Easter 5 Behold I make all things new.
Jesus is not just an option.
Jesus is the fulness of God in human flesh. He is the eternal logos, the creative rational pattern of the universe.
Jesus did not come into the world to offer his opinion about God. Jesus is God.
Jesus is the very essence of the divine nature in human form. That divine nature is steadfast, holy, unconditional love. Since it is the very nature of God that love has no beginning and has no end. That love is eternal.
God created the vast host of angelic beings from that eternal love.
God created the universe and all of us, each of us, from that eternal love.
There is nothing and no one that God has created that God does not love unconditionally.
All who are created to love have the real choice to embrace love or to separate from love.
The Bible tells us that one third of the angels not only made a real choice to separate from love but also made a secondary choice to give themselves fully and completely to the one who set himself before them as God’s equal. Those separated angels chose to worship the attributes of God that Lucifer claimed God had given him. Lucifer, the great deceiver, promised his followers power but instead took power from those who united themselves to him.
Human beings also made a real choice to separate from God. But, human beings did not make that secondary choice to unite with Lucifer. Human beings chose independence.
In that choice, human beings are lost in separation and refuse to be found. The nature of a separated being is not love but the will to power. The echo of original love still lingers in our souls. It is God’s plan and purpose in Jesus Christ to restore that echo to its original vibrant life giving word.
What makes reunion with God possible for human beings is Jesus Christ. Jesus is the co-eternal Word of God.
In Jesus, God personally, permanently and irrevocably united his divinity with our humanity, never to be divided from it.
Jesus is fully God and fully human. Jesus is the God Man.
Jesus Christ makes all things new.
Jesus Christ restores human nature to its original plan and pattern and purpose. That plan and pattern and purpose is for human beings to be vessels of holiness and channels of love.
St. Paul teaches that Jesus is the second Adam. As the second Adam, Jesus gives us all a second real choice. It is the choice of how we will be human.
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The choice Adam offers is separation. The promise in separation is in the pride of independence from God, nature, other people, even our own limitations.
The practice of independence is in the assertion of self will, the will to power. It is the demand from the human soul that says I and I alone define myself, the world, and God if God even exists. At all times and in all ways: my will be done.
The consequence of separation is fear. It is a fear of loneliness, brokeness, lack of meaning, lack of purpose, lack of control and finally the reality of death.
There is another choice. There is another way of being human. It is the way of Jesus Christ. Jesus just doesn’t show us the other choice. He is the other choice. He is the other way of being human.
That other way of being human is the real choice to embrace steadfast holy unconditional love. It is the way of reunification with God the Father, through the second Adam- Jesus Christ, by the transforming power of God the Holy Spirit.
This other way of being human is grounded in the truth that free will is only possible for the soul that prays: heavenly Father, your will be done. That prayer sets us free from the fear that there is never enough to make us happy, healthy or secure.
The truth is that there in more than enough. There is in fact an extravagant abundance of blessing for the soul that makes a real choice to be human according to the pattern, plan and purpose of the second Adam, Jesus Christ.
The consequence of choosing Jesus Christ is a new life of transformation. It is a new life immersed in the infinite and eternal love of God. It is not instantaneous perfection. It is not an escape from the world as it is. It is a way of living that makes all things new.
Jesus described this new way of living, this new way of being human, when he gave his disciples the new commandment. The commandment to love one another as I have loved you is the invitation to live and move and have our being from the place of steadfast holy unconditional love.
We can only fulfill this commandment as we make a real choice to immerse our minds and hearts and wills in the gift God gives us in Jesus Christ. This gift is what the Bible calls grace.
Grace is the new life that is formed by realigning our thoughts with God’s thoughts by reading, studying and memorizing the Bible. God has given us the Bible as a wonderful gift. It is our choice to use the gift. AS we use the gift God applies its benefits to our minds.
Grace is the new life that is transformed by the infusion of divine life into our souls in the blessed sacrament of holy communion. The gift is always here at the altar. It is our choice to come and receive the gift. As we make the choice to come and receive the gift God releases a blessing into our souls.
Grace is the new way of living that makes all things new. To be a Christian is not to escape, evade, or even to conquer the problems we face in this lost and broken world. It is a way of living by which we daily offer our selves, our souls and bodies to God through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. The blessing is the personal relationship. The personal relationship is that assurance that we are never alone. It is the assurance that we are loved with an everlasting love.
St. Paul knew much hardship in his life as did all of the apostles. St. Paul also said he rejoiced in all of the circumstances of his life through his personal relationship with Jesus Christ. It is Jesus who makes all things, the good, the bad and the indifferent- new.
The love Jesus invites us to practice is the transforming love that makes everything in our lives new. That love can, if we chose to accept it and to practice it, transform our thoughts, our emotions and our choices.
In Jesus Christ God offers us a choice. The choice is how we will be human. We can choose the way of the first Adam. That is the way of separation and self will. It is also important for us to understand that is also the way of death.
Or, we can choose the way of the second Adam, Jesus Christ.
That is the way of reunification and transformation. That is the way of an active personal relationship with God in Jesus Christ. That is the way by which Christ in us makes all things new.
