Dear Friends–we come once again this week with hearts full of faith, hope and love that we might be our best selves, following our brother, Jesus’ way in the world. We are not without struggles but if we work together, keeping our eyes on him, his words and actions, we can indeed be models in our world of truth, goodness and love. We all miss being physically together so the reminder goes out to keep each other in prayer and thought, reaching out to others in the ways that we can. If I can be of help in your journey, please do not hesitate to call, 507-429-3616, or email, aaorcc2008@gmail.com. Peace and love–stay safe and well–Pastor Kathy

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Entrance Antiphon

O God, you are good and compassionate toward all—every day, I praise you because you are gracious and merciful.

Let Us Pray

Opening Prayer

God of mercy, the perfection of justice is found in your love and all humankind is in need of your love. Help us to find this love in each other that justice may be attained through following your example to love. We ask this through you our Creator, Jesus our brother and the Spirit who lives and loves us forever and ever, Amen.

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Readings:

• Isaiah 55: 6-9
• Philippians 1: 20-24, 27
• Matthew 20: 1-16

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 Homily 

My friends, once again this week; I think we can concentrate on the virtue of hope following the lead of the Scriptures. Recalling my homily of last week and the words of Father Richard Rohr in The Universal Christ; we can underscore that the virtue of hope never stands alone, but is supported by faith and love.  In other words, the three always stand together.  We need faith to hope and these two move us necessarily to show love in our world. 

   The prophet Isaiah begins this message of hope today in proclaiming that God thinks in a so much “bigger” way than we humans do.  This fact is confirmed in the gospel reading today from Matthew in the “puzzling,” to us, action of the estate owner who pays all the workers the same day’s wage regardless of whether they have worked the full day or just one hour.  More on this in a bit.

   The hope-filled theme continues in Paul’s faith-filled letter to the church at Philippi.  Paul “trusts and anticipates” that he will, “never be put to shame for [his] hopes.”  Again, it’s important to remember that Paul never saw Jesus, or heard him preach or teach or saw him heal—his relationship was with Christ, the Cosmic Lover of all created life; people, animals, nature—in all its beauty and power, all in fact that lives and moves in our world, according to Father Rohr and others who write on the Cosmic Christ.

   Paul continues by basically saying that, “Christ” will shine through you and me—all of creation, and not just people, if we allow it!—if we have eyes to see and ears to hear.  Richard Rohr says of it, “Anything that draws you out of yourself in a positive way—for all practical purposes—is operating as God for you at the moment.”  Rohr explains that God needs something to “seduce us out and beyond [ourselves]” and into relationship, and our God uses, “goodness, truth and beauty to do that.” 

   Rohr basically says that “relationship” is what God is all about in this world in dealing with us.  That is a far cry from the God that many in this world grew up with and a bad theology that is still being taught by some today—of an all-powerful being waiting to smack us when we do something wrong—of a God who would demand the life of Jesus in reparation for our sins.

   It is in Richard Rohr’s mind and heart that the God of “relationships” would never consider us,  an “original sin,” but indeed, an original blessing,” as others have written of it too!  Now that is hopeful!

   Returning then to the prophet Isaiah; we read this thought concerning the relationship our God wants to have with each of us, enhanced a bit by your pastor—God is still near—[always near, really!]  Additionally, our God has “pity” on us in all that life brings.  And, our God, “generously forgives.”

   Paul, in his letter to the Philippians, seems to be OK with the “Christ” he continues to know better, from that fateful day, “on the road to Damascus” when Jesus, the Christ proclaimed the God-head’s presence in, “a blinding light”—and onward throughout his life, in relationship with his God. He tells his hearers how important Christ has become to him, in that it doesn’t matter to him, “whether [he] lives or dies,” because for him, it is all about knowing Christ better, which he sees himself doing in either state.

   Therefore, Paul instructs us to live a life “worthy of the Gospel,” and this continues to be our challenge today.  And, how do we do that? Well, first off, we must read Jesus’ words—ponder them and make every attempt to follow in his footsteps.  Jesus’ only real purpose in coming to be with us was to show us the way and in that, we can more accurately say that, “He saves us” from ourselves! 

