Sunday Homily, October 12, 2014, 28th Ordinary Time

 

Readings:                          

Acts  2,  1-11,  There appeared to them tongues as of fire.

Psalm 104,  Lord, send out your spirit and renew the face of the earth.

Romans 8, 8-17,    You are in the spirit.

John 20, 19-23,  Peace be with you.

 

Homily by Mike

 

Well, I just finished reading Bishop John Shelby Spong’s new book titled Biblical Literalism: A Gentile Heresy, which is a study of the Gospel of Matthew.  Bishop Spong is one of my prime mentors in understanding the Christian faith and the Christian Scriptures.  My main reason I picked a chapter of his book for us today is that it is on understanding the Sermon on the Mount in relation to Pentecost, which we are preparing to celebrate next Sunday.  Also, Bishop Spong’s book is on the Gospel of Matthew, and Matthew is our default reading source whom we read from most of this year (of Cycle C readings).  In his new book Bishop Spong teaches how Matthew composed his Gospel to match up with the festivals of the Jewish year, all celebrated in the synagogue.  In this chapter he shows us how Matthew matches the Jewish celebration of Pentecost or Shavuot with Jesus as the New Moses.  Moses was the most significant person in Jewish history.  The second major celebration of the Jewish liturgical year, after Passover, is Pentecost or Shavuot.

At Pentecost, or Shavuot, Matthew provides the liturgy readings that make it clear to the Jewish followers of Jesus that Jesus is the new Moses.  The Book of Exodus tells the story of how Moses went up Mount Sinai, received the law directly from God and announced it to the people.  In their acceptance of God’s law from Moses (The 10 Commandments) the Jewish people entered into a covenant with God.  Matthew, in his Gospel, has Jesus go up a mountain and then deliver to the people God’s new law—the Beatitudes.  In accepting this new law from Jesus, his followers enter into a new covenant with God.     

Remember, at that time most people were illiterate.  The Torah, the Books of Moses, were read at every Sabbath liturgy.  They read the entire 5 books of the Torah every year—compare that with our reading a mere fraction of the Bible once every 3 years. Shavuot or Pentecost was celebrated in a big way (it was huge!), with a 24-hour vigil, so they needed a lot of readings and songs to fill the vigil.  That’s where Psalm 119 came into play—the longest psalm of all with 176 verses (psalms were the synagogue’s hymnal).  This was the psalm sung at the celebration of Shavuot.  Psalm 119 is relentless in its praise of the beauty and wonder of God’s law and the covenant that sprang from accepting and keeping God’s law. The meaning of this covenant is what was renewed liturgically each year, and was what the 24-hour vigil was all about.   

Matthew combined Psalm 119 with the Sermon on the Mount to present Jesus as the new Moses.  Psalm 119 fits the Shavuot liturgy with stanzas for each of the 8 3-hour portions of the vigil.  Psalm 119’s first stanza has 8 verses and the first 2 begin with the word “blessed”.  The Sermon on the Mount also begins with 8 verses, each starting with the word “blessed”.  We call these the Beatitudes.  So Matthew used Psalm 119 as the basis on which to build the Sermon on the Mount. Next Matthew has Jesus give commentaries on each of the 8 beatitudes, 1 for each of the 8 3-hour portions of the vigil.  Matthew then has Jesus do a commentary on the 10 Commandments, going deeper into the heart of these original laws of God.

This whole Sermon on the Mount is a beautifully crafted interpretation of Jesus as the new Moses.  And it’s all organized around the psalm used at Shavuot, Pentecost.  This amazing take and understanding of Matthew’s writing of his Gospel knocks my socks off and I love it.

As we prepare for Pentecost, what is our commitment to the new law?  How do we renew our covenant with this understanding of Jesus as the new Moses?                                                                                                                                                              

 

 Readings:  Isaiah 5, 1-7; Psalm 80, The Vineyard of the Lord is the House of Israel; 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.   The book is my favorite.
• 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 Crazy Landowner 

Picture 1:    Sacrament of the Sick

Picture 2:    Shonda, Bethany, & Ray

Readings:  Isaiah 9, 1-6; Psalm 96; Titus 2, 11-14; Luke 2, 1-14 (Nativity Drama by the kids)

A Small Nativity, Missed

On the corner of Preston & Forest down in Dallas there is a restaurant that I go to occasionally, PeiWei.  It is on the same corner as Whole Foods.  One day last week I was standing outside the restaurant about 1:30 waiting for my sister to show up. 

