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.”