DOORS
INTRODUCTION
For a homily for today, I’d like to tall about doors. I’d like to think about “Doors” – the doors of our lives.
TODAY’S GOSPEL
In today’s gospel (Luke 13: 22-30) Jesus pictures people standing outside a locked house screaming to the owner of the house, “Lord, open the door for us.” And the owner of the house for all intents and purposes says, “Get lost. I don’t know who you are and where you are coming from.” And the people outside screaming, scream, “Hey, we ate and drank with you. You taught in our streets.” And the Lord of the house repeats his answer, “I don’t know where you are from. Depart from me, you evil doers.” And they walk away wailing and grinding their teeth.
For a homily for today, I’d like to tall about doors. I’d like to think about “Doors” – the doors of our lives.
TODAY’S GOSPEL
In today’s gospel (Luke 13: 22-30) Jesus pictures people standing outside a locked house screaming to the owner of the house, “Lord, open the door for us.” And the owner of the house for all intents and purposes says, “Get lost. I don’t know who you are and where you are coming from.” And the people outside screaming, scream, “Hey, we ate and drank with you. You taught in our streets.” And the Lord of the house repeats his answer, “I don’t know where you are from. Depart from me, you evil doers.” And they walk away wailing and grinding their teeth.
What a scary moment! What a horrible scene! Jesus is obviously trying to scare the hell out of people – so more and more of the kingdom of heaven can enter into them.
It’s not a gospel or a message I like to preach about – but we come here to church to face the gospel. We come here not just to feel good, but to feel challenged. We come here to be fed – not just with the bread of the Eucharist, but also with the bread of the word – and we need to be fed with broccoli and spinach type foods!
It’s not a gospel or a message I like to preach about – but we come here to church to face the gospel. We come here not just to feel good, but to feel challenged. We come here to be fed – not just with the bread of the Eucharist, but also with the bread of the word – and we need to be fed with broccoli and spinach type foods!
So some tough stuff today – and I don’t like spinach.
MEDITATION
MEDITATION
Picturing this scene of being locked out – meditating on this scene where the Lord says he doesn’t know those outside screaming to be let in, I began to think several things about doors – especially closed doors.
What are your thoughts about doors – especially closed doors?
So the gist of my sermon – is to spend some time thinking about our experiences with doors – especially closed doors – the ones that scared us – the ones that angered us. I’ll mention a few doors that opened for us – and our lives were changed. Cookies are also good.
IRISH POSTERS
What are your thoughts about doors – especially closed doors?
So the gist of my sermon – is to spend some time thinking about our experiences with doors – especially closed doors – the ones that scared us – the ones that angered us. I’ll mention a few doors that opened for us – and our lives were changed. Cookies are also good.
IRISH POSTERS
In Ireland – in Galway, Ireland, I saw a poster entitled, “The Doors of Galway.” I’ve also seen variations on the same idea in a few Irish craft and gift stores here in the states, entitled, “The Doors of Dublin.” And around here you can find a poster: “The Doors of Annapolis.”
And the posters showed lots of doors – some with pictures of folks in the doorway. I noticed especially the glossy enamel painted doors – doors that were rich dark green, dark red, dark shiny black, or deep blue or maroon, doors with bright bronze door knobs and knockers.
Isn’t that everyone’s dream: to have a dream home – with an inviting – rich looking – beautiful front door?
Does everyone have a poster hanging on the wall of their memory entitled, “The Doors of my Life.”
THE DOORS OF OUR LIFE
And the posters showed lots of doors – some with pictures of folks in the doorway. I noticed especially the glossy enamel painted doors – doors that were rich dark green, dark red, dark shiny black, or deep blue or maroon, doors with bright bronze door knobs and knockers.
Isn’t that everyone’s dream: to have a dream home – with an inviting – rich looking – beautiful front door?
Does everyone have a poster hanging on the wall of their memory entitled, “The Doors of my Life.”
THE DOORS OF OUR LIFE
What are the doors of our life?
How many doors have we opened and closed in our lifetime?
How many doors have slammed in our face?
How many doors have we slammed in another’s face.
How many doors have we knocked on – or rang the bell – tried the door knob – and it was locked and nobody opened the door?
How many closed doors have we stood outside of and cried?
How many times has another driven us so crazy – kids, spouse, another, that we wanted to hide in some room – lock the door – and never come out?
Is there a door right there in front of us – that we see on a regular basis – in our deep memory? It’s the door of an opportunity we didn’t take. We didn’t knock on the door. We missed out on the opportunity for a super job or move or marriage and we didn’t knock on the door.
Is there a doctor’s office in our memory – where we’re sitting in a waiting room– and we’re waiting for the door to open – to go in and find out if we or a loved one has cancer or not – and if it’s cancer, what’s next?
