Chris Yaw

Thanksgiving is when the wheels can fall off.

During this holiday weekend somebody’s going to drink too much. Somebody’s going to say something inappropriate. Some part of the meal will be less than perfect. Somebody who’s not around will be deeply missed. Somebody’s going to cancel.

Holidays are often emotionally charged affairs that can magnify our family dysfunction. Both conflict and compromise arise. While they are also the things family photos and long-time memories are made of, beneath the cheery veneer our humanity shows up to cloud things.

In case you didn’t notice, Thanksgiving always inaugurates the church season of Advent. In addition to marking the Christian ‘New Year,’ Advent invites us to take the themes of pause, preparation, and attentiveness to heart.

On Sunday, we will kick off Advent with a Gospel reading that urges us to, ‘keep awake.’ We are to keep awake to Christ in his many forms, including generosity, charity, and the warm smiles of those we love.

However, Advent also invites us to keep awake to the imperfections of the season - to irritation, inconvenience, and discomfort. These are our growing edges; for growth rarely comes comfortably or conveniently.

This holiday weekend let’s be awake to the myriad of ways God is trying to communicate with us. Let’s accept the gifts of love and friendship, but also be attentive to the imperfections, misses, and miscues. God often speaks to us through them. Advent is here. Keep awake.

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In 1982 "Lawnchair Larry" Walters of Los Angeles made his historic voyage. He attached about a dozen weather balloons to a lawnchair and floated to 16,000 feet before shooting out a few of the balloons with a pellet gun and safely floating back to earth.

He said it was something he’d wanted to do since he was 13 years old, to float up into the sky, to be awed by the view and the calm, to drift lazily above the fray.

This Sunday the Church celebrates the end of the Christian year with the commemoration of Christ the King.

His kingship reminds us of the ways Jesus lives above the fray

And so the Gospel reading is that famous passage in which Jesus is led to his execution and actually prays for his assailants. He doesn’t say, ‘Hey, get me down from here!’ rather he seems remarkably calm through it all. He sees to the heart of the matter, which is that he must die knowing that, of course, he cannot be constrained by death.

His attitude forces us to ask why we’re so unwilling to join Jesus in living above the fray. Before each of us is a battle, a tussle, a conflict. And we are constantly getting too close, too involved, and too convinced that the fracas is where we have to put all of our energies.

When we are caught up in the details of life we are diminished. When we occupy ourselves with small worries we become small people. The scratch on the car, the spot on the carpet, the dirty dish in the sink – we can, and do, get preoccupied with these things but the world does not turn on them.

How can we live above the fray?

A lawyer recently sent me a letter.

He said I overpaid on my taxes. He said he would go to court and get the money back. He told me I’d receive $1,000.

I want you to help me spend it.

Well, not all of it. I decided to keep half (this is to remind you that I may be a priest, but I’m not Jesus).

However, the other half, $500 - I want you to help me give it away.

So I’m asking 10 parishioners to take $50 and creatively spend it.

I don’t want you to simply pass it on to your favorite charity – no - take time and pray, then act. Whose day can I make? What’s that creative Spirit saying to me?

Maybe you’ll buy $50 of really great chocolate and make brownies for a shut in. Maybe you’ll go to the Eastern Market and buy $50 of flowers and give them away on the street corner. Maybe you’ll buy a crate of apples and make applesauce for our homeless friends?

So if you want in, send me an email, a letter, or a text. I’ll choose the top 10 and arrange to get you your cash.

The only hitch is that you have to report back to me in a month and tell me what you did. I may make your story public, but I won’t use your name if you don’t want me to. After all, it is a ‘secret society.’

Why am I doing this? Because November is stewardship season and I constantly need to remind myself of the liberating power of giving. And if your pastor can’t be generous, what business do I have asking you to be?

So go ahead, start dreaming – it’s a season of generosity – who can you bless? How can you bless them?

The Pope is driving a 5-year-old Ford Focus.

