14th Sunday Salvation = change

Part of Growing up is the realization that we can never go home again.

We eventually leave our childhood homes, our families,

We go off to college, the military, or to live a more independent life, and when we come back to visit, it is never the same.

Change happens.  We evolve and grow, or at least we are meant to.

Salvation means to grow.  

God wants us to grow and evolve.  

Freedom means to mature and allow ourselves to be changed.

And if we won’t, then we become stagnant.

Jesus confronts this in the gospel. He has come home, he is not the same person that left. And his neighbors cannot deal with it.

They have remained frozen.  They have an image of Jesus, that never grew nor could accept him changing. Jesus will not remain captive to their ideas of him.

These people, his neighbors and probably family, will be left behind.

Left behind with little faith.

Salvation is a journey.  

We must allow ourselves to grow and allow others to grow.  This is part of our freedom. We cannot cling so tightly to our ideas, our thoughts, our egos that we we can’t grasp anything else.

We cannot be so nostalgic for a past, that we cannot move forward.

I remember many years ago, it was when there were those tv shows about makeovers were more popular.  I always thought they were kind of silly, but this one person said that many persons remain frozen in a particular era and it shows in their fashion, because for them something happened at that time.

So women would still wear those blouses with the shoulder pads, from the “Dynasty” tv era, even though it was twenty years ago.

Men will wear their hair like they were still 20-something hippies, even though they were now in their 50’s, and a bit more pudgier and  have less hair.

People will also do the same with their faith.

We can remain frozen at a certain level; either because we are stubborn and refuse to be challenged and grow, or to be honest, we are lazy.  

Or we think we know it all, even though all we were taught ended at confirmation 100 years ago.

People will grow past us because the Spirit moves us always.

Those frozen get left behind, and they are often the ones who react with the same anger as Jesus experienced.

Throughout the Scriptures, Jesus challenges the people, including his own disciples to grow; to transcend, to think differently.

He changes our reality!

He does not want us to cling to our pasts; to idolize our way of doing.

Or to idolize that past that in reality never existed

Think of what he said to Mary Magdelene on the day of the resurrection.

Grow!

Is it scary, you bet.

Change is always hard.  Deep down, I think we are all conservative.  We don’t want change because we want to feel safe.  

We think if nothing changes, then we will be safe.

Sorry, the Universe does not work that way.  

God does not work that way.

People will come along to challenge us, those prophets who will disturb our easy life, our comfortable way of doing things.

Not to attack, but to challenge...so that we can grow.

If we want to be fit, we have to accept the workouts right?

We have to push our bodies to be stronger.

The same applies to a deep and lively Faith.

Jesus is that fitness coach, who will push us to grow, to do better, to be better.

Now we can sit on our couches, drink beer and watch tv, and complain about everything, and the world just passes by...

Or we can act on his word, accept the challenge with the grace of bravery.

We can grow to a more deep and lively faith,

We can be challenged to a new and better life!