Pentecost 9

Pentecost 9 (Luke 10:38-42) “You are worried and distracted by many things.”

Jesus knows us better than we know ourselves.

Our heavenly Father created all of us and each of us by the power of the Holy Spirit according to the pattern of the Beloved Son. Jesus is the pattern for human life and for our unique personal identity.

Worry distorts that pattern. Distractions inhibit us from living according to that pattern.Certainly, Martha was doing nothing wrong as she made preparations to receive Jesus. What was wrong was the attitude motivating the action. What was wrong was the worry.

Worry is about the future. It is the anxiety that declares: whatever can go wrong will go wrong. The reason worry is a problem is basic. No one can know the future. No one can control all events. We only have the present.

The present for Martha and Mary was Jesus. Jesus was not only their present, He was and is the Real Presence of God. As the Real Presence of God, Jesus is the point of contact that unites the realm of time we inhabit with the timeless real of the Eternal God.

Martha ignored the present reality of Jesus. She chose to immerse her soul in futile speculation about the future. She worried. And, in her worry she missed the blessing.

Distractions inhibit us from perceiving the blessing, receiving the blessing and sharing the blessing. As with worry, the particularities of distraction are usually not bad in and of themselves. Martha allowed the ordinary things of life to distract her from the extraordinary blessings Jesus brought.

For Martha, the occasion for distraction was housekeeping.  Jesus came to visit and Martha focused on cooking and cleaning, ignoring the very person who had come to visit. She was the perfect hostess who never greets her guests, speaks with her guests or gets to know her guests.

The real distraction underlying the occasion was perfection. Martha wanted everything to be perfect for Jesus. Underlying the desire for perfection is the demand for control. And, beneath the demand for control is hubris- fatal pride.

Nothing and no one in this world is perfect. Martha not only expected perfection of herself- she demanded it of her sister. The perfection Martha demanded was to have things her way in her time. This is a common malady of lost souls. Most of us most of the time want what we want and we want it now.

Sadly, the demand for perfection, the individual will to power and the expression of hubris made it almost impossible for Martha experience the visit of Jesus with joy. She experienced his visit with anxiety. Mary understood that when Jesus visits it is because he wants to see us, hear us and share the Divine Blessing with us.

The deeper insight the Holy Spirit offers in this as well as other passages of scripture, is that through pride and self-will many people willfully choose to miss the blessing of God in Jesus Christ.

It almost seems comical that Jesus visits the sisters and Martha so busies herself that she cannot enjoy the visit and actually resents Mary for enjoying the visit. But, it is a tragic comedy.

That tragic comedy is a universal experience of our species.

Our Heavenly Father designed time itself so that every seven days we would have the opportunity to set aside the distractions of every day life and enter into the Real Presence of eternal love.

Our Heavenly Father designed our species in such a way that we each complement each other, we each help each other, we each sustain each other through an attitude and an action of compassion.

Our Heavenly Father designed each of us personally to be one unique  and particular image and likeness in time and space of the infinite and eternal Beloved Son.

The Holy Spirit made sure the details of this dinner party were recorded in scripture. The purpose is to encourage us to consider how worry robs us of joy and how distractions subvert the blessings God has designed into nature, our species and each of  us as individuals.

What do you worry about? Surrender that worry to Jesus.

What distracts you from the Real Presence of God at the altar of sacrifice on the Day of Real Presence? Surrender those distractions to Jesus.

All people choose what we most want at the moment of choice. If you live with anxiety, at some level you have chosen that anxiety. If you are distracted from the blessings of God, those distractions – however good they may be in and of themselves- are the means the devil will use to rob the blessings of God from you.

Jesus sets the standard for us and shows us the way as he encourages Martha to make the choice her sister Mary made. The advice to Martha is universally applicable to all people everywhere.

Choose wisely. Choose the blessing. Choose Jesus.

 

Pentecost 8

Pentecost 8 (Luke 10:25-37) Do this and you will live.

People in religious cultures ask the question: what must I do to gain God’s favor and avoid God’s wrath. To those people Moses, the Prophets and Jesus Himself give assurance that God is for us and God is with us.

The word of God is not strange, unusual or difficult. Moses teaches that the word of God is very near. The apostles teach that the word of God is a person: Jesus Christ.

