Palm Sunday, March 28, 2021

 

 

Harper says, "Welcome in, Everybody."

 

 

Readings:  

 Wisdom 2, 12, 17-20,  The wicked say.

Psalm 54,  The Lord upholds my life.

 James 3, 16-4 3, Where jealousy & selfish ambition exist, there is disorder.

Mark 9, 30-35,  Whoever receives one child.

                   

 

Our Candle Lighter of The Week, Victoria.

 

 

 Wisdom observations:  

What:One of the 14-15 books of the deutero-canonical books of the bible.  Not OT nor NT, but in between and the subject of controversy over the centuries.  The “in between books.”  Were they really part of the bible or not?  How do you know?  Catholic church accepts the books.

Subject matter: the book makes use of traditional Jewish material, as well as ideas borrowed from Greek philosophy, in order to teach that God rewards those who are faithful to him.

 

 

 

Georgie reads the Blessing of the Autumn Candles.

 

 

Author: not Solomon, but a Jew living in Alexandria, Egypt who wrote and spoke excellent Greek.  The book is sometimes called “The Wisdom of Solomon.”

Date: ca. 100-200 before Christ.  How do we know these facts?  Because of text analysis.  For example, while the author wrote in Greek, he uses phrases and expressions that have a Hebrew flavor.  Also, he mentions rulers and places that reveal date and locale. 

Our Selection: what a wicked person thinks should be done with a good person–beat & kill.  This links up with the suffering servant poem from 2 Isaiah last week.  Jews think the good person getting beaten is the Jewish race/nation.  Christians think the person is Christ.

 

James:  presents a pretty negative image of people.  What would be a compassionate image? 

 

 

 

The Best Music, Ben at his Best.

 

 

Says the child, “Numero uno or last??”

This morning I would like to talk about receiving the child. In particular, I would like to focus on the inner child, the child inside all of us, even in old geezers like myself.  

I also want to say a word about the notion of being  first or last.

 

 

 

 

What did you do, Gil?  You got Gene, Bern, and Loretta all laughing.
 

 

 

To exemplify the points, a story.    I have used the story before.  It is too good to bury.   The story, the musical play Most Happy Fella.

The play is about a guy named Tony, middle aged Italian American, successful wine maker from Nappa Valley, and a bachelor.

He eats in a restaurant one evening in, say, Chicago.  He likes the waitress and leaves her a note with his tip, despite his shyness.   They begin a long distance correspondence and start to get close.  Both are looking for partners.

 

 

 

 

The Offertory Team (all characters!): Jan & Sir Charlie, Teresa & Tom (who lost all their checked luggage before they began their cruise.)

 

 They decide to exchange photos.  Tony, who has been taking a lot of risk because he is so shy, is afraid to show her his picture.  He thinks he is too old & too ugly.  So he sends her the photo of his handsome young farm foreman.  The foreman has already told Tony he is planning on moving on anyway.

So Tony and his girl decide to wed at the farm.  On the day of her arrival and the big wedding, Tony discovers that the foreman decided to hang around for the wedding & party.  Tony loses it.  He goes out, rolls his pickup, and almost kills himself. 

 

 

 

Is this not a Full Service Community?  Even to a play room.

 

Meanwhile, the girl arrives and thinks the nice foreman is the groom.  In fact, they get rather enamored of each other.  Then Tony is brought in on a stretcher.  Guess what happens then.  I’ll tell you at the end.

Let me make 2 observations about Tony. 

 

                           

 

A tremendous team when one has parkinsons.

 

 

First, Tony might have had ambitions about being numero uno, but he really thought he was the last, a loser, ugly, and old.  His challenge: get away from thinking best or worst.  Both are traps.  Just accept Tony as okay.

Secondly, when Tony let himself leave the note for the waitress, he was letting his inner child out for a minute.  In his correspondence he was letting that child play.  The child wants to be loved and to play.  Trouble was, the child was not used to getting out and was afraid.   So he tries the picture trick.

 

 

 

 

Happy Birthday to our Dearest Twins.

 

 

I can resemble Tony.  Thinking I am first, numero uno in anything, or last, both are traps.  I would propose it is irrelevant.  I am okay just as I am.

