Friday, December 30, 2011

Holy Name of Jesus 2012

The Holy Name of Jesus 2012 (Luke 2:15-22)
“He was called Jesus.”

Love and love alone is salvation.

Our Heavenly Father named his incarnate son Jesus. This is the name the archangel Gabriel announced to Holy Mother Mary at the moment of the incarnation.
The angel brought the Father’s message to the holy mother to name her son Jesus. Jesus means savior.

The people of that time looked for a savior. The Romans looked to the emperor to save them from political chaos. The Greeks looked to philosophers and scientists to save them from ignorance. The Jews looked to a messiah to save them from Roman imperialism and Greek polytheism.

The Romans feared political instability and so reacted by creating a immense and powerful imperial system.

The Greeks feared ignorance and so reacted by creating highly complex and diverse philosophies.

The Jews feared the loss of their identity and so reacted by creating rigid and restrictive religious systems to purify the people for the Messianic leader who would destroy the corrupting influences of Rome, Greece, and unrighteous Jews.

Each civilization felt a great and overwhelming fear. Each civilization attempted to express that fear in ways they could understand, manage and control. Each civilization drew back from the cause of that fear. The cause of that fear is separation from God. The outward and visible sign of separation is death.

Death is the fear that people do not want to name. It is beyond our control. It is beyond the influence of politics, philosophy or religion.

Jesus came to save all people everywhere from the power of death.

Jesus saves all people everywhere from death by making a real choice to embrace death on the cross. For every who has ever lived or will ever live the embrace of death is fearful and final. For Jesus, death is a distortion to be transformed.

Jesus just doesn’t conquer death or destroy death. Jesus saves the entire human species from death by willingly embracing death. The embrace of Jesus is the embrace of a love that is infinite and eternal. In that embrace Love transforms death back into life. In that embrace love transforms fear back into faith.

Jesus saves us from fear and death through Love. Only Jesus has this love because only Jesus is this love. Jesus is the co-eternal Beloved of God the Father who is love.

Jesus is the universal savior for all people because Jesus is the transcendent pattern by which the Father created all people.

Jesus is not only the source of life he is the meaning and purpose of life. God the Father creates every human being through God the Holy Spirit to be the unique and forever friend of God the Son, Jesus, the Beloved.

Jesus is the Father’s gift to all people everywhere. Jesus is a true gift and a real gift. Jesus came to earth as a helpless infant to reassure a fearful humanity that he holds in his sacred heart only grace and compassion.

There is no condemnation in Jesus because there is not condemnation in God. There is no condemnation in God because God just doesn’t have love- God is love.
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There is no compulsion in the universal savior. Jesus offers himself to us as the one pure holy gift of divine love and compassion. The active principle of love is choice.
Jesus offers salvation to all people everywhere with no condition and no restriction. Salvation is Jesus. Only Jesus has embraced sin and death and transformed it back into love and life. Only Jesus has faced fear, embraced fear and transformed fear back into faith.

The call to worship is the call to reunification with the Father, through the Son, by the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit.

The call to worship is the universal invitation to all human beings everywhere to receive the gift of divine love and compassion, to find a new life in that love, and to be transformed by that love.

The call to worship is the name Gabriel delivered to Mary and Mary joyfully gave to her son. It is the name of love himself. Love and love alone is salvation.
The name of love is Jesus.

Friday, December 23, 2011

Christmas 2011

Christmas 2011 (Luke 2:1-14)
“Fear not; I bring you good tidings of great joy.”

The great mystery of Christmas is Jesus Christ.

In Jesus God the Father united God the Son with human nature.

God became as we are so that we might become as God is.

The Christmas angel announced to the shepherds and to the world: fear not. This world and your lives are neither random nor meaningless. There is no condemnation in God. The Good News the angel brought to the poorest of the poor that night echoes throughout the centuries to all people everywhere.

The great joy of Christmas is that God is real, God is personal, God is love, God is Jesus Christ.

Where so many people ponder the question of whether God exists or who God may be, God himself answers that question once and for all, fully and completely. The answer is Jesus Christ.

In the infant of Bethlehem we see how the co-eternal Beloved Son of the Father set aside his omnipotence and omniscience to become one of us. Fully God and fully human. A particular man at a particular time in a particular place to reveal the infinite eternal real presence of Divine Love and Compassion for all of us and to each of us.
Jesus is the transcendent Beloved of the Father. Jesus is God with us and God for us in the manger with Mary and Joseph, the animals and the shepherds, the kings and the angels.

Jesus is the real and personal love of God for everyone. Jesus excludes no one and welcomes everyone to receive the gift of eternal love. That love has no beginning and will have no end. As we make a real choice to be found by that love and to immerse our souls in that love we reclaim the Original Blessing our species once rejected.

In Jesus God calls us to be who He originally created us to be. God the Father calls us to be the beloved of the co-eternal Beloved, Jesus Christ. Jesus fills us with that infinite love and compassion who is eternally the Holy Spirit.

In Jesus, God finds us wherever we are. In Jesus God found Mary and Joseph in the working class town of Nazareth. In Jesus, God found the shepherds in the fields. In Jesus God found the three kings in their observatory pondering the vastness of the universe. In Jesus God finds each of us where we are here and now.

The Christmas angel proclaims: Feat not. God is real. God is love. God is personal. God is Jesus Christ for you and forever. Amen.



Thursday, December 15, 2011

Advent 4

Advent 4 “Here am I, the servant of the Lord, let it be with me according to your word.” Luke 1:26-38)

It is important to know who you are. It is even more important to know whose you are.
When the archangel Gabriel greeted Mary he used the formal greeting of the time. The Latin equivalent is “Ave”, Hail. The archangel recognized who Mary was and whose she is.

From scripture we learn that Mary was a young woman, a teen. We see that even as a teen she memorized scripture. And, we have evidence from Mary’s actions that she made worship in the Temple a priority.

Mary was one of the working poor who paid high taxes and lived in a state of constant fear. The working poor feared the Roman occupation army. Even more than the Romans they feared the Tax Collectors Rome hired to bring revenue to the Empire. And, they feared the religious authorities who used their position and power to intimidate and bully the people through a religion of legalism and submission.
People frequently allow the sufferings and the uncertainties of life to define them.
Mary lived in a culture of fear but made a real choice to cultivate the three virtues of faith, hope and love.

Mary made a real choice to use the grace God pours out on all people to define her very being. She chose so completely to immerse her soul in grace that the archangel described her personality as being full of grace.

Grace is a gift. It is a gift of the Real Presence of the Living God. It is a gift not a command. The Bible is very honest in its observation that most people most of the time reject the gift. We reject the gift to preserve our separation from God. In that separation we trade the blessings of God for the illusions of power, prestige, position, possessions and pleasure.

The rich seek more money.

The powerful seek more power.

The poor and dispossessed are paralyzed by fear.

Mary made a different choice. Mary chose to receive the gift and define her life by the gift.

The gift of God is God Himself.

A fundamental principle of scripture is that human beings do not seek out and find God. God seeks out and finds us. Our choice is not formed by our initiative but by our response to God’s intiative.

Mary is the penultimate personality in the plan of salvation. Where so many people for so many centuries said no to God Mary said yes. Where so many people insisted on their right to define God according to their needs and desires, Mary simply acknowledged the core truth of Creation: Behold, I am the Lord’s servant.

The way of Mary is the way of grace. It is the way of faith. It is the truth that God seeks us and finds us.

The issue is not which is the right religion. The issue is not whether every religious and spiritual path is a valid way for human beings to seek God. The issue is how we choose to react or respond to the active dynamic Real Presence of God seeking us and offering us Himself in Jesus Christ.

Mary chose to set aside her fear so that she could experience faith. Mary chose to surrender her self-will to Divine Will so that she could receive God’s gift. Mary used the grace of God to transform the pride of separation back into the original blessing of union with God. Humility is the chalice of the Original Blessing.

Mary sought no position and exercised no rule. She lived and breathed and moved in the grace of God. In that grace she chose the way of faith. In that faith she immersed herself in divine love through worship. And, in that love she fulfilled God’s call for her to become who God created her to be. She became the hagios theotokos, the holy mother of God.

The joy of Mary is that from the moment of his conception, Jesus was fully human and fully divine.

The life of Mary is largely a life of quiet obscurity governed by her care and nurture of her son. God the Father entrusted Mary to bear and raise Jesus because Mary lived from the place of steadfast holy love.

The sorrow of Mary begins as Jesus emerges from the waters of baptism and enters a public ministry that ended in his betrayal, arrest, torture and execution.
The glory of Mary is the reflected glory of the resurrection: the victory of eternal love over death.

The ministry of Mary was to enlighten the teen age apostle John about the ineffable Mystery of the person of Jesus Christ.

The Queenship of Mary, depicted for us at St. Luke’s in the reredos over our altar, is the Queenship of humility, compassion, and the witness of a soul filled with the superabundance of grace and immersed in the infinite and eternal love of God.
On this fourth Sunday of Advent we honor Mary as the person who discovered her true self in the love of God by grace through faith.

On this fourth Sunday of Advent Holy Mother Mary asks us with all compassion and humility to give up our search for meaning, purpose, self and God so we can discover that is it God who is seeking us. It is God who has found us and reveals to us our true self and true purpose in Jesus Christ.

Mary said and continues to say: let it be. Let God be God. Let us each surrender to the Great Mystery of eternal love made flesh in Jesus Christ. Be who God created you to be. Be the living chalice of grace filled with grace. Discover who you are in Christ and then be who you are and whose you are in Christ.

