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Homilies

Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

First reading: 1 Kings 3:5,7-12
Psalm: Ps 119:57,72,76-77,127-130
Epistle: Romans 8:28-30
Gospel: Matthew 13:44-52

God said, “Ask something of me and I will give it to you.”

Treasure:

The overwhelming theme from today’s Gospel is that of treasure. Where is our treasure? What is it worth? Placing ourselves in God’s hands and following His Son Jesus results in attainment of the Kingdom, something none of us could afford to enter if it were not for Jesus.

This is a great theme for clergy. It’s one of the easier things to preach on, the value of God’s Kingdom, the requirement of laying aside everything to obtain this treasure.

So today, I’m going to talk about … stupidity.

Stupidity:

Our first reading, from the Third Chapter of First Kings, has God talking to Solomon. God lets Solomon make a request, anything he wants, and God will give it to him. What did Solomon ask for?

Yes, wisdom. Solomon said:

Give your servant, therefore, an understanding heart

to judge your people and to distinguish right from wrong.


Solomon certainly received that treasure. We are the richer for it. He left us psalms and proverbs, wisdom, insight. Under his reign the united kingdom of Israel reached its pinnacle and the temple was built. But for all the wisdom he was granted, Solomon turned out to be little more than a very clever idiot. He was a prime example of knowledge and wisdom gone to waste.

God’s plan:

God had a plan for Solomon and his father David. In Chapter 9 of First Kings, just after the completion of the temple, God appears to Solomon again. God tells him:

I have heard the prayer of petition which you offered in my presence. I have consecrated this temple which you have built; I confer my name upon it forever, and my eyes and my heart shall be there always. As for you, if you live in my presence as your father David lived, sincerely and uprightly, doing just as I have commanded you, keeping my statutes and decrees, I will establish your throne of sovereignty over Israel forever, as I promised your father David when I said, ‘You shall always have someone from your line on the throne of Israel.’ But if you and your descendants ever withdraw from me, fail to keep the commandments and statutes which I set before you, and proceed to venerate and worship strange gods, I will cut off Israel from the land I gave them and repudiate the temple I have consecrated to my honor. Israel shall become a proverb and a byword among all nations, and this temple shall become a heap of ruins.

God wanted more than just a man with wisdom. He wanted Solomon to live in His presence, to be sincere, just and upright, and to do as He had asked in His commandments.

God was asking Solomon to focus on real treasure, the treasure found only in the kind of relationships God wants us to have. A treasure found only in living with God and each other as God asks.

But Solomon… that wasn’t for him. He chose stupid.

Big mistakes:

Solomon decided that faithfulness to the treasure God offered wasn’t for him. He wasted that away. Not only, he treated the people in half of his kingdom as slaves. Doing that led to eventual rebellion and the fall of the unified kingdom of Israel. Solomon married over 1,000 wives, which directly contradicted God’s warning about rulers taking too many wives (Deuteronomy 17:17). While many of these marriages were diplomatic, some led Solomon to set God aside for the worship of false gods.

Solomon frittered away his loyalty to God and the promises of God are lost. Solomon chose the wrong treasure. He treasured his desires over God’s desires for Him.

Finding your treasure:

We have a lesson in Solomon, who chose wisdom and then walked away from it, choosing stupid instead.

When Jesus talks about finding true treasure He is talking about a treasure that redeems. That treasure is allegiance to God and the requirements of God’s kingdom. Certainly we see from Solomon that false treasure can corrupt, so it comes down to choice. It always does.

We are here, in church week after week. We choose to get up and go, to hear the lessons contained in Holy Scripture, and we walk away filled with the inspiration and the light of the Holy Spirit. As the week progresses we may make bad choices, we all do from time-to-time. But our allegiance is to the kingdom. We know where forgiveness is, and where our treasure is. We have decided that with God as our ruler, and the help of His grace, we can resist stupid.

Choosing the Kingdom:

Stupid continues, and as we reflect on the past week’s events, the terrible evil that befell our brothers and sisters in Norway, at the hand of a person claiming to be “Christian,” we think of the corrupted notions of God’s kingdom that are out there.

God’s kingdom is not a worldly kingdom, or a kingdom only for white folks, or rich folks, or the handsome or pretty, or those with a big house on the hill. It is not just for priests, bishops and deacons. It is for everyone. The kingdom is exactly this: How our lives are ruled by God. The kingdom is for those whose hearts are aligned with God’s heart, who give God their allegiance, who allow Him to rule their lives. It doesn’t matter what the members of the kingdom look like or have, their color or bank book are of no account. All that matters is that they have chosen the way Jesus has shown.

When we give ourselves over to God, and the Holy Spirit dwells within us, we are strengthened to resist the stupidity that is out there, and that awful urge to be stupid. We are given the motivation and the desire to chose right; to chose life, not death; good, not evil; peace, not war; justice, not degradation; humanity, not inhumanity.

Choosing how we live:

Living in the kingdom means choosing the treasure God offers over stupid. We are called to live a certain way, to deny every one-off urge, instead choosing what is right. We are called to say no to the prejudices, the big and little evils, to the creeping anger, the wandering eye. We are called to live rightly and justly.

God’s promises are still valid today. If we chose the kingdom, if we reject stupid, He remains with us, He blesses us, and He reassures us, He gives us everlasting life.

St. Paul reminds us that the world is filled with stupid choices. Those whose hope and trust is in God are receivers of this promise:

all things work for good for those who love God

Loving God means loyalty to His kingdom, living life His way, the way humanity was designed to live, to truly live. Jesus told us that we would have life and life to the fullest because of Him (John 10:10). That is the promise for those who follow Him, who choose the kingdom over stupid, who live rightly.

What is it worth, to live in the kingdom? It is worth our lives. It is worth giving up the stupid. The Kingdom is filled with those who have rejected and fight against stupid everyday, who have found their true treasure, and who accept God’s help in getting there. You who are here have chosen. Enjoy God’s promise and your treasure found in the Kingdom — enjoy it for all eternity. Amen.

Homilies

Third Sunday of Lent – 2011

First reading: Exodus 17:3-7
Psalm: Ps 95:1-2,6-9
Epistle: Romans 5:1-2,5-8
Gospel: John 4:5-15,19-26,39-42

But the hour is coming, and is now here,
when true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and truth;
and indeed the Father seeks such people to worship him.

Lord for us Your wounds were suffered.
O, Christ Jesus, have mercy on us!

Grumbling:

Three days after Israel was led out of bondage in Egypt the people began to grumble against Moses, Aaron, and God. This was the beginning of a pattern. Whether it was water, food, or outside threats, the people just complained.

Now God was being obvious. He led the people out of Egypt as a pillar of fire. He sent manna and quail for food, he caused water to flow from the rock. He destroyed their enemies. No matter how He had shown Himself, and His love, it seems that God has been treated as a target of grumbling, complaints, and misunderstanding by His people. He wasn’t often seen as the object of love.

At Jesus:

Here’s at you Jesus. Haven’t you become the object of ridicule, of grumbling.

