In The Ragamuffin Gospel, Brennan Manning quotes from another who writes, “One saint used to say that she was the type of woman who advances more rapidly when she is drawn by love than when driven by fear. She was preceptive enough to know that we are all that type of person. It is possible to attain great holiness of life while still being prone to pettiness and insincerity, sensuality and envy, but the first move will always be to recognize that I am that way. In terms of spiritual growth the faith-conviction that God accepts me as I am is a tremendous help to become better.” (p.49)
Brennan sums this up by saying, “Love is a far better stimulus than threat or pressure.” This understanding leads to the realization that God loves us for who we are. That doesn’t mean that we don’t seek to be holy as our Father in heaven is holy, but it does mean that we learn to accept God’s grace and mercy, so that we don’t become discouraged and fall away.
That said, I’m always encouraging you to make a proper confession, whether that be to sit down with a priest or on your own, but as I have also told you, I hate going to confession. I’m very well aware of weaknesses and faults and I don’t like having to put them out there, but today… a public confession (and everybody says, “Well, this just got interesting!” Not like that, but maybe worse.) Here goes, two parts…
Part one: many struggle with being hard on themselves and many struggle with accepting God’s grace and mercy. The more those types of feelings persist, the harder that person is on themself. Friends: I am not good to myself. In many different ways I punish myself for my shortcomings. I am a priest that knows—for a fact!—that you are loved by God and so very deserving of God’s grace and I will do anything I can so that you can experience that love and grace, but… I have refused to accept it for myself. That’s part one. Part two: I’m tired of feeling this way. I’m tired of standing outside the banquet and missing out on the celebration.
That’s the confession. (Not very juicy, I know.) So, during this season of Lent, what am I going give up? I’ll probably give up something more tangible (that one is between me and God), but I think what I’m really going to give up is the act of pummeling myself and kicking my own backside. I think I’ll give up being a shield to God’s grace and allow him to soften my heart toward myself. As I said, I’m tired of being on the outside of the banquet, trying to make myself worthy to enter in, all the while, forgetting that this is a work that Jesus has already accomplished.
We always think of the ashes on ash Wednesday as a sign of penance and our mortality, our death. They are, but Thomas Merton looked at them from the other side. He wrote, “The ashes become a health-giving medicine and they bring wholeness, cleanness to the body as well as protection to the soul, both of these availing for the remission of sins. They bring the grace of that humility which they signify, they bring also the pardon which we implore by the fact of receiving them.”
The ashes are a sign of penance and death, but when we receive them with true humility, they are not only a sign of sin and death, but of forgiveness and life.
I invite you to continue on the path for this Lent that you have set for yourself, but, if you find yourself in the boat with me, then I invite you to join me in recognizing the fact that God accepts you as you, so that you can then experience His grace and love.
Charlie Brown: Lucy says, “If I was in charge of the world, I’d change everything.” Charlie turns and says, “That wouldn’t be easy. Where would you start?” Lucy looks directly at him, and without hesitation responds, “I’d start with you!”
Here’s a question for you: what color is a chameleon’s skin? It is actually translucent. There is still a bit of a mystery as to why it occurs, but the scientist have learned that it is the cells below the skin that are moving so as to refract a particular color, but this idea of changing color has also entered into the way we understand the brain and how we interact with one another. It is the Chameleon Effect and helps us to understand things like why yawns are contagious (yes, you may yawn, because now that I’ve said it, your minds are wanting to). It also explains why laughing is contagious and how, most times, if you smile at someone—even a perfect stranger—they’ll smile back (I like to do that anyway because even if they don’t smile back, you will make them nervous.) The point being, one person’s behavior can affect another person’s behavior. Chain reaction, domino effect, a string of random acts of kindness: all of these speak of this Chameleon Effect. This is even true in our life with God.
Rabbi Elimelech of Lizhensk, who lived in Poland and died in 1786, said: “One must always pray for his friend, as one cannot do much for himself, for ‘One does not deliver oneself from imprisonment.’ But when asking for his friend, he is answered quickly. Therefore, each one should pray for his friend, and thus each works on the other’s desire until all of them are answered. This is why it was said, ‘Jewish people [and I would add Christian people] are areivim, responsible and sweet for one another,’ where areivim means sweetness, as they sweeten for each other by the prayers they pray for one another, and by this they are answered.” (Source)
The word, areivim is further defined as sweetness, intertwined, and mutually responsible. (Source) I think we can look at it like sugar added to coffee, the sugar—the sweet—intertwines with the coffee and together make the change. So Rabbi Elimelech is saying that I can’t change myself without having the “sweetener” of you in my life. From there the Chameleon Effect plays through us all as we pray for one another. So when Lucy says she wanted to change the world and she would start with Chuck, she could if she came alongside him in prayer—instead of the manner in which she was most certainly thinking.
What is important to note is that the sweetener does not change the external circumstances, it only changes the person and how that person is able to respond and relate to those external factors.
Leading up to our Gospel reading today of the Transfiguration, we are told that about a week before, Peter had confessed Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the Living God. Matthew and Mark tell us it was six days later and Luke tells us that it was about eight days later that Jesus took with him Peter, James and John and ascended the mountain, and while Jesus “was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became dazzling white.” He was transfigured before their eyes.
