Epiphany Sunday, January 3, 2021, 1st of the New Year

Readings:  Exodus 22, 20-26; Psalm 18; 1 Thessalonians 1, 5-10; Matthew 22, 34-40

Exodus: One of the great books of the Bible, the second book of the O.T.  The name  means 'departure' and refers to one of the most important event in Israel's history, the departure of the people of Israel from Egypt where they had become slaves after going there to escape drought in their own land.

Our selection has Yahweh speaking the law to the people as they wander around in the desert.

The Great Commandments

A priest in Chicago who is a psychologist and whom I admire, Andrew Greeley, tells the story of a woman who had three or four kids.  As she was bringing up the family she noticed that so many of the children around her were rebellious, disrespectful, lazy, and without discipline.  She determined that her kids would be respectful, active, and disciplined. 

She demanded they assume responsibility in the house for various chores, they had strict curfews and limits, and they were disciplined when they failed or were disobedient.  Time outs, privileges taken away, groundings, no TV, no cell phones, and so forth.  All were used to maintain discipline. 

The kids grew up, were successful, and all moved away.  Seldom did Mom hear from them.  One day when she was talking with her youngest, a girl, who was celebrating her birthday, the mom asked her why she and the others never kept in touch.  Had she not trained them all well for life and taught them discipline and integrity?  "Yes, Mom," the girl replied.  "But I never felt you loved us. I was a project."

Matthew in today's gospel explains what the two greatest commandments are, love God & love your neighbor as yourself.  Over the years I have taken a psychological approach to these two, noting that there really are three.  The third command is implicit, love yourself.  My observation is that, first, loving myself is often the hardest, and second, it is the foundation of the other two.  Can't love God or anybody else very well if I hate myself.

Today, however, I would like to make some observations about two groups of people, the Pharisees and the neighbor.  This will give you an idea why the question of the Pharisees is important and a trap. 

About the Pharisees, a rather crazy group of people not even absent from our own times.  The word means 'separate.'  The Pharisees saw themselves as separate and so did the people.  They were separate because they obsessively and rigidly observed the law. 

Their goal was to win Yahweh's favor by being perfect and at the same time act as an example of righteousness to the people. 

Their road map was the law.  Guess what the law meant for the Jew of this time.  First, there were 613 commandments, then 365 prohibitions (one for every day of the week), and finally, 268 prescriptions.  Total: over 1200 rules for behavior, and the reading from Exodus provides some examples.  The Pharisees studied and meditated on these laws.  The poor people, the people who had to work could never hope to focus on all these laws, which is why the Pharisees were mostly rich and, therefore, separate from the people and in their eyes superior to the people.

The pharisees' struggle: are all laws equal because they all come from Yahweh, or are some more important than others.  It was this question they studied, meditated upon, and argued over.  Which leads us to today's encounter with Jesus. They are trying to trap Jesus, make him choose one of these 1,200 laws.  He sidesteps the trap and pronounces the two laws which sum up all the laws. 

The sad side of the pharisees' life style is that they are obsessed, and that is just unhealthy.  Religious obsession can be as harmful to your health as drugging, drinking, or smoking.  They have OCD, obsessive compulsive disorder.  Love is minimal here.  In fact, fear is probably the motivator.  Whatever, the relationship is between God and the law observer is not the standard that Jesus is suggesting.

Which leads to the neighbor, the person I am challenged to love as I love myself.  Two observations.

First, there are two groups of my neighbors, immediate and remote.  The immediate neighbor is my family member, my village neighbor, the people I encounter daily or regularly. 

The remote neighbor is the alien mentioned in the the Exodus reading, the kid being made to be a soldier in Darfur, the mother in Guatemala, our mother & daughter in Cuernavaca, Mexico, the sick who come to CCAC.  I would even suggest that the pharisee is my neighbor. 

Secondly, while Jesus says that I am challenged to love my neighbor as myself in this setting, in another place he raises the stakes.  He says to love my neighbor as "I have loved you."  Pretty lofty demand.  Infinite demand, infinite acceptance. 

I am convinced that loving a god we cannot see or touch, if that is possible, is built on loving others, which is built on loving myself, something the sad, obsessed pharisee cannot do.  Thank God that none of you are pharisees, or you would not be here.  However, we can follow the footsteps of the mother who failed to show how much she loved her kids. 

As we head into a marvelous time of our year, Thanksgiving, Advent, Christmas, we begin with Halloween this week.  How are you showing your neighbor your love?

