2nd Sunday in Advent

Our readings for the 2nd Sunday in Advent are:

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

• The price of change
• Very few of us like change for its own sake.  Most of us feel deep down that if some institution, some tradition, some effort is really worthwhile, it will continue, and thus prove its value.
• God seems to delight in taking a small piece of something, a remnant, and building something wonderful with that.  Think of Adam's rib, Noah's family, the small force that Gideon marched on Midian, the stump of Jesse from which Jesus sprang.
• Why do you think God doesn't just chuck the whole thing and start over? 

• What does "flourishing" look like?
• We all know what a flourishing plant looks like: abundant new growth, blossoms in the spring, fruit in the fall.  But what of justice?  What does flourishing justice look like?
• In your life, where do you see greater justice?  Perhaps more generous maternal/paternal leave programs at your office, perhaps job-retraining programs instead of layoffs, perhaps concerned citizens buying locally to support the local economy, perhaps immigration reform, maybe better attention to Title IX provisions, ...
• Do those improvements add up to a better life for just those in need, the marginalized, or do the rest of us benefit from them as well?
• What really separates each of us from the needy, the voiceless?
• Could that ever change?
• Should it?

• Mercy all around us
• How would you define mercy?
• When has God ever shown you mercy?
• How did that mercy change you?
• Are you more merciful now than you used to be?

• Good fruit is hard to find
• The fruit of the spirit (love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control Galatians 5: 22-23).
• Who are some people in your life who show one or more of those fruits in abundance?
• How did they get there?
• Why don't you ask them?

• Preparation for Reconciliation:

1. What is God building me into?
2. What am I willing to do to bring peace?
3. How am I growing in mercy?
4. What fruit am I nourishing in my life?

Back from the Desert

It had been a long, hard ride out to the desert
Sand eventually getting everywhere in my robs
Grinding into tender skin as a reminder
That our forefathers worked hard to get here
To the land flowing with milk and honey.

He looked me straight in the eye
When he sent my head under the water
And baptized me into readiness
For some coming Messiah.
I came up changed, freed, renewed.

And now, now I need to get home.
And somehow tell my wife what happened,
And find out how real this really is
This conversion that I've experienced,
This newness that I feel.

Because, if I cannot get her to understand,
Then no one will understand,
And if no one understands, I have to wonder,
Whether anything really happened at all?
Or if it was a wasted trip.

How then shall I live now?
Abandon everything and wait for Messiah?
Start praying daily to get closer to God?
Give more at the Temple?
Or try to pretend that nothing really happened?

But something did happen, I know it,
And I just need to give it a name so that I can call it
When I feel down, uncertain, lost
With no clear direction anymore,
No, clear guiding light in this life.

Something, someone, some cosmos
Reached into me and touched me
And I was one with everything
For just a moment.  I laughed and cried,
I suffered with the oppressed through the centuries,

And I knew that there was so much of life
That goes unappreciated because its not comfortable
And now I want to ponder it all, before, during, and after
Until I find the peace of the desert
In my right here and now

In my life.

Merry Advent!

1st Sunday in Advent

Our readings for the 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time are:

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

• Hospitality ministry
• Think of the various ministries that you are a part of.
• What is that community doing to draw more people in?
• How comfortable are all of you with the folks that you have right now?
• What criteria does someone have to meet before they can join that ministry?
• Who came up with those rules anyway?

• Peace in our time
• Those of you old enough to remember the 2nd world war, followed by one war after another ever since probably wonder what our chances are at ever achieving real peace.
• What does it take to achieve true peace?
• Where does that start?
• What is the relationship between peace and justice?
• What can you do to start building peace?

• At the gates
• It's easy to slip into a mindset that sees the world that we are in as threatening, menacing, and throw up defenses against the perceived threats.
• What are some of the threats that you see to yourself, your children, your community, our nation?
• Do you think that there are "the wrong kind of people" that might be trying to get into our churches, our schools, even our families?
• If Jesus ate with tax collectors and notorious sinners, how would He deal with those undesirable folks?

• Getting away from it all
• The examples that Jesus gives are all ordinary people, doing ordinary things.  Nothing about the one who is taken distinguishes them from the one left behind in these little vignettes.
• Jesus's words about the end times certainly paint a grim picture for humanity during those days.  What makes you sure that you will be spared the worst of those end times?
• What do you think it means to be "awake" and "watchful"?
• Do you think that we can/should be maintaining that level of vigilance on our own, or do we need others?
• What can we do to help each other be ready for whatever/whenever?