We know that the light that surrounded Jesus was not from above, but was instead from within. He revealed to the three apostles his glory. Something I recently read also said that it was a grace bestowed upon Peter, James, and John for them to actually be able to see this transfiguration. Without that grace, even if they had been present, they would not have seen it.
Following this event, all three Gospels have Jesus and the disciples descending the mountain, where they meet the other disciples along with a large crowd and arguing religious leaders. It is also then that Jesus heals the demon-possessed boy.
Given the nature and intensity of the ministry at that time, I suspect that those six to eight days prior to the transfiguration were quite similar to the day that followed: crowds, healings, teachings, arguments, etc. All the external factors were the same, but…
I don’t know why Jesus chose to only be transfigured before Peter, James, and John, but I can only imagine how the impact of witnessing such an event would have affected them. How would they have seen the ministry of Jesus prior to the transfiguration and then how would they see this same ministry following it? The light of Jesus’ transfiguration and the grace to see that light must have been like an areivim to them: a sweetener, that bound them to Jesus in a way they had not experienced before and gave them a recognition that they had a responsibility to share it with others. To lift up others with this knowledge. The one event of the Transfiguration was like the effect of a skipped stone on the smooth surface of the water: ripples going out affecting one another and affecting others. The water—the external circumstances—remains water, but how it is seen and perceived is completely different.
The Transfiguration is also like an oasis in a vast desert. It is a place of nourishment, water, rest, and so on, but it is also a vision of what can be and that vision does not leave you. Even when you must go back into the desert, you carry that vision with you as a hope and a promise. And as you travel along, you will encounter others who have been traveling in the heat of the day and who are thirsty and have been eating sand for days, but when they see you—someone who has been given food and water and is healthy—like that Chameleon Effect, they too will see that there is hope and if you will be a sweetener to them, their hope will be fulfilled by the promise… the promise of life-giving water. The promise of Jesus.
Jesus said, “Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and will deceive many. You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains.
“Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved.”
That is our world and those are our external circumstances, but we as a Christian people have been to the oasis—we come to it every week in the Blessed Sacrament—so we know of the hopes and promises of God. Like Peter, James and John, we have witnessed the light of the transfiguration in our own lives and in the lives of those around us, therefore we must be the areivim for others. The external circumstances are not likely to change, but we are called to share the sweetener of the Transfiguration with all.
Don’t be afraid or disturbed by what you hear and read: these things are going to happen and must happen, but you… you keep skipping stones: sweetening the lives of those you know and being a witness of hope to the others around you.
Let us pray: Almighty God, from whom all thoughts of truth and peace proceed, kindle in the hearts of all people the true love of peace, and guide with Your pure and peaceable wisdom those who make decisions for the nations of the earth; that in tranquility Your kingdom may go forward, till the earth be filled with the knowledge of Your love; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
I’ve been working on my mind reading skills. Let’s see how I’m doing (you may want to grab a pen if you need help with some light math. I know I do!):
1. Pick a number from 1-10. Any number.
2. Multiply it by 2.
3. Add 8 to that number.
4. Divide it by 2.
5. Subtract. Current number – Original Number. Take your time to do it right.
6. Match that number to an alphabet letter. For example 1-A, 2-B, 3-C and so on… Got the letter?
7. Think of an European country that starts from that letter
8. Take second letter from that country and what is the first animal you think of that starts with that animal?
9. Now think of the color of that animal
Ready? Ok… let me read your mind… If you are thinking of a grey elephant, please raise your hand.
Why are we concerned with mind readers this morning? Because, after reading that first sentence of our Old Testament lesson, I figured many would need to be a mind reader in order to know what the heck was going on: “Joseph said to his brothers, ‘I am Joseph. Is my father still alive?’ But his brothers could not answer him, so dismayed were they at his presence.” What in the world is this all about? Some will know (and a bit later on I look forward to covering the story in more detail during our Sunday school lessons on the Patriarchs) but maybe we could all use bit of a refresher.
In our study, we know that Abraham was the father of Issac and Issac was the father of Jacob (who will later be named Israel). Jacob will have four wives and twelve sons. His favorite wife was Rachel and his favorite son was Rachel’s first child (and Jacob’s eleventh son), Joseph. Joseph’s younger brother, by Rachel, was Benjamin.
Because Jacob showed favoritism toward Joseph, the ten older brothers did not like him. When Jacob made Joseph a coat of many colors, the ten liked him even less. When Joseph had two dreams demonstrating that his brothers and father would eventually bow down before him… things just got nasty.
One particular day, the older brothers were out tending the flocks and Jacob sent Joseph out to find them. When the older boys saw him coming, one said, “Here comes this dreamer. Come now, let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits. Then we will say that a fierce animal has devoured him, and we will see what will become of his dreams.” They did not end up killing him, but sold him as a slave and Joseph ended up in Egypt. They took Joseph’s colorful coat, covered it in blood, and holding it out to Jacob, their father, told him that Joseph had been killed by wild animals.
