“I would like to have engraved inside every wedding band,
‘Be kind to one another.’ This the
Golden Rule of marriage, and the secret of making love last through the years.”
Randolph Ray,
My Little Church
Around the Corner,
Simon and Schuster,
1957
Wednesday, March 23, 2022
TAKES ON LAW – UH OH’S!
The title of my homily is, “Takes On Law. Uh Oh’s,” Laws, statutes, decrees, commandments, are the theme of
today’s first reading – for this Wednesday in the 3rd Week of Lent.
Here in the Book of Deuteronomy – today’s first reading – they are
bragging that Israel’s laws are the best of any nation in all the world. Today’s first reading says to brag about our laws. Don’t
let them slip from your memory. Teach them to your children and your children’s
children. Today’s gospel
from Matthew has Jesus saying, “Do not think that I have come to abolish
the law or the prophets.” [Cf, Matthew 5: 17-19] It adds that we better not let the smallest letter - or the smallest part of a letter of the law
– pass out of the Law. Now a problem – a pause – something to think about. Whenever we have this gospel reading I feel an, “Uh
oh!” It says, “You better not let
anyone break one of the commandments of the law. If you do so, you’ll be called
least in the kingdom of heaven.” My “Uh oh!” comes from all those new testament comments
from Paul about not letting the law take away our freedom. My “Uh oh!” comes from all those comments from Jesus
about using the law as a way of not loving or serving one another.” My “Uh oh!” comes from thinking we can control God by our
keeping a law. My “Uh oh!” comes from when we use laws to control things
– especially mainly for our own convenience. In the Parable of the Good Samaritan which we heard in a
talk here last night, two people – a priest and a Levite – keep the law by not
stopping to help the guy who was beaten up. The Samaritan stops to help the
injured man. Samaritans and Jews had
laws not to deal with each other. Jesus told that parable to answer the Lawyer’s question
on what he had to do to gain eternal life.
The law said, “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with
all your soul, with all your strength, with all your mind, and your neighbor as
yourself.” We need Laws. We need love. We’re seeing on television
and the news Putin breaking all kinds of laws – international laws – written
and unwritten laws – and he hopefully will be judged and condemned at the Hague
– their courts – for war crimes. We need
laws. We need laws for protection – for hedges (a Hebrew metaphor for law) –
for markings – for boundaries. We had on television yesterday – the hearings on Judge Ketantji
Brown Jackson. It was to look at her skills and expertise on laws and the
constitution. People viewing the confirmation hearings can make a judgment –
can be a judge - and see through and pick up the nuances of negativity and
nastiness and capture the purpose of those who will vote against her or for
her. Law is important – but it needs to include the Golden
Rule and justice and conscience and honesty – love and concern and care for
each other. Law is also complicated – so we need to have hearings and
courts and honesty of deliberations – to know and to discover the nuances and
as many sides of the question as possible. That’s the stuff we need to hope for and praise when we
see it – and hear it – as we get trials underway and when we weigh the law.
March 23, 2022
Thought for Today
“A lady of 47 who has been married 27 years and has six
children knows what love is and once described it for me like this: ‘Love is
what you’ve been through with somebody.’”
James Thurber,
Life, March
14, 1960
March 23, 2022
PROVERBS 6: 6-11
Each Spring, when the moths appear, we all remember to
put up or pull down our screens – especially in the night. Moths search for the light. Each Spring, when the moths appear, after I put up my
screens, I think of Monkey Monahan. We were teenage boys at the time – around 14 or 15 years
of age. Or maybe we were 13.Well,
anyway, it was Spring and this meant we became big game hunters. I’ve gone fishing and crabbing a few times, but that
Spring was the only time I did anything like this – hunting and killing. I was no Franciscan. I was no Hindu or Buddhist. Monkey
Monahan and I were cold blooded killers. Now, 50 years latler, I don’t remember the exact
circumstances or the chain of particulars on how we came up with what we started
to do that Spring. The first step was the hunt. Our prey were the moths.We used bath towels as our weapon of choice. We had a nearby ball field
as the best hunting ground.We would
kill about 25 moths and put them in a cardboard shoe box.One night we killed 100 moths. The second step was to find an ant hole. Yes, ant hole…. We would find an ant hole and sit down on
the grass near it. Out of the shoe box would come one dead moth. We would place
it next to ant hole. At the entrance of the ant hole would be 2 guard
ants.They would spot the dead moth. They
headed down the hole.Out came hundreds
of ants. I can still picture the scene some 50 years later. They would drag the moth down the hole.What a scene. To them it must have been like
dragging a 747 into a hanger or an elephant down into a cellar. Then we would proceed to put moth 2,3, 4, 5 to 25 at the
hole.They never gave up.They took all we could give them. There’s a story here – but I’ve never mentioned this in a
sermon. Hey, I wouldn’t want to be thought to be that strange. Then again, it might make a good sermon on Proverbs 6: 6-11.
“Our masters taught: Who is wealthy? He who is content
with his wealth – so said Rabbi Meir.But Rabbi Tarfon said: He who has
one hundred vineyards, one hundred fields, and one hundredslaves working in then. Rabbi Akiva said: He who has a wife comely in deeds,
Rabbi Yose said: He who has a privy not far from his table.”11
Footnote 11: “At that time, privies were out in the fields.
B. Shah 25b.
From page 602 in The Book of Legends Sefer Ha – Aggadah, legends from the Talmud
and Midrash, edited by Hayim Nahman Bialik and Yehoshua Hana Ravnitzky, translated
by Willim G, Braude
Monday, March 21, 2022
March 21, 2022
BLESSED ARE THEY
WHO DO NOT SEE,
YET THEY STILL BELIEVE
Saw a Zen saying, “The seed never sees the flower.”
Wow!
I added in my own thought, “The writer does not see the
reader – most of the time – 99,999 times out of a 100,000 times.”
Most books over 10,000 sales are a good deal.
Yet, the author, he or she writes on.
Who am I writing for: me or she or he?
Me!
Yet it does help to have an audience – better, a reader in mind.
Words are seeds….
Planted in hearts ….
Earth….
Formed by God’s hands – sculpted into me and you.
The parents who slave 2 jobs at times – and sometimes
more – while working - don’t see their kids in college having a great
time – feeling free – enjoying a great basketball game – screaming – happy –
running onto the court – pizza afterwards – a beer – fun – joy – yet if they
saw all that would they still see all their work and slavery – that it was all
worth it?
Of course ….
Okay, better they see graduations.
So the Zen writer was saying something significant when
she or he wrote, “The seed never sees the flower.”
That’s life 101.
We don’t see where our money in the special collection in
church goes – but we still take out our wallet and make that extra donation.
We pray – we sing at church – we reflect there Sunday
after Sunday - knowing – faith sinks
down deep into the soil of our hearts – like a seed.
Yet we pray seeds – knowing faith increases without our knowing
or seeing it happening. Didn’t Jesus say
something like that a long time ago?
We write words – seeds of black ink on white pages or
screens – knowing some of them will sink into the unconscious of others.
