Wow.. what amazing people there are at Messiah and so much to be thankful for ...... Danny McKee for the beauty products and services from Bushire Salon...the winner of the drawing was Claire Stoneman - she is already beautiful but will enjoy a day relaxing and getting ready for Christmas. Esther and Frank Lopez for the weekend in Palm Springs...the winner of the drawing was Rosario Casares - the whole family is so excited and will have a fun weekend at the beautiful resort. THANK YOU to all who participated and for supporting this medical mission trip. We raised almost $1000 with this event. Everyone has been so wonderful and the entire Nicaragua team appreciates the generosity of the Messiah family.
Now we are in the final preparations for the trip and will begin packing the dental, school and craft supplies that we are taking with us. We are planning many fun activities for the children in addition to the health screening we will be doing with the medical team in Nicaragua... and we are getting excited.
by Carol Harvey
November 20, 2011 - Father Mark D. Stuart
May I speak in the Name of God Who is: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
It was the Franciscans, the followers of the poor little man from Assisi, who led the Church to designate this last Sunday of the Christian year the Feast of Christ the King. So, today we all gather to celebrate the reign of Christ. Our music is filled with images of Kings and Kingdoms and Kingship. Our prayers are filled with royal themes. The Scriptures proclaimed today likewise speak to the theme.
We’re not supposed to like royalty in this country ever since our forbearers decided in 1776 that we could live quite well without kings and prelates, thank you very much! But there is something about the idea that still appeals to us (even more so among Anglophile Anglicans). It is the British royal family that continues to capture our imagination and interest, whether it was the abdication of Edward VIII or the death of Princess Diana, the maturing of the young princes William and Harry and this year the royal wedding of Prince William and Kate Middelton, not to mention all the fuss when they visited Southern California not long after. It seems like we are all inclined to join in the words of the number from the popular Broadway musical Camelot, “I wonder what the king is doing tonight.” Today, however, we celebrate a different sort of King.
This Feast of Christ the King, the last Sunday of the Church year, the Sunday before Advent, celebrates the reign of Christ, the completion of the ministry of our Lord and the inauguration of his universal kingdom, the new age when all “the peoples of the earth, divided and enslaved by sin are brought together under his most gracious rule.” To live under the divine and just rule of God was the hope of most of the Old Testament. Much of the people’s longing was to have once again a king like David, the ideal king, beloved of God. Jews living during the time of Jesus needed a hope like this, a hope that life under God’s rule would be better than life under Roman rule; the Jews could remember the time of the Maccabees, only four generations back, when they controlled their own country. The people hoped for a political and religious restoration which would turn things back to the way they used to be.
None of these hopes came to fruition. God intervened, but not in the way anyone expected. When Pilate asked Jesus at His trial if he is a king, Jesus answered that his kingship is not of this world. The kingship of Christ celebrates the last victory, but it celebrates a victory that turned the expectations of kingship upside down. The Jesus we celebrate came in human history born as one of us, moreover born amongst the poor. We need to reaffirm our King in His Gospel integrity.
Let us dare to take a look at our King. Our King: born in a dirty stable because there was no lodging willing to take his family in. Our King: poor, powerless, and apparently uneducated. Our King: no army to command, no navy to deploy, to power to tax, no bureaucrats to order around, no pageantry, no court. Our King: clothed in sandals and a working man’s garb, no jewels, no finery, only dust and sweat. Our King: dying a shameful death on a cross, naked, jeered by the crowds, taunted by the soldiers, abandoned by friends. What a strange King. What a strange faith… Who could believe all this? Through the centuries, the answer to that is simple… people like you and me, that’s who!
We know our King and he know us and loves us. Our King walked from town to town, mingled with the common people, saw their needs and reached out his hand, knelt and washed his disciples’ feet. That is our strange King. When the King comes into the fullness of His kingdom his subjects will consist of those who ministered to Him in the manifestation of His lowliness. Job asked: “Can you by searching find God?” The reality of Christ’s message is that God lies hidden in our neighbor who needs our help.
Since most of us tire of just meeting the needs of people with whom we live and interact on a normal daily basis; the destitute, victims of war, AIDS patients, abused children, the elderly, or prisoners are easily forgotten.
St. Paul writing to the Church in Corinth said: “Consider your own call brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are, so that no one might boast in the presence of God.” These are the ones blessed by Christ the King.