• Preparation for Reconciliation:

1. Am I humble enough to welcome new people into my community?
2. What am I willing to do to build peace?
3. Where can I be more hospitable?
4. What can I do to be more ready for tomorrow, next week, ...?

Arrival

The dust of past horizons cannot be found in our clothing,
The soil of other continents no longer clings to our boots.

But those experiences, those loves, the disappointments
All make us who we are, form the foundation of who we are becoming.

They are really all that we have to offer on the altar,
The only gift that we truly bear.

Not our wealth, or network of friends, or even knowledge.
All we have is all we are, broken, injured even, often afraid.

Nativity is not about taking and giving.
Nativity, arrival, our arrival to this universe bursting with potential

Is all about transformation, even a transubstantiation
Of those dark shadows into gifts to share with others

As they learn how to go through their own transformations
And we together shine the love of Christ

Bright enough to reach anyone who's looking
Bright enough to lead them to a vulnerable, helpless infant

The dawning of Christ within our hearts.

Merry Advent!

33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

Our readings for the 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time are:

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

• Doing good is its own reward
• All of us like to see the good guy win in the end.  In fact, one model of a dramatic story arc consists of the good guy finally realizing who they are, emerging into a dangerous situation that calls for the very best from them, early setbacks while they come to terms with the demands that their destiny makes of them, followed by a final triumph of virtue over vice, good over evil, courage over fear.
• What do you think of when you think of leading a victorious life?
• Is that victory something that you are contributing to now, or something that you plan to get started on when you have the time?
• Who are some folks in your life who were victorious in their own way?
• How do you define victory?

• Praise is natural
• David Whyte has a poem that I invite you to read at: https://onbeing.org/poetry/everything-is-waiting-for-you/ that invites us to be alert to our place in the cosmos, and the place of the cosmos in each of us.
• St. Ignatius wrote in his Spiritual Exercises a brief paragraph called the Principle and First Foundation.  You can read about that here: https://www.ignatianspirituality.com/what-the-principle-and-foundation-calls-us-to/.  There, Ignatius reminds us that all of creation exists to help us draw towards God.
• If then, all of physicality cooperates with our journey toward God, how ought we to regard those things that we posses?
• What about the people in our lives?
• How can we do better at a "balanced" attitude toward this world that we find ourselves in?
• How can we come to better appreciate the beauty that is all around us, sustains us, and inhabits us?

• Earning your keep
• Earning a living is more than merely an obligatory grind that we go through to put food on the table and a roof over our heads.  It is a doorway into the emergence of creation, an opportunity to join our hand with God's as creation continues to grow and evolve.
• How did you decide on the career/retirement that you have currently?
• Did you expect for it to be fulfilling?
• If it is not fulfilling, is that bad?
• For whom?

• Missing the forest for the trees
• It's so easy to lose sight of the why of things and get caught up in the what.  The Jews of Jesus' day found their national and historical identity in the temple of Jerusalem, but by the time that Luke wrote his Gospel, all of that had been reduced to rubble, and both the Christians and the Jews were trying to find the meaning of it all.
• What are some things that are truly essential to your life?
• What would happen if one or more of those suddenly disappeared for some reason?
• If that happened, would you still be able to say that God is good?
• Why?

• Preparation for Reconciliation:

1. What am I willing to give to achieve victory in my life?
2. Are the things in my life helping me to live more prayerfully?
3. How is my work bringing God's kingdom to earth?
4. What do I need to let go of in my life?

Beauty

The ceramic vase occupied a place of honor on the mantel.

Fresh flowers always on display bursting from its throat.

It was a bargain, a find, a steal even from long ago

Passed from mother to daughter for generations.

That vase had witnessed many family gatherings,

Wakes, and baptisms, weddings and funerals, and much much love.

Whenever the family members saw that vase, 

It put them in touch with who they were, who they were becoming.

It seemed to say, in its own mute way "times come and they go,

But love and what nurtures love will last forever."

One night, a fire broke out in the house, and they all had to leave.

Everyone made it to safety with hardly the clothes on their backs.

And someone remembered the family vase, there in the home's funeral pyre.

And no one had the heart to tell grandma that no one had thought to get it.

When they finally had the courage to tell grandma, she closed her eyes awhile.

