Year B Solemnity – Holy Trinity June 3, 2012

At what age do children ask the most questions?  At age 4 children are asking about 400-600 questions a day.  The Solemnity of the Holy Spirit is a feast day dedicated to getting Christians of every age to revive the spirit of a questioning child who seemingly can not quench its thirst for answers!

In today’s scriptures we are encouraged to ask.  Do not be afraid to ask!  Asking opens doorways and pathways to spiritual learning.  An inquiring spirit can open itself to the voices of wisdom past.  Listening to the stories of salvation history and from the voices of those who precede us in life offers opportunity to reap the benefits of spiritual treasures otherwise buried.

Let me be clear, no one of any age is excluded, no matter how many birthday candles it takes to light up our spiritual quest for answers!  This is an equal age opportunity of a life time.

In the Book of Deuteronomy Moses tells us.  Ask now of the days of old before your time.  Ask from one end of the sky to the other.  From our first wakening until the moment we drift off to sleep!  I bet the more candles we have acquired the more spiritual questions we have.

Young folks the wisdom of the ages is hidden here.  Yes we can learn from the days of old!

What are the burning questions in our hearts?  What are the burning questions of our time?  I would love to be able to ask my grand parents, my mother and father questions about the impact of their faith on the real life struggles of the great depression, the rationing that took place during WWII, and a multitude of other questions.

Children ask the voices of the past will unveil the answers hidden there.  You have my permission to bug your parents.  The unchanging treasures of the truth are buried in the hearts of the faithful.  They are built upon the ancient stories of scripture which are waiting to be broken open and poured out when opened.  These contain the waters of truth which can quench our thirst.

By the spirit of our nature we are created to unending questioning that seeks to discover the truth.  It is buried in our spiritual DNA.  It is our soul created in the image of God himself who calls us unceasingly to ask.

Why is all this questioning necessary one may ask?  This is why, says Moses.  You must know and fix in your heart, that Lord is God in the heavens above and the earth below and that there is no other!  There is only one true God!   God is the Creator.  We humans are creatures that inhabit the world created by God for us.

Moses was not through yet.  You must keep His statues and commandments that you and your children may prosper and that you may have a long life on the land which the Lord, your God is giving you.

Isn’t that the American Dream – Prosperity and long life in our land?  America has been blessed with prosperity, a long life on the land God has set to be a light shinning unto all the world?

What is the central burning question in our nation today?  Is the American Dream still alive?  Or have we begun to accept the shackles and chains of some other American dream?  How do we restore the promise of prosperity of the old to the people of our land today?  Could it be as this nation as this nation turned away from the way, the life and the Truth prosperity began slipping away?  Have we been taken hostage by looking for answers in conjured up non living American Idols and hyped up cyber space images with no power to save us from the destination of bondage and slavery?

In 2012, we are experiencing multiple systematic attacks on Christianity from almost every sector of our society.  Though there have always been those who seek to silence the voice of God that speaks the truth the attacks have grown more sophisticated and unrelenting.

Do not be deceived by pretty images and language taken hostage as its meaning is being plundered by those who seek to deceive an unsuspecting and unknowing ear.

They continue to conjured up images as a new progressive language art form has been created that violates and subverts the use of language of salvation history in an unending offensive to distract and fool the people of faith to take the road that leads away from the source of truth and salvation.

Though things may seem a mess, scripture teaches there is always hope.  Turn around and come back to me is a repeated theme throughout scripture.  No earthly power has ever overcome the voice of a faithful united Church dependent upon a loving God who has defended the church from the forces of evil that seek to silence it in every generation.

From the Book of Romans we are reminded of the power of the spirit of God as we hear – Those led by the spirit of God are the children of God.  As children we did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear – be not afraid for we have received a spirit of adoption through whom we cry “Abba, Father” We are His children and as such heirs with Christ on a mission to the truth if only we suffer with Him that we may be glorified with Him.  Father and Mother God save us from the folly of the human spirit which seeks to play God!

Year B Solemnity – Holy Trinity June 3, 2012

Questions: a Thirst for an Answer:

At what age do children ask the most questions?  At age 4 children are asking about 400-600 questions a day.  The Solemnity of the Holy Spirit is a feast day dedicated to getting Christians of every age to revive that spirit of a questioning child who seemingly can not quench its thrist for answer!

