Mercy for all... except the piñatas. We hate the piñatas.

Happy birthday to our Maria Juanita (MJ).   She turns five today!  No Mexican birthday is complete without a mermaid piñata.

MJ and Erika (daughter of another missionary family) and the piñata.

MJ with new fabric for a flowy skirt.

A new cute pet plant!

Sparkly canopy for a princess bunk-bed.  (Sorry boys it is going in your room.)

Now a story of seeing God answering a prayer.

Early this past week I was in the pews of the parish during a Spanish prayer meeting being run by some of the other missionaries.  I found myself praying and asking God what can I offer?  What can I give Him and to His people?   I felt God say, look up Mark 8:6.   "He ordered the crowd to sit down on the ground. Then, taking the seven loaves he gave thanks, broke them, and gave them to his disciples to distribute, and they distributed them to the crowd."   (From the feeding of the multitudes.)

I don't need to have much to offer.  I just have to give the little I can and let God do the rest.

Okay God that was pretty direct.   Can you do it again?   Matthew 13:8 came to mind, so I looked it up too.   "But some seed fell on rich soil, and produced fruit, a hundred or sixty or thirtyfold." (From the parable of the sower.)   God is the one that blesses our work.  In fact it isn't even our work, it is God's.   We are just His instruments.   We are called to be faithful, not successful.   Success and the fruit is determined by God, not us.

Hedionda is about a 30 minute drive from General Cepeda.

On Wednesday we went to La Hedionda. (And yes, for those that know Spanish, it does mean "the stink.")  Hedionda was an ejido that we visited during some of the short-term trips and we feel in love with the people and the faith.   It did not take much for the chapel to fill when there were prayer services.   And in the Mexico, it is rare to see men in chapels or at church.   It tends to be women and children.   But here, men of all ages, teenagers through grandfathers show up!

The people of Hedionda praying over a missionary about to share a testimony.

Hedionda is actually two locations, an ejido, known as Hedionda Chica, and a private hacienda (farm) known as Hedionda Grande.   Of course Chica is the bigger or the two.   Go figure.   And yes that does mean that their names would be translated "little stink" and "big stink."  Both have chapels.   We had been going to the chapel at the ejido, and driving people from the hacienda to join us.  The people of hacienda had invited us to their chapel too.   So we decided to mix it up.

The point to the left is Hedionda Chica, the ejido, and Hedionda Grande, the hacienda, is the point labelled "unnamed road."

In preparing for the prayer service Wednesday evening, I felt the nudge to preach on the Gospel reading for the day, Matthew 18:15-20.

Jesus said to his disciples:
"If your brother sins against you,
go and tell him his fault between you and him alone.
If he listens to you, you have won over your brother.
If he does not listen,
take one or two others along with you,
so that every fact may be established
on the testimony of two or three witnesses.
If he refuses to listen to them, tell the Church.
If he refuses to listen even to the Church,
then treat him as you would a Gentile or a tax collector.
Amen, I say to you,
whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven,
and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
Again, amen, I say to you, if two of you agree on earth
about anything for which they are to pray,
it shall be granted to them by my heavenly Father.
For where two or three are gathered together in my name,
there am I in the midst of them."

When praying on the passage what struck me was the line, "treat him as you would a Gentile or a tax collector."   It has always sounded to me that Jesus is saying, if it reaches this point, wash your hands of them.   Forget about them and write them off.   But wait, this is Matthew's Gospel.   Matthew was a tax collector.   And how did Jesus treat him?   He pursued Matthew.   He broke bread with Matthew and sat at table with him.   In fact Jesus caused a little bit of a scandal to the point that others started questioning the disciples when Jesus called Matthew to follow him. "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners, " (Matthew 9:11).   And Jesus responds, "Those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do. Go and learn the meaning of the words, 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.' I did not come to call the righteous but sinners," Matthew 9:12-13).   Jesus' mercy and ministry knows no bounds.   He seeks out the lost and broken, offering mercy to all.   As Christians, we are all called to do the same and to follow Jesus' example.   This isn't just a suggestion, but it is something that we profess and pray.  "Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us."

In fact Matthew 18:15-20 is sandwiched smack between two parables of God's mercy.   Before, in Matthew 18:10-14, is the parable of lost sheep and the shepherd who leaves the ninety-nine to find the one.   Then in Matthew 18:21-35 is the parable of the unforgiving servant, where a servant is forgiven a huge debt due to his master, but is unwilling to forgive another servant who owes him only a little.

We are called to show mercy!   God desires to show mercy to even those who seem the most lost and most corrupt.   Tax collectors were considered scum and traitors to the people of Israel.   And yet who does Jesus seek out?   Who in our families, our communities, our churches, work places, etc. have we written off?   Of whom have we washed our hands?   Who are the people that we see in our towns, walking on the streets, that we just assume never see again and cast judgment?   I don't know if I can let Christ's love and His sacrifice on the Cross be in vain.  We are all called to be missionaries!   We are called to bring God's mercy to all!

I then felt led to lead those in gathered in prayer.   To pray for the grace to show God's mercy, for a out pouring of the Holy Spirit.   For those who have never experienced God's love, that they would have that encounter.   And for those who have, that they would discover God's love for them anew.   The whole church was on its knees.  Praise you Jesus!   We then prayed the Lord's Prayer, with hands reached across the aisles and gave the sign of peace to everyone else present.

