Readings:
Mark 11, 1-10, Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem, read as we process in
Isaiah 50, 4-7 I gave my back to those who beat me.
Psalm 22, My God, My God, why have you abandoned me?
Philippians 2, 6-11, God greatly exalted him.
Mark 14, The Passion in 4 parts.
Sorry, Everybody. Because of the length of the readings, especially the Passion, no homily this Sunday. Next Sunday, Easter.
Readings:
Exodus 34, 4-6, 8-9, A God merciful and gracious, never gets angry, rich in kindness and fidelity.
Psalm, Daniel 3, Glory and praise for ever.
2 Corinthians 13, 11-13, Live in peace and the God of love and peace will be with you.
John 3, 16-18, Peace be with you; receive the Holy Spirit.
"Welcome in, Everybody," says Harper.
Exodus Story:
So the Israelite people have been wandering around in the Sinai desert for many years after escaping from old Pharaoh in Egypt. Moses has been invited up Mt. Sinai to receive the 10 Commandments.
He comes down all loaded with two stone tablets written on both sides and discovers that the people have become exasperated with him and the wandering in the desert. They have created a gold bull to celebrate with and to worship.
Old Moses, all angry, throws down the tablets and breaks them. He calls Aaron, his lieutenant, tells him to gather the Levite tribe, the priestly tribe, and he tells them to slaughter all the rest. They do.
Emma, too, says, "Hi, Everybody, come in."
At this point our reading begins. Yahweh tells Moses to make two more tablets and to return to the top of Mt. Sinai, where he will get another set of commandments. It is here where that marvelous line about the nature of God is mentioned again, "The Lord is gracious & merciful, never gets angry, and is abounding in love."
This is ancient folk tale literature at its best, like Aesop's Fables.
Ugh, oh, Tori is missing a tooth. Are you now a rich girl, Tori?
The Lord is Gracious and Merciful, never gets Angry, and is abounding in Love.
I want to talk about this line this morning. For me, of course, the line says it all. This is my understanding of who God is and how he acts. Consequently, this is a
You win, Buddy. Tori lost one, you lost TWO. Congratulations.
to do it talk. How to spot these qualities.
Of course, there are big ways, like visiting my beloved Yosemite, cycling Iowa & Hotter ’N Hell, and getting together Sunday mornings with all of you.
There are, also, smaller ways. Two examples this morning.
Rosemary, of course, rolls her eyes when I run my ideas past her.
Zoe, I think you are rich too. You got all your teeth.
The first took place Friday at 1:00, guess where. Yes, at Jason’s Deli. Our Romeo get together. There were 4 of us sitting in the very back of the bus, just in front of the doors to the restrooms, Tom & Mike & Andy Sokolowski and myself. At my left was an extra table & chair for other regulars who had not arrived yet.
About half way through our lunch one of the assistant managers, Patrick, a tall, nice looking guy, comes back to our area to bring food to a couple. He is usually really busy, even to bussing tables when the place is full. This Friday is lighter than usual.
Welcome home, Alexandra. Declin, you are a neat kid and you got a terrific mommy.
So instead of running back to work, Patrick comes over to our table, says hi to everybody, and accepts our invitation to sit. He is just to my left.
In the next 5-10 minutes Patrick shares a lot about himself, 28 years old, Plano resident since birth, almost got married once, but is peaceful. Then back to work he goes.
The trouble makers corner. You guys have too much fun every Sunday.
The second event took place in our living room Saturday morning. A couple came to talk about their wedding in August.
I find weddings almost always touching and beautiful happenings. This couple was especially a joy. First of all, the groom is Austin Goode, whom I have known since way back, since St. Mark’s days. Tom & Becky are his mom & dad. I am really touched by this.
The Anderlicks, John & Karen & Lisa.
