June 27, 2010

1 Kings 19:16-21 + Psalm 16+ Galatians 5: 1, 13-18 + Luke 9:51-62

In Luke’s Gospel there is almost always some journey taking place. Think of that for a moment. In the first chapter an angel is sent to a town of Galilee, and Mary went into the hill country to visit Elizabeth.
In the second chapter Mary and Joseph go to be registered in Bethlehem, and then they go to Jerusalem to present the child. Just twenty verses later, they are going back to Jerusalem with their twelve-year-old son for the Feast of Passover where he has a significant moment in the Temple with the Elders. This pattern continues right up this 9th chapter perhaps to prepare us for more. The whole life of Jesus as Luke presents it is kind of Exodus,
an idea not lost on people of the Book. It is a journey to the Father which Luke often describes as being “Taken up.”

The Temple is always central and prominent. It only takes Luke 8 verses to get us there with an angel’s visit. Zecharia is conducting his rituals there when he experiences the presence of God and the ultimate theme of Luke’s Gospel unfolds: the Holy Spirit. This is the whole purpose of the Gospel for Luke:
to get us to the Temple, into the presence of God, into the Spirit. The Gospel of Luke ends where it begins: in the Temple. After Pentecost it is the first meeting place of the disciples and the place where Peter works his first miracle.

The “Peter” of Luke’s Gospel is the Church. We are those apostles today being led again to the Temple
to an experience of God’s presence and into Pentecost of God’s gifts and holiness. Our lives are nothing more than a long journey to the new Jerusalem. In the next several weeks as we move through the next ten chapters of Luke,
we shall be encouraged and instructed by the one who has made the journey before us.

Today the invitation is before us: Follow Me. Today Luke addresses that which most easily distracts us and most frequently becomes our excuse. He names obstacles that if left unaddressed will keep us from getting to Jerusalem. They are not difficult to identify Prejudice like the Sadducees – any hint of racism or prejudice
keeps us from completing the journey to the Temple. It leads inevitably to a rejection of Jesus.
As long as there is anything in us like what we see with those Sadducees we are not making the journey.

Revenge as we see in James and John – as long as there is any desire to punish or take vengeance on another for whatever reason, there will be no journey into the presence of God. Feelings of or desire for revenge are REBUKED by Jesus. That is the strongest Gospel language! Nothing can challenge the central place of Christ
in the life of people on this journey. Prior commitments offer no excuse. Half-hearted volunteers who set conditions for this journey are not going along to the Temple.

They look ahead, concentrate on the future never looking behind out of nostalgia or to see how far they’ve come, they just keep going forward once they set their feet to this journey. Let’s go people of Saint Mark. Let’s root out any prejudice or racism that lurks in our hearts. Let’s be finished with revenge and the anger that fuels it.
Let’s stop making excuses for not living a holy and sacramental life sustained by our weekly fellowship around this table and our celebration of reconciliation. Obligations to the silly things that crowd our calendars and daily lives;
that wear us out and leave us “too tired” as we often say in the face of our obligation and duty to celebrate Sunday Mass will not do. Let’s go to the place where we are fed with all that we need to finish the journey where we can stand free and sinless in the presence of God where the Holy Spirit purifies and anoints us. Miracles can and do happen in this Temple where we are healed where we can see presence of God where we can hear the Word of the Lord.  here, like Jesus who made it to Jerusalem; we too shall be “taken up”, lifted up, held up, and raised up.

June 13, 2010 at Saint Mark Church in Norman, OK

Samuel 12: 7-10, 13 + Psalm 32 + Galatians 2: 16, 19-21 + Luke 7:36-8:3

A story of extravagant love excites our imagination, stirs our hopes, and challenges our spirit. A Pharisee with a name invites Jesus to dinner, but obviously not for any reason other than the desire to watch Jesus or trap him in some way. The most common sign of respect and honor is absent: no foot washing. A woman without a name gets into the house somehow says not one word yet preaches a powerful sermon on love. The story has always left me wondering if this Pharisee, Simon did not set up the whole thing. After all, how would that woman have gotten into the dinner? Posing as a servant? I doubt it. Poor Simon accuses Jesus of not being able to see what kind of woman is there, but Simon cannot see what kind of man is there in Jesus. All caught up on externals, Simon is horrified that the woman has touched Jesus. Yet it seems to me that Jesus has somehow touched her in a way he cannot touch Simon.

In Luke’s Gospel this story comes just after Jesus has responded to the question of John the Baptist about who he is. The people have begun to think Jesus is the Prophet, and Simon the Pharisee is determined to show that Jesus is no prophet. The best prophet in the room is the woman. She knows who this is, and she knows what to do about it: Love, and show it! This woman has found healing forgiveness, and out of love she comes to Touch, to kiss, to wash the one who touched her heart and forgave her sins. She isn’t there to earn forgiveness by groveling on the floor. Her sins were forgiven before she got there because she believed.

