Chris Yaw

I have a friend who runs 10K road races.

He takes them very seriously - and whenever he finishes a race and does not collapse at the Finish Line, he gets upset with himself.

He believes that unless he exerts himself 100%, he is not taking the race seriously and giving his best.

I suspect more people admire his dedication than imitate his approach.

And it comes to mind as you and I consider our life’s goal of following Jesus.

Like my friend's 10K running strategy, I have to ask myself how seriously I am following Jesus if it does not include some sort of measurable indicator of discomfort, inconvenience, and fear of the unknown.

This weekend our Gospel will ask us to consider the story of a rich young man who was obedient to all of the pious rules of the Bible yet did not follow Jesus because of the high value he put on comfort, security, and convenience.

Every moment we spend with someone who’s hard to be with-

Give money to a worthy cause instead of spending it on ourselves-

Care for someone who’s difficult to care for -

We walk farther down that road of discipleship -

What’s the tough road for you and me today?

Are we avoiding it - or embracing it?

Jesus will give us the grace to choose the difficult road -

For He walks with us every step of the way.

Corpus Christi, Texas has the lumpiest roads I’ve ever seen.

The geology of the area, which is rich in petroleum, makes for a really unbalanced surface. This means that roads and sidewalks that looked perfectly smooth when they were installed almost immediately begin to undulate, crack, and buckle. Imagine building a road on a giant, slow-moving waterbed.

Of course, since people have to live there, roads, sidewalks, and buildings must be built. This means foundation cracks and broken roads are just a part of daily life.

So let’s talk about marriage and the Bible.

Much of the Bible assumes that a man may have several wives. He may take on concubines. If a wife fails to bear children, he may seek out another woman to do so.

Any number of the Bible’s heroes fall into this category, including Abraham, Jacob, David, and Solomon.

In the New Testament St. Paul, who said more about marriage than any other Bible writer, was really no big fan of matrimony. He thought it a distraction and a panacea for the weak, saying, ‘those who marry will experience distress in life and I would spare you that.’ (1 Cor. 7:26)

Adding to the conversation are Jesus’ harsh and difficult words in Matthew and Mark (whose version we will hear Sunday) ‘whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her; and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.’ (Mark 10:11-12)

From the Biblical witness then, we, the faithful, try to figure out God’s wisdom about how men and women are to unite, and as they’ve been doing since the beginning, divide. In doing so I often feel like we’re trying to build a road in Corpus Christi.

Let’s face it, everyone we know has been touched by divorce - and passages like this often bring up feelings of failure, guilt, and unforgiveness. Did Jesus really intend to further injure the victims of divorce? Is the Bible given to us to afflict us or to heal us?

Or are these words of judgment best understood in a culture and context two thousand years removed - one that has seen a shift in the landscape of coupling more dramatically than ever now that greater liberation for women and same gender marriage are, thankfully, in the picture?

Last week we dealt with another difficult text, in which Jesus suggested that if hands, feet, and eyes kept us from following God’s path they should be severed and plucked out. Just as that text must be understood in its context and with the understanding that there is underlying truth to harvest - so must Jesus words on marriage and divorce.

Two thousand years ago the women of Ancient Judea were chattel. Divorce for most was social ostracism at best, a life of prostitution at worst. Telling men not to discard their wives was a way for Jesus to do what he always does: stick up for the vulnerable and marginalized.

Certainly there is wisdom in Jesus’ words for us today; marriage is serious, sobering, between two adults, and never to be taken lightly. It asks us to embrace maturity by leaving behind our parents and creating a new family. And he hints at the serious debilitation of adultery.

At issue here is the very real understanding of the fluidity of marriage relationships through time, the unchanging and underlying virtues meant to be upheld, and the self-forgiveness and grace we accept from God when we take the Bible less literally and more seriously. We do well to look for the light that comes through the cracks of broken marriages, knowing that God is not only with us, but working through every single thing that happens in our lives, both the wholeness and brokenness, as important aspects of life's journey which can hopefully be used to become even better followers of Our Risen Savior.

When I first became a priest I suspected that some of the more intimate conversations I would have with members of my flock would include dark admissions of sultry secrets told in titillating detail.

