Advent-1 – Mark 13:24-37

Some years ago, the London Times ran a front-page story about an Englishman named Arthur Arch. He had just celebrated his 95th birthday, which was an accomplishment in and of itself. But the truly newsworthy thing about Mr. Arch was that for 42 years he had been precisely and consistently 20 minutes late for every meeting and appointment he had. According to his own time, he was always prompt. But according to everyone else's time, he was always late!

In 1922 in England they changed all of the clocks by 20 minutes. But Mr. Arch never accepted the change. he said: "Nobody is going to take 20 minutes off my life. So, I'll keep my watch at the old standard time. And some day I plan to die 20 minutes late just to prove that I was right!"

Now, Mr. Arch had an American counterpart, who was also a very stubborn man, a Kansas farmer, and an independent thinker if there ever was one. In the early 1940s, this Kansas farmer alleged that the worst thing that ever happened to the United States of America was the election of Franklin Roosevelt as President. And, he said, the worst thing Roosevelt ever did was to approve the order of Daylight Saving Time. As you know, the order went through, but the old farmer never changed his clocks, so he was always one hour off the time observed by everyone else. That farmer, like Arthur Arch, lived and died by the old time. And his defense, he felt, was theological. He said, "I will not exchange God's time for Roosevelt's time!"

Our scripture lesson today resounds with the same thought, that we are not to exchange God's time for anybody else’s time. We are to "take heed, watch, pray; for you do not know when the time is (Mark 13:33)." Our time may not have come, we may not be ready, but God’s time will inevitably come.

The season of Advent, which is the first period in the Year of Worship, reminds us to be prepared for the coming of Christ. The word "Advent" means "coming."

During advent we prepare for the three comings of Jesus in the world. On Christmas Day and during the 8 days of Christmas we remember the past coming of Jesus in history 2000 years ago. During advent however, we prepare for the final coming of Christ which will happen in the future and we also prepare for the present coming of Jesus in human life every day. Jesus comes every day into your and my life. So, we celebrate Jesus who is the same yesterday, today and forever,(past future and present) at advent and Christmas.

Jesus said to his disciples, "No man knows about that day and that hour. Be watchful, be wakeful and be praying, for you do not know when the time is."  Natural calamities and man-made disasters creep into human life unannounced, at the most unexpected time.  It is fact of daily experience that accidents, and medical problems like heart attack take away human life without any warning.  A faulty rhythm of heart-beats or a slightly prolonged halt between breaths is sufficient enough for the death-bell to resound.  Human life is as momentary as a shepherd's tent (Is. 38:12) that is pitched erect at every dusk and removed at dawn!" So, in this season the church reminds us of the need to be prepared.

One thing we don’t do very well in our society is wait. We get impatient. We get nervous and some even get angry. That’s because we see waiting as wasted time. It’s boring to sit and wait. It’s "down" time or "dead" time. We equate waiting time with being non-productive. “waiting is an attitude, an inclination to act. We wait because there is something worth having. We wait because the resources we need to survive and to grow are not in our own hands, but in the hands of God.”

Waiting is an opportunity to reflect or meditate. Nor do we have to fill our idle time with things to do. The more time we spend working the less time we get to spend with our families or attending to our souls. Our society has become so production focused that we have lost sight of the fact that we need time to think, relax or just wonder. We need time for introspection, for strengthening the family bond through family prayer and for cherishing the community life by active participation in the church activities.

 During the Second World War there was a young boy in a small town who had to go to the drugstore for his mother. As he arrived at the drugstore, he saw a poster on the front window that made a great impression upon him. It was the picture of an American soldier dressed in full battle uniform lying flat on his face, dead in the sands of a South Pacific island. He was lying there with the ocean cradling his body, and at the bottom of the poster was this question: "What have you done for your country today that's worth this soldier dying yesterday?" During advent we need to ask a similar question to ourselves:"What have you done for Christ today that's worth what He gave for you on Calvary?"

During the season of advent, let’s try to do something that would make Christ’s coming into the world worthwhile.

