Luke 8: 1-11 4-3-2022 (As built, Amite #491)
- Pause… as in to stop a minute… think before you speak…
- Man the year is about nineteen thirty…. Nineteen forty… his name is Charlie… but his real name… nickname is sparky and that’s just because he’s enamored with this comic strip called the spark plug and so man It just stuck… he’s in Minneapolis Minnesota and he’ll tell you… if you asked sparky to describe his life in ten words or less he’d said ten… I just need one… loser… that’s it… beginning and end of it… so they asked him during an interview… well why would you say something so self-deprecating tell me… he said man I’m telling you grammar school… it was tumultuous and then when I get to high school… he said man I was such a bad student… he said I averaged… a zero… in physics… you know you got to work hard at that it just doesn’t come easy… he said I failed P.E. they asked him well how do you fail P.E.. he said… you got to work at it… he said man I barely got through high school… he said I tried to do the golf team… they would have nothing to do with me and he said man I wasn’t good at sports… he said I tried to write for the year book… he said that was just a shipwreck waiting to happen… but he said my dad pulled me aside and said son stop for a minute… can you just hit the pause for a second… what is it that you want to do… and then let’s start focusing in on the one thing instead of just trying it with a shotgun could you be more sniper-esque … as a result of it what do you like to do… he said man I love to write… I love to sketch… he said well just I like bringing a little joy to people… but he said the only way I know how to do it because I’m such an introvert… is I do it through just sketches or just writing… so he said man let’s write Disney… so they write a letter to Walt Disney… you can imagine… swing and a miss right… actually Walt writes back and tells him… you know you’re not bad at it… actually you’re pretty decent… unfortunately I just don’t have it for you right now… as a result of it he’s decided man I’m just going to start doing things on my own… so he goes and works for a newspaper… he does a little writing… delivers newspapers… sets up his own stand… next thing you know he’s starting to get a little better… does a little editing… does little sketches… and then all the sudden he draws a little sketch of a little bird… and then it kind of catches on… the birds name was Woodstock… Lord…. Man… manna has fallen in Amite… right… could this be true on the first hint… Lord wow… my brothers and sisters in Christ we’re leaving to go get a lotto ticket if this plays out… I’m going to tell you right now… as a result of it man his best friend is Schroeder… plays the piano… he’s got a friend that won’t let go of his towel… his friend that’s a girl keeps holding the football that’s theoretically for him to kick it… yeah right now… yes Lord… yes… yeah you know him as Charlie Brown… but you also know Charles Schulz… you know what’s amazing about him… is he said man sometimes in life I could hear my dad speaking to me… son pause for a minute… just hit the pause button… he said I’m in world war 2… I get involved in one of the late great skirmishes before the war ends… he said man I’m in my foxhole… bullets are flying… bombs are going off… people are screaming… and he said man and I had my machine gun and I’m letting them have it… he said man I’m just… we’re out the box… and finally man it all settles… as quickly as it started… he said this one German soldier is coming towards him… and he just jumps up and he holds the gun on him… and he said that he surrenders… he said I walk him all the way back to the camp… man everybody is so proud… man look at my boy here… right… and then all of a sudden man he turns the prisoner in and he starts to walk away… and then his buddy comes up and he said…well how was that for you… I mean the whole fight in the foxhole… I know you haven’t seen a lot of things… and he said man… he said it was great… he said man I really felt part of it… I was engaged… I knew what I was doing… he said did you notice anything… he said no… what… he said you forgot to load your gun… true story…
- My brothers and sisters in Christ it’s all about hitting the pause button… that… is that gospel… my brothers and sisters in Christ the good Lord is telling the scribes and the Pharisees… you need to pause… before you stone that woman… just stop for a minute… think before you speak… now stop… you are a first century Jew… you now know that there is more to the story then what meets the eye… look you can’t study Christ in English two thousand years later and think you understand him… his mom is a Jew… his step-father is a Jew… their parents are Jewish… he’s in a synagogue at the age of twelve… he’s circumcised at day eight… he’s crucified as a Jew… he’s a Jew… this is what you don’t know… and what you should know as a Jew… he’s now going to the garden of gethsemane to pray… which is a stone’s throw if you will from the temple… on the way back to the temple area on the outside there was a thing called Solomon’s colonnade… which would be like what you see here… the columns on the side of the church… and when I tell you it’s the size of like two football fields… this is where people would go just to visit… to talk… to have debates… this is where he’s at… here’s the skinny… the scribe has come up with the Jewish followers… scribes… and Pharisees… and this is where they’re going with it… they got a lady caught in adultery… in the very act… do you notice… they didn’t catch the man… I digress… as a result of it… you know according to Deuteronomy… Rabbi… we