If this was not bad enough, Austin introduces Rosemary and me to this delightful, pretty, and full of personality fiance’, Vika. Her story is so marvelous. Born in Belaruss, brought to the States at 4 with her whole family by, get this, the Jewish Community Center, which I loved even before hearing Vika’s story. She goes to private Jewish schools, public schools, and graduates from SMU. On top of all this Vika has this magnetic personality.
I can see the personality of our God in these two events. I can see that he is gracious and merciful, never gets angry, and is abounding in love.
Where do you see the personality of God?
Vika (in blue) with Austin and her parents, Ena and Alex Kuznetsova.
Readings: Acts 2, 1-11; Psalm 104; 1 Corinthians 12, 3-13; John 20, 19-23
Breaking Out
We had been traveling all night and all the next day to reach Nairobi recently. I was dead, we were all dead when we got off the plane about nine in the evening.
This is the airport that witnessed a lion walk in one night and lie down right in the lobby. In the 80’s. The airport borders the Nairobi game park. It used to be wide open, but now is glassed into sections, probably for security, if not lions.
I remember when I got off of the plane, I said to myself, "Okay, Stack, it is time to try your Swahili." So as I walked down a corridor I saw a cleaning lady, a little, middle aged Kenya woman, and I put together a simple question, "Where is the bathroom?" (Choo kiko wapi?) Granted, I could even see the bathroom down the corridor a bit. But I wanted to break out.
After I asked this simple question, the little lady looks at me and says, "WHAT??!!" in this loud impatient voice. Talk about being deflated! I was ready to chuck the whole language. I was embarrassed. It was like no more Swahili for me. English.
However, as I got beyond her and the comment, I remembered that Kenyans are not as good with Swahili as Tanzanians. I was using Tanzanian quality. Maybe she, too, was just tired and worn out with rich tourists.
Whatever it was, I renewed my intention and started talking with the immigration & security people. There I got a pretty good receptions. And then our driver from the Lutheran Guest House went crazy. That was consoling.
I talk about this because what I had with that little lady was a type of a pentecost experience. I was scared like those people in the room. Scared even before I talked with the lady. Then I was more scared and discouraged. Fortunately, because I knew I used to have the language well enough, I broke out again and it worked. In fact, finally I realized it felt like getting back on a bicycle after 20 years. I just took off.
This pentecost experience pits risk vs fear. We are all like those fellows in the upper room. We can be scared of so many things. Even scared of standing up here and reading. Scared of speaking out, of leaving a job I don’t like, of taking a new job, or hundreds of other scares. Getting married!
Growth involves risking to break out of the trap of fear. When I break out, even if I fail, consolation results.
What risk are you afraid of today?
Download the homily as an mp3 file
Readings: Deuteronomy 18, 15-20; Psalm 95; 1 Corinthians 7, 32-35; Mark 1, 21-28
Deuteronomy:5th book of the Bible, the Torah, coming after Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, & Numbers. The work is basically 3 lectures given supposedly by Moses to the Jewish people while they were still in the desert and preparing to enter the land of Canaan, where the Canaanite people lived.
Author: For centuries people considered Moses to be the author, in fact, the author of the first 5 books of the Bible, the part called the Torah. Today it is commonly held that Deuteronomy is a compilation by a number of authors.
Date: 7th Century BCE, with some parts coming from the period of the Babylonian Captivity, ca. 575.
Our selection: comes from the second lecture (chapters 5-26) which presents numerous dictates about how to behave in the new land. For example, an every 7 years a jubilee year is prescribed when all debts are erased (chap. 15); if one's son is rebellious, take him to the city council, and stone him (chap. 21); and laws concerning slaves (chap. 23). In our section from chap. 18 Moses is telling the people another prophet like himself will be raised up by Yahweh to lead them. Guess why this prophet statement is chosen by the lectionary editor today? Jesus is seen by people following Jesus' time as the prophet mentioned by Moses.