Afterwards, we learned from some of the gentlemen just how much the Lord was working and the appropriateness of the theme for the evening.  For the past several years their have tensions and injuries between the two Hediondas over land and water.  The people of the hacienda have been pressured and hurt by the people of the ejido for not selling their land and water.   Their property has been in the family for the past four or five generations.   Their children have been bullied in school and they have been cast out.   There is need for mercy and forgiveness on both sides.   The fact that people from both chapels came, that all were all their knees in prayer, that hands were grasped during the Our Father, just makes everything so much more incredible.   Thank you Holy Spirit for working!

On Thursday, we had Fr. Humberto, the pastor of the parish, over for breakfast with our community.   During the discussion, we asked permission to make the Hediondas our ranchos that we will visit weekly.   We told him that we wanted to alternate between the two chapels week to week and that we have been impressed by the faith of the people.   He said yes!   God is so good!   He takes the little we have to offer and makes something beautiful!

Maria takes her piñata-ing very seriously.   No mercy for the mermaid.

Perfectly Imperfect- This Beautiful Mess

This past weekend we were at the North American FMC Summit in Saltillo, Mexico.  In FMC there are three regional Summits a year, usually in Mexico for North America.   The South American Summit is normally in Peru, and in the Philippines host the Asian Summit.  We were joined by four other Mexican missionary families, a Mexican single, two missionary families from Costa Rica, two singles from the US and the directors of FMC, Joseph and Brooke Summers, and their four boys.   It was a blessed time of fellowship, prayer and formation.

We were reminded through this year’s theme Como nos ama, or “How he loves,” that Jesus loves us because we are perfect.   Because we never sin; we never make mistakes; we never hurt others.   Because we are completely and totally qualified for the tasks and vocations to which He has called us.  That is also why He has called us to become missionaries.  We are perfect!   Perfect for the job!  

NO!

If there is any perfection in my life, it is that I am perfectly imperfect.   It is nice to know that I am in the good company of a long list of imperfect people called by God… Abraham, Moses, David, the prophets, Peter, Paul.   All of them screwed up and were unqualified yet God called them nevertheless for some mission.   The nation of Israel was “nothing special.”   Not only were they NOT (sorry for the double negative) the greatest of nations, but they were a nation of slaves!   And yet God saw them in their oppression and brokenness, in their physical and spiritual bondage, and He chose them.

Last Friday’s first reading from mass captures so this beautifully…

Moses said to the people:
"Ask now of the days of old, before your time,
ever since God created man upon the earth;
ask from one end of the sky to the other:
Did anything so great ever happen before?
Was it ever heard of?
Did a people ever hear the voice of God
speaking from the midst of fire, as you did, and live?
Or did any god venture to go and take a nation for himself
from the midst of another nation,
by testings, by signs and wonders, by war,
with his strong hand and outstretched arm, and by great terrors,
all of which the LORD, your God,
did for you in Egypt before your very eyes?
All this you were allowed to see
that you might know the LORD is God and there is no other.
Out of the heavens he let you hear his voice to discipline you;
on earth he let you see his great fire,
and you heard him speaking out of the fire.
For love of your fathers he chose their descendants
and personally led you out of Egypt by his great power,
driving out of your way nations greater and mightier than you,
so as to bring you in
and to make their land your heritage, as it is today.
This is why you must now know, and fix in your heart,
that the LORD is God in the heavens above and on earth below,
and that there is no other.
You must keep his statutes and commandments which I enjoin on you today,
that you and your children after you may prosper,
and that you may have long life on the land
which the LORD, your God, is giving you forever."

                                                            Deuteronomy 4:32-40

He loves us because we are so capable of making a mess!   Often we don’t know what we are doing, yet we are called.   We have to rely entirely on the Lord.   And in this way we can take none of the glory for ourselves, the glory is entirely and completely God’s.   A good missionary friend, Thomas Ogas, recently reminded me of Pope Francis’ message when he gave us and the church permission to try and not to be afraid to make a mess of things.

“If you make a mistake in your life, if you should fall, if you should do something wrong, don’t be afraid. Jesus, look at what I have done, what must I now do? Speak continually with Jesus, in the good times and in the bad, when you do right, and when you do wrong. Do not fear him! This is prayer. And through this, you train yourselves in dialogue with Jesus, in this path of being missionary disciples.”  Pope Francis World Youth Day 2013 in Rio de Janeiro.

A beautiful purple marker mess.

As missionaries, as disciples, as missionary disciples, we all need to try, to breakout of our molds, our perceived limitations and comforts, we need to make a mess and sometime fail all for the sake of being faithful to what God is calling us.   We need to be willing to be foolish for Christ.

Shortly after the Summit, Pepito, a good friend and aspiring missionary who also attended the Summit sent us a message.   His mother and younger sister were in a car accident on the expressway in Saltillo.   Their car rolled four times over the distance of about twenty to thirty yards.   Please pray for them.   Doctors say that they will be all right, but they are very sore and his mom is wearing a neck brace and will be in the hospital for a while.   When I first saw Pepito and before we knew the status, he was obviously upset, scared, and nervous.   My initial response and in my weakness, I was so aware of my inability to say and give any verbal comfort.   I felt as if my hands were chopped off.   I knew that best thing to say was, “I’m sorry.  I don’t know what to say.”   And I didn’t even know how to really say that in Spanish.   In my feelings of inadequacy, all I could do was be there with him, let him cry, place my hand on his shoulder, and silently pray.   Of course, anyone that has ever grieved or taken a course in counseling or pastoral care would say that ironically that is exactly what Pepito needed.   I had to step aside and let God work.  In my feelings of emptiness, God was able to use me to give what was required.

Our friend Pepito with Josh and Naomi.

 

I am perfectly imperfect for this job and mission.   I am going to make a mess and make mistakes in my ministries, friendship, family and community.  But this is where God is calling me, for His greater glory.