Pentecost 8 (Mark 6:30-34; 53-56)
Come away by yourselves to a lonely place and rest awhile.
Jesus knows us better than we know ourselves.
Our Heavenly Father designed our species according to the pattern of the logos, the Word of God who is the beloved Son of God. We are each a unique aspect of the infinite and eternal love of the Son.
There is a meaning and a purpose to our lives. God the Father created us to be the forever friends of God the Son. We enter into that friendship in three fundamental ways: worship, service, personal transformation.
As the Father created all of us and each of us according to the pattern, plan and purpose of the Son, so He sends the Holy Spirit into the world and into our souls to help us become who He created us to be. The Holy Spirit is the Counselor who encourages us to read, mark learn and inwardly digest scripture. It is as we make the choice to follow the counsel of the Holy Spirit by reading, studying and memorizing scripture that the wisdom of God becomes real to us and present in our daily choices.
Jesus reveals two patterns of Divine Love in the gospel passage today. One is rest. The other is service.
As the love of God in human flesh, Jesus is the wisdom of God and the compassion of God. He is the pattern of this universe of matter, energy, time and space. As we study the life of Jesus, ponder his words and enter into His real presence in the Blessed Sacrament of the altar, the Holy Spirit helps us to perceive, understand and apply the wisdom of Jesus and the compassion of Jesus.
From the very beginning, God created time to facilitate the purpose for our lives. Every seventh day is the Day of Real Presence. It is the particular time that sets aside the particular place where God promises to meet us, to refresh us, to infuse his love into our minds, hearts and wills.
The particularity of the time and place of real presence facilitates choice. The purpose of our lives is love. Love can only be real as we make a real choice to embrace that love.
Throughout history people have asked: where is God? He is right here. He is where he declared he would be in the realm of matter, energy, time and space. He is present in the reading of his word. He is present in the blessed sacrament of the altar.
God did not complete creation until he formed the seventh day. The seventh day holds all creation, especially time, in balance, harmony and joy. Sadly, most people most of the time throughout history have ignored this aspect of creation. We find the seventh day burdensome. Even those who attempt to honor the Sabbath have distorted it through legalism or minimalism.
Legalism provides a list of what you can and cannot do. The focus is on the list not the real presence of Divine Love. Minimalism has one eye on the altar and one eye on the clock.
Strangely enough, both legalism and minimalism ask the same question: what is the least I must do to get credit? How can I use this day to merit Divine favor and still do what is really important to me?
That question is formed by the old life- the life of separation. That question proceeds from the old way of living- the way of self will, pride and fear. That way is grounded in the distortion of scarcity. The great fear our species holds is that there is not enough for everyone so I must strive to get what I need and I want.
The seventh day exists as God’s promise that there is more than enough. There is in fact abundance. The new life of reunification with the Father through the Son by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit releases that abundance in wisdom, compassion and balance.
Jesus not only taught this balance he demonstrated the balance. Jesus not only demonstrated the balance he is the balance. The purpose of our lives is the threefold love Jesus gives us. That gift emerges in a personal relationship with Jesus.
Jesus holds the balance of work, rest, recreation and renewal. The invitation to come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest awhile is an invitation to renewal. It is not just a cessation from activity. It is not a diversion. It is life.
The balance in life is demonstrated by Jesus as the balance between action and contemplation. Work and recreation are still action. Rest apart from contemplation is an inertia that can lead to stagnation.
To enter into the rest Jesus offers is to enter into the Divine Mystery of life itself. It is to set apart a time and a place to renew our minds, our hearts and our wills in the Real Presence of the Eternal Beloved of the Eternal Father through the eternal Holy Spirit.
Contemplation compliments action. Contemplation completes action. Contemplation creates action.
The action Jesus demonstrates is compassion in all of its practical forms. There is feeding the hungry. There is healing the sick. There is visiting the lonely. There are so many opportunities in this world to practice compassion and to show kindness. If we ask what is the minimum I must do to practice compassion we are stuck in legalism.
Compassion is not a law. It is a Way of life. It is a principle that guides choice.
The underlying power of compassion is contemplative engagement with the Divine. The highest form of this engagement is in liturgical worship. In the liturgy the Holy Spirit offers to help us perceive and enter into the very pattern of Heaven. If we ask what is the minimum time and attention we must offer in worship to practice contemplative engagement with the Divine we are stuck in a minimalism that leads to stagnation.
Jesus is the superabundance of God’s grace which is the very pattern of Creation.
Jesus invites us to enter into the rest of the eternal Sabbath manifesting in the realm of time through the timeless touch of the Divine Liturgy. The choice to enter into that rest produces a result. The result is an attitude and an action of compassion.
Thursday, July 19, 2012
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
Pentecost 7
Pentecost 7 (Mark 6: 14-29) “King Herod heard of it.”
It isn’t easy being king. The perks are great: wealth, power, prestige, palaces. The demands are never ending. And the threat is constant.
The ruler was Herod Antipas, grandson of Herod the Great. Herod the Great was the king when Jesus was born. They were not Jews. They were Edomites- descendants of Jacob’s older brother Essau.
Herod ruled as an absolute monarch who had to please two main constituencies in order to stay in power: the Romans and the wealthy Galileans. A more troublesome constituency was the people over whom Herod ruled. The people were restive, contentious and almost impossible to satisfy.
Herod dealt with the Romans and the wealthy by discerning what they wanted in a king. The Romans wanted the king to maintain order. Herod maintained order through brutal suppression at the hands of the police, the military and the internal security apparatus. Herod discovered quickly that the Romans did not concern themselves with the means only the result.
Herod understood that the wealthy landowners and merchants of Galilee were essential allies to maintain his power. What they wanted was easy to figure out. They wanted the labor laws and the tax laws written in their favor. In exchange, they made substantial cash contributions to King Herod personally. They refused to pay taxes for roads, aqueducts, reservoirs or hospitals but they were more than willing to pay bribes to ensure the law favored their business interests.
Of course, this meant that ordinary working people were at a disadvantage. In order to keep taxes on the rich low Herod had to reduce services to the poor and raise taxes on them to pay the police, the military and the internal security agents.
Herod used two very old principles to deal with the people. The first is called: bait and switch. The second is called: divide and conquer. Herod was very effective in both. He knew the people were bitterly divided over the issue of religion and culture. He didn’t create the divisions. He did exploit the divisions. He played off the various factions against each other.
He told the Pharisees that the real problem in society was not the Romans- who after all were far away in Rome. Nor was the problem the unjust labor laws and tax system. The real problem was the Sadducees. They had perverted the true religion of Israel. They were the real problem. They held weird beliefs and strange customs.
Of course, when Herod spoke privately with the Sadducees he used the same tactic and blamed the Pharisees.
Herod was very clever at the politics of shame and blame to please the Romans and the wealthy and to divert the attention of ordinary people from the oppression of his rule. Jesus once commented on Herod’s intelligence by calling him “that fox.” Herod was clever but not wise.
As with many who are successful in ruling, King Herod had one fatal flaw: hubris, pride. He thought he had life, people, even God figured out and in the palm of his hand.
Then, God did something he hadn’t done in the previous 400 years. He sent a prophet, John the Baptizer.
It isn’t easy to be a prophet. Most prophets resisted God’s call. They knew that people would not listen to them. They knew they would meet opposition, threat, arrest, torture and death. They knew that a true prophet of God is accountable only to God. He must speak two words: repent and prepare.
Repent of your sin. Prepare to receive the Messiah.
A true prophet is not a fortune teller. A true prophet is a truth teller. His mind is not just formed by scripture it is saturated with scripture. A true prophet must be very careful to say and to do only what God directs. He cannot innovate. He cannot deviate.
John was the last of the prophets. He was the last of the prophets because he was the one appointed to declare the arrival of the Messiah. Since the coming of the Messiah there is no prophetic office. Anyone after John the Baptist who claims to be a prophet is deceived. They can be a teacher, a philosopher or a theologian. They cannot be a prophet.
It isn’t easy to be a true prophet of God. God’s word is alive in the mind, the heart and the will of the prophet. John burned with a passion for the word of God. He called people to repent of their sin. Most people were both impressed and entertained by John.
