My First Sermon... in a Catholic Church (2002)

When I first dedicated my life to Christ in early 2002, I was attending St. Helen's Catholic Church in Vero Beach. I immediately began donating my time to all sorts of programs within the church... finance committee member, youth group director, and stewardship team. I even helped to develop a youth mass for Sunday nights with contemporary music. I can remember getting into a little trouble for telling the kids that confession and the infallibility of the Pope was nonsense. Nevertheless, Father Edwards was bold enough to allow me to deliver a ten-minute sermonette on stewardship (giving). But I preached the following message:

Good Morning and Happy Fathers Day. (June 16, 2002)

Today, we give thanks to all of our dads. I certainly don’t know where I would be without my dad. He has always been a source of love and support regardless of the circumstance that I had backed myself into. When I was young, whether in good times or in trouble, he would remind me of the talents that God gave me. What an enormous boost that would give me as a young boy! I can remember that he had a poster that hung in his office. It was a picture of a young boy with a pouting look on his face, his arms crossed and it read, “I know I’m special because God don’t make no junk”. How true it is! Often times, it is hard for us to really grasp this simple reality. We are all beautiful people… children of God. Yet, we clothe ourselves (our self-images) in our shortcomings: Marital problems, financial hardships, our disappointments, our health, loneliness, or even problems with the Church or maybe a lack of a good relationship with God.

Our church should be a place where we can lay these shortcomings down and leave them behind… where we can experience the fellowship that the Lord intended for Christians to have, a place where we can leave feeling refreshed and charged by the Holy Spirit, and a time during our week that we look forward to… every Sunday.

I may not have gone to school at St. Helens, but I grew up in the Church. I was an altar boy for nine years. I have been a member of St. Helens for nearly twenty years as a regular parishioner. My parents raised me to be a good Christian, but it wasn’t until this past year that I really got it. I was at a point in my life in which I was overwhelmed with stress, guilt, and frustration. I did not have any major problems in my life. I just couldn’t handle the problems that I did have. I did not know how to ask God for help. I had always looked at God as a reactive God.

He was the umpire and I was the pitcher. At this time in my life, I was getting shelled. I felt like there were no outs and the bases were loaded. And I had nothing left to throw.

It was hard for me to ask God for help. After all, the umpire never comes out to check on the pitcher’s arm. It was while I was in the dumps and I felt like a black cloud was over my head, that God showed me another one of his roles. He is our Coach. He called time-out, calmed me down, and got me re-focused on what’s important. I needed the break, and I realized that God is not just an objective judge. He wants us to win.

There are going to be times when I face problems that I can not solve… there will be shots from the plate that make it beyond the reach of my glove. That is why He provides us teammates. With the Holy Spirit and all my Christian friends, I do not feel like I am responsible for covering the entire baseball field. And that’s why he gave us the Holy Spirit and each other. The pitcher cannot chase flyballs to the outfield from the pitcher’s mound and expect to catch them. Likewise, there are problems that we cannot solve alone. We need share our life with God and each other, and that is what Stewardship is all about. God not only wants for us to share our time, talents, and treasure… God wants us to share our problems, our friendship, and enthusiasm. We need to yield our life to God. After all, he brought us in to this world, and he will take us out.

God wanted us to be supportive of each other. Jesus called us to be fishers of men. But many of us, including me, come to mass… week after week… and never introduce ourself to the person right beside us. Is that a Christian thing to do? Jesus called us to be fishers of men, but many of us don’t even know the people in our own boat. Folks! Look around. How many people do you see that are my age? It is time that we get our lines in the water.

It’s time that we get back to the basics of being a Christian. Sure, it is easy to let your mind get caught up in the headlines: pedophile priests, embezzling scandals, and cover-ups. It’s sickening.

But we cannot afford to take our eye off of the ball.

I would like for you to imagine that you are lost. You and those around you have been living your lives in sin; you are ignorant that Jesus Christ, our savior, even exists. One day, a man comes into your town. He is teaching all about Jesus, his teachings, and his miracles. Soon, you see the lives of those around you begin to change. Your own life is dramatically changed, and you build a great relationship with God. Of course, you admire the man who showed you the way. He was responsible for the most important conversion of your life, and you are convinced that he is a great man because he has dedicated his entire life to Jesus.

Now imagine that one day your mentor abandons his faith. He commits what is probably the most terrible sin in history. How would this affect your faith? Would it be shaken? Shattered? Would you walk away from the Church? Would you walk away from Almighty God?

I am not speaking of any Catholic Bishop.  2000 years ago, Jesus handpicked Judas (who would later betray him) to be one of twelve apostles. Was this a mistake? No. Jesus knew that he was to be betrayed. He announced it at the Last Supper. So, why didn’t he flee for safety? I believe that He wanted to show us one more time that man is fallible. 

Judas was fallible. Peter denied Christ three times at Christ’s roughest moment. Peter was fallible. They all doubted Christ in the rough seas before Christ stilled the waters. All of the apostles were fallible. Yet, Christ selected each of them. 

In the Catholic profession of faith, we claim to be a part of a Catholic and Apostolic Church. The American Heritage Dictionary defines the word apostolic as: “Of or relating to an apostle.” This Church is apostolic! We carry our roots in the apostles… in sinful men. Should we blame Christ for his selection of fallible men? Of course not! All men were fallible. Man is no less fallible today. Does that make these despicable actions acceptable? No way. But, it once again reminds us to place our trust… our faith… in God alone.

We will all face a judgment. After all, life is a terminal illness, and we cannot pitch that perfect game necessary to win the game on our own merits. Regardless of how we live our life, we will enter the bottom of the ninth… down by one on the scoreboard. Then, the game cannot be won with our pitches. It is much too late to reverse our pitches from earlier innings. Even if we could reverse our pitches… no man, by his own actions, is worthy to enter the Kingdom of God. You will have given your all, and it will not have been enough. But it is while we were down, hopeless, and ashamed (in the bottom of the ninth), that Jesus came to bat “clean-up”.

And with that… we will see victory.

There are too many people in this world that are putting themselves through an unneeded “shelling”. They are chasing fly balls to the outfield from the pitcher’s mound with no chance of catching them, they are going to bat for themselves in the bottom of the ninth, and they will lose if they play alone. They need a Coach, Teammates, and Fans. And with the right support and the Grace of God, the umpire will find us safe at home.

We should crave that for ourselves and for those around us. This Father’s Day… That should be something that all moms and dads desire for their children. It is certainly what God, our Father, desires for us … He wants us to win!