My friends, here we are at the second Sunday of Advent, and we know that means that the fourth Sunday will be upon us sooner than we think—and even quicker as that same fourth Sunday will be shared with Christmas Eve this year.  Last week I suggested to all of us that we can “wait expectantly,” which is what Advent is really all about, and make cookies at the same time, or whatever other preparations you may be about this time of year!

   Advent reminds us friends, through the Scripture readings that it is good, “to set something aside” for a time, “waiting expectantly” for that special event to happen.  The Scriptures given for this Sunday remind us of this on several levels.  Mark repeats Isaiah’s message as he begins his gospel with another prophet, John the Baptist— “Make a straight path—prepare a way.” One dimensionally, we can see this command as putting our physical house in order because we are getting ready to host guests at Christmastime.  And while we may feel that this is an important part of our preparations, we know that our brother Jesus, and our Loving God, expects us to go deeper. 

   Most of us, at least we women would not think of inviting guests to our homes without preparing the physical space to house them, or planning for guests without preparing enough food, even special foods for the time they will be with us. 

   Our God, through the prophets is asking for no less—in order that we will be ready to hear the radical message of love that Jesus gives to our world, we will need to prepare our hearts “to hear,” to accept, and ultimately share that message with our world.  And we know that this sharing will not always be easy. 

   Isaiah’s words to us today say as much: “…every hill and mountain be laid low.”  To me these words say that we will need some change in our lives to see and to hear Jesus’s message that is, as we said last week, often counter-cultural. 

   That brings us once again to mentioning the ritual color that the Second Vatican Council suggested churches use, going forward, to signify the work and the preparation of the Advent Season—blue.  This color should suggest to us that we are preparing for a “new creation”—Emmanuel—who will bring us new life.  This season is all focusing on Jesus and the “new life” he can bring us if we are open to it.

   As we spoke of last week, this is not a season to “beat our breasts” asking for forgiveness as during the Season of Lent, symbolized by the ritual color of purple.  Advent again, is a time for us to “expectantly wait” and to prepare, and to remember a life coming into our midst, capable of changing in many ways how we live our lives and for whom we live them.  Maybe that is why our present-day Church fathers have, in my mind, wrongly chosen to concentrate on our need for forgiveness, through the ritual color of purple, instead of “new life and creation” in the footsteps of Jesus of Nazareth.  People who feel “worthless and sinful” are easier, I would guess, to control than those empowered by the words of Jesus to extend justice toward all—to give them new life represented by the ritual color, blue. 

   And we would be remiss if we did not mention the wonderful place that our sister-mother-friend, Mary of Nazareth plays in Advent-Christmastime.  The ritual color blue stands to represent her as well and the creative and wonderful life she gave our world. 

   I did find in my search for the reason why our Church went back to the purple, instead of the blue for Advent, an obscure liturgist who suggested that if we used blue for this Season, it would suggest that Advent is “all about Mary.” Now, while it is true that the Season is not all about Mary, I believe we would all agree that she did play a most significant role! But far be it from any hierarchical church man to give a woman, or women in general, any credit for their gifts to our world! 

   We did not meet for the annual feast of the Immaculate Conception this past Friday as is our custom for all the holydays simply because preparing for more than one liturgy in a week is more than your pastor can handle, for the most part. But with this one, there is a double reason, in that it really doesn’t uplift the “Mary” in justice that we should be emulating.  That is why we are singing The Canticle of the Turning today—a real marching song coming from a woman’s heart about the Son she is giving the world—not a submissive, “kept-in-her-place” female, but a strong, decisive woman speaking about justice for all, the justice her Son will bring.  And when I think about her in that way, I realize why hierarchical Church men wouldn’t want to uplift such a woman.

   So friends, let us continue our journey toward Christmas, remembering that our brother Jesus came first and foremost for the lowly, signified by his birth in a stable, to tell us that we are, each one of us, truly loved by our God, no exceptions!  Amen? Amen!

