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. +