Like Tony I have an inner child.  Want to know what the child wants?  Just watch our kids here.  To be loved and to play.  I think this is what I am doing when I ride my bike across Iowa or in the Hotter N' Hell Hundred, and when I hike around  Yosemite.  These are great times for my inner spirit, that is, my inner child. 

   

 

Happy Birthday, Dearest Georgie.  I remember when you were just a cute little girl.  Now look how pretty you are.  What happened??   Whatever happened, you are a terrific young girl.

 

So, two questions today:

First, where do you think of yourself, first, last, or just okay?

Secondly, how do you let your own inner child out to play? 

What happened to Tony?  He eventually became a most happily married fella.  

 

 

 

 

Happy Birthday, Jackie, and thanks so much for all you do for the community.

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

Readings:

Deuteronomy 4,  32-34, 39-40  Moses said to the people.

Psalm 33,    Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.

Romans 8, 14-17,   Those who are led by the Spirit of God are people of God.

 Matthew  28, 16-20, The disciples went to the mountain.

 

Says Harper, "Hi, Everybody, Welcome in."

 

Deuteronomy observations:

What:  This work is the 5th and last book of the Pentateuch/Torah.  The first 4 books are Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, & Numbers.  Deuteronomy has basically 3 speeches delivered by Moses before the people enter the promised land.  He reviews all they have endured the past 40 years and how Yahweh has shown his care and power to save them.

Author: Moses may have spoken some of the ideas in the speeches, but others have put the work together.  In fact, in chapter 34 the death of Moses is described.  Someone other than Moses probably covered this episode.

Date: 700 years before Christ.

Our Selection: the end of the first speech.  Moses is reminding the people of how Yahweh cared for them and why they must honor him for this as their one and only god.

 

 

And says Harper's grandmother, Cathy, and Jackie and Rick,        "Welcome Folks."
 

 

A God of Relationships

Want to know what makes for happiness?  Old Stack will tell you this morning.  I have talked about some of this in the past, but it is so good it is worth reviewing.  I do this especially on the feast of our three person god.  Our god is a relationship god and that is what I want to talk about.

The ideas this morning come from a study of 268 male Harvard students starting in 1937, a 7 decade longitudinal study that is almost unique in its breadth.  The identities of the students are secret unless the student identifies himself.  Ben Bradlee, the editor of the Washington Post did so, and it was deduced after he died that President Kennedy was one of the students.    This write up comes from a June Atlantic magazine.

 

                   Emma the Candle Lighter with Georgie's help.

 

The question was not how much trouble or how little they encountered in life, but how and to what effect they responded.  How they adapted and became happy -healthy or sad-sick people.  Psychiatrist George Vaillant has spent the last 40 years organizing the data coming from the study.

He has come up with the following suggestions taken from the lives of these 268 men.  Here are 7 factors that contribute to happy-healthy people:

 

                           Cupcake of The Week to Mabel at 83.

 

    1.  Education.  For you kids who just finished a long school year, it may feel so good to be out.  However, your education is a big factor in you being a happy-healthy person, in the future and even now.  I would include ongoing education.  We never cease to learn new things, even how to dance, yoga, languages, history, geography, and so on.  In Plano, look up S.A.I.L., Senior Active in Learning, an excellent program

    2.  Healthy & mature adaptability.  Vailant identifies 4 ways of adapting, from psychotic, immature, and neurotic, to healthy, like humor, altruism, forgiveness.  See the link to get his complete explanation. Try 3 things, laugh, forgive, and accept.  And try it on yourself to start with.

 

 

                    Cupcakes of The Week to Ray and Brent

 

    3.  No smoking.  Never too late to stop if you already have started.  You kids, you will end up looking uglier than me if you start the habit.  Beware of copping out on the electric cigarette.

    4.  Moderate use of alcohol & no abuse.  College kids and even high school kids get caught up here so easily.  The culture of drinking excessively.  However, a new phenomenon is emerging as our population ages, geriatric alcoholism.  A bench mark?  2 glasses of wine or two beers a day.  More than that and look for two results: alcoholism and denial.

 

Cupcake of The Week to Renee for coming home with her degree after 5 years at Kansas State.

 

    5.  Exercise.  Want some exercise next week?   Come with me to the J tomorrow morning, 6:30 spin class.  Make it fun, make it daily.  At least a few times a week, like take a walk.  

