Trinity Sunday, June 7, 2020,

February 8, 2015, 5th Ordinary Time

Readings:

Job  7, 1-7,  Is not man’s life on earth a drudgery?

Psalm 147,    Praise the Lord, who heals the broken hearted.

1 Corinthians 9, 16-25,   I have made myself a slave to all.

 Mark 1, 29-39,   They brought to him all who were ill or possessed by demons.

 

 

 

Job 0bservations:

What: A comment on The Universe.  No book in the OT or NT has less known about it.  Called the most profound book of the OT.    It deals with the problem of evil, personal justification, and why bad things happen to good people.   Job himself could be historical, a literary creation, or a combination of the first two.

Author: Unknown. 

 

 

Date: It is guessed to be before the time of Moses and Egypt, i.e., earlier than 1300 before Christ.

Structure: 3 poetic dialogues preceded by a prose introduction and ending with a prose conclusion, an epilogue judged to have been added sometime later by another person or group of persons.

 

 

The Story of Job

I would like to tell you this morning the story of Job.

Once upon a time there was a good man named Job who lived in the land of Uz.  He had 7 sons and 3 daughters, a sign that he was especially blessed.  He not only had sons, but he had the special number of 7.

 

 

One day Yahweh was walking around heaven talking with his buddies when he ran into the devil.  "What have you been doing?" he asked.  "I have been walking around here and there," the devil responded. 

"Have you noticed how good my man Job is?"  "Yes,' says the devil, "but I bet he will curse you to your face if you stop protecting him and take away all his goodies."  "It's a bet," says Yahweh, "Just don't hurt him."

 

 

So a few days later while all of Job's 7 sons and 3 daughters where having a feast with their families, a storm blew up killed them all.  A messenger runs to tell Job of the horrible news. 

Shortly after that, another messenger races in and says lightening has just killed all his sheep and the shepherds.   Other messengers then run in saying Job's livestock have been rustled by robbers who killed all the farm hands.

Job is devastated, of course, but responds with the famous statement: "I was born with nothing, and I will die with nothing.  The Lord gave, and now he has taken away.  May his name be praised." 

 

 

So Yahweh wins his bet.  But, when Yahweh and the devil meet up to settle their bet, the devil raises the stakes by saying that he bets Job will curse Yahweh if the devil is allowed to hurt his body.  Not death, just hurt.  "Bet," says Yahweh.

The next day Job comes down with sores all over his body, like leprosy, and he has to go outside of town where the lepers go.  He sits in the town dump.  His wife now comes and his friends.  They all grieve. They also encourage Job to see what he has done bad.  Has he cursed Yahweh?  Confess and repent.  Job proclaims his innocence.  But he is depressed and discouraged. 

(In East Africa I used to celebrate Mass for a small community of lepers.)

 

 

 

Finally, while not cursing Yahweh, he cries out his anguish saying (chapter 3): 

"Oh, God, put a curse on the day I was born; put a curse on the night when I was conceived!  Turn that day into darkness, God." (verses  2-4) 

"I wish I had died in my mother's womb or died the moment I was born.  Why did my mother hold me on her knees?" (verses 11-12) 

"Why let men go on living in misery?  Why give light to men in grief?" (verse 20) 

 

 

 

"Everything I fear and dread comes true.  I have no peace, no rest, and my troubles never end." (verses 25-26)

After some time in this situation, Yahweh comes along and speaks with him:

"Who are you to question my wisdom with your ignorant, empty words?  Stand up now like a man and answer the questions I ask you.  Were you there when I made the world?" (verses 2-3)

"Job, have you ever in all you life commanded a day to dawn?" (verse 12)

"Have you been to the springs in the depths of the sea?  Have you walked on the floor of the ocean? "(verse 16)

 

 

 

"Have you been to the place where the sun comes up or the place where the east wind blows?" (verse 24)

After hearing all the numerous ways Yahweh reminds him of how insignificant he is, Job apologizes to Yahweh and promises to be a good boy from now on. 

In an epilogue, which is considered a late addition, Yahweh restores his wealth and gives him 7 more sons and 3 more beautiful daughters.  He lives another 140 years a prosperous and happy man.

