29th Sunday of Ordinary Time Homily

I feel we are building an excellent parish here at Holy Redeemer. I’m hearing you feel the same way. Friday the Small Faith Sharing Groups sponsored a celebration of the Rosary to mark October being the month of the Rosary. After the event Deacon Art told me he spoke to a parishioner. She told him, she and her husband are seasonal residents, but they have been delaying their move south because they don’t want to leave the parish.

Over the summer, at least twice, a visitor approached me after Mass to tell me how much they enjoyed attending Holy Redeemer. They both told me attending Mass here at Holy Redeemer was a high point of their stay in Chatham. A few weeks ago, we had visitors come to evaluate our parish. They both remarked that as they watched you come through the doors you had smiles on your faces and looked like you were happy to be here.

We want to continue to grow as a parish and strive to be even better. That is why we are conducting our “Unless God Builds” 2025 Capital Campaign. We are raising money to continue to improve our parish physically and spiritually. The goal for the campaign is $750,000. As of yesterday, the campaign has raised $370,000 or just under half of our goal. 

Proceeds from the campaign will fund several projects. Included in the list is replacing the cedar shingles on the church with siding to match the new addition. The siding is made of a composite material that won’t need periodic replacement. That will cost $350,000. Replacement windows for the rectory are on the list at $50,000, some cosmetic updates at Our Lady of Grace Chapel and for the rectory are on the list and of course the long anticipated parking lot improvements. More information is included in the Campaign brochure registered parishioners received from the parish. Extra copies are available by the doors of the church.

Are you up for a challenge? A parishioner is offering a Challenge gift of $50,000. They are willing to match your gifts, donated before the end of this month, dollar for dollar up to $50,000. We don’t want to lose any of their gift. Please make your sacrificial gift today so we can secure this donation.

I want to reiterate making your gift a sacrificial one. By a sacrificial gift I mean one you have prayed about. A gift whose size will impact our parish for years to come. A sacrificial gift is one that means you will choose to forego some material comfort in your life so the Good News of Jesus Christ can be shared with our community. I’m looking forward to your generous response. Together let’s work to make Holy Redeemer as wonderful a parish as it can be.

Now to what I really want to talk about, Good News. All the experts warn against it but I can’t seem to help myself. Every morning when the alarm goes off on my cellphone, I shut it off and then begin to scroll the news feed. I guess I feel I need to brace myself for bad news that occurred overnight. 

There is so much bad news, wars, political conflict, murders, climate change. We go looking for bad news so often because it holds our attention. Why is that? We go looking for bad news because it actually amazes and shocks us. Face it, our lives are often predictable and bad news interrupts that pattern. We can go looking for bad news out of a sense of self protection sometimes. We need to stay aware of what might threaten our lives. Seeking bad news might be part of our fallen human nature. Bad news can make us seem like comparatively good people. Bad news gets our attention. Maybe that is why Christianity and all religion can get a bad reputation for being negative. Like the rest of culture, religious leaders can emphasize sin and immorality, hellfire, and brimstone in an effort to capture our attention and hold our focus. However, in our hearts and souls we really hunger for Good News. 

The Bible’s four accounts of Jesus’ life are called the gospels. Our word Gospels comes from a Greek word that means “Good News” or “News That Brings Joy.” Here are a few facts about Good News. It is news. Bad news is so often just a rehash of the past. It is the same old, same old. On the other hand, the Gospels tell us of something unique and ground breaking is happening all around us. A new world is being created in our midst.

The Gospels are truly good for us. If you reject the gospels or the idea of faith because you feel it is bad news, you are rejecting it for the wrong reasons. If you feel the Gospel doesn’t speak to your deepest desires and longings, if it sounds disappointing or threating, if the gospel makes you feel bad or sad you don’t really know the gospel of Jesus Christ. The Gospel is all about a God who so loves us God sent God’s only son to personally save each one of us. If that isn’t good news nothing is. 