They knew the stories of the ancient prophets. They expected John’s unusual behavior, diet and preaching style. They delighted to hear John announce the coming of the Messiah and to denounce the rich and the powerful.
They were less enthusiastic about John when he moved from a generic call to repentance to a critique of specific sin. One sin in particular that John denounced angered King Herod. It was the sin of divorce.
Divorce is never God’s plan. Moses permitted divorce under certain extreme circumstances. God revealed through Moses that marriage is both a covenant and a sacrament. It is a covenant among three people: husband, wife and God. It is the outward and visible form of a union that represents God’s relationship with humanity.
God is very clear: wedding vows do not just form a contract between two individuals that civil law can annul. Wedding vows create a new reality in a threefold relationship among husband, wife and God. That threefold relationship holds the very image of God. God infuses his own life and love and holiness into that new reality.
King Herod ignored God’s plan for marriage. He had an affair with his brother’s wife, Herodias. They each eventually divorced their respective spouses and married each other. John declared that this action violated the covenant and sacrament of marriage.
Herod had John arrested. It is one thing to issue a general call to repentance. It is another to name a particular sin for someone to acknowledge and repent.
King Herod had just enough belief to admire John but not enough faith to hear the word of God John brought. Herodias understood how Herod relied on his personal contacts with Roman officials and Galilean businessmen. She understood King Herod’s fatal flaw was his pride and his weakness was his dependence on his ability to fulfill his promise to his supporters. She very cleverly arranged a scenario where Herod made a rash promise in the presence of some very rich and powerful men.
If Herod broke his promise to give Salome what she requested he not only embarrassed himself he called into question his reliability to fulfill his promises to other people. He was out maneuvered and he knew it. He reluctantly ordered John to be executed. He chose to have John beheaded, which was considered a merciful form of execution. Then he brooded in superstitious fear that God would punish him for killing a prophet.
When news of Jesus reached King Herod he irrationally concluded that Jesus was John the Baptist returned from the dead to haunt him and to harass him.
That was Herod’s most serious character flaw. Herod believed everything was always about him. He had the authority to rule and used that authority to impose his will on other people. He was clever and manipulative. But, he was lost.
He was lost in his own will to power. He had just enough knowledge of religion to induce fear but not enough to produce faith.
As the Bible says and the prophets warn: be sure your sin will find you out. Herod had the authority to alter civil law but he lacked the power to annul divine law.
Eventually, the family of Herod’s first wife sought revenge for Herod’s infidelity and betrayal. Herod could impose his will through the legal system to define marriage as a contract in civil law between two people that either person could terminate in court. He could use his position to manipulate the people and reward the rich. His end came because his former in laws, the rulers of Nabatea, had plotted against him to get revenge for the way he treated their daughter.
Revenge in the Middle East is a fine art. It takes time to plot an adequate revenge. They attacked Herod’s armies and plundered his lands. Suddenly, Rome took notice. Herod had failed to maintain order. Suddenly the rich took notice. The Nabateans were stealing their property. Herod lost his position. The Romans recalled him and reassigned him to a small province in Gaul, modern France.
God had given Herod an opportunity to acknowledge his sin and to repent of his sin. He chose a different path. He chose the path of pride. He chose the path of the will to power. He chose an outward form of religion and rejected the inward and spiritual reality of faith.
Jesus helps us to understand the distinction between religion and relationship. Jesus clarifies for us the perfection and holiness of the law and the inability of anyone to keep the law. The problem is not in a lack of understanding of the law. The problem is not in the lack of enforcement. The problem is separation.
The solution to separation is reunification. That solution is to make a real choice to enter into a real relationship with God in Jesus Christ. It is only after we accept God’ solution to the problem of separation that we can begin to deal with the particular sins in our lives that have resulted from separation.
God gave Herod three significant opportunities to repent and enter into salvation. The first was through the last of the prophets: John. The second was the personal invitation of the Son of God, Jesus Christ. Herod killed John and helped set the momentum for Pilate to kill Jesus. The third opportunity was in his exile. It was in the last years of his life as a minor bureaucrat in a remote province. There is no record of whether Herod repented and came to faith.
God gives all people multiple opportunities to accept Jesus as our personal lord and savior. God gives all people multiple opportunities to repent of a particular sin. Sometimes the invitation comes from hearing the reading of God’s word. Sometimes the invitation comes from another person. Many times the invitation comes from the ordinary events of life. The call to salvation is universal and it is personal. Everyone receives the call. How do you receive the call?
It isn’t easy being king. The perks are great: wealth, power, prestige, palaces. The demands are never ending. And the threat is constant.
The ruler was Herod Antipas, grandson of Herod the Great. Herod the Great was the king when Jesus was born. They were not Jews. They were Edomites- descendants of Jacob’s older brother Essau.
Herod ruled as an absolute monarch who had to please two main constituencies in order to stay in power: the Romans and the wealthy Galileans. A more troublesome constituency was the people over whom Herod ruled. The people were restive, contentious and almost impossible to satisfy.
Herod dealt with the Romans and the wealthy by discerning what they wanted in a king. The Romans wanted the king to maintain order. Herod maintained order through brutal suppression at the hands of the police, the military and the internal security apparatus. Herod discovered quickly that the Romans did not concern themselves with the means only the result.
Herod understood that the wealthy landowners and merchants of Galilee were essential allies to maintain his power. What they wanted was easy to figure out. They wanted the labor laws and the tax laws written in their favor. In exchange, they made substantial cash contributions to King Herod personally. They refused to pay taxes for roads, aqueducts, reservoirs or hospitals but they were more than willing to pay bribes to ensure the law favored their business interests.
Of course, this meant that ordinary working people were at a disadvantage. In order to keep taxes on the rich low Herod had to reduce services to the poor and raise taxes on them to pay the police, the military and the internal security agents.
Herod used two very old principles to deal with the people. The first is called: bait and switch. The second is called: divide and conquer. Herod was very effective in both. He knew the people were bitterly divided over the issue of religion and culture. He didn’t create the divisions. He did exploit the divisions. He played off the various factions against each other.
He told the Pharisees that the real problem in society was not the Romans- who after all were far away in Rome. Nor was the problem the unjust labor laws and tax system. The real problem was the Sadducees. They had perverted the true religion of Israel. They were the real problem. They held weird beliefs and strange customs.
Of course, when Herod spoke privately with the Sadducees he used the same tactic and blamed the Pharisees.
Herod was very clever at the politics of shame and blame to please the Romans and the wealthy and to divert the attention of ordinary people from the oppression of his rule. Jesus once commented on Herod’s intelligence by calling him “that fox.” Herod was clever but not wise.
As with many who are successful in ruling, King Herod had one fatal flaw: hubris, pride. He thought he had life, people, even God figured out and in the palm of his hand.
Then, God did something he hadn’t done in the previous 400 years. He sent a prophet, John the Baptizer.
It isn’t easy to be a prophet. Most prophets resisted God’s call. They knew that people would not listen to them. They knew they would meet opposition, threat, arrest, torture and death. They knew that a true prophet of God is accountable only to God. He must speak two words: repent and prepare.
Repent of your sin. Prepare to receive the Messiah.
A true prophet is not a fortune teller. A true prophet is a truth teller. His mind is not just formed by scripture it is saturated with scripture. A true prophet must be very careful to say and to do only what God directs. He cannot innovate. He cannot deviate.
John was the last of the prophets. He was the last of the prophets because he was the one appointed to declare the arrival of the Messiah. Since the coming of the Messiah there is no prophetic office. Anyone after John the Baptist who claims to be a prophet is deceived. They can be a teacher, a philosopher or a theologian. They cannot be a prophet.
It isn’t easy to be a true prophet of God. God’s word is alive in the mind, the heart and the will of the prophet. John burned with a passion for the word of God. He called people to repent of their sin. Most people were both impressed and entertained by John.
They knew the stories of the ancient prophets. They expected John’s unusual behavior, diet and preaching style. They delighted to hear John announce the coming of the Messiah and to denounce the rich and the powerful.
They were less enthusiastic about John when he moved from a generic call to repentance to a critique of specific sin. One sin in particular that John denounced angered King Herod. It was the sin of divorce.
