4th Sunday - Faith in Christ, take the risk

The Gospel of last week and this week are one story that shows us much of faith and life. Last week Jesus revealed his mission; a mission of salvation, a mission in which humanity grows in faith and grows as humanity. This week, within moments of the revelation, the people reject this message. The people of Jesus reject him. What happened?

Many years ago I was on a trip with two friends. We climbed the east face of Mt. Whitney. This was a technical climb; ropes and gear. Halfway through the climb a lateral move was required. This means the move is along a face, not up or down. I hated lateral moves because they are awkward and require moves that place one in danger of falling. This particular move had quite the fall, what seemed 100000’s of feet. I was tied off to the other guys, I was in the middle. I froze. I was so scared. My friends were great and patient, urging me on. I knew logically if I fell it would be okay, as I was on rope. Yet that potential fall so scared me. But to finish the climb I had to take a risk, to trust, to step out along the rock face.

Life does mean we take risks otherwise we will not grow, mature or evolve. We take the risk as we learn to walk. We take risks as we start to date, as we marry or make religious vows, as we start a new job, new town…  We take the risk because the reward is great. Not financially only, but emotionally, psychologically we learn and mature.

We read and hear in the gospels Jesus say to people who experienced a healing that they had “great faith”. It was of the Gentile woman who bantered with him. The Roman centurion. What did Jesus see in them? What was their great faith? They both took a risk to believe in him.

In the Old Testament the prophet Elijah approached the poor widow of Zarephath, a Gentile, and imposed himself upon her hospitality. She took the risk to offer him the hospitality, to believe in what he said. She and her son were well taken care of.  Naaman, a Gentile and affiliated with Leprosy, took the risk to believe in the prophet Elisha; he was cured.

Jesus brings the Good News. He brings the way of Salvation. Jesus reveals the way to experience life in the full. He invites us into this way.  He asks us to risk it. He asks us to have faith in his way. He wants us to grow.

Our egos can limit us. Our egos will tell us “I am fine. I don’t need to change. I cannot change, I am too scared to change.” Egos limit us.

The people of Nazareth think they know Jesus, they don’t. Jesus knows his people. He wants them to take a risk, but they have become too comfortable. They have become too safe, too complacent.  This is what Jesus exposes. This is why they want to kill him.

Salvation, as Luke will show, is to experience the Holy Spirit within; to work with the Spirit to become the children of God. As the Spirit did with Jesus, the Spirit showed him as the beloved Son, and then impelled him into the desert. As the Spirit came upon the disciples showed them their identity as Children of God and impelled them into the world. There in the world they lived out Jesus’ way.

It can be the same for us.

We too are called to take the risk: to believe what Jesus calls us too and to live it.

Jesus calls us to forgive; to experience the liberation from anger and hate, to work to bring peace. Not only in our homes and relationships, but in our places of work, school, into our world. It does work. Take the risk.

Jesus calls us to the dignity of human life, to love all humanity regardless of status or all the labels we impose. To risk that call is to defect hate, racism, sexism, so much poison.  

Jesus calls us to him, not the trappings of a religion, not to power or status, but to him. Will we risk him?

We can grumble about everything. We can resist what Jesus says. We can even try to dilute it, as many have. As with the Nazarene’s that resistance only leads to death. This past week we received a call from an angry man about a sign in a local parish, claiming it was against church teaching. It wasn’t. It was only against this man’s narrow sense of what the church taught.

We will all have those moments of resistance. When we do, stop. Take that into prayer, ask ourselves are we truly resisting and why? That is what discernment becomes.

We are created for Life! Jesus calls us to the fullness of life. The Eucharist calls us to the fullness of life. It will mean we need to always be ready for the Spirit to move us. It means we take a risk to trust in God and in his beloved Son, to listen to him.

The rewards, greater peace within and out there. The reward, being one with the God of all who desires us. The reward, the capacity to embrace this life, in the here and now, and if for here and now, for all eternity.