Angels Among Us

In July, I made my second mission trip to the Dominican Republic.  Our mission is to help construct the Church of San Simon in the Barrio of San Marcos, a small Barrio on the outskirts of Puerto Plata.  Puerto Plata is on the north coast of the Dominican Republic is a hot and humid, but also very beautiful.

 

My first trip to San Marcos was spiritually fulfilling and I was with the nicest and most loving group of people I have ever known.  When I returned to the States, I felt sad because I knew that I would probably never see all of them again and I knew in my heart that I had been a part of something special.  I also missed the people of San Marcos, especially the new friends I made, Anna, Stephany, Gary, Padre, and so many more that made me feel at home.

 

The second trip to the Dominican Republic turned into a religious experience. The picture below is what the shoring looked like for the second floor. We were going to poor a few tons of concrete and I and everyone else were very worried. The group the week before said they prayed for the supports to hold.

 

Our group prayed too and I said a special prayer one evening before bed. The next morning I had just shaved and was walking back to my bed when I stopped and had a powerful vision. The vision was of a group of Angels approaching from high up in the sky and as they entered the church, an Angel grabbed each post and held it steady. I told the Dominican priest about the vision and that night at church he told his congregation and they sang a special song about Angels. The next day was the concrete pour.

 

Now, I have had visions before, but the next day was special. When we were about two blocks away from the church site a powerful feeling came upon me. Sometimes I have the same type of feeling when I preach. We pulled up to the church and I was overwhelmed with a feeling of love. I didn't not see the Angels, I felt them, and the feeling was one of peace and love. I have never felt such an overwhelming feeling of love. I started crying, but hid myself so no one could see me.

 

Then something told me the Angels had accomplished their job and would be leaving soon. Almost immediately my mind seemed clouded and jumbled like and then it cleared and a voice and image appeared in my mind and told me that an Angel was staying behind to oversee the church and that his name was Raphael.

 

I didn't know who Raphael was and so I looked him up on the internet and found out he is an Archangel, I guess the church we are building means a lot to God. The next day we went by the church, the concrete had dried, and we could walk on the roof/second floor. I had our translator tell the padre about the Angel and Padre said he was going to hang a picture of Raphael in the church office.

Until now, I have only shared this experience with a few close friends, however I feel the need to get this out and let people know what happened.  Some will think me crazy, others will think me blessed, but I believe I was part of a special event.

May the peace of the Lord be always with you!

 

 

 

 

Pentecost

Sermon for Pentecost

Let's begin by tracing the Jewish roots of Pentecost.  The festival of Shavout is a Jewish Holiday that occurs on the sixth day of the Hebrew month of Sivan (late May or early June).

Shavuot commemorates the anniversary of the day God gave the Torah to the nation of Israel at Mount Sinai.  This is also a festival celebrating the harvest of wheat.  In Israel, the people harvested barley at Passover and wheat, the last grain to ripen, at the time Shavuot seven weeks later.

The date of Shavuot is seven weeks or forty-nine to fifty days from Passover. On Passover, God freed the people of Israel from their enslavement in Egypt.

In the first reading, we heard the wonder of the Jews who heard the disciples speaking in various tongues.  The reason so many “foreign” Jews were in Jerusalem is that Shavout is a major holiday, one that Jews were required to go to Jerusalem to celebrate.

In the Gospel of John, Jesus told his disciples to wait in Jerusalem and he would send the comforter to them.  He also told them he could not send the comforter unless he left the world. 

Then during the feast of Shavout, the disciples were all gathered together and about nine in the morning, they heard the sound of a rushing wind, and what appeared to be tongues of fire appeared above each disciple's head.  Immediately the disciples started speaking in languages they previously did not understand.  This was part of the great commission; the Holy Spirit empowered the disciples with the languages of the world so they could spread the good news of the New Covenant to all the peoples.

The Jews that heard the speaking of the languages said that the disciples must be drunk.  By tradition, the Jews fasted until ten A.M. and that is why Peter told the crowd they were not drunk.

Pentecost is considered the day the Christian Church was born.  The day the Holy Spirit bestowed spiritual gifts upon the disciples.  From that day forward, at our Baptisms and Confirmations we receive spiritual gifts from the Holy Spirit.  Each of us receives different gifts.  Indeed the Holy Spirit can come whenever it pleases, because it blows were it wants to blow and goes where it wants to go. 

There are many spiritual gifts; Paul pointed a few of them in Corinthians.  The question then arises, how do we know what our spiritual gifts are?  Sometimes other people tell us we have a gift, we receive feedback that we are good teachers, or writers, or speakers. At other times, we discern what our gifts are on our own through what we choose as our vocations.

However, I think that most of us know what our gifts are from the feeling we get when we use our gifts and the sadness we feel when we ignore our gifts.  I feel happiness when I write and joy when I preach.  When I talk of the word of God, I get all tingly inside.  However, when I was a child, I was shy and terrified of speaking in front of a group of people.  To this day, I am still very shy and I prefer solitude rather than going to a party, silence to noise, nature to the big city.  Somehow, I became an instructor, probably because of my desire to help people understand, and that is a gift.  I still felt sadness until the day I could no longer ignore the Holy Spirit and the power of the Holy Spirit lifted me up.  That is why I start my sermons with the verse from Psalm 51, “Open my Lips o Lord and my mouth shall proclaim your praise.”  This is my prayer to the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, to raise me up, to let the love of Jesus show forth, to proclaim the Truth.

