The Case of the Missing Prayer

The Case of the Missing Prayer

There are many pathways to God. As in Thomas Merton’s spiritual classic; the “Seven Storey Mountain”, we wander the vast circumference of our life’s Pilgrimage, until, at last, we come to the Summit. But, is there something missing in our modern spirituality? I love a good mystery, so let me set the stage for the Case of the Missing Prayer!

Toronto was growing like topsy in the 1950’s. When my mom remarried, off we went to Canada. My stepfather had just become the Chief Engineer of the Weston Biscuit Company, Canada’s version of Nabisco. 

The Diocese of Toronto placed a small portable on a plot of ground in our neighborhood, and assigned a young priest to the cure. He canvased the development in which we lived. He dropped by our house and invited us to church. I began to  attend services. 

In the fall of 1960, it came time for me to attend Confirmation classes. Fr Hall was fresh out of seminary, and Honest to God his classes seemed to me like post graduate study. They were rigorous and demanding, with memory work, written essays, and exams.

He used the Socratic method in teaching. One day he asked us what we knew of the seven principal kinds of Christian Prayer. He waited for us to respond. Class?

We ventured to answer; 

Praise

Intercession

Thanksgiving

Penitence (asking for forgiveness)

Those were the obvious ones. What’s missing? I remember squirming, telling myself I should know this stuff, I prayed often. But then I asked myself, was my prayer complete?

“Go on”; he said.

Alas we were stuck.

With a twinkling eye he tapped his foot waiting.

Finally he said; “What about Adoration?”

We replied, “what’s the difference between that and Praise?”

“Aha!” Said he, “what does the Catechism say?”

We were supposed to read the Catechism the night before, but  perhaps we were not so diligent about doing so.

“Adoration” he said, reading from the Prayer Book, “is the lifting up of the heart and mind to God asking nothing more but to enjoy God’s presence.”

Interesting! That made perfect sense to me. Just being in church in the presence of the holy, listening to the Silence and the beauty of an organ prelude, or as a child lying down on my back and watching the passing clouds with a friend assigning faces to the wind swept shapes, “perhaps that’s Lincoln”. Yes, many’s the time I asked nothing more but to be in the presence of God. 

Question; “What the difference between that and Praise?”

Fr Hall referenced the Catechism again; “we Praise God not to ask for anything but because God’s Being draws Praise from us.”

That made sense too. Praise seems more active than Adoration. We often use the word “Praise” in Church as an act of devotion, most notably at the presentation of the Gifts of the People of God at the Offertory. 

“Go on, Fr Hall, what else did we miss?” 

We provided a blank silence.

“Petition,” he said. “You got Intercession, that’s a prayer for someone else. Petition is a prayer to God for yourself.”

That made sense too!

“So, to review,” the kindly priest said, “we have six kinds of prayer so far; Adoration, Praise, Thanksgiving, Petition, Intercession, and Penitence”

“What’s the missing Prayer?” 

For the life of me, I could not think of it. Neither could my classmates. 

“Think!” Fr Hall pressed firmly upon our hearts and minds. 

Nothing! We were baffled. 

Finally I said with a chuckle; “What pray tell, is the missing prayer?” 

“Not so fast,” the young priest said. “Think of Jesus. What was his prayer to God?”

It took a while, but finally he got it out of us. 

The hint had to do with the prayer on the night before he died for us.

Remember, at Gethsemani Jesus prayed; “Let this cup pass from me; yet not what I want but what you want.” ~Matthew 26:39.   

The mysterious word Oblation entered my vocabulary that day. The Catechism teaches; “Oblation is an offering of ourselves, our lives and labors, in union with Christ, for the purposes of God.” 

Interesting. 

In other words, this is a prayer that reverses the order of subject and predicate. In the intimacy of the I-Thou relationship between us, the Prayer of Oblation turns now to to God who looks to us for the answer.

Now we say not what we want of God, but wonder what God wants of us? This is a prayer critical to the development of a mature spiritually.

Or to put that in a way that I finally came to understand, in my own words; “Jesus, you can count on me to do whatever it takes, whatever it is you need me to do for you and for your people.” 

Comes now the Gospel reply;

“Feed my sheep.

Serve my poor.

Visit the sick and those in prison.

Give the outcast a safe place to call home.

Be my Body in and for the sake of the world.

Go, love the world as much as I do and change it and make it look like me.

Do not be afraid, little flock.

I give my life for you. Go, give your lives for others.”

