02/22/26 Autobiography: Co-Author

I hope today's homily inspires and motivates you, and I also hope that it leaves you hungry

for the one who gave everything to feed you.

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You're reading from the Holy Gospel, according to Matthew. "Lord, you, Lord, chapter 4 versus 1 through 11." At that time, Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. He fasted for 40 days and 40 nights and afterwards he was hungry. The tempter approached him and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, command that

these stones become loaves of bread, Jesus said and reply, "It is written, one does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes forth from the mouth of God." Then the devil took him up to the Holy City and made him stand on the parapet of the temple and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down. For it is written, He will command His angels concerning you.

And with their hands they will support you, lest your dash your foot against the stone." Jesus answered him. Again, it is written. You shall not put the Lord your God to the test." Then the devil took him up to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the

world in their magnificence and he said to them, "To him, all these I shall give to you. If you will prostrate yourself and worship me at this Jesus said to him, "Get away, Satan. It is written. The Lord your God shall you worship, and him alone shall you serve." Then the devil left him and behold, angels came and ministered to him.

The gospel of the Lord. Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ. May you have a seat. So I came across this question and I think it is a good question, but it is the question of the devil.

Have you ever wanted to write a book? And the chances are, if you are listening to this, chances are, "Yes, do you want to write a book because they did some studies?" And repeatedly people will say that over 80% of people, at least in this country, 80% of people, plus, have wanted to write a book at some point, they considered and even

some of you have been planned to write them, some of you have been begun to write a book.

“And he asked the question, "If you want to write a book, what kind of book would it be?”

Would it be something like non-fiction, or something you passionate about? You get to really dive into, would it be thriller, would it be like you really love reading mystery?"

And I would love to be able to write incredible who done it, or fantasy or whatever

that kind of thing is, I think that is really fascinating. It was even more fascinating, not only that over 80% of people want to write a book, less than 1% of people actually end up doing it, but less than 1% of people actually write a manuscript, get it published, and have this thing that over 80% of people want less than 1% of people actually do, in fact, something even more striking is less than 15%

of people even start. This is one of those situations where we want to do this thing, but we don't. And so here's a question, if someone was writing your biography, because that's one of the kinds of books we could have, a biography, if someone was writing your biography, would they include anything about this season of your life?

Not because in this season, you're extremely popular, or you have a lot of influence or that you necessarily have a lot of fame in the season, or this significance, but could someone look at this season in your life or in my life and say, "They've already started." Whatever it is, they're going to become, like, "They've already begun," no one would say it.

Here we are at length. The beginning of the length, I think it's a great time to reassess and look at our lives and say, "Okay, if I live the next 10 years, if I live the next 10 years, if I live the next 30 years, the way I've lived the last seven days, who will I become?" Like if I live the next 25 years of my life, the way I've lived the last seven days of my

life, who will I be at the end of the story?

“Because the reality, of course, is that every life is a story, and the reality is every person”

is an author. The question is, "Who will you become at the end of the story?" So here at the beginning of length, we're going to do this series, this series is called autobiography.

The reality is this, is that, because it's called autobiography because why?

Because no one may write a biography of our lives. But our story, our life story is being written, and it's an autobiography, though let me

He's the ultimate author, but what God wants is God wants us to be co-authors with him. This is one of his plans for our lives. He's the ultimate author. He wants us to be co-authors with him. And the crazy thing is, the story is already ongoing. This is remarkable. The story is already your story. My story is already ongoing. But there's this moment, and this

is why it's a critical for us at the beginning of length. Look at this, because remember,

“life is a story. Every person is an author. Who will you become at the end of the story?”

But we realize there's always a moment in every story when someone picks up the pen and begins to write on purpose. That moment where the story becomes your life story, where it actually actually becomes an autobiography because you finally made the decision, okay, I'm going to be the co-author. I'm not just going to kind of be a passenger in my life. I'm making the decision to actually be the co-author. What I mean to say is every story has a beginning. Even if you've

already been living, even if there's already stuff that's happened in your life, every story has a beginning, a significant start. A moment where the character acts, a moment where the character chooses, a moment where the character decides to move. So one of the, I would imagine one of the greatest novels of all time, Lord of the Rings, there is a character, his name is Frodo. And in the story, a lot has happening. A lot is going on. In fact, for a lot of the beginning of the story,

“Frodo is active, but he's, he's reactive. He is watching the ring because Gandalf told them to.”

He's taking the ring to the printing pony because Gandalf told them to. He's going with Erdogorn to Rivendale because someone else told him to do this. But there's a moment in the story where all of a sudden the story becomes his life story. It's a moment where they don't know what to do

with the ring. Who's going to take this ring to Mordor? And basically, in this moment, Frodo stands

up and he simply says, I'll do it. I'll take the ring to Mordor. And that is a strong start. That's the beginning. That's the moment in every story has it beginning for Frodo. This is the beginning. Why? Because every strong start has four elements to it. The step is, has irreversibility. Once identity is at stake, there's risk and there's agency. It's irreversibility in the sense that after I take this step, I can no longer go back to who I was before. Once identities at stake

in the sense that I don't know after this moment, I don't know who I'm going to become. There's a risk because the future is unclear and there's agency because here's a moment where the person gets to choose. And this is when it comes to Frodo. Here's a moment where it's not his ring. It's not his burden. He could say it's someone else's responsibility. It's someone else's fault. But what does he do? He says, I'll do it. You have all four of those elements of a strong start.

