Sunday Homily January 22, 2017, 3rd Ordinary Time

Readings: Exodus 17, 3-7; Psalm 95; Romans 5, 1-8; John 4, 5-42

Exodus: After two weeks in the first book of the Bible, today we move to the second. The book basically tells the heroic struggle of Moses to get the Hebrew people out of Egypt, where they had gone because of the drought in their land some decades or centuries before.  Moses is considered the author.

Today’s reading makes an enormous jump from the story in Genesis about Abraham’s call to an episode after the exodus where the people are angry with Moses for taking them out of Egypt into the drought of the desert.  See how Yahweh saves the people and Moses.

Whatt??  You Want a Date??!!

Decades ago when my younger sister Kathey & I were little kids, we used to love Saturday nights.  On those nights we had fun harassing poor young baby sitters.  Or, later as we grew older, we had fun causing mischief by ourselves.  Because every Saturday night our parents went out to have fun.

This is one of my most favorite memories & stories that I have mentioned to people getting married for the past 30 plus years I’ve been doing weddings.  I remember a time when I must have been around second or third grade.  The second world war was over and my dad was probably going bankrupt.  He had worked before the war in paper products.  When the war broke out and paper was scarce he opened a coffee & donut shop on Ervay St. in down town Dallas.  The Mercantile Bank was being built and he was doing well.  When the bank finally opened his business went in the hole because all the workmen moved elsewhere. 

I had started school at University Park Elementary, then moved to Christ the King when they built a school.  I remember being anxious that I was going to have to return to University Park, because we could not afford the Catholic school.  I actually never did return.

All during this time I can remember my folks going out on Saturday nights.  They had a lot of friends, of all sorts of religions, something odd for those days, thinking back on it.  Occasionally the group would come to our house those Saturdays and I enjoyed that just as much.  The people were accepting and fun to hang around. 

I think this was part of what kept my parents going.  They had fun and they had fun at least once a week.  I often tell married couple, "You have fun once a week, and you won’t have to end up in Stack’s therapy office." 

One of the fun things my parent’s loved, I heard mentioned yesterday morning on The People’s Pharmacy, 6:00 A.M., Saturday (note credit).  A doctor describing how to live a long & healthy life suggested dancing as an excellent form of exercise.  My mom & dad, especially my dad, loved to dance.  I wish I could see how they did swing dancing, which was popular during their time.

I often ask couples who come to my office when was the last time they had fun.  They look at me like I am loco.  This is Dallas.  People work and work.  There is no time for fun.  Fun will come when we retire.  In Dallas people lose their health to make money, then lose their money to restore their health.

Consequently, the fourth suggestion for having a great marriage is to have a weekly date.  Get some friends together, go out, go dancing.  Date!  Once a week!  Good times, bad times.

When was your last date, the next?

AUDIO:  http://mysite.verizon.net/reso7rjy/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/2008-02-24.mp3

Readings: 

2 Kings 5, 14-17,  Naaman went down and plunged into the Jordan seven times.

Psalm 98,  The Lord has revealed to the nations his saving power.

2 Timothy 2, 8-13,  The word of God is not chained.

 Luke 17, 11-19  Where are the other 9?

Emma and Beth arriving.

2 Kings observations:

Time of the events: 900 B.C.

Time when written: 550 B.C., during the Babylonian captivity.

Subject of 1 Kings: This book continues the history of the kings
taking up with the death of King David and continuing through the story of
David & Bathsheba's son Solomon.  He builds the famous Temple of Solomon.  After his death the
nation divides into the northern & southern states, Israel in the north, Judah
in the south (including Jerusalem;
remember by the "J's").

Kevin arriving ready to work.

Subject of 2 Kings: This book continues the history of the decline
of the two states until Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon defeats the people. 

