Urban Hermit at 3156 Doyle Street, Toledo, OH 43608-2006 US - Sundays, Year C

Deuteronomy 26:4-10:  God heard our cry and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression.

Psalm 91:  Be with me, Lord, when I am in trouble.

Romans 10:8-13:  The Word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart.

Luke 4:1-13:  God alone shall you serve.

Dear People of God,

This week our three readings from Deuteronomy, Romans, and Luke remind us of God’s attentiveness. 

God hears our cry.  In the desert of all our exoduses God is present, attentive to the cry of the poor, the outcast, the downtrodden, the oppressed.  Often we wonder, in our darker moments, close to despair, if God really listens.  Our ancestors in faith assure us, over and over, that God indeed listens.

The Word is near us.  Paul’s letter to the Romans reminds us that the Word of God is near, so near that the word is in our mouths and in our hearts.  We have only to let ourselves speak it in order to find salvation.

Throughout temptation God is with us.  Jesus, like us, was subject to temptation, yet God gave him the words of Scripture to answer each temptation with boldness and certitude.  In the same way we can answer the temptations of our time with the word of God, near us, in our mouth and in our heart.

And those temptations are pressing in.  Some, of course, are obvious:  the temptation to power, the temptation to comfort, the temptation to wealth.  The hidden temptations are less apparent but no less dangerous. 

In our day we are prone to ignore the call to serve.  We are prone to ignore the cry of the poor.  We are prone to ignore our responsibility to conserve natural resources.  We are prone to devalue the young and the old.  We are prone to spend our time and energy on passing fads.

Here is our Lent, the time for examination and re-dedication to the service of God.  God is with us, always, as we journey.

2^nd Sunday of Lent (C):  Our Inheritance

Genesis 15:5-12, 17-18:  The Lord made a covenant with Abram:  I give this land to your descendents.

Psalm 27:  The Lord is my light and my salvation.

Philippians 3:17-4:1:  Be imitators, not enemies, of the cross of Christ.

Luke 9:28b-36:  While Jesus was praying, his face changed in appearance; he spoke with Moses and Elijah about his future.

Dear People of God,

Jesus is transfigured in prayer, speaking with his ancestors in faith, Moses and Elijah.  Inheriting the faith of the Hebrew people requires that Jesus bear the burden of living it out.  When he comes down from the mountain, he sets his face toward Jerusalem and the cross. 

What a paradox!  To imitate the cross of Christ brings salvation; to conduct myself as an enemy of the cross of Christ brings destruction.  On this second Sunday of Lent we are challenged to step fully into our role as heirs of the covenant, to give ourselves completely to carrying the cross.

We inherit the land God gave to Abram in every way:  we inherit the earth, but only through meekness; we inherit the bounteous produce of the land, but only through bearing responsibility for conserving nature; we inherit the faith that grounds us, but only through struggle; we inherit the promise of life, but we must choose it.

God has given us the land, the land we journey through and the faith we profess.  This Lenten discipline calls us to take a closer look both at the way we treat the land and at the way we live our faith.

I can look out my window and see the flat grayish-brown winter city landscape, house after house with bare lawn that will soon sprout to be fertilized, fed, watered, mowed and blasted with weed-killing chemicals.  There’s enough lawn in the United States to cover the State of Pennsylvania, and each week’s mowing of just one lawn pollutes the air more than driving the family car from Toledo to Cincinnati!  We are not being responsible stewards of the land God has given us!

There are alternatives.  During World War II’s rationing, many families planted “Victory Gardens” in their yards, small plots of vegetables to help conserve the country’s natural resources for the war.  Some families carry on that tradition, even today.  Alternatives to lawn grass dot the urban landscape:  perennial gardens, groundcover, even patios and ponds and pools. 

As we travel this Lenten journey, let’s take a close look at our personal practice of stewardship of the environment.  I believe that it doesn’t matter where we start to re-form ourselves, whether it’s with a revitalized prayer practice, or an increased sensitivity to the feelings of those around us, or a new generosity to the needy.  What matters is that we examine our lives and take action to conform ourselves more closely to the message of Christ.

Happy Lent!

3^rd Sunday of Lent (C):  Plan for Productivity

Exodus 3:1-8a, 13-15:  God said, “I have witnessed the affliction of my people and have heard their cry of complaint.”

Psalm 103:  The Lord is kind and merciful.

1 Corinthians 10:1-6, 10-12:  Whoever thinks he is standing secure should take care not to fall.

Luke 13:1-9:  It may bear fruit in the future.  If not you can cut it down.

