Pentecost 19

Pentecost 19 (Mark 10:2-16)

“From the beginning of Creation…”

God designed human beings to grow and transform through love. The operating principle of love is choice. The outward and visible expression of love is relationship. The inner and spiritual resource for love is the indwelling presence of God the Holy Spirit.

In the beginning, God gave our species one commandment, one governing principle, to activate choice. That commandment had a law, a warning, and a promise. The Law was: don’t eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge. The problem was not knowledge. God always wanted us to grow in knowledge. The problem was intent. The problem is how we seek knowledge not that we seek knowledge.

The warning is: if you seek knowledge apart from you relationship with God, you will separate from the very source of light, and life and love. You will enter into a way of existence that ends in death.

The promise is love. If you remain faithful and loyal you will live. You will indeed live forever in a world designed for your joy and you delight. You will live in union with the very source of life. You will live into the infinite possibilities of eternal love.

In order to tempt our first parents, Satan took the guise of one of God’s amazing and beautiful creations. He used the glittering beauty and subtly of the serpent to beguile, to confuse and tempt our first parents. There is a principle to be learned here. Temptation can be very subtle and enticing.

Since our species choose to separate from God, the laws of God and the way of love make little sense to us. We are seduced by knowledge acquired in separation from God. We are enticed by promises of power, dominance and control.

The Law of Marriage is one such divine principle most people most of the time refuse to accept. How do we know that most people most of the time reject the Law of Marriage? There are three primary sources of knowledge available to us. They are Scripture, history and personal experience.

Jesus’ teaching on marriage unfolds in a context. The first aspect of that context is original separation. All people actively participate in original separation from God.

The second context is one of the results of Original Separation. That is the context of law. What God designed as a fundamental principle of creation, people over the centuries have changed into an external law.  

The third context emerges from the way people react to law. We look for the loophole. We look for the loophole because we do not embody the principle of feel the principle as offering us a blessing. We seek to maintain our sense of righteousness under the Law and at the same time subvert the Law through the loophole.

The Pharisees specialized in loophole righteousness. They redefined divine principle as rigid, inflexible uncompromising law. They asserted their own individual righteousness in their ability to keep the law. And, they wove into the law certain self-serving loopholes that allowed them to subvert the law and still maintain their righteousness.

Curiously enough, they come to Jesus with a question. A question is the beginning of wisdom. The disciples very seldom asked questions. They feared the answers. They feared that Jesus would teach something new or something different.

The Pharisees asked questions to justify themselves and to trap Jesus. But, at least they asked.

On the subject of marriage, the Pharisees want Jesus to speak on divorce. They suspect he will not uphold the law of divorce. As with the question on paying taxes, they reason that if he upholds the law he will simply reinforce the religious system or rewards and punishments they administer. If he rejects the law, well, then they can claim he is a false prophet and is soft on sin.

I suspect, some of the Pharisees also genuinely wanted some fresh insights into the matter. Divorce created many problems in society. A man could divorce his wife but a wife could not divorce her husband. Husbands controlled the money and the property in a family. A divorced woman had only two choices for survival. One was to return to her parents or surviving relatives and hope they would take her back into their home. More often than not, the family would not take her back. The only other option was to become a homeless beggar.

The Pharisees were not monsters. They were lost. They were specifically lost in a law based religion that saw life in the categories of rewards and punishments, of righteous and unrighteous, of the just and of the sinners.

Jesus appeals to the first principles of Creation to answer their question about marriage and divorce. His answer is biblical and life affirming. It also is impossible to translate into civil law. If you really want to write divine principles into civil law this is the standard.

Jesus knew very well this standard was good, holy and life affirming. He also knew that a species lost in separation from God would not and could not accept this standard, or indeed any divinely designed standard.

The principles of God for human behavior and interpersonal relationships can only make sense in a real choice to enter into a personal relationship with God in Jesus Christ. The choice to follow these principles can only come as we make the next choice.

