October 17, 2010 at Saint Mark Church in Norman, OK

Exodus 17: 8-13 + Psalm 121 + 2 Timothy 3: 14-4:2 + Luke 18: 1-
I did not have time this week to work on my new Gospel, and since these verses today and this parable are found only in Luke’s Gospel, I’m not sure it’s going end up in the Gospel of Norman. I need to speak about something else today, but before I do, I am anxious to remind you of a couple of things that are important for understanding parables:
1) They are about the Kingdom of God and God is the point of parables.
2) They nearly always tell a story that twists reality around creating contradictions and revealing something about God and the Kingdom of God.

With that in mind only a most shallow hearing of this parable would lead you to think that it is about prayer or persistence. Leave that alone. Go deeper. The last line of today’s reading should shift us out of that thinking and suggest that somehow this parable is about justice and faith.

Remember that in the first chapter of Luke’s Gospel Mary goes to Elizabeth and there she proclaims what we call the Magnificat – a hymn of praise and thanksgiving that in Luke’s Gospel outlines what is to come.

One of the lines in the Magnificat says: ”He will cast down the mighty from their thrones and lift up the lowly.” That expectation is what is being addressed in this parable. The powerful, almighty judge is being undone by a helpless lowly widow. The parable is being used and told to encourage and hold up the confidence of those who are tired and weary from waiting for what the Messiah’s coming had promised. For the Lukan church, it’s been a long wait for Christ’s return, and they are getting tired, confused, and discouraged.

The Kingdom of God is going to bring about a great reversal of fortunes and roles. This parable story is about the conflict between the powerful and the powerless. It is about how the powerless will prevail if they hold on to faith and live in hope. This parable speaks about Justice, and it suggests to people of faith that Justice is their greatest need, and the lack of it is the greatest obstacle to the coming of God’s reign. In other words, if you want the Kingdom of God you had better work for Justice, and if you do, anything in the way will give way. Both figures break the mold for their times. Judges are expected to act like God according to the Old Testament. Widows are expected to be quiet and stay out of the way. What we get her is another switch in the characters that can lead us to expect and believe that the way things are these days is not the way they are going to be in the future, and is not the way God intends.

When the Son of Man Comes what is he going to find is the question the parable raises?
Things the way they are with the powerful protecting themselves and their comfortable ways?
Or will the weak and powerless because they have not given up and accepted helplessly their unjust fate prevailed upon their opponents to grow more like God. Whichever of these two characters describes us, we certainly need to remember that it is not a matter of “if” the Son of Man returns, but “when.”

October 10, 2010 at Saint Mark Norman, OK

2 Kgs 5:14-17 + Ps 98:1-4 + 2 Tm 2:8-13 + Lk 17:11-19

“Jesus was still on the way to Jerusalem, and he decided to pass between Samaria and Galilee since going through Samaria would have brought some hostility because he was headed to Jerusalem; and passing through Galilee would have slowed the journey since he was too well known there. It was a risky decision since this area was a kind of “no-man’s land” and there was no telling what might happen. Sure enough, as he came near a village, a group of Ten Lepers shouted out to him: “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” How they knew his name is still a point for discussion in Bible Study
groups, but they did call him by name, and they seemed to know more than his name.”

Now we have to remember, that in Bible – talk, “Ten” is a nice round number, perfectly in balance, and when Bible-writers use that number it suggests a sense of completion and perfection.

“Hearing their call, Jesus shouted back, “Go do what the law requires. Show yourself to the priest and he will decide if you are cleansed and healed enough to go back home.” So the ten took off running ahead of Jesus toward the Priests in Jerusalem. They didn’t get very far before they noticed something. Their sores were healing, their joints were straightening, and they felt a lot better. Stopping to examine each other, they began to notice something they had not noticed before when they were all sick. They noticed that one of them was a Samaritan. When they were sick they never

noticed that nine were Jews and one was a Samaritan. In their sickness and isolation, the difference did not matter. Now that they were well, things changed. The Samaritan said: “I’m going back to thank the Master.” The others said: “You should go back. You’re a Samaritan and had no right to his favor and to his power. We are Jews like him, even though he is from Galilee. He owed it to us. We deserve his favors since we’re one of his own.” So the nine went on to Jerusalem while the Samaritan turned around. He would not have been welcome in Jerusalem anyway.

