Luke 12:49-53 8-14-2022 (As built, Amite #507)
- Chameleon… in other words… who’s side are you on… the proverbial walk on the fence…
- The year is seventeen seventy-four or seventy-five… our country our colonies… area about to embark on a great war… the revolutionary war… one for our freedom… and as a result… man everybody is trying to decide what to do… but I got to tell you there is one guy… there is no doubt… whose side he’s on… there’s no doubt that he’s not a chameleon… I mean he’s picked his side… I mean truly we had no worries… no doubts… no concerns… where this guy sat… I mean look… his dad… or excuse me his grandfather… is the governor of Connecticut… is one of the colonies… as a result… man there’s no doubt who’s side he’s going to be on… his dad is an affluent businessman… and therefor makes his money through the colonies… and moreover… he's a pharmacist by trade… he’s one of the few pharmacist in the colonies… as a result he does exceptionally well… he also binds books… he also owns three ships… he does a lot of international trade… there’s no doubt who’s side he’s on… well then man word of the war is about to break out… in particular… the battle of New York… the battle of Saratoga… I’d hate to say that this battle’s winner will determine the war… as if one person can make up a team… but I got to tell you… whoever wins this one… surly has the upper hand… so as a result of it man everybody’s trying to decide… who are they going to make the lead guy… they… no doubt about it… he would even tell you… look it’s going to be me… I’m the right one for the job… not in an arrogant way… but just in a confident way… well they don’t give him the job… they give it to a guy by the name of Gates… and as a result the problem with Gates… is Gates is a granny… give him a question… give him a problem… and go do something for a month and then come back and you might get an answer… his decision is maybe and that’s final… the problem is he doesn’t make for a good general… so as a result… this guy goes… to him and sees him… and says look… you got to start making decisions granny… because if you don’t we got people dying out here… he get’s house arrest… he’s thrown in jail… man next thing you know the colonies are losing the battle of New York… I mean it’s going south… well man by the time they get him under house arrest he can’t take it… he decided… man he breaks out from the jail… the house arrest if you will… jumps a horse… grabs a saber… no doubt about it… runs headlong into the British lines… man people couldn’t believe what they just saw… everybody just started attacking… we win the battle of New York because of this guy… I’m telling you they called him Americas Hannibal… that’s how powerful he became… as a result of it man when the time came for you know for Washington to say man… thanks to this person we won this battle… who do they give the award to… Granny Gates… this guy about looses it… he get’s so mad… he actually sells one of the forts… that he doesn’t own… to the British… he says if you make me a Navy officer… a Brigadier General… I’ll be part of your Navy… and I need twenty thousand pounds to go with it… you know what’s amazing… when they talked to Ben Franklin… he said you know… Judas only betrayed one person… Benedict Arnold betrayed three million… my brothers and sisters in Christ that’s a chameleon…
- And that… more or less is the gospel my brothers and sisters in Christ… it’s all about the good Lord saying is there is going to be divisions… it will be three against two… two against three… oh how I wish the world was on fire… but it is not… so therefore I have come to put it ablaze… now stop… you need to understand who’s speaking here… first of all this is Luke… Luke is a physician by trade… Luke is very Jewish… so he’s speaking to people of very Jewish descent… he has never met Christ… he is a follower of Paul… but he’s very doctor-ish… he’s very analytical… he’s very protracted… he’s trying to hone in on just a specific point… when he says three against two and two against three… he’s saying it’s going to be everywhere… he’s saying that this is how it will be… and just so you know from the Jewish perspective… when the good Lord said the world by fire… every Jew knew… that when the good Lord would come back the second time… he would not destroy the world by flood like he did the first time… he would destroy those that weren’t listening by fire… so for him to say that… the Jews believe that when he came back that that is what’s coming… and that is what Luke is telling him when he comes for his second coming… this is why he’s coming… he’s actually going to separate the sheep from the goats… you can say he’s all loving… but he’s all just… my brothers and sisters in Christ he’s warning people… do not be a chameleon…
