Gospel text for Sunday 11 of September 2016

Luke 15:1-10       All the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to Jesus. And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, "This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.” So he told them this parable: "Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it? When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, `Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.' Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.

"Or what woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? When she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, `Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.' Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents."

Reflection      Like it or not, in God’s economy winners are losers and losers are winners. Jesus’ message is earth-shaking; if you really want to experience the kingdom of God then find a way to ally your self with the people who are under valued, misunderstood or relegated to the fringe of society; devote yourself to those who in Biblical terms are labeled sinners and outcasts. This is what Jesus does. He is faithfully devoted to  “Welcoming sinners and eating with them.” 

At first glance most of us would not jump on the word “devotion” to describe the splashy, cross-dressing extravaganza I had the privilege of experiencing last Sunday evening with twenty Apostles and friends attending "Turnabout" the Tuscon Interfaith HIV/Aids Benefit (TIHAN) “Pink Party.” Surrounded by booming music, glitter beards and exceedingly tall women, we waved our break and shake “Magic Fairy Wands,” laughed, danced in our seats and handed two dollar bills to the ordinary people we watched put everything they had on the line to express their love, loyalty and enthusiasm for the cause… caring for people who live with HIV/Aids. 

Here is the thing. The “Pink Party” was by no measure one of those  exquisitely coiffed and choreographed affairs replete with professional entertainment, fine food and libation that many of us have dutifully attended. This was a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants glitzy celebration. Blaring music enfolded local folks extravagantly cross dressing,  a gaggle of nuns with full face paint and bizarre clownish costumes hawking raffle tickets, amateurs dancing and singing out their hearts, all present  giving them selves away for loyalty, faithfulness, commitment, yes, devotion to our sisters and brothers living with HIV/Aids. 

As the evening progressed a question kept niggling in my heart. “Debra, would you be willing to stand up there, dressed in an outrageous costume, face painted and putting your whole self on the line in devotion to the cause?” I squirmed in my seat.  Swallowed hard. Looked down to hide my teary eyes, and knew myself to be the least among these great people. In that moment I finally understood Jesus’ words earlier in Luke’s gospel,   “…some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.”(Luke 13.30) By the relentless faithfulness of God expressed in the devotion of God’s people, the under-valued, misunderstood and those relegated to the fringe of society are sought out and lifted up to receive the joy of heaven right here on earth. Perhaps this is why the creators of this event named it "Turnabout..."

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Gospel text for Sunday 4 September 2016

Luke 14:25-33       Now large crowds were traveling with Jesus; and he turned and said to them, "Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and estimate the cost, to see whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it will begin to ridicule him, saying, `This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.' Or what king, going out to wage war against another king, will not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to oppose the one who comes against him with twenty thousand? If he cannot, then, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for the terms of peace. So therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions.

Reflection      Most of us look at the cross and see either the dark Good Friday cross with Jesus’ dead body nailed to it or the Easter Morning cross, draped in white and pointing to resurrection. But none of this has happened yet. Jesus is very much alive when he instructs us to “Pick up the cross and follow me?” He never read  the description of his death, “He (Jesus) bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that, free from sins, we might live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.” (1 Peter 2.24) Nor was he privy to the work of the bishops at the First Council of Nicea three hundred years after his death, ironing out the details of his dual nature and the atoning benefits of his sacrificial death as perfect substitute for the sin of humanity. So, what does Jesus mean, “Pick up the cross and follow me?”

One way to understand the cross is as the intersection of human and Divine life.  The horizontal timber corresponds to our temporal life journey. The vertical beam represents Divine Presence on earth. At their intersection is the present moment. Each of us is traveling the horizontal plane amidst large crowds with Jesus, headed to Jerusalem because no one gets out of life alive. All along the way the vertical dimension of Divinity crosses our path in the present moment. Whenever we choose to accept or consent to the present moment, we are aligned with Divine Presence. We have “picked up the cross to follow Jesus.”