My friends, once again, our Church Year has come full circle and Advent is with us.  Each new Church Year begins separate from our calendar year, ahead of time, to remind us perhaps, that what we do as Christians, as followers of Jesus, the Christ, our brother, and friend, is counter-culture, often times.  Is it counter-culture just because we Christians want to be oppositional? I would say, “no,” but more so because we humans tend to, for the most part, be more comfortable, “hanging with the crowd.” Our “walk” with Jesus demands that we be “uncomfortable” many times when most others choose the comfortable way out. 

   Perhaps a good story can explain this better.  Many of you are familiar with Eunice Kennedy Shriver, who in 1968, established Special Olympics with, I’m guessing, her own sister Rosemary, as well as so many others in our world, with learning disabilities in mind.  These really “special” children found, as they grew, that the world was really not a “friendly” place for them to be. 

   Lynn Schmidt, a political writer, and columnist for the St. Louis Dispatch wrote this past week a counter-culture piece addressing this issue.  The world of sports, in all areas is about competition and ultimately being better than all others, and unfortunately, politics gets involved too.

   The Special Olympics, while named as a competition, is more about comradery and support for all, “trying to do their best,” than about being, “better” than someone else.

   One particular athlete in the latest Olympics struggled to complete a 25 meter walk while using a walker—this is basically 80 feet! All those in the stadium began to cheer for him, as if he were the only one in the arena, to keep going and cross the finish line.  Schmidt said that when he did, “there was not a dry eye.”

   Rather than a crowd cheering for the success of the best among the best in the regular Olympics, this was the people cheering for the “least” among them ability-wise to be a success. So, what does this have to do with the Season of Advent? 

   In the beginning of this homily, I stated that beginning the new Church Year ahead of the new calendar year might be a way to lift up how our entire journey with Jesus our brother, will be counter-culture—we will be continually asked to stand up for the “least” among us instead of the “best.”  And incidentally, this will call us, “to be our individual best! 

   Advent has been deemed for as long as I can remember, a time of “expectant-waiting.”  Our culture, needless to say, does not do well with waiting. This is only too obvious in the way our culture “rushes” to Christmastime, totally by-passing any time of “expectant waiting,” when many of us come out of a Christian background.  We are not, as a culture, “patient waiters,” –we want it all now, and this is certainly driven by our commercialistic society. 

   But still, we as followers of our brother Jesus are called to go deeper.  Many probably look at “waiting” as a waste of time.  Kathleen Norris, mid-west writer with many books to her credit, speaks about “waiting” and “radical waiting” as “life-giving.”  Setting something aside, for a time, preparing for it over time makes us stronger, “gives us vigor,” she says. 

   So, what do the Scriptures have to say?  Each new Church Year rotates between the first three gospel accounts of Matthew, Mark and Luke, and this year, it is Mark’s turn.  As you know, Mark is one of few words: “Stay alert, be constantly on the watch,” is his message. 

   We humans, it seems, have the tendency to look for blame outside of ourselves, when things don’t go well.  This seems to be what is going on in the 1^st reading today from Isaiah.  Even though God has been there for this people over time—showing them the way to go, God seems to be blamed for, “letting [them] wander from [God’s] ways.”  It is Paul, in his first letter to the Corinthians that reminds them, and us that, “Jesus … is faithful.” 

   Now being “faithful,” it must be remembered is not about Jesus doing everything for us.  Jesus’ “faithfulness” is about, “showing us the way” by how he lived his own human life—he doesn’t ask us to do anything that he was unwilling to do.  You will recall that last week we celebrated, “not a king above us,” but a servant among us.”  Thus, as Jesus was counter-culture, our “walk” with him will call us, often, to that larger, deeper look at what is needed in our world.  Will that always be easy? No, it will not! But we have great shoulders to stand upon! 

   Evidently Paul’s community in Corinth was, as we say, “walking the talk,” as Paul was thanking God for all the “gifts” bestowed on them through Jesus, the Christ. I find myself likewise thanking God for giving us each other as a community wherein we can challenge each other to be our best, for ourselves, but for others as well. 

   So, in conclusion friends—let Advent into your lives these next 4 weeks, allowing for some quiet moments, even a few each day, to “expectantly wait,” amid some quiet preparations, thinking about how great a gift the Incarnation is! 

