August 23, 2009 at Saint Mark Church in Norman, OK

Joshua 24: 1-2,15-17,18 + Psalm 34 + Ephesians 5: 21-32 + John 6: 60-69

It is easier to leave things alone than to make changes even when the way things are is not right, easy, or productive. That is a fact of human behavior. Addicts of every kind know that truth. They simply stay in their old ways because it’s too hard to do or be anything different.

It is easier to leave than to stay when a relationship gets demanding, the needs of someone else conflict with our own comfort and satisfaction, or it just gets harder to be faithful, keep a promise, or do the right the thing. This fact of human behavior accounts for a lot of divorce, fragmented churches, civic failure, and unfulfilled dreams.

In these closing verses of John’s sixth chapter, there is suddenly an awakening that Jesus is talking about more than bread, and that the intimacy to which he has invited his followers and the relationship he extends to them will do more than make them feel good and be satisfied. It is beginning to be clear that something is going to happen to those who eat this bread, that in becoming his flesh and blood, they will become the giver not the receiver. If he is bread, those who eat that bread will themselves be bread. If he is broken, they too will have to be broken. They will not simply be hearers of God’s word, but doers of God’s word. No wonder they began to murmur. It would be easier to leave things alone; or as John puts it, it is just easier to go back to their former way of life.

What troubles them is not eating flesh. It is the reality that eating that flesh will awaken within them life; but not a life for this world. In other words, the Spirit will take possession of them. They will become spiritual beings first and foremost, and the human/earthly part of them will be secondary and passing. They will live in this world but not be of this world. In the language of this Gospel, Jesus speaks of flesh over and against the spirit. He insists that the flesh, which here refers to the human way of being in the world, cannot give life. That is the difference between the old desert manna and the bread he will give. One nourishes the body which will die. The other nourishes the Spirit which will live.

Living by the spirit rather than living by the flesh is a difficult choice for people who do not believe in this one who has come down from heaven and will go back to heaven. It is difficult because he is suggesting that they have heavenly origins and a heavenly destiny, and therefore how they live in this world and how they relate to one another will be influenced, shaped and sustained by that knowledge and that faith.

A decision to believe in Jesus Christ determines our identity like the people of the Old Testament reading, and it determines whether or not we are spiritual or just a combination of water and various chemicals here today and gone tomorrow. Peter and his friends had by this time come to trust and believe. They saw the choice and understood that nothing in this world gives life, that nothing in this world could lead them to and fulfill the promise that was within them and for which they were created.

The choices we make in this life always reveal our deepest values and our inner motives from the company we keep to the cereal we eat. Now at the end of the sixth chapter, John puts before us the choice that Jesus offers: stay where you are and do nothing except prepare to die  or enter into communion with Christ and prepare to live not in the future, but right now. Live as a citizen of the Kingdom of heaven, live as one who feeds the hungry, touches the sick, listens and forgives, bears a burden rather than a grudge, and lives by the Spirit rather than the flesh of this world.

Peter and his friends stayed but no longer in the world of the flesh. Others left to return to their former ways in this world unmoved, untouched, by the Spirit that gives life. John tells us why Peter and his friends stayed: because they had come to believe and know. Coming to believe and know is the very process of a spiritual life or the life of a true disciple. It is a process that begins with trusting enough and ends with understanding enough.

(5:30 pm)So, women of faith, awakening your life in the Spirit will lead you into a deeper and more profound life giving union with Christ and God. You have come here for this conference trusting enough and hopefully you leave here understanding enough: trusting the faith you treasure and the church in which you find hope; and better understanding what you have been called to become by God’s will and God’s plan. No choice is ever made once and for all. Someone asked me not long ago when I decided to be a priest. I said: “This morning when I got up.” I do it every day. It is no different for you. Your choice to live the sacramental covenant of marriage is made again and again. Your choice to live the life of a faithful Catholic is made over and over again, not just at your baptism. Your faith is confirmed by your every choice. Decide every day, not just today whom you will serve. In so doing you will always be Women of Faith.

(11:00 am)So, those of you who come here as candidates for Confirmation: awaken your life in the Spirit. It will lead you into deeper and a more profound and life giving union with Christ and God. You have come in formation trusting and hopefully when I present you to the Archbishop you will have understanding enough. Trusting the faith you treasure and the church in which you find hope. Understand what you have been called to become by God’s will and God’s plan. Ask every day what God wants you to become with your life. It is the only way to find fulfillment and lasting Joy.

August 16, 2009 at Saint Mark Church in Norman, OK

Proverbs 9: 1-6 + Psalm 34 + Ephesians 5: 15-20 + John 6: 51-58

“How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” they ask. Always the wrong questions!

The issue is not “how”. What matters is “why” and what happens because of it.

