Palm Sunday, March 28, 2021

 

 

Welcome Back, Dear Seth.  It is delightful to see you again.

 

Readings:

Ezekiel  18, 25-28,  The Lord’s way is not fair.

Psalm 25,  Remember your mercies, O Lord

Phlippians 2, 1-11,  Because of this, God greatly exalted him

Matthew 20, 28-32,  A man had two sons 

 

 

 

Seth, as delightful as it is to see you, it is even more fun to see you awake.  Hi to your Mama, Monique.

 

 

Ezekiel observations:

Who:  Ezekiel is one of the 3 great prophets, along with Isaiah and Jeremiah. 

When:  He lived in Babylon before and during the  Captivity, ca. 555 before Christ

Message:  condemnation of behavior and promise of divine punishment.  The promise of a brighter future someday.

 

 

 

Welcome in to you, too, Cory and Ben.

 

Do nothing out of selfishness,  rather, humbly regard others as more important than yourselves, each looking out not for his own interests, but also for those of others.

I would like to proclaim today a Good News Sunday.  I seem to be overwhelmed lately with bad news.  The Good News is still here. Philipppians says it and people are doing it.  They are not acting out of selfishness.  They are not looking out just for their own interests.  They are caring for others.

 

 

 

Welcome in to you, too, Dearest Harper.

 

 

3 examples.

First, last Tuesday morning Rosemary & I teamed up with Carrie to ride around that Dallas jewel, White Rock Lake.  We meet usually on the north bridge by the doggie park.  She & Paul live on the east side of the Lake.  Rosemary & I ride south down the White Rock Creek path, which is a gem in its own right. 

So Tuesday we are riding south down the eastern shore of the lake.  We take a little loop that puts us on the tail end of Lake Highlands Drive.  We go down a dip and up a slope going left.  I am ahead & hear Carrie call my name.  I go on perhaps 50 yards & don’t see them behind me.  I go back.  Carrie had dropped her chain.

 

 

 

Hi to the Seth Clan, Cameron & Frank, Mary, Monique and Nicole with Mr. Seth.

 

By the time I get there, they have the bike upside down and are fixing it.   I know Rosemary knows how to fix the chain and I am sure Carrie does too.  Everything is going okay but one place the chain is wedged between the seat post and the front derailer.  I join in the effort.  The chain is really wedged.

Meanwhile other bikers are rolling by.   I hear, “Need any help?  “No,” we respond, sure we can fix this thing.  Finally, a black guy rides by and asks the same question.   But instead of passing on, he stops, takes a look, fiddles a bit with the chain, then yanks it into place.  All cheer he hops back on his bike and sails away.

 

 

 

Who is that escorting Erin up the aisle to her wedding?  Can it really be??  Yes, it can!  Erin is being escorted by her very son, The Great Cole.

 

 

You know what struck me?  Perhaps a dozen people rode by and every one of them asked if we needed help. 

The Good News: Care for each other exists.

 

 

 

Erin & Greg,  Have you come here freely and without reservation to give yourselves to each other in marriage?   (The wedding is taking place on Erin & Greg's home in Spring Valley, TX, small community north of Dallas about an hour on I35.) 

 

 

Secondly.  There is a Jewish temple in Austin.  A five member family from Afganistan moved in recently.  The community from the temple decided to adopt the family, help them get settled, and provide them with the assistance they would need. 

Time passed and the family got settled in okay.  To celebrate, the community took the 5 members of the family one evening to a  Greek restaurant in Austin.  All went well.  There were 18 members of the community.

When the community went to cover all the expenses, the cashier told them there was no charge.  “How come?”, they asked.   

 

 

 

Exchange of Vows.

 

 

“Some man came up and covered all your expenses,” the cashier responded.  “Do you know who he is?”, they asked.  “No,” came the answer, “He did not leave his name nor even his card.” 

“I know only one thing about him, because he comes here occasionally.”   “Yes?”, they asked.  “He is Palestinian.”

(Story came from Rabbi David Stern's sermon on the link.)

The Good News: Care for each other exists.

 

 

 

Here they are everybody, the young couple in Toronto.

 

Thirdly.  In a retirement home in Toronto there is a couple of people, a man and a woman who got to know and care for each other.  Recently they got married.   They walked in, but they sat through the ceremony in chairs marked Mr. & Mrs.  At the time when they were invited to kiss each other, they bumped foreheads.  He is 101 and she is 86.