Dear People of God,

On March 17—St. Patrick’s Day—I planted my peas.  It’s a family tradition, handed down to me in this family of my mixed heritage.  I suspect it’s only three or four generations old, though, since my Irish ancestors came to this country in the mid-1800s.  Others of my forebears would not have known of St. Patrick in their homelands, having come from Germany and France and Denmark in the 1700s.  I also suspect that they, as well as my most ancient ancestors, the Native Americans, knew the planting times quite well without St. Patrick to remind them.

Farmers get a feel for the land, each square foot of soil yielding its secrets over the years of hard work and sweat.  Where’s the best spot for the main garden?  Will the kitchen garden get enough sunlight over here, or should it be a little farther east?  Let’s plant the corn and beans where the barnyard was before we built the new barn.

In this week’s Gospel Jesus tells another agricultural parable.  The gardener has a feel for the land, and an understanding of the productivity of the fig.  When the owner of the fig tree tells the gardener to cut it down because it has not borne fruit, the gardener suggests an alternate plan:  cultivate it and fertilize it for another year.

In just the same way God grants us the grace periods of our lives to tend to those things that will help us grow and bear fruit.  As we go through this Lent, let’s take a look at soil we’re in.  Let’s fertilize it where we need to, and cultivate the habits that will bring fruitful growth. 

4^th Sunday of Lent (C):  Abstinence

Joshua 5:9a, 10-12:  The Passover is complete.

Psalm 34:  Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.

2 Corinthians 5:17-21:  We are ambassadors for Christ, who has given us the ministry of reconciliation.

Luke 15:1-3, 11-32:  God welcomes us, sinners all, whether we are wasteful or parsimonious.

Dear People of God,

The news these days is full of meat, from the hoof-and-mouth disease of Europe to the threat of skyrocketing prices and scarcity here because of the disease.  People in England are worried about mad cow disease and the loss of herds of cattle.  People in the Far East are concerned about the bird flu epidemic.  Farmers in the United States are concerned that they will not be able to meet the increased demands on them for meat to replace the slaughtered herds.  Business analysts say the price of meat is bound to go up because of the increased demand.  McDonald’s, though, is not worried.  They say they’ve been through such scares before, and they’ll weather it again.  They are the deities of the fast-food industry, and they will prevail.

Neither the frightened farmers nor the cocksure corporations, neither the analysts nor the consumers—no one, in short, has seen the third way.  No one has suggested that we change the way we eat, that we stop feeding good grain to animals to fatten them up so we can eat them, and instead eat it ourselves. 

Joshua’s recording of the Passover into the Promised Land notes that the Israelites, after 40 years of wandering in the desert eating quail and manna, passed over the Jordan and ate of the produce of the land.   Furthermore, the health benefits of a vegetarian diet are well documented; worries about lack of calcium or vitamins or protein have no scientific basis.  From Mahatma Gandhi to Dorothy Day, famous vegetarians have counseled abstinence; we might do well to follow their example.

And it’s Lent.  Every year our Church sets the rule of abstinence before us as a means of purifying ourselves physically while we turn to prayer to purify ourselves mentally and spiritually and almsgiving to purify ourselves emotionally.  We’ve so brainwashed ourselves that we believe we need meat to maintain good health, and our Church has backed away from its former practices of fasting and abstinence to a minimal Ash Wednesday/Good Friday practice with meatless Fridays.  Even worse, our so-called meatless Fridays allow ample servings of other high-fat, high-cholesterol, fiberless animal products like eggs, cheese, milk and fish.

As if that’s not enough, the safety of the food supply itself is increasingly threatened by bio-engineered foods, genetically modified seeds, and drug-injected animals bred for ease of shipping and long-lasting looks on the grocery shelves.  Without fully understanding these genetic modifications, we ignore the potential problems to human health.  These are complex systemic disorders, and we close our eyes to the consequences both for ourselves and for our neighbors on this planet.

In spite of the growing international problem with meat production and the proven health hazards of an animal-based diet, like the prodigal son we in the United States continue to squander our agricultural and human resources.  On the other hand, we continue to begrudge the poor what little they need to sustain life.  Even though we would be physically healthier if we ate more vegetables and fewer animals, and morally healthier if we shared more of our wealth with the needy, we greedily insist on our meat, in greater and greater portions.  Like the older brother in today’s parable, we will not have the fatted calf killed for our neighbors’ benefit.

