Homily Notes 2nd Sunday of Ordinary Time 2018
2nd Sunday of Ordinary Time, “A Call to Go Beyond”
A Catholic priest once made a very provocative statement. He maintained that most Catholics never really get baptized. We go through the ceremony, water is poured over us, but we never fully commit to our Baptismal call. We can go on automatic pilot just living life like everyone else. We have, what another spiritual writer called, the macro implications of our call. We also have, the micro implications, how we are affected on a day to day basis. Being a Christian is meant to be a vocational choice.
We have stories of vocational choices in the scriptures that we read today. The first lines of the story of the call of Samuel are so interesting. Unfortunately, the line is omitted from the 1st lesson. Samuel 3:1 reads, “a revelation of the Lord was uncommon and visions infrequent.” People had grown complacent.
When Samuel hears God’s voice, he thinks he hears Eli calling. He had a practical concern. He took care of Eli, the old priest at Shilo. We can imagine how he had to rise frequently at night to take care of the needs of Eli. So, when he hears the voice of God calling, he cannot imagine it would be anyone, but Eli. But Eli, finally, understands. Say, Speak Lord for your servant is listening.” Samuel is called by God to be a prophet. He begins to be guided by the voice of God throughout his life. He ends up anointing the first two kings of Israel. And it’s God’s voice that tells him who to choose. If he would not have paid attention to the implications of his prophetic call, salvation history would have been far different.
We also have the story of the call of the first disciples in the Gospel of John today. Again, at first, they do not recognize the voice that is calling them. Andrew and his companion were looking for John the Baptist. The two wanted to be his disciples. But John points them to Jesus. Jesus asks the unusual question, “What are you looking for?” And this provokes an unusual question in return, “Rabbi, where are you staying?” The revelation the two disciples receive is not other worldly. No, it seems very down to earth.
But one spiritual writer said that the two disciples received their first communion with Jesus that night. Jesus shared a meal with them. He told them of his mission. He challenged them to share in his work. The simple event of staying a night with Jesus changed the life of Andrew and his friend. The two committed to be disciples. But they were not just companions with Jesus. No, them became missionaries of the Gospel. If they would have resisted the invitation of Jesus, they would have missed out on encountering the most fascinating person in human history.
Coming to that moment when we recognize the practical aspects of our Baptismal call can change our whole life. This weekend we remember Martin Luther King. He responded to Jesus’s voice in a dramatic fashion that changed not only his life, but the life of the nation. Martin Luther King was just beginning his ministry in Montgomery, Alabama in 1954 at the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church when he received his call. King was well educated. Being a Black Baptist minister could have been a very comfortable way to live. All you had to do was stay out of trouble.
But Martin Luther King started to go to Civil Rights meetings where a bus boycott was planned. Jim Crow laws separated the races and stilted opportunities for African American’s. One separation that was in place was that buses were divided by race. Blacks sat in the back of the bus. Whites sat in front. King and other ministers called on their congregants not to ride the busses until the segregation stopped.
The boycott starting in December 1956 and went on for over a year. On January 27, 1957 an event happened that changed King’s life. Dr. King received a phone call at home late at night. The caller threatened to kill King and his family if the minister did not leave town. The reaction to the events in Montgomery had tapped into deep hatred between the races.
Martin Luther King went to his kitchen to fix a cup of coffee. He contemplated leaving Montgomery for the good of his family. His courage was gone, as he put it. As he sat in his kitchen he prayed out loud to God. And he received a sense of the divine presence. He heard a voice tell him to stay. He resolved not to run, but to fight for what was right.
We all have a vocation to follow Jesus. We can see, that vocation in the context of the big picture. We can live moral lives with our eyes set on our heavenly reward our macro call. But then again, we can act on our call in many practical ways. One of them is to speak up when people make bigoted statements, to tell them we will not tolerate it.
When our actions flow from our call from God as well as an inner moral compass it can lead to difficulty in our lives. But the question always is, “What kind of Christian do I want to be?” Do I want to act on my faith or not?
Please note: this is a rough draft, garmmar may not be perfect.