More often than not, instead of saying, “Yes, yes,” to the present moment, we equivocate. “Well, this is not how I pictured it. This hurts, I don’t like it. This makes me feel vulnerable, puts me out on a limb, out of control. What will people think? This is not good. No way. I can’t. I won’t.”  We reject the present moment. In Jesus’ terms, we refuse to “Pick up the cross and follow me.”  Perhaps this is why Jesus counsels us to “give up all of our possessions,”  to let go of anything that is in the way of saying “Yes, yes,” to the present moment. 

Let me be clear. I do not for a moment believe Jesus wants us to give up our food, shelter or loved ones. Nor do I believe Jesus wants us to roll over and be doormats for mistreatment. Rather I believe Jesus is inviting us to dispense with our ideas about God about ourselves and about the way things are supposed to be. Jesus is inviting us to consent to the present moment and in so doing align ourselves with Divine Presence. Jesus is unequivocal. “Pick up the cross and follow me. Consent to the present moment and you will find me there with you. “

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Luke 14:1, 7-14

On one occasion when Jesus was going to the house of a leader of the Pharisees to eat a meal on the sabbath, they were watching him closely. When he noticed how the guests chose the places of honor, he told them a parable. "When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, do not sit down at the place of honor, in case someone more distinguished than you has been invited by your host; and the host who invited both of you may come and say to you, `Give this person your place,' and then in disgrace you would start to take the lowest place. But when you are invited, go and sit down at the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he may say to you, `Friend, move up higher'; then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at the table with you. For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

He said also to the one who had invited him, "When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, in case they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous."

Reflection        In this season of political theatrics it is clear, God’s version of political power is not getting much media coverage because God’s political power exalts the humble and the meek. Jesus’ mother Mary knew this when she sang Hannah’s song “He has brought down the powerful from their thrones and lifted up the lowly….” (Luke 1.45-55) and apparently Mary effectively communicated this wisdom to her son whom we hear unequivocally,“For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted." ( Luke 14:11)

The social political structures that support domination and oppression; racism, classism, agism, nationalism, sexism, elitism, all of the ‘isms’ or ideologies that support domination and oppression will be replaced by God’s political power which is expressed in humble self-giving love – servant love. As Jesus firmly informed the  disciples who were disputing about which one of them was to be the greatest;  “The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and those in authority over them are called benefactors. But not so with you; rather let the greatest among you become as the youngest, and the leader as one who serves….I am among you as one who serves.” (Luke 22:24-27) We, the people of God, are to become new as Jesus, to be and to lead the new way of the kingdom of God by serving others, especially the least and the lost and the lonely.

Essentially Jesus is saying, “This is how to subvert power that intends to dominate or oppress. Be humble. Refuse honor. Serve the oppressed. Do this rather than buy into the established social political structures that dominate and oppress.” Arguably the single greatest expression of political power in history is the Incarnation. God emptied God’s self, humbled God’s self to become fully human, not only consenting to the human condition, but consenting to suffer with all of humanity. Not only refusing to call upon divine power to escape evil and suffering, but holding nothing back

 God gave God’s self to be with and for humanity even in death.

This is noble power. This is humble servant power. In Luke’s gospel text, in fact in most of his teachings and parables Jesus seems to be saying, “If the law, if power is an instrument of dominance and oppression, if the law, power is used to give advantage to some at the expense of others, If the law, power excludes some people from full participation in God’s Kingdom, ever so humbly refuse to comply. Go and sit down at the lowest place. Sit on the bench with homeless women at Sr.José’s homeless shelter. Help set up St. Andrew’s Medical Clinic to serve suffering children. Help care for the pets of our penniless neighbors by supporting Paws With a Cause. Raise a cup and share a meal to support our friends stricken with HIV/Aids at the Pink Party in Tucson next Sunday evening.”

Where shall we sit? Shall we elbow our way to places of honor with great media coverage or humble ourselves, refuse honor and sit with the least and the lost and the lonely?

