Sunday Homily, August 14, 2016, 20th Sunday Ordinary

Readings:  Zephaniah 12, 10-11, 13, 1; Psalm 63, My Soul is Thirsting for You, O Lord my God; Galatians 3, 26-29; Luke 9, 18-24. 

Father's Day, A Brief History:

Mother’s Day background:

 

1.  In reaction to the Civil War horror, Julia Ward Howe proposed a Mother’s Day, ca. 1870.  It became a custom in some communities.

 

 2.  Picking up the idea later was Anna Jarvis who influenced President Wilson to declare it a national May holiday, 1912.

 

 

Father’s Day:

 

1.  As a compliment celebration, Sonora Smart Dodd in Spokane, WA began celebrating in June a Father’s Day. 

 

2.  Her history played a role here, because she had great affection for her dad, a Civil War Vet, who took care of the family as sole parent when his wife died giving birth to their 6^th child.  Sonora was 16 at the time.

 

3.  Sonora also influenced  President Wilson to establish a June Father’s Day national holiday.  He could not get it through Congress, who thought it was getting trivial.  In fact, while Mother’s Day was eagerly celebrated, at first Father’s Day was considered a joke.

 

4.  LBJ finally designated it to be celebrated the 3^rd Sunday of June.  55 other countries celebrate on the same day.

 

5.  President Nixon finally got it established as a national holiday.  Date 1972.

 

 

A Father’s Day Story

 

 

This event happened in mid-March.  I was out in the back yard on a Monday morning about 7:30.  I remember it was sunny, which was rare this past March. 

 

 

Do not tell my physical therapist that I was out in the yard walking around with my cane or walker.  I don’t remember which.  I know I was still home bound for another couple of weeks from the second hip replacement.   There was a fear I would fall down and dislocate the thing. 

I know it was Monday because we have our recycle material pick up and I was out putting stuff in the container in the alley.

 

 

At some point I am walking back to the porch and the back door, taking the long route to see how many pecan branches had fallen in the yard.  I’m out near the edge of our property where it touches the little north-south street, Camellia. 

 

 

Along comes an elderly guy I had seen once or twice earlier in the year (probably younger than I am).  He was headed to the Starbucks on Royal & Preston.  We have a fair amount of foot traffic from the neighborhood pass our corner headed to Starbucks for their morning fix.

He says to me, “You have a really nice yard here.”  Now when he says this, I’m thinking I did not hear him because our yard is a winter mess, lots of small branches still lying around from the first snow fall, everything ragged and unkempt. 

 

 

So I say, “Thanks, but the yard is really a mess right now and I cannot do anything about it for another month or so.”  And he responds, “Yes, but you really do keep a beautiful place here.” 

 

I thank him again and he continues on toward Starbucks. 

 

I was dumbstruck and touched.  I do attempt to maintain a pretty place.  It is like therapy for me.  Yet this is the first time a passing stranger has ever complimented me on it.  That compliment made my day and it stuck with me.  It even gave me this shot of energy which made me want to go out and clean the place up, but I couldn’t.

 

 

The power of a compliment or positive stroke!  They give life.  I have subsequently found out this guy’s name is Harold and he is both a dad and a grand dad.  He has a gift.  It is a gift we all have

When and to whom do you dads put the gift to use?

 

 

Picture 1:  Sienna helping with the beginning of Mass

 

Picture 2:  Special Blessing of Males by the Women, Sandra

 

Picture 3:  Kiddie Korner, Kayla & Cici

 

Picture 4:  Sam with his Momma, Pam

 

 Readings:

 Isaiah  66, 10-14,  Rejoice with Jerusalem and be glad.

Psalm 66,  Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.

Galatians 6, 14-18,  You are all called for freedom.

Luke 10, 1-12, 17-20, The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few.

Isaiah 11 observations & review: 

Author:  
Remember, 3 primary authors are responsible for the 66 chapters.  Isaiah 1
covers chapters 1-39.  This book is one of the Big 3 O.T. prophets, along
with Jeremiah and Ezekiel.  This is because the works are the
longest.  There are 12 minor prophets, authors who have small books.

Time: around 555 before Christ, a
compiling that is taking place with the end of the Babylonian Captivity in sight or
already done. 

