Dear Friends, we continue on in our journey, always attempting to be our best selves, warring at times against our purely human natures and our divine natures that ask, push us really toward being all that we can be. It was great last Sunday to be “together ” via Zoom–to see familiar as well as some new faces. Always feel free to invite family and friends to join us–part of our church name, All Are One, certainly implies that all are welcome to join us!

Entrance Antiphon

O God, today you ask us to harden not our hearts when we hear your voice. Be our strength in this task.

Let Us Pray—

Opening Prayer

O good and gracious God, in you, justice and mercy meet. With unparalleled love you have saved us from darkness and drawn us into the light of your life and love. Open our eyes to the wonders this life sets before us. Let us sing joyfully to you who are our Creator, Savior and Loving Spirit and who lives and loves us forever and ever, Amen.

Readings: Ezekiel 33: 7-9, Romans 13: 8-10, Matthew 18: 15-20

The homily comes to us from Pastor Dick Dahl this week—thanks Dick—enjoy, friends!

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From exile in Babylon the prophet Jeremiah spent ten years trying to convince the Israelites who remained in Jerusalem and Israel to turn from their sinful ways. In the same way a verse from Psalm 95 calls out to us today, “If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.” As much is at stake, for us today, as was for the Israelites, in 597 B.C.

Paul tells us what this means in his letter to the Romans. He had come a long way in his personal transformation from a Pharisee who believed that following over 600 rules was necessary to please God to the apostle of Jesus who tells us, “All the commandments …are summed up in this saying, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ Love does no evil to the neighbor; hence, love is the fulfillment of the law.”

I’ve had a sign in my front yard for a couple years that reads, “Love everyone, no exceptions.” But what does this mean? Or better yet, how to do it?

I found some practical suggestions in an essay that my friend Jerry Windley-

Daoust recently wrote titled, “We Need to Stop Fueling Partisan Violence.”  In it he lists specific ways to curb partisan animosity. When I asked him if I might borrow extensively from what he wrote Jerry generously agreed. Here are thoughts from the ending of his essay:

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To reduce the chances of violent mass partisan conflict in the coming months, “Each of us needs to start disciplining our tongues and texts. No more partisan name-calling. No more angry screeds that reduce our ideological opponents to their most obnoxious beliefs and actions. No more ad hominem attacks — they’re no good at persuading anyone to come to your side, anyway. And no more childish self-righteous claims that our own party is morally superior — that “the other party started it,” or that our

party’s sins can be excused because the other party’s are worse.

“No more scrolling past the toxic rhetoric of our political allies, either. Instead, we need to actively disrupt those patterns of moral disengagement by pointing them out to friends and allies.

“We need to get to know people from the other party — not through superficial encounters, but substantial interactions. Researchers tell us that Americans are intentionally avoiding members of the other party more than ever before. Sticking with our own tribe is way more comfortable, but to temper partisan conflict, we need to take a deep breath, channel our inner grown up, and engage with people on the other side.

“I can hear a chorus of objections already — heck, I have my own. We see people in the other party saying and doing outrageous things. And the issues at stake in this election go to our most primal values: safety, personal liberty, human dignity. How can we “stand down” when the stakes are so high?

“Over the past few years, I’ve read many good books about how we might bridge the partisan divide. But perhaps the most powerful guide I’ve encountered in this quest is the writer and educator Megan Phelps-Roper.

“She’s the young woman who grew up picketing military funerals, synagogues, and other venues with hateful slogans because of her family’s involvement with the extremist Westboro Baptist Church. As a young adult, she and her sister bravely walked away from that lifestyle (and her family) thanks to the generous and patient persistence of a handful of people on Twitter.

“My friends on Twitter didn’t abandon their beliefs or their principles — only their scorn,” she said in a 2017 TED talk describing her experience. “They channeled their infinitely justifiable offense and came to me with pointed questions tempered with kindness and humor. They approached me as a human being, and that was more transformative than two full decades of outrage, disdain and violence.”

“After recounting her remarkable story, she offered a warning that is even more relevant today: “I can’t help but see in our public discourse so many of the same destructive impulses that ruled my former church,” she said. “This path has brought us cruel, sniping, deepening polarization, and even outbreaks of violence. I remember this path. It will not take us where we want to go.”