I hope and pray that every faithful member of Messiah parish has come to accept the practical implications of Jesus’ kingship in their lives and in the corporate life of the parish. This means not only our doctrines and practices; but also the parish’s year-to-year programs and community outreach; all of its week-to-week activities and the budget which allows it all to happen are subject to Christ’s will and purpose. A parish that acknowledges Christ as its head cannot be a comfortable little closed community where people gather just for another social opportunity. Too often we Episcopalians have been rightly accused of having a “country club” mentality. I certainly don’t see that here at Messiah parish and as soon as I arrived here I was pleased to witness the open, welcoming attitude which characterizes this place. Christ commanded His Church to reach out to the community and throughout the Gospel story there stretches a motley array of people; mostly outcasts, the despised, the rejected and neglected, those at the end of their ropes to whom Jesus reached out and who allowed a holy, kingly encounter with Him to enter and transform their lives. And so we must follow the King in embracing the world with all its diversities and differences, in its pain and unpleasantness, concerned for all persons extending our arms in Gospel witness of loving service and in defense of their basic human dignity.
So, this is our King. This the One who forsook all regal privileges to enter the totality of human existence, literally to enter the realm of hunger, poverty, disease, and oppression as one of us. This is He Who when His own followers tried to keep sick women and little ragamuffin children away from Him says, “No, let them come to me. Anyone who cannot welcome them cannot welcome my kingdom.” Our King doesn’t sound at all like Emperor Constantine or Henry VIII. He does not look like the power brokers of our present age either, be they prime ministers, presidents, sports heroes, film stars, or software manufacturers. So, this Sunday we are called to consider who we choose to follow… it’s up to us, it’s our choice.
“When the Son of man comes in His glory, and all the angels with him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. Before Him will be gathered all the nations, and He will separate them one form another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and He will place the sheep at His right hand, but the goats on His left. Then the King will say to those at His right hand, “Come, O blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.”
Amen.
It was the Franciscans, the followers of the poor little man from Assisi, who led the Church to designate this last Sunday of the Christian year the Feast of Christ the King. So, today we all gather to celebrate the reign of Christ. Our music is filled with images of Kings and Kingdoms and Kingship. Our prayers are filled with royal themes. The Scriptures proclaimed today likewise speak to the theme.
We’re not supposed to like royalty in this country ever since our forbearers decided in 1776 that we could live quite well without kings and prelates, thank you very much! But there is something about the idea that still appeals to us (even more so among Anglophile Anglicans). It is the British royal family that continues to capture our imagination and interest, whether it was the abdication of Edward VIII or the death of Princess Diana, the maturing of the young princes William and Harry and this year the royal wedding of Prince William and Kate Middelton, not to mention all the fuss when they visited Southern California not long after. It seems like we are all inclined to join in the words of the number from the popular Broadway musical Camelot, “I wonder what the king is doing tonight.” Today, however, we celebrate a different sort of King.
This Feast of Christ the King, the last Sunday of the Church year, the Sunday before Advent, celebrates the reign of Christ, the completion of the ministry of our Lord and the inauguration of his universal kingdom, the new age when all “the peoples of the earth, divided and enslaved by sin are brought together under his most gracious rule.” To live under the divine and just rule of God was the hope of most of the Old Testament. Much of the people’s longing was to have once again a king like David, the ideal king, beloved of God. Jews living during the time of Jesus needed a hope like this, a hope that life under God’s rule would be better than life under Roman rule; the Jews could remember the time of the Maccabees, only four generations back, when they controlled their own country. The people hoped for a political and religious restoration which would turn things back to the way they used to be.
None of these hopes came to fruition. God intervened, but not in the way anyone expected. When Pilate asked Jesus at His trial if he is a king, Jesus answered that his kingship is not of this world. The kingship of Christ celebrates the last victory, but it celebrates a victory that turned the expectations of kingship upside down. The Jesus we celebrate came in human history born as one of us, moreover born amongst the poor. We need to reaffirm our King in His Gospel integrity.
Let us dare to take a look at our King. Our King: born in a dirty stable because there was no lodging willing to take his family in. Our King: poor, powerless, and apparently uneducated. Our King: no army to command, no navy to deploy, to power to tax, no bureaucrats to order around, no pageantry, no court. Our King: clothed in sandals and a working man’s garb, no jewels, no finery, only dust and sweat. Our King: dying a shameful death on a cross, naked, jeered by the crowds, taunted by the soldiers, abandoned by friends. What a strange King. What a strange faith… Who could believe all this? Through the centuries, the answer to that is simple… people like you and me, that’s who!
We know our King and he know us and loves us. Our King walked from town to town, mingled with the common people, saw their needs and reached out his hand, knelt and washed his disciples’ feet. That is our strange King. When the King comes into the fullness of His kingdom his subjects will consist of those who ministered to Him in the manifestation of His lowliness. Job asked: “Can you by searching find God?” The reality of Christ’s message is that God lies hidden in our neighbor who needs our help.
Since most of us tire of just meeting the needs of people with whom we live and interact on a normal daily basis; the destitute, victims of war, AIDS patients, abused children, the elderly, or prisoners are easily forgotten.
St. Paul writing to the Church in Corinth said: “Consider your own call brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are, so that no one might boast in the presence of God.” These are the ones blessed by Christ the King.