Now, fast forward through twenty-two years and many adventures: then a great famine settles in the land. Jacob and his family need food, so Jacob sends those same ten brothers who sold Joseph to Egypt to trade for their needs. In order to receive the food, the ten must go and ask it of the man who in Egypt was second only to Pharaoh. They did not know it, but that man was their brother, Joseph. We are told, “Joseph recognized his brothers, but they did not recognize him.” Eventually, there is the great reveal and Joseph makes himself known. The brothers, seeing Joseph who they had treated so badly, are greatly disturbed by their actions, yet Joseph says to them… insert our lesson from today: “I am Joseph. Is my father still alive?’ But his brothers could not answer him, so dismayed were they at his presence.” He said to them, “Do not be distressed, or angry with yourselves, because you sold me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life.” In other words, Joseph forgave his brothers and said, all that has happened is a part of God’s plan, so that we might be in a position to save God’s people.
Joseph had every reason to hate his brothers; and he was one of the most powerful people in the world, so he could have done whatever he liked to them, from sending them away empty handed, to placing them into slavery, to putting them to death, but he chose another path. A path that led to reconciliation.
With that understanding, hear again the words of Jesus from our Gospel lesson: Jesus said, “I say to you that listen, Love your enemies even if they sell you into slavery, do good to those who hate you even if they think of killing you, bless those who curse you because they do not understand how God is working, pray for those who abuse you, because you may win them back as a brother or sister. If anyone strikes you on the cheek or throws you into a pit, offer the other also and allow God to work his purposes; and from anyone who takes away your coat, even if it is a technicolor coat, do not withhold even your shirt or your life. Give to everyone who begs from you even if that person has done you very wrong; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again, for they were God’s goods to begin with. Do to others as you would have them do to you, regardless of how they’ve treated you in the past…. Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to you.’”
I’ll tell you a story that I know I’ve told you before, but like any good story, it doesn’t hurt to hear it again: it takes place in Spain. A father and son got into a tremendous heated argument, which led to the son running away. Almost immediately the father felt remorse over what he had said and so he went in search his son. He searched for months, but he could not find him. Finally, in a last frantic endeavor to find him, the father put an ad in a Madrid newspaper. The ad read: “Dear Paco, meet me in front of this newspaper office at noon on Saturday. All is forgiven. I love you. Your Father.” On that Saturday, 800 boys named Paco showed up, looking for forgiveness and love from their father.
You don’t need to be a mind reader to know that if there is one thing this world needs, it is forgiveness. We need to be forgiven by God. We need to be forgiven by others and we need to forgive those who have hurt us. So we need to stop judging over who may or may not be right. We need to stop condemning and being so stubborn because we simply don’t want to let something go. We need to start forgiving and being forgiven. In that last phrase, Jesus says, “Give, and it will be given to you.” I suppose we could think of that in terms of some sort of material gift: goods, money, etc., but in this context, I don’t think that is what Jesus is asking us to give. I think Jesus is asking us to give love. Love. For in not judging or condemning and by forgiving, we are truly loving; and by loving in such a manner, we are becoming more like Jesus, because that is exactly how he loved us.
“Good nature and good sense must ever join; To err is human; to forgive, divine.” (An Essay on Criticism: Part 2 by Alexander Pope)
In your relations with others, strive for the divine.
Let us pray:
God, our Father, You redeemed us and made us Your children in Christ. Through Him You have saved us from death and given us Your Divine life of grace. By becoming more like Jesus on earth, may we come to share His glory in Heaven. Give us the peace of Your kingdom, which this world does not give. By Your loving care protect the good You have given us. Open our eyes to the wonders of Your Love that we may serve You with a willing heart.
Back in the frontier days, a westbound wagon train was lost and low on food. No other humans had been seen for days, when finally they saw an “Old Jewish Man” sitting beneath a tree. The leader rushed to him and said, “We’re lost and running out of food. Is there someplace ahead where we can get food?
“Vell,” the old Jew said, “I vouldn’t go up dat hill und down other side. Somevun told me you’ll run into a big bacon tree.”
“A bacon tree?” asked the wagon train leader.
“Yah, ah bacon tree. Trust me. For nuttin vud I lie.”
The leader goes back and tells his people that if nothing else, they might be able to find food on the other side of the next ridge.
“So why did he say not to go there?” some of the pioneers asked.
“Oh, you know the Jews don’t eat bacon.”
So the wagon train goes up the hill and down the other side. Suddenly, bandits attack and massacre everyone except the leader, who barely manages to escape back to the old man.
The near-dead man starts shouting, “You fool! You sent us to our deaths! We followed your instructions, but there was no bacon tree! There was hundreds of bandits, who killed everyone.”
The old Jew holds up his hand and says “Vait a minute.” He then gets out an old English-Hebrew dictionary, and begins thumbing through it. “Oy,” he finally says, “I made myself ah big mistake. It vuz not a bacon tree. It vuz a ham bush!”
“And God said, ‘Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, on the earth.’ And it was so. The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, the third day.” (Genesis 1:11-13)
On the third day, God created the plants and trees of the earth—I do not believe either the bacon tree or the ham bush was on the list—yet the variety was immense. When we begin to consider the trees, we probably often think of the massive Redwoods in California, some of which are thousands of years old or those oddly shaped Baobab trees in Madagascar. In seeing and thinking of these, we miss some other remarkable specimens. For example, there is a White Cedar tree in Canada that is near the Great Lakes. It is over 130 years old, but stands at only four inches tall. And then there’s the tree I was thinking of today: a wild fig tree that grows in South Africa.