Subject of our chapter 5 (read it all, it is delightful): one of
the leaders of the Syrian-Babylonian army goes to visit the prophet of the day,
Elisha.  Naaman, the general, has leprosy.  Note the twist of the
story at the end.  Thanks is a theme of this selection and it sets the
stage for Luke's story about gratitude.  Three characters: Naaman, his little slave girl, and Elisha.

The Team, ready.

Gratitude

This morning I would like to talk about the theme coming from Luke’s
story and the neat little story about Naaman, the general with leprosy.  Specifically, gratitude. 

To put together a story, I looked back over the week for special gifts,
events I am grateful for.  I thought of
our ROMEO lunch Friday, of my 2 French sessions, and the fact that my nice skin
doctor, Sara Scott, gave me a pass. 

Freddie with his granddad, John.

Despite how grateful I am for these events, two others really stood out.

Friday night Rosemary and I were privileged to be part of a special
celebration.  It was the marriage of
Kristin Urbanczyk and her fiance’ Josh 
Eddings.  You all know that I take
delight in celebrating weddings and get to do quite a lot, especially now that
I am not officially Catholic.

Zoe.

As precious as all of them are, it is a unique jewel of an event when I
get to celebrate the wedding of a person whom I have known since
childhood.   Kristin I have known for maybe 18-20
years.  She used to throw water balloons at
me when she was a supposedly nice little girl.

Folks, it does not get better than last night for me. 

Torri and her granddad, Gil.

Thursday morning before this event took place, Rosemary and I went for one
of our early morning bike rides down to and around The Lake, our beloved White
Rock.  At one point we are riding south
on the path at the edge of the lake and along East Lather Drive.  We have just passed in front of the
Arboretum.

As we approach the bridge just before Garland Road, the tarmac path curves
left then right and is wet from earlier sprinklers.  I am about 30 years ahead of Rosemary.  I go up on the bridge and for some reason I
look back.

Rich with his birthday Cupcake.

What I see scares me to death. 
Rosemary is sitting on the path, her bike down, and people are running
to her side.  I turn around and race  back. 
She has slid out on the wet tarmac. 
She has hit the back of her head on the path but not broken her
helmet.  She says she is okay and will
walk on to the boat house over near the dam. 
I race back to the car, return, and tell her I really would like for her
to call our M.D. right there in the car.

Later he checks her out and says nothing is wrong.  Just bruises and sore ribs. 

Folks, I am so grateful and cannot give thanks enough.

Celeste with her birthday Cupcake.

 A few observations.

First.  The temptation is to think I am one of the
nine who did not return to thank Jesus. Yes probably & No, also.   I would suggest
again: we are both.  Lots of times we forget to thank.  Lots of times
we thank. 

Second.  There could be symbolism in the nine and
one.  Perhaps I am nine tenths ungrateful and one tenth grateful.  Is this a pretty normal proportion? A lot of times, however, I am not so much ungrateful
as just insensitive, totally unaware.  Perhaps the lepers who did not
return just figured they were lucky and went on their way.  The other guy
realized he had been given a gift by that stranger and wanted to respond.

Jesus tells him his faith has saved him.  I would
suggest that his gratitude transformed him.

Kristin and Josh with their honeymoon Cupcake.

Third.  How is it possible to rearrange the
percentages?  Practice.  Practice make perfect. Rosemary & I have a favorite little practice that we do
every night.  I've mentioned it before. We ask each other what were the blessings
of the day.  I recommend this. I even recommend it for sitting alone,
while savoring the first coffee in the morning, driving or riding the DART to
work & back, getting ready to go to school.  Simple question: what
were my blessings today, yesterday, or this week?

You may start now: what were your three biggest blessings
this week?

Connie and John coming ready to video and shoot pix.

