Sunday Homily, July 3, 2016, 14th Sunday Ordinary Time

 

 

Harper says, "Welcome in, Everybody."

 

 

Readings:  

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

Psalm 54,  The Lord upholds my life.

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

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

                   

 

Our Candle Lighter of The Week, Victoria.

 

 

 Wisdom observations:  

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

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

 

 

 

Georgie reads the Blessing of the Autumn Candles.

 

 

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

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

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

 

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

 

 

 

The Best Music, Ben at his Best.

 

 

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

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

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

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

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

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

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

 

 

 

 

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

 

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

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

 

 

 

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

 

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

Let me make 2 observations about Tony. 

 

                           

 

A tremendous team when one has parkinsons.

 

 

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

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

 

 

 

 

Happy Birthday to our Dearest Twins.

 

 

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

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

   

 

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

 

So, two questions today:

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

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

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

 

 

 

 

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

Isaiah 66:  Lo, I will spread prosperity over Jerusalem like a river,  and the wealth of the nations like an overflowing torrent.   As nurslings, you shall be carried in her arms,  and fondled in her lap;  as a mother comforts her child,  so will I comfort you;

Galatians 6:  May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.

Luke 10: Whatever town you enter and they welcome you, eat what is set before you, cure the sick in it and say to them, 'The kingdom of God is at hand for you.'

Connie reading from Isaiah
 

 

Thanks…     

Music,   Ben & Shonda

John sharing his homily

 

Outreach: $   130.00

Thanks again, Folks, for doing what you can.

 

 

Carrie reading the Blessing

 

 

Rosemary's Blessing:

 

Welcome to the scene of our 4th Advent and Christmas Eve celebrations, to the most colorful school dining room I have ever seen, and to a marvelous venue for special inspiration.  Legacy Charter School.

 

Readings: 

Micah 5, 1-4, From you shall come one who is to be ruler in Israel

Psalm 80,  Lord, make us turn to you, let us see your face and we shall be saved.   

Hebrews 10, 5-10, Sacrifices and offering you did not  desire  

Luke 1,  39-45,  Mary visits Elizabeth.

 

 

Buddy, you are becoming such a gifted reader.  Thanks to you and thanks to you, Georgie, for shepherding Buddy.

 

 

Homily

The summer of 2015 I was a volunteer referee, of course, unbiased, principled, and open to all gifts.  Chocolate was my favorite.  I was a referee for the Maccabe summer games at the Jewish Community Center, a place that has become something of a second or third home for me.

 

 

Thanks for lighting our 4 Advent candles today, Zoe.  Your hair is gorgeous.

 

The Maccabe Games take place every summer in Jewish Community Centers all over the country and perhaps Canada.  Thousands of kids came to Dallas, and the spirit in the air was terrific.  They were sheltered all over Dallas in JCC family homes.  We had a dozen or so on our block of Tulip Lane.  All together it must be like that at the Olympics.

During the time there were numerous general meetings.  At one of the meetings of no less than 2500 a special event took place.

 

 

Welcome Home from Beirut, Celeste.  It is so good to see you back.  I am jealous of those kids in Beirut who have you as their music teacher.

 

There was a young girl of about 15, Hallie Bernard, who addressed the whole assembly one day.  Hallie had a rare disease.   To recover she needed a bone marrow transplant.  She made an appeal to the parents and kids to get registered and maybe she would find a donor who would save her life.

Hallie immediately had 2500 volunteers.  As word got out to others at the event and beyond, over 6,000 volunteers registered.

 

 

Congratulations, Rick, on losing 30 pounds.  I am proud to know you.

 

As a result, 53 matches were found all over the place, even beyond Dallas & Texas. 

Hallie found a match.  

Guess why the people at the Jewish Community Center and beyond so touch my heart.  

Are people just not good!

 

 

Welcome home from college, Kevin, so good to see you.

 

Our Advent Reconciliation with Mary Jane & Becky (the head of Legacy Charter).

