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:  Numbers 6, 22-27, The Lord Bless You and Keep You; Psalm 67, May God bless us in his new mercy; Galatians 4, 4-7, So you are no longer a slave; Luke, 2, 16-21, The Shepherds went in haste to Bethlehem.

The book of Numbers:

        1.  What: the 4^th book of the first 5 books of the Bible, the Pentateuch or Torah.

        2.  Date of composition: around 5 centuries before Christ, but was a compilation of years.

        3.  Theme: The people are "numbered" or counted at Mt. Sinai and preparations are made for resuming their march through the desert.  The Israelites begin the journey, but immediately they "murmur" & complain at the hardships along the way. They arrive at the borders of Canaan and send spies into the land, but on hearing the spies' report the Israelites refuse to take possession of Canaan and God condemns them to death in the wilderness until a new generation can grow up and carry out the task. The book ends with the new generation of Israelites in the plain of Moab ready for the crossing of the Jordan River.

        4.  Our selection: God tells Moses to have Aaron & his sons bless the people using this special blessing.

References: Good News Bible, Wikipedia

 

What Kind of a Shepherd am I? 

    Two weeks ago I had the opportunity to help serve the evening meal at The Bridge in downtown Dallas.  The Bridge is a marvelous facility.  Basically it is the homeless shelter for the greater Dallas area.  

    It has space for approximately 250 overnighters.  That was the number of people whom we served dinner for the Friday night I was there.  For breakfast & lunch up to 800 people are served.  

    Three things struck me. 

    First, the spirit of the people I was serving.  There are about twenty round tables with, say, 8 places.  I was serving water along with about 6 other guys.  These people were bundled up because it was cold outside.  Everyone I served was super grateful.  I joked and played with lots of the people, men & women.  They had an amazingly up-beat spirit.

    Secondly, I was struck by three folks, two women & one guy.  They presented themselves as more middle class.  They had a more refined way of speaking, they seemed peaceful.  Except the guy.  He was nice looking with black hair & slender.  But he was more to himself.  He was younger than the two women, probably in his 30’s while the women were maybe in their late 50’s or early 60’s.  They were not together, but at different tables.  The women were talking with people at their tables, but the guy was not.  

    What is their story?  What events brought them to The Bridge? 

    The three are still vivid in my memory.

    The third thing that struck me was how I got to The Bridge that Friday night.  I got there because the 16 year old girl who lives next door to Rosemary & me invited me. 

  

    I knew Sydney volunteered at The Bridge and I told her I would go as her adult whenever her dad or mom could not accompany her.  She invited me.  

    This was the last day of school before the Christmas break and I am sure lots of kids were out having fun.  Sydney might have done so later, but from 6:00 to 7:00 that night she spent time helping the homeless.  She was like one of those shepherds in Luke story. 

    What kind of a shepherd are you? 

 

     I am going to help you answer that at the end of our Mass.  Just you wait!

Picture 1:    Mass Begins

Picture 2:    Celeste & Nina

Picture 3:    Bethany, Shonda, & Ray   

Picture 4:    Ray & Jon

Picture 5:    Jan, John, Patricia, & Rich   

Picture 6:    John, Mary Jane, & Jan, all communion helpers.

 Enclosed is the link to City House.  Help an old geezer celebrate his 72nd birthday, January 26.  Volunteer to help take a census of the Plano homeless.  We aim at a couple of teams: Download Volunteers needed, City House 1-1-12

 

Readings:

Ezekiel  17,  22-24.  Nope, actually a change this Sunday to 1 Corinthians 13.  Bet you cannot guess which great passage this it.

Psalm 92,    Lord, it is good to give thanks to you.

2 Corinthians 5, 6-10,   We are always courageous.

Mark  4, 26-34,  On its own accord, the land yields fruit.

 

The Wedding in Mechanicsburg, PA with Sarah & Beth, and the United Church of Christ ministers, Karin and John.

 

Love is patient, Love is kind, Love is accepting

This morning I would like to talk about some things that struck me about the wedding we performed last week in Mechanicsburg, PA.  As I’ve mentioned, the wedding was between two women.

About 14 years ago I performed the wedding of Beth to a neat guy named Doug, a stocky Greek.  They had only been married 6 months when Doug died of a heart attack.  Beth is Rosemary’s niece, the daughter of Joe & Claire, who live in Hilton Head, where Rosemary & I love to go for Thanksgiving. 

