Epiphany 8 (Matthew 6:24-34) Do not worry.
No one can serve two masters.
With these words Jesus continues his sermon on the mount. With these words Jesus clarifies yet another aspect of human nature. God created human beings for service.
God the Father created human beings to be in a dependent relationship with God the Son through the indwelling Presence of God the Holy Spirit. Another way of saying this is that the Triune God created us to live and move and have our being in the active, creative, dynamic , holy and unconditional love that is the very nature of God.
God created us to participate in the divine life of the Holy Trinity. The Holy Trinity is a co-eternal relationship of the three persons whose love and holiness form the one God.
God the Father created human beings for relationship. Our primary relationship is in the service of worship we offer God. That is why the first commandment is the foundation for all of the commandments: love God with all of your heart, soul and mind.
The means by which we express love for God and participate in the eternal life of the Holy Trinity is through worship. Jesus reveals to us that for human beings worship and service are inextricably linked.
All means all. Not half. Not occasional. All.
Jesus introduces his teaching on worry by clarifying how God created us to live in peace and with courage. The problem comes when we make a real choice to live our lives from a different place and within a different context.
From his childhood in Egypt and Nazareth, Jesus observed how even the most religious of people cheat life on this one singular important point. In fact, even religious people do not love God with all of our heart and soul and mind.
Even the best of us, the most spiritual of us, have a divided mind that produces a divided loyalty and results in fear, anxiety and worry.
Jesus’ call to worship is a call to an exclusive love of God that produces an inclusive love of other people.
Jesus is not interested in religious debates about God. He is God.
Jesus is also not interested in philosophical debates about truth. He is truth.
Neither is Jesus interested in metaphysical speculations about the meaning of life, the universe and everything. He is life.
Jesus came into the world to reveal to us the problem that keeps us separated, divided and fearful. Jesus reveals to us that we are trying to live life by a wrong principle. That wrong principle is the belief that life is all about me. That principle produces a demand that says: me first. Do it my way. It is the voice of pride and it is the will to power.
That demand results in a terrible underlying fear that I will fail to get what I need and what I want. The fear is the recognition that despite my will to power I lack the actual power to command and control other people, the world around me, and God.
The fear of failure produces an attitude of worry. It is the tendency human beings have to view the rich abundance of this world and see only scarcity. Jesus names our worries: not enough food, not enough to drink, a lack of proper clothes.
Jesus also indicates that underlying our worry about things is a more profound anxiety. That more profound anxiety is that God does not really accept us and will not be there for us. And so, we hedge our bets. We serve God in the formal, occasional and minimal rules of religion. And, we serve wealth: the desire for possessions.
The terrible irony is that through our fear that God is distant and uncaring we distance ourselves from God. Through our desire to hedge our bets and serve the pursuit of material possessions, pleasure and power, we lose the one thing that has both immediate and eternal benefit.
Jesus very clearly warns us that as we live our lives with a divided mind about our priorities and our pursuits we enmesh ourselves in fear, anxiety and worry. Jesus knows this about us through observation. He knows this through original creation.
Jesus warns us that if we seek to serve two masters, God and wealth, we end up isolating God in very narrow categories of religion while we pursue what we believe is far more real and practical in the material world of food and drink and clothes. As we do that, we lose our very soul to the fear, anxiety and worry such a way of living produces.
Jesus reminds us that the first commandment is not an ethereal religious speculation but a fundamental and defining principle that has immediate and eternal consequences.
Jesus doesn’t recommend withdrawal from the world. Jesus tells us that we will enjoy our lives in this world more fully and completely as we choose to love God first and to love God with all of our heart and mind and will.
Jesus says: seek God first. Make the love of God your top priority. And then all of these other things you need and desire will be yours as well. Jesus also warns that the reverse is true. If we place God second to our pursuit of pleasure, possessions and power then we place God last. As we place God last we continue the process of separation from God. We live with ever increasing levels of frustration, demand, pride and despair.
