Homily for the First Sunday of Advent, 2010: “Watch Out!”

Audio for the Gospel reading is here.

Audio for this homily is here.

“Watch Out!”

I found a pretty interesting article in Saturday’s paper.  It seems that some folks at Toys R’ Us on Friday morning had a bit of a scuffle: some folks, who had been waiting in line for hours to get Toys R’ Us at midnight were forced to defend their places in line against some late-comers who wanted to bum-rush the doors!  For the most part, the incident ended peaceably, but there were threats of Taser use, and at least one couple got pepper-spray in the face and a sprained ankle out of the whole affair.

The reflexive reaction would be to point and go, “See there? Rampant consumerism sins again!”  But this isn’t the typical “Jesus is the Reason for the Season” message.  I don’t want you to focus on the shame of the over-commercialization of Christmas (though it is sad); I don’t want to criticize the consumerism that drives some to value a few dollars more than the time they could spend with their family (though I think priorities may be out of whack). 

Maybe today’s readings have a meaning that goes beyond those things to something much more basic, but much more important.  And maybe that Toys R’ Us incident serves to remind us about it.

On this first Sunday of Advent, our readings point us in what may seem an odd direction.  The reading from Jeremiah points to a time that is, even today, a long way off:  a time of safety and security for Jerusalem.  In the second reading, Paul urges the Thessalonians to continue to conduct themselves as they’d been instructed, so that they could be “blameless in holiness…at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all His holy ones.” Then in the Gospel, Jesus gets all scary!  “…On earth nations will be in dismay…” “People will die of fright…” Jesus describes the end of time in a way that could scare anybody!

But look at what He’s really warning against:  Jesus says, “Beware that your hearts do not become drowsy from carousing and drunkenness and the anxieties of daily life”!  Jesus was instructing His disciples to spend less time worrying about today, and more time focused on living a life that would keep them prepared for His return!  And why was he telling them this?  Because He wanted them to be ready:  “But when these signs begin to happen, stand erect and raise your heads because your redemption is at hand.”  All these warnings were intended as a “heads up” to the disciples,   so that they would not get caught up in the foolishness that the rest of the world could be expected to engage in when He returned! 

We’re a long way from those days of expectant longing for the Lord to return.  The people of Paul’s time were waiting for Jesus to return just any day, in their lifetime.  The people in Jeremiah’s time we recently exiled, and were in a time of repentance and mourning over the loss of Jerusalem; they longed for the time that God would forgive their sins and return them to Jerusalem.  And the people of Jesus’ time had been waiting anxiously for the arrival of the Messiah, who would break the yoke of oppression placed on them by the godless Roman Empire.  We don’t have any of those problems.

No, instead, we have the pressures of a culture that wants us desperately to be a part of it, to accept all the trash that it holds in high regard.  We live the exile of a pilgrim people, wandering what can be a wasteland of wrong ideas about what’s really important.  And most dangerously, I think, we live in a world that wants us to be anxious about the things that it cares about:  money, and status, and appearances, and popularity, and being the first one to have this thing or that outfit, this gaming console or that new car, this big house or that important job.

And Jesus warns us against all of these things, too.  There’s more than one kind of drunkenness, and more than one kind of carousing.  And if some oft the things I mentioned aren’t causes of anxiety, I don’t know what would be!

 

But brothers and sisters, we do not have to live like that!  We do not have to live anxiously, worried about what’s coming next, or whether we’ll have the next “thing” that we want.  We are called to choose differently, and that is what Advent can help us to do!

Advent is a time to focus on our hope, Jesus Christ!  And as much as it’s a time to look forward to celebrating the birth of our Savior, it is, even more, a time to prepare our heart for His Second Coming!  Paul’s prayer for the Thessalonians was for us, too: that the Lord would strengthen our hearts to be “blameless in holiness”.  Jeremiah’s prophecy of safety and security applies to us, the New Jerusalem, as much as it did to the kingdom of Judah. 

And Christ hasn’t returned yet, brothers and sisters, so His warning to “Beware that [our] hearts do not become drowsy” is still in effect.  We can focus on Jesus in His Word, focus on Jesus in His Church, focus on Jesus in The Eucharist we share, and defeat the drowsiness that our culture tries to put into us!

