Readings:  

Acts 4, 8-12, In his name this man stands before you healed;

Psalm 118, The stone rejected by the builders has become the corner stone;

1 John 3, 1-2, See what love the Father has bestowed on us;

John 10, 11-18, I am the good shepherd.

Ryan lighting the Easter Candle

 Acts:  A review–

Date: ca. 70-100 A.D.

Author: Luke, who wrote both the Gospel and Acts

Setting:  Just like the last 2 Sundays, Peter & John have just healed a lame man outside of the temple gate.  The people rush to question them.  They say it happened because of God's power and that Jesus was raised from the dead.  The high priests hear about this and have them arrested.  After telling them to stop saying Jesus was raised from the dead, the two are released.

Our Selection: last week we read Peter's discourse to the local believers in a room.  The week before we read about the quality of life of the local believers, communal.  Today's account is Peter talking to the high priests and elders of the high court.  They are on trial.

Leo with John

John:

Date of Gospel: A.D. 85-95

Author: scholars have doubts that the Apostle John is the writer of the 3 works attributed to John, the Gospel, 3 letters, & Revelation.  Doubts exist even that one writer composed all the works.

CC with her sister & grandmother

Who is my Shepherd?

This morning I want to talk with you about being a shepherd.  In some ways this is easy to talk about.  I have numerous shepherds who guided me through life.  On the other hand, who was most significant, whom do I leave out?  I have four little vignettes. 

First, Charles Colson.   I do not know this man personally.  He died at 80 a week ago Saturday.  I read about him in an editorial in the Dallas Morning News, Tuesday, April 24. 

CC's sister Kayla

Colson had two lives.  His fame comes from his first life.  He was Nixon’s top political consultant and he was convicted and sent to prison for his role in the Watergate scandal, around ’72-’74, the year Nixon resigned.  In this life he was a win at all cost political advisor.  He once said that he would walk over his grandmother to get Nixon elected. 

It was in his second life of 35 years that Colson became a shepherd.  After his conviction he apparently experienced a conversion.  He went to prison, spent almost a year there, became attached to his fellow prisoners, and never left them.   

Bethany & Ray

In ’76 he founded Prison Fellowship.  The Fellowship set up in prison job training, provided support for prisoners & their families, helped rehabilitate prisoners coming out, and tried to change laws that treated violent & non-violent offenders with the same severity. 

Every Easter Colson spent with inmates in prison, which he called the darkest place in American life.  Colson became a shepherd for prisoners & their families.

Anniversary Party Scene

Which leads me to my second shepherd.  You know him.  My friend & companion since grade school at Christ the King, Eddie.  He has talked here twice about AA.  A week ago Friday evening we were having our usual get together, the 5 of us guys from high school, plus wives.

Eddie mentioned in passing that for 19 years every Wednesday evening he has run an AA program for prisoners in one of the downtown jails.  With fondness he talked about how good & intelligent these men were.

The Pole Barn or Party Barn

Which leads to my third shepherd.  Tomorrow morning I have been invited to Jesuit to help host a fellow classmate from our ’58 graduating class, Charlie Edmond.  Charlie was the first black student to enter a white high school in Dallas.  The year, 1955, the year after the Supreme Court decision.  In my sophomore class Charlie sat in the seat right in front of me. 

The shepherds were the Jesuits. 

Finally, I cannot close without mentioning the parents I had the privilege to meet at the Love for Kids picnic the last Saturday of March.  The care & tenderness showed by these parents to their handicapped children humbled me and touched me to tears. 

Two individuals, some teachers, and some parents, all different types of good shepherds.

Joan & Jerry, Our Trophy Couple at 55 Years

Who were, who are the Shepherds in your life?

For whom are you a shepherd?

Source: Dallas Morning News, April 24, 2012

Video: Jan & Sir Charles renew vows at 50 years. (1 min.)

Rosemary's Blessing:

O God, we thank you for the fact that you have inspired men and women in all nations and in all cultures. We call you different names: some call you Allah; some call you Elohim; some call you Jehovah; some call you Brahma; some call you the Unmoved Mover. But we know that these are all names for one and the same God. Grant that we will follow you and become so committed to your way and your kingdom that we will be able to establish in our lives and in this world a brother and sisterhood, that we will be able to establish here a kingdom of understanding, where men and women will live together as brothers and sisters and respect the dignity and worth of every human being. In the name and spirit of Jesus. Amen.

