Recognizing That We Are One

Dear Friends,

Many Americans have already voted. Each of our votes count, yet it’s worth remembering that we don’t vote in isolation, but in solidarity with others who make up our nation. While voting is on our minds, this is a good time to deepen in ourselves the awareness, the conviction, the joy that arises from the understanding that all of our fellow voters and we ourselves belong to a big family person. We are all siblings of one another. The anatomy of our bodies, the types of blood in our bloodstreams, the fact that all of us feel anxiety, delight, too cold, too hot, all tell us that we are more kin than we want to acknowledge. As far back as Exodus 22, read in today’s liturgy, God reminds us that we are not aliens, foreigners to one another, and that God’s wish for all of us is that we understand that we are, indeed, all one.

Speaking of the “Human Family,” Maya Angelou tells her readers:

                “I note the obvious differences in the human family.
                Some of us are serious, some thrive on comedy…
                The variety of our skin tones can confuse, bemuse, delight,
                Brown and pink and beige and purple, tan and blue and white.
                I note the obvious difference between each sort and type,
                But we are more alike, my friends, than we are unalike.”

We do know what it means to be a stranger, an alien, a foreigner, but so often, when life changes for us and we become an insider, accepted for who we are, we forget how it used to be. We don’t zero in on Jesus’ call to us in today’s Gospel. “Love God with your whole heart, your whole soul and your whole mind. And love your neighbor as yourself.” How we act, going forward as Americans after this election, depends on how well we have internalized the compassionate love of God.

Martin Luther King Junior helps us look ourselves in the eye and consider our motives as we respond to the questions of our day:

                “Cowardice asks the question ‘Is it safe?’
                Expedience asks ‘Is it politically correct?’
                Vanity asks ‘Is it popular?’
                Conscience asks ‘Is it right?’”

Why will we do what we do in the next four years?

For us to become a great, and I daresay, a nation at one with God, our country must take positions which are not safe or popular or even politically correct. We must take a position because it is right. Right and just and true, just as God is right and just and true, and who we are. That is the only way we can love God and our neighbor.

~Sister Joan Sobala

Understanding God's Vision

Dear Friends,

Here’s the emperor’s coin, Jesus. Are you for God or for Caesar? Here’s a woman caught in adultery, Jesus. Do you support the law i.e. stone her, or do you favor mercy for the accused?

If we were to quiz Jesus today, we’d have a lot of questions. Jesus, are you pro-choice or pro-life? Are you liberal or conservative? Jesus, tell me where you stand on the environment, racism, sexism, gun control, capital punishment, the size and shape of the federal government. And Jesus, would you have us stay in the World Health Organization? What would you do with terrorists? The questions are endless.

The difference between the Pharisees in today’s Gospel and ourselves is this: The Pharisees are trying to trap Jesus. The Gospel says, “They plotted how they might trap him, and Jesus knew their malice.”

Our questions, on the other hand, arise out of an honest searching for truth in a complex society. They are not meant to trap or embarrass Jesus, but only to better understand God’s vision for our world.

Society, in the midst of this election season laced with a stubborn pandemic, has ready answers to our questions – social media, podcasts, supermarket tabloids, talk show hosts, the tough kids in school bathrooms. They all speak with great authority and conviction.

But if we are a believing people, how do we form our consciences? How do we arrive at out decisions about voting, living, changing?

As we approach contemporary questions, here’s a possible framework for our thought and decisions.

First of all, in any decision-making process, we dwell in God and God dwells in us. In Isaiah today, God says to us: “It is I who arm you, though you know me not.” God’s wisdom, God’s presence in each of us is a given in every situation.

Secondly, Jesus’ design for each of us is contained in the Gospel. The gospels are about daily life in this world, not about life within a sacred precinct. Jesus, after all, tells more stories about workers and housewives, farmers and merchants than he talked about appropriate behavior in the synagogue. Our challenge is to apply a gospel vision to all the tough questions we face today.

Finally, attempting to deal with today’s thorny issues by ourselves makes no more sense than trying to be our own physician. This is one of the key reasons we come together for worship weekend: to hear God’s word, to taste God’s life in Eucharist, to look to one another for support.

