Attitude Adjustment - Homily 7th Sunday OTC

Readings

David and Abishai snuck into Saul’s camp walking past the best soldiers in Israel to find Saul. They found him sleeping and at Saul’s head was his spear thrust into the ground. They could have taken so much; but, all they did was take the spear and a jug of water.

That spear was the sign of Saul’s kingship. Water to anyone who lives in the desert is life. Symbolically David took Saul’s kingship and life.

Saul’s kingship had become about Saul; he had fallen asleep forgetting God.  

Yet, David stood on a hilltop and said, Even though God delivered Saul into my hands, I will not harm the anointed one of God. Saul can have these back.

Using David, God gave Saul an attitude adjustment.

Many of us had parents who threaten with an attitude adjustment when we misbehaved. As a child, it was all about me.

In college, a young lady said to me, “You must be a football player.”

I asked “How can you tell?” Surely, it was my muscles and physique.

But she answered, “You have that attitude. You walk like a football player.”

I just knew she was hinting for a date, so I asked her out. Her reply was curt, “I don’t go out with football players.” She told me in a roundabout way, I needed an attitude adjustment.

I didn’t recognize it. I left walking the way she described. My chest was puffed up, nose in the air, and proud because I was as a football player. It was all about me.

She was right. I needed an attitude adjustment.

Today, I’m a Deacon, a minister of the Lord. Sometime or somehow, I must have changed. But the devil knows your weaknesses and always presents temptation. Even though I strive to be a servant, it’s easy to be tempted when “it’s about me.”

I look to see how many have read my blog or how many views, likes, and shares the Church’s Facebook or Twitter account receives. I like it just a little too much when someone says “I enjoyed your homily Deacon.” Hearing good things about our church and ministries build the ego and “it’s all about me.”

I need an attitude adjustment.

All these things can be labeled Church or ministry or Christian or Catholic, but are they what Jesus instructed us to do. Jesus asked us to love. In his love you find nothing on “it’s all about me.”

Jesus can change the arrogance of self. He can change our attitude to live the greatest commandment: love the LORD our God with all that we are and to love our neighbor as ourselves.

Last Sunday, the beatitudes introduced us to Jesus’ attitude adjustment. Today’s gospel is its continuation and Jesus tells us “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.”

Then we hear this famous attitude adjustment that a Christian is to make: If a person strikes you on one cheek, offer the other one as well….

These are hard things for us to do. The problem is our attitude is formed by this world. Everything tends to be conditional, even love. We only want to love if we are loved in return.

Jesus knows this about us. Jesus came to change us.

If you love only those who love you or do good only to those who do good to you, should you get any special praise for doing that?…. Instead, love your enemies and do good to them expecting nothing back…

That is the opposite of the way we think. We profess a Christian faith but have problems loving those against us. We only want to love those who love us back.

We forget all are children of God; all are created by God. We are created by God to endure in this earthly image and carry in us a heavenly one.  

By the love Jesus teaches, we can recognize the image of God in one another. He himself is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. If we love God, we must love all created in the image of God.  We are to be merciful to others just as our Heavenly Father is merciful to us.

With this love comes the ability to recognize that blessed are the poor, the hungry, and those who weep. Love is the condition we need to recognize that blessed are those who are hated and insulted because they love as Jesus loved.  

St. Paul said in scripture, “Be of the same mind, the same love, and united in heart by putting on the attitude of Jesus Christ.”(Phil 2:1-5)

Christ’s love “it’s not about me.” Jesus did not say for us to love ourselves, our accomplishments, and our egos. Jesus said love one another.  

Love the poor, the stranger, the hungry, the thirsty, the naked, the sick, and those in prison. He even told us to love our enemies. Love others by wanting for them what we want for ourselves; to stop judging and condemning others and to be a forgiving, generous, and loving person.  

We have this when our attitude choice is to love the Lord our God with all our heart, all our soul, and our entire mind; and love our neighbor as ourselves.

But that’ lacking in the world where politics, celebrities, and even our neighbors live their lives with an “all about me” attitude. 

Modern day Christians profess a personal relationship with Jesus but for many this is an “all about me” relationship. They say they are his disciple but their noses are in the air and chests puffed out. They fallen asleep to their anointing.

