December 28, 2008: Feast of the Holy Family

 The wisdom of the ages is that families give us two things: they give us ROOTS and they give us WINGS. This piece of wisdom comes from about every ancient religion and philosophy in the world. They phrase it slightly differently, but the message is there, nonetheless.

 

Moreover, no family ever gets it right! We either are root bound or flighty. There is never a perfect balance. The achievement of balance is supposed to be the work of the individual as she or he lives out the life given to them. No individual, either, ever gets perfect balance...THAT is the goal of the spiritual life, and working with the Sacraments, and it's a life-long endeavor that ends on the other side of the grave.

 

Usually conservative, fearful families give us too many roots! We end up like a bonsai tree on top with a massive network of roots underneath! On the other hand, liberal, care-free families tend to give too much emphasis to wings, and we end up like a giant sequoia tree with the roots of a petunia! That's life!

 

Today, we celebrate the feast of the Holy Family: the matrix that nurtured the Christ. I notice it's interesting that they chose the readings that they did for this morning's worship. There is no conflict at all.

 

Prophecies at children's births. That's the Gospel. Old Simeon and Anna, keeping vigil in the Temple, where they blessed all the children brought for their naming and circumcision. They dream of wings and roots for the Child Jesus.

 

Simeon dreams of wings that he will soar and be a "light to the Gentiles," bringing them to the God of Israel, and He did! For you and I are here, this morning, worshiping the God of Israel, not a one of us Jews. Moreover, old Simeon saw that such a life would be upsetting of the apple cart of centuries, the ancient customs. His blessing opens the child to a new world order...messianic in character, that would affect all the earth.

 

Anna, the prophetess, also a "watcher" in the Temple, blessing with an eye to the mothers of the children, and she focuses on the roots, and what this child would do for his heritage. And her blessing roots him in Israel's golden past.

 

Yet, when we look at the interaction of Jesus and his family: with all the help we know they were given, through Mary's Visit from the Angel, the Immaculate Conception, Divine Revelation in a dream to Joseph and the Virgin Birth-----------we see that they rarely understood Jesus.

 

When he's lost in Jerusalem after their visit to the Temple for his Bar Mitzvah, they are mad as can be, Jesus is unconcerned: "Shouldn't I be about my Father's business?" I might have thought such things at 14, but if I had actually SAID them, my father would have had me "dancing around like a worm in hot ashes!"

 

When he's attending a wedding at Cana, and Mary wants him to do something, his response is something that would have earned me the back of my mother's hand!

 

At one point in his ministry, "his family" show up to have him put away, thinking him mad, according to the 3rd chapter of Mark's Gospel.

 

What we see is that "no family is perfect." They aren't supposed to be! You don't have to be the perfect parents for your children. Children, you don't have to be the perfect kids for your parents! We can't escape ALL of what the psychologists currently call the generational "dysfunctions" that have been given us. We pass on a lot, as a lot was passed on to us. It is enough that we try the best we can to be the best we can be. Sometimes we'll get it right, and sometimes we won't.

 

And the same is true of our "spiritual family" which God, in His infinite wisdom has given us: the Church. On the one hand, the roots given us go back to the dawn of time, and the Voice hovering over the primordial waters in creation, and the wings reach to the Mercy Seat and the Throne of Grace in God's Consuming Kingdom that ends all time.

 

But, in between, we live in a dysfunctional "spiritual family," that has gone to war over the Creed, lost Northern Africa, which had been the cradle of Christianity, to the Moslems because of nit-picking and hair-splitting in Trinitarian theology, marched out under papal banners in Crusades that left a trail of blood from the English Channel to the Nile! We've seen popes digging up their predecessor's bodies from graves and putting them on trial! We've seen the most hateful statements condemning fellow human beings in the name of the God of love. We've seen it all!

 

But that's what a family is! If any one of us looks far enough back in our family tree, we'll find the horse thief, the wife-beater, the murderer. It may be that if we look far enough into our OWN past, we'll find those things! When we look at the lineage of Jesus, as that family tree is told in Matthew and Luke, we see all sorts of odd characters, princes and prostitutes, kings and killers, wise and wicked–all dangling on the limbs of his genealogy.

 

Families, if the memory is LONG, contain all the patterns of ugliness that are common to humanity. BUT, THEY ALSO contain the flicker of hope that these patterns don't have to be repeated. Each one of us has within us the hope, the desire and the capability to move beyond where we've been.

 

Was Great Uncle Shemuel a horse thief? So what? The family doesn't have to forever be a family of horse thieves! There is greater potential there. Have you, in your recent or distant past, been a horse thief? So what? You don't have to define yourself as a horse thief forever! You have greater potential. A universe is waiting for you to grow into it!

 

Our spiritual family, the Church, places before us, every day of our lives, a vision of all we can be, as we wend our way through the world to the Throne of Grace.

 

Let us, each, approach the Table of the Prince of Peace today, from where we will receive into ourselves the Body and the Blood of Christ, Himself, enabling us to actualize the potential available to us, to be men and women of Great Possibility. And may God bless you all. +

Sermon for December 14, Advent 3. B

 

In the Gospel, John the Baptist found it hard to say exactly who he was, and found it easier to say who he was NOT. There is wisdom in that. Were he to have said, "I am the Voice of Deliverance!" he would have probably got a big head, and pride would have overtaken him. As it was, he said, "I'm NOT the Christ; I'm not even the light! I'm not Elijah nor am I a prophet…I guess I'm just a voice in the desert…" St. Paul encourages each of us to say, "I am NOT perfect! I am NOT particularly holy, and I am NOT blameless"—for that is GOD'S job, to make us those things, in time and eternity. Ours is to recognize what we lack and pray for it. And in that way, we can be open to the Power of the One Who CAN make us holy, and lead us in goodness. It is so important to humility to know what we are not. It is when we are truly humble, accepting our insignificance that God can work through us, placing the Spirit upon us to help others heal and find freedom. As we approach the manger, low as it is, we have to learn to kneel, let us pray for humility and tenderness.

 

This is the major issue of Advent: attaining humility, which means learning how "not to be full of ourselves!" For when we are "full of ourselves," we have no room for the Greatness of God to enter, and Christmas (the season for which we are preparing) is the season of God's Greatness coming to us–Immanuel–God with us. To sense God's Presence we need to be smaller of ego than we usually are.

 

There is a wonderful lesson in one of the churches of Jerusalem–I think it's the Holy Sepulcher. The door is so small that one has to bend down to enter the church. The point is that we have to become small to appreciate the Greatness of the Mystery we might encounter inside that church. One has to learn to fall on his knees in order to stand in awe. Now, I wish I could say that was what was behind the design of the church; it wasn't. Actually the priests were horrified that arrogant Crusaders were acting like they owned the place, and were riding their horses into the church, so the monks fixed that! The lowered the doors so low than no horse could get in, but they also lowered the door so low that a human being has to bow, significantly, to enter. It was later, reflecting on this phenomenon, that they saw that something profound had happened...by accident or perhaps by a Greater Design by a Greater Designer! For now, EVERYONE must make himself or herself small to enter. And such is the nature of all true encounter with God.

