Sunday Homily, August 23, 21st Ordinary Time

 

 

Welcome in, Everybody, as we celebrate the Second Sunday of Advent.

 

Readings:  

Baruch 5, 1-9, Jerusalem, put on the splendor of glory from God forever. 

Psalm 126,  The  Lord has done great things for us, we are filled with joy.

Philippians 1, 4-6, 8-11,  I pray always with joy for all of you.

Luke 3,  1-6,  The word of God came to John.

 

 

Excellent reading, Dear Buddy, thanks.

 

Reflection on Luke

Author: The gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles make up a two-volume work which scholars call Luke-Acts.  According to an early Church tradition, the author was the Luke named as a companion of Paul in three of Paul’s letters, but Scripture scholars say there is a problem with this.

 

 

And thanks to you, Dearest Tori, for lighting our candles for the 2nd week of Advent while your brother reads The Blessing of the Candles.

 

Though the author of Luke-Acts admired Paul, his theology was significantly different from Paul’s; there are countless contradictions between Acts and Paul’s letters. Bottom line: we don’t know who author of Luke-Acts is.

 

 

3 Members of our Girls' Board, Emma, Zoe, and Tori.

 

When written: The most probable date is around 80-100 AD, and there is evidence that it was still being revised well into the 2nd century.  The author takes as sources the Gospel of Mark, written around 70 AD, the sayings collection called the Q source, and a collection of material called the L source (L for Luke).

 

 

Mike sharing his graces from the Love for Kids' Picnic.

 

Audience: Luke was written to be read aloud to a group of Jesus’ followers gathered in a house to share the Lord's supper. The author assumes an educated Greek-speaking audience, but attends mainly to specifically Christian concerns rather than to the Greco-Roman world at large.

 

 

What is this sitting down on the job?  It is called lumbar stenosis, which was improved by one stretch suggested by the physical therapist last Thursday.  And that was only the first appointment.  Lots of hope for future appointments twice a week for a while.

 

Today's Homily

I was disappointed that I could not volunteer at Love Kids picnic Saturday.  I always am struck by the presence of grace in all these kids and volunteers.  Since I could not share the graces with our community, I asked Bill Hammond to keep his eyes open and to share what graces he experienced. 

 

 

The second elevation.

 

Bill, in turn, invited Mike and David to share their experiences of the presence of grace.

So we really had a triple header homily, and it was most touching.  

Next Sunday Mike will have the homily, a really good one.  Welcome.

 

 

For sale: Donna Dinsmore's hand made jewelry.

Readings:  Isaiah 40, 1-11; Psalm 85; 2 Peter 3, 8-14; Mark 1, 1-8.

 

Isaiah 2: Remember that Isaiah is one of the Big 3 Prophets, along with Jeremiah and Ezekiel.  Because of its 66 chapters this work is the big one.  Remember, also, that at least 3 writers contributed to the book. 

The first 39 chapters are the main Isaiah and present a strong critic of the rampant corruption of the ruling class with their oppression of the ordinary people.  His counsel was that Israel & Judah (north & south) pursue a passive political & military policy versus Assyria, the threatening power of the time, ca. 700 BCE.  Moreover, the Hebrews should not form a military alliance with Egypt & Babylon.  Babylon was no threat at this time, but would be so ca. 590, when they would enslave the Hebrews.

Isaiah was not heeded and eventually the Assyrians defeated the northern state, Israel, and the people disappeared.  They intermarried and did not maintain their identity.  Today they are called the 10 lost tribes of Israel, the remaining two tribes surviving in Judah, the southern state, capital, Jerusalem.  Remember how I mentioned Ezekiel helped the Hebrews enslaved in Babylon ca. 580 maintain their identity with 1. sabbath, 2. kosher food, 3. male circumcision.

Side note: why 12 tribes?  Because of the 12 sons of Jacob, the third of the Patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, & Jacob.  Jacob was given the name Israel.  Israelites are the sons of Israel or Jacob.