are to stone her… and they are correct… you could be stoned for several things… you can be stoned for kidnapping… you could be stoned for cursing your parents in public… you could be stoned for blaspheming saying you are God… this is why they were after Christ… and you could also be stoned for being caught in adultery… now with that being said… now what they are not telling you is within earshot because they’re in the temple area… is the guard that represents Pilate… according to the Roman law… only Pilate can kill… so what they are trying to do is catch Christ in between… are you Jewish or not… because we’re supposed to stone her… or do you follow Rome… because if you do kill her… then he’s going to have something to say about it… what say you… and this is what he does which is so powerful… my brothers and sisters in Christ he kneels down… and he begins to look at all those that have gathered… and then he begins to write in the ground… now I do not believe personally that he actually wrote the sin and then looked at the individual person… because to be honest with you that would be unfair to you… because he wrote your sin and then he looked directly at you… calling you out… which would be imprudent which would be against St. Thomas Aquinas which would have been against a virtue which would be sinful… I do believe he wrote the symbol of the sin… that only you can recognize… therefore when he writes it… and then he notices and then he stands… and then all of a sudden man some are still there… he gets back on his knees a second time… and he goes down and he begins to do it all over again… and what’s amazing is they begin to drop their stones… beginning with the elders themselves… do you know why he does this… because that elder knows… scripture in Jeremiah… that if you forsake God… you curse God… you blaspheme God… or you go against God… and if he writes your name in the earth…you’re going to hell… that’s why he’s writing their names in the earth… because he says this is where you’re going you are on the road to perdition… my brothers in Christ this is why he tells her… is there anybody here… two or three witnesses… this is why you and I do petitions during mass… because two or three gathered in his name... man according to Numbers and Deuteronomy… not only do you get stoned… but if you have two or three witnesses it’s pretty much over with… this is why he turns to her and says go and sin no more… now do we believe that was Mary Magdalene… for the most part yes we do… my brothers and sisters in Christ if all they would have done was stopped and paused for a minute… and thought… then he wouldn’t have to begin to write your name in the dirt… what if that’s why he was writing…was your name in the dirt… man he’s telling you… It’s all over
- My brothers and sisters in Christ go back in history… go back in our church… for two thousand years our best players are people that understood man you know if I just stopped for a minute… and I just think before I act… before I speak… think for example… what it must have been for Veronica… here you are… you’re a woman in a man’s world… you have no vote… man my brothers and sisters in Christ… you have nothing… for you to interrupt the crucifixion… just so that you could take you own veil and wipe his face… you better pause and think of the repercussions of what that would lead to… that’s what’s amazing of her courage… she knows full well… man they could put her on the cross… the could have beat her… they could have done whatever they wanted… remember…according to the Romans… I could conscript you in the army… from a few days… sometimes up to a couple of weeks… in other words they could grab you out of the crowd Simon of Cyrene and congratulations you’re in the army… I don’t care that you got two children standing on the sideline… I don’t care that you got a family at home to feed… I don’t care you got crops… my brothers in Christ she had to pause and think… of the repercussions… and still move on… only after she thinks… imagine what it must have been for Longinus… to be leading this entourage for almost six hours… you lead that entourage through the city of Jerusalem… making sure he doesn’t die on the way… you have been Pilates right hand man… Pilate has nothing in Jerusalem if his centurion is not Longinus… for him to stop and say… truly… that man was the son of God… my brothers and sisters in Christ… the repercussions for that are tenfold… and they do catch up with him… he leaves Rome shortly thereafter… two years later they catch up with him and behead him… you know what’s amazing my brothers in Christ… is the fact is that he thought about it before he did it… Saul becomes Paul for three days while he’s blind he’s got to stop and think… what’s amazing to me is everybody that had done this… there’s always ten people that give it no thought… imagine Pilate… do you honestly believe that washing your hands exonerates you from all wrong doing… do you imagine that if you’re Judas… you’re two words away… all you had to do is pause just stop… and think… man if I sold him for thirty pieces of silver… I gave you the silver back… and instead of just going and saying I’m just sorry… he’s two words away from being St. Judas… all he’s got to say is I’m sorry… I was wrong… but depression overwhelms him… and he’s called the son of perdition my brothers and sisters in Christ… do you know that everybody that judged Christ… king Herod the great when he’s trying to kill all the children… Herod Agrippa who’s the one that Pilate kicked the ball to trying to get it out of his court… he kicks it back… now Pilate’s got to rule on him… Pilate himself and Judas… all four men took their own lives…because they didn’t take time to stop and think… they didn’t pause…
