December 31, 2006 At Saint Mark Norman

1 Samuel 1:1-28 + Colossians 3:12-21 + Luke 2:41-52

She was desperate. Her self-esteem was lower than low. She was ridiculed by others. She looked so bad in her sadness that some thought she was a drunk. She had everything a young woman could dream of. She was cherished by a loving husband who treated her like a queen. Yet she was still miserable. Ungodly people prospered and gloated over their prosperity. While she who was faithful to her God struggled against adversity and disappointments that made her feel like a failure. For years she has tried everything, including prayer with no results. This woman, thought by others to be a failure and useless, near the end of her hope, had said every prayer in the book. Not until all her efforts failed does she come to God without words simply with her heart. Finally, the book says; ”She prayed with her heart”, and God who knows what is in our hearts hears and responds She is a woman of prayer, of faithfulness, of dignity, and perseverance. She is generous with God because she knows God has been generous with her. Her name is Hannah, and her story opens our liturgy today where she shines in the Bible’s galaxy of saints.

Hannah is not just a model for women, wives, and mothers. Her story speaks to everyone who knows anxiety and depression, disappointment and failure. The effectiveness of her prayer is not found in using the right words, but in having the right heart. She has a heart of faith and a heart of trust. Because of that faith and courage, the unfolding of salvation history is possible. She does not keep for herself what God gives her. Struck by the goodness and generosity of God toward her; she returns to God what was given by God; and she gets more in return. She wanted a son desperately. When God finally granted her faithful and patient prayer, she returned that son, Samuel, to the Lord. He was a child of destiny who as chief priest and prophet would bridge the era between Judges and Kings It is Samuel who heard the call of God and spent his life communicating the Word of God to the people. He is the one who chose David, the least likely son of another family to anoint as King, Prophet, Leader, and Teacher.

Even children of destiny have parents, and Hannah’s story even while set in a cultic and archaic culture foreign to us is fresh and new and real. Unable to help herself, she came to God with a faithful heart. Generous with the God who was generous to her, she was even more blessed, for after giving her son to the temple and God, it is recorded that she gave birth to three sons and two daughters.

This is the story the church puts before us on the Sunday after Christmas. To a people who have more than they need yet still feel uneasy; comes Hannah’s story. To a people who feel like failure, who wait and long for the one gift that will give life meaning and purpose, comes Hannah’s story. On the eve of a New Year, Hannah lifts our spirits with hope and promise and confirms what we believe. While some who turn from God to goods seem to prosper; those who wait, who hope, who trust, and who pray with a sincere heart are never abandoned by God. And what’s more, those who are generous with God receive more than they ask for.

December 31, 2006The Holy Family
December 31, 2006
1 Samuel 1:1-28 + Colossians 3:12-21 + Luke 2:41-52

She was desperate. Her self esteem was lower than low. She was ridiculed by others. She looked so bad in her sadness that some thought she was a drunk. She had everything a young woman could dream of. She was cherished by a loving husband who treated her like a queen. Yet she was still miserable. Ungodly people prospered and gloated over their prosperity. While she who was faithful to her God struggled against adversity and disappointments that made her feel like a failure. For years she has tried everything, including prayer with no results. This woman, thought by others to be a failure and useless, near the end of her hope, had said every prayer in the book. Not until all her efforts failed does she come to God without words, simply with her heart. Finally, the book says; ”She prayed with her heart”, and God who knows what is in our hearts hears and responds. She is a woman of prayer,
of faithfulness, of dignity, and perseverance. She is generous with God because she knows God has been generous with her. Her name is Hannah, and her story opens our liturgy today where she shines in the Bible’s galaxy of saints.

Hannah is not just a model for women, wives, and mothers. Her story speaks to everyone who knows anxiety and depression, disappointment and failure. The effectiveness of her prayer is not found in using the right words, but in having the right heart.
She has a heart of faith and a heart of trust. Because of that faith and courage the unfolding of salvation history is possible.
She does not keep for herself what God gives her. Struck by the goodness and generosity of God toward her;she returns to God what was given by God; and she gets more in return. She wanted a son desperately. When God finally granted her faithful and patient prayer, she returned that son, Samuel, to the Lord. He was a child of destiny who as chief priest and prophet would bridge the era between Judges and Kings It is Samuel who heard the call of God and spent his life communicating the Word of God to the people.
He is the one who chose David, the least likely son of another family to anoint as King, Prophet, Leader, and Teacher.

