Trinity Sunday 2011 (Matthew 28:16-20)
Remember, I am with you always.
The Trinity reveals the pattern, plan and purpose for human life.
The reality that the one God is three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit can only come through divine revelation. The key to that revelation is Jesus Christ.
Certainly, Moses and the Prophets experienced the reality of God the Holy Spirit as that personal Presence of God the Father who called them into ministry and empowered them for ministry. They also looked forward to the coming of the Messiah.
The word “Trinity” is not used in the Bible. It is a word the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church chose to describe the reality of God as set forth in the Bible and as experienced in the lives of the apostles.
The teaching that the one God is three persons is grounded in the Incarnation. In Luke we read how our Heavenly Father sent the Holy Spirit to effect the incarnation of the co-eternal Logos, the Beloved Son of the Father. In John we read how the Word was always with God and always is God. That Word became incarnate in Jesus Christ.
At Jesus’ baptism in the river Jordan, God the Father speaks audibly and declares: this is my Son, The Beloved. God the Holy Spirit appears visibly in a form the witnesses could only describe as similar to a dove. The Holy Spirit anointed Jesus to be the Christ, the anointed one.
In the Transfiguration the Holy Spirit appears visibly to the senses of the apostles as a luminescent cloud. Once again, God the Father speaks audibly and declares Jesus to be His Son, The Beloved.
At Pentecost, the Holy Spirit appears visibly as fire and audibly as the sound of a mighty rushing wind.
Jesus himself refers to God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. In the gospel reading this morning, Jesus gives us the baptismal formula as the simple, direct and explicit statement of the reality of the Trinity.
Most people who are not Christians tend to describe the Christian belief in the Trinity as tri-theism. They cannot understand how the one God can be three persons so they tell us we really believe in three gods. No less a person than Sir Isaac Newtown was so troubled by his inability to comprehend the Trinity intellectually, that he rejected the teaching in his effort to make God fit into the mathematical precision of the world of matter, energy, time and space.
God is not limited by that world. God is infinite and eternal. God is greater than the universe. Those of us who live in the universe are limited in our understanding. All of us participate in our first parents’ choice to separate from God. As a consequence of that original choice, we are lost in separation and do not wish to be found.
The record of scripture through Moses and the Prophets is that people do not seek God. People flee from God. Religious people flee from God by creating God in their own image according to their own desires. Secular people flee from God by rejecting the very concept of God.
The first ecumenical councils met to formulate the Nicene Creed in response to a serious challenge to the teaching of the Incarnation and the Trinity. A priest by the name of Arius decided the doctrine of the Trinity was incomprehensible and confusing. He came to believe this doctrine was the cause for anti-Christian persecution.
Arius asserted that there was only one eternally self existent God. That God created the Son in a moment of time, thus removing the complexity of the co-eternal Son. Having rejected the Son as co-eternal with the Father, Arius redefined the Holy Spirit as an impersonal force emanating from God.
Arius accomplished what Sir Isaac Newtown would later assert: he fit God into the limited categories of human understand. He redefined God in human terms. God will not be defined by any one. God is God. God is the great “I am”. The Bible is very clear that the One God is three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
The Ecumenical Councils struggled to find the words to express this Divine Mystery revealed in the Bible and made real for us in Jesus Christ. They found the words in the subtly of Greek Philosophical thought. After much prayer, Bible study and debate, the First Ecumenical Council in the year 325 AD wrote the Nicene Creed. The second Ecumenical Council met in the year 381 AD to respond to further challenges to the creed and gave us the creed in its present form.
Modern critics of the Council assert that the Church invented the Trinity to appease the pagan Roman mind. Nothing could be further from the truth. Even Arius recognized that it was the doctrines of the Trinity and the Incarnation that confused the Romans and led them to persecute the Christians under the treason laws.
Other critics say that the Nicene Creed became the official teaching of the church by the narrowest majority of one vote. This is also not true. The overwhelming majority of the bishops who attended the Council understood what was at stake. The debates were not so much about whether the incarnation and the Trinity were Biblical. The debate was over how to express these divinely revealed truths in the most precise language possible.
By the end of the First Ecumenical Council only two of three hundred bishops refused to sign the decision.
Why is the teaching of the Trinity important?
During the debates in the Council a phrase emerged that helped clarify the issue. The phrase is: What he (Jesus) did not assume he could not redeem.
The apostolic witness in the New Testament is very clear. Only God can save. No prophet, priest, king or angel has the power to transform sin into love and death into life. Salvation is Jesus Christ because only in Jesus does the Eternal and Infinite Love of God unite divinity with humanity. Only in that union can Jesus transform sin and death into love and life.
The apostolic witness is very clear that salvation touches the very essence of our being. It is, to use the language of philosophy, ontological not just legal.
The Council relied most on the apostle John’s writing in his gospel. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God… and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.
It is only the co-eternal Beloved of the Father, incarnate in Jesus Christ, who can reunite a lost broken and rebellious humanity with God. It is Jesus Himself who describes the Holy Spirit as coming from God, having a unique and defined personality, and as being co-eternal with the Father and the Son.
In the end, the Ecumenical Councils recognized there was no other way of describing what the apostles experienced in their lives and wrote in the New Testament than what is set forth in the Nicene Creed.
The Trinity is not a reality the human mind can analyze and prove. The Trinity is the reality of God Jesus invites us to experience.
The Bible never seeks to prove God’s existence. Moses and the Prophets never attempted to prove God’s existence. Jesus is himself the proof of God’s existence yet virtually everyone he knew rejected him, abandoned him and betrayed him. God is “I am”. He is the infinite and eternal self existence that created the universe and became a particular human being within the confines of the universe to rescue human beings from self imposed separation.
We cannot logically prove the Trinity any more than we can logically prove the existence of God. Jesus invites us to experience the reality of the Trinity by faith through grace.
Jesus is himself the key.
Jesus reveals that the one God is not static transcendent inapproachable perfection. Jesus reveals that the One God is an active dynamic outpouring personal love. Within the reality of the eternal, God actively expresses his essential nature in the dynamic out pouring of love. God the Father is the Eternal Lover, the one who loves. God the son is the co-eternal Beloved of the Eternal Father. God the Holy Spirit is the Presence and Power of that love. One way of experiencing the Trinity is to participate in the new life of The Divine Lover, The Beloved and The Love.
Salvation is a new life in the active dynamic and infinitely creative eternal outpouring of divinity in the three persons of the One God.
We baptize into the Trinity to reunite with life.
We experience sanctification of our minds, hearts and wills in communion with the Trinity to be transformed in holiness.
We enter into eternal unconditional self giving love most fully and completely at the altar of sacrificial worship in the Divine Presence of the Trinity.
Jesus assures us and encourages us to remember that he is always with us. Through Jesus Christ we who live in a universe of matter, energy, time and space are also actively participating in the Divine Life and Love of the One God in three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Pentecost 2011
Pentecost 2011 “Out of the believer’s heart” (John 7:37-39)
What proceeds from your heart?
What do your nourish and cultivate and cherish in your innermost being? What you choose to hold within is what by default you bring forth to your family, friends, acquaintances and to the wider world.
Jesus knew this about us first hand. He abandoned the ineffable delights of the Heavenly realm and surrendered all of his divine power and knowledge so he could experience life as we experience life: moment by moment in the duality and uncertainty of time.
From the eternal realm Jesus saw the original choice we made to separate from God. He saw that choice enter into the world of cause and effect. He saw how the effect upon the human heart is a terrible pain that distorts every aspect of our being. He saw and he acted.
Jesus, the co-eternal Beloved of the Eternal Father, came to earth at a particular time in a particular place as a particular person in order to experience the brokenness of human existence. He did this so he could heal that brokenness.
Jesus heals our brokenness in two ways. The first way is called Justification. Jesus never sinned. He never sinned because he never made the choice to separate from the Eternal Father. Jesus did suffer the consequences of humanity’s original choice to separate from God.
Jesus bore the particular sin of every human being on the Cross at the moment of his death. During his life, during his thirty three years living on this planet, he also suffered the recycled pain our species inflicts on itself.
He never participated in this terrible pattern of sin, the action and reaction of Original pain at work in the human heart in the world of cause and effect. He did suffer the consequences. He suffered constant insult and abuse from people who rejected him. He suffered constant misunderstanding and demand from people who wanted him to give them power and wealth.
Most of all, Jesus suffered the betrayal of love from every human being he met.