   Jesus showing us the way—which is, God’s way, is laid out so wonderfully in today’s gospel.  In order to truly understand this story, we must come at it through our hearts as our heads will simply fall short of its meaning.  Isaiah’s prophetic words, “God’s ways are not our ways,” are most instructive too! 

   So, let’s look at this gospel.  On a purely, human, face-value look; we might say that the estate owner in Jesus’ story is doing an injustice in paying the workers who only labored an hour the same wage as those who worked the entire day. 

   Several things are important to remember in teasing out this story—a point that is true of most of Jesus’ stories.  First, we must remember, as the prophet Isaiah said, “God’s ways are not our ways.”  We can probably be glad of that too when we see how some are treated in our world with much less justice, mercy and love simply because of the color of their skin, their gender, who they love, their culture, their age and so on.  It is good that the Cosmic Christ doesn’t treat each of us, not carrying any of these human-made burdens in like manner!

   The back story of the passage from Isaiah today shows the truth of this. Isaiah is basically reminding the Israelites that even though they have been unfaithful in their relationship with God, God, in turn, has always been faithful and Isaiah is asking them to do, “an about face,”  “while God can still be found.”  Even though Isaiah is giving them a bit of a threat here; we know, for a fact, from the life of Jesus, that our God will never leave us!

  So, let us truly get our hearts—not our heads into Jesus’ words today, that the “last will be first and the first, last!  In our present day, as our country struggles to face systemic racism; I believe we have a clear example of what Jesus was trying to teach the people of his time and us by extension. 

   Our black brothers and sisters have through this most recent, 2020 struggle, raised with full force, the slogan, “Black Lives Matter.”  Those in our culture who have missed the meaning behind this slogan have wanted to answer, “All Lives Matter” and the black community has pushed back because as they say, “We are trying to get the white folks to see that their lives have always mattered—for 400 years now, ours have not!” And that is why so many of our black sisters and brothers live in poverty and as a result die at a higher rate from Covid 19, are stopped more often by the police than are whites, and many times, killed even, by them.  So, in many ways, this issue fits right into what Jesus was saying to the sisters and brothers of his time and of course, to us. 

   I would like to conclude today with some comments I shared with you three years ago on this gospel as we try to truly understand what Jesus is saying when he says, “the first shall be last…” as I feel they are just as relevant today. You will notice some updates.

   Our loving God wants to share goodness with all and could it be that those who find it easier to maneuver in this world (those hired first) are being passed over for those who seemingly have so much less? For all the times that the workers hired last stood the entire day waiting to be hired and were passed over, could it be that the owner (God) is telling us that all the debts will be settled or perhaps evened-up one day? (Black Lives Matter) This was the thinking behind the old Negro Spirituals—that one day, there would be justice. Could it be that for those of us who smugly bask in our goodness; God might be instructing us to bring everyone into the fold—to remember that divine goodness is extended to all—clearly demonstrated in this Gospel reading, today.

   Our God is always about extending justice to all—to everyone who asks and God’s justice, unlike ours, is grounded in mercy—always extending another offer of help.  Isaiah prophesies today—“My ways are so far above yours!”  And that is why this parable today is so perfect—by human standards, it makes no sense, but by divine standards—it is so completely of God—for God’s love is insurmountable—over the top really!  Amen? Amen!

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Prayers of the Faithful

Response:  “Just and merciful God, hear our prayer.”

1. Help us O God, to strive to live justly in your world, with all your people,  we pray—Response: “Just and merciful God, hear our prayer.”
2. For each of us here and for our entire Church, help us to do unto others as we would have them do unto us, we pray—Response: “Just and merciful God, hear our prayer.”
3. For all who are suffering here today or in our wider community, be it in body, mind or spirit, we pray—Response: “Just and merciful God, hear our prayer.”
4. For those who continue to suffer from hurricanes and related storms, flooding and fires, protect your people, we pray—Response: “Just and merciful God, hear our prayer.”
5. For our world and its people, that peace would reign in our hearts and that we would do all in our power to bring peace to our world, remembering that peace begins with me, we pray— Response: “Just and merciful God, hear our prayer.”
6. For our community, All Are One, continue to send your Spirit upon us, especially now in this time of separation, to enable us to be an inclusive community, open and welcoming to all, we pray—Response: “Just and merciful God, hear our prayer.”
7.   Loving Jesus, be with all families who have lost loved ones this week, due to Covid 19 and all other causes—give them your peace, that they may find their way through their grief, we pray—Response: “Just and merciful God, hear our prayer.”
8. As we move toward national elections, help us as a people to elect those      individuals who will truly work for the good of all the people, we pray— Response: “Just and merciful God, hear our prayer.”