AUDIO:  http://mysite.verizon.net/reso7rjy/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/2008-10-26.mp3

Picture 1: Wendy, Ray, & Celeste

Picture 2: Margie Duggan

Picture 3: Roseamry & Tom Fleming, Rob & Beth Robinson

 

 

Readings: 

 Habakkuk 1, 2-3, 2, 2-4,   I cry for help but you do not listen.

Psalm 95,  If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.

2 Timothy 1, 6-8, 13-14,  Take as your norm the sound words that you heard from me..

Luke 17, 5-10,  We are unprofitable servants.

Habakkuk (What a
Name!), Observations:

Author: 
Habakkuk, one of the 12 minor prophets (small book, only 3
chapters).  Less known about Habakkuk than any other scripture writer.

Date:
Probably right before the great Babylonian Captivity, i.e., around
600. 

Subject: 
The Babylonians are coming.  Get ready for bad times, because
you Jewish people have been bad.  Like all prophets, prophesy of doom and
disaster for sin, followed by peace after purification by Yahweh.  There
is an imaginary dialogue between Yahweh & Habakkuk.  

Sources:
Good News Bible, The New Interpreter’s
Study Bible, Wikipedia.

 

 Unprofitable Servant?

I
would like to talk this morning about the idea of being an unprofitable
servant.   But first, a story to exemplify my thinking.

I have
this self image of being a hot bike mechanic. 
  It is true I love working on
bikes, fixing flats, cleaning and lubricating, adjusting the gears.   To me
a light-weight road bike is a work of art. 

The
true self image I have, however, is, as they say in French, a faux image.  Ask Rosemary, ask Claire Ochipinti, whose
gears I tried to adjust to no avail. 

It
is the marvelous gears that are my regular downfall.  This past week I ate some true humble pie
with Rosemary’s bike.  I adjusted the
gears after Rosemary had problems.  I did
not get it right. 

So
I took the bike to REI near us.  I know
two really good mechanics, who actually offered to hire me in the shop.  One of the guys, Chad, worked on the bike.  The next day Rosemary still had gear
trouble.  I tried again to adjust the
gears to no avail. 

So
this time, Friday, after ROMEO’s, I visited Rick Guerney’s Plano Cycling.  I have two more favorite mechanics there, Aaron and
a girl named Lorenda.  If Plano Cycling
were not so friendly when I walk in, I would not always head there when I really
need help. 

I
meet both Aaron and Lorenda.  She
immediately takes my bike, puts it on a repair pole, asks me the problem, and
fixes it in, of course, a couple of minutes. 
I am humbled. 

I
am doubly humbled because she gives the bike a quick overall check out and
finds that Rosemary’s brakes are squishy. 
She even installs a new rear brake cable.  I am embarrassed because I try to keep
Rosemary’s bike 100% safe.  And Lorenda
finds the brakes squishy, wow.

I
remember this event when Luke tells me I am nothing but an unprofitable
servant.   After all the humble pie of
the week, I can believe him.    First I
think I am a hot bike mechanic.  Then I
find out I not only can’t fix the gears, but I neglected Rosemary’s brakes, the
most elemental thing.  Yes, I am pretty unprofitable.

From the psychological perspective, I see a trap in considering myself simply as an
unprofitable creature, in other words, fairly useless.  Could this not end up being a description of a low self image?   

From a relationship perspective, I also see a trap.  Have we not begun to focus on the passages in Scripture where God and we have a special relationship?  Servant and master is not where we are at.  

I
would propose two thoughts:

1. 
Let me change from master & servant to Giver and
Gifted.  The Lord gives all this to us and we are gifted.  

2. 
Secondly, we are givers to others.  We are both.    And want to know when we are specially gifted?    When we are giving, not as unprofitable and
useless servants, but as people in a special relationship.     

So how do you see yourself as gifted and how do you see yourself as giving to others?

 

 

 

Readings:

Genesis 15, 5-12, 17-18     To your descendants I give this land.

Psalm 27,  The Lord is my light and my salvation

Philippians 3, 17-4, 1,   Their god is their stomach.

Luke 9, 28-36,   The Transfiguration.

 

 

 

Says Harper, "Hi, Everybody, Welcome in."

 

Genesis observations

What : book 1 of the whole Bible which includes

1. Origin of people, Creation, Adam & Eve, the apple tree,
2. Cain & Abel,
3. Tower of Babel,
4. The flood, Noah, and the arc,
5. Abraham, The Father of the tribe, Isaac, and Jacob

The stories are mythological and fun reading.

Author: numerous sources, at least 4 big strands. 

