2023 Lenten Preaching Series 2: Caring for God's Creation

In this second week of Lent, we continue to hear the Word of God from the book of Genesis, and Genesis 12 is a story of new beginnings.

In this short chapter, we meet Abraham, who will become in subsequent pages, the father of a large nation. But here, one only sees the uncertain beginnings of a family who find themselves at the threshold of a new tomorrow. This short passage begins with God’s command to Abraham to go from his country, from his family, from his father’s house to the land that God will show him. This divine command implies leaving all that is familiar behind to face an uncertain future.

The call to Abraham though does not come alone. It is important to note that God’s command is accompanied with a fivefold promise presented in five 1st person statements: God says:

· I will make of you a great nation,

· I will bless you,

· I will magnify your name,

· I will bless those who bless you and

· I will curse those who curse you.

But, what's with all this "blessing?" The Hebrew word for bless is berak, it means to bless or to kneel. Blessing, in Hebrew, is to bring a gift to another while kneeling out of respect; to do or give something of value to another. So not only will Abraham be given something of value (a blessing) he will also, while showing and living and kneeling in respect to God, give to all the people of the earth, a gift. Further, God says in no unclear terms that there is a future waiting for Abraham and Sarah. And God is making some big promises: land to a landless people and offspring to a barren couple.

The story of Abraham and Sarah’s family is perfused with work. Their work encompasses nearly every facet of the work of seminomadic peoples in the ancient Near East. At every point, they face crucial questions about how to live and work in faithful observance of God’s covenant. They struggle to make a living, endure social upheaval, raise children in safety, and remain faithful to God amid a broken world, much as we do today. They find that God is faithful to his promise to bless them in all circumstances, although they themselves prove faithless again and again.

But the purpose of God’s covenant is not merely to bless Abraham’s family in a hostile world. Instead, he intends to bless the whole world through these people. This task is beyond the abilities of Abraham’s family, who fall again and again into pride, self-centeredness, foolhardiness, anger, and every other malady to which fallen people are apt. We recognize ourselves in them in this aspect too … despite our best efforts, even the best amongst us falls from time to time. Yet by God’s grace, they retain a core of faithfulness to the covenant, and God works through the work of these people, beset with faults, to bring unimaginable blessings to the world. Much like them, our work also brings blessings to those around us because in our work we participate in God’s work in the world. Through Abraham and Sarah all the families of the earth shall be blessed. They will have an impact on people everywhere.

Genesis 12 speaks a powerful word for us too today, certainly in those instances when we are called to leave all that is known behind; to relinquish all our comforts and securities; to follow God with closed eyes; to depart on a journey without a map. And much like Abraham and Sarah, our lifestyles will have an impact on people everywhere, today and in future generations.

This Lent we have been trying our best to focus on how to better care for our planet, to leave the earth enjoyable for future generations. Much like Abraham and Sarah, our little individual families, and all of our families collectively will have an impact on people everywhere in the ways that we care for the earth. And while we surely do not have all the answers, the time has come to have the conversation, to raise awareness, to develop a plan to try and restore the earth to its original beauty and resourcefulness.

The hard part is that some of what we are called to do will challenge us to think in a new way, to act differently, and to step away from some of our comforts, conveniences, and casualness with respect to how every one of our actions has consequences today and for tomorrow.

This week’s focus, responding to the cry of the poor, challenges us to work together to protect those most vulnerable to climate change and ecological injustice. Worldwide, under-resourced communities—migrants, refugees, Indigenous Tribes, communities of color—shoulder the worst impacts of environmental degradation. And our actions are connected to this human suffering.

As Pope Francis teaches, Creator and Creation are “interconnected.” Yet, our climate crisis is a direct result of our severed connections with Creator, Creation and one another. Powerful countries (those with the highest carbon emissions) have prioritized consumption and convenience, treating Earth and its people as resources for extraction. But it is the powerless—low-income nations, communities of color, Tribal Nations, women, children and senior citizens—who suffer the consequences. This crisis stems from decisions in desolation—choices aligned with the desires of a few rather than all. The Pope said that in turning away from Creation, we seemingly have turned away from God, too.

· How can we re-direct our focus away from only our individual concerns and expand our capacity for love?

· Who do we see as our neighbor?

· How are our choices connected to the injustices experienced by communities worldwide?

Yeb Saño, a member of the Global Catholic Climate Movement, discusses the urgency of the climate crisis, and how it is rooted in three human characteristics beginning with the letter ‘A’. He writes:

The first word is arrogance. Arrogance is the belief that we're better than God or better than nature, that we’re smarter than nature - and that has caused a lot of havoc in the world.

The second word is apathy. Apathy is the dangerous belief that it’s somebody else’s job to care, it’s somebody else's job to take care of others or take care of the environment.