 

Humility is about paying attention to others. Have you thought of that? When we are "full of ourselves" we don't pay much attention to others, UNLESS they can help or aid us in some way. But, the humble person pays attention to what's happening around him, and sees what others need, and can step into the breach and supply the need. Moses was considered to be the "humblest" or "meekest" man to have ever lived–so says Numbers 12. How do we know? Well, he PAID ATTENTION! How long do you suppose he had to watch that bush burning before he realized it wasn't burning? Hours? All day? Who knows how long he stood there, but FINALLY as it dawns on him that something miraculous is happening, THEN the Voice comes: Take off your shoes, you are on holy ground!" God appears when attention is paid, and those who are not humble only pay attention to themselves! So...with this season. We try to become less "full of ourselves" so that we can sense the Holy, the Presence, the Sacred in our lives.

 

John the Baptist, like Moses, is not "full of himself." Rather, he is well aware that he isn't much out of the ordinary. "I'm NOT the Christ, I'm NOT the Light, I'm NOT Elijah, I'm NOT the prophet." So when he was asked to state who he really was, he said, "I guess I'm a voice in the wilderness." I want to suggest to you that we are all "voices in the wilderness." Do you know who the first "biblical voice in the wilderness" was? It was Hagar with her son Ishmael, just after they had been thrown out of Sarah's house, in a fit of jealousy. Abraham had dismissed them with a skin of water, and nothing else. And there they were, in the wilderness, preparing to die. Hagar took her child and put him under a bush to protect him from the heat of the sun, and sat and watched as he wailed. And she, herself, cried out from her place in the wilderness. And, guess what? God appeared, and showed her a well, and led her out of the wilderness to safety. We are told by early commentators, both Jewish and Christian, that when we "cry out from our place in the wilderness" that God appears for us, too, and brings help and leads us to safety. But, we have to cry out from our poverty...not from our "being full of ourselves." Sarah cried out for help....she did NOT cry out curses on Sarah or Abraham. She cried out for help for her son. She recognized her poverty, and prayed for help.

 

Advent is about recognizing our lack, and asking for God's Grace to fill us with His Strength, His Love–other words for Grace. To know our own lack, and call out, is to open ourselves to God's Greatness so He can come to us and fill us...Immanuel...God with us. And when we are filled with God, we have an "innate radar" that hears others crying out from their place in the wilderness...and as we go to them, we bear God to those people. It is in this sense that our lives can be blessings for the earth. So let us pray to be small enough to kneel at the manger to be filled with the Greatness of the One Who will transform us into benedictions of goodness and peace for our world. And may God bless you all. +

Sermon for December 8, 2008. Immaculate Conception.Holy Day of Obligation

Today's feast honors the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. That dogma states that Mary was born WITHOUT ORIGINAL SIN.

 

What does that mean? What IS original sin?

 

Certain of the Church Fathers spoke of the "original sin" as a refusal to go through "time." Humanity wanted to "grab now" what was in store for it, rather than go through the process of growing into it. So, our ancestors, symbolized as Adam/Eve, "broke out of time," tried to take a short cut to spiritual depth—an attempt to have spiritual depth apart from God, in a sense, or at least apart from His process for us..........in brief, then, it is a sin of "presumption," which the Fathers classified as a sin against "hope." I.e., a failure to "trust" God's promise...

 

And Mary, born without "original sin"—without the distance from our "spiritual source" which despair brings and nurtures and fosters, SHE is the chosen one to stand FOR hope....she is the one who teaches us to trust. She knows, with a deep down knowledge that God is trustworthy, and that His will for good things for us will triumph.

 

She kept that hope throughout her life...a life that wasn't an easy one. She always trusted, even when things looked bleak. And through her trust, the Christ of God was born into the world, and through her trust, the Church found its birth in the Upper Room. And now, we entrust ourselves to her prayers for us, asking her to keep us always in prayer so that our "trust" will be as strong as hers.

 

So, today is a feast of hope. We hope that in this world of war and hate, peace may triumph. And we won't give up that hope. We hope that in this world where lies and cheating are often the norm, that Truth will stand and overcome. And we will not give up that hope. So, today, as children of Mary and brothers and sisters of the Christ, we come to God and pray, make us, too, channels of your peace and strength and truth in a world that needs peace and strength and truth so desperately. And may God bless you all.

Sermon, December 7, 2008, Advent 2.B

The readings are about "preparing the way," making the path smooth.

 

Isaiah 40: "Comfort, give comfort" begins the poem which we all know and love due to Handel's "Messiah." In it, Isaiah describes the "leveling of hills and the filling in of valleys." This is a reference to what was, at that time, "the red carpet treatment." Before asphalt, the roads that converged  on a city were all muddy and hard to traverse. This was especially so the nearer to the city gate one came, for there, ALL the little cart tracks and major roads came together, and it was such a "rough ride," that even royalty would have to get out of their "well-padded" conveyances, and walk for fear of injury, unless the townspeople honored them by coming out and leveling out the ruts and cart tracks to make a smooth ride. Here, the poet/prophet envisions God asking the prophet to do this for the slaves returning from their captivity in Babylon–broken people coming home.

 

The Gospel is about John the Baptist preparing the people to expect the coming of the Christ of God, who will bring sinners back to religion and the pagan Gentiles to a knowledge of the One, True God of Israel.

 

And St. Paul tells us how to live our lives in preparation for the Lord's  return. So...we have lots of Preparation for the "returning folk" of the world.

 

God for the returning exiles.
Christ for the returning of sinners.
And WE prepare for the return of the Christ...

 

So, our readings are all about "preparing the way."

 

How does a bird in preparing for the vital days of spring and summer prepare a nest? First, those nests are well-attached, for they are perched 50 feet off the ground, on "foundations" of branches that move violently in the wind, and they are made of strong materials, sticks, not leaves, for leaves are more quickly biodegradable than sticks, and they don't want their happy home turning to dust over night! And, the sticks are well-placed for strength, and  often sparkling things catch their eye, and end up woven among the branches. So much for birds: what can we say? Even bird-brains know how to make strong houses in precarious places! But, at least, from what we can observe, the birds build from instinct, with materials, not with personal values.

 

But, how about us? How do we prepare a home? What is the "foundation" on which we build? What are the non-material resources that we use to make our home?  I ask this, this weekend, for these are the very same things that "prepare the way" for Christ's advent into our world.

 

Warmth (Heating/air conditioning and personal warmth, and knowing when to give the cool glass of water in His Name, Windows and electricity, and the Light that understanding can bring to a family, Plumbing, and the refreshment that forgiveness brings, a Kitchen stove, and the nurturance that profound love and charity bring, a Time out corner and richness that responsibility and honesty can bring to a home and a neighborhood. and the caring that having a time out area signifies, with the security that true caring imparts, a Safe or a vault that can signify how we need to protect what we treasure, which is why we also have smoke alarms in our children's rooms.

 

What we are seeing are symbols–our homes are filled with symbols, our lives are filled with them, and they all point us to what it means to "prepare the way" of the Lord. For it is in cultivating personal warmth and generosity, it is in deepening our understanding of each other, it is in developing our skills of forgiveness, which in turn, deepens our ability to be truly loving and charitable people, andin our ability to be caring, honest responsible people who treasure the gifts of others that "prepares the way of the Lord." How?

