Readings: Exodus 19, 2-6; Psalm 100; Romans 5, 6-11; Matthew 9, 36-10, 8.

Exodus: The second book of the Torah or Pentateuch, following the book of Genesis.  The book describes probably the greatest event in Israel's history, the departure of the people from Egypt under the leadership of Moses.  Today's selection is simply Yahweh's reminder to the people that if they are faithful and good to him, they will prosper.

A Fathers' Day Story

When I was a Jesuit and lived in Tanzania about 10 miles west of the mountain, Kilimanjaro there was a small Jesuit house.  I used it as a base, coming back to it after months traveling around the country giving seminars to nuns & priests. 

One Sunday afternoon I wanted to go up the mountain about 7000 feet to a Capuchin monastery & convent where my team & I gave a lot of the seminars.  I took my travel bag, walked to the town bus park, and boarded a rattle trap old bus just departing for a little village just below the monastery, a trip that would take me 90 minutes.

Half way down the road to the cut off to go up the mountain the old bus pooped out.  Everybody gets off and stands around.  Shortly, miracle of miracles, another old rust bucket of a bus headed up the mountain comes along.  Most did not want to pay two fares, so they stayed.  I, however, hopped on an already overloaded antique. We take the cut off and headed up the mountain.  The bus huffs & puffs, the gears scream & groan, steam starts seeping from under the hood.  You guessed it: the bus dies just as the road begins to seriously ascend.  

It is now about 6:00 or 6:15.  Because we are right on the equator and twilight always lasts just 20-30 minutes, I know I have only about half an hour to get to the monastery.  I have a decision: stay on the switch back road and take an hour or take shortcuts which may get me there in 30 minutes.  I chose the shortcuts. 

30 minutes did not get me to the monastery.  In fact, it got me into total blackness.  I could see almost nothing.  I know generally where I am but I cannot see even the trail.  Somewhere amid the darkness through the forest of banana trees that are cultivated at this level, I see a dim light from a kerosene lantern and head toward it. It is a family's hut.

I walk up speaking the Swahili word for 'hello,' 'hodi.'  A lady comes to the door and is very hospitable even though I must have scared her.  However, she is Catholic like almost all the members of her Chaga tribe which lives on the mountain.  She is used to white priests. 

I tell her, of course, that I am headed for the monastery & cannot find the way because of the dark. She calls to one of her children, a little boy of probably 6 years.  She tells him to take me to monastery and off we go up the trail.

I can hardly see this little kid and he just zooms silently along climbing all the time.  We pass other little family huts with faint lights, we walk in total darkness, and eventually he brings me to a point from which I can see the lights of the monastery above.

I thank this shy little boy, hug him probably, and he disappears back down the trail while I walk up to the monastery.  I  never saw him or his mother again, and I could hardly find their house in the daytime.  

For me this story has a metaphor quality.  It is like a parable.  College educated priest lost in the dark and guided to the light by a little boy.

Sometimes we are the guide, the nurturer.  Other times we are the priest in the dark who needs guidance and the guide may be a small creature, a child.

I see the child guiding us to three things: to simplicity, to interdependence, and to play.

• A child may like a lot of Stuff, but can self entertain with the simplest toy. I saw so many kids in Tanzania play soccer with a home made ball.
• A child cannot exist along, independent of others. As we get older we love our independence. We shun co-dependence. The child teaches us to interdepend.
• A child especially helps me to value & engage in play. The Type A does not play.

We celebrate Fathers' Day today, which is mostly a celebration of the nurturing side of dad.  For this moment, you dads, how do you come to greater light through kids?

AUDIO: http://mysite.verizon.net/reso7rjy/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/2008-06-15.mp3

In honor of Fathers' Day we have some helpful communication hints.  Nobody ever gave me such valuable information before my marriage. 

Download 9_words_women_use.doc

 

Readings:

Exodus 32, 7-11, 13-14,  So the Lord relented in the punishment he had threatened.

Psalm 951,  I will rise and go to my father. 

