Readings:

Isaiah  66, 18-21,  I know their works and their thoughts.  (This is the last chapter of the book of Isaiah.)

Psalm 117,  Go out to all the world and tell the Good News.

Hebrews 12, 5-7, 11-13,    He scourges every son he acknowledges.

Luke 13, 22-30,  Strive to enter through the narrow gate.

 

Leo and Genevieve say, "Welcome in, Everybody."

 

Isaiah 66 observations:

Author: Isaiah III.  The book of Isaiah is one of my favorites.  Some beautiful passages.  Remember, 3 primary authors are responsible for the 66 chapters, and we are reading the very last.  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.

Time: ca. 700, before the Assyrians annihilate the northern Jewish kingdom, called Israel, vs the southern kingdom called Judah, where Jerusalem is.  10 tribes were lost in this destruction, the 10 Lost Tribes of Israel. 

 

 

 

Leo and his buddy, John, also say, "Come on in, Folks." 

 

 

Remember, there were 12 tribes.  Why?  Because of the 12 sons of Jacob, who was one of the 3 great patriarchs or founders of the tribe, Abraham, Isaac, & Jacob, who was also called Israel. 

 Message of Isaiah III: Mostly consolation after the catastrophe.   What is the basic activity of a prophet?  1.  criticism, 2. prediction of dire payment, 3. consolation.

Today’s message: this being the last chapter of the whole work, you might guess.  Yes, consolation and future unity.

 

 

Buddy, our Candle Lighter of The Week, at work.


 

 

Psalm  117:  The best line in the whole bunch of readings.  Go out to all the world and tell the Good News.

Hebrews observation:

 The best thing about today's selection: we have to read Hebrews only one more week.  Awful reading today.

 

 

Genevieve says, "Like my new dance step?" 

 

 

It is all Good News

You will never guess where I was this past Friday morning at 6:00.  Yep, you know me too well.   I was beginning spin class at the Jewish Community Center.  I have a special story about something that happened at that class.

Normally we have 10 to 16 or so people for the classes.  But Friday morning we had only about 7-8.  Plus we had a substitute teacher or directress of the orchestra, a lady named Alesia, whose style I like, a bit more laid back.

 

 

Becky and Tom, good friends. 

 

 

So, just as Alesia was instructing us to get started, I stepped away from my bike and made a sign to her that I would like to talk.  So she gave me the welcome sign. 

I stepped forward, turned a bit to include the class, and said that a very special person was celebrating her birthday that day, Haya.   I went over to her and gave her a gift of a little package of cookies called BelVita. 

 

 

Harper says, "Hi, Everybody." 

 

 

Haya is an older woman, which makes her special to me.  She is about 5‘1”, is a little hunchbacked, has a vertical scar on the back of her right shoulder, is very quiet and shy, speaks English with a foreign accent, and drives a gold Prius (as I say frequently, “Anybody who drives a gold Prius has got to be special). 

We finish the class, sing Happy Birthday, start drying off, stretching, and preparing to leave.  I feel a tap on my back.  Haya.  She thanks me for remembering her.  Then she says, “This is the happiest day of my life.”

 

 

Grace and Richard, more good friends. 

 

 

 I cannot believe what I just heard.  I am so touched.  On the one hand, I am touched that such a small gesture can mean so much to her.  On the other, does this say something about her life?  Could she be a victim of the Holocaust?  I discover that we are the same age, 76.  What has she seen in life that I have never seen? 

Why talk about her this morning?  Two reasons.   Because she is Good News.  The Psalm says, “Go out and tell the Good News.”  People are Good News.   I want to know her story.

 

 

 

The Best Music, Shonda, Bethany (guess who is expecting?), and Ray.

 

 

Secondly, I want also to contextualize the negativity of Hebrews and Luke. 

There was a strong belief in these times that God was definitely a conditional love God.  Why did the Babylonian Captivity take place?  The Israelites were bad.  Jeremiah says it, the Isaiahs say it.   And so it was written.  In fact, God scourges those who are his special people.