Jesus is the love of God in human flesh. Jesus is the sure and certain truth that God just doesn’t have love- God is love. Jesus is the co-eternal Beloved for whom God the Father created all of us and each of us. There is no human being whom God does not love and whom Jesus does not cherished.
Whoever you are and whoever you have chosen to become, Jesus is the love of God the Father reaching out to you. You are the love of God the Father designed to hold the love of the co-eternal Son and to share that love with him.
A twentieth century song states: you always hurt the one you love. You always hurt the one who loves you the most. Other people may find you irritating and dismiss you. Only the one who really loves you can feel the pain you bring forth from the depths of your soul through the distortions of your heart.
Jesus endured this pain from his enemies, from his friends and from his family and from us. No one then and no one now considers who Jesus is.
People then and now seek to define Jesus according to our needs and desires. And, we seek to define Jesus from the place of Original Pain from the Original Choice we made to separate from God. As we do this, we miss the very plan, pattern and purpose for our lives.
That is why the co-eternal Son of God was willing to come to earth and accept the pain humanity inflicted upon him and still inflicts upon him. The great love of God in Jesus Christ bears all human sin, recycled pain, suffering and death then transforms it back into life, eternal life.
The process by which the co-eternal Son applies this transformation to individual souls is the Holy Spirit.
On Good Friday on the cross, the Son sealed the breach of original separation.
On Pentecost, fifty days after the resurrection of Jesus Christ, Jesus sent the Holy Spirit into the souls of those who chose to enter into the new life Jesus offers all people.
As the Holy Spirit entered into the souls of the Apostles, He created the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church. People did not create the church. The apostles were content to return to their fishing business. They were intent on grafting the New Covenant of Jesus Christ into the Synagogue and the Temple.
The Church is a divinely created organism that temporarily takes form in the world in an institutional form. The Church that the Holy Spirit is forming is the Body of Christ and the Bride of Christ.
The twofold purpose of the church is the two fold action of the Holy Spirit in the lives of the faithful. That two fold purpose is the salvation and sanctification of souls.
The salvation of souls is the gift of reunification with God Jesus offers. The sanctification of souls is the purification of the heart and the transformation of the soul that the Holy Spirit offers. This is grace. Grace means gift.
The Holy Spirit is the co-eternal third person of the Eternal Trinity. His purpose is to transform us in love, by love and for love. His purpose for the church is to keep us on message. We have a job to do. We are easily distracted. The Holy Spirit speaks through the Bible, the sacraments, the liturgy, the saints, and through the faithful to call the institution away from these distractions and back to the plan of salvation.
The Holy Spirit is working in each of us to bring us clarity of thought, purity of heart and singleness of will.
It is the Holy Spirit, who has shared the eternal love of the Father and the Son, who passionately and charismatically seeks to pour into our hearts that touch of transcendence by which we can experience the same love that is the very essence of the divine.
To use a more mundane but no less real image, the Holy Spirit is teaching each of us how to love. He teaches us how to love God, other people and ourselves. He not only teaches- he transforms. He takes the broken aspects of our lives and initiates a healing process. He offers to change our very desires. He will, if we give him permission, convert our sins back into their original virtue.
To be filled with the Holy Spirit is to experience the passionate desire to be the love of God at this time and in this place.
It is as we seek this transformation that our hearts find relief from the pain of separation and the recycled suffering human sin inflicts on the world.
On Pentecost, the apostles experienced conversion, purification and transformation in a very powerful, visual, audible and tangible way. They entered the room fearful and confused. They left the room filled with the wonder and awe of divine love and holiness. They went into the city and proclaimed the love of God in Jesus Christ. Within a single generation they had taken that Good News into Europe, Africa and Asia.
The same Holy Spirit who inspired and empowered the apostles is here with us today. He offers us the same level of conversion, purification and transformation in divine love and holiness.The choice is ours. It is as we choose to be filled by the Holy Spirit that we experience a thirst for God. It is as we experience that thirst that we come to the altar to drink deeply of the grace of God in the sacramental Presence of God. And, it is as we release the pain in our hearts to be healed and transformed in grace that our hearts become springs of living waters for us and for everyone in our lives.
It all starts when we hear Jesus’ words, believe his words, and receive his words into our hearts. It becomes real for us as we pray” Lord Jesus Christ, release the power of the Holy Spirit in my soul that from my heart you may pour forth overflowing rivers of blessings.” Amen.
What proceeds from your heart?
What do your nourish and cultivate and cherish in your innermost being? What you choose to hold within is what by default you bring forth to your family, friends, acquaintances and to the wider world.
Jesus knew this about us first hand. He abandoned the ineffable delights of the Heavenly realm and surrendered all of his divine power and knowledge so he could experience life as we experience life: moment by moment in the duality and uncertainty of time.
From the eternal realm Jesus saw the original choice we made to separate from God. He saw that choice enter into the world of cause and effect. He saw how the effect upon the human heart is a terrible pain that distorts every aspect of our being. He saw and he acted.
Jesus, the co-eternal Beloved of the Eternal Father, came to earth at a particular time in a particular place as a particular person in order to experience the brokenness of human existence. He did this so he could heal that brokenness.
Jesus heals our brokenness in two ways. The first way is called Justification. Jesus never sinned. He never sinned because he never made the choice to separate from the Eternal Father. Jesus did suffer the consequences of humanity’s original choice to separate from God.
Jesus bore the particular sin of every human being on the Cross at the moment of his death. During his life, during his thirty three years living on this planet, he also suffered the recycled pain our species inflicts on itself.
He never participated in this terrible pattern of sin, the action and reaction of Original pain at work in the human heart in the world of cause and effect. He did suffer the consequences. He suffered constant insult and abuse from people who rejected him. He suffered constant misunderstanding and demand from people who wanted him to give them power and wealth.
Most of all, Jesus suffered the betrayal of love from every human being he met.
Jesus is the love of God in human flesh. Jesus is the sure and certain truth that God just doesn’t have love- God is love. Jesus is the co-eternal Beloved for whom God the Father created all of us and each of us. There is no human being whom God does not love and whom Jesus does not cherished.
Whoever you are and whoever you have chosen to become, Jesus is the love of God the Father reaching out to you. You are the love of God the Father designed to hold the love of the co-eternal Son and to share that love with him.
A twentieth century song states: you always hurt the one you love. You always hurt the one who loves you the most. Other people may find you irritating and dismiss you. Only the one who really loves you can feel the pain you bring forth from the depths of your soul through the distortions of your heart.
Jesus endured this pain from his enemies, from his friends and from his family and from us. No one then and no one now considers who Jesus is.
People then and now seek to define Jesus according to our needs and desires. And, we seek to define Jesus from the place of Original Pain from the Original Choice we made to separate from God. As we do this, we miss the very plan, pattern and purpose for our lives.
That is why the co-eternal Son of God was willing to come to earth and accept the pain humanity inflicted upon him and still inflicts upon him. The great love of God in Jesus Christ bears all human sin, recycled pain, suffering and death then transforms it back into life, eternal life.
The process by which the co-eternal Son applies this transformation to individual souls is the Holy Spirit.
On Good Friday on the cross, the Son sealed the breach of original separation.
On Pentecost, fifty days after the resurrection of Jesus Christ, Jesus sent the Holy Spirit into the souls of those who chose to enter into the new life Jesus offers all people.
As the Holy Spirit entered into the souls of the Apostles, He created the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church. People did not create the church. The apostles were content to return to their fishing business. They were intent on grafting the New Covenant of Jesus Christ into the Synagogue and the Temple.
The Church is a divinely created organism that temporarily takes form in the world in an institutional form. The Church that the Holy Spirit is forming is the Body of Christ and the Bride of Christ.
The twofold purpose of the church is the two fold action of the Holy Spirit in the lives of the faithful. That two fold purpose is the salvation and sanctification of souls.
The salvation of souls is the gift of reunification with God Jesus offers. The sanctification of souls is the purification of the heart and the transformation of the soul that the Holy Spirit offers. This is grace. Grace means gift.
The Holy Spirit is the co-eternal third person of the Eternal Trinity. His purpose is to transform us in love, by love and for love. His purpose for the church is to keep us on message. We have a job to do. We are easily distracted. The Holy Spirit speaks through the Bible, the sacraments, the liturgy, the saints, and through the faithful to call the institution away from these distractions and back to the plan of salvation.
The Holy Spirit is working in each of us to bring us clarity of thought, purity of heart and singleness of will.
