Homily (Sermon) - Giving
The Readings for Sunday 11th November 2012 or Thirty Second Sunday of Ordinary Time Year B:
1 Kings 17:10-16
Psalm 145:6-10
Hebrews 9:24-28
Mark 12:38-44
[These readings can be found at www.universalis.com for the next few weeks.]
Today our scripture talks about giving, and not just giving but giving till it hurts. Sacrificial giving, giving that is a sacrifice.
In the old testament reading a widow, living in the middle of a famine, with a son to feed gives Elijah a scone of bread made from her last handful of flour. That must have taken most of the flour make, at least half of everything she had.
In our gospel reading we hear the well known story of the widows’ mite. The widow, quietly and almost ashamedly, drops to small coins into the temple treasury. The coins she dropped in were worth the smallest of value. But even though the value of the coins is small, it was all she had. It was her only chance of a meal that she gave.
If you think back a few weeks, can you see the contrast between these two poor widows and the rich man who approached Jesus and asked what he must do for eternal life. Christ told him to give everything away, and he couldn't do it. The two widows, we hear about today however, can and do. They freely give all they have, and open their lives up to the mercy of God.
Christ, when he sees what the widow in the temple has done, has to tell his disciples. The example is to wonderful not to be passed on. Christ compares her to the people giving lots, those who can afford to give, those who give what they have spare.
I am left wondering what happened to that widow, I am sure that at the end of her life she met Christ in heaven. With a great grin on his face He looked at her and said, “I watched you on the day in the temple, when gave your last two coins, I was so proud of you.” But I also wonder what her life was like after taking that step, that step of trust, of faith, the step to give everything to God. To hold on to nothing and put your life in His hands. We all have this opportunity but so few of us take it.
This weeks teaching is challenging. This week we are given examples of people who gave, who gave not the spare and surplus in their life, but gave what the needed, what they relied upon. What do you currently give? I don’t mean what do you drop in the collection plate, I mean everything, what do you give of you time, your possessions, your wealth, your love, your knowledge, you experience. What do you give?
I know you are giving an hour or two today in worship. You are here to love, worship our Lord and to meet Him in the holy Eucharist. What else do you do? What else do you give? Think about it? Today’s scripture should do two things, it should challenge you to give more and it should make you reflect on what you do give.
In some way your giving should hurt, it should inconvenience you, it should be difficult. It should be something that if Christ was watching, and I promise you He is, that he would be proud of.
There is also today another example of giving for us to remember. Today is Armistice, the 100th Armistice, the day we remember those who gave their lives in war for us, for their friends and families. The men and women we remember today, gave everything. They gave their life. Their is nothing more that can be given in this life, than this life itself. We are so lucky today, here in this country, to live in a world that can barely imaging the horror of the war. We can see news reports and watch war films and study history, but few of us know war. I certainly don’t, and I am grateful that I don’t, I am grateful to those who gave everything.
You are challenged to give, to give of yourself, your time, your possessions, your wealth, your love, your knowledge, your experience, your life. Your God asks you this, and as an example He has already given His life, just for you. When you meet Him in heaven as I know you will, what gift will he be referencing to when He tell you, “I saw you give, I was so proud.”
About the Author - Deacon John Scanlon
Homily Index
Showing posts with label Remembrance Sunday. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Remembrance Sunday. Show all posts
Homily 32nd Sunday Ordinary Time Year A - Remembrance Sunday
Remembrance Sunday
The Readings for the Thirty Second Sunday of Ordinary Time Year A:
Wisdom 6:12-16, Psalm 62:2-8, 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, Matthew 25:1-13
Our Gospel message today is simple. We are being told to be ready, to be prepared, to live every day as if it were the day before we meet Jesus our Lord, our Creator and our Judge. We are being told to take all His lessons, all His teaching and apply it every day of our lives. See, it a very simple Gospel today, but it is far from an easy Gospel . We don’t, we can’t live perfect lives. We are human, make mistakes; we are greedy, cruel, lazy and stupid. But we are also, as we are called to be; kind, caring, hardworking and filled, if we ask to be, with the Wisdom of God.
I love our first reading today about Wisdom. We are promised Wisdom will be there when we look for her. We just need to open our eyes and look. To seek her out and she will find us. I’ll come back to our first reading and finish this homily by re-reading it for you because I can think of no better way to remember the fallen of war than by seeking Wisdom, and with that Wisdom maybe finding a way to end all war.
