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Reflection for Pentecost 2014

pentecost

What it takes to
bloom

There are different kinds of spiritual gifts but the same Spirit; there are different forms of service but the same Lord; there are different workings but the same God who produces all of them in everyone. To each individual the manifestation of the Spirit is given for some benefit.

St. Paul is telling us that God brings each of us to completion, to perfection, to a full blooming of the nature we have in Him through the work and indwelling of the Holy Spirit. God sends His Holy Spirit to us exactly for our benefit – not just as individuals – but also as members of the family of His Holy Church. In the Spirit His Church is created and sustained. Its members manifest conversion through faith and contribute the gifts he or she has been given.

A good way to determine how brightly we are blooming in personal faith and as members of the Church is to measure how completely we have given our life over to God’s Holy Spirit. Consider Paul’s message to the Galatians: But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. Let us have no self-conceit, no provoking of one another, no envy of one another.

These verses offer an inspiring, and deeply comforting revelation of how our life, spirit, and actions will bloom when truly “spirit-filled.” It also speaks of the relationship that should bloom within the family of the Church.

Our lives and our Church should “bloom” with the fruit – the “blossom”—or living proof, of the Holy Spirit within us! People should be able to clearly recognize our fruit – in our actions, our words, and our lives.

“Love,” “joy,” “peace,” “gentleness,” and “goodness,” is the food the Holy Spirit gives us so that we can bloom. His goodness, wraps us in His love, comforts us with His peace, and calms us with His gentleness – and together define what true, lasting, and eternally accessible “joy of the Lord” is made up of.

“Longsuffering,” “meekness,” “faith” and “temperance,” are words that describe the characteristics we should display as mature, Spirit-filled Christian believers and most particularly as a Church family alive in the Spirit.

Sometimes we have to struggle when we are wronged or recognize when others are right and our ego needs to take a back seat. The food of the Spirit is sometimes painfully cultivated in us, but to really bloom we must stay committed to attain the best of what God has to offer!

Christian Witness, Homilies, ,

Reflection for the 7th Sunday of Easter 2014

185240-custom

Pray, do
accomplish

I glorified you on earth by accomplishing the work that you gave me to do. Now glorify me, Father, with you

In the New Testament, Chapters 14-17 of John’s Gospel is known as the Farewell Discourse given by Jesus to His apostles immediately after the conclusion of the Last Supper.

In the final part of the discourse, which we proclaim today, Jesus prays for His glorification, for His followers and for the coming Church. It is known as the High Priestly Prayer. In this prayer Jesus submits five specific petitions to the Father. The five petitions are: Verses 1-5: Petition for His glorification based on the completion of his work; Verses 6-10: Petitions for his disciples; Verses 11-19: Petition for the preservation and sanctification of “his own” in the world; Verses 20-23: Petition for unity of “his own”; and Verses 24-26: Petition for the union of “his own” with Himself.

The prayer begins with Jesus’ petition for his glorification by the Father: I glorified you on earth by accomplishing the work that you gave me to do. Now glorify me, Father, with you… Note that Jesus is not just asking that His Father glorify Him ‘just because,’ but rather because He has was has fulfilled the work the Father had sent Him to accomplish. Not just that, but He was moving toward the moment when that work would be completely accomplished in His passion and death.

Jesus sets the standard by which Christian life is to be lived. We are to seek only to do the will of God, to follow Jesus’ teaching and the path of life He gave us. We are to do God’s will in all things, whether it is easy or very difficult. Whether we feel great, or are suffering.

The world would tell us to run to sinful false gods and false saviors for comfort, especially when the road gets rough. The world wants to bury us in its false hopes, to bury us in the false saviors of food, sex, possessions, alcohol, bitterness, and self-loathing, hopelessness, and depression. If we live our baptismal commitment, if we fully realize that we have been buried into Christ’s death, death to the world, our living will be marked by continuously approaching God in prayer and doing all that is necessary to show accomplishment – a resume of doing God’s will.

Jesus then prays for the success of the work of His disciples – all of us. Jesus refers to us as the people who accept that He was sent by His Father to reveal the Father’s character and will. Jesus prays for us so that we might live in God with the very same love, affection, and glory that exist between the Father and Son. He prays that the Father accomplish this unity by keeping us steadfast in our baptismal relationship, persevering in faithfulness to accomplish God’s will.