 

 

 

Offertory with Mike & Judy, and Mary.

 

Pretty much this opinion of God has been discarded.  But, remember Katrina?  Happened because New Orleans was bad.  So would you believe that God this past spring was punishing Garland, Blue Mound, and other Dallas suburbs when the hail and rain wrecked people’s houses?  Is sickness a penance for a sinful, bad life?

Me?  I believe and propose that people are The Good News, that you are The Good News.

 

 

 

Play station Number 1. 

 

 

And you?   A God who scourges and demands penance or a God who proclaims that people are The Good News?

 

Readings:

Exodus 17, 3-7,  Moses: “What shall I do with this people?”

 Psalm 95,  If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.

 Romans 5,  1-2, 5- 8,   The love of God has been poured out into our hearts.

 John 4, 5-42,    The Samaritan Woman at the well.

 

 

Say Brandon and Mary, his mom, "Welcome in, Everybody."

 

Exodus observations :

What: After two weeks in the first book of the Bible, today we move to the second. The book basically tells the heroic struggle of Moses to get the Hebrew people out of Egypt, where they had gone because of the drought in their land some decades or centuries before. 

Author: The book is about Moses, but he is not the author, as was thought for centuries. Instead, it is a compilation. 

 

 

 

My Dearest Genevieve, are you playing for us this morning?

 

When:  Take a guess.  Yes, during and after the Babylonian Captivity, 555 before Christ.  Why now?  To help the Jewish tribe stay together.  Biblical commentators will say this is the most important book in the Bible.  Why?  Cultural history gives identity, especially one that goes from tragedy to triumph.  Plus, the writers, the priests-Levites, emphasized that God considered this tribe to be The Tribe.

Today’ selection: an amusing story about how the Jewish people are bummed out with Moses for taking them out of the so called cushy slave life of Egypt into a desert with no water and no food.  

Recommendation for Lent: Read Genesis and Exodus.  Interesting stories.

 

 

The best Music, Shonda & Ray.  Anybody know why Bethany is not with us this morning?  Yep, she finally had her baby!
 

 

Life Giving Water

This morning I would like to mention 3 comments about John’s gospel that contemporary Bible scholars make.  Then, proceeding from the general observations, I would like to look at today’s gospel and especially the play on water.  Is it symbolic maybe?  Of what?

 

 

Hi, Kevin, thanks for all your help.

 

Observation 1: 3 writers can be identified as contributing to the gospel of John.  The 3 authors worked over a period of 25 to 30 years, up to around 90.

 Secondly, the figures in the stories are literary creations, perhaps built around certain people.                                                                                                         

Thirdly, the words that Jesus uses are not just recordings, but words composed by the writers to convey a message or a symbol, like water. 

 

 

Hi, Georgie, thanks, also, to you for all your help.

 

Which leads to our selection from John this morning, the Samaritan woman at the well. 

She is talking about ordinary well water.  Jesus is talking about symbolic water, living water that gives life to the spirit.  

I would propose this life giving water takes all sorts of forms.  For example.

 

 

And thanks to you, Buddy.  It is so nice to have you with us.

 

Remember the first time we had our penitential rite?  When Mike proposed the idea at a team luncheon I confess I was a bit skeptical.  I was thinking, ‘Nobody is going to want to do this.  More focus on sin.’  This is why I don’t like Lent, the endless focus on sin.  What does the ordinary Mass always begin with?  Focus on me a sinner. 

 Was I pleasantly surprised!  In fact, that penitential rite was pure water to my spirit.  I was humbled and touched. 

 

 

Let us begin.

 

So, events can be life giving water, people can be life giving water.  Put them together and my spirit is moved. 

Last week in Hilton Head we had Rosemary’s two sisters and husbands.  We celebrated a little Sunday Mass in the living room.  I was moved to tears.  I could hardly talk. 

 

 

Brandon, our Candle Lighter of The Week.

 

Another event: our own Mass right here at Sigler.  You people are living water for me.

What event brings living water to you?

Who brings living water to you?

