Sunday Homily 4-5-09, Palm Sunday

Jeremiah  33, 14-16, The days are coming.

 Psalm 25,    To you, Oh Lord, I lift up my soul

Pope Francis Letter “Laudato si”  (“Praise to you”)  –  “There is an inseparable bond between concern for nature, justice for the poor, commitment to society, and interior peace.”

Luke  21,  25-28, 34-36,,  There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars.

Luke: Ch 21 –  “Up on your feet.  Help is on the way!”

Author: The gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles make up a two-volume work which scholars call Luke–Acts.  According to an early Church tradition, the author was the Luke named as a companion of Paul in three of Paul’s letters, but Scripture scholars say there is a problem with this. Though the author of Luke-Acts admired Paul, his theology was significantly different from Paul’s; there are countless contradictions between Acts and Paul’s letters. Bottom line: we don’t know who author of Luke-Acts is.

When written: The most probable date is around 80-100 AD, and there is evidence that it was still being revised well into the 2nd century.  The author takes as sources the Gospel of Mark, written around 70 AD, the sayings collection called the Q source, and a collection of material called the L source (L for Luke).

Audience: Luke was written to be read aloud to a group of Jesus’ followers gathered in a house to share the Lord's supper. The author assumes an educated Greek-speaking audience, but attends mainly to specifically Christian concerns rather than to the Greco-Roman world at large.

Today’s passage: A commonly held belief of the early Christian community was the return of Jesus; many thought this would happen within one generation. So it’s not surprising to read prophecies of that event attributed to Jesus in the Gospel writings.

Homily by John

  As a kid I attended school and church regularly.  I really liked the beginning of a new school year and the season of Advent at church.  Both of these were like a chance to start over again.  Another chance to start fresh and without judgment.  During my school years, we had summer fun times for 3 months and, remarkably, I was often ‘summered out’ and looking forward to a new school year with my classmates and most of my teachers.

We started over with new subjects, new books, new teachers – happy time for me.   At church we had finished that long ‘ordinary time’ without much happening, and had the scary sermons just before Advent about the ‘end of times’ and the ‘sheep and goats’ and judgment and punishment. 

Advent for the most part aimed us toward Christmas and the baby Jesus and the lights and happy thoughts and times.  I remember gathering a bunch of green fern moss to be the grass for the village I helped build around the manger scene.  Advent – happy time.

This week I’ve been thinking how happy it is for me to not actually ever hear hell and brimstone and judgment when we gather here; rather, acceptance and encouragement and challenge. 

I have so much to be thankful for.  I have a loving family who care for me in so many ways.  I have loving friends who show care and acceptance, including you guys.  I have a Pope with whom I feel a togetherness in thought and aspiration, and permission to express my thoughts, even my doubts, without judgment.  I have a Pope who encourages and challenges me to love and care for the world, for the environment, for my neighborhood, for my neighbors, for myself.  And I am grateful. 

My question is: What are you grateful for at this start of the new church year?  Or for the entire last year?  

Readings:

Acts 2, 14, 36-41,  About 3 thousand people were added that day.

Psalm 23,  The Lord is my shepherd (a good one)

1 Peter  2, 20-25,  When he was insulted, he returned no insult.

John  10, 1-10,  The shepherd calls his own sheep by name.

Georgie says, "Welcome Everybody, come in."

A reminder on Acts:

What : The second half of Luke’s work, the first part being his gospel.  Acts starts after the Resurrection.  We will read Acts all through May and read the last selection June 1, then June 7, Pentecost.  The work focuses on the spread of the early church with special attention given to Peter and Paul and their conflicts over who was to be a Christian, and Jewish laws, like circumcision.  The conversion of Paul is described.

Emma cannot wait to see everybody.

Who: Luke, an educated and civilized Jew who wrote in Greek.

Date:  around the year 65, or about 30 years after Jesus’ death.

Our Selection:  Peter is just trying to convince his listeners to sign up.

