Lent IV

Lent IV (John 9:1-41) “Who sinned?”

Shame and blame are the twin enemies of grace.

The disciples’ comment “Who sinned?” reveals the fatal flaw inherent in law based religion. Law based religion uses shame and guilt to condemn and to control people.

Where law based religion encourages pride and arrogance in its adherents, Jesus embodies a different approach. Jesus is the gift of God for everyone.

In Jesus, God rescues religion from being an exclusive condescending club. Jesus draws from the same texts and uses the same rituals as those who condemn. Jesus fills those texts and rituals with new meaning and purpose.

The disciples shared the common belief of their time that sickness was a punishment for sin. Certainly, they thought to themselves, there must be some grievous sin that resulted in a man being born blind.

There were two possible explanations: God punished the man in advance for sins he would commit as an adult. Or, God punished the sins of his parents or even his grandparents in the child of sin.

There is no compassion in this approach. There is no sense of Divine Mystery. There is a prideful assertion of logic and reason. Since the man was born blind therefore someone must have sinned.

The essence of idolatry is to fix God in a rigid inflexible and uncompromising form. It may be a statue or a picture. It may be a set of beliefs, laws or rituals. Jesus reminds us that God cannot be reduced to the level of human definition.

God revealed Himself to Moses as “I AM.” God is Presence. As the incarnation of God, Jesus is greater than any human attempt to define God. Most religious people want a very small, narrow and easily understandable deity. Jesus is not that deity.

Jesus is the infinite and eternal love of God present to us.

C.S. Lewis used the image of a lion to help people understand Jesus. In his series of books, “The Chronicles of Narnia” the people of Narnia explain that the Lord of their land is named Aslan. Aslan is a lion. The children who visit Narnia are horrified to discover this. They ask: “ is he a tame lion?”. The people reply, “Oh no. He is not tame. But he is good.”

Jesus is not tame. He is not ours to define and he is not ours to control. He is the real presence of God in our midst.

Jesus offers conversion to people enslaved by sin. He does not offer condemnation.

Jesus identifies the redemptive plan and purpose of God in the life of the man born blind. This man’s blindness is not a punishment for sin. It is an invitation of grace to bring grace to a lost and sinful world.

What the people of the time see in the categories of condemnation and punishment, Jesus reveals to be a manifestation of redeeming grace.

God chose this particular blind man to reveal the Glory of Divine Love to a world that had created a wrathful god of judgment.

Where the disciples saw sin Jesus saw grace. And because Jesus saw grace he was able to use the grace to effect the healing. The healing bore witness to the reality of God in Christ.

Not surprisingly, the religious authorities condemn Jesus for healing the man. Jesus is not the image of God they have created. Jesus is not the god they worship. Jesus is not tame. He is not theirs to control. He does not stay within the lines of accepted religious practice.

If there were a theme to the religion of the first century it might be: “your god is too small.”

Jesus did not come into the world to bring a political or economic revolution. He did come to bring a spiritual revolution. As the Real Presence of God with us, Jesus challenges our limited definitions of who God is and how God works.

Jesus offers this challenge in the context of holiness and love.

Jesus is the Good News that God is with us and God is for us. What people see and use to bring division, confrontation and conflict Jesus transforms by divine love to bring grace.

The disciples were lost in the language of shame and blame. They were enslaved by the idolatry of rigid inflexible forms of religion. They saw only condemnation in God. They felt entitled to practice condemnation in God’s name.

The way of condemnation is the way of pride that perpetuates separation and leads to death.

The way of grace is the way of unconditional love that heals separation and leads to eternal life. That way is Jesus.

 

 

Lent III

Lent III (John 4:5-42) “The hour comes and now is…”

God the Father sent God the Son into the world to seek and find the lost. As we see in this account of the Samaritan woman at the well, the lost don’t want to be found.

There are three basic relationships that define our lives. Each of those relationships is distorted by original sin- the choice our species made (and continues to make) to separate from God. As we separate from God we separate from each other. And we separate the elements and aspects of our own souls from their original unity.

The apostle John relates the story of the woman at the well to help us understand these distortions. John also presents Jesus as the solution to these distortions and their underlying cause.