But what I found is that the most pressing questions people had revolved around vocational anxiety, a deep wondering about who we are and what we are called to do.

It's because today, more than ever, we have more opportunities, more possibilities, more chances to become, to do, and to be. The thought that we only get to do one or two or even up to six of these in a lifetime is incredibly limiting to say the least, and certainly the source of no small amount of anxiety.

This anxiety frequently gives birth to jealousy - that ugly predilection we have to worry about losing what we have to someone else - like a co-worker or significant other.

This Sunday we will hear two stories of jealousy, from both Testaments, where followers of God became jealous of others who sought to follow God a different way.

The Divine advice in these instances is the same as it is to you and me: the key to getting over jealousy is to think more about who we are and what we have and less about what we aren't and what we don't have.

Now more than ever we need effective practices that reinforce these suspicions of our hearts, which is that we are more capable and cared for them we suspect.

maybe that's prayer, maybe that's going to church, maybe that's writing a journal whatever works.

But jealousy is always a sign of our disconnection from our purpose and our calling: we will feel less threatened by others the more deeply rooted we are in God.

Once there was a man named Matthew.

He was sitting at his tax collector booth when Jesus walked by.

Jesus said, ‘Follow me,’ and he did.

A few things stick out.

First, who does that?

Second, how hard was this, really?

After all, as a tax collector, Matthew was a three-strikes loser: his friends, family, and religion had tossed him out, they probably hated him. But the worst bit was how much Matthew must have hated himself.

George Bernard Shaw famously said that, ‘In the beginning God created man, and ever since, man has not ceased to return the favor.’

Shaw articulates our propensity to make God in our own image, and in Matthew’s case, that’s not a pretty God.

So what I love about Matthew is that he was able to get over what is probably our biggest hurdle: ourselves.

Let’s face it, we are all smarter, better looking, kinder, more helpful, and more beloved by God than we suspect. And God is calling us, just like Matthew, to do something bigger and better than we usually imagine (nb bigger and better in God’s eyes, not always our own).

This week we celebrate the Feast of St. Matthew. So if you know any Matthews buy them a pop, and toast them, for their very name reminds us we’re better than we know.

My pregnant wife had never been heavier.

But when she stepped off the scale after a recent weigh-in, curiously she didn’t collapse in a ball of distress, rather she remarked, “Wow, now I know what many of my patients go through.”

As a nurse, the average weight of a patient at her hospital is 274 pounds. That means most are experiencing difficulties walking, sitting down, getting up, and catching their breath - all things that pregnant women suffer through. And now that she had put on a few pounds, my wife better understood the plight of her patients.

Empathy.

This is just one way suffering can make us better.

If you’re like me, when Jesus calls his disciples to deny themselves, to lose their lives, and to follow his example of suffering, it can seem like a real buzz-kill. After all, we like our comfort, convenience, and freedom.

But what if denying ourselves was actually good for us?

I think that, deep inside, we all know that’s true. And not just because we can become more empathetic, but because we can become more resilient, and we can become more like the ‘Suffering Servant’ whom we have dedicated our lives to follow.

I think Jesus calls us not just to suffer, but to change our attitudes about suffering. What we discover is that often times it’s not as bad for us as we suspect, but suffering is something God uses to better ourselves and the world. Count it all joy, therefore, when you suffer, God is at work.

I made a big mistake with this super-quiet friend once.

We were out to dinner and I put my foot in my mouth, which is not untypical, and called him ‘passive’ - when the truth was he wasn't passive, but quiet.

In other words, just because he preferred being thoughtful and introspective didn’t mean he lacked an opinion or an idea.

The problem with a religion like Christianity is that it’s best known for serving, forgiving, and letting the other person go first - so that we Christians often get this reputation for meekness, submission, and compliance - and the assumption is that we lack ambition, courage, and a strong desire to achieve.

In Sunday’s gospel Jesus commends an ambitious woman for knowing what she wants and going to great lengths to get it, the subtext being that there’s nothing wrong with ambition, it’s a natural drive to cooperate with God’s plan as we pursue the improvement of our particular set of abilities.

This should serve as motivation for you and me to cultivate our ambitions - not for more money, possessions, or experiences, but for the things that pumped up Jesus:

Can we be ambitious about serving people around us?

