Author: Retired Bill

Memorial: St. Martin of Tours

~ Retired Bill ~ Leave a comment

Today’s Scripture Readings

2 John 4-9, Psalm 119: 1, 2, 10, 11, 17, 18, Luke 17: 26-37

 

I have commented before that the situation in which Christians find themselves today isn’t so different from the way things were in New Testament times. The simple reason is that the basics of human nature haven’t changed. What may be more important for us is we can be sure the ways of God haven’t changed either.

John’s second letter is to a community of Christians that is beginning to have doubts. They are beginning to wonder if belief in Jesus is important and whether the commandment to love each other is really the core of faithful living. Other preachers are raising questions and proposing other solutions to life’s challenges. John says they need to live a life of love based on a relationship with Jesus. If not, they will not have God’s message. They will lose what they had.

The Gospel is saying the same thing in more dramatic terms. Stay the course. Hold on to your faith because you never know when all of life may change. Luke puts this in catastrophic terms of floods and fire and brimstone. But the idea is that life and death is involved. I think it’s worthwhile to translate these images into everyday language. We may be tempted to take the physical images too literally and assume we are safe from tornadoes, hurricanes and earthquakes, even though recent news reports ought to give us pause even on this account. Or to think that Jesus’ is just referring to the end of time or the end of our life.

In this case, the issue is, will all the other things of modern life, today’s progressive ideas, the comfort of our culture eat away at what believing in Jesus and Catholic faith have to offer. Has the course of our life given us an outlook that no longer matches Jesus’ call for a life of love?

I would suggest to you that one important consideration is would I recognize an invitation from God to change my life? Is it possible that while I was in the middle of my everyday life, eating, drinking, buying, selling … that I would recognize the moment when I needed to leave everything behind or lose my life? Could there be times that are that dramatic in my life? Perhaps the situation isn’t dramatic but what is subtle, perhaps what lies just below the surface, may have just as important a consequence.

What if we weren’t talking about moments of physical choice? What if it wasn’t about which job or what relationship or what to do tonight but about, as John’s letter says, how I was walking through my own life? What if I was confronted with a challenge to my current ideas or attitudes? Might I have to change how I think in order to save my life, to stay faithful to the Gospel?

Perhaps the terrifying drama of the Gospel is about how frightening it can be to make significant choices in everyday life? Can I see God’s presence in the challenges to my ideas or the way I am walking through my life?

When the Apostles ask “Where?” they are acting as if the dangers to faith are out there beyond themselves in some physical place or location. But Jesus’ answer suggestions that the challenges to belief, the vultures, are wherever we are. The challenge to life is within ourselves. We need to remember that is also where God is. That is why it is so important to walk through all of life holding on to our faith in God and God’s love. So that when the moment to decide comes, dramatic or subtle, it will be clear what we need to hold on to and what we need to let go of.

Wednesday, Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time

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Today’s Scripture Readings

Ephesians 6:1-9, Psalm 145:10-14, Luke 13:22-30

These are not warm fuzzy readings today. These are in-your-face readings. Which means we should probably really pay attention. There are two images that stand out for me. Neither of which I like very much. First, in Ephesians, the author is talking about slaves and masters. Second, in Luke’s Gospel, Jesus is saying we should work to enter through the narrow gate. Together however they have something we need to hear. Whether we like it or not.

The problem with slaves and masters is that we have finally rejected this arrangement as a society so talking about it in any way other than condemnation sets off emotional and mental resistance. However, translations can make a huge difference. So here is the New Jerusalem Bible version of this slave/master section of Ephesians:

“Slaves, be obedient to those who are, according to human reckoning, your masters, with deep respect and sincere loyalty, as you are obedient to Christ: not only when you are under their eye, as if you had only to please human beings, but as slaves of Christ who wholeheartedly do the will of God. Work willingly for the sake of the Lord and not for the sake of human beings. Never forget that everyone, whether a slave or a free man, will be rewarded by the Lord for whatever work he has done well. And those of you who are employers, treat your slaves in the same spirit; do without threats, and never forget that they and you have the same Master in heaven and there is no favoritism with him.”