The first distortion Jesus helps the woman identify is the fragmentation of her personal identity. He asks for a drink of water then leads the woman from the realm of physical thirst to recognize the reality of spiritual thirst. That spiritual thirst is part of the existential pain all human beings live with. It is a result of original separation. We all attempt to cope with that pain in many different ways. Our main coping mechanism is denial. We divert our awareness of this pain with pleasure, addictions, work or lethargy. We defend ourselves from this pain through the categories of shame and blame.

The first step in reunification is the recognition that we are lost. We must recognize there is an emptiness in our souls. That emptiness is creating both spiritual pain and spiritual longing. The woman moved very quickly into the awareness of her thirst for something more fulfilling. Her response to Jesus demonstrated she was ready for the next step.

The next step is to recognize how separation produces distortions in our interpersonal relationships. These distortions exist in all of us. It is these distortions that produce actual sin (transgressions). For some of us this sin affects the mind with arrogance and pride. We believe we know best. We adopt a condescending attitude towards other people that produces a demand. This demand can’t even perceive how it subverts and breaks human relationships.  As a sin of intellect it defends itself with invincible ignorance. It cannot accept the basic apostolic teaching about knowledge: now we know in part.

For others of us this sin affects the will. We want what want and we want it now. We don’t care how our demand affects other people. We hold an attitude of entitlement that simply states: my will be done.

The woman at the well experienced a form of sin that lodged in the heart. She lived her life with a profound distortion of marriage.

Jesus perceived this in her. No one had to tell him. He did not use any divine power to discern this. He simply observed her demeanor and paid attention to her. Jesus was fully present to the woman in a way we are never fully present to each other. In that real presence Jesus discerned her general spiritual pain and the specific way she chose to defend against that pain.

Notice, that Jesus is honest but not condemning. The woman knows that her behavior is wrong. The real presence of Jesus clarifies for her that her behavior is a distortion of divine law. She attempts to change the subject at that moment. Remember she is lost and does not want to be found. She is a sinner who does not want to repent. She feels the pain of separation and sin. She fears the solution. Jesus is the solution. Jesus is just too present and too real for her as he can be too real and too present for us if we are paying attention to him.

The woman shifts the discussion to matters of religion. Has that ever happened to you? Have you ever adopted that tactic? It is a no win scenario for human interaction. People argue about religion all of the time. We even fight and kill each other over religion. Like the woman, we can divert a serious and potentially life changing discussion about our sin into an exercise of futile debate. Jesus accepts the challenge and transforms the conversation.

In an effort to evade being found the woman raises the very issue that keeps her lost. In an effort to avoid conversion of life, the woman gives Jesus the opening to reach her at the deepest most profound level of her being.

The woman raises the cultural issue of worship. She expects a discussion, a debate and a futile no win religious dispute. She gets something very different. She gets God incarnate. She discovers that the very essence of worship is not religions opinion or cultural experience but the real presence of God. She discovers what all people discover. Worship is the highest form of love we can experience. Worship is the meaning and purpose of life.

In that context of real presence and divine love, Jesus reveals to the woman that he is the Christ, the Messiah, the anointed of God. It is an amazing revelation. It is grace that produces faith. The result of this personal interaction and conversation is conversion. The woman discovers her pain is really a thirst for God. She discovers her sin is really a distorted defense against that thirst. She discovers God is not just a cultural religious category. She discovers Jesus.

Jesus is the personal real presence of God. Jesus is the love of God incarnate, up front and personal.

The hour of salvation came to the woman as she went to the well to draw water. The hour of salvation for us is now. Jesus said: the hour comes and now is when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him.

 

 

 

Lent 2

Lent II (John 3:1-17) “For God so loved the world…”

God is love.

Jesus is the Beloved Son of God. The Son came to Earth to save, not to condemn. If you are looking for a god of wrathful condemnation then the Christian Faith is not for you. If you practice condemnation then you are not following Christ.

The prophet Isaiah said of the Christ, the Messiah, a bruised reed he will not break and a dimly burning wick he will not break. Sadly, many people who claim the name of Christ see a bruised reed as an invitation to attack and condemn. Others see the dimly burning wick as the invitation to criticize, bully and intimidate. This is not the Way of Christ.

