Sunday Homily, June 28, 2015, 13th Ordinary Time, B

Readings:

Acts of the Apostles 2, 14, 22-33.  You who are Jews, listen to my words.

Psalm 16,  Lord, you will show us the path of life.  

1 Peter 1, 17-21,   Conduct yourselves with reverence.

 Luke 24,  13-35,   Two men on the road to Emmaus.   

"Hi, Everybody, Welcome in," say Buddy, Tori, and Harper.

 And who let in these clowns?  John, Tom, Denni, & Jim.

Thanks for bringing up our gifts this morning, Carrie & Paul & Mike.

Readings:  

 Isaiah 35, 4-7,  Be strong, Fear not.  (Isaiah at his best!)

Psalm 146,   Praise the Lord, My Soul.

 James 2, 1-5, Did not God choose those who are poor?

Mark 7, 31-37,  His speech impediment was removed.

Thanks, Dearest Zoe, for lighting our candles this Sunday morning.

Isaiah observations

This selection is from Isaiah 1.    It is a time when Judah, the southern kingdom, is threatened by a powerful neighbor, Assyria (ever hear of this place today?)  Isaiah saw that the real threat to the life of Judah was not simply the might of  Assyria, but the Kingdom's own evil ways.  Guess what is coming, the Babylonian Captivity. 

Today's passage is much more on the hopeful side.

Thanks for reading our Blessing of The Candles this morning, My Dearest Georgie.

Be Strong, Fear not.  He comes to save You.

I want to talk this morning about fearing not and being strong, because he comes to save us.

The summer of 1970 was the summer before I got ordained here in Dallas.  I had two more years of theology study in Toronto.  That summer of 1970 I was interning as a chaplain at Boston City Hospital in a Pastoral Counseling program run by Andover-Newton Theologate.

Welcome in, Natalie & Jim. 

I lived in the Jesuit  residence in Dorchester.  There were about 4 of us Jesuits.  Because a great Jesuit of the house worked with the kids of the neighborhood  our house was a total safe zone.  The younger kids would look through the windows of the dining room & living room during meals and when we had guests.  We told them your car will not be touched if you park here and they know you are friends.

Remember the Plow Shares 5 and the draft board burnings that Summer?  One of the guys lived with us.

I got The Best Team.

Every morning I would get up and walk to the hospital through the somewhat famous Roxbury area of Boston.  I never had a problem.  They knew who I was.

My day consisted of visiting patients, typing up interviews verbatim, and taking part in rather confrontational group sessions of 5 or 6 with a supervisor.  I think I came close to getting kicked out for refusing to redo one of my verbatims. 

My most favorite part of the day was visiting the patients.  I loved this dynamic.  There were some powerful sessions.

And we got The Best Music.

I remember especially one old tough white Bostonian, a former Catholic.  I asked him what became my favorite question, How do you feel about dying?

For a day or so he said, No problem.  Another day he tells me I’m going to hell when I die, but so be it.

You know why.   He and his first wife had divorced years ago.  He  married his recently deceased wife and had kids and a 25 year  happy marriage.  

For Hue our Total Community Blessing on your operation this Wednesday.
 

I could not believe it.  This may have been my first with this phenomenon.  I had already concluded that hell was a gimmick of the writers of the time and did not exist.  It was good for keeping in line the people of the tribe.

Would you have sent that guy to hell, for ever? 

What about you?  Where you going?

I think the old guy died peacefully.

Okay, Joe, can we trust you to get that birthday cupcake home to Marsha. 

On The Light Side:   (A little old, but still good)

On their way to the church to get married, a young Catholic couple 
were involved in a fatal car accident.

Being good Catholics the young couple find themselves sitting outside 
the Pearly Gates waiting for St. Peter to process them into Heaven.

While waiting, they begin to wonder: could they possibly get married 
in Heaven?

When St. Peter finally showed up, they asked him.

St Peter said "I don't know. This is the first time anyone has asked. 
Let me go find out" and he leaves them sitting at the Gate.

After three months, St Peter finally returns, looking somewhat 
bedraggled. "Yes" he informs the couple " I can get you married in 
Heaven".

"Great!" said the couple "But we were just wondering, what if things 
don't work out? Could we also get a divorce in Heaven?"

"You must be joking" says St. Peter, red-faced with 
frustration, slamming his clipboard on the ground.

"What's wrong?" asked the frightened couple".

"OH, COME ON!" St. Peter shouted "It took me three months to find a 
priest up here …..Do you have any idea how long it'll take me to find 
a lawyer?"

Blame Ken Cramer for this, not Me!

Readings:

1 Kings  3, 5, 7-12,   The Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream one night.

Psalm 119,   Lord, I love your commands.