Divorce is never God’s plan. Moses permitted divorce under certain extreme circumstances. God revealed through Moses that marriage is both a covenant and a sacrament. It is a covenant among three people: husband, wife and God. It is the outward and visible form of a union that represents God’s relationship with humanity.
God is very clear: wedding vows do not just form a contract between two individuals that civil law can annul. Wedding vows create a new reality in a threefold relationship among husband, wife and God. That threefold relationship holds the very image of God. God infuses his own life and love and holiness into that new reality.
King Herod ignored God’s plan for marriage. He had an affair with his brother’s wife, Herodias. They each eventually divorced their respective spouses and married each other. John declared that this action violated the covenant and sacrament of marriage.
Herod had John arrested. It is one thing to issue a general call to repentance. It is another to name a particular sin for someone to acknowledge and repent.
King Herod had just enough belief to admire John but not enough faith to hear the word of God John brought. Herodias understood how Herod relied on his personal contacts with Roman officials and Galilean businessmen. She understood King Herod’s fatal flaw was his pride and his weakness was his dependence on his ability to fulfill his promise to his supporters. She very cleverly arranged a scenario where Herod made a rash promise in the presence of some very rich and powerful men.
If Herod broke his promise to give Salome what she requested he not only embarrassed himself he called into question his reliability to fulfill his promises to other people. He was out maneuvered and he knew it. He reluctantly ordered John to be executed. He chose to have John beheaded, which was considered a merciful form of execution. Then he brooded in superstitious fear that God would punish him for killing a prophet.
When news of Jesus reached King Herod he irrationally concluded that Jesus was John the Baptist returned from the dead to haunt him and to harass him.
That was Herod’s most serious character flaw. Herod believed everything was always about him. He had the authority to rule and used that authority to impose his will on other people. He was clever and manipulative. But, he was lost.
He was lost in his own will to power. He had just enough knowledge of religion to induce fear but not enough to produce faith.
As the Bible says and the prophets warn: be sure your sin will find you out. Herod had the authority to alter civil law but he lacked the power to annul divine law.
Eventually, the family of Herod’s first wife sought revenge for Herod’s infidelity and betrayal. Herod could impose his will through the legal system to define marriage as a contract in civil law between two people that either person could terminate in court. He could use his position to manipulate the people and reward the rich. His end came because his former in laws, the rulers of Nabatea, had plotted against him to get revenge for the way he treated their daughter.
Revenge in the Middle East is a fine art. It takes time to plot an adequate revenge. They attacked Herod’s armies and plundered his lands. Suddenly, Rome took notice. Herod had failed to maintain order. Suddenly the rich took notice. The Nabateans were stealing their property. Herod lost his position. The Romans recalled him and reassigned him to a small province in Gaul, modern France.
God had given Herod an opportunity to acknowledge his sin and to repent of his sin. He chose a different path. He chose the path of pride. He chose the path of the will to power. He chose an outward form of religion and rejected the inward and spiritual reality of faith.
Jesus helps us to understand the distinction between religion and relationship. Jesus clarifies for us the perfection and holiness of the law and the inability of anyone to keep the law. The problem is not in a lack of understanding of the law. The problem is not in the lack of enforcement. The problem is separation.
The solution to separation is reunification. That solution is to make a real choice to enter into a real relationship with God in Jesus Christ. It is only after we accept God’ solution to the problem of separation that we can begin to deal with the particular sins in our lives that have resulted from separation.
God gave Herod three significant opportunities to repent and enter into salvation. The first was through the last of the prophets: John. The second was the personal invitation of the Son of God, Jesus Christ. Herod killed John and helped set the momentum for Pilate to kill Jesus. The third opportunity was in his exile. It was in the last years of his life as a minor bureaucrat in a remote province. There is no record of whether Herod repented and came to faith.
God gives all people multiple opportunities to accept Jesus as our personal lord and savior. God gives all people multiple opportunities to repent of a particular sin. Sometimes the invitation comes from hearing the reading of God’s word. Sometimes the invitation comes from another person. Many times the invitation comes from the ordinary events of life. The call to salvation is universal and it is personal. Everyone receives the call. How do you receive the call?
Wednesday, July 4, 2012
Pentecost 6 July 10 2012
Pentecost 6 (Mark 6:1- 13) “A prophet is not without honor except in his own home….”
Familiarity breeds contempt.
The people who knew Jesus best knew him least. They remembered the child attending school at the synagogue. They remembered the teen who never married because of scandal in the family over his birth. They remembered the young adult working in the carpenter shop building tables and chairs, repairing homes and fences. They knew his extended family by name even as they questioned how exactly he was related to them.
One reference we miss is the statement that Jesus is the son of Mary. This is an insult in that time and that culture. A man is always the son of his father. To refer to a man as the son of his mother is to state unequivocally that his father is unknown- that he is illegitimate.
The people of Nazareth not only thought they knew everything about Jesus, they knew they knew everything. In that presumption of knowledge they missed the most important qualities of Jesus. They missed the fact he never sinned. They missed the way he honored his mother and made the worship of his heavenly Father his first priority. They missed his personal holiness, his kindness to others, his compassion for all people.
The people of Nazareth knew Jesus from rumor and presumption. They missed the reality of who Jesus is. They saw what they wanted to see and ignored everything else they did not want to see. Presumption is a barrier to faith.
Presumption refuses to accept the evidence of our own senses, our own reason, and the testimony of Moses and the Prophets in the scriptures.
It was all there for the people of Nazareth. They missed it. They just didn’t accidentally miss it. They willfully missed it. As with so many others of that generation they could not and would not believe God was visiting them in person.
Modern people sometimes complain that if God is real he fails to demonstrate his reality. They want evidence. They want proof. The people of Nazareth had evidence. They had proof. They had so much more. They had in their midst the co-eternal Beloved of the Eternal Father. And still they missed it. And still they refused to believe.
Presumption is a sin that derives from pride. It is deeply rooted in our species. It is near the root of the original choice our species made to separate from God. The soul in separation is a soul that is willfully and spitefully lost. In that place of self will and pride, people simply refuse to acknowledge the obvious.
The Bible never seeks to prove the existence of God. Moses and the prophets report their personal experience of God. St. Paul teaches that the beauty and order in nature proclaims the reality of God. The beloved apostle John observes that Jesus is the very pattern of the universe, our species and each one of us.
Nevertheless, for many who knew Jesus personally none of this made any difference. They were lost in their own preconceived ideas about God. Those ideas came to them from their culture, religion, political ideology and most importantly from the demand of self will and pride.
There are currently three main witnesses to the reality of God: the spirit, the water and the blood.
The spirit is the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Eternal Triune God. He is actively working in the world today. The Holy Spirit speaks to everyone and invites everyone to recognize the problem confronting our species and each of us individually. He invites everyone alive, all seven billion of us, to receive the solution to the problem. The solution is Jesus Christ, the eternal love of the eternal God in human flesh.
In Hebrew and other Middle Eastern languages the word for spirit is the word for breath. We live only as we breathe. The breath is the reality of life that reminds us of the immanence of God and the Real Presence of God. God the Holy Spirit is as close to us as our next breath. The Holy Spirit just doesn’t give life, He is life. He is the breath of life for organic beings and He is the real presence of eternal life for our souls.
The water is the basis of life on this planet. All life is water based. All life requires a simple molecule of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom. Water is the witness of the Logos: the rational active dynamic creative principle of the universe.
It is no accident that Jesus chose water and infused water with sacramental grace to accomplish what no law, religion or ideology could accomplish. Through the sacramental waters of baptism a lost and separated soul is reunited to the Infinite and Eternal Triune God. The water that makes organic life possible on earth makes eternal life possible in Heaven.
The third witness is blood. The Old Testament speaks of blood being life. Since blood is life it is sacred. In the sacrifices God commanded Moses no one was permitted to taste blood. The priest offered the blood of the sacrificial animal to God and only to God.
The blood that flows through our bodies carries oxygen, nourishment and healing to our cells. Blood also removes carbon dioxide, waste matter and disease from our cells. As with air and water, blood reveals the divine pattern of the logos. As breath testifies to the presence of the Holy Spirit and water to the sacrament of reunification, so blood witnesses to the sacrament of Holy Communion.
Life is in the blood. Jesus now invites us to partake of that life in the holy sacrifice of the Mass. He infuses his body and his blood into our souls to transform our minds, our hearts, our wills.