It has always seemed to me that the ‘How” question leads to discussions of transubstantiation which is all very fine if you think with the mind of a scholastic and are motivated such arguments, distinctions, and language. But when it’s all neatly explained in that theological techno language, the real question still remains: “Why?”  If you fail to get to that question, it does no good to understand how. If you do not arrive a moment faith, all the language of theology is just an intellectual exercise. First comes belief in the one who gives, then comes belief in the gift. That is the progress of thought in this chapter of John’s Gospel. Who is it that gives, and then what is given. You cannot understand and believe in the gift until you understand and believe in the giver.

The invitation extended here, and the gift that is given is a relationship of intimate and personal dimension. Yet a world like ours that gets less personal every day finds this difficult to understand. Texting and email may be instant, but they do not provide communication. They only provide messages and information that is often misinterpreted. There is no communion between people in this kind of world: no living presence, no sound of voice with inflection and tenderness, no eyes to see, no hands to hold and touch. The price of this instant connection is personal presence, and without that there is no real human relationship, only a technical connection. It is no wonder that statistics reveal that 50% of Catholics do not believe in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist. They speak in terms of memorial and symbol, remembrance, and sign avoiding the reality of this moment. What we do here is not about the Last Supper. It is about this supper. It is not about the historical Jesus whom we fondly remember. It is about the risen Christ who is present today in our midst. The evidence of this failure to believe is clear every week as a large proportion of people in this assembly head out the door once they have received communion with no thought nor witness to belief in what has just happened in this place. If they did, they would fall to their knees and complain that the thanksgiving time is too short. They may have received communion, but they have not entered into the relationship to which they are invited.

Intimacy is the gift, and intimacy often makes us uncomfortable and vulnerable, A God who hungers for us invites us to feed on the divine presence. The relationship into which we are invited according to John’s Gospel is the same relationship Jesus experienced and lived. “Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me.” It is not a relationship for some time in the future. It is a relationship that begins as soon as we eat his flesh and drink his blood. It is an offer and invitation that is so profound that once understood makes us hesitate not with doubt, but with wonder because it is almost too good to be true.

There is no answer to the question “how” can this man give us his flesh to eat. What simply matters is who provides his flesh and blood and why we would be invited to enter into the depth of this one who lives forever and would have us live through, with, and in him. When you say, “Amen” you accept the gift the Father gives to His Son, Jesus Christ and if like His Son, we remain obedient and seek the Father’s will, death will have no power over us for we will already have begun to live forever.

August 9, 2009 at Saint Mark Church in Norman, OK

1 Kings 19: 4-8 + Psalm 34 + Ephesians 4: 30-5:2 + John 6: 41-51

I had to remind myself while praying and working my way into this homily that chapter six of John’s Gospel began with the feeding of a multitude. We have to keep that in mind when we pick up lose verses like the ten today.

The word is out! Free meals! Come and get it. This crowd seeks Jesus for the wrong reasons, and that becomes more obvious as the chapter moves along. The crowd is interested in material things: food, signs, and wonders. They will not go beyond the sign and how it benefits them. They will not consider what the sign means, what it asks of them, nor will they recognize the one who provides the sign. They will not ask that question. They want one thing and one thing only, their entertainment and free food so to speak. When the free food demands something of them (belief) they start to murmur.

But this Gospel proclaimed today in this place is not about “them.” It speaks to any and all who are here or who come to Jesus for the wrong reasons. This Gospel speaks to anyone absent or thinking about leaving because they do not get anything out of it. It speaks to anyone whose relationship with God depends upon getting something they want or need. “Do you believe because you see signs and wonders?” Jesus asks? “Do you believe because your prayers are answered; because you get what you want? because you feel satisfied have a good time and are comforted? This Gospel suggests something else, and those people who heard him became uncomfortable and backed away.

People of faith are wondering what it is God asks of them, not what it is God can do for them. People of faith are not gathered around Jesus to get what they can. They are drawn together to bear one another’s burdens, to stand in communion, to lift up the cross, and live in the presence of God whose plan for this world is not a nation of consumers, obese from gluttony, exploiting the weakest and most vulnerable, and hiding in gated communities from the poor whose very poverty has often supported their luxury. God sees all of this and says: “Your ancestors ate manna in the desert, and they died.”

The operative word in Chapter Six is “flesh.“ We have to dwell on that and get it right. Jesus is not talking about meat. That is not the “flesh” he promises. This “flesh for the life of the world” is presence – as real as flesh and blood. It’s about “incarnation” — hear that syllable “carne” in the bigger word? Any fourth-grade student of Spanish knows that Latin word for flesh-meat: carne. It expresses the real presence, the real in-dwelling of God in this world. This is the most profound, literal and real revelation of God’s presence in this world: in the flesh: not spiritual, nor symbolic. REAL.

