Pentecost 5 Luke 9:51-62 Follow me.
Jesus invited all to become his students. And, all who asked to be his students he asked to go and proclaim the Kingdom of God
There is an urgency in Jesus’ command “follow me.”
The immediate urgency is in Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem. His time is short. His death is near. The Plan of Salvation is coming to its fulfillment. From a worldly perspective, there is so much more still to teach his disciples. They still don’t understand. There is so much more to teach those who are coming to Jesus looking for answers. They still don’t understand that Jesus just doesn’t have the answer he is the answer. They still don’t understand that Jesus just doesn’t point out one way to find God. Jesus is the way God finds us.
Many are trying to discredit Jesus. Others are seeking a way to kill him. He knows they will succeed. This is part of the Plan of Salvation. This is Jesus offering himself to humanity with the full knowledge that humanity is lost in separation, sin and death. Humanity is not looking for what Jesus offers. Humanity is looking for the quick fix. Jesus offers eternal life.
Peter had declared Jesus to be the Christ then asserted his desire for a savior without the cross. James and John had seen and experienced the love and compassion of Jesus yet still wanted to destroy a Samaritan village when it failed to receive him. People were coming to Jesus for many reasons and with many expectations. Few heard the message Jesus brought. Fewer still had the desire to accept the message.
Still, Jesus proclaims the Kingdom. Still, Jesus models the new way of living that he offers all people through his own choices and actions. Still Jesus instructs his students and his followers: follow me.
The Kingdom of God not in the external world of politics, economics and war. The Kingdom of God is not about who is in charge. The Kingdom of God is not in submission to laws, rituals, or institutions. The Kingdom of God is the new life Jesus gives us.
That new life is a gift we can only receive by faith. The faith is not a blind leap into the dark. The faith is in a person, Jesus himself. Jesus cried out to the people of Israel two thousand years ago and continues to cry out to the peoples of the world today. His cry is: follow me. Come to me all who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Come and receive the gift of God.
The proclamation Jesus gives for us to share with the world is that God permanently and irrevocably united his divinity with our humanity in Jesus Christ. In Jesus, God overcomes sin and death. In Jesus, God transforms sin and death back into love and life. It is a new life. It is a life of reunification with the Father and transformation in the Holy Spirit.
God doesn’t wait for us to find him. God makes himself known to us and available to us in Jesus Christ. The Kingdom of God is not a puzzle to be solved or a reward for sincere effort. It is a gift. The gift is Jesus. The gift is the new way of living God reveals in Jesus Christ and makes available to us in Jesus Christ.
Jesus said the Kingdom of God is within you. It is that place where the Holy Spirit lives within us. It is that place where the Holy Spirit gently, persistently and patiently invites us to change.
More than any other aspect of Jesus teaching, change is central. It is also the most threatening. What makes this change possible to consider is the person who invites us to change. Jesus is the fullness of divine love and holiness. Jesus is the compassion of God inviting all people into a new relationship of faith, hope and love. Jesus tells us and shows us that the change comes from the personal relationship God initiates with us in Jesus Christ.
Many in Jesus’ day had something they needed to leave behind before they could accept the gift Jesus gave them. Many were too burdened with possessions or expectations to receive the gift. The greatest burden is the burden of separation from God. The most weighty of all possessions is sin.
Jesus’ call to follow him is a call to surrender our pride of separation. It is a call to yield our possession of our sins. These are choices we can only make from deep within our soul. There is no law or ritual or religious practice that can substitute for this choice. The reward is not in power, possessions or prestige. The reward is the relationship that produces the new way of living.
Such a call was incomprehensible to the people of Jesus’ day. The disciples began to understand it at the resurrection. They received clarity on the day of Pentecost. But, the record of scripture is very honest. It took them all of their lives to grow into the relationship with God that Jesus offered. It took their entire lifetime to yield their old way of thinking, and their old way of behaving.
The Kingdom of God becomes real to us with a profession of faith in Jesus Christ. The Kingdom of God becomes more present to us each day of our lives through worship, prayer, Bible study, service to others.
The Kingdom of God is our personal relationship with God the Father, through God the Son, by the indwelling Presence of God the Holy Spirit. That is why eternal life begins here and now at the baptismal font. Eternal life is not a reward or a right it is a gift. The gift is in the relationship.
Jesus invites us all into this new relationship. The new relationship produces a new way of living. We live into the relationship as we make a conscious choice to open our minds and hearts and wills to the transforming power of Divine love and holiness.
As soon as we enter into the relationship Jesus asks us to follow him. As we make a real choice to fulfill Jesus’ instruction we grow closer in our relationship with him. He slowly reveals to us where we need to make changes in our attitude and actions. He slowly reveals to us what we need to unlearn. He slowly reveals to us what old habits of behavior we need to surrender to him so we can be free to live life more joyfully. He waits patiently for us to unburden ourselves of the heavy weight of those sins that possess us.
As we change so our character changes. As our character changes so the message we proclaim in word and action broadens and deepens.
The key to the new life in Christ is the desire to grow in our friendship with Christ. Jesus knew his disciples were far from perfect but he sent them into the world any way. Jesus knew they would only mature as they stepped forward in faith one step at a time one day at a time. The same is true for us.
Where ever you are in your spiritual life is where Jesus meets you and invites you to follow him. He stands before us and he goes before us. He is the light of light that shows us the path forward.
As you follow Jesus into this action, the Holy Spirit will be with you to help you and to encourage you. As the Holy Spirit reveals Himself to you in your choice to follow Jesus, so He will offer new gifts and new transformation to equip you to accomplish God’s will for your life.
Religious people sometimes struggle with knowing God’s will. God has revealed his will in Jesus Christ. We can know God’s will as we grow in the gift of God in Christ. The gift God offers us today in the message of Jesus Christ is: follow me.
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Pentecost 4
Pentecost 4
Return to your home and declare how much God has done for you.
Separation from God has many consequences.
We see three examples of these consequences in this passage.
The first example is that of the demons. Demons are the burnt out remnants of once glorious and magnificent angelic beings. We all know the story how the most beautiful and exalted of the angels, a Seraph, named Light Bearer, seduced one third of the angelic beings to give themselves to him. They gave themselves to him by worshipping him.
Light Bearer promised the angels greater knowledge and greater power if they would immerse themselves in the glory of his own essential light. It was, of course, a lie. It was also a choice. The principle the Bible sets forth from this angelic choice in the heavenly realms is that it does matter who you choose to worship and how you choose to worship. You become who or what you worship.
Jesus describes Light Bearer, Lucifer, as a liar and a murderer from the beginning. His lie was that he was like God. His seductive promise based on that lie was that he could and would share his immense knowledge and power with those who worshipped him. The murder took place when Light Bearer attacked Michael, the smallest and least of the angels. In his pride Light Bearer not only believed he could defeat Michael, he knew he could defeat Michael. Heaven would be his and God would have no choice but to appoint him as his infallible all powerful co-regent of the heavenly realm.
But Light Bearer could not defeat Michael. Against all logic and reason Michael proved to be far more powerful than any of the angels imagined. As Light Bearer lost the battle with Michael he summoned his worshippers and ripped the power from them to magnify his own power. In that action he murdered the angelic beings.
When Michael finally won the battle he cast Light Bearer out of the heavenly realm, out of the realm of the infinite and eternal, into the realm of time and space, into our universe. As he fell from the heavenly realm Light Bear, now called Satan- the Enemy- reached out and claimed his followers as his slaves. They had given themselves to him willingly in worship. He had ripped them apart to seize their power, now he pulled them out of heaven to serve as his slaves.
The demons are desiccated burnt out remnants of their former glory. By their own choice they separated from God. By their own choice they unified themselves to Lucifer. By their own choice they abandoned love and holiness for knowledge and power. By their own choice they put their trust in Lucifer. Lucifer lied to them, betrayed them, and murdered their true essence.
The fallen angels abandoned eternal life and now only experience endless tedious existence. They will not and cannot repent. But they do seek some relief from their self inflicted torment. One means of relief is to possess a human being.
Human beings also chose to separate from God. But, unlike the demons, humans did not give themselves to Satan in worship. Satan has no right or authority to enslave a human being as he once seized and enslaved his angelic followers. Human beings can still repent and return to God.
For humans, the choice remains open. Humans are lost in separation but can still be found and given a choice to reunite with God. Human also have the choice to persist in separation. The Gerasene people had made some choices that produced consequences. Some of these consequences seemed desirable, in the short term.
The Gerasenes were Israelites who had compromised on one very specific command. God had commanded Moses that certain animals were to be classified as unclean for the people of Israel. Now, the command was given for two reasons. It was a boundary to protect the people from the excess of self will. And it was an image of holiness.
The Gerasenes had broken this command for a very practical and ordinary reason: money. There were many gentiles living in the nearby provinces. The gentiles did not observe the Law of Moses. Pork was perfectly good meat for the gentiles. The Gerasenes probably reasoned amongst themselves that they would not eat the unclean meat but they could sell it to the unclean gentiles. The Law not only forbade consuming pork for food. It also declared that the people should not even touch a pig. The Gerasnes probably did not eat the pork. But they did selectively violate the law by raising the pigs for export to the gentiles.
Such compromises reveal the problem that besets human nature. God says yes, and people say- well –maybe. God says- no, and people say- why not. Eventually, the compromise results in disobedience and the disobedience only creates greater division and separation.