    6.  Weight control.  My visit to McDonald's.  Kids loading up on layers of fat, salt, and sugar.  A very seductive place.  

 

 

               Cupcake of The Week also to Zaile, a week late. 

 

    7.   Relationships: loving and long term.  Vaillant suggests that this is the factor.  Loving is life-filling, it is motivational.  Because I love another, I exercise, I study, I approach life with moderation and spirit.  After all the data he has evaluated, Vaillant states that a relationship of love is the only thing that really matters in life. 

How are you doing with these 7?

Who is the person you love most in the whole world?  

 Source, Atlantic,   http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200906/

     

Not a cupcake to Kevin, but, from The Community, a $550 gift and a standing ovation for not only his high school graduation, but even more for his years of faithful, reliable help each week.             The Best to you, Kevin, because you are The Best.

Wisdom 18: The night of the passover was known beforehand to our fathers,  that, with sure knowledge of the oaths in which they put their faith,  they might have courage.

Hebrews 11:  Brothers and sisters: Faith is the realization of what is hoped for and evidence of things not seen. Because of it the ancients were well attested.

 

                     

Annette reading from the Book of Wisdom

 

Thanks…     

Music,   Ben  & Shonda

Jackie sharing her thoughts on the readings

 

Outreach: $   160.00

Thanks again, Folks, for doing what you can.

 

 

Mary gets a cookie for her anniversary

 

 

Rosemary's Blessing:

Come, O Dancing God,

Spirit of Life and Love,

of  Beauty and Diversity,

stir up my soul,

bathe me in your light,

and unleash my own spirit

that I may dance with you

and be light for those around me

and reflect your love to all that I meet this week.

 

Edited and adapted from a blessing by Fr. Andrew M. Greeley

 

Welcome in, Everybody, from Jean & John.

 

 

Readings:

Isaiah 66, 18-21,  I come to gather nations of every language..

Psalm :  Go out to all the world and tell the Good News

Hebrews 12, 5-7, 11-13, Endure your trials as discipline

Luke 13, 22-30,  Many will attempt to enter but will not be strong enough.

 

 

 

Welcome in, Everybody, from The Team.

 

Isaiah 66 observations:

Author: Isaiah III.  The book of Isaiah is one of my favorites, as you have heard me say often enough.   Some beautiful passages.  Remember, 3 primary authors are responsible for the 66 chapters, and we are reading the very last. 

This book is one of the Big 3 O.T. prophets, along with Jeremiah and Ezekiel. Why? because the works are the longest.  There are 12 minor prophets.

 

 

Trouble in the bleachers with Richard & Mike.

 

Time of composition: ca. 555 to 777,   The Assyrians annihilated the northern Jewish provence or 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. 

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 catastrophic mess of Jerusalem that greeted the Jews on their return from Babylon. 

 

 

 

Do I have a deal for you on a almost mint condition red Studebaker.

 

What is the activity of a prophet?  1.  criticism, 2. prediction of dire consequences, 3. consolation.

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

To check out the state of the world, check in with Dona, Bernadette, and Tera (from Iran).

 

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.

 

 

 

 

 

Welcome in, Jim & John.

 

Go Out to All the World and tell the Good News

You all know well  that I love to celebrate birthdays, like we do here at our Sunday celebrations.  I have carried this over to the 6:00 A.M. spin classes at the J.

Consequently, I am often asking people when is their birthday.  Then at the end of our session I get up front and tell everybody that this person is celebrating a birthday, and give them a BelVita cookie package.  I used to try to sing, but gave it up because singing is not my gift.

 

 

 

With only her first cataract removed, Connie can see!

 

There is a lady named Haya.  I don’t know her last name..  I only know that I am touched and humbled by her.  She is probably 5’1”, and has a scar on the back of her right shoulder.  She and I are the same age part of every year.

Because I am intrigued and humbled by the background & history of these Jewish people, I often ask a person how their family was effected by the Holocaust.   With Haya having the same age as I have, I was especially curious to know what she was doing while I was growing up in University Park.  So I asked.

 

 

Who are those two characters messing with Ben?

 

Turns out that Haya and her family lived in a small town in Poland.  Her father and his two brothers had a small business.  When the Germans took over Poland in late ’39,  Haya’s dad took the family and ran to Marseilles.  The brothers decided to ride it out.

