HOMILY FOR THE 11TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
In the Gospels, Jesus preaches that the Kingdom of God is in the here and now. In the fourth verse of Marty Haugen’s hymn, “Gather Us In”, is this marvelous verse. “Not in the dark of buildings confining, not in some heaven light years away; but, here in this space a new light is dawning. Now is the Kingdom, now is the day! Gather us in and hold us forever. Gather us in, and make us your own. Gather us in, all people’s together, fire of love in our flesh and our bone.” This verse expresses very well that the Kingdom of God is all around us. In fact, as Marty so poetically states it, the Kingdom of God is so present, it permeates even our flesh and our bone.
The author of the book of Ecclesiastes expresses the same thing. “There is an appointed time for everything, and a time for every affair under the heavens.” The author then lists those times. There is a time to be born, and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot the plant, a time mourn and a time to dance, and so on. The author then concludes, that God has made everything appropriate to its time, and has put the timeless in our hearts, without us ever discovering, from beginning to end the work God has done. Mysteriously, we live unaware of the timelessness God has planted in our hearts. Nevertheless, all of our lives are an integral part of the Kingdom of God.
This mystery is expressed in the parables Jesus uses to describe the Kingdom of God. When seeds are planted, the mystery of the seed sprouting and growing happens outside of our control. Jesus also describes the mystery of the Kingdom of God as something that starts as simple as a mustard seed which then grows into a huge, marvelous plant in which the birds and other animals find shelter and home. The Kingdom of God is far greater than our insignificant selves.
I remember the birth of my first child. In the delivery room, I dutifully took my position up by Ruthie’s head to give her words of encouragement. The doctor looked at me and asked, “Do you faint at the sight of blood?” I replied, no. He then said, “There is nothing you can say that will help her. Get behind me and watch your child be born!” The doctor was sitting on a stool and I stood behind him, much like an umpire stands behind a catcher to call balls and strikes, and I watched my first child be born. The presence of God filled the delivery room and I remember the feeling that if I had stretched out my arm in the space, I would touch the face of God. I fully realized at that moment how far greater God was than my insignificant self.
On this weekend we celebrate the vocation of fathering. All of us who have done parenting are well aware of the great mystery that takes place in raising children. We assist in the creation of a new life, and nurture that life along the way of becoming an adult. As we watch our children grow physically, mentally, and emotionally into adulthood, we see the mystery of God’s Kingdom unfold in their lives. We witness their individual joys and their sufferings in their times of planting and reaping, mourning and dancing, their times of love and hate. We do our best to assist them and accompany them through all of these times never fully knowing the mystery of the Kingdom of God being played out in their lives, and, being played out in our lives, too, for in assisting our children, we continue to grow into the mystery of God’s Kingdom.
Jesus assures us that like that mustard seed that grows into a huge plant, in which all life finds shelter, we, too, will find shelter and care in God’s Kingdom. We were born from the mystery of God’s Kingdom, we live and we grow in the mystery of God’s Kingdom, and when we die we are embraced fully into the mystery of God’s Kingdom. We will never fully understand the mystery of God’s Kingdom, but we are called to trust in that mystery and assist the growth of that mystery in our lives, in the lives of all people we love, and in our world. As the author of Ecclesiastes so aptly states, “God has made everything appropriate to its time, and has put the timeless into our hearts, without us ever discovering, from beginning to end, the work which God has done.”
