Third Sunday of Advent

Our readings for the third Sunday of Advent:

1. Isaiah 35: 1-6a, 10
2. Psalms 146: 6-7, 8-9, 9-10
3. James 5: 7-10
4. Matthew 11: 2-11

• Freedom is coming
• I suspect that each of us is shackled by something.  Maybe it's a need to be in control.  Maybe it's a need to be appreciated and noticed.  Maybe it's an addiction of some sort, or fear of failure, an oppressive job, an abusive spouse.  God offers us freedom in all of those circumstances.
• How have you become more free over time?
• How did you first realize that you were bound to begin with?
• What had to change in you before you were able to step into that freedom?
• Was that freedom a "one and done" transition for you, or do you continue to embrace/appropriate that new-found freedom? 

• Being that welcome
• It's sometimes a challenge to welcome someone new.  They might be just a little different from the rest of the comfortable community.  They don't think the way that the rest of us do, they don't express themselves the way that we have learned to.
• When is a time that you felt personally welcomed?
• Were there requirements that you had to meet before you were "a full member"?
• How did that welcome change you?
• When have you tried to be welcoming in your own way? 

• Complaining about one another
• Gossip seems to be second nature to most of us.  Once I was gossiping full tilt until a good friend called it to my attention.  I just thought that I was telling them some of the community stories.  So they could get to know us better.
• Have you ever been in a community, even family, in which you "lost" someone?  Maybe they no longer felt welcome, maybe their views changed and they were no longer in agreement with the prevailing opinion(s) on key issues, ...
• How did that make you feel?
• Did you speak up about that?
• Why or why not? 

• Taking no offense at Jesus
• Jesus can be hard to understand sometimes.  It's easy to be offended at the way things happen in our lives.  We wonder what sort of God would allow such things.
• What is something that has happened in your life that made you wonder whether God really cared about you.  Or maybe you thought that God cared, but He just wasn't able for some reason to make a difference in your life at that time.
• How did that occurrence affect you, how did it make you feel?
• How did you pray about that?
• What did you learn about God in that experience?
• What did you learn about yourself? 

• Preparation for Reconciliation
• Where is God renewing me?
• What does God's justice mean for me?
• Where is God calling me to be more grateful for others?
• Where might God be calling me to greater trust? 

Tell my cousin I love him

Jesus my cousin has stirred up the whole region.

Hope blooms in the breast of the afflicted.

The lepers find acceptance at last.

The crippled run and leap for joy.

 

Yet here I am, His herald.

Confined to this stinking cell.

With barely any room to roam.

Hardly enough food to live.

 

Maybe I missed my calling.

Called attention to the wrong messiah.

And now I, and my countrymen

Are all paying for that mistaken identity.

 

This isn't my vision of a successful ministry.

This is not the stuff of a mini series.

I'm all but forgotten, rotting here.

With no one to tell me why I might be here.

 

I was in the sun for a brief moment.

Turning eyes and hearts toward Jesus.

And yet, and yet, if He is the one,

Why am I here when I have served so well?

 

I don't worry so much for my part.

I worry for my bretheren who look to me.

To help them make sense of it all.

After all, that's what prophets are for!?

 

Perhaps, rather than an anvil,

God is shaping me with uncertainty.

Rather than finding Him in the light -

He's calling me through this darkness.

 

Give me patience Lord.

That I might stay the course 

That you have set before me.

And find my joy in you regardless. 

 

Shalom!

2nd Sunday of Advent

Our readings for the second Sunday of Advent:

1. Isaiah 11: 1-10
2. Psalms 72: 1-2, 7-8, 12-13, 17
3. Romans 15: 4-9
4. Matthew 3: 1-12

• Making all things new
• God's action in our world seems to be about making all things new, rather than making all new things.  He's never started over, but always seeks to transform, to reinvent, to bring new life to what already is.
• Have you ever had a resurrection experience?  When something in your life gave way to something even better?  Maybe it was a child leaving home to begin life as an adult, or a relationship maturing to a new level, loss of a job to make room for a new career or a new take on work itself.
• How did you gain the courage to make that transition, cross that threshold?
• How did you come to realize that it was all for the best?
• Where was God in all of that? 

• Bringing God's justice, bringing God's kingdom
• Do you think that true justice has to happen for God's kingdom to be present?
• Do you think that God's kingdom on earth is the same as true justice?
• How would you define justice?
• What can we do to help bring that justice about? 

