Homily Notes 32nd Sunday of Ordinary Time "Leap of Faith"
32nd Sunday of Ordinary Time: “Leap of Faith”
Steve Martin has made a lot of movies. One of his lesser known movies is called “A Leap of Faith.”
In the movie, Martin is a traveling evangelist who does faith healing. He has a tent revival. He and his assistant convince people that he can look into their hearts and read their needs. He plants some individual’s in the congregation so that he can dramatically heal them. A little boy trusts in Martin. The boy is convinced that he can be healed by this wonder working preacher.
Martin is fond of the boy. He does not want to admit that he is fake. He finally is convinced to pray over the child. To his surprise, a healing does in fact occur. He who was a charlatan and skeptic is put in touch with the power of a God who works in mysterious ways through unlikely people. We run into two types of religious leaders in the scriptures we read this Sunday.
Elijah is the leader we meet first. Elijah is on the run from King Ahab because Elijah had predicted a drought in the land. Ahab had turned his back on the one true God. His sin had brought down the wrath of God. No rain fell for months. People were starving. Elijah is in danger of starvation like everyone else. He meets a widow at the town of Zarephath. She and her son are destitute. Elijah asks her for food and drink. She shares that she has only enough food for one last meal. And then she is prepared to die. She says she will share this last meal with Elijah. Elijah is impressed with her generosity. He tells her that she will not run out of flour and oil. Together, they face the prospect of starvation. But God provides.
The second religious leaders we meet are the scribes in the Gospel. Like Elijah they depend on the common people for their support. Jesus is angry with them because they seem to Lord it over the people they teach about the Jewish faith. The scribes dress in fine robes. The scribes live well, eat well. As religious leaders they were not afraid to charge for their services. Widows, legally, were not always in charge of their own affairs. Quite often the scribes would step in to manage the property of women who had lost their husbands. And unscrupulous scribes would help themselves to property.
So, we might ask, what was the difference between Elijah and the scribes. Both were supported by widows. Perhaps the difference was that Elijah lived in solidarity with the widow. If she starved, he would. He shared what she had. The scribes, on the other, hand did not pay much attention to the widows they scammed. They were not interested in these women or their suffering. All they cared about was themselves.
The two women that meet, were both admirable. Both lived their faith out in practical ways. Both trusted that God would see their charity. Somehow God would bless them.
Are we as trusting? Next week we will be having our annual offertory commitment Sunday. You will be receiving a mailing this week where you will be asked to reflect on your offertory gift for the year. You will receive a card with three parts. On the different parts you will be asked to write down what your family plans to share in our offertory collections for this year. One part will be brought back and burned in a fire at the entrance of the church next Sunday. The second part will be dropped in the collection, so we know how many people have participated. The last part is your record for the year.
Some may ask why we are having this Offertory Commitment Sunday this year since we are having a capital campaign. The answer to that question is that we still need your regular support to pay our day to day expenses. The Capital campaign is not meant for that.
The leadership in our parish stands in solidarity with you. I will make my commitment to the offertory next week along with you. Our parish leaders promise to use your gifts for the good of our parish mission. If we just share our gifts and we are good stewards, we trust that we will have what we need.
Please note: rough draft, grammar may not be perfect!