Taken from The prayers of Martin Luther King Jr.  by John Dear appearing in the National Catholic Reporter, January 15, 2013

The Production Team.

Thanks to the Team

Music, Shonda & Ben

Readers, Rose & Patricia,  & Buddy, the candle blessing

Eucharistic Prayer & Gospel, John Cade

The Magic Zoom makers, Mike & Ben & Becky & Richard & Tom

Final Blessing, Rosemary

Almost time, 9:30

Readings:

Exodus, 34, 4-6, 8-9, The Lord, gracious and merciful, rich in kindness & fidelity. 

Daniel (Psalm) 3, Glory & Praise forever.

2 Corinthians  13, 11-13, The Grace of the Lord Jesus and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you.

John 3, 16-18,  God so loved the world…

On air.

Please Remember these special people:

For Jim Esparza, the son of Frank & Mary, who just passed Saturday with sepsis;   For all the medical personnel struggling to treat the tsunami of sick people, in particular, locally, Cindy's staff at Presby, Dallas and at Frisco Presby, the mother of Harper and Betsy, Kendle, working in labor & delivery;   For Jim Esparza, the son of Frank & Mary;   For Joe Hogan with cancer;  For Loretta's aunt Alicia;   For Ryan, Rosemary's nephew, who had surgery; For Bill Hammond,    For Sydney;  & For Sir Charlie;  Shonda's mom;   for Michelle;  For a friend, a neighbor, & a doctor, Karen, with brain cancer; For Rick Turner searching for a kidney donor, Type O neg; For Meredith, cancer free.;    For Hue;  For John O'Donnell;    For Dee, and for her daughter, Lisa; For John Schanot's continued health;  For Anthony & Sabrina;    For a young man who is suffering from depression;  John Cade's mother in law, Kalliopi Piskiouli and Lambrini;  Virginia Mattingly

Becky & Tom.

Birthdays:  Shonda (last Week), Deacon Mike ordained '78, Bill Ekes, Alison DeGenova 

Anniversary:  The McClurgs, Diane & Kent, 48 years, & Diane's knee replacement this week.

On air with Ben.

This  week's Readings:

Download MASS 20 0607 Trinity Readings

Homily by John Stack

Here it is, folks, that line again, the one that says The Lord is gracious and merciful, never gets angry and abounding in love.  That summarizes for me who our God is.

I want to talk this morning about a black lady I knew when I was teaching at Jesuit '65-'68.  She was one of the first important black persons in my life who exemplified this description of God.  You ever heard of Juanita Craft?  A big lady with a big voice and a bigger heart.  She was elected to the Dallas City Council after I had departed Dallas.  She came to my '71 ordination in a police car at the old St. Rita.

Juanita taught me at least 3 lessons.   First she taught me how to take charge and get things done with grace.  This came about because she invited me to join her and about 25 young members of the Dallas NAACP on a greyhound type bus trip to the annual NAACP convention in Atlantic City.  I must admit that I gulped a time or two, then accepted her invitation.  I was the only white guy on that bus.  Juanita charged each of those kids to be the best  & clean that bus every time we got off that bus.

I was impressed as a fellow bus driver at Jesuit.  Never had I instructed my Jesuit kids on the bus to clean up.  I did that after.  Because of Juanita I realized I could organize a planting of 400 trees, put together a group of friends to visit Yosemite, and accept an invitation to work in East Africa.

Because Juanita was abounding in love, she taught me how to ask help from others.  Therefore I wrote to my Jesuit confreres at Georgetown and asked if they could shuttle two dozen black kids around D.C. for a day.  Not only did they supply about 5 cars and guides, they invited the whole bunch of us to dinner in the Jesuit dining room that evening.  The Jesuits were gracious and merciful

You will never guess what I did when I returned to Dallas from Atlantic City.   I accepted Juanita's invitation to move into her little house in South Dallas and help her with the NAACP youth group that summer.  I knew then, Black Lives Do Matter.

How do Black Lives matter to you?