Advent is a time for us to go about our business of obeying God's directions for living, being found frequently in prayer and good works. St. Francis de Sales was asked one time by a nervous parishioner: "What will I do, what will I do?" St Francis replied, "Do the next loving thing."  Let’s watch out for that chance to find the next loving thing that we can do while waiting eagerly for the Lord to walk into our life.

CHRIST THE KING. Matthew 25:31-46

Today is the last Sunday of the liturgical year and we celebrate the feast of Christ the King. Jesus is king and he himself said: I am a king.  During the trial, Pilate asked him, "Are you the king of the Jews?" Jesus replied, "You have said it." (Luke 23:3). "You are a king, then!" said Pilate. Jesus answered, "You are right in saying I am a king. In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Shortly before His Passion Jesus exclaimed with joy,“In the world you will have hardship, but be courageous: I have conquered the world!” (Jn. 6. 33). This is the language well-suited to a King reassuring His followers that He’s so confident that already He has triumphed! Jesus spoke several parables about the kingdom of God.

St. Paul, defining the nature of Christ’s conquest wrote, “Christ emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, and being in every way like a human being, He was humbler yet, even to accepting death, death on a cross. And for this God raised Him high, and gave Him the name which is above all other names; so that all beings in the heavens, on earth and in the underworld, should bend the knee at the name of Jesus,”  (Phil. 2).  So we are called to accept Jesus as king, professing and kneeling before him.

However, Jesus Himself would have us know that words of respect, honor and praise trip effortlessly from tongues and fall lightly upon ears. So, he said, “It is not anyone who says to me, “Lord, Lord," who will enter the kingdom of Heaven, but the person who does the will of my Father in heaven” (Mtt.7.21).

The Gospel reading pictures Christ the King as Judge of all mankind, separating the sheep from the goats, the good from the bad: and his judgment will be based on the commandment of love he gave to his disciples the night before he died. After he washed the feet of his disciples, he said: "Do you understand what I have done to you? You call me Master and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. If I, then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet, you must also wash one another's feet. I have just given you an example that as I have done, you also may do."

Now Jesus tells in today’s gospel how that behavior should be. Anonymously feeding the hungry, Clothing the naked, visiting the sick are some of the ways to serve the Lord. It is not serving the “humanity”, but in serving each little individual, that we are able to see God. That is why Mother Theresa once said, "I never look at the masses as my responsibility, I look at the individual. I can love only one person at a time. I can feed only one person at a time. So you begin with one. If I didn't pick up that one person, I wouldn't have picked up 42,000. My whole work is only a drop in the ocean. But if I didn't put the drop in, the ocean would be one drop less." So, caring for each individual is the basis of our attitude of serving Christ.

Once there was a little boy who wanted to meet God. He knew it would be a long trip to where God lived, so he packed a suitcase full of Twinkies and cans of root beer (his two favorite foods) and set off on his journey. He had only gone a few blocks when he passed an older woman, sitting on a park bench and just staring at some pigeons. She looked sad and lonely, so the boy went over and sat down next to her. He opened his suitcase, took out a package of the Twinkies and offered it to her.

She gratefully took it and smiled at him. Her smile was so warm and wonderful that the boy wanted to see it again, so he offered her a can of his root beer. Once again, she took it and smiled at him. The boy was delighted. They sat there all afternoon, eating the Twinkies, drinking the root beers and watching the pigeons, without saying a word to each other.

As it grew dark, the boy realized that he had better get started home and got up to leave. But before he had just a few steps, he turned around, ran back to the older woman and gave her a big hug. She gave him the biggest smile of all.

When the boy got home, his mother noticed how happy he seemed. So she asked him what he had done all day. He told her: "I had lunch with God. And you know what? She has the most beautiful smile that I've ever seen."

Meanwhile, the older woman had returned to her home. Her son also noticed how happy and contented she seemed so he asked her what she had done that had made her so happy. She said to him: "I sat in the park and ate Twinkies with God. You know, he's much younger than I expected." Both of them recognized God’s presence in each other’s presence. We are called to recognize Jesus’ face in each other’s faces, particularly those in need. Because Jesus lived on the generosity of others during his ministry.  As we honor Jesus the king, let’s ask for the grace to seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, so that we may be able to sing all our life: the Lord is my Shepherd, there is nothing I shall want.