Homilies, ,

Reflection for the Solemnity of the Ascension of our Lord 2014

ascension7St. Paul wrote to the early Christians in Galatia: “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20) This is not mere sentiment or piety, but is reality because of what has occurred through the “Paschal Mystery,” the saving Life, Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. We live differently now because we have accepted baptism into Christ’s death so we may rise and ascend with Him.

Living, abiding in Christ, is to be our daily reality. Christians are to live differently right now because we live in Jesus. We are to love differently now because we love in Jesus. We are to “be” different because our being is defined by Jesus.

On this Great Solemnity of the Ascension, and each day, we should ask ourselves this question: “How are we doing?” This Solemnity presents us an opportunity to assess the relationship between our baptism, our profession of faith, and its manifestation in our daily lives. Are we living now in an eschatological way – ready for the last day? If we are living in a committed way we are prepared for Jesus’ return, for as Acts 1 recounts, the angel told those gathered on Mount Olivet: “This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”

Our work of becoming one in life with Jesus will not be complete until the One who ascended returns and hands the re-created cosmos back to the Father. That is the promise of God and our urgent expectation. Come Lord Jesus!

Christian Witness, Homilies, ,

Reflection for the 6th Sunday of Easter 2014

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Let us see who
has given witness

Philip went down to the city of Samaria and proclaimed the Christ to them. With one accord, the crowds paid attention to what was said by Philip when they heard it and saw the signs he was doing.

Philip was one of the first seven deacons of the Church. The proto-martyr Stephen had just been executed by stoning (Acts 7). Saul and his men were going house-to-house, dragging out Christians and bringing them to trial, throwing them in prison, and killing them. By Acts 12 we see James the brother of John killed by Herod. The Church historian Eusebius tells us that James the Just, the Apostle and so-called Brother of the Lord was placed on the pinnacle of the temple, thrown down, then clubbed and stoned – for he would not forsake the Lord.

Leading him into their midst they demanded of him that he should renounce faith in Christ in the presence of all the people. But, contrary to the opinion of all, with a clear voice, and with greater boldness than they had anticipated, he spoke out before the whole multitude and confessed that our Savior and Lord Jesus is the Son of God. But they were unable to bear longer the testimony of the man… they slew him.

Philip was among those scattered in the first major persecution of the Church. Being scattered did not prevent him, or any of these others, from witnessing to the faith. Each of those we read about, and the countless number of Christians whose names we will never know, proclaimed the word and kept the faith in good times and bad.

This proclamation of the word and witness were not an accident. It was prompted by faith in the promises of Jesus. These witnesses lived in the Spirit Who had filled them with His gifts and strengthened them for the task.

Jesus promised those who would be baptized, who would come to Him in faith, would never be left orphans: And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always. They would always have what is necessary to witness.

The Spirit has drawn men and women – and us – to give witness. Thus, while the Church may have been scattered in persecution (persecution that still exists in many places to this day) witness has never ceased.

As we reflect this weekend on those who have given their lives in witness to national freedom, let us also reflect on those who are giving witness to the truth that surpasses country and nation. Whether we live in relative safety or are among the persecuted – are we giving witness to the truth? Let us abide in the Spirit and ask that He give us the courage to give testimony always and everywhere.

Homilies, ,

Reflection for the 5th Sunday of Easter 2014

deacons

Find and offer men
who love and are wise

“Therefore, brethren, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may appoint to this duty.”

The early Church was experiencing a need. It was growing rapidly; the disciples were increasing in number. That’s not a bad problem to have! The apostles were spreading the word. The twelve summoned the body of the disciples and said,”It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God.” They were devoting themselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word, but needed helpers. There are important lessons for our parish and the wider Church in this passage from Acts.

The number of disciples grew because the apostles were devoted to prayer and preaching of the word. Certainly our bishops and clergy pray and devote themselves to preaching the word, but we too must pray as Jesus’ disciples. We honor our call to pray for growth in the Church by collectively raising our voices for that blessing each week and in a special way on the first Sunday of each month. We should do so at home as well, spending even less than a minute in simple prayer – Lord, increase Your flock here and throughout the world.

We also pray for an increase in vocations so that the word may be solemnly proclaimed and taught. But, we too must proclaim and teach the word by living as Jesus asked AND attributing our way of living to Jesus.

Next we see that whenever problems arise we must not turn to ourselves and perpetuate the problem. Rather, we are to go to the apostles and seek their guidance. Then we are to act on their guidance trusting that the Holy Spirit guides the apostles.

