Luke 15:1-3 11-32 3-27-2022 (As built, Amite #490)
- Move… as in make it happen… do something… do anything… move…make sure you’re never neutral…
- My brothers and sisters in Christ the year is maybe the nineteen forties… fifties… sixties… somewhere in there… and Brian will tell you… man I am a long island New York boy… I am New York through and through… I am an Irish Catholic… he said still to this day he was… and he’ll tell you… being Irish means I’m somewhat of a power drinker but I try to be true to my roots… my mom… he’ll tell you… quintessential mom… can do… does do… dad did a little bit of work relative to editing newspapers… he did have two brothers… and he said man I go to an all-boys high school… called Chaminade… and he said man I played left tackle… and man I’m getting college scholarships… life… life is good… but there was something about being in the plays… being in the theater… so they did a play at the school called Macbeth… and he said man I loved it… he said maybe not as much as football but it was a close second… you know years later they would ask Brian you know what was it like you know in an all-boys school playing in Macbeth… he said I didn’t play lady Macbeth… I was just in the show… made a good point… he said man I got to Columbia university and he said man my dad thinks I’m going to be an attorney… when I graduate I finally had the nerve to tell him I graduated in history… he said man next thing you know I play football but… my career wasn’t what I thought it would be… he said man I’m starving to death… and he said I remember what my dad said… he said son… keep moving… he said man I’m telling you the day you sit back and you become too contemplative he said I’m telling you… you got to move… you’ve got to make things happen… at the end of the day he said man I’m starving… man I’m a taxi cab driver… I’m working at a restaurant… and he said man I started making good money as a bartender… he said but you work some monster hours… he said so man I’m working hours… and I did a little play called split image… yeah that’s why he didn’t get paid for it… then he was in another one called a small village… well man he’s trying to make ends meet… so he gets bit parts… he did a little Gunsmoke thing… and then did a little Rifleman thing… then he said man… I’m starving to death… so he gets in a bit part of a movie as a bartender… man the producer is so enamored with him… he said man you play a great bartender… he said… how did you learn that… he said because I’m a bartender… and actually it’s the bar right up the road if you want to know the truth… he said man I’m going to put you in a movie with Bo Derek called 10 and you’re going to be the bartender… oh could It be true Lord could it be true… why that movie I have no idea… I digress… as result of it he said man he gets in another one called FX and then he gets in another one called Cocoon and he always remembered what his dad told him… son don’t you stop moving… and he said man then we hit troubled times… and he’s in a movie called Presumed Innocent…. And if you haven’t seen it… it’s excellent… with Harrison Ford… and as a result man he gets in another movie called Silverado… he’s in another called semi-tough… okay look y’all… there’s this guy who’s a sheriff in a little city in Minnesota… and this veteran comes back from the war named John Rambo… okay thank you… that person’s tax exempt right there… okay Brian Dennehy…my brothers and sisters in Christ… google him when you get home okay… wow… man he always said right you got to keep moving…
- That… is exactly the point of the gospel… the good Lord is telling the tax collectors… the prostitutes… come… don’t stop… do not listen to what’s being told to you by the Pharisees… Sadducees… the Scribes… I need you to keep walking towards me… you’ve got to stay on the move… don’t get side tracked and decide… wait a minute I can’t go I mean he may condemn me… he said you ‘ve got to keep moving towards me… do not stop… do not take council… with the barking dogs… now stop… you need to understand where they are in the world… you are a first century Jew… you need to start studying Christ as a Jew… his family is Jewish… he’s circumcised as a Jew… he’s lost in the temple… which is a synagogue… which is Jewish… he is crucified as a Jew… he’s a Jew… start learning to listen to him in that manner… Luke is not an apostle… Luke is a follower of Paul… a physician by trade… he is writing this story in probably the first year or so of Christ’s mission… he has just got finished proclaiming that if he had ninety-nine sheep and he lost one… he’d go get the one… nobody would think of doing that… not even a good shepherd on his worst days… but yet this is where Christ is… he talks about the lady who lost a coin in her house… and turns the whole house upside down for one coin… that’s where he’s going to… you know what’s amazing… you and I only call it the Parodical son… but church fathers have many names for it… the Parodical Father…. Parodical sons… my brothers in Christ it’s only you and I that only go by one name… and here’s the irony of ironies… this is how it works in their world… if your son would like to leave your estate… if he is the youngest son he gets a third… he’s the oldest son he gets two thirds… this is how far his son has fallen… usually you take your inheritance and you stay on the land… so that the people know that you’re the heir… and that this will someday be yours… so you would parcel out part of the property… your father would give it to you and you would live there… and then you would eventually take over the rest… he not only takes his money… he leaves the family for he wants nothing to do with his dad or anybody of that family… he leaves the whole entire property and the country… he wants nothing to do with that whole genealogy… my brothers in Christ… he’s a Jew and he’s working for a pig farmer… he’s even walking away from his faith… this is how far he has fallen … and do yourself a favor… the next time you see a picture of the parodical son… you see the father holding his son… his sandals are disheveled … he’s disheveled… there’s usually like maybe… lets see there’s three people looking on… do yourself a favor… look in the top left hand corner… and in the very darkness of the image you’re going to see a woman that’s been praying… that’s momma… momma been praying the whole time too… that’s why that son is coming back… not because the dad has been looking out every day all day and rightfully so… I’m telling you the two had become one… and that’s why that son has returned… they are willing to sacrifice for him… I bet you truth be told… how many nine day novenas did they burn for him…