 

Well, it prepares our children to recognize the face of Christ shining through the face of the neighbor. They don't learn that by memorizing a Bible verse. They learn that by watching us. Such a life prepares our co-workers to recognize the undeserved mercy of God by our smiling forgiveness and our listening ear. They don't learn that from "witness talks" or sermons; they learn it from watching us and how we treat them. It prepares our neighbors to recognize the eternal presence that treasures them and values them when they see us treasuring THEIR children as we coach them in Little League, and tutor them in after school programs. They don't learn this from tracts we put under their doors, they learn if from watching us live. And when they see us standing for the weak, and working for the rights of others, they are prepared to see the God who never gives up on us. And when we come regularly to weekly worship, they learn where we get our strength.

 

AND, it is in the cultivation of these very values and practices that we "smooth the way" for the Lord of Advent to be Birthed in the manger of our heart over and over again. Have you noticed that God rarely comes on donkeys these days!

 

Now, all of this is so darn simple and obvious that you are probably saying to yourselves, "I could give this good a sermon without ever having gone to seminary! True. You could. I'm not here to be superior to you, you (well not you personally, but a community of Christians in Kansas where I'm from) in the name of Christians everywhere, called me to stand up every week and to remind us all of what we don't want to hear. And as I talk, I'm reminding MYSELF, first of all. I don't know about you, but I've met some folk in the last fifteen years or so, that I don't understand at all, and would wonder about my sanity if I DID! Several things have happened to me in my life that I find it very hard to forgive, and I say I've forgiven, BUT, I hold the memory in my "treasury vault," so that IF I ever need to use it, I can bring it out and go for the jugular! So, I need to hear these readings from Isaiah and from Mark, too, and I need to think about the stuff I've put before all of us to pay attention to. None of us is perfect, that's why we have free confessionals in Churches and why psychiatrists have far more expensive couches in their offices! I like to think of the words of Dear Abby, who was quoting a Church Father who I was too lazy to look up–she wrote: "Churches are not museums for saints, they are hospitals for sinners." Today's readings remind us that they are also "schools" for preparing us to make openings for the coming of the Lord into our world. Only the God and the prophet could smooth those ruts leading from Babylon to Jerusalem; and only we can smooth ours, with His help.

 

Let's take what's left of this Advent season to "give Christ the red carpet treatment" into our lives. Let the manger of our hearts be ready for Him to come to us in ever new and surprising ways, thus making of our lives benedictions of goodness and hope in our world. And may God bless you all.+

Sermon, Nov 30, 2008; Advent 1, B

The sermon this weekend is so simple it can be said in one sentence. So, listen up! Here it is: "IF YOU ARE FEELING DISTANT FROM GOD, MAYBE EVEN ABANDONED BY GOD, AND YOU WANT TO DRAW NEARER, THEN START DOING NICE THINGS FOR OTHERS." That's it. That's what's being taught. Let me show you how.

 

Both our first reading from Isaiah and the reading from Mark's Gospel are meditations on God's ABSENCE. Had you noticed that? Isaiah prays for Him to "Return." Isaiah and the people of Judah at the time when that poem was written, felt like God had abandoned them. They felt alone and deserted.

 

In Mark's Gospel, Jesus compares God to a man who has "left on a trip abroad," and no one knows when he's coming back.

 

The thing to notice in both readings is that NO ONE FELT CLOSE TO GOD. They felt so alone and so deserted. In Isaiah's time, the nation had been defeated; in Jesus' time it was occupied by enemy troops, and was about to be crushed. No one knew when it would happen or what would trigger it, but they knew their days were numbered, and they felt helpless and deserted.

 

Have YOU ever felt abandoned by God? Have you ever felt so distant from God that you felt there was no hope? Now, we aren't talking about theological anthropology, here....we know that God is everywhere, that, in the words of the Psalmist, "the entire earth is full of the Glory of God," and that "if we go to the furthest limits of the seas, or even to the netherworld, GOD IS THERE!" No, we aren't talking "theology," we are talking of "psychology." Have you ever FELT abandoned by God? Alone. Totally alone. ? The word "psyche" (the root of psychology) is the word for "soul" in Greek. Our souls can feel abandoned. It's the nature of fear and despair. And, anyone who has felt it, can tell you it isn't pleasant. Just as in a crowd of people, you can feel very cut off and alone, so we can, in a world filled with God's Presence, feel cut off from God. NOR are we talking the "blame game"–well, you feel abandoned by God because YOU abandoned HIM...HE didn't abandon YOU. That may or may not be true...there are times we feel "cut off" just because we are in a "cut off" place in our lives, that has nothing to do with our sinfulness or lack of it. We can feel abandoned, and cut off, and alone in the universe for any number of reasons. And Isaiah KNOWS THAT FEELING. So does Jesus. They are able to articulate for the people exactly what the people are feeling, themselves. Psychologically, what they see in the people they are dealing with is "depression." In both readings we see this. Isaiah faces a depressed people; so does Jesus. What's their advice?

 

Both Isaiah and Jesus have the same remedy...the only remedy known to humanity. Isaiah says, "Would that you might meet us doing right, that we were mindful of your ways." Jesus says, Don't let the returning master "find you sleeping," i.e. don't be lazy, but be busy doing good things!

 

In other words, the way to feel closer to God, the way to draw near to Him, the way to bridge all distance between Heaven and earth, between the heart of God and your heart is to care for the people He's put in your life. "Love your neighbor" is the path to "Loving God with your heart, mind, soul and strength." There is no other path. Christ put it: "I am the way." And what does it mean to live "in Christ?" It means to "turn the other cheek," "to go the extra mile," to "forgive 70 times 70 times," it means to be "meek, and poor in spirit, and understanding, and seeking goodness for the earth, making peace and reconciliation. It means leaving your gift at the altar when you remember you've offended someone, because their feelings are so important that they take precedence over the sacrifice to God. It means dining with lepers and prostitutes and lifting the weak. It means selling abundance and giving to the poor. How do we summarize it? It means being a "decent human being."

 

I remember hearing a lecture from Karl Menninger, the renown psychiatrist in Topeka, Kansas nearly 40 years ago. I no longer remember his topic, or anything he said during his lecture, but I do remember the question and answer period that followed, for a woman in the audience rose and asked him, in a faltering voice, "Dr. Menninger, what would you recommend for a person who has lost all sense of purpose, who wakes up every day, feeling meaningless and pointless, and on the edge of collapse into despair? Would you recommend "daily psychoanalysis?" Would that person have to move into the hospital? There was a hush in the room, for we all could tell from the desperation in her voice that she was speaking of herself. And Dr. Menninger, that great, great scholar and human being, paused, and looked her directly in the eye, and said, "I'm sorry, I didn't get your first name." She said her name...maybe it was Mary, I no longer remember for sure. Anyway, Dr. Menninger continued in the softest, kindest voice I've ever heard a doctor use, and he said: "Mary, I most certainly would NOT recommend long expensive therapy. It isn't necessary. The person you describe could be any of us at one time or another. I would suggest to your friend that she get out of her chair, walk out her door, go to the other side of the tracks and help someone who needs her help. That will take care of it."

 

In that short response, he summarized the teaching of the Bible.

