The Kingdom of God is full of paradoxes: We receive by giving. We receive honor when we are dishonored. Last week we heard Jesus say, “Whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.” And today we hear, “If anyone wishes to be first, he shall be last of all and servant of all.” Practically any of the paradoxes of the kingdom point us to humble service and surrender.
Jesus stood in stark contrast to worldly leaders of the time who were constantly pursuing wealth, power, and control. Where they were about holding on, he was about letting go. Yes, he was and is the God-man who rules the nations, but paradoxically, he gains power by being a servant. In fact, when Jesus proclaimed to be a servant of all, he used the Greek word doulos, which describes a slave of lowest position.
When I contemplate the contrast of the leaders who sought power and control (holding on) and Jesus, who was about letting go, the word surrender comes to mind for me. Jesus is the supreme example of self-surrender. It was Jesus who said, “Father into your hands I commend my spirit.” Surrender is the ultimate act of humility.
So, let’s talk about surrender. Surrender could be defined as to yield ownership or relinquish control. From a faith perspective, surrender is about saying, “Jesus is the Lord of my life”, and really meaning it. We might hear someone say to another person, “You gotta give it to God” as a way encouraging surrender. What exactly does “give it to God” mean?
Giving it to God could mean many things, but in its truest sense, it must mean that he (Jesus) has dominion over my life. A strong word dominion. Dominion could be defined as having sovereignty or control. So, if I say Jesus is the Lord of my life, and I mean it, then he gets to be the lord over everything that I have and everything that I am. That’s a lot!
Most times when we think of handing things over to the Lord we think of things that cause anxiety, our burdens and our struggles. But our blessings and our gifts and strengths belong to him as well. And while we might think that handing things over to the Lord might mean he simply takes them from us, that we no longer have them, that’s really not the case. A better way of thinking of it is to say that when we surrender control we have invited Jesus to have access to those things, both the anxieties and the blessings. We are not the sole owner.
I don’t know about you but there have been times in my life when I have offered up things to God, and I was waiting for God to take them away. I was saying “okay God I am struggling with this and I just can’t seem to do anything with it. Here, take it.” And then I still have it. It’s like, “Wait, that didn’t work. God, didn’t I just give this to you? What’s going on? So, I guess you didn’t take it away.” But in surrender, I can take comfort in knowing that Jesus has access to my burden now. So now, I’m not the only one carrying it. It’s not mine to own, mine to possess or claim for myself. I’ve said “Okay God. It’s yours now.” Maybe we can think of it in these terms: Just as that “certain passer-by” Simon of Cyrene gave Jesus access to carrying his cross. We’ve given Jesus access to carry our cross. We can let the idea of surrender scare us to death. “What if I give God something that I deeply love, is he going to take it away from me?” Think of any cherished relationship in your life. When you say as a parent of a child going to college, “Ok Lord, I give my daughter.” We might have this feeling like wait, what? Is this going to be like Abraham in the OT being asked to give his son Isaac as a sacrifice? What are you going to do with my kid?” That kind of mentality of misses the point of surrender. The point is, what we are doing is we are saying, “Lord, I trust you so much. Thy will be done in her life. I realize that I can’t control the life of my child. I can’t protect her from the slings and arrows of this world, the tragedies and travesties of life. But I can entrust her to you. I can place her under your dominion. And yes, I’m still going to love her and protect her and do all those things that I can do as a parent, but now “she’s yours.” Meaning, you Lord have access to her. And you have access to the relationship that I have with her. See here’s the thing: In doing that, I don’t have my daughter less, but you God have her more.
The same thing could be said of other blessings we’ve received. God has given us certain gifts, certain strengths, certain talents. And I might say, “Okay God I surrender them to you. I give them to you. Use them however you want.” I’m giving God access to those gifts, strengths, and talents that he gave me. I am giving it back to him. That’s what it is to place those things under his dominion, to give him access, to surrender them to his will, to give him access to what belongs to him. The price tag that comes with surrender can indeed be steep. Here’s where I can deliver a first person account, lived out right in front of you. What if we give God access to our gifts, strengths and talents, but he has better plans for them, elsewhere. We can hear the whisperings of the Holy Spirit as we think about the words of 1 Timothy 4:15: “Do not neglect the gift that you have, which was conferred on you through the prophetic word and the imposition of hands by the presbyterate.”
