Pentcost 3

Pentecost 3 (Mathew 10:40-42)  “Whoever welcomes me welcomes the One who sent me.”

Hospitality was a fundamental virtue in the ancient world.

People did not always observe the sacred obligation of hospitality. But, everyone understood that it was a divine value and expectation.

Moses writes: welcome the stranger, for you were a stranger in the land of Egypt. Jesus states: whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me.

Jesus expands this teaching by saying: how you treat the least among you is how you treat me.

Hospitality, along with the other ancient virtues such as piety, charity  and reverence, holds little value for modern people. Even in the church people in the United States argue over who we should welcome and who we should exclude, who are the righteous and who are the unrighteous, who deserves God’s grace and who does not.

Ancient people understood that from time to time the realm of the divine tests the world of humanity. From time to time God sends angels in disguise to test the mettle of man.

These angels appear in the least expected form, as Jesus Himself came in the least expected way. Jesus clarifies for us that how we treat those whom our society rejects is no different from the angelic test of the ancient world.

From time to time, God the Holy Spirit brings into the church people to remind the church that God is love. That love is universal and unconditional.

Grace is God’s unmerited favor towards us. None of us deserves God’s grace. None of us can earn God’s grace. Grace is an active dynamic expression of universal and unconditional love.

Salvation is a personal relationship with God in Jesus Christ. The apostle Peter learned the hard way that the sole qualification for salvation is faith. St. Peter once said: if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your hearts that God raised him from the dead you will be saved.

St. Paul writes; you are saved by grace and not of works lest any one should boast.

We are saved from separation. We are saved into a series of personal relationships. We are saved by the Father for the Son in the Holy Spirit.

Law based religion is fear based religion. The Law has its place as a tutor. The Law cannot save. No one is saved by the Law. People who use religion to judge, condemn and exclude live with the fear that God will punish them if they fail to punish sinners.

Their god is too small. Jesus is the incarnation of infinite and eternal love. God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world but that the world through him might be saved. God’s gift of salvation in Jesus Christ is universal and unconditional. Salvation is for everyone because salvation is a new life in Christ.

How we live that new life that our Heavenly Father gives us in the Son depends on our response to the ministry of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the one who reveals to us where we have distorted virtue into sin. The Holy Spirit assists us to transform sin back into virtue.

The greatest distortion is pride. Pride is a distortion of the original virtue of humility. Humility is essential for kindness and compassion. It is pride that led the religious and political authorities of the first century to kill Jesus. It was pride morphing into its dark aspect of despair that led Judas to kill himself, Peter to deny Jesus, and most of the others to run away in fear.

The gateway to salvation is the Triune love of God manifesting in our lives through Jesus Christ. The key to sanctification, which is the life long process of transforming sin back into its original virtue, is humility.

There is only one Lord, Jesus Christ.  How we receive him into our lives reveals more about what we believe than any statement we might make. How we treat other people God the Holy Spirit brings into our lives reveals how we choose (or if we choose) to live the new life of divine love and compassion Jesus offers us through the Holy Spirit.

The apostle John wrote: God is love and he who loves is born of God. By this do we know that we are of God, that we have love for one another.

Our Heavenly Father created us to manifest and enjoy infinite and eternal love. Our Lord Jesus Christ redeemed us from separation, sin and death to manifest and enjoy a new life. God the Holy Spirit is sanctifying our souls so that we might enter into a new way of living.

The triad of sin that subverts divine love in our souls is fear, self-will and pride. The triad of virtue that transforms our soul is faith, hope and charity. The agent of transformation is the indwelling real presence of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus is the co-eternal Beloved of the Father. Whoever welcomes Jesus for who he is welcomes the Father who sent him. The reward is the new way of living an abundant life of joy by grace through faith.

Corpus Christi 2014

Corpus Christi 2014 (John 6:47-58)

“Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you.”

Jesus is the incarnation of life itself.

The co-eternal Son of the Father is the pattern of life, the source of life and the fountain of life. There can be no life in this universe, our planet or in us individually apart from the source of life.

Our Heavenly Father delights to create life by the power of the Holy Spirit according to the pattern of the Son. That pattern is universal, unconditional love.

