July 17, 2022
Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, July 17, 2022 – Genesis 18:1-10A; Colossians 1:24-28; Luke 10:38-42
Upgrades. The commercials nowadays are always telling us how we can get an upgrade. And it makes people want to buy more because they’re going to be able to buy better if they buy more now. When we travel, we hope for an upgrade to first class because a seat has become available in first class. Well, Pope Francis recently did an upgrade for two of our saints. Later in this month, exactly a week apart, on July 22nd and July 29th, we celebrate the Feast of St. Mary Magdalene and the Feast of St. Martha. But you wouldn’t really understand this unless you were able to look in our instruction books, but there are different kind of feasts. Most feasts are just memorials and, if the priest doesn’t feel like celebrating that memorial, he doesn’t have to. But if something’s labeled a Feast, then every priest has to celebrate that Mass on that day. So the Pope just upgraded Mary Magdalene from a mere old memorial to a Feast day. He did that to make sure that everybody understands how important this woman was to the foundation of the faith. That she was the first witness of the empty tomb. For too long she’s been relegated to those women who weren’t quite virgins before they became saints. The week after that, he changed the Feast of St. Martha to the Feast of St. Martha, Mary and Lazarus. How come?
Well, we’re reading this morning from St. Luke’s gospel. St. Luke has just this story about Martha and Mary, and it’s very vague. “Jesus entered a village.” The village has no name. When St. John gets ahold of the story, 20 years later, he tells us where Martha and Mary lived. They lived in Bethany. They had a brother named Lazarus. Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead and, after the resurrection of Lazarus, the family threw a big resurrection party. And, at that party, Martha served like she usually does. Mary washed Jesus’ feet with perfume, which caused Judas to have a hissy fit and ask why didn’t they sell the perfume and give the money to the poor, and then I can get my cut as well. And Lazarus was there presiding at table. How come this big upgrade in John’s gospel.
We don’t really know much about Martha, Mary and Lazarus. You have to ask yourself, “If Lazarus was really risen from the dead, why didn’t Luke include that story along with his story of Martha and Mary serving dinner?” Where’d Lazarus go? And, if Lazarus is just a myth, then why does John do that?
We think this. Each of the gospel writers has Mark’s outline to start with, but they all have stories that they picked up along the way from the first and second generation of Christians. Some of those stories are shared by Matthew and Luke, some are not. And John seems to have another tradition entirely from which he is drawing that was not available to any of the other evangelists. And so, probably, John knows the whole story about Martha, Mary and Lazarus. But Luke knew that there were some people named Martha and Mary. And so he uses them to tell a story. What’s the story?
About four weeks ago, Jesus turned His face like flint to go to Jerusalem where, in the back of His mind He knew, that something dreadful was likely to happen. And all along the ways since then, He has been preparing His disciples by doing two things. Telling them how urgent it is to be a disciple. No dilly-dallying. No putting it off till later. You have to make a decision now. And to make them realize that, when they make this decision, it could very costly for them, perhaps even costing them their lives.
Now I asked you, when you listened to the second reading, to decide whether Paul was being unfair or insulting to Jesus by saying one of the things he said. What it was, was, “I make up in my own body what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ. So, apparently, Paul thinks that Jesus didn’t suffer enough. But that’s not what’s being said at all.
The Letter to the Colossians most likely was not written by Paul, but was written a long time after his death. It was customary in ancient times for writers to use a pen name. They would choose a pen name of someone in authority to give emphasis and weight to what they were writing. So whoever the writer of the Letter to the Colossians was, he was a disciple of Paul who knew the tragic truth that Paul had been executed in Rome in the middle 60s under orders from the Emperor Nero. And so he knows the tragic end of Paul’s life. And he knows that, during his life, Paul attested in his letters that he had been beaten, he had been stoned, he had been whipped, he had been imprisoned, all for preaching in the name of Jesus. And look where it led. It led finally to his execution as a common criminal. Just like Jesus.
And so, what this writer is saying is, “St. Paul taught us that we are the body of Christ. As we move through time and space. Jesus is our head. The spirit is our soul. And we are the eyes and the ears, the voice and the hands of Jesus all through history. Therefore, it is inevitable that we, as Christ’s body, will bear Christ’s wounds. Each one of us uniquely – Paul eventually by beheading. But each one of us uniquely - those pains in modern times very often psychic, but in large parts of the world today, still very physical, as people are shot or bombed because they worship the Lord Jesus. And so, the body of Christ bears constantly different, but commensurate, wounds of Jesus.
I asked you in the first reading to listen to how many people Abraham was serving. It begins by saying 3 men showed up at the Terebinth of Mamre, but then about three sentences later there’s a dialogue with just Sir. “Sir, please stay a while and have something to eat.” And, in that dialogue, the word you (and your) is the word for you (singular), not you (plural). Then, all of a sudden, one of the men says, “Is your wife around?” And says, “When we come back next time…” When we come back. This is what happened. The book of Genesis is written during a time of high society in Israel, but it’s based on stories that go back at least 1,000 to 2,000 years more. The stories come in three different forms, using the same characters. The task of the writer of the Book of Genesis is to weave a coherent story out of three different traditions. In one tradition, Abraham is visited by Yahweh God himself. So how come the book says, “Sir?” Because people did not want to use the word Yahweh in direct address, so they used and invention called Elohim. But Elohim also meant the head of state or the lord of the manor or a very rich person, so the English translators translated it “Sir,” a term of deference. They could also have translated it “Lord.” “Lord, it is good that you have stopped here.” So the dialogue may be between Abraham and the Lord God. Or, since most of the time, the Lord sends angel messengers to do his bidding, this could be three angels who have come in human form to visit Abraham. That’s another tradition. So, weaving the traditions together gets a little complicated.
But what’s the point? That God is mystery. You don’t pin God down. God is mystery. But God is also accessible. God loves His creation and wants to be involved with His creation and so it is inevitable that God comes to Abraham. But how He comes is not certain. And why He comes is not certain. And you are not allowed to delineate it and be specific about it.
So, why would the church take these three very disparate readings and smoosh them all together on this Sunday morning? Because it wants us to hear three truths that are eternal. The first is that following Jesus is serious business. Some decisions cannot be put off till tomorrow. As the Body of Christ, we inevitably will be wounded for our following of Jesus. The wounds will take many forms, but they will be there. And finally that the reason we do this is because God is close to us, but God remains mystery. An attractive mystery that lures us, but a mystery nonetheless.