***An Advent disclaimer:  These next 4 weeks are not “Lent-light”—a pre-Vatican II concept, represented now, in most, if not all Catholic churches with the ritual color of purple.  One would be hard-pressed to find a diocesan church that doesn’t now use the color purple for these 4 weeks.

    We are a Vatican II parish, so our ritual color for these 4 weeks is blue, used in deference to Mary, our Sister/Mother, but also as a sign of joy as the time draws near that we recall—God-With-Us, Emmanuel.  If you use an Advent wreath during this time, you should use 3 blue candles, and 1 white candle—the white representing the “joy” that our time of waiting is almost over.  The green of the wreath is all about, “hope” in our loving God.  May this time of “expectant waiting” coupled with quiet, anticipatory preparation be a rich time for each one of us.  Amen? Amen!

My friends, parts of this homily I shared 6 years ago, and now, with some updates for 2023, hopefully, it is still meaningful.  Today, the Christian Church Universal celebrates Jesus Christ as King.  The trouble is, Jesus never proclaimed that he was a “king,” at least not in the way that people wanted a king. 

   It would seem, according to Ezekiel that Jesus came as a servant and a shepherd.   Jesus, the Good Shepherd, was out among the people tending to their needs, calling the powers-that-be to justice—challenging them to stop filling their coffers with the hard-earned money of the people, and making sure that everyone, especially the least among them, had what was needed to simply live—a clarion call to each of us today.

   We hear this in the face of the bishops in this country, and especially, Bishop Barron, in our own diocese of Winona, preparing to celebrate in 2024 an Eucharistic Congress, uplifting the elements of bread and wine on the altar—emphasizing the “true presence” in “flesh and blood” of our brother Jesus, with no apparent, real connection to his “body and blood” present in all of humanity, especially that we see this presence in the poor and down-trodden in our world.  

   Our seeming need to proclaim Jesus as king goes back to Old or First Testament times when the people then begged God to give them a king and God acquiesced because they were, as Scripture says, “a stiff-necked people.”  They constantly wanted, as we do, to make God into their own image rather than allowing God to be who God is. Even up until the crucifixion, the apostles, those who probably knew Jesus best, outside of his earthly parents perhaps, thought of him and wanted him, in fact, to be a king who would put down the Romans. They were thinking as humans think, not as God thinks, as Jesus once told Peter, but Jesus was calling them to so much more.

    The gospel chosen for today from Matthew describing the last judgment is a good place to start in describing Jesus’ true presence on this earth. Exegetes tell us that our task as commanded by Jesus is not to simply do humanitarian service, but to work at getting to the heart of why people are hungry, thirsty, homeless, in prison, lost and alone.

    I believe many of us do the humanitarian work as is evidenced in the outreach activities of this parish and that is good, but Jesus, who was not a king in worldly terms, but a shepherd, servant, brother, and friend, encourages us to indeed, get to the heart of the above problems—to see the faces of the people that go along with the statistics—searching out every lost one.  It is too bad that all the thousands of dollars being spent on the Eucharistic Congress this next year can’t instead be used for the “more present” body and blood of our brother Jesus in our world.

   If we get caught up in celebrating Jesus as king that puts the focus on him to save us from whatever danger is out there, and then the attention is shifted from our need to be engaged with our world, as he was with his. As you recall from last weekend’s gospel; we are called to risk, which will sometimes bring discomfort, even be messy at times.

   In a present-day news piece this past week, a man by the name of Jonathan McCory had this to say about “taking risks.”  “Live in the discomfort of your growth, or change.” This is akin to saying, as others have, “Be the change you want to see!” Even though this risky behavior is “messy,”  it is the way of Jesus, it is the way to peace wherein fear of judgment, in the end, is not a worry—in other words, if we walk in Jesus’ footsteps, judgment should not be something we have to be concerned about.  Jesus came to show us the way by being a servant and the example he took for himself often was that of a humble shepherd, one who cared for sheep who would often wander off, like us, get lost and need to be found.  