For our purposes this second Sunday of Advent when we look forward to Christmas, we use the second Isaiah, which begins, guess where?  With our selection, chapter 40.  These chapters are called the Book of Comfort and you will see why.  Even though I as a backpacker would not like to see all the mountains & hills made low, we have a beautifully consoling reading.  Isaiah 2 is speaking to the Jewish people under siege.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jim in the Blood Mobile

 

Good News in Strange Places

I did it again, folks.  Rode in car number 1, DART red line.  It was Wednesday ca. 12:00 when I caught the down town train at Forest Lane to have one of our occasional lunches with Dawn Schultz.  She got on at City place, but what happened before that was the event.

I was seated on the aisle, right side, third seat from the front, so I can watch the scenery ahead as well as beside me.  Somewhere like Walnut Hill Lane we stopped and the driver laid out the handicap bridge to let someone on.  In came an orange baseball cap covering a skinny old black man in an electric wheel chair.  He parked in the bay just in front of the seat on the left side, right in front of a white woman in her 30's. 

We  had not gone one stop when he started talking loudly enough to hear him all over the car.  He had his back to us but was asking people if they had a paper towel.  His nose was dripping because of the cold.  He was able to talk most directly to this white woman because he was near her and only needed to swivel around in his chair to face her.  She was  good.   Did not have a paper towel, but offered him a Kleenex.  Which he used to wipe his nose.

Then he proceeded to converse with her some more.  She responded graciously.  At one point, he says in his loud, gravely voice, "How old are you?"  I was really amused.  Smiling she said she was 33.  He said something I could not distinguish and she responded, "You are 30 years older than I am."

I was stunned.  He was 63.  5 years younger than I am.  Wow.  He must have lost count along the way, I am thinking.  He looks and sounds like 83.

This got me thinking on how our two lives have been so different from the beginning.  He was born into this world probably a poor black boy.  I was born into this world a rich white kid.  I've had every door opened to me, every opportunity.  I obviously have much greater health than he.  I've worked at it, no doubt, but I had so much help, starting with my parents and teachers who appreciated being well rounded.   When I returned from East Africa in '86 and began to have annual checkups, we Jesuits had total coverage and I had an internist that was the best.  He set me on a road to overall health in my older years that has been a priceless gift.  All this came to me as I listened to the little black man in the wheel chair on the red line.

The readings we have this morning all point at the coming of a priceless gift.  Isaiah and Mark talk about the coming.   In fact, Mark quotes Isaiah's very words saying, "Prepare the way of the Lord."  The Good News is coming.

So how does that effect me, us?  So what?  Two observations.

 Rose in the Blood Mobile 

First, the Good News that Isaiah foresaw and the Good New that Mark is trying to set up, it has come.  It is past tense.  We can take consolation from the knowledge that we are accepted.  Jesus has lived.

Mark is trying to convey this by creating for his readers  something special and he is working a plot.  He is writing in the 70's after Jesus' death in the 30's, Jesus a person whom he never knew.  He writes for Jews who became Jesus' followers and are being persecuted for it.  He is trying to show that Jesus it the one foretold by the prophets.  He begins with a three stage strategy, prepare, proclaim, test. 

In today's reading he is doing the first, that is, counseling the people to prepare for The Coming.  With Jesus'  baptism he proclaims The Good News.  The temptation in the desert is the test and the third part of the trilogy.

Second observation.  The Good News is not just past tense.  It is present tense.  I encounter it daily in big and small ways.  I encountered it on the red line.

Where or when do you encounter the Good News?

AUDIO:  http://mysite.verizon.net/reso7rjy/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/2008-12-07.mp3

1.  The Joy of helping with the Quads and meeting Casey and Robbie.  Truly gives hope for the future.

2.  I am Thankful for My Family, My Pets, the World, Jesus, and God.

3.  My Kid quit Smoking.

4.  I am Blessed to have known & loved Sarah Dixon Herbert during her short life.

Readings:  

Wisdom 1, 13-15; 2, 23-24, God formed people to be imperishable

Psalm 30, I will praise you, Lord, for you have rescued me.

2 Corinthians 8, 7-9, 13-15, As you excel in every respect, may you also excel in the gracious act.

Mark 5, 21-43, Who has touched my clothes?  