Holy Mother Mary pray for us that we may rejoice in the midst of sorrow and discover the glory of who God created us to be in the proclamation: behold I am the Lord’s servant may it be unto me according to God’s Word made flesh, Jesus Christ. Amen.



Friday, December 9, 2011

Advent 3

Advent 3 “Make straight the way of the Lord.” (John 1:6-8, 19-28)

The straight way is the way to the Real Presence of the living God. It is not a religion it is a relationship. The relationship is with Jesus Christ. The relationship is characterized by love and compassion. And, it is a relationship initiated by the Holy Spirit in the call to worship.

There are many detours along the way. There are no short cuts. Short cuts make long delays, as JJR Tolkien once wrote.

When John the Baptist, the last of the prophets, preached to the people of Judea and Galilee there were three main detours off the straight way of salvation.

For the Romans, power was the detour and war was the short cut.
For the Greeks, knowledge was the detour and cynicism was the short cut.
For the Jews, religion was the detour and legalism was the short cut.
At the risk of offending any one, I suspect that for contemporary Western Civilization the love of money is the detour and self indulgent pleasure is one of many short cuts.

The true prophet of God has the clear sight to discern these detours and short cuts. The Holy Spirit provides the clarity. And, the Holy Spirit directs the prophetic message with two words: repent and prepare.

John the Baptist had the unenviable task of announcing to a very religious culture that they had missed the mark. They maintained the outward and visible signs of religion whist rejecting the inward and spiritual grace.

John’s call to repentance attracted huge crowds. His message stirred the emotions of thousands of people. What John could not do was to change the hearts of those multitudes. He understood the dynamic of the crowds. People might enter into the waters of repentance today and the quickly forget their promise to God by evening. The religious leaders might listen to the message in silence even as they considered how to use John to maintain their position and extend their influence.

John knew his time was short. The true prophet usually does not live long. The true prophet tells people we are lost and in a state of rebellion against the Divine Plan, pattern and purpose of Creation. People in general and people with religious and political power don’ t like that message.

The lost do not want to be found. The rebellious strike back and strike back hard when a true prophet speaks the true word of God.

John’s purpose as the last of the prophets is to prepare the way for the Messiah, Jesus Christ. John calls people to recognize their sin, to repent of their sin, and to understand that the problem of sin runs far deeper than any prophet or religion can reach.

The problem confronting humanity is our choice to separate from God. The solution is to prepare for the One whom God sends into the world to save us from sin. That salvation comes as a gift. It is the gift of reunification with God the Father and transformation in God the Holy Spirit through a personal relationship with God the son.

The straight way to salvation is modeled for us in holy mother Mary’s response to the message of the archangel Gabriel. It is a response to grace by faith summarized in one word: yes.

The call of the true prophet begins with the urgent invitation to consider where we say no to God and how we say no to God. Where are we moving into a detour off the straight and narrow road of salvation? How do we seek the short cuts of self will to tell God what we demand of him?

Jesus is the unity of divinity and humanity. He the second Adam- the pattern of a new life and the purpose for a new way of living.

During Advent we have the opportunity to consider the prophetic call to make our path to God straight- unencumbered by sin.

The straight way is the way of Holy Mother Mary who said: Behold, I am the Lord’s servant. Let it be unto me according to God’s word.
The straight way is the way of the apostle Paul who declared: for me to live is Jesus Christ.

The straight way is the way of the apostle John to whom God the Holy Spirit gave the name: beloved of the co-eternal Beloved.

The straight way is the way of unconditional love.

The last of the true prophets calls us to consider where have chosen detours and short cuts. His call is to return to the royal road of Divine Love and compassion. His call is to walk the pathways of this life with Jesus Christ.
His call is: “Make straight the way of the Lord.”


Friday, December 2, 2011

Advent 2

Advent 2 “Prepare” (Mark 1:1-8)

The true prophet proclaims one message in two words: repent and prepare.

The call to repentance is the invitation to consider the fundamental problem that defines the human race. If you misunderstand the problem the solution our Heavenly Father offers makes little or no sense.

The call to repentance is the invitation to look into the perfect Law of God. It is as we perceive ourselves, our attitudes and actions, in the perfect mirror of the Law that we recognize sin.

Sin, however, is not the root of the problem. The prophets encourage us to ask questions. Through the prophet Isaiah God says: come let us reason together. Think. Ponder. Question. Dialog.

The logical question to ask ourselves when we look into the perfect Law of God and recognize sin is why? Why do I sin? Why does everyone sin?

The Bible offers a unique answer to this question. It is an answer that leads to another question. The reason why all people sin is because in each of us our reason, emotions and will are distorted.

More often than not we use our reason to rationalize sin. We experience an emotional attraction to sin. And we use our will to rebel against God and to compete with and fight against other people.

The next question is where did these distortions come from? The Bible offers an answer to that question as well. It is an answer grounded in the observation of human behavior spanning several thousand years, Distortion comes from pain. It is a deeply rooted all pervasive existential pain that we are born with.

If we are born with this pain where did it come from? This question takes us to the source of the problem. Deeply rooted existential pain comes from the original choice our species made to separate from God. The One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church calls this choice “Original Sin.”

Original Sin is the real choice our species made to separate from God. Separation plunges our spirit into profound existential pain. That pain distorts the way we think, feel and make choices. Those distortions cause sin. The end of the process is death.

The true prophet calls people to recognize the reality of sin, the process of sin, and the origin of sin. As far as I can tell, almost every religion teaches actual sin. No religion other than Christianity teaches Original Sin.

If Moses and the prophets are correct in their observations of human behavior and human nature, there can be only one solution to the problem. The solution is Jesus Christ.

If Moses and the Prophets are correct in their conclusions about the human condition then our species is not only lost in Original Separation, we are lost and do not want to be found. We separated to avoid the Living God and we are willfully and rebelliously lost in that separation.

If this is true, then the moment Jesus came to earth he would meet opposition, redefinition, rejection and death. And, that is exactly what happened.

If this is true then the second prophetic word completes the first. The call to repentance is the introduction and foundation for the call to preparation.

What is it that the prophets ask us to prepare for? It is not the Law. We already have the Law and fail to keep it. Is it religion? There are a multitude of religions and an even greater number of denominations, sects and cults generated by those religions. The prophets declare human religion is distorted by the same process of sin that distorts our mind, heart and will.

The prophetic call to repent identifies the problem. The prophetic call to prepare identifies God’s solution to the problem. The solution is Jesus Christ.

Sadly, just as people rejected the call to repentance by killing the prophets then encapsulating a distorted image of the prophets in religious structures, so people rejected the call to prepare for the coming of the holy Beloved. Instead, they prepared for the coming of a Messianic Caesar. They prepared for the wrong person and the wrong plan because they incorrectly identified the problem.

Jesus knew this. He knew what he would find in his generation. He understood the problem better than anyone. He knew that a species lost in separation is also lost in religion, politics, economics, philosophy, culture, self-will, fear and pride.
The lost do not wish to be found. We are found only in the person of Jesus Christ. In Jesus God unites His divinity with our humanity. It is that union that God finds us and makes it possible for us to receive reunification with the Way, the truth and the life of God made manifest in Jesus Christ.

On this 2nd Sunday of Advent the Holy Spirit is calling us to prepare our minds and hearts and wills to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. In that birth we celebrate the holy Beloved of God who seeks the lost, finds the lost, and rescues the lost.
Repentance and preparation are two sides of one coin.

The Holy Spirit encourages us to ask the questions that can bring clarity to our thoughts, purity to our hearts and unity to our will. The question is: who or what do you prepare for this Advent season? Are you already caught up in the Santa celebrations? Are you preparing to celebrate the cleverly devised myths or the transcendent reality of the Living Lord Jesus Christ?

When Jesus was born into the world the world did not know him. The world did not want to know him. They were preparing for someone and something very different. Advent is that time when we have the opportunity to reflect on our religious lives and our spiritual needs. It is a time of quiet in the midst of a time of activity and distraction. It is a time of real choice.

The true prophet call out “Prepare!”

The Holy Spirit calls to us: Prepare for the holy Beloved of God. Make the pathways of your mind, heart and will straight in the light and love of Jesus Christ. Enter into the new life of grace. Enter into the new way of living by faith. Make a real choice to believe in Jesus. Make a real choice to receive Jesus into your soul. Make a real choice to prepare for the birth of the co-eternal Beloved of God.

Thursday, November 24, 2011

Advent 1

Advent 1 “Keep awake!” (Mark 13:24-37)
Jesus sets us free to be.

The imperative to keep awake is the call to the present moment.

Jesus understood time more completely than anyone who has ever lived or will ever live. In his pre incarnate form Jesus is the pattern by which our heavenly Father created time, space, matter and energy.

The Beloved of the Father voluntarily left the realm of the eternal to enter the world of time. Jesus entered time to seek and to find a people who are lost in time.
How is this possible?

The Bible presents a clear and consistent record of how most people most of the time simply do not pay attention to the world as it is in the present moment.

Moses encountered this aspect of human nature throughout his ministry. When the people lived in slavery in Egypt they longed for deliverance and cried out for the future Messiah to come quickly. When Moses led them out of Egypt into the desert the people forgot their plea and would only complain that they no longer had the food and comfort of their past lives as slaves back in Egypt.