 

Now, why do you suppose we begin our New Church Year with readings that speak of the ABSENCE of God, or at least our "feeling" that God is distant? The Church year begins there BECAUSE WE ARE SO OFTEN IN THAT VERY SPOT! And that is the spot the world was in  when God sent His Christ to embody the path...the WAY. This season builds toward the celebration of the feast of Christmas, the memory that God bridged all "distance," to stand in our shoes and know our pain, and through it all, to open us–in a new and profound way–to Intimacy with God, Himself.

 

Today, we are told what to do and how to do it. In Holy Communion the Eternal God will come to each of us, and touch us in body, mind and soul. May our lives be, then, spent in service of all humanity, so that we will be beacons that point to the WAY ... the only way to meaning, in a world that needs that light so desperately. And may God bless you all. +

Sermon for Nov. 16, 2008, 33rd in OT, cycle A

And throw this useless servant into the darkness outside, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth!" How's THAT for Good News?

 

How do you think we should approach this gospel passage? Do you think we should give it a "capitalistic" reading? If God allowed you to be born into the Carnegie family, you should, by the time you die, own MicroSoft, too? Does that sound like a sensible God to you?

 

Well, the same is true, only psychologically, if you approach it as a treatise on personality gifts instead of financial gifts. Is it metaphorically saying that if God gave you an easy sense of humor that you should be Don Rickles or Phyllis Diller by the time you die? Does that sound like a sensible God to you?

 

Isn't it the same thing, only spiritually, if we say that God has given us some gifts of service, and if we haven't developed them to the full extent of our ability by the time we die that we'll be cast out on the cosmic garbage heap? If you ever served as a room mother, you had better look like Mother Theresa by the time you die? Does this sound like a sensible God speaking to you?

 

So, how should we REALLY understand it? If we don't use it as a cosmic "guilt trip" how do we understand this Gospel passage? How often has "Heaven" been held in front of us like a carrot before a donkey, to get us motivated? Is that what Heaven is about? Motivation? How often has religion been presented to you as a "cosmic insurance policy?" Where you pay the premium here to get the benefits later? Or a "cosmic savings plan" where you deposit a good deed and a prayer here to reap the interest there? We have to ask ourselves, "Is THAT what God is about?"

 

I don't know about you, but I don't like those approaches. They're familiar, yes. Too familiar, almost! We've all heard them, been threatened with them. It has come to sound like "Tradition" with a capital "T!" But is it what we should understand in this text and in others like it?

 

I went to commentaries this week–hoping to find something different. But there wasn't anything. They all say things like, "we are coming to the end of the Church year, and the readings focus on the end of the world, and they take on an apocalyptic flavor as the demand is placed."

 

But what demand? Didn't Christ, himself, say, "Take my yoke upon your shoulders, for my yoke is easy, and my burden light, and you will find rest for your souls?" Didn't we hear him two weeks ago condemning some religious folk for putting heavy burdens on people's shoulders and not lifting a finger to lighten them.....to make them as "light" as "his yoke?"

 

I frankly admit, I don't know how this Gospel should be understood...but I have a strong feeling (and after over half a life spent studying the text you "get" these "feelings...") that a "guilt-trip" reading of the text is a poor reading.

 

Let me suggest something else. I don't know if it will "fly" for you, or not, but let's give it a shot. The last fellow to come before the master has this to say: "I knew you were a hard man." And there, I think, is the rub. HE DIDN'T KNOW THE MASTER AT ALL! And that was probably his trouble all along...he operated out of fear...fear he'd lose what had been given him. And his life, lived in fear, couldn't develop freely and fully.  The other two, we don't know much about. The text doesn't disclose anything about them. But, I think from the grammar of the text, we can assume that they are the opposite of the fearful man who does nothing. They feel a wonderful freedom in their lives to live and love and grow. They take risks. They might lose, but they might win! And life was challenge and fun. Whereas, the poor fearful fellow missed the beauty, missed the challenge, missed the fun of existence for fear he'd botch it!

 

This is an interesting lesson, I think, for it tells us exactly what we learned on the first page of the Bible! We are God's children...formed from His heart! He is madly in love with us! We can trust him to laugh with us if we lose and celebrate with us when we win...but we have freedom to live before Him in justice.

 

The saddest thing is for a Christian to come to the end of life's journey only to realize that they didn't ever know the Master. They lived in fear of judgment, when the Master was offering lots and lots of love.

 

You live before a God who loves you so desperately, he'd rather DIE than give you up! You're not going to be thrown onto the trash heap of the cosmos! You don't have to worry about that. What we need to work at is becoming the loving, caring people we've been created to be!

 

How many of us, though, live in fear that the universe will be stingy? We act as if there will be a "run on the bank of forgiveness" tomorrow, and we hoard it! We refuse to say to our spouses, our children, our co-workers, our friends: "It's OK, don't worry about it. I forgive you." Think how often we could use the three magic words "I love you," and don't. We bury them, thinking I guess, that we'll save them for the day we REALLY need them. Today's Gospel assures us that it is in "sharing those sorts of words" that they GROW! It's in giving love that we create more. It's in forgiving one person that we increase forgiveness and tolerance on the earth.

 

Today's Gospel is meant, I think, to be taken ironically–like Jonathan Swift's "Modest Proposal." It's presenting us with a goofy view of religion and life that grows out of a goofy idea of God. But in the background chapters of Matthew's gospel are the clues for assuring us that the God before whom we stand is "emmanuel," WITH US, not against us. That God will have us with him if we love him and live freely or fear him and live partially. But, when we see all the possibility we have...and the Love that is forever with us...why in heaven's name would we want to be fearful and only live this wonderful, beautiful and terrifying existence in a partial way?

 

My prayer for each of us is that as we receive our spiritual strength this week at the table of the Prince of Peace and the Author of all Love that we will gain the strength we need to be extravagant with our kindness, our forgiveness, our love this week...so that kindness, forgiveness and love may eventually embrace us all. And may God bless you all. +

Father Bill's Sermon, October 12, 2008

If last week the theme was rejection of the gifts given to us, this week the theme seems to be a meditation on what that REALLY means–which is a rejection of the giver, as well. Last week, we saw a land owner reject the responsibilities that go with owning property, tenant farmers who reject “tenanthood,” slaves who reject escape, and a son who rejects the trappings of office that would have saved him. Each one “suffered” and “caused others to suffer” because they couldn’t accept themselves and what life had given them.

And we thought of people who maybe have kids, then don’t want to say “no,” and do the hard work of parenting, but want to be the “best buddy” of the kid. Or, I gave the example from my own life of rejecting my humor. The point was that to find TRUE SELF and our TRUE HAPPINESS we need to walk the path that is “Ours,” namely through the stuff life has dealt us.

Well, this week the theme continues, but takes it to the next level. This parable shows us that a rejection of the gifts (symbolized by “invitations” to life’s banquet) is REALLY a rejection of the Giver, as well. So...the point is that when we aren’t true to our “calling” we fail to connect with God. And, so we find ourselves in the darkness–often “bound hand and foot,” in other words “stuck.”