The Way of Christ infuses the soul with a growing love for God that produces the result of kindness and compassion for other people. The Way of Christ crafts a soul that seeks the guidance of the Holy Spirit to correct its own faults. The Way of separation crafts a soul to seek to correct what it perceives to be the faults of others.

Jesus came to save. His name means savior. He saves us from the original choice our species made to separate from God. He saves us from our tendency to berate and belittle each other. He save us from forming our souls in the paths of pride, arrogance and the will to power.

During this Lent, Jesus sends the Holy Spirit to convict us of where we form our souls in the pride of condemnation. He invites us to surrender that pride to the Holy Spirit to be transformed in the love of God the Father. That love is the Real Presence of the One God in our midst.

People fail to see God through a deficit of love. People fail to experience God through a surfeit of arrogance. The solution to fear, anxiety, frustration and depression is not to blame and condemn other people for our own emotional reactions. The solution is to enter into the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the blessed sacrament of Divine Love at the altar of sacrifice.

Jesus calls us to sacrifice our demand to be right. Jesus asks us to sacrifice our sense of entitlement to condemn other people.

The basis for how we experience the reality of God is how we treat each other. The beloved apostle John wrote: how can we say we love God if we do not love each other. If we bring forth from our souls condemnation we form our souls in condemnation. We miss the grace. We miss the compassion.

Jesus asks us to embrace the transforming grace of his sacred heart. Surrender condemnation, pride and the demand of self-will. Allow the Holy Spirit to immerse your soul in kindness and compassion.

For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn. He sent His Son into the world to reunite us to the eternal life of the Triune God who is love.

 

Lent I

Lent I (Matthew 4:1-11) “It is written”.

Jesus responded to temptation by quoting scripture.

Satan initiated temptation  by raising doubt. Satan also intensified temptation by misquoting scripture.

Only one person knew scripture almost as well as Jesus. That one person was (and continues to be) Satan. Satan has the knowledge but rejects the understanding.

Certainly, in Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness we see the pattern of temptation for ourselves. Jesus entered the desert to fast and pray before he began his public ministry. Jesus moved from the height of spiritual experience in his baptism immediately into the rigors of spiritual discipline in the desert, through the intensity of Satanic temptation and then into the comfort and strength of ministering angels. This is a pattern.

There are three portals of temptation for human beings: the mind, the heart and the will. There are three channels of temptation for human beings: the world (culture) the flesh (human desires) and the devil (Satan.) There is only one defense against temptation: love.

That love is divine love. It is the very essence of divinity and so it forms the foundation for who Jesus is. Jesus demonstrates for us that divine love is grounded in truth. Temptation always is a distortion of truth and a subversion of truth.

In the three temptations Jesus met we see the pattern of temptation.

The first temptation is the temptation of the flesh. It comes at a moment of physical weakness after Jesus fasted. Fasting has its benefits only in the context of the inward and spiritual grace of divine love. If you fast ( and I hope you will) dedicate the time of abstinence to God. Ask the Father to strengthen you in the love of the Son by the indwelling real presence of the Holy Spirit.

The temptation channel of the flesh appeals to the desire to meet legitimate needs by inappropriate and ultimately self-destructive means. It is the temptation to focus on short term benefits and ignore long term consequences. It can be summarized in the cynical statement: the ends justify the means.

Jesus meets the temptation by quoting scripture.

The next temptation is the temptation of the world culture. More specifically, it is the temptation to become the Messiah the people were looking for. That Messiah would manifest power.

In this temptation, Satan adjusts to Jesus’ prior defense by meeting him where he is. Jesus quotes scripture so Satan quotes scripture. Jesus quotes scripture from the context of divine love. Satan quotes scripture from the place of pride and deceit.

It is important for us to memorize scripture. It is vitally important we memorize scripture in the context of Divine Love in union with the Beloved, Jesus Christ. Otherwise, Satan will use Scripture to confuse us.

