St. Mark the Evangelist Catholic Church :. Homilies

1 Sm 16:1-13 + Ps 23:1-6 + Eph 5:8-14 + Jn 9:1-41

Such a familiar and wonderful piece of John’s Gospel! You can turn it over and around and move with all the details always wondering and discovering more. For instance, why did she come at the sixth hour? By their counting that would have been noon. What John is suggesting is that it was an odd time to come for water. What matters is that she is not coming in the cool early morning when every other woman of the town would have been there. In my way of wondering, I start trying to imagine why. Did she spill what she had drawn in the morning? Or was she just too tired or lazy to get there in the cool of the morning? Did she have some unexpected need and simply not have enough? Or was she perhaps avoiding the other women of the town for some reason we might only imagine. Whatever it was, she needed water, and at that well she met someone who also needed water. Two of the most opposite people who could not have been more different discover they have the same need. All of a sudden in that discovery, these two opposites, these two who were set up by history, prejudice, custom, and tradition began to  talk to each other; and all that had divided them began to fade away because of something they shared in common. The tension between Jesus and this woman crosses the boundaries of gender, nationality, race, and religion. In the course of their conversation, all four barriers are crossed and community is created. It is amazing what can happen when people talk and listen to one another. It is amazing what boundaries can be crossed and what differences can displove. Their conversation addresses and transcends each of the barriers that seperate Jesus and the woman. While Jesus develops the symbol of living water, she grows in her perception of who it is that sits in front of her. I wonder why we can’t do that now in this time. I wonder why Arabs and Jews, Christians and Moslems, East and West, the Left and the Right, Blue and Red cannot discover that they thirst for, long for, hope for the same thing. I wonder about that today; and so I pray that I might begin to look for what unites me to those who seem so different. Then there is that water jar that she leaves behind. I wonder about that too. They couldn’t have been inexpensive, and I doubt that she had two of them. For any woman in that place at that time, the water jar was as important as any tool for living, yet she leaves it there. Is she just a scatter brain that can’t keep track of her stuff? Will it be there when she comes back? It is such a suggestive detail that John must have wanted us to remember that water jar and wonder about it. Maybe she just isn’t going to need it anymore. Suddenly the one who is thirsty is giving water while the one with the bucket seems to thirst; or perhaps now in a desire to quench the thirst of this one she now calls a “prophet” she runs back into town. Little by little throughout the conversation what happens is revealed as she first refers to him as a “Jew” then as “Sir” then on to “Prophet” then “Messiah” and finally with the crowd to “Savior of the World”. Then the disciples show up with their provisions. Then the whole town shows up with their faith; and we discover what it is He really hungers for. The bread and the water are smbolic. He never does drink nor does he care to eat the bread they brought from town. That water and that bread are symbolic for his desire to do the Will of the Father and bring together all of God’s children. When the story is placed within the context of Johns’ Gospel, there is even more to wonder about because the verses just before these tell the story of Nicodemus who now stands in contrast to this Samaratin woman. He was a Jew. She was a Samaratin. He was a respected leader. She was a village peasant with five husbands in her past. Nicodemus came at night. She comes at noon. Yet the two of them have something in common. They both believe because of the insights Jesus has into their lives. The story that began with one woman ends up with the whole village. It began with total strangers, opposites of the most extreem sort, and it moves through all the barriers we use in this life to keep apart and destroy our unity and recongnize what we have in common; and it ends with the confession that “Jesus is the Savior of the World.” This is really where the story ends with a confession of faith based not on signs and wonders as so many demanded again and again, but rather upon the Word of Jesus the Christ. Suddenly, she is no longer important. They dismiss her saying: “We no longer believe because of your word.” And with that, this woman who has no name is no longer needed and simply disappears like John the Baptist and like that useless water jar. Witnesses to Jesus work themselves out of a job for they know from the beginning that it is the Christ that matters, not them. The story is a lesson from John to the Church about its role and its mission: bring people to Christ and get out of the way. One sows and another reaps. The one who sows has by the time of the harvest already gone, disappeared into Joy. These holy days of Lent could lead us to the well where we find a Christ who thirsts for us just as much as we thirst for Him. At that well, in the conversation of our prayer, it might just happen once and for all that we leave the water jars of our lives behind since what those jars are all about will never quench our thirst. And then having been moved deeper into our relationship with this Prophet, Messiah, and Savior, we might, by our Joy, bring a whole village to the well spring of living water and then disappear into Joy.

