Lent 1 (Luke 4:1-13) “It is written.”

Temptation is a lie that seduces by a false promise. Only Truth can overcome temptation. Jesus knew this. And, Jesus practiced this.

In the first temptation, Satan suggests to Jesus that he meet a legitimate need (hunger) through illegitimate means (magic). The temptation to turn stones into bread is the temptation of the occult.

By this temptation, Satan probes for knowledge and seduces through power. Satan is not entirely sure about Jesus. He wants to know more. He suspects Jesus has power but he isn’t sure how much power Jesus has. He isn’t sure how Jesus will use his power. So, he tempts Jesus to violate the natural law of cause and effect.

Miracles do not violate natural law. They raise natural law into the Real Presence of the Divine. The Real Presence of the Divine sets nature free from corruption to manifest God’s grace. Magic is a violation of cause and effect that promises immediate pleasure but delivers greater and greater levels of distortion in the human mind, heart and will.

Jesus recognizes this and counters a lie with Truth. Jesus quotes Scripture. It was Scripture he learned as a child from the Rabbis in the Synagogue. The lesson here is direct and powerful. It is essential that children learn the Bible. By learning the Bible, children have a better opportunity to discern a lie and overcome the lie with Truth.

The second temptation is religion. It is the distortion of religion through the corruption of worship. Satan himself rejected the pattern of worship when he asked the angels to worship him. Once again he is probing for information. Is Jesus one of the innumerable angelic beings in human form? Can he be seduced as so many of the angels were seduced? The bait Satan uses for Jesus is power. Satan claims power over all the nations (which is a half- truth). He offers to give this power to Jesus so Jesus can become exactly who everyone wants him to be: a military messiah who will conquer and rule the nations. Satan assumes this is who Jesus wants to become.

Satan has used this tactic over the millennia many times with much success. He fails with Jesus as once again Jesus meets the lie of power and the half- truth of Satan’s promise with the truth of scripture. Worship is not about power. Worship is the highest form of love. The only person who can hold our worship is God. The only person who can sustain our loyalty is God.

Satan’s most subtle temptation comes as he, too, quotes scripture. It is important to understand that Satan knows the Bible better than any human being ever will. Satan has the knowledge but not the understanding. We hear in the third temptation how Satan, and those who have been seduced by his deceits, can and will use scripture to tempt those who have a knowledge of the Bible but lack the understanding of the Bible.

This is the temptation of pride. Satan challenges Jesus to prove to him on his terms and at his command that Jesus is the Son of God. It is the temptation for Jesus to assert self-will over divine will in the Plan of Salvation. This temptation repeats itself every time human beings demand that God prove himself on our own terms.

Once again, Jesus quotes the Bible. He counters a misapplication of scripture by affirming a fundamental principle of scripture. God is God. It is not for the creature to put the Creator to a test and demand a miracle. Jesus met this temptation from the place of prayer. It was the prayer his mother spoke at the Annunciation. It is the prayer Jesus would most often pray. It is: Father, not my will but Thy will be done.

Temptation is always a baited hook wrapped in a lie. The bait is usually something we want. There is always pleasure in the temptation- for a moment. The hook that holds the bait is separation from God. That separation always results in a deeply rooted existential pain.

Jesus gives us the pattern to meet temptation. We meet the lie of temptation with the Truth of God’s word revealed in the Bible. The lesson is: read the Bible. Study the Bible. Memorize the Bible. The Holy Spirit will help us. And, He will call to mind the pertinent scriptures we have placed in our minds when we need them.

We hold fast to the truth as we choose to live in the Real Presence of the Living Lord of Truth, Jesus Christ. The lesson is: meet Jesus where Jesus has agreed to meet u. Meet him in the Blessed Sacrament of the altar on the Day of Real Presence. Our Heavenly Father created time itself to hold the seventh day as the day of eternal love through worship. Cultivate the personal relationship with Jesus by making worship your chief priority.

