12th Sunday in Ordinary Time
June 21-22 2008
"Partnership with God"

Well that last line in the gospel can certainly cause some worry I would think. "Everyone who acknowledges me before others I will acknowledge before my heavenly Father, but whoever denies me before others, I will deny before my heavenly Father." Is it a threat? Just doesn't seem to be in Jesus' personality to threaten us. So it can't be a threat. Rather, I believe it's a promise-a promise to respect our freedom. This morning in the morning prayer for the day, the scripture actually comes from 2 Timothy where it says: "Remember that Jesus Christ, a descendant of David, was raised from the dead. You can depend on this. If we have died with him we shall also live with him. If we hold out to the end, we shall also reign with him." And then Paul picks up what we find here in the gospel: "But if we deny him, he will deny us." But then Paul goes on to say: "If we are unfaithful, he will still remain faithful, for he cannot deny himself."

So how is Jesus denying us if we deny him being faithful? How does that go together? It's really quite simply, I think, in that Jesus is faithful to God the Father's will. So what is that will? That our freedom to say "no" will be respected. Because as I've said before, if we can't say "no" to God, our "yes" means nothing.

The promise we find in our gospel today is the promise that God will partner with us, and take that partnership very seriously. We're not just adding gravy to something. God is depending on us - chooses to depend on us, to partner with us, to bring about salvation for the world. So the promise we find in our scriptures today is the promise that God will continue to partner with humanity through the Body of Christ, with Christ as our head.

Last Wednesday, I saw this partnering. Let me tell you about the day. I got up and let my dog out to wee-wee, and then I prayed morning prayer. Morning prayer always begins with the same refrain: "Oh God, come to my assistance. O Lord, make haste to help." Then the day begins to unfold.

The first thing that really struck me in that day is when I came in for daily Mass, we had a brand new altar cloth - this one - and I'm going to show it to you. Ann Holliden, a daily Mass prayer worshiper, made this for us. I want you to see the detail in it. It's made out of monk cloth. It's got 27 yards of ribbon that she wove into this monk cloth. Not only did she weave it in, but she picked three different colors of ribbon that matched the three different green vestments that we have, so I'm always going to match. Ha! Great! Fits my compulsion. And not only that, but as she wove in these 27 yards of ribbon into this altar cloth, she cross-stitched each section of the monk cloth with the corresponding ribbon's color so that as you look at it the colors seem to blend together. She also made the cross here - this cross - to match the crosses in our newest vestments. She started on this back in March. Worked on it every day, hours and hours of work. She said she worked until her eyes got bleary and then she, I don't know, talked with her husband for awhile. And then she got back. But this effort, this sacrifice, this gift to the community, the way these 27 yards of ribbon are all woven into this speaks to me of how our partnership with God is multi-faceted, and yet all connected.

After that morning Mass and after marveling over our new altar cloth, I went to my office and I had a phone call with Nicaragua of all places. I spoke with Ed Dunsworth, who is with Hand and Hand Ministries down in Nicaragua, and our parish gave a grant to this ministry that has enabled us to partner with God in yet another way. A couple of weeks ago we had 23 of our parishioners go down to Appalachia, my Dad was one of them, to redo plumbing, fix roofs and things like that. Ed and Barbara Dunsworth are actually with us this morning from Nicaragua, and I've asked them to share with us a bit of their calling to this partnership with God.

Ed Dunsworth

Good morning. Twelve years ago if somebody had told me that our four children would graduate from four different high schools in four different countries I would have told them they were nuts! But on June 6th this year, our youngest daughter graduated from the fourth high school in Nicaragua. How did that happen? Well, God has a strange way of making his will known.

Eleven years ago I went on a mission trip to Nicaragua, not to help anybody, but just because it seemed like an interesting thing to do. And when I got there, I was absolutely floored. I just had my feet taken right out from under me. When I went home, it was obvious that things were different, and I went to see the parish priest.

The parish priest told me, "Ed," he said, "God doesn't call anybody to do anything, and in the meantime break up a marriage. So if this is a call, your wife has to be involved." So I went home.

Barbara Dunsworth

I thought my husband was a pretty special guy before he went to Nicaragua, but when he came back there was a profound change in him. Something happened to him there, and it was very exciting and it was very scary - at least to me. He knew that God was calling us to make a change in our lives, but I still needed a little convincing. So within a few weeks of his return, we found ourselves once again on an airplane and heading back there where we went to retrace his footsteps and try to discern just what it was that God was calling us to do.

I was scared to death, but what I saw there touched me deeply and I was in. We applied to work with Habitat for Humanity, and within a year we sold our home and moved to Belize. We have lived in several countries since then, but Nicaragua was always on our hearts because that's where our journey began. Three years ago we had the opportunity to work with Hand in Hand Ministries, and we really felt that God was calling us back to Nicaragua.

Ed Dunsworth

So we've been in Nicaragua now with Hand in Hand Ministries for three years, and we're very heavily involved in a child sponsorship program. Any of you that know Central America know that generally the education system is in a shambles there, and Nicaragua is no different. Basically our child sponsorship program is we have 51 children from very poor, needy families that are going to very good private schools, and that is our main mission right now. We also entertain immersion trips, and I believe there is a trip coming from this church, and we look forward to meeting those folks. We'll be around after Mass for anybody who wants to talk with us further. Thank you all very much.

