Sunday Homily 9-6-09, 23rd Ordinary Time

Readings:

Sirach 3, 2-6, 12-14, My son, take care of your father when he is old.

Psalm 128,  Blessed are those who fear the Lord and walk in his ways.

Colossians 3, 12-21,  Wives, be subordinate to your husbands.

Matthew 2, 13-15, 19-23, Take the child and his mother, flee to Egypt and stay there until I tell you.

Leo, the Candle Lighter, at work with his dad, Ray.

Sirach observations:

What.  One of those 12 odd books, neither in the Old nor the New Testament.  A book with wise little sayings & vingettes.

Examples: Be humble in everything you do, 3, 17.   Stubborness will get you into trouble, 3, 26.  If you are polite and courteous, you will enjoy the friendship of many, 6, 5.  A father who loves his son will whip him often, 30, 1.  A woman has to take any man as a husband, but a man must choose his wife carefully, 36, 21.

Who.   Sirach is the father of a man names Joshua (or Jesus) who wrote & compiled these saying.

When.   Composed around 200 years before Christ, maybe.

Colossians observations:

Get ready, this is a good one.  Especially for wives.  

Where else but with this hospitable community can The Candle Man kneel on the altar to light the candles.

Paradigmes for Families

I remember way back when Rosemary and I had been married a while, I told her one day that I thought this special line from the Bible was my new favorite line.  “Wives, be subordinate to your husbands.”  Sounded good to me. 

You know what I got, the look, the dog kennel look, the look that said, ‘There is a vacancy in the dog kennel in the back yard, bubba.’  So much for my new favorite line. 

We have one of the classic lines in Scripture here this morning.  “Wives,be subordinate to your husbands.”  I would like to talk about this.

We begin.

I also remember one afternoon I was in line to ride the roller coaster or something at 6 Flags.  Ahead of me was a family, husband and wife with maybe two or three kids.  The couple were discussing two sides of some decision.  Then I heard the husband tell the wife that she should follow his opinion, because….   You know what he said.  I almost passed out.  I did not realize that contemporary, educated, middle class folks followed this just because it says it in the Bible.

Let me offer some perspective, a little history and the 3 models of family dynamics.

Historically, remember that the writer of the line lived not in the Middle Ages, but way before that.  Women were not considered equal to men in any way.  I saw this in East Africa when I lived there.  The man was the head and the wife, kids, and farm animals were all more or less on the same level.

Cupcake of The Week to Hugh on his birthday.

You may see the same phenomenon today.  Where?  Try Afghanistan or among many Arab or Muslim countries.  Women have no rights and are certainly not considered equal to men.  Because of this, women can be beaten like a child or abused with hardly any consequence.  The old dictum held, ‘A good beating never hurt anyone.’

The writer of this letter saw this and spoke to it.  Not only does he speak to the wife, he also speaks to the husband, “Husbands, love your wives.”  Pretty unique stuff for those days.  Wives, in other words, are human beings, not property to be told how to dress and behave.

Cupcake of the Week to Georgie for being such a big help.

Finally, let me remind you of the 3 models of family dynamics.

First, you have the patriarchy.  The father is the head, which today’s writer is aware of.  And accepts.

Secondly, you have the matriarchy, the wife is the head of the family.  This model has been used over the centuries in various places.

Thirdly, you have equality.  This model has more traction today because women and men are equally educated and often equally talented.  In this family the husband and wife share responsibility and consult with each other.

It is not so much that one model is better than the other.  Which model works?

The Cupcake Kids, Zoe & Leo.

There are days when I am convinced that Rosemary and I have a matriarchy.

What works for you?

Readings: Isaiah 58, 7-10; Psalm 112, The Just Man is a Light in Darkness to the Upright; 1 Corinthians 2, 1-5; Matthew 5, 13-16.

Intro to Readings

 Our gospel readings, beginning last Sunday and continuing for the next several Sundays are part of the great Sermon on the Mount in Matthew’s Gospel.  This section of Matthew’s Gospel is the first and most well known of five major discourses, which are in this gospel.  Matthew had situated Jesus on a mountain; recall one of the themes of this gospel is to show how Jesus fulfills the Old Testament. 