When Jesus came with the Good News he changed everything in our world. Certain events are powerful agents of change. We’ve experienced so many of them even in our lifetimes. Events like the construction of the Interstate Highway System, internet, iPhone and now AI have initiated great upheaval in our world, but they pale in contract to the Good News Jesus preached during his life. His preaching brought profound change to our attitudes about life, how we spend our time, money, and the way we approach all the relationships we have in life. 

Remarkably, the Good News was brought to us in the context of bad news. The bad news was that humanity had rebelled against God at the Fall of Adam and Eve. Humanity turned their back on God. Despite this rejection God didn’t turn God’s back on humanity. God’s response was to continue to love humanity and to show God’s love by promising us a savior and redeemer. God began that process through the Law of Moses, the words of the prophets, and finally in the ministry of the Good News of Jesus Christ. 

Over the next few weeks, in a series of homilies, we’ll be reflecting on the Good News of Jesus as shared through the Gospel of Luke. We’ll learn how it can influence our lives. Personally, I’m looking forward to seeing all of us grow in our appreciation of God’s goodness towards us by your attendance here every week. Plan to be with us in person or through our online Livestream.

If you know someone who doesn’t attend church but seems inclined to want to listen to Good News, invite them to attend with you over the next few weeks. If you have family members, friends, or neighbors who have fallen away from Mass because they misunderstand Christ’s Good News and believe it is bad news, invite them to hear this series of homilies and possibly change their minds.

As I stood by the door before Mass last weekend a couple approached me with wide smiles on their faces. They told me. “Father our son has returned to Mass. He has come faithfully for the last four weeks.” They were overjoyed.

If you are here today for the first time in many years or if this is the first time you have ever been to church, welcome. I know you might find it a little difficult though. Just attending Mass isn’t always enough for you to understand the Good News and all it entails. I’d suggest you consider joining one of our small faith sharing groups. They are a great way to interact with others of faith, dive deeper into our questions of faith with Sacred Scripture, and have our fledgling faith grow stronger. Talk to us and we’ll set you up in a small faith sharing group.

Our scriptures today share with us the Good News of the power of prayer. That might come as a surprise because prayer can be the reason people give for giving up on God and religion. They have become disappointed and frustrated with God because they feel God is like the judge in today’s Gospel passage. They feel God is indifferent even hostile to their prayer. The couple I told you about with the son who was returning to the faith. They also said it was something they had been praying about for thirty-four years. 

Why does God seem to not respond to our prayer? A reason might be God wants us to use prayer to help us grow stronger. The widow in the gospel is a good example. She was one of the most broken people in the culture of the day. Women held a low position in society and widows an even lower one. With no husband to defend them, they needed to depend on other males such as a son, brother, or father to speak for them in forums such as a court of law. The parable doesn’t mention any such figure on the side of the widow. She was completely on her own facing a very patriarchal system. Yet, she kept pleading for justice. She refused to surrender, gaining a personal strength that made the unjust judge begin to actually fear her. She became so strong he thought she might give him a black eye. Certainly, a God of love won’t wait long to answer our prayers for justice.

God can seem to ignore our prayers because they are childish and shallow, focusing on our needs. God wants us to look beyond our petty needs to God’s larger purposes. At times we pray for the wrong things. God in God’s wisdom knows our prayers would actually hurt us and we need to discover God’s will. At times we can make our prayer too vague and they need to become more focused. Our prayer can be casual because we don’t really trust God. God doesn’t want lukewarm relationships. God wants to be at the center of our lives. At times, our prayers actually go against God’s will and what is for our own good or the good of the world. 

The Good News is we don’t have to beg God to hear us and act for our good. That is God’s greatest desire. God want to work with us to bring the Kingdom of Heaven, the fulness of love, peace, and justice, which existed before the fall of Adam and Eve, back into our world. The purpose of our prayer needs is to open our hearts and souls to discover what are the steps we need to take to bring that about. We need to pray to discover the way to be effective partners with God making the Kingdom come into our midst. 

Where do you need God to intervene to bring justice into your life? Bring it to your prayer this week. If you don’t have a special time and place for prayer begin this week. Set aside as little as ten minutes every day at a convenient time and place and converse with God. Resist the inclination to put demands on God and listen instead. Let your prayer be to ask God to change you and not you to change God.