BIBLE - GET IT

Quote for Today August 14,  2012

"Many things in the Bible I cannot understand;  many things in the Bible I only think I understand; but there are many things in the Bible I cannot misunderstand."

Anonymous

CLOSE, BUT NO CIGAR

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 19^th Monday in Ordinary time is, “Close, But No Cigar.”

I was tempted to call this homily, “Go Figure!”  Isn’t that what we humans do all the time?  How many times a day are we trying to figure out what someone is talking about. At Mass we are trying to figure out what the readings are about - and we hope the preacher has some figurings that help us. In this homily, I suspect you’ll be trying to figure out, What in the world is he talking about?”

The title of my homily is, “Close, But No Cigar.”

How many times in our lives have we heard that phrase and know what it means - but in a way, we’re not that sure. There’s a bit of “Go figure!” in it.

I wonder if a TV Quiz Show called, “Cliché” would make it. Three contestants - after hearing where they are from are shown a cliché on a screen. The contest would be to write down and then tell the MC and the audience, what they think is the meaning and history of the cliché.

The best answer wins. The best answer gets points. The winner gets a trip to Hawaii or Honduras.

So what does, “Close, but no cigar” mean?

My guess was close - but it’s not exactly the correct answer. I don’t think I’d get the prize. I was close - but no cigar.

LOOKED IT UP

I looked it up on line - on Google -  and found the following answer: “To fall just short of a successful outcome and get nothing for your efforts.”

I was wondering about its origin and found the following: “The phrase, and its variant 'nice try, but no cigar', are of US origin and date from the mid-20th century. Fairground stalls gave out cigars as prizes, and this is the most likely source, although there's no definitive evidence to prove that.”

It goes on: “It is first recorded in print in Sayre and Twist's publishing of the script of the 1935 film version of Annie Oakley: ‘Close, Colonel, but no cigar!’”

That caught my eye, because I had been to Annie Oakley’s birth place near North Star Ohio while preaching in Greensville, Ohio where she died. She was born Phoebe Ann Moses - but her professional name became Annie Oakley.

Then surprise, I read the following about Lima, Ohio where I was stationed for 8 ½ years before I came here to Annapolis. “It appears in U. S. newspapers widely from around 1949 onwards; for example, a story from The Lima News, Lima, Ohio, November 1949, where The Lima House Cigar and Sporting Goods Store narrowly avoided being burned down in a fire, was titled 'Close But No Cigar'.”

QUESTION: WHY THIS TOPIC

By now I’m assuming you’re trying to figure out why I just gave that long “babble” about the phrase, “Close But No Cigar.”

The answer is this. Sometimes when we’re visiting a church, we look at the art work in the church. We start wondering, “What is that about?”  We are “go figuring!”

This happens to me all the time. I like to visit churches I’ve never been in before. A group of us are going to London in September and I have 3 churches lined up already. I like to walk around and study everything - stained glass windows - columns - gargoyles outside, etc. etc. etc.

Last year we went to Barcelona and a bunch of people said, “Make sure you see Sagrada Familia” - Holy Family Church. Four of us did. Fascinating. After walking around and looking at the church inside and out for  about an hour, we spotted a small museum inside the church. It was off to the side - like a sacristy. Two of us left. Two of us spent a half hour in the museum. It explained everything - well lots of things - on what the architect - Antoni Gaudi - had in mind - animals, trees, geometric shapes based on living cells in nature and on and on and on. Then we went out again and spent another hour looking at everything again. This time we were closer to what the artist was telling us.

The second time we were close to understanding what the art work was about, but no cigar.

THE SCRIPTURES

Are you still trying to figure out what I’m talking about and where I’m going.

Well, all that is an analogy to help understand some of the writings in the Bible - especially books like Daniel and the Book of Revelation.

It’s especially true when we come to the Book of Ezekiel the Prophet, which we begin today. Did you hear him talking about the 4 living creatures with wings. When they moved there was a mighty sound - like that of waters. Go figure that out.

Did you hear Ezekiel say the following?

Above the firmament over their heads
something like a throne could be seen,
looking like sapphire.
Upon it was seated, up above,

one who had the appearance of a man.
Upward from what resembled his waist

I saw what gleamed like electrum;
downward from what resembled his waist

I saw what looked like fire;
he was surrounded with splendor.
Like the bow which appears in the clouds on a rainy day
was the splendor that surrounded him.
Such was the vision of the likeness of the glory of the LORD.

What is that all about? When we see the great cathedrals of Europe - Rome, France, Spain, England, when we see basilicas here the United States, we see that artists simply took passages from books in the Bible like Ezekiel and carved and formed their images into their buildings.

