Pentecost 18

Pentecost 18 Proper 21

I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.

Children love gifts.

Children loved to be surprised. They delight in exploring and discovering. They are just as happy to play with the boxes and the gift wrap as with the expensive toy we spent so much time tracking down. They are just as happy stopping a soccer game and observing a bug or butterfly or a formation of clouds that look like a dragon.

This can be exasperating for adults who have other values and skills we want our children to learn. We are focused on goals, resumes, service points. We know we know what it takes to succeed. We know the demands of a competitive society. We want the best for children. We know that imagination and play need to be directed, formed and fit to function, set to goals.

In Jesus day adults expected children to study hard, work hard, learn what they needed to know and prepare for the responsibilities of adulthood that would come at around age 13 to 15. Marriage. Military service. Work. Paying taxes. Caring for elderly relatives. There was too much for a child to do and too little time to allow other things to intrude.

The disciples knew all of this. When some people asked Jesus to bless their children the disciples were scandalized. The children were too young, too frivolous, too unformed to benefit from the teacher’s knowledge and wisdom.

As was often the case, Jesus viewed the occasion from a very different perspective. As was often the case, Jesus used the occasion to reveal just how different the principles of the kingdom are from the principles of the world, the culture, the surrounding society.

The essence of Jesus’ revelation about God is always the same because God is always the same. God is love.

By his very existence Jesus reveals that the One God is love. Jesus is the co eternal Beloved of the Father. The One God is eternal love. Because the one God is eternal love there was never a time when The Father did not love the Son and the Holy Spirit personify that infinite and eternal love of the Father.

When human beings consider God, if we consider God at all, we tend to look at God’s attributes. We look at God’s immense knowledge. But, God is not knowledge. We look at God’s power. But God is not power. We look at God’s Law. But God is not Law. That is why God forbids people from crafting images or idols and calling them "god".

An idol is merely the outward and visible sign of a human desire or demand. The Greeks who developed beautiful art, poetry and religious rituals knew this. They knew their gods and goddesses represented their own inner impulses, desires and demands. The Greek myths are still powerful and potent in their description of the human psyche. But the Greeks lacked what all people lacked. The lacked a personal experience with the Beloved, the Logos, the co eternal Son of God.

The religious people in Jerusalem, Judea and Galilee experienced the same deprivation of the spirit. The only difference was that the Greeks and other pagans knew their spiritual poverty and the depth of their spiritual pain. The religious leadership in Israel did not.

The disciples were modeling themselves after the very people who despised and rejected them. They expected Jesus to keep to the same old religious script that had been handed down over the generations from the time of Cain. It is the script that defines God according to our needs. It is the script that creates cafeteria Faith and a consumer religion. It is the script that honors God with words but keeps God at a distance lest his presence intrude into the real world of where we direct our time and attention.

So, some people brought their children to Jesus to receive a blessing. The disciples knew this was improper. They even knew they knew this was wrong. Jesus used the occasion to remind his disciples and all who will hear this story one simple and elegant truth.
God is love. God is relationship. All who seek God’s blessing are welcome. All who truly seek God for who he is will find him. And, they will find him in Jesus Christ.

The children delighted to be in Jesus’ presence. The children were open to the blessing. When Jesus teaches that we all must receive him as the children received him he is breaking the pattern of religious law and expectation that seeks to define God by his attributes and by a set of rewards or punishments.

That is what really scandalized the disciples. They had left their jobs, their families and their comforts to follow Jesus. They thought they were working for a reward. They thought they were going through a basic training to take over the religious and political power structure.
That isn’t why Jesus came. That isn’t who God is. God is love. His gifts are extravagant and free to all who desire to receive them. His message to us is clear and distinct and unambiguous.

Jesus welcomed the little children to receive the blessing. They came to him with no preconceived theology, demands, expectations or fears. They came with a mind and a heart to receive the blessing Jesus offered. They had nothing of earthly value to contribute to the Messianic enterprise. Jesus was giving them nothing their parents could place on a college application, no trophy, no certificate of accomplishment or merit.

It was moment of grace as pure and simple as can be possible in this world of separation.
To come to Christ with the mind of a child is not to act childish. Childish behavior is very obvious to all who have raised children or who are raising children. The whining and the complaining and the demands of the selfish will are all too evident and all too challenging and all too close to the surface of our own adult experience of life.

In this story, it was the disciples who were acting childish. They were not open to receiving Jesus’ teaching at this moment. They in fact thought they needed to correct Jesus from making a mistake.

Their idea about God was still too small. Still too narrow. Still too grounded in the categories of rewards and punishments. Jesus used this occasion to remind the disciples that the old covenant category of grace is still the same reality in the new covenant. Jesus wanted to remind his disciples that to be chosen of God is not to be chosen for rule but for service.

The reality of God is the reality of Jesus Christ inviting all people everywhere to receive a personal and life transforming relationship with God.

As Jesus blesses the little children he teaches his disciples and us: God is love. God wants you to be in a relationship with the co eternal Beloved. God wants you to receive the great gift of blessing Jesus brings into the world.

What the disciples needed at that moment was to listen. They needed to ask: what does this mean? They needed to hear Jesus with fresh ears. They needed to see Jesus with fresh eyes. They needed to become questioning and curious as children.

They had acknowledged Jesus was the Messiah. They had heard the voice of God the Father proclaim that Jesus is the Beloved. It was clear Jesus did not accept their understanding of God or their expectations of God.

If there was a problem it was not with Jesus. The problem had to be within the disciples. And of course, the immediate problem was their certainty that they knew all about God, the Kingdom of God, and the role of the Messiah. Their minds were closed. Their hearts were rigid. Their wills were inflexible.

Jesus points them to the little children, pre school age, early elementary age, and shows his disciples the wonder and delight in the children’s eyes. The awe and excitement in their approach. Their joy as Jesus reaches out to place his hands on theirs heads to confer the blessing.

