Homilies

Homily – 4th Weekend of Easter

/ kredig

Hello Friends, 

In my absence yesterday, Pastor Dick Dahl celebrated with the gathering community and shared this wonderfully challenging homily for all of us. Enjoy!–Pastor Kathy

 

A couple weeks ago I read a book entitled “The Art of Community.” The author, Charles Vogl, wrote, “Stories are the most powerful way we humans learn. Every community, like every person, is full of stories. Sharing certain stories deepens a community’s connections.

Today we listen to three stories. In the chapters from which two of today’s readings were taken, two stories are told. In one, just before the verses we heard read, Jesus cures a man who had been blind from birth. In the other from the Acts of the Apostles, in Jesus’ name Peter and John heal a man paralyzed from birth.

In both stories the common people marvel at what happened while the religious authorities see it as breaking the rules. In the scene described in John’s Gospel they were divided. Some said, “He is possessed and out of his mind; why listen to him?” Others countered, “These are not the words of one possessed; surely a demon cannot open the eyes of the blind, can he?”

The story from Acts describe the religious leaders conferring with one another after the cure of the paralyzed man and saying, “What are we to do with these men? Everyone living in Jerusalem knows that a remarkable sign was done through them, and we cannot deny it. But so that it may not spread any further among the people, let us give them (that is Peter and John) a stern warning never again to speak to anyone in his name.”

The story from John’s Gospel goes on, however, with Jesus describing the difference between himself and the authorities. He identifies himself with the image of a shepherd. Most of us have not had much experience with shepherds. But Jesus, like other Jewish people of his time, were familiar with them, not only from their daily lives, but even from their religious literature. King David, a thousand years before Jesus was born, composed Psalm 23, “The Lord is my shepherd.”

Jesus used this metaphor to describe how he differed from those who were only hired to guard the sheep but who did not own and cherish them. The hired person might run away when a dangerous animal approached to harm them, but the shepherd knows his sheep; he cares about them. The shepherd stays with the sheep in the midst of danger to protect them.

The Gospel story goes on, “Although Jesus used this figure of speech, they did not realize what he was trying to tell them.” So he went on, “I am the gate. Whoever enters through me will be saved.” He went on further to say, “I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. These also I must lead, and they shall hear my voice, and there will be one flock, one shepherd.”

After Jesus’ death and resurrection, the early Christian community mulled over Jesus words. Consequently we have Luke, the author not only of one of the Gospels, but also of the Acts of the Apostles write the following, “There is no salvation through anyone else, nor is there any other name under heaven given to the human race by which we are to be saved.”

What are we to make of these stories? Is Jesus giving us a narrow and restrictive message? However, he also spoke of “other sheep not of this fold who shall also hear his voice so that there will be one flock and one shepherd. This gives an inclusive dimension to his message.

For years Christians, and Catholics in particular have been taught that outside the Church there is no salvation. As the Acts of the Apostles states, “There is no salvation through anyone else, nor is there any other name under heaven given to the human race by which we are to be saved.”

In today’s readings we heard how the religious leaders of Jesus’ time, had difficulty recognizing how God was acting not only in their time but in their very midst through the cures that Jesus and later Peter and John performed.

I suggest that those stories show us how we can, like the blind man, fail to see or understand God’s presence and action in our lives, until Jesus opens our eyes and our hearts for us. It is not easy for us to have our minds open from an interpretation we are accustomed to to a fuller meaning that is not fundamentally different, yet more inclusive in its scope.

We have a contemporary example in our third story from this past week. Pope Francis visited the Church of St. Paul of the Cross on the outskirts of Rome  for a question and answer session with the children of the parish. A little five-year-old boy walked to the microphone, but started sobbing. The Pope gently called to him to come forward. Francis gently embraced the boy whose name was Emanuele. Francis encouraged the boy to whisper his question in the pope’s ear. Then they talked quietly to each other before Emanuele returned to his seat with the other children.

Francis then addressed the crowd and said Emanuele had given him permission to share their conversation. Emanuele was crying for his father who had recently died. The boy told Francis his father was an atheist but a good man who had all four of his children baptized. “Is Dad in heaven?” the boy asked the pope.

Francis said, “A boy that inherited the strength of his father also had the courage to cry in front of all of us. If this man was able to create children like this, it’s true he was a good man. That man did not have the gift of faith; he was not a believer. But he had his children baptized. He had a good heart.”