The word of God written is the record of human observation of how people react or respond to the Real Presence of God. The Law exists to restrain evil in human behavior. Obedience to the law is not a condition for God’s love. God is love. Human behavior cannot alter who God is. Human behavior can and does subvert our ability to perceive and receive God’s love.

The Law also acts as a perfect mirror to the human soul. That mirror reveals to us where we are separated from God. The perfect mirror of the Law also reveals to us where our thoughts, words and deeds are in distortion from the original pattern by which God created us.

The lawyer in this passage is doing what most lawyers do most of the time. He is testing the limits of the Law. He is teasing out the meaning of the law through questions and disputations. He has the knowledge of the Law. He lacks the understanding.

Jesus meets the lawyer where he is. He engages the man in a process. The lawyer asks a question with enormous proportions. Jesus helps him narrow the focus so that he can discover the answer. Jesus asks the lawyer to consider the scriptures. What has God already revealed through Moses?

The lawyer has the correct answer. The answer is the principle that underlies the Law of Moses. The answer is the very nature of God. Yet, while the lawyer has the knowledge he lacks the understanding. As with everyone in his generation he is trapped in religious distortions of divine truth. He wants a very precise formula and set of definitions. He wants a check list by which he can justify himself and lay a claim on God.

He asks a question: who is my neighbor? Who do I have to love in order to avoid God’s wrath and earn God’s favor. And, who can I ignore?

All questions are good. All questions keep the mind, hear and will engaged in the unfolding process of grace. Although the lawyer’s question is in grounded in a basic false assumption about God, humanity and himself- nevertheless Jesus uses the question to invite the man to experience a paradigm shift.

Jesus does this by telling a story… a parable. Jesus sets up the elements of the story in such a way that the main characters are archetypes of human behavior and human misunderstanding.

The Levite and priest can only maintain their ritual purity and righteousness under the religious law by ignoring the animating principle of the moral law. They choose to stay pure by choosing to detach themselves from compassion. They maintain the letter of the religious law by not contaminating themselves with the blood of the crime victim.  They used their position in the Temple and in society to remain aloof from a pressing human need.

The Levite and the priest are the righteous who fail to show compassion. The Samaritan is the unrighteous who does show compassion.

By every standard of the Law of Moses the Samaritan cannot claim God’s favor and can only expect God’s wrath. The righteousness the Levite and Priest practice is formed in the categories of right belief and right behavior. According to that standard they are the righteous and the Samaritan is the unrighteous. Yet, Jesus sets up the story to show how adherence to the letter of the Law does not produce righteousness according to the principle of the law.

The principle of the Law is love. The principle defines righteousness as right relationship… right relationship with God, with other people and with the image and likeness of God imprinted on our souls.

The lawyer understands the point Jesus is making. He is still not able to say the word “Samaritan” in answer to Jesus’ question about mercy. But, he understood the point.

When Jesus tells the lawyer: go and do thou likewise- he introduces a new way of faith. It is the Way of wisdom. It is the Way of compassion. It is the Way of Jesus.

The Way is the active dynamic and creative unfolding of the new life in the new relationship our Heavenly Father offers us in Jesus Christ. The Way does not ask the question: what is the minimum I must do to gain God’s favor and avoid God’s wrath. The Way is guided by the indwelling Presence of the Holy Spirit who helps us understand and apply the principle of Divine Love in the ordinary choices of our daily lives.

The Way is the invitation into a new path of living in this world that asks the question: how may I help?

Jesus reminded the lawyer then and Jesus reminds us today; do this, practice compassion in union with the infinite and eternal love of God, and you will live- you will experience eternal life in every act and attitude of compassion.

 

The Harvest is plentiful

Pentecost 7 (Luke 10:1-11; 16-20) The Harvest is plentiful

The people of God are the instrumentality of our Heavenly Father’s Plan of Salvation.

The people of God are the church. Sometimes, the church is its own worst enemy.

Recently, an old friend moved into the city from the suburbs. He attended the nearest Episcopal Church. He was highly motivated to like that church since it was within walking distance to his apartment. Sadly, his experience subverted his expectations.