This is what Jesus wanted from his disciples. He never got it before the crucifixion. He dealt with their fears, frustrations and childish demands but never received their child like delight in the gift of divine love and compassion. He knew this was part of his mission. He also knew that one of them would finally come to the place of divine love in the last hours of his life.

For three years, he worked with the disciple knowing they would not and could not receive the blessing until after the torments of the crucifixion. They would only begin to receive the blessing in the resurrection and at the day of Pentecost.

Jesus delights in our accomplishments but he passionately desires our love. There are only four basic ways we can give love to Jesus. They are worship, prayer, Bible study and service to others.

How are you showing your love for Jesus Christ? Are you coming to Jesus with childlike delight to receive his blessing? Are you stuck in childish demands of rewards and childish fears of punishment?

The blessing God offers to all people is not in the things of this world. They are there for us to choose if we decide we really want them. God will not block our ability to make money and to enjoy the legitimate pleasures and diversions of this life.

The blessing God offers is himself. It is his eternal love. It is the co eternal Beloved incarnate in Jesus Christ and present to us in the blessed sacrament of the altar.

The kingdom of heaven is an eternal relationship with the infinite transcendent reality of God incarnate in Jesus Christ. That relationship begins at the baptismal font. That relationship is nourished by the blessed sacrament of the altar.

We grow in grace as we choose to grow in love. We grow in love as we choose to immerse ourselves with delight and with passion in the real presence of Jesus Christ. That real presence can, if we choose, change every aspect of our lives.

That real presence can transform marriages, friendships, the family dynamic. That real presence manifests for us a new way of living. It creates a new culture, the culture of life, the culture of grace, the culture of blessing.

How do we avail ourselves of this new life? It requires a choice to come to Jesus as the little children came to him: open, trusting, focused, expecting nothing less and nothing more than Jesus placing his hand on their heads and saying: you are my beloved. You are blessed.

There is a fundamental Biblical principle that says we reap what we sow. How we choose to live our lives, where we choose to spend our limited time and attention, forms our souls. In that context, every choice we make is an eternal choice that brings us closer to God or perpetuates separation.

It is not about rewards or punishments. It is about the real choice to live in the real presence of our Living Lord Jesus Christ. The real choice is to live the blessing.

Jesus shows us the way as he says to us and to all people everywhere: I tell you, whoever does not recieve the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　

Pentecost 17

Pentecost 17 Proper 21 Salt is good.

Salt played an important part in the lives of ancient peoples. Salt was used as a seasoning, a preservative, a judgment and as currency.

We all know the ability of salt to enhance a meal. Many of us may know how salt was widely used to preserve foods before the time of refrigeration. That time is not that distant. Some of us have grandparents who were born before refrigeration became available to ordinary people.

Salt was also used as a judgment. The Romans sowed salt into the land surrounding their arch enemy Carthage. The salt rendered the land useless for growing plants. It was the ultimate punishment Rome could impose on Carthage. And, it was incredibly costly.

Salt was not cheap. Because of its value people some times used salt as a means of exchange, as a substitute for money. And, because of its value, some people discovered a way to cheat in order to increase their wealth.

If you had a pound of salt you could double your money when you sold it by mixing it with an inert substance that looked like salt. Of course, it didn’t taste much like salt. If you cheated in this way you needed to be careful to avoid detection and arrest.

This is the meaning of Jesus’ statement: if salt has lost its saltiness how can you season it?
The context for Jesus’ teaching about salt is his call to a new way of living. It is a call to faith. The call to faith is the call to examine our priorities. It is a call to examine our values.

What, or who, is more important than God? It is an important question. It is important because God the Father designed us as human beings to live in an eternal relationship with God the Son through the indwelling transforming power of God the Holy Spirit.

But, the Bible consistently reveals to us that people do not live their lives as God designed us. We, collectively and individually, choose another way of living. We choose an alternative way of being human. The Bible calls this alternate way of being human sin. The Bible also shows us how the cumulative effects of sin destroy lives, families and nations.

We don’t need divine revelation to discern this. We need only to pay attention to how we live and how we make our choices. We need only pay attention to the consequences of our choices. Some times the consequences are immediate. Some time the consequences emerge over the course of years.

We do need divine revelation to teach us the principles of living that produce a life of blessing. We need divine revelation because the sin nature distorts our reason and convinces us we can cheat life, cheat the laws that govern life, and cheat the God who designed the Laws of life.
Divine Law is very simple. All beings who are capable of love are designed to make choices. Those choices enter into a world that is governed by the principle of cause and effect. Cause and effect produce consequences. Those consequences always manifest in accord with the divine rational creative pattern of the universe.

The root of all sin is the distortion of love. The only source of love in the universe is God. The Bible reveals to us that God just doesn’t show love or have love, God is love. He is in fact the source of love. In order to be filled with love we must immerse ourselves into the Divine Nature. This is how God designed angels and humans to live.

As we celebrate the Feast of St. Michael and All Angels we remember how some of the angels attempted to live apart from love. They chose the way of power. In that choice they murdered their true selves and are now merely burnt out remnants of their former glory.
Humans have made the same choice. Yet, God offers us all an opportunity to make a different choice. That different choice is a different way of living, a different way of being human. It is the way of Jesus Christ.

Jesus used the exaggerated language of the spiritual teachers of the day to get the attention of his audience. He poses several very extreme situations for people to consider. These are the "what if" questions that help us think carefully about our lives and our choices.
The principle governing these scenarios is the principle of choice. Who or what is most important to you? Where are you grounded? What are you not willing to give up or sacrifice for some temporary pleasure or advantage? The answer to these questions reveals who or what you worship.

Lucifer came to worship himself. He convinced his followers to worship him. That choice led to the loss of love for Lucifer and for all of the angels who followed him. In losing love Lucifer reached out for power. He lost that as well. He is now a diminished spirit of spite seeking to destroy all that God loves.