He found Jesus still walking toward Jerusalem and fell down on the ground in front of him thanking Jesus over and over again. Jesus was surprised to see this Samaritan in front of him, especially after all the trouble Jesus has had with Samaritans on the journey. But Jesus said:
“Where are the others?” Is only this Samaritan here to express his gratitude? No Samaritan is ever nice to us.” And with that, the Samaritan felt embarrassed and just said ‘Thank you.” again.

Jesus looked at him and said: “I have something better for you than for them. For the moment they are pleased and satisfied because they got what they wanted and only what they deserved. For you I have something better. From now own and for all eternity, you are saved and will have place in my Father’s Kingdom. Your faith has saved you. Your faith has given you more than you had a right to expect and more event than you asked for. For them I have nothing more.”

Then Jesus turned and stared walking toward Jerusalem. Now that they were disease free and perfectly like everyone else, the nine were back in Jerusalem very busy making sure that no Samaritans got in or had a share in what they had earned, never even thinking that in spite of being cured from leprosy they would still die of something else and never know that eternal life would have been theirs had they just  taken the time to turn around and go back to honor and give thanks to Jesus.

October 3, 201.

Habakkuk 1:2-3, 2:24 + Psalm 95 + 2 Timothy 1: 6-8, 13-14 + Luke 17: 5-10

This past week while in Nebraska with the priests of Grand Island, I worked on that new Gospel I was telling you about last week. I have not quite made up my mind about the title, but I am beginning to think it might be the “Gospel according to Norman.” You might remember that the other four gospels did not get divided into chapters and verses for quite some time after they were in written form, so this new one has no chapter and verses either, but I’ll just read you another section of it as I did last weekend.

Jesus has just been talking about sin and forgiveness. He was telling them that no matter what another person does, if they say they are sorry, you can’t refuse to forgive. If another person abandons you, betrays you, lies about you, steals from you and then apologizes, you can’t refuse forgiveness; even if they do the same thing several times. To this, the apostles cry out: “This is impossible, we can’t do it.”

So the Gospel of Norman for today starts up at this point.
The apostles are whining among themselves: “We can’t do this. It is impossible to live like this. You’re asking more than we can do.” So Jesus stops walking toward Jerusalem where he knows he is going to be asked by His father to do more than he thinks he can do. He sits down on the curb and says: “You guys always think everything is about size and power. You keep thinking that if you are the biggest, then you will be best. You think that if you are the strongest you can do anything. You keep thinking that if you have the highest score, you are a “winner”; and everyone is going to admire you. But you have it all wrong. You always want more of everything and instead of looking at what you have and using it for what you need, you keep looking at what you do not have, and then you whine and complain that you don’t have more.

It does not work this way in the Father’s Kingdom to which I have invited you.
It’s like this: you are home folding laundry and feeling sorry for yourself that you have to fold the laundry and do all that wash for those kids and your husband who just sits around watching football, but you never think about how wonderful it is that you have laundry to fold and that whole healthy family who loves you and depends upon you. Or you sit there watching that game wishing you had a bigger flat screen or a better job so you could hire someone to do the laundry your wife is folding all the while forgetting that some people are working hard today to keep the electricity on so you can sit there. Never mind just being grateful that you have a job at all these days. Or it’s the weekend and you start thinking about Mass and hope you’ll over sleep. Or you’re out of town and think it’s too complicated to find another Catholic church so you just skip it; because after all you went last week. If you get to church with your parents and have not made them mad on the way, you just sit there thinking about when you get older you won’t be here. You forget that this is all about gratitude and thanking God for what you have and praising God for what you have received and listening to God’s Word that calls you to be loyal, faithful, and grow holy. You whine that you don’t get anything out it which is true because you just sit there doing nothing thinking that doing nothing makes you worthy of getting more.

