Pentecost 23 (Luke 19:1-10) The Son of Man came to seek out and save the lost.
Zacchaeus was lost.
He was lost in crime, in sin, and in separation from God and other people. He was also lost in his wealth. His soul had disintegrated to that place where he was possessed by his possessions.
Jesus came to earth to seek and to find and to restore the lost. He came to Jericho that day for that purpose.
It is unclear if Zacchaeus knew anything about Jesus. As a Chief Tax Collector in Judea, Zacchaeus focused his time and attention on what he valued most: money. Yet, when Jesus entered the city there were many in Jericho who had heard of his reputation as a teacher, a healer, and a miracle worker. Whether they believed in Jesus or not they were curious about him. They wanted to see him.
Zacchaeus heard the commotion. He saw the gathering crowd. He, too was curious. He wanted to see what was going on. Zacchaeus had a problem that prevented him from seeing Jesus. He was short. It is an interesting and almost irrelevant detail in the story.
In the excitement of the moment Zacchaeus was caught up in the press of the crowd to see Jesus. Yet, Zacchaeus was too short to see over the crowd. So, he ran ahead of the crowd and climbed a tree further down the street. He knew Jesus would pass that way. He knew he would be able to see over the crowd. He did not expect Jesus to speak to him personally.
Zaccaheus was a Chief Tax Collector. He was little more than a legalized gangster hired by Rome to collect taxes by any means, People hated him. The religious people would not speak with him.
Jesus spoke with him. Jesus initiated the conversation. I suspect Jesus saw the humor in this short self important self obsessed official sitting in a tree to get a better view of him. Jesus looked at him, saw him, recognized him and then called him by name. Zacchaeus.
The co-eternal Son of God had emptied himself of his omnipotence and omniscient when he became a particular man. He lived life as we live life- one day at a time, moment by moment. Unlike all of us, Jesus never separated from the Father. He lived each moment of life in communion with the Father. Jesus paid attention to other people, the world around him and to his heavenly Father is a way we do not.
Jesus learned the name of this short Chief Tax Collector and he called him by name. He showed him respect even though by the standards of the time he deserved condemnation. But, Jesus had come to Jericho to save the lost. And, Zacchaeus was among the lost.
Jesus paused and saw Zacchaeus for who was and in spite of who Zacchaeus was Jesus had compassion on him. Jesus gives Zacchaeus an invitation: “Come on down, Zacchaeus. Come on down from that tree. Hurry up. Come down now.”
This was Zacchaeus’ moment of grace. It was at an unexpected time under unusual circumstances. It was the moment Jesus saw him, spoke to him and invited him to make a real choice.
Then, Jesus offers Zaccaeus an amazing gift. “I must stay at your house today.” People avoided Zacchaeus. People hated him and would not even speak with him. Jesus asked to come to Zacchaeus’s house and to dine with him. A Pharisee would never think of doing this. A priest would never think of doing this. The religious people of Jesus’ day brought forth condemnation and separation. Jesus came with compassion and reconciliation.
People began to talk. People began to grumble. How can Jesus be so good when he associates with people who are so bad? How can Jesus be a righteous man when he enters the home of the unrighteous? How can Jesus be a religious teacher when he engages the corrupt and immoral people in conversation and fellowship.
The assumption is that the righteous exclude and condemn the unrighteous. The assumption is that the religious reject and ostracize the irreligious. The assumption is that God favors some people and rejects all others. The assumption is wrong.
Jesus is the reality that God accepts all people. Jesus is the perfect mirror to the human soul that reveals all are lost. All are lost and none wish to be found. Yet, Jesus has come to seek the lost, to find the lost and to save the lost.
Zacchaeus experienced salvation that day that Jesus called him by name and came to his house. He experienced what so many religious people who were caught up in their own rules and regulations could not appreciate.
Zacchaeus experienced conversion. He experienced a change of heart and a change of direction. He received a new life and entered into a new way of living. “I give half my wealth to the poor,” he told Jesus.“ I will restore four fold what I have stolen,” he continues.
Before he met Jesus, Zacchaeus lived only for money. He worked to build his wealth. He schemed, lied, cheated and bullied people to increase his wealth. He worshipped only money and his soul was collapsing into the dark abyss of separation from God.
God met Zacchaeus in Jesus Christ. God found Zacchaeus in Jesus Christ. Jesus said, Zaccaheus, I must stay with you today. And, Zacchaeus recognized his moment of grace and said “yes.”