The persistent preaching of the prophets called people into the present moment of the Sabbath, the day of divine Real Presence. It was a call to worship most people most of the time ignored then, and continue to ignore now.

Moses came to understand how the people chose to live for a future paradise or a past pleasure. The prophets were dismayed to realize that the people largely abandoned the Real Presence of God for the illusions of philosophy and the memory of past glories and future pleasures.

The Bible is very clear. Now is the acceptable time. Now is the day of salvation. Now. Not yesterday or in the distant past. Not tomorrow or in the distant future. That is why Jesus teaches that the signs of his return are fulfilled in that generation. Nothing needs to happen before Jesus returns.
Jesus could return at any moment.

Because Jesus could return at any moment it is folly to try to predict let alone announce the exact date. Of that time and of that hour no one knows, not even the angels, not even the Son. Only the Father knows the time and the hour.
Jesus warns against the folly of predicting the future and admonishes us to be wary, to keep alert and to keep awake. The teaching is to wake up, pay attention to what is. Live in the present moment.

Philosophers and psychologists often observe that many people sleep walk through life. Many people live by default rather than by conscious intent.

We sleep walk through life by adopting an easy routine, the path of least effort and least resistance. We live by default by accepting without question the conventions of our culture and the expectations of other people. As we do this we disconnect from the reality of the present moment. We allow past fears or anxiety about the future to set our priorities and form our lives.

The invitation to keep awake is the call to make a real choice to live by conscious intent in the present moment here and now. The best and only way to live most fully and completely in time is to hear the call to meet the at the time and place of worship.

This is how Jesus lived and moved and experienced time. He formed his life in the here and now of the present moment by attending to the eternal now of the eternal Sabbath Day of Real Presence. In Jesus the timeless touches time as the eternal God unities his divinity with our mortal humanity.

It is as we make a real choice to immerse our souls in the timeless touch of Real Presence that the eternal sets us free from past fear or anxiety about the future. The timeless touch of the Real Presence of Jesus Christ on the seventh day at the altar of sacrifice liberates us from the tyranny of time and the tedium of time to live most fully in the present moment: now.

It is the perfect love of the incarnate co-eternal Beloved who releases us from the bondage of past fear into the ineffable joy and wonder of the present moment. It is the Beloved who has come to earth and promised to be present to us on the Seventh day to assure that the future is safe and secure in the everlasting arms of our Heavenly Father.

Jesus sets us free to be.

Jesus sets us free from fear and anxiety to be exactly who our Heavenly Father created us to be. From God’s perspective we are the beloved of the co-eternal Beloved. It is only our stubborn insistence on wandering in the wilderness of past fear or in the anxiety of future distress that blinds us from this reality.
During this Advent season the one holy catholic and apostolic church invites us to experience a new life in the midst of the present moment. The first step in this new life is what Jesus teaches us today. Keep awake.

Pascal, the French scientist and philosopher, once commented that all of man’s problems can be traced to his inability to sit still in silence for five minutes. Pascal understood how the sin nature perpetuates humanity’s original choice to separate from God.

As a species we are lost in separation. We perpetuate that separation by choosing to be lost in time. We remain lost in time until we make a real choice to be found in the present moment of the here and now.

Set aside time to encounter the eternal. This is called meditation. It isn’t easy. It requires a choice and a commitment. Make a conscious intent here and now to set aside five minutes a day to sit in silence. You may choose to hold your intent before God in the words of Psalm 62:1 “For God alone my soul in silence waits.”

It is in the real choice to meet the co-eternal Beloved in a moment of silence that we discover how we are lost and where we are lost. The fundamental challenge is that our sin nature does not want to be found. The great promise of God in Jesus Christ is that through the incarnation God has already found us. All we need to do is say: yes. All we need to do is to say what Holy Mother Mary said: Let it be.

Let it be. Be who you are. Make a real choice to enter into the Real Presence of the Living Lord Jesus Christ in the present moment of the eternal “Now”. Wake up to who you are in Jesus Christ.

And, once you wake up keep awake in the Present Moment with the conscious intent to be the beloved of the co-eternal Beloved, Jesus Christ.

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Thanksgiving 2011

Thanksgiving 2012 “Do not worry.” (Matthew 6:25-33)

Gratitude is the antidote for worry.

My grandfather frequently quoted this scripture to me when I was a child. He would always add an addendum. Don’t you worry- your father worries enough for the whole family. That’s his job.

One of the consequences of Original Sin, the choice our species made to separate from God, is the distortion of thought that produces worry. Through the pain of original separation our brains forms structures that some people identify as threat assessment mechanisms.

The brain in a state of separation and distortion constantly scans the environment for threats. Not only does it passively scan for threats, it actively runs scenarios to test for threats.

And so if someone says something like “I missed you at the meeting last night” the brain will run scenarios to determine if that statement is a criticism, a judgment or a threat.

When we worry, we experience a mental process that produces an emotional result. The brain is preparing the body to run away or to fight if there is indeed a threat. It’s called the flight or fight response. There is a third response called “freeze” where action is paralyzed.

The brain produces a certain level of what Psychologists call “negative self-talk.’ This “negative self-talk” can be very inconvenient and annoying. It is what Jesus wants to heal in us.

Jesus knows all of these things about us. He is the original pattern of human nature. He knows how original separation produces what some philosophers and psychiatrists call “existential pain.”

The Bible is a record of how that existential pain creates distortions in our thoughts, emotions and will. It is those distortions that result in sin. The end result of sin is death.

Jesus just doesn’t say: “don’t worry; be happy”. He tells us how we can heal the distortions that result in worry. And, he not only tells us he shows us. And, he not only shows us he offers to infuse our souls with the power of the Holy Spirit to accomplish the healing.

On this Thanksgiving Day 2011 we remember how the Christian founders of this nation drew on the divine love and compassion of Jesus Christ when they set aside a day of national thanksgiving. They knew, they chose and they experienced the transforming power of the Living Lord Jesus Christ. They commended that transforming power to the nation as the way of gratitude.

Worry produces anxiety and fear. Worry molds us to live defensively and experience our daily lives as a constant threat that demands fight, flight or freeze.
Gratitude, thanksgiving, resets the mind, heart and will to their original pattern and proper function.

Thanksgiving resets the direction of our lives by the compass that points true north. In the spiritual life true north is Jesus Christ.

Consider your many blessings. Consider family, friends and neighbors. Ask the Holy Spirit to infuse in your soul a new and transforming attitude of gratitude.

Jesus’ ardent and passionate desire is for all of us and each of us to experience life as a journey to celebrate. And so, on this Thanksgiving day Jesus teaches and encourages and empowers us in the word of God: do not worry. Seek first the kingdom of God. As you do that the Holy Spirit will set you free to celebrate life and to enjoy the amazing blessings of life.

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Christ the King Sunday 2012

Christ the King Sunday 2011
(Matthew 25:31-46) “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to the least of these, you did it to me.”

How we treat other people reveals the state of our soul.

Jesus goes so far as to say how we treat the least, those who are different, those who are disadvantaged, reveals how we treat him.

Jesus is not speaking of a point system of credits and debits by which we earn a place in the kingdom of heaven. He is speaking of relationships.

What the Bible teaches is that life is about relationships. Moses, the prophets and Jesus reveal that there are three orders of relationships for human beings. The first and most important relationship is with God. The second is how we treat others and the third how we treat ourselves.

What reveals the inner most nature of our souls is the attitude and action we bring forth in our relationships.

As we relate to other people we can choose to bring forth indifference, intolerance, aggression, or compassion.

The people at the final judgment are surprised by the standard.
They expect a checklist based in credits and debits. They expect a standard grounded in performance and results that has nothing to do with attitude. Much to their, and perhaps our, surprise the standard is love and compassion. The question Jesus wants us to ask ourselves here and now before we appear at the judgment seat is: how do I love?

Jesus himself is the answer to that question. How did Jesus love? How does Jesus love?

As we study the life of Jesus Christ we see that first and foremost Jesus loved unconditionally. He loved everyone- even his enemies, even those who abandoned him and even those who tortured and killed him.

Jesus was able to love unconditionally by a real choice to immerse his mind, his heart and his will in the will of God the Father by staying centered in the Divine Presence of God the Holy Spirit. Jesus is the union of divinity and humanity in a single individual who manifests the infinite love of God in a particular time, at a particular place in a particular person.

Jesus reveals the universal love of God one person at a time.
Jesus is the universal love of God for each unique person in a unique way.
It is as we make a real choice to reunify with the Father, through the Son by the indwelling Presence of the Holy Spirit that we have access to the infinite unconditional love of God. And, it is as we make a real choice to immerse ourselves in the Real Presence of divine love that we are set free from sin to express compassion.

Sin always kills. Divine love always transforms death into life.
Religion without love is abomination. Religion without compassion becomes either rigid and judgmental, or sentimental and amorphous. Apart from the constant input of divine grace to transform our souls, we stagnate. As we stagnate we hide from the truth of God revealed in Jesus Christ.

Some people hide from Jesus in religion. Some hide in science. Still others hide in self-indulgence. That is why at the last judgment Jesus says: I never knew you. Jesus does not hide from us. We hide from him.

Jesus says I never knew you for I was present to you in the child you abandoned and abused. I was there to you in the people you judged unworthy of food. I was there to you in the people you defamed and bullied. I was there for you but you turned your back on me. You hid in the illusion of self will and now you are lost in that illusion.

I was hungry and you did not feed me.

