Gaudete!

3^rd Sunday of Advent

Gaudate Sunday

Cycle A

I woke up this morning in the middle of a Hallmark Channel movie. I live in a small town away from the hustle and bustle of the city. A gentle snow was falling, the house was warm and quiet and decorated for Christmas. There was a tree and ornaments and stockings hung on the fireplace. There was hot coffee and warm blankets, a beautiful woman at my side (although she’s not a blonde) and a dog at my feet. It was like I was living in a snow globe.

That’s what we have come to expect from Christmastime. And that’s how I categorize it. The secular season I call Christmastime. The religious observation is Advent. And every once in a while the two seasons connect, but oftentimes not.

Advent is different from Christmastime. Both are all about anticipation, but what we are anticipating in each is very different. Both set expectations, but one will never fully satisfy. One is looking forward to a day, a single day, and the anticipation is mostly around what we are going to receive. Christmastime is about an experience, one that will soon end. Advent is looking forward to what that first Christmas day put into motion. The incarnation of the Lord paved the way for eternity. The first coming of the Lord set in motion the second coming.  The birth of Jesus was the beginning of something that will never end.

Christmastime as the world now celebrates it is empty. It is never really like we image it should be. My house will never be a beautiful as in a Hallmark movie. The problems in my life will never be neatly wrapped up and resolved in the same way they are in an hour and a half on TV. And we never seem to be satisfied. It’s like the anticipation of little children. They are not excited about the day as much as about what they will receive that day. Have you ever seen it? They are so excited with this present in their hands, but as soon as they open this one they are looking to the next, and the next, and the next. They tear into their presents to see what they are and then push them aside so they can get the next one. And two weeks later, many of the toys will be forgotten, meaningless, nothing special. It seems to be a metaphor for life in the US in general. Disposable joy.

And Christmastime ends abruptly once Christmas day is over. You see it driving down the street the day after Christmas, with all the Christmas trees lying on the side of the road or, here in Park City, piled up at various empty lots around town. We must set aside this holiday to prepare for the next. On to New Year’s Eve! Break out the Valentine’s candy!

For those who understand the season of Advent, Christmas day is not the end but the beginning. If we celebrated it correctly, we would wait to put up our decorations until Christmas Eve, then keep them up until January 12 for the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord. That is the true liturgical Christmas season. But we start preparing for Christmas sometime around Halloween – that’s when the stores start putting everything out – and very rarely do we see or hear any reference to Jesus and the incarnation. It’s all Santa Claus and Elf on a Shelf. You can now go the entire season and never hear a Christmas carol that mentions the Christ child.

But today is different. Today is Gaudete Sunday, the Sunday of rejoicing. We have been preparing our hearts and minds for the true meaning of Christmas, and now the end is in sight. We have been observing Advent, not Christmastime, and it’s time to stop and contemplate the wonderfulness of the gift we are about to receive. It is now time to rejoice because the finish line is in sight. Not presents and festivities but the greatest gift of all – eternal life with Jesus in heaven. We look forward to our salvation, when Jesus Christ returns in his glory and all creation is made new again.

The readings today speak of justice, of setting things right again. When sin entered the world the result was suffering, pain, and brokenness. When the Son of Man returns in his glory everything will be made whole again, as the creator has always intended it to be. It is good and necessary that we stop today and focus on the prize, because it is difficult to see the summit sometimes when we’re down in the weeds.

We speak of peace on earth, goodwill towards all, and we know deep down that that is what we truly crave. The peace of the Lord is different from the peace of the earth. We long for a time when there is no strife or war or suffering or broken relationships, because we feel the anxiety and pain that those things cause us. We seek relief from our suffering. The peace of Jesus Christ is deeper than that and is not dependent on any outside influences. The peace of the earth is the absence of something. The peace of Jesus Christ is the restoration of everything. It is the peace of Adam and Eve in the garden, who had their every need and desire provided, and had the contentment of children, walking hand in hand with their father in paradise.

In fact, Adam and Eve had no wants and desires, because they lacked nothing. They didn’t even know what a desire was, because they had never experienced want. That’s what heaven will be like. That’s what Jesus promised would be restored to all of creation. There will be no regrets of the past and no worries for the future. There will be no blindness nor deafness nor feebleness nor fear. Everything will just be as it intended to be. That is true peace.

