How often do you ask/think:  What’s in it for me?     

There are watershed moments in the course of history.  Some for the better, some for the worse.  Some are events, like the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989 or the invention of the atomic bomb.  Some, however, are questions.  “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.”  In the 1980 presidential race, candidate Ronald Reagan posed a question that was pivotal to his victory, but one that I think has had unintended consequences.  It was a simple question, really.  Are you better off now than you were 4 years ago?  As a political question, it was wildly successful.  People began to look to their own pocketbooks as a way to answer that question.  (Maybe they always had, but now it was “out there’ for people to see.)  Perhaps it was the logical culmination of the freedom of the 60’s, or perhaps the question crystallized an unredeemed movement that resides deep in the human heart.  I think what it may have done was inaugurated a whole generation of politics/ethics/morals that looks to ‘the bottom line’ of “What’s in it for me?”   

It is not a new experience for human kind, this we know.  Jeremiah runs into opposition from his own people when he suggests that God wants to be something bigger than just the God of Israel.  “A prophet to the NATIONS I make you.”  Jeremiah will fight the rulers of His day all his prophetic life for that vision of a greater mission for Israel than just “God is on their side doing good things for us.”   

In the gospel story, Jesus returns to his own town and chooses a passage.  (A little different than what we are accustomed to – where the readings are assigned) But, when it was all done, there is a radical difference to what happens next.  Instead of preaching that this vision will one day come, he declares it FULFILLED in their hearing. This is breath taking stuff.  The people in his town were accustomed to hearing this as a dream, as a hope for what one day come to pass.  No, Jesus says.  It IS FULFILLED.  He is claiming his identity as the Messiah, the anointed of Israel.     

In Luke’s version, unlike Mark’s, the audience is initially positive.  “All spoke highly of him.”  And then Luke tells you why.  “Isn’t this the son of Joseph?”  Isn’t he a local boy?  SO, if he is the messiah, and he is the son of someone we know – THEN WE’RE on the ground floor – this will be good for us!  They immediately get into the “What’s in it for me” mentality.   

Jesus senses this – and precisely at the moment when he could take advantage of his popularity – he evokes two little known and uncomfortable stories – Elijah who was sent to a foreigner – an outsider.  And Elisha, sent to Naaman the Syrian.  Through these prophets of Israel, God attended to the needs of other nations and not Israel…  Jesus was trying to tell them something that was central to their own religious tradition, but often overlooked. Israel exists NOT FOR ITS OWN SAKE, but for the sake of other nations, for the sake of the world.  They were not meant to bask in the glory of being called, but in being a magnet to other nations.  The glory of Israel, is that it would not grasp for glory, but would exist for others. 

When the people heard THIS, they resisted.  It quickly becomes a MOB scene because Jesus will not give them what they want.  He won’t be a Messiah for them alone.  He will not cater to the What’s in it for me mentality.   

In our day, since that Ronald Reagan question, we can fall into the same trap.  Expecting God to benefit us all the time.  Expecting God to smile on us and give us good health all the time.  Hey. we’re members of the church, we’re baptized, we come to mass all the time.  I should get something out of it.  But Jesus says NO:  Rather, we ourselves are to be the conduits of God’s grace to the world. 

So. if you find yourself caught up in that question “What’s in it for me?” here is a way to break out of this self centered attitude.  Learn to cooperate with grace wherever you find it.  Sometimes God blesses you.  Rejoice.  Sometimes, God blesses others.  Good.  Get on board.  See how you can cooperate with the flow of grace.  Don’t be resentful.  Don’t complain.  Rejoice in it.   

You’ll find great joy in either case.  Your ultimate purpose is to be a vehicle of grace for the world.  Don’t ask:  What’s in it for me? Or “Where’s your grace?”  Rather, ask: “How can I cooperate with whatever God is doing?”