He can't go back irreversibility. He can't go back to how it was before. Identities at stake, who am I going to be if I take up this ring? There's a risk. There is the future is definitely unclear. But he has agency. He's making the decision to choose. That is a great start. Now, of course, sometimes the story isn't so great. Today we hear the beginning of another story. Here's Genesis, Genesis chapter 3, where we're here's Adam and Eve and they're in the

garden. Now imagine this scene. Here's Adam and Eve. Their stories are already begun, but they're not agents. They're not yet autobiographers. They're not yet co-authors with God. Until this moment where all they've ever known, up to this point, is they've only been loved. They've only been cared for. All they've ever known for each other is they've been loved. They've been cared for. All they've known from God is that God's good and he loves them. And God wanted them to be his co-authors.

And what happens? We heard the story. The serpent comes into the garden. And in the face of the serpent's threats, the man and woman, they have their options. I mean, they literally legitimately have options. They could fight. They could fight off the serpent. They could call out to the Lord. They could cry out to their father and say, "God, please help us. They could pray. They could trust. They could get killed." Or they could do what they did.

In facing that question, will you trust the father? Because that's, we know this already. That's the temptation. The temptation is not, does God exist. The temptation of the serpent is, "God, good. Can you trust him? Is God a good dad or is he a dictator? Can you trust him or is he a

tyrant?" And here's Eve. She looks at the fruit and it describes it. As we heard just a second ago,

the fruit is pleasing to the eyes. It's good for gaining wisdom. Delightful. And she takes it and she reaches out. And in this moment, Adam and Eve start writing on their own.

“And this is a strong start. It's a bad start, but it's a strong start. Right?”

Reverse irreversibility. They cannot go back to where they were. They now have to live a different life.

The future is absolutely unclear and their agency. They have agency. Right? They start writing.

Here's the crescent crazy thing. They started writing, but they started writing a part from God.

“That's what all sinners. Here's Eve. She sees the fruit. This is delightful. It's pleasing.”

It's good for food. This will make me happy. We realize this, this is what all sinners. All sin is a desire to be happy. Just a desire to be happy apart from God. All sin is a desire to be happy. That's why it's so appealing. But it's the desire to be happy apart from God. And we know this. We know that this has changed our entire history. We cannot go back to who we were. Identity is at stake. The future is unclear and yet we still have to choose.

Every sin is an attempt to be happy apart from God. But the question we all get to choose is

in our lives we get to answer the question. Will we be co-authors with God?

And this length we have to get to ask the question. Will I be a co-author with God in writing this autobiography or will I attempt to be happy apart from God? So, throughout the length we're going to do this. We're going to follow a story that Jesus tells and Luke's Gospel. It's in Luke's chapter 15. It's a parable you've heard before. It's a parable where Jesus says about a father and two of his sons. And again, this is a parable, the parable

to the prodigal son. You've heard it. You've heard it probably a thousand times. What we're going to do over the course of this whole length, over this course of this series, autobiography, we're going to take a small part of that parable every single week and try to break it up. So, this week, what we have is the beginning, right? Because every story has a beginning. And the beginning of this story is what Jesus says, a man had two sons. And the younger son said to his father,

it did this is the moment. He's been given everything he needs. He's been given everything he wants. But what more does he want? We'll see it in here. It's the younger son said to his father, "Father, give me a share of your estate that should come to be now." Jesus is his audience, as they're listening to this. You probably know this already. But Jesus is his audience. What have it shocked? Right? Because when would a person normally get it in inheritance? You normally

get someone's inheritance when they die. So, here's the younger son saying to his father, "I don't want to have to wait for you to die." So, whatever you're going to give me after your death, just give it to me now. I don't want to wait for you to die." Goes on to say, "After a few days, you know the story, he collected all his belongings and went off to a distant country now. If it was already kind of insulting or majorly insulting, for the younger son,

as I was dead, just give me this share of the inheritance. I can't wait for you to die. This moment is actually devastating." And we might miss it. After a few days, he gathered all his belongings.

“Jesus says, "He took everything he has." What's that mean? You know, I think sometimes we might”

imagine like, "Look, he divided your property between us." Now, I'm going to farm this part of the land over here on the other side of the fence. I'm going to see you across the, across the field. I'll still, you know, we'll still have a relationship. The younger son takes all of his belongings and went off to a distant country. Now, he's so important. The understand ancient Israel. We realize that if you have land, that's family land. Like we know

right when Joshua, the people of Israel into the, into the promised land, all the tribes, all the families, they got, they got land. And so this land is given to you from the Lord. And this land is bending your family for generations, hundreds, it not thousands of years by this point. And here this guy, this kid, this younger son, he's taken his, not just his dad's property, not just his property. He's taken his family for generations, all of that property,

sells it, and then leaves to a distant land.

