Is it done Yet?

The season of Advent is upon us and the time of preparation and waiting begins for the greatest of all journeys, that of mankind hopefully understanding and faithfully following the call of GOD.  At service, Father Gressle gave us a mental picture of a popular journey many of us were familiar with that began at a London train station for the young denizens of Hogwarts.  If they missed the right platform though, that journey could never begin.  Where was that invisible platform? Incredibly, it was through a brick wall!  Not where you would expect it to be.  So is there a similar obscure entrance to the Advent journey and if so, where exactly did GOD place it?  Sounds like the kind of query the JYG is known for so sleeves were up this Sunday and the task was taken on: to determine the where and what and why of this “Journey-of-all-journeys”.  Advent, however, seems to imply that we are preparing ourselves for GOD’s coming, as if we know what we’re doing, but if you think about those young warlock heading for Hogwarts, they didn’t have a clue.  They couldn’t get to the right platform if not led by someone who had already been there!  Beyond that, everything about their journey was prepared for them, to go somewhere they didn’t know, to develop something inside of them they didn’t fully understand for some important reason.  So maybe Advent could be better understood if we looked at GOD’s preparations in calling us to go, we’re not sure where, to develop, we’re not sure what inside of us, for a purpose we may not also be very clear on.  Now that’s more like it!  To visualize it better we drew a large G on the top left corner of a Cosmic Journey Map (very much like your own) and placed a simple pot with a lid, an earthen vessel, in the lower right corner: appropriate symbols of GOD and us.  The exercise was to list all of GOD’s preparations on the way to creating something important within us or inside that pot, so to speak.  What were the preps and what was in the pot?  (Hopefully not just macaroni and cheese as one JYG hopeful gleefully wished for.)  With the parameters of our discussion set for the next 45 exuberant minutes on this cold Sunday morning we would also keep asking ourselves a variation of that time-honored query for any note-worthy journey; not, “Are we there yet?” but more specific for this Grand Journey: “Is it done yet?” (Food Network beware!)

So the JYG began with GOD, at a time when according to scripture there was nothing else.  What happened next?  “Those two atoms collided!”  “The Big-Bang thingy!”  Okay, no problem with that; GOD certainly could have orchestrated that.  Of course we got into a discussion of how immense the universe is, how it may still be growing and the possibility of other universes, one of them maybe being called “Goldilocks!” (Aliens probably went to check that one out.)  OK, so is that it?  “No.  GOD made the Earth.”  “Well technically GOD first made the Sun, then Mars, which kind-of broke up after a collision and…”  OK, so that’s it?  Is it done yet?  

“No GOD made dinosaurs, animals, plants mountains.”  Fine, is that it? “GOD made people.”  GOD made how many in the beginning? “Two.”  Alright, so why didn’t GOD just take those 2 folks and finish it right there?  “Because, it would be boring!”  OK, so GOD makes billions of us.  What happens next?  Anyone know who Hammurabi is?  (Everyone!  Good job, History teachers!)  “Code of laws was made”.  Right.  Why?  “So you know how to treat others”. (Which works most times?)  “So you don’t kill each other in wars”.  (Not always so successful.)  Okay, so now it’s done!  What’s in the pot?  “We’re not there yet!” assert several JYG.  No?  What’s missing?  “Jesus has to be born!”  Well, alright but let’s back up.  After the laws, what is one of the most important and sometimes troubling institutions that people with laws do?  They create nations: different cultures; different languages; separation.  How many nations are there in the world?  “224!”  Sounds close.  And talking about laws, does anyone know where the Ten Commandments came from?  “Israel.”  “That is after he (Moses) broke them.”  So what’s important about Israel?  “That is where Jesus came from!” “And that is where the Ten Commandments came from.”  Well, couldn’t GOD have done this anywhere else?  “Possibly, yes.”  So why there?  “Because if it happened there, people would pay attention!” (Sweet).

