Pentecost 24 Proper 28
Beware that no one leads you astray.
There are three things that can lead us astray. The three things are the distortions of our own individual desires, the distractions of our culture, and the deceits of Satan.
As Jesus approached the time of his arrest and execution he warned his students about the dangers of being led astray. The immediate occasion for this warning was their reaction to the impressive edifice and religious power of the Temple in Jerusalem.
The Temple was indeed impressive. It was one of the wonders of the ancient world. It had been under construction some 18 years before Jesus was born and its construction continued for some thirty years following his death and resurrection.
It was the third Temple built in Jerusalem. Solomon had built the first around 1,000 B.C. . The Babylonians destroyed that Temple. Nehemiah and Ezra built the second Temple in 516 B.C. It had fallen into decay over the centuries. King Herod began a massive reconstruction of the Temple in 18 B.C.
Herod’s Temple was massive and beautiful. But, it was less a place of worship than a place of nationalistic pride and aspiration to power. This aspect of the Temple is what impressed the disciples. They were captivated by the outward and visible form of the massive stones, the gold and precious gems, the large numbers of people who came from all over the world to worship in that place. They missed the inward and spiritual grace. The missed God’s plan and purpose for the Temple. They missed the invitation to reunification with the love of God through worship.
Only forty years after the resurrection of Jesus, zealots would seize control of Jerusalem, slaughter the Temple priests and lead the people into a disastrous war against Rome that would end in the total destruction of the Temple. It has never been rebuilt.
As the disciples exited the Temple that day, they felt the temptation of the lie. The temptation was not in the impressive edifice of the Temple. The temptation was in the lie that God is power. The lie also tells us: you can have that power.
God certainly is powerful. But, God is not power. God is love.
With virtually all other people of their generation, the disciples believed God was power. They wanted to share that power. They wanted Jesus to manifest that power.
For the disciples, power meant the immediate and miraculous fulfillment of their desires. It meant the exaltation of the nationalistic aspirations of Israel. And, it meant the triumph of Satan’s fundamental lie that through separation from divine love people can find fulfillment through the will to power.
Jesus warned his disciples of the impending destruction of the Temple. All of the signs were there. It didn’t require prophetic revelation to see how the religious politics of Jerusalem would impel the people into direct military conflict with Rome. But, no one saw it coming except Jesus. No one saw it coming because no one wanted to believe that the problem they faced was not in the political realm but in the spiritual realm. No one saw the final consequence because every one wanted the war and everyone believed that God would intervene to give them victory in the war.
As Jesus very accurately discerned the social and political climate of the day, so he looked into the souls of men and saw the rise of deceivers. The apostle John would later name these deceivers "antichrist’.
The antichrist is one who claims to speak for God but who also rejects the incarnation of God in Jesus Christ.
The antichrist is both deceived and is a deceiver. In his self deceit he is convinced he and he alone speaks for God. His message is formed and empowered by distortions, distractions and deceits.
Jesus warns his disciples and us: be wary of people who claim to speak for God. Be wary of teachers who tell you what you want to hear. Be wary of religious leaders who hold the outward forms of religion but deny the inward and spiritual grace. Above all, be wary of the lie that Satan brings forth to obscure the Truth.
The truth is a person: Jesus Christ.
It is important to ask questions. All questions are helpful. The pre eminent question is: what is the truth? How does this teacher bring forth the essential truth revealed in Jesus Christ that God is real, God is personal, God is Love, God is Jesus Christ?
What does this teacher say about Jesus Christ?
It does matter what we believe. It matters so much that Jesus warns us to be wary. Question. Read the scriptures. Pray. Above all else, immerse your soul in the love and holiness of God at the altar in worship.
There are three lies that lead us astray. Three deceptions that lead us away from Truth. Those three lies are the disordered desires of our own hearts, the distractions of our surrounding culture, the deceit of Satan that if God is real then God is power.
The disciples desired victory for Israel, wealth and power for themselves. Their desire for God’s blessing was good. But, they had allowed their own fear, self will and pride to distort that desire. They had embraced the culture of death that sought dominance over other people, the world, and God himself. They had allowed Satan to seduce them with the most potent and subtle of all seductions: the will to power.
Jesus warned his disciples as they were caught up in the rush of power they felt as they walked through the impressive magnificent wonder of the Temple. Be wary. Be wary of those who would tell you what you want to hear. Be wary of the way of power. Many will come with that message. Many who have been deceived by that message will also seek to deceive you.
Hold fast to the truth. The truth is a person. The person is Jesus Christ. The truth is that God is real, God is personal, God is love, God is Jesus Christ. Hold fast to Him and He will immerse your soul in the eternal love of His Real Presence in the Holy Sacrament of the altar. It is there you will know clarity of thought, purity of heart, humility of will.
Be wary that no one leads you astray. It does matter what you believe. It does matter how you believe. Draw close to the diving love and compassion of Jesus Christ. In His love you will find the healing of all of your desires. In His love, you will find the fulfillment of all of your dreams.
Accept no substitutes. It is Jesus and Jesus alone who is the fulness of Divine Love offering himself to all people everywhere, offering Himself to you here and now.
Remember the words of the co-eternal Beloved of the Father: be wary that no one leads you astray from love.
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Pentecost 23
Pentecost 23 Proper 27 "She put in all that she had."
The offering we place at the altar is an act of worship.
There are two aspects of life where most people resist advice, particularly religious based advice. They are also the two areas that couples tend to argue about the most.
One of these is finances, money.
The song, "Money makes the world go round" sums up humanity’s understanding of money. It is the means, the end and the goal in life for large numbers of people.
Since money has always been of great importance to people it should be no surprise that God has something to say about it. The first thing God says about money is that money is frozen energy. Money is the frozen energy of our time, talents and labors.
God did not create money. People created money. The small green pieces of paper in our wallets and purses have no objective value. They are just paper. Their worth derives from the value we place in them. That value is in part based on trust, in part based on anxiety, and in part based in the amount of energy we devote to acquiring them.
Money is the frozen energy of our lives. We dedicate a certain amount of time and effort to acquire it. We trade life force for green certificates. By common agreement, we have set a value on human labor and activities and frozen that value in money.
God never created money but he understands its origins and functions better than we do. One of the most misquoted verses in the Bible is" money is the root of all evil." Money itself is completely indifferent to good and evil.
The Bible teaches that the love of money is the root of all manner of evils. As money is frozen life energy, evil is a distortion of love. The two go hand in hand.
The Bible does not endorse any one particular economic system. It does identify the place money can have in our lives. That place is summarized for us by Jesus when he says love God with all of your heart, mind and strength. Love your neighbor as yourself.
God reminds us that we were designed to love. Our first love is God. God must be first or God will become last.
God must be first since God is the source of love. There can be no love apart from God. Love apart from God always suffers distortion. The greatest distortions of love are what people call evil.
The pre eminent way by which we reconnect to Divine Love and find transformation in Divine love is worship.
Some one once commented to me that they thought God was very selfish in demanding our worship. They asked: what is the point of telling God He is so great? For a moment I was horrified then the Holy Spirit reminded me that as long as people are still asking questions they are open to the Plan of Salvation.
Worship is not for God’s benefit. Worship is for our benefit.
Most religions people tend to forget this. Certainly, most religious people in Jesus’ day had adopted two basic distortions in their understanding of worship. Both can be summarized in the word "bribe".
One of the distortions looked at God, perceived God’s power and reacted with fear. For this approach, the bribe in worship is to placate a very powerful being. The further assumption is that God is unpredictable and potentially vindictive. If we do the wrong thing God will punish us. So, to placate this powerful being we build altars and offer sacrifices.
For much of human history the sacrifice of choice to placate God was a child, usually the first born male.
The concept was that when people killed the first born male infants on the altar of sacrifice that would prove to God that we respected him and feared him. In that proof God would be satisfied and would not bring natural disasters to punish people.
The second distortion in worship is the pay off. The concept is that if I bring something of value to the altar of sacrifice and offer it to God, then God will owe me something of value in return. This is religion as the expression of self will. We worship God so God will give us what we really want, usually more money.
There is a third distortion that emerges from these two. We see the third distortion in the gospel reading this morning. That distortion is pride. The concept is that the act of worship is like tipping a waiter for good service. It says: I am so rich and powerful and important I can afford to give a large gift at the altar.
The wealthy religious leaders in Jesus’ day made an ostentatious display of presenting their gifts before the altar of sacrifice in the Temple. Now, the standard God had set for the offering was the tithe, ten percent. And we read in other parts of scripture how the wealthy religious leaders had devised very clever interpretations of this very clear and simple standard in order to evade it.
The wealthy who contributed large sums of money to the Temple generally were not offering the Biblical tithe. They offered far less proportionately than the working poor.
Compared to the large numbers of working poor they offered significant sums of money. But, they did not bring the tithe. They were not interested in worshiping God as much as they wanted to gain respect and admiration from the people. For them, the money they brought to the Temple was an investment in their pride and prestige and power.
This is not worship. Worship is not a bribe to placate divine wrath or to obtain divine favor. It is not an expression of pride. Worship is the total immersion of the soul in Divine Love and Holiness.
God knows our weakness. He knows our need. He knows that despite the amazing abundance of resources he placed in this world for our benefit, we still live with the fear of scarcity. He also knows that when we created money we made a choice to freeze our life’s energy into stagnate forms.
The command God gave Moses for humans to offer the tithe at the altar is not for God’s benefit. It is not even primarily for the benefit of the Temple or the priests who serve in the Temple. It is for our benefit. It is the first step in helping us move from the distortion of self will, fear and pride, from the experience of life as scarcity, into a new experience of abundance. That abundance is eternal love.
The tithe is preeminently designed as an act of worship by which we take the frozen energy of our lives, place it on the altar of sacrifice, and release it into God’s hand by faith. As we do that God invites us to release our attachment to the experience of life as scarcity. In this act of worship God invites us to experience the new life of abundance in infinite and eternal and ever renewing love.
God tells us we can keep 90 % of our income to spend as we choose. He asks for a tithe, 10%, of our frozen energy to be placed on the altar of sacrifice. It is there that frozen energy will be transformed and released back into our souls as living dynamic and creative life force.
The religious people of Jesus day did not believe this. They believed the money was a bribe to avoid punishment or to get a reward. They gave just enough to impress other people, but never what God had commanded.
The widow did not just give 10%, or 30%, or 50%, or 75%, she gave 100%. She far exceeded what God commanded. The amount was small but it was all she had. It was so small no one noticed, except God.