Aha! The Case of the Missing Prayer! 

Answer: Oblation!

It is akin to the stirring declaration of John Fitzgerald Kennedy in his inaugural address; “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country” 

The Prayer of Oblation declares likewise; “Ask not what God can do for you, ask what you can do for God.”

The tendency of a Consumer Society is to set before God the things we need and want, forgetting what God requires of us; namely, “to do justice,  to love mercy, and to walk humbly with our God”. ~Micah 6:8

Hence the “Missing Prayer”: Oblation. 

Today’s lessons include Solomon’s prayer of Petition to God for the Gift of Wisdom. The Psalmist is full of Thanksgiving as the Psalmist often is. Paul reminds us to Praise God in melody and song. And in the continuing theme of these past few weeks, Jesus is Bread of Heaven, making an offering of himself in union with God for the purposes of God. 

I needn’t remind you of what you do here at Trinity for ACAT, Dinah’s House, The Lower Merrimack Collaborative, the Worship of God and the Service of God’s people. You are an Oblation indeed to God and God’s people. 

And so, class, as Fr Hall would say;  let’s review the Seven Principal Kinds of Prayer 

Adoration

Praise

Thanksgiving

Petition

Intercession

Penitence

And the missing prayer missing no more;

Oblation. 

Mystery solved!

Here we are. Trinity Church in a period of Transition. Praying God send us someone who will join us in this Pilgrimage and offer himself/herself along with each and every one of you as an Oblation, an offering of ourselves, our lives and labors, in union with Christ, for the purposes of God.

In the Name of God, the Most Holy, Undivided, and Everlasting Trinity. Amen.

Fr Paul

The Winnowing Fork

The Winnowing Fork

Please allow me to thank you for your invitation to spend the remainder of this Advent Season, Christmas, and even into Epiphany to be with you. Together with joy let us set forth the Word of God and Celebrate the Sacrament of Christ’s Presence among us. I am delighted to be with you particularly at this time of year.

Allow me to introduce my wife, Cindy. We met each other not far from here in Hyde Park 38 years ago while I was serving at Christ Church. And we are delighted to be in Dorchester where two of our sons were born at the old St. Margaret’s Hospital over on Cushing Avenue. 

Cindy and I have been married 37 years now. We have three grown sons. Our first born, David lives nearby and attends St. Mary’s Church. Our second married recently and lives in Charlotte and our youngest lives in San Francisco. I have been ordained 44 years and have served congregations in this Diocese, in Ohio, West Virginia and Pennsylvania. I “retired”, after a fashion, 10 years ago this Christmas and in my retirement I have served as interim and “bridge” priest wherever and however the church  needed. I like writing particularly on issues of Congregational Development. I thank God for all these wonderful blessings. And I thank God for you. You are a blessing to one another and to the church as today’s Epistle says; “May the God of steadfastness and encouragement grant you to live in harmony with one another.”

In this very special Advent season we prepare for the birth of the Holy Child. There is a note of urgency in our preparation. We hear it in the voice of John the Baptist in today’s Gospel as he enters onto the stage of sacred history with these words;

“The voice of one crying in the wilderness:

Prepare ye the way of the Lord,

Make his pathways straight”

We are to make room in our hearts for the Birth of this Holy Child, as John reminds us again with that same note of urgency;

“Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven has come near.”

This Kingdom is indeed near, it is at hand. In fact it has already arrived. It is within you. Again and and again, Jesus uses these words “near”, “at hand”, “within”, and “among” to describe the location of the Kingdom of God. His winnowing fork is already in his hand.

We needn’t wait until we die to live it. Nor do we await some cataclysmic event to occur, as some claim, when the earth and the heavens shall pass away. No, dear friends. God’s Kingdom is here, within and among us. That is why it is a matter of urgency that we prepare our hearts to receive The Child again this Christmas.

We are to repent. That is to say, we are to become something “new” again for God in the same way that God is always becoming something “new” to us. We are to undergo a “complete makeover”. I imagine that there are some of you who like those TV shows where they are always gutting out and making over somebody’s home. Don’t you wish you had the wherewithal to do all that you might dream of doing in the home in which you dwell? O well, in the meantime we make do with what we have. 

