Pentecost XIII Proper 17
It is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come. Listen to me.
Evil has no existence in and of itself.
This does not mean evil is an illusion. It also does not mean evil is a matter of personal opinion. Evil is a corruption of Love. The foundation of evil is separation from God. It is the exercise of real choice to say no to the essential qualities of love. Those essential qualities are compassion and holiness, service to other people and worship of God.
Evil is a self created parasite that feeds upon fear, self will and pride. The goal of Christ is not to destroy evil but to transform it back into its original essence. That essence is eternal love.
The religious leaders of Jesus’ day missed this fundamental truth. They had been influenced by the dualistic philosophies and religions of the surrounding pagan cultures that taught evil is an equal and opposite power to good. This is called dualism.
Dualism is a misunderstanding of duality. Duality is simply the observation that there are opposites in the world as we experience it. There is light and dark. There is hot and cold. There is pleasure and pain. There is life and death.
Dualism attempts to provide a reason for duality. The reason it offers posits the scenario that there is a god of light who is good, and a god of darkness who is evil. Humans are stuck in the middle between an eternal conflict of good and evil.
Dualism teaches that the problem confronting humanity is in a lack of knowledge or a lack of will to chose good and reject evil. Dualism teaches the solution to the problem is the right knowledge and/or right behavior.
Religions that emphasize right knowledge speak in the categories of enlightenment. The enlightened soul is the soul that has the secret knowledge of the Dualistic nature of the universe. The strategy for living on earth that this form of religion emphasizes is withdrawal. In Jesus’ day the religious group that most embodied this approach were the Essenes.
The Essenes believed that they and they alone had the secret knowledge about the nature of reality. That knowledge led them to separate from society into their own self contained and closed compounds in the desert where they performed their rituals and studied esoteric books about the coming apocalyptic war between good and evil.
The problem with enlightenment is how do you really know that you have the right knowledge? Who do you trust to teach you?
How can you be sure you are performing the right rituals, doing the right meditation, or reading the right books? The emphasis on right knowledge leads to pride or despair. Pride that I have it and you don’t. Despair that I can never be certain I am perfectly enlightened if I continue to live in the complex world of duality. To achieve any sense of certain knowledge I need to isolate myself from the world. In that isolation the soul experiences even greater levels of pain, the recycled pain of suffering and finally despair.
Those who emphasize right behavior speak in the categories of righteousness. The righteous are the ones who by their own will submit to the absolute and inflexible will of God as revealed in the Law of Moses. The problem with submission to the Law is who gets to interpret the Law? There were dozens of religious movements in Israel that claimed they had the one and the only interpretation of Moses that would produce righteousness.
In the gospel reading this morning we see how these groups, the Pharisees and the Scribes, argued amongst themselves over the proper way to wash their hands, their cups, pots and bronze vessels. They also disputed about the proper clothes to wear, the exact time of day when the Sabbath began and every detail about living. None of this debate appears in the Law of Moses. It was all a creation of religious lawyers who believed so passionately that righteousness is right behavior, perfect behavior, that they developed an incredibly complex commentary that attempted to define every aspect of human behavior.
Law based religion is a system of debits and credits. It requires religious lawyers, religious accountants, religious judges and religions courts. In the end, law based religion faces the same problem as knowledge based religion. It becomes inflexible. It cannot force every aspect of this world of duality into a rigid system of Dualistic perfection. It leads to insufferable pride or unbearable despair.
There is a third form of religion Jesus encountered. It is religion based in aggression. The Zealots believed right religion is not just based on right knowledge which leads to withdrawal, or on right behavior which leads to submission, but on right action that leads to focused and purposeful aggression. The Zealots preached and practiced holy war. They demanded direct action against the unrighteous. Sadly, as with the terrorists of the 21st century, the first century Zealots spent most of their aggression against their fellow Jews who followed the way of law or knowledge, who failed the test of perfect action.
Into this tumultuous and violent religious conflict Jesus appeared bringing a very different message. Jesus embraced the dualistic nature of the world as it is. Jesus rejected the philosophy of Dualism that spoke in absolute terms of good and evil; that produced religions of aggression, submission or withdrawal.
Jesus affirmed the essential unity of God, the reality that we live in a universe. Jesus not only taught but he embodied the truth that the unity of God is the love of God.
Jesus taught that perfection is not expressed in an accountant’s leger of debits and credits. Perfection is not submission to Law. Perfection is the total immersion of the soul in the never ending process of transformation in divine love and compassion. Perfection is surrender to the Beloved.
Jesus proclaimed that God just doesn’t have love God is love.
Jesus taught what Moses and the prophets taught. The problem confronting the human race is not wrong knowledge, wrong behavior or wrong action. The problem is not even in the duality of pleasure and pain. The problem confronting the human race is separation.
Separation is not about law, knowledge or action. Separation is about relationship. That is why Jesus directs the Pharisees, the Scribes, the Zealots, the Essenes, the Sadducees, away from the mind and the will to the heart.
The Pharisees were working with categories of clean and unclean. These are the categories of duality. This is the way the creation exists right now. But, the Pharisees moved from duality into Dualism when they made "clean and unclean" absolute religious laws. When they moved from duality into Dualism they sought to perpetuate separation. They declared the proper way to clean objects was an expression of right behavior that produced merit. That merit obligated God to give them what they wanted.