Looking at Jesus’ life on earth we see Him as a target from the beginning. First from Herod who wanted Him dead. Then the Pharisees and Sadducees, the Scribes as well. They didn’t like what He said or did, and eventually it led to the week we commemorate, that is just around the corner. He will be arrested, tortured, crucified, and killed.

God again — treated as a target of grumbling, complaints, and misunderstanding by His people. Those who should know Him as the object of all love just don’t get it.

At the well:

The Samaritan woman comes to the well. She doesn’t get Jesus either. Why are you talking to me? Why are you asking anything of me? How can you give me anything? We have nothing in common! She wasn’t exactly all in for Jesus. She didn’t get Him, and certainly didn’t understand Him. A different kind of grumbling certainly, but still complaints and misunderstanding.

And it goes on —

The world is like the Samaritan woman, the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Scribes, the Israelites led out of Egypt. More and more we find grumbling, complaints, and misunderstanding about God. We find it even among the faithful — the very arguments the Samaritan woman set forth: Where is is right and proper to worship.

People who are supposed to get what God is all about fight over the little things. People who don’t get God don’t even want to attempt understanding.

Not what it is about:

We engage in a process of attempting to understand our lives, our world, our relationships. Sometimes, perhaps too often, we fail to grasp what we attempt to understand. When we do, the results of our failure are grumbling, complaints, and resultant misunderstandings. These can be directed at the world in general, fate, other people. Even family, friends, and co-workers, our fellow faithful do not escape. Sometimes God doesn’t even escape.

What Jesus came to tell us is that He is about love. He outright forgives the grumbling, complaints, and misunderstandings. He isn’t about division or theological argument. He only cares about the relationship we are supposed to be establishing with God and each other. God addresses and establishes us in love. He just asks that we see it and do the same.

He asks that we see the love that protected His people on their journey, that didn’t ignore them, but gave them food and water, that provided them with protection. God asks that we see the love that doesn’t call for worship style arguments, but rather for “worship in spirit and truth,” worship from a heart filled with the love and knowledge of God. It is the love that St. Paul speaks of when he reminds us that:

God proves his love for us
in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.

Getting past

Our faith, our Church is not about debates, or some sense of rightness or being better than others. The Church certainly has its practices and rules, but not just to have them. They are helpful guides in our learning to put aside grumbling, complaints, and misunderstanding, so that we find the truth of God. For example, when we abstain during Lent, and most of the year, we learn control over our desires. By learning self control we learn to control our appetites. That control teaches us the means for controlling our grumbling, complaints, and misunderstandings.

In the end

In the end it comes down to our decision, do we revel in a life of grumbling, complaints, and misunderstandings or do we seek the living water that Jesus promised us. It is found only in Him who told us that He provides “a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

God has come, seeking us. Jesus fully informed us of His love, and showed us the depth of His love by offering Himself so that we might all have access to the everlasting fulness of love. Do we choose to grumble, complain, misunderstand, or do we open to the spirit of truth which requires that we worship and live in the love Christ taught? Let us spend these days of deep reflection so that we may control what destroys us, and build to the confession of faith that will save us. We will be justified in that faith which only speaks love. Amen.

Homilies, PNCC,

First Sunday of Lent and the Solemnity of the Institution of the PNCC

First reading: Genesis 2:7-9 and Genesis 3:1-7
Psalm: Ps 51:3-6,12-13,17
Epistle: Romans 5:12-19
Gospel: Matthew 4:1-11

how much more will those who receive the abundance of grace
and of the gift of justification
come to reign in life through the one Jesus Christ.

Distance

I want you to picture that day, John, Mary, the other women standing under the cross. Jesus has died, His blood and water flow out and onto the ground. Now walk with me. We travel through time, and what happened to that moment under the cross? It is farther and farther away. It seems to be distant, history, something from long ago.

Birth of the Church

From the moment of Jesus’ death, from the moment the first drop of His blood hit the ground, the Church was born. But what is the Church? What was born at that moment? And, is what was born that moment only history?

What we are not

First we must consider what the Church is not:

The Church is not an opportunity for fellowship. The Church is not a club or exclusive group. The Church is not an earthly institution. The Church was not established only for our well-being or to teach us moral rules for life. The Church is not solely what it does, the sacraments, the synods, meetings and bishops, priests, deacons, councils.

In fact, Jesus Christ died that the Church might be born. As we stand under the cross we stand at the very moment the Church was born, and that moment defines us forever.

Time doesn’t matter

Father and I both like science fiction. Those familiar with sci-fi know that on occasion authors play on time travel. What some consider science fiction, we live – for this is what the Church is.

That little journey we took, we must see as a falsehood. The cross isn’t back there in time, a moment long ago and lost to books and history. We are not here, at a distance, removed from the foot of the cross.

At that moment of Christ’s death, at the moment the Holy Church was born, the cross extended through time and space. It became an eternally present reality and the very center and focus of our lives.

God gave us the Church from that moment, and forever, so that we might be saved. He gave us the Church so that His life would be ours and our lives would be His.

We know that God is love, and He gave the Holy Church that we might become the very love of God found in the cross.

Becoming

In the Church, in the Holy Cross, we do more than evolve. We don’t just become better people. We come to exist as we should, as we were designed to exist.

The Church is the reality of God’s life with us, and our life with Him. It is where the love of each member for each member, and the love of each member for all, is our truth.

The Church is the place where forgiveness is not a moral act, or something we are obligated to do -– but rather an act that is at the core of our existence, something we do because it is who we are. Goodness, humility, kindness, generosity, truth, evangelism, charity are who we are, not things we do just because someone else, long ago and far away, said we should. The Church is the reality where we find who we really are, not the place we fight against who we are.

If God were cruel, He would have designed us as evil or ignorant beings, and then would have given us rules, so that we lived in constant conflict against our nature. No! God created us in His image, with true humanity and love at our core. He gave us the Church to be the place we connect to our nature, to our life in Him, to our life as it is meant to be.

If we fail to see the Church as the mystical center and ark of salvation we fail to understand the thing most fundamental to our Christian faith. The Church is the ark in which we meet God, stand under the cross, and where we weather the storms of what we are not with God. It is the place that takes us from the flood of sin and death — the things against ourselves, and carries us to eternal life with God.

Standing in

So today we stand in the Church. We stand in the mystical place that meets the cross extending through all of history and time. In it we experience the body and blood of Jesus, the very body on the cross, the very blood that flowed from it. In the Church we touch that very moment. We stand under the cross and in the cross. We stand with God, and in Him. We connect to who we were always meant to be, with more than that, with who we really are. We find God in us and God in each other. That, my friends, is the Church.

Today we encounter the crucified Christ, in His full reality. In this encounter, in this very moment, our encounter with Him is an encounter with His eternal love and forgiveness.

In the Church we extend God’s love and forgiveness to all. We encounter Christ not because we have purged the Church or the world of every sinner, or have corrected everything we think wrong, but because we embrace the weakness of love, the cross, which saves all. Our love, our unity with God’s love, is stronger even than death. In the fulfillment of the love shown in the cross, present today, present in our lives, we find our resurrection. Our union with the Crucified Christ, and the love He gave of the cross, marks the heart of our Christian vocation and life.

