Sunday Homily, February 28, 2016, 3rd Lent
Readings:
Exodus 3, 1-8, 13-15 Yahweh calls Moses from the burning bush.
Psalm 103, The Lord is kind and merciful. (Excellent last stanza, The Lord is gracious and merciful, never gets angry and is abounding in love.)
1 Corinthians 10, 1-6, 10-12, Do not grumble as some of them did.
Luke 13, 1-9, The parable of the fig tree with no figs.
Says Harper, Welcome in, Everybody.
Exodus observations:
What: this is the second book of the Bible and Torah, following Genesis, which we had last week with Abraham receiving the special land. Exodus is a story about how the Jewish tribe of people escaped from slavery in Egypt. A good read.
Who: the story is about the Jewish people and their reluctant leader, Moses. It was put together, not by Moses, as was thought for centuries, but by a group of the priests even centuries later.
Hey, who is that new helper? Why, that is Buddy, next to his big sister.
When: it is put together at The Time in Jewish history, yes, during the Babylonian Captivity, say 555 years before Christ. It is a mostly mythological story about how God helped his special people out of slavery eons before Babylon. Do you see a parallel between the slavery of Egypt and Babylon? Could this be a reason for developing the Egypt story, that is, to encourage the people enslaved in Babylon?
Our selection: like the call stories of Isaiah and Jeremiah, here is another call story, this time Moses.
Ugh, oh, Folks, watch out. Guess who is walking!
The Lord is gracious and merciful, never gets angry and is abounding in love.
This morning I would like to pick up two themes from the readings and tie them up with our lives. The themes are from Exodus and Psalm 103, the Moses story of call and the description of God as being gracious and merciful, never getting angry and abounding in love, using a translation I love.
Two observations about the call. First, it usually involves discomfort for me because I am getting called out of my comfort zone. Secondly, in accepting the call I feel peace and joy, like I talked about last week. In fact, I meet that God who is gracious and merciful, never gets angry and is abounding in love.
Daddy, May I play with that guitar.
I have told you over the years that I can identify 3 big calls in my life, entering the Jesuits, going to work in East Africa, and getting married to Rosemary. I’m now adding a fourth, the invitation to be part of our marvelous community.
Besides these mega calls I would propose that we get medium level calls frequently in our lives. These come to me because of events or circumstances. Often they come to me because of a person, maybe in combination with events.
Some of the Bona Responds volunteers in Dallas to donate a week of their spring break to clean up work in Garland. They are students at St. Bonaventure U., near Buffalo, a Franciscan university.
For example, there is a person like that here with us this morning, Jim Mahar, from the staff at St. Bonaventure U. near Buffalo, NY. I would include with Jim one of our own, Bill Hammond.
I first got one of these Mahar-Hammond calls after the hurricane in Galveston. Guess where I went for a week. Yes, Galveston, where we all worked like crazy cleaning trash out of roads, tearing destroyed houses apart, and spending nights in a church dormitory for about 20 Baptist Men (a great group), one of whom snored quite loudly. We had a group of students, boys and girls, probably 10 to 15. I spent a beautiful and moving week.
Artist at work, Zoe.
Next I get the call to go to OK City after the last big tornado. Our group of about 10 spent a week cleaning up a forgotten small town called Little Ax. The majority of dwellings had been mobile homes. They were gone, or, at least, torn and twisted apart. It was beautiful spring weather while we were there and dreadful destruction. The people were all gone.
One special event for me took place in Little Ax. We worked with and spent the nights with two unique groups of kids. One was an international Jewish disaster group and the other was a Muslim international disaster group. I talked with the kids in these groups and was quite touched. The Jewish kids had literally flown in from Israel to help in Oklahoma.
Our newest altar server understudy, Buddy, helping his big sister.
Talk about God being gracious and merciful, never getting angry and abounding in love. Despite the destruction.
Guess what is the call this week from Mahar & Hammond.
Guess who has their eyes intently focused on their brother, Buddy. Victoria and Zoe.
