February 26, 2006 At Saint Mark Church in Norman, OK

Hosea  2:16-17,21-22 + 2 Corinthians 3:1-6 + Mark 2:18-22

This is about fasting, not about wine skins old and new; and by using the image and the words “wedding feast”, the controversy heats up; because to the people of his time, that image had direct reference to the messiah.

As we assemble here at the threshold of Lent, this is a great Gospel to proclaim.

Written by Mark in the earliest days of the church’s struggle with Judaism, it reflects what has happened as the Good News which Jesus proclaims brings a rift, a tear in the fabric of old Israel as the community of the resurrection struggles to identify itself as rooted in yet now apart from Judaism. That early church had to center on the new way of Jesus now including tax collectors, sinners, the poor, the outcast, the sick, and otherwise marginalized in the messiah’s nuptial wedding banquet. This inclusiveness pushed them away from the exclusive community encouraged by the Pharisees, scribes and chief priests. This inclusiveness remains a challenge for us today both as a people who are still today excluded if we live clearly with Gospel values, and as a people who sometimes to our shame do the excluding.

What prompted this controversial discussion was that already (it is only the second chapter of Mark’s Gospel) Jesus has

• disturbed a synagogue service by casting out an unclean spirit,
• been in touch with outcast lepers,
• and sin-filled paralytics, and then if all that wasn’t bad enough,
• he has just come from dinner at a tax collector’s!

The people in charge do not like this behavior. It calls into question their own behavior, and with it, their prestige and respect. There is clearly something new here and it does not have much offer them.

The Good News proclaimed by Jesus is still new even though we know the stories that convey it. The consequences of the Good News are the same for us as they were for the Scribes and Pharisees, the marginalized, the lame, the lepers and those considered unclean. Those people we consider unfit, unclean, lazy, and crazy are headed to the front of the line when it comes to the Kingdom of God.

What must distinguish us from the Scribes and the Pharisees is that we can recognize that God is nearer than we think. Through the words and works of Jesus, we can learn that the poorest, the weakest, lowliest are God’s chosen ones.

We can also learn that God cares, that God sees, that God hear and answers prayers. From the Good News, we can also learn new things about our world:

that it is God’s gift and we are its stewards and caretakers. We can learn that we have no right to any of it, and it isn’t ours to consume and waste.  We can learn from Jesus what those Scribes and Pharisees just couldn’t get: that salvation is not a reward of the scrupulous observance of rules and laws, but it is God’s gift to sinners who receive that gift by faith. Those unyieldingly rigid scribes, Pharisees and chief priests had it wrong. Only humility and gratitude, service and sacrifice put us into the company of saints. The forty days to come are our time to remember these things; to get it right, to soften our hearts, to seek forgiveness and give it, to remember that we are stewards and caretakers, to consume less because we take too much of everything, and waste nothing because it isn’t ours to discard.

Most of us will be back here on Wednesday. In fact, there will be more on Wednesday for Ashes than there are today: an odd fact that raises a lot of questions among those of us who are here. Even more strange is that last year 1,274 people were here on Ash Wednesday. 625 were here forty days later for Holy Thursday and even Less on Good Friday. What’s wrong with this picture, I have asked myself. What’s the point of starting Lent if you don’t know how it ends? Are burned palms more important than the Blessed Sacrament and the Passion and Cross on Good Friday? It might be worth thinking about that before you get you get here on Wednesday and stay home during the Triduum. It is time to begin the journey that will lead us to the wedding feast and the coming of the Bride Groom – and so we shall fast until the feast begins on

Holy Thursday April 13.

February 19, 2006

Isaiah 43: 18-25 + 2Corinthians 1:18-22 + Mark 2:1-12

On Wednesday February 22 at noon there will be a meeting of religious leaders and a press conference at the State Capitol. I will be away from Oklahoma attending a different meeting of priests for the week; but I want to call this meeting to your attention in the hope that some of you can be there to represent this community along with the Archbishop and other Roman Catholics. At that meeting, the Archbishop will present a Declaration already signed by thousands of Catholic people from across the state. The Declaration will be a statement from faithful Catholic people that we believe violence against women to be clearly wrong and indeed sinful.

There is more to this effort than simply signing a piece of paper. It is a signal that we have awakened to some startling facts that cannot be denied; that we have embraced the Gospel as the revealed word and will of God for us; and that wish to live in a society without such violence where respect, love, and security for the most weak and vulnerable is the cause of everyone.

The Archbishop has written a pastoral letter which was published in the February 12 issues of the SOONER CATHOLIC. I urge to read it carefully. I want to quote from it for just a moment. “Violence against women is never an accident. It takes the form of physical, psychological or emotional abuse. This includes rape, date rape, sexual assault and other exploitation that reduces women into sex objects. Around the world, one in every three women has been beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise abused during her lifetime. Within the United States, one out of every four American women will experience violence by an intimate partner sometime during her lifetime. One out of six will be raped……To assert that violence against women is unacceptable is in harmony with our religious tradition and Sacred Scriptures…….The root cause of the problem lies in the ever-present inequality of and discrimination against women that exists in the world today. A basic refusal to see women as inherently equal with men, as mandated by our religious tradition, creates the environment for violence against women to flourish. As a Church and as a culture, we must take the elimination of violence against women seriously……We cannot and we must not remain silent any longer (says the Archbishop) Accordingly, I call on all Catholics and people of faith to raise their voices, renouncing all forms of violence against women and, further to commit to teach their children to reject this violence in all its forms. To ignore the call mandated by our Church tradition and the Sacred Scriptures, or to assert otherwise diminishes God’s love, care and compassion for some of the most vulnerable of our times.”