So all this preparation has gone on and what has it taken a lot of?  “Time!”  Instead of asking our question, what other questions could we be asking?  “When are we going to get there?”  “Why is this taking so long?”  “I’m hungry!”  Well what’s in the pot?  Can we open it now?  “No!  It’s not time.”  “Yeah, and a saying goes: a watched pot never boils”.  So what happens next?  “Jesus is born!”  Yes!  GOD finally has a people, a nation, who have been prepared to tell the whole world what GOD is doing, but even they don’t quite understand.  John the Baptist has to come to wake them up.  Get ready he says.  The Messiah is coming!  And He does.  He comes, He teaches us for three and a half years, and He dies and is resurrected.  Right!  And while He teaches us He gives us some amazing information regarding GOD’s preparations.  He tells us what’s in the pot!  “Huh?” croaked the majority of mind weary JYG philosophers at the 30 minute mark.  It’s one of three things that Jesus taught about all the time.  Scripture mentions them as three things that go together!  What are they!  “Peace!”  That wasn’t one but you could say it’s tied very close with them.  “Faith?”  Yes, that’s one!  You know the scripture, “And now there are three things …”  “Hope?”  Yes, that’s the second one, and the scripture says of the third one, “…and this is the greatest of these.” “Love!”  Yes!  That’s it!  GOD’s love!  GOD’s love, inside of us!  That’s what GOD has been preparing inside each one of us!  And it’s done, Jesus says!  It’s time for you to open up the pot!  Take the lid off, stir it up and see what you have!  What’s the matter?  Don’t you see it?  “Uhhh, I don’t know.”  “I’m not sure.”  “I still would rather it be macaroni and cheese.”  

Why do you still think you can’t open the pot?  “I don’t feel like it’s time.”  “Things are still going on.”  “Yeah, look at the world.”  “We need more time!”  “We’re not ready!”  But we are ready.  “How do we know?”  “I really don’t think so.”  But GOD told us so.  “When?  We just followed all the steps.”  “We followed all the way through.”  Then maybe you missed it, just like maybe most of us do.  “When?”  “Where?”  On the cross.  At the crucifixion.  What was the question we’ve been asking all along?  “Is it done yet?”  “Is it done?”  Go back to the resurrection.  Jesus said something before He died.  It may have been his last three words.  “What words?”  Don’t you remember?  You guys say it every year at the Passion play.  Every year.  Jesus’ last three words.  “It is finished.”

It is done.
- Steve

What Matters Most?

 "One day, as he was teaching people in the temple..." 

When you read Luke 20, you see clearly that there are some folks who just don’t get Jesus and would rather he just go away. Of course, since he’s a Galilean, they know they just can’t get near him without first having to do deal with some of his rough disciples, particularly those big fishermen guys from Capernum. But he’s got’ta go! Not too long ago he came into the Temple and turned the whole status quo on its head, literally, what with tearing into the folks selling pigeons and other animals for sacrifices and the money guys making change for 2 goats and a lamb. Now he’s sitting in the Temple courts just as calm as could be telling stories about guys owning vineyards – in the Temple no less! What to do? Pull out the old political propaganda machine! The tried-and-true spin campaign! The smoke-and mirror flim-flam-agam! Never fails to run these riff-raff “wan’na-be’s” right back to the hills where they came from. He won’t know what hit him. He’ll scoot off and all the good citizens and country folk will go back to drinking the kool-aid. (In this case watered down wine might be the proper metaphor.)