Message
of Isaiah 66: The profile of the prophet was usually 1. criticism, 2.
prediction of dire payment, 3. consolation. 
This is the last chapter, so guess which of the 3 authors and subject.  Yes, the third.  And…

Today’s
message: consolation, joy, song.

 

The Laborers
are Few ?

This morning I want to focus on the line that the laborers are few.  I disagree. 
I see lots of laborers these days. 
Let me give you 3 examples.

Professor Jim Mahar.  You remember
him.  He spoke to us a year or so ago, he
and some students. 

Jim is a finance professor at St. Bonaventure near Buffalo, NY, a
Franciscan college.  A competitor with
the Jesuit college in the same area, Canisius. 

You could imagine that Jim as a professor would be spending all his time
with his students, teaching, testing, grading, and advising.  In summers he might do research and spend
some time at his cottage in the Catskills or on the NJ shore. 

Nope, not Jim.  He does all the
professor with the kids, but his second passion is relief work.  I first met him when Bill Hammond & I
drove down to Galveston to work with him and about 30 volunteer students a few
years ago.   We spent a week cleaning, tearing
down, building, and living side by side in dorms with the Baptist Men (another
great group) and other volunteers.

After Hurricane Sandy hit NYC, where was Jim and his bunch of student
volunteers?   Right where it was the
worst, like Breezy Point.   They even spent so much time there that they
established a base house.

Where again was Jim and his gang after the OK tornadoes in May?  I can tell you personally he and his gang
worked hard, even working through lunch and up until sundown.  We ate finally at Central Market about 9:30,
closing the place at 10:00. 

Jim is not just a laborer.  He
invites and facilitates other laborers, like me.

Then we have the lady I talked about last Sunday, the vivacious real
estate agent who had a good month of June. 
She out of nowhere gives us $1000 to be used in whatever way we see
fit. 

I wanted to go personally with that check to work with Habitat Granbury
this coming week, but they are not working over the July 4^th
period.  Maybe our Habitat group?

Mentioning our Habitat, I had a good friend ask about working.  I suggested he work yesterday at our
house.  At about 8:15 he calls me and
says, “Where is everybody.”  Apparently
we also took the week off.

That $1000 check so touched me that I decided I was going to give $20 to
each of the guys who pick up our recycle every Monday morning.  I usually do this at Christmas.   I did
so this time in connection with July 4^th and was so touched.  The three guys could not tell me often
enough about how grateful they were.

One word about our community.  Can anyone imagine how we would make it without all the people who bring the sound, coffee, pastries, wine cups, take pictures, read, and sing, just to mention a few of the labors that take place?

 

Finally, I know another person whose name will remain unmentioned.  I’ll whisper so she cannot hear.   This
woman goes for an exploration meeting at Meals on Wheels.  There she runs into an old friend and
neighbor who has moved out of the neighborhood and is likewise interested. 
Now they are a team delivering Meals on Wheels every Thursday.  I think I sleep with this person.

So, you, know any laborers in the vineyard?  And you?

 

Readings:  Ecclesiastes 1, 2; 2, 21-23; Psalm 90, If Today You hear his Voice, Harden not your Hearts; Colossians, 3, 1-11; Luke 12, 13-21

 

Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time – Intro to Readings

 

 

Our first reading is from the Book of Ecclesiastes, which makes up some of the Wisdom literature.   The book is concerned with the purpose and value of human life. While admitting the existence of a divine plan, it considers such a plan to be hidden from man, who seeks happiness without ever finding it here on earth. 

 

 

The authorship has been attributed to Solomon, but that was just to get the book some credence.  It was written long after Solomon, around 250-150 BCE.  One could easily conclude that the book is rather pessimistic, as in its opening which we read today, “vanity of vanities, all is vanity”, and it concludes in chapter 12 with the following:  “The last word, when all is heard: “Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is man's all; because God will bring to judgment every work, with all its hidden qualities, whether good or bad.” 

 

 

This book is also the source of those well known lines from chapter 4:  “There is an appointed time for everything, and a time for every affair under the heavens.  A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to uproot the plant.”

 

 

Our second reading is the last for some time from Paul’s Letter to the Colossians.

