Thanksgiving 2010 Do not worry
Do not worry. The command is easier said than done.
There is a lot in the world that inspires worry, fear, anxiety. Jesus names some of them. Strangely, Jesus has a very different attitude about all of these things that bring so much anxiety into our lives.
Jesus asserts that the things that can lead to worry have no essential power to cause the worry. Poverty, starvation, scarcity all are serious challenges to human life. But none of these things can of themselves impose fear, anxiety and worry on us. Even death lacks that power.
So, where does the worry come from? Jesus reveals to us that it comes from within our souls. It comes from the place of separation. It manifests in the fear that if anything can go wrong it will go wrong. It distorts our attitude towards life, other people and even God with the phrase: what’s in it for me?
Separation from God produces a story we tell ourselves and each other. The story is grounded in the concept of scarcity. The story is: there isn’t enough. The story is that life is a struggle and then you die. The story is that we are all victims and someone else or something else is always to blame. The story produces worry and the justification for a life lived in defense against all manner of potential threats to our well being.
Jesus came into the world to address the problem of separation. In his own body he united divinity with humanity. In the way he lived his life he demonstrated that it is possible to live with a different story. The story Jesus tells is a story of the abundance of God’s love. The abundance is grace: the gift of God to all people everywhere.
The abundance comes from the reunification of our souls with the infinite and eternal love of God. The new story is the Good News of God with us. God is our loving heavenly Father who is consistently concerned about us. Our Heavenly Father knows our every need and is more than willing to help us meet those needs.
The new story invites us to live from the place of thankfulness for the many blessings God gives us constantly and unfailingly.
Jesus asks: do you believe this? Where do you place your faith? Do you place your faith in laws, rituals, knowledge, yourself? Or, do you place your faith in the incarnate co-eternal Son of God?
Jesus lived his life by the constant prayer: heavenly Father, not my will but your will be done. Jesus took the human tendency to ask of life: “what’s in it for me?” and transformed it into a different question: “how may I help?”
Jesus invites into a new life: a life of abundance in the peace, love and joy of the Holy Spirit. Jesus offers to help us to participate in a new way of living: an undefended way of living that trusts God to protect us and to provide for us.
Salvation in Jesus Christ is about the way we experience our lives here and now. We are personally responsible for our lives. We can choose. We can choose a story of scarcity, fear, self will and worry. Or, we can choose a story of abundance, faith, divine will and peace.
Jesus encourages us to examine the stories we tell ourselves. Do we say life is a struggle and a problem? Do we tell ourselves we are victims? Or, do we embrace the Good News of the story Jesus tells us: God is real. God is personal. God is love. God is for us and with us in the Real Presence of the Living Lord Jesus Christ?
Jesus asks: do we make a real choice to live our lives by grace through faith in the goodness of God? Will we live from the place of Thanksgiving for all of the many blessings God pours into our lives, our hearts, our minds, our souls?
Jesus asks us to re examine our priorities. He teaches the best and most fulfilling priority is the personal relationship with God that he himself gives to us as a gift. If we start from that place, the personal relationship God offers us in Jesus Christ, all other things will find their proper place.
Jesus tells us how we can live life without worry when he gives us a new story with a new priority: seek first the Kingdom of God. Seek first a personal relationship with God. As you do that, as you live into that choice, you will experience the abundance of Divine love. The worry will yield to the faith as you live from the place of grace, the gift of God in Jesus Christ.
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Christ the King Sunday 2010
Christ the King Sunday (Luke 23:33-43
“Father forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”
Jesus forgave those who rejected him, tortured him and killed him.
How is this possible?
From the first moment our first parents separated from God in a choice we now call Original Sin, God worked in human history to rescue us from the terrible consequences of that choice.
Separation shatters the image of God in our souls. The Image is still there, but the soul can no longer hold it with clarity and purpose. The soul is lost in the pain of isolation. The soul rebels against God, other people, the Creation itself. The soul seeks to dominate out of the confusion of fear and pride.
A lost soul is a soul that is frustrated, confused, fearful and demanding. A lost soul seeks to dominate other people, the world, even God in order to restore meaning and purpose. Sadly, the lost perpetuation separation by their every action or inaction. Separation is self perpetuating. The more you try to overcome the pain of separation by your own will, the more you recycle that pain into suffering, and the more you perpetuate that pain in your own soul.
All of these aspects of Original Sin were present at Calvary. The religious authorities had long since abandoned the personal God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. They had moved God far away into the esoteric realm of philosophy and transcendence. They had allocated to themselves the authority of Moses and the Prophets.
They rejected Jesus because he was a threat to their own plan of salvation. They not only believed they knew who God was and what God wanted; they knew that they knew. Their beliefs were detailed, specific and inflexible. Jesus challenged these detailed, specific and inflexible beliefs.
Belief without faith leads to death.
Jesus came to Israel to remind them that God is real, God is love, God is personal. Jesus came to Israel to remind the people that above all else God seeks a personal relationship with humanity. In that relationship, God finds the lost who do not want to be found.
The relationship is not in the Law, the ritual or even the religion as important as they are. The relationship is in the friendship our Heavenly Father offers all people in the person of His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ.
When God asks us to do something, such as coming to church once a week, this is not a command to restrict our choices. It is an invitation to experience a unique opportunity to immerse our selves, our souls and bodies in the Infinite and Eternal Love of God in Jesus Christ.
Those who convicted Jesus of blasphemy for claiming to be God were caught in a feedback loop of fear, self will and pride. In order to maintain what they knew they knew they could only react to a different image of God by destroying that image.
Even at the last, the religious leaders and the soldiers taunted Jesus with his last temptation: come down from the cross, be who we demand you to become, and then we will not only follow you- we will worship you.
They thought they knew. They actually knew they knew. But, they were lost in a false belief system that blocked their ability to see and hear the very Presence of the Living God in their midst.
Jesus prayed to his heavenly Father to forgive them all because they were lost and incapable of breaking their own chains of rebellion, self will and sin. They had so constructed their beliefs about God, the creation and other people that there was no room for Emmanuel- God with us. There was room only for knowledge and power and Law.
They acted out of pain, the pain of separation. And so, on the Cross Jesus sealed the breach between humanity and divinity. They acted out of fear that Jesus would destroy the certainty of their beliefs and in the wake destroy their position in society and their very existence. Jesus took that fear into himself on the cross and transformed it back into faith.
They acted of Pride that they knew, and they knew they knew, what was best for everyone in all circumstances. Jesus took that pride into himself on the cross and transformed it back into love.
They acted out of self will that perpetuates separation through a never ending and never to be satisfied demand: my will be done. Jesus took that self will into himself and transformed it by his own constant prayer: heavenly Father not my will but your will be done.
Jesus died on the cross because it was the only way to overcome the power of separation. Jesus fully embraced and experienced the full consequence of separation in the sin and death of all people who have ever lived and will ever lived. He died and in his death he transformed death back into life.
The Bible is very clear about the human condition. We are lost in the pain of Original Separation and we do not want to be found. We do not want to know that we are lost. We do not want to know that life is not about our search for meaning and purpose, for knowledge and power, for possessions and pleasure. Life is about a personal relationship with the living God through Jesus Christ.
As Jesus prayed from the cross for the religious leaders and the soldiers, so he prays for all people everywhere. Heavenly Father, they are lost and do not want to be found. They are lost in the pride of what they think they know and even more in what they know they know. And so it must be that the Son die on the cross so that sin and death die on the cross with him.
What is it that hinders us from transformation in divine love and holiness? What do we think we know and perhaps even know we know that needs to die on the cross so Jesus can transform it and give it back to us in its purity as God’s original blessing?
On this Christ the King Sunday we remember that Jesus reigns from the cross so that we may surrender our self will, fear and pride to be transformed back into the original blessing of faith, hope and love.
Jesus reigns from His throne of glory in Heaven with Holy Mother Mary, the angels and the saints having accomplished our Heavenly Father’s Plan of Salvation on the cross.
Jesus reigns from the altar in the blessed sacrament of the altar where he offers his very body and blood to feed us, nurture us and transform us with his own eternal life.
Jesus reigns in the hearts and minds and lives of His faithful people who receive the gift of divine love by faith. By that faith we experience a new life and a new way of living. By that new way of living we proclaim in thought, word and deed that Jesus Christ is king of kings because he is king of steadfast holy love.
Jesus has already forgiven us from the cross. His passionate desire is that we receive the new life and the new way of living made possible by his death and resurrection. It is his passionate desire to say to each of us here and now and all the days of our lives: today you are with me in Paradise. Today you are found. Today you are being filled with the Original Blessing that makes all things new now, and tomorrow and forever. Amen.
“Father forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”
Jesus forgave those who rejected him, tortured him and killed him.
