Second Sunday of Lent A.
February 17 2008. Our Lady of Grace 5:15, 9:30, 11:30.
Genesis 12: 1-4a. 2 Timothy 1:
8b-10. Matthew 17: 1-9.
A few days before Christmas in 1995 a large textile factory
in Lawrence Massachusetts was totally destroyed by fire. The 3,000 employees of the factory feared
that the factory would be permanently closed, or moved to a place in the
southern United States or to
Mexico
where labor was cheaper. The
owner of the factory was of retirement age and he could have retired with $300
million in insurance payments.
Instead, he announced that all the employees would be paid their salaries for
the next three months, at a cost of $25 million to the company. He also announced that the factory would be
rebuilt, not moved. The owner
said, “I have a responsibility to the workers and an equal responsibility to
the community. It would be
unconscionable to put three thousand people on the streets and deliver a death
blow to the city of Lawrence. Maybe on paper my company is worth less to
Wall Street but I can tell you it is worth more (to me).”
The owner of the company was invited to sit next to the First Lady during the
President’s State of the Union Message because of his example of loyalty to his
employees and their city, even though he didn’t live there himself. Since then the textile and furniture market
has moved away from Massachusetts
and the rebuilt textile factory has filed for bankruptcy for the second time. Last year the factory was sold and
liquidated. Doing what is right for people doesn’t always make good business sense. Those who do what is right for the community
don’t always succeed in the world of personal profit.
Good people don’t always win; sometimes they end up looking very foolish in the
eyes of the world.
“Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother, and led
them up a high mountain by themselves.
And he was transfigured before them; his face shone like the sun and his
clothes became white as light. And
behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, conversing with him… and behold, a bright cloud cast a
shadow over them, then from the cloud came a voice that said, “This is my
beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased;
Listen to him… As they were coming down from the
mountain, Jesus charged them, “Do not tell the vision to anyone until the Son of Man
has been raised from the dead.”
Leadership is a very lonely business.
Following Jesus can be very lonely too.
Jesus came from God with a message of truth and goodness that has the power to
save and transform the world.
Yet a world of violence, selfishness and sin that seems so eager for self
improvement and so desperate for a better way of dong things, crucified Jesus
rather than listen to him. We
all struggle with the temptation to believe that to be good and truthful will
make us popular and that what the majority wants is in fact good and true. In the real world goodness and truth are
often rejected. Living in the
real world often means listening to the voice of the Lord in our own hearts and
then moving forward in the company of a few friends, like Peter, James and John,
without expecting that most people are going to understand or applaud the voice
of Jesus that we hear in our hearts.
Leadership is a very lonely business.
Following Jesus can be very lonely too.
The mountain top experience of the Transfiguration gave Jesus a deep
understanding of the truth that empowered him to move forward in fulfilling
God’s will even when it meant enduring the jeering and mockery of the crowd and
a painful death on the cross.
I am not endorsing narrow mindedness or fundamentalism –
both of which are points of view too easily arrived at or and too effortlessly
defined. Seeking the
truth as it is in the mind and heart of God is never easy and usually not very
popular. Leadership based on
goodness and truth is a lonely business.
Following Jesus can be very lonely too.
“The LORD said to Abram: “Go forth from the land of your
kinsfolk and from your father’s house to a land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will
bless you; I will make your name great…All the communities of the earth shall
find blessing in you.” Abram
went as the LORD directed him.
Abraham had to leave his country and his former life behind
because he heard the voice of God in his heart.
He was an old man and many people must have thought that what he was doing was
a little crazy. Today we recognize
Abraham as the father in faith of over two billion Jews, Christians and Moslems. Sometimes we have to begin by looking
foolish before we look good Seeking the truth often means leaving the
home we find comfortable and trusting the voice of God in our hearts to lead us
to a better place.
Jesus walked this lonesome valley.
He had to walk it by Himself;
O, nobody else could walk it for Him,
He had to walk it by Himself.
We must walk this lonesome valley,
We have to walk it by ourselves;
O, nobody else can walk it for us,
We have to walk it by ourselves.
Lent is a time for remembering that truth is usually not
very popular and that goodness often doesn’t bring us great profit in worldly
terms. Listening to the voice
of Jesus in our hearts is the way to true freedom, joy and peace. For the grace to walk the often lonely way
of discipleship we give God thanks and praise.