Jesus came to find us where we are. And, he loves us where we are.
Jesus came to find a people lost in separation and confused by a divided mind about the best way to live our lives. He pours forth his own divine love into our lives to interrupt our habits and to confound our preconceived ideas. He does this to liberate us from fear, anxiety and worry.
How would your life be different if you simply took God at his word? How would your way of living change if you asked Jesus to help you make the unconditional holy love of God the most important principle and present reality for you?
What would life feel like when lived with the assurance that God is with you, God is for you, God is immediately and eternally present to you?
That assurance comes from the personal relationship God offers us in Jesus Christ. It can only become real as it becomes our first priority. We cannot say both yes and no to God. We cannot say I believe but I do not have the faith to act on that belief. We cannot keep God distant and hemmed in by narrow religious categories when God himself is far greater than those categories.
Where we direct our time and attention reveals who we acknowledge as our master, the Lord of our lives. Jesus says we need to choose. If we choose anything or any one other than God we also choose a way of living that will produce ever deepening levels of fear, anxiety and worry. If we choose God we choose a way of living that transforms us and liberates us into a life of joy, peace and courage.
Jesus Christ is the one by whom, through whom and for whom God the Father created us. As Jesus encourages us not to worry he offers us the means to live a life set free from worry. Seek God first.
God has already found us in Christ. Make a real choice to allow yourself to be immersed in his love. Make God’s holy unconditional love your first priority. And know that as you do this you will come to discover abundance in the midst of scarcity, faith in the midst of fear, and grace that will transform every worry into courage to live life fully here and now and forever.
Friday, February 25, 2011
Saturday, February 12, 2011
Epiphany 6
Epiphany 6 (Matthew 5:21-37)
You have heard that it was said.
Much of our spiritual growth lies in the work of unlearning what we think we know.
Steven Covey in his book “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People” discusses this principle. The book lists the four levels of competency.
At the first level we don’t know what we don’t know. This is the level of unconscious incompetence. There is no shame or fault at this level. There is simply unawareness. It is the mind of an infant who has yet to experience the many possibilities in the world.
The second level is the level of conscious incompetence. At this level we know that we don’t know. This is the level of the beginner. The beginner practices the scales on the piano and suddenly realizes that it will take a lot of time and effort before he can play even the simplest tune. This is the level of effort. This is the level of deferred gratification. We give up some of our time and devote a portion of our energy to overcome our lack of knowledge and skill in order to accomplish our goal.
As we accomplish our goal we enter into the third level. It is the level of conscious competence. At this level we know that we know. This is the level of proficiency. We’ve mastered the basics. We know the scales backwards and forward. We are ready for the 4th and final level.
The 4th and final level is the place of unconscious competence. We can sit at the piano and play the music with grace and creativity. We don’t need to stop and think where middle C is. We just know. We know so well our mind is set free to be spontaneous and creative. This is the level of mastery This is the level of delight.
The Bible used history, poetry, symbol and metaphor to express the same concepts Steven Covey set forth in a more analytic mode in his book. The Biblical authors were interested in observing the barriers that emerge in these four levels of competency. And, the Biblical writers were interested in proposing a solution to the problem those barriers created.
The competency the Bible was most interested in is the competency of being human. Many people assume that the Bible is all about God and humanity’s search for God. This is only partially true. The Bible is about humanity evading God, rejecting God and rejecting who God has called us as to be.
The Bible is also about God seeking us and finding us in Jesus Christ. The purpose of Christ is not to answer religious questions. The purpose of Christ is to call humanity back to its true nature. The purpose of Christ is to restore what we lost.
The Bible sets forth the proposition that there are two basic ways of being human. There is the way of Adam. And, there is the way of Jesus Christ.