 

 

The Gospel continues with Jesus’ journey up to Jerusalem.  The opening verse, which is omitted from the start of today’s reading, is worth noting:  “Meanwhile, so many people were crowding together that they were trampling one another underfoot.”  Luke is introducing the sense that things are starting to get serious.  And the reality is that the topic today is a serious one.

 

 

Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time – Homily

 

 

There are two topics, which I believe are related in today’s readings:

 

 

1.    Where is God in your priorities?

2.    What date is the anniversary of your death?

 

 

 

I believe that the topics are connected if you have faith.  Because you are all here, I feel I am somewhat preaching to the choir, but maybe the question is still valid.  How much of a priority is God in your life?

 

 

 

Let me start back with the second question, by telling a story about a job I used to have.  I worked in the pathology dept of a local hospital and one day there was an autopsy of a fairly young person.  What struck me that particular day was seeing the person’s clothes on the floor in the corner.  They had put them on themselves that morning, never thinking that someone else would be removing them later in the day!! 

 

 

 

We really don’t know when that anniversary date will be, which will be marked in other people’s calendars about us.  There are a couple of lines in the responsorial psalm worth paying attention to:

“Teach us to number our days aright

that we may gain wisdom of heart”

 

 

 

Because if we do know how to number our days properly, then that anniversary date won’t be a problem.  And this brings me to the first topic.  If we have God high up in our priorities, then our lives will be lived in a very different way.  One extreme example of someone for whom God was everything was Mother Theresa.  Meeting her was an experience I will never forget.  On the other extreme are folks who have loads of money.  They have many worries about how it is invested, what next to purchase, all in the pursuit of the ever-illusive “happiness”. 

 

 

If we live by the two great commandments, Love God and Love Neighbor, then I believe our lives will not suffer from the complaint in our first reading.  All will not be vanity!

 

 

 

Picture 1:   Rosemary's Blessing

 

Picture 2:   Nikki with her grandmom, Mary, at offertory

 

Picture 3:   Celeste

 

Picture 4:   Altar Helpers

 

 

 

Readings: Daniel 7, 13-14; Psalm 93, The Lord is King, He is robed in Majesty; Revelation 1, 5-8; John 18, 33-27

History of the Christ the King Feast: date, author, reason it was declared

Date: Not during the early church, not during the time when Constantine made Christianity the religion of the Empire, not during the time of Luther & the Reformation, not during the time of Pius IX with the Italian Resorgiamento & his Infallibility statement (1870), but in 1925.  Fairly Recently.

Author: Pius XI, pope 1922-39

Reason(s): at least 2 factors–The Times and Modernism/Secularism

1.  The Times:

a) End of WW I and build up to WW II   

b) Mussolini & Hitler: the same year Pius XI became pope, Mussolini became prime minister.  By 1925 he had become a dictator.  The feast was to counter the dictatorship.

2.  Modernism & Secularism:

a) Modernism.  Despite being scholarly and pro-scientific methods, Pius XI was suspicious of biblical scholarship which questioned, for example, biblical inerrancy, the nature of bible miracles, the virgin birth, the resurrection, the atonement theory that God demanded his son suffer & die for a single sin by a human.

b) Secularism coming out of the Enlightenment said that all people were equal, people should have a say in government as in democracy, and backed the separation of church/state, like proposed by Jefferson. 

Sources: Living with Christ, Nov., 2009; Wikipedia

Requiem for a Chevy Pickup

When I first returned to Dallas after my time in East Africa, I determined that I would like to stay here and I would help to make Dallas a prettier place to live in by planting a few trees.  I started the fall of 1987 by planting on the Jesuit campus 88 trees plus.  The next year, with no more room on the campus, we went down Inwood Road and Willow.  I watered the trees out of buckets in the back of a Chevy Celebrity sedan.

A year or so later I was using the school pick up.  I remember it conking out on us the Sunday we planted Royal Lane.  The red trailer was tearing up the transmission. 

So I said to my Jesuit community brothers, "Hey, I am needing a new truck."  And they said, "Sure.  But you got to get the money yourself."  "Thanks, guys."  This was early in 94.

I'm thinking to myself, 'where can I get all this money?'  I called Claude Smyth.  The former pastor of St. Mark's, Monsignor Claude Smyth.

