HEY  JUDE!

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily is, “Hey Jude!”

Today’s first reading is from The Letter of Jude. Today - the 8^th Saturday in Ordinary Time -  is the only time - but only every other year -  that this reading might be read at Mass. It’s a quiet, unknown, rarely heard "book" in the Bible.

It’s called, “The Letter of Jude”, but scholars vary on whether it was actually a letter. It’s a document from the early church - perhaps from around 80 or 90 A.D.  It doesn’t even have chapters - just verses - 25 of them. It  can be read calmly in 2 minutes.

SONG BY THE BEATLES

Reading its title, triggered for me the song by the Beatles, “Hey Jude” - which came out in August 1968.

Do you remember the comment made by John Lennon that the Beatles are better known than Jesus Christ? That comment caused uproar and reaction. From what I remember - and from what I looked up - he didn’t actually say what they said he said - the stuff that caused the uproar. He simply said kids were into rock and roll and the Beatles more than they were into religion. For Christians that would mean they were listening to the Beatles more than Jesus Christ.  If he had said  that their song, “Hey Jude” was more popular than say, The Letter of Jude in the New Testament, I don't believe he would have caused an uproar.

Last night I listened to the song, Hey Jude, twice and then I read The Letter of Jude twice.  No doubt about it, the song Hey Jude would have more grab and influence than The Letter of Jude.

The song lyrics of Hey Jude tell Jude to take a sad song and make it better. The song says, “Don’t be afraid.” The song says, “Don’t carry the world upon your shoulder.”

Paul McCartny said he wrote the song while driving  to see John Lennon’s son - Jules. The kids parent’s marriage had broken up - due to John Lennon’s affair  with Yoko Ono. Paul wanted to show some support to Jules. After mulling over the words, he changed "Jules" to "Jude" - because he thought it sounded better that way.

The song had the longest run of any of the Beatles’ singles on the American Music Charts.

It has a nice beat - if you like the Beatles - and it’s a rather long song - 7 minutes. Check it out and check out The Letter of Jude.

LETTER OF JUDE: 4 OBSERVATIONS

I found it difficult to come up with something helpful for a homily in today's two readings. So besides my off beat comments about the song, "Hey Jude," I'm going to simply present 4 observations that I picked up about the Letter of Jude. If I sound a bit off this morning, it's simply because this homily feels a bit odd or out of sync to be honest. 

1) The Letter of Jude is only 2 minutes. Some say the best words are in it its ending - which we heard today. There we find mention of the Trinity:  the Father - referred to as this only God of Our Savior, then Jesus Christ our Lord, as well as Holy Spirit.  That is very important - and perhaps that's why this letter made it into the  Bible.

2) That brings up the question of the canon - the so called “List of the Books that make up the Bible.”  This book made it. Compared to books like the Early Church book, The Didache (1) , if you read both, you’d say, “What?”  Folks in the Early Church said just that about The Letter of Jude. “Why is this book in the Bible?”

3) Last night I went looking for what others said about The Letter of Jude. I was amazed to notice that that William Barclay came up with a 50 page commentary on Jude. (2)

4) Lastly, I found out last night in my checking out commentaries on Jude, that Jude is a polemic. It's an attack. The author is yelling. He is complaining. He’s warning everyone about certain people who are getting into the Church and they will be ruin of it.

Other than my bringing up the Hey Jude song by the Beatles, this last point might be of the most interest - this description of The Letter of Jude as being a polemic.

Without being polemic myself, let me quote from a Lutheran Biblical Scholar named Gerhard Krodel. He wrote the following in his comments on The Letter of Jude.

“As a teenager in Germany I heard one particular sermon, a pure denunciation of the idolatry of the Nazi religion of “blood and land,” of Moloch worship and the hatred of Cain. It was not  based on Jude, but it made a lasting impression. The enemy then, as in Jude’s situation, was the compromiser and synthesizer within the church.”

Then Gerhard Krodel concludes his comments on The Letter of Jude this way. “However, most situations don’t present us with clear cut alternatives, but with various shades of gray. Polemics itself becomes demonic the moment the preacher loves it, venting his spleen, riding his hobby horse, putting people down for the sheer fun of it, and imagining that he speaks of God.  Since time and again teachers and preachers have engaged in polemics for the wrong reason (e.g. the earth is flat and the Bible is inerrant in every historical detail) and at the wrong occasion (e.g., when God's grace and Christ’s Lordship were not really at stake but rather the preacher’s myopic view of them) it may be just as well that Jude has not become a household word.” (3) 

NOTES

(1) The Didache, Faith, Hope and Life of the Earliest Christian Communities,  50-70 C.E., Aaron Milavec, The Newman Press, New York, Mahwah, N.J. 2003


(2) William Barclay, The Letters of John and Jude, Revised Edition, The Daily Study Bible Series, The Westminster Press, Philadelphia, pages 155 to 207.

(3)  Gerhard Krodel, "The Letter of Jude", page 98, in Proclamation Commentaries, Hebrews-James-1 and 2 Peter-Jude-Revelation, Gerhard Krodel, Editor, Fortress Press, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1977