The Plan of Salvation is abundant life. The Plan of Salvation is not judgment, condemnation or exclusion. As the universal unconditional love of God in human flesh, Jesus invites all people everywhere to receive abundant life through the sacraments of reunification and transformation.

The sacrament of baptism applies the gift of reunification to our souls. No law or philosophy or spiritual discipline can accomplish this. Reunification is not something you can earn. Neither is it a right you can claim. It is a gift.

The gift of reunification with the Triune God is Jesus offering himself to everyone everywhere. Nothing you do can qualify you for this gift. Nothing you do can disqualify you for this gift. The gift is universal and unconditional. The gift is Jesus.

Personal transformation is also a gift. It is the gift of the sacrament of Holy Communion. It is the very life of the co-eternal incarnate Son.

At the altar of sacrificial love, God the Father sends God the Holy Spirit to transform ordinary bread and wine, the staples of life in the ancient Mediterranean world, into the very life substance and life blood of the co-eternal incarnate Son, Jesus Christ.

Jesus makes this very clear to his disciples. He emphasizes the teaching in the words: “very truly I tell you”. This is the introduction that says to the disciples and to us: pay attention. Listen carefully. This is important.

This is the most important teaching you can hear. “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you.”

We are created beings. We derive life from the Creator. We are relational beings. We participate in life as we participate in the series of relationships the Triune God created for. Moses and the prophets declare that we as a species chose to separate from God. We chose to separate from the very source of life and the very pattern of life. Apart from God we have no life. We have a temporary material existence. That existence is passing away.

Jesus offers to restore the original life God designed for us. That life originally was a gift. That life still is a gift. The gift comes from God the Father through God the Son by the indwelling and transforming Presence of God the Holy Spirit.

The gift of life for our fallen and rebellious species is the Real Presence of the co-eternal Son in the blessed sacrament of Holy Communion.

Very few people value this gift. This should not be a surprise. A species lost in separation and rebellion values pride, self- will and dominance. We do not value the Real Presence of God with us.

That is why nearly everyone who knew Jesus either rejected him or abandoned him. That is why the religious and political authorities of the First Century not only executed Jesus but had the power to execute him. That power is the active rebellion or passive indifference of our species to the gift of God in Jesus Christ.

Despite our rebellion and indifference, indeed because of it, Jesus came to overcome it. He overcomes it by accepting it, enduring it, suffering the consequences of it and transforming rebellion and indifference back into life by the real presence of uncreated love.

Jesus does not authorize his followers to impose salvation on anyone. He asks us to continually offer the gift of salvation by grace through faith in love.

Whether people receive him or not, Jesus offers himself to us here at the altar of sacrifice.

Whether people believe in him or not, Jesus makes himself available to us here at the altar of sacrifice.

Jesus is constant in his universal unconditional love for us.

Jesus is the pattern of the Seventh Day of Real Presence in the sacrament of real presence.

The teaching of real presence is the invitation to move from mere existence into the way of abundant life.

The teaching of real presence is not just a doctrine for people to debate, it is a personal relationship for people to experience.

The scriptures offer the invitation to eternal life in the words: taste and see that the Lord is good. Jesus teaches with full assurance, infinite patience and limitless compassion:

“Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you.”

The Holy Spirit appeals to us: Choose Jesus. Choose life.

Trinity Sunday 2014

Trinity Sunday 2014 (Matthew 28:16-20)

“Baptize in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”

The one God eternally manifests Himself as three persons. The Trinity is key to understanding that God is real, God is personal, God is love, God is Jesus Christ.

Recently, a college student was telling me that he took a world religions class. The teacher was having a difficult time explaining the Trinity. The students were even more confused.

This should be no surprise. It is impossible to understand the Trinity solely in the categories of rational analytical thought. The Trinity is not a mathematical formula. The Trinity is a living personal reality we can experience.

By definition, God is infinite and eternal. We are neither. We live and move and have our being in a universe of matter, energy, time and space. We experience our world in terms of duality (either or), cause and effect, and consequence. None of these things affect God and none of these things define God.

