY’S GOSPEL – SOMETHING ABOUT OCCASIONAL DIVISIONS AND MISUNDERSTANDING AND DISTANCE ARISING BETWEEN PEOPLE FOR THE SAKE OF THE WAY OF LOVE – THE WAY OF THE GOSPEL- THE INCLUSIVE SPIRIT OF CHRIST? 

   So I’m really glad to be back here in this House of God, our spiritual home where the power of the compassionate Christ is not only found but so freely shared with all people.  

   Now certainly for Jesus, our pattern and our Guide in life, the life of faith was both full and joyful AND requiring of great, sacrificial, sometimes uncomfortable and painful effort.  He did not love and live and die on the cross for His own integrity, He did so for yours and for the future of generations to come.   And today’s difficult reading from scripture showed one of the rare occasions where ‘Jesus Meek and Mild’, the Gentle Shepherd instead came on like gang busters declaring, “Look, do not take my presence and teaching lightly or for granted as if you have all day to decide if you will be part of the answer or part of the problem in the world! You, YOU need to make your own decision for faith NOW”, He urged. “Trust in me now.” 

   “and when you do put your trust in me- when you start to become the ONE in your family who forgives, the one in your household who ceases to judge, the One in your circle who starts to live a more healthy and caring life than your parents, siblings, friends, neighbors and in-laws,   WHEN YOU PRAY ABOUT THINGS REGULARLY AND have compassion for the downtrodden, the sick, the frightened, the unpopular, AND IF YOU SPEAK OUT ABOUT THINGS LIKE THE WORLD’S WILLINGNESS TO INVEST IN MUTUAL DESTRUCTION WHILE DEMANDING CUTBACKS IN investing in people’s jobs and in children’s education, and the health of the environment and its inhabitants, GOD’S PEOPLE,    WELL, JESUS WAS SAYING,   feathers will be ruffled and you will be questioned and yes, even some family members, business partners and local neighbors will push away, maybe even write you off – or far worse.   There is joy in the way of Christ and there is cost.

   BUT THE THING IS, JESUS POINTED OUT RATHER CURTLY TODAY, --THE THING IS you need to become part of the answer whether or not your own family or neighbors understand or agree.  YOU MUST live into your calling as a person of God and you know you must.  AND HE points out clearly WE ALL KNOW WHAT WILL HAPPEN IF WE DON’T.

   Yes today Jesus lays it on the line raw, not sugar coated.  This is a primal call to faith – it’s a spiritual directive that was aimed both at Jesus detractors (who at that time were doing everything they could to say “NO” to Him, to discredit Him and to entrap Him) and Jesus was saying the SAME thing to those who would be His followers.  Faith takes effort and there will be a cost to the benefit.  BUT EACH OF US, YOU TODAY, MUST MAKE THE EFFORT AND TAKE THE LEAP OF TRUST BECAUSE YOU KNOW WHAT HAPPENS IF YOU DON’T.   

    “A Seeker once said God, why don’t you Do something about all the fear and violence and lying and meanness in the world?  GOD said, “I did, I made you!”

You know every day last week in Colorado I awoke to a perfectly sunny, clear warm day wherein I could sit on the deck of my sister in law’s house and gaze at the unspeakable beauty of Pike’s Peak just a few miles away. Spectacular.  After a couple of days I noted that at about 2 pm a cloud would descend and hide the top of Pike’s Peak – then the cloud would start making its way down the huge mountain and then the cloud would move toward the place where I was  sitting, doing little and enjoying the view.  Then that cloud, known by the locals as ‘the afternoon build up’, would produce thunder you could feel as well as hear along with serious chains of lightening not known around here.  I watched this happen a few days in a row; it was clear what was coming.

   Similarly, today Jesus says ‘Look, when you see the cloud in the west you say it is going to storm – so if you can tell these things, you must also know that a hard rain will fall on us if we do not make some needed changes, stop our hypocrisy, curb our appetites and instead employ God’s gifts of compassion and love and consideration THROUGH OUR LIVES TO THE WORLD.

   It is time for our transformation from fearful, self serving men and women to the faithful, welcoming Spiritual Beings we are meant to be. We are meant for goodness!  That’s THE TITLE OF BISHOP TUTU’S NEW BOOK (GOOD SUMMER READING!)  WE ARE MEANT FOR GOODNESS!   ‘You need to make this transformation’, Jesus urged today to detractor and friend alike. There will be some cost for sure and it is worth your spiritual investment.  Life and joy and newfound courage and strength will open up to you the more you open up to God. 

    In closing this meditation I wish only to paraphrase something the great contemporary spiritual hero Fr. Daniel Berrigan says.  He says that in times of great personal need we usually ask that God do for us what we are usually unwilling to do for others.  Let us therefore “ resolve to do for one another what we would ask God to do for us.”  This, Berrigan says, is what is known as God activity. 

   Hey I’m back from vacation and totally geared for all kinds of God activity.  No matter the cost for faith at home or in the store check out line,or in the public eye - it will be worth it for you and for the world you touch with your life each day.  And most importantly it will be a tribute to God who made you for this loving purpose.  So let’s get on get with God activity, lots of God activity. Amen