“You see my friends,” says Jesus to his followers, “You already have all that you need to be forgiving, generous, grateful, kind, thoughtful, and gracious.” Those things are what make you good, admirable, loveable, and holy. It does not make any difference if someone sins and does not stop. That only keeps

them out of my Father’s house. You can still forgive whether they stop or not, and forgiveness is what the Father asks. You can be generous even if people are not grateful. Their ingratitude should not affect your generosity.

“Get the point here.” Jesus says. “You are not going to get extra credit for just doing the minimum. There is no prize for whining, and no special favors for those who just do what is expected. What the Father asks of me in Jerusalem is more than I think I can do; but wait and see what happens if I obey the Father’s Will. It must be the same with you. You already have all that you need. Just work with what you have and awesome things will happen. You will be great not because you are better than someone else; but because you have realized who you are in God’s sight and you have stopped waiting around asking for more and begun living and working with what you already have.”

Then Jesus got up, turned his face toward Jerusalem and started walking again; and the apostles began to realize what it meant to be a disciple, so they followed him all the way to Jerusalem.

September 26, 2010 at Saint Mark Church in Norman, OK

Amos: 1, 4-7 + Psalm 146 + 1 Timothy 6: 11-16 + Luke 16: 19-31

The idea has come to me that four Gospels is not enough, and I have decided to join the Evangelist team and write up a fifth one. It probably will not make the cut-off and ever be included in anyone’s Bible; but I think that if I write the stories correctly I won’t have to preach anymore, so after Byron is finished proclaiming the new Gospel, we can just go right on with the Creed and you’ll be out of here about fifteen minutes faster. Does anyone object to that?

After giving this idea some thought during the week, I decided to start with this story, and fill in the others later. Now Byron, the rules say that if you are present, I cannot read the Gospel; but since this is not Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John, you are excused. There is already a Gospel of Thomas not accepted, so we will have to call this the Gospel of September. Somewhere in the middle this story will come up.

“Jesus said to the good people of Norman: There was a rich man who dressed in purple garments and fine linen imported from Italy. (First I wrote down crimson and cream but then I scratched that out purple and linen as a nice ring to it.) He dined on the finest of cuisine every day and his wine choices rivaled the greatest cellars. He dined alone because he liked it that way. Outside on the front porch was a poor man named Lazarus covered with sores. Lazarus would gladly have eaten the left-over food, but the door was always closed. It was always closed because the rich man was afraid of Lazarus. He was afraid Lazarus might mess up the place or take some of his stuff. Dogs came and licked the sores on Lazarus. When the poor man died, he was carried away by angels straight on to the banquet in heaven. When the rich man died the undertaker took him away (no angels). He was dumped on the front porch of heaven while his children hatefully fought each other over his estate. Thinking he would live much longer, and putting off everything important, he had no will. Then the dogs came, and they bit him and tore his fine garments to rags.

“He shouted out for help, but the door was closed just the way he liked it, and no one heard him for a long time. Finally, Abraham came out to welcome some other guests, and the rich man said: “Father Abraham, I’m miserable and hungry out here. Let me in. But Abraham just looked the other way closing the door just as the rich man closed his door. Again, Father Abraham came out to welcome other guests, and the rich man said: “If I can’t come in, send Lazarus out to tell my family to stop fighting over that stuff and come help me.” Abraham said: “It won’t do any good, they have the door closed, and they are too busy eating everything they can find and spending all your money.

“No, Father Abraham” the rich man said: “If Lazarus goes back, they will listen.” But Father Abraham said: “Now look here, what makes you think they are going to open the door with Lazarus back there again when you wouldn’t open before.” They learned to keep the door closed. Now they are enjoying all that stuff you left behind. When it’s gone, that’s all there is. The rich man whined and said: “I want to come in, I never did anything wrong in my whole. I earned my money honestly and worked hard for it.”