Ever feel like Job?  How do you handle the feeling?

Readings:  Wisdom 18, 6-9; Psalm 33, Blessed the People the Lord has chosen to be his own; Hebrews 11, 1 & 2, 8-19; Luke 12, 32-48. 

Wisdom of Solomon Explanation:

Author or composer: not Solomon, but a Jew living in Alexandria, Egypt who spoke and wrote excellent Greek.

Date: ca. 100-200 BCE.  How do we know these facts?  Because of text analysis.  For example, while the author wrote in Greek, he uses phrases and expressions that have a Hebrew flavor.  Also, he mentions rulers and places that reveal date and locale like Alexandria (Egypt). 

Subject matter: the book makes use of traditional Jewish material, as well as ideas borrowed from Greek philosophy, in order to teach that God rewards those who are faithful to him.

 

Special Note: Wisdom is one of the 12-15 books of the deutero-canonical books of the bible.  Not OT nor NT, but in between and the subject of controversy over the centuries.  Were they really part of the bible or not?  How do you know?  Catholic church accepts the books, since the Council of Trent in ca. 1550.

 

Today’s selection, chapter 18, the next to last chapter: rather quirky and opaque.  Why the editors choose these tiny, disconnected paragraphs, who knows.  Basically, the author is gloating over the fact that the Egyptian first born babies were all slaughtered by Yahweh when Pharoah would not let the Jewish people leave, the Passover.  I will read his vision, vv.14-19 of the same chapter.

 

Sources: Good News Bible, Wikipedia.

 

Do not be Afraid Any Longer

 

 

Your man Tony O’Donovan and I have established a delightful practice of having either lunch or coffee every week. This past week we had a coffee scheduled for the Starbucks near me at the corner of Preston & Royal.

 

 

 

When I arrived about 9:30, Tony was already seated at a table on the sidewalk.  So I went inside to get two coffees.  There was a line of 8-10 people.  No problem, it always goes quickly.

 

 

In front of me was a guy about my height, but, let’s say a little portly without much apparent muscle tone.  The line is moving forward and the kids behind the coffee machines are calling to the people waiting in line.

 

 

At one point a kid calls out to the guy in front of me, but the guy  is looking to my right away from the kid calling him.  So I touch him on his left shoulder and say, “The kid is calling you.”

 

 

He turns around to me and he says in this intense voice, “Don’t you touch me.  Don’t you ever touch me!” 

 

 

 

Thump.  I am stunned.  I have nothing to say.  I just stand there and I guess I shake my head.  He pays for whatever he wanted and then goes to the end of the counter to pick it up. 

 

 

Then, he returns to me still in line and says the same thing again, this time adding something like, “You don’t ever touch a person in public!” 

 

 

Well, folks, I almost unloaded on him.  I was ready to knock him down and stomp on him.  I could handle the first time he spoke.  But when he returned to lecture me,  I nearly lost it.  I do not know what held me back.  Even now as I retell the event I feel my stomach muscles clenching up. 

 

 

I go outside and narrate my adventure to Tony.  He says that I’m lucky I did not start a commotion that would bring the police.  He would have disowned me.  I was double lucky, too, because my next door neighbor lady was there, a girl I really love for all she did for me when I was home bound. 

 

 

So what are the lessons from this event in connection with our readings? 

 

First, I would suggest that you do not have coffee with Irish married priests.  Very bad karma. 

 

 

However, I see two other lessons, one negative, the other positive. 

 

 

First lesson, as it said in the very beginning of the Gospel, ‘Don’t be afraid any longer.’  I would suggest this means, don’t be afraid of people, future events, or God .

 

 

As you continue in the Gospel, it seems to me Luke denies the very statement he makes in the beginning.  God is presented as a demanding master & we are servants who better be vigilant or we will get caught and sent straight to hell.

 

 

Everyone has their personal view of what our God is like.  I can only say that for me God is at least benevolent, not a master who beats people if they behave in some negative way, like Mark is saying.  Moreover, I do not see us as servants, but rather friends and caretakers.