And then she opened them, looked around at family and loved ones gathered.

And said "you are all far more precious to me than any remembrance.

All of you are dying, and reemerging as you go through life.

Each passing to make room for the next flower to arise from the ashes.

As long as we have each other, we don't need anything to remind us.

Let this event, this memory, remind us always that the important things

Can never be taken from any of us."

Shalom!

32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

Our readings for the 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time are:

1. 2 Maccabees 7: 1-2, 9-14
2. Psalms 17: 1, 5-6, 8, 15
3. 2 Thessalonians 2:16 - 3:5
4. Luke 20: 27-38

• Doing good is its own reward
• The danger in doing the right thing because you expect that "they will get theirs" in the end is that God's notion of justice is probably far more liberal than mine, and "getting theirs" may look very different in God's eyes than it does to mine.
• At the end of the day, what is the reason that you make the tough calls, the hard decisions?
• Do those tough decisions ever get any easier?
• If someone were to tell you that there were some colossally hard decisions coming your way, how would you prepare for that?
• What's stopping you?

• Mighty in prayer
• History is festooned with men and women of prayer who are bold before God to the point of seeming audacious.
• Do you think that God wants bold followers?
• What do you think leads to that sort of relationship with God?
• Is it worth it?

• Finding strength
• There is more to strength than moving weight around.  Profound strength can be found in those who have the courage and determination to keep working at something long after conventional wisdom would conclude that they are wasting their time.
• Where do you find the strength to do the difficult things in your life?
• Is that strength increasing?
• What are you doing to pass that strength along to others?

• Missing the point
• Resurrection promises fulfillment.  Not necessarily of our passing fancies, but of our deepest longings, those longings put in our hearts by God Himself.  For my part, I long to truly understand those around me.  Not so that I can predict what they will do, but to know who they truly are and to empathize with them fully.
• Unfortunately, most of us, myself included, do not have the depth of character for that sort of awareness beyond a few close friends.  Any more is just too much of a strain.
• What do you long for at bottom?
• What are you doing to achieve that?
• Do you think that longing will last into eternity?

• Preparation for Reconciliation:

1. Where do I need discernment?
2. Where is God calling to me to be bold in prayer?
3. Where must my strength lie?
4. Where are my God-given desires calling me?

Shalom!

31st Sunday in Ordinary Time

Our readings for the 31st Sunday in Ordinary Time are:

1. Wisdom 11:22-12:2
2. Psalms 145: 1-2, 8-9,10-11, 13, 14
3. 2 Thessalonians 1: 11-22
4. Luke 19: 1-10

• Kindness and mercy
• Think of a time when you felt led to correct someone else.  Maybe they did the right thing, but went about it in the wrong way, or they were not seeing the bigger picture, or they lost their patience and were unnecessarily harsh.
• How did you prepare for that encounter?
• Were you more interested in how you would be received, or whether you would be able to make that other a better person?
• How could you have been more like God in that situation?  Perhaps more humble, more patient, more courageous, ...?

• The bowed down
• There is a telling scene in The Green Book about a successful black pianist during the early 60s on tour in the deep south.  This pianist is a refined gentleman, accomplished, one of the first music PhDs, and yet discriminated against.  He and his driver end up stopping next to a farm field, and there in the field are a number of black farm workers, doing much the same labor that their ancestors had done, probably in that very field, likely under very similar conditions.
• We think of the "bowed down" in literal terms, someone overwhelmed by the pressures of life, barely able to make ends meet, falling exhausted into bed night after night with barely enough energy to turn off the lights.
• Who in your life would you consider "bowed down"?
• How do you think God should lift them up?
• Whose hands will do that lifting?
• When do you think those hands will arrive?

• Glory in the Lord
• We equate glory with eternity.  Some among us consciously look forward to joining God in His glory at the end of our journey in this life.
• What is glory?
• Do you think that any of that glory could come our way in this life?
• Should it?

• Saving that which was lost
• Loss is hard to bear.  It speaks of something, someone that was with us, and now is gone.  Sometimes, maybe if we're lucky, we can get that lost thing or person back, but if we are honest with ourselves, life is never the same again.
• But another sense of "lost" speaks about losing our way.  Maybe we take a wrong turn, or we stopped paying attention at a critical turn off and now we're not where we thought we were, or, more profoundly, we have lost sight of our final objective, and no longer have a direction at all.
• Do you think that our Church overall needs a strategy, something that gets published every 5 years or so, and is carefully considered?
• Do you think that some sort of strategy at the parish level would make sense?
• What about in your family?  No one thinks twice about starting a college fund for babies, given the high cost of an education.  Why don't we ever ask ourselves where we want to be as a family community in the years ahead?

