Sunday Homily, March 9, 2014, 1st Lent, Cycle A
Readings:
Genesis 2, 7-9, 3, 1-7, The Lord planted a garden in Eden.
Psalm 62, Be merciful, O Lord, for we have sinned.
Romans 5, 12-19, Through one man sin entered the world.
Matthew 4, 1-11, Jesus was led by the spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil.
Romans observations :
What : Paul writes this letter to the Roman community before he travels there. It is one of the most dense and difficult books in the New Testament. It is the longest letter. I find about 8-10 lines in the whole letter that touch me. Usually I dread seeing the letter as one of our readings. Today is one of those days.
Date: around the year 55
Genesis observations:
What: a great marvelous book about the origins of us people. It includes Creation, Adam & Eve, Cain & Abel, Noah & the flood, the tower of Babel, the Patriarchs of the Jewish tribe, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and finally Joseph, the favorite son of Jacob, and how Joseph ends up in Egypt, leading to the next book, The Exodus.
Note: the book is folk tale, myth, and fable. It is not literal.
Date: guess. It seems to have been put together from at least 4 oral streams that were combined during the Babylonian Captivity, 555, before Christ. These stories were orally passed down, generation after generation for 900 years.
Authors: these people are shrouded ancient history. Some stories reflect folk tales of other groups of people, like the creation stories of Babylon.
Subject today: the second creation story, the one with the snake & apple tree. It was from this story that Paul came up with the original sin notion, a notion that Augustine picked up and gave it legs.
Matthew: Even today's gospel is mythical.
Sources: Good News Bible, Bishop John Shelby Spong, Wikipedia
Lent, Fully Alive
This first Sunday of Lent I want to talk about how to have a fully alive Lent in light of an event that took place this past Thursday in the lives of Rosemary and me.
Thursday morning about noon our postman, Doug, rang the doorbell. Rosemary went. Doug said that across the street and down one house the guy who lived there had not collected his mail in a few days and the garage had been open with the car inside all that same time.
I had noticed the newspapers piling up near the curb and driveway, but this guy who was really reclusive occasionally let them pile up before he would pick them up. I had also noticed the garage open a couple of days, but that, too, the guy did occasionally. From our house I could not see his garage because of a bush.
I had thought in the past years that this guy has no one that I can see. He is totally alone. He has never had a job, did not take great care of his house and property, but always drove a new Jaguar. Just in the last year I mentioned to Rosemary that the guy actually waved at me from his car on occasion.
So I decided to call the neighborhood police who patrol our large neighborhood.
Fifteen minutes later I see the police car. Then I see the fire truck. “This could be bad,” I mention to Rosemary. “Go see what is going on. I have a 1:30 luncheon with Kathey, my sister.”
Before I can even get into the car and back it out of the drive, she returns to tell me the guy is dead.
I am stunned. I feel horrible. How could I have lived for years across from a reclusive guy, not even know his name, and let him lie dead in his house for who knows how many days? Moreover, Rosemary & I are the Tulip Lane coordinators for the neighborhood organization. He is on Camellia, but he is just across from us, we being on the corner.
This all happened the day after Ash Wednesday and I thought to myself, ‘Is this a Lenten invitation to me?’
I’m thinking it is. I found out the guy was called Gary. Even his next door neighbors did not know his name. Our neighborhood coordinator knew it and gave me an emergency number to call, which I did. We are now in touch with his brother and the brother’s wife, both of whom said they knew this dreaded day would come some day. They, too, had not had contact with Gary in a bunch of years.
What this is saying to me is, in my life and in our community I will not leave any Garys to die alone, if I can help it.
I even asked my sister if she would like me to phone her the nights of her days off from work. She declined, saying she is in touch enough.
So, during this Lent, 2 challenges for me:
- Who are the Garys in our community, my neighborhood, or in my life anywhere? Keep in touch.
- No Fear Lent.
I figure you are not a Gary if you are here.
Therefore, who are the Gary’s in your life?