 1 Timothy, 1, 12-17,  I am grateful to him who has strengthened me.  

Luke 15, 1-32,   The Great Parable & story of the Prodigal Son.  (A superb story.)

 

 

Says Genevieve, "Wellll, Everybody, just come on in."

 

Exodus observations :

What : a story, a long parable.  It has 2 parts, the exodus or exit from Egypt and the years wandering in the desert.

Who: the work is all about Moses, but he did not compose it.  Rather, it was put together by a committee during the Babylonian Captivity, 555 before Christ.

When: it appears that the purpose of the work was to encourage the people during the Babylonian Captivity.  It is not history and borrows stories from other cultures.  For instance, the parting of the Red Sea comes from a Mesopotamian creation myth and the 10 Commandments resemble the Code of Hammurabi.

Our Subject: The people have been bad, God is mad at them, and Moses defends the people.

Sources: Good News Bible, The New Interpreter’s Study Bible, Wikipedia

 

 

Kevin, too, says, "Grab a seat, Folks, we are ready to start."

 

The Prodigal Son: A Work of Art

I want to talk about my favorite parable of the whole Bible.  Two special notes to start with:

1.  The author has carefully crafted a work of literary art.  Not history, not reality, but parable, story.
2.   Purpose: to show that God loves us unconditionally, not conditionally. 

 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. 

The final question: can you believe in an unconditionally loving God?

 

 

Begin In the Name of the Father…

 

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.  A conversion, not quite.   He makes up his little speech and heads home.  He is hungry to the point of dying.  Do this, he calculates,  or die.  Many listening Jews would say, Die.  

 

 

Offertory with Tom, Teresa, and Tim Quinn.

 

 

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.  People who emphasize conditional love point out that the son at least came back.  Despite this point, all the other elements of the parable point to a father with unconditional love.
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 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. 

 

 

Daddy, I think it is time I start playing this guitar.

 

 

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.  

 

 

Thanks, Georgie, for being such a great help to Buddy.

 

 

A word about the older son, because we so often identify with him.  Two additional and final points.

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.  

 

 

Zoe, we got to get you up to light the candles again some time. 

 

 

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

I had once a lengthy discussion with another priest who insisted that the father's love was conditional, conditional on the son choosing to return.  I still believe that the love was unconditional.  I am influenced by the two previous parables, the lost sheep & the lost coin. Luke is an artist.   It is no coincidence that the two little parables both emphasize the Hound of Heaven concept.    

 

 

Tori at the play station.

 

 

How does this image of God reflect your image of God?   Can you believe that our God loves you and me unconditionally?

 

Source: The Liberating Stories of Jesus, Francis Vanderwall

 

 

Peace!

 

  

Readings:  Sirach 3, 17-29; Psalm 68, God, in Your Goodness, You have made a Home for the Poor;  Hebrews 12, 18-24; Luke 14, 1-14

 

 

Introduction to the Readings

 

 

 

The first reading today is from the Book Sirach, which used to be better known as Ecclesiasticus.  It was written about the year 180 BCE by Jesus, son of Elcazar, son of Sira, and later translated by his grandson into Greek.

 

 

Sirach was a highly respected scribe and teacher, a person who traveled quite a bit, may even have been a diplomat to foreign courts.  Later in his life he started a school in Jerusalem where he tried to pass on to the young people the great love he had of the Scriptures combined with what he had learned from his own experiences about life. 

 

 

 

The book is part of the Wisdom literature and the reason for its older title, Ecclesiasticus is that in the past it was one of the most used and quoted books by the Church!   Our reading today fits well with the topic in the gospels, humility.

 

 

 

The second reading is from the Letter to the Hebrews.  The author is unknown, although for a long period of time it was assumed to be Paul.  But today most scholars agree that the style is too different and the Greek used is the best in the New Testament. 

 

 

 

The overall message of the letter is one of encouragement to hang in and not get too complacent with the faith.  Probably written late in the first century, the main theme is the priesthood and sacrifice of Jesus.  This is the letter where we come across the many references to Jesus as the High Priest. 