• Preparation for Reconciliation:

1. Who in my life needs kindness from me?
2. Where do I need to be the hands of God today?
3. Where might God be calling me to glory?
4. What in my life is God helping me to let go of?

He's Out of His Tree

Zaccaeus, I see you in that tree, scanning the crowd looking for me.
But what you really want to find is hope.
Hope that somehow you can find your way back
Back to family, to friends, to the peaceful village you once knew.

But today, I have a gift for you, a surprise.
I'm going to show you how to build community
In the midst of the ruins that you think cannot be repaired.
I'm going to show you how to show mercy.

I'm going to get so close to you, that your shame will become mine.
Others will not want to be seen with me because I am seen with you.
Others will doubt my wisdom because they have never known mercy.
But you, you are going to see what healing compassion can bring.

You are going to become my disciple in ways you could not imagine.
Spreading my Love to the unloved, restoring dignity to the oppressed,
Sharing the compassion of today for the rest of your life.
In losing your defenses around your heart, you will gain everything.

So, let's get down out of that sycamore and change the world together.

Shalom!

30th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Our readings for the 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time are:

1. Sirach 35: 12-14, 16-18
2. Psalms 34: 2-3, 17-18, 19, 23
3. 2 Timothy 4: 6-8, 16-18
4. Luke 18: 9-14

• Justice and humility
• In the movie The Butler, Ronald Reagan, in a rare moment of true heart to heart, asks one of the white house black butlers "am I on the right side of history with regards to apartheid?"  I have no idea if that conversation ever occurred, but it speaks powerfully to me of the difference between a prophet and a politician.  The prophet's concern is whether speaking out against an injustice agrees with God's timing.  A politician asks whether the people are ready to be stirred into action over that same injustice.  Subtle difference there.
• How would you define oppression?
• By that definition, who are the oppressed in our nation, your community, even your family?
• As long as that injustice doesn't impact you directly, why do you worry?
• Or do you?

• The sorrow of God
• Most of us are pragmatic.  We don't brood over the bad things that happen in life because we want to be upbeat, positive, cheerful.
• Do you think that there can ever be good to come of spending time in sorrow?
• Have you ever been transformed by a sorrow in your life?
• If you knew for a fact that God would be right there with you as you contemplated some sorrow in your life, and that He could renew you through that, would you?
• What about your life brings sorrow to God?
• Do you think He works hard at being upbeat?

• No regrets
• A person with no regrets is either arrogant or has been loving enough and disciplined enough to lead a holy life.
• We never really know all of the effects that our words and actions will have.  Nor will we ever know what might have happened if we had made other choices.  How do you typically make the big decisions?
• Has any of those big decisions turned out badly for you?
• What do you blame that one?
• What would you do differently if you had the chance?

• The eternal "they"
• Do you feel that you need mercy from God?
• Do you feel that you deserve such mercy?
• Why or why not?
• Do you feel that you're in a position to extend mercy, compassion, forgiveness to others?

• Preparation for Reconciliation:

1. Am I ready for God to do something new in my life?
2. Are there sorrows that God wants to find me in?
3. What am I discerning today?
4. How can I get more in touch with those around me?

Trapped

I recognized the filthy tax collector as I entered the Temple.

Thankfully, as an official, I have my own entrance far from him.

That must be a Pharisee up in front.  He looks so at home here.

I will pour out my heart to God quietly so as not to disturb him.

The God of my fathers is a demanding God, looking to us

For obedience, and careful attention lest we melt into the Gentiles.

I took this tax collector job so many years ago, thinking it temporary.

But expenses mounted, I had nowhere else to go, my family needed the money.

I have been successful as a Jew.  Much hard work, constant attention.

And now, look at me.  A pillar of the community, truly God's favored.

My old friends despise me, and I cannot blame them.

Lepers are better off than I am.  At least they had no choice in their disease.

My children tell me that times are changing, the ancient rites are dead.

I tell them without tradition, we are nothing.  And yet, sometimes I wonder.

