Oct 8 Sermon on Violence

Violence

The sermon today is about violence.  I could go on and on for hours like a Fire and Brimstone preacher, however Father Matthew said to keep this under an hour.  So fifty-nine minutes it is.  I think I just caused a violent reaction amongst a lot of you.

Thoughts and prayers, thoughts and prayers, many times in the last few years have we heard this phrase uttered from the lips of politicians and now-a-days, more-often-than-not tweeted.  Sandy Hook, Columbine, Las Vegas, and many more tragedies that we have watched play out on the Internet and on television.  Jesus Wept is the shortest verse in the Bible.  The New Testament was written close to two millennia ago and I am here to say that Jesus has not stopped weeping. 

Even in the Gospel we read today about the vineyard and the absent owner.  Violence abounds even to the point of killing the owner’s son.  When Jesus talks about the owner, he is referencing God.  We know that Jesus is the owner’s son and he was crucified.  We live in a violent world, a world full of trials and tribulations and peace seems but a distant dream.  Will the Lord come back to remove the tenants from the vineyard (Earth).

In one of the most famous stories of the Bible, Jonah is sent to Nineveh to proclaim the word of God and demand repentance.  The King of Nineveh took this to heart and proclaimed ”Let everyone call urgently on God.  Let them give up their evil ways and their violence.  Who knows?  God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.”

God was pleased and changed his mind about destroying Nineveh.  However, Jonah wasn’t pleased and became angry with God.  The ensuing conversation between God and Jonah is very good and I would encourage all of you to pick up your Bible and read and meditate on the dialogue between Jonah and God.

Violence has been a part of man since Cain slew Abel.  Wars have been almost non-stop since we were cast out of the Garden.

The United States has boasted that we are a peaceful nation.  How so?  I read an article that said we have been at war 93% of our short existence.  I found that hard to believe but when I did some research, I was dismayed to find it true.  If you take into account the major wars, it doesn’t seem like we have truly been at war that much.  But if you look at all the Indian wars, the small conflicts overseas, rebellions, and such the facts are true.

It seems we revel in war.  If you resist you are labeled unpatriotic and may be thrown in prison.  If you protest you are labeled as un-American.  Our movies and television shows are full of violence.  Video games promote violence.  Violence breeds violence!

My father was a police officer in Fort Wayne.  I was raised around guns and violence.  As far as I know he was only shot at once and when he recounted the event to me I was horrified.  When I was about nine years old, I received a BB gun for a present.  I went out in the woods with a friend and I saw a cardinal perched in a tree.  I took careful aim and with the first shot, I bagged my first and only kill. 

I approached the small bird, lying in the snow, blood oozing out of his small body and I was overcome with a feeling of utter shame.  I cried at the taking of his life and I have never been able to “hunt” again.  For my thirteenth birthday, I received a 22-caliber rifle.  I did not hunt, but I did shoot targets.  This did not stop me from trying to kill a big husky that was attacking my little hound dog late in my teenage years.  As I reflect on those episodes, I understand the difference between violence caused by anger and violence because of a lack of compassion.

During the period of my life when I lived in Miami, I was called to jury duty for a murder trial.  When twenty-eight of us were marshaled into the courtroom for our initial questioning, I was shocked.  Why?  Because the first question asked by the defense attorney was, “How many of you or how many of your family, have been victims of violent crime?”  Over half the hands went up and those people were dismissed from the jury.  Over half … think about that.

Our early church, before Constantine was pacifist.  Origen said that Christians "do not go forth as soldiers.”  Tertullian wrote "only without the sword can the Christian wage war: for the Lord has abolished the sword.”  Clement of Alexandria wrote "... he who holds the sword must cast it away and that if one of the faithful becomes a soldier he must be rejected by the Church, for he has scorned God."

This changed in the time of Constantine - the Council of Arles in 314 said that to forbid "the state the right to go to war was to condemn it to extinction,” and shortly after that, Christian philosophers began to formulate the doctrine of the Just War.  We haven’t stopped since.

Violence, most of the time, is a result of anger.  Why the anger?  I am not immune, you are not immune, we are all human and we all experience anger.  Jesus himself overturned tables and whipped the moneychangers in the temple.  That I suppose could be called righteous anger.  My anger is more the,” Did you see what that idiot just did.  He ran a red light, the moron.”  Hank taught me to say, “in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,” whenever I had a bout of road-rage.  I confess I have called out the Holy Trinity more times on the road than I have in church.