This is why the first and great commandment directs us to worship the one God with the totality of our being. The principle that governs created beings is that we become who or what we worship. To worship is to be fully engaged in the nature of the one we worship. If we worship God we offer our souls to God to be immersed in divine love.

As we grow in our worship of God we take on more and more of the divine nature. We become more of who God created us to be. We become more fully alive and more fully capable of enjoying the pleasures of life and more capable of dealing with the sorrows of life.

The salt Jesus references is the choice we make to respond to God’s great gift of Himself to each of us. A little bit of salt gives us a taste of that gift. It creates the thirst. It actually enhances every aspect of our lives here and now. The salt is life. The salt is love. A little salt enhances life.
More salt preserves the essence of life. If we try to mix the salt of divine love with the distractions of this world we lose the wonderful affects of the salt. As abandon love the salt of life becomes abhorrent to us.

If we mix and blend the salt with the distractions of this world we lose the blessing. We in fact trade eternal love for temporary pleasure. The salt becomes useless, tasteless, meaningless. The soul is not designed for separation or division. The soul is designed for immersion in Divine Love.
Jesus is warning us: it does matter what you believe. It does matter who or what you worship. It does matter how you worship. Worship mediates Divine Love to the human soul.

What are people willing to sacrifice to make worship the priority in their lives? What are people willing to choose in place of worship?

Jesus teaches us that Hell is not a punishment imposed on us but a consequence of choices we embrace.. He warns us, it would be better to lose an eye or a hand than to lose eternal love.
King Solomon, the wealthiest man of his time, once wrote: if a man were to offer to abandon love to gain wealth he would be utterly scorned. The love Solomon describes is divine love. The very source of love.

The lesson of scripture is consistent and urgent. When ever we trade love to get power, possessions, pleasure, prestige or pride we lose our own souls. Hell is hell because it is inhabited by souls that traded love for something else.

The Biblical principle is very direct. Only God is love. That love is eternal. As we worship God we immerse ourselves in divine love. We become who we worship. As we make a choice to abandon the worship of God for any reason, temporary pleasure or advantage, so we abandon love.
So we distort our souls and form them apart from love.

The choice is ours. Jesus stands before us throughout our lives inviting us to choose God, to make worship our priority, to immerse ourselves in God’s love. Jesus reveals to us what we too often fail to perceive. The gift of God in Jesus Christ is very much like salt. Jesus teaches us this morning: salt is good. Have the salt of God’s grace in your souls. Immerse yourselves in the eternal love of God through worship. AS you make that choice you will bring forth peace in your live and in the lives of the people closest to you.

Salt is good.

Pentecost XVI

Pentecost XVI Proper 20
Whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.

Jesus is the fulness of God in human flesh.

In Jesus Christ God permanently united his divinity with our humanity. The Infinite and Eternal Trinity has embraced human nature through the second person of the Triune God, the co-eternal Word of God, the Beloved, incarnate in Jesus Christ.

So it is that Jesus says- if you receive me you receive him who sent me. If you receive me you receive God the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth. To those who say they want God but not Jesus, the testimony of the Holy Spirit is: what?

God is fully revealed in Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is God. Jesus is God reaching out to all humanity with the outstretched arms of love and compassion saying Come. Come as a little child comes. Come with joy, come in sorrow, come with trust, come with questions- but come. Come and receive the blessing. Come and become the blessing.

Once again in this passage we see two themes that have characterized the Biblical insight into human nature: Separation and self will.
Once again we see how the apostles choose not to ask Jesus any questions. They clearly don’t understand the teaching about the cross. But, they don’t ask for help in understanding.
James gives us insight into why the apostles didn’t ask for clarification. They didn’t want to hear any more. What they heard offended them and frightened them. What they heard contradicted everything had learned throughout their lives. It contradicted what they believed about God and what they expected God to do for them.

They believed God was on their side. God was for them. And since God was for them he was against everyone else. They believed the blessing God promised through Moses and the prophets was the power, possessions, pleasure, pride and prestige they desired.
And so, even as Jesus is teaching about the fulfillment of the sacrificial system God revealed to Moses, the apostles are arguing amongst themselve about the offices they will hold in the new government they expect Jesus will establish.

We can only imagine how the conversation among the apostles devolved into an argument. Matthew might claim the office of Treasurer based on his experience as tax collector. Judas would argue, but Jesus has entrusted me with the money box. I am the logical choice for Treasurer. Peter might assert- Jesus called me a rock. I get to be prime minister. James would argue. No way. You are too old, too slow and too stupid. My brother John is young and smart and Jesus’ best friend. He should be Prime Minister and I will be his chief of staff and first advisor.

And so it goes. We can imagine this since we share a common humanity with the apostles. We only need to consider how we might have acted. We only need to observe how we in fact do act. It is all too human to think this way, to react this way. It is all too human to tell God what we want and expect God to grant our requests. It is all too human to look at God and either fear punishment or expect self indulgence.

Jesus reveals God’s nature in a very different way. Jesus is God in human flesh. If we want to know about God’s nature and character we only need to study the life of Jesus Christ. And, what Jesus reveals about God is consistent with what God revealed through Moses and the prophets.
When the religions leaders of his day questioned or attacked Jesus, Jesus would direct them to study Moses and the prophets. Jesus once said: I have not come to abolish the Law of Moses, I have come to fulfill it.

The first principle in discerning God’s nature and character is to read the four biographies of Jesus Christ, the four gospels.

The second principle is to read the Moses and the prophets. Moses and the prophets provide the context for understanding Jesus. Jesus brings final clarity to the revelation God gave to Moses and the Prophets.

This requires two very difficult choices. It requires study. And, it requires prayer. We can master the material contained in the Bible but miss the message. The Temple priests, the scribes, the pharisees and the other religious leaders of the time had a certain knowledge of the Bible. But they lacked understanding.

