Remember!

October 9, 2022

28th Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year C

2 Timothy 2:8-13

Luke 17:11-19

Have you ever noticed that preachers just don’t preach Paul!

Most of us are scared to preach Paul
One reason is that to do it right…we are afraid it will need an hour!

 

Another reason is that unlike in the Gospels,

where it is easier to pluck out bits and stories

Letters are more unified…

There’s always an occasion that prompts a letter to be written
They are structured to be kept whole…

 

There is something about this second letter to Timothy that speaks to my heart today…

…but it will not take an hour!

 

So what kind of letter is this?

The occasion of this letter from Paul to his beloved Timothy

Is a kind of farewell speech

A last opportunity to say everything important that needs to be said

Paul is in Prison…death is approaching

 

A couple months ago 

when Joseph was getting ready to leave home for good

…real job…real bills…real problems that will need to be dealt with on his own

Rob and I worried…

Have we given him the grounding he needs to make good choices?

To eat healthy food???

And date wisely???

To pay his bills on time???

To go to Church???

 

We didn’t write him farewell letters

But we did make a concerted effort to pounce on any opportune captive moments

To reiterate what we hoped we had given him 

over his 20+ years in the shelter of 9307 Petersburg Road

 

Clearly…Paul’s situation is well…much more intense
But…I can feel some of the deep emotion behind this farewell letter.

The something of this letter that speaks to my heart is Paul plea to Timothy:

REMEMBER

 

 

Let’s step sideways for a moment and take a peek at the Gospel.

I find a connection is this very familiar story.

If you go to Church on Thanksgiving, chances are this is the Gospel you will hear.

“Being Thankful” on Thanksgiving the theme is a GIVEN;) 

But it’s not Thanksgiving and…there is another power to this story

 

This episode takes place in an in-between place

Geographically speaking, 
there actually isn’t a region between Samaria and Galilee

They are just next to each other

But if two peoples hate each other enough

Wherever the two places come together…well…

It’s going to be a kind of no-man’s land

 

Maybe it’s where people who don’t fit into either place can go 

and not get shamed

And wouldn’t Lepers be just that kind of group?

Some Jews…at least one Samaritan

It’s not their Jewishness or their Samaritan-ism that identifies them…

It is their leprosy 

Leprosy which makes them physically/socially/religiously…unclean

It is their leprosy that is their strongest identifier

UNCLEAN…UNclean and UNwelcome except in this no-man’s-land

A place where they can remain UNSEEN

 

The text says that the Lepers kept their distance…that was the law

What about Jesus?

Were the lepers surprised that Jesus was walking through their UNCLEAN village?

“Jesus, MASTER” they call out

(They most have heard about him…or sensed his power)

And then they are SEEN

In a place where they are meant to remain UNSEEN…Jesus SEES them

(No immediate healing in this story)

Still…They go as they are instructed and along the way they are made clean

 

The Samaritan notices that he is healed

(NOTICE the verb change…they have all been made clean.
But the Samaritan is healed, made whole, saved!)

 

 

He lets it sink in

And then…HE SEES! 

HE SEES Jesus and he changes direction.

 

The ten are made clean

But one experiences something more

He SEES Jesus

Recognizes his blessing

He rejoices, gives thanks and praises God

 

He was seen

And now he sees

 

Before believing
or confessing
or helping
or doing

Before all that comes SEEING

This is the story’s invitation to us
It is the same now as then:
How and What we see makes a difference

The invitation might come as a series of questions:
In the face of want…What do I see?  Human need or distant stranger?
When I look at God…Who do I see? Stern judge…loving parent…distant creator
When I look in the mirror…Who do I see? A failure…an orphan…a beloved child?
When I look to the future…What do I see? Fear, disaster, uncertainty…hopeful horizon?

Truthfully, I would answer all the above with “It depends on the day”

But the point is that WHAT we see…
And HOW we answer 
shapes our whole lives

 

 

To these questions…Paul has a WORD for us.
REMEMBER JESUS CHRIST RAISED ROM THE DEAD
I know…a little churchy…and not very concrete!

