Homily for May 18, 2008 Feast of the Holy Trinity

Last Sunday was Pentecost, and on the two Sundays after Pentecost we always celebrate two special feasts: Today, the Feast of the Holy Trinity, and next Sunday, the Feast of the Body and Blood of Jesus. Because of the baptism, the health fair, and because I couldn't begin to explain the Holy Trinity to you, I'll be brief. I know I mentioned this before.
The ancient Greeks had a word to describe the life of God in the Trinity, and I'll use that word. It was "perichoresis." Our English word "choreography" comes from that word. What it means is that they thought of the inner life of God as a dance, a dance of love, a flow of love and mutual recognition, and life and energy between three persons. I think what this doctrine tells us about God is God is not up there aloof as an isolated entity, but the life of God is communitarian. The life of God is a flow of energy of life and love and recognition, and according to our teaching, all of creation came about because God's love was overflowing and wanted to draw other creatures and other reality into that flow of life and love and energy.
Much of this is in my letter in the bulletin this week. As I was writing that letter, it was early in the morning one morning and I was sitting at my desk. Outside my window there was a bird singing, and I thought, "Why is that bird singing?" Well, why do birds sing? That's what they do, isn't it? The bird is just greeting the morning.
I thought, "All of creation around me is waking up with a flow of love and energy and praise to God, just for being alive and being awake." Have you ever had that feeling? Sit outside some early morning and watch creation come awake, and creation is just this song of praise and happiness and an endless flow of life and energy and love.
You know, that's true of everything except us humans. We have our egos, we have our will, and we can try to bend everything to our plans and our will rather than just fit in with the flow of life and love and energy around us. Do you know what I mean? We can hold back. We can choose to be separate from all of that. We can choose to try to make our own plans and impose our own agenda on reality rather than live in communion with God's creation.
Anyway, as we celebrate today, and as we celebrate the baptism of Carson Allen, just maybe try to think and feel of that flow of life and energy around us, in us, through us, in our midst, and try with your heart to say yes to God's invitation to enter into that dance.

Homily for May 11 2008 Pentecost and Mothers' Day

I asked at the beginning of Mass how Mothers’ Day and Pentecost Sunday could be tied together and suggested that the second reading would have a hint. The hint I was thinking of is where Paul says, "There are different spiritual gifts, but the same Spirit; there are different forms of service, but the same Lord; and there are different workings, but the same God who gives them all." Somebody was helping me with this link and said, "If you have a large family, the mother and maybe the father" (I'm a little leery of saying mothers are this way and fathers are that way because I think, there are a lot of fathers who act in ways we traditionally call motherly and mothers who exercise fatherly gifts.) , will appreciate the gift that each of of the children is to the family. They appreciate what they bring, and the gift that they are, and the gift that the family is to them. There is a reciprocity.
By the way  this is an aside  do you know in the biblical languages the word for “spirit” and the word for “breath” are the same? It's this breath of God which animates the whole world, and God breathed life into us, and we breath out and in always of that Spirit of God.
Can you see that in a large family? You appreciate the gift that each one is. There are distinctions, there are different gifts, but you rejoice in each one. We don't necessarily arrange them in hierarchical orders; we don't say this gift is better than that gift. We realize that no one of us has all the gifts. And so we need each other, and we honor the gifts that each other are.
And I think that's the strong link, and as we link that in the Church  again, as I said at the beginning, can anybody define the Holy Spirit in such a way that we throw out a definition and say here it is, it's here and nowhere else? You can't do that, can you, because the Spirit is like wind, it blows wherever it will, and so nobody can claim to have an exclusive possession of the Holy Spirit.
In the Church we all have it; we all have it through baptism. We may have different roles, we may have different ministries, we may have different ways in which the gift of the Spirit is manifest in our lives, but our call is to celebrate and to honor all of them, and to respect them in each other, to support each other in living out that gift of the Spirit.
So, just in the spirit of Mothers' Day, I would like you just to look around this church and see us all as part of a big family. I always have to throw a caution, though, when I use the image of family for the Church, because we always need to be respectful of the stranger. Sometimes family makes us want everybody to be alike, and we can also be different.
But anyway, for today just look around and see us all as one big family, and look around and try to appreciate the gift that each person here is to this community. And also try to appreciate the gift that this community is to each individual. And as we celebrate Pentecost, let's celebrate God's generosity in pouring out his Spirit in the world, not only here, but in all the other churches around us, and in all the other gatherings that people have. God does not limit God's gifts of the Spirit to our mental categories or definitions.

Homily for May 4, 2008 First Communion, Feast of the Ascension

I'm going to throw out a question and an invitation to the adults to tell these young children what you felt like on your First Communion. First, I'm going to refresh your mind by talking a little bit about mine.
It was right here in this church, and the year was 1948. We were sitting way up there, because the pews went all the way up to the front. It was 7:30 in the morning, because in those days, if you wanted to go to communion you couldn't eat or drink anything from midnight.
When we got to school, all the water fountains were taped up so that we wouldn't forget and drink. And, of course, we had practiced very hard. I looked forward to receiving communion, because that meant that I was becoming big. I was growing up, and it was one of these milestones in my life as I grew up. It meant I belonged in a new and different way.
My memory of that day is all about belonging. I belonged to God and God loved me; I belonged to the church and my school, and in those days they were the same. I belonged and everybody loved me. I belonged to my family, and I looked forward to the party afterwards. I got all sorts of stuff.
By the way a couple years ago one of the parents told me, after opening all his presents her little boy said, "Boy, I can't wait till my Second Communion!"
I remember opening all the presents, but more than anything it was about belonging and being loved. As I say in my letter in the bulletin, a great deal of the joy that day was that it was all about me. That's the critical adult. But don't we all need those moments when it's all about us and when we are the center of attention and surrounded by loving, adoring people who just think we are wonderful?
That's my memory of First Communion. Would any of the adults like to share anything of your memory? What did you feel like on that day?
[Inaudible] You remember being nervous. She was so afraid she was going to get something on her dress. Yes, that goes with it, too, doesn't it?
Yes? [Inaudible] Very excited and very grown up that day.
Yes? [Inaudible] Feeling like you were going to get married. The dresses are similar, aren't they? I mean, not the same, but the veil, the white dress. It's very similar.
Yes? [Inaudible] Okay. In 1979 you were right here in this church and up there. And remembering the community and being part of that community, as he is sitting here today, there's a sense of sameness. The community is still here.
By the way, we've been doing this for 112 years now. It's been here the same. Any other memories?
Yes? [Inaudible] She remembers her favorite cousin being here, and when she came back from communion she didn't look at the cousin, and the grandmother said it was because she had bigger things on her mind.
That's different. In those days, you're right, we didn't look at anybody and we were all in ourselves. Today we do look at people, and we're not only connected in ourselves but connected with each other. Any other memories?
[Inaudible] Ah. It was a long  we won't say how long  but you remember saying to yourself, "Finally." Again, that milestone.
First Communion is one of the sacraments of initiation, so it's part of this continuing process of being initiated into the church and into the life of God. So let's treasure those memories. Sometimes memories just happen and they remain with us always. Sometimes we work hard to create those memories that will last and that will happen. What's gone into this day is a lot of work to create a memory that we pray and hope will last for a long, long time, especially that feeling of belonging to God, to your family, to your church, and of being very, very loved.