Now, before you beat up on yourself, and heap on loads of that “Catholic Guilt” that’s waiting in the wings, just remember that the point of the Gospel seems to be that NO ONE really ever just “accepts” life’s invitations–unless we are absolutely forced to do so! In other words, that banquet table has ALWAYS been pretty empty, until life “forces” us to think differently. This is part of what being a human being is about....it’s about rejecting God....feeling the “pinch,” and returning to Him....which is what we call repentance.

Do we “KNOW” what the Gospel was referring to? In other words, does it have a historical point of reference? No one knows for sure, for we don’t have a time machine to go back and ask Jesus why He told it, or even IF He told it...but, we THINK the referent would have been the destruction of the city of Jerusalem in 70, by the Roman Empire. Like the folk whose city was burned in the Gospel for having mistreated the servants who brought the invitations, the Romans literally burnt the city of Jerusalem, and the population was dispersed to Judean hills where they hid. So...when the next servants go to the highways and byways, it’s to gather in those who had been dispersed. Even when we reject Him, God, apparently finds ways to RE-FIND us!

Now, repentance is possible, and works. And folk got in to the banquet, BUT, apparently, it takes some change to stay there! Hence the hapless fellow pitched out on his ear toward the end of the parable. In other words, most of us in some way “reject” God, and yet God finds ways to reach us and draw us in, BUT THEN it takes some effort on our part to stay...for it’s easy to “break the God connection.” And so the poor fellow is left outside........and we want to ask, “Is that forever? Has he no hope of repentance?” And the text is silent. Why? Well, the destruction of Jerusalem looked pretty final. In fact it WAS final............that is, until 1948, when it, or at least part of it, was restored to a Jewish heritage. Now, I’m NOT arguing one way or the other, here, for an Israeli Jerusalem. What I want you to see is how utterly FINAL the situation LOOKED to those who survived the fall of Jerusalem, and so we have this parable shaped in this way. BUT, you and I know, now, that God had ANOTHER word to say...another hope to offer....so....is that poor hapless fellow “kicked out for good.” I doubt it. But why go through that??? THAT’S what the Gospel wants to say to us....WHY GO THROUGH THE PAIN OF ALIENATION?

What we have here is a plea to begin the spiritual quest while you can...while you’re thinking about it...Don’t put it off. It will provide you with a veritable BANQUET. And not to embark on the spiritual quest, will leave you alienated and unfulfilled, “stuck” bound hand and foot.

We are winding down the Church year. We have only 8 or 9 weeks to go. So, now the readings take on the urgency of “decision time.” We are asked to take God seriously and ourselves seriously. Life is too short of shallowness. Live deep, and live well.

My prayer for each of us is that we WILL move deeper into the profundity of the Mystery of God, before Whom we stand, and that our lives will then take on the character of the imitation of God by adopting a generosity of life and spirit so that our lives may be benedictions of goodness in our world. And may God bless you all. +

Father Bill’s Sermon, Sunday, September 28, 2008

XXVI Sunday in Ordinary Time

During the history of its interpretation, this gospel has been TAMED by history! Since the early Church quickly became a Gentile organization, with very few Jewish members, this gospel was seen as a prediction by Christ that those who said YES to the covenant (The Israelites under Moses) would be excluded because they didn’t DO it well, but the Gentiles who had rejected the covenant, would be accepted for even though they said “no” to God, they eventually THROUGH THE TEACHING OF JESUS OF NAZARETH did, in fact, “DO” it. Yea, Gentiles. Boo! Jews. Do you see how this was tamed. It turned out to be a “glorification” of those IN the Church, and a condemnation of those outside it.

BUT, when Christ told it to the authorities of his day, there was no “CHURCH” vs. “SYNAGOGUE” option. We were all part of the synagogues of Judea. So, who was he speaking about? He was speaking about each and every one of us!!!! That’s where interpretation must, then, start.

Well, I think we can start off by saying that NEITHER of these sons is a prize! We feel almost sorry for the father in the parable. Neither of his sons shows him proper respect, one is mean to his face, but cooperative behind his back, the other is nice to his face, but duplicitous behind his back. They are not the sorts of sons anyone would want. We would all feel sorry for anyone who had to live his life with these two characters–never knowing when one would blow up and embarrass you in public, even if he eventually, grudgingly did what you’d asked, or when the other would fail to come through, and leave you high and dry after he’d promised you. NEITHER is trustworthy. One your afraid to be around in public, the other you can’t trust to follow through.

But, the point of the text is that they are each, VERY MUCH like US! Not one of us is a particular prize, either! Who here hasn’t said something to our parents or our teachers or some other authority figure that we now regret and wish we hadn’t said? And who here hasn’t tried to make peace by going ahead and doing something we’d thrown out our feet over!?!? Who of us hasn’t avoided a family showdown by agreeing to do something, then simply refused to do it, later?

This story is about each one of us–and each “son” in the parable presents a picture of us as the Father sees us (His children) at different times in our lives. And it isn’t very pretty! Each one of us is represented by the two sons. How? How can “I”, one person, be represented by TWO people? Well, it’s good Jewish theology–the stuff Jesus was raised with! Jewish theology says that we each have “A yetzer ha tov, A GOOD INCLINATION, and a Yetzer ha ra, AN EVIL INCLINATION. Both those are at work within us at all times. Freud would say the same–he spoke of the life force (the libido) that impels us forward toward life’s challenges, and the death wish, a tendency to our own self-destruction, and the two together make for a struggle that goes on inside each of us all the time.

Sometimes we get it perfect, and we are the WONDERFUL SON (not mentioned in the reading today) who says, “YES, DAD! And then goes and does the right thing!” And sometimes we are the total Mess of a human being (also not mentioned in today’s reading) who says, “NO! I won’t Go!, and then we DON’T do a darn thing!” BUT, most of the time we are all somewhere in-between...either saying “yes” and not following through well, or “resisting,” often with ugliness, but eventually doing the right thing (these are the two options shown in this parable). Does that sound familiar? Does it sound like YOU? It should! Jesus usually reads us right!

So, what Christ is saying is that most of the time no human being is a perfect saint, and rarely a reprobate sinner. MOST OF THE TIME we are somewhere “in-between.” And what Christ encourages us to do today, is to rise higher, rather than sink any lower. If we are at least mostly “DOING” what is good and right, then let’s work on our “attitude,” and clean up our mouth. If we seem to get the words right, but not the actions, then let’s work on our actions. What is being said is that NONE of us is perfect! ALL of us have SOMETHING we can work on!

Now, let’s look at the groups of people mentioned in today’s readings, for they fit the four broader possibilities: chief priests, elders, tax collectors and prostitutes. When priests were working in the Temple, they were expected to have total concentration on what they were doing. There was a holiness of attention that was demanded. They needed both the good words and the good follow through. Next, there were the elders: they were those who “TAUGHT” the religion–the Torah, the Law of Moses. They were expected to have the right answers, but no one is perfect, and they often didn’t live up to what they taught–and for this we don’t necessarily condemn them, for who does ever live up to everything they say? Do you? I know I don’t. Then there were the tax collectors who turned their backs on goodness and holiness and worked for the enemy, but now and then they would come through and find a way to save a family from ruin. Finally there were the prostitutes whose speech was an invitation not to goodness, but to sin, and whose actions carried out the sins of their words. YET, all these people are redeemable. Change for the better is possible for everyone.