“I know you never did anything bad,” said Abraham, “but the trouble is, and the reason you’re outside here by yourself is that you never did anything good. You just stayed home, protected your stuff and enjoyed the best of everything. The problem with you sir is that you simply did nothing. You were complacent, comfortable, and took care of yourself. You kept the door closed so you would not have to see Lazarus although you seem to know his name which is curious to me.

“You went to church and you listened to the Gospel. You talked about and studied about Jesus who rose from the dead, but you never imitated his behavior and never made his attitude and his concerns your own, much less did you do what he asked you to do. You knew you were created in the image and likeness of God, but you only got it half right. The God who made you is very rich. You imitated that part right perfectly. But that same God gave you his riches. Somehow you missed that part and failed to live in the full image of that God. You heard the Prophet Amos speaking to you and reminding you that your complacent attitude was not right. Even though you were not hateful or hostile, you were complacent and that was worse. You just kept thinking: “Someone ought to do something about that man Lazarus.” It was nice of you to let him sleep on your front porch as long as the door was closed, but you never asked why he was sleeping there in the first place. You did him no harm, but you did him no good either.”

At that point, Abraham heard the guests gathering for desert, so he got up waved goodbye to the rich man and left him sitting on the porch as the dogs came growling again at this stranger. Abraham closed the door.

September 19, 2010 at Saint Mark Church in Norman, OK

Amos 8: 4-7 + Psalm 113 + 1 timothy 2: 1-8 + Luke 16: 1-13

If we were reading chapter 15 and 16 together, two connecting ideas would pull together this parable and one from last week.
But we don’t hear that so easily with seven days in between so let me point them out to you. In both parables, the verb “squander” is used. Wasteful and extravagant behavior is seen in both the younger of two sons and then again in this steward. Then, both the squandering son and the squandering servant have moments of clarity when they come to their senses and ask the same question:
“What shall I do?”

In a nation and at a time in history when “squandering” has become a national pastime,
almost an art, and even the subject of entertainment made perfectly obvious by a television show called: “Greed”; this parable might be a bit timely. Say the word: “Squander” these days, and all kinds of people are going to start hollering about “Washington.” It’s today’s great political game: blame someone else, accuse them of squandering. If they would stop it everything would be fine. It is a really effective diversion, perfectly distracting.
If I keep attention on someone else’s squandering, no one will notice my own.
If I can convince myself that squandering in Washington is the problem, no one will ever notice what I’m doing, and neither will I.

This is a tough parable if you take if personally. Of course, if you hear it and think it’s about someone else, it is a lot easier. But it isn’t about someone else. It is about a Steward; and that point, the parable is about us, because stewards is what we are.

Whether we are one of the two sons from last week: the older who is in a great snit because he thinks his privilege is being lost
or the younger who squanders what he has no right to possess or this steward who squanders what he has been asked to manage,

there is no getting away from the big question: What am I to do? Unless you just turn this into a Bible Study course and fiddle around with the many odd little details we have to ask that question.
What shall I do? is the question this Gospel puts in our face. What shall I do with all the stuff I have? What shall I do with the time that I have? What shall I do with the opportunities I have? What shall I do with the life I have?

Jesus is inviting us to a radical change of outlook. He is not urging us to be service-oriented people out to help others. Boy Scouts and the Rotary Club can teach you that. You don’t need to learn that in church.
Jesus is not counseling unselfishness or service as a way to be happy. Doing things for others because it makes us feel good is sick business that never address the cause of another’s need. It always feels good to throw some money at a cause or a problem

but that never addresses the cause of the problem and so it’s always there. It never feels good to deal with the cause of the problem, because that might mean some change in our own behavior or our values. It feels good to build a house for a poor person. It does not feel good to change the comfortable system that keeps them poor.

