Sufficient Grace

Feast of Saint Ignatius Loyola

Click here for a wonderful article by James Hanvey, SJ "Ignatius of Loyola: Theology as a Way of Living.

I love the reflection on the nature of Christian freedom.  The very notion of freedom has been so cheapened.  Always and only referring to being free from.  A place of void...a place to be self-made.  For Ignatius, the freedom to be and to act grows not from of void but from a radical groundedness.

"None of this excludes the rich insights into the dynamics of the human psyche and our relationships which are illuminated in the contemporary human sciences. It does mean, however, that we come to understand ourselves and our world – social and material – through God, not apart from Him. Implicitly, therefore, Ignatius will always challenge our latent or implicit secularisation. This is why, though the Ignatian vision and practice has an extraordinary freedom to engage with the whole of human reality, it needs always to be vigilant and rooted – in affect, intellect and acts – in God. Without this groundedness, even the gift of freedom becomes the occasion of a conversion to the secular i.e. the world in which I am the centre, that I endeavour to create either without reference to God or where I use God to legitimate my creation.

(Rev. Dr. James Hanvey SJ lectures in Systematic Theology at Heythrop College, University of London)

There is this boy...*

17^thSunday in Ordinary Time

Pentecost 5

John 6:1-21

(RCL pericope goes to v21)

Because Mark is the shortest gospel

Even though it is the year of Mark 

We have taken quite a few side-trips into John

And while each of the Gospels paints its unique ‘portrait of Jesus’

---it’s like walking around a large statue to see it from differing vantage points---

John and Mark are the furthest from each other…

So…we have been looking at Jesus from Mark’s perspective,

With its emphasis on the fully human side.  

And we step into John with its fully divine emphasis

For 5 weeks we will be chewing

On the 6th Chapter of John’s Gospel

…what is known as: The Bread of Life Discourse

John has this pattern that he repeats throughout his          gospel

---There is a sign 

       (In John’s Gospel miracles are signs)

---Then there is a dialogue about the sign

       Which usually includes some sort of misunderstanding

---And then there is the discourse

       …or the teaching about the meaning of the sign

John is clear:  Don’t stay at the level of the sign!

The thing about Signs is that they point…they reveal

And in a religiously significant sense

They reveal something about God-----And something about us

But not just any something

This SOMETHING…has the power to UNHARDEN our hearts

So…these 5 weeks…as we ABIDE in John 6

We are asking…listening for…something new to be revealed

Something about God

And Something about us

Something that might unharden our hearts

---

In the Gospel of John

There is one big question

Who is this Jesus?

We know this because peppered throughout 

Are these I AM statements

Statements that keep trying to answer that one question

I AM THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD 

I AM THE GOOD SHEPHERD 

I AM THE DOOR 

I AM THE RESURRECTION AND THE LIFE 

And sometimes just plain ole I AM

The I AM…the statement that acts like a kind of punchline for chapter 6

Is I AM THE BREAD OF LIFE 

If Jesus is the Bread of Life…

What does that mean 

What does that reveal

about me and about God?

------

In the first line…verse 1

We hear about the large crowd following Jesus

But there is a pretty clear sense 

that the reasons for their following…is a mixed bag

The text hints that many are attracted to ‘the dazzling’

The spectacle of it all

Who can’t use more healing or more bread?

They see…they see the dazzle

But they don’t necessarily see through

They don’t see what the sign is pointing to

-----

The story begins with tension…Trouble is brewing…So many people

The trek has been long and steep and hot

There is little doubt…The crowd will be getting hungry

Phillip is quite certain of this trouble

It is a quick and easy calculation

·    6 months

·    At minimum wage

·    Divide by price per loaf 

·    Divide again by the attendance

=  Yep.  No brainer. No Can Do!

But Andrew…He’s not so sure

But he’s tempted to second-guess…he knows what a good accountant Philip is

“Do I risk embarrassing myself???”

I imagine he didn’t even realize that he said it out loud

“There is this boy…

There…over there…this boy…5 loaves…2 fish…a boy”

He knows the math 

But he has an inkling that maybe this isn’t a math problem

“There is this boy…

If I imagine this story in the hands of a good storyteller

There is this long long pause

“there is this boy…5 + 2…

And then one by one he looks around his group of friends

He looks…searching for some confirmation…a little something 

To indicate that he isn’t crazy

They have no support to offer.  Blank.