I hope and pray that every faithful member of Messiah parish has come to accept the practical implications of Jesus’ kingship in their lives and in the corporate life of the parish. This means not only our doctrines and practices; but also the parish’s year-to-year programs and community outreach; all of its week-to-week activities and the budget which allows it all to happen are subject to Christ’s will and purpose. A parish that acknowledges Christ as its head cannot be a comfortable little closed community where people gather just for another social opportunity. Too often we Episcopalians have been rightly accused of having a “country club” mentality. I certainly don’t see that here at Messiah parish and as soon as I arrived here I was pleased to witness the open, welcoming attitude which characterizes this place. Christ commanded His Church to reach out to the community and throughout the Gospel story there stretches a motley array of people; mostly outcasts, the despised, the rejected and neglected, those at the end of their ropes to whom Jesus reached out and who allowed a holy, kingly encounter with Him to enter and transform their lives. And so we must follow the King in embracing the world with all its diversities and differences, in its pain and unpleasantness, concerned for all persons extending our arms in Gospel witness of loving service and in defense of their basic human dignity.
So, this is our King. This the One who forsook all regal privileges to enter the totality of human existence, literally to enter the realm of hunger, poverty, disease, and oppression as one of us. This is He Who when His own followers tried to keep sick women and little ragamuffin children away from Him says, “No, let them come to me. Anyone who cannot welcome them cannot welcome my kingdom.” Our King doesn’t sound at all like Emperor Constantine or Henry VIII. He does not look like the power brokers of our present age either, be they prime ministers, presidents, sports heroes, film stars, or software manufacturers. So, this Sunday we are called to consider who we choose to follow… it’s up to us, it’s our choice.
“When the Son of man comes in His glory, and all the angels with him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. Before Him will be gathered all the nations, and He will separate them one form another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and He will place the sheep at His right hand, but the goats on His left. Then the King will say to those at His right hand, “Come, O blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.”
Amen.
November 13, 2011 - The Reverend Carolyn Estrada
It’s jarring to hear this morning’s Gospel lesson against the current reality of our lives: the media accounts of corporate greed and the populous “Occupy Wall Street”; the rising number of un- and under-employed and uninsured; the shock of opening our own quarterly statements to find that we have lost more than we have invested in the last several months… That’s our “weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth!”
Here is the face of our economy in our own parish:
We wonder if the recipient of one talent weren’t just being prudent – one talent would buy a lot of food or medicine in an emergency! So it is shocking to hear Jesus castigating the man who “played it safe,” saving his talent, and apparently lauding the risk-takers, the investors. It all sounds a bit like the “Prosperity Gospel”: Jesus wants you to be rich! Send money, and wealth will come to you!”
It doesn’t seem like the Jesus we have come to know: the one who up-ends the traditional values, drawing the marginalized to the center, exalting the lowly, saying the first shall be last and the last shall be first. THAT Jesus is more reflective of the parable by Kafka in which a thief breaks into a department store in the middle of the night, and, instead of stealing anything, simply re-arranges the price tags, so that the next morning shoppers are surprised and delighted to find that diamonds now cost a dollar, and ceramic mugs and key chains demand thousands.
As followers of Jesus, we’ve gotten used to those re-arranged price-tags, so now we’re confused! What is Jesus doing, rewarding the investors? Validating once again the truism that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer?
Ah, but the translation of money as “talent” gives us an out! Of course – this isn’t about economics! We needn’t read this literally, as money. (Or, perhaps, we should read this literally, as talents!) God has given us each gifts, aptitudes and abilities, to use, to share: playing the piano, singing, drawing, cooking, writing poetry, fixing things… Suddenly we are more comfortable. Of course: we are to use our God-given abilities – and many of us do: the choir we so enjoy, for example, or the many other individuals whose time and talent maintain the infrastructure of this old building and its ministries…
But since when do Jesus’ teachings make us comfortable?!! I think focusing on money – or on talents as gifts and abilities – is to take the easy way out of this difficult passage. What we lose sight of in the focus on economics or the focus on aptitude and ability is the fact that a “talent” – just one talent, let alone two or five! – was a veritable treasure – an amazing amount of money, an amount of money unimaginable to Jesus’ hearers then – or to us today. Think Bill Gates. Think Fort Knox. Think our national debt. Think “treasure.”
Treasure. There’s the focus. Not on money. Not on aptitudes and abilities. Treasure. That which is of immeasurable value. Jesus has spoken of treasure before: the pearl without price; the treasure buried in the field. This isn’t a matter of simple – or complicated! – economics, nor of the development of our assorted gifts and abilities. This is about how we use that which is of immeasurable value, a treasure given to us, entrusted to us.
We all have treasure in our lives, of course. Family. Health. Home, job, lifestyle… Ask the victims of any natural disaster or health crisis about the treasure in their lives… What is the treasure in our life? What do we save, value, take with us, guard and keep? Is it the fine china we only occasionally use for fear it will break? Often it is the crisis which helps us know what it is we value, which helps us shed the detritus of our lives and realize what is truly meaningful.
