Readings:

Isaiah 62, 1-5,  The Lord delights in you.

Psalm 96,  Proclaim his marvelous deeds to all the nations.

1 Corinthians 12, 4-11, There are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but the same Spirit.

John 2, 1-11, There was a wedding at Cana in Galilee.

 For those who don’t have a decent Bible or a book of the readings, here are two links that I use, The Bible at Your Fingertips (http://st-luke-church.org/bible-at-finger-tips.php) and USCCB, The New American Bible (http://www.usccb.org/).  

The difference?  The first is Protestant more or less, and the second is officially Catholic and has the 12 little books in between the O.T. & N.T., called Deuterocanonical or Apocrypha. 

Both are good translations.     

 Homily for January 20

 One of the three summer canoe trips that I used to organize each year at St. Mark was for the 13 and 14 year old children.  It was a three-day trip where we put in the Brazos River just south of Cleburne off highway 67 below the Boy Scout camp.

On the third day all the adult team was aware of a stop we would make an hour or so before we would board the bus for home.  The young people would be tired and hot as they approached some water gently pouring over some limestone at probably 5 or 10 gallons a minute like a miniature waterfall. 

They got terribly excited when they were told that it was a natural spring, cold and drinkable. The kids would take turns standing under it with their mouths open. 

2000 years ago a traveling Jesus and his disciples would have loved such water.  They would have used it drink and to dilute the wine that they had with them.  Travelers usually didn’t drink water unless it was living, flowing from a spring or recent rain.  They drank diluted wine.

The OT Stories were written around things like living waters, wine and vineyards.  Since the gospels fulfilled the expectation of the OT for the coming of the Messiah, within them these symbols took on a deeper spiritual meaning. The vine became the symbol of Christ, living waters the symbol for the good news.

Since the word, wine, is present in most, if not all, of the books in the OT, we should expect that the wine in today’s gospel would be a symbol for something terribly important…and it is.

In the Mark gospel we are presented with this metaphor.  You don’t pour new wine into an old wineskin.  Anyone who ever left a wet handball or golf glove in the sun knows why.  You would find it stiff and hardened.  If you tried to pour new wine into them, the cracks in the leather would become revealed.  The wine would be lost; the leather also would be of no value.

Therefore, Place new wine into new wineskins!  In the Story where you find that metaphor, you are introduced to the hardened hearts of the Pharisees and scribes who had rejected the good news and therefore the Holy Spirit that flowed forth from those living waters.

Remember the Holy Spirit and the unclean spirits cannot coexist within a heart.  A new wineskin is the heart of someone who has repented and welcomed the new wine, the Holy Spirit.

So, now you pretty much know the meaning of the parable about the wedding feast in Cana of Galilee.  The old wine gave out because God sent to us his only begotten Son with new wine. The empty jars used in the purification rite within Judaism that had been empty, barren, now would be fulfilled by living waters, to the brim…from which would pour forth the Holy Spirit. 

What one thing would I like for you to take away from the gospel today?  

The Greek word for the servants who assisted Jesus in today’s gospel is used for male or female, diakonia. We are to understand that they were manifesting the Holy Spirit to those at the wedding feast of Cana by their words and actions. 

You might have felt distanced by Nancy’s 2^nd reading if you were wondering who those people are in our assembly.  We are those people!   Those who proclaimed the Word; those who serve at the table, those who distribute from the table; those who wash and fill the cups; those who bake the bread; those who set the table with gifts; those who lead us in song; those who give and distribute our gifts to those in need; those who visit the sick; those who extend the sign of peace to one another.

We are his body, blessed and broken for each other.

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks to the Team

Music, Shonda & Ben

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

Homily & Eucharistic Prayer, John Cade

The Magic Zoom makers, Mike & Becky & Ben

The Final Blessing & sharers of Vows, Rosemary & John

 

 

Readings:

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

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

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

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

 

 

 

The Brain Center

 

Reading 1

A Reading from the Acts of the Apostles       

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

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

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

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

Our word for today.

 

 

Brain Center??