People still encounter the three fold witness of God. People still reject the three fold witness of God. As for the people of Nazareth so for the people of our time. The witness is there. Jesus is real. The invitation to reunification and transformation is universal.
Only human pride and presumption prevent us from receiving the gift and enjoying the gift.
We are formed in a culture that rejects God. We need to be aware of this. The witness of the Holy Spirit through the Bible and in the breath, the water and the blood can help us identify how and where we miss the Real Presence of Jesus in our daily lives.
Jesus offers us the gift of Himself. In Jesus we have eternal life here and now. Eternal life is abundant life. We can experience the wonders and delights of that new life as we surrender our preconceived ideas to the transforming power of the Holy Spirit in word and sacrament.
Where are you not in truth? Where today and at this minute do you miss the blessing of faith because of an attachment to some rigid inflexible uncompromising world view? That is exactly where the Holy Spirit is meeting you and speaking to you.
Jesus’ neighbors in Nazareth refused to question their assumptions about Jesus. In the pride of knowledge they simply rejected the evidence of the breath, the water and the blood. Jesus still reached out to them. He still healed some who wanted to be healed. He still reaches out to us. Jesus was amazed at their unbelief. They had a unique opportunity and privilege in the Plan of Salvation. They made a different choice.
What choice do we make? What choice do you make? Choose wisely. Choose love. Choose Jesus.
Familiarity breeds contempt.
The people who knew Jesus best knew him least. They remembered the child attending school at the synagogue. They remembered the teen who never married because of scandal in the family over his birth. They remembered the young adult working in the carpenter shop building tables and chairs, repairing homes and fences. They knew his extended family by name even as they questioned how exactly he was related to them.
One reference we miss is the statement that Jesus is the son of Mary. This is an insult in that time and that culture. A man is always the son of his father. To refer to a man as the son of his mother is to state unequivocally that his father is unknown- that he is illegitimate.
The people of Nazareth not only thought they knew everything about Jesus, they knew they knew everything. In that presumption of knowledge they missed the most important qualities of Jesus. They missed the fact he never sinned. They missed the way he honored his mother and made the worship of his heavenly Father his first priority. They missed his personal holiness, his kindness to others, his compassion for all people.
The people of Nazareth knew Jesus from rumor and presumption. They missed the reality of who Jesus is. They saw what they wanted to see and ignored everything else they did not want to see. Presumption is a barrier to faith.
Presumption refuses to accept the evidence of our own senses, our own reason, and the testimony of Moses and the Prophets in the scriptures.
It was all there for the people of Nazareth. They missed it. They just didn’t accidentally miss it. They willfully missed it. As with so many others of that generation they could not and would not believe God was visiting them in person.
Modern people sometimes complain that if God is real he fails to demonstrate his reality. They want evidence. They want proof. The people of Nazareth had evidence. They had proof. They had so much more. They had in their midst the co-eternal Beloved of the Eternal Father. And still they missed it. And still they refused to believe.
Presumption is a sin that derives from pride. It is deeply rooted in our species. It is near the root of the original choice our species made to separate from God. The soul in separation is a soul that is willfully and spitefully lost. In that place of self will and pride, people simply refuse to acknowledge the obvious.
The Bible never seeks to prove the existence of God. Moses and the prophets report their personal experience of God. St. Paul teaches that the beauty and order in nature proclaims the reality of God. The beloved apostle John observes that Jesus is the very pattern of the universe, our species and each one of us.
Nevertheless, for many who knew Jesus personally none of this made any difference. They were lost in their own preconceived ideas about God. Those ideas came to them from their culture, religion, political ideology and most importantly from the demand of self will and pride.
There are currently three main witnesses to the reality of God: the spirit, the water and the blood.
The spirit is the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Eternal Triune God. He is actively working in the world today. The Holy Spirit speaks to everyone and invites everyone to recognize the problem confronting our species and each of us individually. He invites everyone alive, all seven billion of us, to receive the solution to the problem. The solution is Jesus Christ, the eternal love of the eternal God in human flesh.
In Hebrew and other Middle Eastern languages the word for spirit is the word for breath. We live only as we breathe. The breath is the reality of life that reminds us of the immanence of God and the Real Presence of God. God the Holy Spirit is as close to us as our next breath. The Holy Spirit just doesn’t give life, He is life. He is the breath of life for organic beings and He is the real presence of eternal life for our souls.
The water is the basis of life on this planet. All life is water based. All life requires a simple molecule of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom. Water is the witness of the Logos: the rational active dynamic creative principle of the universe.
It is no accident that Jesus chose water and infused water with sacramental grace to accomplish what no law, religion or ideology could accomplish. Through the sacramental waters of baptism a lost and separated soul is reunited to the Infinite and Eternal Triune God. The water that makes organic life possible on earth makes eternal life possible in Heaven.
The third witness is blood. The Old Testament speaks of blood being life. Since blood is life it is sacred. In the sacrifices God commanded Moses no one was permitted to taste blood. The priest offered the blood of the sacrificial animal to God and only to God.
The blood that flows through our bodies carries oxygen, nourishment and healing to our cells. Blood also removes carbon dioxide, waste matter and disease from our cells. As with air and water, blood reveals the divine pattern of the logos. As breath testifies to the presence of the Holy Spirit and water to the sacrament of reunification, so blood witnesses to the sacrament of Holy Communion.
Life is in the blood. Jesus now invites us to partake of that life in the holy sacrifice of the Mass. He infuses his body and his blood into our souls to transform our minds, our hearts, our wills.
People still encounter the three fold witness of God. People still reject the three fold witness of God. As for the people of Nazareth so for the people of our time. The witness is there. Jesus is real. The invitation to reunification and transformation is universal.
Only human pride and presumption prevent us from receiving the gift and enjoying the gift.
We are formed in a culture that rejects God. We need to be aware of this. The witness of the Holy Spirit through the Bible and in the breath, the water and the blood can help us identify how and where we miss the Real Presence of Jesus in our daily lives.
Jesus offers us the gift of Himself. In Jesus we have eternal life here and now. Eternal life is abundant life. We can experience the wonders and delights of that new life as we surrender our preconceived ideas to the transforming power of the Holy Spirit in word and sacrament.
Where are you not in truth? Where today and at this minute do you miss the blessing of faith because of an attachment to some rigid inflexible uncompromising world view? That is exactly where the Holy Spirit is meeting you and speaking to you.
Jesus’ neighbors in Nazareth refused to question their assumptions about Jesus. In the pride of knowledge they simply rejected the evidence of the breath, the water and the blood. Jesus still reached out to them. He still healed some who wanted to be healed. He still reaches out to us. Jesus was amazed at their unbelief. They had a unique opportunity and privilege in the Plan of Salvation. They made a different choice.
What choice do we make? What choice do you make? Choose wisely. Choose love. Choose Jesus.
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
Pentecost 5
Pentecost 5 (Mark 5:21-43) “Do not fear, only believe.”
Jesus frequently contrasted fear with faith.
Faith is not magic. Magic is based in the false belief that by discovering some secret knowledge we can use that knowledge to acquire power over nature, other people, even God. Magical thinking is grounded in the distorted belief that the universe revolves around me. Many children have this belief. One developmental task we all share is to grow beyond this radical and impossible individualism.
Faith is not irrational. Modern people, both secular and religious, speak of faith in terms of individual opinion and irrational belief. Many people confuse wishful thinking or fanciful thinking with faith. We sometimes hear religious people say: you can’t explain it; you just have to believe it. Others react to this approach and equate superstition with religious faith.
Faith is not a blind leap into the dark. The invitation to faith comes from particular human beings such as Moses, the prophets, the apostles. The invitation is grounded in their observation of the world and their own personal experience of God at work in the world. Faith is a response to the world, other people and our own observations and experiences.
Faith is not individual. It is not solely and exclusively about me. It is personal and it is corporate. It exists in the context of a larger community and produces a result in the context of a larger community.
Moses and the prophets teach that God created us as particular members of a unified community. The poet priest John Donne commented on this aspect of humanity when he wrote: “no man is an island.” We are all interconnected, interdependent and interrelated.