XXXIII.O.T. Matthew 25:14-30 -The Parable of the Talents

There is a psychologist at Harvard named Howard Gardner who is trying to revolutionize the study of intelligence. He says we have been studying I.Q. all wrong. On our intelligence tests we only measure one or two forms of intelligence. Gardner says that there are actually seven forms of intelligence. Some people are gifted with linguistic intelligence, he says. These are our writers and poets. Others have what he calls logical/mathematical intelligence. They make good accountants and scientists. Some people are gifted spatially. These are our artists and architects. Some are gifted kinesthetically. Their bodies are unusually graceful and coordinated. These are our athletes and dancers. Others are gifted interpersonally. They know instinctively how to get along well with the people around them. These are our sales persons, counselors, teachers. Some are gifted in their ability to look within. These are our philosophers ” our wise people. Some are gifted musically.

Here is the important point. Gardner claims that everyone he has ever tested has scored high on at least one of these seven forms of intelligence. All of us are gifted in our own way.

The parable tells us that God gave various talents to different people, but no one was left without anything. Everyone received a gift from God. They were to work with it and develop it. The servant who did not work with was punished. So, to say, everything we possess from God is making it a purely passive thing. In reality we know that nothing deep or 'inner' can ever be given to us without our effort. You would love to give your knowledge of, say, a foreign language to someone you love, but it cannot be done without their labor. How much more your understanding, your wisdom, your experience? Even God's gifts, poured out without measure, cannot really become mine unless I interiorize them myself. First of all I have to get that basic gift from God with which I was able to develop more. So, we say everything that we possess comes from God.

So, we all have some talents which we need to develop in our life. Some people discover their unusual talents accidentally. Richard Gonzales was a very famous tennis player. He accidentally discovered Tennis Talent. At the age of 12 Gonzales asked his mother for a bicycle. His mother was afraid that her son might hurt himself on the bike, so she bought him a tennis racket instead. Gonzales was not initially thrilled with his mother’s gift, but he decided to try his hand at tennis. Gonzales walked to a public tennis court a few blocks away and began hitting the ball. Gonzales wrote in his 1959 autobiography titled Man with a Racket. "In the days, months, and years that followed the challenge of hitting a white, fuzzy ball squarely on the strings of a racket grew and grew. Such is the strange hand of destiny,”

Mohd Ali at the age of 12, discovered his talent for boxing through an odd twist of fate. His bike was stolen, and Ali told a police officer, Joe Martin, that he wanted to beat up the thief. "Well, you better learn how to fight before you start challenging people," Martin reportedly told him at the time. Ali started working with Martin to learn how to box, and soon began his boxing career.

We are all gifted with some strength. The small size of the hummingbird, weighing only a tenth of an ounce, gives it the flexibility to perform complicated maneuvers, such as beating its wings 75 times a second. This enables the humming bird to drink nectar from flowers while hovering, but it cannot soar, glide or hop. The Ostrich, at 300 pounds, is the largest bird, but it can’t fly. However, its legs are so strong that it can run at up to 50 miles per hour, taking strides of12-15 feet. So, if you are strong in something, it is probable that you may be weak in one or several other things. But only by trying to develop what we have we can find out what is strong in us. We human beings are akin to the battery in a flashlight; unused it corrodes. What we do not use is wasted, what we do not share we cannot keep."

The parable tells us that the man who is punished is the man who would not try. The man with one talent did not lose it; but he simply did nothing with it. His complaint was his gift was too modest to be significant. Even if our talent is very small, we can make a strong difference with that in the community.

An elderly man is walking along the edge of the water and stops occasionally, picks up something, and then tosses it into the ocean. He then walks a few steps more, picks up something, and tosses it into the ocean. A young jogger is running along and has been watching the man. Finally his curiosity gets the best of him and he stops and goes over to the old gentleman and asks: "Excuse me, what are you doing?"