 

 

Reading 2

 A Reading from the First Letter of Peter

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

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

        He never did one thing wrong,

        Not once said anything amiss.

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

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

Our word for today.

 

 

 

 

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

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

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

 The Good News of John

 

 

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

 

Anniversaries:

Bill & Patty Hammond, 52nd

Joe & Marsha Farmer, 36th

Stack & Rosemary, 15th

 

Please Remember these special people:

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

 

 

Alexa for Geezers:

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

 

John Cade's Homily on Matthew

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                The Gospel of Matthew and the Jewish Synagogue—Talk Six

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

 

 

Community Finances, May 3, 2020

Expenses: $1835.00

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

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

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

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

 

 

Readings: Numbers 11, 25-29; Psalm 19, The Precepts of the Lord give Joy to the Heart; James 5, 1-6; Mark 9, 38-43.

The Book of Numbers

 

The fourth book of the Pentateuch.  It leaves us with the impression of a carefully structured and organized religious society moving through history under the sustaining and guiding hand of God.  It is a very complex collection of historical, legal and liturgical traditions spanning a period of about a thousand years!  

An outline would identify three broad divisions of the book: The sojourn at Sinai, chapter 1-10 covers the last 19 days the Israelites spent at Sinai. 

 

The second section deals with the journey from Sinai to Moab, chapter 10-22 and covers a span of about 38 years.  The third section, chapters 22-36, covers events in Moab over a period of 5 months.  Today's reading is from the beginning of the

second section, when the people are just starting out on their journey.  Moses is getting concerned with the responsibility of all of the people, so God shares the spirit, which is on Moses among 70 elders, even two who were not part of the group gathered around the Tent.

The Letter of Saint James

 

This is the final Sunday for the second reading to come from Letter of St. James, which we have listened to for the past five weeks.  In the reading today the mood is very stark!  “Your wealth has rotted away”.  The audience for this letter is the communities outside of Jerusalem.

Again remember the letter is a collection of moral observations and instructions, and in today’s reading James’ does not have much that is positive to say about the rich.  The bigger context is to encourage the Christians who are suffering at the hands of the powerful.  James reminds his audience that Jesus is coming again very soon!  Immediately following today’s reading he says “Be patient brothers until the Lord’s coming”.

Notes on the Gospel 

 

9:42 "it is better for him rather if the millstone of a donkey had been set around his neck and he had been thrown into the sea." The force of the two verbs indicate it would have been better that the person died before causing the scandal.

 

9:43 "It is better (that) you go into (eternal) life deformed . . . " Compare this statement with Leviticus 21:17-24, where only the undeformed could lead worship. Only the physically intact high priest could enter the Holy of Holies, the place the populace believed Yahweh definitely dwelt. In addition, self-inflicted wounds were forbidden in the Torah.

 

Now Mark stated the self-deformed could enter the kingdom. Ignore, for a moment, the fact that Mark used this extreme language symbolically. The weight of the statement was simple. Not only the sinners (the "deformed") could enter the Kingdom, the righteous (those with "two hands") could suffer eternal punishment! In addition, sometimes needed to "deform themselves" (i.e., leave the community of the "righteous" for the community of "sinners") to be saved

               

"unquenchable" in Greek is "asbeston," the root word for "asbestos."

                    

9:43, 45, 47 "Gehenna" The valley of Hinnom, south and west of ancient Jerusalem. This valley became infamous as the "high place" for idol worship among Judah's monarchs (including an oven for human sacrifice). Because of it reputation, "Gehenna" became metaphor for eternal damnation in the time of Jesus.

                                  

9:44, 46 "where the worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched" Both verses are the same. Most scholars do not believe these verses are part of the original text, so they are deleted from most modern translations.

               

9:48 "where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched." Unlike 9:44 and 9:46, this verse is original. This verse was an adaptation of Isaiah 66:24

                          

Homily for Sunday September 27^th 

 

If ever there was a gospel passage which begs for the topic of the Pedophile Disaster it is today’s, but I am not going there!!  Instead I thought about getting some hacksaws and pliers and making them available for use here today!!  If you eye causes sin – pluck it out.  Chop off your hand or your leg!!!! What is this all about? 

