The Kingdom of God is like...

Proper12A, Sullivan Park Care Center, July 27, 2014 by Sr Annette Fricke, OP.

            The kingdom of God is like a child who becomes a drug addict.  The child imitates the behavior of her mother, a mother who is a role model and supplier of drugs.  The child has no known will as a child separate from her mother, because she has not lived outside the confines of her childhood.  She then adopts the lifestyle of her parents and not only abuses drugs, but abuses herself by her behavior.  She becomes depressed, begins cutting, binging and purging and simply not eating.  She brings into the circle many male friends.  The male friends are not so much an object of desire, but a way of coping with her parents’ physical and verbal abuse. She begins stealing and sneaking out at night.  Stealing becomes a way to obtain more drugs.  She knows nothing else because she imitates her parents to a ‘T’.

            The kingdom of God is like an atheist who clings so tenaciously to the idea that God does not exist that an entire defense of his behavior is built around this belief.  There is nothing else.  It’s just us.  We choose our own destiny.  People who believe in God are simply ignorant.  They haven’t figured it out yet.  Science has proven that there is nobody out there.  Space is just one dark void after another.  There are no rules to life, because we are our own masters.  It’s all up to us.  That stuff in the Bible is just fiction.  Jesus never existed.  Nobody ever found his bones.  There is no such thing as resurrection. That part is fiction, too.

            The kingdom of God is like a young, just graduated nursing assistant who is asked to take a blood pressure on a woman.  The woman has not had a stroke or a mastectomy.  She properly assesses the patient who has very thin arms, so uses a small blood pressure cuff.  She places the stethoscope in the correct position at the inside of the bend to the elbow; but she hears nothing.  She sees the needle bouncing all right, but no sound comes forth.  She proceeds to easily find the pulse in the wrist of the same arm, but still wonders why it is she can’t hear the blood pressure.  She tries the other arm with the same results.  She tries again and again, and then finally discovers a blood vessel in the right arm that surfaces near the skin a couple of inches below the bend in the elbow.  She becomes elated when she hears the blood pressure. She is no longer an embarrassment to the charge nurse or her co-workers.

            The kingdom of God is like an experienced nurses’ aide who was asked to get a blood pressure and pulse on a woman.  The woman tells the aide where to take the pulse.  The woman reasons with the aide that she is a nurse and knows her own body.  Against her own sensibilities yet figuring if there is anyone she can trust, it’s a nurse.  The aide puts her fingers where the nurse, who is also the patient, directs: halfway up the right arm where two blood vessels appear to intertwine.  She is surprised that she can get a pulse at that location.

            The kingdom of God is like an older woman who looks like a cleaning lady.  She is shabbily dressed and wears no make-up.  She gets up to sing and the immediate impression of the judges is that it is some sort of joke.  How could this woman possibly sing for an actual contest?  They do a quick interview as with every other candidate, still doubtful.  When she mentions that she wishes to sing like a well-known British recording artist, the panel snickers and look at each other.  They ask, “And what are you going to sing for us tonight?”  She replies that she will sing a piece from “Les Miserables.”  As her mouth opens and she sings her finest, the crowd and the judges are overwhelmingly amazed.  Their attitude is transformed from outright judgmental disrespect for her appearance to an enormous admiration for a woman who has a fabulous voice, far superior to their imagination.

            The kingdom of God is like a young male singer, who at the behest of his girlfriend, auditions because of his unique voice.  She has been urging him to do this for the last couple of years.  The moment has finally arrived when he comes out on stage to perform in front of a live audience and a panel of critics.  The preliminary introductions past and the audience is silent in anticipation.  He sings in falsetto, not sounding like a man singing falsetto, but like a female opera singer.  He is so convincingly singing like a woman that one of the judges sincerely asks him if he swallowed Jackie Evancho, a popular young girl who also has an older mature woman quality to her singing voice.

            You also may have your own parable of what the kingdom of God is like.  It could be almost anything in particular, yet descriptive of God’s kingdom.  It is like a drug addict, because the addict seeks to find what he or she values and follows what role model is laid before her.  It is like an atheist whose world is void of light, has no real sense of a basis for morality, yet seeking the truth and has an air of certainty that it is all up to us to make choices.  It is like a nursing assistant who is delegated the task of obtaining blood pressures and pulses that goes by the book, yet discovers that going by the book does not always give the answers.  It is like a singer who appears to be entirely different from what comes out of his or her mouth.

            The kingdom of God is like a treasure that someone dug up in someone else’s field, buried the treasure he found back into the field again, sold all he had, and then bought the entire field.  Why would he do that when the treasure was all that was essential?   What could this possible mean? Our clue is at the end of the gospel reading, “Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a household who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.”