Moses and the prophets clearly and distinctly taught that the love of God is the single most important priority in our lives. The love of God is expressed in worship. Under the Law of Moses part of that worship involved a choice for people to sacrifice a portion of their time and a portion of their means. God had declared pigs off limits to the Israelites. The command was a boundary set to help the people grow in trust and to grow in love. The people of the Gerasenes made a different choice. They chose money.
The man possessed by the demon is both an individual tragedy and a symbol of the spiritual state of his people. The individual tragedy is that because this man had accepted the compromises of his people he abandoned the worship of God. I doubt he ever meant to allow the demons to possess him. But, in the choices he made based on compromise and separation he opened himself to the possibility of demon possession. The precise detail of how this happened is unimportant. It was only possible because he had accepted an approach to life where money was more important that worship; and, where his own will to power was more important than the love and holiness of God’s will.
The Gerasenes were lost in their worship of money. Jesus had come to them as he came to others in Israel to find them and to offer them a different choice. The possessed man was lost in a Legion of demons. Jesus came to find him and to restore him to health and wholeness and to holiness.
The demons asked for relief of their suffering but did not ask for Jesus to restore their relationship with God. Jesus cast them out of the place where they had no right to be. He allowed them to enter the herd of pigs. The corporeal cannot sustain the demonic presence. As the demonic presence had driven the man insane so the pigs suffered the same state. They panicked, ran aimlessly, and eventually found relief by plunging to their death the Lake.
The principle revealed in this terrifying event is one of the basic principles in scripture. Be sure your sins will find you out. There is pleasure in sin for a time but after that the judgment. Human choice always enters into the world of cause and effect and always produces a result consistent with God’s Law. It may take minutes, it may take hours, it may take years. The Bible is a record of a thousand years of human experience that concludes: no one ever successfully breaks God’s Law. God law always stand immutable perfect and inviolate. Human choice enters the world of cause and effect and produces a result. There probably will be pleasure in sin for a time. But, without fail the consequence is disastrous. The consequence is separation, sin and death.
The man who had been tormented was now healed. His sanity had been restored. He recognized God in Jesus Christ and received the completion of his healing by proclaiming his faith in Christ. His family, friends and neighbors were astonished and fearful. As he so often did and continues to do, Jesus stood in their midst as a perfect mirror to their souls. They did not like what they saw in that perfect mirror. They reacted with fear.
They feared the power of Jesus. They feared the perfection of Jesus. They feared the Divine Presence in Jesus. They feared because they were unwilling to change. They made a choice not to change. So, they asked Jesus to leave. And, he did.
Jesus imposes himself on no one. He offers himself to everyone. Salvation is a personal relationship with God in Jesus Christ. It is always a real choice.
The man wanted to go with Jesus but Jesus had a job for him to do. The people had rejected the personal presence of God in Jesus Christ so Jesus asked the man to stay where he was and to share his personal experience with God in his own home.
Why would Jesus do this?
Jesus is the lover of souls. He loves all people everywhere. His love is unconditional and eternal. The Gerasenes were too fearful to speak with Jesus any longer so Jesus appointed the man he had healed to be his representative in that place at that time. Jesus appoints no co-regents to rule. Jesus appoints personal representatives to share his divine love and compassion with others.
The same principle is true for us. As we have received the gift of reunification with God the Father through our personal relationship with God the Son, so Jesus asks us to proclaim to our family, friends and neighbors how much good God has done for us. Jesus asks us to be his personal representative to the people we know and the people we meet.
Moses and the prophets observed the human condition for over a thousand years. They all came to the same conclusion. Human beings are lost in separation, enmeshed in rebellion, and broken by sin. We need a savior. That savior is Jesus Christ. Jesus has come to find the lost, reunite us to love and transform us in holiness. Jesus asks each of us to work and pray for that same goal.
As Jesus said to the man he had healed so long ago so he says to us today. You were lost and I have found you. You were broken and I am healing you. You are rebellious and I am transforming you as you make a real choice to immerse yourself in the real presence of Divine love and holiness in the blessed sacrament of the altar.
As you leave this building today in the sacramental power of divine love and holiness Return to your home and declare how much God has done for you.
Return to your home and declare how much God has done for you.
Separation from God has many consequences.
We see three examples of these consequences in this passage.
The first example is that of the demons. Demons are the burnt out remnants of once glorious and magnificent angelic beings. We all know the story how the most beautiful and exalted of the angels, a Seraph, named Light Bearer, seduced one third of the angelic beings to give themselves to him. They gave themselves to him by worshipping him.
Light Bearer promised the angels greater knowledge and greater power if they would immerse themselves in the glory of his own essential light. It was, of course, a lie. It was also a choice. The principle the Bible sets forth from this angelic choice in the heavenly realms is that it does matter who you choose to worship and how you choose to worship. You become who or what you worship.
Jesus describes Light Bearer, Lucifer, as a liar and a murderer from the beginning. His lie was that he was like God. His seductive promise based on that lie was that he could and would share his immense knowledge and power with those who worshipped him. The murder took place when Light Bearer attacked Michael, the smallest and least of the angels. In his pride Light Bearer not only believed he could defeat Michael, he knew he could defeat Michael. Heaven would be his and God would have no choice but to appoint him as his infallible all powerful co-regent of the heavenly realm.
But Light Bearer could not defeat Michael. Against all logic and reason Michael proved to be far more powerful than any of the angels imagined. As Light Bearer lost the battle with Michael he summoned his worshippers and ripped the power from them to magnify his own power. In that action he murdered the angelic beings.
When Michael finally won the battle he cast Light Bearer out of the heavenly realm, out of the realm of the infinite and eternal, into the realm of time and space, into our universe. As he fell from the heavenly realm Light Bear, now called Satan- the Enemy- reached out and claimed his followers as his slaves. They had given themselves to him willingly in worship. He had ripped them apart to seize their power, now he pulled them out of heaven to serve as his slaves.
The demons are desiccated burnt out remnants of their former glory. By their own choice they separated from God. By their own choice they unified themselves to Lucifer. By their own choice they abandoned love and holiness for knowledge and power. By their own choice they put their trust in Lucifer. Lucifer lied to them, betrayed them, and murdered their true essence.
The fallen angels abandoned eternal life and now only experience endless tedious existence. They will not and cannot repent. But they do seek some relief from their self inflicted torment. One means of relief is to possess a human being.
Human beings also chose to separate from God. But, unlike the demons, humans did not give themselves to Satan in worship. Satan has no right or authority to enslave a human being as he once seized and enslaved his angelic followers. Human beings can still repent and return to God.
For humans, the choice remains open. Humans are lost in separation but can still be found and given a choice to reunite with God. Human also have the choice to persist in separation. The Gerasene people had made some choices that produced consequences. Some of these consequences seemed desirable, in the short term.
The Gerasenes were Israelites who had compromised on one very specific command. God had commanded Moses that certain animals were to be classified as unclean for the people of Israel. Now, the command was given for two reasons. It was a boundary to protect the people from the excess of self will. And it was an image of holiness.
The Gerasenes had broken this command for a very practical and ordinary reason: money. There were many gentiles living in the nearby provinces. The gentiles did not observe the Law of Moses. Pork was perfectly good meat for the gentiles. The Gerasenes probably reasoned amongst themselves that they would not eat the unclean meat but they could sell it to the unclean gentiles. The Law not only forbade consuming pork for food. It also declared that the people should not even touch a pig. The Gerasnes probably did not eat the pork. But they did selectively violate the law by raising the pigs for export to the gentiles.
Such compromises reveal the problem that besets human nature. God says yes, and people say- well –maybe. God says- no, and people say- why not. Eventually, the compromise results in disobedience and the disobedience only creates greater division and separation.
Moses and the prophets clearly and distinctly taught that the love of God is the single most important priority in our lives. The love of God is expressed in worship. Under the Law of Moses part of that worship involved a choice for people to sacrifice a portion of their time and a portion of their means. God had declared pigs off limits to the Israelites. The command was a boundary set to help the people grow in trust and to grow in love. The people of the Gerasenes made a different choice. They chose money.
The man possessed by the demon is both an individual tragedy and a symbol of the spiritual state of his people. The individual tragedy is that because this man had accepted the compromises of his people he abandoned the worship of God. I doubt he ever meant to allow the demons to possess him. But, in the choices he made based on compromise and separation he opened himself to the possibility of demon possession. The precise detail of how this happened is unimportant. It was only possible because he had accepted an approach to life where money was more important that worship; and, where his own will to power was more important than the love and holiness of God’s will.
The Gerasenes were lost in their worship of money. Jesus had come to them as he came to others in Israel to find them and to offer them a different choice. The possessed man was lost in a Legion of demons. Jesus came to find him and to restore him to health and wholeness and to holiness.
The demons asked for relief of their suffering but did not ask for Jesus to restore their relationship with God. Jesus cast them out of the place where they had no right to be. He allowed them to enter the herd of pigs. The corporeal cannot sustain the demonic presence. As the demonic presence had driven the man insane so the pigs suffered the same state. They panicked, ran aimlessly, and eventually found relief by plunging to their death the Lake.
The principle revealed in this terrifying event is one of the basic principles in scripture. Be sure your sins will find you out. There is pleasure in sin for a time but after that the judgment. Human choice always enters into the world of cause and effect and always produces a result consistent with God’s Law. It may take minutes, it may take hours, it may take years. The Bible is a record of a thousand years of human experience that concludes: no one ever successfully breaks God’s Law. God law always stand immutable perfect and inviolate. Human choice enters the world of cause and effect and produces a result. There probably will be pleasure in sin for a time. But, without fail the consequence is disastrous. The consequence is separation, sin and death.
