Sermon 182, October 23, 2022 - LK 5:29-39, 2 Cor 1:8-11, Is 25:6-10 Apostle James

As preached by Brother Luke
Holy Wisdom Church

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



How often do I get in my own way? I'm not just thinking about tripping over my own feet, which I do. But rather letting my preconceived ideas and notions inhibit my ability to be open to new ideas and ways of thinking and doing things. I don't think I'm alone in this. Sometimes we may be prisoners of our own habits. In our current circumstances here at the monastery where we have moved into our guest house while the cloister is being renovated, I have come to realize just how much of my life was governed by rigid patterns of habitual behavior that are now disrupted leaving me often frustrated at how much longer it takes me to do anything. My autopilot crashed! And I am frequently pining for a return to the old ways and dreaming about how much better life will be when I can return to my old patterns of behavior in my old routines and in my old spaces. I think a big surprise awaits me when this project is completed!

This morning's scripture lessons should alert us to the reality that the past is past and new ways will impose themselves on us, with or without our approval. What is Jesus trying to tell us by dining with tax collectors and sinners, the outcasts of his day? For the Pharisees of his day the problem was not just eating with tax collectors and sinners, but eating AT ALL was looked on with suspicion if one is viewed as a prophet. Shouldn't they be fasting, like John the Baptist and his followers? But Jesus reminds the critics that these aren't the usual circumstances!

And what about those tax collectors? Today people may view the IRS with disdain and distrust and may see the whole process as theft, but if you work for the IRS you most likely are not ostracized by society. Some may not like how the government uses "your tax dollars" but it is not a foreign occupier with local agents.

Jesus comes to these marginalized members of his society as the doctor for those who need a doctor. But the medicine he provides may not be the elixir his critics have in mind. He does not shun them, avoid them or dismiss them. He is not telling them how wrong or bad they are. Instead, the medicine he brings is the reminder that God loves his creation, all of it and everyone in it. And bringing God's love to those marginalized by society is a central feature of the Good News.

Wrapping our minds around a new reality is the difficult part. Later in the passage Luke relates the examples of old wine bursting new wine skins and new cloth patching old garments only to tear away from the garment. Jesus was challenging societal conventions and offering an alternative that emphasized God's love. Old paradigms no longer apply if we really understand God's true nature. So this new understanding burst the old wine skins and tore away from the old cloth of society. New wine needs new wine skins and old cloth needs to be replaced with new cloth. A new understanding of God brings with it a new way to approach the marginalized in society, with love and understanding, not fear and rejection.

Isaiah tells us that "God has wiped away the tears from every cheek...taken his peoples shame away... [so] rejoice since he has saved us." And Paul reminds us "to trust not in ourselves but in God."

And to take an example from last summer, this is exactly what Archbishop Elpidophoros of the Greek Archdiocese of North America did when he baptized the children of a same-sex couple in Greece not far from Athens. He put pastoral needs ahead of cultural sensitivities and societal conventions that too often hinder God's work rather than enable it. We want to stay in our comfort zone. Christ never stayed in his society's comfort zone. He constantly broke away from it just as the new cloth broke away from the old.

One might think that monastic life is as far removed from this paradigm as any life style could possibly be, but in fact it is just the opposite. It demands the very same thing of us. When we enter this life we must face the fact that we are entering into a completely new way of living, being and thinking. No matter how much our inner urgings may want us to simply continue to live our old life in a new location, that is not possible. We can't fit our old way of living into this life any more than people 2000 years ago could put new wine into old wine skins. The old wine skins will fail. And this teaching of Jesus is not just for monastics, it is for all of us.

Glory be to Jesus Christ

Sunday after Exaltation of the Cross - September 18, 2022 Isaiah 49:13-18, 22-23; Galatians 2: 15-20; Mark 8: 34-9:1

Preached by Sister Cecelia

Holy Wisdom Church


Last week I heard of a professional athlete who had a round medal engraved with these words: First God, Second Ron, Third self. He wore it always as a reminder of how to live. He explained that Ron was a nephew but symbolized all others.

First, God.

Second, neighbor.

Third, self.

It is pretty clear that following Christ entails self-denial. What kind of denial to ourselves is our task to discover. It is a lifelong challenge. We’ve often been told that Christ does not ask of us anything he has not been willing to accept or do himself. Jesus continually said “yes” to God and “no” to himself when a choice was demanded.