• Welcome one another
• I remember John Flaherty talking about the welcome that newcomers get at a church that he attended.  Newcomers would see a sign at the entrance to the parking lot "turn on your headlights if you are new here".  The newcomers each got a dedicated guide who would accompany them throughout the service so they felt welcome.  I love that.
• Welcoming can be hard.  Is there any one that you would have a hard time welcoming into a community that you are a member in?
• What about that person makes you uncomfortable?
• What does that say about you?
• What does that say about your community? 

• Bearing good fruit
• Richard Rohr frequently observes that Jesus never said "believe the right things about me."  Instead, He always called others to "follow me", which Rohr takes to translate to "do the things I do in the world."
• Who is someone close to you that has been fruitful for God?
• What are some of the fruits of their life?
• What of their attitude, approach, practice do you think that you could adopt so that you might become more fruitful? 

• Preparation for Reconciliation
• Where is God renewing me?
• What does God's justice mean for me?
• Where is God calling me to greater generosity?
• Where might God be calling me to be more fruitful? 

Get Me to the River

I can hear the labored breathing of my friends as they bear my litter.

Even in my wasted condition, I am quite the burden, today and always.

 

I too was once straight and strong,

Clear of eye and bold of bearing.

 

But age has taken its relentless toll,

And I lie here at the threshold of eternity.

 

When I heard of this cry in the wilderness,

This ringing invitation to awaken,

 

I begged them to bring me to the river.

That I might be baptized into greater awareness. 

 

I realized that old age has not brought me comfort,

But it it has given me occasion to reflect.

 

To ask whether the world is better for my passing through,

Whether I have given more than I have taken.

 

And I realized that I have never asked the important questions:

Why am I here?  What is my ultimate calling?  Where is my true home?

 

And I realized that this preacher offers the answer.

Not in words so much as in awareness.

 

Awareness of how content I have been to let others suffer.

Telling myself that it was no concern of mine how they chose to live.

 

Awareness of how much I have been given all these years.

And what a gift I could be to those around me.

 

I only hope that in this, the twilight of my existence,

I might burn just a little brighter than before.

 

Help others to find their way here, to the burning sands of the desert.

That they might find their own flame, though flickering.

 

That they might find the heart of their maker

Beating within their own breast. 

 

Shalom!

1st Sunday of Advent

Our readings for the first Sunday of Advent:

1. Isaiah 2: 1-5
2. Psalms 122: 1-2, 3-4, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9
3. Romans 13: 11-14
4. Matthew 24: 37-44

• Instructed in God's ways
• Faith formation is a life-long work that never really ends.  But for so many of us, we get to some milestone, often Confirmation, and think that our learning, our formation, our transformation is somehow at an end.
• Imagine a place where we all teach the ways of the Lord to one another.  What would that be like?
• How could we make such a community happen?
• Where can we start?
• What can we do today? 

• Action and contemplation
• Action without contemplation can often be frantic, seeking to find direction in movement, and meaning in accomplishment.  Contemplation without action can become decoupled from reality, sterile for lack of connection.
• How do you know when you have enough contemplation in your life?
• How do you know when you have enough action?
• Is the goal here for a proper balance, or something deeper?
• What might that be? 

• Awake from sleep
• A person sleeping may be present, but not aware, not engaged, to one extent or another, not conscious of the meaning of what is going on around them.  Full, conscious, and active participation in our lives is the goal of mindful living, intentional engagement.
• How much time do you spend trying to make sense of what is going on in the larger context?
• How do you achieve that greater awareness?
• If you had more time for it, how might you spend that additional time?
• What role does prayer play in that awareness? 

• One will be taken, one will be left
• I think that most of us are called to be "in the world, but not of the world.  To some extent, the reason that we do what we do makes all the difference.  Both to the good and the bad.
• Think of a period in your life when your work (paid or not) was particularly rewarding.  Why/how did you get into that work?
• Do you feel that you were, at least in some small way, bringing about the Kingdom of God?
• Do you think that anyone doing that work necessarily would be bringing about the Kingdom?
• Do you think that it is possible to do the right thing for all the wrong reasons, and do harm in the process? 

