21st Sunday in Ordinary Time
Homily for 27 August 2006
Rev. Jim Ryan

Choosing is such a big part of life. This is the time of year when students who are just starting school realize the results of their choices. And for others who must make choices this year for the next school choosing has come front and center in their lives too. Choosing correctly brings such pressure, but also such opportunity.

The disciples of Jesus were faced with choosing whether to follow Jesus after he had taught them with words they had never heard before. And as we read in the Gospel of John, just when they think it is their choice, Jesus reminds them, “It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you to go forth and bear fruit.”

In our faith lives when God chooses we call this Providence. God’s love interest in us is that we respond to being chosen to go forth. We see this as a special gift. And we take it with all the seriousness and excitement as those students who start fresh in their new schools.

This being chosen is a popular figure outside of religion also. Often we hear this biblical notion used by American politicians. They like to use the biblical image of the “city on the hill” to describe the exceptional relationship we see in the bounty and the real promise of this land. Usually, though, when politicians use this image and wrap themselves in this American providential exceptionalism they miss a key part of the biblical understanding of Providence.

In God’s choice of us, this gift of Providence, we are immediately called upon to confess our weakness even as we celebrate God’s strength. Langdon Gilkey, a theologian who taught in the Divinity School at the University of Chicago, wrote a book, “Naming the Whirlwind.” In that book he regularly reminds the reader that God’s Providence in our lives, this gift of blessing and confidence, must go along with our confession of sin and shallowness. How much we depend on God’s gifts to see us through.

Here is where politicians fail us, because their “spinners” certainly don’t want to speak of sin and dependence. How sad, that we cannot have leaders who are willing to both celebrate our nation’s promise as well as our nation’s mistakes.

In our personal lives this gift of Providence is also a matter of choice. As Jesus’ disciples discovered, their Leader had things to say that they never heard before. For example, when he spoke of giving his life some who followed him wanted to no part of that. When Jesus lifted up the poor and the sick as the special recipients of God’s Providence some disciples didn’t want to be associated with such losers.

These are the words that invite us to respond also. Jesus taught in the tradition of the Rabbis who said things that challeneged the listener to choose God based on how they interpret what they hear.

In this tradition there is a story of a Rabbi who asked his followers, “When does daylight begin?” The Rabbi’s disciples discussed this and some thought that daylight begins when one is able to distinguish a camel from a donkey. Others thought daylight begins when one can distinguish a fig tree from a cedar tree. When they presented these thoughts to the Rabbi he gave them this challenge. He said, “Daylight begins when you can look into the face of the other person and say, ‘You are my sister’ or ‘You are my brother.’

As we look around us at all God’s gifts it is this challenge of the loving treatment of each other that makes people follow or leave Jesus. No great theological statement here, just knowing that the Rabbi, Jesus, reminds us today that choosing is about interpreting the message and putting it into practice.