Good morning, I am Brian Maddux and this is my wife Patty.

I was asked to share our thoughts about stewardship.

Just to let you know, I am not a public speaker. As a matter of fact, I don’t really want to be standing up here… but we know just how important this is.

I know some of you are waiting for us to talk about money, and how much you should give this year, perhaps show a chart with a formula showing how to compute your gift. A few short years ago, this is what I would have expected, and would have tuned the speaker out or even skipped Mass during stewardship month.

Actually, this is a talk about stewardship, but not necessarily about money. It’s about sharing the love of Christ with our brothers and sisters as disciples. It was a journey of faith that has helped us understand the real meaning of stewardship.

As some of you know, I am a convert. I grew up Methodist and attended a Methodist university. It was here that I met Patty. As early as 1990, I started going to Mass with Patty. In my mind, the Catholic Church was just another Christian denomination. For the next 14 years, Patty patiently waited for the Holy Spirit to move me to become a member of His true church.

We’ve all heard the idea that God creates a specific spouse for each of us. Well, Patty and I each knew we had found our spouse the first day we met.

But it took us 2 years to admit it to each other!

We come from very different backgrounds. I am from a very small family that lived in the country. Patty is from a huge family and lived in the city. I was a Methodist and Patty is a cradle Catholic. Somehow, we both ended up at Ohio Northern University where we met.

That’s not so unusual, as many couple meet in college. What is unusual is how we ended up there.

For me, I was supposed to go to ONU, but it wasn’t my first choice. I actually transferred to ONU after my freshman year because I just wasn’t happy with my first choic3. My admissions counselor predicted it when I decided not to go there originally. She said I’d be back… Oh, and did I mention that I lived on Ohio Northern Drive?

Patty went to ONU which, as I mentioned is a Methodist university, site unseen. Additionally, its not a cheap school and she was paying for college herself. She had the opportunity to attend a Catholic university on a full scholarship. To this day, she can’t tell you why she decided to go to Ohio Northern.

We’ve determined, in hindsight, that there is only one reasonable answer… God had a plan.

While in school, we were active in the ecumenical Christian activities on campus and living as disciples was important to us. However, we did not have a full understanding of what that meant. We claimed our Christianity and thought that was enough.

Finally, we got married, moved from Ohio to Washington, got caught up in our careers and were eventually gifted with children, Michael and Ian.

Finally, after 14 years, I became a Catholic at the Easter Vigil in 2005.

However, because of my Protestant background, I continued to have a rather relaxed view of my new faith. The only absolute was whether Jesus was my personal Lord and Savior.

As we know, the Catholic Church, as founded by Jesus Christ, asks more of us than our Protestant brothers and sisters would claim.

Four years ago, Patty and I attended the Seattle Archdiocese Youth Convention as chaperones. It was at this event that the Holy Spirit, through the speakers and music, opened my eyes to the greater truths of the Church. The reality that Jesus and his Church ask more of us than just claiming the title of Catholic. He has more to offer us than an ordinary life.

As I started researching and learning more, I realized that our Faith is not about the rules, the rituals and the obligations of being a good Catholic. These are important ways of teaching us to live a faithful life, but not the why. Faith is about relationship. Our relationship with Jesus Christ lived out through our relationship with each other.

Let me repeat that, because it is important.

Faith is about relationship. Our relationship with Jesus Christ lived out through our relationship with each other.

Since that convention, we purposefully engaged in a variety of activities, events and ministries within the parish. At first, our reason was to simply make friends with people who share the same thoughts and views. As our faith was ignited and grew, we wanted the fuel to keep the flames burning. As the weeks turned to months, and the months to years, the reasons for our involvement became much deeper. These weren’t simply activities on the calendar, but a way of life. The relationship grew from being a member of the parish, to being a participant in parish life.

We believe that relationship and stewardship go hand in hand, each feeds the other. The more relationship you have, the more stewardship you give. The more stewardship you give, the deeper relationship you have. The deeper relationship you have, the more stewardship you want to give. And it keeps growing.

For us, the best way to explain relationship and stewardship is how we use it in our own family. First, love is the most important thing, but it is not the only thing. We are not just members of a family making our way through life. We are family members who are responsible for each other. Stewardship is what helps us to thrive, grow and achieve our potential as individuals and a family. We make it a point to server each other first, before we serve ourselves. Our family and our relationships require us to give so that we can receive.

