Pentecost 20

Pentecost 20 (Matthew 23:1-12) All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and all who humble themselves will be exalted.
Heaven is humility. Hell is pride.
Heaven is humility because heaven is a personal transforming relationship with Jesus Christ.
Humility is above all else teachable. The soul that seeks to practice humility recognizes that God is love and that love is infinite and eternal. There is always more to learn and more to celebrate. Even St. Paul with all of his knowledge and insight could only say: now we know in part. There are no experts in the kingdom of heaven. There are only students.
Humility helps the soul value Jesus above all other things and people in this world. Humility also assists us in treating other people with kindness and compassion. Humility actively seeks ways to immerse itself in the love and holiness of Jesus Christ through worship, Bible study and prayer. Humility never asks: what is the minimum I must do to get what I want. Humility asks the Holy Spirit for that next step in grace to savor the beauty of holiness.
It is the virtue of humility that enables us to forgive people we think may have sinned against us. And, it is the virtue of humility that empowers us to give other people the benefit of the doubt. The greatest challenge and the greatest joy of humility is to place another person’s interests first. We can do this only as we practice the relationship our Heavenly Father gives us through Jesus Christ. The Christ centered soul can let go of the demand to be right and the demand to impose its will at all times, in all places and over all people.
The religion of Pride is the corruption of humility. It is the defining characteristic of the souls in hell. Pride can be religious or secular. The pride of the religious results in the exaltation of the self. Its voice is: my will be done. It brings forth a demand to other people: do it my way. It stands before God and asserts the right for a reward.
Pride is the collapse of the soul into a tightly compressed set of fears and demands. Pride sets very specific, rigid and inflexible boundaries on what God can do, will do, and must do. It sets the boundaries on other people and even itself. Pride becomes more brittle and self limited as it succeeds.
The worst thing any person can experience is success in pride. Such success exalts the power of original sin. That power is separation. It is present in each of us, in all of us. The extent to which we are unwilling to compromise and practice compassion reflects the degree of dissolution and death we choose to bring into our souls.
My mother used to tell my three brothers and I when we jostled for position in the family or at school: the only thing worse that not getting what you want is getting what you want.
Success in the demand of Pride is failure on the path to Heaven.
The saints understood this very well. They all came to a place in their lives where they recognized the danger of self will, the danger of successfully getting what we want when we want it. The saints understood that the demand of self will is the defining characteristic of a two year old child.
The Pharisees functioned with the consciousness of two year old children. The child wants what he wants and he wants it now. The child is fine when he gets what he wants. He can be charming and even productive. But, don’t cross him. The child has no toleration for frustration or restraint.
The Pharisees looked good on the outside. They had impeccable religious credentials and degrees. They worked hard to gain these credentials. Insofar as they taught the word that God had revealed to Moses they offered understanding to their students. But, they lacked wisdom.
They lacked wisdom because they did not practice the virtue of humility that the Bible says defined Moses. They held the outward and visible signs of the Plan of Salvation but would not and could not practice the inward and spiritual grace.
The more successful the Pharisee in asserting his will to power the more narrow his vision became, and the more fearful his heart. Every soul in Hell is trapped by its own success in bringing forth the demand: my will be done.
Jesus gives us the solution. The solution is humility.
My grandfather often quoted President Coolidge when people challenged him. It is said of President Coolidge that he answered his many critics with the words: you may be right.
St. Paul reminds us: now we know in part.
Since we know in part we can never legitimately say: do it my way. The Pharisees not only believed but trained themselves to know they were always right and everyone else was always wrong. In that knowledge they bought forth arrogance and cultivated pride. They exalted themselves and humiliated other people.
Jesus invited them to reexamined their attitude. They were so close to the solution. They could be so productive in their own way. Only their own success kept them from a personal encounter with the Living God.
The exaltation of the soul through the demand of self will always leads to hell. Only the transforming power of divine love and compassion can rescue us from that path, the path of self-destruction, and restore to us the path of life.
Where do you need to give someone you disagree with the benefit of the doubt? Where are you reacting to life, other people, even God from the consciousness of a two year old child? When was the last time you allowed someone else the luxury of being right? Where are you willing to practice the humility that says to God: not my will but your will be done?
The path to heaven is the way of humility. It is the reality of Jesus’ statement: All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and all who humble themselves will be exalted.

Pentecost 19

Pentecost 19 (Matthew 22:34-46) You shall love.

Love is not just an option- it is an imperative.