Jesus declared that those two copper coins that together were worth a single penny were in fact priceless. They far exceeded the value of the silver and gold the wealthy brought out of their abundance. Those two coins were priceless because they represented 100% of the frozen energy the woman held in her hands. Those two coins were priceless because they were a genuine and sincere offering of love and worship.
The widow is enshrined in holy scripture. There are no memorials to her, no churches built in her honor, no hymns or poems or plays. We don’t even know her name. But she shines in the brightness of eternity with a radiance of divine love that reaches out across all cultures and all times.
She put in everything she had. She gave her all to God. She released her meager resources to God and God has blessed those two copper coins in an amazing and ongoing outpouring of grace that will continue until Christ returns to all people every where.
That is love. That is worship. That is what the tithe God invites us to bring to the altar of sacrifice can accomplish when it is presented with the extravagance of steadfast holy love. Out of her poverty, the widow gave her all. God has transformed that gift through eternal love into infinite grace.
For, she out of her poverty gave God everything.
The offering we place at the altar is an act of worship.
There are two aspects of life where most people resist advice, particularly religious based advice. They are also the two areas that couples tend to argue about the most.
One of these is finances, money.
The song, "Money makes the world go round" sums up humanity’s understanding of money. It is the means, the end and the goal in life for large numbers of people.
Since money has always been of great importance to people it should be no surprise that God has something to say about it. The first thing God says about money is that money is frozen energy. Money is the frozen energy of our time, talents and labors.
God did not create money. People created money. The small green pieces of paper in our wallets and purses have no objective value. They are just paper. Their worth derives from the value we place in them. That value is in part based on trust, in part based on anxiety, and in part based in the amount of energy we devote to acquiring them.
Money is the frozen energy of our lives. We dedicate a certain amount of time and effort to acquire it. We trade life force for green certificates. By common agreement, we have set a value on human labor and activities and frozen that value in money.
God never created money but he understands its origins and functions better than we do. One of the most misquoted verses in the Bible is" money is the root of all evil." Money itself is completely indifferent to good and evil.
The Bible teaches that the love of money is the root of all manner of evils. As money is frozen life energy, evil is a distortion of love. The two go hand in hand.
The Bible does not endorse any one particular economic system. It does identify the place money can have in our lives. That place is summarized for us by Jesus when he says love God with all of your heart, mind and strength. Love your neighbor as yourself.
God reminds us that we were designed to love. Our first love is God. God must be first or God will become last.
God must be first since God is the source of love. There can be no love apart from God. Love apart from God always suffers distortion. The greatest distortions of love are what people call evil.
The pre eminent way by which we reconnect to Divine Love and find transformation in Divine love is worship.
Some one once commented to me that they thought God was very selfish in demanding our worship. They asked: what is the point of telling God He is so great? For a moment I was horrified then the Holy Spirit reminded me that as long as people are still asking questions they are open to the Plan of Salvation.
Worship is not for God’s benefit. Worship is for our benefit.
Most religions people tend to forget this. Certainly, most religious people in Jesus’ day had adopted two basic distortions in their understanding of worship. Both can be summarized in the word "bribe".
One of the distortions looked at God, perceived God’s power and reacted with fear. For this approach, the bribe in worship is to placate a very powerful being. The further assumption is that God is unpredictable and potentially vindictive. If we do the wrong thing God will punish us. So, to placate this powerful being we build altars and offer sacrifices.
For much of human history the sacrifice of choice to placate God was a child, usually the first born male.
The concept was that when people killed the first born male infants on the altar of sacrifice that would prove to God that we respected him and feared him. In that proof God would be satisfied and would not bring natural disasters to punish people.
The second distortion in worship is the pay off. The concept is that if I bring something of value to the altar of sacrifice and offer it to God, then God will owe me something of value in return. This is religion as the expression of self will. We worship God so God will give us what we really want, usually more money.
There is a third distortion that emerges from these two. We see the third distortion in the gospel reading this morning. That distortion is pride. The concept is that the act of worship is like tipping a waiter for good service. It says: I am so rich and powerful and important I can afford to give a large gift at the altar.
The wealthy religious leaders in Jesus’ day made an ostentatious display of presenting their gifts before the altar of sacrifice in the Temple. Now, the standard God had set for the offering was the tithe, ten percent. And we read in other parts of scripture how the wealthy religious leaders had devised very clever interpretations of this very clear and simple standard in order to evade it.
The wealthy who contributed large sums of money to the Temple generally were not offering the Biblical tithe. They offered far less proportionately than the working poor.
Compared to the large numbers of working poor they offered significant sums of money. But, they did not bring the tithe. They were not interested in worshiping God as much as they wanted to gain respect and admiration from the people. For them, the money they brought to the Temple was an investment in their pride and prestige and power.
This is not worship. Worship is not a bribe to placate divine wrath or to obtain divine favor. It is not an expression of pride. Worship is the total immersion of the soul in Divine Love and Holiness.
God knows our weakness. He knows our need. He knows that despite the amazing abundance of resources he placed in this world for our benefit, we still live with the fear of scarcity. He also knows that when we created money we made a choice to freeze our life’s energy into stagnate forms.
The command God gave Moses for humans to offer the tithe at the altar is not for God’s benefit. It is not even primarily for the benefit of the Temple or the priests who serve in the Temple. It is for our benefit. It is the first step in helping us move from the distortion of self will, fear and pride, from the experience of life as scarcity, into a new experience of abundance. That abundance is eternal love.
The tithe is preeminently designed as an act of worship by which we take the frozen energy of our lives, place it on the altar of sacrifice, and release it into God’s hand by faith. As we do that God invites us to release our attachment to the experience of life as scarcity. In this act of worship God invites us to experience the new life of abundance in infinite and eternal and ever renewing love.
God tells us we can keep 90 % of our income to spend as we choose. He asks for a tithe, 10%, of our frozen energy to be placed on the altar of sacrifice. It is there that frozen energy will be transformed and released back into our souls as living dynamic and creative life force.
The religious people of Jesus day did not believe this. They believed the money was a bribe to avoid punishment or to get a reward. They gave just enough to impress other people, but never what God had commanded.
The widow did not just give 10%, or 30%, or 50%, or 75%, she gave 100%. She far exceeded what God commanded. The amount was small but it was all she had. It was so small no one noticed, except God.
Jesus declared that those two copper coins that together were worth a single penny were in fact priceless. They far exceeded the value of the silver and gold the wealthy brought out of their abundance. Those two coins were priceless because they represented 100% of the frozen energy the woman held in her hands. Those two coins were priceless because they were a genuine and sincere offering of love and worship.
The widow is enshrined in holy scripture. There are no memorials to her, no churches built in her honor, no hymns or poems or plays. We don’t even know her name. But she shines in the brightness of eternity with a radiance of divine love that reaches out across all cultures and all times.
She put in everything she had. She gave her all to God. She released her meager resources to God and God has blessed those two copper coins in an amazing and ongoing outpouring of grace that will continue until Christ returns to all people every where.
That is love. That is worship. That is what the tithe God invites us to bring to the altar of sacrifice can accomplish when it is presented with the extravagance of steadfast holy love. Out of her poverty, the widow gave her all. God has transformed that gift through eternal love into infinite grace.
For, she out of her poverty gave God everything.
Thursday, October 29, 2009
All Saints 2009
All Saints Day 2009 (Pentecost 22 Proper 26)
"See how he loved him".
Jesus is love in human flesh.
Jesus just doesn’t have love, show love, or act in a loving manner. He is love. The Bible teaches that only love is eternal. Heaven and Earth were created in a moment of time and will at the appointed time come to their fulfillment and end. Love never ends.
Love never ends because love has no beginning. Love is eternal.
God the Father is the one who loves and he loves eternally. God the Son is the Beloved and he is the Beloved eternally. God the Holy Spirit is the personal power and presence of love and his personal power and presence are also eternal.
Jesus came to earth to restore the one thing that brings meaning and purpose to life. That one thing is eternal love. That love comes to us in the personal presence of the eternal Beloved, Jesus Christ.
Lazarus was Jesus’ friend.
As the eternal Beloved Jesus offers his friendship to all people everywhere. As we see in scripture and experience in our lives, many people reject that friendship. Some reject Jesus completely. They want nothing to do with him. They say: stay away from me.
Others want Jesus to be some one other than who he is. They say, I will be your friend only if you drop this idea that you are the Son of God. Be a prophet and I will listen to you. Be a teacher and I will study your words. Be a myth and I will tell your story and sing songs about you. Be who I want you to be and I will honor you, when it is convenient to me.
Still others wanted Jesus to give them rewards. Give me power and I will follow you. Give me wealth and I will proclaim your greatness. Give me pleasure and I will claim your name as my own. Give me what I want when I want it and I will be your friend.
Mary, and Martha, and Lazarus had a very different response to Jesus. They valued him for who he was. They valued him, not as some false image or some insistent demand they brought before him. They were happy just to invite him for dinner and sit in his presence.
We know no detail about Lazarus’ friendship with Jesus. From the scant evidence in scripture we know that Lazarus and his sisters were devout Pharisees. They believed in the resurrection. They practiced sacred hospitality to strangers. They expected the coming of the Messiah. They were rich. And, they enjoyed Jesus’ friendship.
When Lazarus unexpectedly falls ill his sisters send word to Jesus to come to heal the one he loves. But, Jesus delays for two days and does not arrive until Lazarus has been dead for four days. The sisters are overcome by grief and very plainly tell Jesus: if only you had come sooner. If only you had been here. You could have healed him. But, you delayed. You delayed and your friend whom you loved is now dead. Dead is dead. There is nothing that anyone can do.
Even the Pharisees who believed in the resurrection understood that dead is dead. They did not believe in an immortal soul that survived death. The life is the breath and when a person breathes his last breath there is no more life. There is no more person. For Mary and Martha, Lazarus had ceased to exist.
How Jesus responds and what he did reveal the Great Mystery of human existence and Divine Life.
First, Jesus wept. He cried. He grieved. He knew that death was never part of God’s plan and purpose for humanity.
Jesus in his pre incarnate form was there in Eden when Adam and Eve walked in the beauty of holiness. He invited them to make the one real choice that would seal their souls in union with the Eternal Life of God.
He warned them that the choice to separate from God was real and held a terrible consequence. That consequence was death.
He witnessed the choice humanity made to separate from God. He immediately set into motion the plan to restore what humanity rejected. And he knew the terrible price he would have to pay to accomplish that plan.
