Colossians 3:1-6 (New International Version)
“1Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. 2Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. 3For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. 4When Christ, who is your[a] life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
5Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. 6Because of these, the wrath of God is coming.”
I have chosen this forum to become an avenue to reflect on the readings of the Sunday Lectionary. Many people believe that those of us of a catholic persuasion can only preach, teach and read from the Lectionary, not so. Therefore I have chosen to depart some from the prescribed Sunday Lessons to bring a different lesson.
Sunday, February 7 will be almost a National Holiday here in the United States, Super Bowl Sunday! Yes, people will grill even in the chill of winter, eat, drink and be merry. Sounds familiar?
This year brings the Indianapolis Colts and the New Orleans Saints to clash in the field where blood, sweat and tears are shed, as well as millions of dollars to see grown men playing.
The New Orleans, Louisiana Saints are the underdog. For years they were an embarrasment for the National Football League (NFL) and even to the very people of New Orleans and the State of Louisiana. Having lived in Louisiana for more than ten years I remember well that people were so embarrassed of their team that the few that attended their home games will even wear paper bags over their heads as a sign of the shame they bear over their always losing team.
That began to turn around after hurricane Katrina. The Saints lost their home arena, the Super Dome and left their city as an itinerant Methodist minister to deliver the news of a devastated city that was seeking hope and help.
Louisiana is a different place, having been a Spanish and French colony the mixture of traditions, languages and culture has produced a mixture that we might as well called “The Gumbo of the United States.”
Among that particular differences of the people of Louisiana that we find is their expressions. There is their famous “Ya’ll”, “I am fixing to go to, do or act on anything.” In Louisiana there are always fixing something and after so many years there I must say that I spend a good time “fixing” something too. One of those expressions they have is “WhoDat?”
“WhoDat?” became a chanting of victory to the Saints fans who became the “WhoDat Nation.” Once their beloved, and now winning, New Orleans Saints clinched the oportunity to enter the Super Bowl, I was there by the way, shirts, bumper stickers, caps and all kind of paraphernalia pop up with the expression “WhoDat?” That is until the NFL step in and said: don’t dare, we own the rights to the expression “WhoDat?” And I asked myself since when?
Then I realized that this is just the NFL claims were just an expression of good old fashioned GREED! And the Bible says that greed is nothing but idolatry, the most despised sin before the One God. A dear brother and I were talking about capitalism and he stated to me that there is nothing wrong about capitalism since he holds to the very traditional view that capitalism is nothing else but the freedom to own property. Well, that sounds wonderful but it only takes two minutes of TV commercials in this Country to realize that capitalism has become more than owning property but owning all we can, as much as we desired no matter the consequences or the means. And people wonder why our entire economy almost collapsed. My mother is use to say, paper will hold anything that you want to write on it. This is not the case of credit cards, unsecured loans and sub-prime mortgages. I am not an economist but I can recognized sin and the main instigator of it.
Well I will remind you of what the Second Lesson for today teaches
1st Corinthians 15:3 (NRSV)
“For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures.”
We need to repent from our sin of greed that is idolatry and realized that “WhoDat” belongs to people of Louisiana and certainly not to the NFL.