           

For me, this is a classic example of why it is not too smart to take the bible literally!  No, God does not want us to be inflicting severe bodily harm to ourselves.  So what is going on in this reading?

        

The three readings today are a brilliant example of why we have readings at mass.  The Word of God is speaking to us thru the readings each Sunday.  Here is what I am hearing from today’s readings.

            

In the OT reading from Numbers, we are at the beginning of the journey, the people have just been given the Covenant with God…. But already they are starting to have a really bad attitude about the whole thing, and poor Moses is feeling overwhelmed.  I guess life does get to be overwhelming at times.  Too many things too little time.  In the reading, God helps Moses first by sharing the spirit with others, can I share whatever it is that overwhelms me with others… a problem shared is a problem halved.  Then God in the very next sentence after our reading has quail blown in from the sea to feed the people.  When I am open to allowing God to help me, he invariably does. 

            

The Second reading from James reminds me to keep things in perspective.  Not to get too attached to material things.  The real riches are for me found within family, within community.

            

The Gospel passage from Mark for me says that what we here in this community are doing is the right thing!!  “Whoever is not against us, is for us”.  If ever there was an example of not seeing eye to eye with the established religion, it was Jesus.  It was ultimately what set him up for crucifixion.  The established religious were too threatened by what he was saying and doing.

           

 

But back to what I said at the beginning, what are we to make of the chopping of limbs etc.?  It is a classical example of why it is important to fully understand the context of the scriptures.  Today’s readings ask me to take stock of my priorities.                      

          

Let's take a few moments of quiet to begin that process.

                 

You may be the only Bible someone reads, will they be able to find God?

 

Picture 1:  Tony celebrating with Kevin helping

 

Picture 2:  Altar helpers

 

Picture 3:  Mike Miller presents CCAC with $2000, Cathy, Ray, & Claire accepting

 

Picture 4:  The Froebes, Richard, Morgan, Alexandra (O.U. junior), & Monica

Readings: 2 Samuel 12; Psalm 32; Galatians 2, 16-21; Luke 7, 36-8, 3

Happy Father’s Day & Confirmation Day

2 Samuel.  What has taken place before the reading today is that King David, the Great, has taken another man’s wife and then had the man killed in battle to eliminate him. The wife is the famous Bathsheba and her son is to be the great Solomon. Nathan is the prophet who will condemn David.

We Confirm Excellence

This morning I would like to direct my remarks to Erica & Susie because it is their special day. 

Every year to maintain my pschological therapist license in TX I have to attend 20 hours of continuing education. Last week I attended an all day seminar for six hours.

In the afternoon the presenter was talking about achieving internal peace and wholeness.  He said he could probably come up with 20 qualities of a person who is peaceful and whole. However, he wanted to share his top five. Think you can figure out what the 5 are, maybe one or two? 

I’ll tell you what they are and I want to add one of my own. I’ll give them alphabetically.  His 5 are curiosity & hope, gratitude & love, & zest.  I add humor. 

Confirmation:

Curiosity for you girls might come pretty easy right now in your lives. In fact, maybe your curiosity can get overwhelmed at times. You are in school. The day will come, however, when you will graduate. Then you can choose to read, to know different places by traveling there, to study different languages, to befriend people different from you. 

If you were not girls of hope you would not be here this morning. Your hope is that tomorrow will be an even better day than today, with more peace, fascinating people (which all are), and fun times.

You hear me talk always about focusing on my blessings. I do this to stimulte my gratitude to God, to People, to Rosemary.

When I focus on gratitude I find I can love more. Knowing you girls, you will love a lot of people and a lot of people will love you because of what neat people you are. Occasionally you will be challenged to love a person who makes your love a decision. I love the person despite the behavior.  Unconditional love: maybe does not exist except on rare occasions. It is, however, always a goal.