Can we be ambitious about jumping into campaigns and movements that serve to heal the world?

Can we be ambitious about practicing the presence of Christ at all times - realizing that He’s with us always - looking hard to see Jesus in everyone and everything that’s here?

In Matthew 28, Jesus’ last word to his disciples wasn’t ‘stay’ but ‘go.’

Don’t ‘stay’ mired in the ‘way things have always been’ and a mentality not to 'rock the boat.'

But ‘go’ follow the ambitions of your heart - stir things up - cause a ruckus.

Racism, suicide, opiate addiction, political gridlock - there’s no shortage of mountains to climb.

Let’s not be afraid to look at that mountain and say ‘yep’ - I can climb that.

Hard working young marrieds moved into Green Acres, she a teacher, he an assistant city clerk.

Unfortunately, selfish neighbors lived next door. After-midnight music blared, grass wasn't mowed, leaves weren't raked, complaints were rudely ignored.

The selfish neighbors did not use garbage cans. On trash day animals ate through plastic bags strewing garbage everywhere. Police came. After the rude neighbors were ticketed mysterious scratches appeared on the young married’s cars, tire tracks burned into the lawn. Nothing was proven but everyone knew.

One day a home remodeling application from the rude neighbors appeared in the young neighbor's city office. Time for revenge? Deny or endlessly delay... What to do...

At dinner the young marrieds decided the application should be approved. Their faith said so. But, boy was it difficult.

This is often why people leave Jesus. It's difficult.

Tempted to retaliate, we forgive.

Tempted to worry, we hope.

Tempted toward selfishness, we share.

Tempted to being cold and closed, we risk love.

A few weeks later a knock at the door. His rude neighbor held out the application. He knew. The nastiness subsided, peace came, then friendship.

This is a happy ending, most aren’t. But the only way to make an enemy a friend is to love them. Period.

The Paradox of our time is that our city, Detroit, is dying, at the same time it's coming back to life.

And so we live with these very active voices is going through our heads.

One tells us to cut bait, to move out, and to move on, because the future here is not very bright.

The another voice, says things are just starting to get interesting. It tells us that there is something rumbling underneath the surface, just beginning to explode with a power of potential that we may have no ability to quantify much less contain.

And yet it's a third voice that seems to leave the biggest impression, the one that we tend to follow too often, which is a voice of mediocrity, hesitation, and timidness. It does not fully embrace the negativity about Detroit nor does it fully embrace the possibility of Detroit.

It's as if everyday we are asked to go “ all-in" on one side or the other, yet we can't make up our minds, so we follow the third voice.

In church this weekend, you and I will hear Jesus addressing a similar paradigm, confronted with the group of people who can't decide if they should go all-in or all-out.

“Are you the one? Or is there somebody else we should be waiting for? “

They too seem to be unsatisfied with their constant hesitation, straddling the line, unable to commit to one voice or the other. So Jesus comes to them with a clear and graceful invitation to see things as he sees them: our lives teeming with possibility, brimming with potential, urging them not to take the broad gate of negativity, that everybody seems to be going through, and to take the narrow gate of possibility, hope, and imagination.

Friends, there's certainly something going on in each one of our lives in which we are also straddling some sort of fence. And God comes along side us with the same invitation: to take the difficult road, the risky road, the challenging road.
After all we are always more resilient, more capable, more up to the task than we suspect.

The world is waiting for us to make a move, take a step, put ourselves out there.

Urged on by the saints and our savior, let's do it.

A woman named Nell called the church this week - she needed money for rent and a water bill -

She lost her job and was feeling scared, alone, and desperate - a place you and I have probably been before-

And as I prayed with her I couldn’t help but think of the Gospel story you and I will hear this weekend -

Quick quiz: What’s the only miracle story that’s found in all 4 Gospels?

It’s the loaves and the fishes - the feeding of the 5,000-

And in this weekend’s story, the Disciple Phillip comes to Jesus and says, ‘All these people have followed us out to the desert and nobody’s got any food”

And the passage says that Jesus tested Phillip by asking, ‘What are you going to do?’

And the disciples said, ‘Well, there’s a little kid here with some loaves and fishes’

And Jesus took those, gave thanks, broke them, and handed them out -

And everyone was fed.