Standing at approximately 120 feet, it is an impressive tree, but for an area that only receives about 18 inches of rain a year, how could such a tree grow so tall and produce so much fruit? Of course it is the roots. Generally, the root systems of these trees will be five to six feet deep, but this particular tree has a tap root that travels 400 feet, through solid rock and even a cave system, until it reaches a source of water. It supports the massive tree above by pumping almost seven gallons of water upwards each day.
Charles Darwin wrote, “The tip of the root (of plants) acts like the brain of one of the lower animals.” It is the part of the plant that we do not see, but it seeks out the sources of water and nutrients and will either find it or the entire plant will die in the process.
In our first lesson this morning, the Prophet Jeremiah said to us:
Blessed are those who trust in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. They shall be like a tree planted by water, sending out its roots by the stream. It shall not fear when heat comes, and its leaves shall stay green; in the year of drought it is not anxious, and it does not cease to bear fruit.
The tree—and we know we are talking about a soul—that is planted near the stream will survive, but we also know that a drought can become quite severe. Lakes and streams can dry up all together, but that’s just on the surface. Down deeper, the water is still available. The plants that lived along the banks can and will die, unless they, like that wild fig tree, go deeper in search of the water.
For a soul, this can be a difficult time. It has not all together been cut off, but it does experience a crisis. Consider the first two verses of Psalm 42:
As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. (Psalm 42:1-2)
And again, David writes in Psalm 63,
O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. (Psalm 63:1)
David’s soul knows where its life comes from. His soul thirsts for the one thing that can give it life and that one thing is God. He knows that his soul will either find God or die, so it searches, but those times of searching can be lean times. Those are days of struggle and crisis. Those are days when the soul is not 100% sure that it will survive. And those are days that each and everyone us of experience. It is at times like this that some will give up. They feel as though God has abandoned them. They are withering in their search for water, for God, and struggle to see that this is a season and not a lifetime. They forget the days of plenty and the people around them taunt them by saying, “Where is your God?”
You can truly find yourself in that barren and dry land where this no water. You are poor in body, soul, and spirit. You are hungry and thirsty for God. You are saddened by your condition and those around you are no help. You are all these things and… you are blessed. Blessed…
“Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven.”
Days and seasons where there is no water are not days when God has abandoned us. They are days when God is calling us to go deeper, to trust and enter into an even more intimate relationship with him. Yes, you can do nothing and look back on the good ol’ days and in the process become bitter at your current circumstances or you can even quit. You can wither and die there on the banks of a dry river bed or you can push on until you once again encounter the Source… that has always been there! Patiently waiting for you and allowing you to grow through the trials you experience.
In his Revelation, St. John tells us about the New Jerusalem and he says, after seeing the great city, “the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city.” (Genesis 22:1-2) On the day we enter into that city, we will always have this source of water readily available to us—it is our hope and the promise that has been made to us by God—but for now, we must at times go deeper in search of that life giving water, but do not fear. It is there, for as St. Paul tells us, “I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation——including droughts, famine, and the lack of water——will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:38-39)
Today, the ground may be dry and cracked, barren and unfit to produce life, but by going below the surface, deep into the earth, we will find Life. Seek God where he wills to be found. Go deeper.
Let us pray: Come, all who are thirsty says Jesus, our Lord, come, all who are weak, taste the living water that I shall give. Dip your hands in the stream, refresh body and soul, drink from it, depend on it, for this water will never run dry. Come, all who are thirsty says Jesus, our Lord. Amen.
Presentation of Jesus at the Temple (1710) by Andrea Celesti
The prophet Ezekiel has a great vision of the Lord. He writes in chapter one, “As I looked, behold, a stormy wind came out of the north, and a great cloud, with brightness around it, and fire flashing forth continually, and in the midst of the fire, as it were gleaming metal. And from the midst of it came the likeness of four living creatures.”
Remember the Ark of the Covenant, how it was kept in the Holiest of Holies in the Temple and that on the lid of the Ark there are the two cherubim with their wings outstretched towards one another. It is in that place just above where the wings meet that God made his home on earth, where Ezekiel understands this vision to be taking place.
However, as his visions continue, Ezekiel understands that God is about to punish the people for their idolatry and that he intends on doing so through the Babylonians. The people will be carried off into captivity and the city and temple will be destroyed. We learn that this can happen, because God is leaving the Temple. Ezekiel writes in chapter nine: “Now the glory of the God of Israel had gone up from the cherub on which it rested to the threshold of the house.” Then in chapter ten, “Then the glory of the Lord went out from the threshold of the house, and stood over the cherubim. And the cherubim lifted up their wings and mounted up from the earth before my eyes as they went out, with the wheels beside them. And they stood at the entrance of the east gate of the house of the Lord, and the glory of the God of Israel was over them.”
For all those years, God had remained in the Temple, but now he leaves. You can imagine the pain in the peoples’ hearts as they heard these words, but there is hope, because the punishment will not last forever. Chapter forty-three: “Behold, the glory of the God of Israel was coming from the east. And the sound of his coming was like the sound of many waters, and the earth shone with his glory…. As the glory of the Lord entered the temple by the gate facing east, the Spirit lifted me up and brought me into the inner court; and behold, the glory of the Lord filled the temple.”