The successors to the apostles, the bishops, turn to us and ask that we pick men from among our company who are reputable and filled with the Spirit and wisdom. Those who are to serve the church, spread the word, and baptize are to come from the people – and we are to make sure they have good reputations and are filled with the Spirit. It is significant in our democratic tradition of Church we find and offer men who are reputable and filled with the Spirit and wisdom to serve us. We then present them before the bishops of our Church who like the apostles lay their hands on them in the sacrament of Orders by which they receive the special grace of God and gift of the Holy Spirit.

As we pray and witness, as we trust in the Church, we fulfill our duty to raise men to fulfill these roles. They are among us every week, strong men, reputable, wise, and filled with the Spirit. Their love and wisdom model for us belief in and loyalty to the One who is “the way and the truth and the life.”

Homilies,

Fifth Sunday of Easter – 2012

First reading: 1 Acts 9:26-31
Psalm: Ps 22:26-28,30-32
Epistle: 1 John 3:18-24
Gospel: John 15:1-8

“I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit”

“Ja jestem krzewem winnym, wy – latoroślami. Kto trwa we Mnie, a Ja w nim, ten przynosi owoc obfity”

Christ is risen, alleluia! He is truly risen, alleluia!
Chrystus zmartwychwsał! Prawdziwie zmartwychwsał!

Following Jesus or starting at Jesus

If we asked our children to follow us we would quickly find out a lot about how we follow Jesus. Sure, they would follow us for a bit, trailing close behind, but then they would see a friend, and there they go. After a bit they would come back, only to be distracted again, look at the pretty girl. Back again, the next distraction, yummy food in the kitchen, the TV.

As we wait for our children to come back and follow us, so Jesus waits for us. But, can we become something more than followers?

Ben:

Children believe in greatness. Ask the most impoverished kid what they will be when they grow up, and you will receive big answers. Some will be firemen, some professional athletes, others presidents, kings and princesses. Ben remembered being asked this question. Looking the lady who asked square in the eye he said,”I will be a cultural anthropologist.” She had no idea what he was talking about, so he quickly changed my answer to “football player” and she patted him on the head and walked away.

Somewhere along the way Ben’s dream of greatness died. Truthfully, the dream never died for Ben, it only became covered over by selfishness. Ben was on a very bad path, a road to nowhere, but God stepped in. When God entered his life Ben finally reconnected to the great possibilities he remembered from his childhood. Ben found the right starting point, he was able to see Jesus as his starting point.

Paul’s change:

Paul met Jesus on the road to Damascus. This meeting brought him into the community of faith. It was his beginning. Like Ben, Paul reconnected to greatness. He went from Saul, a man filled with loathing for Christians, who stood by as Stephen was stoned, as someone judgmental, and found his starting point in Jesus. He went on from this new beginning to become an apostle. Paul then changed the world according to God’s will. With God as his starting point the message of Jesus would be preached to the gentiles and the Holy Church would grow to be open and inclusive of all.

Changes:

There are a lot of of songs, poetry, and stories about change. Reflecting on them two jumped to mind, “Changes” by David Bowie. Perhaps you recall the opening lyrics – “Turn and face the strange. Ch-ch-changes” and “Turn! Turn! Turn!” by The Byrds is the second.

Both Ben and Paul experienced profound change. They turned from following their own way to following Jesus. Then from following Jesus to making Jesus their starting point. They were changed at the very center and core of their lives.

Where do I start?

We gather today as people of faith. We gather in confidence that our beloved members of holy memory have not been destroyed, have not passed out of existence or into memory alone, but live as we will one day, with our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ as our one center. We should take a moment to consider where we are centered. Where is our starting point? So let’s take a moment to really dig down and answer that question.

Once we clear out all the noise around and within us, the obligations, our wants, needs, and desires, once we silence ourselves we will hear the voice of Jesus. We will feel the power of the Holy Spirit already in us, that lives within each of us as our starting point.

We all start:

We all start with God. St. Paul told the Colossians (Colossians 1:16) this:

For everything, absolutely everything,

above and below, visible and invisible, …

everything got started in Him and

finds its purpose in Him.

So if we listen, if we chose God as our starting point, His voice and His will will become a lot clearer. The noise will subside and will be replaced by the greatness we are called to achieve.