This though is the key to reducing violence.  The violence exists in each one of us because we are not at peace with ourselves.  So how do we become more peaceful?  WHEN we come to the realization that CHRIST, exists inside each of us.  We need to recognize the Christ in us as illustrated by  Thomas Merton.

Oh God, we are one with you.  You have made us one with you.  You have taught us that if we are open to one another, you dwell in us.  Help us to preserve this openness and to fight for it with all our hearts.  Help us to realize that there can be no understanding where there is mutual rejection.  Oh God, in accepting one another wholeheartedly, fully, completely, we accept You, and we thank You, and we adore You, and we love You with our whole being, because our being is in Your being, our spirit is rooted in Your spirit.  Fill us then with love, and let us be bound together with love as we go our diverse ways, united in this one spirit which makes You present in the world, and which makes You witness to the ultimate reality that is love.  Love has overcome.  Love is victorious

Now I would like us all to do a little exercise.  I promise you this won’t last long.  Please take ahold of the hand of the person on each side of you.  Then close your eyes.  Take a deep breath and hold it, feel your heart beat, feel the touch of the people around you.  Slowly exhale.  Now together say, I recognize the Christ in me.  Now open your eyes and looking around say, I recognize the Christ in you. 

That wasn’t hard was it?  How did that make you feel?  I think, I believe, that for a bit anyway, Jesus stopped weeping.

Anger management, is I think, a major factor in reducing violence.  Remember though, that there are some that would manipulate our tendency to violence for their own ends and if anyone tells you to hate, resist. 

When we stop for a second and realize that Christ is in each one of us, how can we hate.  Removing our anger is probably not entirely possible, but reducing our anger to manageable levels is.  It takes practice and it takes commitment.

Christ is the cornerstone upon which our church is built.  Christ is about love, peace, and even righteous anger.  But I am here to tell you if your anger is based on greed, envy, pride, hate, and racism, it is not righteous.  If you want to get into a fight because someone cut in line at the movie theater … it is not righteous.  If you want to fire photon torpedoes at the guy in front of you who is driving to slow, it is not righteous.

John 16:33 “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace.  In the world, you will have tribulation.  But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

Today, when we pass the peace, I would like us to say Shalom to each other.  Mean it, own it, and let the Shalom of Jesus pass from us and through us.  Let the Shalom of Jesus reside in us and radiate from us.

Sermon given at St Michael and All Angels Church on 4/23/2017

Doubt

“Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”

How many of us would have said the same thing?  How many of us have doubts about our faith?  In his book Jesus, the Son of Man, Kahlil Gibran has a brief chapter on Thomas and he describes doubt as this, “Doubt is a pain too lonely to know that faith is his twin brother.”

Think about that for a minute, “doubt is a pain too lonely to know that faith is his twin brother.”  When I read the passage it spoke to me about my own pain, my own doubts, whether it is about my faith or me.  Doubt is indeed painful and lonely.  How does your own doubt make you feel? 

Do you doubt your abilities, do you doubt the direction of your life, or do you doubt you will be forgiven for your sins.  Doubt is a powerful and debilitating emotion or paradoxically it can be good if it changes our path in life.  Doubt can keep us from realizing our potential, our God given gifts.  Doubt can also be good, when it makes us question the direction or meaning in our life.

I have my own doubts, one of them being the doubt that if I made this sermon twenty minutes long any of you would remain awake.  Be still and know that I am God is great for meditation but not so great for preachers. 

I don’t want you to be still.  I want you to fidget in your pews, to question, to think, to doubt.  Because if you doubt, then you will ask questions, and if you are asking then you are seeking, and Jesus tells us, “seek and you shall find.”

Doubt can lead us into despair and despair can lead us to make drastic decisions that affect not only ourselves but others as well.  But if we embrace our doubt and acknowledge it as part of our shadow self, then we can see that it is a natural part of our existence.

When we are children we want to believe, we take everything at face value and believe everything our parents tell us.  That is faith.  I think we are born with open and loving hearts, then the world instills doubt, and we lose our innocence.  Once again I will quote from Gibran, “Faith is a knowledge within the heart, beyond the reach of proof.”

Yet, if faith resides in us as some secret knowledge then why do we have doubt?  Is doubt really the lonely twin of faith?  Perhaps, and let me throw this out there, perhaps God wants us to have doubt.  Now Jesus admonished Thomas to believe, but he did not punish him for his doubt.  Indeed, he showed him the truth. 