The different religious groups in Jesus’ day challenged him on many different points of belief and behavior. The Sadducees did not believe in an afterlife. They challenged Jesus for teaching the resurrection.

Jesus did not debate the merits of theological speculation with the Sadducees. He simply affirmed: God is life. God is the God of life, not death.

The Pharisees believed in the resurrection but only for the righteous. Resurrection was a reward for right belief and right behavior. The Pharisees wanted to know for sure what the minimum requirement was to earn God’s reward and avoid God’s wrath.
And so, after Jesus answers the Sadducees question about the resurrection, the Pharisees ask Jesus to tell them what he thinks is the greatest law. By the context we understand their question proceeds from their assumption that in order to earn the right to be resurrected you must fulfill certain laws. So the question in context becomes: which law is the bottom line requirement for God to reward us with the resurrection?

Jesus answers the question by quoting Moses. The quote is part of the basic creed of Judaism, the Shema. Hear O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is One; and, you shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart, with all of your soul, and with all of your mind. Then, Jesus adds a command from the book of Leviticus: you shall love your neighbor as you love yourself.

Jesus answers the legalistic Pharisees by quoting the Lawgiver, Moses. And, Jesus summarizes the law with a single command: You shall love.
You shall love God, other people and yourself.

You shall love God with all of your heart (you emotions), all of your soul (your personal identity) and all of your mind (your intellect). The imperative to love is different from the lists of dos and don’ts- the “thou shalt” and “thou shalt not”.
It is not something you can do once and then place on your balance sheet to claim a reward. The call to love has no place on the balance sheet of credits and debits, rewards and punishments. We don’t do good works in order to get love and obtain a reward. The love itself, or rather Himself, produces the good works and is Himself the reward.

Love is an ongoing process of transformation of an attitude that produces a set of actions.

Love is a choice.

The source of love, the active dynamic creative power of love, is outside the various biochemical reactions that produce the sentiments of love. The source of love is God. God is love.

Jesus is the incarnate co-eternal Beloved of God the Father. The Holy Spirit is the personal presence of Divine Love in our midst.

The imperative to love is the Father’s call through the presence of the Holy Spirit to embrace the Beloved, Jesus Christ.

Jesus answers the question: “which is the greatest commandment” in the words of Moses. Moses experienced the reality of God in the burning bush and in the ineffable Shekinah Glory of God on Mount Sinai.

God’s revelation to Moses is: I am who I am. God’s command to Moses is: since I am who I am I call you to become who I have created you to be. I call you in love, through love and for love to be the beloved of the co-eternal beloved.

The various laws God revealed to Moses are presented to us to show us that the problem we as a species embody is separation from God. No matter how hard we may try we cannot obey the Law. We, like the legalistic Pharisees, look for the minimum requirement and devote our energy to creating the loop holes to get the maximum credit for the minimum effort. We like the people of Moses’ generation rebel against the law and insist on asserting self- will over Divine will.

The Law convicts us that we need something more. We need something different. We need something more personal and even more intimate. We need Jesus.

Jesus is the co-eternal Beloved in human flesh. He is the original pattern of the Law. He is the ultimate purpose for the Law. He knows the answer to the Pharisees’ question and indeed their deepest longing and most profound fear. He knows this because He himself is the Plan for humanity.

The answer to the questions the Pharisees asked is in the nature of God and the pattern by which God the Father created each of us. The answer is Jesus Christ.
Hear the answer again. You shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart, all of your soul, all of your mind. All means all. It means perfection. That is the standard of the Law, the pattern of the Law and the plan of the Law.

Jesus allows for no minimum. Jesus allows for no loop holes. Love is personal. The subject of love is also the object of love. It is Jesus Himself. Jesus is the particularity of the infinite and eternal love that is God.
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The point is that we cannot keep the law by our own will. We cannot keep the skeleton outline of the Law revealed to Moses in the commandments. We cannot keep the fleshed out fullness of the law made manifest in Jesus Christ.

We can receive the gift Jesus offers us: reunification with God the Father and a new life and a new way of living in the transforming Presence of the Holy Spirit. Jesus is the Father’s invitation to immerse ourselves in the very essence of the Divine. That essence is infinite and eternal love.

For us, Love is an imperative.

The imperative comes from Moses and it comes from the prophets. It comes through the very call to salvation in the word of God made flesh in Jesus Christ. It comes in the call to worship.

Jesus not only issues the call he makes it possible to fulfill the imperative. Jesus is the infinite and eternal love of God reaching out to each of us with the transforming power of love.