Ben doing the Magic.

And a repeat:

Birthdays:  Shonda (last week), Bill Ekes, Alison, Deacon Mike ordained '78

Anniversaries:  McClurgs, 48 years & Diane has a knee replacement this week.

Communion for Mike.

Community Finances, June 7, 2020

Expenses: $825.00

Outreach:  $500.00  (often for Souls Harbor, Legacy, etc.)

This week we donated $1,500 to Soul's Harbor.

Thanks, Folks, for doing what you can.

Readings: Exodus 16, 2-15; Psalm 78, The Lord gave them bread from heaven; Ephesians 4, 17-24; John 6, 24-35

Exodus

Over the past several weeks John, (Stack) has been telling us about the real starting point of the history of the Jewish people.  Starting with the death of Solomon the kingdom is divided, and then follows invasion after invasion.  First the northern kingdom, Israel, is wiped out by the Assyrians, and never recovers, around the year 732.  Then the southern kingdom of Judah falls to the Babylonians, and the people are taken away into captivity, the city and more importantly the temple is destroyed!  We find the beginnings of the written Old Testament at this time.  The story of the Exodus, when the people were enslaved, rang true for the people, had a big impact.  This offered them hope in Babylon. 

The book of Exodus has three main sections.  One – the stubbornness of the Pharaoh is overcome when Yahweh hears the cry of the slaves.  Two – the Sinai event, the covenant and finally, Three – the coming into the Promised Land.  This all took 40 years, and so we need to have stories in-between.  Today’s is one of these, showing Yahweh feeding his people, who are into some serious grumbling!

Ephesians

An interesting letter, attributed to Paul, but we know better.  Probably written after Paul’s death in Rome .  Not too clear that in fact it was written for the folk in Ephesus or was more a letter, which could have gone to anyone.  There are no issues, which are being addressed going on in a local community.  But there are some interesting items in this letter.  This is the letter where we are told that wives need to be submissive to their husbands, children obey their parent, and slaves be obedient to their masters.  Parts of this letter could easily be parts of very early liturgies.

Homily for Sunday August 2, 2009

I think the topic for consideration today has to be connected with food— or by extension nourishment!  We are in John’s Gospel.  Last week we had the feeding of the 5,000 or if you prefer, the feeding of John Stack on a stopped train somewhere in the middle of nowhere in Africa.  Food figures very frequently in the stories we have about Jesus, culminating with the Last Supper.  Jesus uses meals to really get people thinking again about their lives.  He dines with sinners, eats on the Sabbath, feeds the multitudes a couple of times, goes to wedding feasts and probably gets everyone drunk!  And finally adds a whole new layer of meaning to the Passover Meal.

But I want to suggest another form of nourishment, which we find frequent reference to, and that is ”spiritual nourishment”.  We have many, many examples of Jesus going off by himself into the hills to pray.   In this country we are more than blessed with the physical nourishment, we are “super-sized”, and unfortunately life seems so busy that the “Spiritual Nourishment” can too easily be forgotten.  I find that my prayers are the same ones I learned as a child, and I now try to find new ways to pray.  Part of the challenge is that I needed to update my images of God too.  The childish ones have had to go.  There is no tall bearded man up in the sky!  I am challenged to replace this god, my creation, with one more in keeping with our better understanding of the universe.  Plus, recall, the minute I have God figured out, I am probably in heresy!!!!

Our community, getting together each week is a huge help.  I have a chance to sit and listen to the Scriptures, reflect on their meanings as they apply to my life.  I have a chance to interact with others in a different way than I do with people I meet thru work.  Sometimes prayer is just sitting and listening to God, and sometimes it is God listening to me.  Then there can be other times when we can both just sit and be!  The silence, which happens when two people are very comfortable together.

Picture 1: Mass with Tony, Kevin and T.J.