As we hold fast to Christ we receive the infusion of divine grace that enables us to know and understand scripture. In relationship with Jesus we can meet temptation with courage and conviction. We can with Jesus live by the affirmation of Truth: It is written.

 

Ash Wednesday 2013 (Matthew6:1-6;16-21)

“Where your treasure is there will your heart be also.”

What do you treasure?

What is your bottom line value that you will not surrender and for which you are willing to make sacrifices?

What you treasure defines who you are becoming. What you value creates your destiny.

Based on observation, many- perhaps most- people in our world answer that question in one word: money. Oh, that isn’t what people generally say with words. There is still some sense of the Divine Pattern in human consciousness that people will generally say what we think we should say. Our actions tell a different story. Our actions speak louder than our words.

Our Heavenly Father knows this about us. Jesus experienced this aspect of human nature. He witnessed the religious hypocrisy of people. He observed how people performed the outward and visible acts of religious devotion but rejected the inward and spiritual reality of religious devotion.

Prayer, fasting, Bible study, worship, charity are all good actions in and of themselves. Moses and the prophets observed how people can and do perform the acts from the place of fear, self- will and pride rather than from the place of faith, hope and love.

What difference does it make? Jesus tells us very clearly, concisely and bluntly. Where your treasure is- what your bottom line value is- forms your heart, your mind, your soul.

The pain of original separation distorts our minds, hearts and wills. Those distortions subvert and corrupt the original virtues with which God anointed our souls. Sin is the result. In the gospel reading today Jesus addresses the sin of religious hypocrisy. He is not addressing secular people who have rejected religion. He is addressing religious people who hold the forms of religion as a mask to hide their own separation from God.

During this holy season of Lent, Jesus invites us to consider what we value most. Where is our priority? What is our bottom line?

The standard is love. The original blessing of God is the threefold pattern of love that manifests through our relationships. The prime relationship is our friendship with the Son, Jesus Christ. The outward and visible manifestation of this value is worship, The inward and spiritual grace is the Real Presence of Jesus in our minds, hearts and wills.

The secondary relationship is revealed in how we treat others and in how we set our priorities in life. Do we seek to practice compassion?  Do we seek to grow in grace and transform our attitudes and actions in grace?

The Holy Spirit stands ready to reveal to us where we live with religious hypocrisy. He will, if we ask, help us to discern where we need to reset our priorities according to the Original Blessing. And, He will transform particular sin back into its original virtue as we surrender self-will to divine will.

To keep a holy Lent is to ask the Holy Spirit to give us the courage to acknowledge where we are in distortion. To keep a holy Lent is to ask the Holy Spirit to show us what steps we can take to participate in the transformation of our hearts, our deepest and defining desires. To keep a holy Lent is to make a sincere pledge to hear the word of God, believe the Word of God, and act on the Word of God. For, where your treasure is, where your bottom line value is, there will your heart be also- there will you set your path in this life and in the life of the worl

Transfiguration 2013 (Luke 9:28-36)

 “This is my son, my Chosen, listen to him.”

Only God can reveal God.

Jesus is God’s revelation of Himself.

Prophets, priests, theologians and teachers offer speculative insights about God. Each individual human being claims the right to define God. God chooses to reveal Himself to us in Jesus Christ.

Does this make sense to you?

If God is real, if God is the infinite and eternal transcendent reality, does it make sense that it is God Himself who chooses to reveal his reality to us? Is it reasonable that only God can reveal God?

Certainly, it came to make sense to Moses and the prophets. Most assuredly, it took a while for Moses and the prophets to come to this conclusion. By Moses’ own account it took him eighty years of life experience to recognize the simple truth that only God can reveal God.

Moses spent his first forty years learning that there are many deities for many occasions and purposes. He learned that man creates these deities in wood, and stone and metal. He spent another forty years unlearning the teachings of his youth. It wasn’t until he was eighty years old that he could accept the truth. God is. God is simply and powerfully the One who declares: I am.