• Preparation for Reconciliation
• When did I stop learning more of God?
• Is my prayer informing my obedience, and is my obedience informing and shaping my prayer?
• Where is God calling me to greater awareness?
• Where might God be calling me to examine my motives more deeply? 

What Does it All Mean?

Survivalists know how to prepare for Armageddon.

Diesel generators, canned goods, vegetable gardens,

A home deep in the woods, with plenty of guns & ammo. 

All aimed at living off the grid, relying on no supply chain.

 

What preparation for the days ahead should we make?

Imagining coming persecution, taunts and jeers.

Should we form a commune in some remote location?

Form an alternative community away from it all?

 

That way, we could be pure in spirit, free of contagion.

Able to live how we want, worship how we want,

Pray how we want.

After all, who wants to live in Sodom and Gomorrah?

 

Or is our calling far more challenging?

To be that leaven in the dough of the world around us?

Serving as witness to a very alternative way of life,

That stands out in hope in the midst of despair.

 

But what if no one listens?

What if our very lives bring nothing but a chuckle,

Or worse, a yawn,

From those around us?

 

What if we never see that our lives make any difference.

Then are we total failures, spiritual nobodies in life?

Or is there something deeper, more meaningful for us?

Some hidden meaning, some deep purpose that's hard to see?

 

Is it possible that perseverance faithfulness, even hope,

Are what are asked of us.

Not notoriety, not success, not even notice.

Just steadfastness in the face of cynicism & despair?

 

I hope so. 

 

Shalom!

Christ the King Sunday

Our readings for Christ the King Sunday:

1. II Samuel 2: 1-3
2. Psalms 122: 1-2, 3-4, 4-5
3. Colossians 12: 1-20
4. Luke 23: 35-43

• Servant leadership
• We often seek God to lead us.  If God is a leader, how does God's leadership stack up against other great leaders?
• Have you ever had a leader that you would say is "Godly"?
• In what way?
• Have you ever been in a position of leadership?  Perhaps as a teacher, manager, parent, council member?
• What Godly qualities did that position call for?
• Were you able to the that Godly leader? 

• Can you go with me?
• Living virtuously can be a lonely way of life.  Not only are we in a culture that has little use for anything that does not contribute to the "bottom line", but to some extent each of us must find our own path to holiness in Jesus.  No two of us have exactly the same path to travel.
• Where do you go when you feel the need for an understanding listener?
• Do you look to them for advice, or as a "sounding board", a place and time where you can better listen to the voice of God as someone else listens to you?
• Do you see yourself being that spiritual companion to anyone else? 

• I can only imagine
• Jesus is the image and likeness of God.  Amazingly enough, we were created, are created, are being recreated in the image and likeness of God.  I look at my sagging visage, feel the steady march of aches and pains in my body, and I'm pretty sure that however long I have left to live, when the end comes for me, it ain't going to be pretty.  Will I be a better image and likeness of God by then?
• Who are some folks that you would say are an image of God for you, someone who shows you by their life who God is?
• What is it about them that makes you say that?
• Are they getting better at being God's image as they age?
• How is that possible? 

• Listening through it all
• It's easy to let personal issues like having half inch spikes driven through your wrists and feet distract you from listening to someone else.  Especially if you've just paid good money for a manicure.  But Jesus was able to be true to His identity in spite of all that.
• To be truly generous to others, do we have to deny ourselves?
• What does that denial of self actually amount to?
• How do you tell when your self denial has become toxic, to you and others (a martyr complex)?
• Is it possible to be generous by being truer to your essential identity? 

• Preparation for Reconciliation
• Where might God be calling me to servant leadership?
• Who around me needs a good listener?
• How am I imaging God today? 
• Where might God be calling me to greater mercy? 

Awed by Mercy

There was a dry, dusty breeze that day.

The sun beat down on us mercilessly.

Sweat gathered and ran down my body.

The heat of today's hammering burning me.

 

I glanced at my knotted arms.

Rippling muscles testament to many days

Spent impaling prisoners to crude wood.

And hoisting them high for all to see.

 

My commander is proud of me, my work.

Tells me that we help keep the rabble orderly.

"Nothing like good crucifixion" he'd say

"To help put things into proper perspective."

 

At first, "proper perspective" was simple:

"I'm glad that I'm not that poor sod" I'd say.

Then I changed and began to realize

Sometimes they stole to feed their babies.

