January 25, 2009

 

 Second Sunday in Ordinary Time (B) 

 

Fr. Del Staigers

 

 

 Jonah 3:1-10     X     1 Corinthians 7:29-31      X     Mark 1:14-20

 

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“You have asked to have your child baptized.  In doing so you are accepting the responsibility of training them in the practice of the faith.  It will be your duty to bring them up to keep God’s commandments as Christ taught us, by loving God and our neighbor.”  Just think of the millions and millions of times these words have been repeated as parents and families stand at our church doors, holding an infant to be baptized.  Parents, Godparents, family members and friends, filled with anticipation of all that lies ahead for this soon-to-be-Christian.  There will many, many “firsts”, some bringing great joy, others wrought with disappointment and sadness.  All will comprise the life of this child.

The script which follows in the Rite of Baptism may well be one of the most ambiguous, if not downright humorous questions in all of the rites of the church:  “Do you clearly understand what you are undertaking?”  The parents are expected to respond with a succinct, “We do.”

Do you?  Do any of us?  And yet, we trust our belief that “grace builds on nature,” but some days we may wonder.  This young, graced life will wake us to be fed, and in later years need assurance in the midst of a bad dream, or during a spring storm.  This completely dependent infant will work for decades to achieve independence, making choices we would never make (or made before ourselves).  It’s hard to imagine on this day of baptism, but we will hear after school tales of name calling and gossip.  We will watch as love buds and hearts are broken.  In this life we will experience the best and the worst that human beings have to offer.

“Do you clearly understand what you are undertaking?”   Do you?  Do any of us?

And yet we step out on faith, we trust that somehow, some way, all will be well.  In an answer so brief that others could miss it we say, “We do.”  And words create worlds.  Right then.  Right there. 

Ambiguity and humor meld into a life of holiness.

In a similar way, if you’ve ever doubted humor in the bible, we hear briefly from the Book of Jonah, the only time we will hear from it in the three year cycle of the Lectionary.  Jonah preaches to the people of Nineveh in which God was offering them a chance for mercy, a mercy that Jonah did not understand.  “Do you clearly understand what you are undertaking?”

What most of us know about the story involves the fish, or whale, or some sort of sea monster.  Three days after Jonah is swallowed by this creature that must have had the enormity of Nineveh, only on a smaller scale (no pun intended), Jonah finds himself thrown up on the shores of Nineveh.  “Preach, Jonah, preach” is God’s command to him.

“God wants what God wants:  to extend mercy to all people, those we consider good, as well as those we reject as unworthy or bad.  What had the wicked Assyrians in Nineveh done to earn God’s offer of forgiveness?  Nothing.  Once again we have a story of grace.  It is not based on merit, if it were, it wouldn’t be grace.”[1]

Ask any priest who’s been at this more than a few years if he dreamed what he was getting in to on ordination day, and he’ll probably tell you that there have many, many twists and turns, successes and disappointments, but it’s been a story of grace.  “Do you clearly understand what you are undertaking?”

For those of you who are married, when you each said, “I do”, did you know what your graced life together would bring as you had children, or were unable to have them?  No one looks with anticipation to a divorce, separation or death on the day we celebrate, “Let no one separate what God has joined.”  “Do you clearly understand what you are undertaking?”

Any religious will probably explain to you that vows do not exempt a person from feelings of frustration in light of declining membership, or the struggles of community living.  And yet, the call to serve is a graced life as communities consolidate, care for the increasing number of aging religious, and live the charism of the Order or Congregation in 2009 with hope and vibrance.  “Do you clearly understand what you are undertaking?”

As a church we continue to attempt to be pastorally sensitive to those who are single, whether a chosen vocation or a transitional one.  It sounds good to say that aloneness and loneliness are not the synonymous, but that does not seem to be much consolation after endless meals alone, repeatedly going to church alone, or going to social events alone – again.  “Do you clearly understand what you are undertaking?”

We all have our “Jonah Stories” through which we attempt to articulate our baptismal question, “Do you clearly understand what you are undertaking?”  Our challenge is to take enough time to listen to them, reflect upon them, and make every story of our life a story of God’s grace.  There’s no room for apathy in the Kingdom of God.

Steve Fugate has been walking the United States, covering thousands and thousands of miles, 1,400 cities, towns and villages.  He carries a big sign above him which reads, “LOVE LIFE”.  You can read his whole story by clicking on www.trailtherapy.com, but his story begins with the suicide of his son.  Caught in despair over the tragedy, Fugate began walking with his sign to tell others that life has meaning , despite your situation.  People, intrigued with his sign, begin to tell their stories – filled with hope and despair, suffering and joy, successes and missteps.  He’s walked the country twice now to remind others to love life, to break the cycle of those who “stopped loving life just long enough to do something stupid.”  Sadly, his daughter also died from an unintended drug overdose as he walked in memory of his son.  Fugate’s walk across the country and his conversations with people are all stories of grace in the midst of life’s realities.

Jonah had his work cut out for him.  Jonah, like Peter and Andrew, give us an example of holy living.  A life in which we fish for those weary from answering and re-answering the question, “Do you clearly understand what you are undertaking?”

The reality is that we never completely understand what we say yes to when we drop our nets, and this is the journey, the excitement, the grace of answering God’s call in our life.  LOVE LIFE.  If nothing else, there’s no excuse for being bored.