Mass Prep Sunday June 30th 2019 13th Sunday Ordinary Time (Cycle C)

Sunday June 30th 2019   13th Sunday Ordinary Time (Cycle C)

What Did I Sign Up For?

The tie in between today’s readings: Determined Discipleship

Psalm 16, 1 Kings 19:16-21, Galatians 5:1; 13-18, Luke 9:51-62

     Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit (Matt 28:19). This is the Great Commission. The reason that you are a Christian today is because believers before you took Jesus’ directive seriously. In a sense, the Body of Christ is one big daisy chain of disciple makers starting from Pentecost up to today. The future Church also depends on our faithfulness in this calling. We lay people need to realize the significance of our part in building the Kingdom of God and not just leave it to the ordained. The Lord will also demand an accounting of our lives in this endeavor. We have to decide whether we want to be merely churchgoers or commit to being good and faithful servants...it’s that important!

     Examine yourself. In our gospel reading today (Luke 9:57-62) we see three types of men and their failed responses to Jesus’ call to follow Him. First, we see the comfortable man (vs57-58).  This guy volunteers. Jesus warns him about letting his mouth write checks that his body can’t cash. Count the cost!  Our Savior, Himself, calls another man to follow Him (vs. 59-60). This is the inconvenient man, “I would, Jesus, but my plate’s pretty full right now. Can I take a rain check?” Our Lord admonishes this guy to get his act together and his priorities straight. Still another volunteer comes forward, but he apparently has “Jesus ADD” (vs. 61-62). He lacks focus and commitment to the task. In effect, the Master tells him to stay out of the game if he can’t go all in on the river card (my paraphrase)! Hardships! Priorities! Commitment!  If you lived back then and Jesus walked up to you with His twelve guys behind him and said that He could use another, what would you do? Don’t think about it all that long. You’re living your answer right now! The question is: should you change?

     Our prophet Elijah is ready to finish his ministry and hop on the heavenly chariot, “Coming for to carry him home”. God tells him his successor will be Elisha son of Shaphat. In our reading, 1 Kings 19:16-21, He finds Elisha plowing a field. Elijah throws his coat on Elisha, thus telling him that he has a new job as God’s mouthpiece and at the same time he creates the colloquial expression: “Passing the mantle”. Let’s look at Elisha in the light of a good disciple. He’s plowing with a 12 double yolk oxen team, which means that he’s a rich guy that’s not afraid to get his hands dirty, conclusion: a hard worker with character. Verses 20-21 show that he is: ready (says goodbye to parents), committed (burns the plows and slaughters the oxen), generous (gives everything away), and humble (becomes a servant). Absolutely the kind of boy you want your daughter to bring home! Let’s challenge ourselves with his example.

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     Galatians 5:13-18 shows us that disciples have to develop a new way of thinking and living. Without Jesus, you view any good action that you do as a check in the plus column, a gold star on your permanent record, or a down payment on a corner lot in the Celestial City. You expect some kind of reward for your sacrifices. Whether you admit it or not, you are caught in the Religion delusion, which is: follow the prescribed formulas of behavior and you’ll get the cosmic currency you need to buy your stairway to heaven. And the question is always, “Is it enough?” The answer is always, “No!” When you confess Christ as your Savior, it means that you discovered the futility of self goodness and place yourself by faith into Christ’s righteousness to gain heaven. Now the Holy Spirit will take your faith and plant it into your daily life. The Father wants you to be a replica of His Son on this earth and it’s done following His Spirit. He will teach you to love your neighbor. He will give you the desire to really want to do good and to shun sin. He will lead you in the truth of God. You will no longer be a slave to your lusts, but a servant of virtue!

     A disciple needs discipline to mature in their faith. We not only have a new life to lead, but the message of the Gospel to proclaim! It has to be done right. Just like an athlete in training, the disciple needs devotional time in the Bible, prayer, and fasting. So get up earlier, stay up later, or carve out time as you go through your day. Switch from secular to religious radio, podcasts, and TV programs and sacrifice that Netflix binge watch. Whatever you have to do to fit “Jesus time” into your schedule, do it! It’s that important! These spiritual pursuits are necessary in order to grow in grace, love and maturity in Jesus Christ. There will be stumbles along the way. Expect them. Look at Luke 9:51-56 when the Samaritan village did not want Jesus coming through their town. Because they rejected Jesus and with some pride mixed in for themselves, James and John wanted to call down fire from heaven and wipe those people off the face of the earth...in love, of course. Jesus rebuked them! OK, not their finest hour, but all in all, they turned out pretty well in the end and with the Holy Spirit’s leading, we can too.

     In Jesus, God has placed a mantle call on us. Discipleship requires an Elisha commitment and total surrender to His will. Psalm 16 is David’s declaration of his trust in the Lord and his rightful expectation of God’s instruction, guidance, provision, and presence for him in this life. Let us press on to our high calling as Christ’s disciples and become disciple makers in the process. Let us play our part in creating the next generation of saints.  What are you doing that is more important than that? Be done with lesser things. Jesus is calling! Go!

