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Thursday of this
past week I attended the funeral of a man who died after combating
prostate cancer for nearly seven years. I first met this fellow several
years ago when he was still pretty much his “healthy self.” Then, I got
to know him better when he was his “unhealthy self.”
When he was healthy,
this fellow was an “in your face” kind of tough guy. Judging solely
from my experience, he didn’t believe that people had a “zone of
comfort” because he violated my zone of comfort the very first time I
met him by pressing right up to and into my face―much
like a drill sergeant would―to
assert his point. If that wasn’t unpleasant enough, this fellow also
aggressively attempted to get me to agree with whatever point he
happened to be asserting. Perhaps this interpersonal style worked well
in his profession―he
was a Wall Street financial analyst with Bears Stern―but
it didn’t work too well with me the first time I met him at a wedding
reception of a mutual friend. After about five minutes of his “in your
face,” aggressive style of asserting his point, I tried everything in my
arsenal of here-to-fore proven techniques to evade and avoid this guy.
But, he kept trailing after me wherever I would go, even when I went to
the restroom!
I happened to run
into this fellow after he had become unhealthy with prostate cancer.
Once again, he chased me down and I thought to myself, “Oh my God, how
am I going to avoid this guy?” But, when he once again swooped down and
violated my zone of comfort, I noticed a considerable change. Still
pressing in until he was about two inches from my face, this fellow
wasn’t aggressive and very much more reflective, perhaps even sensitive,
in his conversation. He told me about his ups and downs in his battle
with cancer, his doctors’ inability to contain its spread, and the
inevitability of his death although no one could tell him when that
would occur. He told me what he was learning as he combated cancer
about life, the reconciliation that was unfolding between himself and
his sons, his many civic and social concerns, and his faith. He asked
me to remember him in my prayers. And, when we parted, he really
violated my zone of comfort. He grabbed me, pulled me close, hugged me
and, then, he kissed me on the cheek.
This fellow planned
nearly two years for his death and funeral and I am sure that everything
proceeded at the funeral just as he planned. For example, his
oncologist delivered the eulogy after Holy Communion. It wasn’t the
typical garden variety of eulogy I am used to hearing at funerals. It
was a terrific talk, a substantive theological reflection upon
scripture, life, and redemption. In fact, if I were a bishop, I’d have
grabbed the oncologist right then and there and ordained him because the
eulogy was much better than most homilies I’ve ever heard or delivered
myself on Sundays. The physician had what it takes to preach the
gospel. And, he didn’t even go to the seminary!
In the eulogy, the
speaker described the deceased’s interpersonal style. I found out
that I wasn’t alone in my experience! That’s just the way this
fellow was. The speaker also described the headstone-type of
memorial the deceased had designed for his grave. Etched into the gray
granite stone was a paschal candle with the flame―the
Light of Christ―burning
brightly. Etched into the stone to the right of the paschal candle was
a scroll containing the quote: “Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is
mystery. Today is a blessing.”
In the today’s
gospel we heard that Jesus “was not able to perform any mighty deed [in
his hometown of Nazareth on that Sabbath day], apart from curing a few
sick people by laying his hands on them. He was shocked at their lack
of faith” (Mark 6:5-6).
So many people in
Nazareth looked at that Sabbath day
not as a
blessing
but as just another
day no different from the day before. But, because the Nazarenes
allowed yesterday’s history to blind them to today’s blessing, they
handicapped Jesus, rendering him ineffective of capably preaching God’s
word and healing His people. Son of God though he was, Jesus could not
accomplish the mission he was sent by his Heavenly Father to accomplish
in Nazareth that Sabbath day because its citizens allowed their past to
impede God’s power in the present. They didn’t let yesterday be history
and move forward to experience the blessing that today could have been
and the mystery that tomorrow would be. No, they were more content and
comfortable to live in their predictable past and, thereby, to make it
impossible for God’s gracious blessing to come to fruition in the
present and to anticipate eagerly the mystery that tomorrow would be.
Perhaps all of this
happened largely as a consequence of their familiarity with Jesus, as
the aphorism suggests: “familiarity breeds contempt.”
Nazareth was a tiny
and poor Israelite village, home to maybe four hundred people at best.