Romans 8, 28-30,  All things work for good who love God.

Matthew  13, 44-52,  The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure buried in a field.

Starting Mass

Homily

Some of you are aware that Judy and I were recently in Iowa for a memorial celebration of her mother’s life.   Judy’s mother came to what would be our birthplace in Iowa from a farm in Missouri to take Nurse’s training from nuns of the order of St. Francis who came from Peoria, Illinois. They had had been sent there some years earlier to serve in a hospital and to assist doctors who were also being trained in Keokuk.  These nuns served another purpose for us by catechizing Marie; she received the sacraments of the Church there when she was 21. The good news of Jesus Christ, the treasure buried in the field, the pearl of great value, the net used by the disciples to catch men, and the instruction on the kingdom of heaven had become the desire of her heart.

John reading 1 Kings

This town where Judy and I were born has a beautiful park.  It is the heart of the town and Judy began the first part of our memorial celebration of Marie there, with a reading from the Proverbs 31; the reading was part of the old spoken of in today’s gospel.  The theme of our celebration was Marie as a giver of goodness and justice.   I carried the theme forward with a reading that I gave to begin the service we had at the gravesite.  It was from the Letter of James where he reminds a sect of Jewish Christians of the Perfect law, we are to love one another as Christ has loved us.  This new way of loving had fulfilled the Royal law from Leviticus of the OT, to love your neighbor as yourself.  

Jean reading Romans

 In our first reading today from First Kings, Solomon has asked God for an understanding heart so that he could better serve God’s people wisely.  How were we shown this in 1 Kings? Recall the parable where Solomon determined which of the two prostitutes was the true mother of the child they had brought to him.

Mike

The wisdom that a scribe had read or heard about Solomon inspired him to construct that parable.   We were told last week that the seed sown by Christ spoken of in the parable was the Father’s word given to us by his Son. Today we were told that the treasure buried in the field, and the pearl of great value and the net sown in the sea to capture people is the good news of Jesus Christ that fulfills the wisdom of Solomon of the first reading.

Wendy, Shonda, & Ray

When the Romans destroyed the temple in Jerusalem, the priests disappeared.  Scribes who were the interpreters of the Law and Prophets were still involved in the Sabbath Synagogue Service for Jews.  Recall that this service was built around a calendar of readings from the Law and the Prophets  and the singing of the Psalms to praise God and a teaching by the Scribes on the OT reading.  [It was the liturgy of the Word of the Jews.] For the Jews who became Christians, disciples of the kingdom of God, the Christian Liturgy of the Word would fulfill the Sabbath Synagogue Service. The gospel reading would  fulfill the expectation of the coming of the Messiah given in the OT reading; the homily given on the gospel reading replaced the OT teaching.  [This couldn’t happen, however, until the first gospel was written, copied and given to the Scribes. But who were the inspired writers of the gospels and its parables, and where did they come from?

Zoe

 I propose to you that today’s gospel reading suggests to us that a good number of Scribes had been waiting for the coming of the Messiah. They believed that the sayings and teachings and writings of Jesus fulfilled that expectation given within the Law and the Prophets. They not only believed but wanted a good news of the Messiah preserved. Inspired Scribes, who were rabbis and disciples of the kingdom of God, were like a head of a household who took from their treasure both the new and old. The old was taken by the scribes from the OT; the new taken from the writings, teachings and sayings of Jesus, or in the case of this Matthew gospel, from earlier gospels.  The Sabbath Synagogue Service that kept Judaism alive they fulfilled by writing the gospels in parables so that Christianity, in harmony with the Law and Prophets, would be preserved.

Georgie

Kevin and Leo

Readings: Exodus 34, 4-9; Psalm, Daniel 3, 52-55; 2 Corinthians 13, 11-13; John 3, 16-18.

The Trinity: First proclaimed as a dogma in 350, Council of Nice, France.  Church leaders were influenced by 1) reflecting back on biblical passages that identified God sources, e.g., Jesus & Holy Spirit; 2) Babylonian, Egyptian, and Greek philosophy (e.g., Plato) which believed in a plurality of gods and an afterlife.

Exodus: The second book of the O.T. & the Hebrew Torah (1st 5 books).  Basically the story of Moses leading the Hebrews out of Egypt, where they had gone because of drought generations earlier.  Today’s metaphorical passage tells of how Moses got a second set of the 10 Commandments after he broke the first set in anger at the people.  The people are in the desert.  We will read all the first 9 verses.

Already Condemned?

Last week a good friend of mine called up and said, "Stack, are all non-Catholics going to hell?"  Seems like she had been talking with a friend of hers about an acquaintance who was not Catholic.  The person said that all people who do not believe in Jesus are condemned.  Catholics hold that all who are not Catholic are condemned.  Right?

