Sunday Homily, February 22, 2015, 1st Lent, Ordinary Time, B

Readings: Isaiah 43, 18-25; Psalm 41; 2 Corinthians 1, 18-22; Mark 2, 1-12

Isaiah: Some reminders–

The Book of Isaiah is one of the Big 3, along with Jeremiah & Ezekiel, because they have a lot of chapters and therefore say a lot..  Isaiah has 66 chapters.

Author & Time: The book has at least 3 contributors.  Chapter 43, today's selection is from Isaiah 2, who seems to be writing  during the Babylonian Captivity of the Jews who lived in and  around Jerusalem.  The time was ca. 575 BCE.  Isaiah 1 wrote before the Captivity.  Isaiah 3's material might come from after the Jews returned to Jerusalem, the time after the Assyrians under Cyrus conquered the Babylonians.  Cyrus let the Hebrews return to Jerusalem.

Our Selection, Chapter 43: the writer has Yahweh speaking to his defeated and depressed people.  This is the Book of Comfort, and informs the Jews that times will get better, which they do, at least for these Jews' children & grandchildren. 

How Make Lent a Winner

There is a story floating around about this guy in Washington, D.C.  One cold morning in January he took his violin down into a subway station.  He set up his spot, pulled out his violin, and began to play for the throngs of commuters rushing to and fro.  He played for about an hour.

During the hour a few people paused and listened for a few moments, then hurried off to their train.  Another lady dropped in a dollar while she rushed by.   Others paused quickly and some tossed in a bill.  The people who most focused their attention on him & his music were kids.  They would stop dead in their tracks mesmerized.  Their parents would have to drag them on to their destination while the kids looked back over their shoulders.

After the hour the man had accumulated about $30.  Nobody cheered, nobody applauded at the end of his performance.  Nobody even noticed.  Not that the guy needed the money or the applause.  He was Joshual Bell, one of the best violin players in the world.  Two days before this, in fact, his concert in Boston had sold out with tickets averaging $100.  The violin he plays costs over 3 million.

The Washington Post had set up this event where Joshua Bell would perform in the subway station.  The goal was to see how people would respond to beauty in an ordinary place at a busy time.  Perhaps 1,000 people passed by Joshua Bell in that one hour during which he played 6 pieces of classical music.  No one actually stayed for the whole of even one piece.  Only a handful paused for no more than a couple of minutes.  Only the kids wanted to stay and listen. 

The wonder is, is this typical of us.  If I do not have enough time to pause 5 minutes and appreciate one of the best musicians in the world play some of the best music in the world, what other beauties am I missing?  And missing every day.

I tell this story because we are beginning Lent Wednesday.  I confess this is not one of my favorite times of the year, mostly because of the history I have with it being focused on sin and penance.  Give up this, give up that.  If you would like to take this as an occasion to become a better, more fully alive human, I would like to suggest two positives.

First, sensitivity.  Sensitivity to the beauty around me, like that music, to the beauty of people as a community and individually, and to the beauty of myself, my health, my gifts, my education.  It was not Lent, but last Wednesday I went to visit the new Trinity River Audubon Center in south Dallas.   Just the building I found  to be architectural poetry.  Maybe once a week something of this type is planned during the next five weeks.

The second positive has to do with the story in Mark about the four guys who brought their paralyzed friend to Jesus for healing.   I find this story so right on.  I love it.  The man could not get there on his own, but his friends could get him there.  Oops, when they get to the house where Jesus is, they find they cannot get through the crowd.  No problem.  They climb the roof, break a hole, and lower him down.

We had houses like this in Tanzania.  The roof is made out of tree poles laid across the house with about  1 to 2 feet of space between each one.  Other branches are placed on top.  Then a mud like clay is put on the branches.  Over the mud usually is a smoother clay.  We had a Jesuit house near the base of Kilimanjaro whose flat roof was cement and we would sit up there to watch the sunset against the mountain, every night 6:00 to 6:30.  Being on the equator sunset & sunrise takes place the same time every day and lasts 30 minutes.

So these guys cut a hole through the roof and lowered down their friend.  This is friendship and community at its best, me helping you when you need it and you helping me when I need it.  Hillary says it takes a village.  I would suggest it takes a community.

So the second positive to make myself a richer person in this Lent: service, help my neighbor with his roof.  Somebody needed to help Peter with the roof of his house.  I hope the four guys helped him.  Bill Hammond, Bob McGrath, & I are all going to work on housing in Galveston next week.  One small step, one small contribution.