Readings: Jeremiah 1, 4-19; Psalm 71, I will Sing of Your Salvation; 1 Corinthians 12, 31-13,13; Luke 4, 21-30

The Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time – Reflection on Readings

Jeremiah.  One of the great prophets.  Spent almost 50 years active as a prophet. at least from 627 to 585.  So we know, time wise we are back before and during the fall of Jerusalem.  I guess, when you are in the middle of a very busy road, you are going to get run over, and if we look at a map of where the kingdom of Judah was, back then, we see that to the north and north east were the Assyrians and Babylonians and to the south west were the Egyptians, and as each army marched to do battle with the Egyptians or the Egyptians marched north, they had to pass thru Judah.  And an army does not pass thru without leaving its mark!

By the way, if you ever visit the Sistine Chapel, Jeremiah is part of Michael Angelo’s ceiling.

Jeremiah was at a very difficult time.  The last of the kings of Judah were weak and didn’t have good foreign policies.  Plus, internally there were strong pro-war groups, which caused the kings to not pick their battles wisely.  Our reading today is from the very beginning of Jeremiah’s time and we hear God promising Jeremiah that God will take care of him.

For additional information on Jeremiah visit this site:

http://www.catholic.org/encyclopedia/view.php?id=6299

Our second reading from Paul’s letter to the Corinthians is a favorite of Weddings!  But it is also a very powerful reminder to us of how we should be with one another.

Paul’s Love is…not jealous, rude, etc.  God knows each one of us, and loves us.  We need to get past our poor vision of others by remembering that our eyesight could be off.  Could we be seeing others thru a set of values, which we need to reexamine?  How would we fare if God had our eyesight?

Mike Miller handing over our check to CCAC:

Picture 1:  Our Father with Maggie McGrath  on her birthday, her grandmother Jackie, Tony, and Kevin

Picture 2:  Sacrament of the Sick with Joanne Languell

Picture 3:  Emily Kite with her mom, Julie

Picture 4:  CCAC check for $2000, given by Mike Miller, with Claire & Ray & Frank

Readings:

Acts  15, 1-2, 22-29,   Unless you are circumcised you cannot be saved.

Psalm 67,  Oh, God let all the nations praise you.

Revelation  21, 10-14, 22-23,  The angel took me to a great, high mountain.

John 14, 23-29,  Whoever loves me will keep my word.

Welcome home, Chloe, you are beautiful and special here.

 Acts observations again:

WHO: same as author of Gospel of Luke, Chapter 15 of 28

WHEN: late 60’s, before 70

WHY: To further Paul’s desire to make “The Way” of Jesus’ followers acceptable to people in the Greco-Roman world of his time.

Today’s reading from Chapter 15 of Acts gives us another example of how the followers of Jesus at that time were originally Jewish. We have no documents from the 20 years following Jesus’ death. Scholars conjecture that there were writings from that time that became sources for the authors of the gospels of Matthew and Luke.

Victoria, along with Zoe, they say, Welcome, Everybody."

My Peace I give to you

My Peace I give to you.  What a beautiful gift.  The Best.  How do you find it?   

I would like to talk about finding the peace this morning.  I would propose that the gift is all around us.  It is here in our community, it is in our homes, it is in Tom Thumb, it is in our city.  I would suggest that there are big and little packages of peace.  For example, some little packages that give me peace.

First, taking Aviana, our dog, for a walk.  Rosemary takes Aviana for two or three afternoon walks.  Along the way she gets to know so many of our neighbors. 

Brandon, the guy with all the personality, also says, "Hi, Folks."

I take Aviana for 3 walks in the morning, including her first walk at ca. 4:15.   Want to know what peace is?   Watching her do her business quickly, especially both of them on this 5 minute walk.  It is short because she knows that she will get her breakfast right away afterward. 

Secondly, try biking.  Sometimes riding my bike with Rosemary around White Rock and going down the White Rock Creek Trail, I cannot believe how delightful this is.   On The Trail I often think, 'I cannot really be in Dallas,' the scenery is so beautiful and natural.

Chloe put to work lighting the candles.
 

Thirdly, I find great peace in doing weddings and, in particular, getting together with each couple to plan their wedding.  Just this past Friday and Saturday I spent an hour with two delightful couples. Saturday’s couple was Lisa Anderlick, John and Karen’s daughter.  

