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All posts for the month May, 2001

The Ascension of the Lord

Posted by Father Tom Boyer on May 27, 2001

Posted in: Homily.

May 27 2001 Acts 1.1 11 + Ephesians 1.17-23 + Luke 24:46-53

The traffic on that road to Jerusalem must have been like the Broadway extension at 7.30 on a weekday morning. If you stop to think about it, the gospel events and stories that take place on that road are numerous, and a lot of significant things seem to happen to folks who are either coming or going along that road to Jerusalem. Now, much of the time, given the fact that the Gospelis not about History, but rather about God’s revealed Word, the Jerusalem spoken of is not so much a city in the middle east,but a goal, or destination for all of human life, especially for those who have followed Jesus “to Jerusalem” Today’s episode from Luke is no exception. When Luke says that they returned to Jerusalem filled with Joy, I think he means that they went on with their lives – on to heaven if that word works better – ftlled with Joy   In fact, what we have here is the last sentence of Luke’s Gospel: “They did him homage and then returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and they were continually in the temple praising God.

Now I think everyone reads stories a little differently I do know some people who go to the end of a novel and read it first before they start at the front. I know too that there is always that tension when you’re talking about some great book or story or film with someone who hasn’t seen it. Do you tell them how it ends, or not? Do you want to know, or do you want to be surprised and experience the unfolding of the story? That’s always an issue, and it’s part of Luke’s technique as well.

We’ve just been through the story from birth till now It’s been a dramatic story with fmely developed characters: Mary, Joseph, John the Baptist, Family and Friends. Peter, Andrew, James, John, young people, old people, sick people, powerful and influential people. It’s a huge cast. It’s a story of uncertainty, betrayal and love, passion, forgiveness, murder, the great conflict of truth and lie, of power and weakness, of darkness and light, innocense and guilt, of rescue, fear, and intrigue. Today, we fmd out how it ends and in doing so, we might begin to wonder: “Who’s story is this?” Has it been about Jesus, or has been about the Disciples of Jesus? Maybe both, but certainly not one without the other.

As are as we can tell, knowing what comes in part two: Acts of the  Apostles, this has been as much about the disciples as it has been about Jesus, and in part two even more so. What we find out today in the last verse is how it all ends. We find out what happens to people who live lives in the companionship of Jesus Christ, who are his disciples, meaning that they are learning from him every step of the way.

What we find out today is what happens to those who experience forgiveness when they have been unfaithful friends, who believe what He has taught, trust, what he has revealed, and are obedient to and seek the Will of the one who sent him. They are a people who go on through to the end, to “Jerusalem” They are a people whose journey to that “Jerusalem” is marked by “Joy” This “Joy” which is such a fundamental Christian Virtue is not a kind of silliness that would see disciples skipping off down the road carefree and mindless of the suffering all around them, untouched by tragedy and disappointment. It is rather, the consequence of “Peace” as we heard of it last week.

Free of fear, confident in hope, and assured that no matter what, disciples of Jesus shall not be alone. They live with a firm and confident attitude called, “Joy” that is more than a feeling or sentiment. It is greater than what we know as ‘happiness’, because happiness is fleeting, comes and goes. Disciples of Jesus know that things work out right in the end, because that is what the story tells us. the story of Jesus and the story of His disciples.

Perhaps stricken with grief, they let go of their friend and companion much as we let go of spouses and parents, and sometimes of children when they leave us in this life. Yet, we are able to turn and continue on to Jerusalem with joy, because we know the end of the story

Easter 6

Posted by Father Tom Boyer on May 20, 2001

Posted in: Homily.

May 20, 2001 Acts 15:1,2,22-29 + Revelation 21.10-14,22-23 + John 14:23-29

Last week, John speaks of Glory This week, he speaks of Peace.Both are powerful, nurturing, and tangible signs of the Spirit’s presence in human life – they are the treasures of the incarnation. What is of concern here is the status of the disciples after the departure of Jesus. This whole section of John’s Gospel deals with what and how the disciples are to live (which is obedience) and relate to this world (in love), especially as they wait for the return of Christ, using certain gifts to sustain them in the wait.