He shifts gears to save face:

“I mean…just kidding…5 + 2…such a small boy…such a large crowd…just kidding…”

Andrew, Andrew…he came so close

Jesus takes over…And with Jesus

There is always enough

No…not just enough…There is always more than enough

Jesus…in the act of distributing

(an act of division)

He actually multiplies

This story is asking me

“What do I have…What gift have I been given

Spiritual-Emotional-Physical

What gift do I have that when I share it

IT MULTIPLIES???

I have an answer…this morning

But I have to admit

That I don’t always…I don’t always have a ready answer

Sometimes …I just feel lonely

And far away from God

Depleted and empty

What could I possibly have that when given away

Will multiply?

-----

I have been focusing…this week…on that small boy

That small boy with his abundance laid out there for Andrew to see

I have been focusing on that small boy 

I suppose…because I have had two small boys of my own over the past couple of weeks.

And one after the other

Over and over again

I would pick them up in my arms

…those little bundles of sweetness and goodness and light

And, regardless of drool and slobber, I get as close as I can and whisper:

“I could…I really could…just…Eat. You. Up.”

I want to be all filled up with that sweetness and goodness and light!

I don’t want it to ever run out!

-----

What gift do I have that when I share it

IT MULTIPLIES???

-----

I remember being warned by my supervisor at the hospital

“Cindy…remember you have to have yourself in hand before you can give yourself away”

This story reminded me of that warning

When I remember that it is God who

ENDLESSLY 

ENDLESSLY

Calls me into being

Endlessly gives me life…And love…And mercy

When I remember to cup my hands

Just as I do in communion…

I remember to receive the gift of God’s life

Because

It is God’s life that I can give away ENDLESSLY

As it ENDLESSLY multiplies

All I have to do is stay connected to the source

-----

I have a friend who has this beautiful copper water feature in her garden

The water endlessly pours

From on copper lily pad to the next

…they even look like cupped hands

From one lily pad to the one below and to the one below that

Connected to its source

The water pours and fills to overflowing…on and on

---------

In John’s Gospel

Jesus and the father are one…the fully divine part comes through loud and clear

And yet the language is so earthy

So raw…scandalously raw

Eat my flesh…or a better translation is gnaw on my flesh

---------

“I. Could. Just. Eat. You. Up.” 

---------

Jesus seems to be asking me to do the same with God

Jesus is the bread of life...He is nourishment…And sustenance

He fills me up…He shows me how to have myself in hand

In order to give myself away

And never run out

Now that is a revelation about God

A revelation about God’s life-giving goodness

And about God’s persistence in the face of human failing

And it is a revelation about us

About our tendency toward Philip-style accounting

And about our Andrew-like timidity or lack of courage

And it is a revelation about God AND Us…About GOD with US

About how resting in God is like having hands cupped to receive…

ENDLESSLY

All So that

We might remember what it is that we have

What gift that 

When shared from an unhardened heart

seems to only know how to multiply

SURPRISE!*

14th Sunday in Ordinary Time 

Pentecost 7B - Proper 9B

Mark 6:1-13 (RCL)

Ever since I married into the Bernardin clan

And beginning well before I came into the picture

There has been this tradition of having the youngest among us

Take parts in a sort of Christmas Play

Last Christmas Eve

The clan gathered at my house

And the honor of playing Mary fell to

My grand-niece…her name is Grace.  

She was almost 5 years old.  

Now this is a bit of a production

A very messy production

Grace…as Mary

Reached the stable, gave birth

swaddled the age-old…many times glued together

Weird looking ceramic Jesus…and laid him in the manger

And then she knelt…her hands together in reverent prayer

And she stayed that way

As the rest of us sang Silent Night

Added one more reading and some extra prayers

All the while Grace just knelt

perfectly still, and focused, and kind of ‘caught-up’ in her role

She stayed this still and pondering for a length of time 

simply UNNATURAL for an almost five year old 

We were all surprised! 

Grace reminded all 20 of us just how surprising GOD AMONG US really is!

I think most of us

Most of the time

Think we have things pegged?

We have things pegged…and we have people pegged

And I’m thinking that what might be behind this pegging business

Is that we have forgotten something

We have lost or misplaced something

Where have we put our ability to be surprised?

How often are we really surprised?

Surprised by Grace… by Joy…by family and friends?

[and on a darker note…how surprised are we by violence and terror?]

How often are we surprised by Jesus?

Do we have Jesus…well…pegged?

