Epiphany 2014

Christmas II (Epiphany observed) Matthew 2: 1-12

“We have observed his star at its rising.”

Did you ever send out written announcements to your family and friends at the birth of a child? Our Heavenly Father announced the birth of His co-eternal Son in Jesus Christ with the appearance of a star.

There is a context to this stellar birth announcement. Ancient people held a belief that could be expressed in the phrase: “as above so below.”

It was a belief that the pattern of the universe derives from a transcendent eternal source. The Greeks expressed this belief in the word: Logos.

As the universe reflects the transcendent pattern in its laws and structures at the highest and broadest levels in the stars and planets- so those structures can give insight into the patterns of life here on Earth.

That was the belief.

The Magi tested that belief. They had been educated in math and science as well as astrology and religion. As with the prophets of Israel they tested their inherited beliefs with observation and rational analysis of experience- their own personal experience as well as the experience of other people.

The Magi had knowledge, wealth and a certain degree of power. They also had something most people then and most people now lack. They had curiosity informed by humility.

They avoided the skepticism of the Greek philosophers, the cynicism of the Roman aristocracy and the fanaticism of the Jewish religious elites. They also questioned the superstitions of the masses of people in the ancient world.

They observed. They questioned. They tested. They acknowledged they could only discern truth through inquiry and humility.

As they followed the star they pursued a path that most people in their time and ours reject.

God had announced the birth of his incarnate Son, Jesus, to the world in the star. Only a very few people then and now paid attention to the announcement enough to perceive the invitation in the announcement.

From time to time modern skeptics, both religious and secular, ask: where is God? Why is he not speaking? If God is real let him demonstrate his reality in the terms and under the conditions we understand.

The long and consistent observation of Moses, the prophets and the Magi is that God is as present to us as our next breath. God speaks in clarity to all people everywhere. The problem is not that God is silent. The problem is that most people most of the time aren’t paying attention. The problem is that we cannot see the path before us even when it is illumined by the brightness of a star, the word of the prophet and the song of the angels.

Epiphany is the manifestation of the Real Presence of God to all people everywhere. It is the invitation to walk the path of curiosity with humility. It is the defining principle of wisdom that says: now I know in part.

How is God speaking to you? Are you paying attention? Are you willing to be found? Do you have a desire to be surprised when God acts through nature to reveal the eternal pattern of the logos that gives the natural world its substance and form?

The Magi visited the political and religious elites of Jerusalem with a single purpose. We have observed his star at its rising. How can you help us understand this sign? What insight can you offer to help us complete our long journey on the path to Truth?

They found the answer they were looking for. They completed this first part of their journey only to discover a fuller understanding of the path. The fuller understanding is the way of grace. It is the way of faith. It is the personal relationship God offers all of us and each of us in Jesus Christ.

 

 

Christmas I

Christmas I (John 1:1-18) “The Word became flesh.”

Jesus is God.

In Jesus, God unites His divinity with our humanity permanently and irrevocably.

Moses and the prophets observe the human condition and conclude that the great problem defining our species is separation. Through Adam and Eve humanity chose to separate from God. In that separation we also chose to perpetuate separation from God, from each other, from life itself.

Human nature is now defined by the corrupting power of Original Separation. In our personal individual lives we bring forth the pattern of separation in sin and death.  We are not only lost in sin we are willfully and spitefully lost.

The lost do not want to be found. The lost perpetuate separation through prideful distortion of virtue, Law, religion and science. God Himself invites us to test this assertion. Through the prophet Isaiah God declares: come, let us reason together.

In a world of abundance there is scarcity. How does that happen?

For a species created in the image and likeness of unconditional love there is fear. Where does that fear come from?

The moment you explain a rule to a child testing the limits of the rule becomes his chief priority. Why?

God reveals to us that He created the world and people respond with skepticism, cynicism and pride.

God invites us to assume the responsibility to care for each other and we demand the right to assert our individual will to power.

No law can correct this problem. No religion, spiritual exercise, philosophy or science can restore the Original Blessing our species rejected and continues to repudiate.

That is why God the Father sent God the Son in the power of God the Holy Spirit.

God the Son is the pattern of all things and all people. The Greek philosophers, mathematicians and scientists called that pattern the logos- the rational transcendent creative and eternal Word by which, through which and for which all things exist.

Through our choice to separate from God, we shattered that pattern in our souls.  Having broken the pattern we no longer have the desire or the resources to repair the pattern.

God the Father repairs the pattern for us by sending God the Son to become the second Adam. God the Holy Spirit invites us to allow the Son to reunite what we have separated.

In Jesus God reunites us to Himself not just as a legal fiction but in a real organic and substantial way.

Since the problem with being lost is that we don’t want to be found, we don’t want the pattern we broke to be repaired, God does it all for us.

Salvation is reunification with God in the incarnate Son of God. It is a gift. We can’t earn it. We don’t deserve it. It is the gift of God in Jesus restoring the original blessing in the original pattern of the co-eternal Logos- the Word of God who comes to us in Jesus Christ.

Salvation is not a matter of debits and credits. It is also not a human right we can demand and claim. It is a gift. The gift and the giver of the gift are one.

They are one in the same because the gift and the giver are infinite and eternal love. Salvation is the how God the Father finds the lost in Jesus and then restores the lost by the transforming Presence of the Holy Spirit.

The original pattern of humanity is the Logos, the Word. And the Word became flesh in Jesus Christ to restore to us that original pattern of universal unconditional love.

Christmas 2013

Christmas 2013 (Luke 2:1-20) “Glory to God in the highest!’

How do you celebrate someone’s birthday? How do you expect people to celebrate your birthday?

