22nd week in Ordinary Time

Our readings for the 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time are:

1. Deuteronomy 4: 1-2, 6-8
2. Psalms 15: 2-3, 3-4, 4-5
3. James 1: 17-18, 21b-22, 27
4. Mark 7: 1-8, 14-15, 21-23

1. What makes greatness?
• For those of you who don't know me, I'm late (emphasize that late) baby boomer generation.  My cultural heritage from my parents is that the U.S. is a great nation because it's the land of opportunity.  Moses was calling the Israelites to greatness of another sort.  How would you describe that greatness?
• Is a community able to achieve greatness if all of its members are merely "so so"?
• What would it take to make our parish community truly great, really unleash all of our potential, achieve true freedom and use that freedom well?
2. Fruits of justice
• How would you define corruption?
• Do you see any corruption around you?
• If we don't speak up about such things, most often because we're pretty sure that merely speaking up will get us nowhere, is that justice?
• Should we leave that "watch dog" role to the professionals, say the media or other groups who hold others accountable as part of their job description?
3. Being accountable
• No one likes a hypocrite.  In fact, it seems pretty evident that Jesus wasn't too fond of such folks either.  How do we avoid being hypocritical?
• Is there anyone in your life that you can think of who would have the courage to tell you that your actions don't match your words?
• Do you have the courage to do that for yourself?
• If you did have that sort of conversation with yourself, when in your day, week, month might there be time for that?
4. Immanent vs. transcendent
• How do you tell whether some belief or practice is truly of God, or just something that we, as a community have "fallen into"?
• Whose job is it to police that sort of thing anyway?
• Do you think that reform movements should occur in periodic spurts, or do you think that reformation needs to be an ongoing practice within a community?
• How would we foster that sort of mindset?

Preparation for Reconciliation:

1. Would my definition of success in life match up with Jesus'?
2. When I encounter someone who's "down and out", is my first impulse to find a way to help them, or ask where are the people who should be helping them?
3. When was the last time that I took inventory of my actions versus my values?
4. Do my actions spring from fear of missing something or an emerging freedom in Christ?

You can never be too careful

God, in His great mercy, has given us many things.
The patriarchs who inspire, our land to feed and clothe us,
Our great history to show us just who He is.
But most gracious of all, He has loved us through the Law.

Without the Law, we would be forever wondering what to do,
How to go about our lives, how to make sense of things.
To dishonor the Law, and hence God himself
By being inattentive in our obedience is a sacrilege against life itself.

But who can keep all of these instructions in front of them
Day in, day out, always remembering, always following.
So, rabbis through the years have built a fence around the Law,
To protect us from venturing too close to disobedience.

You start with something simple: Honor the Sabbath.
That means no work should occur on that holy day.
"What is work?" you ask.  Plowing a field is work,
But you have to be careful to not accidentally plow.

So, in deference to the greatness of God, and the Sabbath,
We are careful on the Sabbath not to push a stick before us,
Lest we leave behind a furrow that could be planted,
And thus we work on a holy day, and miss our rest.

You may say to me, but if there was no intention of work
Is it still a sin?  And I ask you, who can tell a man's heart?
Are we often not so devious that we delude even ourselves?
So, you tell me your intentions were pure.  Maybe yes, maybe no.

Better to not take chances with intangibles like intentions,
And stick instead to what we can see, hear, taste, touch and smell
And make sure that none of those actions strays toward disobedience
Lest we skirt ever closer to outright lawlessness.

This Jesus of yours claims to give you freedom
Tell me then, freedom from what, and freedom to what?
How has your freedom given you comfort when death draws near?
How has your freedom given you the resolve to do heroic things?

Tell me the answer to those questions
And I will tell you how we are different from one another.

Shalom!