Homily for Ordinary Time – 21st Sunday Year B 2018
Jos 24:1-2a, 15-17, 18b · Jn 6:60-69
Introduction
Coming from Uganda, a much poorer country economically, I was surprised to find that you many choices here, at the pharmacy, in the supermarket, even in restaurants. For example, when I first came here and was invited to a fancy dinner, I was asked if I wanted chicken or fish. I thought about it for a moment, and to the embarrassment of my hosts, I said, I wanted both. Why not? After all we were at a party. It took some explanation from them to help me understand that I had to choose one or the other, not both.
Scripture and Theology
Today’s readings also speak about choices, but choices with far-reaching consequences than choosing between poultry and seafood. The choices are given by Joshua and by Jesus, which, by the way are the same name, Yehosua (Joshua) being the Hebrew form, and Yesous (Jesus) being the Greek form.
- In the first reading, Joshua asks the people of Israel: “. . . decide today whom you will serve, the gods your fathers served beyond the River or the gods of the Amorites in whose country you are now dwelling.” It is a simple choice: serve the God of your Fathers or the gods of the pagans.
- In the gospel too, after some disciples have abandoned Jesus, he asks the remaining ones: “Do you also want to leave?" or do you want to stay? Again, it is a simple choice, stay with Jesus or leave Jesus.
Notice the choices are either/or, not both/and. How did they respond to these choices placed before them?
- When Joshua tells his countrymen: “As for me and my household, we will serve the LORD," the people of Israel, after remembering all the good things that the Lord had done for them are also inspired to say: “Therefore we also will serve the LORD, for he is our God."
- As for the disciples in the gospel, Peter speaks for them, saying to Jesus: “Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God."
The reason that both Joshua and Jesus give this ultimatum, throw down the gauntlet, is because the people have reached a major crossroads.
At the time of Joshua, the people of Israel had just entered the Promised Land. There was a danger that they might be attracted to the gods of the people whom they found in the land. And so Joshua called together the elders, leaders, judges and scribes of Israel and presented them with a choice, between the God who has been faithful to them and the new gods whom they had just encountered. In fact we know that on the way to the Promised Land, the people had strayed several times, turning to other gods, even moulding a golden calf. And so it is crunch time for the people of Israel, as they begin to live in the Promised Land.
In the gospel too, Jesus had just been giving a long and important teaching, which we have in fact broken into the five gospel passages that we have been reading. For four Sundays we have heard Jesus teach that he is the bread of life that brings eternal life. This bread takes the form of his Word which he teaches and his own Body and Blood which he offers in the Eucharist. And unless one believes in the Word and eats of his bread and drinks of his blood, they will not have life. But some disciples reacted to the teaching by declaring: "This saying is hard; who can accept it?" “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” And so they left him and returned to their old ways. It is at this point that Jesus, like Joshua, places the big decision before his disciples: "Do you also want to leave?"
Thankfully, as we have heard, both groups made the right choice; they chose the side of God, they did not like me, foolishly choose both . . . and.
Christian Life
My friends, Joshua is also asking each of us, who we will serve: the gods of the nations or the God of Israel; and Jesus is asking whether we too want to leave him or want to stay with him. What is our answer?
If you have not been living under a rock in the last few weeks, I am sure you have followed the sad revelations of abuse in our Church. Some in the Church, including us the clergy, your leaders, have not answered those questions correctly. We have answered like the Jews did while still in the desert, choosing to sin, rather than be faithful to the Lord. We have answered like the disciples that abandoned Jesus because they could not stomach what he was telling them. The scandal for us today is twofold: there is first the sin against those whom Pope Francis has called the little ones of God, those who have suffered the abuse. But there is also the scandal that has led others to question their belief in Jesus Christ, to seriously consider leaving Jesus Christ and his Church.
Essentially sin is choosing to answer "No" to God and "Yes" to the evil one. And so for us all, the choice of Joshua and Jesus is placed before us, not just at big moments of crisis, but indeed every day of our lives. Every time we are faced with the choice between good and evil, we are being asked to answer the questions that Joshua and Jesus posed. And if truth be told, sometimes our answer is "No" and that is why we must go to confession.
What might make us more likely to say "No" to God rather than "Yes” to God? I suggest that our answers will often depend on two things: our level of trust and our worldview.
- When the people of Israel originally rejected the God of their Fathers, it was because when faced with adversity, the Egyptian army at the Red Sea, hunger and thirst in the desert, the prolonged absence of Moses, they stopped trusting in God and wanted to find quick answers elsewhere. Thankfully as we heard in today's reading, when they came to the Promised Land, they finally saw the light and said "we also will serve the LORD, for he is our God."
- As for the disciples in the gospel, they too refused to trust their spirit and instead trusted their flesh, and yet Jesus in the same passage had taught that it is the Spirit that gives life, not the flesh. They refused to believe that Jesus was from God and had the message of eternal life, instead trusting their earthly worldview that led them to ask: “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph? Do we not know his father and mother? Then how can he say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?” They refused to believe that the way to eternal life was by eating of the Body and Blood of Jesus and instead trusted their earthly worldview and asked: “How can this man give us [his] flesh to eat?” Thankfully again, Peter spoke for the faithful ones who, thinking spiritually, understood that Jesus was giving himself to them and answered "Yes."
Perhaps you and me have no problem with believing in the divinity of Jesus, or in his Real Presence in the Eucharist. But we might have problems with other teachings of Jesus, because we approach them with the mindset of the world.
- On the one hand, perhaps misled by a worldly ideology that overly prizes personal freedom, we might find difficult to accept certain teachings of Jesus, such as the sanctity of life for the unborn, the elderly, the terminally ill, the sanctity of monogamous heterosexual marriage and openness to life. And then we might leave Jesus and his Church.
- On the other hand, perhaps misled by an ideology that overly prizes personal autonomy, we might find it difficult to accept certain teachings of Jesus, such as the sanctity of the life of the poor, the immigrant, the refugee, the prisoner, the condemned and the sanctity of the environment. And then we might leave Jesus and his Church.
Conclusion
When Peter said, “Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life,” he probably did not understand fully what he was signing up for. In fact, that lack of complete understanding would soon be demonstrated when he denied Jesus three times during his passion. But what mattered was not that Peter understood fully what Jesus was asking of him, but that he believed and he trusted.
And so when his moment of temptation and sin would come, his basic trust and belief would help him stand up, repent and return to the Lord. You might remember that Judas Iscariot, also sinned; but perhaps because he lacked this basic trust and belief, could not stand up, repent and return to the Lord. He killed himself.
Similarly for us too, we might not understand fully what Jesus and his Church are asking of us. But we must be sustained by that fundamental "Yes" we made at baptism and confirmation, the wedding and ordination, and keep going back to it, even as we struggle to work out and grapple daily with what that “Yes” means.
Yes, we might complain that our daily decisions of life like the choices at the restaurant are too many; but we must remember that the really important decision is choosing to go out in the first place, choosing to belong to Christ. Everything else as they say is small potatoes.
And so, for all our decisions regarding the small potatoes, let us remember the words of Peter: “Master To whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” Let us remember the words of Joshua, which I have at the bottom of my email signature: “As for me and my household, we will serve the LORD."
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