Readings: Ezekiel 17:22-24; psalm 92; 2 Corinthians 5:6-10; Mark 4:26-34
Grace and peace to you my dear brothers and sisters in the Lord.
After prayerfully going through the readings of today, I sense that the Holy Spirit has these messages for us.
I. SERENITY TO ACCEPT WHAT WE CANNOT CHANGE.
Many of us know the prayer called the Serenity Prayer. It is a prayer written by an American theologian named Reinhold Niebuhr. The prayer goes thus;
God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.
There are some things in life that we can change and God has called us to change, and there are some things that we can only do our best with, that only God can change in His way, at His time and according to His will. Unless we have the wisdom and discernment to know the
difference, we may find life very frustrating.
In the First Reading, the Lord says it is I who will do this and that, I will cause this and that to happen, only God can make some things happen.
To someone who is used to being in control, who likes to fix people and things, who is frustrated when you can’t fix, change or control a situation, maybe we just need to learn and admit our limits, our sphere of influence.
Some of us are so much frustrated and bitter about a/our family member whom we want to return to the faith. Some of us are beating ourselves up because we have not succeeded in reversing a situation, ending a conflict in the family. We are blaming ourselves that our child or spouse is an alcoholic or our child is attracted to the same-sex. We are unhappy because we cannot solve someone’s problem or the problems of everyone in our family.
We are angry and full of regret because a family member dies and we are blaming ourselves for not saving them or for not doing more than we did. We believe that things would have been different if we had done more.
While this may be true in some instances, in many cases, it is not. God will not blame us for what He didn’t give us control over and even if we did less than we think we should have, God is still merciful and He can right our wrongs. He doesn’t want us to live with guilt and
regret, when we can have peace by obtaining forgiveness and accepting what we cannot change.
II. THE GOSPEL
In the Gospel, Jesus compares the kingdom to a seed that a man sows. A man sows the seed, God gives the growth. Ours is to sow the seeds – we have no power over how and when they grow.
In 1 Corinthians 3:6-7, Paul says He sowed, Apollos watered but God
gave the growth.
Some of us, after sowing, want to do the watering and control the sprouting of the seed as well. We can only do what God has given us the grace and permission to do. We must take a step back and understand that there are certain things we can't control, that only
God can control.
Some of us find it difficult to even surrender to God because we want to be the ones to work everything out in our own way. When we are forced to see that we are limited and confronted with our helplessness, we become broken, restless and joyless.
We need the wisdom to know the difference between what we can change and what only God can. We need the wisdom to surrender to God what we can’t control and we need the grace to be patient with God and find peace while He does His work. He is the Lord not us.
……..
HAPPY FATHERS DAY TO ALL OUR FATHERS.
Remember that living is seeding – check what you are sowing now so that at the time of harvest, you shall reap with joy. We pray for all Fathers, may you receive more wisdom, courage and serenity, Amen.
Sermon preached by Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Baraka-Gukena Okami on June 16, 2024