The man answered: Well, I am saving the life of these star fish. The storm washed them ashore last night, the sun will be up in thirty minutes, and then they will all die. I am throwing them back into the water to save their lives.

The jogger was a bit astounded. Old man, he said, don't you know that you have thirty miles of beach ahead of you and that millions of those star fish were washed ashore last night. What possible difference do you think that you are going to make. The old man took another step picked up a star fish, and with all his might hurled it into the ocean, then turned to the jogger and said: "Well, son, I guess I made a difference in that one's life."

Let us discover our special talents. It may be to sing, to dance, to draw, to write, to do farming, to sympathize with others, to be a good listener, to teach or to serve.  When we earnestly try to cultivate them and use them for the good of our brothers and sisters, God will tell us, “Well-done good and faithful servant, come and enter into the joy of your master.”

XXXII.O.T.

Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica : Ez 47:1-2, 8-9, 12; I Cor 3:9-11, 16-17; Jn 2:13-22

A snake lived in a hole on a forest path leading to a famous Hindu temple in India.  Many pilgrims would walk along the path to the pilgrimage center, and the snake would often bite people with his poisonous bite if they walked over its residence.  One time a Hindu hermit was on his way to the temple and the snake jumped out to bite him, but before the snake could strike, the hermit put the snake into a trance and ordered him to stop biting people.  "It is not right to bite pilgrims with your poisonous bite," the hermit told him.  "From now on, you shall not bite anyone."  A few months later the hermit was passing that way again, and he noticed the snake lying in the grass beside the path.  The snake was all cut and bruised and was in an awful state.  "Whatever has happened to you, my friend?" the hermit asked.  "Since you have put your spell on me," the snake explained, “I have been unable to defend myself.  Give me back my bite."  "You foolish snake," the hermit answered.  "I told you not to bite anyone.  But I never said that you couldn't hiss and frighten trespassers!"

In today's Gospel reading we see an angry Jesus boiling with moral indignation. If Jesus did not bite in this episode, he surely hissed. He was very angry at the irreverence shown to His Father's House, and referred to Himself as a "temple" which would one day resurrect from the dead.

Today we celebrate the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica in Rome on 9th November 324 AD by Pope St. Sylvester.  Every bishop has a cathedral, and the Pope’s official cathedral is the Basilica of St. Johns Lateran, not the Basilica of St. Peter. Hence it bears the title the mother of all the churches in the city and in the world – and their head. The Laterani palace was donated to Pope by Constantine, the first Christian Roman Emperor. The Church built there was dedicated to St. John the Baptist and St. John the Evangelist and so it was called the Basilica of St. Johns Lateran.

We may think what are we doing as we make a fuss about a church building in Rome?  We are thinking symbolically.  A church – any church – is a symbol of a believing community, just as a house is a symbol of the self.  We search for God there, and God searches for us.  This is not usually a peaceful process: God ransacks the house,  throwing aside one thing after another to find us.  This is what happened in Jerusalem temple. Jesus threw things aside, cleaning up the court of the Gentiles in the temple and helping them worship God there.

In fact, in John’s gospel, the emphasis here is not so much on the cleansing of the Temple, but on the replacement of the Temple.  The Temple in Jerusalem was the place where God made His Name or Glory to dwell.  With Jesus’ coming on the scene, the Temple was no longer important in Jewish life in John's view.  The Temple had ceased to be functional. Jesus' promise of a new Temple suggested that God's glory would be manifested, not in a building, but in a Person.   Jesus had replaced and superseded everything the Temple had formerly symbolized. By his prophetic actions in the Temple, Jesus made it clear that the God who gave the law on Sinai could not be bought by sacrifice or bribe. Now Jesus is the Temple through whom His followers come into contact with God.  Our faith is Person-centered and we are dealing with a relationship.   

Our relationship with God must be that of a child to his parent, with no thought of loss or gain, but only of mutual love, respect and the common good.  Hence, fulfilling one’s Sunday obligation only out of fear of mortal sin and consequent eternal punishment (hence a loss), is a non-Christian approach.  In the same way, obeying the Commandments and doing acts of charity merely as prerequisites for Heavenly reward are acts urged by a profit motive, which Jesus would not approve from his followers.  

