first

First thing right.

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November 4th Sunday Readings.

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A couple years ago a friend of mine was helping me tile my kitchen/dining room area. We had pulled up all the previous flooring. We had prepped and leveled the floor. We were all set to start the install.

My friend carefully and thoughtfully laid down the first tile. He checked and re-checked that it was square to the room. I was almost annoyed how long it was taking him. Then he turned to me and said, “We have to get this one right. If we get this first one
wrong, well we won’t get any of the rest of the tiles right.” 

When Jesus tells us the 2 most important things in life, he is very purposeful about the order. Jesus tells us that the most important thing in life is that God is God alone and that we are to give him everything we’ve got. Before we learn anything else, before we love or help anyone else, before we do good, or fall in love or change the world – We have to love God with our everything. 

I think Jesus puts the two commandments in this order because if we get the first one wrong, we’ll get everything else wrong too. If we don’t love God with our whole heart, mind, strength, then we won’t be able to fully love ourselves and others. If we don’t put God first in our lives, then we will ultimately put ourselves first and won’t be able to serve, sacrifice, and love well. 

Can you be a good person without God? I think you can do good things without God, but I think we get our identify from God or we don’t. If we don’t get our identity from God, we aren’t as good or perfect or excellent as we could be. 

If we want to be selfless, world changing, doers of the ultimate good, then we must love God with everything we’ve got. If want to follow Jesus, we have to love God with all our heart, mind, and strength. If we get that right, by God’s grace, then we can get loving others right too.

LIVE IT:
Every time you start your car between now and Sunday Mass, pray this, “God grant me the grace to love you with my whole heart, mind, and strength. Help me love others as I love myself.” Then look to see how God shows you how to love him and love others. 

Flight Madness

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Read the September 23rd Sunday Readings

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Something about airline travel turns the kindest, most generous people into absolutely selfish monsters. Every time I fly, I seem to encounter all kinds of human selfishness and entitlement. There are moments of generosity and selfless gift, don’t get me wrong, but I amazed at the number of “me first” moments I witness while flying. 

Oh, by the way, I am 100% talking about myself. I’m the monster. 

A couple months ago I flew a certain airline that lets passengers choose their own seats. I actually like and appreciate this model because it appeals to my sense of fairness. If you check in early or pay a little extra you get to board first and every seat is yours to choose from. 

I boarded early and sat in an aisle seat in the 3rd row. Hundreds of people boarded after me and poured towards the back of the plane hoping for a “not middle” seat. Alas this was a nearly full flight. The seat next to me was still open as the plane filled and I secretly hoped it would remain so. Finally the last few souls entered and after stowing bags one standing passenger exclaimed, “Wow this is full, where is there an open seat?” 

Did I raise my hand? Did I call out, “Oh brother human, over here! Please take your rest next to me.” No. I kept my head down and hope against hope he would sit behind me? Absolutely. Why? Because I wanted to be comfortable. I wanted the open seat. I wanted to be first. 

Jesus doesn’t mince words in the gospel this Sunday. Jesus says, “If anyone wishes to be first, he shall be the last of all and the servant of all.” I don’t know about you, but I want to have my cake and eat it too. I want that open seat on the plane and I want to follow Jesus too. I’m okay not being first, but I sure don’t ever want to be last. 

Jesus makes it abundantly clear again and again in the gospels, there is a choice between serving ourself and following Jesus. No middle ground exists. Either we follow Jesus and serve others or we serve yourselves. 

How do we do totally give up serving ourselves? First, we need to totally rely on God for the grace to do this. Left to my own devices, I will never offer the open spot next to me to the person looking for it on a plane. Second, we look to help people who can do nothing for us. We need to look to serve the helpless. Only by God’s grace can we hope put ourselves last. 

LIVE IT:
First of all, this week’s Good Word was particularly challenging to me. I constantly fail at this. So the Live It is most important this week. Turn to God each day from now until the next Sunday and ask God for the grace to be last. 

First or Nothing.

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The Good Word for Sunday January 10th ~ for the complete readings click here. RickyBobby

“If you ain’t first, you’re last.” – Ricky Bobby

Engrained in our culture is the idea that we all must strive to be first. If we aren’t working towards becoming #1, then we are doing our “best.” College football coach Henry Russell Sanders is famous for saying, “Winning isn’t everything; it’s the only thing!”