If it were your birthday would you expect some sort of party with food and gifts? Would you be surprised if people celebrated your birthday by ignoring you and giving gifts to each other instead?

Today we celebrate Christmas. Christmas is the birthday of Jesus Christ.

God invites all people everywhere to gather together to celebrate this wonderful birthday of His only Son. Jesus is God the Father’s gift of eternal love to all people.  The gift of God is the love of God in the person of God.

God the Father created this universe, our planet and each of us individually by the power of the Holy Spirit according to the pattern of God the Beloved Son. In Jesus, God the Father unites God the Beloved Son with the humanity of holy Mother Mary by the power of God the Holy Spirit.

On Christmas, God reminds us that He just doesn’t have love- He is love.

On Christmas, the One God reveals to us that Love is an eternal pattern of relationships: The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

On Christmas, God assures us by demonstrating for us that His Triune eternal love is universal and unconditional. God loves everyone without exception. There is no one God does not love.

God proves this to us by uniting our humanity with His divinity in the birth of a helpless infant: Jesus.

All of the sentiments of Christmas derive from the pattern of the Beloved Son who became a little child at that first Christmas.

Ponder this great amazing truth. Savor this greatest of all Good News.

Jesus is God with us. Jesus is God for us. Jesus is the infant exiled from the town to the manger. He shivers in the cold. Angels sing about him. Shepherds and Kings worship him. Mary and Joseph look over him and protect him.

On Christmas, we remember that there is no condemnation in God. There is only the infinite and eternal Triune Love manifesting to us and for us in a helpless child.

Jesus, the son of Mary, is God with us now and forever, world without end. Amen and Merry Christmas.

 

Thanksgiving 2013

Thanksgiving 2013 (Matthew 6:25-33) “Do not worry.”

Worry is about the fear of the future. It is an anxiety that subverts the joy of the present. It borrows trouble from a fantasy future that may or may not ever exist.

Jesus very pointedly teaches: do not worry. Worry, for most of us, is choice we make. In that choice we establish a pattern of thought and emotional reaction. Eventually, that pattern becomes an embedded behavior that defines our path through life.

My grandfather always advised my brothers and I not to worry about things. “you don’t need to worry about anything,” he would say. “You father worries enough for all of us.”

Worry is a distortion of the soul that has real physical effects on the human brain. Both the Bible and modern science reveal that we can train our thoughts. We can adopt a pessimistic view of life that perceives a threat in every frown and an enemy in every smile. Ot , we can live by grace through faith.

The basic definition of grace is “gift”.

Moses and the prophets observe that all of life is a gift. They also observe that we did not create this world or ourselves. We do make choices to distort our perception of the world. We also make choices to subvert the pattern that exists in the world.

The pattern is the Logos. The Apostle John very clearly, precisely and even poetically writes about the Logos as the co-eternal Word of God by whom, through whom and for whom this world and our species was created.

Worry is a corruption of rational analysis and planning. Worry looks at the world and sees only threat, feels only fear, exists in a narrow space of reaction to imagined danger.

The antidote for worry is to give thanks for the blessings of the present moment.

At this moment, right here, right now, what are you experiencing?

Remember, worry and anxiety are about a possible future that has only a remote probability of coming to pass.

The pattern of the universe is grace. It is the gift of God in the co-eternal Beloved of God to live and move and have our being in the Real Presence of the Holy Spirit of God in the present moment.

On this National Holiday of Thanksgiving the Church asks us to pause and ponder the reality of the present. Right here, right now, what are you thankful for. Jesus is right here in the blessed sacrament of the altr. He is here for you. He offers his friendship to you. In that friendship he gives you the grace, the gift, of freedom.

Jesus will set you free from the resentments and anger of pain that rises from past events. Jesus will set you free from the worry and anxiety that rises from a false belief that the future will only bring more pain. Jesus sets us free by calling our attention to His Real Presence in the present moment.

Let the past go. But, let it go in and through the love of God the Father in the Real Presence of God the co-eternal Beloved, by the infusion of grace of God the Holy Spirit. Let the past rest in peace.

Let the future go. Whatever future you are holding onto through worry and anxiety is only an illusion. Jesus will be in whatever future you are journeying into. There is no need to fear now about a future threat. Jesus will walk with you and stand by you in the pleasures and in the pain of life as it unfolds in time.

Grace sets us free to be.

When God reveals his name to Moses He says: “I AM”.

God is the eternal present. Jesus is the Real Presence of God in the present moment. The present moment holds the pattern of the Logos, the co-eternal Beloved of God, in grace.

In that grace we meet and enjoy the great love of God in Jesus Christ.

What are you thankful for at this time and in this place? Trust Jesus to set you free from worry and fear to enjoy the gift of God in the Real Presence of God in the here and now of an eternal moment of grace.

Pentecost 26

Pentecost 26 (Luke 21:5-19)

“Beware that you are not led astray.”

There are three means by which we can be led astray. They are the world, the flesh and the devil. There are three standards of authority that can help us avoid being led astray. These are reason, tradition and scripture. There is one, and only one, person who can protect us from being led astray. That person is Jesus Christ.

To be lead astray is to be deceived. As we are deceived our lives become more narrow, confined and restricted. We lose the blessing God has designed into the universe and our souls. We experience increasing levels of frustration, fear, anxiety and anger. The world, the flesh and the devil seek to define our possibilities and potential in a way that diminishes us and controls us.

The world is our surrounding culture. It is an exterior form of temptation through distortion. The key word is distortion. Much of the temptation that comes from the world is not in and of itself bad or evil. Most of the pressure the world brings to bear on our minds, hearts and wills come from the distortion of where we set our priorities and how we spend our time.