It is the Holy Spirit, who has shared the eternal love of the Father and the Son, who passionately and charismatically seeks to pour into our hearts that touch of transcendence by which we can experience the same love that is the very essence of the divine.
To use a more mundane but no less real image, the Holy Spirit is teaching each of us how to love. He teaches us how to love God, other people and ourselves. He not only teaches- he transforms. He takes the broken aspects of our lives and initiates a healing process. He offers to change our very desires. He will, if we give him permission, convert our sins back into their original virtue.
To be filled with the Holy Spirit is to experience the passionate desire to be the love of God at this time and in this place.
It is as we seek this transformation that our hearts find relief from the pain of separation and the recycled suffering human sin inflicts on the world.
On Pentecost, the apostles experienced conversion, purification and transformation in a very powerful, visual, audible and tangible way. They entered the room fearful and confused. They left the room filled with the wonder and awe of divine love and holiness. They went into the city and proclaimed the love of God in Jesus Christ. Within a single generation they had taken that Good News into Europe, Africa and Asia.
The same Holy Spirit who inspired and empowered the apostles is here with us today. He offers us the same level of conversion, purification and transformation in divine love and holiness.The choice is ours. It is as we choose to be filled by the Holy Spirit that we experience a thirst for God. It is as we experience that thirst that we come to the altar to drink deeply of the grace of God in the sacramental Presence of God. And, it is as we release the pain in our hearts to be healed and transformed in grace that our hearts become springs of living waters for us and for everyone in our lives.
It all starts when we hear Jesus’ words, believe his words, and receive his words into our hearts. It becomes real for us as we pray” Lord Jesus Christ, release the power of the Holy Spirit in my soul that from my heart you may pour forth overflowing rivers of blessings.” Amen.
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Easter 7
Easter 7 (John 17:1-11) This is eternal life.
Some words are so familiar and so unknown that they elude any meaningful impact on or lives.
The words “eternal life” are very familiar to religious people. They even have a false familiarity in the minds of secular people. They are words that Jesus fills with meaning, and purpose and power.
Most people think of eternal life as a future concern. A teen once told me he really had no interest in eternal life. “That’s for old people to worry about,” he said.
Most people think of eternal life in terms of rewards and punishments. And so, some older folk I visit in the hospital or nursing homes will say something like: “I was never very religious but I tried to live a good life.” Usually, they trail off there and never complete the thought. The implication is that heaven, or eternal life, is a future reward for doing good, or at least having good intentions.
Many people in our time and culture believe eternal life is a basic human right. They become agitated at the suggestion that any religion would presume to question this belief or apply sectarian definitions to eternal life.
A significant number of people in our world, especially in Europe and the United States, assert that eternal life is irrelevant, superstitious, and deleterious to living well here and now. They define eternal life as “pie in the sky”, or more graphically as the “opium of the masses.” For these people, eternal life is a fantasy concocted by religion to impose abusive restrictions on human behavior.
Religious people sometimes envision eternal life as endless existence. Sometimes the vision is very mundane. And so, some forms of religion teach that endless existence in heaven is about pursuing all of the pleasures you denied yourself on earth in order to assure your place in heaven.
Sometimes the vision of endless existence is abstract and ethereal. It is completely divorced from any experience of life we have in this world. In some forms it involves the loss of our personal identity as we leave this world of cause and effect and enter into a transcendent world where everything merges into one final unity.
Not so surprisingly, all people hear the word “eternal” and immediately translate it into a measure of time.
Eternal means “timeless”. Eternal means that reality that has no beginning and has no end.
In the realm of the Eternal there is no past and there is no future. Those are sequential categories of time. Some suggest that the eternal is the present moment, now. Yet, even that word has been crafted and shaped and defined in opposition to something that came before now and something that will follow now. The idea that there is only now is unsupported by human experience in the world of time.
Jesus assures us that eternal life is real. It is not a reward. It is not something you can earn, or merit, or lay a claim to as a basic human right. Eternal life is a gift. And, it is a universal gift offered to all people everywhere regardless of who they are, what they do or fail to do.
Jesus also tells us that eternal life is a quality of being not a quantity of existence. That quality is expressed in the Greek word agape. There is no single word in English to translate agape.
Agape is steadfast holy unconditional love.
Jesus teaches eternal life is a relationship.
It is a relationship with God the Father, through God the Son, by the indwelling Presence of God the Holy Spirit.
Eternal life is the life we experience in a personal relationship with the Trinity through Jesus Christ. Jesus and only Jesus is the incarnation of the co-eternal Beloved Son of the Eternal Father.
There can be no eternal life apart from Christ because only God is eternal. Only God is the author and creator of life.
If this is true then eternal life starts right now.
The One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church teaches that eternal life starts at the baptismal font. At our baptism, our Heavenly Father sends the Holy Spirit to graft our souls into the Body of His co-eternal Son, Jesus Christ.
If this is true then the choices we make in this world and in this body have eternal consequences. That is why our Heavenly Father sends the Holy Spirit to transform ordinary bread and wine into the body and blood of His co-eternal Son. That bread and wine become the medicine of immorality, the food and drink of eternal life here and now as well as in the hereafter.
If this true then it does matter how we set our priorities and make our choices.
The Good News is that eternal life is Jesus Christ. Jesus is the infinite compassion of God in human flesh. Jesus knows what it means to be human. Jesus has in fact experienced all of our sinful choices and their consequences on the cross. Jesus transforms sin back into love and death back into life.
All choices are eternal choices for those who in Christ have eternal life. The Good News is that the Holy Spirit is God Present to us and in us to help us yield our sins to be transformed in eternal love.
It is because we have eternal life here and now in our present relationship with Jesus, however tenuous and imperfect it may be, that we can offer our thoughts, feelings and will to God to be transformed.
Reunification with the Father, through the Son, by the indwelling Presence of the Holy Spirit is the Plan of Salvation.
Transformation of our attitudes, actions and priorities is the purpose of the Plan of Salvation.
The personal dynamic of our relationship with Jesus Christ forms the pattern of the Plan of Salvation.
Eternal life for human beings begins in a moment of time in the waters of baptism and then immerses our souls in the timeless reality of Divine Love and holiness. That timeless reality initiates a process that will never end. We will forever grow and transform in the infinite love and eternal life of the Triune God.
The impact of the words “eternal life” is the new life and the new way of living we receive from Jesus Christ. It is a gift. We can use it. We can ignore it. We can refuse it. It is available for everyone to receive.
Have you received the gift of eternal life in the waters of baptism?
If you have received the gift- how are you using it? Be careful how you answer this question. Since you now have eternal life all of your choices have eternal significance. You are co-creating your own soul either with Jesus Christ according the plan, the pattern and the purpose of God; or, you are not. The choice is yours.
Jesus prays that we might know with assurance and delight that we already have eternal life in him.
Jesus further prays that since we have that assurance of eternal life we will grow up, mature and make decisions that are grounded in that new reality.
The new reality is the Good News of God’s infinite and eternal and transforming love for us in Jesus Christ. It is that steadfast holy love at work in our souls here and now that is eternal life.
This is eternal life that you may know God in an intimate and personal relationship through Jesus Christ.
Some words are so familiar and so unknown that they elude any meaningful impact on or lives.
The words “eternal life” are very familiar to religious people. They even have a false familiarity in the minds of secular people. They are words that Jesus fills with meaning, and purpose and power.
Most people think of eternal life as a future concern. A teen once told me he really had no interest in eternal life. “That’s for old people to worry about,” he said.
Most people think of eternal life in terms of rewards and punishments. And so, some older folk I visit in the hospital or nursing homes will say something like: “I was never very religious but I tried to live a good life.” Usually, they trail off there and never complete the thought. The implication is that heaven, or eternal life, is a future reward for doing good, or at least having good intentions.
Many people in our time and culture believe eternal life is a basic human right. They become agitated at the suggestion that any religion would presume to question this belief or apply sectarian definitions to eternal life.
A significant number of people in our world, especially in Europe and the United States, assert that eternal life is irrelevant, superstitious, and deleterious to living well here and now. They define eternal life as “pie in the sky”, or more graphically as the “opium of the masses.” For these people, eternal life is a fantasy concocted by religion to impose abusive restrictions on human behavior.
Religious people sometimes envision eternal life as endless existence. Sometimes the vision is very mundane. And so, some forms of religion teach that endless existence in heaven is about pursuing all of the pleasures you denied yourself on earth in order to assure your place in heaven.