The way of Adam is the way of power. It is the exercise of real choice through the will to power. It is the way of demand backed by threat. It is also the subversion of love, the distortion of holiness and the corruption of grace. The way of Adam is the way of fear, self will and pride. It is the way of being human characterized and defined by sin and death.
The Bible observes that regardless of the level of competency we achieve in our lives we have all chosen to remain at the primary level of unconscious incompetence in terms of being human. The Bible also observes that we actually choose to remain at this level so that we never encounter a challenge to our unconscious incompetence. The choice of Adam to separate from God is the choice to abandon the next step in growth: the level of conscious incompetence. To use Covey’s vocabulary: we not only don’t know what we don’t know we assert self will to make an active choice not to know.
The barrier we erect to block our development is pride. Pride rejects the need to grow. Pride asserts: I’m OK just as I am. If there is a problem it lies with other people, the world, God.
Jesus challenged this pride in his teaching and in his person. Jesus challenged this pride because Jesus is the one by whom, through whom and for whom God the Father created each of us. Our heavenly Father designed us to be fully human in relationship with God the Son. There is no other model for being fully human.
God wants us to grow. God wants us to develop the amazing potential for love and holiness he has placed in our souls. The growth is what we now call spiritual growth. It is spiritual growth because it is rooted in the most fundamental level of our being- at the level of the soul.
The soul defines who we are as a species and who we may become as an individual. From the soul we mold our minds, hearts and wills to form our identity. With Christ we form a unique authentic personal identity. Apart from Christ we form a false ego based on the assumptions and demands of the surrounding culture. There is ultimately a dull tedious sameness to the false ego. It is a monotone of a single syllable: me.
The soul lost in separation is a soul that endlessly repeats me, me, me in order to drown out the authentic personal identity God has placed within us.
In his sermon on the mount Jesus provides a corrective commentary on the Law of Moses. Jesus does not reinvent the law or abolish the Law. He does challenge us to discern how human pride subverts divine principle and keeps us locked and lost in the Adamic nature of sin and death. That is the level of willful unconscious incompetence. That is the level of the monotonous “me”.
Jesus introduces his corrective commentary on the Law by acknowledging where we are stuck. “You have heard it said.”
You have heard it said that murder is a violation of the Law. That is true. But it is incomplete. Wake up. Pay attention. Ask yourselves the questions that lead to understanding and wisdom. Ask: what is the underlying principle that forms the reality of this law?
You have heard it said that if a man wants to divorce his wife he can follow a certain legal procedure and end the marriage. That is true. It is also incomplete. Wake up. Pay attention. Question. Discern the principles that define marriage before you apply the Law to dissolve marriage.
You have heard it said to keep your vows. That is true. Can you by an act of will alone do this? Does the vow give you power over your sin nature? Is there a better way? Ask: where am I stuck in the false ego? Where do I exist and choose by not choosing, by default? How can I live by conscious intent?
When Jesus states: “you have heard it said” he is asking us to examine our assumptions and our habits. He is offering us a way through unconscious incompetence by encouraging us to question . And, he is offering himself as the guide on the path to spiritual growth and maturity.
There are currently two ways of being human. There is the way of Adam. That way rejects the plan and purpose of God for our souls. That way creates and sustains and defends a false ego based in the will to power. That way keeps us locked and lost at the level of unconscious incompetence. It is the way of the surrounding culture. It seems right and it seems normal because it is the way our educational system, entertainment, academic and political system instructs us to think. It is the way the soul remains lost and it is the way we choose not to choose.
The Bible describes this way of being human as the sin nature and the way of death. In order to remain on this way we need to ignore, suppress and distort the image and likeness of God in our souls. As we follow this way, the way of Adam, we in fact kill our authentic self in order to create and sustain a false ego.
It may seem esoteric and complicated. Fortunately, the Bible approaches the issue in a very simple and straightforward manner. The Bible encourages us to examine our assumptions about life and our actions in life.