And I believe that doubt drives us forward.  With doubt comes a choice.  Without doubt, I believe we become complacent.  Jesus said seek and you shall find.  However, Jesus did not say that the truth would be easy to find.  I don’t think we can ever stop seeking God.  God wants to be found. 

The journey to find him can be a lifetime experience of pain and joy, of gladness and sorrow, of doubt and of faith.  All are part of the puzzle, all are pieces of God, and when we realize that God is all things, and that we are part of God, and God is part of us, the journey becomes more exciting, more meaningful, and we come to the realization that the truth is there, waiting and wanting to be found.

Last year the Pope, a man I admire, had this to say about doubt,” Everyone experiences doubts about the faith at times - “I have” many times, but such doubts can be a sign that we want to know God better and more deeply.”

“We do not need to be afraid of questions and doubts because they are the beginning of a path of knowledge and going deeper; one who does not ask questions cannot progress either in knowledge or in faith.”

Faith can be exhilarating, freeing, and comforting.  Now Thomas had faith in Jesus long before this.  In fact, earlier in the Gospel of John, Jesus tells his disciples he is going to Lazarus.  The disciples were afraid because the people had been ready to stone Jesus when he previously visited Lazarus and his sisters.   But Thomas, alone amongst the disciples showed his devotion by saying to the others, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”

Now if you have a questioning mind you might ask, “Where was Thomas during the crucifixion?  I have no answer for that.  Perhaps when encountering the real thing Thomas, as well as all the disciples but the beloved one fled and hid.  Certainly, later in his life Thomas lived up to his pledge, as he died a martyr in India.

The Apostle Thomas ventured to India to preach to the Jews who had small colonies on the east coast.  Eventually he converted many High Caste Hindus and was martyred with a spear.  The story is very interesting and I would ask you to do some investigations of your own.  The Mar Thoma Syrian Church in India claims as its heritage that is was started by Thomas the Apostle of Christ in the year 52 and the church is part of the Anglican Communion.

So, what caused Thomas to change his mind and believe?  Jesus came back and did as Thomas asked.  When he showed Thomas the wounds he said, “Put your finger here; see my hands.  Reach out your hand and put it into my side.  Stop doubting and believe.”

Thomas replied, “My Lord and my God.”

Then Jesus says, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

Those passages pretty much sum up the relationship between faith and doubt.  Thomas wanted to believe, but desired proof; perhaps because he loved Jesus so much he wanted to see him again.  When Herod, the Priest and Scribes, and others demanded that Jesus prove he was the Son of God, he would offer no proof.  But when his apostle asked, he freely gave proof.

Ask and you shall receive, demand and you may be met with silence.  Ask with love and you shall receive, demand with wickedness and you shall probably receive nothing.

Poem by the Reverend Ted Loder, a Methodist Minister, and a man who marched with Martin Luther King, Jr.

God … are you there?

I’ve been taught,

And told I ought

To pray.

But the doubt

Won’t go away.

Yet neither

Will my longing to be heard.

My soul sighs

Too deep for words.

Do you hear me?

God … are you there?

I will leave you with this collect from the New Zealand Book of Common Prayer.

Living God,

For whom no door is closed.

No heart is locked,

Draw us beyond our doubts,

Till we see your Christ

And touch his wounds

Where they bleed in others

Publishing

I am still navigating my way around the self-publishing world.   The paperback version of Hook and Claw has now been released on Amazon and Create Space.  Here is a link to the Createspace page where the book may be purchased: https://www.createspace.com/6392312

Writing the book was a long labor of love.  At the time I was working on my Master's Thesis and my endeavor was to incorporate as much of the knowledge I gathered from all my classes into the novel.
So the novel encompasses Film Noir, History, Native American Lore, and Sociology.  I hope you enjoy reading the book as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Racism, Politics, and Guns

ON GUNS

The events of the last few days are very troubling, very troubling indeed.   Police killings of innocent black men and the resultant backlash and killings of innocent police officers.  What is it in this country that stirs up such hate.

The NRA for better or for worse sanctions the wholesale distribution of guns and could care less about the resulting carnage.  A gross misinterpretation of the constitution, money for corrupt politicians, and the promotion of fear leads to a society that has begun the transition back to the Old West, where guns abound and justice was served by posses and lynch mobs.  I fear for the future of my country, my children, and our world.   Jesus said those that live by the sword will die by the sword.  Substitute gun for sword and you have our future.

