April 25, 2010 at Saint Mark Church in Norman, OK

Acts 13: 14, 43-52 +Psalm 100 + Revelation 7:9, 14-17 + John 10: 27-30

It takes more than ears to hear the Shepherd’s voice these days. The age of technology has led us into a life-style of imitation. Hardly anything is real, and finding something real these days takes skill, critical observation, and an ability to discern what is fake and cheap. Digital reproductions trick the ear and the eye, and they leave us satisfied with what is fake and false. We live now in perplexing society of wolves dressed as sheep, of pseudo-values marked as good. Political parties claim to support the politics and politicians of “values” but no one ever says what those values are.

Hearing the voice of the Shepherd is getting harder with all the noise of this society.
In fact, listening is becoming a lost skill. When we run into someone these days who is a good listener, we know that we have found someone unique.

There is something going on among us all these days that confuses hearing and listening. We have decided that people who do not listen have not heard; and then we say that those who do not agree with us or do what we want have not listened; which of course is not true. Just because we don’t get our way does not mean we have not been heard or no one listened. It seems to me that hearing comes first. It is the immediate perception of a sound. It is a recognition of the other. Listening comes next.
Listening is more involved and requires some attention and reflection. It is not something easily done while doing something else. When is no double-tasking when listening.

When Jesus says that his sheep hear his voice, he means that the sheep recognize the shepherd. It is the first step toward conversion, the first step toward the relationship, the first movement toward listening. Hearing the voice invites us to stop and then listen. For those who would be disciples of Jesus, hearing the voice of the shepherd is the ultimate, relentless priority. But there is so much noise in this world: so many fake voices, so many fake shepherds promising so many pseudo values that are all substitutes for something real.
Members of this flock who hear the voice of Jesus know their shepherd, and they stop to listen.

Yet the culture in which we live today does not value what it takes to listen……
silence, attention, devotion, respect, desire, openness are the tools or the skills of a real good listener. These are the qualities of a disciple. Those who would be disciples of Jesus Christ must be so today in a nation of choice where there is so much noise and so many conflicting voices that we can confuse freedom with license, and individual choice has boundaries: an unwanted pregnancy, a dying old man, a boring marriage
all become subject to individual discretion or choice. Any challenge, any question, any suggestion that something might not be rightis shouted down by the noise of individual freedom and the demand for one’s individual rights!

Hearing the voice of the Shepherd is impossible while individuals demand their way, ignore the common good, and shout down those who do not think their way or share their so-called “values.”  It will never be possible to hear the voice of the shepherd with all this noise. It will never be possible to tell if it was fake. We have to find some quiet time in our lives, some quiet time every day or we shall never discern the Good Shepherd, the True Shepherd, who has come to show us, to lead us, and to call us to the Father.

If we cannot hear the voice of the Shepherd, we shall never belong to the flock.

April 18, 2010

Acts 5:27-32 + Psalm 30 + Revelation 5: 11-14 + John 21: 1-19

On this date in 1968 I was ordained a priest at age 25. Wheat was growing where this church now stands: wheat that would become bread, bread that would feed us and bring us to this day. More than half of this parish was not even born, but God had a plan that one day we would be here together and that we would break and share the bread that wheat has given us; and that we would share the promise and the faith that God would stay with us and Jesus would send their Spirit. With the deepest and most intense gratitude to God, and my most sincere gratitude to you, I break the bread of life and break open this word of God today thankful that you are so patient, so kind, so willing to look beyond short-comings and inadequacies and look for the hand and the face of God in an aging servant.

Now it begins very early in life for all of us. The earliest signs are seen in tiny children who pull away from a helping hand. One of the first words in every child’s vocabulary is: “No”. Then comes: “Let me do it.” And before long, its “I want to do it my way.” And the trouble begins. I can’t think how often as a priest I have stood by helplessly and watched a spouse who has lost a partner in the midst of their grief try to go back to life as it was – or try to continue living how and sometimes where they lived for years with a husband or wife who is suddenly no longer there. Eventually it does not work. Nothing is the same, and no matter how hard or how long they try, something new must happen. We all eventually discover that you just can’t go back.

The church, the faithful followers of Jesus Christ are discovering that by the time John writes his Gospel. The disciples experienced that in the days following the death of Christ. Those who came to faith by their witness a generation later realized that coming to life in Christ was more than a profession of faith. It was a whole new way of living, of seeing, or thinking.  Peter is that church along with his fellow disciples. They have lost their companion, and in their grief, they want to go back, and so Peter says: “I’m going fishing.” But it does not work.

There are to two problems with Peter’s fishing trip. one: they are fishing at night. two: Peter starts the whole idea thinking it’s about him as he says: “I am going to fish.” By the time this story is over however, it is day light and the nets are full, but Peter didn’t do it. Peter has placed all his hopes on his own unaided efforts. When the others join in this kind of wrong-headed thinking, they are in for a night without success. Not until they are obedient, until the follow the Master’s instruction do they get anything and when they do, it’s more than they could have imagined.

