Jesus Doesn't Do Funerals

 

 On a Sunday in 2015 an airstrike killed over a hundred people near Damascus when Muhammad Rahan failed to return home from the market his family began grieving and started the three days of mourning knowing that he had been lost.

 

On the third day of mourning which was a Tuesday into the home walked Muhammad. His beard and his hair were still covered in dust from the rubble where he had been trapped until he could dig his way out and all of a sudden the family’s weeping turned to shock and then to joy. The Muhammad they thought was dead was alive again.

 

When was the last time you were at a funeral think about that imagine the scene if somebody had walked in opened the coffin and said to the dead person come out and that dead person had gotten up and walked out. Just imagine it would have been complete pandemonium and shock eventually joy.

 

That’s exactly what happens here in the seventh and final sign of Jesus in the Gospel of John. When John wrote the gospel, he structured it around seven signs that Jesus performs. He turns water into wine, he heals the Royal official son, he heals the paralytic at the pool, he feeds five thousand people, he walks on the water, he heals the man born blind and the final one nothing less than a resurrection.

 

In John 11, Jesus raises his friend Lazarus from the dead because Jesus doesn’t do funerals, he only does resurrections. Jesus declares himself the resurrection and as a result the Jewish leaders in the Sanhedrin begin to plan to kill Jesus.

 

The clear theme of this remarkable story of the seventh sign of Jesus is life. Very simply Jesus gives life. That should not surprise us given that all things came into being through him in the first place.

 

So let me ask you. Is there an area in your own life that you would describe as dead. What would that area of your life be a relationship that seemingly has died, an emotional capacity that seemingly has been extinguished. An addiction that has destroyed a part of you or your life or something else

 

Lord, I pray for all my Sonshine Friends, that they turn over the dead parts of their lives to You and trust to bring new life that it becomes a remarkable holy moment. Strengthen our faith that we may have life in His name. Abundant Life now and eternal life then in other words Jesus wants your funeral to be a resurrection too.

Jesus Has Raised Divine Mercy from the Dead

 

When Lazarus died, Mary of Bethany must have been heartbroken. You can see why she would have been. She loved her brother Lazarus, and she trusted and loved Jesus. Like everybody else in her community, she knew that Jesus could heal sick people. So when her brother got sick and she knew that Jesus was nearby, she turned to him for help. Then she waited three desperate miserable days. During those days Jesus didn’t come, and Lazarus died.

In this story the Lord knows better than Mary what she herself actually wants.

And so she was devastated. Her beloved brother was dead, and her beloved Jesus seemed to have disregarded her in her time of need.

What the story makes clear, though, is that the Lord can know better than a human person does what she most wants. We are not surprised if the Lord knows better than we do what is good for us, and we generally expect that good to be something we don’t want. But in this story the Lord knows better than Mary what she herself actually wants.

When Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead, Mary has her brother back and is loved by Jesus in a way more deeply fulfilling to her and more glorious than the mere healing of her brother in his sickness would have been.

And here is the thing to notice: Jesus was in the process of giving her what she wanted most even as she was firmly persuaded that she had lost it forever.

The people of Divine Mercy thought their church was dead. Their charismatic leader walked out the door. Like Mary, they trusted him but didn’t get what they wanted when he just left their church.

However, Jesus is about life. Mary gets her brother back from the dead in a way she never dreamed was possible. And this weekend Divine Mercy Polish National Catholic Church whom people thought was dead will reopen its doors.

Lord, I pray for all my Sonshine Friends, especially their new pastor, Deacon Erick that you pray for him as he gives new life to this parish. Spread the good news on your Facebook and Twitter accounts that Divine Mercy PNCC is back from the dead, It’s doors will be open this weekend for Masses and Holy Week services. Jesus has raised you up because He is our God of life and you are His divine people. Pick up your cell phone now and call ten people to join you this weekend to celebrate your joy like Mary when she saw her brother Lazarus come out of his grave.