This is where the 16th Chapter of Luke’s Gospel comes alive. Jesus proposes that we look at everything we have in a radically new way; to see every skill, talent, opportunity and possession as something given to us to manage, to use, to invest for one single purpose: the forging of an unbreakable bond between ourselves, God and other people. What lasts, Jesus suggests is people. When there is no more work because you’re too old; or no more money because you’ve squandered it all there will still be people around us. This is the wisdom of the steward in this parable. It’s not that he is buying friends, but that he knows what will last. He is asking the question: “What will my life be like in the future?” His response is to build up relationships because he knows that those relationships are a greater prize than all the master’s wealth. To be a disciple of Jesus we must renounce all use of material goods that does not have God and love of others as its goal. We must dedicate ourselves to serving others in everything we do. Ask the question: “What shall I do?”

September 12, 2010 at Saint Mark Church in Norman, OK

Exodus 32: 7-11, 13-14 + Psalm 51 + 1 Timothy 1: 12-17 + Luke 15: 1-32

Three parables are told in response to Scribes and Pharisees who have criticized Jesus for eating with Tax Collectors and Sinners. In that culture there were only two groups: those who were in and those who were out. Scribes and Pharisees of course were in. Tax Collectors and Sinners were out. Jesus proposes that a third group would be more in keeping with the Kingdom of God: those who gather in unity to rejoice.

These three parables seem to build upon one another in intensity and importance. The first is about a lost sheep, an animal. The second is about a lost coin. Now this is not just any coin. Such a huge search effort would not be likely for one coin out of ten. Scholars suggest that this coin might have been part of the dowry which would carry much greater significance than monetary value.

The third parable is about a lost human being, a son.

Now parables always reveal something about God. In every parable Jesus reveals something about the “Father.” I doubt that the Jesus of the Gospels thought much about who was in and who was out. He ate with everyone. He ate in the homes of a Pharisees who were not always perfect hosts. He ate at Matthew the tax collector’s home, and he shared a drink with a Samaritan woman of questionable reputation. The “in” and the “out” groups were not of interest to him.

What was of interest was bringing them together. No matter what kept people apart, sickness, social status, territorial boundaries, tribal identity, or language as we see later when His spirit comes on Pentecost, it had to go.

The will of the Father was unity: unity in Israel, unity in the family. And we tell this story today because the will of the Father is not yet accomplished. The work of Jesus in bringing us together is not complete and there is no one left to complete it but you and me. In the last of the three parables, that reality is made obvious by the older son. The Pharisees and Scribes got the point. That older son was them. It made them mad, and rather than see into the story the Will of God for them, they only became angrier leaving those who thought of themselves as “insiders” on the outside while the party begins. The story has no conclusion because it isn’t over yet – there is still time to complete the Will of the Father for which we pray every time we utter those words that Jesus left us.

Finding what was lost, reuniting whatever is separated, restoring what ever and who ever are lost to the family of God is the Will of the Father. In God’s eyes there is neither “in group” nor “out group”. That is our doing, and it has no place in the family of God. The Will of God is a celebration – a party – call it “heaven” if you wish, Paradise, or a wedding banquet, for what else is a wedding but the unification of two people or two families into one. In the years since these parables first revealed the Will of God, we have not made much progress in restoring what is separated and broken. What progress we make

will be measured by our willingness and desire to celebrate. Continuing to insist that some are worthy and some are not, that some belong and some do not is a long way from the celebration. A desire and movement toward reconciliation is the first step toward the party. A waiting willingness and hope that will not die is the next. Seeking and never giving up is part of the disciple’s work.

This Eucharistic assembly is a taste of that celebration to come, but everyone is not here, and some are not here because we did not look for them. Some are not here because we have hurt them. Some are not here because they never knew we missed them. Nonetheless, the Father still stands and waits; some still seek and search for the lost. We may not be content with the way things are in this world while we threaten to burn one another’s sacred books build walls and fences to keep people apart pass laws about language, and continue to polarize even our own nation with ideologies that favor one group over another rather than seek the common good. In this condition, it is even hard to hear the sound of the party over the cries of those who are left out. “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

August 22, 2010 at Saint Mark Church in Normal, OK

Isaiah 66: 18-21 + Psalm 117 + Hebrews 12: 5-7, 11-13 + Luke 13: 22-30

Insiders and Outsiders. Who is in and who is out. Who belongs and who does not. This kind of thinking is part of our lives now just as it was when Luke wrote his Gospel exploring the relationship between Gentiles and Jews.
We have our gated communities, our neighborhood covenants, our private schools, our country clubs, and our health clubs. We have our homeland security, border patrol, birth certificates, passports, and government issued ID cards; all to determine who is in and who is out.

