October 12 2011 - the 29th Sunday of Ordinary Time Cycle A 2011

Fr Dan Grundy will be celebrating masses this weekend, as I have another commitment. Thanks Fr Dan.
 
Meanwile,
 
Here are some thoughts from a great resource:
 
The Monastery of Christ in the Desert Homily for October 12 2011
     29th Sunday of Ordinary Time
     Cycle A
     2011
 
 
FIRST READING
Isaiah 45:1, 4-6
 
Thus says the Lord to his anointed, Cyrus, whose right hand I grasp, subduing nations before him, and making kings run in his service, opening doors before him and leaving the gates unbarred:  For the sake of Jacob, my servant, of Israel, my chosen one, I have called you by your name, giving you a title, though you knew me not.  I am the Lord and there is no other, there is no God besides me.  It is I who arm you, though you know me not, so that toward the rising and the setting of the sun people may know that there is none besides me.  I am the Lord, there is no other.
 
 
SECOND READING
1 Thessalonians 1:1-5b
 
Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy to the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:  grace to you and peace.  We give thanks to God always for all of you, remembering you in our prayers, unceasingly calling to mind your work of faith and labor of love and endurance in hope of our Lord Jesus Christ, before our God and Father, knowing, brothers and sisters loved by God, how you were chosen.  For our gospel did not come to you in word alone, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with much conviction.
 
 
GOSPEL  Cycle A
Matthew 22:15-21
 
The Pharisees went off and plotted how they might entrap Jesus in speech.
They sent their disciples to him, with the Herodians, saying, "Teacher, we know that you are a truthful man and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth.  And you are not concerned with anyone's opinion, for you do not regard a person's status.  Tell us, then, what is your opinion:  Is it lawful to pay the census tax to Caesar or not?"
Knowing their malice, Jesus said, "Why are you testing me, you hypocrites?
Show me the coin that pays the census tax."  Then they handed him the Roman coin.  He said to them, "Whose image is this and whose inscription?"  They replied, "Caesar's."  At that he said to them, "Then repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God."
 
 
My sisters and brothers in Christ,
 
Who is chosen by the Lord?  Perhaps too often we think that only those who are faithful to their religious obligations are chosen by the Lord.  The Scriptures keep telling us over and over that this is not so.  God chooses anyone and everyone.  God will the salvation of every person who has ever lived.  God makes us of those who are His chosen people but also those who belong to the pagans and the gentiles.  It is important for us to realize this so that we don’t think that just because we are Christians, we have a special right to God’s divine life. 
 
In today’s first reading, from the Prophet Isaiah, we see God using Cyrus and calling Cyrus his anointed one.  Yet Cyrus was not one of the chosen people.  We also know that in the genealogy of Christ, there are present some women who did not come from the chosen people.  God works where God wants to work and uses whatever person He chooses.
 
Today’s Gospel from Saint Matthew teaches the same kind of reality.  The Pharisees are trying to trip Jesus up with their way of thinking, so that they can show others that Jesus is not anyone special.  Jesus outwits them, as usual.  God’s presence and love do not depend on keeping the all the rules that the Pharisees had found in order to protect the Law.  We should not ridicule all of these Laws because they really did help keep a strong practice of faith.  The problem is when the small laws become more important that the enormous values they are supposed to be protecting.
 
We Christians should listen to the words of the First Letter to the Thessalonians today, wherein we are told:  For our gospel did not come to you in word alone, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with much conviction.  Living the Gospel is not just knowing the words, but living in its power by our daily actions, living in the power of the Holy Spirit, both with actions and with conviction.
 
Christianity is not a philosophy so much as a way of living daily life.
We want to be followers of Jesus Christ, living as He lived and striving to love all others as He did.  May our listening to the Word of God today move us from attentiveness to strong living actions of faith.
 
 
Your brother in the Lord,
Abbot Philip, OSB
 
 
Taken from http://christdesert.org/About_Us/Abbot_s_and_Cellarer_s_Pages/Abbot_s_Homily/index.html
 
Accessed 12/10/11
 
 
 
 

Paul's Reflections Twenty - eighth Sunday of the Year - A. Homily 9th October, 2011

Homily 9th October, 2011 Twenty-eighth Sunday of the Year - A

The disturbing thing about today’s gospel is that the excuses given by those who decline the wedding invitation are actually (in the main) good and worthwhile things: attending to one’s business and livestock, at least.

The thing is, they have their priorities wrong. 

The most important thing they should have been at, (at that time), was the wedding banquet (which they had already accepted) and now were too distracted by other things to bother doing what was most important. 

It is so easy to get caught up with the ‘urgent’  that we lose sight of the ‘important’. 