A note on Paul's comments in 1 Corinthians: jokesters like to say that maybe Paul was not happy in his marriage. This is why he puts marriage in second place behind non-marriage. It could, also, be because he was influenced by the dualistic philosophy of his time, flesh-spirit. Spirit was good, flesh less good. For the spirit to thrive the flesh needed disciplining.
Judging the Book by the Cover Again
There was a kid who was working as a stocker at a Home Depot. One afternoon he heard a new female voice over the store intercom asking for help with packing at the check out. Sort of reluctantly he stops his break and goes to help. As he searches for the person asking for help he sees a beautiful woman who stuns him. He had never seen her before. He helps her out, then hangs around the time clock to see what her name is when she checks out.
When she checks out, he watches where her card goes and takes a look at the name. Brenda. Then, as he walks to his car he sees her walking up the street toward home he guesses. The next day he waits around just right and as she departs he asks if she would like a ride. She accepts, figuring he can't be too bad since he works where she does.
He does the same thing another day and as she is leaving the car he asks if she would like to have dinner the next Saturday night. She says she can't. He continues to invite her and she admits that she cannot come because she has two little kids and cannot afford the baby sitter. He offers to pay for the sitter and asks her to think about it. Finally, another day she accepts, despite the fact that he is 22 and she is 26.
When he arrives at the door that evening, she says again she cannot go. The sitter canceled. He says, "So, let's take the kids." She says it would be very difficult. So, he asks to meet the kids and she grudgingly lets him in. First to come in is a daughter about 8 who he thinks is cute as can be. Then Brenda goes to the back and returns pushing a wheel chair with a young boy. A little child born a paraplegic with Down Syndrome.
"This is why I cannot go out," She explains. "No problem," he says, "We can still take them with us." Now it is Brenda's turn to be astounded. Most men she knew would not come near her just because of having two children. But one that is a paraplegic with Down Syndrome. Adios! But she accepts, they all go to eat, and then to a movie.
When the kids need anything the guy is ready to help, even helping when the little boy needs to go to the potty. Brenda continues to be astounded at the guy's helpfulness and consideration.
If you have not heard this story already, the guy's name is Kurt and you can see him on TV this evening playing quarterback for the Cardinals at age 37. The story has a marvelous ending, because about a year later they married and have had at least two more kids. Be fun to see Brenda on TV.
I talk about Kurt Warner because before I read this story I have not liked him for a little while. He plays for a team whose owner I do not like. But also, the maybe one time I have ever seen him on TV was when he played the last game against Carolina, he never seemed to be excited or animated, never congratulated anybody, or cheered on his team mates. At least that was what I saw. Then I get this story from Larry Thompson and think, "There I go, did it again." Judged a book by the cover. In fact, judged negatively.
I would like to apply this lesson to the Mark story about the man with the unclean spirit. Traditionally when people were considered to have an unclean spirit they were considered possessed by a devil. Do you believe in devils? In this tradition we have all the melodrama connected with exorcisms. Want to read about how this can go wako? Read Heretic's Daughter by a Dallas author, Kent. It talks about the Salem, MA witch hunts around 1690.
Today, with our much deeper psychological understanding of people's behaviors, their thinking and feeling, we would consider the man with the unclean spirit to most likely have a mental disorder or sickness. It could even be an addiction. You only have to visit psych wards in hospitals to run into what could be called people with unclean spirits. You meet a homeless person on the street and you might be tempted to think that person is demonic.
What did Jesus do? I propose he first of all was not scared away by the man. Secondly, he accepted him peacefully.
The lesson for us? Maybe two.
First, regarding the Bible, what is your belief system? Believe in devils, in evil spirits, in demonic possession, in exorcisms?
Secondly, how many times a week do you judge the book by the cover?