So it was with the apostles. The Bible is brutally honest about its heros. The apostles were self centered xenophobic and closed minded. They were in fact fully enmeshed in the human condition. But, Jesus had come to present a new way of being human.

That is why Jesus says he is the Way. The Way is not to be found in the human created categories of religions experience. Those categories are aggression, submission and withdrawal. The Way Jesus teaches is the Way he embodies. The Way of Christ is the Way of total immersion in divine love and holiness. It is in fact, the way of the cross.

In our scripture readings this morning we see three examples of living according to the Way. One is from Proverbs, one is from the Psalms and the other from the letter of James. All offer goals. All offer warnings. There is a sermon supplement in your bulletin this morning that lists the actions and attitudes God reveals will proceed from the new Way of being human.
The list is daunting. For those who like to do lists please take this home. But, I invite you to pray about it first. It is only possible to do these things by the power of the Holy Spirit whom Jesus sends into our souls.

Jesus invited his apostles and through them us to adopt the attitude of a servant and a child. Notice, Jesus did not say slave. He did not invite us to be childish. The servant devotes himself to study two things: his job description and his employer. A good servant is an excellent employee who is always expanding his knowledge of his job. He is also always listening carefully and observing his employer to understand better how to do the job.

The child is the perfect symbol of what theologians and religious teachers call "beginners mind". The child works with few assumptions. The child is open to new ideas and new understandings.
The apostles were not yet servants. They did not yet have the desire to study the Bible. They had heard the stories and passed the tests at their Bar Mitzvah. Their attitude about the Bible was: been there done that. What’s next? The servant studies his job and his employer. The servant asks questions. It is clear from this passage the apostles did not want to be God’s servants. They wanted to be his absolute infallible representatives on earth. They wanted to command and control, not serve.

The apostles lacked beginner’s mind. Their minds were made up. They embodied the modern proverb: often wrong but never in doubt. They not only thought they knew who Jesus was and what he wanted, they knew they knew. And, in that knowledge they either ignored or rejected any information to the contrary- even when it came from Jesus himself. The apostles needed to adopt the beginner’s mind of the child.

The application for us is clear. Are we God’s servants? When we call Jesus Lord do we make choices that support that statement? The servant studies his job description. For us, that would be the Bible. The servant studies his employer. For us, that would be the sacramental real presence of Jesus Christ at the altar.

Where is you passion? Where is you mind? Do you have a passion for Jesus Christ? Do you have a desire for service? Are you offering you mind to the Holy Spirit to be transformed, renewed, blessed?

Is it your goal to fulfill God’s plan and purpose for your life?

Very simply stated: God’s plan and purpose for human beings is to receive divine blessing in Jesus Christ so that we may become a blessing to other people. We do that by embracing the way of the servant. We do that by embracing the Way of the child’s beginner’s mind.
When Jesus tells his apostles, if you receive me you receive God he is also challenging them to discern what it is they really want? He is asking them a very powerful and profound question: in what way are you choosing to be human?

There are only two answers to that question. The two answers are "my way", or "God’s way." God’s way of being human is Jesus Christ. It is the way of the servant. It is the way of the child’s beginner’s mind. This is why Jesus teaches: whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me. The one who sent Jesus is the Living God, Father, Son and Holy Ghost.
　
　
　

Pentecost XV

Pentecost XV Proper 19 (Holy Cross Sunday)
What does it profit?

The defining question that forms the human soul is: what’s in it for me?
We all learn from an early age how to exercise the mental calculus to determine the cost and the benefit of our choices. We all learn from an early age how to use our emotions to manage the emotions of our parents, siblings and friends. We all learn this because we are born with a self will that holds the mistaken belief that there is a separate sovereign "me" that I must defend and express.

The Bible teaches that God created us, all of us and each of us, to be a unique manifestation of the infinite and eternal love that defines God’s nature. As God Himself in One God yet three distinct persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, so He created humanity to express the unity of love through the diversity of individual identity.

The question God placed before us to accept as our own defining path in life is: how may I help?
Humanity chose a different path. It chose separation. It chose disunity. In that choice people are lost. We not only lose our relationship with eternal love, we lose the uniqueness of our individual identity in divine love. There is a certain weary sameness to souls who live from the place of separation and approach life from the question: what’s in it for me? Eventually that question morphs and becomes" is that all there is?

Jesus confronts this question in Peter. He asks Peter a very simple and straightforward question: who do people say that I am? Peter answers with all of the improbable speculations that the people were discussing.

Then Jesus asks, what about you Peter? Who am I to you? Peter answers with the right words, you are the Messiah, the Christ, the anointed one of God. But, Peter clearly does not understand the inward and spiritual grace that gives meaning to the words.

We hear this when Jesus reveals that the Plan of Salvation is not the sword but the cross. Peter is horrified when he hears Jesus’ words. Peter actually rebukes Jesus. Peter says: no way. God forbid. This will never happen.

Peter’s reaction comes from the place of fear. He had placed all of his hopes on Jesus being the Messiah. He had given up his business and his family to follow Jesus. Peter assumed he would follow Jesus into battle. Peter expected to be rewarded with wealth and power. Peter was no different than any one else in his generation who expected the Messiah to be the final solution to the gentile problem.

We hear in Peter’s rebuke the question and the demand that formed his soul. The question is: what’s in it for me? The demand is: do it my way. Do it my way Jesus. Be the Messianic conqueror I want you to be.

When Jesus reveals the Plan of Salvation Peter reacts with fear. He does not yet trust Jesus. He does not yet have the faith that says: not my will but Thy will be done. Peter is still lost in the path of separation, fear, self will and pride.

Jesus calls his students and the crowds together and clarifies what it means to follow him. Take up your cross. He might just have easily said: stand in front of the firing squad. Ascend the gallows. Strap yourself into the electric chair. Offer your arm to the executioner to insert the lethal injection.

