EVENT DATE PUSHED TO OCTOBER 6TH - 8TH
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What’s the weekly mettle maker? Training tips and educational information in support of our free programs, that’s what! What’s mettle? According the American Heritage Dictionary, mettle is, “The ability to meet a challenge or persevere under demanding circumstances; determination or resolve.”
Mettle Maker #352
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tHIS WEEK WE’RE REPOSTING AN OLD BUT A GOODIE FROM THIS TIME 3 YEARS AGO (METTLE MAKER #206) FROM 5/2/2020. eNJOY!
Martial Arts: Warm-up thoroughly for at at least 8 minutes. Do 2-3 minutes each of (a) jumping rope (b) light calisthenics and (c) shadowboxing, mettle drills, or light heavy bag work, or 8 minutes of MBF. Then do a “Martial Arts Mix and Match.” Put in 4 rounds of action (beginner/intermediate 2:00 each, advanced 3:00) for a total of 8 to 12 minutes. Take as few 12-second breaks as you need. Do one round each of Lunges, Clocks, Low Crawl, Sled Pulls/Yanks. See video, left. Did you know we offer a free martial arts distance learning program? Click here to sign up.
Fitness: Do this the constitutional pictured on the right. Need help developing and sticking with a fitness program? Interested in learning outdoor skills? We’ve got both! Check our our free distance learning programs.
Wildwood: Wind direction study. When you choose or make shelter, or just set up your camp, need to do so with cognizance of wind direction. You don’t want the wind blowing smoke and/or freezing air into your winter shelter, for example. Go for a walk and practice studying the terrain. Look at trees, from trunk to top. Examine the soil around them. Look at exposed ground, sand, and so forth. If you’re in town, or in the suburbs, look to see where debris and trash are accumulating. With just a little regular practice, you get really good at determining the prevailing wind direction. Interested in learning outdoor skills? We’ve got both! Check our our free distance learning programs.
BONUS: Practice the Galahad Maneuver. Pick something you know isn’t good for you and make a substitution — a food or beverage, a form of entertainment, or even a person who’s a negative influence. Just 5 minutes of serious thought will reveal a list of stuff you know you shouldn’t be eating, watching, doing or associating with. Start with one of the easy ones and substitute a better choice. This is the trail-head that leads to the mountaintop of sacrifice. Keep going and perhaps one day you’ll come to see the world the way that Sir Galahad saw it when he said, “If I lose myself I save myself.” He gave away his wants and needs until there was only one thing left to relinquish — his ego. Remember, Galahad was the only Knight of the Round Table who saw the Grail. You are not your tastes, your needs, your wants, your favorites, or hobbies, or any of that. You are something much more than that. But you have to strip some things away to begin to see it. CLICK HERE to join our email list and to begin participating in church activities. And if you need someone to talk to, CLICK HERE to set up a phone call with archdeacon Mitch.
Holy Communion is now LIVE on YouTube every Sunday at 9AM. Due to YouTube LIVE processing times, the weekly Holy Communion video is often partial until late afternoon or evening. If you attempt to view the video, and running time is less than 40 to 45 minutes, please check back later.
CLICK HERE TO VIEW AND PRINT THE HOLY COMMUNION PROGRAM
Homily for the Third Sunday of Easter, Sunday 4/23/23 – Archdeacon Mitch
Readings: Acts 2:14, 22-33, Ps 16:1-2, 5, 7-8, 9-10, 11, 1 Pt 1:17-21, Lk 24:13-35
Luke 24:13-25 World English Bible Catholic Edition
13 Behold, two of them were going that very day to a village named Emmaus, which was sixty stadia* from Jerusalem. 14 They talked with each other about all of these things which had happened. 15 While they talked and questioned together, Jesus himself came near, and went with them. 16 But their eyes were kept from recognizing him. 17 He said to them, “What are you talking about as you walk, and are sad?”
