Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign this is Sundays with Bishop Ken. Thanks for sharing some quiet time with the Lord today. We welcome guest reader Brenda Piazza. Brenda is a parishioner of St. Catherine of Siena Parish in Menden, New York, where she joyfully serves in a variety of ministries.
Brenda also shares her gifts with us each liturgical season, narrating our little book's reflections.
Here is today's gospel and homily.
[00:00:40] Speaker B: A reading from the Holy Gospel According to John.
Jesus had revealed himself to his disciples and when they had finished breakfast, said to Simon Peter, simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?
Simon Peter answered him, yes, Lord, you know that I love you.
Jesus said to him, feed my lambs.
He then said to Simon Peter a second time, simon, son of John, do you love me?
Simon Peter answered him, yes, Lord, you know that I love you.
He said to him, tend my sheep.
He said to him the third time, simon, son of John, do you love me?
Peter was distressed that he had said to him a third time, do you love me?
And he said to him, lord, you know everything.
You know that I love you.
Jesus said to him, feed my sheep.
Amen. Amen. I say to you, when you were younger, you used to dress yourself and go where you wanted, but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.
He said this, signifying by what kind of death he would glorify God.
And when he had said this, he said to him, follow me.
The Gospel of the Lord the event Luke just described, takes place at about the middle of his gospel, and it tells us of a great turning point in Jesus life.
Jesus had been raised up north in Galilee, and this is where he exercised his public ministry.
Now, like a great airplane banking and turning to change its course, Jesus turns to the south and resolutely sets his face toward Jerusalem.
It's the beginning of his death march.
The rest of Luke's gospel has Jesus moving slowly, constantly in that direction to Jerusalem, where he will die.
With that in mind, Luke has Jesus teach his disciples and us what is expected of his disciples.
It's a long series of final instructions given by someone who is about to die.
Right at the beginning of this final journey, Jesus begins to teach something at the heart of being a disciple.
Three unnamed persons came up to Jesus, and in each case the issue is following Jesus.
The first person says, I will follow you wherever you go. And Jesus warns him, it may be costly.
The second is invited by Jesus, follow me. But he wants to bury His Father first.
The third says, I will follow you, Lord, but first let me say farewell to my family.
Right from the beginning, Jesus teaches that our decision to be his disciple is. Is the most basic decision of our lives and it stands before all others.
I stake my whole life on it.
It's something I would die for.
To follow Jesus means placing our relationship with him absolutely first.
Before anything else, I have two questions. The first is, have I made that decision?
The second is, when did I make it?
Let's start with have I made that decision?
There's a difference between deciding and sort of deciding.
I'll use a swimming analogy.
Let's say you've decided to go swimming and you're standing on the shore of Lake Superior in your bathing suit. The water is cold even in July.
We all have our own way of getting into the water.
Some just plunge right in.
Others go in very gradually and it takes a long time.
First up to their ankles and on up, very slowly splashing themselves a little.
It really gets difficult when the water starts to trickle up your back and eventually they're all wet and they can plunge in.
Now others might start. Get up to about their knees and, and never go farther.
They just go wading.
They might wade for a long time, but that's as deep as it gets. They more or less pretend to swim.
After all, they put their bathing suit on and they did go into the water.
So back to my first question.
Have I made the decision to follow Jesus?
Have I taken the plunge even if it took a long time?
Or am I just wading around in the waters of discipleship?
The second question, when did I make the decision?
This may be the more intriguing of the two questions.
Keep in mind, there's a difference between sort of deciding and actually deciding.
I'm not suggesting it has to happen in a flash.
We can learn from watching the disciples in the Gospels.
They accepted his original call to follow him.
But their response didn't go as deep as perhaps they had first thought it did.
Gradually, they came to know more and more about Jesus and what it meant to follow Him.
They had their ups and downs.
Yet after following him for a long time, they all fled from him. When he was arrested and Peter publicly denied him three times.
It really wasn't until after his death and resurrection that they made the decision, a total decision to be disciples of Jesus.
It finally became a life and death decision and they staked their lives on it.
In Luke's second volume, the Acts of the Apostles, we see them start to die for it.
Stephen not one of the 12, but an early disciple is stoned to death.
Remember James and John in today's passage how they wanted to call down fire from heaven to consume the Samaritan village?
Well, in the 12th chapter of the Acts of the Apostles we read about that time King Herod had James, the brother of John, killed by the sword.
It was after Jesus's death and resurrection that the disciples fully made the decision to be disciples of Jesus.
How about us?
When did we make the decision at our baptism?
Well, most of us were probably baptized as infants, but even if baptized as an adult and it's a major turning point, but it's the beginning of the decision.
I'll tell you when we make the decision at Eucharist, the bread and wine represent us and when it is placed on the altar, we are placed on the altar. We become the bread and wine and the bread and wine become Christ and we join with him on the cross.
He gave himself completely to the Father and we say with Christ, oh God, I give you everything, my whole life.
I trust that giving myself entirely to you is the path to fulfillment and to the fullness of life.
At Communion the body of Christ is presented to us and we say Amen.
The blood of Christ is presented to us and we say Amen.
It's the biggest amen we'll ever say.
And we say it at every Mass.
Every time we join in the Eucharist, we make the decision to be disciples and we renew the decision and deepen it over and over and over. At every Eucharist we take that plunge and enjoy not a half hearted wading knee deep in the waters of discipleship, but with total trust, immersing ourselves in the waters of the Lord's love and experiencing what it means to give ourselves with Christ completely to God.
[00:10:02] Speaker A: Thanks for joining us today.
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