The man who had been tormented was now healed. His sanity had been restored. He recognized God in Jesus Christ and received the completion of his healing by proclaiming his faith in Christ. His family, friends and neighbors were astonished and fearful. As he so often did and continues to do, Jesus stood in their midst as a perfect mirror to their souls. They did not like what they saw in that perfect mirror. They reacted with fear.
They feared the power of Jesus. They feared the perfection of Jesus. They feared the Divine Presence in Jesus. They feared because they were unwilling to change. They made a choice not to change. So, they asked Jesus to leave. And, he did.
Jesus imposes himself on no one. He offers himself to everyone. Salvation is a personal relationship with God in Jesus Christ. It is always a real choice.
The man wanted to go with Jesus but Jesus had a job for him to do. The people had rejected the personal presence of God in Jesus Christ so Jesus asked the man to stay where he was and to share his personal experience with God in his own home.
Why would Jesus do this?
Jesus is the lover of souls. He loves all people everywhere. His love is unconditional and eternal. The Gerasenes were too fearful to speak with Jesus any longer so Jesus appointed the man he had healed to be his representative in that place at that time. Jesus appoints no co-regents to rule. Jesus appoints personal representatives to share his divine love and compassion with others.
The same principle is true for us. As we have received the gift of reunification with God the Father through our personal relationship with God the Son, so Jesus asks us to proclaim to our family, friends and neighbors how much good God has done for us. Jesus asks us to be his personal representative to the people we know and the people we meet.
Moses and the prophets observed the human condition for over a thousand years. They all came to the same conclusion. Human beings are lost in separation, enmeshed in rebellion, and broken by sin. We need a savior. That savior is Jesus Christ. Jesus has come to find the lost, reunite us to love and transform us in holiness. Jesus asks each of us to work and pray for that same goal.
As Jesus said to the man he had healed so long ago so he says to us today. You were lost and I have found you. You were broken and I am healing you. You are rebellious and I am transforming you as you make a real choice to immerse yourself in the real presence of Divine love and holiness in the blessed sacrament of the altar.
As you leave this building today in the sacramental power of divine love and holiness Return to your home and declare how much God has done for you.
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Pentecost 3
Pentecost 3 Your sins are forgiven
The Bible frequently reveals truth through the observation of contrast.
In the gospel reading this morning we see such a contrast. Luke records an incident at a dinner party that reveals fundamental truth about the human condition.
The contrast is many layered. Primarily, there is the contrast between a religious man and a sinful woman. The religious man, a Pharisee named Simon, is considered righteous by the cultural standards of the day. He gives every evidence that he has studied the commentaries on the Law and obeys the law. He wears the right clothes, washes his hands in the right way, eats the right food, says the right prayers and stays away from the wrong sort of people. He does what is right and so he has earned the right to be called personally by name: Simon.
The woman in the story is not named. She has been defined by the people as a sinner. There is no further description or information given about her or her sin. Whatever the sin may be she has become so identified with it that she is no longer identified by her personal name but by the impersonal description: sinner.
The contrast between righteous Simon and the unrighteous woman takes a sudden and unexpected turn. For, it is the sinner who offers Jesus the basic courtesies of sacred hospitality. All people in the Middle East at that time understood the sacred responsibilities of showing hospitality to a visitor. All people understood that at times the Divine realm tested humanity to see if people practiced the fundamental principles of compassion.
It is at this point, the point of compassion, that Simon fails the test. Simon had invited Jesus to dinner and made no effort to treat him according to the fundamental principles of respect.
The custom called for a servant to wash the feet of a guest as a sign of welcome. Simon made no such provision for Jesus. The custom called for the host to honor the guest with a ritual kiss of peace. Simon made no such offer. The custom called for the host to anoint the guest with oil as a sign of respect. Simon showed no respect to Jesus.
Simon invited Jesus to dinner but he very noticeably failed to welcome Jesus, honor Jesus, and show respect to Jesus. Everyone present would understand this to be an insult. Everyone present would understand that this was a gross violation of the principles of hospitality. Everyone would know that Simon’s failure bordered on blasphemy. For God had given a command through Moses to show honor to a visitor and to a stranger.
So why did Simon invite Jesus to dinner only to insult him? The key is in the encounter with the sinner. She could not have entered the house if Simon had not permitted it. This was a test. Throughout his three years of public ministry Jesus encountered many such tests from the religious leaders of the day.
Simon did not welcome, honor or respect Jesus because Simon wanted to test and to trap Jesus. He wanted to discredit Jesus. So, Simon insulted Jesus to provoke a reaction. When Jesus did not react to the insult, Simon allowed the sinner access to Jesus to test him.
By Simon’ standards, Jesus failed the test. First, he allowed a woman to touch him. A righteous man would not touch a woman who was not his wife or a close relative. Second, despite the fact people acclaimed Jesus as a great prophet, Jesus failed to discern the woman was a sinner. He should have perceived her sin and condemned her.
It was one of those no win scenarios that the Pharisees set up to embarrass and discredit Jesus. It worked. But it worked against the Pharisees.
No one could dispute Jesus’ assessment of the situation. Simon had violated a fundamental religious and social principle when he failed to provide the basics of sacred hospitality. The woman, for all of her reputation as sinner, had been the one to show welcome, honor and respect.
There is one more element in the story that is easy to miss. The woman just didn’t provide the minimum requirements of sacred hospitality. She offered Jesus an extravagance beyond imagination. She not only treated Jesus as an honored guest, she treated him as though he was royalty.
Jesus turned the tables on Simon as he told the parable of the debtors. He used Simon’s own words to reveal to Simon where Simon was not righteous. And, he transformed the entire concept of sin and righteousness.
Jesus constantly and consistently taught what Moses and the prophets taught. Jesus taught that the essence of righteousness is right relationship. It is the right relationship that produces right action. That right action is not rigid perfection. Right action is compassion.
This is the next contrast in the story. The religious leaders of the day taught that right action is a rigid perfection that produces right relationship. For all of his right actions, Simon lacked right relationship. He lacked compassion. And so, when God came to Simon’s house, Simon not only failed to recognize him, he failed to show even the basic welcome, honor and respect. He was not present to Jesus. He asked no questions. He shut himself away from his moment of grace. He received no blessing. His one overwhelming and deadly sin was pride. It was pride in his own self proclaimed perfection.
The woman understood she was a sinner. She, too, might have reacted with pride. She made a different choice. She chose humility. She chose to show welcome, honor and respect to Jesus. As she did this, she entered into a new relationship with God.
Jesus describes the final contrast when he looks at the woman and says: your faith has saved you. The contrast is between the woman’s faith in Jesus as the personal Presence of God and Simon’s rejection of Jesus and pride in his sense of his own right actions. The contrast is between faith and works.
The point of the story is the principle revealed by Moses and the prophets. The basic problem confronting humanity is our choice to separate from God. That choice proceeds from pride and is lost in pride. The pride of the lost is the refusal to be found by the personal presence of the living God.
The only solution to this problem is the solution God himself offers. It is the solution of making a real choice to be found by the one whom God has sent into the world to save us from separation.
At that dinner party so many centuries ago, Simon chose to remain in separation. The woman chose to be found by God in Jesus Christ. The key element is faith.
Simon had no room in his religious system of command and control for faith. The woman entered into the realm of faith when she welcomed, honored and showed respect to Jesus.
St. Paul would later summarize Jesus’ teaching about sin and salvation from sin by writing: we are saved by grace through faith and not by works. Simon thought he had the works and had no need for the gift God offered in Jesus Christ. The woman knew she lacked the works and recognized the gift of God in Christ.
Salvation is the gift God offers all people in Jesus Christ. It is a salvation from a life of pride, self will and fear. It is salvation into a new relationship of faith in God through Jesus Christ.
Jesus had offered himself to Simon but Simon through pride rejected the offer. Jesus had come to seek and to find Simon but Simon did not want to be found. As he had offered himself to Simon so Jesus offered himself to the sinner. As he offered himself to her so he offers himself to all people everywhere. His words to the woman at the dinner party are his words to us and to all people today.
Jesus continues to proclaim: your sins are forgiven. I accomplished that for you on the cross. Your faith will save you. Your trust in the one whom God has sent into the world to find you will reunite you to God. You can’t find God but God will find you. As you allow yourself to be found by God in Christ you will go into the world in peace. The peace is the Personal Presence of God in your mind and heart and will. The Peace is Jesus Christ.
The Bible frequently reveals truth through the observation of contrast.
In the gospel reading this morning we see such a contrast. Luke records an incident at a dinner party that reveals fundamental truth about the human condition.
The contrast is many layered. Primarily, there is the contrast between a religious man and a sinful woman. The religious man, a Pharisee named Simon, is considered righteous by the cultural standards of the day. He gives every evidence that he has studied the commentaries on the Law and obeys the law. He wears the right clothes, washes his hands in the right way, eats the right food, says the right prayers and stays away from the wrong sort of people. He does what is right and so he has earned the right to be called personally by name: Simon.
The woman in the story is not named. She has been defined by the people as a sinner. There is no further description or information given about her or her sin. Whatever the sin may be she has become so identified with it that she is no longer identified by her personal name but by the impersonal description: sinner.