How is this possible?
From the first moment our first parents separated from God in a choice we now call Original Sin, God worked in human history to rescue us from the terrible consequences of that choice.
Separation shatters the image of God in our souls. The Image is still there, but the soul can no longer hold it with clarity and purpose. The soul is lost in the pain of isolation. The soul rebels against God, other people, the Creation itself. The soul seeks to dominate out of the confusion of fear and pride.
A lost soul is a soul that is frustrated, confused, fearful and demanding. A lost soul seeks to dominate other people, the world, even God in order to restore meaning and purpose. Sadly, the lost perpetuation separation by their every action or inaction. Separation is self perpetuating. The more you try to overcome the pain of separation by your own will, the more you recycle that pain into suffering, and the more you perpetuate that pain in your own soul.
All of these aspects of Original Sin were present at Calvary. The religious authorities had long since abandoned the personal God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. They had moved God far away into the esoteric realm of philosophy and transcendence. They had allocated to themselves the authority of Moses and the Prophets.
They rejected Jesus because he was a threat to their own plan of salvation. They not only believed they knew who God was and what God wanted; they knew that they knew. Their beliefs were detailed, specific and inflexible. Jesus challenged these detailed, specific and inflexible beliefs.
Belief without faith leads to death.
Jesus came to Israel to remind them that God is real, God is love, God is personal. Jesus came to Israel to remind the people that above all else God seeks a personal relationship with humanity. In that relationship, God finds the lost who do not want to be found.
The relationship is not in the Law, the ritual or even the religion as important as they are. The relationship is in the friendship our Heavenly Father offers all people in the person of His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ.
When God asks us to do something, such as coming to church once a week, this is not a command to restrict our choices. It is an invitation to experience a unique opportunity to immerse our selves, our souls and bodies in the Infinite and Eternal Love of God in Jesus Christ.
Those who convicted Jesus of blasphemy for claiming to be God were caught in a feedback loop of fear, self will and pride. In order to maintain what they knew they knew they could only react to a different image of God by destroying that image.
Even at the last, the religious leaders and the soldiers taunted Jesus with his last temptation: come down from the cross, be who we demand you to become, and then we will not only follow you- we will worship you.
They thought they knew. They actually knew they knew. But, they were lost in a false belief system that blocked their ability to see and hear the very Presence of the Living God in their midst.
Jesus prayed to his heavenly Father to forgive them all because they were lost and incapable of breaking their own chains of rebellion, self will and sin. They had so constructed their beliefs about God, the creation and other people that there was no room for Emmanuel- God with us. There was room only for knowledge and power and Law.
They acted out of pain, the pain of separation. And so, on the Cross Jesus sealed the breach between humanity and divinity. They acted out of fear that Jesus would destroy the certainty of their beliefs and in the wake destroy their position in society and their very existence. Jesus took that fear into himself on the cross and transformed it back into faith.
They acted of Pride that they knew, and they knew they knew, what was best for everyone in all circumstances. Jesus took that pride into himself on the cross and transformed it back into love.
They acted out of self will that perpetuates separation through a never ending and never to be satisfied demand: my will be done. Jesus took that self will into himself and transformed it by his own constant prayer: heavenly Father not my will but your will be done.
Jesus died on the cross because it was the only way to overcome the power of separation. Jesus fully embraced and experienced the full consequence of separation in the sin and death of all people who have ever lived and will ever lived. He died and in his death he transformed death back into life.
The Bible is very clear about the human condition. We are lost in the pain of Original Separation and we do not want to be found. We do not want to know that we are lost. We do not want to know that life is not about our search for meaning and purpose, for knowledge and power, for possessions and pleasure. Life is about a personal relationship with the living God through Jesus Christ.
As Jesus prayed from the cross for the religious leaders and the soldiers, so he prays for all people everywhere. Heavenly Father, they are lost and do not want to be found. They are lost in the pride of what they think they know and even more in what they know they know. And so it must be that the Son die on the cross so that sin and death die on the cross with him.
What is it that hinders us from transformation in divine love and holiness? What do we think we know and perhaps even know we know that needs to die on the cross so Jesus can transform it and give it back to us in its purity as God’s original blessing?
On this Christ the King Sunday we remember that Jesus reigns from the cross so that we may surrender our self will, fear and pride to be transformed back into the original blessing of faith, hope and love.
Jesus reigns from His throne of glory in Heaven with Holy Mother Mary, the angels and the saints having accomplished our Heavenly Father’s Plan of Salvation on the cross.
Jesus reigns from the altar in the blessed sacrament of the altar where he offers his very body and blood to feed us, nurture us and transform us with his own eternal life.
Jesus reigns in the hearts and minds and lives of His faithful people who receive the gift of divine love by faith. By that faith we experience a new life and a new way of living. By that new way of living we proclaim in thought, word and deed that Jesus Christ is king of kings because he is king of steadfast holy love.
Jesus has already forgiven us from the cross. His passionate desire is that we receive the new life and the new way of living made possible by his death and resurrection. It is his passionate desire to say to each of us here and now and all the days of our lives: today you are with me in Paradise. Today you are found. Today you are being filled with the Original Blessing that makes all things new now, and tomorrow and forever. Amen.
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Pentecost 25
Pentecost 25 (Luke 21:5-19)
Beware that you are not led astray.
The Good News of God’s love in Jesus Christ brings division to the world.
Those who reject Christ reject those who follow him. For the first three hundred years of the Christian Faith it was illegal to be a Christian. It is still illegal in many parts of the world.
When Jesus spoke of the persecution his followers would face he never authorized the Church to fight and kill for the Faith. He asks us to live for our faith. And, sometimes he asks us to endure persecution for our Faith.
Not all who associate with the Church are willing to live for the Faith. Not all who associate with the Church are willing to endure ridicule, rejection and outright persecution. There is a tendency to adjust the Faith to the surrounding culture.
Jesus warns us that those who seek to make such an accommodation are in danger of being led astray.
There are three basic sources of this erosion of Faith. They are the world, the flesh and the devil.
The world is the surrounding culture. The world says it’s OK to be religious but all religion says the same thing. The world presses hard to redefine Christ according to its own perceptions and values. The world sees Jesus as one among many religious teachers. The world says: it doesn’t matter what you believe as long as you are a good person.
The world also seeks to change faith into belief and belief into opinion. For the world. It doesn’t matter if Jesus ever lived. He is an ideal not a reality.
Finally, the world teaches that there is no evidence for religious belief.
Therefore, religion is less important and less significant than knowledge, power, pleasure, prestige. The world seeks to turn the Faithful into lukewarm Christians who see Jesus as one option among many for our time and attention.
The flesh is the distorted desires and demands of our mind, heart and will. These desires generally place the distractions of entertainment and pleasure as their first priority. The demands of the flesh say: church is fine if I’m not too busy and have nothing else to do.
The devil, Satan, works through the world and the flesh to seduce people away from our Heavenly Father’s Plan of Salvation in Jesus Christ. Satan is most effective when people think of him as a cartoonish myth used to frighten children. Satan works by corrupting language, leaders and love.
The corruption of language is the tendency to obscure the meaning of words. Satan seeks to influence language through writers, artists, academics, advertisers, politicians and religion. The greatest form of linguistic confusion is the assertion that there is no absolute truth and that everything is relative to our own individual tastes and desires.
The corruption of leaders follows the corruption of language. Satan is powerful but limited. He focuses on seducing leaders in society to abandon Biblical values and then relies on them to do his work in the name of progress, science, or enlightenment.
The final corruption is the corruption of love. God is love. Satan knows very well who this love is and how this love created the universe, redeems the universe and can transform the universe. Satan uses a very old bait and switch technique whereby he redefines love as self indulgence.
And so, temptation to sin often comes with the words: if you really loved me. Or, I’m just not in love with you any more. Or, how can it be wrong when it feels so good?
Satan corrupts our understanding of love by confusing the meaning of the word and then encouraging popular culture to portray love as romantic idealism and self indulgence.
The ultimate Satanic Seduction is through religion. Satan targets the religiously inclined and seeks to subvert Faith by distorting belief. Satan is an expert in creating religion and then fomenting divisions within religion. Atheists very astutely observe that religion kills, divides, and contradicts. Of course, this is exactly what Satan wants. It is a form of negative advertising that creates confusion and disgust with all religion so people resist the Plan of Salvation as just one more unsubstantiated mythology.
The ultimate expression of false religion is the anti-Christ. An anti-Christ offers an experience of the divine that rejects the Incarnation of the co-eternal Son.
Why does this matter? After all, if God is love surely he will forgive our mistakes and confusions. That is perhaps the most subtle of Satan’s lies.