I find this slightly easier to read and it helps get us to why I think this matches with the narrow gate idea and can help us face its demands. This passage doesn’t condemn slavery any more than the New American translation but it more clearly demonstrates that the author was upending the slave/master relationship. The text is making slave and master equal before God. Which interestingly puts both the slave and the master under the demand to use that narrow gate. This passage expects both slave and master to act out of a different set of standards, God’s standards. No more threats from the master. Slaves are to work willingly. Because both are under obligations to God that are bigger than their current human relationship. That is one heck of a narrow gate. It is suggestive of the jarringly discontinuous reality Jesus asks us to enter. It is possible this is a bigger challenge than social change. How could people be generous and loving in an inherently unequal slave/master situation? It makes no sense. Yet I think this is the kind of monumental challenge we are asked to confront. The author asks slaves not just to be obedient but act with deep respect and sincere loyalty and then tells masters to do the same thing. This behavior goes way beyond dropping threats as a management tool.

We don’t have institutional slavery today. However, these readings suggest that we must live in a loving, caring, generous way even when our human structures and relationships are tearing us apart. That’s a crazy narrow gate. That’s more than just not going along with what everybody else is doing or saying. It means more than serving on a committee or giving to charity. I think it means looking at people, situations and life goals in a totally different way. A way so different that Luke, like Mark and Matthew, repeats Jesus’ observation that, “some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.” It is a total reversal. Are we capable of totally reversing how we think, how we feel, how we operate each day mostly when we aren’t really thinking about it? You know, the run of the mill daily interactions and relationships we take for granted. We can’t do that anymore if we are to change ourselves. We have to change what’s inside, no matter what circumstances, people or situations challenge us. Knowing it’s going to be hard, that it means choosing the narrow gate, maybe we’ll be in a better position to succeed, actually making the tough choice and coming out that narrow gate doing what builds a land flowing with milk and honey. Where everyone’s not only equal but loved, cared for and having a really great time.

 

Friday, Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time

~ Retired Bill ~ Leave a comment

Today’s Scripture Readings

Ephesians 4:1-6, Ps 24:1-6, Luke 12:54-59

Today Luke is telling us how frustrated Jesus was that not just the Pharisees but all kinds of everyday people did not recognize the key time of salvation that is before them. And Ephesians is reminding a later church community to preserve the unity that has been given to them.

Jesus asks the question, “You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky; why do you not know how to interpret the present time?” I think there are two issues contributing to resisting Jesus’ call for change.

First, like the Pharisees, people saw God’s action as long ago, something in their Scriptures. The Jews may be the chosen people but God was a power beyond reach. To see God as present in their lives as a person was sacrilegious. I think that problem still happens today, somehow things of Gods are spiritual and separate from the hard knocks of everyday give and take. Jesus’ accuses them of being hypocrites. His examples of what clouds and wind predict, point to what at the time, would have been simple adult awareness of the conditions of life. As we say today, “This isn’t rocket science.” People knew how the world worked. But this also applied to their social environment. The hypocrisy was not admitting that they also knew whether something new and good, was entering their lives. They could tell the difference between good deeds and bad deeds, status quo and significant change. They would know if someone was trying to introduce something new and transformative.

If that’s true, then the second issue is they simply didn’t want to take responsibility. Jesus second question points right at it, “Why do you not judge for yourselves what is right?” Jesus’ example suggests that the smart person who is headed to court tries to come to an agreement before she gets there. That way her fate is still in her own hands. Once the judge takes over she will be subject to forces beyond her control. Still we aren’t always so eager to take the responsibility for making life changing judgments on our own. Too often we would prefer to find comfort or a ready answer from some outside authority. Let’s call it an excuse. It’s easier than taking a close look at ourselves. A look that might reveal things we would rather avoid. I’m not suggesting we should make our life decisions without talking to others or without seeking advice. What is important is that we remember that every decision we make, every action we do determines who we are. The stuff we do everyday is our decision. We can’t blame others for the kind of people we become. We too know, if we admit it, “which way the wind blows.”

