Father’s Day
Happy Father's Day!
I'd like to tell you a little bit about my father. You've already heard the story about the early morning turtle race on our kitchen floor. My two sisters and I were racing our little turtles across the kitchen floor. My dad, barely awake, was walking zombie-like to the coffee pot. Then crunch! My dad’s bare foot had mashed one of the turtles. He stepped away in horror, only to smash another one. Third time was not a charm for those three turtles. The scene was screaming kids, no coffee, smashed turtles, and an ashen man leaving for work. Despite the way the day started, he returned home that night. We always knew he was there for us.
When my dad was a boy, he delivered newspapers in Aspinwall, a neighborhood just across the Allegheny River from Pittsburgh, PA. There are so many stories I could tell you about him on this Father's Day. About how he played guitar in an Italian-American social club or played in a trio with this two brothers on KDKA Radio. Or about the war, or meeting my mother, or how he built cabinets and bookcases in our houses, and built a huge porch around our house. Or how he set the backseat of the car on fire. But I'll stay with his work for the Pittsburgh Sun Telegraph, and how his job led to one of the great spiritual lessons for him, and for me.
My dad started carrying the newspaper as a young boy, and stayed in the newspaper field for the rest of his life. He started as a carrier. When the Depression hit, he was able to hold onto his job. Since his father was a dentist and no one had money for a dentist, even a newspaper boy's income was important. Sometime in the 1930's he was promoted to branch manager. The branch manager's job was to train paperboys, to teach them about selling the paper, and collect the money from them, and, most important of all, to tempt them with contests and prizes so they would sell more papers. His job was there when he returned from the Philippines. And that's when my spiritual lesson began to be formed. Even before I began to be formed!
Once he encouraged kids to sell papers, he also chaperoned them on trips to the amusement park or to a picnic, and once, for boys who sold a LOT of papers, he accompanied them and a few parents for their prize of all prizes, a train trip to Washington DC. The kids were thrilled, and he dreaded it. But off they went. I still have the Pennsylvania Railroad dining car tablecloth one of the kids swiped to prove it. The railroad wouldn’t take it back.
My dad accompanied the Catholic paperboys to church on that Sunday. When the collection basket came around, he saw that one boy dropped a $20 into the plate. Now, this was a kid, and it was the late 1940's, so $20 was a huge amount of money to toss in. And the boy never even broke a sweat.
But my dad worried about it. After the service, he said, "Let's go back to the sacristy and get change for that $20." The boy said, "Na, that's OK." "Are you sure, that's a lot of money…." To which the boy replied:
"I gave it to God, the hell with it."
I gave it to God, the hell with it.
And that was that. He had let that $20 go without another thought.
In today's Gospel, Jesus teaches his disciples to pick up his work. Then as now, people were harassed and helpless about illnesses and the hardship of their lives. Some had lost all hope. Many wondered if God had abandoned them to the Romans and to their own Jewish oppressors, just as we wonder sometimes just where God is and what the point is, why we feel so lost or alone, about why we are oppressing others and not standing up as we might have done in the 60s. We may feel concerned about our welfare, our security, our health, our futures, our deaths. In Matthew's day, this misery was sometimes blamed on having demons. I think we all know what the demons of suffering can feel like. When we disconnect from God and God's grace, those demons move in and take over. We need the disciples Good News about the nearness of the kingdom of God as much now as it was ever needed.
In today's Gospel, Jesus teaches his disciples to pick up his work. Then as now, people were harassed and helpless about illnesses and the hardship of their lives. Some had lost all hope. Many wondered if God had abandoned them to the Romans and to their own Jewish oppressors, just as we wonder sometimes just where God is and what the point is, why we feel so lost or alone, about why we are oppressing others and not standing up as we might have done in the 60s. We may feel concerned about our welfare, our security, our health, our futures, our deaths. In Matthew's day, this misery was sometimes blamed on having demons. I think we all know what the demons of suffering can feel like. When we disconnect from God and God's grace, those demons move in and take over. We need the disciples Good News about the nearness of the kingdom of God as much now as it was ever needed.
In today's Gospel, Jesus teaches his disciples to pick up his work. Then as now, people were harassed and helpless about illnesses and the hardship of their lives. Some had lost all hope. Many wondered if God had abandoned them to the Romans and to their own Jewish oppressors, just as we wonder sometimes just where God is and what the point is, why we feel so lost or alone, about why we are oppressing others and not standing up as we might have done in the 60s. We may feel concerned about our welfare, our security, our health, our futures, our deaths. In Matthew's day, this misery was sometimes blamed on having demons. I think we all know what the demons of suffering can feel like. When we disconnect from God and God's grace, those demons move in and take over. We need the disciples Good News about the nearness of the kingdom of God as much now as it was ever needed. Trust in God completely.
I have a strong tendency to trust in me completely. Honestly, I forget to turn my life over to God. Being raised to pay my bills and maintain my life successfully, well, means that I'm paying my bills and maintaining my life. I forget God when times are good, and I really forget God when things are stressful. That's when I have a tendency to go into overdrive in search of one or more solutions. That's when I most need to seek guidance and support and when I am least likely to ask for either. I need a sign that says, PRAY NOW. TRUST GOD.
Act in complete faith. Claim the presence of the Kingdom of God right now. Give it – everything we are and want and need and care about – to God. Give it to God, and then go about the business of the Kingdom. Carry the message.
When we can remember to give ourselves and our lives and our loved ones to God, and to doing God's will, we have peace. When we sit in the palm of God's hand, we live in hope. Peace and hope enough for ourselves, peace and hope enough to share.
It sounds easy to do, but we know it isn't easy. At least not for me. It helps me to remember to give my life to God, and to give it to God when I take it back, and then to be at peace with the giving. "I gave it to God, the hell with it."
Let us pray for the peace of heart and mind to rely entirely on God and to share God's kingdom with one another:
Gracious Living God, Equip us to do your will wherever we are and with whomever we are today. Keep us in mind that you alone are enough to sustain us. When we lack in trust, return us to trusting you. When we lack in faith, return us to faith in you. When we separate ourselves from you and from other people, inspire us with the message of your Kingdom of peace. Join us at your table as we strengthen and support ourselves with you.