And How Can Men Preach Unless They Are Sent?

Homily Monday of Holy Week Year I 2013

Fr. Dale Matson

“But how are men to call upon him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without a preacher? And how can men preach unless they are sent?  As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who preach good news!" (romans 10:14-15)

I would take St. Paul’s narrative back an additional step. And how can they be sent unless they are first called? St. Paul states, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach good news!" He is quoting Isaiah. “How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, "Your God reigns!" (Isaiah 52:7). I have to laugh to myself whenever I see this verse. There is nothing beautiful about my feet. One of my marathon running friends once said to me that most runners have sandals with enclosed toes. This is to hide the black toenails from running so many miles in training on the trails in the woods. There is nothing beautiful about the feet of this 68 year old man.

Being called to preach the gospel is only one part of being a preacher. We are called to carry the word within us. We are tenders of the Word of God. We are asked to swallow the scroll and take it to the church. (Ezekiel 3) We are God’s ‘mules’ carrying within us God’s saving message.  We are bearers of the Word of God. We are also protectors of the Word. We man the watchtowers against those who would steal the truth, confuse the gullible, and manipulate others for their own purposes.

If someone gave me a vocational blank check and said that I could do anything I wanted, I would be a preacher. It is not just what I do. It is who I am. It is always who I have been. And that is the difference between being in a profession, having a professional identity, and a profession being in me. I am no longer a plumber, a psychologist, a professor. My life has always been that of a seeker; seeker of the truth; seeker of God; an advocate for those who are lost. I know the trail. I know the Way.

   

What a joy it is to be a servant of the Word. What a joy it is to pray the Eucharistic Prayer which is pure Gospel. No wonder the AMEN is in all capital letters. Holy Week is the church season compressed into a single week. It begins with the triumphal entry of Christ the King followed by His sacrificial offering of Himself for our sake. Christ loved us to death. Holy Week is the inevitable march toward the cross on Friday. The feast of the Annunciation is also today. How ironic that Christ would be conceived and eventually die the same week. He was sent from the Father. We preachers are sent by Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit.  Our words have efficacy because they are from God. Our mortal bodies are an incarnational Ark. In us, we bear the Gospel that has been entrusted to us by God. May we ever remain faithful to our call and subject to His word. Amen

       

What Is So Good About Good Friday?

Fr. Dale Matson

Have you ever posed this question to yourself? “What is so good about Good Friday?”  I think the key to providing an answer lies in a simple statement from Genesis by Joseph to his brothers. “What you intended for evil God intended for good.” (Genesis 15:20) In fact, the situation was similar. Joseph’s brothers betrayed him simply because they were jealous of him. They were jealous because he enjoyed a special relationship with his father. They turned him over to the enemy.  This is the same jealousy we see toward Jesus. He had a special relationship to His father. In fact Jesus claimed to be God. In John Chapter 8 Jesus stated, “Before Abraham was I am.” (Verse 58) On hearing this, the crowd picked up stones to stone Him knowing that He was claiming to be God. This was the capital crime of blasphemy.

There is another issue that continued to crop up. When Jesus healed people, the Pharisees thought He was using demonic power. They of course, like unspiritual religious people of any age have no power, cannot do mighty works, and cannot discern good from evil. After Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, the word got back to the Pharisees and they decided to kill Him. Here the words of Jesus are confirmed. “If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the dead!” Therefore many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him. But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. Then the chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the Sanhedrin.

 “What are we accomplishing?” they asked. “Here is this man performing many signs.  If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and then the Romans will come and take away both our temple and our nation. You know what they are admitting here. They were saying “We don’t want the Messiah to come. If the people recognize Jesus as the Messiah, the Romans will destroy us. The leaders didn’t want to be freed from their captivity to the Romans, they wanted the status quo.  “Then one of them, named Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, spoke up, “You know nothing at all! You do not realize that it is better for you that one man dies for the people than that the whole nation perish. “He did not say this on his own, but as high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the Jewish nation and not only for that nation but also for the scattered children of God, to bring them together and make them one. So from that day on they plotted to take his life.

How convinced were the Pharisees that Jesus must die? They were willing to use the courts of the hated Roman captors. They could provide witnesses to the statements that Jesus claimed to have the power to forgive sins that He was the son of God and He claimed to be God Himself. The problem was they had no authority over him. No one had authority over Him unless He allowed it. They were comfortable in their captivity. Their charges of blasphemy would not hold in a civilian trial so they charged that Jesus claimed to be King of the Jews. This was heresy and a chargeable offensive in Roman law since there could be no King but Caesar. That is why Pilate had the sign on His cross inscribed with the phrase “King of the Jews”. Here Pilate, like the chief Pharisee Ananias was also prophetic.

