October 1, 2021
Very Rev. Denis Robinson, OSB

My brothers and sisters, there can be very little doubt that some are in and some are out. Jesus has been traipsing around the Holy Land, picking up people, 72 of recent vintage and seemingly, picking up grudges as well. Jesus’ bad mood today is hard on the cities of Judah. For nine chapters he has preached. For nine chapters he has performed miracles. For nine chapters he has transfigured himself and tried to let people know some Good News, but their ears are blocked. Even Capernaum, home to his buddy Peter and Peter’s delightful mother-in-law gets the cold hard stare of Jesus’ disdain. Sodom was better off than Bethsaida, Tyre and Sidon, those swamps of Gentiles, better off than Galilee. It’s a common trope in Luke’s Gospel. The Jews are on the downturn, the Gentiles, including the 72 have set their faces with Jesus to go to Jerusalem. It’s all over now but the shouting, the shouting and 10 more long chapters in the Gospel. Some are in and some, well, are out in the New Covenant. 

Some are in and some are out. How do we deal those cards here? There is no doubt that we put people in categories. This group, this one is too, I don’t know what. These folks don’t think like me, act like me, talk like me, so they must be wrong. Woe to you first philosophers. Woe to you deacons. Woe to you overseers. Well, perhaps we are overreacting. Woe is strong, but the message of the Gospel is strong as well. That message is a hard message, and it is a cleansing message and there is no doubt that this community, like all communities needs to be cleansed. This familiar town may need to clean its act up, wash out its mouth a little bit, straighten its act up. Only a pastor can say that. Only a father who loves you can say that, but every town, every seminary, every parish, every diocese could equally hear that message. 

We are living in chorizon. We are inhabitants of Bethsaida. Capernaum is our home, but these fragile locations are also a place of call. When Jesus called those 72, the people of the Way became, muddled, mingled, multiform. Folks began to traipse around with Jesus that looked foreign, they spoke crazy languages, they had strange beliefs. They were aliens but unliked the 9-chapter Jews, they heard the Word and they put down their lives and they followed that crazed Word wherever he wanted to lead them. They might have been from Tyre and Sidon, even from Sodom, but they were strangers and aliens no longer, they were Christians, men and women of Christ and by extension children of the most high God. They were out but now they are in.

What about those who are here? Are we in or are we out. What about those who show up day by day in our every-damning lists of who is acceptable and who is not. 

We think we are in but we might be out.

We think we are smart but we might be dumb

We think we are dumb but we might be quite intelligent

We think we are important but we might be lowly

We think we are nothing in the eyes of this community, but we might be something beautiful

We think we are hot but we might be not

We think we are cool, but we might just be lukewarm

We think we are saved but we might be damned

We think we are damned, but I would be willing to bet that we are saved. 

In fact, I know it is true that the last shall be first and the first shall be last. 

Brothers and sisters, Jesus is calling us out of Tyre and Sidon, and out of Corazon and Bethsaida,

The almighty God is calling us to pitch our tents closer and closer to the River Jordan

The God of thunder is calling us to be his own inheritance.

The God of plenty is calling us to dig in

The God of love is calling us put aside our judging and put away our self-importance and fall in love with Him again today. 

Sinners to saved

Sinners to saved