All that Ezekiel spoke concerning the destruction of the city and the Temple came to pass, but what about God’s return? When would his Glory once again cross the threshold and re-enter the temple? We read about the beginning of this great event today: the Presentation of Our Lord, when Mary and Joseph brought the Son of God into the Temple. As St. Paul tells us in his letter to the Hebrews, Christ “is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature.” The glory of the Lord was returning and it was Simeon who testified to it:
Lord, you now have set your servant free * to go in peace as you have promised; For these eyes of mine have seen the Savior, * whom you have prepared for all the world to see: A Light to enlighten the nations, * and the glory of your people Israel.
We are also witnesses to God’s glory returning. We see it each time this glory enters into a human temple and radiates God’s word throughout.
The Presentation of the Lord is an ongoing process until the Lord returns in all His fullness. We see it as God enters these human temples of ours and begins his marvelous light. Yet, we are not only witnesses, but participants as we are the ones who carry Him to others. We are the ones who present Jesus at the threshold of souls so that he might enter.
Triboulet was the court jester for King Louis the XII and Francis I. One day, as the king passed, Triboulet smacked him on the backside, which enraged the King. The King said that he would forgive him if he gave an even more clever response for his actions. Without missing a beat, Triboulet said, “I’m so sorry… I mistook you for the Queen!” When he was sentenced to death, the king allowed him to decide how he would die. Triboulet chose old age. Astonished, the king set him free.
An old proverb, “There’s a grain of truth in every joke” even if the King does look like his Queen. That said, no matter how the truth is spoken—jokingly or sincerely or in anger—it is not always appreciated, but that does not mean we stop speaking it. In writing to a friend, Flannery O’Connor (she was a devout Catholic) wrote, “The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it emotionally. A higher paradox confounds emotion as well as reason and there are long periods in the lives of all of us, and of the saints, when the truth as revealed by faith is hideous, emotionally disturbing, downright repulsive.” (Source) But it is still the truth, therefore it should be spoken. This is what was happening in our Gospel reading today.
Jesus is speaking to the people of his hometown, Nazareth, but the people respond by essentially saying, “Who do you think you are? We’ve known you all our lives and you’re just a carpenter.” In response, Jesus does not perform any miracles for them, instead he speaks the truth to them by reminding them of two separate incidents in their history.
The first incident deals with the prophet Elijah. There had been a famine in the land and all the Israelites were suffering, but when Elijah demonstrated the love of God through a miracle, it was not an Israelite who profited. It was the “widow at Zarephath in Sidon” who was a gentile.
In the second incident, Jesus reminds them about the Hebrew prophet Elisha. An army commander was suffering from leprosy in the land, so he came to Elisha seeking to be healed. Elisha had pity on him and told him to bathe in the Jordan River seven times. The commander did and was healed. Who was this commander? Naaman the Syrian, another gentile.
In reminding the Israelites of Nazareth of these two events, Jesus is speaking the truth. He is saying that God the Father has many times sent to them those who could bring them into the saving knowledge of God, but that they did not listen or return to God, so instead of blessing the Israelites, God chose to bless the gentiles. Jesus is saying that God is about to do the same thing. “If all you want are miracles, then God will give the knowledge of salvation to the others—to the gentiles.” Did he tell them this just to make them mad? No. That was the outcome—they tried to throw him off a cliff—but Jesus was trying to force them into seeing the error of their ways and to repent. I don’t know of many who like to be corrected for the errors, but when Jesus revealed the truth to them, they found it repulsive.
This incident shows us that we must be prepared to speak the truth, but to also hear it for ourselves when we need to be corrected. How do we go about this?
Within the Christian faith and civilized society, there are rules of engagement. There are things such as Robert’s Rules of Order, but there are even greater underlying rules. St. Paul speaks of these greater rules in his letter to the Ephesians: “Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.”
“Speaking the truth in love.” It means being sincere and honest with one another, but before we can speak to one another in such a way, we must first mature as Christians and become a community that is founded in forgiveness and mercy. We must be those who see the love and image of God in the other. Why? I’ve seen way too many people who claim to be speaking the truth in love but use their opinion or version of the truth to browbeat those who disagree with them. The truth we are to speak has nothing to do with personal revelation or preferences. The truth is founded in Holy Scripture and revealed in love. If we are mature in our faith and are certain of our love and motives, then we should go to one another and speak openly and honestly; keeping in mind that, before we go off and speak to someone, we must also be prepared for someone to come and speak to us in the same manner, because it is certainly not about being the one who is always and insufferably right.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer puts it like this: “Where Christians live together the time must inevitably come when in some crisis one person will have to declare God’s Word and will to another. It is inconceivable that things that are of utmost importance to each individual should not be spoken by one to another… The basis upon which Christians can speak to one another is that each knows the other as a sinner, who, with all his human dignity, is lonely and lost if he is not given help… This recognition [as sinners and God’s child] gives to our brotherly speech the freedom and candor that it needs. We speak to one another on the basis of the help we both need.” (Life Together, p.105-6)
Will these kind of tough conversations always go the way you plan them and will they always have the results you were hoping for? Absolutely not, but as Bonhoeffer said, we have a Christian responsibility to one another. Will everyone walk away feeling happy and delighted with the conversation? Not a chance and even if both are firm in their Christian faith, there’s still the chance of someone being hurt. As I said earlier, no one enjoys being corrected. You might even find that the one you’re speaking to becomes angry, but if you have their trust, built up over time, and were truly speaking the truth in love, the other will likely come to understand that you were not accusing them, but were in fact… loving them.