We are all a Child in the Spiritual Sense:

Let me be clear, no one here of any age is excluded, no matter how many birthday candles it takes to light up our spiritual quest for answer!  Our The scripture readings today encourage us to take on the attitude of a 2-4 year old and ask.

Moses tells us.  Ask now of the days of old before your time.  Ask from one end of the sky to the other.  From our first wakening moment until the moment we drift off into sleep!  I bet the more candles we have acquired the more spiritual questions we have.

What are the burning questions in our hearts?  I would love to be able to ask my grand parents, my mother and father questions about the great depression, the rationing that took place during WWII, and a multitude of questions about their faith journey.

Children ask for the answers to the unchanging treasures of truth buried in the hearts of the faithful built upon the ancient stories of scripture which can pour out the only water of truth that can quench our thirst.  By our nature we are created to question and seek the truth.  It is buried in our DNA.  It is our soul created in the image of God himself who calls us to discover the truth.

Only One God no other:

Why is all this questioning necessary one may ask?  This is way says Moses.  You must know and fix in your heart that, that Lord is God in the heavens above and the earth below an that there is no other!  There is only one true God!

Prosperity:

But wait, wait I am not through.  You must keep His statues and commandments that you and your children after you may prosper and that you may have a long life on the land which the Lord, your God is giving you.  Prosperity and long life in our land!

Isn’t that the central burning question in our nation today?  How do we restore prosperity to our citizens.  Could it be this nation has turned away from the way, the life and the Truth and is looking for answers in a conjured up American Idol with glorious images but no power to save?

In our world today we are experiencing multiple systematic attacks on this simple truth from almost every sector of our society.  Those who seek to silence the voice of God that speaks the truth with fire.  There is no more powerful voice than the Church and the forces of evil must silence it.  Do not be deceived by pretty images and language being plundered of it’s it’s meaning by those who would deceive.

They have conjured up images, a new art language form has been created that violates and subverts the use of language in an unending offensive to distract and fool the people of faith to take the road that leads away from the source of salvation.

I am here to testify to our young people, I not only lived before there was TV but I survived.  I lived in the days when people used outhouses even in the cold winter.  It didn’t take long to take care of your business – there were very few hurry ups to use the bathroom.  I lived in the day when parents and grand parents sat down with their families to eat dinner.  I lived in the day when parents, grand parents, aunts and uncles told family stories of the days of old..  I lived in the day when family picnics where the tradition on Sunday afternoons and all the stores were closed.

Inquire / Ask / Read / Listen / Pray to the Spirit of Truth

Anyone seen one of those TV commercials where they use the terminology – “I have an Inquiring Mind”.  These commercials are designed to create an image that will both attract our attention, desire, trigger our imagination playing upon our unsuspecting natural curiosity of the human instinct to venture into a new world while bypassing spiritual safeguards.

Desire inquire /  read — I have an inquiring mind – heard that before – the tabloids.  Ask about history before your time – ask from one end of the sky to the other.  Learn by inquiring from the voices of the past and listening to the stories of salvation history from those who preceded us in life.  .

Romans – Those led by the spirit of God are the children of God.  You did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but  a spirit of adoption through whom we cry “Abba, Father”  We are His children and as such heirs with Christ if only we suffer with Him that we may be glorified with Him.

Restart My Heart

We have just heard the scripture readings for the Easter Vigil.  These readings are an abbreviated summary of salvation history – the story and promise of more life to come!

Listen to St Paul to the Romans 6: 3-11.  Are we unaware that we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?  We were buried with him in Baptism so that we too might live in newness of life.  Again, we know that our old self was crucified with him, so that our sinful body might be done away with, that we might no longer be in slavery to sin.

Jesus died once for all for all time!  He died for each one of us!

Would you like to hear a story the good Lord reveled to me to share with you this holy night!  Ready or not here it comes.

On Friday morning October 21, 2012 I underwent open heart surgery to replace my aortic valve and repair an aneurism which had developed at the top of my heart.  When I woke up I remember thinking, the good Lord must have wanted to keep me around because I am still here.