More than heritage

Today we give special thanks for our organizer, Bishop Francis Hodur, and those brave souls who reconnected themselves with the reality of the Holy Cross, who understood the Christian vocation as the fellowship of believers who live in unity of love, who are true to the cross of love. It exists as much today as it did in 1897, as it did 2,000 years ago.

Those brave Christians saw the truth: not the organization, not the structures, not the cathedrals or palaces. They saw the cross and the call to live within the Church of Christ as brothers and sisters. That is not just our 114 year old heritage, it is our reality today. We are not distant. We stand in the same place, under the same cross of love, where weakness is strength, where life is eternal, where we meet God and each other, true to our Christian vocation, one in love.

As St. Paul said: We have received the abundance of grace and of the gift of justification in the present eternal reality of the Church. Because of that, we will come to reign in life eternal through Jesus Christ.

Amen.

Homilies, , , ,

Septuagesima Sunday

First Reading: Leviticus 19:1-2,17-18
Psalm: Ps 103:1-4,8,10,12-13
Epistle: 1 Corinthians 3:16-23
Gospel: Matthew 5:38-48

Do you not know that you are the temple of God,

and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?

Leviticus:

The Book of Leviticus may seem like one of the most boring books in the Bible. It is a book of laws, rules and regulations given to Moses concerning how people should live. If we look at this as just a book of laws we will get bored, we will get frustrated, we will wonder why God bothered with some of this.

What we need to have in our heats as we study this book is the sentence found in the second verse from today’s reading: “Be holy, for I, the LORD, your God, am holy.” The book is about what it takes to be holy, to approach God in His temple, prepared to meet Him. God asks us to meet Him in a state of personal and communal holiness and perfection.

Let’s remember that, we are going to meet God, and we need to be holy to do it.

Where’s God:

I have a question, Where does God live?

What do we hear: God lives in heaven. God is everywhere. God is with us.

Fr. Stephen Freeman recently wrote a book which will be available starting March 1st, , “Everywhere Present: Christianity in a One-Storey Universe.”

He asks that we think about our encounter with God, how we perceive Him, how we perceive our world. How we encounter Him, how we encounter our world. If God dwells in heaven, on a spiritual plane, somewhere we cannot see or know, He dwells apart from us. He lives upstairs. We live in a natural world where we try to make sense of how stuff works, why rain falls, why the sky is blue, why the energy of atoms can be configured in so many different ways that they make up all we see. We live downstairs.

In the world we have science, medicine, arts, entertainment. Sure, we acknowledge God, but He is in the spiritual realm in a place we can’t quite touch. When we chance across the holy, and receive communion, or get splashed with holy water, or get the cross we have, on the chain around our necks, blessed, we briefly touch on the spiritual world, but don’t quite go there. We don’t dive into it. God isn’t really encountered in the two storey world because God is upstairs and we are downstairs.

Think how Hollywood loves to use the spiritual realm to scare us, to heighten our senses. We get demons, exorcists, all sorts of spooky stuff, and in the process we recognize a god, who lives apart from us, upstairs in the spiritual realm, who is only there to do magical and spooky stuff, raising the dead, healing the sick, creating these well publicized tourist attractions called apparitions.

God is there, we are here, God and the world are apart, and we’re no more holy and perfect for it. In fact, we are going backwards.

Remember, we are going to meet God, and we need to be holy to do it. How do we get there?

Getting there:

Leviticus tells us that to get there, to become holy and perfect, we are to be like God. We are to be holy like He is holy. We should not hate outwardly or in our hearts, because we are to be like God who bears no hatred. We shouldn’t take revenge or cherish grudges against anyone, Because we are to be like God who doesn’t seek revenge and who doesn’t bear grudges. We are to love our neighbors as we love ourselves, because if we are like God, we must love like He does.

St. Paul goes on to tell us that we are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in us. Not just lives with us, like a roommate, The Spirit doesn’t stop by every Sunday like an invited guest, He dwells in us, lives in us, in our hearts, in our hands, in our minds, in every aspect of who we are as people. He is there when we wake and when we sleep, when we work, and pray, and eat. He is there when we cry, and laugh, and even when we sin. He is right there in us and with us continuously calling us to be holy and perfect as I am holy and perfect.

Is God crazy?

Now we need to pause, and look at ourselves. My first question would be, Is God crazy? God wants me to become like Him? But He lives upstairs on the spiritual plane, sure He’s everywhere, but that’s just like saying He’s nowhere. I can’t see Him or grasp Him, or be with Him, He’s just too different, too far away, too spooky. And perfect! I’m the farthest thing from perfect. I sin. Maybe I gamble, or eat, or drink, or smoke, or yell at the kids, or get frustrated with co-workers and annoying drivers a little too much, but perfect and holy, no. What does the Man Upstairs expect from me?

“Be holy, for I, the LORD, your God, am holy.”

Jesus:

The Gospel of St. John begins with a beautiful series of phrases about the coming of Jesus. At verse 14 we find: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth.” The Word became flesh, the Word is Jesus, the Son of God, His Word sent forth who existed from all eternity. The Word became flesh, became human, and came to dwell with us. Not as a buddy, roommate, friend, traveling companion, doer of spooky miracle things, but as a man to dwell, to share in the world, with us.

God came to dwell with us. Dwelling with us He was tempted, He bore infirmities, He was like His brethren, He stooped and washed feet, He cried over Jerusalem and was moved to sorrow at the death of His friend Lazarus. He suffered and He died. He dwelt with us to raise us to holiness and perfection. He dwelt with us to show us the way to what was possible, here, now, on earth, in the present.

He teaches us:

Jesus teaches us how to live like God lives, how to be holy and perfect like God in today’s Gospel. The Message translation of the bible makes Jesus’ words very plain:

‘Eye for eye, tooth for tooth.’ Is that going to get us anywhere? Here’s what I propose: ‘Don’t hit back at all.’ If someone strikes you, stand there and take it.

If someone drags you into court and sues for the shirt off your back, giftwrap your best coat and make a present of it.

If someone takes unfair advantage of you, use the occasion to practice the servant life. No more tit-for-tat stuff. Live generously.

I’m telling you to love your enemies. Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst. When someone gives you a hard time, respond with the energies of prayer.

This is what God does. He gives his best—the sun to warm and the rain to nourish—to everyone, regardless: the good and bad, the nice and nasty.

“In a word, what I’m saying is, Grow up. Live generously and graciously toward others, the way God lives toward you.”

Jesus is teaching us that the requirement for meeting God is to be holy and perfect like He is. By doing these everyday, and sometimes difficult things, we will reach the holiness and perfection of God.

Where’s God?

Do any of you live in a two storey house, or an apartment building. If you do, you know what it like to have someone living upstairs. You kind of know they are there. Sometimes you hear them clunking about, maybe a little music or the TV, and once and a while you encounter them in the hallway. You nod and whisper hello.

Isn’t that how we treat God? Isn’t He that upstairs neighbor we never really see? Once and a while we encounter Him, brief miraculous seconds, in communion, when we feel particularly loved, or when we are scared. In those brief encounters a whispered prayer, a little hello and a nod to the upstairs neighbor.