If it sounds shocking it is. It was meant to be shocking. We have a tendency to hear his words as an invitation to endure frustration. We say things like, my spouse doesn’t understand me- it is just my cross to bear. I never had the educational opportunities other people had- it is just my cross to bear.

The cross is a method of execution. It is not an inconvenience we are called to endure. Jesus clarifies this for our generation when he states what is obvious to his generation: those who seek to save their lives will lose them. Those who lose their lives for my sake and for the sake of the Good News I proclaim, it is they who will save their lives.

St. Paul says it well when he declares: I am crucified with Christ nevertheless I live.
Those who seek to save their lives are those who are lost in the false self, the separated self, the fearful self. They are those who constantly ask: what’s in it for me? They are those who constantly demand: "do it my way".

For the people of Jesus’ generation this was the way of the sword. It was the way of conquest. The way of conquest is the way of perpetual war. It is the way of action and reaction. It is the way of aggression, submission and withdrawal. It is the erosion of the soul in the self deceit of the will to power. It is the way to eternal damnation. It is the way Satan sets before us in so many alluring temptations. It is the way Jesus came to deliver us from.

Jesus offers us a different way. It is the way of love and holiness. It is the way of surrender to divine love by grace through faith. It is the way of the cross. It is the key to understanding Jesus ‘ words: I am the way. No one can come to the Father expect by me.

Jesus is the way because Jesus is the one who willingly embraced the cross. On the cross Jesus not only surrendered to the will of God, he embraced human separation. He took all of our sins upon himself. He took all of the murder, and torture and theft and deceit, the pain and the suffering we inflict on each other and on ourselves. He took it all and it killed him as he knew it would.

When Jesus died on the cross he confirmed for all to see that the way of the cross is the way of death. When Jesus rose from the dead he defined the way of the cross as the way of life. Jesus is the way to reunification with God the Father. Jesus is the way of transformation in God the Holy Spirit.

All other ways people propose proceed from the sin nature of separation. All other ways ask: what’s in it for me? All other ways demand: do it my way. All other ways perpetuate separation.
The Way of the Cross is the way of the total immersion of the soul into the eternal love of God. That love has no beginning and it has no end. It is eternal. The soul that embraces Jesus as the Way finds the life it seeks. The soul that embraces Jesus as the Way is found by the life it once abandoned.

What dies on the cross with Jesus is the false self, the lost self, the separated self. What rises with Jesus is the true self, the soul that is a unique manifestation of the infinite and eternal love of God.

The Bible says: there is way that appears to be right. That was the way Peter wanted for Jesus, for Israel, for himself. It seemed perfectly rational and practical. But it was and continues to be wrong, deadly wrong.

There is only one way that leads to life. That is God’s way. That is the Way of the Cross, the Way of Jesus Christ. In that way we surrender self will, fear and pride. In that way God transforms separation to reunification. In that way God transforms the disintegration of our souls into a new life of transformation.

It begins when we say with Jesus, Heavenly Father not my will but Thy will be done. It begins when by grace through faith we receive reunification with God the Father through God the Son. It continues in every choice we make to surrender fear, self will and pride to the Way of the Cross, the Way of Jesus Christ, the Way of eternal love.

The Holy Spirit will lead you in the Way. The Holy Spirit even now offers you insight into the next step in the Way.

For some- it is a choice to spend more time in prayer.
For some- it is a choice to memorize scripture.
For some- it is the opportunity to help some one in need.
For all- it is the weekly invitation to meet Jesus Christ where he offers himself to be found: at the altar, in the blessed sacrament of his body and blood, in the total immersion of the soul in the steadfast holy love of the Eternal Trinity.

Jesus speaks to us this morning in the words of Holy Scripture and asks: what are you trading away for grace? What profit do you find in the substitutes the world offers you for eternal love? What profit do you value so highly that you stay away from the place where Jesus waits to be found?

What would it profit you to become the best soccer player, the most popular student, the richest and the most powerful person in the world if the cost is your own soul?

The question is not rhetorical. It is real. It is Jesus asking us and pleading with us: what are you doing with your life? What do you value? Where are your priorities? What does it profit you if you gain the whole world and lose your own soul?
　

Pentecost XIV

Pentecost 14 Proper 18 "Be opened".

The problem of sin is not that we make poor choices. The problem of sin is that we close our souls off from divine love and compassion.

The world would be a very different place if people truly had the free will to choose the good and refuse the evil. The Bible teaches that the will is the agency of the soul that executes choice. The Bible also teaches that the soul is lost in separation from God, lost in rebellion against divine law, and lost in slavery to fear, self will and pride.

The soul makes choices from the place of separation. The will that executes the choice is bound to the place of separation. It is not free but rather enslaved to the fear generated by the separation.

Fear drives out faith. Pride subverts love. And self will is not free will. Only one thing can set us free from separation, rebellion and slavery. That one thing is a person, Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ is the missing term in the equation of life that under ordinary circumstances makes little to no sense. The Syro-Phoenician woman and the deaf man came to understand this. They came to understand that the problem they faced was deeper and more profound than the symptoms of demon possession and deafness.

In this passage of scripture we see that Jesus deliberately chooses to travel to gentile cities. The religious Jews of the Holy Land avoided such travel lest they offend God by associating with pagans. Yet, Jesus had come to reunite people to God and to each other. So he traveled to the gentile cities of Tyre and the Decapolis. And, he ministered to the people.

The Syro Phoenician woman was a descendant of the Caaninite people who had made war against the Hebrews for over four hundred years. The Phoenicians had maintained a powerful and wealthy civilization for roughly two thousand years before Jesus appeared on Earth.
The Phoenicians were rich, cultured, hard working. For centuries they had practiced the abomination of child sacrifice. Carthage was one of their colonies. When Rome destroyed Carthage and conquered the Mediterranean world they succeeded where Israel had failed. The Romans ended the practice of child sacrifice.