As things got worse Haya’s dad took the family to the Holy Land even before the Jewish State’s establishment.  Finally the family migrated to New York City and somehow got settled there despite some anti-imigration sentiment in the government.  Haya,  therefore, grew up in NY City.  She never heard what exactly happened to her two uncles and their families.

 

Candle Lighting team in operation.

 

Now days Haya seems to be in a good place.  I think she has a son and a daughter and maybe her husband is deceased.  Whatever, Haya has a  house in the Glen Lakes gated community on Walnut Hill and Central, a condo in Manhattan, and a condo in Tel Aviv.  She seems to bounce around all three locations.  So on her birthday, which is August 25, I announced to the class and gave her a BelVita.

 On her way  out she whispered to me, “You made this the happiest day of my life.”   I was stunned and touched.

 

 

Thanks, Tom & Denni, Karen & John for bringing up our gifts

 

 I cannot believe what I just heard.   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?   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 The Good News.   I want to know her story.

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

 

 

Elevation time.

 

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,  according to a minister here in Dallas,  God punished the people in N.O. for their badness.  Remember Katrina?

Pretty much this opinion of God has been discarded.   Is sickness a penance for a sinful, bad life?   Is this why I got Parkinson?

 

 

 

 

 

Today's Communion team.

 

Me?  I believe and I propose that people are The Good News, that you are The Good News.  God takes Delight in you

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

Haya?  Her birthday will be celebrated tomorrow morning.

 

 

 

Who is this scary person, Harper?

Readings:

Acts 14, 21-27,   From there they sailed to Antioch.

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

Revelation  21, 1-5,  He will dwell with them and they will be his people and God himself will always be with them.  I, John, had a vision of a great multitude.

John 13, 31-35,  A new commandment, love one another.

 

 

Acts, a couple of observations:

1.  Remember the three rings of Acts, Jerusalem, Palestine, the World (Mediterranean & Rome)?   Since we are at Chapter 28 of 28, you can guess in what ring we are today, yes, the World.  Paul and Barnabas are in the region of Greece.
2. The author, the same as the Gospel of Luke.
3. The date again, before 70

 

A New Commandment, Love One Another

I want to talk this morning about the new commandment, love one another. 

It has been a couple of rough weeks, folks. 

First there was the Boston Marathon.  I have been at those finish lines, like running the Mexico City Marathon.   I know both the exhilaration and the fatigue, like after the Hotter N’ Hell 100 mile bike ride in Wichita Falls the end of August.

Then, West.  I just happened to be in West the afternoon of the evening of the explosion.  I wonder about the delightful ladies at the famous Czech bakery, where we had stopped for kolaches

Then a story that has been gnawing at me, the 10 year old boy starved to death by his father and step mother.  At times I cannot get this nightmare out of my mind.

See enough of this and I could get pessimistic and lose perspective on people.  Which is why I don’t normally listen to local news.  Which is why I want to tell you 3 antidote stories of loving one another.

The first is about a Plano boy Rex Burkhead, who has just graduated from Nebraska.  I found this article Friday in the Dallas Morning News.  Anyone know him?  The article does not say which high school he attended.

In 2011, Rex had lunch with the Hoffman family of Plano as part of his Nebraska football team’s outreach program.  Why the Hoffmans?  They have a 7 year old son, Jack, who has had brain cancer for 2 years.

As a result of the lunch, Rex and Jack have become buddies.  Even the parents of both families have become good friends. 3 weeks ago the Nebraska football team staged its spring intersquad game.  Little Jack, wearing Rex’s 22 on a small jersey, lined up in Rex’s position in the backfield, was handed the ball on a play, and he ran 70 yards for a touchdown.  Everyone cheered Jack and Rex’s video of Jack’s run became an Internet sensation

Rex Burkhead exemplifies loving one another.

This even happens in our very own community in so many ways.

For instance, I know one anonymous person who cleans houses once in a while.  One elderly family, in particular, she visits once a week.  It takes her at most an hour to clean the house.  But she always plans to stay with the couple about 3 more hours to talk with them and do little helps. 

I know, also, of a couple of women from our community who visit Rita once or twice a week to help her and especially to change her pressure sox, which she cannot do herself. 

This is living it out, loving one another.

Give me one way you love another.

Reference: Dallas Morning News, Sports section, Friday, April 26, 2013