Elijah experienced God in a similar way. During a time of religious syncretism, Elijah proclaimed: The Lord is my God. There is only one God. God is. He is the One who declares: I Am. God spoke to Elijah, as God speaks to all people everywhere. Elijah made a real to let God be God. In that choice Elijah laid the foundation of faith that opened his eyes and ears to the reality of God.

Certainly, most of the prophets heard the word of God and saw the reality of God at an early age. Some experienced God as children. Some experienced God as teens. Although the prophets came from different backgrounds and social classes, all made a choice to let God be God. All made a choice to see the world as it is rather that as they might want it to be.

The universal pattern of revelation is present in the Transfiguration of Jesus. Certainly, Peter, James and John had some serious misconceptions about who God is and what God is accomplishing.

The pattern is simple, direct, reasonable and experiential.

First: God invites the three apostles to take a journey. They walk up the side of a mountain. They experience the reality of nature. God’s revelation to human beings is grounded in the creation, in nature. Nature is not the revelation. It is the literal ground of revelation for human beings. Be wary of any claim to revelation that is ethereal or relies on occult knowledge.

Second: God sets the parameters for the revelation in the context of what He has already declared. The context of revelation is Moses and the Prophets. Be wary of any claim to revelation that rejects the Old Testament.

Third: The reality of revelation is God himself. The principle of revelation is that only God can reveal God. Jesus is God who reveals God. In the Transfiguration Jesus reveals that the One God who declares: I am is three persons. The cloud is the divine glory of the Holy Spirit. The voice is the voice of the Father. The Father declares that Jesus is the Chosen, the Beloved, The Revelation of God on earth. Jesus is the standard of revelation and the test of revelation. Be wary of people who claim the prophetic office and speak the prophetic voice but reject God’s revelation of Himself in Jesus Christ. Jesus is God revealing God.

Fourth: Jesus is found alone. At the completion of the Transfiguration there is only Jesus. Jesus is the Chosen means by which the One God in Three Persons has chosen to reveal himself to us. Jesus is the Chosen. There is no other.

Only God can reveal God. Nature is the ground of this revelation. Moses and the prophets provide the framework. Jesus, and Jesus alone, is the reality of revelation. Jesus is God in human flesh. The eternal Father declares for all people for all time: “This is My Son, My Chosen, listen to Him!”

 

 

 

Candlemas 2013 (Luke 2:22-40)  “ a light for revelation to the Gentiles…”

Jesus is the light of the world.

Many in his generation thought he was the Messiah God promised to the Jews. Jesus made it clear he had come to bring revelation to all people everywhere. This included the Jews to be sure. But Jesus did not come just for the Jews.

Many in our generation view Jesus as a religious figure defined by the various religious institutions that acknowledge him. Many, but not all, Christians worship Jesus. Many Muslims believe Jesus was a prophet. Some believe Jesus was a Rabbi. The Sufi branch of Islam goes so far as to name the name by which God the Father calls Jesus. That name is The Beloved.

The elderly Simeon and Anna, considered by their generation as members of the school of the prophets, proclaimed the infant Jesus to be light and glory.

Luke teaches us that Jesus is uncreated light and eternal glory. He is the co-eternal Beloved of the eternal Father. He surrendered all of his divine prerogatives, knowledge and power to unify divinity with humanity at the moment of his conception. What he did not and could not surrender was the divine nature. The divine nature is love.

As an infant, Jesus was helpless and weak as all human infants. He was completely dependent on his mother, Mary, and his foster father, Joseph. The Holy Spirit had equipped Mary and Joseph to care for Jesus physically, emotionally and spiritually.

God the Holy Spirit had filled Mary with grace and Joseph with faith. It wasn’t easy for them to hear the word of God in the midst of a world filled with the noise of fear, anger, pride and demand. Nevertheless, it is clear from this passage that Mary and Joseph heard the word of God as recorded in the book of Levitucs. They heard the word, they believed the word, and they chose to fulfill the word for themselves and for the infant Jesus.

