Quote for Today - April 20th, 2013 "Continuity in everything is unpleasant." Blaise Pascal [1623-1662]
Friday, April 19, 2013
THREE MOMENTS
INTRODUCTION
The title of my homily for this Friday in the 3rd
Week of Easter is, “Three Moments.”
It's not written anywhere, but I would think it would be safe to say that most people look
at their life as moments - key moments, significant moments, defining moments.
These are the moments we wonder about - consider, reconsider
- and talk to ourselves about - and sometimes share with others.
I haven’t done my homework on this - so I don’t know whether
the majority of key life moments are negative or positive. I would assume that the answer to that would
depend on the person - and their history - as well as their attitude and their
angles on life.
HOMEWORK
So before I begin with 3 key moments in today’s 2 readings -
here are a few questions that ought to be considered. Do some homework. Answer
these questions.
What was the most defining moment in your life? Falling in
love? Meeting so and so? A death? The
accident? The hurt? A God experience?
To get at that: what would be the ten most significant
moments in your life? Then put them in order of importance or pick
the top 3 moments and then THE defining moment of one’s life.
If possible, ask a spouse or best friend who knows you - or
a close family member - but it must be a very significant person - and do this
one to one. Have them list what they think is your most significant or key or
defining moments - and a good way to get at this is to have them list 10 - and
then put them in order of importance.
Do this for them as well - if possible - feasible - and doable.
THREE MOMENTS IN TODAY’S SCRIPTURES
First moment: what was it like for Saul [who becomes Paul] to be at the killing by stoning of Stephen. Then to be on the hunt to rid Judaism of these
Christians - and then what was it like to be knocked to the ground, blinded,
hear voices, and to discover one is totally wrong in one’s assumptions about
life and God?
Was that the most significant moment in Paul’s life? Was that his moment - when
he felt knocked to the ground. He hits bottom. He discovers, “I’m totally
wrong.” It might have been his moment - because we hear about it several times
in the scriptures: here in Acts 9: 1-20, next in Acts 15, and also in Galatians
1:12-24.
Second moment: what was it like to be “Ananias - who was
told to go to Damascus, to go to Straight Street, to
ask at the house of a man named Judas for a man from Tarsus - named Saul and lay your hands on him
so that he will be healed of his sight.
Was that the most significant moment in the life of Ananias?
It’s basically the only one we know of. Was he talking about that moment for
the rest of his life - especially the more Saul whom become Paul became famous?
Third moment: what was it like to have been sitting there in
the synagogue in Capernaum
and hear Jesus tell the crowd that we need to eat him up - to eag Jesus' flesh
- to drink his blood - to chew - to digest his life into our life - to become
Christ?
What would it have been like to have heard that message that day? Did anyone of those present get this message and then follow Jesus?
CONCLUSION
Answers to these questions would be extremely valuable for
us who are in this synagogue, this gathering place, this church today - we who
will be receiving Jesus’ Body and Blood in communion in about 15 minutes. Amen.
DO IT!
Quote for Today - April 19, 2013 "Fools look to tomorrow; the wise use tonight." Scottish Proverb
Thursday, April 18, 2013
RUNNING WATER
Quote for Today - April 18, 2013 "If you dam a river it stagnates, Running water is beautiful water." English Proverb
Wednesday, April 17, 2013
WOMAN
Quote for Today April 17, 2013 "You don't know anything about a woman until you meet her in court." Norman Mailer [1923-2007]
Tuesday, April 16, 2013
HUNGER AND THIRST!
THE REALITY AND
THE METAPHOR
INTRODUCTION
The title of my homily for this Tuesday in the Third Week of
Easter is, “Hunger and Thirst! The Reality and the Metaphor.”
The last sentence in today’s gospel is, "Jesus said to them, 'I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever
believes in me will never thirst.'” [John 6:35]
THE REALITY
We all know the reality of hunger and thirst.
How many times have we said, “I’m starving!”? How many
times have we said, “I’m thirsty!?” Or "I’m famished!"
I remember when I used to backpack in New Hampshire as well as Colorado. After hiking all day, we'd be starving that night. Colorado was the toughest - because for 12 days we’d only have freeze dry food - the food we were carrying in our backpacks. So on the way back - once we got to our car - we’d head for Burger King or any food place - way before even a shower.