What underpins both the giving and receiving of speaking to one another in such a way is humility. My friend, Thomas a Kempis writes, “Do not think yourself better than others. If there is good in you, see more good in others, so that you may remain humble. Turn your attention upon yourself and beware of judging the deeds of other men, for in judging others a man labors vainly, often makes mistakes, and easily sins; whereas, in judging and taking stock of himself he does something that is always profitable.” In other words, speak the truth in love to yourself before you decide to do the same to another.
St. Peter in his first epistle tells us, “Love each other deeply from the heart.” It is in loving each other in this way that we are able to come alongside one another and speak those things that are sometimes difficult to hear. If done in faith and charity and humility, the result will not be a pushing apart, but a much deeper binding of us one to another and to Christ Jesus our Lord.
Let us pray:
Lord, make us an instruments of your peace: where there is hatred, let us sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy.
O divine Master, grant that we may not so much seek to be consoled as to console, to be understood as to understand, to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive, it is in pardoning that we are pardoned, and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen.
You all know that I would rather stub my toe than go to a meeting, but apparently the world loves to have them. On average, in the US, there are over 11 million formal meetings… everyday… costing on average $37 billion dollars a year. (Source) That is a lot of unproductive time. The Harvard Business Review reports that researchers performed a study on a large company and “concluded that one weekly executive meeting ate up a dizzying 300,000 hours a year.” They performed the calculations by adding up the number of hours the executives spent in the actual meeting, plus the number of hours in meetings they spent in preparation of that meeting, plus the number of hours their various teams spent in meetings preparing for that meeting… and you get your 300,000 hours. (Source)
Author Dave Barry said, “If you had to identify, in one word, the reason why the human race has not achieved, and never will achieve, its full potential, that word would be ‘meetings.”
All this to say, “Welcome to Annual Meeting Sunday” where we hope to not suck the life out of you or give you thoughts of finding a new church home. And today, I thought instead of waiting to start the meeting until we get in the Parish Hall, we could start it now, because—as a Church—wouldn’t it be interesting if we included the work we do in here with the work we do in there. Sounds crazy, I know, but take the word we use to describe our our work here, the service: liturgy. So often, we define liturgy as, “the work of the people.” However, early on, if someone built a shrine for the community to the glory of God, that would also be considered liturgy. That’s because liturgy, more properly defined is not “the work of the people” but, “the work for the people.” Liturgy is about doing the work of God for the good of all, therefore, God is the focus of our liturgy here, but also our liturgy there in the annual meeting. So, let us begin our Annual Meeting with a prayer.
Let us pray: Almighty and everliving God, source of all wisdom and understanding, be present with those who take counsel in this Annual Meeting of St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church for the renewal and mission of your Church. Teach us in all things to seek first your honor and glory. Guide us to perceive what is right, and grant us both the courage to pursue it and the grace to accomplish it; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
As, I hope and pray, we approach the end of the Covid pandemic and since we are now able to worship in person, you’ve probably noticed a rather significant change in your church: fewer people attending. This is something we touched on a little while back, but today I wanted to bring it a little more in focus.
You’ll see on the front of your bulletin an image. It is a picture of one of the pages in The Big Green Book. That book contains a list of all members and is broken down into various categories. There are pages set aside for baptisms, confirmations, weddings, and burials. What you’re seeing in the picture are the pages set aside for Baptized Members. The pages for baptisms are for those baptized in this church, but Baptized Members are those members of our church who are currently active, so they may have moved here from another town where they were members of an Episcopal Church or they may have been baptized in another tradition and have asked to be received into the Episcopal Church. However they arrive, when they join our church, I go to the The Big Green Book and enter the information: full name, youth or adult, male or female, where and when they were born and where and when they were baptized. On the next page, I record how they came into the church. There may be a note such as “Baptized at St. Matthew’s” or “Transferred from St. Swithun’s in the Swamp”. Then the next column is for those who leave the church and are removed from the record. Again, any number of reasons can be given, from moving to dying. If appropriate, I can include a note (something like: “May the Lord have mercy on whatever church they transferred to, but we are thankful to be rid of ‘em.” No. Never anything like that!) But how is this relevant to us today?
When it comes to the removed, as always, there are some who leave because they no longer like the church or the priest or something along those lines. We are fortunate to have only a handful of those. For the most part, in our records, you will find either transferred (they moved somewhere else) or… deceased. Not all of them were members, but many were, and since I’ve been here, I’ve performed thirty-eight funerals. Don’t go back and read all the names, because it is a list that will break your dang heart. But, without dwelling on that, safe to say, there are many who are no longer a part of this earthly church. Yet, this type of loss is nothing new to the church, however, what is new to the church is not having the opportunity to bring in new members.