St Paul says in the Second Reading: "You are God's building!... the Spirit of God dwells in you." At baptism, that's what happened: God took up residence in our souls. It is in human heart that we worship God in spirit and truth, not in a building. We are expected to cleanse our hearts of pride, hatred, jealousy and all evil thoughts and desires so that God can make His dwelling in us.  Let us welcome Jesus into our hearts by repentance and the renewal of our lives.  Let’s drive out the wild animals that do not belong to the holy temple of our body, making a whip of cords by our fasting, penance and alms giving, not just during Lent but all year round, and by going top confession to receive God’s loving forgiveness in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. And above all by moments of prayer life where God can speak to our hearts and we can hear God.

All Soul’s day.

Stewardship Commitment:

Tomorrow/today is All Souls’ day. But in our diocese it is stewardship Sunday as well, asking us to reflect how good a steward we are with the gifts God has granted us. Safeguarding material and human resources and using them responsibly and being generous in giving of time, talent, and treasure, is an expression of our gratefulness and love for God and one another.

Four year old Morgan’s  Mom and Dad were just starting to teach her about giving. As the ushers came down the aisle with the offering plates, Morgan asked her mom what was happening. Mom told her, "They are taking up the offering, and when they get here you can put your quarter in the offering plate."

Morgan replied, "But this quarter is for Jesus." Mom explained how, by putting her quarter in the offering plate she was giving it to Jesus. And she told about all the ways in which her gift would be used for God's work. As the plate came down her pew, Morgan carefully put her quarter in the plate, then turned to her Mom, and loud enough for everyone in the whole congregation to hear, asked, "If that money is for Jesus, why wasn't there more in the plate?"

Morgan understood the purpose of stewardship. she understood that all that we give is for Jesus. The basic tenet of stewardship is that all that we have is from God and IS God's. We are simply the stewards, those put in charge of that which God has given us.

In my evaluation in 4 months, you all are pretty good stewards in the way you give to the parish. You are good in giving your time, talent and treasure, especially at the parish activities I observed. But we can be better. Last year’s financial statement showed $17,000.00 debt. So, we may need to push a little bit more this year to get to our goal. But I am sure you will do that. Otherwise we will have to do some more picnics, may be one every other month.  But remember to give with love. Don’t commit or give in the offering place if you really don’t love to give to God. I don’t think we want to use that kind of money in the parish.  St.John Paul II said: Remember the widow’s mite. She threw into the treasury of the temple only two small coins, but with them, all her great love…. It is, above all, the interior value of the gift that counts: the readiness to share everything, the readiness to give oneself.

Next Sunday you will be asked to fill in the commitment sheet. So, pray about it how much you are willing and able to give to the Lord, through the parish community, for the parish ministry.

Today the world's one billion Catholics are praying for the eternal rest of our brothers and sisters who died in friendship with Christ, but who hadn't yet reached spiritual maturity. God has taken them into his spiritual hospital, purgatory, where he is healing and purifying them from the wounds caused by their sins here on earth.

Purgatory is just inside heaven's gate, where God lovingly purifies and heals his children from the damage their sins inflicted on their souls while they were still on earth.

Through today's prayers, we are speeding up that painful process and hastening our departed brothers' and sisters' full entrance into heaven. The Church is a good mother, and she knows that it is a good thing to think of and pray for the dead, so she gives us All Souls' Day.

But not all Christians believe in purgatory and the value of praying for the dead. They say, among other things, that since the word purgatory doesn't appear in the Bible, it must have been invented by popes and bishops as a way to frighten and manipulate ignorant Christians during the Middle Ages.

Although the word itself doesn't appear in Scripture, there are various passages that have always been interpreted as referring to it. For example, in Matthew 12:32 Jesus points out that blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is the only sin that will not be forgiven, "either in this world or in the next," implying that some purification from sin does take place after death.