The contrast between righteous Simon and the unrighteous woman takes a sudden and unexpected turn. For, it is the sinner who offers Jesus the basic courtesies of sacred hospitality. All people in the Middle East at that time understood the sacred responsibilities of showing hospitality to a visitor. All people understood that at times the Divine realm tested humanity to see if people practiced the fundamental principles of compassion.
It is at this point, the point of compassion, that Simon fails the test. Simon had invited Jesus to dinner and made no effort to treat him according to the fundamental principles of respect.
The custom called for a servant to wash the feet of a guest as a sign of welcome. Simon made no such provision for Jesus. The custom called for the host to honor the guest with a ritual kiss of peace. Simon made no such offer. The custom called for the host to anoint the guest with oil as a sign of respect. Simon showed no respect to Jesus.
Simon invited Jesus to dinner but he very noticeably failed to welcome Jesus, honor Jesus, and show respect to Jesus. Everyone present would understand this to be an insult. Everyone present would understand that this was a gross violation of the principles of hospitality. Everyone would know that Simon’s failure bordered on blasphemy. For God had given a command through Moses to show honor to a visitor and to a stranger.
So why did Simon invite Jesus to dinner only to insult him? The key is in the encounter with the sinner. She could not have entered the house if Simon had not permitted it. This was a test. Throughout his three years of public ministry Jesus encountered many such tests from the religious leaders of the day.
Simon did not welcome, honor or respect Jesus because Simon wanted to test and to trap Jesus. He wanted to discredit Jesus. So, Simon insulted Jesus to provoke a reaction. When Jesus did not react to the insult, Simon allowed the sinner access to Jesus to test him.
By Simon’ standards, Jesus failed the test. First, he allowed a woman to touch him. A righteous man would not touch a woman who was not his wife or a close relative. Second, despite the fact people acclaimed Jesus as a great prophet, Jesus failed to discern the woman was a sinner. He should have perceived her sin and condemned her.
It was one of those no win scenarios that the Pharisees set up to embarrass and discredit Jesus. It worked. But it worked against the Pharisees.
No one could dispute Jesus’ assessment of the situation. Simon had violated a fundamental religious and social principle when he failed to provide the basics of sacred hospitality. The woman, for all of her reputation as sinner, had been the one to show welcome, honor and respect.
There is one more element in the story that is easy to miss. The woman just didn’t provide the minimum requirements of sacred hospitality. She offered Jesus an extravagance beyond imagination. She not only treated Jesus as an honored guest, she treated him as though he was royalty.
Jesus turned the tables on Simon as he told the parable of the debtors. He used Simon’s own words to reveal to Simon where Simon was not righteous. And, he transformed the entire concept of sin and righteousness.
Jesus constantly and consistently taught what Moses and the prophets taught. Jesus taught that the essence of righteousness is right relationship. It is the right relationship that produces right action. That right action is not rigid perfection. Right action is compassion.
This is the next contrast in the story. The religious leaders of the day taught that right action is a rigid perfection that produces right relationship. For all of his right actions, Simon lacked right relationship. He lacked compassion. And so, when God came to Simon’s house, Simon not only failed to recognize him, he failed to show even the basic welcome, honor and respect. He was not present to Jesus. He asked no questions. He shut himself away from his moment of grace. He received no blessing. His one overwhelming and deadly sin was pride. It was pride in his own self proclaimed perfection.
The woman understood she was a sinner. She, too, might have reacted with pride. She made a different choice. She chose humility. She chose to show welcome, honor and respect to Jesus. As she did this, she entered into a new relationship with God.
Jesus describes the final contrast when he looks at the woman and says: your faith has saved you. The contrast is between the woman’s faith in Jesus as the personal Presence of God and Simon’s rejection of Jesus and pride in his sense of his own right actions. The contrast is between faith and works.
The point of the story is the principle revealed by Moses and the prophets. The basic problem confronting humanity is our choice to separate from God. That choice proceeds from pride and is lost in pride. The pride of the lost is the refusal to be found by the personal presence of the living God.
The only solution to this problem is the solution God himself offers. It is the solution of making a real choice to be found by the one whom God has sent into the world to save us from separation.
At that dinner party so many centuries ago, Simon chose to remain in separation. The woman chose to be found by God in Jesus Christ. The key element is faith.
Simon had no room in his religious system of command and control for faith. The woman entered into the realm of faith when she welcomed, honored and showed respect to Jesus.
St. Paul would later summarize Jesus’ teaching about sin and salvation from sin by writing: we are saved by grace through faith and not by works. Simon thought he had the works and had no need for the gift God offered in Jesus Christ. The woman knew she lacked the works and recognized the gift of God in Christ.
Salvation is the gift God offers all people in Jesus Christ. It is a salvation from a life of pride, self will and fear. It is salvation into a new relationship of faith in God through Jesus Christ.
Jesus had offered himself to Simon but Simon through pride rejected the offer. Jesus had come to seek and to find Simon but Simon did not want to be found. As he had offered himself to Simon so Jesus offered himself to the sinner. As he offered himself to her so he offers himself to all people everywhere. His words to the woman at the dinner party are his words to us and to all people today.
Jesus continues to proclaim: your sins are forgiven. I accomplished that for you on the cross. Your faith will save you. Your trust in the one whom God has sent into the world to find you will reunite you to God. You can’t find God but God will find you. As you allow yourself to be found by God in Christ you will go into the world in peace. The peace is the Personal Presence of God in your mind and heart and will. The Peace is Jesus Christ.
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Palm Sunday
Palm Sunday 2010
They began to accuse him.
There is only one God.
The One God is love. The One God is holy. The One God created the universe and all life. The One God created us.
The pattern of our species is the logos. The logos is the rational creative pattern of the universe. He is also the co-eternal Son of God who became a man in Jesus Christ.
God the Father created all things including all of us and each of us as a gift to God the Son, Jesus Christ.
Once before the Son had walked in this world. Once before the pre incarnate Son of God had offered his friendship, his love, his delight to the human race. And once before humanity had rejected the Son and said no.
That “no” forms the ground of our being. That “no” forms the way we think, feel, and make choices.
The Son of God knew this when he came into the world. He had been here before in his radiance and glory. Humanity had rejected him and in that rejection declared the fatal intent for each of us to be our own God.
The essence of sin is separation from God. The motivating principle underlying separation is the desire to be God. All people everywhere are trapped in the illusion of control. That illusion so warps the soul that we are enslaved to fear, self will and pride.
The religious leaders who cursed and condemned Jesus were no different from the greater mass of humanity who rebel against God’s self disclosure of himself in Jesus Christ. They wanted to define God according to their own rational analysis, needs, and desires. They did not want Jesus defining God. For if Jesus really is God in human flesh then he not only defines God, he also defines all that God has created, including each of us. A soul lost in rebellion and separation cannot and will not accept what Jesus brings into the world.
People frequently declare how unfair and exclusive Jesus Christ is to claim to be God. The real question is: is it true? Because if it is true it changes everything.
As with all Biblical teaching, the Holy Spirit invites each of us to test what He revealed to Moses, the prophets and the apostles. He invites us to ask the question: is this true? The answer to the question comes through observation.
How do the masses of people in our society respond or react to Jesus Christ? The Holy Spirit only asks that we wake up, pay attention, observe.
The religious leaders of Jesus’ day were rebellious, cynical, deceitful and brutally honest about their demand. They simply did not want Jesus Christ to be the Messiah.
For Jesus to be the Messiah meant that everything they had chosen to believe about God was at best incomplete. For Jesus to be the Messiah meant that God was now visiting humanity in person. For Jesus to be the Messiah meant that they were wrong. They believed that in order for Jesus to be right they had to be wrong and if they were wrong they would lose everything they valued. For Jesus to be the Messiah meant that God was not only real he was now personally present.
Most religious people prefer either a distant transcendent deity that works through law or a vague impersonal diffuse deity that makes no demands and places no restrictions. Such a deity is ideal for a lost, broken and rebellious humanity. Such a deity can be molded and shaped and formed to fit our changing moods, needs and desires.
An incarnate deity is dangerous. He is in fact an affront to human pride. He immediately reveals that God is God. God is “I am.” God has his own character, nature and identity whether we agree, accept or approve. We cannot use such a God.
In the end, humanity rejected the co-eternal Son a second time.
Only this time, humanity sought to accomplish what the philosopher Friedrich Neitzsche claimed. God is dead. Long live the human will to power.
Of course, God knew all this. He had created us for love and we had instead used the free will that love embodies to choose power. God had created us for holiness- health- wholeness- happiness- and instead we chose rebellion, self indulgence and separation. God created us for a joyful eternal friendship with the Son by which we would discover endless joy and delight in the love of the Son. Instead, we chose to reject that relationship. The result is that we as a species and each of us as individuals are lost.
We are lost in fear, self will and pride. We are lost in the dark underside of pride which is despair. We are lost in our anger, and recycled pain. We are lost in the confusion of our thoughts. For as much as we might seek to dominate and control life we know we can’t. And so, we blame. We blame other people. We blame institutions, we blame God.
There was and is only one way for God to seek and save the lost. He had to come in person. He had to become fully vulnerable to humanity’s fear and anger. He had to receive the full force of human wrath so he could take it into himself, transform it, purify it, and offer it back as eternal unconditional love.
There is only one God. The One God became a human being in Jesus Christ. The people of that time and all time rejected Jesus, falsely accused him, blamed him for all of their suffering, tortured him and then killed him.