So, if you want to make yourself a richer person in the next 5-6 weeks, if you don't want to pass by the Joshua Bells on your commute, and you like to help out, how about sensitivity and service?

AUDIO:  http://mysite.verizon.net/reso7rjy/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/2009-02-22.mp3

Picture 1:  Mass with T.J. Helping

Picture 2:  Birthdays, Maggie & Chloe, Ron, T.J. Dana (17), Rosemary, & Diane

Picture 3:  Clare (mom) & Chloe dancing & Ron Kovatis

Picture 4:  Communion helpers, Patricia, Geri, Don, Ron, & Beth

Readings: Acts of the Apostles 2, 42-47; Psalm 118; 1 Peter 1, 3-9; John 20, 19-31

Intro to the Readings – 2^nd Sunday of Easter

 Our first reading today is from Acts of the Apostles.  Remember this is part 2 of Luke’s story of Jesus and the Early Church, part one being his Gospel.  In Acts, Luke picks up the story right after the Resurrection.  He repeats the short piece about the Ascension, but the main body of Acts deals with the spread of the Good News to the Gentile World.  Our reading today is early in the story and is a kind of interlude about the early Christian church in Jerusalem. 

 
The few verses in today’s reading give us what I will call an idyllic view of that community.  And interestingly Luke, writing to a Greek audience uses a word in today’s reading, which only appears here in the Bible, but is commonly used in Greek literature to describe a kind of Utopian society.  I mention this because we could easily feel discouraged when we listen to what that early community was like and then reflect on our own community here today in 2011.  But for Luke’s original readers, this community is the one described by Plato, Ovid and other Greeks as the ideal community where all possessions are shared. 

 There is one other item worth noting in the reading and that is the four actions of this early community, the teaching of the apostles, fellowship, breaking of bread and prayers.  These are a great summary too of what Jesus did in his life.

 The second reading today is from the First Letter of Peter.  It was written to the churches in what is today Turkey and Syria.  The communities are having a tough time due to their faith, although they are not being persecuted yet.  Peter’s letter offers them great encouragement.  He probably wrote it around the year 64 from Rome. 

Second Sunday of Easter 2011 – Homily

Today, after we pray the our Father and a few other short prayers I will turn to you and say “ the peace of the Lord be with you all” but what is that ‘peace’?  I think we have a clue from the gospel just read.  To get a better understanding we need to look closely at what is happening in John’s gospel. 

Our reading today comes from the second half of Chapter 20.  Chapter 20 begins with the words “it was very early in the morning on the first day of the week, and still dark, when Mary of Magdala came to the tomb.”  By the way, chapter 19 ends with Jesus being laid in the tomb.  So we know we are on Easter Sunday morning.  What John’s Gospel proceeds to do is show that faith in the resurrection comes slowly.  Jesus’ disciples were not expecting it.  So when Mary finds the tomb empty her immediate conclusion is someone has taken the body.  Peter and another disciple, the ‘beloved’ disciple show up after Mary told them what she had discovered, and we are told they saw the garments, and that the ‘beloved disciple’ saw and believed, nothing about Peter believing yet. 

 And then we have today’s reading.  It is the same day, but evening.  They are all in a locked room, afraid of the Jews.  So I have to wonder, how big an impact had this early ‘faith’ of the beloved disciple had on the group.  By the way, Mary did see a gardener whom she recognizes when he calls her by name, but I suspect her story was put down to the rantings of a grieving woman??  So Jesus appears in the room, and twice says “peace be with you”.  What is this peace?  He immediately breathes on them, and remember an earlier breathing – in the book of Genesis, when God breathes on the clay and forms man, we now have God again breathing and forming new men!  People filled with the Holy Spirit.  In human terms I feel that this “peace be with you” had the same effect as when a child wakes up in the night crying and a parent wraps them in their arms and says “its OK, I’m here with you”.  The child feels safe. 

 
The resurrection, belief in the resurrection, makes us different people.  Yes it is the leap of faith, not a solid provable fact, but that faith gives us a hope, and a security that nothing can really harm us.  It is what gave the apostles the courage to go out and face that group of hostile Jews.  It is what brings us here this morning. 