Now, at Bethany, Jesus stood in the presence of death. Death was not new to Jesus. He had grown up in a world where infant mortality rates were high and life spans were low. As a child and a teen he had attended more funerals than weddings. This was why he had come into the world. He had come because the human race had separated from God. Humanity had separated from the one thing that is eternal: love. And so, humanity now experienced the consequence of separation: death.
Jesus wept. He wept for Lazarus who had died. He wept for the family who grieved. He wept for the people who lived in fear that death was a punishment. He wept for his followers that they still did not receive him for who he was. He wept because he knew he would call Lazarus back from Paradise, from the place of the righteous dead.
He wept because he knew that the choice of eternal life is the choice of love. That choice must be real. The reality of that choice is that some will accept the gift Jesus brings and some will defiantly reject it. He wept because he loved.
Love always conquers death.
Jesus’ love for his friend Lazarus defeated death that day in the tombs outside Bethany. But, many more people in Judea and Galilee had died and were buried. Many more families grieved. Jesus wept for them as well.
Jesus knew the only solution to death was for him to embrace death.
Jesus experienced death on the cross fully and completely, universally and personally. On the cross, Jesus experienced human sin, human separation, and human death. Jesus knows what is to die. He knows this not just in the abstract. He knows this not just in the experience of his own death.
On the cr
oss, Jesus took upon himself both the universal and the particular sin of humanity. On the cross, Jesus took upon himself both the universal and particular death all people experience.
No one dies alone. Jesus is always there. Always. No one dies un noticed. Jesus not only witnesses the death he experiences the death. On the cross, Jesus personally experienced the death of every human being who has ever lived and will ever live.
He did this so he could transform death back into life. The way of transformation is the Way of Divine Love. That love is eternal. Even death cannot over come it.
It is the teaching of the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church that all who are baptized in Christ are one with Christ and live with him forever. Our hope in the face of death is the love Christ brings to us. That love is eternal. Even death cannot dissolve that love.
Jesus knew that even though he was restoring life to his friend for a few more years in this world, it was only a foretaste of the eternal life Lazarus had already received when he embraced Jesus as Lord through faith, through hope, through love.
The gift of God is the love of God. The love of God is Jesus Christ. Jesus is the eternal Beloved of the father.
In Bethany that day, the crowds recognized this reality when Jesus wept. They saw the compassion of God in Jesus tears. They witnessed the power of God as Lazarus came out of the tomb, his arms and head still bound by the grave clothes.
Many believed in him at that moment. Many recognized that the love of God was not just a concept or an impersonal force but fully present in Jesus Christ.
They had said: see how Jesus loved Lazarus. The love precedes the miracle. The love comes to us now in the waters of baptism and in the blessed sacrament of the altar. As we behold the real presence of Christ in Holy Communion claim the reality as you remember the words of the crowds that day in Bethany. See how he loved him. See how he loves you. He loves you with an everlasting love. He is here fully present for you. Receive him by faith and know the reality of eternal love in the living Lord Jesus Christ, this day, now, and forever. Amen.
"See how he loved him".
Jesus is love in human flesh.
Jesus just doesn’t have love, show love, or act in a loving manner. He is love. The Bible teaches that only love is eternal. Heaven and Earth were created in a moment of time and will at the appointed time come to their fulfillment and end. Love never ends.
Love never ends because love has no beginning. Love is eternal.
God the Father is the one who loves and he loves eternally. God the Son is the Beloved and he is the Beloved eternally. God the Holy Spirit is the personal power and presence of love and his personal power and presence are also eternal.
Jesus came to earth to restore the one thing that brings meaning and purpose to life. That one thing is eternal love. That love comes to us in the personal presence of the eternal Beloved, Jesus Christ.
Lazarus was Jesus’ friend.
As the eternal Beloved Jesus offers his friendship to all people everywhere. As we see in scripture and experience in our lives, many people reject that friendship. Some reject Jesus completely. They want nothing to do with him. They say: stay away from me.
Others want Jesus to be some one other than who he is. They say, I will be your friend only if you drop this idea that you are the Son of God. Be a prophet and I will listen to you. Be a teacher and I will study your words. Be a myth and I will tell your story and sing songs about you. Be who I want you to be and I will honor you, when it is convenient to me.
Still others wanted Jesus to give them rewards. Give me power and I will follow you. Give me wealth and I will proclaim your greatness. Give me pleasure and I will claim your name as my own. Give me what I want when I want it and I will be your friend.
Mary, and Martha, and Lazarus had a very different response to Jesus. They valued him for who he was. They valued him, not as some false image or some insistent demand they brought before him. They were happy just to invite him for dinner and sit in his presence.
We know no detail about Lazarus’ friendship with Jesus. From the scant evidence in scripture we know that Lazarus and his sisters were devout Pharisees. They believed in the resurrection. They practiced sacred hospitality to strangers. They expected the coming of the Messiah. They were rich. And, they enjoyed Jesus’ friendship.
When Lazarus unexpectedly falls ill his sisters send word to Jesus to come to heal the one he loves. But, Jesus delays for two days and does not arrive until Lazarus has been dead for four days. The sisters are overcome by grief and very plainly tell Jesus: if only you had come sooner. If only you had been here. You could have healed him. But, you delayed. You delayed and your friend whom you loved is now dead. Dead is dead. There is nothing that anyone can do.
Even the Pharisees who believed in the resurrection understood that dead is dead. They did not believe in an immortal soul that survived death. The life is the breath and when a person breathes his last breath there is no more life. There is no more person. For Mary and Martha, Lazarus had ceased to exist.
How Jesus responds and what he did reveal the Great Mystery of human existence and Divine Life.
First, Jesus wept. He cried. He grieved. He knew that death was never part of God’s plan and purpose for humanity.
Jesus in his pre incarnate form was there in Eden when Adam and Eve walked in the beauty of holiness. He invited them to make the one real choice that would seal their souls in union with the Eternal Life of God.
He warned them that the choice to separate from God was real and held a terrible consequence. That consequence was death.
He witnessed the choice humanity made to separate from God. He immediately set into motion the plan to restore what humanity rejected. And he knew the terrible price he would have to pay to accomplish that plan.
Now, at Bethany, Jesus stood in the presence of death. Death was not new to Jesus. He had grown up in a world where infant mortality rates were high and life spans were low. As a child and a teen he had attended more funerals than weddings. This was why he had come into the world. He had come because the human race had separated from God. Humanity had separated from the one thing that is eternal: love. And so, humanity now experienced the consequence of separation: death.
Jesus wept. He wept for Lazarus who had died. He wept for the family who grieved. He wept for the people who lived in fear that death was a punishment. He wept for his followers that they still did not receive him for who he was. He wept because he knew he would call Lazarus back from Paradise, from the place of the righteous dead.
He wept because he knew that the choice of eternal life is the choice of love. That choice must be real. The reality of that choice is that some will accept the gift Jesus brings and some will defiantly reject it. He wept because he loved.
Love always conquers death.
Jesus’ love for his friend Lazarus defeated death that day in the tombs outside Bethany. But, many more people in Judea and Galilee had died and were buried. Many more families grieved. Jesus wept for them as well.
Jesus knew the only solution to death was for him to embrace death.
Jesus experienced death on the cross fully and completely, universally and personally. On the cross, Jesus experienced human sin, human separation, and human death. Jesus knows what is to die. He knows this not just in the abstract. He knows this not just in the experience of his own death.
On the cr
oss, Jesus took upon himself both the universal and the particular sin of humanity. On the cross, Jesus took upon himself both the universal and particular death all people experience.
No one dies alone. Jesus is always there. Always. No one dies un noticed. Jesus not only witnesses the death he experiences the death. On the cross, Jesus personally experienced the death of every human being who has ever lived and will ever live.
He did this so he could transform death back into life. The way of transformation is the Way of Divine Love. That love is eternal. Even death cannot over come it.
It is the teaching of the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church that all who are baptized in Christ are one with Christ and live with him forever. Our hope in the face of death is the love Christ brings to us. That love is eternal. Even death cannot dissolve that love.
Jesus knew that even though he was restoring life to his friend for a few more years in this world, it was only a foretaste of the eternal life Lazarus had already received when he embraced Jesus as Lord through faith, through hope, through love.
The gift of God is the love of God. The love of God is Jesus Christ. Jesus is the eternal Beloved of the father.
In Bethany that day, the crowds recognized this reality when Jesus wept. They saw the compassion of God in Jesus tears. They witnessed the power of God as Lazarus came out of the tomb, his arms and head still bound by the grave clothes.
Many believed in him at that moment. Many recognized that the love of God was not just a concept or an impersonal force but fully present in Jesus Christ.
They had said: see how Jesus loved Lazarus. The love precedes the miracle. The love comes to us now in the waters of baptism and in the blessed sacrament of the altar. As we behold the real presence of Christ in Holy Communion claim the reality as you remember the words of the crowds that day in Bethany. See how he loved him. See how he loves you. He loves you with an everlasting love. He is here fully present for you. Receive him by faith and know the reality of eternal love in the living Lord Jesus Christ, this day, now, and forever. Amen.
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Pentecost 21
Pentecost 21 Proper 25 Your Faith has made you well.
More often than not, what we believe we perceive. And, what we perceive becomes our reality.
Of course, this is not true in an absolute sense. If you believe your are Peter the Great of Russia it doesn’t mean you are the Czar. It just means your belief determines your reality.
What we believe and how we believe is a window into the condition of our souls. During his earthly ministry Jesus placed a significant emphasis on faith. Most religious leaders of his day emphasized works, obedience to the Law. Most religious leaders emphasized right action as a condition for gaining God’s attention and God’s favor.
The very existence of Jesus Christ tells us that there is nothing we can do to get God’s attention or God’s favor. Jesus is the fulness of God reaching out to all people everywhere. We did not earn his visit. We did not even invite his visit. He came because God is love.
Since there is nothing we can do to gain God’s favor there is nothing we can do to lose it. We do need to choose it. We do need to make a real choice to hear the word of God. We do need to make a conscious decision to receive the gift of God.
The gift of God is divine love. That love does not impose itself on us. God does not force us to love him. God does offer his love to all people everywhere without exception. There is no one whom God does not love.
The problem is not with God. We don’t need to work at getting his attention. We don’t need to merit his love. The problem lies in the human soul.
