Gospel text for First Sunday of Advent 2 December 2018

Luke 21:25-36        Jesus said, "There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on the earth distress among nations confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves. People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then they will see 'the Son of Man coming in a cloud' with power and great glory. Now when these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”

Then he told them a parable: "Look at the fig tree and all the trees; as soon as they sprout leaves you can see for yourselves and know that summer is already near. So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near. Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all things have taken place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

"Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life, and that day catch you unexpectedly, like a trap. For it will come upon all who live on the face of the whole earth. Be alert at all times, praying that you may have the strength to escape all these things that will take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.”

Happy New Year! Sunday begins our new liturgical year, year three, the year of the gospel according to Luke and I want to invite you to join me in A Year of Finding God in All Things. First let me give you a bit of context. You see, finding God and responding to God is not a new idea.

In the Christian Testament (although it is true of the people of the Hebrew Testament as well) we meet single Mary and the Shepherds, all of whom are visited by angels. And when his parents take him to the the temple to be named, somehow the old visionary Anna knows Jesus is the promised Messiah. How do all of these ordinary people recognize the presence of God? How can they tell? Remember, all of this happens before the healings, signs and miracles of Jesus’ ministry?

All three of the synoptic gospels report the melodramatic moment of Jesus’ baptism wherein Jesus has a vision of the heavens torn open and sees a dove descending upon him and hears a voice saying, “You are my son the beloved, with you I am well pleased.” (Mark 1.9-11, Matthew 3.13-17, Luke 3.21-22)  How does Jesus know it is the Spirit of God talking and not a dose of spoiled wine?

After Jesus’ death the disciples report meeting the risen Jesus in all different contexts (garden, closed room, on the beach, on the road)… in all different forms (gardener, stranger, foreigner, friend). Vision? Revelation? Hallucination? 

How did all of these people whose stories have impacted hundreds of millions of people, even entire civilizations, how did they recognize the Spirit of God with them?

I cannot answer that, but the promise Jesus makes to all who choose to believe can. ”The Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you.” (John 14.26) Furthermore, if we leap into the Book of James, a treatise written for Christians between 90-100 CE, the writer counsels the early Christians and us, “Rid yourselves of all sordidness and rank growth of wickedness and welcome with meekness the implanted Word that has power to save your souls.” (James 1.21) 

The Advocate, the Holy Spirit, the implanted Word of God lives within us which means we participate in the incredible revelatory tradition narrated in the Bible. The story of the relationship between God and humanity continues to evolve today - through us. 

This Sunday I will invite the congregation of Apostles to join me in a year of Finding God in All Things using An Ignatian Book of Days by Jim Manney. It is based on St. Ignatius’ exercises or practices aimed at finding God in all things. 

St. Ignatius of Loyola was the founder of the Jesuits, a religious order of men who do not live in monasteries, are not monks and mostly not priests. They are people who engage in every ordinary profession, teacher, cook, accountant, scientist, street sweeper, with the fundamental conviction that God can be found in all things. Ignatian practices gives us a way of looking at the world that helps us see, feel and experience God’s presence in our daily lives, and be better for it. To learn more click on upper right corner to hear Fr. James Martin describe how he found God while watching TV and eating spaghetti.

Perhaps you would like to join us finding God in the  midst of the distress and confusion among nations, in the roaring seas and the foreboding waves shaking our world today?  

If so, you can order An Ignatian Book of Days online and support Apostles when you shop using Amazon Prime. It is easy. Sign up by going to our Amazon Smile link https://smile.amazon.com/ch/86-0839192

This will automatically sign you up so that .5% of you purchases will be directed to support Apostles.  Once you are signed up remember to go to smile.amazon.com whenever you are shopping! Thank you. 

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Gospel text for Sunday 21 May 2017

                                      

John 14.15-21        Jesus said, ”If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.”

”I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live. On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.”

Reflection        At twelve years old I attended the funeral of the person I loved the most in the world. When I looked into the coffin and touched his cold hand there was one thing I absolutely knew, “Grampa is not here” in this strange waxy body and shiny mahogany box… “but somehow he is still here.” That’s what I told my mother. She shook her head and said, “Your grandfather is dead.” 

I believe my little girl self somehow knew the Spirit of Truth whom my mother could not receive. Later that day when the adults were drinking manhattans and telling stories of Grampa’s life I took cover in my room and found comfort in knowing my Grampa was with me even if “the world could no longer see him.”