Basically, here's here, he's saying this, he's saying, "I don't just want your stuff.

I want nothing to do with you." Now, this is absolutely devastating. I don't just want your stuff. I do not want to be associated with you in any way with our family, in any way with you, my father, in any way. What does he want? I want to be happy apart from the father. This is every one of our hearts. The younger son goes off and looks

“for happiness apart from the father. And this is, again, a strong start. Why irreversibility?”

I can't go back. His identity is at stake. Like who is he going to be now? There's this risk. His future is completely unclear and the agency, the character, the younger son, he chooses. Basically, he's saying, "I don't want God to be my co-author. I want to write this story apart from God." Now, I've, I've told the shared of the story,

kind of sort of Catholic, but not really. He came to school here, and at one point he was going to study abroad. We were going to decide at the study abroad. He had an intention behind the study abroad. He had a goal. In his goal was he was going to party as much as he could. He was going to drink as much as he could, smoke as much as he could, and have as many sexual relationships as he possibly could when he was abroad. And so he did. But before he left, before he left Minnesota,

he described this. He said, "He had a crucifix. Someone had given him some place in, sometime in his life, someone had given a crucifix." Before he left, he knew what he wanted to do. So he walked into his bedroom. He opened up his sock drawer. He took off his crucifix. He put it in the sock drawer, shut the drawer, as if to basically say, "God, I'm going to go be happy without you." I'm going to go do this thing. I'm going to go live the kind of life that I want to live.

“I'm just going to live it without you. Again, that's what he did.”

After he came back to Minnesota, a couple months later, one of his friends in brought him around here, brought him around to Newman. And this guy who had heard about God before, he encountered God in a real way. I remember the moment he became convinced that God is real,

because we have an conversation and he's like, "Oh my gosh, he's real. This is incredible."

And the moment that he was convinced, he became convinced that Jesus loved him. Because in that moment, it was this moment of great joy, but also moment of devastation. This joy of oh my gosh, God is real and he loves me, but also he looked at what he had written. He looked at who it would be, who he had become. And he was just like, "Oh my gosh, that's not me." He's just overwhelmed by, this is who I've become. This is who I've written.

“That's not me. You remember the four elements of a strong start? The second element is your”

identity is at stake. Who am I going to be? That's the risk of the beginning, right? My identity.

The risk is the future is unclear. And then there's that other that first part, the irreversibility.

If I take this step, if I make this decision, if I move, if I start writing, I can't go back. Or can we? Jesus tells that story. He says that younger son at some point now, after he had swantered all of his possessions, he found himself in dire need. And the line that Jesus says, he says, "Come into his senses." Another translation says, "Come into himself." My favorite translation says, "Remembering himself," he thought, "How many of my fathers

hired men have more than enough food to eat? He here I am dying of hunger. I'm going to go back to my father." Now, this is really key. He says, "He remembers himself." Now, I just think this is remarkable. I imagine he might have had the conviction. I can't go back to who I was. I can't do it. I imagine he had that conviction. I don't know who I'm going to be, right? This identity is at stake. When it came to himself, I imagine he did not know who he was or who he could be.

But here's what he did know. He knew I can go to my father.

Again, remember, a strong start is, I can't go back to who I was. Strong start is, I don't know who I'm going to be. Here is the younger son saying, "I don't know who I am, but I know who he is." The younger son is saying, "I don't know my identity, but I know his." And the proof is if the proof that he knew his father's heart is that beginning of the story. When he had the gall right, he had the audacity to ask his father, "Hey, give me this share of your property that

should come to me." He already knew his father was kind. He already knew his father was generous. He already knew that his father loved him. And wasn't because of himself. It wasn't because he's like, "I know myself. It's because I know him that I know I can go back." Wasn't because he believed in himself, but because I believe in the heart of my father. I don't have to write this on my own. I knew any, any, knew he could go home.

“This last thing. Your story is an autobiography and what that means is you have to start writing.”

You have to start writing. Even if it's risky, even if it's scary, every story has a beginning. And today, in the Gospel, for Jesus, this is the beginning. Of course, it's kind of unique because he's the second person, the Trinity, he's existed for all time. I said, "You're unique because

But this moment, when Jesus gets baptized by John and the Jordan, and he goes into the wilderness

and does battle with the evil one. This has all four elements of a great start.

This is irreversibility. I can't go back to life and Nazareth.

Has that notion of risk? I don't know, the future is unclear. Has this notion of agency?

“He can choose, but this is the key number two, identity, his identities at stake. You know why?”

Because Satan, when he approaches Jesus, what does he say? He says, "If you are the son of God, he goes right for his identity." If you're the son of the father, then do this. Jesus passed the test. Why? Because Jesus started. But he hadn't left the father. He left with the father. He started with the father and you can too.

“Because this life is your autobiography. And maybe you tried to write on your own.”

Maybe we've tried to be happy apart from the father.

But today's a new start. This Sunday, this first Sunday of length, is a new start.

“It gives us the opportunity to remember who you are, to remember who he is,”

to come back to the father and to realize that every story, every autobiography has it beginning. And your beginning starts now.