My homily this morning will be much simpler and easily memorable than any other homilies I delivered before. There’s only one thing you’ve got to remember. It’s the question, “Where are you?” We’ll constantly come back to this question repeatedly. And considering the tragic deaths of two influential people this past week, the question helps us reflect our emotional and spiritual states.
“Where are you?” This is the voice of God we hear in our first lesson from the Book of Genesis. This question isn’t just to elicit geographical information about Adam and Eve’s whereabouts. The question strikes to the core of Adam and Eve’s very existential state. So where are they? They hide themselves from the presence of God among the trees of the garden. Their existence is trapped in that moment of eating the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden. And when they’re brought back to the very present moment of the reality, they stand before God, being completely naked. They are naked before God, not only literally but also spiritually, being filled with fear, regret, guilt, and shame. God’s question of where matters to us too. Where are you this morning? Are you fully present here, or is your mind somewhere else while your body is here? I’m sure you have heard of this meditation technique called ‘mindfulness.’ It is becoming more popular since there are numerous scientific researches that demonstrate it helps reduce anxiety. Time to time I do this mindfulness meditation with patients in the hospital. The point of this practice is to be consciously mindful and intentionally aware of yourself in the present moment. You probably heard catch phrases like ‘Be present with yourself. Be in the moment. Stay in the moment.’ In this practice, breathing is essential. It plays like an anchor that functions to hold you back from whatever distractions feelings and thoughts move you away from the present moment. In this very practice of mindfulness meditation, God’s question is crucial. Where are you? Are you in the past or the future? Are you here and now? Some say than when we are too focusing on our past, we get depressed. And if we are too concerned about our future, we get anxious. Depression from the past and anxiety from the future, which we all indirectly or directly suffer from. But this existential question of God brings us back to the very present moment. Let’s recall the moment when God revealed Himself to Moses in the burning bush. God never said, “I was who I was” or “I will be who I will be.” God said, “I am who I am.” It’s always the present tense. God is present with us all the time as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. But it is us who are not so present. And not just us, others as well. For example, if you walk around the city or mall, it’s easy to see people looking down at their phones. It’s quite interesting to think that all these technological devices are supposed to connect people with others, but people get more disconnected. Instead of talking to each other at a dining table, everyone is on their phones, connecting with someone who is actually not there, disconnecting those who are physically present with themselves. This is a social phenomenon that we see everyday. But then, a more serious issue is that not only do we lose a sense of connection with ourselves, others, and God, but also we forget to see who we are in Jesus Christ. It’s like chronic amnesia that we keep forgetting who we are in light of Jesus Christ that we’re God’s children, the followers of Christ sent to the world for the love of God. We’re held back to remain as old selves either by ourselves or others or both. Now, if this is our current existential state where we are constantly being pulled back to our old selves or the projected images of our own that we feel most comfortable with and are even resistant to move forward to our new selves in Christ, which usually happens without actually knowing what’s happening, Jesus in today’s gospel lesson shows something radically different. He’s casting away demons, healing the sick, particularly healing the man with a withered hand on the sabbath, therefore breaking the sabbath law and offending the religious authorities. He is doing something completely new. He himself is the new wine and the new wineskins. The old wine and old wineskins are about to be tossed away. Jesus is taking the new role as the one who not only proclaims the kingdom of God, the holy of holies in the midst of people, but also becomes the reign of God’s love among them, God dwelling in and among us. This God Jesus proclaims, this God in Jesus is being fully present even in the midst of the most tortuous and painful suffering through the very cries of Jesus on the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” No one around him doesn’t like this new role Jesus is playing, but only those who are healed and restored by him. His family is about to get him back to the place where he can safely play his old role as a son, a brother, or a carpenter. People say, “He has gone out of his mind. He has Beelzebul. And by the ruler of the demons he casts out demons.” It almost sounds like he has dual diagnosis of insanity and demonic possession. Jesus refuses that judgment of others. He doesn’t accept their non-acceptance of his new role. Then he tells a parable that basically says, “How does it make sense Satan would give me this power to cast away all his allies and eventually destroy his dominance?” He also warns those who are denying his new role that all sins are forgivable but not when one blasphemes against the Holy Spirit. That person is guilty of an eternal sin. This is a bold statement that Jesus makes. Not just calling the Holy Spirit an unclean spirit, but associating the Spirit with Beelzebul or Satan is an eternal sin in this sense. What’s actually blasphemous against the Holy Spirit is denying the presence of the Holy Spirit in Jesus that renews him and leads him to the new role as the Son of God, God incarnate. The local and religious authorities also want to stop Jesus from becoming who he is called to be. Throughout history, we have seen so many of these instances that one party forces the other party not to become who they’re called to be, not to flourish as God’s beloved. I’m sure in your life there might have been some people who discourage you from becoming someone who you’re called to be in the eyes of God. That, my friends, is going against the work of the Holy Spirit. By Jesus, and with Jesus, and in Jesus, we shake off whatever old images and selves we’re locked up in and move forward to be and become the new creation. St Paul in his letter to the Corinthians says “Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day.” Just like Jesus, we’re in this new creation together with the Holy Spirit. Taking up this new role, this new self granted to us in our baptism with Jesus, we are called to act and live as a new creation that belongs to the kingdom of God. Don’t go back to your old self that is colored with guilt, shame, fear, anxiety, or resentment. Don’t stop yourself from being renewed day by day. Don’t play that old role in whom you become a victim or victimizer. Don’t lock yourself in that old self that is not present with the God of here and now. Allow the Holy Spirit to lead you to a new self. And don’t allow others to stop you to be a new self, the baptized self. With your new role as God’s children and Jesus’ disciples, empower others to be in that new role with the help of the Spirit. Where Jesus stands, we stand before the Lord God, naked, not with fear, guilt, or shame but with gratitude and hope as God’s children, baptized and fed by the bread of heaven and the cup of salvation. And this new being as God’s children is where we are called to be, supposed to be. This is where we are even if we don’t see it or feel it. And where you are, you don’t stand individually before God but are with those who are also called to be a new being. In that communion with others, strangers become your mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, and friends in Christ. On this way of being and becoming a new self in Christ, we encounter those who are on this personally and communally crafted journey of the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ. My friends, everyday is a new day but really is not when you stay same, remaining in the same old self or role you play. So again, remember this question of God asking not just Adam and Eve, but all of you this morning: Where are you? You are here where God is present, shamelessly naked and renewed day by day, minute by minute, moment by moment, being and becoming a new creation. Take up that new role and live it. Be present, breathing in and out the breath of the Spirit. Flourish. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. |
Paul"...life up your love to that cloud [of unknowing]...let God draw your love up to that cloud...through the help of his grace, to forget every other thing." Archives
January 2025
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