And when the “signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars” begin to happen, we will be able to “stand erect and raise [our] heads because [our] redemption is at hand!

 

I’m glad I wasn’t at Toys R’ Us last Thursday night.  I don’t know that I would have handled myself well.  And I’ve never been a fan of pepper spray.  And while the consumerism that this incident demonstrates, and that has become almost the whole point of Christmas these days is not a good thing, it isn’t the worst thing we can fall into this Advent.

Are we anxious about anything, so anxious that it distracts us from thinking about eternity?  Are we so busy partying, or so drunk on stuff, or power, or money, or anything else that it distracts us from remembering that Christ is coming back?

Advent reminds us to be watchful.  Advent calls us to focus on the eternal more than the “right now”.  Advent asks us to live “in joyful hope for the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ”, just as we will pray before Communion in a few minutes.

Jesus is coming.  And He says:  “Be vigilant”.  Watch out!

Beginning Apologetics – The End Times Class 9 (Purgatory III/Indulgences)

FIrst, THANK YOU, all of you, for a lively discussion about indulgences and Purgatory!  You stretched me; I was glad for the challenge!

Sorry it’s taken so long to get this posted; it’s been almost ready to post since I left for NCYC; I haven’t stopped running since I left for Kansas City two weeks ago!  But since the next class is coming up, I thought I’d better deal with the LAST class!

Audio from the class is here.  The text of my class notes is here.  And my PowerPoint presentation is not goin gup this week; sorry. 

We will be discussing indulgences in much more detail at the next class; I was left feeling that y’all (or many of y’all) didn’t understand the concept, and were therefore balking at giving the assent of faith to the concept.

It’s important to understand this:  Indulgences are a part of our faith.  They are not some invention of crazy old men in Rome; they flow naturally form the power to bind and loose granted to the Apostles by Jesus.  It is NOT an optional belief, like Marian apparitions and whatnot; indulgences, and the concept of the Church designating the tasks needed to obtain one, is part of the doctrine of the Church.  It is related to what we teach about sin, and about the Church’s assigned role in the forgiveness of sin.  So we really need to deal with this until y’all gain a level of acceptance of the concept.  If you believe that the sacraments do what we say they do, and if you believe that God can remit the punishment due for sin as well as the guilt associated with sin (and remember, it’s the guilt of mortal sin that sends one to hell), then what is so hard about the Church remitting the punishment? 

I will use this example in class Sunday, so if you’re reading this, you will be one up on this part.  As parents, we sometimes have to punish our children severely for some transgression.  It might rise to the level of denying a child the right to participate in some once-in-a-lifetime event, due to the severity of the offense.  Which of us would not allow our child at least the opportunity  to have that punishment reduced, or even eliminated entirely?  And how would we do that?  we would hold the child to certain standards of behavior (equivalent to being free from attachment to sin, in the case of a plenary indulgence), we might require the child to complete certain tasks (clean your sibling’s room for a month; work at a retirement home a certain number of hours, or perform some act or acts of community service, inside or outside the family.  But we would have allowed the child to remit the punishment due for their transgression.

Beginning Apologetics – The End Times Class 8 (Purgatory II)

Here is the audio from the class; here are the notes pages, and here’s the PowerPoint Handout. 

I enjoyed the discussion Sunday about the question of the lack of the Sacrament of Reconciliation in non-Catholic denominations/rites.  I appreciate the thought that went into formulating the questions!  I thought I’d try to address that a little more here.  Since there are people waiting on the class notes and recording  though, I’ll do it in another post!

I am looking for feedback.  I am going to teach the course on The Real Presence of Christ in The Eucharist after New Year’s, if I get a consensus that it’s what people are interested in.  If you have another idea, please speak up!

Beginning Apologetics – The End Times Class 7 (Purgatory I)

The notes pages are here.  The audio is here.

Sorry, but that’s all there is!  However, my homily from last Sunday is here and here, if you just need to read something else!

Homily – Feast of All Saints (2009): Who Wants to Be a Saint?

Gospel reading Audio is here.  Gospel Text is here. 

Homily audio is here.

Who Wants To Be A Saint?

Have you ever thought about what it takes to be a saint?  We have feast days of saints all the time; our churches are named after them most of the time.  If our children are baptized or confirmed, we probably had to pick out the name of a saint for our child, or help them pick one.  There are even cities named after saints: St. Louis; St. Petersburg; St. Paul; San Francisco.  Saints are all around us.