He also speaks more than once about sinners being kept in prison until they have "paid the last penny" (Matthew 5:26, Luke 12:59), referring to a period of purification between earthly life and heaven.

One of the most explicit passages is when St Paul says that some people will be saved, but only "as through fire" (1 Corinthians 3:15), in other words, by being passively purified after death.

The Second Book of Maccabees (12:41-45) praises offering prayers for the dead. Second Maccabees 12:39-46 describes how Judas Maccabeus and members of his Jewish military forces collected the bodies of some fallen comrades who had been killed in battle. When they discovered these men were carrying “sacred tokens of the idols of Jamnia, which the law forbids the Jews to wear” (v. 40), Judas and his companions discerned they had died as a punishment for sin. Therefore, Judas and his men “turned to prayer beseeching that the sin which had been committed might be wholly blotted out . . . He also took up a collection . . . and sent it to Jerusalem to provide for a sin offering. In doing this he acted very well and honorably . . . Therefore he made atonement for the dead, that they might be delivered from their sin” (42-43, 46). The protestant brethren do not have the book of Maccabees in their bible. So they refute the concept of Purgatory.

Common sense also tells there is a place between heaven and hell. In our court system when one is tried he may be judged a culprit and be punished or be innocent and be freed. But in some cases the person may be partially culpable, not fully involved in the crime. So such a  person gets a minor punishment, and will not be freed until that small punishment is suffered. This applies to heaven’s court as well. Scripture says nothing unclean goes to heaven, because God is all holy. So, if there is some impurity that has to be cleansed it may be done so.

Praying for the dead and offering Masses for them has been in practice since the beginning of the Church.

St Augustine's mother, in the 300s, asked him to "remember her at the altar" when she died - in other words, to pray for the repose of her soul, just as we are praying for the deceased today.

Later that same century, St John Chrysostom, wrote simply: "Let us not hesitate to help those who have died and to offer our prayers for them. Remembering this in every Mass we pray for the deceased. In our creed we say we believe in the communion of saints: which means we on earth and those in heaven are in communion with those in purgatory and we can help them with our prayers. As we remember all the departed souls today let’s make it a point to remember and pray for our dead so that they may reach their eternal home soon.

XXX.O.T. EX 22:20-26; Thess 1:5-10; Mt 22:34-40

 In today’ Gospel Jesus gives us the message, to be truly religious is to love God and to love the man whom God created in his own image. The first reading from Exodus explains the second greatest commandment, namely, loving one’s neighbors, especially the underprivileged. The chosen people of Israel should remember that once they were aliens in the land of Egypt.  Just as God protected them and treated them kindly, so they are to protect others and treat them with kindness.  Thus, they should become a humane society rooted in the basic religious concept of loving God living in their neighbor.  

Arthur F. Sueltz told about a man he knew who bought a lovely house in the suburbs. On the day he moved in, the man's new neighbor came running across the yard in an obviously belligerent state. "Did you buy this house?" asked the neighbor. "Yes I did," was the reply. The neighbor continued, "Well, I want to tell you something. You bought a lawsuit. You see that fence of yours? It's at least seven feet over on my side of the line, and if it takes every dollar I've got, I intend to sue you and get that fence moved." The new homeowner said, "Well, neighbor, I'm sorry to hear this. I bought this house in good faith, but I believe you're telling the truth about this situation and I'll tell you what I'm going to do. First thing tomorrow morning, Ill have that fence moved back those seven feet." The neighbor was dumbfounded. "What did you say?" The new owner repeated, "I'm going to have that fence moved back seven feet." "No, you're not," was the response. "You leave it right where it is, and anything you need is yours for the asking."

We don't know what had happened between that angry man and his previous neighbor. All the man seemed to be asking for was to be treated with a little dignity and respect. That is what most people crave. Someone who does not accord dignity and respect to others does not know the Gospel.

There is no obedience to God which does not have to prove itself in the concrete situation of meeting one's neighbor. "Jesus does not separate love for God from love for man, since the latter flows from the former, and since without the latter the former is impossible." They both are like two sides of the same coin. But the first is always the first. Loving God has to be manifested in our life.

