2251AFC111622 – All Graces Great And Small
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Isaiah 7:14 – 14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel. [עמנו אל (im-ma-nu el) – God is with us Εμμανουήλ in Koine Greek]
Psalm 24:1 – 1 The earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it,
the world, and those who live in it;
Romans 1:7 – 7 To all God’s beloved in Rome, who are called to be saints:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Matthew 1:21 – 21 She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus*, for he will save his people from their sins. *Yeshua יֵשׁוּע, which means “salvation.” (↔ Click Link from alternate source)
Aloha nui loa, ʻŌmea! Grace and Peace to each of you from God our Father and our Lord, Jesus the Christ, in the Power of the Holy Spirit. Some of what you see here today will be things learned in our Parish Mission earlier this week which was given by our Parochial vicar, Fr. Dario Rinaldi. You’ll see those passages marked (Fr. D.). Today’s title is a paraphrase of the book and movie series All Creatures Great and Small; however, instead of creatures, today we will be talking about Grace. I’d like to start with something we’ve probably all heard – from Mother Goose!
There was a crooked man, and he walked a crooked mile,
He had a crooked sixpence and a crooked little smile;
He had a crooked cat with a crooked little mouse,
And they all lived together in a little crooked house.
Now, there are several versions of this old rhyme, and I’ve chosen the least nocuous. Some folks think this rhyme is creepy, or politically charged (often attributed to an agreement between Scottish General Sir Alexander Leslie and England addressing political and religious freedoms for Scotland ~~ according to Wikipedia (↔ Click Link). I see it differently. Here is my analysis:
A man with a spinal handicap of some sort lived on a wandering lane. He was fortunate to have a sixpence – about half a shilling (and 3X’s more than tuppence) . It was made of very thin silver and easy bent (intentionally or not). He therefore had something to smile about despite his smile being a little off-kilter. He also had a cat with a similar health problem, and the cat had a pet mouse – again with a handicap. Together they all shared a poorly built but sheltering house. They were happy to be so blessed! Each of those explanations of blessings are small Graces, Good Gifts from our Good God. There are other forms of small Graces that fill our lives with blessings each day. Here’s another example:
We have a few shama thrush birds (↔ Learning Link) living in our neighborhood. They are marvelous singers, and often mimic other birds. They are also capable of making up their own melodies some of which are quite complicated and some are just very simple. They sing outside our windows in the morning. That is a bit of Grace we delight in. There’s one who has perfected a wolf whistle, and that always brings a chuckle – and another Grace. Those of you who have been to Kauaʻi know we also have a stupendous number (more than 400,000) of chickens! There are more chickens than people on this Island even during tourist season when we get as many as 7-10 thousand per week. Sometimes the roosters start crowing at 2 AM and that goes on until sunset. There are couple of Graces there. One is being able to 95% ignore them. The other is the sound of a hen cluck-cluck-clucking along with 8-12 chicks behind her. Cuteness of baby chicks is certainly a pleasant Grace.
All Graces Great and Small are gifts from God and are signs of his great Love for us. What I have described so far are the small Graces he delights in heaping upon us. Whenever we accept them as Graces, we grow increasingly aware of the Goodness of God and his immense Love for all Creation. In today’s Key Verses we have some examples of the Great Graces. The first one from Isaiah: Behold! A virgin will bear a child and his name shall be called Emmanual (also spelled Immanual). Please follow this (Learning Link↔) to 1651AFC121616 – Here’s yer sign! Scroll down to the paragraph that begins “Wait a minute.” There you will find an explanation of the difference between “name” and “call.” This Key Verse is the Incarnation Narrative spoken over 700 years before Jesus was incarnated.
Another of the ginormous Graces everyone receives is in our Key Verse from Psalms:
The earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it,
the world, and those who live in it
God most certainly did not wind up the universe like a huge clock and then move on to other things while letting the clock just run down! All existing things, all places, and all persons – past, present, and future – all that is, or was, or will be, belongs to him. Some of us might say, “I do not belong to God because I do not believe there is such an entity.” In my interactions with believers and nonbelievers over the past 70 years, I have found that it takes a lot more effort to deny that God has control of everything than it does to believe (even a little bit) that God is an easily-discovered reality. Look around, and we will see that God’s Good Gifts and Gracious Graces are everywhere to be seen. Look to the Key Verse from The Apostle Paul to the Romans.