Readings: Acts 10, 34-43; Psalm 118, This is the Day the Lord has Made, Lus Us Rejoice and be Glad; 1 Corinthians 5, 6-8; John 20, 1-9 

 

The Readings:

 

It is almost impossible for us today to understand how significant the story told in Chapter 10 of Acts was for the Jewish people at the time Luke wrote it.  Our first reading is part of that narrative.  The two main characters are Peter, who is in Caesarea, and Cornelius a Roman Centurion, in Jaffa, about 30 miles south on the Mediterranean coast. The scene is the home of Cornelius a centurion.

 

 

 Remember up to this point the Jews had felt like they had a monopoly on God.  In this chapter 10 Luke uses two separate incidents taking place in different locations to set the stage for our reading.  We meet Cornelius having a vision of an angel who tells him to send for Peter.  Meantime Peter is sitting hungry on the roof in Caesarea and has a vision of all different kinds of animals and being told by God to eat. 

 

 

There is the usual discussion about unclean and Peter is made to see that God only makes clean!  The folks from Jaffa arrive and summon Peter to go see Cornelius.  Peter heads off to Jaffa, worried about his dream and then when he hears about Cornelius’ dream he sees the connection and proceeds to baptize Cornelius and his household.  Our first reading today is what can best be described as a quick lesson from Peter about Jesus. 

 

   

Our second reading is from Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians.  I am going to take a certain amount of license in focusing only on the word yeast in the reading, as the full topic of this section of the Letter does not need to be brought up here.  Read it for yourselves!  Yeast is used in beer making and bread making and basically it converts sugars into bubbles.  So we are to be bubbles in society! Gas pockets!  But seriously, when I think about yeast, I think about the huge effect just a little has on the dough.  And for us in society as Christians, I believe that we too can have a huge effect on society.

 

Easter Homily:

 

 

I remember one Easter when I was studying in seminary.  We normally had to stay in the seminary until Easter Sunday morning before we could go home for Easter holidays.  This one year I skipped out and caught the boat from Dublin to England arriving at about 6AM.  I found a church and went to early morning Mass on Easter Sunday and then took the tube out to my cousin Eileen’s flat in Kensington.  She was married to Bill who was protestant,  Church of England.  Bill was going to church that morning and invited me to my first protestant Easter Service. 

 

 

  

I can remember being amazed by the fact that most of the service was all about Easter eggs.  The whole sanctuary of the church was full of them.  I had never associated the Resurrection with eggs before then.  Yes, we always got chocolate Easter eggs, but I put them in the same category as toys at Christmas, nothing to do with the Birth of Jesus, just a very happy coincidence! 

 

 

 

Right now in our front garden at home there is a dove, patiently sitting on some eggs in a nest in one of the trees.  Our next-door neighbor has a duck doing the same thing in their front garden in some bushes.  The Church, by some happy coincidence chose spring as the time of year to celebrate the Resurrection and I think this gives us our first clue in how we should view the Resurrection.  We can’t understand it, it is a mystery, but analogies can help us part of the way.  The Resurrection requires an act of Faith, end of story.  Don’t try to understand it.  It is outside our human capability.

 

 

And it was outside the expectations of the apostles and also of Mary of Magdala in our Gospel reading today.  She was heading to the tomb to properly bury Jesus.  As you will recall, when Jesus was arrested it was abandon ship, everyone fled, Peter didn’t hesitate to deny that he even knew Jesus.  We know that the apostles went back to their old trades, Peter, James and John to being fishermen. 

 

 

The event we are celebrating today was not what any of the people who had walked with Jesus before his death had expected.  And it is not an easy event to describe and understand.  So the accounts in the New Testament are all over the map on what exactly happened, but one thing was certain in the minds of the early church; God had raised Jesus from the grave and that made all the difference in their lives. 

If we look back at the different gospels readings we have listened to during this lent we will recall the Temptation of Jesus, were Jesus is tempted and so can understand when we are tempted. 

 

  

 

The story of the Transfiguration, when Peter attempted to capture the impossible moment by putting up tents, again a perfectly human reaction to being faced with the Divine, the second chance being given to the useless fig tree and then the two very powerful stories of forgiveness with the Prodigal Son and the Woman caught in adultery. 

