Reminder, 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time, September 20, 2020

 

Thanks…     

Music,   Ben

Community Finances:   

  Expenses: $    1,290.00

  Outreach: $     380.00

 

Thanks again, Folks, for doing what you can.

 

Connie, John and Denni help with Communion

 

 

Rosemary's Blessing:

Always pray to have eyes that see the best in people,

A heart that forgives the worst,

A mind that forgets the bad,

And a soul that never loses faith in God.

Author Unknown

 

 

 

 

Community Finances:   

  Expenses: $  710.00

  Outreach: $   50.00

 

Thanks again, Folks, for doing what you can.

 

 

Kevin working on the Zoom

 

 

 

 

"Welcome in, Everybody," say Cody with Sandra & Emma & Beth & Sophia.

 

 

Notice: if ever you notice that suddenly you are not receiving this blog, please reregister under www.johnstackministries.com.    Two guys just told me on the same day that the blog suddenly stopped coming.   This is the error of the carrier, Typepad, and it happens fairly regularly for some reason.  So sorry.

 

 

 

 

Guess who is Sophia's favorite dad.   I bet it is Ben.

 

 

Readings:

Deuteronomy 18, 15-20,  Moses spoke to all the people.

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

Corinthians 7, 32-35,   I should like you to be free of anxieties. 
A married man is anxious.

Mark 1, 21-28, Is not a man’s life on earth a drudgery?

 

 

 

 

 

A double team.  While Emma performs her candle magic, Georgie reads the blessing of light.

 

 

Deuteronomy observations :

What : 5th book of the Bible, of the Pentateuch or Torah   It is a series of addresses by Moses to the people in the desert after escaping from Egypt & Pharaoh.

Psalm 95 observations:

I would like to share some ideas about the part of the responsorial that says, If today you hear his voice. 

The first stanza is the best of all the readings.  Watch for it.

 

 

 

 

Welcome in Vanessa, Stella, and Coco.

 

 

1 Corinthians observations:

There was in ancient times a theory of asceticism that said that all pleasure was harmful to the inner spirit.  This applied double for sexual experience.  From personal experience I would reject this idea.  Watch what Paul says about marriage vs celibacy.

 

 

 

 

There he is, Sophia's favorite daddy and, also, Leo's favorite mommy
 

 

Mark observations:

The story is about a man who had an unclean spirit in him, meaning he was possessed by a devil.  Today people would say Jesus did an exorcism. 

There is another explanation of all this that I subscribe to because of psychological study and personal experience. 

Psychology says there is a condition called multiple personalities.  The condition is the result of severe abuse, especially at a young age.  It is a self defense maneuver, a disassociation from myself. 

 

 

 

 

Yes, it helps to have helpers with the elevation, especially with a little Parkenson's. 

 

 

I have worked with some of these poor people.  They usually had more than one personality with different ages.  With some of those I worked with there had been exorcism, which was not just useless, but harmful.  The person thought they had a devil inside, which was false and horrible.  For starters there is no devil.

Recovery involves acceptance and talk.  Ultimately, the host person needs to close the door to the alternates because it knows it is safe.  It takes time for healing.

Actually, Jesus exemplifies the process, though it normally takes much more time than one encounter.  I would suggest that Jesus presented a peaceful and accepting persona, just what the man’s host personality craved.

Watch as Mark presents a story about multiple personality.

 

 

 

 

How could we do this without Georgie and Buddy!

 

 

Hearing the Voice of God in Unusual Places

I want to talk this morning about three  places the voice of God was heard.  Two are mine.  Number three from a mystery guest who gives me permission to share the story.

The first event came up because I am thinking about the trip planned to Dickenson to help with the clean up.  A few years back there was a tornado in OK City.  The same team went, Professor Jim Maher & his students from St. Bonaventure. 

Jim has my number unfortunately (not really), so I went up by myself.

 

 

 

 

It is almost brunch time, Buddy.  It will be terrific!

 

One day we're cleaning up a mess at a rural town called Little Ax.  We had our team and you will never guess at the other team.  Muslim Emergency Aid.   Remember?  I talked about this after I returned.  They were well equipped like the Baptist Men and great guys and girls.

At one point I was walking down a hill from taking a piece of an I beam to the pile on the dirt road.  For pick up.  One second I was up walking down that slope.  The next I fell over something on the ground.

I was not injured in any way, landing on thick grass.  People started coming to my help.  Guess who was the first to come to me.  Yep, one of the Muslim boys.  I was most touched and humbled.

The voice of God in an unusual place.

 

 

 

Sez Rosemary, "Don't tell the old geezer that he is 78.  He still thinks he is about 40."

 

 

The second was at DFW airport when Rosemary & I came back from the wedding a couple of weeks ago.  We had landed and were departing the plane. 

I stopped to put a book into my backpack, using a wheel chair as a table, stepped to the right, forgot about the little foot piece, and fell right over on the carpeted gangway. 

Like with Joyce Scott, the lady I talked about Christmas Eve, all sorts of people came to my aid and helped me get up.  No injury except to my price.

God spoke again in an unusual place.

 

 

 

Brent, It is an honor to be able to give you these two checks for Souls Harbor.  The work you do there for 65 men in recovery is phenomenal.

 

 

Thirdly, the mystery guest.  Rosemary.

One morning about 6:00 Rosemary walked up to the desk of one of the hotels within shuttle distance of DFW.  We park at these hotels when we fly sometimes.  It costs about $5 per day and the shuttle is free.