For God does indeed forgive. There is in fact no condemnation in the steadfast holy unconditional love of God. The problem is not with God. The problem is with us.
God the Father designed us to live in an eternal relationship with God the Son through the presence and power of God the Holy Spirit. Sin is the choice we made to separate from God. Jesus Christ is the solution to the problem of separation.
Jesus died on the cross not just to satisfy the demands of the law or some spiritual debt. Jesus died on the cross to transform separation back into reunification. Jesus died on the cross to transform death back into life.
Jesus just doesn’t show us a way to seek God. Jesus is the way, the only way, God finds us, restores us, and transforms us.
Jesus knows very well that human beings lost in sin are also lost in the distortions of fear, self will and pride. The Bible is not a book about man’s search for God. The Bible is a two thousand year record of man fleeing from God. The Bible is also a book of how God nevertheless patiently and persistently seeks and finds the lonely, broken and lost.
If religion alone were the answer to the fundamental problem facing the human race then Jesus would never have had to die on the cross. Moses would have been sufficient. The Temple in Jerusalem would have been enough.
As the religious leaders of Jesus day rejected him through fear and anger and turned him over to the Romans to kill, so they eventually rejected the purpose for which God authorized the Temple. The Temple was built to be a house of prayer for all nations. The religious leaders turned it into a nationalistic symbol of pride and might.
Once the Temple became a political symbol of aggression against Rome, it became the preeminent rallying point for the nationalistic to wage war, and it became the preeminent military target in that war. In 70 AD terrorists seized the Temple, slaughtered the priests and led the people into a devastating war. They promised the people that God was on their side. They lost that war. The Romans killed everyone in Jerusalem then leveled the city and the Temple. The Temple has never been rebuilt.
Jesus Christ has risen from the dead. In his resurrection he has transformed death back into life. As we unite with Jesus by grace through faith we receive the great gift of God: reunification with the Father, through the Son, by the indwelling presence and power of the Holy Spirit.
The principle of salvation is very simple: we become like who we worship.
It is not entirely a matter of belief. It is entirely a matter of faith. The question the Bible asks is: who do you trust?
Jesus warns us that there will be many false teachers, false prophets and anti-Christs who will offer an alternative to our Heavenly Father’s Plan of Salvation. They are all spiritual dead ends. They are all spiritual deadly ends. Only Jesus can and has transformed death back into life, separation back into reunification, sin back into love.
Be warned. Be wary. Beware that you are not led astray.
Beware that you are not led astray.
The Good News of God’s love in Jesus Christ brings division to the world.
Those who reject Christ reject those who follow him. For the first three hundred years of the Christian Faith it was illegal to be a Christian. It is still illegal in many parts of the world.
When Jesus spoke of the persecution his followers would face he never authorized the Church to fight and kill for the Faith. He asks us to live for our faith. And, sometimes he asks us to endure persecution for our Faith.
Not all who associate with the Church are willing to live for the Faith. Not all who associate with the Church are willing to endure ridicule, rejection and outright persecution. There is a tendency to adjust the Faith to the surrounding culture.
Jesus warns us that those who seek to make such an accommodation are in danger of being led astray.
There are three basic sources of this erosion of Faith. They are the world, the flesh and the devil.
The world is the surrounding culture. The world says it’s OK to be religious but all religion says the same thing. The world presses hard to redefine Christ according to its own perceptions and values. The world sees Jesus as one among many religious teachers. The world says: it doesn’t matter what you believe as long as you are a good person.
The world also seeks to change faith into belief and belief into opinion. For the world. It doesn’t matter if Jesus ever lived. He is an ideal not a reality.
Finally, the world teaches that there is no evidence for religious belief.
Therefore, religion is less important and less significant than knowledge, power, pleasure, prestige. The world seeks to turn the Faithful into lukewarm Christians who see Jesus as one option among many for our time and attention.
The flesh is the distorted desires and demands of our mind, heart and will. These desires generally place the distractions of entertainment and pleasure as their first priority. The demands of the flesh say: church is fine if I’m not too busy and have nothing else to do.
The devil, Satan, works through the world and the flesh to seduce people away from our Heavenly Father’s Plan of Salvation in Jesus Christ. Satan is most effective when people think of him as a cartoonish myth used to frighten children. Satan works by corrupting language, leaders and love.
The corruption of language is the tendency to obscure the meaning of words. Satan seeks to influence language through writers, artists, academics, advertisers, politicians and religion. The greatest form of linguistic confusion is the assertion that there is no absolute truth and that everything is relative to our own individual tastes and desires.
The corruption of leaders follows the corruption of language. Satan is powerful but limited. He focuses on seducing leaders in society to abandon Biblical values and then relies on them to do his work in the name of progress, science, or enlightenment.
The final corruption is the corruption of love. God is love. Satan knows very well who this love is and how this love created the universe, redeems the universe and can transform the universe. Satan uses a very old bait and switch technique whereby he redefines love as self indulgence.
And so, temptation to sin often comes with the words: if you really loved me. Or, I’m just not in love with you any more. Or, how can it be wrong when it feels so good?
Satan corrupts our understanding of love by confusing the meaning of the word and then encouraging popular culture to portray love as romantic idealism and self indulgence.
The ultimate Satanic Seduction is through religion. Satan targets the religiously inclined and seeks to subvert Faith by distorting belief. Satan is an expert in creating religion and then fomenting divisions within religion. Atheists very astutely observe that religion kills, divides, and contradicts. Of course, this is exactly what Satan wants. It is a form of negative advertising that creates confusion and disgust with all religion so people resist the Plan of Salvation as just one more unsubstantiated mythology.
The ultimate expression of false religion is the anti-Christ. An anti-Christ offers an experience of the divine that rejects the Incarnation of the co-eternal Son.
Why does this matter? After all, if God is love surely he will forgive our mistakes and confusions. That is perhaps the most subtle of Satan’s lies.
For God does indeed forgive. There is in fact no condemnation in the steadfast holy unconditional love of God. The problem is not with God. The problem is with us.
God the Father designed us to live in an eternal relationship with God the Son through the presence and power of God the Holy Spirit. Sin is the choice we made to separate from God. Jesus Christ is the solution to the problem of separation.
Jesus died on the cross not just to satisfy the demands of the law or some spiritual debt. Jesus died on the cross to transform separation back into reunification. Jesus died on the cross to transform death back into life.
Jesus just doesn’t show us a way to seek God. Jesus is the way, the only way, God finds us, restores us, and transforms us.
Jesus knows very well that human beings lost in sin are also lost in the distortions of fear, self will and pride. The Bible is not a book about man’s search for God. The Bible is a two thousand year record of man fleeing from God. The Bible is also a book of how God nevertheless patiently and persistently seeks and finds the lonely, broken and lost.
If religion alone were the answer to the fundamental problem facing the human race then Jesus would never have had to die on the cross. Moses would have been sufficient. The Temple in Jerusalem would have been enough.
As the religious leaders of Jesus day rejected him through fear and anger and turned him over to the Romans to kill, so they eventually rejected the purpose for which God authorized the Temple. The Temple was built to be a house of prayer for all nations. The religious leaders turned it into a nationalistic symbol of pride and might.
Once the Temple became a political symbol of aggression against Rome, it became the preeminent rallying point for the nationalistic to wage war, and it became the preeminent military target in that war. In 70 AD terrorists seized the Temple, slaughtered the priests and led the people into a devastating war. They promised the people that God was on their side. They lost that war. The Romans killed everyone in Jerusalem then leveled the city and the Temple. The Temple has never been rebuilt.
Jesus Christ has risen from the dead. In his resurrection he has transformed death back into life. As we unite with Jesus by grace through faith we receive the great gift of God: reunification with the Father, through the Son, by the indwelling presence and power of the Holy Spirit.
The principle of salvation is very simple: we become like who we worship.
It is not entirely a matter of belief. It is entirely a matter of faith. The question the Bible asks is: who do you trust?
Jesus warns us that there will be many false teachers, false prophets and anti-Christs who will offer an alternative to our Heavenly Father’s Plan of Salvation. They are all spiritual dead ends. They are all spiritual deadly ends. Only Jesus can and has transformed death back into life, separation back into reunification, sin back into love.
Be warned. Be wary. Beware that you are not led astray.
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Pentecost 24
Pentecost 24 (Luke 20:27-38 (God is the God of the living.)
God did not design human beings for death.
From the very first moment of creation, God designed human beings for life. The life derives from God who is life. God’s life is eternal.
Death entered the world when human beings chose to separate from God. As we separate from God we separate from Life, from Love and from Holiness. The result of this separation is sin and death. The effect of sin and death on the soul is to produce an existence characterized by fear, self will and pride.
From the first moment our first parents chose that original sin, that original separation from God, God set forth his plan of salvation to rescue us from sin and death.