 

 

 

The strong message of forgiveness from these stories has to give us hope and encouragement.   We can always start anew with God his love is constant.  And the message of the Death and Resurrection of Jesus is that an indication of how unreserved that love is.  Armed with the knowledge of God’s love and forgiveness, we can be like yeast to the lives of those we meet in the world.  Lets not worry about how big a difference we will make, let’s just be sure we make a difference. 

The message, the victory of Easter, is that mankind’s biggest fear, death is finally laid to rest. 

 

 
 

 

We have a God who not only loves us unconditionally, but who wants us to be in His presence forever.  Not something which we can prove or even understand, except thru faith.  The presence of the Holy Spirit helped the early Christians believe, and that same Spirit can help us today too.  We too have a new life.  Happy Easter. 

 

 

Picture 1:  Mass beginning

 

Picture 2:  Want to know what happens to priests who marry?  They become grand dads.  Fr. Tony with Emma.

 

Picture 3:  And with mom, Julie

 

Picture 4:  Quads with mom & dad

 

Picture 5:  Quads  with grandmother & aunt

 

Picture 6:   Holy Thursday, Washing of Hands, at the Robinsons

 

Picture 7:  Good Friday Stations at the Robinsons

 

Readings:

Isaiah, 63, 16-19, 64, 2-7,  You are our father, we are the clay and you the potter.

 Psalm 80,    Lord, make us turn to you; let us see your face and we shall be saved.

1 Corinthians 1, 3-9   I give thanks to my God always on your account.

Mark 13, 33-37,   Be watchful, be alert.  You do not know when the time will come.

 

 

Isaiah observations and reminders–

Who: Guess which of the 3 composers put this section together.  A clue: chapter number.  Like, chapter 63.  A pretty high number, yes, Isaiah number 3. 

Where is he: if the author is number 3, he is back with the people in Jerusalem, a Jerusalem totally destroyed by the Babylonians. 

Today’s message: because he is back in Jerusalem, you would expect happiness.  On the contrary, he is bemoaning the state of affairs and is blaming himself and everybody’s sinfulness for the destruction.  But in the end he reminds Yahweh that they are his special people.  So…?

 

 

Advent Special

I would like to talk this morning about how to make our time from now to Christmas a special time.  Some of these ideas I have touched upon before, but they stand repeating occasionally.

When I returned to the States in the late 80's and began to work full time as a spiritual director & psychotherapist, I was struck every fall by an anxiety that I found in people.  They were nervous about the coming Christmas season. 

 

 

I remember people bringing this up as early as the beginning of the school year in September.  Certainly by October and most certainly by Halloween.  People were tense and anxious because of memories of bad Christmas seasons. 

Because of this and because we are just beginning the season of Advent, the season of preparation for Christmas, I would like to review some ways to prepare ourselves for a marvelous Christmas.  I have 5 observations.

 

 

 

1.  First, beware of fear and depression.  I read Mark's story about the man traveling abroad and I can  get spooked into thinking God is going to grab me when I'm not looking.  Nonsense.

Depression seems to surface more during the Christmas season, because of at least one reason.  Expectations.  We expect more out of the Christmas season, peace, love, warm relationships, gifts.  When the reality comes in below the expectation I have, I get disappointed and maybe depressed.  Memories of disappointing Christmases can depress me. 

 

 

 

 2.  Unlike Mark's warning about sleeping, I would propose that we need more rest at this darker time of the year.  Our ancestors used to sleep when it went dark.  Today we force ourselves to stay awake and lights keep us awake.  Doctors are saying we need more sleep in the dark days of winter and are recommending, get this, 9 hours.  Maybe try an extra hour.  Try a siesta.

3.  Along with more sleep, try a little more exercise.  My internist tells me that he wants me to exercise every day.  I do.  Walk through the neighborhood.  Ride a bike.  Along the way look at the colors of the red oaks and Bradford Pear trees. 

 

 

    4.  Have you got anything special you do every year for Christmas, during Advent?  Something to get you into a Christmas spirit?  If not, what about finding something? 

Two things I have got to do every year: take in a performance of Handel's Messiah and take in the Dallas Symphony Christmas concert.  I may get in an extra one or two of these, but I find this so touches my spirit.

