“Serving God and Making A Difference”
Fifth Sunday in Lent – B
One day, a man was walking along the beach when he noticed a boy picking something up and gently throwing it into the ocean. Approaching the boy, he asked, “What are you doing?” The boy replied, “Throwing starfish back into the ocean. The surf is up, and the tide is going down. If I don’t throw them back, they’ll die.” “Son,” the man said, “don’t you realize there are miles and miles of beach and hundreds of starfish? You can’t make a difference!” After listening politely, the boy bent down, picked up another starfish and threw it back into the surf. Then, smiling at the man, he said, “See, I made a difference for that one.”
Sometimes the wisdom of the young people astounds me! But the young boy proved to the older man that it is all about attitude and determination. Had the young boy held onto the same attitude as the older man he may very well have believed that he could not make a difference, but there is already way too much of that negative attitude in our society as it is! What is needed is faith!
And we do this with ourselves and with others all the time. When it comes to seeing the face of God, we are all too quick to dismiss the face as that of someone or something that has no value. Even as he is lifted from the earth, on the cross, to draw all people to himself, we resist, averting our gaze from the hideousness of seeing the all-powerful God hanging helpless upon a cross because it is too grotesque to gaze upon.
This is an eversion we really must overcome because God will not save us unless we allow him to become the grain of wheat that freely dies to give life. Therefore, we must die to the temptation to gossip, die to the temptation to ridicule and belittle others, we must die to the temptation to be racist, to the temptation to look down upon those who are less fortunate, those who have addictions, those who are homeless, those who are Jew or Muslim or Hindu. Jesus was humble enough to hang out with prostitutes, lepers, paralytics, the possessed, the crippled, the lame, the deaf, the mute to show us how to love everyone. This Jesus is someone whom we can trust!
All of us can trust Jesus! Does he not break himself to become our Bread? Does he not pour himself out to be our Savior and our Lord? This purely innocent man who allowed himself to be broken upon the wheel of an unjust world? And he made it easy for us; we don’t have to go up to him, he comes down to us, every time I consecrate the bread and wine on this table, Jesus becomes present to us; body, soul, and divinity!
We want a doctor, a hospital, medicines; but he gives us himself. We want to stop suffering; he says, I will suffer with you, and then draws all of us into his resurrection!
As we continue our Lenten journey, let us pray fervently for the grace to never turn away from the face of our Savior, who bore the weight of our sins and carried the marks of our inequities on his body.
Let us be determined, as the young boy in our story, not only to serve our loving God, but to make a difference! No one may be around to see it but it sure will feel good to know, as the young boy knew, that we have made a difference – through the grace of God!
God bless us, and all who live in simplicity of heart!
Jeremiah 31:31-34
Hebrews 5:7-9
John 12:20-33