Oh, maybe no one would be perfect–even the priests were only expected to have perfect concentration on holiness for the short time they were serving in a particular ceremony–say 5 to 10 minutes of a lengthy service. (Each one had a small part.) So, while no one would be perfect, all could improve.

This gospel reminds us that each of us can take God more seriously. Each of us can take the gifts God has placed in our lives–our families, our friends and associates–more seriously. We can all become finer people. Ezekiel used the verb “to turn” to describe what can happen in our lives. He said, “if someone turns from his sin and wickedness, he shall live.” Repentance is an act of “turning.” Sometimes we need only to make small turns to keep on course, other times we have to make an about face!

There’s an old African proverb that says something like: “IF WE DO NOT IMMEDIATELY CHANGE OUR DIRECTION, we shall end up EXACTLY where we are HEADED!” Sometimes, it’s a 2 degree shift that’s needed, sometimes a 90 degree turn, and sometimes an about face. So, what the Gospel asks of you and me today is to look at our own life (not someone else’s, but our OWN), right now. What are the ways I am giving my “evil inclination” free reign? And how can I bring my “good inclination” to bear, and improve myself. The point is that we are here to lift ourselves and all humanity a little higher, to bring some light to the darkness. So, how can we go about that? AND, we are subtly reminded that we don’t have to be perfect! It’s better to at least “DO” the right things, even if we don’t always “show that awareness” with our speech. What is asked of us by Christ in this parable is healthy progress, not perfection.

This week, in Judaism, the religion of Jesus, the synagogue is deep into the month of Elul, a season of repentance. They celebrate Rosh HaShanah, then enter the 9 days of awe, and conclude with Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. This is a time for “bettering lives,” for “mending the torn fabric of our human relationships which our words and our actions have caused over the past few months or even the past year. Let us join them in spirit, and search deep into ourselves. For that is the spirit of these readings. In the words of St. Paul, as we imitate Christ, we learn, little by little, to “pour ourselves out,” for others...becoming slaves, as it were. In other words, we learn–probably slowly–that it is in helping others to rise that we lift ourselves and them a little higher, but to do that we must stand under them, and lift them; we must learn what “servanthood” is about. And no one “gets it” over night! Each day presents us with new possibilities for growth, and the fine-tuning of our attitudes and our actions, as we make an offering of our lives to God.

So, as we draw near to the altar of the Son of God who said “not my will but Thine be done,” then spent His life doing that holy will, let us pray for insight into what we need to do to “turn” our lives to more productive paths, and for the ability to discipline our speech to the uplifting of others. And let us pray that God continue to be understanding of our weakness, and bless our quiet, gentle, and often halting “turning” toward Him. And may He give us the Grace in these Holy Sacraments to make of our lives benedictions of goodness and good will in our world. And may God bless you all. +

Father Bill’s Sermon, Sunday, Sunday, September 21, 2008

XXV Sunday in Ordinary Time

The readings this weekend are all about what we do with our time. You know, none of us knows for sure how much time we will have in this life. By the time I was out of High School, I had survived the deaths of three boys in our school—Dicky Trundel, three years ahead of me, died in a car wreck, tragically the driver was his best friend; Billy Stites, one year ahead of me, had drown in a reservoir, and Marvin Smith, two years behind me, had died of a brain aneurism. In my nearly 34 years of priesthood, I’ve buried young husbands, young mothers, children, babies, teenagers, and college students, along with people who’ve had the good fortune to live to 80 or 90 years of age. The point, though, is that not one of us has the slightest inkling as to when our time will be up.

That is why Jesus’ teacher, Rabbi Hillel, used to say, “Repent one day before your death.” And, of course, his disciples would ask, “How do we know when we’re going to die, so how can we know when to repent?” And Hillel would get a twinkle in his eye, smile and say, “Ah, well you should ask! So…if it could be tomorrow, shouldn’t I repent today? And why take a chance?”

In today’s Gospel, Jesus, in the tradition of Hillel, his old teacher, says: “Repent an hour before your death! A minute before! A second before!” That is the point of all these folk crawling out of bed at different times and wandering to the place where day laborers were hired. They all came at different times…some early, some late…but they all eventually got there! And all were acceptable. And all were given the wage the Master gives. It’s a metaphor for Heaven. I get so aggravated when I hear people talk about how this doesn’t fit our understanding of economic justice…blah, blah, blah. Well, it doesn’t! But, it’s not talking about economics. It’s talking about your eternal soul.

We’ve spent some time today baptizing these children. This is a ritual that claims them for God, and places them safely within the Divine Family…but each one will, at some point in his or her life, have to choose to move along the inner path. Each will have to move toward A Greater Love, A Higher Understanding. Each will have to seek out God, as they understand God. The Gospel assures us that whenever they do it, it will be enough, but why wait?

Why DO we wait? I think we put off religious striving simply because we misunderstand it. We have the idea that it takes the joy out of life, when in fact, it’s all about putting joy into life! If your religious practice isn’t bringing some joy, some light, some strength into your life, you’re not doing it right! In reality, a vibrant spiritual life is measured NOT by one’s somberness, but by one’s smiles, one’s understanding and compassion for others, the depth of one’s loves and friendships. So WHY would someone wait? It would be like a starving man standing at a buffet table, saying I don’t want to enter that line, I’m afraid of indigestion! BUT, we human beings are thick headed, and that’s often what we do. We don’t “get in the line,” out of fear of something. BUT, the reading today tells us that it’s never too late! He’s still out there hiring just before quitting time!

So, on this day of baptisms, as we celebrate the initiation onto the spiritual path of these delightful children, let us resolve to renew our own commitment to the path. Let’s commit ourselves to forgiving someone this week, to enjoying an hour of music for the good of our soul, or to say “I miss you” to someone we haven’t seen in an age. Let’s commit ourselves to doing the soul work that binds up the universe in the arms of God’s love, and may our lives be, indeed, benedictions of goodness in our world. And may God bless you all. +

Father Bill’s Sermon, Sunday, September 14, 2008

Exaltation of the Holy Cross

This weekend we dedicate, each year, to a feast that has gone by two names over the centuries: “The Exaltation of the Cross,” or “The Triumph of the Cross.” The origin of the feast was a commemoration of the finding of the Cross by St. Helena, and then, not much later, her son, the Emperor Constantine, won a major battle after having had a vision of the cross, with the words: “In this sign, conquer!” BUT, of course, the point of the feast is in thinking about the “contradiction in terms” that the name implies, for in that contradiction is the meaning of the Mystery of Christianity and, really, the Mystery of God. It is in this inner tension that is implied in the feast that our lives are lived and we draw near to the essence of God and our own authenticity at the same time. So, the sign given to Constantine was a truly “double-edged sword.” He could, indeed, overcome the world under the sign, but only through weakness. He got the first part, and missed the last part!!! So, often, do we!

First, let’s look at the contradiction we find in the very title of the Feast: The “exaltation”  of the Cross. The word, exaltation, is akin to the more familiar “triumph,” which we all know to mean “to gain victory over,” and means a rise or intensification in power; the Cross is the symbol of surrender, defeat, death. So, in a sense we are celebrating the power in surrender, or the victory in defeat, or the finding of true life in death.