Sometimes the vision of endless existence is abstract and ethereal. It is completely divorced from any experience of life we have in this world. In some forms it involves the loss of our personal identity as we leave this world of cause and effect and enter into a transcendent world where everything merges into one final unity.
Not so surprisingly, all people hear the word “eternal” and immediately translate it into a measure of time.
Eternal means “timeless”. Eternal means that reality that has no beginning and has no end.
In the realm of the Eternal there is no past and there is no future. Those are sequential categories of time. Some suggest that the eternal is the present moment, now. Yet, even that word has been crafted and shaped and defined in opposition to something that came before now and something that will follow now. The idea that there is only now is unsupported by human experience in the world of time.
Jesus assures us that eternal life is real. It is not a reward. It is not something you can earn, or merit, or lay a claim to as a basic human right. Eternal life is a gift. And, it is a universal gift offered to all people everywhere regardless of who they are, what they do or fail to do.
Jesus also tells us that eternal life is a quality of being not a quantity of existence. That quality is expressed in the Greek word agape. There is no single word in English to translate agape.
Agape is steadfast holy unconditional love.
Jesus teaches eternal life is a relationship.
It is a relationship with God the Father, through God the Son, by the indwelling Presence of God the Holy Spirit.
Eternal life is the life we experience in a personal relationship with the Trinity through Jesus Christ. Jesus and only Jesus is the incarnation of the co-eternal Beloved Son of the Eternal Father.
There can be no eternal life apart from Christ because only God is eternal. Only God is the author and creator of life.
If this is true then eternal life starts right now.
The One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church teaches that eternal life starts at the baptismal font. At our baptism, our Heavenly Father sends the Holy Spirit to graft our souls into the Body of His co-eternal Son, Jesus Christ.
If this is true then the choices we make in this world and in this body have eternal consequences. That is why our Heavenly Father sends the Holy Spirit to transform ordinary bread and wine into the body and blood of His co-eternal Son. That bread and wine become the medicine of immorality, the food and drink of eternal life here and now as well as in the hereafter.
If this true then it does matter how we set our priorities and make our choices.
The Good News is that eternal life is Jesus Christ. Jesus is the infinite compassion of God in human flesh. Jesus knows what it means to be human. Jesus has in fact experienced all of our sinful choices and their consequences on the cross. Jesus transforms sin back into love and death back into life.
All choices are eternal choices for those who in Christ have eternal life. The Good News is that the Holy Spirit is God Present to us and in us to help us yield our sins to be transformed in eternal love.
It is because we have eternal life here and now in our present relationship with Jesus, however tenuous and imperfect it may be, that we can offer our thoughts, feelings and will to God to be transformed.
Reunification with the Father, through the Son, by the indwelling Presence of the Holy Spirit is the Plan of Salvation.
Transformation of our attitudes, actions and priorities is the purpose of the Plan of Salvation.
The personal dynamic of our relationship with Jesus Christ forms the pattern of the Plan of Salvation.
Eternal life for human beings begins in a moment of time in the waters of baptism and then immerses our souls in the timeless reality of Divine Love and holiness. That timeless reality initiates a process that will never end. We will forever grow and transform in the infinite love and eternal life of the Triune God.
The impact of the words “eternal life” is the new life and the new way of living we receive from Jesus Christ. It is a gift. We can use it. We can ignore it. We can refuse it. It is available for everyone to receive.
Have you received the gift of eternal life in the waters of baptism?
If you have received the gift- how are you using it? Be careful how you answer this question. Since you now have eternal life all of your choices have eternal significance. You are co-creating your own soul either with Jesus Christ according the plan, the pattern and the purpose of God; or, you are not. The choice is yours.
Jesus prays that we might know with assurance and delight that we already have eternal life in him.
Jesus further prays that since we have that assurance of eternal life we will grow up, mature and make decisions that are grounded in that new reality.
The new reality is the Good News of God’s infinite and eternal and transforming love for us in Jesus Christ. It is that steadfast holy love at work in our souls here and now that is eternal life.
This is eternal life that you may know God in an intimate and personal relationship through Jesus Christ.
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Easter 6
Easter 6 (john 14:15-21 “I will not leave you orphaned.”
Eternal Love transforms mortal life.
Our heavenly Father directed the archangel Gabriel to instruct Mary to name her son Jesus, savior. That is the name by which we know the co-eternal Son. The Father knows the son by a much older and profound name: The Beloved.
Jesus is the fullness of the Beloved in human flesh. He came to restore what humanity lost.
In the original choice to separate from God, humanity aspired to power. That original choice produces an original sin, a broken and lost human nature that cannot and will not act in its own highest and best self interest.
As that original sin entered into the world of cause and affect , it produced many terrible consequences. One of those consequences is the experience of rejection and abandonment.
The process that leads to isolation begins with Original sin. Original sin produces the will to power. The will to power seeks to dominate life, other people, even God. The Bible records the personal stories of hundreds of people over the course of a thousand years who experienced this terrible distortion in life.
The desire to dominate is the desperate desire to over come separation though condemnation and conquest. It cannot accomplish its goal. It can only achieve greater levels of separation, distortion and disintegration.
The bargain lost souls make with the world is dominance and submission. If you submit to my will then I will affirm your value and take care of you. If you refuse to submit to my will then I will condemn you and abandon you.
Much of human created religion is based on this bargain. Most religion relies on a structure of rewards and punishments that states: if you obey God then God will (and must) give you what you want. However, if you disobey God, then God will punish you with pain and suffering and death.
Jesus wanted his disciples to know and understand that he did not come into the world to assert his will to power to dominate any one. There is no condemnation in Jesus Christ because there is no condemnation in God.
God just doesn’t have love. God is love: holy unconditional love.
Jesus tells his disciples that love is the solid rock foundation of life. If we have love it is the love that will motivate us to follow Jesus Christ and to keep his commandments.
Note that Jesus does not use the language of rewards and punishment. He does not endorse a religion of dominance and submission. He does not say: if you obey the laws then I will love you and reward you. He says: as you are in my love you follow the way of life I offer. As you are in love you find the passionate desire to keep the law.
Jesus then assures his disciples, and us, that his Ascension into heaven is not abandonment. There is no abandonment in divine love.
The orphan is left alone to question why. Why did they leave me? Why did they abandon me? Original separation from God produces further experiences of separation in broken relationships among families, friends, neighbors and nations. The will to power seeks to overcome the pain of separation through force.
No wonder Jesus took the time to reassure his disciples that he would never leave us or forsake us. His ascension into heaven is not abandonment. He sends us another Helper. That other Helper is the co-eternal third person of the Trinity: the Holy Spirit.
Jesus assures us that he brings no condemnation from the Father. He brings acceptance, life, truth and unconditional love. He came to earth to give us these things as a gift. It is as we receive the gift that we experience a new life and a new way of living. It is as we receive the gift that we experience the transformation of our thoughts, desires and will.
The Bible is very clear that no one by their own will can keep the Law. Life is not about law or the human will to power. Life is about steadfast holy unconditional love. Jesus is very clear that people don’t need more law. We need more love.
How do we know that Jesus makes a difference in our lives? How can we discern where we still live from the place of original separation? Jesus tells us: if you love me you will keep my commandments. It is not about obedience or disobedience. It is not about dominance and submission. We keep the commandments as we immerse our selves in the divine love of God in Jesus Christ.
We keep the commandments as we hold the commandments in conscious intent to live the new life of grace by faith. We keep the commandments as we set the intention to make our relationship with Jesus Christ the first priority in our lives. We keep the commandments as we choose to suspend judgment and give other people the benefit of the doubt by asking others: how may I help? We keep the commandments as we offer our selves and souls and bodies to the Holy Spirit to be transformed into living chalices of grace.
It is our responsibility to make the choices in life that expand love. All choices either expand love or further distort love into fear, self will and pride.
God does not expect us to do this alone. In fact, our Heavenly Father sends the Holy Spirit, the Helper, to transform us into living temples of love and holiness. We have access to the same Divine Presence and Power that filled Jesus and formed his life.
Eternal Love transforms mortal life. That love is not just a feeling or even a principle. It is a person: Jesus Christ. Jesus assures us: I am with you always. I will never leave you or forsake you. I will not leave you orphaned, abandoned, rejected or alone. Claim the promise. Live the promise. Make a real choice to transform in the real presence of the promise.
Eternal Love transforms mortal life.