He might reply to our questions today by saying something like this: I can’t prepare you for every choice you’ll need to make, or every situation you’ll encounter along the way, but remember God’s words spoken in Isaiah: “I am the Lord. There is no other. There is no God besides me.” Without me, there is no peace, no happiness, no satisfaction possible for you. But with me, you’ll have everything you need to discern how to live, though you might want something else or more. God also says to us in Isaiah, “I have called you by your name.” I know you. You belong to me. You are important to me. I will never forget you. You are never alone. I love you.

Despite our COVID-19 fatigue, how different our lives would be, how much more full and happy if we really took God in Jesus at his word. You, Lord, have the words of everlasting life.

~Sister Joan Sobala

God's Vineyard

Dear Friends,

This is the third weekend that the Gospel readings have involved vineyards, their management, the way family members understood them, the way they have been used and abused. Yet, what is most valuable to know is that the vineyard is the house of the Lord.

Here in the Fingers Lakes, our lush vineyards are being harvested as we read this. In northern California, its vast valleys and hillsides are being decimated by wildfires. It’s timely for us to consider vineyards and grapes.

Here are three thoughts:

Grapevines do not respond to our particular demands. Isaiah, today, tells the story of a vineyard owner who took great care to plant and nurture a proper vineyard. What’s more, the owner had expectations about this crop. This vineyard was to bear fine grapes, but in the end, there were only wild grapes.

We know about wild grapes…perhaps some of our children, siblings and maybe even our parents, who have grown in ways different from our expectations. I am not talking about destructive, addictive patterns of living, but just not matching our expectations. “What more could I have done for my vineyard that I had not done?” we might lament, and fail to value the rare tang and see the beauty of the wild grapes in our family.

We need to treat the whole vineyard as if it is ours. The children in our communities, the immigrants, the poor and hungry, the mentally ill, the robust. They all belong in the vineyard and therefore to us. The task of creating communities of trust is ours, where people on various sides of an issue can be safe, speak out their concerns and be heard. In these strange days of 2020, when the bruised, wounded and suffering seem to be increasing exponentially, we need to treat the whole vineyard as if it is ours.

And yet, it is not ours. It is also important that we treat the vineyard as not ours. Sometimes all we can do is watch and pray. It is a privilege to watch. Whom have you watched and prayed for and prayed with? We don’t need to use today’s political buzz words to know that things are very wrong in our country. Yet we need to act on the belief that this country of ours can become fresh, new, true to our guiding principles. In faith, we believe that this transformation can happen because the vineyard that is the United States is God’s vineyard.

God is a tender, attentive vineyard owner who invites us to likewise be attentive and tender. Through the words of Paul, we are invited to put the vineyard into perspective.    

        Beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure        

        Whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence

        And if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things

        Keep on doing the things you have learned…And the God of peace will be with you

~ Sister Joan Sobala

Internalizing the Mind of Christ

Dear Friends,

The pandemic and the election season are crowding in on us. So, too, are fears about our families, schools, job losses, daily living. Can we have any peace of mind in the midst of all of this turmoil?

In today’s second reading, Paul offers four ways to let God’s peace be real for us in these troubled times.

First, he says, dismiss anxiety from your mind. He doesn’t say hate anxiety or fight it or destroy it. Dismiss it, he says. Let it go. Open yourself and let it go.

Secondly, Paul says, “present your needs to God.” Do you ever pray by speaking to God out loud? Yes, out loud. It doesn’t matter if any human person is there to hear you. God is with you. Say what you need out loud so you can hear it and say, “Yes. I really need that” – or “No, I had better find another way to express what I need.” We may not get what we ask for, but let us at least turn to God, the companion of these difficult times. Maybe we can learn to be continually turned toward God. And that is what really counts. We can only embrace God if we are first turned toward him.

Thirdly, Paul echoes here what he says elsewhere, namely to put on the mind of Christ – put on his lifegiving, compassionate way of thinking. God tells us in Isaiah, “I think thoughts of peace and not of affliction.” When we learn to think God’s thoughts, peace is not far from us.