Gn 12:1-4 + Ps 33:4-22 + 2 Tm 1:8-10 + Mt 17:1-9

“If” - “If” - “If” over and over again that two-letter word haunts our nights and days.“If only you will eat the fruit of this tree your eyes will be open.”“If only you eat the fruit of this tree you will be like gods.”“If you are the Son of God command these stones to become bread.”“If you are the Son of God throw yourself down.”“If you are the Son of God, come down from that cross!”And there are more of these not in the Bible yet the same.“If you’re really a man, you’ll have another drink.”“If you really love me, you will show it by giving me what I want.”“If you are really as big as you think you are, you will do this or that.....”It’s always about proving something to one’s self or to another.It always seems to boil down to bad choices that spring from some twisted sense of who we are; some sense of privilege; some kind of thinking that somehow we deserve what we do not have because after all, if we just have a little more which we deserve after all, we’ll be perfect and all will be fine; and with that it all starts: the story of temptation and the story of sin. “I have a right to this or that” we think; “after all I have done and been through, why not?” “I have a right to to feel good and have what I want!”This is what I call “devil talk”. It is clouding the truth just like the devil did in that story from Genesis. There was just a little bit of truth in what the serpent said, and the women knew it. In fact, she corrected the serpent in their conversation, but by that time, the seed of doubt had been planted opening the way to rationalization. With that her fundamental orientation toward God which was her perfection began to erode. Doubt set it, but it was not some doubt of faith, it was doubt in herself, it was doubt about herself and doubt about who she was in creation. And so she had to prove something that didn’t need to be proven and the “ifs” begin. “If you eat.......If you are really...... If you just...... then everything will be fine. It works the other way too. I always think the other side of this sin; of these “ifs” is what the man in Genesis experienced. Can’t you just hear him a little later in the day, outside after they have been chased from the garden hiding their nakedness and hiding from God? “If I had only said “no.” “If I had only said: “What are you thinking, put that apple down right now.” “If I had only said: “What are doing talking that serpent when you can talk and walk with God?” Think of the words of the prayer we have said so often: “In what I have done, and in what I have failed to do”. There is, in the end, only one temptation, and probably all I need to do is name it and then just sit down and keep quiet. Whether it is a serpent in the garden or satan in the desert, it is the same. In the garden, the serpent twists the truth just enough to make to make the wrong choice appear good and beneficial; but it’s still the wrong choice. In the desert, that one called “Satan” uses the same tactic:Everything the devil says to Jesus is the truth, he is the Son of God, he is entitled to be well fed, and protected, recused from danger, and worshiped. It’s all true. The devil isn’t lying at all, but the realization of that truth does not to come about satan’s way. Jesus did not and teaches us no to go after the gifts God has but to go after God. The gifts are to lead us to God, not to take God’s place. So rather than turn stones into bread for himself, Jesus used bread to feed the hungry. The problem in Genesis with the man and the woman and all temptation is that instead of seeking the divine giver, men and women seek the gifts. There is a better choice made by Jesus for us all. Seek the giver not the gifts. If we only seek the gifts, that’s all we’ll ever have for all eternity. If it’s money we seek, that’s all we’ll have when there is nothing left to buy or to own. If we only seek fame and power, that’s all we’ll ever have when no one else is around to look at us, listen to us, or admire us. But if we seek the giver, when it’s all over, we will have all that we will ever need for ever and ever.

A few years ago there was a huge grass and brush fire to the south of us in the Arbuckle hills. That familiar hill country between here and the Red River was completely engulfed in a fire storm that closed the highway to Dallas for hours. The day after it was under control, I drove to Dallas for a meeting, and I have not forgotten what it smelled like and looked like as I drove through those hills. It was devastation. The cedar trees were like dark shadows. The earth was black. The scrub oak was nothing but black skeletons. It had all the look of death like a moonscape. A few month later, in the spring, I made the trip again, and as I approached those hills, there was the most beautiful shade of green covering everything. Rains had washed the ash from those rocks, and new grass was sprouting everywhere. While the blackened dead trees and shrubs still stood, there was no mistaking what was happening all around. To drive through there now, only those of us who remember that fire storm would ever suspect the mess that was left a few years ago. I think of that today because it is what we are all about: ashes. Yet the ashes we use are not going to be a sign of destruction and death for us. We are people of faith who know that these ashes are like the ashes on a southern Oklahoma hillside. They are passing, and come spring, come Easter, new life will spring from this death, and no matter how much we might look like all is destroyed, it is never so with our God. The fact of the matter is, as we know very well with our grasses in Oklahoma, when you burn off the dead tops, the living green comes all the faster able to grow through the ashes easier than through the dead thatch that lays on top. After fire, the landscape is not the same. but life has conquered death. That is the promise of Lent. The life of Jesus can conquer our sinfulness, our apathy, our resistance. If we let the ashes of our sins become the fertilizer of new growth, we, too, will rise again from ashes. An wise old writer from the 900s named Symeon wrote long ago that“everything that is hurt, everything that seemed to us dark, harsh, shameful, maimed, ugly, irreparably damaged, is in [Christ] transformed.” With Christ on Easter morning we can be “whole and lovely and radiant...as he awakens in us as the Beloved in every last part of our body.” We can rise again from ashes. The Sunday readings of this Lenten season will explore with us the ways we rise from the ashes. Like the disciples on the mount of Transfiguration, like the woman at the well, like the man born blind, and like Lazarus, Jesus wants us to be transformed. Living water, light, eternal life are available to us during this season. The day of Salvation is at hand. John’s Gospel today is the Gospel of encounter, the Gospel of conversation. We shall hear again this season of a Jesus willing to talk with people at watering holes, to those blinded and begging by the side of the road, even those crying in front of tombs. The power of today’s Gospel is in the very clear direction that Jesus gives us for life and Lent. Pray, fast, give alms. Talk with God, give God room in your body, share with those in need. We can rise from ashes. As I said two weeks ago, “Just a little more is killing us” in this life. Perhaps “just a little less” will give us live. We can rise from ashes.