 

And I'd realize that I was lucky to have steady work.

Gruesome though it may be.

I began to wonder if this sort of punishment

Was the only way to keep Rome great.

 

Out of curiosity, at first anyway,

I started to ask the prisoners what they were in for.

Some for heinous acts, some for petty thievery,

Others for unfortunate adultery with the proud and prominent.

 

All, all of them sent here to dangle and die.

No risk of pardon, no second chance, no dignity.

The sorry likes of me & my cohort here

The last human faces that any of them would see.

 

None of them thinking of anyone but themselves.

Not that I could blame them.

And once they were hoisted between heaven and earth -

The searing pain and fatigue soon took over.

 

But this man, Jesus.  He listened to another doomed man.

Jesus had been stripped, beaten, spat upon.

Everything taken away from him.

Except for His mercy.

 

And He gave that freely to a complete stranger.

And I'll never be the same again.

My longtime buddies won't understand.

My family will think that I've "gone native".

 

But somehow, I need to find a life -

Where I can start showing mercy rather than efficiency

Give honor to this miracle of mercy that I've witnessed here

And maybe find this Jesus still walking our streets today.

 

Shalom!

33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

Our readings the 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time:

1. Malachi 3: 19-20a
2. Psalms 98: 5-6, 7-8, 9
3. 2 Thessalonians 3: 7-12
4. Luke 21: 5-19

• You're going to get yours!
• It's easy to regard the second coming as a great restoration, a giant "reset" in the world and a point in history when suddenly all wrongs will be righted, those who have steadfastly persevered in their faith will be rewarded, and the rotten folks who made the faithful's lives miserable will finally get what's coming to them.
• Has there been anyone who deliberately set out to make life difficult for you?
• How did you pray for them?
• How did you pray for yourself?
• How did God respond?
• If you were as merciful as God is, how might you have handled the situation? 

• Justice on the installment plan
• What are some injustices in the world around you today?
• What do you think is God's will in those circumstances?
• When do you think that God wants for His will to be accomplished?
• What do you see as your place in making that part of God's kingdom to come to earth?
• What do you think is our place as your community? 

• Inspiring one another
• We should all aspire to inspire.  When we grow in holiness, those who have helped us along the way sometimes are privileged to be able to see that, and they rejoice in our happiness.
• Who are some of the folks that you have mentored, catechized,  raised, ... who gladden your heart when you look at them today?
• Do you ever tell them that?
• What about the others, the ones that you are maybe not so proud of.  Do you still pray for them?
• What is that prayer? 

• Lord grant me wisdom and courage
•  It seems as though the need for both wisdom and courage becomes more acute each day.  Not just the ability to tell fact from fiction, right from wrong, but the ability to know when its time to stand up for what you believe in, regardless of the consequences.
• What form do you think persecution might take in your life?  Might it be getting passed over for that coveted promotion, maybe your kids cannot get into the prestigious schools because of your faith, or your kids get picked on at school because your family is "weird."
• What would you pray for in any of those circumstances?
• Where would you go for help with those very real consequences of your beliefs?
• How do you think that God will help in those times? 

• Preparation for Reconciliation
• Where might God be calling me to greater mercy?
• Where might God be calling me to right a wrong, remedy an injustice?
• What of my life could/should be inspiring that is not?
• Where might God be calling me to stand up and be counted? 

 

Shalom!

Dedication of the Lateran Basilica

Our readings the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica:

1. Ezekiel 47: 1-2, 8-9, 12
2. Psalms 46: 2-3, 5-6, 9-9
3. 1 Corinthians 3: 9c-11, 16-17
4. John 2: 13-22

• Temple worship
• If God dwells in the temple, and He dwells in each of us, that would make us out to be temples.
• If someone were to come to you and say "I realize that I find myself more centered when I am near you.  Things seem clearer to me after we have talked.  I feel the Presence of God in you." what would you say to that?
• Would that make you likely to act/be any different around that other person?
• Perhaps there are some folks, perhaps several, who feel that way about you, but have never said anything.  What then? 

• Fear not
• Rationally, there is plenty to rightfully be afraid of if "the mountains plunge into the sea".  Here in earthquake country, that's more likely than it would be in most other cases.  In our minds we may believe that "God is our refuge and our strength", but in our hearts, that is another frontier to cross.
• When have you been afraid in times past?
• Was that fear reasonable?
• Did you pray at that time?
• How did you pray?
• Did it help?
• Do you think it really matters how we pray? 