So in a very short time as described in the gospel, Jesus is taken on. One day, while Jesus is “teaching the people”, some chief priests (big shots), teachers of the law (bigger shots with proof) and elders (big shots who don’t need to prove anything) confront him and say, “Tell us by what authority you are doing these things?” Salvo number one: who do you associate yourself with and why do you think you have a right to speak out? After he deals with them, some dishonest spies pretending to be honest, ask him, “Is it right to for us to pay taxes to Caesar or not?” A classic spin! Man these guys are good! (Or bad - no judgment call here.) After he leaves them astonished and silent with his reply to them, the Sadducees or the sophist-cats of the day, the most influential guys in town, say amongst themselves, “This guy likes stories, right? We’re gon’na give him the biggest flim-flam-agam ever!” And they proceed to tell him one of the most convoluted, messed up story-lines possible to totally trip him up and make him go running back to Nazareth.
What does this have to do with the JYG discussion on Sunday? Everything! They barely got out of the first question that was posed to him when they reviewed what was going on at the Temple! They were sacrificing animals?

Why? Who came up with that idea? Well, it was the custom. Okay, we’re not disrespecting a custom but what was the purpose? “Well maybe you did something wrong, and you want to tell GOD you’re sorry!” said one. “Maybe GOD likes it.” “No, it has to be it’s to show you know you did something wrong. How else, could you let GOD know?” “We’ll it doesn’t have to be animals, but to some people this was a big sacrifice; this is their livelihood.” “So to show you’re sorry, you sacrifice something that is going to cost you.” “Hey, there is a tribe in Africa”, someone knew, “who sacrificed half of all the food they had to their deity like once a month to show how serious they were!” Getting right with GOD seemed to be a very important thing, something that really mattered, and everyone was in agreement.

What about those folks trying to trick Jesus? Do we pay taxes to Caesar or not? “That’s a tough question!” said one. What should he do? “Maybe he should talk around the question.” “No, he should answer honestly”. “But no matter what he says he’s going to be wrong!” “Well, maybe there is no right answer.” “But he’s Jesus – he’s going to know!” “You have to bounce the ball back into their court”, said one budding debator, “and make them come up with the answer!” But that is exactly what Jesus did to answer the first question, and they couldn’t answer him! They even discussed it among themselves and still came up with nothing. “Of course not! They weren’t really expecting any answer but the wrong one from Jesus.” “What they really were asking was: ‘You want to die now or later?’” “Answer right, you might live a little longer, but eventually, Jesus, you’re going to give the wrong answer, and we will have you.” (OMG!)

The discussion finished with looking at why did GOD sacrifice Jesus? Do sacrifices really work? What does GOD really want? We reviewed the scripture that states, “What GOD truly wants is a contrite heart.” “GOD wants what’s inside”, said one. What’s that? “Love.” “Thanks.” Why did Jesus have to die? “People knew this guy was special.” Why did he have to die the way He did? “GOD made this whole plan. GOD wanted people to know that GOD wants to help them.” “If Jesus suffered as bad as He did and GOD brought him back to life, you know there is hope for you.” But why so painful a death?

“Well, the soldier took pity on him, and he was one of the one’s who killed him.” “GOD let it happen that way to prove how much GOD forgives us; even watching how Jesus was killed”. “Sometimes, real bad things happen to get rid of something even worse. Like World War II, had to happen to end the Great Depression.” “Yeah! GOD sees everyone as equals. And everything has to balance out.” “If you don’t have bad things happen to you, you just don’t know what good is.” (Wow!)

These comments came from the hearts and minds of the JYG students. This was what the discussion was about. We never got to compare what mattered most from one time to another. Or maybe we did. They also never got to the third question which was what the gospel story was all about today. They just didn’t have any time for flim-flam.
- Steve

Saints and Superheroes

"For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted." - Luke 18: 14

In the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector, the Pharisee prays to God, reminding God of all the great things he is doing to stay holy (giving money, fasting), while the tax collector humbly says, "God, be merciful to me, a sinner!"  It brought up the question, just what is doing good, anyway?  So we made a list of some of the things that are "good":
-try your hardest
- be nice to people
- do what is right
- praise God
- tell the truth
- follow directions
- help people

But as soon as we thought of these things, some tricky situations came up immediately.  What if you gave money to someone, but did it in a way that made them feel bad.  Would that still be good?

Following directions and the law is good, but what if you think the law is wrong, the way that protesters did during the civil rights movement?