Psalm 23:  The Lord is my shepherd.  One of the good ones.

Zoe lights the Easter candle with her mom, Michielle, helping.

Me, a Shepherd ?  No Way !

In honor of Mothers' Day today I would like to talk about the Good Shepherd.  Instead of focusing on the way the scripture paints a portrait of the in group and the out group, I would like to focus on the fact that there is only the in group.  We are all in it.  Plus, we are called to be shepherds.  The story of the day comes again from our visit in France a month ago.

In Paris Rosemary & I have a favorite little pedestrian only street called Rue Cler.  It is in the same neighborhood as the Eiffel Tower and on the left bank of the Seine River.  There is a small cross street called Champs de Mars.  The street eventually goes to the park by the same name where the Eiffel Tower is situated.  Our little hotel, Champs de Mars, is on the street.

Remember the Holy Saturday wedding in Grandbury, published in the Easter Sunday blog? Here they are, Robb and Rebecca celebrating their 3rd week anniversary. See below the gift they gave the community.

Two of the corners formed by Rue Cler and Rue Champs de Mars have cafes where the tables and chairs spill delightedly out onto the two streets.   One of the corners has a little grocery and the fourth corner has a deli, bakery combination.  The deli is open on the two street sides.

Rosemary & I went there one afternoon to buy something for our two o’clock lunch-dinner. 

Cupcake of the Week to Dick and Judy for 11.

There are two counters facing Rue Cler, both containing all sorts of bakery goods and deli specialties. 

We go up to the first counter, look around a bit, and then ask the woman for some quiche and maybe a ham & cheese sandwich.   The young woman who is about 35 and attractive with olive skin and brown hair acts somewhat impatient and brusque. 

She gives us what we want and we go to the second counter where the cash register is to pay another woman who could be the first woman’s twin sister.

Cupcake of the Week to Sam on his birthday with his mom, Pam.

This young woman is even more impatient and even rude.  We depart and Rosemary says, “I wish I had told her, ‘Don’t talk to me like that!’”  Don’t get New York Rosemary mad.

So I lied that second Sunday of Easter when I told you we had never met rudeness in France.  This was the first time.

We were talking about it later that evening when I decided I would return and let them know how we felt.  I memorized a little two sentence statement in French, so I would not get tongue tied, and we returned at 7:00.

I walk up to the second woman still at the cash register and when she sees me she immediately says, “We are closed.”  Twice.  And immediately sells a baguette to a guy who had walked up just behind me.  I decide I will wait, when suddenly I saw the other woman. 

Cupcake of the Week for Barb on her birthday.  Barb is the mother of Rebecca and Pam.

I walk over to her, say I would like to have a word, and make my little speech.  I say, “We just bought your food here this afternoon.  It was excellent.  However, I am sad, because for the first time in all my years coming to Parish, this is the first time I met two people who were impolite.” 

She is all apologetic and asks, “Who?”  “You,” I say.  And still she was apologetic.  I told her I accepted her apology, thanked her, and left feeling pretty happy.

I know not what bad experiences with Americans or men or poor French speakers they had had in their lives.   I do know the girls had moms and maybe they are moms.  

Cupcake of the Week for a Great Grandmother, Mabel.

Even though the girls were impatient with Rosemary and me, I propose that these two women are part of the shepherd’s group and that, in fact, all of us, everyone is part of the shepherd’s group.  Some people in the group are more wounded and brainwashed.   Their hurt leaks out in their behavior.  Are the Boko Haram people, the Nigerians who kidnapped the girls, are they part of the group?  Yes.   I have lived in Nigeria and I know how brutal it can be.

Despite the in and out quality of the good shepherd scriptures, I propose that all of us here are part of the group.  We are blessed because we have had good secondary shepherds in our lives, good moms, teachers, coaches, friends, and fellow community members.

We are, also, definitely called to shepherd others. 

Who and How?

