THE CHAIR AND THE CARPENTER

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily is, “The Chair and the Carpenter.”

It would sound better if I entitled it, “The Chair and The Chairmaker” - but I wanted to use the word, “carpenter” because that’s what Jesus was.

Jesus was a carpenter of wood and then a carpenter of words ….

This is a sermon I have often  wanted to put together and present - as a way of talking about God. 

Better: if a person denies the existence of a God - I would ask - if you saw a chair - would you deny that a chairmaker existed who made that chair?

I would hope that person would realize that’s a trap - but I also hope they would decide either a yes or no answer.  If they said they don’t believe in a chairmaker, then I would not argue with them. If they said they would believe in a chairmaker, then obviously I would ask if they believed there was a planet maker.

My sermon has two parts,  Part One: The Existence of a Chair and Part Two: The Person Called the Chairman or Chairmaker or Carpenter.

PART ONE: THE EXISTENCE OF A PROP CALLED A CHAIR

Notice in the center of our sanctuary a chair. I think Father Tizio is the best preacher I’ve seen - in using a prop.

Check out the chair. It’s there.

Whether or not that’s a chair is not a matter of belief. So I wouldn’t say, “I believe there is a chair just sitting there.” I would say there is a chair there. We humans call that a chair and we trust our eyes.  If we were blind, another way we could know of it’s existence would be touch.

We know things exist by our senses for starters: chairs, floors, neighbors, trees, mountains, milk in the refrigerator, hamburgers in McDonalds.

We know by our senses that there are stars, the moon, deep outer space.

We just know that.

PART TWO: THE CARPENTER OR CHAIRMAKER

Next we know there was a chairmaker, a carpenter, a designer, a factory worker - who came up with the chair.

Next I would say, we know there was a starmaker, a moon maker, a planet creator - by common sense.

We call the chair maker a carpenter.

We call the star and the whole of the universe maker,  our creator. We call our creator, God.

PART THREE: WHAT IS THE CHAIRMAKER LIKE

Now I come to Part Three of this Sermon. What is the chairmaker like?

I don’t intend in life to argue with someone about  whether or not there is a star maker any more than I would argue with anyone whether or not there was a chairmaker or a carpenter.

But I would want to discuss what the chairmaker or carpenter is like.

That’s where this talk, this sermon gets interesting. At least that’s my hope. I’m moving from the objective to the subjective.

I grew up on a street that had some 94 homes.

I could simply count the front doors.

What those people were like - one learns by meeting, interacting with, talking to, investigating,  observing, asking, checking, talking with.

Looking at that chair there, I have no clue to the personality of the maker.

A guy up the street on my right was a grouch. If a ball went into his front yard, if he was on the stoop, he would not let us get the pink spaldeen ball - sometimes called a “pinkie”.

Mr. Maher, on the other side of the street, whose dog was named Pal, would watch us play and point to where the ball went - if it went into his front yard or the one next to him.

Do you get that distinction between the neighbor and what the neighbor is like?

So too with God.

People have different takes on God - just as I had different takes on the people on my block when growing up.

From telescopes and microscopes we go deeper and deeper into outer or inner space.

The scientist and the astronomer can tell us how far outer space goes and that might get out of people a “Wow” and a “Why” - a how and a how far?

From that we might say: “God is vast.” “God is good at math.”

The Bible gives us thousands and thousands of answers to the question: what is God like?

Isaiah the prophet has a different take on God compared to other prophets.

Preachers have different takes on God?

Who’s right?

Moreover Biblical scientists tell us that there are at least 3 Isaiahs - because computers can tell us that the same person could not have written the early part of Isaiah compare to later parts.  Teachers looking at homework can tell that this kid could not have written this.  In fact they can look up something that sounds familiar and see where the kid plagiarized it.

A classmate of mine got a 0 on a paper.  Weiser was the book my classmate used to write a paper on one of the Psalms. The professor wrote: Weiser 100, Krug 0

So different people have different takes on God and some of them wrote books and sections of books on the Bible.

Next people read the Bible and quote a take on God that they agree with or they like - and avoid one’s they don’t like.

A relative recently asked me about this. She said, “How come I don’t like descriptions of God in the Bible where God is wiping out people and groups of people.”

I answered: “Because some people want opposition wiped out or have God throw people into hell.”

So just as we have different takes on neighbors - people have different takes on God.

Who’s right?  Who’s wrong?

Matthew, Mark, Luke and John have different takes on the Carpenter named Jesus.

Judas, Thomas, and Peter had different takes on the Carpenter named Jesus.

In today’s gospel, Thomas has doubts. Last Sunday John had no doubts that Jesus had risen from the dead.

Today has been called, “Doubting Thomas Sunday since the beginning of the church. Then in the last century today has been called Divine Mercy Sunday.

Some people think God is going to zap them for their sins.

Some people think God is going to love them more than their neighbors because God loves sinners more than the righteous.

Some people want read family members read to them Luke 15 when they are dying. Some people are scared to die, so they don’t want to hear Matthew 25 read when they are dying - because they feel they didn’t do enough for the hungry, the poor and the sick.

But both readings say something about the listener.

CONCLUSION

All this should lead to personal conclusions.

All this should lead us to get to know the carpenter.

Pull up a chair next to his chair and say each day, “We need to talk!”