12th Sunday in Ordinary Time (B)

INTRO: Geography was never my STRONG SUIT?
You tell me to go NORTH and undoubtedly, I end up going South!

But…there are some interesting facts in the bible where GEOGRAPHY plays an important part!!

Take for instance today the SEA OF GALILEE………….

It is a body of water…correct??
The apostles fished in it.
Jesus walked on it.
And
FUN FACT: it is also a body of water that SEPERATES 2 GROUPS of people!!!

The Jews from the Gentiles!!!!!!!

The Jews lived on one side of this body of water, while the Gentiles lived on the other side. THEY DIDN’T MIX either!!!

Here the apostles are on the boat and what does Jesus say???

“Let us cross to the other side!” The command was a SHOCKER!!!

Let us go from our “safe” land…the land of the Jews…. into the land of the GENTILES!

Jesus took the leadership to challenge His followers.
To cross the Sea and
Enter the unknown territory of the Gentiles:
To do good work there as they had already been doing in their safe and familiar land …. the land of the Jews!

TELL STORY

I was talking to a dad the other day at a gathering…
“So, what do you do for work?”

He began to explain the technicalities of his software job. I was impressed and commented……

“Sounds like you are good at this and have been doing this for a long time now…. right?”

He responded: “Well, actually, I just started…and it is new territory for me!”

For most of us at times we also walk into new territory…

A new job
A new neighbor
A sad child

And Jesus reminds us that he is in the boat and going with us into our new territories as He went with the Apostles to the other side of the sea of Galilee!

For this Gospel story, the new territory on the other side of the sea was Jesus wanting the apostles to BRANCH OUT in its mission of building up the kingdom with the Gentiles….

And it worked.

CONCLUSION

Remember we are also like the Apostles. We are to branch out to others in kindness, acknowledgement, unity, and harmony. It is this very Eucharist and Holy Communion that changes us to branch out and further the Kingdom of God on earth.