The human soul has chosen separation. The soul has declared its independence from God. That declaration of independence warps the will into a tight tense demand. That demand is self will. The self will asserts the right and the power to define God however it desires. In that choice, the soul creates layers and layers of distortion in an effort to defend itself from what it fears most.
The soul lost in sin does not want God.
The soul in separation fears that reunification with God means destruction. God does not bring destruction to the soul. God does bring transformation. For the soul to embrace reunification with God it must in some profound way surrender self will to divine will.
The impetus for that surrender of the will is faith. Faith is a gift God the Holy Spirit offers all people every where at all times. Faith is a choice to form the soul according to the plan, the purpose and the pattern of Divine Love.
As we see in the gospel reading this morning, faith requires the identification of our need and the desire to receive the blessing God offers.
This may seem straightforward, even obvious. Yet, through out the scriptures we see how people intentionally miss the mark. We see how people choose to ignore God’s messengers, the prophets. And we see how people choose to ignore God’s only begotten Son, Jesus Christ.
Bartimaeus was blind but he saw the problem. He did not fight against his blindness. He did not play the victim by accusing other people or God for his blindness. His soul was not locked in resentment and self pity. He knew the pain of blindness but he did not cultivate the suffering of shame or of blame.
Neither did he passively submit to his condition. When Jesus approached he called out to him for help. He took action within the limits of his condition. He asked for help. He asked the person who others had said could help him. He perceived another way.
Jesus helps Bartimaeus clarify his intent by asking him what he wants. It may seem like a strange question. But, even more strangely, modern psychologists have discovered a curious phenomena. Some people so strongly identify with their illness that they no longer want to be healed. And some people feel the spiritual pain of separation from God so powerfully that they manifest a physical illness where no physical cause for the illness exists.
So, Jesus invites Bartimaeus to declare his intent. "What do you want, Bartimaeus? What is the longing of your soul?"
We learn that Bartimaeus’ desire for healing was deep seated and profound. It was not casual. It did not proceed from the melodrama of self will. We learn this from the last verse of the passage. Immediately, he regained his sight and followed Jesus on the way.
Jesus told Bartimaeus: go. Your faith has made you well. Your faith has opened your mind and heart and will to the inner depths of your soul. Your faith has rightly identified Jesus as the one who can heal and will heal. Your faith seeks the blessing not just in the outward and visible signs of the things of this world. Your faith is the turning of your soul from self will to divine will.
Jesus says: go. Bartimaeus comes. He follows Jesus. Not every one whom Jesus healed followed Jesus. Bartimaeus did. He followed Jesus in the way. The way is not the road Jesus took as he left town. The way is the new life Jesus offers. It is the new life of grace. It is the new life of faith.
Faith is the reorientation of self will to divine will. Faith is the immersion of the soul in divine love. Faith is the anti dote to fear. Faith is the soul waking up, paying attention, asking questions, seeking answers, standing before the divine presence in Jesus Christ.
Faith is the course correction of a soul lost in separation. It is the course correction from dissolution to integration. It is the course correction from fear, self will and pride to light and life and love.
Faith is not magic. The principle is as you believe so shall you receive. The principle is not: name it and claim it.
Faith opens the soul to be filled with what the soul needs most but cannot see. Faith opens the soul to what the soul desires most but refuses to acknowledge. Faith opens the soul to love. It is the opening of the soul to divine love that allows the mind, heart and will to relax and receive the reality of grace.
For some, certainly for Bartimaeus, the healing of the body follows. For Bartimaeus the healing was immediate. Grace is not magic. Faith is not the will to power to assert control.
Jesus’ question to Bartimaeus is a fundamental question that invites all of us to discern the condition of our soul What do you want? What did you want that created your life to this point? What do you want that is more of the same? What do you want that is different?
Those questions are only a first step. But, they are question that bears repeating. What do you want? What do you want out of life? What do you want from God?
Forget your religious instruction for a minute. Forget what we call today the politically correct answer. Faith requires an honest assessment of the state of the soul.
Jesus once commented that those who believe they are well have no need of a physician. It is important to discern our real demand and our honest desire. Only then, can we turn to God and ask for the grace to receive the transforming power of divine love.
Sin erodes faith if we are not honest. Faith transforms sin if we have the courage to accept the truth where ever the truth may lead. For Bartimaeus that day, the truth was that he was blind. The truth was that he really did want to regain his sight. The truth was not just a series of statements or facts. The truth was a person, is a person, always will be a person: Jesus Christ.
As Bartimaeus opened his soul to the truth through faith, he opened his eyes to receive the healing he desired.. As he received the physical healing his soul opened wide to embrace the spiritual healing. His faith restored his eyes to sight. His faith restored his soul to reunification with God.
Jesus offers the same promise to us. As you believe so shall you receive. Jesus invites us into the new life of grace. He invites us into the new life of faith. He invites us to receive the transforming gift of eternal love.
Jesus invites us into the next step along the way. It is the step of faith. As we take that step, Jesus is already there saying to us. Go. Go forward in faith. Your faith has brought you this far. You faith has made you well.
More often than not, what we believe we perceive. And, what we perceive becomes our reality.
Of course, this is not true in an absolute sense. If you believe your are Peter the Great of Russia it doesn’t mean you are the Czar. It just means your belief determines your reality.
What we believe and how we believe is a window into the condition of our souls. During his earthly ministry Jesus placed a significant emphasis on faith. Most religious leaders of his day emphasized works, obedience to the Law. Most religious leaders emphasized right action as a condition for gaining God’s attention and God’s favor.
The very existence of Jesus Christ tells us that there is nothing we can do to get God’s attention or God’s favor. Jesus is the fulness of God reaching out to all people everywhere. We did not earn his visit. We did not even invite his visit. He came because God is love.
Since there is nothing we can do to gain God’s favor there is nothing we can do to lose it. We do need to choose it. We do need to make a real choice to hear the word of God. We do need to make a conscious decision to receive the gift of God.
The gift of God is divine love. That love does not impose itself on us. God does not force us to love him. God does offer his love to all people everywhere without exception. There is no one whom God does not love.
The problem is not with God. We don’t need to work at getting his attention. We don’t need to merit his love. The problem lies in the human soul.
The human soul has chosen separation. The soul has declared its independence from God. That declaration of independence warps the will into a tight tense demand. That demand is self will. The self will asserts the right and the power to define God however it desires. In that choice, the soul creates layers and layers of distortion in an effort to defend itself from what it fears most.
The soul lost in sin does not want God.
The soul in separation fears that reunification with God means destruction. God does not bring destruction to the soul. God does bring transformation. For the soul to embrace reunification with God it must in some profound way surrender self will to divine will.
The impetus for that surrender of the will is faith. Faith is a gift God the Holy Spirit offers all people every where at all times. Faith is a choice to form the soul according to the plan, the purpose and the pattern of Divine Love.
As we see in the gospel reading this morning, faith requires the identification of our need and the desire to receive the blessing God offers.
This may seem straightforward, even obvious. Yet, through out the scriptures we see how people intentionally miss the mark. We see how people choose to ignore God’s messengers, the prophets. And we see how people choose to ignore God’s only begotten Son, Jesus Christ.
Bartimaeus was blind but he saw the problem. He did not fight against his blindness. He did not play the victim by accusing other people or God for his blindness. His soul was not locked in resentment and self pity. He knew the pain of blindness but he did not cultivate the suffering of shame or of blame.
Neither did he passively submit to his condition. When Jesus approached he called out to him for help. He took action within the limits of his condition. He asked for help. He asked the person who others had said could help him. He perceived another way.
Jesus helps Bartimaeus clarify his intent by asking him what he wants. It may seem like a strange question. But, even more strangely, modern psychologists have discovered a curious phenomena. Some people so strongly identify with their illness that they no longer want to be healed. And some people feel the spiritual pain of separation from God so powerfully that they manifest a physical illness where no physical cause for the illness exists.
So, Jesus invites Bartimaeus to declare his intent. "What do you want, Bartimaeus? What is the longing of your soul?"
We learn that Bartimaeus’ desire for healing was deep seated and profound. It was not casual. It did not proceed from the melodrama of self will. We learn this from the last verse of the passage. Immediately, he regained his sight and followed Jesus on the way.
Jesus told Bartimaeus: go. Your faith has made you well. Your faith has opened your mind and heart and will to the inner depths of your soul. Your faith has rightly identified Jesus as the one who can heal and will heal. Your faith seeks the blessing not just in the outward and visible signs of the things of this world. Your faith is the turning of your soul from self will to divine will.
Jesus says: go. Bartimaeus comes. He follows Jesus. Not every one whom Jesus healed followed Jesus. Bartimaeus did. He followed Jesus in the way. The way is not the road Jesus took as he left town. The way is the new life Jesus offers. It is the new life of grace. It is the new life of faith.
Faith is the reorientation of self will to divine will. Faith is the immersion of the soul in divine love. Faith is the anti dote to fear. Faith is the soul waking up, paying attention, asking questions, seeking answers, standing before the divine presence in Jesus Christ.
Faith is the course correction of a soul lost in separation. It is the course correction from dissolution to integration. It is the course correction from fear, self will and pride to light and life and love.
Faith is not magic. The principle is as you believe so shall you receive. The principle is not: name it and claim it.
Faith opens the soul to be filled with what the soul needs most but cannot see. Faith opens the soul to what the soul desires most but refuses to acknowledge. Faith opens the soul to love. It is the opening of the soul to divine love that allows the mind, heart and will to relax and receive the reality of grace.
For some, certainly for Bartimaeus, the healing of the body follows. For Bartimaeus the healing was immediate. Grace is not magic. Faith is not the will to power to assert control.
Jesus’ question to Bartimaeus is a fundamental question that invites all of us to discern the condition of our soul What do you want? What did you want that created your life to this point? What do you want that is more of the same? What do you want that is different?
Those questions are only a first step. But, they are question that bears repeating. What do you want? What do you want out of life? What do you want from God?
Forget your religious instruction for a minute. Forget what we call today the politically correct answer. Faith requires an honest assessment of the state of the soul.
Jesus once commented that those who believe they are well have no need of a physician. It is important to discern our real demand and our honest desire. Only then, can we turn to God and ask for the grace to receive the transforming power of divine love.
Sin erodes faith if we are not honest. Faith transforms sin if we have the courage to accept the truth where ever the truth may lead. For Bartimaeus that day, the truth was that he was blind. The truth was that he really did want to regain his sight. The truth was not just a series of statements or facts. The truth was a person, is a person, always will be a person: Jesus Christ.