These readings can remind us there are no separate parts to our lives. It’s all connected and it all contributes to who we are and what we will be tomorrow. It is a reminder of an amazing unity that is a call to us and a comfort. A call to see what is happening around us, to notice how we are reacting, to listen to what is being said and to live up to the gifts God has given us. A comfort in that we are in God’s care no matter what happens. Ephesians itemizes the list: one Body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism and one God, the Father of all, over all, through all, and I think most importantly, in all.

Thursday, Twenty-eighth Week in Ordinary Time

~ Retired Bill ~ Leave a comment

Today’s Scripture Readings

Ephesians 1:1-10, Psalm 98:1-6, Luke 11:47-54

All this week in the Gospel readings Jesus has been criticizing the Pharisees for being insincere and taking advantage of their positions. Not surprisingly at the end of today’s Gospel Luke makes the point, “the Pharisees began to act with hostility toward him … they were plotting to catch him in something he might say.” No big surprise, given Jesus’ treatment of them.

Also remember that Pharisees, Scribes and Lawyers were the privileged, the religious elite of their day. They made the rules. So we know Jesus wasn’t afraid to be blunt about things he thought powerful people were doing wrong. But the question is, what does this Gospel have to say to us today?

Of course, nobody today is oppressing others by creating unrealistic demands on them. Nobody puts down people they have power over … wouldn’t that be nice? We are certainly aware of prejudices in society at large, but do we recognize that behavior in ourselves?

Let’s consider, for a moment, Galatians and the Psalm for today. Paul’s letter to the Galatians tells about how God has chosen us and saved us through the action of Jesus. We have come to believe that we are forgiven for things we do wrong and Jesus’ life was an announcement of God’s intention for us to be free, and happy together. If we want to know what is important in this life we simply need to look at Jesus, he sums it up in the way he lived and what he said.

The Psalm is essentially a celebration of the same thing. God saves us from guilt and fear and we should be really happy about it. We have reason to be pleased about our faith, to feel that God has blessed us. That can be a good thing.

I think the question that Jesus is pointing to in the Gospel is this: the Pharisees, Scribes and lawyers all knew the details of their faith, they too knew the history. The prophets were their own people. In fact, they were building monuments to them all the time. But these same Pharisees weren’t paying attention to what that history and what those prophets had to say. They were burying them all over again. They liked the privileges, the power and the prestige that comes with office, they liked knowing they have been saved by their religious practice, by their faith. Or so they thought.

We may not be people who wield political or religious power but we may have to be careful we don’t get too smug about what is ours, whether it’s what we believe, what we think we have or what we have accomplished. We need to remember that Jesus was always fighting for people who were at the edge of society. The people who were outcasts, people who were looked down upon because of how they lived, who they were related to or what they didn’t know. We have to take that seriously. We too, probably have groups of people with whom we are uneasy. People we might refer to as “those people” when we’re with friends. That’s not good. That’s what the Pharisees did. The Pharisees excluded people because “they” didn’t measure up. That’s what we have to think about. I think we have to be very careful about the status quo and what we think is appropriate and proper and required of others before we would accept them. Like asking them to dinner. You may have heard about the 1967 movie, “Guess who’s coming to dinner?” It was about a young white woman who is engaged to a black man and has to bring him home to meet mom and dad who don’t know he’s black. That might be a good way for us to picture the situation. Who would make us uncomfortable if they were seated around our dinner table? And when we consider who might be in that group, let’s just remember that for the Pharisees, at least one of “those” people was Jesus! That’s the mess we get ourselves into when we become privileged.

Monday, Twenty-eighth Week in Ordinary Time

~ Retired Bill ~ Leave a comment

Today’s Scripture Readings

Galatians 4:22-24, 26-27, 31-5:1, Psalm 113:1b-5a, 6-7, Luke 11:29-32

Today’s readings prove once again that the human condition doesn’t seem to change. At least, I think we are often asking the same questions today that people did when Jesus walked with us physically.

In Galatians, Paul is writing to people who have converted to Christianity from paganism. He wonders why they want to put themselves under the law of Moses instead of Christian freedom. He argues that to put oneself under a set of laws is to become like a slave, while Jesus offers a freedom of one free born. Not a slave.