Think for a moment of the treasure in your life. In your mind’s eye, peel away the layers of what you are and what you have. Consider: what is “unpeelable”? What can’t be taken away from you? What is left underneath everything else?
Your relationship with God. God’s gift to us in the incarnation, in Jesus. We were each given the gift of Jesus, that treasure of immeasurable value, in our baptism. There is our windfall! We are washed in water in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and voila! We are in possession of this amazing gift!
And, because many of us were too young to remember our own baptisms, every time as a community we baptize someone, we all renew our own baptismal vows. We revisit that time of gift-giving in our own lives.
Consider for a moment your own baptism. Hold it in your mind’s eye. As the waters of baptism washed over you then, let the magnum of the event wash over you now. You have been sealed as Christ’s own forever! Allow yourself to experience it as the treasure it is.
What are the feelings evoked? Do we receive it with excitement, this treasure of our baptism? Are we filled with plans, eager with anticipation? Confident that we can accomplish with God that which we could never do alone? Are we breathless? In awe, anxious – or perhaps even frightened of the responsibility? Or have we sunk into complacency, not even realizing the treasure we possess? How do we feel?
Today’s Gospel lesson challenges us to recognize the gift for the treasure it indeed is, and to consider how we use that gift.
Not “use” as in outcome – at the end of your life no one is going to tally the Sundays you’ve been to church, or the amount of money you’ve donated, or the number of converts you have made! Notice that the servant who received two talents and the servant who received five talents are rewarded identically. To each the response of the master is, “Well done, good and faithful servant… enter into the joy of your master.”
The servants have been praised for their faithfulness, not for having doubled the talents their master gave them. Even so, we servants, baptized into life in Jesus, are responsible for being faithful to the gift of that baptism, honoring it, living it, bringing forth the life of Jesus Christ through us: not losing it in the busy-ness and distractions of our day-to-day living, or burying it in some forgotten recess of our lives.
How do we keep that gift real? Alive? How do we live the import of that gift in a culture which seduces us with so many false gods and insubstantial “treasures”? How can we be faithful to the gift?
Jesus tells us that faithfulness involves risk; not simply hanging onto what we have, but investing it, putting it out there, allowing it to grow. Jesus tells us there is more to honoring the gift than coming to church on Sunday mornings because it “makes us feel good.”
He challenges us, like the servants with the talents, to invest our treasure! And we do that. Messiah has community outreach and social justice “down pat”, and most of us are comfortable with what we do! But with words? Now, there we’re a bit more uncomfortable…
Tell someone about my treasure?
Share the Good News of Jesus?
Pray with someone?
Invite someone to church?
There’s our challenge!
I read recently that Vincent Van Gogh, more re-known for his art than his pithy remarks, once commented: “One may have a blazing hearth in one’s soul and yet no one ever came to sit by it. Passers-by see only a wisp of smoke from the chimney and continue on their way.” I wonder if that describes us as Christians? We have in our soul the blazing hearth of our baptism. Do people see only the wisp of smoke when we could be inviting them in to sit by the fire?
Walter Bruggemann writes:
We will not keep silent.
We are the people who must sing you,
For the sake of our very lives.
You are a God who must be sung by us,
For the sake of your majesty and honor…
We are witnesses to your mercy and splendor;
We will not keep silent…ever again.
Jesus, our master, has given us each a great treasure. May we be faithful servants.
Amen.
Here is the face of our economy in our own parish:
- A desperate man coming to the window in the office for help with a prescription. He spends his days, sick or well, in the parking lot of Home Depot, hoping to pick up jobs as a day laborer.
- A couple at coffee hour talking about their fear and insecurity as they live from paycheck to paycheck, knowing that they have nothing to fall back on in an emergency.
- A retired couple confiding that their decrease in income with this economic downturn has meant that some months they have to make decisions between food and medicine.
We wonder if the recipient of one talent weren’t just being prudent – one talent would buy a lot of food or medicine in an emergency! So it is shocking to hear Jesus castigating the man who “played it safe,” saving his talent, and apparently lauding the risk-takers, the investors. It all sounds a bit like the “Prosperity Gospel”: Jesus wants you to be rich! Send money, and wealth will come to you!”
It doesn’t seem like the Jesus we have come to know: the one who up-ends the traditional values, drawing the marginalized to the center, exalting the lowly, saying the first shall be last and the last shall be first. THAT Jesus is more reflective of the parable by Kafka in which a thief breaks into a department store in the middle of the night, and, instead of stealing anything, simply re-arranges the price tags, so that the next morning shoppers are surprised and delighted to find that diamonds now cost a dollar, and ceramic mugs and key chains demand thousands.
