The Unauthorized Homily

By Bill Dunn

A commentary on the Scripture readings from the Sunday Lectionary

(Scripture readings for Sunday, Sept. 10th: Isaiah 35:4-7; James 2:1-5; Mark 7:31-37)

DON’T FLUNK IMPORTANT POP QUIZ

Pop quiz time. Question number one: How many people have you led to Christ? (For my fellow Catholics who may not be familiar with the evangelical phrase, “Lead someone to Christ,” this simply means explaining the basic Gospel message to another person—mankind is sinful and separated from God; Jesus died on the cross to pay the price for our sins and rose from the grave three days later conquering death once and for all; if we put our faith in Him we will receive eternal life in Heaven—and then as a result, that person puts his or her faith in the Lord.)

For those of you who immediately began rattling off a list of names, congratulations and God bless you. Keep up the good work. You don’t need to continue reading this column; instead, you can go get fitted for your halo. For those of you who answered zero, please read on.

Question number two: How many people have you witnessed to? (This means sharing your faith, such as explaining the basic Gospel message and/or relating how faith in God has transformed your life for the better.)

Still zero? OK, Question number three: How many people—co-workers, neighbors, family members, etc.—know that you are a Christian? In other words, how many know they can come to you with a personal problem or a spiritual question or a prayer request, and know they can count on you not to be involved in all the rude, crude, and malicious gossip so common these days?

Nothing yet? Alright. Question number four: How many of your co-workers, neighbors, and family members SUSPECT you may be a closet Christian?

Really? Still zip? Hmmm. Well, this is your last chance. Question number five, to paraphrase a radio preacher I heard a while ago: If you were charged with the crime of being a follower of Christ, would there be enough evidence to convict you?

The reason for this pop quiz is this week’s gospel reading. The people brought to Jesus a deaf man with a speech impediment. Jesus put his fingers into the man’s ears and touched his tongue, and as we read, “Immediately the man’s ears were opened…and he spoke plainly.”

But after performing this miracle, Jesus did an interesting thing: “He ordered them not to tell anyone.” However, the people ignored his order: “The more he ordered them not to, the more they proclaimed it.”

There are many occasions in the gospels where Jesus ordered people to be quiet about what they had just witnessed. He did this not to hide what he was doing, but because the timing wasn’t right. He still had much more to accomplish before his final showdown with the religious leaders in Jerusalem. If the crowds got all fired up and tried to make Jesus king, it would prematurely set things in motion. Jesus had a firm timetable and he wanted to make sure he stuck to it.

For some reason, modern American Christians act as if Jesus’ order, “Don’t tell anyone,” still applies to us. Not so. That order to stay quiet was only for those people who witnessed that particular miracle.

The order from Jesus that applies to us today can be found at the end of Matthew’s gospel (it’s called the Great Commission): “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.”

Yikes, that’s very different, isn’t it? We are not commanded to remain silent about our faith in Christ, but we are called to proclaim the Good News to everyone.

But, but, you don’t understand, Dunn, if I let my co-workers know about my religious faith, they’ll think I’m some kind of a weirdo or fanatic. They’ll make fun of me, and I may even lose out on a promotion.

Yeah, I do understand—been there, done that, bought the tee shirt. No one is more uncomfortable sharing the Gospel with secular people than I am. I’m Mr. Passionate Preacher when I’m sitting alone at this computer, but I turn into Barney Fife on a bad self-esteem day when speaking face-to-face with someone.

It ain’t easy—trust me, I understand. But that does not excuse us. In fact, just about everything Jesus commanded us to do ain’t easy.

Like any difficult task in life, the more we do it, the easier it becomes and the better we get at doing it. It’s no different with sharing the Gospel. We just have to ask God for the courage to get started.

Also, there is another important consideration. We will be given another pop quiz at the moment of our deaths. Just think how lame it will sound when we try to explain to the Lord that we kept silent all those years because we were afraid someone might call us a weirdo. And then think how tragic it will be when He tells us the names of the people separated from God for all eternity because we were too wimpy to speak up. Please, don’t flunk that quiz.

©2006