When making our own choices, do we intuit what is right and wrong, or do we depend on others to indicate what is right and wrong? What is good, better, and best; and what is mediocre, bad, and worse? For whom or what is it good or bad—ourself, our neighbor, our country, the world?

Throughout the ages, humans have looked to their leaders—be they kings, prophets, or religious leaders—for directions on how to live as they should, to be on the safe side. Humans generally like to be safe, but not always. When Jesus said “yes” to what he saw God was asking of him, he definitely was not being on the safe side.

Jesus prayed, listened, and then responded. When we realize that Jesus—our God—is with/in us, we pray to be able to respond as He did. We ask to be able to line up our will with the will of God. As Saint Paul has said, “It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me.”

How often the directive to “love God above all and love our neighbor as ourselves” is repeated in the Scriptures we call our own. How often have we found ourselves behaving more like the rich young man who was directed to give all his riches to the poor and to come and follow Christ? That man went away sad because that was just too much to ask of him. Our own desires outweigh what we think God might be asking of us. The history of many of the saints shows that their enthusiasm about following Christ sometimes led them to extremes. In later life, they frequently apologized to their bodies for having mistreated them when they were younger. Attempts to be and do more than Christ did is a temptation to pride rather than to love.

Most of us are energized by being confronted by unusual challenges; we rise to the occasion. It is daily fidelity to our prime values that prepares us to deal creatively with unusual situations. We become saints not by waiting for an opportunity to display heroic virtue but by responding creatively to the niggling demands that come our way every day. God does not often ask us for heroic deeds, but rather steadfast perseverance in loving our neighbor as ourselves. It follows that we must love ourselves before we can know how to love our neighbor.

Loving God above all will inevitably cause us to be thankful for all we have received. Looking at the awesomeness of creation and our ability to give thanks for it ensures that we see the need to care for it whenever we can. These same scriptures show us, too, what loving our neighbor entails. Understanding what we as individuals can do in carrying out these two commandments takes reflection.

It is so easy to get caught up with all that is going on around us. We get caught up with friends and families, with our own health issues, with the war news, with fires, floods, and famine that taking the time to feed our minds, to reflect, to give thanks takes effort. It takes planning to find the time.

Do not worry about being safe. Be assured that even if we do not make the right or correct choices, God will make right what we do as long as our intention is to do what is right, which is: the will of God on earth as it is in heaven.



Give thanks for all the joys and sufferings that turn our hearts and minds to God.

Sermon 181 September 14, 2022 Jn 19:13-35, 1 Cor 1:17-28, Is 10:25-27, 11:10-12 Exaltation of the Cross.

 As preached by Brother Luke

Holy Wisdom Church

 

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
 
       Today we celebrate the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. Throughout the years artists have made striking icons of the cross, not to mention beautiful jewelry and of course the schema monk's traditional garment has the cross at Golgotha emblazoned on the front. Wonderful though they are, these images of the cross can obscure its horrific original reality. It was a sign and instrument of torture, humiliation, shame and death.

       As we read through the gospels we notice how many times Jesus turns traditional understandings of life and customs upside down. For example, think about the messages embedded in the Beatitudes. The cross is one more example of this grand reversal. An instrument of death becomes a sign of life eternal. I believe it is also a key to understanding what Jesus meant when he said that he has come so that we may have life more abundant.

       What does life more abundant mean? How can the cross be a symbol of that more abundant life? We are all called to learn from Jesus and to follow his example. And yet, the phrase "life more abundant" filtered through the lens of modern worldly understanding would put the stress on the word "abundant" whereas Jesus' way of living puts the stress on the word "life".

       Did Jesus live an abundant life according to the world's standards? No. He did not strive to acquire more and more possessions. He said: put your treasure in heaven where neither moth nor rust can corrupt. He didn't hold down a high paying job nor strive for worldly status. Pay unto Cesare what is Cesare's and unto God what is God's. Did he own the biggest mansion in the neighborhood? No. The Son of Man has no place to lay his head. He didn't own the latest, greatest chariot. He had to borrow a donkey to ride "triumphantly" into Jerusalem. Did he surround himself with sycophants who told him only what he wanted to hear? No. He even included amongst his closest friends the man who would betray him. He turned on its head all the world's standards of abundance. The prosperity preachers of the modern age have no clue into what Jesus is really about.

       He told the rich man to give away all his possessions to the poor and follow him. When the devil taunted and tempted Jesus he used scripture to counter all the evil and dishonest lures for wealth and power thrown at him. And then, he freely let himself be captured, tried, convicted and killed in the most painful and shameful way used by the political authorities of his day. Nailed to a cross.  By doing this he transformed our understanding of what abundant life is all about.