These daily and weekly events, while being really profound to me, are what I could call smaller packages of peace.    Want to know about a Big Packages?

Sisters, Jessica and Renee.

First, how can I not be touched with peace every time we all come together?   Remember that morning that it was pouring rain at 9:30?  Rosemary and I both said that few people would find their way here in that storm. 

What happened?  We had 65 plus people.  The kids are a special event of peace.  Our music.   And just everybody.   The peace of our community stays with me all week long. 

The Quinn Girls,  Vivienne, Kiera, & Mikayla.

Secondly, Cinco de Mayo!   What?, you say.  Cinco de Mayo? 

This big Mexican feast is also a special day for Rosemary & me.  We are celebrating our 11th anniversary.  I know you figured Rosemary could not stand to live so long with this old obsessive bachelor.  However, we have made it and each day brings more peace and more fun. 

Another beautiful Sunday thanks to Shonda & Bethany, Ray & David.

One of the fun things  takes place most weekday mornings, when I return from the J at around 7:15.   I wake up Rosemary with coffee and newspaper in hand.  Then I return to the kitchen, get my cup of coffee, and proceed to hop on the bed where we talk and discuss the day.  Aviana is also part of the event.

Unfortunately, even though coffee is supposed to be a stimulant, when I drink it after working out, it has the opposite effect.  Ten minutes and I tell Rosemary I am falling asleep and think I will take a 15 minute nap.  Of course, I get a comment like, “What a fascinating conversationalist you are.”

Remember, Brent, the cupcake is for Reggie, your Souls Harbor manager and recovery story–his birthday.

What is the response to these little and big packages of peace?  Two things.   Awareness and Gratitude.

Where do you find The Peace? 

Readings:

Zechariah  9, 9-10,   Rejoice heartily, shout for joy.

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

Romans 8, 9, 11-13,  You are in the spirit.

Matthew  11, 25-30,  Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest.

Emma says, "Come in, Everybody, Welcome."

Zechariah:  Zechariah is the 11th of the 12 Minor Prophets and lived just when the Hebrews were released from the 70 year long Babylonian Captivity, in other words around 555 B.C. He is in Jerusalem and encourages the people to rebuild the temple.

He is called a minor prophet only because his little work has simply 14 chapters, unlike the Big 3, Isaiah, Jeremiah, & Ezekiel, who have many chapters, in fact 66 for Isaiah.

He was a favorite of the N.T. writers because he is rich in messiah predictions.  Today we have one of those visions.   You might picture how this message is coming across.  The people have been crushed, they have been slaves in Babylon, and the Jerusalem they have returned to is nothing but disaster. 

Sophia, also, says, "Hi, Everybody, Welcome."

Psalm 145, 8-9: here it is again, The Terrific Line: "The Lord is gracious & merciful, slow to anger and abounding in love."  Watch for it.

July 4, Independence Day

July 4, 1776, Declaration of Independence signed.

50^th anniversary, July 4, 1826: two signers of the Declaration died, the only 2 to serve as presidents, mutual friends, Thomas Jefferson & John Adams (excellent source, David McCullough’s John Adams).

Ever wanted to see what two people look like just after they have just finished an Ironman? Take a look and Chad and Kayli. Looking pretty good.

My Yoke is Easy and my Burden Light

This morning I would like to talk about Matthew’s statement about Jesus saying, My yoke is easy and my burden light.  I would also like to include that line which is one of my most favorite lines from the Bible, The Lord is gracious and merciful, never gets angry, and is abounding in love.

I would suggest the first line about my burden being light is influenced, sometimes, by the fact that the Lord is gracious and merciful.  On the other hand, however, sometimes the burden is really blasted heavy.  For example…  The Story of The Week:

Chad finishing.

Thursday afternoon Rosemary & I had just left Plano Cycling, where I had left my bike to have it fitted with a new chain and cassette, the gear assembly on the rear wheel.  I was feeling pretty proud of myself, that I had actually worn out a bike chain and cassette.  I thought only Tour de France people did such things.