Is there a boss’ office door – that we’re sitting there outside it – ten yards away from the secretary – and we’re biting our nails – and nervously running our hands through our hair – and crossing and uncrossing our legs – and then the intercom rings and the secretary then says, “The boss will see you now.” And we go in and sit there in front of the boss behind the big desk and he says, “Sorry to tell you this, but you are no longer needed around here.”
Do we have a memory of a door to a school principal’s office downstairs on the first floor of a school and we have to go down those big enormous gray stone steps to see the principal – because our teacher picked us out from a crowd – and said, “I’m sick and tired of all your nonsense. You, there, yes you. Go downstairs right now and see the principal. Immediately! You!” And with fear and trepidation, we slowly walk down to the room outside the principal’s office and there we are – a tiny kid – feeling 11 inches tall and we’re wondering what is going to happen once we are called into his or her office.
Doors? What are the doors of our life?
There are married people who have closed bedroom doors to each other and closed doors of communication to each other. There are friends and neighbors and brothers and sisters or other family members who used to have a welcome mat at their front door for us – and they took it in. There are people we know who used to have an “Open” sign on the door of their face, but they opened their front door one day – without us knowing why and a hand snook out – just a quick hand – and it turned that sign around to “Closed” – and we don’t know why – and their face no longer has the smile for us their face used to have.
Doors? What are our experiences with doors in our life?
And do we also see all the going up the steps to grandparents’ homes for Thanksgiving dinners – trips to see cousins – all the wonderful meals we’ve had with friends all through the years?
Do we think of the wonderful opportunities we have had in our life – the doors that opened for us – the people who helped us get to where we got?
Do we think of the closed doors – education wise – job wise – opportunity wise – that our parents or grandparents or great grandparents had to face – and we didn’t.
Doors? What have been the doors of our lives?
THE DOOR OF DEATH
The doors I mentioned so far are doors here. There are also the doors that lead to the hereafter.
I said this is tough stuff and it’s a hot day.
The big door we all have to face is the door of death. Am I willing to open the door of my mind to the reality of my death? I heard a psychologist on Oprah the other day, while doing my half hour on the treadmill, say, “Some people say, ‘If I die.’” He then said, “It’s not, ‘If I die.’ It’s ‘When I die.’”
Obviously, we are all living longer – and obviously we have a call to exercise, stay healthy and eat right and do our best to live a long and fruitful life.
We are going through the Gospel of Luke this year – and one of the key items in today’s Gospel from Luke is that Jesus is heading for Jerusalem.
He is heading to Jerusalem to challenge his religious leaders face to face – and he is going to go face to face with death.
How many doors have we opened and closed in our lifetime?
How many doors have slammed in our face?
How many doors have we slammed in another’s face.
How many doors have we knocked on – or rang the bell – tried the door knob – and it was locked and nobody opened the door?
How many closed doors have we stood outside of and cried?
How many times has another driven us so crazy – kids, spouse, another, that we wanted to hide in some room – lock the door – and never come out?
Is there a door right there in front of us – that we see on a regular basis – in our deep memory? It’s the door of an opportunity we didn’t take. We didn’t knock on the door. We missed out on the opportunity for a super job or move or marriage and we didn’t knock on the door.
Is there a doctor’s office in our memory – where we’re sitting in a waiting room– and we’re waiting for the door to open – to go in and find out if we or a loved one has cancer or not – and if it’s cancer, what’s next?
Is there a boss’ office door – that we’re sitting there outside it – ten yards away from the secretary – and we’re biting our nails – and nervously running our hands through our hair – and crossing and uncrossing our legs – and then the intercom rings and the secretary then says, “The boss will see you now.” And we go in and sit there in front of the boss behind the big desk and he says, “Sorry to tell you this, but you are no longer needed around here.”
Do we have a memory of a door to a school principal’s office downstairs on the first floor of a school and we have to go down those big enormous gray stone steps to see the principal – because our teacher picked us out from a crowd – and said, “I’m sick and tired of all your nonsense. You, there, yes you. Go downstairs right now and see the principal. Immediately! You!” And with fear and trepidation, we slowly walk down to the room outside the principal’s office and there we are – a tiny kid – feeling 11 inches tall and we’re wondering what is going to happen once we are called into his or her office.
Doors? What are the doors of our life?
There are married people who have closed bedroom doors to each other and closed doors of communication to each other. There are friends and neighbors and brothers and sisters or other family members who used to have a welcome mat at their front door for us – and they took it in. There are people we know who used to have an “Open” sign on the door of their face, but they opened their front door one day – without us knowing why and a hand snook out – just a quick hand – and it turned that sign around to “Closed” – and we don’t know why – and their face no longer has the smile for us their face used to have.
Doors? What are our experiences with doors in our life?