Many years passed before I found my way to John’s gospel text, “”I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me… ” With those words I understood that my Grandfather had to leave me, but he did not leave me orphaned because he opened for me the way of being in relationship with something more which in theological terms we call the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth. By his death my grandfather gave to me the gift of life in and of and with the Spirit, the second Advocate.

Here is the thing. Jesus does not promise the disciples and us that when we die we will ascend to a cherub strewn utopia of mythic proportions. Rather, Jesus offers us the opportunity to participate in the eternal life of Spirit with us right here, right now, on earth. Our purpose is not to stumble through life scrupulously sidestepping as many sins as possible in order to accrue enough points to trade our way into happily ever-after life. Our purpose is to receive and make visible the Presence of the Spirit of Truth with us, right now.

Jesus is our first Advocate. He goes to the father as paraklaytos, an advocate  to plead our case to God and he says, “… I will ask the father, and (God) will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth…” The  second Advocate is the Spirit of Truth given to aid, assist and counsel us “to lead us to a deeper knowledge of gospel truth and give us the divine strength needed to undergo trials and persecutions on behalf of the kingdom (of God right here, right now on earth).” (Strong’s G3875) The Spirit of Truth or the second Advocate is that which imbues us with the knowledge of God and the capacity to act in accord with that knowledge. But it does not stop there. 

As people of God we are the third wave of Advocates who by grace are imbued with the Spirit of Truth and the capacity to pass it on. May the Force, the Spirit of Truth, be with you!

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Gospel text for Sunday 19 May, 2013 Petecost

John 14:8-17      Philip said to Jesus, "Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied." Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, `Show us the Father'? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves. Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.

Reflection     We have walked with Jesus’ disciples through Lent, Holy Week and Easter season. We remember that long evening meal in the upper room; the disciples reclining around a low wooden table, sharing bread and wine and olives, listening to their friend, their teacher Jesus go on and on about how he was going to leave, they were going to stay and he and the Father would send “another Advocate to be with them forever.” I imagine that if the disciples were anything like me they must have been baffled and fairly intimidated when they heard Jesus say, “Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these...” Really? How is this possible?

Now we arrive at the moment when Jesus’ promise is fulfilled and the revelation of the Holy Trinity is complete. On this Sunday we see tongues of fire settle on the disciples as they are filled with the Holy Spirit and “begin to speak in other languages,” in languages the astonished crowds  understand.  On this day we celebrate the satisfaction of Jesus’ promise made during that final meal with his friends, the promise that he would go to the Father and ask the Father to give them another Advocate...the Spirit of truth...to abide with them and be in them. 

Unlike the unsuspecting disciples we have the benefit of hindsight. We ‘hear’ Jesus’ words to his friends, “Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me”  and we begin to understand that just as Jesus is in the Father and the Father is in him, so is the Spirit of the Father and the Son in us, which means we also are in them. Well, maybe not really understand but something amazing is happening.

It is astonishing. By the presence of the Holy Spirit in us we participate in the Holy Trinity. By our participation in the Trinity we too come not to speak on our own, but  (by) the Spirit who lives in us and does God's works. We must believe that we are in the Father and the Spirit of the Father is in us. And when we believe, we also will do the works that Jesus did. Not because we are great or special. But because we give ourselves to be used up for the greater good. And the way to give ourselves up for the greater good is to ask in the name of Jesus our Christ and believe his words, “Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these...”

For a “Neuroscientific look at speaking in tongues” go to                                        http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/07/health/07brain.html?_r=0 

Gospel Text for Sunday, May 29, 2011

John 14:15-21

Jesus said to his disciples, "If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.

"I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live. On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them."

John 14.15-17, 25-27

(Jesus said,) "If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you."

"I have said these things to you while I am still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid."

Questions for engaging the text:

- What do I observe" What am I seeing" Does this passage raise questions for me?

- Is anything attracting me, drawing my attention, or repulsing me?

-What response is emerging within me? What is my response to what is attracting me?***

-In what ways might I specifically act on my insights in the world

*** 1st three questions taken from The Art of Engaging Holy Scripture curriculum (see resources).

I really want to hear from you. Thank you for clicking on "Comments" below and adding your responses. Debra