THE THREE MOST IMPORTANT WORDS

A friend of mine sent me a quote that he thought might be a gist for a reflection/sermon. The quotation: ".....one or two words that people utter that carry great weight and significance, and can be fraught with meaning and implication: Yes. No. It's a girl. He's gone. I love you. I'm sorry. It's OK. I'm here" He’s right, of course.   

As I thought about those words and after listening to a recent Gospel, I think there are three even more important words that both trump all of these and, in a way, explain them. The scene in the Transfiguration in Matthew’s Gospel. Peter, James and John hear a voice that says: “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!” (17:5). The three words? Listen to him.

God is telling us to listen to what Jesus has to say to us, both in his words and in his actions, really listen. If we would, if we had over the centuries, this would be a much different world. But we haven’t and we don’t. It’s almost as if we are listening to anyone and everyone else. We are bombarded by op eds in the newspapers, on line, in personal conversations, all purporting to be the truth. The one looking back to us in the mirror is not an exception.

In many ways what I think God is asking of us is to think before we speak or act, to ask of ourself if what we are about to say or do is what Jesus would say or do were he in our place at this precise moment is time? Before, not after, when it is too late and the damage has been done. We tell a lie knowing full well that it is not the truth. Others hear us and believe us for whatever reason they do; and they act on it, causing pain and suffering to others, perhaps, and often, countless others. 

The damage cannot be undone and apologies or fines or even jail terms do not and cannot atone for our deliberate sins both as individuals or groups of them. What we are left with is damage control. Passing the buck, blaming others, attempts at justifying our words and actions – none of that escapes our responsibility for what has been done. Yet, we would have no need for any attempts to do so had we listened to Jesus in the first place.

I know. I know. Do I really think blog casters or op ed writers or public demonstrators really think about the Gospel message, ask what Jesus would say or do? No, I really do not. How could they when the results of their words and actions are so blatant and so damaging to the body politic?

I think about that and about those words that we utter that are fraught with the Gospel message: Yes. No. It's a girl. He's gone. I love you. I'm sorry. It's OK. I'm here. Those words come from deep in our hearts. There is depth to them, an innate understanding of the consequences of what we are saying, of the responsibilities that follow; and we are okay with that. Why? Because we have listened to what Jesus has said to us about what it means to follow him. It’s not easy to listen and to act, and we often fail living in what these days is a toxic culture, but we do are best, given God’s grace and strength. Listen, really listen. That’s what God asks of us and what we must ask of ourselves.

THE ROCK

My two favorite Christian symbols are the cross and the rock? The rock? Yes. I keep a rock in my desk drawer – and probably should carry one in my pocket – as a reminder of my faith, of what it means to be a Christian. It reminds me that my faith is to be as solid as a rock, built on a rock. But it is more than that. The cross, of course, reminds me that living out my faith will not always be easy but that God will always give me the grace and strength to do so,

In Matthew's Gospel Jesus tells Peter that Peter is to be the rock on which Jesus will build his church. That statement has been interpreted to mean that Peter and his successors, namely, the Bishops of Rome, are to be the head of the church. I will not get into that theological debate. For the moment it is beside the point.

The real point, I believe, is that Jesus wanted a rock-solid faith from Peter and the rest of the Apostles. Not only must they confess that he is the Messiah, they must believe it and, most importantly, live it – and even be willing to die for that faith: rock-solid faith. The church universal, the church as a whole, must be built on the rock-solid faith of the people of the church. If our faith is weak, if it is built on sand, shifting sand, if it is lukewarm and wishy-washy, we, as church, will never survive.

For in order to do what is demanded of us as Christians, to love one another, even our enemies; to serve one another, even those who are different from us; to share our faith, even with those who could care less; in short, to love our God with all our heart and mind and strength and our neighbor as ourselves, all that demands a rock-solid faith.

I wear a cross around my neck as a reminder of my faith. But sometimes I think I should take that rock our of my desk drawer, tie it to a string and wear it around my neck as well. In fact, I should probably wear that rock alone. It would remind me not only of how solid my faith must be, but also, and perhaps more importantly, that when I live out my faith, in my relationships with others, what they want of me is not so much that I help them carry their crosses but that while they are carrying those crosses, I don't throw rocks at them and make it harder for them to live out their faith, and vice-versa.

But that faith comes not simply from the asking. Yes, we must want it and ask for it, but we must also work for it and work at it. It is not enough simply to confess that Jesus is the Messiah, that he is the Son of God. That's all for starters. Much more is needed, demanded. That, I think, is Jesus's point when he tells Peter and the rest of the Apostles – and us – about forgiveness. For, you see, the key to the kingdom of heaven, the key to being able to live a Christian life, that key is forgiveness.

