The Church of Saint Matthew - Saint Paul’s West Side

01.10.2021 Homily

We observe today the feast of the baptism of the Lord. This feast marks the inaugural moment, the first moment that the scriptures record of Jesus' public life. John the Baptist is at the Jordan River. He is baptizing people from throughout Judea. People have come to him. He has told them that they are to repent and be baptized, that the kingdom of God is at hand. It's a baptism for forgiveness. It's a baptism. It's a baptism for the remission of sin. It's the baptism of conversion.
Jesus comes to the water, and He steps into the water to be baptized along with all the other people who are there. At this first moment of his public ministry, He puts himself in solidarity with all of sinful humanity. He bares His human body, and at this, His first public appearance, He chooses to go down into the waters of the Jordan to be baptized by John, to be a representative of our collective guilt. This first moment of His public ministry is meant to say very clearly that He is one of us and that He has chosen to be with us.
Now, as He's being baptized, the heavens are torn open. It's a fairly strong word that is used. It's a violent word. It's a ripping. It's a shredding. It's a tearing. The heavens just don't open. They're ripped open. And God's action is now manifest by the coming of the spirit. And the voice of God is, "You are my son. Upon you, my favor rests."
Now in the person of Jesus, in this event, there is the beginning of a new age, a new relationship of earth and heaven, a new relationship of all of creation and our human condition with God. This is an inaugural moment. This is the beginning. And in the beginning is already seen the end, the completion. God rips the heavens apart, and he irrevocably, in Jesus' baptism, never closes those heavens again. And through this gracious gash in the universe, He pours forth His spirit upon all of creation. There is no mountain quaking and no violent cosmic disturbance in this rending of the heavens. It's a gracious opening.
And the symbol of like the dove reminds us of the spirit of God, as that spirit brooded over the vast abyss. And out of that abyss came the created universe. And now that the spirit has descended once again, the whole world is charged with the grandeur of God. And the spirit flames out like shining from shook foil. It gathers to a greatness like the ooze of crushed oil. The spirit of God seeps into every crook and cranny and crevice of all of creation.
Our baptism. Our baptism was an entry into this very mystery. You and I were, if you will, plunged into the Jordan waters, as Jesus was plunged into it. We are baptized to bear the life and the light of God to those who are lost and those who are brokenhearted.
Now this is the final moment of the Christmas season. This feast is, if you will, the linchpin between Christmas and the public ministry of Jesus. It's the connecting moment. The beginning of this feast begins to show us how we are to live out the Christmas message. The poet Howard Thurman writes, "When the song of the angels is stilled, when the star in the sky is gone, when the kings and princes are home, when the shepherds are back with their flock, then the real work of Christmas begins. To find the lost, to heal the broken, to feed the hungry, release the prisoner, rebuild the nations, to bring peace to sisters and brothers, and to make music from the heart."
I think it's important on this day that we celebrate the baptism of the Lord that we ought to renew our own baptism, that moment in which we were first inserted into the very mystery of Christ. And so I would ask that you join me as we renew the baptismal promises that were part of our initiation so many years ago.
And I ask you, do you believe in God, the father almighty, the maker of heaven and earth?
Do you believe in Jesus Christ, His only son, who was born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried, was raised to life on the third day, and is seated at the right hand of God?
Do you believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sin, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting?

01.10.2021 Gospel Mark Chapter 1

Now this is what John the Baptist proclaimed. One mightier than I is coming after me. I am not worthy to stoop down and untie his sandal strap. I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.
Now it happened in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized in the Jordan River by John. On coming out of the water, He saw the heavens torn open and the spirit of God in the form of a dove settling upon him. And the voice came from heaven saying, "You are my beloved son. On you, my favor rests." The Gospel of the Lord.

01.03.2021 Homily

The scripture readings that the church puts before us during the Christmas season are so full, so full with overlaying themes that all one can do is to take one or other of those themes and reflect upon it. I suggest that this feast is about the hunger of the human heart. It's about the restlessness of the human spirit. It's about the search.
These people from the East, they searched everywhere for the child who would redeem them, roving like pilgrims, journeying from afar, in every kind of danger. This day is the feast day of all who seek God through life in pilgrimage, the journey of those who find God because they seek God.
When we read the story of the Magi, we in a sense are reading our own story, the history of our own pilgrimage. Led by a star that came from far-off Persia, they struggled through deserts. They successfully questioned their way through indifference and politics until they found the child and could worship Him as their savior King.
 