 

 

Second lesson.  The Gospel talks a lot about vigilance.  Watch out or you are going to get whacked.  No way.  I suggest, as I have done before, the vigilance is for the beauty, the beauty of life, the beauty of nature, the beauty of people.

 

 

So how handle the Starbuck wakos? 

 

 

First, I am not afraid any longer. 

Second, I am vigilant, I focus on the beauty. 

 

 

What is your number 1 beautiful gift?

 

 

Picture 1:     Ray & Shonda at their baby shower for Leo

 

Picture 2: Some of the McGraths, Lauren & her grandmother, Jackie, Tom, Jackie's son, Maggie, Tom's daughter, and Alex, Lauren's brother

 

Picture 3:    Patricia & Dee 

 

Picture 4:    Nancy's home from Avalon

 

Picture 5:   Nikki & her granddad, Frank  

 

 

 

Readings: Jeremiah 38, 4-10; Psalm 40; Hebrews 12, 1-4; Luke 12, 49-53

Jeremiah: this man is one of the big 3 O.T. prophets, along with Isaiah & Ezekiel.  He lives before the Babylonian captivity in the 6th century before Christ. He even predicts the event because he says the people are evil. In the later chapters he foretells the people’s return to Jerusalem.

We meet him just after he has basically told the people that if they want to save their lives, surrender to the Babylonians.  Otherwise they will die.  The officials of the people and the military are steamed. The reading is the result.  Jeremiah was not always happy nor treated well, which is the set up for the gospel.

Division or Peace? Maybe Both

Three times in my life I have caused this kind of division, despite the fact that it was not my intention.  You folks know the three times.  First was when I joined the Jesuits in ’58. Both my parents thought I was nuts, but especially my mom found it difficult. When I entered we guys did not return home for almost any reason.  Only like a funeral for a parent. Christmas, Thanksgiving, all were spent in the Jesuit community.  I never returned home until I had been gone 7 years. And then I came back to Dallas not to visit, but to teach at Jesuit. In those days we never thought about it. But my mom sure did not like it.

The second time my mom was upset was 18 years after I entered and 5 years after I got ordained. I went to East Africa in ’76 and stayed there 10 years, coming home only every three years.  My mom was so upset that she did not talk to the Dallas Jesuits for 5 or 6 years. She always thought one of my best friends who was an assistant provincial had sent me to Tanzania, even though I told her I was invited by the East Africa Jesuits to open a retreat house in Nairobi, Kenya, which I did. 

The third time I created division was, guess: 5/5/05, when I decided to marry. Actually, my mom would have been delighted by this move. Unfortunately she had moved to the other side. However, there were numerous people who disapproved and who still disapprove.

I don’t like this statement, "Do you think I have come to establish peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division." How de we reconcile this with John’s gospel where Jesus says, "I have come to bring you peace," or even last week’s statement, "Do not be afraid any longer"?

A couple of observations.

First, perhaps Luke thought that the God he knows brings division. He is sharing his understanding and putting the words in Jesus’ mouth. I don’t necessarily have that image of God. 

Secondly, this shows how so often the Bible is just contradictory, a lot of positve vs negative.    

All three of these decisions on my part created division and pain, just like the story says. I don’t think God wanted this division, any more than God wants to hurt us. These decisions did, however, bring peace and maturity.  I certainly am a better person because I went through the Jesuit training and spirit.  My sojourn in East Africa was not just an adventure, but a stretching of all my talents. And marriage with Rosemary makes me a more whole priest and therapist, like I have said before.

What is your image, a God of division or of peace?

AUDIO: http://mysite.verizon.net/reso7rjy/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/2007-08-19.mp3

Note; a white purse was found after Mass today. 

Readings:

Wisdom 2, 12, 17-20,  Let us condemn him to a shameful death.

 Psalm 54,    The Lord upholds my life.

James 3, 16-4, 3, Where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder.  

Mark 9, 30-37, Whoever receives one child such as this in my name, receives me.

 

Victoria and her dear little friend say, "Hi, Everybody, Welcome in.

 

Wisdom observations:  

What:One of the 14-15 books of the deutero-canonical books of the bible.  Not OT nor NT, but in between and the subject of controversy over the centuries.  The “in between books.”  Were they really part of the bible or not?  How do you know?  Catholic church accepts the books.