Mass

Wisdom observations:

What:  There are 39 official books in the Old Testament.  In addition to them are 12 extra books.  Wisdom comes from these 12 extra books. 

Main message: God rewards those who are good.

Author: A Jewish man who lived in Alexandria, Egypt. He wrote in Greek.

Date: 50-100 years before Christ.

Our passage: observations on life & death.  The devil & death are connected. 

Sources: Good News Bible; New interpreter’s Study Bible, Catholic Encyclopedia on line.

 

Heal a Bleeding Woman?  Are You Crazy!

There was an article early this week in The Dallas Morning News that was titled, Dallas-area Designers of Stylish Hijabs Bridge Culture Gap, empower Muslim Women.   Along with the article were two or three pictures of women with beautiful faces.  They were dressed from head to foot in, not black, but beautiful pastel colored hijabs and robes.  Jewels and perhaps diamonds decorated the hems of the robes. 

I had to laugh.  This is the classic example of the camel’s nose under the tent.  Next thing these Muslim women will not be wearing the hijab.  We have to laugh, too, because that women look beautiful was certainly not the intention of the religious men who put these dress laws in place. 

 

Sometimes you even see the real deal in Dallas, a woman all in black from head to toe with a black net covering her face.  Some women wore this attire in Tanzania when I lived there. 

I thought of this article with the pictures when I was putting together ideas about healing the two women. 

Do you realize how radical this was, especially with the woman bleeding?  Leviticus, the third book of the Bible, has a lot to say about women who bleed.  For instance, a woman giving birth to a boy is ritually unclean for 7 days; a girl baby, 14 days (chapter12).

In Lev. 15 it says that during menstruation, women were ritually unclean, which meant they were considered socially dead, not allowed in the temple, not allowed in the community, could not touch anyone and no one was allowed to touch them or their clothes or they, too, were ritually unclean.  So what does the lady in Mark do?   What does Jesus do?

Do you realize today how historic and universal this bias was against women?  Plato in The Republic says that Socrates asked, do you know of anything done by humans which is not done better by the male.

Hindus teach that a woman must immolate herself after her husband's death.  Buddhists consider it bad karma to be reincarnated as a woman.  Orthodox Jewish men are taught to pray, Blessed be God who has not created me a heathen, a slave, or a woman.  The first book of our Bible,  Genesis, blames a woman for the origin of evil in our world.  Can you see the presence of men putting this story together?

More recently, in 1873 in Illinois a case was decided against a woman.  She had passed the bar exam to be a lawyer, and the court would not grant her appeal to receive a law license.  A judge said that the place of a woman was in the home and that women did not have the fortitude to deal with such issues as the law.

The church fathers, as they are called, had their own bias.  St. Jerome says that when a woman wishes to serve God more than the world, then she will cease to be a woman and will be called a man.  You do not want to know what St. Augustine thinks about women.  What about the way the Vatican made nuns dress and would still like to?

So why this historic and universal bias against women by men (& women)?  One reason, from my research, blood.  Another is the male nervousness & weakness around women, beginning in adolescence.

So here comes Jesus along.  The woman touches him.  He could have had her killed by the crowd.  What was she doing in the crowd anyway?   And what does he do?  He calls her "Daughter," and heals her.  This is shocking to the people.  This is scandalous in the eyes of the Jewish authorities.  He will die for it.  However, despite the danger, Jesus  moves from bias to inclusion & acceptance.

In Galatians (Chapter 3) it says there is no male or female.  Just folks.  We are being called to get rid of the bias.  Women do not deserve to have men tell them how they must live, or be stoned.

How is your bias barometer?  Any bias against women, men, a particular race, political party, a part of town, a school? 

Sources: The Sins of Scripture, Bishop (Anglican) John Shelby Spong; Catholic Encyclopedia on line.

 

 

 

 

Tom escorting his daughter Katy.  Richardson Women's Club.

 

 

Readings:

2 kings 5,  14-17, Naaman went down and plunged into the Jordan 7 times.

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

2 Timothy 2, 8-13,  If we have died with him, we shall also live with him

Luke 17, 11-19,  10 were cleansed, were they not?

 

 

 

Welcome, Katy and Enza.