Jesus began the work of restoration in his earthly ministry. It was not an accident that he was a healer. He was not just alleviating his children’s suffering as a loving father would, he was restoring them to their intended state. He was reconciling the world to himself. Just as infirmity entered the world through sin, the natural outcome of the messiah’s reconciliation would be the alleviation of suffering. John the Baptist understood the scriptures, and that is why Jesus answered him the way he did. Jesus wasn’t just offering his works as proof that he was the messiah, he was telling John that the prophecies of hope were true, and he was the fulfillment of them.

The peace of Jesus Christ can be present in your life even as you are experiencing earthly sufferings. It is a paradox that your sufferings can actually bring you that peace. Many of us know people who have that peace in the midst of suffering. I think it is because they have completely surrendered themselves to the Lord, as Jesus did. Jesus submitted to the will of his father and had no attachments to worldly things. He never thought about his own needs because he trusted that his father would provide everything he needed. That trust extended to the cross itself, and the resurrection was vindication of that trust. And Jesus was glorified because of it.

That is our future, if we are persistent in our anticipation. We focus on these things for these four weeks of Advent every year, but we are called by Jesus to live that anticipation every day. We have been given the great promise of hope, and we must live as people of hope. We start by holding that hope in our own hearts. If we do, that hope will naturally extend out from us to our families, our friends, our community. That hope will renew the face of the earth. That hope is cause for great rejoicing.

Gaudete!

Keep the Faith

29^th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Cycle C

But when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?

I wonder…was Jesus just musing, or was he exasperated? Was he frustrated that his disciples just didn’t get it? Was he feeling that he was wasting his time, that people just weren’t getting the message or were willing to make the necessary effort? I can imagine how he felt. I’ve raised teenagers.

This passage in Luke’s gospel falls at the end of one of Jesus’ discourses about the end of the world, when the Son of Man will come again in his glory. He says that many who think they will be saved will not be and many that the righteous think are unworthy will be saved. Narrow is the door, and many will not enter it.

It’s easy to think the same thing in our world today. We can look around at the state of our culture and the trends in the churches and ask if we are facing a dwindling of faith. It seems that every few weeks this poll or that comes out with more depressing news. The Pew Research Center released their annual survey of the religious affiliations in the US this past week and it showed that the number of American adults who identify as Christian continues to drop, from 65% to 60% in the past decade, and the Catholic population has fallen from 23% to 20%. Those “nones” continue to grow, which means that when people leave they are not jumping to another denomination or religion, they are just ceasing to believe in any religion at all. We see these statistics and it’s easy to get frustrated or discouraged.

And I bet that practically all those people who leave still believe in God and still believe they will go to heaven. Because all good people go to heaven, don’t they? And most people, if not all, are good, basically, aren’t they? Narrow is the door, and many will seek to enter it, but it will be closed to them.

The danger today is not the enemy without, it is the enemy within. And the enemy is not persecution as much as complacency.

When Jesus told the disciples how difficult it is to enter the Kingdom of Heaven, they threw up their hands in frustration and asked, “Then can anyone be saved?” Jesus gives us the key today. Be persistent in your prayer to the point of annoyance. Pray always and everywhere, pray constantly, make your entire life a prayer, never stop asking your Father for what you need, never stop praising him, never stop asking for forgiveness, never stop thanking him for his mercy.

And if you tire, get your friends to help you. Like Moses in the first reading, when you just can’t keep doing it, when the battle seems lost, when there is no hope, surround yourself with people who will hold up your hands for you. Stay faithful together around the common goal of your salvation, and help each other get to heaven. That’s what religion is all about. Religion is people helping each other be faithful. Every person is given faith to some degree or other; religion is only what we do with that faith. And faith cannot be experienced or lived outside of a community of believers. One person is not an army. You cannot be saved alone.


And, you know, things are not as bleak as they may seem, both in Jesus’ day and in ours. Yes, most of his friends abandoned him, but eleven didn’t. And look what they ended up doing. And yes, Catholics are only 20% of the population, but that’s still over 66 million people in the US alone. Did you know that the Catholic population of Africa has grown 7000% since 1975? For centuries Christian missionaries have been going to Africa to try to spread the gospel for their salvation. Now, and it seems all of a sudden, African missionaries are coming here and spreading their enthusiasm for the Lord and His church with us. 

And then there’s the amazing growth of the church in South Korea, Vietnam, and even China. In communist China, with an atheistic population and such a repressive government, the population of Christians continues to rise. In the most recent internal surveys, Christians make up only 2.3% of China’s population, which translates to over 31 million people. It’s a small percentage but it’s still 31 million people. The church continues to live out the mission given to it, by loving God and our neighbor. We lift up the poor, feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and spread the hope of the risen Jesus, both collectively as church and in our own daily lives.