As Bartimaeus opened his soul to the truth through faith, he opened his eyes to receive the healing he desired.. As he received the physical healing his soul opened wide to embrace the spiritual healing. His faith restored his eyes to sight. His faith restored his soul to reunification with God.
Jesus offers the same promise to us. As you believe so shall you receive. Jesus invites us into the new life of grace. He invites us into the new life of faith. He invites us to receive the transforming gift of eternal love.
Jesus invites us into the next step along the way. It is the step of faith. As we take that step, Jesus is already there saying to us. Go. Go forward in faith. Your faith has brought you this far. You faith has made you well.
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Pentecost 20
Pentecost 20 Proper 24
The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve.
The disciples were religious consumers.
A religious consumer looks at God and makes the statement: do this for me. James and John were not unique in this aspect of their religious life. Their attitude toward God formed their relationship with Jesus.
James and John came to Jesus with a very blunt and self serving statement: we want you to do for us whatever we ask. They probably believed it was time to cash in on their close relationship with Jesus. Along with Peter they formed an inner circle who received special training and special revelation.
James and John knew Jesus was going to Jerusalem. They knew things were going to happen. They wanted to be in on the action. They wanted to secure their place in the new kingdom Jesus was about to establish. They had their list of goals. At the top of the list was power. They wanted Jesus to make them his vice regents. They wanted to rule over the new kingdom in Jesus’ name with absolute authority to give orders and to make laws.
The other disciples were angry with the brothers. They were angry because James and John had the effrontery to ask for what they all wanted. They asked first. The disciples shared the brother’s desires and demands. They were angry because they were jealous and envious.
Jesus had been teaching the disciples that the kingdom of God is not of this world. Jesus had been revealing that his Heavenly Father’s Plan of Salvation was not a political program. The Plan of Salvation is the fulfillment of the Torah, the Law of Moses. That law has two parts: the commandments and the sacrifices.
Jesus obeyed all of the commandments in thought, word and deed. He had formed his life by the prayer: Father, not my will but Thy will be done. Jesus was now ready to fulfill the sacrificial aspect of the Torah. Jesus was about to offer his perfect life as the one, pure, perfect and final sacrifice for sin.
James and John and the other disciples ignored all of this. They heard the teaching and immediately distorted it to fit into their basic demand. That basic demand is the voice of the separated soul that cries out from the pain of separation: what’s in it for me? My will be done. Give me the power. Me.
Consumer religion is the corruption of God’s call to all people everywhere to hear the words of Jesus Christ and to heed the words of Jesus Christ: I have come not to be served but to serve.
Consumer religion, regardless of the religious label, starts from the place of separation and lives from the place of rebellion. It comes to God, life, other people with the demand: do what I ask of you. My will be done.
That voice perpetuates the pain of separation from God.
For, that voice simply sees God as an extension of its own self will, fear and pride.
The disciples sought rule. They sought power. They vied with each other to become the Messiah’s co regents and co rulers.
Jesus will have none of it. Jesus is the suffering servant prophesied by Isaiah. Jesus is the co eternal Beloved who came, who comes, and who will return with the fulness of divine love, divine compassion, divine holiness.
James and John reveal to us, to all people, the great challenge in the spiritual life. The challenge is two fold. The first challenge is to accept Jesus as the one who reunites a separated, fallen, and lost humanity with the eternal love of God.
Our sin nature wants Jesus to be anything other than who he is. Our culture wants Jesus to be a teacher, a prophet or a myth. Our sin nature rejects the clear and concise message that Jesus is the Divine Presence. Our sin nature rejects the reality that our relationship with Jesus Christ is the meaning and purpose of our lives.
James and John wanted Jesus to be a new King David, a warrior king who would destroy Israel’s enemies and plunder the wealth of the gentile nations to enrich the chosen. This is the demand of a soul that seeks to dominate. This is the demand of a soul that is empty and seeks to be filled with wealth, power, pleasure, prestige.
The human soul was never designed to be filled with these things. Consumer religion is cotton candy religion. It is bright, and sweet and fun. A little bit brings temporary pleasure. Too much bring sickness. An exclusive diet brings suffering and death.
The human soul was designed by God the Father according to the pattern of God the Son to be a living Temple for God the Holy Spirit. That is why the kingdom of God is not about what I am getting to make me happy or powerful. The kingdom of God is the total immersion of the soul in eternal love.That total immersion opens the way to the second part of our Heavenly Father’s Plan of Salvation: transformation.
There are three initial levels of transformation: the mind, the heart, the will.
Moses and the prophets repeatedly and consistently taught and warned: if you place God second in your life you place God last. If you place God last you are starving your soul of the very essence that created it, sustains it, and expands it.
Jesus repeats this teaching over and over and over again in many different ways. Here, in this passage, Jesus warns the disciples and through them- us, that the voice of demand is the cry of a soul that is standing at the gate to a great banquet and starving because it refuses to accept the invitation to be filled.
How we believe does matter. How James and John viewed Jesus revealed the emptiness of their soul. Consumer religion always demands: do it my way. Give me what I want, on my terms and at my time.
Jesus invites us to consider another way. It is the way of service. It is the way of surrender to the divine will. It is the way of renewing our minds in the Word of God so we may take every thought captive and transform the negativity and frustration of our thoughts into clarity.
It is the way of the transformation of our desires through the total immersion of the soul in divine love.
James and John didn’t understand. Their culture had no place for the real Jesus. Their way of thinking could not understand the concept that the all powerful God would not accomplish his purpose in the world in any way other that through power and dominance. They were selfish and in their selfishness they were lost. They were filled with pride that they would rule. Their pride turned to fear when Jesus was arrested. When Jesus did not use his power but rather his love to meet the anger and fear and demand of human sin.
John finally did get it. As he ran away in panic from the Garden of Gethsemane John felt the reality of divine love. He turned back and with Holy Mother Mary followed Jesus to the cross.
The message of the servant is two fold. To serve is not to demand. To serve is to ask the question: how may I help.
The second aspect of a servant is personal transformation. That question is: where must I change? Where do I need to grow?
Consumer religion redefines Jesus according to the demands of the separated soul. It is the way of command and control. It is the soul both asking and demanding: what’s in it for me? In the end, consumer religion consumes the soul and leaves it contracted, collapsed in on itself, broken, empty and lost.
Jesus offers a different way of living. It is the way of service. It is the way of by which the soul empties itself in serving others. As the soul emptiness itself in service the Holy Spirit fills the soul with grace, joy, and peace. That infilling of the Holy Spirit brings expansion to the soul. In that expansion we experience the fullness of life Jesus promised.
The choice is always ours. Jesus invites us to choose wisely as he reminds us that he did not come to be served through command and control. Jesus came to serve through divine love and compassion. The heart of the servant is the heart overflowing with eternal love. It is the heat overflowing with eternal life.
The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve.
The disciples were religious consumers.
A religious consumer looks at God and makes the statement: do this for me. James and John were not unique in this aspect of their religious life. Their attitude toward God formed their relationship with Jesus.
James and John came to Jesus with a very blunt and self serving statement: we want you to do for us whatever we ask. They probably believed it was time to cash in on their close relationship with Jesus. Along with Peter they formed an inner circle who received special training and special revelation.
James and John knew Jesus was going to Jerusalem. They knew things were going to happen. They wanted to be in on the action. They wanted to secure their place in the new kingdom Jesus was about to establish. They had their list of goals. At the top of the list was power. They wanted Jesus to make them his vice regents. They wanted to rule over the new kingdom in Jesus’ name with absolute authority to give orders and to make laws.
The other disciples were angry with the brothers. They were angry because James and John had the effrontery to ask for what they all wanted. They asked first. The disciples shared the brother’s desires and demands. They were angry because they were jealous and envious.
Jesus had been teaching the disciples that the kingdom of God is not of this world. Jesus had been revealing that his Heavenly Father’s Plan of Salvation was not a political program. The Plan of Salvation is the fulfillment of the Torah, the Law of Moses. That law has two parts: the commandments and the sacrifices.
Jesus obeyed all of the commandments in thought, word and deed. He had formed his life by the prayer: Father, not my will but Thy will be done. Jesus was now ready to fulfill the sacrificial aspect of the Torah. Jesus was about to offer his perfect life as the one, pure, perfect and final sacrifice for sin.
James and John and the other disciples ignored all of this. They heard the teaching and immediately distorted it to fit into their basic demand. That basic demand is the voice of the separated soul that cries out from the pain of separation: what’s in it for me? My will be done. Give me the power. Me.
Consumer religion is the corruption of God’s call to all people everywhere to hear the words of Jesus Christ and to heed the words of Jesus Christ: I have come not to be served but to serve.
Consumer religion, regardless of the religious label, starts from the place of separation and lives from the place of rebellion. It comes to God, life, other people with the demand: do what I ask of you. My will be done.
That voice perpetuates the pain of separation from God.
For, that voice simply sees God as an extension of its own self will, fear and pride.
The disciples sought rule. They sought power. They vied with each other to become the Messiah’s co regents and co rulers.
Jesus will have none of it. Jesus is the suffering servant prophesied by Isaiah. Jesus is the co eternal Beloved who came, who comes, and who will return with the fulness of divine love, divine compassion, divine holiness.
James and John reveal to us, to all people, the great challenge in the spiritual life. The challenge is two fold. The first challenge is to accept Jesus as the one who reunites a separated, fallen, and lost humanity with the eternal love of God.
Our sin nature wants Jesus to be anything other than who he is. Our culture wants Jesus to be a teacher, a prophet or a myth. Our sin nature rejects the clear and concise message that Jesus is the Divine Presence. Our sin nature rejects the reality that our relationship with Jesus Christ is the meaning and purpose of our lives.
James and John wanted Jesus to be a new King David, a warrior king who would destroy Israel’s enemies and plunder the wealth of the gentile nations to enrich the chosen. This is the demand of a soul that seeks to dominate. This is the demand of a soul that is empty and seeks to be filled with wealth, power, pleasure, prestige.
The human soul was never designed to be filled with these things. Consumer religion is cotton candy religion. It is bright, and sweet and fun. A little bit brings temporary pleasure. Too much bring sickness. An exclusive diet brings suffering and death.
The human soul was designed by God the Father according to the pattern of God the Son to be a living Temple for God the Holy Spirit. That is why the kingdom of God is not about what I am getting to make me happy or powerful. The kingdom of God is the total immersion of the soul in eternal love.That total immersion opens the way to the second part of our Heavenly Father’s Plan of Salvation: transformation.