 

 

 

I sometimes wonder if this focus was due to the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem (ca. 70 C.E.) and the end of the priesthood as the Jewish people would have known it, and so to fill the void the author holds up Jesus and his sacrifice as the one true sacrifice. 

 

 

 

Another important theme is the pilgrimage of the people of God to the heavenly Jerusalem, and it is on this topic that our reading is taken from for today.

 

 

Homily

 

 

The theme of the readings today is humility.   From a careful reading of the gospel, I am left a little confused because it seems to me that the main point Jesus could be making is how to get more recognition by being humble.  That said, since I have nothing good to say about it, I want instead to take advantage of the fact that today we are going to be baptizing Emma and welcoming her into our community, and so would like to offer some thoughts about baptism. 

 

 

 

If we go right back to the earliest days of Christianity, we find baptism!  Early in Mark’s gospel Jesus is baptized by John in the Jordan.  In Matthew’s gospel the apostles are instructed by Jesus just before his ascension to “go teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of Father, Son and Holy Spirit”.   And through out the Acts of the Apostles it becomes clear that baptism was the way to join this community. 

 

 

 

It was the Rite of Entry!  And all of the people who were being baptized did so after hearing the message or the teaching as Matthew puts it.  If kids were baptized, it was only because the family was joining. 

 

 

 

It wasn’t until the fifth century when St. Augustine stated that only the baptized could get into heaven that the focus and practice shifted.  This of course created a huge pastoral problem for those who died before being baptized.  It was only in the 12^th century that Peter Abelard came up with the notion of Limbo, for those who had died unbaptized. 

 

 

 

One of the consequences of all of this was that religion was taught to kids, and not to adults!!  When was the last time any of you were at a formal class or session on your faith, outside of mass?  Think about it! 

The catholic faith as most of us have it was given at a kid level.  This might have been fine at a time when most adults were not educated beyond the 6^th grade, if even that, but today most adults have at least completed high school and a large number even college. 

 

 

 

Let me be clear, when I take about “faith” I am specifically referring to our personal response to God, our relationship with God.  Our acceptance of the invitation from God, to love God.  The information stuff, the doctrines, etc., are secondary.  When we were baptized as infants, someone else made that decision for us.  Today while Emma is being baptized, can we take a moment to reflect on the decision made for us, and make it for ourselves!  What does it mean in your life today, that you are baptized?

 

 

Picture 1:   Emma's welcome into the community baptism

 

Picture 2:   Emma's family, godparents Bobby & Tanya, parents Tom & Beth

 

Picture 3:   Sisters, Megan & Emely Kite.  Megan off to teach in Spain for a year.

 

Picture 4:  Chloe

 

Picture 5:  Jackie & Cathy accepting from Mike our monthly $2000 donation to the CCAC

 

 Readings:  

 Isaiah  50, 4-9,  I gave my back to those who beat me.

  Psalm 116,  I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living.

 James 2, 14-18,   What good is it if someone says he has faith but does not have works?

Mark 8, 27-35,  Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself. 

 

Harper and…

Isaiah Observations: 

Date of Composition:

A picture of the time span:

        1. Solomon (he of Wisdom, the temple builder, 700 wives, & 300 mistresses–if he really existed) dies ca. 900-1000 before Christ.

         2. The Hebrew kingdom divides into 2 parts, the north, Israel (Galilee today), the south, Judah, around 900 before Christ.

        3.  Assyria destroys Israel and obliterates the 10 Hebrew tribes located there, ca. 700.

        4.  Babylon carries into captivity the Hebrews of Judah, the 2 remaining tribes, ca. 600.

Contemporary scholars conjecture that this work could have been composed over a period of 400 years, i.e., 700-300.  It obviously begins by predicting disasters, typical of prophets.  They happen, 2 of the biggest tragedies in Jewish history up to the Romans' destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem (70 years after Christ) and the Holocaust, that is, the Assyrian destruction & the Babylonian Captivity.  4 big tragedies.

Author (s): obviously it was composed by numerous people.  Isaiah himself is considered behind chapters 1-39.  In fact, line 1 identifies Isaiah as the author of the ideas.

