First reading: Isa 55:1-3
Psalm: Ps 145:8-9, 15-16, 17-18
Epistle: Rom 8:35, 37-39
Gospel: Matt 14:13-21

The hand of the Lord feeds us; he answers all our needs.

What an amazing thing it is to have life in Christ Jesus, for He feeds us and answers all of our needs.

All of our readings and today’s Gospel point to the fact that God gives us everything. We see God’s giving nature when we see the manner in which He gives us all the things we recognize as basic needs. Whatever our basic need the authors show them as being met.

In our first reading from the prophet Isaiah we recognize our lack, and God’s giving. We are thirsty, God sets the water before us and says come to the water. We have no money, we can come and receive grain and eat — for free. Without paying or cost we receive wine and milk! We shall eat well and delight in rich fare. In the end by listening to God, by heeding Him, and by coming to Him we receive the most precious gift of all — life.

The psalmist sings of God’s gifts. He declares that God is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness. God is good and compassionate to us, His works. He feeds us from His hand and answers all our needs: food in due season; the desire of every living thing.

In God’s giving we have the very same assurance St. Paul saw; that nothing can separate us from the love of Christ. The sadness of the world and the powers of nature cannot match God’s loving gift to us. When we face anguish, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, angels, principalities, present things or future things, powers, height or depth, any creature, the sword, life or death itself, even all if they be combined against us are not enough to overcome God. God among us and with us in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The Gospel story is well known. It exhibits Jesus’ power to feed us from our inadequacy. The few loaves and fishes equal our inadequate gift. In seeing Jesus’ use of our poor offering, our poor selves, we come to the realization that His love, His giving conquers all.

Brothers and sisters,

God speaking through Isaiah asks:

Why spend your money for what is not bread;
your wages for what fails to satisfy?

Looking closely we see that God lays all these gifts in front of us. He says: —Here’s the water.— Then He asks us to come and drink. There’s the disconnect. All the gifts are there, all the opportunities to take our fill are before us, but we have to do it. We have to go for the water that’s there.

We think that the problems we face in life are exactly the excuse we need to step over God’s gifts. It is the willful way we choose to ignore the water that’s right in front of us and to go in search of other water, water we think will be sweeter or more satisfying. We fail when we choose to drown out God’s gifts by failing to recognize that all fulfillment rests in God. When we reject total unity with God and His teaching we fail. We fail when we spend all we have, up to and including our everlasting souls, on the things that will not satisfy.

Friends,

Certainly we are in a tough position, with all the noise around us, all the choices that seem easier than choosing the water God gives, but as my older daughter recently told me, just remember to breathe. Each breath we take is a pause in the time line, a brief respite to focus on what’s right in front of us. What’s there is God’s gift.

Here we are, today, so let’s start. When we come forward to receive the Lord in the Eucharist we should just stop and breathe. Look at the gift presented to us. Breathe, pause a moment, and say Amen to the gift.

Recognize that He is feeding us and He is fulfilling our needs. His grace is transformative. In that moment and in its aftermath we are changed.

Change will come because God promises it. By choosing God’s gift we will recognize the moment and the gift. Thereafter we will recognize more moments and more gifts. We will begin to recognize that God is taking the meager gift we have to offer and that He is changing our small gift into a bigger, better, more perfect gift. In the end we will forget about chasing after that other water. Our unsettled hearts will settle on and in Christ. We will be fed by His word and our way of life will become all — in and for God.

By our conformity to God, by our transformation we become God’s gift to the world. Our transformed selves work within His Holy Church to spread the joyful message. It is the message Bishop Hodur proclaimed, that our Holy Polish National Catholic Church continues to proclaim, it is Christ’s message — see the gifts I have laid before you, the food that is everlasting. Come to Me, be healed, be transformed, be regenerated, have life and live forever.

Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; he who comes to me shall not hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst.”

Amen.

First reading: 1 Kings 3:5,7-12
Psalm: Ps 119:57, 72, 76-77, 127-128, 129-130
Epistle: Rom 8:28-30
Gospel: Matt 13:44-52

And he replied,
—Then every scribe who has been instructed in the kingdom of heaven
is like the head of a household
who brings from his storeroom both the new and the old.—

The old and the new. Today’s readings and Gospel are an exposition of the differences between the old and the new as well as a caution concerning the old and the new.

In our first reading we see a scenario we are very familiar with. God is speaking to one of His kings in much the same way He spoke to other kings and prophets. He says that Solomon should ask Him for something. Solomon asks for wisdom and he receives that gift, plus so much more.

The conflict we see in many of the Old Testament books is one between God’s select messenger, a king or prophet, and the stubborn people of Israel. In many cases the people just wouldn’t listen. Jesus accused the lawyers, scribes, and Pharisees in regard to what they did to the prophets. In Luke 11:47-48 He said:

Woe to you! for you build the tombs of the prophets whom your fathers killed.
So you are witnesses and consent to the deeds of your fathers; for they killed them, and you build their tombs.