So my goal this past week was to try to unpeg Jesus

And unpeg this Gospel reading

And unpeg the disciples, and the townsfolk

To do that

I became that Woman with the hemorrhage

From last week

I am that woman who reached for Jesus’ hem

I touched it and was healed from 12 years of constant bleeding

I am that woman

Who am I now? What do I do? Where do I go?

He called me daughter…Jesus called me daughter

But I don’t know how to be daughter

I don’t know how to be a part of a family

I haven’t been close to another person in years

Baby steps

Baby steps

I’ll just quietly hang out on the fringes and follow this Jesus…

But I’ll keep my distance…

Maybe I can learn something from his hometown folk

…they are going to be so proud of him!

SURPRISE!

I was so surprised

This man Jesus…who healed me and called me daughter

This Jesus who restored Jairus’ daughter to him too

They weren’t surprised by him!

They just kept grumbling:

"Mary’s son…nothing special about him"

"Carpenters son…he played in the sandbox with my Jeremiah…

Never noticed anything holy about him…as I remember he was weirdly quiet"

Then I heard a voice from the middle of the crowd

"WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?"

"I’VE GOT YOU PEGGED!"

Now that was surprising.

And it got kind of heated.  

…crowds like that do make me nervous

I’ll need to be careful.

I set up a little camp spot just outside of town 

and one evening Jesus came around with his friends

His real friends…there were 12 of them…

And I overheard him telling them to go to villages in all directions.  

Jesus sent them to do the same things he did

…to heal and send demons away

…just like he did. 

He sent them two by two…

and here is the crazy part:

After that debacle in Nazareth

Where those who you’d expect hospitality from didn’t give it

After that…

He told them to rely on HOSPITALITY!

…From strangers!

SURPISE again!  It worked!

I admit (I am Cindy now) 

I admit I like to be host more than I like to be guest

Hosts are in control

Being guest means that I have to eat THEIR cooking

And go to sleep and wake up according to THEIR household custom

What if they are VEGAN?

Being guest means being vulnerable

It means relying on others

It asks for trust

It demands openness to SURPRISE

At the root of it all, isn’t Christianity all wrapped up in surprise?

How surprising that in such an un-extraordinary way 

God chose to enter the human situation…

God chose to know us…His creation…from the inside.  

I think we are a bit numb to just how surprising it all is

Why Mary?  Why Joseph?  Why Bethlehem

…or Nazareth for God’s sake!  Why Jesus?  

Why a dirty stable, or hut in a field, or broken-down garage?  Why?

SURPRISE!  

When it comes to the Christian Life 

And Christian discipleship

I NEED my ability to wonder, 

I NEED to remember how to be surprised. 

The healed woman, now daughter

Jairus, the father of the 12-year-old girl brought back from the edge…

In their need, they were open to surprise

But the hometown folks

In the place where everyone knows your name

The folks we most expect to show great hospitality

Didn’t

I think

They thought

They had him pegged

And rather than be wrong

They grumbled and gossiped and sent him on down the road

Mary’s son…bah!

Carpenter’s son…bah!

They had him PEGGED…Interesting phrase

The PEG…wedged into place…

a good peg is a tight peg…

No extra room…No room for surprise

My friends…Like last week

These two stories belong together

They are linked by SURPRISE

SURPRISE!

Jesus’ Home town friends reject him

They aren’t receptive

SURPRISE!

It’s the strangers who show hospitality and openness

They are receptive

What I love about the Gospels…especially Mark’s

And especially today’s 

I love that

-the people around Jesus are not left out of the picture…they matter!

And WE ARE THOSE PEOPLE

I love that

-Jesus’ business…his work of inaugurating the Kingdom is intimately connected to the way/who/how of it being received

And WE ARE THOSE RECEIVERS

SURPRISE…This is a story about us:

Jesus sent the disciples

And the Church, the body of Christ,

Beginning in baptism, sends us.

We are sent to be amazing

To embody and participate  

In the kingdom of God

And according to today’s stories

We will be our most fruitful when we let ourselves be guests

Out of control…Eating what is served…Rising when called

Vulnerable…Guests

The best Guests leave behind what they think they have pegged

I was reminded yesterday

At David Houchin’s funeral

About the biggest surprise of all

The tomb was empty

It is our faith in the resurrection

That keeps death always in a state of being overcome

Life conquering death

Over and over again

Life from Death

That is our faith…Our Hope…Our Call…

and our constant SURPRISE!