God gave the Law to restrain the power of sin in our societies. God gave the law to serve as a perfect mirror to our souls to convict us and to convince us that we are lost in separation. God sent the prophets to call us to repentance and to preparation.
The prophets hold up the perfect mirror of divine law to remind us how far we have fallen. The prophets proclaim the coming of the Messiah to remind us that we are not only lost in sin but we are incapable of finding our way out of sin. The evidence of this is death.
Death is the first and final reminder that humanity is lost and cannot find its way back. The way back is the way of life, the way of love, the way of holiness. The way back is not the Law. If it were, people could choose perfection and claim immortality as a right.
The way back is not in religion. The Prophets clearly demonstrate that the religious are lost in separation and produce only further levels of separation.
The Sadducees are one of many religious groups that prove the point.
The Sadducees only accepted the first five books of the Bible as God’s word. The Sadducees asserted that God was so holy, so perfect, so transcendent that any human reference to God or name for God was not only inadequate but meaningless. God is the ineffable Mystery.
The Sadducees taught that any teaching about God is not only futile but counterproductive. And so, they also taught that miracles are superstitious interpretations of natural events. Angles are a figment of an over active imagination. And, life after death- especially the teaching of resurrection- is a narcotic that dulls the mind and weakens the will.
The Sadducees taught that belief in an afterlife undermined all human effort to live well in this life and to work to improve society here and now. They viewed the resurrection as particularly offense and nonsensical.
Resurrection means that at some future time God will recreate our bodies and restore not only our lives but our personalities to live in a new and perfect world. The Pharisees believed in the resurrection.
Sadducees believed dead is dead. Once the body dies the person dies. The body decays. Nothing remains and there is no mechanism by which any one, not even God, can reconstruct a dead body and restore to it life and personality.
Neither the Pharisees or the Sadducees believed in an immortal soul that was separate from the body and self existent apart from the body. Both groups believed dead was dead. The Pharisees also believed the resurrection of the body was the means by which the righteous would experience an afterlife.
Jesus spoke of the resurrection. So, the Sadducees challenged Jesus by presenting what they believed would be a plausible but absurd scenario about the resurrection.
Of course, the Sadducees were lost in their own logic and in their own self will. They did not want the resurrection to be real. They were a small segment of the population. They were rich, powerful, and dominated the Temple. Many temple priests were Sadducees. They were quite satisfied to perform the Temple sacrifices and rituals, to collect their fees and to dominate the religious life of the nation.
Jesus quoted Moses to confront their assumptions. They claimed to accept the religious authority of Moses. So, Jesus directs them to what Moses recorded when he heard God speak to him from the burning bush.
God reveals his name as “I am”. I am is eternal self existence. I am is life that has no beginning at some point in the past neither an ending at some point in the future. God says I am the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
As God is self existence, as God is eternal life, all who are in a relationship with God by grace through faith partake of that divine self existence, that eternal life.
Of course, the proof of this teaching is very close to the Sadducees, the Pharisees and every one else in that generation. The resurrection is not a fantasy, as the Sadducees claimed, nor an esoteric unproven belief as the Pharisees asserted. The resurrection is an historical fact.
It is the personal and physical resurrection of Jesus Christ at a particular moment in time and at a particular place on earth that establishes the fact of the general resurrection God promises to all people. The personal and physical resurrection of Jesus Christ is an event in human history that invites all people everywhere into faith.
Faith is not the same as belief. Belief is the object of speculation. Faith is the result of a personal encounter with the living God in Jesus Christ.
The resurrection can be an object of belief. It can also be the subject of faith.
Jesus reassures us this morning: God is life and all who enter into a relationship with God by grace through faith are reunited with that eternal life that has no beginning and has no end. For God is the God of the living who live forever in the steadfast holy love of the risen Lord Jesus Christ.
God did not design human beings for death.
From the very first moment of creation, God designed human beings for life. The life derives from God who is life. God’s life is eternal.
Death entered the world when human beings chose to separate from God. As we separate from God we separate from Life, from Love and from Holiness. The result of this separation is sin and death. The effect of sin and death on the soul is to produce an existence characterized by fear, self will and pride.
From the first moment our first parents chose that original sin, that original separation from God, God set forth his plan of salvation to rescue us from sin and death.
God gave the Law to restrain the power of sin in our societies. God gave the law to serve as a perfect mirror to our souls to convict us and to convince us that we are lost in separation. God sent the prophets to call us to repentance and to preparation.
The prophets hold up the perfect mirror of divine law to remind us how far we have fallen. The prophets proclaim the coming of the Messiah to remind us that we are not only lost in sin but we are incapable of finding our way out of sin. The evidence of this is death.
Death is the first and final reminder that humanity is lost and cannot find its way back. The way back is the way of life, the way of love, the way of holiness. The way back is not the Law. If it were, people could choose perfection and claim immortality as a right.
The way back is not in religion. The Prophets clearly demonstrate that the religious are lost in separation and produce only further levels of separation.
The Sadducees are one of many religious groups that prove the point.
The Sadducees only accepted the first five books of the Bible as God’s word. The Sadducees asserted that God was so holy, so perfect, so transcendent that any human reference to God or name for God was not only inadequate but meaningless. God is the ineffable Mystery.
The Sadducees taught that any teaching about God is not only futile but counterproductive. And so, they also taught that miracles are superstitious interpretations of natural events. Angles are a figment of an over active imagination. And, life after death- especially the teaching of resurrection- is a narcotic that dulls the mind and weakens the will.
The Sadducees taught that belief in an afterlife undermined all human effort to live well in this life and to work to improve society here and now. They viewed the resurrection as particularly offense and nonsensical.
Resurrection means that at some future time God will recreate our bodies and restore not only our lives but our personalities to live in a new and perfect world. The Pharisees believed in the resurrection.
Sadducees believed dead is dead. Once the body dies the person dies. The body decays. Nothing remains and there is no mechanism by which any one, not even God, can reconstruct a dead body and restore to it life and personality.
Neither the Pharisees or the Sadducees believed in an immortal soul that was separate from the body and self existent apart from the body. Both groups believed dead was dead. The Pharisees also believed the resurrection of the body was the means by which the righteous would experience an afterlife.
Jesus spoke of the resurrection. So, the Sadducees challenged Jesus by presenting what they believed would be a plausible but absurd scenario about the resurrection.
Of course, the Sadducees were lost in their own logic and in their own self will. They did not want the resurrection to be real. They were a small segment of the population. They were rich, powerful, and dominated the Temple. Many temple priests were Sadducees. They were quite satisfied to perform the Temple sacrifices and rituals, to collect their fees and to dominate the religious life of the nation.
Jesus quoted Moses to confront their assumptions. They claimed to accept the religious authority of Moses. So, Jesus directs them to what Moses recorded when he heard God speak to him from the burning bush.
God reveals his name as “I am”. I am is eternal self existence. I am is life that has no beginning at some point in the past neither an ending at some point in the future. God says I am the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
As God is self existence, as God is eternal life, all who are in a relationship with God by grace through faith partake of that divine self existence, that eternal life.
Of course, the proof of this teaching is very close to the Sadducees, the Pharisees and every one else in that generation. The resurrection is not a fantasy, as the Sadducees claimed, nor an esoteric unproven belief as the Pharisees asserted. The resurrection is an historical fact.
It is the personal and physical resurrection of Jesus Christ at a particular moment in time and at a particular place on earth that establishes the fact of the general resurrection God promises to all people. The personal and physical resurrection of Jesus Christ is an event in human history that invites all people everywhere into faith.
Faith is not the same as belief. Belief is the object of speculation. Faith is the result of a personal encounter with the living God in Jesus Christ.
The resurrection can be an object of belief. It can also be the subject of faith.
Jesus reassures us this morning: God is life and all who enter into a relationship with God by grace through faith are reunited with that eternal life that has no beginning and has no end. For God is the God of the living who live forever in the steadfast holy love of the risen Lord Jesus Christ.
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Pentecost 23
Pentecost 23 (Luke 19:1-10) The Son of Man came to seek out and save the lost.
Zacchaeus was lost.
He was lost in crime, in sin, and in separation from God and other people. He was also lost in his wealth. His soul had disintegrated to that place where he was possessed by his possessions.
Jesus came to earth to seek and to find and to restore the lost. He came to Jericho that day for that purpose.
It is unclear if Zacchaeus knew anything about Jesus. As a Chief Tax Collector in Judea, Zacchaeus focused his time and attention on what he valued most: money. Yet, when Jesus entered the city there were many in Jericho who had heard of his reputation as a teacher, a healer, and a miracle worker. Whether they believed in Jesus or not they were curious about him. They wanted to see him.