What is it about: 1^st, 2^nd, & 3^rd Isaiah

1^st Isaiah, Chapters 1-39: predict doom for the Hebrews because they have not been faithful to their one god.

2^nd Isaiah, Chapters 40-55:  this & the remaining chapters are called The Book of Consolation.  They try to assure the people who are now in exile that God will restore them to their former glory & peace.  In fact, in chapter 45 the composer even mentions the name of Cyrus, the king of the Persians who defeats Babylon & sends the Hebrews back to Jerusalem.  So the composer knew of Cyrus and a date can be narrowed down.

This 2^nd  Isaiah section presents 4 suffering servant songs, #3 being our selection today.  Jews see the servant to be the Hebrew people/nation.  Christians see the servant to be Christ.  Isaiah 2 is considered maybe the most influential O.T. book.  On Isaiah 2 Mark built much of his gospel, especially the story of the crucifixion.

Handel's Messiah uses 2nd Isaiah for its lyrics.

3^rd Isaiah, Chapter 56-66: more assurances of a return to peace & glory.

 

Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself and take up his cross

I would like to say a few words this morning about denying myself and taking up my cross.

A story from our CO trip last week.

The day is the third of our trip to Rocky Mountain National Park.  The 7 of us have left a delightful campsite and are headed over a pass, Flat Top Pass, right on the Continental Divide, about 12 thousand feet high.  We are climbing one to two thousand feet. 

As we climb the weather is getting nastier & nastier, cloudy skies, wind, and cold.  We come across a series of what I describe as receding ridges.  I see a ridge up ahead.  I get to it only find another ridge 200 yards further up.  We must have had 15 of these.  

It begins to sleet and rain.  The group of us is stretched out over a few hundred yards.

Suddenly I look up and see somebody coming down the trail by himself.   Even from a distance I see he has on only running shorts and a light pack, not like ours.  He is jogging down this rough trail and has already crossed over the pass in the sleet, rain, and wind. 

I am astounded.   Rose Banzhaf says that his whole trip is about 30 miles.  She calls him The Mean Running Machine. 

I mention this event to make a distinction about denying myself and taking up my cross.  Unhealthy and healthy.  Observations.

 

Unhealthy.  In my early years as a Jesuit I think we had some unhealthy attitudes and behaviors influenced by this demand.  I am embarrassed to admit that, yes, we had little scourges that we were supposed to use on our backs and we had chains with little spikes we were supposed to wear on our thighs. 

Once we joined the Jesuit community we never expected to return home.  I did not return for 7 years.  I came back to teach for 3 years at Jesuit, not go home.  At the time I never thought anything about it.

In my years as a spiritual director especially for priests & nuns I found a lot of guilt for not being hard enough on myself.  I personally can still feel guilty if I take a 15 minute morning break or a day off.  Rosemary is good for me on this.  She calls me to relax.

Healthy.  Self discipline to achieve a goal.  The runner obviously has some kind of goal.  Look at high school sports and how strenuously so many kids drive themselves.  Look at education, the discipline to achieve a Ph.D., to be a doctor.  What about Alcoholics Anonymous or giving up smoking?  The reward: inner peace.

Finally, let me remind you of that gospel dynamic I mention so often, infinite demand plus infinite acceptance.

I would suggest that the runner I met at 12 thousand feet in sleet was denying himself and carrying his cross.  Hopefully he has a healthy goal. 

How do you deny yourself and take up your cross? 

 

 

 

Readings:

Jeremiah  20, 7-9,  You duped me, Lord, and I let myself be duped.

 Psalm 63,   My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord, my God.

Romans, 12, 1-2,  Do not conform youself to this age.

Matthew 16, 21-27,  Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.

 

 

Jeremiah observations–

What:  I think Jeremiah is my second favorite O.T. prophet, behind Isaiah, mostly because he makes whining and complaining into an art form.  I need to take lessons from him.  Not that he did not have enough to complain about.   Jeremiah is one of the Big 3 with Isaiah and Ezekiel.  He is called the ‘broken hearted prophet.’  Here is why.