The revelation of the Trinity is woven together with the reality of Jesus Christ. That is why the sole statement of faith for the universal church, the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, is the Nicene Creed. And, the Nicene Creed almost exclusively focuses on the incarnation and the Trinity.

The language of math and science fall short when describing the infinite and eternal. We need the language of relationship, music, poetry, art.

Jesus tells us that the Father sent him into the world to save the world from the consequences of one original choice. Lest we miss the details, Jesus reminds us that the world God created is the world of choice. It is the world of the either or. Because our world is the realm of choice it is also the arena of cause and effect. You make a choice. It excludes all other choices and it produces a result. And, because our world is governed by the principle of cause and effect there are consequences.

Just as there are physical laws that govern the physical universe so there are spiritual laws that govern our lives. Physical laws include such things as gravity, entropy, thermodynamics. Spiritual laws proceed from and work within the context of relationships. The Ten Commandments are good examples of spiritual laws.

In Jesus the infinite and eternal intersect with the limitations of time and space.

Jesus himself embodies the reality that the one God is an active, dynamic and creative community of three persons, The very essence of those three persons is the defining nature of God. God is love.

The three persons of the Trinity are the three persons of love: The Father is the one who loves, the Son is the beloved, the Holy Spirit is the personification of the love they share. That community of love is infinite and eternal. That is another way of saying that love has no beginning, no end, no limitations. That love in universal and unconditional.

Since we are not infinite and eternal, God unified his divinity with our humanity in Jesus Christ. Jesus is God up front and personal. Jesus is God experiencing the universe of choice, cause and effect and consequence. Jesus is infinite and eternal (uncreated) love reaching out to a species lost in separation, pride and self-will.

Jesus saves us from the consequence of our original choice as he works within the laws and principles of our universe. What Jesus does is to reunify humanity with divinity according to the pattern, plan and purpose of creation.

The salvation Jesus offers is profoundly Trinitarian. The essence of the Trinity is relationship.

From time to time people become obsessed with issues. There have always been issues since the Fall. There will always be issues until Jesus returns. Jesus is not indifferent to these issues. He is more focused on their underlying cause. The underlying cause is separation, fragmentation, division, and distortion. Simply addressing an issue will not solve the underlying problem.

We can relax in grace as we seek to participate in the divine life of the Trinity. We can relax into the Sovereignty of God as we ponder the Great Mystery of the community of eternal love which is God. We can experience greater confidence, courage and peace as we ask the Holy Spirit to transform our desires at the altar of sacrifice.

God is less concerned about where we stand on the issues of our time and culture and more concerned that we stand within the active dynamic transforming reality of the Trinity. We gain greater clarity of thought, purity of heart and singleness of will as we open our souls to the Real Presence of God at the altar of Real Presence.

God the Father designed us according to the pattern of God the Son by the indwelling presence of God the Holy Spirit. God delights in us, in you. God sent Jesus to set us free from sadness, frustration, conflict, guilt and pride. Jesus offers us a new life” Trinitarian life. Jesus offers us a new way of living: Trinitarian living.

The Great Mystery of the Trinity is that God is real, God is personal, God is love, God is Jesus Christ. The greater mystery is that all of us have been created according to this pattern of infinite and eternal love. The greatest mystery is that Jesus today offers us a way to participate in this love here and now.

It starts as we receive the immersion of divine love into the reality of divine love who eternally manifests himself as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Pentecost 2014

Pentecost 2014 John 7:37-39

“Out of a believers heart shall flow rivers of living water.”

Our Heavenly Father designed you to be a fountain of blessing.

On this Pentecost Sunday we remember that God the Father sent God the Holy Spirit to give birth to the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church to facilitate the blessing of God the Son in our lives.

The church is the Body of Christ and the Bride of Christ. While there are institutional aspects to the church in this present age, the church is in its essence organic. The institutional aspects of the church exist solely to facilitate the meaning and purpose of the church.

The meaning of the church is to be the instrumentality of our heavenly Father’s plan of salvation. The purpose of the church is to become the Body of Christ through service to others and the Bride of Christ through worship.