I ask him, since this is my community, may I contact some of the parish people whom I know?  He says yes, but then gives me a long list of things I cannot do under any circumstances, like no appeal at Mass, no public announcements on Sundays, and so forth.  "No problem," I say.  Then I proceed to contact maybe a dozen families I think can help me personally or who can spread the word quietly that I need help. 

The following Sunday, after saying the Mass in the main church at 9:00, I am walking the breezeway over to the cafetorium for the 10:30.  I run into Marcia Kolar and some other women passing out pages saying John Stack needs help to buy a new truck.  I walk into the cafetorium and there are plastic containers saying the same thing.  A few minutes later, Jim Herman, the lector is announcing the message from the podium.

At that instance, guess who walked in.  'Walked in' is an understatement.  'Stormed in' is more like it.  He was taking the pages out of people's hands, running back & forth.  Anyway, after screaming at me for a while, I walk up the aisle and start the Mass. 

The couple responsible for that event is here today.  Fred & Maureen.  I will always be grateful to you two.  In fact, just before Christmas, that year, 1994, I went over to the old Doran Chev. and paid $15,000 for that white truck I've used all these years to drag the red trailer around watering hundreds of trees.

Today I hand over to Janette Monear and the TX Trees Foundation the keys to the truck & trailer, so the rig can continue to maintain baby trees around Dallas.  The truck was given to me for that project and now that I am semi-retiring, I hand over the truck to Janette. 

Picture 1:  Tree people: Rosemary, The old Geezer, Gayle, Janette, Hugh, Sandra & Chuck

Picture 2:  The transfer of the keys to the truck

Picture 3:  Janette Monear of the TX Trees Foundation receiving the keys to the pickup and giving everyone a baby live oak tree

Picture 4:  Julie reading (Emily's mom)

 

 

Readings:

Acts 10, 25-26, 34-35, 44-48, God shows no partiality;

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

1 John 4, 7-10, Let us love one another; 

John 15, 9-17, I have told you this so my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete.

 

An introduction to today’s readings.  We continue reading in Acts. It’s called Acts of the Apostles, but only Peter and Paul are given any space. John is mentioned only 3 times, and for James only his execution by the Emperor Herod is mentioned. So it is more properly Some Acts of Some Apostles.

As Stack said before, we’re pretty sure that Acts was written by Luke who is also the author of the third Gospel. Luke was a Gentile (non-Jewish) from Antioch in Syria, and was a companion of Paul in his travels around Asia Minor, from Antioch, around through Greece, and to Rome. We know Luke was with Paul in Rome when Paul was in prison. Acts was probably written around the time Paul was put to death during his second imprisonment under the Emperor Nero in 64 or perhaps 66 CE.

The other readings are from the First Letter of John and the fourth Gospel. Traditionally 4 books of the New Testament were attributed to John the Apostle: the 4^th Gospel, 3 letters and the Book of Revelation. Scholars say that the vocabulary, grammar and style of writing make it unlikely that Book of Revelation was written by the same person responsible for the 4^th Gospel. Some modern Bible scholars raise the possibility that John the Apostle, John the Evangelist who wrote the Gospel and John of Patmos who wrote the Book of Revelation were 3 separate individuals. The First Letter of John reads like a summary of the 4^th Gospel teachings, and the time of writing is probably similar, in the latter part of first century, sometime between 80-100 CE. 

 

Homily

Today’s readings really speak for themselves.  That they happened to fall on Mother’s Day is serendipitous. In Acts we heard that the Good News is for everyone, without exception: “God shows no partiality.”

The Gospel told us what the Good News is: that God is love and is always with us, without exception. “Remain in my love”….”I tell you this so that my joy may be in you and your joy might be full”….“I call you friends.” 

And the Letter of John gave us the call to respond to the Good News: “Let us love one another…everyone who loves is of God…”  

On Mother’s Day we get to express love and gratitude in a special way for our mothers. Personally, I have never known a Mother who was not doing the very best she knew how. Not everyone, however, gets to have a Mother who consistently protects them, consistently nurtures and teaches them, and consistently loves them as they wish and deserve.  All mothers are somewhere on the continuum of consistency as mothers. All mothers I have known aspire to be good mothers, and good mothers aspire to be even better mothers. Some mothers were actually Aunts or Grandmothers or adoptive mothers. My mother’s mother died giving birth. So my mother’s mother was actually her Aunt Molly.