The Bible is very clear: it does matter what you believe. It also matters how you believe. Belief produces an attitude about life that forms the choices we make.
Atheists sometimes compare faith in God with belief in leprechauns, Santa Claus and the Easter bunny. Faith is not the same as belief. People believe all sorts of things, some of which are irrational and have no basis in the world as we experience it. Belief is often a reaction to fear. Faith is relational. Faith is a response to love.
The individuals in the two stories in today’s gospel readings had many beliefs about themselves, other people and God. The woman experienced the failure of medicine to heal her. She had come to believe she was defined by her illness. She had lost hope and so she could not embrace faith.
The family of the dead girl believed dead was dead. Once you are dead there is no hope. Without hope there can be no faith.
The Real Presence of the love of God in Jesus challenged these beliefs. By his own actions Jesus offered a new set of possibilities. That new set of possibilities offered a glimmer of hope.
For the woman, hope produced faith. It was not an abstract intellectual faith. It was not an irrational superstition. It certainly was not some secret knowledge that would produce power. It was Jesus.
The woman heard of Jesus. She observed his actions. She heard his words. She concluded that the physical evidence was overwhelming. Jesus healed people. In fact, Jesus healed everyone who came to him.
She still lived with many false beliefs. Those false beliefs shaped her view of God, other people and herself. Those false beliefs produced fear. She feared offending the dignity and majesty of Divine Perfection with her problem. She feared offending the social conventions of the time that prohibited a woman from approaching a man, speaking to him, touching him. She feared the religious law that defined her as being ritually unclean because her illness involved bleeding. She feared that she was too lost in sin to merit healing.
Jesus inspired hope that despite these fear based beliefs she could be healed. The woman overcame her beliefs as she looked at Jesus. She moved beyond belief and surrendered her fear as she embraced faith.
She placed her faith, her abiding trust, in a person not a program, a law or an institution. It was still a faith mixed with the distortions of false belief and fear of punishment. But, it was enough. She secretly touched the hem of Jesus’ robe and she was instantly healed.
She had reached out in faith and entered into the Real Presence of Faith. The Real Presence of faith is Jesus himself.
Jesus completes the healing when he publically proclaims she is well. This is a vital step forward in faith. Faith is not just individual or private. Belief can be individual and private. Faith is public. It is corporate. It is a new life and a new way of living in a set of three primary relationships.
The woman entered into that new life as she touched the hem of Jesus’ garment. She began the new way of living as Jesus said to her publically for all the crowd to hear: Go in peace. Walk in peace. Live in peace.
What beliefs undermine your faith? What beliefs have you grown up with and chosen to accept into your mind and heart and will that result in fear? Where do you confuse individual private belief with a personal and public faith in the Living Lord Jesus Christ?
It does matter what you believe. Jesus invites us to make a real choice to embrace faith. Jesus himself is the subject of faith. As the subject of faith Jesus meets us in our deepest need and darkest fear. It is there that Jesus reminds us: Do not fear, only believe.
Jesus frequently contrasted fear with faith.
Faith is not magic. Magic is based in the false belief that by discovering some secret knowledge we can use that knowledge to acquire power over nature, other people, even God. Magical thinking is grounded in the distorted belief that the universe revolves around me. Many children have this belief. One developmental task we all share is to grow beyond this radical and impossible individualism.
Faith is not irrational. Modern people, both secular and religious, speak of faith in terms of individual opinion and irrational belief. Many people confuse wishful thinking or fanciful thinking with faith. We sometimes hear religious people say: you can’t explain it; you just have to believe it. Others react to this approach and equate superstition with religious faith.
Faith is not a blind leap into the dark. The invitation to faith comes from particular human beings such as Moses, the prophets, the apostles. The invitation is grounded in their observation of the world and their own personal experience of God at work in the world. Faith is a response to the world, other people and our own observations and experiences.
Faith is not individual. It is not solely and exclusively about me. It is personal and it is corporate. It exists in the context of a larger community and produces a result in the context of a larger community.
Moses and the prophets teach that God created us as particular members of a unified community. The poet priest John Donne commented on this aspect of humanity when he wrote: “no man is an island.” We are all interconnected, interdependent and interrelated.
The Bible is very clear: it does matter what you believe. It also matters how you believe. Belief produces an attitude about life that forms the choices we make.
Atheists sometimes compare faith in God with belief in leprechauns, Santa Claus and the Easter bunny. Faith is not the same as belief. People believe all sorts of things, some of which are irrational and have no basis in the world as we experience it. Belief is often a reaction to fear. Faith is relational. Faith is a response to love.
The individuals in the two stories in today’s gospel readings had many beliefs about themselves, other people and God. The woman experienced the failure of medicine to heal her. She had come to believe she was defined by her illness. She had lost hope and so she could not embrace faith.
The family of the dead girl believed dead was dead. Once you are dead there is no hope. Without hope there can be no faith.
The Real Presence of the love of God in Jesus challenged these beliefs. By his own actions Jesus offered a new set of possibilities. That new set of possibilities offered a glimmer of hope.
For the woman, hope produced faith. It was not an abstract intellectual faith. It was not an irrational superstition. It certainly was not some secret knowledge that would produce power. It was Jesus.
The woman heard of Jesus. She observed his actions. She heard his words. She concluded that the physical evidence was overwhelming. Jesus healed people. In fact, Jesus healed everyone who came to him.
She still lived with many false beliefs. Those false beliefs shaped her view of God, other people and herself. Those false beliefs produced fear. She feared offending the dignity and majesty of Divine Perfection with her problem. She feared offending the social conventions of the time that prohibited a woman from approaching a man, speaking to him, touching him. She feared the religious law that defined her as being ritually unclean because her illness involved bleeding. She feared that she was too lost in sin to merit healing.
Jesus inspired hope that despite these fear based beliefs she could be healed. The woman overcame her beliefs as she looked at Jesus. She moved beyond belief and surrendered her fear as she embraced faith.
She placed her faith, her abiding trust, in a person not a program, a law or an institution. It was still a faith mixed with the distortions of false belief and fear of punishment. But, it was enough. She secretly touched the hem of Jesus’ robe and she was instantly healed.
She had reached out in faith and entered into the Real Presence of Faith. The Real Presence of faith is Jesus himself.
Jesus completes the healing when he publically proclaims she is well. This is a vital step forward in faith. Faith is not just individual or private. Belief can be individual and private. Faith is public. It is corporate. It is a new life and a new way of living in a set of three primary relationships.
The woman entered into that new life as she touched the hem of Jesus’ garment. She began the new way of living as Jesus said to her publically for all the crowd to hear: Go in peace. Walk in peace. Live in peace.
What beliefs undermine your faith? What beliefs have you grown up with and chosen to accept into your mind and heart and will that result in fear? Where do you confuse individual private belief with a personal and public faith in the Living Lord Jesus Christ?
It does matter what you believe. Jesus invites us to make a real choice to embrace faith. Jesus himself is the subject of faith. As the subject of faith Jesus meets us in our deepest need and darkest fear. It is there that Jesus reminds us: Do not fear, only believe.
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
Pentecost 4
Pentecost 4 (Mark 4:35-41) Why are you afraid?
Fear is one of three consequences of separation.
Fear, self-will and pride are three ways a separated soul reacts to the world of cause and effect. Pride is the attitude that claims perfect knowledge of the world, other people and God. Pride creates rigid, inflexible and uncompromising ways of thinking.
Pride creates a demand that finds expression in self-will. Self-will is the will to power. It is grounded in the willful false belief in perfect knowledge. Only a soul in separation from God could make such a foolish assertion. Only a soul in separation from God would attempt to live from the place of demand. Only the soul in separation from God chooses to cultivate the individual will to power.
The voice of the will to power is: do it my way. Do it my way – or else.
It should be obvious that human beings cannot possibly have perfect knowledge. St. Paul states: now we know in part. We can only know in part. Only God can fully and completely and perfectly know.
Since no human being can actually have perfect knowledge, the assertion of the individual will to power through pride always leads to fear. The Bible records how this process manifests in human history and in the lives of individuals, families and nations.
The fear that Jesus addresses in this passage is the fear that is generated from the place of original separation from God.
There are two other fears human beings experience in the world as it is now. In this world, the world of duality and the world of cause and effect, there is also the fear of death and the fear of God.