In this part of John’s Gospel and next week we shall reflect upon the very roots and deepest meaning of the Eucharist. Eating this bread that is his flesh and drinking this cup of salvation is an entry into the presence of God who in this sacrament becomes a living presence within us. This changes the way we think of and see our selves and the way we look into the face of the others who commune in the presence of God with us.

Last week, Jesus spoke to them about ultimate things, and they ask silly questions. He speaks of eternal life, and they want a sign, and then ask for bread. This week, he gives them bread and calls it “flesh” and they are back away murmuring. They cannot see what is right in front of them because they are so bogged down in a literal, the superficial, and materialistic reality.

How shall it be for us? More entertainment and free food?  Or shall we enter into this revelation to discover that giving flesh for the life of the world has something to do with sacrifice, service, and laying down one’s life for another. It has something to do with being broken, poured out, and shared. It is God who proposes that this is the only way to eternal life. “Believe it and live.” he will say to us next week. In the meantime, we probably ought to figure out what we’re doing here; why we have come; and what we are going to become because of it.

July 26, 2009 at Saint Mark Church in Norman, OK

2 Kings 4: 42-44 + Psalm 145 + Ephesians 4: 1-6 + John 6: 1-15

Who is the center of this story? I have always wondered about that when reflecting upon it.

Is it Philip with his comment about the obvious? Is it Jesus with his test of their trust? or is it that boy who may have been clever and industrious enough to follow the crowd with his basket knowing that his chance to profit from their hunger would send him home with a pocket full of cash. I have wondered what it might have been like for him to see the crowd grow so large and so hungry; what it might have been like to have those apostles walk up to him and say, “The master needs this.”  In any case, without that boy there would have been no story to tell, so don’t be too quick to sit back and be amazed at what Jesus did.

This Gospel and the next one a week from now speak about food. For John writing this Gospel, there are two kinds of food: physical and spiritual. The people are hungry, but they can’t seem to see the food that is right in front of them. The answer to their hunger is right there: the one who next week says: “I am the bread of Life.” Physical hunger is always conscious of scarcity. Spiritual hunger is always conscious of abundance. Jesus tests those disciples to see if they are catching on to this, and so the story unfolds for the next five weeks in our churches as we ponder John chapter five. I urge you to read the whole chapter in one sitting and not be satisfied with the little sections we shall be proclaiming. The news of this Gospel lies not just in what Jesus is, but in what we become as we grow more like him.

And so there is the boy with his basket standing before Philip and Andrew surrounded by physical hunger and invited by Jesus to give up or offer up his few loaves and fish when he knows what they know. It isn’t enough. It is the moment when physical hunger and spiritual hunger meet. When they do, there is enough for all. A small boy’s willingness to make an offering to God, letting his gift be redirected to the people, trusting that in God’s hands there will be enough for all changes everything. Now instead of worry and concern about scarcity, there is gratitude for the abundance of God’s gift. All the resources needed for this world are here with us. We are simply too concerned about the scarcity and short on gratitude for the abundance. We always think there is not enough, and the only reason to think that way is that we think God has not given enough. Jesus will not give in to that thinking. An extra ordinary response to divine abundance holds the ability to satisfy the desire of every living thing.

Then almost as an aside, Jesus calls their attention to the left-over food with a challenge about wastefulness since we know that the scraps of our tables and unsold market food every day would feed nations. But there is more here than this directive about gathering scraps. Notice carefully the details John provides in his unique version of this event. Here, Jesus alone delivers the food. The disciples gather up what is left lest it perish. This commission to the disciples is more than a caution about food waste. It is not just about food. Nothing is to perish and no one is to perish. The disciples are sent to gather everyone lest someone perish. Something is being said here about who is to share in the abundance of the Kingdom and be fed by Jesus. They are sent to bring everyone to the source of life – the bread of life  – the one takes what we have and gives what we need.

So, on a summer Sunday, Andrew and Philip stand before us to suggest what we shall become. A little boy stands before us to suggest what is asked of us.

July 19, 2009 at Saint Mark Church in Norman, OK

Jeremiah 23: 1-6 + Psalm 23 + Ephesians 2: 13-18 + Mark 6: 30-34

Jesus proposes three things to disciples who get tired, who get weary, and live too fast.

“Come away to a deserted place.” he says. “Rest” “Eat.” And so, he get the in a boat to “cross over.”  Let’s go deeper into these invitations than a shallow imagination of a leisurely picnic in an out of the way place after a boat ride. I believe there are some powerful symbols here suggesting something much deeper. The suggestion of “crossing over” might very well mean crossing over to a new way of thinking – a change of mind rather than a change of scenery. I believe that Jesus is inviting his disciples to experience compassion.