Pastor Jimmy D. Brown tells about the first girl who ever caught his eye. They were in second grade together. Up until this point he confesses that he just wanted to throw rocks at girls. But this girl was different. He didn’t want to throw rocks at her. Her name was Sherri and she was as cute as anything young Jimmy had ever seen. She had short little pigtails and wore the sweetest little dress with a great big teddy bear on it. She also had the prettiest smile, especially with that middle tooth missing. And she could jump out of a swing farther than any of them. In short, Sherri was great, in his estimation.

          He remembers one day this lovely child passed him a note during class and it read, “Do you love me?” Uh-oh, things are getting serious. He says he didn’t even know what love was, but he learned early that girls like to hear you say that you love them, so he checked, “Yes” on the note and passed it back.

At recess that day Sherri came up to him with a big smile on her face and said, “Say it.” By this time he had no idea what she was talking about.

“Say what?” he replied.

“Say that you love me,” she said. It kind of embarrassed him, but he went ahead and said, “I love you.”

          The next day Sherri came up to him and said, “Do you really love me?”

          “Yes,” he replied.

          “Do you mean it?” she asked seriously. “A lot of the boys tell me they love me, but some of them don’t mean it.”

          Even at the tender age of 7, says Brown, he knew the right answer to this question. “Of course I mean it.”

          He says that satisfied her for that day, but on the following day she came up to him again and said, “If you love me and you mean it, then why don’t you show it?”

          “Good grief,” he was thinking. “I let her have my special GI Joe eraser, I stopped pulling her pigtails, I even made Tommy and Billy stop calling her names. What more did she want?”

          “You’re supposed to hold my hand,” she said with a stern look on her face. “And play with me at recess. And sit next to me during free time . . . you’re supposed to show it.”

          “Almost twenty‑five years have passed since that day,” says Pastor Jimmy Brown. “It always makes me laugh when I think back to that second grade class. It also always amazes me how God can use the ordinary events of life, even that of a 7-year-old boy, to teach us about Him. For instance, God asks the same questions that the little girl asked me. ‘Do you love me?’ Quickly we check off the appropriate box, ‘Yes. Of course I love you, God.’

“‘Then, say it.’ He responds. ‘Let the redeemed of the Lord say so.’ (Psalms 107:2)

“‘I love you, Lord,’ we say with a smile, particularly on Sunday mornings or during our daily prayers.

“‘Do you mean it?’ He asks. ‘Because a lot of people say that they love me, but some of them don’t mean it.’ ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.’ (Mark 7:6)

          “‘Of course, I mean it,’ we quickly answer.

          “‘Then show it.’ God concludes. ‘If you love me, keep my commandments’ (John 14:15). 

Concludes Jimmy Brown, “do you love God . . . Do you really love Him? If you do . . . SAY IT, MEAN IT, SHOW IT. Say it with your words, mean it in your heart and show it with your actions. After all, that’s what He did for you when He sent His Son Jesus to die on the cross.”

         The component of biblical love is not affection or a fussy feeling, but a commitment, a choice, a decision we make to place Him above all else.

Of course the most important way we show our love for God is by how we live our life. When we leave this place of worship, our friends and our family will know whether we’ve truly been in the presence of God by how we live.

Let’s pray that we may whole heartedly love God: love Him with all our heart, mind, soul and all being. And love our neighbor as ourselves.

XXIX:O.T.

At some time, every older sibling has pulled this on a little brother or sister who had a nickel they wanted.

"Okay," older child offers, "let's flip for it. Heads I win, tails you lose."

The little kids agree: "Sure!" Then when heads appears the older proclaims "Heads, I win!" Of course if tails comes up the declaration is "Tails, you lose."

At this point it suddenly dawns on the younger child that this is truly a no-win situation. Whatever way the coin lands it's going to land in their sibling's pocket.

In this week's gospel text the Pharisees think they've concocted the perfect no-win question to present before Jesus: "Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?" If Jesus says yes, he'll alienate all those who continued to struggle against Roman rule and who ardently believed Israel must only be obedient to God and God's Torah. If, however, Jesus answers no, then he's immediately at odds with the entire Roman Empire and has identified himself as a dangerous opponent. Rome would deal swiftly with such a threat.