As followers of Jesus, we’ve gotten used to those re-arranged price-tags, so now we’re confused! What is Jesus doing, rewarding the investors? Validating once again the truism that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer?
Ah, but the translation of money as “talent” gives us an out! Of course – this isn’t about economics! We needn’t read this literally, as money. (Or, perhaps, we should read this literally, as talents!) God has given us each gifts, aptitudes and abilities, to use, to share: playing the piano, singing, drawing, cooking, writing poetry, fixing things… Suddenly we are more comfortable. Of course: we are to use our God-given abilities – and many of us do: the choir we so enjoy, for example, or the many other individuals whose time and talent maintain the infrastructure of this old building and its ministries…
But since when do Jesus’ teachings make us comfortable?!! I think focusing on money – or on talents as gifts and abilities – is to take the easy way out of this difficult passage. What we lose sight of in the focus on economics or the focus on aptitude and ability is the fact that a “talent” – just one talent, let alone two or five! – was a veritable treasure – an amazing amount of money, an amount of money unimaginable to Jesus’ hearers then – or to us today. Think Bill Gates. Think Fort Knox. Think our national debt. Think “treasure.”
Treasure. There’s the focus. Not on money. Not on aptitudes and abilities. Treasure. That which is of immeasurable value. Jesus has spoken of treasure before: the pearl without price; the treasure buried in the field. This isn’t a matter of simple – or complicated! – economics, nor of the development of our assorted gifts and abilities. This is about how we use that which is of immeasurable value, a treasure given to us, entrusted to us.
We all have treasure in our lives, of course. Family. Health. Home, job, lifestyle… Ask the victims of any natural disaster or health crisis about the treasure in their lives… What is the treasure in our life? What do we save, value, take with us, guard and keep? Is it the fine china we only occasionally use for fear it will break? Often it is the crisis which helps us know what it is we value, which helps us shed the detritus of our lives and realize what is truly meaningful.
Think for a moment of the treasure in your life. In your mind’s eye, peel away the layers of what you are and what you have. Consider: what is “unpeelable”? What can’t be taken away from you? What is left underneath everything else?
Your relationship with God. God’s gift to us in the incarnation, in Jesus. We were each given the gift of Jesus, that treasure of immeasurable value, in our baptism. There is our windfall! We are washed in water in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and voila! We are in possession of this amazing gift!
And, because many of us were too young to remember our own baptisms, every time as a community we baptize someone, we all renew our own baptismal vows. We revisit that time of gift-giving in our own lives.
Consider for a moment your own baptism. Hold it in your mind’s eye. As the waters of baptism washed over you then, let the magnum of the event wash over you now. You have been sealed as Christ’s own forever! Allow yourself to experience it as the treasure it is.
What are the feelings evoked? Do we receive it with excitement, this treasure of our baptism? Are we filled with plans, eager with anticipation? Confident that we can accomplish with God that which we could never do alone? Are we breathless? In awe, anxious – or perhaps even frightened of the responsibility? Or have we sunk into complacency, not even realizing the treasure we possess? How do we feel?
Today’s Gospel lesson challenges us to recognize the gift for the treasure it indeed is, and to consider how we use that gift.
Not “use” as in outcome – at the end of your life no one is going to tally the Sundays you’ve been to church, or the amount of money you’ve donated, or the number of converts you have made! Notice that the servant who received two talents and the servant who received five talents are rewarded identically. To each the response of the master is, “Well done, good and faithful servant… enter into the joy of your master.”
The servants have been praised for their faithfulness, not for having doubled the talents their master gave them. Even so, we servants, baptized into life in Jesus, are responsible for being faithful to the gift of that baptism, honoring it, living it, bringing forth the life of Jesus Christ through us: not losing it in the busy-ness and distractions of our day-to-day living, or burying it in some forgotten recess of our lives.
How do we keep that gift real? Alive? How do we live the import of that gift in a culture which seduces us with so many false gods and insubstantial “treasures”? How can we be faithful to the gift?
Jesus tells us that faithfulness involves risk; not simply hanging onto what we have, but investing it, putting it out there, allowing it to grow. Jesus tells us there is more to honoring the gift than coming to church on Sunday mornings because it “makes us feel good.”
He challenges us, like the servants with the talents, to invest our treasure! And we do that. Messiah has community outreach and social justice “down pat”, and most of us are comfortable with what we do! But with words? Now, there we’re a bit more uncomfortable…
Tell someone about my treasure?
Share the Good News of Jesus?
Pray with someone?
Invite someone to church?
There’s our challenge!
I read recently that Vincent Van Gogh, more re-known for his art than his pithy remarks, once commented: “One may have a blazing hearth in one’s soul and yet no one ever came to sit by it. Passers-by see only a wisp of smoke from the chimney and continue on their way.” I wonder if that describes us as Christians? We have in our soul the blazing hearth of our baptism. Do people see only the wisp of smoke when we could be inviting them in to sit by the fire?
