Never Abandoned by God

~~~ Acts of the Apostles 12:24—13:5A ~~~ Psalm 67 ~~~

~~~ John 12:44-50 ~~~

May God have pity on us and bless us;

may he let his face shine upon us.

In light of our current flooding issues,

please keep those who are dealing with the flooding

 and high water in their homes in your prayers.

Many people lost all of their belongs including their cars.

We ask God to protect us from further rains at this time.

May his face shine upon us. 

May the sunshine dry our area as soon as possible.

 I did not come to condemn the world 

but to save the world. 

Sometimes we are tempted to think that our 

world has been condemned by God.

God sent Jesus to save the world...all people in it,

that includes you and me.

God does not ever abandon the world 

he chose to save.

God is trustworthy.

If anyone is to be condemned 

they have convicted themselves.

Every time we chose sin we are ultimately 

choosing condemnation.

Each person must make the personal decision.

Salvation is offered to all not condemnation.

Why would God want to condemn anyone

 after he went to such lengths to save us.

It does not make any sense 

even though we cannot begin to 

understand his ways.

...sent forth by the Holy Spirit...

As we let the Holy Spirit guide our life 

we can rest assured of keeping on the right track

...away from condemnation.

Stay close to the Holy Spirit;

you cannot go wrong.

May God bless us,

and may all the ends of the earth fear him!

~~~Peace~~~

The 'Holy Kiss'

~~~ Romans 16:3-9, 16, 22-27 ~~~ Psalm 145 ~~~ Luke 16:9-15 ~~~

The person who is trustworthy in very small matters

is also trustworthy in great ones...

How trustworthy do you consider yourself to be?
Are you reliable...dependable...honest and truthful?

What would you consider to be small matters?
Is it a good representation of who you are
 if you are trustworthy in small matters?
Is it more important for you to be trustworthy
 in large matters.

Once you have broken trust how can you restore it?

We have a God whom we can completely trust.

God knows your hearts...

Whatever your motives are within your heart
may fool another person or deceive another,
but God knows.

To be a trustworthy person one must make it their practice
 to be truthful and honest in all situations.
Not to say that we must be brutally honest
when it would only serve to hurt another person.

Being trustworthy is not just about keeping secrets.
It is about keeping your word.
It is about being dependable
 in all situations and all circumstances.

Greet one another with a holy kiss.

In this country it is not the custom to greet another with a formal kiss.
Perhaps we should try it...just a simple kiss on the side of the face.

Perhaps it would change the way we look at others.

Perhaps it would help us to see Christ in the other person.

Would you be willing to kiss a stranger?
Is a kiss too intimate...too close?

Jesus most likely greeted others with a holy kiss.
Today we are leery of getting too close to a stranger,
but in Biblical times a holy kiss was equivalent to our hand shake.

For Christians it was an expression of brotherly love.

A 'holy kiss' is not in any way connected with a lovers kiss.

A 'holy kiss' represents sincere affection and friendship.

Recalling just now how Judas betrayed Jesus with a 'holy kiss'
identifying who he was to the soldiers.
Jesus had previously found Judas to be trustworthy.
How disappointing...

We have many ways of bonding with one another.
The 'holy kiss' is one such gesture.

May you be blessed with trust from those around you.
I invite you to greet at least one person
 this week with a 'holy kiss'

Observe their reaction.
Let it be your gesture of Peace.

Who Can You Trust?

Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time

 

~~Amos 8:4-7~~Psalm 113~~1 Timothy 2:1-8~~Luke 16:1-13~~

The person who is trustworthy in very small matters
is also trustworthy in great ones;
and the person who is dishonest in very small matters
is also dishonest in great ones.

Being trustworthy is not something you just announce to others.
Being trustworthy is something that you earn.
It is becoming increasingly difficult to find people today who are trustworthy.

Like so many other virtues, our society is stepping farther
and farther away from trustworthiness.

Who can you really trust?
It seems everyone is only looking out for themselves.

I think deep down inside we want to trust others
 until something happens and they prove themselves to be otherwise. Ugh!

We expect our doctors, teachers, ministers etc.
to be trustworthy and too many times we discover they fall short.

The thing about trust is that once you have lost trust
in someone it is very difficult to trust them in the future.

 

 

Dishonesty has been part of the human experience from the beginning.
 

 Even Adam and Eve did not want to tell God why they were hiding.
If we were not tainted with sin perhaps we could have been
 better at maintaining our honesty.

...We will diminish the ephah,
add to the shekel,
and fix our scales for cheating! 

 

There are so many ways we can be dishonest.

If we are to live in a manner worthy to our call
then being a trustworthy person
must be one of the virtues we take joy in practicing. 

I pray to always have the grace to be a trustworthy person.
It is important to be trustworthy in small things as well as the larger.
It is no easier to be honest in dealings with our family
than in dealing with the public. 

Trustworthiness is virtue of habit.
Get into the habit of being a trustworthy person
then it will come naturally.
Too bad Pinocchio was just a fairytale.

In God we trust is engraved on our coins as a good reminder...
especially when it comes to dealings with finances
we should endeavor to most trustworthy. 

 

Here is where money becomes evil when you couple
it with a person who is not trustworthy. 

 

 Blessings come in being trustworthy in big and small matters.

 There is never a good reason to not be trustworthy.

It is Our Time...