Our part is to make a real choice. Our part is to make a choice to surrender self- will to divine will. Our part is to ask Jesus to change the way we think, the way we feel, the way we make choices so we can become the unique person God the Father created us to be.

The resurrection is not a reward. Reunification with God is not a right. They are gifts that come to us as we embrace the One whom God sent into the world to embrace us. We cannot submit to God to earn his love. We can only surrender to the wonderful gift of his love in Jesus Christ.

Jesus not only summarizes the Law in his answer to the Pharisees, he summarizes the plan, pattern and purpose for our existence. You shall love.

Pentecost 18

Pentecost 18 (Matthew 22:15-22)
“Give to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s and to God the things that are God’s.”
Fear limits choice.
Fear narrows and restricts choice to one of three emotional reactions: aggression, submission or withdrawal.
Faith transforms fear into love. That love is infinite and eternal. That love expands choice. That love is Jesus Christ.
The Pharisees feared Jesus. They feared him because they could not understand him. And, they feared him because they would not understand him. They refused to ask open and honest questions that might lead to understanding because they were convinced they had the right knowledge that would produce the right actions that would gain them divine approval and avoid divine wrath.
They lived and moved and expressed their being from within a well developed religious system that gave them what they valued most: power, pride, position, prestige and pleasure. They had invested their time and energy to defend that religious system against all other sects within Judaism and all other religious systems in the wider world.
Jesus never challenged their religion. He did challenge the assumptions and the values that supported their religion.
The Pharisees feared Jesus because they recognized he was speaking to a problem they refused to believe existed. The Pharisees identified the problem in terms of knowledge and power. They narrowed the practice of religion to those categories and produced extensive lists of belief and behavior by which they could justify themselves and condemn everyone else.
The Pharisees knew they were right and everyone else was wrong. They did not need to question their assumptions. They refused to consider any fact that might contradict their ideology.
Jesus spoke and acted from the place of divine love and compassion. That place is the place of personal relationship with the infinite and eternal. That relationship is active, dynamic, expansive and creative.
Strangely enough, the relationship Jesus offers works well within the broad outlines of the religion the various sects of the day claimed to follow. Jesus spent every Sabbath in the synagogue to hear the reading of the Bible. Jesus observed the liturgical form of worship in the Temple in fulfillment of the Law of Moses.
The challenge the Pharisees brought to Jesus reveals the nature of their fear.
First: they did not approach Jesus in person. They sent their disciples, their students. They probably reasoned that the students would appear to be less threatening to Jesus and Jesus would let down his guard. It was what we might call today a passive aggressive attack.
The Pharisees thought in terms of power and dominance. They assumed everyone else, including Jesus thought in the same terms.
In addition to their religious students, the Pharisees sent the Herodians. The Herodians were a political party who favored collaboration with Rome. Normally, the Pharisees would not associate with the Herodians. But, for their plan to trap Jesus to work they had to set aside their contempt for the Herodians and make a temporary alliance. The alliance was based in a very old principle that says: the enemy of my enemy is my friend…for now.
They approach Jesus with a false reverence that uses flattery to set the stage for the trap. They build up his reputation in order to spring the trap.
The trap in the question relies on a very narrow vision of life. Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, to Caesar?
The Pharisees could only see two possible answers to that question: yes or no. If Jesus said yes then the vast majority of people who resented the tax would be angry with Jesus and accuse him of being in collusion with the Herodians. If Jesus said no then the Herodians would report him to the Romans as a revolutionary and Jesus would be arrested for sedition.
It seemed like the perfect trap. It probably would have worked had not Jesus been who he was.
Jesus is the master of the third alternative.
Jesus is very aware of the hypocrisy inherent in law based religion. We miss the more profound religious significance of the question and of Jesus’ answer because we live in a secular culture that prides itself on separation from a religious world view.
The key to understanding this event lies within the first four of the Ten Commandments God revealed to Moses and Moses carved into the stone tablets. There is only one God. Humans are forbidden to make and worship statues that purport to solidify God. Humans are forbidden to blaspheme the Name of God. God has appointed every seventh day to meet us in worship.
Jesus asked to see the coin by which people would pay the tax. Then Jesus asked a question: whose head is imprinted on the coin? Whose title is inscribed on the coin?
The religious leaders of Jerusalem made life difficult for the Romans by their strict allegiance to the first four commandments. Roman soldiers stationed in Judea could not display the symbols of their faith, the images of their guardian deities. The soldiers had to cover up the symbol of the empire, the eagle, on their standards. And, the Romans would not enforce the law that required all citizens and subjects to make a yearly offering of incense to the divinity of the Emperor.
Despite all of these scruples, the Pharisees used the Roman money on which the image of the emperor was imprinted and the divinity of the emperor affirmed. There were some religious sects within Judea that refused to use the Roman coins. They lived in separate isolated communities and did not participate in the economy.
The hypocrisy of the question was in the willingness of the Pharisees to break their own rules concerning idolatry, blasphemy and worship when it came to money. They used Roman money in order to participate in the Roman economy and acquire wealth. They paid their taxes lest the Romans arrest them for tax evasion and treason.
Jesus’ answer to the question redirects the students and the Herodians to consider their values and priorities. For the Pharisees, this question was a trap. For Jesus, this trap was a teaching moment. It was in fact a moment of grace by which Jesus could encourage the listeners to ask a more profound question.
It is obvious the Roman coin belongs to the Emperor of Rome. He issued it and it bears his image and title. What then are the things of God. What bears God’s image and title?
The students were amazed at Jesus’ response but unwilling to enter into their moment of grace. They react to Jesus by withdrawing from him. They asked their question from the place of pride and aggression grounded in fear. And it was from the place of fear that they reacted to Jesus’ answer. They were so close. In fact, they were too close. They did not want to understand Jesus from the place of grace.
They withdrew in order to defend their pride and self-will from the potential for seeing life, other people, Jesus and God from a new perspective. They chose not to consider who Jesus was and what he had to offer.
They knew the first part of Jesus’ teaching: “render unto Caesar” because that is where they had made the necessary compromises of their religious scruples. They refused to consider the second part of Jesus’ teaching: “give to God the things that are God’s.”
What are the things that are God’s? The answer to that question lies in the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus not only teaches but lives the reality God revealed to Moses. God created human beings in his image and likeness.
As the Roman coin bears the image of the Roman emperor so the human being bears the image of God. Even more specifically, God the Father imprinted the image of God the Son in our souls. By the power of God the Holy Spirit, the Father imprints the pattern, plan and purpose of the Son in each of us.
That pattern, plan and purpose is steadfast holy unconditional love. That love manifests in three fundamental ways: worship, service to others, personal transformation in grace.
Jesus is the personal incarnation of Divine Love inviting us back into the relationship we as a species rejected.
What does God want us to offer him? Jesus embodies the answer: reunification and transformation.
The religious leaders had just enough understanding of Moses and the Prophets to realize Jesus was inviting them into a new life and a new way of living. He was asking them to examine their priorities. He was asking them to change the way they lived their lives and practiced their religion. He was asking them to move beyond a closed system of laws into an expansive dynamic and creative relationship.
That choice can be frightening. Change is never easy. Changing religions is far easier that entering into the new relationship Jesus offers.
The new relationship is the new reality Jesus offers each of us as we hear his words: give to God the things that are God’s.