***Let us pray for your particular needs—you may say them aloud, then response

***Let us pray for the silent petitions on our hearts—pause, then response

Let Us Pray

   Good and gentle God, our source of all strength and wisdom.  We ask that you would give us peace—filled and loving hearts—the energy to always seek after peace through the gifts of lovingkindness, justice founded on mercy.  Help us to remember that our real task in this world as followers of Jesus, our brother, is to love your people and this world. We ask that we might have the strength for this great task.   All this we ask of you, Jesus, our Brother and Friend, who lives and loves us forever and ever, AMEN. 

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Let Us Pray—Once again, we cannot share the Eucharist physically, but help us to always remember that you are with us, always!

Prayer after Communion

Dear Jesus, help us with your kindness. Make us strong through your presence always with us. May we put into action the saving mystery we celebrate, that you have come to be one with us and show us the way to God—we ask this in your wonderful name—Amen.

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Dear Friends, we continue on with Ordinary Time which I have chosen, as you know, to call, “extra” in that each week, as in this 24th Sunday, we are continued to be challenged–as we all know, this is not a time to let someone else be “Christian” but in fact, do it ourselves! I am concentrating on the virtue of hope this week as it is a virtue that sustains us for the long haul. Please do be in touch if I can be of help to you in any way–by phone, 507-429-3616 or by email, aaorcc2008@gmail.com. Peace and love to each one of you, Pastor Kathy

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Entrance Antiphon

O tender and compassionate God, you are slow to anger and rich in lovingkindness and mercy. You hold our offenses farther away than the east is from the west. Holy is your name and forever to be praised!

Let Us Pray

Opening Prayer

Good and loving God, we believe that we do not live for ourselves, but for you and your people—help us to always keep in mind that you love us and want good for us and all of our brothers and sisters in this world. We ask this of you who are our Creator, Savior and Spirit—living and loving us forever and ever, Amen

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Readings:

• Sirach 27:30 — 28:7
• Romans 14:7-9
• Matthew 18: 21-35

Homily

   My friends, as I said in the bulletin earlier in the week, my intention on this Sunday is to concentrate on the virtue of hope, reminding us in part, that as a community; we can be humbly proud of the ways we have reached out in generosity through our monetary gifts that have helped so many in our city, nation and world—garden produce, and other supplies to the Winona Voluntary Services food shelf along with regular meals to the Catholic Worker in Winona. And of course there is the regular delivery every February of Home Delivered Meals that our community has taken on.  All of this fits well into the comments that I wish to make this week concerning hope, for such generosity in ourselves and others tells us that good abounds—something we all need to know from time to time. 

   Hope gets us through a great deal in life because, as Father Richard Rohr says, you can’t have hope without faith and those two lead to love.  So, we have a trilogy with which to face our world.  More on his thoughts in a bit. 

   Thinking about this threesome of faith, hope and love, which speak not just to our mindset as we face our world—faith and hope, our values, let’s say, but to the natural action which must follow from the first two—to show love in our world.  The Scriptures for this week help to show us the way.

   Thinking about, “having hope”—expecting the best from ourselves and others, the prophet, Isaiah, tells us not to hold onto anger, but instead—to forgive and to pray.  He goes on to instruct and ask, “If we don’t do good to our neighbors, can we expect good from God?” Well, actually—yes we can!—because God isn’t like us in this regard! But, I think God would want us to, “Shoot for the best!” 

