DANCING AT THE WEDDING

When I was ordained, the first priest I served under as an Assistant Pastor I had also served as an altar boy many years before. There were times when he still thought of me as such. That was his problem even if it once or twice caused some problems for me. One of those occasions was forty-three years ago this month. I remember it vividly and still smile, albeit perversely I admit, when I think about it.

It was January and he was on vacation back in his home country in Italy. A visiting priest took two of the Masses and I had other three. The Gospel that Sunday was the one about Jesus turning water into wine at the wedding feast in Cana. In my sermon I intimated, no, I asserted that if there had been dancing at that celebration, and there probably was, Jesus surely danced at the wedding.

Not long after he returned from his vacation, he called me into his office and proceeded to chew me out. He had heard about my sermon, he said. Someone in the parish was so scandalized by my assertion that Jesus would dance at a wedding that person had called the Bishop to inform him of my assuredly heretical belief. The Bishop must also have believed that what I said was heresy because he called my boss to enlighten me about my false theology and to make certain I never wandered down that road again.

I accepted my chastisement humbly and promised never to be so foolish again to even think Jesus would lower himself to such an obvious display of silliness and, even worse, to proclaim my belief from the pulpit. Of course, the person who ratted on me, my bishop and my boss were wrong back then and they would be wrong to assert that I was wrong even today. If there had been dancing at the wedding in Cana, Jesus danced.

So there! And why not? Why would Jesus not dance? Because he would have to hold a woman in his arms? Oh My God, that would be leading him into temptation and Jesus must never be led into temptation. But, then, he did hang out with a lot of prostitutes and public sinners on many an occasion, did he not? I can’t believe any one of that ilk was at the wedding let alone be a dancing partner of Jesus. But, again why not?

As Christians, as followers of and believers in Jesus, we are asked to imitate his life. Even on a very mundane level that is difficult enough to do. But if we begin to put the standard Jesus set so high that we cannot possibly attain it, we will soon not make the attempt. If we believe that Jesus would refrain from any human and acceptable activity, like dancing at a wedding, because it might lead him into temptation, or worse, scandalize those who believe him to be God’s Son, then Jesus can and could no longer be a role model. He would simply be a plastic, perfect figment of our imagination.

Our Jesus, the one you and I believe in, and I hope the one that parishioner and my Bishop and my boss believed in, was tempted in every way as we are. Any situation can be an occasion of sin, even dancing at a wedding. That does not mean that every situation is, even dancing at a wedding. My Jesus danced at the wedding. I guess my Bishop’s didn’t. Your Jesus?

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

Frank, or maybe it’s Ernest, I’m not sure who is who, is reading the newspaper (in the Frank & Ernest comic strip by Bob Thaves), asks, “What concerns you more about politicians, unanswered questions or unquestioned answers?” Lest anyone’s hackles get aroused, let us all admit that while politicians are experts at both not answering specific questions with specific answers and insisting their answers to specific questions be unquestioned, so are we all.

 

We citizens are even more guilty when we demand of our politicians, our elected leaders, that they give us a simple and short answer to a very difficult and convoluted issue. We want answers and we want answers now and we want the answer to be as least painful to us individually as possible, no pain being the preferred choice. We know in our heads that that is impossible, but that is what we would like and what we want to hear.

There are no simple, easy answers to the many and varied questions, issues, that confront us as a nation, as a world, as a church, even as individual people. What is even more difficult to deal with is that there will always be more questions than answers and that when we have resolved this question, this issue, another will follow right on its heels and probably be even more difficult.

That said, the point of Thaves’ strip is still valid. No one has all the answers: not the President, not the Pope, not you or me. Further, just because we may be in a position of power does not give us the right to believe our answer should go unquestioned or that our response of “because I said so” is sufficient.  Ignoring the question only makes the matter worse because it won’t go away and make it even more difficult to resolve.

And no one answer is the answer. This world, this life, is too complicated for simple, easy, uncomplicated solutions to complex issues. We know that. We know that in our own lives. Personal issues are almost always very complex and cannot be resolved with simple answers. Why? Because more than one person is usually involved in the problem and its resolution. The more people involved, the more complicated and the more difficult the resolution.