In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus bemoans the fact that people want a sign, they want proof of who he is. They want proof that what is happening is the work of God. Jesus points to Jonah as the kind of sign they will receive. In Luke the reference to Jonah is about his going to Nineveh to announce the destruction of the city. After just one day the whole city and its King had a change of heart. Jesus is saying that the sign of God’s presence is a change of heart. This kind of change isn’t showy or often very public. It is not the kind of sign that you can seek out in advance for reassurance. It’s a personal lived reality.

The thread that connects these readings for me is that we so often want the comfort of external assurances. The Galatians after coming to believe in Jesus through Paul’s preaching have been talked to by people who were promoting a much more structured religion, Judaism had plenty of rules and regulations that marked whether a person was “clean or unclean.” There were lots of markers so you knew where you stood. Christianity at the time had next to no formal structure. People of all sorts came together, ate together, believed that Jesus opened a new relationship with God and would return to take them all to paradise. All they had was Paul’s word and each other. No Gospels, no bishops, just local leaders who probably had received the Spirit, i.e. who had a change of heart. It is apparent that for a good number of those people having a little more structure felt good. It felt reassuring.

Jesus is saying to the crowd don’t look for external assurances, look for a change of heart. Look for what the Spirit is doing among you. If the preaching of Jonah, a total stranger to Nineveh, can change the ways of a whole city and its King in a single day, what will happen if you believe in me?

So we have Jesus dismayed that people seem to be fixated on the externals. Paul trying to help the Galatians withstand a group that is preaching a Jewish form of Christianity that offers more assurances in the form of Jewish law.

So today, what assurances, what signs do we demand of God? Can we hear the story of the virgin birth or Sarah’s pregnancy with Isaac in her old age and recognize that it is God’s Spirit that gives birth to new life? What are we facing today? What challenges us? Do we think we have to muscle it through on our own? Where is it that the Spirit of God comes into play with everyday problems and losses? Are we mostly looking for outside assurances or could a change of heart be what is needed? Are we even thinking a change of heart might be what is needed? Perhaps we have to face it that if Jesus, the Son of God, was killed on a Cross by the people he wanted to help, a change of heart may be the most challenging choice of all.

Thursday, Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time

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Today’s Scripture Readings

Galatians 3:1-5, Luke 1:69-75, Luke 11:5-13

These are amazingly strong readings about the Holy Spirit. So much so that for the Psalm we have the words of Zachariah, filled with the Holy Spirit after he gets his voice back when he names his son John. It is a classic example of being given the Spirit and a change of heart. The other readings are just as pointed. Paul adamantly questions what’s wrong with the Galatians, why aren’t they being faithful to how they received the Spirit in the first place. Jesus says praying is about stepping up and doing it with persistence. The result is receiving the Spirit.

I believe the Spirit is especially important today because the Spirit is God’s presence among us. Seeing that presence as part of our experience is key to living a life of faith, which often takes strength, courage and compassion. That is what Paul is yelling at the Galatians about. They have gone back to some practices dictated by Jewish law as if that is necessary for maintaining their connection with God. Paul is reminding them that their experience of the Spirit and “the mighty deeds” the Spirit worked among them didn’t come from following the law but believing in Jesus Christ.

The issue that is relevant for us today is thinking about the Spirit too narrowly. As if the Spirit only comes to really holy people like saints or in dramatic biblical events. I would like to take the Spirit out of the interventionist highly demonstrative category and place Spirit into the everyday operating category. Let’s consider God’s Spirit as a presence that empowers and emboldens us to live and do things we might otherwise fear or dismiss as beyond our abilities. Also think about Spirit as a calming, reassuring presence that can bring peace and joy into the midst of everyday activities.

The Psalm is thanking God because God “has come to his people” to make us “holy and righteous in his sight all the days of our life.” Wouldn’t that be an amazing gift if we accepted that we’re OK? If we accepted our own value before God as good? Wouldn’t that be a “mighty savior” who enabled us to worship God and live “without fear?” Jesus lived that way but it’s only the Spirit that can transmit that gift to us today.