When was the last time we said, "I'm hungry" or "I'm thirsty?"
Would the greatest torture be to starve people?
We all know the Greek Myth of Tantalus . He had to suffer the eternal
punishment of standing in a pool of water - and every time he wants water - it
recedes. And above his head is a low lying branch with delicious fruit on it -
and every time he reaches for some fruit to eat - the branches would go higher. Bummer. From
Tantalus we get the word, “tantalize”.
Life is tantalizing - we hunger and thirst - and sometimes we discover
nothing ever really satisfies us.
The story of Tantalus moves us to the metaphor of being hungry or thirsty.
SPORTS
In watching the Orioles this year, I hear Jim Palmer, Mike
Bordick, Gary Thorn, Rick Dempsey, and Tom Davis saying, “The Orioles didn’t
win it all last year, but they got a taste of victory. That should make them do
better this year. They should be hungrier.”
There’s that metaphor: hunger and thirst.
If a team loses year after year after year, players give up
sooner. They lose the desire, the dream, they had as little kids to make it to
the top. If a player on the bench gets a chance to play - because someone is injured - and if they
are hungry - there’s the opening - to show what one has.
If you remember the movie, The Natural, Roy Hobbs tells Iris, his childhood dream that was cut
short, “I wanted to be the best. I wanted to walk down the street and kids
would see me and they’d say, ‘There goes Roy Hobbs, the best there ever was.’”
Now that’s hunger. That’s thirst.
MAKE A LIST OF THE
BASIC HUNGERS AND THIRSTS
Make a list - of the human hungers - the human thirsts.
I preached a whole sermon on this just two Sundays a go - on
this very theme - but I used the word “intent”. What’s my intent in life?
It’s one’s desire. It’s one’s passion. It’s one’s hope. It’s
one hunger and thirst.
It takes a lot of living. It takes a lot of ups and downs.
It takes a lot of failures. It takes a lot of successes - in life - to discover
oneself - to figure out that the hunger and the thirst for food, for money, for
fame, for name, help or seem to help at times, but down deep they never really
satisfy the deepest desires and fires, hungers and thirsts - of the human heart.
I heard in several AA retreats - which I used to give - an
alcoholic saying, “I was looking for God at the bottom of a bottle - and God
was never there. And it took a lot of bottles and a lot of drinks to discover
that.”
It takes a lot of experimenting - and emptying - to discover
that our deepest hungers and thirsts - are only satisfied with persons - not
things - not stuff - even if we get stuffed with plenty of stuff. It’s always
persons.
The deepest happiness is always family - friends - spouse -
children, grandchildren - and hopefully parents - especially when we can sit
down with each other as adults - and share what our mom and dad what they
learned, what happened to them - what they were about - back then - and we
didn’t grasp it till now - and then in our turn to do that with our children -
and then as grandparents - to complete the circles of life.
Down deep we’re all like kids with a box of broken crayons
figuring it all out. With sit there with our paper on the floor or on the
kitchen table - figuring.
The two key areas - circles of life - that Greg Pierce - a
writer in Chicago
- said are: relationships and work. That’s where we spend the time of our lives
with. Work can be great - but in a way
it stinks if we can’t share what we’re doing with each other.
Relationships then gives us glimpses of God. Relationships
can bring us to God.
Then the day dawns on us that God has to be relationships.
Relationships are all about hungers and thirsts.
Relationships give us glimpses with what Christianity came
up with - God is Trinity - a Trinity of Persons. Who else could God be?
Christianity proclaims that God is a 3 way relationship -
and then a 4 way relationship.
Three - God in God.
Four - God with us.
Three - so united - they are one. And we two’s, threes,
fours, family, community, team, friendships, groups, when we are one - it’s
then we can catch God - eat God - be in communion with God - and taste God at
his table.
CONCLUSION
So it’s no wonder Jesus becomes food - because that’s a glimpse of our hunger
and thirst for people - for relationships- to be all one in communion. Isn’t
that why we’re here right here, right now? We’re here to sip and bite into God
- who satisfies our hungers and our thirsts. Amen.
WITHIN
Quote for Today April 16, 2013 "Search yourself and you will find God." Kurdish Proverb