INTRODUCTION
The title of my homily for this
14 Sunday in Ordinary Time [A] is, “Christ on a Bicycle.”
I read today’s readings a few
times - and wondered what was being said - where the readings were going - and
where they would take me.
The first reading mentions a
future king coming - wondering - what he would be like - and Zachariah pictures
him not arriving with arrows, weapons, not with a fleet of well-armed chariots
- but he would be coming on an ass - a donkey. Surprise! The unexpected.
Great optics. [Cf. Zechariah 9: 9-10.]
Comment: Jesus tried that trip
into town on a donkey and look where that took him - 5 days later - to a cross
on a hill called, “Calvary”?
And the second reading talks
about the choice of living by the spirit or living by the flesh. Which one,
which way of doing life, is more me? [Cf. Romans 8: 9, 11-13.]
And the gospel talks about the
hidden wisdom of God, It seems we only get - or grasp - that wisdom -
when we get small. So the message is: come to that God - especially when
we feel overburdened - when we feel like a field animal - pulling a heavyweight
plow. Our God is not like that. Our God sent his Son to tell us what God the
Father is like. Our God is meek and humble of heart. Our God gives us
rest. Our God is not a heavy burden. That’s how Jesus - God’s Son - reveals
him. [Cf. Matthew 11: 25-30.]
So let me try to say all that
in this homily.
So the title of my homily is,
“Christ on a Bicycle.”
CHRIST ON A BICYCLE
Jesus - up there in heaven -
sees God our Father - just lounging there - in an aluminum legged lounge chair
- no throne - just resting - just looking out at all creation. And
surprise - nobody else is there at that moment. God is all alone. The
144,000 and the millions and billions more must be down some gold paved
street - at some big wedding banquet. [Cf. Revelation 14:3.]
So God the Son, Jesus,
goes outside and sits down on the ground - on this great green meadow -
and starts talking to God his Father.
“Father, I’ve been thinking,
Let me go back to earth and try it again.”
Pause.
Silence.
God, Our Father, can do that
big time, when we come to Him with our plans.
Then God the Father says, “You
know what happened the last time?”
“Yeah,” says Jesus.
Pause.
“But, this time, it’s going to
be different. This time I want to try it on a bicycle. I often wondered
what they are like.”
“Okay,” says God the Father.
“But do me a favor. Take 40 days before you go back to earth. Picture all the possible
scenario’s you’ll find yourself in. Then if you decide to try it again - this
time on a bicycle - don’t come crying to me when it doesn’t work. Don’t scream
out again, ‘Why have you forsaken me?’ - when they don’t understand what they
are doing.”
“Good,” said Jesus. “Thank you!”
“By the way,” God the Father
asked, as Jesus was leaving to take his 40 day retreat, “Where are you thinking
of going this time?”
And Jesus said, “I was thinking
of going to a mid to small sized place in Maryland - called Annapolis.”
“Think about it,” said God the
Father, “but what about Minneapolis or Indianapolis, Moscow or Nairobi,
Ashtabula or Arnold, or Paris for that matter?”
“Okay,” says Jesus. “I'll think
about different scenarios and where to go and I’ll get back to you in 40 days.”
40 DAYS LATER
It's 40 days later and Jesus
spots his Father - out there on his favorite aluminum legged - lawn lounge
chair.
“Father,” says the Son, “I'm
going. I decided to go to Annapolis."
BACK IN HEAVEN - THE NEXT DAY
The next day - after Jesus left
- he's back home to his Father.
"That was quick," the Father said.
The Son said, "Well, it didn't work out quite like I expected."
“I began by riding my bike down this red brick bumpy street - Main Street.
People started yelling out, ‘Hey!’ - I can’t use all the words they used - but
they told me, ‘You’re going down the wrong way on one way street. Get off
that stupid looking bicycle - and start looking where you are. Don’t you know bicycles are dangerous in
town?’”
“'Uh, oh!' I said. So I stopped and walked my bike down to a place
they called, ‘Ego Alley.’ I thought that would be the perfect place to
start."
“I sat there on a red brick
small wall.”
“Everything was red brick in
this place. I didn’t get that.”
"A couple of people stopped to see who I was. So I began by saying,
‘Blessed are the poor in spirit - because if you are poor in spirit, you’ll
find yourself living in the kingdom of heaven.’”
“At that I heard someone behind
the people I was talking to say, ‘Who’s that over there?’
“I heard someone reply, ‘I
don’t know. He looks like some religious nut - with a bicycle and a back pack.’”
"I continued, 'Come to me,
all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon
you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find
rest for yourselves. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.'”
"At that I heard someone
say, 'There’s some statues over there. Let’s get our picture taken with that
guy and kids in bronze.'”
“A few more people came along
and said, ‘Hey stranger. What are you doing here? What are you trying to say?’"
"So I said to them, 'Let
me tell you a story. A man had two sons.'”
"And someone said, 'Heard
that one before.'”
“Okay, how about this one? ‘A
rich man had a poor man living just outside his front door. Inside his house he
had the finest food in the world. And the poor man outside had nothing to eat
but scraps of pizza - and the ducks in the water at the dock here had more to
eat that this poor man.’”
"And someone said, 'Heard
that one too - but in a different variation - good try - good-bye.'”
Jesus continued telling his
Father what happened. He said, "I just sat there, crying, dying for
someone to come along and at least ask me what God my Father was like. But
nobody asked."
Then Jesus added, "But someone did ask me, 'Hey stranger with the bike, do
you know where Storm Brother’s Ice Cream is? I heard it’s the best ice cream in
town.'”
"Time ticked on."
"So I just sat there
quietly - crying - dying - hungry and thirsty."
Then Jesus told his Father.
"I sat there for about 3 hours. People came up to me from time to time
and asked me who I was - where I was from - and what I was doing in
Annapolis?"
“So I told them. I’m Jesus. I’m
from God Our Father.”
"Most smiled and walked on
- when they heard that."
"Near the end of my 3
hours there, I began to say to folks, 'See that steeple up there. That’s a
church - St. Mary’s Church, Annapolis, Maryland. Walk up there and see if they
are doing a better job than me - down here - trying to explain who God Our
Father is and what God is all about."
"Then," Jesus said to
his Father, "I got on my bike and headed up Main Street. Someone -
near the light outside Chick and Ruth’s restaurant tried to beat the light and
I was in his way. He just hit and killed
me - plowing right over me. I guess he just didn't like bicycle riders - but I
forgave him before I died."
Pause.
Silence.
And Jesus then said to his
Father.
“You're right. It won’t work.”
“What won’t work?”
“Doing what I did the first
time. It didn’t work then either. Yet what I started is still going on and
working down there - here and there - all around the world ….”
"And besides that,"
Jesus smiled and said to his Father, “People wearing a tiny, broken,
damaged, a person on a bicycle
piece of jewelry around their neck, in memory of my visit and my death won’t
work. A cross is certainly better.”
At that God the Father smiled.
And
Jesus continued, “The cross has so many more possibilities: I want my life to
go this way and it always goes another way - that’s the cross - as I just discovered again - on a red brick wall and a red brick street
in a place called, Annapolis, Maryland.”