The Holy Spirit did not create a structure with a set of programs. He gave birth to a living, evolving and transforming organism. Jesus gave certain principles to guide the first generation of believers. And, Jesus gave us the Holy Spirit to continue to guide direct and transform us.

As an organic entity the church grows and adapts. The foundation of the Church is the solid rock foundation of Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit infuses the church with blessing through the Bible, the sacraments and the lives of the members of the church.

The gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost is universal and unconditional. The apostles were not worthy of such a gift. It is painfully clear that our Heavenly Father did not create them to be a religious elite. They were broken, sinful and at times stubbornly wilful. They were also the ones who said “yes” to the plan of Salvation in Jesus Christ.

In the beginning, God the Father sent God the Holy Spirit into the world to help us grow in the knowledge and love of God the Son. It was the pre incarnate Son of God who walked with Adam and Eve in Eden.

After our first parents chose to separate from God, the Father withdrew the Son from this planet. He designated the Holy Spirit to work with a single family to prepare for the Son’s return.

Under the Old Covenant, the Holy Spirit selectively infused grace into the souls of a few individual individuals to proclaim the Good News of the Son’s return. At Pentecost, the Son (Jesus Christ) directed the Holy Spirit to indwell all who placed their faith and trust in him.

Pentecost is the universal unconditional gift of the Holy Spirit to all people everywhere as Jesus, the Son, is the universal unconditional love of God for all people everywhere.

The Father never imposes this gift. But, the gift is universally available to everyone.

There are no God appointed religious elites in the Church or in the world.  Everyone who receives the gift of baptism becomes a temple of the Holy Spirit. Collectively, we are the Body of Christ, the extension of the incarnation in our time and to our culture. The Holy Spirit always encourages us and equips us to do one specific task in our lives. That one specific task is to become a font of blessing to everyone we know and everyone we meet.

There are three aspects to this task: repentance, conversion and transformation.  Over the course of our lives the Holy Spirit convicts us of areas in our lives that are in distortion. As we begin to perceive these distortions from the perspective of God Himself, the Holy Spirit assists us to acknowledge the distortions through repentance, to change the distortion through the process of conversion and to embrace the path of personal transformation.

Repentance, conversion and transformation are all aspects of the process of sanctification. None of us are ever perfect. All of us are called to grow in grace. In this process of growth, the Holy Spirit is our mentor, teacher, helper and guide. He also co-ordinates a unique ministry team to assist us.

The ministry team involves saints from the Church Triumphant who may inspire us, souls from the Church Expectant who intercede for us, and other members of the Church Militant here on Earth who help us. The ministry team also includes our guardian angel and other angels who assist them from time to time.

The great and wonderful goal of sanctification is to purify our souls so that we may be the font of a river of blessings.

Are you a river of blessing?

Are you a stream or a trickle or a slow intermittent drip?

The choice is always ours. The Way of Blessing is the Way of active dynamic and expansive joy.

God did not design us for fear, frustration or sadness. God designed us to be active participants in the interior life of Triune love- a love that is both infinite and eternal.

That blessing is a gift. As with the Body of Christ itself it is organic. Like the mustard seed it starts small. As with any life form it must grow slowly and incrementally. You can’t skip a step in sanctification. That is why the Holy Spirit does not authorize us to exclude any one for any reason when we think they do not measure up to our expectations or demands.

That is why Jesus himself once commented that a sinner who recognizes his brokenness is closer to the kingdom of heaven than the self- righteous religious elites who judge and condemn.

We are all in process. The principles are universal. The principles are revealed in scripture.  The application is unique. It is unique because it is personal. The Holy Spirit uses the universal Biblical principles to design a very specific path of repentance, conversion and transformation for each of us.

That path always relies on scripture, the sacraments, the intercession of the saints and the sacred tradition of the church. The goal is to form us into the image and likeness of Jesus Christ through worship, helping others, and personal transformation in the way we think, feel and make choices.

What is your next step forward? The tools are there for you to use under the inspiration and guidance of the Holy Spirit. The goal is nothing less than the amazing statement Jesus makes:

“Out of a believers heart shall flow rivers of living water.”