And even when the only person involved is our self, when the issue at hand is very and strictly personal, even then the correct response, while simply given, is hardly ever easy to fulfill. The problem of being overweight is simple: eat less. The problem of over-spending is to spend less. The problem of being unkind all too often is to change our ways. The problem can be simply stated and the resolution simply given, but that does not mean it will be easy for us to actually resolve the problem.

The further issue is that we are often our own worst enemy. We do not like to admit that we are both part of the problem and we are also part of the solution, whatever the problem. While we can blame and castigate our politicians for acting like the politicians Frank and Ernest think them to be, all too often in our personal lives in many ways we are they.

A MOTLEY CREW

Because we are still gainfully employed and cannot travel as much as we would like, and because our children, and, thus, our grandchildren, are scattered, we do not get to see them as often as we would like. Of course, when it comes to grandchildren, one never sees them enough. That cannot always be said about one’s own children even as much as one truly loves them. Grandchildren are for spoiling…and getting even.

At any rate, Arlena and I have begun having them all over for Christmas a few weeks before Christmas so that they can spend the 25^th with their other families. We love it and so do they. This year we asked one of our daughters to bring her new male friend with her so that he could meet the family – and vice versa, of course. Given our family that can be a dangerous thing to do. He may not return.

We’ve been through this family introduction before. Arlena has always been upfront with the prospective suitors of our daughters. She tells them very simply, “We are a motley crew.” I tend to add, “What you see is what you get.” Frankly, I like what they see and what they will get; but, then, that’s only me.

We are indeed a motley crew. But, then, aren’t we all? Every family is a motley crew of individuals. That simply goes without saying even if, when we say it, we sometimes have to cringe when we think about the cast of characters that make up every family. No family is exempt. None. Can you imagine what it would be like to live in a monochrome environment? It is our individual quirkiness and uniqueness that makes life so interesting and, yes, sometimes a little difficult as well.

Not only is every family a motley crew, so is every parish. And even when we look around a gathered group of people and think we are much the same, and we are, but we are also not. Our family, both our biological family and those who have joined it as well as our parish family is like a tree: we may grow in many directions but our roots remain the same.

It is those roots that keep us together when everything around us seems to be falling apart. It is those roots that remind us that as diverse as we sometimes seem to be and even are, certainly as we often think and act, we are still one family. It is those roots that feed us when we need to be fed and keep our life alive when we feel like we are shriveling up and sometimes, honestly, giving up.

As we begin another calendar year, it might behoove us to reflect about the motley crews we are each a part of. Not only should we think about the individuals who make up these crews, we need to thank God for them even when, perhaps especially when, they drive us up the wall and to distraction. The truth is that, even as we sometimes are reluctant to admit it, we often return the compliment.

How our daughter’s friend responds to Arlena’s “motley crew” revelation remains to be seen. It’s in his hands. So, too, is it for us to those motely crews to which we belong.

THE HOUND OF HEAVEN

Jack, a boyhood friend, and I were emailing back and forth to set a date to get together before the holidays set in. After we set the date and place, his and Kathy’s home, he talked to his brother Tom and mentioned that Arlena and I were coming over for dinner. Tom said that he had been listening to Sirius XM a few days before and heard a song by The Vogues that he remembers me using in a sermon forty-four years ago and remembered what it was about!

Jack went on in his email to ask me about a poem that has been haunting him almost as long, if not longer, Francis Thompson’s The Hound of Heaven. I said that I remember it well because it was the favorite poem of my high school English teacher. I also said that as famous as that poem is, I did not like it back then and I still don’t, mainly because I am not a fan of poetry.

After I sent my email, I found the poem online and read it again. I still don’t like it. It takes too much work to decipher, but I suppose that is what all good poems are to do: make us ponder the words, wrestle with their meaning, make them part of our being. I don’t want to work that hard: give it to me plain and simple…and make it rhyme.

Nevertheless, I worked my way through the poem and have to admit that while it was difficult to get through, it was and is worth it. The truth is, the imagery Thompson paints has remained with me since high school. In fact, it is so vivid that it is indeed very memorable and unforgettable no matter how difficult the poem.