    Even though most of us aren’t familiar with what it means to be a shepherd as none of us takes care of sheep, the tenets of such work can be carried forward—that of selflessness, patience, understanding and love. We know that shepherds, men, and women were all about caring for their sheep, the ones worthy of the name, bringing them to good sources of pasture and water, binding their wounds when they wandered off, when they were lost, the good shepherds would seek them out, basically keeping them safe.

   This weekend calls us to see Jesus as our Brother and Friend—through the shepherd stories and the beautiful 23^rd psalm. We learn that our God doesn’t want to lord it over us, as a king might, but to be among us, that our God, as the Good Shepherd, will go any distance to find us when we are lost and will always listen, will always understand, will always love us. 

   This is why, the reluctance of Robert Barron, bishop of Winona, to meet with us, even answer our attempts to contact him is so disconcerting, and especially if it is true that when he was appointed by Pope Francis to serve as our bishop, he was quoted as saying, basically, that he wanted to get down and among the sheep!

   Therefore, it is good for us to reflect on this most comforting message of our loving God as a follow-up to last weekend’s parable of the talents wherein some of us found the harsh words of the master in that story, hard to take—that the rich will be given more and that “the more” will be taken from those who have the least.  This is definitely a Scripture message that we don’t want to take literally, as it seems to fly in the face of what we believe Jesus usually preached—in fact, today’s gospel would seem a contradiction to that.  Again, the context is so important. 

   In last week’s gospel, Jesus was trying to prepare his followers for the End Times and the harsh language was to impress upon them the importance of doing the right thing, now! Don’t wait, he was saying, in order to catch their attention. 

   A better way to look at the statement that the rich will be given more and the little the poor have, will be taken from them, is to get beyond the surface story told here.  Reflecting on what Jesus is saying in Matthew’s account of the Last Judgment, we have to believe he means more than the idea given at first glance in the seemingly, “offending” statement of the rich having more at the expense of the poor.

   When we do the right thing—that is, care for those with less and the other Corporal Works of Mercy, when we risk our safety at times for the good of others, when we use the gifts given to us, multiply “the master’s good” (as in last week’s story) in the world, we become richer as persons.  When we “bury the master’s good,” our gifts, and refuse to share in order to take care of ourselves, we become poorer, and the gifts given to us, do, in effect get “taken away.”

   That friends, is the beauty, perhaps the frustration of Scripture—the Spirit of Jesus is always, “alive and well,” so to speak, calling us to be open to more, to stretch ourselves beyond what comes to us at first glance.  Jesus, our brother, and friend certainly doesn’t promise that it will be easy, it will in fact be messy, but in the end, it will be life-giving, as all will be cared for.  We will have created a world worthy of the God who created us in love, gave us Jesus in love and has called each of us to do the same.

   So friends, today let us celebrate Jesus as our brother and friend, one of us, not one apart from us, which the title “king” seems to suggest. When we get familiar with Jesus as brother and friend and see, truly see how he was with others, it is much less easy to discount him or to not recognize him in the suffering humanity of our world.  We move forward friends, as we complete the liturgical year this week and prepare for another with the beginning of Advent next Sunday. May each of us be blessed as we share our gifts, our love, with our world. Amen? Amen!

My friends, being that today we are following our liturgy with a pre-Thanksgiving meal, I thought it might be good to address the virtue of gratitude.  Many times, being “thankful,” saying “thanks” for a good bestowed on us is thought to be the same as gratitude, and we may hear the two words, “thanks” and “gratitude” interchanged.  I would like to suggest that they are different.  Webster’s Dictionary seems to agree.

   “Thanks” the dictionary says, is “an expression of gratitude.”  “Gratitude” is described as “the quality of being thankful,” along with, the readiness to show appreciation for and to return kindness.” From those definitions, I would say, being “grateful,” is the “grownup” expression of merely being thankful.  We all were raised to say, “thank you” when someone does something good for us.  Now, while we as children, may have said the words to appease our parents or others who thought we should say those words, it is probably true to say that we weren’t “grateful,” at least at that point. 

