November 29, 2009 at Saint Mark in Norman, OK

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

That there will be a “second coming” is a fundamental element of Christian Faith. How and when this shall occur has not been given us. If it were, the way we live our lives would probably be quite different. In fact, as I have thought about this, it occurs to me that the very reason why we live our lives is shaped by an expectation of a “second coming.” Then the “how” we live in this world will reveal whether or not we have understood and embraced the promise that there will be a second coming.

The birth, the life, and the death of Jesus Christ reveal something about us as much as about God. His absence from this earth is a reminder that this place is not our home. We were not created to live here forever. We understand that from a serious reflection on the meaning of Jesus Christ. Within our own Catholic tradition, to make the point even more forcefully, we celebrate the Assumption of the Blessed Mother. We were not created, called into life, and brought into communion with one another and God to be at home here. Therefore, what we do here, why we do it, and how are serious matters that have something to do with whether or not we shall fear the second coming or anticipate it with joy.

Somehow, we seem to be surrounded by people who do not believe this. In spite of the fact that they would like to be known as “spiritual” or “Christian” there is not much evidence that they expect any second coming or that they will be called to account for their stewardship. The faith we share insists that we are guests on this earth; that it is not ours to use, to use up, or to abuse all to comfort ourselves with the best of everything right now no matter what the cost to this earth or to those who will follow us.

You remember that the first and earliest followers of Christ expected the second coming very soon, and so they lived in such a way that generosity, justice, forgiveness, and a constant concern for the common good was simply the way of life. I am beginning to suspect that the delay in the second coming has been God’s way of waiting to see if we get the point, waiting to see if we really believe,
waiting to see who will live here in expectation that there is more to come which shapes and disciplines how they live today.

I wonder sometimes if our response to the depth and complexities of the challenges we face living in this world is not making us more shallow and more simple minded. In the wake of another “black Friday” the evidence of our shallow values is overwhelming. Luke calls it “indulgence.”

The demand for simple answers to complex problems polarizes us civilly, and all the while we grow more and more distant, more and more distracted, and more and more impatient with one another living more and more as if this was all there is. “Bloated with indulgence and drunkenness and worldly cares” is the way Luke describes his times.

So, Advent comes: four Sundays of reflection and biblical reminders from God’s Word that Christ will come again. The feast of Christmas is not the concern of Advent. There is more going on here than an annual pre-Christmas season. The “coming” we sing about, the “coming” for which we prepare is not for a baby in Bethlehem no matter what poets may tempt us to imagine. The “coming” for which we prepare is clearly announced by Christ to those who listen. The warnings issued by Christ and sacred writers since His words were spoken urge us to take care that we may not become shallow and empty consumers. They urge us to remember at all times that this precious earth is not ours to use,  but a time and place for us to make ready, a time to perfect our skills as stewards, and a place for us to reveal in our lives what we believe and what we hope for.

In raising the thought and the promise of a Judgment, I want to propose to you that there will be little to fear from that Judgment if we have daily judged how well our lives have been pleasing to God, as Paul suggests to the Thessalonians. Shallow empty lives of glamour and comfort, entertainment and pleasure, silly and trivial matters will not bear up well under the Judgment to come when examined in contrast to the life of Jesus Christ. That life from Bethlehem to Jerusalem and everything that happened in between must be the model of what we shall become on this earth. When we finally understand that and make it so, the first coming will awaken us better than it did some shepherds outside Bethlehem for we have seen what they did not see, we have known what they could never know: that Christ Has Died. Christ is Risen, and Christ will Come again.

November 8, 2009 at Saint Mark Church in Norman, OK

1 Kings: 17: 10-16 + Psalm 146 + Hebrews 9: 24-28 + Mark 12: 38-44

We have made it to Jerusalem with Jesus where it is one constant confrontation with the authorities. But today, there stands before him, someone different from all the others. They come with all their money, their wisdom, their experience, their authority

She comes to teach what they cannot, and to reveal what they cannot imagine.