- Well nothing’s changed in two thousand years… you and I get so wrapped up in the world… man that thought hits our head…we’re out the box… somebody writes us an email… or a text message… man the gates of hell will come… man we can’t send that message back fast enough… and man when we hit the send button…we hope it knocks them out when they read it… man we’re so out of the box somebody could drive by you… and tell you you’re number one… you can’t get close enough to that car to let them know what you think… my brothers and sisters in Christ how many times have you and I got caught up in emotions… when that thought hits that head that jaw opens up and we’re out the box… we will spend the next two or three days… being so remorseful and apologetic… but if we’d just paused for that one second… how many times has something happened at work and we’re out the box… where if you’d just walked away… man the world would have been such a better place... your life would have been a better place… how many times my brothers and sisters in Christ that conversation you got up in… next thing you know it’s a beautiful day… they say one wrong thing… and you’re whole day is sideways because of one wrong thing… my brothers and sisters in Christ… ask yourself… you could have one hundred compliments in a day… you get one negative comment… and the only thing you and I think about is the negative comment… that’s because that’s where the evil one wants you… because he wants you to react to the other ninety-nine people based on that one negative thought… my brothers in Christ when somebody comes to you with an issue… do you sit and listen… or do you give them advice… before they even ask for it… maybe they just wanted you to listen… my brothers and sisters in Christ when somebody comes up and start telling you their problems… do you jump in and say oh well you think that’s bad you ought to hear this… did you every think for a second they just want you to listen… my brothers and sisters in Christ when that phone rings and you and I both know that conversation is going to end up in the same spot an hour later… will you take that phone call Simon… will you Simon… take it and listen… and then therefore man just see what they have to say so that they are in a better spot… my brothers and sisters in Christ I’m telling you… we’ve got forty thousand words in the English language… and you’re telling me you can’t break your cursing habit… you can’t find another word besides mf or gd… I mean what are you… what are you a scarecrow… you have no intellect… you can’t work with a better discipline so you can stop cursing so much… my brothers in Christ the greatest sin of our day… is gossip… we do it so freely and arbitrarily we think we have the right… we have the right to be happy… we have the right to be free… and we have the right to slander whoever we chose… we do it… tongue and cheek… how safe is somebody else’s name on your lips… to a point that when somebody says something… we jump back in you know what I heard… you know what they say… I’m just saying… well it’s true… brothers in Christ it doesn’t matter nobody told you and I to be the town crier… don’t you understand… do you think that person is going to get better by us adding to the gossip… do you think Francis is going to do a better job… if we don’t pray for him… you don’t think the bishops are going to do a better job if we don’t pray for them… you don’t think your neighbor is going to be a better neighbor if you don’t pray for them… you don’t think your outlaws will someday become in laws… you think they are going to get there without you praying for them… my brothers and sisters in Christ the amount of energy that we spend debasing other people… do you not understand… when you get on the internet…email… or text messages… and you decide to take somebody’s honor… and lower it… for every one person you sent that to… you are responsible for that sin… and for all the sins that go out from there… it’s all mortal… you can’t even receive the Eucharist… when you bare false witness… what you have said is that I’m not a true witness to Jesus Christ… therefore I do not love him with my whole heart mind and soul… and I do not love my neighbor… that is bearing false witness… so therefore when you trash somebody… gossip somebody… so the next time somebody comes to you and says you know what I heard… say let us pray… but you know it’s true… let us pray… well man I got to tell you about this… let us pray… I’m telling you if you and I do not stop this… and we don’t cut it off… it’s going to destroy us… because at the end of the day… the only thing that will ever win… this game we’re in… prayer… and It’s our last resort as if God is the great lotto king… my brothers and sisters in Christ I’m telling you… you’ve got to hit the pause… There was a great priest one time told me… he said Beard … he said if you’re busy it’s a good thing… if you’re in a hurry… it’s from the evil one… pump them breaks brother… slow down and hit the pause…
- And I leave you with this… I can’t remember the guy that said it but I thought it was a great quote… he said… funerals… cause me to stop… and think… he said eulogies… make me think and want to hit the pause button… he said that’s the little dash mark… it deepens the dash… and makes me pause and think… the reporter asked him… what dash… what do you mean it’s deeper… where is there a dash… he said on your tombstone… between your birthdate… and your end date… that’s the pause button…
- Amen
