Not everything worthwhile in life must be earned.

Homily for August 23, 2015 (21st Sunday in Ordinary Time)
Joshua 24:1-2a, 15-17, 18b; Psalm 34; Ephesians 5:21-32; John 6:60-69

Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker James Harrison recently set the social media and sports worlds atwitter when he posted this message on Instagram (which I quote in part):

jhharrison92I came home to find out that my boys received two trophies for nothing, participation trophies! While I am very proud of my boys for everything they do and will encourage them till the day I die, these trophies will be given back until they EARN a real trophy. I'm sorry I'm not sorry for believing that everything in life should be earned and I'm not about to raise two boys to be men by making them believe that they are entitled to something just because they tried their best...cause sometimes your best is not enough, and that should drive you to want to do better....#harrisonfamilyvalues

There is certainly something to admire in Harrison’s comments, especially his critique of the growing culture of entitlement in our country (and not just among young people). However, he is off-base about at least one thing: not everything worthwhile in life is or must be earned.  Indeed, God’s grace is entirely unearned; but we are blessed with it nonetheless!  As Psalm 34 recalls, not only the just are able to “taste and see the goodness of the Lord.” It extends to those who are lowly, brokenhearted, and whose spirits are crushed.  This is the same God who looked upon an enslaved people and set them free and who, despite their fickleness and infidelities, saw them through a long desert journey and brought them to a Promised Land.  This is the same God who, over and over again, made a covenant with them and wants to do so with us today.

But there can’t be a covenant without a meeting of minds and hearts and the mutual commitment to do what’s necessary to sustain it.  In our first reading, Joshua lays down the gauntlet for his fellow Israelites:  “If it does not please you to serve the LORD, decide today whom you will serve….As for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.”

After several weeks of reading and reflecting on the Bread of Life Discourse in John 6, we find Peter in his own way echoing that sense of resolution.  A number of Jesus’ followers, confused, disappointed or overwhelmed by his identification with the Father and inviting them to eat his flesh (the bread from heaven) and drink his blood, started to fall away.  Jesus turned the Twelve and asked whether they would be next.  Peter, staying rooted in the spirit that gives life, responded, “Master, to whom shall we go?  You have the words of eternal life.”  Like Joshua, Peter knew where he had to stand.

When we stand with God and serve God, it will inevitably have an impact on our other relationships.  Our second reading from Ephesians 5, with its exhortations to subordination, can grate on our ears and modern sensibilities.  Scripture scholars believe it was in part St. Paul’s concession to the realities of the Christian community trying to survive in the patriarchal social world of the Roman Empire.  Yet it retains its radical call, for that subordination is rooted not in worldly structures but in the sacrificial and reverent love of Jesus, who handed himself over for us.  When we accept his grace and follow him, we may never win a trophy; but we will gain something far greater.  +