   Isaiah continues by saying—“Show mercy and refuse to hate.”  Our human natures don’t immediately respond to ill treatment by, as Jesus tells us, “turning the other cheek,” so we know that we have to work on, “being our best.” 

   And our loving God, through the psalmist today, shows us the way—by proclaiming, “Our God is tender and compassionate, slow to anger, most loving!”  This week perhaps today even, so as not to forget, you and I might want to think over, how we are like our good God in this regard—tender and compassionate, slow to anger and most loving.  Talk about bringing hope to our world! 

   Paul, in his letter to the Romans simply says that Christ is our model—both in life and in death.  It is good for us to recall that Paul never knew Jesus physically in this life—his first encounter with him was on that fateful day when he saw Jesus as a blinding (literally and figuratively) light!  So Paul’s impressions and words are always about more than the human Jesus—they are about the all-encompassing, Christ.  We will let that be too, for the moment. 

   And the final reading for today comes from Matthew’s gospel speaking about the ruler who was, “moved with pity” for the plight of his official—in the matter of a debt to be paid.  Jesus, our good brother always uses stories and parables from people’s lives to teach the way that we, then and now are to go—are to live our lives. 

   So friends, moving back to my original intention of concentrating on hope, I would like to spend a few lines sharing just some of the nuggets from the first chapter of Father Richard Rohr’s newest book from 2019, The Universal Christ: How a Forgotten Reality Can Change Everything We See, Hope for, and Believe.  Some of you, I know, are familiar with this book. 

   As with many of Father Richard’s books, you don’t read them right through and must out of necessity, read some sections twice as they are so profound—this book is such an example, but one that I would highly recommend.  Robert and I are known for, “reading out loud” our respective books to each other—something like, “listen to this…!” and then proceed to share the quotable quote.  With this book; I told him that he must read it himself as there is so-much-good in it!

   So hang on folks…! Richard, in his Introduction, which he entitles, “Before We Begin,” shares English mystic, Caryll Houselander’s startling experience while making an underground railway journey in London. He does so because he says she “poignantly demonstrates…the Christ mystery” in her telling of this experience. 

   For Rohr, the “Christ mystery,” simply put, is that God is in every thing that is created. Notice that he says “every thing” and not, “everything” to make the point that every-single-created-thing is infused with Christ.

   Going back then to Houselander’s “startling experience,” she spoke about “quite suddenly” seeing, “with [her] mind, but as vividly as a picture, Christ in all of them”—all the inhabitants of the railway car, that is.  She continued, “but I saw more…I saw Christ…living in them, dying in them, rejoicing in them, sorrowing in them—and because [Christ] was in them, and because they were here, the whole world was here too…not only the world as it was at that moment, not only all the people in all the countries of the world, but all those people who lived in the past and all those yet to come.”

   Now imagine how each of us might think and act differently in our respective lives if we could, even on occasion, see all of creation—all people and things—the world, in all its beauty as Christ—the very manifestation of God!  Houselander says that after leaving the underground railway, her “startling experience” remained for a while—“seeing Christ” in the living out of individual lives—but then, it vanished.  In future, she like us, would have to purposefully, “seek for [Christ] in other human beings and in creation, but I would have to think that because of this profound experience, she would make it a point to do, more often!

   And Father Rohr moves on from there getting to a point that he truly wants us to understand. “Christ is God and Jesus is the Christ’s historical manifestation in time.”  Now there is a statement to think on for a bit. Rohr continues saying that “Christ” is not Jesus’ last name, but the reality of our loving God’s desire to be truly part of all created life.  With that in mind, he makes this fantastic statement, “God loves things by becoming them[!]  Jesus lived as a human being to show us in the best sense, how to be human! Rohr says, Jesus came to show us how to be human, much more than how to be spiritual…”  Again, a statement to ponder…

   So friends, getting back to hope then and the message of the Scriptures today from all the writers; that we try and forgive and not hold onto our anger, even when we feel it may be justified and pray instead for whom or what causes us to be angry, take tenderness and compassion into our world—some pity too for that which strikes us as less than Christian or even human because if it is so, as Rohr and Houselander say, that our God truly lives within “every thing,” then doesn’t it behoove us, as followers of our brother, Jesus, to react with more than the status quo response, “I just can’t!”  I believe our status as Christian believers does demand a bit more.  Even Rohr says with regard to Jesus’ coming to teach us how to be more human than spiritual, “still seems to be in the early stages.”