Our heavenly Father directed the archangel Gabriel to instruct Mary to name her son Jesus, savior. That is the name by which we know the co-eternal Son. The Father knows the son by a much older and profound name: The Beloved.
Jesus is the fullness of the Beloved in human flesh. He came to restore what humanity lost.
In the original choice to separate from God, humanity aspired to power. That original choice produces an original sin, a broken and lost human nature that cannot and will not act in its own highest and best self interest.
As that original sin entered into the world of cause and affect , it produced many terrible consequences. One of those consequences is the experience of rejection and abandonment.
The process that leads to isolation begins with Original sin. Original sin produces the will to power. The will to power seeks to dominate life, other people, even God. The Bible records the personal stories of hundreds of people over the course of a thousand years who experienced this terrible distortion in life.
The desire to dominate is the desperate desire to over come separation though condemnation and conquest. It cannot accomplish its goal. It can only achieve greater levels of separation, distortion and disintegration.
The bargain lost souls make with the world is dominance and submission. If you submit to my will then I will affirm your value and take care of you. If you refuse to submit to my will then I will condemn you and abandon you.
Much of human created religion is based on this bargain. Most religion relies on a structure of rewards and punishments that states: if you obey God then God will (and must) give you what you want. However, if you disobey God, then God will punish you with pain and suffering and death.
Jesus wanted his disciples to know and understand that he did not come into the world to assert his will to power to dominate any one. There is no condemnation in Jesus Christ because there is no condemnation in God.
God just doesn’t have love. God is love: holy unconditional love.
Jesus tells his disciples that love is the solid rock foundation of life. If we have love it is the love that will motivate us to follow Jesus Christ and to keep his commandments.
Note that Jesus does not use the language of rewards and punishment. He does not endorse a religion of dominance and submission. He does not say: if you obey the laws then I will love you and reward you. He says: as you are in my love you follow the way of life I offer. As you are in love you find the passionate desire to keep the law.
Jesus then assures his disciples, and us, that his Ascension into heaven is not abandonment. There is no abandonment in divine love.
The orphan is left alone to question why. Why did they leave me? Why did they abandon me? Original separation from God produces further experiences of separation in broken relationships among families, friends, neighbors and nations. The will to power seeks to overcome the pain of separation through force.
No wonder Jesus took the time to reassure his disciples that he would never leave us or forsake us. His ascension into heaven is not abandonment. He sends us another Helper. That other Helper is the co-eternal third person of the Trinity: the Holy Spirit.
Jesus assures us that he brings no condemnation from the Father. He brings acceptance, life, truth and unconditional love. He came to earth to give us these things as a gift. It is as we receive the gift that we experience a new life and a new way of living. It is as we receive the gift that we experience the transformation of our thoughts, desires and will.
The Bible is very clear that no one by their own will can keep the Law. Life is not about law or the human will to power. Life is about steadfast holy unconditional love. Jesus is very clear that people don’t need more law. We need more love.
How do we know that Jesus makes a difference in our lives? How can we discern where we still live from the place of original separation? Jesus tells us: if you love me you will keep my commandments. It is not about obedience or disobedience. It is not about dominance and submission. We keep the commandments as we immerse our selves in the divine love of God in Jesus Christ.
We keep the commandments as we hold the commandments in conscious intent to live the new life of grace by faith. We keep the commandments as we set the intention to make our relationship with Jesus Christ the first priority in our lives. We keep the commandments as we choose to suspend judgment and give other people the benefit of the doubt by asking others: how may I help? We keep the commandments as we offer our selves and souls and bodies to the Holy Spirit to be transformed into living chalices of grace.
It is our responsibility to make the choices in life that expand love. All choices either expand love or further distort love into fear, self will and pride.
God does not expect us to do this alone. In fact, our Heavenly Father sends the Holy Spirit, the Helper, to transform us into living temples of love and holiness. We have access to the same Divine Presence and Power that filled Jesus and formed his life.
Eternal Love transforms mortal life. That love is not just a feeling or even a principle. It is a person: Jesus Christ. Jesus assures us: I am with you always. I will never leave you or forsake you. I will not leave you orphaned, abandoned, rejected or alone. Claim the promise. Live the promise. Make a real choice to transform in the real presence of the promise.
Friday, May 20, 2011
Easter 5
Easter 5 (John 14:1-14) You know the Way.
The Way of salvation is the way of life. The way of life is Jesus Christ.
After three years of walking with Jesus, the disciples already knew the way of salvation. They knew the way in their personal relationship with Jesus Christ. They blocked that knowledge as they chose to redefine Jesus in the very limited one dimensional category of the human will to power.
The disciples wanted Jesus to give them a well defined program for the Kingdom. They wanted that program set forth in very detailed laws, charts and time tables. The program needed to meet the needs they had identified for themselves. They cast those needs in the categories of politics, economics, culture, religion, pleasure and power.
None of those categories are necessarily bad. None of those categories can bring salvation. And none of those categories is the foundation for life.
What did the disciples already know?
They knew Jesus. They knew his unconditional love and compassion. They knew his sinless life. They knew his active dynamic and passionate participation in all aspects of human life. They knew his priority for living in the world: Worship, service, personal holiness.
The Way of Salvation is the Way of life. It cannot be limited to a single list of dos and don’ts. It cannot be contained in a narrow religious, cultural or political system. It is not about programs. It is about a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
The principle underlying our Heavenly Father’s Plan of salvation is that we become who or what we worship. We discern who or what we worship through our priorities.
That is why Jesus said: not everyone who says Lord Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven. Salvation is not just about the outward and visible signs of religion. Salvation is about the inward and spiritual choice we make to mold and shape and develop our souls, our personal identity.
The Kingdom of Heaven was right in the midst of the disciples but the disciples couldn’t see it. They also would not see it. They wanted something else. They wanted the power and the wealth and the assertion of their own self will.
The Bible is very clear that people tend to look past the clear and simple message of salvation. People complicate Biblical teaching because we don’t want to hear the simple and direct message God placed in the Bible. Sadly, this tendency to ignore what God reveals only results in greater levels of frustration, fear and anxiety among the religious.
So, Jesus, as he prepares for his arrest, torture and execution, reveals to the disciples what they had missed.
First, Jesus tells them: do not let your hearts be troubled. The frustration, fear and anxiety come from a choice we make to ignore who God is. The troubled heart is a heart focused on making the world of matter, energy, time and space the sole arena of meaning and purpose. Religious people tend to use religion to try to make the world of impermanence and duality stand still.
The world won’t stand still. All things in this world are only temporary. Mother Teresa once said: hold all things lightly. She did not say: give up all things. This is the world of duality, the world of action and reaction, the world of pleasure and pain, the world of life and death.
There is only one thing permanent in this world. The one thing that is permanent is Jesus Christ. Jesus is the co-eternal Beloved of God the eternal Father.
And so, Jesus redirects his disciples to focus their belief in God. No other person, program or object is worthy of belief. God is not an instrument by which we achieve our goals. Worship is not something we do to gain God’s favor and avoid God’s punishment. If we approach God as a means to an end we miss the meaning and purpose in life. God is the goal. God is the end.
The Way we enter into the reality of God is Jesus Christ.
The disciples all had religion. They also all missed the relationship.
The four biographies of Jesus Christ very clearly focus on the specific and personal relationships Jesus formed. Jesus reached out to everyone he met with friendship, healing, laughter, compassion and unconditional love. He brought forth that love in holiness.
For most of his public ministry, people simply chose to look past who Jesus was and what he offered. At the end of his life, at the foot of the cross, only a teen named John and Jesus’ mother with her two companions chose to value the relationship more than the anticipated reward.
The disciples knew the way of salvation. It was the way of life. It was Jesus Himself as he modeled a life of worship, ministry and personal holiness.
Jesus’ statement: I am the way, the truth and the life, is an outpouring of divine love and holiness to all people. It is not, as some seek to assert, religious chauvinism. It is grace. It is mercy. It is the peace that passes understanding. It is the new life and the new way of living. It is the Original Blessing of Creation re presented to a lost and rebellious species that chose the way of separation.
Before any one invented the word “Christian” the followers of Jesus simply described themselves as the followers of the Way.
The Way begins in a moment of time at the baptismal font. The way unfolds and transforms as we make a real choice to enter into the real presence of Jesus Christ through Word (the Bible) and Sacrament (Holy Communion).
Those who enter into the personal relationship with God the Father through God the Son enter into a new way of life. That new way of life is defined and characterized by the Presence of God the Holy Spirit.