That next choice is what theologians call sanctification. It is the choice we make every day to pray the prayer that defined Jesus’ life. That prayer is: Heavenly Father, not my will but Thy will be done. That prayer only makes sense in the context of a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. That prayer manifests a slow, steady and unfolding conversion of our thoughts, desires and choices.

The divine design for marriage is clear, explicit and impossible for the lost to accept. It is the image of God’s own relationship to humanity. It is the best and highest good God invites us to embrace. The best defense of Biblical marriage is not in law courts, legislation or civil disobedience. The best defense of Biblical marriage is to embrace, practice and delight in the sacramental grace of marriage.

Jesus once said: “let your light so shine.” How the people of God live our lives and manifest the grace of God in our words, deeds and marriages will proclaim the goodness of God and the gift of God more effectively in the Plan of Creation Jesus teaches us in this passage

Jesus did not answer the question about marriage and divorce from the context of either religious or civil law..

Jesus answers the question of marriage and divorce with a reminder of the original blessing the Father designed into creation by the power and presence of the Holy Spirit.

Michaelmas

Michaelmas 2015 (John1:47-51) “

You will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.

Jesus is the great bridge between heaven and earth. He is Jacob’s ladder.

No loyal angel comes to earth unless Jesus permits it No human being can enter heaven apart from Jesus Christ. The governing principle in this is love.

If you believe in entitlement religion this makes no sense. If you adhere to a religion of rewards and sacraments this is offensive.

In Jesus and Jesus only, God the Father unites divinity through the incarnation of God the Son by the operation of God the Holy Spirit. In Jesus God unites divinity with humanity in a single individual. He becomes the new Adam. He is the pattern for a renewed and transforming humanity.

Jesus himself states that he is the bridge between heaven and earth. When it comes to heaven the Bible is very clear. You can’t there from here. You can only receive the invitation to enter heaven. It is a gift of universal unconditional love activated by choice.

All beings created for love have this choice. For a created being choice activates love. For God, love is simply and powerfully his divine nature. God just doesn’t have love as an attribute. God is love.

God created the angels before he created the material universe. He created them by love, through love and for love. The choice point for created beings to accept and delight in divine love is worship.

Worship is the highest form of love a created being can experience. Through worship we enter into the inner being of the one God who is three persons. We live and move and have our being in the active, dynamic, creative, spontaneous and infinite delight in the One God who is eternally manifesting in the three persons of love.

The choice point of love for the angels came when the highest of the angels. Lucifer- which means light bearer_ decided that all of the other angels were inferior to him. He made a choice to turn away from God to compare himself to the other angels. Through pride he decided the other angels were not worthy to worship God.

Lucifer told the angels: I am the highest of the Seraph Class angels. I am the one who bears the light of the eternal within my own being. You are inferior, and not worthy to worship the divine. Worship me and I will take your imperfect worship and purify it to offer to the Infinite. I am like God.

One third of the angels chose to believe Lucifer and to follow him by worshipping him. A basic principle of Creation is that if we worship any one or any thing other than the One God we distort the inherent love within worship into pride, self-will and power.

If we break the divinely ordered pattern of worship we separate from God and plunge our souls into conflict.  This is the meaning of the war in heaven.  Michael, the smallest and weakest of the lowest class of angels refused to worship Satan. As Lucifer chanted before the heavenly host: “I am like God,” Michael shouted out: “Who is like God”.

At that point, the distortion in worship Lucifer chose to embrace and offer to the angels morphed love into conflict. The war in heaven was a war about who to worship, how to worship, when and where to worship.

Lucifer lost the battle. He lost the war in heaven because worship is the highest form of love. He lost because the reality of God is the love of God. Lucifer and his followers had to kill a portion of their own essential being in order to distort the highest form of love.

The lesson for us is in the reality of love. Jesus is the love of God in human flesh. Worship is the highest form of love. For a created being love can only be activate by choice.

Lucifer, now called Satan- which means adversary or enemy- is motivated by pride that manifests in this world as deceit and spite. He has abandoned love. And, since he has abandoned love he has separated from God. He has convinced himself that he is the equal and opposite of God.