Jesus knew this would happen. He also knew it was the only way to rescue humanity from the folly of our choice to separate from God.
He’s gone now. He returned to heaven. His life, death and resurrection are public record. His experience with a lost, broken and rebellious humanity continues to be written in human history and in current events. Only now, we know the rest of the story.
Now we have the image and reality of God revealed to us in Jesus Christ. Now we have the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Infinite and Eternal Trinity, in our midst inviting us to ask the same question Pontus Pilate asked: what is truth? What is true?
Ask. Seek. Knock. The co-eternal Son of God stands before us today with that invitation. Test the assertions. Test the conclusions the Bible makes about human nature, the human condition, the human tragedy.
Taste and see whether the Lord Jesus Christ is who he claimed and still claims to be. He is the co-eternal Beloved who has visited this planet twice. He is the plan, the pattern and the purpose for our lives.
Jesus has taken human rebellion and separation and transformed it by his own eternal love into the gift of eternal life. The gift is nothing more and nothing less than the personal relationship Jesus continues to offer all people everywhere.
Have you received the gift? If you haven’t or aren’t sure simply pray: Heavenly Father, I receive the gift of your Son Jesus Christ.
If you have received the gift where are you standing? Are you standing with Holy Mother Mary and the Beloved Apostle John at the foot of the cross, at the empty tomb, in the midst of the Temple?
Are you walking with Jesus and inviting him to walk with you?
Jesus has transformed the accusations of the religious and political leadership into an invitation. That invitation is to receive the gift of his friendship and his love. Jesus is salvation.
Jesus is the fulness of God in person reaching out to all people everywhere, patiently, persistently. He has already borne the arrogance of a species that falsely accused him in person.
He continues to bear the accusations and arrogance of a species that seeks to redefine him and control him.
Jesus is who he is. Jesus is not control. Jesus doesn’t need to impose control. Jesus is the logos, the rational creative defining pattern of the universe. Jesus is the steadfast, holy, unconditional love of God reaching out to all people everywhere.
Test his claims in your own life experience. Wake up. Pay attention to the world as it is. Observe. Then, taste and see the goodness of God in Jesus Christ. Taste and delight in the transforming power of God the Father in God the Son through the indwelling Divine Presence of God the Holy Spirit.
They began to accuse him.
There is only one God.
The One God is love. The One God is holy. The One God created the universe and all life. The One God created us.
The pattern of our species is the logos. The logos is the rational creative pattern of the universe. He is also the co-eternal Son of God who became a man in Jesus Christ.
God the Father created all things including all of us and each of us as a gift to God the Son, Jesus Christ.
Once before the Son had walked in this world. Once before the pre incarnate Son of God had offered his friendship, his love, his delight to the human race. And once before humanity had rejected the Son and said no.
That “no” forms the ground of our being. That “no” forms the way we think, feel, and make choices.
The Son of God knew this when he came into the world. He had been here before in his radiance and glory. Humanity had rejected him and in that rejection declared the fatal intent for each of us to be our own God.
The essence of sin is separation from God. The motivating principle underlying separation is the desire to be God. All people everywhere are trapped in the illusion of control. That illusion so warps the soul that we are enslaved to fear, self will and pride.
The religious leaders who cursed and condemned Jesus were no different from the greater mass of humanity who rebel against God’s self disclosure of himself in Jesus Christ. They wanted to define God according to their own rational analysis, needs, and desires. They did not want Jesus defining God. For if Jesus really is God in human flesh then he not only defines God, he also defines all that God has created, including each of us. A soul lost in rebellion and separation cannot and will not accept what Jesus brings into the world.
People frequently declare how unfair and exclusive Jesus Christ is to claim to be God. The real question is: is it true? Because if it is true it changes everything.
As with all Biblical teaching, the Holy Spirit invites each of us to test what He revealed to Moses, the prophets and the apostles. He invites us to ask the question: is this true? The answer to the question comes through observation.
How do the masses of people in our society respond or react to Jesus Christ? The Holy Spirit only asks that we wake up, pay attention, observe.
The religious leaders of Jesus’ day were rebellious, cynical, deceitful and brutally honest about their demand. They simply did not want Jesus Christ to be the Messiah.
For Jesus to be the Messiah meant that everything they had chosen to believe about God was at best incomplete. For Jesus to be the Messiah meant that God was now visiting humanity in person. For Jesus to be the Messiah meant that they were wrong. They believed that in order for Jesus to be right they had to be wrong and if they were wrong they would lose everything they valued. For Jesus to be the Messiah meant that God was not only real he was now personally present.
Most religious people prefer either a distant transcendent deity that works through law or a vague impersonal diffuse deity that makes no demands and places no restrictions. Such a deity is ideal for a lost, broken and rebellious humanity. Such a deity can be molded and shaped and formed to fit our changing moods, needs and desires.
An incarnate deity is dangerous. He is in fact an affront to human pride. He immediately reveals that God is God. God is “I am.” God has his own character, nature and identity whether we agree, accept or approve. We cannot use such a God.
In the end, humanity rejected the co-eternal Son a second time.
Only this time, humanity sought to accomplish what the philosopher Friedrich Neitzsche claimed. God is dead. Long live the human will to power.
Of course, God knew all this. He had created us for love and we had instead used the free will that love embodies to choose power. God had created us for holiness- health- wholeness- happiness- and instead we chose rebellion, self indulgence and separation. God created us for a joyful eternal friendship with the Son by which we would discover endless joy and delight in the love of the Son. Instead, we chose to reject that relationship. The result is that we as a species and each of us as individuals are lost.
We are lost in fear, self will and pride. We are lost in the dark underside of pride which is despair. We are lost in our anger, and recycled pain. We are lost in the confusion of our thoughts. For as much as we might seek to dominate and control life we know we can’t. And so, we blame. We blame other people. We blame institutions, we blame God.
There was and is only one way for God to seek and save the lost. He had to come in person. He had to become fully vulnerable to humanity’s fear and anger. He had to receive the full force of human wrath so he could take it into himself, transform it, purify it, and offer it back as eternal unconditional love.
There is only one God. The One God became a human being in Jesus Christ. The people of that time and all time rejected Jesus, falsely accused him, blamed him for all of their suffering, tortured him and then killed him.
Jesus knew this would happen. He also knew it was the only way to rescue humanity from the folly of our choice to separate from God.
He’s gone now. He returned to heaven. His life, death and resurrection are public record. His experience with a lost, broken and rebellious humanity continues to be written in human history and in current events. Only now, we know the rest of the story.
Now we have the image and reality of God revealed to us in Jesus Christ. Now we have the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Infinite and Eternal Trinity, in our midst inviting us to ask the same question Pontus Pilate asked: what is truth? What is true?
Ask. Seek. Knock. The co-eternal Son of God stands before us today with that invitation. Test the assertions. Test the conclusions the Bible makes about human nature, the human condition, the human tragedy.
Taste and see whether the Lord Jesus Christ is who he claimed and still claims to be. He is the co-eternal Beloved who has visited this planet twice. He is the plan, the pattern and the purpose for our lives.
Jesus has taken human rebellion and separation and transformed it by his own eternal love into the gift of eternal life. The gift is nothing more and nothing less than the personal relationship Jesus continues to offer all people everywhere.
Have you received the gift? If you haven’t or aren’t sure simply pray: Heavenly Father, I receive the gift of your Son Jesus Christ.
If you have received the gift where are you standing? Are you standing with Holy Mother Mary and the Beloved Apostle John at the foot of the cross, at the empty tomb, in the midst of the Temple?
Are you walking with Jesus and inviting him to walk with you?
Jesus has transformed the accusations of the religious and political leadership into an invitation. That invitation is to receive the gift of his friendship and his love. Jesus is salvation.
Jesus is the fulness of God in person reaching out to all people everywhere, patiently, persistently. He has already borne the arrogance of a species that falsely accused him in person.
He continues to bear the accusations and arrogance of a species that seeks to redefine him and control him.
Jesus is who he is. Jesus is not control. Jesus doesn’t need to impose control. Jesus is the logos, the rational creative defining pattern of the universe. Jesus is the steadfast, holy, unconditional love of God reaching out to all people everywhere.
Test his claims in your own life experience. Wake up. Pay attention to the world as it is. Observe. Then, taste and see the goodness of God in Jesus Christ. Taste and delight in the transforming power of God the Father in God the Son through the indwelling Divine Presence of God the Holy Spirit.
Pentecost 3
Pentecost 3 Your sins are forgiven
The Bible frequently reveals truth through the observation of contrast.
In the gospel reading this morning we see such a contrast. Luke records an incident at dinner party that reveals fundamental truth about the human condition.
The contrast is many layered.
Primarily, there is the contrast between a religious man and a sinful woman. The religious man, a Pharisee named Simon, is considered righteous by the cultural standards of the day. He gives every evidence that he has studied the commentaries on the Law and obeys the law. He wears the right clothes, washes his hands in the right way, eats the right food, says the right prayers and stays away from the wrong sort of people. He does what is right and so he has earned the right to be called personally by name: Simon.
The woman in the story is not named. She has been defined by the people as a sinner. There is no further description or information given about her or her sin. Whatever the sin may be she has become so identified with it that she is no longer identified by her personal name but by the impersonal description: sinner.