It is an experience that requires a crossing over, a shift from attention and awareness of difference to sameness. What Jesus invites his disciples is to cease noticing differences around them: differences between people and between themselves and take up a new way of thinking about sameness. Only when that happens is compassion possible. The recognition of sameness is the wellspring of compassion.

Once we cross over and recognize our sameness, our actions begin to come from a space of communion. Compassion is not an achievement but the recognition of the deeper truth of solidarity. The mission of faithful people is always about unity as I suggested last week. The prophet, the apostle, the disciple does not divide, separate, polarize and separate. It is healing mission that we are given, and so compassion is indispensable; but to be authentic, it springs from a recognition of our solidarity; the truth that we are all alike once we probe the depth of the human heart.

The consciousness of this truth is a restful place from which actions flow easily, without pressure and pushing, happening more by itself. And so, the invitation to rest is extended to apostolic people. But this “rest” does not mean inactivity. It is more like the Sabbath rest, an invitation to be sustained by the goodness of Creation. It does not mean more time to sleep or play with less work. It means acting in harmony with creation and the Spirit of God. It means not thinking we have to do it all; but realizing that what we do if it is in accord with God’s will is not hard and is always successful. It simply means working with God rather than working alone.

Finally, there is also that invitation to come to a deserted place and “eat.” Now think for a minute!  A deserted place is not going to have food. If it’s literally a deserted place, there will be nothing there. No food is found in a deserted place. This is symbolic language for simply learning to be fed by God. It is what happened to the Israelites in their deserted place. They learned be fed by God who never failed to give them their daily bread. It was the experience of Jesus in the desert after his baptism by John. He learned to be fed by God. Coming away to that place is means returning to the Source – it means being nurtured by God. In the next couple of weeks, we are going to hear a lot about food and ponder together how it is the God feeds us and satisfies our hungers.

For now, in the middle of summer – that season we thought would give us a break, some rest, and some leisure. It looks to me like we are all just as busy as always, falling further behind and still hungry. For what other reason would we all eat so much and complain about it? Jesus speaks to us all today: not to a select few. As a people, as a church, we are the shepherds, and the only way to imitate the Good Shepherd will be to learn compassion, to look at each other with an understanding that comes from knowing ourselves which is really the secret to knowing another. “Cross over” suggests Jesus. Look at what we have in common, not what makes us different. Work with God. It will require half as much effort and expect God to provide what we need by living in harmony with God’s will.

I believe that these are things he began to teach them, and much more besides.

July 12, 2009 at Saint Mark Church in Norman, OK

Amos 7: 12-15 + Psalm 85 + Ephesians + Mark 6: 7-13

Last week the challenge of rising above the expectations and limitations of others was put before us by Mark and Paul and an Old Testament Prophet. The question of how a carpenter from Nazareth could be anything more than a carpenter from Nazareth was raised and resolved. This week we move a step further. We hear a shouting match between Amaziah a priest of the royal shrine at Bethel in the northern Kingdom as he is throwing Amos a prophet from the southern kingdom out of the country. He tells him to shut up and go home and get a job. Amos responds by simply saying that he is no royal prophet under the employ of the king, but just a shepherd and farmer called by God and free to tell it like it is. It is a tough and personal affront to the pompous royal prophet but a powerful argument for his case by Amos; because Amos is free to tell the truth. Amaziah had better watch what he says if he wants to keep his job and his life.

Now which of these two is really called, and which one of them has credibility: the professional whose future depends upon royal approval, or the farmer who is free to speak what he sees, believes, and trusts? There is the professional with the credentials and authority and the farmer with courage and faith.

 Then comes the Gospel which up until this time has given us an impression of the disciples that is not particularly flattering. Time after time they fail to get the point of what Jesus is about. Their faith is faltering at best, and they never seem to be focused on the meaning of things that are happening all around them. Now Jesus decides to send this bumbling group out on mission.

There is only one reason to proclaim this Gospel today and retell the story of Amos.

It is not to sit back and admire the faith and the courage of the twelve. Nor is it to think about brave volunteer missionaries who have taken faith in Jesus Christ and proclaimed the Kingdom all over this earth. This is about us. Pay attention to the details: twelve were sent out — it’s an important number that says something in Biblical symbols — it means everyone was sent: all twelve participate in the mission to heal and restore this life. The only reason to proclaim this Gospel today is to reassess our own mission and remind ourselves of what we are about and what we are doing here. There cannot be anyone in here who does not have a mission and a call from Christ. It just comes with Baptism, and it is accepted if you’re going take communion in here.