Paste this link into your browser to read a contemporary psychologists reflection on “The Paradoxical Power of Humility.”  https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/brainsnacks/201501/the-paradoxical-power-humility 

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Gospel text for Sunday 21 August 2016

Luke 13:10-17        Now Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath. And just then there appeared a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years. She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight. When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, "Woman, you are set free from your ailment." When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God. But the leader of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had cured on the sabbath, kept saying to the crowd, "There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured, and not on the sabbath day." But the Lord answered him and said, "You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger, and lead it away to give it water? And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the sabbath day?" When he said this, all his opponents were put to shame; and the entire crowd was rejoicing at all the wonderful things that he was doing.

Reflection    Twenty five years ago I swung my bruised body on my all too familiar crutches into my acupuncturist’s office. Being a whole person healer Dr. D began by listening attentively to my tale of woe; my head dive over a patch of ice, my frozen ski binding that provided the opportunity for my femur to release out the side of my leg, the head first toboggan ride down the ski mountain, the sea of faces in the chair lift line all silently praying, “Thank God that’s not me,” the medic gone rogue yanking my leg across the equator, the single minded orthopedic surgeon whose only answer was the knife, my stubborn refusal to submit to his plan, now, 10 days later, my crippled leg lay motionless on Dr. D’ acupuncture table.” Throughout my monologue Dr. D drivers spiked points of pain into my ankles, wrists, top of my head. When finally my words run dry Dr. D pauses, needle in midair and avers, “One day you will be grateful for all of the traumas and pain you have experienced,” which stung more grievously than the needle she promptly planted into my swollen knee. 

Suffering happens. The weight of suffering is integral to the constitution of life. In the words of the old Rolling Stones song, “No, you can't always get what you want. You can't always get what you want. You can't always get what you want. But if you try sometime you find. You get what you need.” 

Thich Nhat Hanh refers to this attitude of consenting and welcoming the present moment as mindfulness. In an interview with Krista Tippett the Vietnamese monk explains. “Mindfulness is assent to life as it is. Look at a flower and see that it is on its way to be garbage. Look at garbage and see it is on its way to be a flower.”+ In the same way we may experience suffering as being on the way to compassion. And of course, when we experience compassion we are on the way to experience suffering with others.

What does all of this have to do with the woman who was “bent over and quiet unable to stand up straight?” Everything. We have no idea what ails her but we do know this. Two thousand years ago if she had scoliosis, not only would she suffer the physical pain associated with the condition, but her neighbors would see her as a sinner who must have done something wrong to bring this grievous state upon herself, the religious leaders would consider her doubly unclean (woman and diseased) which  would foster oppressive feelings of guilt and unworthiness and eject this woman into exile.

Then Jesus arrives and turns the proverbial temple tables upside down. In direct violation of social norms and temple law, Jesus looks at the woman and calls her to him, he calls her to return from exile. Then he speaks directly to her, "Woman, you are set free from your ailment." and lays his hands on her. Jesus sees the woman exactly as she is. He not only acknowledges her existence he affirms her dignity and worth by touching her. And the healing is this. The woman is set free from the social, emotional and religious conditions that have oppressed her for eighteen years and her relationship with God is restored. “Immediately she stood up straight and began praising God.”

We are all bent beneath the weight of something. And, if we are not now, just wait a minute. Jesus shows us the way of living freely; refusing to be oppressed by physical, social, emotional or religious conditions; look into the face of suffering, consent to the present moment and discover God with you, no matter what.

+To hear Thich Nhat Hanh’s entire interview, click on this link       http://www.onbeing.org/program/thich-nhat-hanh-cheri-maples-and-larry-ward-being-peace-in-a-world-of-trauma/74 accessed August 20, 2016.
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Gospel text for Sunday 14 August 2016

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Gospel text for Sunday 31 July 2016

                                                                                                                                                         Mt. Lemmon Sky Lab   

Luke 12:13-21        Someone in the crowd said to Jesus, "Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me." But he said to him, "Friend, who set me to be a judge or arbitrator over you?" And he said to them, "Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one's life does not consist in the abundance of possessions." Then he told them a parable: "The land of a rich man produced abundantly. And he thought to himself, `What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?' Then he said, `I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, `Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.' But God said to him, `You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?' So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God.”

