[Propertalk] Proper 22 a

[robertpmorrison at charter.net]

Last Saturday I thought about beginning this week's sermon with the 
first reading. On Sunday evening I had the idea of ending with the 
Gospel. On Monday, I saw the story which I've placed between them and 
wrote the brief comment on Tuesday.

I think I'll go with it. At the very least it's different enough that 
folk should listen.

After the Collect of the Day we'll go straight to the psalm, followed by 
the epistle and the sequence hymn, then straight into the sermon. I'll 
mention to the congregation before we begin that the order will be a 
little different ...

Bob

THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH OF ST. ALBAN, ALBANY                   THE 
SEVENTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST
EXODUS 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20					                                    PROPER 
22 (A)
PHILIPPIANS 3:4b-14						                            5th OCTOBER, 2014	
MATTHEW 21:33-46			                                                              	 
PSALM 19

Then God spoke all these words:

	I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out 
of the house of slavery;
you shall have no other gods before me.

	You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of 
anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or 
that is in the water under the earth.

	You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the LORD your God, for 
the LORD will not acquit anyone who misuses his name.

	Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy.

	Six days you shall labor and do all your work.

	Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the 
land that the LORD your God is giving you.

	You shall not murder.

	You shall not commit adultery.

	You shall not steal.

	You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

	You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your 
neighbor's wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything 
that belongs to your neighbor.

	When all the people witnessed the thunder and lightning, the sound of 
the trumpet, and the mountain smoking, they were afraid and trembled and 
stood at a distance, and said to Moses, "You speak to us, and we will 
listen; but do not let God speak to us, or we will die."

	Moses said to the people, "Do not be afraid; for God has come only to 
test you and to put the fear of him upon you so that you do not sin."

	Everyone in the apartment complex I lived in knew who Ugly was. Ugly 
was the resident tomcat.

	Ugly loved three things in this world: fighting, eating garbage, and 
shall we say, love. The combination of these things combined with a life 
spent outside had their affect on Ugly.

	To start with, he had only one eye, and where the other should have 
been was a gaping hole. He was also missing his ear on the same side, 
his left foot has appeared to have been badly broken at one time, and 
had healed at an unnatural angle, making him look like he was always 
turning the corner. His tail has long since been lost, leaving only the 
smallest stub, which he would constantly jerk and twitch. Ugly would 
have been a dark gray tabby striped-type, except for the sores covering 
his head, neck, even his shoulders with thick, yellowing scabs.

	Every time someone saw Ugly there was the same reaction. “That’s one 
UGLY cat!”

	All the children were warned not to touch him, the adults threw rocks 
at him, hosed him down, squirted him when he tried to come in their 
homes, or shut his paws in the door when he would not leave.

	Ugly always had the same reaction. If you turned the hose on him, he 
would stand there, getting soaked until you gave up and quit. If you 
threw things at him, he would curl his lanky body around feet in 
forgiveness. Whenever he spied children, he would come running meowing 
frantically and bump his head against their hands, begging for their 
love. If you ever picked him up he would immediately begin suckling on 
your shirt, earrings, whatever he could find.
	One day Ugly shared his love with the neighbors’ huskies. They did not 
respond kindly, and Ugly was badly mauled. From my apartment I could 
hear his screams, and I tried to rush to his aid. By the time I got to 
where he was laying, it was apparent Ugly’s sad life was almost at an 
end.

	Ugly lay in a wet circle, his back legs and lower back twisted grossly 
out of shape, a gaping tear in the white stripe of fur that ran down his 
front. As I picked him up and tried to carry him home I could hear him 
wheezing and gasping, and could feel him struggling. I must be hurting 
him terribly I thought.

	Then I felt a familiar tugging, sucking sensation on my ear – Ugly, in 
so much pain, suffering and obviously dying was trying to suckle my ear. 
I pulled him closer to me, and he bumped the palm of my hand with his 
head, then he turned his one golden eye towards me, and I could hear the 
distinct sound of purring. Even in the greatest pain, that ugly 
battle-scarred cat was asking only for a little affection, perhaps some 
compassion.

	At that moment I thought Ugly was the most beautiful, loving creature I 
had ever seen. Never once did he bite or scratch me, or even try to get 
away from me, or struggle in any way. Ugly just looked up at me 
completely trusting in me to relieve his pain.

	Ugly died in my arms before I could get inside, but I sat and held him 
for a long time afterwards, thinking about how one scarred, deformed 
little stray could so alter my opinion about what it means to have true 
pureness of spirit, to love so totally and truly. Ugly taught me more 
about giving and compassion than a thousand books, lectures, or talk 
show specials ever could, and for that I will always be thankful. He had 
been scarred on the outside, but I was scarred on the inside, and it was 
time for me to move on and learn to love truly and deeply. To give my 
total to those I cared for.

	Many people want to be richer, more successful, well liked, beautiful, 
but for me, I will always try to be Ugly. 1

	The site from which I was sent this story had responses to it. Some 
were compassionate. Some said they cried. But there were more than a few 
who lit into the author, and, by extension, into the other adults. For 
them it was a case of too little, too late. They despised what they 
considered the mawkish sentimentality, especially of the last moments of 
the cat’s life.

	And I can see the point of their criticism. Why NOT step in at the 
point of becoming aware of the cat? Even so, those few tender moments at 
the end must have given SOME comfort. But it was the memory of steadfast 
abhorrence expressed about the narrator, of the vicious criticism, that 
almost overwhelmed me.

	Then I stopped. Then I was struck. From nowhere I could tell, came an 
outlandish thought. What if that cat were Jesus? A man of no beauty; a 
person whom many were told to steer clear of; a human whom folk loved to 
tease, to taunt, at whom to throw stones; who was torn apart in a 
jealous rage of self-importance and a demonstration of supposed superior 
power?

	And what if Jesus – the cat, if you will – what if Jesus wandered 
through Albany from apartment complex to apartment complex, scrounging 
food and drink, looking for a leg against which to lean and rub, and a 
hand to reach down to pet; to show even the tiniest bit of compassion?

	What if …. ?

	Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a 
vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a 
watchtower. Then he leased it to tenants and went to another country.

	When the harvest time had come, he sent his slaves to the tenants to 
collect his produce.

	But the tenants seized his slaves and beat one, killed another, and 
stoned another.
	
Deacon: Again he sent other slaves, more than the first; and they 
treated them in the same way.

	Finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’

	But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the 
heir; come, let us kill him and get his inheritance.’

Me:	So they seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him.

	Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those 
tenants?”

D:	They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death, 
and lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at 
the harvest time.”

	Jesus said to them, "Have you never read in the scriptures: “The stone 
that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the 
Lord's doing, and it is amazing in our eyes”?

	Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you 
and given to a people that produces the fruits of the kingdom.

Me:	The one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and it 
will crush anyone on whom it falls.”

	When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they 
realized that he was speaking about them.

	They wanted to arrest him, but they feared the crowds, because they 
regarded him as a prophet.

NOTE:

1 	“Everyone Was Warned Not To Touch Him, But This Guy Did” 25 
September, 2013. Unattributed story. 
http://themetapicture.com/everyone-was-warned/

Robert P Morrison
Interim Vicar
The Episcopal Church of St Alban
PO Box 1556
Albany OR  97321   541-921-1076 (cell)
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://stsams.org/pipermail/propertalk_stsams.org/attachments/20141004/ad3f855a/attachment.htm>