 

 

 I know a few families who tour Christmas lights.  Here in Plano is Deer Park.  One of the best is Highland Park, Beverly Drive and Armstrong Parkway, both east and west of Preston.   In Deer Park, you may walk around.  In Highland Park there are horse drawn carriages. 

    5.  Finally, in line with Mark's gospel, watch, but positively, watch for the daily miracles and blessings.  Review your year for the biggest blessings, like I mentioned before Thanksgiving. 

 

 

 

I hope you are not anxious about or nervous about the coming of Christmas.  If you are, even more relevent is my question,

 'What are you doing to make  Christmas this year a beauty?'

 

 

 

 

 

 

Readings:

Isaiah  60, 1-6, Rise up in splendor, Jerusalem,  Your light has come.

Psalm 72,  Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.

Ephesians  3, 2-6, The Gentiles are coheirs.

Matthew 2, 1-12, Magi from the east arrived.

  

 Isaiah, a review 

Here is another of those passages which make me love Isaiah so much.  I have mentioned this before.  He is my favorite.  

Today we have Isaiah III talking again to the Jews who have returned to Jerusalem from the Babylonian Captivity, about 550 years before Christ.  It helps to picture the mood of these people.  Are you a Sooner Fan?  How did you feel at about midnight Friday night?  Multiply this by 10 and you have how the Jewish people felt after 50 years of slavery and  their town destroyed like New Orleans or parts of NY & NJ. 

When he says Jerusalem or Zion, he is talking to these beaten down people.  Later centuries church leaders began to make these words have two meanings.  Jerusalem, then, applies to us.

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

Cupcake of The Week to Jan on her birthday

 An Epiphany

I would like to talk this morning about the Epiphany in our every day lives or on special events.  I define an epiphany as a new awareness, a new understanding, greater appreciation.

I did something Friday morning that I had never done before in my life and about which I have been curious.  I did a route for Meals on Wheels. 

 

This came about because next door to us lives an 18 year old girl who is a senior at Greenhill and getting ready to attend Colgate next fall.  The girl, Sydney, texted me the other day inviting me to join her on her community service program.  It is helpful for her to have an adult or companion on her runs, her parents were busy, and we have done these things before.

We picked up our food at the V.N.A., the Visiting Nurses Assoc. head office on Mockingbird near the entrance to Love Field.  This was eye opening enough for another homily.  We had 17 people listed on a page and they all resided in a high rise apartment building just east of Central going toward Fair Park.  The building has 13 floors with about 15 apartments per floor.

Three observations:

1.  These people are not wealthy and they were mostly black.  What they are is so grateful and so friendly.  In the lobby, the corridors, and in the elevators, greetings, chats, cordiality, and grateful comments like, “What you are doing is really good.”  And this even from folks who were not getting meals, but just observing.  I felt such consolation being around these people.
2. My neighbor and friend Sydney.  I tell her, “Sydney, you are ruining my life again,” as she drives me over to pick up the meals at the Visiting Nurses’ Office. 

First, she showed me long distance bike riding.  She & some other girls rode down the west coast from like Seattle to San Francisco a few years ago.  The idea was planted and when Dembney last winter mentioned Ragbrai and Iowa, even though I told him he was crazy at the time, look what happened to me last July.

Sydney next got me to serve meals at the Bridge.  That led Rosemary and me to the Austin St. Shelter, and then to Soul’s Harbor with Brent, where we are really plugged in, even as a community.

And now what: Meals on Wheels, a marvelous phenomenon.  This girl has been an epiphany for me.

     3.    Third observation: this extraordinary service program for high school kids.   When I taught English & Latin & history at Jesuit in the mid-60’s, there was no service program.  I come back to the States in 1990, and most private secondary schools all have the program.

  Sydney told me the Greenhill program sets 24 hours a year.  I noticed Jesuit has 100 hours for seniors. 

The programs are terrific, not just for the high school kids, but also for old geezers like me who get invited along as adult companions and have such marvelous experiences.

Friday was an epiphany experience for me.  It led to something unexpected and beautiful.

What is your recent epiphany?

For whom are you an epiphany?