Tyre was a wealthy and luxurious city and like Los Vegas today they advertised themselves as the place where you could buy or sell any imaginable pleasure for any imaginable purpose.
The Jews who followed Jesus were horrified by the religious and moral culture of Tyre. So, when Jesus chose to travel there it would have been natural for his disciples to question why. As far as they were concerned Tyre was steeped in sin and deserved only condemnation.

Jesus echoes this attitude when the Syro-Phoenician woman seeks a favor from him. When Jesus refers to the Phoenicians as dogs he is seeking to accomplish two things. First: he is setting the stage for his disciples to gain a clearer understanding of salvation. Salvation is not about God rewarding good people who have earned the right to expect God’s blessing.

That understanding of salvation was common amongst the people who followed Jesus, as well as amongst the religious leaders who rejected Jesus.

Salvation is not a reward we earn. Salvation is the reunification of a lost soul to divine love and compassion. Salvation is and can only be a gift. It cannot be a right. The only real choice the human soul has before God is to receive what God gives. The soul that makes demands on God based on its own works, knowledge or action is still a soul lost in self will.

Jesus quotes the xenophobic insult that the gentiles are dogs to show his disciples and all who would hear and read the account of this event, that he knew very well the depth of animosity that closed off different people from each other, and from God. The purpose of Jesus’ dialog with the woman is not to condemn her but to reveal how devastating condemnation really is.
For the woman, Jesus wanted to lead her to faith. He had already purposed to heal her daughter. He had already purposed to reach out to the gentiles by his decision to enter Gentile territory. Jesus dialog with the woman is a test and an invitation.

Jesus does not test the woman’s worthiness. Jesus tests her intent. The test is: what do you really desire? What are you really asking? The invitation is to open the soul to grace.
Those who believe they are righteous because of their works, their race, their politics or through any action or attitude have already closed their souls to the gift God offers in Jesus Christ.
The woman engages Jesus in conversation. She does exactly what Jesus wanted and exactly what his disciple and his enemies so frequently failed to do. She listened to Jesus. She conversed with Jesus. She opened her soul to the possibility that Jesus was the answer to her immediate problem- a daughter who was possessed by a demon. And, she opened her soul to a new way of understanding God.

The woman knew very well that the God of Israel rejected her people, according to the religious leaders of Israel. But, in Jesus presence, the woman perceived the truth proclaimed centuries before by the prophet Isaiah. The Jewish Messiah would be a light to bring light to the gentiles. He would not bring condemnation, confrontation and conquest. He would bring healing.

Whether or not the woman had ever read Isaiah, when she met Jesus she opened her heart, her mind and her will to the possibility that in Jesus God was reaching out to her. He was reaching out to her in her moment of darkness with light. He was reaching out to her in her daughter’s illness with healing.

Jesus doesn’t test the woman to see if she is worthy to receive God’s blessing. Jesus tests the woman to convict his followers of their xenophobia and to invite the woman into a new relationship with the divine based on grace through faith.

The healing is not a reward for an action or an attitude. The healing is a gift for someone who made a real choice to open her soul to the Living God fully present to her in Jesus Christ.
Jesus re emphasizes this teaching when he visits the Greek city states called the Decapolis, the Ten Cities. Once again he meets pagans who ask him for help for someone else. In this case, the one who needs help is an adult so Jesus takes him aside to heal him.

There is a scandal in these healings. We miss the scandal the disciples of Jesus and the religious leaders in Jerusalem would have felt. The scandal is the scandal of grace.

The scandal is what we feel when we hear Jesus say: "I am the way, the truth and the life, no one can come to the Father except by me." We hear the words in the same way ancient peoples heard the words: with offense and with rebellion and with disbelief.

The scandal is the reaction of lost souls who demand from God that God give us what we want on our terms. We identify God’s gifts with our needs and desires and insist that if God is fair he will give us what we want.

The scandal is that what God offers is not a reward or a right but a relationship. The gift is the person: Jesus Christ. There is no other gift. We need no other gift.

Heaven is a relationship initiated by God in Jesus Christ. It is gift offered to all people everywhere regardless of who they are, what they’ve done or where they have failed.
It is the relationship that initiates the transformation of the distortions of our reason, will and emotions. It is the relationship that slowly but steadily brings light and healing and eternal love to our souls and to every aspect of our lives.

We grow in grace as we cultivate the relationship God offers to us in Jesus Christ.
We cultivate that relationship as the Syro Phoenician woman and the Greek man did. We listen. We listen to God in God’s words recorded in the Bible. We listen to God in a moment of silence where God invites us to meet him.

We listen to God in the words of our families and friends.

We listen to God in the invitation to the altar to receive the gifts of bread and wine transformed into the divine life and love of the co-eternal son of God.

We listen to God in the deepest cry of our soul as Jesus presents himself to us and we recognize in him the very meaning and purpose for our existence.

We listen as best we can to God in the invitation of Jesus Christ. Be opened. Open your heart, your mind, your will to the infinite possibilities a relationship with the Living Lord Jesus Christ offers you now this moment, this day and forever. Amen.

Pentecost XIII Proper 17

Pentecost XIII Proper 17
It is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come. Listen to me.

Evil has no existence in and of itself.

This does not mean evil is an illusion. It also does not mean evil is a matter of personal opinion. Evil is a corruption of Love. The foundation of evil is separation from God. It is the exercise of real choice to say no to the essential qualities of love. Those essential qualities are compassion and holiness, service to other people and worship of God.

Evil is a self created parasite that feeds upon fear, self will and pride. The goal of Christ is not to destroy evil but to transform it back into its original essence. That essence is eternal love.
The religious leaders of Jesus’ day missed this fundamental truth. They had been influenced by the dualistic philosophies and religions of the surrounding pagan cultures that taught evil is an equal and opposite power to good. This is called dualism.

Dualism is a misunderstanding of duality. Duality is simply the observation that there are opposites in the world as we experience it. There is light and dark. There is hot and cold. There is pleasure and pain. There is life and death.

