Sunday Homily, 12-2-12, 1st Advent

Readings:

Wisdom 18, 6-9,   Your people awaited the salvation of the just.

Psalm 33, Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.

Hebrews 11, 1-2, 8-19,  Descendents as numerous as the stars in the sky.

Luke 12, 32-48, Do not be afraid any longer.

Sophia.

To be afraid or to not to be afraid

I would like to talk this morning about fear.  It is certainly mentioned all through the readings.  The idea is that you got to be on guard.  The master will come when you are not watching and you will get beaten or worse. 

Leo.

At the beginning of the gospel, however, it says, “Do not be afraid any longer, little flock.”  So which is it?  The whole Bible is full of messages about fear and punishment.  God’s love seems totally conditional. 

Emma.

I would propose, however, that the core message is do not fear and that God’s acceptance of us is unconditional.  We are challenged, nevertheless, to be aware and to be vigilant.  To what?  To all the ways his love touches us in life. 

I have a little story that exemplifies what I am talking about.

Bethany and Shonda with Ben.

A while back I was out at the big airport to pick up somebody, I don’t even remember whom.  On this occasion I had parked and come in to the waiting area.   I am hanging around and somehow got talking with a guy even older than you know whom.

Offertory with John & Jean, Mary Jane and John.

He lives in Dallas and is waiting for a guy about his age coming in from Germany.   They are old buddies.  How did they get to know each other?  It was during the Second World War.  The man waiting next to me was a guard in a prison camp in the U.S. for captured Germans. 

Cupcake of The Week to John and Jean for 55 years.

During the man’s time as a prison camp guard, he got to know one of the German prisoners.  They found out they had a lot in common.  For one thing, the German spoke English.  Time passed, the war ended, and the German prepared to return home.  It came up that they both would like to keep in touch. 

Communion helpers ready with Beth & Rob having too good a time.

Over the past years this is exactly what they have done, one visiting the other and vice-versa.  The families of both men have gotten to know each other, the kids included.  

As I watched, the German came out and the two men hugged.  They may both be widowers, but they still have a friendship they discovered and developed in a prison camp.   

Tom handing over the community's July $2000 to Brent for Soul's Harbor.

When the Bible talks about being on guard and being vigilant, I would
propose that we can take that to mean being on guard to spot that ray of God’s love.  It may be a friendship that blossoms in a prison camp, it may be the beauty of nature, it may be simply the joy of being alive.   These two old guys were on guard more than figuratively, and they found something special for the rest of their lives.

What about forgetting fear and being on guard for the special sign of God's love in your life?  Today.

John breaking into the Pastry Shoppe.

Readings:

Acts 8, 5-8, 14-17   There was great joy in that city.

Psalm 66,  Let all the earth cry out to God with joy. 

1 Peter  3, 15-18,  It is better to suffer for doing good than for doing evil.

John  14, 15-21,  Do not let your hearts be troubled.

Harper says, "Hi, Everybody, Happy Memorial Day."

Reminders 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. 

CC and Kayla say, Welcome, Everybody, fun to see you."

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: More growing pains in the early community.

Watch 2 readings today, the lovely Psalm 66, and the conditional love in John's gospel.  I would like to talk about unconditional love.

Emma and Sienna say, "It's fun here, come on in."

Could the Love be Unconditional ?

I would like to talk about conditional vs. unconditional love this morning.

It seems I hear a lot about unconditional love for kids, for animals, and for other people.  I like that.  I would like to be able to love unconditionally, at least, once in a while. 

Ever think about how the New Testament presents unconditional love?  In fact, I think the New Testament presents a conditional love.  The whole story of our redemption is based on conditional love.

Here comes The Family, Zoe & Tori & Buddy with their mom, Michelle, and granddad, Gilbert.

What does conditional love sound like?  When Rosemary tells me I will love you if you bring me coffee in bed.  Or I will stay with you another year if you mow the grass.  Look at the word John puts in Jesus mouth this morning, "If you love me, you will keep my commandments."