“Her TED talk is well worth viewing in its entirety. Here, though, I’d like to

summarize the four strategies she offers for having difficult conversations with people whose views you find repugnant.

“First, assume your opponent has good (or at least neutral) intentions. It’s easy to ride that initial wave of anger, Phelps-Roper says, but assuming ill motives pretty much kills any possibility of a constructive conversation. We get stuck imagining our opponent in the one-dimensional role of evil villain. Instead, we need to imagine them as complex human beings with a lifetime of experiences that led to the beliefs you’re contending.

Perhaps, too, we need to try to imagine them as their best potential selves — the way Phelps-Roper’s friends were able to imagine her in a better light.

“Second, ask questions. Asking questions opens the way to constructive dialogue because it lets your opponent know she is being heard; most likely, she will reciprocate by asking a question of you, too. “When we engage people across ideological divides, asking questions helps us map the disconnect between our differing points of view,” Phelps-Roper says. “That’s important because we can’t present effective arguments if we don’t understand where the other side is actually coming from.”

“Third, stay calm. This is difficult when our opponent’s rhetoric sends us into fight-or-flight mode, but it’s important — and powerful. Phelps-Roper recalls how one of her Twitter friends — a religious Jew who eventually became her husband — handled the tensest moments of their conversation by making a joke, changing the subject, or excusing himself from the conversation for a while.

“Fourth, make the argument. Phelps-Roper says that when we have strong beliefs, we can be tempted to assume “that we shouldn’t have to defend our positions because they’re so clearly right and good that if someone doesn’t get it, it’s their problem — that it’s not my job to educate them.” Uh-uh. If we want to change people’s minds, we need to do the work of showing them a different way of thinking. It’s not easy, because people’s strongest beliefs have usually evolved over a lifetime, and are tied up with

their tribal allegiances. But Phelps-Roper isn’t the only person who has been persuaded to change her way of viewing the world. And who knows? We might change some of our own views, too.

“It all boils down to this: There is always more to people than their worst ideas, beliefs, or behavior. And our allegiance to the American ideal of unity amid diversity must trump our allegiance to party and ideology. We should continue debating the best course for the nation as vigorously as we always have, but we should do so as fellow human beings, and fellow Americans. Because if we don’t, our 3 a.m. nightmares, about the future of democracy in America, may end up being worse than we ever imagined.”

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With that, I end my extensive quote from Jerry’s article. The challenge he raises is quite personal for me. My neighbors of 20 years with whom I’ve had a cordial relationship have just put up yard signs of the people in office running for reelection for which I have little respect. Despite our long and friendly relationship, my neighbors and I have never discussed our political or religious views. Their nonverbal expression of those views with the posting of their yard signs has made me feel almost ill.  This is not only the kind of situation Jerry wrote about. It is also what Jesus speaks about in today’s Gospel. We come to truth in community. The bonds of sin are dissolved when we reconcile with each other. We experience Jesus’ presence when two or more are gathered together, if not in his name, at least in an effort to honestly understand and overcome differences.

Perhaps few have epitomized this effort better than our former President Abraham Lincoln. On March 4, 1865, a little over a month before the horrendous Civil War ended and 41 days before he was assassinated, he gave his Second Inaugural address and ended it by saying, “With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right let us strive on to finish the work we are in to bind up the nation’s wounds, …to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.”

Prayers of the Faithful

      Response:   “Merciful God, hear our prayer.”

1. For the leadership within the Catholic church, especially Pope Francis and all our bishops, that they would open themselves to the inspiration of your Holy Spirit, for all of us, we pray—Response: “Merciful God, hear our prayer.”

• For those among us or in our wider community, who are suffering in any way today, we ask your healing touch O God, for this we pray—

     Response: “Merciful God, hear our prayer.”

• May the wisdom and grace of the Spirit overshadow all those in public office and those asking for our votes, to strive to be people who will truly work to care for the least among us and to bring peace to our world, we pray—

Response: “Merciful God, hear our prayer.”

• That we would not harden our hearts when we hear your voice asking us to care for your hurting world, we pray—

     Response: “Merciful God, hear our prayer.”

