Christians are expected not only to speak out of the reality of their faith but to act upon it. Gathering on a Saturday or Sunday to thank God for life does not really help much if we do not finally live it. If we cling to life desperately and never once put it at risk in the presence of others, we have never honestly come to appreciate life's purpose.
Cana tells us that we are a celebrating people, that our discipleship should bring joy to our own place and time in as practical a way as possible. Fear is not supposed to be a factor in a Christian community's life. The water-to-wine story from John's gospel tells us that our transformation of the world should fill it not with fear and hesitation, but with rejoicing and action; we have arrived at a new beginning in God's Creation.
All gifts from God bring an accompanying task. In the synagogue at Nazareth, Jesus opens the agenda of God's Reign to his own life and the life of his neighbors. According to Isaiah, God demands access to the life of the people; no one can keep God from the option to dwell with us. God acts. The blind will see and the poor will have their debt forgiven; those who dwell in darkness will choose their own paths and the oppressed will stand without shackles.
In Nazareth, the people gathered in the synagogue to cheer their native son as he read Isaiah's words to them and told them that the prophecy was fulfilled. He continues with his commentary and their applause stops. He tells them that they are a shadow people, of words only, spoken and lost to the winds. He makes it clear that the most hardened persons, orphans to God's saving history, have responded better than they to God's Word. He insists that God's Word is not simply the pretty poetry of a dead prophet but a two-edged sword that cuts through apathy and malice alike in order to establish a justice forgotten for four hundred years. He tells them that they are dead because their life is sterile and without hope, producing nothing but nostalgia and empty dreams.
Jesus tells the truth and they are cut to the very nerve by it. They surge at him to throw him from the brow of the hill where the synagogue stands. He walks through the crowd and leaves them forever.
In this community of faith, what is our answer to God's agenda? Where do we stand in relationship to the Word of God that demands action upon our world? How do we respond to what we see and hear in our troubled society?
In today's introductory reading, Jeremiah recounts being called as prophet. He is to incite the people to action; he is to be the voice of those who have neither home nor comfort but who must act before history is lost to them. He must place his word and life in the crucible of time and let it burn, a light to all who dwell in darkness. His message will be clear but demanding. He tells us that a person's life is more important than what is immediately at hand, more precious than the sum of the past; it is the key to the responsibility of the present moment and the door that opens a path to the future of God. So that our lives might produce what is possible, we ourselves must choose to be where we must be, to make ourselves available to all who live with us, to all who dare to stand with us on behalf of God's agenda.
Paul speaks to the Corinthians about love as the major Christian gift. According to Paul, living love means to put oneself where Jesus always dwelt, on the cutting edge of life, without fear of the nearby precipice nor of the attitudes of those who hear the challenge of our love.
As disciples of Jesus, we are invited to speak the truth of the prophets, to announce the God who raised Jesus from the dead and live the life which that Resurrection demands of us. If we have died with Jesus, then we have also been raised with him. We are challenged by our life to enter the same struggles which occupied Jesus' time and place but in our own time and in this place.
Are we willing to write the history of our community, to touch our families with a more meaningful and tender love, to embrace our neighbors with hope for the future? Disciples live on the cutting edge of love and faithfulness. Let us dwell there together.
