Sunday Homily, February 21, 2016, 2nd Lent

Readings: Sirach 35,12-18; Psalm 34; 2 Timothy 4, 6-18; Luke 18, 9-14.

Sirach: Again we take up one of the books of the Apocrypha, the 12 books written in Greek and not originally considered part of the Bible.  This book is basically a collection of Jewish wisdom statements and teachings.

Our selection in chapter 35 talks about the nature of god and what happens to the person who serves god.  It sets up Luke’s parable about the pharisee & the tax collector in the temple.

I am Better than Whom?

In our neighborhood there is an elderly couple.  Their yard is full of weeds and they tend to mow only a few times a summer. They have a couple of dead cars in the driveway, and drive an old, partially rusted pickup.

Once while I was sitting at my desk in the living room I saw the lady come by our house in her truck, take a left away from me on the corner, stop the truck, and get out.  Next I saw our neighbor lady running across our yard going in the direction of the truck.  Her black lab had gotten out.  Guess who finally caught the dog.  Yes, the lady from the pickup.  I was impressed and a bit embarrassed at my judgmental attitude. 

I was doubly embarrassed a few weeks later in the spring when I was working in the yard.  The pickup pulled up to the curb and from the driver’s side window the lady says to me, "You really have a nice yard."  We chatted, I found out her name, and now we wave at each other whenever she drives by.

I am the pharisee in the parable about these two guys going into the temple to pray.  Let me make a few comments about the tax collector, the pharisee, and the setting.

The setting first.

• Prayer time was 9:00 or 3:00
• Others were probably present
• Prayer of soliloquy was normal
• The parable is directly addressed to the rule keepers and especially the judgmental rule keepers.  Are these people fear based, following whatever they were programmed to believe as children? 

The pharisee.

• Goes to the temple to pray.  Normal.  Considered a model citizen & temple member.
• Utters a prayer of gratitude.  Normal.  A great prayer form.
• Fasts twice a week and pays tithes on his whole income.  Above normal.  An outstanding temple member.  A paragon of virtue and worthy of all Yahweh’s blessings.
• But.  The prayer of gratitude is based upon a judgmental attitude.  He thinks he is better than.  Superior to.

The tax collector.

• Shock!  A tax man going into the temple.  Going to pray.
• Tax collectors were considered ritually impure, because of their job. They collected money from their neighbors to hand over to the hated Roman government.
• The tax collector could have been stoned for entering the temple.
• He does not confess his weakness, does not promise to repent, says nothing about restitution.  In fact, he could not give up his job.  Or would not? 
• Begs for mercy.  Nothing more.  His only hope is to be accepted by Yahweh.

The result: Escatalogical Reversal.  Big description for what takes place.  A flip.  Just the contrary to what the Jewish people listening would expect.  The Tax collector "went home justified."  God’s inconceivable love accepts someone who does not follow the rules?  See why they crucified him?

Who are three people you dislike?  And why?

AUDIO: http://mysite.verizon.net/reso7rjy/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/2007-10-28.mp3

Readings:

Genesis 12, 7-9; 3, 1-7,  I will make of you a great nation   

 Psalm 33,  Lord, let your merciful love be upon us, as we  place our trust in you.

 2 Timothy 1, 8-10,   Bear your share of hardship for the gospel.

 Matthew 17, 1-9,    The Transfiguration.

Post Hurricane, Spring on Hilton Head Island.

On the Readings Genesis

Traditionally the first 5 books of the Jewish Scriptures (Christian Old Testament) were called the Torah and all five were attributed to Moses as their author. Modern Biblical scholars say definitely not.

In fact, Genesis and the other 4 books of the Torah (Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy) were most likely written in the 5th and 4th centuries before Christ, so during and after the Babylonian captivity (dated around 555 BC).

The Jewish people had been defeated, their temple destroyed, and they were in captivity in Babylon. They knew that the southern tribes of Israel, when they were defeated and taken captive, had basically disappeared, being absorbed by intermarriage with their captors.

To avoid a similar outcome, their oral tradition was written down to give the Jewish people a history and a strong identity. The emphasis was on a special covenant with God. This covenant included many laws and practices touching every aspect of their lives. They left no doubt as to what it meant to be an Israelite, a Jew.

Today’s Lenten readings have connected the words spoken to Abraham in Genesis “you are blessed”, with the words spoken in Matthew’s Transfiguration story “listen to him.”

 A riot of colors, red, white, and pink, everywhere.

