EVERYONE: A GOD SCULPTOR
INTRODUCTION
The title of my homily for this 32 Saturday in Ordinary
Time is, “Everyone: A God Sculptor.”
A THEORY
I have a theory that everyone spends their life trying to
figure out who and what God is like - even atheists. We all do this in that
inner quiet room in the back of our mind. That’s the place we go to when we are
alone - when we are in the dark - or when we are alone on planes or buses or when
things have gone wrong.
If you were given clay or a canvas and paints - and you
were asked to sculpt or paint an image of God, what would your work of art look like?
Try it - when you have some doodle time. You have to have
in your house ball point pens, crayons, paints, clay or what have you.
Share your drawing or sculpture with each other.
It’s not too far-fetched.
Genesis has God the creator
sculpting us out of the clay of the earth and breathing life into us. Next time
you see a little baby - stop to see the baby and say to the parents and to God:
“Nice job!”
Mom and God have been sculpting that baby for some 9
months.
We’re made in the image and likeness of God, so if God
was an artist, so too us.
EULOGY
Next time you’re at a funeral of someone you know, when
there is an eulogy, listen to the eulogist and see if you say to yourself, if
you knew the deceased, “Wow the speaker really captured the essence of the
person.”
I just finished 17 years in a big parish in Maryland and
as a result I did a couple of hundred funerals.
I’d go to the funeral parlor - if they had a service the day before -
and look at all the pictures - and then ask folks - one on one - to describe who the deceased was. Then the next day I would try to tailor the
homily to the person who died. Sometimes people would say, “Thanks, you knew
that person really well; sometimes people would say nothing.”
BACK TO GOD.
If we told each other how we see God, how we picture God,
how we understand God, I guarantee you, we
would say of other people’s verbal sculptures, “That’s not my God.” or “That’s not how I see God.”
GOD IN SCRIPTURES
All of the above was triggered by today’s readings.
Jesus in today’s gospel describes God as a judge who will
answer our prayers, just to get rid of us.
Does any of us picture God like that?
In other gospel texts, Jesus pictures God, our Father,
giving everyone who works in the vineyard the same amount at the end of the day
and lots of folks screamed, “Not fair.” They’re saying, “That’s not how I see
God.”
My guess is that the first five minutes of heaven after
we die, when we see who’s there and who’s where, we’ll hear, “Not fair!” - a
lot.
Jesus broke a lot of bubbles telling us that God rejoices
over 1 lost sheep being found than 99 goody goodies just floating along in life
and in paradise.
Reflecting on these scripture stories and a lot more, we
might crumble up our pictures of God -
as we come up with new images.
OTHER SCRIPTURE READINGS
That’s just the gospels. Other scriptures will really get
us scratching our heads.
Take today’s first reading with the author of wisdom
painting God very dramatically like a warrior with a fierce looking sword
flying out of heaven in the dark - in dramatic silence - and chopping people
down.
Scary - and we might say, hearing that, “I find myself saying and thinking, ‘Not my God. Not my God.”
CONCLUSION
Then the recurring question: Who are you God?