The picture Thompson paints, at least for me, is about me, about my sometimes relationship with God. The truth and the reason why the poem is so famous is that the poem speaks to every one of us and our often relationship to God. We all, if I may be so bold to include every believer, spend an inordinate amount of time running away from God, running away from our responsibilities to live as God wants us to live, as we know we should be living, as we truly want to live.

The saving grace is that God, The Hound of Heaven, keeps chasing us down, never lets us get too far away. Eventually we stop running away and start back towards the Hound. Would that we remain that way. But we do not. All too often we turn tail and run away once again; and once again the Hound sets out after us, catches up to us and brings us back home.

The good news is that the chases are fewer and further between as we grow older and wiser, but they never end. That’s what sin is all about: our going after what we know and the Hound knows we want but do not need, after what is harmful to us and others but what seems so delicious and desirous.

And why would the Hound of Heaven give up on us, stop chasing after us? After all, the Hound loves us so much that he sent his son to give his life for us because of his love for us. What’s a little chase now and then?

PEACE ON EARTH

The message of the angels on that first Christmas morning was a message of peace, peace on earth, the whole earth and not simply that part of the earth where the Christ Child was born. The message was – and is – that Jesus was born among us to bring peace to a very divisive and divided world. Yet when we observe our own world, the world of 2012, not much has changed. And there is certainly not peace on earth, far from it.

What happened? Was Jesus a failure? Of course not! Those who failed and who continue to fail are those who profess the name “Christian”. We are the ones, we and our ancestors in the faith, we are the ones who have failed to bring peace on earth. Jesus did not come to bring peace in his own person but, in his own person, came to show us how to bring peace to this world.

Jesus’ “How to” manual was not all that difficult back then and it is not all that difficult today. It has not been updated nor is it out of date, nor was it ever. To bring peace to this world, to have peace on earth, all one need do is follow Jesus’ example, namely, to love everyone all the time. That does not mean that we ignore behavior that is not peaceful, that we do not name sin as sin. Jesus did not and neither should we.

What it does mean is that peace on earth only comes when each one of us lives our lives as Jesus lived his. The reason why there is not peace today is that we have not so lived our lives in such a manner, not since Jesus’ time and not today. The fact that we have not does not mean that living such a life is an impossibility. It simply means that we have not lived such a life.

If nothing else, that should give us pause, especially at this time of the year when the celebration of that angelic annunciation is upon us. While it is easy to look around us, around our world, and note the lack of real peace among nations and among people and bemoan the truth that we have failed to live up to Jesus’ teaching and example both individually and collectively, that is only for starters.

Part of the meaning and message of Christmas as well as that angelic salutation is for each of us to pause for a while and take some serious reflective time to examine our own peace-making responsibilities. Individually we cannot bring peace to this world but we can bring peace to our very small corner of the world. We can live in such a way that we are bearers of peace and not bearers of division.

“Blessed are the peacemakers, “Jesus once said. After observing the world in which we live, someone once added to Jesus’ words: “Blessed are the peacemakers for they will never run out of work to do.” Unfortunately, sadly, the peace on earth the angels proclaimed and that Jesus modeled, that peace will never be a reality in this world given our sinfulness.

That fact, however, does not excuse us who call ourselves Christians from doing what we can to be peacemakers in any and every way we can. We have lots of work to do.

WHERE HAVE ALL THE ANGELS GONE?

This is not a rant. It is a reality and I am not certain if I wished it were not, or not. The reality is that Christmas has become both a holy day and a holiday, separate and not always equal. In fact, in all truth, no rant intended, the holiday seriously trumps the holy day. It is not even close. The holiday lasts, these days anyway, over a month. The holy day lasts hardly a day even if or when it is celebrated.

A further truth is that the vast majority of people who celebrate the holiday do not celebrate the holy day. For them the holy day, Christmas Day,  is all about the holiday and nothing more. What is more, they barely even realize or recognize the fact that the holiday was once dependent on the holy day and is the result of the holy day. And they do not care.