Dualism attempts to provide a reason for duality. The reason it offers posits the scenario that there is a god of light who is good, and a god of darkness who is evil. Humans are stuck in the middle between an eternal conflict of good and evil.

Dualism teaches that the problem confronting humanity is in a lack of knowledge or a lack of will to chose good and reject evil. Dualism teaches the solution to the problem is the right knowledge and/or right behavior.

Religions that emphasize right knowledge speak in the categories of enlightenment. The enlightened soul is the soul that has the secret knowledge of the Dualistic nature of the universe. The strategy for living on earth that this form of religion emphasizes is withdrawal. In Jesus’ day the religious group that most embodied this approach were the Essenes.

The Essenes believed that they and they alone had the secret knowledge about the nature of reality. That knowledge led them to separate from society into their own self contained and closed compounds in the desert where they performed their rituals and studied esoteric books about the coming apocalyptic war between good and evil.

The problem with enlightenment is how do you really know that you have the right knowledge? Who do you trust to teach you?

How can you be sure you are performing the right rituals, doing the right meditation, or reading the right books? The emphasis on right knowledge leads to pride or despair. Pride that I have it and you don’t. Despair that I can never be certain I am perfectly enlightened if I continue to live in the complex world of duality. To achieve any sense of certain knowledge I need to isolate myself from the world. In that isolation the soul experiences even greater levels of pain, the recycled pain of suffering and finally despair.

Those who emphasize right behavior speak in the categories of righteousness. The righteous are the ones who by their own will submit to the absolute and inflexible will of God as revealed in the Law of Moses. The problem with submission to the Law is who gets to interpret the Law? There were dozens of religious movements in Israel that claimed they had the one and the only interpretation of Moses that would produce righteousness.

In the gospel reading this morning we see how these groups, the Pharisees and the Scribes, argued amongst themselves over the proper way to wash their hands, their cups, pots and bronze vessels. They also disputed about the proper clothes to wear, the exact time of day when the Sabbath began and every detail about living. None of this debate appears in the Law of Moses. It was all a creation of religious lawyers who believed so passionately that righteousness is right behavior, perfect behavior, that they developed an incredibly complex commentary that attempted to define every aspect of human behavior.

Law based religion is a system of debits and credits. It requires religious lawyers, religious accountants, religious judges and religions courts. In the end, law based religion faces the same problem as knowledge based religion. It becomes inflexible. It cannot force every aspect of this world of duality into a rigid system of Dualistic perfection. It leads to insufferable pride or unbearable despair.

There is a third form of religion Jesus encountered. It is religion based in aggression. The Zealots believed right religion is not just based on right knowledge which leads to withdrawal, or on right behavior which leads to submission, but on right action that leads to focused and purposeful aggression. The Zealots preached and practiced holy war. They demanded direct action against the unrighteous. Sadly, as with the terrorists of the 21st century, the first century Zealots spent most of their aggression against their fellow Jews who followed the way of law or knowledge, who failed the test of perfect action.

Into this tumultuous and violent religious conflict Jesus appeared bringing a very different message. Jesus embraced the dualistic nature of the world as it is. Jesus rejected the philosophy of Dualism that spoke in absolute terms of good and evil; that produced religions of aggression, submission or withdrawal.

Jesus affirmed the essential unity of God, the reality that we live in a universe. Jesus not only taught but he embodied the truth that the unity of God is the love of God.

Jesus taught that perfection is not expressed in an accountant’s leger of debits and credits. Perfection is not submission to Law. Perfection is the total immersion of the soul in the never ending process of transformation in divine love and compassion. Perfection is surrender to the Beloved.

Jesus proclaimed that God just doesn’t have love God is love.

Jesus taught what Moses and the prophets taught. The problem confronting the human race is not wrong knowledge, wrong behavior or wrong action. The problem is not even in the duality of pleasure and pain. The problem confronting the human race is separation.
Separation is not about law, knowledge or action. Separation is about relationship. That is why Jesus directs the Pharisees, the Scribes, the Zealots, the Essenes, the Sadducees, away from the mind and the will to the heart.
　
The Pharisees were working with categories of clean and unclean. These are the categories of duality. This is the way the creation exists right now. But, the Pharisees moved from duality into Dualism when they made "clean and unclean" absolute religious laws. When they moved from duality into Dualism they sought to perpetuate separation. They declared the proper way to clean objects was an expression of right behavior that produced merit. That merit obligated God to give them what they wanted.

For those who disagreed with the Pharisees, or who could not afford the massive amounts of water for the rituals of purification, there was condemnation. Failure to clean a cup, a pot or a bronze kettle in the right way, the only approved way, generated debits in your account with God. It also resulted in further separation among those who did it right, those who did it wrong and those who gave up trying. A righteous Pharisee would not risk God’s wrath by associating with any one who did it wrong or not at all. A righteous Pharisee would shout and proclaim: you are wrong, you are wrong. Do it my way!

It is no accidental or incidental comment that Jesus makes when he says. In vain do they worship me. Worship is the highest expression of love. Love is not about self will. Love is not about separation. Love is reunification with God the Father just as you are. Love is transformation in God the Holy Spirit so you can become more of who God has called you to be . Love is grounded in the truth of duality and the reality that in God the Son, Jesus Christ, there is no condemnation.

Condemnation is not out there in the realm of the divine. Condemnation is within the human heart. That is the seat of the problem. It is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come. The evil intentions are the distortions of love that proceed from the demands of self will.

Religion grounded in knowledge, law or action will not bring forth love. Religion grounded in love will, as a natural consequence, lead us to discern the principles underlying knowledge, law and action. There is a place for knowledge, law and action. That place is subordinate to Love, informed by love, and empowered by love. It is activated when we join with Jesus in praying: Heavenly Father, not my will but your will be done.

