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What’s the weekly mettle maker?
Training tips and educational info in support of our free programs, that’s what! What’s mettle? Mettle is, “The ability to meet a challenge or persevere under demanding circumstances; determination or resolve.”
What’s new?
Our program is now called HERITAGE ROUGH ‘N’ TUMBLE. To understand why we’ve made this change, read this post .
Skin in the game is now required. The program is still free if you can’t afford a donation of $1/month — but you have to at least hang out with the crew each week or volunteer to be a social media promoter, blogger, researcher, newsletter editor, fundraiser, mentor, artist, or even come up with your own idea.
weekly fellowship Sundays at 11:30 Am et. click here to join via google meet!
Mettle maker #410: fishing, foraging, and fitness
On Friday I took a day off work. I skipped my usual martial arts and fitness training session and spent the day installing a new mailbox, putting a new 4-pin connector bracket on my vehicle, and making some small repairs on my adventure trailer. On Saturday I skipped another training session and went fishing instead.
Never be afraid to skip a fitness or martial arts training session in order to do a chore or engage in an outdoor activity. A Rough ‘n’ Tumbler cultivates a kind of strength that draws on added width, not rigidly enforced depth.
Fighting skills are no good without awareness skills. Nothing builds awareness skills like engagement in the outdoors.
Can you defend yourself against old age? Depression, anxiety, addiction? The 7 deadly sins?
And what about fitness? Fit for what? The gym? Or for life?
As Mark Hatmaker pointed out in a recent blog post,
“There is often more to combat than meets the eye. It is the milieu that forms the athlete. The social environment. The vocations and avocations of the individual…[Jack Dempsey, the Missouri Mauler said] “George Copelin, Bernie told me, was not only a good fighter but had earned a reputation as one of the best ore shovelers around. This was almost enough to make me change my mind [about the fight.]” Dempsey expressed this same caution about lumberjacks. It wasn’t fight prowess that bothered him. It was being rated a good axe man or a good shoveler.
If you want to be Rough ‘n’ Tumbler, go on adventures, do chores, live life to the fullest, and allow yourself to become the product of the milieu you create. Rough ‘n’ Tumble isn’t about learning techniques in isolation. It’s a way of moving in the world.
Interested in a totally free program that incorporates self-defense, fitness, outdoor skills, and spiritual development? Sign up for our free Rough ‘n’ Tumble Distance Learning Program!
Holy Eucharist is LIVE on YouTube every Sunday at 10 am EASTERn. Click HERE to watch live. To view and print a copy of the program for holy Eucharist, CLICK HERE.
Homily for the Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time 6/16/24 – Father Mitch
Readings: Ez 17:22-24, Ps 92:2-3, 13-14, 15-16, 2 Cor 5:6-10, Mk 4:26-34
Mark 4:26-34 World English Bible
Jesus said to the crowds:
26 He said, “God’s Kingdom is as if a man should cast seed on the earth, 27 and should sleep and rise night and day, and the seed should spring up and grow, though he doesn’t know how. 28 For the earth bears fruit by itself: first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. 29 But when the fruit is ripe, immediately he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”
30 He said, “How will we liken God’s Kingdom? Or with what parable will we illustrate it? 31 It’s like a grain of mustard seed, which, when it is sown in the earth, though it is less than all the seeds that are on the earth, 32 yet when it is sown, grows up and becomes greater than all the herbs, and puts out great branches, so that the birds of the sky can lodge under its shadow.”
33 With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it. 34 Without a parable he didn’t speak to them; but privately to his own disciples he explained everything.
Ezekiel references, in our Old Testament reading today, the great cedars of Lebanon. These massive trees, in the pine family, were famous in the ancient world, and remain so today, for good reason. They can grow to a staggering 130 feet in height, with trunks up to 8 feet in diameter, and they are among the world's longest living trees. Without a doubt there are living cedars in Lebanon that were standing when Jesus walked the earth. Trees are lungs of the world, taking in what we exhale, removing the carbon, and exhaling fresh oxygen. Imagine this brothers and sisters: if those trees could talk, they might testify to the sweet breath of our Lord Jesus which they tasted for the thirty-three years he walked the earth.
In Jesus’ day, most Jews would’ve been familiar with Ezekiel’s prophecy. We must remember that Hebrew religious tradition stressed the importance of publicly reading the scripture, and that there was, at the time, a great debate about when and where the messiah would come. They would’ve understood Ezekiel’s prophecy to be about God restoring the kingdom of Israel to greatness. They would’ve thought that God was going to take a cutting from the top of the mighty cedar – someone on David’s family tree – make him king and elevate him to a high place among the nations.
With that in mind, notice what Jesus does with Ezekiel’s metaphor. Jesus makes it incredibly immanent, personal, and inviting. Yes, a new shoot of the family tree of David will grow, like a mighty, noble cedar, into a great kingdom. Jesus is of the line of David, and his Kingdom is coming, a Kingdom that is not of this world (John 18:36). But here, in the parable of the mustard seed, Jesus is inviting us participate.
What can we do? Well, we’re not offshoots of a mighty cedar. No, we’re not even trees! In fact, we’re more like humble little mustard plants grown from seeds. But we can grow to an incredible size. Like the mustard plant in Jesus’ parable, we can provide spiritual shelter to many by participating in the Kingdom of God. Where is it, this Kingdom? It’s everywhere and yet nowhere. It is within and among us (Luke 17:20-21). It is wherever two or three are gathered in his name (Matthew 18:19-20). It's a Kingdom where anyone can go without a donkey or shoes, without a car or a plane ticket; a Kingdom we can all participate in creating; a place where we all belong.
St. Paul sees all of this, and we do too, because, as he says in today’s reading, “we walk by faith, not by sight.” (2 Cor 5:7). Only a physical kingdom can be seen with the eyes. But God’s Kingdom only be seen by faith. And so by faith we see that Ezekiel’s prophecy is fulfilled.
For through Adam a living tree brought death to the world; but a dead tree, a cross of wood, brought life to the world through Jesus Christ.