Moses, the prophets and Jesus are very clear. God has no equal. God has no opposite.

Satan and the rebel angels always seek to subvert love. Their plan of damnation for humanity is motivated by spite and activated by deceit. They work to keep people from reunification with God in Jesus Christ. Failing that, they seek to steal the joy of our salvation by focusing our attention of “the issues”.

Jesus invites us to focus on him. He is the love of God manifesting in the universe, our planet, our species and in our souls.

The loyal angels, and more specifically our guardian angel, always lead us to worship at the time and place and in the manner God himself designed into the universe. The rebel angels seek to subvert love by distorting the highest form of love we as created beings can experience.

It is love that reunites us to God. It is love that helps us reconcile to each other. It is love and only love that motivates us to transform sin back into its original virtue.

The primary role of the angels in our world is the role Satan once had and chose to reject. The role of the loyal angels is to help us choose universal, unconditional and transforming love through worship.

Pentecost 17

Pentecost 17 (Mark 9:3-37)  “What were you arguing about?”

People argue about everything. The most intense arguments focus on the trivial and the transcendent- neither of which have answers in this world of duality.

The apostles argued over who is in charge. They had heard Jesus tell about his death and resurrection- the very essence of the Plan of Salvation. They did not understand his teaching. They were afraid to ask him to explain. Their fear was grounded in their pride. They were the chosen. They were the righteous elite for the coming kingdom. They could not admit their confusion. And, they were afraid of what Jesus might say.

The apostles worked within a system of belief fueled by pride and activated by self-will. Questions were an admission of failure. The only thing worse than a question was the admission they might be wrong. As with so many of their generation they not only believed they knew that God was on their side. They knew that they had been chosen- chose to rule, to judge and to exclude the unrighteous.

Jesus presented them an opportunity to accomplish their goals and the goals of their nation. There was one problem. Jesus did not use the vocabulary of power. He welcomed everyone. He healed everyone. He fed everyone. He even spoke with people and had dinner with people who were notorious sinners.

Such behavior confused the apostles and enraged the religious and political elites.

How dare he speak with women and teach women. Everyone knew that God created man and man alone in his image. He created woman from man’s rib to serve not to walk with man as an equal.

How dare he heal gentiles? Everyone knew that God judged Gentiles as unworthy of divine favor.

How dare he heal the blind, the lame, and the lepers? Everyone knew that these afflictions were punishments for sin. By healing sinners Jesus was endorsing sin.

How dare he speak of his coming death and resurrection? Everyone knew the Messiah would have the power to impose divine law on Israel. Everyone knew the Messiah would conquer the Gentile nations, enslave them and enrich Israel. Everyone knew the true Messiah had the power to debase his enemies and reward his friends.

The Bible is very clear. The great obstacle to faith is not doubt. It is belief. It is a form of belief that asks no questions. Through pride, this form of belief ignores all contradictory data and new data. It develops a rigid inflexible and uncompromising religious and political system.

The apostles were lost in this form of belief as indeed everyone then and everyone now is lost in this form of belief. Wisdom begins with a question. The disciples of Jesus seldom asked questions. They argued amongst themselves over the meaning of what Jesus said and did.

Jesus did not come to earth to endorse any one nation, religion or system of belief or list of behaviors. He came to save. He came to save humanity from the terrible consequences of the choice we made and continue to make to separate from God.

The lost are lost in pride and self-will. We are lost in the pursuit of power. The apostles argued amongst themselves over who among them would have the highest positions in the new world order they knew Jesus was about to institute. They argued over who would be in charge because they could only think of God in terms of power.

Jesus scandalized his generation by speaking of God in terms of love. Jesus used the language of the Prophets which is the language of personal relationships. He spoke of himself as the Bridegroom who had come to seek his bride who had walked away from him. He spoke of the Kingdom as a wedding feast to which everyone without exception or precondition is invited.