Fr. Freeman’s book and today’s readings talk about a One-Storey Universe. God isn’t up there, He’s here. He dwells with us, in the same apartment, on the same floor, at the same supper table, in the same car on the way to and fro. We have to realize His presence in our lives and in our world. We have to encounter God full on every day as part of and essential to our lives. He isn’t going away. God isn’t hiding in heaven. God doesn’t dwell apart from us on a far away spiritual plane, upstairs, but is here, present and active, dwelling with us in this time and place. We need to immerse ourselves in Him.

When we come to communion today, let’s not nibble at God or quietly let Him dissolve on our tongues, because its not a magical spooky pill. It is God’s body given to us as food – EAT! When we bless ourselves on the way into or out of church, let’s grab a handful of that holy water and pour it over our heads, knowing that Jesus washed His disciples feet with that water, was immersed in that water at baptism, and that water flowed out of His side. Cherish it and bathe in it! When we confess, let us cry over our sins, and know that God loves us so much He has forgotten them. When we hear the sacrament of the Word, let us learn from it, and learn to live the way God lives. Completely feel and know that God is here, downstairs with us.

Then, let us go out, immersed in God, fed by God, dwelling with God, understanding God, and forgiven by God — to forgive others, wash others, baptize others, feed others, teach others. God is here with us and them, not somewhere else. As we do this, as we live with our God who lives with us, we — will — be — changed. We will become more and more holy, more and more perfect, and we will meet God. Amen.


Homilies,

Solemnity of the Humble Shepherds

First reading: Jeremiah 31:10-14
Psalm: Ps 97:1,6,11,12
Epistle: Titus 3:4-7
Gospel: Luke 2:15-20

Because of His mercy

The reality

The world was turned upside down. The shepherds knew of Caesar’s order, a census of the whole world. They saw the clogged roads, people traveling back to their place of birth. People burdened with worry, my job, my business, my sick child, my pregnant wife; and, here we are on the road. It was crazy and scary. Armed robbers lurked in the roads, everyone was competing for a place to stay. The little cow shed, unkept, the owner had no time to clean up or care for the animals, people traveling and looking for a place to stay needed care, there was money to be made. No time to slop out the stalls, bring in fresh hay. The tension, the stress, duties, worries, and cares. All this getting in the way of life.

Into this time of turmoil, God sent His only Son, our Lord Jesus, to provide salvation by mercy alone, without cost, without condition.

To see

Let us take a moment to wonder, to wonder at what the humble shepherds hoped to see in this time of turmoil. They had just seen a vision of heaven, angels streaming down to tell some wonderful news. We know angles, right, all white and glowing, beautiful, dazzling. All the glory and power of the heavenly host. The shepherds said, “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this event which the Lord has made known to us.”

Know farming?

How many here have experience with farming? How many were raised on, or worked on a farm. Did you have animals on the farm, donkeys, cattle, sheep, oxen, chicken…? How many have at least visited a farm, or the fair, or a circus?

The picture

You get the picture then. When these humble shepherds arrived after seeing the glory of God, what did they see? What did they smell? Think about the reality of what was going on in that cow shed. Yes, the shepherds got the humble reality of this miracle. When the gospel tells us, “All who heard it were astonished at the report given them by the shepherds,” we can certainly believe that.

I can hear it, Shmuel, Moishe, get this, angels and cows, and the smell of dirty hay and dung with a little baby king, oj vey! What were you shepherds drinking?

To see

Yes, the shepherds were poor and humble people. But, back home their families had a home, a place to lay their heads. They had a table, and even goat’s milk, cheese, and meat. It was these poor shepherds who first saw, who first witnessed the full on reality of God’s humility. The dirty, terrible smelling shed, the rags that bound the baby. A new mother frazzled with worry. Joseph frantic for food, a doctor, a decent place.

What did the shepherds hope to see in the middle of this mess? What did they hope to learn? What could it possibly mean to them?

What they saw was a humility so vast, so great, so filled with the worst the human condition could offer, that it stuck them. They got it, the full representation of the emptying out of God. There wasn’t even a hint of heaven in that place. It was only God, poured out and come to them, a gift without cost or condition.

If

If God had come in a palace, in some regal way, the humble shepherds wouldn’t have been invited. If God came on the clouds of heaven, these humble shepherds would have trembled in fear. If it were only a Gospel short, a little nativity play, the stuff some of the big churches do with people dressed up and real animals, a story, the shepherds could have chosen not to believe. In any of these ways there would have been a cost, a condition. A ticket to get into the palace, the price of fear, the admission to the play.

But

But God came, emptied out and open to them, of lower estate then they, of the lowest place among men. Not a story, not power, nothing quaint, nothing attractive, no glowing virgin mother, no saintly old Joseph, no!

Just the sudden reality of God whose mercy is so vast, so powerful, so available and open to us that He would save us, out of love alone, out of a heart so rich that it asked nothing for itself — a heart that can only give.

What they saw, we have, God poured out and come to us. We have our representation, this manger scene. We have a picture in our heads, and we have our priests among us, who live humbly, bringing us closer to Jesus (and we need more of them because the world desires this message).

God’s humility reaches us, touches us wherever we are. We need not be rich to feel, know, experience, and accept God. We need not have beauty for His beauty to fill us. We can be like those people along the road, scared, humble, poor, worried, sick, sad, a people from every place, from every experience. And, here is Jesus, in a world still turned upside down, come to meet us, offering His mercy, without cost, without condition.

He offered Himself to the humble shepherds. He offered Himself for all of us, emptied out so that we might become rich. All without cost to us and without condition. Come, let us see and know this event which the Lord has made known to us. Amen.

Homilies,

Second Sunday of Advent


First reading: Isaiah 11:1-10
Psalm: Ps 72:1-2,7-8,12-13,17
Epistle: Romans 15:4-9
Gospel: Matthew 3:1-12

May the God of endurance and encouragement
grant you to think in harmony with one another

Harmony by Law:

In 1992 the government of Singapore enacted the Maintenance of Religious Harmony Act. This Act gives the government the right to decide when a religionist is speaking in a way that is contrary to religious harmony; and the power to censor or censure such persons.  That religionist, so censured, has no recourse to the court. The Act says:

(1) The Minister may make a restraining order against any priest, monk, pastor, imam, elder, office-bearer or any other person who is in a position of authority in any religious group or institution or any member thereof for the purposes specified in subsection (2) where the Minister is satisfied that that person has committed or is attempting to commit any of the following acts:

(a) causing feelings of enmity, hatred, ill-will or hostility between different religious groups;
(b) carrying out activities to promote a political cause, or a cause of any political party while, or under the guise of, propagating or practicing any religious belief;
(c) carrying out subversive activities under the guise of propagating or practicing any religious belief; or
(d) exciting disaffection against the President or the Government while, or under the guise of, propagating or practicing any religious belief.

Our first reaction as citizens of the United States is to say this is wrong, it denies freedom of speech and religion. We view such laws as intimidating. Here are some of the penalties for violating the Act:

(1) Any person who contravenes any provision of an order made under this Part shall be guilty of an offense and shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $10,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 2 years or to both and, in the case of a second or subsequent offense, to a fine not exceeding $20,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 3 years or to both.