We cannot look at this gospel as though it is about the past or wonder what those people were thinking with that question, about who gets to heaven and who does not. There is something else going on here. It seems to me that there is some kind of disconnect in our thinking between how we behave and what we expect here what is to come when this life ends. My first suspicion is that not many people even think about what is to come. Thoughts and concerns about death, judgment, heaven and hell are out of style. So, we just skip merrily along in high denial about a future. Or we so drug ourselves on the image of a merciful and loving God (which we often fail to imitate) and so never think that the future might be like the present. There might actually be a gate; credentials to present in order to get in.

We live in political and social systems today that work like this: you can get whatever you want and whatever you needif you know the right people or have enough cash. Today’s Gospel says: NOT SO.

I believe that the question in this gospel was asked for the sake of reassurance.
“Here I am, Jesus. I am one of your followers listening to you today. Tell me I’m going to get into this Kingdom you are talking about.” The answer was not what that person wanted to hear. I would bet that the person who asked the question was gone the next day. Those following Jesus remind him: “You taught in our streets.” To them Jesus says: “And all you did was listen.” He says: “You never took my teachings to heart and changed anything in your lives. You think that a passing acquaintance with me is enough and being able to quote my words is all it takes.” NOT SO.

The question about how many will be saved is silly. It avoids the first question about whether I will be saved. Jesus rejects the first question and focuses on the question of the struggle. He says: “Forget about how many; put your mind and heart into the disciplined work of striving to enter.”
STRIVING is the issue. It is a life-long project, a discipline, a way of life that must influence everything we do, think, say, and believe. The way to the Kingdom of God is the way of self-discipline. That is the discipline the Letter to the Hebrews speaks of today. There is a set of virtues and values, a style of behavior that must be followed if salvation is to be realized.

They are difficult, and they require a great deal of effort. Patience, persistence, forgiveness, humility and a host of others that do not spring automatically from our personalities. They take practice, over and over, and sometimes painfully. If discipline is to have meaning and be redemptive, it must be self-discipline. The redemptive value of discipline must come from within. Pain and Suffering do nothing outside of us. Suffering is never explained by asking where it comes from or why does God allow this? That is all outside thin king. What we must ask is: “What do I do with this suffering?” At that point it is internalized and becomes a self-discipline that redeems and saves.

So, what do we do with this Gospel? Is coming to Mass today going to get us to heaven? No it isn’t. Is listening to the Word of God, accepting Jesus as my savior, going to confession, receiving communion going to get us through the narrow door? No, it isn’t.
Repentance because we have internalized the Word of God and with reflection and discipline, begun to question everything we do in terms of whether or not it will gain us eternal life will move us toward that narrow door. That is striving.

Breaking our lives like this broken bread and broken body of Christ in service
of someone else is striving toward the narrow door. Entering into the mystery of suffering by asking “What do I do with this” rather than whining and complaining is striving.

The free gift of salvation accepted is realized only by those who have seen it’s beauty and its value and begun to make themselves worthy of it by striving toward the goal, not by sitting around waiting, and then rushing forward at the last minute.

August 15, 2010

Revelation 11: 19; 12 1-6 + Psalm 45 + 1 Corinthians 15: 20-27 + Luke 1: 39-56

In the words of greeting Elizabeth speaks to Mary there are two expressions of praise:
one for the child she carries by God’s graciousness and the other for Mary because of her ability to believe that what God has spoken would be fulfilled.

Later, as an adult, Jesus will praise the same ability when a woman in some crowd calls out, Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts that nursed you.” To which Jesus replies: “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.” The greatness of this woman is not simply found in the physical side of her motherhood. Her ability to hear the Word of God and obey it is greater, and in that, she becomes the perfect disciple and model for us all.