The temptation of culture is always to take the short cut of power. Such a short cut seems reasonable. Is seems desirable, It even feels good.  It never works. And for Jesus, who voluntarily surrendered his divine prerogatives – including his power- it would have subverted the Plan of Salvation for short term political and military gains. It is important to note that the temptation of political power can and often does misuse scripture in our society.

The third temptation is the most profound. It reaches into the deepest level of our souls. It is the temptation that distorts and subverts worship. It is the reason Lucifer became Satan. And since worship is the highest form of love, this temptation is a distortion and corruption of love.

Satan formed the temptation for Jesus to distort love in the same manner he presented the temptation to the angels in heaven. Once again, Jesus shows us the way to resist this temptation by quoting scripture in the context of Divine love.

All of us will from time to time experience the temptations of the world (culture) and the flesh (desire) in much the same way Jesus did. Few, if any of us, will experience the third temptation in the same manner. All of us experience the underlying principle of this third temptation.

The temptation to subvert worship is the key to Satan’s plan of damnation for humanity. Satan’s first priority is to convince people that worship is merely an option of culture. His ultimate goal is to replace the worship of God with the worship of self.  This plan has two aspects. The most blatant is to convince people to abandon worship altogether. The more subtle is to convince people to argue and fight over the details of worship. The underlying voice that Satan seeks to cultivate in our souls is: “my will be done.”

Worship is also the key to implement Our Heavenly Father’s Plan of Salvation in Jesus Christ. Worship at God’s time in God’s way with God’s people shifts our focus from self-will to Divine Will in the unconditional universal love of Jesus Christ. The voice in our soul that Jesus seeks to cultivate is always: Heavenly Father, not my will but Thy will be done.

Temptation is a threefold attack on the meaning and purpose of life. Temptation uses pride and pleasure to subvert and to corrupt the original blessings of virtue God placed in our souls. We can only discern temptation and respond to temptation by readying, studying and memorizing scripture in union with Divine Love in Jesus Christ.

The Way of Salvation is the Way of Life. The Way of Life in this Church Age manifests at the altar of sacrificial love in the Real Presence of sacramental love. So it is written. So shall it be. Now and forever. World without end. Amen.

 

 

 

 

 

Ash Wednesday

Ash Wednesday 2014   (Matthew 6:1-6; 16-21)

“Lay not up for yourselves treasures on Earth…”

What do you treasure? What do you value?

During Lent, Our Heavenly Father invites all of us to consider this question. The Father sends the Holy Spirit to help us. The Holy Spirit directs our attention to the Son to form both the question and the answer.

One way to identify your treasure is by examining your priorities. Where do you place your time and attention? How do you respond or react to God’s priorities.

For example, Moses, the prophets and Jesus never condemn the rich for being rich. They do remind the wealthy that with money comes responsibility. In the long history of the Bible, most people most of the time did not think or act from the place of responsibility. They insisted on their individual right to assert their self-will in how they used their money, power and time.

The prophets teach something different. The prophets teach that the power to reject God’s standards, principles and priority does not confer a right. And, it does immerse the soul in rebellion, sin and death.

Jesus came to save us from rebellion, sin and death. He came to save us from the prideful assertion that the individual has the right to from his own values and set his own priorities.Jesus is the example of a life lived by the prayer: Heavenly Father, not my will but Thy will be done.

More than just an example, Jesus is the eternal pattern of love by which God the Father created us in the power of God the Holy Spirit.

God revealed the very essence of this pattern to Moses. God called the prophets to proclaim this pattern, God the Father sent God the Son to restore this pattern to each of us.

The Holy Spirit encourages us, advises us and helps us to make a responsible choice to reset our lives according to the pattern of love in Jesus Christ.

How you do this is less important than taking the first step to do this. Lent is the time in the Liturgical year to make that first step, or for some: the next step. Whatever discipline you choose to keep a holy Lent under the guidance of the Holy Spirit is indeed your choice. Fasting, prayer, Bible study, confession are all elements of keeping a holy Lent. They are instrumental for one great purpose.  That one great purpose is to restore the pattern of divine love to our souls.

Jesus invites us to accomplish that purpose by examining our values. What do you treasure in your life? Where do you direct your time and attention? How do those choices measure up against the original pattern of humanity as revealed in the life and teachings and real presence of Jesus Christ?