And the third one is avarice, which is extreme greed. Greed has made this world a much, much worse place to live in. Greed is what drives, for example, corporations to only think about profits and not the people and the planet.

These are three words that “we as Catholics strive to stand up against”, three forms of a lack of love: “the love that Pope Francis reminds us to embrace as a commandment from God and as an example from the life of Jesus”.

In Matthew’s Gospel today we hear that Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them; his face shone like the sun and his clothes became white as light.

Rather than being people of arrogance, apathy and avarice, the Gospel calls us to be people who are interested, invested and informed because only then will we, like Peter, James and John be transformed to continue to experience the blessings of the sun and the moon and all of creation as God would have us enjoy them, and to preserve it for future generations too.

This journey of better caring for creation may be long, sometimes much longer than one may have thought. It is a journey with many ups and downs, many joys and sorrows. But it is a journey filled with many, many promises — the most important being the promise of God’s presence to show us the way.

This Lent, take some time to learn more about what we can all do in this regard, for ourselves and those who come after us.

RSM

2023 Lenten Preaching Series 1: We've Come a Long Way Baby

In 1968 Phillip Morris launched the very first cigarette brand marketed specifically to women. You’ve come a long way, baby was the slogan that instantly caught on. You may remember that the ads featured an old-fashioned photograph of repressed women smokers behind a colorful, vibrant “New Woman” free of oppression, smoking proudly. Smoking Virginia Slims was freedom, so the ad conjectured.

We may use that same line; you’ve come a long way baby when we think about life in the Garden of Eden … when the LORD God planted a garden and placed there the man whom he had formed. It’s a beautiful image to think that out of the ground the LORD God made various trees grow that were delightful to look at and good for food. Those of you who have a green thumb may experience this personally … seeing, smelling and tasting the work of your hands, in your own little garden of Eden.

And while our faith story from Genesis on is long and consistent, the world, our Garden of Eden, our gift from God, has become a very different place … we’ve come a long way baby.

Unlike the initial beautiful image and place in the garden created for us, pollution of all kinds is threatening our world. It is undisputed that the industrialization of the developing world is creating unsustainable pollution levels. And the solution requires a technological and an intellectual revolution; an alternative route to economic prosperity that preserves resources and limits carbon emissions. And these must be developed before it’s too late.

Each of us personally, and all of us together in cultures and companies and nations – have been entrusted with an ability to make decisions that have enormous consequences. These decisions affect us as individuals and as a community, and the planet on which we live. Lent reminds us of that capacity and calls us to ponder the consequences of our decisions individual and collective. This Lenten season we will be focusing on these themes, aided by Laudato si', the Pope’s encyclical. Pope Francis really blows the whistle on us.

This First Sunday of Lent suggests that we see ourselves as Adam and Eve standing before a wondrously beautiful and potentially enriching tree. It asks:

· Are we using the technocratic power we have developed over time as we should?

· What norms are we using?

· What responsibility are we accepting for the consequences?

Adam and Eve made decisions based on what pleased them, but in doing so they inflicted deadly consequences upon the rest of humankind – we call it original sin. Are we continuing in the same vein? Does our malfeasance or even our nonfeasance toward the created world continue to sin against God and one another? Are we just as disobedient to the call of God to be fertile and multiply?

Adam and Eve were tempted by the serpent to defy their obedience to God and choose against him. Who are the serpents of our day? Who are they that continue to tempt us not to believe that climate change is real? Further, who are the ones who have given us permission not to do something about it?

Here are some facts we should understand about climate change:

1. Climate change is caused by humans

It’s not caused by the sun nor is it a part of a natural cycle. We have learned a lot of amazing things about how our planet functions—and other planets, too. The data is available, the results have been published in peer-reviewed papers and in popular press. We are responsible.

2. It's not too late to fix the damage that's been done.

We can turn off the road to disaster as soon as we use our collective efforts to put on the brakes and commit to wanting to be a part of the solution, not perpetuating or denying the problem.

3. Climate change affects everyone—including you.

Although some may feel the impacts of climate change more than others, everyone experiences its impacts. Any simple google search demonstrates region by region of the world how we are all affected. Take some time to do the research!

4. Certain issues can have more than one cause

Sometimes people create binaries where it must be one or the other or that it's not responsible to blame everything on climate change. There are many causes, and surely many ways to help change it.

5. There are plenty of fossil fuel alternatives

Solar technology has improved in the past few decades and keeps getting better. Electric power can be made with effectively zero emissions. New technologies for storage and distribution are advancing every day. Powering our society with clean electricity will be a challenge, but we can do it – if we want to do it. It is no longer a technological impossibility, just difficult politically.