Hunger is the scandal of a species unwilling to practice compassion. Hunger is the product of souls in a state of self will, fear pride. The starvation of over a billion people on this planet is the outward and visible manifestation of the spiritual state of our species. People starve for their daily bread because our species hides from God and is starving spiritually in the illusion of the will to power, the demand of the soul to dominate other people, nature and even God.

We at St. Luke’s cannot feed a billion people. We can help to feed some of the needy here in the Newtown area. We can do this as we make a real choice to enter into the Way of life Jesus demonstrated.

The steps are very clear and practical.

First: surrender judgment. Give up the illusion that we have a right to judge other people as less worthy than we are.

Second: ask the Holy Spirit to convert the demand of self will into the true freedom of divine will. Make it part of your daily prayer life to say: Heavenly Father, not my will but Thy will be done.

Third: During the four weeks of Advent give up the insistence to have everything done your way. As you come to the altar of sacrifice to receive the gift of divine life ask Jesus to release you from the distortions of sin.

Jesus does not ask us to submit to Law. Jesus asks us to surrender to Love. As we surrender to divine love we are transformed by that love to live and move and have our being in that love. We meet Jesus in the lives of the people God created in His image. And, Jesus meets us through those people in such a very simple and direct way that Jesus says:
“Truly I tell you, just as you did it to the least of these, you did it to me.”



Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Pentecost 22

Pentecost 22 (Matthew 25:14-30)
For to all those who have more will be given.

The underlying principle of the parable of the talents is “use it or lose it.”
In Biblical times a talent was a unit of money. A silver talent was worth a year’s wage for a day laborer. The man in the story is both incredibly wealthy and incredibly generous. He has a great deal of trust in his servants. And, he has high expectations for their productivity.

The word “talent” passed into English through this passage. The word shifted in meaning as people pondered the meaning of the parable. We no longer use the word “talent” to refer to a unit of money. We use the word to describe natural gifts and abilities.

In the parable the rich man gives different amounts of money to his servants according to their abilities. The man expects his servants to use the money productively. And, he recognizes each servant has his own strengths and weaknesses that will affect his productivity.

Two of the servants take the gifts and use them wisely. They double the investment. The master returns after a long absence to settle accounts. He commends the wise servants for using their natural gifts and abilities prudently and productively.
The third servant doesn’t use his gift at all. Through fear he hides his gift of one talent and simply returns it untouched and un used. The master confronts the unproductive servant and tells him that he could at the very least have opened a secure savings account and received a modest interest.

The parable is not a lesson in finances. It is also not teaching that we earn God’s favor, God’s grace.

The parable is a lesson about our response to God’s grace. The master represents God. Within the context of the parable He gave each of His servants amazing gifts few people would ever receive. He gave the gifts judiciously, taking into account each person’s unique abilities.

The Bible is very clear that God pours forth his grace, his unmerited favor, to everyone. God even gives each of us unique capabilities by which we can, if we choose, use the gifts.

The point of the parable is our choice to respond or to react to God’s grace.
Money is the ideal symbol for the process of unfolding grace because money is frozen energy. People invented money to quantify the value of time, talents and work. Units of money are units of the life force frozen in place. Money can reveal to us what we truly value. And, money can enter into the life of grace to produce an abundance of blessing.

The difference between the productive and the unproductive servants is the distinction between faith and fear.

St. Paul teaches that we reunify with God and are transformed by God through grace through faith. The operating force is choice. God pours forth his grace to all people in Jesus Christ.

The parable raises the vital question: how do we each respond or react to universal grace?

Do we make a real choice to receive the grace of God by faith? Will we use our natural abilities with understanding and wisdom to unlock the frozen energy of our souls? Do we see life as an adventure to explore?

It is as we choose to respond to God’s grace by faith that we experience the release of the frozen energy of our lives. It is as we use our talents that those talents expand, grow, and mature into the abundance God has placed in them for us to experience and for us to bring forth into the world.

The alternative to a response of faith is a reaction of fear. Fear paralyzes the soul. Fear locks the soul in stagnant life force that produces sin. Fear is always self-absorbed and self-justifying. And fear always erodes faith by spite.

Jesus teaching is very clear. We all have different abilities and different talents. God does not expect us to manifest gifts we simply do not have. God passionately desires for us to take the gifts he has given us and use them by faith.

The actual quantifiable result is less important that the process involved. The process opens our minds and hearts and souls to experience a greater degree of grace. It is as we practice our faith in the daily choices we make with what we have and where we are that we release the frozen energy of our lives.

The servant with five talents used his talents and doubled them. So did the servant with two talents. The blessing is not in the numbers. The blessing is in the process of growth and maturity. The blessing is in the joy.

A good question to ask yourself is: where am I experiencing joy in my life? Does my service to God produce joy?

The joy comes as a natural consequence of a life lived by grace through faith. If your service produces fear, anxiety, frustration and spite you need to step back and ask the Holy Spirit two questions. Where am I not in truth? Where am I not in love?
Those who choose to use grace through love expand their ability to experience grace through love. For to all those who act from the place of self will, fear and pride even what they have will collapse into stagnation and fail to bring forth a blessing.

But, to those who act from faith in love even the abundance of God’s gifts to them will increase, grow and mature into a wealth of blessing and a never ending fountain of joy.

For to all those who have more will be given.






Tuesday, November 1, 2011

All Saints Sunday 2011

All Saints/All Souls Sunday 2011 “
The blessings of God are infinite and eternal.

The blessings of God are infinite and eternal because they are an infusion of the infinite and eternal love of God into our souls.

The saints are the saints because they came to understand this principle and to act on this principle. They are blessed because they said “yes” to the blessing our Heavenly Father offers all people everywhere in the ordinary events of life.

God is working his purpose out in our world. God is working His purpose out in the circumstance of our lives. God never promised to annul the folly of human sin. The world is structured according to the laws of choice, cause and effect, and consequence. God does not use magic to cancel the laws that he formed to govern the universe he created.

He does promise to transform sin back into virtue in the Real Presence of the living Lord Jesus Christ. He does promise that despite the bad things that happen in this world He is working to bring all things back to their original perfection.
How does this happen?

Jesus gives us some very profound and difficult teaching on the subject of blessing in his sermon on the mount. In this sermon, Jesus reveals to us the Great Mystery of salvation. That Great Mystery is counter intuitive to most if not all people.

Ponder for a moment the words Jesus uses to complete the statement “Blessed are.”
The people who gathered to hear him that day would have expected something very different. Based on their experience, their values and the way they had been taught to practice their religion they would have expected something like:

Blessed are the rich because God has rewarded them with an abundance of money.
Blessed are the happy because God has rewarded them with pleasure.
Blessed are the strong for God has rewarded them with the power to dominate other people.
Blessed are those who know they are righteous for God has rewarded them with positions of importance.
Blessed are those who condemn the unrighteous for God hates those who they hate.
Blessed are those who refuse to compromise for God rewards their narrow minded dedication to ideological purity.
Blessed are those who conquer and destroy their enemies for God gives victory over the unrighteous.
Blessed are the righteous bullies who impose their will on the weak and foolish for God rewards their perfection by helping them dominate other people.

These are the “beatitudes” those lost in separation from God expect and seek. They are grounded in the will to power of the sin nature.

The blessing of God reaches out to the lost, lonely and broken souls of our world with a very different message. You are most blessed when you are most vulnerable. You are most blessed when you recognize your need, your poverty, your hunger and thirst for meaning and purpose… for God.

The righteous are not those who stand before God filled with pride of accomplishment. The blessed are not those who manage to accumulate wealth, power and position.

The righteous are those who hear the invitation of God to enter into a personal relationship with Him in Jesus Christ. The blessed are those who hear and believe the words of Jesus when he says: I am with you always.

The Blessing of God is the Real Presence of God in Jesus Christ.

God does not bring poverty and suffering into our life. We do that both individually and as a species when we chose to violate the triune law of Love and bring forth those choices into the world of cause and effect.

Jesus perfectly fulfills the triune Law of Love within the context of the laws of choice, cause and effect and consequence. Jesus is the answer to the question so many people ask from time to time in the midst of tragedy: where was God?

Jesus is the Real Presence of God to the poor, the mournful, the meek, the hungry. Jesus is the Real Presence of God to those who embrace the blessing of God and become the blessing of God as the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers.
Jesus invites all people to receive the blessing of His Real Presence, to live the blessing, and then to become the blessing. More often than not, we reach for the blessing in a moment of pain and in a moment of need. It is then the Holy Spirit can reach past the distractions of our possessions and pleasures to show us our true spiritual state and our prodound spiritual need.

No one is born a Christian. We are made Christians by a choice. No one is born a saint. We make choices that open our minds and hearts and wills to receive God’s blessing. It is as we make that choice to value the blessing God offers that we experience the transforming power of the Holy Spirit to live from the place of blessing.

Where is your greatest need today? Where is your sorrow? Where is your pain? It is there that our Heavenly Father sends the Holy Spirit to offer you the blessing of personal transformation in the Real Presence of the Living Lord Jesus Christ.
The purpose of God’s blessing is three fold. God wants to reunite you to the eternal life of the Holy Trinity. God wants you to experience the joy and wonder of the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in your daily life here and now. God wants you to be a blessing of love and compassion to other people.

The saints were those who made a choice to reject the demands of the sin nature and to receive the blessings our Heavenly Father offers all people everywhere in all the circumstances of our lives. They weren’t perfect. They simply met God where God offered to meet them. They met God in both the pleasures and the pain of this life. They yielded self will to divine will in a moment of grace.