Peace is one of them, and it is the immediate consequence of the indwelling or the realized union of God Father and Son living in the disciple. “An abiding presence”. a Comforter, Counselor, Consoler, Advocate, Strengthener, Helper, Someone to stand by you…….. allterms struggling to express in English, the Greek word. “Paraclete.” This gift, this “Spirit” sets the disciples off from the world. It is how and why they are in this world and not of this world.

The “peace” of which John speaks is ultimately the overcoming of fear – a kind of total well being. Like “love” it is, for John, the hallmark of being a disciple of Jesus. This gift then, which is the center of today’s Gospel is not the absence of trouble. The world’s peace is the peace of escape, denial, avoidance, a “peace” that comes from refusal to face things.

The peace which Jesus offers us is the peace of conquest, something that no experience in life can ever take from us. It is the peace which no sorrow, no danger, no suffering can make less. It is independent of outward circumstances. This peace frees us from fear, not from trouble.

One of the drawbacks or weaknesses of the Pentecostal movement we have experienced in our generation is that it proposed that the presence of the Spirit was manifested by a kind of outward giddiness or wide eyed joyful piety that generated prayerful gestures or postures and was accompanied by a certain genre of music and vocabulary of prayer like: “Praise the Lord!” or a chorus a “Amens” and “Alleluias” to every good feeling and sentiment. While there certainly may be nothing wrong with that experience or piety, it is  far  from what John was expressing and proposing as the Gift of the

Spirit. The sense of this Gospel is that manifestations of the Spirit’s presence in one’s life is more in terms of Courage and Hope. The spirit filled in John’s gospel are those who stand before tragedy, disappointment, pain, and sorrow with courage. They are not overcome by the inevitable confusion, doubt, and fears in this life.In fact, the real witness to the spirit is that Fear does not run their  lives, Hope does. They do make decisions out of fear: caring about what others will think or say about them, they make them out of love and obedience to the Will and Word of God. When we know what is right, it is the Spirit that makes us bold. When we know how to face injustice, our own disappointments, or the challenge of our own death, the gift we have will be sufficient, because we are not alone.

We proclaim the Gospel of John today, and we bear witness to the gift we have received in the Spirit of God. a spirit of courage and of hope made all the more powerful by the indwelling of God in our hearts, our minds, and again through the sacrament of this table, in our very flesh and blood.

“Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid.” he says to us, and that is the whole, entire, heart of the Gospel and it is the Word of the Lord.

Easter 4

Posted by Father Tom Boyer on May 6, 2001

Posted in: Homily.

May 6, 2001 Acts 13:14,43-52 + Revelation 7:9,14-17 + John 10:27-30

It’s not about sheep nor shepherds. It’s about knowing and being known. It’s about relationships, mutuality, and the “art” of maintaining, nurturing, and building relationships that are lasting and life-giving. It’s about making our relationship with God through Jesus Christ the model and normative for all our relationships, which means of course, that our relationship with God is as important as our relationship with anyone else.

Without an agrarian experience providing the image for this day’s Gospel, we have to work a little harder to get the point, and we can’t stop and settle down with sentimental pastoral images of wooly lambs that individualize and privatize the image – we must also keep this image in the context of the flock.

To those without experience, all sheep look alike, and the prospect or really knowing one from another when there’s a large number of them is a challenge. At night, shepherds brought their flocks together, and take turns with patrol and watch through the night. They bang their staff and rattle things to keep away predators and make thieves aware of the vigilance. When day break comes, each shepherd has a special call which then disentangles the larger flock. The sheep know their shepherd, just as much as each shepherd know which sheep are his. There’s the point – mutuality

Every sheep is known by it’s shepherd, and eveiy one of the sheep knows which shepherd to follow. Those sheep know their shepherd’s call. They hear his voice and recognize it above all the other sounds and distractions around, and therein lies the challenge of this gospel and its invitation. The call is there, the voice is there.

Telephones ring; beepers summon us, e-mails arrive; spouses, children, careers, make endless demands on our time, energy, attention, dedication. We have homes to clean or to repair, meals too cook, newspapers to read, children to take to endless sporting events, and there are other demands we might not want to think about like drinking, gambling, drugs or the computer serving of pornography Then there’s eating, shopping, television, all of which  are our little addictions adding to the cacophony of voices that drown out the Voice. It is so easy for us, unlike the sheep, to run to another call, or become so busy and distracted that we heed nothing but the noises of the sheep all around us a miss the call of our shepherd.

