Be Content With What You Get

8th Sunday - A

A very wealthy man invited his four married daughters to dinner. "I'm getting old," he said to them, "and I've lived a full life for which I'm grateful. But I continue to be disappointed that none of you has given me a grandchild. Tomorrow I'm adding a provision to my will. It will state that the first of you who presents me with a grandchild will receive an extra bonus of one million dollars. Now, let us bow our heads and say Grace." Then he closed his eyes, bowed his head, and said a short prayer. When he opened his eyes and looked up -- everyone was gone!

We can identify with that situation. Money is a powerful incentive for just about all of us. And that's not all bad. Money has its uses; it can be a healthy incentive. But it is bad when it becomes an obsession.

In today's Gospel, Jesus confronts us with a radical decision. "No one can serve two masters," He says. "For either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon" (Mt. 6:24).

Jesus continues: "Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you shall eat or what you shall drink, nor about your body, what you shall put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?" (Mt. 6:25). Again Jesus is confronting us with a radical choice. Jesus is talking about the kind of anxious worry that leads us away from our dedication to the Rule of God. We cannot live under the Rule of God and under the burden of anxious worry simultaneously. 

How do we respond? Jesus is telling us in the Gospels that we will conquer anxious worry by trusting God unconditionally. Jesus is telling us that God is trustworthy. Curiously, this can be a real problem for those of us who come to Church regularly. We hear it all the time: Trust God! We hear it so often that we're not listening anymore. We treat it like a tired old cliché, or just another pious saying. But the attitude of trust in God that Jesus teaches us is not merely a surface religious expression; it is the very essence of the Christian life. It is a style of living we learn through the example of the Lord Jesus. It is a style of living in which we trust ourselves so completely to God's loving Presence that we are empowered moment-by-moment and day-by-day to effectively deal with those anxious worries. Notice, I said "deal with," not "get rid of." We'll never be able to get rid of all anxiety. But trusting in God's promise never to abandon us, and trusting in God's promise never to withdraw His love for us, we are able to cast off the destructive anxiety that robs us of life, robs us of the joy of life, robs us of the spiritual nourishment we need to grow into our full human potential. The kind of destructive anxiety that Jesus warns us against turns us in on ourselves. It robs us of the ability to reach out and really be there for others who need our tender loving care.

What is your biggest anxiety at this moment? Is it a destructive anxious worry over money? Is it some material thing you desperately want but don't really need? Is it the fact that you're getting older -- as it was with a certain senior citizen who said: "Everything is farther away then it used to be. It is twice as far to the corner, and I've noticed that they've added a hill. I've given up running for the bus. It leaves faster than it used to. I ran across an old classmate the other day and he had aged so badly I didn't recognize me. I got to thinking about him again as I look myself in the mirror and told myself they don’t make good mirrors anymore.

Whether your anxious worry of the moment is over your age or your money (or your lack of it), or any one of a thousand other possibilities, Jesus wants you to know that you're not alone. He wants you to know that whether or not you've really been listening to the Word of God, God is always listening to your concerns. "Do not be anxious, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we wear?' ... But seek first His Kingdom ... and all these things shall be yours as well" (Mt. 6:31,33).

Jesus is not telling us to forsake our responsibilities. Rather He is telling us to carry out our responsibilities in a certain crucial context. He is telling us that our attitude toward our work, our money, our position in life, our relationships, must be in harmony with the Rule of God.

There was a man that found a magic lantern and, for years, every time he rubbed it a "Genie" would appear to grant his wish. The man was a real worry-bird and, because of his constant anxious worries, he kept the "Genie" busy all the time. This went on for years -- one wish after another -- until, one day, when the man rubbed his magic lantern for the fifth time that week, the Genie appeared and said: "I am sick and tired of your anxious worry and your constant wishing. I have decided to settle this arrangement we have once and for all. I will grant your next three wishes, and nothing more. After that, you're on your own."

The man made his first wish immediately. He asked that his wife would disappear so that he could marry a better woman. His wish came true at once. But when friends and relatives discovered she was gone, they began to recall all the wife's good qualities. This saddened the man and he realized he had been hasty. Where would he find a better woman than his wife? So he asked the Genie to bring her back, and immediately his wish was granted. Now he had but one wish left. He fretted and agonized and anxiously worried about that third wish. He was determined not to make another mistake, since he would be unable to correct it. He went everywhere for advice. Some people told him to wish for immortality. But if he got sick, he reasoned, what good would immortality be? "Maybe," he told himself, "I should wish for good health." But then he asked himself: "What good is health if I don't have much money? And what good is money if I have no friends?" Many years passed and still he worried -- couldn't decide on health or wealth or power or money or the dozens of other ideas that kept cropping up. Finally, in desperation, he cried out, "Someone tell me what to ask for!" And he heard a gentle voice from within answer: "Ask to be content, no matter what you get."

Seek first the Kingdom of God, and everything you need for your life's fulfillment shall be yours.