There is a message here for us from John’s Gospel, and it is an important one for people like us who like to do things our way when we feel like it. This kind of thinking and approach to life cannot work for disciples of Jesus. John’s Gospel gives some important instructions to the first-generation church, and to us as well. When we come to believe in the risen Christ, nothing can ever be the same in the way we think and the way we act. If we go back to the old ways, nothing will happen – empty nets. If we start to think we can do anything on our own or do anything our way, nothing will happen – empty nets. Peter and his friends fished at night thinking that they would fill those nets on their own – empty nets but then comes the morning. Now they can see the master on the shore and following the instructions of the master on the shore, things are different. Like Easter morning, it is John and Peter again who come to this moment of faith. John proclaims his faith in word, and this time Peter proclaims his faith in action: he jumps into the water.

There are all kinds of theories, ideas, and ideologies around these days about how to fill our nets, our bank accounts or portfolios; about how to have peace, prosperity and security. Some of them are born out of disappointment or anger the same feelings shared by the disciples of Jesus in those days after their hopes collapsed on a cross and before an empty tomb they did not understand.

This Gospel affirms what we may already know from our fishing at night: If we do not follow the instructions of the master, it is all for nothing no matter how long we fish.

Remember, they had been told by Jesus that from then on they were to fish for people. In the vision of John’s Gospel and the Kingdom he proclaims, there will be no fishing in the dark for food from the sea. They will fill their nets with people who will be fed by the master on shore. Fish and Bread is what he used to feed the multitude several chapters earlier there beside the sea. The mandate for us is no different. Children of the light as we have become and celebrated in the Great Vigil of Easter, we must and shall do everything as the master has instructed. When we do there will be food for plenty, the nets will be full, and he will look at us again and say: “Follow me” not to the cross, but to glory.

April 4, 2010 at Saint Mark Church in Norman, OK

Acts 10:34 -42 + Psalm 118 + 1 Corinthians 5: 6-8 + Luke 24: 1-12

This is the Day the Lord has Made, Let us rejoice and Be Glad!
At first it was eyewitnesses whose experience of the risen Christ moved people to faith in the resurrection. We shall tell their stories in the next few weeks.

But those eyewitnesses one by one died leaving no one who had actually seen the risen Christ. Those who came to faith by the testimony of the eyewitnesses were left with a different circumstance and perhaps a greater challenge. They could not claim to have seen the Risen Lord as had the older ones. Their testimony had to rest on something else. We who celebrate this Easter might pause to think about just how it is we came to our faith in the Resurrection.  I have done just that in the past few days during the Triduum. I have wondered how I came to this faith that gives me such courage, such joy, and so much hope. I doubt that my experience is unique, which all the more gives me reason to trust this faith and the experiences that have led me here. It can hardly be different for you.

I know that I came to faith in the resurrection from a handful of witnesses none of whom claimed to have seen the risen Christ or to have discovered an empty tomb with men dressed in white robes. Their lives were hardly that exceptional.In fact, calling them “witnesses” might evoke a laugh from one or two of them.

They never stood up in church, on a street corner, or a class room and preached a sermon. They simply lived good and faithful lives marked by charity, patience, kindness, forgiveness and gentleness. Don’t get the impression that they were pious and spent more time in church than anywhere else. They didn’t. On the contrary, they were passionate, sometimes angry in face of injustice, and impatient with evil and wrong-doing. But they never judged people, only behavior. They were grateful people and simple never expecting anything when they gave. They never pushed themselves forward in line, but kept looking back in case someone needed to get a head of them. The only time they looked down on anyone was to lift them up.

What I have come to understand is that in seeing these people, in living with them, and enjoying their company and friendship, I was reminded of things that Jesus said and did. These people made me remember Jesus.
Before we can believe, we have to remember.

Luke tells us that those visitors to the empty tomb were told by the two men in dazzling garments that they should “Remember what he said to you while he was still in Galilee.” And then Luke says, “They remembered his words.”
Then it starts, story after story, pointing to the fact that until they remembered what he said and what he did, they did not understand or believe.

My dear Easter friends, before we can believe, we have to remember: Remember what he said, and Remember what he did. And so we must know the Scriptures not like a study-guide for countless classes of bible-study, but as the Living Word of God which creates and forms us. We can study it all our lives, but until we begin to live it, it will not give us Life. Once we do begin to live the Word, forgiving, healing, reaching out to the forgotten, challenging systems and ways of thinking that lay heavy burdens on others, we will have remembered and we will have come to believe and we will have life. I am beginning to understand from this Gospel that it is not breath that gives us life, but Faith that gives Life.