I think one of the reasons Mary, the Mother of Jesus, has received such honor and devotion from us down through the centuries is that, without knowing much about her life, we could easily project on to her an ideal of mothering for us to aspire to. I love it that we can do that today for all our mothers. Mothers aren’t perfect and don’t have to be perfect. We honor our mothers for protecting us, nurturing us, teaching us, and loving us as best they can or could.

My mother, a Methodist of Scotch-Irish descent, immigrated as a young woman from Mississippi to Louisiana in the 1920’s, to teach school in a very small town that was totally Cajun and Catholic. She left everything she knew and moved to live in a ‘foreign’ culture. There she met my father. They fell in love and married. My mother never felt fully accepted by all his family—remember this was 4 generations ago, when Catholics considered themselves the only true believers—everyone else was suspect. She of course had to promise that all her children would be raised Catholic. When my parents’ second child was born, a son, he died right after birth. My Mother was in a hospital in Abbeville where I later grew up, and my father was 10 miles away in the country, where they lived at that time on my grandparent’s plantation.

My father’s sisters apparently told him that my mother wouldn’t want anyone going to the hospital at this time; that she needed time alone before she came home. When I was about 21 my mother confided in me that story, and she finished telling it with the words, “I never forgot it, and I never forgave him.” I share this story, even though it carries her pain, because of what else it told me about her: that even though my mother and father did not have a close/intimate relationship and their married life was a struggle, she was totally dedicated to our family and to being the best mother she could be for us 5 children. And her life was a testament to that.

 

 

We do not get to choose our mothers. But today we get to honor them. However consistent they have been in protecting, nurturing and loving us, we honor all mothers today. We honor them for their dedication, and for their struggles, and for their efforts at mothering us the very best way they know how (or knew how).

 

The questions I have for us are: whoever mothered us, do we know and appreciate how she was mothered? What was her joy, and what was her pain and her struggle? And how do we honor that in our own lives?

 

 

 

Thanks to the Team

Music, Shonda & Ben

Readers, Sandra, Mary Hall, Deacon Mike, & Buddy, the candle blessing

Homily & Eucharistic Prayer, John Cade

The Magic Zoom makers, Mike & Becky & Ben

The Final Blessing & sharers of Vows, Rosemary & John

 

 

Readings:

Acts of the Apostles, 2, 14, 36-41, Then Peter stood up and proclaimed.

Psalm 23, The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want (a good one)

1 Peter , 2, 2-25, To this you  have been called.

John 10, 1-10, Whoever does not enter a sheepfold through the gate….

 

 

 

The Brain Center

 

Reading 1

A Reading from the Acts of the Apostles       

Peter stood up and, backed by the other eleven, spoke out:  “All Israel, know this:  There’s no longer room for doubt—God made him Master and Messiah, this Jesus whom you killed on a cross.”

        Cut to the quick, those who were there listening asked Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers!  Brothers!  So now what do we do?” 

        Peter said, “Change your life.  Turn to God and be baptized each of you, in the name of Jesus the Christ, so your sins are forgiven.  Receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.  The promise is targeted to you and your children, but also to all who are far away—whomever, in fact, our God invites.”  He went on in this vein for a long time, urging them over and over, “Get out while you can; get out of this sick and stupid culture!” 

        That day about three thousand took him at his word, were baptized and were signed up.  They committed themselves to the teaching of the apostles, the life together, the common meal, and the prayers. 

Our word for today.

 

 

Brain Center??

 

 

Reading 2

 A Reading from the First Letter of Peter

        My sisters and brothers:  If you’re treated badly for good behavior and continue in spite of it to be a good servant, that is what counts with God.

        This is the kind of life you’ve been invited into, the kind of life Jesus lived.  He suffered everything that came his way, so you would know that it could be done, and also know how to do it, step-by-step. 

        He never did one thing wrong,

        Not once said anything amiss.

        They called him every name in the book and he said nothing back.  He suffered in silence, content to let God set things right.  He used his servant body to carry our sins to the Cross, so we could be rid of sin—free to live the right way.  His wounds became your healing. 