• For our community, All Are One, continue to send your Spirit upon us to enable us to be an inclusive community, open and welcoming to all, we pray—

    Response: “Merciful God, hear our prayer.”

• For the strength to follow in your footsteps Jesus, even if it brings shame and ridicule, we pray—Response: “Merciful God, hear our prayer.”

• For all those suffering from the ravages of hurricanes and fires, that they would find their way with the help of governments, with their neighbors and friends and you, O God, we pray—Response: “Merciful God, hear our prayer.”

8.  Loving Jesus, be with all families who have lost loved ones this week, from Covid 19 and all other causes—give them your peace, that they may find their way through their grief, we pray—Response:  “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—let our hearts not be hardened but help us to be merciful to all and accepting of all in our lives and in our wider world. Help us to be the change we want to see in our world, realizing that all and any change begins with my change of heart. We ask all of this of you, our good and loving God, who is Creator, Savior and Spirit, one God, living and loving us forever and ever.  Amen.

Let Us Pray—again today we must be without the bread—your body, the wine—your blood—but truly remember that you are always with us—in our lives, in our prayers, in our loving of others.

Prayer after Communion

Dear Jesus, thank you for the gift of yourself today—like a deer that longs for running streams, may we always seek after you in our lives and follow you faithfully—we ask this in your wonderful name, Amen.

Hello Friends, being that we had a ZOOM Mass today, I am just sending my homily–have a great week–enjoying the cooler weather–Pastor Kathy

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My friends; let us look briefly at the Scriptures given for our reflection today in yet another Sunday of challenge in this “extra” Ordinary Time.

The prophet Jeremiah is lamenting—his walking the way of God and all the abuse he must endure—he just didn’t know his, “yes” would mean all of this!

The psalmist today is able to take things a step higher—“my soul thirsts for you, O God.”  Clearly this writer knows, as we all sang so beautifully, “Your love is finer than life!”

Paul, is his letter to the Romans, that we have been spending time with, of late, continues the challenge that we all so need in these trying times in which we live—do not conform yourself to this age—“be transformed by the renewal of your minds, so that you may judge what is God’s will, what is good, pleasing and perfect.”

And in today’s gospel from Matthew, our brother, Jesus, says to Peter, “You are not setting your mind on the things of God, but of people.”  Again we see that “warring” between our humanity and our spiritual or divine natures that we have talked of in past weeks—the same struggle that Jesus warred against in his human life and in fact is warring against in the gospel reading today.

Cutting Peter a bit of a break; we must remember that his actions and words are based on his love for Jesus as his master and friend.  The character of Peter has proven throughout the Scriptures to be an impulsive one, but yet, one that is true and sound.  Remember that it was Peter, in last week’s gospel who fervently proclaimed, “You are the Messiah!”  I have personally longed this past week through the raging rhetoric of the administration occupying the White House, to hear some truth—some sound, even-handedness and did not.

In our beloved country, so engulfed at present by a pandemic that we have as yet been unable to get our hands around, due to a lack of leadership, an economic fallout as the result of the need for a lockdown during the initial days, to protect us all—another situation yet to be fixed as a million more people filed for unemployment benefits this last week, protesters from the BLACK LIVES MATTER movement underscoring the systemic sin of racism in our country evidenced once again by a police officer in Kenosha, WI shooting a black man in the back, not once, but seven times, the man in the White House did and said nothing to unite us as a nation—to comfort us in our collective pain—black and white, but instead, stoked the flames of division as he asked us to re-elect him.

Scientists the world over have warned that we may not have the time needed to save our planet from the global warming that is only too evident in the wildfires in California, more frequent and more intense, in the hurricanes that are coming earlier than in past seasons with LAURA devastating the south coasts of Texas and Louisiana this past week without a word of support from the president for what the people are going through—only touting his “accomplishments” during his first four years which include turning over many—too many safeguards put in place by his predecessor to protect our beautiful earth.

So my friends, let’s apply the Scriptures to all of this as we did last week.  In my homily of last Sunday; I spoke of the “hope” that I felt as I listened to the case being presented by the president’s challenger for his job.  This “hope,” an emotion I haven’t felt with regard to our country in a while, felt so good!