So, we are in the van headed south on Central.  The usual traffic, especially for those exiting onto the Bush just past Plano Parkway.  I knew we had to get out into the middle to avoid that blockage. 

Kayli crossing the finish line, Coeur d'Elane, Idaho.

I move over from the right lane.  I want to move over even to the next lane.  I’m watching in the side mirror.  Finally, before the blockage I see a space and move over in front of a big white pickup that seems way back far enough. 

The guy in the pickup, however, seems upset.  Next thing I know his front bumper is in the back of our van.  I can see the hairs in his nostrils.  I can see the color of his eyes, black with flames shooting out.

Offertory, Grace (Ironmanmomma of Kayli), Mary Ellen, and Donna.

Then, yes, you guessed it.  There was space to the left in those lanes.  So my friend swerves to the left, floors it, stomps on the horn, races past us with various hand signals, and swerves back in front of us, where he proceeds another 100 yards before he has to hit the brakes because he was climbing the back side of another car.

What did I do?  Well, I did not follow my impulse to blow our horn.  I also did not want Rosemary cussing me out.  I did nothing but continue along south bound Central.  I am grateful for that.

The Old Man of The Mountains returned, Mike.

As we drive along and talk about this, I admit that if I knew this guy’s story instead of judging the book by the cover, my favorite path, I would probably be more empathic.  Has he just lost his job, his wife, his dignity?  Has he come from a horrible childhood that has him permanently damaged and angry?  This is my profession.   I know this.  His behavior in itself says so much.

Tell this guy your yoke is light and your burden in life is easy.  He would laugh and probably cuss you out.  How many people have burdens that are not light?   No way.

Look at these kids coming across the border.  The little girls, 10-14 years of age, really carrying a heavy burden.

Namesakes: Two Rosemarys, or YoYo & RoRo.

You hear the story of this Louie Zamperini, who just died in his nineties?  After his B-24 went down in the Pacific during the war with Japan, he and two other guys spent 47 days on a flimsy raft.  After being rescued by a Japanese boat, life got only more brutal in the numerous prison camps he spent time in before being released after the war. 

So how do you carry the load if you are Zamperini or the pickup driver? 

This sounds almost insulting or obscene, but it is psychologically sound, acceptance.  Accept what is happening to keep my mind and spirit sane.  Zamperini said that he also worked to keep his spirit alive and hopeful, disciplining himself like he did when he was an Olympic sprinter.

This is where I suggest contemplating the positive.  Maybe my childhood was horrible and my life is bad.   Can I not find love and graciousness somewhere? 

Perhaps that pickup driver is suffering.  He does not seem to be handling his suffering well.

How do you deal with the heavy burden?

She's back, Folks, the party is over. RoRo doing her blessing.

Readings:

Exodus 3, 1-8, 13-15, The Lord appeared to Moses in fire flaming out of a bush.  (One of the great stories)

Psalm 103,  The Lord is kind and merciful. (One of the great lines)

1 Corinthians 10, 1-6, 10-12,  Do not grumble.

Luke 13, 1-9,  There was a person who had a fig tree.

Exodus observations:

Natalie.

What: this is the second book of the Bible and Torah, following Genesis.  It is a story about how the Jewish tribe of people escaped from slavery in Egypt.

Who:  the story is about the Jewish people and their reluctant leader, Moses.  It was put together, not by Moses, as was thought for centuries, but by a group of the priests even centuries later.

When:  it is put together at The Time in Jewish history, yes, during the Babylonian Captivity, say 555 years before Christ.  It is a mostly mythological story about how God helped his special people out of slavery eons before Babylon.  Do you see a parallel between the slavery of Egypt and Babylon?  Could this be a reason for developing the Egypt story, that is, to encourage the people enslaved in Babylon?