The vine:

Jesus tells us that we are intimately connected to Him, as much as branches are connected to the vine. As long as we stay connected to the source, the starting point of our strength and direction, we will have joy. We will be productive by defining everything we do based on our attachment to the vine — to Jesus. If Jesus is our starting point we will “bear much fruit and become His disciples.”

Our connection to Jesus, our starting point, feeds us, reassures us, gives us confidence, makes us part of something so much greater than ourselves. It connects us not only to our communities of faith, but to all who live in Christ in our world and in eternal rest. Our connection starts in our listening, in our dependence on Jesus as our starting point, and our clear decision to love one another, keep His gospel, and remain in Him.

Freedom in the vine:

Ben recognized Jesus call. He let Jesus assert Himself as the center of his life. Ben pointed out that the change in his starting point did not immediately fix all his ‘issues.’ But Ben did say that he found “a crack in the door to the greatness screaming to be released for within, and from the tiniest crack life will flow.” Life flowed into Ben. Marvelous work was begun in him.

Moving from mere followers to living with Christ as our starting point will fill us with life here and eternal life. It will move us to marvelous works. St. Paul prayed that this change would come upon the people of Ephesus saying: “May your roots go down deep into the soil of God’s marvelous love.” Just as a tree draws nutrients from the soil, we draw nourishment from Jesus – We are His Church, His community, all joined together in one source, one vine, one starting point. Amen.

Homilies, ,

Second Sunday of Lent 2012

First reading: Genesis 22:1-2,9-13,15-18
Psalm: Ps 116:10,15-19
Epistle: Romans 8:31-34
Gospel: Mark 9:2-10

“This is my beloved Son.”

Relatedness:

Today we continue our Lenten study of family focusing on the topic of relatedness, how we relate to the Father, Jesus, the Holy Spirit and each other as well as the things that mark, or indicate that relationship.

The dictionary tells us that relatedness means a particular manner of connectedness or relationship. The opposite, unrelatedness means to be disconnected.

In educational psychology human relatedness is defined as the ability to bond emotionally with others.

Allison:

Allison grew up in a loving and supportive family. She was an honor student whose life stalled, then careened dangerously downhill because of alcoholism. Throughout her life she felt disconnected, unrelated, and was unable to develop friendships. It was only after “hitting bottom,” and a chance encounter with a struggling member of Alcoholics Anonymous, Mike, that her own life was put back on track. At her second AA meeting Allison was invited to speak. There, she found her Higher Power. She recognized God in the faces of the people in the room. She said: “I saw it…the understanding, the empathy, the love…This is what I had been looking for all my life.”

Allison found relatedness. First in Mike who “got her,” understood where she was and her need. Then in that AA meeting she broke through and saw the love of God in her connection to others. What she experienced was a sense of belonging, relatedness.

Allison’s life bloomed. She is gainfully employed, supporting herself financially, with plans to buy a house. She has friends because, as she described it, she had learned how to be a friend, to be related. She went on to find a special man for her life with whom she has been involved for almost five years.

God created:

In our study of family, we realize that God’s creation is centered on our relatedness, our connection to others starting with our parents, siblings, and our extended families. We reach out from there to friendships and larger social relationships.

As we discussed last week, God works through families and the larger social family. In His creation, these relationship, this relatedness is at the heart of His design for His family.

References:

In today’s readings and Gospel we hear about relatedness. Abraham was put to the test, and the test required him to do the hardest thing possible. It is why its description is so stark, so shocking. Abraham was asked to sacrifice the son that he loved.

In our Gospel, the Father overshadows Jesus and the Apostles at the Transfiguration, clearing stating for all: “This is my beloved Son.”

Saving through relatedness:

In case we might miss it, God lives in a state of relatedness. He is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, three persons in one God. The center of that relationship is tremendous and perfect love. That is why God understood how hard of a test He was imposing on Abraham, and why He rewarded Abraham for his willingness to offer his beloved son as sacrifice.

Consider how we are saved by that exact relatedness. The Father’s Son, Jesus, was offered on the cross for us. While God stayed Abraham’s hand from sacrificing his son, God sacrificed His own Son, Who He loves with tremendous and perfect love, for all of us.

We are both saved, and assured of our relatedness to God, through the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus.