Mass Prep January 27th, 2019

Mass Prep

Sunday January 27th 2019                     3rd Sunday Ordinary Time (Cycle C)

Joy of the Lord is Your Strength

The tie in between today’s readings is : Discipleship

Psalm 19:8-15, Nehemiah 8:1-10, 1 Corinthians 12:12-30, Luke 1:1-4; 4:14-21

     I can’t imagine anyone kicking Jesus out of their church, but that’s just what happened in the fourth chapter of Luke when Jesus put the “ME” in Messiah.  It’s rare that a church turns anyone out now-a-days. The modern church is struggling from declining attendance. Blame and finger pointing run from pew to pulpit and back again. Regardless of the reasons I see an answer emerging in today’s readings: discipleship. Before going to heaven Jesus gave the Apostles the Great Commission to go out and make disciples. Here are some principles that I’ve uncovered. File them under “for what it’s worth”, but I think at least it could help cut down on people saying, “I wonder whatever happened to what’s his name”?

     Nehemiah 8:1-10: Disciples Have the Joy of the Lord.

A remnant of Israelite just came back from Babylonian exile. Through sweat, threats and besets (troubles) they built the wall. Now it was time to get real with Jehovah. Listening to Ezra, the priest, read from the Law of God  they broke down and wept repentant tears as they discovered their sinfulness. Seeing the revival breaking out,  Nehemiah, the governor and Ezra called for a holy day of celebration. The people experienced the comfort of forgiveness with the exhilaration  of restoration. Moving forward in their new status, the joy of the Lord became their strength (Nehemiah 8:10). The true believing disciple also understands the gravity of sin as the exile Israelites did. He doesn’t rationalize it, play with the gray areas, or excuse it with a trite cliche like, “the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak”. He keeps short accounts with his God. He pursues holiness with a purpose. He knows where he came from and doesn’t want to go back. This is a mark of true spiritual maturity.

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     Psalm 19:8-14: Discipleship requires Bible study and perspective

This compliments Nehemiah. The disciple appreciates the guard rails of God’s laws. It keeps him out of life’s ditches. He knows that the Almighty doesn’t think like him and finds excitement when he can get into God’s mind through study and meditation of scripture. Sounds boring doesn’t it? Most people would agree. Otherwise we wouldn’t spend SOOOOO much time binge watching TV shows or sports. Amusement and fantasy are much more exciting in the mind, but the payoff of virtue is in the living. There is no mark up in being God stupid. Our disciple knows the Bible is more valuable than physical gold or fleeting pleasures because heaven and earth will pass away but he is investing in eternity.

     1 Corinthians 12:12-30: The disciple uses his Spiritual gifts.

The Holy Spirit gives gifts and abilities to all believers some of which are: teaching, helping, hospitality, leadership, and many others listed throughout the Bible. The disciple doesn’t develop it for himself but to help others especially in the church. He takes the mission The Spirit of God gives him seriously and is eager to live his essential and divinely appointed role. He’ll invest time in building up the fellowship in his faith community, provoking them as well as himself to do good works. He looks for reproducibility of Christ in others.  He is aware that gifts of the Spirit give credibility to his witness. The disciple knows that God will require an accounting of what he’s done with the Holy Spirit’s assets. No one lives for himself. The Manager of the universe expects a return on His investment. Our disciple wants to be a good and faithful servant.

     Luke 1:1-4: Disciples reach out to the world.

He will cultivate legitimate common ground with non-believers. First, for love of neighbor and second to earn a hearing for the Good News. The disciple looks for openings to give an account of his faith without being obnoxious. He knows what he’s talking about, speaks the truth in love and doesn’t attack because love bears all things. He’ll open himself up to ridicule but will not retaliate. All the while thanking God that we live in a country where things don’t get much more dangerous than that...yet. Once his witness is given,he puts himself out there. He is willing to live in a fishbowl for all to see, because he is the real deal, and since the real deal is so rare, maybe people will want what he’s got: an authentic relationship with Jesus. Walk your talk! The kinetic gospel is very effective.

     Our disciple in today’s Mass Prep may seem a little too perfect, and maybe he is, but he is an ideal to shoot for. Church does not have to be boring. Prayers needn’t be dead pan. Worship shouldn’t be forced. Bible study can be fascinating.  IF you exercise your faith as the disciples that we are called to be, then our lives with God and each other can be a dynamic experience. The operative words are: exercise, focus, discipline, and determination. They all take effort. Do you want it? Do you want to be a disciple or do you want to be disengaged from your God given calling? Will you drop out of church due to irrelevance, and end up a “what’s his name?” God expects more than that.