 

 

Homily

Because of a mix up on who was handling the homily today, we ended up with no one prepared.

 

Consequently, in the spirit of giving thanks, which is one of my favorite topics to share experiences, and which was the theme of some pretty good Scripture choices, I talked about my mom's advice when I got ordained in 1971, St. Rita's on Inwood Road, across the drive from Jesuit, in the old church.

 

 

Dani doing a reading.

 

I had received numerous gifts from people I actually did not know well, if at all.   They were my mom's friends.  And she had a  lot!  What to respond to the people who sent the gifts?  I was all for simply accepting the gifts and moving on

 

Not my mom.  She told me I needed to do the better thing, which was to send a note to every single person who gave me a gift.  Ugh!   This was pre-computers.  I had to write a note, address an envelope, put a stamp on the envelope, and send it off.  It took me forever!

 

 

Have you freely  and without reservation come here to give yourselves in marriage?

 

Because of my mom's advice (not really, her demand), I have continued to try to thank every person who touches me or the community with a gift, and that includes God on a daily basis.

 

 

Katy reading her personal vows.

 

 

If the only prayer you say in your entire life is Thank You, that would suffice.

 Meister Eckhart

 

 

 

A perfect setting & evening for a large & gracious wedding.

 

 

 

Welcome into a new and delightful life, Katy & Enza.

 

 

 

Rosemary's Blessing:

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place: and in the sky
The larks still bravely singing fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the dead: Short days ago,
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved: and now we lie
In Flanders fields!

Taken from IN FLANDERS FIELDS
By Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae

 

Composed at the battlefront on May 3, 1915 
during the second battle of Ypres, Belgium

 

 

Thanks to the Team

Music, Shonda & Ben

Readers, Richard & Brent, Deacon Mike, & Buddy, the candle blessing

Eucharistic Prayer, John Cade

The Magic Zoom makers, Mike & Ben & Becky 

Final Blessing, Rosemary

 

 

Readings:

Acts of the Apostles, 1, 12-14, All devoted themselves to prayer

Psalm 27, I believe I shall see the good things of the Lord in the land of the living.

1 Peter  4, 13-16,   Rejoice that you share in the sufferings of Christ.

John 17, 1-11, I pray for them. 

 

 

Remembering……….        This was taken in Yosemite ca. 2003-2004.   A bunch of convicts on a week parole.   The good old days.  Quality went south after this trip: we went co-ed.  We were invaded by sorts like Rose, like Beth, & Nicole.

 

See pix of new rectory at bottom of blog.

 

 Reading 1

A Reading from the Acts of the Apostles       

When they were together for the last time they asked, “Master, are you going to restore the kingdom to Israel now?  Is this the time?”  He told them, “You don’t get to know the time.  Timing is the Father’s business.  What you’ll get is the Holy Spirit.  And when the Holy Spirit comes on you, you will be able to be my witnesses in Jerusalem, all over Judea and Samaria, even to the ends of the world.”  These were his last words.  As they watched, he was taken up and disappeared in a cloud.

So they left the mountain called Olives and returned to Jerusalem.  It was a little over half a mile.  They went to the upper room they had been using as a meeting place.  All of them agreed they were in this for good, completely together in prayer, the men and women alike.

Our word for today.

 

 

Across Camellia from our house on Tulip Lane 3 homes have been bulldozed including the big one owned by the hockey player, Tyler Sagan.  We should be out of our house in two months and into our new house (see below).  Our old house will be visited by the bulldozer.

 

Reading 2

A Reading from the First Letter of Peter

Friends, when life gets really difficult, don’t jump to the conclusion that God isn’t on the job.  Instead, be glad that you are in the very thick of what Christ experienced.  This is a spiritual refining process, with glory just around the corner. 

If you’re abused because of Christ, count yourself fortunate.  It’s the Spirit of God and his glory in you, that brought you to the notice of others.  If they’re on you because you broke the law or disturbed the peace, that’s a different matter.  But if it’s because you’re a Christian, don’t give it a second thought.  Be proud of the distinguished status reflected in that name!

Our word for today.

 

 

3 homes demolished on this one corner of Tulip Lane & Camellia.

