Homily

We are reminded today in Luke's Gospel that not everyone loved Jesus when He was preaching, teaching, and healing in the land of Israel 2000 years ago. As we heard today, after he cures a woman from her illness of 18 years, she gives glory to God, but the head of the local synagogue complains and criticizes her for breaking the Sabbath. What I find so very interesting here is that he criticizes the woman, not Jesus Who cured her. She did not even ask to be healed, but she is blamed for getting well. The synagogue man makes his statement to her and to the crowd of people, but not directly to the One Who healed her. Why not complain directly to Jesus? He’s the one who did it.

And why is the synagogue chief not happy about this healing? Why isn't he also giving glory to God for having been able to witness this great miracle? There is something wrong about him, something flawed, some great weakness or sin that causes him to lash out at Jesus, and yet he doesn't directly speak to Jesus. He makes a general angry statement to the crowd. And, as I think of it, most of the time Jesus' enemies do not speak directly to Him. There are a number of places where they criticize Him, but usually not directly, and not to His face.

And it made me think that there is a similar pattern that goes on in our society today among people and interests in politics, the media, and in the entertainment and the academic worlds. There is no criticism directed against Jesus Himself, but only against those who believe in Him and follow His teachings. Very few people, and I mean very few people who are hostile to or critical of Christians, will blame Jesus for their complaints. They will not engage Jesus directly; they are only interested in going after His disciples.

It makes me think about the beginnings of the Church in the Roman Empire. There were people in power and authority, leaders in society and academics, who embraced the Gospel of Christ. But so many of those in positions of influence or authority just could not see giving up the old established order in which they held power in exchange for a new order where they would have to acknowledge that all power comes from the hand of God, and all peoples are subject to His loving authority. Most of the people who embraced the Gospel were the poor, the powerless, the slaves, the ordinary people of the Roman world. And they did not say, "Oh, I believe in the teachings of the Church and that's why I became a Christian." No! They came to believe in Jesus Christ and His Good News and that's why they became Christians. And because they were Christians, they embraced the teachings and moral values of the Church, because they saw the Church as the Body of Christ. It was not some institution of powerful Vatican officials who decide what people should believe, as you can fairly often falsely read in newspaper accounts of Church teachings.

I think a lot of what we see today in our society is the desire of a number of people to go back to the type of pre-Christian pagan society that existed when the Church was born: all religions are basically the same, and the traditional gods may hold a certain place of honor in the affairs of state, but no real power to influence that state. Moral values are based on traditional values but those can change with the times as we see today, as long as those in power don't feel threatened by it.

Although I don't think many who have the public spotlight today have an intentional desire to return to the paganism of the Roman Empire, they are, in fact leading us there. You are not against Christians, you are just against Christians who believe this thing, or that thing. You're not against Christians, except for the ones who foolishly and ignorantly hold on to the same beliefs, teachings, and morality as Jesus' followers did 2,000 years ago.

You don't have to attack Jesus. You just need to fight against His disciples. Tell them, "You have one day a week in which to follow your God. Be religious on that day — as long as you do not get in my way. But do not defile the weekdays with your faith. (or Saturday, either.)" Another tactic used against Christians happens when we speak against actions that believers have always known were immoral and wrong. We have seen during the past 50 years, one sin after another has been declared morally acceptable. If we do not agree with the new morality, we are branded as unloving and hateful people. Now, ancient pagan societies did not even consider the idea of loving their neighbor. Why would you do that? Loving your neighbor is a Christian commandment, and now it is the only commandment that so many people claim to believe in, and, perversely, this commandment is used against us, when we protest people breaking of all the other commandments of God.

Yes, there's a lot of scorn and ridicule and disrespect in the society for our faith and there are a lot of people who tell us that we're only allowed to talk in the public square if we leave our religious values at home, because they have decided the public square is only fit for atheists and pagans and for those who are willing to talk and act like atheists and pagans.

But how can we leave the Gospel at home? How can we separate ourselves from Christ in order to try and gain the respect of other people? How can we hide the Gospel of Jesus from the eyes of the world and yet tell people it is important to us? How can we ever act as though there is only one day of the week on which we can be healed in Christ, and then look for a better deal on the other six days?

90 years ago, atheists executed a plan to exterminate millions of people in Ukraine through starvation. Today their successors, while claiming to be Christian, carry out a war to gratify their murderous egos without regard for human life in Ukraine. And yet, so many Ukrainians keep their faith in Christ despite the trials and hardships suffered, both past and present. Let us also keep our faith strong as we face spiritual attacks here in America, and Christ our God will not fail to keep us in His loving arms.