This
is the story of a shepherd, this shepherd was doing well, but he did not need a
large income for he had no children to support, when he came back from his time
in the fields he did not come back to an abundance of children wanting their
father’s attention, or need to be feed and clothed. It was not for lack of
wanting an heir that there were no children, but the shepherd and his wife had
never been able to have children. And at the age the shepherd and his wife had
reached, there was not a great deal of hope for the future. Now this shepherd
still had family, including a nephew he was very close to, but no children.
This shepherd was a pagan and only knew the lifeless idols worshipped by his
parents, had had little education and he was a little rough around the edges.
This shepherd wrote no books, gave no prophesies, sang no songs and did not
give any laws, yet this shepherd came to be known as the “Beloved of God” and
“The Father of Many Nations”, I am or course speaking of Abraham.
Before
Abraham became the “Father of Many Nations” he was a childless 75 year old
shepherd named Abram. Then one day God spoke to Abram, God told Abram that He
would make of Abram a great nation and that God would bless him. Remember that
Abram grew up with the gods of his family and neighbors, distant uncaring
deities, who often just played with humans and liked to hear them begging and
groveling but these gods were silent to their pleas. But Yahweh spoke to Abram;
Abram must have been frightened and yet intrigued. Even from the beginning it could be said
“What great nation is there that has gods so close to it as the Lord, our God,
is to us”. God sensed that there was
more to Abram than meets the eye, God saw what He could make of Abram, so God
choose Abram. Abram did everything God asked of him; he was to pick up his
life, his wife, members of his family, his animals and tents and at 75 years of
age, move to a new land and start a new life for himself and many others who
came after him.
In
today’s gospel as part of the commissioning given to the Apostles in Matthew
chapter 15, by Christ is about spreading the good news, telling the apostles where
they should go and how they should behave. At the end of the instructions Jesus
states “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and
whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever
does not take up his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me”.
Is
Jesus Christ telling people not to love fathers and mothers, or sons and
daughters, or to give up responsibility to their families out of love for God? Does
Jesus mean old parents are to be abandoned on the side of the road or children
and the needy left to fend for themselves, because God must come first? No it is quite the opposite; it is because of
love for family and friends that you put your love for God first and foremost. Some
might call this is cost of discipleship and faith , I think it might be more of
a benefit or a blessing of discipleship and faith, where you can turn your life
over to God, to have a life of trust in God, to have a life of faith in God, to
have the best life possible through God, to admit that there is a loving being
stronger and more powerful than any person who was, is or could be, and that omnipotent,
omniscient and omnipresent being wants you, your family, friends, even your distant cousins and anyone one else
whom you may or may not have meet to be His adopted children. Wouldn’t you want
that for yourself, so why wouldn’t you want it for the people you love the
most, why wouldn’t you want it for the people you don’t love, or don’t even
know. God is big enough for all. Faith is a privilege, and loving people so
much that you only want the very best for them you put your own ego aside and
let God reign in your life so that God can reign in theirs.
That
is exactly what Abraham did in my story at the beginning; he put his love for this
unknown God before his love for his family and his life. And because Abram had
faith in God Abraham was blessed, his family was blessed, and every generation
until today and into tomorrow are blessed.
In
the Book of Joshua, we read the Israelites had finished their desert sojourn
and were about to cross the river Jordan, and Israelites would have a battle at
the city of Jericho. But their coming
was not going to be a surprise, stories of the Israelites and their God, the
God who freed them from bondage in Egypt, had feed and kept them alive for
decades in the dessert, a people in constant motion through the burning dessert
but instead of shriveling up and dying like some unwatered and forgotten weed
in the dry season, the Israelites were multiplying and thriving, they burned
with desire for the land of milk and honey, the home that their God had
promised them. So it would be an understatement to say that stories of the
Israelites and their God preceded them.
The
man chosen to lead the people after Moses was Joshua, Joshua was a good
military leader so he sent in two spies to Jericho; to get as the modern
military would say some intel of what Jericho was like, the people, the
defenses, their resources before Joshua took his men across the Jordan River.
The
king of Jericho got wind of the spies and launched a city wide search for them.
The two spies were in the house of a woman named Rahab, the two spies asked
Rahab for her help, they needed to be hid while the city wide search was going
on, and the two spies would make their way to safety under the cover of
darkness. Rahab hid the spies under reeds on the roof, and said to them, that
she had heard of what the Israelite people and what their God had done for
them. And Rahab knew in her heart this was a God she believed in and could
follow. So she put the lives of her family into God’s hands because she knew
this God could do more for her family than she ever could. We all know how the
story ends, Rahab and her family were saved and Rahab become part of line
through which Jesus Christ was born.
Rahab had faith and trust in this unseen God. If she had been caught hiding the two spies, she and her family would have been put to death. But Rahab knew she could trust this God of the Israelites. It is easy to recognize faith when you see it, and to talk about faith when things are going well, but it is not always so easy to live. After all one of God’s greatest gifts to us is free will. To be able to make up our own mind and to do what we want, when we want to do. We are the center of our own universe; we are the lord of our own lives. To give up control of our lives and the lives of our loved one’s is a great act of faith.
To have faith is to acknowledge that there is a power bigger than us or our egos in this universe. And to always remember that that power, that source loves us beyond measure, and wants to be loved in return. So love God more sons and daughters, mothers and fathers, love God more than the people you are responsible for, love God more than the people around you. And yes love them so much that you put your ego aside and want them to be loved and cared for and looked after by most powerful source of love and light and compassion and forgiveness and consolation in the universe. No one is going to love the creation more than the creator.
Photograph by Brother Brian. Today's homily by Father Stephen.