Our selection:  like the call stories of Isaiah and Jeremiah, here is another call story, this time Moses.  Unlike the booklet which edits out part of the story, we will read it all.

Jerry and William arriving.

Psalm 103 observations:

This psalm has one of my most favorite lines in all of scripture, The Lord is gracious and merciful…. 

There are so many pictures of God presented by the Bible, some of which are quite demanding and unpleasant.  Note, for example, the story of the fig tree in Luke this morning.  Each of us is challenged to put a face on our God according to our own searching and experience.  This line, which is seen in other places in the Bible, is my vision of God.

Emma arriving.

Joseph with the Beautiful Coat

I bet you don’t know why the Jewish people ended up in Egypt and became slaves.  This is a Bible story Sunday.  Here we go.  

Let me tell you the story of Joseph with the beautiful coat.  We pick up Joseph living in Canaan, which the Israelites will say later that God gave them.  He lives with his 11 older brothers. 

Harper arriving.

His father is Jacob, the third of the Big 3, the 3 patriarchs of the Jewish tribe, namely, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob or Israel, father, son, & grandson.   Jacob loves his 12^th son in a special way and because of this the other brothers get jealous.  Unfortunately, Joseph has told on his brothers, informing his dad that they are not taking care of the live stock.

Cathy and Mary arriving.

 One day Joseph goes looking for his brothers in the fields.  They see him coming and decide they will kill him.  Reuben, the eldest, persuades them to sell Joseph to some guys running a camel train by on their way to Egypt.  Price: 20 pieces of silver.  Sound familiar?

Queen Zoe arrives.

 So Joseph ends up in Egypt and is sold to the captain of the king’s guards.  He does so well the captain puts him in charge of his affairs.  Unfortunately for Joseph, the captain’s wife develops a crush on Joseph.  When Joseph refuses her, she gets mad and tells her husband Joseph tried to seduce her.  Joseph goes to prison.

The Leo Man.

While in prison he interprets dreams of the prisoners, one of whom is the king’s wine steward and who is released.  For two years Joseph stays in prison.

Twins, Leo and Fred.

 One day the king has a dream that worries him.  The wine steward tells the king about Joseph’s ability to interpret dreams.  The king calls him, Joseph interprets the dream.   The king loves Joseph and makes him the governor of all of Egypt.  Joseph is now in his 20’s.

Rosemary reading her blessing.

Meanwhile, the 11 brothers and Jacob are experiencing severe drought in Canaan.  They decide to go to Egypt and ask the king for aid.  They arrive and are shown to the office of the governor.  Guess whom they see.  Joseph.  They don’t recognize him.  He, however, recognizes them and really messes with them.   Read it, a fun story.

J.T. arrives with Georgie and Natalie.

Finally, Joseph reveals who he is with many tears.   Old Jacob and all the brothers reunite with Joseph, who lives in Egypt until he is 110 years old. 

This is how the Israelites got to Egypt.  How they became slaves?  The Bible says not a word, but they did multiply like rabbits to numbers which threatened the security of a later king.  And, then, along comes Moses and our reading this morning.

Cupcakes of The Week, Jackie and Chuck.

Why talk about this story?  Three reasons.

1.  We Catholics don’t get the Bible stories read to us.  Even as fables they are marvelous.  It is nice to cover them on occasion.
2. The writers of this story are attempting to convince the Jewish people that God watches over them and protects them.  He watched over Joseph and watched over the enslaved Israelites in Egypt, sending them Moses.  He even watched over Moses.  And Babylon?
3. Finally, in our life we are each challenged to find out who God is, what is his way of proceeding.  These stories give us an image.  And so does my favorite line from Psalm 103.  Read about how God punishes, pays back, demands sacrifice, sends us goats to everlasting fire?  Keep the line near you or in your head,

The Lord is gracious and merciful, never gets angry and is abounding in love. 

On this third Sunday of Lent what is your image of God?

Video: Cupcakes of The Week to Jackie and Chuck