Jesus gives us the model in his sermon on the mount. You have heard it said. But- is it true? Is what you have learned consistent with divine principles revealed in the Bible? Is the way you set your priorities and achieve you goals grounded in the love and holiness of God? Or, is it grounded in the individual will to power?
The primary purpose of the church Christ founded on the day of Pentecost is the salvation and sanctification of souls. It is the restoration of the image and likeness of God in each of us. It is the invitation to wake up and make a conscious choice to grow and to mature into the nature of the second Adam, Jesus Christ.
To accomplish this great and wonderful purpose we need to ask ourselves: are we willing to move from unconscious incompetence into conscious incompetence? Are will willing to admit that we don’t know what we don’t know but we want to grow? Are we willing to trust God that the best way of being human is through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ?
God does not just give us a book and leave us alone to try to figure it out. God gives us his Son, Jesus Christ, to be our constant companion and guide on this path of spiritual growth and maturity. God gives us the Holy Spirit to offer advice and strength and courage to wake up, ask questions, and make changes. God places us in a community of faith to encourage each other and to support each other.
As we approach Lent, ask the Holy Spirit to help you examine one assumption you have about life. Ask: is this true? Don’t get mad- get even. Is this true? Everybody is against me and if I don’t demand my rights I will never get what I want. Is this true? Other people exist to serve me. Is this true? If some one pushes me I will push back even harder. Is this true?
The call to self examination is not the call to self obsession. It is the call to wake up into a new and wonderful process of effortless effort. It is the call to see where the false ego covers the true self. It is the opportunity to wake up and to live life fully and joyfully by conscious intent.
Jesus teaches: you have heard it said. Jesus encourage us to take next step and ask the question: is it true?
You have heard that it was said.
Much of our spiritual growth lies in the work of unlearning what we think we know.
Steven Covey in his book “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People” discusses this principle. The book lists the four levels of competency.
At the first level we don’t know what we don’t know. This is the level of unconscious incompetence. There is no shame or fault at this level. There is simply unawareness. It is the mind of an infant who has yet to experience the many possibilities in the world.
The second level is the level of conscious incompetence. At this level we know that we don’t know. This is the level of the beginner. The beginner practices the scales on the piano and suddenly realizes that it will take a lot of time and effort before he can play even the simplest tune. This is the level of effort. This is the level of deferred gratification. We give up some of our time and devote a portion of our energy to overcome our lack of knowledge and skill in order to accomplish our goal.
As we accomplish our goal we enter into the third level. It is the level of conscious competence. At this level we know that we know. This is the level of proficiency. We’ve mastered the basics. We know the scales backwards and forward. We are ready for the 4th and final level.
The 4th and final level is the place of unconscious competence. We can sit at the piano and play the music with grace and creativity. We don’t need to stop and think where middle C is. We just know. We know so well our mind is set free to be spontaneous and creative. This is the level of mastery This is the level of delight.
The Bible used history, poetry, symbol and metaphor to express the same concepts Steven Covey set forth in a more analytic mode in his book. The Biblical authors were interested in observing the barriers that emerge in these four levels of competency. And, the Biblical writers were interested in proposing a solution to the problem those barriers created.
The competency the Bible was most interested in is the competency of being human. Many people assume that the Bible is all about God and humanity’s search for God. This is only partially true. The Bible is about humanity evading God, rejecting God and rejecting who God has called us as to be.
The Bible is also about God seeking us and finding us in Jesus Christ. The purpose of Christ is not to answer religious questions. The purpose of Christ is to call humanity back to its true nature. The purpose of Christ is to restore what we lost.
The Bible sets forth the proposition that there are two basic ways of being human. There is the way of Adam. And, there is the way of Jesus Christ.
The way of Adam is the way of power. It is the exercise of real choice through the will to power. It is the way of demand backed by threat. It is also the subversion of love, the distortion of holiness and the corruption of grace. The way of Adam is the way of fear, self will and pride. It is the way of being human characterized and defined by sin and death.