As just one example, as a father, I understand that love is crucial for my boys. But they will not come to trust in our Father if they can’t trust me. As they grow, they will come to understand relationship by watching me work towards meeting the physical, emotional and spiritual needs of our family. In return, I will have the privilege of seeing them do the same for their families. All around us, we can see evidence of families and relationships crumbling because 1, 2, or all 3 aspects aren’t being met.

Similarly, our parish family needs more than just members to thrive. It needs relationship because it too has physical, emotional and spiritual needs. The baskets need to overflow on Sunday to keep the building and her program running. We can’t settle on filling the basket with what’s left over at the end of the week. The rooms need to be bulging with people during our events and socials so we can continue to build a string community of faith filled people. And all our faith formation and ministry programs need your participation, both as leaders and those searching to know more about their Catholic faith.

Our parish provides, but it also has needs. And through we are a generous parish, we cannot settle for what we are already doing. But we need to strive to reach the potential for all the wonderful work yet to be done.

I challenge you to grow as a disciple and live in stewardship, and help us make St. Huberts the beacon of Christ’s love here on South Whidbey.

In summary, I would like to close with a quote from each of my boys.

Michael says “stewardship is helping others when they need it, even if you don’t want to.”

And Ian says “sharing makes you happy.”

Thank You.
 

The Suffering Servant in Every Age

In our first reading from the book of the prophet Isaiah, the prophet describes the Suffering Servant of God, the Messiah, the one who will take on the sins of others to liberate God’s people.

Jesus, the Messiah did just that. He conquered sin and death so that we can do the same. But Jesus did not put us in heaven. He set the model. It is up to us to cooperate. Jesus’ model of life emphasized the building of the Kingdom of God on earth, recognizing that it would be perfected in heaven by all who have learned how to love. For heaven is indeed the Kingdom of God perfected, and we must be perfected in love to get there.

The Old Testament prophets like Isaiah taught that it was not enough to simply call oneself a Jew. One had to live one’s faith, one had to build the Kingdom of God. Jesus extended a similar requirement to his followers. For us it not enough to simply call oneself a Christian or a Catholic. We must live our faith. Our second reading from the letter of St. James makes this crystal clear. A faith without works, St. James says, is dead.

The principles of the Kingdom of God can be found in the latter chapters of the book of the prophet Isaiah from which our first reading is drawn. They are the principles that, Jesus tells his apostles in our Gospel reading from Mark, for which he will die.

The concepts of the Kingdom of God include a rather clear concept of justice.  It is a Kingdom that rejected the economics of inequality that was inherent in slavery. It was a call for ALL to be able to enjoy the fruits of God’s creation and a rejection of oppression and exploitation. It was a rejection of religious and political leaders who sought to be God’s ventriloquist, warping God’s message into one that favored some, like them and their Roman masters, at the expense of others.

The principles of the Kingdom of God bothered many comfortable Jews of Jesus’ day.  For the Kingdom of God rejects the economics of inequality, oppression and exploitation that were clearly present in Jesus’ time. It rejects a timid faith of dusty, arid rules and regulations that did not offend the oppressors of the time but added to the burdens of ordinary people. Small wonder the political establishment of Jesus’ time wanted to kill him. 

But Jesus never lacked for courage. He would say many things that would offend the ruling religious classes of his day, so much so that they would eventually find a way to kill Him. But his message would not die out with his earthly life. The loving covenant of God was extended to all people. A billion of them now call themselves Christians.

