3rd Sunday ordinary time C

Wile E Coyote has found at last a foolproof plan. After erecting a detour sign (“detoor”) he paints a road on the desert floor up to the blank wall of the canyon, and there he paints what appears to be a tunnel entrance, complete with a light at the end of the tunnel. The speedy Roadrunner will come tearing down the road, turn onto the detour and smash into the wall. It’s perfect! It can’t fail.
Of course you know what happens. The roadrunner races through the painted tunnel; and when Mister Coyote gives chase he smashes into the stone wall of the canyon.

God often does that for us. He opens ways that did not exist, that we could not imagine.

Sometimes we find a twenty dollar bill in an old jacket and the bills are paid, or the x-rays discover a tumor has disappeared; or an accident is a happy coincident; or a misunderstanding is cleared up and there were never hard feelings. Sometimes an argument marks the beginning of a life-long friendship; and sometimes an unkind word was exactly the right thing to say. Sometimes a tunnel opens up between a rock and a hard place.

In today’s first reading, Ezra the priest reads the law of God to his people and they are overjoyed at what they hear. After years of exile in Babylon they have returned to Jerusalem and rebuilt their ruined city. They have fashioned a temple something like the old one and can begin again to practice their religion in their own country. Many are so overcome with emotion they break down in tears of joy.
But Ezra tells them, “Today is holy to the Lord your God. Do not be sad, and do not weep”—  for all the people were weeping as they heard the words of the law. He said further: “Go, eat rich foods and drink sweet drinks, and allot portions to those who had nothing prepared; for today is holy to our Lord. Do not be saddened this day, for rejoicing in the Lord must be your strength!”

Seventy years earlier the youngest in this crowd had witnessed the destruction of Jerusalem. They had been taken as children into exile and there seemed no hope of return. Some of the adults complained that God had abandoned his people, or that their supposedly all-powerful God had been conquered by foreign gods.

These children had grown up and grown old hoping to return someday to the land of Judah but only recently, after the collapse of the Babylonian Empire and the rise of the Persian Empire, and the ascendancy of the Emperor Cyrus, were they permitted to return. These old men and women returned with their eager children and grandchildren, and now, at last, with the support of the emperor and the unexpected generosity of gentiles their city was rebuilt and open for business. And they had a new temple.

As temples go it wasn’t much but the Prophet Isaiah –speaking for God – promised:
Then you shall be radiant at what you see, your heart shall throb and overflow, for the riches of the sea shall be emptied out before you, the wealth of nations shall be brought to you. Caravans of camels shall fill you, dromedaries from Midian and Ephah; all from Sheba shall come bearing gold and frankincense, and proclaiming the praises of the Lord.

No one could expect new shoots from the stump of a ruined tree. It seemed hopeless to everyone but God.

But now, in retrospect, it all made sense. A bud had blossomed from the root of Jesse. What no one could imagine before now made perfect sense. It was organic. The seed that was buried and lifeless had brought forth first the shoot and then the stem and then the bud. The bud burst into blossom and the blossom thickened into fruit and the people of God flourished again.  “Today is holy to the Lord your God. Do not be sad, and do not weep”

In today’s gospel Jesus announces another Day of the Lord.
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me 
to bring glad tidings to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord. 
And
“Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.”

Philosophers today are exploring the depth of our reality and discovering endless potential. Where they had seen nothing but physics and chemistry they see agency and imagination; where they found disintegration, entropy and inertia they discover potential, freshness and vitality. Where they have denied God’s existence they detect the smoky presence of mystery.

We who know Jesus and have been born to his Day of the Lord, understand faith, hope and love. They make sense to us. We know that God sometimes shows us tunnels where we saw canyon walls. We know the future will be better than the present because God will be there.

The alcoholic can drink life without alcohol and the gambler can find wealth without money.  The virgin can be sexually satisfied; and the lonely, find companionship even in solitude.

We cannot always explain these things and the rationalist who demands an explanation and a roadmap and a thorough analysis of all God’s miracles will go away disappointed. But the rationalist cannot explain his faith in facts either, except to say he is terribly afraid of the future.

On this Day of the Lord we remember that God is with us, God has always been with us, God will always be with us, and there is nothing to fear.