While I was waiting I saw coming up Forest from the Central Expressway side a man probably about my age.  Coming very slowly.  His legs were crippled and he was dragging them along with the aid of aluminum crutches.  He was a white guy with gray hair, docker pants, a dark polo type shirt, and a navy blue sport coat.  Black shoes that had been shined.

I watched him for about five minutes as he labored up the slight incline of the street and then as he came up the ramp into the shopping center.  He was heading straight toward the corner sidewalk where I awaited my sister.

I was going to greet him, but before I could say anything he says to me, "So you like Chinese, eh."  I agreed, and then he asked if he could ask me some directions.  "Sure," I said.  He drops his crutches literally on the sidewalk and leaning over he pulls out of his pocket a card which he shows me and asks if I know where Dougherty's Pharmacy is. 

Sure I know where Doughtery's Pharmacy is.  Everyone who lives in that general area of Preston Hollow and beyond knows where Dougherty's is.  It is an independent pharmacy and a years old landmark in the neighborhood.  The man's business card has a hand drawn map on the back showing accurately where the pharmacy is.  I think, "This guy must be from out of town."

Because the trouble is, Dougherty's is not at the busy intersection of Preston & Forest, but at the equally busy intersection of Preston & Royal, one mile south down Preston Road.  Moreover, there are no sidewalks and the bumpy path is rather close to the speeding traffic.  I know about the lack of sidewalks because on Sabbath days I see Jewish families struggling along the paths on foot on their way to or from the temple.

So I tell the man where the pharmacy is and how to get there.  I also tell him that it is a rather daunting walk even for a person able to walk with ease.  He says it is no problem, leans over, picks up his aluminum crutches, hitches them to his his upper arms, and struggles down the sidewalk.  I say, "I would be happy to take you over to the pharmacy, but I am waiting for my sister."  He responds with, "No problem, the walk will be good for me."  "Walk,", I think, "He can maneuver only with great effort."  And off he goes down the sidewalk and eventually around the corner & out of sight while I continue to wait for a few more minutes.

Later I am kicking myself.  "I could have helped him," I think, "driving him the distance and coming back in 5 minutes."  I could have phoned my sister I would be 5 minutes late.  Instead, I just stood there like a dummy. 

I look back on this now as a small nativity moment.  And I missed it.  I want to be more alert and ready for the next one. 

This evening we celebrate the Big Nativity.  We are privileged to have this knowledge.  However, it is the little ones that slip by me.  These little ones sensitize me to the bigger one.

What little nativity has slipped by you recently or slips by you all the time?

AUDIO:  http://mysite.verizon.net/reso7rjy/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/2008-12-24.mp3

Picture 1:  Wendy, Shonda, Ray, & Celeste

Picture 2:  Nativity Drama with the Kids

Picture 3:  Angels and Shepherds

 

 

Readings:   Ezekiel, 34, 11-17,  I will look after and tend my sheep; Psalm 23, The Lord is my Shepherd, there is nothing I shall want; 1 Corinthians 15, 20-28, Christ has been raised from the dead; Matthew 25, 31-46, The last judgement, He will place the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

Ezekiel:  I've mentioned how Ezekiel is one of the Big 3 Prophets, #3 after Isaiah & Jeremiah.  I also mentioned e how he lived smack dab in the middle of one of the two or three biggest tragedies of the Jewish people, the Babylonian captivity, from say 600 to 550 BCE.  He was there.

In American history we can look back and identify special presidential leaders, Washington, Lincoln, Roosevelt.  They came forward in crisis times. 

Ezekiel was this type of leader in Jewish history.  He saw what had happened to other Jews of the the northern province of Israel (Jerusalem is in the southern province of Judah) after they had been carted off as slaves after a defeat by the Assyrians.  They intermarried and simply disappeared in the DNA of the middle east.