 
Moses was on a mountain when he received the Ten Commandments from God, Moses was acting as intermediary.  Jesus is portrayed very differently – phrases from next Sunday’s gospel – “you have heard it said…. but I say to you” Jesus is no intermediary! 

 Just before this Sermon, we are told that Jesus went about the whole of Galilee preaching the Good News of the Kingdom.  Now this sermon spells out what that means.  For instance Jesus tells the disciples about their new relationship with God in that he refers to God some 17 times as “your Father”. 

The whole sermon, which covers three chapters in Matthew, can be divided into three sections, the first dealing with the Law, then a section on religious practice and the final section on material possessions and human relationships, ending with the famous golden rule.  In the middle section we find the instructions on prayer, with the teaching of the Our Father. 

 There is much to ponder on in these readings, and interestingly the contents give us a rare insight into what was probably very early Christian preaching as the Letter from James has much the same content and this is considered one of the earliest writings we have from the new community, written somewhere around the year 50!

The Homily

 I want to continue our discussion of the sacraments.  Today we will discuss very briefly the third of the three sacraments commonly referred to as the ‘Sacraments of Initiation’, the Eucharist.  This sacrament has many names, First Communion, Communion, the Eucharist and the Mass.  I think that the revised Rite of Christian Initiation has gone a long way towards helping clarify the confusion. 

 If you are familiar with the RCIA program, you will recall that in the period leading up to the Easter Vigil, when the candidates are admitted into the community fully, they are invited to attend just the first half of the Mass, the Liturgy of the Word, and then they process out of the church.  I think the reason the words “First Communion” came about was because just as with our discussion of Confirmation, when originally a new candidate joined, they received all three sacraments at the same time.  It was again due to circumstances and time that each event became separated and became individual sacraments.

So much could be said about the mass that it could be a topic each Sunday at least for a year.  Today I want to cover just a few highpoints.  My intent is to help us remember why we are here each Sunday.

 The Mass as we know it began its life at the Last Supper.  But even before that Passover Meal, there was a whole history connected with the Jewish history and THE most important event, their salvation from slavery in Egypt.  So that last meal the Jews ate before their escape to freedom and the Promised Land is the backdrop for our Mass.  The earliest mention we have of that last meal Jesus took with his apostles comes to us from Paul in his letter to the Corinthian community. 1Cor 11, 23ff.  And this letter dates to around the year 56 or 57 CE.  Meals were important in the gospel stories about Jesus.  And one of his first appearances was to the disciples on the road to Emmaus, when they recognized Jesus in the breaking of the bread.  As the years passed and the early community gathered to remember Jesus, that Last Supper began to be called the Lord’s Supper.  And it was quickly seen in conjunction with His death and resurrection.  Pretty soon its parallel to the Exodus Event with its resultant freedom for those who were baptized and received into this community was vivid.  The sacrificial aspect became uppermost. 

That Jesus’ death and resurrection won for us a whole new freedom in our relationship with the Father.  In typical human fashion, attempts have been made to explain the words, “this is my body, this is my blood” and like everything else connected with God, it is a mystery, so I prefer to leave it to the realm of faith and accept it rather than try to understand it.  Suffice it to say that the Jesus we receive in communion is there, not as a result just of those words by the priest, but as a result of the whole community, with the priest at its head, because of the entire action of the mass. 

 There has been much debate about whether the mass is a sacrifice or a meal, with one side or the other coming to the fore at different times.  The reality is: sacrifice includes meal, the two are not separate. 

 Our coming here each Sunday is to participate as a community in that sacrifice.  We listen to God’s Word, we offer our gifts of bread and wine and then we pray the Eucharistic Prayer, the word Eucharist means thanksgiving.  We then believe that by eating the bread and drinking the wine we are receiving the risen Jesus into our lives.  This communion, this meeting brings us closer in our relationship with God and hopefully the effect spills over into our lives where we live and work and pray.

Picture 1:   Mass Begins

Picture 2:   Mass Beginning

Picture 3:   The Music Machine, Wendy & Shonda, Ray & Jon

Picture 4:   The Keszler Klan, Jan & Sir Charlie, their son, Chuck, & Chuck's wife, Ellen, & their older son, Andrew. 

Readings:

 Isaiah 35, 4-7, The eyes of the blind will be opened.