As long as we refuse to forgive those who hurt us, as long as we keep throwing rocks at them, so long will we keep them out of our family, our church, our lives. The rock is a reminder to me that not only of the power of my faith but also the power that is in my hands to forgive in order to build community, build church, build family. And the cross is a reminder that it won’t be easy but it can and must be done.

THE REAL ISSUE

It seems to me that the real issue behind much, if not all, of the debate on human sexuality that is engulfing our church, our society, our world, is that of power masquerading as authority. It is only when we take off the masks that we are able to see the issue for what it almost always is: the desire to have power/control over another/others.

To be sure, authority is vital for the ordering of any community, be that community as small as two or as large has three hundred million. Someone has to have the final say‑so, the authority to decide if the new car is to be blue or red, to decide if we go to war or not. When that authority, which is willingly bestowed by those under authority, is employed lovingly, there are little or no problems. We may not always like the decision, but we trust that the one in authority knows what is best for us because that authority truly loves us. Our children do not always agree with our decisions about them, but they know, we hope that we love them and are doing what we do because we love them.

On the other hand, when the one in authority – be that authority parent, politician, president, priest or pope – abuses that privilege, when it becomes an issue of power, then problems arise at home, at church, in the world. When the subject over which authoritative decisions must be made is that of human sexuality, the issue of the abuse of power can be crucial. If someone, some authority, can control, has the power to control, another's sexual life, that authority controls the other.

The point, however, is that authority can be misused. When it is, it ultimately degenerates into, for a lack of a better term, power politics. Our country is beset with power politics over sexual issues. Abortion is a sexual issue. Homosexuality is a sexual issue. Divorce and remarriage is a sexual issue. That is not to say that they are not real issues or that they are unimportant. It is to say that the way we have approached these issues lately is with a club in our hand rather than love in our hearts.

When we say to others, "If you don't like it, get out, out of the country, out of the church, out of whatever", we miss the point of what being a citizen and being a Christians is about. It is not about having the power to control another’s life – physical, spiritual, social – and using and abusing it, asserting that we are right and you are wrong and we will make laws to punish you if you disobey. Sadly, tragically, in many quarters that is what it has become or seems to becoming.

No, it is not about what it has become: about control. It is about caring about the other. It is about trying to understanding what we cannot understand and maybe will never understand. It is about trying to walk in another’s shoes even though that is impossible. It is not about either-or, this or that, right or wrong.

We are all sexual beings. I no more understand my heterosexuality than someone else understands his homosexuality. None of us ever will. In the meantime, we must live as Christian sexual human beings. We must begin to see these sexual issues for what they are: issues of being, and not what they have become: issues of power and control.

PRAYER II

 PRAYER II

I read somewhere this short thought on prayer: "Prayer empowers us, not just to do the will of God, but to will the will of God." We all, I trust, want to do the will of God. As Christians we want to do what God wants us to do with our lives. Sometimes we are not so sure just what God wants us to do, but we surely want to do whatever it is God has in God's mind/will for us.

Yet, often, I suspect, if you are like me, sometimes we really do not want to know what the will of God is for us. Because if we did, then we would not be ignorant; we would have no excuses why we did not do what we knew God wanted us to do.

On the other hand, there is also the danger that we think we know what God wants for us. As an aside, there is an even greater danger: believing we know what God wants for someone else. The greatest threat to a society are those who assert that they know what God wants for that society, that they somehow have a direct line to knowing the mind of God. No one does.

Yet, as the quote states, knowing the will of God is not what is important. Willing the will is what is. Sometimes in my own life I think I know what God wants me to do. In fact, I am certain of it. And sometimes during those sometimes I simply do not want to do what I believe I know God wants me to do. To do what God wants me to do takes strength, takes power, takes grace. I know that but sometimes I am not sure that I am up for it: it’s just too difficult right then.

That is where prayer comes in. Prayer gives me the power, it empowers me, to make God's will my will. Then, when I am doing what God wills, I am also doing what I will. God's will for Jesus was Jesus's death on the cross. The night before he died, Jesus spent as much time as he could in prayer making God's will his will as well. That is why he was empowered to die on that cross for us. He was empowered by his prayer. That did not make the task at hand any easier. It would be foolish to assume that it was. But Jesus was at peace with it.

We all probably need to spend more time in praying and less time in doing, more time in discerning through prayer God's will and less time in asserting that we know God's will (especially God's will for others); more time in prayer in order to make God's will our will and less time trying to make our will God's will. That is the only way to be at peace with ourselves when it comes time to doing God’s will. For if we are honest with ourselves, our prayer is more often "my will, O God, be done," rather "Thy will be done." When we go against what we really know is God’s will, we make a mess of everything.

We are all selfish people. We innately want our will to be done. The reason why the world is in the mess that it is in is that too many of us spend far too much time and energy seeing to it that our will is done – often in the name of God. If we want to change the world, if we want what God really wants for the world – peace, we must begin by praying to not only to know God’s will but to will God’s will as well – for us, for others, for our world.