Talk for the Fourteenth Sunday
in O.T. — July 3rd, 2011
Christian Awareness = Freedom

When we seek Jesus, we are constantly rewarded by his presence. I wish today to share with you my two journeys I took during my absence here. One to Tuscaloosa, and the other to Georgetown University. I wish with God’s grace to tease out the many messages that these trips provided, and thus, hopefully enable you to see God’s ‘handwriting’ in daily life. I joined Jim Berg, a friend of many years, and we trucked up to Tuscaloosa, a twelve-hour ride. Last Sunday we celebrated Corpus Christi, bringing home to us, that in God’s eyes we are all ‘One Family’, and more precisely, because we all “Eat from the Same Loaf.” One family bought food for us to take there, and another gave money to help pay for the fuel. All can assist, certainly through prayer. Now this is not just a’ nice thing to do.'  But it is commanded by the second commandment –love your neighbor as yourself. We were about fifty miles from our destination, when a little spring caused a problem with the clutch, but God was with us, and Jim was able to fix it. Are we aware of the abiding presence of the Lord? John 14 ”On that day you will realize that I am in the Father and you are in me and I in you.” John 6 ”Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him”.

While in Tuscaloosa, we basically cut trees and tried to bring them out to the road-if we had a bobcat we could have done three times the work. I have one but it needs an engine-maybe someone could help with that. We worked with the Samaritans’ Purse, an organization run by Rev. Billy Graham’s son. It occurred to me, that if the Vatican would sell a third of the museum pieces, and set up an organization doing this kind of work – what a  testimony that would be? They had chaplains who would visit us while out working to pray with us. I was deeply impressed. And they were constantly reminding us that our purpose is to give testimony to the love of Christ, who has loved us, to the point of death.

At Georgetown, we were discussing Paul, and one of the big  awarenesses   for me was the following. Paul traveled hundreds of miles in rough terrain, wild animals and a lot of the ‘unknowns’  to proclaim Christ’s love, so the little I’m privileged  to do is in comparison nothing. Our readings for today, especially our gospel from  Matthew 11 invites us :   “ Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest." Jesus is not just telling us to rest, as take a power nap, but rather a spiritual pause, so that we will become more fortified in faith and energized for the Christian journey. "Be still and know that I am God." Psalm 46:10 challenges us to ‘take in the bigger picture’. The big picture involves listening to the words:"See, your king shall come to you, a just savior is He : His dominion shall be from sea to sea." Second reading-“You are not in the flesh, on the contrary, you are in the spirit ,if only the spirit of God dwells in you.” "Whoever does not have the  Spirit of Christ does not belong to him."