Resurrection faith is an invitation to remember what Jesus said and did. It was not the empty tomb that brought Peter and the others to faith. It was not necessarily the news those women brought to them either. Not until Peter and the others remembered did they come to believe. That is what happened to those men walking to Emmaus: that stranger opened the scriptures for them and invited them to remember.

Today we remember, my friends. We remember what Jesus said and what he did. It is far more important than remembering an empty tomb. We remember what he left us, what he called us to become, and what he gave us in the Holy Spirit; a new relationship with God and with each other. Our best and greatest hope must be that what others see in us will help them to remember what Jesus has said and done. Our best and greatest hope is that by remembering, they too will come to faith in the resurrection as we have come to faith.

What came out of that tomb was love – the one and certain thing that death cannot destroy. We who have lost loved ones know this to be true because in spite of death, we can still remember; and that is all those two men in dazzling garments suggested: Remember. When we do, we will believe; and as long as we remember, our faith will never be shaken. Only when we forget do we get into trouble and into fear.  Remember! This is the day the Lord has Made. Let us Rejoice and Be Glad.

April 4, 2010 at Saint Mark Church in Norman, OK

Acts 10:34 -42 + Psalm 118 + 1 Corinthians 5: 6-8 + Luke 24: 1-12

This is the Day the Lord has Made, Let us rejoice and Be Glad! At first it was eyewitnesses whose experience of the risen Christ moved people to faith in the resurrection. We shall tell their stories in the next few weeks. But those eyewitnesses one by one died leaving no one who had actually seen the risen Christ. Those who came to faith by the testimony of the eyewitnesses were left with a different circumstance and perhaps a greater challenge. They could not claim to have seen the Risen Lord as had the older ones. Their testimony had to rest on something else. We who celebrate this Easter might pause to think about just how it is we came to our faith in the Resurrection.  I have done just that in the past few days during the Triduum. I have wondered how I came to this faith that gives me such courage, such joy, and so much hope. I doubt that my experience is unique, which all the more gives me reason to trust this faith and the experiences that have led me here. It can hardly be different for you. I know that I came to faith in the resurrection from a handful of witnesses none of whom claimed to have seen the risen Christ or to have discovered an empty tomb with men dressed in white robes. Their lives were hardly that exceptional.In fact, calling them “witnesses” might evoke a laugh from one or two of them.

They never stood up in church, on a street corner, or a class room and preached a sermon. They simply lived good and faithful lives marked by charity, patience, kindness, forgiveness and gentleness. Don’t get the impression that they were pious and spent more time in church than anywhere else. They didn’t. On the contrary, they were passionate, sometimes angry in face of injustice, and impatient with evil and wrong-doing. But they never judged people, only behavior. They were grateful people and simple never expecting anything when they gave. They never pushed themselves forward in line, but kept looking back in case someone needed to get a head of them. The only time they looked down on anyone was to lift them up.

What I have come to understand is that in seeing these people, in living with them, and enjoying their company and friendship, I was reminded of things that Jesus said and did. These people made me remember Jesus.
Before we can believe, we have to remember.

Luke tells us that those visitors to the empty tomb were told by the two men in dazzling garments that they should “Remember what he said to you while he was still in Galilee.” And then Luke says, “They remembered his words.”
Then it starts, story after story, pointing to the fact that until they remembered what he said and what he did, they did not understand or believe.

My dear Easter friends, before we can believe, we have to remember: Remember what he said, and Remember what he did. And so we must know the Scriptures not like a study-guide for countless classes of bible-study, but as the Living Word of God which creates and forms us. We can study it all our lives, but until we begin to live it, it will not give us Life. Once we do begin to live the Word, forgiving, healing, reaching out to the forgotten, challenging systems and ways of thinking that lay heavy burdens on others, we will have remembered and we will have come to believe and we will have life. I am beginning to understand from this Gospel that it is not breath that gives us life, but Faith that gives Life.

Resurrection faith is an invitation to remember what Jesus said and did. It was not the empty tomb that brought Peter and the others to faith. It was not necessarily the news those women brought to them either. Not until Peter and the others remembered did they come to believe. That is what happened to those men walking to Emmaus: that stranger opened the scriptures for them and invited them to remember.