I am not, repeat not, against guns.  In this day and age a gun may be required for survival and unless we become a totalitarian country our guns will remain.  What I would like to see is gun training, stiffer background checks, psychological testing, and a required insurance policy for owning a gun.  Don't be an idiot like Ted Nugent and think we need to arm ourselves against the government.   Last I checked an Ar-15 did not stack up very well against an Abrams tank.  If it comes to that point all hope will be lost anyway.

ON RACISM

Perhaps I am not qualified to talk about race.  I am a white, middle-aged, Christian, veteran of the United States Navy.  I served with all color and manner of people, I travelled to many parts of the world, I have seen prejudice, and have been a victim of prejudice.  Unbelievable you say?  Believe me, when you visit a country that does not like Americans you will come to understand.  I learned Italian and Spanish to try and fit in to the cultures and it was a rewarding experience.  Despite what the media portrays most people on this earth are like you and me, they want to eat, drink, breathe, and live.  Most don't care about politics, stock markets, and power.  The evil in the world make the headlines, feed the fear, drive the need for more guns and weapons, and seem to control our destinies.

I married a Mexican woman and my granddaughter is a member of the Potawatomi tribe.  I am a lay preacher in the Episcopal Church and have been on many missions to the Dominican Republic.  When a woman where I work found out that people in the Dominican Republic were black she looked aghast and said, "you like black people?"  I replied with a WTF and said I like all people, we were all made from the same creator and only our own hubris has alienated us from each other.  Yes, racism does exist and right in front of our noses.  

My father was a police officer in Fort Wayne for twenty years.  He never shot anyone even though he was shot at once (not by a black man, but by a Korean war vet who was a little nuts).  What my father told me when I was young had a profound influence on me.  We were talking about black folks and a recent incident where I was chased by a gang of black kids in school.  My father told me, "there are bad folks out there sure, but for the most part people are good, no matter what their color."  That has always stuck with me and I don't think I could represent God if I didn't believe that.

I could write more on the subject and probably will later.  Racism to me is ignorant and evil ... period.

ON POLITICS

If there exists a subject almost as frightening and despicable as racism it is politics.  This presidential election has brought out the worst in the Democratic party and the laughingstock called the Republican party.  For the first time ever I contributed to a campaign and that was for Bernie Sanders. Did I think he had a chance, maybe an outside chance, but I found him to be a man of principle of high moral character, and a person genuinely concerned with the welfare of the people.  

Now I am faced with a choice between a narcissist Trump or the arrogant oligarch Clinton.  I distrust both, but I actually fear for our future with Trump.  Must I pick between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea?  Apparently so.  For all my friends that believe the Fox News hyperbole that Obama ruined the country, show me your proof?  George Bush and Dick Cheney started this country on the road to hell and we will probably never recover.  President Eisenhower warned this country about the Military-Industrial complex and we ignored him.  We now suffer the consequences.  

However I do believe that the true downfall of our political system began with the Supreme Court decision that corporations are people.  What a collection of educated idiots that band of merry fools is.  I am beginning to think our country will not survive the next century, we believe the fear fueld media and seem to have lost the power of rational thought.

Just a few ramblings from a mad-as-hell middle aged man.

Paperback Writer

The last couple of weeks I have been working on a print copy of my novel, Hook & Claw.   The self-publishing world has become easier the last few years, which is a good thing.  Of course this also makes it easier for any hack writer to come along and publish their works and that makes for a lot of competition.

I'm still researching the ins and outs of advertising, everyone wants your money, but not everyone delivers on their promises.  

More Articles and still learning the art of publishing and advertising on Amazon

Tonight I published another article, this one on Major Tom Harrisson.   Major Harrisson was a British Commando in charge of a team of Australian Commandos who landed on Borneo during World War II.   Major Harrisson is the officer responsible for rescuing the downed crew of an American B24 Liberator.  That crew included my cousin Tom Capin.

A couple weeks ago I published my book,  Hook and Claw on the Amazon Kindle platform.  So far my friends have been kind enough to buy five copies.  I need to advertise and that is where the risk versus payout comes into play.  Alas, the old saying is true, you must spend money to make money.