 

                   The 3 Sisters, Rosemary, Patty, and Claire.
 

Beth decided to stay in the house she and Doug owned and stay in her job.  During the next few years she got involved with a very open United Church of Christ.  Sarah played the organ.  They got together and developed a warm friendship.  Eventually this lead to their marriage last Saturday. 

I don’t know how you all feel about same sex marriages.  I personally would have loved to sit down with Beth and have her tell me how it all came about, first marrying a guy, now marrying her best friend.  Whatever, I did not have the chance.  However, I am convinced from all my years of experience with gay people as a priest and a psychotherapist that no gay person really chooses this path.  I have worked with so many who agonized over coming out.  It involves hatred and abuse, even from family members.

 

 

Cupcake of The Week to Georgie for the do.  "I may tease you, Georgie, about the do, but I admire your spirit of exploration. Keep it up.  Keep dancing.  And keep swimming

 

The first thing that struck me at the wedding.  Did you recognize the 1 Corinthians passage?  I confess that after performing so many weddings where I heard the passage read, I eventually was put off by it.  Until a few years ago.  I suddenly realized it is helpful for me to be reminded of what love really is. 

At the wedding I heard Beth’s sister read the passage with such feeling and tears that I and lots more of the 200 more or less people there, we were all in tears.  Kristine herself took 30 minutes because she was in tears.   I was so touched and so struck.

 

                                                      What a team.

 

The second thing that struck me was the cordiality and warmth of the present pastor, John, and the previous interim pastor, Karin.  I thanked them and told them how I sensed a kinship of spirit among us. 

Karin was the one who suggested we go bare footed as a sign of respect for the sanctuary where we were performing the wedding.   It was a first for me.  Should I do the same here?

 

                  Zoe & Buddy say, "Hey, don't forget about us."

 

The final thing that struck me was the whole hearted acceptance of Beth on the part of, not only her parents, but all the McGinn Clan.  Rosemary had 3 brothers and two sisters.  One brother died a few years ago.  All these siblings have kids and all of them were there, most of them with their kids.  Their support was total. 

Kristine’s reading about love being patient & kind, the pastors John & Karin, and the total McGinn family acceptance of Beth.  A powerful, moving weekend. 

Where are you on the whole phenomenon of same sex marriages?

 

 

Readings:  

Wisdom 1, 13-15; 2, 23-24, God formed people to be imperishable

Psalm 30, I will praise you, Lord, for you have rescued me.

2 Corinthians 8, 7-9, 13-15, As you excel in every respect, may you also excel in the gracious act.

Mark 5, 21-43, Who has touched my clothes?  

Mass

Wisdom observations:

What:  There are 39 official books in the Old Testament.  In addition to them are 12 extra books.  Wisdom comes from these 12 extra books. 

Main message: God rewards those who are good.

Author: A Jewish man who lived in Alexandria, Egypt. He wrote in Greek.

Date: 50-100 years before Christ.

Our passage: observations on life & death.  The devil & death are connected. 

Sources: Good News Bible; New interpreter’s Study Bible, Catholic Encyclopedia on line.

 

Heal a Bleeding Woman?  Are You Crazy!

There was an article early this week in The Dallas Morning News that was titled, Dallas-area Designers of Stylish Hijabs Bridge Culture Gap, empower Muslim Women.   Along with the article were two or three pictures of women with beautiful faces.  They were dressed from head to foot in, not black, but beautiful pastel colored hijabs and robes.  Jewels and perhaps diamonds decorated the hems of the robes. 

I had to laugh.  This is the classic example of the camel’s nose under the tent.  Next thing these Muslim women will not be wearing the hijab.  We have to laugh, too, because that women look beautiful was certainly not the intention of the religious men who put these dress laws in place. 

 

Sometimes you even see the real deal in Dallas, a woman all in black from head to toe with a black net covering her face.  Some women wore this attire in Tanzania when I lived there. 

I thought of this article with the pictures when I was putting together ideas about healing the two women. 

Do you realize how radical this was, especially with the woman bleeding?  Leviticus, the third book of the Bible, has a lot to say about women who bleed.  For instance, a woman giving birth to a boy is ritually unclean for 7 days; a girl baby, 14 days (chapter12).