       When we honestly look at how we feel when we desperately strive after all the "good things" this world can offer, we might notice that this type of passion is insatiable. And rather than filling us up with joy and happiness, it leaves us empty and only yearning for more and more. The abundant life is not about acquiring but rather about self-giving. This is the example Jesus gave to us to follow. And the cross is the key because through it he made the ultimate sacrifice to save us. So to follow in his footsteps is to follow the two basic commandments Jesus told us to observe: Love God and love your neighbor as yourself. All the law and the teaching of the prophets hang on these two commandments. Jesus' love was always going out from himself and never pointing to himself. And this is what his father and our father, that is God, is all about. Love, freely given. When you see the Cross, think love, and hold onto it tightly. Let it always be a reminder of the love that Jesus gave freely. The love we too can also give freely.

       Glory be to Jesus Christ!

July 24, 2022

 As preached by Sister Cecelia

Holy Wisdom Church

2 Kings, 4:25-37, Romans 8:1-11, Matthew 9:18-26

The readings this morning remind us of the miracles performed by the early prophet Elisha and the many miracles performed by Jesus as well. The leader of the synagogue, Jairus, had faith Jesus could bring his daughter back to life. The woman with a 12-year hemorrhage believed Jesus could cure her. Even the epistle reminds us that through our baptism we receive the miracle of the indwelling Spirit who raised Christ from the dead into our own mortal bodies. What effect have these miracles had in our lives?

Even though the disciples witnessed many of the miracles performed by Jesus, those miracles had little effect on their behavior when He was taken by the Romans and put to death. It seems the miracles were ineffective in strengthening their faith because there was no correspondence between what was happening on the outside and what was happening on the inside. The most spectacular happenings do not work unless they trigger an interior response. There needs to be a consistency between what is deepest in us and the practical choices that constitute our everyday life. We do need to burden ourselves with principles that define our identity and set our objectives and not just float along with the current. This work of having a personal philosophy that is drawn from our past experience and feeds into our present and future living is of great importance as we arrive at a sense of who we are and what we stand for. Life can teach us to build within ourselves a structure of beliefs and values that serve to guide us in the decisions we make and serve as a standard against which we can measure our conduct.

In the course of our lifetime, we may not witness miracles, but we do encounter a vast variety of situations from which we may draw wisdom and understanding. We need always to step back and reflect. In Scripture, there are many admonitions repeated in many forms. Be chaste, be honest, and many other virtues—in short, keep the Ten Commandments. These moral precepts are about how to live an upright life. What one must actually do, leave us none the wiser in our actual day-to-day choices in light of what is known today that was not known in the past. In so many areas of life we know more, physically, psychologically, astrometry. These moral precepts must be kept, of course, but isn’t Christianity even more than these precepts?  We want to know God and mysteries that are inaccessible to the light of natural reason. We want to know where our heart and mind are to find fulfillment in this life on earth.

This past week we celebrated the feast of Mary Magdalen, and I am reminded of her going to the tomb to properly anoint Christ’s body. She did not recognize the gardener and asked “Where is He?” When Christ spoke her name, Mary recognized Jesus and became overjoyed. Are we alert enough to recognize Jesus calling our name? Sometimes Christ speaks to us in silence, sometimes in joy, in laughter, and even in the voice of a loved one who calls us by name.  We need to be more attentive to Christ in the sounds of creation—the birds, the wind, a gentle rainfall or crack of thunder. The more attentive we are to listening for Jesus to call our name, the likelier it will be that we hear and see Him in the young person who feels desperate, or the child who is hungry, in the refugee escaping danger, in the teenager who is bullied, in the person without a home.

What we give to others gives witness to our faith that Jesus lives.

Christ is in our midst!

 

 

 

Sermon 180 July 17, 2022 Mt 8:28-9:1, Rom 6:8-18, Is 65:1-10 1st 6 Ecumenical Councils - Marina.

 As preached by Brother Luke

Holy Wisdom Church

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


The Greek philosopher Heraclitus lived in the 6th century BCE. He is attributed with saying: "the only constant in life is change." Fast forward more than 2,200 years and in 1849 a French writer, Alphonse Karr, wrote: "plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose" – the more things change, the more they stay the same…" Two different perspectives on the same idea.