The pope said that  God decides who goes to heaven, and that God has “the heart of a father.” He then asked the boys and girls in the audience if they thought God would abandon a father like Emanuele’s who was a good man.  At first there was silence. The pope asked again, “Well, would he?” “No! the children shouted back.”

“There, Emanuele, that is the answer,” the pope said. “God surely was proud of your father, because it is easier as a believer to baptize your children than to baptize them when you are not a believer. Surely this pleased God very much.”

Today’s stories challenge us to be open to recognize the presence and action of God in our lives. It may not be in ways or people we expect. To what extent may our expectations get in the way? To what extent does the way we are accustomed to thinking get challenged?

The Jesuit poet Gerard Manley Hopkins wrote:

For Christ plays in ten thousand places
Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his
To the Father through the features of men’s faces.

Can you and I recognize him in the eyes and limbs of others, in ten thousand places? How many others know and respond to his voice by another name, in another culture, another religion, or without the image of religion at all?

One thing the Gospel story asserts is Jesus’ unfailing concern for each person, especially those who are in danger, needing protection, seeking help. Perhaps it is an undocumented worker or family among us. It may be  people of a different race, a different religion, or no religion.

Please, Jesus, help us to see; cure us of blindness. Open our hearts so that we may hear and recognize your voice, that of the good shepherd who loves and cares for all his sheep, including those not of his fold, that we all may be one.

I end with a Prayer composed by Judy Cannato, the author of “Field of Compassion”:

Holy One, you have given us the gift of story in our lives, ways of understanding who we are, ways of making sense of our world, of finding meaning and knowing how to respond to all that happens in our lives. Please show us where our stories fall short or are too narrow, where they exclude rather than include, where they divide rather than unite. Help us to see where a story we live out of may go amiss of what is real, where it allows us to escape becoming whole, where it lets us live comfortably in fear. Fill us with your story, the story of unity and compassion and love. Fill us with images that energize us and give us hope and lead us to the fundamental truth that you have tried to teach us all along: we are all one. Amen.

After the homily, I noted that in 2003 Pope Francis gave a homily in which he reiterated the Christian belief that eternal salvation is attained through Jesus Christ. But he declared that all humans are created in the image of God, and that all have a duty to do good. The pope said this principle of doing good to others is the one that unites all of humanity, including atheists. “Just do good and we’ll find a meeting point,” the pope said on that occasion.

 

Homily – 3rd Sunday of Easter

/ kredig

My friends, our alleluias continue today as we celebrate the love of our God in Jesus. These six weeks of Easter leading up to Pentecost keep calling us back to the profound mystery of God-With-Us—Emmanuel. Jesus uses this time to sharpen his disciples hearts and minds to the truth of all that has happened—that he has indeed fulfilled the Scriptures—not perhaps in the ways the people had expected—but fulfilled them just the same.

In our gospel today; we see Jesus patiently opening the minds of his followers to the realization that he came so that we all would be saved, perhaps from ourselves, by being brought to new life in him.  All that Jesus ultimately suffered was part and parcel of his life of love, justice and mercy given for all.

Simply put, Jesus died because of how he lived—the powers in his world weren’t ready for his message that our God loves everyone, even the least among us, and for that boldness, for being the prophet that Moses and all the prophets before him, as recorded in Acts today, prophesied about, he had to die—as if dying could silence his message! But the joy of this season is that he rose—death could not hold him, as it will not hold us.

And it is this awesome reality that death is not the end that Jesus’ followers are spending a great deal of time struggling with—and we can hardly blame them.   Our purely human minds are incredulous along with Thomas—“We saw that you died, but now you are with us!” It is clear that their minds needed to be opened—they forgot so quickly how Jesus was always turning things on their heads.

And, Jesus does open their minds through their humanity— “Have you anything to eat?” If Jesus was not a ghost, but in his body, now resurrected, he would naturally eat.  Jesus always spoke and taught in ways that people could understand and therefore get his meaning.  That was why he often spoke in parables—stories from their lives with an added twist—a higher meaning.

And if each of us will see the risen Jesus, it will be precisely in this way—in our ordinary lives—seeing the extraordinary in the ordinary—we all know those times when we see family, friends, colleagues doing the patient work of bringing about the kin-dom—going the extra mile—speaking the kind word, giving the gentle touch, sharing the warm smile, the word of support when no one else is stepping up, being the catalyst for others doing the same.

This past Wednesday, we had the privilege of viewing the 1980’s film, Weapons of the Spirit, the story of a small town in France whose inhabitants, along with their pastor, sheltered 2-3 thousand Jewish people from deportation and likely the loss of their lives in Hitler’s death camps. When the townspeople were later interviewed and asked why they had risked their lives in this way; they simply said, “It was no big thing; they were doing the only thing they could—the right thing. I would say, “They were walking the talk!”