In Lev. 15 it says that during menstruation, women were ritually unclean, which meant they were considered socially dead, not allowed in the temple, not allowed in the community, could not touch anyone and no one was allowed to touch them or their clothes or they, too, were ritually unclean.  So what does the lady in Mark do?   What does Jesus do?

Do you realize today how historic and universal this bias was against women?  Plato in The Republic says that Socrates asked, do you know of anything done by humans which is not done better by the male.

Hindus teach that a woman must immolate herself after her husband's death.  Buddhists consider it bad karma to be reincarnated as a woman.  Orthodox Jewish men are taught to pray, Blessed be God who has not created me a heathen, a slave, or a woman.  The first book of our Bible,  Genesis, blames a woman for the origin of evil in our world.  Can you see the presence of men putting this story together?

More recently, in 1873 in Illinois a case was decided against a woman.  She had passed the bar exam to be a lawyer, and the court would not grant her appeal to receive a law license.  A judge said that the place of a woman was in the home and that women did not have the fortitude to deal with such issues as the law.

The church fathers, as they are called, had their own bias.  St. Jerome says that when a woman wishes to serve God more than the world, then she will cease to be a woman and will be called a man.  You do not want to know what St. Augustine thinks about women.  What about the way the Vatican made nuns dress and would still like to?

So why this historic and universal bias against women by men (& women)?  One reason, from my research, blood.  Another is the male nervousness & weakness around women, beginning in adolescence.

So here comes Jesus along.  The woman touches him.  He could have had her killed by the crowd.  What was she doing in the crowd anyway?   And what does he do?  He calls her "Daughter," and heals her.  This is shocking to the people.  This is scandalous in the eyes of the Jewish authorities.  He will die for it.  However, despite the danger, Jesus  moves from bias to inclusion & acceptance.

In Galatians (Chapter 3) it says there is no male or female.  Just folks.  We are being called to get rid of the bias.  Women do not deserve to have men tell them how they must live, or be stoned.

How is your bias barometer?  Any bias against women, men, a particular race, political party, a part of town, a school? 

Sources: The Sins of Scripture, Bishop (Anglican) John Shelby Spong; Catholic Encyclopedia on line.

 

 

 

 

Readings: Zephaniah 2, 3-3, 12-13; Psalm 146, Blessed are the Poor in Spirit; the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs; 1 Corinthians 1, 26-31; Matthew 5, 1-12 

 

Zephaniah observations:

 The 3 chapters of the little book of Zephaniah were compose about 600 years before Christ.  Therefore, he is writing shortly before the Babylonian defeat of Jerusalem and the Captivity.  Because of the book’s shortness Zephaniah is considered one of the 12 minor prophets. 

His theme is the prophetic line:

            1. You people are bad.

            2.  You people will be punished by Yahweh.

            3.  You people, after being punished, will return to a happy place.

 

Today’s selection focuses more on how the humble of spirit will pasture their flocks with no one to disturb them. 

 The psalm & Matthew today both focus on how the poor in spirit will be happy, receiving the kingdom of heaven.

 I am struck that in the readings there is a quality of wishful thinking.  For example, in the psalm,  the lord sets captives free, secures justice for the oppressed, gives food to the hungry, and raises up the bowed down. 

 I can see someone skeptically asking me, “Stack, are you crazy.  You believe this really happens?  Look at history.”  I would like to talk about this in the homily.

 

Poor in Spirit?  Get Real!

 You remember last Thanksgiving when about 35 of us went to help feed the homeless for LifeNet?  Well, while I was helping out, I liked to go around and chat up the people at different tables.

 At one table during the second or third seating over by the windows opposite the side door I ran into 3 elderly white, nicely dressed little ladies.  Folks, they absolutely reminded me of my mother, who would have been mortified to have been eating there. 

 

The ladies were quite friendly, obviously educated, and lived in Richardson.  Were they homeless?  Were they without money, social security, family?  I only knew that they would not have been there had not LifeNet vetted them as being authentically in need. 

 My heart went out to these ladies and I mention them this morning as a lead into the notion that blessed are the poor in spirit, the kingdom of heaven is theirs.  This statement strikes me as really precarious.