The dwelling place of which the Scripture speaks, however, is within the human heart. Here is where we can make the kind of metamorphosis that John and Jesus want, right here, within our hearts. When John uses that word “repent” he uses a Greek word “metanoia” which means “a complete makeover”. Much like a grub undergoes a metamorphosis from its cocoon to become a magnificent butterfly, so too we are invited by John and Jesus to make our hearts new again. In point of fact one of the images the early church used to signify who we are to become is the butterfly. Where we now put a cross, the early church often put a butterfly, a very beautiful one, like a Monarch Butterfly. 

Which reminds me, do you have any idea how beautiful you are in God’s eyes? How magnificent? As Shakespeare described humankind 

“What a piece of work is a man, how noble in reason,
how infinite in faculties, in form and moving,
how express and admirable in action, how like an angel,

in apprehension, how like a god!” 

~Hamlet; II,2.

And Michelangelo, when he looked at a block of marble, he did not see a formless hunk of stone, he saw the potential for an angel. Imagine the exquisite shill of the sculptor working on the rough corners of your soul to make of you something beautiful for God! Jesus is your sculptor! 

The Holy Child is soon to be born for us. We have now lit the second candle of the Advent Wreath a candle that represents Love; not just a love of God and of one another, it is the love we are commanded to have in our hearts and souls for ourselves. The second of the two Great Commandments is this: "Love your neighbor as yourself." Notice please that the second commandment is to Love your neighbor "as" you do yourself. It does not say "instead" of yourself” but “as” yourself, that is to say, in like manner.

There are distractions to be sure. There is the incessant “jingle” of “Christmas” bells and piped in music in all the stores and the hectic pace we keep this time of year. There is the din of the news much of which portends ill for many of us and the nations of the earth. This is a danger and a distraction to the proper nourishment of our souls. 

It is an urgent matter for us is take quiet time and prayer to be with God as we prepare our hearts to be present to the Holy Spirit. 

In today’s first lesson the prophet reminds us that a little child born of the root of Jesse, shall come among us. Furthermore “he shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide by what his ears hear; but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth”.

Just for the record, the biblical narrative repeats the theme of Justice  time and again. Today, for instance the Psalmist says; 

“He shall defend the needy among the people; 

he shall rescue the poor and crush the oppressor.

He shall live as long as the sun and moon endure.”

Not only is our Advent preparation urgent, it is also clear that God will judge justly for the poor, and will hold the oppressor accountable for any and all oppression. With his fierce and urgent voice John says; “His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and will gather his wheat into the granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.” Be forewarned ye leaders of the world and within our own nation. Repent!

I don’t want to be on the wrong side of God's winnowing fork, do you? Imagine how it would go over if you were the one by whom 20 million people were denied health care! The Gospel, as Jesus says, is indeed sharper than any two edged sword.

Advent waiting is anything but passive. Advent waiting is full of expectation and urgent preparation, much like any expectant mother awaiting the birth of her child. There is much to be done before the moment arrives. 

We have much to do as we await the Birth of the Holy Child this year. Our souls await a complete makeover so that you and I can become the hands and feet of Jesus in and for the sake of the world we live in. In order to repent as John and Jesus would have us repent we will need to undergo such a transformation as will make each of us something very beautiful for God indeed. That transformation is not just a personal one it has its social dimension as well. I would be less than candid if I did not say that I am concerned about any nation, especially our own, when it turns its back on the needy and the poor, the outcast, the sick and the lame. You and I may have to prepare ourselves for further action as we move into the next chapter of our nation’s history.

Teresa of Avila the 16th Century Christian Mystic writes;

“Christ has no body now but yours. No hands, no feet on earth but yours. Yours are the eyes through which he looks compassion on this world. Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good. Yours are the hands through which he blesses all the world. Yours are the hands, yours are the feet, yours are the eyes, you are his body. Christ has no body now on earth but yours.” 

Jesus will come again this year and when he comes all people will be invited to find hope, love, joy, and peace in him, just like Advet words proclaim. God help anyone who prevents the hope, love, joy and peace of God from justly extending to all without regard to race, religion, ethnicity, class, gender or orientation. We seek to be what Jesus lived and died for. We are to become more and more "A house of prayer for all people". Even now the winnowing fork is in his hand!

We seek to be among those on whom God’s favor rests, during this Holy Season of urgent expectation. My prayer for all is the same as the Scripture proclaims on this Second Sunday of Advent.

"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

In the Name of God, the most holy, undivided, and everlasting Trinity.

Fr Paul.

Count the Stars of Heaven!