God, I see no way out.  Forgive me all of those whom I have extorted.

Forgive me the fear that I have struck in the hearts of your holy people.

There is no way to survive as a people, a nation, a history without our past.

I must stand resolute against the evils around us, defend what Yahweh has bestowed.

Give me the courage to be honest in my work, help my family get by

On the paltry earnings that I will make as an honest tax collector.

God, I thank you that I am righteous in your sight, full of your grace.

Help me to defend you to those who would depart from your ways.

God I thank you for your mercy and compassion.

Give me strength to transform my life from within.

Shalom!

28th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Our readings for the 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time are:

1. 2 Kings 5: 14-17
2. Psalms 98: 1, 2-3, 3-4
3. 2 Timothy 2: 8-13
4. Luke 17: 11-19

• Learning who you are
• Naaman was a great man in his home country of Aram.  He was a man of undisputed bravery, a man highly regarded by his king.  In spite of all of that Naaman had not come to know God, and so was a man in need.  He thought that he came to Israel for a physical healing, but God's dreams for him were bigger than that.
• When you think of "healing", what does that include?  Is it just a matter of the physical, does it include the emotional, the social, the mental, ...
• What are some things that you have been healed of?
• What/who brought that healing about in your life?
• Was it a process, or an event?
• If you were to relive those events again, would you change anything?

• Revelation
• We all want to be evangelical in the sense that we want to share what makes us happy.  Successfully married men and women rejoice when a friend gets engaged, we look with eager anticipation when a pregnancy is announced, we want to pass along bits of advice to that colleague who just got recently promoted.
• What's the best way for us to reveal God to others?
• Do you think that most "unchurched" hunger for God, for community, for union and just do not know it yet?
• How can we awaken that longing in them, and be authentic to our own brokenness at the same time?

• Creative perseverance
• As we grow in age, it becomes increasingly difficult to just keep on keeping on.  Things that used to be easy gradually become harder and harder, the joy that used to mark things that we did gradually fades, and we ask ourselves, when did this change from being a source of enjoyment, to being a chore?
• As you have aged, matured, how have you known when to leave something behind?
• How do you adjust to that loss?
• Have you really been honest with yourself?  Is it maybe time to admit that you're never going to go skiing again, or that your bungee jumping days are finally over?
• Who cares if the garage of your life is full of things that you cannot let go of?

• Growing through loss
• When we seek a healing, we often want for things to "go back the way that they were" so that we can resume life as though nothing had ever happened in the first place.
• Think back to a time when you were restored in some way.  That might have been getting a job back, healing a relationship that had suffered, receiving a loved one back after a serious illness or injury, ...  Were things really just as they had been before?
• Was that good or bad?
• Why?

• Preparation for Reconciliation:

1. Who am I in God's eyes?
2. Do others find me winsome for God?
3. What do I need to let go of today?
4. Where is a painful healing going on in my life today?

I Hate that Name

Minding my own business in the local watering hole.
Enjoying a little brew and relaxation that I've missed for so long.
I thought that it would be good to be back.
Then I hear an old familiar voice ring out

Hey, Simon, Simon the leper, is that really you?
What are you doing here, I mean, with all these people?
For some reason, my friend Jacob's voice
Has always had a piercing quality about it.

I'm not sure if that's just a matter of the pitch,
Or something deeper about Samuel.
But what I do know,
Is that it's annoying every time that he opens his mouth.

I almost want him to think that I'm still a leper,
Just so he'll keep his distance.
But then I realize that will only make him have to yell.
So I turn, pull out my certificate from the priests, and tell him I'm well.

Samuel runs over, hoists his ample backside onto a stool and turns to me
His face familiar, with a few more lines and creases
Witness to life he's lived in my extended absence
And he bellows "so where have you been?"

How do I tell him that I've been in exile in my own country?
That the spaces between villages and cities all look alike.
Nothing but wild animals and other lepers out there.

Occasional furtive contacts from loyal family members.

So I give him an answer that he'll understand.

"Here and there, up and down the coast, sight seeing if you will."

"So what brought you back" Samuel asks.

"Because, in all the places that I visited, this is the only one I call 'home'" I say.

Samuel gets quiet for a blessed moment, looks at my glass, and says 

"Barkeep, my friend's glass is unaccountably low.

And I'll have a round of what he's having.  Put it on my tab."

And then I know I'm truly home again.

Shalom!