First, although the church appeared stately and wealthy, it had no air conditioning. The heat and humidity were oppressive. Second, although he arrived early and saw the clergy walking about getting ready for the service they did not come up to him to welcome him.

The sermon was political. It presented a point of view that my friend largely agreed with but it had nothing to do with the gospel reading that day and had no message of salvation. Finally, at the coffee hour no one approached him to speak with him.

He sadly concluded that this was not the place he would find the Good News of Jesus Christ.

He was primed and ready to enter into the church community. But, for whatever reason, the church he attended was not ready to receive him.

Jesus sent out seventy of his disciples on a mission. The specifics were unique to that particular mission. The principles of the mission are the universal principles of Evangelism. The principles of evangelism are joy, welcome, and God centered.

The details of evangelism vary in every time and culture. We adjust the timeless truth of Divine Love to local circumstances. Some elements of evangelism remain constant in every time and in every culture.

First and foremost evangelism is Christ centered. At the very least the clergy must be committed to an active and transforming relationship with Christ. Clergy will never be perfect. We must be committed and we must renew our commitment daily.

Second: the message must- must- be Christ centered. I have my point of view on politics, economics and comic books. It is not my call to convince you of my opinions about these things. It is my call and responsibility to draw on my relationship with Christ and my seminary training to proclaim and explain the Gospel.

Third: evangelism is grounded in a community. The basis of Christian community is a welcoming inclusive hospitality. To be a Christian is to be in a transforming friendship with Christ. To be a Christian is to be a member of Christ’s body, the Church. To be a member of the Church is to be open and welcoming to everyone who visits us and who chooses to stay with us.

The minimum requirement for evangelism is Real Presence.

The Real Presence of Jesus for his disciples in the church is the Blessed Sacrament of the altar.

The Real Presence of Jesus for visitors to the church are His disciples; you and me.

The 70 disciples had some good experiences on their mission and some bad experiences. They had some success and they met some opposition. They were also amazed at how the Real Presence of Jesus in their midst manifested in astonishing ways.

AS disciples of Jesus Christ we are all called to be the Real Presence of Jesus Christ to each other and to anyone we meet. That is why it is vitally important we take the time to receive the blessing of Jesus at the altar of sacrifice so that we can be the living blessing to everyone we meet.

The stakes are high. The Harvest is plentiful. The Harvest is no less than the seven billion souls on this planet who desperately  long for Good News.

The Harvest is plentiful beyond imagination. The Harvest is the purpose for the Church in this Age of Evangelism. The Harvest is our Heavenly Father’s Plan of Salvation in Jesus Christ. The laborers are few.

The laborers are those who draw near to Jesus. They are those who enter into the world of the Harvest with joy and gladness. They are the ones who so value the blessing of the Gospel that they chose to live in a process  of becoming the blessing.

The Harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few. Pray therefore, that the Lord of the Harvest, the Lord of Evangelism, the Living Lord Jesus Christ, will so fill you with his Real Presence, that you will become the laborer who enters in the joy and wonder and delight of the Harvest. Pray that you will receive the blessing of Divine love and become the blessing of Divine love. Pray that you will  become Good News for the separated souls of this world.

Pentecost 6 (Luke 9:51-62)

“Go and proclaim the Kingdom of God.”

The Kingdom of God is the reunification and transformation of the soul.

The enemies and friends of Jesus thought of the Kingdom of God in earthly terms. They may have used the phrase “Kingdom of God” but they really meant ‘the Kingdom of Man.”

The Bible is a record of how human beings seek to use God to create and sustain the Kingdom of Man. All of the ancient empires fall into this category. Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece and Rome all sought divine favor to establish and maintain the rule of man in the world.

They all invoked a very basic assertion: God is on my side. Since God is on my side I have the right to dominate, conquer and rule.

Virtually all people who met Jesus, listened to him teach and saw his miracles had the expectation that he would follow the pattern of the Kingdom of Man. He would inspire his followers. Raise an army. Use the divine power at his disposal to subjugate his enemies. And, he would create a new world order to impose divine Law on the nations.

He would authorize the righteous  to practice aggression against the unrighteous. He would demand the unrighteous submit to the rigid inflexible and uncompromising rule of the righteous.

