19th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Our readings for the 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time are:

1. Wisdom 18: 6-9
2. Psalms 33: 1, 12, 18-19, 20-22
3. Hebrews 11: 1-2, 8-19
4. Luke 12: 32-48

• Burning bridges?
• You have to wonder whether there were any of the Jews who stayed behind in Egypt when the Exodus took place.  Once the children of Israel crossed the Red Sea, there was no going back, figuratively or metaphorically.
• When you have started a new venture, be it moving to a new job, leaving a home that you have been in for years, breaking up with someone that you have been with for a long time, is it easier if there is no going back, it has to be a clean break, or is it easier if you can change your mind later?
• When you make those sorts of big changes in your life, it represents a commitment on your part.  Who are you committing to?  Yourself, your family, your community, God Himself?
• What does it mean if things don't "work out" when you make such a change?  Was God unfaithful, did you maybe get His direction wrong, was the timing wrong, ...?
• How do you know if such a change actually "works out".  What does "works out" really mean?

• Waiting for God
• In some ways, all of us are waiting for union with God.  Some are more intentional and focused on that than others.
• What do you think that eventual union will entail?  Vindication for all of times that others have not appreciated your devotion to God, reward for your faithful service, finally understanding the meaning of life, reuniting with lost loved ones, freedom from having to mow the lawn each week, ...?
• Given your expectations, how ought you to be preparing for that?
• How much time and attention should you put into the preparation?
• Is there any part of your life that is not supporting that preparation?

• What legacy?
• 20 years after you are gone, what do you think of your present life will still be around in any form?
• Is that encouraging, or discouraging?
• What sort of a legacy do you want to leave?
• Do you think that is at all realistic?

• Losing my way
• "Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely" is attributed to Lord Acton in 1887.  I suspect that observant folks have felt the same way long before then.
• Are there any servant leaders in your life?  These leaders put their people first.  Servant leaders see their first obligation to serve, to protect, to foster the growth of their people.  Everything else grows out of that.
• Are such leaders always successful?
• Define success.
• All of us lead in some manner.  What sort of leader are you?

• Preparation for Reconciliation:

1. How committed am I to the course that God has set me on?
2. How am I getting closer to God today?
3. What's on my "bucket list" for this life?
4. How can I be more Christ like toward those who depend on me?

Clearly we Needed a Plan B

My mother hen instincts are raging full throttle.
I'm sure that the tribe straggles over far too much terrain
To be safe out here in this howling wilderness.

So far, our most visible companion is not the God of our fathers,
But the buzzards circling effortlessly on the rising thermals.
In my experience, the buzzards are never disappointed.

This Moses character told us that we would be free
Free from the shackles of our Egyptian task masters
Free to worship our God with all our heart, soul and mind.

From the looks of things, that freedom will be cut short
By lack of water for us and our flocks,
Lack of food for our bellies, and lack of shade.

This God we worship seems to have a sick sense of humor.
First getting us past the clutches of the Egyptian army
Only to abandon us to a far worse enemy, the desert.

Maybe there's still time for me and my family to go back.
Sneak away from the community late at night.
Find our way home in time for a hearty breakfast.

This nomadic life that we seem to have embarked on
Was not what we voted on at the last meeting.
I wrote the minutes, I ought to know.

I'm pretty sure that I would not have signed up for this
This wanton deprivation, if anyone had asked me.
The risk of failure is too high, the consequences too dire.

I'm not even sure that anyone did a cost benefit analysis here.
And yet, there is still singing in the camp.
Dancing even around our camp fires at night.

Folks here are giddy with delight that they have been delivered.
Confident that things will somehow work out in the end,
If only we stick together and rely on our God.

I suppose that if I and my family bail on this venture,
We could start a trend, and avalanche of departures,
And ruin it for everyone.

Out here in the desert, we need each other more than ever.
Finding God here in the desolation is easier.
Fewer distractions than we've ever had before.

Maybe not knowing for sure where my next meal will come from
Helps me focus on things that are even more important.
Maybe its better to support my tribe, this nation, this people,

And hope that God who got us on this journey so dramatically,
Plans to stick with us to the end.
Wherever that "end" might be.