            If we look more intently at the I Kings lesson about Solomon, we realize the value of wisdom that was present even way back in Old Testament times during the reign of King Solomon.  God blesses Solomon’s request, “Because you have asked this…for yourself understanding to discern what is right, I now do according to your word.  Indeed I give you a wise and discerning mind…”  Could it be for Jesus’ day that the treasure chest and its contents is the wisdom of the Old Testament and the field that holds it and surrounds it is the New Testament?  Could it be for our own day that the treasure chest is the faith and traditions of Christianity handed down to us through generations and the field is the world in which we share the rich treasure of Jesus?

            All of the parables are told for a specific reason: they point us to God.  They do not tell us in an exact fashion---that will be revealed in time.  Our faith in Jesus is the most important treasure we have and we will discover that time and again every day in our faith journeys.  God has many surprises in store for us.

The Boy filed under 'Strange"

Father John Powell, a professor at Loyola University in
Chicago, writes about a student in his Theology of Faith class named Tommy:

Some twelve years ago, I stood watching my
university students file into the classroom for our first session in the
Theology of Faith. That was the day I first saw Tommy. He was combing his long
flaxen hair, which hung six inches below his shoulders. It was the first time I
had ever seen a boy with hair that long.

 I guess it was just coming into fashion then. I
know in my mind that it isn't what's on your head but what's in it that counts;
but on that day, I was unprepared and my emotions flipped. I immediately filed
Tommy under "S" for strange... Very strange.

 Tommy turned out to be the "atheist in residence"
in my Theology of Faith course. He constantly objected to, smirked at, or whined
about the possibility of an unconditionally loving Father/God. We lived with
each other in relative peace for one semester, although I admit he was for me at
times a serious pain in the back pew.

 When he came up at the end of the course to turn in
his final exam, he asked in a cynical tone, "Do you think I'll ever find God?"

 I decided instantly on a little shock therapy.
"No!" I said very emphatically.

 "Why not," he responded, "I thought that was the
product you were pushing."

 I let him get five steps from the classroom door
and then I called out, "Tommy! I don't think you'll ever find Him, but I am
absolutely certain that He will find you!"

 He shrugged a little and left my class and my life.

 I felt slightly disappointed at the thought that he
had missed my clever line -- He will find you! At least I thought it was clever.

 Later I heard that Tommy had graduated, and I was
duly grateful. Then a sad report came. I heard that Tommy had terminal cancer.
Before I could search him out, he came to see me.

 When he walked into my office, his body was very
badly wasted and the long hair had all fallen out as a result of chemotherapy.
But his eyes were bright and his voice was firm, for the first time, I believe.

 "Tommy, I've thought about you so often; I hear you
are sick," I blurted out.

 "Oh, yes, very sick. I have cancer in both lungs.
It's a matter of weeks."

"Can you talk about it, Tom?" I asked.

 "Sure, what would you like to know?" he replied.

 "What's it like to be only twenty-four and dying?

 "Well, it could be worse." "Like what?"

 "Well, like being fifty and having no values or
ideals, like being fifty and thinking that booze, seducing women, and making
money are the real biggies in life."

 I began to look through my mental file cabinet
under "S" where I had filed Tommy as strange. (It seems as though everybody I
try to reject by classification, God sends back into my life to educate me.)

 "But what I really came to see you about," Tom
said, "is something you said to me on the last day of class." (He remembered!)
He continued, "I asked you if you thought I would ever find God and you said,
'No!' which surprised me. Then you said, 'But He will find you.' I thought about
that a lot, even though my search for God was hardly intense at that time. (My
clever line. He thought about that a lot!) "But when the doctors removed a lump
from my groin and told me that it was malignant, that's when I got serious about locating God. And when the malignancy spread into my vital organs, I really
began banging bloody fists against the bronze doors of heaven. But God did not
come out. In fact, nothing happened.

 Did you ever try anything for a long time with
great effort and with no success?

 You get psychologically glutted, fed up with
trying. And then you quit."

 "Well, one day I woke up, and instead of throwing a
few more futile appeals over that high brick wall to a God who may be or may not
be there, I just quit. I decided that I didn't really care about God, about an
afterlife, or anything like that. I decided to spend what time I had left doing
something more profitable. I thought about you and your class and I remembered
something else you had said: 'The essential sadness is to go through life
without loving.' But it would be almost equally sad to go through life and leave
this world without ever telling those you loved that you had loved them."

 "So, I began with the hardest one, my Dad. He was
reading the newspaper when I approached him.

 "Dad."