When you are grateful and loving, full of hope and curious, you will live your lives with zest.  You will love your lives and live to the fullest.  Life itself will be a gift.

Finally, I add humor.  Not only is it healthy to laugh.  It is esecially healthy to laugh at myself. How often do you girls laugh at events, people, yourselves?  Humor helps on those occasions when I fall flat on my face and make a fool of myself. 

You girls look around and you will see these qualities in your mom & dad, your friends, and lots of people here this morning. You girls have these qualities.  I know you & have seen them.  I confirm these qualities in you. The Community, the Catholic Church, and I, we are all proud of you.  Continue to be The Best.

Folks, back to you.  How are you going to confirm these girls in their excellence?

Audio: Click to download to an mp3 file

Readings:

Exodus 3, 1-8, 13-15, The Lord appeared to Moses in fire flaming out of a bush.  (One of the great stories)

Psalm 103,  The Lord is kind and merciful. (One of the great lines)

1 Corinthians 10, 1-6, 10-12,  Do not grumble.

Luke 13, 1-9,  There was a person who had a fig tree.

Exodus observations:

 

What: this is the second book of the Bible and Torah, following Genesis.  It is a story about how the Jewish tribe of people escaped from slavery in Egypt.

Who:  the story is about the Jewish people and their reluctant leader, Moses.  It was put together, not by Moses, as was thought for centuries, but by a group of the priests even centuries later.

When:  it is put together at The Time in Jewish history, yes, during the Babylonian Captivity, say 555 years before Christ.  It is a mostly mythological story about how God helped his special people out of slavery eons before Babylon.  Do you see a parallel between the slavery of Egypt and Babylon?  Could this be a reason for developing the Egypt story, that is, to encourage the people enslaved in Babylon?

Our selection:  like the call stories of Isaiah and Jeremiah, here is another call story, this time Moses.  Unlike the booklet which edits out part of the story, we will read it all.

 

 

Psalm 103 observations:

This psalm has one of my most favorite lines in all of scripture, The Lord is gracious and merciful…. 

There are so many pictures of God presented by the Bible, some of which are quite demanding and unpleasant.  Note, for example, the story of the fig tree in Luke this morning.  Each of us is challenged to put a face on our God according to our own searching and experience.  This line, which is seen in other places in the Bible, is my vision of God.

 

 

Joseph with the Beautiful Coat

I bet you don’t know why the Jewish people ended up in Egypt and became slaves.  This is a Bible story Sunday.  Here we go.  

Let me tell you the story of Joseph with the beautiful coat.  We pick up Joseph living in Canaan, which the Israelites will say later that God gave them.  He lives with his 11 older brothers. 

His father is Jacob, the third of the Big 3, the 3 patriarchs of the Jewish tribe, namely, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob or Israel, father, son, & grandson.   Jacob loves his 12^th son in a special way and because of this the other brothers get jealous.  Unfortunately, Joseph has told on his brothers, informing his dad that they are not taking care of the live stock.

 One day Joseph goes looking for his brothers in the fields.  They see him coming and decide they will kill him.  Reuben, the eldest, persuades them to sell Joseph to some guys running a camel train by on their way to Egypt.  Price: 20 pieces of silver.  Sound familiar?

 So Joseph ends up in Egypt and is sold to the captain of the king’s guards.  He does so well the captain puts him in charge of his affairs.  Unfortunately for Joseph, the captain’s wife develops a crush on Joseph.  When Joseph refuses her, she gets mad and tells her husband Joseph tried to seduce her.  Joseph goes to prison.

While in prison he interprets dreams of the prisoners, one of whom is the king’s wine steward and who is released.  For two years Joseph stays in prison.

 One day the king has a dream that worries him.  The wine steward tells the king about Joseph’s ability to interpret dreams.  The king calls him, Joseph interprets the dream.   The king loves Joseph and makes him the governor of all of Egypt.  Joseph is now in his 20’s.

Meanwhile, the 11 brothers and Jacob are experiencing severe drought in Canaan.  They decide to go to Egypt and ask the king for aid.  They arrive and are shown to the office of the governor.  Guess whom they see.  Joseph.  They don’t recognize him.  He, however, recognizes them and really messes with them.   Read it, a fun story.