Shalom!

18th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Our readings for the 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time are:

1. Ecclesiastes 1:2; 2:21-23
2. Psalms 90: 3-4, 5-6, 12-13, 14, 17
3. Colossians 3: 1-5, 9-11
4. Luke 12: 13-21

• What's the use?
• Once there was a small village with a teenage boy who was given a beautiful horse by his uncle.  Everyone in the village marveled at the generosity of this gift and said among themselves "what a lucky boy".  The village Zen master just said "we'll see".  Some weeks later, the boy was riding, and the horse threw him and he broke his leg.  The villagers now said "such sorrow for that poor boy".  To which the Zen master again said "we'll see".  Some days later, the local king wanted new recruits to fight a war, all of the young men were conscripted and sent to battle except the young boy, since his leg was broken.  Everyone in the village marveled and said "what a lucky boy he is after all."  The Zen master just said "we'll see."
• When has hardship, disappointment, suffering come into your life?  Did any of that seem to serve a higher purpose eventually?
• Do all such events in our lives have to serve a higher purpose?
• What do we mean when we say that we look for meaning in our lives?

• Pacing yourself
• WC Fields was never a very religious man.  Near the end of his life however, a friend happened in on Mr. Fields, lying in his bed, reading the Bible, perhaps for the first time.  His friend remarked in astonishment "WC, whatever are you doing?"  To which Mr. Fields replied "cramming for finals."
• A useful though experiment is to ask yourself "if I knew that I was going to die tomorrow, how would I use the time that I have left?"  Follow that up with the same question for a week, month, year, and think about the differences between your answers.
• Why do you think that those answers change?
• Should they?

• We're in this together
• "Baa ram ewe, to your own breed be true" was the "password" that allowed Babe the pig invoked obedience in the sheep in the movie Babe.  If you've not seen the movie, don't worry, this will make sense anyway.
• What are some of the communities that you belong to?  What are some of the membership criteria?  Geography, common beliefs, shared experiences, ethnicity, gender, ... can all be the discriminators between who's in versus who's out.
• Imagine for a moment that you truly believed from the bottom of your heart that every particle of creation was God's ineffable presence, His revelation to us, and that He's waiting for us to really realize that, embrace it, and find Him and ourselves in all of reality.
• How would such a notion change you?
• Would that make you any truer to your own breed?

• Where did I go wrong?
• If you didn't know for sure whether a carefully thought out plan would work, you normally either a) abandon the effort b) try to figure out a way to reduce the risk or c) try to find a way to reduce your investment in the outcome, so it doesn't matter as much what happens.
• When you make a conscious decision to go one way versus another because you feel God's design/will/direction in that path, what do you expect will happen because of that decision?
• Did God ever sign up for that agreement?
• So what can we count on to come our way from a life of obedience?

• Preparation for Reconciliation:

1. Am I looking to God for rewards for my devotion?
2. How am I getting more flexible in my walk with God?
3. How am I becoming more inclusive in my life?
4. 20 years from now, what of what is important to me today will really matter?

I'm not leaving you and your sister a legacy

Said my father
Slump seated in the living room one evening.

"What do you mean Dad?"
My twenty-something self asked.

Leaving a legacy only happened at death in my mind.
And Dad seemed pretty far removed from that event.

Turns out, he had grown up in the 30's
Seen plenty of want.

He wanted to be sure that the next generation
Had remarkably better opportunities, a better starting place.

Maybe not "Christmas with the Vanderbuilts" sort of memories,
But at least considerably better than his.

If I were to have that conversation with him today,
I might have had the courage to challenge his notion of "legacy".

Tell him that he had encouraged my every interest,
Always fostered my explorations of the highways and biways of life.

Let me know that I was valued, loved, appreciated.
Far above the abuse that my Dad grew up with.

And that was more than legacy enough for me.
I hope that he eventually came to know what legacy he left all of us.

Shalom!