Moses and the prophets are very clear. God, more specifically the worship of God on the Sabbath Day, is the first priority God designed into our souls. Compassionate service to other people is our second priority. Personal transformation through prayer, Bible study and self-discipline is our third priority. Consider what does not even appear on this list of God’s priorities for our lives. It doesn’t mean these other things are not important or have no place. It does mean they should not take the place of God’s priorities. If they do subvert God’s priorities they become idols- false gods of culture, society and peer pressure.

Be wary of the pressure that comes from our culture to place God last in our lives. Be wary of the voice that says: “everybody is doing it.”

The second avenue of temptation that will lead us astray is the flesh. When the Bible speaks of the flesh it addresses our legitimate needs and desires as they are distorted by the pain of Original Separation and produce sin.

How does this work? Every sin is a distorted virtue that God designed into our souls for our benefit. Pride is a distortion of humility. Fear is a distortion of faith. Gluttony is a distortion of appetite. Sloth is a distortion of rest. Every aspect of our being when distorted by the pain of Original Separation leads to sin.

The distortion of our needs and desires deceives us about the way God has designed us. The voice of the flesh says: “how can it be so bad when it feels so good.” Be wary of how the flesh will deceive us to reject God’s perfect plan for our lives for a moment of transient pleasure.

Of the list of three means by which we are led astray the devil is the least obvious, the least powerful but the most deadly. Satan crafts a set of lies specific to each generation in every culture. The power of Satan is in misdirection and confusion. The world and the flesh do the rest.

We see the pattern Satan employs in Genesis where Satan tempts Eve by seeking to confuse her about God’s Word, God’s Nature and God’s Plan for humanity. Satan cannot force you to do anything. He will seduce you away from an active dynamic faith into a rigid inflexible set of beliefs. He doesn’t care if you are religious or secular. He does care if you follow the Way, the Truth and the Life of God as revealed in Jesus Christ even if you have not yet made a profession of faith in Christ.

The way we avoid being led astray is through Scripture, Tradition and Reason. Scripture is fundamental. Scripture combines the observations of dozens of people over the course of hundreds of years and in many cultures with God’s perspective. It is vitally important that we read, study and memorize Scripture. Jesus frequently quoted scripture to correct misunderstandings the religious leadership of his day had about God’s Word, God’s Nature and God’s Plan for humanity.

Tradition does not mean “the way we’ve always done things”. Tradition means the Apostolic teaching about the Plan of Salvation. The standard of Tradition is the Seven Ecumenical Councils. The summary of Tradition is the Nicene Creed.

Reason simply means that the Truth is not counterfactual. Truth emerges from observation, analysis and synthesis. Our secular culture has largely abandoned faith in the name of reason. We have also abandoned religion in the name of spirituality. The result has not been the enlightened self-actualized individual the secular world promises. The result is massive levels of fear, anxiety, anger, addictions, conflict, violence, distrust superstition and isolation. Above all else reason is most effective when united to the virtue of humility.

The key to all of this is Jesus Christ. When someone asserts that Jesus never claimed to be God ask yourself: What does scripture reveal about Jesus? What does the Apostolic Tradition teach in the Nicene Creed? Is it reasonable that God would create us only to abandon us?

In this passage, Jesus addresses the issue of the consummation of the age. Most people interpret this to mean the end of the world. Jesus invited the people who heard him and he invites us to consider what this means. Jesus uses scripture, tradition and reason to warn, reassure and comfort.

The warning is: do not be led astray. Do not be led astray by false teachers, your cultural norms, or you own desires.

The reassurance is: nothing has to happen before the Consummation of All Things. Life goes on. Life continues. People act in much the same way they have always acted.

The comfort is that Jesus is the one who brings human history to a conclusion. The Second Coming of Jesus Christ is not about war, famine, pestilence and death. Those are the things human choice influenced by the world, the flesh and the devil bring to us.

Jesus came the first time to bring life. He will return to complete what he started. He will bring a new and abundant life to a lost and broken world.

Do not be led astray. Test the priorities of our culture, the demands of our desires and the seductive deceits of Satan against the one pure and perfect standard of Creation. That one pure and perfect standard is Jesus Christ.

Pentecost 25

Pentecost 25 (Luke 20:27-38)

“Now God is not the God of the dead but the living.”

God created human beings to enjoy life.

The life we can enjoy derives from God the Son who is life eternal.  Jesus came to restore to us what we pride fully rejected. In Jesus God reunites humanity and divinity.

In the marriage ceremony the priest declares: those whom God has joined together let no one separate. Marriage is the pre-eminent image of God’s relationship to humanity. In Adam humanity has chosen separation from God. In Jesus God replies: therefore, what God has joined together let no one separate.

The Sadducees were well aware of the Biblical teaching on marriage. They used the teaching to challenge Jesus rather than to understand Jesus. The Sadducees considered themselves to be strict conservatives. They only accepted the first five books of the Bible to be authoritative. They focused exclusively on the Law as the means by which they could count themselves righteous and lay a claim to Divine favor in this life.

The Sadducees did not believe in an afterlife of any sort. As with most people of the ancient world they believed dead was dead. They believed the spirit was quite literally in the breath. When you breathed your last breath your body died and your spirit expired.  The Sadducees ridiculed the Pharisees for believing in the resurrection. It seemed ludicrous to the Sadducees that God would somehow recreate a long dead body and breathe the breath of life back into it.

To emphasize their point, they challenged Jesus from the place an absurd scenario. According to the Law of Moses, if a man died without children it was the responsibility of his brother to marry the widow and have children to preserve the dead brother’s name and memory.