AUDIO: sorry, missed connection
Picture 1: Mass with T.J., Lorynne, & Lacee
Picture 2: Birthday of John & Geri
Picture 3: Jim & Dorothy
Picture 4: Birthday of Gilberto
References:
The Carmelite web site
Christ in the Desert web site
St. Raymond Catholic Parish, Dublin, CA web site
Bishop John Shelby Spong, various works and articles in Mirabile Dictu, edited by David Gawlik
Readings: Deuteronomy 26, 4-10; Psalm 91, Be with Me, Lord, when I am in trouble; Romans 10, 8-13; Luke 4, 1-13
Deuteronomy:
What: This work is the 5th and last book of the Pentateuch/Torah. The first 4 books are Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, & Numbers.
Deuteronomy has basically 3 speeches delivered by Moses before the people enter the promised land. He reviews all they have endured the past 40 years and how Yahweh has shown his care and power to save them.
Author: Not Moses. Moses may have spoken some of the ideas in the speeches, but others have put the work together. In fact, in chapter 34 the death of Moses is described. Someone other than Moses probably covered this episode.
Date: Ca. 700 years BCE. In other words, about a century before the Babylonian Captivity and just after the destruction of the northern kingdom,
Our Selection, chapter 26: the end of the second speech. Moses is reminding the people of how Yahweh cared for them since the time they were slaves in
Have a Happy Lent
In Eccliastes 3 it says, "there is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens; a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to harvest, a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build."
If you are a New Orleans Saints fan, after decades of grief, your time to celebrate has come. And you have celebrated as only people in N.O. know how to celebrate. We have all just passed through the season of Christmas. We, too, have celebrated.
Today we enter another season, the season of Lent. How do we have a happy Lent? How do we make this a time to build and a time to be born, again?
When I was talking with Rosemary about this homily, she asked me if there was not a new way I could talk about this subject. I thought that, no, there really is not a new way for me to talk about this subject. Some of you have heard these ideas or something similar for maybe 20 years. Please forgive me if I repeat some of the same thinking.
My thinking always comes down to how do I, how do we have a happy Lent? How can it be positive and not a negative, depressing, and dreaded event? Two thoughts.
One. Despite what comes up in the liturgies and scriptures, we are not sinners on the road to hell or purgatory paying ransom for our endless sins.
Second. These 5 weeks can be Maslow time. Abraham Maslow, an American psychologist, ca. 1940 said that, "What a man can be, he must be." After 4 stages of development, Maslow thought that healthy people arrive at a place of self-actualization.
I call this becoming a person fully alive. "A person fully alive is the Glory of God." This was said in ca. 200 by St. Irenaeus, a bishop of Lyon, France. It is what we are about this season.
How do we fertilize and how do we prune so that we are more fully alive on April 4? Each person has their own recipe, their own path, and most of us know what our path is.
Want a quicky insight into yourself? What are you addicted to? What are you obsessed by? There are the usual culprits, alcohol, fast food, TV, work, smoking, whatever. You can be brain dead and know this. However, we can equally use denial to avoid the obvious. We are aiming at becoming more fully alive people.
I, for my part, plan to give up all alcohol, take French baths to learn French better, not go out at night, in fact, not leave the house at all for 30 days, and I will give up salads, spinach, and greens veggies, and Wednesday I will get rid of this crabby hip that is slowing my life down. All this because the doctor orders it. I will truly enjoy April 4. A real Resurrection.
How are you going to have a happy Lent?
Sources: Wikipedia for Maslow & Irenaeus; Human Development, Philip Rice for Maslow
Picture 1: Mass with Tony and Kevin
Picture 2: Altar helpers
Picture 3: Emily and her mom, Julie
Picture 4: Communion helpers
Readings:
2 Samuel 5, 1-3, You shall shepherd my people Israel.
Psalm 122, Let us go rejoicing to house of the Lord.
Colossians 1, 12-20, He is before all things.
Luke 23, 35-43, If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself.
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. "Christ is king, not you."
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. The Catholic Church was against democracy.
Sources: Living with Christ, Nov., 2009; Wikipedia
Our Blessings
Thanksgiving, as many of you know, is my most favorite celebration and feast of the year. For three reasons.