Here is what I think it means to remember Jesus Christ Raised From the Dead:
Remember? that time you were rescued from making a bad decision
Remember? when a friend held your hands and lifted you out of a bad decision you made          anyway
Remember? how in the midst of a recent loss the Holy Spirit was made known to you in   surprising people and places
Remember? when you were lost and then you weren’t anymore
Remember? when you tasted liberation from anything that felt like death
Remember…
Remember rising from the dead???

What if we kept a journal titled MY RISINGS FROM THE DEAD???
What if we revisited it often???
What if we let it shape our SEEING???

The Gospel is LIFE
Life from death
And Paul says that it is not chained
He may be chained
but not the Gospel

This emotional letter
IS the unchained Gospel

And when we remember 
JESUS CHRIST RAISED FROM THE DEAD
in our own myriad of ways 

And when we allow that remembering to shape HOW and WHAT we see
We become the tenth leper…full of gratitude!
and…We join Paul…
         becoming his companions…sharing the same UNCHAINED Gospel

Seeing and Remembering makes all the difference!

 

Gates to Chasms, Chasms to Gates

September 25, 2022

26th Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year C

Luke Luke 16:19-31

Preamble Advertisement: 

Who has seen the series THE CHOSEN?

I just wanted to see how many had…back to that later;)

 

You have probably noticed that Luke’s Gospel 

has offered us plenty of money talk these past Sundays

 

And this Sunday more of the same

EVEN more because…even though it’s hardly ever the case

…this Sunday the readings are completely thematically aligned

It’s all about wealth

…The problems and dangers that come with wealth

 

The wealthy get a kind of in-your-face spanking from Amos

And we have that famous line from Timothy about the love of money being the root of all evil!

And the Gospel is just on steroids in terms of its judgement on uber-wealth

 

But even so…I think there is something else…something more 

 

I don’t know about you… 

but I find it hard to identify with Lazarus OR the Rich Man. 

The style of this parable is to offer us an exaggerated scenario in support of vividness. 

AND IT WORKS!

 

Purple Linen

Sumptuous Feasts…DAILY

Versus…immobile, covered in sores, starving

 

Equally VIVID is the picture in the afterlife

Cool and comfortable in the bosom of Abraham

Versus…Roasting over the fire, parched, in agony

 

These extreme opposites

Recede into the background 

And what takes center stage is the CHASM

 

The question I have been wrestling with is:

How does a gate…

a beautiful, well maintained wrought-iron welcoming gate…

one that opens both ways---become a chasm?

 

Did you notice that The Rich Man knew Lazarus’ name?

Had they at one time called each other by name?

There was at least some kind of relationship

They certainly SAW each other

At one time the gate was in good order

Often used,

With well-oiled hinges

What happened?

-----

 

In my reading this week I came across some research that found that as people become wealthier…the percentage of their wealth that they give away/tithe/share decreases.

 

Why? 

The suggested that the wealthier one gets the more insulated lives become

The neighborhood 

The schools 

The clubs 

Even the churches 

All the different worlds where relationships are formed begin to look the same. 

And slowly, slowly, that’s all there is…whatever lies outside that world becomes UNSEEN

 

It happens…slowly…hardly noticeable

I’ve watched it happen

It has happened to me

 

One day the hinge got stuck 

And then it rusted shut

And finally the path became overgrown

And the Rich Man came in and out of his home by another path

He no longer SAW Lazarus

Out of sight out of mind

 

Perhaps that is how a GATE eventually becomes a CHASM

 

We all know this…don’t we?

20 years ago, I talked with my sister 3 times a week

Insensitive jabs, small hurts, inevitable misunderstandings

It all was easier to ignore than to mend

…and now there is at least a small chasm

 

 

Today’s parable ends hopelessly

The Chasm in the parable is pronounced unbridgeable

 

But Not so for us

Unlike in the parable 

We are children of the resurrection

We believe that someone has been raised from the dead

And in that confession is our hope that every Chasm…even DEATH…can be bridged!

 

Our first question: How does a Gate become a Chasm?

Eventually leads to How does a Chasm become a Gate?

 

I don’t know what the medical/technical term for this is

But there are some problematic wounds…deep wounds

That must be healed from the inside out.

