October 24, 2010 at Saint Mark Church in Norman, OK

Sirach 35: 12-14 + Psalm 34 + 2 Timothy 4: 6-8, 16-18 + Luke 18: 9-14

Last week I reminded you that a wonderful way to move more deeply into the message of Luke’s Gospel is to remember the Magnificat. Those words which Luke has Mary speak as she arrives at Elizabeth’s announce what has begun to happen not just to her, but to all creation through the mystery of the Incarnation. Let’s do that today before I read you another installment of the Gospel of Norman. Please pick up the hymnal and turn to page: 22. (All read the Magnificat aloud)

With that in mind then, here is a new section from the Gospel of Norman.
“Jesus spoke this parable to those who thought they deserved heaven because they were so good.
Two people came to the church to pray.
One was a really good person who never missed Mass, contributed to every collection, and came to a lot of meetings.
The other was a single parent who had two jobs, belonged to a minority group, and lived in a little apartment.

The really good person came up by the tabernacle for prayer, and without listening too hard, anyone else in the church could overhear the prayer.
Thank you God that I have so many blessings to leave to my children. I have worked hard and saved my money. I have a nice home and pay my taxes, even though they are too high and too much of it gets wasted on those who do not deserve it. I bought a nice car that I use to take my children everywhere they want to go, and I bring them to Mass when we’re not too tired. I give my hard-earned money to charities when I have little extra. I fast twice a year just as the church asks. I am so thankful that I am not like those others who sit around all day doing nothing and wanting food stamps, or like those people who keep moving in here and don’t speak English. Thank you for my good health and the doctors I see so regularly. I do my best to stay healthy and get the gym four times a week. I try to be good, and keep the commandments.

Meanwhile in the back of the church sitting down because they were so tired, another person came in to pray. It was hard to hear much of what they said, but it went something like this.
God, have mercy on me. You continue to help me even though I do not deserve anything you have provided for me. You have not abandoned me even when I have cheated and lied. You are always with me even when I am unfaithful and undependable. You are generous and kind when I am selfish and take more than I need. You are patient and wait for me when I avoid confession and fail to acknowledge my need for you and my dependence upon your love.

Then Jesus said: I tell you most sincerely and truthfully: the person in the back of the church went home justified, forgiven, and blessed by my heavenly Father but not the one in the front of the church. For you see, the prayer of the one in front was all about him: what he had done, what he had, and how well he deserved it all. While the prayer of the person in the back was all about God and acknowledged God’s love knowing very well that they deserved nothing. Yet what little they had was used for God not for themselves or their glory.

Then looking around to all who were astonished at this parable Jesus said: It is not enough to simply do

what is asked, keep the rules and do no more. It is not enough to try and be good, keep the commandments and not hurt anyone. To those who have been given much, even more will be expected. It is not enough to be grateful. You are expected to imitate the graciousness of the one who gave to you without considering who deserves and who does not. It is never right to justify yourself by comparison to another. If you want to compare yourself to someone, compare yourself to your creator. Then you will find that you can never justify yourself to begin with because justification is simply one more gift God has for humble and simple servants like His Son.

October 17, 2010 at Saint Mark Church in Norman, OK

Exodus 17: 8-13 + Psalm 121 + 2 Timothy 3: 14-4:2 + Luke 18: 1-
I did not have time this week to work on my new Gospel, and since these verses today and this parable are found only in Luke’s Gospel, I’m not sure it’s going end up in the Gospel of Norman. I need to speak about something else today, but before I do, I am anxious to remind you of a couple of things that are important for understanding parables:
1) They are about the Kingdom of God and God is the point of parables.
2) They nearly always tell a story that twists reality around creating contradictions and revealing something about God and the Kingdom of God.

With that in mind only a most shallow hearing of this parable would lead you to think that it is about prayer or persistence. Leave that alone. Go deeper. The last line of today’s reading should shift us out of that thinking and suggest that somehow this parable is about justice and faith.

Remember that in the first chapter of Luke’s Gospel Mary goes to Elizabeth and there she proclaims what we call the Magnificat – a hymn of praise and thanksgiving that in Luke’s Gospel outlines what is to come.