Human beings really don't like change, we like routine, it makes us feel in control of our lives. But we really can't control our lives nor can we escape change as Heraclitus noted long ago. But we often fight against it. To put it more bluntly, we fear it. And yet, if we ponder the present condition of our world, a world we might rightly claim is much different than even 50 years ago, not to mention hundreds of years ago, we will notice that the underlying features of human nature have remained unchanged, both the good and the no so good.

Jesus Christ's message is all about change. It's about knocking heads right into the most stubborn aspects of the human condition. When we are in our routine, we tend not to notice the things around us that need to be changed. Sometimes right under our very noses, as with Lazarus and the rich man. We may also flinch from facing that change because it may very well have negative ramifications for our own, shall we say, quite comfortable lives.

Who wants to lose their job and then have to start all over again? Who wants to have their house blown down in a hurricane, or burned up in a fire, and then face all the trials of rebuilding one's home and one's life? And who wants to evacuate their home to make way for a new airport to be built in their neighborhood? Who wants to study hard for a college degree only to discover that there are no jobs in your field? And what couple whats to enter into marriage with the dream of building a family only to discover that their child has a severe health impairment?

In today's gospel message Christ is letting us know that we need to be prepared to face this kind of reversal in our lives. And that reversal can come as a result of something good. After all, in this story Jesus heals a man possessed by demons but the demons are then transferred into a heard of pigs who destroy themselves. When the villagers learn of this event they confront Jesus and ask him to leave their neighborhood. Are we so different? Do we want a prison or a nuclear waste dump to be built in our neighborhood? What happens to our property values?

Jesus' message is a disturbing one. Yes, it includes the promise that we are to have life and have it more abundantly. But what is the cost to arrive at that more abundant life? For us in the monastic life, it is a constant requirement that we re-examine our lives, our pre-conceived notions, our ego-driven desires, our pains, our failures, our annoyances, and even our cherished pleasures!

Jesus left the region of the Gadarenes and crossed over into his own town. They asked him to leave and he left. But what he left behind changed their lives. We have free will to decide to avoid the messages God is sending us, but they will come anyway, and they will impact our lives whether we like it or not. Jesus is letting us know that the best approach is to be prepared for the reversals that will come. He isn't just telling this to the bridesmaids, he is telling us.

Glory be to Jesus Christ!

Myrrhbearers Sunday

As Preached by Sister Cecelia
May 8, 2022 

Christ is Risen! Happy Mother’s Day to all our mothers!

Be not afraid!

According to one estimate, Jesus told his followers 150 times not to be afraid. In Mark’s rendition of the happenings after Christ’s burial, the brave women who had remained at the Crucifixion went to the tomb to find the stone already rolled away.  Mark has the women being so frightened that they go and hide rather than tell the Apostles. 

It seems quite reasonable to think the women and John were anxious and afraid at the foot of the cross.  But their love for Christ overcame their fear.

It is reasonable to be afraid when we face danger of any kind. After all, many things are truly dangerous, and it is foolish not to be afraid of them. Fear is a safety mechanism built into our humanity. Even Jesus was afraid in the Garden of Gethsemane. For the women to be afraid is understandable. Except for Lazarus, no one else in their experience or knowledge had ever risen from the dead. It would be hard to wrap one’s head around that idea. We don’t know when the women overcame their fear or what prompted them to overcome it. The Evangelist Luke has them telling the Apostles but ignored by the men who said that the idea was ludicrous. Even after the Apostles saw that Jesus was not in the tomb, they were still afraid for themselves until after the Spirit of God descended upon them at Pentecost—Traditionally 50 days later.

What do we do with our fears? If we are unable to endure a certain amount of anxiety or fear, we will look for ways to expel it. Expelling what we don’t want to endure gives us an identity, though a negative one. Formulating that identity gives us a false sense of self, but one we easily hold on to. Many people define themselves by what they are against, by who else is wrong, by whom they hate, instead of by what they believe and whom they love. 

How can our dearly held beliefs be completely overturned? How do persecution, poverty, mourning, and meekness make us happy, as the Beatitudes tell us? These conditions can be a spur to changing our whole way of looking at life. The disasters indicated by the Beatitudes crack open the comfortable world we have built for ourselves, and often they open us up to the mercy of God. Christ came to save us. He helps us to overcome our unhelpful resistance, to puncture our inflated self-esteem, and to bring to nothing our grand designs that made us think more highly of ourselves than is reasonable. This makes us realize our self-reliance is delusional. 

