Special Edition for Sunday, December 31, 2017, Holy Family

John reading from Micah

Music,   Ben & Shonda

Connie gets a cookie for her birthday

Expenses: $   1,275.00

Outreach: $    380.00

Thanks again, Folks, for doing what you can.

 

 

 

 

Rosemary's Blessing:

 

A Christmas Prayer

 

Loving Father, help us to remember the birth
of Jesus, that we may share in the song of the angels,
the gladness of the shepherds,
and the worship of the wise men.

Close the door of hate and
open the door of love all over the world.

Let kindness come with every gift and
good desires with every greeting.

Deliver us from evil by the blessing
which Christ brings, and teach us to
be merry with clear hearts.

May the Christmas morning make us happy
to be Thy children, and the Christmas evening
bring us to our beds with grateful thoughts,
forgiving and forgiven, for Jesus' sake.

Amen!

 Robert Louis Stevenson

 

 

Thanks to Cindy Cramer for noting an omission in yesterday's Reminder for Sunday.  Sorry about that.  

The Reminder: Brunch this Sunday celebrating our 9th Anniversary as a Community and the coming of The Nativity.  

Readings: Isaiah 40, 1-11; Psalm 104, O Bless the Lord, My Soul; Titus 2, 11-14, 3, 4-7; Luke 3, 1-22.

 

Baptism & Original Sin: traditional & contemporary theology

 

Traditional theology on baptism & original sin:

 

a.  Original sin: the 1 sin of Eve & Adam, the eating of an apple, ruptured the relationship between God & Humans.

 

b.  Why we baptized: purification & removal of that original sin inherited by all babies.  A new born baby was a sinner & would go to Limbo forever if not baptized before dying. 

   

 

Contemporary theology on baptism & original sin:

  

a.  Original sin:

 

1.  no original sin

  

2.  Genesis story of the fall is allegory, not fact.  No Garden of Eden and no Adam & Eve.

  

3.  from Darwin's Origin of the Species the idea has developed that in our human infancy, we needed certain behaviors to survive.  For instance, killing another person & stealing (like food).  As our ancestors formed communities, norms of social behavior emerged, for example, the 10 commandments. 

  

4.  St. Augustine, ca. 400: 

 

–A major, if not the major influence on Christian/Catholic theology of original sin and human nature from his time to today 

–After conversion from a rather lusty life at 32, he had a pessimistic view of human nature, different from early Christianity

–St. John Chrysostom, bishop of Constantinople (Istanbul), Pelagius, a British monk, & Julian of Eclanum, Italy, a bishop, all found nature good and fought against Augustine

–Augustine used all means to vanquish his opponents with their positive view that nature was good, even to sending a gift of horses to the pope to influence his decision.  Augustine won.

   

 

b.  Why we baptize today: (using the contemporary theology)

  

1.  To celebrate a new life

   

2.  To ritually & formally welcome the new person into a family, a community, and to a God famous for love and acceptance.

  

3.  To cleanse after the journey

 

Sources: Elaine Pagels, Adam, Eve, and the Serpent; John Shelby Spong; Wikipedia

 

 

We are Getting Better

 

I have one more Christmas story to celebrate this baptism today. 

 

There are three people in the story.  My good friend, her little daughter, and her niece, who is about 16 or 17.  The story took place at Collin Creek Mall one or two days just after Christmas.  Guess what they were doing.  Bringing things back. 

 

It happened that the niece had offered to take the daughter to the mall to have girl fun while her mother went to the mall to return various items.  After they had been there a while, the niece phoned to say that it was getting to be time for her to leave.  So could she return the daughter? 

 

They agreed that the easiest way to arrange the swap was for the niece to take the girl in her car, drive over to where my friend's car was, and then transfer the daughter & her car seat.  So they met in the parking lot, my friend's car in a parking place, the other car in the aisle behind the first car. 

 

Mother goes into the niece's car, unbuckles her daughter, and places the girl in her car.  Then she disconnects the car seat and reconnects it in her own car, securing her daughter in place.  Somewhere in this process she set her purse down.  Yep, you guessed it.

 

Who knows where she set it down.  Maybe by her niece's car, maybe by her own.  But apparently outside. 

 

She gets into her car and drives off.  Almost immediately she notices her purse is missing.  She calls her niece and asks her to look in her car.  No purse. 

 

So they both return to where the car was parked.  They drive around, ask people.  No sign of the purse.  The niece finally departs and mom  goes home.  She calls her mom, then she calls the mall security.  Nothing had been reported or brought in.  Security says to call the police.  The police do not know what to do.  Was it stolen?  Or was it forgotten? 