What amazed the Pharisees and the Herodians about Jesus' response was how he refocused the issue to something much bigger than they had intended. In essence Jesus said, give Caesar what he has coming, a silver coin with his image on it. It's already his anyway, so let him have it back. But give back to God all that God deserves, which is everything, including yourselves.

From this passage we cannot learn how or when to turn Christian convictions into public policy or how to vote in the next election. The fact of the matter is that Jesus did not say much about such things; and the rest of the New Testament provides different responses believers should have in response to human government. In Romans 13 Paul paints a positive picture of the role of government and commands Christians to obey it; but in Revelation 13 the author describes a government gone demonic and warns believers to resist it unto death. According to the book of Acts, it did not take Jesus' followers long to discover that "we must obey God rather than men" (Acts 5:29).

What we owe to God is infinitely more than we owe to Caesar. The Words of 1 Peter 2:17 help put the issue into perspective: Fear God, honor the king." There is a world of difference between those two obligations, no matter where we draw the line between God and the government.

Every Christian holds dual citizenship, each one of which has its own benefits and duties. Our birth made us citizens of an earthly nation; our baptism made us citizens of a heavenly Kingdom. Sometimes they overlap, but in the end, our earthly citizenship will finish, while our heavenly citizenship will last forever. It's obvious then which one is more important. Through the centuries, the many Christian saints and martyrs have taught us that if we are ever forced to choose between the two, if ever Caesar tries to take what belongs to God, we must be faithful to our true, everlasting homeland, even if it means suffering painful consequences here on earth.

The movie: A Man for All Seasons, is based on the life of St. Thomas Moore, the Chancellor of England. By profession he was a lawyer. He loved his king. He loved his country and he loved its laws. Then a terrible dilemma developed for him when the king decided to end his allegiance to the Pope in Rome. Moore was conflicted. While he loved his country and his king, he also loved the church. He was faced with two deeply personal loves, and yet he realized he could no longer have both. As he weighed his options, he considered the fact that both the king and the church had its problems. The king he loved could be ruthless and he wasn’t faithful in marriage. The church he loved, on the other hand, was full of all kinds of sinful men. What was he to do?

In a powerful scene from A Man for All Seasons that takes place in the sweating walls of the Tower of London, his wife visits her prisoner husband and asks why he won’t just sign the statement of allegiance to the king so they could get back to their life of comfort and prestige. With anguish, Moore cries in a gut-wrenching scene that he is not made of the stuff of martyrs. He doesn’t know for sure if he is doing the right thing.

In the end, Moore is convicted of treason for his refusal to acknowledge that the king was the supreme head of the Church of England. Moore defended his actions by saying, “I am the king’s servant, but God’s first.” He weighed all decisions relative to his commitment and love for God. Even if it results in his personal loss of freedom.

What exactly belongs to God? Do we owe any taxes to the heavenly IRS?  All of us know the answer immediately; it is written in the very first pages of the Bible. All that we are, all that we possess, and all that we can hope for has come to us from God. Just as the Roman coin bore the image of the Emperor who made it, so the human soul bears the "image and likeness" of God (Genesis 1:26), our Creator and our Father.

He called each one of us into existence; he wants each of us to exist, so that we can enter into and develop a personal relationship with him. This is the whole purpose of our lives: to live in communion with God, starting now and leading into everlasting life. Anything coming contrary to this purpose is not worth fighting for.

As followers of Jesus Christ, our ultimate obligation is to "seek first the kingdom of God," and all other obligations have to have a lower priority. There can only be one top priority.

As you will be going to the election booths, remember that there is nothing politically right that is morally wrong. Governments cannot legislate morality, that is God’s domain. If any government tries to take the right of God, it is our duty as Christians to resist that as did the early martyrs did with their lives. Let’s pray that people may seek light from the Holy Spirit before they choose to vote for a Candidate. And may we honor God by giving what belongs to Him.