What was most horrifying to the people of that generation as it is to people of every generation, Jesus employed the language of personal relationship and applied it to himself. He did not offer a list of beliefs or behaviors for people to follow as a precondition to gain God’s favor and avoid God’s wrath. He did not use the language of judgment, condemnation or exclusion. He used the language of unconditional love. He invited people to receive his love and to become transformed by that love.

The apostles wanted the power. Jesus offered the love. Jesus offered the infinite and eternal love of God. The religious and political elites wanted the judgment and condemnation. Jesus offered reconciliation and transformation.

The Jesus way is the only way to reunite the lost to God.

The Jesus way is the only way to transform sin back into its original virtue.

Jesus repeatedly reminded people that in God’s eyes we are one family and one community. He taught: as you receive or reject me so you receive of reject God. As you receive or reject those you consider the least among you so you receive or reject me. Jesus is the second Adam- the pattern for a new way of being human. That new way is the way of grace. It is the way of kindness and compassion.

The old way of Adam is the way of separation sustained by pride and self-will. The new way of Jesus is the way of reunification with God, reconciliation with each other and personal transformation in holiness.

The kingdom of heaven is not about command and control. The kingdom of heaven is about kindness, compassion and personal transformation.

If you want the judgment it’s there. If you want the condemnation it’s there, too. If you want the wrath there is plenty of wrath to go around. But you won’t find these things in Jesus. And because you won’t find these things in Jesus you will not find them in God. You will only find them in the depths of your own soul. And, there are plenty of people in this world who will use fear to keep you lost in judgment, condemnation and wrath.

Jesus set a child in the midst of the discussion about command and control. Jesus reminded his apostles gently and firmly: I have come to serve and I send you out to serve. I have come with kindness and compassion and I only authorize you to do the same. I am the Good News of divine welcome. I am the one who will not break a bruised reed. I am the one who will not quench a dimly burning wick. I am your predestined forever friend who invites you to adopt the teachability and openness of a child so you can be transformed by divine love.

Jesus reminded his apostles and he reminds us. The kingdom of heaven is all about and only about the invitation to receive the universal and unconditional love of God in the person of God’s only begotten Son, Jesus, the co-eternal Beloved of God and the new pattern of humanity.

Holy Cross Day 2015

Holy Cross Day 2015 (John 12:31-36)

“If I be lifted up.”

Jesus is God the Father’s Plan of Salvation.

Most people perceive salvation in terms of what we must do to gain God’s favor and avoid God’s wrath. We create Law based, belief based and knowledge based forms of religion to earn salvation. We asset our right to eternal life based on our beliefs and behaviors.

Jesus reminds us that salvation is not about rewards and punishments. Salvation is not even about lists of beliefs and behaviors. No human being can claim a right to divine favor. God is universal unconditional love. God loves everyone already because that is who God is. You have no right to salvation. Salvation is a gift God offers everyone in Jesus Christ. The problem Jesus addresses is not defined by placating divine judgement, condemnation and wrath. The problem lies within the human soul. The problem, with all of its manifold consequences in our lives and societies, is the choice we as a species made to separate from God.

The Plan of salvation is first the reunification of humanity and divinity. At the Annunciation, the archangel Gabriel announces to Mary that she will conceive a unique child. He will be fully human. And, he will be fully divine. Reunification begins with the Incarnation. The incarnation begins when all human life begins. It begins at conception.

Jesus is the second Adam. Jesus resets the original pattern of humanity to unfold in the categories of love, holiness and compassion. The incarnation is the first part of salvation that makes the second part possible.

The second part is the cross.

Jesus dies on the cross falsely accused of blasphemy and treason. The religious court convicts him of blasphemy for claiming to be God. He wasn’t condemned for his actions or his teachings. He was condemned for acknowledging his true identity. The religious establishment of the time would not and could not accept this truth. To do so would have meant acknowledging they were fundamentally wrong about the nature of God, the nature of humanity and the role of religion. Religious pride sent Jesus to the cross.

