Homily for Sunday Ordinary 6 C

Keeping my eyes fixed on Jesus, I find the center, a level ground on which to stand. Jesus is the still point in a turning world. Like a tree, planted by the water, I shall not be moved.

I have Mass on Sunday, February 16 at St. Isidore @ 7:30/9:30 am

The 7:30 am Mass will be live-streamed https://stisidore.church/worship-online/

Transcript

A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Luke. 

Jesus came down with the twelve and stood on a stretch of level ground, with a great crowd of his disciples, and a large number of the people from all Judea and Jerusalem, and the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon. And raising his eyes toward his disciples, he said,

 "Blessed are you who are poor, for the kingdom of God is yours. Blessed are you who are now hungry, for you will be satisfied. Blessed are you who are now weeping, for you will laugh. Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude and insult you and announce your name is evil on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice and leap for joy on that day. Behold, your reward will be great in heaven, for their ancestors treated the prophets in the same way. 

But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. Woe to you who are filled now, for you will be hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you will grieve and weep. Woe to you when all speak well of you, for their ancestors treated the false prophets in this way." 

The Gospel of the Lord. 

Jesus had gone up the mountain to pray. After spending the night in prayer, he chose the 12 apostles. We meet Jesus coming down the mountain with the 12. In Matthew's Gospel, this teaching is referred to as the Sermon on the Mount. But here, Jesus comes to level ground. God is coming down from on high to be level with us. 

In Advent, we heard John the Baptist announcing, "Prepare the way of the Lord, make his path straight, and the rough way smooth." This is Jesus teaching us the way, the culture of the level place, the place made smooth, and the path made straight. We see a great reversal of culture here. The poor are blessed. Theirs is the kingdom. The rich have already received all they will receive. 

Remember, Jesus is saying these words to his disciples, that is, to us. The rich of the text are the rich us, not some convenient other and bad rich people. The level place, the place where the kingdom is coming true, is where in fact the poor are the ones who are truly honored. In society, to be poor and dishonored means to lose all the connections with society which make life livable. It meant to be destitute, accursed, and invalid. 

Among those who would come to hear Jesus and be healed is a large number of people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon. Tyre and Sidon are among the enemies who threaten the existence of the nation. To include Tyre and Sidon means that even our enemies belong in the leveled place of the kingdom. In the leveled place, all the people are healed, made valid, and given a place to live, a place in which they can be. 

We all know what power looks like. It looks like being strong enough not to be the place of the curse, but rather to put others in the place of the curse. Power has to do with winning. I love the way the Message Bible translates the first blessing and woe. You're blessed when you've lost it all, God's kingdom is there for the finding. But it's trouble ahead if you think you have it made. What you have is all you'll ever get. 

The decisive question then is whether to place our trust in human beings or to place our trust in God. Those who trust in the Lord are like a tree planted beside the water. Those who trust in mere mortals are like a barren bush in the desert, shriveled, lifeless, gasping for life. Their hearts turned away from the Lord. The alternative to the deceitful heart is a tree that could withstand drought and storms. 

The firmly rooted trees always bear fruit in season and have leaves that never wither. The blessed person, according to the psalmist, does not take from the world but contributes to it, bearing fruit for the sustenance of other beings and leaves for their breath and shade. 

In the biblical tradition, the tree is the image of humanity gone awry. It was a tree's fruit that tripped up Adam and Eve. In Luke's Gospel, after his baptism in the River Jordan, Luke traces Jesus' family tree back to Abraham and beyond, all the way back to Adam, the Son of God. The beginning of Jesus' work completes Adam's story. The Son of God brackets the story. Jesus, the Son of God, comes to gather all the sons and daughters of God, whom sin has scattered. 

Jesus bore the curse of crucifixion on a tree so that we could be grafted onto the tree of God's people. I love the way Parker Palmer imagines the cross. "It is on the cross that God's heart is broken for the sake of humankind. The cross beams stretch out four ways, pulling against each other, left and right, up and down. But those arms converge in a center, a heart, that can be pulled open by that stretching, by the tensions of life. A heart that can be opened so fully, it can hold everything from despair to ecstasy."

In chapter 12 of Luke's Gospel, Jesus said, "Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is pleased the Father to give you the kingdom." It has already been given. It's not conditional. Nothing more is needed. So do not be afraid. In his Sermon on the Plain, Jesus is announcing that the kingdom of God is already at hand. 

There's an old African-American slave spiritual, from the early 19th century, that celebrates a deeply rooted trust in God. Keeping my eyes fixed on Jesus, I find the center, a level ground on which to stand. Jesus is the still point in a turning world. "Like a tree, planted by the water, I shall not be moved."

We shall not, we shall not be moved. We shall not, we shall not be moved like a tree that's planted by the water. We shall not be moved. We shall not, we shall not be moved. We shall not, we shall not be moved like a tree that's planted by the water. We shall not be moved.