The Good News: Care for each other exists.

Whom do you care for?

 

 

 

Is that the famous Head Bump?   Yes, definitely.

 

Readings:

Proverbs 8, 22-31,  When the Lord established the heavens I was there.

Psalm 8,  O Lord, our God, how wonderful your name in all the earth.

Romans 5, 1-5,  We have peace with God.

John 16, 12-15,  I have much more to tell you.

 

 

Observations on Proverbs

What : basically a collection of moral and religious teachings.  Pretty boring.  Some amusing like—

“The lord hates people who use dishonest scales. 11, 1

If you don’t punish your son, you don’t love him. 13, 24

Better to eat a dry crust of bread with peace of mind than to have a
banquet in a house full of trouble.  17, 1

Children naturally do silly things, but a good beating will teach them.
22, 15

And my favorite….

Better to live on the roof than share the house with a nagging wife. 25, 24

Author: 
Who knows.  Not Solomon, as was thought for a long time.

 

 

A Trinity

Last Friday Rosemary & I made one of our usual morning bike trips around White Rock Lake.  We come down the White Rock Creek Trail from the north and proceed south, clockwise along East Lawther Drive by the Arboretum, to the dam, where we take a vista stop. 

 

The bike path running along the south shore of the lake and Garland Road is pretty high over the lake and the dam.  There is an observation deck extending out over the lake and dam, which is about 20 feet above the lake and the spillway.  We are looking north across the whole expanse of the lake at this observation point.

 

Friday when I rode up and stopped just ahead of Rosemary, there was a
young dad with his one or two year old little boy.  Dad had a trailer for the boy and he towed the trailer with his bike.

When I arrived the little blond haired boy with about two teeth was
being held by his dad against the black wrought iron railing.  The boy was throwing little sticks into the lake and watching them go over the spillway. 
He was squealing with delight and when I applauded he was more
joyful.  We talked a bit and I was enchanted.  

 

I want to talk this morning about the marvelous Psalm 8 we have just read. It is talking about us and God’s work in us when it says,

You have made people a little less than the angels,

And crowned them with glory and honor.

You have given them rule over the works of your hands.

I looked at the nice dad and his delightful son and thought to myself, ‘What beauty.”

 

The psalm writer also talks about the work of His Fingers.  Another striking image.  I saw the work that Friday, also, in the beauty simply in the rich tones of green as we rode along the path in the woods.

Then he talks about the heavens and says,

When I behold
your heavens, the work of your fingers,

the moon and the stars which you set in place.

Have you ever done this?  Lie down on the ground on your back and look up at the sky? 

 

 

I do this when we are backpacking in the mountains and I find it
terrific. Whatever the sky is doing, clear blue, partly cloudy, or windy, it is
sensational.  I come away feeling humbled, awe-struck, and blessed to be here. 

 Why I never do it except in the mountains, who knows.  Every year I
intend to.

 

 Take a look at that marvelous Psalm 8.   When is the next time you will look at the sky?  When look at the colors of nature.  When look at a child, like the kids running around here,  and say to yourself, 'What beauty!'?

 

Readings: Joshua 5, 9-12; Psalm 34; 2 Corinthians 5, 17-21; Luke 15, 1-32 (The Great Prodigal Son Story) A pre-homily Sunday.

Joshua

The scene: Moses has died just as the Jewish people are getting ready to enter their new land. Joshua takes the leadership. This book describes the defeat of the Canaanite people, and the division of the land.

In our chapter the Israelite people are camped outside Jericho before attacking the town. Yahweh is saying that he has removed the shame of the people for being slaves in Egypt. They are feasting.

2 Corinthians

This section of Corinthians informs the people that in Christ they are new people, a new creation.

The Prodigal Son: A Work of Art

This story is my favorite of the whole Bible. Note one thing: this is story, not history. The author carefully crafts his work of art to show how much God loves us. Let me give you three observations about the son, three about the father, and an extra three to show you how astounding this story is.