Count the Stars of Heaven

Have you ever been in the desert at night when the sky is as clear as crystal? I remember a night like that when we were out west not far from the Grand Canyon. We had taken the train cross country when the children were little, and we still speak of that amazing and memorable vacation. I remember one night stepping outside and gazing up to heaven and the sight I saw that night took my breath away. The stars filled the sky as if someone had spilt a saltskaker across the canopy of space, so vast was the multitude of stars. Being a city kid, I had never seen such a sight as this.

When I think of Abram and his encounter with God that night as he poured out his heart in lamentation over his childless estate, I think of my experience of that night in the desert. As I gazed into the heavens, I was immediately transported into the Royal Realm of the Holy One. I heard no voices that night, certainly nothing like Abram's encounter. But I did have a sense of the awesome dimension of God's creative love and mercy. There was a sense in that moment that as God embraced the Universe, so too God embraces the human heart; mine, my family's, and every family under heaven; such is God's abundant love and mercy toward us all.

It is in such a moment as this that Abram heard God's promise. He heard  that God would bless his servant with abundant hope. Abram would come to know that his descendants would be as numerous as the very stars of heaven he was looking at. We know from Science that we are all stardust. Parenthetically, istn't it interesting that stargazing leads to faith and physics, they ways of God and the ways of Science. Our Ash Wednesday liturgy teaches us; "Dust we are and to dust shall we return!" Stardust! God's stardust! Full of God's love, mercy, and hope. And we're told that Abram believed God. It was in that faith that God reckoned it to him as righteousness. 

The Psalmist tells us that the one thing we ask for and the one thing we  seek is that we may dwell in the House of the Lord forever. Here we are today in God's House, and so too in this world where we live, suspended in the heavens among the stars of the universe. Here we live in the House of the Lord forever. Amazing! "To behold the beauty of the Lord, and to seek Him in His Holy Temple". We are God people; we are God's Temple: the Temple of God's Universe.

On a different note, the Psalmist continues in vers 18 "O tarry and await the Lord’s pleasure; be strong, and he shall comfort your heart".

I know that to be true. As Helen Keller once said: "As the world is full of suffering, so is the world full of those who overcome it." During her last journey toward heaven, I asked Cindy's mom what she wanted in heaven; she looked at me as if to say; "What are you smoking?" But then she thought about it. Maybe there is a God. Maybe there is a heaven and if there is, she thought, "I want to be gathered to my loved ones; especially with my mother and my two sons whose deaths broke my heart." That's what I want from God.

What is it you want heaven to be for you? Perhaps it is too soon to ask such a question. God knows, I'm willing to put it off as long as I can. But this I know. The world may be full of suffering, but there are those who courageously overcome it as well. That heaven is in the here and now is what matters. Look at the stars of heaven as Abram did. The Father of Faith. Count those stars if you can, so shall your hopes be! Such is God's Love and Mercy.

The world we live in is full of those who renounce any hope of God, or heaven or eternal life. In today's second lesson, Paul laments those whose "end is destruction, and whose minds are set on earthly things". God knows, every time I do a wedding or a funeral, it is clear that there are many "out there" who have no church, no faith, no hope of anything more than what we know in the here and now. I know them well. There are many among our friends and family. For such as these, last week's memorial service for Nona was patiently endured until we got to the reception where we could greet family and friends and of course eat.

I was so grateful for the church that day. The love of Sarah Kelb, Priest in Charge, the women of St Paul's Church, North Andover who put on such a nice spread. The love was palpable. There were those who would have preferred that there be no service, that we rent a hall and hire a caterer. That's not how Cindy and I were going to do things. Oh no, Nona was going to have a good send off. The church was full of such faith, hope and love. And the greatest of these, as the scripture says is love. Thank you church. Your love is of the essence in setting forth the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is with such love as this that the stars of heaven shine down upon us and within us with the Glory of God.

But back to earth now for a minute. Jesus understood Jerusalem all too well, then as now. The place that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it. Christians, Jews, Muslims, and many more besides. The human heart is so full of violent hatred is it not? And God looks over the heart of humanity with such deep and profound sorrow.

Jesus seeks to bring peace to the place called Jerusalem; the very name of the place means Peace.  

In English; Salem

In Arabic; Salaam

In Hebrew; Shalom

The etymology of Jerusalem means the "dwelling place of Peace" or the "foundation stone of Peace". 

How often Jesus would have gathered us within his embrace as a hen gathers her brood under her wings. But we would not. And we still won't.