Psalm 146,    Praise the Lord, my soul.

James 2, 1-5, 21-22, 27,  Show no partiality

Mark 7, 31-37, Jesus heals the deaf & mute man.

John sharing his homily.

Homily:

Last Sunday Stack reminded us about how Moses told the people of Israel that they would have their own land promised by Yahweh.  And how after Moses’ death Joshua and others wiped out the Cannanite tribes who resided there, and just moved in. 

Leo

The theme today is that of healing.  During the week I was touched by two visuals of a lack of healing for people.  The first was the visual of a dead child lying on a beach in Turkey, whose family were trying to get from Syria to safety in Europe.  His family was one of thousands escaping from war torn Syria, escaping death by the King’s military, or by the rebel fighters, or by ISIS jihadists.  Newspeople often refer to them as ‘immigrants’–-yet their country is in civil war and there is hardly a safe place for anyone on any side.  They are refugees.  They leave everything behind.  They cross the Mediterranean in rubberized boats or rafts.  Many don’t even make it to the first stop in Turkey.  These thousands of refugees are leaving their homes, leaving their land, in search of a safe place for their families, for their children. 

Allison and Genevieve

The second visual that struck me this week was from a series of articles in the National Catholic Reporter on the ‘Doctrine of Discovery’ and its impact on people over centuries.  The ‘Doctrine of Discovery’ is found in papal bulls beginning in 1436; that’s almost 600 years ago.  One example is a papal bull from 1493, after Columbus’ ‘discovery’ of the Americas.  This papal bull gave Ferdinand and Isabella “full and free power, authority and jurisdiction of every kind” over almost all of the Americas, except for part of modern-day Brazil and a few islands.  Some say this was the beginning of international law as each succeeding papal bull would quote or reference those that came before.  When, in the late 1400’s discoverers were finding lands far away from Christian Europe, they found these lands occupied with non-Christian peoples, tribes and civilizations.  The papal bulls gave Christian discoverers full power and authority over all non-Christian peoples in these lands.  This meant the land could be claimed by the Christian discoverer (like for Spain or for France, etc.) and the non-Christian people could be enslaved, made to become Christian, even killed if they resisted.

Shonda and Ray

Fast forward to 1823.  This Doctrine of Discovery was legitimized in a ruling by Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall.  His ruling maintained that Native Americans had the right to ‘occupy’ land, but not have full ownership, and that tribes were dependent on the federal government.

Emma and her friend

So the two visuals that touched me this week were the thousands of refugees fleeing Syria, especially the little boy lying dead on the beach; and the millions of peoples in the Americas, Africa, the Pacific islands, etc., dispossessed of their lands, culture and religion, to a large extent due to a series of papal bulls and the Doctrine of Discovery. 

The Offertory. Warren, Barbara, Mary, and Frank

What would healing look like for the people of Syria fleeing war and devastation?  What would healing look like for the offspring of the indigenous peoples of North and South America? of Africa? of  the pacific islands?   

Harper

And how do I individually, or as a member of this Christian community, promote healing in my own world?

Readings:  Isaiah 61, 1-2, 10-11, He has sent me to bring glad tidings to the poor, to heal the broken hearted; Psalm, The Magnificat, My soul rejoices in my God; 1 Thessalonians 5, 16-24, Rejoice always; John 1, 6-8, 19-28, John the Baptist, I am the voice of one crying out in the desert, make straight the way of the lord. (John the Baptist was using the words from Isaiah 40, 3, last week's Isaiah reading put to music by Handel in his Messiah, which we heard)  Beautiful readings. 

Isaiah, a reminder.

This is Isaiah III speaking to the Jewish people after their return from the Babylonian Captivity, around 550 before Christ.  A beautiful reading full of consolation.

To catch today's homily, please click on the video (17 min.).  Jamie Rose describes her work with CASA:

Picture 1:    Candle Lighting with Sienna & Brian & Erin

Picture 2:    Jamie talking about CASA

Picture 3:    Noah

Picture 4:    Offertory with Kathy & Bill

Picture 5:    Leo walking up the ramp

Picture 6:    He makes it, first time ever

 Readings:  Isaiah 45, 1-6, Who is Cyrus?; Psalm 96, Give the Lord glory and honor; 1 Thessalonians 1, 1-5; Matthew 22, 15-21, Repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar.

