TINY

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 27 Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year C - is, “Tiny!”

As soon as that title and thought and theme hit me yesterday after I read today’s readings, it hit me that this sermon better be tiny – to prove the point. Let’s see if I can make this a tiny homily. If there is anyone here with that nick name, I am not picking on you. However, I do remember picking on a tiny guy – standing on my tippy toes when I was standing next to him – till he told me – off to the side – my doing this really bothered him – and that tiny comment – changed me from doing that. I can be insensitive – till someone tells me.

JESUS

Jesus saw tiny – tiny specifics – like mustard seeds – eyes of needles – rocks in hands – a poor widow putting two cents in a poor box – that you can buy 5 sparrows for 2 pennies in the market – the lilies in the field – the new patch on an old garment that had a hole in it – someone touching the hem of his garment – a servant coming in from the field after a long day at work – Zacchaeus that tiny tax collector guy up in a tree – the little child being yelled at – as the disciples tried to push them aside – and Jesus stopping what he was doing to say, “Let the little children into your life – if you want to see and experience the kingdom of God.”

Jesus saw tiny.

LIFE

Life is made up of millions of tiny moments – moments that become memories – the mosaic of our life. Each day contains the tiny things: the holding the door – putting out the garbage – putting the seat down – a hot dog and two hamburgers left on the plate – and we know so and so prefers hot dogs to hamburgers - and we do too – but we take the hamburger – and leave the hot dog for the other – and nobody notices our tiny moment of decision but ourselves.

Life is the tiny: a tiny leak coming through a tiny hole in our roof, especially in a big downpour and it can ruin our wooden floor. A stitch in time can save nine. A thank you note or a post card can make someone’s day. Remembering birthdays and anniversaries – are better than the gift – but a gift is also nice. Shopping and getting him, his favorite mustard and getting her, her favorite mustard – another type – and there they are next to the one hot dog that is left – and often nobody notices the tiny – and sometimes the mustard taker realizes the TLC – and lets the cook know, making the cook very grateful.

Life is the tiny.

What is it like to be one of those tiny, tiny, tiny bugs that live in books? I learned a long time ago not to kill them – just to admire them – and wonder about them. What do they eat? What is their life span? Can they read? Do they realize they might become an endangered species if everyone buys a Kindle or a Nook – or some other e-Book?

The stars look so tiny up there – and the planets – and some of them are so much bigger than tiny earth in comparison.

Distance effects size and perspective – so too our awareness of God and each other. What ever happened to our 4th grade teacher or “Tiny” that big 250 to 300 pound happy guy every high school had?

Life is the tiny.

We all remember hearing Ben Franklin’s words, “A little neglect may breed great mischief … for want of a nail the shoe is lost, for want of a shoe the horse is lost, for want of a horse the rider is lost.” George Herbert said the same thing – but who notices tiny plagiarism?

Yesterday at a wedding I’m just observing a couple taking their vows – and I’m sort of off to the side – a visiting priest did the vows – and at one point spontaneously – they were arm in arm – they both did a pinky hold for a moment. I never noticed a couple doing that tiny pinky coupling gesture before. Neat.

A NEGATIVE TAKE ON THIS

The tiny can make or break us.

There is a tiny poem by the African American Poet, Countee Cullen (1903 - 1946) called “Incident”. The scene is a Baltimore City bus or streetcar. It goes like this:

INCIDENT

Once riding in old Baltimore,

Heart-filled, head-filled with glee;
I saw a Baltimorean
Keep looking straight at me.

Now I was eight and very small,
And he was no whit bigger,
And so I smiled, but he poked out
His tongue, and called me, “Nigger.”

I saw the whole of Baltimore
From May until December;
Of all the things that happened there
That’s all that I remember.

We all know the truth about that one. It’s been my experience that everyone here could write that poem – because we all have had tiny experiences that we still remember – with hurt and anger. The whole vacation, the whole trip was perfect, but we remember that one tiny thing that went wrong – something the waiter or waitress said in a tiny restaurant in Bulgaria or something our father-in-law said at our wedding 37 years ago. It ruined everything and we can’t forgive him.

At other times the tiny can be our own worst enemy.

If you saw the movie, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, it was that zit that the bride got on her face on her wedding day. Ugh. What about the dress, the cake, the dancing, the ceremony – in comparison?

We all do this. We get up to read something at Mass or a meeting or a wedding and we flub one line or even one tiny word. The flub stands out like a zit on the pope’s nose – or whatever that was on Gorbachev’s forehead. Or we make one tiny mistake and so and so lets us know every time.

Picky, picky, picky. Tiny, tiny, tiny.

In the winter Olympics I never like the figure skating because they pick out one tiny flaw – or one fall – and then they show it in slow motion. I know it’s the way they do the score – but ugh – picky, picky, picky. I prefer hockey, they fall all the time and crash into the boards – but all is forgiven if you get the winning score.

THE TITLE OF MY HOMILY

The title of my homily is, “Tiny.”

In today’s gospel Jesus says faith is like a mustard seed. It’s the extra that makes our faith, like mustard on a ham sandwich – that is if we like mustard on a ham sandwich.

Our faith – the flame of faith as today’s second reading puts it – grows and glows by a tiny example we heard in some sermon 37 years ago – or by a moment at the Ocean – one summer morning – when we were all alone and walked the beach – and we stopped and looked at the sun rise or the waves crashing – and the gift of adult faith landed on our shore. Or we worked with someone – who was a person of faith – and without show – they planted the faith in the soil of our soul – or our moms and dads brought us to church – or we said grace before meals or a night prayer together. My mom used to bless us with holy water when we went off to school each morning. And we found out years later she’d go back to bed.

So it’s not the big, but the little things that build or destroy a life, a marriage, a relationship, a day.

I’m ending this tiny sermon right here, right now. Amen. Now that’s a tiny word, we all like to hear. Amen!