Zacchaeus heard the commotion. He saw the gathering crowd. He, too was curious. He wanted to see what was going on. Zacchaeus had a problem that prevented him from seeing Jesus. He was short. It is an interesting and almost irrelevant detail in the story.
In the excitement of the moment Zacchaeus was caught up in the press of the crowd to see Jesus. Yet, Zacchaeus was too short to see over the crowd. So, he ran ahead of the crowd and climbed a tree further down the street. He knew Jesus would pass that way. He knew he would be able to see over the crowd. He did not expect Jesus to speak to him personally.
Zaccaheus was a Chief Tax Collector. He was little more than a legalized gangster hired by Rome to collect taxes by any means, People hated him. The religious people would not speak with him.
Jesus spoke with him. Jesus initiated the conversation. I suspect Jesus saw the humor in this short self important self obsessed official sitting in a tree to get a better view of him. Jesus looked at him, saw him, recognized him and then called him by name. Zacchaeus.
The co-eternal Son of God had emptied himself of his omnipotence and omniscient when he became a particular man. He lived life as we live life- one day at a time, moment by moment. Unlike all of us, Jesus never separated from the Father. He lived each moment of life in communion with the Father. Jesus paid attention to other people, the world around him and to his heavenly Father is a way we do not.
Jesus learned the name of this short Chief Tax Collector and he called him by name. He showed him respect even though by the standards of the time he deserved condemnation. But, Jesus had come to Jericho to save the lost. And, Zacchaeus was among the lost.
Jesus paused and saw Zacchaeus for who was and in spite of who Zacchaeus was Jesus had compassion on him. Jesus gives Zacchaeus an invitation: “Come on down, Zacchaeus. Come on down from that tree. Hurry up. Come down now.”
This was Zacchaeus’ moment of grace. It was at an unexpected time under unusual circumstances. It was the moment Jesus saw him, spoke to him and invited him to make a real choice.
Then, Jesus offers Zaccaeus an amazing gift. “I must stay at your house today.” People avoided Zacchaeus. People hated him and would not even speak with him. Jesus asked to come to Zacchaeus’s house and to dine with him. A Pharisee would never think of doing this. A priest would never think of doing this. The religious people of Jesus’ day brought forth condemnation and separation. Jesus came with compassion and reconciliation.
People began to talk. People began to grumble. How can Jesus be so good when he associates with people who are so bad? How can Jesus be a righteous man when he enters the home of the unrighteous? How can Jesus be a religious teacher when he engages the corrupt and immoral people in conversation and fellowship.
The assumption is that the righteous exclude and condemn the unrighteous. The assumption is that the religious reject and ostracize the irreligious. The assumption is that God favors some people and rejects all others. The assumption is wrong.
Jesus is the reality that God accepts all people. Jesus is the perfect mirror to the human soul that reveals all are lost. All are lost and none wish to be found. Yet, Jesus has come to seek the lost, to find the lost and to save the lost.
Zacchaeus experienced salvation that day that Jesus called him by name and came to his house. He experienced what so many religious people who were caught up in their own rules and regulations could not appreciate.
Zacchaeus experienced conversion. He experienced a change of heart and a change of direction. He received a new life and entered into a new way of living. “I give half my wealth to the poor,” he told Jesus.“ I will restore four fold what I have stolen,” he continues.
Before he met Jesus, Zacchaeus lived only for money. He worked to build his wealth. He schemed, lied, cheated and bullied people to increase his wealth. He worshipped only money and his soul was collapsing into the dark abyss of separation from God.
God met Zacchaeus in Jesus Christ. God found Zacchaeus in Jesus Christ. Jesus said, Zaccaheus, I must stay with you today. And, Zacchaeus recognized his moment of grace and said “yes.”
Salvation is not about religion, philosophy or science. Salvation is not about our search for God. Salvation is about God coming to earth in person to seek, find and restore the lost. Salvation is Jesus Christ.
Jesus met Zacchaeus at a very precise moment in time under some very unusual circumstances. The moment of grace is always very precise. The circumstances in that moment are always unusual. In the moment of grace God finds us where we are, accepts us for who we are, and invites us to become more than who we are.
In the moment of grace, Jesus offers us the gift of forgiveness, the gift of reunification with God the Father, the gift of transformation in God the Holy Spirit. Salvation is a gift God the Father offers us in Jesus Christ. It is the gift of a new life and a new way of living. It is God in Christ who seeks the lost who do not want to be seen, who finds the lost who do not want to be found, and who saves the lost who stubbornly insist on going our own way.
The way of salvation is Jesus Christ. It is the way of love and compassion. It is the way of daily transformation. It is the way our Heavenly Father seeks out and saves the lost.
Zacchaeus was lost.
He was lost in crime, in sin, and in separation from God and other people. He was also lost in his wealth. His soul had disintegrated to that place where he was possessed by his possessions.
Jesus came to earth to seek and to find and to restore the lost. He came to Jericho that day for that purpose.
It is unclear if Zacchaeus knew anything about Jesus. As a Chief Tax Collector in Judea, Zacchaeus focused his time and attention on what he valued most: money. Yet, when Jesus entered the city there were many in Jericho who had heard of his reputation as a teacher, a healer, and a miracle worker. Whether they believed in Jesus or not they were curious about him. They wanted to see him.
Zacchaeus heard the commotion. He saw the gathering crowd. He, too was curious. He wanted to see what was going on. Zacchaeus had a problem that prevented him from seeing Jesus. He was short. It is an interesting and almost irrelevant detail in the story.
In the excitement of the moment Zacchaeus was caught up in the press of the crowd to see Jesus. Yet, Zacchaeus was too short to see over the crowd. So, he ran ahead of the crowd and climbed a tree further down the street. He knew Jesus would pass that way. He knew he would be able to see over the crowd. He did not expect Jesus to speak to him personally.
Zaccaheus was a Chief Tax Collector. He was little more than a legalized gangster hired by Rome to collect taxes by any means, People hated him. The religious people would not speak with him.
Jesus spoke with him. Jesus initiated the conversation. I suspect Jesus saw the humor in this short self important self obsessed official sitting in a tree to get a better view of him. Jesus looked at him, saw him, recognized him and then called him by name. Zacchaeus.
The co-eternal Son of God had emptied himself of his omnipotence and omniscient when he became a particular man. He lived life as we live life- one day at a time, moment by moment. Unlike all of us, Jesus never separated from the Father. He lived each moment of life in communion with the Father. Jesus paid attention to other people, the world around him and to his heavenly Father is a way we do not.
Jesus learned the name of this short Chief Tax Collector and he called him by name. He showed him respect even though by the standards of the time he deserved condemnation. But, Jesus had come to Jericho to save the lost. And, Zacchaeus was among the lost.
Jesus paused and saw Zacchaeus for who was and in spite of who Zacchaeus was Jesus had compassion on him. Jesus gives Zacchaeus an invitation: “Come on down, Zacchaeus. Come on down from that tree. Hurry up. Come down now.”
This was Zacchaeus’ moment of grace. It was at an unexpected time under unusual circumstances. It was the moment Jesus saw him, spoke to him and invited him to make a real choice.
Then, Jesus offers Zaccaeus an amazing gift. “I must stay at your house today.” People avoided Zacchaeus. People hated him and would not even speak with him. Jesus asked to come to Zacchaeus’s house and to dine with him. A Pharisee would never think of doing this. A priest would never think of doing this. The religious people of Jesus’ day brought forth condemnation and separation. Jesus came with compassion and reconciliation.
People began to talk. People began to grumble. How can Jesus be so good when he associates with people who are so bad? How can Jesus be a righteous man when he enters the home of the unrighteous? How can Jesus be a religious teacher when he engages the corrupt and immoral people in conversation and fellowship.
The assumption is that the righteous exclude and condemn the unrighteous. The assumption is that the religious reject and ostracize the irreligious. The assumption is that God favors some people and rejects all others. The assumption is wrong.
Jesus is the reality that God accepts all people. Jesus is the perfect mirror to the human soul that reveals all are lost. All are lost and none wish to be found. Yet, Jesus has come to seek the lost, to find the lost and to save the lost.
Zacchaeus experienced salvation that day that Jesus called him by name and came to his house. He experienced what so many religious people who were caught up in their own rules and regulations could not appreciate.
Zacchaeus experienced conversion. He experienced a change of heart and a change of direction. He received a new life and entered into a new way of living. “I give half my wealth to the poor,” he told Jesus.“ I will restore four fold what I have stolen,” he continues.
Before he met Jesus, Zacchaeus lived only for money. He worked to build his wealth. He schemed, lied, cheated and bullied people to increase his wealth. He worshipped only money and his soul was collapsing into the dark abyss of separation from God.