Ezekiel is in Babylon and is determined that his community would not lose its identity.  He did three things to help maintain the spirit of the community: he emphasized  1. observance of the Sabbath, 2. kosher diet, and 3. circumcision.

Eventually after ca. 50 years the community still was a cohesive unit and it returned to rebuild Jerusalem, at least most of them.  The Jews are one of the few peoples to be defeated and scattered, and still return to their original homeland.  They remained there until the Romans defeated them in 70 C.E., returning when?  1948, after the Holocaust.

Today's reading comes to us from an Ezekiel captive in Babylon, and has Ezekiel promising the people a return, a brighter day after the captivity.  He uses the figure of speach, I will.  But I is Yahweh. 

 

Giving Thanks & Giving Back

Occasionally we have a story that is so good it deserves to be repeated, like the Christmas story.  This event took place 2 or 3 years ago.  Some of you will remember it, but it is a lesson worth remembering.

It happened like this. 

The community had adopted a family for Advent, a mother with 3 little kids and a baby on the way.  Beth Robinson had coordinated our adoption of the family and we were collecting clothing, food, and money.  It was our response to Thanksgiving and Christmas, as well as our response to how blessed we are and have been this year.  

After the Mass everyone was standing around having coffee and pastries.  Beth was there when a young boy, 6 or 7 years old,  came up and said he would like to help the family.  All he had was a dollar and he would like to give it to the family.  Beth accepted it graciously.

The boy is one of ours.  You know who it is?  Dillon.  The son of Bobbi Whitley, and Tony & Jo’s grandson.  The brother of Hunter & Audrey.   He is not with us this morning because he is a Boy Scout on a weekend camping trip.  He will be back & he knows I am telling the story. 

Dillon is a model for me and he exemplifies the two themes I would like to touch this morning, what we have to be thankful for and how we respond to the Matthew story about feeding the hungry and giving drink to the thirsty.   

My belief is that the greatest prayer is gratitude.  I am grateful that living in our country we have this feast, my favorite.  It pulls me back over the past year and gets me questioning, ‘What is my greatest blessing or joy or gift?’  Rosemary & I even make a list.

Our response is easy, try to give back.  This is why we renovated Rita’s house a week ago.  It is why we have put together for the community a simple plan for Advent, call it A Gift a Sunday.  I will explain the idea at the end of Mass and welcome any helpful ideas.

Two observations about our gospel about the sheep & goats.  Actually, lefties like myself & goats don't do well here.

    1.  Beware of either/or spirituality.  We are both.  The temptation, of course: I am a goat & lost.  We are all goats.

    2.  Beware of letting fear enter your spirit and trying to do it all, feed, give drink, clothe, visit the imprisoned, and on & on.  Try moderation seasoned with gratitude.

What is your blessing of the year?  How are you giving back? 

Picture 1:    Mass begins

Picture 2:    John working out with Ray & Jon 

Picture 3:   Froebes, Richard & Morgan & Monica  

Picture 4:    Butterlies, Jim & Denise, Kara & James III   

Picture 5:    Buddy with his dad, Randolph 

Picture 6:    Brooklyn thanks everyone for welcoming her and accepts her baptism tree

 

Readings: Isaiah 53,10-13; Psalm 33, Lord, let Your Mercy be on Us, as We place Our Trust in You; Hebrews 4, 14-16; Mark 10, 35-45

Isaiah:

A review:

  

Authors: at least 3 because there are 3 distinct parts to Isaiah the book. 

  

Time of Composition: near the end of the Babylonian Captivity, i.e., ca. 550 BCE.

 

   

Subject Matter: warnings about impending doom because of the badness of the people in part 1 up to chapter 39.  The remaining two parts are called the Book of Consolation, letting the people know that a more peaceful & prosperous time is coming. 

   

Today’s Selection:  (read all of chapter 53) 4 observations—

A. This chapter in 2 Isaiah is not included as one of the 4 Suffering Servant Songs, though it presents the same theme. 

  

B. The he, the servant that is talked about is

   –for the Hebrews, the Jewish nation/people;

   –for Christians, Christ.

   

C.  False Belief number 1?  The Jews thought Yahweh demanded suffering or sacrifice of valuable items ( e.g., sacrificial lamb ) as payment for badness. 