This season I have come up with a half dozen or eight really special gifts. I would love to share with you my top three.
First, as Rosemary would say to you, “That cowboy has married up.” I agree, folks, and I am enjoying every moment of married life. Rosemary and our home, Aviana, and the fun we all have. I lived for years with loneliness, especially at Thanksgiving and Christmas, and doubly especially when I lived in Tanzania. I am not lonely anymore.
I bet you won't find another Catholic priest counting his marriage as his biggest blessing of the year.
Secondly, you people. This community. You people are an amazement to me and to many others who cannot be here. The warm hospitality, the generosity, and the mutual support and acceptance of one another, especially of the kids. Do you realize that we have been celebrating here for nine years this coming Sunday? I will never forget that first Sunday we gathered here.
Thirdly, I’ve had some marvelous bike events. The 5 Boro in N.Y. coupled with the big McGinn family reunion. The week long ride across Iowa, like riding in a circus. The exhausting but exhilarating Hotter ‘N Hell ride out of Wichita Falls, 100 miles, 100 degrees temp.
Connected with these events I include our 9 day Yosemite back packing trip, my most favorite park and my most favorite trail, the Matterhorn Canyon trip. The last time I took this trip was 2009 and I knew that I would never again be able to hike like this with my factory edition hips. You know the rest of the story. This was the first time I traveled the Matterhorn Canyon since 2009 and I thought then that I would never see it again. I was moved to tears on occasion.
Two bonus gifts. Rosemary & I every Monday evening have a date night. Guess what we do. We are dancing again. At the Farmers’ Branch Senior Center, a fun place with a bunch of old geezers who can really dance.
And, finally, my French.
I am most grateful.
Your biggest gifts this year? Your biggest gift.
Readings:
Exodus 22, 20-26, You shall not molest or oppress an alien, for you were once aliens yourselves
Psalm 18, I love you, Lord, my strength
Thessalonians 1, 5-10, You know what sort of people we were among you.
Matthew 22, 34-40, Which commandment is the greatest.
Thanks to the Team
Music, Ben & Shonda's
Readers, Mary Jane & John & Buddy, the candle blesser
Gospel, Deacon Mike
Homily, John Cade
Eucharistic Prayer A & B, Stack & John Cade
The Magic Zoom makers, Richard & Hue
Final Blessing, Rosemary
For hosting us at Legacy, Becky
Homily by John Cade
10/25/20: Most often the first reading each Sunday is chosen for its connection to the Gospel reading and its teaching. Today is no exception. I have 3 points based primarily on the Gospel and first reading: First, on Jesus and the first and greatest Commandment of the Law; Second, on the new Great commandment of Jesus; and Third, the story of the Good Samaritan, and the story of the King who equates being a neighbor with loving God?
First, the Greatest Commandment. The Jewish people gave credibility to the Book of Deuteronomy by framing it as the addresses of Moses, their most revered leader and prophet. In his second address of Deuteronomy, right after he lists the Ten Commandments, Moses repeats the Greatest Commandment: “Hear, O Israel! God, our God! Is the one and only God! Therefore, you shall love God with your whole heart, and with your whole being, and with your whole strength. This passage became known as the ‘Shema,’ or ‘Shema yisra’el,’ the first words of the passage in Hebrew.
When Jesus was asked by the Pharisee Rabbi what was the most important commandment, Jesus gave the well-known ‘Shema’ straight from the Law in Deuteronomy—to love God with your whole being (heart, soul and mind), calling it the “most important” and the “first on any list.”
My second point—Jesus upgraded and completed the greatest commandment. I learned from Wikipedia that the number of commands in the Law of Moses is 613. (And we thought 10 were plenty!) Why so many? Because they covered every aspect of Jewish life—how to worship God, what and how to cook, what and how to eat, what to wear, rules about all the many things considered ‘unclean’, everything to do with family relations, with business dealings, and so on.