Time:  Jeremiah lived and prophesied in Jerusalem around 600 before Christ.  Why is this important?  It is some 50 years before the Babylonian Captivity.  Jeremiah had a heart rending life predicting punishment of death and destruction for the Hebrews for their sinful, selfish ways.  Jeremiah predicted disaster, and disaster came in the person of Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon-Bagdad.

Jeremiah wore a wooden yoke as a visual aid to his message.  He may have been ultimately killed by the Hebrews.

Today:  Jeremiah is in top form.

 

 

            Sienna says, "Hi, Folks, Welcome in."

 

Deny Yourself, Take up Your Cross, and Follow Me

I want to talk this morning, folks, about the line in Matthew, Deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me.  I confess right off, I hate this line.  Can you imagine a loving God creating people to deny themselves and take up a life of suffering? 

Matthew’s line can be very tricky.  It can be approached healthily or in a rather sick way.  I can witness to the latter in my own life.  I have already described how as a young Jesuit I was expected to do penance and deny myself in various ways, like the practice of using little whips to scourge our backs and little chains with points to wear around our thighs.  This was supposed to bring me closer to God.

 

 

I can laugh at this now, but I am humbled at how easily I can be snookered.  When I read this line and others like it in the Bible and remember my experiences, I now see the presence of an ancient philosophy that still influences a lot of religious activity today.  The philosophy: dualism. 

The idea is simple.  Reality comes in pairs, hot & cold, dark & light, order & chaos, and, in particular for this discussion, body & soul or flesh & spirit.  So far so good. 

 

 

The trouble enters with a judgment about the flesh & spirit.  Specifically, flesh is bad, spirit is good, superior.  Consequently, so that my spirit may reach an elevated plane of purity & perfection, and ultimately closer union with God, I attempt to subdue my flesh by disregarding the body's needs, ultimately aiming to live without it.  Do not give in to pleasure.  How about that!

A couple of facts.  Dualism is identified as far back as 1000 years B.C. and came out of Zoroastrianism, a religion that worshiped one god and believed in an afterlife.  Did it come from Egypt as so much did at that time?  No, from Persia, the area we call Iran today.  Zoroastrianism was widespread until Muhammad arrived on the scene around 650 and established Islam.  Through the ages lots of people picked up on dualism, for example, Plato, Augustine, Descartes, and the early Christians, like Matthew.

However, there is a healthy approach to the line.  A story to exemplify the healthy.

 

 

Way back when I was living at Jesuit and working as a psychotherapist, a single, divorced mother came with her son, Michael, one day and basically said, “help!”  She had a really active boy about 3^rd grade.  He and his neighbor buddy, a black kid, used to race around our neighborhood and the high school on their bikes.  Great kids.

The years passed and I got to know the Michael really well.  One afternoon when Michael was in 7^th grade at St. Monica, we were watering trees with the white truck and old red water trailer.  I don’t remember who was driving us along the medians, but at one point I can remember to this day, he said to me that if he did not make the entrance exam at Jesuit, his life was no good.  

 

 

I did not say anything at the moment.  But later I told him that thinking was baloney.  I said Jesuit did not want kids who said their lives were no good.  If he made it, Jesuit would be a better place.  If he did not, another school would be a better place because they had a tremendous gift in their school. 

He did not get in. 

So Michael went to Bishop Dunne.  He played sports, worked hard to make good grades, and kept in contact with a neat guy who was the admissions director at Jesuit.

He got in as a sophomore.  He did excellently.

 

 

Next Michael wanted to go to A&M and join the corps.  He did not get in.  He does not test well.  So he went to Tech and joined the Air Force ROTC.  After 4 years there he invited me to the ceremony where he was to get his lieutenant bars.  

The ceremony was in a big auditorium.  Michael was the last.  On the stage with him were his mom and his girl friend, Lydia.  At one point in his personal ceremony Michael turns to the whole auditorium, asks their patience for a moment, turns back to Lydia, drops on a knee, and asks her to marry him. 

Talk about blowing the roof off of the auditorium.  Everybody went crazy.  She said yes. 