Walter Bruggemann writes:
We will not keep silent.
We are the people who must sing you,
For the sake of our very lives.
You are a God who must be sung by us,
For the sake of your majesty and honor…
We are witnesses to your mercy and splendor;
We will not keep silent…ever again.
Jesus, our master, has given us each a great treasure. May we be faithful servants.
Amen.
Thanksgiving Day Eucharist
10 a.m.
The Thanksgiving offering will go to Catholic Worker. The Orange County home of Catholic Worker in Santa Ana offers hot meal and Christian hospitality to the homeless population. We are seeing more and more mothers with little children. To make a donation that will go directly to the purchase of food for the Catholic Worker ministry, please contact the church office.
The Thanksgiving offering will go to Catholic Worker. The Orange County home of Catholic Worker in Santa Ana offers hot meal and Christian hospitality to the homeless population. We are seeing more and more mothers with little children. To make a donation that will go directly to the purchase of food for the Catholic Worker ministry, please contact the church office.
Parish Posada
Saturday
December 17
th,
5:30 p.m.
Children from our 12 noon membership offer a Presentación or Christmas Pageant in Spanish. We process with Mary and Joseph to neighborhood homes, seeking shelter for them, then return for fabulous tamales and a piñata for the children. Bring a flashlight, comfortable shoes, and a warm jacket.
Children from our 12 noon membership offer a Presentación or Christmas Pageant in Spanish. We process with Mary and Joseph to neighborhood homes, seeking shelter for them, then return for fabulous tamales and a piñata for the children. Bring a flashlight, comfortable shoes, and a warm jacket.
Advent Family Workshop
Sunday,
November
27
Crafts for kids of all ages.
4 - 7p.m. Potluck Dinner at 5:30 p.m.
Bring something to share and enjoy a fun evening for the whole family (even if that’s only you!).
In the Parish Hall
Crafts for kids of all ages.
4 - 7p.m. Potluck Dinner at 5:30 p.m.
Bring something to share and enjoy a fun evening for the whole family (even if that’s only you!).
In the Parish Hall
Advent Eucharist Services
Wednesday Mornings beginning
November 30
Eucharist is followed by a light breakfast or lunch and Book Discussion in the Conference Room. Find time in your busy week to meditate and pray about the real meaning of Christmas.
- at 6:30 a.m. followed by breakfast
- and at 12:05 p.m. followed by lunch
Eucharist is followed by a light breakfast or lunch and Book Discussion in the Conference Room. Find time in your busy week to meditate and pray about the real meaning of Christmas.
November 6, 2011 - Father Mark D. Stuart
May I speak in the Name of God who is: Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Amen.
For those of you who have ever had an indoor-outdoor cat or dog, it can sometimes be a challenge in the morning, or any other time of day for that matter, giving your animal friend the opportunity to go out or to stay in. There is the sniffing of the air, the tentative testing of the temperature or precipitation, and having to make up one’s mind if going outside was really the desire, after all. Over the years with our feline companions, Bob and I came to recognize this routine.
In these indecisive feline moments, depending on the kind of mood we were in, or if it was a winter morning with cold air blowing on our bare feet, and if we were unsuccessful in verbal coaxing, we had to make the decision for them: they were either nudged out the door or pulled back in to stay inside. Thus, Bob and I were not only primary care-givers: providers of meals and treats, and attention, affection, and love; but we were our cats’ doorkeepers. We ultimately determined when they would go out and when they would come in.
In a similar way, some of us are regularly going to the door and pushing some people out and inviting others in. We determine that certain people belong inside with us and others don’t. We do it as individuals; we do it as churches; we do it as communities. We divide people into friends or foes, saints or sinners, attractive or unappealing. We are doorkeepers, not only for our animal companions, but for people as well.
Yet in order to follow Jesus and hearken to His words specifically conveyed in the Beatitudes from today’s Gospel lesson, we must be willing to give up our self-appointed role as doorkeepers. What He is basically saying is that everyone who is in will be out and everyone who is out will be in. Jesus has taken the door off its hinges. The two distinct groups, the “haves” and the have-nots,” will be constantly changing places with each other until they become indistinguishable.
If the question is asked, “What is it exactly that you want out of life?” most people in our society would probably respond that they want to be rich, they want to have plenty to eat, they want to be happy, and they want others to admire them (usually because they are better looking, have a better body, or are more charming, talented, intelligent, or successful). If those are the things you also want out of life, then today’s Gospel should come as a terrible shock to you! Jesus says in no uncertain terms that it is the poor, the hungry, the sad, the rejected who are blessed. So, what you want out of life makes a difference when it comes to whether you are blessed or not.
