Advent I

Advent I Mark 13:24-37 “Keep awake!”

Most people most of the time sleep walk through life.

The Biblical writers observe that people have a tendency to live by the default values of the surrounding culture. We question little and when we do ask questions we question to challenge not to learn.

The Bible is a book of observations. It is a book written by specific individuals within the context of a community, a tradition, a revelation, and within the context of a personal relationship with God.

The least effective way to understand the Bible is to read it out of context. Curiously enough, the least effective way to live is to live out of context.

In speaking about his second coming, Jesus reminds us of the context for his personal presence on Earth. The context is our Heavenly Father’s Plan of Creation, Salvation and Sanctification.

God the Father created all of us and each of us by the power of the Holy Spirit according to the pattern, plan and purpose of the Son. God created us to live an abundant life in union with infinite and eternal love as the governing principle of our lives. God designed us to live in a personal relationship with Him and with each other.

The choice Adam and Eve made to separate from God is the choice to reject love and abandon relationship as the pattern for our lives. The Biblical writers observe how people are lost in separation and therefore in active rebellion against God and in conflict with each other. The defining principle of separation is death.

Jesus is God’s solution to this problem. Jesus and Jesus alone is the plan of salvation. Jesus unites humanity with divinity to seal the breach our species created. Jesus is the second Adam who resets the original pattern our species broke. The original pattern is steadfast, holy, unconditional and universal love manifesting is a series of personal relationships.

The Holy Spirit now moves throughout the world to accomplish the next part of the Plan of Salvation. This is the Church Age, the Age of Grace, and the Age of the Call to reunification with God, each other, and the original pattern of our individual souls.

This is the age of evangelism. The fundamental purpose for the church is to be the instrumentality of our Heavenly Father’s Plan of Salvation. Everything we do can only succeed as we follow the Plan God set before us in Jesus Christ.

This is the context for understanding the Second Coming. At some point in time, known only to God the Father, He will send Jesus back to this planet. God the Holy Spirit is preparing all of us for that time. Some of us reject Him. Some of us resist Him. Some of us only superficially accept the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

When Jesus commands us to keep awake he is teaching us to pay attention to the work of the Holy Spirit.

Do not be misled by the cynics and the skeptics who reject the Plan of Salvation. Keep awake. Stay focused.

Do not be discouraged by the difficulties we face in this secular age. Keep awake and alert to the real presence of the Holy Spirit speaking to us from the Bible and ministering to us through the sacraments.

Resist the seductions of the surrounding culture. St. Paul actually advises that we flee from the temptation to allow the secular world to redefine our faith by the categories of individual political or philosophical belief. Keep awake and stay loyal to Jesus. He is the author and the subject of our Faith. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you reset your priorities to match God’s priorities. As we do that we experience the blessing of God and the power of God,

Jesus once commented about his miracles that we would do even greater miracles as we live and move and have our being from the place of divine love in accord with God’s priorities. God’s priorities are very simple: Jesus, Others, You. God’s priority for us translates into joy. That joy is worship, compassionate service to others, personal transformation.

Joy is the universal gift of God that the Holy Spirit gives to all. The gift is the pattern of Triune Love. The gift is Jesus. Jesus warns us to pay attention lest we miss it. We miss it by a deliberate choice to remain in separation from God, from each other, from the original pattern of love imprinted on our souls. We participate in the gift as we ask the Holy Spirit to help us fulfill God the Father’s  command in Jesus: stay awake to the real presence of grace here and now and forever.

Thanksgiving 2014

Thanksgiving 2014

Gratitude releases grace.

God’s grace pours forth into the universe and our species unconditionally. Not every person chooses to receive that grace. Not every person who chooses to receive grace actually expresses grace.

Grace is God’s favor, God’s delight and God’s divine presence in our lives.

Giving thanks helps realign our attitudes and actions to the real presence of God.  That real presence is personal and impersonal. The impersonal aspect of God is the very structure of cause and effect that holds the universe together. Did you ever think to give thanks for gravity, light, matter and energy? Did you ever think to give thanks for the sun, the air, the water, the land? Creation is a finely balanced web of inter relationships that makes life possible. It also reveals the pattern of God for those who have the humility to perceive the pattern.

God the Father designed our species to be dependent on Him and interdependent on each other. As the poet priest John Donne wrote: no man is an island. The One God manifests as three co-eternal persons in an active dynamic personal and creative expression of love. We are made in the image of that One God in Three persons. We are designed for relationships. Are you thankful for family, friends and neighbors? Are you thankful for the rich diversity God has created in humanity?