Deuteronomy 11:18,26-28,32 + Psalm 31 + Romans 3:21-25,28 + Matthew 7: 21-27 Now comes the conclusion of the great Sermon on the Mount, and just in time for Lent to begin on Wednesday. Both Matthew who gives us a two chapter “Sermon on the Mount” and Luke who gives us a “Sermon on the Plain” conclude the sermons with a parable about wise and foolish builders. Once more as the first reading makes clear, our lives and our futre depend upon the choices we make today. The choice here however is not about home building. People who have studied the symbols that recur in our dreams have identified the hosue as one of the most primal symbols of them all. There is a strong consensus that when we dream of a house we are symbolozing ourselves, and the condidtion of the house reflects how we are doing at the present moment in the project of our lives. If the house in our deams is chaotic or in disrepair, we are probably living through a rough time. If in a dream the hosue is secure and famialiar and easy to get around in, things are probably going well. With this very interesting symbol, Jesus speaks not about house-building but of life building: of a life lived wisely or a life lived foolishly. His focus for us, his disciples is hearing the Word which is nothing less than learning the will of God. Being a disciple is not a matter of drifting along in a direction set long ago, but rather it is a matter of deliberate and conscious choice to hear and act on the word. Hearing and Doing: this is what is requred to put your life in order. Hearing and Doing is what it takes to be able to withstand the wind, the storms of life, the floods of disasters that come upon us all. When we hear and do the word of God, nothing can take us down. Yet, knowing what it means to do the Will of God is not always so clear and so easy. How do we ever really know what is God’s will? There are four times in Matthew’s Gospel when Jesus speaks of the will of his “Father.” 1)   The first is when he teaches his disciples to pray: “thy will be done, on earth as in heaven.” The phrase is in the passive voice. The prayer asks God to accomplish the divine will on earth as in heaven without giving any specifics about how we participate in that taks. 2)   The second is when the mother of Jesus and his siblings search for him and Jesus assures his disciples that “whoever does the will of my heavenly Father is my brother, and sister, and mother.” Here Jesus assures his disciples that doing God’s will, not a blood relationship, cements family bonds with Jesus. Again, what constitutes doing the will of God is not spelled out. 3)   A third time, Jesus concludes a parable on the lost sheep, saying, “In just the same way, is it not the will of your heavenly Father that one of these little ones be lost?” In Matthew’s context it is an instruction to church leaders to seek after any of the little ones who are lost. Here we get a better sense of what it means to do God’s will: prizing the most insignificant one to such a degree that a we would risk everything to seach for the one that is lost. Great joy is the consequence of doing this. 4)   The last example is more sobering. It is in Gethsemane, and three times Jesus prays: “My Father, if it is possible, let his cup pass form me: yet, not as I will, but as you will.” At the greatest moment of the Gospel, God’s will is manifest. It is not that God wills suffering and death; but rather passion and death is the consequence of having lived a life relentlessly pursuing a ministry centered on God’s desire for life and the good of all. Just as Jesus alienated the powerful by preaching God’s will for life for all, anyone following in his footsteps inevitably faces persecution, and even death. So what is doing God’s will? It is seeking the lost, caring for them, finding them, lifting them up, and bringing them home at any cost; and it is finding Joy in doing so. How do we know God’s Will?  If it has something to do with life and life to the fullest, it has something to do with God’s will. These are the choices: play it safe and lose, or do something and win the prize. There is no middle ground. The question we ask and must ponder is how can we participate in fulfilling the words of that prayer we say so easily, and sometimes so thoughtlessly: “they will be done.” Well, it means that we do the kinds of things Jesus did: and more --- yes, and more. Don’t miss that part of this Gospel where those who said: “Lord, Lord, and prophesied in the name of Jesus, cast out demons in his name and did other mighty deeds are called evildoers. The Pharasees did great things in God’s name, but they were empty tombs. The reason for doing great things must come from within - within the Word of God. Look at this way. There are two ways. One is sand and one is rock. If you want to succeed in life there are certain pillars upon which to build. Look after yourself, If you don’t, nobody else will. Follow every path that advances your self interest. Never ask if something is right, only if it benefits you. Be ambitious. This means that on occasions you will have to throw your weight around, which means people may get hurt. But don’t let that rob you of any sleep. People get hurt all the time. Get to know the people who matter, forget about the people who don’t. Do not hesitate to look religious if you have to. Keep up the facde of outer observance if it enhances your respectability. But do not let religion rob you of one single comfort or pleasure. Never let it interfere with your standard of living. Perhaps there is a better way. Make a choice. Remember, you are a human being and a child of God. The most important thing about you is your capacity for goodness. If you raise your status, make sure you raise yourself too. What sense is there in advancing your career withour advancing your character. What does it mean to be in the limelite if your soul is in the dark? What if your bank account is bursting and your heart is breaking? Take care of your conscience. Listen to it. It may be God talking, and without a conscience how can you call yourself a human being? Do not be afriad of sacrifice. Without sacrifice and struggle you never grow up and discover who you are. Be faithful to your promises. Living loosely is to discover one day sooner or later, that you haven’t anchored your boat to anything solid. Fidelity is beautiful. It is a precious stone, a true gem. Do not be ashamed of your belief and values. Without beliefs and convictions, you are no better than ship without rudder or port of destination. Make a choice here. Do the will of God. It is not enough to just listen. We have to act and live from the word that is deep in our hearts and minds.

