The Ordinary Times

In a letter to the editor from 1992, a Japanese-American guest columnist told how he never felt like an outsider on the small farm in Utah that he was raised on. His parents were first and second-generation Americans and they raised all of their children as Americans. As far as the author was concerned, he looked, acted, felt and was perceived as 100 percent American. That is great for him. But it is not universal for everyone. I know this because the letter to the editor was in response to an earlier article by another Japanese-American writer. It was an April 29 Op-Ed entitled "Bashed in the U.S.A." 

Sometimes people can technically be in the same group, yet their similar experiences can be recorded differently depending on their perspective. But this phenomenon isn’t only a racial one, but it can also be religious. That difference in perspective can affect your fidelity to your faith when there is friction between you and fellow believers.

We can see a similar thing happening in this Palm Sunday’s Gospel reading of Luke 19:28-40. All four Gospels share a version of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem before his Passion Week. Yet, the different details and their foreshadowing on future events by the end of the week show similar experiences can be recorded differently depending on the perspective. Luke tells how his followers praise Jesus as he rides into Jerusalem as a triumphant king, while criticized by his enemies the Pharisees. Other Gospels pictures it as a generally jubilant crowd. Yet this image will be juxtaposed later with that of crowds who called for him to be crucified, in chorus with his enemies the chief priests. Jesus’ experience takes the ethnic and nationalistic experience of the two Japanese-American writers and expands it to be a religious experience as well. Today we will explore that area even more with my friend Dr. Ansel Augustine. He is the author of the new book, “Leveling the Praying Field: Can the Church We Love, Love Us Back?” In it he explores the contemporary and historic experiences of Black Catholics in their relationship to the Church at large 

In 2019 a New York Times author thought it would be fun to visit the house that she grew up in but hadn't seen since she was 15 years old. To her surprise, the owner invited her, her parents and husband inside to see the changes. And there were changes... and not all good ones. Jesus' most famous parable in Luke 5:11-32 explores what happens when a wayward son comes back home after he decided to change. Today we interview the bivocational pharmacist and Baptist pastor, Rev. Johmyrin Johnson, about the potential, problems and promise of returning home. 

Almost a year before September 11th, the definitive start of the story of the 21st century, friends, family, patrons of the arts and parishioners gathered to eulogize a man who worked to tell some of the great stories of the 20th century. His was born Ellwood Keiser, but was known as Father Bud: a Catholic Paulist priest and Hollywood filmmaker.

Jesus was not only a storyteller… he was a character in the greater story. He understood his place in the overall metanarrative of Salvation History. Sure, we understand his atoning death as unique but in the text of Luke 13:1-9 he fills the recurring character of the prophet. When he headed to Jerusalem, he stepped into the role of Jonah: the out-of-town prophet telling the big city to change. When he called on listeners to “Repent” he repeated the lines of John the Baptist. Today we will interview another priest and filmmaker, Father Tom Gibbons, on the intersection of storytelling and the story of Jesus.

 In 2019 a New York Times article shared how the federal government ordered that the case against Eric Garner's killers be dropped. They were NYPD officers. You may have been surprised, but God was not. In our Scripture reading for today, we learn of Jesus’ response to the threat of state sanctioned violence. Violence that threatened to execute law breakers. Violence that would crucify him. In today's bonus episode we interview Minister Christian Watkins and discover how the struggle against police brutality intersects with today’s reading of Luke 13:31-35.   

As we take a break from the liturgical season of Ordinary time, we will pivot to interviewing guests with insight for how current events in our daily news intersect with what we learn from the Good News of Jesus. Our friend Josh Daly shares about his involvement with the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church and how Luke 4:1-14 applies to Christians caught in the war in Ukraine. 

What we see and how we see changes. So, we employ specialist to help us see.Helping people see is what Eugene G. Wiseman did for a living and in a September 28, 1922 opinion piece called “An Optometrist Protests” he proceeded to clarify
what several other professions should do as well. Helping people see is also the subject of our current lectionary reading from Luke 6:39-45. In it Jesus discusses critics with no sense of self-criticism.

Nestled in the fourth of six columns of stories on the fourth page of the March 22, 1918, issue of The New York Times is a headline that reads, “PRISON TERM FOR PREACHER.” The author relays the story of Rev. Clarence H. Waldron, a pacifist, Pentecostal preacher in the green mountain state just north of New York. Earlier that week a Federal court in Burlington, VT convicted the reverend “of disloyal utterances and of attempting to obstruct the operation of the draft.” His disloyalty and obstruction of government were committed as he dutifully preached the Gospel. The words of Luke 6 :27-38 are laid within a matrix. The lectionary reading shows us the original template that Christ set in place for his Disciples to follow, yet somewhere along the road we have broken the mold. Sometimes changing a few letters in the matrix can spell disaster. And Christianity is an example of one of those things.

On January 31, 1915, the New York Times printed “SOUTHERNER URGES EQUALITY FOR NEGRO.” Dr. Charles Hillman Brough was advocating for equal footing amongst the races. But soon after slowly ascending from the plain of equality with Black fellow Arkansans, he found himself looking down on them from the familiar perch of White Supremacy.  He could not value his poor Black neighbors because he defined his identity in a way that was diametrically opposed to them. This week’s Scripture reading in Luke 6 17-26 presents us Jesus: a prophet opposed to measuring people in terms of profit. The Lord was able to lead his proposition with a primary place of the Poor because he numbered himself among them. 

A letter to the editor titled “Sailors of Yesteryear.” appeared in the May 6, 1911 edition of the New York Times. It was written as a response to a question from a prior article’s question, “Where are the sailors of yesteryear?“ Luke 5:1-11 shares with us a story of Jesus calling Peter from his former career as a sailor (specifically a fisherman) and into his future calling of steering the Church to uncharted waters. It also asks future Christian readers how we will navigate through the dangers of religion and power.