Are You Willing to Surrender to God? - Bishop Barron’s Sunday Sermon

0:00 Peace be with you. Friends, we come to this fourth and final Sunday of Advent, this great season of waiting. I think the readings are all about, I mean, I'll go so far as to say maybe the central motif of the spiritual life. And it's a kind of Copernican revolution. What am I talking about? Well, look, I've said this many times before, but our culture today, it is so self-oriented.

0:31 My choice, being true to myself, I make the decision, not you. I escape from institutions that would pin me down. Think of that billboard I saw when I was still in California. and it was during the time when we were debating the euthanasia bill. Here was the sign. My life, my death, my choice. I thought, yeah, that's the dominant motif of our culture. It's all about me. I decide. My life belongs to me. My death is up to me. My choice. Or think of that film from several years ago, won the Academy Award for Best Picture, The Shape of Water.

1:24 It's about a woman that falls in love with a fish guy. Well, what's striking about that title, it's perfect for our age. Water has no shape, except for the shape that we decide to give it. If you provide a little receptacle and you'll give the water the shape that you want. My life, my death, my body, my choice, my decision, it's all about me.

1:50 That, everybody, is repugnant to the Bible. Now, we can explore where that attitude came from. A lot of things contributed to it. But I can tell you, unequivocally, without fear of contradiction, it is directly repugnant to the Bible. In fact, the Bible, you might say, is constantly trying to move us out of that space into a different space. Namely what? One of surrender to the higher purpose of God. Now, I won't have time in this homily to develop this, but this does not mean some heteronymous surrender to some oppressive will that's trying to dominate me. God doesn't need anything. God doesn't need us.

2:44 God's not competing with us. The surrender to God is what makes me fully alive. And the Bible is trying to get us, look, out of this little puny space of the self-centered self. Augustine's curvatus in se, I'm caved in around myself. It's the pusila anima of the spiritual masters. That means the little soul. Me, mine, my projects, my plans. I decide, my body, my life, my choice. I'm hemmed in by my own selfishness. The Bible is trying to break us free like Lazarus coming out of his tomb. Untie him from all of that self-preoccupation and let him go free that he might establish contact with the good, the true, and the beautiful, and the source of all those things, which is God.

3:45 That's the Copernican Revolution. When Jesus talks about metanoia, and we say repent, repentance, but the word there, nous in Greek, means mind. Meta means beyond. It means go beyond the mind you have. You got a stupid little mind. that's got you caught in this self-preoccupied space. Change that mind, meta, go beyond that mind. Enter into the mind of the kingdom of God. Okay, there's the principle. So I want to look at it in each of our readings as they're trying to ready us for the coming of the Messiah. So now we're in the prophet Isaiah. Listen now. The Lord spoke to Ahaz saying, Ask for a sign from the Lord your God. Let it be deep as another world or high as the sky.

4:39 All right, what's the setting here? Well, I've always kind of felt for poor Ahaz. Ahaz is a young king of Judah, so the southern kingdom. There's Israel in the north, Judah in the south. He's a young king. I won't go into detail, but he's facing a very complex political situation. The threat of the Assyrians. To what degree will Israel be allied with Assyria? various things. I won't go into it. But he's a young king, inexperienced, facing a really difficult moment. Think of one of our politicians, and they're up against the complexities of geopolitics. That's Ahaz. So he turns to Isaiah the prophet, what do I do? And Isaiah says to him this, say, ask for a sign and go crazy, Ahaz. Let it be as high as the sky, as deep as the netherworld. In other words, ask for something big, dream big. Turn your life over to God.

5:43 Get out of the little narrow space of your decisions and your preoccupations and surrender to God. Well, then Ahaz, hey, hey, I won't ask. I'm not going to tempt the Lord. That's a weaselly little answer. That's born of his own pusillanimity, his own small-souledness. So then Isaiah responds, listen, O house of David. Ahaz is a descendant of David. Is it not enough for you to weary people? Must you also weary my God? See, God is tired. He's weary of our little selfish preoccupations. God wants us out of that and to surrender to his purposes. Therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign. And then famously, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son. You shall name him Emmanuel. So now hang on to that. We're going to get back to it. But God's saying, get out of your little space.

6:38 Dream big, and I'm going to show you something that you didn't even imagine possible. Again, hang on to that. Now, look at reading number two. Paul to the Romans. This is Paul introducing himself to the Romans. Listen, Paul, of course, he was Saul, Shaul. He's got a new name now. Paul, a slave of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God.

7:12 Paul, I am king of the world. Paul, I'm president of this. Paul, I run this organization. You know, like when we introduce ourselves, we write up a resume or we're writing a little blurb or something, we usually kind of brag about our accomplishments. What's the first thing the apostle Paul says about himself? I'm a slave.