Picture 2: Wendy, Shonda and Ray

Picture 3: Charley Keszler, Diamond (Gayle & Tony's niece), Gayle and Tony

Picture 4: Jane and Paul Drake

Readings: Acts of the Apostles  2, 1-11; Psalm 104, Lord, send out your Spirit, and renew the Face of the Earth; 1 Corinthians 12, 3-13; John 20, 19-23

Intro to the readings

 I would just like to draw your attention to the reading we have today from Acts of the Apostles.  Luke is very clever in the way the scene is described and unless we are aware, much of what he is doing can easily be missed.  We will be told that there were “pious Jews from every nation living in Jerusalem”.  Even though this Feast of Weeks, Pentecost, was one of the three major Jewish pilgrimage feasts when the Jews would have traveled to Jerusalem, these Jews that Luke mentions are actually “living” in Jerusalem, not just visiting.  And he goes on to list what is most likely all of the places that the Jews would have been scattered to over the many invasions they have experienced, in other words this is the “Diaspora” the scattered Jews. 

 It has dawned on me that to really understand a lot of the subtleties in the New Testament it would help to be Jewish!  Today is Pentecost Sunday.  The word pente means fifty.  And so we are counting backwards and I always thought it was back to the resurrection, but in Luke’s mind it was counting back to the Feast of Passover.  Passover for the Jew was “the moment” when Yahweh freed his people from slavery in Egypt.  For the Christian, it is Jesus’ death and resurrection, laid right on top of this feast of Passover.  Now for the counting bit, and the Jews did in fact count the days from the Passover to the next most important event, described in the Book of Exodus chapter 19 v 16ff, namely the time Moses receives the Torah, the Ten Commandments!  How was that event described, we are told of the sound of thunder and God descending in the form of fire, this was the Old Covenant between God and His People.  Now it is quite common in the bible to have the sound of thunder or wind used when God appears, but nowhere else do both this sound and fire appear together except at Mount Sinai and today in the room with the disciples!

 Speaking about Moses, for Luke, Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s promise.  When Jesus is baptized and receives the Holy Spirit, Luke immediately gives us this long genealogy of Jesus and Luke takes it all the way back not just to Abraham, but to Adam!  Now we look in the other direction and Luke has Jews from every nation present for the gift of the Spirit.

Pentecost Sunday – Homily

 If today’s gospel sounds familiar, it should, because it is a shorter version of our gospel reading from the Second Sunday of Easter.  It is a similar description of the gift of the Holy Spirit, which we also have in the reading from the Acts of the Apostles.  Today we celebrate the birthday of the Church.  It is the day the church officially recognizes the coming of the Holy Spirit on the apostles from today’s reading from the Acts of the Apostles. 

 The Holy Spirit is third person in the Trinity.  That is about as much as can be said without wandering into heresy of some sort!  But what we can do is talk about the effects of the Holy Spirit.  We see in today’s readings that it totally transformed the disciples from fear to faith!  But if we look around other places we find the Spirit descending on Jesus at his baptism and then He begins his public ministry.  The big discussion in John’s gospel was that until Jesus left the Holy Spirit could not come.

 If we think about Luke’s description from our first reading, he takes only four verses to describe the descent of the Holy Spirit, very brief. He is mostly interested in describing the results brought about in the disciples by that event.  And I think it makes sense for us to do the same.  We have been promised the Holy Spirit, we receive the Holy Spirit and so the question is – so what now, what happens, how are we different?

 There was an interesting little event described in the Old Testament Book of Numbers chapter 20.  The folks have been wandering in the desert for a few months, and they have arrived at a place where there is no water.  God tells Moses to take a branch and strike a rock.  Unfortunately Moses kind of thought it was up to him, and so when he hit the rock the first time, nothing happens, so he hits it again.  He got in trouble, because it seems he was thinking that the miracle was going to happen by his efforts.  For me this is a powerful lesson about God and each one of us.  Remember, the gift of relationship with God is a freely given gift, and our response is really and truly free.  We have many great stories from the Old Testament of how many times the people strayed from their covenant with God, and each time when they got into trouble they came crawling back.  They are not too different from us. We can too easily forget that God is in charge.  When we do that, forget who is in charge, we get into all kinds of trouble and fear.  Then we start to worry about stuff that we have no control over.  I believe that is where the disciples were in our readings today, in fear, forgetting that Jesus had told them he would be with them.

 Sometimes when I look at the church today, I see the same thing happening.  The church authorities seem to have forgotten about the presence of the Spirit and instead try to keep the folk in line with rules and threats.  The problem is that threats only work with little kids and only for a short while.  Adults will ignore threats. 