He’s traded in the Mercedes Benzs and Volvos of previous pontiffs and settled for a set of wheels that will help him follow Christ more nearly. In more ways that one, he has found focus…

Of course, Francis is still among the well-off, 93% of the world does not own a car. But in deliberately downsizing he is reminding us, like Jesus did, that the Christian life is about continually removing the obstacles that keep us from more completely following our savior.

In Sunday’s Gospel we meet a familiar character named Zacchaeus. Like you and me and Pope Francis, he is well off. We also relate to Zacchaeus’ deep desire, ‘he was trying to see Jesus.’

As the story unfolds, we see that Zaccaeus is willing to put aside his possessions, reputation, and respectability in order to get a clearer picture.

The story invites us ask: what’s getting in our way of seeking a clearer vision of Jesus? What changes is God asking us to make? What needs to stay? What needs to go?

The only thing wrong with well-stocked backpacks is that they can keep us from going as fast and as far as we want to go.

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The Pope is driving a 5-year-old Ford Focus.

He’s traded in the Mercedes Benzs and Volvos of previous pontiffs and settled for a set of wheels that will help him follow Christ more nearly. In more ways that one, he has found focus…

In Sunday’s Gospel we meet a familiar character named Zacchaeus. Like you and me and Pope Francis, he is well off. We also relate to Zacchaeus’ deep desire, ‘he was trying to see Jesus.’

As the story unfolds, we see that Zaccaeus is willing to put aside his possessions, reputation, and respectability in order to get a clearer picture.

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94% of college professors rate themselves above average.

32% of software engineers put their performance ratings in the top 5% of their company.

And the vast majority of U.S. drivers consistently rate themselves as above-average behind the wheel. It's called illusory superiority. It points to our propensity toward poor self-assessment and self-awareness.

And no one is immune.

On Sunday we will hear a familiar Bible story about a priest and a tax collector who go to the temple to pray. What follows is an exercise in illusory superiority, as the clergy person boasts of his self-worth, while the tax collector seems to see things more clearly and reaps the benefit of this parable's payoff: he is forgiven.

And this is the only viable antidote to our pervasive illusory superiority: we can awaken from our Illusions to forgiveness. God is well aware of our self-deceptions and deals with them in the most merciful way possible: God forgives us.

The questions are, how self-aware are we and how willing are we to forgive ourselves for our poor judgment?

Forgive yourself.

God does.

It happened on the first day of track practice.

That’s when the coach asked the freshman to run a quarter mile. Matt Stevens won – by a lot. In fact, during that first two weeks of track practice it became clear that Matt was the best one on the team - and had an amazing gift of speed and stamina that could take him far in track and field.

But when week three rolled around, Matt was nowhere to be found.

When I called him he told me he quit. He said he was bored and would rather watch TV and drink milk shakes.

As the year went by, the talent on the team grew to be defined not so much because we were inherently faster than others – but because we showed up and worked the program.

More and more studies seem to show that giftedness and talent actually play a small role in one’s success when compared to the capacities to work hard, keep on task, and persevere.

In Sunday’s Gospel Jesus tells his disciples a parable that urges them to do the same - not to lose heart, to keep at it, to be relentless in their pursuits.

What do we feel like quitting today? In what ways do we need more perseverance?

If Jesus is calling us to do something, chances are he’s given us the perseverance to make it happen.

Be awakened to:

What we read – because we become what we read

What we eat – because we become what we eat

Whom we befriend – because we become like our friends

How we’re entertained – because we become what we watch

What we admire – because we become what we admire

What we boast about – because we become what we boast about

What we love – because we become what we love

This Sunday Jesus is out to awaken disciples of all ages to the presences, gifts, and graces of God. When we pray for more of God in our lives, we’re really praying for more of an awareness of God in our lives. We do that by being awakened to the influences around us.

How do we need to be awakened and how is God trying to do that?

My friend is an E.R. doctor.

Every day he faces a litany of urgent cases in which life hangs in the balance.