 "Yes, what?" he asked without lowering the
newspaper.

 "Dad, I would like to talk with you."

 "Well, talk."

 "I mean. It's really important."

 The newspaper came down three slow inches. "What is
it?"

 "Dad, I love you, I just wanted you to know that."
Tom smiled at me and said it with obvious satisfaction, as though he felt a warm
and secret joy flowing inside of him. "The newspaper fluttered to the floor.
Then my father did two things I could never remember him ever doing before. He
cried and he hugged me. We talked all night, even though he had to go to work
the next morning. It felt so good to be close to my father, to see his tears, to
feel his hug, to hear him say that he loved me."

 "It was easier with my mother and little brother.
They cried with me, too, and we hugged each other, and started saying real nice
things to each other. We shared the things we had been keeping secret for so
many years. I was only sorry about one thing --- that I had waited so long."

 "Here I was, just beginning to open up to all the
people I had actually been close to. Then, one day I turned around and God was
there. He didn't come to me when I pleaded with Him. I guess I was like an
animal trainer holding out a hoop, 'C'mon, jump through. C'mon, I'll give you
three days, three weeks.' Apparently God does things in His own way and at His
own hour. But the important thing is that He was there. He found me! You were
right. He found me even after I stopped looking for Him."

 "Tommy," I practically gasped, "I think you are
saying something very important and much more universal than you realize. To me,
at least, you are saying that the surest way to find God is not to make Him a
private possession, a problem solver, or an instant consolation in time of need,
but rather by opening to love. You know, the Apostle John said that. He said:
'God is love, and anyone who lives in love is living with God and God is living
in him.' "

 "Tom, could I ask you a favor? You know, when I had
you in class you were a real pain. But (laughingly) you can make it all up to me
now. Would you come into my present Theology of Faith course and tell them what
you have just told me? If I told them the same thing it wouldn't be half as
effective as if you were to tell it."

 "Oooh.. I was ready for you, but I don't know if
I'm ready for your class."

 "Tom, think about it. If and when you are ready,
give me a call."

 In a few days Tom called, said he was ready for the
class, that he wanted to do that for God and for me. So we scheduled a date.
However, he never made it. He had another appointment, far more important than
the one with me and my class. Of course, his life was not really ended by his
death, only changed. He made the great step from faith into vision. He found a
life far more beautiful than the eye of man has ever seen or the ear of man has
ever heard or the mind of man has ever imagined.

 Before he died, we talked one last time.

 "I'm not going to make it to your class," he said.

 "I know, Tom."

 "Will you tell them for me? Will you...tell the
whole world for me?"

 "I will, Tom. I'll tell them. I'll do my best."

 So, to all of you who have been kind enough to read
this simple story about God's love, thank you for listening. And to you, Tommy, somewhere in the sunlit, verdant hills of heaven --- I told them, Tommy, as best I could.

 With thanks,

Rev. John Powell, Professor, Loyola University,
Chicago

Outright Refusal

Proper10A, Sullivan Park Care Center, July 13, 2014, by Sr Annette Fricke, OP

          There are certain scriptures that are not as easily decipherable as others due to the separation of time and culture.  The Parable of the Sower is one of them.  There were many farmers in Jesus’ day.  In our day, that occupation has changed dramatically, even from when I was a child to this day.  There are people I converse with who have no idea what I mean when I talk about bucking bales or planting potato cuttings from the back of a plow.  Now, the bales are much larger and heavier so that a machine is necessary to lift them from the fields and transport them to where they need to go.  Many people get caught up in the method of the sower scattering seed all over the place as a poor method of farming and forget that this is a parable and is not to be taken literally.  This parable is not about farming or sowing seed to produce an edible crop.  Jesus told this parable to communicate the difference between those who actually hear and heed the gospel as opposed to those who allow other people or things in their lives to draw them away from the gospel and its influence.  It has everything to do with receptive hearts and God who is the giver of the gift of receptive hearts.  Hearing and acting on the gospel calls on us to consider that what we have in mind may be entirely different from what God has in mind. It is as Frantz Fanon has written, “Sometimes people hold a core belief that is very strong. When they are presented with evidence that works against that belief, the new evidence cannot be accepted. It would create a feeling that is extremely uncomfortable, called cognitive dissonance. And because it is so important to protect the core belief, they will rationalize, ignore and even deny anything that doesn't fit in with the core belief.”[1]

            Another reason that I see expressed in my day-to-day work setting is simply, “I do not want to change.”  Nobody ever really says that, but that is the honest truth. Time and again I see the dietary staff or physical therapy staff comes up with a “solution” to perceived deficits only to be met with the resident response of outright refusal.  I also see the aides I work with express the same idea from a seemingly sympathetic understanding, “Why should the residents have to do anything?  Why can’t they do what they want to do?”  I see that sentiment in three different ways.  1) It is their home and they are paying to stay here. 2) That statement has nothing to do with the resident, but is a reflection of the staff member’s values. 3) The refusal has nothing to do with the treatment or lack of treatment, but is a reflection of lack of control over their lives or simply unresolved grief over the loss of a loved one. 