Normally a patient with this type of surgery gets sent home after five days.  However, I discovered I wouldn’t fall into that normal category.  My heart rhythm was beating in what is referred to as A-Fib or irregular heart rhythm.  I was told my heart rate was varying between 90 and 150 beats per minute even though I was lying in bed.  As a result my doctor was concerned that I would have a stroke or heart attack and he had experience doing thousands of these surgeries.

With preventive action came numerous medications which were supposed to correct or control the A-fib.  Among these where blood thinning pills and  intravenous medication to prevent a blood clot.  Each time my doctor came and visited he would sit down as if his mind was working hard to figure out what to do net.  I began to understand the meaning of practicing medicine.  I could see he was becoming more and more concerned because the medication plan wasn’t changing the rhythm of my heart.  To add insult to injury the taste of the hospital food was growing worse and I almost didn’t sleep at all.

On the 5^th day I was told I wouldn’t be able to go home until my heart returned to a normal rhythm or they came up with a game plan.

Finally on the seventh day they sent another heart doctor to see me.  This doctor told me I could go home with the A-fib condition and hope that it went away.  If not in seven weeks I would have to come back into the hospital and have my heart restarted.  Or I could elect to have my heart restarted the next morning.  I choose the next morning after all the good Lord had kept me around this long!

But before they would restart my heart they had to run a tube down my throat to look at my heart to make sure there wasn’t a hidden blood clot there.  In that case a restart would likely result in a stroke or heart attack!

So I was told I could not drink water after mid night so I would avoid throwing up during the procedure.

Finally I fell into half wake half asleep state.  I was very aware as that my mouth, throat and tongue were becoming more and more dry with every breath.  I recalled words of Psalm referring to the dry patched earth.  I clearly was aware all I wanted was a drop of water on my lips and tongue!  Where is that water?

With every breath the dryness of my mouth and throat became more and more painful.  In fact my breathing became very labored.  I was keenly aware my body was working very hard with each breath.  I wasn’t looking fo4ward to the next breath.  Oh heck I could not wake myself enough to call a nurse.  The dryness continued to get worse and worse.  My mind began to wonder if I would make it through the night.

As I laid there many feelings rushed upon me.  I was physically tired.  I hadn’t sleep for days.  The food was awful.  I was growing spiritually discouraged and depressed.   Again my mind began to grapple with the idea I just might not make to the next day.

It was then, that I began to think about how Jesus suffered on the cross.  His mouth, tongue and throat must have been at least as dry as mine, the pain as great and the breathing more labored.  Not only was his mouth dry and his breathing labored.  His feet and hands must have ached beyond comprehension.  The muscles of his arms, shoulders and chest must have been screaming for relief from exhaustion.  The overpowering pain from trying to hold him up so he could breath was suffocating him.

Gravity and the weight of his body was overcoming every last once of strength left in his body.  His eyes must have been burning as blood and sweat rolled off his forehead.  The fly’s and insects had to have begun to eat him alive.  He could not move his hands to drive away the insects or wipe the sweat and blood from his eyes.   There was nothing he could do but wait.

It was then that I looked to my left.  There looking back at me was Jesus Christ laying next to me and He was on his cross.    He looked at me as if to say – I am with through it all.  I will never leave your side.  I love you.  No cross is too heavy, no sin too great, I did this once for all so that sins might be forgiven.  I am always with you and I will not fail to fulfill the promise and grant you newness of life.

No matter the darkness of the night or the depth of the pain the good Lord is with you and will not leave your side.  No matter seriousness or difficulty of life or lateness of time there is hope for each and every one.  He did this once for ALL.  No greater act of Love was possible!

The next day my heart was restarted and I recovered so quickly I was sent home where the newness of my new life began and continues as I stand here this greatest of nights to share this testimony!

Pray for Our Nation March 31, 2012 –  Military – Servant

Having just moved into his new office, a just promoted colonel was sitting at his desk when a PFC knocked on the door.  Conscious of his new position, the colonel quickly picked up the phone, told the PFC to enter, then said into the phone, “Yes, General, I’ll be seeing him this afternoon and I’ll pass along your message. In the meantime, thank you for your good wishes, sir.”

