Exhibit A. For the past 39 years the game show, Jeopardy, has been one of the most popular on television. If you haven’t seen it, the show is basically a trivia game but, oh, what trivia. They ask about news, about science – chemistry, physics, biology, about the arts – painting, music, dance. They ask about geography and history. They ask about current events and books and contemporary culture. They ask about celebrities, about TV shows, about movie stars. In other words, the contestants on Jeopardy are really smart, with a broad knowledge base. Last week this was one of the questions, a fill in the blank: “Our Father, who art in heaven _________ be thy name.” Not one of the three contestants could fill in the blank that everyone here today could. And I’ll bet if they had asked that question 39 years ago when they were just starting out every one of those long-ago contestants could have answered it as well. We are at a new moment in our nation’s history when even a commonplace of religion is not widely known.
Exhibit B. I read the digital version of the New York Times every day. The motto of the paper is “all the news that’s fit to print.” To fulfill that mandate there are 46 different sections of the paper. Besides the ones you would expect like news and sports they have sections on lifestyle, parenting, food, technology, travel, health. What they don’t have a section on is faith or religion. I guess they don’t consider that fit to print.
Exhibit C. The connection between the younger generations and God/religion have become tenuous. I could give statistics but really all I need do is look at my own family – which I suspect is something like yours. The younger cohort, despite years of Catholic education, no longer practice the faith. They are people with great values and are kind and generous. Yet they do not find that the Church addresses their spiritual hungers or their search for meaning. When they look for something to calm their restless hearts they don’t look to Jesus.
The evidence is clear. We no longer live in a society which can be considered as Christian or even religious. People like us here attending Church at St. James on a Sunday are no longer the rule, but the exception. We are an island of belief in a skeptical sea. There are doubtless many personal, society, ecclesial, social, cultural, historical reasons that we have reached this point that some commentator is currently unpacking. But instead of looking back at how we got here, it seems to me that the gospel asks us to look forward to where we’re going. Jesus says, “Go to the lost sheep and make this proclamation, ‘the kingdom of God is at hand.’” We come to Church because here we experience how close God is to us, because here we our wounded and battered hearts find consolation, because here our faults and failings are washed away in forgiveness, because here we connect with other people in ways that enrich our lives, because here we are reminded that we and our beloved departed have an eternal destiny, because here we learn it is more blessed to give than to receive, because here we find direction to making the world a more just and peaceful place, because here we feel the Holy Spirit filling us with God’s love. Jesus sends us forth because what we have here is meant for out there. We can’t cling to faith as our personal teddy bear but rather must share what we have because, whether they know it or not, people we care about need the support, the nourishment, the medicine that Jesus alone provides.
How are we to do it? How are we to go out to the lost sheep? What does it mean for us to say today, “The kingdom of God is at hand?” Quite frankly it is a bit daunting to even think about it. Again, if you are anything like me, even within our families we haven’t found how to convey the beauty and hope we possess as people of faith in a way that makes sense to them. Where does that leave us? There are three concrete things we can do even in our insecurity about being sent. First, and most importantly, we can pray. Ultimately what is going to turn our world around from a place of violence to a place of peace is God. We don’t need to have a sophisticated plan of evangelization as much as we need to have trust and reliance on the presence and power of God in our lives and in our world. We pray that God will change minds and hearts in ways beyond us.
Second, we should deepen our own relationship with Jesus. Reading the Bible, being in a prayer circle, receiving Holy Communion, simply letting ourselves be loved – we use any means necessary to connect more intimately with Jesus. Faith is not something which is taught as much as it is something which is caught. If people can see how our lives are richer and fuller and happier because Jesus is with us, they will want to share it. Remember the line from the movie, “I’ll have what she’s having.” I’ll have Jesus.
Finally, we can listen. The one thing you can be sure of is that everyone is yearning for more in their lives – more love, more hope, more joy, more happiness. We need to listen to the yearnings of the human heart from those who are woven into our lives. Since we are made in the image and likeness of God we can be sure that what they are really after is God. If we listen, we’ll hear those divine echoes and reflect them back. As the great African bishop, St. Augustine put it, “Our hearts are restless until they rest in you, Oh Lord.” All restless hearts need Jesus.