Paul tells us plainly today, “your thoughts should be wholly directed at all that is true, all that deserves respect, all that is honest, pure, admirable, decent, virtuous or worthy of praise.”

Finally, Paul caps all of these admonitions with the challenge to live according to what we have learned to believe.

It’s a clear and almost trite thing to say that we are all different: Black, brown, red, yellow, white, educated and uneducated, pizza lovers and those who fancy Thai food. We love jazz and classical music, pray as Muslims, Jews, Christians and so on. We are all different. Can we accept the dignity of each person or do we judge people’s differences as wrong, lacking in value? Writing in a new book called “Graced Crossroads,” Ted Dunn says, “What divides us is not our differences. Rather it is our condemnations and attempts at coercion that are the cause of our polarization, rising tension and violence.”

One important way of moving toward acceptance of one another in our country is to internalize the mind of Christ – to accept protestors’ ways of calling attention to injustice, to value the work people do on behalf of building up loving and compassionate communities. What those with a destructive frame of mind do is to tear down and steal, under the cover of the efforts the hurting make up front.

To be good and do good requires that we also realize with Thomas Merton that there is a chain of links that we need to dismantle:

                “We are not at peace with others because we are not at peace with ourselves,

                  And we are not at peace with ourselves because we are not at peace with God.”

Let’s get to work. The mind of Christ is ours for the asking.

~Sister Joan Sobala

The Power of "Yes" and "No"

Dear Friends,

One commentator I read recently referred to today’s Gospel as “The Better of Two Bad Sons.”

The first son said “yes,” he would go work in the vineyard, but he didn’t. Talk is cheap. There was no commitment in this man to follow his words with actions. The second son said no – but later went. He didn’t want to work. He didn’t want to do what his father asked. Maybe he was lazy or preoccupied. But then he went. Conversion. The second son had changed.

In this parable, Jesus is talking about those powerful words Yes and No. Yes, I will obey. I will cooperate. I will go. I will come. No. No, I won’t. No, I don’t want to. In Jesus’ way of talking about life, Yes and No are about hearing the word of God and keeping it. 

As Jesus travelled, spoke, challenged his hearers, he met people who relied on their track record of responding to God’s word. They claimed they were obedient, cooperative, indeed, fastidious about living according to God’s law. At the same time, they scorned the tax collectors and prostitutes – the ones who had said "no" to God, no to accepted religious practice, no to the values that the self-righteous had espoused. But these very people, the ones who had apparently said No had changed in the warmth of God’s love. Their behavior had changed. They went into the vineyard and worked hard, loved hard, became committed.

The thing to note about these two sons in Jesus’ story is that they were free – free to say Yes or No. They were called to obedience, but there was no manipulation or coercion involved.

The question that was put to the two sons in Jesus’ parable today is the same question that was initially put to us at our baptism. We spend a lifetime answering Yes and No, because the questions keep changing with the times. In this new moment, will we be faithful to the Yes of our baptism, as others want to destroy the community through attitudes and practices which disparage people because of their race, gender, economic status?

As the pre-election season heats up, it will be important for us not just to hear what the candidates say, but to study the implications of their platforms for the good of all. Over lunch with a group of women recently, we got onto the economy. One of the women was adamant that the economy was just fine, “After all,” she said, “look at your portfolio!” But a healthy portfolio for one or a few is not equivalent to a robust economy which makes all ships rise. We don’t have to say No to “What’s in our wallets?” in order to step into doing all we can so that the poor are less poor. “Yes” to doing what we can so that others may live securely is a Gospel Yes.

The conversion that Matthew speaks of the Gospel today is individual conversion. Ezekiel, in the first reading calls for corporate conversion. We are in this moment, this ongoing economic crisis together. Yes to one another is Yes to God. 

~ Sister Joan Sobala

God's Generosity

Dear Friends,  

The vineyard owner in today’s Gospel is in a hiring mood. He hires new workers all day long until the last hour. The story flows along with a certain ease when all of a sudden, it develops a twist that brings us up short and makes us question the fairness of the owner. Our sense of justice is offended. We are indignant with the owner and we feel empathy with the laborers who seem to be victims of unfair labor practices. “Call in the union! Call in the arbitrators!” we might want to shout.