Subject matter: the book makes use of traditional Jewish material, as well as ideas borrowed from Greek philosophy, in order to teach that God rewards those who are faithful to him.

 

        Emma, joining her pal Tori, also says, "Hi, Everybody."

 

Author: not Solomon, but a Jew living in Alexandria, Egypt who wrote and spoke excellent Greek.  The book is sometimes called “The Wisdom of Solomon.”

Date: ca. 100-200 before Christ.  How do we know these facts?  Because of text analysis.  For example, while the author wrote in Greek, he uses phrases and expressions that have a Hebrew flavor.  Also, he mentions rulers and places that reveal date and locale. 

Our Selection: what a wicked person thinks should be done with a good person–beat & kill.  This links up with the suffering servant poem from 2 Isaiah last week.  Jews think the good person getting beaten is the Jewish race/nation.  Christians think the person is Christ.

James:  presents a pretty negative image of people.  What would be a compassionate image? 

 

And of course, Genevieve, not wanting to be left behind, says, "Welcome, Folks.  It's fun here."

 

Says the child, “Numero uno or last??”

This morning I would like to talk about receiving the child. In particular, I would like to focus on the inner child, the child inside all of us, even in old geezers like myself.  

I also want to say a word about the notion of being  first or last.

To exemplify the points, a story.    I have used the story before.  It is too good to bury.   The story, the musical play Most Happy Fella.

 

                   Zoe, the beautiful candle lighter, at work.

 

The play is about a guy named Tony, middle aged Italian American, successful wine maker from Nappa Valley, and a bachelor.

He eats in a restaurant one evening in, say, Chicago.  He likes the waitress and leaves her a note with his tip, despite his shyness.   They begin a long distance correspondence and start to get close.  Both are looking for partners.

 

                       "Zoe, what is everybody laughing at?"

 

 They decide to exchange photos.  Tony, who has been taking a lot of risk because he is so shy, is afraid to show her his picture.  He thinks he is too old & too ugly.  So he sends her the photo of his handsome young farm foreman.  The foreman has already told Tony he is planning on moving on anyway.

So Tony and his girl decide to wed at the farm.  On the day of her arrival and the big wedding, Tony discovers that the foreman decided to hang around for the wedding & party.  Tony loses it.  He goes out, rolls his pickup, and almost kills himself. 

 

Leo and Kevin welcoming a new member to the community. How many elementary schools have a gorilla just outside of the cafeteria?

 

Meanwhile, girl arrives and thinks the nice foreman is the groom.  In fact, they get rather enamored of each other.  Then Tony is brought in on a stretcher.  Guess what happens then.  I’ll tell you at the end.

Let me make 2 observations about Tony. 

 

                            Two Greats, Shonda & Mike.

 

First, Tony might have had ambitions about being numero uno, but he really thought he was the last, a loser, ugly, and old.  His challenge: get away from thinking best or worst.  Both are traps.  Just accept Tony as okay.

Secondly, when Tony let himself leave the note for the waitress, he was letting his inner child out for a minute.  In his correspondence he was letting that child play.  The child wants to be loved and to play.  Trouble was, the child was not used to getting out and was afraid.   So he tries the picture trick.

 

                        "Don't shoot me, Leo, shoot that gorilla."

 

I can resemble Tony.  Thinking I am first, numero uno in anything, or last, both are traps.  I would propose it is irrelevant.  I am okay just as I am.

Like Tony I have an inner child.  Want to know what the child wants?  Just watch our kids here.  To be loved and to play.  I think this is what I am doing when I ride my bike across Iowa or in the Hotter N' Hell Hundred, and when I hike around  Yosemite.  These are great times for my inner spirit, that is, my inner child. 

 

                                                     The Team
   

So, two questions today:

First, where do you think of yourself, first, last, or just okay?

Secondly, how do you let your own inner child out to play? 

What happened to Tony?  He eventually became a most happily married fella.  

 

 

                                                        Secrets.

 

 

 

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.