   The virtue of gratitude, it seems to me, only comes to us humans with lived experience, and the maturity to realize that so much of what I am as an individual is due to others, and what I have been gifted with in life, in order that I can then go on to become the person that I was called to be.

   Some of you may be familiar with Michael Perry, national author, and speaker.  He began his career as a registered nurse and recently was invited to his alma mater in Eau Claire, Wisconsin to give a key-note address. Part of what he had to say, was sharing a piece on gratitude that he had previously written, and the university requested him to include.

   One of the things that perked up my ears and heart in his address, was the word, “privilege.” Michael is aware that from the “get-go,” he was privileged above many others in this world, due to his “whiteness,” the place he had on the economic ladder—not rich, but certainly not poor, which afforded him, shelter, food and so much more, every day.  Many, if not most of us could say the same for our own lives. 

   The gospel for this liturgy might have given some of us reason to pause and think that the employer was a bit cruel.  Again, as with much of Scripture, we shouldn’t take Jesus’ story literally, but remember that he is always trying to teach us something deeper than the words might at first suggest. 

   The story tells us that the “employer” (think God) “entrusted” individual employees (think us) with a gift. I believe that “to entrust” someone with something is different than “simply giving” someone something.  Again, Webster’s would seem to agree.  The “big book of words,” and now I am dating myself, (smile) tells us that “entrusting” means, “assigning a responsibility.” 

   So, my friends, let’s go back to what we always say within these walls, quoting a wise person, “We are spiritual people here, having a human experience.  Our God, who loves us beyond all imagining, as Jesus shared in his earthly life, through stories like the Prodigal, and the Good Shepherd, and the Woman who turned her house upside down in search of a lost coin, gave each of us the wonderful gift of life— “entrusting us” with the responsibility of living out our potential, not just for ourselves, but for others. 

   We might look at the seeming “cruelness” depicted in the Gospel story as God’s “disappointment” in us for not living up to our potential.  And, even if that is the case, God never stops “chasing after us,” as the Scripture translation, The Message says so beautifully in the 23^rd Psalm, or stops loving us, wanting to be in relationship with us, again depicted so beautifully in the story of the Prodigal.

   So friends, this journey of life as Christian followers of our brother Jesus, is about in part, giving back, “paying it forward,” as it were, a bit of what we have been so “graciously” given.

    A piece on the nightly news this past week caught my attention as a couple were lamenting to the newscaster, about struggling financially, comparing themselves to immigrants coming into this country and wondering why, “these people are given so much, and we get so little.” 

   Now, while I am sure there is more to the story than was presented, I can say from experience in working with immigrants coming into our country, that they are mainly given, “entrance” if that, and then temporary helps until they can make it on their own.  Additionally, unlike the light-skinned woman interviewed, all the immigrants coming across our southern border, live every day with the fact that “they are different,” –no small task, which I think we can’t ourselves truly understand.    

   Looking at the first reading then from Proverbs, we get a good road map on how to show our gratitude in being “entrusted” with the gift of our “one wonderful life” –again as someone else said.  This reading was always entitled, The Virtuous Woman, and the Priests for Equality Group, whose version of the Scriptures that we use, saw fit to make this reading, “gender-less” as the virtues depicted here are ones that we can and should all adhere to. 

   Therefore, we should hear in this reading that we are called to, strive after perfect love, instill confidence equally in each other, bring advantage, not hurt, doing our work for the benefit of each other and holding out our hands to the poor.

   Paul tells his converts in Thessaloniki that they are people “of the light” and hopefully, we hear the same for ourselves.  He is telling them that when our God comes, they will be ready because they are trying to be their best selves, sharing what they have with each other, showing their gratitude for all that they have been “entrusted” with.

   As we come to the end of another Year of Grace, it’s good to look at how each of us faces our world—what have we done well, what could we do better? May God bless us all in our discernment. Amen? Amen!

   My friends, with being away this past week at retreat with my Mid-west sister priests, I took a few short-cuts in preparing my homily before I left on Wednesday.  I found a homily from 11 years ago whose basic themes and ideas could be brought forward and really serve us well, today.  And if you haven’t been with us for 11 years, than most of what I am saying here will be new!