When Peter recited the prophecy of Joel he said, “In those days I will pour out my spirit upon ALL flesh, and your sons and daughters shall prophesy, and your young men will have visions, and your old men dream dreams.” 

The gifts from the Holy Spirit are just that—gifts, and we must use our gifts for the betterment of the people.  How would you feel if you give someone a gift, then he hides it in the back of his closet?  How do you think God feels when he sends a spiritual gift and we ignore it? 

Do not ignore your spiritual gifts, if you are not sure what your gift is then ask for help from God, ask help from your spiritual advisor, but do not ignore the fact that we have all received a gift.  The gifts of God are for the people of God and if we love God, we will use his gifts.

Today, let us rejoice in the presence of the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit may blow where it wants to blow, but if you use the gifts bestowed upon us by the Spirit then the Spirit will celebrate with us in Joy!

The following is a copy of the sermon I preached today.  I did ad-lib during the sermon, so this isn't exactly what I said, but it is close enough.  I actually took the lyrics to the song and put some personal experiences and thoughts with each line.

Follow the Path

In Today’s Gospel, a man begs Jesus to cure his leprosy.  Jesus was full of compassion for the man and cured him of the leprosy.  Jesus then told him to go to the temple priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for the cleansing. 

For information, by touching the man with leprosy, Jesus was considered defiled under law.  Leviticus 5-2 states that anyone who touches an unclean person is considered unclean.  Therefore, in one sense, Jesus defied the law, but at the same time, he sent the man to the priest to comply with the law.  By sending the man to the priest, who would look at the skin and make a judgment of cleanliness, Jesus was asking the priest to verify the cure.

Jesus also told the man to keep the cure a secret.  Why?  When we look at the previous Gospel readings Jesus cured Simon’s mother-in-law in Capernaum.  Then all sorts of people came to the house and it appears they kept Jesus up all night healing and chasing out demons.  The next day Jesus, after seeking solitude to pray, told his disciples he needed to go to nearby villages to preach.  Jesus told them his mission was to preach.

As happens so many times the cured man immediately tells anyone with an ear that Jesus cured him. Once again, the throngs of sick people would come to be cured of Jesus.  For Jesus, a man full of compassion and love, the healing became a burden, and detracted from his mission to preach the love of God.   “As a result, Jesus could no longer enter a town openly, but stayed outside in lonely places, yet people still came to him from everywhere.”

Throughout the Gospels, we hear of Jesus curing people, chasing out demons, drawing the ire of the religious authorities in the process.  The Pharisees were upset that he healed on the Sabbath, forgave sins, and most of all ignored the established norms and conventions. 

What I find interesting is that Jesus said he was not sent to heal, but to preach.  His main mission in life was to preach the good news of God, of the new covenant and the forgiveness of sins.  In death, he saved us all.  In death, he healed us all, not of our illnesses and infirmities, but of the stain of the original sin.  

With his death, he created the promise of eternal life.  With his death, he knocked down the gates of hell and released the prisoners.  With his death, he opened the door to heaven.  And with his resurrection, he promised eternal life to all who would follow his commandments.

The commandments that Jesus gave us were only two.  Jesus tells us to “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.  The second is to love your neighbor as yourself.”

The second commandment is easy to understand and very hard to accomplish.  The first commandment is not easy, but I think easier to accomplish.

For the next few minutes, I would like to try a little exercise.  I call it finding God.

Close your eyes imagine you are on a dirt path, surrounded by trees.  Now listen to all the noise around you, coughs, sniffles, belly-rumblings, and think of the noise as the wind whispering through the trees, gradually the noise fades into the background.  Now picture yourself walking the path, in peace, until you find a door in a mountain, a mountain that encompasses all that is.  

Do you knock on the door?  Are you afraid to open the door?  Do you love your life so much that you would rather keep what you have?  So many decisions, but what will you decide?  Jesus said to seek and you shall find.  But what is it you seek, Happiness, love, wealth, knowledge.  

Now open your eyes.  Practice this often, imagine the door, talk to God, let him know your fears, but let him know that you love him and he will let you know that he loves you.  Seek and you will find the door and when both you and God are ready that door will open.

There is a hymn, Will You Come and Follow Me, which is very near and dear to me.  The lyrics mean so much to me personally that I want to share them with you.  Think about each verse as I read it and see if you can answer the question?

1. Will you come and follow me if I but call your name?
Will you go where you don't know and never be the same?
Will you let my love be shown? Will you let my name be known,
will you let my life be grown in you and you in me?

2. Will you leave yourself behind if I but call your name?
Will you care for cruel and kind and never be the same?
Will you risk the hostile stare should your life attract or scare?
Will you let me answer prayer in you and you in me?

3. Will you let the blinded see if I but call your name?
Will you set the prisoners free and never be the same?
Will you kiss the leper clean and do such as this unseen,
and admit to what I mean in you and you in me?

4. Will you love the "you" you hide if I but call your name?
Will you quell the fear inside and never be the same?
Will you use the faith you've found to reshape the world around,
through my sight and touch and sound in you and you in me?

5. Lord your summons echoes true when you but call my name.
Let me turn and follow you and never be the same.
In Your company I'll go where Your love and footsteps show.
Thus I'll move and live and grow in you and you in me.

In order to find God, you must first open your heart, gather your courage, still your mind, and let you soul lead you in love, to the creator of all.

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Amen