7TH Sunday in ordinary time

Little Ronie was very upset with his brother, Johnbert.  Before he said his night prayers, Ronie's father said to him, "Now I want you to forgive your brother." But Ronie was not in a forgiving mood.  "No, I won't forgive him," he said.  Father tried persuasions of every fatherly variety, but nothing worked.  Finally, he said, "What if your brother were to die tonight? How would you feel if you knew you hadn't forgiven him?"  Ronie gave in -- or so it seemed.  "All right, I forgive him," he said, "but if he's alive in the morning, I'll get even with him for what he did to me." 

In His introduction to the "Sermon on the Mount," Jesus says, "Do not imagine that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets ... I have come not to abolish but to complete them" (Mt. 5:17). 

 In the Law, God had given His People an enormous capacity for good.  Now, Jesus comes in the Spirit and man's capacity for good is expanded.  Living under the new Law of Love, man's capacity for good is limitless.  In Jesus, man has the capacity, for example, to break through the boundaries imposed by the old law of vengeance ...  

Late one night, a cheerful truck driver pulled up to a road-side diner for some refreshment.  As he was eating, three mean-looking motorcyclists roared up to the diner's entrance.  The atmosphere became tense as they stalked in.   Immediately, they selected the truck driver as the target of their meanness.  One poured salt and pepper on his head.  Another took his apple pie, placed it on the floor and squished it under a dirty boot.  The third upset his coffee, causing it to spill in his lap.  The truck driver said not a word.  He merely arose, walked slowly to the cashier, calmly paid his check and made his exit.  "That dude sure ain’t much of a fighter," sneered one of the invaders.  The waiter behind the counter peered out into the night and then replied, "He doesn't seem to be much of a driver either.  He just ran his truck over three motorcycles." 

That is what I would call "instant" vengeance.  The revenge couldn't be sweeter.  When you think about it, enormous amounts of time and effort are invested in the art of vengeance: to get even; tit-for-tat; you cross me and I'll cross you; an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.  

In early Old Testament History, it was "a life for a life...  a tooth for a tooth... a hand for hand... a foot for foot... a burn for burn... a stripe for stripe." On and on it went, splitting hairs to make the punishment fit the crime in almost every imaginable situation. 

At first, vengeance was the rule not only with respect to enemies of Israel but also within the People of Israel.  Later, the Rabbis forbade personal vengeance on fellow- Israelites, but not on non-Israelites.  And then Jesus came and said a flat "No!" to vengeance.  He commanded His followers to forgive their enemies and to suffer wrong rather than repay it.  Christians, therefore, should not only not take vengeance on their enemies, they should repay evil with good.  Revenge no longer belongs to man.  Vengeance no longer is sweet.  Revenge is sour.  

So says Jesus in today's Gospel

A University professor gave his students an opportunity to evaluate his Course at the end of the semester.  One student said, "I liked the Course, but I feel very strongly that the professor put too much of the responsibility for learning on the students." The problem we have is that we like God's Course (We wouldn't be here today if we didn't), but we feel that God has put too much responsibility for learning on us students.  But that is precisely what He does.  He puts a heavy burden of responsibility for learning on each individual student -- on you and on me.  It is easier to rely on someone else's hair-splitting decisions about how to relate to other persons than it is to try to relate in your own lovingly creative way.  It is easier to cry "Vengeance!" than to pray for your enemy.  It is more palatable to taste sweet revenge than to return evil with good.  It is much, much easier to rely on the laws of men than it is to believe and to hope in the Spirit of God.  

In abolishing the Law of Vengeance in favor of the Law of Love Jesus moves us into the ultimate learning experience.  God, through Jesus, has taken up residence in the human condition.  In Jesus and in his brother and sister human beings we are given the opportunity to explore the inexhaustible depths of one another's personhood and, thereby, to learn more about who God is and who we are.   

The reality of another human being is inexhaustible.  Each one of us is a mystery to the other: a mystery of joys and sorrows, hopes and fears, strange hurts and even stranger ecstasies.  Not least of all we are a mystery to ourselves.  It is, in The Apostle Paul's words, only in the Coming Kingdom that "we shall know ourselves even as we are known."  But now is the time of exploration and discovery, if only in part.   

All around us there are those who cry out for vengeance and savor sweet revenge.  They continue to pile human disaster upon human disaster, but nothing is solved, nothing is learned.  The rich get richer and the poor get poorer.  Kids leave home because they hate their parents and parents can't wait until the kids clear out. One nation develops the capacity to destroy the entire world in a single blow.  Another discovers how to do it two times over.  And the race goes on from there.  That is precisely the way it is in our world today.  And God help us as a Church if we don't stop coming apart at the seams every time the Gospel of the Lord contradicts things as they are.   Like all correct actions,there is everything to gain and nothing to lose in forgiving.  When we forgive those who have offended us, we are doing it not only for them but also for ourselves ...  Perhaps the major difference between loving and hating is that to love somebody is to be fulfilled and enriched by the experience; to hate somebody is to be diminished and drained by the experience.  Lovers, by losing themselves in their loving, find themselves, become their true selves.  Haters simply lose themselves, diminish their true selves.  

"If the political leaders of the world could see Jesus''Sermon on the Mount' in proper perspective their outlook could be fundamentally changed.  If we who profess to follow Christ could see the 'Sermon on the Mount' in proper perspective, we could be, we would be fundamentally changed."  Not "an eye for an eye" but "love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.