Fr.Jeff

My day continued and during the day, Pam and I went around visiting the homebound, which we do quite often. As we went from home to home, we visited people struggling with cancer, people pretty much imprisoned in their homes because of congenital heart disease. I remember we visited one woman, Ann, who just basically because of her age can't really get out any more. We went to bring Eucharist and for me to anoint her, and that's when I discovered that Muffy, her dog, was a thief. I don't know if he was trained to do this or not, but once it took ten dollars right out of Pam's purse! And I said I want that dog! That was until it took my holy oil stock and ran off with it. I had to chase the little bugger all over the house. But that ministry, that outreach, that partnering with God is all woven together. From Nicaragua to Appalachia to our homebound - it connects like the 27 yards of ribbon in this altar cloth.

As the workday sort of came towards its end, we had an evening prayer Wednesday night. A gathering for our parishioners who are struggling with liturgical changes that we are in the midst of implementing. And at that service, Linda presided and preached a message that I want the larger church assembly to hear.

Linda Thieneman

So a number of us gathered on Wednesday evening, to pray, reflect and share about where we are in relationship to our church right now. We prayed mostly the psalms as the Liturgy of the Hours is mostly comprised of, which is always wonderful because the psalms have the whole gamut in range of human emotions, not just the "nice" ones. So it's nice when sometimes you are feeling the not "nice" emotions that you can find anger or complaint or discouragement in the psalms, echoed in the Scriptures. I gave a short reflection on my own process as a way of helping those present to enter into their own processes, and then be ready to share it with others. It's an example of one person's way of working with a challenging situation-and my process is still underway, and I kind of don't know where it's going to end. I imagine many of you might also be in that place.

Like other times when I've had difficult experiences either with the church hierarchy or the local community, I have needed to look at how and why I can continue to be a part of an organization and a people with whom I have differences. What I found is, and am continually surprised by, is the depth to which these struggles challenge and engage me, at least if I am open and honest and willing enough to deal with them.

So we come to the recent mandated liturgical changes, which because it is my job - this is my work, it hits me quite strongly. On the one hand you can say it's just a few minor changes in the grand scheme of life, why should I let it bother me? On the other hand, I am having a big reaction, and these changes are not just something I don't like - they seem to be threatening values that I think are very important that I've come to appreciate in this community, as well as for myself. Regardless of whether the changes are right, wrong, good or bad, they bring up deeper issues about what I feel are problems in our church in terms of the laity not having a voice in either the consulting or the decision-making process of these decisions...or that a decision is made and universally applied whether or not it's going to have the desired affect. And what about diversity and embracing diversity and the diversity in the world? Where's the vision that we want our church to have about our mission of bringing love and justice to the world? To make it short, changes are being made that I don't like by someone in power and I don't have any power to make a difference.

At first look it could seem like an issue of power, submission, control, maybe of morality... but I think that part of the partnering with God and being faithful to God and to ourselves asks us to continue to look deeper and what else is there. So there were lots of other realities I found as I kept struggling with this, but the first glaring reality was my big reaction. I was so tempted to "gather allies," find the people who think like I do to shore up my position and feel righteous, and help me feel justified about my reactions. Then there's the fact that the way the liturgical directives came down pushed so many of my personal buttons - those old wounds that don't quite go away so that sense of my values, my experience, my voice are not important. I didn't feel respected. So it brings up a lot of emotion regardless of the issues when I feel that way. So my reaction has extra baggage and extra fuel for anger that is really my own, and I now have the "opportunity" to disentangle that once again.

However, I'm also aware that I have made difficult choices in my life to leave situations where I didn't feel basic respect, so why should I stay here?

But it's not that straight forward, either. There are still more realities if we keep looking at ourselves and what God brings into our life. Life is not perfect. Humans aren't perfect. I'm not perfect. The church is not perfect. And - big surprise - the church is not just about me or my preferences. And I don't want to act in the same way I felt acted upon. My way is the only right way - and you're going to do it. I was challenged, and am challenged, to live out the values I espouse, such as embracing diversity only it was embracing the diversity of views that I don't agree with, or that there are usually many "good" and "right" ways to do things, and maybe my way was not the right way for everybody all the time.

And then there are lots of inconsistencies that I had to look at, for instance, I don't agree with many things our government does, and the war, and the death and destruction and environmental degradation, I think, are way more important than some liturgical rules. And yet, I'm not seriously considering renouncing my citizenship and moving to another country. Yet, I have at least a small voice in the governing of our country. And yet, change is brought about by those who stay in an organization and work for the change.

So... I don't have answers, and I don't know that where my process will take me. But I do know that engaging in the struggle and working with these things in myself has caused me to learn and to grow ways I haven't expected. And it has continued to bring me to a deeper place. I've begun praying very consistently to Jesus to help me understand this church that he started. And to understand my own calling, to recognize my own calling in my own relationship to this church. My hope for our community is that each of us continues in our processes wherever they are, and we support each other in that and with care and respect. And we come to a place of finding hope in our God, and trusting our God who holds each of us, in God's own great heart, will bring us where we need to go.

Fr. Jeff

At that prayer service, at a certain point in the service, everyone was invited to pair up so that they could simply speak your heart to another - no feedback - no judging or anything. And then hear the heart of another. I sat back there at the holy water font as I watched this conversation take place, as I watched this partnering with God, this tending to one another, take place. Yet another ribbon in the tapestry of our partnership with God - a partnership that takes us not only to other countries and other lands, not to those who can't make it to this place, but to the people who are sitting right next to you right now.

That evening I went home and, again, let my dog out to pee. He was very happy. And I went to praise and pray, and is our custom with night prayer, the words of the gospel canticle taken from the gospel of Luke just rang so true to me Wednesday night. "Lord, now you let your servant go in peace. Your word has been fulfilled. My own eyes have seen the salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of every people. A light to reveal you to the nations and the glory of your people Israel."

And as the day came to an end, I realized that we were all another day closer to God.