But how often do we think about what it takes to be one?  The Feast of All Saints, which we celebrate today, was originally established in the fourth century to commemorate the martyrs of the early Church, those who were too many to name, or even remember individually.  Later, it was amended to include all the saints who’d died in Christ, all those who, by popular opinion had led a life of sanctity.  Today, the Church has extensive rules and processes for canonizing, or officially recognizing, a saint. But the Feast of All Saints recognizes everyone in heaven, saints named and unnamed, and celebrates their lives.

But what does it take, really, to be a saint?  And what does it matter to us? 

Today’s readings tell us a lot about who the saints are, and how they get to that status.  In the first reading, from the book of Revelation, John recounts a vision of heaven, in which he saw “of a great multitude, which no one could count” standing before the throne of God.  These people, dressed in white robes, were “the ones who have survived the time of great distress; they have washed their robes and made them white in the Blood of the Lamb.” These are people who have overcome sin in their lives through the saving power of Jesus’ blood.

Jesus Himself tells us about those who will be with God, in the Beatitudes. These eight categories of those who will be “bless-ed” tell us a lot about how we ought to live our lives; striving to do these eight things outlined by Jesus will make getting into heaven pretty simple!  If we can be humble of heart; submissive to God; mournful over the power of evil in the world; eager to grow in holiness; merciful toward the less fortunate; focused on seeing God’s glory; willing to make peace; and willing to suffer for the sake of God’s kingdom, we will be together with God in His kingdom!

But all of that “Church-speak” doesn’t really tell us anything about how we’re supposed to live, does it?  The Beatitudes don’t directly address the things that are problems for us…do they? 

Maybe they do.  Look for a moment.  If we are “poor of heart”, then money and things aren’t our first priority: God is.  If we have a sense of the greatness of God, then we will also understand why we need to submit ourselves to His will.  If the evil we see in the world makes us sad, and if we act to oppose that evil, then we’ll act to lessen its effects on people.  If seeking God is the first priority of our lives, then everything we do, every decision we make, will move us closer to Him.  And if we work to establish peace among men, and if we accept that people are going to beat us up for it, then we will establish the kingdom of heaven where we are.

It’s really pretty simple.  Jesus gives us the formula for achieving sainthood right here in this Gospel text!  And when we examine the lives of the saints, we see examples of all of these traits that we can follow.  The very reason we keep track of all of this is so that we will understand how to live holy lives! 

But if it were that simple, sin would already be defeated, right?  If it were just a matter of following eight simple rules, no one would ever have to worry about becoming a saint, would they?  Everyone would be a saint! 

Reality, though, is that we are constantly pulled in the opposite direction: much in our world is simply not of God, and is designed to pull us away from Him.  But, fortunately for us, God gave us tools to use to help us on our way.  First, he gave us the sacraments, those outwards signs instituted by Christ to give grace.  They are the most important weapon we have in fighting for sainthood.

More importantly, though, God gave us each other.  We all have a role to play in each others’ journey to heaven!  Look around you.  Husbands and wives, your first priority is to help your spouse get to heaven!  That’s your job!  Parents, as I have told so many of you at baptisms, your job is to keep little Johnny or Jane…out of Hell!  Those of you with brothers or sisters, it’s your responsibility to model what it means to be a Christian, to be a saint, for your siblings.

 Every one of us in the Body of Christ has a job to do: to help all the other members of that body get to heaven!  And if we’re all doing our job, then all of us will join the saints!   

What does it take to be a saint?  The Church has a lengthy process for “making saints”; it can take decades sometimes for the Church to officially recognize a saint.

But brothers and sisters, we all have the job, as Christians, of striving to become saints.  Sainthood isn’t easy; the lives of the saints are full of sacrifice.  But that sacrifice has a goal:  To be with God in heaven.

We’re not alone on that journey.  Everyone here around us should be helping us toward that goal.  And God wants us all to be with Him in Heaven.  

Think about it:  who’s helping you to become a saint?  Who are you helping?  What’s holding you back from becoming a saint?  And who might you be holding back?

A Question Came up…

And I was actually able to answer it!  Here it is:

Hi Deacon Chip,
Hope that you and your household are having a great week.