I hope you are now saying, “Oh, now I get it. That’s what you’re talking about.” But when we do this, we’re getting closer, but close but no cigar - because who can ever get into the heart and mind of another - and figure out what they are dreaming about.

However. I’m hoping by this long winding homily,  knowing this helps us to at least say, “Oh, okay, I get a tiny bit of this.”

Almost finished, let me suggest, if you ever get to Dublin, make sure you to Trinity College and see some of the pages of the Book of Kells. You’ll stand there looking at the pages of an ancient Celtic Bible. You’ll see the drawings on the pages. People go, “Woo! Interesting. Crawly animals. Many Winged birds. Wow.”

Then they might try to figure out what the images are all about. Go figure.

CONCLUSION

I’m trying to remember if I ever saw a stained glass window with the image in today’s gospel of the fishhook and the coin in the fish’s mouth. Okay. If I do, I now will say, “Oh that’s where that come from.” I’d be right - and maybe someone will give me a cigar for a correct answer.

COMMITTEE

Quote for Today - August 13,  2012

"A committee is a cul-de-sac into which ideas are lured to be quietly strangled."

Anonymous

Quoted by George F. Will, Washington Post Writers Group, August 16,  1992


Questions

Has this quote ever been your experience. Be specific about the issue, where this happened to you. Was it your idea that was strangled or were you the killer?

Have you ever had a good experience with a committee?  Was the old saying, "Two heads are better than one!" true in that situation - better 6 heads?

WHAT’S INSIDE THE BOX?

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time [B] is, “What’s Inside the Box?”

Here's a box. [SHOW SMALL WHITE BOX] What's inside it? I'm not going to tell you till the end of my homily. Boo! Bummer!

How many times have we looked at a box and wondered, "What’s inside?"

It could be a box the UPS or Fed Ex driver is bringing to the door of a neighbor. It could be a gift in a wrapped box at Christmas or at our birthday. It could be a box in a bottom drawer we discovered after the second of our parents died and we are sorting out their stuff. It could be a box on a chair next to a stranger across from us at the airport. What’s inside the box?

Who invented boxes - if they could be called an invention? What have they been made of? What will they look like in the year 5012? Did a caveman give a gift in some kind of homemade box to his cavewoman?

To be human is to give gifts in boxes. To be human is to want to surprise another and see their face as they open up a gift. To be human is store stuff in boxes. To be human is to want strong boxes for special things that we want to keep safe - maybe even calling the box, “Our Keepsake Box” or simply call it a “Safe”.

To be human is to wonder what’s inside the box? We’re inquisitive. We’re nosy. We guess. We’re intrigued. The little kid on December 23 - when nobody is looking - sneaks to gifts under the Christmas Tree and shakes the boxes with his or her name on them - and maybe even the boxes of others. Maybe even grannies do the same at a nursing home Christmas tree.

What’s inside the box?

WHY A HOMILY ON BOXES?

Yesterday I read today’s readings carefully and thought about them? I said my regular prayer for an insight that would be interesting and helpful for all of us.

I checked out what I preached on these readings in the past - in my computer box that has over 3,000 past homilies.  I like to be come up with a new homily. Here at St. Mary’s Saturday lunch and supper and Sunday lunch we have leftovers - but on Sunday night we like to go out - date night - and it’s nice to have a fresh Cobb Salad or ravioli or hamburger or what have you. I can’t cook. I don't like to cook. However, I like to try to cook up a sermon that has something to digest - even something to chew on. Nobody likes gristle in their roast beef - and sometimes someone tells me something I said was confusing. That's gristle. We want something to nourish us. I’m not trying to be self serving here - but I do want to serve up the Word of God as best I can. Come Holy Spirit.

Today’s gospel is one of 5 consecutive Sunday readings from the Sixth Chapter of John on the Eucharist. I could continue to go there. The Mass is a meal and Jesus the Lamb of God is our nourishment and our strength. Today’s first reading from First Kings mentions food as well - food for the journey. It has the story of Elijah running and escaping King Ahab and Queen Jezebel. Today he rests under the Broom Tree. Resting under a tree is a great image - but I preached three variations on that theme the last three times we had these readings - that is 3, 6, and 9 years ago.

So I decided to take a hard look at today’s second reading from Ephesians 4: 30 - 5:2 - to shop for a sermon there. The word “sealed” grabbed me - “EspHragiSTHETE” in Greek. Paul uses the image that all of us are like a document or a sack that is sealed. Those seeing the seal - those reading the seal - know this is the real deal. We have been sealed. Then he talks about what should be inside the document called “me.” Inside should be the good stuff: kindness to each other, compassion, forgiveness and love. He says that we grieve the Holy Spirit if inside of us instead is: bitterness, fury, anger, a reviling attitude, and evil malice.