It is also the way by which Jesus overcomes death and gives us the gift of eternal life.
Jesus spoke to his beloved apostle John and said: behold, I make all things new here and now for you and for all who receive me in the steadfast holy unconditional eternal love of God.
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Easter 4
Easter 4 "My sheep hear my voice"
The Good Shepherd devotes himself to his sheep.
The good shepherd spends all of his time and talent and attention tending to the well being of his flock. He is always there for the flock. Gradually, the sheep learn to identify the shepherd’s form and voice with care and protection.
Not all who serve as shepherds act as shepherds. Some are less attentive and less devoted. The sheep are less likely to follow them and more likely to wander aimlessly into danger.
Sheep are sheep. They do not aspire to be shepherds. They have a fixed nature and character. The good shepherd spends time learning as much as he can about the nature and character of sheep. It doesn’t take long. Sheep need food, water, security and direction.
Only Jesus can use the metaphor of the shepherd and the sheep to apply to himself and the human race. Only Jesus has the time and the energy to study humanity and comprehend human character and nature.
Unlike sheep, human beings are not content to be who God created us to be.
God the Father created human beings to be self actualizing persons filled with love and holiness. The Father created us to be holy vessels of God the Holy Spirit. The Father created us to be in a spontaneous joyful, dynamic loving relationship with the co-eternal Beloved, the Son- Jesus Christ.
For a created being to be the vessel of holiness and the companion of the co-eternal Beloved the activating principle is real choice. Love and holiness cannot be compelled they can only be chosen.
The record of scripture is the observation and revelation that human beings chose to separate from love and holiness in order to embrace knowledge and power. Human beings are not content to be human. We are not content to be who God created us to be.
Human beings aspire to be like God’s attributes of omniscience and omnipotence rather than God’s character of holiness and nature of love. We seek to command and control our environment, our interpersonal relationships, our own souls and above all else: God. We end up lost, lonely, frustrated and broken.
Jesus, the good shepherd, knows that unlike real sheep we are not content to be who God created us to be. Jesus is the original pattern for humanity. He knows how and where and why we choose to break the pattern. He knows how to restore the pattern.
The restoration of the original pattern of humanity is not possible by law, religion, science or philosophy. Those things have their place in human life. Those things can not restore us to wholeness and health. Only Jesus can do that. Only Jesus can do that because he is the original pattern by which, through which, and for which God the Father created us.
Jesus affirms this when he says: The Father and I are one.
Jesus alone is the universal Lord and the universal savior because Jesus alone is one with the Father. Jesus alone is the co-eternal Beloved of the Father. Jesus alone is the perfect plan, pattern and purpose for humanity.
There is a fundamental spiritual principle implicit in the Biblical observations about human behavior and human nature. The principle is real choice. There are three parts to this principle.
The first part of that principle is that we are lost and are stubbornly committed to our individual will to power to resist God’s solution to the problem we face. We are lost and we insist on our right to exercise our will to stay lost.
The second part of this principle is that God the Holy Spirit is reaching out to all people everywhere with the invitation to be found. The Holy Spirit whispers to us in our pleasures, He speaks to us in the beauty of the natural world, the order of creation that science perceives in the universe, and in the desire of the heart for companionship.
The Holy Spirit also shouts to us in our pain. That pain may be physical, emotional, psychological, spiritual. Pain alerts us to a problem. The Holy Spirit shouts to us in our pain and he shouts out one word: Jesus.
The third and last part of this spiritual principle is that all who seek God for who he is will find him for who he is. And, we will find him for who he is in Jesus Christ.
There are three keys to finding God for who he is. These are the keys of surrender.
The first key is the desire to surrender our self will demand to define God for who we want God to be.
The second key is to surrender our fear that if we cannot impose our will to define God that somehow we will suffer and perish.
The third key is to surrender our pride, that fatal pride, that in all ways and at all times demands "my will be done."
Why some hear the invitation and choose the path of surrender is Divine Mystery. There were many in Israel who heard the words of Moses and still worshiped the golden calf. The were many in Israel who heard the call of the prophets and rejected the invitation to worship the living God. There were many in Israel who saw Jesus perform miracles and teach the love and compassion of God who yet rejected Jesus and plotted to kill him.
All who seek the truth find it. All who seek God find him.
All who seek with the three keys of submission are found by the Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ. It is they who recognize the voice of the One who has been caring for them despite their stubborn rebellion. They hear his voice and they make a real choice to believe.
That real choice to believe says: yes. I receive the gift of God in Jesus Christ. Yes. I receive the apostolic witness that Christ lived, died and rose again. Yes. I receive the testimony of the Holy Spirit as he speaks to me in the events of daily life and from the words of the Bible. God is real. God is personal. God is love. God is Jesus Christ.
The sheep who aspire only to be sheep hear the voice of the shepherd and rejoice to recognize that voice. The sheep who rejoice in the voice of the shepherd choose the path of surrender to the eternal love of the co-eternal Beloved. They are the ones who follow him into the green pastures fed by springs of living waters.