One of the lines in the Magnificat says: ”He will cast down the mighty from their thrones and lift up the lowly.” That expectation is what is being addressed in this parable. The powerful, almighty judge is being undone by a helpless lowly widow. The parable is being used and told to encourage and hold up the confidence of those who are tired and weary from waiting for what the Messiah’s coming had promised. For the Lukan church, it’s been a long wait for Christ’s return, and they are getting tired, confused, and discouraged.

The Kingdom of God is going to bring about a great reversal of fortunes and roles. This parable story is about the conflict between the powerful and the powerless. It is about how the powerless will prevail if they hold on to faith and live in hope. This parable speaks about Justice, and it suggests to people of faith that Justice is their greatest need, and the lack of it is the greatest obstacle to the coming of God’s reign. In other words, if you want the Kingdom of God you had better work for Justice, and if you do, anything in the way will give way. Both figures break the mold for their times. Judges are expected to act like God according to the Old Testament. Widows are expected to be quiet and stay out of the way. What we get her is another switch in the characters that can lead us to expect and believe that the way things are these days is not the way they are going to be in the future, and is not the way God intends.

When the Son of Man Comes what is he going to find is the question the parable raises?
Things the way they are with the powerful protecting themselves and their comfortable ways?
Or will the weak and powerless because they have not given up and accepted helplessly their unjust fate prevailed upon their opponents to grow more like God. Whichever of these two characters describes us, we certainly need to remember that it is not a matter of “if” the Son of Man returns, but “when.”

October 10, 2010 at Saint Mark Norman, OK

2 Kgs 5:14-17 + Ps 98:1-4 + 2 Tm 2:8-13 + Lk 17:11-19

“Jesus was still on the way to Jerusalem, and he decided to pass between Samaria and Galilee since going through Samaria would have brought some hostility because he was headed to Jerusalem; and passing through Galilee would have slowed the journey since he was too well known there. It was a risky decision since this area was a kind of “no-man’s land” and there was no telling what might happen. Sure enough, as he came near a village, a group of Ten Lepers shouted out to him: “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” How they knew his name is still a point for discussion in Bible Study
groups, but they did call him by name, and they seemed to know more than his name.”

Now we have to remember, that in Bible – talk, “Ten” is a nice round number, perfectly in balance, and when Bible-writers use that number it suggests a sense of completion and perfection.

“Hearing their call, Jesus shouted back, “Go do what the law requires. Show yourself to the priest and he will decide if you are cleansed and healed enough to go back home.” So the ten took off running ahead of Jesus toward the Priests in Jerusalem. They didn’t get very far before they noticed something. Their sores were healing, their joints were straightening, and they felt a lot better. Stopping to examine each other, they began to notice something they had not noticed before when they were all sick. They noticed that one of them was a Samaritan. When they were sick they never

noticed that nine were Jews and one was a Samaritan. In their sickness and isolation, the difference did not matter. Now that they were well, things changed. The Samaritan said: “I’m going back to thank the Master.” The others said: “You should go back. You’re a Samaritan and had no right to his favor and to his power. We are Jews like him, even though he is from Galilee. He owed it to us. We deserve his favors since we’re one of his own.” So the nine went on to Jerusalem while the Samaritan turned around. He would not have been welcome in Jerusalem anyway.

He found Jesus still walking toward Jerusalem and fell down on the ground in front of him thanking Jesus over and over again. Jesus was surprised to see this Samaritan in front of him, especially after all the trouble Jesus has had with Samaritans on the journey. But Jesus said:
“Where are the others?” Is only this Samaritan here to express his gratitude? No Samaritan is ever nice to us.” And with that, the Samaritan felt embarrassed and just said ‘Thank you.” again.

Jesus looked at him and said: “I have something better for you than for them. For the moment they are pleased and satisfied because they got what they wanted and only what they deserved. For you I have something better. From now own and for all eternity, you are saved and will have place in my Father’s Kingdom. Your faith has saved you. Your faith has given you more than you had a right to expect and more event than you asked for. For them I have nothing more.”