That’s a clear contrast there. Paul - Jesus - various  writers and prophets in the scriptures - like to give such lists.  

As I reflected upon that image of a sealed document, it hit me: use the image of a box. That would be understood today more than those sealed with wax documents that are in some movies about earlier times. We buy boxes of this and packages of that in the supermarket or drugstore and we check that they are sealed - not tampered with.

So that’s the genesis of this homily entitled, “What’s Inside the Box?”

What’s inside me? What’s inside you? It’s show time. It’s show and tell time.

If I sat down and wrote a letter or a document that described me. “Dear Everybody: this is me. This is my autobiography. This is where I came from. This is how I got here. These are my moments. These are my discoveries. These are my ingredients. This is what makes me tick. These are my dreams. These are my disasters. These are my learnings. This is what I hope my legacy will be.” Then as I looked at it, as I reread it, do I see the Spirit of God sealing it? Or as Paul begins today’s second reading from his Letter to the Ephesians. would it  grieve the Spirit to read our life? Or the contrast as he ends today’s second reading, would the finished copy of our life sitting there on our kitchen table - would it have a fragrant aroma. Isn’t that a nice image? Have you ever opened up the Sunday papers or a magazine and you smell a sweet aroma and you say, “What’s that? Where’s that coming from?”  Surprise it’s one of those scratch off perfume ads stuck in the adds or in a magazine.

Surprise! Wouldn’t it be great if people who know and love us tell others behind our back their take on us: “What a gift! What a sweet person!”

Wouldn’t it be horrible if people who know us and read our lives describe us in these two words: “He stinks!”

POETRY AND SONGS: WHAT’S IN THE BOX

There are various songs and poems that use the image of the box - to describe a person.

We marry each other, because we think the other is a gift.

We stay married to each other, when we discover the gift keeps on getting better with the years. We discover the other is not the wrapping or the box, but the gift inside.

We grow when the other grows. They grow when we grow. The marriage is working. The family is working. Those who know us think and sometimes say, “What a great family!”

What a great company! What a great neighborhood! What a great parish!

We hate it when we discover that the gift wasn’t what we expected - worse, that the gift keeps on getting worse. Bummer. Ugly.

What’s in the box?

BACK TO TODAY’S SECOND READING FROM EPHESIANS

Paul placed two boxes in front of us today.

One smells sweet. One stinks.  Which is me?

One is filled with bitterness, fury, anger, shouting, reviling and malice.

The other is filled with kindness to each other, compassion, forgiving one another, and living in love - as Christ loved us - that is, making sacrifices to God and each other with love.

Clear choices. Clear menu. We know both.

CONCLUSION

Not so clear is the story of Elijah in today’s first reading.  Ahab’s soldiers are tracking him down. He sits under the broom tree in the desert - finds there a bread like substance and a jug of water. He eats, drinks, rests and is restored. He gets up and gets moving again - nourished - but what the future holds is not clear cut.

In today’s gospel the crowd is murmuring against Jesus because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” They can’t see him as more than Jesus - whose parents are Mary and Joseph.”

They box him out or box him in - and can’t see him as the gift he is.

They can’t hear his words that he is the gift from God the Father to our world - the gift of eternal life - the bread of life - that has come down from heaven - that those who eat this bread will live forever - that this bread is the flesh of Jesus for the life of the world.

At the end of John 6 - we’ll hear this two Sundays from now - many rejected this gift of Jesus and walked away. They really hadn’t opened up the box, the gift that Jesus is - and savored his sweetness - and let his aroma fill their lives.

We’re here Jesus. We’re here to taste and eat how good you are. Amen.

We're here to become better gifts to be opened up for each other. Amen.

[SHOW SMALL WHITE BOX] Now what's in this box?  Answer: nothing. Boo! Bummer. The gift that was in it is somewhere else. 

Is there a possible message here? It's very difficult to put this into words or pull this off. On Easter Sunday morning they went to the sealed cave to anoint Jesus.  The grave, the cave, was empty. The box was empty. Jesus had risen from the cave, grave, earth, his before, to a new phenomenn - to become the Risen Lord and his presence fills not just the earth - but the Universe - the All - the Pleroma - as Paul called it. And that presence surrounds us right here - right now - once we accept - meet - and move into communion with Christ - over and over again - in the Bread, in our neighbor - especially the poor, the sick, the hungry, the jailed, the hurting - and in the Depths and Center of the Trinity. Amen.

MONOPOLY 

THE GAME OF LIFE?