That was the old. St. Paul tells us how it is to be in the New Covenant in Jesus Christ:

We know that all things work for good for those who love God,
who are called according to his purpose.

In our Christian life we are all called. We listen to and serve God as a community. We know that we are called for God’s purpose, to work as one, not as individual prophets each offering our personal take on God, but as a prophetic people united in voice and in teaching.

As Jesus’ people we witness our life and our conformity with Him most directly and completely when we come together as community. We do that here in church and when we go from church as brothers and sisters united in our mission to convert the world. When we are united in bringing the knowledge of Christ to those who do not know Him.

Brothers and sisters,

That is the difference between the old and the new. In the new we cannot rely on one man, one woman, or one committee to witness to Christ. We are all His prophets, His teachers, and His Holy Church. We are all called according to God’s purpose.

In fully understanding the difference between old and new we must recognize Jesus’ caution. What did the person who found the property with the buried treasure or the pearl of great value do? Jesus tells us:

he goes and sells all that he has and buys it.

To buy something we have to have made some investment mustn’t we? We had to have worked at building up those things we own. Today we would think of that in terms of our savings and investments. The man who found the buried treasure and the pearl of great value did not throw out the old investment to get the new. Rather he built upon the old investment in acquiring the new.

So it is in Jesus’ caution. The scribe, and Jesus was talking about a faithful scribe, someone who was more than a person who wrote things down, but rather a person learned in the law who also had knowledge of God’s kingdom, has to be like the head of the household, —who brings from his storeroom both the new and the old.—

The storeroom contains both the old and the new. Both are necessary, the aged wine and the fresh grain. This applies to us in this way: We must build upon our past and we must recognize it as the foundation upon which our Christian life is built. We cannot throw out the old and simply replace it with the new. We need old which the new is founded upon.

The Christian life is built upon 2,000 years of faith and Tradition. It is the Gospel of Christ, the teaching of the Apostles, the words of the Fathers and the great Councils. It is the creeds and Holy Liturgy practiced by the Apostolic line of bishops right down to the current day. It is men who conform themselves to Christ and are commissioned as His teachers; priests and deacons sent forth in the same way the Apostles sent forth presbyters and deacons. It is a 2,000 year old investment in the things that will bring about change in our lives. The things that will assist us in conforming ourselves to Christ and His mission.

We are cautioned to build upon the past and to be very careful in not just discounting the 2,000 year old treasure of Catholic teaching we have been given.

What we have is a valuable treasure. Our Holy Polish National Catholic Church proclaiming the truth consistent with Holy faith and Tradition right now, in this age. Today we are sent forth as a prophetic people, as a community of faith built on a solid foundation. Let us join our hearts and hands in working for the Kingdom of God. Amen.

—The kingdom of heaven is like yeast
that a woman took and mixed with three measures of wheat flour
until the whole batch was leavened.—

I thought I would begin with this passage from today’s gospel because we members of the PNCC are very familiar with these women who work diligently at making wonderful breads and treats. Now think about that. Imagine a woman adding yeast to the flour, mixing it, kneading it, carefully placing it in a bowl in a warm corner of the kitchen, waiting several hours for the bread to rise, and finding?

Now if she used the proper ingredients, and most of all good living yeast, the dough will have risen. It’s a kind of on and off thing, either the bread properly rises or it doesn’t. You don’t see half the dough rising and half laying flat, unleavened. So it is with God’s word and the Holy Spirit’s work among us. It works on the whole of humanity.

This is a remarkable promise really. The thing that gives us growth, the thing that brings us to the state we are to be in, is God’s word — and it’s remarkable because it works among those who hear it and among those who reject it.

Think of the day’s first parable:

When the crop grew and bore fruit, the weeds appeared as well.

We can also liken God’s word to the soil, the foundation upon which the crops and weeds grew. They both take nutrients from that soil. They grew together in that soil. The foundation God has laid is equally available to those who bear good fruit and to those who bear only brambles and waste.

God’s word and the work of the Holy Spirit are like that soil, like that yeast. They are working in the world each day, among those who accept our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ and among those who turn from Him.

Of course it’s easy to think of those who turn away in simple terms:

The Son of Man will send his angels,
and they will collect out of his kingdom
all who cause others to sin and all evildoers.
They will throw them into the fiery furnace,
where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.

Brothers and sisters,

We must read those words in the light of the balance of scripture:

And you taught your people, by these deeds,
that those who are just must be kind;
and you gave your children good ground for hope
that you would permit repentance for their sins.

God permits repentance and gives us hope. All of humanity exists as the children of God and all of humanity has good ground for hope. That is why He told us through the Prophet Isaiah:

so shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth;
it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
and prosper in the thing for which I sent it.

His word will not return to Him without yield. His foundation, like the soil, will nourish the hard of heart along with the faithful. Those who are closed to Him may not hear Him now, may not feel nourished by Him now, but eventually, here in this life or in the next, they will hear Him and will have every opportunity to be nourished by Him.