- Now look… go back in scripture… we got some players out there that were chameleons from the get go… there is no greater chameleon… then Herod the great… Herod convinced everybody that he was a Jew… even though he was an edomite… he wasn’t even Jewish… he convinced them by building the temple… so they could put the Ark of the Covenant in… he wanted to be called Herod the great… why… because he wanted them to see him as the new King… as Christ coming back… this is why he gets so upset… when the wise men say man where is the newborn king… that means he knows that the new king has come… that will expose him as an edomite… so Herod is a chameleon… he pretends to be Jewish… but at the end of the day it’s only to stay in control… my brothers and sisters in Christ… Judas would be a chameleon… I walked with Christ… I proclaimed him to be the savior of the world… I even held the mans money… he even ate with me every day… and when push comes to shove… not only am I not one of the twelve… I’m the one that betrays him… and remember this… Judas’s biggest mistake is not turning our savior over… it’s not saying I’m sorry… he did not believe that Christs love for him could overcome him betraying him… his biggest mistake was not remitting his sin… my brothers in Christ that is a chameleon… you can’t going around saying he’s the Messiah… and hold his money and proclaim him to be the savior of the world… and then the last thing Christ says about him… it’d be better you’d never been born… Pilate is a chameleon… Pilate wants the Jewish people to stay under control… why… because he doesn’t want to deal with it… he wants to keep the Jews under control because his pontificate if you will… runs without blemish… well guess what… he aligns himself with the Jewish pharisees and Sadducees… to condemn Christ… so if you truly are a Jewish man… and this man is the king of the Jews… then why wouldn’t you make sure you got to the bottom of it… but yet you washed your hands of it… man you’re a chameleon…
- My brothers and sisters in Christ here you and I sit two thousand years later… man nothing’s changed… you’re either in or you’re out… you either believe or you don’t… you’re either Catholic… or you are not… my brothers and sisters in Christ… nowhere in scripture does it say that you can pick and chose which sacraments you decide to follow… I mean my brothers and sisters in Christ if I were to walk through today and ask you… do you confess your sins to a priest… or do you … go to the big guy directly… big guy never said that… big guy never wrote that… as a matter of fact in Hebrews five… he said I will chose priest among men for the forgiveness of sins… but nobody should take it upon themselves… but yet we decide that we can go to ourselves… my brothers and sisters in Christ it’s patently wrong… Leviticus four five and six… he tells you that this priesthood… that this sacrifice was already in play… long before I got here… Matthew five… I came to fulfill the law not change it… if confession was in play before… then I can’t change it now… my brothers and sisters in Christ as a Catholic participant… as a Catholic believer… you must go and be confirmed… oh that’s right we’re trying to decide whether it’s the right thing… really… you need to decide… whether the church is true… you need to decide whether or not she is ever virgin… you need to decide whether communion is the body blood soul and divinity… well may I suggest that you get on you horse and go figure it out… because when you don’t stand up and confirm what your parents said for you at baptism… means you’re a chameleon… because you haven’t spent the time to figure it out… and as a result of it… you’re waiting for I don’t know… an epiphany to come… how is it that you take time to study… and before you blame the church or you blame me for not explaining scripture to you… may I remind you… that if you went to mass once a week… once a week… for three years… you have read the whole bible… I’ve been here twelve years… four times over… we ain’t got an excuse… my brothers and sisters in Christ you got to stand up and confirm what you believe and stop walking the fence… you got to stand up and believe… and say I believe in all the sacraments… that the eucharist is the body blood soul and divinity… and I don’t care how lackadaisical a priest is when he raises it… I don’t care that he doesn’t seem to be nonchalant… or he doesn’t pray with passion… at the end of the day the Eucharist is the source and summon of our life… along with the Gospel… you can’t separate those two… My brothers and sisters in Christ you got to be willing to go to adoration… are you a catholic or are you not… I’ll tell you what… let’s see… when you walk out of church and you’re at work… and everybody’s around the dinner table or the lunch table or you’re talking with friends or you’re having a few beers… and well you wont be praying them skip that part… okay you’re sitting back and you’re at work and then somebody says man let us pray… why don’t you start… you breaking out that sign of the cross… or you giving them one of these… you going to break out the Hail Mary… Kudos to you for the courage… are you going to defend the fact that she’s ever virgin… oh that’s right… he’s got many brothers and sisters… it’s really not a make or break deal… have you