The process involves prolonged attention

Multiple dressing changes

And the progress is slow

But the thing is…at the origin

The wound is only a minor separation

It is bridgeable…mendable 

The chasm is at the top

 

If I look only at the widest part…the great Chasm

1) Big Societal problems 

2) global wars and conflicts 

3) Long endured broken relationships

I will surely be tempted to throw up my hands and give up…too big…

 

 

Something occurred to me at the Food Pantry last week 

It had to do with the architecture…the arrangement of the space

The way that the clients are greeted and give a shopping cart

The way that many of the volunteers remember people’s names

The way that conversations happen as the shopping is done

It seems to me that this layout…this architecture of space

At least in part…Bridges a Chasm 

It seems to me that the arrangement helps all of us to see 

that chasms that divide people into handy little boxes aren’t real!

 

All of this brings me back to THE CHOSEN

I think I have watched every Jesus movie or tv series ever produced

None have really grabbed my imagination, which for me, is what it takes to have staying power

 

But this one is so rich and penetrating

Rob and I are on our second watch…it’s better the second time…

 

And what I have noticed

More so in the visual drama than on the written page

Is that Jesus just lives and moves as if Chasms are a convenient cultural myth 

 

Jesus simply doesn’t see them

He is blind to barriers!

He only sees people…Children of God

Everyone…Not just the Romans and the Religious leaders…no…everyone.

The bewildered disciples, 
the woman at the well 
and those who will be healed…

 

We humans are stubbornly comfortable with categories, boxes…Chasms

-----

 

How DOES a Chasm become a welcoming, well-oiled gate? 

I think if we want it to have staying power

We best begin with Feeding our desire…to see

To SEE the way Jesus sees

 

And isn’t that what we are doing? Right now…right here?

We walk through that red door, 

we join our brothers and sisters, 

we claim our seat in a pew, 

we listen to the Word of God

…and then we gather around the table to be fed

 

ALL OF IT is a practice of tasting and seeing

…of heightening our desire to see as Jesus sees.

 

And we repeat our AMENS

Our ritual language that says “we’ve got this”

That’s how Chasms become gates

 

Striving/Resting

August 21, 2022
21st Sunday of Ordinary Time - Year C
Luke 13:22-30

Exorcism
Apocalypse 
Righteousness 
Dogma 
certain churchy words can just make us---well---sit, up, straight.  
Certain weighty words might even make us shiver a little.
Today, in this little snippet from Luke’s Journey Narrative, that word is 
Salvation!

 

How did this happen?

 

How did salvation, the central event of Jewish remembrance, 

the remembrance of God’s saving action in freeing the Israelites from long-held bondage in Egypt, become so loaded?  

How did salvation, 

which for Jesus so often entailed physical healing 

from blindness, leprosy, paralysis or possession, 

become so shiver producing?

 

Today’s text, 

with its “wailing and gnashing of teeth,” narrow gates, and frenzied pushing crowds, could have something to do with it. 

This is Jesus we are talking about, 

so we can take a deep breath and remember that the gospel itself is part of God’s saving plan.

When the gospel confronts us on this 21^st Sunday of Ordinary Time in the year 2022, it might be that we need to sit up straight and shiver a little. 

There is no way around it. 

Jesus is in a prophetic mood, 

and he has a warning for us. 

 

The man’s question is strange. 

He isn’t asking about himself, “Will I be saved?” 

He appears interested in figuring out a kind of math problem, 

the ratio of salvation to damnation.  

In Jesus’ style he doesn’t answer that question. 

He gives an answer. It’s an answer without a question. 

The answer is strive. Jesus says, strive.

 

Strive can be a very tricky word.

 

When I was working as a hospital chaplain, 

I was called to visit with a young man who was struggling with discontinuing life support for his father who had suffered a massive, catastrophic stroke. 

In our conversation he mentioned his angst over the question of his father’s salvation. 

At the end of our visit he said, 

“Well, it’s not like I’m a Catholic or anything and think you can just pray yourself to heaven.”

Putting his misinformation aside, 

this young man was on to something. 

He recognized that striving, at least in a modern individualized sense, 

doesn’t leave room for God’s grace and mercy and healing and love. 

Where does God’s action fit in with such striving?

 

I feel certain that Jesus didn’t consider striving in this solitary way. 

Recall the gospel we just heard. 

