The mission of the seventy-two disciples

After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them out ahead of him in pairs, to all the towns and places he himself would be visiting. And he said to them, ‘The harvest is rich but the labourers are few, so ask the Lord of the harvest to send labourers to do his harvesting. Start off now, but look, I am sending you out like lambs among wolves. Take no purse with you, no haversack, no sandals. Salute no one on the road. Whatever house you enter, let your first words be, "Peace to this house!" And if a man of peace lives there, your peace will go and rest on him; if not, it will come back to you. Stay in the same house, taking what food and drink they have to offer, for the labourer deserves his wages; do not move from house to house. Whenever you go into a town where they make you welcome, eat what is put before you. Cure those in it who are sick, and say, "The kingdom of God is very near to you."

Third Sunday in Ordinary Time

Nehemiah 8: 2-4a, 5-6, 8-10 

Third Sunday in Ordinary Time - C Cycle

January 24, 2010

INTRODUCTION - After the Persians released the Jews from their Babylonian exile and even assisted them to return to their homeland, it did not happen all at once. After fifty years in Babylon, most of the Jews were quite comfortable there and were not in a hurry to return to their devastated homeland. Even a hundred years after being allowed to go back to Israel, they continued to struggle in their efforts to rebuild their cities and their civilization. Today's first reading brings us back to that period of return and restoration, about 100 years after the Jews started returning home. The Persians were still the reigning power in the Middle East -including Israel. Today's first reading is from the book of Nehemiah. Nehemiah had held an important position as a servant to the Persian king. Knowing the difficulties the Jews were confronted with, the king allowed Nehemiah to return to Israel to help his people rebuild and appointed Nehemiah to be governor in Israel. In an effort to rebuild the nation, Nehemiah started with what was most important and that was their faith in God. In today's first reading Nehemiah called for a general assembly of the people and he delegated the priest-scribe, Ezra, to read God's word to them. Remember, books were very rare in those days and were very expensive, since there were no printing presses. Every letter of every word had to be individually printed by a scribe. Very few people knew how to either read or write. So, for an ordinary person to know God's word, someone had to read it or preach it to them. Ezra read God's word to the people and interpreted it for them. The reading was most probably from the first five books of the bible. Notice how the people actively responded to God's word.

HOMILY - The people who heard God's word in our first reading and in our gospel took what they heard seriously. If they hadn't taken it seriously, their response would have been indifference. They were certainly not indifferent to the Word. Unfortunately, the people of Nazareth eventually responded to Jesus with hostility, which was not the response Jesus was looking for. One of the questions I have been hearing frequently from people who want to take Jesus' words seriously is if the Bible is God's word, how did it come to be. Did it come floating down out of heaven? Well, no. I want to explain today the gospels and how they came to be. I'm not going to try to explain the development of the Hebrew Bible or what we call the Old Testament. That would take quite a long time. I am probably biting off more than I should in even trying to explain the development of the gospels, but we get some special help today from St. Luke. That is why I am bringing up this topic for my homily. I don't think it's something I've ever preached on before. Luke tells us at the very beginning of his gospel why he wrote what he did and how he went about it. He gives us a similar introduction at the beginning of his second work, the Acts of the Apostles.

Most of you probably know that the gospels were not written until many years after Jesus died and rose. So how did people learn about Jesus? Many knew him during his lifetime. He was a public figure, teaching and healing for about three years. Immediately after the Spirit came upon the Apostles at Pentecost, they began to tell the story of Jesus. In spite of persecution, and actually because many believers fled the persecutions, the story of Jesus quickly spread all through the Middle East and the Mediterranean area. The Acts of the Apostles and the Letters of Paul give us some idea of how this process took place so quickly. As the Apostles traveled far and wide, as faith began to grow, and as those who were eyewitnesses to Jesus began to die out or be put to death, the need for authoritative written accounts of Jesus' life and teachings increased. Because of the striking similarities between the first three gospels, scholars reasonably assume there was a collection of Jesus' sayings which they call Q, which stands for the word Quelle (the German word for source). Whatever document contained this collection of Jesus' sayings no longer exists, but it was available in the early Church. The earliest document we have about Jesus is not a gospel. It is Paul's first letter to the Thessalonians and was written about 51 A.D. The earliest gospel, St. Mark, came on the scene 20 years later - around the year 70. Matthew and Luke were written about the year 85 A.D. It is easy to picture Matthew and Luke each having the gospel of Mark in front of them as they composed their own gospels for they borrow heavily from Mark. But they each had other sources as well to help them put their gospels together. As we just heard Luke tell us at the beginning of his gospel, others "have undertaken to compile a narrative of the events that have been fulfilled among us, just as those who were eyewitnesses from the beginning and ministers of the word have handed them down to us." Luke evidentially feels he has some things to say that the others didn't say - and indeed he did have a lot to tell us that the others didn't. Luke goes on to tell us he very carefully investigated everything and wrote it down so that Theophilus might be strengthened in faith regarding the teachings he was already familiar with -through other writings and preaching. The name Theophilus means "friend of God" so he could have been a real person or the name could symbolize all of us. Just to deviate from Luke for a moment, John tells us he wrote his gospel for the same reason, so that we may believe in Jesus as Messiah and Son of God and through this belief we may have life in his name. (Jn 20,31) John assures us that his testimony is that of an eyewitness. (Jn 19,35) By the way, John's gospel is believed to have been written roughly around the same period as Matthew and Luke (or maybe later). Other gospels came to be written too. I have a list of 16 other gospels, most of which came out of heretical groups and were from a later time. Most are in Greek. I have a copy of some that were published in English. I confess I didn't read much from them. I found them boring and at times somewhat bizarre. They really do not reflect the belief of the early Church about Christ and that's why they pretty much were ignored or forgotten. What we have in the four gospels reflects the belief of the early Christians as derived from the apostles and from eyewitnesses. It is the testimony of men and women who were willing to give up their life rather than give up, not just what they believed, but what they had seen. As John says in his first letter: the Word of life was made visible; "we have seen it and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was made visible to us..." (I John 1,2) Matthew, Mark, Luke and John all give us the same message of faith about Jesus, but they are four different authors so they describe Jesus in their own unique way and with their own unique emphasis. We can learn from each of them, and we do throughout our three-year liturgical cycle. When we read what their words, God is speaking to us through them. May the seriousness of their message lead us to respond with faith and love to the Word we hear. Amen.