Gospel, Homily and Coffee

“You’ll shoot your eye out!” A classic line, prediction in our culture.  Parents are prophets, are they not? At least in some fashion. You parents can see a situation and assess, and make a prediction: “Don’t do that or you are going to hurt yourself?; He/She is not nice, don’t come crying to me when he/she breaks your heart….” Prophets see a situation, make observations and then call out the probable consequences and can provide a different way to act. Prophets have a degree of wisdom and insight. Now prophets are not just doom and gloom. Prophets, especially religious ones and in our Jewish/Christian tradition, actually want to lead people to security, to joy; ultimately to God. They declare a way to avoid one path, so as to choose another. Think of Parenting again. Those prophetic warnings to kids really comes down to teaching kids about actions, consequences and how to choose. And they can mature into healthy stable adults. As we ourselves continue to mature though, who ...

Where’s Waldo? We remember those books; the funny looking dude with glasses, hat and striped shirt hiding in plain sight amid a crowd of others. Our task was to find him, to recognize him amid all the other people. It teaches attention and concentration; and frustration!!!!!!! At times we can all get into a too comfortable position in life and become numb to our world, our reality. We do not truly see what is around us. We all notice the snow on the mountains when it first happens, but by January we become “meh” about it.  We can also get overwhelmed by situations that wear us down, and we become less able to see the positive around us.   We can fall into the trap of thinking God is not here with us. God is not working with us. God is not in our world. We can think this as we get confronted in the news by all the bad news; gun violence again and again; earthquakes, wars, drought, the divisions.  Where's God? This thinking is not sinful, but it is also not help...

Earlier this year the movie “Everything Everywhere all at once” was released. I found it a brilliant movie, and although I do admit a small crush on Michelle Yeoh, it is not because of that. It is a movie about choices in life; and making decisions that impact our lives and those around us.  In this movie, and in other recent movies and shows, there is talk of the multiverse; which comes from a line of thought in Quantum physics that there are infinite universes, all based on choices. If we choose coffee, then that sets us on one path; if we choose tea for breakfast then that sets us along a different path.  It is a fun concept, but can also lead to our heads swimming, and for some neurosis about making choices. We can come to those threshold moments in our lives in which a new direction, a new way of living is presented to us. What will we do? This is not just a new job, new house, or new car; this is also about a fundamental option to live in a different way. For some i...