The way of salvation is the way of life. Every choice we make, every priority we set is either contributing to our personal transformation in the divine love of God, or it is inhibiting our ability to live the abundant life our Heavenly Father offers us in Jesus Christ.
Jesus is the way in the context of a personal friendship. Jesus is not the way in the context of religion, culture, politics or programs. These things have their place and they are also transitory and passing away.
Jesus is eternal. His friendship is forever. The relationship he offers us is active, dynamic, transforming and limitless.
You know the way, Jesus told his disciples. I suspect he said this with a smile and an invitation.
Jesus offers the same invitation to us today. You know the way. Like the first century disciples we can easily look past who Jesus is. And so, the Holy Spirit reminds us. He just doesn’t remind us, He also helps us make better choices, wise choices.
What does it mean for you today to hear the message that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life? What difference does Jesus make in the way you make choices and set priorities?
Jesus is very clear. We don’t need more knowledge. We need more love: steadfast, holy, unconditional love.
We don’t need to make judgments about who is right and who is wrong. Judgment cultivates pride and pride kills. Divine love and compassion covers a multitude of sins and heals a multitude of hurts. Divine love and compassion preserves the relationships. We need to cultivate the relationships God has given us. The reality of life is in the relationships we choose to embrace. The joy of living emerges through those relationships.
Jesus says: you know the way. Do you believe this? Will you make a real choice to seek the way in a personal transforming relationship with the Living Lord, Jesus Christ?
The Way of salvation is the way of life. The way of life is Jesus Christ.
After three years of walking with Jesus, the disciples already knew the way of salvation. They knew the way in their personal relationship with Jesus Christ. They blocked that knowledge as they chose to redefine Jesus in the very limited one dimensional category of the human will to power.
The disciples wanted Jesus to give them a well defined program for the Kingdom. They wanted that program set forth in very detailed laws, charts and time tables. The program needed to meet the needs they had identified for themselves. They cast those needs in the categories of politics, economics, culture, religion, pleasure and power.
None of those categories are necessarily bad. None of those categories can bring salvation. And none of those categories is the foundation for life.
What did the disciples already know?
They knew Jesus. They knew his unconditional love and compassion. They knew his sinless life. They knew his active dynamic and passionate participation in all aspects of human life. They knew his priority for living in the world: Worship, service, personal holiness.
The Way of Salvation is the Way of life. It cannot be limited to a single list of dos and don’ts. It cannot be contained in a narrow religious, cultural or political system. It is not about programs. It is about a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
The principle underlying our Heavenly Father’s Plan of salvation is that we become who or what we worship. We discern who or what we worship through our priorities.
That is why Jesus said: not everyone who says Lord Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven. Salvation is not just about the outward and visible signs of religion. Salvation is about the inward and spiritual choice we make to mold and shape and develop our souls, our personal identity.
The Kingdom of Heaven was right in the midst of the disciples but the disciples couldn’t see it. They also would not see it. They wanted something else. They wanted the power and the wealth and the assertion of their own self will.
The Bible is very clear that people tend to look past the clear and simple message of salvation. People complicate Biblical teaching because we don’t want to hear the simple and direct message God placed in the Bible. Sadly, this tendency to ignore what God reveals only results in greater levels of frustration, fear and anxiety among the religious.
So, Jesus, as he prepares for his arrest, torture and execution, reveals to the disciples what they had missed.
First, Jesus tells them: do not let your hearts be troubled. The frustration, fear and anxiety come from a choice we make to ignore who God is. The troubled heart is a heart focused on making the world of matter, energy, time and space the sole arena of meaning and purpose. Religious people tend to use religion to try to make the world of impermanence and duality stand still.
The world won’t stand still. All things in this world are only temporary. Mother Teresa once said: hold all things lightly. She did not say: give up all things. This is the world of duality, the world of action and reaction, the world of pleasure and pain, the world of life and death.
There is only one thing permanent in this world. The one thing that is permanent is Jesus Christ. Jesus is the co-eternal Beloved of God the eternal Father.
And so, Jesus redirects his disciples to focus their belief in God. No other person, program or object is worthy of belief. God is not an instrument by which we achieve our goals. Worship is not something we do to gain God’s favor and avoid God’s punishment. If we approach God as a means to an end we miss the meaning and purpose in life. God is the goal. God is the end.
The Way we enter into the reality of God is Jesus Christ.
The disciples all had religion. They also all missed the relationship.
The four biographies of Jesus Christ very clearly focus on the specific and personal relationships Jesus formed. Jesus reached out to everyone he met with friendship, healing, laughter, compassion and unconditional love. He brought forth that love in holiness.
For most of his public ministry, people simply chose to look past who Jesus was and what he offered. At the end of his life, at the foot of the cross, only a teen named John and Jesus’ mother with her two companions chose to value the relationship more than the anticipated reward.
The disciples knew the way of salvation. It was the way of life. It was Jesus Himself as he modeled a life of worship, ministry and personal holiness.
Jesus’ statement: I am the way, the truth and the life, is an outpouring of divine love and holiness to all people. It is not, as some seek to assert, religious chauvinism. It is grace. It is mercy. It is the peace that passes understanding. It is the new life and the new way of living. It is the Original Blessing of Creation re presented to a lost and rebellious species that chose the way of separation.
Before any one invented the word “Christian” the followers of Jesus simply described themselves as the followers of the Way.
The Way begins in a moment of time at the baptismal font. The way unfolds and transforms as we make a real choice to enter into the real presence of Jesus Christ through Word (the Bible) and Sacrament (Holy Communion).
Those who enter into the personal relationship with God the Father through God the Son enter into a new way of life. That new way of life is defined and characterized by the Presence of God the Holy Spirit.
The way of salvation is the way of life. Every choice we make, every priority we set is either contributing to our personal transformation in the divine love of God, or it is inhibiting our ability to live the abundant life our Heavenly Father offers us in Jesus Christ.
Jesus is the way in the context of a personal friendship. Jesus is not the way in the context of religion, culture, politics or programs. These things have their place and they are also transitory and passing away.
Jesus is eternal. His friendship is forever. The relationship he offers us is active, dynamic, transforming and limitless.
You know the way, Jesus told his disciples. I suspect he said this with a smile and an invitation.
Jesus offers the same invitation to us today. You know the way. Like the first century disciples we can easily look past who Jesus is. And so, the Holy Spirit reminds us. He just doesn’t remind us, He also helps us make better choices, wise choices.
What does it mean for you today to hear the message that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life? What difference does Jesus make in the way you make choices and set priorities?
Jesus is very clear. We don’t need more knowledge. We need more love: steadfast, holy, unconditional love.
We don’t need to make judgments about who is right and who is wrong. Judgment cultivates pride and pride kills. Divine love and compassion covers a multitude of sins and heals a multitude of hurts. Divine love and compassion preserves the relationships. We need to cultivate the relationships God has given us. The reality of life is in the relationships we choose to embrace. The joy of living emerges through those relationships.
Jesus says: you know the way. Do you believe this? Will you make a real choice to seek the way in a personal transforming relationship with the Living Lord, Jesus Christ?
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Easter 4
Easter 4 (John 10:1-10)
“I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”
Jesus Christ is the plan, the pattern and the purpose for life.
In a series of startling “I am” statements Jesus reveals that he is the Way, the Truth and the Life. He is the logos, the co-eternal Word of God. As the logos he is the creative, dynamic and rational pattern of the universe.
People wanted Jesus to reveal and endorse the right religion that would produce right behavior and allow its followers to earn the rewards of righteousness. People were looking for the right laws, the right program and the one right way to acquire God’s favor and to avoid God’s wrath.
Jesus reveals that righteousness cannot be expressed in religious or political categories. Jesus reveals that righteousness is right relationship. Jesus reveals that all people everywhere already have God’s favor. God just doesn’t have love God is love. God loves all people unconditionally.
What Jesus reveals about God is very difficult for people to accept. The Bible is a record of the reason why the revelation Jesus brings is difficult for people to accept. Most people believe the Bible is a record of one of many ways people seek God. Moses and the Prophets record their observations of the many ways people reject God and hide from God.
Jesus is the Way God seeks us. God seeks us out in all of our confusion, fear, self will and pride. He seeks us out in person. He comes to us with an offer of unconditional love and eternal friendship. And in fact, the Bible records how most people most of the time really aren’t interested in what God is offering in Jesus Christ.
