A Homily – The Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)

First Reading – Amos 7:12-15

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 84(85):9-14

Second Reading – Ephesians 1:3-14

Gospel Acclamation – John 6:63,68

Alternative Acclamation – Ephesians 1:17,18

The Gospel According to Mark 6:7-13 ©

 

(NJB)              

 

Listen!

 We do not serve God, the creator of the universe; we do not serve from fear of judgement. Serve from a place of love.

 Remember.

 All things belong to God: all lands, all seas, all planets, all stars, all galaxies; everything and everyone that is in them.

 Know this.

 God did deliver the Israelites from captivity, they delivered themselves.

 Be mindful…

 This is not hubris; it is greater hubris to think that God loves one group of people, a special people, above all others. It is far greater hubris to think that than to think that the Israelites escaped bondage under their own power.

 God will not rescue us from the plight and misery of this world; that is for us to do for ourselves or for us to do for each other. God does not intervene in our affairs, not because God is angry or indignant with us, but because God made us and the whole of creation free.

 God is the God of all people, whether we know it or not, nothing can alter this fundamental reality. Before the world was made God chose everyone, desiring that we live our lives in loving service to one another as a reflection of our commitment to the divine.

 We are the children of God, every-last-one-of-us, not children by adoption, we are born into this heritage.

 Know this.

 We are not forgiven for our many sins by rituals of blood-magic; we were forgiven for all of our crimes before the first moment of creation; God knew us then, and knew what we would do with our freedom, and in spite of all the harm we do to ourselves, to one another, and to the world itself, God called the creation good.

 God’s plan for the salvation of the world is not a mystery, it is an open secret, it only requires that you believe it to take strength from it, and that is the essence of faith.

 All things and beings exist within God’s Word, the Logos which is God’s own self; we bear a seed of the Word within us, the divine spark that animates us and gives us life, installed within us by God’s own breath, the divine spirit enlivens us and by which we share in the eternality of the creator.

 Consider for a moment when and where the early church began to stray from the simplicity of Jesus’ teaching, and the lived experience of the way.

 Peter would have us believe that he followed Jesus because Jesus had the secret of eternal life, as if this were the purpose of the gospel, as if “believing” that Jesus is the “Holy One of God” is the key to receiving the gift of eternal life.

 We are asked to believe that God parcels out access to Jesus and life everlasting, allowing some to come to it while refusing others according to some hidden purpose.

 This scheme is not true.

 The gospel is this: God loves you and you are saved.

 You are not saved for anything that you have done; you did not earn it. You are saved because God loves you, and for no other reason.

 The promise of salvation is not that you will be spared from suffering and torment in hell, or that when you are judged God will forgive you.

 God has already forgiven you. You are already saved.

 Believe it!

 God has prepared you and everyone for eternal life. Let the goodness of the promise flow through you now and start living according to this promise as if you knew it was true.

 We are not called to believe in the idea that Jesus is this or that, the Holy One of God, we are called to act on the principles of his faith, to live lives of charity and service to one another each other…this is the way.

 Remember Jesus, and God whom he called Father

 Is God glorious? Certainly. God is the creator of the universe, and yet God desire more than any other glory to be in a relationship with us as a loving parent.

 It is right to hope that each and every one of us comes to the full knowledge of God, this is the divine plan and it is right to hope in it. There is hope in this knowledge, hope for ourselves that we are called on to extend to everyone; even those we do not know and do not love…this is the way.

 If you teach that God has promised us riches and glories as the inheritance of the saints, remember this: the first will be last and the last will be first, and that spiritual riches are not counted in gold and silver and precious things.

 Consider the Gospel reading for today, it informs us about the ethos and ethics of the early church, weaving a little bit of mythology into the narrative, which the Gospel writers use to bolster their claim to an authority over the church which they were desperate to have.

 At the time Mark’s gospel was written the church had just recently been dealt a serious blow by the Romans who had sacked Jerusalem, destroyed the temple, and forced the people into exile.

 These events make it understandable that the leaders of the church would be motivated to claim an authority that was not their due. They were attempting to hold the people together out of a desire to protect the institution they were building.

 Therefore they instructed their missionaries to not waste any time; if people would not listen, they were to shake the dust off their sandals and move along…this was a simple injunction.

 We understand the desire to wrap the deeds of the disciples in a cloak of mystery and miracle, it makes for good story-telling. In this way their narrative extends the theme of miracle working which had already been applied to Jesus’ life, to his closest followers, thereby establishing a continuity of supernatural-power, never mind the fact that none of it was true.