God’s yeast is working in the world, on those who reject Him and those who accept Him. That yeast provides the whole of humanity with the opportunity to be nourished and changed. This is our hope; that in the hearing of the word humanity will be changed. This is our hope, that in the hearing of the word all will take the opportunity for a change of heart.

My friends,

We cannot pull-one-over on God. We cannot fool Him. He understands us and our weakness. St. Paul reassures us because he knew the weakness of man. He knew that our longing for God, whether hobbled by simple weakness or constrained by a cold heart, will break through because the Spirit is at work in the world interceding for us.

The Spirit comes to the aid of our weakness;
for we do not know how to pray as we ought,
but the Spirit himself intercedes with inexpressible groanings.

What we need to take from today is the fact that those who take Jesus’ advice:

“Whoever has ears ought to hear.—

…in the here and now will shine like the sun. Therefore, we ought to hear. We ought to hear the Lord when our weakness gets the better of us and we fall into sin. We ought to hear Him when we close our eyes, ears, and hearts to a particular teaching of the Holy Church, that is, when we rationalize our sins as not being sin. We ought to hear Him and understand that we are to practice at our hearing, working on it, exercising it in preparation for the last day. The tools to work and exercise our living in accord with God’s word are available to us: scripture, prayer, fasting, penance, consistently making the right call when faced with temptation; saving ourselves from the pain of a longer separation from God.

God’s promise is remarkable and He is working in the hearts of every man, woman, and child. This is our human dignity. God lives in and among all His children. Our work and our faithfulness, our steady assent to the Lord is our return for His faithfulness to us. It will bring us ever closer to the heavenly reward that awaits us. For those who choose not to listen now, you are not rejected, without hope, and the door remains open. Yet, now is the time of urgency, and this is the place to begin. Let us begin our assent to God with hard work and a steadfast heart filled with hope. “Whoever has ears ought to hear.— Amen.

The disciples approached him and said,
—Why do you speak to them in parables?—

The disciples were afraid and I am afraid, because Jesus’ message is a scary proposition and sometimes we feel as if we just don’t get it.

Certainly the disciples weren’t asking a simple question regarding the Lord’s approach to teaching. What they were admitting was that they didn’t get it. Jesus knew that. He said:

—Hear then the parable of the sower.—

…and he went on to explain the parable. He helped them in figuring it all out. Thankfully they were wise enough to remember His words and record them for us. He also told them that they were the chosen ones to whom —knowledge of the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven has been granted.— What a blessed assurance that is. To hear the Lord say:

—blessed are your eyes, because they see,
and your ears, because they hear.
Amen, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people
longed to see what you see but did not see it,
and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.—

Truly the disciples were no different from the rest of the population of Israel. They had worked like the rest. They had families like the rest. They struggled like the rest. They went to synagogue and offered sacrifice at the Temple at the appropriate times, but for some reason they were set apart to hear and see the things the prophets had longed for. They were set apart and chosen by God. It wasn’t something they earned by good fishing or good tax collecting. It just was, and they, like us, were afraid because sometimes they just didn’t get it. Here was Jesus offering these parables, and they watched the learned who just didn’t get it. The wise were confounded and here were the simple disciples thinking, well if they don’t get it what about me? Jesus turned and offered the little ones, whom we’ve heard so much about over the past several Sundays, reassurance. Reassurance from God destroys fear.

Brothers and sisters,

We come here every week and somewhere deep in our psyche we wonder. Am I saved? Will Jesus welcome me into heaven? Am I doing right by God, the Holy Church, my family, my fellow man, and humanity in general? Do I know God’s will for me and how I should carry out that will? The questions are innumerable and the worry can be very deep.

We think that if we have faith in God, and follow the teachings of the Holy Church, all will be well. We want to believe that, but we still wonder, we still question. We still say, —why do you speak in parables?— Can’t we just get direct assurance, like the disciples did, hearing Jesus Christ tell us:

—blessed are your eyes, because they see,
and your ears, because they hear.—

My friends,

God is saying that to us. We have His assurance. While we cannot do anything to assure ourselves and give ourselves an ironclad guarantee of salvation we do know that we are privileged to have received the secret that has been shared with us, God’s little ones. The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus is our assurance and we have been set apart to hear and see the things the prophets had longed for. We didn’t make it happen. We can’t do anything about it. We are here because God chose us. He chose us and like the disciples we have accepted God’s love and His revelation. Jesus takes us aside every Sunday in the beautiful sacrament of the Word and He continues to teach us, to fill in the blanks and answer the questions for us. This sacrament flows from God’s promise to the prophet Isaiah:

so shall my word be
that goes forth from my mouth;
my word shall not return to me void,
but shall do my will,
achieving the end for which I sent it.

We have that word, that teaching, right here in our Holy Polish National Catholic Church. God’s word and revelation are assuring us of our destiny. They are doing God’s will in our hearts and minds through the power of sacramental grace, and they offer the promise of salvation to us because we have chosen to listen to those words.

