The Incarnate Jesus is God’s ‘Yes’ to us
At the start of our readings, the disciples have been out-and-about healing, teaching, solving the world's problems, sorting out the Church of God and trying not to create any new issues.
They report to Jesus who can tell by their stories, probably the lines under their eyes and the pitch of the voice, that His little motley crew are weary. So he says ‘’Yes" to their need and tries to take them off for some compassionate leave.
“Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.”
And it seems that for the boat ride and possibly only the boat ride, they do have some space. But as soon as they land it’s all on again. The people recognise Jesus, round up the sick, the halt, the maimed, the blind and bring them to wherever Jesus will be.
And Jesus says ‘Yes’ to them all. He always says Yes to those who come in faith, hope and belief. And all it takes is to touch the edge of his cloak.
On a bigger and broader scale, from the perspective of history, this intriguing little man, the God made flesh, is God's Yes to the people of old. God sent a string of prophets, Moses, Abraham and Jacob to name just a few of the top-billing ones and even though people liked what they saw and heard and responded with a grin when it came to saying ‘Yes’ in their daily lives in the long haul then they were a bit iffy. In the wilderness, it was easier to gossip and whinge than to say Yes. They became a bit squishy around the edges, more inclined to say ‘err… maybe’ instead of an unequivocal, simple, uncomplicated and resounding ‘Yes’.
I often wonder about the healed people in today’s gospel. I wonder what happened to them and I wonder where they were on Good Friday when the chips were at their lowest, in fact, to stretch the symbolism way too far there were no chips on the table at all, the cards were scattered all over the floor and the casino's front door had been boarded up.
If we are honest, there are times when we too are fickle, ambivalent, and wonder what on earth we are doing and why we are doing it anyway. We are hesitant to say our ‘Yes’ to Him; thus we are hesitant to say ‘Yes’ to ourselves and ‘Yes’ to others. So the whole thing can easily slide downwards in a slippery spiral of ambiguity at best, or negativity at worst.
The message of the compassionate leave and healing in the gospel is that God chooses to say ‘Yes’
He says ‘Yes’ to us in Jesus Christ. God says ‘Yes’ and consciously chose to send us His Son as his living, breathing, incarnate Yes. Our loving Master is God's Yes in a physical Body. And this same Jesus continues to say ‘Yes’ to us at every Eucharist when He chooses to feed us with His living bread and His living word. When He literally places His own vulnerable self into our hands. He says ‘Yes’ to us in and through the support we give each other.
What is it I wonder that makes us so slow to say our Yes and respond appropriately and accordingly? Is it perhaps that we know that there is a cost involved?
One of the things I hang onto is something I read literally decades ago and I can’t remember the exact words but it was something like…
‘Even when you don’t feel like praying then you can tell God that you want to pray and even when you can’t do that, then you can tell Him that you want to want to pray.’
The same principle applies here. Even when we are reluctant to say Yes, you can always say I want to say Yes and if that is honestly where you are up to and where your heart is at, then The Master will always say His own Yes to that your mustard seed of faith.
In absolutely everything that we are, like Mother Mary who said her own Yes, God is never embarrassed by us but is always saying a resounding Yes to us. He will consciously choose this because He can do no other and He can be nothing else.
Walter Brueggemann who we heard from last week captures this far more eloquently. I’ve put a little bit about him in today’s pew sheet and I leave it to him to have the last word.
You are the God who is simple, direct
clear with us and for us
You have committed yourself to us
You have said yes to us in creation
yes, to us in our birth
yes to us in our baptism
yes to us in our awakening this day
But we are of another kind
More accustomed to ¨perhaps, maybe,
we'll see
Left in wonderment and ambiguity
We live our lives not back to your yes
But out of our endless ¨perhaps¨
So we pray for your mercy this day
that we may live yes back to you
Yes with our time
Yes with our money
Yes with our sexuality
Yes with our strength and with our weakness
Yes to our neighbor
Yes and no longer ¨perhaps¨
In the name of your enfleshed yes to us
Even Jesus who is our yes into your future. Amen.