 

 

 

 

Readings:   Ezekiel, 34, 11-17,  I will look after and tend my sheep; Psalm 23, The Lord is my Shepherd, there is nothing I shall want; 1 Corinthians 15, 20-28, Christ has been raised from the dead; Matthew 25, 31-46, The last judgement, He will place the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

Ezekiel:  I've mentioned how Ezekiel is one of the Big 3 Prophets, #3 after Isaiah & Jeremiah.  I also mentioned e how he lived smack dab in the middle of one of the two or three biggest tragedies of the Jewish people, the Babylonian captivity, from say 600 to 550 BCE.  He was there.

In American history we can look back and identify special presidential leaders, Washington, Lincoln, Roosevelt.  They came forward in crisis times. 

Ezekiel was this type of leader in Jewish history.  He saw what had happened to other Jews of the the northern province of Israel (Jerusalem is in the southern province of Judah) after they had been carted off as slaves after a defeat by the Assyrians.  They intermarried and simply disappeared in the DNA of the middle east.

Ezekiel is in Babylon and is determined that his community would not lose its identity.  He did three things to help maintain the spirit of the community: he emphasized  1. observance of the Sabbath, 2. kosher diet, and 3. circumcision.

Eventually after ca. 50 years the community still was a cohesive unit and it returned to rebuild Jerusalem, at least most of them.  The Jews are one of the few peoples to be defeated and scattered, and still return to their original homeland.  They remained there until the Romans defeated them in 70 C.E., returning when?  1948, after the Holocaust.

Today's reading comes to us from an Ezekiel captive in Babylon, and has Ezekiel promising the people a return, a brighter day after the captivity.  He uses the figure of speach, I will.  But I is Yahweh. 

 

Giving Thanks & Giving Back

Occasionally we have a story that is so good it deserves to be repeated, like the Christmas story.  This event took place 2 or 3 years ago.  Some of you will remember it, but it is a lesson worth remembering.

It happened like this. 

The community had adopted a family for Advent, a mother with 3 little kids and a baby on the way.  Beth Robinson had coordinated our adoption of the family and we were collecting clothing, food, and money.  It was our response to Thanksgiving and Christmas, as well as our response to how blessed we are and have been this year.  

After the Mass everyone was standing around having coffee and pastries.  Beth was there when a young boy, 6 or 7 years old,  came up and said he would like to help the family.  All he had was a dollar and he would like to give it to the family.  Beth accepted it graciously.

The boy is one of ours.  You know who it is?  Dillon.  The son of Bobbi Whitley, and Tony & Jo’s grandson.  The brother of Hunter & Audrey.   He is not with us this morning because he is a Boy Scout on a weekend camping trip.  He will be back & he knows I am telling the story. 

Dillon is a model for me and he exemplifies the two themes I would like to touch this morning, what we have to be thankful for and how we respond to the Matthew story about feeding the hungry and giving drink to the thirsty.   

My belief is that the greatest prayer is gratitude.  I am grateful that living in our country we have this feast, my favorite.  It pulls me back over the past year and gets me questioning, ‘What is my greatest blessing or joy or gift?’  Rosemary & I even make a list.

Our response is easy, try to give back.  This is why we renovated Rita’s house a week ago.  It is why we have put together for the community a simple plan for Advent, call it A Gift a Sunday.  I will explain the idea at the end of Mass and welcome any helpful ideas.

Two observations about our gospel about the sheep & goats.  Actually, lefties like myself & goats don't do well here.

    1.  Beware of either/or spirituality.  We are both.  The temptation, of course: I am a goat & lost.  We are all goats.

    2.  Beware of letting fear enter your spirit and trying to do it all, feed, give drink, clothe, visit the imprisoned, and on & on.  Try moderation seasoned with gratitude.

What is your blessing of the year?  How are you giving back? 

Picture 1:    Mass begins

Picture 2:    John working out with Ray & Jon 

Picture 3:   Froebes, Richard & Morgan & Monica  

Picture 4:    Butterlies, Jim & Denise, Kara & James III   

Picture 5:    Buddy with his dad, Randolph 

Picture 6:    Brooklyn thanks everyone for welcoming her and accepts her baptism tree