 

 

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

Raising his eyes in prayer, Jesus said: 

Father, it’s time; display the bright splendor of your Son,

So the Son in turn may show your bright splendor.

You put him in charge of everything human,

So he might give real and eternal life to all in his charge.

And this is the real and eternal life:

That they know you,

The one and only true God,

And Jesus Christ, whom you sent.

I glorified you on earth, by completing down to the last detail,

what you assigned me to do.

And now, Father, glorify me with your very own splendor,

The very splendor I had in your presence

Before there was a world.

I spelled out your character in detail

To the men and women you gave me.

They were yours in the first place; then you gave them to me,

And they have now done what you said.

They know now, beyond the shadow of a doubt,

That everything you gave me is firsthand from you,

For the message you gave me, I gave them;

And they took it, and were convinced that I came from you.

They believed that you sent me.

I pray for them, not for the God-rejecting world;

They’ll continue in the world, while I return to you.

Holy Father, guard them as they pursue this life

That you conferred as a gift through me,

So they can be one heart and mind, as we are one heart and mind.

The Good News of John.

 

 

 

 

Observations by Deacon Mike

Through the power of the Holy Spirit, the words and actions of Jesus Christ come alive to us within the written gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

It is there that we become aware that the gift of the Holy Spirit, who dwells within our hearts, calls us to forgive others as we have been forgiven; to bring love to others as we have been loved.

In our gospel from last Sunday, Jesus invited his disciples, and us, to follow his way, his truth and his life; so that we can come to be in him as he is in his Father. 

We celebrate the Holy Spirit coming upon the Church

In the Feast of Pentecost; to begin the Church’s mission to the whole world; to Jew or gentile, slave or freeman, male or female, Catholic or Methodist, Baptist or Lutheran.

The Church today places a different emphasis in its selection of readings; they will now begin to come from primarily Luke’s Acts of the Apostles.

So we end our readings this morning that we have taken from primarily the John gospel during this past Easter season this way: “Peace be with you; as the Father has sent me so I send you.

Jesus said to his disciples: “If you love me, show it by doing what I’ve told you. 

I will talk to the Father, and he will provide you another Friend so that you will always have someone who dwells with you and in you.  This Friend is the Spirit of Truth. 

The godless world can’t take him in because it doesn’t have eyes to see him; but you know him already because he has been staying with you, and will continue to do so! 

Then, Jesus said to his disciples, “I will not leave you orphaned.  I’m coming back for you.  In just a little while the world will no longer see me, but you’re going to see me, because I am alive and you are about to come alive with me.

At that moment you will know absolutely that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.  

The Good News according to John

 

 

 

 

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, Dallas and at Frisco Presby, the mother of Harper and Betsy, Kendle, working in labor & delivery;  ;  For Frank having hernia surgery this week;  For Joe Hogan with cancer,  For Loretta's aunt Alicia;   For Ryan, Rosemary's nephew, who had surgery; For Bill Hammond,    For Sydney;  & For Sir Charlie;  Shonda's mom;   For Gilberto:  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; 

 

Birthdays: Ray (80), Christi Occhipinti (45), Zaile Ekes, Shonda, Brent (13, AA), & Mabel (88!)

 

Community Finances, May 24, 2020

Expenses: $230.00

Outreach:  $120.00  (often for Souls Harbor, Legacy, etc.)

Thanks, Folks, for doing what you can.

 

 

Welcome!  Our New Home, the New Rectory

Address 7017 Helsem Lane, same zip code, 75230,  Hillcrest Villas,

2.2 miles from 6107 Tulip Lane (to be bulldozed by the present owner, a former SMU student & basket ball player), S. of LBJ, north of Churchill, rustic motif in the whole subdivision (ca. 120 homes), car ports rather than garages. 

We are blessed with a corner lot, slab vs pier & beam, ca. 2000 sq. ft. (1900 at Tulip Lane, & so much for downsizing). 

The couple selling us their house said that Rosemary' personal letters letting people know we were interested in buying their house really decided them to call us.  A very  nice couple with 3 grown kids.

 

 

Happy Memorial Day from Helsem Way!

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