17th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Our readings for the 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time are:

1. Genesis 18: 20-32
2. Psalms 138: 1-2,2-3,6-7, 7-8
3. Colossians 2: 12-14
4. Luke 11: 1-13

• Knowing your place in the world
• We used to say "that's decided way above my pay grade" as a way to tell others that whatever they were asking about was not our choice, that we were there to implement, not set direction, and that it was pointless to take issue with the direction.
• When you pray, is it a conversation?
• Some folks in authority reject any attempts on the part of those under them to question their authority, question their decisions.  What about God?
• Do you think that God punishes those who are audacious enough to ask Him the tough questions?
• What makes you say that?

• God's answers to prayer
• Sometimes you can hear someone say to another "you are an answer to prayer."
• Who are some of the people in your life who are an answer to your prayers?
• What were you praying for when they came into your life?
• How did their presence in your life bring you closer to God?
• Who might you be an answer to prayer for?

• Daily baptism
• No one gets baptized a second time, even if it looks as though the first one didn't "take".
• How do you find yourself renewing your baptismal vows?
• One family that I know used to light their baptismal candle on the anniversary of their baptism, and say a short prayer together as a way to remember their baptism.  How else might you do the same?
• How is it that our celebration of our baptism changes through the years?
• How does it stay the same?

• Help me be hospitable
• Hospitality is serious business in many parts of the world, to the extent that folks in those cultures regard hospitality as an essential part of their nature.  I'm sure that most folks try to be ready for the unexpected visitor as much as they can.
• The example of prayer that Jesus gives us is that of a man who needs help to be hospitable, who needs help to be faithful to his very nature, who needs help to fulfill an element of God's call in his life.
• When you pray, how do you know what to pray for?  At bottom, do you pray for success, appreciation, guidance, consolation ...?  And behind those things, what really lies at the bottom of your prayer life?
• What do you think is the driver when Jesus prays, His ultimate motivation?
• In general, what do you think is the ultimate goal of prayer itself?

• Preparation for Reconciliation:

1. Do I trust God enough to be honest with Him?
2. How am I answering someone's prayer today?
3. How does my baptism inform and illumine my life today?
4. How does the rest of my life sustain my prayer life?

An Answer to Prayer

I have found, late in life, that humility is the hardest virtue of all.
Hard to learn, even harder to continue in, harder still to see the need for it.
Humility runs against some of our deepest instincts.

I had heard to be careful what you ask for, you might get it.
And yet I prayed for humility, because I see so much of it in Jesus,
I see humility walking among God's people in His servants.

My answer came to me in a gaggle of nuns one day.
I was privileged to go to Mass at Little Sisters of the Poor
Among God's aged children and the nuns helping them.

And I saw those sisters gently, patiently, helping their charges
In to the chapel for Mass, in all their glory.
Wheelchairs, walkers, braces, oxygen bottles, water bottles and all.

No matter how slow their patients move
No matter how feeble their arms and legs
Those nuns saw straight through to the beautiful soul in each one.

And celebrated the Christ at the heart of each pair of shuffling feet
Each palsied pair of hands
The eyes dimmed by age.

These servants of God didn't look for thanks, or acclaim, or appreciation.
What they sought after was closeness and meaning
As they poured out their lives, one day at a time.

Never asking where else they might be instead,
Never fearing for what they were missing,
Always knowing that they were right where they belonged.

Shalom!

16th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Our readings for the 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time are:

1. Genesis 18: 1-10a
2. Psalms 15: 2-3, 3-4, 5
3. Colossians 1: 24-28
4. Luke 10: 38-42

• Here comes the future
• Life is full of surprises.  Often we wistfully think to ourselves that a glimpse into the future would help us prepare better, meet what is coming our way with more composure, be more effective in our lives, our ministry.  But I wonder ...
• Are there any parts of your life today that you would not have expected 10 years ago?
• If you had known then what you know now, how would you have lived differently?
• Would that have actually made things better?
• Why do you think that God didn't brief you ahead of time?

• God's Presence
• How is God with you in your everyday living?
• Normally, how aware of that Presence are you?
• What difference has that Presence made to you?
• How are you present to God?
• What difference do you think your presence makes to His Presence?