That relationship with Christ is about how we love one another. In that, the entire world needs this attitude adjustment. It begins with you and me.

Be good, be holy and love one another. Amen.

Believer or Disciple - Reflection 6th Sunday OTC

(readings)

We can all say that we are believers. Not all can say they are disciples.

I have been considering this for some time, because, I see many believers in Church.  I see many who profess belief in Christ on the street.

I don’t see many disciples in the world. Because being a disciple is about living what you believe. You can be a sinner, the church is for sinners. You can be lost, the church is for the lost.

You cannot be a hypocrite. A hypocrite is one who professes they are a Christian but does not try to live a life as Jesus instructed us.

It is easy to become a hypocrite because people believe in many things.  People believe in God. People believe in Jesus Christ. People believe in the Devil. People believe in all the things that are of this world. People believe false prophets, false teachers, false doctrines, or they believe in nothing.

A person can believe in God but be a disciple of the evil one. A person can believe in Jesus Christ, but be a disciple of this world. A person can believe and be a disciple of nothing.

Being a disciple of Christ is much more than just believing.  Being his disciple is following the instruction and participating in all Jesus gave us; the beatitudes, the greatest commandment, the Eucharist, and the sacraments.

In the scripture immediately before today’s gospel Jesus went to the mountain and spent the whole night in prayer to God. When day came, he called his disciples to himself, and chose Twelve to be named apostles.

Then he went down from the mountain and gave the most important and influential sermon of all times, that is today’s Gospel.

The Sermon on the Mount was a teaching for all to hear, but it was instructions Jesus was specifically giving to his disciples. Jesus raised his eyes toward his disciples said: “Blessed are you who are poor; the hungry, and those who mourn; Blessed are you when people hate you, exclude and insult you, and denounce your name as evil on account of the Son of Man.”

Jesus instructed them further by warning ones that followed him that being a disciple is not about riches or power or celebrity.

“Woe to you who are rich for you have received your consolation. Woe to you who are filled now for you will be hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you will grieve and weep. Woe to you when all speak well of you for their ancestors treated the false prophets in this way.”

The prophet Jeremiah warned, “Cursed is the one who trusts in human beings, who seeks his strength in flesh, whose heart turns away from the LORD.”

And the Psalms tell us: Blessed the man who follows not the counsel of the wicked, nor walks in the way of sinners, nor sits in the company of the insolent, but delights in the law of the LORD.

Being a disciple of Jesus is more than just believing, it’s imitating Christ in the world; by living the beatitudes. It is living the greatest commandment to follow in Jesus’ footsteps. Being a disciple of Christ is to love God with all that you are and to love your neighbor. 

It is to love in a way that allows you die to the greed and avarice of this world and its false prophets and disciples so you can rise up to bring Christ to the world.

Being a disciple is more than just believing, it’s living the instruction Jesus gave. It is participating in the Eucharist and the sacraments.  It is to believe in the real presence, the real body and blood of Christ in the Eucharist.

Being a disciple is to participate and believe in the sacraments. They are the same sacraments given to the apostles and the Church by Jesus.  It is through them that we the Church of Jesus disciples continue to participate in his life.  

Being a disciple is following the instruction Jesus gave.

After Jesus rose from the tomb, the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had ordered them. When they saw him, they worshiped, but they doubted.  

Then Jesus approached and said to them, “All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.  And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.”

Disciples, Jesus is looking at us.

So be good, be holy and preach the gospel by the way you live and love one another. Amen.

Dismissed - Homily 5th Sunday OTC

(Readings)

Tuesday, I visited a manufacturing plant in Shreveport. The plant manager told that he is from NW Ohio; so, being curious, I asked how he got to Shreveport.

He said for 20 years he worked for a large company. His employer was opening plants in Russia and wanted him to get the plants started.  

He refused to go so the company dismissed him (fired). Six years ago, he wound up in Shreveport.

As he told this story, we walked by a thermometer that read 80 degrees. He stopped, took a picture, and texted his daughter in NW Ohio. There, it was 5 degrees. This time of year in Moscow, Russia, temperatures average 19 degrees. That’s cold.

He thanks God for Shreveport.

