Epiphany 2014

Christmas II (Epiphany observed) Matthew 2: 1-12

“We have observed his star at its rising.”

Did you ever send out written announcements to your family and friends at the birth of a child? Our Heavenly Father announced the birth of His co-eternal Son in Jesus Christ with the appearance of a star.

There is a context to this stellar birth announcement. Ancient people held a belief that could be expressed in the phrase: “as above so below.”

It was a belief that the pattern of the universe derives from a transcendent eternal source. The Greeks expressed this belief in the word: Logos.

As the universe reflects the transcendent pattern in its laws and structures at the highest and broadest levels in the stars and planets- so those structures can give insight into the patterns of life here on Earth.

That was the belief.

The Magi tested that belief. They had been educated in math and science as well as astrology and religion. As with the prophets of Israel they tested their inherited beliefs with observation and rational analysis of experience- their own personal experience as well as the experience of other people.

The Magi had knowledge, wealth and a certain degree of power. They also had something most people then and most people now lack. They had curiosity informed by humility.

They avoided the skepticism of the Greek philosophers, the cynicism of the Roman aristocracy and the fanaticism of the Jewish religious elites. They also questioned the superstitions of the masses of people in the ancient world.

They observed. They questioned. They tested. They acknowledged they could only discern truth through inquiry and humility.

As they followed the star they pursued a path that most people in their time and ours reject.

God had announced the birth of his incarnate Son, Jesus, to the world in the star. Only a very few people then and now paid attention to the announcement enough to perceive the invitation in the announcement.

From time to time modern skeptics, both religious and secular, ask: where is God? Why is he not speaking? If God is real let him demonstrate his reality in the terms and under the conditions we understand.

The long and consistent observation of Moses, the prophets and the Magi is that God is as present to us as our next breath. God speaks in clarity to all people everywhere. The problem is not that God is silent. The problem is that most people most of the time aren’t paying attention. The problem is that we cannot see the path before us even when it is illumined by the brightness of a star, the word of the prophet and the song of the angels.

Epiphany is the manifestation of the Real Presence of God to all people everywhere. It is the invitation to walk the path of curiosity with humility. It is the defining principle of wisdom that says: now I know in part.

How is God speaking to you? Are you paying attention? Are you willing to be found? Do you have a desire to be surprised when God acts through nature to reveal the eternal pattern of the logos that gives the natural world its substance and form?

The Magi visited the political and religious elites of Jerusalem with a single purpose. We have observed his star at its rising. How can you help us understand this sign? What insight can you offer to help us complete our long journey on the path to Truth?

They found the answer they were looking for. They completed this first part of their journey only to discover a fuller understanding of the path. The fuller understanding is the way of grace. It is the way of faith. It is the personal relationship God offers all of us and each of us in Jesus Christ.

 

 

Christmas I

Christmas I (John 1:1-18) “The Word became flesh.”

Jesus is God.

In Jesus, God unites His divinity with our humanity permanently and irrevocably.

Moses and the prophets observe the human condition and conclude that the great problem defining our species is separation. Through Adam and Eve humanity chose to separate from God. In that separation we also chose to perpetuate separation from God, from each other, from life itself.

Human nature is now defined by the corrupting power of Original Separation. In our personal individual lives we bring forth the pattern of separation in sin and death.  We are not only lost in sin we are willfully and spitefully lost.

The lost do not want to be found. The lost perpetuate separation through prideful distortion of virtue, Law, religion and science. God Himself invites us to test this assertion. Through the prophet Isaiah God declares: come, let us reason together.

In a world of abundance there is scarcity. How does that happen?

For a species created in the image and likeness of unconditional love there is fear. Where does that fear come from?

The moment you explain a rule to a child testing the limits of the rule becomes his chief priority. Why?

God reveals to us that He created the world and people respond with skepticism, cynicism and pride.

God invites us to assume the responsibility to care for each other and we demand the right to assert our individual will to power.

No law can correct this problem. No religion, spiritual exercise, philosophy or science can restore the Original Blessing our species rejected and continues to repudiate.

That is why God the Father sent God the Son in the power of God the Holy Spirit.

God the Son is the pattern of all things and all people. The Greek philosophers, mathematicians and scientists called that pattern the logos- the rational transcendent creative and eternal Word by which, through which and for which all things exist.

Through our choice to separate from God, we shattered that pattern in our souls.  Having broken the pattern we no longer have the desire or the resources to repair the pattern.

God the Father repairs the pattern for us by sending God the Son to become the second Adam. God the Holy Spirit invites us to allow the Son to reunite what we have separated.

In Jesus God reunites us to Himself not just as a legal fiction but in a real organic and substantial way.

Since the problem with being lost is that we don’t want to be found, we don’t want the pattern we broke to be repaired, God does it all for us.

Salvation is reunification with God in the incarnate Son of God. It is a gift. We can’t earn it. We don’t deserve it. It is the gift of God in Jesus restoring the original blessing in the original pattern of the co-eternal Logos- the Word of God who comes to us in Jesus Christ.

Salvation is not a matter of debits and credits. It is also not a human right we can demand and claim. It is a gift. The gift and the giver of the gift are one.

They are one in the same because the gift and the giver are infinite and eternal love. Salvation is the how God the Father finds the lost in Jesus and then restores the lost by the transforming Presence of the Holy Spirit.

The original pattern of humanity is the Logos, the Word. And the Word became flesh in Jesus Christ to restore to us that original pattern of universal unconditional love.

Christmas 2013

Christmas 2013 (Luke 2:1-20) “Glory to God in the highest!’

How do you celebrate someone’s birthday? How do you expect people to celebrate your birthday?

If it were your birthday would you expect some sort of party with food and gifts? Would you be surprised if people celebrated your birthday by ignoring you and giving gifts to each other instead?

Today we celebrate Christmas. Christmas is the birthday of Jesus Christ.

God invites all people everywhere to gather together to celebrate this wonderful birthday of His only Son. Jesus is God the Father’s gift of eternal love to all people.  The gift of God is the love of God in the person of God.

God the Father created this universe, our planet and each of us individually by the power of the Holy Spirit according to the pattern of God the Beloved Son. In Jesus, God the Father unites God the Beloved Son with the humanity of holy Mother Mary by the power of God the Holy Spirit.

On Christmas, God reminds us that He just doesn’t have love- He is love.

On Christmas, the One God reveals to us that Love is an eternal pattern of relationships: The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

On Christmas, God assures us by demonstrating for us that His Triune eternal love is universal and unconditional. God loves everyone without exception. There is no one God does not love.

God proves this to us by uniting our humanity with His divinity in the birth of a helpless infant: Jesus.

All of the sentiments of Christmas derive from the pattern of the Beloved Son who became a little child at that first Christmas.

Ponder this great amazing truth. Savor this greatest of all Good News.

Jesus is God with us. Jesus is God for us. Jesus is the infant exiled from the town to the manger. He shivers in the cold. Angels sing about him. Shepherds and Kings worship him. Mary and Joseph look over him and protect him.

On Christmas, we remember that there is no condemnation in God. There is only the infinite and eternal Triune Love manifesting to us and for us in a helpless child.

Jesus, the son of Mary, is God with us now and forever, world without end. Amen and Merry Christmas.