You were lost sheep with no idea who you were or where you were going.  Now you’re named and kept for good by the Shepherd of your souls.

Our word for today.

 

 

 

 

The Lord be with you.       A Reading from the Gospel of John

          Jesus said to his followers:  “Let me set this before you as plainly as I can.  If a person climbs over or through the fence of a sheep pen, instead of going through the gate, you know he’s up to no good—a sheep rustler!  The shepherd walks right up to the gate, the gatekeeper opens the gate to him, and the sheep recognize his voice.  He calls his sheep by name and leads them out.  The sheep follow, because they are familiar with his voice.  They won’t follow a stranger’s voice, but will scatter because they aren’t used to it.”

          Jesus told that simple story, but his listeners had no idea what he was talking about.  So, he tried again.  “Listen. I’ll be explicit.  I am the Gate for the sheep.  All those others are up to no good—they’re sheep stealers.  I am the Gate.  Anyone who goes through me will be cared for—will freely go in and out and find pasture.  A thief is only there to steal and kill and destroy.  I came so they can have real and eternal life—more of it, and better than they ever dreamed of.

 The Good News of John

 

 

Birthdays this week, Cole, 11; Patricia, 74; Ron Senter, Warren Philip Wittek, 5

 

Anniversaries:

Bill & Patty Hammond, 52nd

Joe & Marsha Farmer, 36th

Stack & Rosemary, 15th

 

Please Remember these special people:

For all the medical personnel struggling to treat the tsunami of sick people, in particular locally, Cindy's staff at Presby; For John & Connnie's good froends, Bob with cancer & his wife, Judy;  For Joe Hogan with cancer,  For Loretta's aunt Alicia;   For Ryan, Rosemary's nephew, who had surgery; For Bill Hammond,    For Sydney & her dear Husband, Hugh, who just moved to the Other Side,  & For Sir Charlie recuperating from surgery;  Shonda's mom;   For Gilberto recuperating from his gall bladder operation:  for Michelle;  For a friend, a neighbor, & a doctor, Karen, with brain cancer; For Rick Turner searching for a kidney donor, Type O neg; For Meredith, cancer free.;    For Hue;  For John O'Donnell;    For Dee, and for her daughter, Lisa; For John Schanot's continued health;  For Anthony & Sabrina;    For a young man who is suffering from depression;  John Cade's mother in law, Kalliopi Piskiouli and Lambrini; 

 

 

Alexa for Geezers:

https://dl-mail.ymail.com/ws/download/mailboxes/@.id==VjN-o20disL99fAFUQDKN3jElwg6rCMe3hgAlYlniB8fOiVKZ6jrpaegBxmLvS-zsBXwYEbsR5yunJ4BARbffkYcNxh-J5C6LyUnkpuuSevalNc/messages/@.id==AGklRJpWANN5XqtoeQ7_2H6UeDw/content/parts/@.id==2.2/raw?appid=YMailNorrinLaunch&ymreqid=9fd8c449-b7f4-8fa2-1cb9-370000015900&token=zitEzqOML3j84e6ealFTT5U7-km5qEQF52lp7AcCuBbXRR0O5-yl1-InFY5X0PwoQswLjjQvxcsXuJE-xVWJvvmhjudLhA3q-VWFGSpaKXk-0kETKMlGWtop1TbkSRQX

 

John Cade's Homily on Matthew

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                The Gospel of Matthew and the Jewish Synagogue—Talk Six

For Matthew the Easter moment is the climax of his story, God’s ultimate revelation. 

Before we consider the many contradictions in the Biblical accounts of the resurrection, let’s see where there’s agreement.  They all say that the Easter experience forced them to see Jesus with a radically new understanding.  Whatever Easter was, its effects on those who live in time and space were real, even measurable.  E.g., the behavior of the disciples was changed: Those, who at the moment of Jesus’ arrest had forsaken him and run off, suddenly demonstrated major courage.  They showed a willingness to go anywhere and do anything that would support the reality they had come to know.  Also, following their Easter experience the disciples found they had to alter their understanding of God.  The concept of the oneness of God, so central to Judaism, had to be stretched to the place where Jesus could be included in that God definition. 

