Fourth Sunday after Pentecost YB- Br. Luke

Homily preached by Br. Luke efo at Springwood on Sunday 21^st June 2015

Andre-Rublev's Saviour

 

Fourth Sunday after Pentecost

Gospel: Mark4:35-41

The English composer Margaret Rizza has set to music these words of David Adam:

Calm me, Lord, as you calmed the storm; still me, Lord, keep me from harm.

Let all the tumult within me cease, enfold me, Lord, in your peace.

Calm me, Lord, as you calmed the storm; still me, Lord, keep me from harm.

Let all the tumult within me cease, Lord, enfold me in your peace.

Words which resonate with today's Gospel reading.  The hauntingly beautiful piece of music personalises for us the essence of wonder and turmoil we can sense in Jesus’ action in the calming of the storm. The disciples were in fear of their lives, and here was Jesus peacefully sleeping in the back of the boat. Now I don’t know about you, but as one who gets horribly seasick, I studiously try to avoid the sea, and even the Manly ferries when the Sydney Harbour looks rough, so the disciples have my sympathy and support in their fear.

When they woke him, Jesus dealt with the storm and then with them.  Mark says the disciples were afraid and we can read the verse as though they were afraid of Jesus. But I think this is too strong. They thought they were going to die and then with simple words Jesus ensures calm, peace and their survival. Of course we are not shocked by this, after all it was with words, his voice, that God created and Jesus is also known to us as the Word Incarnate.

So words are, and have always had, an integral part of our experiences and understanding of our faith and of our God. Yet here is a dramatic depiction of the interaction the creator has with his creation, both nature and human.

In our lives we experience all sorts of storms, tempests and fears. We can feel alone and adrift, while a storm rages around and batters us into some sort of submission. In the midst of this turmoil, we seek a haven, a place where we will be safe and calm. So we can certainly identify with the disciples fears and I think it is this yearning that we recognise in the lyrics I quoted earlier.

Now I have no doubt that we do seek, well maybe when we remember or are really desperate, the calm that Jesus can bring to our storms. But we have to have the very things that Jesus queried in his disciples – trust and faith. Not just platitudes, saying that we have them, but really having them. Knowing with certainty, with an unshakable conviction that Christ will bring calm into our lives. This is something we have to have in our hearts and not in our heads.

We have to know, not think, this knowledge. Now if we are honest with ourselves, we’d have to say we don’t do this all the time. We do it when we remember or are desperate. So our challenge, our task, if you like, is to move this knowledge from our heads into our hearts. I suspect that you are all now saying to yourselves, that’s all very nice brother, but how do we do this? How do we move knowledge from our head to our heart? After all isn’t knowledge a head thing?

My reply is, yes it is, if you think in two dimensions, something we all like doing. However, we have to think outside these dimensions. We have to think in three or even more dimensions. We have to see a depth in knowledge that takes our thoughts from our minds and places them into our hearts. Perhaps the most surprising thing is, that if you pause for a moment, you may realise that this is something we do every time we believe in something that is intangible.

It is not enough to just think that Jesus will calm the storm, we need to know it without thought. We have to have it as an inherent, an integral part of our life and being. Now I agree with you, it is not easy, it is very, very difficult.   To achieve it, we will have to abandon some, if not all of our natural instincts, to deny ourselves, ah now isn't that something we've heard elsewhere in the Gospel? Yet when we achieve this move, and yes we can do it, then we are expressing, we are living, our faith.

Here then is the essence of faith – an inherent, integral, yes an almost innate, heart based knowledge. We commence, continue and develop this movement of knowledge by something we do every day. By communicating both verbally and silently – with words. Yes I'm talking about prayer. It is not, or rather it should not be, any surprise to us that we read again and again that Jesus went off to pray. Or that the multitude of saints and holy people throughout the ages have all had an experience and the discipline of prayer at the centre of their lives.

Maybe then, it will not be as difficult or nearly as impossible as you may have thought.  We can achieve the head to heart knowledge movement. But we have to be diligent, to be committed to the practice of prayer. This is why, that though the centuries religious communities of friars, monks and nuns have had a daily regime of regular, frequent prayers built into the pattern of their lives. They knew, and they still know, that without this practice, we become distracted and that our heart knowledge will slowly start to reverse its movement. It will revert to once again residing in our heads. When that happens our faith weakens and in time it will dissipate.