Pentecost 17

Pentecost 17 (Matthew 22:1-14
“The Kingdom of Heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son.”

What we think about heaven reveals what we truly value.

Norse mythology viewed heaven as a place where warriors feasted and fought. Aztec mythology viewed heaven as a field of flowers where the faithful were reincarnated as butterflies to sip the nectar of immortality.

One of our recent confirmands told me he didn’t want to go to hell but was worried that heaven might be boring. I suspect he understood heaven as an ethereal cloud where people wore long white robes, played the harp and sang hymns.

The preeminent image of heaven used in the Bible is a wedding.

The pattern for a wedding in Bible times has four parts: the betrothal, the promise, the celebration, the consummation.

First, there is the betrothal. In the ancient world, and until relatively recently in human history, marriages were arranged by parents when the children were still very young. The parents made the arrangements and signed the marriage contracts.
Children grew up knowing that at a certain age they would marry a certain individual. Usually, they never met their fiancé until the marriage ceremony took place.

The marriage ceremony was a very formal time honored set of prayers, rituals and promises that honored God, the tribe, the family and the couple.

Following the marriage ceremony was the marriage feast. Everyone in the village or town was invited since it was a celebration for the entire community. Marriage feasts often lasted several days. It was the joyful duty of the father of the groom to pay for the feast and make sure everyone had the opportunity to have a good time.
The celebration ended with the families escorting the bride and groom to the bridal chamber and leaving them alone to consummate the marriage and begin their new life together as husband and wife. The newlyweds usually moved in with the groom’s family where the bride would learn the family customs and religious traditions.

Jesus uses the image of the wedding feast in new and exciting ways. In this parable, Jesus describes the kingdom of heaven in terms of a royal wedding.