 Remember.

 God is a God of law and order, not a God of miracles, magic and wonders; God does not play for an audience.

 Pay attention to the concrete thing in the reading for today:

 The Followers of Christ are taught to embrace poverty, they are ordered to take nothing with them on their journey, no money…not a thing that they do not need.

 Their mission is to preach the gospel; they are not meant to profit from it.

 All teachers of the faith should be humble enough to live this way.

 

First Reading – Amos 7:12-15

'Go, Shepherd, and Prophesy to My People Israel'

Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, said to Amos, ‘Go away, seer;’ get back to the land of Judah; earn your bread there, do your prophesying there. We want no more prophesying in Bethel; this is the royal sanctuary, the national temple.’ ‘I was no prophet, neither did I belong to any of the brotherhoods of prophets,’ Amos replied to Amaziah ‘I was a shepherd, and looked after sycamores: but it was the Lord who took me from herding the flock, and the Lord who said, “Go, prophesy to my people Israel.”’

 

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 84(85):9-14

Our Salvation is Very Near

Alleluia

Lord, you blessed your land; you forgave the guilt of your people.

You looked kindly, O Lord, on your land:

  you ended the captivity of Jacob.

You forgave your people’s unrighteousness

  and covered over their sins.

You reined back all of your anger

  and renounced your indignant fury.

Rescue us, God, our saviour,

  and turn your anger away from us.

Do not be angry for ever

 – or will you let your wrath last from one generation to the next?

Surely you will turn round and give us life

 – so that your people can rejoice in you?

Show us, Lord, your kindness

  and give us your salvation.

I will listen to whatever the Lord God tells me,

  for he will speak peace to his people and his chosen ones,

  and to those who repent in their hearts.

Truly his salvation is close to those who fear him,

  so that glory may dwell in our land.

Kindness and faithfulness have met together,

  justice and peace have kissed.

Faithfulness has sprung from the earth,

  and justice has looked down from heaven.

Truly the Lord will give generously,

  and our land will be fruitful.

Justice will walk before him

  and place its footsteps on his path.

Alleluia

 

Second Reading – Ephesians 1:3-14

God Chose Us in Christ Before the World Was Made

Blessed be God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all the spiritual blessings of heaven in Christ.

Before the world was made, he chose us, chose us in Christ, to be holy and spotless, and to live through love in his presence, determining that we should become his adopted sons, through Jesus Christ for his own kind purposes, to make us praise the glory of his grace, his free gift to us in the Beloved, in whom, through his blood, we gain our freedom, the forgiveness of our sins.

Such is the richness of the grace which he has showered on us in all wisdom and insight.

He has let us know the mystery of his purpose, the hidden plan he so kindly made in Christ from the beginning to act upon when the times had run their course to the end:

that he would bring everything together under Christ, as head, everything in the heavens and everything on earth.

And it is in him that we were claimed as God’s own, chosen from the beginning, under the predetermined plan of the one who guides all things as he decides by his own will; chosen to be,

for his greater glory, the people who would put their hopes in Christ before he came.

Now you too, in him, have heard the message of the truth and the good news of your salvation,  and have believed it; and you too have been stamped with the seal of the Holy Spirit of the Promise, the pledge of our inheritance which brings freedom for those whom God has taken for his own, to make his glory praised.

 

Gospel Acclamation – John 6:63,68

Alleluia, alleluia!

Your words are spirit, Lord, and they are life; you have the message of eternal life.

Alleluia!

 

Alternative Acclamation – Ephesians 1:17,18

Alleluia, alleluia!

May the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ enlighten the eyes of our mind, so that we can see what hope his call holds for us.

Alleluia!

 

The Gospel According to Mark 6:7-13 ©

'Take Nothing with You'

Jesus made a tour round the villages, teaching. Then he summoned the Twelve and began to send them out in pairs giving them authority over the unclean spirits. And he instructed them to take nothing for the journey except a staff – no bread, no haversack, no coppers for their purses. They were to wear sandals but, he added, ‘Do not take a spare tunic.’ And he said to them, ‘If you enter a house anywhere, stay there until you leave the district. And if any place does not welcome you and people refuse to listen to you, as you walk away shake off the dust from under your feet as a sign to them.’ So they set off to preach repentance; and they cast out many devils, and anointed many sick people with oil and cured them.

 

A Homily – The Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)