The contrast between righteous Simon and the unrighteous woman takes a sudden and unexpected turn. For, it is the sinner who offers Jesus the basic courtesies of sacred hospitality. All people in the Middle East at that time understood the sacred responsibilities of showing hospitality to a visitor. All people understood that at times the Divine realm tested humanity to see if people practiced the fundamental principles of compassion.
It is at this point, the point of compassion, that Simon fails the test. Simon had invited Jesus to dinner and made no effort to treat him according to the fundamental principles of respect.
The custom called for a servant to wash the feet of a guest as a sign of welcome. Simon made no such provision for Jesus. The custom called for the host to honor the guest with a ritual kiss of peace. Simon made no such offer. The custom called for the host to anoint the guest with oil as a sign of respect. Simon showed no respect to Jesus.
Simon invited Jesus to dinner but he very noticeably failed to welcome Jesus, honor Jesus, and show respect to Jesus. Everyone present would understand this to be an insult. Everyone present would understand that this was a gross violation of the principles of hospitality. Everyone would know that Simon’s failure bordered on blasphemy. For God had given a command through Moses to show honor to a visitor and to a stranger.
So why did Simon invite Jesus to dinner only to insult him? The key is in the encounter with the sinner. She could not have entered the house if Simon had not permitted it. This was a test. Throughout his three years of public ministry Jesus encountered many such tests from the religious leaders of the day.
Simon did not welcome, honor or respect Jesus because Simon wanted to test and to trap Jesus. He wanted to discredit Jesus. So, Simon insulted Jesus to provoke a reaction. When Jesus did not react to the insult, Simon allowed the sinner access to Jesus to test him.
By Simon’ standards, Jesus failed the test. First, he allowed a woman to touch him. A righteous man would not touch a woman who was not his wife or a close relative. Second, despite the fact people acclaimed Jesus as a great prophet, Jesus failed to discern the woman was a sinner. He should have perceived her sin and condemned her.
It was one of those no win scenarios that the Pharisees set up to embarrass and discredit Jesus. It worked. But it worked against the Pharisees.
No one could dispute Jesus’ assessment of the situation. Simon had violated a basic religious and social principle when he failed to provide the basics of sacred hospitality. The woman, for all of her reputation as sinner, had been the one to show welcome, honor and respect.
There is one more element in the story that is easy to miss. The woman just didn’t provide the minimum requirements of sacred hospitality. She offered Jesus an extravagance beyond imagination. She not only treated Jesus as an honored guest, she treated him as though he was royalty.
Jesus turned the tables on Simon as he told the parable of the debtors. He used Simon’s own words to reveal to Simon where Simon was not righteous. And, he transformed the entire concept of sin and righteousness.
Jesus constantly and consistently taught what Moses and the prophets taught. Jesus taught that the essence of righteousness is right relationship. It is the right relationship that produces right action.
This is the next contrast in the story. The religious leaders of the day taught that right action produces right relationship. For all of his right actions, Simon lacked right relationship. And so, when God came to Simon’s house, Simon not only failed to recognize him, he failed to show even the basic welcome, honor and respect. He was not present to Jesus. He asked no questions. He shut himself away from his moment of grace. He received no blessing. His one overwhelming and deadly sin was pride.
The woman understood she was a sinner. She, too, might have reacted with pride. She made a different choice. She chose humility. She chose to show welcome, honor and respect to Jesus. As she did this, she entered into a new relationship with God.
Jesus describes the final contrast when he looks at the woman and says: your faith has saved you. The contrast is between the woman’s faith in Jesus as the personal Presence of God and Simon’s rejection of Jesus and pride in his sense of his own right actions. The contrast is between faith and works.
The point of the story is the principle revealed by Moses and the prophets. The basic problem confronting humanity is our choice to separate from God. That choice proceeds from pride and is lost in pride. The pride of the lost is the refusal to be found by the personal presence of the living God.
The only solution to this problem is the solution God himself offers. It is the solution of making a real choice to be found by the one whom God has sent into the world to save us from separation.
At that dinner party so many centuries ago, Simon chose to remain in separation. The woman chose to be found by God in Jesus Christ. The key element is faith.
Simon had no room in his religious system of command and control for faith. The woman entered into the realm of faith when she welcomed, honored and showed respect to Jesus.
St. Paul would later summarize Jesus’ teaching about sin and salvation from sin by writing: we are saved by grace through faith and not by works. Simon thought he had the works and had no need for the gift God offered in Jesus Christ. The woman knew she lacked the works and recognized the gift of God in Christ.
Salvation is the gift God offers all people in Jesus Christ. It is a salvation from a life of pride, self will and fear. It is salvation into a new relationship of faith in God through Jesus Christ.
Jesus had offered himself to Simon but Simon through pride rejected the offer. Jesus had come to seek and to find Simon but Simon did not want to be found. As he had offered himself to Simon so Jesus offered himself to the sinner. As he offered himself to her so he offers himself to all people everywhere. His words to the woman at the dinner party are his words to us and to all people today.
Jesus continues to proclaim: your sins are forgiven. I accomplished that for you on the cross. Your faith will save you. Your trust in the one whom God has sent into the world to find you will reunite you to God. You can’t find God but God will find you. As you allow yourself to be found by God in Christ you will go into the world in peace.
The peace is the Personal Presence of God in your mind and heart and will. The Peace is Jesus Christ.
The Bible frequently reveals truth through the observation of contrast.
In the gospel reading this morning we see such a contrast. Luke records an incident at dinner party that reveals fundamental truth about the human condition.
The contrast is many layered.
Primarily, there is the contrast between a religious man and a sinful woman. The religious man, a Pharisee named Simon, is considered righteous by the cultural standards of the day. He gives every evidence that he has studied the commentaries on the Law and obeys the law. He wears the right clothes, washes his hands in the right way, eats the right food, says the right prayers and stays away from the wrong sort of people. He does what is right and so he has earned the right to be called personally by name: Simon.
The woman in the story is not named. She has been defined by the people as a sinner. There is no further description or information given about her or her sin. Whatever the sin may be she has become so identified with it that she is no longer identified by her personal name but by the impersonal description: sinner.
The contrast between righteous Simon and the unrighteous woman takes a sudden and unexpected turn. For, it is the sinner who offers Jesus the basic courtesies of sacred hospitality. All people in the Middle East at that time understood the sacred responsibilities of showing hospitality to a visitor. All people understood that at times the Divine realm tested humanity to see if people practiced the fundamental principles of compassion.
It is at this point, the point of compassion, that Simon fails the test. Simon had invited Jesus to dinner and made no effort to treat him according to the fundamental principles of respect.
The custom called for a servant to wash the feet of a guest as a sign of welcome. Simon made no such provision for Jesus. The custom called for the host to honor the guest with a ritual kiss of peace. Simon made no such offer. The custom called for the host to anoint the guest with oil as a sign of respect. Simon showed no respect to Jesus.
Simon invited Jesus to dinner but he very noticeably failed to welcome Jesus, honor Jesus, and show respect to Jesus. Everyone present would understand this to be an insult. Everyone present would understand that this was a gross violation of the principles of hospitality. Everyone would know that Simon’s failure bordered on blasphemy. For God had given a command through Moses to show honor to a visitor and to a stranger.
So why did Simon invite Jesus to dinner only to insult him? The key is in the encounter with the sinner. She could not have entered the house if Simon had not permitted it. This was a test. Throughout his three years of public ministry Jesus encountered many such tests from the religious leaders of the day.
Simon did not welcome, honor or respect Jesus because Simon wanted to test and to trap Jesus. He wanted to discredit Jesus. So, Simon insulted Jesus to provoke a reaction. When Jesus did not react to the insult, Simon allowed the sinner access to Jesus to test him.
By Simon’ standards, Jesus failed the test. First, he allowed a woman to touch him. A righteous man would not touch a woman who was not his wife or a close relative. Second, despite the fact people acclaimed Jesus as a great prophet, Jesus failed to discern the woman was a sinner. He should have perceived her sin and condemned her.
It was one of those no win scenarios that the Pharisees set up to embarrass and discredit Jesus. It worked. But it worked against the Pharisees.
No one could dispute Jesus’ assessment of the situation. Simon had violated a basic religious and social principle when he failed to provide the basics of sacred hospitality. The woman, for all of her reputation as sinner, had been the one to show welcome, honor and respect.
There is one more element in the story that is easy to miss. The woman just didn’t provide the minimum requirements of sacred hospitality. She offered Jesus an extravagance beyond imagination. She not only treated Jesus as an honored guest, she treated him as though he was royalty.
Jesus turned the tables on Simon as he told the parable of the debtors. He used Simon’s own words to reveal to Simon where Simon was not righteous. And, he transformed the entire concept of sin and righteousness.
Jesus constantly and consistently taught what Moses and the prophets taught. Jesus taught that the essence of righteousness is right relationship. It is the right relationship that produces right action.
This is the next contrast in the story. The religious leaders of the day taught that right action produces right relationship. For all of his right actions, Simon lacked right relationship. And so, when God came to Simon’s house, Simon not only failed to recognize him, he failed to show even the basic welcome, honor and respect. He was not present to Jesus. He asked no questions. He shut himself away from his moment of grace. He received no blessing. His one overwhelming and deadly sin was pride.
The woman understood she was a sinner. She, too, might have reacted with pride. She made a different choice. She chose humility. She chose to show welcome, honor and respect to Jesus. As she did this, she entered into a new relationship with God.
Jesus describes the final contrast when he looks at the woman and says: your faith has saved you. The contrast is between the woman’s faith in Jesus as the personal Presence of God and Simon’s rejection of Jesus and pride in his sense of his own right actions. The contrast is between faith and works.