Pontus Pilate condemned Jesus to death for treason against the state. Pilate knew that Jesus was innocent. But, he would not and could not accept the consequences of releasing Jesus. Pilate embraced a convenient lie to remove an inconvenient truth. Pilate’s fear killed Jesus.

Human created religion and politics are designed by the lost to perpetuate separation from God. Through pride the lost refuse to receive the gift of God. Through fear, the lost accept a lie to avoid the truth. Through the assertion of the human will to power the lost slander, condemn and kill to preserve their separation.

Why?

Moses gave the answer millennial ago. The answer is power. Our species chose separation in order to become like God. But, we identified the divine nature with only two of God’s many attributes. We separated from God in order to acquire the supposed secret knowledge of God and the ruling  power of God.

Jesus reminds us that God is love. In our self-indulgent and sentimental culture that statement seems very benign. Benign but largely meaningless. The various cultures of Jesus’ day heard this claim from a very different perspective. Unlike modern people, they did not pay lip service to the truth Jesus proclaimed. They rejected it outright through pride, fear and self-will. Jesus knew this would happen. It was the only way he could deal with the problem of separation.

On the cross Jesus offered himself as the one pure perfect and final sacrifice for sin. Since he was fully human he could experience sin and death on the cross. He could enter into that place of separation which is the abomination of desolation and for three hours fulfill the law of cause and effect by taking upon himself the consequences of separation.

Because Jesus is fully divine he could stand in the place of desolation, embrace the sin and death of every human being who has ever lived and will ever live, and in the infinite ocean of divine love transform separation back into reunification for all of us and for each of us. He took into himself all of our petty sins and transformed them back into their original virtues. He experienced the death of every human being and swallowed up death to transform death back into life by the real presence of his own eternal life.

Since Jesus died on the cross and rose again there are now two ways of being human. There is the way of Adam and Eve which is the way of separation. And, there is the way of Jesus, the second Adam, who resets human nature by his transformative sacrifice on the cross.

There are now also two ways for you to be you. You can follow the way of Adam through pride, self-will and fear. You can wander with the lost who do not want to be found. You can hide from the inconvenient truth of Jesus Christ in a multitude of convenient lies. Or, you can make the one real choice Jesus won for us on the cross.

Before Jesus died on the cross there was only one way to be human- the way of separation, sin and death. Since Jesus died and rose again we have a choice. We, collectively as a species, have a second chance to say “yes” to God, “yes” to universal unconditional love.

There are now two patterns you can use to create your personal identity. There are now two paths for you to follow through this universe of matter, energy, time and space. There are now two yous waiting to unfold in this world and in the next world.

The choice is yours. Jesus did all of the hard work on the cross. Jesus offers the new pattern in the resurrection sacraments of baptism and holy communion as gifts.

Heaven is not a reward. Hell is not a punishment. Salvation is a gift we can chose to receive in Jesus Christ. That choice enters into the world of cause and effect and begins to produce a result.

If we choose to ignore or reject Jesus we chose to remain lost in separation. That choice enters into the world of cause and effect. The consequences are all around us in conflicts, condemnation, pride and despair.

If we choose to receive the gift of reunification in Jesus we suddenly discover that where we were lost we are now found. It is not that God has been hiding from us. It is not that we have in any meaningful way been searching for a God who does not want to be found. We are the ones who are lost. Jesus is the one who finds us.

As we allow ourselves to be found in Jesus we begin to grow into the new way of being human and the new way of being the unique person God designed you to become.

On the cross, Jesus drew the fullness of the human species into himself. On the cross Jesus embraced the Adamic nature of separation, sin and death. On the cross, Jesus met and held every human being in our unique fears and despair. On the cross, Jesus allowed the lost to cast him out, torture him and lift him up to die. And, as he we was lifted up to die Jesus embraced death, both universally and personally, for each of us and all of us.

In the sacrament of resurrection here at the altar of sacrificial love, Jesus offers us and all who heed the call to worship, the gift of a new life and a new way of living. It is the way of reunification and transformation in universal unconditional love.