There are three initial levels of transformation: the mind, the heart, the will.
Moses and the prophets repeatedly and consistently taught and warned: if you place God second in your life you place God last. If you place God last you are starving your soul of the very essence that created it, sustains it, and expands it.
Jesus repeats this teaching over and over and over again in many different ways. Here, in this passage, Jesus warns the disciples and through them- us, that the voice of demand is the cry of a soul that is standing at the gate to a great banquet and starving because it refuses to accept the invitation to be filled.
How we believe does matter. How James and John viewed Jesus revealed the emptiness of their soul. Consumer religion always demands: do it my way. Give me what I want, on my terms and at my time.
Jesus invites us to consider another way. It is the way of service. It is the way of surrender to the divine will. It is the way of renewing our minds in the Word of God so we may take every thought captive and transform the negativity and frustration of our thoughts into clarity.
It is the way of the transformation of our desires through the total immersion of the soul in divine love.
James and John didn’t understand. Their culture had no place for the real Jesus. Their way of thinking could not understand the concept that the all powerful God would not accomplish his purpose in the world in any way other that through power and dominance. They were selfish and in their selfishness they were lost. They were filled with pride that they would rule. Their pride turned to fear when Jesus was arrested. When Jesus did not use his power but rather his love to meet the anger and fear and demand of human sin.
John finally did get it. As he ran away in panic from the Garden of Gethsemane John felt the reality of divine love. He turned back and with Holy Mother Mary followed Jesus to the cross.
The message of the servant is two fold. To serve is not to demand. To serve is to ask the question: how may I help.
The second aspect of a servant is personal transformation. That question is: where must I change? Where do I need to grow?
Consumer religion redefines Jesus according to the demands of the separated soul. It is the way of command and control. It is the soul both asking and demanding: what’s in it for me? In the end, consumer religion consumes the soul and leaves it contracted, collapsed in on itself, broken, empty and lost.
Jesus offers a different way of living. It is the way of service. It is the way of by which the soul empties itself in serving others. As the soul emptiness itself in service the Holy Spirit fills the soul with grace, joy, and peace. That infilling of the Holy Spirit brings expansion to the soul. In that expansion we experience the fullness of life Jesus promised.
The choice is always ours. Jesus invites us to choose wisely as he reminds us that he did not come to be served through command and control. Jesus came to serve through divine love and compassion. The heart of the servant is the heart overflowing with eternal love. It is the heat overflowing with eternal life.
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Pentecost 19
Pentecost 19 Proper 23 You lack one thing.
He had it all. He was young. Strong. Rich. Righteous.
Other people admired him, envied him, wanted to be like him. But, he sensed he was missing something. He was good but he feared he was not good enough. He felt an unease. He felt a lack. He felt lost.
So he came to Jesus. He just didn’t come casually or calmly. He ran. He ran with the urgency that burned in the depth of his soul. He fell at Jesus’ feet in a sign of great humility. The scripture records few similar examples of people running to Jesus and then kneeling before him.
The young man even addresses Jesus in the most reverent and defferential way. He says. " good teacher". Then, he does what so few did. He does what even Jesus’ closest disciples seldom did. He asks a question. Not just any question. He asks the ultimate question. What must I do to be saved?
At this point he is so close to the answer. So close, and yet so far. He is so close because he comes to the right person, at the right time, with the right attitude. But, he comes with the wrong question. He asks "what?". He should be asking "who?"
Now, there are no bad questions. Jesus not only welcomes all questions he invites them. And, Jesus knows that the first level of questioning comes from the confusion of the mind. There is an internal and an external source to this confusion.
In our day we call the external source of confusion information overload. Since the time of Noah there has never been a civilization in such a state of information overload as ours. Yet, even in the pre technological world of first century Judea there were dozens of conflicting claims to truth and thousands of conflicting laws, schools, teachers and religious systems.
Jesus understands all of this and he cuts to the quick of the matter when he asks the young man to move into greater clarity, to move from the question "what?’ to the question "who?’
"Why do you call me good?" Jesus asks. Only God is good. Only God is good because only God is eternally self existing steadfast holy love. People live from the place of self will, fear, and pride. People live with the illusions of dualism. The greatest of these illusions is that God is about rewards and punishment.
Jesus’ question to the young man is designed to reach past the confusion of a mind on information overload. It is a question designed to penetrate deep past the level of emotion and will. It is a question for the soul. For that place that defines who we are and gives shape to who we aspire to become.
Jesus’ question is an invitation to journey into the depths of the soul. It is there that we discover who we are. It is there that we discover the darkness of separation. And, it is there we discern the pattern by which, through which and for which we were created. That pattern is the co-eternal Word of God. That pattern is incarnate in Jesus Christ.
And, that is why the young man’s question must move from "what?" to "who?"
Salvation is not about credits and debits. It is not something we can earn. It is not a fundamental human right. Salvation is a relationship. Salvation is the total immersion of the soul in the eternal love of God in Jesus Christ.
Jesus prepares the way by reminding the young man of his right actions. You know the commandments, Jesus states. You know the standards of behavior. According to the religious experts of the day the young man was righteous through his right behavior. But, he still felt the emptiness. He still felt the fear. He still felt lost.
I suspect there is a plaintiff cry of desperation in the young man as he looks at Jesus and says: I have done all of these things since childhood. The unspoken plea is: why is this not enough? Why am I still lost? What more do I need to do?
He is looking for a law he may have missed. He is looking for a book, a ritual, a spiritual discipline. He is looking for one more thing to do to assure him he has done enough. He has come to the right person at the right time with the right attitude but with the wrong question.
Jesus knows that the more he follows this path of striving the less satisfied he will become. He needs to get off the path of striving. He needs to surrender his belief in a God of rewards and punishments. He needs a personal relationship with God in Jesus Christ. He needs the total immersion of his soul in divine love and compassion.
So, Jesus starts by answering the "what?’ question first. What must I do to be saved? The young man asks. Jesus replies, "what" you must do is sell all of your possessions and give your money to the poor," Jesus replies.
I’m not sure the young man heard the second part of Jesus’ answer. The real power is in the second part. It is there that Jesus reveals the Great Mystery of divine love. It this there that Jesus affirms the young man’s deepest longing.
Follow me," Jesus says. Follow me. Salvation is not about laws or rituals or schools or disciplines. All of those things have their place. Salvation is not in selling your possessions. The possessions are the obstacle to what you seek. For you, you cannot find what you seek until you remove the barriers to self understanding. You cannot even understand that the question of salvation is not "what?’ but"who?"
It is here that Jesus re affirms his basic message. I am not here just to tell you the truth. I am the truth. I am not here just to show you the way, I am the way. I am not here just to examine the rules that govern life, I am life.
The young man received an answer to a question he was not ready to ask. It was the answer to his deepest longing and most profound need. But, at least at this time, he could not follow Jesus into the soul to perceive the state of his soul.
The obstacle was more than the possessions. The obstacle was the young man’s desire to achieve salvation as a work that merited him reward. To give up his wealth was to give up his belief that righteousness is something I do that requires God to bless me. The obstacle was his belief that the wealth was the blessing.
The choice was to preserve the "I" in the question: "what must I do to be saved."
He had constructed that "I" with his actions and his wealth. It was that "I" that kept him from God. It was that "I" that Jesus asked him to surrender by selling his possessions. Salvation is not a reward. Salvation is a relationship. The relationship produces a new way of living, a new life, a new "I" that finds its true nature in communion with Jesus Christ.
He was so close. He identified that he had a lack. He identified the one who could help him. He made a real choice to walk away from his moment of grace. He chose to keep his belief and trust in his own actions and in his own wealth. He chose to remain lost in his own self will, fear and pride. He lacked the faith that Jesus not only had the answer for his question but was the answer.
He wasn’t the first to walk away. He won’t be the last. In the internal commentary of scripture the disciples are bewildered. After all, they, too, believed as the young man believed. They too believed in a God of rewards and punishments. They too embraced a consumer religion that would give them the things they desired. Despite their confusion, they made a choice the young man did not make. They chose to follow Jesus.
We don’t know what happened to the young man after he walked away from Jesus. We know Jesus loved him. We know the Holy Spirit continued to offer the young man opportunities to come to Jesus. We don’t know the result for him.
The real question is not what happened to the young man. The real question is have we chosen to follow Jesus? What obstacles stand in our way from receiving the gift of reunification with the Father, through the Son by the transforming presence of the Holy Spirit? What do we still lack that inhibits our joy in the new life Jesus offers us?
Jesus speaks to us today from the words of the scriptures. His message to us is an invitation to move beyond the confusion of the mind and the conflicting desires of the heart. He invites us to come to him with the questions that reside in the depth of our souls.
The portal to the soul Jesus offers us today is the place of need, the place of discontent, the place of feeling lost. You lack one thing, Jesus says. Come, and follow me.
He had it all. He was young. Strong. Rich. Righteous.
Other people admired him, envied him, wanted to be like him. But, he sensed he was missing something. He was good but he feared he was not good enough. He felt an unease. He felt a lack. He felt lost.
So he came to Jesus. He just didn’t come casually or calmly. He ran. He ran with the urgency that burned in the depth of his soul. He fell at Jesus’ feet in a sign of great humility. The scripture records few similar examples of people running to Jesus and then kneeling before him.
The young man even addresses Jesus in the most reverent and defferential way. He says. " good teacher". Then, he does what so few did. He does what even Jesus’ closest disciples seldom did. He asks a question. Not just any question. He asks the ultimate question. What must I do to be saved?
At this point he is so close to the answer. So close, and yet so far. He is so close because he comes to the right person, at the right time, with the right attitude. But, he comes with the wrong question. He asks "what?". He should be asking "who?"
Now, there are no bad questions. Jesus not only welcomes all questions he invites them. And, Jesus knows that the first level of questioning comes from the confusion of the mind. There is an internal and an external source to this confusion.
In our day we call the external source of confusion information overload. Since the time of Noah there has never been a civilization in such a state of information overload as ours. Yet, even in the pre technological world of first century Judea there were dozens of conflicting claims to truth and thousands of conflicting laws, schools, teachers and religious systems.
Jesus understands all of this and he cuts to the quick of the matter when he asks the young man to move into greater clarity, to move from the question "what?’ to the question "who?’
"Why do you call me good?" Jesus asks. Only God is good. Only God is good because only God is eternally self existing steadfast holy love. People live from the place of self will, fear, and pride. People live with the illusions of dualism. The greatest of these illusions is that God is about rewards and punishment.