lost your minds… it’s not a make or break deal… my brothers and sisters in Christ if couldn’t touch the Tabernacle which was a box… in the old testament… that had the ten commandments… manna from heaven… and the staff of Aaron… if you couldn’t touch a box… you touch the box you die… who touched… who’s the dead… that Joseph could have relations with her… may I suggest that you go back and study scripture in their language… because everybody could read it in English… the problem is nobody spoke it… so when the Angel appeared to Mary and said… nah see… there’s the problem… he never said Hail Mary… he called her by her title… Hail full of Grace… and he’s speaking to her in past tense… in other words the jar was full of water… from the very minute of your inception you were full of grace… from the minute that you and I stand here you are full of grace… the minute you pass you are full of grace… that means death will not enter you because death only enters through sin… so when the angel spoke to Mary and every Jew knows this… and so should every Catholic… the very beginning of Luke’s Gospel says when Mary was betrothed to Joseph… for one year he has got to get his game on… to make sure that the wedding is prepared… there’s house for them to go… and then they consummate the marriage… for her to make the proclamation that I do not know man… to the angel… means he had to already agree with it… because if he doesn’t agree with it… she doesn’t speak to it… because she doesn’t have a vote… only the men do… hence why they only count the men in scripture… this is why they’re so upset in the genealogy when four prostitutes show up… he’s still trying to prove the fact… that I can make straight the crooked ways of man… the point I’m trying to tell you is that every Jew knows that she could not have other children… how do you and I know it… because as a Jew at the crucifixion when Christ is on the cross and he says woman behold your son… son behold your mother… if he had other brothers and sisters… and he gave his mom to John… who’s the brother of James… who belonged to another woman… he broke the law… subjected her to forty lashes… and he broke the fourth commandment… so when you tell me it’s not worth defending because it makes no difference… it makes all the difference… because that’s why he called her woman… in other words in the garden of Eden her name is woman… death came through a woman… life must come through a woman… it has to be without isn’t… it has to be without sin… Adam and Eve were born without sin… so must the new Adam and the new Eve be born without sin… my brothers and sisters in Christ are you willing to defend your faith… and you can’t keep relying on the fact that I just don’t know… well when was the last time you took the bible… did you even bring one to church… that’s my point… my brothers and sisters in Christ I don’t care if you bring it in when you come in here… you need to write in it… so when I explain these things you got it… you understand it… you know where they’re going … man I get it… I’ve learned… I’m one step further up the road… don’t you understand… when the time comes for you and I to be judged… that’s it… there’s no arbitration or mediation… or understanding or some consultation… you and I the very nanosecond we die… that’s it… done… no argument… Life eternal… hell or heaven… and yes there is a purgatory… stop looking for a English word in a book written in Greek… I’m telling you this because you can not be a chameleon… you can not say you are catholic… and you are part in and part out… contrary to what the president of the United States says… you cant be both and… you’re either in or you’re out… my brothers and sisters in Christ and let me remind you… regardless of what the speaker of the house says or doesn’t say… what the president says or doesn’t say… and to a certain extent whatever the pontiff says… to a certain point is irrelevant… why… because at the end of the day you know the truth… and you know exactly what it means to be a Catholic… and there are seven sacraments… and that there are ten commandments… and you are either all in or all out… my brothers and sisters in Christ you make sure you understand this… you better learn to plant your flag now because of the road that you and I are on… you need to understand that a marriage is between a man and woman… end of story… that’s how he created it… that’s the garden of Eden… that’s the wedding at Canaan… that’s why he went… to prove to you that’s how it’s supposed to go down… there are no exceptions... that’s it… in the garden of Eden you were either a man or a woman… those are your choices… and they’ve already been made for you…
- My brothers and sisters in Christ I leave you with the words of Abraham Lincoln… who told you when they asked him… Mr. Lincoln… do you think God is on our side or their side… he said… all I care about is that I’m on Gods side… he said why… because he doesn’t change his mind… he’s not a chameleon… plant your flag my brothers and sisters in Christ the time has come…
- Amen