Combine his story with the readings and I am reminded me of something from Deacon Formation that after the Eucharist, dismissal is a most important part of mass.

“Mass” means the dismissal. 

• ·        Go in Peace.
• ·        Go and announce the Gospel of the Lord.
• ·        Go in peace, glorifying the Lord by your life.
• ·        Go forth, the Mass is ended.

I use an older version, Go in peace to love and serve the LORD.

These words are more than just saying “it’s time to go.” They are a call to mission. Take the Eucharistic in us, the Christ in us and live as an imitation of Christ in the world.

Do we or are we like Isaiah, Paul, and Peter and feel we are not worthy?

Isaiah -"Woe is me, I am doomed! I am a man of unclean lips, living among a people of unclean lips….

Paul -I am the least of the apostles, not fit to be called an apostle…..

Peter -Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.

Our words are similar before we receive Christ, repeating the words of the Roman centurion: “Lord I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof….”

This unworthiness is not about shame. It’s easy to mistake the two. Unbelievers do.

True believers are not ashamed of God, faith, or what we believe. Feelings of unworthiness come from a realization of our insignificance after we experience God.   

Isaiah, Paul, Peter and each of us compare who we are and what we are to the God experience. Coming to mass, drawing closer to God, and partaking in the body of Christ is experiencing God in a way that allows us to understand we are far less than God.

To experience God is peace, forgiveness, and joy. Nowhere is shame.

Prophets, apostles, and true believers wonder how we could ever be worthy to bring the experience of God to His creation. All the earth is filled with His glory. We realize this, are afraid and feel unworthy.

Jesus said, "Do not be afraid.” God’s grace allows us to know the limits of our humanity, St. Paul said, I am what I am.

In spite of our limits, God’s grace is not ineffective. God’s grace is upon wicked and sinful people like Isaiah, Paul, Peter, and us. God’s grace makes us worthy. 

The Lord asks "Whom shall I send? “ Friends, answer, "Here I am Lord, send me!"

Bring what you have; all Peter had was a boat and fishing net. What we bring may not be fancy but God’s grace is enough.

After, that meeting in Shreveport, several people went to lunch. The manager bowed his head and asked blessing, a simple powerful message.

So, at the end of mass when the Deacon or Priests says the words of dismissal:

• ·        Go in Peace.
• ·        Go and announce the Gospel of the Lord.
• ·        Go in peace, glorifying the Lord by your life.
• ·        Go forth, the Mass is ended. Or even
• ·        Go in peace to love and serve the LORD.

Remember each of us is sent out like the prophets, apostles, and all the great witnesses of God.

Dismissed, we are sent to do great things.

We answer, “Thanks be to God.”

Be good, be holy, and go and announce the Gospel of the Lord by the way you live your life and love one another. Amen.

Simple Directions - Reflection 1st Friday Adoration - February

(Readings)

We had a Deacons meeting with Fr. Peter Mangum, the Diocesan Administrator. He told us not to preach a theology we have trouble understanding or one too sophisticated people can’t understand.

Fr. Peter has never heard me preach. I begin with stories about work, family, and even underwear, pretty much the opposite of sophisticated.

This is why.

Jesus preached of everyday life. He spoke so people were able to understand and did not preach without parables; but, He explained everything to his disciples in private.

He still speaks to his disciples through the Holy Spirit. He explains everything to us in the private of our hearts. Some explanations are deep and sophisticated; some a little less complicated.

If it truly comes from the Holy Spirit, truth is in each explanation.

For people of truth (priests, deacons, and you my brothers and sisters) it is our responsibility to bring this message to the world.

Like when 3500 people walked for life and for truth in our home town of Monroe, Louisiana. A community of many faiths and ethnicities walked for life and justice.

There was no jeering, chastising, or protest; but, that is not the way everywhere.

We’ve witness over the past weeks that those who say they are people of faith can express flawed theology by their actions. A theology of a god that does not care about every life, every moment, and every choice we make.

That is not my God. That is not my Jesus. That is not theology of the one whose truth is told in the importance of a tiny seed; and, the truth of the importance of a tiny seed of life made in the image of God.

Friends, God gave simple directions. Jesus told us how important we are to God. It’s not a complicated theology. Amen.