 

 

A Sad True Story -- Dissolved Church

 

The Gospel Reading tells the story of a woman who is worthless by the standards of Jewish society at that time. 

 

Jesus has sent his disciples off for food, and he is sitting at a well when she comes to draw water. There is every reason why he shouldn’t talk to her at all.

What Jew or Samaritan would want to invite her to lunch?

 

First, she is a woman. It is only the disciples’ awe of Jesus that keeps them from asking him what he thought he was doing when they return and find him talking to her without even a chaperone by her. 

 

Secondly, she is a Samaritan. As she herself points out to him, Jews don’t talk to Samaritans. Samaritans are self-made outcasts from the Jewish point of view, and self-respecting Jews stay away from them. 

 

And, thirdly, this Samaritan has the sort of history that makes women pariahs even in their home communities. Jesus knows her status, and he lets her know he does. She has had five husbands—five husbands!—and she is currently living with a man to whom she is not married. Even by the lax standards of our own day, this sort of history would make people look askance at her. In her village she is undoubtedly a shamed person.

 

So, take it all and all, she’s a worthless person, isn’t she? What Jew or Samaritan would want to invite her to lunch?

 

But, you might be thinking, the savior of the world could certainly spare a crumb even for a shamed Samaritan woman. He could preach to her that her sins are forgiven, you might be supposing, or he could offer her some other kind of pastoral help.

 

But he doesn’t, does he? No, he asks her to help him. He opens the conversation with her by asking her to give him a drink.

 

And then look at how this story ends: she brings belief in Jesus to her village, and the villagers come to Jesus because of her. 

 

She isn’t worthless then, is she? No, then she takes her rightful place among the apostles. The evangelization of her village is her accomplishment. 

 

And so when Jesus asks her to care for him, he starts a process that brings her from being worthless to being the apostle to her village. 

 

The remedy of love for human worthlessness is modeled for us here, isn’t it?

 

In the past month, I believe the humble Anglo and Mexican families at Divine Mercy PNCC church in Las Vegas have felt like that Samaritan woman. Their church was “dissolved” in a legal proceeding that denied this faith community from worshipping in their church.

 

Sadly, the good people have been cruelly judged as unworthy because they chose to pray and serve in the Polish National Catholic Church. They were falsely told that the sacraments they had received at this altar were not valid. That is absolutely not true. 

 

Since this terrible scam, Fr Andrew, Fr Matt and Bishop Mack travelled to Las Vegas to encouraged all these beautiful people not to be tempted by the devil “to be discouraged.”

 

Rather, the community celebrated the First Communion of 70 young children with their parents and godparents and told them the story that God loves them very much at Divine Mercy PNCC. Then they celebrated the Confirmation of another 40 young people with their parents and sponsors and told them that the Holy Spirit dwells in our midst to give us the gifts of courage, strength and wisdom during these difficult times. Then, Bishop Mack ordained deacon Erick, the most humble, hard-working, dedicated parishioner to serve as the new pastoral leader of this broken community.

 

By coincidence, this Sunday our brothers and sisters in churches around the country celebrate the Institution of The Polish National Catholic Church. The Polish people in a small Catholic church in Scranton, Pennsylvania were also criticized 125 years ago for standing up for their beliefs. They became a Catholic community that focused their life following the way of Jesus and continue this mission by inviting all nationalities Mexican, Puerto Rican, South American, Polish, German, Irish, Italian to learn what the Samaritan woman discovered when she met Jesus at the well. “No one can make us feel inferior.” In the eyes and heart of God, we are all his brothers and sisters. While Divine Mercy PNCC legally restores its status as a legal entity in Nevada, I firmly believe that deacon Erick will lead this compassionate community back from the dust of prejudice into the light of truth and justice. 

 

The plan is to reopen their doors on Palm Sunday and invite all 1500 people back to church. In the footsteps of the Samaritan woman, I encourage you to take your rightful place among the apostles. The evangelization of her community is her accomplishment and the return of all families to Divine Mercy PNCC will be accomplished by the power and grace of Jesus who sees all the good you have accomplished by your generosity and faith. 