7:34 And he knew about slavery. I mean, it was a common practice in Paul's time. He knew all about slavery, what that meant. Doulos is the word he uses in Greek. I'm a slave of Christ Jesus. The first thing he says about himself with pride, spiritual correctness, I don't belong to myself. It's not my life, my body, my death, my choice. No, no, no. I'm a slave. I'm a servant of a higher power. Of whom? Well, of this Mashiach Yeshua. He would have been thinking in his Hebrew mind. In Greek, you would have Christos Jesus, Christ Jesus. I'm a slave of somebody else. I belong to somebody else. That's theirs.

8:25 Now we're talking. Not my little stupid projects. I'm a slave of this higher power. There's a power already at work in you that can do infinitely more than you can ask or imagine. That's Paul too, isn't it? Stop playing your little games. Like Ahaz, come on, dream big. Ask for a big sign. Come on. No, no, no, I'm afraid.

8:51 God's got something in mind for you that you can't begin to imagine. Surrender to it. Then listen as he goes on. Called to be an apostle. He's a slave, and then he puts himself in the passive voice. How we love the active voice. I run this. I'm in charge of that. I'm the president of this, and watch me accomplish this. Who cares? Bore me to death with that. Paul put himself in the passive voice. I've been called by somebody else. And that's his road to Damascus. This higher power called him. He was on the wrong road. He's doing exactly the wrong thing. And then he got called by a higher power. To be what? An apostle. Apostelian in Greek means to send. He's called and then he's sent. And again, I write my resume. I do this, I do that, I'm in charge of this, in charge of that. Oh, come on. Grow up. Grow up.

9:50 What really makes you come alive is when you're called by Christ and then sent by him on mission. Called to be an apostle, to be sent for his purposes. Now we're talking. Now your life will be really interesting. You know, not everyone's called to the priesthood, I get that. But I go back in my own life, you know, when the young man, I put my hands like this in the hands of Joseph Bernadine, who ordained me to the priesthood. And I said, I promise obedience to you and your successors. Not knowing much about him, knowing nothing about any of his successors. But I surrendered at that point. surrendered my life, my career, my aspirations to what they wanted me to do.

10:44 Called to the obedience of faith. A lovely phrase. That's a few lines now further along. The obedience, obedere means to listen, of faith. What's faith? Well, I don't see clearly. I'm not in charge. I'm not managing all this. I see, again, Paul, through a glass darkly. I'm trusting by an act of obedience in a power beyond me that has called me and sent me. Can you see, everybody? That's the complete opposite of what our culture always holds up as the ideal. Me, mine, I'm in charge. my life, my body, my choice. The opposite is on display.

11:40 Okay? So there's the first reading, Ahaz. Second reading, Paul. Now, a glance at the gospel, this gorgeous gospel from Matthew. We always come to Mary at the end of Advent. She's the key figure. But the focus in this particular passage is on Joseph. Joseph finds out Mary's pregnant. He's a mensch, you know, he's a righteous man, and we hear her correctly. And he doesn't want to expose her to scandal. And so, okay, I'm going to divorce her quietly and all that. He's acting like a good, pious Jew who's also being very compassionate toward this woman who's gotten pregnant outside of wedlock. I mean, so that's what we're dealing with here, right? Then what happens? Well, such was his intention when, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared and said, Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. It's through the Holy Spirit this child has been conceived in her.

12:37 And Joseph obeys. That's the moment. Joe's not a bad man, on the contrary, but he's in control of it. He knows what he needs to do, and he's making his decisions. But then, and look, salvation history depended upon it. At the key moment, Joseph opened himself to obey a higher voice. The angel appearing in a dream means a higher realm of reality broke into his world. And did he understand it completely? Of course not. Was he in control of it? Obviously not. But he obeyed. He had the obedience of faith. He was sent by this higher power on mission. And then I'll bring this home. How lovely.

13:32 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said to the prophet. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel. That's what God said to Ahaz long before the time of Mary and Joseph. Ask for a sign and the kid won't do it. He won't surrender. So God goes, I'll give you a sign then myself. Here's the sign. And Ahaz probably thought, I don't know, what does that sign mean? But see, people of faith, who have the obedience of faith, who can surrender to a higher call, they're willing to wait. And then many centuries later, it came true. And Ahaz didn't have the courage or the faith to ask for a sign. Joseph opened himself to the angel, and then the sign became apparent to him. All right, everybody, last Sunday of Advent, and this is the question.

14:29 Everything else is a footnote in a way. This is the question. Do you live in that little musty mind, me, mine, I, my projects, my choice, my life? Or are you willing to open your heart, to ask for a sign, to surrender in the obedience of faith. Everything else in your own life is a footnote to that decision. And God bless you.