As your pastor I want to add some facts that might motivate you to pay attention to the Archbishop’s letter. Domestic Abuse reports in Oklahoma have increased 31% between 1994 and 2003. There were 23,773 domestic abuse reports in 2003. In this country, 4 million American women experience a serious assault by a partner during an average 12 month period. On average, three women are murdered by their husbands or boyfriends every day. 1 in 5 female high school students report being physically and/or sexually abused by a dating partner. 1 in 3 teens reports knowing a friend or peer who has been hit, punched, slapped, choked, or physically hurt by his or her dating partner. Parents cannot afford to think that this will not happen to their child.

The declaration as been placed in each pew. There are more in the narthex. Please pass them along the pew and add your name if you “condemn unequivocally all violence against women both inside and outside of marriage.” Add your name if you “support legislation to eliminate domestic violence in all its forms”, and if you “believe that violence against women is a grievous sin with no biblical or theological justification, and you want it eliminated from our society.” You may do it now and leave it in the pew. It will be added to the names already presented to the Archbishop on Monday.

As you do this, sharing pens or pencils you may have with you or find around you, give some thought to the scene of today’s Gospel, and as I often suggest, there are different positions or role within it. It is not only about Jesus. It is also a story about those who stand around, criticize, and do nothing except scoff. There is someone helpless and vulnerable, but not without friends willing to help. There are people on the roof, tearing a whole and carrying the paralytic. And, there are those who go away giving glory to God. We would do well today to choose carefully what role we shall play in this on-going, life giving, sin-forgiving, healing word. For us in Oklahoma today individually it is time to let our faith get us up on the roof and do something for the helpless. For us Catholics, it is time to collectively continue the work of Jesus, who as risen Christ still looks into the eyes of those who long for help to see their need, and respond with the power of love regardless of what some may say about us or about what we do.

February 5, 2006 At Saint Mark Church in Norman. OK

Leviticus 13:1-2,44-46 + 1 Corinthians 10:31-11:1 + Mark 1:40-45

Understanding the law from Leviticus and hearing it again this morning is important for the understanding of this Gospel, because the point of this Gospel does not come with words. The leper was not just physically ill with a contagious disease. This was not a simple quarantine act. Lepers were considered unfit to be part of the pure and holy people of God. The suffering of these people was not confined physical pain. Their suffering was greater than that. It was the pain of isolation, loneliness, and the lived experience of being abandoned or cast away.

There are two sides to this story: two movements or actions that speak to every one of us. The movement of the one who was suffering is just as significant as the movement of Jesus. That leper comes forward in faith! He does not choose to sit back and feel sorry for himself. He is not content to live cut off and alone. He comes to Jesus even though he risks rejection again and even punishment.

We know this experience, all of us at some level of intensity. Whether it is shame or guilt or embarrassment, too many never come forward. They fail to hear the power of this story and be motivated by this man’s courage and the consequence of it. The movement of Jesus too speaks to us all at another level. He touches that man! He touches him while he is untouchable. The issue is not simply that Jesus disregards the law. That has nothing really to do with it. He does not wait till the man is clean, acceptable, or perfect. He touches him while he is in his present state unclean. Imagine, Jesus, God, affirms, accepts, embraces, TOUCHES, this imperfect, sinful, unclean, person who dares to approach grace with enough faith to say: Help Me. What he hears is not: “Come back later when you clean up.” “I’ll touch you after you are healed.” or “Say you’re sorry, then I’ll think about.” None of that stuff here. Just a simple touch because Jesus is moved with pity. Do not miss the fact that it is not enough simply to feel badly for that man. Feelings must yield to decisions and action, sympathy to authentic caring that does something. Moved with compassion, Jesus touches that man uninterested in what anyone around him might have to say by way of caution or by way of judgment.

The two of them take risks: one by reason of faith, the other by reason of love It is a stunning thought that leaves us to wonder about our own faith and love.There is a deeper story of healing here that has little to do with Hanson’s disease or anything like it. It is the story of healed relationships that penetrates the isolation that keeps people apart. Whenever a person experiences recognition, acceptance, and value from another; healing take place.

Our lives, our days for that matter are filled with the movements of this Gospel: our need to ask for help and risk that even though we may not be perfect, may not be whole, or healed, God, the Church, those who truly love us will not turn away nor abandon us. We celebrate that movement sacramentally with Confession and personally by a life of prayerful conversion. At the same time, the movement of Jesus must become our own as well. We must reach out and touch each other in love and compassion. The addict whose life is a ruin, The person who lives fearful and hiding with positive HIV status, The adulterer, the liar, the compulsive depressed, and handicapped, and more all wait to be touched. It makes no difference how they got that way, or what they did. Jesus did not say to the man: “What did you do to get sick?” He didn’t think: “You probably had this coming.” That kind of thinking never enters the mind of someone who loves and has compassion and pity. All they think about is: “What can I do to help.?”

So, it must be with us as we sit in this holy place in the presence of God today. Ours is a God who does not turn away from any of us no matter how bad things seem to be. Our lives lived in Jesus will never allow us to turn away from anyone God embraces and calls to life. No matter what anyone else thinks, nor whatever the consequences.