STUCK IN THE MUD
INTRODUCTION
The title of my homily is, “Stuck in the Mud.”
FIRST READING
I’m sure many preachers in churches around the world using these three readings for today – will reflect on the interesting image in today’s first reading – that of Jeremiah being thrown down into a cistern – a cistern without water – only mud. (Cf. Jeremiah 38:4-10.)
What a powerful image! Stuck in the mud – being surrounded with mud – being imprisoned in mud.
And then a court official named Ebed-melech – (What a great name! – It means “Servant of the king.”) – goes to the king and says, “An injustice has taken place. The men who put Jeremiah in the cistern are at fault. He’s going to starve to death down there – for there is no food in the city.” And the king orders Ebed-melech, the Cushite, to take three men with him and pull the prophet Jeremiah out of the cistern filled with mud before he dies.
What a great image to picture. If you like to doodle or draw, if any of you paint, picture this image of Jeremiah in the cistern – stuck in the mud.
Kids get out your crayons.
CANVAS
I can’t paint – but if I could, I would put a lot of newspapers on the floor. Then I would put a brand new blank canvas on the floor on top of the newspapers. Then I would put a coffee cup down in the center of the bottom of the canvas. Next I would take a dish towel and roll it up like a tube and lay it on the canvas from the top of the canvas down to the coffee cup. I would tuck one end of that towel under the coffee cup. Then I would take all the tubes of different shades of dark brown paint that I could find and squeeze all the paint out of the tubes in blobs and globs onto the canvas. Then with a stick or those big strong paint brushes, I would mix and move, squish and twirl all that paint around and cover the whole canvas – being careful not to move the towel or the coffee cup. The idea would be that the brown gunky, twirly paint would be very 3 dimensional and messy. Then when the painting dried it would look like a scene of ridges and hills and small mountains of mud.
Then while it is drying I would carefully remove the cup and the towel so they would not get stuck on the canvas. When that dried I would take yellow and white tubes of paint and slop it into where the towel and the cup were. Then I would use a delicate paint brush to smooth it out and make it very one dimension – like a bright yellow valley of light from the top of the painting to the blank spot on the bottom where the coffee cup was.
Then when that was dried, I’d would paint a tiny figure of Jeremiah on the bottom in that yellow and white blank spot where the coffee cup was. I’d have him looking up the light shaft to the sky above.
I don’t know if I would entitle my painting “Hope!” or “Help!”
TWO POINTS
Let me make two points:
(1) Being stuck and (2) Needing an Ebed-melech to come to our rescue.
FIRST POINT: BEING STUCK
If we look at the chapters of our life, we’ve all experienced what Jeremiah experienced in this 38th chapter of his book: being stuck.
Speaking up can land us stuck in the mud.
That’s what got Jeremiah the Prophet in trouble in the first place.
That’s what Jesus is talking about in today’s gospel. If you were Jewish and you started to follow Jesus, that’s an “Oh no” or an “Uh oh” for many people in his day. Jesus is saying, “Fathers and mothers and daughters and mother-in-laws are not going to like it if you follow me. So as a disciple, expect division.” (Cf. Luke 12:49-53.)
We all know that religion can be messy, muddy stuff. Today in many families it can be just the opposite from today’s gospel – the not going to church – or leaving the Catholic church for another group. Or the situation could be kids living together and not being married – or not having kids baptized or this and that.
Or people can be stuck in a family fight – and there is mud slinging.
Or people can be stuck in a job that’s going nowhere, but a crummy job is better than no job – when one is stuck in muddy, money struggles or financial situations.
Or people can be stuck in a marriage – where one feels like it’s walking in mud and your boots keeping coming off – and the sucking of your energies can be heard as you try to tip toe around a dead spouse. It’s hard to tip toe in mud.
So people get stuck – as in mud.
MOVIES
Recently I realized that a lot of movies use the plot where people are stuck – kidnapped, held hostage, trapped – and like the men in the mine in Utah, we hope that somehow they will be rescued – by the cavalry or Clint Eastwood or Batman or Jackie Chan or Uma Thurman.