Paul urges us to remember that God has given us the ministry of reconciliation.  It’s time to admit the sinfulness of our ways—both our wastefulness and our greed—and mend our ways.  It’s time to give attention to our daily food and manage it wisely; it’s time to share with our neighbors.

5^th Sunday of Lent:  Simplicity

Isaiah 43:16-21:  Remember not the events of the past.  See, I am doing something new!

Psalm 126:  The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.

Philippians 3:8-14:  Forgetting what lies behind but straining forward to what lies ahead, I continue my pursuit toward the goal, the prize of God’s upward calling, in Christ Jesus.

John 8:1-11:  From now on do not sin any more.

Dear People of God,

I’ve moved households many times in my life, and each time I’ve dragged along some piece of the old place.  One time I dug up three carloads of perennials and transported them to my new home.  One time I hauled four bedrooms’ worth of furniture to a house that had two bedrooms and only five rooms.  Each time I say that I’m going to clean out the unnecessary flotsam and jetsam of my life before I move again, and each time I’ve dragged great loads of it with me.

We all know people who drag baggage along with them through life, and not just the detritus of the physical household.  We know those—and sometimes we ourselves are the ones we know best—who carry grudges and carry ill will and carry bad memories wherever they go.  The burden of it weighs them down, pulls at their every step along the way.

In our first reading today, God calls the Israelites to forgetfulness of the past.  They are no longer to remember even the triumph over pharaoh.  They are to look ahead to something new.  In the same way Paul urges us to continue toward the goal, forgetting what lies behind and continuing our pursuit.  In our Gospel pericope from John we hear Jesus tell the woman to walk away from her past and sin no more. 

We are clearly cautioned against living in the past.  We are clearly called to move on to the new life in Christ.  As our Lenten journey continues, let’s put down the baggage from our past and look to God.

Passion (Palm) Sunday (C):  Each Day, Each Blessed Moment

Blessing of Palms:  Luke 19:28-40:  “The Master has need of it.”

Isaiah 50:4-7:  God has given me a well-trained tongue that I might speak a word that will rouse the weary; I have not turned back.

Psalm 22:  My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?

Philippians 2:6-11:  Taking the form of a slave, humbling himself, he became obedient even unto death.

Luke 22:14-23:56:  The women who had come from Galilee with him followed behind, and when they had seen the tomb and the way in which his body was laid in it, they returned and prepared spices and perfumed oils.

Dear People of God,

A print of the Last Supper hangs on my living room wall, but it’s not the Leonardo da Vinci portrayal of twelve males sitting behind a table, Jesus in the middle.  This version depicts a group of Jewish men, women and children reclining around a table with Jesus.  Instructions from the Irish monastery that commissioned the painting in the late 1990s directed Polish artist Piasecki to show the gathering as nearly as possible to what contemporary Scripture scholars now believe it was, not as it was interpreted through Italian Renaissance eyes in the 1497.

Piasecki changed many of the obvious inaccuracies of the earlier work.  Oil lamps light the space instead of daylight, reflecting the fact that the meal would have taken place after sundown.  The diners recline at table instead of sitting.  Most significantly, women and children are included in the scene, as they would have been in the traditional Jewish celebration of the Passover.

I grew up with the da Vinci interpretation firmly implanted in my religious consciousness; the fact that it showed a limited patriarchal picture of Jesus’ disciples did not occur to me until only recently.  The more I study scripture, the more I see how my understanding of Jesus has been formed by the interpretations of others and the more I understand how I must continue to pray and meditate on the Word of God in order to be conformed to it more completely and accurately.

Our reading from Isaiah announces a clarion call to lectors and preachers.  God gives those who proclaim the Word “a well-trained tongue” in order that they might rouse the weary.  Our inclination today is to stand in the pews half-hearing the long reading of the Passion, occasionally tending to its message and occasionally pondering the flotsam and jetsam of our lives that floats into consciousness.  We have heard this before.  We know the story.  We think it doesn’t really matter if we listen carefully.

It’s as if we have the Leonardo da Vinci painting in our eye while we’re looking at Piasecki’s interpretation.  We do not see what’s there because we think we know.  We do not hear the Word for us today because we think we’ve heard it before.

The Word is alive.  The message is fresh and new, aimed by God from all eternity straight into my heart today. 

It’s imperative that I listen, for this moment will not return.  The celebration of the pilgrimage to Jerusalem with Jesus and the sharing of the Passover meal will quickly give way to the painful agony of Gethsemane and Golgotha.  My task is to capture each moment, the eternal now, and to live it completely for what it is.  That’s the gift, and that’s the cross.  That’s the way to the resurrection!

God bless!