And do we also see all the going up the steps to grandparents’ homes for Thanksgiving dinners – trips to see cousins – all the wonderful meals we’ve had with friends all through the years?
Do we think of the wonderful opportunities we have had in our life – the doors that opened for us – the people who helped us get to where we got?
Do we think of the closed doors – education wise – job wise – opportunity wise – that our parents or grandparents or great grandparents had to face – and we didn’t.
Doors? What have been the doors of our lives?
THE DOOR OF DEATH
The doors I mentioned so far are doors here. There are also the doors that lead to the hereafter.
I said this is tough stuff and it’s a hot day.
The big door we all have to face is the door of death. Am I willing to open the door of my mind to the reality of my death? I heard a psychologist on Oprah the other day, while doing my half hour on the treadmill, say, “Some people say, ‘If I die.’” He then said, “It’s not, ‘If I die.’ It’s ‘When I die.’”
Obviously, we are all living longer – and obviously we have a call to exercise, stay healthy and eat right and do our best to live a long and fruitful life.
We are going through the Gospel of Luke this year – and one of the key items in today’s Gospel from Luke is that Jesus is heading for Jerusalem.
He is heading to Jerusalem to challenge his religious leaders face to face – and he is going to go face to face with death.
Tough stuff.
JUDGMENT
And after death is judgment.
And today’s gospel has the very scary question: “Lord, will only a few people be saved?”
So many preachers answer that question by talking about belief – that we’ll be saved if we say the right thing – if we have the right theology.
Of course, we want to have the best theology that our minds and churches can formulate. But that theology better include more than our minds. Our hearts better be open to each other. Our hands and feet better get moving to be with, care for, eat with, talk with and love one another.
JUDGMENT
And after death is judgment.
And today’s gospel has the very scary question: “Lord, will only a few people be saved?”
So many preachers answer that question by talking about belief – that we’ll be saved if we say the right thing – if we have the right theology.
Of course, we want to have the best theology that our minds and churches can formulate. But that theology better include more than our minds. Our hearts better be open to each other. Our hands and feet better get moving to be with, care for, eat with, talk with and love one another.
[We need orthodoxy and orthopraxis - right teaching and right practice - a consistent life ethic - that has been worked out and proclaimed as the way, the truth and the life for community.]
The Gospel of Luke is very strong on doing the correct deeds – caring for our brother and sister in need. Re-read today’s gospel a few times – and then read the story of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:29-37); or the story of the Man with the Full Barns (Luke 12:16-21); or the story of the Fig Tree that wasn’t producing (Luke 13:6-9). If you don’t accept Luke on what we’re going to be judged on, visit Matthew 25: 31-46.
Our religion, our religions, too often are putting people in heaven or hell – receiving or not receiving salvation - based on ideological formulas – and not seeing Jesus' call to care for one’s brothers and sisters in need.
I know I don’t do enough and I’m scared about that.
The Gospel of Luke is very strong on the theme of knocking on the door of God’s house and asking for entry.
And a key message and challenge from Jesus in the Gospel of Luke is whether I open my door each day and see people – other than myself.
Father John Lavin – here at St. Mary’s – has almost finished his book, Noticing Lazarus at our Door. His key metaphor is the story in the gospel of Luke about the rich man going out his door each day and never seeing the poor man named Lazarus sitting there starving. And both die. One ends up in heaven and the other in hell – and Jesus told that story to scare the hell out of us – and to get us to notice and care for others – right around us. (Cf. Luke 16:19-31)
Let’s be honest, we don’t like to be reminded to see people around us whom we don’t want to see around us – people who need our notice, love and care. People can be very inconvenient.
I was brought up in Brooklyn N.Y. within eye shot of the Statue of Liberty. I have parents with 4th grade educations who came to this country with English as their second language. They came here to work hard jobs. They welcomed the opportunity to go through open gates and start a new life – maybe not for them – but at least for their children.
Isn’t that the American dream? Isn’t that what Emma Lazarus (1849-1887), notice the name “Lazarus”, wrote in her poem that stands there at the base of the Statue of Liberty,
“Give me your tired, your poor
Your huddled masses yearning to be free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore,
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me:
I lift my lamp beside the golden door.”
Doesn’t that sound like all the people that Isaiah talks about in today’s first reading (Isaiah 66: 18-21) – the gathering of people of every language – coming on horses, chariots, carts, mules, camels, to Jerusalem to experience God’s glory? Isn’t that the American Dream? Isn’t that God’s Dream? Isn’t that what eternity will be?
CONCLUSION
Please God, all of us will get through the doors of death and enter the doors of heaven because we loved one another, because we worried about one another, we challenged one another, we fed the poor, and we cared about each other.
Please God when we appear at God’s door, we’ll meet the poor and those we helped and Christ will say from their mouths, “I knew you. I know where you’re coming from. Welcome.”
Amen.