Salvation is not about religion, philosophy or science. Salvation is not about our search for God. Salvation is about God coming to earth in person to seek, find and restore the lost. Salvation is Jesus Christ.
Jesus met Zacchaeus at a very precise moment in time under some very unusual circumstances. The moment of grace is always very precise. The circumstances in that moment are always unusual. In the moment of grace God finds us where we are, accepts us for who we are, and invites us to become more than who we are.
In the moment of grace, Jesus offers us the gift of forgiveness, the gift of reunification with God the Father, the gift of transformation in God the Holy Spirit. Salvation is a gift God the Father offers us in Jesus Christ. It is the gift of a new life and a new way of living. It is God in Christ who seeks the lost who do not want to be seen, who finds the lost who do not want to be found, and who saves the lost who stubbornly insist on going our own way.
The way of salvation is Jesus Christ. It is the way of love and compassion. It is the way of daily transformation. It is the way our Heavenly Father seeks out and saves the lost.
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Pentecost 22
Pentecost 22 (Luke 18:9-14)
“He who exalts himself will be humbled.”
Pride goeth before a fall. Pride is one of the seven deadly sins and is in fact near the root of all sin.
We hear the voice of pride in the parable of the Pharisee and the Publican, the tax collector. According to the standards of the day the Pharisee is the virtuous religious and patriotic man. The tax collector is a traitor to his nation, his religion and to ordinary ethical standards of behavior.
Tax Collectors worked for Rome. They extorted money from ordinary citizens to enrich themselves. They stayed away from the synagogues and the Temple. People hated them. They despised and used the people. They were the bad guys in every morality tale and in every religious parable.
Pharisees would not even peak with Romans. They kept themselves separated from pagans. They worshipped regularly in the Temple, studied the scriptures in the synagogue, and gave money to support the religious institutions of Israel. They were the good guys in the morality tales and religious parables of the time.
Jesus reversed the standard roles assigned to these two people to illustrate a point. The Bible often confounds people by praising those whom the world condemns. It is a way to get people to think outside the box. It is a way to break through layers of cultural expectations and demands to the truth God wants to reveal to people.
Jesus inverted the expected roles of the Pharisee and the Publican in his parable to demonstrate a very precise and important point. That point might be summarized in the statement: the “I”s have it.
The Pharisee begins his prayer with the word “I’. That word defines his prayer. That prayer forms his worship. That worship reveals who he is and who he is choosing to become.
The Pharisee prays, God, I thank you that I am not like other people. And then he lists all the sins and sinners in the world , all of the things he asserts he is not; and, of the things that set him apart from and superior to everyone else. In fact, all of the things he lists are sins. His assessment of these activities is correct.
Next, he lists all of his virtues, good works, and religious observances. I fast. I give. I- me. Once again, the things he is doing are good. The defect is the motive. The motive is revealed in that little word “I” that so dominates his prayer that it leaves no room for God.
For the Pharisee, God is simply the backlighting that reveals the Pharisee’s own stellar spiritual condition. God is simply a rhetorical device the Pharisee can summon to contrast his virtue with the Publican’s vice.
He had so much going for him. He had achieved so much. But, he used it to glorify himself. I. me. His motive was no different than the motive which led the Publican into a life of sin. Me. What’s in it for me. Where the Publican asserted his self indulgent pride by breaking the law, the Pharisee asserted his self indulgent pride by asserting that he had kept the law.
Both men were self absorbed. Both men made choices to assert their will to power to dominate their world. One dominated by sin. The other dominated by an outward display of virtue.
The difference comes when the Publican prays. There is no “I” in his prayer. There is no comparison to others. He doesn’t say: God, I may not be all that good but at least I’m not a Samaritan. Those guys are really disgusting. He doesn’t say that. He simply stands before the living God.
There. In the Divine Presence, God’s holiness reveals the Publican’s many sins and his single virtue. He has one virtue left. Just one. It is enough. The virtue is humility. In the Divine Presence he has the one quality that God seeks from all people. He has the humility to accept the truth.
He is a sinner. He deserves judgment. As he recognizes this aspect of himself he does not try to argue with God. He does not try to blame others. He accepts full responsibility for his sin and simply asks for mercy. God, be merciful to me, a sinner.