For those who disagreed with the Pharisees, or who could not afford the massive amounts of water for the rituals of purification, there was condemnation. Failure to clean a cup, a pot or a bronze kettle in the right way, the only approved way, generated debits in your account with God. It also resulted in further separation among those who did it right, those who did it wrong and those who gave up trying. A righteous Pharisee would not risk God’s wrath by associating with any one who did it wrong or not at all. A righteous Pharisee would shout and proclaim: you are wrong, you are wrong. Do it my way!
It is no accidental or incidental comment that Jesus makes when he says. In vain do they worship me. Worship is the highest expression of love. Love is not about self will. Love is not about separation. Love is reunification with God the Father just as you are. Love is transformation in God the Holy Spirit so you can become more of who God has called you to be . Love is grounded in the truth of duality and the reality that in God the Son, Jesus Christ, there is no condemnation.
Condemnation is not out there in the realm of the divine. Condemnation is within the human heart. That is the seat of the problem. It is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come. The evil intentions are the distortions of love that proceed from the demands of self will.
Religion grounded in knowledge, law or action will not bring forth love. Religion grounded in love will, as a natural consequence, lead us to discern the principles underlying knowledge, law and action. There is a place for knowledge, law and action. That place is subordinate to Love, informed by love, and empowered by love. It is activated when we join with Jesus in praying: Heavenly Father, not my will but your will be done.
That is also the place Jesus offers to meet us. Here. In our hearts. Here in the seat of longing for acceptance and approval. Here where God the Father, by the power of God the Holy Spirit, designed human beings to live by the steadfast holy and eternal love of God the Son, Jesus Christ. That is why Jesus does not direct people first to a law, a book, or an action. He directs us to a relationship. He tells us: Listen to me.
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Pentecost XII
Pentecost XII Proper 14 "Does this offend you?"
Many people in our modern world complain that if God is real he has not given us sufficient evidence to believe in him. The record of Scripture demonstrates that the opposite is true.
The record of scripture is that God once walked with the human race in a very real and visibly present way. It is the understanding of the Church that it was the co-eternal Son of God, the pre incarnate Jesus Christ, who walked with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.
Despite the fact of God’s presence and the reality of his friendship, the human race turned from God and chose separation. In this choice humanity abandoned the love and the holiness of God. Humanity rejected God’s offer of a loving relationship with the eternal. Instead, humanity chose the way of knowledge and power.
The angels closed the way to Eden as humanity followed the path of separation, rebellion and death. But, God returned to Earth in person, incarnate in Jesus Christ.
Once again, God was fully present and fully real to people. Once again people rejected him. Only this time, people killed him.
Jesus came with love and compassion and people preferred power and dominance. Jesus came not just to speak a truth about God but as the truth of God. Jesus is truth because Jesus is God.
The soul in a state of separation convinces itself that it creates its own truth. The soul in separation claims the right and the power to define God according to its own needs and desires.
Jesus did not allow people that option. Jesus is the fullness of God in human flesh. If you want to know what God is like, how he thinks, who he is: come to Jesus Christ. Observe. Listen. Question. Wait in silence for the answer.
The thousands of people who met Jesus in person, who witnessed his miracles, who heard his teaching, had that demonstration of fact that modern skeptics claim they require before they will believe. It didn’t satisfy the people in the first century and it will not satisfy the people of the 21st century.
The offense that people experienced as they heard Jesus teach is the universal reaction of the soul in a state of separation. The people in Jesus’ day were looking for the right set of laws, the right set of rituals, the right set of beliefs. Jesus brought them something very different. He brought them the possibility of a new relationship. That relationship brought them the possibility of a new way of living.
This was not what people wanted from God then and it is not what people want from God now. The real offense is not the teaching God brings forth through Jesus Christ. The real offense is the real presence of God in Jesus Christ. In Jesus Christ God defines himself.
When it comes to God, every human being believes they have the right to define God however they wish. We seek to create God in our image and forget that God created us in His image.
The real reason people took offense at Jesus and continue to take offense at him is that Jesus reminds us we are dependent beings created by God for a reason and a purpose. That reason and purpose is love and holiness.
Love does not lie, cheat or steal. It does not insist on its own way. It lives by the question: how may I help? Holiness makes a conscious choice to live in the truth of divine law. It prays: Heavenly Father, your will be done. It seeks out the new life of Christ through the spiritual, psychological, emotional and moral cleansing and renewal of the Holy Spirit.
How many of us do that? How many of us embrace the real presence of Jesus in the Creation? In the United States it is illegal in the arena of the public schools even to suggest that God created the universe and the human race. The teaching that God is the creator is offensive to our civilization.
How many of us embrace the real presence of the eternal living Lord Jesus Christ in the sacrament of Holy Communion? Many of Jesus’ own followers took offense at this truth. They walked away. Many in our generation walk away from who Jesus is and what he offers.
Jesus’ followers had their list of things for God to do for them.
They had their own agenda for Jesus to fulfill. Jesus had a very different list. Jesus had an entirely different agenda.
Jesus’ list had one word in three parts. That one word is love. The three parts are to love God with the entirety of our being, to love others, and to love ourself. It sounds very nice and pleasant unless you really pay attention. Love God with all of your heart, soul, mind and strength. All. The fullest expression of love for God manifests in worship. To love God as Jesus invites us to love God is to make worship the priority for our lives. According to Jesus, worship comes first. Everything else is second.
Many people in Jesus’ day were willing to dabble in love. They were willing to set aside an hour or so every so often to tell God what they wanted. They were not willing to immerse them selves in divine love. They were not willing to listen to God. They were not willing to have their minds, hearts and wills transformed by God. This is what Jesus offers when he gives himself to us in the blessed sacrament of the alar.