Jesus left us with the great commission to go and make disciples of all the nations, and we have. Christians inhabit every nation on earth, and millions are being added to the church every year. The problem is the lack of faith in the West. The place where Christianity began and flourished for over two thousand years is where the faith is dwindling the fastest. We have abandoned the very foundation of our civilization, and what have we replaced it with? We have nowhere to look but to ourselves. We have placed our faith not in God but in ourselves, in the very people who have proven themselves to be the most unfaithful to one another.

When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith in the United States of America? More specifically, will he find his church here?

God calls each-and-every human being ever created to Him. He reaches into the heart of every man, woman and child and draws them to himself. He has placed a hunger for Him in each human soul that cannot be satisfied with anything else. We can try to drown that hunger with all the world has to offer, but it will not be enough. Jesus promised that he would not leave his church -us- orphan. He would send His Spirit to strengthen and guide us through his church. He promised that the gates of hell will not prevail against us. And they won’t.

The question is not God’s faithfulness to us, it is our faithfulness to him.

Jesus never forces anyone to follow him. He never imposes, he proposes. He calls each-and-every one of us, but it’s ultimately up to each-and-every one of us, individually, to answer that call. We are called to love our neighbor, but we cannot force him or her to love. You will be judged on your answer to the call. When it all comes down to it, it’s really just about you and your faithfulness. How you run the race. How you live your commission as a disciple, the commission given to you at your baptism.

When the son of man comes again will he find any faith…in me?

So, I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus,
who will judge the living and the dead,
and by his appearing and his kingly power:
proclaim the word;
be persistent whether it is convenient or inconvenient;
convince, reprimand, encourage through all patience and teaching.

Amen.

Hard Words

23^rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

Cycle C

Hate is such a strong word.

It seems that sometimes Jesus puts a lot of hard requirements on discipleship. At first glance they seem unreasonable or even impossible to do. Today he uses some really tough language, almost issuing an ultimatum, on what it takes to be his disciple.

“If anyone comes to me without hating his father and mother,
wife and children, brothers and sisters,
and even his own life,
he cannot be my disciple”

What was your reaction when you heard Jesus say this this morning? Two people this week asked me what the readings were that I would be preaching on, and when I told them, both of them practically shouted out, “I don’t like that! I don’t agree with that! That’s not what a loving God would say!”

I think it’s the word Hate that is the problem. What is hatred? It took me a while to even wrap my mind around it, because I honestly cannot think of a single person I truly have hated in my life. When we hate someone we get this visceral feeling in our gut. The very thought or sight of that person makes our emotions rise. We say our blood boils, and we either want to remove ourselves from that person or even go so far as to hurt them. It causes us pain to even think of them or be in their presence.

Is that really the way we are supposed to feel about our mother and father, our family, those people closest to us? And what about hating our very selves? What about that commandment about loving our neighbor as ourselves? How can we do that if we hate ourselves?

Is this even possible for us poor humans? If you’re like me, for years, every time I would read or hear this passage and others like it, I sort of just dismissed them. “Oh, he’s just using hyperbole to make his point.” I would not really give it much thought. Of course he doesn’t mean I have to hate my family. That would be against the fourth commandment. How can I honor my father and mother and hate them at the same time? And he really doesn’t mean I have to sell everything and follow him. Does he? I mean, what if everybody did that? There would be no food or clothing or anything else produced and the economy and society would come to a screeching halt and we’d all freeze and starve. After a while there’d be nobody to buy what you sell or take what you give. And who would give to you? Absurd.

And doesn’t our loving God want good things for us? Why else would He give us His creation to use and the imagination and creativity to create such wonderful things to make people’s lives better. Why would God put us in the world if we aren’t supposed to use and enjoy it?

I think part of the problem is that in English we have only one word to describe hatred. We use the same word to say I hate a person as we do when we say we hate brussel sprouts. We have lots of synonyms for hate; we can loathe a vegetable or have distain or contempt for a person or a position, but those words are not as strong as hate. It’s the same as the word love. I love pizza and I love my spouse. The words we use do not describe the degree to which we love or hate, nor the context. We all use the words but don’t often stop and think what we really mean by them. And we throw them around so casually, don’t we?