• Today in Eternity
• We tell ourselves that Jesus suffered for all of us.  That suggests a finality, a completion to Jesus' suffering.  We also claim that God has revealed Himself fully in sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition, which also suggests a closure, a finality.  No new revelations, no hidden truths are in our future.
• Yet there is still suffering in the world, and we seem to need new prophetic voices in our midst to call us once again to the truths that have ever been before us.  If we still need prophets, is it possible that we still need suffering?
• If so, how is suffering redemptive?
• What do we, as ministers, have to do with suffering to make it redemptive?
• When we suffer, how can we turn that into a blessing, a grace?

• Losing the forest for the trees
• Hospitality can be a rare gift when offered in love.  My theory is that Martha was happy to "put it all out there" for Jesus, but as she worked, and she kept thinking of more things that "needed" to be done to make it all just right for Jesus started mounting in her mind, she despaired of getting it all done in time to actually enjoy the visit.  Meanwhile, her "useless" sister was enjoying the visit.
• Have you ever missed out on life by preparing for it too much?
• How did that happen?
• How can we better see what the important elements are in daily life?

• Preparation for Reconciliation:

1. How is God preparing me for something new?
2. How am I companioning God today?
3. How am I being Presence to those in need?
4. What distracts me from what is important?

Just Being

I envied the nurses.

They all had their jobs, their training.
Coming in one after another to draw blood, check blood sugar,
Take blood pressure, check for fever, administer medication.

Me, I just tried to stay out of their way.

His life was really measured in bursts of activity
Done on his behalf,
Punctuated by short spells of quiet.

Or maybe it was the other way around.

Either way, I tried to not be alone in that hospital room.
To reach out beyond my discomfort, my "to do" list for the day
My sense of helplessness.

The fact that his hearing aid batteries were dead didn't help.

Somehow, the fact that I had to yell to be heard bothered me.
As though that one final inconvenience was just one too many.
As though it really didn't matter what I said.

And I realized that was completely right, it didn't matter.

Then I comforted myself with the thought that he must know that I'm there
That a familiar face amid all of the clatter and commotion would steady him
Make the whole experience less threatening in some small way.

And I wondered whether he would even remember that I was there.

And then I found peace.  Knowing that all that was asked of me was presence.
That somehow, in some mystical way, I was the hands and feet of Jesus just by being there.
All I had to do was let His Presence flow through my poor presence.

And I realized that my "nothing much" could be transformed into Everything.
Shalom!

15th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Our readings for the 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time are:

1. Deuteronomy 30: 10-14
2. Psalms 69: 14, 17, 30-31, 33-34, 36, 37
3. Colossians 1: 15-20
4. Luke 10: 25-37

• Heart knowledge
• We have all had that disturbing experience of knowing something in our minds, but not feeling it in our hearts.  Perhaps its some standard of excellence in your work, some morale principle that you remember well but are unable to summon the courage to follow, some teaching that you remember distinctly, but no longer know whether you can live that.
• Which of the two is more likely to be closest to God: your mind or your heart?
• Think of a time when your heart has led your mind to a new closeness to God?
• Think now of a time when your mind summoned your heart back to God?
• What causes that distance between your mind and your heart?

• God hears the poor
• Looking around the room at my Confirmation students one evening I reflected on the advantages that they had.  Many were from middle to upper-middle class homes, every one of them had a cell phone better than mine, they all had good educational opportunities in front of them.  But they were poor in the sense that they often lacked a good moral compass, were very confused about their values, and overall, poorly equipped to enter adulthood.
• Who are some of the poor in your life?
• What makes them poor?
• Why do you think that God hears their prayers?
• How can we be the answer to those prayers?
• In what way are you poor?

• My all in all
• We sometimes feel overwhelmed by all of the demands on our time, our attention, our emotions, and we might sigh and say "I'm not sure how much longer I can hold it all together."
• Do you think that God ever feels that way?
• What role do you think God plays in "holding it all together" across the cosmos?
• Do you think that God is like a top executive at a corporation: He just pays attention to the big stuff, or does He deal with the small stuff too?
• Is your life big stuff or small stuff to God?
• How might all of us help in that process of "holding it all together?"

