Easter 5

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.