The scenario postulates this process continuing through the death of seven brothers until they and finally the wife die. The question then becomes: if they are resurrected then who is the real husband?

The Sadducees as well as other religious sects took a perverse pleasure in this line of questioning. They devised the most improbable scenarios and the most absurd interpretations to discredit beliefs they rejected.

Jesus handled this situation with great skill and compassion. He uses the challenge as an occasion for instruction.

Jesus teaches that the resurrection body is a physical body but a physical body raised to perfection to live in a new set of relationships. Very specifically, he assures the Sadducees that the resurrection of the body is real. But, he corrects their misunderstanding of what resurrection is. The resurrection body is a new body for a new world. It is no longer subject to the distortions of separation, sin and death. In the resurrection people live in union with God, each other, and the image of God imprinted on their souls.  It is a new life and a new way of living for a new set of relationships that brings to fulfillment and perfection the old life and the old set of relationships.

Very specifically, in terms of marriage, the spiritual promise of marriage in the soul’s union with God is made real and made complete. The old form of marriage ends with physical death. The new life of the resurrection transforms the exclusive marriage relationship on earth to an inclusive and transcendent set of relationships.

Jesus compares this new life to the life of the angels who neither marry or are given in marriage yet enjoy both particular and universal relationships with each other, with human beings and with God.

Jesus summarizes his teaching with the assurance to those who believe dead is dead that God is life eternal. In God all live. Physical death is the tragic consequence of Original Separation. Eternal life is the great gift of God in the reunion of humanity with divinity in Jesus Christ. The Pharisees taught that an afterlife was a reward for those few who kept the Law by keeping themselves separate from lesser men. The Sadducees taught that the reward for righteousness comes only in this life.

Jesus teaches that life emerges from a series of relationships. The primary life giving relationship is our relationship with God. The secondary life giving relationship is our relationships with other people. The third life giving relationship is our relationship with the image and likeness of God imprinted on our souls- our true and unique personal identity.

Life derives from relationships. Broken relationships diminish our lives and facilitate the process of Original Separation that leads to death. The restoration of our broken relationship with God in the union of divinity and humanity in Jesus reconnects us with the Original Blessing of eternal life.

Jesus restored human nature to life in the incarnation. He took away sin on the cross. He transformed death back into life by his resurrection. He did it all for us and offers it all to us. What he offers in these amazing gifts is a new life that can, if we choose to follow the path, produce a new way of living.  That new way of living is active, dynamic, spontaneous, creative, filled with infinite possibilities and formed by the unifying principle of eternal love. This is possible and this is real because Jesus just doesn’t have life. He is the very source and pattern of life. He reassured the Sadducees and he reassures us: “Now God is not the God of the dead but the living.”

 

All Saints 2013

All Saints 2013 (Luke 6:20-31)

“Do to others as you would have them do to you.”

Our Heavenly Father designed our species and each one of us by love, through love and for love.

God the Father created humanity by the power of God the Holy Spirit according to the pattern, plan and purpose of God the Beloved, the co-eternal Son.

If you want to know what it means to be human study the life of Jesus Christ. If you want to understand the principles the Triune God designed into the universe and our souls, read, study and memorize the teachings of Jesus Christ.

The principle of God are usually contrary to the principles human beings developed to govern our societies.

Jesus teaches that the blessings of God derive from our emerging awareness of the Divine Pattern of love. And so, Jesus asserts that the poor are blessed. How can that be? The blessing is not in the poverty itself. The blessing lies in the emerging awareness that we are all dependent upon God for our daily bread; and, responsible before God to make sure no human being goes hungry.

The rich have a tendency in the pride of their status to believe they and they alone can take credit for their abundance. Yet, it is not only the rich who are susceptible to pride. Those who have tend to despise those who have not. Those who have also tend to fear those who have less.

The poor are those who in their lack recognize Divine Abundance. It it they who are open to receive the blessing of God. Others, both rich and poor, allow pride and fear to blind them to that abundance.

The abundance is the Real Presence of the one God who eternally manifests as a community of Love in three persons. The Great Mystery of the eternal Trinity is the Great Mystery of eternal love. Eternal love is active, dynamic, spontaneous, creative and giving.

Divine abundance is the pattern, plan and purpose for human beings. Nature holds more than enough resources for all people to live well. Poverty is the choice some of make and impose on the rest of us.

Jesus teaches us and demonstrates for us how we can make a different choice. Jesus also reveals why we can make a different choice.

The choice that produces poverty in our world proceeds from the Original Sin that now defines our species. The origin of sin is the choice our first parents, Adam and Eve, made to separate from God. They, we, made that choice to form our souls according to the categories of knowledge and power.

Jesus resets humanity to the place of original blessing. Original Blessing is union with God the Father by the indwelling Presence of God the Holy Spirit in a forever friendship with God the Beloved, the co-eternal Son.

The Original Blessing is the pattern and principle of all particular blessing God has designed for us to discover and share as we move through time.

The Pattern of Blessing is relationship. The principle of blessing is caring, sharing and helping.

All 616 laws God revealed to Moses derive from and help us to understand this pattern and these principles.

All of the true prophets of God call us to measure our attitudes and actions according to the pattern and these principles.

In Jesus, God resets human nature according to that pattern and these principles.

Do you want to draw closer to God? The only way to do this is to make a real choice to participate actively in the active dynamic creative spontaneous  relationship of love that forms the Triune God. The means to do this is worship. The place  to do this is the community of faith that God has established to be the instrumentality of faith. That community is the broader church.

Do you want to receive the blessings of God? The only way to do this is to make a real choice to follow where Jesus leads. Where does Jesus lead?

If someone is hungry Jesus invites us to feed them.