Morning Tranquility.
In today’s Gospel Jesus picks one of those 613 commands in the Law of Moses (Leviticus, Ch. 19), and says, “If you add this other command, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” then, you have the “whole Law and the Prophets.” And, by the time the Gospel of Luke was written, 20 or so years later, these two commandments were considered as one—the greatest commandment.
Luke, in Ch. 10, has a scholar of the Law, test Jesus by asking, “‘Teacher, what do I need to do to have eternal life?’ He answered: ‘What’s written in God’s Law?’ The scholar said, ‘You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” So, by then the most important commandment has two inseparable parts, the love of God and the love of neighbor.
My Third Point: Guess what Luke follows-up with and writes immediately after that passage?—the Good Samaritan story about who is a neighbor. The ‘Good Samaritan’ is the one who treats the robbed and beat up person with first aid, and the one who makes sure the person will be taken care of. In the story, being a neighbor is not defined by who the other person is; it is defined by how one responds to the other. When you respond to another with mercy and kindness, you are being the neighbor.
John Cade sharing the Good News.
Matthew’s gospel also gives us the sure way to know if we are keeping the great command. In Matt. (Ch. 25), this teaching tells how the twofold great command is totally interrelated. When you are a neighbor to another, you are loving God. This is the story of the King who said, ‘Enter the kingdom. I was hungry and you fed me, I was homeless and you gave me a room, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me, and so on.’
And then how the saints entering the kingdom asked, ‘When did we ever see you hungry and feed you, or see you sick or in prison and visit you?, and so on.’ And the King said, ‘Whenever you did one of these things to another, especially to someone overlooked or ignored, that was me—you did it to me.’
When I look at this community, I see good neighbors. You remember others in prayer, privately and in our prayer of the faithful; you visit the sick—in the pandemic you email, telephone or text them—giving the encouragement and hope of someone to lean on; you reach out and care for others in countless other ways, e.g., many of you have given of yourselves to kids who are poor or disadvantaged or disabled at the ‘Love for Kids’ events (of course, with Bill Hammond’s leadership), some of you traveled with Bill and Bona Responds to help people in other areas of Texas and Oklahoma suffering from devastating storms, and right here helping John and Rosemary restore some order to their tornado-damaged home and destroyed trees.
A few years ago, a number of you helped with the counting of homeless people in Plano to provide data on their actual existence; I have seen you and heard about you, keeping up with and giving care for others in our community who suffer any kind of adversity. You generously contribute, as you can, to keep this community in existence, over fifteen years now, and to help with our ability to do outreach. These don’t even take into account how you welcome community members and visitors, (even virtually) with total acceptance. For me, you are for our time Good Samaritans, living out the great commandment to love God and showing your love of God by being a true neighbor. Amen.
Please Remember these special people:
For Alan Stryker; For John Doherty with an operation this week for his back pain; For David Dismore's bad shoulder from a biking accident; 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 Mary & Dave Hall's g-daughter Allison Keller working at St. Lukes, The Woodlands, For Loretta's aunt Alicia; For Sir Charlie & Jan; Shonda's mom & Cody & Ben & Leo & all of Shonda's dear family;
For Jackie's mom, sister, & friend, Lynn; For both Jean & Cliff Wright; For Rick Turner searching for a kidney donor, Type O neg; For Meredith, cancer free; 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, plus John's daughter, Joey, with cancer, For the students, teachers, and coaches in our public & private schools.
White Rock Lake at sunrise.
Birthdays: Zoe (& Samantha), Patricia AA 22nd, Rob 68,
Anniversary: Bill & Zaile, 11th
A rose is a rose is a rose . . . .
Community Finances, October 18, 2020
Expenses: $775.00
Outreach $ (often for Souls Harbor, Legacy, etc.)
Thanks, Folks, for doing what you can.
Rosemary's Blessing: