Christmas 2

Christmas 2 (Luke 2:41-52)

“Did you not know…?”

Jesus was, and still is, fully human.

While his conception was miraculous, his gestation and birth were completely normal. He is the incarnation of the co-eternal Word of the Eternal Father. He is the Beloved.

Our Heavenly Father created all of us and each of us to be the forever friends of the Beloved. That is the meaning and purpose of life. That is the meaning and purpose we as a species rejected. Each of us individually lives in separation from God. We are lost in separation. We are not just merely or accidentally lost. We are willfully and spitefully lost.

We are lost and we do not want to be found. We are lost and we seek meaning and purpose everywhere except in the original blessing of the original design of God.

The co-eternal Word of the eternal Father, the Beloved, came to Earth to seek the lost who do not want to be found. He unified his divinity with our humanity in Jesus. Jesus is one person with two natures. In order to achieve his goal of finding us, the Beloved surrendered all of his divine prerogatives. He did this so he could live life exactly as we live life.

He is eternal but when he entered the world of time he experienced time as we experience time- second by second, minute by minute, hour by hour, day by day.

He is infinite but when he entered the world of space he experienced limitation, location, and place.

He became fully human so he could experience exactly what it means to be us and then offer us a new way of being human. It is the Way of the Beloved. It is the way of grace.

Throughout his life, Jesus lived a normal human life. He ate and drank. He slept and worked and played. He worshipped in the synagogue every week on the Sabbath. He worshipped in the Temple in Jerusalem on the appointed festivals. He read and studied and memorized scripture.

The biographies of Jesus, the gospels, mainly focus on his three years of public ministry starting from when he turned 30 years old. We hear a little about his birth. We know his parents fled to Egypt as political refugees. They lived there for seven years then returned to Nazareth.

Then we have this incident when he was 12 years old. He was still a child. He was on the cusp of adolescence. As with any 12 year old he was inquisitive and curious. He apparently delighted in the age appropriate “why” questions.

He became so entranced by the Temple rituals that he remained in the Temple for three days after his family had returned home. He probably just lost track of time. He certainly had perfect trust in his heavenly Father to protect him and to take care of him. The Temple priests probably gave him a place to sleep and food to eat. They were impressed with his insightful questions and more than willing to offer their own insights into the God of Israel and their understanding of religion.

His parents, however, were frantic- as well they might be. In the context of the extended family of the time, Mary just assumed Jesus was with an uncle or a cousin or one of his older step brothers. When Mary and Joseph finally realized Jesus was missing they were horrified. Mary especially knew the prophecies concerning the suffering servant Messiah. She lived with a constant fear and a constant prayer for Jesus’ safety.

When they finally discovered Jesus in the Temple after searching every place else for him they are both relieved and angry. Jesus is curiously amazed at their reaction. It is almost as though he asks- don’t you realize who I am? Don’t you trust God to protect me? But, then he sees things from their perspective. He realizes, oh right. Yes. Of course. This is why I came. This is what it means to be a child. This is what it means to be a Mom and a Dad. This is fear.

Jesus had to learn fear from his parents and his extended family. Jesus never separated from God. Jesus never reacted to life with fear. He responded to life and to other people with faith through love. So, he learned a valuable lesson in much the same way every 12 year old learns. He learned from experience. He learned from observation. He understood through the teachings of Moses that as a 12 year old he needed to honor his mother and his step Father. He probably apologized and assured Mary he would be more mindful and more respectful of her. It was a lesson any 12 year needed to learn. It was especially poignant for Mary who knew that Jesus was the Son of God but did not understand how Jesus was the Son of God.

Having lived life as we live life, Jesus wants to help us live a better life. Jesus wants to help us make wise choices to live a better Way of life. It is the way of faith through love. It is the Way of Original Blessing. It is the Way we cooperate with the Holy Spirit to be the best possible version of our unique personal identity. It is the Jesus Way of Grace.

Holy Innocents

Holy Innocents 2015 (Matthew 2:13-18)

“Flee to Egypt…”

God loves the world; but the world does not love God.

The world is the culture of self-will and pride that our species has created. It is a world of fear that has no room for the co-eternal Beloved of the Eternal Father. Fear casts out love.

So it was that the political power of the age reacted to the fulfillment of prophecy with fear. King Herod ruled by power and might. He could only conceive of God’s Messiah in the same way. He used fear to terrorize and to rule. He also lived by fear- the fear that someone like him but more ruthless and more intelligent might come and destroy him.

Fear kills the soul. It darkens the mind with paranoid suspicions. It so corrupts the heart that it subverts the natural expression of affection and compassion. It both paralyzes action in the ability to change and it impels reaction to a host of imagined threats.

On that night, the angel warned Joseph to flee Israel and to seek refuge in a foreign country- in Egypt.   Even as the holy family fled certain death in Israel King Herod lashed out in a furious rage. He committed a crime so heinous that it is not even recorded in any known account of the history of the time. Only the Biblical writers dared to remember and remind future generations.

Fear kills. First, it kills our own souls. Then it corrupts our mind, heart and will. Finally, it so distorts the image and likeness of God in our own souls that we are capable of justifying crimes of omission and commission in the name of self- defense.

The Holy Spirit made sure this crime was recorded. He also made sure the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church would hold the memory and honor the victims. He asks us today to consider how fear affects us who are of the household of the faith.

Do we follow secular political leaders who use fear to assert their will to power? Do we follow the lost into patterns of reaction and separation?

Or, do we hear the word of God, believe the word of God and ask our Heavenly Father to empower us to follow the Way of Jesus Christ? That way is the way of kindness and compassion, It is a way we can only follow in union with the co-eternal Beloved by the indwelling of the co-eternal Spirit of Holiness.

King Herod exalted religion but rejected holiness. He distorted love through power. He made a choice from the place of fear. The Holy Innocents pray for us in this present time of challenge, in this time of fear, to learn from Herod’s crime so we can make a different choice.

Fear kills. Those who live from the place of fear have no room for the Beloved. They will not welcome him. They will cast him out. They will follow a false messiah who offers a false plan of security grounded in deceit that brings death.

Only Jesus shows us the way. Only Jesus strengthens our will to choose the way. Only Jesus transforms a heart of stone into a heart of courageous compassion. Only Jesus, the co-eternal Beloved of the eternal Father empowers us with the Holy Spirit to make the difficult choice to follow the way of kindness and compassion. Only Jesus is the Way through fear to faith in our Heavenly Father’s Plan of Salvation for all people everywhere.

Christmas 2015

Christmas 2015 (Luke 2:1-14) “In those days….”

Jesus is the assurance that God is real, God is personal, God is love and God is with us.

In those days, in the way way back when Jesus was born, people lived by fear. They were only one crop failure away from starvation. They were only one tax increase removed from poverty. They were only one breath away from death at the hands of religious extremists or government decree.

In those days people were going about their daily lives. They were gathering to pay their taxes. Shepherds were watching over their flocks to protect them from wild beasts and human thieves. Caesar Augustus ruled a vast Empire. A man by the name of Quirinius was the imperial governor of Syria. Luke wrote these words only sixty years after the event. He grounded his account of the birth of Jesus in what was for him and his readers recent history. It would be similar to someone today mentioning that an event took place when Ronald Regan was president.

“In those days” fixes the birth of Jesus at a particular place and time in human history. It is the place, the time and the person who unifies time and eternity, humanity and divinity.

In these days, our day- our present time and place, we question the record. We sentimentalize the story. We miss the meaning in the message. The message is Good News. The Good News is the real presence of God at work in the universe, on our planet, in our species and in our own lives.

The Good News in our day is the infinite and eternal love of God united to our species through a single person. The better news is that God himself has reached out to us and continues to reach out to us in the here and now of our daily lives. The best news is that God is love. Jesus is the love of God manifesting in human flesh. Jesus is the love of God offering himself as the great gift of God to all people everywhere. Jesus is the infinite and eternal love of God entering into this universe of matter, energy, time and space to assure us that God is real and that God is with us.

When Jesus tells his disciples: I am the way, the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father except through me, he is saying: love is the way, the truth and the life; no one can come to God except through love. What is this love? Jesus reveals exactly what this love is. It is kindness, compassion, and civility. It is the Lord of Creation reaching out to a species lost in pride, self-will and fear. It is an infant born in a stable. It is the good shepherd leaving the glory of the eternal realm to seek and find the lost who do not want to be found.

If you want to understand love from God’s perspective then read the stories about Jesus. If you want to experience this love for yourself  then receive the gift of love in Jesus. Simply make a real choice to receive the gift. Simply affirm to God: I receive the gift of divine love you offer me in Jesus. I pledge my life and love and loyalty to the way of divine love. I pledge my life and love and loyalty to Jesus Christ.

Advent IV

Advent IV (Luke 1:39-45) “Blessed are you….”

The blessing of God is the real presence of God.

Someone once said that 90% of success is just showing up. The Biblical writers observe that most people most of the time are sleep walking through life.

Most of us live according to inherited beliefs and habits of behavior. We don’t question. We don’t pay attention. We resist change. We miss the blessing because we have closed our minds and hearts to the abundance God has designed into the universe, our species and indeed into our own souls.

Mary had made a different choice. Mary made a real choice to be present to God. In that choice Mary experienced such a profound blessing that the archangel Gabriel described her as full of grace. Mary’s cousin Elizabeth observed that she was filled with blessing.

What does it mean to be filled with grace? How do we enter into the blessing of God?

God reveals the pattern of blessing in Mary.

Mary set her priorities according to the priorities of God. She made room in her soul for God. She paid attention to the voice of God speaking through Moses and the prophets. She cultivated within her soul a place of silence so she could still the voices of demand and the distortions of fear.

Mary placed first things first as she lived and moved and made choices in her life. She just didn’t profess a belief in the pattern of creation. She embraced the pattern. She immersed her mind, heart and will in the pattern,

The pattern of Creation is the defining nature of God. The pattern of Creation is universal unconditional love. Human beings experience the pattern of love in three sets of personal relationships. Moses and the prophets are very clear on this point. There is no love apart from personal relationships. Love always activates though a choice and produces an action.

Mary’s example of real choice is revealed in a single word: “yes”. Where so many people throughout time and in her own time said no to God Mary said yes.

The primary relationship God designed into our souls in our relationship with the co-eternal Son. We enter into that relationship through worship. For those of you who have chosen to hear the call to worship and have come here today to say yes to the call to worship, you are already 90% on your way to receiving the blessing and to becoming the blessing.

The second set of relationships God designed for us to experience is our relationships with each other. We say “yes” to our Heavenly Father’s Plan of Creation as we cultivate compassion and kindness towards other people. The key to this choice is the question we form in our souls. That question is: how may I help?

The third relationship God designed into our souls is the relationship we have with our true self. There is a false self, a false ego, patterned in pride and self-will. St. Paul calls this false ego the Adamic nature. It is the pattern of separation we as a species chose to define our lives. Our true self is patterned after the image and likeness of the co-eternal Son, The Beloved. It is the Christ nature.

There are two ways you can choose to be you. There is the way of Adam which is the way of separation that produces distortion and death. And, there is the way of Jesus Christ which is the way of reunification, compassion and eternal life.

Mary said yes to our Heavenly Father’s Plan of Creation in the three fold pattern of personal relationships: worship, compassion and personal transformation. In those choices she entered into the divine presence God designed into the universe, our planet  and our species. She showed up for life and she showed up to life.

As she made that real choice to be present to God her soul expanded to receive greater and greater blessings. She made herself ready to become the hagios  theotokos, the holy mother of God,  as she made the myriad of small choices in her daily life.