Jesus was tempted to make decisions that would bring him comfort, prestige and power. However, he refused, and so became a source of life and salvation. Lent gives us an opportunity to reflect on our decisions and their consequences – in the past, the present, and the future, and that includes our decisions toward the environment.

No doubt, there are plenty of myths about climate change out there. Myths can help people feel in control of something that's complicated or frightening. Some myths may fit comfortably into the pattern of one’s life.

As believers, let’s not let the myths rule the day. Let’s not surrender to those who have vested interests in the status quo. Let’s not be manipulated by emotion, but rather take a real, hard look at the truth and the facts and then do something about it.

Let's work together to ensure the future of our planet for our children.

Let us take time over these next forty days to see how we can be more responsible to our sisters and brothers near and far, those born and yet to be, and to all of God’s creatures with whom we share our beautiful planet – "our common home."

RSM

FALL 2022 PREACHING SERIES 10: Disciples Live as Stewards

We continue our Fall preaching series on DISCIPLESHIP, the tenth part entitled: DISCIPLES live as stewards.

Disciples who live as stewards care for God’s creation and all the resources entrusted to them. The call to stewardship means receiving gifts gracefully, nurturing their growth, and sharing them with others. The call to stewardship is the call to take care – of people, places, talents, and skills we have been given to share.

Like the stewards in the parables of Jesus, we have been entrusted with God’s gifts in the expectation that we will allow them to thrive and multiply to the benefit of all. We are called to be stewards with our whole lives – stewards of our work and of our world around us. In fact, our preaching series this coming Lent will focus on being better stewards of creation!

The Old Testament reading today is from the book of Malachi. The Hebrew word mal’ak means messenger— very similar to the Greek word angelos (“angel”) in the New Testament. We cannot know whether mal’ak is intended as a proper name, Malachi—or it simply means messenger. Scholars are divided on that matter.

We do know that this book was written after the Jewish people returned from the Babylonian Exile and rebuilt the temple, but probably prior to the reforms of Ezra and Nehemiah. The book of Malachi was placed at the end of the Old Testament so that it would appear right before the book of Matthew.

This book is composed of six dialogues or verbal controversies, bracketed by an opening verse at the beginning and a Godly challenge at the end. The snippet that constitutes our lectionary reading is part of a larger section that constitutes the sixth controversy. That section begins with a reminder by the Lord that the people said:

It is vain to serve God;

What profit is it that we have followed his instructions?

They complained,

Now we call the proud happy; yes, those who work wickedness are built up;

Yes, they tempt God, and escape.

In other words, they are wondering out loud, why follow the Lord? What’s the point? It seems as if the wicked get away with all the bad that they do, why shouldn’t we act like that too? In other words, they are really questioning why they should be good stewards! Why not just take and use everything as if it’s all theirs without considering the consequences?

Today’s Gospel from Luke prods us to focus on the big things, on predictions that seem to be apocalyptic in nature. But when you read Jesus’ words correctly in Luke 21, you realize that it was not the distant horizon of history that was supposed to occupy our minds, but times and events much, much closer to hand—in Jesus’ case, the events in question were quite literally within the reach of his arm to the spot where Judas stood.

For Jesus, his words would have almost immediate resonance when one of his own friends would betray him to the authorities. But the rest of the disciples would not exactly have to wait until the roll was called in order to experience moments of truth and terror when they, too, would have the choice to stand firm for their Lord or not.

Too often we think that passages like this one are meant to make us starry-eyed surveyors of distant horizons. Actually, they were meant to inspire discipleship and faithfulness over the long haul and in all the tough circumstances we’d face long before The End would come.

As someone once put it, Jesus was not training short distance sprinters but long-distance marathon runners who could carry his message far and wide for a long while to come. What’s more, in and through it all we are being reassured: God will be faithful. Jesus by his Spirit will give us the words to say.

How ironic that a passage that makes some people unsettled—even as the disciples were initially unsettled to hear Jesus predict the destruction of the Temple—is actually meant to settle us in our faith and re-assure us. It’s also instructive that we may need the power of that reassurance sooner rather than later in our lives. That may not be an easy message to hear, but it is one we may need to hear anyway.

That’s really the message of stewardship. While we surely need to be concerned for the future, we also need to be attentive to being better disciples here and now. In my tenure as you pastor, I have spoken many times of our responsibility for each of us to do our part … Some respond well, unfortunately others do not – the numbers speak for themselves. I underline again, that our good stewardship not only helps us to prepare a better future, a better parish, a better Church, a better world for our children, but helps us build up the kingdom of God here today.

In that spirit, I’m happy to invite XX, a member of our Finance Council, to share with you the highlights of our annual report. Please listen carefully because as disciples, as disciples who are called to be good stewards, and as we enter this season of giving, we are all called to respond fully and generously.

RSM