18 One of them, named Cleopas, answered him, “Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who doesn’t know the things which have happened there in these days?”
19 He said to them, “What things?”
They said to him, “The things concerning Jesus the Nazarene, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people; 20 and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death, and crucified him. 21 But we were hoping that it was he who would redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things happened. 22 Also, certain women of our company amazed us, having arrived early at the tomb; 23 and when they didn’t find his body, they came saying that they had also seen a vision of angels, who said that he was alive. 24 Some of us went to the tomb and found it just like the women had said, but they didn’t see him.”
25 He said to them, “Foolish people, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Didn’t the Christ have to suffer these things and to enter into his glory?” 27 Beginning from Moses and from all the prophets, he explained to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.
28 They came near to the village where they were going, and he acted like he would go further.
29 They urged him, saying, “Stay with us, for it is almost evening, and the day is almost over.”
He went in to stay with them. 30 When he had sat down at the table with them, he took the bread and gave thanks. Breaking it, he gave it to them. 31 Their eyes were opened and they recognized him; then he vanished out of their sight. 32 They said to one another, “Weren’t our hearts burning within us while he spoke to us along the way, and while he opened the Scriptures to us?” 33 They rose up that very hour, returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven gathered together, and those who were with them, 34 saying, “The Lord is risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!” 35 They related the things that happened along the way, and how he was recognized by them in the breaking of the bread.
Brothers and sisters, in today’s Gospel reading we meet two disciples leaving Jerusalem in sadness, headed the wrong way. Incredible things have happened and continued to happen, but they’re leaving the Holy City. If this were a movie, we’d be yelling at the screen, “turn around, go back, you’re missing everything!” But you see, they hadn’t seen the meaning in the prophecies and in Jesus’ teaching. They had been sent into a tailspin by his death on a cross. They were, in a sense, lost.
Isn’t that what this culture, this nation, is doing? Going in the wrong direction? Failing to see the meaning of the scriptures? Failing to understand the prophecies? Each year in the U.S. fifteen hundred churches shut their doors forever. We too are headed away from Jerusalem, running from the truth.
But Jesus was with the disciple Cleopas and his companion, right there in their midst, his identity unrecognized. Jesus asks them to recount the events that had taken place, and to explain why they’re sad, and they do. They know everything. They have their facts straight and they can relate the proceedings perfectly. But, as we know, there is no meaning inherent in facts. Knowing facts is mere knowledge; wisdom is knowing what to do. And so Jesus illuminates the events, the scriptures, and prophecies to them in such a way they begin to understand. They ask for more. When he appears to them in the breaking of the bread, it all comes together for them. They get beyond the mere facts and receive wisdom -- that is, they begin to know what they must do. They immediately change direction. They head back to the Holy City of Jerusalem to rejoin the other disciples.
This culture also knows the facts. The facts are all over the news! We’re in the midst of a mental health crisis. The demons of depression, addiction, apathy, and hopelessness drive 1.2 million people each year to attempt suicide in our country – about one-in-five of them teens – a 50% increase in the last twenty years. Over 100,000 died from overdoses last year, five times more than just twenty years ago. Just like Cleopas and his fellow disciple, this culture knows the facts, but it doesn’t see the meaning. Jesus is walking among us right now. But we don’t engage with him, we don’t have dialogue with him. We don’t allow him to show us the meaning beyond the facts and the data. And so, this culture continues to flounder. It lacks wisdom. It has no idea what to do.
The good news is this, everybody. It’s what Jesus spoke to us when he was mercilessly nailed to the cross, as we read in Luke 23:34: “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.” Jesus Christ is well aware that this culture and this nation knows not what it is doing. Thank God, as Jesus himself has said, ignorance indeed a valid excuse. He forgives us, even as he forgave those who crucified him.
There is still time to engage with him in dialogue. To listen. To accept his wisdom. To change direction and return to the Holy City.
* 24:13 60 stadia = about 11 kilometers or about 7 miles.