 

~~~ Tobit 1:3; 2:1a-8 ~~~Psalm 112 ~~~ Mark 12:1-12 ~~~

 

“All your festivals shall be turned into mourning,
and all your songs into lamentation.”

In the Gospel reading we see Jesus delegating his authority.

The landlord leaves the care of his vineyard to his tenants.

The landlord has prepared the vineyard with great care.

He has provided everything necessary for a thriving prosperous vineyard.

He was looking forward to reaping the benefits.

He was trusting the tenant to take good care of the vines.

He was trusting the tenant to be honest.

Imagine how shocked he was when his expectations were dashed by the greediness

and dishonesty of the his tenant.

 

Clearly the owner had high expectations for his vineyard.

Having a rental property, I can identify with the problems associated

with having someone else taking advantage of you.

 

In this case the crime of murder is carried out by the tenant.

This act of the taking of someone's life seems so extreme for a few grape vines.

But it is more about what this property represents than its potential.

 

The landlord eventually sends his own son to face death

in order to communicate with the tenant.

 

 

Of course the whole point of the story is to grab our attention

and perhaps give us a jolt of reality.

 

Didn't we do the very same thing to Jesus?

 

This gospel story is directly connected to God the Father sending his Son

down to us. We are now the tenants of the vineyard.

Have you ever paused to reflect

on how well we are caring for what has been entrusted to us?

From the beginning of Genesis we see how the good 'landlord' provides for us.

We squandered it all away.

We crumbled in the face of temptation...we bit into the apple.

One small bite changed everything.

That one morsel, sweet as it was,

set into motion the corrupted disposition of the heart.

Humans, God's creation, were now capable of murder...

including killing the Son of the Landlord.

 

It is now up to us; we must care for the vineyard.

Keep working in the vineyard for the juice of the harvest is so sweet.

Persevere when times are bleak and terror surrounds you.

Light shines through the darkness for the upright;
he is gracious and merciful and just.

 

On this day in 1963 Blessed John Paul XXIII died.

He was proclaimed 'Blessed' in 2000 by Pope John Paul II.

We eagerly await his canonization to be finalized in the near future.

 

No matter the cost preserve the vineyard.

The Landlord is generous and lavishes grace on his trustworthy tenants.

It is our time to care for the vineyard.

Stewards of the Mysteries

~~~ 1Cor 4:1-5 ~~~ Psalm 37 ~~~ Luke 5: 33-39 ~~~

 

Here are some of the phrases that struck me this morning...

"...stewards of the mysteries of God...

...be found trustworthy...

....do not make any judgment...

...he will bring to light what is hidden in darkness...
...and will manifest the motives of our hearts..."

 

Have you ever considered being a steward of the mysteries of God?

How overwhelming is that?

There are wine stewards and cabin stewards.

A steward manages and acts on behalf of another.

A steward is the agent of another.

Paul says he and now us as well are left to manage the mysteries of God.

How can you be a good steward unless you are prepared for the job?

 

In a restaurant the wine steward would spend a great deal of time

learning all that he/she could about different wines.

They would study the wine making process.

They learn how to use words to describe the qualities of each wine.

They are able to answer the customers questions about a particular wine.

They would be able to suggest the best wine for the entree you order.

 

You can only be a good wine steward by preparing and gaining

knowledge of what makes each wine unique.

 

If this is required to make a person a good wine steward;

what should be required of us to be called

 stewards of the mysteries of God?

Paul suggests that we be trustworthy.

Are you reliable?

Are you dependable?

In our world today we are faced with too many

instances where we cannot trust.

The internet confirms that you cannot trust everything

just because it is published.

We often do not know who we can trust or who we should trust.

We discover too late that we should not have trusted someone.

In my classroom I had children that could not trust their own parents.

How sad is that?

 

We must make a conscious commitment to be trustworthy.

It is a moral value we should be able to practice.

Even Jesus was betrayed by someone he trusted to be a

steward of the mysteries of God.

 

"...Commit to the LORD your way;
trust in him, and he will act.

Turn from evil and do good..."

 

When we read the psalmist encouraging us

to commit to the Lord

and trust him, we have doubts.

If we are truly a trustworthy person we will be about doing good.

Trusting in the Lord requires us to admit

that we are not in control.

 

"Can you make the wedding guests fast
while the bridegroom is with them?"

 

When Jesus is present to you it is a time for rejoicing.

It would be rude to fast when the Lord comes to his feast.

 

Years ago we were required to fast before receiving Eucharist

from the night before until the Mass.

It was difficult for many people to abstain from food for so many hours.

Now the more reasonable one hour of fasting is easily met.

 

After you have been fasting the taste of food is much more appreciated.

Fasting can be used as a reminder of how God meets our needs.

Fasting reminds us that we take food for granted.

Somehow when you can't have something

it makes you want it even more.

Funny how our brain plays that trick on us.

 

 

I invite you to look

at fasting as the opportunity

to be more aware of your body.

Fasting can give us the chance to be grateful

for how remarkable our bodies are made.

 

When you are in the presence of the Lord

he offers abundant nourishment.

But when he is gone, fasting may signify

our longing to be in his presence once again.

 

If you desire to live in a manner to be

a steward of the mysteries of God,

 learn all you can about our God.

Be diligent about growing in the knowledge of his mysteries.

Make the intention in your prayer time to become

the best steward God could have ever chosen. 

 

...he will bring to light what is hidden in darkness...
...and will manifest the motives of our hearts...

May our desire to be good and trustworthy

stewards of the mysteries of God

keep us close by his side.