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Click here to listen to this homily.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n Our great state of Texas is, of course, home to the best music in the nation\u2014the best country music, even the best gospel and blues. I\u2019ll honor no objections from any of our visitors from Mississippi, Alabama, or Tennessee. While preaching, I limit myself strictly to facts, you see, so you know I\u2019m telling you the truth here, and it\u2019s no use arguing about it.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Now one of my favorites is the bluesman Blind Willie Johnson, a haunting voice, a man who in his music preached a rather powerful Christ. Born down around Brenham, he lived most of his life in the little town of Marlin and later in Beaumont. In the late 1920s, however, he recorded a number of songs right here in Dallas\u2014haunting as I said, songs which capture something of the wrath and mercy of God\u2014the real God, before he is whittled down by sentimentality and comfort.[1]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n One song of his has always stood out to me. It\u2019s called \u201cIt\u2019s Nobody\u2019s Fault But Mine.\u201d It\u2019s a song about salvation and scripture, about family, spiritual purpose and spiritual failure. The song begins simply in a woeful voice, \u201cNobody’s fault but mine\/ If I don’t read it my soul be lost.\u201d The song goes on: \u201cFather he taught me how to read…Mother she taught me how to read\/ If I don’t read it my soul be lost, nobody’s fault but mine.\u201d \u201cI have a bible in my home…I have a bible of my own\/ If I don’t read it my soul be lost.\u201d[2]<\/sup><\/a> We don\u2019t sing like that anymore, we comfortable Christians. We don\u2019t preach like that anymore, we comfortable preachers. We don\u2019t have the guts. We don\u2019t have the spirit.<\/p>\n Now I bring this song to your attention not simply to share with you good music but also because of what we just heard\u2014this rather odd and (on the surface at least) oddly placed parable. We have been following the Lord in recent weeks as he has argued and debated with scribes and Pharisees. It didn\u2019t go well with them to put it simply. Arguments broke down, and at the end of it\u2014not winning anybody over\u2014Jesus just left. He said to his disciples, \u201cYou see this temple? Soon there\u2019s not going to be a single stone standing.\u201d[3]<\/sup><\/a> \u201c[T]he gospel will be preached,\u201d he said, \u201cand then the end will come.\u201d[4]<\/sup><\/a> Failing to persuade his listeners, Jesus began to talk about judgment\u2014about something he called the \u201cgreat tribulation,\u201d about the darkening of the moon, the falling of the stars, the coming of the \u201cSon of Man,\u201d and the \u201cgrinding of teeth.\u201d[5]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n And then he tells this story about \u201ctalents.\u201d Now, contrary to a lot of preaching on this particular parable, I do not think Jesus is talking about tithing or giving. I doubt very seriously that in middle of talking about tribulation and judgment, Jesus took a break just to talk about that\u2014as if he was thinking, \u201cI\u2019d better be sure to give all those preachers down the line some good biblical fodder for all their capital campaigns.\u201d No. That\u2019s not what Jesus is talking about.<\/p>\n Rather, he\u2019s talking about spiritual vigilance and spiritual effort. Jesus had just come from the temple\u2014rejected. Soon he would be arrested and crucified. As John would say in summary: \u201cHe came to\u2026his own, but his own people did not accept him.\u201d[6]<\/sup><\/a> And so, as Jesus would say rather heartbreakingly, \u201cthe kingdom of God will be taken away from you,\u201d given to another.[7]<\/sup><\/a> The Pharisees and scribes (and let\u2019s be clear: not the Jewish people): they are those servants, given the \u201ctalents\u201d of the Law and of the promises, who didn\u2019t make good use of the gifts given them by God. Rather, they hoarded the legacy of the covenant, all to make for themselves a kingdom built upon human pride. The \u201cwicked\u201d servants are those who were given the good things of God (the Law, the prophets, the wisdom), but who kept it all for themselves, like it belonged to them by right. \u201cYou shut the kingdom of heaven in people\u2019s faces,\u201d he had said to them earlier.