It is not just religious differences, but racial, ethnic, gender and orientation that divides us. The "we/they" phenomenon is operational in our political and religious lives and it goes well beyond that simple good natured ribbing that has always been part of our mixing it up with one another. It spills over into vitriolic hatred, violence and ultimately warfare. 

As people of faith, we are called in Lent to repent; to prayer and fasting, self examination and denial. All people of faith are likewise called to repentence as Jews are at Yom Kippur, the holiest days of the year. At Ramadan, Muslims are called to prayer, fasting, self accountability, and works of charity. All people of faith are called to repentance.

How can we get it so wrong?

As with Abram, the Father of the three Great monotheistic Faith traditions, we all find ourselves under the same stars of heaven, and under the same authority of God. It is the same God who calls us all to look up to heaven and count the numbers of the stars if we can.

We are also required to pray, to fast, to examine ourselves and to acts of charity during our high holy days. And not just then, but throughout the rest ofour lives as well. 

In Judaism, God calls us to Obedience.

In Islam, God calls us to Mercy.

In Christianity, Jesus calls us to Love one another.

Obedience, Mercy, Love; these are not suggestions, these are our commandments! Yes look up to the stars of heaven; the words are written not just there in a far away place light years away, but within every human heart.

Perhaps we might remind ourselves as Paul does that our "citizenship is in heaven". I ran across these words of meditation in my prayers earlier this week in "Celtic Daily Prayer". They speak well of that kind of this kind of citizenship

Go peaceful

in gentleness

through the violence of these days.

Give freely.

Show tenderness

in all your ways.

Through darkness,

in troubled times

let holiness be your aim.

Seek wisdom.

Let faithfulness

burn like a flame.

God speed you!

God lead you,

and keep you wrapped around The Holy Heart!

May you be known by love.

Be righteous.

Speak truthfully

in a world of greed and lies.

Show kindness.

See everyone

through heaven’s eyes.

God hold you,

enfold you,

and keep you wrapped around The Holy Heart.

May you be known by love.

~Paul Field, Celtic Daily Prayer

In the Name of God; the most holy, undivided, and everlasting Trinity.

Amen.

Fr Paul

Civil Unrest & Terrorism

Civil Unrest and Terrorism

In God We Trust

So says the coinage of the Republic. 

The collect of the day teaches us to trust in God with all our hearts. And there are two reasons for that; firstly, God resists those who put their confidence in their own strength, and secondly, God never forsakes those who make their boast in the mercy of God.

Certainly we see evidence of that in Sacred History. Today, for instance, in our First Lesson we read of God’s ordinance regarding the institution of the Passover meal. The ritual of Passover is a reenactment of the means by which we came from slavery to freedom.

Blacks were slaves in America, Irish were slaves in Ireland, and the British were slaves in their homeland as well if we go back far enough in history. I was surprised to learn that the stirring words of Rule Britannia, a grand national song the British sng a the conclusion of the Proms in London include the words; “Britons never, never, never shall be slaves.”

Rule Britannia!

Britannia rule the waves.

Britons never, never, never shall be slaves.

Ah there’s nothing quite like the Proms. We have the Pops, but the British have the Proms. Either way what fun!

In the history of all people, if we go back far enough, we will discover that we were all slaves at one time or another. We were and are in turn, also oppressors. It is in the nature of Sacred History that God will choose a Moses who will go to every Pharaoh and say; “Let my people go!” 

Most economists note that in the current history of America, the only place where income in increasing significantly is in the top 1% of the population. You will remember that Pharaoh was worried about the number of Hebrew people in the land and decreed that the male children would be killed. One of those children got away as we already know from the cycle of readings around the life of Moses. 

Then there were too many Hebrew children, now we have millions of illegal aliens and children without parents invading our shores from Central America. Like we did when the Irish and the Italians who invaded before them, we posture ourselves politically against the inevitable. 

People go to Pharaoh again and again seeking a place in the sun. Whether it is citizenship or a raise in the minimum wage or just a job, the powerless will always be met with the same response from those with the power. NO!

I see slavery in our young people today here at home in America, and abroad as well. I ache for our young people, whether in the teeming inner cities of our nation, in rural areas or the middle east. If they do not have an opportunity to find their way toward economic freedom, they will be forced into a life of crime, waste away into a life of drugs abuse, or turn to a life of violent terrorism, which at least promises them all the rewards of heaven. 

I would argue that it is a dangerous posture for us to allow our young to languish in a kind of modern variation of slavery and oppression. I’ve spent a lifetime in the cities and in the rural areas of this country and I can tell you chapter and verse about the hopelessness of these young people.