The Pharisees were willing to see a fellow Israelite die for an offense that all of them were guilty of. None of them wanted Caesar as their king but forced the hand of Pilate to accomplish their ends. In a sense, in pledging their allegiance to Caesar, they along with Judas, made a deal with the devil.

As I prepared for this, I needed to answer questions that had come up in my mind every Lenten season. None of this makes sense to me and never has. How could a perfect man be betrayed by foe and friend alike? It is a tragedy of cosmic proportions. Why such suffering, humiliation and total loss of dignity? How was Jesus able to wash the feet of the man He knew would betray Him? This makes all of slights I have suffered at the hands of others seem so petty by comparison.  How could this perfect storm of tragedy happen? It could only happen if it were orchestrated by God. The plan of redemption following the fall of man was laid out in Genesis. Jesus Christ the Messiah of the Jews and savior of Mankind was embedded throughout Scripture and is the living incarnate Word of God.

I think of all those who had a hand in the betrayal of Jesus. There were the Pharisees like Caiaphas, Judas and Pontius Pilot. They were responsible for this betrayal, this injustice. If it weren’t for them, the devil’s agents, Jesus would not have been crucified. Actually, it really didn’t matter who the participants in the plot were. The issue was never His guilt. The issue was our guilt and we are the reason He is on the cross. This is an anamnesis, a remembering in sacred time of those events.

For me, the season of Lent is long and arduous. It is an annual cyclical emotional descent to the foot of the cross and I look on whom we have pierced.  This year I have come to a better understanding about my own seemingly inexplicable sadness that is not characteristic of me. It is a kind of survivor guilt. He died so that I could live.  It is not easy to entertain the idea that I feel so separate from Christ and so vulnerable during this time. Forgive us for we knew not what we were doing. Do you love Me son? Yes Lord, You know that I do.

   

What is good about Good Friday? What is good about the crucifixion of a perfect and innocent man? Men had intended it for evil but God had intended it for good. Christ took the sins of all humankind to the cross with Him. His death was the necessary atoning sacrifice for the redemption of all people. By His death, He has freed those who believe in Him from sin, death and the devil. By His death he has reconciled us to our Heavenly Father. He is the way, the truth and the life. Without Him there is no life, no hope and eternal death. Jesus Christ is the light of the world. May we as His disciples bring this Gospel light to a world in darkness. Amen.  

    

The Betrayal

Fr. Dale Matson

Wednesday in Holy Week

I think it is useful to provide additional context for our Gospel reading for today (John 13:21-35), the narrative from St. John of the betrayal of Jesus by Judas. So much of what John includes is the prophetic events found in the Old Testament that frame the events of the life of Jesus. Jesus was not just obedient to His Father, He was obedient to the prophets. In the beginning of the chapter we see our Lord loving and serving His disciples through the foot washing, at the same time Jesus was aware of His betrayal and who would betray Him. There is the ever present tension of His reluctance to take the cup of suffering, die and be separated from His Father. At the same time He understood well His destiny and imminent death. The living Word of God placed Himself under the authority of Scripture. Jesus understood that Scripture foretold His death and that the Old Testament Prophesy must take place. The events must unfold as prophesied.  It also must take place to provide after the fact evidence for the disciples who at this time, simply refused to accept the fact that their master had predicted that he would be sacrificed for their sake and the sake of those who followed. As He washed the feet of Judas, how difficult it must have been to love and serve the one about to betray Him. He quotes from Psalms 41:9, “Even my close friend, whom I trusted, he who shared my bread, has lifted up his heel against me.”

Notice also that Satan had put the idea in the heart of Judas to betray Jesus but as we read in the latter part of chapter 13. Jesus offered Judas a choice. He could have refused the bread and called off the plan. By taking the bread Judas had decided on his own to betray Jesus and to follow through on Satan’s plan. It is at that point that Satan entered Judas. Yet, there is a final irony here. Judas had embraced Satan’s plan but was under the agenda of Jesus who told him “What you do, do quickly”.

Meanwhile the disciples had attempted to figure out who would betray Jesus. I believe Jesus kept them from knowing the answer because He knew that they would all betray Him. This was not like Judas but each one betrayed Him just the same, by deserting Him by falling asleep when He asked them to pray with Him and denying knowledge of Him after He was arrested. They hid behind locked doors until Pentecost. How many times have we betrayed Him also? How many times have we failed to say to others,  "I know this Jesus"?

Finally, When Jesus commanded that His disciples love one another as He loved them; He had demonstrated not just a sacrificial love. He was loving those whom He knew would betray Him. He was a loving servant to His enemies. It is a love like this that can forgive us and bring us from death to life. Amen