Our journey's path moves through childhood, through young adulthood, through maturity. Our journey's path moves through festive days and many routine days. It moves through success and through misery, through virtue and through sin, through love and through disillusionment. On and on and on our journey goes, irresistibly from the morning of birth to the evening of death. Like you, I journey in search of my center, my true self, my identity, my deepest truth. I search for eternal life. I journey in the search of God, that in the human face of Jesus, I might meet the creator God, and that in the human face of Jesus, I might discover who I am, when the savior King comes to reveal both who God is and who I am.
Every human being is on that journey. Every human being is at the center a restless person. It is what ultimately, beneath all doubt and confusion and wonder that fills our lives, this restlessness, and that restlessness ends, ultimately, when we come into the presence of God. This revelation of the truth does not come about because I wait for it or I long for it. This goal demands an investment. The Magi had to undertake the search relentlessly, amid the challenge and disappointment. They had to focus on the star. They had to commit to the journey. Now the same is true of you and me. We also must commit. The lifelong commitment. We must undertake the search.

01.02.2021 Gospel Matthew Chapter 2

When Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of King Herod, Magi from the East arrived in Jerusalem. They said, "Where is this newborn King of the Jews? We saw His star at its rising. We have come to do Him homage."
Now, when King Herod heard this, he was greatly distressed, as was all of Jerusalem. Calling together the chief priests and the scribes of the people, he inquired of them where it was that this child was to be born. They said to him, "In Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it is written through the prophet. You, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah, since from you shall come a ruler who is to shepherd my people, Israel."
Then Herod called the Magi secretly, and he ascertained from them the time of the star's appearance. He sent them to Bethlehem and said, "Go. Search diligently for the child, and when you have found Him, bring word that I, too, may go and pay Him homage." After their audience with the king, they set out, and the star that they had seen at its rising preceded them until it came to rest over the place where the child was.
They were filled with joy at seeing the star. On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary, His mother. They fell down and did homage. Then they opened their treasures and offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. They were warned in a dream not to return to Herod, and so they returned to their country by a different route.

12.26.2020 Homily

The very center of the Christmas season is the belief that in one moment out of God's great love and goodness, He sent His only son to live with us, to live among us, to be one like us, to enter into human history. And from that moment, history has been altered, has been changed has, in effectS been turned upside down. And now through the days and the weeks of the Christmas season, the Church invites us to look to various aspects of what it is to say that the Son of God has come to live among us.
And today the Church asks us to reflect on the fact that Jesus of Nazareth exists within a familial unit. Like all of us, He doesn't come into the world on His own and he doesn't live on his own, that human beings by their very nature are social animals. And He too had connections, had relationships. And not only with His parents, not only with Mary and Joseph, but there was Zachariah and Elizabeth, the relatives of Mary, that were His grandparents. There were other people who were members of that extended family. In Jesus' time people didn't regard themselves as a nuclear family. They regarded themselves as much more of an extended family. And those families were strong and they were vibrant and they were able to bear the burdens of the day.
Nuclear families and marriages are fragile. There aren't enough shoulders to carry all that has to be carried. Today the world is fighting a pandemic, a plague that personally touches the lives of many of us. For many there is an empty chair at the table this Christmas season. Our society is divided, rancorously, and does not seem to be willing to come together in any real fashion. Our cities have been besieged with violence and we are in an economic crisis where businesses are closing and jobs are being lost.
And all of this reflects directly upon the family. All of this is the burden that the family carries. All of this finds its expression in the challenge of family life. And you and I know that as well as anyone that over the past nine months, family life has become in many ways, challenging and difficult. We aren't built to be sequestered inside for that long period of time, without broad connections. We're social animals. And yet we're called to live out that relationship, that familial relationship, in such a way that strengthens and enhances the lives of each other.
And so I would suggest to you that there are probably two virtues that are called for in the family today. One is forgiveness, the ability to really forgive the other for whatever the word or the action or the attitude that touched and hurt one. To be able to say, I forgive you. I'm willing to let that drop. I'm willing to step beyond that. I don't hold any grudge about that. And to forgive oneself, to forget the failures that we find in ourselves, the shortness of temper, the anger, the frustration.
The second virtue, I think that I would invite you to reflect on is patience, to be able to cut each other some slack. To be able to create some space. If not physical space, at least psychological space, in which people can be more at home with each other, to not crowd each other too closely. And to be patient with the quirks and the foibles, and all those things about the other person that drive you up the wall. And be willing to give some patience to that.
It's not easy to live in a family. And yet the family becomes and is the main stay of society. And when families fail the whole social fabric fails. Family knits community together. And so it's appropriate that Jesus, the Son of God, become one with us and one among us to do so within the context of family life.
So there is nothing about family life that is foreign to God at this point, because He has taken it over. He has embraced it. He has entered into it. And today we pray that in each of our families, the spirit that filled that family of Jesus and Mary and Joseph, that spirit of patience and generosity, that spirit of forgiveness and mercy might touch each and every one of us.