Jesus loves us as we are. He also wants us to grow and mature and transform. He loves us are we are and invites us to come to him by grace through faith just as we are. But, he doesn’t leave us unchanged.
The change is Jesus’ agenda for the human race. The change Jesus offers is also the offense. Religious people in Jesus’ day used religion to get from God what they wanted most: power, wealth, pleasure. Modern secular people ignore God but expect that God, if he exists, is obligated give us what we want on our terms.
In Jesus Christ, God says to us: I will give you what you need. I will give you eternal holy transforming love.
The offense people take at Jesus Christ is the very essence of our Heavenly Father’s Plan of Salvation. It is the transforming presence of the living Lord Jesus in our midst. It is the real presence of Christ in the sacrament. It is the reality that God defines us, we do not define God.
As we surrender our self will to the divine will in a real choice of love, we re discover our identity, our meaning, our purpose.
How do we do this?
The basic answer is to receive the gift of faith.
Faith comes from hearing. To hear is to pay attention. To hear is to wake up to the word of God speaking to us in the creation, in the Bible, in the Church.
Faith invites us to immerse ourselves in divine love through the waters of baptism. Faith invites us to receive the divine transfusion of love through the bread and wine of Holy Communion.
Faith leads us forward in our walk with Christ one step at a time. Jesus has given us the Holy Spirit to reveal to us where we need to grow and to change. Jesus sends the Holy Spirit to transform our desires.
If we live our lives from the place of separation will we live from the place of rebellion that takes offense not only at the teaching of Jesus but at the person of Jesus. The solution Jesus offers to our offense is not blind submission to a religion. The solution Jesus offers is in the personal surrender to love through love. It is the total immersion of our reason, will and emotion in the divine love and compassion God offers all people everywhere in Jesus Christ.
The first step for those who do not accept Jesus Christ is to ask questions. What is real? What is truth? Who is Jesus Christ?
Jesus wants to be found. He is not hiding from us. We are hiding from him. If we can only find a place of genuine desire to seek the truth the Holy Spirit will guide us to find the truth. And we will find the truth in Jesus Christ.
The next step for those who have made a profession of faith in Jesus Christ is to ask: where do I take offense at Jesus? Where do I resist the clear and direct teaching of divine truth? Where do I bring to life the demand: my will be done. Where do I fear making changes in my priorities, changes in how I spend my money, changes in my interpersonal relationships?
The offense manifests as resistance to grace. The resistance to grace is the invitation to immerse our souls in the divine love and holiness of the co eternal Son of God.
Jesus’ question to his followers, does this offend you, is the invitation to an experience of faith in a moment of grace.
We need to pay attention to that place in our mind, heart and will where we resist Jesus. It is in that resistance that the Holy Spirit helps us transform fear into faith, and pain into eternal love.
Jesus presents to each of us the fullness of God in human flesh. His teaching is not speculative or even insightful. His teaching is truth itself. Our growth in grace comes when we recognize the place of offense in our own souls. That is why Jesus asks the question not of his enemies but of his followers: does this offend you?
Many people in our modern world complain that if God is real he has not given us sufficient evidence to believe in him. The record of Scripture demonstrates that the opposite is true.
The record of scripture is that God once walked with the human race in a very real and visibly present way. It is the understanding of the Church that it was the co-eternal Son of God, the pre incarnate Jesus Christ, who walked with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.
Despite the fact of God’s presence and the reality of his friendship, the human race turned from God and chose separation. In this choice humanity abandoned the love and the holiness of God. Humanity rejected God’s offer of a loving relationship with the eternal. Instead, humanity chose the way of knowledge and power.
The angels closed the way to Eden as humanity followed the path of separation, rebellion and death. But, God returned to Earth in person, incarnate in Jesus Christ.
Once again, God was fully present and fully real to people. Once again people rejected him. Only this time, people killed him.
Jesus came with love and compassion and people preferred power and dominance. Jesus came not just to speak a truth about God but as the truth of God. Jesus is truth because Jesus is God.
The soul in a state of separation convinces itself that it creates its own truth. The soul in separation claims the right and the power to define God according to its own needs and desires.
Jesus did not allow people that option. Jesus is the fullness of God in human flesh. If you want to know what God is like, how he thinks, who he is: come to Jesus Christ. Observe. Listen. Question. Wait in silence for the answer.
The thousands of people who met Jesus in person, who witnessed his miracles, who heard his teaching, had that demonstration of fact that modern skeptics claim they require before they will believe. It didn’t satisfy the people in the first century and it will not satisfy the people of the 21st century.
The offense that people experienced as they heard Jesus teach is the universal reaction of the soul in a state of separation. The people in Jesus’ day were looking for the right set of laws, the right set of rituals, the right set of beliefs. Jesus brought them something very different. He brought them the possibility of a new relationship. That relationship brought them the possibility of a new way of living.
This was not what people wanted from God then and it is not what people want from God now. The real offense is not the teaching God brings forth through Jesus Christ. The real offense is the real presence of God in Jesus Christ. In Jesus Christ God defines himself.
When it comes to God, every human being believes they have the right to define God however they wish. We seek to create God in our image and forget that God created us in His image.
The real reason people took offense at Jesus and continue to take offense at him is that Jesus reminds us we are dependent beings created by God for a reason and a purpose. That reason and purpose is love and holiness.