The faith of this woman is the point of this story, Faith its consequences of forgiveness and loving service is what Luke invites us to see. Her faith freed her from more than her sin. It set her free from shame and from guilt. Once free from the power of that shame which is always hidden like a secret, she cares nothing for what others may think of her, ignores their stares and remarks, and comes publicly with love and joy to touch the feet of the one who set her free. This woman has believed that God is forgiving, And so, her love is great and her service sincere. She does not come to earn forgiveness by washing the feet of Jesus. That is not why she is forgiven. Earning forgiveness is not why she has risked crashing that party. She had come to believe that God who knew more about her than those Pharisees loves and forgives her, and so her behavior reveals the joy and the love she has because of her faith.

What a powerful lesson she teaches us here in Luke’s classroom. We act sometimes as though we do not believe that our sins are forgiven. We let shame trouble our hearts, and guilt isolate us from the very one who calls us to believe leaving us to look more like Simon the Pharisee all concerned with how things look rather than letting joy and love move us to service. She is moved by the love of God for her, moved to the point of risking ridicule, scorn, and the disapproval of others moved to service of Jesus Christ moved to touch, kiss, and bathe. The issue here, the challenge, the question raised is the measure of our faith? Is there enough faith in us for some extravagant display of love and service?

Enough faith to risk ridicule and disapproval by our love for Christ shown in service?
Is there enough faith in any of you young people to risk doing something with your life that might make others laugh? The truth of this Gospel is that we are all set free from shame and guilt. Our sins are forgiven yet we do not walk away from them because shame and guilt is sometimes preferable to service and love. It’s easier to hide in shame than take the risk of coming to the feet of Jesus in gratitude. It’s easier to stay in bed or go shopping than step through the doors of this church.

When the stares, the judgments, the name calling of others intimidates our fidelity, our generosity, and our service of anyone, there is no faith, no hope, and no joy. If we believe that our sins are forgiven by the death and resurrection of Jesus, we are going to be on our knees at this table where He still sits, and we’ll be wiping the feet of those the society of Simon has refused to honor and respect with care. If Jesus has truly touched us, and we can see who is present in our midst, then no ridicule will keep us from loving and serving.

June 5, 2010 at Saint Mark Church in Norman, OK

Genesis 14: 18-20 + Psalm 110 + 1 Corinthians 11: 23-2 + Luke 9: 11-17

Indiana Jones in the “Last Crusade” received a diary from his father with clues and a map for finding the Holy Grail, the cup used by Christ at the Last Supper. His father had been on a search for the Grail and had mysteriously disappeared. Indiana Jones, guided by the map begins a frantic search for his father. With the map, he sets out on his mission determined to beat an enemy to the Grail; an enemy who planned to use the Grail for evil purposes. It was the belief that this cup had supernatural powers to work miracles. It makes for a great story both as an adventure film, but also serves as chance to get something clear. The cup is insignificant. It has not power at all. What is in the cup matters, and what is in the cup has the power. More to the point, it is the Eucharist that is power, A power we might all do well to seek, but not for the power itself, but for what the power can do.

This day gives us the chance to make our own search, and this Gospel is our map. The power of God is not found in the Holy Grail but in the real presence of Jesus Christ whose blood is shared in this Eucharist. It is the presence of Jesus Christ in his blood and in his body that real power is found to work miracles.

There is a painting by Pacino di Bonaguida entitled “Tree of Life” hanging in the Academy Art Gallery in Florence. It depicts the crucifixion of Jesus on a tree, with twelve branches on which are hung circular illustrations of the significant moments of the Christ event. The top circle of the painting has an illustration showing a mother pelican feeding her young. This image is rooted in a pre-Christian legend that during a time of famine or draught, a mother pelican would wound herself, striking at her breast with her beak in order to nourish her brood and stave off their starvation. Drawing on the same ledged, Thomas Aquinas composed the hymn known as “Adoro te devote” and applied the image to Jesus “O loving Pelican! O Jesus Lord! Unclean I am, but cleanse me in thy blood, of which a single drop can save the whole world.” In every reading today this saving power of blood is celebrated.

In all of history there is evidence that blood is sacred and appreciated as essential to life and the exclusive property of God, the author of life. Because of this blood figured very importantly in the relationship that Israel was so privileged to share with God. While the Israelites were enslaved among the Egyptians, blood on the doorposts and lintels of the Israelite homes served as a sign of protection and delivered them from death. After being led to freedom and to a future that held out the hope of a land of their own, the people of Israel sealed their new relationship with God with the blood of sacrificed animals.

The implication of this action is that those bound to one another by this covenant of blood would rather die than breach their relationship in any way. History still tells us that the covenant was broken repeatedly, but God’s great and generous mercy renewed it again and again until one last time in Jesus Christ. It is our belief that this final covenant is the end and the best of all. With profound and dramatic simplicity, Jesus took bread, blessed it, broke it and gave it, aware that his very self would soon be taken, broken, and given so that sinners would be blessed with healing and forgiveness. At every Eucharist, these words are spoken again as the action of Jesus is repeated leading believers enter into the triple dimension of Jesus’ life. This holy memorial is the source of our strength and unity, and the sustenance that feeds our faith, fires our hope and inspires our love. This act of holy remembering is charged with a challenge: those who are fed by Jesus and bound to him, to God and to one another through his blood-sacrifice are also taken by him, broken like him and given as he was so that others might know something of his life and goodness in us. If we do not want to be broken and be shared, we shall not be blessed, and ought not to take this cup which contains the power to work miracles.