Hearing this we fear that religious people, priests, ministers, rabbis, and imams will be silenced. We fear that we will not be able to speak out as we feel we should.

Perhaps this law is right in promoting harmony, more right than some Christians may be. We might take this opportunity to consider whether this law is teaching us an important lesson we have somehow missed.

The Church in Rome:

In Romans 14-15 Paul is writing to the Church, discussing the necessity of harmony and peace within the community. The Church in Rome was made up of Gentiles and Jewish converts. They all had their take on how things should be run. Paul exhorts them to live in peace with each other, refraining from judgment, and living their faith. He is telling them and us that we must live in peace with our co-religionists; that we must build each other up and encourage a strong and unified faith in Christ amidst disagreement and differences in practice. Listen again to what he says:

May the God of endurance and encouragement
grant you to think in harmony with one another, 
that with one accord you may with one voice 
glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Welcome one another, then, as Christ welcomed you, 
for the glory of God.

That sounds exactly like an exhortation to harmony within the Christian community. Be in harmony, of accord and one voice in glorifying God, and welcome each other.

Paul tells us that Christians are not exactly alike. We are not a worldly army, were everyone looks and acts the same, but the army of God which is an army of harmony. We proclaim Christ, even among some diversity. Christians are not exactly alike, but we are required to be Christian in our witness to the world.

Even the Prophets:

When we look at the prophets we often think of strong, forceful messages that foretell the doom of Israel for its disobedience. Today Isaiah proclaims a message of harmony.

Then the wolf shall be a guest of the lamb,
and the leopard shall lie down with the kid;
the calf and the young lion shall browse together,
with a little child to guide them.
The cow and the bear shall be neighbors,
together their young shall rest;
the lion shall eat hay like the ox.
The baby shall play by the cobra’s den,
and the child lay his hand on the adder’s lair.
There shall be no harm or ruin on all my holy mountain


Isaiah’s vision, particularly in Isaiah 11, is one in which the coming Messiah will reign in a kingdom of perfect peace — in harmony. Man and nature will live in harmony. Nations will be brought together in harmony. God will be praised in harmonious voice.

What are we asked?

When we look at Jesus’ teachings we recognize His call to holiness and a right way of life. He did not shy away from calling people on hypocrisy and wrongdoing. We can point to countless examples where Jesus spoke to the sinner about their sin. He didn’t speak to the rest of the world about their sin. Recall that when the prostitute who was to be stoned was brought to Him He did not stand there enumerating her sins and how she had broken the law. He kept is simple, and private:

…only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” “No one, sir,” she said. “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”

Yes, leave your life of sin, do right not wrong. I do not condemn you, I free you from your sinful life. Jesus did not seek confrontation. We know that confrontation came to Him, chiefly from the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Scribes. They got in His face, but He consistently answered them in a way that would have caused them to reflect inwardly; to reflect on their life and whether they held God, or their power, more sacred.

We are asked to proclaim the truth in the same way. Sacred Scripture and the Fathers teach us to practice witness that is both effective and non-offensive.  The Bible teaches non-offensive witness because it is effective. This is the better and more powerful way given to us, to witness to Christ and His Holy Church from a community in harmony, without condemnation, but with the message of the freedom and harmony found in Jesus Christ. Our world so needs that message, particularly in this season.

Examples of harmony and truth:

How should we speak in harmony and without conflict? Saint Paul gives us from his engagement with other religions and the Roman imperial administration. He used words that conveyed absolute truth without being offensive.

When Paul went to Athens he stood up in the Areopagus (Acts 17:22-31) and told the people, who had built idols and altars of every sort:

I see how extremely religious you are in every way. For as I went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I found among them an altar with the inscription, ‘To an unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you.

In saying that the Athenians were extremely religious Paul used the Greek term for “God fearing.” He indicated his respect for their accomplishment, knowledge, and religious attitude, and particularly that they were “God fearing.” He did not curse their gods or their altars. He didn’t say that they were stupid or ignorant, or foolish, or going to hell. He took what was positive and directed it toward their finding the one true God.

When Paul was called before the court of King Agrippa and Bernice (Acts 26:23-29) as part of his trial before Festus the Roman official he only focused on one thing.

Now a fact, Bernice was not Agrippa’s wife, but she was his queen. She was his sister and they lived in every way as a married couple. Prior to taking up with her brother, Bernice lived with General Titus who later became emperor of Rome.

Was Paul’s one focus on condemning Agrippa and Bernice, on cursing Rome, Generals, armies, or bad morality? No, this is what happened:

Agrippa said to Paul, “In a short time would you persuade me to be a Christian?”   And Paul said, “Whether short or long, I would to God that not only you but also all who hear me this day might become such as I am…”

Paul’s one focus was on bringing Agrippa and all in his court to Christ. He brought the good news of forgiveness of sin to people high and low.  Paul saw all people as in need of the redemption provided in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  Paul was not awed by Agrippa as king and was not repulsed by Agrippa and Bernice as perverts.

These are just a few examples of the way Paul gave effective and non-offensive witness for Christ and His Church. These are examples we can use and apply; which depend on harmony.

Our Advent Path:

The great Forerunner, Saint John the Baptist, reminds us of what we are called to do. He reminds us that this is a time of repentance. Repent, the Kingdom of God is at hand. Repentance calls us to have a change of heart and to make a new start. Today’s gospel reminds us that Saint John gave it to the Pharisees and Sadducees who showed up for baptism with out having a change of heart. John wasn’t known for his sense of harmony I expect, but pause to think of all who came with repentant hearts, who he baptized without criticism or condemnation…as they acknowledged their sins.

Next week we will come here to acknowledge our sins, to repent, make a new start, and face the coming of Christ with changed hearts. In doing that let us regain the harmony we need as Christians so that we may make effective and non-offensive witness for Christ.

Our choice:

Paul strove to be effective in proclaiming the Gospel to all. He did not give offense to other religions; and limited his interaction with political leaders to the most important task at hand, that they would enjoy the redemption found in Christ.  Because of that, Paul’s ministry and witness was effective and inoffensive.

We sin when we take pride in efforts that show how right we are with Christ and how wrong everyone else may be, when we want conversion by force of will, and sometimes even by the sword.

We can go to politicians offices and recount every wrong vote, every bad act, every appearance of impropriety, But wouldn’t it be better if we simply went and told them how Jesus wiped our sin away, how He gave us eternal life, and how their call to public service is the real way in which Christ is already active in their lives?

We can go to war over wrongs, country against country, family against family, neighbor against neighbor. We can write Facebook posts about how wrong the next person is, but wouldn’t it be better if we simply went and told them how Jesus wiped our sin away, how He gave us eternal life, how that particular thing they do in their lives is the real way in which Christ is already active in them?

We will never bring people to Jesus by court conflicts and protests, by enumerating the sins of others, or by war, but through harmonious lives committed to teaching in a ways that are effective and inoffensive, that are focused on our objective.

If we cannot do what we are called to do, if we cannot live as Christians, if we cannot live in harmony, holding true witness without being offensive, then we may end up with civil laws focused on some social norm of conflict avoidance, and the disdain of the world. We should rightly fear the power of government to have absolute say over religion and moreover fear for lost souls.

