Pentacost, May 19, 2013

Acts 2:1-11; 1 Cor 12:3b-7, 12-13; John 14:15-16

          When you climb high in the mountains you need to keep in mind that higher you go less oxygen you have to breath. It means for example that if you are at 18.000” you have only 50% of the amount of oxygen in the air in comparison to sea level. At 25.000” you are entering so called “death zone”. It is called “death zone” for your body literally starves for oxygen and any further ascend causes serious deterioration to your health. No person can live or stay for more than several days above this elevation.

          Every mountain climber needs to keep this simple fact in his or her mind that lack of oxygen effects you physically and mentally. Simple tasks take longer. For example,

·       you can’t walk or run as fast as you could do at sea level. And if you do you usually end up with severe headache, nausea and very difficult time when trying to catch your breath. Believe me it is painful. I tried it.

·       Sometimes you also hear imaginary sounds and voices as you climb.

·       You have problems sleeping for in sleep your body stops breathing for extended period of times.

·       If you get yourself hurt wounds do not heal so well and fast as at sea level.

·       And if you move too fast to higher elevation without allowing yourself to acclimatize to changing condition of lack of oxygen in the air you are likely to suffer from altitude sickness. And altitude sickness might be a serious problem for a climber because it might cause his or her death.

          Lack of oxygen in the air effects climbers in dramatic ways on a mountain in spite of their age, physical condition and stamina.

          Lack of the presence of the Holly Spirit in a person or a community has a similar effect on their spiritual life. As we celebrate this weekend Pentecost Sunday we remind ourselves that without the presence of God’s Spirit in our midst we are in a big trouble. We need the Holly Spirit, as much as our body needs oxygen, in order to live lives of Christians.

The Holy Spirit:

-         Unites us together and demands that we support and journey on in this life with one another.

-         It gives us passion and courage to live out Jesus’ gospel.

So:

-         justice is not denied

-         dignity is not damaged

-         rights are not deprived

-         needs of the poor are met

-         life is preserved and respected.

         

Is St. Mary's filled with the God’s Spirit?

         

          The answer is given by us by the ways we are doing Christ's works and by keeping his commandments. And not just as individuals but as the whole community.

          This weekend we want to recognize different ministries of our church. They are included in this booklet which you are free to take it with you. I would like to ask you to stand up and remain standing when a name of the ministry you are involved in is read. We all want to recognize you and express our deepest gratitude for what you do to keep the Spirit of God present in the midst of our community.

6th Sunday of Easter, 2013

Acts 15:1-2, 22-29; Rev 22:1`2-14;16-17,20; John 17:20-26

If we paid a close attention to today's gospel reading we have easily noticed that Jesus prays for us. We are a community, the community of St. Mary's, for whom he prays.

He is entrusting us to God's protective care and loving kindness.

I am not sure about you but I feel overwhelmed hearing the words of today's gospel. It seems to me almost unbelievable that he is doing it.

At the time when he is about to suffer and to die a cruel death, a very cruel one he thinks about us. He commends us to his Father,  with all our weaknesses, imperfections, and shortcomings.

His prayer is bold, intimate and direct. He loves us. Each one of us. He says we are a gift to him. He want us to be one with him, with each one of us.

What can we say to that?

The truth is there is no much we can say, but to allow joy of Christ's care and love to fill our hearts.

And to try to live our lives the ways which make us one with him and his Father.

Hopefully, every time we gather here in prayer we find strength and courage to do that.

Hopefully, our celebration:

·        of the first communions this weekend; eagerness and joy to be one with Christ.

·        the baptisms; the hope of the future with God.

·        our regional healing mass this upcoming Saturday at St. Jude church; the yearning of being made whole in God.

will give us that courage and strength.

Once St. Francis of Assisi advised his "Franciscan brothers":

"Preach the gospel and, if necessary, use words."

May our gatherings here give us strength and courage to do that. May our lives be a witness to what we say and celebrate here. Jesus continues praying for us and with us that we are able to do that.