The Pharisee stood in the Divine Presence and compared himself to the sinners. His conclusion was: I am here to show you, God. How wonderful I am. I need nothing from you because I have already done it all. So thank you God that I am so righteous and everyone else is so sinful.
Jesus said: it was the Publican who experienced reunification (justification) with God. The Pharisee was simply there to tell God how wonderful he was. His pride would not allow him to admit that he, too, for all of his good deeds, needed to be reunited to God through God’s justifying grace.
This is the core of the Good News. All have sinned. All need to be reunited to God. In Jesus Christ, God has accomplished this reunification and now offers the blessing as a gift. We need only receive the gift to experience the blessing.
It is so straightforward. It is so simple. But, it is not easy. It requires we stop comparing ourselves to others. It requires a shift in our awareness. It requires a transformation in our basic attitude to ourselves, others, the world around us, and God.
Pride is the great obstacle to salvation. Pride inflates the ego. The ego builds itself by comparing itself to others, condemning others and blaming others. The soul which is caught in pride is a soul that is creating its own destruction. Pride has no room for grace. Pride says, I can do it. I know what is best. Religious pride says: I know the best way to practice my religion. My God would never condemn me or anyone for our honest opinions.
Secular pride says: I am fine just the way I am. I don’t need a religious crutch to help me through life. I believe in myself. That is all I need to survive and thrive.
Humility starts when we can say: there is a mystery to life. I can’t figure it all out. I am not the superior individual I thought I was. I am willing to learn. I am even willing to unlearn what I have been taught. I am even willing to listen to the most improbable of stories ever written: the stories about Jesus.
Those who exalt themselves build a false ego based on false assumptions about themselves, other people, even God. These false assumptions are so embedded in our culture that we take them for granted. We take them for granted in much the same way people in Jesus’ time took for granted that the hero of the story should be the righteous Pharisee and the villain the corrupt Tax Collector.
God sees things from a very different perspective. God’s perspective is revealed in part in the Bible. God’s perspective is fully and completely revealed in his only begotten Son, Jesus Christ.
Those who know that they know about God, whether religious or secular- don’t know. They have no room in their minds, hearts or wills to experience the infinite and eternal reality that is God. They have no need of faith. They have knowledge. They are their own God.
Those who think they know about God are a little closer to faith. Whether religious or secular, righteous or sinful, they have some room to consider another possibility. They have the some place where the seed of faith might fall and grow and blossom.
Those who know they don’t know are blessed. They are the ones who stand in the Divine Presence with an attitude of humility. Whether they are religious or secular, righteous or sinful, their prayer is: God be merciful to me . God- be who you are and transform me according to your divine nature.
Those who know they don’t know are those who have entered into the Divine Presence with the necessary and sufficient humility to acknowledge a reality beyond themselves, beyond their false ego, beyond their preconceived ideas about knowledge and power. These are the ones who experience exaltation in the steadfast holy love of the divine nature.
Through pride we fall into the inner recesses of our own egos.
Through humility, we stand before God by grace through faith so that God can lift us up and bless us in the Mystery of Divine Love made flesh and revealed in Jesus Christ.
“He who exalts himself will be humbled.”
Pride goeth before a fall. Pride is one of the seven deadly sins and is in fact near the root of all sin.
We hear the voice of pride in the parable of the Pharisee and the Publican, the tax collector. According to the standards of the day the Pharisee is the virtuous religious and patriotic man. The tax collector is a traitor to his nation, his religion and to ordinary ethical standards of behavior.
Tax Collectors worked for Rome. They extorted money from ordinary citizens to enrich themselves. They stayed away from the synagogues and the Temple. People hated them. They despised and used the people. They were the bad guys in every morality tale and in every religious parable.
Pharisees would not even peak with Romans. They kept themselves separated from pagans. They worshipped regularly in the Temple, studied the scriptures in the synagogue, and gave money to support the religious institutions of Israel. They were the good guys in the morality tales and religious parables of the time.
Jesus reversed the standard roles assigned to these two people to illustrate a point. The Bible often confounds people by praising those whom the world condemns. It is a way to get people to think outside the box. It is a way to break through layers of cultural expectations and demands to the truth God wants to reveal to people.
Jesus inverted the expected roles of the Pharisee and the Publican in his parable to demonstrate a very precise and important point. That point might be summarized in the statement: the “I”s have it.
The Pharisee begins his prayer with the word “I’. That word defines his prayer. That prayer forms his worship. That worship reveals who he is and who he is choosing to become.