[8]<\/sup><\/a> They didn\u2019t do anything with the good things they were given except make themselves spiritually blind, seeking their own glory instead of God\u2019s glory.[9]<\/sup><\/a> That\u2019s why they were cast into the outer darkness, to keep with the imagery of the parable. This has nothing to do with giving or tithing. It\u2019s deeper than that. It\u2019s about spiritual laziness; it\u2019s about every excuse you\u2019ve ever given God.<\/p>\n In the soul of each and every one of us (even in the silly and bitter atheist) there are \u201cimmortal longings,\u201d to quote Shakespeare.[10]<\/sup><\/a> That is, we are given some sense, some yearning for the divine\u2014each one of us. It belongs to our nature to wonder about what is infinitely beyond us. And some of us even have faith. We believe. Now what\u2019s important is what you do with what you have.<\/p>\n Maybe you only half-believe; the other half of you doubts everything. Fine, that\u2019s where you are. But what are doing about it? Heidegger said once that \u201cquestioning is the piety of thought.\u201d[11]<\/sup><\/a> Are you wrestling with these bitterly eternal questions, or are you simply hooked like a fish by the demagogues of our fleeting and foolish world? Have you thought about your soul, your existence, this vivid thing we call life\u2014I mean really thought about it? Or do you just laugh along or hate along with all the shallow sophisticates of the world: the Bill Mahers, the pundits, the celebrities, the influencers? Do you read a few headlines, watch an odd documentary some Tuesday night when nothing else is on\u2014never really reading anything, never really praying, never really seeking that needful silence in which all truth is found?<\/p>\n And if you believe\u2014if yours is an intellect illumined by the divine virtues\u2014does your will lag behind? How many of us have committed to prayer\u2014\u201cThis time I mean it!\u201d\u2014only for it to come to nothing? Work, family, work, overscheduling the life out of your kid, that dangerous amazing phone in your pocket: how many things do we let distract us from the prayer we know we need? How many of us with a heart for service, full of compassion, have only that\u2014a heart, and nothing else, no good deeds to show for it? \u201cI really would like to volunteer at the Austin Street Center\u2026someday\u2026maybe.\u201d \u201cI\u2019d love to get to Mass, but we\u2019ve got a tournament this weekend.\u201d \u201cNobody’s fault but mine.\u201d That\u2019s what that old bluesman said, wasn\u2019t it? \u201cNobody’s fault but mine.\u201d What have you been given? What have you done with it? It\u2019s not just the Pharisees that will be called to account; me and you will be too.<\/p>\n I imagine that at the judgment the hardest thing to hear will not be the indictment of all our crimes and misdemeanors and sins. We all know what our sins are, and so does God, and by the time you get to the end of it all, I reckon both God and you will simply be bored by it, tired even to hear about all your worn out pathetic sins. And in any case, God in his grace will forgive, simply out of love for us in our weakness. No, the litany of our past sins will not be what hurts on that latter day of judgment. Rather, it\u2019s a question that will cause us the most pain when we stand in that finally honest place before God. It\u2019s the question: \u201cWhat were you waiting for?\u201d That moment we realize we were free all along. We really weren\u2019t too busy. We really weren\u2019t too tired. \u201cWhat were you waiting for?\u201d Heaven is so close. God is so close. What are you waiting for? I preach to myself. I preach to you. Let\u2019s listen to God together. Let\u2019s give up our excuses together. Let\u2019s find this kingdom Jesus talks about. It has drawn near. He said it.[12]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n [1]<\/a> Texas State Historical Association, http:\/\/www.tshaonline.org\/handbook\/online\/articles\/fjoaw<\/em><\/p>\n [2]<\/a> Blind Willie Johnson, \u201cIt\u2019s Nobody\u2019s Fault But Mine\u201d (1927)<\/p>\n [3]<\/a> Matthew 24:2 paraphrase<\/em><\/p>\n [4]<\/a> Matthew 24:14<\/p>\n [5]<\/a> Matthew 24:21, 29, 44, 51<\/p>\n [6]<\/a> John 1:12<\/p>\n [7]<\/a> Matthew 21:43<\/p>\n [8]<\/a> Matthew 23:13 (English Standard Version)<\/p>\n [9]<\/a> John 5:44<\/p>\n [10]<\/a> William Shakespeare, Anthony and Cleopatra<\/em> V.ii<\/p>\n [11]<\/a> Martin Heidegger: Basic Writings<\/em>, 341<\/p>\n