Most Nazarenes were uneducated and their children matured into adulthood
as they worked the family plot. Hardly any child left Nazareth to purse
his dreams and to make a life elsewhere. So, over the years, everyone
in Nazareth knew one another, not only by name but also personally,
including their strengths and defects as well as their history. Secrets―if
there were any in Nazareth―were
very hard to keep hidden.
However, Jesus was
different from most of his peers in that he left Nazareth at some point
in his life to study with John the Baptist―sort
of like going away to the seminary to become a rabbi―in
the area of the Jordan River. And, upon returning from his travels, it
appears that his fellow Nazarenes wanted Jesus to teach one Sabbath day
in their synagogue, to “strut his stuff,” so to speak.
And, Jesus did, as
we heard today’s gospel testify.
In fact, the power
and impact of Jesus’ preaching took most of his fellow Nazarenes by
surprise. They weren’t ready for this hometown boy to put on display so
much wisdom and power in their synagogue. After all, these people knew
Jesus, his parents and family members, his playmates, the stories about
his growing up as the carpenter’s son, and his childhood antics. They
knew just everything about Jesus.
Or, so they thought.
But, on this Sabbath
day, as Jesus taught in the synagogue, he revealed to the Nazarenes that
he had changed from the person they knew him to be. And, worse yet, he
called them to conversion. As a consequence the gospel says, “They
took offense at him.”
“Yesterday is
history. Tomorrow is a mystery. Today is a blessing.”
To live out this
phrase each day presents quite a challenge because it requires a
substantial change in how we look at many things, especially the people
in our lives.
Had the Nazarenes
allowed Jesus’ teaching to reach into their hearts rather than only to
enter their minds, they would not have taken offense at him. Had they
only opened their hearts to his challenging words and allowed them to
take root deep inside of them, the Nazarenes would have experienced the
blessing of God’s living word and they would have been healed not only
of the physical diseases afflicting their bodies but also the spiritual
diseases now paralyzing their souls. But, the Nazarenes couldn’t
invite Jesus’ to teaching take root in their hearts because it would have required
them to change. Prisoners of their past, Jesus had to be the person
they knew yesterday. He could not possibly be the rabbi who was
calling them to conversion today.
Rather than focus on
the Nazarenes and judge them harshly for the petty jealousies and
attitudes that kept them from recognizing the blessing who was standing
right there in front of them and teaching them on that Sabbath day,
let’s consider instead how we allow our petty jealousies and attitudes
based on yesterday’s history to becloud and darken our judgment today so
that like the Nazarenes we also miss the many blessings that God offers
us each day.
We all know the last
people who to allow us to grow and change are those who are closest to
us. And, we find these people and their petty jealousies and attitudes
offensive. Likewise, we oftentimes are the last people to allow those
who are closest to us to grow and change. And, these people find us
offensive. Sometimes, life appears to be a game of chess where the
objective is to keep people in their place. I’m sure we’d all
agree that this certainly isn’t a good way to live.
But, in light of today’s
gospel, perhaps the worst of all offenses is when we refuse to let
yesterday be history and to go take on today with its blessings. This
is the stubborn refusal that made it impossible for Jesus’ teaching and
prayers to heal his family, friends, neighbors, and fellow Nazarenes of
their physical and spiritual diseases. And it is our stubborn
refusal that makes it impossible for Jesus’ teaching and prayers to heal
us, the very people who claim to be his disciples.
We oftentimes don’t
think about it this way, but how often do we get into God’s way and
hamper―if
not impede―His
ability to bring about our healing because we choose to live in the
past?
One quite obvious
way is those family and friends we have purposefully rejected because of
the things they’ve said or done. We etch those things of the past onto
the granite of our minds, choosing to live each and every day as if
those things have just occurred. And, even if those people we have
rejected are different today, we justify our attitudes by continuing to
reject them or by attacking them for what they said or did. We might
not say as the Nazarenes did in today’s gospel, “Where did this man
(note they wouldn’t even call Jesus by his name) get all this? What
kind of wisdom has been given him?” But we do say, “Who does he think
he is?” We might not say as the Nazarenes did, “Is he not the
carpenter, the son of Mary...?” But we do say that the people we have
purposefully rejected are “no good,” “intolerable,” or just plain old
“losers.”