Quote for Today - August 12,  2012


"Then one day it stops.  Other people keep going. Somewhere on the board, somebody is just getting started. But for you, the game is over. Did you play wisely? We all want God, Anne Lamott writes, but left to our own devices, we seek all the worldly things - possessions, money, looks, and power - because we think they will bring us fulfillment. 'But this turns out to be a joke, because they are just props, and when we check out of this life, we have to give them all back to the great prop master in the sky. They're just on loan. They're not ours.' They all go back in the box."


John Ortberg, When The Game Is Over It All Goes Back In the Box, page 16, 2007. I'd recommend this book by John Ortberg. He begins with the image of playing Monopoly with his grandmother - and all she taught him. On the cover of the book is the wooden letter holder from the game called Scrabble. Check it out. What's in your box? What games are you playing? Are you winning? Losing? How much longer will the game go on? What have you learned in the moves?  I bought this book in a bookstore in Ireland and remembered it when I was working on my sermon for this Sunday: "What's Inside The Box?"

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YOUTH AND TRAGEDY

Quote for Today - August 11, 2012

"The deepest definition of youth is, life as yet untouched by tragedy."

Alfred North Whitehead [1861-1947],  Adventures of Ideas, 1933



Discussion points: 

Name the 3 most significant tragedies in your life?

Name some specific learnings from each tragedy?

Ask another who knows you what they think are the tragedies of your life?

Don't interrupt the other in the telling. Give them time. Give them a week or a month. You can ask them why they think the way they think - and how they saw you reacting, recoiling, recovering, resenting specific tragedies. Don't invite yourself to tell them what you think are their key tragedies - unless the other invites you.

Do you agree with Whitehead's thesis?

If you didn't bring faith into your comments and learnings, what would that be like looking at each tragedy?

WILLING

TO DIE TO GIVE

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for the feast of St. Lawrence is, “Willing to Die to Give.”

Having read the readings and reflecting on the life and death of St. Lawrence, I wasn’t sure just what title to give to a homily for today.

I toyed with the words, “Dying”, “Giving,” and “Willing.”

So I settled on the sentence, “Willing To Die To Give.”

Am I willing each today to die to myself by giving to others of me, myself, and my time and my life?

TODAY IS THE FEAST OF ST. LAWRENCE

St. Lawrence the Deacon was willing to die to give his life for others and for Christ.

He didn’t just die for a theology or an ideology. Those who killed him thought the Church had treasures to be grabbed - and so they grabbed Lawrence to get the gold. We’ve often heard that St. Lawrence pointed out: “Yes we have treasures. They are the poor.”

We’ve all heard the Early Church teaching that “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.”

Dictators have often hesitated to kill leaders who opposed them - lest they make martyrs of them.

So St. Lawrence, one of early deacons in Rome, died for the cause of Christ. He gave his life for his community.

He knew Jesus’ words, “Greater love than this no one has than to lay down their life for their friends.”

Lawrence knew the words of today’s gospel, that the grain of wheat must die - otherwise it just sits there. But if it’s planted in the field - it will die and rise bringing forth a harvest of wheat for our world.

Lawrence knew the words of today’s first reading from 2 Corinthians 9:6,  “Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.

Lawrence was burnt to death - and the joke we hear every year - is part of the our Church Tradition. He supposedly said to his torturers who had him on a cooking grill. He said, “Turn me over! I’m done on this side.”

TITLE OF MY HOMILY

The title of my homily is, “Willing to Die to Give.”

Each day we are given the seed of 24 hours. What do we plant with those moments of time?

Each life has talents to give - and we have energy to burn - for whom and for what? If we give, if we’re willing to make sacrifices, if we’re willing to be unselfish, then life becomes better for those around us.

This message of being willing to give - to die to oneself to give - is at  the center of Christianity. This is  the meaning of Christ. This is the meaning of the cross - here big time in this church with our big cross - but we also see the cross at the beginning and end of a rosary, on walls. It’s the sign made on us at baptism. It’s the gesture and the sign we make each time we come to church.

We see it in the Eucharist - the result of wheat seed that died - by being planted in the soil - and we benefit from that death - because the wheat grew and was harvested and made into flour and made bread.

CONCLUSION

Let me close by pointing out that this vestment I’m wearing is red - the color of martyrs. That’s obvious, but what you can’t see is that this vestment has sown on the inside the words, “In memory of John Ginley.”  He was a New York Fireman who died on the job at the World Trade Center in New York City on September 11^th. He and his 3 brothers - used to come on retreat with their dad - all firemen - to our retreat house at San Alfonso West End N.J. - when I was stationed there in the 1970’s.

We have in our midst and around the world, people who are willing to die by giving of themselves each day. Question: Am I willing to die each day - so that new life is given to the world each day?

O O O O O O O 

PAINTING ON TOP: "Martyrdom of St. Lawrence," disputed Caravaggio painting.