In Luke, Chapter 13, verse 34, Jesus said to the Pharisees, “How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings…” Jesus gives us an image of God as a mother hen and her brood as these fragile, vulnerable human beings who face very real danger. But God being like a mother hen will not keep bad things from happening. Nothing keeps danger from being dangerous. A mother hen cannot keep a fox from killing her chicks. What good is this image of God as a mother hen if faith in her can’t make any of us safe? Is it really being or feeling safe that would keep us from being afraid? Becoming aware that we find warmth and shelter under God’s protective wings does not eliminate dangers. Dangers are not optional, but fear is. In response to the very real dangers of this world, we have the invitation as people of faith to respond by loving.

Hope is born, once this awareness is made. However bleak the future seems, it is like the darkness before a radiant dawn. Hope is a human attitude much deeper than looking forward to a future event. It is a positive acceptance by our very being an openness that implies the goodness of all reality. It is a faith-based hope that God is the Alpha and Omega of all reality and thus of our very human existence. We know God is Good, is Love

As chicks under God’s protective wings, perhaps we can see our own mission in life to become more fully possessed by divine happiness and be able to pass it on to others. Mother Teresa of Calcutta once remarked that when we say goodbye to someone, we should aim at leaving them a little bit happier than when we met. Then we are God’s agents of happiness to all we meet. 

Each of us brings specific, particular skills to the business of doing God’s work. Our talents individually might seem small, but together they yield rich results.

Christ is Risen as He said He would!

Homily March 327, 2022

 As preached by Sister Cecelia

Holy Wisdom Church

Isaiah 49:1-7, 1 Peter 2:21B-25, Luke 9:18-27

The last sentence in this morning’s gospel has puzzled many through the ages. “There are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God.” Surely Jesus was not mistaken, so what could it mean? One way of interpreting these words is this: “Before this generation passes away you will see signs that the kingdom of God is on the way.”  Like leaven in dough, something came into the world which began to change it. The disciples saw the kingdom of God changing them and changing others.

It seems like our consciousness is still changing, but we have a long way to go.  At the time of Christ, no one thought anything of the slavery of one human to another. But look at how many centuries it took for slavery to be abolished in our country. And it still exists in some places. One country warring to take over another country was not unusual then. Today, only a portion of the nations of this earth truly abhor the invasion of the Ukraine. Is the kingdom of God in our midst the cause of thinking that this takeover is not right?

 Is it love of God that causes our attitudes to change? For many, yes, it is. For some others, self-gain or self-protection seems to be the motivation, rather than love of God and neighbor. Our consciousness of what is right and what is wrong on a cultural level has changed. The whole gamut of the world’s standards must be changed to the standards of the kingdom of God. The questions are not “What can I get?” but “What can I give?” Not “What is the safe thing to do” but “What is the right thing to do?” As Christians, we need to realize we have been given life, not to keep it for ourselves but to spend it for others.

Jesus was asking his disciples what the crowds were saying about him: who he was. Then he turned to his disciples: “Who do YOU say I am?” What answer do we give?

 It is not enough to know what has been written or passed on about Jesus. A person can read everything ever written about Jesus—which is well and good—but to be truly Jesus’ disciple a person has to come to a personal discovery of who Jesus is.

The temptations Jesus endured in his 40 days in the desert help us realize that he was human, as we are. When we are tempted, we need to know what is right and what is wrong. We must know the difference between good and evil, and seek the good. Living with evil is not the same as sanctioning its presence or condoning its consequences. It means that we must struggle to avoid evil’s many faces when possible and to confront evil when it cannot be avoided. It means resisting evil’s dehumanizing effects when we find ourselves its victims. Evil is in control if we ignore its presence. We limit evil’s destructive power when we become aware of its presence. We must take responsibility for our actions if we do wrong, and trust God’s forgiveness.

Coping with pain and suffering requires courage to discern the good and evil that comes from daily living. We learn new life lessons. In order to be responsible and accountable to one another in an interdependent world, we must be able to respond to the situations we find ourselves in, both personally and communally. We need to resist oppression and injustice, abuse and violence, for what they can do to us. Pain, loneliness, loss, grief, and death can shatter our sense of safety and of self. We do not need to experience these fears in isolation from God or from one another. As we commemorate the feast of the Cross today, let us accept our crosses that are an integral part of our life. The Spirit of our Lord encourages us to hold fast to God’s words to us.

Fear not!

Glory be to Jesus Christ!