[In the New Testament, Paul was the first to speak of this when he said that somehow the reality of God had been met and engaged in the life of this Jesus (2 Cor. 5:19).  He and others began to try to explain how it had happened that “God was in Christ.”  Paul says that, whatever Easter was, God had somehow brought Jesus into the very meaning of God (Rom. 1:1-4).  Next, Mark suggested that at Jesus’ baptism, God had infused the human Jesus with the divine presence and reality.  Then Matthew, and soon after, Luke, suggested that God had entered Jesus at the moment of conception (Matt. 1, 2 & Luke 1, 2). Finally, John, the last gospel, suggested that there never was a moment in time or in history when Jesus was not part of the reality we call God.]

The New Testament is clear about the nature of the Christ experience being some kind of God experience, one that is transcendent.  This raises a question:  Can an experience be real if the explanations of that experience are inconsistent and divergent?  Spong certainly thinks so, and explains it as a human language issue.  There is no “objective language” or “God language.”  We have to talk about our experiences of God in human language.  And every word human beings speak is a subjectively understood symbol. 

There is agreement in the New Testament about the reality of the Easter experience, but there’s a wide divergence in explaining that reality.   The New Testament provides us with five story themes that put the Easter experience into words.  There is little consistency in them. 

                       1^st Example:  Paul knows nothing about the burial tradition with Joseph of Arimathea. The Joseph character is not introduced until Mark’s gospel.  Mark calls Joseph a “ruler of the Jews” (Mark 15:43).  Matthew calls him “a rich man” (Matt. 27:57).  Luke calls him “a good and righteous man” (Luke 23:51).  John calls him “a disciple of Jesus” and adds that together Joseph and Nicodemus performed the burial, and made the burial quite elaborate with “about a hundred pounds” of “myrrh and aloes” (John 17: 38-40).         

    2^nd Example:  Paul has no story of a tomb, so no one visits or finds it empty.  The women coming to the tomb at dawn on the first day of the week enters tradition in Mark, though there’s no agreement about who they were, except for Mary Magdalene.  Mark names Salome (Mark 19:1); then Matthew, writing with the Mark Gospel right in front of him, omits Salome (Matt. 28:1).  Luke adds Joanna and “some other women” unnamed (Luke 24:10).  John insists Mary Magdalene was alone (John 20:1).  And did the women see Jesus at or near the tomb?  Mark says no.  Matthew says yes.  Luke says no.  John says yes; but only Mary Magdalene and only on her second visit.  Of course, these inconsistencies are a literalist’s nightmare.                                                                                     

3^rd Example:  Where were the disciples when they experienced all this?  Paul gives no place or setting for his list of those the Christ appeared to.  Mark has a “messenger” (an angel) simply announce the resurrection and has the women tell the disciples to go to Galilee and “there you will see him.”  However, Mark never describes that appearance (Mark 16:8).  Matthew says it was in Galilee that the disciples saw Jesus, and he describes it in detail (Matt. 28:16-20).  Luke says that appearances of the raised Christ were never seen in Galilee by anyone, only in or near Jerusalem (Luke 24).  Luke adds that Jesus’ appearances continued “for forty days” and then came to an abrupt end.  John says the original appearance of the resurrected Jesus to the disciples was in Jerusalem the evening of the first Easter in an upper room.  He also says this experience was repeated in almost identical form eight days later (John 20:19-29).  John’ also says there was another Easter experience in Galilee, but much later.         

 4^th Example: Who was the first to “see” the resurrected Jesus?  Paul says it was Peter.  Mark never has the raised Christ appear to anyone.  Matthew says it was the women at the tomb.  Luke says it was Cleopas and his companion in the village of Emmaus.  John says it was Mary Magdalene alone.  

5^th Example: Was the resurrection physical?  Paul seems to say no. He says that “what is raised is imperishable” suggesting something that is no longer subject to death and decay (1 Cor. 15:42).  He adds “it is sown a physical body; it is raised a spiritual body” (1Cor. 15:44).  Also in Paul Jesus does not rise; he is raised.  So who or what raised him? Into what was he raised?  Paul writes: “It is Christ Jesus who died, yes, who was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand of God (1 Rom. 8:34).  The implication is that Jesus was raised not back into the life of this world, but to the right hand of God.

