HOMILY – 3^RD SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME

ST. ANTHONY CHURCH AND FURMAN UNIVERSITY

JANUARY 21, 2007 – 8 & 11AM  AND 8:30PM

May the Lord give us His peace.

Grumpy gills,  the eye says to the hand…, fulfillment.

Grumpy gills.  If you haven’t seen the movie Finding Nemo, where have you been?

A young fish swims boldly out into deep water, gets caught by tropical fish dealers and his father seeks after him.  The father is sad when after trials he still has not found his son Nemo.  A wacko and very lovable fish helps the dad try to find his son, and when he gets very sad and is ready to quit we hear her say to him… “ aw come on grumpy gills!  We’ll find Nemo, don’t be a grumpy gills.”

Well God’s people had just come back home after being exiled.  They got to rebuilding the city and the Temple of God when Ezra the priest starts reading the law to them, God’s rules for life.  They begin to weep.  Their lives with God had been hard, being in exile and having their city and church destroyed.  Now they hear how much more God will ask of them.  There must be no wanting, stealing, killing, no messing around, telling stories about other people, no failing to honor parents and God.

You can hear Ezra, “Come on grumpy gills!”  We’re going to please God, don’t worry!  Ezra is the wacko fish – “The law is a guide and are words of love.  What kind of God would say – now that you have come home and rebuilt the temple, live fatly, take for yourself, you’re number one.  Would they build a temple to God if THEY were number one?  Why would we be here in church right now if WE were number one?  Hey, it’s been a hard week.  You don’t need more rules do you?  How about love?  The law is love, need some of that?   How about a God speaking through Ezra and me the priests saying. “Stay close, it’ll hurt less in the long run.”  Come on grumpy gills, stay close.

The eye says to the hand… So the eye says to the hand, “I want to grab something.” And the hand says to the eye, “I want to see if something is red-hot before I touch it.”  What is wrong with this picture?  Eyes-see and hands-grab.

Each of us has been given particular gifts from the one Spirit of God.  But sometimes we want more.  Sometimes we think because someone doesn’t function well in one thing or another that they are worth less.  Paul is trying to show the Corinthians that their judgments on one another disregard the way God has spread His gifts around.  Some us here are good with numbers, history, science.  Others of us here are good with compassion, service, healing.  Still others are good at music, poetry, dance.  And some are great cooks, cleaners, managers.  How great when someone is a lot of these all at once – sort of, well, not really.

If the gifts are spread out it may be for a reason.  God may wish us to depend on one another.  In the South there seems to be less a race for getting it all done, and more a desire for the beauty of “time on the porch,” at the ball game, in church.  We can live closer to the kingdom, and be more recognizable to God as we bring out the gifts in others and share the load.  Maybe even dial it down a bit.

The eye says to the hand, would you grab that for me?  The hand says sure, would you describe that sunset for me?

Fulfillment.  We seek it as if we are driven to it by internal forces.  Fulfillment.

You hear people say, “Something is missing.”  “I don’t get it.”  “I’m anxious.”

We are driven toward wholeness, being filled.  Get that car, feed those people, buy her a ring, him a riding lawn mower.  Does it work?  Do we get fulfilled?

NOPE.  You got to ride that thing every week.  The ring doesn’t dazzle the same when the conversation is icy.  She may want to throw it.

What has fulfilled us is this.  That God so loved the world, that He sent His own Son, not that the world might be judged unworthy as it is, but that we might be lifted up, healed, loved, forgiven, saved by Him.  God is enough for us.  All the quests in relationship have been met in Him.  He can hold you, talk with you, listen, give, remain faithful, he can pick you up, prove nothing is lost with Him.

He asks us to be like Him.  Bring these glad tiding to the poor of today.  Liberate people who feel trapped in their circumstances.  Help people see.  Unshackle people who can otherwise run with beauty and grace.  Tell them they are judged “acceptable.”

Either be the wacko fish or listen to her – come on grumpy gills!

See the slower beauty and family like way of the Kingdom, everyone valued.

Know that all you hope for has been given to you, now and forever in Jesus.

Then, work, rejoice, work, rejoice, work, rejoice, rejoice in work, work at rejoicing.