First, the younger son:

1. He has no right to ask for inheritance. None. By asking he is saying he wishes the father and the older son dead. A symbolic murder. Father can kill him for this.
2. He works feeding pigs instead of asking for help from the temple. This means he rejects the religious tradition and is considered a traitor not only to the family, but to the religion.
3. So as a horrible failure as a son of the family and a son of the religious tradition, he decides to return. He makes up his little speech and heads home. He is hungry to the point of dying. Do this or die. Many listening Jews would say, Die.

The Father: he actually commits as many crimes and sins as the son:

1. He runs down the road to the son when he sees him coming. A very undignified action. Outrageous.
2. He embraced and kissed the son. Huge violation of Jewish religious custom and law. By doing this the father positions himself outside of the religious & cultural community. He is a reject like the son.
3. He cuts the son’s speech off before he can say finish, eliminating the last sentence, "treat me as you would one of your hired workers." And to make it worse, he orders the servants to bring the finest robe, ring, and sandals.

The robe, the ring, and the sandals:

1. The robe: restores the son’s dignity.
2. The ring: gives authority to the son, even equal to the father and certainly more than before he left.
3. The sandals: gives the son freedom. Slaves were not given sandals so they would not run away. The father is doubling the message he gave when he cut the son’s speech off before he could say the third part about being treated as a servant.

A word about the older son, because we so often identify with him.

1. That he tells his father how he feels. Great. In those days, it meant the father can kill him. Today: communication.
2. What is his challenge: acceptance of his brother, his father, and himself; focus on gratitude for all he has; move from trying to be a good boy to loving? Any one of these? Or all? All.

I apologize for so much data. There is even more. The point is that the story is a carefully crafted work of art attempting to describe how totally loving our God is, toward us.

How does this image of God reflect your image of God?

Download the homily as an mp3 file for your iPod.

Readings: Isaiah 58, 7-10; Psalm 112, The Just Man is a Light in Darkness to the Upright; 1 Corinthians 2, 1-5; Matthew 5, 13-16.

Intro to Readings

 Our gospel readings, beginning last Sunday and continuing for the next several Sundays are part of the great Sermon on the Mount in Matthew’s Gospel.  This section of Matthew’s Gospel is the first and most well known of five major discourses, which are in this gospel.  Matthew had situated Jesus on a mountain; recall one of the themes of this gospel is to show how Jesus fulfills the Old Testament. 

 

 
Moses was on a mountain when he received the Ten Commandments from God, Moses was acting as intermediary.  Jesus is portrayed very differently – phrases from next Sunday’s gospel – “you have heard it said…. but I say to you” Jesus is no intermediary! 

 Just before this Sermon, we are told that Jesus went about the whole of Galilee preaching the Good News of the Kingdom.  Now this sermon spells out what that means.  For instance Jesus tells the disciples about their new relationship with God in that he refers to God some 17 times as “your Father”. 

The whole sermon, which covers three chapters in Matthew, can be divided into three sections, the first dealing with the Law, then a section on religious practice and the final section on material possessions and human relationships, ending with the famous golden rule.  In the middle section we find the instructions on prayer, with the teaching of the Our Father. 

 There is much to ponder on in these readings, and interestingly the contents give us a rare insight into what was probably very early Christian preaching as the Letter from James has much the same content and this is considered one of the earliest writings we have from the new community, written somewhere around the year 50!

 

The Homily

 I want to continue our discussion of the sacraments.  Today we will discuss very briefly the third of the three sacraments commonly referred to as the ‘Sacraments of Initiation’, the Eucharist.  This sacrament has many names, First Communion, Communion, the Eucharist and the Mass.  I think that the revised Rite of Christian Initiation has gone a long way towards helping clarify the confusion. 

 If you are familiar with the RCIA program, you will recall that in the period leading up to the Easter Vigil, when the candidates are admitted into the community fully, they are invited to attend just the first half of the Mass, the Liturgy of the Word, and then they process out of the church.  I think the reason the words “First Communion” came about was because just as with our discussion of Confirmation, when originally a new candidate joined, they received all three sacraments at the same time.  It was again due to circumstances and time that each event became separated and became individual sacraments.

 

So much could be said about the mass that it could be a topic each Sunday at least for a year.  Today I want to cover just a few highpoints.  My intent is to help us remember why we are here each Sunday.