To the very end this is how the people who knew Jesus interpreted his presence in the world.

And so, we see how James and John wish to punish the Samaritan villages for refusing to submit to them as the true righteous representative of God. Jesus rebukes the brothers for their pride and self-will. There is no condemnation in Jesus. Jesus never authorizes his follower or representatives to condemn.

And so, as Jesus nears Jerusalem there are those who seek to gain his favor. They are seeking the material rewards from the Kingdom of Man. They are seeking maximum wealth and power for minimal effort. Jesus is quick to clarify the cost of following him, the cost of discipleship.

To one man Jesus clarifies that he is not offering a palace to live in and a city to rule. Jesus himself has no permanent home in this world. To be sure, the entire planet belongs to Jesus. But, Jesus is not parceling out territory to his followers. He calls his followers to be stewards of his planet not owners.

To others Jesus asks for a reordering of priorities. The principle underlying the call to discipleship is: if you place God second you place God last. This is not a demand to submit to a monarch in fear. It is an invitation to surrender to the Beloved of God in love.

Where we chose to place our time and attention reveals our current spiritual state and our future spiritual direction.

The Summary of the Law sets the standard in the Call to worship. The call to worship invites us to make a real choice to enter into the Real Presence of God at the time and place God himself has designed into the very fabric of the universe.

It is as we surrender self-will to Divine will through love that we find our true self. That true self is the image and likeness of the Logos, the co-eternal Word of God made flesh in Jesus Christ. It is a life long journey away from fear, anxiety frustration and stagnation into an active dynamic transform life of service and  celebration.

No one then understood this amazing gift of God until the day of Pentecost. At Pentecost, the Holy Spirit fulfills the promise of the Son to lead us into all truth.

It takes time. It requires choice. Each small choice we make to receive the word of God, to believe the word of God and to live the word of God moves us more closely to the one who is the Word of God. That person is Jesus Christ.

The Kingdom of Man is the assertion of the individual will to power to use God and other people to meet our needs and desires. The Kingdom of God is the personal relationship our Heavenly Father offers all people everywhere to receive and experience. The quality of that relationship can be described as the adventure of a forever friendship with someone who knows us, cares for us, and has only our good as his goal.

This forever friendship is the Kingdom that Jesus asks us to proclaim to everyone we know and to everyone we meet.

 

 

Pentecost 5 (Luke 8:26-39)

Return to your home and declare how much God has done for you.

Jesus is Good News. The Good News Jesus embodies is that God is real, God is personal, God is love.

The Good News is that God sets us free from whatever binds us, enslaves us and oppresses us. God does this in the active dynamic and practical personal relationship Jesus offers. Our Heavenly Father created all of us and each of us to be the forever friend of His co-eternal Son. To make that friendship real and substantial the co-eternal Son became a particular human being.

Jesus demonstrates to us and for us that God is not some abstraction. He also reminds us that there is no condemnation in God. In God there is only an infinite ocean of love. In God there is only an eternal outpouring of the waters of life.

The practical consequence of this revelation is the particular result. A basic principle of logic is that a difference that makes no difference is no difference. When we consider religion, Moses and the prophets invite us and encourage us to ask the basic question: what difference does this religion make in my life, the life of my family and of society as a whole.

Jesus made a significant difference for the man possessed by demons. Demon possession is not the same as mental illness. Any contact with the occult will result in mental breakdown. Demon possession is a rare but very real extreme case of occult activity.

It is unclear in this account why this man was possessed by demons.  Generally speaking, a demon cannot take possession of a human being apart from human choice. That is why any contact with the occult however tenuous is so dangerous.

Demons are the burnt out remnants of the angels who followed Lucifer in the war in heaven. Through pride they sought to become gods. Through despair they are now mere shadows of what they had been created to be. They exist as spirits of spite. They will not and cannot repent of their rebellion. But they vainly seek relief from their own self-imposed suffering.

Why the demons possessed the man is not explained. The result is very clear. The result is insanity, isolation and despair.  Someone who is possessed by demons is in a visible and tangible state of spiritual slavery. The end result of this spiritual slavery is death- usually by suicide.