The fear of death is the recognition of mortality. It is part of the instinct for self-preservation in the face of a threat. And, it is a distortion of the delight in life. As the emotional force behind self-preservation, this kind of fear has a value in the world as it is now. In its positive aspect it is the respect for our own limitations in the world of cause and effect.
None of us has perfect knowledge. None of us is all powerful. All of us are subject to natural law and spiritual law.
The recognition of and respect for natural law and spiritual law is helpful in understanding the third form of fear. That form is reverence. It is what the Biblical writers refer to as “the fear of the Lord.” As a concept it is almost absent in modern culture. It remains only as a negative pleasure in the term: irreverent. As respect is the proper response to the universal laws of cause and effect so reverence is the proper response to the real presence of God in the universe.
The fear the disciples experienced was a distortion of both respect for natural law and reverence for God. This fear was not a response but a reaction. A response is always grounded in faith, hope and love. A reaction is always grounded in fear, self-will and pride.
The disciples had chosen to follow Jesus. They had listened to his teaching in amazement. But they had not heard his words, believed his words, or accepted his words.
They had witnessed Jesus performing amazing miracles. They also missed the meaning in the miracles. They saw power. They were attracted to the power. They wanted Jesus to use his power to destroy their enemies and reward them and their friends.
They walked with Jesus, spoke with him, shared meals with him, camped out at night with him. They were so close to Jesus. And they were so far away from him. They still missed the reality that they were lost in separation. They still functioned from the assumptions of separation. They still assumed that right knowledge produced divine rewards. Those rewards involved the ability to impose their will on other people, nature and even God.
Most of the disciples were fisherman. They had witnessed many storms. They had experienced many storms. As with so many other religious people of their time, they interpreted the damage and loss of life from a storm as Divine wrath.
What was different about this storm was the presence of Jesus. They believed Jesus was the Messiah, the anointed of God. Anointed with power to reward his friends and punish his enemies. The storm challenged this belief. Suddenly, natural law intruded on their individual fantasy of knowledge and power. Suddenly, Jesus was not manipulating the law of cause and effect to protect them.
They feared. It was a fear rooted in the pride that led them to believe they were immune to natural law. It was a fear rooted in their own will to power that placed a demand on God to protect and prosper them in exchange for their choice to follow the Messiah.
Jesus identifies the root of their fear. He asks them: “ Have you still no faith?” Have you heard my words, observed my actions, enjoyed my friendship and still lack trust? Do you really think the world revolves around you? Do you really think our Heavenly Father will suspend the laws of cause and effect for your individual benefit? And, do you really think that in the world of duality, of pleasure and pain, of joy and sorrow, of life and death- that I am not with you always?
Jesus stilled the storm that day with a word: Peace. Shalom. Be still.
In an instant the storm ceased. The disciples were more than happy. They were more than impressed. They were in awe. They were amazed. What Jesus had done was unprecedented. For the moment, the disciples simply sat in his presence and wondered. Who is he?
It is a good question.
One honest question will lead to one universal truth. Jesus is the personal real presence of God.
Jesus did not wield divine power. He did not have perfect knowledge. He embodied steadfast holy unconditional love.
In his divine nature Jesus is the pattern of this universe of cause and effect. Jesus is the uncaused cause of natural law and spiritual law. Jesus does not exercise power to suspend natural law. He is the very source of natural law. All things have existence form and function through him. And he is the center and ground of all things.
Faith in Jesus sets us free from our own pride that we are the center of the universe. Faith in Jesus sets us free from our own self-will that demands God to suspend natural law to reward us with power and the ability to impose our will on other people, nature and even our own souls.
Jesus is that perfect love that sets us free to live by faith in hope that all things work together for good to those who love the Lord. Love sets us free from fear. Love transforms pride into respect and self-will into reverence.
We are not the center of the universe. Jesus is. And, Jesus invites us into a personal relationship with God through a forever friendship with him.
Why do you fear? Who or what do you fear? How has separation distorted your expectations of God, other people and natural law? How does your fear produce a non-negotiable uncompromising demand of God and other people?
Jesus invites you to name that fear. As you name the fear offer your mind and heart and will to Jesus to be transformed by the Real Presence of Divine love.
Jesus says: why are you afraid? Peace. Be still. Know that I am God your forever friend. I am with you always.
Fear is one of three consequences of separation.
Fear, self-will and pride are three ways a separated soul reacts to the world of cause and effect. Pride is the attitude that claims perfect knowledge of the world, other people and God. Pride creates rigid, inflexible and uncompromising ways of thinking.
Pride creates a demand that finds expression in self-will. Self-will is the will to power. It is grounded in the willful false belief in perfect knowledge. Only a soul in separation from God could make such a foolish assertion. Only a soul in separation from God would attempt to live from the place of demand. Only the soul in separation from God chooses to cultivate the individual will to power.
The voice of the will to power is: do it my way. Do it my way – or else.
It should be obvious that human beings cannot possibly have perfect knowledge. St. Paul states: now we know in part. We can only know in part. Only God can fully and completely and perfectly know.
Since no human being can actually have perfect knowledge, the assertion of the individual will to power through pride always leads to fear. The Bible records how this process manifests in human history and in the lives of individuals, families and nations.
The fear that Jesus addresses in this passage is the fear that is generated from the place of original separation from God.
There are two other fears human beings experience in the world as it is now. In this world, the world of duality and the world of cause and effect, there is also the fear of death and the fear of God.
The fear of death is the recognition of mortality. It is part of the instinct for self-preservation in the face of a threat. And, it is a distortion of the delight in life. As the emotional force behind self-preservation, this kind of fear has a value in the world as it is now. In its positive aspect it is the respect for our own limitations in the world of cause and effect.
None of us has perfect knowledge. None of us is all powerful. All of us are subject to natural law and spiritual law.
The recognition of and respect for natural law and spiritual law is helpful in understanding the third form of fear. That form is reverence. It is what the Biblical writers refer to as “the fear of the Lord.” As a concept it is almost absent in modern culture. It remains only as a negative pleasure in the term: irreverent. As respect is the proper response to the universal laws of cause and effect so reverence is the proper response to the real presence of God in the universe.
The fear the disciples experienced was a distortion of both respect for natural law and reverence for God. This fear was not a response but a reaction. A response is always grounded in faith, hope and love. A reaction is always grounded in fear, self-will and pride.
The disciples had chosen to follow Jesus. They had listened to his teaching in amazement. But they had not heard his words, believed his words, or accepted his words.
They had witnessed Jesus performing amazing miracles. They also missed the meaning in the miracles. They saw power. They were attracted to the power. They wanted Jesus to use his power to destroy their enemies and reward them and their friends.
They walked with Jesus, spoke with him, shared meals with him, camped out at night with him. They were so close to Jesus. And they were so far away from him. They still missed the reality that they were lost in separation. They still functioned from the assumptions of separation. They still assumed that right knowledge produced divine rewards. Those rewards involved the ability to impose their will on other people, nature and even God.
Most of the disciples were fisherman. They had witnessed many storms. They had experienced many storms. As with so many other religious people of their time, they interpreted the damage and loss of life from a storm as Divine wrath.
What was different about this storm was the presence of Jesus. They believed Jesus was the Messiah, the anointed of God. Anointed with power to reward his friends and punish his enemies. The storm challenged this belief. Suddenly, natural law intruded on their individual fantasy of knowledge and power. Suddenly, Jesus was not manipulating the law of cause and effect to protect them.
They feared. It was a fear rooted in the pride that led them to believe they were immune to natural law. It was a fear rooted in their own will to power that placed a demand on God to protect and prosper them in exchange for their choice to follow the Messiah.
Jesus identifies the root of their fear. He asks them: “ Have you still no faith?” Have you heard my words, observed my actions, enjoyed my friendship and still lack trust? Do you really think the world revolves around you? Do you really think our Heavenly Father will suspend the laws of cause and effect for your individual benefit? And, do you really think that in the world of duality, of pleasure and pain, of joy and sorrow, of life and death- that I am not with you always?
Jesus stilled the storm that day with a word: Peace. Shalom. Be still.