And You?

Sources:  Raymond Brown and John Shelby Spong

 

 Our Candle Lighter at work, three whites and one purple.

Readings: Isaiah 8, 23-9, 3; Psalm 27, The Lord is my Light and my Salvation; 1 Corinthians 1, 10-13; Matthew 4, 12-23

 Intro to Readings

 The gospel reading today should sound familiar when you hear it, as it is mostly a repeat of our first reading from Isaiah.  In today’s reading Jesus has just heard that John the Baptist has been jailed by Herod and so he decides to head over to Capernaum. 

 

The reading describes Capernaum as being in the region of Zebulum and Naphtali.  These places were named after two of the sons of Jacob, he of the ‘twelve tribes’ fame.  Galilee is a very familiar name to us as Jesus spent a whole lot of time there.  This area was the area invaded by the Assyrians in the eight century BC and all of the wealthy and educated people where carried away as slaves.  What was left were the peasants, and so we have this reference to the land left in darkness!

 

Nazareth was to the southern end of Galilee.  Galilee itself was a rather small and insignificant place compared with Jerusalem in Judea.  Capernaum was a fishing village on the shores of the Sea of Galilee.  It was also close to the Via Maris, which you will hear referred to in the first reading as the seaward road.

 Because of this earlier exile, there was a much greater mix of gentiles in this area.  There was a certain amount of tension between the Jews who lived in Galilee and those in Jerusalem.  They were not considered quite as ‘pure’ due to their constant contact with the gentiles.

  

The really important part of the gospel reading is the last line, where we are given Jesus’ message “repent, the kingdom of heaven is at hand”.

 Our second reading from Paul’s Letter to the Corinthians shows what can so easily happen to any small community of believers.  The community is breaking into factions and forgetting its purpose.  

 

The Homily: instead of a formal homily today we have a baptism.  Catch the video:

  

 Picture 1:    Mass Begins  

Picture 2:    Special Welcome to Sienna, Brian, Payton, & Erin 

Picture 3:    The Baptism Party, Brian, Susanne, Payton, Erin, & Sienna

Picture 4:    The Baptism

   

 

Readings:

Numbers  11, 25-29, Would that all the people of the Lord were prophets.

 Psalm 19,    The precepts of the Lord give joy to the heart.

James 5, 1-6, Come now, You Rich, weep and wail over your impending miseries.  

Mark 9, 38-48, If your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out.

 

 

                                  Says Harper, "Hi Folks, Welcome in."

 

Numbers:  observation 

In this reading, from the Torah, the Book of Moses, we are given a wonderful example of the expectation of the OT for the coming of the Messiah. It will be fulfilled by Christ, upon whom the Spirit rests, when he and his Father bestow the gift of the Spirit upon all who welcome, live, and proclaim the good news.

 

Genevieve, too, says, "Good Morning, Everybody, Welcome in."

 

Homily by Mike

In our gospel reading, John and other of the disciples had been building a barrier between themselves and the flock without realizing it, for they assumed that the Spirit was only going to rest upon them to bring forgiveness to others.  Jesus corrects them. 

All have a responsibility to sow the seed of the good news by word and example. Jesus continually taught those who were following him not to form barriers that would keep them from being one body.

 

                     Cole, The Candle Man of the Week, at work.

 

 

Recall Paul’s letter to the Galatian church, ‘There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female for all are one in Christ Jesus.  Recall that in Advent and Lent we, each of us, live out our gift and responsibility to bring forgiveness to one another; for we are the body of Christ.

The Jewish dietary laws were a barrier between Jew and gentile. It kept them from eating together. So Jesus said to the Jews, ‘Its not what goes into the mouth that defiles; it’s what comes out of the mouth that defiles. In so doing he made all food clean.  When does he tear down this barrier in the Gospel?  Right before he invites both Jew and gentile to eat together at the table of the Lord.

 

 

 

Say the twins, Buddy & Victoria, "Happiness is a cupcake on my birthday, yippee."