We Catholics see ourselves as prophetic people. Paul writes about that in Ephesians today. Everyone of us has been given the ability to grasp and appreciate and express the plan the Father has for human life. It’s never been a secret. Jesus has revealed the truth. The prophet and prophetic people show the world the values and attitudes that shape a life lived in accord with the mind of God; but the prophet does not “go with the flow” when the flow is contrary to the mind of God. There are times when the prophet takes a stand and calls into question attitudes and values that do not advance a Kingdom of Justice and Peace. There are some who think the church should stay out of politics, and it should when the politics are its own. But separation of church and state does not separate the church from society. The prophet is not quiet in a country where the rate of child poverty is 21%: the highest in the 17 economically advanced countries. We have more people in prison per capita for nonviolent crimes than any country in the world and too many are women. We are in total denial over the collapse of health care while the growing inequality in the distribution of wealth denies the most fundamental principals of justice. This not politics. It is morality. We live in a society that scoffs at international law and justifies torture with the comment: “It works.” Prophets cannot be still. The society in which we live has the biggest arsenal and a standing army that is invincible with no will nor way to feed and house the growing number of poor and helpless people who call this church for help day in and day out. The prophet keeps saying: “Something is wrong.” The prophet does not say: “You are bad.” The prophet simply asks: “Is there a better way?”

Prophets formed by Jesus have nothing to lose because they take nothing with them.

Prophets formed by Jesus do not polarize and divide people into conservatives and liberals. The whole and single work of a prophet is to unite. Missionary journeys are never solitary adventures. They do not go out with a bag of tricks and book of arguments to prove their viewpoint. They go out to “share the gospel”. The verb share implies an exchange, a give and take, the acceptance of another because they understand that God’s power works through mutuality. This is why they must stay in one home to deepen relationships, listen, and grow.

There is something profound here being said about our faith and our responsibility for it. We are not empowered to condemn or demonize other people. We are called to share the news that forgiveness heals, that justice unites, that violence destroys, that life is a gift from God and through life, all and every life, God remains present to us. The destruction of any life destroys God’s presence. We do not have to go far to share what has been entrusted to us: to work, to the store, to the bank or just next door. Kindness and respect, patience and a willingness to listen, a desire to understand and be understood, openness and a hunger for the truth are all qualities of the prophets Jesus sends on mission. Sustained by these insights and instructions, disciples called, chosen, and commissioned by Jesus will be able to continue what he has begun until he comes again.

July 5, 2009 at Saint Mark in Norman, OK

Ezekiel 2: 2-5 + Psalm 123 + 2 Corinthians 12: 7-10 + Mark 6: 1-6

This short little story starts with astonishment and concludes with amazement. The hometown folks are astonished at what the local boy can do. He is amazed at their failure see what it’s all about. They think in terms of “ordinary” and “extraordinary”. They think that God only works through special people, learned people, important or official people. The local boy is a carpenter’s son. The comment is probably not a compliment. To them he is not eligible. He ought to know his place. “Who does he think he is?” they wonder.

He is amazed that they remain so ignorant and fail to see what is going on. He thinks if God can work through him, one of them; God can work through all of them.”

Mark explores for us with this simple story the plan of God for us. He touches on an attitude and confronts a way of thinking that is a serious obstacle to the fulfillment of God’s plan and the coming of God’s Kingdom.

There is probably not anyone in this church who has not suffered from and had to overcome the burden of other people’s expectations and negative comments. A bitter and angry high school teacher once told me that I was a “C” student and ought to quit wasting my time with thoughts of college. It took me a long time to get over that. An unskilled perhaps well-meaning coach once told a thirteen-year-old with size twelve shoes he was too clumsy to play basketball. Fifteen years later with even bigger skies clamped to those size twelve feet he could ski most any mountain in the west and smile all the way down black diamond trails.

Young people look at their parents, shake their heads and think “what do they know?”

And with it, a whole life of wisdom and love is refused and maybe lost for a time. Parents forget that in the simple openness and curiosity of their children there is fresh face on the future and new opportunities for excitement and curiosity. All of us live with limitations we place on each other, and those boxes into which we force others do not so much restrain the other as stifle the work of God who continues to work and be revealed in people just like us.

I stand here week after week and share with you a lifetime of study, prayer, and reflection on the Word of God knowing that the most Spirit-packed words can fall lifeless to the earth because it is up to believers to create and bring into the present the Kingdom of God, a Kingdom of Justice, Love, and Peace. I never assume that it is going to happen because I talk about it. I believe that what is spoken here is less than half the sermon. What you do is the greater half and far more. In an atmosphere that welcomes the Word, the poorest effort can ignite a great flame. I believe that this place would packed wall to wall with people singing the praise of God and bringing their gifts for the mission of the church if the whole sermon was preached and lived. It isn’t up to me to bring people to Christ, to communion and celebrate the forgiveness of sins. It is up to you; and that starts when all of us begin to recognize and realize what it is we are all called to become.

