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Feast of the Holy Family

from today's Office of Readings:

An address given at Nazareth by Blessed Pope Paul VI

The example of Nazareth

The home of Nazareth is the school where we begin to understand the life of Jesus – the school of the Gospel.

The first lesson we learn here is to look, to listen, to meditate and penetrate the meaning – at once so deep and so mysterious – of this very simple, very humble and very beautiful manifestation of the Son of God. Perhaps we learn, even imperceptibly, the lesson of imitation.

Here we learn the method which will permit us to understand who Christ is. Here above all is made clear the importance of taking into account the general picture of his life among us, with its varied background of place, of time, of customs, of language, of religious practices – in fact, everything Jesus made use of to reveal himself to the world. Here everything is eloquent, all has a meaning.

Here, in this school, one learns why it is necessary to have a spiritual rule of life, if one wishes to follow the teaching of the Gospel and become a disciple of Christ.

How gladly would I become a child again, and go to school once more in this humble and sublime school of Nazareth: close to Mary, I wish I could make a fresh start at learning the true science of life and the higher wisdom of divine truths.

But I am only a passing pilgrim. I must renounce this desire to pursue in this home my still incomplete education in the understanding of the Gospel. I will not go on my way however without having gathered – hurriedly, it is true, and as if wanting to escape notice – some brief lessons from Nazareth.

First, then, a lesson of silence. May esteem for silence, that admirable and indispensable condition of mind, revive in us, besieged as we are by so many uplifted voices, the general noise and uproar, in our seething and over-sensitized modern life.

May the silence of Nazareth teach us recollection, inwardness, the disposition to listen to good inspirations and the teachings of true masters. May it teach us the need for and the value of preparation, of study, of meditation, of personal inner life, of the prayer which God alone sees in secret.

Next, there is a lesson on family life. May Nazareth teach us what family life is, its communion of love, its austere and simple beauty, and its sacred and inviolable character. Let us learn from Nazareth that the formation received at home is gentle and irreplaceable. Let us learn the prime importance of the role of the family in the social order.

Finally, there is a lesson of work. Nazareth, home of the ‘Carpenter’s Son’, in you I would choose to understand and proclaim the severe and redeeming law of human work; here I would restore the awareness of the nobility of work; and reaffirm that work cannot be an end in itself, but that its freedom and its excellence derive, over and above its economic worth, from the value of those for whose sake it is undertaken. And here at Nazareth, to conclude, I want to greet all the workers of the world, holding up to them their great pattern, their brother who is God. He is the prophet of all their just causes, Christ our Lord.

Finding The Rejoicing Worthy*

Third Sunday of Advent - December 16, 2018

Zephaniah 3:14-20

Psalm Isaiah 12:2-6

Philippians 4:4-7

Luke 3:7-18

(homily given among the community of St Stephen's Episcopal Church, New Harmony, IN)

A little congregational participation;)

Let’s find the New Testament Reading for today

Those 4 beautiful verses from Paul’s Letter to his beloved Philippians

Let ‘s proclaim slowly and together:

Rejoice in the Lord always;

Again I will say Rejoice.

Let your gentleness be known to everyone.

The Lord is near.

Do not worry about anything,

But in everything 

By prayer and supplication

With thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God

And the peace of God,

Which surpasses all understanding

Will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Dr Beth mentioned in her sermon last week 

about Paul being in prison when he wrote this letter 

…His beloved Philippians have fallen into petty squabbling and divisive bickering

…Paul reminds them and us that ‘in Christ’ we are free from that

…it is a matter of remembering

Thinking of Paul in prison sending this challenging love-letter 

Or this love-letter that challenges

Reminds me of the Lutheran Pastor, theologian and martyr

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Dietrich spent two Christmases in a Nazi prison

Where the inmates were underfed and abused

Frequently the warden refused to turn the lights on

Which added to the depressive spirit and isolation

37 year old Bonhoeffer was surrounded by prisoners awaiting execution

The anxiety of these unsettled, condemned men filled the air

But it was in this suffocating imprisonment 

that Bonhoeffer experienced Christmas in a new and profound way

He writes to his parents on December 17, 1943.  

In his letter he reminds them of the gift of so many beautiful Christmases past.  And he promises that it is those memories,

that will provide his feast.  

And then he writes:

Viewed from a Christian Perspective

Christmas in a prison cell can

Of course

Hardly be considered particularly problematic.

