September 24, 2006 At Saint Mark Norman OK

Wisdom 2:12,17-20 + James 3:16-4:3 + Mark 9: 30-37

Two others will speak with you today later in the Liturgy. For that reason, I shall be brief with my reflection upon this Gospel. I beg you to extend courtesy to the others I shall introduce, and remain in this church until the dismissal in order to give them a welcome and attention Having five additional minutes outside this church

or getting out of the parking lot first cannot be worth the discourtesy of not giving them your time.

Jesus speaks to his disciples today about something they do not want to hear about and so they fall silent and uncomfortable. He speaks in this congregation today too when this Gospel is proclaimed. He speaks about something we would rather not talk about and find too uncomfortable. This discomfort reveals then and now reveals the distance between how we think and how Jesus thinks. Be your own judge of that for yourselves. If you find the message uncomfortable and unwelcome, it may very well be the measure of that distance.

When he sits down, he is teaching, and today he sits down to give a lesson in the ways of greatness. For Jesus, the great are those who engage and cooperate with the loving energy of God. That energy is never concerned with its own prestige, honor, or security. Rather it goes out to find and lift up basic humanity. So, the truly great will seek and provide for the needs of others, and their greatness lies in that focus, not in taking care of themselves. “How it is” with God who is first and greatest, should be “how it is” with all who seek to be first and great.

In a few minutes, “the children” are going to be put before you again, just as Jesus did once before. The weak, vulnerable, and helpless, the poor, the homeless, the hungry are standing at the door of this church. We just fail to see them because we are on the fast track and looking, working, and living for greatness in the eyes of this world.

When a lesson is taught to a closed or frozen mind, more often than not, that mindset ridicules the teacher, trivializes the matter, or transforms the teaching into some sort of idealistic unreal concept rather than the teaching transforming the mindset. There is no greatness in that thinking.  If we shall ever be great, it will be because we have looked outside of ourselves for humanity and seen the face of God. Those who come to us in need have the same feelings, fears, loves, and dreams that we have. Remembering that and realizing that any one of us is just a breath away from the conditions in which they find themselves cannot simply make us grateful that we have been spared such needy poverty. It must make us generous or our gratitude is little more than self-serving. Gratitude without Generosity is false, empty, and self-serving.

September 10, 2006 At Saint Mark Norman, OK

Isaiah 35:4-7 + James 2:1-5 + Mark 7: 31-37

Fear is a big thing these days. It sells stuff like guns, security systems, gates, locks, and fences. It has become the greatest political tool for getting votes. No longer are we concerned about justice or wages, education or poverty. Now it’s all about boarders, walls, homeland security, and it would seem that that best way to get elected is to scare us into thinking one candidate is more powerful, more militant, and more able to protect us from whatever it is that scares us the most. Social and political historians, by the way are quick to point out that using the tool of fear is a giant step toward fascism, and all kinds of other ideologies that do not become us.

The opening verses of today’s Liturgy of the Word have directed my prayer and thoughts powerfully and personally this weekend: “Say to those whose hearts are frightened, be strong, fear not. Here is your God. He comes to save you.”

The presence of this God who has called us to this holy place today is not seen in the removal of stress, problems, or suffering, but in the fact that in spite of all that,

there is still the possibility of great goodness, great accomplishments, great growth and satisfaction. On the eve of a date now recorded in history: 9/11; we can remember two things and must remember them both: an unexpected and horrible act of human cruelty, and a day of greater human courage, goodness and sacrifice. A handful of angry hate-filled men brought suffering upon a vast number of innocent people; and then an overwhelming number of brave and courageous men and women risked everything to bring comfort and help to others.

It is always a curious thing to notice that that in the miracle stories of the Gospel Christ himself downplays the significance of his healings. So often healing is followed by Christ telling the one who was cured not to say anything about it.

Even more emphatically as in today’s Gospel, Christ removes the man from the crowd, off by himself before he cures him. Christ could have used that power to rid the world of suffering and evil. He could have just said the word, and all evil would be gone. But that would not have been true to the plan of his Father, not according to the divine design for salvation. It was not to come through power, but through choice, through conversion of mind and heart. The real significance of miracle stories is not so much that they are sweeping displays of divine power,

but rather that they are personal acts of goodness, and moments of a human being using whatever resource was at hand to help another. That is what happens in this Gospel. In Jesus, we must see ourselves.

