Twenty First Sunday -Ordinary time
August 27, 2006

Joshua 24:1-8 Psalm: 34 Ephesians 4:32-5:32 John 6: 53, 60‑-69

Do you also wish to go away?

1. We have in St. Jamestown across the road more than 15 apartment buildings. One day a man tied a tight wire rope across two buildings. Immediately a crowd gathers. What is going to do? He starts walking across the wire, there is no safety net below. He stops midway, he does a headstand on the wire and then goes across. People applaud. He then brings a wheelbarrow and pauses. Do think I can walk across with the wheelbarrow? He asks. Everyone without exception, even those who doubt, shout an encouraging YES. He walks across without a tremor. How many of you are sure, I can do it again. Their faith in him is sure now. He has proved himself twice. Oh, yes you can. Then he points to one in the crowd and says, Hop into the wheelbarrow, I will take you across ! Would you?

2. Jesus has just talked to the people promising them the Bread that will give them eternal life. All seems hunky dory. Everything seems OK, Jesus has multiplied loaves and fish, Jesus has healed the sick, the lame, the blind. He has the power. Now Jesus like the man on the tight rope - asks them to sit in the wheel barrow. Jesus asks them to trust in him. And the reply is “how can this man do this?” and many walked away and no longer walked with Jesus. Jesus then makes the same invitation to his trusted followers: DO YOU ALSO WISH TO WALK AWAY?

3. In our first reading we find Joshua also giving a choice. This time it is to the People of Israel. Are they going to serve the gods of their past or serve the Lord. There three things interesting about this choice that Joshua proposes.

1. They have to choose one way or the other, they cannot abstain.

2. Their choice is to “SERVE”. They have not been liberated to do what they want. They either serve the Lord, or they serve their old gods.

3. Their choice is fundamental. It will either keep them as God’s people or they become a people without a name, identity.

The People make the correct choice. “We will serve the Lord.” Their choice is a choice of being in Relationship with God. They remember how the Lord saved them: in the wilderness, from hunger, from thirst, from their enemies. It is a choice of Fidelity.

4. The letter of Paul to the Ephesians affirms the same fidelity between Husband and Wife. However, it is a relationship between two people who are a part of a wider community: the church, which in its turn is related to Christ, who is the head of the church.

It is a male-dominated society. The women stay at home. They are not involved in clerical work. They are not involved in manual labour like fishing, farming and carpentry. Given this background, the letter is logical for the proper order in society. We cannot read today’s custom, culture and tradition into a society 2000 years ago.

However, the key phrase is: Husbands love your wives, as Christ loved the church. It is a call to caring and responsibility and self sacrifice - not domination. These qualities have not lost their value today. It is the same quality that Jesus is seeking when he asks his Apostles: “Do you also wish to go away.”

5. Faith is a response to this invitation of Jesus.

The faith that Jesus is asking for, is not in a set of doctrines and dogmas. It is an invitation into a relationship. Are you also going to go away? Or are you going to stay with me. It is an invitation that requires a commitment like those we hear in Marriage.

“I will be with you in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health - all the days of my life.” It is a commitment that we make as married people in committing ourselves to our spouses, a priest in committing himself to live out a life of service to those put in his care. The reality is that the secular life has gradually crept into our spiritual life. We seem to accept the same standards.

We want a contract

we want to know what are the fringe benefits

we want to know the loopholes and the exits

we want pre-nuptial agreements.

the conditions for the Call of Jesus is pretty simple.

There is only one rule: Love,

the terms of employment are Jesus call us his friends,

the conditions: we walk in his footsteps.

No agent in the secular world would accept those conditions, and today, some of us carry the same conditions in our vocation as

single persons

married persons

priests we serve for a period of five or ten years and then we throw in the towel, we quit, we find it too tough, we want variety, we want a change.

Peter’s response is what Jesus wants, “Where shall we go, you have the words of ever lasting life.” but one thing it is to say those bold and generous words, another thing is to live it out. We know what happened in the Gospel, One betrayed, another denied, and the rest ran away. We want to follow Jesus, but like Nathanael, we secretly harbour the thought, what good can come out of Nazareth. No wonder we can almost hear a plaintive note in the voice of Jesus: “Are you too going to go away?”

6. Faith is also a trust: It is getting into that wheelbarrow,

knowing that the Good shepherd has steady hands and steady feet.

Knowing that the Good shepherd will lay down his life for us.

Knowing that for humans this is impossible, but with God everything is possible.

If we are to use the Marriage Metaphor again, it is accepting Jesus and his teaching with no “pre-nuptial agreement.”

I accept the beatitudes and all that they entail: being poor, meek, pure of heart, humble, hungering for justice.

I accept that I am called to forgive not seven times, but seventy time seven.

I accept that if I want to save my life, I must lose it for the sake of others.

I accept that although I might not like everyone, I must make the decision to love everyone, even those who are unlovable... like the “terrorist” for example?

These are only a few of “ways of living” (modus operandi/vivendi) in the life of Jesus. Many will say this teaching is to hard. But there are always the those who will dream the impossible dream. And the impossible simply is what nobody can do, until somebody does ! Just think about it. Jesus is calling us to do that and nothing more. Vivat Jesus. “Do you also wish to do away?” I don’t think so.