They came to the appointed place at the appointed time with the appointed sacrifice to fulfill the Word of God. In that simple yet very difficult choice, they facilitated the revelation of God in Christ.

By grace through faith, Mary and Joseph made choices that had a cumulative effect in the Plan of Salvation. Of all the people in the Temple that day only two elderly individuals recognized the Great Mystery in the moment. It was a moment of grace, glory and light.

Simeon and Anna both honored God and made themselves available to be close to God in the place where God declared to Moses and the Prophets that He would be available to offer himself to people. The Temple in Jerusalem was the place of worship, the place where people could come and immerse their minds, hearts and wills in the infinite and eternal love of God.

Worship is the highest form of love. The call to worship is the invitation to enter into the Great Mystery of the Heavenly Banquet of Divine love. Sadly, most people most of the time then and now saw worship as a duty they performed to get credit and avoid punishment. Worship is the highest form of love. Worship is its own reward.

Simeon and Anna devoted themselves to the pattern, plan and purpose of liturgical worship in the Temple. Mary and Joseph presented Jesus in the Temple to fulfill the Law. Through that act of devotion and obedience God revealed his Son Jesus in the Temple as light and glory.

The Great Mystery of our Heavenly Father’s Plan of Salvation in Jesus is the Great Mystery of human choice in response to divine grace. Throughout the  Bible, throughout history and throughout the world today God pours grace into our souls so we can enter into a new pattern of relationships characterized by life, and light and love.

Jesus is the light of the world. Jesus is the light of revelation for all people everywhere. The light of Jesus reveals the Great Mystery of the Triune God who is infinite and eternal love. The light of Jesus reveals that we are each the Beloved of God.

 

Epiphany III (Luke 4:14-21)  “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

Jesus fulfills the Law and the prophets.

Everything that Moses and the prophets observed about humanity, nature and God finds clarity of expression in the person of Jesus Christ.

People sometimes ask: where is God?  If God is real then why doesn’t God make his reality known explicitly and clearly? The answer to those questions is Jesus Christ. God makes himself known in person. He came to us at a moment of time in the particularity of a specific place and person to reveal universal truth. The particularity of God’s self- revelation is Jesus. The universality is infinite and eternal love that intersects uplifts and transforms the duality of human existence in the world of matter, energy, time and space.

Moses observes the tendency of human beings to wander away from God into superstition, fantasy and rigid inflexible uncompromising ideology. God gives Moses the Law to restrain evil and convict our species we are willfully and spitefully lost and in need of a savior.

The prophets observe the short term consequences society suffers when people violate the law. In union with God the prophets receive the insight to warn people of the long term consequences when people abandon the law. The true prophetic message consistently states: repent and prepare. Recognize the immediate and long term consequence of sin for yourself, your family and your descendants. Prepare to meet the One whom God is sending into the world to deal with this problem.

People tended to reject Moses and the prophets. They lived by the principle of self-will that refused to examine what Moses taught and the prophets observed. Jesus knew very well that if the people rejected Moses and the Prophets then they would also reject him. Jesus fulfills the very Law the people then, and now, reject. Jesus is the one whom the prophets declared would come into the world to save the world. Yet, as the people rejected both the prophetic message and the prophetic messengers, so they rejected the One whom the prophets looked forward to and rejoiced in.

Moses and the prophets had the difficult task of telling people the bad news. The bad news is that humanity has separated from God. The worse news is that in that separation we are lost and do not want to be found. The worst news is that we choose the path that leads to sin and death.

This was not the message people wanted to hear. This was not what they wanted to hear about human nature, personal responsibility or the consequence of human choice.

Jesus came as the Good News. The good news is that Jesus is God with us. We no longer have to speculate about whether or not God exists. We no longer have to develop theories about who God is and what God wants. Jesus is himself the answer to those questions. Jesus is God incarnate. As God incarnate Jesus is love incarnate.