Isaiah observations: This selection comes from what is considered Isaiah 2, the author of the Book of Consolations, written after the first 39 chapters and during the Babylonian captivity.    Isaiah speaks from Yahweh's perspective and He is calling someone by name.

So, who is Cyrus?   Cyrus the Great of Persia, modern Iran, built the first great empire, which extended as far as Athens in Greece.   He was a benevolent emperor of his people and the people he conquered, for instance, the Israelites.

Isaiah 2 is championing Cyrus because he hears of Cyrus coming and hopes Cyrus will defeat the Babylonians and set the Israelites free to return to Jerusalem.  This is exactly what Cyrus does.  Where is Babylon?  Try 50 miles south of Baghdad on the Euphrates River.  What is left?  Rubble. 

Thessalonians:

• Time written: ca. 50 A.D.   Considered Paul's first letter, and, in fact, the earliest written document in the N.T.
• Place: Paul was writing in Corinth, Greece to the town in northern Greece, Thessalonica, at the northern corner of the Aegean Sea.  He had founded a community there.
• Purpose of writing: to comfort and encourage the new Christians of Thessalonica, most of whom were Gentiles.    He sent Timothy to see how things were going.   The report Timothy brought back was largely favorable—hence the warm tone of the opening thanksgiving, which forms the main part of today’s reading. But there were also a few problems in Thessalonica; we will meet them on the thirty-second and thirty-third Sundays.

Resources: The New Interpreters Study Bible; St. Louis U. Liturgical @ Liturgical.slu.edu

Matthew observation: Render to Caesar

Matthew lifts this story right out of Mark.  The story is a game that was popular among the intellectuals in Jesus time, like a game of verbal chess.  The object was to confound your opponent so that choosing either one of two answers springs a trap. 

Watch the smarmy language of the Pharisees and you can almost see them salivating at the impending kill.  

The trap: do you think it lawful to pay the tax to Caesar or not?  Jesus confounds them by choosing both.  Jesus wins the game. 

Why do Mark & Matthew use this story?  To show how Jesus is superior.  He is worthy of being followed and listened to.

Me, a Light in the World? 

I want to talk about the alleluia verse, “Shine like lights in the world.” 

After getting ordained at old St. Rita’s in June of 1971, I was sent to Miami to work as a chaplain in the big medical complex known as Jackson Memorial.  It was like Parkland and Southwestern Medical.  

The Jesuits of my southern province had a big parish right in the middle of downtown Miami, and part of the team worked the hospitals.  I was a summer helper and loved it. 

One day after I had been there about a week, a little blond  girl of 10 or 11 was brought into the burn ward.  Ever been in a burn ward, a children’s burn ward?  Tough places.  I spent a lot of time in these wards.

The girl, Anna, had been with her family on a sail boat.  Somewhere along their trip the boat had passed under a bridge.  Anna was standing on the edge of the boat with her back leaning against one of the guy wires.  

As the boat went under the bridge, the mast touched an electrical line.  The electricity went down the mast and the guy wire.  Anna was electrocuted and burned.  Fortunately, she was hurled into the cool water which helped to stop her burns.  

However, her back and the insides of her thighs and legs were seriously burned.  She would stay in Jackson for 2 to 3 months, even after I had to move on.  

I got really close to Anna & her family.  I visited her first & last every day and I was privileged to be allowed by the doctors to hold her hand when her bandages had to be changed.  Her parents had to leave the room.  You know how this is such a high tension time.  It used to leave me shaken.  

I talk about this because the alleluia verse tells us to be lights in the world.  I think this is what it means.  I was privileged to be with that little girl & her family in such a horrible experience.  It is reciprocal: she was a light in my world.

The good news is that Anna finally did leave the hospital all healed up.  I never had the opportunity  to see the family again, but I corresponded for years with the mom.  Somewhere during my time in Africa, the connection got broken.  I know that maybe 15 years later her mom wrote me that Anna had married and had a little kid.

In whose world are you a light today?  

Picture 1:    Mass Begins

Picture 2:    Bethany       

Picture 3:    Miguel

Picture 4:    Delgado Corner with Fred

Picture 5:    Justin

Picture 6:    Emma  

 Readings:  

 Joshua, 24,1-2, 15-17,  We will serve the Lord, for he is our God.