 

 

 

Now, Michael has long finished his flight training, part of which took place right up at the scene of the Hotter N’ Hell, Wichita Falls.  He has been stationed all over the world, like Aviano, Italy, where we got the name of our dog, Aviana, after a visit there.   He has a little boy, a beautiful wife in Lydia, and a platinum career as a jet pilot.  

Michael has denied himself a lot of quite legitimate pleasures to achieve some healthy goals.  Even now he continues to keep himself in good physical and intellectual shape.  

So, how do you deny yourself and take up a cross?   

 

  

 

Readings:

Isaiah 62, 1-5,  The Lord delights in you.

Psalm 96,  Proclaim his marvelous deeds to all the nations.

1 Corinthians 12, 4-11, There are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but the same Spirit.

John 2, 1-11, There was a wedding at Cana in Galilee.

 For those who don’t have a decent Bible or a book of the readings, here are two links that I use, The Bible at Your Fingertips (http://st-luke-church.org/bible-at-finger-tips.php) and USCCB, The New American Bible (http://www.usccb.org/).  

The difference?  The first is Protestant more or less, and the second is officially Catholic and has the 12 little books in between the O.T. & N.T., called Deuterocanonical or Apocrypha. 

Both are good translations.     

 Homily for January 20

 One of the three summer canoe trips that I used to organize each year at St. Mark was for the 13 and 14 year old children.  It was a three-day trip where we put in the Brazos River just south of Cleburne off highway 67 below the Boy Scout camp.

On the third day all the adult team was aware of a stop we would make an hour or so before we would board the bus for home.  The young people would be tired and hot as they approached some water gently pouring over some limestone at probably 5 or 10 gallons a minute like a miniature waterfall. 

They got terribly excited when they were told that it was a natural spring, cold and drinkable. The kids would take turns standing under it with their mouths open. 

2000 years ago a traveling Jesus and his disciples would have loved such water.  They would have used it drink and to dilute the wine that they had with them.  Travelers usually didn’t drink water unless it was living, flowing from a spring or recent rain.  They drank diluted wine.

The OT Stories were written around things like living waters, wine and vineyards.  Since the gospels fulfilled the expectation of the OT for the coming of the Messiah, within them these symbols took on a deeper spiritual meaning. The vine became the symbol of Christ, living waters the symbol for the good news.

Since the word, wine, is present in most, if not all, of the books in the OT, we should expect that the wine in today’s gospel would be a symbol for something terribly important…and it is.

In the Mark gospel we are presented with this metaphor.  You don’t pour new wine into an old wineskin.  Anyone who ever left a wet handball or golf glove in the sun knows why.  You would find it stiff and hardened.  If you tried to pour new wine into them, the cracks in the leather would become revealed.  The wine would be lost; the leather also would be of no value.

Therefore, Place new wine into new wineskins!  In the Story where you find that metaphor, you are introduced to the hardened hearts of the Pharisees and scribes who had rejected the good news and therefore the Holy Spirit that flowed forth from those living waters.

Remember the Holy Spirit and the unclean spirits cannot coexist within a heart.  A new wineskin is the heart of someone who has repented and welcomed the new wine, the Holy Spirit.

So, now you pretty much know the meaning of the parable about the wedding feast in Cana of Galilee.  The old wine gave out because God sent to us his only begotten Son with new wine. The empty jars used in the purification rite within Judaism that had been empty, barren, now would be fulfilled by living waters, to the brim…from which would pour forth the Holy Spirit. 

What one thing would I like for you to take away from the gospel today?  

The Greek word for the servants who assisted Jesus in today’s gospel is used for male or female, diakonia. We are to understand that they were manifesting the Holy Spirit to those at the wedding feast of Cana by their words and actions. 

You might have felt distanced by Nancy’s 2^nd reading if you were wondering who those people are in our assembly.  We are those people!   Those who proclaimed the Word; those who serve at the table, those who distribute from the table; those who wash and fill the cups; those who bake the bread; those who set the table with gifts; those who lead us in song; those who give and distribute our gifts to those in need; those who visit the sick; those who extend the sign of peace to one another.

We are his body, blessed and broken for each other.