Dylan - mother's day and abiding

It's just not our culture's way of reckoning things. We appreciate our mothers, and I do think that we tend not to appreciate them anywhere near enough. But every Mother's Day, I think also of all my friends, acquaintances, and fellow or former parishioners who feel judged as a failure by everyone around them because they don't have our culture's ideal: a lawfully married spouse (or at least a life partner) and kids, preferably living in a well-kept house the adults own. The floral-industrial complex -- and far too many Mother's Day sermons -- leave them out entirely.
And then I think about some other mothers who won't be getting flowers, breakfast in bed, or ice cream cakes this Sunday. I think about mothers in Darfur facing agonizing decisions about which of their children to feed. I think about a mother in Zimbabwe I read about recently in the newspaper who wonders who will care for her children once the menengitis she's suffering from -- a treatable condition, but she can't afford the treatment -- takes her from them. And as much as I want to love and appreciate and honor the women in my community who give of themselves to love and nurture the children I see playing in the aisles of the church during the Eucharist on Sunday morning, I want to pose the question that seems unthinkable in our culture, and especially on this Sunday:
What if we saw every mama as our own mother or sister? What if we welcomed and nourished and stood up for every child as if each one was our very own flesh? Jesus' love -- the love we have received, and therefore are equipped to live out and pass along to our world -- is such that he said, "I will not leave you orphaned"; instead, he gave us an Advocate, the Holy Spirit of truth. And this week particularly, my heart breaks for all of those children who will be orphaned today, and tomorrow, and the next day, and Sunday.

Mystic Union

I love Catholic Spirituality - the great originator and preserver of Christian Mystiscm. John has always challenged me with his talk of mystical union with Christ. I think I will take Merton with me to District Council this week.

This from an encyclical by Pious XII:

"What a spectacle for heaven and earth," observes Our predecessor of happy
memory, Pius XI, "is not the Church at prayer! For centuries without
interruption, from midnight to midnight, the divine psalmody of the inspired
canticles is repeated on earth; there is no hour of the day that is not hallowed
by its special liturgy; there is no state of human life that has not its part in
the thanksgiving, praise, supplication and reparation of this common prayer of
the Mystical Body of Christ which is His Church!"

The worship rendered by the Church to God must be, in its entirety, interior as well as exterior. It is exterior because the nature of man as a composite of body and soul requires it to be so. Likewise, because divine Providence has disposed that "while we recognize God visibly, we may be drawn by Him to love of things unseen." Every impulse of the human heart, besides, expresses itself naturally through the senses; and the worship of God, being the concern not merely of individuals but of the whole community of mankind, must therefore be social as well. This obviously it cannot be unless religious activity is also organized and manifested outwardly. Exterior worship, finally, reveals and emphasizes the unity of the mystical Body, feeds new fuel to its holy zeal, fortifies its energy, intensifies its action day by day: "for although the ceremonies themselves can claim no perfection or sanctity in their won right, they are, nevertheless, the outward acts of religion, designed to rouse the heart, like signals of a sort, to veneration of the sacred realities, and to raise the mind to meditation on the supernatural."

abide in love

Jesus gives part of his farewell discourse in John 15. I have always loved these chapters in John. Something about the rhythm reminds me of Robert Jordan’s farewell to Maria in “For Whom the Bell Tolls.” Our 1 John reading has that rhythm too.
Jesus gives us beautiful and loving words about our mystical union with him. If we abide in him, he will live in us. Only that way can we bear fruit. This is communion Sunday for us, so the vine will lend itself well.

John repeats this idea in his epistle.

No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and do testify that the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world. God abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and they abide in God.

The psalmist and the reading for Acts take a different twist, perhaps we could see them as concerning themselves with the fruit of abiding.