Even those who followed Jesus as his disciples, his students, looked through Jesus and past Jesus to what they really valued and really wanted. It is what a fallen and lost humanity seeks. And it is what keeps us lost and broken. It is pleasure, prestige, position and above all else: power.
A separated and lost humanity seeks meaning, purpose and diversion in the externals of life. We define ourselves by what we have and how we can assert our will to get what we want. We divert our awareness of our condition through pleasure and entertainment. These things have their place. These things can never satisfy the deepest longing of the soul.
Jesus offers us who God is. God is steadfast, holy, unconditional love. The disciples heard that message, observed that message, experienced the reality of that message and looked past it. They essentially said: love and compassion. Very nice, Jesus. But, when do we get to the real stuff? When do we get the reward? When do you defeat our enemies, form a new government, purify our religion and give us what we really want? They focused on the externals. They focused on the transitory. They missed the eternal reality Jesus came to give them.
People then, and people now, saw Jesus as a means to an end. Jesus presents himself as the pattern, the plan and the purpose for life. The life Jesus offers is creative, spontaneous, active, dynamic, joyful and self giving. That life is a well of living waters that immerses our soul and pours forth from our soul regardless of the external circumstances our lives.
Jesus is not a means to an end. Jesus is not a bullet point on a resume. Jesus is life, abundant life.
Belief in Jesus does not earn for us an external reward. Jesus is himself the reward. Jesus is the very gate of life. Friendship with Jesus is a new life and a new way of living. Jesus very firmly warns us that he is the only gate, the only way, to reunification with God the Father and transformation in God the Holy Spirit. All other ways are detours and dead ends.
In those detours and dead ends we will meet many who offer to sell us a program and a pathway to satisfy our desires. Jesus warns us that they will also steal our joy and destroy our ability to live the abundant life.
Jesus is the door. Jesus is the way. He actively seeks us in the various detours and dead ends we pursue. He actively invites us into a new life and a new way of living.
The new way of living is neither self indulgence nor self denial. It is the middle way of steadfast holy unconditional love. It is the way of worship, discipleship, evangelism, service to others and fellowship with other believers.
It is no wonder the disciples could not understand this teaching. The new life is inner directed. It emerges in the depth of the soul as the soul immerses itself in the steadfast holy unconditional love of God through worship and service. The new life sets us free from the external circumstance of our society and our world.
The disciples lived lives that were outer directed. They looked at life, they looked at Jesus, and asked: what’s in it for me? How does Jesus help me get and keep the pleasure, possession, prestige and power that I demand? What program does Jesus offer me to meet my needs and my desires? In that pursuit they knew insecurity and fear.
The new life in Jesus Christ sets us free from fear. The new life in Christ transforms fear into compassion, compassion for other people and compassion for ourselves. The new life redefines who we are and how we can best live our lives.
Jesus reveals that we are each a unique manifestation of one aspect of his infinite and eternal love. Jesus reveals the best way to be human and to live in this world is to set our first priority as worship, our second priority in our service to others and our third priority in our own personal transformation.
Jesus calls us to reset our priorities by pledging our life and love and loyalty to him. It is as we make a real choice to immerse our mind, heart and will in the real presence of Jesus Christ that we meet the living Lord in the daily events of our lives and discover how Jesus is the abundant life of God who makes all things new.
“I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”
Jesus Christ is the plan, the pattern and the purpose for life.
In a series of startling “I am” statements Jesus reveals that he is the Way, the Truth and the Life. He is the logos, the co-eternal Word of God. As the logos he is the creative, dynamic and rational pattern of the universe.
People wanted Jesus to reveal and endorse the right religion that would produce right behavior and allow its followers to earn the rewards of righteousness. People were looking for the right laws, the right program and the one right way to acquire God’s favor and to avoid God’s wrath.
Jesus reveals that righteousness cannot be expressed in religious or political categories. Jesus reveals that righteousness is right relationship. Jesus reveals that all people everywhere already have God’s favor. God just doesn’t have love God is love. God loves all people unconditionally.
What Jesus reveals about God is very difficult for people to accept. The Bible is a record of the reason why the revelation Jesus brings is difficult for people to accept. Most people believe the Bible is a record of one of many ways people seek God. Moses and the Prophets record their observations of the many ways people reject God and hide from God.
Jesus is the Way God seeks us. God seeks us out in all of our confusion, fear, self will and pride. He seeks us out in person. He comes to us with an offer of unconditional love and eternal friendship. And in fact, the Bible records how most people most of the time really aren’t interested in what God is offering in Jesus Christ.
Even those who followed Jesus as his disciples, his students, looked through Jesus and past Jesus to what they really valued and really wanted. It is what a fallen and lost humanity seeks. And it is what keeps us lost and broken. It is pleasure, prestige, position and above all else: power.
A separated and lost humanity seeks meaning, purpose and diversion in the externals of life. We define ourselves by what we have and how we can assert our will to get what we want. We divert our awareness of our condition through pleasure and entertainment. These things have their place. These things can never satisfy the deepest longing of the soul.
Jesus offers us who God is. God is steadfast, holy, unconditional love. The disciples heard that message, observed that message, experienced the reality of that message and looked past it. They essentially said: love and compassion. Very nice, Jesus. But, when do we get to the real stuff? When do we get the reward? When do you defeat our enemies, form a new government, purify our religion and give us what we really want? They focused on the externals. They focused on the transitory. They missed the eternal reality Jesus came to give them.
People then, and people now, saw Jesus as a means to an end. Jesus presents himself as the pattern, the plan and the purpose for life. The life Jesus offers is creative, spontaneous, active, dynamic, joyful and self giving. That life is a well of living waters that immerses our soul and pours forth from our soul regardless of the external circumstances our lives.
Jesus is not a means to an end. Jesus is not a bullet point on a resume. Jesus is life, abundant life.
Belief in Jesus does not earn for us an external reward. Jesus is himself the reward. Jesus is the very gate of life. Friendship with Jesus is a new life and a new way of living. Jesus very firmly warns us that he is the only gate, the only way, to reunification with God the Father and transformation in God the Holy Spirit. All other ways are detours and dead ends.
In those detours and dead ends we will meet many who offer to sell us a program and a pathway to satisfy our desires. Jesus warns us that they will also steal our joy and destroy our ability to live the abundant life.
Jesus is the door. Jesus is the way. He actively seeks us in the various detours and dead ends we pursue. He actively invites us into a new life and a new way of living.
The new way of living is neither self indulgence nor self denial. It is the middle way of steadfast holy unconditional love. It is the way of worship, discipleship, evangelism, service to others and fellowship with other believers.
It is no wonder the disciples could not understand this teaching. The new life is inner directed. It emerges in the depth of the soul as the soul immerses itself in the steadfast holy unconditional love of God through worship and service. The new life sets us free from the external circumstance of our society and our world.
The disciples lived lives that were outer directed. They looked at life, they looked at Jesus, and asked: what’s in it for me? How does Jesus help me get and keep the pleasure, possession, prestige and power that I demand? What program does Jesus offer me to meet my needs and my desires? In that pursuit they knew insecurity and fear.
The new life in Jesus Christ sets us free from fear. The new life in Christ transforms fear into compassion, compassion for other people and compassion for ourselves. The new life redefines who we are and how we can best live our lives.
Jesus reveals that we are each a unique manifestation of one aspect of his infinite and eternal love. Jesus reveals the best way to be human and to live in this world is to set our first priority as worship, our second priority in our service to others and our third priority in our own personal transformation.
Jesus calls us to reset our priorities by pledging our life and love and loyalty to him. It is as we make a real choice to immerse our mind, heart and will in the real presence of Jesus Christ that we meet the living Lord in the daily events of our lives and discover how Jesus is the abundant life of God who makes all things new.
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Easter 3
Easter 3 (Luke 24:13-35)
He was made known to them in the breaking of the bread.
Seeing is not necessarily believing.
The resurrection of Jesus Christ was not something the disciples believed easily. Many of the disciples did not immediately recognize Jesus in his resurrection body even when they saw him. People have attempted to explain this phenomena in mystical or occult terms. The reality is likely far more ordinary.
A 14th century English scholar named William of Occam developed a principle of inquiry that may help us understand the problem. William said: the simplest explanation is usually the best explanation.
The simplest explanation for why so many of Jesus’ disciples, from Mary Magdalene to Cleopas and his friends, did not recognize Jesus at first is that they never expected Jesus to rise from the dead. Resurrection was outside the parameters of what they believed was possible in this world. And, it was outside their own religious beliefs.