If someone is lonely, Jesus invites us to comfort them.

If someone is sick, Jesus invites us to heal them.

If someone is lost, Jesus invites us to reassure them that they are already found in the love of God incarnate in Jesus Christ.

On this All Saints/All Souls Sunday the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church reminds us that the Original Blessing is union with the God Father, by the indwelling real presence of God the Holy Spirit , in a forever friendship with God the Beloved, the co-eternal Son, Jesus Christ.

We are part of the wider community of the Church Triumphant- the saints in heaven depicted for us our reredos. We are one with them and with the departed souls of the Church Expectant- represented for us at the altar of sacrifice and through the incense offering in the liturgy.

And, God has placed us into the community of the Church Militant, all of us here today and those of us who choose not to be here. The Church Militant is the school of reunification and transformation. It is the instrumentality of the Plan of Salvation.

The principle is very concise. Come to the altar of sacrifice to enter into the transforming grace of the Divine Presence. Then, make a real choice to use that grace to make a difference in the lives of the poor, the hungry, the sick, the lonely and the lost.

The teaching Jesus gives to us on this All Saints/All Souls Sunday is: “Do to others as you would have them do to you.”

 

 

Pentecost 23

Pentecost 23 (Luke 18:9-14)

 “All who exalt themselves will be humbled.”

Pride perpetuates separation.

The Pharisees were good, hardworking religious people. Everyone admired the Pharisees. But no one admired the Pharisees more than the Pharisees themselves.

They did good things but they did those good things from the place of pride. They not only believed they were righteous they knew they were righteous. They also knew that everyone else was not righteous. Everyone else was wrong. They separated themselves from the unrighteous lest they be contaminated by their sin. They even separated themselves into competing subgroups each claiming to be  the one true authentic righteous as opposed to the moderately righteous.

From the place of pride they asserted their will to power. A Pharisee claimed to be an expert in any field he chose to address but particularly in the field of religious belief and religious practice. The Pharisee never doubted that he knew the best and only right way to do anything. The Pharisee never missed an opportunity to criticize, confront and condemn someone for not living up to his expectations and standards.

The Pharisee believed it was better to be right than to preserve a relationship. They were the quintessential critics. Nothing less than perfection would please them. And so, the greatest sin the Pharisee could imagine was moderation and compromise on even the smallest point.

Jesus tells a parable about the world view the Pharisee embraces. It is a world view routed in pride that revels in conflict and condescension.

The Pharisee goes to the Temple to declare his righteousness before God, man and himself. He misses his moment of grace because he believes he stands before God solid and secure in his own accomplishments.

The Pharisee does not use the occasion to stand in the Real Presence of the Divine. He uses it to exalt himself in the presence of other people. He uses the occasion to emphasize his separation from those whom he despises. As he proclaims his righteousness and the other man’s sinfulness he rejects the very essence of the Divine Nature.

The Tax Collector enters the Temple with a very different perspective. He knows he has failed to honor God and other people. He knows this because he is aware of how his actions alienate people and subvert the divinely revealed principles of worship and compassion.

The Tax Collector enters into a moment of grace through an experience of clarity. He understands that holiness is no so much about which laws to keep and how to keep them. Holiness is about relationship. It is about how we treat other people.

The Tax Collector understands that the threefold set of relationships God created human beings to enjoy are mediated through worship, compassionate service to others- especially the poor, the sick, the lonely and the outcast, and personal transformation.

The Tax Collector knows he has not lived his life in or for this threefold set of relationships. More to the point, he recognizes his failure keeps him separated from God and from other people. As the Tax Collector enters the Temple he enters into the perfect mirror of Divine love. He sees himself as a child of God distorted by sin and separation. He chooses to stand before God from the place of humility. In that place he experiences grace.

The Pharisee also comes into the Temple lost in separation from God and from other people. He also brings his own distortions of perception about God and his own distortions of behavior. As with the Tax Collector he is lost in separation. Unlike the Tax Collector, the Pharisee has through pride convinced himself he is one of the righteous elite. He has convinced himself that separation is an ultimate virtue and condemnation is the ultimate sacrament.

The parable reveals to us two basic paths through life, two fundamentally different ways of being human.

There is the way of pride which is the way of Adam. This is the way of self-exaltation. It is the assertion of the individual will to power to dominate and if necessary debase and destroy anyone who holds a different perspective or interpretation of God, nature, humanity and the self. This is the spiritual aspiration of a soul to be God.

Sadly, this is also the path of separation, sin and death. Pride will always lead to despair. In the transformation of pride into despair the prevailing emotion is fear. No one person knows everything. No one person can know the one and only right way. The Way is not a set of rules regulations and religious practices. The Way is a relationship with God in Jesus Christ.

That Way is active, dynamic, creative, spontaneous and transforming.

The Way requires recognition of our status as creatures created in the image and likeness of God. The Image and Likeness of God is revealed fully and completely in the co-eternal beloved Son, Jesus Christ.

Pride perpetuates separation. Humility facilitates relationship.

Pride distorts and debases love. Humility is the unfolding path of love.

The reality of the one God is the triune relationship of eternal love which forms the very essence of the Divine.

The reality of humanity emerges in the interdependent set of relationships God created us to enjoy. Moses and the prophets are very clear. The basic unit of humanity is not the individual. The basic unit of humanity is the community. The exaltation of the individual is the assertion of pride and self-will. The humility of living in community is the way of personal love, holiness and compassion.

Pride kills relationships by insisting on getting its own way at any cost. For the Pharisee, pride manifested and took form in an arrogant disdain for other people, their opinions and their place in the community.

Jesus did not tell the story of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector to condemn. He told the story to warn.

