14th Sunday in Ordinary Time
READING 1:
Ezekiel 2:2-5 Psalm
123 READING 2: 2 Corinthians 12: 7-10 GOSPEL: Mark 6:1-6 There is a wonderful story about a Native American boy who was up in the mountains and came across an abandoned eagle’s nest. There was a lone egg in the nest and the boy gently took the egg down to his parent’s chicken farm and he put the eagle’s egg in with the rest of the chicken eggs. Soon the chicks and the eagle hatched together. So, the little eagle grew up among the chickens and he would cluck and he would go searching for worms and he click around like the others and scratch along and keep low to the branches on the trees and grew up and became old. One day a beautiful magnificent golden eagle was flying overhead. So this old chicken-eagle said: “Hey look up! What’s that?” His chicken friend said, “That’s a golden eagle, the king of the skies.” He saw it soar effortlessly, up high in the sky, with the biggest wingspan he had ever seen and the chicken-eagle said, “W-O-W!!” And his chicken friend said, “Don’t look at that bird too long. We’re chickens; ours is to stay down here and scratch on the earth.” …I love that story; it is what happened to Jesus in today’s story and it happens to us. I ask someone how he is doing. I hear him say: “I’m hanging in there!” Well, I understand, life can be challenging. But think about it. Does that sound a bit like living in the low branches, scratching the barnyard for chicken feed? We are people, human beings, called to stunning greatness. But do you think anyone tells you that in our society? Do you think anyone tells you of your dignity and your greatness? We all watch tv, do the sit coms or CSI teach you about your human dignity? We listen to the radio; does the talk radio or the words of the songs we listen to you speak of your stunning greatness? Turn on the computer, what do you experience? My friends, we call these scriptures we hear every Sunday, “inspired,” for a reason. They are stories about Jesus but they are more. They are speaking to us. This is our human experience. ”Is he not the carpenter, the son of Mary…and they took offense at him” Why? I have an old friend named Jane. When we were in college three couples hung out together and she dated my buddy Mike. They eventually got married. Over the years, we lost touch. One day last year, I was at the airport in Detroit changing planes and I recognize her. I don’t know how it happened, but I was certain, so I say, “Jane, is that you?” She looks up and when I identify myself, she remebers me. We hug enthusiastically. Oh, it is so good to see her again. We decide to have a snack together between planes. As we walk to the bar, who am I thinking I am going to have this snack with? It’s been over thirty years! I am thinking I am going to have a snack with my old friend Jane; but our lives have gone on. After discovering she is no longer married to Mike and doesn’t know where he is and that neither of us kept in touch with our mutual friends from college, it got awkward. We discover we have nothing in common anymore. We don’t think alike; we don’t vote alike; we don’t share common religious beliefs. When it is time for us to go to catch our flights, I walk away thanking God it was only a quick snack and not dinner. What happened? Go back to Nazareth . Does it connect? I had a clear memory of my friend Jane; but that did not allow for over thirty years of experiences. People will always try to keep us where they think we should be. Those people have an idea about who we are but their idea is fixed, static, chained up in their perspective. Our lives are not lived like that, we need to keep going, growing, becoming, and living. And it goes the other way as well; we cannot try to hold other people to our ideas about them. When Beethoven was a young lad studying piano, his didn’t like playing other people’s music. He wanted to play his own. His teacher said that he would never amount to anything. He moved on to greatness. Our minds have been conditioned to give us a thousand reasons why we can’t soar with the eagles, but don’t limit God to your own misinformed mind, don’t limit God to a teacher’s opinion, don’t limit God to a scientist’s theory, don’t limit God. Our Creator is still creating us; we are all unfinished symphonies. Why do you suppose Jesus kept saying, “Just have faith; do not be afraid!”? We glorify God by trusting that His Story is the truth. If the narratives of the Sacred Scriptures teach us anything, from the serpent in the Garden, through the shepherd boy and the giant, or the carpenter from Nazareth , it is that things are rarely what they seem. God’s wisdom is greater than conventional wisdom. We are living a crisis of identity. Many people live with a subtle dread that one day we will be discovered for who we really are and the world will be appalled. And “the world, the flesh and the devil” may be appalled as the neighbors in Nazareth were; Jesus uses biblical language, but it comes down to: so what? Jesus always reminds us of our dignity and greatness. We need to listen to him. There are no ordinary people. You never talked to a mere mortal. There’s another story, this one about a young lion who was raised by sheep. He went around with the rest, baah-ing, eating grass and afraid of predators. One day a mighty lion appeared and the sheep scattered. But the great lion caught the lion cub. The cub trembled in fear and begged, “Oh, mighty lion, baaaahhh! Don’t kill me.” But the lion picked up the cub and took him to a stream and let the cub look at his reflection in the water. The cub looked at his reflection, then up to the great lion then back to his reflection. Then the cub turned and let out a mighty roar. Follow Jesus! Don’t let yourself be limited to the low branches. Don’t just “hang in there.” Don’t run from life’s challenges like sheep; conquer this life’s challenges like lions. Oh, Jesus’ childhood friends and neighbors thought they knew him. But actually he knew them better. As Jesus once said, “You are much more than mere sparrows;” you are much more than you think you are. And that is Good News! Fr. Jeff McGowan |