In an instant the storm ceased. The disciples were more than happy. They were more than impressed. They were in awe. They were amazed. What Jesus had done was unprecedented. For the moment, the disciples simply sat in his presence and wondered. Who is he?
It is a good question.
One honest question will lead to one universal truth. Jesus is the personal real presence of God.
Jesus did not wield divine power. He did not have perfect knowledge. He embodied steadfast holy unconditional love.
In his divine nature Jesus is the pattern of this universe of cause and effect. Jesus is the uncaused cause of natural law and spiritual law. Jesus does not exercise power to suspend natural law. He is the very source of natural law. All things have existence form and function through him. And he is the center and ground of all things.
Faith in Jesus sets us free from our own pride that we are the center of the universe. Faith in Jesus sets us free from our own self-will that demands God to suspend natural law to reward us with power and the ability to impose our will on other people, nature and even our own souls.
Jesus is that perfect love that sets us free to live by faith in hope that all things work together for good to those who love the Lord. Love sets us free from fear. Love transforms pride into respect and self-will into reverence.
We are not the center of the universe. Jesus is. And, Jesus invites us into a personal relationship with God through a forever friendship with him.
Why do you fear? Who or what do you fear? How has separation distorted your expectations of God, other people and natural law? How does your fear produce a non-negotiable uncompromising demand of God and other people?
Jesus invites you to name that fear. As you name the fear offer your mind and heart and will to Jesus to be transformed by the Real Presence of Divine love.
Jesus says: why are you afraid? Peace. Be still. Know that I am God your forever friend. I am with you always.
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
Pentecost 6
Pentecost 6 (Mark 4:26-34) “With what can we compare the Kingdom of God?”
The Kingdom of God is like nothing any one ever expects.
Nobody expected the Messiah to follow the path Jesus followed. Nobody expects the Kingdom of God to be the Real Presence of Divine love and compassion.
Religious and secular people alike expect the Kingdom of God to manifest institutionally in programs and policies. We expect the Kingdom to be like the kingdoms we create. We want the Kingdom to manifest with divine knowledge and power to fix the problems and, if we are honest, to impose our will on other people, nature and our own frailty.
We expect and demand the Kingdom to be the perfection of our individual needs and desires in one pure political and economic system.
This is not the Kingdom of God. This is the kingdom of self will, fear and pride. Self-will that says: do it my way. Pride that says: I know what is best for me, for you and for everyone. Fear that somehow other people will subvert the perfect will of God in the perfect Kingdom of God. Fear that produces inflexible uncompromising demand backed by the threat of punishment.
One of my favorite bumper sticker quotes is: God so loved the world that he did not send a committee. One of my favorite seminary jokes is: any committee of four Episcopalians will issue a report with five different opinions.
The Kingdom of God is none of these things. Not only is the Kingdom of God not anything that we can imagine, it is not anything that we initially want.
The truth that humans reject the Kingdom of God when we actually experience it is in the observation of dozens of people recorded in the Bible. And, it is most vividly revealed in the condemnation, torture and execution of Jesus Christ.
The Kingdom of God can only be expressed in parables, stories drawn from human experience. It can only be expressed in this fashion because the Kingdom of God emerges from a personal relationship with the person God sent into the world to bring forth the Kingdom. That person is Jesus Christ.
In these parables, Jesus describes the organic quality of the Kingdom. The Kingdom is about life. It is about the humble beginning of all life. It is about the process of growth and maturation. It is so unassuming that it is easy to dismiss. It is so powerful in its gradual manifestation that we can draw back in confusion and fear.
Preeminently, the Kingdom of God is a personal relationship with the infinite and eternal God. It is God who initiates the relationship. It is God who seeks us and finds us. God seeks us and finds us by uniting our humanity with His Divinity in a single individual: Jesus Christ.
The categories of the Kingdom are principles of relationship. Among those principles are choice, response, time, attention, affection, loyalty, change, growth maturation.
The Kingdom of God is the transformation of human beings in the Real Presence of God manifesting in our world, among our species and within our own souls through the co-eternal Beloved of God, Jesus Christ. The Kingdom of God is the gift of God to all people, in all places at all times.
The Kingdom of God is like the scattering of seed on the ground. It is an active dynamic process that is both universal and particular, both fundamental and personal. It is life giving and life transforming. It is slow, steady, incremental and filled with surprises and delights.
The Kingdom of God can be compared to the dynamic inter relationship of the Trinity who is the pattern for all human relationships.
The Kingdom of God can only be compared to the ordinary processes of life that God designed into the universe according to the pattern, plan and purpose of life. That pattern, plan and purpose is the logos, the co-eternal Word of God.
As with the Word Himself, the Kingdom of God is supple, adaptable, gentle and courageous. It is the infinite life of the co-eternal Beloved of the Infinite God manifesting in the particular life of Jesus Christ. It is Jesus offering to you His forever friendship.
The Kingdom of God is like nothing any one ever expects.
Nobody expected the Messiah to follow the path Jesus followed. Nobody expects the Kingdom of God to be the Real Presence of Divine love and compassion.
Religious and secular people alike expect the Kingdom of God to manifest institutionally in programs and policies. We expect the Kingdom to be like the kingdoms we create. We want the Kingdom to manifest with divine knowledge and power to fix the problems and, if we are honest, to impose our will on other people, nature and our own frailty.
We expect and demand the Kingdom to be the perfection of our individual needs and desires in one pure political and economic system.
This is not the Kingdom of God. This is the kingdom of self will, fear and pride. Self-will that says: do it my way. Pride that says: I know what is best for me, for you and for everyone. Fear that somehow other people will subvert the perfect will of God in the perfect Kingdom of God. Fear that produces inflexible uncompromising demand backed by the threat of punishment.
One of my favorite bumper sticker quotes is: God so loved the world that he did not send a committee. One of my favorite seminary jokes is: any committee of four Episcopalians will issue a report with five different opinions.
The Kingdom of God is none of these things. Not only is the Kingdom of God not anything that we can imagine, it is not anything that we initially want.
The truth that humans reject the Kingdom of God when we actually experience it is in the observation of dozens of people recorded in the Bible. And, it is most vividly revealed in the condemnation, torture and execution of Jesus Christ.
The Kingdom of God can only be expressed in parables, stories drawn from human experience. It can only be expressed in this fashion because the Kingdom of God emerges from a personal relationship with the person God sent into the world to bring forth the Kingdom. That person is Jesus Christ.
In these parables, Jesus describes the organic quality of the Kingdom. The Kingdom is about life. It is about the humble beginning of all life. It is about the process of growth and maturation. It is so unassuming that it is easy to dismiss. It is so powerful in its gradual manifestation that we can draw back in confusion and fear.
Preeminently, the Kingdom of God is a personal relationship with the infinite and eternal God. It is God who initiates the relationship. It is God who seeks us and finds us. God seeks us and finds us by uniting our humanity with His Divinity in a single individual: Jesus Christ.
The categories of the Kingdom are principles of relationship. Among those principles are choice, response, time, attention, affection, loyalty, change, growth maturation.
The Kingdom of God is the transformation of human beings in the Real Presence of God manifesting in our world, among our species and within our own souls through the co-eternal Beloved of God, Jesus Christ. The Kingdom of God is the gift of God to all people, in all places at all times.
The Kingdom of God is like the scattering of seed on the ground. It is an active dynamic process that is both universal and particular, both fundamental and personal. It is life giving and life transforming. It is slow, steady, incremental and filled with surprises and delights.
The Kingdom of God can be compared to the dynamic inter relationship of the Trinity who is the pattern for all human relationships.
The Kingdom of God can only be compared to the ordinary processes of life that God designed into the universe according to the pattern, plan and purpose of life. That pattern, plan and purpose is the logos, the co-eternal Word of God.
As with the Word Himself, the Kingdom of God is supple, adaptable, gentle and courageous. It is the infinite life of the co-eternal Beloved of the Infinite God manifesting in the particular life of Jesus Christ. It is Jesus offering to you His forever friendship.
Wednesday, June 6, 2012
Pentecost 2
Pentecost 2 (Mark 3:20-35) “Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.”
The will of God is steadfast holy unconditional love.
The will of God is that simple. The will of God is that difficult.