One of the reasons
why “in-law” jokes are so popular is because they exaggerate what is,
for many couples, the truth of their experience. On the one hand, the
mother-in-law or father-in-law poses the problem. This individual says
something, does something, or just has a personality defect, and that’s
it…no more relating with this individual. “I can’t take it any more,”
we say. On the other hand, it may be the sister-in-law or
brother-in-law who poses the problem. This individual is the wacko aunt
or weird uncle who’s always starting something at every gathering of
relatives. Whatever the case may be, in-laws oftentimes seem to cause
relationship issues in families. It might be what they’ve said or what
they’ve done, but many husbands and wives have purposefully closed their
in-laws out of their lives today and relegated them to the dustbin of
yesterday’s history.
I know of one fellow
whose mother-in-law has been deceased for nearly twenty years. Yet, to
listen to him, you’d swear that she’s alive and well, living right now
in his very house. She figures into just about every negative thing
that this fellow can talk about or discuss. Living in the past,
incapable of allowing yesterday to be history and today to be a
blessing, this fellow hasn’t really lived one day of his life since he
closed his mother-in-law out of his life because he continues to allow
her to dominate his daily life even though she’s been dead for nearly
two decades! Perhaps the resentment and antagonism toward her that he
has etched upon the granite of his mind is justified, but that’s a very
different matter than choosing to live one’s life as a prisoner of one’s
past!
The very sad thing
for this fellow is that because there’s no blessing today, there’s also
no healing today. Not that God doesn’t want to extend His blessing to
this fellow. No, the case is quite the opposite. God continues to
extend His blessing to this fellow day in and day out. It’s just that
this fellow won’t allow himself to see God present in his life today
because he has chosen to live in yesterday’s past where bygones aren’t
bygones…just like the Nazarenes in the synagogue who refused to accept
Jesus as he was.
So the lesson from
today’s scripture is as simple as it is pointed. When today is history
not yesterday, we erect roadblocks that get into God’s way and instead
of today being a blessing, God stands there amazed at our lack of faith,
incapable of performing any mighty deed that would restore the quality
of life for which all of us long. With no blessings on today’s menu,
tomorrow will be no mystery, just a rerun of yesterday. And we have no
one to blame but ourselves for the misery into the middle of which we
have placed ourselves and from which we can find no exit.
Had the Nazarenes
only seen that Sabbath day for what it was, it would have been quite a
blessing. And, who among them could possibly have perceived the mystery
that tomorrow would reveal?
No, like the
Nazarenes, it’s much easier for us to live in the past than it is to
listen to a friend, neighbor, or acquaintance who knows us by name, has
violated our zone of comfort, and has offended us or hurt our feelings.
It’s also much easier to think that God reveals Himself in mighty signs
and wonders that justify how we look at things rather than it is to look
at how God reveals Himself to us today in the very ordinary ways that
challenge us to change how we think, especially about the people we’ve
etched into yesterday’s past.
This is a pretty
harsh indictment of anyone who chooses to live today as if it is a
repeat of yesterday, isn’t it? But, if we are to experience the
blessing of God’s healing power and to grow beyond our petty jealousies
and attitudes, we have to ask ourselves: “Why does scripture indict us
like this?”
So, here’s the
lesson:
Living
in the past reflects the type of ingratitude for the gift that life
truly is, the type of ingratitude characterizing the members of what
Jesus called that “perverse and wicked generation,” a generation so
perverse and wicked that its members trust not in the sufficiency of
God’s grace that St. Paul spoke about in today’s epistle. Trusting not
in “the power that is made perfect in weakness,” these people have cast
their lot in the power that is made perfect in strength, especially the
strength that makes these people feel justified to reject sinners
because of what they did yesterday. But, in doing so, what the members
of that perverse and wicked generation don’t consider is how they
actually are preventing miracles from happening today.
As Jesus’ disciples,
it is good to recall the scroll etched into that fellow’s headstone.
“Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is mystery. Today is a blessing.”
Only those who accept Jesus as he is and allow his teaching to change
how they think about many things―especially
people―can
experience the mighty gifts of grace that God is attempting to shower
upon them today.
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HOMILY