I know that you might think that this is a really silly question (which is why I did not post it on your blog}, but it has been nagging at me since we discussed it.

Why will there be a new earth and a new heaven? I understand the need for a perfect earth, but I don’t understand why we don’t just go to heaven instead of staying here? Also, isn’t heaven already perfect? So, why the “new heaven”? Also, if some will be on the new earth and some will be in the new heaven, will we be able to just go back and forth to either  place: will there truely be a “stairway to heaven?”

If the answer is “I don’t know”, I will understand. It’s just that these questions keep bothering me, so I had to ask.

Thank you for your time, and for all that you do for us in this class.

And my answer:

 I have your answer!  And it isn’t nearly as complex as I’d feared; I just forgot for a minute.

Take a look at the verse that references that re-creation you’re referencing (2 Peter 3:12-13):  “12 waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved in flames and the elements melted by fire13 But according to his promise we await new heavens and a new earth ¹ in which righteousness dwells.”  The footnote for vs. 13 refers one to Isaiah 65:17 and 66:22:
“Lo, I am about to create new heavens and a new earth; The things of the past shall not be remembered or come to mind.”  and “As the new heavens and the new earth which I will make Shall endure before me, says the LORD, so shall your race and your name endure.”

It’s not a “new heaven” that will be created, but “new heavens”, plural.  Remember the cosmological model of the ancients; they conceived of the earth as flat, and the “heavens” being all that stuff they saw when they looked up (see the picture here;  it’s weak, but it works for the explanation.  All these verses refer to all of Creation (heavens and earth) being burned up as in a fire and recreated without corruption or imperfection (cf. Romans 8:19-22).  It’s all of one piece; all of the created world will be destroyed and recreated without the imperfections introduced after the Fall of Adam and Eve.

Does that make sense?

Beginning Apologetics The End Times Class 6 (The Rapture III)

Here’s the audio for this class; here are the presentation notes, and here is the powerpoint notes file.

I didn’t capture the questions from the class this week; my beautiful assistant wasn’t available!  If there is a specific question you desired to have answered, PLEASE drop it in the comments box below!

God bless!

Eucharistic Adoration at St. Ann (Reprise)

back in the summer of 2008, I posted this challenge to the parish.  I was serious then, and I am still serious. I’ve had one mother of ten take me  up on my challenge; I told her that I could only count her older at-home kids, since the younger 5 are all under the age of 9, and had to go where she goes…

Eucharistic Adoration is the single best gift that any of us can give to God and to the parish.  Spending time before the Blessed sacrament, especially in prayer for the parish, will bear more fruit than any other thing we can do.

So…go back and read my post.  the challenge was this:  I will spend an hour in Adoration for every three people who commit to an hour during the week.  I’ll pray for those folks, and I will pray for our parish an d our city.  And I will spend as much time as it takes to answer this commitment I am making.

So…how would you like to make me stay up at the church?  All it takes is showing up! Adoration hours are from noon to 10:30 pm every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, except for national holidays.  The Chaplet of Divine Mercy is prayed at noon, 3:00 pm and 6:00 pm each day; Evening Prayer is celebrated at 5:30 pm, and Night Prayer is celebrated before Reposition at 10:00 pm.

So…who’s showing up?

Beginning Apologetics – The End Times Class 5 – The Rapture II

Thought I’d go ahead and post this week’s efforts.  The audio file is posted here; the notes file is here, and the PowerPoint is here.

An interesting question, actually, a few of them, came up during the class and after.  The first (which I disparaged a bit before taking it seriously — Sorry, Gail) was from the review of the problems with the Dispensationalist view of the church, which we discussed on 10/4.  I was asked for the Scripture references that name the Church as the New Jerusalem.  The citations are listed in the text; but to review briefly, here they are:

Rev 21:2 – “I also saw the holy city, a new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.”  Connect that to the moniker of the Church as the Bride of Christ; If the Holy City is adorned as the Bride, and the Church is the Bride, then the Holy City is the Church.