In the original Greek of the New Testament, the word we translate as “blessed” is makarios. It had a variety of connotations, but in all its meanings, the blessed ones clearly existed on a higher plane the rest of the people: they were either gods, or they were humans who had gone to that other world of the gods; or they were the “upper crust” of society; or they were those whose supposed righteousness brought them many possessions. But Jesus uses makarios in a totally different way. It is not the elite, the rich and powerful, the high and mighty, the beautiful and buff, the possessors of many things who are blessed, though it may appear so by the world’s standards… Rather, it is the lowly, the poor, the hungry, the sobbing, the unattractive ones looked down on… who are the truly blessed.
Sadly, many really don’t want to hear this, because they’ve created a set of values which command their energies and desires, like insatiable addictions. Admittedly, it’s hard to contradict the values of the society and culture in which we live; where our role models are those celebrities and pro-athletes who seem to have attained all the “blessedness” one would ever hope to have in life; no matter how transitory or how many of the famous, mighty, and wealthy constantly fall off their pedestals. But the fact is, Jesus so strongly declares, that when you let the world call the shots for you, offering you the final word about the meaning and significance in life, you will not be blessed and will instead be relegated to hopelessness and despair.
Today is All Saints’ Sunday, when we as Christians celebrate a different set of celebrities and role-models, who lived by a different set of standards than those promoted by common notions of popularity and success. In the New Testament “saint” (small “s”) is a term used for all faithful believers. In many languages the word for saint and for holy are the same, or very similar (like in Spanish, for instance – “santo”); clearly indicating that all Christians are holy by virtue of their baptism.
The marvel is that we imperfect, deeply flawed human beings can be called by God, who alone is holy. And given the fact that in Jesus the world’s values are turned topsy-turvy; the role models we are given as His followers don’t drive the fastest most expensive cars, live in lavish homes, have the biggest bust or biceps, and command the most prestige. Confronting this “all about me” lifestyle are those new role models, the makarios, the blessed ones Jesus refers to; they are our new role models, the Saints. They exemplify the perfect stewardship to which God calls all of us.
The late noted Episcopal theologian, William Stringfellow described the Saints as “those men and women who relish the event of life as a gift and who realize that the only way to honor such a gift is to give it away.” The Church Catholic has declared these wonderful folk as bright examples for us in something that is really quite simple: namely, a deep and abiding faith in Jesus Christ, a faith that issued forth in actions, more often than not leading to their deaths, frequently under painful circumstances.
These are not remote inapproachable people; these are people like you and me who chose to do the right thing at the right time in a multitude of situations and cultures across the globe spanning the ages… they did not choose the easy way, they chose the right way… They are the ones recognized through their example by the Church on the date of their death (which is really their date of birth to the glorious life in heaven), a specially dedicated annual remembrance to them, their Feast Day, a practice going back to the Christian victims of the pagan Roman persecutions in the earliest days of Church.
On All Saint’s, we remember all of them collectively as that great company of saints which surrounds us like a cloud of witnesses, so beautifully portrayed in the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in downtown LA, on the tapestries which line the nave, with Saints from the ages facing in procession toward the high altar. Because we Christians believe in the eternal life offered us by our Lord’s Resurrection, we know that the Saints continue to live and exercise even more compassion and care in their new heavenly existence. Just as we freely ask for prayers from our close friends, parish, and loved ones, so too we ask the prayers of the Saints…the intercessions of the Holy Ones is nothing different than asking someone you love and who loves you, to pray for you.
And so we celebrate the Blessed Ones today… all the Saints on earth and all the Saints in heaven, with all the Saints who have gone before us and all the Saints who will come after us. We rejoice this day in the communion of Saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. We rejoice that the “doorkeeper” of souls is Jesus Christ our Lord, who pronounces true “blessedness.” We rejoice in God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit for having called us into God’s blessing and for having given us a totally new way of looking at life… a way which turns out, to be the only way there truly is.
Amen.
For those of you who have ever had an indoor-outdoor cat or dog, it can sometimes be a challenge in the morning, or any other time of day for that matter, giving your animal friend the opportunity to go out or to stay in. There is the sniffing of the air, the tentative testing of the temperature or precipitation, and having to make up one’s mind if going outside was really the desire, after all. Over the years with our feline companions, Bob and I came to recognize this routine.
In these indecisive feline moments, depending on the kind of mood we were in, or if it was a winter morning with cold air blowing on our bare feet, and if we were unsuccessful in verbal coaxing, we had to make the decision for them: they were either nudged out the door or pulled back in to stay inside. Thus, Bob and I were not only primary care-givers: providers of meals and treats, and attention, affection, and love; but we were our cats’ doorkeepers. We ultimately determined when they would go out and when they would come in.
In a similar way, some of us are regularly going to the door and pushing some people out and inviting others in. We determine that certain people belong inside with us and others don’t. We do it as individuals; we do it as churches; we do it as communities. We divide people into friends or foes, saints or sinners, attractive or unappealing. We are doorkeepers, not only for our animal companions, but for people as well.