 

D.  False Belief number 2?  Not for the first 200 years, but eventually Christians were taught to believe that an original great sin had been committed by our ancestors & that sin could only be paid for by a human-divine hero, Jesus.  He had to be sacrificed to this god.  Or as the first line of our official reading says, “The lord was pleased to crush him infirmity.”  Do you think God really crushes people with infirmity?

Was there really an original sin?  Contemporary theology says no. 

 

   

The Greatest

 

August, 2007, there was an article in the N.Y. Times.  It focused on a work called Come, Be My Light, a collection of letters by Mother Teresa.  I mentioned Mother Teresa last week as an example of a person who gave it all up and went out into the street to help the disadvantaged.  Why did she do this?  Apparently because of her faith in Jesus and his message.  The N.Y. Times article, however, noted that Mother Teresa confesses in her letters that for years she harbored doubts about her belief in God, this while she was rescuing homeless people off of the streets, living out the role of servant mentioned in the gospel. 

 

I mention this event because despite people's accomplishments, we are all human, and because many of us have the similar doubts.  Mother Teresa got a lot of criticism for these doubts, people even calling her a fraud or hypocrite.  I would propose that she was more genuine because of her doubts.

 

Two observations that seem relevant to this issue.  The observations come from an excellent book, The Future of Faith by Harvey Cox (loaned to me by John Cade). Cox has been teaching divinity at Harvard for 40 years and wrote the famous Secular City in '65.  The observations are, first, a short history of Christianity and, secondly, where is Mother Teresa and where are we.  

 

 

 

First, Cox says there have been three stages of Christianity, the stage of faith, the stage of belief, and the stage of the spirit.  

 

He suggests that we have been living in the third stage for the past 50 or more years.  It is characterized by a desire on the part of many people to become spiritual.  Not necessarily religious with all the rules and dogmas.  This period is reflective of the first stage. 

 

The Age of Faith lasted around two hundred years after Jesus.  During this time there was a spiritual excitement about the prospect of a new world coming.  Jesus called it the kingdom and it was a this world event.  There were many little Christian communities, a variety of liturgies, a democratic process, and an anti Roman Empire stance.  There was a sense of being touched by the spirit of Jesus, with his vision for a better world where the poor and outcast would be welcomed. 

 

Despite an excitement of spirit, the time was marked by persecution.  The Roman Empire did not tolerate groups of people who would not worship the emperor.  It was during this time when the Christians were the entertainment in the Colosseum.

 

The second stage, the Age of Belief, officially begins in 313, when the emperor Constantine granted freedom to Christians. Fairly quickly Christianity became the religion of the empire.  Sounds good so far.  But as Cox notes, when the Empire made Christianity official, Christianity became an empire and lost much of its spirit.  Faith was measured by belief in dogmas, belief in things about Jesus. 

 

A clerical class developed, the class became rich and powerful, they began to lay down beliefs that had to be held, writings were revised so as to create a fiction to support apostolic succession so these clerics would appear entitled.  Creeds multiplied.  Only 12 years after Constantine's Edict of Milan of 313, a council of Christian leaders, now called bishops, met at Nicaea in 325 and came up with the complicated Nicene Creed.

 

In 385 CE a particularly ominous event took place.  For the first time ever a meeting of bishops, condemned of heresy and had killed 7 Christian men.  The group under the leadership of a man named Priscillian encouraged abstinence from meat & wine, recommended study of the sacred writings available to them, and allowed what could be called charismatic praise of God. 

 

So where are we and where was Mother Teresa?  I was born about 30 years after Mother Teresa, but she & I both were brought up in the Age of Belief.  I had to memorize the Baltimore Catechism.  The more I memorized, the more faith I must have.  I don't think Mother Teresa ever moved totally out of the Age of Belief.  However, her life exemplifies the Way of Faith 

 

 

Today I find lots of Catholics & Christians, like myself, trying to return to that original time of faith & spirit.  Dogmas like the infallibility of the pope, the Assumption, the Immaculate Conception, & canon law are not vital.  A spirituality that deepens faith is vital.

 

Where are you on this journey?