There is this horrible movie that I’ve never seen completely on TV. It’s entitled, “Unleashed” – where a young man named Danny was raised from childhood to be like to dog and fight and kill others – and the scenes are a thousand times worse than this pit bull fighting story that’s in all our papers recently. This little boy named Danny saw his mother, a piano student, killed before his eyes – and then he’s raised to become a killing machine. Horrible.
And the owner of Danny put a collar – a metal and leather leash around his neck. Horrible.
And he is saved, unleashed – thanks to car crash – and he crawls out of the overturned car. But he’s also saved by music and Morgan Freeman – a blind piano tuner – and a young girl who is in London in a piano competition. It’s a brutal story – but a powerful story of redemption.
As a Redemptorist, I spot these themes of redemption.
As a human being, I spot this reality that people can be stuck – sometimes by their own mistakes – sometimes by the cruelty and sin of others.
SECOND POINT: EVERYBODY NEEDS AN EBED-MELECH
Everyone needs a blind piano player – or someone to speak up for them – someone who will get ropes and send them down the cistern to save us.
Help is available. We thank God for laws that protect not just dogs, but human beings.
We thank God that there are people who are dedicating their lives to come up with cures for cancer and a thousand other physical and mental problems. In this parish, we have lots of doctors and nurses and staff people who help the sick. We have people who work for NIH and have benefited from their clinical trials.
We thank God for the generosity of people who give time in ESL programs – English as a Second Language – that helps people get started in a new country. We thank God for dedicated teachers – who are gearing up for another school year – preparing kids to make this a better world.
We thank God for counselors and therapists – lawyers and public servants – who protect us in fires and accidents and disasters and unwanted lawsuits, etc.
We thank God for whistle blowers – when it comes to helping those who are dealing with injustice.
We thank God for our service men and women around the world who are where they are to help people who were stuck in the mud of unjust crazy governments.
We thank God for those who raise questions on why we are where we are – and how we can get out of the mud – without causing greater trouble down the line – for the people we are trying to help and for those doing the helping.
We hope for debate on all these issues - debate that is based on justice and not the ballot box and to get votes.
So there are Ebed-melech’s around – servants of the king - who are willing to speak up – who are willing to help those who are stuck – to try to make everyday life the Kingdom – the Dream of God - that Jesus is talking about – the Jesus that is proclaimed in today’s second reading. (Cf. Hebrews 12: 1-4)
ONE THING MISSING
However, as I was reflecting on this, I realized there is one aspect of redemption, escape, freedom, release, that is not part of the Jeremiah story in today’s first reading.
Sometimes there is no escape – unless an outsider intervenes for us.
Sometimes there is a way to escape. In some stories, the spotlight is put on what the person who is stuck in the mud has to do. Jeremiah could have screamed. But that’s not in the story.
In escape stories, in freedom stories, we often see the person who is trapped doing something to become free. We can crawl out of the overturned car. We can head towards the music in the distance.
I like the Hindu story of the baby monkey who fell down the well. The mother monkey reaches down the well to see if she can grab hold of her baby – but she can’t. The baby monkey has to reach her arm up to the mother if she wants to be saved.
As the old saying goes, “Pray for potatoes, but pick up a shovel.”
When we’re stuck, we have to use our brains to see if there is something we can do to get out of the mud. Can we scream? Can we ask for help? Is there a 12 step program – that can help us work out of an addiction? Can we go for counseling? Can we put the foot to the pavement or the pedal to the metal and go out there and search for a better job? Can we talk to our children or our spouse? Can we make some noise? Can we go on strike? Can we use creative passive aggression or silence? Can we reach out for help? Can we paint a ladder along the wall of our painting – that goes from the top of the cistern down to bottom where we are stuck in the mud?
IN CONCLUSION
Preaching on this topic is very difficult – because I’m describing the problem and the pain much more than the solution.
Preaching on this topic can be very muddy – very “iffy” – because some of you who have been stuck in a muddy mess for years don’t see a ladder along the side of the wall. You don’t see that magical wonderful shaft of light coming down from the top of the tunnel. You don’t see people up there sending down ropes to get you out of your muddy mess – because you feel your painting – your life - doesn’t have that shaft of light - that way out. Instead, you feel you were shafted.
On the other hand, preaching on this topic can be very easy. All I have to do to escape is say, “In conclusion!”