Since the will of God is love the reality of Divine Will emerges in relationships. The One God Himself is a relationship of three distinct and co-eternal persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
In this passage we hear from three sets of individuals. We see how they react to the Will of God revealed and made flesh in Jesus Christ.
The first group of individuals is the crowd. They press hard on Jesus. They insist he be present to them at all times and in all ways to meet their needs and their demands. They react to Jesus in the context of a bargain. They offer their submission to him in exchange for his submission to them.\
The second group is the extended family of Jesus. This includes his mother and his brethren: nephews, nieces, cousins, and according to tradition the adult children of Joseph by Joseph’s first wife. According to tradition, Joseph was a widower with young children when his family contracted with Mary’s family for them to marry.
It is important to remember and to ponder that in Biblical times and in most times until very recently, the basic unit of society was the extended family. Jesus’ family hears how the crowds press on Jesus and make incessant demands on Jesus such that he cannot eat or sleep. Mary and the extended family come to offer Jesus a way out. The way out is an escape from the crowds. The way out is to withdraw from the responsibility of being the Messiah.
The third group is a section of the religious leadership. They are the scribes. They hold the scriptures and interpret the scriptures. They react to Jesus with fear that produces aggression. They view the scene with the crowd as a threat to their position and power. They accuse Jesus of being in league with Satan.
The crowds react with a bargain of submission to get what they want. The family reacts with the promise of withdrawal back into the safety of obscurity. The religious leadership reacts from fear with aggression.
What are they reacting to? Why are they engaged in such melodrama?
The answer is very simple: Jesus healed people.
Jesus healed everyone who came to him. He healed men and women. He healed adults and children. He healed Jews and Gentiles. He healed rich and poor, slave and free, notorious sinners and the well-respected righteous. He healed everyone who came to him and his success rate was 100%
At a time when only the very rich who lived in the big cities of the Roman Empire could afford healthcare, Jesus healed everyone. And, everyone who experienced the healing, saw the healing or heard of the healing came to the same conclusion. He’s got the power.
The crowds wanted Jesus to use the power to meet their needs and fulfill their demands. The family wanted Jesus to give up the power and come home. The religious authorities feared the power and wanted to kill him so they falsely accused him of being a Satanist.
Jesus did not heal by power, or knowledge. Jesus healed by love.
This may seem strange for us to hear. In our culture love is associated with self-indulgent sentiment. Even in Jesus’ day people paid lip service the insights of Moses and the Prophets who taught about the reality of steadfast holy unconditional love.
Pagan philosophers had accurately described four basic levels of love. Most people then, as now, were stuck in the first level: infatuation.
The love Jesus brought into the world is the very nature of the infinite and eternal God. That love is the essence of the One God who is three persons. Jesus just doesn’t speak of Divine Love or demonstrate Divine love, He is that love. Jesus is the co-eternal Beloved of the Eternal Love of God made flesh in a particular person at a particular time and place in human history.
Jesus offers us the invitation to respond to that love. He came and he continues to come with his arms wide open and the single word: “Come”
Jesus does not seek our submission to Law. He does not ask us to withdraw from this sinful and broken world. He absolutely does not authorize aggression through fear and anger to impose an inflexible and uncompromising religious or secular ideology on people. Jesus is the co-eternal Beloved who invites us to surrender to the joyful embrace of Eternal love.
In that embrace we experience reunification with God. In that embrace we recognize that God has been seeking for us all of our lives. In that embrace we discover that God finds us in Jesus. God finds us by love, through love and for love.
That love is personal. That love expresses himself in three primary relationships: the relationship with God through worship, the relationship with other people through compassion, kindness and civility, and the relationship with our true identity in Christ as the beloved of the co-eternal Beloved.
The crowds, the family, and the religious leaders missed the message. They saw only power. In that vision of power they reacted from the place of fear that produced submission, withdrawal and aggression.
Jesus himself is the message. Jesus himself is the Divine Will and the Divine word made flesh. The message is the relationship. So it is that Jesus invites all people into a new life and a new way of living by entering into a new relationship.
The Will of God is for all of us and each of us to be the forever friend, brother and sister of the living Lord of Love, Jesus Christ.
The will of God is steadfast holy unconditional love.
The will of God is that simple. The will of God is that difficult.
Since the will of God is love the reality of Divine Will emerges in relationships. The One God Himself is a relationship of three distinct and co-eternal persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
In this passage we hear from three sets of individuals. We see how they react to the Will of God revealed and made flesh in Jesus Christ.
The first group of individuals is the crowd. They press hard on Jesus. They insist he be present to them at all times and in all ways to meet their needs and their demands. They react to Jesus in the context of a bargain. They offer their submission to him in exchange for his submission to them.\
The second group is the extended family of Jesus. This includes his mother and his brethren: nephews, nieces, cousins, and according to tradition the adult children of Joseph by Joseph’s first wife. According to tradition, Joseph was a widower with young children when his family contracted with Mary’s family for them to marry.
It is important to remember and to ponder that in Biblical times and in most times until very recently, the basic unit of society was the extended family. Jesus’ family hears how the crowds press on Jesus and make incessant demands on Jesus such that he cannot eat or sleep. Mary and the extended family come to offer Jesus a way out. The way out is an escape from the crowds. The way out is to withdraw from the responsibility of being the Messiah.
The third group is a section of the religious leadership. They are the scribes. They hold the scriptures and interpret the scriptures. They react to Jesus with fear that produces aggression. They view the scene with the crowd as a threat to their position and power. They accuse Jesus of being in league with Satan.
The crowds react with a bargain of submission to get what they want. The family reacts with the promise of withdrawal back into the safety of obscurity. The religious leadership reacts from fear with aggression.
What are they reacting to? Why are they engaged in such melodrama?
The answer is very simple: Jesus healed people.
Jesus healed everyone who came to him. He healed men and women. He healed adults and children. He healed Jews and Gentiles. He healed rich and poor, slave and free, notorious sinners and the well-respected righteous. He healed everyone who came to him and his success rate was 100%
At a time when only the very rich who lived in the big cities of the Roman Empire could afford healthcare, Jesus healed everyone. And, everyone who experienced the healing, saw the healing or heard of the healing came to the same conclusion. He’s got the power.
The crowds wanted Jesus to use the power to meet their needs and fulfill their demands. The family wanted Jesus to give up the power and come home. The religious authorities feared the power and wanted to kill him so they falsely accused him of being a Satanist.
Jesus did not heal by power, or knowledge. Jesus healed by love.
This may seem strange for us to hear. In our culture love is associated with self-indulgent sentiment. Even in Jesus’ day people paid lip service the insights of Moses and the Prophets who taught about the reality of steadfast holy unconditional love.
Pagan philosophers had accurately described four basic levels of love. Most people then, as now, were stuck in the first level: infatuation.
The love Jesus brought into the world is the very nature of the infinite and eternal God. That love is the essence of the One God who is three persons. Jesus just doesn’t speak of Divine Love or demonstrate Divine love, He is that love. Jesus is the co-eternal Beloved of the Eternal Love of God made flesh in a particular person at a particular time and place in human history.
Jesus offers us the invitation to respond to that love. He came and he continues to come with his arms wide open and the single word: “Come”
Jesus does not seek our submission to Law. He does not ask us to withdraw from this sinful and broken world. He absolutely does not authorize aggression through fear and anger to impose an inflexible and uncompromising religious or secular ideology on people. Jesus is the co-eternal Beloved who invites us to surrender to the joyful embrace of Eternal love.
In that embrace we experience reunification with God. In that embrace we recognize that God has been seeking for us all of our lives. In that embrace we discover that God finds us in Jesus. God finds us by love, through love and for love.
That love is personal. That love expresses himself in three primary relationships: the relationship with God through worship, the relationship with other people through compassion, kindness and civility, and the relationship with our true identity in Christ as the beloved of the co-eternal Beloved.
The crowds, the family, and the religious leaders missed the message. They saw only power. In that vision of power they reacted from the place of fear that produced submission, withdrawal and aggression.
Jesus himself is the message. Jesus himself is the Divine Will and the Divine word made flesh. The message is the relationship. So it is that Jesus invites all people into a new life and a new way of living by entering into a new relationship.
The Will of God is for all of us and each of us to be the forever friend, brother and sister of the living Lord of Love, Jesus Christ.
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