The people of Nazareth couldn’t believe that they were capable of great signs and wonders, capable of revealing the presence of and doing the work of God. Their problem with Jesus was really a problem with themselves. They had been put down by others who said that “nothing good come from Nazareth”. Living with limitations and expectations that they were inferior, incompetent, and insignificant led to their loss of Jesus who refused to think that of himself, not because he thought he was God; but because he knew he was called and chosen.

So are we all called and chosen, blessed, enlightened, empowered by God to do great things in the name of the Lord. The more that truth dawns upon us and awakens us to the new day that has begun in Jesus Christ, the nearer will be the Kingdom of God not because of a carpenter’s son in a tiny insignificant town in the corner of the Roman Empire; but because that carpenter’s son awakened in us the power of the Spirit, the Love of God, and a passionate desire to live together in Joy. What an amazing and astonishing day that will be. When that happens, come early because there will not be room in here – the crowd will be greater than in that stadium on Jenkins Street not because there is a good sermon or good music, but because there are good people living in the Kingdom of God.

June 28, 2009 at Saint Mark in Norman, OK

Wisdom 1: 13-15,  2:23-24 + Psalm 30  + 2 Corinthians 8: 7,9, 13-15 + Mark 5: 21-43

Two hopeless situations are met by Jesus today: a girl everyone had given up for dead, and a woman who had exhausted her savings seeking a cure. Last week and next week the church gives us stories of faith tested and challenged. This week, framed on either side by those stories of faith, hope is revealed as the response people of faith have in the face of trial. Look at the two unlikely people Mark puts before us today: a synagogue official and an unclean woman. Synagogue officials do not believe anything about Jesus. They do not ask for anything. They stand back and criticize a man who does work on the Sabbath and touches the unclean. The woman has been sick for so long she has nothing left, not even her dignity. But what they both have is hope which Jesus recognizes as evidence of faith; and with that, he springs into action with an intensity that is unusual.

Jarius is desperate. He risks the disapproval of his peers turning to Jesus.  It is his love for his daughter that drives him to take that risk when everything else says: give up. Jesus knows that love and its power, and he uses the power of God’s love knowing that God’s love turns death into sleep. Sleepers can be awakened. But that wailing crowd has no faith, and so there is in them no hope. Jesus puts that out, and he takes the hope-filled and loving parents into that room where he reveals not his power, but the power of God’s love. For people of faith, for people of hope, and for people of love, something, someone stronger than death has come. The power of God’s love is not an exclusive possession of Jesus. He is not the only one who rises from that sleep. A touch and an expression of tender love is all that is required. Yet the proof of this power is still to come in the resurrection of Jesus, so the observes are told not to talk of this event until the full revelation of divine love is given on Easter.

Now lest we think that all this is about Jesus touching people, Mark is quick to have someone else do some touching. Before heading off the home of Jarius, someone touches Jesus and the whole episode begins to raise some question about whether or not “touching” is really about physical touch. I suspect that Jesus is “touched” all right; but not by a hand. I think he is “touched” by her courage in desperation, “touched” by her hope that God can do something doctors have failed to do. The one who does the touching ends up being the one who is touched by God’s love. What goes out of Jesus is divine love – that is the only power he has. The two of them know that “it” has happened: that divine love has gone out and divine love has been received.

She has been touched by God, and because of that touch she may now be touched by others. She is clean. She is a woman of faith, and the healing that comes from faith is more than physical. More happens here then than simply stopping a flow of blood. A relationship is restored. She can enter back into the community. Without words, Jesus says to her what he says to the little girl as he restores her to her family: “Get up.”

“Stand up.”  “Get up.”  “Wake up.” However, you say it, or however you hear it, it is what God is saying to us in Jesus Christ. You are a child of God, and the love of God is always with God’s children. Divine Love is not just about restoring people to good health. It is about turning death into sleep and fear into hope. In Jesus Christ, God reaches out to touch us with love, to lift us up, to set us free from death, and to restore us to one another so that we who have been touched may reach out to touch, to heal, to embrace, to kiss, and to hold up each other when ever fear or doubt, death or sickness threaten us.

This is the news Mark gives us today. It is news that will sustain us through this week. It is a story that ends with Jesus saying: “Give her something to eat.” There is no better place to remember this story and remember God’s Love than gathered in this place where we are given something to eat; and while we shall in a few minutes think that we are reaching out to touch God, do not fail to recognize that it is really God who is touching us every time we gather in this holy place. We cannot really believe this and rush out early or abruptly and continue to live this week as though nothing has happened to us. The people in this story were utterly astounded and the woman fell down before Jesus. The rest of their week must have been something to behold.