God met Zacchaeus in Jesus Christ. God found Zacchaeus in Jesus Christ. Jesus said, Zaccaheus, I must stay with you today. And, Zacchaeus recognized his moment of grace and said “yes.”
Salvation is not about religion, philosophy or science. Salvation is not about our search for God. Salvation is about God coming to earth in person to seek, find and restore the lost. Salvation is Jesus Christ.
Jesus met Zacchaeus at a very precise moment in time under some very unusual circumstances. The moment of grace is always very precise. The circumstances in that moment are always unusual. In the moment of grace God finds us where we are, accepts us for who we are, and invites us to become more than who we are.
In the moment of grace, Jesus offers us the gift of forgiveness, the gift of reunification with God the Father, the gift of transformation in God the Holy Spirit. Salvation is a gift God the Father offers us in Jesus Christ. It is the gift of a new life and a new way of living. It is God in Christ who seeks the lost who do not want to be seen, who finds the lost who do not want to be found, and who saves the lost who stubbornly insist on going our own way.
The way of salvation is Jesus Christ. It is the way of love and compassion. It is the way of daily transformation. It is the way our Heavenly Father seeks out and saves the lost.
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Pentecost 22
Pentecost 22 (Luke 18:9-14)
“He who exalts himself will be humbled.”
Pride goeth before a fall. Pride is one of the seven deadly sins and is in fact near the root of all sin.
We hear the voice of pride in the parable of the Pharisee and the Publican, the tax collector. According to the standards of the day the Pharisee is the virtuous religious and patriotic man. The tax collector is a traitor to his nation, his religion and to ordinary ethical standards of behavior.
Tax Collectors worked for Rome. They extorted money from ordinary citizens to enrich themselves. They stayed away from the synagogues and the Temple. People hated them. They despised and used the people. They were the bad guys in every morality tale and in every religious parable.
Pharisees would not even peak with Romans. They kept themselves separated from pagans. They worshipped regularly in the Temple, studied the scriptures in the synagogue, and gave money to support the religious institutions of Israel. They were the good guys in the morality tales and religious parables of the time.
Jesus reversed the standard roles assigned to these two people to illustrate a point. The Bible often confounds people by praising those whom the world condemns. It is a way to get people to think outside the box. It is a way to break through layers of cultural expectations and demands to the truth God wants to reveal to people.
Jesus inverted the expected roles of the Pharisee and the Publican in his parable to demonstrate a very precise and important point. That point might be summarized in the statement: the “I”s have it.
The Pharisee begins his prayer with the word “I’. That word defines his prayer. That prayer forms his worship. That worship reveals who he is and who he is choosing to become.
The Pharisee prays, God, I thank you that I am not like other people. And then he lists all the sins and sinners in the world , all of the things he asserts he is not; and, of the things that set him apart from and superior to everyone else. In fact, all of the things he lists are sins. His assessment of these activities is correct.
Next, he lists all of his virtues, good works, and religious observances. I fast. I give. I- me. Once again, the things he is doing are good. The defect is the motive. The motive is revealed in that little word “I” that so dominates his prayer that it leaves no room for God.
For the Pharisee, God is simply the backlighting that reveals the Pharisee’s own stellar spiritual condition. God is simply a rhetorical device the Pharisee can summon to contrast his virtue with the Publican’s vice.
He had so much going for him. He had achieved so much. But, he used it to glorify himself. I. me. His motive was no different than the motive which led the Publican into a life of sin. Me. What’s in it for me. Where the Publican asserted his self indulgent pride by breaking the law, the Pharisee asserted his self indulgent pride by asserting that he had kept the law.
Both men were self absorbed. Both men made choices to assert their will to power to dominate their world. One dominated by sin. The other dominated by an outward display of virtue.
The difference comes when the Publican prays. There is no “I” in his prayer. There is no comparison to others. He doesn’t say: God, I may not be all that good but at least I’m not a Samaritan. Those guys are really disgusting. He doesn’t say that. He simply stands before the living God.
There. In the Divine Presence, God’s holiness reveals the Publican’s many sins and his single virtue. He has one virtue left. Just one. It is enough. The virtue is humility. In the Divine Presence he has the one quality that God seeks from all people. He has the humility to accept the truth.
He is a sinner. He deserves judgment. As he recognizes this aspect of himself he does not try to argue with God. He does not try to blame others. He accepts full responsibility for his sin and simply asks for mercy. God, be merciful to me, a sinner.
The Pharisee stood in the Divine Presence and compared himself to the sinners. His conclusion was: I am here to show you, God. How wonderful I am. I need nothing from you because I have already done it all. So thank you God that I am so righteous and everyone else is so sinful.
Jesus said: it was the Publican who experienced reunification (justification) with God. The Pharisee was simply there to tell God how wonderful he was. His pride would not allow him to admit that he, too, for all of his good deeds, needed to be reunited to God through God’s justifying grace.
This is the core of the Good News. All have sinned. All need to be reunited to God. In Jesus Christ, God has accomplished this reunification and now offers the blessing as a gift. We need only receive the gift to experience the blessing.
It is so straightforward. It is so simple. But, it is not easy. It requires we stop comparing ourselves to others. It requires a shift in our awareness. It requires a transformation in our basic attitude to ourselves, others, the world around us, and God.
Pride is the great obstacle to salvation. Pride inflates the ego. The ego builds itself by comparing itself to others, condemning others and blaming others. The soul which is caught in pride is a soul that is creating its own destruction. Pride has no room for grace. Pride says, I can do it. I know what is best. Religious pride says: I know the best way to practice my religion. My God would never condemn me or anyone for our honest opinions.
Secular pride says: I am fine just the way I am. I don’t need a religious crutch to help me through life. I believe in myself. That is all I need to survive and thrive.
Humility starts when we can say: there is a mystery to life. I can’t figure it all out. I am not the superior individual I thought I was. I am willing to learn. I am even willing to unlearn what I have been taught. I am even willing to listen to the most improbable of stories ever written: the stories about Jesus.
Those who exalt themselves build a false ego based on false assumptions about themselves, other people, even God. These false assumptions are so embedded in our culture that we take them for granted. We take them for granted in much the same way people in Jesus’ time took for granted that the hero of the story should be the righteous Pharisee and the villain the corrupt Tax Collector.
God sees things from a very different perspective. God’s perspective is revealed in part in the Bible. God’s perspective is fully and completely revealed in his only begotten Son, Jesus Christ.
Those who know that they know about God, whether religious or secular- don’t know. They have no room in their minds, hearts or wills to experience the infinite and eternal reality that is God. They have no need of faith. They have knowledge. They are their own God.
Those who think they know about God are a little closer to faith. Whether religious or secular, righteous or sinful, they have some room to consider another possibility. They have the some place where the seed of faith might fall and grow and blossom.
Those who know they don’t know are blessed. They are the ones who stand in the Divine Presence with an attitude of humility. Whether they are religious or secular, righteous or sinful, their prayer is: God be merciful to me . God- be who you are and transform me according to your divine nature.
Those who know they don’t know are those who have entered into the Divine Presence with the necessary and sufficient humility to acknowledge a reality beyond themselves, beyond their false ego, beyond their preconceived ideas about knowledge and power. These are the ones who experience exaltation in the steadfast holy love of the divine nature.
Through pride we fall into the inner recesses of our own egos.
Through humility, we stand before God by grace through faith so that God can lift us up and bless us in the Mystery of Divine Love made flesh and revealed in Jesus Christ.
“He who exalts himself will be humbled.”
Pride goeth before a fall. Pride is one of the seven deadly sins and is in fact near the root of all sin.
We hear the voice of pride in the parable of the Pharisee and the Publican, the tax collector. According to the standards of the day the Pharisee is the virtuous religious and patriotic man. The tax collector is a traitor to his nation, his religion and to ordinary ethical standards of behavior.
Tax Collectors worked for Rome. They extorted money from ordinary citizens to enrich themselves. They stayed away from the synagogues and the Temple. People hated them. They despised and used the people. They were the bad guys in every morality tale and in every religious parable.
Pharisees would not even peak with Romans. They kept themselves separated from pagans. They worshipped regularly in the Temple, studied the scriptures in the synagogue, and gave money to support the religious institutions of Israel. They were the good guys in the morality tales and religious parables of the time.
Jesus reversed the standard roles assigned to these two people to illustrate a point. The Bible often confounds people by praising those whom the world condemns. It is a way to get people to think outside the box. It is a way to break through layers of cultural expectations and demands to the truth God wants to reveal to people.
Jesus inverted the expected roles of the Pharisee and the Publican in his parable to demonstrate a very precise and important point. That point might be summarized in the statement: the “I”s have it.
The Pharisee begins his prayer with the word “I’. That word defines his prayer. That prayer forms his worship. That worship reveals who he is and who he is choosing to become.
The Pharisee prays, God, I thank you that I am not like other people. And then he lists all the sins and sinners in the world , all of the things he asserts he is not; and, of the things that set him apart from and superior to everyone else. In fact, all of the things he lists are sins. His assessment of these activities is correct.
Next, he lists all of his virtues, good works, and religious observances. I fast. I give. I- me. Once again, the things he is doing are good. The defect is the motive. The motive is revealed in that little word “I” that so dominates his prayer that it leaves no room for God.
For the Pharisee, God is simply the backlighting that reveals the Pharisee’s own stellar spiritual condition. God is simply a rhetorical device the Pharisee can summon to contrast his virtue with the Publican’s vice.
He had so much going for him. He had achieved so much. But, he used it to glorify himself. I. me. His motive was no different than the motive which led the Publican into a life of sin. Me. What’s in it for me. Where the Publican asserted his self indulgent pride by breaking the law, the Pharisee asserted his self indulgent pride by asserting that he had kept the law.
Both men were self absorbed. Both men made choices to assert their will to power to dominate their world. One dominated by sin. The other dominated by an outward display of virtue.
The difference comes when the Publican prays. There is no “I” in his prayer. There is no comparison to others. He doesn’t say: God, I may not be all that good but at least I’m not a Samaritan. Those guys are really disgusting. He doesn’t say that. He simply stands before the living God.
There. In the Divine Presence, God’s holiness reveals the Publican’s many sins and his single virtue. He has one virtue left. Just one. It is enough. The virtue is humility. In the Divine Presence he has the one quality that God seeks from all people. He has the humility to accept the truth.
He is a sinner. He deserves judgment. As he recognizes this aspect of himself he does not try to argue with God. He does not try to blame others. He accepts full responsibility for his sin and simply asks for mercy. God, be merciful to me, a sinner.
The Pharisee stood in the Divine Presence and compared himself to the sinners. His conclusion was: I am here to show you, God. How wonderful I am. I need nothing from you because I have already done it all. So thank you God that I am so righteous and everyone else is so sinful.
Jesus said: it was the Publican who experienced reunification (justification) with God. The Pharisee was simply there to tell God how wonderful he was. His pride would not allow him to admit that he, too, for all of his good deeds, needed to be reunited to God through God’s justifying grace.
This is the core of the Good News. All have sinned. All need to be reunited to God. In Jesus Christ, God has accomplished this reunification and now offers the blessing as a gift. We need only receive the gift to experience the blessing.
It is so straightforward. It is so simple. But, it is not easy. It requires we stop comparing ourselves to others. It requires a shift in our awareness. It requires a transformation in our basic attitude to ourselves, others, the world around us, and God.
Pride is the great obstacle to salvation. Pride inflates the ego. The ego builds itself by comparing itself to others, condemning others and blaming others. The soul which is caught in pride is a soul that is creating its own destruction. Pride has no room for grace. Pride says, I can do it. I know what is best. Religious pride says: I know the best way to practice my religion. My God would never condemn me or anyone for our honest opinions.
Secular pride says: I am fine just the way I am. I don’t need a religious crutch to help me through life. I believe in myself. That is all I need to survive and thrive.
Humility starts when we can say: there is a mystery to life. I can’t figure it all out. I am not the superior individual I thought I was. I am willing to learn. I am even willing to unlearn what I have been taught. I am even willing to listen to the most improbable of stories ever written: the stories about Jesus.
Those who exalt themselves build a false ego based on false assumptions about themselves, other people, even God. These false assumptions are so embedded in our culture that we take them for granted. We take them for granted in much the same way people in Jesus’ time took for granted that the hero of the story should be the righteous Pharisee and the villain the corrupt Tax Collector.
God sees things from a very different perspective. God’s perspective is revealed in part in the Bible. God’s perspective is fully and completely revealed in his only begotten Son, Jesus Christ.
Those who know that they know about God, whether religious or secular- don’t know. They have no room in their minds, hearts or wills to experience the infinite and eternal reality that is God. They have no need of faith. They have knowledge. They are their own God.
Those who think they know about God are a little closer to faith. Whether religious or secular, righteous or sinful, they have some room to consider another possibility. They have the some place where the seed of faith might fall and grow and blossom.
Those who know they don’t know are blessed. They are the ones who stand in the Divine Presence with an attitude of humility. Whether they are religious or secular, righteous or sinful, their prayer is: God be merciful to me . God- be who you are and transform me according to your divine nature.
Those who know they don’t know are those who have entered into the Divine Presence with the necessary and sufficient humility to acknowledge a reality beyond themselves, beyond their false ego, beyond their preconceived ideas about knowledge and power. These are the ones who experience exaltation in the steadfast holy love of the divine nature.
Through pride we fall into the inner recesses of our own egos.
Through humility, we stand before God by grace through faith so that God can lift us up and bless us in the Mystery of Divine Love made flesh and revealed in Jesus Christ.
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Pentecost 20
Pentecost 20 (Luke 17:11-19) Where are they?
The question Jesus asked of the ten lepers is very similar to the first question God asked humanity.
That first question is recorded in the book of Genesis. Adam and Eve had chosen separation from God. In that separation they had attempted to hide from God. God asked them: where are you?
Now, God knew where Adam and Eve were and why they were hiding. Jesus also knew where the other nine lepers were and why they had not paused to give thanks. The question helps to reveal the human condition. The long record of Biblical history records an amazing and counter intuitive observation about the human condition.
Human beings have separated from God. In that separation people are lost. Most religions and many philosophies speak of humanity’s search for God. The Bible very uniquely speaks of humanity’s separation from God and our refusal to be found by God.
This, of course, is the reason the co-eternal Son of God became a particular human being at a particular point in time and at a particular place. He came to seek the lost who do not want to be found.
There is an ironic and somewhat cynical statement: no good deed goes unpunished. This statement could describe the life and even more- the death of Jesus Christ. Jesus came into the world with the one single desire to seek the lost and to find the lost. It was the one thing people did not want from God.
People who believed in God wanted all sorts of things from God. They mostly wanted to avoid God’s wrath and obtain God’s favor. Many people divided God according to their wants, desires and demands. And so there was a god of war for soldiers, a god of romance for those who sought romance, and a deity for every possible need or desire.
These deities were simply a superstitious expression of the human will to power. This is the root cause of original sin. God offered love and holiness to humanity. People chose knowledge and power.
God offered himself as a constant and reliable friend. People chose to create substitute deities for ourselves that reflected our fear and our demand. The Bible teaches that people do not seek God. We do not seek God for who he is. We do not value God for who he is. God is unconditional love.
Humanity seeks to define God according to our needs and desires in order to meet our needs and desires. We seek the gifts we believe God can give us. We do not seek or value the giver of the gifts.
Preeminently, people seek to define God in the categories of knowledge and power. We demand that if God is real then he must accept our definition of reality and readjust the universe to our will. We redefine unconditional love as indulgence and insist that if God has love then God must yield to our desires.
The record of scripture is that as soon as the One God revealed Himself through the patriarchs and prophets, people began to redefine God. God revealed himself as a loving father. People told stories of a wrathful judge.
God revealed himself as the bridegroom who seeks the love of his bride. People created a religion of rewards and punishments based on a system of credits and debits.
God revealed himself in the name: I am. People rejected the reality of God whenever they did not receive the material gifts and blessings they valued most. Very crassly worded people tell God: if you give me what I want I will believe in you. If you fail to give me what I want I will not believe in you.
God sent his only begotten son into the world to seek the lost, find the lost, and restore the lost. Most people took the benefits Christ offered but ignored the invitation. They wanted the gifts but not the giver.
The long record of human history from God’s perspective is not humanity’s search for God but rather God’s search for a lost and rebellious humanity, a people who stubbornly refuse to be found.
God calls people into a relationship of faith grounded in love and formed by holiness. People ask: what’s in it for me? Why should I have to adjust my schedule, my priorities my way of living?
God calls across time- where are you? Jesus echoes this call when he asks of the lepers: where are they?
Of the ten, only one- a foreigner who knew nothing of the God of Abraham, Moses and the prophets, only one came to give thanks. Only one thought to glorify God. And only that one received the completion of his healing.
The nine others were still healed of their leprosy. What made their healing incomplete was their lack of faith in the one who healed them. They wanted the healing but not the healer. It is the healer, God himself in the person of Jesus Christ, who completes the healing.
God completes the healing as we receive the gift he offers. The gift is Jesus Christ.
The glory of God is not in the healing or in the miracles Jesus performed. The glory of God is in the relationship that Jesus offers us and makes possible. The relationship is the realty.