Jesus in his pre-incarnate form saw Lucifer and the rebel angels attack the loyal angels. He saw Lucifer fall from heaven in the last battle of the great war. He saw Lucifer drag down his followers with him. And, those followers, now demons, remember the ineffable glory of the Trinity. They recognize that glory in Jesus.

The demons fear, hate and despise Jesus. They accuse him of coming into the world solely to pursue and torment them. This is the key to understanding why the demons cannot repent. They are completely  self-obsessed. From their perspective everything is only and completely about them.

Jesus recognizes their presence. They are where they ought not to be. Jesus has the authority to command them as Jesus has the authority to command all created beings and indeed nature itself. He asks them to name themselves so that they might reveal themselves. Ancient peoples believed the name of a person or a thing carries the fullness of the identity of the person or thing.

He gives them permission to enter into a herd of pigs, an unclean animal under the Law of Moses. The demonic foothold on earth ends as the pigs react to the demons by plunging to their deaths in the sea. The demons cannot be destroyed. They also cannot stay on earth. They collapse into the desolate realm of the underworld.

The man is liberated. But, his community does not rejoice. They react with fear. In that fear they make the most terrible request possible. They ask Jesus to leave.

God never imposes his love on anyone. He offers it to everyone. Jesus hears the request and respects it. Jesus does not give up on the people. He asks the man whom he has healed to stay and witness to the Good News of God.

The people are lost in their own self manufactured bad news about God. They still need to be found. They still need to be saved from their fear. Jesus assigns that task to the man he healed.In this event we see the pattern of our Heavenly Father’s plan of salvation. Jesus initiated a process of new life and a new way of living. He has appointed the proclamation of the Good News to human beings.

He asks each of us to draw close to him through the Bible and the sacraments so can experience liberation from fear, pride and the will to power. He fills us with his love so we can bring the Good News of Divine love to other people who are still lost in fear.

All Jesus asks us to do is to tell other people about how much God has done for us. He does not ask us to argue belief. He asks us share our faith.

Jesus delivered the man from spiritual slavery to demons. Jesus delivers us from spiritual slavery to our own sin. In that liberation, Jesus asks us to declare how much God has done for you.

Pentecost 4 (Luke 7:36-8:3)

The one to whom little is forgiven, loves little.

There is a saying that those who know don’t tell and those who don’t know teach.

The people in Jesus day who considered themselves righteous not only believed they were uniquely favored by God, they knew it. In that knowledge they assumed the role of “teachers of righteousness.” They defined who was approved by God and who was not. Who is defined as righteous and who is defined as a sinner. Who God approves and who God condemns.

St. Paul once believed in this way. After his personal encounter with the risen Lord Jesus Christ, Paul would write: knowledge puffs up. Love builds up. Righteousness that is defined by law and knowledge always cultivates hubris, the presumption of fatal pride.

That presumption of fatal pride locks the soul into a rigid inflexible uncompromising belief. Sadly, that belief blinds the soul to both the problem that defines our species and the solution.

By the standards of the day the Pharisees were righteous. They gave every evidence of holding the right set of beliefs about God, society, politics, economics and religion. BY definition as the righteous their actions were righteous. The presence of Jesus revealed to the Pharisees the fatal flaw in their beliefs and in their actions.

Jesus does not deny that the woman is a sinner. Jesus is not a moral relativist. He acknowledges her sin but he does not define her by her sin. Because he does not follow the teaching of the Pharisees that the woman is fully completely and only a sinner, he perceives her faith, her repentance, and her piety. Where the Pharisees see a reprobate sinner, Jesus sees a lost soul yearning to be found. Jesus sees a person that His heavenly Father created by the power of the Holy Spirit in Jesus’ own image and likeness.

Pride blinds a separated soul from its true state and its true call. Where the woman feels the pain of separation through her sins, the Pharisee numbs himself to the pain of separation through self-righteous arrogance.

The Pharisee actually fails to live up to his own standard of righteousness as a result of spiritual numbness. He fails the test of sacred hospitality in the most obvious and egregious way possible.

Sacred hospitality is the common belief of all people in the Middle East that the realm of the divine periodically tests the integrity and virtue of the world of humanity. The test is called sacred hospitality. In this well-known and understood test the righteous Pharisee fails and the unrighteous woman succeeds.