Even the merchants of the holiday have forgotten this fact. This became even clearer to me while Arlena and I did some holiday shopping. We have a custom of giving our daughters a holiday gift, an inexpensive gift as a reminder of both the holiday and the holy day. One of our daughters has been receiving an angel. Try as we might, nowhere in the store after store we entered looking for an angel gift did we find any angels. I wondered, “Where have all the angels gone?” There were lots of snow men, Santas in abundance, Christmas elves everywhere, but there were no angels let alone Baby Jesus’s.

A further truth is that many of those who realize, who fully understand that the holy day is the reason for the holiday, that, as is often said, “Jesus is the reason for the season,” themselves do not celebrate the holy day. Christmas has, even for them, become solely a holiday. Not only have all the angels gone away, so has the celebration of the birth of Jesus taken a holiday, if you will.

Now I fully understand and even give thanks for the fact that the spirit of the holy day is very much a part of the spirit of the holiday. That spirit can be found in most of those who line up hours ahead on Black Friday to grab the Door-buster Specials that are being offered to lure them into the stores to buy and buy and buy. We seem to be kinder and more courteous this holiday season even as we are often more frazzled than ever trying to get ready to celebrate the holiday. The spirit and meaning of the holy day are alive amid the holiday frenzy.

This is good, but is it enough? Should we not take some time, and it really is not that much time – an hour or so – to truly celebrate the holy day, the way it should be celebrated, with worship? This is not meant to be a guilt trip so much as it is a reminder that giving thanks to God for the many blessings that we have all received, undeserved blessing at that, thanks for being able to celebrate the holiday in the way we do, should be a no-brainer. Should be.

The holy day will be here soon. Will we be among those who give no thought of it and simply celebrate the holiday or will we be those who celebrate it with thanks, thanks for the both the holy day and the holiday?

SERMONS, SHEPHERDS AND SHEEP

Bishop McConnell began his Convention Sermon last month that he based on Jesus the Good Shepherd Gospel passage by proclaiming, “I am not the Good Shepherd.”  He repeated that statement at least twice and then had all of us in the congregation say it along with him. To be honest, that is all I remember about his sermon. That is no reflection either on the sermon or on our Bishop. Most of the time, come Wednesday morning, I can’t remember what I preached about the preceding Sunday.

In fact, the fact that I can remember anything the Bishop said makes it a memorable sermon. I dare say that all of us have heard what we would call great sermons over the years and, in truth, can’t remember any of them no matter how great, how moving, how inspiring, how anything the sermon or sermons might have been at the time. It’s the nature of the beast.

So, if no one ever truly remembers what we say in a sermon, why do we insist on preaching in the first place? Is it simply an ego thing, namely that we like to hear ourselves speak and believe that we actually move hearts and minds with our words? Perhaps. Yet the reality is that sermons are teaching tools both for the preacher and those preached to. Every once in a while something is said that resonates with a hearer or two and that is enough. If most sermons fall on mostly deaf ears, so be it. One person getting something out of a sermon is enough to make the sermon worth preaching.

It was worth all the Bishop’s work in preparing his sermon even if I am the only one who remembers what he said and if all I remember those words, “I am not the Good Shepherd.” I, for one, at that moment in time, needed to be reminded that I am not the Good Shepherd. Only Jesus is. And yet, I am a shepherd. How good I am at shepherding is another question, one that I cannot answer. Only the sheep I shepherd can answer that question. If I want to know that answer, I will have to ask.

On further reflection, which is what makes the Bishop’s sermon memorable for me, I am also reminded that not only am I a shepherd, I am also a sheep who is to be shepherded. In fact, we all are. We are, each and every one of us both shepherd and sheep. Our faith in The Good Shepherd reminds us that we are called to watch over those entrusted to our care just as there are those who are called to watch over us because we have been entrusted to their care. We are to shepherds and to be shepherded.

There are no exceptions even as we at times wish there were, wish that we were. There are times when we wish we did not have to look after those over whom we have been placed as a shepherd because the work and time demanded is too hard. On the other hand, there are times when we wish our shepherd would go away and leave us alone because we want to live the way we want to live and not the way our shepherd is reminding us that we should live.

Shepherds and sheep, we are both. Whether that was the point of the Bishop’s sermon or not, he at least made me think about it. That was enough.