The mystery of the universe, we are being told, is somehow encoded here. Life is found in death. A friend of mine in Maryland, thirty years ago, entered a career that he probably shouldn’t have entered. He spent the first few years smiling and making contacts, and thinking he could rise, and he did rise in that career—quite high, actually, but each step up the ladder, took more of his energy, his attention, his time, and his marriage tottered, he didn’t know his children well, and then, he reached a point where he couldn’t seem to go any higher, and younger people coming up the ladder were after his job, and finally, it all fell apart…his job was downsized, and he was out.  When I ran into him about 8 months later, I expected him to be depressed, and despairing. Yet, he told me that he had never felt so free! He and his wife were falling in love again, he was free enough to enjoy getting to know his kids—now in high school. He said to me, “It’s an amazingly freeing thing to be bankrupt and starting over at 54. At first, I felt terrified, and then I felt energized, and now I just enjoy life.” His wife, who had also had to adjust to less income, said, “It’s no longer about amassing things, but about life unfolding.” I said, “Can I quote you?” And here I am several years later quoting them, at last!

Two other acquaintances I have known over the years had been in a relationship for almost a decade. It had begun in a rocky way. Neither had come from wealth, but both had come from families with connections and a social position due to politics. BUT, the two “kids” were from families of different parties! And the parents objected to the quickness of the relationship, the fact that the kids weren’t married, the fact that they had married the “enemy,” and they brought all sorts of pressure on them to break it up. But they were determined and stayed together for over a decade………without marrying. I wondered why they hadn’t married, but you learn not to ask too many questions, and so from a distance, I silently watched, and finally, they split. Both of them told me, separately, that they felt like a burden had been removed. Now, instead of living with a situation that was not fulfilling simply to prove people that they could, they were free to be themselves and to grow into who they needed to become.

I worked with another Trinitarian priest in our high school outside of Washington DC in the late 60’s/early 70’s, and he was chair of the science department and had taught biology for years. He was a “legend in his own time,” with a truly eclectic classroom. He had a reputation for being a demanding teacher, but fair, and most of all, for being eccentric and creating interesting “surprises” in his class room…he had once substituted a live frog for a dead one without his students knowing about it, and when one was called up to the front of the class to do a dissection, he reach out to the teacher to get the frog to pin it down, when it jumped at him, and he ran screaming from the room, to everyone’s delight! That was Fr. Mike. Always joking. Then, a younger teacher, who took science far more seriously was employed at the school, and began to systematically move the curriculum on a more disciplined, focused track toward academic excellence, and Fr. Mike realized he “had to go.” He grieved his transfer. He went into early retirement. We thought he’d curl up and die….THEN, he took a vacation to Texas, fell in love with a little parish outside Victoria, and moved himself South and took up pasturing a flock. He’d been a priest for 40 + years, but had never pastored a church, he’d always taught. He had a total Re-Birth! He spent the last years of his life as productively as he’d spent the early years, with wonderful energy and great spirit.

When I was the pastor of a small country church in Maryland, I had eleven prisons in my parish boundaries, so I did a LOT of prison chaplaincy. When men first arrived in an institution, they went into a depression that lasted from 4 to 8 months, as their “past vision of themselves” died. Then, after a bit, they found new energy, and felt like new people, and wanted to use the time they had in jail to do the inner work they needed to do………then, again, about 3 years into a life sentence, the depression hit again, as their “pipe dream died,” and they realized that no matter what they did, they weren’t getting out…and that second depression lasted a bit longer…but they came out of it, too, with a determination to be “all” they could be…many doing degrees, reading things they’d only heard about like Plato and Aristotle, Emily Dickenson’s poetry, or the Bible or the Quran. And, not always, but often they, then, became mentors to guys who had a chance to go back outside, so that they wouldn’t fail and return.

The point of the sermon is NOT to look for ways to get fired, or to break up with your girlfriend, or transfer careers, or to go to JAIL, rather it’s that there are things that need to die so that LIFE can come…and those things, people, are US, and our projects. Everything we are and everything we start is finite, because our life, here, is finite. And “endings” are so difficult for us…for it’s our “projects” (whether our love lives, our work lives, or out hobbies and avocations) that allow us to “make our footprint in the sands of time,” and to say, “Here I am!” Losing them is like death, itself. Yet….this feast tells us that it is in losing them that LIFE is born anew….which is also a foreshadowing of what will happen at our physical death: at that moment NEW LIFE WILL ARISE.

So, this feast isn’t so much about the triumphing of our religion over other religions as it is about the eternal triumph of LIFE over death! God has built that into the universe. Life gives birth to life which gives birth to life…and even death itself, is just a “transition,” a “door” into greater life.

Now, most of us agree with this message…….intellectually……..we, too, have seen it’s truth too often to doubt it, but we don’t know it “interiorly.” Our heart of hearts HATES change! So, we resist. And I think God smiles at our resistance. For, after all, God made us and knows us “through and through.” Unless your Bible reads differently from mine, you’ll remember that when Christ faced painful transition and death, He sweat drops of BLOOD, for Heaven’s sake! That’s there to teach us that it’s OK to fret and resist a bit. We all need time. We all have the right, like our father, Jacob, to wrestle with God. It’s just that God wins…but…the point of this reading is to reassure us that when God wins, it is Good News, for God is a God of CREATION, of LIFE, and NEWNESS (which is what the Resurrection teaches us), and that in EVERY single death/defeat God is inventing New Possibilities for Life for us.

I don’t know about you, but I needed to hear that, today. I don’t know what fears (if any) that you’ve brought to today’s Mass, or what memories of “deaths” and “diminishments” that you carry. These readings whisper to us of an ancient Truth so easily recognized and so universally forgotten by us in difficulty: that whatever it is we fear; there’s nothing that God’s New Life can’t top! So, be at peace. This feast is our feast. It tells us our lives are headed for endings that become beginnings, and that LIFE is what is promised us, always.

Let us pray as we near the table of the Author of Life, that our fears may be converted to trust in God’s goodness, and that we may, through the spiritual strength we receive, here, make of our lives…and our projects…however short-lived or long-lived they may be…BENEDICTIONS of goodness and peace in our world. And may God bless you all. +

 

Father Bill’s Sermon, Sunday, September 7, 2008

XXIII Sunday in Ordinary Time

If one knows nothing of jurisprudence at the time of Jesus, today’s Gospel reading can be construed to mean the exact opposite of what it says. For instance, I was given the vague understanding somewhere along the line, that this gospel was all about “correcting” the errant brother and “purifying” the Church. When someone is “sinning,” and you know it, you try to get them to stop, and if your private conference doesn’t work, you bring a few, then a group, then the whole Church, and if that doesn’t work, excommunicate them! Then, the Church is purified to some extent, and the brother is properly warned of the spiritual consequences of his behavior.

BUT, that’s NOT really what was being said. It looks like that IF you don’t know legal practice in 2nd Temple Judaism, but when you know what the background is, the whole reading comes out different–in fact, diametrically opposed to what seemed so obvious.