The saints lived the words Jesus spoke to the crowds and speaks to us today: blessed are you.

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Pentecost 20

Pentecost 20 (Matthew 23:1-12) All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and all who humble themselves will be exalted.
Heaven is humility. Hell is pride.
Heaven is humility because heaven is a personal transforming relationship with Jesus Christ.
Humility is above all else teachable. The soul that seeks to practice humility recognizes that God is love and that love is infinite and eternal. There is always more to learn and more to celebrate. Even St. Paul with all of his knowledge and insight could only say: now we know in part. There are no experts in the kingdom of heaven. There are only students.
Humility helps the soul value Jesus above all other things and people in this world. Humility also assists us in treating other people with kindness and compassion. Humility actively seeks ways to immerse itself in the love and holiness of Jesus Christ through worship, Bible study and prayer. Humility never asks: what is the minimum I must do to get what I want. Humility asks the Holy Spirit for that next step in grace to savor the beauty of holiness.
It is the virtue of humility that enables us to forgive people we think may have sinned against us. And, it is the virtue of humility that empowers us to give other people the benefit of the doubt. The greatest challenge and the greatest joy of humility is to place another person’s interests first. We can do this only as we practice the relationship our Heavenly Father gives us through Jesus Christ. The Christ centered soul can let go of the demand to be right and the demand to impose its will at all times, in all places and over all people.
The religion of Pride is the corruption of humility. It is the defining characteristic of the souls in hell. Pride can be religious or secular. The pride of the religious results in the exaltation of the self. Its voice is: my will be done. It brings forth a demand to other people: do it my way. It stands before God and asserts the right for a reward.
Pride is the collapse of the soul into a tightly compressed set of fears and demands. Pride sets very specific, rigid and inflexible boundaries on what God can do, will do, and must do. It sets the boundaries on other people and even itself. Pride becomes more brittle and self limited as it succeeds.
The worst thing any person can experience is success in pride. Such success exalts the power of original sin. That power is separation. It is present in each of us, in all of us. The extent to which we are unwilling to compromise and practice compassion reflects the degree of dissolution and death we choose to bring into our souls.
My mother used to tell my three brothers and I when we jostled for position in the family or at school: the only thing worse that not getting what you want is getting what you want.
Success in the demand of Pride is failure on the path to Heaven.
The saints understood this very well. They all came to a place in their lives where they recognized the danger of self will, the danger of successfully getting what we want when we want it. The saints understood that the demand of self will is the defining characteristic of a two year old child.
The Pharisees functioned with the consciousness of two year old children. The child wants what he wants and he wants it now. The child is fine when he gets what he wants. He can be charming and even productive. But, don’t cross him. The child has no toleration for frustration or restraint.
The Pharisees looked good on the outside. They had impeccable religious credentials and degrees. They worked hard to gain these credentials. Insofar as they taught the word that God had revealed to Moses they offered understanding to their students. But, they lacked wisdom.
They lacked wisdom because they did not practice the virtue of humility that the Bible says defined Moses. They held the outward and visible signs of the Plan of Salvation but would not and could not practice the inward and spiritual grace.
The more successful the Pharisee in asserting his will to power the more narrow his vision became, and the more fearful his heart. Every soul in Hell is trapped by its own success in bringing forth the demand: my will be done.
Jesus gives us the solution. The solution is humility.
My grandfather often quoted President Coolidge when people challenged him. It is said of President Coolidge that he answered his many critics with the words: you may be right.
St. Paul reminds us: now we know in part.
Since we know in part we can never legitimately say: do it my way. The Pharisees not only believed but trained themselves to know they were always right and everyone else was always wrong. In that knowledge they bought forth arrogance and cultivated pride. They exalted themselves and humiliated other people.
Jesus invited them to reexamined their attitude. They were so close to the solution. They could be so productive in their own way. Only their own success kept them from a personal encounter with the Living God.
The exaltation of the soul through the demand of self will always leads to hell. Only the transforming power of divine love and compassion can rescue us from that path, the path of self-destruction, and restore to us the path of life.
Where do you need to give someone you disagree with the benefit of the doubt? Where are you reacting to life, other people, even God from the consciousness of a two year old child? When was the last time you allowed someone else the luxury of being right? Where are you willing to practice the humility that says to God: not my will but your will be done?
The path to heaven is the way of humility. It is the reality of Jesus’ statement: All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and all who humble themselves will be exalted.

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Pentecost 19

Pentecost 19 (Matthew 22:34-46) You shall love.

Love is not just an option- it is an imperative.

The different religious groups in Jesus’ day challenged him on many different points of belief and behavior. The Sadducees did not believe in an afterlife. They challenged Jesus for teaching the resurrection.

Jesus did not debate the merits of theological speculation with the Sadducees. He simply affirmed: God is life. God is the God of life, not death.

The Pharisees believed in the resurrection but only for the righteous. Resurrection was a reward for right belief and right behavior. The Pharisees wanted to know for sure what the minimum requirement was to earn God’s reward and avoid God’s wrath.
And so, after Jesus answers the Sadducees question about the resurrection, the Pharisees ask Jesus to tell them what he thinks is the greatest law. By the context we understand their question proceeds from their assumption that in order to earn the right to be resurrected you must fulfill certain laws. So the question in context becomes: which law is the bottom line requirement for God to reward us with the resurrection?

Jesus answers the question by quoting Moses. The quote is part of the basic creed of Judaism, the Shema. Hear O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is One; and, you shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart, with all of your soul, and with all of your mind. Then, Jesus adds a command from the book of Leviticus: you shall love your neighbor as you love yourself.

Jesus answers the legalistic Pharisees by quoting the Lawgiver, Moses. And, Jesus summarizes the law with a single command: You shall love.
You shall love God, other people and yourself.

You shall love God with all of your heart (you emotions), all of your soul (your personal identity) and all of your mind (your intellect). The imperative to love is different from the lists of dos and don’ts- the “thou shalt” and “thou shalt not”.
It is not something you can do once and then place on your balance sheet to claim a reward. The call to love has no place on the balance sheet of credits and debits, rewards and punishments. We don’t do good works in order to get love and obtain a reward. The love itself, or rather Himself, produces the good works and is Himself the reward.

Love is an ongoing process of transformation of an attitude that produces a set of actions.

Love is a choice.

The source of love, the active dynamic creative power of love, is outside the various biochemical reactions that produce the sentiments of love. The source of love is God. God is love.

Jesus is the incarnate co-eternal Beloved of God the Father. The Holy Spirit is the personal presence of Divine Love in our midst.

The imperative to love is the Father’s call through the presence of the Holy Spirit to embrace the Beloved, Jesus Christ.

Jesus answers the question: “which is the greatest commandment” in the words of Moses. Moses experienced the reality of God in the burning bush and in the ineffable Shekinah Glory of God on Mount Sinai.

God’s revelation to Moses is: I am who I am. God’s command to Moses is: since I am who I am I call you to become who I have created you to be. I call you in love, through love and for love to be the beloved of the co-eternal beloved.

The various laws God revealed to Moses are presented to us to show us that the problem we as a species embody is separation from God. No matter how hard we may try we cannot obey the Law. We, like the legalistic Pharisees, look for the minimum requirement and devote our energy to creating the loop holes to get the maximum credit for the minimum effort. We like the people of Moses’ generation rebel against the law and insist on asserting self- will over Divine will.

The Law convicts us that we need something more. We need something different. We need something more personal and even more intimate. We need Jesus.

Jesus is the co-eternal Beloved in human flesh. He is the original pattern of the Law. He is the ultimate purpose for the Law. He knows the answer to the Pharisees’ question and indeed their deepest longing and most profound fear. He knows this because He himself is the Plan for humanity.

The answer to the questions the Pharisees asked is in the nature of God and the pattern by which God the Father created each of us. The answer is Jesus Christ.
Hear the answer again. You shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart, all of your soul, all of your mind. All means all. It means perfection. That is the standard of the Law, the pattern of the Law and the plan of the Law.

Jesus allows for no minimum. Jesus allows for no loop holes. Love is personal. The subject of love is also the object of love. It is Jesus Himself. Jesus is the particularity of the infinite and eternal love that is God.
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The point is that we cannot keep the law by our own will. We cannot keep the skeleton outline of the Law revealed to Moses in the commandments. We cannot keep the fleshed out fullness of the law made manifest in Jesus Christ.

We can receive the gift Jesus offers us: reunification with God the Father and a new life and a new way of living in the transforming Presence of the Holy Spirit. Jesus is the Father’s invitation to immerse ourselves in the very essence of the Divine. That essence is infinite and eternal love.

For us, Love is an imperative.

The imperative comes from Moses and it comes from the prophets. It comes through the very call to salvation in the word of God made flesh in Jesus Christ. It comes in the call to worship.

Jesus not only issues the call he makes it possible to fulfill the imperative. Jesus is the infinite and eternal love of God reaching out to each of us with the transforming power of love.

Our part is to make a real choice. Our part is to make a choice to surrender self- will to divine will. Our part is to ask Jesus to change the way we think, the way we feel, the way we make choices so we can become the unique person God the Father created us to be.

The resurrection is not a reward. Reunification with God is not a right. They are gifts that come to us as we embrace the One whom God sent into the world to embrace us. We cannot submit to God to earn his love. We can only surrender to the wonderful gift of his love in Jesus Christ.

Jesus not only summarizes the Law in his answer to the Pharisees, he summarizes the plan, pattern and purpose for our existence. You shall love.