The Pharisee prays, God, I thank you that I am not like other people. And then he lists all the sins and sinners in the world , all of the things he asserts he is not; and, of the things that set him apart from and superior to everyone else. In fact, all of the things he lists are sins. His assessment of these activities is correct.
Next, he lists all of his virtues, good works, and religious observances. I fast. I give. I- me. Once again, the things he is doing are good. The defect is the motive. The motive is revealed in that little word “I” that so dominates his prayer that it leaves no room for God.
For the Pharisee, God is simply the backlighting that reveals the Pharisee’s own stellar spiritual condition. God is simply a rhetorical device the Pharisee can summon to contrast his virtue with the Publican’s vice.
He had so much going for him. He had achieved so much. But, he used it to glorify himself. I. me. His motive was no different than the motive which led the Publican into a life of sin. Me. What’s in it for me. Where the Publican asserted his self indulgent pride by breaking the law, the Pharisee asserted his self indulgent pride by asserting that he had kept the law.
Both men were self absorbed. Both men made choices to assert their will to power to dominate their world. One dominated by sin. The other dominated by an outward display of virtue.
The difference comes when the Publican prays. There is no “I” in his prayer. There is no comparison to others. He doesn’t say: God, I may not be all that good but at least I’m not a Samaritan. Those guys are really disgusting. He doesn’t say that. He simply stands before the living God.
There. In the Divine Presence, God’s holiness reveals the Publican’s many sins and his single virtue. He has one virtue left. Just one. It is enough. The virtue is humility. In the Divine Presence he has the one quality that God seeks from all people. He has the humility to accept the truth.
He is a sinner. He deserves judgment. As he recognizes this aspect of himself he does not try to argue with God. He does not try to blame others. He accepts full responsibility for his sin and simply asks for mercy. God, be merciful to me, a sinner.
The Pharisee stood in the Divine Presence and compared himself to the sinners. His conclusion was: I am here to show you, God. How wonderful I am. I need nothing from you because I have already done it all. So thank you God that I am so righteous and everyone else is so sinful.
Jesus said: it was the Publican who experienced reunification (justification) with God. The Pharisee was simply there to tell God how wonderful he was. His pride would not allow him to admit that he, too, for all of his good deeds, needed to be reunited to God through God’s justifying grace.
This is the core of the Good News. All have sinned. All need to be reunited to God. In Jesus Christ, God has accomplished this reunification and now offers the blessing as a gift. We need only receive the gift to experience the blessing.
It is so straightforward. It is so simple. But, it is not easy. It requires we stop comparing ourselves to others. It requires a shift in our awareness. It requires a transformation in our basic attitude to ourselves, others, the world around us, and God.
Pride is the great obstacle to salvation. Pride inflates the ego. The ego builds itself by comparing itself to others, condemning others and blaming others. The soul which is caught in pride is a soul that is creating its own destruction. Pride has no room for grace. Pride says, I can do it. I know what is best. Religious pride says: I know the best way to practice my religion. My God would never condemn me or anyone for our honest opinions.
Secular pride says: I am fine just the way I am. I don’t need a religious crutch to help me through life. I believe in myself. That is all I need to survive and thrive.
Humility starts when we can say: there is a mystery to life. I can’t figure it all out. I am not the superior individual I thought I was. I am willing to learn. I am even willing to unlearn what I have been taught. I am even willing to listen to the most improbable of stories ever written: the stories about Jesus.
Those who exalt themselves build a false ego based on false assumptions about themselves, other people, even God. These false assumptions are so embedded in our culture that we take them for granted. We take them for granted in much the same way people in Jesus’ time took for granted that the hero of the story should be the righteous Pharisee and the villain the corrupt Tax Collector.
God sees things from a very different perspective. God’s perspective is revealed in part in the Bible. God’s perspective is fully and completely revealed in his only begotten Son, Jesus Christ.
Those who know that they know about God, whether religious or secular- don’t know. They have no room in their minds, hearts or wills to experience the infinite and eternal reality that is God. They have no need of faith. They have knowledge. They are their own God.
Those who think they know about God are a little closer to faith. Whether religious or secular, righteous or sinful, they have some room to consider another possibility. They have the some place where the seed of faith might fall and grow and blossom.
Those who know they don’t know are blessed. They are the ones who stand in the Divine Presence with an attitude of humility. Whether they are religious or secular, righteous or sinful, their prayer is: God be merciful to me . God- be who you are and transform me according to your divine nature.