• Take me to your leader
• Finding God in our lives is, perhaps, our highest calling.  There seems to be no end of places where He can be found.  Yet we still can feel abandoned, isolated, alone, forsaken.  Why is that?
• If God is among us, that suggests that we all have a part to play in fostering, strengthening that presence.  How do we find out what that part is?
• Can any one of us truly be the Presence of God without the rest of us?
• How far does that community extend?  Is it just whomever is in the room with you, your local parish, the faithful within your city, or is that community even confined to those who are consciously religious?
• What must we do to make that community stronger?
• How do we start? 

• The art of the possible
• A time, place, person, event, ... can be dedicated/consecrated to a specific purpose.  It's hard to dedicate anything to just one use, one purpose.  The favorite chair that you use for prayer might also be where you like to play with the grandchildren.  Does that say more about your prayer time, or the time you spend with your grandchildren?
• What are some things in your life that you know belong to God?
• How do you treat those differently from the "profane" part(s) of your life?
•  Is anything really "profane"?
• If that is the case, what difference does it make to the way that you live? 

• Preparation for Reconciliation
• How might my life be a better witness for God?
• Where can I gain more trust in God?
• Where can I partner with God more closely?
• Where might there be parts of my life that I need to consciously give back to God?

Honoring God

I like gorgeous places of worship as much as the next person.

The architecture can be a powerful mute witness to the glory of God.

The care lavished on every detail bearing witness to the faith of the builders.

The commitment and perseverance shown by such a structure

Offers a stunning testimony to the faithfulness of the community.

 

But I hope that I have a heart that is even more moved by God's dynamic presence.

A community throbbing with life and generosity.

Giving of itself to those in need,

No matter who they are, nor what circumstances they find themselves in.

Where the voices of children, the elderly, the forgotten are the music heard.

 

Lord give me a heart of flesh, rather than one of marble.

 

Shalom!

31st Sunday in Ordinary Time

Our readings the Feast of All Souls:

1. Wisdom 3: 1-9
2. Psalms 23: 1-3a, 3b-4, 5, 6
3. Romans 6: 3-9
4. Luke 6: 37-40

• Words fail me
• Finding the right words to comfort the bereaved is never easy.  No two grief journeys are the same.  It is never wise nor even true to tell a bereaved person "I know just how you feel."
• If you have been bereaved in your life, where did you eventually find comfort?  Was it just the presence of loved ones sharing time with you, the thoughtfulness  of friends and family who were willing to just listen, maybe some really great lasagna that miraculously showed up in your refrigerator?
• What were the thoughts that went through your mind as you processed your loss?
• And of those thoughts, which ones brought you closer to God?
• If you could go back to that time, what might you say to those who love you and sought to support you through that season in your life? 

• Walking in the Valley of Darkness
• What is a "valley of darkness" that you have had to walk through?  A place that filled you with dread, where there seemed no hope of anything better.  A time when you felt abandoned by God.
• How did you make it through that season in your life?
• How was God present during that time?
• Do you think that you are the better person for having gone through that? 

• Finding freedom
• Probably most all of us want to be free from those things that bind us: prejudice, fear, greed, disordered attachments, and many other things that can get in the way of our service to God.  Yet sometimes it's hard to let go.
• What is something that you've had to let go of in your devotion to God?
• How did you become aware that you needed to leave that behind?
• Was it hard?
• How did that letting go change you?
• Were you ever tempted to pick that up again? 

• Nothing is truly lost
• In a sense, father Abraham lost his son Isaac on Mount Moriah.  Whatever relationship Abraham had with Isaac, it was fundamentally transformed on that mountain when Abraham took that knife, ready to slaughter the child of promise.
• Has there been anything that you have lost that transformed you?  Maybe it was a friendship, a job, employment itself, a loved one, maybe you had to move to a new place without warning, each of these losses is a death in our lives.
• Why do you think that God allowed that to happen?
• Does He need a reason?
• Do you?
• How are you a better person in the wake of that loss? 

• Preparation for Reconciliation
• How might I find God through my losses rather than in spite of them?
• Where can I gain more trust in God?
• Where is that better version of myself struggling to break free?
• Where can I partner with God more closely?

Shalom!