h-13Sunday-b

July 19, 2009

Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (B)

Deacon David J. Shea

Jeremiah 23:1-6 X Ephesians 2:13-18 X Mark 6:30-34

He never made it to the 8^th grade. But what he lacked in diplomas he more than made up in good old-fashion hard work and ingenuity. Many called him a self-made man. He read a lot but never for pleasure; mostly about technical things. At only 19 years of age he already held a patent for his first invention. In his working life he did just about everything from sweeping floors to repairing shoes. He was also a tool maker and a machinist, and he could take apart anything and put it back together making it better than it ever was. He spent his free time studying the speeches of the great orators and leaders of his time—Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Bishop Fulton Sheen. He was a member of Toastmaster’s and he would practice for hours in the solitude of his basement delivering the very words of those famous leaders. He was my grandfather and alongside the Lone Ranger and Davy Crockett, he was my hero and a leader in my life.

Years later I would follow another leader; my boss at GE. Bob was a unique and talented manager. He had this rare combination of a brilliant intellect and a keen instinct. And he had real courage; he was able to take chances, some big ones, and he had this uncanny ability to never show fear. Bob had a distinctive way of speaking and he had a way of saying words that people remembered. I admired everything about him and even mimicked his management style, his ways of communicating and some of his mannerisms. Whenever Bob spoke, I was the one listening—he was leading and I was following.

Jesus called his disciples to be leaders and he sent them off to teach, to preach, and to heal all of the desperate and leaderless sheep. They returned to Jesus exhilarated and excited, but exhausted and drained. Jesus’ turbulent life as leader and hero had become theirs. So Jesus took them away to rest and recover. But the people’s needs were so great, “they set out on foot, climbing rocks and hills, brushing aside thorns, ignoring dangers and obstacles” to reach the very spot that Jesus had chosen for their retreat. In a scene that is at once awful and wonderful, they were coming helter-skelter, like lost sheep, to find Jesus. In an almost frenetic rush, they surround Jesus on all sides and pressed in on him. Forsaken and neglected, they were searching for someone they could follow.

Who do we follow? We all follow leaders, some sort of leaders—people who are financially successful, political leaders, sports figures, and movie and music personalities. But here in our own city and countless others across this country, governments are out of money, organizations that have long been the foundation of our economy are bankrupt, and the smartest and most powerful leaders, those on whom we could always depend, have let us down, have failed us and even hurt us. We all want good leaders, good shepherds—those we can trust, people who will act out of integrity, who will do what is right for all of us. We vote hoping to elect them; we go to our churches expecting to find them; we go to school hoping to be educated by them; we buy concert tickets hoping to hear them; we follow sports teams hoping to see them, and today we pray for them. So, who are we following?

How many of us here today would say that Jesus is our leader? He’s not easy to follow is he? Would we call him “our hero?” He who leads by serving others and washing feet while asking us to do the same. He whose authority has nothing to do with power and everything to do with being last. He who doesn’t rub shoulders with the rich and famous, but who keeps company with the downtrodden, the poor and the lowly. He is a dedicated shepherd who searches for us when we get lost and over whose dead body we were saved. We turn to him and beg him into giving us what we want in our times of distress. He’s someone we thank when good that happens. And when we don’t need anything, when life is good, maybe we place him on the back shelf, as a kind of an insurance policy, until the next time we need him. It’s hard to follow a leader we keep at a safe distance.

It seems that so little has changed since that day when the crowd went searching for Jesus and pressed in on him. We are searching for him, hungering for his teaching, good people looking for his direction—parents sick with fear over the future of a troubled child, those stripped of their dignity in unemployment lines, elderly who feel the energy of life leaving their declining bodies, the young worried about education and occupations, and others angry and confused no longer able to trust those who lead them. We are sheep without a shepherd, still looking for a leader.

That’s why we’re here today . . . isn’t it?—rushing around desperately hoping to find a leader. Good people and sinners; those with impressive balance sheets and those living from paycheck to paycheck; the healthy and the ailing; those filled with faith and those struggling in faith. He leads us all and treats us all as equals. He never grows tired of our constant interruptions and endless prayers and pleadings. We find him here every Sunday, in this gathering, in the nourishment that is his body and blood. And we find him in all the reliable shepherds in our lives—our spouses, our parents, teachers, priests, coaches, and closest friends. Those who care deeply about us—“those who are willing to walk with us in the dark valleys; those who don’t give us the easy answers but always tell us the truth; those who share dangers with us even at their own risk.” Each one of them leads us to Jesus, our true leader on whom we can always depend.

Resources and Inspirations:

Bausch, William J. Story Telling the Word. Mystic: Twenty-Third Publications, 1996.

Bergant, Diane with Richard Fragomeni. Preaching the New Lectionary, Year B. Collegeville: The Liturgical Press, 1999.

Buetow, Harold A. All Things Made New, Homily Reflections for Sundays and Holy Days, Cycle B. Staten Island: Alba House, 1996.

“First Impressions” from the Preacher’s Exchange - www.judeop.org