Jesus’ question to the young man is designed to reach past the confusion of a mind on information overload. It is a question designed to penetrate deep past the level of emotion and will. It is a question for the soul. For that place that defines who we are and gives shape to who we aspire to become.
Jesus’ question is an invitation to journey into the depths of the soul. It is there that we discover who we are. It is there that we discover the darkness of separation. And, it is there we discern the pattern by which, through which and for which we were created. That pattern is the co-eternal Word of God. That pattern is incarnate in Jesus Christ.
And, that is why the young man’s question must move from "what?" to "who?"
Salvation is not about credits and debits. It is not something we can earn. It is not a fundamental human right. Salvation is a relationship. Salvation is the total immersion of the soul in the eternal love of God in Jesus Christ.
Jesus prepares the way by reminding the young man of his right actions. You know the commandments, Jesus states. You know the standards of behavior. According to the religious experts of the day the young man was righteous through his right behavior. But, he still felt the emptiness. He still felt the fear. He still felt lost.
I suspect there is a plaintiff cry of desperation in the young man as he looks at Jesus and says: I have done all of these things since childhood. The unspoken plea is: why is this not enough? Why am I still lost? What more do I need to do?
He is looking for a law he may have missed. He is looking for a book, a ritual, a spiritual discipline. He is looking for one more thing to do to assure him he has done enough. He has come to the right person at the right time with the right attitude but with the wrong question.
Jesus knows that the more he follows this path of striving the less satisfied he will become. He needs to get off the path of striving. He needs to surrender his belief in a God of rewards and punishments. He needs a personal relationship with God in Jesus Christ. He needs the total immersion of his soul in divine love and compassion.
So, Jesus starts by answering the "what?’ question first. What must I do to be saved? The young man asks. Jesus replies, "what" you must do is sell all of your possessions and give your money to the poor," Jesus replies.
I’m not sure the young man heard the second part of Jesus’ answer. The real power is in the second part. It is there that Jesus reveals the Great Mystery of divine love. It this there that Jesus affirms the young man’s deepest longing.
Follow me," Jesus says. Follow me. Salvation is not about laws or rituals or schools or disciplines. All of those things have their place. Salvation is not in selling your possessions. The possessions are the obstacle to what you seek. For you, you cannot find what you seek until you remove the barriers to self understanding. You cannot even understand that the question of salvation is not "what?’ but"who?"
It is here that Jesus re affirms his basic message. I am not here just to tell you the truth. I am the truth. I am not here just to show you the way, I am the way. I am not here just to examine the rules that govern life, I am life.
The young man received an answer to a question he was not ready to ask. It was the answer to his deepest longing and most profound need. But, at least at this time, he could not follow Jesus into the soul to perceive the state of his soul.
The obstacle was more than the possessions. The obstacle was the young man’s desire to achieve salvation as a work that merited him reward. To give up his wealth was to give up his belief that righteousness is something I do that requires God to bless me. The obstacle was his belief that the wealth was the blessing.
The choice was to preserve the "I" in the question: "what must I do to be saved."
He had constructed that "I" with his actions and his wealth. It was that "I" that kept him from God. It was that "I" that Jesus asked him to surrender by selling his possessions. Salvation is not a reward. Salvation is a relationship. The relationship produces a new way of living, a new life, a new "I" that finds its true nature in communion with Jesus Christ.
He was so close. He identified that he had a lack. He identified the one who could help him. He made a real choice to walk away from his moment of grace. He chose to keep his belief and trust in his own actions and in his own wealth. He chose to remain lost in his own self will, fear and pride. He lacked the faith that Jesus not only had the answer for his question but was the answer.
He wasn’t the first to walk away. He won’t be the last. In the internal commentary of scripture the disciples are bewildered. After all, they, too, believed as the young man believed. They too believed in a God of rewards and punishments. They too embraced a consumer religion that would give them the things they desired. Despite their confusion, they made a choice the young man did not make. They chose to follow Jesus.
We don’t know what happened to the young man after he walked away from Jesus. We know Jesus loved him. We know the Holy Spirit continued to offer the young man opportunities to come to Jesus. We don’t know the result for him.
The real question is not what happened to the young man. The real question is have we chosen to follow Jesus? What obstacles stand in our way from receiving the gift of reunification with the Father, through the Son by the transforming presence of the Holy Spirit? What do we still lack that inhibits our joy in the new life Jesus offers us?
Jesus speaks to us today from the words of the scriptures. His message to us is an invitation to move beyond the confusion of the mind and the conflicting desires of the heart. He invites us to come to him with the questions that reside in the depth of our souls.
The portal to the soul Jesus offers us today is the place of need, the place of discontent, the place of feeling lost. You lack one thing, Jesus says. Come, and follow me.
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Pentecost 18
Pentecost 18 Proper 21
I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.
Children love gifts.
Children loved to be surprised. They delight in exploring and discovering. They are just as happy to play with the boxes and the gift wrap as with the expensive toy we spent so much time tracking down. They are just as happy stopping a soccer game and observing a bug or butterfly or a formation of clouds that look like a dragon.
This can be exasperating for adults who have other values and skills we want our children to learn. We are focused on goals, resumes, service points. We know we know what it takes to succeed. We know the demands of a competitive society. We want the best for children. We know that imagination and play need to be directed, formed and fit to function, set to goals.
In Jesus day adults expected children to study hard, work hard, learn what they needed to know and prepare for the responsibilities of adulthood that would come at around age 13 to 15. Marriage. Military service. Work. Paying taxes. Caring for elderly relatives. There was too much for a child to do and too little time to allow other things to intrude.
The disciples knew all of this. When some people asked Jesus to bless their children the disciples were scandalized. The children were too young, too frivolous, too unformed to benefit from the teacher’s knowledge and wisdom.
As was often the case, Jesus viewed the occasion from a very different perspective. As was often the case, Jesus used the occasion to reveal just how different the principles of the kingdom are from the principles of the world, the culture, the surrounding society.
The essence of Jesus’ revelation about God is always the same because God is always the same. God is love.
By his very existence Jesus reveals that the One God is love. Jesus is the co eternal Beloved of the Father. The One God is eternal love. Because the one God is eternal love there was never a time when The Father did not love the Son and the Holy Spirit personify that infinite and eternal love of the Father.
When human beings consider God, if we consider God at all, we tend to look at God’s attributes. We look at God’s immense knowledge. But, God is not knowledge. We look at God’s power. But God is not power. We look at God’s Law. But God is not Law. That is why God forbids people from crafting images or idols and calling them "god".
An idol is merely the outward and visible sign of a human desire or demand. The Greeks who developed beautiful art, poetry and religious rituals knew this. They knew their gods and goddesses represented their own inner impulses, desires and demands. The Greek myths are still powerful and potent in their description of the human psyche. But the Greeks lacked what all people lacked. The lacked a personal experience with the Beloved, the Logos, the co eternal Son of God.
The religious people in Jerusalem, Judea and Galilee experienced the same deprivation of the spirit. The only difference was that the Greeks and other pagans knew their spiritual poverty and the depth of their spiritual pain. The religious leadership in Israel did not.
The disciples were modeling themselves after the very people who despised and rejected them. They expected Jesus to keep to the same old religious script that had been handed down over the generations from the time of Cain. It is the script that defines God according to our needs. It is the script that creates cafeteria Faith and a consumer religion. It is the script that honors God with words but keeps God at a distance lest his presence intrude into the real world of where we direct our time and attention.
So, some people brought their children to Jesus to receive a blessing. The disciples knew this was improper. They even knew they knew this was wrong. Jesus used the occasion to remind his disciples and all who will hear this story one simple and elegant truth.
God is love. God is relationship. All who seek God’s blessing are welcome. All who truly seek God for who he is will find him. And, they will find him in Jesus Christ.
The children delighted to be in Jesus’ presence. The children were open to the blessing. When Jesus teaches that we all must receive him as the children received him he is breaking the pattern of religious law and expectation that seeks to define God by his attributes and by a set of rewards or punishments.
That is what really scandalized the disciples. They had left their jobs, their families and their comforts to follow Jesus. They thought they were working for a reward. They thought they were going through a basic training to take over the religious and political power structure.
That isn’t why Jesus came. That isn’t who God is. God is love. His gifts are extravagant and free to all who desire to receive them. His message to us is clear and distinct and unambiguous.
Jesus welcomed the little children to receive the blessing. They came to him with no preconceived theology, demands, expectations or fears. They came with a mind and a heart to receive the blessing Jesus offered. They had nothing of earthly value to contribute to the Messianic enterprise. Jesus was giving them nothing their parents could place on a college application, no trophy, no certificate of accomplishment or merit.
It was moment of grace as pure and simple as can be possible in this world of separation.
To come to Christ with the mind of a child is not to act childish. Childish behavior is very obvious to all who have raised children or who are raising children. The whining and the complaining and the demands of the selfish will are all too evident and all too challenging and all too close to the surface of our own adult experience of life.
In this story, it was the disciples who were acting childish. They were not open to receiving Jesus’ teaching at this moment. They in fact thought they needed to correct Jesus from making a mistake.
Their idea about God was still too small. Still too narrow. Still too grounded in the categories of rewards and punishments. Jesus used this occasion to remind the disciples that the old covenant category of grace is still the same reality in the new covenant. Jesus wanted to remind his disciples that to be chosen of God is not to be chosen for rule but for service.
The reality of God is the reality of Jesus Christ inviting all people everywhere to receive a personal and life transforming relationship with God.
As Jesus blesses the little children he teaches his disciples and us: God is love. God wants you to be in a relationship with the co eternal Beloved. God wants you to receive the great gift of blessing Jesus brings into the world.
What the disciples needed at that moment was to listen. They needed to ask: what does this mean? They needed to hear Jesus with fresh ears. They needed to see Jesus with fresh eyes. They needed to become questioning and curious as children.
They had acknowledged Jesus was the Messiah. They had heard the voice of God the Father proclaim that Jesus is the Beloved. It was clear Jesus did not accept their understanding of God or their expectations of God.
If there was a problem it was not with Jesus. The problem had to be within the disciples. And of course, the immediate problem was their certainty that they knew all about God, the Kingdom of God, and the role of the Messiah. Their minds were closed. Their hearts were rigid. Their wills were inflexible.
Jesus points them to the little children, pre school age, early elementary age, and shows his disciples the wonder and delight in the children’s eyes. The awe and excitement in their approach. Their joy as Jesus reaches out to place his hands on theirs heads to confer the blessing.