I’m not sure how long we were closed, but for a considerable period of time because of the pandemic, the only way we were able to reach out was through the lens of that camera. Now that we can worship in person (it has been almost a year since we reopened), several are still cautious about coming and many others have simply fallen out of the practice of attending church. All combined, this is a bit of a perfect storm for the church: loss of members through transfers, etc and not being in a position to attract new members. The end result for us: we had grown for five consecutive years, but we are now about the same size church, if not smaller, than when I began here almost seven years ago.
Now, please don’t think I’m up here whining or making excuses. I’m honestly just trying to give you a realistic picture. What that picture means is that we must begin again. Do we have the resources to begin again? Yes. As a matter of fact we do. Our finances are in good order, our facility is a gem and getting better, and the people—You!—are amazing. Your liturgy, your work for the glory of God, is truly a light to the world.
We have all the resources we need begin again. As St. Paul told us, “You are the body of Christ and individually members of it.” We’ve talked about this before, but today it is worth hearing again. When Paul speaks of the Church as the body, he is saying that you have everything you need in order to complete the work of God. Sometimes Paul was speaking of the universal Church, but quite often he was speaking to and of the local church, which means, no matter the size, each congregation is The Body of Christ and within that single body are contained all the gifts and talents needed to accomplish the work that God has called them to.
There’s that old joke about the church that has a leaky roof. The preacher stands up in front of the congregation and says, “I’ve got good new and I’ve got bad news. The good news is that we have the money to fix this roof today. The bad news is that it is still in your pockets.” I have good news and bad news for you. The good news is that we can grow the Kingdom of God and the Church. The bad news—maybe “challenging news” is better—the challenging news is that it will take all of us working together on this by inviting friends, neighbors, and others, as well as, telling the story our church and of how God is and has worked in your life.
Whether you are a hand, a foot, an eye, a whatever, this body, your church needs you. So what if have begin again. God loves to make all things new and I’m up for it if you are. Within you is a message of light which can proclaim hope, life, love and salvation. Let us perform our liturgy in here, in there, and in all places where God calls for the building up of His Kingdom and His Church.
Let us pray: We pray You, O almighty and eternal God! Who through Jesus Christ hast revealed Your glory to all nations, to preserve the works of Your mercy, that Your Church, being spread through the whole world, may continue with unchanging faith in the confession of your name. Amen.
Dressed in their white gowns, they entered the chapel for their symbolic marriage to Jesus, making them “Brides of Christ.”
Just as the ceremony was about to begin, four Hasidic Jews came in and sat in the front row.
The Mother Superior said, “I am so honored you want to share this experience with us. May I ask why you came?”
“We’re from the groom’s family.”
It is not really the time of year for fireworks, but I was thinking back to when I was considerably younger than I am today and playing with those magical little bombs. You could go to the big shows, but it seems that the ones you could buy were regular firecrackers, bottle rockets (great for bottle rocket wars and no one ever lost an eye having them), sparklers, and smoke bombs. All top-notch entertainment. When it came to the regular firecracker, some folks would like to set them all off at once, but I was more a fan of the one-at-a-time method, especially because I had fun blowing things up. I wasn’t that mean little kid in Toy Story, but… load one up in a pine cone or drop one in a can, that was more my speed. I also got a kick out of putting one in a little pile of pebbles, lighting the fuse and running. No serious injuries ever occurred, except for the one time I planned on just throwing one: I lit it with the punk, but ended up throwing the punk instead of the firecracker. It kinda stung a bit.
I mention this, because today in our Gospel, John has lit the fuse on an explosive story and when it reaches it conclusion on a hill outside of Jerusalem with Jesus being crucified and then three days later rising from the dead, it is going to make one heck of a “bang!” John even gives us a hint to the fact that this is where he is headed with his Gospel, because in the telling of the events at the wedding in Cana, he first said, “On the third day there was a wedding….” In addition, in his Gospel, John does not refer to these astonishing events in the life of Jesus as miracles, he calls them signs. The last verse we read: “Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory.”
We’ve talked about this in the past: a wedding in the time of Jesus was a big deal. You didn’t just invite a few guests. You invited the entire town and even folks from the surrounding towns. It was also an event that wasn’t just one day, but could last up to a week. I’m sure that everyone pitched in with food and beverages, but ultimately, it was going to be the family of the bride and groom that provided for the needs of the guests. I would suspect that in seven days, that many folks could go through a fair amount of wine, yet it would seem that those hosting the wedding in Cana—for whatever reason—ran out. Some might say, maybe they shouldn’t be drinking so much, but even so, this would have been a huge embarrassment for the family and the new couple. The couple might even see it as a bad omen for their marriage. What are they to do?
Mary, the mother of Jesus (and this is one of only two times that she appears in John’s Gospel, the next will be at the foot of the cross) upon hearing that there is an issue, goes immediately to her son and tells him, “They have no wine.” Jesus response, “Mom! It’s not time.” Mom’s response, “Yes, yes,” and turns to the servants near by and says, “Just do what he tells you.” If Jesus was a disrespectful child, you would have heard the eye roll at this point, but he is not. He is obedient and he is compassionate, so he sets out to resolve the problem.