Fortunately, the teachings of Jesus, passed down to us through our Church give us an understanding of what needs to be done as we pick up our cross and follow Him. Jesus and His Church have given us some important principles in which to build the Kingdom of God. They include:

    the promotion of human dignity at all stages of human life;
    the promotion of the community and the common good of the society in which we live, a fundamental right to life and a right to the things required for human decency (food, shelter, clothing, employment, health care, and education) as well as personal responsibility for ourselves, our families, and society;
    a preferential option for the poor and vulnerable in our society;
    the right and responsibility of all, not just some, to participate in the economic, political, and cultural life of society;
    the promotion of the dignity of work and rights of workers, including the right to productive work, decent and fair wages, safe working conditions, and the right to organize and join unions;
    the holding of God’s material creation in common, with the right to private property but not excessive wealth when others lack the basic necessities of life;
    protective stewardship of God’s creation, caring for and preserving it for future generations;
    solidarity with the entire human family and its needs, not just one or another nation;
    a constructive not oppressive role for government in promoting human dignity, protecting human rights, and building the common good; and
    the promotion of peace through mutual respect and confidence between peoples and nations tempered by legitimate measures of self-defense.   

            These are the principles of the Kingdom of God. If you don’t believe me, I suggest you visit the web page of the United States Catholic Conference of Bishops, www.usccb. org. The principles of the Kingdom of God are the principles of a just Catholic faith to which Jesus calls us, no less now than in the time of Jesus.

In all times and places, one can expect that the call for such a new loving covenant, a new Kingdom, will encounter opposition. In speaking about the Church’s message about carrying out the Kingdom of God, a Latin American bishop once noted, “when they see me feeding a poor person they call me a Christian; when I ask why people are hungry, they call me a communist.”

Some in this parish from time to time have called me a communist. As you can see, they can’t call me late for dinner. But I am here to preach faithfully about the teachings of the Church, whether they encounter opposition or not. And my travails are trivial compared to many others who have fought for Christian social justice, who have been Suffering Servants in the model of Jesus. Many have died believing in the Kingdom of God and fighting for its carrying out on this earth.

We remember, for example, how some of the victims of the 9/11 attacks gave their lives to save others by forcing the terrorists to crash a plan in rural Pennsylvania rather than at the U.S. Capitol. At the cost of their own human lives but certainly not their human dignity, they saved the human lives of so many others who they never even met.

By contrast, there are those who lack courage and honesty and try to make up for it with their hostility. We see this in the current debate about health care. The Catholic Church supports universal health care as a right not a privilege. It has not endorsed any single proposal to do this, and there are a lot of different ways to get there. And this right is not morally acceptable if it is not accompanied by the protection of human life at all of its stages.

So in the health care debate, on one end are those who don’t like Catholic teaching on abortion and don’t like the Catholic position that supports universal health care, but not if our tax dollars are used to increase the use of abortion.

On the other hand, we can see in town hall meetings across the country this summer, fear tactics, as those who seek to carry out the Catholic teaching for universal health care as a basic human right are called Nazis and supporters of death committees, even though the Catholic Church itself, indeed our own Archdiocese, supports end-of-life counseling.

Our political leaders are threatened with assassination. Many of us find ourselves shouted down and ridiculed. But the ultimate death panel, brothers and sisters, is the use of slander and deceit to kill efforts to bring about universal health care. This all to real death panel kills 20,000 people are year, because people can’t get insurance or face the cruel irony of losing it because they got sick. 17,000 people lose their insurance every day.

Opponents of the Kingdom of God, whatever their motivations, have learned the lessons of the Pharisees well. Scare people and they will believe anything. Inject fear and people will cling to what they have, even as they are losing it.

But there is nothing new about this. Catholics will never be fully popular with some when we promote the Kingdom of God and its covenant, be it opposition to abortion, support for universal health care, the free practice of our faith, or anything else. We may not even be popular with some sitting in our very pews. But let us pray brothers and sisters that we utilize the Holy Spirit’s gift of courage in promoting God’s covenant, the Kingdom of God, no matter how unpopular. For living that covenant, building the Kingdom of God, is the joy of being a Christian, the challenge of being Suffering Servants and the only real path to salvation.
 

Two friends were walking down a crowded city sidewalk in the midst of a typical noisy rush hour. People bustling, horns honking, engines roaring, vehicles of all sizes rumbling, sirens blaring all about them, when suddenly amid the noise, one friend suddenly turned to the other and said, “Listen, a cricket!”

“Come on!” the second friend shot back. “How can you possibly hear a cricket in the midst of all this noise? Are there even crickets here in the city?”

“But I did hear a cricket.” She stopped to listen again, then, with her cynical friend in tow, crossed the busy street to a big cement planter. Gently pushing aside the petunias, she revealed a little brown cricket. “That is amazing!” her friend said. “How could you have possibly heard it?”