So dear ones, be of good cheer and have great joy. Be assured that with, or rather through, prayer we can achieve the heart knowledge that Jesus will calm our storms.  Do not doubt that when, as David Adam so eloquently phrased it, we say: “Lord, enfold me in your peace”, Jesus – God, will do so.

Amen.

Fifth Sunday after Pentecost

Andre-Rublev's Saviour

5th Sunday after Pentecost 13th July 2014

“Moses said to YHWH, “But, never in my life have I been a man of eloquence,
either before or since you have spoken to your servant.” Ex 4:10

Gospel:Matthew 13:1-23: 


God's Word Will Work It's Purpose The heart of Jesus' message is about the 'Reign or Kingdom' of God. The parables like that of the sower for this week's liturgy is a special way to help us know its significance. Matthew seeks to explain why some people do and some don't accept the way God wants to be in this world. There are two groups of listeners the disciples and the Pharisees. Jesus explains to the disciples why the coming Reign of God is not announced in spectacular ways. Jesus does not usually explain his parables but one is given. The parables can be heard in different ways and not wishing to outdo the Christ, I would like to share my response to the gospel words. In case you are already saying to yourself, “Heard that before, know that,” I ask you to listen again with a fresh heart. You just might just hear this parable in a new way.

In Jesus day a farmer would put a heavy seed bag on his shoulder and go out to his field to sow seed. The farmer would through seed across a fallow field before ploughing. The seed was first sown, and then gently ploughed into the ground. Some of the farmers precious seed, fell on a well worn path cut by foot traffic through the fallow field. So some seed landed on the path. And when it did, the birds quickly enjoyed lunch. Other seeds, said Jesus, fell on rocky ground. Because there was little soil there, the seedlings sprang up quickly and then withered under the scorching sun or those that fell into the thorns were choked off. Finally, some seed fell on good ground and brought forth a good crop yielding thirty, sixty, even a hundredfold. Jesus ended the story calling all to listen; listen carefully, deeply, thoughtfully. Listen! Jesus gave an interpretation to this parable that has endured down through the ages. Many believe that Christ’s interpretation of the parable, represents various kinds of people, and is the only legitimate interpretation. I believe, this parable can have, and does have many meanings? As with all of the parables, the key is to listen and let the word take root in our lives - that is to change us. I would like to share my response on this parable.

The parable could I believe be applied to every individual life? Our lives have worn, rocky, thorny, and good soil in which seed of God's word can grow. If your life is like mine, daily living has created well-worn paths. They can be called ruts. Routines are often required, but sometimes in our relationship with God, routines can become ruts. We can attend church week after week, hear the scriptures read (like this parable), sing familiar hymns, go through the church routine, and in so doing, give the good seed God sows us to the birds of indifference. It happens and may be happening even now. God’s seed also falls on the rocky places of our lives. Life, by definition, can leave us cold, sharp, soil-less, and rough. Pain, the cruelty of insensitive friends, and the cutting comments of strangers can leave us lifeless and unmoved, like hard rocks void of God’s bounty. The thorns of negative thinking that can choke out the ways of trust and faith, robbing us of God’s promise. We have all heard and believes too many unloving voices.

Thank God, some seed falls on good ground out of open trust. When it does, the miracle of growth and harvest happens. I think of the people who have started to tell me a story about their life with the words: “You’ll never believe what happened to me.” Or, “I had no idea God could take what I did and use it to bless another’s life.” Or, "I never thought I would find my way of the burden of pain I was carrying." We all have a story. Look back and see the times God sowed good seed in the good ground of your soul, and how from a small beginning came a result that still leaves you amazed. There will always be parts of us that are worn out, rocky, wasted, and good. But the gospel reminds us there is far more good in all of us in which God’s grace can take root. All types of ground exists in the fields of our lives. We are invited by the parable to clear out the rocks of hardness of heart, to cut down the thorns of negativity, to change the routines of life sometimes, to not listen to the birds that do not speak of Christ and the gospel way and to give God even more opportunities through prayer and silence to grow into the generous, loving person God in Christ made us to be? I invite you to LISTEN once again to Christ's words and so to discover the amazing work of God in and through your beautiful life. God is working in you patiently and carefully - just LISTEN you may hear it grow.

Amen