A THOUSAND THINGS HAPPEN

TO MAKE THIS THING HAPPEN

 
 
The title of my homily is, “A Thousand Things Happen To Make This Thing Happen.”
 
When things happen – especially things we are not happy that they happen  - we tend to see just one or two of the causes.
 
For example - a  310  pound guy sits in a chair and it caves in.  And we blame big boy for the big break in the chair. We don’t think of the seventeen 250 pound people who sat in that chair that weekend – or that glue and wood can slowly deteriorate.
 
It takes a lot of whacks with an ax to cut down a big oak tree – but sometimes we just see that last whack.
 
Today’s first reading is a classic. It’s loaded with details. It’s loaded with a whole family of motivations and motivators who want Joseph out of the picture.  Was it jealousy?  Was it the father – the father playing favorites? Was it Joseph’s place in the birth order? Was it Joseph. Where’s the mom?
 
A thousand things had to happen to make this thing happen.
 
Was it the tunic – the coat of many colors?  Was it the aging of the aging father? Was it his comments about Joseph being his favorite? Was it stupid for Joseph to tell his brothers his dreams – especially because they made Joseph the hero – in each dream?
 
The story tells us Reuben might have been the one who prevented his brother from being murdered. Lucky when we have a Reuben. Luckily a cistern was nearby.  Luckily, the cistern was empty and dry. Who was the first to notice there were wild beasts nearby?  Lucky for Joseph, a caravan of Ishmaelites were coming down the road from Gilead.
 
A thousand things had to happen to make this thing happen.
 
In today’s gospel we have a parable from Jesus.  It too is loaded with details and lots and lots of happenings.
 
An engineer type guy with money plants a vineyard. He’s also enterprising. He sets it up with a hedge and a wine press as well as a tower. He leases it out. He goes on a journey. At vintage time he sends his servants to obtain his produce.
 
The renters  figure this is the opportunity to go for the gold – beat – get rid of – kill the tenants – and the vineyard is theirs.
 
The owner sends his people to try again to get some produce. Once more he gets horrible results. More murders. More beatings. They want the inheritance.
 
After setting up this great situation, this great story, this Rorschach Blot test,  Jesus asks his listeners what they thought would happen next.
 
Obvious answer: a wipeout of all those who did these nasty deeds.
 
Jesus gave that warning – yet the story like the story in the first reading – turns out differently.
 
Life: Redemption and surprise happen. Life happens – with so many surprises happening.
 
Who would believe that a condemned man – who dies as a criminal – on a cross – would end up being our God and our savior – our redeemer and our resurrection? God is a God of surprises every time
 
In the meanwhile, a lot of things have to happen – surprising things – to get us to get us to learn – maybe slowly and surprisingly – that God and life works in funny ways – and thousands of different things have to happen before we get a clue about the mysteries of God’s ways.
 
Conclusion: A salesman knocks on the door of the house a possible customer on a country road in Western Tennessee. The customer is Jewish. He asks, “How did you a Jew get here?”
 
The  Jewish man answers: I was heading for California, but my horse died.
 
You never know what happened to get us where we are.