Those who know they don’t know are those who have entered into the Divine Presence with the necessary and sufficient humility to acknowledge a reality beyond themselves, beyond their false ego, beyond their preconceived ideas about knowledge and power. These are the ones who experience exaltation in the steadfast holy love of the divine nature.
Through pride we fall into the inner recesses of our own egos.
Through humility, we stand before God by grace through faith so that God can lift us up and bless us in the Mystery of Divine Love made flesh and revealed in Jesus Christ.
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Pentecost 20
Pentecost 20 (Luke 17:11-19) Where are they?
The question Jesus asked of the ten lepers is very similar to the first question God asked humanity.
That first question is recorded in the book of Genesis. Adam and Eve had chosen separation from God. In that separation they had attempted to hide from God. God asked them: where are you?
Now, God knew where Adam and Eve were and why they were hiding. Jesus also knew where the other nine lepers were and why they had not paused to give thanks. The question helps to reveal the human condition. The long record of Biblical history records an amazing and counter intuitive observation about the human condition.
Human beings have separated from God. In that separation people are lost. Most religions and many philosophies speak of humanity’s search for God. The Bible very uniquely speaks of humanity’s separation from God and our refusal to be found by God.
This, of course, is the reason the co-eternal Son of God became a particular human being at a particular point in time and at a particular place. He came to seek the lost who do not want to be found.
There is an ironic and somewhat cynical statement: no good deed goes unpunished. This statement could describe the life and even more- the death of Jesus Christ. Jesus came into the world with the one single desire to seek the lost and to find the lost. It was the one thing people did not want from God.
People who believed in God wanted all sorts of things from God. They mostly wanted to avoid God’s wrath and obtain God’s favor. Many people divided God according to their wants, desires and demands. And so there was a god of war for soldiers, a god of romance for those who sought romance, and a deity for every possible need or desire.
These deities were simply a superstitious expression of the human will to power. This is the root cause of original sin. God offered love and holiness to humanity. People chose knowledge and power.
God offered himself as a constant and reliable friend. People chose to create substitute deities for ourselves that reflected our fear and our demand. The Bible teaches that people do not seek God. We do not seek God for who he is. We do not value God for who he is. God is unconditional love.
Humanity seeks to define God according to our needs and desires in order to meet our needs and desires. We seek the gifts we believe God can give us. We do not seek or value the giver of the gifts.
Preeminently, people seek to define God in the categories of knowledge and power. We demand that if God is real then he must accept our definition of reality and readjust the universe to our will. We redefine unconditional love as indulgence and insist that if God has love then God must yield to our desires.
The record of scripture is that as soon as the One God revealed Himself through the patriarchs and prophets, people began to redefine God. God revealed himself as a loving father. People told stories of a wrathful judge.
God revealed himself as the bridegroom who seeks the love of his bride. People created a religion of rewards and punishments based on a system of credits and debits.
God revealed himself in the name: I am. People rejected the reality of God whenever they did not receive the material gifts and blessings they valued most. Very crassly worded people tell God: if you give me what I want I will believe in you. If you fail to give me what I want I will not believe in you.
God sent his only begotten son into the world to seek the lost, find the lost, and restore the lost. Most people took the benefits Christ offered but ignored the invitation. They wanted the gifts but not the giver.
The long record of human history from God’s perspective is not humanity’s search for God but rather God’s search for a lost and rebellious humanity, a people who stubbornly refuse to be found.
God calls people into a relationship of faith grounded in love and formed by holiness. People ask: what’s in it for me? Why should I have to adjust my schedule, my priorities my way of living?
God calls across time- where are you? Jesus echoes this call when he asks of the lepers: where are they?
Of the ten, only one- a foreigner who knew nothing of the God of Abraham, Moses and the prophets, only one came to give thanks. Only one thought to glorify God. And only that one received the completion of his healing.
The nine others were still healed of their leprosy. What made their healing incomplete was their lack of faith in the one who healed them. They wanted the healing but not the healer. It is the healer, God himself in the person of Jesus Christ, who completes the healing.
God completes the healing as we receive the gift he offers. The gift is Jesus Christ.
The glory of God is not in the healing or in the miracles Jesus performed. The glory of God is in the relationship that Jesus offers us and makes possible. The relationship is the realty.