The warning can be expressed in a series of questions.

Where do you insist on having your own way?

How do you treat people who hold differing opinions?

Is it more important for you to be right or to preserve a relationship?

Do you desire personal transformation of your thoughts, emotions and will?

Or, are you convinced you have life the universe and everything figured out and packaged nicely in the one true exclusive detailed and uncompromising world view?

Do you seek God for who God is?

Or, do you expect God to defend your position at the expense of everyone else?

Jesus wants all people to experience the fullness of life God created us to enjoy. Pride kills through isolation and separation. Humility brings abundant and eternal life.

All who exalt themselves through pride will be humbled in isolation and despair; but, all who humble themselves in a moment of grace will be exalted in the infinite and eternal love of the Triune God of Love: The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Pentecost 22

Pentecost 22 (Luke 18:1-8)

“When the Son of man comes, will He find faith on Earth?”

Persistence is an important aspect of success.

People try and fail many times in many different areas of life. From school, to romance, to business to learning a new skill or language persistence in the pursuit of accomplishment is key.

Most people are not prodigies. Most people cannot sit down at a piano at a young age and begin to play effortlessly and flawlessly. Those few who can generally are selective prodigies. They have one very narrow area of inherent expertise. In other areas they are much like the rest of us.

For the vast majority of people, failure is the prelude to success. We learn from our mistakes. And, we grow in the process of trial and error linked with dedicated practice.

Whether pitching a baseball, playing a piano or inventing new technology persistence distinguishes the person who succeeds from the person who gives up.

As with all things in life faith requires persistence. We need to make a choice to practice our faith as we practice a sport, a musical talent or an skill.

C.K. Chesteron, the English lay theologian, once wrote that Christianity has not been tried and found wanting. It has not been tried.

Christian Faith is a personal relationship. It is a threefold personal relationship that involves God, other people and the image of God imprinted on our souls.

As with all human endeavors and all human relationships, the relationships of faith requires time and attention. The point of the parable of the importunate widow is not to nag people or God or yourself to do something you don’t want to do. The point is persistence.

Christian Faith is a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. The two images the Bible uses to describe the quality of the relationship are marriage and friendship.

Faith not only require persistence it requires passion. The casual musician is not the successful musician. The casual scientist is not the successful scientist. And the casual approach to romance does not facilitate and form a relationship.

If Juliette had replied to Romeo’s passionate and poetic pledge of devotion with the word: “whatever” the play would have ended with the first scene of the first act.

The same is true for faith. From time to time I hear people say that they prayed for something and did not get it. As a result, they gave up on God. They say something like: God did not answer my prayer so I no longer believe in God.

Faith is not the same as belief. Faith may indeed include a  certain set of beliefs. Holding belief is not as demanding or as life transforming as practicing faith.

The point of the parable is persistence. Jesus reminds us that belief is easy. It comes and goes. Faith is challenging. And, it produces a new way of living that transforms our thoughts, emotions and will.

As Jesus gave this very brief but pointed teaching on faith he looked at his followers. He considered his enemies. And, he pondered the large numbers of people who expressed their indifference with the attitude if not the word: “whatever.”

As I consider the meaning of Jesus’ teaching I remember the emphasis of so many televangelists, church committees and councils  who are concerned with right belief apart from an active dynamic living and transforming Faith. The purpose of the Church is not to provide rigid inflexible uncompromising beliefs. The Church is the Bride of Christ who seeks to help her members to grow and transform is the delight of the Beloved.

Given human nature and human history, it is clear that when Jesus returns he will find belief. It may be religious belief or secular belief. It will likely be a commingling of both as people attempt to justify their political and economic interests with a veneer of religious language.

Jesus questions whether he will find faith. Christian Faith has not been tried and found wanting.  By and large, it has not been tried. It has not been tried because it requires an effort in the realm of time and attention.

The reality of God does not emerge in our lives from a casual expectation that God resides in a set of beliefs. The reality of God is not that God will give us what we want when we want it just because we want it.

The reality of God is the ongoing passionate friendship we cultivate with Jesus Christ. Answer to prayer emerges in the dialog of faith, in our daily practice of the Real Presence of God.

God never holds back from us his blessing. God is the great “I Am” who is always present to us. We can choose to manifest the blessing of God in our lives only through a process not a demand. The process is our active participation in the divine life of the Trinity.

God himself is the blessing. If we cultivate the relationship with God the Father through God the Son by the indwelling presence of God the Holy Spirit then that active dynamic and transforming relationship allows us to manifest in our lives the blessing of God’s presence in our lives in a practical and a particular way we and everyone else can recognize.

This is not magic. This is not name it and claim it assertion of our individual will to power. This is not deprivation based prayer that focuses on getting what I don’t have.

This is the practice of faith. This is the union of the soul with God the Creator and the participation of the soul with God in His eternal delight in creating. God wants us to be active co-creators of our own lives with Him, in Him and through Him.

Belief impels us to demand of God to give us what we want. Our focus in this type of prayer is lack. The voice of this prayer is:  I lack therefore I must have. I must have therefore God must give. It is the voice of demand, desperation and despair. From this set of beliefs we focus on lack and live from the place of deprivation. No matter how much we get there is never enough to fill the void we have created in our souls.

Faith invites us to surrender to the infinite creativity of Divine Love. Our focus in this type of prayer is God. The voice of this prayer is: I am here in your divine presence. I am filled to overflowing with your infinite and eternal love. I surrender to your love the highest and deepest aspirations of my soul. Together we will manifest blessing. The voice of this prayer is the voice of faith, hope and love. It is the delight in participating in the abundance of the infinite God of Love. In this prayer of faith our souls become fountains of grace and channels of blessing.

