Sermon Tone Analysis

Title

Revelation and Judgment

Outline

I have been listening to Teresa of Avila’s Interior Castle

She is talking about spiritual revelations and experiences

The interesting thing is that she notes that those who have made progress and then seek ever more ecstatic experiences often fall and indeed fall the farthest

That brings us to Jesus

When tragic deaths are pointed out to him, he says, “Don’t think that they deserved this because they were especially sinful.”

Rather they all need to repent, change their minds or perspectives, or they risk the same.

Were they set on Judaism and Jewish nationalism and needed to change their perspective about Jesus, who was not what they expected?

Is it just coincidence that the owner of the orchard had looked for fruit for 3 years, the length of time of Jesus’ ministry, and was asked to give it more care and more time, but only one year more (into the first year post-Pentecost)?

The point is not that the Galileans and Judeans were not sinful, but that the others need to repent.

They are perhaps seeking things from God, but not seeking God on his terms.

Moses knew that God was not to be trifled with

He announced the God of the burning bush to Israel, but he was not a god of fire or a god of power or a god of bushes, but the one who gave his name by which he was to be called as Yahweh, “He is” or “he will be.”

This is as close as one could get to Thomas Aquinas’ esse ipsum.

God is self-defining, being itself, beyond all creation, the ground of all being, not to be identified with anything within creation, not even with our Church.

He in his time has come to rescue Israel on his terms - it was not because Israel had invoked him or sacrificed enough.

He is love, and love cannot be commanded - it has to flow from who one is.

Paul makes the application clear

Christians have the fuller version of the same saving love that reached by the grace of him who is to Israel.

Paul makes the parallels clear.

And in saying that we have the “fuller version” it is that we have more revelation and know better who God is than they.

And if I dare invoke the development of doctrine and spirituality, more than even Paul and the apostles.

But revelation and signs and wonders did not help Israel.

They grumbled and wanted to turn God into a vending machine to supply their desires.

It started at a basic level, water and then bread, but then it was meat.

And then it was better food and a quicker trip, etc. Christians do this when God is simply the one they ask for things or perhaps when they expect that if you put certain devotions in then God will give you certain benefits.

And why is he not hurrying up and coming across with the goods?

Well, all those Israelites 20 years old and up (with two exceptions) a year or two out of Egypt died, buried in unmarked graves somewhere in Sinai.

The message to us, especially to any who have greater revelations, is “whoever thinks he is standing secure should take care not to fall.”

Sisters, this is not new; it is a reminder.

We are to seek the Lord, the one who is, the one who is beyond defining.

We serve in our apostolates because his love is sovereignly reaching out and has chosen to reach out through us, gracing us to know him better.

This does not earn anything for us.

If we have spiritual experiences or consolations, it is because he saw them as good for us at that time - so long as we do not hold onto them and try to keep repeating them.

If we have crosses, they do not earn us anything, but, if used to help us draw closer to and identify with Jesus and his Father, they have done their work.

We seek to know Yahweh who has revealed himself to us already or else we would not seek him at all.

It is all about him on his terms, not about us, for we are simply dependent on him who is being itself.

Readings

FIRST READING

Exodus 3:1–8a, 13–15

1 Meanwhile Moses was tending the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian.

Leading the flock beyond the wilderness, he came to the mountain of God, Horeb. 2 There the angel of the LORD appeared to him as fire flaming out of a bush.

When he looked, although the bush was on fire, it was not being consumed.

3 So Moses decided, “I must turn aside to look at this remarkable sight.

Why does the bush not burn up?” 4 When the LORD saw that he had turned aside to look, God called out to him from the bush: Moses!

Moses!

He answered, “Here I am.” 5 God said: Do not come near!

Remove your sandals from your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground.

6 I am the God of your father, he continued, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.

Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.

7 But the LORD said: I have witnessed the affliction of my people in Egypt and have heard their cry against their taskmasters, so I know well what they are suffering.

8 Therefore I have come down to rescue them from the power of the Egyptians and lead them up from that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey, the country of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Girgashites, the Hivites and the Jebusites.

13 “But,” said Moses to God, “if I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what do I tell them?” 14 God replied to Moses: I am who I am.

Then he added: This is what you will tell the Israelites: I AM has sent me to you.

15 God spoke further to Moses: This is what you will say to the Israelites: The LORD, the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.

This is my name forever;

this is my title for all generations.

RESPONSE

Psalm 103:8a

8 Merciful and gracious is the LORD,

slow to anger, abounding in mercy.

PSALM

Psalm 103:1–4, 6–8, 11

1 Of David.

Bless the LORD, my soul;

all my being, bless his holy name!

2 Bless the LORD, my soul;

and do not forget all his gifts,

3 Who pardons all your sins,

and heals all your ills,

4 Who redeems your life from the pit,

and crowns you with mercy and compassion,

6 The LORD does righteous deeds,

brings justice to all the oppressed.

7 He made known his ways to Moses,

to the Israelites his deeds.

8 Merciful and gracious is the LORD,

slow to anger, abounding in mercy.

11 For as the heavens tower over the earth,

so his mercy towers over those who fear him.

SECOND READING

1 Corinthians 10:1–6, 10–12

1 I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our ancestors were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea, 2 and all of them were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. 3 All ate the same spiritual food, 4 and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they drank from a spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was the Christ.

5 Yet God was not pleased with most of them, for they were struck down in the desert.

6 These things happened as examples for us, so that we might not desire evil things, as they did.

10 Do not grumble as some of them did, and suffered death by the destroyer.

11 These things happened to them as an example, and they have been written down as a warning to us, upon whom the end of the ages has come.

12 Therefore, whoever thinks he is standing secure should take care not to fall.

GOSPEL ACCLAMATION

Matthew 4:17

17 From that time on, Jesus began to preach and say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

GOSPEL

Luke 13:1–9

1 At that time some people who were present there told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with the blood of their sacrifices.

2 He said to them in reply, “Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were greater sinners than all other Galileans?

3 By no means!

But I tell you, if you do not repent, you will all perish as they did! 4 Or those eighteen people who were killed when the tower at Siloam fell on them—do you think they were more guilty than everyone else who lived in Jerusalem?

5 By no means!