I would propose that God’s love and acceptance of us is unconditional.  I can see this love in people and I think people reflect the nature of God.   Let me illustrate the point with a little story.

"Did somebody say Cupcakes?", Sienna and Brooklyn.

As you know, Rosemary & I head to New York every first weekend in May for the 5 Bike Tour and for a big family reunion at her nephew Brian’s house in Essex Fells, NJ.  After all this is finished Sunday evening, Rosemary & I stay Monday to visit The City and to have dinner with one of her girl friends and classmates from her days at the College of New Rochelle.  Her girl friend is Juanita and her husband is Charlie, fun people.

Believe it or not, they are members of a community very similar to ours.  Anthony Padovano is the priest who coordinates the community.  It was this couple who mentioned they know you folks by name because they read our blogs.   Juanita rattled off the names of the kids, Zoe & Emma, Leo & Cowboy Cole, and others. 

Zoe just looking beautiful again.

So we are having dinner this Monday night.  At least they are and I am having a glass of wine.  I don’t eat after 4:00 and, therefore, don’t have to take meds for acid reflux. 

We were talking about blessings and good things in our lives, when Juanita says that about 4 months ago she had one of those special experiences.

They are getting ready for the beginning of their Sunday Mass when a new couple comes in and sits next to Juanita.   The celebrant welcomes the new couple and says that the man is Jack Egan, formerly a priest of their archdiocese.

Tori at work.

Juanita is immediately curious.  Her mother used to work at the local Catholic Charities and she remembered hearing her mother talk about this Jack Egan. 

As soon as their Mass is over she immediately asks the man if he ever worked at the local Catholic Charities.  He says, “Certainly.”  She says, “Do you remember my mother, Jo Torres.  She worked there many years.  And I remember that she liked you and mentioned your name often.  ”

Who is that Spider Man? Could that be Buddy?

“Yes, absolutely, I loved her.  In fact, I remember frequently coming into her office while she was working on a case study, tears just streaming down her cheeks.”

Juanita is quite touched and says that she never knew that about her mother. 

Jack Egan says, “What a special moment.  I did not know your mom liked me so much and you did not know how touched she was by the people.”

Cupcake of the Week to Maureen for being The Great Grandmother.

An illustration of unconditional love.  And this from human beings.   They receive the gift from The Source. 

What is your image of Our God’s  love for you and acceptance of you?  Conditional or unconditional.  How do you know?

Source: Thanks, Juanita, for letting me share your story with our community.

Who is that Cupcake Thief? Why, that looks almost like Leo. Impossible.

Readings: Exodus 19, 2-6; Psalm 100; Romans 5, 6-11; Matthew 9, 36-10, 8.

Exodus: The second book of the Torah or Pentateuch, following the book of Genesis.  The book describes probably the greatest event in Israel's history, the departure of the people from Egypt under the leadership of Moses.  Today's selection is simply Yahweh's reminder to the people that if they are faithful and good to him, they will prosper.

A Fathers' Day Story

When I was a Jesuit and lived in Tanzania about 10 miles west of the mountain, Kilimanjaro there was a small Jesuit house.  I used it as a base, coming back to it after months traveling around the country giving seminars to nuns & priests. 

One Sunday afternoon I wanted to go up the mountain about 7000 feet to a Capuchin monastery & convent where my team & I gave a lot of the seminars.  I took my travel bag, walked to the town bus park, and boarded a rattle trap old bus just departing for a little village just below the monastery, a trip that would take me 90 minutes.

Half way down the road to the cut off to go up the mountain the old bus pooped out.  Everybody gets off and stands around.  Shortly, miracle of miracles, another old rust bucket of a bus headed up the mountain comes along.  Most did not want to pay two fares, so they stayed.  I, however, hopped on an already overloaded antique. We take the cut off and headed up the mountain.  The bus huffs & puffs, the gears scream & groan, steam starts seeping from under the hood.  You guessed it: the bus dies just as the road begins to seriously ascend.  