And once again we returned to the situation of the "white lie."  Is it OK to lie because you are trying to not hurt someone's feelings?  But then you might have to tell another lie to cover that one up!  It can get pretty complicated.  One thing we agreed upon is that being good is not just about doing good things.  The spirit of the action has to be right.  Everyone seemed to agree that you can't do something good and expect something in return.

Almost everyone could think of someone in their life who is definitely good.  Two people said they had friends who did almost everything on the list above.  And they were doing it for the right reasons, too.  Not just to be recognized like the Pharisee in the parable.  And finally we talked about saints.  Saints are people who have been recognized by the church for doing a lifetime of good deeds.  Kind of like church superheroes!  Maybe some of these saints, or some of these friends could be role models for us.  When we are in a difficult situation, we might ask ourselves what they would do.

The last thought was this:  Maybe there is someone who looks up to us, and will imitate us in the future.  So we might want to think about how we are acting... it may be setting an example even though we don't realize it.

Jesus Heals Ten Lepers – or One guy had Leprosy and nine guys got Amnesia?

In Luke 17, the story is retold about ten guys with a serious problem, who stumbled upon the one person who could help them.  The story says Jesus just happened to be passing through their town on his way to Jerusalem.   

They immediately jumped on their good fortune and, standing at a distance, called out in a loud voice, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us”.  This had to be an incredible answer to years of prayer.  They obviously knew who he was.  He was The Healer! The miracle worker!  He had already healed a guy with leprosy!  He was also a homeboy from Galilee!  Of course he would pity them!  Or would he? Galilee was considered by lots of folks to be the place only losers came from.  What did Nathaniel once say about Jesus himself: “Can anything good come from Nazareth?”  

 It’s like people in NYC saying, “Nyack?  You’re joking, right?”  On top of that, they were near Samaria, a land which all respectable Jews felt, had no redeeming qualities whatsoever.  Jesus once spent two days there after speaking to a woman at a well.  (What did we say about those Galileans?)  So these guys had some serious issues.  They were lepers; outcasts; the lowest of the low. Their disease forced them to live alone because the rest of society despised them.  No one wanted anything to do with them, not even their families. They could be contagious.  They looked and smelled bad.  They scared small babies.  They were also foreigners, not part of good ole Israel: totally unimportant.  So why should Jesus even care?

As we spoke about the story it was discovered that one of us had a cold, well actually just a sore throat!  The clarification was made only after someone else jumped out of their seat in reaction to the first statement and moved away from the “contagious” one to another seat.  While other “respectful citizens” jeered at the “outcast”, others (definitely “homeboys”) took issue with the one who moved (probably a “foreigner”).  Immediately we had ourselves a good ole “Galilean-Samaritan” impasse.  “That’s not proper Christian behavior”!” “Well, I still love that person!  I just can’t afford to be sick!”  “That’s being selfish!”  “Actually I’m not.  I’m saving thousands I will come in contact with at school!” (Well, maybe just dozens.) “You’re just saying that now because we’re saying something about it!” “Don’t even go there!”  Exciting stuff, right?  What tension.  What drama.  What was the outcome you ask?  Well, the 9 guys got healed of the terrible disease of leprosy, and caught a more serious case of another ailment: amnesia.  Only one of them came back to thank Jesus.  No, no, you know that you say.  What about in the JYG class?  How did that end?  Uh, I forget.  Did I mention there were only nine of us?

- Steve

Do All Dogs Go to Heaven?

This week we had the blessing of the animals at Grace Church, a service I always enjoy.  This is something that many churches do around the world.

How cool is it that you get to bring your pets to church and have them blessed!  But I got to wondering: why do we do this?  Turns out, it has to do with Saint Francis of Assisi.