 

She thinks of her credit card, of getting a new license, she thinks of her phone.  So, using her mom's phone, she starts calling her phone hoping someone will answer   No one answers. 

 

 

Time passes.  A few hours later in the evening, her mom gets a phone call.  It is young boy, a high school aged kid.  He has the purse.  He says he and his dad found it in the parking lot and simply used the phone's incoming calls to call the number identified as "Mom."

 

The mom who got the purse back was Bobbi Jo Whitley, mother of Dillon, Hunter, and Audry.  Bobbi's mom is Jo Whitley, who read this morning.  The purse came back.  Nothing missing.

 

Are there not lots of good stories like this?  Are we not evolving into a better people?  Scott Burns said so in his column in the Dallas Morning News a couple of weeks ago.  A great Jesuit geologist and paleontologist, Teilhard de Chardin, thought so, saying that the human race is slowly becoming more mature, more sensitive, more peaceful.  I think so, too.  For lots of reasons.

 

What do you think?

 

Picture 1:  Mass begins with Kevin helping

 

Picture 2:  Daniel (Mr. A&M) & Beth

 

Picture 3:  Bob & Jerry with 2 new knees

 

Picture 4:  Georgie

 

 

Rosemary's Blessing Video:

 

 

 

 

 

 Readings:

Deuternomy 26, 4-10,  He brought us out of Egypt.

Psalm 91,  Be with me, Lord, when I am in trouble.

Romans 10, 8-13, The same Lord is Lord of all.

Luke 4, 1-13, Jesus was led into the desert for 40 days.

 Deuteronomy 

The scene: The Israelites have escaped from Egypt and have been wandering in the desert for years.  They are just about to enter The Land.  They are assembled.  Moses is addressing them and reminding them of all Yahweh has done for them over the years of wandering.   

In our chapter he is telling them that when they have settled in their new land, where he will not accompany them, they must take a basket full of a portion of their first harvest, present it to the rabbi, and offer it as a sacrifice of thanksgiving.   

Who & When: Though about Moses, Deuteronomy is a compilation of numerous sources.  Guess when: post Babylonian Captivity, say 555.  Easy to remember.

Romans

Paul writes to the Romans that all people, Gentiles as well as Jews, are invited to be part of the Christ event.

  Beware of Great Expectations: observations on a new pope

I must confess that Monday morning when I first heard of Benedict’s retirement, I was excited.  “We might get a new man who is progressive and less authoritarian,” I thought.  With a little reflection I have two observations I would like to share with you from my perspective and experience.  Both fall under the Beware of Great Expectations heading.

1. Beware of expecting a progressive pope.  The college of cardinals has been carefully screened to include only very conservative, corporate, follow the leader type men.  They will likely vote their kindred.
2. Beware of the idea that a 3^rd world man would be great.  Two Africans are mentioned, one I know, Cardinal Arinze from Nigeria.  I attended his "coronation" in ’76 or ’77. 

One observation about him and many Africans is that in being converted they really bought into traditional Catholicism.  I knew a Tanzanian bishop who prohibited drums at liturgies because he thought they were pagan. 

Moreover, the custom of the African tribe demands that a big man make a big impression, not the idea of being a servant or last.

 

Leo ready to dance. Check the video.

Have a Happy Lent?

Looking forward to Lent this year?  I confess that I was not.  Maybe it has come too quickly after Christmas this year.  However, I know I mildly dreaded it until.  Until we had our Ash Wednesday Mass at Marlene’s house.  Something happened there, some grace of being at home.  I felt peaceful about it all.

So what are we going to do about this Lent?  Three observations.

1.  As a community you all will be invited on several occasions.  We will have a food drive next Sunday and a general pick up by Soul’s Harbor’s truck another Sunday.  One Sunday we will have one of our penitential rites, probably the Sunday just before Palm Sunday. 

        2.    I am going to invite you most Sundays to have a happy Lent.  It is Spring Training time.  Instead of focusing on the negativity  and the bad, focus on getting back in shape, from taking a daily walk to riding your bike around The Lake, White Rock.  Pass out compliments, like I mentioned last week.

          3.  I am also going to kick off a special project.  For years before I moved out of Jesuit I had a men’s group in the evening maybe two Tuesday a month.  It was both fun and profound.  I did not have furniture enough for all who came.  So I would take all the furniture out and I lay cushions all along the walls of the small office I had.  Everybody sat on the floor. 

I want to start a new group, a lunch group.  All you guys here are invited.  Tentatively, it will be Fridays, 1:00, Jason’s Deli here at Collin Creek Mall on Central.  It won’t be every week usually, mostly when I can come.  I’ll send out a note to everyone.  2 guys, 20 guys, who knows? 