Jesus healed those ten lepers of the most horrible and fearful disease known to the people of his time. He told them to present themselves to the priests so the priest could examine them and certify the healing. Only that certification would allow them to return to their families and jobs.
Jesus also waited. He waited patiently for the ten lepers to make a real choice to complete their healing and to enter into wholeness.
Only one, a Samaritan whom the people of Israel despised, made that real choice. Only one of the ten chose to embrace the healer, give thanks to God, and glorify God.
Jesus still waits. He waits for us to come to him who offers himself to us. He waits for us to say: thank you. Thank you for living for me. Thank you for dying for me. Thank you for pouring yourself out to me daily, hourly.
Jesus waits for us to make a real choice to glorify God by receiving the love and the holiness God offers us in a new life and in a new way of living. Jesus is the way. Jesus is the only way to receive and experience this new life and this new way of living.
The new life is a life of wholeness. The new way of living is holiness. Wholeness and holiness are not perfection. We grow. We transform. We learn something new about God, other people, ourselves every day. We unlearn even more.
The Samaritan had to unlearn his fear and hatred of the Jews. He had to unlearn his contempt for the religion of Israel. He had to take a step forward into the understanding that faith is trust in a person not loyalty to an ethnic group, a political system, or a religious structure. The Samaritan had to make a real choice to allow God to be God regardless of everything he had learned to expect of God and to demand from God.
In Jesus Christ, God gives us that opportunity to make that real choice. Let God be God. Let God be the One who is, the “I am” who is eternally self existent as one God in three persons. Let God offer himself to us and find us in the co-eternal Beloved, Jesus Christ.
The Bible teaches that God the Father created all people by the power of God the Holy Spirit to be the beloved companions and friends of God the Son, Jesus Christ.
In Eden, the pre incarnate Son asked humanity: where are you? I am here for you. Why have you chosen to separate from me?
In his public ministry, the incarnate Son asked: where are they? I am standing right here. I am the one who has come to seek you out, to find you, to heal you. Why have you chosen to walk away from me at the very moment of divine grace?
Jesus calls to us and to all the world today: where are you? I am here in the blessed sacrament of the altar. I wait for you. I offer myself to you in the fullness of unconditional love, eternal love, infinite love. I am here for you in your joys and in your sorrows. I will never leave you or forsake you. I will never turn you away.
The Holy Spirit calls to us and to all people and says: come. Come and receive the blessing. Let all who thirst for meaning and purpose come. Let all who are burdened by life come. Let all who yearn to know that they are loved with an everlasting love come.
Jesus says: I am here. I am here for them. Where are they?
The question Jesus asked of the ten lepers is very similar to the first question God asked humanity.
That first question is recorded in the book of Genesis. Adam and Eve had chosen separation from God. In that separation they had attempted to hide from God. God asked them: where are you?
Now, God knew where Adam and Eve were and why they were hiding. Jesus also knew where the other nine lepers were and why they had not paused to give thanks. The question helps to reveal the human condition. The long record of Biblical history records an amazing and counter intuitive observation about the human condition.
Human beings have separated from God. In that separation people are lost. Most religions and many philosophies speak of humanity’s search for God. The Bible very uniquely speaks of humanity’s separation from God and our refusal to be found by God.
This, of course, is the reason the co-eternal Son of God became a particular human being at a particular point in time and at a particular place. He came to seek the lost who do not want to be found.
There is an ironic and somewhat cynical statement: no good deed goes unpunished. This statement could describe the life and even more- the death of Jesus Christ. Jesus came into the world with the one single desire to seek the lost and to find the lost. It was the one thing people did not want from God.
People who believed in God wanted all sorts of things from God. They mostly wanted to avoid God’s wrath and obtain God’s favor. Many people divided God according to their wants, desires and demands. And so there was a god of war for soldiers, a god of romance for those who sought romance, and a deity for every possible need or desire.
These deities were simply a superstitious expression of the human will to power. This is the root cause of original sin. God offered love and holiness to humanity. People chose knowledge and power.
God offered himself as a constant and reliable friend. People chose to create substitute deities for ourselves that reflected our fear and our demand. The Bible teaches that people do not seek God. We do not seek God for who he is. We do not value God for who he is. God is unconditional love.
Humanity seeks to define God according to our needs and desires in order to meet our needs and desires. We seek the gifts we believe God can give us. We do not seek or value the giver of the gifts.
Preeminently, people seek to define God in the categories of knowledge and power. We demand that if God is real then he must accept our definition of reality and readjust the universe to our will. We redefine unconditional love as indulgence and insist that if God has love then God must yield to our desires.
The record of scripture is that as soon as the One God revealed Himself through the patriarchs and prophets, people began to redefine God. God revealed himself as a loving father. People told stories of a wrathful judge.
God revealed himself as the bridegroom who seeks the love of his bride. People created a religion of rewards and punishments based on a system of credits and debits.
God revealed himself in the name: I am. People rejected the reality of God whenever they did not receive the material gifts and blessings they valued most. Very crassly worded people tell God: if you give me what I want I will believe in you. If you fail to give me what I want I will not believe in you.
God sent his only begotten son into the world to seek the lost, find the lost, and restore the lost. Most people took the benefits Christ offered but ignored the invitation. They wanted the gifts but not the giver.
The long record of human history from God’s perspective is not humanity’s search for God but rather God’s search for a lost and rebellious humanity, a people who stubbornly refuse to be found.
God calls people into a relationship of faith grounded in love and formed by holiness. People ask: what’s in it for me? Why should I have to adjust my schedule, my priorities my way of living?
God calls across time- where are you? Jesus echoes this call when he asks of the lepers: where are they?
Of the ten, only one- a foreigner who knew nothing of the God of Abraham, Moses and the prophets, only one came to give thanks. Only one thought to glorify God. And only that one received the completion of his healing.
The nine others were still healed of their leprosy. What made their healing incomplete was their lack of faith in the one who healed them. They wanted the healing but not the healer. It is the healer, God himself in the person of Jesus Christ, who completes the healing.
God completes the healing as we receive the gift he offers. The gift is Jesus Christ.
The glory of God is not in the healing or in the miracles Jesus performed. The glory of God is in the relationship that Jesus offers us and makes possible. The relationship is the realty.
Jesus healed those ten lepers of the most horrible and fearful disease known to the people of his time. He told them to present themselves to the priests so the priest could examine them and certify the healing. Only that certification would allow them to return to their families and jobs.
Jesus also waited. He waited patiently for the ten lepers to make a real choice to complete their healing and to enter into wholeness.
Only one, a Samaritan whom the people of Israel despised, made that real choice. Only one of the ten chose to embrace the healer, give thanks to God, and glorify God.
Jesus still waits. He waits for us to come to him who offers himself to us. He waits for us to say: thank you. Thank you for living for me. Thank you for dying for me. Thank you for pouring yourself out to me daily, hourly.
Jesus waits for us to make a real choice to glorify God by receiving the love and the holiness God offers us in a new life and in a new way of living. Jesus is the way. Jesus is the only way to receive and experience this new life and this new way of living.
The new life is a life of wholeness. The new way of living is holiness. Wholeness and holiness are not perfection. We grow. We transform. We learn something new about God, other people, ourselves every day. We unlearn even more.
The Samaritan had to unlearn his fear and hatred of the Jews. He had to unlearn his contempt for the religion of Israel. He had to take a step forward into the understanding that faith is trust in a person not loyalty to an ethnic group, a political system, or a religious structure. The Samaritan had to make a real choice to allow God to be God regardless of everything he had learned to expect of God and to demand from God.
In Jesus Christ, God gives us that opportunity to make that real choice. Let God be God. Let God be the One who is, the “I am” who is eternally self existent as one God in three persons. Let God offer himself to us and find us in the co-eternal Beloved, Jesus Christ.
The Bible teaches that God the Father created all people by the power of God the Holy Spirit to be the beloved companions and friends of God the Son, Jesus Christ.
In Eden, the pre incarnate Son asked humanity: where are you? I am here for you. Why have you chosen to separate from me?
In his public ministry, the incarnate Son asked: where are they? I am standing right here. I am the one who has come to seek you out, to find you, to heal you. Why have you chosen to walk away from me at the very moment of divine grace?
Jesus calls to us and to all the world today: where are you? I am here in the blessed sacrament of the altar. I wait for you. I offer myself to you in the fullness of unconditional love, eternal love, infinite love. I am here for you in your joys and in your sorrows. I will never leave you or forsake you. I will never turn you away.
The Holy Spirit calls to us and to all people and says: come. Come and receive the blessing. Let all who thirst for meaning and purpose come. Let all who are burdened by life come. Let all who yearn to know that they are loved with an everlasting love come.
Jesus says: I am here. I am here for them. Where are they?
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