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Homily for the Sixth Sunday In Ordinary Time
(Feb 11, 2007)

Gospel Intro:  Living in the richest country in the world, most of us will hear Jesus’ words today much differently than the poorest of the Maya Indians in Cosgaya or Komchen , Mexico . Even if we are not sure what Jesus means when he says: “Blessed are you who are poor” or “Woe to you who are rich” – today’s Gospel should be a challenge to our common everyday thinking.

Homily
Story: Abraham Lincoln didn’t go to church regularly on Sunday, because his presence was rather disruptive, but he often went to the Wednesday night service at the Presbyterian Church. He usually sat in the pastor’s study with the door open to the sanctuary so he could hear the service in relative seclusion. One such night while he was walking back to the White House with his aide, the aide asked Lincoln how he liked the sermon. Lincoln replied: “I thought it was well thought through, powerfully delivered and very eloquent.”  So you thought it was a very good sermon?   No, Lincoln replied, It failed. It failed because Dr. Gurley did not ask us to do something great.”

What is great worship?
   It is not enough to have fascinating ideas about God and Jesus Christ, if a sermon, if a time of worship together does not call us to conversion, it has failed.  It must have an impact on us.
   If we talk a lot about Jesus as if he is here with us, but we do not believe that he is truly alive and in our midst, we have missed the whole reason for coming together.
   Having our minds soar up to lofty religious thoughts is not enough. Jesus Christ who is alive and in our midst wants to take over our hearts and calls for a change in our lives – otherwise religion is a history lesson and a memorial of wonderful things that happened long ago. 

Paul put it this way:
If you don’t believe that people are raised from the dead, well then Christ must not have been raised.
If Christ is not raised and alive with us, then your faith is in vain/empty ineffective, --
      If Jesus Christ is not alive today, what we do here is without real impact, nothing is really happening.
Only if Jesus is alive can the water of baptism bring forgiveness of sins and eternal life
If Jesus is not Risen and alive, the Eucharist is just bread and wine.  (empty, vain)
If  Jesus is not alive, our church is a waste of time and your Confirmation is nothing more than a show.
  If we are wrong about the Resurrection, then Christians are the most pitiable of all people.  

What do you believe?    Is Jesus alive today? 
 What helps you to believe that Jesus is really here with us?
Story: A man who was grieving over the loss of his wife, one night took a walk with his little daughter. As they were walking along together, the little girl kept looking up at the stars. Finally her father asked her what she was thinking about, and she answered: “If the bottom side of Heaven is so beautiful, how wonderful the top side must be. That’s where Mommy is and I know how much she loves beautiful places.  While that little girl walked among the stars, she helped her dad take hold of the hand of God and grow in his faith. 

Conc: Back to Abraham Lincoln. If our time here in church together does not help you to believe in Jesus Risen and bring you into the presence of the Living God; if what we do here does not have an impact on your life, then we have failed to have true Worship.