Brothers and sisters,

Now it’s time for the scary proposition. We only begin our cooperation with God in the hearing of the word. To carry out God’s word we must act. In acting out God’s words we are achieving the ends for which God sent those words – the hundred or sixty or thirtyfold return on God’s investment in us.

We know that hundred percent guarantees and hundredfold returns do not exist in this world, but God offers each of us His one-hundred percent eternal guarantee and by carrying out His word hundredfold returns will be realized. God is telling us: Hear My word, do My will, be saved and bring the message of salvation to others.

Let us end by considering Paul’s teaching to the Romans:

Brothers and sisters:
I consider that the sufferings of this present time are as nothing
compared with the glory to be revealed for us.

Our wondering, our uncertainly, even our physical, financial, and psychological sufferings are meaningless in light of what God will reveal through us and for us. That is the promise of the glory we will see.

For creation awaits with eager expectation
the revelation of the children of God

We are God’s children and what we reveal to the world – through our faith, our prayer life, our acts of charity, the way we treat each other, our families, strangers, those in need, everything we do to carry out God’s word – is reflective of God among us. The revelation we preach will bring the hundredfold return.

We know that all creation is groaning in labor pains even until now;
and not only that, but we ourselves,
who have the firstfruits of the Spirit,
we also groan within ourselves
as we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies.

As we work, as we struggle, as we bear the truth of God’s word to all of humanity, we groan. We know the struggle is difficult, sometimes painful, and sometimes even as costly as life itself. All the time we groan because while we work we eagerly anticipate the fulfillment of that work, the hundred percent guarantee of God given to those who hear His word and do His work, and the hundredfold return God’s word will bring, through you and me.

So now we have the answer. No more fear, no questioning, only knowing that we have something precious, and assurance for fulfilling the mission we have been given, to bring Jesus Christ to all. Amen.

—Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me,
for I am meek and humble of heart;
and you will find rest for yourselves.
For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.—

Today’s readings and the words of the Holy Gospel point us to one thing: In Christ everything is changed.

The prophet Zechariah points to the one who will come, the Savior, Who is meek, Who comes riding an ass. Our Savior, Jesus Christ, who comes to us as a very ordinary man in the humblest of circumstances. The babe from the stable comes not in triumphant array, but rather as one like us, a simple, meek, and humble man riding into town in the simplest of ways. God begins by showing us actual change. He sets our common understanding of how things should be, of what’s important, on its head.

How extraordinarily common and how perfectly clear the revelation of our Lord and Savior. The prophet Isaiah went so far as to say that the Savior:

had no form or comeliness that we should look at him,
and no beauty that we should desire him.

So in fact there was noting about Jesus that was attractive as man counts “attractive.” People didn’t follow Him because He was good looking or because He “had it all” as the world counts —having it all.— Rather, people followed and have been following Him for 2,000 years simnply because He changes everything.

Building on this theme St. Paul tells us

You are not in the flesh;
on the contrary, you are in the spirit,
if only the Spirit of God dwells in you. —¨

In other words there is nothing in or of the world, no beauty, no magnificence, no power, no weapon, no worry, no burden, no concern, nothing of the flesh at all that matters if our focus is properly on God, and our relationship with Him in spirit and in truth. That is how our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ has changed things. Jesus’ clear message is that He offers us the way that is true and eternal. He has shown us the way of God and the love of God. He changed everything including the way we as His followers value everything.

The problems we face, the cares and burdens we so carefully count, the many troubles we face are taken away when we live in Him. He wipes it all out. He takes our cares and burdens away. We are assured that God looks at things differently and that He counts differently. We recognize this best when we make an act of trust – complete trust in God.

St. Paul reminds us of this when he says:

we are not debtors to the flesh,
to live according to the flesh.
For if you live according to the flesh, you will die

Those things we thought were oh so important are not so important. The worries that trouble us are only symbols of death and decay. So Paul tells us: but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

Brothers and sisters,

This past Friday’s commemoration of independence should remind us that freedom, true freedom, is only found in following Jesus’ way. True independence, true freedom, is found in the way of the Lord. That is how things are changed. Our reliance is different. We place our trust elsewhere. We live in freedom that surpasses the freedom the world and the world’s laws can offer.

Now is the time for us, as a parish, and as Christian men and women to put those things we once counted as important to death so that we can live in Christ and live forever. It is time for us to accept the change we were asked to accept on the day of our baptism.

Do we sit here and fret over burdens and cares? Do we feel the weight of labors that bind us to counting the things that only matter to the flesh? Do we look at the Holy Church’s motto – truth, work, and struggle, and see it only in relation to the truth of worldly work and worldly struggle? It is not so.

Jesus has revealed God to us. Because of this we count ourselves among the chosen, the select. Because we share in God’s revelation we are set free from those things we used to count, but only if we choose to accept the change Jesus Christ brings. When we think of truth we must think of God’s truth. When we think of work and struggle we must look to Bishop Hodur’s message that man’s true work and struggle is aimed at entry into eternal life, to being regenerated and born into a life lived according to God’s way.

All that is required is that we take up the Lord’s yoke, His way, and follow in His footsteps. Then we will leave behind the things we used to count. We will leave behind what we thought was true and focus rather on Jesus’ truth. We will trust in God. We will put our focus on faithfulness to Him which begins and ends right here, before this very altar. In doing this we will be changed because Christ came to bring that change.

The ability to change is here. Jesus is offering it to you and to me. Jesus tells us that making this change will make like sweet. We will find rest in Him, if only, if only we change. Amen.

“Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me.—

Today Jesus talks about welcoming. When we read this passage we tend to think outwardly. Will those people out there welcome me as a disciple of Jesus Christ. Let’s take a moment to see who Jesus might be talking aboutA special note of thanks to exegesis and homilies from the following: The Great Woman of Shunem by the Rev. Jai Mahtani and Sermons from Seattle – Series A, Gospel Analysis: Welcome based on Pentecost 6A, Matthew 10:40-42 by Pastor Edward F. Markquart, Grace Lutheran Church.

In today’s first reading from the book of Kings we read of the godly woman in Shunem who showed love and hospitality to the prophet Elisha.  This Shunammite woman did something rather extraordinary:

she said to her husband, “I know that he is a holy man of God. Since he visits us often,
let us arrange a little room on the roof and furnish it for him with a bed, table, chair, and lamp, so that when he comes to us he can stay there.”

The Shunammite woman had already shown great hospitality toward Elisha, inviting him to come and dine each time he came by their way. Through these encounters she recognized Elisha as a holy man of God and for that reason she went above and beyond. She convinced her husband (who was elderly) to put an addition on their house.

Can you imagine? Let’s say that you run across a holy person, a real person of God, and you get to know that person. Then you talk to your spouse and you convince your spouse to take out a home improvement loan so you can add-on. Then you build an addition for this holy person, you furnish the room, and you give them a key to the house.

The Shunammite woman engaged in that kind of radical hospitality. She welcomed a prophet of the Lord and thus she welcomed the Lord. Because of this she received a great gift – a child.

Brothers and sisters,

Jesus wants the same radical hospitality. In the gospel He says:

—And whoever gives only a cup of cold water to one of these little ones to drink because he is a disciple–amen, I say to you, he will surely not lose his reward.—

Now in those days there was no such thing as a cup of cold water. Remember, no refrigeration, no ice makers, nothing of the sort. You couldn’t walk into the next room and grab a cold one. If there was water in the house it was lukewarm at best. To get cold water you had to run down to the well and draw it fresh and cold. Remember too that in those days there was only one well – probably in the center of town. It could be a couple miles away.

Jesus was going beyond the example of the Shunammite woman. She would have run to the well because her guest was a person of greatness, but Jesus tells us to draw cold water for the —little one.— Jesus wasn’t just talking about children, He meant the little ones, the least among us. He wants us to draw cold water, to serve the elderly, the forgotten widow, the abandoned, the poor, the harassed illegal immigrant, people outside of our social, ethnic, cultural, and class milieu.

The people of Jesus’ day would have said, —A cup of cold water for them? Unheard of! Insane!— But here is Jesus calling us to radical hospitality toward all. Radical hospitality to those who are like us, who we worship with weekly, and to those who are so different from us, who are unknown to us, yet who all bear the image of Jesus Christ.

My friends,

Jesus call is radical because it forces us to recognize the fact that we are uncomfortable with the unknown, the different, the stranger. We look at Jesus’ words and expect the world to throw the doors open for us, to welcome us as disciples, yet when the disciples appear, often times out of nowhere, we unconsciously screen them out.

Inherently, in every choir, in every confirmation class, in every Bible study, in every worship service, in every coffee hour the natural inclination is to be friendly to our old friends, with the members of our family circle or clique, and not to truly and genuinely incorporate others into our circle.

To succeed the old disciples who are outside of our circle and the new dsciples must all be welcome. Jesus has sent His disciples. We and they bear His image and His word. We and they seek welcome, warmth, love, and compassion. We and they seek a place in the choir, the confirmation class, the Bible study, the coffee hour, and at worship.

Paul tells us:

you too must think of yourselves as (being) dead to sin and living for God in Christ Jesus.

Living for God in Christ Jesus makes us different. It makes life different. It makes our task different. We must look with clear eyes, the eyes of Christ. The sin of exclusion must die. We must open our hearts and doors and consciously resist words that say welcome but actions that set us apart from others.

The disciples of Jesus are here and out there. They are seeking community, the Church where they can grow in Christ. That Church is here as long as we recognize our call to radical hospitality, to welcoming all. It is the role of our Church, our parish, and our personal responsibility. We all have a part and our welcoming makes the whole family of God greater. Amen.

how much more did the grace of God
and the gracious gift of the one man Jesus Christ
overflow for the many.—¨

Frankly, I struggled with this homily. So much in today’s first reading is negative. Everyone is hating Jeremiah. He doesn’t have a good word for anyone in Israel. All those around him want to either turn him of kill him. It’s an ode to ends justify the means. Please, let’s do anything we can do to stop him, to quiet him, to shut him down. Jeremiah doesn’t have a friend left in the world; all he has is God.

All those who were my friends
are on the watch for any misstep of mine.—¨
‘Perhaps he will be trapped; then we can prevail,—¨
and take our vengeance on him.’—¨

The psalmist too, he is outcast, apart from his people, insulted and rejected, even by his children, because he is faithful to God.

For your sake I bear insult,
and shame covers my face.
I have become an outcast to my brothers,—¨
a stranger to my children

With words like those I could launch into a preachy homily all about how faithfulness to God, in the face of every bad thing, is more important than home, family, friends, and reputation. I could tell you that God demands that we sacrifice everything and come to Him empty so He can fill us with every good thing.

I could do that, but I want to tell you about an amazing thing. In the face of all the bad Jeremiah and the psalmist faced they erupted into praise. Jeremiah says:—¨

Sing to the LORD,
praise the LORD,—¨
for he has rescued the life of the poor

The psalmist exclaims:

—See, you lowly ones, and be glad;
you who seek God, may your hearts revive!—¨
…—¨
Let the heavens and the earth praise him,—¨
the seas and whatever moves in them!”—¨

Brothers and sisters,

Jeremiah and the psalmist knew that God is the God of constant hope. He is the God of fulfillment. He is God who keeps His promises and cares for us.

I began by quoting from St. Paul:

how much more did the grace of God
and the gracious gift of the one man Jesus Christ
overflow for the many.—¨

Praise be God because we have the grace of God. Our Holy Church and this parish are encompassed with God’s total love and commitment. His Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, dwells with us. His Spirit enlightens, motivates, and strengthens us. He has drawn us together, a people of many opinions, many life stories, and many backgrounds in a testament to His wisdom. We are here for a reason. We are here because we are saved by faith in Jesus Christ, and because we wish to take the fruit of that faith and turn it into the good works, into caring and loving relationships with each other, all of which will bring people to Christ.

Jesus gave us complete assurance when He said:

—Fear no one.
Nothing is concealed that will not be revealed,—¨
nor secret that will not be known.—¨
What I say to you in the darkness, speak in the light;—¨
what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops.—

I also began by saying that I struggled with this homily. It was a struggle because it is often difficult to see the hope God offers. It is difficult until God’s grace opens our eyes to Jesus’ assurance.

It is assurance and a call to hope. What we have — faith — cannot be destroyed. Certainly, like Jeremiah and the psalmist, we will face difficulty. We will feel abandonment, loneliness, the anger of others, disparagement. Then something miraculous will occur. We will erupt into praise because we know Jesus’ promise to us. We know that He will acknowledge [us] before [His] heavenly Father.

St. Paul told the Romans that the gracious gift of the one man Jesus Christ overflows for the many. He told them that because it is true – and it is true today. We have God’s grace, the very same grace Paul spoke about, and we will never be emptied or apart from God because of it. We will never see things in the same way, or speak in the same way again – because of faith, because of grace, because of the constant hope of God Who folds us into His arms, His care, and His protection. Let us praise Him. Alleluia! Amen.

Indeed, only with difficulty does one die for a just person,
though perhaps for a good person
one might even find courage to die.
But God proves his love for us
in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.

…and isn’t that what Father’s Day is all about? Father’s Day is a day that honors sacrificial love.

Let’s take a few minutes to recall what fathering is about. Certainly it starts with children, but frankly anyone and anything can turn out babies. Even plants pollinate. So it isn’t necessarily about turning out babies. Fathering also includes things like setting an example, teaching, giving up poker night so you can stand in the middle of a driving rain at a soccer game, or giving up that fishing trip so you can sit through your daughters umpteenth dance recital. There’s a lot there. There is a lot of duty and most importantly, sacrifice.

Fatherly sacrifice does not mean that we give up our masculinity, our strength, or our guiding hand. Our wives and children need that. Those things are a gift from God – and are meant to strengthen and uphold the family. They are the means by which we render loving service as fathers. Service and sacrifice always founded in love and respect for those we were given.

On this day on which we honor fathers, on which we honor their sacrificial love, the Holy Church reminds us that the call to sacrifice is a call to follow in the footsteps of Jesus Christ.

St. Paul reminds us that God sent His only Son to be sacrificed, sacrificed so that we might say no to sin and yes to eternal life. God sacrificed so that we might be reconciled. As St. Paul says:

we also boast of God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
through whom we have now received reconciliation.

That’s the baptismal choice, the saying of yes to God and no to sin. What’s more, it is the opportunity to grow up and to model our behaviors, our lives, on the example of Jesus. Sacrificial love.