Love does not lie, cheat or steal. It does not insist on its own way. It lives by the question: how may I help? Holiness makes a conscious choice to live in the truth of divine law. It prays: Heavenly Father, your will be done. It seeks out the new life of Christ through the spiritual, psychological, emotional and moral cleansing and renewal of the Holy Spirit.
How many of us do that? How many of us embrace the real presence of Jesus in the Creation? In the United States it is illegal in the arena of the public schools even to suggest that God created the universe and the human race. The teaching that God is the creator is offensive to our civilization.
How many of us embrace the real presence of the eternal living Lord Jesus Christ in the sacrament of Holy Communion? Many of Jesus’ own followers took offense at this truth. They walked away. Many in our generation walk away from who Jesus is and what he offers.
Jesus’ followers had their list of things for God to do for them.
They had their own agenda for Jesus to fulfill. Jesus had a very different list. Jesus had an entirely different agenda.
Jesus’ list had one word in three parts. That one word is love. The three parts are to love God with the entirety of our being, to love others, and to love ourself. It sounds very nice and pleasant unless you really pay attention. Love God with all of your heart, soul, mind and strength. All. The fullest expression of love for God manifests in worship. To love God as Jesus invites us to love God is to make worship the priority for our lives. According to Jesus, worship comes first. Everything else is second.
Many people in Jesus’ day were willing to dabble in love. They were willing to set aside an hour or so every so often to tell God what they wanted. They were not willing to immerse them selves in divine love. They were not willing to listen to God. They were not willing to have their minds, hearts and wills transformed by God. This is what Jesus offers when he gives himself to us in the blessed sacrament of the alar.
Jesus loves us as we are. He also wants us to grow and mature and transform. He loves us are we are and invites us to come to him by grace through faith just as we are. But, he doesn’t leave us unchanged.
The change is Jesus’ agenda for the human race. The change Jesus offers is also the offense. Religious people in Jesus’ day used religion to get from God what they wanted most: power, wealth, pleasure. Modern secular people ignore God but expect that God, if he exists, is obligated give us what we want on our terms.
In Jesus Christ, God says to us: I will give you what you need. I will give you eternal holy transforming love.
The offense people take at Jesus Christ is the very essence of our Heavenly Father’s Plan of Salvation. It is the transforming presence of the living Lord Jesus in our midst. It is the real presence of Christ in the sacrament. It is the reality that God defines us, we do not define God.
As we surrender our self will to the divine will in a real choice of love, we re discover our identity, our meaning, our purpose.
How do we do this?
The basic answer is to receive the gift of faith.
Faith comes from hearing. To hear is to pay attention. To hear is to wake up to the word of God speaking to us in the creation, in the Bible, in the Church.
Faith invites us to immerse ourselves in divine love through the waters of baptism. Faith invites us to receive the divine transfusion of love through the bread and wine of Holy Communion.
Faith leads us forward in our walk with Christ one step at a time. Jesus has given us the Holy Spirit to reveal to us where we need to grow and to change. Jesus sends the Holy Spirit to transform our desires.
If we live our lives from the place of separation will we live from the place of rebellion that takes offense not only at the teaching of Jesus but at the person of Jesus. The solution Jesus offers to our offense is not blind submission to a religion. The solution Jesus offers is in the personal surrender to love through love. It is the total immersion of our reason, will and emotion in the divine love and compassion God offers all people everywhere in Jesus Christ.
The first step for those who do not accept Jesus Christ is to ask questions. What is real? What is truth? Who is Jesus Christ?
Jesus wants to be found. He is not hiding from us. We are hiding from him. If we can only find a place of genuine desire to seek the truth the Holy Spirit will guide us to find the truth. And we will find the truth in Jesus Christ.
The next step for those who have made a profession of faith in Jesus Christ is to ask: where do I take offense at Jesus? Where do I resist the clear and direct teaching of divine truth? Where do I bring to life the demand: my will be done. Where do I fear making changes in my priorities, changes in how I spend my money, changes in my interpersonal relationships?
The offense manifests as resistance to grace. The resistance to grace is the invitation to immerse our souls in the divine love and holiness of the co eternal Son of God.
Jesus’ question to his followers, does this offend you, is the invitation to an experience of faith in a moment of grace.
We need to pay attention to that place in our mind, heart and will where we resist Jesus. It is in that resistance that the Holy Spirit helps us transform fear into faith, and pain into eternal love.
Jesus presents to each of us the fullness of God in human flesh. His teaching is not speculative or even insightful. His teaching is truth itself. Our growth in grace comes when we recognize the place of offense in our own souls. That is why Jesus asks the question not of his enemies but of his followers: does this offend you?
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Pentecost XI Proper 15
Pentecost XI Proper 15 Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life.
The reaction to Jesus’ teaching that he is the bread of life confused people. The clarification of the teaching that the bread of heaven is Jesus’ flesh and blood disgusted and angered people.
People then, and people now, find this teaching difficult to hear and impossible to understand. Jesus could easily have said that he was speaking symbolically or metaphorically. From time to time when people misunderstood Jesus he did just that. He clarified for people those occasions where they took too literally what he intended to be understood symbolically. This was not one of those occasions.
On this occasion, Jesus further emphasizes the very real and literal meaning of his words. He drives home the message in the most powerful way possible by saying unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood you have no life in you. None. Lifeless existence. The very condition that defines the souls who abandon God and choose hell.