The voice of the Good Shepherd is the word of God made flesh in Jesus Christ. Jesus tells us this morning that all who seek him will be found by him. And he will give all who seek him eternal life. He can do this because Jesus is one with God the Father. Jesus is one with the infinite and eternal love of God.
The Good Shepherd devotes himself to his sheep.
The good shepherd spends all of his time and talent and attention tending to the well being of his flock. He is always there for the flock. Gradually, the sheep learn to identify the shepherd’s form and voice with care and protection.
Not all who serve as shepherds act as shepherds. Some are less attentive and less devoted. The sheep are less likely to follow them and more likely to wander aimlessly into danger.
Sheep are sheep. They do not aspire to be shepherds. They have a fixed nature and character. The good shepherd spends time learning as much as he can about the nature and character of sheep. It doesn’t take long. Sheep need food, water, security and direction.
Only Jesus can use the metaphor of the shepherd and the sheep to apply to himself and the human race. Only Jesus has the time and the energy to study humanity and comprehend human character and nature.
Unlike sheep, human beings are not content to be who God created us to be.
God the Father created human beings to be self actualizing persons filled with love and holiness. The Father created us to be holy vessels of God the Holy Spirit. The Father created us to be in a spontaneous joyful, dynamic loving relationship with the co-eternal Beloved, the Son- Jesus Christ.
For a created being to be the vessel of holiness and the companion of the co-eternal Beloved the activating principle is real choice. Love and holiness cannot be compelled they can only be chosen.
The record of scripture is the observation and revelation that human beings chose to separate from love and holiness in order to embrace knowledge and power. Human beings are not content to be human. We are not content to be who God created us to be.
Human beings aspire to be like God’s attributes of omniscience and omnipotence rather than God’s character of holiness and nature of love. We seek to command and control our environment, our interpersonal relationships, our own souls and above all else: God. We end up lost, lonely, frustrated and broken.
Jesus, the good shepherd, knows that unlike real sheep we are not content to be who God created us to be. Jesus is the original pattern for humanity. He knows how and where and why we choose to break the pattern. He knows how to restore the pattern.
The restoration of the original pattern of humanity is not possible by law, religion, science or philosophy. Those things have their place in human life. Those things can not restore us to wholeness and health. Only Jesus can do that. Only Jesus can do that because he is the original pattern by which, through which, and for which God the Father created us.
Jesus affirms this when he says: The Father and I are one.
Jesus alone is the universal Lord and the universal savior because Jesus alone is one with the Father. Jesus alone is the co-eternal Beloved of the Father. Jesus alone is the perfect plan, pattern and purpose for humanity.
There is a fundamental spiritual principle implicit in the Biblical observations about human behavior and human nature. The principle is real choice. There are three parts to this principle.
The first part of that principle is that we are lost and are stubbornly committed to our individual will to power to resist God’s solution to the problem we face. We are lost and we insist on our right to exercise our will to stay lost.
The second part of this principle is that God the Holy Spirit is reaching out to all people everywhere with the invitation to be found. The Holy Spirit whispers to us in our pleasures, He speaks to us in the beauty of the natural world, the order of creation that science perceives in the universe, and in the desire of the heart for companionship.
The Holy Spirit also shouts to us in our pain. That pain may be physical, emotional, psychological, spiritual. Pain alerts us to a problem. The Holy Spirit shouts to us in our pain and he shouts out one word: Jesus.
The third and last part of this spiritual principle is that all who seek God for who he is will find him for who he is. And, we will find him for who he is in Jesus Christ.
There are three keys to finding God for who he is. These are the keys of surrender.
The first key is the desire to surrender our self will demand to define God for who we want God to be.
The second key is to surrender our fear that if we cannot impose our will to define God that somehow we will suffer and perish.
The third key is to surrender our pride, that fatal pride, that in all ways and at all times demands "my will be done."
Why some hear the invitation and choose the path of surrender is Divine Mystery. There were many in Israel who heard the words of Moses and still worshiped the golden calf. The were many in Israel who heard the call of the prophets and rejected the invitation to worship the living God. There were many in Israel who saw Jesus perform miracles and teach the love and compassion of God who yet rejected Jesus and plotted to kill him.
All who seek the truth find it. All who seek God find him.
All who seek with the three keys of submission are found by the Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ. It is they who recognize the voice of the One who has been caring for them despite their stubborn rebellion. They hear his voice and they make a real choice to believe.
That real choice to believe says: yes. I receive the gift of God in Jesus Christ. Yes. I receive the apostolic witness that Christ lived, died and rose again. Yes. I receive the testimony of the Holy Spirit as he speaks to me in the events of daily life and from the words of the Bible. God is real. God is personal. God is love. God is Jesus Christ.
The sheep who aspire only to be sheep hear the voice of the shepherd and rejoice to recognize that voice. The sheep who rejoice in the voice of the shepherd choose the path of surrender to the eternal love of the co-eternal Beloved. They are the ones who follow him into the green pastures fed by springs of living waters.
The voice of the Good Shepherd is the word of God made flesh in Jesus Christ. Jesus tells us this morning that all who seek him will be found by him. And he will give all who seek him eternal life. He can do this because Jesus is one with God the Father. Jesus is one with the infinite and eternal love of God.