Then Jesus turned and stared walking toward Jerusalem. Now that they were disease free and perfectly like everyone else, the nine were back in Jerusalem very busy making sure that no Samaritans got in or had a share in what they had earned, never even thinking that in spite of being cured from leprosy they would still die of something else and never know that eternal life would have been theirs had they just  taken the time to turn around and go back to honor and give thanks to Jesus.

October 3, 201.

Habakkuk 1:2-3, 2:24 + Psalm 95 + 2 Timothy 1: 6-8, 13-14 + Luke 17: 5-10

This past week while in Nebraska with the priests of Grand Island, I worked on that new Gospel I was telling you about last week. I have not quite made up my mind about the title, but I am beginning to think it might be the “Gospel according to Norman.” You might remember that the other four gospels did not get divided into chapters and verses for quite some time after they were in written form, so this new one has no chapter and verses either, but I’ll just read you another section of it as I did last weekend.

Jesus has just been talking about sin and forgiveness. He was telling them that no matter what another person does, if they say they are sorry, you can’t refuse to forgive. If another person abandons you, betrays you, lies about you, steals from you and then apologizes, you can’t refuse forgiveness; even if they do the same thing several times. To this, the apostles cry out: “This is impossible, we can’t do it.”

So the Gospel of Norman for today starts up at this point.
The apostles are whining among themselves: “We can’t do this. It is impossible to live like this. You’re asking more than we can do.” So Jesus stops walking toward Jerusalem where he knows he is going to be asked by His father to do more than he thinks he can do. He sits down on the curb and says: “You guys always think everything is about size and power. You keep thinking that if you are the biggest, then you will be best. You think that if you are the strongest you can do anything. You keep thinking that if you have the highest score, you are a “winner”; and everyone is going to admire you. But you have it all wrong. You always want more of everything and instead of looking at what you have and using it for what you need, you keep looking at what you do not have, and then you whine and complain that you don’t have more.

It does not work this way in the Father’s Kingdom to which I have invited you.
It’s like this: you are home folding laundry and feeling sorry for yourself that you have to fold the laundry and do all that wash for those kids and your husband who just sits around watching football, but you never think about how wonderful it is that you have laundry to fold and that whole healthy family who loves you and depends upon you. Or you sit there watching that game wishing you had a bigger flat screen or a better job so you could hire someone to do the laundry your wife is folding all the while forgetting that some people are working hard today to keep the electricity on so you can sit there. Never mind just being grateful that you have a job at all these days. Or it’s the weekend and you start thinking about Mass and hope you’ll over sleep. Or you’re out of town and think it’s too complicated to find another Catholic church so you just skip it; because after all you went last week. If you get to church with your parents and have not made them mad on the way, you just sit there thinking about when you get older you won’t be here. You forget that this is all about gratitude and thanking God for what you have and praising God for what you have received and listening to God’s Word that calls you to be loyal, faithful, and grow holy. You whine that you don’t get anything out it which is true because you just sit there doing nothing thinking that doing nothing makes you worthy of getting more.

“You see my friends,” says Jesus to his followers, “You already have all that you need to be forgiving, generous, grateful, kind, thoughtful, and gracious.” Those things are what make you good, admirable, loveable, and holy. It does not make any difference if someone sins and does not stop. That only keeps

them out of my Father’s house. You can still forgive whether they stop or not, and forgiveness is what the Father asks. You can be generous even if people are not grateful. Their ingratitude should not affect your generosity.

“Get the point here.” Jesus says. “You are not going to get extra credit for just doing the minimum. There is no prize for whining, and no special favors for those who just do what is expected. What the Father asks of me in Jerusalem is more than I think I can do; but wait and see what happens if I obey the Father’s Will. It must be the same with you. You already have all that you need. Just work with what you have and awesome things will happen. You will be great not because you are better than someone else; but because you have realized who you are in God’s sight and you have stopped waiting around asking for more and begun living and working with what you already have.”

Then Jesus got up, turned his face toward Jerusalem and started walking again; and the apostles began to realize what it meant to be a disciple, so they followed him all the way to Jerusalem.