As Christians we must refocus on calling the world’s attention to the birth of Christ. Like the early Christians, our objective is to share the good news; and to do so in a way that is harmonious – effective and inoffensive.

Let us do whatever is necessary to bring harmony among God’s people and to bring knowledge of God’s forgiveness of sin: His promise of everlasting life to all. Amen.

A special thanks to Peter Eng from Grace For The Day and his post: Does Religious Harmony Affect Our Witness? which, with the Scripture of the day, inspired this homily.

Homilies

First Sunday in Advent

First reading: Isaiah 2:1-5
Psalm: Ps 122:1-9
Epistle: Romans 13:11-14
Gospel: Matthew 24:37-44
 

“We will go up to the house of the LORD.”

Setting for Ascents:
 
This verse is from Psalm 122.  Psalm 122 is part of a series of fifteen Psalms, Psalms 120-134, that are called the Song of Ascents.  They are also called Songs of Steps or Pilgrim Songs.
 
These names indicate that these psalms were the ones sung by the people on the ascents, or goings up to Jerusalem to attend the three pilgrim festivals.  They were also sung by the priests as they ascended the steps to minister at the Temple in Jerusalem.
 
More than half of them are cheerful, and all of them are songs of hope.
 
Hope for:
 
There was certainly something to hope for.  God had often told Moses that His Sanctuary would one day be in a fixed place; yet from the time of Moses, for more than a thousand years, the Ark of the Covenant had been carried from place to place in a tent.  It was later revealed to David that mount Zion was the spot where God would have his ark settled, and his temple built.
 
Solomon was to carry out the building of the Temple in Jerusalem.  The Jewish people could go to meet God.  They didn’t have to figure out where the tent was, where God might be residing at the moment, His presence was in a fixed place, on Mount Zion, the place to which they could ascend.
 
The Jewish people sang songs as they ascended, they sang along their pilgrim journey. Can you envision people streaming from the twelve tribes into Jerusalem, bearing their gifts, singing these hopeful songs because they were going to meet God?
 
Hope dashed?

Whenever we speak of hope we speak of a hope that is conditional. Might our hopes be based on the following:  Daddy will spin me around every day, therefore he must love me.  My husband will place his hand on my shoulder, kiss me, and thank me, therefore he must love me.  My wife will greet me with joy in the evening, therefore she must love me.  Hope is often based on our understanding of how things should be, and sometimes for the worse, we turn those conditions into how things must be.
 
It is easy to dash conditional hope.  Expectation and hopefulness destroyed, the bright eyes of a child’s hope turned dim.  The same in relationships; the missed good morning kisses, the goodnight hug forgotten. The conditions block out the truth of love.
 
The Jewish people’s hope was conditioned on how they thought things should be.  They understood, and to this day they fight over Jerusalem, Mount Zion, the place they are very sure God must be.  That is their condition upon God.  You can dwell with us, here in this city, on this mountain, because that’s how it is supposed to be.
 
If you ever had your hopes dashed, if you weren’t spun around, greeted with a smile, or thanked, then you knew where the Jewish people were by the time Isaiah wrote.
 
By Isaiah’s time that city was gone, rubble.  Isaiah was with the Jews in Babylon.  They were in exile. Everything they had established as conditional upon God was broken down.  Yet, Isaiah writes:
 

“Come, let us climb the LORD’s mountain,
to the house of the God of Jacob

 
Hope was somehow alive, but the conditions had changed, in fact there wouldn’t be any conditions. God’s presence was to be based on love not conditions.
 
A new mountain:
 
Isaiah was moving from a conditional concept of God to a concept of God based on God’s revelation of love.  As with any prophet worth his paycheck, Isaiah was stirring things up. He was telling the Jewish people that God isn’t just ours, isn’t just on Mount Zion, isn’t dependent upon Jerusalem, but is God to whom all people will come:

In days to come,
the mountain of the LORD’s house
shall be established as the highest mountain
and raised above the hills.
All nations shall stream toward it

The Jewish people knew the lay of the land.  They knew that Mount Zion wasn’t the highest peak.  It was small compared to the other mountains on the horizon.  Isaiah is talking about God’s creation of a mountain for His house that all could see, that was higher than any other place on earth.  On that mountain God would open doors to all people.  He would in fact come out from there, reach down, and meet with His people.
 
This new mountain, this place that was so different from any of the conditions the people placed on God, would offer new and eternal hope.  Hope without condition, God without the requirements of men.  God meeting His people.  All people could ascend, all could hope, all could sing.
 
Where is the new mountain?
 
This new mountain is not in Jerusalem, or in Rome.  It is with us here in Binghamton, in Johnstown, in Scranton, and in Albany, yes, even in Rome and in Jerusalem.  It is present to the rich and the poor.  It is the place for happy families and the destitute.  It is for the employed and unemployed, the young and old, the scientist and the laborer, the place for all people.  It is everywhere we are because it is the presence of God in the world.  It is God holding out His hands to all of us, to pull us up, to heal us, to make us whole, and ultimately to show His love for us.  This new mountain, the way God has chosen to meet us, gives us every reason to sing a song of ascent.
 
St. John the Apostle and Evangelist described this new place which he called the heavenly Jerusalem in Revelation 21:2

I also saw the holy city, New Jerusalem,
coming down from God out of heaven,
prepared like a bride adorned for her husband.

 
This mountain isn’t just a place or a thing.  It is God dwelling among us.  We recognize that presence today, and we sing out our song of ascent.  We are going up to meet the Lord, singing songs, filled with joy.
 
The ladder:
 
Saint John Climacus, wrote The Ladder of Divine Ascent.  It is a treatise on avoiding vice and practicing virtue so that at the end, salvation can be obtained.  An icon, based on the treatise depicts many people climbing a ladder; at the top is Jesus Christ, prepared to receive the climbers into Heaven. Also shown are angels helping the climbers, and demons attempting to drag down the climbers. Most versions of the icon show at least one person falling.
 
St. Paul reminds us today that the day is near and that we must avoid the things that would make us fall, fall away from the holy mountain of the Lord.

You know the time;
it is the hour now for you to awake from sleep.
For our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed;
the night is advanced, the day is at hand.
Let us then throw off the works of darkness
and put on the armor of light

Advent ladder:
 
Today we enter the Advent season.  What is at stake today, over these next four weeks, is our progress up the mountain, along the ladder to heaven.  It is not four quick weeks of getting ready, baking, buying, and becoming indebted to credit card companies — hopes and expectations that are conditional:  If you buy me this or bake me that I’ll know you love me.  Instead it is the season for getting right with our hope.  It is the season to begin our ascent again, to redouble our efforts, to recognize the reality of God’s love.
 
We need not go to Jerusalem.  We do need to come here, and not just on Sunday.  Let us come here in our hearts every morning.  Let us come here in our hearts and sing our song of ascent.  Let us teach our children the song of ascent and the means by which we climb the ladder together. Avoiding vice and practicing virtue?  Doing right by our souls rather than doing right by Martha Stewart decorations, Cooking Channel feasts, and Macy’s?  Can it be done?  Can we ascend today? Can we sing with our fellow pilgrims climbing into the arms of the Lord who reached down from heaven to come to us?  We can and we must!  Let us say with confidence: “We will go up to the house of the LORD.”  That is our song of hope, it is our song of ascent.  Amen.