It is now about 6:00 or 6:15.  Because we are right on the equator and twilight always lasts just 20-30 minutes, I know I have only about half an hour to get to the monastery.  I have a decision: stay on the switch back road and take an hour or take shortcuts which may get me there in 30 minutes.  I chose the shortcuts. 

30 minutes did not get me to the monastery.  In fact, it got me into total blackness.  I could see almost nothing.  I know generally where I am but I cannot see even the trail.  Somewhere amid the darkness through the forest of banana trees that are cultivated at this level, I see a dim light from a kerosene lantern and head toward it. It is a family's hut.

I walk up speaking the Swahili word for 'hello,' 'hodi.'  A lady comes to the door and is very hospitable even though I must have scared her.  However, she is Catholic like almost all the members of her Chaga tribe which lives on the mountain.  She is used to white priests. 

I tell her, of course, that I am headed for the monastery & cannot find the way because of the dark. She calls to one of her children, a little boy of probably 6 years.  She tells him to take me to monastery and off we go up the trail.

I can hardly see this little kid and he just zooms silently along climbing all the time.  We pass other little family huts with faint lights, we walk in total darkness, and eventually he brings me to a point from which I can see the lights of the monastery above.

I thank this shy little boy, hug him probably, and he disappears back down the trail while I walk up to the monastery.  I  never saw him or his mother again, and I could hardly find their house in the daytime.  

For me this story has a metaphor quality.  It is like a parable.  College educated priest lost in the dark and guided to the light by a little boy.

Sometimes we are the guide, the nurturer.  Other times we are the priest in the dark who needs guidance and the guide may be a small creature, a child.

I see the child guiding us to three things: to simplicity, to interdependence, and to play.

• A child may like a lot of Stuff, but can self entertain with the simplest toy. I saw so many kids in Tanzania play soccer with a home made ball.
• A child cannot exist along, independent of others. As we get older we love our independence. We shun co-dependence. The child teaches us to interdepend.
• A child especially helps me to value & engage in play. The Type A does not play.

We celebrate Fathers' Day today, which is mostly a celebration of the nurturing side of dad.  For this moment, you dads, how do you come to greater light through kids?

AUDIO: http://mysite.verizon.net/reso7rjy/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/2008-06-15.mp3

In honor of Fathers' Day we have some helpful communication hints.  Nobody ever gave me such valuable information before my marriage. 

Download 9_words_women_use.doc

Readings: Acts 8, 5-17; Psalm 66; 1 Peter 3, 15-18; John 14, 15-21.

Conditional or Unconditional Love?

On the west coast there is a writer named David Sheff who wrote a book about his son Nic.  The book is called Beautiful Boy.  In turn, Nic wrote a book about his own experience of growing up, a book called Tweak.

When Nic was 11 years old he got totally drunk for the first time.  During his four years in high school, he continued down this path, drinking, smoking pot, and experimenting with drugs.  On graduation Nic entered the world of methamphetamines and he plunged toward the bottom.  Tweak refers to the condition of a person on meth, totally strung out.

David tells in his book how for 2, maybe 3 years he refused to accept that his beautiful son was a drug addict.  On numerous occasions, after Nic had been gone for weeks on end, David would get Nic into a rehab program.  Nic would rehab for a month or two, come out and stay clean and sober for three or four days, then disappear into his meth world for another stretch. 

Nic got so desperate he would break into his dad’s house and into his dad’s friends’ houses to steal money or items to sell.  At a really low point he stole $8 from his little brother Jasper.  All this helped him to feel lower than dirt, but he was obsessed about his addiction.

During the first two years, David worried constantly and would welcome Nic home whenever he showed up or called for help.  Only slowly with the help of counseling, consulting, and Al Anon did he begin to believe in the tough love concept.  He told Nic he could not help him with money & bed, only get him into rehab. 