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Easter 3
Easter 3 "Do you love me?"
Jesus asked Peter a question Peter could not answer.
We miss the subtlety of the question. We miss it because unlike ancient Greek modern English has no vocabulary to express the rich subtle language of love. To some extent, this linguist poverty is a reflection of the spiritual poverty of our culture.
In this conversation between Jesus and Peter, Jesus twice asks Peter, do you pledge your life and loyalty to me unreservedly and unconditionally? And twice Peter replies, you know I am your friend. Peter doesn’t answer the question. He can’t really give Jesus what Jesus asks. Jesus is asking Peter to do something and to be something he has not yet experienced within himself.
That is why Peter and all of the disciples, except John, were so incredibly slow to believe the resurrection. That is why in this passage the apostles at first do not recognize Jesus. It is John, to whom the Holy Spirit has given the title: beloved, who recognizes Jesus.
The word the Holy Spirit uses to describe John is the same word Jesus uses when he asks Peter, do you love me. The word is agape. It means steadfast holy unconditional love. That was the kind of love John had embraced when he stood at the foot of the cross with Holy Mother Mary. Peter and the other disciples did not have that experience.
And so, Peter responds to Jesus’ question by altering the premise. Jesus uses the word agape, the highest form of love ancient peoples could imagine. Peter responds with the word phileo, brotherly love or friendship. It is more than some forms of love ancient peoples recognized, but less than the next higher form of love which is loyalty. And it is no where near the steadfast holy unconditional love Jesus asks of Peter.
There is a terrible struggle in this brief exchange. Jesus is asking Peter to be more than he is at that moment. Peter is trying to respond in the best way he can. Jesus asks: do you love me with divine love. Peter replies: I do have brotherly love for you. I am your friend.
Peter cannot yet comprehend agape. So, the third time Jesus asks the question he changes his question from agape to phileo. Peter, "are you my friend?" is the literal meaning of the third question Jesus asks.
And of course, that is the word Peter has been trying to use in answer to the previous two questions. Peter cannot ascend to the level Jesus holds before him, so Jesus descends to the level at which Peter lives. It is enough, for now. It is a start. It is the start of a life long process of transformation.
It is the beginning of the journey that will lead from self interest, to brotherly love, to friendship, then to loyalty and finally to agape itself: steadfast, holy, unconditional love. John adds his own personal interpretive note to the story when he references Peter’s death. In his execution for his testimony to the resurrection, Peter will experience and demonstrate for the Roman world that steadfast holy unconditional love he was slow to embrace in those early days of the resurrection.
No human being is capable of expressing agape. God the Father created us to be pure vessels and open channels of this kind of love. But only God can supply agape. Only God can supply this kind of love because that is the Divine nature. When the Bible says God is love it uses this word Agape: steadfast, holy, unconditional love.
The human choice to separate from God resulted in a soul cut off from the source of steadfast holy unconditional love. Apart from this love, we wither and perish. We struggle to find meaning and purpose. We become self absorbed and self preoccupied. We even lose the rich subtle vocabulary of love our ancestors once knew.
We are lost and broken in our separation from steadfast holy love. That was Peter’s condition. That was why he could not respond to Jesus’ question.
The solution is the process Jesus portrays for us in this encounter with Peter and the other disciples. John is already there. But John is still very young. He has many years of living before he can understand the fulness of the agape love his soul now holds.
Peter is older and has more life experience, but he hasn’t made that next step in faith that John made in the company of Holy Mother Mary. Jesus shows Peter, the disciples, and us what that next step is. It is service to others.
Jesus says: feed my sheep. Tend my flock, He who is greatest among you is servant of all. This is no mere title. It is the outward expression of a new attitude and aspect of the new life Jesus gives us.
The disciples had all argued amongst themselves about issues of command and control. They each wanted to be in charge. They each wanted to be the one Jesus would appoint to exercise lordship on his behalf over the rest. Each wanted to be in charge of the Kingdom of Heaven. Each wanted to be the infallible co-regent with Christ over the church on earth.
For three years the disciples thought in terms of religious laws, courts, prerogatives and privileges. That wasn’t why Jesus came. It wasn’t the Plan of salvation. Jesus never appointed co-regents to rule over a single world dominating religious institution. He came to reunify a lost and broken humanity to the source of light and life and love. He called his apostles to feed his sheep and tend his flock through preaching, teaching, healing and the sacraments.
John surrendered his self will and selfish desire for command and control when he stood at the foot of the cross. At that moment of tragedy, suffering, pain and loss- John lost himself in the steadfast holy love of Jesus Christ and found himself reborn as an open vessel of divine grace.
Peter and the others were a little slower. We all come to faith at a different time. We all grow in grace at a different pace. For that moment, it was enough for Peter to tell Jesus he was his friend. And, it was enough for Jesus to hear those words. It was enough for that moment. It was one step away from fear and one step forward into faith. It was one step beyond the pride of self will into the freedom of Divine will. It was enough. But, there was more to come. There is always more to come.