Which brings us to Luke’s Gospel and Jesus telling his disciples and us to persevere in prayer. Not so God will improve our situation or even heal someone who is sick but rather send the Spirit to give us the best gifts of all. Aren’t what we really want “things” like confidence, peace, courage, insight, happiness, patience, appreciation, etc. That’s what Spirit is about. The challenge is, will we ask for this kind of help? Will we acknowledge the kinds of “things” we’re missing so we even see the need to ask? The man in the Gospel knows he needs three loaves of bread because he has a visitor at home who he can’t feed. He knows what he needs and why. It’s night time so finding the bread isn’t going to be easy or convenient yet the man is out there knocking on doors, probably being embarrassed. However, if he wants that bread he has to do it. That’s the persistence Jesus is talking about. Not “I wish, I wish” but taking the steps to find the help we need. If we do that, the Spirit of God will already be there giving us what we need.

Memorial St. Francis of Assisi

~ Retired Bill ~ Leave a comment

Today’s Scripture Readings

Galatians 1:13-24, Psalm 139: 1-3, 13-15, Luke 10:38-42

I think the Psalm response this morning is our best guide for talking about the readings. It says, “Guide me, Lord, along the everlasting way.” I think that’s what happening for both Paul and Mary and Martha. It’s what happened to a rich kid who renounced his wealth to live as St. Francis the street beggar and in crucial ways rebuild the church. It is, of course, what happens for us too if we listen and examine what life presents for us.

In Paul’s letter to the Galatians he is giving them a little background on his life’s story. He was a Jew persecuting Christians until God reveals Jesus to him. After that he begins proclaiming Jesus to the Gentiles. What a shift! That’s an amazing change, a full 180 degree turn to go the opposite direction. He goes from persecuting Christians to converting people to Christianity.

I think it simply demonstrates that you can never really tell where God might take you. For Mary it seems a lot simpler. She decides to sit by Jesus instead of doing the usual work of serving. Mary having met Jesus responds by wanting to listen to what he says. Clearly Luke wants to emphasize that Mary has chosen the better part. But I don’t think we should try to draw broad conclusions about the relative value of physically active work versus reflective, contemplative processes. The immediate point to the story is Mary’s decision to give her time to Jesus instead of doing what another person expected her to be doing.

Sometimes we are presented with an opportunity that demands attention. Sometimes a blessing, a gift, is bigger than what we, and perhaps others, have considered our obligation. Remember the Psalm response, “Guide me, Lord, along the everlasting way.” The way may not be what we expect. Personally, I think the challenge is to decide if what is presented will bring us closer in our relationship with God or not. Which for me is measured by whether I’m happier and more at peace with myself. For Mary, she probably returned to help her sister after Jesus left. But for the time Jesus was there, she did not hesitate to just sit and listen. To take advantage of the moment.

Let us also not forget that this behavior breaks the social norms of the time and would probably have been ridiculed by more than a sister. Women weren’t involved in education and, in fact, had no standing or rights to own anything except through a husband or son. Mary was taking a risk and Jesus is saying something about the equality of women. Women, and all people without power, deserve to hear God’s word, they have a right to sit at the table too and not just be servants, something very radical and probably upsetting at the time.

“Guide me, Lord, along the everlasting way.” It’s a very good prayer. Guide me Lord. God surely has the best perspective on which is the best path for us each day. However, I also was caught by the last two words, the “everlasting way.” It suggests there will always be something coming, something new, an unexpected path opening up. Karl Rahner, a renowned Jesuit theologian, claimed that even in heaven we would be on a journey, forever getting closer to God, never arriving at complete union with God but always, always on the way, closer and closer. For us it is the way to keep life interesting and exciting, perfectly guided on that everlasting way.

Wednesday, Twenty-sixth Week in Ordinary Time

~ Retired Bill ~ Leave a comment

Today’s Scripture Readings

Job 9:1-12, 14-16, Psalm 88:10-15, Luke 9:57-62

I believe the way to think about today’s readings is summed up in the phrase, “all in.” As far as I know it comes from playing poker when someone “goes all in” by betting all their chips on the cards they are holding. This is a situation with no going back. Either the person wins this bet or they are totally out of the game. They are betting everything on this one set of cards. I think that’s what today’s readings are telling us about being a Christian believer, we need to bet everything we have on this one belief.