My friend who has been a lifelong Catholic said that she had heard this a long time ago, but did not think anyone really believed it anymore. 

"No," I responded, "It is not true."  Even though we have today’s Gospel telling us so, that "whoever does not believe has already been condemned."  How do you reconcile this?

Two observations.  First is about the nature of Scripture.  Second is about passages that are more inclusive.

First, the Bible.  We have an example in John’s passage today of the danger of taking one line or event literally.  If you take the Bible literally you parents have the justification to kill your son or daughter who is disobedient.  Slavery should still exist.  You should pluck out your eye if it is a source of temptation to you.  With that we would all be blind from adolescence.  This, along with much more like it, is in our Bible.

So much of the Old Testament is legend, but legend intended to convey the writer’s moral lesson.  Like today’s story of Moses & the 10 Commandments.  Legend.  Moses supposedly lived at least 300 years before the events recounted here were written down.  300 years of oral passing on.   Could you write a history of, say, the Revolutionary War or even the Civil War?

The lesson is: don’t take literally every sentence in the Bible. 

At the same time, and this is the second point, there are some lines that are terrific, like the line in Exodus today about the Lord being gracious & merciful, patient & kind.  As many of you know, this is one of my most favorite lines.  The line shows up at least 3-5 other times in the Scriptures.

So do we pick and choose the lines we like in the Bible?  Yes, I think so, using common sense and our experience.  Otherwise we are like dumb sheep.  Finally, putting together our experience of living and identifying lines in Scripture that we find helpful, we put together our own personal image of our God.  Is that God gracious & merciful, patient & loving, or condemning?  For me it is definitely the former.

What do you think?  Is God condemning people?  Or is our God gracious & merciful, patient & loving?

AUDIO: http://mysite.verizon.net/reso7rjy/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/2008-05-18.mp3   

 Readings:

 Isaiah  66, 10-14,  Rejoice with Jerusalem and be glad.

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

Galatians 6, 14-18,  You are all called for freedom.

Luke 10, 1-12, 17-20, The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few.

Brooklyn is back, but not awake yet.

Isaiah 11 observations & review: 

Author:  
Remember, 3 primary authors are responsible for the 66 chapters.  Isaiah 1
covers chapters 1-39.  This book is one of the Big 3 O.T. prophets, along
with Jeremiah and Ezekiel.  This is because the works are the
longest.  There are 12 minor prophets, authors who have small books.

Time: around 555 before Christ, a
compiling that is taking place with the end of the Babylonian Captivity in sight or
already done. 

Sienna, too.

Message
of Isaiah 66: The profile of the prophet was usually 1. criticism, 2.
prediction of dire payment, 3. consolation. 
This is the last chapter, so guess which of the 3 authors and subject.  Yes, the third.  And…

Today’s
message: consolation, joy, song.

Leo catching Rick.

The Laborers
are Few ?

This morning I want to focus on the line that the laborers are few.  I disagree. 
I see lots of laborers these days. 
Let me give you 3 examples.

Professor Jim Mahar.  You remember
him.  He spoke to us a year or so ago, he
and some students. 

Jim is a finance professor at St. Bonaventure near Buffalo, NY, a
Franciscan college.  A competitor with
the Jesuit college in the same area, Canisius. 

Jan and Sir Charlie coming to cause trouble.

You could imagine that Jim as a professor would be spending all his time
with his students, teaching, testing, grading, and advising.  In summers he might do research and spend
some time at his cottage in the Catskills or on the NJ shore. 

Nope, not Jim.  He does all the
professor with the kids, but his second passion is relief work.  I first met him when Bill Hammond & I
drove down to Galveston to work with him and about 30 volunteer students a few
years ago.   We spent a week cleaning, tearing
down, building, and living side by side in dorms with the Baptist Men (another
great group) and other volunteers.

Hue, our sound tech.

After Hurricane Sandy hit NYC, where was Jim and his bunch of student
volunteers?   Right where it was the
worst, like Breezy Point.   They even spent so much time there that they
established a base house.

Where again was Jim and his gang after the OK tornadoes in May?  I can tell you personally he and his gang
worked hard, even working through lunch and up until sundown.  We ate finally at Central Market about 9:30,
closing the place at 10:00. 

Harper at 2 knows what Cupcake of The Week means for her, along with John.

Jim is not just a laborer.  He
invites and facilitates other laborers, like me.

Then we have the lady I talked about last Sunday, the vivacious real
estate agent who had a good month of June. 
She out of nowhere gives us $1000 to be used in whatever way we see
fit. 

Emma ready for a fun Mass.

I wanted to go personally with that check to work with Habitat Granbury
this coming week, but they are not working over the July 4^th
period.  Maybe our Habitat group?