Now, there is a context to Jesus’ teaching. It is the context of sacrifice. Every religion in Jesus’ day understood this concept and practiced it. The priests offered an animal on the altar as a sacrifice to the deity. The priests kept a portion of the animal to feed the Temple staff and to sell in the Temple butcher shop. The worshiper received a portion of the sacrifice as a meal for himself and his family.
For both Jews and pagans the act of eating the sacrificial animal involved a participation in the divine life of the deity you were worshiping. This is why pagans who became Christians refused to buy meat from the butcher shops of pagan temples. They believed that eating meat consecrated to a false deity was an active participation in the life of that deity. The broader concept was that an act of worship immerses the soul in the reality of the object, person, or deity worshiped. This is the reason for God’s law prohibiting the worship of nay thing or any one except the Living God.
For Jews, there was an additional aspect that governed the sacrifices. According to the Law of Moses, the blood belonged only to God. The blood is life, what we today might call the life force. That life force belonged exclusively to God. The priests in the Temple sprinkled the blood on the altar then poured out the blood on the ground. The law forbade eating blood.
Jesus invites the worshiper to drink the sacrificial blood, his blood. This is something new. This is something scandalous. This is an incredible privilege no one ever expected.
There is also the element of human sacrifice present in Jesus’ teaching. Some two hundred years before Jesus’ birth Rome had fought a terrible series of wars with the Carthaginian Empire. The religion of Carthage was a religion of human sacrifice. Rome’s decisive victory over Carthage ended the validity of human sacrifice for the peoples of the Mediterranean world.
Nevertheless, ancient peoples still believed in one form of human sacrifice. The king was expected to offer his life in battle as a sacrifice for the defense of his people. While he lived, the king governed with absolute authority. But, in a moment of crisis it was the King’s responsibility to lead his troops into battle in the front line of battle in order to offer his blood as a sacrifice to ensure victory.
When Alexander the Great invaded Persia the Persian King Darius fled from the battle field. His cowardice led his nobles to switch sides to Alexander. For Alexander had fought in the front lines risking his life for his people. In the minds of all ancient peoples, Alexander was the ideal King who offers his blood as a sacrifice for his people.
These are the strands of religion and culture that Jesus was bringing together as he brought forth the revelation of our Heavenly Father’s Plan of Salvation. Jesus is the Great King of all the nations. He places himself in the forefront of the battle against sin, death and Satan. He offers himself as the one pure perfect and final sacrifice to secure not only the well being of his people but eternal life for his people.
The way we appropriate this eternal life is the faithful act of eating the sacrificial meal Jesus provides for us at the altar. Only the meal of the new contract God makes with humanity is universal. It is not just for a specific ethnic group. It is for all people every where. That is the meaning of the word catholic.
St. Luke’s is a catholic church because we embrace the universality of the holy sacrifice of the Mass. All who wish to receive the blessed sacrament of Christ’s body and blood are welcome at our altar.
Our altar is a catholic altar for four reasons. The first reason is our loyalty to the Biblical teaching of the real presence of Jesus’ body and blood in the bread and wine. As we hear in the gospel reading this morning Jesus clearly and explicitly teaches those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life.
Our altar is a catholic altar because we embrace the apostolic order of liturgical worship. We preserve the three fold apostolic ministry of bishops, priests and deacons to facilitate the offering of the holy sacrifice of the mass.
Our altar is a catholic altar because we are evangelical. We invite all sorts and conditions of people to come to Christ’s altar through the waters of baptism. We exclude no one who wishes to embrace reunification with the Father, through the Son, by the power of the Holy Spirit. We acknowledge that the altar is Christ’s altar. All whom Christ brings to the altar through the power of the Holy Spirit are welcome here.
Our altar is a catholic altar because we hold fast to the authority of the Seven Ecumenical Councils. The teaching of the Councils is summarized for us in the Nicene Creed. The authority of the Councils teaches that the catholic faith is not tied to any one city or any one bishop. The universality of the Christian Faith is expressed by the assembly of all patriarchs and bishops in the Seven Ecumenical Councils.
The condition for eternal life is not loyalty to a specific bishop. The condition for eternal life as declared by Jesus Christ, recorded in the scriptures, taught by the apostles, set forth by the seven ecumenical councils is: Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life.
Note the verb Jesus uses. Have. Not will have. Not may have. Have. Eternal life is a quality of living that Jesus offers us here and now at the altar of sacrifice.
Jesus’ statement is an open invitation to all people everywhere to make a real choice to embrace the real presence of the Living Lord Jesus Christ in the blessed sacrament of the altar.
As we make this choice we receive the universal gift of eternal love which is eternal life. Jesus just doesn’t invite us to make divine love an ornamental add on to our lives. Jesus invites us to immerse our selves in divine love.
Jesus offers to fill us with his own body and blood so that we begin to experience here and now every moment of every hour of every day the quality of life that characterizes the divine life of the holy and blessed Trinity. That quality of divine life is steadfast holy love. That quality is infinite compassion.
Eternal life begins to unfold in our souls when we say yes to God in Jesus Christ. It begins in the sacramental waters of baptism. It continues in the sacramental food and drink of holy communion. Eternal life becomes more real and more immediate to our daily lives as we open our minds, hearts and wills to Jesus’ teaching: Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life.
The reaction to Jesus’ teaching that he is the bread of life confused people. The clarification of the teaching that the bread of heaven is Jesus’ flesh and blood disgusted and angered people.