Jesus healed those ten lepers of the most horrible and fearful disease known to the people of his time. He told them to present themselves to the priests so the priest could examine them and certify the healing. Only that certification would allow them to return to their families and jobs.
Jesus also waited. He waited patiently for the ten lepers to make a real choice to complete their healing and to enter into wholeness.
Only one, a Samaritan whom the people of Israel despised, made that real choice. Only one of the ten chose to embrace the healer, give thanks to God, and glorify God.
Jesus still waits. He waits for us to come to him who offers himself to us. He waits for us to say: thank you. Thank you for living for me. Thank you for dying for me. Thank you for pouring yourself out to me daily, hourly.
Jesus waits for us to make a real choice to glorify God by receiving the love and the holiness God offers us in a new life and in a new way of living. Jesus is the way. Jesus is the only way to receive and experience this new life and this new way of living.
The new life is a life of wholeness. The new way of living is holiness. Wholeness and holiness are not perfection. We grow. We transform. We learn something new about God, other people, ourselves every day. We unlearn even more.
The Samaritan had to unlearn his fear and hatred of the Jews. He had to unlearn his contempt for the religion of Israel. He had to take a step forward into the understanding that faith is trust in a person not loyalty to an ethnic group, a political system, or a religious structure. The Samaritan had to make a real choice to allow God to be God regardless of everything he had learned to expect of God and to demand from God.
In Jesus Christ, God gives us that opportunity to make that real choice. Let God be God. Let God be the One who is, the “I am” who is eternally self existent as one God in three persons. Let God offer himself to us and find us in the co-eternal Beloved, Jesus Christ.
The Bible teaches that God the Father created all people by the power of God the Holy Spirit to be the beloved companions and friends of God the Son, Jesus Christ.
In Eden, the pre incarnate Son asked humanity: where are you? I am here for you. Why have you chosen to separate from me?
In his public ministry, the incarnate Son asked: where are they? I am standing right here. I am the one who has come to seek you out, to find you, to heal you. Why have you chosen to walk away from me at the very moment of divine grace?
Jesus calls to us and to all the world today: where are you? I am here in the blessed sacrament of the altar. I wait for you. I offer myself to you in the fullness of unconditional love, eternal love, infinite love. I am here for you in your joys and in your sorrows. I will never leave you or forsake you. I will never turn you away.
The Holy Spirit calls to us and to all people and says: come. Come and receive the blessing. Let all who thirst for meaning and purpose come. Let all who are burdened by life come. Let all who yearn to know that they are loved with an everlasting love come.
Jesus says: I am here. I am here for them. Where are they?
The question Jesus asked of the ten lepers is very similar to the first question God asked humanity.
That first question is recorded in the book of Genesis. Adam and Eve had chosen separation from God. In that separation they had attempted to hide from God. God asked them: where are you?
Now, God knew where Adam and Eve were and why they were hiding. Jesus also knew where the other nine lepers were and why they had not paused to give thanks. The question helps to reveal the human condition. The long record of Biblical history records an amazing and counter intuitive observation about the human condition.
Human beings have separated from God. In that separation people are lost. Most religions and many philosophies speak of humanity’s search for God. The Bible very uniquely speaks of humanity’s separation from God and our refusal to be found by God.
This, of course, is the reason the co-eternal Son of God became a particular human being at a particular point in time and at a particular place. He came to seek the lost who do not want to be found.
There is an ironic and somewhat cynical statement: no good deed goes unpunished. This statement could describe the life and even more- the death of Jesus Christ. Jesus came into the world with the one single desire to seek the lost and to find the lost. It was the one thing people did not want from God.
People who believed in God wanted all sorts of things from God. They mostly wanted to avoid God’s wrath and obtain God’s favor. Many people divided God according to their wants, desires and demands. And so there was a god of war for soldiers, a god of romance for those who sought romance, and a deity for every possible need or desire.
These deities were simply a superstitious expression of the human will to power. This is the root cause of original sin. God offered love and holiness to humanity. People chose knowledge and power.
God offered himself as a constant and reliable friend. People chose to create substitute deities for ourselves that reflected our fear and our demand. The Bible teaches that people do not seek God. We do not seek God for who he is. We do not value God for who he is. God is unconditional love.
Humanity seeks to define God according to our needs and desires in order to meet our needs and desires. We seek the gifts we believe God can give us. We do not seek or value the giver of the gifts.