In our text striving has something, maybe even everything, to do with being known by Jesus. 

Striving is what deep desire looks like. 

Striving is our deep desire to be in relation with the living God. 

Striving increasingly puts us in the right place to see, hear, and respond to God’s saving gaze, the right place to be known.

 

Striving is how we practice prayer. 

It is how we practice walking through life with our eyes and ears open to both the wonder and majesty of the created world 

as well as the places where injustice and suffering seem to be gaining the upper hand.

 

The thing about this gospel-striving is that it admits to our unfinishedness. 

It leaves room, plenty good room, 

for God’s healing-saving grace. 

Gospel-striving is not deadly, solitary, or lonely. 

It is alongside, among, in relationship with, God and neighbor.

 

On the other side of Striving there is always a gift. 

The gift is finding oneself in Christ; 

finding oneself, even if just for a few moments here and there, 

able to say along with St. Paul,

“I live now, no longer I, but Christ lives in me.”

 

It is, for sure, a paradox; 

striving only to find oneself resting in God 

God, who brought the Israelites out of Egypt; 

God, who raised Jesus from the dead; 

God, who promises to do the same for us

…until the kingdom comes.

 

Fear/Love and the Gerasene Demoniac

Homily for June 19th, 2022 

Second Sunday after Pentecost

Luke 8:26-39

What a Story!

I tried…but there is no father’s day connection to be made!

 

Its so colorful and intense and scary!

Demons

Naked

Tombs

Chains

Swine

suicide

I can just see this scene in the hands of Mel Gibson?

 

We have been in the gospel of John for so long that it’s easy to forget that this year C

Luke’s year

From now until the feast of Christ the King at the end of November

We are back in Luke

Chapter 8

Today’s story is part of a diptych

A diptych is when two panels of art or two stories

Are placed side by side and hinged together

Each story sheds light on the other

 

My title for this diptych in Chapter 8 of Luke, is

“Two Bloodcurdling Incidents!”

the HINGE is FEAR

 

 

Just a few paragraphs ago, Jesus and his disciples were in a boat…

Jesus was asleep when a terrible storm swept in 

The disciples were fearing for their lives

But Jesus dispelled the chaos…He calmed the storm

And in that scene those bewildered disciples end with this:

“Who is this, then, that commands even the winds and the water to obey him???” 

At this point in Luke’s narrative…
the disciples are still trying to come to grips with who Jesus is exactly

 

But today…we quickly learn 

That the Demons do know who Jesus is…they call him by name:
“What have you to do with me, Jesus, son of the most high God”

Legion is in the know

These are Jewish stories

Shaped by Jewish norms…which means a couple things:

 

Those 1^stcentury listeners knew what Opposite, opposite Galilee meant

Gentile territory---

with pigs---

Think UNCLEAN---

The very mention of the region of the Garasenes 

Called to their minds the brutal and bloody massacre of that town by Roman soldiers

The name Garasa would have had the same conjuring power as say…

Waco or Wounded Knee

 

And the Name LEGION
This was an obvious allusion to the Legions of the Roman Army…

a legion = 6,000 soldiers

 

So our 1^stcentury Jewish audience had a lot to cheer about

No more pigs…no more ROMAN demons…

Yippie on all accounts!  

…and, Sorry to say…there wouldn’t have been an iota of sympathy for the pigs.

 

In our story the first line that refers to “the demoniac”

Dignifies him by calling him “A man OF the city”
He is ---regardless of all else---connected to the city and her people

They know him and I think they believe that they are doing well by him…considering the circumstances and all

 

But from that first line the Man is known only by what possess him

What occupies him defines him…His name is LEGION

 

Our MAN is naked and has been that way for a long time

He is shackled and is homeless…living among the dead…in the tombs

To his family and friends this…man of the city…IS…dead

 

But my guess is that at different times we have

All felt “Possessed” 

And if that word is a little too loaded for our sensibilities 

We might say OCCUPIED…

My guess is that at varying times we have felt powerless to break free

Of that which occupies us…

heavy burdens, 

sadness, grief, 

addiction, 

…pathological busyness???