            It is my contention that it doesn’t matter about whether or not it goes against anyone’s core values.  A person cannot be forced to change.  God can love us with an enormous love that is overwhelming and over-flowing, but we cannot be forced to love in return. A person has to want to change before any change can occur. You cannot hit people over the head with the gospel and expect to get positive results.  Nobody wants to have anything beat into them. Receptivity is the key to allowing the seed of God’s word to grow in us. And no matter how we respond to God, God’s loving purpose in Jesus Christ is always for good.  Therefore, we should always seek God’s love to work in us.  For that to happen, we must become the good soil of allowing that to take place in our hearts and actions.

            There is good soil and there is not so good soil and those who are not so good soil have the potential to be good soil.  However, whether we are good or bad soil is not so much the point as God is the sower.  God sows anywhere and everywhere because God knows that we all have the potential to become good soil.  God sows everywhere because God’s love and grace is for everyone, even those whose hearts currently reject that love.

             What then, as God’s disciples are we to do?  Should we plant only in what we might know or guess to be good soil?  We know that the answer to that question is a “No” because we have read ahead.  Matthew, in the last chapter makes it very plain that we are to make disciples of all nations, not just those we think might be receptive to the word of God.  God will surprise us sometimes, because we are not always able to tell who might be good soil. I am reminded of words spoken by the Amish in the movie, “Witness” where the grandfather speaks to his grandson, “Can you see into the heart of a man?” In other words do we know the good people from the bad people?  It isn’t all that clear. We are not required to make that judgment. As Jesus’ disciples, we are not called to pick and choose to whom we bring the gospel and we are to teach all people to observe all that Jesus has commanded us. To those who are good soil, Jesus says, “Blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear.  Truly I tell you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, but did not see it, and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it.”

            Read and re-read.  Listen and re-listen.  Immerse yourself in the word of God and believe with all your heart.  Challenge your core beliefs to find that which is essential.  Be open to what God has to say to you in this time and in this place because God is speaking to you even here, a place you may never feel you are at home.  But also hold firm and do not allow others to lead you astray.  Lead others also, to Jesus.

            God sent Jesus out into the world to spread the news of God’s love for all people, but people despised the word of love and chose to take their own paths of lies and deceit.  Some people developed hardened hearts that God’s word was unable to penetrate.  Not only did the seed stay on top of the ground, all the rain that brought nourishment ran off the smooth surface and into the ditch where some was carried off to another location.  Before the rain, some of the seed was engulfed by the powerful words and actions of bullies such as Napoleon or Hitler.  Other seed fell on rocky ground where it quickly sprouted, but without the proper balance of sun and nutrients and a lack of soil, it became weak and died. Still other seed began to grow in a place of many thorns.  The thorns made it difficult for God to nourish the plants.  The thorns produced more seeds than the plants so the thorns spread quickly and aggressively crowded out the plants. Finally, the seed fell into good soil where it flourished.  It was nourished by the word of God daily, was tended and cared for by the disciples, producing more disciples. But wait.  What happened to the seed that was carried off to another location?  God was there, too.  The seed was once again in search of a home in someone’s heart.  God is knocking at your heart’s door.  Will you let Jesus in or pretend you don’t hear him knocking?  Listen! Let anyone with ears listen.

---

[1] ― Frantz Fanon, Black Skin, White Masks

Yoke Yourself to Jesus

Proper9A/3Pentecost, Sullivan Park Care Center, July 6, 2014, by Sr. Annette Fricke, OP.

                Just a couple of days ago, as a nation we celebrated again our independence from the King of England.  Yesterday on PBS, I watched a representation of a debate that happened within the colony of Virginia.  And so the bantering continues to this day.  When and how do we defend ourselves?  How do we live independently with our own resources and not so dependent on other countries?  How do we keep intact a nation that is truly a melting pot from becoming divided to the point that it breaks out in another kind of civil unrest and possibly war?  The nation is still fighting over a variety of opinions as to what constitutes killing as an outright sin, versus a just war, killing human life as in where does life begin and what forms of birth control are acceptable morally?  Should companies who employ workers who do not share their religious beliefs have to follow their dictates?  Should an employee always follow conscience or the practice of the place where they find themselves?  Should we follow John the Baptist or Jesus or reject both out of hand?