The Bible observes that regardless of the level of competency we achieve in our lives we have all chosen to remain at the primary level of unconscious incompetence in terms of being human. The Bible also observes that we actually choose to remain at this level so that we never encounter a challenge to our unconscious incompetence. The choice of Adam to separate from God is the choice to abandon the next step in growth: the level of conscious incompetence. To use Covey’s vocabulary: we not only don’t know what we don’t know we assert self will to make an active choice not to know.
The barrier we erect to block our development is pride. Pride rejects the need to grow. Pride asserts: I’m OK just as I am. If there is a problem it lies with other people, the world, God.
Jesus challenged this pride in his teaching and in his person. Jesus challenged this pride because Jesus is the one by whom, through whom and for whom God the Father created each of us. Our heavenly Father designed us to be fully human in relationship with God the Son. There is no other model for being fully human.
God wants us to grow. God wants us to develop the amazing potential for love and holiness he has placed in our souls. The growth is what we now call spiritual growth. It is spiritual growth because it is rooted in the most fundamental level of our being- at the level of the soul.
The soul defines who we are as a species and who we may become as an individual. From the soul we mold our minds, hearts and wills to form our identity. With Christ we form a unique authentic personal identity. Apart from Christ we form a false ego based on the assumptions and demands of the surrounding culture. There is ultimately a dull tedious sameness to the false ego. It is a monotone of a single syllable: me.
The soul lost in separation is a soul that endlessly repeats me, me, me in order to drown out the authentic personal identity God has placed within us.
In his sermon on the mount Jesus provides a corrective commentary on the Law of Moses. Jesus does not reinvent the law or abolish the Law. He does challenge us to discern how human pride subverts divine principle and keeps us locked and lost in the Adamic nature of sin and death. That is the level of willful unconscious incompetence. That is the level of the monotonous “me”.
Jesus introduces his corrective commentary on the Law by acknowledging where we are stuck. “You have heard it said.”
You have heard it said that murder is a violation of the Law. That is true. But it is incomplete. Wake up. Pay attention. Ask yourselves the questions that lead to understanding and wisdom. Ask: what is the underlying principle that forms the reality of this law?
You have heard it said that if a man wants to divorce his wife he can follow a certain legal procedure and end the marriage. That is true. It is also incomplete. Wake up. Pay attention. Question. Discern the principles that define marriage before you apply the Law to dissolve marriage.
You have heard it said to keep your vows. That is true. Can you by an act of will alone do this? Does the vow give you power over your sin nature? Is there a better way? Ask: where am I stuck in the false ego? Where do I exist and choose by not choosing, by default? How can I live by conscious intent?
When Jesus states: “you have heard it said” he is asking us to examine our assumptions and our habits. He is offering us a way through unconscious incompetence by encouraging us to question . And, he is offering himself as the guide on the path to spiritual growth and maturity.
There are currently two ways of being human. There is the way of Adam. That way rejects the plan and purpose of God for our souls. That way creates and sustains and defends a false ego based in the will to power. That way keeps us locked and lost at the level of unconscious incompetence. It is the way of the surrounding culture. It seems right and it seems normal because it is the way our educational system, entertainment, academic and political system instructs us to think. It is the way the soul remains lost and it is the way we choose not to choose.
The Bible describes this way of being human as the sin nature and the way of death. In order to remain on this way we need to ignore, suppress and distort the image and likeness of God in our souls. As we follow this way, the way of Adam, we in fact kill our authentic self in order to create and sustain a false ego.
It may seem esoteric and complicated. Fortunately, the Bible approaches the issue in a very simple and straightforward manner. The Bible encourages us to examine our assumptions about life and our actions in life.
Jesus gives us the model in his sermon on the mount. You have heard it said. But- is it true? Is what you have learned consistent with divine principles revealed in the Bible? Is the way you set your priorities and achieve you goals grounded in the love and holiness of God? Or, is it grounded in the individual will to power?