Agape, steadfast holy unconditional love, is infinite and eternal. We can never exhaust the height and depth and creative potential of Divine Love.
Within fifty days Peter and the others would receive an infilling of the Holy Spirit that would transform their fear into courage and their hesitant friendship into dynamic loyalty. Throughout his life Peter and the others would learn that the Kingdom of God is not about command and control but rather love and compassion.
The new life in Christ is a call to service. The new life in Christ sets us free from fear, self will and pride. The new life in Christ offers us the way forward through a life of service. For Peter, the disciples and us, the way forward has many dead ends and detours.
The Good News is that God is always there to get back on track. God is always there offering us a new opportunity to step back from the way of power and immerse ourselves in the way of service.
We become more of who God created us to be when we make a conscious choice to follow the path of steadfast holy unconditional love. After Jesus asks the three questions about love, he issues one single commanding invitation . He issued it to his disciples by the sea that day. And, he issues it to us.
Jesus asked the simple yet profound question: do you love me? Jesus invites us into a new way of living in the words: Follow me.
Jesus asked Peter a question Peter could not answer.
We miss the subtlety of the question. We miss it because unlike ancient Greek modern English has no vocabulary to express the rich subtle language of love. To some extent, this linguist poverty is a reflection of the spiritual poverty of our culture.
In this conversation between Jesus and Peter, Jesus twice asks Peter, do you pledge your life and loyalty to me unreservedly and unconditionally? And twice Peter replies, you know I am your friend. Peter doesn’t answer the question. He can’t really give Jesus what Jesus asks. Jesus is asking Peter to do something and to be something he has not yet experienced within himself.
That is why Peter and all of the disciples, except John, were so incredibly slow to believe the resurrection. That is why in this passage the apostles at first do not recognize Jesus. It is John, to whom the Holy Spirit has given the title: beloved, who recognizes Jesus.
The word the Holy Spirit uses to describe John is the same word Jesus uses when he asks Peter, do you love me. The word is agape. It means steadfast holy unconditional love. That was the kind of love John had embraced when he stood at the foot of the cross with Holy Mother Mary. Peter and the other disciples did not have that experience.
And so, Peter responds to Jesus’ question by altering the premise. Jesus uses the word agape, the highest form of love ancient peoples could imagine. Peter responds with the word phileo, brotherly love or friendship. It is more than some forms of love ancient peoples recognized, but less than the next higher form of love which is loyalty. And it is no where near the steadfast holy unconditional love Jesus asks of Peter.
There is a terrible struggle in this brief exchange. Jesus is asking Peter to be more than he is at that moment. Peter is trying to respond in the best way he can. Jesus asks: do you love me with divine love. Peter replies: I do have brotherly love for you. I am your friend.
Peter cannot yet comprehend agape. So, the third time Jesus asks the question he changes his question from agape to phileo. Peter, "are you my friend?" is the literal meaning of the third question Jesus asks.
And of course, that is the word Peter has been trying to use in answer to the previous two questions. Peter cannot ascend to the level Jesus holds before him, so Jesus descends to the level at which Peter lives. It is enough, for now. It is a start. It is the start of a life long process of transformation.
It is the beginning of the journey that will lead from self interest, to brotherly love, to friendship, then to loyalty and finally to agape itself: steadfast, holy, unconditional love. John adds his own personal interpretive note to the story when he references Peter’s death. In his execution for his testimony to the resurrection, Peter will experience and demonstrate for the Roman world that steadfast holy unconditional love he was slow to embrace in those early days of the resurrection.
No human being is capable of expressing agape. God the Father created us to be pure vessels and open channels of this kind of love. But only God can supply agape. Only God can supply this kind of love because that is the Divine nature. When the Bible says God is love it uses this word Agape: steadfast, holy, unconditional love.
The human choice to separate from God resulted in a soul cut off from the source of steadfast holy unconditional love. Apart from this love, we wither and perish. We struggle to find meaning and purpose. We become self absorbed and self preoccupied. We even lose the rich subtle vocabulary of love our ancestors once knew.
We are lost and broken in our separation from steadfast holy love. That was Peter’s condition. That was why he could not respond to Jesus’ question.
The solution is the process Jesus portrays for us in this encounter with Peter and the other disciples. John is already there. But John is still very young. He has many years of living before he can understand the fulness of the agape love his soul now holds.
Peter is older and has more life experience, but he hasn’t made that next step in faith that John made in the company of Holy Mother Mary. Jesus shows Peter, the disciples, and us what that next step is. It is service to others.
Jesus says: feed my sheep. Tend my flock, He who is greatest among you is servant of all. This is no mere title. It is the outward expression of a new attitude and aspect of the new life Jesus gives us.
The disciples had all argued amongst themselves about issues of command and control. They each wanted to be in charge. They each wanted to be the one Jesus would appoint to exercise lordship on his behalf over the rest. Each wanted to be in charge of the Kingdom of Heaven. Each wanted to be the infallible co-regent with Christ over the church on earth.