 

 

If any of you have ever watched CHICAGO FIRE

Or worked in healthcare 

you will know this strategy

 

Sylvia Brett, she is the Indiana born EMT in the show

She comes upon the scene of the disaster

And the first thing she does is ask the shocked and bloodied victim:

Tell me your name?

Larry

Okay Larry…don’t worry…Hang in there…we are going to take great care of you

 

In the hospital, Clinical personnel are trained to do that too…

It puts people at ease…it humanizes them.

 

But outside the patient’s room…the names quickly disappear

Things revert:

the Diabetic in Room 4

the Drug-seeker in Room 5

the Suicide in Room 6

 

Many years ago

I met a very wise woman who had just earned her 3-year chip at AA

AA was very important to her well-being

But she told me how 

One day

after several years of standing up and saying

Hi my name is…let’s say, Eve

Hi my name is Eve and I am an alcoholic

She found herself continuing with an addendum

Hi my name is Eve and I am an alcoholic…a Child of God

 

I thought about this in relation to this story

Being an alcoholic

Or a diabetic or a community volunteer or a Barista at Starbucks

These are all descriptive…and…true

But they aren’t definitive!*

CHILD OF GOD…now that’s definitive!

It seems to me

That our ‘Man of the City’

Through Jesus’ healing

Is returned to what is truly definitive

No longer crazy-possessed-man-of-the-tombs

But

Child of God

 

There he is 

Our Man…once again…OF the Town

-Demons Gone

-Seated at the feet of Jesus (the stance of a disciple)

-Clothed

-And in possession of his right mind

This is certainly very GOOD NEWS!

But wait! 

The townspeople are full of fear

Now they are the ones who are possessed!

 

They circle their wagons 

“We were comfortable with our old routine…until yo…u

“we all had our roles to play

“We managed our demoniac quite well…didn’t we

“Everything was under control

“And…you never know…There’s no telling…What if it doesn’t stick???

And they kick Jesus on down the road!

Legion was somehow part of who they are…it seems like they preferred him the way he was???

 

We do that don’t we?  

To some degree

We come to know who we are by who we aren’t

Don’t Most families have at least a mild “black sheep”???

…well at least I’m not my sister---I’m not a demoniac!

 

Who are we?

Are we Christians…

St. Stephan-ites

Democrats…Republicans…

Well

Whoever we are

AT LEAST we aren’t like those-----fill in the blank

 

Describing ourselves and/or our communities by what we are and what we aren’t

Seems to happen almost by default…as a matter of habit…tis sneaky that way

But it doesn’t define

 

When the Demoniac was Healed…made whole…

and brought back to his identity as---Child of God

And when the townsfolk…those who defined themselves over-against him---

…When they saw him

They. Were. UNDONE.

 

 

And here I believe is the crux of the matter:

 

Being scared to death that what is most powerful in this world

…means to HARM US 

comes far more easily

than knowing that what is most powerful in this world

…actually LOVES US**

 

(say twice)

 

What is definitive about who I am?

What is definitive about the Community of Stephens?

What is definitive

Not just descriptive?

What is grounding and sends us forth in love?

 

On the left side of the diptych

Jesus calmed the Chaos at sea

Showing his power over the natural world

On the right side of the diptych

Jesus expels EVEN a LEGION of Demons

Showing his power over anything that is an occupying force

 

And in all this

Jesus is setting us free---inviting us to live free of fear

To know DEFINATIVELY who we are

 

Not as descriptions of our own making

Not as descriptions someone else makes of us

Not over-against what we are NOT

 

But DEFINATIVELY

 

My friends God definitively NAMES us:

God names us Child of God

God names our Being as IN CHRIST (to use Paul’s language)

God names us in Baptism

Sons and daughters, Beloved disciples

 

But all these names represent a work-in-progress

And so we gather on Sundays 

To recall our names

And with the promised help of the Holy Spirit

and in the company of each other

we hear Gods ongoing call to live our way into our names

 

Why?  

 

Because knowing that what is most powerful in the world

…actually LOVES US

Is the liberation that the world really needs!

 

 

 

 

*this distiction came to mind after listening to David Lose commenting on this pericope on "sermonbrainwave" episode 122

**this insight comes from John Shea, The Spiritual Wisdom of the Gospels, Luke Year C, p. 179