Feeling as though he had sufficiently impressed the young enlisted man, he asked, “What do you want?”  “Nothing important, sir,” the PFC replied, “I’m just here to hook up your telephone.”

Many in this nation including national leaders have grown proud and full of themselves.  In their quest for power they have failed to realize life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are grounded in the spirit of our creator and not secular progressive humanism.

So, you and I, we the PFC’s of faith, stand in this vacant gap together, just as our founding fathers did, when they grappled in the darkness of humanity unable to overcome the division that separated a fledgling nation.  It was only when they opened their spirits to the words of truth that flow from that higher authority and established communication with the spirit from which every right originates that this nation became a light of freedom on a mountain top the whole world recognized.

We gather here my friends in prayer at a most serious and grave moment in the history of our nation.  The spirit and forces of division seek to destroy this one nation under god, indivisible, with life liberty and justice for all.

We stand here together looking into the mirror of truth.  Knowing we must turn again to prayer to begin the journey to save our nation from itself.

Let us begin in prayer by listening to the words of Kristi Hofman, wife of a soldier and mother of four young children.  United together they served through deployments in both Iraq and Afghanistan

Almighty God, Lord of Hosts, we call out to you as the One who is sovereign over all.  Watch over and protect our nation’s military members and their families.  Sustain them with your everlasting arms.

Take into your most gracious protection our service members currently deployed. May you be their comfort and their guide as they live and walk in a foreign land.  Give them reassurance that you are a shield around them, an ever-present help in time of need.  Grant our service members courage so that in all things they may serve without reproach.  Encourage them while they also encourage one another.

As they serve around the world, we ask that you guard their families and loved ones back home.  Provide them with peace and surround them with love as they mourn the absence of their loved one and long for their return.  May they find hope and strength in you for the trials of each new day.  Be with military children who endure the difficult burden of knowing their father or mother is in harm’s way for months on end.  Guard these children’s hearts and minds despite the loneliness and uncertainty of having a parent deployed.

Lord God, be with marriages in the military.  Preserve the bonds of husband and wife despite the stress that military life brings, stress only compounded by the decade of war our nation is in.  Help military chaplains in their efforts to equip military marriages with ways to stay connected and communicate effectively despite the challenge of frequent deployments.  Give husbands and wives strength and resilience to endure separations, frequent moves, and all the uncertainty military life brings.

For some, Lord, service takes their toll permanently in physical and emotional damage. For those wounded in battle, we pray you would come beside them.  Sustain and strengthen them amidst treatment, pain, and adjustments to life with an injury.  Help them to find competent care and support, and to not be afraid to reach out for a helping hand or a listening ear.  Be with their caregivers in the demanding role they have.  Give caregivers renewed energy to offer support and love as they tend to the needs of the injured.  Strengthen them as they both monitor and advocate for their loved one.

We know that war is very costly.  Some have made the ultimate sacrifice, laying down their precious lives in service to our nation. Each one of them was a son or daughter, perhaps a husband or wife, father or mother.  For all those who feel the pain and the toll of this war in the loss of their loved one, comfort them.  Be a father to the fatherless and defender of widows.  As they cast their cares on you, may they know the consolation of your love.  We thank you for the freedoms these service members fought for which we enjoy today.

For each and every veteran who has served our country through the years, we thank you for their sacrifice. Comfort those who struggle in life after war.  Help us to honor and care for those who have given so much for us.

Be with our nation’s leaders as well, and all those who make decisions for our military.  Give them wisdom and discernment in everything they do.

Father God, we long for the day when swords will be beaten into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks.  We long for your peace, for your shalom.

In Christ’s name we pray, Amen.

The policy of the US Government has been discourse the use of the name of Jesus Christ in military prayer services.  Let us ask our selves this question.  Why would our public servants want to remove the name of the only perfect servant who walked the face of the earth?  Could it be our elected officials can not stand the comparison that would show through in the light of truth?  Could it be that throughout history the movement toward socialism and communism can not co-exit with true Freedom of Religion?

Let us pray that the true meaning of the word “Servant” be restored.  Let us pray that this prayer begin with one person present.  Let us pray that word Servant not be usurped by word Ruler!