Preeminently, people seek to define God in the categories of knowledge and power. We demand that if God is real then he must accept our definition of reality and readjust the universe to our will. We redefine unconditional love as indulgence and insist that if God has love then God must yield to our desires.
The record of scripture is that as soon as the One God revealed Himself through the patriarchs and prophets, people began to redefine God. God revealed himself as a loving father. People told stories of a wrathful judge.
God revealed himself as the bridegroom who seeks the love of his bride. People created a religion of rewards and punishments based on a system of credits and debits.
God revealed himself in the name: I am. People rejected the reality of God whenever they did not receive the material gifts and blessings they valued most. Very crassly worded people tell God: if you give me what I want I will believe in you. If you fail to give me what I want I will not believe in you.
God sent his only begotten son into the world to seek the lost, find the lost, and restore the lost. Most people took the benefits Christ offered but ignored the invitation. They wanted the gifts but not the giver.
The long record of human history from God’s perspective is not humanity’s search for God but rather God’s search for a lost and rebellious humanity, a people who stubbornly refuse to be found.
God calls people into a relationship of faith grounded in love and formed by holiness. People ask: what’s in it for me? Why should I have to adjust my schedule, my priorities my way of living?
God calls across time- where are you? Jesus echoes this call when he asks of the lepers: where are they?
Of the ten, only one- a foreigner who knew nothing of the God of Abraham, Moses and the prophets, only one came to give thanks. Only one thought to glorify God. And only that one received the completion of his healing.
The nine others were still healed of their leprosy. What made their healing incomplete was their lack of faith in the one who healed them. They wanted the healing but not the healer. It is the healer, God himself in the person of Jesus Christ, who completes the healing.
God completes the healing as we receive the gift he offers. The gift is Jesus Christ.
The glory of God is not in the healing or in the miracles Jesus performed. The glory of God is in the relationship that Jesus offers us and makes possible. The relationship is the realty.
Jesus healed those ten lepers of the most horrible and fearful disease known to the people of his time. He told them to present themselves to the priests so the priest could examine them and certify the healing. Only that certification would allow them to return to their families and jobs.
Jesus also waited. He waited patiently for the ten lepers to make a real choice to complete their healing and to enter into wholeness.
Only one, a Samaritan whom the people of Israel despised, made that real choice. Only one of the ten chose to embrace the healer, give thanks to God, and glorify God.
Jesus still waits. He waits for us to come to him who offers himself to us. He waits for us to say: thank you. Thank you for living for me. Thank you for dying for me. Thank you for pouring yourself out to me daily, hourly.
Jesus waits for us to make a real choice to glorify God by receiving the love and the holiness God offers us in a new life and in a new way of living. Jesus is the way. Jesus is the only way to receive and experience this new life and this new way of living.
The new life is a life of wholeness. The new way of living is holiness. Wholeness and holiness are not perfection. We grow. We transform. We learn something new about God, other people, ourselves every day. We unlearn even more.
The Samaritan had to unlearn his fear and hatred of the Jews. He had to unlearn his contempt for the religion of Israel. He had to take a step forward into the understanding that faith is trust in a person not loyalty to an ethnic group, a political system, or a religious structure. The Samaritan had to make a real choice to allow God to be God regardless of everything he had learned to expect of God and to demand from God.
In Jesus Christ, God gives us that opportunity to make that real choice. Let God be God. Let God be the One who is, the “I am” who is eternally self existent as one God in three persons. Let God offer himself to us and find us in the co-eternal Beloved, Jesus Christ.
The Bible teaches that God the Father created all people by the power of God the Holy Spirit to be the beloved companions and friends of God the Son, Jesus Christ.
In Eden, the pre incarnate Son asked humanity: where are you? I am here for you. Why have you chosen to separate from me?
In his public ministry, the incarnate Son asked: where are they? I am standing right here. I am the one who has come to seek you out, to find you, to heal you. Why have you chosen to walk away from me at the very moment of divine grace?
Jesus calls to us and to all the world today: where are you? I am here in the blessed sacrament of the altar. I wait for you. I offer myself to you in the fullness of unconditional love, eternal love, infinite love. I am here for you in your joys and in your sorrows. I will never leave you or forsake you. I will never turn you away.
The Holy Spirit calls to us and to all people and says: come. Come and receive the blessing. Let all who thirst for meaning and purpose come. Let all who are burdened by life come. Let all who yearn to know that they are loved with an everlasting love come.
Jesus says: I am here. I am here for them. Where are they?
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