Luke’s Gospel displays this attitude pretty clearly. In the three short anecdotes Jesus tells, it seems clear that people who follow him aren’t supposed to worry about where they sleep or be concerned with other big events in life so they won’t take their eyes off the path that lays ahead of them. However, there is more here than a simple exhortation to line up on the Lord’s team to the exclusion of all else in life. Both our Psalm and the first reading from Job raise some serious questions about what it might mean to be “all in.”

The Psalm is probably the clearest summary of the situation that I see presented here. The Psalmist is calling for help and the Lord isn’t answering. The Psalmist questions if the dead are the ones who get God’s favors? Is God working wonders for those in the grave? The reason is the Psalmist doesn’t see any response to his prayers. Something even more radical is going on for Job. Job has experienced the total loss of this family, including children, land and possessions. In today’s verses he can’t imagine that God in all God’s majesty would ever listen to him. God is doing all the big things in the universe. God certainly couldn’t be interested in what is happening to him. The key here is neither Job nor the Psalmist questions that there is a God. They are questioning or despairing of their situation and what God is doing in it. That’s the question that is relevant for us.

On any given day, or for too many people in any given length of years, it could appear that God is ignoring us. I would argue that Psalmist and Job are acting in line with what Jesus calls for in the Gospel. They are both “all in” with their relationship with God. Neither knows what’s going on, neither is happy with a terrible situation and neither has given up on a relationship with God. Job may not think God would listen to him but it’s because God is so mighty and powerful that, “Who can say to him, ‘What are you doing?’” Job wonders even if, “I were right, I could not answer him.” Job simply doesn’t know what to do with this situation. The Psalmist is more confrontational in these verses, calling out “daily” to the Lord and asking, “Will you work wonders for the dead?” The Psalmist has come to the conclusion that God rejects her even if she doesn’t know why.

We aren’t given an answer to either Job or the Psalmist’s pleas. Jesus just makes it clear that his disciples need to be “all in.” There is stuff in life that seems to say there is no joy, no love, no mercy, no God. Will we modify our thinking and behavior to accommodate an unforgiving reality or are we “all in” like Job and the Psalmist continuing the relationship by questioning God, complaining to God, feeling the loss of God, arguing with God, accusing God. In doing so, we keep God as part of our world. Betting it all on this hand.

Thursday, Twenty-fifth Week in Ordinary Time

~ Retired Bill ~ Leave a comment

Today’s Scripture Readings

Eccl 1:2-11, Psalm 90:3-6, 12-14, 17, Luke 9:7-9

Ecclesiastes presents a challenge to us today. This book doesn’t sound like it belongs in a book about God. It is part of what we call the Wisdom literature of the Old Testament. There are five Wisdom books: Proverbs, Job, Ecclesiastes, Sirach and Wisdom. They are different from most Old Testament books because they don’t talk about Israel’s traditions, no promises from God, no exodus or covenant here. Instead what we hear are statements of experience in this world, practical advice. The authors believe in God but they are taking their cues from life’s experiences.

In Ecclesiastes this advice is sharply negative. Nothing changes, there seems to be little sense in trying to accomplish anything because you won’t be able to change anything and even if you do, no one will remember you for it. That isn’t what we usually hear in either the Old or New Testaments. Yet here it is in the Bible as the word of God.

The verses we read this morning are powerful and several have become common recognizable complaints in today’s world. Haven’t we heard, “There is ‘Nothing new under the sun.’” and “Vanity of vanities, all things are vanity.” They question why people should work because nothing ever changes. The world stays the same no matter what we do.

How do we square this with Christianity’s emphasis on doing what is right, helping others and sacrificing for the sake of change? We believe God wants us to be happy and lead productive, meaningful lives that make a difference in how the world operates. How does Ecclesiastes fit with that?

Ecclesiastes keeps us grounded in experience, the real world. For all the rapid change that is happening in today’s world, cell phones, social networking on the internet, great medical breakthroughs, better understanding of how human beings learn, the list could be endless, aren’t there just as many things that have never changed. We still have countries going to war, neighbors and family members who can’t get along, people who are poor and don’t have enough to eat, winters that are too cold, summers that are too hot, underdog teams that seem to overcome all obstacles to win.

So is this a world of change or a world that stays the same? Yes.