Let us pray that the people of is a nation and it’s leaders remember we are a people whose rights of life, liberty and freedom come from a higher authority than the any government or any person.  Let us pray that we the people remember our founding fathers turned to God when as they groped in darkness when they attempted to define the guiding principles that created and made this nation great.  Let us pray we remember we a nation founded upon a Christian Judeo Philosophy based upon concept of one almighty God including His Son Jesus Christ.

My Uncle Butch was an Army veteran of WW II.  As a child my mother told me the stories of Uncle Butch.  He drove three tanks and all three were destroyed and in each case his partner lost his life.

Even then Uncle Butch’s willingness to serve was not discouraged.  He promptly volunteered for reconnaissance missions behind Germans lines.  Uncle Butch was awarded three purple hearts and lived to tell his family of the sacrifices made for the Freedom and rights we enjoy.  Uncle Butch had the heart of a servant leader who believed in a merciful and just God.

In 1964 I took the following Oath:  I, (NAME), do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice.  So help me God.

“So help me God” has been a mainstay all of my life.  As a young man I took an oath to defend our constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic.  That is why I am here tonight.  We are in a battle against domestic enemies for our most basic freedoms.  We are not the property of the federal government.

In 1995 I was ordained a Roman Catholic Deacon in Atlanta by the Archbishop of Atlanta.  A deacon in the roman catholic church tradition is defined in the Acts of the Apostles Chapter 6.  Seven men were selected to serve at table – called to be servants.  Yet the first real story we hear of one of these deacon is that of Stephen.  Stephen was found preaching in the streets with authority for which the people expelled him form the city and stoned him to death.     I stand before you this day following the example set by Stephen.  Will I be persecuted for my faith and conscientious?

Does anyone know what the word catholic means?   It is word that means universal.  The current federal administrations desire to remain in power should have been clearly reveled for us all to see in 2012 — all Christians are catholic.  This American Idol administration has created a false image of a women’s health through contraception used to camouflage the hidden agenda – it’s about power and control obtained not through service but through the division of the people of faith and undermining the peoples right to Freedom of Religious Freedom and right to form ones conscientious!

Let us pray we can discern the truth.  Let us pray we will answer the call to serve in whatever capacity the Lord has created to walk the face of the earth!  Let us pray we have the courage of Stephen to speak the word of truth even if it should place our life in jeopardy.  So help me God!

Hot Chocolate and Angels

I can still remember quite clearly my first major sacrifice for lent.  I was attending Saint Joseph Grade school in Mishawaka, Indiana in the 1950’s.  In those early days of my childhood, my mother prepared hot chocolate for me each morning before I went to school.  We called it hot coco in those days.  I loved coco and toast for breakfast then and I still do today.

One lent I gave up hot chocolate, I don’t remember what grade I was in, but I will never forget the accomplishment because, it was my first real sacrifice.  I managed to give up Hot Coco everyday during that Lent including Sundays.

My reward came on Easter Sunday morning.  In those days my parents prepared Easter Baskets and hide them plus chocolate candy and eggs all over the house.  Easter Sunday morning were a time of great joy for kids as we excitedly hunted for our baskets.  Mom and dad knew the best hiding places where right in front of our noses just above or below the level would would look.

The chocolate candy I received through the love of my parents that Easter morning was the best chocolate I ever tasted.

But the story of Hot Chocolate Doesn’t End There!

I used to spend the night at my Aunt Jane’s house on many occasions.  My Aunt Jane had two sons who were close to my age and we had a great great time playing together.

Have you ever noticed how bubbles form around the top of the rim of Hot Chocolate?   Well my mother and her sister, my Aunt Jane used to tell me that there were angles sitting on the rim of my cup kicking their feet in my coco.  When they would tell me this, the spirit of the boy in me would imagine those angels and eagerly scoop up those bubbles with my toast.  I would gobble them down only to watch as more bubbles would form.

Bubbles the essence of nothing.  Bubbles the essence of angles.  Angels the essence of the unseen.  Angles the essence of the spirit of everything.  Angles surround us and one is our guarding angel!

1^st Sunday of Lent February 26, 2012

In Today’s Gospel we hear Jesus was driven out into the desert.  As we reflect upon this Gospel we should realize from the beginning of time the desert has been an ever changing barren place where humans place their life in jeopardy when they venture there.