The point of the story is the principle revealed by Moses and the prophets. The basic problem confronting humanity is our choice to separate from God. That choice proceeds from pride and is lost in pride. The pride of the lost is the refusal to be found by the personal presence of the living God.
The only solution to this problem is the solution God himself offers. It is the solution of making a real choice to be found by the one whom God has sent into the world to save us from separation.
At that dinner party so many centuries ago, Simon chose to remain in separation. The woman chose to be found by God in Jesus Christ. The key element is faith.
Simon had no room in his religious system of command and control for faith. The woman entered into the realm of faith when she welcomed, honored and showed respect to Jesus.
St. Paul would later summarize Jesus’ teaching about sin and salvation from sin by writing: we are saved by grace through faith and not by works. Simon thought he had the works and had no need for the gift God offered in Jesus Christ. The woman knew she lacked the works and recognized the gift of God in Christ.
Salvation is the gift God offers all people in Jesus Christ. It is a salvation from a life of pride, self will and fear. It is salvation into a new relationship of faith in God through Jesus Christ.
Jesus had offered himself to Simon but Simon through pride rejected the offer. Jesus had come to seek and to find Simon but Simon did not want to be found. As he had offered himself to Simon so Jesus offered himself to the sinner. As he offered himself to her so he offers himself to all people everywhere. His words to the woman at the dinner party are his words to us and to all people today.
Jesus continues to proclaim: your sins are forgiven. I accomplished that for you on the cross. Your faith will save you. Your trust in the one whom God has sent into the world to find you will reunite you to God. You can’t find God but God will find you. As you allow yourself to be found by God in Christ you will go into the world in peace.
The peace is the Personal Presence of God in your mind and heart and will. The Peace is Jesus Christ.
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Trinity Sunday
Trinity Sunday 2010
The Spirit of truth will guide you into all the truth.
Today we celebrate the truth that the one God is three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
This is not a truth we can analyze, categorize and reduce to a simple formula. Many people have attempted to over define, over complicate or over simply the truth of the Trinity. The Trinity is a reality that we can experience. We experience the reality and the truth of the Trinity in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
Many people in our modern world have the mistaken idea that the Emperor Constantine in the fourth century created the idea of the Trinity and then used the Council of Nicea to write the Nicene Creed and impose the Trinity on the Church. Nothing could be further from the truth.
The four biographies of Jesus that were written by eyewitnesses of his life all struggle to explain the unexplainable but inescapable truth that Jesus is both man and God. It is the truth that the One God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of Moses and the prophets, had in fact united His divinity with our humanity in a single individual, Jesus Christ.
The revelation of the incarnation is the revelation of the Trinity. At the incarnation God the Father sends the Holy Spirit to the blessed Virgin Mary to accomplish the incarnation of God the Son. At the incarnation God confirms and clarifies the revelation he had given to Moses and the prophets. That revelation states that God is One. It clarifies that the One God is transcendent, immanent, and personally present. Why is this important?
When Jesus came into the world there were two basic misconceptions about God that produced two fundamental misconceptions about the human condition.
The first misconception about God is that God is so completely transcendent and holy that God is unknown and unknowable. This God can only relate to human beings through a series of intermediary spiritual beings, lesser deities or angels. These lesser beings bring to humanity the Law.
This misconception about God leads to the misconception about the human condition. The God of pure transcendence is the God of Law. The God of Law is the God who maintains the moral order in the universe through a system of rewards and punishments. The lesser gods, angels, prophets, priests and teachers who represent this God teach that if you obey God’s laws then God is obligated by God’s own Law to bless you. God is also obligated under the Law to punish you if you break the Law.
The assumption is that human beings are born morally neutral with the free will to choose obedience or disobedience, blessing or punishment, heaven or hell. Incidentally, this is not what the Bible teaches about God, the Law, or the human condition. It is a distortion of the truth that leads to a dualistic world view cast in terms of absolute good at war with absolute evil.
The second major misconception about God is that God is all and all is God. This is the distortion of immanence. This distortion produces religious forms characterized by mysticism. It teaches that not only is God everywhere but that God is everything, including you.
This form of religion teaches that the problem confronting human beings is not disobedience but rather ignorance. The solution to the problem is knowledge acquired through a process called enlightenment. The goal of this knowledge is to recognize that you are merely God playing hide and seek with God. You are already perfect. Good and evil are an illusion that we choose to create to hide from our true divine nature.
The God of Law is the God of rewards and punishments who demands submission and authorizes aggression against the unrighteous. The God of Enlightenment is the God of passive withdrawal, fantasy, and self indulgence.
The One God seeks to rescue humanity from these distortions by uniting the principles of transcendence and immanence with incarnation.
In Jesus Christ God reveals that He is real, He is personal, He is love. In Jesus Christ God reveals that the problem confronting humanity is not disobedience or ignorance, it is separation. Since separation is the problem the only solution is reunification. God himself accomplishes this reunification by uniting his divinity with our humanity in Jesus Christ. This reunification is what the Bible calls salvation.
As the apostles and their students pondered this truth they received two important insights from the Holy Spirit to help us understand how the reality of the incarnation and the Trinity impact our lives.
These insights are: What he did not assume he could not redeem. And, he became as we are so that we might become as he is. In Jesus Christ God recreates humanity and offers us all a new life and a new way of living. It is the fullness of God incarnate in Jesus Christ who reunites us to God.
Jesus is not a religious category. He does not just show us how to be good so we can earn God’s favor. Neither does he inspire us to acquire the knowledge we need to manifest our inner divinity. Jesus is God seeking us out, finding us, and calling us into a personal relationship with himself.
Jesus reveals to us that God eternally manifests His One Divine Nature in three persons: Father, Son, Holy Spirit.
God the Father is God transcendent. He is the one who eternally loves.
God the Son is God incarnate. He is the co-eternal Beloved.
God the Holy Spirit is God immanent, God everywhere, the co-eternal Love that manifests the One God as three persons and the three persons as One God.
The Trinity assures us that God is Love because the One God is a community of Love. The Trinity assures us that Love is available to all people everywhere. To be saved is to be reunited to God the Father, through God the Son, by the transforming Presence of God the Holy Spirit.
We cannot define or dissect God. We can only experience Him in His incarnate form: Jesus Christ.
The Spirit of truth will guide you into all the truth.
Today we celebrate the truth that the one God is three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
This is not a truth we can analyze, categorize and reduce to a simple formula. Many people have attempted to over define, over complicate or over simply the truth of the Trinity. The Trinity is a reality that we can experience. We experience the reality and the truth of the Trinity in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
Many people in our modern world have the mistaken idea that the Emperor Constantine in the fourth century created the idea of the Trinity and then used the Council of Nicea to write the Nicene Creed and impose the Trinity on the Church. Nothing could be further from the truth.
The four biographies of Jesus that were written by eyewitnesses of his life all struggle to explain the unexplainable but inescapable truth that Jesus is both man and God. It is the truth that the One God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of Moses and the prophets, had in fact united His divinity with our humanity in a single individual, Jesus Christ.
The revelation of the incarnation is the revelation of the Trinity. At the incarnation God the Father sends the Holy Spirit to the blessed Virgin Mary to accomplish the incarnation of God the Son. At the incarnation God confirms and clarifies the revelation he had given to Moses and the prophets. That revelation states that God is One. It clarifies that the One God is transcendent, immanent, and personally present. Why is this important?
When Jesus came into the world there were two basic misconceptions about God that produced two fundamental misconceptions about the human condition.
The first misconception about God is that God is so completely transcendent and holy that God is unknown and unknowable. This God can only relate to human beings through a series of intermediary spiritual beings, lesser deities or angels. These lesser beings bring to humanity the Law.
This misconception about God leads to the misconception about the human condition. The God of pure transcendence is the God of Law. The God of Law is the God who maintains the moral order in the universe through a system of rewards and punishments. The lesser gods, angels, prophets, priests and teachers who represent this God teach that if you obey God’s laws then God is obligated by God’s own Law to bless you. God is also obligated under the Law to punish you if you break the Law.
The assumption is that human beings are born morally neutral with the free will to choose obedience or disobedience, blessing or punishment, heaven or hell. Incidentally, this is not what the Bible teaches about God, the Law, or the human condition. It is a distortion of the truth that leads to a dualistic world view cast in terms of absolute good at war with absolute evil.
The second major misconception about God is that God is all and all is God. This is the distortion of immanence. This distortion produces religious forms characterized by mysticism. It teaches that not only is God everywhere but that God is everything, including you.
This form of religion teaches that the problem confronting human beings is not disobedience but rather ignorance. The solution to the problem is knowledge acquired through a process called enlightenment. The goal of this knowledge is to recognize that you are merely God playing hide and seek with God. You are already perfect. Good and evil are an illusion that we choose to create to hide from our true divine nature.
The God of Law is the God of rewards and punishments who demands submission and authorizes aggression against the unrighteous. The God of Enlightenment is the God of passive withdrawal, fantasy, and self indulgence.
The One God seeks to rescue humanity from these distortions by uniting the principles of transcendence and immanence with incarnation.
In Jesus Christ God reveals that He is real, He is personal, He is love. In Jesus Christ God reveals that the problem confronting humanity is not disobedience or ignorance, it is separation. Since separation is the problem the only solution is reunification. God himself accomplishes this reunification by uniting his divinity with our humanity in Jesus Christ. This reunification is what the Bible calls salvation.
