HAVE YOU EVER HEARD A SERMON
OR A TALK THAT MOVED YOU
AND YOU CHANGED?
The title of my homily is basic. It's a question to think about: “Have You
Ever Heard a Sermon or a Talk that Moved You and You Changed?”
Having preached thousands and thousands and thousands of
sermons - in my 47 years of being a priest - that’s a question I’d obviously
ask. It might not be one of your questions. If you raised
children, your question might be: “Did they learn anything from me?” I’ve heard
that when parents wonder, “What did I do wrong?” when their kids have gone
wrong - divorce - alcoholism - big mistakes - or what have you. I hear that
question when it comes to parents telling me about their kids not going to Mass
- and giving up on the faith - or switching their churches.
So as priest I’m asking the same question. Mine hits me with
regards sermons at times. I don’t ask it - so that people will say afterwards:
“That was a good sermon!” I ask it - so as to know how to prepare better - to
do a better job.
QUESTIONAIRE
When I had a job as Novice Master - for 9 years - for 9
different classes - I used to hand out a questionnaire at the end of the year
asking about the year: “Was their any homily that grabbed you?”
Nope. I was fishing for feedback. I rarely ever got a nibble on that question. And that would be over 300 homilies that year. Bummer!
Then I asked myself the question that is the title of this homily: “Have You Ever
Heard a Sermon or a Talk that Moved You and You Changed?”
SOME ANSWERS
I jotted down about 10 answers to that question. Here's 4.
I once heard Wayne Dyer giving a so called Motivation Talk.
It might have been on public television - in connection with a fund raiser. He gave an example from an experience at a spa or some health resort where he was a guest speaker. This was
a long time ago. What I remember was his mention of 10 wooden tubs filled
with water. The water in each tub had a different temperature. The middle ones were
the most comfortable and most people were in them. Then if you went this way,
the next tub would be colder and so on down the line to the coldest. If you
went the other way, the next tub was hotter and so on down the line to the
hottest. Then he said that a person in charge urged people to take a chance, to
take a risk, to go beyond one’s comfort zone - and try hotter or colder water.
The
message was: try new things. Take risks. Stretch yourself. Most people don’t.
Why did I remember that image and that message? Obviously,
we all like our comfort zone. Yet one of life’s secrets is to take
some risks: try eating squirrel or get out on the dance floor to try a new dance.
As preacher what I got out of it was this: people remember what they can
picture - as well as when they are challenged - to try the new or to get out of
the old tubs - and to be baptized in new water.
Next: I once heard a talk by Robert Coles. He’s the famous
child psychiatrist at Harvard. He made a confession that when he was in a rich
private school as a young man - we were self centered - and wrapped up in
ourselves. Years later, now a professor, on a test, he asked his students to
write down the first name of staff people who clean bathrooms and corridors. Many couldn’t.
Why did I remember that? That was me too. So ever since then I try to get
people’s names.
That triggered another story - a memory - something I heard a
priest once say in a sermon. He covered a hospital for two weeks for a priest
who was a hospital chaplain - who went on a two week vacation. During those two
weeks dozens of nurses - all young, all pretty, stopped him and asked where
Father So and So was. “On vacation,” he answered. The preacher then said that
didn’t really hit him till about a month later he covered another hospital
for 2 weeks for another priest who was on vacation. These 2 weeks all the
bathroom cleaners and corridor and stair cleaners asked where Father So and So
was.
The learning I got from that was: “Whom do I spend time
with? Whom do I listen to? Who would miss me?”
Let me give one last message I heard from a talk. It was
given by a Swami talking on a radio talk
show. He said the message of Hinduism is that the ego has to go - to die. Then
he paused and said, “E GO!” And then he
laughed.
What I learned from that for preaching is the KISS principle. Keep It Simple
Stupid.
I also learned to ask myself,
“How did Jesus say that same message about the ego going?” And the answer was, “The grain of wheat, the seed of
wheat, must die, must be planted in the ground, and die and be buried and deal
with the mud and muck of life - if it wants to make it to the table as part of
a loaf of bread. [Cf. John 12:24]
Every time I see those
tiny packets of flower seed or grass seed in Home Depot etc. I think to myself,
that’s me when I’m just sitting around doing nothing - not dying to self - not
growing. I think to myself, “I have hundreds of poems in my head - but it takes
time and effort and sacrifice and writing and rewriting - and letting the half
finished product sit there for a while - in half shape - and then get back to
it. I have to work at dying to laziness and rising to creativity.
I know two family members who have the talent to paint, but don’t. And I
say, “Why don’t they?” Now I catch myself and say, “Why don’t I write the poem?
Why don’t I finish the book that is just sitting there in my brain or half finished in my computer?”
TODAY’S READINGS
Today’s first reading from Jeremiah 26: 1-9 has some stuff about the
great prophet and preacher Jeremiah. He does something that I don’t like to do: to say something that challenges folks so much they want to kill you. They threw Jeremiah down into a cistern of mud. [Check out Jeremiah 38: 1- 13.]They killed Jesus on the cross. In sermons I’ve gotten a few folks angry in my time -
but my weakness is the desire to be liked. Besides vanity and ego, this is a big sin of many a preacher.
Today’s gospel - Matthew 13: 54-58 - has the crowd he’s preaching to - wanting to kill him by
dissing or dismissing him. He’s too smart for us. Hey we know where he came
from. He’s one of us. Bottom line: we don’t want to leave our comfort zone and move into a
hotter or colder new life.
CONCLUSION
To prepare this homily I just sat there and went into the
storehouse of my memory with the question that is the title of this homily: "Have You Ever Heard a Homily or a Talk the Moved You to Change?" I remembered a few examples from talks and sermons
I heard. Then I asked myself: what did
this example or message like the hot tubs or knowing the names of those who do
the little stuff in life for us or the play on the word "E GO" teach me?
Chalenge: I suggest you do the same sometime…. Amen.