Celebration Cross, made by Robb for their wedding and donated to our community by Robb and Rebecca.

Readings:

1 Kings  3, 5, 7-12,   The Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream one night.

Psalm 119,   Lord, I love your commands.

Romans 8, 28-30,  All things work for good who love God.

Matthew  13, 44-52,  The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure buried in a field.

Starting Mass

Homily

Some of you are aware that Judy and I were recently in Iowa for a memorial celebration of her mother’s life.   Judy’s mother came to what would be our birthplace in Iowa from a farm in Missouri to take Nurse’s training from nuns of the order of St. Francis who came from Peoria, Illinois. They had had been sent there some years earlier to serve in a hospital and to assist doctors who were also being trained in Keokuk.  These nuns served another purpose for us by catechizing Marie; she received the sacraments of the Church there when she was 21. The good news of Jesus Christ, the treasure buried in the field, the pearl of great value, the net used by the disciples to catch men, and the instruction on the kingdom of heaven had become the desire of her heart.

John reading 1 Kings

This town where Judy and I were born has a beautiful park.  It is the heart of the town and Judy began the first part of our memorial celebration of Marie there, with a reading from the Proverbs 31; the reading was part of the old spoken of in today’s gospel.  The theme of our celebration was Marie as a giver of goodness and justice.   I carried the theme forward with a reading that I gave to begin the service we had at the gravesite.  It was from the Letter of James where he reminds a sect of Jewish Christians of the Perfect law, we are to love one another as Christ has loved us.  This new way of loving had fulfilled the Royal law from Leviticus of the OT, to love your neighbor as yourself.  

Jean reading Romans

 In our first reading today from First Kings, Solomon has asked God for an understanding heart so that he could better serve God’s people wisely.  How were we shown this in 1 Kings? Recall the parable where Solomon determined which of the two prostitutes was the true mother of the child they had brought to him.

Mike

The wisdom that a scribe had read or heard about Solomon inspired him to construct that parable.   We were told last week that the seed sown by Christ spoken of in the parable was the Father’s word given to us by his Son. Today we were told that the treasure buried in the field, and the pearl of great value and the net sown in the sea to capture people is the good news of Jesus Christ that fulfills the wisdom of Solomon of the first reading.

Wendy, Shonda, & Ray

When the Romans destroyed the temple in Jerusalem, the priests disappeared.  Scribes who were the interpreters of the Law and Prophets were still involved in the Sabbath Synagogue Service for Jews.  Recall that this service was built around a calendar of readings from the Law and the Prophets  and the singing of the Psalms to praise God and a teaching by the Scribes on the OT reading.  [It was the liturgy of the Word of the Jews.] For the Jews who became Christians, disciples of the kingdom of God, the Christian Liturgy of the Word would fulfill the Sabbath Synagogue Service. The gospel reading would  fulfill the expectation of the coming of the Messiah given in the OT reading; the homily given on the gospel reading replaced the OT teaching.  [This couldn’t happen, however, until the first gospel was written, copied and given to the Scribes. But who were the inspired writers of the gospels and its parables, and where did they come from?

Zoe

 I propose to you that today’s gospel reading suggests to us that a good number of Scribes had been waiting for the coming of the Messiah. They believed that the sayings and teachings and writings of Jesus fulfilled that expectation given within the Law and the Prophets. They not only believed but wanted a good news of the Messiah preserved. Inspired Scribes, who were rabbis and disciples of the kingdom of God, were like a head of a household who took from their treasure both the new and old. The old was taken by the scribes from the OT; the new taken from the writings, teachings and sayings of Jesus, or in the case of this Matthew gospel, from earlier gospels.  The Sabbath Synagogue Service that kept Judaism alive they fulfilled by writing the gospels in parables so that Christianity, in harmony with the Law and Prophets, would be preserved.

Georgie

Kevin and Leo

Readings:

Isaiah  6, 1-8,   “Here I am,” I said, “send me.” The call of Isaiah.