To God:

God loves us so much, so tremendously, that He gave His Son for us. We are not just bystanders, or people unworthy of love, unrelated. God loves us with the very same love He holds for His Son Jesus. In Jesus, we have become members of God’s family. We are children of the our Father. Jesus is our brother. Our relatedness to God, our connection to Him is not something we invented, but something God desired. God took action to create our relatedness to Him and to each other.

To each other:

By being made children of God we have become related, connected to each other. We are siblings.

Our relatedness exists in what we share: We have one birth into the family of God through water and the Holy Spirit. We have one faith. We have one Father in heaven and one Lord and Savior, our brother Jesus Christ. We share in the one Spirit. We speak the same language in worship and prayer. We do the things that family does – in spending time together, communicating, trusting, fulfilling each others needs during times of struggle, and celebrating together in times of joy. We share the same ancestors in faith and are joined with them, with our Blessed Mother and all the saints. They pray and intercede for us because we are all family.

In God we are connected. We are related. We are in a relationship with Him and each other. We are bonded as family, spiritually and emotionally with each other.

We have one goal, and it is not just getting to heaven because who wants to be in heaven alone. It is reaching heaven as a family where we will dwell as one. We will reach heaven through our relatedness, through the hands that help, support, and guide us, who pray for us in our mutual journey to God. This is our family of faith here on earth and in heaven. Amen.

Homilies, ,

First Sunday of Lent 2012

First reading: Genesis 9:8-15
Psalm: Ps 25:4-9
Epistle: 1 Peter 3:18-22
Gospel: Mark 1:12-15

“God said to Noah and to his sons with him: “See, I am now establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you.”

Families:

Consider Adam and Eve, Noah, Abraham. Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, David, Mary, John the Baptist, Jesus, and Peter – what do all these, and the rest of the heroes of the Bible all have in common? They were all members of families.

Noah had his wife, his sons and their families. Abraham had Sarah and their son Isaac. Isaac had Rebekah, Esau, and Jacob. Jacob had Rachel and Leah, and his seven sons including Joseph. From the Old Testament to the New, we see family.

Think too of all the words used in the Bible to denote family. The New Testament mentions brother, or brethren, 319 times and child, or children, is used 168 times. Everything we see of God’s revelation comes to us through the lens of family.

Theme:

Our Lenten theme is all about family. We will work though this Lent learning about God’s promises – promises made to the body of Christ, the family of faith. Our first reading, where God makes promises to Noah and his family, his descendants, is a foreshadowing of the way God relates to us as family.

God wants us as family:

God always deals with family, with people’s relationships to Him and each other. God isn’t building His kingdom on hermits and loners. Rather, He is looking to us as His children, and a single body — the body of Christ. God’s family is more than just the individual believer, a local community or church — it is all the faithful, past, present, and future joined together as family.

Remember that Jesus always referred to His Father as our Father. This wasn’t some sort of light saying, just to make us feel good. Jesus meant what He said. His Father is our Father. Jesus even taught us to pray, invoking the Father.

But its tough:

The way God set everything up can be tough at times. Family relationships aren’t always easy. You remember the old saying: “You can pick your friends, but you can’t pick your family.” Sometimes that’s said after a family member has disappointed us or let us down. Still, they are family, and we offer forgiveness and reconciliation to our family. That is the model for the entire Christian family. We are all related together in that way, and we share in one body and one blood – the blood of Jesus Christ.

The key is that family is central to our lives as Christians. This unity, in family, makes us stronger, heals our wounds, brings us joy, and allows us to support each other in tough times.

Reconnecting:

Jesus’ entire ministry was centered on revealing the Father to us. He came to rebuild His Father’s family and He accomplished that on Calvary. There He broke down the enmity between God and man. He healed our separation, our distance from God. There He reconnected us to God, and joined us together.

God is our Father, and we are Jesus’ brothers and sisters. This makes us His family and family to each other. No one is excluded or outside the family, and our arms are open to all who wish to enter our family. They can come, just as we did, to be born into God’s family through the waters of Baptism, by regeneration.

Road ahead:

There’s a lot to study this Lent. Today we have focused on the fact that God’s model, God’s way, is that we live as family. He is our Father, Jesus is our brother. We are members of one body – the Church which is the body of Christ. We have been born into this family and that same birth is available to all. Anyone can join God’s family by accepting Him.

From here we will learn about our relatedness, how we relate to the Father, Jesus, and each other and the things that mark, or indicate that relationship. We will learn about our responsibilities as family members. We will consider our importance to the family. We will learn about the gifts that come from being members of God’s family. Finally, we will rejoice in the victory we have been given by the inheritance that is in store for members of God’s family.