Over the last 4 years I have preached every Remembrance Sunday and I have been shocked and horrified by the scale of the first world war. This year again I looked at what was happening a hundred years ago, and one hundred years ago the First World War battle of Passchendaele was coming to a close. It was fought in Flanders, Belgium between July and November 1917. In his Memoirs of 1938, Lloyd George wrote, "Passchendaele was indeed one of the greatest disasters of the war ... No soldier of any intelligence now defends this senseless campaign ..." It reduced the landscape to a wasteland of mud and devastation. The causality figures for that one battle over only 5 months of a 4 and a half year war were horribly huge. I won’t give you numbers, when they are that large they mean nothing to us. But to put it in the context of our local area:
- In the first month the causalities were more than double the total population now of Yate, Chipping Sodbury and Kingswood.
- The lowest estimates of allied causalities would be the same as every man, women and child currently living in Downend.
- The higher estimates of total causalities from both sides would be about the same as today’s population of Bristol, Bath, Chippenham, Cheltenham and Swindon. That’s almost everyone who lives within the borders of our diocese, everyone.
We have to remember those that died and those that returned.
We have to remember the cost of war, the cost they paid.
We have to think how lucky we are for the peace we enjoy.
We have to pray for the wisdom to not make those mistake again.
We have to live daily lives that honour their sacrifice.
We have to live daily lives that respond to His Sacrifice. His Sacrifice that brings forgiveness for our mistakes and for our sins.
We have to prepare.
We have to be ready.
Wisdom, Chapter 6 verses 12 to 16:
Wisdom is bright, and does not grow dim.
By those who love her she is readily seen,
and found by those who look for her.
Quick to anticipate those who desire her, she makes herself known to them.
Watch for her early and you will have no trouble;
you will find her sitting at your gates.
Even to think about her is understanding fully grown;
be on the alert for her and anxiety will quickly leave you.
She herself walks about looking for those who are worthy of her
and graciously shows herself to them as they go,
in every thought of theirs coming to meet them.
Wisdom 6:12-16
For The Fallen
Laurence Binyon was born in 1869, I was born in 1969, so there is 100 years between our births so this year 2014 as we remember the 100 anniversary of the start of World War 1 I am the same age as Laurence Binyon. I would be too old to enlist. I am left thinking would I be disappointed I could go to serve my country or would I be relieved. With hindsight, relieved is all I can think I would have felt, but 1914 was a different time. While Laurence was too old to join the army he did join the Red Cross and served as a medical orderly.
I always assumed that this poem was written after the war or at least towards the end of it. I never dreamt it was written right at the start. The horror of trench warfare hadn't really started by September 2014. The battles the British Expeditionary Force had fought in were across open ground and were critical in stopping the German advance. As the front line stretched out from coast to coast the troops dug in and 400 miles of trenches connected the North Sea to the Alps.
For the Fallen
With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children,
England mourns for her dead across the sea.
Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit,
Fallen in the cause of the free.
Solemn the drums thrill: Death august and royal
Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres.
There is music in the midst of desolation
And a glory that shines upon our tears.
They went with songs to the battle, they were young,
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted,
They fell with their faces to the foe.
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.
They mingle not with their laughing comrades again;
They sit no more at familiar tables of home;
They have no lot in our labour of the day-time;
They sleep beyond England's foam.
But where our desires are and our hopes profound,
Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight,
To the innermost heart of their own land they are known
As the stars are known to the Night;
As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust,
Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain,
As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness,
To the end, to the end, they remain.
by Robert Laurence Binyon
First published 21st September 1914 in The Times
Homily for the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica and Remembrance Sunday
Readings for the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica Year A:
Ezekiel 47:1-2,8-9,12, Psalm 45, 1 Corinthians 3:9-11,16-17, John 2:13-22
[All these readings can be found at www.universalis.com for the next few weeks. Remember to scroll down for the readings of the day.]
The Church today is celebrating the dedication of the Lateran Basilica in Rome. The feast is one of unity towards the See of Peter and is celebrated across the world. The readings teach of Christ’s love for His father’s house and Paul describes how Christ built the foundation of the Church, the Church that each one of us is a part of.
We are called to build our Church, to continue to grow our Church. We are the stones, the bricks, the steel and glass, the beams and windows of our Church today. We are building our Church as we were instructed, we are building our Church from our love of God, we are building our Church to serve our world today. Our children will build on us and their children will build on them. The Church therefore always grows, always adapts, and is always ready to face the challenges of the current world.
We may think the world of 2014 has it problems. But 100 years ago the problems the world had were much worse. Since the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand on June 28th 1914 the world had been descending into war. The Great War started on August 1st, and Britain declared war on Germany on August 4th. One hundred years ago today British troops were dying at Ypres.
