11th Sunday Harmony with God

Good Morning all, and welcome to “Control Issues Anonymous”, aka the CIA. Hi, my name is Bob, and I have control issues. And I would assume all of you have them too, one way or another. And we are all looking to control our control issues.

Control issues; when we strive to make sense of our lives, the lives of others and the entire universe. Control issues, when we strive to make everything happen according to our own wants, wishes, and desires. Control issues; when our fears are so great, and the only way we can get through our day.

The symptoms of control issues? Persistent, hacking anger; low level depression; lack of joy in life; annoying fear that everything will collapse; dependency upon absurd conspiracy theories; strained relationships; an inability to make choices; an amazing ability to overthink; too much time on the internet looking at cat videos, or other means in an attempt to forget how miserable we are….  I fully admit to having control issues and I like to think that I have control over my control issues.

The fullness of life, Jesus spoke of this; he came so that we can all have life and have life in the full. We can also call this the Kingdom of Heaven. Life in the full means we live and experience our own humanity in relationship to the world around us and to the Divine, God.

It goes back to Genesis; God created the world and everything, including humanity. God placed humanity at the center and with the special responsibility to be in the right relationship with God and the world. This models, or is in the image of, the Trinity. God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, a community of relationships in total harmony, in a right relationship such that we speak of the three as one.  It worked great! Well at least until the pesky control issues showed up; humanity decided we could do a better job than God and kaplooey. Harmony was wounded, chaos re-asserted itself. And the rest is history, Salvation History.

God is harmony so chaos cannot be. Thus...   God continued to work with humanity, calling us back into the right relationship, calling us to humility; and when humanity listened, things seemed good, harmony grew.  God called out Israel to manifest this relationship to the world. We heard in the prophet Ezekiel, God speaking to Israel, telling them God is in control. God will do great things for them and with them; all they needed to do was trust!

The Son of God came; not just to fix a problem with us; but was always coming to complete creation. Jesus was and is the pinnacle of creation. He was and is the right relationship of the divine with humanity, the created and the uncreated. He signifies all that this universe is about; harmony.  

I  hope these parables amaze us. God’s great plan for us, Jesus reveals through them.

How do we live in harmony with God and the world? Trust.  The kingdom of God is like seed that is scattered. The farmer does his part, but also lets the mystery of the seeds do their part. The farmer trusts in God. The farmer does not control the seeds, does not tell them when and how they are to grow; but he trusts the process.  When we trust it grows and blooms; we thrive creating a life for this world, for others.

Look, all of us have skills and good qualities that can help to make life beneficial, not only for us but especially for others. We have skills and qualities that can build upon the inherent harmony that exists. This is why we have geologists, farmers, technicians, teachers, parents etc…

We all do our part for the good of this world and for the good of others. Yet, there are times when we have to trust in the process, trust in the vision. We need to give to God what belongs to God; trust (aka faith).

Parents know this feeling. You raise children. You spend a lot of time and energy; train them how to make good decisions, and how to deal with bad ones. You teach them how to grow as adults, pay bills, cook food...then one day they are off. And you have to let them go; trusting them to continue to grow.  I know there is this phenomena of Helicopter parenting; kids going off to college, military or whatever and the parents are still there, harassing profs, commanders, telling them what to do for their kids… Control issues.

It remains scary living in this world, or it can seem. We don’t know what will happen even one hour from now, much less years from now.  We don’t know what other people think, or even if they are thinking of us (which 99.999999% of the time they are not). That fear, or our egos, can shut us down, and life can become not so joyous.  Been there, seen it and done it. It is not being fully alive.

And this may be a shock for some but this world is not about our own way of doing things. Nobody here qualifies to run this world in the way that we see fit. Nobody here controls the world. Anger is when an expectation is not met. If we are continually angry; we yell at the news, at spouses, children, parents; posting nasty things on social media, it is the racism...I suspect we want the world to go our way….  Really, is that living?

Prayer, contemplation leads us to our reality of humility and harmony. Prayer and contemplation remind us that there is something greater than me out there; greater than any of us here.  Our faith teaches us that we are so loved by God, everyone is so loved by God; but we are not God.  That greater reality is that God in Christ, through the Holy Spirit cares for us. God only desires us to be in relationship, in harmony with God and with the world around us, and other people.

Prayer, Contemplation and Eucharist call us to this; calls us back to ourselves, to the meaning of this all; gets our mind set back on God and reality; and away from this illusion that we can control everything and everyone.

Once we stop trying to control the universe and we trust God who loves us, it is amazing how much energy we find to engage in living. It is amazing how much easier it becomes to find joy in this world. And ironically, it is amazing how much control we actually find, within ourselves.

It is amazing how much harmony we can find.