Isaiah 49: 14-15 + Psalm 62 + 1 Corinthians 4: 1-5 + Matthew 6: 24-34 The “Sermon on the Mount” continues today, and it is still about choices.   In an age when there is every reason to worry and be anxious, this part of Matthew’s Gospel is very tricky to understand and take seriously. The world is changing before our very eyes with daily news of another uprising that brings down oppressive dictators. Where it stops and what it means for the countries that have supported those regeimes is a question historians will answer, but there is every reason for us to worry. Our precious oil supply may no longer be cheap and safe. We talk of arming students in high schools and universities. We fear for the safety of our children with locked doors and background checks for employees while statistics show that the greatest danger is from within the family itself: and so we worry. Body scans stirr up controversy at airports and on facebook as celebrities are made for refusing a pat-down. All because we worry. Jobs are lost without warning, savings collapse from scams and greedy investment policies, and every day there is some new reason to worry.   The advise of Jesus in Matthew’s Gospel not to worry seems naive and insensitive. So when we hear those words, we roll our eyes, and with ease dismiss the idea as some kind of idealistic wish for some other time, other people, or another place. When that happens: when we fail look deep into this text, fail to make the choice to listen, learn, study, and ponder what it means, God’s Word has no power to save or transform us and this world.   The worry that Jesus warns against is the consequence of choices made, and therein lies the key that leads us deeper into his counsel. “Seek first the Kingdom of God” he says to those who listen. My opinion is that we have failed to imagine what that means, and so we have not made choices in that direction. We have decided that the “Kingdom of God” is yet to come, a long time off or someplace else; and so we live as though today has no connection to tomorrow and we are surprised and sometimes alarmed when tomorrow becomes today and the consequence of what we did yesterday messes up today. The result?  Worry. There is an even more serious consequence to this: the Kingdom of God gets further away.   The Kingdom of God as it appears in this Gospel does not refer to life after death but to living in response to God’s reign here and now. Think of this!  What is the point of the Incarnation? What is the point of the birth of Christ in this world if the Kingdom of God were for another time and place after we’re dead? There is something in God’s plan for this world and this life and for this time.   The Sermon on the Mount is addressed to the whole people of God, not to just individuals. Do you remember a few weeks back when we started this chapter and I made the point that the “YOU” addressed by Christ is plural, all embracing and all inclusive. It is not an individiul or personal matter. Being in here, being part of this Eucharistic Community means this is addressed to you-all. We are a community that seeks first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness which means that the needs and wants of all others become our concern. There is no looking away or turning away.   Notice that this section begins with the words: “You cannot serve both God and mammon.” The poor are not caught in that dilemma of trying to serve both God and mammon. It is those who are well off who are tempted to move beyond a balanced sufficiency to greater affluence. It is to those of us in that comfortable situation that these words of Jesus are most clearly directed. To us Jesus says: “Get your priorities straight.” For those who have the means it is one thing to eat a healthy diet, get enough exercise, and dress appropriately. It is quite another thing to be obease, lazy, worried about having the “right look” latest fashion, finest shoes, and belong to the best gym in town where you go more to be seen than to be fit. Don’t worry is the instruction to those who are worried about fitting in, looking good, and being liked by the right person who can get you more of what you want.   I think of something my father said to me when I was in High School where I thought I had to have the finest of everything. We lived a rather simple life. My father frugal but generous. One day on the way to school I was beginning to whine about something I wanted that some of my more wealthy friends had. He said to me: “You have something they will never have.” “What?” I said ready to pout. He said: “You have enough. They will never have that.” And from that moment on I began to recognize that when I saw it.   There is a theory proposed in a novel by Robinson Davies which suggests that Jesus was really a wealthy oriental who had “made his bundle” and then went into religion. The idea was that once the basic needs are taken care of, you can lift your thoughts higher. Basic physical needs dominate everyone. But if you get them out of the way, you can put your time and energy into more noble projects.   Matthew’s Jesus suggets that even though we have made our bundle we still don’t think we have enough. Even though we have food and a roof over us we still work and long for treasure that rusts and must be insured and protected by security systems. The sad fact is that there is never enough even when it promises ultimate security with “just a little more.”   My friends, it’s that “little more” that is killing us. It is to those of us looking for and working for just a little more that Jesus speaks today. There is no suggestion here that we should not work for food and the needs of a good and secure life; but there is a suggestion that we see all of this as a gift from God not something we deserve or have earned. This kind of gift consciousness leads one to be a Steward of the gifts, and asks the question: “How will these gifts turn this life into the Kingdom of God?”