Pride blinds the Pharisee and numbs him to his spiritual condition despite his right beliefs and right actions.

Humility allows the woman to see with the eyes of faith and act from the place of the divine image and likeness imprinted on her soul despite her many sins.. Her faith leads her to acknowledge her sin and seek forgiveness.

The Pharisee can’t even perceive his sin and so as he is locked in a rigid self-indulgent belief system he numbs himself to his moment of salvation. He refuses to repent because he is convinced he has no need of repentance.

Pride subverts love. Humility facilitates love. As Jesus comments: The one to whom little is forgiven, loves little.

 

 

 

Pentecost 3 (Luke 7:11-17) “He had compassion on her.”

Compassion is not charity.

Charity is certainly beneficial. It has its place. It can accomplish much good. And, for lost souls distorted by the pain of separation, charity can be a meritorious work and a condition for divine favor. Sadly, charity that proceeds from separation tends to perpetuate separation.

Compassion proceeds from the depths of the soul. It derives from that place Moses calls “the image and likeness of God.” We each bear that image and likeness in our souls. That image and likeness is what makes salvation from sin and death possible.

Jesus appeals to that image and likeness in our souls. It is the true self. It is the threefold pattern of love Jesus reveals and Jesus embodies.

Compassion is that universal and unconditional love that asks: how may I help?

Jesus is the very source of compassion. We feel compassion, concern, for other people because God the Father created us by the power of God the Holy Spirit according to the pattern of God the Son. An important question to ask as we read the accounts of Jesus’ teaching and action is: what pattern of life does Jesus reveal?

The first element of the pattern is that Jesus was present in the moment. He was not distracted by anxiety about the future or fear derived from past events. His Real Presence is the gift of God to those who abide in Divine love through worship, prayer and Bible study.

The second element is that Jesus saw the woman. How many times do you really see the people in your lives? Because Jesus lives and moves and has his being in the Real Presence of God the Father he is the Real Presence of the Divine in the daily lives of all whom he meets. He sees the woman in all of her grief and need and fear. As a widow bereft of her only son she is now alone. There is no one to help her, protect her, care for her. She faces isolation, poverty and uncertainty about her survival.

Jesus saw all of this.

The third element is a feeling. He felt her pain. He identified with her anguish and isolation. Jesus reminds us that The Father created people to be in an interdependent relationship with each other. We are our brothers’ keeper. How we treat the least, the poorest and the outcast reveals our innermost nature.

The apostles teach that Christians rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep. Separation produces a numbness in our ability to identify and feel the emotions of other people. That numbness produces indifference. And, that indifference leads to active evil.

Jesus sees the widow, feels her pain, identifies with her need. He then initiates a conversation that will meet the woman’s need. He doesn’t wait to be asked. He doesn’t investigate her level of righteousness to determine she is worthy of help. He acts on the need. And, he acts from the Real Presence of God.

Jesus did not perform miracles from the place of power. Jesus performed miracles from the place of Real Presence. That place is steadfast, holy, universal and unconditional love.

People focus on the action in the miracle. The action is the word: rise- followed by the dead man returning to life and quite literally rising off the funeral bier. It is indeed an amazing miracle. The value to the widow is incalculable. The value to us is infinite.

The pattern in the miracle is the original blessing. It is the pattern of living God intended for us as a species and we as a species rejected. It is a pattern we as individuals reject through our daily choices. And, it is a pattern of living Jesus restores to us. All of us. Each of us.

The record of this miracle is designed to help us understand who God created us to be, how we choose to separate from our true selves, and what life would look like and feel like if we made a different choice.

Jesus is that different choice. Jesus is that pattern of the Original Blessing.

We are not Jesus. We can grow into his image and likeness. That pattern is already at the depth of our souls. We need only to take the first step forward by grace through faith to become who God  created us to be.

The gospel reading today gives us one important key to the new life nd the new way of living. That key is compassion.

The Holy Spirit, the Counselor, is encouraging you to practice compassion from the place of compassion. That place is not will. That place is the infinite and eternal love of God we experience as we make a real choice to immerse our hearts, minds and will in the Real Presence of God incarnate in Jesus Christ.