Let’s face it, it is hard, still very hard, to sacrifice, to give up one’s worldly reputation, to set aside one’s needs, to die to ourselves so that we might live for others. To die to ourselves so that we might live by the Way, Truth, and Life which is Jesus Christ.

Brothers and sisters,

We sit here each Sunday and listen. Today Jesus asks for two things.

First that we pray. Each day we are faced with the world’s reality – a lack of sacrificial love. We live in a me culture, gods that are me, Jesus who is really just like me. We find it easy to fashion our own personal Jesus – who is the image of ourselves, the image of our wants and needs. Our god is us – the one we find it easiest to worship. The ATM through which we easily slide our credit cards. In light of our selfishness, in light of the needs of the world, the sheep without a shepherd, the troubled and abandoned, our own sinfulness, we must pray. Master, send us laborers who will guide us in Your path. Send us good and holy fathers, priests, and deacons. Master, take our selfishness away and use us as You see fit. If we pray first our need for right guidance and counsel will be granted.

Second, we must act.

“Go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
As you go, make this proclamation: ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’
Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, drive out demons.
Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give.—

We must act because we are God’s holy nation. We are His Holy Church. God told Moses to impart these words to the people:

“You shall be to me a kingdom of priests, a holy nation.——¨

…and so we are.

My friends,

We must live up to God’s choosing us. That starts with prayer and ends with action. We are not here by accident or by mistake. We are called and we must get up and go. We must look at each and every person, every man and woman in this world, regardless of color, religion, or nation and we must be prepared to pray for them and sacrifice for them. Sacrifice out of God’s love, out of God’s Law. This is the sacrifice of parents, fathers, priests, deacons, mothers, servicemen and women, missionaries, and all workers in God’s field. The sacrifice of the people who model themselves after Jesus’ reality.

while we were still sinners Christ died for us

So too for us who must take after Christ. Life as a Christian is all about prayer and sacrificial love. It is dying to sin. We were buried in baptism. We went down into the water. Now we are reborn – regenerated into new men, new women. We are the new and everlasting Israel. We died to live a new life – eternal life. That is the promise we have received. That is what we are to pray for and sacrifice ourselves for – for God’s way – the only way. The way to heaven. Amen.

—I did not come to call the righteous but sinners.—

Faith requires us to do things that are completely crazy, outlandish in the eyes of the world.

Abraham believed, hoping against hope,
that he would become —the father of many nations, ——¨according to what was said, —Thus shall your descendants be.—
He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body
as already dead – for he was almost a hundred years old –
and the dead womb of Sarah.—¨

Can you imagine, the walking dead and the dead womb of an old woman setting off on a journey; a journey whose mission was to create a nation? Can you imagine the reaction of the relatives back in Ur when Abram set off for an unknown land – based on a call from an unseen God, based on a promise that was physiologically impossible? Today we would have these elderly folks put in a nursing home. We would think that they were failing, thinking unreal things, acting in unreal ways. We would be uncomfortable imagining them in bed together, trying to make children.

People of faith do outlandish things.

As Jesus passed on from there,
he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the customs post.
He said to him, —Follow me.——¨

Jesus called a tax collector and asked him to follow in His footsteps, to be His witness. Not only that, but He dinned at the tax collectors house, with other tax collectors and various notorious sinners.

Jesus, being a Rabbi, and knowing the Law, should not have done that. He should have shunned Matthew. He should have walked on the other side of the street from him. He should have avoided Matthew’s house, his food, and his company.

Jesus’ actions in this case were improper, irreverent, and against the tenants of the Law, at least the Law as the Pharisees saw it.

People of faith do outlandish things.

Brothers and sisters,

Like the people of Ur would have avoided Abram and his crazy thoughts, so too did those who were self-righteous avoid Jesus. People avoided Abram, they avoid Jesus, and they avoid and criticize His followers today because faith requires that we do things that are completely crazy and outlandish in the eyes of the world.

As Christians we are people of faith. Faith tells us that Jesus is our Lord, that this life is only temporary, that we have an important mission, and that we must be doers of faith.

The people of Hosea’s time were going through the motions. Justice and righteousness were a series of practices. God condemned them through Hosea’s words:

for it is love that I desire, not sacrifice,
and knowledge of God rather than holocausts.—¨

In other words, get in the game. Stand up and take action. Not action for the sake of action, but actions that show the depth of love we carry in our hearts. We are called to be 100% Christians, people who hear Jesus before they act. People who live the Christian faith in everything they do.

We are so weak, and so out of shape. We believe that we will be clothed in righteousness because our words are right and because we tread the well worn path to church each week. Know this, that path to church is only the warm-up. The words we have been taught are the rules. The time for the next step, for getting in the game, is here.

People of faith do outlandish things.

So must we.