June 14, 2009 at Saint Mark in Norman, OK

Exodus 24: 3-8 + Psalm 116 + Hebrews 9: 11-15 + Mark 14: 12-16, 22-26

On Holy Thursday I was in Shawnee spending a few precious Holy Week hours in prayer at the Monastery. On my return I passed through the center of town to stop and say hello to Father Wolf at St Benedict parish, when one of those electric signs at a local church caught my attention as it flashed the words:

“Holy Thursday!

Holy Communion!

4:30 to 6:00

Come and Go!”

I nearly hit the curb in surprise and wonder at the implication of this message. In fact, I circled back to make sure I had seen correctly. Now I have no intention of becoming the sign police or of suggesting that the practice of that church is any of my business. But the fact that I have not forgotten that sign and that it stands out in my mind on this Feast of The Body and Blood of Christ does tell me that there was something important about that sighting worth recalling. I wondered at the time: “If you come and go, like fast-food or a grabbing a snack, with whom or with what are you in Communion, since it is possible that no one else might be there at the time. Then there was also the implication that Holy Thursday was the only time you could drop in for Holy Communion: very puzzling yet very much to the point of what we are doing here.

Sometimes I don’t think we get it right either. We have to stop thinking that Communion is something you get, take, or receive. It is something you enter into something you become. Because this sacrament is about Covenant, it is not a personal, private matter. God makes Covenants with a people, a nation. The very nature of Covenant is collective, not private. God does not make private deals with each of us. God calls us into the communion of saints, into the saved people of God. There is a trap you can slip into when you start talking about accepting Jesus as your “personal Savior”. While each of us must come into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, that relationship must take us somewhere and give us a new identity. In other words, it can’t stop there: that relationship must awaken us to the reality of the risen Christ, who lives in Communion with us as church, as Christ’s Body. It is always about covenant. In the words Jesus spoke at the Supper, he was establishing a new and eternal covenant with us renewed again and again when we gather together to re-member what has been dismembered; and celebrate the promise that he would remain with us forever.

Covenant is the major theological idea of the Old Testament with roots in agreements made in the ancient near east by peoples creating peace through an exchange of promises of shared obligations and respect. The Old Testament is woven together by stories of Covenant always ratified with a sacrifice that was so profound that it symbolized the radical commitment of the partners concluding with a meal during which the offering was consumed. In the action of Christ, he made himself both a partner in the new covenant and the offering to be consumed. Eating the body and drinking the blood of Christ is a commitment to be nurtured by the kind and quality of life led by Jesus of Nazareth. Eating and drinking this offering, this sacrifice makes us one in Christ. It is what establishes us as Church which is why it is not a snack, it is not fast – food, nor can it be private. It is about what we are becoming here and about becoming one with all in every age and every place who stand in this tradition.

This feast leads us to reflect upon all the Sacraments of the Church which in some ways are all covenants shaping our lives and relationships. In every case, the initiative comes from God and our celebration of the sacraments is our commitment and becomes our response. Marriage is a perfect example. As I said to a couple who stood before this altar yesterday, “It’s not about you. You did not choose one another. The first choice was made by God. Celebrate that choice today.” People who live in mutual love give each other their whole lives, their whole selves as Jesus gave us his body and blood out of love. It is the sacrament and covenant I have found in Holy Orders. You can’t do this halfway. It is the covenant we embrace at Baptism, and the covenant that binds the sick to us with the promise of eternal life. It is the covenant promise and gift of forgiveness we celebrate in Reconciliation.

If, as I said last week, the Feast of the Trinity brings us into the mystery of who we are made in the image and likeness of God. Then so does this feast bring us into Communion. This Communion is the source of our holiness and the reason for which we were created: to be in union with God and all creation. Instead of a reluctant minimal, occasional and convenient presence, we ought to be awestruck at what God has begun here and called us to become. If we really understand and believed, what happens here would not be casual or occasional. If we got it, we would never be late, never think of leaving early, and never think of anything more important. It is God who reaches out to us here sometimes while we’re headed to the restroom. It is God who looks for us at this table when we stay in bed or find every puny excuse for our absence.

Love without sacrifice is a shallow emotion of sentimentality. Faith without lived commitment is an idea, not a way of life. Communion without the reality of belonging and living in unity is a snack from which we can come and go when we’re in the neighborhood. We have to get beyond the matter of bread and wine and immerse ourselves in the real life of flesh and blood. God’s commitment to us was not convenient, occasional, nor simply symbolic. It was total, lasting, and forever. This covenant is about mutual sacrifice and mutual love among those who accept and affirm the agreement and the promise. It cannot be one sided and be true. The reality of this is breath taking, the power of this is beyond imagination, the consequence of this covenant destroys death itself and gives what this world and all its science cannot give: Life everlasting, Joy eternal. Peace forever.