People then, and people now, find this teaching difficult to hear and impossible to understand. Jesus could easily have said that he was speaking symbolically or metaphorically. From time to time when people misunderstood Jesus he did just that. He clarified for people those occasions where they took too literally what he intended to be understood symbolically. This was not one of those occasions.
On this occasion, Jesus further emphasizes the very real and literal meaning of his words. He drives home the message in the most powerful way possible by saying unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood you have no life in you. None. Lifeless existence. The very condition that defines the souls who abandon God and choose hell.
Now, there is a context to Jesus’ teaching. It is the context of sacrifice. Every religion in Jesus’ day understood this concept and practiced it. The priests offered an animal on the altar as a sacrifice to the deity. The priests kept a portion of the animal to feed the Temple staff and to sell in the Temple butcher shop. The worshiper received a portion of the sacrifice as a meal for himself and his family.
For both Jews and pagans the act of eating the sacrificial animal involved a participation in the divine life of the deity you were worshiping. This is why pagans who became Christians refused to buy meat from the butcher shops of pagan temples. They believed that eating meat consecrated to a false deity was an active participation in the life of that deity. The broader concept was that an act of worship immerses the soul in the reality of the object, person, or deity worshiped. This is the reason for God’s law prohibiting the worship of nay thing or any one except the Living God.
For Jews, there was an additional aspect that governed the sacrifices. According to the Law of Moses, the blood belonged only to God. The blood is life, what we today might call the life force. That life force belonged exclusively to God. The priests in the Temple sprinkled the blood on the altar then poured out the blood on the ground. The law forbade eating blood.
Jesus invites the worshiper to drink the sacrificial blood, his blood. This is something new. This is something scandalous. This is an incredible privilege no one ever expected.
There is also the element of human sacrifice present in Jesus’ teaching. Some two hundred years before Jesus’ birth Rome had fought a terrible series of wars with the Carthaginian Empire. The religion of Carthage was a religion of human sacrifice. Rome’s decisive victory over Carthage ended the validity of human sacrifice for the peoples of the Mediterranean world.
Nevertheless, ancient peoples still believed in one form of human sacrifice. The king was expected to offer his life in battle as a sacrifice for the defense of his people. While he lived, the king governed with absolute authority. But, in a moment of crisis it was the King’s responsibility to lead his troops into battle in the front line of battle in order to offer his blood as a sacrifice to ensure victory.
When Alexander the Great invaded Persia the Persian King Darius fled from the battle field. His cowardice led his nobles to switch sides to Alexander. For Alexander had fought in the front lines risking his life for his people. In the minds of all ancient peoples, Alexander was the ideal King who offers his blood as a sacrifice for his people.
These are the strands of religion and culture that Jesus was bringing together as he brought forth the revelation of our Heavenly Father’s Plan of Salvation. Jesus is the Great King of all the nations. He places himself in the forefront of the battle against sin, death and Satan. He offers himself as the one pure perfect and final sacrifice to secure not only the well being of his people but eternal life for his people.
The way we appropriate this eternal life is the faithful act of eating the sacrificial meal Jesus provides for us at the altar. Only the meal of the new contract God makes with humanity is universal. It is not just for a specific ethnic group. It is for all people every where. That is the meaning of the word catholic.
St. Luke’s is a catholic church because we embrace the universality of the holy sacrifice of the Mass. All who wish to receive the blessed sacrament of Christ’s body and blood are welcome at our altar.
Our altar is a catholic altar for four reasons. The first reason is our loyalty to the Biblical teaching of the real presence of Jesus’ body and blood in the bread and wine. As we hear in the gospel reading this morning Jesus clearly and explicitly teaches those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life.
Our altar is a catholic altar because we embrace the apostolic order of liturgical worship. We preserve the three fold apostolic ministry of bishops, priests and deacons to facilitate the offering of the holy sacrifice of the mass.
Our altar is a catholic altar because we are evangelical. We invite all sorts and conditions of people to come to Christ’s altar through the waters of baptism. We exclude no one who wishes to embrace reunification with the Father, through the Son, by the power of the Holy Spirit. We acknowledge that the altar is Christ’s altar. All whom Christ brings to the altar through the power of the Holy Spirit are welcome here.
Our altar is a catholic altar because we hold fast to the authority of the Seven Ecumenical Councils. The teaching of the Councils is summarized for us in the Nicene Creed. The authority of the Councils teaches that the catholic faith is not tied to any one city or any one bishop. The universality of the Christian Faith is expressed by the assembly of all patriarchs and bishops in the Seven Ecumenical Councils.
The condition for eternal life is not loyalty to a specific bishop. The condition for eternal life as declared by Jesus Christ, recorded in the scriptures, taught by the apostles, set forth by the seven ecumenical councils is: Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life.
Note the verb Jesus uses. Have. Not will have. Not may have. Have. Eternal life is a quality of living that Jesus offers us here and now at the altar of sacrifice.
Jesus’ statement is an open invitation to all people everywhere to make a real choice to embrace the real presence of the Living Lord Jesus Christ in the blessed sacrament of the altar.
As we make this choice we receive the universal gift of eternal love which is eternal life. Jesus just doesn’t invite us to make divine love an ornamental add on to our lives. Jesus invites us to immerse our selves in divine love.
Jesus offers to fill us with his own body and blood so that we begin to experience here and now every moment of every hour of every day the quality of life that characterizes the divine life of the holy and blessed Trinity. That quality of divine life is steadfast holy love. That quality is infinite compassion.