There are some translations of this gospel passage that don’t use the word hatred but rather, “turn your back on your mother and father”. But I think the stronger word is probably correct, because it jolts us out of our complacency and focuses our attention better.

All strong emotions, especially love and hatred, tend to become the center of our thoughts and attention. They are two realities that go beyond being mere emotions. They can consume us, to the detriment of all other things. They can drive us to do extreme things, such as being overbearing or over protective, or resort to violence. Hatred is always destructive, but there are even some types of love that are not healthy, mainly because they are not truly love but a form of selfishness.

To hate something is to not be attached to it. All things of this world are temporary, even our earthly relationships. God is eternal, and we are created for eternity. We can only attain that by making God the center of our lives. Jesus was always urging his disciples to leave behind anything that would keep them from being fully engaged and involved with him. That is what a true disciple does. That is what the Kingdom of God is all about, recognizing the primacy of God in our very existence. Giving up control of our own will and subjecting our will to the will of the Father. Just like Jesus did.

Jesus wasn’t asking us to do anything he wasn’t willing to do himself. He had no attachments to worldly things. He said he had no place to lay his head, he relied totally on the hospitality of others, and he told his disciples to go out into the world not worrying about what to eat and drink, what to wear, or even to bring a second tunic or a pair of sandals on their journey.

Jesus wasn’t saying that these things are evil in and of themselves. He was saying the attachment to them can keep us from focusing on what, on who, is really important. Anything that could keep us from a single-minded focus on Jesus is to be avoided. And then there is our responsibility to others. How does our attachment and focus on selfish, worldly things, affect our duty to them as disciples?

Archbishop Wester said that his spiritual director once told him that if he has two of something, one of them belongs to the poor. And so he went into his closet and took an inventory. He had two sweaters and couldn’t remember when he last wore one, so it got donated. And how many pair of dress shoes does a bishop really need anyway? And then he started thinking about all the other ways he spent his money, the restaurants he went to, the car he drove, he house he lived in. Could he make different choices in his life that would allow him to spend his money more wisely for the benefit of others?

Does that mean that sweaters and shoes and houses and cars are bad? Of course not. But if our love of these things is based on vanity and selfishness, that is keeping us from God. Do any of your possessions consume your thoughts? Is there anything you think you absolutely cannot live without? Loving something to the extreme pushes love for other things out. It’s not about our possessions at all, it’s about the importance those possessions hold in our lives and in our thoughts, to the exclusion of what truly matters. Could you say that sometimes what you love causes you to hate something else? To love is to be inclusive, to hate is to exclude?

And I hate to say it, but there are some people in our lives who we love very much but who are keeping us from God. Are some of your relationships causing you to sin? Are some of your closest friends and relatives causing you to doubt your faith? Are they taking you down the wrong road? Are there some people who you do need to turn your back on and follow Jesus? Lots of hard words today. Lots of hard choices to make every day.

Jesus tells us once again today to pick up our cross and follow him.

In picking up his cross, Jesus gave up his own will and surrendered to the will of the Father. He in a sense hated his own life and left behind his mother and his family in order to live, and die, the way his Father wanted. We hear the phrase, “pick up your cross daily” and think that means we are to submit to the bad things that happen to us peacefully. We focus on the suffering of Jesus on the way of the cross and try to link our suffering to that of Jesus. We try to make sense out of and give value to our suffering by comparing it to Jesus’ suffering. But his way of the cross and ours is simply our own journey to God. We all have one. Jesus’ cross is more than just suffering. It is about submitting to the will of God.

It's really just a different take on the two greatest commandments. Love God and love your neighbor. Love God is first. If we love God first then we can really love our neighbor and ourselves. While love for non-God things is exclusionary, eventually pushing out God himself, loving God first allows us to love all the other important things better. Jesus isn’t saying to love God alone. He is saying to love God first, and if you do, loving all the other important things in your life will be easier and more real and fulfilling. Because God is love, and if we start there then all our loving relationships will be real and true and holy. It’s that “Seek first the Kingdom of God, and its holiness, and all other things will be given to you.” True love must have God at the center. All other love is born of that one true love and radiates out from it.

A paradox is that if, in this sense we hate our mother and father and family we will actually be loving them more, with a holy love that is an extension of God’s love for us. But Jesus is all about paradoxes, isn’t he? By dying he gave us everlasting life, by diminishing himself he was raised to highest glory, and by loving him with all our hearts, all our minds, and all our souls we will only then be able to fully love our neighbor as ourselves.