“There is no secret,” she explained. “Watch.” Reaching into her purse, she pulled out some loose change and dropped a quarter on the sidewalk. Despite the deafening noise around them, everyone within fifteen feet turned their head to see where the sound of the money was coming from. The woman turned to her doubting friend and said, “”See, it is all a matter of what you are listening for.”

Being hearing impaired all my life, I have at times envied the ability of some people to hear certain sounds like the purr of a cat.  With the help of good hearing aids, I hear the noise, but I often struggle to discern what is being said in noisy places or when I can’t see the face of the person speaking to me.  If I manage to catch the message the first time around, that would prompt my mother to accuse me of selective hearing.

For anyone with normal hearing, this gospel passage may seem irrelevant, but there is a lesson here for all of us, regardless of how well we hear. In the midst of all the noise in our lives, we can easily become “deaf” to the presence of God and even those around us.

Our days are crammed full with too many words and too much talk. We live in the midst of 24/7 cable television news, twitter, facebooks, bluetooths, or texting one another on blackberries.  We keep in touch with one another on our cell phones while shopping, waiting for the ferry, or commuting. Without a doubt, we are much more into communication than we were three decades ago but are we listening to what really matters?

Sadly, many people have grown deaf to the words of Jesus, the thoughts of the Bible and the message of the Church because the loudness and clutter of this world’s noise has made them spiritually deaf.

Jesus said to the deaf man, “Be opened!” Those are words we all need to hear. This encounter between Jesus and the deaf man captures the relationship between God and us. Face it; we are not always open to hearing the word of God, much less listening to what God has to say. The noise of our surroundings, of Madison Avenue, sports and worldly values often muffle and silence the Word that God speak to us through scripture, the teachings and the preaching of our Church.

Think of how many conversations fall short of being just that because one person refuses to listen to what the other person is saying. Instead of listening, that person has any number of rebuttals lined up for dismissing what is being said. The misunderstandings that ensue sometimes are resolved when the message is finally heard, then understood.

How open are we to hearing what Jesus has to say to us through scripture, the teachings of our church and the preaching of its ministers? Sometimes we miss the forest for the trees because we become upset or hung up by something a homilist has said or by a certain teaching or regulation of the Church, failing to be open to the messenger and the message being delivered.

More than once, someone has expressed to me the opinion that politics should not be preached at Mass. I would agree, but when the issue at hand infringes on the moral teachings of the Church, thus the Word of God, then we need to be open to the bigger picture and listen to what God is ultimately saying. A church that is witness to the Word of God must be partial to those bowed down and give voice to the voiceless like the unborn, the inmate on death row, the poor on skid row, and the mentally ill.

Contrary to what some may think, the Church cannot stay out of politics when politics endangers the lives of the innocent or the rights of others to follow their conscience. The Church has the responsibility to speak up when the law of the land runs contrary to God’s law, for the former is not our means to salvation.

Recall the words of our opening prayer. “Lord our God, in you justice and mercy meet. With unparalleled love you have saved us from death and drawn us into the circle of your love.”  From the very beginning, God has endeavored to save us and will always do so, but if God is to succeed, than we must open our ears in this noisy world of ours to what is being said that truly matters in making salvation real.

The words Jesus said to the deaf man are meant for us as well. We must open our hearts to experience God’s compassion in the love of family and friends, to realize God’s presence at all times and places. What we listen for will make a difference in our relationships with one another and with God. Be open and you will experience God in a whole new light.
 

Today’s readings are a powerful reminder of how we, as individuals, as a nation, as a society, as a Church, relate to those around us and how we treat one another by what is in our hearts, minds, and souls.

A good example of what can happen to this relationship took place about two weeks ago. One morning I got up very early, like 4:30 A.M. I was going out to hook into and hopefully land that elusive but majestic Pink Salmon. Well, when I reached my fishing destination, it was still dark but I could see the sky beginning to get bright. I knew I was in God’s country.

All of a sudden the sun came up lighting up the beach and the water. I began to fish. I thought to myself, O.K. God, I got up very early. Show me the fish. After about 30 minutes or so, the beach where I was fishing began to overflow with other fishermen. Most seemed very courteous and friendly except the one who decided to fish just a couple of feet from me.