Jesus is patient with his incredulous, yet faithful followers as he prepares them for the gift of the Spirit—the one who will bring them the courage to speak truth with love, no matter the personal danger.

The work that Jesus called his first followers to after the resurrection and by extension, calls us to as well, takes strength, and a deep faith that took them and will take us to places we might not always choose to go. We may not always understand, but we will have the knowledge that we don’t have to do it alone—our brother Jesus will be with us.

I have asked this community to consider being a Sanctuary Support Community for those in our midst who are struggling to stay in this country in the face of changing deportation rules and regulations.  Being a Sanctuary Support Community means that we would attempt in whatever ways that we can to give support to the church that may eventually become a Sanctuary Church in our community.

The Easter Season calls us to remember that we have the same Spirit of Jesus that gave him and us by extension, caring hearts and minds to see the needs in our midst. When we see evil, sadness, brokenness, lack of love, whether it be in families, among friends, locally, in our churches or within our city, nationally or beyond—we must offer the “bread” to eat that is needed.

Some of us from All Are One a week ago served the simple physical food needed at The Feast, sponsored by Central Lutheran Church weekly.  Food and the action of eating are often the catalyst that Jesus uses to teach us profound things.  I found myself reflecting with the group of us gathered to serve those who came to partake of the meal, on the gift of food.  One gentleman came through the line three times to have his plate filled and I remarked later to those serving, “This is probably all he has had to eat today!” It made me realize that I have never known the feeling of wondering whether I would eat today!

We see in today’s gospel that the disciples on the road to Emmaus knew Jesus, “in the breaking of the bread”—in the action of outreach to others.  We recall many other times when food or a meal was center stage in profound teachings—feeding the 5000—“you give them something to eat”—Jesus said to the apostles when they suggested he send the people away so that they could get food.  Certainly the instruction was to feed more than their bodies, but the feeding began there.  There were meals at the home of Martha and Mary, at the home of a prominent Pharisee—always Jesus used an ordinary event to raise an extraordinary point about how to live life.

Within the meal, celebrated at the home of the Pharisee, a woman comes to Jesus asking for forgiveness, for light—a new vision, a more meaningful existence and he gives it to her, while teaching the Pharisees present how they are to be in life—how they are truly to serve, by of course, being servants.

There is a group of Catholic priests who are taking Pope Francis’ words to heart that the formation of priests be renewed—one of Francis’ points, which this group is pursuing, is that priests are to be “servants.”  Imagine that!

So—our task is to offer as Jesus did—the bread that is needed—be it physical or emotional—knowing that the gift is always spiritual.  We see Peter then—emboldened by the Spirit in the 1st reading speaking truth with love to all the people, even though some may not want to hear it. His life will ultimately be endangered, but as John in his 1st letter says today, if we say that we know God,  then we must act accordingly walking in the footsteps of Jesus, no matter the cost.  As Anglican Bishop John Shelby Spong is fond of saying, in regard to God’s love for us, “We must love wastefully,” as our God does, and we see this so clearly in the life of Jesus.  As Jesus said to the apostles in our gospel today, you are my witnesses that love is stronger than death—stronger than any suffering that can come to us—suffering and death are not the end.

Let us pray then this week for each other that our inner eyes might be opened to see the Risen Jesus in our midst and to respond as he did—offering peace—modeling forgiveness in our personal lives, which is a profound gift in and of itself and one that does bring peace, and heals our fractured world—reaching out to the poor, sharing what we have so generously been given ourselves, and in these actions—proclaiming the Good News to all. Amen? Amen!

 

Homily – 2nd Sunday of Easter

/ kredig

All this past week and today, the Acts of the Apostles lets us know what life as followers of Jesus, post-Easter, was like.  In his physical absence; they remembered all that Jesus had taught them about right living.  Their days and nights after the joy of the Resurrection were about living as Jesus had taught them—living in love, with compassion, justice and mercy toward all of God’s People.  Their lives were about sharing with those who had less, so that no one would be in need.

This first week of Easter, I found myself thinking realistically about the living situation at our home.  As you all know, our daughter Eryn, her husband, Adam and our grandson, Elliot have come to live with us, sharing our space, meals, schedules, all of what makes up our life for the most part, as they work to get settled in a new home here.