  

Why am I doing this now?  Good Lenten Penance!  Lenten penance with Stack.  Get you to heaven quicker.  Actually, it is because I miss you guys.  I may see everybody Sundays, but I don’t get to find out how it is going.  It will be great fun.

You women can rejoice that the old guy is out of the house for a while each week.   

So, what are you going to do to have a happy Lent?

 

 

Readings:

Sirach 3, 17-18, 28-29,   Conduct your affairs with humility.

Psalm 68,  God, in your goodness, you have made a home for the poor.

Hebrews 12, 18-19, 22-24,  You have approached Mount Zion.

Luke 14, 1, 7-14, Invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind.

 

 

Sirach observations

Author :  The author is
Sirach or Joshua, a Jewish scribe.  The
book of 51 chapters is one of the “in between books,”  more or less 12 of them.  In other words, their genuiness is
questioned.  The Catholic Church accepts
them; the Protestants don’t. 

Date: 
about 200 years before Christ. 

Subject:   Ethics, norms for good Jewish living.  For example, “Do not compliment a person on
his good looks,” (11, 2), or “Never abandon an old friend; you will never find
a new one who can take his place,” (9, 10), or “Friendship is like wine, it
gets better as it gets older,” (9, 10), or Don’t prevent the poor from making a
living, or keep them waiting in their need,” (4,1).

Today’s subject:  Humility.

Sources: Good News Bible

 

 

Invite the
poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind.

I would like to speak on the line about inviting the poor and crippled rather
than my friends and wealthy neighbors. 
To give meaning to the idea, and in remembrance of 9/11, I would like to tell a true story about a
Delta flight. 

Some of you may have seen the story Friday in the blog.  It is quite touching.  For those who did not read the story, let me
fill you in.  It has a lot to say about inviting people and 9/11.

The day is 9/11.  Delta 15 is
about 5 hours out of Frankfurt, Germany on its homebound run to Atlanta.  A flight attendant is telling the story. 

 The plane is over the north Atlantic when the pilots tell her to come
straight to the flight deck.  She enters
and notices the team is all business. 
They tell her that they have been informed that all U.S. airports are
closed to commercial traffic.  Land as
quickly as possible wherever possible.

They turn back 400 miles and land at Gander, New Foundland.  About 20 other planes are already on the
ground.  Time is around 11:00 A.M.

They did not inform the passengers about the real reason for the odd landing
while in the air.  On the ground they
give them the real reason, though they only knew that some planes had been
hijacked. In an hour 53 planes are packed on the runway, 10 thousand people in
a town of 10 thousand.

 

They are treated well, but have to spend the night on the plane and are finally informed they may deplane at
11:00.  Promptly at
11:00 a convoy of school buses arrives and everyone exits and is passed through
immigration. 

At this point the crew gets taken to a hotel in Gander and the
passengers disappear.  That evening they
discover the reality.  They remain in
Gander two days.

At the end of the two days, everyone is reunited and they board Delta
15.  It turns out the passengers are actually
in a really congenial mood, calling each other by first names, sharing their
experiences, exchanging phone numbers, and even crying over the hospitality.

What happen?  All of Gander and
the neighboring villages welcomed them with open arms.  They cleared space, housing, school buildings, auditoriums,
everything.  Schools were closed and the
students were told to play host.  Food
was provided, hiking trips took place, boat trips, visits to cafes and
bakeries. 

The passengers had been put up by the inhabitants of a little village
called Lewisporte. 

 

Once airborne again, a passenger approached this flight attendant and
asked if he might use the mike.  Normally
prohibited, but because of the spirit and the uniqueness of the experience she
said, “Of course.” 

The man, a doctor from Virginia, says to everybody that because of the
extraordinary hospitality of the people he would like to propose that a college
fund for the students be set up.  He
would be willing to establish it and he said he would match the amount.  After passing the hat, $14,000 was collected,
which he matched.

As of today a million and a half has been raised and over 100 kids have
received help with college.

What do you think?  Hospitality?   Yes, over the
top. 

 

Gratitude?  Yes, over the top.

Rare?   No.  I
saw it this summer in Des Moines, Iowa. 
I saw it a week ago in Wichita Falls. 

You, where do you see hospitality and gratitude?  When do you show it?

 

Source: 
Download Delta 15 & 9-11, 8-30-13

 

 

 

Special Announcement for John Stack Ministries:

This Sunday, 1/26, there will be a birthday brunch after Mass.  We  have 7-9 birthdays to celebrate and some ole geezer says it is numero 80 for him. 

Welcome, Everybody.  Pot Luck.