Like most of you, I deny buying into this worldview, but a simple review of my driving habits would demonstrate how easily I default to seeking to be #1. Maybe you’re different than me, but I bet, if you took a couple minutes, you could find some aspect of your life where you can’t help but desire to be better than everyone else.

John the Baptist speaks in stark contrast to our culture’s push for first place. Think about it. In our gospel this weekend we hear, “The people were filled with expectation, and all were asking in their hearts whether John might be the Christ.”

People thought John was the Messiah. John could have assumed the role of anointed one, savior. He could have used people’s loyalty to serve himself. But he didn’t.

John chose second place. John witnessed to the fact that no matter how important, no matter how many good things he did, he wasn’t the best. John put Jesus first.

Sometimes we even complete to be best at being good. We make church a competitive sport. If you’ve ever felt like you weren’t good enough or thought someone else wasn’t good enough to come to God, then you’ve experienced pious competitiveness.

If we want to follow Jesus more perfectly, then we need to take a page from John the Baptist and choose second place. Jesus first; everything else second.

Live It:
Give up your pew this week. Whether you normally sit in the front or in the back (or normally don’t come at all), make a conscious choice to sit somewhere different, so that someone else can take your normal spot.

The Good Word for Oct 19

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For the complete Sunday readings click here.

MLB: NLDS-Pittsburgh Pirates at St. Louis CardinalsI am a St. Louis Cardinals fan and this time of year is like Christmas to me. My Cardinals are usually in the playoffs and are almost always a contender for a World Series title. The only issue is that almost every night is a baseball night. I stay up watching games. There is no chance any other TV will be watched. Plans get cancelled or rearranged. Baseball rules all.

In the readings today, we heard some pretty powerful statements. In the first reading from Isaiah we hear God say, “I am the LORD, there is no other.” Isaiah is talking specifically about Israel not being ruled by other kings and princes. God is God and there are no other gods. No one rules but God.

Then in the Gospel Jesus tells those Pharisees trying to trick him that they should give “to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, but give to God what belongs to God.”

The thing is that we often let a lot of things rule our life other than God. Just like how baseball rules my schedule in October, I choose to make things that aren’t God be LORD of my life. I often, sometimes unintentionally, put something ahead of God. Honestly, today it was work. Instead of taking solid prayer time this morning, I jumped right into email and I haven’t stopped working since.

Often we think of sin as doing or saying bad things. In reality, sin is sometimes putting good things in the wrong order.

God wants to be our priority, not just one of our many priorities. Priority means “first thing.” We literally can’t have multiple first things. Either God is first or something else is.

The good news is that we can change. The process of making God first is life long. But every long process starts with one small decision.

Live it:
Take out your phone right now. Look at this week (or maybe today if you are a crazy busy person). What rules your life? What takes a majority of your time? Make a plan to put God first tomorrow in some small way. Schedule 5 minutes of prayer in your calendar.

The Good Word for Sunday Sept 21

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For the complete readings click here.

If I had a nickel for every time I screamed the words, “But mom, it isn’t FAIR!” at my mother when I was a kid, I would have more than a little walking around money. I was the oldest and nothing ever seemed “fair” to me. My sister got bigger pieces of pie and small punishments. She got more attention and a later curfew. I felt like that first laborer who worked all day in the sun and received the same wage as the guy who worked for only an hour – life isn’t fair.

Our gospel this week isn’t about fairness or about salary distribution, but about the inconceivable abundance of the kingdom of God. God’s kingdom is so “wealthy” with God’s infinite love that no matter when you or I come to receive God’s love and mercy, we always receive a full measure.

One could hear this story and say that the landowner was foolish and unwise with his pay scale, but in reality he is a landowner so wealthy that he never has to worry about how much he pays his employees. The same is true of the kingdom of God. God’s kingdom is overflowing with love and mercy for us to the point that God never has to worry about running out. God’s love is endless, infinite, and unconditional.

The workers in the story don’t get paid because they worked hard and long. No they get paid simply for saying “yes.” The workers all get a full day’s wage for saying yes to the landowner, for following him from the town square to his vineyard, and for choosing his land to work. If we want to receive God’s love and mercy, all we have to do is say yes to his invitation.
How is the way you live you life a “yes” to God?

Live it:
Before going to sleep tonight, ask God how you can yes with your life? Rest in silence for 2 minutes and listen.