Even children of destiny have parents,
and Hannah’s story even while set in a cultic and archaic culture
foreign to us is fresh and new and real.
Unable to help herself, she came to God with a faithful heart.
Generous with the God who was generous to her,
she was even more blessed,
for after giving her son to the temple and God,
it is recorded that she gave birth to three sons and two daughters.

This is the story the church puts before us on the Sunday after Christmas.
To a people who have more than they need
yet still feel uneasy; comes Hannah’s story.
To a people who feel like failure,
who wait and long for the one gift
that will give life meaning and purpose, comes Hannah’s story.
On the eve of a New Year, Hannah lifts our spirits
with hope and promise, and confirms what we believe.
While some who turn from God to goods seem to prosper;
those who wait, who hope, who trust, and who pray with a sincere heart
are never abandoned by God.
And what’s more, those who are generous with God
receive more than they ask for.

December 17, 2006

Zephaniah 3: 14-18 + Philippians 4: 4-7 + Luke 3: 10-18

What should we do?

is the question this crowd asks after the Baptists sermon.

What should we do?

This is the question that forms the heart of Luke’s Gospel

the Gospel we shall proclaim from now until next Advent.

I’ve asked that question many times in my life,

and I’m certain that you have too;

and sometimes I’ve gotten an answer that left me ready to say:

“Yeah, well thanks, forget that. “Sorry I asked.”

I suspect that some of those people

who asked John what to do felt like it was a mistake to have asked.

Holding on to that second coat, that extra bread or old sandals

and wondering: “What is enough?” goes through every mind that hears his response.

Do I risk my own comfort for someone who has not worked as hard as I have?

Can the tax collector who has had his thumb on the scale

really live with a cut-back in revenue?

Those soldiers he’s talking to:

do they really stop pushing people around?  They are not out in that miserable desert to teach dancing. Their pay is meant to be supplemented by this bullying behavior, this extortion.

Any change in behavior always leads to a discovery of inner obstacles.

On Advent’s Third Sunday,

John the Baptist calls for a change: Repentance!

His advice is really a journey of self-discovery.

You really get to know yourself when you start to make a change.

Luke gives us John’s suggestions, and with them we might learn a great deal about ourselves and expose the obstacles that keep us from God.

Put simply what John says is:

Share what you have; Avoid greed; and use your power well.

We all have more than we need,

and the moment we hesitate to share that wealth,

we’ve uncovered an obstacle.

This is a proposal to imitate God.

God shared all of creation with us, and as if that was not enough,

he shared his only Son:

not a spare, not an extra, not the one least loved, but his only son.

“No greed.” says John. When we confront the greed of our lives,

we find out exactly what is in the way between us and God.

When God made a covenant with us, as recorded in the First Testament, he asked us to return one tenth of what we earn: a dime out of a dollar. Not the whole thing, not even half, just a tithe: right off the top.

The first fruits he called it.

When we fail to do that, we act as though everything depends upon us.

It denies that we are dependent on God and on one another.

That exaggerated individualism leads to greed, war, and abuse.

“Use your power well.” says John. Don’t force, invite.

It’s another imitation of God, a divine quality in us there since we were created with free will.  God does not force. God invites.

I have wondered for many years what John the Baptist must have thought about this one who was to come.

I honestly think he may well have been very disappointed,

especially when he was sitting in Herod’s prison.

Where was that all – powerful one he waited for his whole life?

When you listen to what John said and how he said it,

you can’t help but think he was surprised by Jesus of Nazareth.

Jesus never came with thundering curses and threats of judgment.

In stead of threats to powers like Herod, he preached to the poor.

He promised liberty to captives, sight for the blind,

freedom for the oppressed.

His first contact with tax collectors was to have dinner with them.

His way of bringing people to God was different than John’s,

and herein lies the cause of our Joy:

that love is what the repentant will receive,

not judgment or condemnation.

The Joyful are always in repentance, free, generous without question or limit. They are always returning to God what God asks only to be surprised by the fact that God will not be outdone. This is the rehearsal part of Advent’s work: the Joy of Christmas cannot be contained. It breaks out in the middle of Advent, and the giving is not seasonal. It is a way of life.

December 10, 2006

Baruch 5: 1-9 + Philippians 1:4-6, 8-11 + Luke 3: 1-6

All those really important people: Caesar, The Governor of Judea, Tetrarchs and High Priests! And where does the Word of God go? By-passing all the seats of power and influence, ignoring the high holy ones with their religious influence and power, the Word of God goes straight to the desert to an insignificant wild man who is living on the fringe of society and holds no claim to any authority, influence, or power. The reversal of things predicted by Baruch goes on. Perhaps it was not so much a prediction of some future event, but a commentary on the way things are.