Friday, October 14, 2011

Pentecost 18

Pentecost 18 (Matthew 22:15-22)
“Give to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s and to God the things that are God’s.”
Fear limits choice.
Fear narrows and restricts choice to one of three emotional reactions: aggression, submission or withdrawal.
Faith transforms fear into love. That love is infinite and eternal. That love expands choice. That love is Jesus Christ.
The Pharisees feared Jesus. They feared him because they could not understand him. And, they feared him because they would not understand him. They refused to ask open and honest questions that might lead to understanding because they were convinced they had the right knowledge that would produce the right actions that would gain them divine approval and avoid divine wrath.
They lived and moved and expressed their being from within a well developed religious system that gave them what they valued most: power, pride, position, prestige and pleasure. They had invested their time and energy to defend that religious system against all other sects within Judaism and all other religious systems in the wider world.
Jesus never challenged their religion. He did challenge the assumptions and the values that supported their religion.
The Pharisees feared Jesus because they recognized he was speaking to a problem they refused to believe existed. The Pharisees identified the problem in terms of knowledge and power. They narrowed the practice of religion to those categories and produced extensive lists of belief and behavior by which they could justify themselves and condemn everyone else.
The Pharisees knew they were right and everyone else was wrong. They did not need to question their assumptions. They refused to consider any fact that might contradict their ideology.
Jesus spoke and acted from the place of divine love and compassion. That place is the place of personal relationship with the infinite and eternal. That relationship is active, dynamic, expansive and creative.
Strangely enough, the relationship Jesus offers works well within the broad outlines of the religion the various sects of the day claimed to follow. Jesus spent every Sabbath in the synagogue to hear the reading of the Bible. Jesus observed the liturgical form of worship in the Temple in fulfillment of the Law of Moses.
The challenge the Pharisees brought to Jesus reveals the nature of their fear.
First: they did not approach Jesus in person. They sent their disciples, their students. They probably reasoned that the students would appear to be less threatening to Jesus and Jesus would let down his guard. It was what we might call today a passive aggressive attack.
The Pharisees thought in terms of power and dominance. They assumed everyone else, including Jesus thought in the same terms.
In addition to their religious students, the Pharisees sent the Herodians. The Herodians were a political party who favored collaboration with Rome. Normally, the Pharisees would not associate with the Herodians. But, for their plan to trap Jesus to work they had to set aside their contempt for the Herodians and make a temporary alliance. The alliance was based in a very old principle that says: the enemy of my enemy is my friend…for now.
They approach Jesus with a false reverence that uses flattery to set the stage for the trap. They build up his reputation in order to spring the trap.
The trap in the question relies on a very narrow vision of life. Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, to Caesar?
The Pharisees could only see two possible answers to that question: yes or no. If Jesus said yes then the vast majority of people who resented the tax would be angry with Jesus and accuse him of being in collusion with the Herodians. If Jesus said no then the Herodians would report him to the Romans as a revolutionary and Jesus would be arrested for sedition.
It seemed like the perfect trap. It probably would have worked had not Jesus been who he was.
Jesus is the master of the third alternative.
Jesus is very aware of the hypocrisy inherent in law based religion. We miss the more profound religious significance of the question and of Jesus’ answer because we live in a secular culture that prides itself on separation from a religious world view.
The key to understanding this event lies within the first four of the Ten Commandments God revealed to Moses and Moses carved into the stone tablets. There is only one God. Humans are forbidden to make and worship statues that purport to solidify God. Humans are forbidden to blaspheme the Name of God. God has appointed every seventh day to meet us in worship.
Jesus asked to see the coin by which people would pay the tax. Then Jesus asked a question: whose head is imprinted on the coin? Whose title is inscribed on the coin?
The religious leaders of Jerusalem made life difficult for the Romans by their strict allegiance to the first four commandments. Roman soldiers stationed in Judea could not display the symbols of their faith, the images of their guardian deities. The soldiers had to cover up the symbol of the empire, the eagle, on their standards. And, the Romans would not enforce the law that required all citizens and subjects to make a yearly offering of incense to the divinity of the Emperor.
Despite all of these scruples, the Pharisees used the Roman money on which the image of the emperor was imprinted and the divinity of the emperor affirmed. There were some religious sects within Judea that refused to use the Roman coins. They lived in separate isolated communities and did not participate in the economy.
The hypocrisy of the question was in the willingness of the Pharisees to break their own rules concerning idolatry, blasphemy and worship when it came to money. They used Roman money in order to participate in the Roman economy and acquire wealth. They paid their taxes lest the Romans arrest them for tax evasion and treason.
Jesus’ answer to the question redirects the students and the Herodians to consider their values and priorities. For the Pharisees, this question was a trap. For Jesus, this trap was a teaching moment. It was in fact a moment of grace by which Jesus could encourage the listeners to ask a more profound question.
It is obvious the Roman coin belongs to the Emperor of Rome. He issued it and it bears his image and title. What then are the things of God. What bears God’s image and title?
The students were amazed at Jesus’ response but unwilling to enter into their moment of grace. They react to Jesus by withdrawing from him. They asked their question from the place of pride and aggression grounded in fear. And it was from the place of fear that they reacted to Jesus’ answer. They were so close. In fact, they were too close. They did not want to understand Jesus from the place of grace.
They withdrew in order to defend their pride and self-will from the potential for seeing life, other people, Jesus and God from a new perspective. They chose not to consider who Jesus was and what he had to offer.
They knew the first part of Jesus’ teaching: “render unto Caesar” because that is where they had made the necessary compromises of their religious scruples. They refused to consider the second part of Jesus’ teaching: “give to God the things that are God’s.”
What are the things that are God’s? The answer to that question lies in the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus not only teaches but lives the reality God revealed to Moses. God created human beings in his image and likeness.
As the Roman coin bears the image of the Roman emperor so the human being bears the image of God. Even more specifically, God the Father imprinted the image of God the Son in our souls. By the power of God the Holy Spirit, the Father imprints the pattern, plan and purpose of the Son in each of us.
That pattern, plan and purpose is steadfast holy unconditional love. That love manifests in three fundamental ways: worship, service to others, personal transformation in grace.
Jesus is the personal incarnation of Divine Love inviting us back into the relationship we as a species rejected.
What does God want us to offer him? Jesus embodies the answer: reunification and transformation.
The religious leaders had just enough understanding of Moses and the Prophets to realize Jesus was inviting them into a new life and a new way of living. He was asking them to examine their priorities. He was asking them to change the way they lived their lives and practiced their religion. He was asking them to move beyond a closed system of laws into an expansive dynamic and creative relationship.
That choice can be frightening. Change is never easy. Changing religions is far easier that entering into the new relationship Jesus offers.
The new relationship is the new reality Jesus offers each of us as we hear his words: give to God the things that are God’s.


Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Pentecost 17

Pentecost 17 (Matthew 22:1-14
“The Kingdom of Heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son.”

What we think about heaven reveals what we truly value.

Norse mythology viewed heaven as a place where warriors feasted and fought. Aztec mythology viewed heaven as a field of flowers where the faithful were reincarnated as butterflies to sip the nectar of immortality.

One of our recent confirmands told me he didn’t want to go to hell but was worried that heaven might be boring. I suspect he understood heaven as an ethereal cloud where people wore long white robes, played the harp and sang hymns.

The preeminent image of heaven used in the Bible is a wedding.

The pattern for a wedding in Bible times has four parts: the betrothal, the promise, the celebration, the consummation.

First, there is the betrothal. In the ancient world, and until relatively recently in human history, marriages were arranged by parents when the children were still very young. The parents made the arrangements and signed the marriage contracts.
Children grew up knowing that at a certain age they would marry a certain individual. Usually, they never met their fiancé until the marriage ceremony took place.

The marriage ceremony was a very formal time honored set of prayers, rituals and promises that honored God, the tribe, the family and the couple.

Following the marriage ceremony was the marriage feast. Everyone in the village or town was invited since it was a celebration for the entire community. Marriage feasts often lasted several days. It was the joyful duty of the father of the groom to pay for the feast and make sure everyone had the opportunity to have a good time.
The celebration ended with the families escorting the bride and groom to the bridal chamber and leaving them alone to consummate the marriage and begin their new life together as husband and wife. The newlyweds usually moved in with the groom’s family where the bride would learn the family customs and religious traditions.

Jesus uses the image of the wedding feast in new and exciting ways. In this parable, Jesus describes the kingdom of heaven in terms of a royal wedding.

Perhaps some of you watched the recent royal wedding in England that was televised worldwide. This was a very public ceremony that involved the entire nation and by all reports the entire world.

A royal wedding is a joyful occasion for the entire population of the kingdom. The wedding secured the stability of the state and offered the opportunity for the aristocracy to express their loyalty to the heir to the throne.

As Jesus tells the story of the invited guests who reject the wedding invitation and mistreat the royal messengers the people who hear the story are outraged. They know very well that such behavior is more than rude. It is treasonous.

By their actions they proclaim their contempt for the monarch, the state and the wider society in which they live and from which they draw their wealth and security. They declare themselves independent and separate from the basic courtesies and responsibilities of citizens. When Jesus describes how the king destroys those disloyal wedding guests the crowd would shout out “yes.”

As the parable continues Jesus relates how the king invites everyone in the kingdom to the celebration. The wealthy and powerful forfeit their place through their arrogance. The king’s servants fill the wedding hall with all manner of people, rich and poor, good and bad.