Homilies

Solemnity of Jesus Christ the King

First reading: 2 Samuel 5:1-3
Psalm: Ps 122:1-5
Epistle: Colossians 1:12-20
Gospel: Luke 23:35-43

Let us give thanks to the Father,

who has made you fit to share

in the inheritance of the holy ones in light.

Traveling on an inheritance:

There is an interesting tie between inheritance and travel. If you and I inherited tons of money from a rich relative, we might spend some of that money traveling. We would go to see the sites we always wanted to see. We would experience those wonders, Old Faithful in Yellowstone, the Giant Redwoods in California, the Grand Canyon, the Pyramids, Eiffel Tower, Venice, the salt mines at Wieliczka, Poland, Rick’s Cafe in Casablanca.

It would be great to be rich and free, without worries, and only an itinerary as a guide.

We have an inheritance:

St. Paul is telling us that we have an inheritance. Today we are going to go traveling with it. We are going to learn, through travel, about the inheritance we share. Are your bags packed? Ready to go? Let’s go.

Motto:

Our Holy Polish National Catholic Church has a motto. Does anyone know what it is?

Yes, truth, work, and struggle. Seems like a downer doesn’t it. Truth — no fibbing, Work — no relaxing, Struggle — no enjoyment.

Look at this window: The cross. That’s absolute truth. St. Paul tells us that the cross is a stumbling block, a scandal to the Jew and folly — really and insult to good sense — to the Gentile (1 Corinthians 2:1-4). But for us it is everything because by its truth we are being saved. We become victorious in the truth of the cross — because death brought us life. Jesus came to tell the world the truth about God’s love. His love for us is found in the cross. By it we have obtained our inheritance.

Look at this window: Jesus as carpenter, helper to his foster father Joseph. Here He stands with a carpenter’s square. With it He will set things straight, measure out what is necessary. Jesus understands our work. He understands what we face in work, the tiredness, maybe boredom, frustrations, sweat. Jesus works at our side because he took up our humanity. He gets it. He understands us and measures out what we need to accomplish our work.

And here, look at this window: Jesus in the garden before He is arrested. That is struggle. Sweating blood and asking His Father: Let this cup pass from me. He struggled in facing the task to be completed. Finally in the struggle He accepted His Father’s will. Jesus gets struggle, perhaps more than any human being. In His struggling He is one with us in our struggles.

I’m going to skip this one for now.

Jesus helps:

Understanding us, Jesus did not leave us alone to face the world, to stare down evil on our own. He gave us the graces necessary to stare down every evil and every temptation with confidence. He gave us the grace we need to live in the reality spoken of in our motto — living lives of truth, work, and struggle.

Jesus gave us His mother, Mary. Look at how she cradles the child Jesus. That love is for us because we are in Jesus and Jesus is in us. Mary, and all the saints, pray for us. With her help and their help, with her care for us we are strengthened to proclaim the truth, work, and struggle for God’s kingdom.

Jesus gave us His Sacred Heart. We know what’s represented by that heart, Jesus’ incredible and overflowing love. From His heart flowed blood and water, to wash and purify us, to wash us so that we are acceptable to the Father. The Father sees us through the love and sacrifice of the Son. He sees the truth of the cross, and His Son’s work and struggle for us. Because of Jesus’ heart God welcomes us into the kingdom.

Jesus gave us the Holy Eucharist to nourish us. The bread of life doesn’t just make us physically strong, but intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually strong. It doesn’t just feed us for today, for if it did tomorrow we would be hungry. Rather it feeds us for eternity. Jesus promised that if we eat of it we would live forever. With this bread and cup we receive the grace necessary to do our work, to struggle, and to proclaim the truth that is the Kingdom of God.

Finally, Jesus shepherds us, and as an extra bonus gave us shepherds to remain and care for us, our bishops, successors to the apostles. Jesus works through them and us to find the lost, and bring them back. Jesus works through them and us to bind the wounds of the injured and heal them. Jesus asks them and asks us to lead all to green pastures, rich with all that we need. And, with the Holy Spirit, Jesus’ appointed shepherds hold us together as His flock. As one flock our work, our struggle, our proclamation of the truth is the power of God among us. In His Kingdom we stand together, proclaim together, work together, and struggle side-by-side.

Destination:

I skipped this window because this is our destination. This is what today is all about. Our travels have led us to our inheritance. This is it: Jesus coming on the clouds of heaven as king of heaven and earth. He’s not coming alone either, because the dead and the living will be caught up with Him. St. Paul tells us (1 Thessalonians 4:16-18):

For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the archangel’s call, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first;
then we who are alive, who are left, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and so we shall always be with the Lord.
Therefore comfort one another with these words.

More than with:

Now some of you might think that we will just be with him, sort of like hanging with your friends, chillin’. My son Adam refers to relaxation as a chillax day, which I think means a day to chill out and relax. But it will be far more than that.

We will be rulers with Him:

My friends,

Our inheritance has two parts, the present and the future. These windows portray what we must do to keep our inheritance, as well as the aid we are given to get there. They also tell how our inheritance will be fulfilled in the Kingdom to come.

Our journey of truth, work, and struggle has an outcome. What is the last part of our motto? It is Victory.

We shall be victorious. That is our inheritance. We won’t be there just hanging with the Lord the King, but we will be caught up into Him. We will be as one with Him and will become like Him. Who we are right now will be perfected in Jesus’ kingdom, in the new heaven and the new earth. God’s truth that is already in us will be brought to perfection.

For now, we are on a journey, we are traveling and we are being transformed. We are changed in our proclaiming of the truth, in our work and struggle. We are transformed by the graces and aid Jesus has given us. We participate in God’s life, but not yet perfectly. As we put Jesus’ teaching into practice, and follow His gospel, we reach for the day of inheritance, the day of victory, where we will fully participate in the life of God. On that day we will be rich and free, without worry, no more struggle, no more work, only the victory of God’s truth in His kingdom. So, let us give thanks to the Father,
 who has made [us] fit to share 
in the inheritance of the holy ones in light.

Amen.

Homilies, PNCC, , ,

Sermon Prep

PreachingToday has launched a new website to inspire sermon preparation. PreachingToday is a web ministry of Christianity Today International. This new website has been designed to give preachers more tools to inspire their creativity and improve their sermon preparation. As you know, sermn preparation is vital in the PNCC since the hearing of, and teaching on the Word of God is a sacrament.

The new PreachingToday site includes better search features that help preachers sort and filter thousands of top-quality illustrations, sermons, and ideas faster and more effectively.

Brian Larson, editor of PreachingToday, says: “Our purpose as a website is to inspire preachers and our redesign enables us to accomplish that goal better than before. Our illustrations are fresh and drawn primarily from contemporary culture, and our articles will inspire our readers to be better preachers.”

Proper preparation takes up many hours of most pastors’ weeks. Because of the sacramental nature of preaching in the PNCC, pastors must be well prepared and preach at a very high level every week, offering engaging messages that will direct their congregation to draw closer to God.