God the Father sent God the Son to become a human being by the power of God the Holy Spirit in union with Holy Mother Mary. Are you thankful for this amazing gift of divine love? Are you thankful Jesus comes to us in the context of a family?

 There is much we could criticize about our world and the history of our species. At least for one day consider the blessings interwoven into the tapestry of Creation. Consider the grace. Life on this planet and in our nation is not perfectly bad. Neither is it perfectly good. It is both.

The Bride of Christ invites us all to live and move and have our being in this world of duality, of the “both/and” from the place of grace. In that grace we can give thanks for so much. In that grace we can hold the blessing, become the blessing and share the blessing with others.

Christ the King Sunday 2014

Christ the King Sunday 2014 (Matthew 25:31-46) “Come!”

Salvation is an active, dynamic, transforming participation in divine love.

Divine love is the eternal creative inter relationship among the three persons of the Trinity. God the Father is the one who loves. God the Son is the beloved of the Father. God the Holy Spirit is the personification of the love that passes between the Father and the Son and holds the relationship of the Trinity as One God in Three Persons.

Jesus offers to lift us into the community of infinite and eternal love. Salvation in Jesus Christ is personal, participatory and powerful.

Jesus is the personal reality of God. He not only tells us about God, he not only shows us things about God, He is God at work in our world, among our species, and in each of our lives. He is the servant king.

This planet and the entirety of our species belong to Jesus Christ. We collectively and individually are the Father’s gift to the Son by the creative activity of the Holy Spirit. Unlike the kings and rules of the nations, Jesus rules from within. He inspires us to change our priorities. He infuses us with grace to transform our desires. He is with us and he is for us in every choice we make. Unlike earthly governments, Jesus does not seek to use law to force us to do anything.

Jesus does not employ rewards and punishments to form our behavior. Jesus does not use shame and blame to manipulate us.

What Jesus does is to invite us to participate in a passionate friendship with him. In the context of that friendship, Jesus infuses the real presence of God the Holy Spirit into our souls. The Holy Spirit offers to help us to transform our thoughts, emotions and will by active power.

The teaching of the final judgment should be heard in this context, the context of a personal transforming relationship with God in Jesus Christ.

As Jesus walks with us in our lives he brings to our attention human need. From the Bible, the Holy Spirit reminds us that whenever Jesus met someone who was hungry he fed them. Whenever Jesus met someone who was sick he healed them. He offered kindness and compassion to everyone. He even prayed to the Father for those who slandered him and killed him.

As followers of Jesus Christ, we are called, equipped and empowered for the triad of Love. The triad of love is worship, service to others, and personal transformation. Jesus instructs us to help others by meeting their physical and spiritual needs. That is why his teaching about the last judgment is intensely personal.

Jesus is very clear that the Plan of Creation is relationship. God sets us each in a family, a community and a society to help each other, to learn from each other and to be transformed by each other. An individual Christian is an oxymoron. We are part of the human community by virtue of the Plan of Creation. And, we are part of the Body of Christ by virtue of the Plan of Salvation. We are called to grow in grace and experience the joy and wonder of grace according to the Plan of Transformation.

Jesus instructed St. Paul to remind us that we are saved (reunified to God) by grace through faith and not of works. Jesus also instructed St James to remind us that faith (as sanctifying grace) without works is dead. What kills faith is rigid, uncompromising inflexible belief. The unifying life giving principle in these two teachings about faith is love. What subverts love is pride.

That love is divine love. It is active, dynamic, creative and transforming. If you are participating in that love, in that salvation, you will experience change. You will experience opportunities to share your faith with other people. And, you will be sensitized to human need for food, shelter, healing and companionship.

If you perceive a lack in that love you only need to ask Jesus to supply more grace. He always offers more love to us than we are willing to receive.

The Way of Salvation is the threefold Way of Love. A refusal to enter into the way of love through worship, service to others and a commitment to personal transformation is a refusal to enter into the personal relationship with the Triune God that our heavenly Father offers us in Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Separation from love is separation from God that results in an eternal separation. Reunification with love is reunification with God in Jesus Christ that opens the way to eternal life.

Jesus shows us the Way through a personal relationship with us. The Holy Spirit provides the power we need to change, to grow and to thrive. Our part is choice. Our responsibility is to cooperate with God by saying yes to the revealed word of God. Our path forward is the path of participation in the life and work of grace Jesus offers us in the word of invitation to love:  Come!