The Psalmist declares that the nations belong to God and, “All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the LORD; and all the families of the nations shall worship before him.” In acts we see the spread of the gospel to the nations as a Eunuch from Ethiopia becomes part of the Way. We also see the fulfillment of the Psalmist’s prophecy, “The poor shall eat and be satisfied; those who seek him shall praise the LORD.”

stewardship

For 21st century post modern “sheep” that attitude presents a problem. We don’t like to think of ourselves as dependent on anyone or anything else for protection. We want to be cowboys, not sheep. When danger and challenge comes knocking, it is not our nature to stand back and let a protector answer for us. This independence is reflected in the way in which we manage the resources that God has entrusted into our hands. Fear causes us to cling to all that we have. Our distorted stewardship reflects self reliance and fear of scarcity. We falter in our recognition of the shepherd’s voice and we fail to trust in the abundance of the shepherds care and strength.

Good stewardship practice and the cultivation of a generous heart lead us back to the affirmation of our proper role as sheep which belong to the Good Shepherd. Where our treasure is, that is where our heart resides. Generous sharing feels like risky behavior in a cowboy culture. But it is in that risk that our relationship with God is confirmed.

Dylan: Shepherding Justice

I wish that congregations were going to read both Acts 4 and Ezekiel 34 this Sunday. Acts 4 makes the causal connection between caring for the poor and experiencing the Spirit's presence and power that we need to hear, but Ezekiel 34 is a scathing indictment of the extent to which we who claim to follow "the good shepherd" have been doing the opposite of what a good shepherd does:

Ah, you shepherds of Israel who have been feeding yourselves! Should not
shepherds feed the sheep? You eat the fat, you clothe yourselves with the wool,
you slaughter the fatlings; but you do not feed the sheep. You have not
strengthened the weak, you have not healed the sick, you have not bound up the
injured, you have not brought back the strayed, you have not sought the lost,
but with force and harshness you have ruled them. So they were scattered,
because there was no shepherd; and scattered, they became food for all the wild
animals.

...Jesus, the good shepherd, calls me out of that comfortable home, away from living off of the fat available to me right here and out to the margins, so all might eat good food, drink clean water, and enjoy the privileges I have that give me access to markets and schools and the power that comes with them. He doesn't promise that it will be easy, but he promises that the journey is the way to abundant life. And I know that I will hear the good shepherd's voice and see his face most clearly when I'm living world that lives out the connection all of God's prophets proclaim, and all of God's beloved children can sing with the psalmist, not in hopeful expectation but in celebration of a present reality:

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not be in want.

Dylan: Shepherding Justice

I wish that congregations were going to read both Acts 4 and Ezekiel 34 this Sunday. Acts 4 makes the causal connection between caring for the poor and experiencing the Spirit's presence and power that we need to hear, but Ezekiel 34 is a scathing indictment of the extent to which we who claim to follow "the good shepherd" have been doing the opposite of what a good shepherd does:

Ah, you shepherds of Israel who have been feeding yourselves! Should not
shepherds feed the sheep? You eat the fat, you clothe yourselves with the wool,
you slaughter the fatlings; but you do not feed the sheep. You have not
strengthened the weak, you have not healed the sick, you have not bound up the
injured, you have not brought back the strayed, you have not sought the lost,
but with force and harshness you have ruled them. So they were scattered,
because there was no shepherd; and scattered, they became food for all the wild
animals.

The Good Name of the Good Shepherd

The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures;
he leads me beside still waters; he restores my soul.
He leads me in right paths for his name's sake.

We are into the forth week and now we reflect on what was done Good Friday. Jesus tells us that he is the good shepherd and he lays down his life for his friends. We are reminded that he laid it down. In what he has done, he has made us a flock – his flock – called by his name, we know him. One fold, one shepherd.

“For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own
accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again. I have received this command from my Father."

The disciples come to know the power of the life laid down. Peter proclaims to the rules that “this man is standing before you in good health by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead.” There is no other name.

John pleads with the church. How often from the pulpit do we plead the same? Love each other! Lay down your lives for each other! Act! “Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action.”

“And this is his commandment, that we should believe in the name of his Son
Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us.”

To own his name – that saving name, that name unmatched, the name of our good shepherd – we must love one another as he has commanded us.