Psalm 138,  In the sight of the angels I will sing your praises, Lord.

 1 Corinthians 15, 1 – 11,   I am the least of the apostles.

Luke 5, 1-11,   The big catch of fish.

Says Kevin, "Welcome in, Everybody, we are ready."

Observations:   Isaiah (I) 

This is The Great One.  The Prophet.  My favorite.  In general, this work has three parts put together by three different people.  It is time dependent: before, during, and after the, you guessed it, the Babylonian Captivity.  Keep 555 before Christ in mind as an easy date.  You can guess that this is Isaiah I, being chapter 6 (of 66 chapters)

Last week we heard the story of the prophet Jeremiah’s call by Yahweh.  This week we have Isaiah’s call. 

Harper, too, says, "Hi, Folks, Welcome in."

Psalm 138

Want to hear something beautiful?  Listen to today’s psalm.  Another of my favorites. Thanks, thanks, and more thanks.

1 Corinthians 15

In last week’s Corinthians’ reading Paul described his vision of love.  Today he continues talking to the people of his church in Corinth, focusing on how he was called by God.

So, today we have a theme of call & gratitude.  Even the gospel has a sub-theme of call.  Pretty neat.

 Candle Lighters of The Week, Cole and Leo.

Have a Happy Lent?

This morning, Folks, I want to talk about how to have a happy Lent, a Lent positive spiritually-psychologically and even physically.  

I got a story to exemplify my ideas. 

Last Friday morning at our 6:00 A.M. spin class at the Jewish Community Center, I had the opportunity to celebrate the birthday of our trainer, a girl in her thirties named Jennifer.  She did not know this was coming.

The Best, Shonda & Bethany, Ray & David,

She had told me the date of her birthday when I asked her a couple of weeks before if she was going to give me a birthday gift the week of the 26^th.  I asked for the theme of Rocky, my favorite work out music.  At the same time she said yes to Rocky, she said her birthday was the 5^th.  I tucked it away.

So, just before she started cranking us up at 6:00, Friday, I got off of my bike and addressed the 20 or so other bikers saying that is was Jennifer’s birthday.  We sang and then I gave her a gift with a ribbon Rosemary had added.  The gift?  A Cliff bar.  I figured she might beat me if I gave her a cupcake.  She eats healthy and it shows.

Ugh, Oh, Folks, that girl is loose.

At the same time the kid that mans the entrance desk walks in with a big piece of poster paper and tapes it on the glass wall.  It said ‘Happy Birthday, Jennifer.’  I had told him about it being her birthday and never expected such a positive response. 

Jennifer was obviously touched.  I became the teacher’s pet with hopes of future preferential treatment.   A dream.

Ugh, Oh, again, Gen, You are hanging out with dangerous people, that is, Leo and Zoe. 

Back to Lent.

I have mentioned before how I have a gloomy reaction to Lent mostly because of my early Jesuit experience with extra penance.   Like, we had chains we wore on our thighs a couple of times a week and we had little whips which we used to scourge our backs a couple of evenings a week before we went to bed in our cubicles.  I think we were sane enough to laugh at most of this.

So, how do we make Lent this year a positive experience?  I think most of us are into a fine tuning zone, a little here, a little there.

Jennifer and Kennedy, baptism time.  Welcome into our world, Kennedy.

So, physically, what needs fine tuning?  Myself, normally I have to watch the big 3, sugar, butter, salt.  I love them all, but they do bad things to me.  My goal: trim off maybe 5  pounds, weight I have gained from Thanksgiving, through Christmas, to my birthday the end of January.

So, where do you want to fine tune, lose a pound or two, exercise a bit more?

Hi, Kennedy, Thanks for bringing your mom & dad and your  god parents,  Nick and Stephanie.

Spiritually-psychologically?  I would propose two positives:

1. Take time to contemplate, appreciate, and give thanks for something.
2. Make an effort every day to do something positive, like singing happy birthday to Jennifer.  I was lucky to have that opportunity to celebrate her. 