I believe that the Spirit is very much present in each one of us.  But He can only be present when we acknowledge that He is in charge.  When we try to run things, then the messes happen!  We tend to forget that Jesus did tell us he would be with us.  And when we do forget, it seems that then we are in charge.  It was when Paul became helpless by blindness that he was able to listen.  And we know how effective he became once he allowed the spirit to work in and thru him.  This weekend, as we celebrate the birthday of the church, we might we ask ourselves, who is in charge!

Picture 1:   Mass Begins

Picture 2:   The Team

Picture 3:   Communion Volunteers, Joanne, Jackie, Mike, Nancy, Jan, Don, John, & Patricia

Picture 4:   Communion with Nancy & Tony, Richard & Bernadette

Picture 5:   The Kites, Doug & Julie & Emily on their 25th Anniversary

Readings: Acts 5, 27-41; Psalm 30, I will Praise You, Lord, for You have Rescued Me; Revelations , 11-14; John 21, 1-14

Third Sunday of Easter – Introduction to the Readings

All of our readings during the Sundays after Easter until Pentecost Sunday come from the same three books, Acts of the Apostles, The Book of Revelation and John’s Gospel.  In today’s reading from the Acts of the Apostles the apostles are again brought before the elders of the Jewish community and told to stop preaching.  What we skip over in our reading is an interesting section. 

The Sanhedrin wants to put the apostles to death, but one of their members, a Pharisee called Gamaliel dissuades this action by reminding the group that there had been other ‘apparent prophets’ whose followers had dissipated after the prophet was put to death and he argues that either of two things will happen:  the apostles will disappear soon, since Jesus has been put to death, or Jesus was the real thing and they had better leave the apostles alone!! 

Then our reading today resumes just after the apostles are flogged instead of being put to death.

A few words about the Book of Revelations, since we will be reading from it for the next several Sundays.  The book was probably written about the year 95 to 100 CE, by John, though not the same John who wrote the Gospel.  It is addressed to the seven churches in Asia, namely the whole community at that time, and the churches are enduring harsh persecutions under the emperor Domitian.  The style is mainly apocalyptic, which is a highly stylized form of writing  which is not one we are accustomed to these days.

Third Sunday After Easter

My daughter Rosheen loves to read- it always amazed me how quickly she could get through a book.  A few years ago an old family friend was ill and Rosheen was visiting her and offered to read to her.  Later I remember her telling me how beautiful the language was in the book, something she had not appreciated until she had to read aloud.  Some books are so well written that the language is indeed a joy. 

Our gospel today is one of those books.  We cannot begin to appreciate how much thought has gone into each and every word in the gospel.  I am not sure how many of you said to yourselves as I was proclaiming today’s gospel and said the word “charcoal fire” now haven’t I heard that recently!!  In fact you did hear it on Good Friday when we proclaimed the “Passion”.  Let me remind you of the piece.   

“Now the slaves and guards were standing around a charcoal fire that they had made, because it was cold , and were warming themselves.  Peter was also standing there keeping warm.”   In today’s gospel we read that Jesus was preparing breakfast over a charcoal fire.  The two events are linked.  In the earlier event, Peter denies even knowing Jesus, three times.  In today’s gospel, Jesus helps Peter get past that denial.  “Peter, do you love me?” Three times Jesus asks Peter, sort of a parallel to the three times Peter had earlier denied Jesus.

This is another example of the point we discussed on Easter Sunday.  The fact that God always gives us second chances.  Think about what Peter had done.  Jesus had just been arrested, all of the disciples had scattered, Peter had not run away, but was in the courtyard where Jesus was being held.  Remember that earlier that evening Jesus had even foretold Peter that he was going to deny him three times. 

This denial was no spur of the moment thing.  He had been forewarned, and still he denies even knowing Jesus.  Pretty serious stuff – and still God gives Peter a chance to repent.  God wants Peter back and God wants each one of us back too.  Never let anything cause us to stay away, there is no sin too great.  Remember Peter.

Picture 1:  Mass Begins

Picture 2:  Altar Helpers

Picture 3:  Offertory

Picture 4:  John & Anthony

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