Seeing six jars that could hold twenty to thirty gallons each, he tells the servants to fill them with water. There were no waving of wands or magic incantations. He simply said, “Now draw some out, and take it to the chief steward.” From the sounds of things, it was even better than the wine I make… and that’s saying something! The water had become wine. Water, something that was probably not really fit to drink, so something that was impure, had been transformed into something new and remarkable, beyond anything that they had tasted before.
John lit a fuse on an explosive story. Through this first sign, the events at the wedding in Cana and the transforming of water into wine, we can begin to grasp that John’s explosive story is not only going to be about transformation, but will be transformational in the lives of those who hear it.
Those who have had even a minimal encounter with the Gospels are familiar with most of the events of Jesus’ life. Yet, so often, when we hear them time and time again, they no longer have an affect on our lives. They no longer have that transformative power over our lives. Maybe we’ve heard them so many times that they’ve lost their awe or perhaps we just see them as stories, not believing that the events described actually took place (we’re too sophisticated to be impressed with what we consider to be parlor tricks) or maybe we think, “That was then, but these types of things simply don’t take place anymore”, whatever the case, when we hear the stories they make no change in us. We are not transformed even a little. Our regular, ordinary and impure lives remain water in a jar where nothing extraordinary has or will happen. There’s no fireworks. No bang. If you find yourself falling into such a mindset, then I invite you to a challenge: for a period of time, set aside your doubts and your criticisms, set aside your unbelief and ask yourself, “What if it is actually true? What if it really happened?”
If we start from a place where our minds are already made up, then no amount of signs or wonders will change the way we think. The Sadducees and Pharisees in the time of Jesus fit perfectly in this category. Nothing Jesus did ever made a single impression on them. They denied it all and their hearts remained hardened til the end. As John said in the prologue to his Gospel, Jesus “came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.” They did not receive him and they were not transformed. They died in their sins. “But,” as John continues, “to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.” Those who believed, were transformed, they were reborn by water and the Spirit and they became the finest of wines. They became Children of God.
Give yourself the opportunity to truly believe that Jesus can transform water into wine and you will discover that he can transform you into something new and remarkable. He can transform you into a child of God.
Let us pray: God, our Father, You redeemed us and made us Your children in Christ. Through Him You have saved us from death and given us Your Divine life of grace. By becoming more like Jesus on earth, may we come to share His glory in Heaven. Give us the peace of Your kingdom, which this world does not give. By Your loving care protect the good You have given us. Open our eyes to the signs of Your Love that we may serve You with a willing heart. Amen.
It was March 19, 2018 that we were gathered here for the service for Dave, Betty’s husband for more than 70 years. At that time I shared with you a story that comes to us from around the year 125 A.D.: a Greek philosopher by the name of Aristides wrote to Hadrian, who was the Emperor, trying to explain the extraordinary success of the new religion, Christianity. In his letter, Aristides speaks of the faithfulness and righteousness of the Christians, how they treat others fairly, how they worship and pray, and even how they respond to the death of another Christian. He wrote, “If any righteous man among the Christians passes from this world, they rejoice and offer thanks to God, and they accompany his body with songs and thanksgiving as if he were setting out from one place to another nearby.” (From The Apology of Aristides)
“… as if he were setting out from one place to another nearby.”
Jesus tells us that he is going to prepare a place for us and so often we think that place is up there… far off beyond the stars, but I really don’t think the place he takes us is really all that far off. In fact, I think it is as close as right here. Just a thin veil’s width away. I say that because it seems that Jesus is often so close and the same is true with his Mother, Mary, and… the same is also true with all those that have gone before us. You can “feel” their closeness and therefore know that they are still very near… just beyond that veil.
That might sound a bit spooky to some and give rise to concerns about ghosties and the likes, but to those who understand that in death “life has changed, not ended”, it is a comfort and a blessing, because it means that we still have access to those who have gone before. We can know that they are still very much a part of our lives and in fact, since they are now closer to throne room of our God, can provide even greater assistance to us now than ever before.
Consider the words of St. Teresa of Lisieux, “My mission – to make God loved – will begin after my death. I will spend my heaven doing good on earth. I will let fall a shower of roses.” If one such as Teresa will shower us with blessings, then imagine the benefits of the blessings and prayers we shall receive from those who are so close to us, such as our mother and father and others… such as Betty.
Today, we mourn the loss of Betty, but we are joyful and give thanks that she has entered into her Heavenly reward. A place that has been prepared for her by her Savior, Jesus. We give thanks that she has been reunited with Dave and all those that have gone before us, but we also give thanks that she is also still so very near to us, continuing to love all those that she loved while still on this side of that thin veil.
As we read, the Prophet Isaiah said:
On this mountain the LORD of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines, of rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear.
That is a feast that all who call on the Name of the Lord will be invited to take part in. It too is a place that has been prepared for us. Until that day, when we all come together at that joyous celebration, know that those who have gone before you have not left you here alone. They are ever watching over us and they speak to the Father on our behalf; and on the day that we are called into God’s Kingdom, they—along with our Savior, Jesus—will greet us and welcome us to our true home.
Candle in a Cave 