 Remember in the first reading today from Acts, that little early idylic community which Luke described, we are not that different.  We come together to break bread, to pray, to learn the teaching of Jesus, and we do share our possessions.  This morning we will be giving anther $2,000 to the CCAC and also some money to the Plano Homes, and those are just two small examples of sharing our possessions.

 So today at our mass, when I say “the peace of the Lord be with you all” reflect for a moment before we offer each other the sign of that peace, do you feel like the child, wrapped and safe?

Picture 1:     Penny receiving a check from Bobby for Plano Community Homes

Picture 2:    Offertory with brother & sister, Bobby & Marlene

Picture 3:    Leo with Jackie

Picture 4:   Wendy's parents

Picture 5:   Gilberto preparing for the 5 Boro Bike tour with 2 of Rosemary's Nephew's kids, Emma & William 

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: Acts 2, 1-11; Psalm 104, Lord, send out your Spirit, and renew the Face of the Earth; 1 Corinthians 3-13; John 20, 19-23

Acts:  a reminder–

Author: Luke, the author of both The Gospel & The Acts

Date: ca. 50 years after Jesus' death

Today's selection: In chapter 1 we saw 3 things: introduction by Luke, the Ascension, and the election of a new apostle, Matthias, to take Judas' place.  The next big event is the coming of the spirit.  That is what is described today.

Pentecost by Tony O'Donovan

Leviticus 13, 1-2, 44-46, If the man is leprous and unclean…

Psalm 32, I turn to you, Lord, in time of trouble.

1 Corinthians 10, 31-11, 1, Do everything for the glory of God.

Mark  1, 40-45,  A leper came to Jesus.

Spring Dreaming….

Welcome in Jan & Bernadette & our favorite Studebaker salesman, Sir Charlie.

Readings: 

Acts of the Apostles, 13, 21-27, They appointed elders.

Psalm 145,  I will praise your name forever, my king and my God (excellent first stanza, one of my favorites.  The Lord is Gracious & Merciful, Never gets angry, and is Abounding with Love.)

Revelation 21, 1-5,  Then, I, John saw a new heaven & a new earth.

John 13, 31-35,  This how you will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.

Juliettes on the loose, Mary, Sydney, & Geri.

The Lord is Gracious and Merciful, Never gets angry, and is Abounding in Love.

Eddie Aguilar is a 64 year old Viet Nam vet who enlisted in the Navy at 17, so he could get a good education, which he could not get with his family in Santa Barbara.  They did not have the resources. 

After basic training he was posted to the USS Oklahoma City, the flagship of the 7^th Fleet off the Viet Nam coast.  Being an intelligent kid he was assigned to a 5 person team in the radio shack.

How many girls does it take to light up our Easter Candles?  At Least, 3, Zoe, Tori, and Georgie, to not mention Buddy who is reading The Blessing.

Eddie says that the guys saw and heard a lot of highly secret crypto material.  They could not talk about any of it—ever.  Eddie and the team was together for 2 years off the coast,’73-’75.  They all became good friends and buddies, which helped because they lived in really tight quarters.

On getting released from the Navy in ’75, they continued to stay close and even put together some reunions, all except one, the Little Texan.  They had lived through Viet Nam in a unique position, the radio shack.  They could not talk about it, but it helped to be with the team that  experienced  the same horror of the war.

I'm jealous!  John & Connie just returned from biking from Pittsburg to D.C., crossing the eastern Continental Divide, all in one week.

Music don't get no better than with Ben & David.

The years passed and Eddie continued to search for the ‘good ole boy from Texas.’  Eddie says T.J  was a sweetheart of a guy, a salt of the earth guy.

As the years passed Eddie continued to search on and off all to no avail, until this year, their 45^th reunion at Las Vegas.  Eddie now lives in San Antonio and remembered recently that he thought he heard T.J. mention he came from a town called Garland in Texas. 

Communion Team ready.

Knowing that Garland was a suburb of Dallas, Eddie contacted The Dallas Morning News and Sharon Grigsby took up the search.  Using her search tools it did not take her long to find a name she was looking for.  She left a message and lo and behold TJ called her back.  Success yes, but TJ confessed he was just not ready yet to reunite with his former buddies.

I would bet that Eddie will continue to welcome TJ back into the group whenever he is ready.

Worn out!!

For me Eddie is a personification of a Shepherd-God who is Gracious and Merciful.

Where & when do you find this Gracious and Merciful God who Never gets angry and is Abounding in love.

Ref. Dallas Morning News, Metro, 5-14-19

The Best Teamwork.