The man who is found without a wedding garment presents a problem for the modern reader. Ancient people would have understood the reference. The king provided the wedding garments for all invited guests. The man who entered the banquet without the garment willfully rejected the royal gift through an act of self will and pride. As with the aristocracy, he is guilty of rebellion and treason. He reveals himself to be disloyal and a threat to the peace and security of the nation. And so, the king orders him to be cast out.

The point of the parable was obvious to the people in Jesus’ time but less obvious to us.

The King is God. The Son is Jesus. The aristocracy are the religious leaders in Jerusalem who reject God’s invitation to enter the Messianic Kingdom of His Son, Jesus Christ. God expands his invitation to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven to all sorts and conditions of people everywhere. The wedding garment is the grace of divine love received in baptism. The response to the royal invitation is a matter of personal choice.

The key to understand the parable is the reality of personal relationships.
It is clear that the aristocracy in the story value the material benefits they derive from the king more that their relationship with the king himself. Ancient societies were built on a series of personal relationships and personal loyalties.
The same is true of our relationship with God. Jesus speaks in the context of personal relationships to reveal the reality of God. There are the relationships of father and son, king and aristocracy, groom and bride. Each relationship is grounded in personal loyalty initiated and sustained by choice.

Jesus uses the image of the most intimate of human relationships, that of husband and wife, to describe the nature of the kingdom of heaven.

Those who look for the material reward of wealth and power miss the reality of the relationship. Those who respond to the invitation to celebrate the relationship are those who accept the invitation to the wedding feast and wear the wedding garment of divine grace.

The kingdom of heaven is not about material rewards. The kingdom of heaven is the great and wonderful celebration of a royal wedding. It is anything but boring. It is a participation in the infinite and eternal love of the triune God.

It is also a choice. It is a very simple and direct choice. As the king in the parable invited first the aristocracy and then everyone to the celebration so our Heavenly Father invites all people everywhere to the grace of baptism to prepare us for the Eucharistic Celebration of the co-eternal beloved Son, Jesus Christ.

The invitation is incredibly simple and straightforward. The Eucharist is the present reality here and now of the wedding feast of Jesus Christ. The invitation is universal and unconditional. As the Eucharist is a gift so the Kingdom of Heaven it represents is a gift. All are invited. None are commanded. How we choose to respond to this invitation reveals what we truly value and who we wish to become.

In the Eucharist, Jesus gives us himself as the groom gives himself to the bride.
God the Father created our species to be in an eternal loving relationship with God the Son. God the Holy Spirit invites all people everywhere into this new personal and intimate spiritual relationship.

The reward is the relationship. Heaven is the relationship. The Eucharist is the time and place in this life where Jesus agrees to meet us to celebrate the relationship. The Eucharist is the wedding banquet the Father gives for the Son and the Holy Spirit invites us to celebrate in the Sabbath Day call to worship.
Heaven and hell are not about rewards and punishments. None of us deserves heaven. None of has a right to heaven. Heaven is a personal relationship, a passionately loyal friendship with Jesus Christ. Heaven is for all people, the good and the bad, who say “yes” to the invitation to the wedding feast.

Jesus wants to be your forever friend. His Father invites you to meet the Son here at the altar of sacrifice where the spiritual banquet begins and continues forever.
Heaven is not boring. It is a new life and a new way of living in the infinite and eternal love of the infinite and eternal Triune God. The Kingdom of Heaven is not like anything human created religion can imagine. The Kingdom of heaven is like a king who gives a wedding banquet for his son.

Thursday, September 29, 2011

Pentecost 16

Pentecost 16 Matthew 21:33-46 “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.”

Human religion would never have invented Jesus Christ.

Jesus is unique in many ways. None the least of these ways is the manner in which he identified the problem confronting the human race and the solution he came to offer.
Jesus was born into an intensely religious society. It was a religion drawn from the teachings of Moses and the prophets but formed by the very human and terribly broken categories of fear, self will and pride. It was a religion bitterly divided against itself. And it was a religion that had no room for the person it claimed to worship.
The parable of the landowner and the tenants is the story of God, God’s prophets, God’s son and the human race.

Moses reveals what most people once considered self-evident. God created the Earth. God created humanity. God appointed humanity to be the stewards of the creation. As stewards we have three responsibilities: care for the Earth, care for other people, and care for ourselves.

Humans chose to reject this stewardship and claim ownership. The modern tendency to assert that God did not create the universe is the end point of a long journey of self will and the claim to ownership. Simple observation tells us that in the world of matter, energy, time and space everything has a cause. Simple observation of how the world works tells us that ownership is an illusion grounded in the will to power. Humans confuse the ability to dominate with the right to possess.

The problem with the human assertion of ownership, of the world, other people, even ourselves is that it contradicts the very pattern, plan and purpose of the universe.
Over the millennia God sent prophets, priests and preachers to remind us who we are and why we exist. The parable Jesus tells in the passage today reminds his listeners that people not only rejected those prophets, priests and preachers- they cast them out of society and at times tormented them and killed them.

The son in the parable represents Jesus himself. Jesus comes not just to preach but to teach and to heal. Jesus comes to model the original pattern of humanity. Jesus is the rightful owner of this planet and our species yet he comes as a servant to help, to heal, to restore the lost to wholeness and to holiness.

The people who listened to Jesus understood this. If they chose to receive Jesus they would need to give up their claim to ownership. They would need to give the claim to use the planet, other people and themselves according to their own will, the will to power.

It was a unique choice. No religion demands this choice. No secular world view demands this choice.

It was a clear choice. Jesus never asked people to believe in a book, a set of laws, a ritual or a so called spiritual practice. He said: come to me.
Jesus is the fullness of God’s original plan and pattern and purpose for creation and for humanity. When we see Jesus we see the origin and the meaning of life in general and each of our lives in particular.

This is why the tenants in the parable kill the son. By killing the son they think they will finally and completely claim ownership by the assertion of self will. Even the religious leaders of Jesus’ time perceive the fallacy in that belief. And yet, when they understand the significance of the parable and its immediate application they rebel just as the tenants in the parable rebel.

The religious leaders reflect the human condition in their rejection of Jesus and in their demand for Jesus to be killed. Humanity has separated from God and now claims ownership of the planet, other people, ourselves and even the very concept of God.
Jesus is God up front and personal. No human being in Jesus’ time, or ours, really expects God to visit us in person. The religious prefer their deities safely remote in transcendence or even more safely locked away in temples, books, or spiritual practices.

From time to time people say they cannot believe in God and will not believe in God without more evidence. Jesus is that evidence. He is the evidence people reject and cast out of this world.

The very presence of Jesus elicits a violent reaction from humanity. Jesus is the perfect mirror that reflects the human condition. There can be no illusion of ownership in the divine presence of Jesus Christ.

Jesus was well aware of this. Jesus in fact counted on this. It was in the human reaction to Jesus that Jesus was able to draw out the poison of sin and transmute it into the sacramental wine of eternal life.

Humanity killed Jesus on the cross as the tenants killed the son. Humanity killed Jesus to drive out a challenge to human pride and human self-will. Our Heavenly Father’s Plan of Salvation uses this murderous intent to transform sin and death on the cross back into the original blessing of love and life through the Original Pattern of Creation. That original pattern is Jesus Christ.

People around the world are still lost in separation. People around the world still assert the human will to power to dominate and control. Only now, there is an alternative way of living. It is the way of reunification and transformation. It is the way of Jesus Christ.

We enter this way through baptism. We make a choice to follow this way in Confirmation. We are nourished in this Way through Holy Communion. We form our minds in this way through Bible reading, Bible study, and Bible memorization. We live this Way through worship and through service to others.

Jesus is the foundation stone that humanity rejected. Jesus has become the cornerstone for the new way of living.

This Way is the cornerstone to the new life that is eternal. It is a new way of living that is marvelous to experience. It is the gift of God to all people on this planet. It is the gift of God to you. It is Jesus offering you a new choice and a real choice to be immersed in divine love and to be transformed daily in divine love.

The choice is real. The choice is ours. Choose wisely. Choose Jesus.

Pentecost 15

Pentecost 15 (Matthew 21:23-32)
“I will also ask you one question.”

All wisdom comes from asking questions.

The disciples of Jesus, his students, seldom asked Jesus questions. Oftentimes, they thought they already knew the answers. Other times, they did not want to hear what Jesus was saying. They feared what Jesus was teaching and preferred to ignore it. They hoped that if they ignored the more difficult teachings of Jesus, the love of God for all people everywhere, Jesus would come back to the teaching they already knew.

The disciples knew God was a God of rewards and punishments. They knew God only loved the Israelites. They knew God only favored the righteous who did the right things and believed the right way. They knew this. So, they did not need to question what they already knew.

The religious leaders in Jerusalem shared this knowledge. In addition, they knew God only worked through approved channels. Only adult males of the tribe of Levi could be priests. Only a handful of families controlled Temple worship. Only validly ordained rabbis could ordain a man to teach and preach God’s Law.

The religious leaders only recognized the spiritual authority of a teacher within the context of their very narrow and rigid religious institutions. There was nothing wrong with the religious institutions. The problem was in the way people used those institutions to impose their will on society and even God.

There was one well known exception to the rule of religion. That exception was the prophet. Only God could call and ordain a prophet. The word alone authenticated the prophetic call and the prophetic office.

