Michael vs. the Dragon

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pains and the agony of giving birth. And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads seven diadems. His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she bore her child he might devour it. She gave birth to a male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron, but her child was caught up to God and to his throne, and the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, in which she is to be nourished for 1,260 days.

At the fullness of time, according to the will of God, Mary, the Mother of God, appeared in midst of the heavens, clothed with the radiance of the sun, bedecked with the royal garments of God, because she, having been overshadowed by the Holy Spirit, was greatly pregnant with none other than the eternally uncreated, only-begotten Son of God come into the flesh. She is borne aloft by the moon, the lesser light, and encircled by the twelve stars, the witnesses of the one Holy Church from ages past and in time to come.

“Salvation Belongs to the Lord”

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

“O Lord, how many are my foes! Many are rising against me; many are saying of my soul, there is no salvation for him in God.” What a state to be in, to be surrounded by your enemies, outnumbered by your foes, and to have voices continually whispering in your ear that your faith is a lie and your God is a fraud.

Many are saying of your soul, “There is no salvation for you in your God.” The devil's lies float on clouds of air and land as softly as a butterfly. But they bite like the worst mosquito in history. And they itch and fester and plague just as badly as any mosquito bite. The whispers, or shouts, that tell you that God is dead, if He ever existed in the first place. Or maybe it is that He is there, but He does not love you. How could your God be a God of love when He committed the most heinous example of divine child abuse ever?

Sweet Bitterness

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Today, the Church remembers and gives thanks for the life and work of St. Matthew, as is right and salutary. We rejoice to remember those who have gone before us in the Faith, remembering their example of godly living and joining in their steadfast confession of the Faith once given to them, now delivered to us. St. Matthew now resides among the great cloud of witnesses, in whose midst we we one day stand as well.

So who was St. Matthew? The Gospels tell us that he was also called Levi. Scholars reckon that this is simply a case of a guy having a Hebrew or Aramaic name, and also a Greek or Latin name. Simon is Cephas is Peter. Saul is Paul. And so on; it was a common occurrence in the ancient Near East.

That Matthew is called Levi indicates that he was a Jew. Which fact makes it such an indictment of his character that he worked as a tax collector. Often we are told to think all sorts of hateful things about tax collectors. They are cheats, crooks, swindlers. They are out to steal from everyone who crosses their desks. They take delight in putting the screws to the little guy. Such is the case with Zacchaeus. He was all these things, and freely admitted it, and made it right when our Lord called him to faith. However, about Levi we have no such record. Following the Eighth Commandment, we ought simply to think that he did his job within the constraints of the laws of Rome. As far as we know, Levi was an honest tax collector.

Who Satisfies You?

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Bless the LORD, O my soul,
and all that is within me,
bless his holy name!
Bless the LORD, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits,
who forgives all your iniquity,
who heals all your diseases,
who redeems your life from the pit,
who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy,
who satisfies you with good
so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's.

We chanted these words from the mouth of David this morning, and we rejoice to confess the wondrous works of the Lord with the Blessed Psalmist, and to give thanks to the Lord for all His gracious benefits to us. It is psalms like this that make the soul joyful and exultant in the Lord. And this is good, right, and salutary.

The Greatest

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

“Beaten with rods, flayed like a fish and then crucified upside down.” This was the fate of St. Bartholomew, also known as Nathanael. He is among the lesser-known disciples. In fact the story of his martyrdom is one of tradition. It is a tradition to which we subscribe, but know full well that it is not Scripture. But what is Scripture is the Gospel appointed for this day of St. Bartholomew. And one could ask the question, “So why is this Gospel lesson chosen for him? He is not mentioned by name. None of the disciples are mentioned by name” The answer is found when you put the story of his martyrdom and this Gospel together.

“Who is the greatest of all the disciples?” Certainly it has to be St. Peter, the confessing rock of the Church, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” No, it is not him. Remember, Jesus calls him Satan in the same conversation in which Peter confesses the truth about Jesus. And three times Peter denied his Lord, the very same night of this debate between the disciples. Certainly he is not the greatest.

Dogs and Crumbs

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Today's Gospel lesson is not a popular one. It is not one of those accounts of Jesus being all nice and sweet. He does not multiply bread and fish and feed a zillion people. He does not have compassion and heal crowds of sick people. He does not do anything neat and cute and altruistic. He does not even say anything nice that we can file away in a Hallmark card and save to spout later when it sounds cute. In fact, today's Gospel lesson makes Jesus sound like a jerk.

Here is this poor woman, and she comes to Jesus, asking Him to heal her daughter who has been severely oppressed by a demon. And what does Jesus do? Nothing. Not one thing. He keeps on walking. He ignores her. Gentiles do not approach Jews, and women do not approach rabbis. It is as if she does not exist.

Then, after she has pestered His entourage enough that the disciples entreat Jesus to make her go away, He tells her that He was not sent to her, and calls her a dog, one of the more offensive terms one could hurl at another human being in that day. Dogs were scum, scavengers and nuisances, a cause for concern and disdain, dirty and impure. And Jesus called this woman a dog, simply for coming to ask Him to heal her daughter. What a jerk, right?

Limits

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

In J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings saga, there is a scene where the band of good guys are racing through the underground realm of Moria, and they are confronted with an ancient evil foe risen from the lowest depths of the earth. The Balrog comes up from the darkness and pursues them through the caverns and halls, until they reach the bridge of Khazad-Dum, a narrow stone bridge spanning an abyss that falls into the very heart of the earth. The men, dwarves, and hobbits race across the bridge toward safety, but, seeing that they are in dire danger, Gandalf the wizard stops in the middle of the bridge, plants his magical staff, and defies the enormous ancient beast, shouting, “You shall not pass!” The demon tries with all its might to attack Gandalf, but the light holds fast against the darkness, until Gandalf strikes the bridge, shattering it and sending the Balrog down into the abyss, allowing the rest of the Fellowship to escape. However, at the last second, the demon's whip grabs Gandalf and pulls him down, too.