 

Your mantra “don’t get discouraged” and your vision is that you are one family united in Christ bringing His love and comfort to all who have been abused, misunderstood and rejected by the stigma of prejudice and bias.

 

Lord, I pray for all my Sonshine Friends who have been victims of abuse.

It was the love of Christ that changed a Samaritan woman with a checkered past into a future saint of the church. Give the parishioners of Divine Mercy PNCC the grace to be agents of transformation in the lives of others.

Follow Divine Mercy PNCC on their new website page: divinemercynv.org

 

 

Transfiguration Moment

 

 

If you could be present at one moment during the life of Jesus which one would you pick? Maybe his birth as you step around the cow and gaze into the manger; or maybe you would be in the crowd when the woman is caught in adultery and see Jesus stare down that angry mob and replace violence with mercy; or maybe take a seat at the table as Jesus offers his disciples the Eucharist for the first time; or maybe you are a brave soul and you want to be at Calvary with Jesus as they nail him to the cross. However, if you ask me, I would pick the Transfiguration.

Peter, James and John are tagging along when Jesus says let’s go take a hike up this mountain. It’s just an ordinary day and then boom it happens. Jesus is transfigured before them and his face shines like the sun, his clothing is white like the brightest laser you’ve ever seen. They are witnessing his divinity and just for a moment there He reveals his supernatural glory. The spiritual world for just a moment invades their regular ordinary work a day life. Then Moses and Elijah show up and they have a conversation and you get to overhear and then boom, a bright cloud appears over them and you hear God’s voice from heaven “this is my son with whom I am well pleased, listen to him,” Peter’s reaction, “Jesus how about we build three booths here, three huts, three tents maybe we bring three winnebagos in so we can just hang out here because Jesus this is fantastic!  I get that same feeling every so often. It overwhelms me and I wish it were more often, but I grateful for those moments when they appear, when the Divine is so close so real, so touchable that everything else just fades away. When the eternal ever so briefly and intensely invades my ordinary work a day life.

Last weekend, I was in Las Vegas helping at Divine Mercy parish preparing the children for their First Communion. I felt the Divine presence when 70 children came to make their First Holy Communion. I loved it when the children greeted my puppet Spinach and they watched as he weaved his story about God’s love for them. We shared that the most important things in life are faith, family and friends. Most important Jesus loves them. But the Divine moment came when one by one they approached the altar with their godparents and they knelt down and they received Holy Communion and I could see their eyes light up. There’s the Transfiguration. No fear, but joy and peace and then they would make the sign of the cross, their godparents gave them their candle and they turned toward the paschal candle to get a light saying they would follow Jesus for the rest of their life.

 

Later after the Mass, the children were escorted to the meditation chapel where Deacon Erick and I presented each child with their First Communion certificate, but as one group was gathering to receive their certificates, I told their religion teacher that this group would make a great childrens’ choir. The teacher turned to the students and instructed them to sing the Our Father in Spanish and the kids sang at the top of their voices.. It was another God moment that I will never forget. This was like the cloud coming over these people and the voice from heaven speaking into our ears. I was transfixed for a moment for God’s Heavenly Glory had broken into this earthly Pacific Standard Time, That was a Holy Moment, that was a Transfiguration moment.

Transfiguration moments are priceless and rare and you can’t predict when they will come. Maybe they will come at a Mass, or a labor room, on a remote mountain taking photos of the Grand Canyon because you are in the grandeur of God. Which moment in the life of Jesus would you most want to be?

Lord, I pray for all my Sonshine Friends, the children, their parents, godparents and all the parishioners at Divine Mercy. I pray for a miracle that they will not be evicted from their church. Let us be grateful when the Divine enters our ordinary life and delighted with the promise that Jesus will change our earthly body to conform to his glorified body and the divine will shine bright inside each of us for an eternity.