Today we remember the sacrifice of those who fought and those who died. The 888,246 British soldiers who lost their lives in The Great War. The 65 million people that were killed during that war. The 170 million who have died in war in the last 100 years.
But today we are directed by our scripture to look to our Church, we need to look at the stones we have been laid upon, the people who were the Church 100 years ago, we need to thank God for them and for their work. Then we need to challenge ourselves to build a Church to serve the world we see today. The smallest of things can make a surprising difference.
During the first world war the Catholic Woman League made a request for funds to build a recreation hut for the soldiers in Boulogne. Immediate and generous donation allowed the ladies to open this hut for the soldiers. More followed all across Europe, and all were staffed by the Catholic ladies of the CWL. By the end of The Great War there were 35 huts providing for practical and the spiritual needs of the soldiers. Meals were provided 24 hours a day, and Mass was said on Sundays. Some huts even had permanent alters. After the war these huts provided help in rebuilding the shattered towns and villages.
As the world descended into World War II the CWL restarted the huts and over the next few years opened and staffed over 180 canteens and huts around the world. These continued long after the war and again helped to rebuild.
There are now shrines in many of the places where these huts stood. A crucifix in Westminster cathedral is made from the Cross that stood next the Westminster Hut. Next time you are there I think you can see it on the wall in the gift shop.
The huts are now all gone and few people would remember or know of the work those ladies did during the two wars. But the work, like the work of the Church we are all called to do, didn’t stop with the last hut. No, as the huts were closed and the land sold, the money was put to good use and is still being used today. The CWL Service Committee works closely with the Catholic Bishop to the Forces to help anyone connected to the forces, who is in need. Beds, wheel chairs and school books have already been provided. During the most recent war in Afghanistan the committee was asked to provide flip-flops and shorts for injured soldiers who they heard only has combat boots to wear while recover from leg wounds.
As Ezekiel said in our first reading, there is a river that flows from our Church, and where that river passes there is life. The ladies who built and staffed that first hut almost 100 years ago, built the Church their world needed, and where they passed they brought life. The ladies who manage the Service Committee today are building the Church our world needs and their work brings life. You are a stone in that same Church. What are you building for the world today and where will you bring life to today’s world.
About the Author - Deacon John Scanlon
Homily Index
Homily - 32nd Sunday OT Year C - Remembrance Sunday
Homily (Sermon) - Remembrance Sunday
The Readings for the twenty seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time
2 Maccabees 7:1-2,9-14, Psalm 16, 2 Thessalonians 2:16-3:5
Luke 20:27-38
[These readings can be found at www.universalis.com for the next few weeks.]
Today is a sombre day. Today is a sad day. Today is a day to be thankful. Today is a day to remember.
Today is Remembrance Sunday.
It’s almost 100 years since the start of the Great War. The war to end all wars. The problem is it didn’t. The last 100 years have been very bloody indeed.
65 million died in World War I
2 million in The Mexican Revolution
5 million in the Russian Civil War
1 million in the Spanish civil war
72 million in World War II
4.5 million in the Korean War
3 million in Vietnam
3 million in the Nigerian Civil war
2 million in the Afghan Civil War which we are still fighting today
2 million in the Soviet war in Afghanistan
2 million in Iran-Iraq and gulf war
2 million in the Sudanese war
5.4 million in the Second Congo war
I couldn’t find figures for the Libya, Syria
Between 1914 and 1945 war killed around 7% of the population of the world.
Today we remember the 170 million people killed in war in just the last 100 year.
[Numbers taken from Wikipedia]
War is wrong. Taking life is wrong. Yet the men and women we honour today were fighting for me, they gave up their lives so I could be safe. I am grateful that they did that. I feel pride and horror, sad and relieved, thankful and lucky. I have never seen war, I hope I never have too, I wish we could stop all wars and I will continue to pray that one day we can. But until we become a better human race War is with us. And with war comes death. The imagery and the poetry of Remembrance day focuses quite rightly on loss. Lost family. Lost friends. Lost comrades. Lost youth. Lost life.
In contrast then is the imagery and poetry of today’s readings. They are not about loss. They are about gain. The ultimate prise. Resurrection. Life everlasting. Life once more with our loved ones. Eternity experience with God.
In our first reading we hear of the sacrifices of the 7 brothers tortured and killed for their faith. Their faith allowed them to suffer in this life rather than lose their faith and the gift of resurrection. Next time you stick your tongue out at someone, remember the third brother, who lost his tongue, hands and life so he could keep his life with God. This gesture is made with, as St Paul says, “such inexhaustible comfort and such sure hope”. The young man knows his fate, he knows death awaits, he knows the prise is his.