Yet in order to follow Jesus and hearken to His words specifically conveyed in the Beatitudes from today’s Gospel lesson, we must be willing to give up our self-appointed role as doorkeepers. What He is basically saying is that everyone who is in will be out and everyone who is out will be in. Jesus has taken the door off its hinges. The two distinct groups, the “haves” and the have-nots,” will be constantly changing places with each other until they become indistinguishable.
If the question is asked, “What is it exactly that you want out of life?” most people in our society would probably respond that they want to be rich, they want to have plenty to eat, they want to be happy, and they want others to admire them (usually because they are better looking, have a better body, or are more charming, talented, intelligent, or successful). If those are the things you also want out of life, then today’s Gospel should come as a terrible shock to you! Jesus says in no uncertain terms that it is the poor, the hungry, the sad, the rejected who are blessed. So, what you want out of life makes a difference when it comes to whether you are blessed or not.
In the original Greek of the New Testament, the word we translate as “blessed” is makarios. It had a variety of connotations, but in all its meanings, the blessed ones clearly existed on a higher plane the rest of the people: they were either gods, or they were humans who had gone to that other world of the gods; or they were the “upper crust” of society; or they were those whose supposed righteousness brought them many possessions. But Jesus uses makarios in a totally different way. It is not the elite, the rich and powerful, the high and mighty, the beautiful and buff, the possessors of many things who are blessed, though it may appear so by the world’s standards… Rather, it is the lowly, the poor, the hungry, the sobbing, the unattractive ones looked down on… who are the truly blessed.
Sadly, many really don’t want to hear this, because they’ve created a set of values which command their energies and desires, like insatiable addictions. Admittedly, it’s hard to contradict the values of the society and culture in which we live; where our role models are those celebrities and pro-athletes who seem to have attained all the “blessedness” one would ever hope to have in life; no matter how transitory or how many of the famous, mighty, and wealthy constantly fall off their pedestals. But the fact is, Jesus so strongly declares, that when you let the world call the shots for you, offering you the final word about the meaning and significance in life, you will not be blessed and will instead be relegated to hopelessness and despair.
Today is All Saints’ Sunday, when we as Christians celebrate a different set of celebrities and role-models, who lived by a different set of standards than those promoted by common notions of popularity and success. In the New Testament “saint” (small “s”) is a term used for all faithful believers. In many languages the word for saint and for holy are the same, or very similar (like in Spanish, for instance – “santo”); clearly indicating that all Christians are holy by virtue of their baptism.
The marvel is that we imperfect, deeply flawed human beings can be called by God, who alone is holy. And given the fact that in Jesus the world’s values are turned topsy-turvy; the role models we are given as His followers don’t drive the fastest most expensive cars, live in lavish homes, have the biggest bust or biceps, and command the most prestige. Confronting this “all about me” lifestyle are those new role models, the makarios, the blessed ones Jesus refers to; they are our new role models, the Saints. They exemplify the perfect stewardship to which God calls all of us.
The late noted Episcopal theologian, William Stringfellow described the Saints as “those men and women who relish the event of life as a gift and who realize that the only way to honor such a gift is to give it away.” The Church Catholic has declared these wonderful folk as bright examples for us in something that is really quite simple: namely, a deep and abiding faith in Jesus Christ, a faith that issued forth in actions, more often than not leading to their deaths, frequently under painful circumstances.
These are not remote inapproachable people; these are people like you and me who chose to do the right thing at the right time in a multitude of situations and cultures across the globe spanning the ages… they did not choose the easy way, they chose the right way… They are the ones recognized through their example by the Church on the date of their death (which is really their date of birth to the glorious life in heaven), a specially dedicated annual remembrance to them, their Feast Day, a practice going back to the Christian victims of the pagan Roman persecutions in the earliest days of Church.
On All Saint’s, we remember all of them collectively as that great company of saints which surrounds us like a cloud of witnesses, so beautifully portrayed in the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in downtown LA, on the tapestries which line the nave, with Saints from the ages facing in procession toward the high altar. Because we Christians believe in the eternal life offered us by our Lord’s Resurrection, we know that the Saints continue to live and exercise even more compassion and care in their new heavenly existence. Just as we freely ask for prayers from our close friends, parish, and loved ones, so too we ask the prayers of the Saints…the intercessions of the Holy Ones is nothing different than asking someone you love and who loves you, to pray for you.
And so we celebrate the Blessed Ones today… all the Saints on earth and all the Saints in heaven, with all the Saints who have gone before us and all the Saints who will come after us. We rejoice this day in the communion of Saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. We rejoice that the “doorkeeper” of souls is Jesus Christ our Lord, who pronounces true “blessedness.” We rejoice in God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit for having called us into God’s blessing and for having given us a totally new way of looking at life… a way which turns out, to be the only way there truly is.
Amen.
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