Rev 21:9-14 - 

⁹ One of the seven angels who held the seven bowls filled with the seven last plagues came and said to me, “Come here. I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.” ¹⁰ He took me in spirit to a great, high mountain and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God. ¹¹ It gleamed with the splendor of God. Its radiance was like that of a precious stone, like jasper, clear as crystal. ¹² It had a massive, high wall, with twelve gates where twelve angels were stationed and on which names were inscribed, (the names) of the twelve tribes of the Israelites. ¹³ There were three gates facing east, three north, three south, and three west. ¹⁴ The wall of the city had twelve courses of stones as its foundation, on which were inscribed the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.”

The Holy City has gates named after the 12 patriarchs; that’s the way into the city.  The foundation of the city is the Twelve Apostles…now, what else has as its foundation the Twelve?  That’s right, class…The Church!

Eph 2:19-22 - 

¹⁹ So then you are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the holy ones and members of the household of God, ²⁰ built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the capstone. ²¹ Through him the whole structure is held together and grows into a temple sacred in the Lord; ²² in him you also are being built together into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.

Another description of the “household of God (The Church) as equivalent to the Holy City that descended from heaven in John’s vision, built upon the Twelve Apostles.  I know it’s convoluted a little bit, but this is how we interpret Scripture.  These all add up to the Church being referred to as The New Jerusalem!

A second question was brought up again after class by a very attractive member of the class (at least to me); she asked how we could explain to a Rapturist/Dispensationalist that their view of Israel , namely, their fixation on the new Jewish secular state of Israel, was misplaced.  After all, she pointed out, God gave them that land as their eternal home, For ever and ever!  I briefly covered this when Emma Conroy brought it up, but to reiterate:  The Covenant between god and Israel was not made in the Promised Land.  Israel became the Covenant people of God when, at Mount Sinai, Moses received the law, and the People of Israel agreed to abide by it in exchange for their covenant relationship with God. 

God gave them The law.  Following its commandments made one a part of Israel.  Complaining about how big the folks in the Promised land appeared was what made an Israelite wander in the desert for forty years, till everyone in that generation was dead!  And god took the People of Israel out of the land on several occasions (as Susie Lovato pointed out – seven).  The Babylonians came and dragged them off to captivity for 80-odd years; the Assyrians had a turn at them, and several others brushed Israel from the land.  But at no time did the Jews stop being a Covenant people!  It’s kind of like our roles as parents.  Our children are our children; we have a covenant with them to care for them and provide for their needs, as long as they obey the rules.  But nothing is implied in that relationship that says they won’t be punished for wrong-doing.  A mild infraction of the Covenant might warrant a time-out., or loss of privileges, or even a spanking; a more serious one, maybe involving civil law enforcement, might mean forcible separation from the family and imprisonment.  that child does no tstop being a part of the covenant just because s/he is in jail;s/he does, however, forfeit for a time the privileges of membership in the family covenant.

Finally, Ann Marie asked me to go over again the question of who’s left behind at the time of the Second Coming.  This refers to the passages from Matthew 24: 38-41 and Luke 17:22-37.  Many of our Dispensationalist separated brethren will refer to these passages as support for their interpretation of 1 Thess 4:17 as referring to a secret rapture. The problem comes in looking at who is taken, and who is left behind in each of the examples cited.  These passages refer to God’s judgment on sin!  Sodom was destroyed because there were no righteous people in it except Lot and his family (who were told to leave).  After Judgment, those left behind were…the righteous!  the same thing applies to Noah and his family at the time of the flood.  God judged the world wicked except for Noah and his offspring; therefore God cleansed teh face of the earth of the unrighteous, and left behind…wait for it…the righteous!

So much for wuestions this week.  Please let me kno wif there are others; I will do my best to answer them!

Beginning Apologetics – The Rapture I

Here is the audio for today’s class. Here is a handout from the PowerPoint slide show, and here are my presentation notes.  You should find links active in the pdf for the presentation notes; if not, please let me know via email at chip.jones@stann.cdom.org.

On another note, I would appreciate any feedback anyone wants to offer about the class.  Is the pace too fast or too slow?  Is the content form outside the text too much/not enough?  Are you getting what you need? 

Don’t feel compelled to write me an “attaboy” message; if I don’t hear from you, and you keep coming to class, I will assume you like what we’re doing.  If there is something you wish we were doing, though, by all means, tell me.  We’ll get right on it!

As always, if you have questions, please direct them to me on Facebook, or at the email address above.  And remember we don’t have class next week (Fall break!).  Please be safe; I look forward to seeing everyone on October 18!