 The Mass as we know it began its life at the Last Supper.  But even before that Passover Meal, there was a whole history connected with the Jewish history and THE most important event, their salvation from slavery in Egypt.  So that last meal the Jews ate before their escape to freedom and the Promised Land is the backdrop for our Mass.  The earliest mention we have of that last meal Jesus took with his apostles comes to us from Paul in his letter to the Corinthian community. 1Cor 11, 23ff.  And this letter dates to around the year 56 or 57 CE.  Meals were important in the gospel stories about Jesus.  And one of his first appearances was to the disciples on the road to Emmaus, when they recognized Jesus in the breaking of the bread.  As the years passed and the early community gathered to remember Jesus, that Last Supper began to be called the Lord’s Supper.  And it was quickly seen in conjunction with His death and resurrection.  Pretty soon its parallel to the Exodus Event with its resultant freedom for those who were baptized and received into this community was vivid.  The sacrificial aspect became uppermost. 

 

That Jesus’ death and resurrection won for us a whole new freedom in our relationship with the Father.  In typical human fashion, attempts have been made to explain the words, “this is my body, this is my blood” and like everything else connected with God, it is a mystery, so I prefer to leave it to the realm of faith and accept it rather than try to understand it.  Suffice it to say that the Jesus we receive in communion is there, not as a result just of those words by the priest, but as a result of the whole community, with the priest at its head, because of the entire action of the mass. 

 There has been much debate about whether the mass is a sacrifice or a meal, with one side or the other coming to the fore at different times.  The reality is: sacrifice includes meal, the two are not separate. 

 Our coming here each Sunday is to participate as a community in that sacrifice.  We listen to God’s Word, we offer our gifts of bread and wine and then we pray the Eucharistic Prayer, the word Eucharist means thanksgiving.  We then believe that by eating the bread and drinking the wine we are receiving the risen Jesus into our lives.  This communion, this meeting brings us closer in our relationship with God and hopefully the effect spills over into our lives where we live and work and pray.

Picture 1:   Mass Begins

Picture 2:   Mass Beginning

Picture 3:   The Music Machine, Wendy & Shonda, Ray & Jon

Picture 4:   The Keszler Klan, Jan & Sir Charlie, their son, Chuck, & Chuck's wife, Ellen, & their older son, Andrew. 

 

 

 

Readings: Isaiah 66, 18-21; Psalm 117; Hebrews 12, 5-13; Luke 13, 22-30

Isaiah: this book is written by probably three authors ca. 800 years before Christ and later.  The book covers the time before, during, and after the Babylonian captivity.  Our selection today comes from the part of the book written before the captivity.

The Good News Dream

I just returned last night from doing a wedding Friday afternoon for a couple who had a special dream. The boy is from Dallas and I have known him since he was little. The girl is from Scotland.Their dream was to marry at St. Columba’s monastery on the island of Iona, off the west coast of Scotland. 

  St. Columba came over from Ireland about 560 and established the monastery which was a center of learning and religious enthusiasm all during the Dark Ages, when the learning and culture established by Rome came crashing down. In 810 Vikings raided the monastery and killed about 70 monks.The monastery finally came to an end during the Protestant Reformation and the time of Oliver Cromwell ca. 1650. Since the 1940’s it has been revived and is an ecumenical community today. It has been and is today a sort of mini-shrine. 

To realize their dream the couple knew it would cause difficulty to their families & friends. It is not easy to get there. I was blessed to have Katie Gray carry me all around. She is Bob & Jackie McGrath’s daughter and is living in Edinburg with her Scottish husband, Derrick. Even with Katie’s help, it took us a day to drive from Edinburg in the east all the way across the country to the west coast, where we put the car on a ferry to the island of Mull. On Mull we traveled another 40 miles on a, I kid you not, one lane road to another people only ferry to the little 3 mile by 1 & 1/2 mile island of Iona. Iona, folks, is not the Ritz Carlton. It is very simple with two small hotels & a number of bed & breakfast farm houses.The island is small and the little community is tiny. But hosptable.   

We celebrated the wedding out of doors in the middle of what used to be the Nunnery, an old Augustinian convent from the 13th century that has not been revived. After Thursday & Friday morning having drizzle and clouds down to the ocean, we had a window of 40 minutes when it brightened up.