We are capable of understanding so little of the world beyond this world. Of the divine, of the heavenly. We can touch it in the sacraments, we may find it in prayer, it kindles in our hearts, it grows in our actions, our Faith, our sure hope. Then we lose someone, then we feel the loss, then we feel the pain, then we remember what is lost. The pain makes us forget the sure hope, the promise of our Lord, that this life is passing, and next the life is eternal.
In the Gospel today Jesus is challenge by some Sadducees. They were a group of religious Jews who worked in the temple, and they believed that the soul was not immortal. Death would be the end. They tried to prove this with the legalistic argument about the woman married in turn to seven brothers. Their argument was that, there cannot be an afterlife because it can’t possibly work according to the law of Moses. The women was not allowed to have multiple husbands while alive, therefore because she would have multiple husbands in the afterlife, the afterlife can’t possibly exist.
Christ’s answer was that, as children of the resurrection, they are children of God. The life to come will not be like this life, the rules of this life don’t have a place in the next. He didn’t tell them what the next life will be like, I don’t think any of us could understand if he had. But you do know what it’s going to be like, you have felt it in the sacraments, you fleetingly encounter it in prayer, it’s burning tenderly in your heart, it is the sure hope of faith.
Today is a day to remember. Today is a day for “such inexhaustible comfort and such sure hope”, and I hope Laurence Binyon won’t be offended if I add the last line of our psalm to his poem Ode of Remembrance.
They went with songs to the battle, they were young.
Straight of limb, true of eyes, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted,
They fell with their faces to the foe.
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
We will remember them.
They mingle not with their laughing comrades again;
They sit no more at familiar tables of home;
They have no lot in our labour of the day-time;
They sleep beyond England's foam
In justice they shall see your face
And be filled, when they awake, with the sight of your glory.
About the Author - Deacon John Scanlon
Homily Index
Homily – 2011 Remembrance Sunday- 33rd Sunday Year A
Homily – 2011 Remembrance Sunday- 33rd Sunday Year A
Readings
Proverbs 31:10-13, 19-20, 30-31
Psalm 127:1-5
1 Thessalonians 5:1-6
Matthew 25:14-30
This poem is called “For the War Dead” and it's by A.E. Housman. He wrote it for the dead of world war 1, but it could so easily have been written for the soldiers of any war, in any time. I read it on the Underground this time last year and it has kind of stayed with me. It speaks of loss, loss of life, loss of youth and loss of shame. It honours those who choose to fight, while painting a bleak picture of war. Today we remember those who have lost their lives in war and the families they didn't return to.
By buying a poppy we give money to help those returning from war and the families of those who haven't returned. And by wearing the poppy we remember. As we remember, think why did they do this for us? Their lives were lost, so ours may be lived. That's worth remembering every day of your life. What will you do with your life today, tomorrow, this week, this year. How will you use your God given talents?
Talent is a word we have already heard today, do you know where it came from?
Interestingly, the way we use the word talent today, to mean the gifts and skills we possess, came from today's gospel reading. Back in the days of Jesus a talent was a unit of measure, it was the volume of an amphora. One of the Greek clay jars you see in museums and biblical drama. About this tall, and about this wide. If you filled it with silver it would hold about 32kilos of silver. That's about £25,000 worth of silver. So in today's gospel when the man gave his servants five talents, two talents and one talent of silver he was in fact trusting them with a very large sum indeed.
This gospel reading, if you just think about people making money, is confusing. But if you start to ignore the large sums of money start to think of what you do with the talent God gives you it makes much more sense.
Are you like the first servant. Are you blessed with many talents? Are you a musician, an accountant, a teacher, an artist, an athlete, a carer? Do you use your talents well? Do you practice, do you strive to get better?
Are you like the second servant? Blessed with a couple of talents? Maybe you are a doctor, a builder, a carpenter, a reporter, a parent? Do you work hard making the most of your skill, challenge yourself daily?
Or are you like the third servant? You have one gift, one talent, one something special that you can do. Can you sing, can you bake or cook, can you programme a computer, can you kick a football? Do you use this talent for others? Do you use this talent at all? Do you hide it where no one can see it?
We all have talents. This parable teaches us we are supposed to use them. Take risks with them, improve the lives of those around us with them. When we use them they will grow, practice makes perfect. When we use them, more talents will be given us.
Can you play an instrument? Can you sing, why not join a group or choir, find others who are musical, go carol singing, teach singing, volunteer to play at church, spread the joy your talent inspires. Your talents will grow, who knows the next step could be X-Factor.