In fact, don’t we have both? Ecclesiastes is here to remind us to not get too goody two shoes about life and our ability to fix everything. In a society that is obsessed with success, accomplishments and working as many hours as it takes, isn’t it a good caution to hear the question, “What profit has a man from all the labor he toils under the sun?”

I think it can be too easy to accept any single line of thinking. The common wisdom is no guarantor of the best or even correct path. We have to be careful not to be swept up in the enthusiasm of the latest idea or solution. We have to be dreadfully honest with ourselves about what really happens when we continue old traditions with which we have become comfortable. Ecclesiastes suggests we have to be in touch with what is really happening in any given situation. We have to pay attention to where the rivers go, how the winds blow, and where the sun sets.

Why? Because that’s how we encounter God’s presence in this world. God shows God’s self to us in what is really going on, not what we’d like to see or hear. What’s really happening for us in our relationships and what’s really happening to people in the challenges that society faces is where we meet God. We can’t sugar coat the stuff of life if we expect to recognize and act on what God desires.

Interestingly, Herod had it right in our Gospel today. He knew he couldn’t listen to what was being said about Jesus. He knew this person wasn’t John the Baptist. He had to keep trying to see Jesus. We know eventually Herod didn’t like what he saw but he was smart enough to know he had to go see Jesus for himself.

We have to see and hear for ourselves. Really see and listen to what our life presents. It is the only way to be in touch with Jesus for ourselves.

Memorial: Saint Andrew Kim Taegon and Companions

~ Retired Bill ~ Leave a comment

Today’s Scripture Readings

Proverbs 21:1-6, 10-13, Psalm 119:1, 27, 30, 34, 35, 44, Luke 8:19-21

Proverbs and even the Psalm can sound like a lot of rules. That’s how I have often taken many of them. The actual response to the Psalm is all about following God’s commands. My gut can get tight when I read things that talk about God’s commandments. It feels like laying down lots of rules I should be following. It makes me resistant, what is called hardhearted in Biblical terms.

However, on closer reading this isn’t so much about God dictating rules for us to follow as it is about our learning what God is trying to say to us. The Psalm response is actually asking for guidance about those commands: “Guide us, O Lord, in the way of your commands.” Notice too that there is a “way of” those commands. It’s not a list of hard and fast rules we’re talking about. Rather this is a pathway that needs to be understood: “Make me understand the way of your precepts.” The responses continue with efforts at deeper understanding: “I will meditate on your wondrous deeds.” In fact, I think the key to today’s readings is captured in another of the Psalm responses,

“Give me discernment, that I may observe your law
and keep it with all my heart.”

The two key elements expressed here are the need for discernment and heart.

Too often we can reduce the relationship between God and humanity to an all-powerful deity making rules for people to follow. It’s easy to consider the key to Christian living as the Ten Commandments or even the more demanding Beatitudes. So that way of thinking makes it easy to miss the other signals in scripture readings. Signals like God is actually seeking a close personal relationship, one based on love and care. Although today’s Gospel might sound dismissive at first it helps point to the “heart” of the matter. When told his mother and brother are asking to see him, Jesus says, “My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and act on it.” This is the evangelist trying to tell us something about Christian faith: hearing the word of God and living by it is entering into a family, the family of God.

Dealing with family members is always a matter of heart. We love these people even when they drive us crazy. Whatever a family member does, whatever family member asks is always filtered through the heart, the love we feel for them. That’s the lens we need to use in dealing with what goes on with God. What is our heart telling us? That kind of interpretation or listening is what we mean by discernment. Discernment is more than weighing evidence for or against some decision. Discerning asks our heart, our feelings to enter into the process. What’s going on for us? What is my heart telling me in this situation? That’s the way we need to listen to God. Whether it’s reading scripture passages or facing situations in life, the question is, what is God saying to me in this, right now?

How people answered what they understood God was doing with them produced the Proverbs and Psalms and much more in the Bible. It’s what people heard in their effort to listen to God. Over the centuries other believers recognized the truth for themselves in those words and preserved them. Today, we need to discern what God is saying to us and live by it. If we can learn to listen to God’s word wherever we find it then we too will be part of this family and able to honestly say, “Blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it.” Then life won’t feel like rules anymore.