We are family:

God didn’t send Noah onto the boat alone, and He hasn’t given His promises to a few individuals who exist apart and alone. His promises and His love are for all of us as members of a family. God is our loving Father, and we are His children, brothers and sisters of Christ and each other. Amen.

Homilies,

Ash Wednesday

First reading: Joel 2:12-18
Psalm: Ps 51:3-6,12-14,17
Epistle: 2 Corinthians 5:20-21 and 2 Corinthians 6:1-2
Gospel: Matthew 6:1-6,16-18

Even now, says the LORD,
return to me with your whole heart

Focus (this morning):

Today, the first day of Lent. After three weeks of preparation you would think I would wake up ready to go. Well, this morning was not that kind of morning. Instead of waking prepared with Lent in my heart and mind, I woke in a haze. I focused on what I normally am, rather than what I should be becoming. I was self-focused. In the midst of preparing chicken and baloney sandwiches it finally hit me — it is Ash Wednesday.

It wasn’t just the no meat Lenten sacrifice, it was the sudden realization that I had a long way to go this Lent. It would be a journey from inward self-sufficiency, self-focus, to becoming emptied.

Emptiness:

Think of an iron bar. It is strong, complete, self-sufficient. You cannot add anything to it or change its nature. It is what it is.

Think now of a musical instrument: woodwinds, brass, guitars, or violins. These instruments are hollow. Their emptiness is intentional. These instruments are empty so that they may reflect what their master does – produce and echo music that is beautiful.

For my part, and for many of us, we exist like iron bars. We are who we are. We feel rather complete and total, solid, self-sufficient. Our task this Lent is to change from iron bars to musical instruments.

Process of emptying:

Lent is a process of emptying, of moving from the iron bar to a state of emptiness, away from self to becoming a reflection of God’s music, God’s light, God’s way.

Full of God:

In Lent we work to empty ourselves so that we become full of God. We work to reflect His light and His music. We recognize once again that He is the Master of our lives. We wipe the sleep from our eyes and clear the fog from our heads so that we can see our lives as part of God’s life; God who exists within us and within our brothers and sisters.

We are not separated, God here, us there. We are unified, together.

Lent gives us the opportunity to have God once again permeate, fill, encompass and saturate our thoughts and actions, our words, our deeds.

St. Paul reminds us that we cannot be self-sufficient iron bars because:

He died for all, so that those who live might live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died and was raised for them (2 Corinthians 5:15).

We have to live with a focus on being filled by God.

Full of family:

If you read the sign outside the church, you will note that our theme for Lent is God’s cell therapy. In Jesus we have been changed from a random group of individuals to adopted children of God, and brothers and sisters in faith. Our old mortal cells are being replaced and we are a new being, a new people, and members of one family of faith in Jesus Christ.

We must empty ourselves so that we become better family members. This is not just to our immediate or biological family, but to all the members of the family of God.

Throughout Lent we will focus on what makes us family, as well as the joys and responsibilities as members of the family of God.

Reconciling family:

Today we begin the process of reconciling, of emptying ourselves. Things like our Lenten self denial and sacrifice are makers along the road toward our becoming the people we ought to be. We are changing from iron bars – but we will not become empty, music-less instruments either. We will become, by the time we reach Easter, and for the days ahead in our lives, members of God’s family, each others brothers and sisters, and gloriously, the reflection of God’s light and music in the world.

Inheritance:

Our work, the road ahead is not without a promised reward. That promise is from God – that we will enter life everlasting as one family, as one people, as God’s children and as brothers and sisters. We have our inheritance before us. It won’t be paid out to iron bars, but to family filled with the light and music of God. Amen.

Christian Witness, Homilies,

Quinquagesima Sunday

First reading: Isaiah 43:18-19,21-22,24-25
Psalm: Ps 41:2-5,13
Epistle: 2 Corinthians 1:18-22
Gospel: Mark 2:1-12

“Child, your sins are forgiven.”

On the river:

Bill lives about thirty minutes from a river that’s a major salmon run in the summer. He loves fishing, casting long lines into quick currents, and when a beautiful, ready to eat fish hooks on, the fight can be fun and furious.

Bill has learned a lot in fishing, particularly about his relationship with the fish. Bill knows that going to the river to just watch fish go by is low risk, and there is little tension. The fish do their thing, he does his, and life is good.