PreachingToday is a subscription resource. Pastors can join for free for 30 days.

…and some humor

On the issue preaching, a friend sent this to me:

My pastor friend told me his church installed sanitary, hot-air hand dryers in the rest rooms. After about two weeks, I dropped by to see him and noticed workmen taking them out.

I asked him why. The pastor confessed that they worked fine but said when he went in the men’s room after the previous Sunday’s service, he found a scribbled note above one of the hand dryers that read, “For a sample of this week’s sermon, push button.”

Not surprisingly, the dryers were out, paper towel dispensers were back in.

Homilies, PNCC

Solemnity of the Christian Family

Genesis 1:26-28,31
Psalm 128:1-5
Ephesians 6:1-9
Luke 2:42-52

Remember that you and they have a Master in heaven who plays no favorite

Hugging:

The National Hugging Day website provides these quotes:

Most of us have a little person inside who needs human contact in this stainless steel, computerized society where we are kept at arms length.  Such personal contact makes you feel good.  A good hug warms relationships between people.  Part of the problem huggers face is this guarded age where hugs are easily misinterpreted and subject to a leering look or a lawsuit.  A hug has a universal meaning of support, concern or just a way of saying, “I’m here.” — Chris Thompson, Saginaw News

“We need to know we’re cared about… students need that.  Most of them hug me back-it’s our usual greeting.” Rev. James Stein, Premontre H.S., Green Bay, WI

“We encourage hugging.  We have grandparents who hug the children who sit on their laps, and our staff people rub the children’s backs at nap time to relax them.  Every day should be hugging day.” Mary Van Heuvel, Director, Green Bay Nursery Program

“Hugs make everyone feel good.  It’s a way to know that someone cares.  The need to be hugged doesn’t change when you get older.” Barbara Kuehn Schumacher, Mgr., Ft. Howard [Senior] Apartments, Green Bay

“Touch is life-giving, is healing.  Touching really helps human beings.  Talking doesn’t do a lot for someone who feels rotten, but touch helps alleviate the pain and anguish.  We don’t lose the need for touch when we stop being babies.  We basically need to be touched, although some people do not like to be touched and we have to respect that.  A 1950’s study of institutionalized children showed that even though the children received good physical care, good nutrition, were fed and changed regularly, they became sickly and psychotic years afterward.  They didn’t make it.  They were never picked up and held.  They suffered from a condition that results from the lack of tender, loving care.” Rev. Langdon K. Owen, Director, American Foundation of Religion and Psychiatry in Green Bay

“For human beings, you need two hugs a day to survive, four hugs for maintenance, six hugs to grow.” Virginia Satir, a Wisconsin Marriage and Family Therapist.

St. Paul, in Romans 16 says:

Greet one another with a holy kiss.

Jesus hug:

Do you think Mary and Joseph hugged Jesus when they found in in the Temple? Perhaps they did, out of joy, perhaps relief. Luke gives us the only account of Jesus’ youth. In the narrative Jesus is twelve, still a child according to Jewish Law. This glimpse into Jesus early life may illustrate many things, but most of all it illustrates that the love that existed in Jesus’ earthly family was a real and living love. If Mary and Joseph saw Jesus as anything but the son they loved, no part of the story would have meaning. They wouldn’t have bothered to look, to care, to embrace Him when they found Him.

What do we see:

When we look at each other, first as family, what do we see? Do we see those we wish to greet with a holy kiss, with a hug? Do we see those we wish to affirm in the love of Christ? Do we rush to love as Mary and Joseph rushed to find Jesus?

This process begins in our families. It is the place we learn love, and why our Holy Church celebrates this day. The family that practices tenderness, compassion, and love for each other is the family that stands together in good and bad, that support and encourages each other. When we go home today and look at our children, our spouses, our parents, do we see that person who longs for that hug that connection to family? They are there, plain to us, and we must make every effort to see beyond what we know to what we should know.

That effort then extends beyond the family, the place we learn, to our wider Christian family, the members of our Holy Polish National Catholic Church, and then the members of other Christian Churches. What is practiced at home must be lived in the world. What we know and have, what we take from our homes, takes action in daily life and in the way Christians ought to relate to each other and the world.

Seeing clearly:

Our experiences at home prepare us to see differently in the world, and how we see is essential to whether we can love as family.

Seeing clearly takes work, effort, and starts with the message of God which lives in our hearts. Sometimes it is a quiet whisper, other times a raging storm, but it calls us to be the love of Christ for each other, to affirm and heal each other in love.

Seeing clearly requires us to set aside what we think we see and to see with eyes of love. Our family experiences tell us that what may be outward is not necessarily a reflection of what is inside. If we see only the face, the facade, we miss what is inside.

Try this, pick a picture of any group of people and reflect on it. Look at the faces and the body language and think about what is being portrayed. Do we see friends or enemies, openness or agendas? We can construct a lot of scenarios from that picture, and from how our minds perceive it. Then step back, and look again, but with eyes that see only the love that is in each person and in us. Look at another person and think in terms of their capacity for love, the fact that they do indeed love. The picture is suddenly changed.

Our Christian family needs exactly this kind of love, this kind of seeing. It doesn’t have to be grandiose, but in every small and seemingly insignificant way, we need to consciously show those hugs for the members of our family and to our wider community. The family movie night, hands held at prayer over meals, a note in your husband or wife’s lunch. The hug that says I am there and I recognize and value you. The look that says to our brothers and sisters in faith, I see only your love, not your agenda, nothing but love. The warm handshake or embrace at the sign of peace.

So it is:

So it is with us. We must see the members of our immediate family and our larger family as essential, as vital to our well being. We must see them as necessary to our ability to love, and their love as essential to us.

When Paul talks about obedience and submission today he is not speaking about subservience, but exactly the types of trust and respect we are to have within our families and within the Christian community. Our loving, our embrace of love is both a right and a responsibility. God created this connectedness in creating families, in commanding that we be fruitful and multiply, that we form the bonds of family within our homes, within our communities, within our Holy Church and among all the people God has called to be His own.

Our model:

This past week we concluded Holy Synod. Our Church family gathered together. Was it all peaceful and perfect, of course not. Was there strong debate, opinion, and difficulty, certainly. Are we one Church, yes. Because we are family we see beyond the moments of difficulty to the love that is in each person. We see the great care and concern each person brings, with their voice and their vote, to build the family of Christ. It is the model each of the clergy and delegates learned at home, to care, to be concerned, and to walk away as brothers and sisters, leaving after a holy embrace, a hug, and a word — until we see each other again.

God’s model:

God’s model goes to the heart of the interconnected nature of His people. That is why we celebrate this Solemnity. That is why the Christian Family is so essential to the life of the human family. In the Christian family we find the call to the love, to the perfection of love, to all that is necessary for our very survival, as family, as the Holy Church, as Christians, and as brothers and sisters. God has connected us and asks us to embrace each other – to see beyond the facade and the supposed agenda, to the love that is at the heart of each person. To embrace each person with the love that is within us. To recognize the love in them. Then greet each other with a holy kiss — or at least — a hug. Amen.

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