 

All the early followers of Christ were Jews, and they did not even talk to Samaritans.  Early in the John gospel Jesus’ disciples go into town for food and leave him at a well in Samaria. There is a barrier between Jews and Samaritans.  They didn’t talk to one another. 

When the disciples return, they see him sharing his good news to a Samaritan woman.   Jesus lives the truth that God has no favorites. Jesus simply says to his disciples that they must be about sowing the seed of his word and reaping where he has already sown.  Immediately the Samaritan woman begins to give witness in the town that Jesus is a prophet.  And, maybe, he is the Messiah. 

 

Cupcakes of the Week to Cole and Brent for special services.

 

Recall the tax collector who climbs the tree in his interest to see Jesus come into Jericho. Jesus looks up and invites Zacchaeus to come down so that he can eat at his house that day.  The seed sown during lunch brought another into the flock.

Jesus’ disciples were Jews who saw the Romans as beasts.  There are several stories in the Gospel about Jesus befriending a Roman Centurion.  In each of them, Jesus tore down the barriers between them by sowing kindness, and goodness and forgiveness.  

 

 

                                   Georgie helping out.

 

Recall the story about the man who had committed serious sin in the Mark gospel.  So much so, that the Jews would not forgive him, rather they expel him from their community.  He comes to Jesus saying, ‘If you want to, you can make me clean.’ Jesus took his hand and replied, ‘Of course I want to, be made clean.”  He again tears down barriers; and he expects us to do the same. 

 

                                 
The Team at the elevation.

                                                                                                                

Whenever we isolate ourselves from others, we deny them the opportunity to become one with us.  Take the opportunity this week to welcome or become closer to your neighbors this week, especially the newer ones.  They were meant to be your brothers and sisters.

 

     Says Genevieve, "May I have that mike, I would like to talk."

 

  

Readings: 

2 Maccabees 7, 1-2, 9-14, 7 brothers with their mother were arrested.

Psalm 17,  Lord, when your glory appears, my joy will be full

2 Thessalonians 2, 16-3, 5,  The Lord is faithful.

Luke  20, 27-38, There were 7 brothers.

 

 

2 Maccabees Observatons :

What :  another reading  from one of those unique dozen extra books.  A history of the Maccabee family.   This is the only time in the 3 year cycle
this book is used.  Perhaps it is only
used to support in some way Luke’s gospel about the wife of the 7
brothers. 

Date :  around 200 before Christ.

Subject: In order to
emphasize how God appreciates faithfulness, the author describes in vivid
detail the torture and murder of 7 brothers who refused to eat pork.  I wanted to read the whole story, but it is
too brutal for public reading.  Check it
out for yourselves.  

 

 

 What to Die for

I want to talk this
morning about an event that took place 24 years ago, November 16, 1989.  This Friday is the date.  I was back in the States about 2 years at
this time. 

The event I’m talking
about happened in the early morning of November 16, on a Jesuit university
campus, called Universidad Centroamericana, UCA for short.  This is a Jesuit university just like many others
you know of, U. of San Francisco, St. Louis U. Fordham, Georgetown, Marquette,
and the Loyolas.  This university is in
San Salvador, El Salvador. 

There were 6 Jesuits
home that night, plus a housekeeper and her daughter in a rear apartment.  All was quiet.

Suddenly about 12:00
there was a great commotion at the door of the residence, lots of yelling and
banging.  The, Jesuits, thinking the door
was going to be bashed in,   opened the door and in burst about 40 soldiers
in camouflage and heavily armed. 

Continuing to yell,
the soldiers went room to room, busting down doors, smashing windows, storming
around, and ultimately dragging the 6 Jesuits out into their interior
patio.  Even the housekeep and her daughter
were dragged into the patio.   Can you
imagine the fear?

 

For an hour the
storming around and the noise continued. 
Then, a bit after 1:00, witnesses outside said shots began.  Each of the 6 Jesuits and the two women had
to lie on the ground on their stomachs. 
One by one they were shot in the back of the head and left.