Some of the powerful in Washington know how quickly things change. Opinion polls plummet for a president, A powerful Roman Catholic Cardinal is driven from his post, Celebrity athletes shamed from the spotlight by revelations of drug enhancing performances, “Enron” the symbol of prominence, power, and influence collapses in a shameful revelation of greed and lies. Who needs Baruch or Jeremiah? But these ancient prophets speak both ways: about the mighty who will fall, and about the lowly who will rise. This is important to remember in Advent. Things change, and when they do, God will be found at work in the middle of it by those who remember.The Greek word for change or repentance is “metanoia.” It literally means, “Going beyond the mind.” When we can go beyond the mind, forgiveness of sins follows. Behind this idea is something we all know to be very real. There is something about the mind that holds onto sin. I can’t count the times I have heard people say to me: “Father I wish I could forget it, or just forgiven them.”

Sinful experience sticks to us like super glue. We remember the beatings, humiliations, hateful glances, mocking words, insults. When we can’t even remember our own phone number, we can remember as if it was yesterday, a hurt from twenty years ago. The experience of sin begins with being sinned against, and we are quick learners. We learn all too soon how to hurt others. We call it “protecting ourselves” sometimes; but it is little more than just advancing and promoting oneself at all costs. If the truth is told, we have been hurt, wronged, and maltreated. If the truth is told, we have done the same to others.

Our problem comes when the mind enthrones this experience and we begin to believe that we are helpless sinners, victims, and justified by an ever deepening connection between who we are and what had been done to us and what we have done. Our identification with sin is a roadblock, a mountain in the way that makes slow going, not for us, but for Christ Jesus who comes.  He can’t get to us with his message that we are the light of the world, the salt of the earth, and blessed if we continue to cling to our sin and our identity as sinners. He becomes then, not the one who is to come, but the one sin keeps away. This is what John comes to address – “Let Go of Sin.” he says. Repentance is subtle but not impossible. Two steps to get there: One, recognize the truth; we have been hurt and that we hurt others. Two, understand the basic core belief of the Christian tradition: the unconditional forgiveness of God.

If God can and does let it go, then what’s the point of our holding on? The question changes from: “Will God forgive me?” to “How can I get beyond a mind that clings to sin when God does not? Before we can hear the words that Jesus heard at his Baptism:“You are my beloved.” We must undergo the baptism of John: a baptism of repentance that leads to forgiveness of sins. When we do, the path is clear, and we will understand that this season is truly about waiting; but not about us waiting for God to come. It is about God waiting for us to put down sins already forgiven.

December 8, 2006

Genesis 3:9-15, 20 + Ephesians 1:3-6, 11, 2 + Luke 1:26-38

No one has ever asked me to reassign the scriptures

we proclaim for Feats and Seasons,

but if they do, I’m going right to this day and strike the Gospel text, saving it for another occasion.

First: because it contributes to confusion about what this feast celebrates.

Second: because it is repeated on plenty of other feasts.

Now, I am not certain what I might choose to replace it,

but I can wait till they ask me to work on that.

The point here is to explore what it means “to be without sin”,

and I am not sure we get that point very universally.

The consequence of not getting that point is that

Mary Immaculate become Mary the Distant,

Mary the so perfect forget about trying to imitate her,

or Mary the pure who has nothing in common with us.

When we get to that point, it’s a tragedy which neither the church

nor Mary herself could accept.

The point is: what does it mean to be without sin?

We can’t imagine, let alone desire to be without sin if we do not

continue to consider what it is and face its consequences.

As both a repentant sinner and a confessor, I can assure you,

identifying sin, naming it, and avoiding it is serious, tough business.

It has little if anything to do for that matter

with little spots or big spots on our soul.

It trivializes the greatness of being without sin

to think it means she didn’t gossip, use bad language in traffic,

cheat on a test, tell a lie, or skip her night prayers because she was tired.

Genesis gives some good thinking about this matter

and a good clue when it describes Adam and Eve in their sin.

They hid from God!

They turned away from God preferring earthly things to the divine.

They talked to a snake: preferring that conversation

to conversation with God.

That and its consequences is what sin is all about,

and we are invited to consider on this Feast

why we have not and do not choose to be more like our mother,

for that is exactly how we are invited to see her

by putting the image of Eve,

mother of mankind before us in the first reading.

