Isaiah 35:4-7

This section of the book of Isaiah contains the words of a prophet to God's people exiled in Babylon. He encourages them that one day they will be free to return home to Jerusalem. This journey will be through the desert, but God will transform this barren wasteland to ease their passage home.

James 2:1-5

The letter of James was written approximately 50 years after the death and resurrection of Jesus. It was addressed not to a particular Christian community, but to Christians everywhere. It is part of a group of New Testament letters called "catholic [that is, universal] epistles." One of the trademarks of the Epistle of James is the need to act on God's word, not just listen to it.

Mark 7:31-37

Bishop Untener's Homily

Christianity: "The Way"

During today's installation ceremony, at the baptismal font, we noted that Christianity, before it was called Christianity, was called the "the Way." In the Acts of the Apostles - Luke's account of the early Christian community - that term "the Way" is used nine times. I'll give you one example. The first time it's used is in reference to Paul before he became a Christian:

Saul asked the high priest for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, that, if he should find any men or women who belonged to the Way, he might bring them back to Jerusalem in chains. (Acts 9:2)

Later on we read:

When Barnabas found Saul, he brought him back to Antioch, and for a whole year they met with the church and instructed a large number of people. It was in Antioch that the disciples were first called Christians. (Acts 11:26)

It's fine that we're called "Christians," but beneath it all is a way of life. At baptism we go down into the water and symbolically die to one way of living, and then rise to a new and different way of life. It's a new way of seeing God, ourselves, other people, all creation. And because we see things differently, we act differently toward God, ourselves, other people, and all creation.

The Deaf, Mute, Blind

This is what lies behind the miracle in today's Gospel passage. Jesus opens up the man's ears, and frees his tongue. In a few verses later he will open the eyes of a blind man.

The miracles of Jesus are called "signs." They weren't a patchwork attempt to clean up all the problems in the world. They were signs, to teach us. Jesus is teaching that we need to open ourselves to a new experience of all that is around us... and it is God who is all around us.

The Role of a Pastor

Now it might seem an easy transition to apply this to what is taking place today, the installation of a new Pastoral Administrator. The role of a pastor, one could say, is to do exactly that - enable us to see and hear, so that we follow Jesus more faithfully. The pastor is to give us a new way of seeing things and teach us to live a different way of life.

But the truth is, this is something a pastor cannot do. This is something only God can do. This is something so colossal that only God can give us the gift of being able to experience this... because to experience this, is to experience God.

The role of those of us who pastor is like that of a farmer who plows the field, removes the stones from the field, plants some seeds, digs up the weeds. But the farmer can't produce the sun to shine on the field, or the rain to fall on it.

In the same way, it is only God who can send the Spirit to shine upon us, pour down on us, live within us. It is God who takes all the initiative. It is only God who can draw us to God. That a creature experiences God who is beyond all understanding... that a creature relates to God... that a creature is drawn toward God who is totally beyond us... all this is something no human being could accomplish. In John's Gospel Jesus says: "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draw them." (John 6:44)

We who exercise the role of pastor can make the mistake of thinking we're messiahs. No. That job's taken. We're ministers, not messiahs.

On the other hand, all of us can make the mistake of thinking we're consumers... as though we look at different options and decide to become a disciple of the Lord - a consumer's choice. Oh no. There is God in us, and to respond to God is what we're drawn to do, and the "draw" was put there by God. "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draw them."

This is not a consumer's choice on our part. We are chosen by God. We were made for this. St. Augustine said that our hearts were made for God, and they will not rest until they rest in God. The psalmist sings, "As the deer longs for the running streams, so my soul longs for you, O God." (42:2) It is God who put this in us, and it is God who enables us to respond.

It's Me and God

There is an interesting detail in today's Gospel passage. Jesus takes the deaf and mute man off by himself, away from the crowd. Just the two of them, Jesus and the man. That's what it always comes down to. It's me... and God. It's not a consumer's choice. It's whether or not I want to be what I am made to be, or whether I want to close in on myself - and be deaf, blind, mute.

God takes all the initiative. It is God who sought me, not I who sought God. All I do is respond... and allow to open before me a whole new way of seeing God, myself, others, creation... and each day walk well this wonderful way of life called "the Way." 

Originally given on September 10, 2000 on the Installation of Sr. Ginny Scally SNDdeN as Pastoral Administrator at St. Paul the Apostle, Ithaca, and St. Martin de Porres, Perrinton