The other thing is, that even for people who aren’t overly religious, most people in the community would know that Christians believe that God wants to invite all people to be part of God’s family, part of God’s Kingdom.   Christians and non-Christians alike know that God loves all people and invites everyone to be part of God’s family.   The only problem is that some seem to make a big deal of that aspect whilst playing down and ignoring the second aspect of the King throwing out one of the invited guests because they were not properly attired and had no good excuse for it.

Some have watered down the Christian message by overplaying the first point and ignoring the second. You see people fall into that trap when they publicly recommend this kind of thinking: God is a God of Love and compassion, God loves everyone (and that is true), so God wouldn’t care about how people live (that… is not true)… 

This parable warns us, we are all invited to the banquet feast.. We are all invited to be part of God’s Kingdom, but it does not mean that we can then do as we please, live as we want and make up our own relativist mode of morality to suit ourselves.   This parable teaches us that Christianity is not a ‘design-your-own’ lifestyle group.   The baptismal garment, or the wedding garment that symbolises the entry into Christ’s life and death, is not a mix and match costume… one size fits all and that is Christ.. When we accept the invitation to be a part of Christ, WE ARE, as St Paul says, “clothing ourselves in Christ… we are ‘putting on Christ’ and his way of living and loving.  Today’s parable warns us that if we do not put on Christ’s garment, we will be thrown back outside. 

Contrary to some false prophets in this society….   NOT “everything goes” in the Kingdom of God. We have been given true freedom as sons and daughters of God, but that is freedom to keep God’s will and not break it.  (this is a definition of freedom that many in modern society would find confusing.  But it is the Judeo-Christian definition of freedom. Freedom to be everything God calls us to be, not freedom to do as we please).   

I sometimes joke that that wonderful hymn “come as you are” which I like a lot, does NOT have a sequel for the end of mass “go as you please”   …..  nor is there another hymn called  “Do as you please, that’s how I want you…..”   Because, once we are approach God, no matter whether we feel unworthy or sinful.. (and we all feel like that)… nevertheless, then God invites us to be transformed (heart, mind and soul) into the people God calls us to be, and to live and behave as children of God, according to his values.

This parable is sobering and powerful.   Those who were invited thought they could take the goodwill of the King for granted and they also had all sorts of excuses about how what they were doing was more important than what the King was asking them to do at this time. They were fooling themselves, and they were taking their status for granted… and so Jesus warns them, they will all be kicked out and people from other nations, other cultures and other religious…  sinners and saints alike will be given their place and invited to be part of the family…  but they too must put on the garment of salvation and live a new way..  leaving behind their old garments and old ways….

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REFERENCES:

FR. PAUL W. KELLY

THE DAILY STUDY BIBLE. GOSPEL OF Matthew. (REVISED EDITION). BY WILLIAM BARCLAY.

Paul's Reflections Sermon preached by Fr Jim. 8am. St Mary’s Catholic Parish. 2 October 2011

Thanks To Fr Jim from St Paul's Anglican Parish Maryborough, for preaching the homily for Sunday the 2^nd October at St Mary's Church.

Here is a copy of his sermon:

 

The Anglican Parish of Maryborough

Sermon preached by Fr Jim McPherson

at St Mary's Catholic Parish

2 October 2011

 

Isaiah 5.1-7; Matthew 21.33-43

 

 

I am delighted to be here! It was good to reaffirm our agreement in August at St Paul's, and we look forward to Fr Paul joining us for the Feast of Christ the King.

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We read the first reading, from what Christians call "the Old Testament", because it is part of our family history. These readings are addressed to us; the tangled family dramas of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph (Israel's founding family) are our story as well as Israel's. We do Jesus himself a disservice, and the Christian faith we profess a disservice, if we think it all started with Jesus as though he just landed on terra nullius and started from there.

 

The gospel reading makes this clear, when Jesus takes the vine/vineyard (one of the well-known symbols of the nation Israel) and one of the well-known prophetic rebukes to faithless Israel, and reworks it as a prophetic challenge to the religious authorities of his day, "the chief priests and the elders".

 

The story tells of God's persistent and determined efforts to get through to his wayward people; prophet after prophet sent, and ignored; eventually God sends his Son, whom they recognise as Son, and therefore kill – in hope of gaining the vineyard for themselves. (I understand this was a realistic strategy in Jesus' day; after a specified time, an inheritance left unclaimed could go to the first reasonable claimant; or occupation over several years would entitle to ownership.)

 

So now they won't have to worry about the previous absentee landlord, God ‑ or any of God's inconvenient requirements. And the Son joins the succession of murdered prophets.

 

The way Matthew's gospel tells it, the details of the Son's death correspond to the recorded realities of Jesus' death … and the "wretched end" probably describes Rome's invasion and defeat of Jerusalem (including the destruction of its Temple) in AD 70.

*****

 

This parable of Jesus taps into something really deep in the way our minds tick over.