 

Source: The Future of Faith, Harvey Cox (excellent)

 

Picture 1:  Mass begins with Kevin helping

 

Picture 2:  Sebastian welcomes the Community

 

Picture 3:  The Community

 

Picture 4:  The Coffee Shoppe with Joan & Jerry, Bob & John

 

Readings: Exodus 32, 7-14; Psalm 51; 1 Timothy 1, 12-17; Luke 15, 1-32 (Great Gospel: Prodigal Son).

Exodus: this second book of the Old Testament is a fun read and describes the escape or exit of the Jews from Egypt led by Moses. 

How did they get there in the first place.  It goes back to the 3 big patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, & Jacob.  Jacob had 12 sons, the youngest and favorite being Joseph.  His brothers, who hated him, sold him to some travelers who took him to Egypt where he became a favorite of the Pharaoh because he interpreted dreams. 

When he had grown up a famine hit Israel and Jacob sent his 11 sons to Pharaoh to beg help.  Guess who is Pharaoh’s chief of staff: Joseph. 

As time passes many Jewish people settle in Egypt and prosper. The Egyptians get jealous and enslave the Jews.  At one point Pharaoh kills all the first born male Jewish babies. Except one: Moses. 

Our selection takes place after the colorful account of Moses’ call and his leading the people out of Egypt and into the desert.  The people have been rebellious and Yahweh not too compassionate.  Yahweh & Moses are having a little dialog.

The Prodigal Son

Because this story is a work of art I would like to explain the story before we read it.  Someone very creative put this masterpiece together and has given us a marvelous insight into the nature of God, especially a God whose love is not conditional, a view that is almost totally different than the view we get in the rest of the bible, both Old & New Testament. 

The story has three main segments and a footnote: the son leaves his home and his father, the son lives in a distant land, the son returns home, and the response of the son who stayed home.  I will make three observations about each phase of the story.  So twelve observations.

First, when the younger son asks for his share of his father’s estate, the people would right away be stunned, because he was due no share.  The second son receives nothing normally.

Secondly, for asking for this share, the father could have had him killed for his insolence and absurd presumption of entitlement.

Thirdly, the people listening would have been doubly astounded when the father divided his property with the son. This was turning the father into a nut, a fool. 

With the property the son sets off for a distant place, the second part of the story. He squanders all the money, and ends up feeding pigs for a stranger.  First, significant is the fact that he goes to a distant country, that is, a foreign place.  But more importantly, and this is the first comment, he squanders the property. This is the patrimony.  By squandering the money, he is symbolically disrespecting his father.

Secondly, he shows disrespect to the Jewish religion by going to a stranger to get a job. In those days, a person in need would go to the temple, which was set up to help their own. Instead, he goes to a local, meaning a Gentile or non-Jew. 

Thirdly, he debases himself by feeding pigs, the animal rejected by Jews. He even longs to eat the pods the pigs were eating. He has become a total outcast.

At this point the son realizes that on his father’s farm even the hired help lived better.  So he puts together a little speech that includes three parts: confessing that he has sinned, that he deserves nothing, and could he be treated as one of the father’s workers.  Off he goes. And now the story gets even more bizarre.

Obviously the father is watching for him, because he sees him a long way off, runs (the father runs!) to the son, embraces him, and kisses him.  The boy begins his speech, but note, the father cuts it off after the first two parts.

Then the father bestows on the horrible son three significant and symbolic gifts, a robe, a ring, and sandals before calling for the fatted calf to be slaughtered.  First, the robe. This is a sign of dignity, totally the opposite of what the boy deserved. Secondly, the ring. A sign of wealth.  Thirdly, the sandals. Only members of the family wore sandals, not the slaves or hired workers.  It signified mobility. The family member could walk away.

To the listeners of this story the father would look like an idiot, crazy, out of his mind. The son was so, so bad he only deserved death. 

Then to complicate life for the father, the older son proceeds to pout and complain. First, this boy, too, now deserves to be killed because of his disobedience and anger. But, and this is the second observation, the father pleads. Fathers don’t plead. Thirdly, the father lets him know how much he loves him by saying all he has is equally the son’s.

The point of all this: God is like the father.

How do you resemble the father?

AUDIO http://mysite.verizon.net/reso7rjy/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/2007-09-16.mp3