Reminder for Sunday, August 20, 2017, 20th Ordinary Time, cycle A

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.

 

 

 

 

Says our dearest Harper, "Welcome in, Everybody. 

 

 

 

Readings:  

Daniel 12, 1-3, In those day, I, Daniel, heard the word of the Lord

Psalm 16,  You are my inheritance, O Lord

1 Corinthians 1, 3-9, I give thanks  (selection from Thanksgiving Day)

Mark 13,  24-32,  Learn a lesson from the fig tree.

 

 

 

With Buddy reading the blessing of the candles, Emma lights the candles.

 

 

Thanksgiving History: Everyone knows about the first Thanksgiving in 1602 with the Pilgrims and the Indians eating together, the Mayflower, and Plymouth Rock.   Here are 5 facts that people do not hear about usually.

1.  When did Thanksgiving begin?  Our ancestors have celebrated end of harvest feasts of gratitude for centuries.  Lincoln first focused on a national feast; FDR established the national holiday in 1941.

 

 

 

Michelle with her dad, Gil.

 

1.  The pilgrims did not know they were pilgrims.  They called themselves saints, and non-saints were called strangers.  The word pilgrim came along in the 18 hundreds, 2 centuries later.  They were not even Puritans, but separatists.  They split off from the Church of England, old Henry VIII's church, and the Puritans did not split off. 
2.   The Separatists did not come to establish religious freedom.  They came for religious freedom for their religion and only their religion.  Like the Catholic Church, the Separatists demanded everyone belong to their program.  Failure to conform could result in execution, ala inquisition.

 

 

And the Father will Dance, One of our most favorite hymns led by Ben.

 

 

1.  The Mayflower returned to England, was torn apart, and its beams were used to build a barn in Buckinghamshire (just north of London & east of Oxford).
2.  How did the Indians & Separatists communicate?   The Indians were Algonquians & one of them, Squanto had actually lived in Briton some years.  He returned to his tribe and taught his friend, Samoset English.  It was Samoset who communicated with the Separatists, & the Indians taught them to raise corn, to fish, and to hunt.  In the first winter half of the 100 Separatists died before the Indians taught them how to survive.

 

 

 

Elevation time.

 

Thanksgiving

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, my most favorite celebration, I would like to talk about blessings.  Excuse me for the personal focus.  It is my annual assessment.  Rosemary & I do this together more toward the end of the year, but initially I put together my own list.

As an aside, this Tuesday we celebrate the 26^th anniversary of the 6 Jesuits killed in the patio of their residence of their university, UCA, University of Central America, El Salvador.

 

 

 

Offertory with Mike, John, and Connie.

 

Thanksgiving

Despite the fact that Rosemary says, when she hears that I want to give a Thanksgiving homily this Sunday, “Not another thanksgiving homily.”  I  promise her that  won’t repeat the Big 3 Blessings in my life.  Like entering the Jesuits, spending 10 years in East Africa, and marrying her. 

Instead, I have Ragbrai.  The ride across Iowa in July.  You have heard me talk about this event on numerous occasions.  To me this is an extraordinary event, some 30 thousand riders, 400-500 miles from the Missouri River to the Mississippi.

 

 

 

 Saturday night wedding with Christi and Steve.

 

 

 I have my favorite vendor, the Mennonite community, serving home made pie slices and a big bowl of vanilla ice cream.  One flavor of ice cream, a dozen flavors of pie, which the are baking right there on the edge of the road. Like in October we took an ocean cruise in the North Atlantic, starting in Bergen, Switzerland, and continuing through Amsterdam and Portsmouth, England through the Straights of Gibraltar to Barcelona, Spain.

One of the most moving experiences was taking a bus from Bruge, Belgium to the First World War battle lines at Ypres.  This was to be the war to end all wars.

 

 

 

Away they go on a new journey in life.

 

 

Thirdly, and this is the best year after year.  This community, you people.  Like what community could you find who would welcome with open arms a crazy woman who wants to tell us about her ancestors who came over on the Mayflower.  Moreover, we loved the presentation, complete with singing and a costume change.

These are just three of my blessings this year.  What are three of yours. 

 

 

 

 

Even big kids get to play with the toys, as long as the kids don't see them

Information on Bill's Obituary and Memorial :

Obituary:

https://www.distinctivelife.com/obituary/481706/William-Hammond,-Jr/#obituary

 

You can attend Bill’s funeral virtually on Wednesday at 10:15 am by going to the link listed below. He will be buried with military honors followed by a short service.