This week, I must admit, I didn’t listen to the speeches because I have found myself unable to do so with regard to this president and those in Washington who enable him in his unpresidential ways.  I have learned throughout my life, when I have encountered negative and at times, evil behavior, my best response is to not partake because it has the tendency to suck me into the black hole that it creates around itself and I will not make an exception with this man, president or not.

The prophet Jeremiah lamented that speaking the truth as God had given it to him had caused the people to turn against him and that it was difficult to live this way, yet in the end, God’s words burned within him and he must speak.

A woman from Nazareth named Mary found herself in somewhat the same situation of ridicule in her “yes” to God.  She found that she must say, “yes,” as her faith didn’t allow her to say, “no,” even though she didn’t know ahead of time, all that her, “yes” would ask of her.

We celebrated this woman, her faith and her strength in saying, “yes” to God in the feast of her assumption, body and soul into heaven on the 15^th of this month and we ask her to give us that same strength and faith to live out our lives, saying, “Yes” to what God may be calling us to.  Her response to the trust that God had placed in her was her “Magnificat” that we have sung in the Canticle of the Turning in our opening hymn and will again sing in the closing hymn.

The times which we are living in are calling us to be our “best selves” and as last week; I am again challenging us with Jesus’ words in responding to these times, to—“check the fruits” in knowing who to believe.

I have been enjoying recently, a book by Franciscan, Father Richard Rohr, loaned to me by a friend, entitled, Eager to Love: the Alternative Way of Francis of Assisi, which I feel says in many places—so well, what our stance as Christians, as followers of our brother Jesus, must be in our world.

He includes the thoughts of another Franciscan, Sister Ilia Delio to flesh out what we are to be about as Jesus’ followers. Rohr begins by saying, “God’s sending of Jesus was never plan 2”—to redeem fallen humanity, “but always, plan 1”—to simply show us the way home.  Sister Ilia basically says; to accept the death of Jesus as necessary to save us from our sins is to have missed the point.  She writes in her book on St. Clare, Clare of Assisi: A Heart full of Love, “Jesus’ death was all about him taking on the worst humanity could offer in order that we, his sisters and brothers could then recognize him in the sufferings of others.”  It was always in God’s plan that we would be about loving each other—always!

The harder task, my friends, always, is to love, which implies listening to others—really listening, and even when we can’t agree, asking God to love them through us—praying to not let ourselves, “get in the way.”

It would seem that first, we must cultivate a heart that can love, ears that can hear—and really listen and then, speak our truth as our God has given it to us, through prayer.  This was Jeremiah’s, Mary’s, Jesus’ and Paul’s way and it must be ours too!

Sometimes we may wonder if we have done the “right thing,” or what the “right thing” might be to do in the future and again, as Jesus said while physically with us, “Check the fruits” which may mean, what really serves people, what brings peace, comfort or well-being to the most of the people?

Doing the right thing should insure everyone, “a place at the table,” for one thing.  “Pro-life” means life, across the continuum.  What are we to make of ramping up the death penalty, now, in our country, after a hiatus of 17 years from this particular kind of cruel punishment—is it truly about, “doing the right thing,” or about speaking, “to one’s base” in an election year, under the guise of, “law and order?” Could we say that a Catholic cardinal who offers “prayer” to bolster the selfish needs of a sitting president rather than acting, as Jesus says, “out of the mind of God,” might be falling short of, “doing the right thing?”

We might compare and contrast that prayer with the one offered by Sister Simone Campbell of NETWORK or more fondly, NUNS ON THE BUS, the previous week, which I will share in part, here.  She prayed that we might fight for a vision that is worthy of God and God’s call to honor the dignity of all of creation—a vision of a people, “grounded in community and care for all, especially the most marginalized—a vision that cares for the earth and heals the planet—a vision that ends structural racism, bigotry and sexism so rife now in our nation and in our history—a vision that ensures hungry people are fed, children are nourished, immigrants are welcomed.”

There can be no doubt my friends that Sister Simone’s prayer comes out of, “the mind of God” and shows us the way as we are challenged by our brother Jesus to know what is right, “by checking the fruits.”  Amen? Amen!