June 1, 2025 at Saint Peter the Apostle Church in Naples, FL

Acts 1: 1-11 + Psalm 47 + Ephesians 1: 17-23 + Luke 24: 46-53

For anyone not really paying close attention to all four of the Gospels, it might come as a surprise to know that only Luke’s Gospel tells the story of Jesus ascending into heaven. Matthew leaves off with the final words of Jesus. Mark’s original ending stops with an empty tomb. There is nothing in the earliest manuscripts about anything happening later. John writes about Jesus being ‘lifted up’ in the third chapter, but never says and describes anything about it after the resurrection. Luke tells us in the Gospel that Jesus was taken up to heaven, and in the Gospel, it is the same day as the resurrection. In Acts of the Apostles, Luke says that a cloud took him from sight. He never says that Jesus rode a cloud as some artists would have us believe, no matter how “inspired” their artistic work might be. There work is not biblical inspiration. 

I remember a prayer book I had as a child that had a picture of feet hanging out of a cloud. All I could do with that image is wonder how he did that without falling down. It took some serious study of Sacred Scripture to learn that Luke is trying to trigger memories and images from the Old Testament where the same cloud was all around the Tabernacle in the desert and again was described as surrounding the Temple at its first dedication.  It is also his effort to connect this with the cloud that came during the Transfiguration. What’s really going on here is Luke’s way of drawing us into the real nature of the Ascension which is and always will be a mystery – something for which there are no words to relate an experience that happened only this one time and never to anyone else. How could anyone describe that. It only happened one time and the person for whom it happened is gone. This ought to leave us in wonder asking what it means, what it says to us, and what God is doing.

What does this mean for us is the issue, not where did Jesus go, and how did he get there. Luke tells this story because of the need for us to find our place in God’s plan. What is supposed to happen between the departure of Jesus of Nazareth and the return of the Christ in the glory of the Father? That is what this story must tease us to consider, because this mystery, so hard to describe in words, is at the heart of every Christian life and is the cause of our hope. It is at that moment when the earthly work of Jesus is finally at an end that the church begins to take shape as a eucharistic community centered on our unity with Christ and one another. We have from this communion a new identity. The Ascension is the event that makes us aware of the presence of Jesus as well as his absence.

For those disciples it was not until Christ had seemingly left his people that they began to understand the true nature of his presence. It can be no different for us. It seems that he is gone until we remember how he remains within us as a eucharistic community. Great things were yet to be done. The power of Christ was about to transform not just a handful of individuals but the whole world. They would see that begin to happen, they would begin to see Christ at work, when they could begin to look for him in a new way. From then on, the presence of Christ would be experienced by those who learned to look for him, and for the effects of his power within themselves.

Christ did not move out of their lives. He began to move into their lives so that their skills, talents, and virtues might become divine instruments by which God’s work in the world would be done. This holy day, this day of the Ascension is really about us, about what we can do when we remain in communion as a Eucharistic community, and about where and how others seeking the Lord of Life may find him among us.

May 25, 2025 at Saint Peter Church in Naples, FL

Acts 15: 12, 22-29 + Psalm 67 + Revelation 21: 10-14, 22-23 + John 14: 23-29

Last week I read an article suggesting that we are living through a crisis of serious thinking, and that opinion struck me as true when I think about public policy both locally and around the world. Our nation, and the whole western world for that matter is losing the ability to reason leaving me to wonder what happens when people lose the ability to make good judgements especially at a time when everyone thinks they are right and if you don’t agree with them, you’re wrong. At that point, there is nothing more to talk about. And so, we just fold our arms and stare at one another. That keeps going through my mind as I listen to the instructions Jesus gives us as he is about to leave us on our own.

This instruction we just heard speaks about the Holy Spirit whose job is to teach us. Well, anyone who has ever had anything to do with education can tell you that there is a certain disposition required on the part of the learner before any teaching can begin. In other words, you can’t teach a room full of people who believe that they know it all. And there’s the problem. This world, is in dire need of the Holy Spirit and a people who are ready to learn, listen, and be inspired.

When we listen to that first reading describing the polarization of that early Church we can learn something about how to resolve the polarization we live in today. Those Christian Jews and Christian Gentiles were staring at each other because they both believed they were right. Those Jewish Christians were certain that because Christ was born and died a Jew, everyone should be. Then Peter speaks up for the Gentiles and insists that there was no need for the Gentiles to become Jews in order to follow Jesus Christ. They only needed to live as people filled with the Spirit of Christ.

What they did can teach something very important. Luke tells us that after listening to one another in invoking the Holy Spirit, they boldly pronounced, “It is the decision of the Holy Spirit and us not place undue burdens on the Gentiles.

That decision in the first century after Christ is one of the most important moments in the history of our Church. In fact, without it, this church would probably be nothing more than a small reformed version of Judaism. What it required was two things: listening to each other and listening to the Holy Spirit together. The consequence of that is diversity, which is a bad word for some around here these days. Yet, that diversity allows opinions and backgrounds to listen with a hunger to understand and discover what God may desire.

Humble open hearts never think they know it all or what they know is necessarily the whole truth. A humble and open heart is where the Holy Spirit can be found allowing us to comprehend various sides in every issue and discover new, creative, and compassionate ways for building up the human family. This Gospel invites us to examine honestly, carefully, and deeply how we are thinking and how our thinking is inspired by the Word of God and the Holy Spirit.

May 18, 2025 at Saint William Parish in Naples, FL

Acts 14: 21-27 + Psalm 145 + Revelation 21: 1-5 + John 13:31-33, 34-35

Five words spoken by Jesus in that upper room shape the future as his death looms in the darkness. Those five words define our lives, and form our faith. He speaks about love in that room as he had before. “Love your neighbor as yourself,” “Love God with all your heart, your soul and your strength.” But this time, there are five words spoken that change everything about love. AS I HAVE LOVED YOU.