The priests and the elders disliked Jesus’ teaching. They accurately perceived that Jesus was not teaching what they and all religious people already knew to be true about God, humanity, and religion. He was teaching something new and different. They feared that Jesus would undermine their own hard earned and jealously guarded religious authority.

In their fear they attacked Jesus where they perceived him to be vulnerable. They attacked his authority to teach. It was clear that no rabbinical school had ordained Jesus. So, he could not function as a rabbi. It was clear Jesus was a Jew, a member of the tribe of Judah. So, he could not function as a priest.

The Sanhedrin, the supreme religious court, did not recognize Jesus’ authority . So, the leadership, the chief priests of the Temple and the elders of the Sanhedrin, challenged Jesus directly.

They asked: by what authority do you act. And, who gave you this authority.
Jesus took these questions and turned them into a teaching moment. Jesus knew these men were among the most intelligent and the most powerful. He knew they were lost in the pride of their great knowledge. He knew they were enslaved by the power of their own self will, the will to power.

Jesus could have given a very simple and direct answer. He also knew the chief priests and elders would react from the place of anger and fear to such a direct teaching. So, Jesus invited the religious authorities to consider the very nature of spiritual authority.

Jesus simply asked: Is the baptism of John grounded in human created religious institutions; or, it does it come directly from God?

Jesus’ question was a wonderful opportunity for the religious leaders to reflect and explore the very nature of spiritual authority in general, and the specific way they exercised that authority within the context of religious institutions.

They perceived the invitation Jesus offered. But, they chose to react with fear. They could only conceive of two ways to answer the question. If they said John’s baptism had no divine authority then the people would reject them. The people recognized John as a prophet. The authority of the prophet comes directly from God and is authenticated by the prophetic word.

If they acknowledged John as a true prophet of God then they would indeed answer their own question about Jesus. John had baptized Jesus. John had declared Jesus to be the Lamb of God. The Holy Spirit had anointed Jesus in the sight of thousands of witnesses. And, God the Father had spoken audibly declaring Jesus to His Son, the Beloved.

Jesus derived his authority from three sources: the last of the prophets, John; God the Father and God the Holy Spirit; and the multitudes who stood on the banks of the Jordan river that day and witnessed the events of Jesus’ baptism and anointing.
Jesus exercised a threefold authority of prophet through John, of priest through divine anointing, and of king by popular acclamation.

The truth was all there for the best and the brightest of Jerusalem’s religious elite to discern and proclaim. The truth was too powerful for the religious authorities to ignore. It was also too fearful for them to accept.

They chose to withdraw from the discussion. They simply said: we don’t know the answer. It was the politically safe reaction. In that reaction, they rejected a moment of grace to enter into the blessing of God.

Jesus sadly concludes his part of the conversation with a short parable and a principle. He tells the religious leaders: you do not enter into the Kingdom because you lack faith. You lack faith because you are unwilling to change your mind. You are unwilling to change your mind because the pride of your position and authority leads you to react to a moment of grace with fear. In that fear, you assert your will to power to withdraw rather than to allow yourself to be embraced by divine love and compassion.

The lesson for all people is the principle of grace. Do we choose to react from fear or respond in the welcoming embrace of divine love and compassion?

Where are we still living from pride in our own knowledge? St. Paul was one of the most powerful intellects in the apostolic church. Yet, Paul said: knowledge puffs up. Knowledge apart from compassion distorts into pride. Are we open to being taught? Do we hunger and thirst to be the students of Jesus/ Are we asking questions?
Jesus sets the tenor for the spiritual life as he stands in our midst and says: Let me ask you one question. It is in the questions that we discover our moment of grace.

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Pentecost 13 year A

Pentecost 13 (Matthew 18:21-35) “I do not say to you up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.”

Forgiveness heals suffering.

Most people in Jesus’ time, and perhaps even our time, think of forgiveness in terms of the offending party. This was certainly Peter’s perspective when he asked Jesus how many times he should forgive a brother who sinned against him.

Notice that Peter did not ask about forgiving an enemy or even a stranger. He asked about a brother, a relative or close friend. His approach is grounded in the categories of self will, legal obligation, and self justification.

The conventional wisdom of the day was based in the principle of three strikes and you are out. You are only obligated to forgive a person three times. Since Peter was bound up by the cultural norms of his day he thought in terms of self justification. He could be righteous under the law by forgiving the prescribed three times. He was looking to Jesus for supererogatory merit, some extraordinary approval. So he doubled the expectation and added one more for good measure hoping for approval and praise.

Peter missed the point of forgiveness. He was still lost in the technicalities of legalism. He saw forgiveness as a finely balanced scale that would show how righteous he was. From a legalistic perspective, forgiveness is all about me. It is about how I will allow someone who offended me to get away with the offense up to three times; and, if I am feeling really righteous up to seven times.

From a legalistic perspective there is a definite limit to how much forgiveness I will submit to before I say enough is enough. My self esteem can only bear so much insult before I have to retaliate against or withdraw from the offender. Forgiveness is all about keeping the scales of justice balanced in my favor.

Jesus has a very different understanding of forgiveness. Jesus starts from the place of God’s unmerited favor and God’s unconditional love. Within this context, forgiveness has two functions: reconciliation and transformation.

People sin. People get on each other’s nerves. We inadvertently and sometimes deliberately hurt each other. The legalist wants to keep score. Is it three times or seven times that I must forgive before I can strike back in aggression or withdrawal.
When Jesus says to forgive up to seventy time seven he is saying true forgiveness does not keep score. How could you be certain you reached the 490 limit of forgiveness for any one individual? That is the point. You can’t.

You also cannot practice forgiveness from the place of legalism or self will. For Jesus, forgiveness is based in grace not law. Forgiveness proceeds from divine will not self will. The purpose of forgiveness is to restore a broken relationship not to keep score.

Keeping score recycles pain into suffering. Jesus asks us to forgive from grace in love to experience freedom from pain.

It is only as we yield self will to divine will in union with the eternal love of God in Jesus Christ that we truly forgive another person. To forgive is to release the person who hurt us into the grace of God. To forgive is to release our own attachment to the pain of the transgression into the unconditional love of God.
Forgiveness does not say to the offender: that’s OK. It clearly isn’t OK. What forgiveness does is to offer the offender to God, our own pain to God and to seek to transform that pain into a blessing.

If we do not forgive we bind our minds and hearts and wills to recycle the original offense. The legal forgiveness Peter discusses is only an outward formality. It leaves the soul in pride that it is more righteous than the offender. Sadly, that pride eventually corrodes into despair.

When we forgive an offense we just don’t let it go. We let it go into divine grace and divine love. We forgive to become free of resentment and suffering. We also forgive to give God the Holy Spirit the opportunity to heal the broken relationship.
WE can’t forgive if we want to keep score. We can’t forgive if we can’t release the pain of the offense into the hands of God. We can’t forgive if we indulge ourselves in the negative pleasure of being the victim or the martyr.

When it comes to forgiveness Peter wants to keep score. He wants to know the limits. He wants to hold on to the pain and use it as a weapon against the offender. By doing that, he knows he can assert his own will to power in his relationships. He misses the terrible consequence of his attitude and action. He misses the terrible reality that unforgiven sin recycles the pain of sin into suffering. That is the price the legalist pays for keeping the scales in balance to his own favor.

We can only find release from suffering as we release our attachment to both the offense and the offender. It may take awhile. It may take many prayers of seeking God’s grace and God’s love in order to release an offender and the offense so that suffering ends and pain heals.

Lack of forgiveness keeps us focused on ourselves. Lack of forgiveness enslaves us into an obsession with the offender. Forgiveness shifts our focus to God. Forgiveness sets us free from the effects of sin and the perpetrator of sin.
It is never OK that someone has hurt you emotionally, psychologically, spiritually or physically. It serves no purpose to offer a formal kind of forgiveness that still holds on to the memory of the offense in order to recycle the pain of the offense.
Let it go.

Let it go into the open arms of Jesus Christ on the cross. Let it go into the sacred heart of Jesus to be healed and transformed. Bring the pain to the altar of sacrifice and leave it there. Exchange your outrage and demand for the scales of your personal sense of justice to be balanced for the blessed sacrament of infinite love and eternal life. Jesus himself balanced the scales of justice on the cross.
Life is not just too short to hold onto an offense. Life is too long. Jesus has won for all people everywhere the gift of immortality. We can choose to spend eternity immersed in his limitless love. Or, we can choose to spend eternity holding a grudge or defining ourselves by an impossible demand.

Above all, be honest with yourself. Most of us most of the time want to charge a price for our forgiveness. Most of us most of the time want revenge. The Law restrains that desire but it cannot remove it. Only Jesus can do that. And, he does it by the transforming power of the Holy Spirit.

The purpose of forgiveness is to immerse our broken lives into the limitless healing fountain of grace. The purpose of forgiveness is to release our attachment to the offense and the offender so we can manifest the blessing of God more fully in our lives.

There is some momentary pain in that release. It always hurts to release self will into divine will. Only as we make a real choice to accept that momentary pain can we discover the infinite blessing of free will. It is a will set free from the recycled pain of suffering. It is a soul set free from self obsession.

Who do you need to forgive? What offense do you need to release into the infinite fountain of divine blessing? Where do you need to yield the demand to keep score into the true freedom of unrestricted compassion?

Jesus says: when it comes to forgiveness stop keeping score. Focus on the unmerited favor of God and the unconditional love of God. Forgiveness is not about keeping score. Jesus says to those who want to keep score: I do not say to you up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.”