Sermon on the Range with Fr. Bryce Lungren
(October 5th Sunday Homily)
Readings:
Reading 1 — Habakkuk 1:2-3; 2:2-4
Psalm — Psalm 95:1-2, 6-7, 8-9
Reading 2 — 2 Timothy 1:6-8, 13-14
Gospel — Luke 17:5-10
Transcript:
In the last couple days I had a couple buddies shoot me some links to different stories that really disturbed their peace, and it’s kind of a bit of the same old dog and pony show. I run into this a lot, people that are caught up in, long news way far away and stuff, and it’s got them riled up. It’s got their feathers ruffled. So these two situations, I just, the phrase that came to my mind was, man your post. Just hold your position, stay in your lane, man your post. If we all do that, we’re gonna get through this, you know? That phrase comes to mind in those scenarios, but I also think with our gospel today, when our Lord at the conclusion just simply says, when you have done all that you have been commanded, say, we are unprofitable servants. We have done all that we are obliged to do.
We’re servants, we’ve got a mission and it’s particular to us. If we do that well, like we’ll all get along, we’ll get through this life well and we’ll be peaceful in the process. So man your post, that’s what comes to mind today. I don’t know if you’ve heard this or it seems like in the last year, I’ve heard a lot of this kind of, man, the world’s crazy. We’re on a terrible route and all this. I just seem to hear that more now than I did.
I’m kind of like, well, what am I missing? You know what mean? It’s been raining. The cattle prices are high. What’s all this craziness, you know? Then I think, I know the difference, right? I know the difference. I don’t listen to any news media or social media. It’s those things are real easy venues to get us out of our lane and get us caught up in events that really are outside of our wheelhouse, that we don’t have much influence over and it disturbs our peace.
We can’t hear the voice of God. We’re now unsure that God is a providential father who’s gonna take care of us in good times and bad. We’re just out of our lane. The idea is to stay, to man our post, to hold our position, whatever the Lord has called us to do.
In this kind of sphere of influence, I think of a friend of mine that lived in Italy for a while. Ss the old saying goes, when it was way back in the good old days, or still is, I don’t know, but your kind of wheelhouse, your sphere of influence was as far as the church bells resounded. That was your circle of influence, you might say.
Okay, there’s something to that because if we just get so broad that we lose sight of where we can actually have an effect, the devil knows that. That’s why he tries to get us riled up like that. We wanna stay localized. We wanna man our posts, so to speak. Now that doesn’t mean that we get to just bury our heads in the sand and just be concerned with ourselves and our own little community.
We are called to be compassionate, and if you remember like last week, that was the virtue, compassion that we were shooting for, which worked against the vice of complacency. Complacency is, it’s just everything’s fine, I’m just concerned about myself or not concerned about others. That’s one end of the spectrum, complacency. Today, the other end of the spectrum is curiosity. I’m curious of what’s on the news.
I’m curious of what my, whoever on social media is up to. They’re not necessarily bad in themselves, but they do get us out of our lane, generally speaking. They’re notorious for that. Curiosity is problematic in the spiritual life, pretty much always, okay? We wanna avoid that extreme, curiosity, the extreme of complacency. Compassion’s where it’s at, that’s the virtue.
To be compassionate, to hear and see the needs of others, whether it’s in front of us or even across the world. I don’t want to say that the Lord’s not putting that in front of us, but is he putting it front of us? That’s the question. And so the psalmist, if today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts. We need to really be on our game to hear God’s voice, and then we can be compassionate with what he’s calling us to do.
That’s what we’re after today. Again, we have to be on our guard. As even St. Paul says today, guard this rich trust with the help of the Holy Spirit. We’ve got to really safeguard that voice of the Lord in our hearts, right? Things want to disrupt it, disturb it, and there’s plenty of venues out there to do that. So how do do this? I think our prophet Habakkuk from the first reading really helps us out.
He says, why do you let me see this ruin? Why must I look at misery? Destruction and violence are always before me. The question for all of us to ask is who’s putting this turmoil in front of me? Is it the Lord that has put this need or this problem in front of me that’s got me either riled up or not? Or is it me surfing the internet or whatever? Who’s putting this destruction and violence in front of me that’s disturbing my peace? If it’s the Lord, amen, let’s take action wherever the need is. But if it’s me just looking out of curiosity, that’s when trouble happens. That’s when we get out of tune with God’s voice. We are no longer in peace. Then we can’t take effective shots in our ministry. So again, man your post.
To do that well, we have to stay on our game. We have to be in tune with the voice of the Lord. We have to work against anything that disrupts that communication. And I’m just saying that news media and social media are very easy venues for the enemy to disrupt our communication with God. We want to really be on our game there. I don’t listen to any of it personally. I know how it can influence me. I would just really be on our game in that regard, so that we can hear the voice of the Lord, stay at peace, man our post, and take effective shots where we’re able to, which is right in front of us for sure.
Our vocation, our family, our community, things like that. It can also be way out in front of us or distant throughout the world. We’re all brothers and sisters. But I think the question to ask all of ourselves is, who’s putting it in front of me? Who’s putting this violence and destruction in front of me?
If it’s the Lord, amen, let’s take action. If not, turn it off.