The Braun family,  Don & Debbie, Kennedy & Jen &  Kyle, Eric, Heather & Mckinley. 

Rosemary & some others of you have suggested we keep a jar, write down on a small piece of paper the positive thing we did that day, and put the paper in the jar.  A one a day vitamin.

The positive gesture can tie up with the gratitude. 

Rosemary will say a word about this at the time of The Blessing of The Week.  

So, how are you going to celebrate a Lent that is happy?

Readings:

Isaiah  55, 10-11,   My word shall not return to me void.

Psalm 65,   The seed that falls on good ground will yield a fruitful harvest.

Romans 8, 18-23,  We know that all creation is groaning in labor pains.

Matthew  13, 1-23,  A sower went out to sow.

Kevin says, "Welcome, Everybody, It is good to be back home.

Isaiah, The Great One, observations—

Who:  One of the Big 3 prophets, the greatest in my estimation.  Jeremiah and Ezekiel are the other two.  Actually, the book includes the work of 3 prophets.   Our selection is the last chapter written by Isaiah 2.

Time:  Isaiah 2 was living during the Babylonian Captivity, ca. 555.  Isaiah 1 writes before the Captivity, maybe 150 years.  Isaiah 3 writes after the return to Jerusalem.

Georgie also says, "Hi, Everybody, It is fun to be home again."

Subject today: better times will come.  I am expanding today’s passage, because it is so good.

Isaiah 2 has some of the most beautiful passages, many of which are seen as foretelling the coming of the Savior.  His readings are used all through the Advent & Christmas readings, as well as in Lent.  Handel uses Isaiah 2 in his marvelous work, The Messiah.

Both the Isaiah reading and Psalm 65 are beautiful.  

And Zoe, Tori, and Buddy all say, "Hi, Folks, it is so fun to be back again."

And My Seed Landed Where?

This morning I would like to talk about how Jesus is said to describe how the farmer’s seed is scattered on four different types of ground, the path, the rocks, the thorns, and the fertile.  Where did your seed fall?  Where did my seed fall?  I’m sure a lot of volunteers would be happy to let me know where my seed fell.

If you are a sinful gambler poker player you would look at this explanation and notice the bad odds, one out of four.  I would propose, however, that we all landed on fertile soil.  Let me offer some examples. 

I’ve shared this example once before, so you might remember it, but probably not. 

Cupcake of The Week to John on his birthday.

When I was a little kid about 5 years old, I was playing in the driveway of our house in University Park.  There were no fences and the drive went from the street, through the space between our house and the neighbor’s, and to the back up against the alley. 

The neighbor was Sam Berger, who owned a hat store in downtown Dallas.  He was Jewish and lived next to us all during the Holocaust.  I was oblivious to it all.  He & his wife had a big black lady who not only worked in the house, but lived in the back in an apartment attached to the garage, the servant quarters.  This black lady was not nice to me.

And a Cupcake of The Week to Beth on her birthday.

So this day as I am playing in the driveway, the lady steps out of the kitchen door & stands on the steps.  Without thinking, I say, “You are a big fat elephant.”

To the lady’s credit, she marches right across the drive and tells my mom.  My mom comes out of the house, drags me in, and spanks me.  Thinking back, I am impressed that my mom respected the lady.  The spanking, however, and her treatment of me confirmed my suspicions that my seed had fallen at least on the path or rocks, if not right on the thorns.   I definitely grew up with the belief that I was a bad kid. 

And a Cupcake of The Week to Harper for her 3rd birthday about 3 weeks late.

Despite the fact that you folks might agree with that assessment, I would propose that I was just a normal little boy doing silly things. 

This habit of doing silly, not bad things, can continue into adult years.  I know a guy who gets on his bike and rides off for an hour leaving the driver’s door of his car wide upon. 