Lv 19:1-18 + Ps 103:1-13 + 1 Cor 3:16-23 + Mt 5:38-48

Sirach 15: 15-20 + Psalm 119 + 1 Corinthians 2: 6-10 + Matthew 5: 17-37 For some this might well be the most difficult passage in all of Matthew’s Gospel.The difficulty probably lies in the fact that this is about choices more than the subject matter. Choices for people of wisdom, integrity, and maturity are simply not easy. The basis of our alienation from God is quite simply poor choices. We call that alienation and those poor choices: “Sin.” The alienation deepens with every abuse of freedom and every bad choice. I don’t know which was worse, Eve’s choice or Adam’s choice; but either way, their story is the story of wrong choices. Two hundred years before the birth of Christ, a wise man whose writings we heard today spoke of the importance of right choices and of using one’s free will for good rather than evil. Every free choice brings with it a pair of consequences: fire or water, death or life, evil or good. In the fifth chapter of Matthew’s Gospel six choices are raised by Jesus. We treat four of them this week, and two next week. Jesus uses these examples or these issues to propose to us that greatness, holiness, and worthiness for the kingdom comes from making choices, not from playing it safe. You see, the Scribes and Pharisees were always just playing it safe, hiding behind the law, doing just the minimum, avoiding choices by often choosing to do nothing. Jesus never played it safe, and neither can his disciples. What he teaches us by word and example is that the law is the starting point, not the end. Nothing happens, nothing is accomplished by keeping the law. There is no greatness in just keeping the rules. Greatness begins by going further and doing more. The presumption in this part of Matthew’s Sermon is that everyone listening is already keeping the law which was the bare minimum of what it meant to holy, righteous, and just. For those of us who are here, there is more to do. Just attending Mass every Sunday is just the beginning, not a great accomplishment. No pattying yourself on the back and thinking, “I made it.” No you didn’t, you just started by getting here. So in today’s Gospel there are three areas of choice.First there is the choice to be a person of peace or a person of violence.Violence begins with an angry heart, a heart that is loaded with hurt.Violence begins deep within us, and the evidence of this is everywhere in this angry world. It is a sin rooted deeply within us that sours life and if left to itself brings great darkness. There is no end to revenge. It begins a cycle of hatred and anger that breeds more violence.To be person of peace means being a person of forgiveness. It is the one dependable antidote to anger and violence. Without forgiveness, anger builds and festers like a sore that eventually bursts and nine times out of ten, someone innocent suffers and pays the price. So, we have the choice to make peace or not, and the proposal is presented in typical scriptural exaggeration: leave everything and make peace before you bring your gift to the altar. The choice we are offered is to be part of a community of peace. Then there is the choice to live in a right and respectful relationship with others that is pure. It’s about lust, says Jesus. It means choosing to respsect and honor every other person with a purity of intention that never turns them into an object to be used for pleasure or sought after for any reason other than their own good. This is a choice, and when the choice is made, poronography is out of business. It is a matter of choosing to honor one’s self and respect an other, never to use another for any gain or pleasure. There is also the choice for fidelity, of honoring one’s commitments. At the time Jesus spoke of this matter, adultry was something only a man could commit against another man. It was a matter of violating the property rights of another man: the woman was the property. What Jesus is doing here is defending the woman and establishing the fact that she has rights and is not just a piece of property. Something bigger is going on here than defending property rights. Something new is being proposed suggesting that marriage was a part of God’s plan as a sign of God’s fidelity to the chosen people. The marriage relationship was to be a place of safety and honor, not danger and dishonesty. What Jesus insists upon here is a reconciled relationship whenever that is possible so that marriages blessed and strengthened by mutual forgiveness become the story of our relationship with God blessed and strengthened by forgiveness. Finally there is the matter of oaths. If fidelity is a mark of those living in the Kingdom of God, then so is honesty. They go together. It is truthfulness that strengthens fidelity and commitment. When truthfulness and fidelity are present, there is no need of an oath. An oath would add nothing. Who would require an oath from someone who is faithful and honest? It makes no sense and adds nothing. In fact, the requiring of an oath raises some suspicion that there is a history of infidelity and lies. What we have here is simply the root values that guide a life in Jesus Christ. To be a person who is forgiving, respectful, faithful, and truthful is to be well on the way to greatness, but we must choose to be forgiving, respectful, faithful and truthful. Those of us who choose to respond to the challenge of Jesus will not be leaning on the law or claiming that we’ve kept the rules. We will rather begin to frame our lives with new questions. Rather than asking: “What do we have to do?” or “What is the rule?” We will ask: “What more can I do?” and “What more can I become.” “How far will love lead us.”