12.26.2020 Gospel Luke Chapter 2

When the days were completed for their purification according to the law ofMoses, they took the child up to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord. And when they had fulfilled all the prescriptions of the law, they returned to Galilee to their own town, to Nazareth, and the child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom. And the favor of God rested upon Him.

12.24.2020 Homily

This section of the gospel concludes with the words, “once they saw they understood.” What was it that they understood? The angel said about this Messiah, this Lord, "This will be a sign to you. You will find the baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.”
The sign, the sign that is given to them, is that humility of God, which has taken in extreme, and the love by which he assumes our frailty, our suffering, our anxieties, our desires, our limitations, our smallness. To see Jesus is to accept Him on His own terms. Jesus comes in a very normal setting. Jesus made Himself small in order to better meet us. For God is in love with what is small. Now, once the shepherds drew near and saw Jesus and saw the sign, saw the humility, then they understood. They understood that the Savior, the Messiah, the Lord is found in a fragile child.
Jesus calls us to see His face in the face of fragile children. We see the face of Jesus in the faces of Syrian children marked by war. We see Jesus in the children of Iraq and the children of Lebanon and Yemen. We see Jesus in the faces of the children of unemployed parents who struggle to feed them and to shelter them. We see Jesus in the faces of children who from very young age are forced to work or to enroll as soldiers. We see Jesus in the faces of children who have had to flee their home and travel in inhumane conditions.
We see Jesus in children targeted for human traffickers. We see Jesus in children forced to emigrate and to risk their lives. We see Jesus in the faces of exiled children separated from parents and caged on our Southern border. Jesus knows the pain of not being welcomed and He knows how hard it is not to have a place to lay your head.
The shepherds came to understand that their Messiah, their Lord makes His home among the small, among the fragile, among those who are lost. This Christmas season we must open our hearts and pray: "Lord, give me the grace of mercy in the most difficult of circumstances, give me the grace of closeness to those who are small--to the least. Help me to accept You on your own terms. You are found with those who are small and with those who are fragile.
When we go to seek Him, we seek Him among those who are fragile. But maybe it's not you and I who seek Him. Maybe when we stand with those who are fragile, He comes and finds us.

12.24.2020 Gospel Luke Chapter 2

The time came for her to deliver her child. She gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped Him in bands of cloth. She laid Him in a manger because there was no room for them in the inn.
Now in that region, there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord stood before them and the glory of the Lord shone around them. And they were terrified. The angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy for all the world. For to you is born this day in the city of David, a Savior who is the Messiah, who is the Lord. And this will be the sign, that you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger." And suddenly there was with the angel, a multitude of the heavenly hosts, praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those of good will."
Now when the angel left them and returned, the shepherds said to one another, "Now let us go to Bethlehem and see the things that have taken place of which the Lord has made known to us. And so they went. And there they found Mary and Joseph and the Child lying in the manger. And once they saw, they understood.