   The basic thoughts given from the Scriptures today are simple, and to the point:  We must “lay all things on our heart,” says Malachi.  This thought fits well with a book by Rachel Wheeler, entitled, Eco-Spirituality, that I read for the retreat this past week.

   Even though the author doesn’t say this specifically, “laying all on our hearts” before acting is clearly what she is suggesting as she advocates for opening our hearts and minds toward having a greater relationship with all created life—human, animal, and plant life, realizing through the process, that in reality—each form depends on the other for quality of life.  I will share more on this in the future.

   Malachi also reminds us humans that we all have, “one God” who created us—an interesting thought amid the abominable war in the Middle East between the Israelis and the Palestinians. The Israelis are of Jewish dissent and faith, the Palestinians who are mostly Arab and Muslim, claimimg Islam as their faith.  Additionally, Christians live in this area, with all three claiming Jerusalem as their sacred place.  Amazing! To an innocent by-stander, me, it would seem that this should make a difference in how they treat one another, but as we all know, this is a very complicated issue.

     Paul, in his letter to the Thessalonians, states that when the people there heard, “the Word of God, they changed their lives.”  This point seems to be important, no matter our faith background, which is confirmed in Jesus’ words in the Gospel referring to the Pharisees and the Scribes, “their words are bold,” [listen to them] “but their deeds are few.”  In other words, we, in particular, can’t say we are Christians and then act as though that makes no difference in our lives.  I believe Jesus would say the same to the Jewish and the Muslim people! So, it would seem that we are all called to “walk the talk!” 

   Eleven years ago, I shared the following story with regard to these Scriptures, about a young man sharing what life for him was like, growing up in an evangelical, bible-toting, radically conservative family as he was coming to terms with his own gay sexual orientation.  Randy Roberts Potts is the grandson of Oral Roberts, a long-time TV evangelist. Oral Roberts told the world and believed it himself that gay and lesbian people are an “abomination,” and having such feelings was in fact, an “abomination.” 

   Part of Randy’s coming into his own space and truth about himself was discovering who his Uncle Ronnie, his mother’s brother, was.  Ronnie was the family’s secret. He made the attempt to be “normal” by marrying and having children, but eventually tore his heart open with a bullet because he couldn’t reconcile his dad’s belief that he was an “abomination.”

   Randy told his audience at the First Congregational church here in Winona that the way his uncle Ronnie chose to end his life was a very slow, painful way to go; but Ronnie knew what it was to have his heart torn open and that happened long before he did it himself for the second time. 

   So what does this story have to do with the 31^st Sunday in Ordinary Time and the readings we just shared?  I would say, everything!  As I said earlier, Malachi boldly prophesied, “everything must be laid on the heart.”  Jesus continues, “Follow the words of the Scribes and Pharisees, but not their example. Paul seems to bind these two and give us a clear path to follow: “When you [hear] the word of God, it [should] change your lives.”

   My friends, we cannot, simply cannot continue to hear the word of God and fail to have it change our lives.  Malachi minces no words, “everything, everything must be laid on our hearts.  We must be convicted of the words of Scripture in our actions—the words we hold so dear; otherwise, it is all a sham.

   As I have reflected on Paul’s words this week in preparation for this homily— “when you heard the word of God, it changed your lives”—I found myself thinking about Randy Potts, a physically beautiful, young man, but more so, an interiorly beautiful man.  He was able to stand before an audience of perhaps 100 people and say without anger or malice that while he doesn’t agree with his parents, he can put himself in their shoes and understand their position—these are parents who haven’t invited their son home for Christmas since 2004!  My heart broke as I listened to him, but I am convinced that he has taken Paul’s words, “when you hear God’s words, they must change your lives” and laid them squarely on his heart as Malachi demands. And there is a part of him that believes that one day his parents will change—hopefully since 2011, this has happened.   