Isaiah 58: 7-10 + Psalm 112 + 1 Corinthians 2: 1-5 + Matthew 5: 13-16   In this age that glorifies the individual and always suggests and tempts us to think that everything is always about me, we are set up to miss something very important in these verses. The English language translation makes it all the more difficult because we have no distinction between singular and plural second person pronouns. In the original language there is no singular pronoun here. The word, “You” is used in the plural and it is used very emphatically.   Jesus is talking to his disciples as a group, not to any individual. He speaks to us today as a church aware of the fact that alone we can nothing that really matters, nothing that will endure. Together however, we can fulfill his mission, and so the commission of Jesus in these verses is a vision of what we must become and what we must do together. A single grain of salt is not going to do anything. It just as well be trampled under foot.   This gospel is first of all a challenge to our contemporary individualism. Salt is only good when it gets mixed up with other things. As long as we continue to think that religion is a private matter, that faith is just about me and Jesus, that the Gospel and the mission of the church is to be concerned only with internal pious matters and never address or question matters of society and social issues, we are never going to get the point, and never be a light in this world.   We are salt, says Jesus. Not for ourselves, but for the earth! We are light, not for a closed fellowship, but for the whole world! These verses anticipate the final commission that closes Matthew’s Gospel when he sends them into the whole world to make disciples of all nations. To do this, we must work together, we must be church.   The message gets even harder to grasp and internalize when an old English saying gets thrown into the mix. You’ve heard the description of “good-old-boys” described as being “salt of the earth” type people. This kind of thinking with this image waters it down so badly that there is hardly any hope of understanding what Jesus is proposing. So, when I do get around to writing that “Gospel of Norman” I talk about now and then, I’m going to adjust or correct the image, and it’s going to read: “You are the red-hot-chillie peppers of this world.”   In other words, this church and everyone in it ought to be spicing up life in this world. We are not sent to put people to sleep, bore them to death, alienate them, or condemn them. We are sent to spice up their lives, give them some joy, a reason to live, to laugh, to smile. This is why Jesus and his disciples so often got criticized for eating and drinking, for parties and celebrations. Remember those verses where Jesus responded to his critics complaining over his joyful life by saying who fasts while the bride-groom is present? Any church that adapts itself so completely to the secular world that it fails to be different, unique, and have something offer over and beyond making people feel good has lost its flavor.   It is the same with the image of Light. Ancient Israel assumed that God was not only the source of light for the world, but God was that light itself. As a church we cannot think for a minute that we are the light as one silly popular hymn suggests. It would be better to imagine that we are the window through which the light shines, for there is truly only one light.   What is set before us today in this text of Matthew’s Gospel is a formative description of what we must become and what we are called to be by Christ. These verses today are part of that Great Sermon on the Mount we began last week. There were Beatitudes followed by a sudden shift from the third person: “Blessed are they...” to the second person Blessed are You” The verse immediately before today’s verses said: “Blessed are YOU when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of evil against you falsely.   Discipleship is a relationship not just with Jesus, but with all the other disciples. In these early verses of Matthew’s Gospel the image and the mission of church is being formed. This is not an individual, private thing. It is a corporate, communal experience we become together, a relationship that shapes and forms us not the other way around. For this conversion of heart and life to be accomplished we must be willing to die to self and rise to new life in Christ.   Let us pray today that because we have been together here with Christ a little spice for life will come into this world and into those around us this week; and may the Light of Christ shine through us where ever there is darkness.