The combination of God’s action and human cooperation is what we must see and embrace with this great feast. God acts. The disciple hears and obeys. In Luke’s Gospel both Elizabeth and Jesus praise Mary
because she heard the word of God and kept it. It defines who Mary is, and what we must become. It is our vocation to be hearers and doers of the Word of God.

There is a problem here for us; a great challenge. Hearing the Word of God for Mary is portrayed as a face-to-face encounter. An angel spoke. For us it is not so easy. There are many voices clamoring for our hearing. Which one is the Word of God?

To discern that Word requires first of all a conviction that someone is speaking; and we are in the process of listening. We do not do much of that these days in the lives we lead. Listening is skill many do not practice. It even shows itself in here.
Rather than listen some want to text, some one to read. Reading and Listening are not the same. We are involved and engaged in a profound experience in our faith, because the divine and holy one is trying to communicate to us; and the speaking can be thought of as the divine desire to be one,
to turn all things into love, to right wrongs, establish justice, and to restore beauty to all creation. It is a call to love, to justice, to beauty.

As we seek to discern what God is saying, what is asking of us, we cannot be fighting for our way or imposing our will upon others
or upon situations that are complex and difficult. Our best hope is to pay attention to the woman we honor today; a woman who emerges as a person of openness and humility,

a person who questions with courage, consults, perseveres and looks for justice. The only way God’s plan becomes clear is by living it this way.

Today we Catholic followers of Christ affirm with this feast that the fullness of the human person is destined to live on in God.
That whatever it is that makes up a human person is not lost in death for those who hear the Word of God obey it, live it, and risk it. We are capable of living in communion with divine life. Like Mary, if we choose to listen and obey, we may have human origins, but we have a divine destiny.

Because God has taken the initiative with power and fidelity and mercy, love will triumph and justice will prevail. Not in some far off time or some eternal home;
but here when we seek the beauty of creation in every human life. Nothing is impossible with God.

August 8, 2010

Wisdom 18: 6-9 + Psalm 33 + Hebrews 11: 1, 2, 8-12

I find myself thinking of and listening to this Gospel with two Gospel stories we had last month still in my mind. There was Martha standing there with apron pulled tight and hands on hips saying to Jesus: “Make her help me!”
Then last week someone from the crowd comes up to Jesus and says: “Tell my brother to give me my share.”

I was thinking of those stories with this Gospel passage because here is this community of Luke, 50 or so years after the death and resurrection of Christ and the coming of the Holy Spirit hanging around expecting Jesus to fix things.
They are standing around wondering what’s going on? And thinking: “Come on Jesus!

Get back here and bring that Kingdom you promised!”

That “Jesus Fix It” mentality seems to be spreading. That idea that someone else should take care of what’s bothering us
is not going away. I suspect that Luke writes these verses to speak to that attitude
and remind us that Jesus did not come to fix anything except our relationships with one another and with his Father. I believe that what Luke would have us see is that our waiting around impatiently and sometimes with doubt about the coming of Christ and the Kingdom is somehow not quite right.

The Kingdom and all it’s glory, peace, and justice does not come because we think that someone else should make it happen. The Jesus of Luke’s Gospel is a Jesus who was a Teacher. He was and perhaps as long as we tell the stories still teaching us how to live: not live in the future, but how to live now in the Kingdom of God. Perhaps if we did so, we would discover that the Kingdom of God is already among us, available and possible at which point all our fears would be in vain.

“Do not fear, little flock.” is advice given to people of faith – to people who have been given the Kingdom of God. Read the text.
Jesus is speaking in the present: “Your Father is pleased to give you the Kingdom of God.” Then the teacher instructs the disciples on how to live in that Kingdom.

“Sell what you have and give alms.” Live today as though it were your last. Live everyday that way, and watch what happens.
All the things you put off doing and resolving will be finished. Those little things, the little touches that make a life beautiful and ought to finish a good life get completed. You express your thanks and your love to the ones you have taken for granted today not thinking I’ll tell them tomorrow. You find healing and forgiveness now because you don’t want to die without making amends to those you have slighted, hurt, and refused. You quit hording all the stuff you have piled up and give it away

not with worry about who deserves it, but to those who need it. Suddenly, Justice and Charity are all you think about and care about.

