The Very Rev. Anthony R. Pompa
Congratulations!
Today is your day.
You're off to Great Places!
You're off and away!
Congratulations!
Today is your day.
You're off to Great Places!
You're off and away!
Out there things can happen
and frequently do
to people as brainy
and footsy as you.
And when things start to happen,
don't worry. Don't stew.
Just go right along.
You'll start happening too.
You'll be on your way up!
You'll be seeing great sights!
You'll join the high fliers
who soar to high heights.
Except when you don’t
because, sometimes, you won't.
I'm sorry to say so
but, sadly, it's true
and hang-ups
can happen to you.
You will come to a place where the streets are not marked.
Some windows are lighted. But mostly they're darked.
A place you could sprain both your elbow and chin!
Do you dare to stay out? Do you dare to go in?
How much can you lose? How much can you win?
But on you will go
though the weather be foul.
On you will go
though your enemies prowl.
On you will go
though the Hakken-Kraks howl.
Onward up many
a frightening creek,
though your arms may get sore
and your sneakers may leak.
On and on you will hike
and I know you'll hike far
and face up to your problems
whatever they are.
And will you succeed?
Yes! You will, indeed!
(98 and 3/4 percent guaranteed.)
KID, YOU'LL MOVE MOUNTAINS!
So...
be your name Buxbaum or Bixby or Bray
or Mordecai Ali Van Allen O'Shea,
you're off to Great Places!
Today is your day!
Your mountain is waiting.
So...get on your way!
---Dr. Seuss
Imagine a great adventure such as this wonderful description of the challenge and opportunity of life given by Dr. Seuss. Somehow deep inside my childish imagination I might wonder if Jesus had in his pitch to Simon and Andrew, James and John, such vivid imagery to invite them into the greatest adventure in history! I can imagine the morning they awoke as they always had, probably before dawn, into another day at the tasks at hand in their defined lives as fishermen. Work to be done, nets to be washed and prepared, boats to be prepared for launch. I don’t know what you are like pre-dawn, but me, it’s pretty ugly really, hum and then drum. I can imagine that morning when Jesus arrives fresh off a date with the devil in the wilderness where as Matthew’s Gospel would have it, he comes through a period of “identity truth” and is so full of himself and what God would have of him, that he moves to the land of the Gentiles and begins his public ministry by echoing the words of the baptizer! Repent! The Kingdom of God is near! Remembering from last week Repent: Put on a new pair of eyes, see the world in a different way! For the Kingdom of God is near!
For Matthew, I believe he wants us to understand, that Kingdom Jesus speaks of, is no less than God’s eschatological Rule on earth! John Dominic Crossin, New Testament theologian reminds us that the great adventure of eschatological adventure means that Jesus brings a new set of rules for the world, that is, the world he lives in! The old set where the innocent get stepped on, the weak and sick ignored, the strong get stronger and more, the weak get weaker and less. This understanding and experience of the world gets turned upside down. So to be part of this adventure literally means to touch sick people that others wouldn’t touch! To risk getting in trouble by violating the rules of the day to get food in the stomachs of hungry people. To walk right into the face of the authority of the day and say, your rules and laws are hurting people, oppressing people, discriminating against people, you are not the power of the day – God is. (This is, after all you realize, what Jesus is doing when staring down the Chief Priests and Herod of Rome.)
So, come on, James and John, Andrew and Simon, want to become part of a great adventure! Oh, how I imagine it if Jesus had just lain out for them both the excitement of the journey and the challenge of it as beautifully as Dr. Seuss. But here is the great Gospel truth? Matthew doesn’t afford us the inside scoop! There is no beautiful prose that describes or assures success, there is no catchy phrase that warns that the work involved in this adventure is uncertain and tricky. There is just the absurdity of a stranger intruding in the everyday of fishermen’s routine and taking the risk to invite them into the great adventure of God’s redemption of the world! Jesus risks in the ask, Follow me! Our friends risk in the response! Immediately they follow and soon they are off on a great adventure, Matthew tells us, proclaiming this “new rule” and curing diseases of every kind! It seems for our friends the adventure has chosen them and they can do nothing other than to follow it!
G.K. Chesterton wrote, “An adventure is, by its nature, a thing that comes to us. It is a thing that chooses us, not a thing that we choose.” Such I believe is the spiritual challenge for us as we seek to make sense of the invitation that is ours into this great adventure. Do you believe first and foremost that God truly cares about the world in which we live to be acting in a redemptive way? Do you believe that God might come into the routine of our lives and call us to be something we never dreamed or imagined and that we are partners in this adventure? Do you believe somewhere in your life even in a culture that has been taught so well to regard our “right to choose” our own destiny, that God may have an adventure for you that is choosing you! What is it? What is that thing that God has been nudging you with! How long has God been nudging? Years, days, hours, minutes? What adventure is there for you that is risking to choose you, and you are risking to follow?
For Matthew, I believe he wants us to understand, that Kingdom Jesus speaks of, is no less than God’s eschatological Rule on earth! John Dominic Crossin, New Testament theologian reminds us that the great adventure of eschatological adventure means that Jesus brings a new set of rules for the world, that is, the world he lives in! The old set where the innocent get stepped on, the weak and sick ignored, the strong get stronger and more, the weak get weaker and less. This understanding and experience of the world gets turned upside down. So to be part of this adventure literally means to touch sick people that others wouldn’t touch! To risk getting in trouble by violating the rules of the day to get food in the stomachs of hungry people. To walk right into the face of the authority of the day and say, your rules and laws are hurting people, oppressing people, discriminating against people, you are not the power of the day – God is. (This is, after all you realize, what Jesus is doing when staring down the Chief Priests and Herod of Rome.)
So, come on, James and John, Andrew and Simon, want to become part of a great adventure! Oh, how I imagine it if Jesus had just lain out for them both the excitement of the journey and the challenge of it as beautifully as Dr. Seuss. But here is the great Gospel truth? Matthew doesn’t afford us the inside scoop! There is no beautiful prose that describes or assures success, there is no catchy phrase that warns that the work involved in this adventure is uncertain and tricky. There is just the absurdity of a stranger intruding in the everyday of fishermen’s routine and taking the risk to invite them into the great adventure of God’s redemption of the world! Jesus risks in the ask, Follow me! Our friends risk in the response! Immediately they follow and soon they are off on a great adventure, Matthew tells us, proclaiming this “new rule” and curing diseases of every kind! It seems for our friends the adventure has chosen them and they can do nothing other than to follow it!
G.K. Chesterton wrote, “An adventure is, by its nature, a thing that comes to us. It is a thing that chooses us, not a thing that we choose.” Such I believe is the spiritual challenge for us as we seek to make sense of the invitation that is ours into this great adventure. Do you believe first and foremost that God truly cares about the world in which we live to be acting in a redemptive way? Do you believe that God might come into the routine of our lives and call us to be something we never dreamed or imagined and that we are partners in this adventure? Do you believe somewhere in your life even in a culture that has been taught so well to regard our “right to choose” our own destiny, that God may have an adventure for you that is choosing you! What is it? What is that thing that God has been nudging you with! How long has God been nudging? Years, days, hours, minutes? What adventure is there for you that is risking to choose you, and you are risking to follow?