9
years before this, on March 24, 1980, a similar event had happened in the same
country, El Salvador.  Archbishop Oscar Romero was shot by a single
assassin in the middle of his Mass in a chapel at a hospital in San Salvador.

 

The
same year three American nuns and a lay woman volunteer were all killed on
their way to the airport one evening.

I talk about this this
morning because, first, it still moves me and the anniversary is coming this
Friday.   Secondly, I talk about it
in reference to the 7 brothers who died rather than eat pork. 

 

Question:
what would you die for? 

Two
observations.

 

First,
what these Jesuits died for is something really worth dying for.  I can imagine all of us doing this, dying for
people dear to us.  The people dear to the
Jesuits were the poor of El Salvador, especially those abused by the military
dictatorship. 

Secondly,
while the 7 brothers showed heroic courage along with their mother, that they
were going through this because they thought God told them they should not eat
pork is just sad.  The don’t eat pork law
did not come from God, but from Jewish elders and priests. 

At
the time it may have been a health instruction. 
But religious people set this instruction up, not God.   Watch
out.  Religious leaders lay lots of loads
on people and say that God demands this. 
 Remember the prohibition to eat
meat on Friday?  You could go to hell for
this.

I
would propose that we all die, that is, give our life for something or
someone.   Teachers give their lives for
their students.  That is what the Jesuits
did.  Parents give their lives for their
kids.  Coaches, like my friend Frank,
give their lives for their kids. 

 

For
whom or what do you give your life?

 

 

 

Readings: Ecclesiastes 1,2; 2, 21-23; Psalm 90; Colossians, 3, 1-11; Luke 12, 13-21

Eccllesiastes: this book contains the thoughts of the "philosopher," a man who reflected on how short and contradictory human life it.  He could not understand the ways of God.  Nevertheless, he advised people to work hard and to enjoy the gift of life as much and as long as they could.  In our selection you will see how he is pessimistic & depressing. 

I’ve chosen to expand the reading to give you a better view of his style.

The Gift: Celebrate it and Share it

Last Saturday evening our group of seven set up a campsite above the shore of the second of a group of three High Sierra lakes ten thousand feet high. The lakes are called the Rae Lakes.The next morning we planned to climb 12,000′ Glen Pass, which was standing straight up in front of us. The Rae Lakes are exactly at the line where trees cease to grow very well, so we were camping on somewhat open granite & shallow soil. 

Our menu that night was beef stroganoff and because we always had more than we needed, we invited three women at the neighboring campsite, a mother & daughter and another young woman.  The two younger women turned out to be teachers in the San Francisco area, teaching mostly underprivileged & handicapped children.  The girl traveling by herself had once even brought a group of 7th graders out to the wilderness. The three were eventually planning to climb Mt. Whitley and then exit. 

The next day Rose spent a lot of time climbing & talking with the girl who was hiking alone.  As a result, the two became good friends and discovered that they shared a number of the same dreams, to teach kids and to teach about nature.  The girl even recommended a neat little Italian restaraunt in Fresno, our town of arrival & departure. 

Our readings today all seem to indicate that life is futile and useless.  Why do anything?  Just eat dirt. 

Two observations on this.

First, life does not have to be looked at as useless.  It can be seen as a gift.

Secondly, the gift can be celebrated and shared with others. 

Let me work backwards.  I was impressed with those women because they were into sharing the gift.  The two young girls were teaching.  The mother came into the wilderness to share the gift with her daughter, even though the mother did not look like the backpacking type. 

We also saw numerous scout troops during our nine days.  Once we ran into a group of fourteen, about four adults and ten boys & girls about 15 or 16.  When we asked them who they were they said they were a camp.  We think they were taking a group of troubled teens on a wilderness trek.  This is sharing the gift. 

Before I share it, however, I think I got to celebrate the gift.  Which is exactly what we were doing in the High Sierras, and do every year.  Which is what we do here on Sundays.  We celebrate the gift of life. 

How do you celebrate the gift and share it?

AUDIO: http://mysite.verizon.net/reso7rjy/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/2007-08-05.mp3