Reflection        It is not all about me, rather, it is all about we.  Apparently the person in the crowd who “…said to Jesus, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me,”” quite forgot this bit of wisdom. He was willing to sacrifice the “we” of his fraternal relationship in favor of augmenting the personal possessions of his “me.”  Isn’t it ironic, to ask Jesus, of all rabbis, to be the mediator of such action; Jesus, the ultimate reconciler of all people?

What the greedy brother fails to recognize and Jesus’ parables intend to teach is the interdependence of all creatures and creation. 

Words from my favorite contemporary poet David Whyte’s poem “Everything is Waiting For You” sing in my heart. 

“Your great mistake is to act the drama as if your were alone.”

“To feel abandoned is to deny the intimacy of your surroundings.”

“Alertness is the hidden discipline of familiarity.” 

Put down the weight of your aloneness and ease into the conversation.”

Whyte’s words invite us into conversation with with each other and all that is. This is where we find our riches. This is were we discover who and whose we are. 

Please click on the image in the upper right hand corner of this post to hear Whyte’s poem and his commentary.  Uploaded to YouTube on Feb 26, 2011, Internationally acclaimed poet David Whyte is an Associate Fellow at Templeton College and Said Business School at the University of Oxford, David works with many European, American and international companies, using poetry and thoughtful commentary to illustrate how we can foster qualities of courage and engagement. In his talk, David encourages us to remain open to know the dialogue with our surroundings inform and inspire our ideas. (accessed July 30, 2016)

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Gospel text for Sunday 24 July 2016

Luke 11:1-13

Jesus was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.” He said to them, "When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us. And do not bring us to the time of trial.” 

And he said to them, "Suppose one of you has a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say to him, `Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; for a friend of mine has arrived, and I have nothing to set before him.' And he answers from within, `Do not bother me; the door has already been locked, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything.' I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, at least because of his persistence he will get up and give him whatever he needs.

"So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for a fish, will give a snake instead of a fish? Or if the child asks for an egg, will give a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!"

Reflection       If even Jesus is subject to the “time of trial,” (think forty days tempted in the wilderness immediately following his glorious baptismal moment (Luke 4.2)) it might serve us well to acknowledge our own vulnerability to temptation and take Jesus’ prayer to heart, “Do not bring us to the time of trial,” or in Matthew’s version, “but rescue us from the evil one.”

What if we decided to admit, “I am subject to temptation. I am susceptible to trials?” What if in the company of the Apostle Paul we humbly confessed, “I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate?” (Rom 7:15) A long time ago when married my husband and I had an argument. I was sitting at the far end of the great room. He was on the other side of the room, his back toward me. Sitting there I rehearsed in my mind reasoned words of reconciliation. “This is not who we are. This is not how I want to be with you. Can we remember why we are together? Can we hit reset and do better?” 

Feeling composed with my conciliating words I walked across the room, stood in front of him and out of my mouth blast indictment and condemnation while my inner narrator commented, “I do not want to say this. I am doing what I do not want.” And like Paul I concluded, “I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do.” (Ro 7.17, 19) 

Have you ever experienced a  disconnect between your mind and your mouth? Have you ever experienced a rupture between your deepest desires and your actions? Welcome to the human condition. This is not because we are bad it is because we are vulnerable.  We are assailable to trials, liable to temptation. This is intrinsic to our human condition, the very same condition to which Jesus was subject. 

What are we to do when we realize we are not in control?  Beat ourself up? Take a drink, a pill or eat to numb the effects? Redouble our efforts to be in control? Or, might we consent to the reality that we are vulnerable and follow Jesus’ counsel, “Pray, saying Father…”  Even Jesus did not rely on himself to control his situation. In all things Jesus turned to his relationship with God.

There is no shame in being subject to the time trial. The inability to be in control is not cause for self recrimination. Apparently Jesus knew this as did the founders of Alcoholics Anonymous when in the late 1930s they identified the first of three of twelve steps toward a transformed life; admitting we are not in control, believing there is a power greater than ourselves that can restore us and and deciding to turn our will toward that power… the power we call God, the God to whom we pray saying, “Our Father…”

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