Perhaps some of you watched the recent royal wedding in England that was televised worldwide. This was a very public ceremony that involved the entire nation and by all reports the entire world.

A royal wedding is a joyful occasion for the entire population of the kingdom. The wedding secured the stability of the state and offered the opportunity for the aristocracy to express their loyalty to the heir to the throne.

As Jesus tells the story of the invited guests who reject the wedding invitation and mistreat the royal messengers the people who hear the story are outraged. They know very well that such behavior is more than rude. It is treasonous.

By their actions they proclaim their contempt for the monarch, the state and the wider society in which they live and from which they draw their wealth and security. They declare themselves independent and separate from the basic courtesies and responsibilities of citizens. When Jesus describes how the king destroys those disloyal wedding guests the crowd would shout out “yes.”

As the parable continues Jesus relates how the king invites everyone in the kingdom to the celebration. The wealthy and powerful forfeit their place through their arrogance. The king’s servants fill the wedding hall with all manner of people, rich and poor, good and bad.

The man who is found without a wedding garment presents a problem for the modern reader. Ancient people would have understood the reference. The king provided the wedding garments for all invited guests. The man who entered the banquet without the garment willfully rejected the royal gift through an act of self will and pride. As with the aristocracy, he is guilty of rebellion and treason. He reveals himself to be disloyal and a threat to the peace and security of the nation. And so, the king orders him to be cast out.

The point of the parable was obvious to the people in Jesus’ time but less obvious to us.

The King is God. The Son is Jesus. The aristocracy are the religious leaders in Jerusalem who reject God’s invitation to enter the Messianic Kingdom of His Son, Jesus Christ. God expands his invitation to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven to all sorts and conditions of people everywhere. The wedding garment is the grace of divine love received in baptism. The response to the royal invitation is a matter of personal choice.

The key to understand the parable is the reality of personal relationships.
It is clear that the aristocracy in the story value the material benefits they derive from the king more that their relationship with the king himself. Ancient societies were built on a series of personal relationships and personal loyalties.
The same is true of our relationship with God. Jesus speaks in the context of personal relationships to reveal the reality of God. There are the relationships of father and son, king and aristocracy, groom and bride. Each relationship is grounded in personal loyalty initiated and sustained by choice.

Jesus uses the image of the most intimate of human relationships, that of husband and wife, to describe the nature of the kingdom of heaven.

Those who look for the material reward of wealth and power miss the reality of the relationship. Those who respond to the invitation to celebrate the relationship are those who accept the invitation to the wedding feast and wear the wedding garment of divine grace.

The kingdom of heaven is not about material rewards. The kingdom of heaven is the great and wonderful celebration of a royal wedding. It is anything but boring. It is a participation in the infinite and eternal love of the triune God.

It is also a choice. It is a very simple and direct choice. As the king in the parable invited first the aristocracy and then everyone to the celebration so our Heavenly Father invites all people everywhere to the grace of baptism to prepare us for the Eucharistic Celebration of the co-eternal beloved Son, Jesus Christ.

The invitation is incredibly simple and straightforward. The Eucharist is the present reality here and now of the wedding feast of Jesus Christ. The invitation is universal and unconditional. As the Eucharist is a gift so the Kingdom of Heaven it represents is a gift. All are invited. None are commanded. How we choose to respond to this invitation reveals what we truly value and who we wish to become.

In the Eucharist, Jesus gives us himself as the groom gives himself to the bride.
God the Father created our species to be in an eternal loving relationship with God the Son. God the Holy Spirit invites all people everywhere into this new personal and intimate spiritual relationship.

The reward is the relationship. Heaven is the relationship. The Eucharist is the time and place in this life where Jesus agrees to meet us to celebrate the relationship. The Eucharist is the wedding banquet the Father gives for the Son and the Holy Spirit invites us to celebrate in the Sabbath Day call to worship.
Heaven and hell are not about rewards and punishments. None of us deserves heaven. None of has a right to heaven. Heaven is a personal relationship, a passionately loyal friendship with Jesus Christ. Heaven is for all people, the good and the bad, who say “yes” to the invitation to the wedding feast.

Jesus wants to be your forever friend. His Father invites you to meet the Son here at the altar of sacrifice where the spiritual banquet begins and continues forever.
Heaven is not boring. It is a new life and a new way of living in the infinite and eternal love of the infinite and eternal Triune God. The Kingdom of Heaven is not like anything human created religion can imagine. The Kingdom of heaven is like a king who gives a wedding banquet for his son.