This is something new. It is not recommendation, a goal, or advise. It is a Commandment, and about a new kind of love. It is the kind of love that Jesus has shown us. When lived it becomes a manifestation of the very core of who God is. It is an invitation to abide in a deep relationship with God – the very same relationship that Jesus experienced. The only way to know that relationship is to love as we have been loved.

It is hard enough to love those who are like us. Those of you here with a spouse know that only too well. Loving each other is no easy task day in and day out. If loving those who are like us or those who love us is hard, how can we possibly love those who are different? To make it even harder, how can we love those who do not love us? Yet, the commandment has been given.

Loving as Jesus loves involves loving the unloved and the unlovable. Loving as Jesus loves is not about sentimental warm cozy feelings. That kind of love is there as long we get something out of it, and when that stops, so does that love.  The love Jesus has shown us and commands is a love that gets nothing in return except a deep and profound intimacy with God. God’s love expressed through our love is about welcoming a stranger, opening doors for the homeless, the outcast, the refugee, the least, the last, and the lost. That is the way God loves, and if we are to be counted among the disciples of Jesus and continue his presence now that he has returned to the Father, that is the way we will live and love.

This new law of love creates a new heaven and a new earth where women and men are equally respected, all nations and tongues are welcomed, and the color of skin means nothing except remind us of God’s creativity.  This is clearly a city that comes down from above not made by human hands. It is a city that embraces all who come to it, a city loved by God. When this new commandment is kept, the new age has dawned and we shall know God by living that love. No longer is it necessary for the risen Lord to be present to us anymore, because Christ lives through us as much as for us.

May 11, 2025 at Saint William and Saint Peter Parishes in Naples, FL

Acts 13: 14, 43-53 + Psalm 100 + Revelation 7: 9, 14-17 + John 10:27-30

Those of you holding books in your hands know that I have taken the liberty of adding more earlier verses to the Gospel passage assigned to this day. I have done so because the four verses we get out of context in Chapter ten leave us nowhere. At least, I didn’t know what to do with those verses several weeks ago when I began to prepare for today. We have to know why he said that. We know about hearing the voice of Jesus, and all that it promises. But that last verse is the punch line that matters: “The Father and I are one.” 

So, don’t get all sentimental about this shepherd talk and shepherd image. In my opinion, artists have complicated our access to the message of this Gospel painting a calm, long haired, slim, white-faced man dressed in flowing white robes. The truth is, no real shepherd then or now looks clean, spotless, and well groomed. It’s dirty, messy work, and if they’ve been sleeping in the field with the sheep, they will not look like they have stepped out of a painting or greeting card. 

At this point in John’s Gospel the identity of Jesus is the issue. This is what matters here, identity – his and ours. He is not claiming to be a shepherd. He is claiming to be one with God. In doing so, he is giving us a clue about how God works or God feels. At this point in the flow of this Gospel, those John writes to are stuck over the issue of identity and how to confirm or recognize it.

Just before this conversation begins, Jesus has cured a man born blind, and this act has stirred up a controversy over the identity of Jesus. Some of these Pharisees feel like Jesus might well be the Messiah judging from his works. Others, paying no attention to what he does and only listening to what he says, think he is a fraud. They refuse to connect words and works.

The importance for establishing an identity through works is what matters, not words, especially if the words do not match the works. John is writing to those early followers of Christ. They are struggling with the Jewish community in synagogues, and John is reminding them about what matters. They will never win over those in the synagogues with arguments and words. What they do is what will get the attention of their opponents, and he has the same message for us. We ought to remember that it was the things Jesus did that brought those crowds of people to him. Once they were attracted by what he did, he began to speak about what it meant and who he was.It can be no different now. The Gospel we proclaim on this Fourth Easter-Time Sunday gives us reason to look carefully at what we do all day long, how we use our time, and where we go. This is what reveals who we are. After taking a good look at what we do, we might then see if what we say matches what we do remembering what Jesus had to say to those who questioned who he was. “The works that I do in my Father’s name testify to me.” The question raised today is who we are – and what we do all day tells the truth.

May 4, 2025 I am in Oklahoma City this weekend

Acts 5:27-32, 40-41 + Psalm 30 + Revelation 5: 10-14 + John 21: 1-19

John’s use of darkness and light should be familiar to us by now after hearing the Passion proclaimed on Good Friday. It continues today as the disciples go fishing at night. They catch nothing. We should know by now what’s coming, and John does not disappoint. After the uselessness of darkness, he tells us it is daybreak, and now they go they back to fish again in the light, and the catch is huge. Once you get the point of what happens when we work in the light of Christ, the Gospel hardly needs any preaching. I could sit down now, but the Word has more to say to us.

There is a charcoal fire there on the shore, and it’s not the first time we have heard about a charcoal fire if you recall the Passion Narrative. This time Peter does a bit better than he did at the other charcoal fire allowing the Gospel to reveal both the place of Peter among the apostles, and the patient, forgiving mercy of Jesus toward those whose faith is inconsistent. Peter gets to start over as Jesus calls him by his former name: “Simon, son of John.” He does not call him “Peter.” Then, with Peter’s final affirmation of faith, he gets the same invitation he had much earlier, “Follow me.” This time, Peter knows the truth of what following Jesus will cost him, and so do we.

Many come into this church today after a week of hard work that sometimes produces nothing like those men fishing in the dark. We come into this church today, into the light of the risen Christ who will feed us here as he fed those weary apostles. We come into this church today, and he asks us who are so much like Peter, “Do you love me?” “Do you love me?” As we consider our answer to his question, we need to remember the cost of saying, “I do.”