For three years the disciples thought in terms of religious laws, courts, prerogatives and privileges. That wasn’t why Jesus came. It wasn’t the Plan of salvation. Jesus never appointed co-regents to rule over a single world dominating religious institution. He came to reunify a lost and broken humanity to the source of light and life and love. He called his apostles to feed his sheep and tend his flock through preaching, teaching, healing and the sacraments.
John surrendered his self will and selfish desire for command and control when he stood at the foot of the cross. At that moment of tragedy, suffering, pain and loss- John lost himself in the steadfast holy love of Jesus Christ and found himself reborn as an open vessel of divine grace.
Peter and the others were a little slower. We all come to faith at a different time. We all grow in grace at a different pace. For that moment, it was enough for Peter to tell Jesus he was his friend. And, it was enough for Jesus to hear those words. It was enough for that moment. It was one step away from fear and one step forward into faith. It was one step beyond the pride of self will into the freedom of Divine will. It was enough. But, there was more to come. There is always more to come.
Agape, steadfast holy unconditional love, is infinite and eternal. We can never exhaust the height and depth and creative potential of Divine Love.
Within fifty days Peter and the others would receive an infilling of the Holy Spirit that would transform their fear into courage and their hesitant friendship into dynamic loyalty. Throughout his life Peter and the others would learn that the Kingdom of God is not about command and control but rather love and compassion.
The new life in Christ is a call to service. The new life in Christ sets us free from fear, self will and pride. The new life in Christ offers us the way forward through a life of service. For Peter, the disciples and us, the way forward has many dead ends and detours.
The Good News is that God is always there to get back on track. God is always there offering us a new opportunity to step back from the way of power and immerse ourselves in the way of service.
We become more of who God created us to be when we make a conscious choice to follow the path of steadfast holy unconditional love. After Jesus asks the three questions about love, he issues one single commanding invitation . He issued it to his disciples by the sea that day. And, he issues it to us.
Jesus asked the simple yet profound question: do you love me? Jesus invites us into a new way of living in the words: Follow me.
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
2nd Sunday of Easter
Second Sunday of Easter 2010
As the Father has sent me so I send you.
The disciples did not believe easily.
They demanded proof. After all, resurrection had never happened before, and it has not happened since.
There have been and continue to be many people who claim to be prophets, inspired leaders, enlightened teachers. Only Jesus has risen from the dead.
Of the inner circle of the twelve apostles, Judas had committed suicide before the resurrection and John had believed solely on the evidence of the empty tomb. The rest all needed and demanded proof.
They received the proof as Jesus appeared to them over the nert forty days. Jesus not only appeared to those who would form the collective leadership of the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, he also appeared to over five hundred other people. The scriptures give a brutally honest account of those five hundred who personally met the risen Lord Jesus Christ. The scriptures tell us that of those five hundred many believed but some doubted.
Jesus experienced that doubt all of his life before his execution and in the forty days he walked the earth after the resurrection.
In the gospel reading this morning he speaks to Thomas: do not doubt but believe." And then he says: "have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe."
The invitation to faith is not an invitation into a religion or a philosophy or a spiritual discipline. It is not a blind leap in the dark. It is an invitation to enter into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
The apostles were only partially present to Jesus until the resurrection. They spent so much time listening to his teaching and observing his actions but they continued to see and hear only what they wanted and expected.
Faith is waking up to what is.
Faith is paying attention.
Faith is observing with non attachment and non judgment.
Faith is receiving the greatest gift there is: the gift of an eternal friendship with the co-eternal Son of God.
Faith in Jesus reunites a lost soul to the very source of life.
Faith in Jesus initiates a never ending adventure of personal growth and transformation.
Faith in Jesus is loyalty to a person. It is not submission to a set of laws, teachings, rituals or spiritual disciplines. Those things exist temporarily to help us grow in our relationship with Christ.
The relationship is the reality. The reality is the creative dynamic spontaneous transforming power of eternal love.
Religion can impel a soul into aggression, submission or withdrawal. Only a personal relationship with Jesus Christ can transform the soul into the glory for which God created us.
The glory of God manifests in our world today as we offer our selves and souls and bodies to God in Christ to receive the blessing, live the blessing, and become the blessing to others.
Jesus came to earth to seek out and find lost souls. The profound and terrible insight of the Bible is that lost souls do not wish to be found. Jesus wishes to find them. Lost souls resist God through fear, self will and pride. Lost souls even create a multitude of religions and philosophies to assert a sense of control over the universe. Jesus reminds us that such control is an illusion.
In this apostolic age, the age of the Church, Jesus asks each of us who have entered into a personal relationship with him by grace ( the gift of God) through faith ( the awakening soul immersed in divine love and compassion) to enter into this lost world as he entered it. Jesus entered this world with love and compassion to seek and find and heal the lost.
So it is that Jesus sent his apostles into the world filled with his love and compassion to seek and find and heal the lost.
So it is that Jesus sends us into the world. Through the blessed sacrament of Holy Communion Jesus not only feeds us but immerses our minds, hearts and wills into his divine love and compassion. He blesses us with the fulness of peace so we can be channels of peace. He blesses us with the fulness of joy so we can be channels of joy. He fills us with the living waters of the Holy Spirt so we can help others quench their thirst for meaning and purpose in the waters of baptism.