Homily:  

To understand the context of the Transfiguration story we need to remember: Matthew wrote this Gospel for the early Jewish community, now Christian, living in Jerusalem. They would know well all the books of the law and the prophets, including the first, Genesis, and the last prophet, Malachi. 

In today’s reading Matthew is referencing that last named prophet in the OT. (Read Malachi. 4:4-6)

So, in the last paragraph of the last book of the OT—and the early Jewish Christians Matthew was addressing knew it well—Malachi reminds the Jewish people of Moses, the greatest leader of them all, who took them out of slavery in Egypt, led them to the promised land and gave them the law spoken by God, also on a mountain top.

And Malachi says, “I’m sending Elijah the prophet to clear the way for the Big Day of God.”

So, as Matthew set the scene, here’s the picture: On a mountain top—where else?—that’s where in Scripture all important meetings with God happened—Moses appears representing the law and Elijah appears representing the prophets, and Jesus is transfigured before Moses and Elijah and right in front of the 3 disciples, his face and clothes shining as white as sun light.

That event, in Matthew’s story, is Malachi’s Big Day of God—the proclamation of Jesus as the new Moses, the new Elijah, the long-awaited Messiah. The disciples are told Jesus is the one to listen to now.

Hilton Head is 90% cleaned up.  A long way from how it looked at Thanksgiving.

That’s our message too. (As it turned out there were actually four ‘Big Day of God’ events: Jesus’ Baptism, His Transfiguration, His Crucifixion/Resurrection, and His Ascension/ Pentecost.) An interesting difference in the Eastern and Western Christian churches: the Western Church was more influenced by the story of the Crucifixion/Resurrection. E.g., some Catholic saints displayed stigmata (e.g., Saint Francis, Padre Pio).

The Eastern Church was more influenced by the story of the Transfiguration; Eastern Orthodox saints never reported stigmata; they were often described as transfigured by the inner light of grace (e.g., Saints Seraphim and Silouan).

Remember how for several weeks Stack helped us reflect on the questions of who gives us light and to whom do we give light? Guess what? The Transfiguration story takes us right there again, showing Jesus all lit up, as something to see, as the one to listen to, the one to learn from.

How do we shine as people of the light? One challenge is living like Jesus: accepting life as it comes to us, with its joys and delights, its pain and grief.

Another is living like God of Psalm 103: being “merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in kindness.”

Another is living like the people of this community do: Look around you: Name how these people shine for you? Name the ways they give light in your life. Look at yourself: how do you give light to others around you?

Another is being more like the little children: accepting ourselves–even our innocence, being bold, living in the present, chilling, receiving and sharing with such ease.

Can we do this? What do you say?

Readings:

Proverbs 8, 22-31,  When the Lord established the heavens I was there.

Psalm 8,  O Lord, our God, how wonderful your name in all the earth.

Romans 5, 1-5,  We have peace with God.

John 16, 12-15,  I have much more to tell you.

And now to begin….

Observations on Proverbs

What : basically a collection of moral and religious teachings.  Pretty boring.  Some amusing like—

“The lord hates people who use dishonest scales. 11, 1

If you don’t punish your son, you don’t love him. 13, 24

Better to eat a dry crust of bread with peace of mind than to have a
banquet in a house full of trouble.  17, 1

Children naturally do silly things, but a good beating will teach them.
22, 15

And my favorite….

Better to live on the roof than share the house with a nagging wife. 25, 24

Author: 
Who knows.  Not Solomon, as was thought for a long time.

Olivia and Amelia with their grandparents, Sandra and Chuck.

A Trinity

Last Friday Rosemary & I made one of our usual morning bike trips around White Rock Lake.  We come down the White Rock Creek Trail from the north and proceed south, clockwise along East Lawther Drive by the Arboretum, to the dam, where we take a vista stop. 

Buddy and Torri.

The bike path running along the south shore of the lake and Garland Road is pretty high over the lake and the dam.  There is an observation deck extending out over the lake and dam, which is about 20 feet above the lake and the spillway.  We are looking north across the whole expanse of the lake at this observation point.

Zoe and Emma with her sling from breaking her collarbone falling out of bed.

Friday when I rode up and stopped just ahead of Rosemary, there was a
young dad with his one or two year old little boy.  Dad had a trailer for the boy and he towed the trailer with his bike.