Mentioning our Habitat, I had a good friend ask about working.  I suggested he work yesterday at our
house.  At about 8:15 he calls me and
says, “Where is everybody.”  Apparently
we also took the week off.

Zoe and her buddy.

That $1000 check so touched me that I decided I was going to give $20 to
each of the guys who pick up our recycle every Monday morning.  I usually do this at Christmas.   I did
so this time in connection with July 4^th and was so touched.  The three guys could not tell me often
enough about how grateful they were.

One word about our community.  Can anyone imagine how we would make it without all the people who bring the sound, coffee, pastries, wine cups, take pictures, read, and sing, just to mention a few of the labors that take place?

Torri arrives with her big sister, Georgie.

Finally, I know another person whose name will remain unmentioned.  I’ll whisper so she cannot hear.   This
woman goes for an exploration meeting at Meals on Wheels.  There she runs into an old friend and
neighbor who has moved out of the neighborhood and is likewise interested. 
Now they are a team delivering Meals on Wheels every Thursday.  I think I sleep with this person.

So, you, know any laborers in the vineyard?  And you?

Bethany and Ray.

Readings: Habakkuk,1, 2-3 & 2, 2-4;Psalm 95; 2 Timothy 1, 6-14; Luke 17 5-10.

Habakkuk: the words of this prophet come from the end of the 7th century, B.C. at a time when the Babylonians were in power.  He was deeply disturbed by their violence and asked Yahweh why he was silent. Yahweh’s response was that he will rescue the people in his own time.  But meanwhile, the good will live on because they are faithful to Yahweh.

In our selection we have a bit of both: Habakkuk’s complaint & Yahweh’s response.  This connects with Luke’s gospel which touches on faith and the servant who simply is doing what he is supposed to do.

Faith? In What?

A short while ago Donna sent me a quiz on religion.  A handful of questions asks about what a person believes.  Like, do you believe, or not believe in God?  What do you think happens after you die?  And so on.

After you finish the quiz you are matched up with the religious group with which you have the closest fit.  My closest fit turned out to be Liberal Quaker.  Roman Catholic for me was in the twenties.  So why don’t I become a Quaker?  Because it does not feel like home, which Catholicism does.  I hope to work with the essentials of Catholicism.  Some say this is being a cafeteria Catholic.  I would prefer to call myself an a la carte Catholic.  The only intellectually healthy way.

I thought of all this because of Luke’s  comments about faith.  If I had faith I could uproot trees.  I would be happy to just get rid of the weeds in the lawn. Is this not exaggeration? Sadly some sects take it literally, as you know. Faith is the product of a process, often called faith formation.  And this is where it really gets tricky. Who determines what is taught to young people and members of a religious group? What I was taught as a child, wow. So much of it I don’t accept any more.

My Catholic education was anomalous.  I learned to critique literature, poetry, politics, government, psychology, but not religious instruction.  I memorized that. That religious instruction was supposed to be my faith. Doubts & questions were not encouraged. 

This leads me to make a distinction between religion and spirituality. I think both religion & spirituality produce my faith. My spirituality, likewise, is influenced by religious instruction. Some of these observations come from Vaillant’s Aging Well.

First, religion is usually exclusive, while spirituality is inclusive.  For example, If you don’t believe the pope is infallible, you are excluded from the membership.  If you don’t wear certain dress, you are expelled or criticized. 

Secondly, religion comes from outside, while spirituality comes from inside. True, my spirituality is not formed in a vacuum. It receives input from outside sources.  Spirituality, however, sifts and sorts before accepting it. 

Thirdly, religion is certain and proclaims creeds & dogma that have to be believed.  Spirituality searches. It involves feelings, experiences, and uncertainty.

My brother in law gave me a good book on how religions become corrupt and evil, eventually losing their original charism.  (When Religion Becomes Evil, Charles Kimball) Five characteristics:

• Absolute truth. For example, infallibility. 
• Absolute obedience. We Jesuits took vows of obedience.  Was God asking this? Or people? Like men who lived in Rome. We are all expected to be obedient to Rome.
• End justifies the means. Inquisition. Firing of theologians like Charles Curran over at SMU to eliminate alternative ideas in areas like birth control.
• Justification of the Holy War. Crusades, Jihad.
• The Special Time. Peace will come when all people believe the same religion and there will be one law, like Sheria or Evangelical Christian.

I would suggest that each person’s faith is unique and we are not homogeneous. If we are spiritually healthy.

What are the three things you have the strongest faith in?

RELIGION QUIZ: http://www.beliefnet.com/story/76/story_7665_1.html

AUDIO: http://mysite.verizon.net/reso7rjy/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/2007-10-07.mp3