Take away hope, and you take away everything. If you grow up in my family or in my church you will find out it what it is like to be loved and educated and equipped for life in this world. You will make a contribution to the creative, redemptive and sanctifying work of God. If you grow up in my home, God help you!

What does our Catechism teach us about the Five Mighty Acts of God? Yes, you all know them, of course. They are 

I. The Creation

II. The Exodus

III. Jesus Christ

IV. The Church

V. The Christian Hope

That’s the foundation of all faith. God created us. God brought us out of slavery and into freedom. God sent Jesus to be for us the Way, the Truth and the Life. Jesus gave us the Church as the Community of Faith where we might live out our faith. And The Resurrection of Jesus establishes the Hope in which we all live both in this life and in the life to come.

If you take away our hope, or if you take away the church or Jesus, if you take away a sense that God has made us, then, sure as Mike, we’ll fall back again into slavery. I suspect that many of our young people are losing all sense of meaning, purpose and perspective in life. If there are no jobs, if there is no future, no purpose, then there is crime and drugs. 

If there is no hope for the young in the Middle East, they become prime targets for those who wish to wage Jihad or “Holy War” against the Western World. After all, the Western World has turned toward secularism and away from God, and though I understand why many turn away from religious zealots.

What I do not understand though is the growing concentration of wealth in the few. I object to the redistribution of wealth from the the 99% to the 1%. It is a posture of greed. A posture of greed is very dangerous both domestically and internationally. In today's Gospel, Jesus teaches us to take the case directly to the one who sins against you. If that doesn’t work bring a few respected leaders with you and seek some kind of accommodation. If that doesn’t work set the matter before the church and if that still doesn’t work treat the offender as you wold a tax collector. 

The tax collector was usually the richest man in town and treated as a pariah. He was among the most despised in all in the Ancient Near Eastern world. I hope you appreciate the exquisite irony in that the writer of this Gospel story was himself a tax collector. He knew what it was like to be treated as a social pariah.

All except for Jesus, who looked at Matthew, the tax collector, with compassion. He treated him as a human being and as a child of God. Jesus had no money and lived on a subsistence level. All we know about the taxes that Jesus paid was that famous quip from the 22nd Chapter of the Tax Collector’s Gospel where Jesus was given a coin with Caesar’s image imprinted on it. Jesus said; “Give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and give to God what belongs to God.”

Apparently Matthew thought that much more than wealth belonged to God. The encounter he had with Jesus turned his whole life upside down. He found his reason for living. He discovered what Justice and fair play meant. He found forgiveness, reconciliation. Above all, he found the love of God.

In Matthew’s Gospel, we are told the Parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard. Apparently there were those standing idle early in the morning, and the landowner put them to work for the agreed daily wage. Likewise at 9 o’clock he went out and there he found more standing idle. Again he agreed to send them out to work and pay them fairly. He went out at noon and at three in the afternoon and he put them to work with the same promise of a fair wage. Finally at 5pm he still found those standing idle and put them to work again agreeing to pay them what was fair. 

When the time came to pay the laborers they all got a full day’s wage. A storm of protest erupted, since those who had worked the whole day could not understand why they would not be paid more than those who had only worked an hour. 

There are way too many standing idle in our inner cities, our rural areas and in the hot bed of conflict in the Middle East. Such idleness will give rise to crime, drugs, and international terror.

To my way of thinking there is a connection between the unrest we have seen this summer in Ferguson, Missouri, and other urban and rural areas of America and international terrorism. 

If we let our young people stand idle in the marketplace, a vacuum will be created that is worse than slavery. It is the vacuum of hopelessness. Nature abhors a vacuum. It must be filled with something. Domestically it seems to be filled with crime and drugs. Internationally it seems to be filled with the hope of heaven given in the delusional teachings of ultra radical Islamic terrorism. 

Obviously Moses, Jesus and Mohammed abhor slavery, injustice, and violence. All three believed and taught that God is the creator, the Law Giver, the All Loving and the All Merciful.

The Great Souls all teach us of The Dream of God. A dream where there is Freedom with Law, Justice, Mercy and above all, a Love between and among brothers and sisters. I think this is what Paul was trying to say in today's Epistle. That's what it all boils down to; "Love one another"!

This is our Dream too. The Dream will not come true until we Proclaim the Gospel of God's Love with courage and determination.

This is the Dream of God.