During one long clean & sober period it looked like Nic had turned a corner.  He even gave Jasper $8 and wrote him a touching apology.  Shortly after that, he disappeared again. 

I watched David mature in this book.  Though a loving father, in the beginning he was a poor parent and self indulgent.  As Nic spirals downward, David continues to love.  But he matures and his love matures.  Which brings me to a subject I’ve been hearing about & reflecting upon, conditional vs unconditional loving.  The Gospel brings up the idea.  Did David ever love Nic with unconditional love?   How would I see it?  What would be the signs?

Three comments about conditional & unconditional love:

1.  Have you ever noticed how the Bible is full of conditional love statements?  Look at today’s Gospel.  "If you love me, you will keep my commandments."  "Whoever has my commandments and observes them is the one who loves me."  Also, John 15, 10 & 14.  "If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love."  "You are my friends, if you do what I command you."  Sounds very conditional and parental. 

In other places there is talk about the sheep and the goats and the unquenchable flames.  The Old Testament is one long story of a jealous Yahweh.  Many tragedies befell the Hebrews because they did not show enough honor to Yahweh.

2.  Does Jesus show us the face of an unconditionally loving God? In his words? What we hear today is pretty conditional.  What about his actions? 

What if God is an unconditionally loving God, or an unconditionally accepting God?

3.  How do I become unconditionally loving?  Do I want to?  As a parent?   Two observations:

     a.  Is unconditional love made up of unconditional acceptance?  I think so. Tough.  Is there a distinction between accepting the person and accepting the actions, e.g., addiction and abuse?  I think so.  It is how tough love comes into play.

     b.  Is unconditional acceptance of another influenced by unconditional acceptance of myself ? I think so.  David had a hard time with guilt.  He felt guilt, I think appropriately.  He was told the 3 C’s: you did not cause it, you cannot control it, and you cannot cure it.  Nonsense.  I see regularly and believe in the miracle of cure, cure of the spirit, cure of the heart.  And I can accept that I cause harm to other people.

In summary, I would suggest that we become more spiritually whole the more we love unconditionally.

Whom do you love unconditionally? 

AUDIO:  http://mysite.verizon.net/reso7rjy/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/2008-04-27.mp3

Sir Charlie, you are supposed to be welcoming everybody.  Looks like you are scaring everyone away, like me.

Readings: 

Isaiah 60, 1-6, Rise up in splendor, Jerusalem. (good one)

Psalm 72, Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.  

Ephesians 3, 2-3, 5-6,  The Gentiles are co-heir, members of the same body.  

Matthew 2, 1-12, The Epiphany or opening to the Gentiles.

John ready in case I forget.

An Epiphany Day

This morning I would like to talk about an Epiphany Day, meaning a special day or a wonder day or event or even a person.  December 28 was an epiphany day for me.  Anybody guess why?  Yes, the date of my back surgery, an event I was totally looking forward to.

Emma sharing her candle lighting gift with the rest of us.

The operation was scheduled for 10:00.  We had to be there at 8:00.  Rosemary & I were there at 7:30.  Somewhere around 8:15 they checked me in and gave me the special operation gown.  I was invited to get on my own special stretcher with 4 wheels. One guy wheeled me around and into a 14 cubicle pre-op room.   Along the way we picked up Rosemary and a good old friend.

Buddy reading our Blessing of the Christmas Candles.

I did not know it at the time, but I was going to spend 4 hours waiting in that room.   My doctor got delayed was all I was told.  Rosemary had to leave.  I got to know the names of the pre-op room staff, Matt and Deborah. 

Cody, tell Ben that he cannot go to  sleep until I start talking.

I teased some of the pre-op patients.  Like one lady was begging to have a coffee.  I welcomed back some from surgery.  I had to ask to use the restroom.  I napped.  All these 4 hours my buddy stayed with me.  He read the newspaper when I dozed.

To join this exalted team, it is required that you are named John and that your are old enough to forget your age.

