Tag: Gospel

You must be kidding

A homily for the Twenty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time, Aug. 30, 2020

Jer 20:7-9,  Rom 12:1-2, Mt. 16:21-27

Let’s start with a little confession: I don’t talk about Jesus all that much. Not really.

I’ll say “Praise God!” or “Praise Jesus!” sometimes when some little good thing happens in my life, but it’s almost a reflex and not a reflection.

No, I won’t start a conversation about any person of the Holy Trinity, though I will talk at length if I’m asked or otherwise engaged in a conversation.

That may seem strange, when you point out I’m an ordained clergy member, a preacher and teacher and online (and occasionally live) homilist. But it’s true.

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A cup of sugar

A homily for the Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Aug. 16, 2020

Is 56:1, 6-7, Rom 11:13-15, 29-32 , Mt 15:21-28

When we embrace The Way that Jesus blazed, we recognize that almost everything he preached was countercultural. Then and now.

Dining and bunking in with tax collectors and prostitutes, and forgiving their sins when they repented and promised to go and sin no more: Jesus was able to reconcile these dregs of society with the God of mercy, even if First Century Hebrew society left them at the margins.

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Tougher than the SAT

A homily for the Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Aug. 9, 2020

1 Kgs 19:9A, 11-13A, Rom 9: 1-5,  Mt 14:22-33

Like St. Peter’s, our faith is being tested right now.

Now, to be clear, I don’t believe the coronavirus is a punishment from God or an act of the devil. It’s not caused by demonic possession or the wrath of the Almighty for some transgression by our parents or grandparents. We’re long past those notions as a community of believers, or at least we should be.

Yes, COVID is testing our faith right now.

And it’s a hard test.

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Got it, got it, need it, need it

A homily for the Eighteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Aug. 2, 2020

Is 55:1-3, Rom 8:35, 37-39, Mt 14:13-21

On many Sundays, of our three Scripture passages, only the first reading and the Gospel are actually related. Often, if the first reading is from one of the prophets, our Gospel passage proclaims how Jesus is the fulfillment of that prophecy. In those cases, the prophet foreshadows the work and message of Jesus, not precisely in a fortune-telling way, but in a way the recognizes how the people of God B.C. were not quite following his rules and spiritual guidance. And the Gospel makes clear how Jesus came to complete the Law, not destroy it.

On those Sundays, the second reading — usually a letter from St. Paul — gently or firmly steers a group of believers back onto The Way of Christ. We humans do slip back into bad habits sometimes. The letters were written to Christian flocks in far-off places, and they were written to us. Hence their value.

Today, all three readings center around receiving and paying forward, and that blesses every one of us mightily.

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Turf wars

A homily for the Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, July 19, 2020

Wis 12:13, 16-19, Rom 8:26-27, Mt 13:24-43

Crabgrass. Goosegrass. Chickweed. Dandelions. Clover. Those tall spiky things with the leaves every two inches up the stem: Whatever they are.

For those of us with lawns, keeping weeds under control can be a never-ending struggle. Because, at best, we control weeds. We never defeat them. They’re stubborn and invasive and pervasive.

One weed becomes two becomes four becomes 16 becomes 256 becomes a math problem and that’s less fun than the weeds themselves. If only we can rid our lawns of that first one, we’ll be spared the outbreak. But how often does that happen?

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Speak truth to …

A homily for the Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, July 12, 2020

Is 55:10-11, Rom 8:18-23, Mt 13:1-23

Back in the days of “Children should be seen and not heard” and “Because I said so,” Mom always justified those neanderthal rules with so-called “biological math”: 

“You have two eyes and two ears but only one mouth. Which do you think are more important?”

And she, like all mothers, made a good point. If we don’t see and hear, if we don’t watch and listen, we don’t learn. If we don’t learn, we live in the dark.

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The mouths of babes

A homily for the Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, July 5, 2020

Zec 9:9-10, Rom 8:9, 11-13, Mt 11:25-30

There’s something to be said for bumper-sticker theology. Not a lot, mind you, but definitely something to be said, and it’s this:

Most of what Jesus preached does not need over-thinking.

Which means that much of what he preached — and what he expects us to incorporate into our lives every day — can fit on the back of a Chevy.

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Open-door policy

A homily for the Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, June 28, 2020

2 Kgs 4:8-11, 14-16a, Rom 6:3-4, 8-11, Mt 10:37-42

We know that Scripture, the Word of God as written down by (mostly) men inspired by the Holy Spirit, has gone through numerous translations. Countless translations, actually, from the original. With tweaks to keep certain images and references understandable if not totally relevant to the day in which they’re proclaimed or read.

And although we believe that not much has been lost in translation, and definitely none of the underlying interwoven truth, there can be no doubt that approximations have crept in when one highly nuanced language has 15 words while another squishes them all into one.

Which is why today’s Gospel is challenging to hear, let alone absorb. Because, in the version we heard, Jesus seems to be demanding an either-or rather than a both-and, and that’s not what we’ve come to expect from him.

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How ordinary is Ordinary?

A homily for the 12th Sunday in Ordinary Time, June 21, 2020

Jer 20:10-13, Rom 5:12-15, Mt 10:26-33

It’s officially summer. It’s Father’s Day. The Church has returned — for a long stretch — to Ordinary Time, a quieter time in the liturgical calendar. The green vestments are back indoors, just as green leaves are back outdoors. (The pollen too, but oh well.)

All’s right with the world. There’s joy in Heaven and on Earth.

Oh, wait.

These are not ordinary Ordinary times.

Continue reading How ordinary is Ordinary?