Finally, Joseph reveals who he is with many tears.   Old Jacob and all the brothers reunite with Joseph, who lives in Egypt until he is 110 years old. 

This is how the Israelites got to Egypt.  How they became slaves?  The Bible says not a word, but they did multiply like rabbits to numbers which threatened the security of a later king.  And, then, along comes Moses and our reading this morning.

Why talk about this story?  Three reasons.

1.  We Catholics don’t get the Bible stories read to us.  Even as fables they are marvelous.  It is nice to cover them on occasion.
2. The writers of this story are attempting to convince the Jewish people that God watches over them and protects them.  He watched over Joseph and watched over the enslaved Israelites in Egypt, sending them Moses.  He even watched over Moses.  And Babylon?
3. Finally, in our life we are each challenged to find out who God is, what is his way of proceeding.  These stories give us an image.  And so does my favorite line from Psalm 103.  Read about how God punishes, pays back, demands sacrifice, sends us goats to everlasting fire?  Keep the line near you or in your head,

The Lord is gracious and merciful, never gets angry and is abounding in love. 

On this third Sunday of Lent what is your image of God?

 

Video: Cupcakes of The Week to Jackie and Chuck

  

Readings: 1 Samuel 26, 2-23; Psalm 103; 1 Corinthians 15, 45-49; Luke6, 27-38.

Samuel – This book of Samuel is a transition book describing how the Israelites went from being governed by judges to kings. Samuel was the last judge, Saul the first king.

A third dramatic person enters the book, King David. He is the one who killed Goliath with his sling and was King Saul’s favorite for a while.

However, when Saul noticed that the girls liked David more than he, Saul got jealous and tried to kill him on a number of occasions.

Our chapter 27 is one of these occasions. Watch what happens. The theme centers around compassion & mercy.

1 Corinthians 15 – We continue Corinthians 15 with a rather convoluted contrast between Adam, the first human being, & Jesus.

Turn the Other Cheek?

When Rosemary & I are in Mexico at Christmas we always spend the evenings in the village centers because they are enchanting. One evening in Cuernavaca this year I was standing in a one person line in front of a little kiosk selling fruit juice drinks. The kiosk was one of about six that circle the bottom of the bright gazebo. I always get an orange juice with papaya, banana, and strawberry.

As I wait in line behind a woman another woman walks by me, goes straight to the chest high counter, and asks for what she wants. I am a little indignant. I learned in East Africa, where this happens all the time, to simply say something. So I say in Spanish, "Is there no line here?"

At least the woman appeared rather abashed, even though she tried to ignore me. Ultimately, I got my fruit drink, and I was happy that I had not just wimped out, saying nothing because I hate creating scenes and this caught people’s attention.

Is this an example of offering the other cheek?

What about the example of the Amish whose children were recently killed by some deranged man? They did not just tell their kids that they would do well to forgive, but they brought aid and food to the man’s widow and his family.

I find this teaching of Christ just confounding. Half of the time I can’t do it; the other half I don’t want to. A couple of observations.

One, this is another example of the Christian program of infinite demand. The other half is infinite acceptance. We have humbling examples of people who have lived out this infinite demand: the Amish, Martin Luther King & the Freedom Riders, Dorothy Day, Maryknoller Roy Bourgeois, and even outside the Christian tradition, Ghandi in India.

Secondly, our Christian heritage clearly states that the better way is always compassion and mercy instead of hitting back and violence. David was compassionate and merciful to crazy old King Saul. Theologically we have developed a theory that says self defense is acceptable. Acceptable but not the better.

When that little lady jumped the line in front of me, I could have gotten all angry and really made a scene. I could have said nothing, which for me would have been wimping out. What I decided to do some years ago was to simply comment. Was I turning the other cheek?

What have you done when someone strikes you on the cheek, even metaphorically? What do you want to do in light of this reading?

Download the homily as an mp3.