We are into the 4th week of a possible 10 week arrangement as they are preparing to close on a selected house.  This arrangement calls for patience from all of us to “accommodate” each other, put our singular desires aside in deference to what is best for all of us.  This is our post-Easter experiment and I would say that we are doing quite well, everything considered.

Not unlike the original post-Easter community that “held everything in common,” there are times of stress for all of us, born out of winter colds in a spring that hasn’t found us yet, tiredness and lack of personal routines.  But, there is the joy of being together and sharing the otherwise rare moments that come with this arrangement: a little, clear voice at 6:30 in the morning wanting to begin his day, an afternoon of romp and tumble in huge Minnesota snow piles provided by Grampa’s plow, shared meals, lovingly prepared and presented by different cooks, complete with blessings including all the special things that went on that day in the mind of a four-year-old, and daily conversations with extra voices and shared ideas and perspectives.

Like that first community of believers, it is about joy, it is about dark, it is about light—it is about finding the best that each of us has to offer.  And that, simply put, is what Jesus calls forth from each of us in Easter time, which we know from last week, is about all time—Easter is not an historical event we remember, but an action that is on-going.  So for that reason, sharing our living space with extended family is a wonderful, yet realistic Easter experience.

Joy then, seems to be an element in living after the Resurrection—a joy that was palpable, sensing Jesus’ presence in a new way and trying to allow their actions to radiate that joy.  For us too, my friends, because we have never known Jesus’ actual physical; we must look for him, “in a new way,” in each other.

Joan Chittister names Easter as a mystery of light and darkness—she says that we must go into the tomb, into the dark and decide if we will follow Jesus’ disciples back into the world of the living and here-in lies the light. The only way to respond to death is with light—the light of goodness—inclusivity—justice and mercy.

This past week, we remembered that day, 50 years ago when a prophet of our times, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was taken from us. He is quoted as saying, among other things that “Darkness cannot put out darkness, only light can do that!”

There is much in our world today that seems to be about darkness—from the halls of power in Washington, we see a great lack of moral sense, a lack of general leadership and guidance in deference to selfishness and a lack of true caring for our people beyond what they can do for those in power.  The light and joy that Easter can bring was never more needed than now.

After February’s mass school shooting in Florida, a new surge of moral leadership and fortitude has arisen in our nation’s young people—a light that came out of darkness—a light that we all must uplift and not let die.

I began reading an older volume this week, entitled, Women’s Bodies, Women’s Wisdom by gynecologist, Dr. Christiane Northrup.  Even though it has a 1998 copyright, the truth she speaks about women and their wisdom and how it has been discounted over time in the patriarchal society in which we still live, to the point of making women physically, emotionally and spiritually sick is something that must be continually addressed until this darkness becomes light.

Another reflection on Easter that I read this past week uplifted the fact that those who witnessed the Resurrection seem to be doing “a lot of running.” So marvelous a thing was witnessed, by Mary of Magdala, by John, the apostle, by the disciples on the way to Emmaus, that the Scriptures tell us that “they ran” to tell the others!

A question we may want to ponder this week is, how excited are we at hearing the Good News that Jesus has risen, and does it inspire us to actions of light, or are we more like Thomas, in need of proof?—“I need to see this or that and then I will believe and act on my beliefs.  The Church gives us 5 weeks to ponder and reflect on our response.

As Joan Chittister also said this week, Easter is not a fairytale with a happy ending, once and for all—Easter is just the beginning!  Our choices are darkness or light—may we choose to be bearers of the light!

Amen?— Amen!— Alleluia!

Homily – Easter Sunday

/ kredig

Friends, as I prepared for today, again the leadership of the students of Stoneman Douglas High School was on my heart and mind and I pondered how to make sense of all that in the events that we have remembered here and in our Church Universal during Holy Week and today on Easter Sunday.  As I have said earlier, on Good Friday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday are really about “dying and rising” –they are of a piece.  Dying only makes sense in the context of rising. We see it in Jesus’ life—if there had only been the dying and nothing more, we would have been truly let down.  He said, he would be with us always and proved it in the resurrection.

Our country has been inspired anew in the leadership of the Stoneman Douglas High School survivors, become leaders—out of death, which has been a magnificent “rising.”  I believe it is significant that the victims at Stoneman Douglas were taken on February 14th, the national day of love, also, Ash Wednesday this year and that we would be celebrating Jesus’ overcoming death, in all its forms on Easter Sunday, which this year falls on April 1st, April Fool’s Day—in all of this, we might ask, who was actually fooled? Since the February 14th shootings, we have marveled at the “rising out of death,” as it were that we have seen from the Parkland, Florida students and from students and others around the world.

