Twenty-seventh Sunday in
Ordinary Time
There is an old folk tale
about a great river. And many fish and
animals would come daily to nourish themselves and to drink from the
river. One day a giant moose came to the
river to drink. And he was so big that
he began to drink all the water and the river was beginning to dry up. And of course all the animals were just
fearful. The little muskrats were saying
to themselves, “Whoa, where are we going to go now to bathe in the water?” And the beavers were running about their
little lodges and of course all the fish were saying, “Where are we going to
swim?”
And this moose was so huge,
so big that even the bear wasn’t willing to try to move him out of there. And all the animals were just fearful. “What are we going to do?”
And along came a little
fly. And the fly said, “I’ll make the
moose leave.” All the other animals kind
of said, “Yeah. Right. We can’t do it, how can you?”
The little fly said,
“Watch.” So he came up behind the moose
and bit him on one of his legs. The
moose started stomping his hooves into the ground. Of course he was so big and the more he
stomped, and he was so heavy, he pushed down into the ground and that pushed
more water up into the river. The little
fly went around and began to bite him on the shoulders, and on his nose, and on
his ears and everywhere he could find.
He was flying all over that big moose just nipping away at him. And finally that big moose just couldn’t take
it any longer—he jumped out of the river and ran away.
And all the other animals
were just saying, “Whoa. That is
amazing. How did you do that?” Of course the little fly just kind of smiled
and said, “Well even the small can fight the strong if they think how they can
use what little they have.”
And isn’t it true that so
many times all of us here this day don’t realize what we have inside of
us? The disciples said, “Jesus, increase
our faith.” What did Jesus say in return,
“If you had faith, even the size of a tiny mustard seed you could move sycamore
trees.” Huge trees. The mustard seed is the tiniest of the
seeds.
In other words what Jesus is
saying to His disciples, “You already have it within you to do the work of the kingdom. I planted my
faith within you, my love within you, don’t worry about how much you think you
have or how little you think you have, you already have it within you, use what
you have. Don’t worry about how big it
may be.”
We think, oh I got to go
study. I gotta
find out what the problems are. Let’s do
another survey. Let’s figure out what
needs to be done and how are we going to use our resources. Yada, Yada, Yada. And we can keep putting it off and putting it
off.
Maybe part
of this beautiful message of the gospel is get out there and just do
it.
Okay, that’s why Jesus goes
to the next part of the gospel. He talks
about servants and how we can say, “Whoa, You’re being kind of tough on the
apostles Lord. You’re calling them
useless servants and they shouldn’t get any credit for what they’re
doing.”
Yes, what parent here, you
know this because I’ve never had this opportunity. But you as parents, when you gave birth, say
moms, to that first child and other children subsequently, your life was not
your own after that was it. All of your
energy, your time, your concerns were tied up with
that little infant. How many hours of
night did you get of sleep. That little
infant woke up, you had to take care of him or her, hold them, cuddle them. And whey
they would cry the frustration because you didn’t know what was hurting them,
what was going on because they couldn’t say it.
Yet you cared for them, nourished them, protected them, guided them. You were
their servant. You took care of them,
till finally as they began to grow and got a little older they could do a lot
of these things themselves. And isn’t it
great when finally some day your children do come back to you mom and dad, and
say thanks. A lot of
times parents just say, “Well we just did what we needed to do because you are
our child, our children. We love
you.” It’s great when you do get thanked
in a good way. But that’s what Jesus is
saying, “If you’re going to be my followers, if you’re to do and preach the
kingdom and be my followers and do all these things I ask of you, just do
it. Be happy that you have the gifts and
talents to be able to make it happy. And
don’t worry about whether anybody notices it or if you get thanked for it, or
if you get plaques or acknowledgements or papers or movies about it. I put it in you and I see you will make a
difference in the world.
And it doesn’t make any
difference how big or how small we are, right?
Every person here, from the youngest to the oldest can make a
difference.
How many of us are going to
move mountains? Be kind of nice in one
way but where are you going to put it? Somebody else’s back yard?
And then they’re going to move it to somebody else’s back yard. Don’t think about mountains, think about
everybody’s family. There is somebody who
needs to be loved.
We always think about the
poverty in the world, the wars, the violence, the hatred. Yes, that is there. Can you and I go over to
If everyone
of us does that in our little corner of the world where we are, that little
seed grows and begins to reach out and touch so many other people.
Now you’ve only got one
world to live in, and that’s the one right here and now.
Last Sunday’s comics had a
great one of Charlie Brown. Poor
Charlie, he’s gone to Lucy the psychiatrist.
And Charlie is saying, “What can you do when you don’t fit in? What can you do when life seems to be passing
you by?” So Lucy says, “Okay Charlie
Brown, follow me I have something to show you. See that horizon over
there? See how big the world is? See how much room there is for
everybody? Have you ever seen any other
world?” “No.” “As far as you know this is the only world
there is right?” “Right.” “There are no other worlds for you to
live in, right?” “Right.” “You were born to live in this world,
right?” “Right.” “Well live in it then.”
Live in it then. We’re always trying to get someplace
else. We’re worried about something else
over there and we miss it right in front of us here and now. This is the world. This is the place where God wants you and me
to be, right here and now so let’s live in it and realize that each of us has
what we need deep inside of us to do the work, to bring the kingdom of God, to
bring hope, joy, love, mercy, whatever it might be. Don’t worry about if you think it’s too
small, it won’t make a difference. It
does.
Isn’t it great again, when
unsolicited somebody does come up to you and they say, “Thank you.” And you say,
“Well, for what?” “You may not realize
but when you said this or did that it touched me and made me feel better.”
You can do that. If Jesus has that confidence and that trust
in every one of us then let’s have that confidence and trust in ourselves as
well. There isn’t anything too small that
doesn’t make a difference for good.
Increase our faith? Sure Lord.
Increase our awareness of Your love.