“Wait, what? You mean, leave my parish family? What would have never crossed our minds three years ago has come to pass. Tremendous opportunity lies ahead but at the same time, for right now, this is painful. Donna and I have been very blessed to have seen and been a part of a community that has been built on servanthood and surrender. It never mattered what social standing or giftedness someone came into this building with. It’s always been, “we, though many, are one body in Christ and individually parts of one another”. So many servant leaders, from the clergy to the heads of ministries, to all the worker bees who sacrifice so willingly.
As I was preparing for this homily, reflecting on this gospel, and thinking about my experience on the clergy team, I started to crack up thinking about how the disciples were discussing among themselves who is the greatest. And I thought to myself, “Yeah, Deacon Gary and I used to have those discussions all the time J, “Father Bob likes me better.” “No, he likes me better.” Truth be told, I couldn’t find a more deferential, self-sacrificing brother than Deacon Gary. Among the many things I’ll miss is being called Gary at least 20 or 30% of the time. I don’t know if there could be two guys who were ever better mentors at humility and servant leadership than Fr Bob and Fr Leroy. Fr Leroy couldn’t be here today because he’s doing Mass with the Sisters. No one can put others more at ease, either in a small setting or in front of a church full of people than Father Leroy and you always felt much better about yourself and about the world after spending time around him.
What led me to discuss surrender today, beyond looking at the gospel, came from my reflecting about Fr Bob. I can’t tell you how many discussions that I have had with people over the last few years who, to a person said that what made him a great shepherd, was his welcoming others, empowering others to contribute with whatever gifts they had, including leadership. And in my mind, there’s no better prescription for parish vibrancy than everyone having skin in the game.
What will always stand out to me is what Fr Leroy has told me more than once (and I asked him if it was ok if I say it here, and he said yes). He reflected on his time with Fr Bob as pastor and he said, “Here I was, not even assigned to the parish, simply a priest in residence, and yet Fr Bob shared his parish with me.” For me this has been a great life lesson in surrender. Fr Leroy is a beloved figure no doubt, but the guy who empowered him, to let him shine, is the really beloved guy. Fr Bob has lived out that first paradox of the kingdom of God that I mentioned when I first started this homily, we receive by giving. Fr Bob you’re a blessing.
One more to go. The surrenderer of the century!
The wife of a deacon ain’t easy. I’m sure that Diane, Sandra, Nancy, and Deacon Dave’s late wife Donna have experienced both the joy and the challenges of their special ministry. When I take a step back and think of the level of (I’ll call it) self-donation that my wife Donna has exhibited, especially in these recent months, I can’t think of anyone who has more exemplified what it means to be a servant leader. For someone who has built her life around relationship-building both professionally and socially, and so immersed in parish life throughout the years (36), she has lived out this process of being reassigned to another parish with grace and humility, and has been unwavering in her support throughout.
You know, with surrender there are times when what God is calling us to is so counter to what the world is calling us to that it startles us, and we are inclined to say, as I have a few times today, “Wait, what?” But because of Donna’s strong faith and her love for her husband, there was no “wait, what?” It was more like, “I’ll make scones for the social that follows your last Mass”. My wife inspires me every day!
Surrender is a beautiful thing. When we pursue it, God extends his protection over us, he extends his love, he extends his dominion, his lordship over us, and those we care about.
That’s virtually all that God wants from us – is for us to simply give him access to us. So the invitation we have today is to place ourselves, especially if we are facing something difficult, something overwhelming, something that we can’t change on our own, to be able to say today, ok God I surrender this to you. I trust you. You have access to it. You are the Lord, and you are the Lord of this, because you are the Lord of my life.
And if we have some gift or strength or talent that we know deep down is not being used, for whatever reason, surrender them. Do not leave your light under a bushel basket. God has given you access to him to let your light shine brightly.
And so we pray, Dear Lord, you are the Lord of our lives, and we really mean it. You have called us to surrender, to live our lives demonstrating that we believe that the paradoxes of the kingdom are real. Dear God, you are the same today as you were yesterday and will be tomorrow. When we arrive at a place in our lives where we have truly become humble servants, we know that we will be able to see nothing but joy, nothing but freedom, and nothing but peace, in this world and the next.