I know a lady who last week let her Lincoln run out of gas in rush hour traffic.  Her husband, a bit nettled, brought gas, but then could not start the car.  It had to be towed.

Zoe seriously at work.

I know a dear friend who drove into her garage with a canoe strapped to the top of her car. 

You do this stuff and you begin to believe the bad news, ‘I am a loser, I am bad, my seed obviously landed in the ditch.” 

And then there are the malicious acts.  You know where I come in on this.  Kids hurt and abused grow up to hurt and abuse.  They are not bad.  They are damaged. 

So, who landed on fertile soil?  All of us.  God don’t make bad seed.

So, what do you think about all this?

Emma and her pal say, "It is so nice to be here."

Readings:                          

Deuteronomy  30,  10-14,  Heed the voice of the Lord.

Psalm 69,  Turn to the Lord in your need and you will live.

Colossians 1, 15-20,     Jesus is the image of the invisible God.

Luke 10, 25-37,  The man robbed on the road to Jericho.

Genevieve says, "Welcome in, Everybody.  It is nice to be back.  Here, let me open the door for you."

Deuteronomy observations:

The Scene: the desert outside the promised land.  Moses is talking to the people about all that has happened to them since he led them out of Israel and through the desert for many years.  Now, as they prepare to enter, Moses is dying.  He is simply exhorting them to love Yahweh and obey his laws. 

The Author:  not Moses.  A compilation put into three discourses.

Date:  guess when?  Yes, after the Babylonian Captivity, ca. 555 before Christ.

Subject today:  Moses talks about a command, but never mentions exactly what it is.  Watch for the answer in today's gospel.  The Great Command, to be a Good Samaritan.

Says Zoe, "Hi, Folks, Yes, it is nice to be back.  California is also pretty nice."

The Victims in Our Lives

This past Friday evening I did something I have been doing a lot of.  I rode my bike down the White Rock Creek Path to The Lake, went around it, and came back up the path to Royal Lane, a distance of about 20 miles.   Sorry to tell another biking story, but it was so relevant for me at the time.

As I was coming home and making the transition from the Lake to the Path, I went under the new Northwest Hwy Bridge.  Being dusk it was sort of dark under the bridge.  However, to my left about twenty yards over to the wall, I noticed 3 bikers stopped maybe two guys and a girl. 

So, I took a deep breath and yelled, “You guys okay, need any help?”

Welcome back to you, Leo.  I've missed the Leo spirit around here.

It may seem pretty trivial, but this is so hard for me to do.  These people are calling me to be a Good Samaritan.  I, however, am obsessed about keeping my schedule.  As I yelled I was hoping they would say, “We are okay.”  Which they did.  So I got off easy. 

I asked these people because I knew I was going to have to make a resolution in view of this homily.  I even used to ask people, but got too busy, at least in my mind. 

Victoria and Zoe, our Candle Lighters of The Week.

In the past two months I have passed two groups.  One group of two guys, they were walking a bike with a flat front tire.  I can fix flats in ten minutes.   I have everything I need.  The other group was under another bridge and had a bike upside down and they were working on an inner tube.  Both times I passed by, said nothing, and then felt guilty.

So, I resolve to always ask people if they need help when I see them standing by their bike. 

Now, you say, ‘Well, I don’t even ride a bike.  How does this pertain to me?’   My bet?  Somewhere you have a similar challenge.

Three of the Wyndham Clan, Ron, Barbara, and Ray.

As a community, I would highlight a joy I have, the fact that we attempt to be a good Samaritan to a number of small charities, and in particular to Souls Harbor.  This is a privilege. 

Recalling my psych stuff, How am I called to be a good Samaritan to myself?   We are all wounded people in some way.  How am I nurturing my spirit?  Where have I been hurt and how am I a Good Samaritan with that hurt? 

Where are you challenged to be a Better Good Samaritan?

"Nothing beats Grandma's hugs,"  says Zoe?