Zephaniah 2:3; 3:12-13 + Psalm 146 + 1 Corinthians 1: 26-31 + Matthew 5: 1-12 I have a five year old great nephew who until very recently eat, slept, and played all day and all night in a Spiderman costume he first put on for Halloween two years ago. He has worn through the feet of the costume, and his grandmother has modified the legs and other parts as they have torn and he has grown. He has lept around the house, skidded through the kitchen, and jumed down the stairs making strange noices to impress and attract the attention of visitors and his great-uncle. There have been interludes of Batman and Superman but without a doubt, Spiderman is the one to which he returns. I thought of this recently when I was reading a short article about superhero figures. The article proposed that the proud superhero, all of them from Superman, Spider Man, Batman and Wonder Woman were all versons of the same mythological proposal that an alter-ego is lurking in us all. Superman is there inside the mild-mannered Clark Kent, Batman is there in the effete Bruce Wayne, Wonder Woman is hiding in the prim secretery Diana Prince, and Spider Man is there inside the insecure Peter Parker. It’s a formula that has known great success, made a lot of money, and ignited the imagination of countless children, my Jonah included.  The article suggests that this success is due to the fact that it appeals to a secret belief that deep down beneath our own mild public persona lurks a secret superhero. I believe that Wisdom says otherwise, and Wisdom begins by accepting the fact that there is no superhero, and we are all helpless and hopeless without God. Beatitude is an adjective. It is a description of someone who acts like God or who acts in a Godly way or acts as God would have us act. Beatitude calls us to be in solidarity with those who live close to God. No one is closer to God than the poor, the meek, the mourning for you see, they have nothing between them and God. Having nothing to idolize, no gold to turn into a golden calf, and no one to put before God, they are the Blessed Ones. In contradiction of the pagan culture in which we live, some translations use the word “happy” to describe beatitude. Our homes are bombarded with suggestions that happiness is having the right car, a vacation, or the latest technical toy to entertain and dull our consciences. I am fascinated with the policy proposal these days that insists that our economic health depends upon all of us spending again desite the fact that jobs have gone out of the country and wages in real dollars have dwindled since the 60s. At the time of Jesus, wealth flowed to Rome. In our times, two thirds of the wealth produced in this country has gone to the wealthiest five percent of society. Their constant whining that government is taking our money sounds suspicious to me since there is every reason to suspect that they own the government.   God Blesses all of us, not the rich and powerful. So Matthew’s Gospel insists that Beatitudes belong to people who know better, and who have not let anything or anyone get between them and God. Beautitudes are something that happens to us and something we become when we realize the fact and the truth that we are helpless and we are hopless without God. Beautitudes happen when we quit trying to buy, acquire, or earn happiness and simply discover that we are Blessed just as we are. There are not many of us who understand this and believe it. There is evidence all around that suggests that we are independent and free to do our own thing; that we should claim our rights even when we can no longer tell the difference between what is a right and what is a want. Frank Sinatra had a favorite song that expressed it perfectly entitled:  “I did it my way.” This is not the theme song of the poor in spirit, but the anthem of self-sufficiency. It is a long a long way from Beatitude. There will be no place for us among the saints, no place for us in glory until we embrace our poverty and helplessness; until we become peacemakers and refuse to think in terms of winners and losers, until we can accept the pains and disappointments of life as easily as we accept the joys; until we become pure of heart, simple and pure, honest and sincere thirsting for what is right rather than for what is profitable. Finally Beatitude will be us when we are merciful and put away the scorecards we sometimes keep on our friends and loved ones refusing to repay and replay hurts and evil. These are the values of not of this world, but the world to come in which those who are Christ’s own already have begun to live.

Isaiah 8:23-9:3 + Psalm 27 + 1 Corinthians 1:10-13,17 + Matthew 4:12-23

Isaiah 49: 3, 5-6 + Psalm 40 + 1 Corinthians 1: 1-3 + John 1: 29-34 Last week we proclaimed Matthew’s account of the Baptism of Jesus.Today we proclaim John’s account. Notice the difference: no water in John’s version. In Matthew, Mark, and Luke, a voice is heard that identifies Jesus;the Spirit Speaks - a voice is heard. In John’s account, the Baptist identifies Jesus by two important titles: Lamb of God, and Son of God.Now when John sees Jesus, it is not a physical sighting.What John sees leads him to testimony about the mission of Christ.In other words, John doesn’t see Jesus of Nazareth, a person. John sees a mission, and begins to understand his mission.John sees the one comes to take away the sin of the world.He has a revelation which in the Gospel is signaled by the word: Behold!Pay attention to the detail that sin is singular, here, not plural.His mission is not to take away individual transgressions.It is to restore what sin has destroyed: our relationship, our communion with God. The mission of Jesus is to connect us to God. Through Him, With Him, In Him is the message of John to the church today.In the other Gospels the Spirit comes upon and dwells within Jesus.In this Gospel, the Spirit speaks to John. In other words, now John speaks in the Spirit, and with that Spirit he sees, understands, and believes what God has come to accomplish: restore our relationship with God.Now brothers and sisters, John may be the greatest prophet, and the greatest man born of woman; but he is not the only one who has received the Holy Spirit. This church is full of the Spirit filled people.It is full of people who can see more than the physical presence of those sitting beside them if they will just look.It is full of people who can see more than bread and wine on this altar;who can see more in this world than what is around them.Spirit filled people see the work of God in all things see the face of God in all faces see the glory of God in every human life born and unborn, sick, dying, ugly, angry and beautiful. Without that Spirit we are blind fools stumbling the the darkness.At the beginning of this season which will lead us to Lent in several weeks,we recall and retell the story of the Baptism of Jesus for one reason only:to more deeply understand and consistently live our own Baptismso that we may see as John saw more than just what the meets the eye.So that others might come through our testimony to find in Christthe way to holiness and perfection; the way to God.For having been baptized into Christ,we take on His mission and we become his saving work.Our alienation from God is destroyed. The Sin of the World is finished.We know how and where to find our God.We know what it is we called to become: children of God, children of the Light.The work of John the Baptist was to attract people to Christ and through Christ to lead people to God and a life without sin.If Byron had kept on reading the next verse of John’s Gospel it would have said this: “The next day John was standing with two of his disciples; and he looked at Jesus as he walked by and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God!” The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus.”The work of John the Baptist was cut short by the jealousy of Harod. The work of John the Baptist is not finished. In this church is John the Baptist, Tom the Baptist, Joan the Baptist, Mary the Baptist, Edward the Baptist, and every other name by which you were called on the day of your Baptism. We know from John the Baptist what we must do: lead others to Christ and therefore to God.We will do that by the life we lead in Joy, lived in the Spirit. We will do that by the integrity with which we live, the truth, and the inclusiveness which is a hall mark of God’s Kingdom.This season, before Lent begins, we have time to reestablish and reaffirm what was begun in us at our Baptism. We should get started, and remember.