There is a new Eve now:

a new mother of a race that is called to sinlessness.

She is not to be put on such a distant pedestal with such perfections

that we are hopeless to think we might imitate her.

Her gift is that she was open to God in all things and at all times.

Her sinlessness is found in her willingness to change her plans,

to embrace the uncertain, to suffer fear, the doubt, the confusion

of seeking the Will of God above her own will.

For her being sinless means she was never closed to God.

She never turned away from God nor led anyone else to do so.

She did not hide from God, blame anyone, nor refuse anything God asked of her. That is sinlessness.

Put simply, Sin is what gets between us and God.

Laziness, Self-indulgence, Greed, Sex, Pride, all that stuff.

If it gets between us a God, it’s sin.

But she did not turn away from God or let anything else get between her and God. That is sinlessness.

This is not impossible: being without sin.

because we too are full of grace,

redeemed, and purified by the Blood of the Lamb.

Without sin, we do not hide.

Without sin, we can be filled with the Spirit.

Without sin, we receive gifts and wonder first how to use them for the glory of God and for others without wondering how to keep them.

Without sin, the Word of God is conceived in us

and all creation so that every human life is sacred.

This feast invites us to imagine what it means to be without sin

and so discover what it is that has come between us and God.

December 3, 2006

Jeremiah 33:14-16 + 1 Thessalonians 3:12-4:2 + Luke 21:25-28, 34-36

What Jesus says to his disciples in the midst of this assembly is that creation is falling apart,

that Genesis is being reversed.

The lamps God hung in the sky are going out.

The seas he calmed and from which he brought for dry land

upon which we could stand are seething and roaring.

The primordial chaos is returning.

But Jeremiah says to us that God keeps promises.

So, what about the Noah Promise and that Rainbow?

For those who hear the word of God and believe,

the Rainbow is the Son of Man, the Full Human Being

who comes when everything falls apart.

In the midst wild chaos, He is the one who does not bend.

Surviving collapse depends on knowing where to stand.

People in earthquake areas know better than to run outside

when the earth shakes. They stand in an inside doorway.

People who survive floods get to higher ground.

What Jesus speaks of today is the inevitability of breakdown and collapse, chaos and disorder. He uses cosmic images to speak not of the end of time, but of how His disciples shall stand firm when things fall apart.

Some would hear this gospel and think He speaks of the end of the space/time world, and they buy binoculars to catch the first glimpse of the cloud-riding Son of Man.

Some would hear this gospel and think He speaks of political anarchy, the breakdown of social order. Those refuges among us know how this world can fall apart.

Some would hear this gospel and think he speaks of an individual death, and the vulnerability of the physical body.

Others would hear this gospel and think he speaks of the end of a relationship, the breakup of a home, the collapse of a way of life dreamed of for a life time.

However we hear it, the point remains: things fall apart.

How disciples of Jesus experience

the unavoidable collapse of things is what He teaches us.

There is a way of seeing things and ourselves that recognizes

that some things change, collapse, fall apart, and die,

and some things are changelessly absolute.

Knowing the difference, and developing within oneself

that which is changelessly absolute is the very essence of a

Spiritual Life.

This Advent Season can be about that development or enrichment

if we choose to make it so.

There is a threefold work of Advent

Remember, Repent, and Rehearse.

We must remember our past,

where we have come from and who we are because of it.

We must place ourselves realistically in the whole picture of creation.

It makes one humble and restores our focus on the divine reason for which we are here.

We must remember that birth and rebirth of God on earth are the most important moments in all of history.

We must repent not out of fear, but out of love.

Fear-repentance never lasts.

When the danger is gone, we relapse until the next scare.

People flocked to John the Baptist and fire and brimstone threats, but when they got over their fear,

they went right back to their old ways until Jesus came along.

The purpose of repentance is not simply to stop sin,

but to be good. The purpose of repentance is not just to be good, but to be loving. This might even lead us to realize that the coming of Jesus was to free us from fear of God so we could be free to love God.

We must also rehearse. We remember our past, we repent to sustain the present, and we rehears for the sake of what is to come. The wife of Lot was punished for looking back. I prefer to think she was punished for not looking ahead.

This advent way of life is both simple and profound. It does not require unusual behavior on our part, but it calls us to live the usual unusually well. It affects the everyday events of life; it directs the way we interact with people; it informs the attitudes that color our judgments and motivations.

It is as ordinary as the birth of a child; and as extraordinary as the revelation of God.