Today we remember, my friends. We remember what Jesus said and what he did. It is far more important than remembering an empty tomb. We remember what he left us, what he called us to become, and what he gave us in the Holy Spirit; a new relationship with God and with each other. Our best and greatest hope must be that what others see in us will help them to remember what Jesus has said and done. Our best and greatest hope is that by remembering, they too will come to faith in the resurrection as we have come to faith. What came out of that tomb was love – the one and certain thing that death cannot destroy. We who have lost loved ones know this to be true because in spite of death, we can still remember; and that is all those two men in dazzling garments suggested: Remember. When we do, we will believe; and as long as we remember, our faith will never be shaken. Only when we forget do we get into trouble and

April 3, 2010 at Saint Mark Church in Norman, OK

Gn 1:1-2:2 + Gn 22:1-18 + Ex 14:15-15:1 + Is 55:1-11 + Ps 51:12-19 + Rom 6:3-11 + Mt 28:1-10

I was wandering through the garden section of a store last week anxious to get some spring flowers started, but not quite trusting the Oklahoma springtime. Among the various garden tools, fountains, and ornaments was a great fire-pit on sale for $275.00. These things seem to be in style for the patio dwellers among us, and it’s not surprising. Fire light, fire warmth and the mood these can cast over us even after the fireplace inside our homes is cleaned out from the last winter evening is long lasting.

Our ancestors huddled around fires to ward off cold and the dangers of the night.
In that firelight they told stories about where to find food and water, how to survive, and they retold the stories of their great ones. As the night wore on, they wondered again and again about who they were, where they came from, and where they were going. God was in their stories; and we are still doing the same thing. Dancing flames enchant us with warmth and peace. Around them we form friendships and deepen family bonds. Sometimes we sit in silence and sometimes ask the same questions our ancestors asked about who we are, where we came from and where we are going. God too is in our stories.

Tonight with ancient ritual behavior we have done it again. We have quieted the chaos of contemporary urban life with the warmth and intimacy of a fire. We have shared our collective story of how God has called mothers and fathers like Abraham and Sarah, leaders and prophets like Moses and Miriam to birth us and lead us out of slavery. In spite of our unfaithfulness to the Covenant God has with us, God remains faithful and sent his only Son to confirm the Covenant with his own Body and Blood. He came to show us the way home, and he died to show us that no tomb cannot hold love down.

The one who is light, and truth, and the way is also the life giving water, and he has led us through that water once more to dry land and the promise. The stone is rolled away and the tomb is empty. There is nothing for us now among the dead because we are among the living. We come to know ourselves as living not because we breathe, but because we believe. Those who have gone down into the waters of Baptism have risen to new life. Those anointed with the Chrism of Salvation are anointed by and with and within the anointed one himself. Those who share the Body and Blood of Christ share in the victory feast.

We gather in the darkness of this Holy Night year after year because we have seen the light and fear no darkness. We tell again the story of who we are, where we have come from, and where we are going. This is the story of God’s faithfulness through all time, and the story of what makes us the People of God. This is the story that gives our lives meaning and hope for a future where death is only a birth into more and greater life.

For the last three nights we have been telling the greatest and most profound love story any one could imagine. Now the risen one stands among us wounded yet reaching for us to warm, heal, quench our thirst and feed our body and our souls with his Body and his Blood. What can we say: but Alleluia, Amen!

This is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad.

April 1, 2010

Exodus 12, 1-8, 11-14 + Psalm 116 + 1 Corinthians 11 23-26 + John 13: 1-15

Anthropologists and students of human history can get all excited with discussions about “homo sapiens” over the question of when this species became “human”. In other words; at what point in time do humans made in the image and likeness of God appear in this vast space of creation? If you think out of the box of biblical fundamentalism, it’s a fascinating question.
The discussion might suggest that “human” behavior and our ability to identify homo sapiens as “human” began when the first one stood upright.
That is an interesting and thought provoking idea.
Another second might suggest that homo sapiens became human when it first made tools. The idea here is that something happened when the imagination sparked to life and there was a switch from using rocks and tree limbs to actually making tools by hand. It is an idea with some merit.
A third suggestion I’ve heard from some scientists is that homo sapiens distinguished itself from all other creatures when it first began to laugh. We do believe that no other species in creation experiences or exhibits humor and laughter. The proposal then follows that the sound of the first real laughter was the moment homo sapiens emerged.

Now I am leading you into this reflection because I have yet another proposal.
Mine has no scientific back ground and is not particularly biblical; but it is profoundly theological in the sense that it leads us to reflect upon and discover something about God that is revealed to us in human nature which is very much at the heart of what we are doing here tonight, what we recall, and why we do it.

I am beginning to think that homo sapiens becomes a human being when it first made bread. That is to says, when we first planted, harvested, ground wheat, baked, broke, and shared; in other words, when we learned or discovered the consequences of doing something and waiting for the results turning those consequences into something for another.

When creation arrives at that point, it is the day of human birth.
That is the day when we begin to participate in something divine.
It is the day when we begin to realize what it means to be made in the image of God. Tonight we must ponder very deeply what it means for God to be revealed in Bread, and we must come to realize that it certainly means that we are to do more with this Bread than Eat. Until we plant a seed, wait, harvest, grind, bake, break and share, we are not anywhere near becoming a Eucharistic Community.