In our personal relationship with the living Lord Jesus Christ, Jesus continually pours his love, his infinite and eternal love, into our souls so that we might experience the assurance of that great love and live from the depths of that life giving love.
As we cultivate the personal relationship with Jesus Christ at the altar, he fills us with the blessing of new life so we may become the blessing of new life to others.
Jesus told his apostles: as the Father has sent me so I send you.
Jesus us tells each of us the same. It is the meaning and purpose of our new life in Jesus Christ to walk the paths of this world in the light and peace of the Love of God. It is the meaning and purpose of our new life in Jesus Christ to seek, find and heal lost souls with that deep, transforming and abiding love.
Jesus ‘ word to the people of St. Luke’s is: as the Father has sent me into the world to bring salvation to all people, so I send you into the world to bring salvation to all people in the name of the One God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
As the Father has sent me so I send you.
The disciples did not believe easily.
They demanded proof. After all, resurrection had never happened before, and it has not happened since.
There have been and continue to be many people who claim to be prophets, inspired leaders, enlightened teachers. Only Jesus has risen from the dead.
Of the inner circle of the twelve apostles, Judas had committed suicide before the resurrection and John had believed solely on the evidence of the empty tomb. The rest all needed and demanded proof.
They received the proof as Jesus appeared to them over the nert forty days. Jesus not only appeared to those who would form the collective leadership of the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, he also appeared to over five hundred other people. The scriptures give a brutally honest account of those five hundred who personally met the risen Lord Jesus Christ. The scriptures tell us that of those five hundred many believed but some doubted.
Jesus experienced that doubt all of his life before his execution and in the forty days he walked the earth after the resurrection.
In the gospel reading this morning he speaks to Thomas: do not doubt but believe." And then he says: "have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe."
The invitation to faith is not an invitation into a religion or a philosophy or a spiritual discipline. It is not a blind leap in the dark. It is an invitation to enter into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
The apostles were only partially present to Jesus until the resurrection. They spent so much time listening to his teaching and observing his actions but they continued to see and hear only what they wanted and expected.
Faith is waking up to what is.
Faith is paying attention.
Faith is observing with non attachment and non judgment.
Faith is receiving the greatest gift there is: the gift of an eternal friendship with the co-eternal Son of God.
Faith in Jesus reunites a lost soul to the very source of life.
Faith in Jesus initiates a never ending adventure of personal growth and transformation.
Faith in Jesus is loyalty to a person. It is not submission to a set of laws, teachings, rituals or spiritual disciplines. Those things exist temporarily to help us grow in our relationship with Christ.
The relationship is the reality. The reality is the creative dynamic spontaneous transforming power of eternal love.
Religion can impel a soul into aggression, submission or withdrawal. Only a personal relationship with Jesus Christ can transform the soul into the glory for which God created us.
The glory of God manifests in our world today as we offer our selves and souls and bodies to God in Christ to receive the blessing, live the blessing, and become the blessing to others.
Jesus came to earth to seek out and find lost souls. The profound and terrible insight of the Bible is that lost souls do not wish to be found. Jesus wishes to find them. Lost souls resist God through fear, self will and pride. Lost souls even create a multitude of religions and philosophies to assert a sense of control over the universe. Jesus reminds us that such control is an illusion.
In this apostolic age, the age of the Church, Jesus asks each of us who have entered into a personal relationship with him by grace ( the gift of God) through faith ( the awakening soul immersed in divine love and compassion) to enter into this lost world as he entered it. Jesus entered this world with love and compassion to seek and find and heal the lost.
So it is that Jesus sent his apostles into the world filled with his love and compassion to seek and find and heal the lost.
So it is that Jesus sends us into the world. Through the blessed sacrament of Holy Communion Jesus not only feeds us but immerses our minds, hearts and wills into his divine love and compassion. He blesses us with the fulness of peace so we can be channels of peace. He blesses us with the fulness of joy so we can be channels of joy. He fills us with the living waters of the Holy Spirt so we can help others quench their thirst for meaning and purpose in the waters of baptism.
In our personal relationship with the living Lord Jesus Christ, Jesus continually pours his love, his infinite and eternal love, into our souls so that we might experience the assurance of that great love and live from the depths of that life giving love.
As we cultivate the personal relationship with Jesus Christ at the altar, he fills us with the blessing of new life so we may become the blessing of new life to others.
Jesus told his apostles: as the Father has sent me so I send you.
Jesus us tells each of us the same. It is the meaning and purpose of our new life in Jesus Christ to walk the paths of this world in the light and peace of the Love of God. It is the meaning and purpose of our new life in Jesus Christ to seek, find and heal lost souls with that deep, transforming and abiding love.
Jesus ‘ word to the people of St. Luke’s is: as the Father has sent me into the world to bring salvation to all people, so I send you into the world to bring salvation to all people in the name of the One God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Maunday Thursday
Maunday Thursday 2010
I am among you as one who serves
When Jesus gathered his twelve apostles together on the eve of his arrest he chose to bring them together at a meal.