When we finish telling this story however, we have to ask a question: is this Gospel story about the widow or about the scribes? In the context of this Gospel our attention is being called to the Scribes. The widow is used as an example. If we want to hear what Jesus is speaking of, we cannot read back into the Gospel what we want to think about. The Jerusalem which Jesus has entered is not a place of welcome for his message. He has nothing to offer those in control of the place. There is nothing in his message that interests them or can improve their comfortable, safe, and protected lives.

The bottom line of this story is that this widow is supporting and helping the very people who ought to be taking care of her. Jesus is not talking about her. He is talking about them: the ones who like to sit in the front seats of the very synagogue she supports with out of her need.

Instead of sitting back and admiring her, we ought to be wondering what’s wrong with this picture? What’s wrong with a situation or an institution; or a nation or a culture that allows the most needy to take care of those who have the most? What’s wrong with exploitation of the most vulnerable, weak, and helpless by those who because of their gifts their wealth and their knowledge ought to be, by God’s plan, taking care of those vulnerable, weak, and helpless?

This Gospel is no glorification of poverty or of the generous poor. Somehow, those who work with the poor discover again and again that the poor are always the most generous with the little that they have. This Gospel is not urging some shallow interpretation that motivates generosity. This is the Word of the Lord teaching disciples. It is the voice of Jesus speaking to disciples about the “establishment”, so to speak. There are three points of focus in these verses of chapter 12: the scribes at the temple, the poor widow, and the disciples to whom Jesus speaks. We need to figure out which of these we belong to, and what to do with the message. A disciple of Jesus has already stepped out of the first group. Jesus has not invited his disciples to this kind of poverty. He warns them to beware of hypocrisy and avarice. He warns them not to exploit anyone, and proposes that they reflect upon the causes of hunger and poverty

and do something to eradicate them.

My dear friends in Christ, work of that sort will take everything the disciple has. The question today is: “Are we up to the task?” “How much longer are we going to ask the poor of this world to take care of us?” Some will find this a hard question, and some will dismiss it as a “political” message. I found it in the Gospel. It has nothing to do with politics. It has everything to do with justice, with greed and hypocrisy, and with justice.

November 2, 2009 at Saint Mark Church in Norman, OK

Wisdom 4:7-14 + Psalm 25 + 1 Corinthians 15:51-57 + John 11: 17-27

Today we are about something that uniquely Catholic.

To the best of my knowledge we are the only the only religious tradition that prays for the dead; a custom that springs from our profession of faith in the creed. We know from the earliest history that the Christian communities kept alive their relationships with those who had died by frequent respectful visits to their graves, by unique and long cherished traditions of remembrance and respect. All because we believe in communion, because we believe that tied that bind us do not unravel with death, that what binds us together is not these bodies we wear for a time, but the communion we share through Baptism.

And so, here we are gathered together because, as this Gospel text affirms, Jesus listens to the prayers of those who love him even though the response is at his own time and in his own way. And so we tell the story of Lazarus today as we have for generations for Lazarus is a symbol that death can not lock in its dark chambers those whom Jesus loves.

Throughout the fifteenth chapter of First Corinthians, Paul struggles with this question: “How are the dead raised?” Paul never speaks of immortal souls, but always of the resurrection  of the body, affirming that what is raised is a “spiritual body.” We affirm the same thing in the creed. Remember how it goes? “I believe in the resurrection of the body……” we say, Sunday after Sunday.

Our faith is not in the immortality of a soul, but in the resurrection of the body. What Paul teaches us is that the body is not simply flesh and blood, but rather it is the body that gives continuity to life through history and allows us humans to relate to each other. Body is what makes community. I am coming to discover that calling this day: “All Souls Day” is an unfortunate description, but I am realistic enough at my age to know that I don’t stand a chance of changing that custom, but it is poor one for describing what this day is all about.

We are not here to remember souls. We are here to remember people: people who have made a difference, people who have been linked to us by their body and are now part of our communion in God. We remember easily those who have given us our bodies, our mothers and our fathers grandparents and great-grandparents. We believe in the eternal life and the resurrection of the body…. in more simple terms, we believe that having been one with Christ through out body in Holy Communion, we shall be one with Christ forever.