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All posts for the month December, 2004

The Holy Family

Posted by Father Tom Boyer on December 26, 2004
Posted in: Uncategorized.
December 26, 2004
Sirach 3:2-6,12-14 + Colossians 3:12-17 +Matthew2:13-15,19-23  
A quick and easy reading of the Go$pel today in the context of this Feast might at first suggest that “family” is a matter of a mother, a father, and a son. Yet everyone of us knows real families that do not fit that model.In everyone of our families there is some exception to this image. My own family tells me that.My mother lived in an orphanage.My father left his fatherless home before he was 18.We live in an age when single-:parent families, blended families, and multi-generational families are just as common,as the traditional model we see in the Gospels. Many of us know households that have parents who have never married yet are raising children together.

I have begun to suspect from the Gospels·that what-makes “family” is a matter of what happens, not who is there.

There are certainly homes in which a mother and father live under the same roof as their children,
but it would be a stretch to describe the relationship they share as ”family ” Parents who work around the clock,
who bring their lap tops and cen phones
to the soccer games and swim meets of their children have no connection with what I believe this Gospel suggests is a family
After care programs, quick on-the-go meals, frenzied schedules
that leave no time for conversations between mothers and daughters, fathers and sons, husbands and wives are not providing what this Gospel suggests family life is all about.

The Gospels, especially Matthew and Luke suggest
that a family is a relationship that listens to and responds to the message of God. For Joseph and Mary, that was a matter of dreams.
Dreams in that age were commonly thought to be messages from God. For us, the message of God is found in the Gospel, and so “family” can well mean a relatiqnship formed around the Word of God.
Luke suggests that family is created by relationships
where growth in wisdom, knowledge, and favor before God take place.
Remember how he describes what went on in Nazareth after Jesus was found in the temple.

This is the issue for us today on this feast.
Family is not simply a matter of who is there or who is not.
It is a matter of relationships that are responsive to the Will of God
and relationships where wisdom, knowledge and grace are nurtured and grow. This is what made that family in Nazareth Holy, and it is what can make any family Holy.

The danger Joseph fled with his wife and the child was not just Herod. It was all that Herod stood for and Herod’s refusal of the “dream”, or the message and will of God.
The danger we must flee is isolation, individualism,
a consumer culture where time is a commodity scarce for the play and interaction that nurtures growth in wisdom, knowledge and favor before God.

Holy is the place where these things happen.
Holy is the people whose love, respect, honor, and commitment
.provide the climate for these things.
Holy is the family where dreams are remembered; and wisdom, knowledge, and grace abound.

It does not matter in the end, who is there. What does matter is what happens.  

Christmas Day

Posted by Father Tom Boyer on December 25, 2004
Posted in: Homily.

December 25, 2004

We are part of the story being told through out the world today While we may tell the story in the past tense,we live it in the present.It is not just about shepherds and angels. It is about you and me.Those shepherds were not the only ones who hear good news in the night.They are not the only ones who get up from what they are doing and go seek the promised one, Christ the Savior, Immanuel.We have heard a message    the Gospel.We are up in the night, and have come here seeking what has been promised.

The coming of our God continues,
and God still uses the most simple and humble of ways to be with us. That birth in Bethlehem was a way of getting us to look and see.
From all its humility and simplicity, we learn to look and see God’s presence not in riches and finery, not in power and palaces,
but in the poverty of two homeless refugees and the helplessness of an infant.
Christmas is the very beginning of God’s revelation to us, not the end.  

Our assembly here continues the story being told and the revelation unfolding.The God who once came to Bethlehem in infant’s flesh and blood still comes to this place through bread and wine.Those who can see God in an infant and see God on this altar can discover God in all of life.The presence of God in the gi of the Eucharist is not an isolated event but the clue to how all of creation is to be seen.  The coming of our God continues,
and God still uses the most simple and humble of ways to be with us. That birth in Bethlehem was a way of getting us to look and see.
From all its humility and simplicity, we learn to look and see God’s presence not in riches and finery, not in power and palaces,
but in the poverty of two homeless refugees and the helplessness of an infant.
Christmas is the very beginning of God’s revelation to us, not the end.  

So we have no need to go to Bethlehem to discover the Lord.Christ waits here and where ever there is human need and an opportunity for service.There Christ lives as if in a mangerThose who seek the spectacular will not notice.The real presence of Godis only revealed to those who know what Bethlehem is really all about.

This Christ is not found only at Christmas.He is within reach at all times and seasonsfor those who can recognize God in the ordinary and the simple. To keep us from losing this vision because it is so common, Christmas happens once a year to remind us of how things are.

So we come here tonight asking God for a new way of seeing things,and a new way of recognizing God in these times and in the things we do that are so ordinary, common, and every-daySince the simple humility of God   in – Christ is seen most clearly in the sacrifice of the cross,we come asking for the ability to recognize the humble presence of the Lord wherever we encounter suffering, pain, rejection, lonelin·ess and despair.