Jesus came to call back sinners. He came to tell all of us, who are sinners, that through repentance, through following and actively living His word, we will be saved. Therefore, the hateful word must cease. Charity must prevail. Gluttony and lust must cease. We are to live restrained and continent lives. Greed must cease. What we have is the Lord’s for which we must be thankful and from which we must give cheerfully to all in need, asking no price in return. Let us come to Christ and His Holy Church – and go out equipped so that we may live up to the name we were given; live up to the faith we were blessed with, and the call we received.

Some among us will think, this is too hard. This is too much. Others will think I can do it. Know this, it is not too hard and we can do nothing on our own, but Jesus Christ alive in us through His sacramental presence and the Holy Spirit enveloping us will do all in us.

During this month of June let us resolve to allow Christ to take us up. Allow Him to do outlandish things with us. Allow Him to call us, to service as priests and deacons, to service as active members of this parish and of our Holy Polish National Catholic Church. Allow Him to lead us and let us surrender all to Him. For He said:

—Follow me.—

Jesus is waiting. This is the time. Amen.

Jesus said to his disciples:—¨
—Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’—¨
will enter the kingdom of heaven,—¨
but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.—

These words, from God, call us to forcefully acknowledge the true source of our life, the thing that sets us apart and makes us a people of God. That thing is lived faith in Jesus Christ. As St. Paul tells us:

They are justified freely by his grace
through the redemption in Christ Jesus,—¨
whom God set forth as an expiation, —¨
through faith, by his blood.—¨
For we consider that a person is justified by faith

St. Paul begins by recounting the fact that all have sinned. Even the saints sinned. Paul himself was tortured by temptation to sin, even after he received the revelation of Christ and put his old ways behind him. The presence of sin and temptation to sin is a constant, and without our Lord and Savior Christ Jesus we would be without hope.

St. Paul tells us that God’s answer to his prayer that temptation leave him was: “My grace is sufficient for you.” In like manner we have God’s grace. Like Paul we must not stop at having grace, but rather we must respond to grace, we must act upon it.

By God’s grace we are not left orphaned and alone, left out on an open sea, to be buffeted all the day and night, with no hope of ever reaching the shore. By this gift of grace we have all that we need to respond in the way that guarantees everlasting life.

Faith then is the wise person’s response to God’s grace, to God calling us to Himself. Faith is the entry way to a transformative existence, an existence that makes all that Jesus Christ said and did real and powerful in our lives, and in the life of the world. Faith is the acknowledgment of God as our Father, His will as our will, and heaven as our home.

Brothers and sisters,

We are called to transformation, to being the actual and present people of God in this world. To do so we need to consciously understand Jesus Christ as reality.

Christ is real and alive. Jesus is in heaven and is among us. Unfortunately, in our Western way of thinking, in our conditioning at school and at work, we tend to look at things as — things. It is very easy to fall into that way of thinking when we consider Jesus, Holy Scripture, and the Holy Church. We tend to view Jesus, Scripture, and the Church as something outside of us, rather than as something that is part of us, part of our very being.

We might be tempted to look at Jesus as far removed, as no longer existing in our realm. After all, we saw Him ascend to the Father. We may see Him as removed from our reality, up there, rather than as the One who lives in and walks with us.

We might be tempted to see Holy Scripture as a nice piece of writing, interesting stories and poetry, and a sort of treatise best left to historical analysis and philosophical inquiry.

We might be tempted to look upon the Holy Church as an out-of-touch corporation, governed by committees and men in funny looking clothes.

That is what Moses cautioned against. When he said:

—Take these words of mine into your heart and soul.
Bind them at your wrist as a sign,
and let them be a pendant on your forehead.—¨

…he meant to tell us that we must keep the reality of God ever before us. To this day Orthodox Jews wear Tefillin so that the Word of God becomes part of them, so that it is attached to them and is ever before them.

The Tefillin are symbolic of what must occur in our lives, as part of the new and everlasting covenant. In the new covenant Jesus lives with us, transforms us into His body, the Church, and teaches us through Holy Scripture. Our response in faith is our transformation; into people who do something vital, that is the work of God. We are to live and act as people of God, making what we know real and apparent to the world.

My friends,

Our faith response makes us free, from sin, from disbelief, and most of all from apartness from God. We become new men and new women, people who live as if Jesus Christ were standing right next to them — because He is. By our act of faith we are regenerated and by that faith we live new lives. In those new lives we bear witness, to our families, to our co-workers, to our club members, to the world.

Moses said:

—I set before you here, this day, a blessing and a curse—

The blessing is making the choice for God, being regenerated, being transformed into people who actively live and do what God wills and teaches. The curse is living in captivity to the world and to our base selves, to living as if God is far off and apart from us, something that doesn’t see or hear, and may not even exist.

The choice, the regeneration, the transformation, our being called by the grace of God, and our response in faith, are the keys. Those who grab hold of those keys and live in and with God, who really live as children of the Father, and who do so actively, will be the ones who hear Jesus say:

You are the wise one who listen[ed] to these words of mine and act[ed] on them. You built your house on rock.

Amen.