In other words, if we would simply begin now to live in the Kingdom the way we have been taught by the Rabbi, we would have nothing to wait for and there would be no long delay.
Perhaps we would begin to understand what happened at Pentecost and begin to do what we have

been called and sent to do: bring the kingdom of God and stop waiting for someone else to do what we have been asked and gifted and prepared to do.
Audio Available

August 1, 2010

Ecclesiastes 1: 2; 21-23 + Psalm 90 + Colossians 3:1-5, 9-11 + Luke 12: 13-21

Here we are again.
“Teacher, tell my brother to share the inheritance with me.”

Were you here two weeks ago when Martha came out of the kitchen saying: “Lord, tell her to help me!” This is beginning to look like one of Luke’s literary devices
setting us up for the message to come.
Perhaps it is the voice of Luke

who wants Jesus to speak to the community in which he serves.
Perhaps it is the voice of a pastor who wants the community he serves
to hear and respond to the Gospel.
Either way the parable, found only in Luke, speaks clearly and plainly to us today. It is not the only parable in Luke’s gospel
that reveals a community that included both the rich and the poor.
This disparity was a concern for Luke,
and with love he addresses the issue and its special challenge to the community.

With frightening consistency we all live with a message
playing in the back our minds: “It can’t happen to me.”
Our children take dangerous chances with drugs, sex, and fast cars,
because they think, “It can’t happen to me.”
Where does that thinking come from?
Perhaps a little of it simply comes from being young
and the dream of a long and full life;
but I think a lot of it comes from the adults around them
who live the same way;
perhaps not with drugs, sex, and fast cars,
but in a life style that has separated them from
the reality of death first of all,
and the reality of life around them as well.
That reality can be reduced to a fact that is not refutable:
we are 4.7% of the world’s population
yet we control for ourselves 60% of the world’s resources.
The drug trade alone that continues to destabilize this continent from the south
is for use in this country.
We want the drug traffic stopped,
but never ask who is taking the drugs and who profits from their sale.
All the while we live as though there is never going to be a time to be accountable.
Bernie Madoff was a respectable, admired, white American.
If we do not listen to this parable and let it motivate and guide our judgments, Bernie Madoff is us living as though it’s all ok as long as you don’t get caught,
or in the style of this parable; as long as you don’t die.

But we do die, and we do we get caught.

We are challenged by Jesus in this parable
to consider who is going to get all the stuff
we have piled into our garages, homes, and storage facilities.
He is not suggesting that we get a good lawyer
to write up a Will or Trust document.
He is asking simply how much do really we need,
and when you have more than you need why do you keep it at all? He is asking us to wonder why we have these things,
and what it is we are supposed to do with what we have.

Beneath all of this lies an even bigger question:
are we so badly in denial that we have forgotten that we will, everyone of us, be suddenly separated from this stuff leaving it behind?

There is danger for us followers of Christ in this world today.
The danger is called “denial” and it shows itself in a lifestyle that assumes whoever has the most stuff wins,
anything goes as long as you don’t get caught,
and it can’t happen to me.

The man in this parable is called a “fool” because he is. He talks to himself all the time, did you notice that? We never him talking to his neighbors.
We never him talking to God.

He just talks to himself probably because he is so isolated and so alone.
He is probably so isolated from others that he can’t see them or their needs, and he is so busy building his bigger house and barn that he doesn’t notice.

This must not become our story.
I remember very clearly once when I was a child our pastor said:
“You can’t take it with you, but you can send it on ahead.”
My father often repeated that to us at home
and I’ll pass that wisdom on to you
with all the love and hope that Luke, the pastor, wrote this parable to his church. There is no denial that we have a lot, and that we have most of what there is. Only a fool would fail to wonder and ask why and what should we do with it.