Jesus invites all people everywhere to meet him at the altar of Real Presence on the day of Real Presence. As Jesus looked out into the world when he first told this parable so he looks out into the world today. He seeks friends who have a passion for the personal relationship he offers us.

And, he continues to ask us specifically: when I come before you on the Day of Real Presence what will I find? Will I find faith?

 

 

 

 

Pentecost 21

Pentecost 21 (Luke 17:11-19) “Were not ten made clean?”

Jesus came to Earth seeking a bride.

Humanity collectively is the bride of the co-eternal son of God. Human beings individually have been designed, created and called to be the forever friends of the Son. Jesus came to reclaim those whom God the Father had created by the power of God the Holy Spirit to be the forever friends of God the Son. He came to reclaim us from the effects of our original choice to separate from God,

Ancient peoples understood the power of separation and its consequences. They viewed the dread disease of leprosy as an outward and visible manifestation of an inward and spiritual disorder. They believed leprosy was a curse, a divine judgment on the unrighteous.

Even the advanced medical schools of Egypt, Greece, Persia, India and China were baffled by leprosy. And, until very recently, even Western medical science was thwarted in discovering the cause and the cure for this dread disease. It seemed random. It struck all classes of people at all ages and in all societies. It could not be cured. Its effects were gradual and inexorable. It always without exception ended in disfigurement, suffering and death.

When the King of Syria sent his most valuable general, Naaman, to Israel to seek a cure for his leprosy, the king of Israel assumed this was a provocation for war. Everyone knew there was no cure.

When the prophet Elisha told Naaman to dip in the muddy polluted waters of the Jordan River seven times, Naaman was furious with rage. He expected some sort of elaborate and magical ritual. He expected to spend a fortune. He, too, knew that there was no natural cure to be found in this world.

People saw in this dread disease a symbol of separation. The minute a person was diagnosed with leprosy he was considered dead. He had to leave his home and dwell apart from society, usually in caves outside the city. He lost his family, his home, his  job and his name. He was now named: leper. If someone strayed into his path he was required by law to cry out a warning: “unclean, unclean.”

No one would approach a leper. No one except Jesus.

Jesus is the original pattern of humanity. In Jesus there is only wholeness, health and holiness. His willingness to meet the lepers, speak with them, and heal them is evidence of His Divinity. And, it is symbolic of our Heavenly Father’s Plan of Salvation.

In the Presence of Jesus we enter into the Real Presence of God. In that Presence there is universal unconditional love. That love is not static. It is active, dynamic and transforming.

Jesus healed the ten lepers by the transforming power of love. He instructed them to fulfill the Law of Moses for those afflicted with leprosy and similar diseases. The priest would examine the person and certify the healing for the community. The person would recover his name, his job, his family his home only with that certification. Implicit in this process was  the understanding that there was a spiritual component to the disease. That is why Moses required the certificate of health to be issued by a priest not a physician.

Jesus healed everyone who came to him. Jesus is the universal unconditional love of God in human flesh. Not everyone who experienced the Real Presence of God in Jesus accepted the fullness of unconditional love.

Of the ten lepers whom Jesus healed nine were Jews and one was a Samaritan. Jews considered the Samaritans to be apostate traitors who were beyond God’s grace and favor.

All ten received the healing. All ten went to the Temple to receive their certificate of health. Only one, the Samaritan, returned to seek Jesus and thank him. This, too, is the image of the Plan of Salvation. In Jesus, God the Father reminds us that He loves everyone. God excludes no one from his Presence. In the offer, salvation is universal and unconditional.

And, because salvation is about Divine Love seeking a Bride and offering undying friendship, the application of salvation depends on choice.

Nine of the ten lepers chose not to make time for God. They joyfully took the gift. They willingly took the blessing. And, they made a real choice to ignore the giver of the gift, the source of the blessing. Their physical disease was cured but they chose to remain in a state of spiritual separation. They missed the second part of the healing: the wholeness, the holiness, the personal relationship with God.

They went back to their lives. Eating and drinking, Working and playing. Making money and spending money. Marrying and giving in marriage. None of those things is bad. Any of those things can block salvation. The block is the choice to place God second.

If we place God second we place God last.

The evidence is in the action. The nine could not even take a few hours out of their schedule to return to Jesus and say: thank you.  The application then and now is the same. Where we place out time, attention and priorities sets the path for our lives. Most people most of the time are not committing what the world might call major sins.

 Most people most of the time in our society say something like: I’m not religious. I don’t go to church (or synagogue) but I lead a good life. I eat and drink and no one gets hurt. I work and play and bother no one. I make money and spend money and I have every right to do so. I marry and give in marriage and take care of my children. I’m fine. I’m OK.

St. Luke records this event in the life of Jesus to remind us that salvation is not a checklist of accomplishments or the absence of certain particular sins. Salvation is not about the debits and credits we earn in our lives. Salvation is reunification with the Father, through the Son, by the indwelling Presence of the Holy Spirit. Salvation is God’s gift. Salvation is our choice.

The image of salvation is the image of the socially outcast and despised Samaritan who along with the socially connected and approved is healed then uniquely returns to give thanks. According to most people the Samaritan’s ledger book only held debits. Of all people, the Samaritans did not deserve salvation. The Samaritan made a choice to reset his priorities and restructure how he formed his time and attention in order to make Jesus first. The Samaritan chose Jesus where the insiders, the righteous and the approved made a different choice.

The lesson St. Luke emphasizes is stark and simple. If you place Jesus second in your time and attention you place him last. If you place him last you walk away from the universal unconditional love he offers. For those who walk away from Jesus we hear the very poignant comment: where are they? Where are you?