            John the Baptist is representative of a lot of rules, primarily that one must live a simple life, wear simple clothing, fast and repent.  Most of us would reject a diet of locusts and honey.  Here is this quirky guy out in the middle of nowhere preaching loudly, “Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand!”  Yet despite the rejection of many, he had many followers.  Jesus, on the other hand, seems to be doing just the opposite and says that the kingdom of God is here, in your midst, “Eat drink, and be merry!”  The church has been confused ever since.  The confession of sins is included in every service except that of Easter.  During the 50 days of the Easter celebration, there is no confession of sins!  So which is it?  Should we follow the strictness of John the Baptist or follow Jesus who eats and drinks?  I think one of the strong points of this text is that it doesn’t really matter which we do, because there will always be someone who thinks we are doing it wrong and feels the need to be critical of our words and our behavior.       

Two days ago, I learned that we are hiring another nursing assistant to work the day shift on our floor.  The conversation among the staff was concerning the fact that the person hired was a black female.  We mused about how many complaints we would hear among the residents due to the color of her skin.  We knew all too well the prejudicial views of some residents.  But yesterday was my experience of an opposite view.  I went specifically to visit someone who had been an active member of the cathedral in Fr. Hay’s stead.  She mentioned to me an aid she greatly enjoys who is from the Ukraine and speaks with a heavy accent.  I mentioned to her that she and I were still good friends.  Learning to love takes a special person.  It takes a person who is sure and positive about one’s own identity as a person, in this case, who knows her value in God’s sight.  Vera the aid also speaks about her faith to me.  They are both faith inspirations.  It’s never too late to change.  My brother-in-law shocked me when he told me a week ago on Sunday afternoon that it is better to respond to people with love. I was flabbergasted and speechless.  I never thought I’d see that day.  He actually admitted that he was wrong.

As the second lesson today points out, we continue to struggle with what we know to be the right thing to do and still do what we know is not right.  We are frequently in agony in this life because even when we do have a real sense of what it right, we chose to do what isn’t.  Paul truly understood the human condition.  As a pastor whose pulpit I once preached in used to say to me, “It don’t matter.”  Yes, he purposely used bad English.  Many of the things we stress over in life really don’t matter.  The more we object and want things a certain way, the more we suffer and cause our own grief.  Misery many times is a result of our own inability to let go of past arguments, disagreements, and grievances.  We can cling so tightly to what happened yesterday, last week, or even forty years ago that we forget that we are called to love just as God loves us.  Jesus tells us, “Come to me, all you who are weary and are carrying heavy burdens and I will give you rest.”  Rest is the answer to our troubles in this life.  The only law you are called to keep is the law of love. 

As Pope Leo I has written, “Let every Christian scrutinize himself, and search severely into his inmost heart: let him see that no discord cling there, no wrong desire be harbored.  Let the light of truth dispel the shades of deception; let the swellings of pride subside; let wrath yield to reason; let he darts of ill-treatment be shattered, and the chidings of the tongue be bridled; let thoughts of revenge fall through, and injuries be given over to oblivion. In fine, let “every plant which the heavenly Father hath not planted be removed by the roots.”  For then only are the seeds of virtue will nourished in us, when every foreign germ is uprooted from the field of wheat.”

Despite all struggle in our corporate and individual lives, Jesus offers us rest.  For all those who are burdened physically, burdened by trying to keep the law of love, those who are emotionally fatigued and discouraged, ready to give up and lose heart: take heart.  Take heart; because Jesus will give you rest.  In that rest, we are in a right relationship with God.  It is like the rest of God who created the world and on the seventh day rested.  We can look forward to that ultimate rest when all things and all people will be restored to God, the source of transformation, all comfort, and all peace.  It is God who will end all oppression and death, who will end all war and strife.

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  Learning is much more than an intellectual assent to what Jesus is saying to us.  We are not merely pupils in a classroom, but apprentices.  We are Jesus’ disciples to learn how to be disciples from Jesus. We are not just to think about what Jesus says, but to also do what Jesus does.  We are not to just listen to Jesus’ words, but watch what Jesus does.  The yoke is not one that Jesus imposes but one he wears.  We are the yoke mate of Jesus, working beside him.  We must allow him to help us with our loads. Keeping the law of Jesus’ love is easier when we remember that Jesus is beside us, knows us inside and out.  Jesus will always be there helping us with our struggles.  We never walk alone.

Circle us, Lord. Keep darkness out, keep light within.  Keep fear without, keep peace within. Keep hatred out, keep love within. Amen.