Pentecost 23

Pentecost 23 (Matthew 25:14-30) “Well done…”

Jesus longs to meet us and greet us with the words: well done, thou good and faithful servant. Well done. Enter into my Father’s house. Continue the journey of love, through love and to love.  Rejoice and be glad.

Jesus longs to greet each of us and all of us with these words at the final judgment and in the here and now at the altar of sacrifice. The here and now offers us a glimpse, a foretaste and an actual experience of the hereafter. At the altar of sacrifice our Heavenly Father sends the Holy Spirit from the eternal realm to touch and transform time with the timeless Presence of the co-eternal Son. The reality of worship is the real presence of God with us here and now.

In this parable Jesus reveals to us the real, the ideal and the principle.

The real is the reality of choice. Our Heavenly Father created each of us to reflect one specific aspect of the infinite love of the co-eternal Son. God created you to be a unique image in time and space of the eternal transcendent pattern of the Son. The first best choice you can make is to accept the gift of reunification with the divine in Jesus Christ. The second best choice you can make is to choose to be you.

This may seem self-evident. The Bible records for us how difficult this is. Jesus doesn’t expect you to be perfect. He had a passionate desire for you to be you. In the parable he describes how the master (God) gave gifts to each of his servants (us) according to their ability. God does not expect a musician to be a surgeon. Nor does God judge a computer tech according to the standards of an architect. God designed you to be uniquely and forever you. The question is: which version of you are you choosing to become?

You have the most amazing gift to choose to become who God created you to be. You can employ the various talents you possess to use the gifts God gives you. The major obstacle is the triad of sin. Sin, original sin, is separation from God. That original separation manifests in our souls as the triad of sin: fear, self-will and pride.

The real is the reality of the original blessing of Creation. It is also the reality of original separation. The ideal is the choice we can make to live and move and have our being in union with God by grace through faith. It is the ideal of salvation.

We see in the parable that the faithful servants trusted the master. They were motivated by a desire to use the gifts the master gave them to the fullest of their innate potential. Each had different talents and each produced different results as they applied their unique talents to the gifts.

Grace is God’s gift to us. Some gifts are universal- offered to all people everywhere. Some gifts are unique to a time, a culture or an individual. As we make a real choice to receive the gifts of God by faith we express our trust in the reality of God.

The unfaithful servant tells the master (and us) exactly why he lacks faith. He lives by fear. He does not trust.  Sadly, as he chooses to live by fear he cannot trust. There is a certain spiteful sullen pride in his response to the Master. He not so subtly implies that his fear and lack of performance is all the master’s fault.

Blame is always a component of pride. Blame always says: I am not responsible for my own actions. It is my parents’ fault. It is the fault of the education system, the government, of God. That is why pride subverts faith. Pride says it is all about me. But, none of us is God. None of us can control all events let alone other people. So the voice of pride is the voice of blame.

The unfaithful servant fears the master. He fears failure. In that fear he believes that whatever can go wrong will go wrong. In his pride he blames the master. By an act of spite through self-will he refuses to use his talents and buries the gift. He has chosen to perpetuate separation in the way he lives his life. And, therein lies the principle. Fear diminishes us. Faith expands us.

How we experience our lives in the here and now forms our souls for the way we will experience our life in the hereafter.

Of all of the people in the Bible Jesus is the one who speaks most of the universal unconditional love of God; and, Jesus is the one who speaks the most about the eternal consequences of our choices here and now.

The choice Jesus reveals in the parable is the one real choice we have. It is the choice to live by grace through faith. It is the choice to accept the gift of the Father by the presence of the Holy Spirit. That gift is Jesus.

Jesus sets us free from the power and the pain of Original Separation. Jesus sets us free from slavery to the triad of sin: fear, self-will and pride. Jesus sets us free to be the unique person God created us to become.

The operating principle is choice. The underlying reality that supports that choice is love. That love is Jesus himself reaching out to us, inviting us, giving us gifts, helping us, encouraging us and supporting us. Jesus does this because he loves us with an everlasting, universal and unconditional love.

Because he loves us so much he warns us. It does matter how you choose to cultivate your attitude and actions.  Jesus longs to greet us here at the altar of sacrifice on the Day of Real Presence. He passionately desires for us to come by faith to receive the grace, the gift, of divine love. It is that grace, that gift, that enables us to make the one real choice to follow Jesus and to become uniquely and forever who God created us to be.

It is in that weekly choice that Jesus delights to give us a foretaste of the Heavenly Kingdom as he embraces us with the words: well done thou good and faithful servant. Enter into the infinite and eternal joy of God.