The primary purpose of the church Christ founded on the day of Pentecost is the salvation and sanctification of souls. It is the restoration of the image and likeness of God in each of us. It is the invitation to wake up and make a conscious choice to grow and to mature into the nature of the second Adam, Jesus Christ.
To accomplish this great and wonderful purpose we need to ask ourselves: are we willing to move from unconscious incompetence into conscious incompetence? Are will willing to admit that we don’t know what we don’t know but we want to grow? Are we willing to trust God that the best way of being human is through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ?
God does not just give us a book and leave us alone to try to figure it out. God gives us his Son, Jesus Christ, to be our constant companion and guide on this path of spiritual growth and maturity. God gives us the Holy Spirit to offer advice and strength and courage to wake up, ask questions, and make changes. God places us in a community of faith to encourage each other and to support each other.
As we approach Lent, ask the Holy Spirit to help you examine one assumption you have about life. Ask: is this true? Don’t get mad- get even. Is this true? Everybody is against me and if I don’t demand my rights I will never get what I want. Is this true? Other people exist to serve me. Is this true? If some one pushes me I will push back even harder. Is this true?
The call to self examination is not the call to self obsession. It is the call to wake up into a new and wonderful process of effortless effort. It is the call to see where the false ego covers the true self. It is the opportunity to wake up and to live life fully and joyfully by conscious intent.
Jesus teaches: you have heard it said. Jesus encourage us to take next step and ask the question: is it true?
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Epiphany 5
Epiphany 5 (Matthew 5: 13-20) Let your light shine
Jesus is the light of the world.
Jesus is the light of the world reaching out to all people everywhere through us. The light reveals the truth. The truth is Jesus Christ.
The truth that Jesus reveals is that God is real. By Jesus’ time Abraham and Moses were already faded memories of a distant past. People read in the Bible how God spoke to Abraham and Moses audibly. Yet, it had been almost five hundred years since God had spoken even indirectly through a prophet.
People read in the Bible about the mighty miracles God had performed during the time of Moses. Yet, there was no evidence of such miracles for many centuries.
If people thought of God at all they thought of a distant, transcendent and silent Divine Principle that no longer spoke and no longer acted in the world of human events. Perhaps the stories were indeed just stories. Perhaps the history was allegory and not literal fact. Perhaps the history of the Patriarchs and the Prophets was similar to the pagan myths- not to be taken literally but to be understood for the moral content.
Religious people thought of God as the Lawgiver who had revealed the Law to Moses then vanished from human experience. The Law was the focus of the religion. The religion was the Law.
Jesus came into the world to reveal the reality of God. Jesus came into the world to reaffirm that God is real and God is personal. The purpose of religion is not to impose Law. The purpose of religion is to facilitate relationship.
Jesus was very careful not to suggest that he had come to abolish the Law. In fact, Jesus teaches that the Law is immutable in all of its parts. And, Jesus taught that righteousness is more than assent to certain beliefs or the fulfillment of certain actions.
The apostle James clarifies Jesus teaching when he declares that the Law, all 616 Laws, is a seamless whole. If you break one law even once you have broken the entire law and forfeited any claim to righteousness under the law.
The apostle Paul clarifies Jesus’ teaching by stating that the Law is holy and good but no human being can keep the Law. Only Jesus can and did keep the law. He kept the law by the power of his relationship with his Heavenly Father.
Jesus came into the world to reveal that God is love: steadfast, holy, unconditional love. The relationship God offers us is the relationship Jesus reveals is the defining nature of Divinity. It is One God eternally manifesting in three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It is the One God eternally manifesting as a community of love. In that community each person is distinct and each person holds the essential unity of the One God.
Jesus came into the world to reveal that in his own person God unites Divinity with humanity. God finds all people in Jesus Christ as Jesus unites humanity with divinity. God offers all people everywhere the gift of reunification and transformation in Jesus Christ.