• Our God of Mercy
• I think that one of the great tragedies of modern life is that we let it all get away from us instead of savoring, pondering, meditating on events as they occur.
• Think of a time that someone hurt you, by something they did, said, an attitude that you picked up from them, ...
• Why does that still bother you?  Remember, you're the one who was quick to remember that.
• Have you ever thought to intentionally, deliberately, forgive them?
• Why or why not?
• If you have forgiven them, or you did forgive them, how would that bring you closer to Jesus?
• Is it worth the risk? 

• Preparation for Reconciliation:

1. How can I make God more accessible to someone in my life?
2. Where in my life do I need to turn to God more, trust more, live more?
3. How is God holding me together that I have not appreciated?
4. Who are the poor in my life?

One Day At a Time

The spear of the Roman guard made a wet sucking sound as it came out of His side.
Blood and water ran down His inert form.
No movement rebelled at the raw intrusion,
No nerves fired in response to that deadly thrust.

He just hung there, with nothing left now.
But exhaustion and grief hanging from him
Like a dark cloak from His broken shoulders.
And that sight brought back memories.

Memories of an awful day on my way from Jerusalem to Jericho.
There, baking in the merciless sun,
Spent, bleeding, broken, discarded like an old cloak.
He lay there, without a friend in the world.

I was in a hurry,
On my way to close a deal for some prize olives.
But the blood, the gore, the helplessness spoke to me
And I knew that scene would haunt me if I did nothing.

So, more out of self interest than anything else,
I touched him, found life still throbbing in his veins,
And realized I had little time to save the both of us.
Fortunately, my donkey did not balk at such a messy burden.

Looking up to Him on that awful tree,
I asked myself if I could have somehow spared Him
Shown mercy when He needed it most
Eased His loneliness, soothed His sorrow.

About all that I could think to do
Was to be sure to pack another flagon of oil
Another skin of wine
For the next battered, crushed unfortunate that I came across on the road.

Shalom!

14th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Our readings for the 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time are:

1. Isaiah 66: 10-14c
2. Psalms 66: 1-3, 4-5, 6-7, 16, 20
3. Galatians 6: 14-18
4. Luke 10: 1-12

• Hope for renewal
• Isaiah sees a day when God will once again be generous with Israel and bless her with bounty following the Babylonian exile.  As a race, the Israelites would never look at their homeland the same because of their exile.
• What experiences in your life have restored something, someone, some favorite activity that you had lost for a time?
• How did you great that restoration?
• How were things just as they had been?
• How were they different? 

• Relying on God
• We in the United States culturally have a short memory.  Other cultures's memories, like the Jews, go back millennia.  Far more often than us, they see the present through the lens of centuries, and the present looks far more like a variation on the past than many of us would like to believe.
• What do you know of God's character?
• Where did you get that knowledge?  Was it from the Bible, stories that your parents told you, experiences of your faith community, the Church as a whole?
• Do you feel that you can trust God the way you trust an old friend?

• Let's get physical
• Ignatian spirituality includes three levels of humility.  The third is a state in which a person so identifies with Christ that they are no longer afraid of being despised, misunderstood, and isolated from the rest of humanity if it brings them closer to Jesus.  I think that Paul had arrived at that level of union.
• For all eternity, Jesus is resurrected, yet still wounded.  How have you been wounded in life?
• Has there been a resurrection for you?  Far from forgetting those wounds, Christ offers you the chance to join your wounds with His?
• What would that be like for you?
• Do you feel that your hurts, your sufferings, your losses somehow are in a different league from what Jesus suffered?
• How do you think Jesus feels about your wounds?

• Laborers in the harvest
• The life that Jesus calls His disciples to is one of utter dependence on God for even their most basic needs.  That posture is both frightening and freeing.
• I once heard a sermon where the minister tripped over himself a little.  He said "I have an advantage.  I essentially get paid for being good.  The rest of you have to be good for nothing."  I can only hope that that remark was not in his sermon notes and that he was guilty of an unfortunate ad lib at that moment.
• If you receive some sort of monetary compensation for things like cantoring, does that make you a professional?
• Does that make your generosity any less noble than the person who gives of their time and talent for nothing?
• How do we tell when we are just in our compensation to those who minister?
• Why does it matter? 

• Preparation for Reconciliation:

1. What in my life needs renewal?
2. What kindnesses of God should I be grateful for?
3. How can I be more humble?
4. Where is God calling me to serve today?