God never abandons us; but, we can abandon God.

If you place Jesus first then you will make a different set of choices in the way you order your time and attention. It is as we make Jesus first in our lives by our choices that we come to the place where Jesus completes the plan of salvation for our lives in the words: Your faith has made you well.

 

 

 

Pentecost 20

Pentecost 20 (Luke 17:5-10) “If you have faith…”

The seeds of faith grow in the soil of service.

The disciples asked Jesus to increase their faith. They were probably
looking for a set of religious  rituals, spiritual practices or even a moral code.
Jesus gave them a very strange answer in the form of a story about a slave.

On occasion Jesus deliberately shocked his followers in order to help them
wake up from their cultural assumptions about God, humanity and themselves.
Jesus understood that many people sleep walk through life and miss the blessing
God has designed into the universe.

It is important to hear what Jesus has to say about waking up and growing in faith though an attitude and acts of service.

The principles of the Kingdom of God are frequently counter intuitive to the principles our culture teaches us. The fundamental contradiction between what Jesus teaches and what most of us believe is in the area of freedom.

The world teaches us that freedom is the ability to get what you want when you want it. Jesus describes such an attitude as slavery. Freedom is union with God the Father through God the Son by the indwelling real presence of the God Holy Spirit. Jesus sets us free from the slavery to fear that defines our lives and haunts our desires.

The way of faith is the way of freedom. And, the way of faith is the way of service. Such service does not come easily to us. Jesus uses the story of a slave to illustrate his point. The slave in the ancient world, and sadly in many parts of the world today including the United States, has no control over his time or his work. His master sets the schedule and the work. The slave is responsible to assist the master and care for him even after his normal work day is over.

The way of faith is the three fold way of love. The three fold way of love is service to God through worship, service to others through acts of compassion, and service to the authentic self by seeking to transform our mind, heart and will in cooperation with the Holy Spirit.

When the disciples say: “Lord, increase our faith” the first question Jesus asks is” do you have faith? Faith starts small and grows much as a tiny seed grows into a large bush or a tree. If you have faith then that faith, no matter how small, will grow. That is what faith is. Faith is the seed of unconditional universal love. It starts small. It grows, It expands. It widens its scope. It actually increases the ability of the soul to experience and share greater levels of blessing.

So, if the disciples are asking to have their faith increased then there must be a problem. Faith will always grow as a seed will always grow unless something in missing. For a seed it could be nutrients in the soil, sunlight, water or pests.

For faith, the problem hinges on the word “Lord”.

Do we really believe Jesus is Lord? Do we really believe what God has revealed to us through Moses, the prophets and the apostles? Do we really pay attention to the model prayer Jesus taught his disciples and the disciples passed on to us? Are we honest in our prayer when we say to God: “Thy will be done”?

“Thy will be done” is the response of a servant to his master. It is the preeminent prayer Jesus prayed on earth as He followed God the Father’s Plan of salvation.

As will all things in the universe God created it starts with a choice. Have we chosen to accept Jesus as the one who saves us from sin and death? That is the first step. The next step is to enter into a life long process of transformation by which we can honestly call Jesus Lord.

As with the slaves of that time, to call someone Lord and Master means that He, not us, sets the agenda for our time and behavior. It means our life motto and our daily prayer will be: Heavenly Father, not my will but Thy will be done. All souls who choose to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven do so as they make a real choice to say to God: Thy will be done. All souls who refuse to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven so as they make a real choice to proclaim. “My will be done.”

The disciples had some concept of faith. They had some sense of the value of faith. They even perceived within themselves a deficit and a defect in faith. They thought in worldly terms of knowledge and power. They thought they could practice the way of faith as an add on to the way of pride and self-will. Jesus wanted them to understand that the way of faith is personal. It is based in and nourished by the personal relationship God the Father seeks to establish with us through God the Son.

For those who have even the smallest disposition towards a life of faith, God the Holy Spirit supplies the opportunities for us to increase our faith. Faith is personal but not individual. Faith grows only as we make daily choices to enter into the three fold path of universal unconditional love in relationship to the One who is the personal incarnation of love.

When we begin to say: Jesus is Lord, we begin to acknowledge that love is the meaning and purpose of our lives and of all life. As we begin to walk the way of Jesus through faith we find opportunities to grow and transform.

Once a week Jesus invites us to join him at the altar of sacrifice to receive an infusion of grace that will increase our faith.  Jesus expresses his Lordship over our time by setting aside a specific time to practice our faith.

Every day Jesus invites us to join with him in ministering to the material, emotional, psychological and spiritual needs of others. Jesus expressed his Lordship over our resources and possessions by bringing to our awareness and presence those in need of food, housing, medical care and companionship.  Our faith increases as we perceive human need to be the divine invitation to meet that need. The vast material poverty that currently exists on this planet is a reflection of the spiritual poverty in our souls. It is the perfect mirror to reveal to us where we still refuse to acknowledge Jesus as lord.

Every day  Jesus invites us to read the Bible, study the Bible and memorize the Bible. Every day Jesus invites us to enter into a conversation with him through prayer. Every day Jesus encourages us to ponder the reality of God in the beauty of nature, in the smile of a friend, in the kindness of a stranger.

The disciples made a wonderful request. Increase our faith. Jesus wanted to make sure that faith comes from paying attention, from hearing, and from acting on the Word of God incarnate. Faith is like a seed. And like a seed it grows in the soil of service to God through worship, service to others through practical acts of kindness, and service to the image and likeness of God by praying to God: not my will but Thy will be done every day in every way today tomorrow and forever. Amen.