When we apply that to Nell and her bills - and learn three things -

First, let’s never forget that in every challenge: God is up to something.

We don’t know why Nell is broke, or why 5,000 people walked into the desert without any food -

What we do know is that God is up to something - sometimes it’s a test -

Because tests are meant to make us better - nobody develops a callus without skinning their knee -

Second, we see these disciples looking on the up side.

They said, ‘Hey, we’ve got some bread and fish!’

Ever hire someone? Look for two things: Are they on time? And are they enthusiastic?

Nell and you and me make things better when we look for the up side and remain positive about what God may be doing.

This leads us to our third point - give thanks.

This is the act of getting the spotlight off of ourselves and our own problems and onto something more productive - in this case, it’s thanking God for provision.

Of course. we many not always get the answers we want -

Nell may or may not have gotten what she wanted -

But we don’t pray ‘Our will be done’ - we pray ‘God’s will be done’

God has not forgotten about us, God is well aware of our needs, and God is working on God's own timeline to meet those needs.
In every challenge, let’s look for the blessing.

"Come away, to a deserted place, and rest" - Jesus.

One sentence, three pieces of advice, to 12 disciples - plus you and me.

Come away from that toxic air that’s all around us - the negativity the anxiety, and stress.

Come away from:

everybody else’s expectations for us-
the 24-hour "breaking news” cycle that leaves us over-informed and under-educated.
and from our own propensity to expect more from ourselves than we can possible deliver - then get depressed when we don't achieve it!

Come away to a deserted place -

What’s deserted?

How about that room that ‘hope’ lives in?

Or all those empty canals of optimism-

And the hallway of faith - that things have a purpose and are working towards a positive end - certainly that place could use a few more warm bodies..

Come away to a deserted place-

Yes, the gate is narrow,

The road is less-travelled,

And way too few people are taking it - so there’s plenty of room for us...

Come away to a deserted place and rest.

Rest in the long view of our cosmic existence - overall let’s remember the great strides being made in human equality, food and water production, and our capacity to truly care for one another.
Rest in the world's overall track record of working things out to the good over time - we know life always takes us two steps forward and one step back.
Rest in the reality that we’ve made it this far - think about it, we’ve overcome loads of things we thought would kill us - but none of them have.

Jesus calls us to come away, to a deserted place, and rest - not to escape life but to really live it.

How Centering Ourselves Saves Us

"Thai Soccer Coach Gives Team Greatest Victory Ever"

That would be my headline.

Trapped in a dark cave for more than 2 weeks with little food, water, or light, a dozen young boys should have simply freaked out, flipped out, and burned out.

But as you may have heard, their coach, a former Buddhist monk, wisely assessed the situation and used his skills in meditation and prayer to invite his boys into quiet contemplation, which lowered their heart and breathing rates, conserving energy and resources. This bought them precious time for rescuers to figure out how to bring them to safety.

Coach Ek is credited with saving these lives - and with inspiring us all with a real-life lesson in the importance of keeping focused, calm, and centered on that force which is saving us too.

This story parallels our Sunday gospel, that familiar and cautionary tale of King Herod’s absurd execution of John the Baptist.

Herod, overcome with the wine, women, and revelry, makes a stupid oath that traps him into executing John. Herod gives in to peer pressure, the nagging of his wife, and his own shameful pride that renders himself helpless against obeying his conscience.

In the overlap of these stories you and I see the importance of centering.

When you and I center ourselves on Jesus, the life-giver, whose message of calm in the storm, clarity among the distraction, and peace in the moment, we cultivate the power we need to stand up to the things that handcuffed Herod.

Our challenge is to do it - to take that time - to stand up to the head-spinning distraction and monolithic humanism that surrounds us - and to put more Jesus-time into our lives. How might we do that today?

After all, centering ourselves both calms us and saves us.

Chris Yaw

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How to Get Rid of Jealousy

You're Better Than You Know

When Suffering Is Good for You

Can Christians Be Ambitious?

Greetings Fellow Hypocrites...

Why Following Jesus Is Difficult

Let's Do This

Let's Look for the Blessing

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How Centering Ourselves Saves Us

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