The meal may have been a Passover Seder. It may also have been a traditional meal that a teacher offered his students in preparation for the Seder. Either way, it would have normally been a time of good food, good wine, good fellowship as well as a time of prayer and praise.
Such is the image of the Kingdom of God. Such is the image Jesus left his apostles and his apostles bequeathed to us in the celebration of Holy Communion.
The Kingdom of God is a celebration. It is a time set apart from time when the students of the teacher gather to enjoy his companionship and each other’s fellowship.
The Kingdom of heaven is about friendship. Jesus, the teacher, the master, the king, uses this occasion to set forth a new commandment. Love one another.
The Kingdom of God is the extravagant hospitality that the King, Jesus, offers to his people, to all of us. Jesus invites us to come to enjoy his real presence. At the Last Supper Jesus prepared the means by which he would continue to be present to all of us, to each of us. That means is the blessed sacrament of his body and blood.
At the institution of Holy Communion, Jesus set the context for all future generations to understand what happened and why. In the Last Supper Jesus reminds his followers that the Plan of Salvation is all about love.
The Plan of salvation is all about love because the creation is all about love. The Creation is all about love because the Creator is love. The love Jesus preaches, teaches, embodies and then shares in the sacrament is the steadfast holy unconditional eternal love of God.
At the very moment of consecration the timeless touches time.
That moment is an eternal moment. And because it is an eternal moment we are present with Jesus and the apostles at the last supper when we come to the altar.
We share the moment when Jesus was pouring out his heart to his friends. We share the moment when Judas restlessly kept one eye on the clock and one eye on the money, heedless and clueless of the eternal moment. We are there as the apostles still wait for the announcement about which of them would be chosen to be lord over the rest of them. We are there as Peter seeks to analyze the moment and fix it in time. We are there when the youngest of the apostles simply rests close to Jesus and alone of the twelve shares a moment so transcendent that he acquires a unique title amongst the twelve.
This night is different from every other night. This night, our Heavenly Father sends the Holy Spirit to invite us to share with Jesus the eternal moment. The eternal moment is the Real Presence of the co-eternal Son, the Beloved.
Jesus said: I have come to serve not to command. Jesus offers himself to all people everywhere in this sacrament. He waits patiently for us to stand expectantly before him, heedless of time, immersed in the timeless moment of eternal love. It is there and only there that the Blessing of eternal life manifests in our souls. It is there and only there that grace transforms fear, self will and pride into the glory of the Kingdom of God.
I am among you as one who serves
When Jesus gathered his twelve apostles together on the eve of his arrest he chose to bring them together at a meal.
The meal may have been a Passover Seder. It may also have been a traditional meal that a teacher offered his students in preparation for the Seder. Either way, it would have normally been a time of good food, good wine, good fellowship as well as a time of prayer and praise.
Such is the image of the Kingdom of God. Such is the image Jesus left his apostles and his apostles bequeathed to us in the celebration of Holy Communion.
The Kingdom of God is a celebration. It is a time set apart from time when the students of the teacher gather to enjoy his companionship and each other’s fellowship.
The Kingdom of heaven is about friendship. Jesus, the teacher, the master, the king, uses this occasion to set forth a new commandment. Love one another.
The Kingdom of God is the extravagant hospitality that the King, Jesus, offers to his people, to all of us. Jesus invites us to come to enjoy his real presence. At the Last Supper Jesus prepared the means by which he would continue to be present to all of us, to each of us. That means is the blessed sacrament of his body and blood.
At the institution of Holy Communion, Jesus set the context for all future generations to understand what happened and why. In the Last Supper Jesus reminds his followers that the Plan of Salvation is all about love.
The Plan of salvation is all about love because the creation is all about love. The Creation is all about love because the Creator is love. The love Jesus preaches, teaches, embodies and then shares in the sacrament is the steadfast holy unconditional eternal love of God.
At the very moment of consecration the timeless touches time.
That moment is an eternal moment. And because it is an eternal moment we are present with Jesus and the apostles at the last supper when we come to the altar.
We share the moment when Jesus was pouring out his heart to his friends. We share the moment when Judas restlessly kept one eye on the clock and one eye on the money, heedless and clueless of the eternal moment. We are there as the apostles still wait for the announcement about which of them would be chosen to be lord over the rest of them. We are there as Peter seeks to analyze the moment and fix it in time. We are there when the youngest of the apostles simply rests close to Jesus and alone of the twelve shares a moment so transcendent that he acquires a unique title amongst the twelve.
This night is different from every other night. This night, our Heavenly Father sends the Holy Spirit to invite us to share with Jesus the eternal moment. The eternal moment is the Real Presence of the co-eternal Son, the Beloved.
Jesus said: I have come to serve not to command. Jesus offers himself to all people everywhere in this sacrament. He waits patiently for us to stand expectantly before him, heedless of time, immersed in the timeless moment of eternal love. It is there and only there that the Blessing of eternal life manifests in our souls. It is there and only there that grace transforms fear, self will and pride into the glory of the Kingdom of God.
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