As God freely chose to unite divinity with humanity in Jesus Christ so in Jesus God offers us the choice to unite with him as we place our faith and trust in Jesus Christ. It is in that call to unity, which is the invitation to salvation, that Jesus becomes for all who receive him the light of truth, the light of love, the light of holiness.
In the new relationship God offers us in Jesus Christ we see where we fall short and we see the new person we may become.
Jesus is the light who reveals to each of us who God created us to be, where we have rejected that creation, and how we can restore what we rejected. As we follow the light into the light we become light to others. We model in our own lives by our choices and priorities the pattern, plan and purpose of God for the human race.
Our righteousness can only exceed the righteousness of the Pharisees in the process of personal transformation. The Law can be a guide but the transformation can only take place within the relationship.
It is the relationship that produces the faith.
Righteousness apart from the relationship always looks for the loophole in the Law. It is salt mingled with sand that still looks like salt but is less that salt. Unscrupulous merchants in the ancient world mingled a little sand with salt to stretch the inventory and make more money. If the salt passed through several merchants before the end user received it there might be very little actual salt left. It would have lost its saltiness as the merchants diluted it to make more money.
Righteousness apart from relationship is like the diluted salt. It has mixed and mingled with the base and the secular until it no longer retains its distinctive flavor and its unique identity.
The relationship purifies righteousness through faith. Legalism dilutes faith with compromise. The compromise is always the dilution of faith with fear, self will and pride.
Fear casts doubt that the way of faith will produce desired results. Self will asserts the human will to power that insists each of us is the master of our fate and the captain of our souls. Pride redefines God as religion, religion as law, and law as subject to human opinion. Sadly, fear, self will and pride erode faith and lead to despair.
Jesus is not about religion. Jesus is the Way of life, the pattern of life, God has designed for each of us. Jesus is the truth, the guiding principle that underlies all existence. Jesus is life. He is the source of life, the giver of life and the very essence of life. His life is eternal.
Faith in Jesus Christ is not just a set of beliefs. Faith in Jesus Christ is trust in a person who invites us to follow him into a new life and a new way of living. Faith in Jesus Christ is not an abstract or arbitrary assembly of facts and ideas. Faith in Jesus Christ is an ongoing friendship with a real person who cares for us and offers not only guidance but the strength and courage to change how we make choices and set priorities.
It is the dynamic of the personal relationship activated by faith that transforms us into the light of Christ for our generation.
Our Heavenly Father invites us to walk in the light of Jesus Christ through our personal relationship with Christ. He gives us the Holy Spirit to enable us to make this choice and to live this choice by faith. As we make this choice, the Holy Spirit fills our soul with light so we can fulfill Jesus’ command: let your light shine.
Jesus is the light of the world.
Jesus is the light of the world reaching out to all people everywhere through us. The light reveals the truth. The truth is Jesus Christ.
The truth that Jesus reveals is that God is real. By Jesus’ time Abraham and Moses were already faded memories of a distant past. People read in the Bible how God spoke to Abraham and Moses audibly. Yet, it had been almost five hundred years since God had spoken even indirectly through a prophet.
People read in the Bible about the mighty miracles God had performed during the time of Moses. Yet, there was no evidence of such miracles for many centuries.
If people thought of God at all they thought of a distant, transcendent and silent Divine Principle that no longer spoke and no longer acted in the world of human events. Perhaps the stories were indeed just stories. Perhaps the history was allegory and not literal fact. Perhaps the history of the Patriarchs and the Prophets was similar to the pagan myths- not to be taken literally but to be understood for the moral content.
Religious people thought of God as the Lawgiver who had revealed the Law to Moses then vanished from human experience. The Law was the focus of the religion. The religion was the Law.
Jesus came into the world to reveal the reality of God. Jesus came into the world to reaffirm that God is real and God is personal. The purpose of religion is not to impose Law. The purpose of religion is to facilitate relationship.