In 2nd Temple legal thought, NO ONE could be convicted by the testimony of only one witness. So, for example, if YOU saw someone kill someone else, and it was only your word against that of the murderer who would deny it, then no conviction can be obtained, and the case is dismissed. In order to proceed, a trial of any sort HAD to have at least two witnesses, and more were preferable. SO....what’s being said in today’s reading is: “IF you catch wind that someone is doing something immoral, go to them, and try to help them give this up and change their life. BUT, if they don’t listen, or can’t listen, you have to let it be UNTIL others begin to see what is going on, too. Now, you can’t go to others and tell them to “watch out for X or Y.” THAT is slander, and it is a more serious sin than murder, itself! So...you simply have to wait until two or three more folk are wise to what’s happening, then you take them with you, and you try to help a falling brother or sister make over their life. And if THAT doesn’t work, you wait a little longer, and pretty soon, bunches of folk will know, and then you can make this an open issue, getting the whole congregation involved in helping the fallen one to stand again.

Now, if THAT fails, then the fallen one is to be treated like what? A gentile or a tax collector, right? Well, I ask, “and how are Gentiles and tax collectors to be treated according to Jesus?” And when we look, we find that it is to the Syro-Phoenician woman (a gentile) that Christ went to cure her daughter, it is to the Roman Centurion (a gentile) that Christ offered healing for a servant, it is to the Samaritan woman (a gentile) whom Christ imparted the words that led to the conversion of the entire village. He’s with Gentiles all the time! And he made a tax collector (St. Matthew) his disciple! So, what is being said, is: FAR FROM SHUNNING OR EXCOMMUNICATING THEM, they are to be treated as “initiates” again, re-teaching the basics, re-evangelizing them from the ground up. It is not “excommunication,” but “broader charity” that is asked of the Church.

And this is followed by the statement that “binding and loosing” belong to the power of the Church JUST FOR SUCH INSTANCES. In other words, IF a brother has been keeping his store open into the early hours of the Sabbath, and opening it slightly before the Sabbath ends IN ORDER to make the extra money needed to care for a sick child or an ailing mother, you can “loose” him from the obligation of a 24 hour Sabbath! You can cut him some slack! If he CAN’T change, maybe the requirements can! OR, you can find a way to finance a charity for him so that he doesn’t need to break the Sabbath. But the “power” is with you to help him be the disciple he needs to be.

This is the second week in a row we hear of sin. Ezekiel reminds us that NONE of us can get out of this world without being stained by the sinful nature of living. There is no perfection on this side of the grave! No matter how hard we try, we’re going to make mistakes. This is the nature of humanity. Goodness, Ezekiel reminds us, is not in a naive “blamelessness,” that is impossible to achieve. Goodness is trying to be helpful to others in the midst of a selfish world....it isn’t blamelessness, it’s charity that defines goodness. Helping others grow to be all they can be lifts us and everyone else a little higher!

St. Paul reminds us that ultimately we measure our steps by asking ourselves: “is this a loving thing, or not?” Blamelessness, sinlessness isn’t what we strive for so much as kindness, gentleness, charity. When we strive to be charitable, our “pet sins” begin to take care of themselves.

So, the readings this weekend are NOT a call to purge the Church and “purify” the world–though crazy preachers for centuries have raised Inquisitions using these very verses. Rather, they call us to deeper charity, and greater tolerance, as we try to find ways that will help the floundering among us to rise a bit higher. We are not sanctioned to condemn them, but to help them be the better person they are capable of becoming–and in doing so, we, ourselves, become finer human beings in the process.

So, as we come to the table of the Lord of Judgement, this morning, realizing that He will hold a standard to our own lives to measure us, let us pray that our lives will be stretched by greater charity so that the measure with which we are measured will show our striving to be people of charity and blessing on our earth. And may God bless you all. +

 

Father Bill's Sermon, August 31st, 2008

Most of us don’t know much about sin. Oh, we think we do. We think, in fact, we can get pretty good at it! But, by the standards of today’s gospel, we’re all amateurs! Now, I know some of you may be practicing, hoping for an Olympic Gold in Sinfulness, but, frankly, I think you’re out of luck! Sort of on this topic: I remember one of my seminary professors once saying to me, after I had sneaked into the Seminary long after hours, having gone with friends to the dog races, “Axe, I believe you’re actually trying to commit an original sin! Well, stop it! They’ve all been done at least once!” My droll reply was, as I slipped past him: “We’ll see!” 

 

Why am I talking about “sin” at all, this weekend? The gospel sets us up for it. In today’s Gospel, St. Peter, by all accounts the head of the early Church, and, therefore, the erstwhile first in a long line of popes, outdid even Adam and Eve, at least in theory. Whereas Adam and Eve had done what humans do, and met the fate that humans meet, Peter had tried to dissuade Christ from the divine plan. In essence, he was trying to tempt God to give up His love for humanity, and to forsake His plan of salvation. THAT, people, takes the cake! No one can come close to that one!

 

And, I want you to look at how Jesus handles it. He says, “Oh, stop! You’re talking like Satan, not a pope!” I mean, if Peter had had his way, all humanity would have been abandoned to death. Hmmm....IF Christ had looked into the future, he might have conceded that Peter was talking exactly like some popes...but that’s for a different sermon! Actually, what Christ says is, “This is not how the head of the Church must think and talk. You’re not God; you can’t know what God knows, that’s not how “the Keys of the Kingdom” work. Follow me, and I’ll show you the path to life.” 

 

THAT’S IT!  Nothing else! All Jesus did when confronted with a sin greater than that of Adam was say, “Oh, think again. I’ll show you how to get that right.” Can you imagine what an Irish monsignor would have done with it? 

 

The point I’m making is that we think we are so almighty powerful that our sins can re-direct the power of the Master of the Universe, can stop Him in His tracks and force His attention from guiding the growth of the cosmos with its galaxies and black holes, to call out for punishment of US. WE are at the Center of ALL.  We need to hear Christ’s message to Peter, and we need to hear it frequently.

 

Does it mean we shouldn’t try? Should we just give up and sin with wild abandon? There are days I think, “Oh, why not?” But, the point of Matthew’s entire Gospel is that even on the days we feel like that, the Abiding Presence of God is with us, urging something different. Not making a big federal case of our shortcomings, but moving us on to nobler goals and higher ideals, urging us to make of our lives a benediction for the earth.

 

Today’s gospel shows us that Christ, the Redeemer of God, meets us where we are–in our lazy ordinary sinfulness, and in our gauche horrid sinfulness (and, let’s face it, most of us find ourselves there once or twice a lifetime or once or twice a week...depending). It is in our brokenness that He meets us to call us on to Greater heights, not to kick us while we’re down.  So, on this Labor Day holiday, as we are officially putting the lazy days of summer behind us, and concentrating on new projects that will capture our imagination and our energy, let us remember that while we may not always be perfect, the God of our Heart accompanies us, always, leading us gently to do better and to be more. Let's set our sights a little higher as we move into the hectic fall start up of our activities, shall we? Let's try to be more focused and more serious about our spiritual path, about the footprints we are leaving in the sands of time.

 

Today, we meet our first Pope in the lowest ebb of human history, trying to tempt God off course, and we see him touched by God’s forgiving, healing love. It is my prayer for each of us that as we come to the Ancient Table of Strength in this sacred liturgy and are nourished with the Strength of God, Himself, that we will sense ourselves called beyond where we are, to lives of greater purpose and deeper meaning. And may God bless you all. +