Eternal life begins to unfold in our souls when we say yes to God in Jesus Christ. It begins in the sacramental waters of baptism. It continues in the sacramental food and drink of holy communion. Eternal life becomes more real and more immediate to our daily lives as we open our minds, hearts and wills to Jesus’ teaching: Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life.
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Pentecost X Proper 14
Pentecost X Proper 14 Do not complain. Whoever believes has eternal life.
Eternal life is God’s plan and pattern for the soul. Love is the natural state of the soul.
Fear keeps the soul distracted and enmeshed in its own separation from Eternal life and Divine love. This fear is very real. Fear itself is not an illusion. The separation that fuels the fear is also not an illusion. It is the demand of the separated soul for control that weaves the spell of illusion that enslaves humanity to the condition of unbelief.
In this passage of scripture, Jesus does not contrast faith with unbelief. Unbelief is certainly part of the problem Jesus addresses. Jesus focuses our attention on the consequence of unbelief. That consequence is shame and blame. The voice of shame and blame is the voice of complaint.
The Bible some times identifies the voice of complaint as murmuring. The people heard Jesus’ teaching. It was not an easy teaching to hear. It would have been appropriate and even desirable for the people to ask Jesus about this teaching. Jesus was in fact waiting for a response.
The people did not so much respond to Jesus as they murmured and grumbled and complained amongst themselves. They ignored Jesus and turned to each other. They asked, how can this be? How can he say such things? We know who he is. We know his family. How can he say he is the bread of heaven?
Questions, honest questions, are the invitation to faith. Murmuring, grumbling, complaining close the door to faith.
The person who cultivates complaint in the place of honest question is the person who is enslaved to the prison of shame and blame.
Shame is recycled guilt. It is the guilt of the original choice humanity made to separate from God rather than continue in a relationship with God. Shame is that voice in the soul that recognizes its mistake but refuses to make a different choice. It rejects personal self responsibility. It chooses rather to blame some one or something else for the problem.
Humanity chose separation from pride. The pride of humanity said: we are the image and likeness of God. We are lords of creation. We are so powerful we can exist independently of God and stand with him as equals. The shame of humanity is the recognition that we are not equals with God. The blame of humanity is the defense against seeking reunification with God.
Shame warps pride into despair. Shame says, I am so bad even God, if God even exists, cannot help me.
The people who heard Jesus heard the voice of God. They were not willing to be that close to God. They turned from Jesus in their shame of speaking with God face to face and instead of asking him to help them understand they complained to each other about him. From shame they moved to blame.
Blame is the way the soul attempts to mask the pain of guilt and shame. There was nothing in Jesus worthy of blame. Jesus used his divine power to heal and to help. Jesus used his teaching authority to invite people back into a relationship with God. There was nothing blameworthy in Jesus’ actions or words yet the people found fault with him and in that fault found an excuse to distance themselves from him. He was right there. They were so close. They made a real choice to perpetuate separation.
Reunification with God requires faith. It requires an honest self assessment of the soul. It requires the courage to look at our lives in spirit and in truth. The truth is that we all do things that are not good. The truth is that we all evade personal responsibility for our spiritual lives. The truth is that in Jesus Christ our Heavenly Father is personally reaching out to us in divine love and compassion with outstretched arms.
As we claim the courage to see God as He is and ourselves as we are we are able to take the next step in our spiritual development. That next step is faith.
Faith is not a blind leap in the dark. Faith is the courageous embrace of the truth of God, the truth of the human condition, and the truth incarnate in Jesus Christ.
The evidence we seek is as close as our next breath. The problem is not the lack of evidence. The problem is the lack of courage in a separated soul to see the evidence. Because, the evidence points to two aspects of the same truth.
The first aspect is that God designed the human soul for eternal life. The second aspect is that humanity rejected God’s plan and purpose and chose separation: separation from God, separation from eternal life, separation from divine love and compassion.
That is why Jesus brings forth the truth that he himself is the bread of heaven. Jesus just doesn’t teach about life. Jesus just doesn’t demonstrate what life can be like. Jesus is life.
Jesus is the very pattern by which, through which, and for which God the Father created us- all of us, each of us.
Doubt is part of the human condition but doubt itself is the invitation to faith. The process from doubt to faith is the process of coming to Jesus with our questions. It is the process of self examination in the company of the Holy Spirit.
Solitary self examination perpetuates separation. Self examination with other unbelievers perpetuates unbelief.
True self examination requires the courage to come to Jesus with all of our doubts, shame and blame. As we enter into self examination through a dialog with Jesus Christ we begin to find the courage to accept the truth about ourselves wherever the truth may lead.
The Bible is very clear. Jesus is very clear. All who seek the truth will find it. And, they will find it in Jesus Christ. For truth is not just a set of facts or principles. Truth is the divine, rational, creative pattern of the universe, the logos, the co-eternal word of God who became a human being in Jesus Christ.
It is Jesus who offers to walk with us. He is there in all of life’s joys and in all of life’s sorrows. His attention to our needs and concerns never falters. He wants us to speak with him. He wants us to grow in self responsibility. He wants us to come to the place of spiritual maturity where we can live by faith and perceive his presence in all things, in all people, and in the eternal life of the blessed sacrament of his body and blood.
What God offers in Jesus Christ is eternal life here and now. That eternal life is a new way of living. It is a new way of making choices and setting priorities. It is a quality of life that transforms all of our experiences in life. It is a way of living that emerges through the process of an eternal relationship with the co-eternal Son of God, Jesus Christ. The relationship produces the faith. The faith gives us the ability to perceive the truth: Eternal life is God’s plan and pattern for the soul. Love is the natural state of the soul.