Saint Francis was born in Italy over 800 years ago, and was the son of a wealthy merchant.  According to one source, “He used to drink and party with the young princes of the land.”  Until one day a beggar asked him for money, and that got him thinking about those less fortunate than himself.  So he gave the beggar some money.  Not only did his friends make fun of him, Francis’ dad yelled at him for being generous.  Soon after, Francis became very seriously ill.  When he recovered he decided to devote his life to God.  Needless to say, his parents and friends did not support this decision.  He gave away whatever he had and went from village to village, preaching and helping people.  

He seemed to have a special connection to animals, especially birds.  It is said that when he would preach, birds would gather around him.  So paintings of him often show him with animals, especially birds.

Tomorrow, October 4^th is the “Feast of Saint Francis,” so that is why we had the blessing of the animals.  But that gets me wondering.  Animals definitely have personalities, but do animals have souls?  If they do, are their souls different than ours?  Do they know right from wrong?  If they are good do they go to heaven?   

What do you think?  Do you have a good story about your pet?  Post it! 

Angels in America?

Jesus said to him, “Very truly I tell you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.”  John 1:51

We had an engaging topic this past week--angels.  We opened our class discussing the Feast of St. Michael and I told the story of the battle of St. Michael and Lucifer.  We reflected on the ever-present battle between "good" and "evil"; a "battle" that is explored in all faiths.  We tracked down some beautiful depictions of St. Michael's shield which clearly showed the symbols for Christianity, Judaism, and Islam.   

This led us into a great discussion of angels-the messengers of God- and people in the Bible who had encounters with angels.  I retold the story of Jacob's Ladder and re-read the scripture of the week: John 1:47-51.  

The kids really had a great discussion about how we open our hearts to the angels.  We discussed good deeds, loving one another--the kids really liked to talk about honesty.  They shared some great examples of stressful social situations when one is "caught" between honesty and and "white lies" when they do  not hurt someone's feelings with the truth.  Thus, we reflected on your lesson from last week and kind of tied everything together.

Lastly, we went online and checked out the website.  Try to sign on with the help of your parents this week!   

We’d love to hear your posts on what was discussed or on any of these questions:

Do you believe in angels?  Does anyone in your family have a story about an angel?  Do angels have an affect on what happens here on earth, or do they just watch from above?

Liar's Poker

“Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much; and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much… You cannot serve God and wealth”

- Luke 16:10-13

We started out this week playing a two player card game that my family calls “liar’s poker.”  Some of the kids said that their friends call it “BS.”  Here’s how it goes: Player One picks up a card from the deck, looks at it and makes a statement like, “I am holding a club.”  Player Two decides whether or not Player One is telling the truth.  She says “true” or “false.”  If she is right, she keeps the card.  If she is wrong and has been tricked, Player One keeps the card.  Then Player Two picks up a card and he makes a statement, and so on… When you reach the time limit or the end of the pile, each player counts their cards and the winner is the one with the most cards.  Essentially, the game rewards you for being a good liar.

When is it OK to tell a lie?  That was the question of the day.  The Ten Commandments say, “Thou shalt not lie.”  But we all do, at some time or another.  Some thought it was OK to lie if someone is having a surprise birthday party.  Some thought it was OK to lie in order to not hurt someone’s feelings.  Someone calls you and says they want to hang out.  You don’t really feel like it that day, so you say you have a lot of homework.  And this may actually be sort of true.  But it’s not the real reason you don’t want to hang out.  What if you had to tell a lie to save someone’s life?  Would that be OK?

And what is a lie, anyway?  Is not saying something a lie?  What if a teacher is late for class, and some kids are throwing around a ball and they break a window.  The teacher walks in and says, “Who broke the window?”  No one says anything, but everyone knows who did it.  Is that a kind of lie?  What if there is someone who is destroying property in your neighborhood, and you know who it is, but you are afraid to tell because maybe he will break something in your house?  Keeping silence in the face of injustice… is that a form of lying?  It may take a lot of courage to tell that kind of truth.

It seems that there are no easy answers here.  So we look to the parables of Jesus to guide us and help us to make the right decision.  What do you think?