Homily for Sunday Ordinary 19 C

Shifting from a scarcity outlook to one of abundance takes time. We’ve believed the lie of scarcity for so long that we may find it hard to believe it’s not true. 

I have Mass on Sunday, August 10 at St. Isidore @ 7:30/9:30 am

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

frjoedailey@gmail.com

Transcript

A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Luke. 

Jesus said to his disciples, "Do not be afraid any longer, little flock, for your father is pleased to give you the kingdom. Sell your belongings and give alms. Provide moneybags for yourselves that do not wear out, an inexhaustible treasure in heaven that no thief can reach nor moth destroy. For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be. 

Gird your loins and light your lamps, and be like servants who await their master's return from a wedding, ready to open immediately when he comes and knocks. Blessed are those servants whom the master finds vigilant on his arrival. Amen, I say to you, he will gird himself have them recline at table, and proceed to wait on them. And should he come in the second or third watch, and find them prepared in this way, blessed are those servants. Be sure of this. If the master of the house had known the hour when the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. You also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect the Son of Man will come." 

Then Peter said, "Lord, is this parable meant for us or for everyone?" And the Lord replied, "Who then is the faithful and prudent steward, whom the master will put in charge of his servants to distribute the food allowance at the proper time? Blessed is that servant whom his master on arrival finds doing so." Truly I say to you, the master will put the servant in charge of all his property. But if that servant says to himself, "My master is delayed in coming," and begins to beat the men's servants and the maidservants to eat and drink and get drunk, then the servant's master will come on an unexpected day and at an unknown hour, and will punish the servant severely, and assign him a place with the unfaithful. That servant who knew his master's will, but did not make preparations nor act in accord with his will, should be beaten severely. And the servant who was ignorant of his master's will, but acted in a way deserving of a severe beating, shall be beaten only lightly. Much will be required of the person entrusted with much, and still more will be demanded of the person entrusted with more. 

The Gospel of the Lord. 

We are following Jesus on the way to Jerusalem. He is walking ahead of us, and we are struggling to keep up. The author of Hebrews jogs back in time to the call of Abraham. He went, not knowing where he was to go. God told him to go, where? A place I will show you. Jesus called his disciples to go, where? They had no clue. 

This is where we all begin. We are born helpless infants, creatures of pure need. We are fed, we are protected, we are clothed and held and soothed, without having done anything to deserve it, without offering anything in exchange in exchange. This experience, common to everyone who has made it past childhood, informs some of our deepest spiritual intuitions. Our lives are given to us. It is the truth of our existence. 

Here's what Jesus said just before today's Gospel. "Notice how the flowers grow. They do not toil or spin, but I tell you, not even Solomon, in all his splendor, was dressed like one of them. If God so clothes the grass in the field that grows today and is thrown into the oven tomorrow, will he not much more provide for you, O you of little faith?" "Do not be afraid any longer, for your Father is pleased to give you the kingdom." When we trust God's providence, not only do we discover that we have enough for ourselves, we have enough to share. 

Here is Jesus' strategy. Provide money bags for yourselves that do not wear out, an inexhaustible treasure in heaven that no thief can reach nor moth destroy, for where your treasure is, there also will your heart be. Everything we have is gift, but we still find it hard to imagine that God desires the best for us. 

As the author of Hebrews declares, faith is the realization of what is hoped for and evidence of things not seen. The solution, Jesus advocates, is stepping forward in faith, giving our treasure to the poor, knowing our heart will follow. Shifting from a scarcity outlook to one of abundance takes time. We believe the lie of scarcity for so long, we may find it hard to believe it is not true. 

Here is how I came to know this. When I was a new pastor, the parish was small but growing. We had a man in the parish who was studying for the diaconate. He was doing his internship at St. Andrew where they had the practice of giving away 10% of their income to the poor. This is a biblical idea. 10% is called a tithe. 

He thought our parish should do the same thing. I thought he was crazy. I couldn't imagine giving money away. We had a debt of $350,000. I don't know why I was so worried. After we built our new church, we had a debt of $5 million. He saw a way around my resistance. He asked if he could present his idea to the parish council. I was sure they would agree with me. It turned out the parish council thought it was a great idea. So we began to give away 10% of our Sunday collection to the poor. 10% right off the top. 

The point of almsgiving, I think, is not to elevate poverty, but rather to extol generosity as a mark of the Christian life. Generosity and trust are muscles and by exercising them we grow in those traits. Once we began to tithe as a parish, I encouraged all of us to use this model for our own giving. It had never before occurred to me that I should give money to the parish, but I realized that if I was going to ask others to give in this way, I too had to become a percentage giver. 

10% is a pretty high bar, but really any percentage works. Whatever percentage you choose, give it away right off the top. Some people reported getting a raise after they'd become a percentage or sacrificial giver. That didn't happen to me, but I became absolutely convinced that this was the way to live. When we started building the new church, I increased my percentage. 

Then we got the idea that we should give a percentage of what we were spending on our new church to the poor. We decided to build a house for the poor before we built the new house for the church. If we build on that foundation, it will make a difference in who we are as church. We began a partnership with Habitat for Humanity. After we built our new church, we just kept building Habitat houses. I think we built 16 or 17 houses in the next 20 years. 

"Faith is the evidence of things not seen." In the Bible's understanding, the unseen things are in the future. Our future is secure with God so faith can live in the uncertainty and even agony of now. As Reinhold Niebuhr reminds us, "Nothing worth doing can be accomplished in a single lifetime. Therefore, we are saved by hope."