You see, he saw me hook and lose a fish so he moved right in. That was O.K. I still was in God’s country. I said good morning, without a response back. This man then proceeded to fix his pole for that first cast. I was really hoping he would catch a fish. I was in God’s country with company. Here comes the first cast right over my line. I thought what would happen if, at that point I hooked into the big one.

All of a sudden, I was not in God’s country anymore. Someone was trying to lead me astray. The devil, I would imagine. I was getting so mad that, instead of saying something awful to the man, I picked up all my gear and left.

Now, that was not so bad. I held my temper, or did I? My heart was becoming hardened. I did not have what I should have had in my heart. As Jesus reminds us in this morning’s gospel, it is what comes from within that defiles.

It wasn’t the fact that he was in my space, it’s what I was feeling inside that was the cause of my anger toward him. I was only worried about myself. The right thing to do would have been to help that man or at least offer, for he sure could have used it.

In the gospel we hear about dirt under the nails. Having dirt or mud under ones nails comes from doing something outside the body. The deeds of evil come from within and are not erased by washing hands. The list of interior attitudes is quite extensive and encompassing. Jesus did not mince words or leave much to legal interpretation. Worship of God comes from the heart, but the heart hears other calls as well that can infiltrate and defile.

If our minds and hearts are full of God’s love, then we are living through his words and truly we are the children of God, living in his image and likeness through Jesus Christ. If I was living this way at that point in time I probably would have reacted differently. I would have heard the right call. As we hear in today’s gospel, if our hearts are full of this worlds temptations, evil thoughts: un-chastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, hatred, (The list goes on and on) we are not living our lives the way God had intended.

It would be untrue to imagine that the Scribes and the Pharisees in today’s gospel really understood the laws that they, by their position, were to uphold. They let the law get in the way of the heart, which is the backbone of the law.

The law was given to enhance their relationship with God.

There are still those, and sad to say, even in our tradition today, whom religion is still a matter of blind obedience to the external rule and forgetting the matter of the heart, from which flows love and compassion. There are still those who disregard that serving God is to be found in total living, living from not only the mind but also the heart. Without the heart we cannot live and it is so with our spiritual lives as well.

To live the way God intended is not to add or subtract from that which makes us Christian, that which makes us Catholic. Those who attempt to reduce or change it to fit their own agenda their own needs, are doing just that. There is to be found an abundance of love and grace in keeping true to scripture, our tradition, our Church, by allowing our hearts to be transformed by God’s love.

How do we do that? To be an effective Catholic in the world today requires that we do much more than just go to Sunday Mass and avoiding major sins. We are charged at the end of Sunday Mass to go out to love and serve the Lord. This is the call to evangelize by living our lives not in self-indulgence, but in the love and compassion for others that comes from the heart, receiving strength to do so by the sacrifice we come here to accept through the Eucharist.

Today’s reading from St. James puts it all into context in a very understandable way. He says: “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained by the world.” Sounds like our charge at the end of Mass!! Have we been accepting this charge, this call?

In our human nature, we break things apart so that we can come to a deeper understanding. Jesus is telling us to do just that. Let his words enter into not only our minds but in our hearts. This is where we will receive the full affect of what he is telling us. This is where the “rubber meets the road.”

In retrospect, I now think back to that morning of fishing and see that maybe that fisherman, who moved next to me, also felt he was in God’s country.

Last night at the 5 P.M. Mass, those present had the pleasure of witnessing the baptism of baby Cruz Patrick Hezel. The parents and godparents took an oath with God to raise baby Cruz in the faith. As a part of the body of Christ, we too take on the responsibility of being the example and teacher of the faith for baby Cruz and all who enter into and are a part of this body. We do this by living in God’s love, treating everyone with this love even those who seem to put us on edge.

My sisters and brothers in Christ; let us hear what God’s words are telling us in Holy Scripture. Let us live by the infusion of God’s love in our minds and hearts ands souls sharing this love with others around us. Let us also be the example of faith lived not just faith spoken. Let us be the example to baby Cruz and others of the love of our savior, Jesus Christ.