Hammond Virtual Service

Wed, Jul 29, 2020 10:15 AM – 11:15 AM (CDT)

Please join my meeting from your computer, tablet or smartphone.

https://global.gotomeeting.com/join/406331605

You can also dial in using your phone.

United States: +1 (786) 535-3211

Access Code: 406-331-605

 

Thanks to Cindy Cramer for noting an omission in yesterday's Reminder for Sunday.  Sorry about that.  

The Reminder: Brunch this Sunday celebrating our 9th Anniversary as a Community and the coming of The Nativity.  

Sirach 50:  May he grant you a wise heart and abide with you in peace;

1 Corinthians 1:  Every time I think of you – and I think of you often! –

Luke 7:  One of them, when he realized that he was healed, turned around and came back, shouting his gratitude, glorifying God.

 

 

Another Reminder for the Sunday before Thanksgiving, November 247, 2024

 

 

Welcome, Everybody!

 

 

Readings:  

 Ezekiel   17, 22-24,   All the trees of the field will know…

 Psalm 130,   Lord, it is good to give thanks to you.

 2 Corinthians —  A special reading

 Mark 4, 26-34,   This is how  it is with the kingdom of God.  

 

 

 

 

Welcome to our Fathers' Day Special.

 

 

Homily by John Cade:  

Jesus taught that the kingdom of God is here all around us and, yes, it is miraculous, like the mustard seed or pine nut are miraculous. To Jesus’ listeners the gifts of nature, like the growth of plants, were a mystery, how they start out so little and somehow grow so big. This is how God’s Spirit works. From inside we are moved to grow, to mature, to share, to help create God’s kingdom. 

 

 

 

 

Emma sharing one of  her special gift, lighting our candles.

 

 

Examples of people building the kingdom abound. We see each week this wall of portraits of people who were like us, regular people, and who also dared to love their neighbors however they met them: Like Mahatma Gandhi in India, standing for non-violent civil disobedience and for self-government for the Indian people; like Martin Luther King Jr. in the U.S., standing for racial equality and against unjust war; like Mother Teresa in India, serving the poor and outcast; like Oscar Romero in El Salvador, standing for his people against political tyranny and abuse; like Nelson Mandela in South Africa, standing for his native people of color against apartheid; like Cesar Chavez and Harriet Tubman in the U.S., Cesar standing against the unjust treatment of migrant workers and for the right to unionize, and Harriet standing for the freeing of slaves and risking her life supporting the ‘underground railroad’; and so forth with the others.

 

 

 

The Team.

 

 

These people were, like us, born as regular people. They had eyes like us to see, and ears like us to hear, and they, each in their own way, imagined how they could help build up the kingdom of God in their time. We tend to make our heroes seem other-worldly, bigger than life. We put them on a pedestal, just out of our reach, just a bit too super to imitate. But this is an overly idealized view. Most people who actively build up the kingdom of God don’t get known as super heroes, don’t get their portrait on a wall.

 

 

 

The Doughertys, Connie, John, & home from college, Kevin.

 

 

Like my sister-in-law who raised 2 children while working full time as a teacher and when her husband developed a brain tumor, being a caring partner in his journey. She now divides her time between helping her grown daughter, a single mom who has MS and a 3 year old son, and helping her 95 year old father, who is in failing health, to remain in his own home. 

 

 

 

The Best, Shonda, Ben, & David.

 

 

 

Or like two young men and fathers I know who, though their marriages did not succeed, stay true to their mission to be fathers to their sons, participating wholeheartedly in their growth and development.

 

 

 

The Bresson Offertory Procession, Kevin, John, & Connie.

 

 

These good people are builders of the kingdom of God visualized by Jesus. Look around. See all the ways people you know are building up the kingdom. How you help make the kingdom come in your time is limited only by the unlimited ways you can imagine it. It’s not how big a splash you make. It’s the love and courage and persistence of your choices and behaviors that make God’s kingdom come in our world in our time.

 

 

 

Welcome Home, Mary Ellen.  So nice to see you here with us all.

 

 

Who have you seen building up God’s kingdom, and you can imagine their portrait on the wall? And when did you last imagine how you could build up this kingdom in your lifetime?

 

 

Thanks for being special to us all, My Dearest Emma.