One Day At a Time

I have a journal that I have kept of our travels these past few weeks.
Jacob and I have been places, seen people, touched lives
That we have only heard about growing up.

Preparing the way for Jesus has changed us,
Just as much as our touch has changed those that we ministered to.
Going up and down the length and breadth of Israel has shown me -

Shown me that there is so much more
To the Kingdom that Jesus talks about.
Broader than anything I could have imagined.

Every time we enter a new village
I realize how different this community is from my home
How different they are from the last community that we served.

Yet all the same in one important way:
Jesus means to set them free.
Free from past prejudices, free from fear, free from hatred, free from sin.

And somehow, I know that it cannot stop here with God's elect.
Because all of us are elect, all of us chosen, all of us loved.
The miracles of healing are amazing - the acceptance profound.

But the most amazing healing is the one that I have felt.
As I realized that our nation, our history, our culture is not alone
In the temple of God's favor.  No, it is brimful of beloved.

And the more lives that I touch,
The more real that temple is.
No walls, no roof, love as the door.

In a strange way, this openness is lonely.
Gone is the warm comfort of home
Where I was defined by we, and them.

I will never be small enough to fit into that village again.
And yet I have to share this oneness with my brothers.
And somehow midwife them too into wholeness.

And that coming home to my own village
Is going to the be the most frightening journey of all.
God give me courage, patience, strength, and most of all humility.

Shalom!

13th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Our readings for the 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time are:

1. 1 Kings 19: 16b, 19-21
2. Psalms 16: 1-2, 5, 7-8, 9-10, 11
3. Galatians 5: 1, 13-18
4. Luke 9: 51-62

• Succession plan
• Think about the various ministries that you have served in and are serving in.
• How did you get invited into those ministries?
• How were you discipled into that ministry?
• If you had to do it over again, what might have been a better path to bring you into that service within the community?
• How are you bringing "new blood" into your ministries today?
• Why don't we just stick with the same folks doing the same thing, year after year?

• Bargaining with God
• In Genesis 18: 16-33 we see the amazing story of Abraham bargaining with God over the fate of the city of Sodom.  You would think that someone in Abraham's position would have no bargaining chips.  Interestingly, he appeals to God's own nature and character to influence God.  That is the mark of a true friend.  Today, our psalmist does something similar.
• In what ways is your relationship with God a friendship?
• In what ways is it not?
• In John 15: 15 Jesus calls His disciples friends.  What prompted Him to say that?
• Do you treat any of your other friends the way that you treat God?
• Would they stay with you if you did treat them that way?

• Freedom in giving yourself away
• When do you feel the freest?  That feeling of unlimited possibilities, when anything is possible, when you have no idea what is next and you are able to punch through the fear into a wide space of awe.  What are you doing at that moment?
• How do you achieve such freedom?
• Do you think that we should be/feel/do that sort of freedom all of the time?

• Humble is as humble does
• Jesus never forces Himself on us.  Yet He is always available.
• How might we make ourselves more available to those who need God's love?
• Is there a balance between programs - defined services offered by an established group on a set schedule, versus spontaneity, freedom in ministry? 

• Preparation for Reconciliation:

1. Where is the next generation of disciples coming from?  How am I helping bring them forth?
2. Where is my friendship with God going?
3. How do I give myself away?
4. Who is God calling me to reach?

Sons of Thunder

Here in the 'hood we don't take no disrespect from anybody
Least of all the likes of you.
You run along now and come back
When you learn to show proper respect.
And not a moment sooner.

Hardly the words out of Jesus' mouth.
Yet, so often, we tell others they are not welcome.
Maybe they dress oddly,
They smell badly,
Their tatoos are in bad taste.

Yet Jesus somehow always found a way to connect,
Draw others out of their fear,
No matter how many times they had been refused,
No matter how many times they had been turned away.
They knew that they could trust Jesus to be kind.

He even welcomed Judas, His betrayer
Celebrated the first Eucharist with him,
Let him give Him a kiss of greeting in the midst of betrayal.
Can we do any less?
I just don't know how to follow His example.

Maybe you can help.

Shalom!