The Unauthorized Homily

By Bill Dunn

A commentary on the Scripture readings from the Sunday Lectionary

(Scripture readings for Sunday, February 4th: Isaiah 6:1-8; 1 Corinthians 15:1-11; Luke 5:1-11)

DESPITE FEARS, LAITY MUST SHARE THE GOSPEL

In this week’s gospel reading, after the most successful day of fishing in Simon Peter’s career as a professional fisherman, Jesus said to him, “From now on you will be catching men.”  

Scripture explains, “When they brought their boats to the shore, they left everything and followed [Jesus].”

At the very end of Matthew’s gospel, known as the Great Commission, Jesus said to His followers, “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.”

When someone becomes a follower of Christ, besides just worshipping the Lord and obeying His commands, he or she is expected to share the faith with others. That is how Christianity is spread to new places and passed on to new generations.

In our day and age, most Christians would rather get audited by the IRS than talk to someone else about religion. In my faith community, Roman Catholicism, we pretty much are stuck in a medieval mindset, where we let the priests and nuns do all the teaching, preaching, and sharing of the faith. Those of us in the laity have been conditioned from birth to believe that our only spiritual responsibilities are to pray, pay, and obey. What we were told to do as fidgety four- and five-year-olds, “Sit down and shut up,” we still do as flabby 40- and 50-year-olds.

This model may have been OK in, say, 14th century Europe, where Catholic clergymen were pretty much the only people who could read and write, and where there were few if any competing religious worldviews. But nowadays conditions have changed drastically. Most of the laity is educated today, able to read and write and communicate. And now there are dozens of non-Christian worldviews aggressively competing for the hearts and minds of citizens. To compound the problem, the number of priest and nuns (at least in the US) has plummeted sharply in the last few decades.

And yet, we mostly just sit back passively and wait for Christian doctrines and values and morals to be somehow magically absorbed by our fellow citizens, and then we are shocked—shocked!—when we see our culture become crass and profane and selfish and violent.

Well, it’s high time we go off the bench, strapped on our helmets, and got into the game.

There are two primary reasons why most people do not share their Christian faith with others. The first reason is that they believe only trained experts are qualified to do so. In this week’s Scripture readings, there is a very interesting pattern. In each of the three readings, a famous Bible hero expressed doubt that he was qualified to be a messenger for the Lord.

In the first reading, after being called by the Lord to preach to the people, the prophet Isaiah cried out, “Woe is me! I am doomed! For I am a man of unclean lips.”

Isaiah knew he was sinful, and he felt unworthy to proclaim the word of God. But God had other plans and used Isaiah mightily.

In the second reading, from St. Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, he wrote about himself, “For I am the least of the apostles, not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.”

Paul also knew he was sinful, and only by the grace and power of God was he able to spread Christianity to so many Gentile regions throughout the Roman Empire.

In the gospel this week, after witnessing Jesus’ amazing ability to locate the largest catch of fish ever, St. Peter fell at Jesus’ feet and said, “Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.”

Each of these famous Bible heroes felt unqualified to talk about religious faith with other people. But as we know, despite their doubts and insecurities, each of these men became spectacularly successful in spreading the truth and good news of God.

We are no different. And we, too, must spread the truth and good news of God, despite our doubts and insecurities.

The second reason why most Christians do not share their faith with others is a bit more troubling. Our culture has become so steeped in moral relativism—the idea that values and morals and truth itself are nothing more than personal opinion—we actually think it is rude and intolerant to “impose” our views on others.

If a person is sick with an infection, is it rude and intolerant for the doctor to “impose” antibiotics on him? Or is it more enlightened to let the sick man take whatever medicine he feels is best, even if it’s a handful of Tic-Tacs?

Sure, there are a lot of gray areas in the field of ethics and values; not everything is absolutely black or white. But some things are plainly either true of false. And the true identity of Jesus is not based on personal opinion: He either is who He claimed to be, or He was a fraud. The truth about the identity of Jesus is not based on what anyone feels about it.

If Jesus really is who He claimed to be—the divine Son of God and the Savior of all the world—then that truth is true for everybody, regardless of what anyone thinks or feels about it.

If we as Christians truly believe Jesus is who He claimed to be, then we have a responsibility—no, make that a solemn obligation—to tell other people. The stakes could not be higher. It’s the difference between eternal life and joy in Heaven or eternal torment and separation from God.

If some people think we are being rude and intolerant by sharing our Christian faith, well, too bad. No one ever said following Jesus would make us the life of the party.

But just think how much these same offended people will thank us for being so bold and counter-culture—just like Isaiah and Paul and Peter were—when they enter into Heaven and realize the difference between life and death was the Gospel message we shared with them. At that moment it will be perfectly acceptable for us to go over to Isaiah and Paul and Peter for a group high five.

©2007