12.19.2020 Homily

There are so many characters, so many figures, so many people, associated with this season--Advent and the Christmas season--and they all have a different role to play. One of those characters, one of those personalities though, that I don't think we very often spend time reflecting on, is the one who is spoken about in the first reading. And that is King David. David is incredibly important for the story of the birth of Jesus.
David was a remarkable human being. He was a charismatic individual. He was able to claim the great loyalty of his people and the great affection that they had for him. He was a wonderful leader. Never before and never again, had the nation of Israel been as wide and broad in its geography and as rich in its economy as during the time of David. And it was very clear that God was blessing this man, that God had lifted him up, that God had chosen him. As the scripture reading said this afternoon, chosen him from among the flock as a shepherd to now lead the people of Israel.
And so David goes to Nathan, the prophet, and he says to him,"I just don't feel comfortable living in my house." And then, "The presence of God is found in a tent, in canvas, on the floor of the desert. I will build a temple for our God, a temple that would enshrine God's presence. And Nathan says to him, "Well, you go and do whatever you want. God has always blessed what you have done. So just do what you choose." But that night God said to Nathan, "You go back and you tell him, 'I have built a house for you--you will not build a house for me.'”
“That from the very beginning. As Moses led the people of Israel across the Red Sea, in search of the promised land that I have traveled with you in the tent, whenever you moved, I moved, I will not be held tight in a building of stone. I must be free. And the tent provides me with that.”
So the tent becomes a, a sign of the Lord's constant presence to Israel, that, no matter where that people goes, God goes with them. That they are never left alone, that they are never abandoned. That they're never forgotten. There's nothing about them that God is not intimately connected with. In St. John's gospel he says at the very beginning that the word became flesh and dwelt among us. Well, really what the Greek text says is the word became flesh and pitched His tent among us, established Himself among us, became one with us.
So at the very beginning of the story, we're told that this Jesus of Nazareth is the son of David. And we're also told in the gospel today that he is also the Son of God. And that mystery, that mystery of his divinity and his humanity, that fuses together, that's really what we come to celebrate in the Christmas feast. In every way that God has been present to the people of Israel, He's been present in a humble, ordinary, garden-variety way. He's been present in their daily lives. And that same is true in His Incarnation and his coming among us as Jesus of Nazareth. He is present to us in the ordinariness of life.
He's present to us in the dailiness of my life, of your life. Our lives are not spectacular, our lives do not make headlines, but that's not what attracts God to us. What attracts God to us is that He has chosen to be with us. He has chosen to pitch His tent among us. And so every time we come to the altar, every time we celebrate the Eucharist, what we celebrate is the continual abiding presence of God.
You know, we talk about the Eucharist as being the real presence, the true presence of Christ among us. That in this gift of the Eucharist, once again, He plants Himself among us. And whether that is celebrated in a large place with tens of thousands of people, or whether that Eucharist is celebrated in a very small gathering; whether it's celebrated with great festivity or whether it's celebrated with very humble surroundings, that's not what the importance is. The importance is that whenever we gather at the table, He is present among us. He is present with us. So as we pray today, as we come within just days of the Christmas feast, as we pray this fourth Sunday of advent, let us pray strongly that we might have a deeper sense, a deeper appreciation, a deeper awareness that God is present in my life. He walks with me. He never leaves me alone. I am never abandoned. I am never left alone.
And as we come to receive the Eucharist, that is the sacrament that ratifies and makes sure of God's presence among us in Jesus Christ.

12.19.2020 Gospel Luke Chapter 1

God sent the angel Gabriel to a town in Galilee named Nazareth, to a young woman engaged to a man named Joseph of the house of David, and her name was Mary. The angel approached her and said, "Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you." Mary was taken back by this greeting and wondered what it might mean. The angel said, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. You will conceive, you will bear a Son, and that Son shall be Holy. That Son shall be the gift of God to His people"
And the angel went on to remind her that this Child will be called the Son of God. And she said," I don't know how that can happen, because I'm a virgin." And the angel said to her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the most high will overshadow you. And so the Child born to you will be the Son of God. And know this, that your kinswoman, Elizabeth, will also give birth to a son. And she, whom everyone thought was barren, Is now in her sixth month. For nothing is impossible with God."
Mary said, "I am the servant of the Lord. Let it be done to me according to your word." And with that the angel left her.