At the beginning of his public ministry Jesus quotes the prophet Isaiah to clarity who he is and what he is about to do. He is anointed by God the Holy Spirit to bring the good news of God’s love to the poor. He proclaims freedom for slaves, sight for the blind, liberation for the oppressed and universal unconditional love for everyone.

Some hear this message with hope. Some hear this message with suspicion. And some hear the message with fear. Suddenly, everything that Moses and the prophets taught is present, is real, is personal. There is no longer any question who God is and what God wants. Very quickly, most people realize that as their ancestors rejected Moses’ and the prophets’  message of a personal God of unconditional love, so they are unwilling to hear the message, believe the message and receive the message.

God is real. God is personal. God is love. God is Jesus Christ. There is no other truth, there is no other reality, there is no other God. As then so now. Jesus is the One who alone fulfills the scriptural revelation and human aspiration to know and be known by God.

Epiphany III (John 2:1-11) “Do whatever he tells you to do.”

 Marriage is a symbol of God’s relationship to humanity.

 It was no accident that Jesus performed his first public miracle at a wedding feast. It was also no accident that holy mother Mary was there and played a pivotal role in the miracle.

 It is important to have an understanding of the place of a wedding feast in the ancient world. Marriages were arranged by the parents when the children were very young. People believed that love was a choice that produced an action. They believed marriage was too important to the family and wider community to leave to the whims of infatuation.

Because marriage involved the extended family and the wider community, marriage feasts involved that wider community. The feasts would last for several days. In a world troubled by high taxes. periodic famines, rampant crime and threat of war, such celebrations gave people hope.

 From this passage we can discern that the families involved were Pharisees and were financially well off. The indicator for this conclusion is the stone water jars used for ritual purification. In a part of the world where water was scarce, only the relatively wealthy families could afford to maintain the luxury of large quantities of water for ritual purification.

 This water could not be used for washing or drinking. It could only be used in the religious rituals the Pharisees had developed over the centuries following the destruction of King Solomon’s Temple. This practice was not authorized by Moses or the prophets. It had become an essential aspect of religious practice and cultural identity for the Pharisees. It was an essential element in discerning who was righteous and who was not righteous, who could legitimately claim God’s favor and who could not. It was a mark of religious pride and exclusivity.

 Despite the apparent wealth of the families, they ran out of wine. The passage gives no hint as to why. It really doesn’t matter. The lack of wine for such an important occasion shows at least poor planning and at worst a disregard for laws and customs of sacred hospitality. This wasn’t just a social embarrassment for the families- it was a social and religious disaster.

 All people in the ancient world had a concept of sacred hospitality. In brief it is based on the belief that from time to time the realm of the divine tests the world of mankind in certain key areas. One area is hospitality. The test is very simple. A god or an angel visits you. If you treat them well,. If you offer food and drink and protection then you prove yourself worthy to survive the encounter. If you fail to offer hospitality in any form then… well then you and your family and your entire town die.

There is a contrast in the story between the extravagance of six large stone water jars set aside and maintained for a ritual Moses never commanded and the penury of hospitality. For, in fact at his wedding feast it was not just a pagan deity or angel of God who visited. It was God himself in Jesus Christ.

 As Jesus responds to his mother’s intercession everyone learns a valuable lesson about God. God is not condemnation. God is the abundance of love who transforms human produced scarcity by grace through faith.

 Mary did not tell Jesus what to do. She only presented her son with the need. As a faithful daughter of the Old Covenant Mary understood the signs and symbols and implications of the situation. She had faith that her son, who at his baptism had been anointed by the Holy Spirit and proclaimed The Beloved by God the Father could and would do the right thing.

 As with most miracles Jesus performed there are the elements of grace (God’s gift) and faith (human response). As with most miracles Jesus performed this first miracle is very understated. Mary shows the way by directing the servants to do whatever Jesus tells them to do.