Sirach 3: 2-7,12-14 + Psalm 128 + Colossians 3:12-21 + Matthew 2:13-15, 19-23There is little in our imagination or experience that would allow us to grasp what physical, emotional, and political risk was involved in what these verses from Matthew’s Gospel tell for these young parents. In fact, it is probably only about 200 miles from Bethlehem to border of Egypt. While it was outside the jurisdiction of Herod, even Egypt was under the Roman Empire. Which means that the journey might have been a comparitivly safe journey except that it began at night, and the territory between Bethlehem and Cairo crosses the desert: cold at night, barren, and empty. It makes me wonder how many of you might manage a trip to Dallas on foot with an infant.While sound Biblical Scholarship would be anxious for us not to take this story literally, Matthew has some serious business he is concerned to accomplish with this episode. All through Matthew’s Gospel as we shall proclaim it this coming year, you will hear time and again echoes of Old Testament Prophets which Matthew will use to establish the identity of Jesus. So Matthew moves the family to Egypt so that the Hosea’s prophecy can be fulfilled which says: “....and out of Egypt I called my Son.” So already in the second chapter of Matthew’s Gosple the identity of Jesus is revealed: “God’s Son.” Even more so we shall see and hear Matthew develop the character of Jesus as a new Moses who leads God’s people to the promised land, and how better to do so than to start with Egypt. Matthew wants us to see in Jesus the whole story of Israel. So just as Israel came out of Egypt, so does Jesus come out of Egypt, and here begins the story that becomes our own as the new Israel.It is a story that begins in a family as do all our stories. Everything we know and see, hear and understand about Jesus tells us about his family. The German theologian and pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer said that “One act of obedience is better than 100 sermons.” And how better to understand how Jesus became obedient to the Father’s Will than be remembering the man Joseph in whose house and under whose protection Jesus grew up. Joseph’s obedince as told by Matthew is a whole sermon in itseld. He obeys when told to Mary into his home. He obeys when told to get up in the night and take the child and Mary on a long journey. Again he obeys when he’s told that it is time to go back.The human qualities of this man called out of Egypt are things he learned at home. That Old Testament Wisdom we heard today at the beginning of this Liturgy is exactly the kind of wisdom that would have shaped the values of any Holy Family: honor, kindness, reverence, obedience, and prayer. These are not virtues that wear out my friends. They are the essential buidling blocks of any good and lasting relationship. Failure to inherit and integrate these virtues is the reason for failed, fractured, and ruined relationships. What made this young family holy was not their child, but their obedince to God’s Will, their willingness to honor their tradition and each other, their reverence, and their prayer which we see revealed in the careful practice of their faith. When you begin to look at this young family in this light, I hope you will realize that there is not just one “Holy Family”. This church is filled with Holy Families. It doesn’t mean that there is a father, a mother conceived without sin, and a divine child. Anyone in here have one of those? It means that a Holy Family is an environment of relationships where honor, kindness, reverenve, obedience, and prayer come before anything else. Or as Saint Paul just said to the Colossians: where every word and every deed is is done in the name of the Lord Jesus. Imagine how many injuries and offenses would be avoided if that were the norm in our homes.This family that Matthew puts before us as the model of holiness was guided by their openness to God and God’s will. In their willingness to endure personal sacrifice and inconveniene for the sake of their child, Mary and Joseph continue to teach every mother and father everywhere. Because they were attuned to God, they were will willing to undertake impractical and seemingly impossible measures not to see their son wearing the finest clothes or the latest style of shoes, or going to the most prestigious schools or driving the latest model car. They wanted one thing. They wanted to keep him aware of the guiding influence of God in his life.May it be so for you my dear friends at Saint Mark. May you truly become more and more holy families; not because you are perfect, but because you make real and reveal day after day the presence of God in your lives and in each other; and because you long for and desire above all things to fulflill and become obedient to the Will of God. When you do, it will make no difference what your childen look like on the outside, where they go to school, what they wear, drive, or how much money they make. They will be children of God, full of grace, and so will be your home. - Fr. Boyer