Sunday 18 January 2009

Homily for Second Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B 18 January 2009

Last week we had the story of the Baptism of Jesus in the River Jordan by John the Baptist, an event which marked the start of Jesus’s ministry, and here we have in today’s Gospel what happened the very next day, the calling of the first disciples. The other Gospels have Jesus walking by the lake of Galilee and calling them from where they sat by their fishing boats mending their nets, but John remembers it quite differently- for him the first encounter is by the river Jordan, where two disciples watch Jesus as he is walking by and are fascinated by him- encouraged by John the Baptist they start following Jesus, and Jesus turns round to see who they are.
What happens as John describes it is something that is deeply theological, something in other words that speaks to us of God and mankind’s relationship to him. And here we have the first words that Jesus speaks in the Gospel, “What do you want?” This is the question that Our Lord puts to everyone who shows any interest in him, in following him, in becoming a disciple of his- what is it that you are really looking for? What is it that you need? It is a question that touches on the basic need that is in every human being, a need to turn to God, to have some kind of intimacy and friendship with God that will put meaning and contentment into our lives. The answer of the two disciples is very interesting, they say “Where do you live?” or, in the better translation of the RSV, “Where are you staying?” The Greek word that John is using here –menein- does mean live, but it means stay, dwell, abide, words that have an idea of permanence about them. As humans, we live with the fact that nothing stays, nothing stays the same- “change and decay in all around I see” as the old hymn has it. One of the factors that is built into the human condition that cause us so much distress is that we live in a world of change, change and death, and we long to find something, someone, to grab hold of that will not change, that will stay the same no matter what. Alas, there is nothing, no one, that will not change- only God is the changeless one, never bored with us, never cross with us, never trading us in for a younger model, never abandoning us! An old hymn reminds us that “earthly friends may falter and change with changing years” – it is only Jesus who is the “friend who never faileth”, the one who is as St Claude la Colombière used to call “le seul, le véritable ami”, the one true friend. So the disciples are voicing this great yearning of all mankind, for something that is lasting, for a connexion of some kind to the eternal, for God. And Jesus responds to this desire with the invitation to join him in the place where he stays, in the permanence of his friendship- “so they went and saw where he lived”. And, such was the bond between them, so much was this the exact answer to their longings, that John says “they stayed with him”- they had come to stay in his friendship for ever. That is what our Lord has come to earth to offer mankind, the possibility of returning to an easy relationship with God, to enjoy his favour, to be at peace with him, and to stay in that peace.
The Gospel passage goes on to show us what is the natural, inevitable development that follows on from our entering into this new closeness with Our Lord. One of the two disciples we have been talking about is named here as Andrew, and the first thing he does is dash off to tell someone else about Jesus, who he is and what his message is- he goes to find his brother Simon Peter. That is part and parcel of being a disciple isn’t it- we become apostles too, people who go out to find others and bring them in to the circle and influence of our loving Saviour, so that they too can find in his friendship the peace and the permanence we crave in all the changes that swirl around us and bewilder us, mislead us and disappoint us. And notice what happens when we do evangelise, when we do our bit to explain the faith, to bring people to Our Lord. In explaining it, we enrich ourselves, in teaching- as any teacher knows- we deepen our own understanding. When Andrew first meets Jesus he just calls him “Rabbi”, just recognising that he is a great man, a great teacher, nothing more- at least, nothing he is sure of, even though he may have a few glimmerings of the glorious truth of who he really is. But by the time he is telling his brother about him, he is saying “We have found the Messiah”. So it is that as we try to explain our faith we find we grow in it and fresh and deeper insights come to us- I know I find this myself constantly on the RCIA programme.
And when Jesus meets Simon, as we all know, he gives him a new name- Cephas in Aramaic, or Peter in Greek. This is not a real name as such, it means Stone or Rock and so it is a nickname, like calling someone “Rocky”. We have had a lot in the press lately about nicknames. One of the stupidest sayings in the English language, I always think, is “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me”. Rubbish! We all know that cruel unkind words can do far more harm to us than anything else, and their wounding impact stays with us far longer than any bruise. And sometimes nicknames are nasty, aren’t they, a sly way of insulting us. But in their proper use, they can be a great sign of belonging, being part of the group, one of the family and so on. They can also be a deliberate attempt at forging a new identity- hence all the tags young people use on the street and the internet and so on. That is what is happening here- Jesus is giving Simon a nickname to show Simon is now a particularly close friend, an intimate, and of course also to indicate his new identity, his special function in the group, which Matthew has Jesus spell out- “the rock on which I shall build my Church”.
And so in this Gospel today we can see the evangelist telling us that Jesus has come to satisfy all those deepest spiritual needs of men and women, for something, someone that will not change, in other words, for God. He shows us Jesus inviting us into the place where he dwells, into the eternal, lasting friendship that is the life of God, letting us stay with him, calling us by terms of endearment and giving us a new identity. When shortly Fr Chris holds up the consecrated host and tells us “This is the lamb of God” he will be echoing John the Baptist’s words in this scene. May we respond as those first two disciples did, and come to communion to accept Our Lord’s invitation to come and dwell with him, as he comes to dwell with us, and may we stay in his friendship for ever. Amen.