When I arrived the little blond haired boy with about two teeth was
being held by his dad against the black wrought iron railing.  The boy was throwing little sticks into the lake and watching them go over the spillway. 
He was squealing with delight and when I applauded he was more
joyful.  We talked a bit and I was enchanted.  

Cupcake of The Week for Emma to welcome her back after a bad week.

I want to talk this morning about the marvelous Psalm 8 we have just read. It is talking about us and God’s work in us when it says,

You have made people a little less than the angels,

And crowned them with glory and honor.

You have given them rule over the works of your hands.

I looked at the nice dad and his delightful son and thought to myself, ‘What beauty.”

Cupcake of The Week to Harper for being so pretty and bringing her grandmother, Cathy.

The psalm writer also talks about the work of His Fingers.  Another striking image.  I saw the work that Friday, also, in the beauty simply in the rich tones of green as we rode along the path in the woods.

Then he talks about the heavens and says,

When I behold
your heavens, the work of your fingers,

the moon and the stars which you set in place.

Have you ever done this?  Lie down on the ground on your back and look up at the sky? 

Volunteers to help with communion.

I do this when we are backpacking in the mountains and I find it
terrific. Whatever the sky is doing, clear blue, partly cloudy, or windy, it is
sensational.  I come away feeling humbled, awe-struck, and blessed to be here. 

 Why I never do it except in the mountains, who knows.  Every year I
intend to.

Toy World with Emma, Zoe, Buddy, and Torri.

 Take a look at that marvelous Psalm 8.   When is the next time you will look at the sky?  When look at the colors of nature.  When look at a child, like the kids running around here,  and say to yourself, 'What beauty!'?

The Butterlies, Jim, James (being strangled) Denise, and Kara.

Readings: Deuteronomy, 26, 4-10; Psalm 91; Romans 10, 8-13; Luke 4, 1-13

Deuteronomy – The scene: The Israelites have escaped from Egypt and have been wandering in the desert for years. They are just about to enter The Land. They are assembled. Moses is addressing them and reminding them of all Yahweh has done for them over the years of wandering.

In our chapter he is telling them that when they have settled in their new land, where he will not accompany them, they must take a basket full of a portion of their first harvest, present it to the rabbi, and offer it as a sacrifice of thanksgiving.

Romans – Paul writes to the Romans that all people, Gentiles as well as Jews, are invited to be part of the Christ event.

Lent!

I know I have mentioned this once a year or so ago, but I saw it again and it is so fitting to our Lenten time of year. Please bear with me.

The last time I was with Rosemary’s sister & brother in law in Hilton Head I was working out on a stationary bike in the little club gym. I look up and coming into the gym is a little old man leaning on a cane. He is hobbling along and bending a bit. I think the man is one step this side of a wheel chair.

I watch as he enters, stows his cane in the corner, pulls a gym towel around his neck, heads for an elliptical trainer, gets on, and begins to work out. I am stunned with the vigor he puts into the trainer. I finish with my half hour bike ride and depart with him still pumping away.

The man is one symbol of what Lent can be. It is like spring training that baseball and football teams are engaged in right now. For me this Lent is not a time of gloom, doom, penance, and a focus on sin. It is new life, becoming more fully alive, spring cleaning, getting into better shape. Becoming a more peaceful human.

Here are ten things you can do for spring training:

1. Exercise more. Take a walk every day, even a couple of times a week.
2. Eat more healthily. Beware of hidden ingredients, e.g., high fructose corn syrup.
3. Mediate every work day morning for 15 minutes, maybe 5 minutes, giving thanks for your blessing of yesterday & today.
4. Say thanks 5 times a day, once a day, especially to family members.
5. Give one compliment a day, especially to a family member.
6. One time a week phone someone or make a luncheon engagement.
7. Read a book. A novel, a book I have recommended.
8. Fun! Be more creative in doing fun things.
9. Give yourself to something that helps others, like Colin Co. Adult Clinic or the Great Trinity Forest Clean up.
10. Get into recovery for your addiction: alcohol, drugs, food, work, smoking, porn. We are all addicted.

You cannot do all of these recommendations. Choose one. Choose something not here.

Look ahead six week to the Sunday we gather for Easter, April 9. How will you have had a great spring training Lent?

Download the homily as an mp3 file.

Readings: Genesis 9, 8-15; Psalm 25; 1 Peter 3, 18-22; Mark 1, 12-15

Genesis:  First book of the Bible, starts with creation, goes through Adam & Eve, Cain & Abel, Noah & the flood, the Tower of Babel, & ends with the Patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, & Jacob (Israel).