 The servants act on Mary’s direction. Jesus tells them to fill the six stone water pots with water. They obey. Then Jesus tells them to draw from the jars. They obey. And, what they draw is no longer water it is wine. It just isn’t any wine. It is the best wine.

 At Mary’s request, Jesus reveals God the Father’s plan and purpose by transforming the old rites and rituals of the Pharisees into the new rites of the sacraments. Jesus restores and fulfills the sacred rites of hospitality, the joy of marriage, and the image of the marriage feast as a symbol of the Kingdom of God.

 This miracle informs the miracle of the Mass. At the altar of sacrifice God the Father sends God the Holy Spirit to transform ordinary bread and wine into the very body and blood of God the Son. The Mass is the new symbol of the rite of sacred hospitality and the celebrations of the Kingdom of God manifesting in the here and now of daily life.

 The key is in the pattern. Mary intercedes with Jesus. Mary instructs us: do whatever he tells you. Jesus uses the ordinary things of our lives and gives simple directions anyone can fulfill. The result is the miraculous transformation of human scarcity into divine abundance. The result is the reality of Divine Love made tangible in the Real Presence of Jesus Christ.

Epiphany 2013 (Matthew 2:1-12)

“They saw the child with Mary his mother.”

God reveals himself in the unexpected events of life.

God’s self-revelation is both normative and personal.

The events recorded in the Bible are particular. They happened at a specific time and place to specific people within a specific context. Moses entered into a personal relationship with God as God revealed himself to Moses in the burning bush in the desert.

God designed the particularity of the burning bush to manifest His divine presence to Moses. It was unique and personal. What was universal about the manifestation was the Person and the Principle and the Process.

Moses was not looking for God. God Himself initiated the process. Moses responded to God’s initiative first with curiosity, then with fear, then reluctance and bargaining and finally with surrender in Faith.

The particularity of God’s revelation to  Moses was unique. God chose the burning bush to get Moses’ attention. The principle is universal. God reveals himself. His revelation is consistent in its plan and purpose. His revelation is unique and personal in its execution.

Certainly the Three Kings experienced this truth. God did not meet the wise men in a burning bush in the desert. As with Moses, the wise men, Chaldeans, were not looking for God. Unlike Moses, the wise men lived in a city, most likely Babylon. They were mathematicians and astronomers. They were pursuing knowledge not God. God met them uniquely and individually where they lived and worked, in what they valued and pursued.

God called to these astronomers through a star. It was unlike any star they had ever encountered. It shone more brightly and appeared to move. Not only did it appear to move- it seemed to call to the astronomers to move with it. The wise men perceived a call in this unusual celestial object.

As with Moses, the three kings made a choice to take a risk and explore what this unusual event might mean.

We know the story, the journey, the people and places. We know the religious scholars in Jerusalem offer the three kings the missing piece of the puzzle. We know the politicians feared these events and plotted deceit and death.

The universal principle in the story comes in the words: “They saw the child with Mary his mother.”

The burning bush and the bright star were particular and unique events God used to issue a call. It is the call to worship. It is the universal call to the universal Lord. It is the personal call to be found by and immersed in the infinite and eternal love of God made personal and tangible in Jesus Christ.

God will use any and all means to attract your attention. He will use the unique particularities of your life, your interests, your aspirations, to issue the call. The events of your life are unique. The process and the principle are universal.

God, the infinite and eternal “I Am” reveals himself to all people everywhere in the context of the holy family in Bethlehem. The Three Kings followed a star. The shepherds heeded the voice of an angel. The religious scholars found the meaning in Scripture. The wealthy and powerful politicians reacted with fear and murder. All heard the  same message in a very unique and personal way. All responded or reacted from the depths of their soul in a very unique and personal way.

Do we respond or react?

The call is uniquely personal for each of us. The One who calls is the same yesterday, today and forever. The call is universal. The call requires a choice. The Chaldean astronomers made a choice. They acted. They believed. “They saw the child with Mary his mother.”

And, they worshipped him.