While he’s known for his skill in triage and the breadth of his medical knowledge, what his colleagues most admire is his ability to stay calm in the midst of the pressures and complexities of his everyday work.

He’s become known for one statement, ‘One step at a time.’ When asked to predict what course a disease will take, how far a cancer will spread, when a medication will kick in, or how long it will take a patient to regain consciousness, he simply says, ‘One step at a time.’

Living in the moment is not an option for my friend, it is a necessity – and it should be for you and me.

Just look at the tyranny of the immediate that surrounds us. From financial, career, and health concerns to worry about our national elections, we are tempted to fall prey to the threats of a future we cannot predict, and in some ways, do little about.

One step at a time.

Let’s not worry about things we cannot predict.

Let’s not spend our precious hours in anxiety over a future we do not know.

Let’s not waste our precious time in apprehension of unknowable circumstances.

This Sunday we will hear Jesus talk about faith.

He will chide his disciples – which include you and me – to believe.

To believe that everything will work out, that the world is in God’s hands, that nothing happens to us outside of God’s view, and that nothing happens by accident.

For we can never forget that we are a fragile people who live precarious lives, utterly dependent upon God’s daily mercies to shield us from the unknown.

And we are called to believe that we are always in God’s hands. So let us encourage one another to have faith and believe, one step at a time.

My friend is waiting for his brother to die.

He’s at the hospital right now keeping vigil. He’s among family and friends as they seek to face the challenge of keeping calm and focused in the face of uncertainty.

This vigil will end with a death, a loss, and deep grief. Family members will be irreparably scarred. Life for everyone involved will permanently change. My friend says losing his brother will be like losing a limb.

However, in the face of such tragedy we cannot forget the coarse but bitter truth; that the upside to having your face ripped off is that at least you get to see what you look like.

Yes, there are ways in which we become aware in life. Some do so when they get a promotion, buy a new home, or fully fund their 401k.

But most of us reach a deeper sense of awareness when we go bankrupt, get divorced, lose a child, break a leg, smash the car, or fail the test.

This is not to say God makes these things happen, it is to say that our deepest tragedies offer us unparalleled opportunities to become self-aware and, often, better people.

Sunday’s gospel brings us the familiar story about a rich man and a poor man named Lazarus. It isn’t until the rich man loses everything and sits in torment that he realizes the depth of his selfishness and harbors a real desire to help others.

What are the sadnesses and failures of our lives teaching us? How are our collapses and catastrophes serving to point us to greater awareness? What are our tragedies teaching us?

Little babies in cribs cherish the presence of loved ones the most.

Retirees in rest homes cherish the presence of loved ones the most.

What happens in between is the ongoing temptation to substitute things for what we know we should cherish the most.

And we do this all the time.

How are we doing it now? To what degree do we realize that putting relationships first is what we’re made to do and in the end, what we value the most?

I was leaving Cincinnati the other day and stopped to get a milk shake.

The only problem was that I couldn’t remember exactly where the ice cream store was. After 20 minutes of driving around I finally found it. Once inside I remembered how, a few years previous, I had driven around for 20 minutes trying to find the exact same ice cream store. I was lost, but had been found. Twice.

Sunday’s gospel reminds us of how much God rejoices when the lost are found. We think of the ways we get lost. We think of the ways communities get lost, and how even nations get lost.

And we think of Jesus’ job, and our job, which is to help the lost find their way.

Teachers, nurses, accountants, realtors, mechanics – nearly every profession involves some version of this. No matter who we are and what we do, we can help the lost.

My problem is that I am often so overwhelmed with finding my own way that I don’t pay as much attention to helping others as I should. This a perennial problem in our increasingly busy and independence-minded culture.

But that need not stop us from asking: how can we help ‘the lost’ – with math homework, relationship advice, or directions to Cleveland? In what ways has God uniquely equipped us to help ‘the lost?’

When we think about it we soon discover that not only are the lost all around us, but that have a lot to bring to the table. Also in doing so not only are we usually made glad, but according to the scriptures so is heaven.

Chris Yaw

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