While they are important as a way of showing our love, the best gift of Christmas is not found in brightly colored packages around a tree.There is a gift with no wrapper and no ribbon.It is a gift given to us all the ability to discover the divine in our lives and the willingness to offer ourselves to any of God’s daughters and sons who need help, encouragement, and strength.If these things seem too ordinary, too human, too simple, we have missed the message and the truth of Bethlehem.And so we have this day of reminder that comes once each year that our God is Emmanuel, “God With Us”He was not born in Rome or Jerusalem, but in an obscure village of Judea,and so His kingdom for us will not be found in Washington, in New York, or any of the seats of powerFor us it will be found in Norman, Oklahoma one house at a time. Emmanuel was not born in a patace with attending royal physicians.He is born again and again in ever human heartwhen forgiveness restores life to what has been broken or dead.

This is the beginning of the feast of Life itself It is the first day of the new creation.It is the first hour when Light comes leaping into the darkness, and we have been awakened to the dawn of our salvation.

The gifts we find as we awaken this Christmas are simple: bread, wine, and the work of human hands.If we can see God in a simple new-born baby, then we shall God in the gifts we bring to this altar.

Come, let us adore.  

Advent 3

Posted by Father Tom Boyer on December 12, 2004
Posted in: Homily.

December 12, 2004

Isaiah 35: 106, 10 + James 5: 7-10 + Matthew 11: 2-11

The old and the new come together today. The greatest prophet of the Old Testament and the greatest prophet of the New. The voice of the old way comes from a prison. The voice of the new is free. This Gospel story could have ended here, because the scholars tell us that its function was to introduce Jesus and get John out of the picture. But it doesn’t end because John is not the only one in prison. We are too.

Just like John we suspect, we hope, that the reign of God has begun. Yet we find ourselves in prison. Stuck and held back in our old ways. Violent ways, selfish ways, prejudiced ways, greedy, slow to forgive, impatient and intolerant, we are like this doubting John, whose expectations of a Messiah are not quite fulfilled by this man from Nazareth. He does not destroy our enemies. There is still sickness, blindness, cancer, infidelity, in justice, and power abused. Like John in prison, we are lonely, betrayed sometimes by the most loved, and we are filled with doubts about whether it is really worth it to be honest, to be truthful, to be faithful. The doubts of John in prison are not hard to understand. “Who’s side are you on?” He must have wondered.

To his question comes the most simple response: “What you see is what you get.” Then one of the deepest and most profound statements Jesus ever makes comes from the pen of Matthew revealing a great deal about the church that will receive this Gospel. “Happy is the one who does not find in me a stumbling block.” It is a starling verse implying that faith is not only a question of belief in the deeds of Christ, it is also an act of faith. It is a choice to believe in spite of some evidence to the contrary that God is with us, that God’s reign has begun, that we are not alone, left to ourselves, and without a vision of the future and the means to bring it into reality. The person who really stumbles is not the one stricken by doubts, but the one not taken with Jesus. Doubts do not destroy us. Indifference does and confusion about who Jesus is for us and what he can do with us.

Advent when lived through the life and eyes of John the Baptist means getting ready for what seems impossible and improbable. It is a season to be teased and tempted, a season that raises our curiosity, and invites us to see something that can change our lives. Our managed and measured rationality never lets God be God, never allows for the surprise of a baby born of a virgin, nor the possibility of mercy, love, tolerance, patience and forgiveness being better than revenge, punishment, and power.

The old and the new come together today. The old way of anger and vengeance meets the new way of mercy and love. John must have wondered why Jesus was eating with the very sinners he had cursed. He must have wondered how it would be possible to save sinners by chatting with them, smiling at them, and touching them. Our joy today springs from the news that the old has been replaced, that God has come to save us not condemn us, that God has come to love us not despise us, and that the Messiah for whom we long is far better than we could have imagined.

As citizens of the Kingdom of God, we are set free from our prisons by a Savior who does not do what we want but invites us to do what he  wants. His coming begins a season of life that will permit us to dance and sing and hope an serve and give and love: and “Happy is the one who does not find in me a stumbling block.”

Immaculate Conception

Posted by Father Tom Boyer on December 8, 2004
Posted in: Homily.