 

 

Leo, too, says, "Good Morning, Everyone, Come in."

 

When: guess.  Yes, compiled during the Babylonian Captivity, 555 before Christ, to build cohesion in the tribe because it has a history, especially the point that they are chosen to be special by God.

Our selection: The story about Abraham and how God made a pact with the tribe led by Abraham, considered the founder of the tribe. 

Amusing note: in our reading Yahweh promises a section of land to the Israelite tribe.  This genre of literature comes under the title of denial of responsibility, typified by ‘The dog ate my homework” or ‘God made me do it.’

The story is put together after the fact, after the event.  The fact is, the Israelite tribe had to remove the Caananite tribe from the land.  The Israelites slaughtered them all, men, women, and children, even the live stock.

Their observation years later, ‘Yahweh told us to do it.”  Such was the origin of the Holy Land.

 

 

And, of course, Genevieve says, "Wow, Folks, Look what I found and I got two of these things."

 

Philippians: another amusing observation

Paul says that his enemies and the enemies of the new Christianity have as their god their stomach.   That could apply to me, too.

 

 

Sam escorting his mom Wednesday afternoon.             

 

The Transfiguration Event

I would like to talk this morning about transfiguration events.  I would propose, as I think I have done in the past, that we all have these events in our lives, most likely every day.  Sometimes we plan them.  Sometimes we realize afterward, ‘That activity or experience or social event was marvelous.’

After a transfiguration event I suggest that we experience at least three special feelings, peace, joy, and gratitude.  Let me show you what I mean.

 

A Wedding Prayer for Stacie and Paul, Surrey House, Mckinney.  Laura, Stacie's daughter is on the left, Kevin, Paul's brother, on the right.

 

Remember last week I introduced and welcome a couple, Stacey and Paul?  I mentioned that we had a wedding planned for Wednesday afternoon. 

We had the wedding, outside, Wednesday at 2:00, at Surrey House in McKinney, a nice, simple place I had never been to before.  The weather was as good as it gets, clear blue sky, bright sunlight, perfect temperature, green grass.   All would have made for a transfiguration event, but there was more.

 

Stacie & Paul exchange vows and rings.

         

First, why Wednesday, you may ask.     Because exactly 4 years ago they had met on a airplane flight. 

Secondly, Stacey is a cancer survivor.  The last time I saw Stacey was one Sunday during her treatment when Rosemary & I brought her communion. 

This was enough.  But on top of it all, her two kids, Sam & Laura, had been altar servers for me at St. Marks for some years.  I loved them.

I came away from that event with great peace, joy, and gratitude.

 

A new life begins.                                

 

I know most of you don’t have the privilege of celebrating weddings, as I do.   So we look elsewhere.

For example, did you not come away from the home Mass at Marlene’s house with greater peace, joy, and gratitude?  I did.

What about our Sundays here together?  These are marvelous events for me.

 

It must be Friday.  Those are Romeos, Kerry, Bill, Matt, Paul, Andy, Ray, Bill, An Old Geezer, and Tom, while Mike takes the picture.   Who let them out??

 

I can even say a transfiguration event for me can be walking the dog, even like taking Aviana out at 4:15 in the morning and getting her to perform the double header.  What peace.  What a joy.  What gratitude. 

And you?  Where are you finding peace, joy, and gratitude? 

 

 

We offer provisions to Sandra who takes in the homeless, i.e., Mike & Geri.

 

Readings: Isaiah, 66, 18-21; Psalm 117, Go out to All the World and tell the Good News; Hebrews 12, 5-7, 11-13; Luke 13, 22-30.

 

Luke: 4 observations & an extra

 

 

Author:  Luke, a physician, a gentile, a Christian, a resident of Antioch (a big Christian center in the early church, Syria), wrote in Greek, and wrote The Acts of the Apostles, also.

 

 

 

Audience: Gentile Christians who are spread about, e.g., Antioch; more attention to women than other writers; special stories include the Good Samaritan & the Prodigal Son, which I think broadens the concept of our rather threatening Luke selection today.

 

 

Time: ca. 90 C.E.  Note this is after the defeat of the Jewish rebellion    and the destruction of the temple ca. 70 C.E., & the separation of the Jewish & Gentile Christians from the synagogue ca. 80 C.E.

 

 

Structure: follows & often copies Mark who builds his gospel around the Jewish liturgical calendar used in the synagogue.

 

 

 

A Significant Contemporary Shift taking Place Today?