 I would propose that there is a healthy and an unhealthy poverty of spirit.  The poverty of these 3 ladies is unhealthy, spirit killing, depressing.  Unemployment, homelessness, all kill the spirit.

 The same is true of Larry Sims, the 60 year old black man exonerated Friday of a crime for which he has spent 25 years in jail.  DNA proof.  Can you imagine being put in jail for 25 years of your life for something you did not do?  I think I would be mad, bitter.  The amazing reality is that these men are all accepting, forgiving, and grateful.  They humble & amaze me. 

 The same was true of the 3 little ladies.

 

 Mr. Sims is number 35 exonerated in Dallas according to my buddy & old classmate Tony Levatino who helps these men adjust to their new life through Holy Trinity Parish down on Oak Lawn.

 This unhealthy poverty of spirit has been so common down through our history as humans.  Suffering has characterized so many lives.  Slavery, holocausts, genocides, wars.

 I have spent my life attempting to raise up people in this poverty.  We are doing it in this community. 

 What then is healthy poverty of spirit?  From my perspective it is two things: acceptance and gratitude.  This brings about peace of spirit.

 I am astounded, but Mr. Sims and the 3 ladies seemed to have acceptance and gratitude.  I do know others who were dying of depression or discouragement.

 

 Can a person work through the unhealthy poverty of spirit to the peace of acceptance & gratitude?  Apparently so. 

 On a scale of 1-10, where is your poverty of spirit, your acceptance and gratitude?

Picture 1:   Mass with Kevin helping

Picture 2:   Emma walking

Picture 3:   Georgie & her sister Zoe

Picture 4:   Zoe with her dad, Randolph & grandmom, Bernadette

Picture 5:   Michelle, the mother of Georgie & Zoe, with Torri & Buddy, the twins, and Gilberto, Michelle's dad

 

  

 

 

 

"Welcome, Everybody, to Christmas Eve." sez Our Dearest Betsy.

 

 

Readings:

Isaiah 9, 1-6,  The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light

Psalm 96,  Today is born our Savior, Christ the Lord

Titus 2, 11-14,  The Grace of God has appeared

Luke 2, 1-14,  The Nativity: In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus.

 

 

Welcome Back, Sir Charlie!  What a Christmas Gift!

 

A Christmas Story

I have a Christmas story for you this evening.   The event took place a week of two before this past Thanksgiving and about 3-4 weeks after October 20, the Sunday night when the tornado crashed through our neighborhood at 10 P.M.

The afternoon about which I want to talk was mild and sunny, a delightful afternoon.  I had left the front door of our house open.  I was in the back den working at my computer desk. 

 

 

 

They are back together, Folks.  Wendy returns to share singing with Shonda.  Welcome Home, Wendy.

 

There was a knock at the screen door, maybe even the door bell rang.  Whatever, I remember thinking, “Yuk, another guy wanting to replace our roof, replace the bay window that had been blown in, or help with the pile of tree limbs that once were my trophy trees.

 

 

Wendy with her husband, Brandon, and their son Atlas.

 

So, I go to the door and see a young, tall, nice looking, familiar boy from the neighborhood.  I think he is the younger brother of the boy who is a senior at St. Marks Boys School.  The older boy has red hair on top of about a 6/1 height.  I know the red headed boy’s name., Jack.  I’d heard it often from Rosemary.  

 

 

 

Welcome back home, Ryan.  So good to see you and how you have grown.   Last time I saw you you were half this size.

 

The family lives 3 doors down, both boys go to St. Marks, and they have a little girl named Lucy.  The boy does not appear stressed, so I assume everything is okay, though cynically I confess I thought he was probably selling tickets to a raffle.

So, I just start out the usual way,  “Hey, Man, how you doing? What’s up?  Everything okay?

 

 

 

 

We have the prettiest candles and the prettiest candle lighters.

 

 

His response.  “I was passing by, saw your door open, and decided I wanted to tell you and your wife that I have noticed and appreciate what good neighbors you are.”

His name is George.

Never miss an opportunity to extend kindness or a positive stroke.

It can change a person’s life.

 

 

Welcome to communion, Everybody

 

 

 

Jack, this is amazing.  Last time I saw you you were half this size and running all over the place.  You have grown so much I did not recognize you and now you are playing the bass for our celebration