Seeing is not necessarily believing when the person who sees cannot accept the reality of his senses. If we hold onto strong beliefs and expectations about how the world works and what is possible we may very well miss the moment of grace when the Eternal intersects with the temporal, when the infinite God makes himself known in the particularity of human experience.
More often than not, believing requires a wider and more profound context.
Jesus understood this very well. In his human nature he was a student of the present human condition. As the logos, the co-eternal Word of God, he himself is the pattern of original human nature. He observed the discrepancy between the original pattern and the present reality.
Jesus knew his disciples were lost in separation from God. He knew this separation had produced distortions in the way we think, feel and make choices. He knew that most of his disciples in that generation would not be able to believe in the resurrection within the context of their assumptions about the world.
So, Jesus provided a new context. We hear in this story the three fold nature of the new context. It is the Bible, the Sacraments, and the Community of Faith.
The first thing Jesus did when he spoke with Cleopas and his companions was to lead them in Bible Study. From Moses and the Prophets Jesus explained the context for faith. That context is the great love of God at work in the nation of Israel for over a thousand years prior to the incarnation.
Moses and the Prophets provide the foundation for faith and set the parameters for belief.
The problem was the overlay of human tradition that had evolved over the centuries and obscured the clear and concise message of Moses and the Prophets. So, in addition to Bible Study, Jesus manifested the new reality through the new sacrament of the new covenant: Holy Communion.
As Jesus broke the bread he invoked the memory of the Passover sacrifice and applied it to himself in the present moment.
As Jesus broke the bread, Cleopas and the others had an “aha” moment. It was a moment of grace. And, it was a moment Jesus had prepared through the Bible study that preceded it.
In that moment, the disciples recognized the Plan of Salvation was not law and wrath but love and grace. In that moment, the disciples understood what Jesus had been teaching for three years and what Moses and the Prophets had declared for centuries.
In that moment, the new context Jesus provided facilitated faith. And the faith gave birth to belief. In that moment of grace that produced faith their eyes were opened to see what had been there all of the time. Suddenly, within the new context of Word and Sacrament, seeing became believing.
Their faith resulted in belief. Their belief fulfilled the work of the moment. Jesus vanished. And the disciples rushed back to Jerusalem to report to the apostles who had had their own moment of grace.
The third context of faith that produces belief is the Community of Faith. The disciples gathered together. They shared their personal and individual experience of the risen Lord Jesus Christ. That experience became the living tradition of Faith.
The tradition is living not dead. The tradition unfolds in the present time in the personal experience of the faithful. We hold the experience in the context of Word and Sacrament so the universal and unchanging truth of Jesus Christ can be revealed in the particularity of the present moment of our present experience.
This story that we heard read only exists to help us and many others in the world to discover the reality of God. That reality is a new life and a new way of living that over time heals the distortions of human thought, emotion and will. That reality unfolds in a particular moment in a particular place through a personal relationship with the particular person: Jesus Christ.
One of the lessons we may draw from this story is that seeing is not always believing. Another lesson might be: pay attention.
Pay attention to your life. Pay attention to the world around you. Pay attention to the people who are closest to you. Pay attention to your own assumptions about life.
As you pay attention to what is you prepare to enter your moment of grace. The moment of grace will be different for every individual. The moment of grace will be very personal. It will also be your invitation to hear the Good News of God’s love for you in the living Lord Jesus Christ.
Faith does require a new context for belief. The context is not a philosophy or a set of laws or even ritual. The context is the personal invitation from Jesus Christ to hear, and to see and to believe what has been present to us all our lives.
Through word and sacrament Cleopas and the others found a new way of understanding themselves, the world, and God. They saw what was right in front of them. They saw Jesus.
The process is normative for all people everywhere. The process is a continual invitation to transformation in the community of Faith, the Church. The process produces the faith that can joyfully affirm the belief: Alleluia, the Lord is risen indeed!
He was made known to them in the breaking of the bread.
Seeing is not necessarily believing.
The resurrection of Jesus Christ was not something the disciples believed easily. Many of the disciples did not immediately recognize Jesus in his resurrection body even when they saw him. People have attempted to explain this phenomena in mystical or occult terms. The reality is likely far more ordinary.
A 14th century English scholar named William of Occam developed a principle of inquiry that may help us understand the problem. William said: the simplest explanation is usually the best explanation.
The simplest explanation for why so many of Jesus’ disciples, from Mary Magdalene to Cleopas and his friends, did not recognize Jesus at first is that they never expected Jesus to rise from the dead. Resurrection was outside the parameters of what they believed was possible in this world. And, it was outside their own religious beliefs.
Seeing is not necessarily believing when the person who sees cannot accept the reality of his senses. If we hold onto strong beliefs and expectations about how the world works and what is possible we may very well miss the moment of grace when the Eternal intersects with the temporal, when the infinite God makes himself known in the particularity of human experience.
More often than not, believing requires a wider and more profound context.
Jesus understood this very well. In his human nature he was a student of the present human condition. As the logos, the co-eternal Word of God, he himself is the pattern of original human nature. He observed the discrepancy between the original pattern and the present reality.
Jesus knew his disciples were lost in separation from God. He knew this separation had produced distortions in the way we think, feel and make choices. He knew that most of his disciples in that generation would not be able to believe in the resurrection within the context of their assumptions about the world.
So, Jesus provided a new context. We hear in this story the three fold nature of the new context. It is the Bible, the Sacraments, and the Community of Faith.
The first thing Jesus did when he spoke with Cleopas and his companions was to lead them in Bible Study. From Moses and the Prophets Jesus explained the context for faith. That context is the great love of God at work in the nation of Israel for over a thousand years prior to the incarnation.
Moses and the Prophets provide the foundation for faith and set the parameters for belief.
The problem was the overlay of human tradition that had evolved over the centuries and obscured the clear and concise message of Moses and the Prophets. So, in addition to Bible Study, Jesus manifested the new reality through the new sacrament of the new covenant: Holy Communion.
As Jesus broke the bread he invoked the memory of the Passover sacrifice and applied it to himself in the present moment.
As Jesus broke the bread, Cleopas and the others had an “aha” moment. It was a moment of grace. And, it was a moment Jesus had prepared through the Bible study that preceded it.
In that moment, the disciples recognized the Plan of Salvation was not law and wrath but love and grace. In that moment, the disciples understood what Jesus had been teaching for three years and what Moses and the Prophets had declared for centuries.
In that moment, the new context Jesus provided facilitated faith. And the faith gave birth to belief. In that moment of grace that produced faith their eyes were opened to see what had been there all of the time. Suddenly, within the new context of Word and Sacrament, seeing became believing.
Their faith resulted in belief. Their belief fulfilled the work of the moment. Jesus vanished. And the disciples rushed back to Jerusalem to report to the apostles who had had their own moment of grace.
The third context of faith that produces belief is the Community of Faith. The disciples gathered together. They shared their personal and individual experience of the risen Lord Jesus Christ. That experience became the living tradition of Faith.
The tradition is living not dead. The tradition unfolds in the present time in the personal experience of the faithful. We hold the experience in the context of Word and Sacrament so the universal and unchanging truth of Jesus Christ can be revealed in the particularity of the present moment of our present experience.
This story that we heard read only exists to help us and many others in the world to discover the reality of God. That reality is a new life and a new way of living that over time heals the distortions of human thought, emotion and will. That reality unfolds in a particular moment in a particular place through a personal relationship with the particular person: Jesus Christ.
One of the lessons we may draw from this story is that seeing is not always believing. Another lesson might be: pay attention.
Pay attention to your life. Pay attention to the world around you. Pay attention to the people who are closest to you. Pay attention to your own assumptions about life.
As you pay attention to what is you prepare to enter your moment of grace. The moment of grace will be different for every individual. The moment of grace will be very personal. It will also be your invitation to hear the Good News of God’s love for you in the living Lord Jesus Christ.
Faith does require a new context for belief. The context is not a philosophy or a set of laws or even ritual. The context is the personal invitation from Jesus Christ to hear, and to see and to believe what has been present to us all our lives.
Through word and sacrament Cleopas and the others found a new way of understanding themselves, the world, and God. They saw what was right in front of them. They saw Jesus.
The process is normative for all people everywhere. The process is a continual invitation to transformation in the community of Faith, the Church. The process produces the faith that can joyfully affirm the belief: Alleluia, the Lord is risen indeed!
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