So let us pray with dirty hands and cleaner hearts to extend those dirty hands in praise of the God who dirtied himself by walking in our mud.
 

I do not know of a sentence in the Bible that annoys more people than this line in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, where he urges wives to be subordinate to their husbands. Angered by such chauvinism, many listeners then tune out his message on commitment, the same message we hear in the other readings.

Paul isn’t putting anyone down in his letter nor is he giving husbands the license to degrade, abuse, or control their wives. To the contrary, he is challenging spouses to examine their fidelity and commitment to one another.  There is no room for a domineering spouse in any truly sacramental marriage.

A husband, Paul contends, is to commit himself as totally to his wife as Christ committed himself to the Church. You and I know how far Jesus Christ went for the Church and for us, giving his life on the cross so that we could be freed from sin. Ideally, every husband should be willing to do the same for his wife. She is to be as important to him as his own body. He should love her more than anyone or anything else on earth. The bottom line is that both husbands and wives are to put the other person first. Each spouse has to sacrifice something for that to happen. Giving up some of their personal preferences, the two become one, thus becoming the sacrament of marriage to one another.

From what I have seen and heard over the years, that hasn’t always happened. I ache for spouses who endure domestic violence of any kind from verbal to physical. Alas, both husbands and wives have been known to abuse their spouses. Such a marriage is not what the Church defines as a sacramental union.

The experience of those who are victims in such situations dramatizes the point being made in today’s gospel. There are times in life when we are pushed to the wall. There are times in life when we are ready to quit. There are times in life when we need something to hold on to.  In the gospel, the disciples were being pushed to the wall by what Jesus said earlier about giving his body for them to eat. Notice how they responded.

One group found Jesus’ words too hard to take. “Who can accept it?” Not them, so they parted company with Jesus. The others met his challenge successfully and remained faithful to him.  Why did one group leave and the other stay? The gospel doesn’t answer that question outright, but it gives us a clue.

Peter speaks for us when he said to Jesus, “Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God.”

When pushed to the wall, so to speak, they kept their eyes focused on Jesus whereas the group that abandoned him had focused on the stumbling block instead.  “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” Detracted by the repulsive notion of eating someone’s flesh, they lost sight of the whole picture Jesus was presenting. A commitment to God or another person is never made once and for all, but must be renewed again and again.

When I witness a marriage, I tell the couple to say the words of their vows to each other as though they are the most important words they will ever say. “I take you for my spouse, to have and to hold, from this day forward for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health until death do us part.”

I have known many loving couples who have honored their commitments to each other. When the going gets tough for them, their love grows even stronger, for they keep their eyes focused on Jesus, rather than the problems that surface. They minister God to each other daily. They also know their marriage cannot thrive or even survive if one or both spouses become too self-centered to honor their vows.

When we hear the words, commitment and fidelity, we are apt to think only about the faithfulness of spouses to one another, but the notion of fidelity extends to every commitment we make. Being faithful means honoring the commitments and keeping the promises we have made in our work and business dealings, as well as our relationships with God and others.

Joshua knew what he was committed to. He also knew that many who had followed him for 40 years in their exodus to the Promised Land were now attracted to the many gods of their neighbors. “If it does not please you to serve the Lord, decide today whom you will serve. As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” In reply to his challenge, they said, “We also will serve the Lord, for he is our God.”

The lesson given in these readings is clear: when we commit ourselves to Christ or to another person, the decision impacts us and the world around us. Our relationship with God cannot be a half-hearted one if we are to grow in faith. “Decide today whom you will serve.” Joshua’s challenge is a choice for us as well.

Centuries later, Jesus essentially posed the same question to his apostles. “Do you also want to leave?” Some disciples had found his message too hard to take or too unrealistic to accept such as what he had said about chastity and fidelity, forgiveness and honesty, so they left. What he had said about the Eucharist as a covenant was too much for them to accept.

Countless fellow Catholics, married and single alike, have demonstrated by their lives their commitment to Christ. Their faith has been a continual inspiration to me. If Jesus were to ask me, “So you also want to leave?” I would respond, “What? Not on your life, Lord. I agree with Peter. You have the words of eternal life. I am convinced you are the Holy One of God.” I hope you could say the same.