There are three stories in the Hebrew scriptures of people being raised into God that could have supplied Paul with the image of resurrection that he appears to hold—a resurrection that is “real”, but not physical? 

First, Enoch, known as the father of Methuselah and grand-father of Noah, was introduced with a line in the Book of Genesis:  “Enoch walked with God, and he was not, because God took him” (Gen. 5:24).    

[Interest in Enoch led to the Book of Enoch, written about a hundred years BCE.  It became listed as an Apocryphal O.T. book (so not in the Catholic Bible).  It was lost in the late 4^th century and re-discovered in Ethiopia in the 18^th century.  Enoch’s story included the part that, as a reward for “walking with God” on this earth, he was said to have escaped death to live in the presence of God.]

Second, there is Moses, to the Jews God’s greatest prophet.  In Deuteronomy it says only God was present with Moses when he died. (Deut. 34:5, 6).  A common story was that Moses didn’t really die, but rather God raised him into the life of God. 

And third, Elijah; it was said he was raised from life on earth to life in God.  His story was quite dramatic.  He was transported into the presence of God by a magical fiery chariot, drawn by magical fiery horses (2 Kings 2). 

These three O.T. resurrection stories would be well known by Paul, and by Matthew, since they were part of the Law of the Torah, the scripture scrolls read in the Synagogue in their entirety, each and every year.  Any one of these, or all three, could have shaped how the resurrection of Jesus was understood in a Jewish context.

On the other hand, we also can see the resurrection story evolving and becoming more and more physical.   Mark never has the raised Christ appear to anyone; in his story the women fled in fear and said nothing to anyone.  Matthew, contrary to Mark, his source, has the women grasp the risen Christ, taking “hold of his feet”. This is the first hint in the Easter narratives that ‘resurrection’ was beginning to be viewed as the physical resurrection of a deceased body.  Of course, by the time this physical aspect of resurrection appeared, it was already the ninth decade, about year 82 CE, 52 years after Jesus’ death. 

Luke is the gospel author who does the most to transform ‘resurrection’ into something understood as physical resuscitation.  The raised Jesus can walk, talk, and eat, all physical accomplishments. And Luke has the story of the appearance of Jesus to Cleopas and his travel companion.  Jesus suddenly, out of nowhere, began to walk with them, unrecognized. At the end of the story “he vanished out of their sight” (Luke 24:29).  He just de-materialized!  So even in the physical understanding of resurrection in Luke’s story, there was a mysterious non-physical reality.

The resurrection narratives are contradictory and confusing, but all of them were written out of the conviction that the boundary between God and the human, between heaven and earth, between life and death, had been broken in the life of this Jesus.  The early followers of Jesus had tried to use words to explain what was beyond words.  Their stories were later literalized in Christian history so much that ‘resurrection’ came to be seen as a literal, objective miraculous event.  Claims were made that violate everything we know about how the world operates and how death functions. 

A body deceased for three days came back to life.  A heart that had not beaten from Friday till Sunday started to beat again.  Brain cells, deprived of oxygen for at least thirty-six hours, were restored to fully functioning health.  Flesh that had already begun to smell of decay, was rehabilitated.  The natural world was turned upside down by the invasion of the supernatural world.  Literalism produces disturbing, irrational narratives. 

It’s no wonder why Christianity, presented in literalistic terms seems to more and more people in the modern world to be unbelievable!   Can the resurrection of Jesus be real and yet the explanations of the resurrection be nothing more than mythical language?  Should mythical language ever be literally understood?  Our answers to those questions may actually determine the future of the Christianity itself.

Next week, the final chapter—a pulling together of how the Matthew Gospel was written as a liturgical document;  how it was told against the background of the liturgical year of the Jewish synagogue;  and how Matthew wrote it as an interpretation of the teaching and the meaning of Jesus himself.

 

 

 

Community Finances, May 3, 2020

Expenses: $1835.00

Outreach:  $2350.00  (often Souls Harbor, Legacy, etc.)

4/28/20 we donated  $1500 to Souls Harbor via N.T. Giving Day (the amount was matched that day)

5/3/20 we also donated $2000 to Souls Harbor because of a generous contribution via B.T. Giving Day (also a matched amount)

This is our best week of income in a couple of months. Very humbling.  Thanks, Everybody.