How did we end up here? We certainly didn’t all start from the same place. Maybe you started as Peter Prodigal and did all the good things the bad boys do. After trying this, that, and the other thing in striving for happiness you discovered that nothing worked. In fact, pretty soon you found yourself sharing life with pigs. Not a good place to be. At last you came to your senses and said, “I have sinned against heaven and against all that is good and holy. I no longer deserve to be called blessed. Let me try St. James. They will welcome anybody.” So you ended up here. Or maybe you started out as Ricki the Righteous. You never smoked, cussed or chewed or ran around with guys who do. You mowed you lawn, re-cycled your trash, and flossed your teeth. You did everything right… and still you felt a hole in your soul. It seemed like everyone else was enjoying the fatted calf except you. You heard that St. James knew how to celebrate and rejoice (though no young goat with friends, sad to say) so you ended up here. Peter Prodigal and Ricki the Righteous are, of course, ends of a spectrum. In between these starting points there are probably as many reasons for ending up here as there are people attending today. I ended up here because I lived in the neighborhood and could walk to Church. I ended up here because my family has been here for generations and you can’t drive me away. I ended up here because my mother made me come – and when momma ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy. From many different starting points we gather together and lift our hands and hearts in praise.
But really, Church, no matter where we started from we’re here because of one reason: the grace and mercy of God. Before the bang was big, God was loving us. Before the homo was sapiens, God was loving us. Before the states were united, God was loving us. And that merciful love of God has spilled over, spread around, cruised through, gone viral, sped across until it settled here, plop, right here at St. James. Each one of us gathered on a Sunday is a child of God and like the Father in the parable God comes running after us, God finds us when we’re lost, God seeks us when we are wayward. We’re here because the mercy of God has pushed, prodded and pulled so that this particular motley crew of characters could gather together in joy and fellowship to demonstrate what a mighty God we serve. Don’t be fooled – it wasn’t your decision to put two feet on the ground and start on your way to this church that brought you here this morning. It was the act of God who gathers us together in order to fill us with the gifts that God alone can give – the gifts of grace and mercy.
Which leads to the next question: why are we here? First and foremost we are here to give thanks. Since we are blessed beyond belief with divine mercy we have to give thanks to our good and gracious Lord. As Catholics we center our worship on the Eucharist, that is to say in the one great act of thanksgiving that Jesus left us. As the Father said in the parable, We must celebrate and rejoice for the lost has been found, the wandering has come home. But this act of thanksgiving is not meant for us alone. Oh, no. We have to go out to the highways and byways to invite others to experience divine mercy. I was reading in the bulletin of a few weeks ago about the evangelization plan to grow the Church. Growing the Church is a good idea but we have to be clear on why we are evangelizing. We don’t grow the church to increase our numbers, to have a larger congregation, to put St. James on the map. We evangelize not because of our need for new members. We evangelize because of their need for what we’ve got. You only have to watch the news once, or read the papers occasionally, or talk to any random person to see how desperate the situation has become. People are searching for the purpose and meaning of life. Come, we say, come and experience the presence of God who will fill you with love and show you that love is our promised destiny. People are seeking some guidance and direction in life. Come, we say, come and hear the Word of God which is sweeter than honey from the rock and provides the teaching and instruction which makes a human life worth living. People are starving to fill that empty place in the hearts can’t be slaked by getting this or having that. Come, we say, come and gather around the table of the Lord and be nourished by heavenly food which is the foretaste and promise of the celestial banquet. We evangelize not for ourselves but out of compassion for those who need what we have. Taste and see, we tell them, the goodness of the Lord.
In the midst of all of this a third question arises: where are we going? I don’t claim to have any special gift of prophecy but since the Lord is kind and merciful I feel confident that we are being led into God’s future. What could be better than trusting in the future that God has for us! But notice, Church, that God’s future involves climbing Calvary’s Hill. Only picking up our cross each day guarantees that we attain God’s future. So I suspect that where we are going is to Gethsemane. There in the garden we will fall on our knees and pour out our hearts to God and our prayer will echo the prayer of Jesus. Father, if it is possible – let’s go to plan B. You only have to be a believer for a day when you find that God’s will takes you places you would rather not go. Father, if it’s possible let’s go to Plan B – I don’t want to face the prospect of dealing with an illness. Father, if it’s possible let’s go to Plan B – my family troubles grind away on my last nerve at times. Father, if it is possible let’s go to Plan B – couldn’t that pile of bills get just a little smaller. God’s future sometimes involves stuff we would prefer were otherwise. Which is why we need to continue the prayer of Jesus: Father, if it is possible, let’s go to Plan B but let it be as you would have it, not as I. We can say that prayer because we trust that the God who has brought us this far by faith is not about to leave us now.
Three questions with the same basic answer: We’re here because of God’s mercy, we live in and share God’s mercy and we have hope and trust in God’s future gift of mercy. Who could ask for anything more! This is exactly where we are supposed to be. AMEN