Archangel Gabriel looked at Mary and exclaimed: Hail Mary, full of grace. St. Elizabeth looked at Mary and said. Blessed are you.

Our Heavenly Father’s Plan of Creation sets the pattern of blessing for us to choose. The Plan of Salvation in Jesus Christ offers the blessing of reunification with the Father as a gift. The Plan of Sanctification in the Holy Spirit is for each of us and all of us to say yes to God as Mary said yes to God.

In that yes you can be filled with grace. In that yes you can receive the blessing and become the blessing so others will look at you and say. Blessed are you.

Advetn III

Advent III (Luke 3:7-18)

“He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.”

Change is never easy.

The prophetic call to repent of sin and prepare for the Messiah to deal with sin is in fact quite challenging. That is why many people who came to John the Baptist, the last of the prophets, came only for the outward and visible sign of baptism. They did not want the inward and spiritual grace.

They wanted to get the credit for being religious and for being righteous. They did not want to make any changes in what they believed or in how they behaved. That is why the prophet John the Baptist warned the crowds in the words: “you brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come.”

God’s wrath is the way lost souls experience God’s Glory. The prophets all had the unenviable and difficult task of reminding people, religious people, that they were lost and needed to be found. The prophets discovered by experience that the lost stay lost through pride. And, the prophets observed that those who remain lost through pride cultivate a will to power to resist any change.

The identifying motto that defines a lost soul is the phrase: “my mind is made up; don’t confuse me with fact.” My mind is made up therefore I will never compromise, never learn anything knew, and never ever allow faith or science to change my mind,.

This is what John the Baptist learned from the prophets of Israel. This is what he observed and experienced as great crowds came to him to receive the outward and visible forms of the baptism of repentance. They came. They made sure everyone saw them. Had there been news reporters at the time they would have been sure to grant interviews. They would have had their pictures taken with John as he baptized people in the river Jordan. They would have added their participation in the event to their religious resume. And, they would have walked away still feeling righteous and superior. They would have walked away unchanged.

John knew this was happening. He also knew that as the last of the prophets he was called by God to be faithful to his task. He issued the invitation to repentance- to make a life transforming change in the direction people followed. He announced the message of preparation for the coming Messiah. And, he knew that he could only lead people so far. Jesus, the Messiah, the co-eternal Beloved of the Father, would have to do the hard part.

It is Jesus and only Jesus who baptizes with the Holy Spirit and with fire. It is Jesus and only Jesus who finds the lost in our pride and self-will and offers us a new life and a new way of living. The new life is his own eternal life. The new way of living is the threefold pattern of love: worship, compassion, and transformation.

Christian Faith is a journey of personal transformation. The Holy Spirit is the Helper who guides us and advises us on that journey. The fire is the fire of sanctification. It is the way Jesus invites us to make the three fold set of personal relationships the Father designed into our species to be our preeminent priorities.

My grandfather used to say: you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink. The prophets can only take us so far. We need Jesus to take us the rest of the way. The prophets can inform us that we are lost. Only Jesus can find us where we are lost. The prophets can warn us that outward compliance to religious forms and rituals produce no lasting result. Jesus and Jesus only can and does walk with us and help us cultivate a hunger and thirst for grace. Jesus and only Jesus recaptures for us the meaning and purpose embedded in the religious forms and rituals.

Grace is God’s inward and spiritual fire that refines the soul. Grace slowly and steadily enables us to surrender our attachments to false beliefs, destructive behaviors and fatal pride. Grace transforms our desires as fire purifies silver and releases it from being embedded in rock.

To the lost, the prophets preach repent and prepare. To the lost, Jesus completes the process with the word: come. Come and be found. Come and be transformed. Come and enter into a journey of faith that begins in a single moment of time and has no end. Come and become the living temples of the Holy Spirit on earth and the beacon of sacred spiritual fire to help others who are lost to be found in Jesus Christ. “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.”