   A second speaker was Linda Gray. Her sister, Angie, grew up struggling over feeling different and not being able to fit in, often crying herself to sleep.  She worked through depression and finally came to terms with who she was, broaching the issue with her mother, finding acceptance.  Angie let her mom share the news with her dad that their daughter is a lesbian because Angie wasn’t sure how he would take it,  and wasn’t sure if she could handle his reaction if it wasn’t positive.  He took the news with silence and sometime later called Angie and told her that “no matter who she was, she had his love.”  This mom and dad had allowed the word of God to change their lives, taking its message to their hearts.  Linda says, we have a phrase at our house, “Love is love!” 

   Randy and Linda were invited to the First Congregational church 11 years ago as part of their year-long study to become an open and inclusive parish—welcoming all people, regardless of sexual orientation into their community and into their parish life.  This parish took a vote in December 2011 and became an open and inclusive parish—those who were against the measure left the parish in protest.  This is no insignificant matter in Winona as several parishes that I am aware of have tried and have failed—the congregations voted inclusivity down.

   This parish has truly been convicted by the word of God, laid it on their hearts, and acted accordingly.  They are the only other parish besides ours in the entire Winona area that is open and welcoming to all. 

   My friends, usually we ministers of the word are cautioned against mixing politics and religion, but 11 years ago, I took a bit of literary license to speak against the Minnesota Marriage Act that our state said “no” to in November of 2012.  At the time, Bishop John Quinn was waging an all-out campaign to get this law passed, which I can say with no doubt, was an abomination.  We cannot on the one hand say we love God, follow Jesus, and on the other attempt to pass a law that would strip gay, lesbian, bi-sexual and transgendered people of their civil rights. 

   Another speaker, Jeff Wilfahrt, father of Andrew, who died in Afghanistan in February of 2011, spoke of how his son gave his life defending the constitution that would, if this law passed, exclude people like Andrew.  He reminded us that the right to marry is a civil right—what religious denominations choose to do with the ritual around marriages is their own issue.  This is so clear an example of hearing the word of God—the message of Jesus—laying it on our hearts and allowing our lives to be changed. 

   Jesus goes further today, letting us know what must be done once we have heard his words—we must act! The action that was asked of us is service for others, moving out of our comfort zones, speaking truth for justice, whenever necessary.  It isn’t enough to be students of his words—we must show in our lives, through our actions, in all areas, that we are his followers.

   Jesus is especially hard on those who claim they are leaders, those who wish to show they are a step above because of their ministry.  He basically says, “Lose all the show, the phylacteries, i.e., roman collars, pointy hats, the places, and positions of power. People should know you by your deeds and not your position or what you wear.  It seems the only “phylactery” that God wants to see is our life of service for others—in the ways we have taken all of God’s people, especially the most disadvantaged and scapegoated, to our hearts and allowed them to change our lives. When we claim the power, the status above the service, we have exalted ourselves and we know what Jesus says about that!

   It will be very important for each of us to keep our eyes on our loving God, on Jesus, our brother to know just how to handle all of this. God, in Jesus so wants us to understand the importance of keeping our focus on God that Jesus will at times say things that seem harsh as in the Gospel today where we are instructed—call no one “mother” or “father,” but only God.  We of course aren’t meant to take this literally and denounce our parents, but simply to remember who is at the heart of everything. 

   In the story of Randy Roberts Potts, one wonders where the compassion comes from that allowed him to try and understand the position of his parents and we realize that it had to come from the God who created us all, wonderfully, and equally, different.

   It seems sometimes in our present-day Church there is so much about regiment, law—moving back to a time when God was a mystery, totally distant from us, unlike the compassionate image that Paul recalls from Scripture for his service among the Thessalonians, of a compassionate God, “gentle as any nursing mother fondling her little ones.”  Sadly, 11 years since I originally wrote this, our diocesan Church is still wanting to go backwards, rather than forward.

   We must beware of those among us claiming by titles and phylacteries and positions of power and the right to lead us, who really only want to separate us from the love and intimacy of God who wants for nothing else but to be among us.  As we continue our journey toward the end of this Year of Grace and prepare for a new one with the First Sunday of Advent, let our prayer for each other be, that the word of God would convict us of “laying all on our hearts” and having done that, change our lives for the good of all.

Amen? Amen!