Maybe your talent is parenting? Is the Lord saying to you, good and faithful servant, look how well you bring up your children. I give you another talent to teach, or to lead, or to coach. Should you now look to use your new talents at school or in children liturgy, maybe scouts or guides, or the football team. Think about your calling, your talents, your vocation.
The interesting thing about our talents according to today's gospel is that they must be used. If they are used they will grow. If they grow you will be rewarded. The reward is more talents, more work. Our life in Christ is a life of service to others. It's not a life of luxury and riches, not for us anyway. It's a life where we provide the luxury and riches, not in money but in love, care and service. Our reward my fellow, good and faithful servants, is in our Lords delight in our service, and in an eternal life with Him after this one.
Today, wear you poppy with pride. Remember the lost talents of those who died. Be thankful for their service. Now think about your talents, think about how to use them, talk to God and ask him if you are using all the talents you have been given.
Don't bury your talent as the third servant did, get out there and use it.
Readings
Proverbs 31:10-13, 19-20, 30-31
Psalm 127:1-5
1 Thessalonians 5:1-6
Matthew 25:14-30
Here dead lie we because we did not choose
To live and shame the land from which we sprung.
Life, to be sure, is nothing much to lose;
But young men think it is, and we were young.
To live and shame the land from which we sprung.
Life, to be sure, is nothing much to lose;
But young men think it is, and we were young.
This poem is called “For the War Dead” and it's by A.E. Housman. He wrote it for the dead of world war 1, but it could so easily have been written for the soldiers of any war, in any time. I read it on the Underground this time last year and it has kind of stayed with me. It speaks of loss, loss of life, loss of youth and loss of shame. It honours those who choose to fight, while painting a bleak picture of war. Today we remember those who have lost their lives in war and the families they didn't return to.
By buying a poppy we give money to help those returning from war and the families of those who haven't returned. And by wearing the poppy we remember. As we remember, think why did they do this for us? Their lives were lost, so ours may be lived. That's worth remembering every day of your life. What will you do with your life today, tomorrow, this week, this year. How will you use your God given talents?
Talent is a word we have already heard today, do you know where it came from?
Interestingly, the way we use the word talent today, to mean the gifts and skills we possess, came from today's gospel reading. Back in the days of Jesus a talent was a unit of measure, it was the volume of an amphora. One of the Greek clay jars you see in museums and biblical drama. About this tall, and about this wide. If you filled it with silver it would hold about 32kilos of silver. That's about £25,000 worth of silver. So in today's gospel when the man gave his servants five talents, two talents and one talent of silver he was in fact trusting them with a very large sum indeed.
This gospel reading, if you just think about people making money, is confusing. But if you start to ignore the large sums of money start to think of what you do with the talent God gives you it makes much more sense.
Are you like the first servant. Are you blessed with many talents? Are you a musician, an accountant, a teacher, an artist, an athlete, a carer? Do you use your talents well? Do you practice, do you strive to get better?
Are you like the second servant? Blessed with a couple of talents? Maybe you are a doctor, a builder, a carpenter, a reporter, a parent? Do you work hard making the most of your skill, challenge yourself daily?
Or are you like the third servant? You have one gift, one talent, one something special that you can do. Can you sing, can you bake or cook, can you programme a computer, can you kick a football? Do you use this talent for others? Do you use this talent at all? Do you hide it where no one can see it?
We all have talents. This parable teaches us we are supposed to use them. Take risks with them, improve the lives of those around us with them. When we use them they will grow, practice makes perfect. When we use them, more talents will be given us.
Can you play an instrument? Can you sing, why not join a group or choir, find others who are musical, go carol singing, teach singing, volunteer to play at church, spread the joy your talent inspires. Your talents will grow, who knows the next step could be X-Factor.
Maybe your talent is parenting? Is the Lord saying to you, good and faithful servant, look how well you bring up your children. I give you another talent to teach, or to lead, or to coach. Should you now look to use your new talents at school or in children liturgy, maybe scouts or guides, or the football team. Think about your calling, your talents, your vocation.
The interesting thing about our talents according to today's gospel is that they must be used. If they are used they will grow. If they grow you will be rewarded. The reward is more talents, more work. Our life in Christ is a life of service to others. It's not a life of luxury and riches, not for us anyway. It's a life where we provide the luxury and riches, not in money but in love, care and service. Our reward my fellow, good and faithful servants, is in our Lords delight in our service, and in an eternal life with Him after this one.
Today, wear you poppy with pride. Remember the lost talents of those who died. Be thankful for their service. Now think about your talents, think about how to use them, talk to God and ask him if you are using all the talents you have been given.
Don't bury your talent as the third servant did, get out there and use it.
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