 

Pentecost 22 a

Pentecost 22 (Matthew 25:1-13) “Watch!”

Watch is the imperative to wake up, pay attention, assume personal responsibility for your actions and attitudes.

It is important to remember that a parable is not an allegory. A parable is a story drawn from life experience that helps us to understand spiritual truth. The parable helps to reveal the pattern of truth our Heavenly Father designed into the universe. The parable helps us to discern how the Holy Spirit works within the context of human experience to manifest that pattern in our lives.

It is important for us as 21^st century people living in a secular culture to have some basic knowledge about the marriage customs in Biblical times. The culture then expected everyone to marry. Jesus was an exception to this rule as were the apostles Paul and John. This cultural expectation was grounded in one of the most ancient principles that govern life on this planet. That principle is “populate or perish.”

Marriage was considered too important to society to leave to individual choice based on infatuation or romance. Families arranged marriages when their children were very young. A marriage celebration was a great feast for the entire community. It was carefully planned. The date was set months perhaps even years in advance. Everyone knew the date and the place for the marriage feast.

That is a key point in this parable. All ten bridesmaids had received the invitation. All ten knew the date that the Bridegroom and his friends would walk through the town and summon  the guests to the celebration. All ten knew this event was very important to the life of the community as a whole and for them personally. Only five of the ten took the invitation seriously.

Only five prepared. Only five kept watch on the pre announced day. Note that all ten fell asleep as they waited. But, the five who had prepared were ready when the Bridegroom came.

Now, many modern people miss the meaning in the parable. We feel a certain outrage, perhaps, that the five wise maidens did not share their oil with the five foolish. We find fault with the Bridegroom that he makes no allowance for the maidens who come late to the celebration. We are, if we are honest, outraged that the Bridegroom isn’t more understanding, charitable….Christian.

The point of the parable is that there is an hour of decision. The principle of the parable is the principle of paying attention, preparing and assuming personal responsibility for our lives. The pattern is the interplay of grace and choice.

Although the parable is not an allegory, people at the time understood the oil represented grace. Grace is universal and unconditional. We cannot buy it. We don’t deserve it. We can have as much as we want but we can’t sell it, barter it or even share it with others.

In the preparation the five wise maidens paid attention to the customs of their time. They were alert to the invitation and the appointed day. They prepared by cultivating their attitudes and actions with the goal in mind. The kept watch for the great moment.

The five foolish maidens did not prepare. They did not prepare because they did not value the invitation. Because they did not value the invitation they did not keep watch. They cultivated an attitude and an action of indifference. They weren’t lazy. They just did not care. They were indifferent.

The application to the plan of salvation is the pattern of choice, self- responsibility and consequence. God constantly pours forth grace, divine favor, to all people everywhere. The Great Mystery of the Plan of Salvation is human choice. Some of us pay attention. Some of us don’t. Some of us value what God is offering. Some of us don’t. Some of us prepare to meet Christ, the Bridegroom, by using the grace the Holy Spirit gives us to place Jesus first in our list of priorities. And, some of us don’t.

Salvation is the real presence of the co-eternal Son in our lives. It is a universal unconditional gift to all people everywhere without exception. Jesus once made this point by saying that some criminals and promiscuous people would enter into the Kingdom of Heaven while some upstanding and moral people would not. The key is choice.

The door to heaven which this key fits is Jesus.

Jesus wants all people to accept his Father’s grace and to cultivate the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Jesus is the eternal Bridegroom. Heaven is the marriage feast. As Billy Graham once observed: there are no shot gun weddings in heaven. If you want what God offers you can have it as a gift. But, you can’t buy it. You can’t demand it as a right. And, you can’t borrow it from someone else.

Jesus loves us with an everlasting love. Because he loves us he warns us. It does matter what you choose. It does matter where you place your time and attention. Every choice you make forms your soul. You are the co-creator of your own life in this world and your destiny in the life of the world to come.

The Father sets the pattern according to the Son by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. The pattern is the real presence of divine love. The process unfolds in every choice we make. The Holy Spirit is the Helper who offers to anoint us with the oil of salvation. Jesus offers himself to us as our forever friend. In that offer he reminds to make a real choice to pay attention, take personal responsibility for your attitudes and actions. Above all- observe the chain of cause and effect in your life. Ask the Holy Spirit for help. Hear the call to worship, believe the call to worship, and respond to the call to worship.

Wake up. Pay attention. Make a real choice to live and move and have your being in the real presence of Jesus Christ who encourages us with the imperative; Watch,