Sunday Homily 5-15-11, 4th Easter
Readings: Acts of the Apostles 6, 1-7; Psalm 33, Lord, let your Mercy be upon Us, as we place our Trust in You; 1 Peter 2, 4-9; John 14, 1-12
Fourth Sunday in Easter Time – Intro to Readings.
In both our first two readings today Peter is mentioned. In Acts we hear him preaching and urging people to repent and be baptized. We are told that about 3,000 responded and were baptized! Our second reading is written by Peter, his first Letter to the early Christian communities, in modern day Turkey. So I thought that I would spend a few moments talking about Peter. Incidentally, Peter could well be the “poster boy” for a married clergy! He was the first person called by Jesus, and was married. And against any claim that Jesus may not have realized that Peter was married, we are told that Jesus cured Peter’s mother-in-law (Matt 8:14), and St. Paul even mentions that the wife traveled around with Peter (1 Cor. 9:5).
We know that he was a fisherman when Jesus called him to discipleship, and Peter immediately left his nets and followed Jesus. His story is interesting because Peter had a tough time of it. Peter got into trouble lots of times. When Jesus first prophesied about his death, Peter objected only to be strongly rebuked by Jesus (Matt 16:22, Mk 9:31) who said to him, “get behind me Satan”. He tried his hand at walking on water, only to sink ignominiously (Matt 14: 28-31). And after witnessing the Transfiguration with James and John, his immediate reaction was to erect some tents, (Matt 17:1, Mk 9:2 and Lk 9:28) missing the whole point of the event! At the agony in the garden, he couldn’t stay awake with Jesus, and had to be woken up three times (Matt 26:40, Mk 14:37). And of course his biggest blunder was that even having been warned that he would do it (Matt 26: 33-35, Mk 14: 29-31, Lk 22:33ff and Jn 13:36-38) he denies Jesus three times (Matt 26:69ff, Mk 14:68ff, Lk 22:58ff and Jn 18:25ff).
All of this would seem to disqualify Peter from any possible position within this little community, and yet he emerges as its head. You are Peter and upon this rock I will build my Church.(Matt 16:18) What seems to be the lesson from all of this, no matter how much of a mess we make of things, God does not seem to mind!
Fourth Sunday in Easter Time – Homily
One of the major themes in John’s Gospel is to show that all of the major Jewish Feasts are transformed by Jesus. This gospel reading comes on the day after the Feast of Tabernacles. If you look closely at John’s Gospel, it can very easily be divided up into a number of different major Jewish Feasts. There are Passover Feasts, one at the beginning of the Gospel, a second in the middle and of course the third at the end. But in between these we have the Feast of Tabernacles and immediately after that the Feast of Dedication. The Feast of Tabernacles is interesting because it lasts 8 days, and is the third most important feast for the Jews. The feast was celebrated in the fall. There were many processions with candles. For us Jesus is the Light. Tents were erected, and the feast celebrated the harvest, and also the original dedication of the temple. Water was brought from the Pool where the blind man from our reading on the fourth Sunday in Lent was cured. We recently had a reading which comes right before today’s gospel reading and it was about the young man born blind, and which the Jews refused to believe that Jesus had cured him. Remember they even called in his parents and asked them if their son had been blind. So we have just been reading about blind people. Then comes today’s reading, and it expands the meaning of the blindness to that of the Pharisees. Because they certainly should have been able to recognize who Jesus was, but instead they are the blind ones.
Jesus uses the example of a shepherd and sheep recognizing him. Shepherds are obviously what we are supposed to talk about today! But how many of you have ever seen a shepherd? Or know anyone who is a shepherd? Or, better yet, any one here ever been a shepherd? Ok. How about sheep, has everyone seen sheep, at least eaten mutton!
I am afraid that we better talk about something else! The gospel today is discussing getting in through a gate and that the Pharisees are going to have a tough time of it. The good news is that we are already in!! Yes, by our baptism we are already through that gate, we are already in the kingdom of God. We need to focus on what is expected of one in the kingdom! Remember last week’s gospel, the two disciples had decided to leave Jerusalem and head home, the whole Jesus movement was a bit of a failure. A stranger, who explains the scripture to them, kind of like what John and I try to do each week here, joins them on their journey. Then when they stop for the night, they invite the stranger to join them, and they recognize him when they sit down to a meal and break bread. Which is what we do here too! We break bread together, and in that action we need to be able to recognize each other as brothers and sisters in Christ. Christ is present in each one of us!! Like the two on the road, they do not recognize Jesus, we too can easily find it hard to recognize Jesus, but he is there, present in each one of us.
I think we can forget about the sheep, and even forget about shepherds, it was all from a very different time and place. Our focus needs to be on the fact that we are already thru that gate, and are in the kingdom of God. Our focus needs to be on seeing Jesus in each other. But remember, we are not going to be perfect, we will probably be more like Peter, the good news is that God doesn’t seem to mind. All that matters is that we are trying. After the resurrection, remember Peter had to pass only one test, “Peter, do you love me, feed my lambs, feed my sheep” How did those sheep get in again!!
Picture 1: Beginning of Mass with Tony
Picture 2: Offertory with Barb & Warren
Picture 3: Leo with Jackie
Picture 4: Emma
Picture 5: Sienna with her daddy, Payton