Finally about 2:00 I was wheeled into the operating room, cold as usual.  An hour or so later I was awake, Rosemary was there, and my good friend was there. 

Looking back, the day was an Epiphany Day and the operation an epiphany event.  You know what was another epiphany event?   My good friend.  He came and stayed about six hours, from the time I was supposed to have the operation, through the delay, and up to and past the operation time.  The pre-op room staff even told the poor guy we looked like brothers.

Bill and his special mom, Mabel.

Know who that special friend is?  Mike Carrell, an Epiphany Event.   Thanks, Mike.

Hi, Tom & Joe & Marsha

The Best Teammates

Elevation Time

The Healing Touch with John.

Mike, an Epiphany Friend

Readings:  Isaiah 5, 1-7; Psalm 80; Philippians 4, 6-9; Matthew 21, 33-43. 

Isaiah:

• The biggest of the big 3 prophets not only because of the book's volume, 66 chapters, but because of the beauty of some passages. 

• Time written: before the Babylonian Captivity (ca. 590) chapters 1-39 seem to have been composed by the prophet.  After the Captivity (ca. 540) at least two followers seem to have composed chapters 40-66.

• Today's selection: talks about a vineyard worker who labors carefully to bring forth good grapes, but gets only weeds.  What does he do with the vines?  This story matches up with Matthew's parable.

The Parable of the Landowner with a Vineyard

Sometimes I encounter a parable that I find really difficult to understand.  This is one of them.  I wonder why the landowner would send his son to the tenants after twice they had killed his servants when they went to collect the produce. 

Obviously, as in the case of all parables, we are faced with multiple layers of symbolism.  Of course, the landowner represents Yahweh.  The tenants are the Jewish people.  Remember Matthew is writing both to Jews and Gentiles. He is warning the Jews that they are going to lose their preferential place in Yahweh's plan if they do not accept Jesus as The Savior. 

The son is Jesus, the savior, the man the Jews criticized and condemned to death.  But why would He send his son? 

I have one story about this that gave me an insight into the mind set of Yahweh and Matthew's intention with the parable.  You may have heard me tell the story three years ago, but it is all I got even to this day.

It concerns a red oak I planted years ago on the corner of Willow Lane and Inwood.  This is the south eastern corner of the Jesuit property.  I had just started planting trees in Dallas.  It may have been fall of '87 or fall of '88.  I planted a whole row of trees on both Inwood and Willow, edging the campus. 

On the Inwood side of the corner is a bus stop and students from various schools used to catch the bus there.  The winter after I planted the five gallon red oak, it was pulled out and thrown away.  I replanted.  Later in the year it was pulled out and thrown in the creek again.  I was hurt, mad, and especially frustrated because it was the tree on the very corner, Willow side.  It one day would shade the bus stop, in fact.

I waited.  I reflected.  Eventually I decided to plant again in the fall, but this time I was going to plant a tree two times the size and two times the cost.  I thought, 'maybe the kids will respect the bigger tree.  I really hoped to have a nice tree some day shading the people waiting for the bus. 

So I planted.  And waited some more.  Today a beautiful red oak shades the people waiting for the bus.  It is almost twenty years old.  

The parable of the landowner presents the man as somewhat idiotic but also ready to take revenge on the tenants who killed his servants and son.  I think I see two levels of symbolism.

On one level the landowner represents Yahweh who has, first, tried to deal reasonably with the tenants.  Then, secondly, Matthew indicates that Yahweh will put the wretched laborers to a wretched end, meaning the Jews are going to get it.

I see a second level of symbolism, which maybe Matthew did not intend.  The landowner who seems so idiotic represents a Yahweh who is truly idiotic.  But he is idiotic over his people because He loves them.  We are his people.  We are the tenants.   

My experience with the tree showed me that I can do idiotic things to make our place a better place to live in.  I was fortunate. 

What is your image of our God?

AUDIO: sorry, none today.