 

–Ca. 450 C.E. the Council of Calcedon.  Big fight over nature of Jesus, one nature (all divine) or two natures (divine & human).  The two nature people won, not just with persuasion, but killing and bullying.

 

–Today the one nature position is returning, but not the divine nature position.  The human nature.

 

–Interesting analogy with Rosa Parks, who sparked the civil rights movement, Dec. 1, 1955, when she refused to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery, AL.  Though she never did much else, she is considered the Mother of the Civil Rights Movement.  Others picked up the program and moved it forward.

 

Did Christianity follow a similar path?  Jesus started something.  Is Rosa Parks an analogy of the Jesus event?  Was it not Jesus' followers, most of whom never knew him, who built the edifice?  Did he even know what was coming?  It is said that Jesus was first declared divine at the Council of Nicea, (Constantine's villa across from what became Constantinople/Istanbul) ca. 325 C.E.   

 

Sources: Bishop John Shelby Spong, Jesus for the Non-Religious; New Interpreter's Study Bible, pp. 1847-1849; Early Christian Writings on line; St. Louis U, Center for Liturgy; Wikipedia

 

 

Homily: The Master of the House has Arisen and Locked the Door?

 

 

Anybody know who Patrick Sharp is?  Anybody heard of him?

 

 

Yes, he is the guy who Tuesday shot up the McKinney police station after setting his ammunition loaded truck on fire in the parking lot. 

 

 

He is also the guy who an hour before that was messaging an adolescent girl in GA and maybe other young girls that he was going to do it.  He said, “I enjoy watching people drown.  I enjoy watching people beg for their life?

 

 

Then he killed himself. 

 

 

 

Is this guy in hell?  Has the master of the house shut the door on him?  You say, “Well, I hope so.”  And according to Luke’s selection, which has Jesus saying, “Depart from me all you evil doers,” it sounds like this guy is in a bad place right now. 

 

 

Maybe he was not warned adequately enough about this.  I certainly was as a kid.  Tony told me about the nun with the candle.  I’ll give you $10 if one of you boys can hold your finger in the flame for one minute.  Nobody?  Hell is this candle all over your body forever!

 

 

I probably was partly motivated by this when I decided I better enter the Jesuits and be a priest.

 

 

While not wanting to contradict this message, I would like to propose a broader picture and wonder, 'What if there is no hell?'  Two reasons: the nature of our God and the nature of us humans.

 

The nature of God.  Hold on to the story of the Prodigal Son.  The father, the symbol of God in the story, does not close the door on the son who has done all the most grievous things.  He not only leaves the door open.  He runs down the driveway to embrace the kid when the father sees him shuffling up the lane all filthy and beaten down.  

 

This is the best image of God.  Add to it the stars in the sky, the moon tonight, good people we know, teachers, parents, coaches.  

 

The nature of us humans.  As a priest and as a psychotherapist I have worked with and come to know intimately Patrick Sharps.  I might think the person pretty bad until I hear their story.  Maybe bullied by companions, physically abused by a parent, or worse.  Even this Patrick Sharp knew he was damaged goods.  Why?  I've been humbled so often when I judged the book by the cover. 

 

What if there is no hell for Patrick Sharp?

 

What do you need to do to let loose of any old fears that you are going to hell?

 

Picture 1:  Mass begins with Emma supervising

 

Picture 2:  Sisters, Brandy & Wendy

 

Picture 3:  Cousins, Georgie & Natalie

 

Picture 4:  Sienna & her grandmommy, Robyn

 

 

"Welcome in, Everybody," sez Beth & Emma.

 

Readings: 

Acts of the Apostles, 5, 27-32, 40-41  We gave you strict orders to stop teaching in that name.

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

Revelation 11-14, I, John, heard the voices of many angels.

John 21, 1-19, Jesus appears to the apostles at the Sea of Tiberias.

 

 

 

Watch out, Bill, you are a marked man. 

 

 

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

I would like to talk this morning about how the Lord has rescued me.  Like from my fears.

There was this happy hour.  About 6 to 10 of us first year Jesuit theology students put it together our first semester in Toronto.  Probably all of us had spent the last 3 years teaching in various Jesuit high schools from Seattle to NY, through Chicago, and Dallas where I taught at Jesuit.

It was great fun squeezing into each others’ small bedrooms for a drink and chatter about 5:30.  Lots of laughter & camaraderie.

 

 

 

Sophia & Georgie, you make a great candle lighting team. 

 

As the second semester began a number of us began to be a bit concerned that we were drinking a bit much.  Like one drink on week nights, 2 or three on weekends and holidays.   