If one camped out in the desert in a tent and a hill was to the right of the tent, in the mooring the hill might have been shifted by the wind to the left.  In the desert one might freeze during the night or be roasted alive in the afternoon. The desert is a no mans land where humankind has never had the ability to control.  As such the desert is a place of the creator’s domain.  A place which facilitates ones encounter with the one true God.

Jesus was driven like one who is pushed, pulled, yanked and shoved by the spirit out into the desert.  It was an overpowering force he could not ignore – The Spirit of God himself sent Jesus, his son into the wilderness to endure testing and to encounter wild beasts.  Jesus remained there for forty of testing not just one!

Forty days is a symbolic echoing back to the forty days of testing of Moses on the mountain top and Elijah in the desert.  Forty days is the yarn that has woven the single tread garment of God’s salvation history together.

Jesus is showing us struggles and temptation are in themselves good for us.    This is a Providence story.  The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches   Providence is the stumbling block of evil.

Further it is a story that demonstrates the honor for the 1^st and 2^nd commandments.  I am the Lord God – there is no other.  Do not create false Gods before me.

The opposite of these commandments is what is taking place in our nation today.  It is called Polytheism.  Secular progressive American humanism and worldly idols are being fostered as tough the authority for our rights come from this human authority that knows better our Creator God.  We are being tempted to exchange our rights, the truth and freedom for silver, gold, technology, sex, lust, power, control, and greed.  All of these are Empty idols which lead us into bondage and slavery.

The lesson is simple, we cannot serve multiple Gods!

Evil is an unavoidable, painful, mysterious question with no quick answer.  Only Christian faith constitutes an answer to the question of evil.  Angles and people have to journey toward their ultimate destinies by their free choice and preferential love.  God respects the freedom of his creatures and mysteriously knows how to derive good from evil.

We are living in providencial times.  We are living in the desert of temptation from every possible angle, political correctness and human secular progressivism are demanding power and control over our God given freedoms.  God is watching just as he did in the time of Noah?  Will the people remember His covenant He regularly sends them in the form of a rainbow or will they turn away?

Will the people of America condemn themselves and their children to learn first hand ancient lessons of bondage and slavery in the desert for forty years before they awaken and turn around to the only spirit that can save them?  Return to me with your whole heart and soul and all your being!

Do we realize the wild beasts of our life originate from deep within our  human condition and the place we make our free choices?  Even Jesus had to confront His human nature for we know He was fully human and fully divine and yet could not escape His human condition.

Today’s scripture teach temptation is an inner test, a struggle that strengthens each individual’s character and teaches each of us valuable lessons.

Lent in the Catholic Church is a time we can prepare for this moment of truth and the wild beasts running loose in our world and Satan who confronts us face to face.  We cannot avoid this encounter it is upon us here and now – yes here and now in 2012.

These forty of days of lent are a gift from God to help us prepare ourselves to come to understand and accept in the midst of turmoil God loves us exactly as we are this very moment.  The question is do you love ourselves more than our worldly stuff?  We are created in the image and likeness of God.  We are each given a soul and the freedom of choice.  The Lord wants to love that spirit which he placed within us.  He wants us to love our own  soul so that we can be opened to begin to love all those who we encounter on the journey through the tumultuous world of 2012.

25th Sunday of Ordinary Time – September 18, 2011

In the Gospel of Matthew, when did the landowner go out to hire workers? The landowner went out at dawn.  What time did he need to get out of bed?  What time of day does dawn occur?  Dawn is the time when sun light first begins to break over the horizon.  Deer hunters know dawn occurs thirty minutes before the sun actually peeks over the horizon from the east.

Dawn is also a term we use to describe the moment there is sufficient intellectual understanding / light so one can see.  Could it be Jesus is teaching His disciples and followers with this parable to give them the spiritual light they need to understand the point of this gospel!  How about you and I?

One of the realities is our human, social, political and even religious experience is they often serve as automatic emotional stumbling blocks, rather than receptors for spiritual insight and truth.