Whoever believes has eternal life.
Eternal life is God’s plan and pattern for the soul. Love is the natural state of the soul.
Fear keeps the soul distracted and enmeshed in its own separation from Eternal life and Divine love. This fear is very real. Fear itself is not an illusion. The separation that fuels the fear is also not an illusion. It is the demand of the separated soul for control that weaves the spell of illusion that enslaves humanity to the condition of unbelief.
In this passage of scripture, Jesus does not contrast faith with unbelief. Unbelief is certainly part of the problem Jesus addresses. Jesus focuses our attention on the consequence of unbelief. That consequence is shame and blame. The voice of shame and blame is the voice of complaint.
The Bible some times identifies the voice of complaint as murmuring. The people heard Jesus’ teaching. It was not an easy teaching to hear. It would have been appropriate and even desirable for the people to ask Jesus about this teaching. Jesus was in fact waiting for a response.
The people did not so much respond to Jesus as they murmured and grumbled and complained amongst themselves. They ignored Jesus and turned to each other. They asked, how can this be? How can he say such things? We know who he is. We know his family. How can he say he is the bread of heaven?
Questions, honest questions, are the invitation to faith. Murmuring, grumbling, complaining close the door to faith.
The person who cultivates complaint in the place of honest question is the person who is enslaved to the prison of shame and blame.
Shame is recycled guilt. It is the guilt of the original choice humanity made to separate from God rather than continue in a relationship with God. Shame is that voice in the soul that recognizes its mistake but refuses to make a different choice. It rejects personal self responsibility. It chooses rather to blame some one or something else for the problem.
Humanity chose separation from pride. The pride of humanity said: we are the image and likeness of God. We are lords of creation. We are so powerful we can exist independently of God and stand with him as equals. The shame of humanity is the recognition that we are not equals with God. The blame of humanity is the defense against seeking reunification with God.
Shame warps pride into despair. Shame says, I am so bad even God, if God even exists, cannot help me.
The people who heard Jesus heard the voice of God. They were not willing to be that close to God. They turned from Jesus in their shame of speaking with God face to face and instead of asking him to help them understand they complained to each other about him. From shame they moved to blame.
Blame is the way the soul attempts to mask the pain of guilt and shame. There was nothing in Jesus worthy of blame. Jesus used his divine power to heal and to help. Jesus used his teaching authority to invite people back into a relationship with God. There was nothing blameworthy in Jesus’ actions or words yet the people found fault with him and in that fault found an excuse to distance themselves from him. He was right there. They were so close. They made a real choice to perpetuate separation.
Reunification with God requires faith. It requires an honest self assessment of the soul. It requires the courage to look at our lives in spirit and in truth. The truth is that we all do things that are not good. The truth is that we all evade personal responsibility for our spiritual lives. The truth is that in Jesus Christ our Heavenly Father is personally reaching out to us in divine love and compassion with outstretched arms.
As we claim the courage to see God as He is and ourselves as we are we are able to take the next step in our spiritual development. That next step is faith.
Faith is not a blind leap in the dark. Faith is the courageous embrace of the truth of God, the truth of the human condition, and the truth incarnate in Jesus Christ.
The evidence we seek is as close as our next breath. The problem is not the lack of evidence. The problem is the lack of courage in a separated soul to see the evidence. Because, the evidence points to two aspects of the same truth.
The first aspect is that God designed the human soul for eternal life. The second aspect is that humanity rejected God’s plan and purpose and chose separation: separation from God, separation from eternal life, separation from divine love and compassion.
That is why Jesus brings forth the truth that he himself is the bread of heaven. Jesus just doesn’t teach about life. Jesus just doesn’t demonstrate what life can be like. Jesus is life.
Jesus is the very pattern by which, through which, and for which God the Father created us- all of us, each of us.
Doubt is part of the human condition but doubt itself is the invitation to faith. The process from doubt to faith is the process of coming to Jesus with our questions. It is the process of self examination in the company of the Holy Spirit.
Solitary self examination perpetuates separation. Self examination with other unbelievers perpetuates unbelief.
True self examination requires the courage to come to Jesus with all of our doubts, shame and blame. As we enter into self examination through a dialog with Jesus Christ we begin to find the courage to accept the truth about ourselves wherever the truth may lead.
The Bible is very clear. Jesus is very clear. All who seek the truth will find it. And, they will find it in Jesus Christ. For truth is not just a set of facts or principles. Truth is the divine, rational, creative pattern of the universe, the logos, the co-eternal word of God who became a human being in Jesus Christ.
It is Jesus who offers to walk with us. He is there in all of life’s joys and in all of life’s sorrows. His attention to our needs and concerns never falters. He wants us to speak with him. He wants us to grow in self responsibility. He wants us to come to the place of spiritual maturity where we can live by faith and perceive his presence in all things, in all people, and in the eternal life of the blessed sacrament of his body and blood.
What God offers in Jesus Christ is eternal life here and now. That eternal life is a new way of living. It is a new way of making choices and setting priorities. It is a quality of life that transforms all of our experiences in life. It is a way of living that emerges through the process of an eternal relationship with the co-eternal Son of God, Jesus Christ. The relationship produces the faith. The faith gives us the ability to perceive the truth: Eternal life is God’s plan and pattern for the soul. Love is the natural state of the soul.
Whoever believes has eternal life.
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