Jesus was very careful not to suggest that he had come to abolish the Law. In fact, Jesus teaches that the Law is immutable in all of its parts. And, Jesus taught that righteousness is more than assent to certain beliefs or the fulfillment of certain actions.
The apostle James clarifies Jesus teaching when he declares that the Law, all 616 Laws, is a seamless whole. If you break one law even once you have broken the entire law and forfeited any claim to righteousness under the law.
The apostle Paul clarifies Jesus’ teaching by stating that the Law is holy and good but no human being can keep the Law. Only Jesus can and did keep the law. He kept the law by the power of his relationship with his Heavenly Father.
Jesus came into the world to reveal that God is love: steadfast, holy, unconditional love. The relationship God offers us is the relationship Jesus reveals is the defining nature of Divinity. It is One God eternally manifesting in three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It is the One God eternally manifesting as a community of love. In that community each person is distinct and each person holds the essential unity of the One God.
Jesus came into the world to reveal that in his own person God unites Divinity with humanity. God finds all people in Jesus Christ as Jesus unites humanity with divinity. God offers all people everywhere the gift of reunification and transformation in Jesus Christ.
As God freely chose to unite divinity with humanity in Jesus Christ so in Jesus God offers us the choice to unite with him as we place our faith and trust in Jesus Christ. It is in that call to unity, which is the invitation to salvation, that Jesus becomes for all who receive him the light of truth, the light of love, the light of holiness.
In the new relationship God offers us in Jesus Christ we see where we fall short and we see the new person we may become.
Jesus is the light who reveals to each of us who God created us to be, where we have rejected that creation, and how we can restore what we rejected. As we follow the light into the light we become light to others. We model in our own lives by our choices and priorities the pattern, plan and purpose of God for the human race.
Our righteousness can only exceed the righteousness of the Pharisees in the process of personal transformation. The Law can be a guide but the transformation can only take place within the relationship.
It is the relationship that produces the faith.
Righteousness apart from the relationship always looks for the loophole in the Law. It is salt mingled with sand that still looks like salt but is less that salt. Unscrupulous merchants in the ancient world mingled a little sand with salt to stretch the inventory and make more money. If the salt passed through several merchants before the end user received it there might be very little actual salt left. It would have lost its saltiness as the merchants diluted it to make more money.
Righteousness apart from relationship is like the diluted salt. It has mixed and mingled with the base and the secular until it no longer retains its distinctive flavor and its unique identity.
The relationship purifies righteousness through faith. Legalism dilutes faith with compromise. The compromise is always the dilution of faith with fear, self will and pride.
Fear casts doubt that the way of faith will produce desired results. Self will asserts the human will to power that insists each of us is the master of our fate and the captain of our souls. Pride redefines God as religion, religion as law, and law as subject to human opinion. Sadly, fear, self will and pride erode faith and lead to despair.
Jesus is not about religion. Jesus is the Way of life, the pattern of life, God has designed for each of us. Jesus is the truth, the guiding principle that underlies all existence. Jesus is life. He is the source of life, the giver of life and the very essence of life. His life is eternal.
Faith in Jesus Christ is not just a set of beliefs. Faith in Jesus Christ is trust in a person who invites us to follow him into a new life and a new way of living. Faith in Jesus Christ is not an abstract or arbitrary assembly of facts and ideas. Faith in Jesus Christ is an ongoing friendship with a real person who cares for us and offers not only guidance but the strength and courage to change how we make choices and set priorities.
It is the dynamic of the personal relationship activated by faith that transforms us into the light of Christ for our generation.
Our Heavenly Father invites us to walk in the light of Jesus Christ through our personal relationship with Christ. He gives us the Holy Spirit to enable us to make this choice and to live this choice by faith. As we make this choice, the Holy Spirit fills our soul with light so we can fulfill Jesus’ command: let your light shine.
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