- My brothers and sisters in Christ here you and I sit two thousand years later… all of our best players… are people who have fallen away but they stay on the move… if I had told you had one of the seven deadly sins you’d say yeah that’s right… but if I told you that you had all seven… pride… anger… gluttony… lust… adverse… sloth… and envy… well man… you’re truly possessed by Lucifer himself… so for Mary Magdalene to go where she is with seven deadly sins… to be the first to see the risen Christ… man do you understand how much on the move she has to be… would you have gotten up on Sunday morning… after everybody has an opinion on you no matter where you go… everybody has two cents about your past… you’re going to get up on Sunday morning… instead of staying with the blessed Mother and what few apostles are there… you’re going to get up and go near a dead Savior then life people… you’re going to have to pass through the soldiers that have had their way with you… you’re going to get to a tomb that’s got a massive rock that you can’t move… that’s been sealed with the imprint of Pilate himself… but because you do what you do… at the end of the day she’s the first to see the risen Christ… why… because she’s on the move… and she’s on the move towards him… she’s not moving indiscriminately… you are never neutral to him… and as a result she is moving forward… you know what’s amazing… Peter goes to Christ… and says… later… am I not your vicar… absolutely… did you not change my name… most definitely… did you not give me the keys… both to heaven and to hell… and he said well why is it that when you first appeared it was not… and then he just stopped because the good Lord said Peter… you know I looked for you… and I could not find you… but I did see her… my brothers and sisters in Christ throughout scripture… great players stay on the move…you know what’s amazing… no one talks about Nicodemus… no one talks about Arimathea… whatever came of them… you’re a Pharisee and a Sadducee if you will… you’re on the Sanhedrin…. You give up your tomb… to the one that they despised and they killed… what do you think is going to happen In your 401k… well think about it… as a result of it he’s got to leave… do you know according to tradition… both of those guys have to leave within weeks of what they’ve done because now they truly are on the move… quote if you will on the lamb end quote… why… because now you’re a follower of Christ… one of them goes to start an abbey… and the other is martyred within the month… you know what’s amazing… even Longinus gets it.. for him to stand up and say truly that man was the son of God… man within a week he has got to leave… you know they catch up with him within a year or two… they behead him… my brothers and sisters in Christ all of our great players were always on the move towards Christ… regardless of the impact on their financial plan… regardless of the impact on their job and prestige… regardless of what people may have thought of them…
- Well now here you and I sit two thousand years later… my brothers and sisters in Christ… are you and I on the move… in the right direction… remember this… you are never neutral to him… the email… the text message… the way you drive you car… the way you run you errand… the people you meet with… the contact on the phone… whether it’s an email or in person… everything you do… is towards him… otherwise you’re backing up… to say that you went to the same amount of masses you went to last year as this year… well you’re neutral… if you went to the same amount of confessions last year as this year… you’re neutral… you’re backing up… he’s saying you got to stay on the move… my brothers and sisters in Christ don’t you understand… the only way you can get closer to him… is to make sure you follow the sacraments… how many times have you gone to confession this year… are you going once a month… oh that’s right… but Father… I really don’t have any sins…well you got one now… I mean lets be honest at the end of the day… oh well Father I commit the same sins over and over again… what do you want… new ones now… my brothers and sisters in Christ you and I the only way we move towards him is through the sacraments… is through receiving him… it’s coming to mass… it’s listen to the scriptures… praying the Psalms… it’s breaking the bread… my brothers and sisters in Christ don’t you see… throughout our lives you and I have to stay on the move… okay let’s say man you got hurt… something has happened two weeks ago… two months ago… ten years ago… twenty years ago… man you are still living in the past… you can’t cut it loose… what’s it going to take for you to cut it loose and let it go… oh my God… do you understand it’s not a life sentence… It’s just a lesson learned… do you need to walk through life backwards hitting everything in your path… because you’re so caught up in what you should have done or what you could have done… man don’t you understand it’s happened to everybody… what if Mary Magdalene woke up and said man… what’s the point… I mean everybody knows my past… what if Paul wakes up and said man I’m a walking contradiction to my own faith… what if Peter says man I denied him three times I’m out… what if Longinus says… man… I just can’t say anything because I don’t want to lose my money… my brothers and sisters in Christ don’t you understand… the devil wants to tie you to your past… he wants you to live in the past… okay look do you want to have a pity party… great… have a pity party… you finished… you good… get in the game… you got to get dressed up… clean yourself off and lets get back in this thing… look man you’re so mad man you can kick your neighbors dog… can I ask you to do it at night when no one’s looking… another issue… I want you to understand man go do what you got to do now man let’s get back in the game… Father if I pray one more time I’m going to spit… spit… now get back in the game… because you’re on the move… you came in on this day… you’re going home on this day… I understand you’re getting down… I understand you’re a little depressed… I understand it’s wearing you out… then go to confession… close the gap… cut it loose… and let it go… it’s wearing you out… it’s wearing your friends out… it’s wearing your family out… at the end of the day stay in the day… give us this day our daily bread… how many more times must he say it… that if I’m willing to walk with Mary Magdalene… if I’m willing… listen to this… if I’m willing to walk with Judas… every second of every day for three years and eat with the man knowing full well… that he’ll never walk away from what he’s about to do… but I’m going to walk with him so that no one can every say… I cut you loose… Judas is two words away… two words for all eternity being with our savior in his kingdom… and one of the twelve… I’m sorry… you’re letting the past dictate your future… listen to me my brothers and sisters in Christ… listen to me… every saint has a past… and every sinner has a future… you need to remember that… that we are a hospital of sinners… and not a museum of saints… you need to dust yourself off and get back in the game… that is the only way you and I are going to survive… and what other people think of you is none… none… of your business… you move… you make it happen… because at the end of day the devil can pull it out of your dead hands when you’re through… and he can do with it what he wants… but until that day happens… you’re on the move… and you’re walking towards him… no exceptions…
- Amen…