December 8, 2004

Genesis 3:9-15,20 + Ephesians 1:3-6 + Luke 1:26-38  
The news in today’s readings is not about the women: Eve or Mary It does not praise one nor blame the otherThe news is about God and God’s involvement in human salvation. If we stop with Mary on this feast, we miss the point.Notice that the Gospel is not about her Conception, but about Jesus. With that understanding, there are two important points of comparison between the reading from Luke and the reading from Genesis.They speak of God’s intimate relation with us.  
The first issue we find common to both readings is fearAdam’s answer to God who asks: ‘Where are you?” is, “I was afraid.”The trust and intimacy enjoyed by God with creation has been replaced by fear The words of the messenger spoken to Mary are, “Do not be afraid.”With that announcement, the era of “fear” that comes from guilt has come to an end.  
The second issue has to do with life.Adam names the women “Eve” It is a name linked to the Hebrew word for life, because “she is the mother of all the living.”Yet the consequence of their sin increases throughout the opening of Genesis with alienation, suffering, and death.These humans brought to life by the breath of God hide from God.The words of the messenger speak of birth and life.With that announcement, the era of “death” that comes from sin has come to an end.  
Today we celebrate God’s gift of life, Christ’s conquest of death, and the first person to share completely in Christ’s gift, Mary Immaculate.That great gift is our hope for fullness of life in Christ. Now she is the mother of all the living.The Good News is the best possible news. Eve mourned in shame. Mary rejoiced.Eve bore in her heart the tears of all. Mary brought Joy to the earth.Eve gave birth to children of sin. Mary gave birth to the One who knew no sin.The mother of our race brought death upon the world. The Mother of the Lord brought life in abundance. Eve gave us death. Mary gives us life.Disobedience gave way to obedience. Unfaithfulness yields to faithfulness.  
We may chose which mother we claim, and in doing so, we chose the family in which we shall live now and forever  

Advent 2A

Posted by Father Tom Boyer on December 5, 2004
Posted in: Homily.
December 5, 2004
Isaiah 11·1-10 + Romans 15:4-9 + Matthew 3:1-12  
John, our guide in every Advent speaks to us today as more than the “herald” of Jesus.He does not rise up in our scriptures simply to point to Jesus and then disappear from history.He returns again and again each advent as the one after whom the church should model itself.And so in these first Sundays of this new year of grace and holiness,we take a look again at this one whose prophetic voice and prophetic vision is the model of what a prophetic church must become.Just as his voice prepared for the first appearance of Jesus, so must the voice of this church ready itself and then all humankind for the second and ultimate coming of Jesus. In more simple language,the agenda of John the Baptist is the agenda of our church:work for peace,struggle for justice and an enduring harmony among all people.  
Our world is hardly any different from the world of Isaiah whose poetic and prophetic words we just heard.This is still a world marked by social injustice spiritual laxity,and poor leadership.His voice rose up at a time when the leaders and the people faced an enemy relying upon military might and the support of allies rather than fidelity to God. The consequences of their choice is a matter of history. The became divided among themselves and an easy prey to their foes.
The danger for them is the same danger we face.That danger is spiritualizing the reality of the Kingdom of God.At the root of the Incarnation -At the bottom of what God does by becoming one of us -is making real, historical, concrete, temporal, and earthly the Kingdom of God. It is not for some other age or some place or condition called: “heaven.”In order for the peaceable Kingdom to become the possible kingdom, it must be political as well as spiritual.And I do not mean political in the sense of Democrats and Republicans. I mean it must happen here on earth. We are the ones who will make peace, and we will do it by faithfully living the will of God. We are the creators of our own demise bringing on most of our problems. If we could just stop and ask ourselves what we could do for our Creator rathar than what our Creator can do for us, we might find ourselves following a much different path than the one we have previously chosen.
Our life together as church is not about what we can get here, or whether it is fun, entertaining, or “interesting” for that matter.Our life together as a church is about what and how we give and do for God.Yet this age all about pleasure, entertainment, and “ME.” And so this church rises up, looking a little “out of it”like a man dressed in camel’s hair eating locusts and wild honey. What we do is not about feeling good or being happy.It is about pleasing God.  
Again and again, the prophets and Jesus tell us that Justice pleases God. And so, little works of charity that make us feel good are off the mark.They are short term repairs when there is need for long term solutions because we like instant things that feel good and look good.An example: Why are we ringing bells in front of stores every year? Because, we didn’t fix the problem the year before.Now my example is not an excuse for silencing the bells, it is a prophetic challenge to do something that gets usto the day and the season when it will not be necessary to ring them.If we did nothing all year to address and challenge a system of injustice, then we’ll be ringing those bells forever pretending that there will be no poor people in heaven. That heaven will never come. It was never promised us.Charity is something that happens out of our surplus. It is demanded of us. Justice, and the demands of justice come from an obligation to share God’s creation more generously even if it means tapping our very sustenance when the needs of others so require.  
So, here he is again. John, the model of the prophetic church.And here is Advent again, the time to remember and the opportunity to get it right. If what we hear from Isaiah is the Word of the Lord, and you said so at the end, then the Will of God is that the dream Isaiah possessed is our to possess,and the wolf can become the guest of the lamb.  
Before we walk into this holy place in another week,we should have made that day more possible and more certain, because the Kingdom of God is at hand.