We are so quick to expect God to hear our call when there’s trouble, and we have every right to live with that hope, given the price that was paid for us, but perhaps the one who calls would like things to be a little more mutual, and for that reason, he speaks to us the words of this days’ gospel. For it is God who speaks these words to us, God who calls us, God who wants us.

In an endlessly busy world that does not slow down for a moment, a world in which even blessing over food before we eat can seem a rather quaint and uncomfortable custom, it is not surprising that it is all to easy for us to lose the capacity to pause, to reflect on who we are and whose we are, and above all else, ceaselessly, gladly, joyfully, listen. Yet, that is all that is asked of us, that we listen, to listen to the endless call to the water, to follow where ever he leads. That’s all he asks. Listen.

Easter 5

Posted by Father Tom Boyer on May 3, 2001

Posted in: Uncategorized.

May 13, 2001 Acts 14:21-27 + Revelation 21.1-5 + John 13:31-35

John speaks of glocy in the little section of today’s gospel lifted from the Farewell discourse, and he leaves us to make sense of what follows. It’s not difficult to figure out how glocy works or where it comes from, the problem is simply that we see so little of it when the Gospel puts it before us so clearly

Sacrifice is the issue. The greatest glocy in life comes from sacrifice. You can’t have one without the other We see this often enough to know that it’s true, and we don’t see it often enough to know that we’ve got a challenge here ifwe ever hope for glocy In war time, it’s the people who don’t come home, the wounded or the dead who get the big glocy In terms of public service, it’s those who make some real, personal sacrifice who get the glocy The doctor or lawyer who makes a fortune never has glocy, but those who give their lives for healing and the easing of human pain are the ones we remember.The teachers who did more than their contract required, who shared in parenting, loving, and nurturing are the ones we remember, at least it so for me.

The most simple lesson of histocy is that those who have made the big sacrifices are the ones who remembered and get the glocy. This world quickly forgets the successful in life, but never the sacrificial. This is what we learn from John 13, a lesson on glocy.

What Jesus proposes to those who would follow him is that they might have a share in this glocy that is there between God and Jesus. What Jesus proposes to those who would follow him is that they might come to this glory by taking a share in his sacrifice. Now I find it fascinating that John doesn’t want to tell us about glory while Judas is there. Did you notice that first line: “When Judas had left them, Jesus said…” It’s as though, Judas, who makes no sacrifice, gets no glocy. The only interest Judas had was thirty pieces of silver, money He wasn’t going to be around for the sacrifice. So, no glocy for him.

It was the obedience of Jesus that brought glory to the Father There is only one way in which anyone ever shows that they love, admire, and trust a leader, and that is by obedience. The only way achild honors its parent, in other words, gives that parent glory, is by  obedience. Jesus gave the ultimate honor and gloiy to God because He gave to God the supreme obedience, the obedience which obeyed even to the cross.

Those of us here who hold to the hope of a share in the gloiy of Christ Jesus must get it right – must understand that we’re not going to be swept into that gloiy in the shadows of someone else’s sacrifice. The suffering of Jesus Christ did not remove one bit of suffering in this life. It only afflrmed that suffering will not overcome those who are obedient to God.

We get the commandment today, and have the choice to obey or not. Those who choose love will be choosing sacrifice, and the greater the love, the greater the sacrifice; the greater the sacrifice, the greater the gloiy So it is in this world where God chooses to reveal himself through a suffering servant as a God who glorifies with life those who choose obedience. What more perfect day could we have in this countiy to reflect upon this truth and profound mystery of our faith than on Mother’s Day as we honor and give gloiy to our mothers living and to the memory of our mothers who have died. You think about yours. I think about mine. From her and the man who was her partner in life and in love, I learned to understand this Gospel and the truth that there is no gloiy without sacrifice, and that when understood in that way, sacrifice was no matter for complaint or bitterness, but rather and opportunity to love more deeply and more profoundly  Obedient to that example, we in turn seek the same gloiy that has come to Jesus by our service, sacrifice, and love of one another That’s what Jesus came to say sitting at that table after Judas had left.