Most likely, many of those here in this building

Will celebrate a more meaningful and authentic Christmas

Than in places where it is celebrated in name only. 

The misery, sorrow, poverty, loneliness, helplessness, and guilt 

mean something quite different in the eyes of God 

than according to human judgement;

ThatGod turns toward 

the very places from which humans turn away;

ThatChrist was born in a stable because there was no room for him in the inn --- a prisoner grasps this better than others,

And for him this is truly good news.

St. Paul and

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Propose for us this mystery

Have we…any of us…

…ever experienced unexpected joy and peace in moments of trial?

It happened this past week

I can see it now in retrospect

I can see that very same mystery unfolding

Since before Thanksgiving

My mother has been riding an Emphysema roller coaster

She can’t breathe

She has less than a third of her lungs working to draw in air

scary hospitalization

trying to get her symptoms under control

discharging my Mom to a long-term rehab unit

It has been six weeks of building anxiety

Of not knowing

…And Sometimes

not even understanding

and so much fear

And finally

On Wednesday of last week

To borrow Bonhoeffer’s words:

God, in the form of Dr Reddy,

Turned toward the place humans tend to recoil from

And with great tenderness

And patience

She offered my mother hospice care

She explained carefully

She allowed Mom time to reflect and process

She waited in the silence

And eventually Mom heard the truth of it

And she responded…with remarkable gusto really

She will probably have a prolonged rally

Now that the fog has cleared 

Now that there is a plan 

It seems a kind of freedom

And for me after 5 anxious weeks

Rejoicing comes easier than I had thought possible

Rejoicing…for honesty

…And for warm speech and unrushed nurses and doctors

…And for supportive (and maybe a little lonely) husbands

This is…Gaudete Sunday…The Sunday of Rejoicing

Zephaniah gives us rejoicing, Isaiah gives us rejoicing, Paul gives us rejoicing

But from John the Baptist in Luke’s Gospel we get:

You Brood of VIPERS!

It takes a little sleuthing

But there is something very rejoicing-worthy 

In today’s Gospel 

1.    Standard prophetic fare…
but notice who is listening…
not Pharisees and Sadducess…but the CROWDS
…and they must be curious and responsive to his style
and his prophesy…
THEY don’t turn around and leave! 
John is attractive to this crowd! 
the way they are living isn’t working for them anymore
His call to repentance meets a longing in their hearts…
they are seeking…aren’t they? 

2.   And the crowds ask a very simple and practical question: 
“What then shall we do?” 
What kind of response do you think they expected? 
Given the fiery first paragraph…I think this was a VERY brave question!

Now if I keep John the Baptist in the box labeled
Crazy, half-naked, locust-eating, hellfire and damnation prophet of old…
I will miss the rejoicing-worthy part! 

The crowds…in general…ask first,
then specifically the tax-collectors,
and then the soldiers.
The answers he gives are so tame! 
to the crowds: Share.  Be kind.
sounds like a middleschool anti-bullying campaign

He’s saying:
SEE each other…SEE each other’s needs

To the tax collectors: STOP IT!
Stop with the hidden fees!
It doesn’t matter if ‘everyone is doing it’
don’t be greedy, do the right thingAND GUESS WHAT?
Greediness will be transformed into generosity!

To the soldiers: Go Home!
Stop using your power to intimidate and oppress
It doesn’t matter if you are frustrated and unhappy
stop taking it out on other people
GO HOME…
and instead of threats and violence, be satisfied with what you have

in essence, John says
GO back to your lives
Back to your homes
And work
And communities
but not as offspring of snakes…not as a brood of Vipers!
No! Go back as Children of God 

Imagine that! 
People inhabiting their own lives
and transforming the world from there

I LOVE how non-heroicthat is!

What then shall we do?

Rejoice!

Rejoice!

Because being a child of God
is doable!  We can do this!

GO HOME
Take the love of God

And the fellowship of the Holy Spirit
that seeps into your mind, and heart, and bones

In this place

Among these witnesses
through word and sacrament

Take it all with you

It is a virus…

Its nature is to be very contagious

so Rejoice
we don’t have to be heroes

we just have to go home…back to our lives

and get close enough 

so that the virus catches

And as we do 

We join Paul in singing:

Rejoice in the Lord always!

Again I say rejoice!