 

We humans are all experts at smug. [1] That is, we are excessively proud of how good we are, what we have achieved, what nice people we are, etc; and therefore complacent about anyone challenging us to change. We are such nice people, bumping along satisfactorily (for the most part) with our lives, so that sort of criticism is not only unwelcome, it certainly does not apply to us …

 

Because of smug, we tend to overlook the gospel's concluding sentence: "I tell you, then, that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit." Clearly that applies to "the chief priest and elders of the people", whom Jesus addresses directly. But we are nice people, we are Christians, we know better, we wouldn't do anything like this, especially rejecting the prophets and killing the Son ….

 

Here are two questions, to St Mary's, St Paul's, to the Christian communities in Maryborough:

• Is God an absentee landlord for you? As in Fiddler on the Roof, the blessing for the Tsar: "Lord, bless and keep the Tsar …… far away from us".

 

• As God surveys our vineyard, is the yield worthwhile? The fruits of the kingdom: justice, mercy, peace, righteousness … How's the yield?

 

• And if it's not up to the mark, what can we do about it?

 

© the Revd James M McPherson

Maryborough Qld 4650

 

www.anglicanmaryborough.org.au

 

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[1] "having or showing an excessive pride in oneself or one's achievements: he was feeling smug after his win" ‑  http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/smug (visited 29 September 2011)

Homily 2nd October, 2011 Twenty-seventh Sunday of the Year - A

Homily 2nd October, 2011 Twenty-seventh Sunday of the Year - A

We welcome Fr Jim McPherson (Anglican Rector), as guest preacher at St Mary's for the 8am Mass this weekend.  I will publish online a copy of his sermon after Sunday morning's mass.

 

I also might pinch some of his good ideas for tonight's homily. I am sure Fr. Jim won't mind! J

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The readings this weekend carry a very consistent image in each of them:  the ancient and powerful image of the Vineyard planted and left to people to look after and the landowner returning to claim his rights, only to be rebuffed and all his messengers mistreated and killed, and even his beloved son is rejected and killed. It is very chilling!

It is clearly speaking of the people of Israel as the tenants of God's vineyard, and the messengers are the prophets of God, and the son is clearly Jesus.

 

Jesus is warning the listeners, particularly the chief priests and scribes, that they think they are holy and righteous, but they are in a long line of people who killed God's prophets and have set themselves against God's will.   IT would be shocking to them to hear that. They certainly saw themselves as righteous and doing God's will. It must be everyone else who is doing wrong, not me. Isn't that a familiar cry from so many people… I am right, it's all these other people who are in the wrong!  

 

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When I think of the image of the vineyard, I also can't help but think that God has given us this beautiful world to live in and care for its natural resources. In return, in many ways, we wreck the things given into our care. God would not be impressed by a lack of care for our environment and for the people and creatures that live in it.   We are called to responsible care and management and respect of the resources that God has entrusted to us;  to avoid waste or destruction and pollution and excess and exploitation.

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This gospel also calls upon each of us to consider the gifts God has entrusted to us to nurture and to bear fruit…

 

The Gospel parable reminds us that God is very patient with us and very generous…  But God is also just and won't give us endless time to produce the fruits God wants….   So..  are there areas in our lives where God has been exceedingly patient?   Are week taking that patience for granted in any way?.....

 

  are we producing the fruit?…   what kind of fruit is it?   And is it for the purposes of the Kingdom;   and are the fruits we are producing intended for the King from whom we received these gifts and resources? 

 

• Is God an absentee landlord for you and I……?
• What kind of fruit are we producing.. And if it's not up to the mark, what can we do about it?

Is it overripe?...  are we not producing at the pace we could…

Are we producing sour grapes...afraid to show love, kindness and joy…

Are we producing colourless grapes..hesitant or sparing in showing and sharing our talents

Are we producing wild grapes.. going it alone, not working with the faith community…    not supporting or being challenged by the wider community…. A law unto myself..

Are we producing tasteless grapes….absorbed by our own needs and wants….   ?

May the Son inspire and strengthen us to produce the fruits of the Kingdom…  justice, mercy, peace, and righteousness

 

 

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REFERENCES:

 

<![if !supportLists]>·          <![endif]>FR. PAUL W. KELLY

<![if !supportLists]>·          <![endif]>Revd James M McPherson, Maryborough, 2011

<![if !supportLists]>·          <![endif]>MISSION 2000  – PRAYING SCRIPTURE IN A CONTEMPORARY WAY. YEAR A. BY MARK LINK S.J.

<![if !supportLists]>·          <![endif]>Celebrating the Gospels, 1981-2003.

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How to keep up-to-date with parish news.

Have you signed up to receive the various St Mary's, Maryborough Parish emails? A fast way of keeping up-to-date

For more info, please visit: http://stmaryextras.blogspot.com/2011/08/have-you-signed-up-to-receive-various.html

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