   So friends, lots of thoughts and how to bring it all together…I think we might best do that by returning to the notion of “hanging onto the hope,” which you will recall from the beginning of this homily, is uniquely joined with the virtues of faith and love, as Rohr laid out. Because of our hope, which we might agree is bred into humanity—that striving for what is best in us and others—unless it is compromised along the way, moves us then to faith, a believing that the best is possible and because of that belief, then love follows—that giving of ourselves for all that is truly good in our world—for us and others, and never one, in exclusion of the other. 

   Many of us in these modern times have heard about “having a personal relationship with Jesus.” I too have thought of my relationship to Jesus as a personal one.  But Rohr basically says that if we stop there—something strictly between Jesus and me, then we have missed the point of the Incarnation.

   In fact, Rohr says that there have been three incarnations of our loving God.  The first was at the creation of all life, the second was Jesus’ Incarnation into humanity and the third is the continual, that is, ongoing to the present and beyond of Christ into all people and this world of beautiful life.  This beautiful notion he says was halted with the Roman inclusion into the catholic—small c, meaning—universal church of the 3^rd Century. 

   We need to get back to the church that Jesus prayed for in his priestly prayer the night before he died—a church where, “all would be one.”  And again, as you all know, that is the very reason why our community of believers, our piece of the Body of Christ is named, “All Are One” where all are welcome at the table where we attempt to be accepting of every one. Richard Rohr would say, “Take your Christian head off, shake it wildly, and put it back on!

   And that my friends is truly something we can hope in!  Amen? Amen! 

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Prayers of the Faithful

Response:  “Forgiving and merciful God, hear our prayer.”

1. For each of us here and in our wider world, give us the strength to be able to forgive from our hearts realizing that we all need forgiveness, we pray—Response:  “Forgiving and merciful God, hear our prayer.”

• For each of us here and for our entire Church, help us to do unto others as we would have them do unto us, we pray—Response:  “Forgiving and merciful God, hear our prayer.”

• For all who are suffering here today or in our wider community,  and help all to hang onto the hope, we pray—Response:  “Forgiving and merciful God, hear our prayer.”

• For those who are suffering from hurricanes, related storms, and fires caused by climate change, we pray—Response:  “Forgiving and merciful God, hear our prayer.”

• For our country, especially the people of New York who lost so terribly 19 years ago, on 9/11, that peace and forgiveness would reign in our hearts—that we would do all in our power to bring peace to our world, we pray–Response:  “Forgiving and merciful God, hear our prayer.”

• For our community, All Are One, separated now, continue to send your Spirit upon us to enable us to be an inclusive community, open and welcoming to all, we pray—Response:  “Forgiving and merciful God, hear our prayer.”

• Loving Jesus, be with all families who have lost loved ones this week from COVID 19 and from other causes—give them your peace, that they may find their way through their grief, we pray—Response:  “Forgiving and merciful God, hear our prayer.”

***Let us pray for your particular needs—you may say them aloud, then response

***Let us pray for the silent petitions on our hearts—pause, then response

Let Us Pray

Creator, Savior and Spirit, You see into our hearts and know our needs before we ask—give us what we most need today.  Allow us to have your lovingkindness and your compassionate heart to see beyond the evil that sometimes seems to be present in people and situations and see the cause and do all that we personally can to alleviate that. Help each of us to hang onto the hope in these troubling times—we ask this of You, Loving Creator, Savior and Spirit—One God, living and loving us forever and ever—Amen.

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Let Us Pray—Again, the bread of the table—Jesus’ ever-present body, cannot be ours, as a community, but enable us to remember that you are always with us, in each other.

Prayer after Communion

God of mercy, may the fact that you are always with us make us strong in your love and faithful in our witness to your truth. We ask this in Jesus’ wonderful name—Amen.

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