This is what Jesus wanted from his disciples. He never got it before the crucifixion. He dealt with their fears, frustrations and childish demands but never received their child like delight in the gift of divine love and compassion. He knew this was part of his mission. He also knew that one of them would finally come to the place of divine love in the last hours of his life.
For three years, he worked with the disciple knowing they would not and could not receive the blessing until after the torments of the crucifixion. They would only begin to receive the blessing in the resurrection and at the day of Pentecost.
Jesus delights in our accomplishments but he passionately desires our love. There are only four basic ways we can give love to Jesus. They are worship, prayer, Bible study and service to others.
How are you showing your love for Jesus Christ? Are you coming to Jesus with childlike delight to receive his blessing? Are you stuck in childish demands of rewards and childish fears of punishment?
The blessing God offers to all people is not in the things of this world. They are there for us to choose if we decide we really want them. God will not block our ability to make money and to enjoy the legitimate pleasures and diversions of this life.
The blessing God offers is himself. It is his eternal love. It is the co eternal Beloved incarnate in Jesus Christ and present to us in the blessed sacrament of the altar.
The kingdom of heaven is an eternal relationship with the infinite transcendent reality of God incarnate in Jesus Christ. That relationship begins at the baptismal font. That relationship is nourished by the blessed sacrament of the altar.
We grow in grace as we choose to grow in love. We grow in love as we choose to immerse ourselves with delight and with passion in the real presence of Jesus Christ. That real presence can, if we choose, change every aspect of our lives.
That real presence can transform marriages, friendships, the family dynamic. That real presence manifests for us a new way of living. It creates a new culture, the culture of life, the culture of grace, the culture of blessing.
How do we avail ourselves of this new life? It requires a choice to come to Jesus as the little children came to him: open, trusting, focused, expecting nothing less and nothing more than Jesus placing his hand on their heads and saying: you are my beloved. You are blessed.
There is a fundamental Biblical principle that says we reap what we sow. How we choose to live our lives, where we choose to spend our limited time and attention, forms our souls. In that context, every choice we make is an eternal choice that brings us closer to God or perpetuates separation.
It is not about rewards or punishments. It is about the real choice to live in the real presence of our Living Lord Jesus Christ. The real choice is to live the blessing.
Jesus shows us the way as he says to us and to all people everywhere: I tell you, whoever does not recieve the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.
I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.
Children love gifts.
Children loved to be surprised. They delight in exploring and discovering. They are just as happy to play with the boxes and the gift wrap as with the expensive toy we spent so much time tracking down. They are just as happy stopping a soccer game and observing a bug or butterfly or a formation of clouds that look like a dragon.
This can be exasperating for adults who have other values and skills we want our children to learn. We are focused on goals, resumes, service points. We know we know what it takes to succeed. We know the demands of a competitive society. We want the best for children. We know that imagination and play need to be directed, formed and fit to function, set to goals.
In Jesus day adults expected children to study hard, work hard, learn what they needed to know and prepare for the responsibilities of adulthood that would come at around age 13 to 15. Marriage. Military service. Work. Paying taxes. Caring for elderly relatives. There was too much for a child to do and too little time to allow other things to intrude.
The disciples knew all of this. When some people asked Jesus to bless their children the disciples were scandalized. The children were too young, too frivolous, too unformed to benefit from the teacher’s knowledge and wisdom.
As was often the case, Jesus viewed the occasion from a very different perspective. As was often the case, Jesus used the occasion to reveal just how different the principles of the kingdom are from the principles of the world, the culture, the surrounding society.
The essence of Jesus’ revelation about God is always the same because God is always the same. God is love.
By his very existence Jesus reveals that the One God is love. Jesus is the co eternal Beloved of the Father. The One God is eternal love. Because the one God is eternal love there was never a time when The Father did not love the Son and the Holy Spirit personify that infinite and eternal love of the Father.
When human beings consider God, if we consider God at all, we tend to look at God’s attributes. We look at God’s immense knowledge. But, God is not knowledge. We look at God’s power. But God is not power. We look at God’s Law. But God is not Law. That is why God forbids people from crafting images or idols and calling them "god".
An idol is merely the outward and visible sign of a human desire or demand. The Greeks who developed beautiful art, poetry and religious rituals knew this. They knew their gods and goddesses represented their own inner impulses, desires and demands. The Greek myths are still powerful and potent in their description of the human psyche. But the Greeks lacked what all people lacked. The lacked a personal experience with the Beloved, the Logos, the co eternal Son of God.
The religious people in Jerusalem, Judea and Galilee experienced the same deprivation of the spirit. The only difference was that the Greeks and other pagans knew their spiritual poverty and the depth of their spiritual pain. The religious leadership in Israel did not.
The disciples were modeling themselves after the very people who despised and rejected them. They expected Jesus to keep to the same old religious script that had been handed down over the generations from the time of Cain. It is the script that defines God according to our needs. It is the script that creates cafeteria Faith and a consumer religion. It is the script that honors God with words but keeps God at a distance lest his presence intrude into the real world of where we direct our time and attention.
So, some people brought their children to Jesus to receive a blessing. The disciples knew this was improper. They even knew they knew this was wrong. Jesus used the occasion to remind his disciples and all who will hear this story one simple and elegant truth.
God is love. God is relationship. All who seek God’s blessing are welcome. All who truly seek God for who he is will find him. And, they will find him in Jesus Christ.
The children delighted to be in Jesus’ presence. The children were open to the blessing. When Jesus teaches that we all must receive him as the children received him he is breaking the pattern of religious law and expectation that seeks to define God by his attributes and by a set of rewards or punishments.
That is what really scandalized the disciples. They had left their jobs, their families and their comforts to follow Jesus. They thought they were working for a reward. They thought they were going through a basic training to take over the religious and political power structure.
That isn’t why Jesus came. That isn’t who God is. God is love. His gifts are extravagant and free to all who desire to receive them. His message to us is clear and distinct and unambiguous.
Jesus welcomed the little children to receive the blessing. They came to him with no preconceived theology, demands, expectations or fears. They came with a mind and a heart to receive the blessing Jesus offered. They had nothing of earthly value to contribute to the Messianic enterprise. Jesus was giving them nothing their parents could place on a college application, no trophy, no certificate of accomplishment or merit.
It was moment of grace as pure and simple as can be possible in this world of separation.
To come to Christ with the mind of a child is not to act childish. Childish behavior is very obvious to all who have raised children or who are raising children. The whining and the complaining and the demands of the selfish will are all too evident and all too challenging and all too close to the surface of our own adult experience of life.
In this story, it was the disciples who were acting childish. They were not open to receiving Jesus’ teaching at this moment. They in fact thought they needed to correct Jesus from making a mistake.
Their idea about God was still too small. Still too narrow. Still too grounded in the categories of rewards and punishments. Jesus used this occasion to remind the disciples that the old covenant category of grace is still the same reality in the new covenant. Jesus wanted to remind his disciples that to be chosen of God is not to be chosen for rule but for service.
The reality of God is the reality of Jesus Christ inviting all people everywhere to receive a personal and life transforming relationship with God.
As Jesus blesses the little children he teaches his disciples and us: God is love. God wants you to be in a relationship with the co eternal Beloved. God wants you to receive the great gift of blessing Jesus brings into the world.
What the disciples needed at that moment was to listen. They needed to ask: what does this mean? They needed to hear Jesus with fresh ears. They needed to see Jesus with fresh eyes. They needed to become questioning and curious as children.
They had acknowledged Jesus was the Messiah. They had heard the voice of God the Father proclaim that Jesus is the Beloved. It was clear Jesus did not accept their understanding of God or their expectations of God.
If there was a problem it was not with Jesus. The problem had to be within the disciples. And of course, the immediate problem was their certainty that they knew all about God, the Kingdom of God, and the role of the Messiah. Their minds were closed. Their hearts were rigid. Their wills were inflexible.
Jesus points them to the little children, pre school age, early elementary age, and shows his disciples the wonder and delight in the children’s eyes. The awe and excitement in their approach. Their joy as Jesus reaches out to place his hands on theirs heads to confer the blessing.
This is what Jesus wanted from his disciples. He never got it before the crucifixion. He dealt with their fears, frustrations and childish demands but never received their child like delight in the gift of divine love and compassion. He knew this was part of his mission. He also knew that one of them would finally come to the place of divine love in the last hours of his life.
For three years, he worked with the disciple knowing they would not and could not receive the blessing until after the torments of the crucifixion. They would only begin to receive the blessing in the resurrection and at the day of Pentecost.
Jesus delights in our accomplishments but he passionately desires our love. There are only four basic ways we can give love to Jesus. They are worship, prayer, Bible study and service to others.
How are you showing your love for Jesus Christ? Are you coming to Jesus with childlike delight to receive his blessing? Are you stuck in childish demands of rewards and childish fears of punishment?
The blessing God offers to all people is not in the things of this world. They are there for us to choose if we decide we really want them. God will not block our ability to make money and to enjoy the legitimate pleasures and diversions of this life.
The blessing God offers is himself. It is his eternal love. It is the co eternal Beloved incarnate in Jesus Christ and present to us in the blessed sacrament of the altar.
The kingdom of heaven is an eternal relationship with the infinite transcendent reality of God incarnate in Jesus Christ. That relationship begins at the baptismal font. That relationship is nourished by the blessed sacrament of the altar.
We grow in grace as we choose to grow in love. We grow in love as we choose to immerse ourselves with delight and with passion in the real presence of Jesus Christ. That real presence can, if we choose, change every aspect of our lives.
That real presence can transform marriages, friendships, the family dynamic. That real presence manifests for us a new way of living. It creates a new culture, the culture of life, the culture of grace, the culture of blessing.
How do we avail ourselves of this new life? It requires a choice to come to Jesus as the little children came to him: open, trusting, focused, expecting nothing less and nothing more than Jesus placing his hand on their heads and saying: you are my beloved. You are blessed.
There is a fundamental Biblical principle that says we reap what we sow. How we choose to live our lives, where we choose to spend our limited time and attention, forms our souls. In that context, every choice we make is an eternal choice that brings us closer to God or perpetuates separation.
It is not about rewards or punishments. It is about the real choice to live in the real presence of our Living Lord Jesus Christ. The real choice is to live the blessing.
Jesus shows us the way as he says to us and to all people everywhere: I tell you, whoever does not recieve the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.
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