Now, if Bill tosses a line out the whole game changes. Suddenly he’s a hunter, a seeker. He wants a relationship with a passing fish, or two, or three. Creating this relationship requires effort on his part. He has to rig rod and reel, cast a hundred times, and endure the elements of sun or rain. It also means pain for the fish, as hook enters its mouth, digs deep, and sends trauma through its body. And tension too! The line strains to constrain the fish from swimming downstream with the river’s strong current.

Who’s in charge:

Consider what happens when Bill hooks into a fish. Who is in control, Bill or the fish? At first it may seem Bill is. With his rod and reel in good working order, and the fish tugging at the end of the line, all he has to do is pull steadily, and account for any run, and in three minutes, the salmon is flopping at his feet, beached.

But for every fish landed, more get away. Some fish dash down river, snapping line like thread, but trailing that hook and line from their gums. Others jump and twist and thrash and tear flesh, but if lucky, dislodge the hook. Wounded, yet free, they win.

Still other fish figure out a simpler, braver path. Rather than pull, dash, or thrash, they swim toward shore, and approach the fisherman. When fish do so, you’re bound to see a frantic person reeling like crazy shouting “No, no, no—not towards me!” But if the fish persists, the line goes slack, and the hook comes out with a flick of its head. In cases where fish swim toward their enemy, they often gain freedom from pain and leave dragging nothing behind them.

Lent is nearly here:

As we complete our Pre-Lenten journey, God asks us to consider His forgiveness and the way we forgive each other. God asks us to consider the way He forgives, and that we forgive in the same way. We need to choose the kind of fish we are going to be.

Our choices:

Like the fish and fisherman, we are in relationships with each other. At times those relationships can be marked by struggle, tension, and pain.

Like the fish, we make choices abut our reactions to hurt. Those reactions may be to dash and thrash against those hooks, the hurts that stab at us.

We may complain or criticize; choose to focus on and elaborate on just how wrong the other person is. We might take the route of defensiveness. We may shut down or withdraw, employ the silent treatment. We may go so far as to treat the person who hurt us with contempt and disgust.

When we respond these ways, we’re like hooked fish fighting frantically to solve our dilemma. We may succeed in breaking off our relationships, getting away from them, but it will always be with wounds, with something dragging behind us. We will never be truly free. We remain wounded and burdened.

Isn’t it hard:

As we dwell on the hurts, the barbs that stick into us, we may consider other options.

Maybe they will come to me and apologize? Then I will forgive. That may happen, but in the waiting we are stuck where we are, we can’t free ourselves and move forward.

We might think that to forgive means we have to trust again. Those two things are quite different. Forgiving means that we let go of the hurt, the hooks that cause us pain. Entering back into a trusting relationship requires more. That’s a fuller reconciliation and a rebuilding process. Sometimes relationships aren’t ready for that.

Finally, we just might enjoy our pain and the bitterness the barbs cause us. If that’s the choice, then no, we will not forgive. But we will remain hooked and hurt, we will suffer the results — anger, anxiety, fear, migraines, and worse. We will be “hooked” into our pain, and drag it with us for years to come — maybe for eternity.

Be smart:

God asks us to be the smart fish, to swim towards those who have hurt us and forgive. As we do, we free ourselves from the barbs that hurt us.

Pain doesn’t go away easily, and true reconciliation and the rebuilding of relationships is a much longer process, but it has to start with our going toward those who hurt us. There we offer our forgiveness.

In forgiving we stop the dashing and thrashing that tears at our souls.

God’s way:

This is God’s way. When we hurt God through sin, we will always find Him swimming toward us, with complete forgiveness.

God doesn’t sometimes swim toward us — He always does, and His forgiveness is complete. There is no book of sins at the pearly gates. There is no record of our wrongs. God reassures us:

It is I, I, who wipe out,
for my own sake, your offenses;
your sins I remember no more.

He forgives us completely. One day Jesus’ disciple, Peter, asked him “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?” Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy times seven.” (Matthew 18:21-22)

We are not to take Jesus’ instruction literally, forgiving 490 times. We are rather to have His attitude of generous forgiveness. We should be ever-willing to forgive others, just as He forgave the paralytic, just as He forgives us.

As we enter Lent, let us resolve to do the same with each other. To forgive generously, and to swim toward those who hurt us. Doing so, we will be truly free. Amen.

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