Author: Not Moses as was thought for centuries before people began to study the work.  At least 3 sources: 

• a Y (or J) source for the group that addressed God as Yahweh;

• an E for the group who addressed God as Elohim (Like two historians calling NYC The Big Apple or New York City, or Denver by its name or Mile High City);

• and a P group that focused on the priestly class, activities, & customs.

Time: compiled and put together from 1000 to 500 BCE.

Today's Selection: the flood has just receded and Noah is receiving a promise (called covenant) from Yahweh that never again will people be wiped out by a flood.  Guess what the sign of the promise is.

40 Days

I want to talk about Genesis.  Picture this.  It is night.  Moon & stars.  Sitting around a little campfire are 3 or 4 families, parents and a half dozen kids.  It is Maybe 1000 years before Christ.  It  is perfectly quiet except for the howl of a few animals out in the complete darkness.

A little girl says to her parents, "Where did that moon come from?  The stars?  Where did we come from?"  The parents tell her about the stories they heard from their elders.

They say: Before people were here the earth was all desolate.  It was dark & cold & waters were raging.  God came along one day and decided to put some order into this mess.  So he got up the next morning and divided up the daylight and the dark.

The next day he got up and created the dome of the sky.  The third day he created the earth and starts plants growing.  The day after that he sets up the sun, the moon, and the stars.  On the fifth day he puts together fish and birds and tell them to multiply.  The sixth day he really has to work hard: animals and especially man & woman.  By now he is tired, so he takes the seventh day off and enjoys his work.  This is the first account of creation in Genesis.

Now at another campfire many miles away a little boy is asking his family the same question.  He is told another story.  One day, say, Elohim is walking on a dirt path (like everyone did.  No pavement).  He leans down grabs a handful, wets it, and molds it into a new form, something with two legs, two arms, and a head.  A man. 

This man is given life and gets put into a marvelous garden with only one command.  Don't eat from that tree.  Time goes on and animals are created which the man names.  However, the man is lonely, so God takes a rib out of his side and molds it into another human  form.  This one, however, is female and becomes man's partner.  The man names her Eve, the mother of all.  This is the second creation story.

At this point in time all is copasetic.  One day, however, while Eve is strolling around the Garden of Eden, a snake begins to talk with her.  Eventually the snake convinces her to try the fruit of the tree.  Uh, oh.  Then she shares it with the Man, now called Adam.  Later, God comes strolling along in the evening and has to call out for Adam & Eve, who are hiding.  He knows what they have done.  They confess and he tells them they will be forever punished with difficult living.  So they get kicked out of Eden.

Adam & Eve have kids.  Cain first, Abel second.  One day both boys make an offering to God.  Unfortunately for some reason, Cain's offering is rejected by God.  He is hurt and gets mad because his brother is accepted.  He kills Abel.  Then he, too, gets punished by God. 

Time passes and apparently many more of Adam & Eve's kids turn out like Cain.  In fact, God becomes so mad, so disappointed in his new creature man, that he regrets what he has done and decides to wipe everyone off the face of the earth–except one guy, Noah.  At this time, Noah is 500 years old.  He builds a boat and it rains 40 days.  Which takes us up to today's reading, where the water has receded and God promises he will never kill everyone with a flood again, signing his name with a rainbow. 

I tell these mythological stories for four reasons.

First, we seldom hear or read these marvels.

Secondly, though it is not in the Genesis reading we have, there is a thread between this part of Genesis 9 and Mark and today: the 40 days.  Forty is a special number in the old times meaning a sufficient number.  It rained 40 days.  Jesus is in the desert 40 days.  And we are spending 40 days of Lent.

Thirdly, when Jesus came out of the desert he really throws himself into his message, which contains 4 points in Mark:

• The Time is now.

• The Kingdom is here.

• Repent.

• Believe the Good News

Fourthly, for centuries up until Vatican 2, the 40 days of Lent focused on fasting and abstinence to imitate Jesus and to do penance for our bad ways.  It was supposed to be a cleansing before Holy Week and Easter and a test of character. 

Fasting usually meant giving up meals.  Abstinence meant giving up a particular item, like Blue Bell or chocolate chip cookies.  I found one amusing note:Thomas Aquinas, one of the great doctors of the Catholic Church who lived ca. 1250, suggested that the faithful abstain from meat, eggs, and dairy.  Why?  Because they were aphrodisiacs and generated lust.  Food, alcohol, tobacco, and sex were all targets of the Church.