Individual rights, the idea of basic human fairness, the usual daily wage, fair pay, workers and union’s rights, equality of race, gender, and age can all capture and sometimes hijack our ability to listen with an open heart and mind.  How do we sort through the tsunami of images and sound bits of crises of human social and economic images being streamed at us at “4G” force 24/7 in our world of 2011?

How we counter act, the worlds cry to unsettle and over power us with artificial crises and hidden agendas.  Sometimes, we just need to sit down, open our mind, spirit and soul and pray for the graces we need to achieve spiritual insight!

Today’s Gospel provides such insight.  Jesus addresses an audience beyond the community of his disciples – an audience opposed to Jesus himself.  A community upset, because of his open and public reception of the “scoundrels, tax collectors and sinners” from all walks of life.

Jesus teaches using parables.  He does so because parables rob the listener of the ability to create an opposing argument while Jesus is still teaching.  The listener is not only forced to listen but must digest the message before sufficient understanding can occur for one to begin to express an opinion for or against.  The human process of digesting parables provides the spirit of truth a window of opportunity to penetrate ones soul.

This is a moment of truth for you and I!

Jesus cannot be locked up and kept in a limited human created and conceived convenient box by religious or civil authority.  As for me – Silly me, in the past I discovered I had locked Jesus up in my own conceived box without the benefit of the wisdom to know our God is a Big God and escaped before I could close the lid.

Jesus telling us this story to open us up?  When the work day is done, the land owner turns the tables on us and pays the last hired first and finally the first are the last paid.  What did the land owner pay them?  Each received the usual daily wage.  Each received a denarius or enough!  The land owner provided what the world considered the exact amount to satisfy the worth, dignity, shelter, sustenance of each laborer.

But what is this story really about?  Isaiah says my thoughts are not your thoughts and my ways are not your ways.  As high as the heavens are above the earth, so high are my ways above your ways and my thoughts above your thoughts, says the Lord.  This wage they received must have communicated much a higher meaning.

What is the just and usual wage Jesus is teaching about.  Each receives enough – enough to meet their needs – enough to fill them full – light sustaining enough.

Each and everyday we enter a spiritual market place with the opportunity to work in the vineyard.  But most of the time we are like the laborers in the story – we are idle for some reason and perhaps even unaware of the vineyard that surrounds us.

Like the laborers, we are waiting upon the lord to supply us with what we need to survive each day.  But what is the ingredient we need?  Grace?  The good news is God’s grace is always available.  The good news is God’s grace is always enough.  The good news is it doesn’t matter if we decide early or late his grace is enough to save us.  The good news is God’s grace is enough for those who had been righteous all their lives and enough for the scoundrels and wicked who messed up their lives completely.

The great news in this story is, each of us live in this market place and can step into the vineyard without moving our feet.  All that is required is an open heart!  The vineyard is connected to the location we inhabit no matter where we go!  This is the message of hope all us long for!  No matter how lowly we think we are, how wicked we may have been or untrustworthy or even been a scoundrel there is hope for us.  If we have fallen, crashed and burned there is hope for us!

People of God, we call this hope God Grace!  It is everywhere and it is free!

To obtain Salvation the objective is to be last — Listen to the reading from Isaiah.

Seek the LORD while he may be found, call him while he is near.
Let the scoundrel forsake his way, and the wicked his thoughts; let him turn to the LORD for mercy; to our God, who is generous in forgiving.

Note did we hear the scoundrel and the wicked were called to seek the Lord.  Are they the ones we would think of first?  Now is the time while the Lord is near.  Turn to the Lord for mercy!  God does not act according to human standards, ways or thinking!

God does not work on a rights or deserts scale, but simply on loving scale because that is what is at the heart of God’s being.  We are each called to open your hearts, enter the vineyard with confidence, where God will provide enough to each, so we can be a light unto a world in desperate need of an encounter with love.

Have we locked God in a Box?  And if we have, will be let Him escape?

It is not merely the time that we put in. It is the heart that we put into the time we have.

In God’s kingdom people are treated according to their spiritual needs, not according to their deserts.  People are treated with love regardless of their status or time they show up.

God does not work on a rights or deserts scale, but simply on loving scale because that is what is at the heart of God’s being.  We are each called to open your hearts, enter the vineyard with confidence, where God will provide enough to each, so we can be a light unto a world in desperate need of an encounter with love.