5th Sunday of Easter, 2013

Acts 14:21-27; Rev 21:1-5a; John 13:31-33,34-35

                 When Christianity became the religion of the Roman Empire, things began to change, especially after the Constantinian settlement. From about 260 CE (but especially after 313), church buildings began to grow in size and become public structures. This growth reflected the increase in the size of congregations and (after 313) of imperial favor. (In the fourth century, church membership grew, according to some estimates, from 10 percent of the populace to about 50 percent). For the design of their worship buildings, Christians chose the basilica associated with the emperor and law courts. Not only did their ornate decor reflected imperial iconography, but also their space was divided into areas for clergy and laity. Because of the large congregations, the worship became large-scale rather than relational and communitarian, the importance of human relationship in divine service withered as ceremony flourished. And so we are 17 centuries later....

But both the Old and the New Testaments try to convey a complete different message.

In the Old Testament it is stressed over and over again that the divine presence is encountered by the people of God first of all in fulfilling God's will and just living, not in the Temple.

This is why many prophets, including a prophet Isaiah, called a people to seek justice, to rescue the oppressed, to defend the orphan, and to plead for the widow rather than to offer "the multitude of the sacrifices" (Isa 1:11) in the Temple. God says clearly through him (Isa 1:11-18): "

What do I care for the multitude of your sacrifices?.....

15When you spread out your hands, I will close my eyes to you;

Though you pray the more, I will not listen.

Put away your misdeeds from before my eyes; cease doing evil;17learn to do good.

Make justice your aim: redress the wronged, hear the orphan’s plea, defend the widow.

18Come now, let us set things right,^*says the LORD:

Though your sins be like scarlet, they may become white as snow;

Though they be red like crimson, they may become white as wool.

Ezekiel and Jeremiah regarded Solomon's Temple as a place of idolatry (Ezek 8:5, Jer 7:4, 8-9).

While the flow of income to the Temple from all parts of the kingdom and later the empire enriched its institution and those who ran it the needy and the poor seemed to be neglected. Over time, the preservation of the Temple was given the highest priority.  And so in Jesus' time the maintenance of the temple cult even necessitated cooperation with the Roman authorities (John 11:49) and taking money even from the impoverished widows (Mark 11:17).

Than Jesus came.

For him the stones of the Temple, which had so impressed the disciples, were destined to be monuments to an obsolescent form of religious life (Mark 13:1-2). For him the way the God's people are to worship his Father, as he says it to the Samaritan woman,  is in spirit and in truth (John 4:21-23).

This is why, throughout the New Testament, sacred buildings, however glorious, seem to be of little concern to its writers. What is important is the reign of God, the witness to the ways of God's justice, and the hope of heaven on earth, anticipated in the common life of small groups of men, women, and. For them the priority was the temple of the Holy Spirit, men and women of flesh and blood (1 Cor 10:19). Immanuel, God with us (Matt 1:23), is not housed in a building, but is met in the persons of the hungry, the thirsty, the naked, and the imprisoned (Matt 25:31.

For them heaven and earth meet no longer in tabernacle or Temple but in the places of shame and reproach, where the blasphemers and Sabbath breakers are stone (Heb 13:13). There God's divine presence is experienced. No elaborate cultic rituals can even come close to that.

So the only holy space, the only holy place, for the followers of the Way, the followers of Jesus, where the divine is encountered is the crucified Christ and those who identify with him. This is why in the New Jerusalem which we try to build together as followers of Christ and which is described to us so vividly in the book of Revelation, from which we have heard today, there is no temple created by human minds or hands. There is no need for it.

Jesus has never said: all will know you that you are my disciples because you will gather to worship me and my Father in your temples. The richer they are, more adorned they are, the more beautiful they the greater your worship will be.

But certainly Jesus says to us in today's gospel "My children...love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another. This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."

There is always a danger for us of becoming idolaters of institutions, or rituals, or Rome. This can be avoided only if we keep meeting Christ, so to say,  of flesh and blood outside of the walls of this building, this temple. There the divine has to be experienced before we are capable of experiencing divine here.

Our temple is very beautiful, very beautiful indeed. Some priests of our diocese call our temple Basilica Minor of South West Virginia.

But every time we gather here to encounter the Risen Christ we should pray for the wisdom and the Holy Spirit's guidance to know how to live justly and how to fulfill God's will in our lives so this temple might never be a cause of our judgment before God, but rather the symbol of our love for one another and those who are less fortunate that we are.