 Psalm 34, Taste & See the Goodnesss of the Lord (3rd week)

Ephesians, 5, 21-32, Wives should be subordinate to their husbands as to the Lord.  For the husband is head of his wife.

John, 6, 60-69, Master, to whom shall we go?

Ken and Cindy celebrating 50 years

Joshua:

Who is Joshua and what is this booklet about:  Joshua was Moses' assistant, his lieutenant when the the Israelites wandered in the desert.  The booklet is the story of the Israelite invasion of Canaan under Joshua's leadership. 

Author: somewhat amusingly, the fundamentalists say that Joshua wrote most of the booklet.  More scientific scholars say the work is a compilation of a number of sources.

The Beautiful Georgie

Date of composition: again fundamentalists state that the booklet was composed 1400-1370, i.e., while Joshua lived.  Scholars of a broader vision suggest that even if a Joshua existed the work was put together 800-700 BCE. 

The work combines a number of traditions about battles & destruction of cities to create a nationalistic narrative that justifies the Israelites' taking another peoples' land for their own.

Ethical Question: genocide.  This is a bloody book.  Yahweh commands that the Israelites exterminate every breathing thing, including women & children & livestock. 

Cara at 12 years

 The battle of Jericho is characteristic.  For 6 days the Israelites marched around the city, blowing horns and menacing the people.  On day 7 they marched around 7 times and the walls came tumbling down, as in the spiritual.  Then every person except one woman & her family were slaughtered.  Lots of debate and rationalization over these events.

Our Selection: The last chapter of the booklet.  Joshua, who is dying, calls the people together at a place called Sechem and puts it to them.  Stick with Yahweh who has done all these things for you (which are mentioned in the text but are long & tedious) or choose another path of your own.

Sources: Good News Bible, Got Questions.org, Wikipedia

Special pastries ready for Jim's birthday party

 Rosemary be Subservient to Me as to the Lord?

A crazy thing happened to me some time ago that I will never forget.  I was standing in a line.  Around me were families with kids.  At one point a nice looking family with two or three young kids got into a small disagreement over something involving the kids.  The wife wanted to do one thing, the husband another.

At a point the husband says to the wife, “you are to be subservient to me because the Bible says so.”

Harper

I almost dropped my teeth.  I could not believe what I was hearing.  I even think the wife let him get away with this justification.  Can you imagine me getting away with this with Rosemary?

I love this passage because it exemplifies the danger of taking the Bible literally.  The passage is so easy to explain in terms of contemporary psychology and the value of a human person, male or female. Here is how we see it today.

Blakely

Three models of family interaction.

1.   The patriarchal.  This model considers the male the superior, like in Paul’s instruction.  It is based on an old belief that females were  inferior.  This model certainly exists today. 

When I was in East Africa the men considered themselves the master of the household.  Muslim examples abound these days, even to horrible stories of disobedient women being beaten, starved, and locked in underground rooms.

The HHH team of crazies at dawn along with 15,000 other crazies, An old geezer, Rosemary, George, Dwayne, Tom, Greg, John

2.  The matriarchal.  In this example the wife or mother is considered the head of the household.  There are many amusing examples of families where the male thought he was the head, while everyone knew the household was ruled and organized by the wife.

3.   The equality model.  Both husband and wife are seen as equal and complimentary.  Today this model is more common in many societies, though not all.  Today both the husband and the wife have graduate degrees and professional careers.  The model is teamwork rather than dictatorship.

Sag Wagon, what you don't want to need, but are happy to see if you have a bike problem or are sick. Usually pretty busy the last 25 miles of the 100 mile distance.

Paul sounds pretty archaic and chauvenistic today, but actually at that time he was trying to elevate men’s treatment of women.  Treating a wife with respect was pretty radical for Paul’s time. 

Whatever the model chosen, it comes down to a choice by the couple.  Even this involves equality and mutual input.  Today equality is so taken for granted that a husband saying to his wife that she must obey him because the Bible says so sounds ridiculous. 

HHH riders passing through Shepherd A.F. Base. Touching, a lot of cheering.

Obviously the one couple I was watching took it literally.  I wonder where they are today.

Which of the three models do you choose?