In verses just before today’s, a foreigner comes to Jesus for help with her daughter. At first, he refuses and insultingly denies her request until he thinks better of it. In Jesus, we must see ourselves. If at first we think someone does not deserve help, perhaps we ought to think again. A God who is partial to the poor ought to make us uneasy in our prosperity. It ought to make us want to get in touch with our interior poverty our deafness to the voice of God our blindness to God’s presence and the fear that holds us captive.

The only thing we really need to fear is the fact that we might fail to answer our call to growth in personal goodness. There is something every one of us can do

about loneliness, hunger, sadness, and suffering. Fear always puts up walls, locks closed doors and pulls the shades. It makes us blind, deaf, and silent. “BE OPENED” says Jesus. He puts his fingers in the man’s ears. I think he was silencing the frightening noise of the outside so that the man could hear from within the call of God and the whisper of divine love that calms fear. The prophet has spoken: BE STONG. HAVE NO FEAR. GOD IS HERE.

September 3, 2006 At Saint Mark Norman, OK

Deuteronomy 4:1-2,6-8 + James 1:17-18,21-27 + Mark 7:1-8,14-15,21-23

“Labor Day” this is called. It’s an odd idea these days when you stop to think about it. I went to the U.S. Department of Labor web site to find out more about how this all got started. It would appear that they are a little fuzzy about that which is no surprise given how “fuzzy” this nation has become about labor. It would seem that “unions” which we as church continue to support have been demonized nearly out of existence: if not, certainly out of power in a “right-to-work” state. I remember how we were assured that changing that law was going to flood Oklahoma with good paying jobs and investment. Since then, GM closed, and judging from the calls for help with rent and utilities, those companies standing at the state line ready to rush in have not done so. In the meantime, the real laborers in this country are threatened with deportation. Families of those who labor are subject to the nightmare of having the working member held for months in a detention cell until they are hauled over the border. We want laborers to roof our homes, lay bricks, mow grass, change sheets in hotels they could never afford to stay in, and wash dishes in our restaurants While above all, we must keep the cost of these thigs as low as possible. So, we have “Labor Day” mostly celebrated by employers rather than employees. It has become a day tolerated but hardly “celebrated” by far too many in a country where the minimum wage guarantees poverty for labor while politicians attack each other and dither about trivia instead of health insurance o transportation costs.

As Jesus once challenged external behavior that did not match internal values, we might apply the same question/and/challenge process to ourselves. The issue in the Gospel of Mark today is purity. This is not a virtue that has anything to do with dirty hands or sex.  It has to do with right thinking and right behavior. This is the conflict Jesus exposes with the Pharisees. Their shallow thinking is about trivia. Unable to look into the heart, they would rather inspect hands, but Jesus looks to the heart where ironically, both good and evil are first found. Evil comes from within. If our minds are full of envy, greed, anger, adultery, pride, or if we lie to ourselves, we shall not ever know truth, be free, or be pure. The intent of Jesus is to find the driver of immoral behavior. In truth, this evil is not easy to discover, especially if you are trying to find your own. The pursuit of it will never be successful for the shallow who are distracted by trivia.

Going inside takes courage. It’s dark in there, and there are things that make us uneasy and uncomfortable. It is more fun to be entertained. Knowing, naming, recognizing the hidden holdings of the mind and heart is often a blow to the scrubbed up and idealized self image we like to project. Mow the lawn, edge the sidewalk and rake the leaves in the yard, while inside the house there is abuse, neglect, and a life-time of unforgiven ugly memories.

There are five markers of true religion.

1) Closenes to God, or rather, God’s closeness to us.

We heard that in the first reading today.

2) The pursuit of Justice is the second.

It is the way God’s closeness is best experienced.

The Psalm of this day speaks to this truth.

3) Action which bares witness to faith is the third

because words without deeds are shallow and empty.

The Epistle of James speaks with simple eloquence of this truth.

4) Knowing the difference between what is marginal from what is essential

marks true religion. Piety is not to be mistaken for holiness.

5) Finally, what is within matters most.

Therefore, in true religion, the really holy avoid evil thoughts.

Those who look good or do good things

while their hearts are filled with darkness are far from the light of Christ.

What makes holiness is attitude, not behavior.

When the Word of God has taken root in us, everything becomes a religious practice. That Word comes through the teachings of our faith, the example of good people around us, and through the wonder and beauty of creation. However, it comes, when it does take hold of us, our inner eye is opened, our hearts are softened, and we turn to God like a flower turns to the sun. When we are brought to birth in this way, covenant law becomes sacred, religious practices are cherished and we are filled with a wonder that saves.