When we think about Jesus’ resurrection, we realize it to be a mystery that we can’t get our heads around—again, this is something to lay on our hearts.  We are told in the Gospel account from John today that Jesus in his risen form was not automatically recognizable—he didn’t look the same—Mary of Magdala knew him only when he spoke her name in the way that only Jesus could say it.  In another Easter reading, the disciples on the way to Emmaus who found themselves walking with Jesus didn’t know him until, “he broke bread with them,” something we are told, he did with his followers often—they knew him after the resurrection, through his actions.

Before the Valentine’s Day massacre, as it has been called, the ordinary students of Stoneman Douglas appeared a certain way to their friends and families. The mystery surrounding yet another school shooting, too many at that point to remember, brought forth the inner strength, fortitude and goodness of these young people to know that if the change they so wanted was to happen, they would have to bring it about! Truly a resurrection moment!

Friends, our faith, given us at our baptisms, strengthened in our confirmations, calls each of us to be resurrected, here and now, with Jesus our brother—we don’t need to wait until our physical deaths to become this Easter people –now is the time!  Paul tells us to get rid of the “old yeast” –the bakers among us know the truth of this—a new fresh batch is needed to make us “rise” to our innate greatness, like Jesus, like our Stoneman Douglas leaders –to do our piece for the good of us all, wherever we are led.

Easter is not just for today—but every day!  Amen? Amen! Alleluia!

 

Homily – Palm Sunday

/ kredig

With today, my friends; we begin the holiest of weeks of our Church Year. In today’s readings we see Jesus, our brother, entering triumphantly the city of Jerusalem as the prophets predicted the Messiah would one day.  He entered unlike an earthly king of his time would have, not in glory, but humbly, as in his birth, he came on the back of a donkey. His whole earthly life challenged the powers-that-be to live for others, to rule justly, to see that real authority comes from the heart, not the head.

Yesterday, thousands of young people and their supporters, over one million in fact,  entered our “holy city,” Washington, D.C. and many thousands others around our country, even here in Winona, MN, to speak truth to power in a similar way as our brother Jesus did all those hundreds of years ago.  Some of these young people probably responded from their beliefs in faith that their God was calling them to this action, others, if asked, might simply tell us that, “It was the right thing to do!”

Young people across this country have been inspired by the leadership of the survivors of the most recent massacre due to gun violence in Parkland, Florida.  These young people found within themselves the intestinal fortitude to say, “Enough is enough! We are tired of being afraid; we are tired of trying to learn in a climate of fear for our very lives! And we respectfully, but most certainly demand that the powers-that-be do what is needed to protect us!”

And their leadership has inspired others, thousands of others!  These young people are truly leading the way and many of us “older folks” are finally, finally, finding within ourselves, the strength to follow them.  Jim Wallis of Sojourner Magazine said that he recently met with a group of ministers and that they all asked forgiveness for having been complicit in not making our schools and our world safer from gun violence.

This past week many gathered in Wesley United Methodist church from many Christian denominations—Catholic, Lutheran, Presbyterian along with our non-Christian sisters and brothers of the Jewish, Buddhist, Islamic and Hindu faiths to stand in solidarity with the young people from Parkland and to definitively say that we are more alike than we are different—that we all have one God who is calling us to find the way to live in peace with all—a peace that keeps us safe, free, and cared for.

During Holy Week; we are called upon to ponder much that we would name as mystery—a king, yet humble, a messiah who brings power and new life through death, death and resurrection and all that this meant for Jesus and ultimately for us.

The March on Washington has inspired many, because the strength of this movement lies in the innocent, the pure, the hope of the future—those without power who have acquired power, like Jesus, in the truth of the message that they have made their own. And this too is mystery in that we don’t know how it will turn out.

I recently completed a small volume entitled, Mustard Seed Preaching by Ann Garrido and her thesis, simply put, is that unless we take the Word, small as a mustard seed, with no power and let it grow in us, “become us,” in fact; it will never matter in our world that so needs its fruit.

Like our brother Jesus, my friends; we must listen to the call of our God who has first loved us and respond in love for our good and the good of our world. Holy Week is really all about love, love given—love received and love shared—in fact that is the whole Christian message as well as the message taught and practiced by our non-Christian sisters and brothers and all good people around the world whether they claim a Church or a god.

Let us pray for each other that we can respond as Jesus did, raised a good Jew, as the Buddha did, as Muhammad did, as those who practice Hinduism do! Amen?  Amen!