June 7, 2009 at Saint Mark in Norman, OK

Deuteronomy 4:32-34,39-40 + Psalm 33 + Romans 8: 14-17 + Matthew 28: 16-20

Over the forty-one years of my priesthood, I acknowledge a lot of growth and am always grateful for the patience, endurance, and good humor of countless people who have stood, sat, and knelt in front of me. I have looked at faces glazed over with boredom, deep concern, and into the eyes of holy people deep in prayer. I have recognized the critic, who like Scribes and Pharisees sit and wait to trap or trip me up. I have also seen a few backsides as some have stalked out or pinched their baby into crying so that they might make a hasty escape.

All of this comes to mind on the Feast of the Most Holy Trinity as this book calls this day. I am always amused at the title some have now applied to this Feast. The superlative adjective, “most” might imply that there was a comparative “More Holy Trinity” suggesting two, or simply a “Holy Trinity” when there are no other Trinities to compare. Personally, I am content with one: “The Holy Trinity.” One is enough to wrap your mind around. One of the remarkable signs of growth in my life other than size is the fact that I am now content with just one, and that I no longer schedule my retreat, my vacation, or an illness to coincide with the Sunday after Pentecost. There was a time in my life when I did everything possible to avoid preaching on the Feast of the Holy Trinity. That phase followed an earlier first phase when I loved to preach about the Holy Trinity. When in the vigor of my youth I provided barely breathing congregations long expositions of this theological truth and reasoning to support and affirm our faith. I think that came about from the childhood memory of being told by countless well meaning religious sisters that the Trinity was a “Mystery” I couldn’t understand. Of course, that’s all I needed as a child was to be told I couldn’t do something or that something was a mystery. It’s like giving a child a beautifully wrapped box and saying you can’t open it.

Finally I got over my early enthusiasm as a priest and wore out all the theological jargon I had learned and decided to take a vacation after Pentecost leaving this feast to some poor substitute who probably said, “yes” when asked to take my place without looking at the calendar of feasts! Which brings us to today: Here I am. For several years now, I have been over it. You get no graduate level lecture on the scholastic idea of the Trinity, and I have already taken some vacation time after Easter. I’m in my third developmental phase, and I hope for both of us that it will be the last. I have no desire to neither convince you nor explain to you the mystery of the Holy Trinity. I am not interested in giving a talk on dogma. As you know I have a passion to talk about the Word of God, so fear not. I shall not bore you with technical theology. But I do want to tell you about and bear witness to a God who does not dwell in outer space nor hide in the mind of scholastic theologians who love to speak of one in three, three in one, undivided unity. To my mind that language always sounds like algebra which is not an experience but rather a way of thinking.

You can have it either way, I suppose: a God who is something to think about or a God with whom you live day in and day out. I have come to believe that the challenge of this Feast is to bring the right brain and the left brain together, or to touch the mind and the heart lest we go through life with ideas about God and no experience; with thoughts and no memories. Our God is not an idea. Our Trinity, God, three in one, is a God for us. In Jesus, God has become not only “for us” but “with us” and through the power and presence of the Holy Spirit, a God “within us.” There is some language to wrap your mind around: for us, with us, within us — — — that is language of Trinity out of experience not from a textbook. The dogmas of the church from experience it’s not the other way around.

To get it, we simply pick up the Word of God today. In the Book of Deuteronomy, the writer celebrates a God “FOR US” awakening our memories of the moments when God’s involvement in human history was clearly evident. The writer moves us into a way of recalling events that have happened to us that only God could have accomplished, and because of it we respond by living in a grateful relationship with that God who is so obviously for us.

To get it, we simply listen to Paul’s letter to the Romans today. Paul celebrates the “for us” character of God and affirms the intimacy of relationship to which we are invited by God. Not slaves or simply creatures, but loved, chosen, and adopted children who can call God, Abba resting in the assurance that God is not only for us, but is also with us.

To get it one last time, listen to Matthew’s Gospel today. A people who know that God is for them and with them, will suddenly begin to understand the truth that God is within them, and if within them, God is within everyone one of them; that every human being is made in God’s image which means that Father, Son, and Spirit are experiences not just ideas. We know the Divine as Father comes when we share in God’s creative life with creative moments in art and beauty and in bringing life into this world. We know the Divine as Son when we embrace the unwashed and unwanted, the hungry and the poor, and confront hypocrisy, greed, and violence continuing the work and life of Christ Jesus. We know the Divine as Spirit with every burst of inspiration and imagination, in wisdom, and in every word and work of love. The God whose image we reflect does not remain distant, but chooses to be near making this feast ours as well as God’s because it is you and me that God has chosen to be involved and invested. It is in you and me that God chooses to dwell. In love we are scooped up into that embrace that has given us life and purpose and meaning. On a hot summer Sunday that truth is enough to celebrate, to remember, and to enjoy.