In the center of the monastery is an elevated square piece of land that is grass covered with flowering bushes on all four sides. We used the corner of the square for the wedding. John, the groom, and all the men wore kilts.They looked terrific. I wore the white alb & a stole. A ferry load of tourists arrived during the ceremony and they went ape over the event. We should have charged a pound a person for pictures. They took tons.

The psalm today talks about taking the Good News to all the world. On that little island of Iona John & Zarah realized a dream and shared the Good News of their love with the whole world.

What is your Good News Dream?

AUDIO: http://mysite.verizon.net/reso7rjy/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/2007-08-26.mp3

Readings:

Wisdom 11, 22-12, 2,   Before the Lord the whole universe is as a grain from a balance.

 Psalm 145,  I will praise your name forever, my king and my God.

2 Thessalonians 1, 11-2, 2,  We always pray for you.

 Luke 19, 1-10,   Zacchaeus the tax collector in the tree.

 

Sez You Know Who, "Hi, Everybody, Thanks for coming to my party this morning."  
 

 

Wisdom (of Solomon) observations:

Author: Not Solomon, but a compilation by numerous people.

Date:  around 200 years before Christ.

 

 

Olivia, too, says, "Thanks for coming to my party."  The Old Geezer is really jealous of your beautiful hair, Olivia.  

 

Subject: Wise statements like

          "Righteous people are protected by God and will never suffer torment." 3, 1

          "Is it good to have riches in this life?  Nothing can make you richer than wisdom."  8, 5

Today:  Nice reading, especially for All Saints.  Note the beautiful line, “You love all things that are.” Line 24

 

 

Thanks, Harper, for such a beautiful welcome!
 

 

Zacchaeus, the tax collector

Couple of questions.  

For us today, listening to this delightful story, what does Jesus represent?

What does Zacchaeus represent?

I would propose that Jesus represents the person fully alive. 

 

 

Who is this Candle Lighter of The Week??

 

Zachaeus represents the person who wants to be fully alive and who is willing to do anything to get there, even to looking like a clown in the eyes of his neighbors. 

Zachaeus represents Everyman, or every person, all of us. 

This room, our community is full of Zachaeus persons.   John is a Zachaeus person.  Carol, Tom, Frank, Dee, all Zachaeus persons, all trying to live fully.

 

 

Welcome, Mary, to your lovely Granddaughter, Monique, and her boyfriend, Zach.

 

Last night Rosemary & I had the privilege and honor to celebrate a Zachaeus event.  John and Michelle Simari’s son, Scott  and Scott’s beautiful fiance’ publicly pronounced their vows to live and love together all the days of their lives.  They are fully alive as they are and they are reaching out to be even more fully alive. 

In a note that Scott and Deanna sent to us to thank us, Scott said something that really touched me. 

 

The Beginning, Ron escorting his daughter, Deana, down the aisle to a New Life.

 

When Scott was attending St. Marks with his family while I was there, he used to dream that someday he would have a fiance’ and get married.  He dreamed, moreover, that the old geezer would do the wedding. 

Last night on the fairway just below the 18th green at the Las Colinas Country Club, Scott’s dream came true.

 

Perfect Couple, Perfect Evening, Perfect Setting, Las Colinas Country Club, 18th Fairway leading 18th Green.

 

 

I have to  share one more Zachaeus story that came in late, like at the wedding last night.

After many years of not seeing her, last evening I met Dana, a person I had known for years during my time at St. Marks.   Dana introduced Rosemary & me to Norm, her husband of a few years.

Dana had been for years a flight attendant for Delta.  She worked for years the N.Y. to Rome flight.

 

Deana Howard vows to live forever with her love, Scott Simari. 

 

One night she met this guy while she was working first class.  At the end of the flight, he says, "Will you marry me?"  "No," she says of course.  

This guy was Norm and he was taking his mother back to the old country.  He says to Dana, "Meet us at the Piazza Navona tomorrow night."

 

 

The Sand Symbol of Unity.
 

 

Norm says he had been married 40 years before being widowed, and he never intended to marry again.  He is pretty pessimistic, but his mother says, "She will be there."  She was there, her first date since her divorce, as Dana says.  

Zachaeus was a guy doing everything he could to be fully alive. 

How are you like Zachaeus?

 

 

 

Welcome into your New Life, Deana and Scott.  You two are tremendous people.