Publishing Articles that I wrote for Suite101

Since the demise of Suite101, I have been sitting on articles that I wrote the last few years.  I own the copywrite for the articles and at the moment all the links are dead to Suite. Some of the articles  are based on information I obtained from reading biographies.  However one hits closer to home and that is the article about Tom Capin.   In my youth I was told of Tom Capin's adventures in Borneo after his bomber was shot down by the Japanese.  I remember Tom visiting my grandmother's house, but I never heard him speak of his tim in Borneo.  Later, when I became interested in writing I tracked down his widow, Betty, and spent the night at her house in Idaho.  She was gracious in letting me read Tom's personal papers.  Betty had married Tom at the start of the war and stayed in Fort Wayne with his parents.  On occasion she would visit my Grandparents house and she told me stories of playing with my father when he was very young.

Tom was awarded the Order of the British Empire for his assistance with the Australian Commandos who rescued him.  A true hero if there ever was one.

Hook and Claw has been released.

Last week I finally got off my butt and published my book, Hook and Claw, on Amazon Kindle.  I wrote the book a few years ago and sent out numerous queries to publishers.  One of the publishers sat on the book for over six months, sending my work through various levels of readers until the final reader, obviously a malcontent, decided she did not like the voice or perhaps it was something else.   Dismayed I put the book back into my electronic filing cabinet and tried to forget about it.

My muse however, would have none of that.  Tickling my brain for over ten years she, and yes my muse is a she, finally pushed me into doing something.  Perhaps it was my own indignation that said I could write better than ninety percent of the crap coming out on Amazon.  Perhaps I am living a fools dream.  Perhaps!

I wrote the book as a result of various classes I took in pursuit of my Master's degree from Indiana University.  The classes included local history, Native American Literature, Film Noir,  Creative Writing with Francis Sherwood, and the class that taught me critical thinking with Ken Smith.  Dr Smith would become the sponsor for my Master's Thesis and with his help, constructive criticism, humor, and gentle suggestions, Hook and Claw came into being.

Dr Smith is one of those rare teachers with the ability to make you feel good about yourself as he delivers constructive criticism.  Always searching the students motives for clues as to why the wrote a certain way, Dr Smith is a word sleuth of the utmost degree.   Without his help I believe the book would have become a task instead of what it is, a work of love.

Someone once said that most author's works are underwhelming until the third novel.  If that is the case I better get cracking and get another one under my belt before I write the "good one."

Fahrenheit 451: The Road

Faith, Veterans, and Friends

Yesterday I attended the funeral of the father of my friend Craig Buckles.  Paul Buckles was plain and simple, a war hero.  The children of Paul all performed a eulogy; a task though filled with love and remembrance, was also filled with tears.  Paul fought under the command of General George S. Patton in France in late 1944.  A member of the 161^st Combat Engineers, Paul, a Private First Class, took over for his commander when the officer fell to enemy fire.  Under fire, Paul completed the mission of securing a bridge.  Though wounded, Paul continued with their mission and thus was awarded the bronze star, and Patton took notice of Paul’s bravery and invited him to play cards.

All I really knew of Paul when I was growing up and getting in trouble with Craig was that he was a loving father.  He had to be with the trouble that Craig and I routinely got into.  I never knew the man until I listened to the children talk about all their wonderful memories of their parents both of whom are now deceased.

Paul’s pastor spoke of baptizing him a few years ago and how he had a deep and abiding love of Christ.  The children told stories of Paul being saved numerous times during the war.  Once he was sitting on a log with a friend eating the usual horrible GI food when a woman approached them from the woods and invited them to her house for a home-cooked meal.  As the two soldiers followed her, they heard an explosion and ran back to the canteen.  The canteen and most of the soldiers were obliterated and the log that Paul had been sitting on a few minutes earlier was ground zero for the German shell.

Craig described Paul’s visions as he lay on his deathbed.  For two days, Paul would occasionally stare off into space and tell Craig how beautiful it was on the other side, the place where he was going.  Craig also heard him talking to his deceased wife who Paul said was waiting in that beautiful place for him.

As a psychiatrist, Craig is trained to diagnose hallucinations.  As a Christian, Craig also has a deep faith in Christ.  Craig admitted that the visions could have been the wishes and hopes or a dying man, or it could indeed be visions of his ultimate destination.  I prefer to believe as Craig, that Paul’s deep and abiding faith allowed him to see his new home.

I am reminded of Jack Cash, the brother of Johnny.  Jack was mortally wounded in an accident at a sawmill.  The fourteen-year-old older brother of Johnny also had a strong faith and wanted to become a preacher.  On his deathbed, moments before his death, he became lucid and asked his mother if she could see the angels.  Jack said he could hear them singing and it was beautiful.  He died peacefully.