Today Mormons fast 1 day per month.  Muslims fast dawn to dusk the month of Ramadan which is August 22-September 20 this year.  This fast often includes liquids. 

Last week I suggested for a positive Lent we might practice sensitivity and service.  This week we might fast, since this has been the hot topic.  Maybe a fast from guilt and stress.

How is Lent going for you?

AUDIO:  http://mysite.verizon.net/reso7rjy/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/2009-03-01.mp3

Sources:  Wikipedia on Lent & Fasting; Dominican Website; Creighton U. Spiritual Seminar; St. Raymond Church, Dublin, CA.

Picture 1:  Mass with Reed (3 weeks new)

Picture 2:  Reed with his momma Nikki & granny Jackie

Picture 3: Stacie McKinley, Reed with Jackie & Nikki, Ryan (Nikki's brother & Jackie's son); Rosemary, & Margie Duggan

Picture 4:  Mass with Noah helping

Readings: Acts 3, 13-19; Psalm 42, Lord, let your face shine on us; 1 John 2, 1-5; Luke 24, 35-48.

Acts: A review–

Author:  Luke, the author of both The Gospel and Acts.  Today we get Luke twice, in the first reading with Acts and in the last reading, today's Gospel. 

While we are on the subject, Luke's gospel story today is a compliment to last week's gospel story by John.  Both John & Luke find the apostles in a locked room, Jesus appears, and he says, "Peace."  Both focus on the physical, last week on Thomas demanding to see the wounds, this week Jesus eating.  What does he eat?   Why so much focus on the physical? 

Date:  written about 40-60 years after Jesus death, i.e., ca. 70-100 A.D.

Subject: Two points of organization.  One is that chapters 1-8 focus on the resurrection, ascension, and Pentecost, plus their effect on the community.  The rest of the book, i.e., chapters 9-28, Paul.  The other point of organization goes from Jerusalem, to Palestine, to the whole world with the news about Jesus.

Today's Selection:  The selection today is somewhat backwards compared with last week.  Last week, chapter 4; this week, chapter 3. 

The scene is this, just like last week when we read from chapter 4.   Peter & John have just healed a lame man at the door of the temple.  The people come rushing to see.  Peter & John say, "Hey, we did not do it."  In fact, Jesus did it and he has been raised from the dead.  This caught the attention of the priests and authorities who had the two arrested and put before the council.  They are released the next day after a warning not to talk about this Jesus.  Then they return to the local community of believers. 

Last week we tuned in at this point and the reading focused on how the community attempted to live a communal life, everyone sharing.  Today we go back to the time just after the healing of the lame man.  The people have rushed to see the phenomenon and ask Peter & John to explain.  Today's reading is their explanation.

Who Needs to be Richest or Prettiest?

After all the academic background & history on the readings today, I would like to propose we have a homily lite.

Consequently, I have five questions.  See if you can answer them.

Name 5 wealthiest families in Dallas.

Name 4 Miss Americas.

Name 3 Heisman Trophy winners.

Name 2 winners of, take your pick, best actor/actress, Dancing with the Stars, American Idol.

Name 1 recent MVP in either the NFL or NBA.

Anybody got 15 names?  I would suspect that most of you, like me, cannot name more than one or two people on this list, maybe none in some categories.  Folks, these people are not slugs.  They are probably the best in their fields.  But who knows, and who cares?  50 years from now who will remember these people?  Point: all this wealth, all this beauty, all this talent makes what kind of difference in your world? 

Now let me put five more question to you.  See if you can answer them.

Name your 5 best friends. 

Name 4 teachers who positively affected your life.

Name 3 who compliment you.

Name 2 models or mentors in your life.

Name 1 person whose courage you admire.

Got 15 people?  Difference?  What makes the difference?  The latter people make or have made your life, you richer?  So, what if you forget about being the richest, the prettiest, the best, and focus on making life richer for those around you and those following you?

How?  We planted trees for a couple of decades here.  Remember the Trinity River trash pick up organized by Kovatis?  Habitat.  Coaching, teaching.  Collin County Adult Clinic.

So, what are you doing?

AUDIO: http://mysite.verizon.net/reso7rjy/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/2009-04-26.mp3

Picture 1:  Mass with Kevin helping

Picture 2:  Birthday: John Simari, Denni Zurchin with Chloe, & Kevin

Picture 3:  Audry & Grandma Jo

Picture 4:  Alexandra with dad David