“To all God’s beloved in Rome, who are called to be saints:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”
“OK, old man, I see what he says, but I’m not in Rome, I haven’t any Grace, and I’ll never be a Saint!” In the days of The Apostle Paul, “Rome” was pretty much “the entire world.” The fact that the Epistle is addressed to the Romans indicates it was – and is – addressed to “the entire world” today. He tells us therefore, that by Grace, we are called to be saints. Did you follow that link back to 1651AFC121616? Let’s break it down to a very simple explanation: “Capital S” saints are men and women whose lives reflect exemplary commitment to living as fully as possible the Christian’s calling to a life of service to God and to her/his fellow earthlings. All the rest of the persons called saints are those of us who are trying to live a good, solid Christian life, but probably could not be called exemplary. We are destined for Heaven, but it is unlikely we will ever be singled out as persons of exceptional faith and virtue. All who are called by God (See John 6:44 – 44 No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent me; and I will raise that person up on the last day) will be drawn to Jesus and be raised up – will be a saint (“little s”) – on the last day. That is another Great Grace! “Great” as in wonderful, and ‘great’ and in HUGE. We can have confidence in that because of what we see in the Key Verse from Matthew. God keeps his promises, even (and especially) those we claim and accept as his Gifts – All Graces Great and Small. That brings me to a few lines from (Fr. D.). The comments are from my notes during the Mission, and originate from three sources: The Holy Spirit, Fr. Dario, and my reactions to what I heard from both.
- (Fr. D.) People are following chaos [1] as their goddess. This leads, therefore, to the lack of order in our life (me→) & counters our affinity to God.
- (Fr. D.) Home is the domestic church (JP2), and is therefore similar to Mass through the Church and the table (me→ NOT the TV) is similar to the Altar where the meal is distributed.
- (Fr. D.) Sharing a meal together is a communal act, and assisting in preparing and cleaning up afterwards are contributions to the entire community.
- (Fr. D.) Sunday is a sacred day for expressing our Love for one another.
- (me →) From a mission about 10 years ago – “The exit signs on the five doors of the church could also be labeled “ENTRANCE,” because it is through those doors that we “go forth into all the world glorifying God in our lives.”
~~ Fr. Chuck Faso, OFM - (All three contributors): Fully emulate the attitude of Jesus. “Love one another as I AM loving you” means to know others, and to know about them as well, which is to say that we are to Love them without regard to similarities or differences.
- (Fr. D.) The best way to defend our faith and hope in Christ is to share our faith and home in Christ. This is done by offering a chance to belong to something with someone. (me→) It is the evangelization of witnessing/testifying.
- (Fr. D.) Go to church to forge relationships (me→) because “It’s the real thing.”
- (Fr. D.) Take ownership of our parish as we would our home
- (Fr. D.) Start with something that makes even a small difference. Fr. D: Dust the pews, mow the lawn, (me→) share some cookies or avocados. Fr. D: God is less interested in results than in effort.
- (Fr. D.) Recognize the human dignity of anyone you meet (Please read the story of the usher and the hippie) [2] Do the good things good neighbors do at home.
- (Fr. D.) Seeds are planted in the ground or else they won’t grow. We must be planted in the ground, the good soil, of our faith. (me→) Plants don’t grow from the top down. Neither do we.
- (Fr. D.) Conversion comes from being available, not confrontational. Availability leads to the beauty of vulnerability, and on to knowing the happiness of being in Christ Jesus.
We have spoken here often of “that attitude of gratitude.” (↔ Click Link) All these little points of learning I have shared here are Graces given to all of us – even the folks who don’t read this post. Grace is characterized and defined as “the unmerited favor of God.” It is available everywhere and to everyone. However, if we just stop to take a moment to smile at the shama’s song, or delight in a rainbow (the kind created by God, not by man); if we find encouragement in hearing a baby cry in church, or happiness in the generosity of a neighbor; if the words of a friend or a teacher or homilist stir up the banked coals of our faith – then, in all these things and innumerably more, we are inundated in an Ocean of Grace [3](↔ Learning Link: Scroll down to the story from Steve BROWN). If we accept that Grace, we are open to accepting more, and more, and more Graces until we have so many blessings we cannot help but share them! So how do we start on that? I think The Apostle Peter had a good handle on it:
1 Peter 4:7-11 – 7 The end of all things is near; therefore be serious and discipline yourselves for the sake of your prayers. 8 Above all, maintain constant Love for one another, for Love covers a multitude of sins. 9 Be hospitable to one another without complaining. 10 Like good stewards of the manifold grace of God, serve one another with whatever gift each of you has received. 11 Whoever speaks must do so as one speaking the very words of God; whoever serves must do so with the strength that God supplies, so that God may be glorified in all things through Jesus Christ. To him belong the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen. It’s in the APP!
Whatever, whenever, wherever, whoever, however, if ever, forever —
at your service, Belovéd!
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Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture passages are from the New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (NRSVCE) New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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Aloha Friday Messages by Charles O. Todd, III is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License
[1] See COSMOGONY OF HESIOD (↔ Click Link)
[2] Seriously, please go to that story and read it. It’s terrific! Here’s another link: 745AFC110907
[3] This one goes w-a-a-a-a-ay back, but it’s worth the time to go there. 1412AFC032114