During my heart surgery and subsequent repair after I died in ICU, I also saw visions.  I thought I might be hallucinating but I wasn’t under the influence of drugs since a narcotic would hurt my heart.  I saw a group of women, dressed in old time clothes smiling at me and welcoming me.  The feeling of peace was overwhelming.  I believe and I believe strongly.

Sermon for Epiphany

Today we celebrate Epiphany.  What exactly is an Epiphany?  A quick look in the dictionary gives four meanings.  The first definition is a Christian festival observed by the Western Churches on January 6, in commemoration of the manifestation of Christ to the gentiles in the persons of the Magi.

The second definition is the appearance or manifestation of a deity. The third definition is one is used commonly in our language, and that is the sudden, intuitive perception of or insight into the reality or essential meaning of something, usually initiated by some simple, homely, or commonplace occurrence or experience.   The fourth definition is a literary work or section of a work presenting, usually symbolically, such a moment of revelation and insight.

The Eastern churches celebrate the coming of Christ in a festival known as Theophany.  Theophany is the manifestation or appearance of God to a person.  The Eastern churches celebrate Theophany on Jan 19 in accordance with the Julian calendar.

Beginning in Matthew, the Gospel says that wise men from the East came to Jerusalem seeking the child born as King of the Jews.  The three men, Magi, were astrologers and not Kings as legend would have it.  Nowhere in the Gospel of Matthew is it mentioned that there were three Kings.  Indeed, Matthew does not say how many Magi came to see Christ, only that they brought gifts.  The Magi, most scholars presume, were Zoroastrian priests from Persia.

Zoroaster founded a religion in Persia around 600 BCE, and the priest practiced astrology.  The Zoroasters believed in a supreme deity and the cosmic battle between a good spirit and an evil spirit.  The Magi most probably did not come to Jerusalem seeking Jesus at his birth, but two years later. Why do I say that?  Haven’t we been taught that the Magi came to the manger and gave the gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh?  The gifts are full of symbolism; gold is the gift for kings, frankincense is  the gift given during sacrifice in the temple, and myrrh is used as a perfume for embalming the dead.

The Gospel of Luke does not mention the Magi.  Luke says that an Angel appeared to the shepherds in the field and announced the birth of our savior.  Then the Heavenly host said Glory to God in the Highest and the Angels vanished back into heaven. On a side note, Pope Benedict said that the Angels did not sing, that they spoke, and that to our ears their speech is singing.  Based on personal experience I would say that is true. 

Seemingly, the Gospel of Luke and Matthew therefore disagree on what happened that night that Christ was born.  However, if we take a closer look at Matthew it does not say the Magi came to see the baby Jesus, but the Christ child.  Herod, upon hearing that a child in Bethlehem was supposed to be King of the Jew ordered the massacre of all male children around two years of age.  An angel warned Mary and Joseph and they fled to Egypt.  Now historians do not record the massacre of Jewish children, a catastrophe that would surely warrant some mention in the records of the time.  Herod was a brute; he had some of his own sons murdered because he feared they would take his throne.  Theorists think that given the population of a small town such as Bethlehem that perhaps as few as twenty children were murdered, a small number that could escape the notice of the historians.  However, some churches say that thousands were killed, all the way from a few thousand to 144,000 as postulated by the Coptic Church.  The higher number is surely absurd; such a number of children killed would have brought the attention of the Roman authorities and inclusion in the historical records of the time.

Luke has the couple going to Jerusalem to present the baby at the temple.  Then the family journeys to Nazareth to live.  A flight to Egypt I not mentioned in any of Luke’s accounts or indeed the Gospels of John and Mark.  

So what is the truth? The simple fact is that we do not know. Historical accounts differ from Biblical accounts, especially on the death of the Holy Innocents.

Many sites on the internet explore the contradictions in the Gospels.  The site below http://www.thenazareneway.com/infancy_of_christ.htm  explores the infancy Gospels.

What do we need to take away from the explanations of the birth of Christ?  All we need to know is that Christ was born, made incarnate in the Virgin Mary, came into the world begotten, not made, light from light, true God from true God, of one being with the Father.  It is all there in the Nicene Creed.

If you find yourself troubled by the contradictions in the Gospels, pray for guidance.  Follow Matthew 7:7-8:  Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.

Ask, Seek, and Knock.

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!