So we decided to replace the happy hour to bundle up (Toronto gets lots of cold & snow in January) and run our half mile driveway to the entrance gate & back.  I even stopped drinking at this time for about 6-8 years, until I went to East Africa.

 

 

 

And John, Hue, Connie, and Patricia, what an offertory team you make.

 

Our property was a beautiful east west park like campus.  On the north side was the back yards of a row of, say 10 nice middle class houses.  Our drive passed along the row of houses.

Though I loved my Jesuit buddies and even enjoyed running  through the snow in the dark under occasional street lamps, I was sad that I would not have a warm house, kids, and a wife, like lived in those houses.  I even got close to a local Catholic family who had 6 kids.

 

 

 

A bikers' consultation.

 

Looking back now, the Lord was rescuing me, whispering in my spirit, You do not have to give up this life to be okay and to make a difference.

The next time I got the message was when I went to East Africa and saw how lots of good priests, bishops, and even a cardinal had common law wives.  The people cheered them for being normal.

 

 

 

Charlie, are you looking in somebody's pocket?  I caught you!

 

 

 

Getting kicked out of East Africa sent me back to the States different, open to a relationship, but certainly not knowing anyone .  I got into dancing and guess who came along, Rosemary.

And now a little story about our relationship which some of you have maybe heard piecemeal.  

 

 

Would you trust your cupcake with these two?

 

I asked Rosemary if she would marry me in 1990.  There was one enormous condition: that we wait to formally marry until 2005, when I would be 65.  Why?  Because once I  left the Jesuits I would have no insurance.   I had seen some of my guys leave, have a disease or accident, and cripple that marriage.  Guess what.  She agreed and this morning, Cinco de Mayo, we celebrate our 14^th. 

How has the Lord rescued you from your fears?

 

 

 

What a handsome group  of Romeos.  Eat your hearts out, Juliets.

 

Sez Shonda, "Welcome in, Everybody."

 

Readings:

2 Samuel 5, 1-3, David anointed king of Israel 

Psalm 122,  Let us go rejoicing to the house of the Lord

Colossians 1, 12-20,  Let us give thanks to the Father.

Luke 23, 35-43,  This is the king of the Jews.  

 

 

Likewise say Connie & John, "Come on  in, Folks"

 

Homily by John Cade

Every Sunday we “do” the Mass. ‘Eucharist’ is the Greek word for “giving thanks”. Following the theme Stack and Mike and I set for these three weeks, I will share my gratitude for four of the many blessings I received this year.

 

 

Welcome Home, Gil.  It has been a long recuperation and it is delightful to see you.

 

On Jan. 1 Lambrini retired. We are grateful together for her having this good job for 21 years, achieving many career goals, and, in the process, earning the respect of her coworkers. Of course, even a good job includes work stress—like its duties and demands and sometimes its environment. And you know, if your partner is stressed, you are stressed. Retirement is when we both get to say goodbye to those stresses, and catch up on our bucket list.

 

 

Thanks, Sophia, for lighting our candles.

 

In terms of health, Lambrini had severe A-fib symptoms; they were debilitating. A blessing I shared with her was her ablation surgery that reduced the worst of her A-fib symptoms, Alleluia! On my personal health blessings: I had an echocardiogram and a stress test this summer, after which my cardiologist said, “See you next year!”—always what we want to hear. My Urologist said the same just this past week.

 

 

Happy Thanksgiving, Brent.  This $1000 check is for the Souls Harbor enterprise.  I only wish it could be our $2000.

 

Another blessing was celebrating with Lambrini our 25^th wedding anniversary. It’s not just all these years together; it’s also deepening our devotion and gratitude for each other and working to better accept our differences.  Speaking of weddings, I was blessed getting to preside over the wedding of a young couple. Doing weddings is a gift; they are such happy occasions, intimate and full of promise and fun.

 

 

Bill, even with chemo treatment, you still challenge our community to do more, like the Love for Kids Picnic coming up this month.  Thanks.

 

Finally a big blessing, this year and every year, is being part of this community. An example of what a blessing this community is was how this community stood with Rich and Carol as they ‘walked their walk’ right in our midst. We got to see their steadfast loyalty and courage.

 

 

Says Marilyn, " Sign up for the Juliets Christmas luncheon coming up soon."

 

I give thanks for the loving support this community provides. We all experience losses. My gratitude is for the way this community helps me and all of us feel safe enough to share them, and courageous enough to accept them, and get on to the next step of our journey.

How will you remember and give thanks for the blessings of this year, individually and together?

 

 

 

Communion for All.