For once, Jesus had it all wrong. Or did he? 

Where did this strange little story come from anyway? What was the context that gave rise to it? Why is it in Matthew’s Gospel and nowhere else? And why, in this moment of history, should we care anyway?

It’s important to know that Matthew’s Gospel was not written by some isolated individual who decided by himself what to include. Matthew was part of a community of believers which consisted of Jews who had become Christian. Their Christianity had deep and lasting roots in the Jewish tradition. The temptation for them was a sense of privilege. Matthew’s community had to face and deal with the acceptance of new people who wanted to be numbered among God’s chosen – and these newcomers lacked an unbroken pattern of lifelong piety. The parable points out discreetly that it was time to put exclusivity and division among people aside and welcome into the family of believers, sinners and tax collectors, Gentiles and the unclean.

The parable has nothing to do with justice or labor practices. Instead, it teaches us a most astounding lesson, namely that all generosity is unfair, and it is surprising.

You and I, too, have been the recipients of God’s generosity. Yet we might want to look askance on others who came after us who have received the promise as fully as we have with less time on the job, so to speak. The lesson for us as we go on and on in these pandemic times with its economic and climate woes is to learn to be generous as God is generous. As the landowner gave equal pay for unequal work because he was generous, so too, God gifts all of us seasoned or fledgling disciples equally for unequal efforts. Let’s do in like manner. At first, we might have to swallow hard, but wholehearted practice can bring us to a similar generosity.

Perhaps, most of all, we need to learn to relax and trust this God of ours who does such topsy-turvy things with our expectations and in our lives. Let God bring in others. We just need to welcome them as God does.

~Sister Joan Sobala

Restore the City of God in Rochester

Dear Friends,

We’ve watched numerous cities of our country and world, during the last half year, become places where  “violence and strife make their rounds day and night.” (Psalm 55.1) Portland, Minneapolis, Beirut, Kabul and Kenosha, Tulsa and Rochester.  Yet we can say with Isaiah, ours “is a city that is not forsaken.” (Isaiah 62.12)

It’s important to love our cities as places where God dwells, and people make their way toward goodness, justice mercy, and compassion – all those things which speak of wholeness in the community.

Two efforts you and I need to make to restore the city of God in Rochester.

Honest Dialogue. Not waiting impatiently for the other to finish so that I can have my say. Not seeking agreement with what I say, but searching for a common ground – a space between us that is empty and awaits a new reality. If we have honest dialogue, there will be a new reality. Gone will be the original orientation. gone will be the disorientation that violence brings. There will be a new and seminal orientation. Black and brown will not cease to be black and brown. White will remain white. But there will be appreciation for the rich and varied colors and all they bring to the city we are rebuilding. Let’s not skip over talking respectfully with one another about the racism issues of our day.

Work Toward  An End To Systemic Racism. From our founding as a nation, whites have considered black and brown people less intelligent, less than human, less capable. Some white people, to the horror of other white people, experimented on blacks at Tuskegee. We used the services, the bodies of black and brown people for our advantage. What makes this way of treating our brothers and sisters of color so awful is that we hardly adverted to this use and misuse. It was our normal. We may not think of our nation as systemically racist. But consider our American culture, our nation’s policies and institutions. They are woven through with racism. Developers mark out whole suburbs where blacks are not wanted, businesses have no black or brown people in administration. We could go on, but the point is for us to become color brave and nor color blind. To change our cities together, find at least one organization that is committed to life-giving change and participate. While the pandemic goes on, such organizations offer ways to participate from home by internet or by phone. Make the effort.

Finally, let’s pray together Psalm 122 (selected/paraphrased):

                          Our feet are standing on your streets, O Rochester

                          I pray for the peace of this city.

May all who love you prosper.

May peace be within your walls and security for everyone.

For the sake of my relatives and friends,

for the sake of all who dwell here, I say

“Peace upon you.”

For the sake of God, who dwells among us,

I will seek your good.

~Sister Joan Sobala