Without a word she starts in, “I would like a chit to park here.  My husband is parking the car in the back.”

The clerek looks up and says cheerfully, “Good Morning.”

“Oh, I am sorry.  Yes, Good Morning to you, too.”

The voice of God in an unusual place.   

You, any unusual places?

 

 

Guess what  is coming.

 

 

Genesis15: Abraham gave the name Isaac to this  son of his whom Sarah bore him.

Hebrews 11:  So it was that there came forth from one man, himself as good as dead, descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore.

Luke 2:  When the day of circumcision arrived, the child was named Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived.  Then when the days stipulated for purification were complete, they took him up to Jerusalem to offer him to God. 

 

Mark 11, 1-10, Jesus enters Jerusalem

Isaiah 50, 4-7, I gave my back to those who beat me.

Psalm 22, My God, Why have you forsaken me.

Philippians 2, Christ did not not regard equality with God.    (Omitting this reading)

Mark 11, Passion

 

 

 

 

Romeos, Welcome!    Jason's Deli, 1:00, Friday, March 26.  Required: vaccines, mask for entrance & departure. 

 

Reminder for Sunday, March 28, 2021, Palm Sunday

Here are the links for Sunday:

Readings:

Isaiah 49, 3, 5 &6,  I will make you a light to the nations.

 Psalm 40,  Here I am, Lord, I come to do your will.

 1 Corinthians 1, 1- 3,  Grace to you and peace.

 John 1, 29-34,   John the Baptist saw Jesus coming toward him.

 

 

Hi, Everybody, Welcome in.

 

Isaiah reminders—

 Author: This is Isaiah #2, the composer of chapters 40-55.

 Date:  Ca. 555 before Christ.  The Jewish people of Jerusalem are in the Babylonian Captivity.

 Today’s Message: Hope and promise of a better time with emphasis on 1. being a Servant of the Lord, and 2. being a Light to the Nations.

 

 

"Come on in, Folks," sez Zoe.  

 

A Light to the Nations

So, Rosemary says to me, “Hey, we are getting tired of hearing you talk about the Jewish Community Center.  I was running past her my ideas about a homily for this morning.  Therefore, I request your tolerance.  One more time.

I went to this Center initially just to work out a bit, and especially to see how I liked spin classes.   Four houses down from our house lives a youngish  Jewish couple who have two kids now in college and a white dog, named Patty.  Guess with whom Aviana likes to visit. 

 

 

The excellent Candle Man of The Week, Ben.

 

The couple, Bud and Barbra, knew I did a lot of biking and kept encouraging me to visit the J, which is 10 minutes from our house.  When I discovered I could get in free with my United Health card, Silver Sneakers, I started going. 

For the first six months I found the exercise good but there was little camaraderie among the riders.  People came and went without as much as a word.  The next six months I began to learn names and started greeting everyone and talking.  Today there is a lot of camaraderie.

 

 

What a treat, Folks, Buddy is still awake.

 

So it happened one morning while walking to the room where the bikes are that I began to talk with a guy I knew and liked named Mike, a guy in his early 50’s, very personable, smiling all the time, and Jewish.

I had been reading some fictional works on the Holocaust.  So I feel comfortable enough to ask Mike about himself.  “Where is your family from, Mike?”  “From Poland,” he responds.  “Wow,” I think, “the Holocaust was horrible in Poland.  Like Auschwitz is near Warsaw and Warsaw was the scene of the Warsaw Uprising.” 

 

 

I see you Ben, and I cannot say that a little mouse did not swipe your cupcake last week.  Be nice to me and we'll see what might happen.  Even Carol is watching you from behind you..

 

So I ask, “Mike, how was your family effected by the Holocaust?”  “We lost over 80 members of our extended family.”   I cannot believe what I am hearing.  I am struck dumb.  I am choked up.  I feel like I am walking on holy ground, next to a Jewish saint.  A bright light.

There is also a little lady named Haya in our group.  I found out her birthday, got the class to sing to her one morning, and gave her one of those little Belvita cookie packages.  I asked the lady who rides next to me how old she though Haya is.  She says in her 80’s.  So I ask her. 

We are exactly the same age, 76.

 

 

 

Offertory team: Sir Charlie (who released him from time out!) & Jan, Bernadette & Gil. 

 

I am stunned and really curious.  How different was her life than mine?  She speaks with an obvious European accent.  So I invite her to lunch with me and Rosemary.  I am betting that her first 18 years were a lot different than mine spent growing up in University Park .

We go to the Corner Bakery at Preston-Forest.  She says she was born in a small Polish town in 1940, the year after the Nazis had invaded and occupied Poland.  Her father and his two brothers had a business.  Her father, however, must have had a premonition about how bad it might get.

 

 

Here they come, Folks, let's start the celebration, Olivia and Shonda.

 

He took the family first to the Russian zone of Poland, and then managed to escape to Marseilles, France, on the Mediterranean.  From there they went to Israel when it was still a British holding.  Finally, they escaped to New York, where she grew up.  Her two uncles and all the extended family disappeared.

Again I am stunned and humbled to be in the presence of this person. 

 

 

Our Best Man, Cowboy Cole. 

 

I think all of us here and certainly myself, we hope to be light to others, like Isaiah promises.  Often it is the light of others that touches me.   Mike and Haya humble me, sensitize me,  and focus a whole new light on my own life, how blessed I am and have been.

Who is a light for you? 

And for whom are you a light?

 

Cowboy Cole, Take these Pagans out into the wilderness from whence they come and leave them.  No more love for you two.