As the apostles and their students pondered this truth they received two important insights from the Holy Spirit to help us understand how the reality of the incarnation and the Trinity impact our lives.
These insights are: What he did not assume he could not redeem. And, he became as we are so that we might become as he is. In Jesus Christ God recreates humanity and offers us all a new life and a new way of living. It is the fullness of God incarnate in Jesus Christ who reunites us to God.
Jesus is not a religious category. He does not just show us how to be good so we can earn God’s favor. Neither does he inspire us to acquire the knowledge we need to manifest our inner divinity. Jesus is God seeking us out, finding us, and calling us into a personal relationship with himself.
Jesus reveals to us that God eternally manifests His One Divine Nature in three persons: Father, Son, Holy Spirit.
God the Father is God transcendent. He is the one who eternally loves.
God the Son is God incarnate. He is the co-eternal Beloved.
God the Holy Spirit is God immanent, God everywhere, the co-eternal Love that manifests the One God as three persons and the three persons as One God.
The Trinity assures us that God is Love because the One God is a community of Love. The Trinity assures us that Love is available to all people everywhere. To be saved is to be reunited to God the Father, through God the Son, by the transforming Presence of God the Holy Spirit.
We cannot define or dissect God. We can only experience Him in His incarnate form: Jesus Christ.
Pentecost
Pentecost 2010
I will ask the Father and He will give you another Advocate who will be with you forever.
Faith plus obedience equals transformation.
We see this principle illustrated throughout the Bible. It is particularly evident in the story of Pentecost.
When Jesus ascended into heaven he instructed his apostles to wait in Jerusalem for the coming of the Holy Spirit. The Apostles had a choice. Wait or act. The basis for their choice was their faith.
Christian faith focuses on a person, Jesus Christ. Christian faith is the product of a personal relationship. Belief involves ideas, laws, rituals, doctrines. Faith, Christian faith, is about a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
The apostles walked with Jesus for three years. They witnessed his miracles. They heard his teaching. They observed his behavior. They knew he was different than all other religious teachers. However, it wasn’t until the resurrection that they finally came to accept the reality that Jesus was not only fully human but fully God. Only God has the power to transform death into life.
Jesus had told them that he and the Father are one. Yet, they did not understand just how that could be true until after the resurrection. Jesus had also promised to send them another Advocate.
An Advocate is one who speaks on your behalf. The Holy Spirit speaks on our behalf to God the Father. The Holy Spirit also speaks on our behalf to other people. And, the Holy Spirit speaks to us to lead us into Faith in Jesus Christ.
The Apostles received Jesus’ instruction to wait for the coming of the Holy Spirit with no clear idea as to who the Holy Spirit is.
The Apostles knew that the Holy Spirit had spoken through the prophets. The apostles also knew that the Messiah would initiate a new age of grace that would involve an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. The apostles struggled to understand that the kingdom of God was not about command and control but rather about love and holiness.
On the Day of Pentecost, Jesus fulfilled his promise. Jesus prayer to the Father was fulfilled ten days after the Ascension. We heard the description of that amazing event in the reading from the Book of Acts.
The Apostles expressed their faith in Jesus by obeying his last command. Wait. As they waited they gathered for prayer with Holy Mother Mary. They did not wait passively. They waited with expectation. They waited with trust.
The Day of Pentecost is the birth of the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church. The agent of this birth is the Holy Spirit. The evidence of this birth manifests in the outward and visible signs of the wind and fire and in the Apostles preaching the message of salvation in languages they had never learned. The evidence of this birth comes from the inward and spiritual grace that led three thousand people to accept Jesus as their personal Lord and savior.
On the day of Pentecost the number of believers increased from 120 to 3, 120 in a matter of minutes. As wonderful as the miraculous signs of wind and fire were, still more wonderful was the response of faith from the crowds who heard the apostles preach.
It was the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, who gave life and power to the apostolic preaching. It was the Holy Spirit who spoke to the souls of people who had only recently rejected Jesus and led them to proclaim their faith and trust in Jesus. And. It was the Holy Spirit who transformed fearful and confused men into the preachers who went into the world with the Good News of God’s love in Jesus Christ.
The Holy Spirit gave birth to the church in Jerusalem that day. He reveals the purpose for the church. The purpose of the church is to be the instrumentality of our Heavenly Father’s Plan of Salvation in Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit fills, directs and comforts the church to accomplish that task. He inhabits the soul of everyone who proclaims faith in Jesus Christ. He speaks in many and various ways to all people everywhere so that they would open their minds and hearts and wills to be found by God in Jesus Christ.
The work of the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church is the work of the Holy Spirit. It is the continuation of the ministry of Jesus Christ. It is the proclamation of the Plan of Salvation, the invitation to Faith, and the very power of personal transformation into a new way of living.
Jesus not only promised to send the Holy Spirit, he promised that the Holy Spirit would be with us forever. The new life Jesus gives us through the Holy Spirit is forever. The new life is now. The new life is God with us in every moment of our lives and in every joy and every sorrow.
As we live into that new life, the Holy Spirit will enable us and equip us to accomplish amazing things for God. As we just heard read in the scriptures, the most amazing accomplishments will be in the re birth of a soul into the new life of eternal love in Jesus Christ.
Today, this moment, ask the Holy Spirit to release His divine power into your life. Ask him to be for you who Jesus wants him to be: the Presence of God in your soul now and forever. Amen.
I will ask the Father and He will give you another Advocate who will be with you forever.
Faith plus obedience equals transformation.
We see this principle illustrated throughout the Bible. It is particularly evident in the story of Pentecost.
When Jesus ascended into heaven he instructed his apostles to wait in Jerusalem for the coming of the Holy Spirit. The Apostles had a choice. Wait or act. The basis for their choice was their faith.
Christian faith focuses on a person, Jesus Christ. Christian faith is the product of a personal relationship. Belief involves ideas, laws, rituals, doctrines. Faith, Christian faith, is about a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
The apostles walked with Jesus for three years. They witnessed his miracles. They heard his teaching. They observed his behavior. They knew he was different than all other religious teachers. However, it wasn’t until the resurrection that they finally came to accept the reality that Jesus was not only fully human but fully God. Only God has the power to transform death into life.
Jesus had told them that he and the Father are one. Yet, they did not understand just how that could be true until after the resurrection. Jesus had also promised to send them another Advocate.
An Advocate is one who speaks on your behalf. The Holy Spirit speaks on our behalf to God the Father. The Holy Spirit also speaks on our behalf to other people. And, the Holy Spirit speaks to us to lead us into Faith in Jesus Christ.
The Apostles received Jesus’ instruction to wait for the coming of the Holy Spirit with no clear idea as to who the Holy Spirit is.
The Apostles knew that the Holy Spirit had spoken through the prophets. The apostles also knew that the Messiah would initiate a new age of grace that would involve an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. The apostles struggled to understand that the kingdom of God was not about command and control but rather about love and holiness.
On the Day of Pentecost, Jesus fulfilled his promise. Jesus prayer to the Father was fulfilled ten days after the Ascension. We heard the description of that amazing event in the reading from the Book of Acts.
The Apostles expressed their faith in Jesus by obeying his last command. Wait. As they waited they gathered for prayer with Holy Mother Mary. They did not wait passively. They waited with expectation. They waited with trust.
The Day of Pentecost is the birth of the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church. The agent of this birth is the Holy Spirit. The evidence of this birth manifests in the outward and visible signs of the wind and fire and in the Apostles preaching the message of salvation in languages they had never learned. The evidence of this birth comes from the inward and spiritual grace that led three thousand people to accept Jesus as their personal Lord and savior.
On the day of Pentecost the number of believers increased from 120 to 3, 120 in a matter of minutes. As wonderful as the miraculous signs of wind and fire were, still more wonderful was the response of faith from the crowds who heard the apostles preach.
It was the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, who gave life and power to the apostolic preaching. It was the Holy Spirit who spoke to the souls of people who had only recently rejected Jesus and led them to proclaim their faith and trust in Jesus. And. It was the Holy Spirit who transformed fearful and confused men into the preachers who went into the world with the Good News of God’s love in Jesus Christ.
The Holy Spirit gave birth to the church in Jerusalem that day. He reveals the purpose for the church. The purpose of the church is to be the instrumentality of our Heavenly Father’s Plan of Salvation in Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit fills, directs and comforts the church to accomplish that task. He inhabits the soul of everyone who proclaims faith in Jesus Christ. He speaks in many and various ways to all people everywhere so that they would open their minds and hearts and wills to be found by God in Jesus Christ.
The work of the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church is the work of the Holy Spirit. It is the continuation of the ministry of Jesus Christ. It is the proclamation of the Plan of Salvation, the invitation to Faith, and the very power of personal transformation into a new way of living.
Jesus not only promised to send the Holy Spirit, he promised that the Holy Spirit would be with us forever. The new life Jesus gives us through the Holy Spirit is forever. The new life is now. The new life is God with us in every moment of our lives and in every joy and every sorrow.
As we live into that new life, the Holy Spirit will enable us and equip us to accomplish amazing things for God. As we just heard read in the scriptures, the most amazing accomplishments will be in the re birth of a soul into the new life of eternal love in Jesus Christ.
Today, this moment, ask the Holy Spirit to release His divine power into your life. Ask him to be for you who Jesus wants him to be: the Presence of God in your soul now and forever. Amen.
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