That is also the place Jesus offers to meet us. Here. In our hearts. Here in the seat of longing for acceptance and approval. Here where God the Father, by the power of God the Holy Spirit, designed human beings to live by the steadfast holy and eternal love of God the Son, Jesus Christ. That is why Jesus does not direct people first to a law, a book, or an action. He directs us to a relationship. He tells us: Listen to me.
　
　
　
　

Pentecost XII

Pentecost XII Proper 14 "Does this offend you?"

Many people in our modern world complain that if God is real he has not given us sufficient evidence to believe in him. The record of Scripture demonstrates that the opposite is true.
The record of scripture is that God once walked with the human race in a very real and visibly present way. It is the understanding of the Church that it was the co-eternal Son of God, the pre incarnate Jesus Christ, who walked with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.

Despite the fact of God’s presence and the reality of his friendship, the human race turned from God and chose separation. In this choice humanity abandoned the love and the holiness of God. Humanity rejected God’s offer of a loving relationship with the eternal. Instead, humanity chose the way of knowledge and power.

The angels closed the way to Eden as humanity followed the path of separation, rebellion and death. But, God returned to Earth in person, incarnate in Jesus Christ.

Once again, God was fully present and fully real to people. Once again people rejected him. Only this time, people killed him.

Jesus came with love and compassion and people preferred power and dominance. Jesus came not just to speak a truth about God but as the truth of God. Jesus is truth because Jesus is God.
The soul in a state of separation convinces itself that it creates its own truth. The soul in separation claims the right and the power to define God according to its own needs and desires.
Jesus did not allow people that option. Jesus is the fullness of God in human flesh. If you want to know what God is like, how he thinks, who he is: come to Jesus Christ. Observe. Listen. Question. Wait in silence for the answer.

The thousands of people who met Jesus in person, who witnessed his miracles, who heard his teaching, had that demonstration of fact that modern skeptics claim they require before they will believe. It didn’t satisfy the people in the first century and it will not satisfy the people of the 21st century.

The offense that people experienced as they heard Jesus teach is the universal reaction of the soul in a state of separation. The people in Jesus’ day were looking for the right set of laws, the right set of rituals, the right set of beliefs. Jesus brought them something very different. He brought them the possibility of a new relationship. That relationship brought them the possibility of a new way of living.

This was not what people wanted from God then and it is not what people want from God now. The real offense is not the teaching God brings forth through Jesus Christ. The real offense is the real presence of God in Jesus Christ. In Jesus Christ God defines himself.

When it comes to God, every human being believes they have the right to define God however they wish. We seek to create God in our image and forget that God created us in His image.
The real reason people took offense at Jesus and continue to take offense at him is that Jesus reminds us we are dependent beings created by God for a reason and a purpose. That reason and purpose is love and holiness.

Love does not lie, cheat or steal. It does not insist on its own way. It lives by the question: how may I help? Holiness makes a conscious choice to live in the truth of divine law. It prays: Heavenly Father, your will be done. It seeks out the new life of Christ through the spiritual, psychological, emotional and moral cleansing and renewal of the Holy Spirit.

How many of us do that? How many of us embrace the real presence of Jesus in the Creation? In the United States it is illegal in the arena of the public schools even to suggest that God created the universe and the human race. The teaching that God is the creator is offensive to our civilization.

How many of us embrace the real presence of the eternal living Lord Jesus Christ in the sacrament of Holy Communion? Many of Jesus’ own followers took offense at this truth. They walked away. Many in our generation walk away from who Jesus is and what he offers.
Jesus’ followers had their list of things for God to do for them.

They had their own agenda for Jesus to fulfill. Jesus had a very different list. Jesus had an entirely different agenda.

Jesus’ list had one word in three parts. That one word is love. The three parts are to love God with the entirety of our being, to love others, and to love ourself. It sounds very nice and pleasant unless you really pay attention. Love God with all of your heart, soul, mind and strength. All. The fullest expression of love for God manifests in worship. To love God as Jesus invites us to love God is to make worship the priority for our lives. According to Jesus, worship comes first. Everything else is second.

Many people in Jesus’ day were willing to dabble in love. They were willing to set aside an hour or so every so often to tell God what they wanted. They were not willing to immerse them selves in divine love. They were not willing to listen to God. They were not willing to have their minds, hearts and wills transformed by God. This is what Jesus offers when he gives himself to us in the blessed sacrament of the alar.

Jesus loves us as we are. He also wants us to grow and mature and transform. He loves us are we are and invites us to come to him by grace through faith just as we are. But, he doesn’t leave us unchanged.

The change is Jesus’ agenda for the human race. The change Jesus offers is also the offense. Religious people in Jesus’ day used religion to get from God what they wanted most: power, wealth, pleasure. Modern secular people ignore God but expect that God, if he exists, is obligated give us what we want on our terms.

In Jesus Christ, God says to us: I will give you what you need. I will give you eternal holy transforming love.

The offense people take at Jesus Christ is the very essence of our Heavenly Father’s Plan of Salvation. It is the transforming presence of the living Lord Jesus in our midst. It is the real presence of Christ in the sacrament. It is the reality that God defines us, we do not define God.
As we surrender our self will to the divine will in a real choice of love, we re discover our identity, our meaning, our purpose.

How do we do this?

The basic answer is to receive the gift of faith.
Faith comes from hearing. To hear is to pay attention. To hear is to wake up to the word of God speaking to us in the creation, in the Bible, in the Church.

Faith invites us to immerse ourselves in divine love through the waters of baptism. Faith invites us to receive the divine transfusion of love through the bread and wine of Holy Communion.
Faith leads us forward in our walk with Christ one step at a time. Jesus has given us the Holy Spirit to reveal to us where we need to grow and to change. Jesus sends the Holy Spirit to transform our desires.

If we live our lives from the place of separation will we live from the place of rebellion that takes offense not only at the teaching of Jesus but at the person of Jesus. The solution Jesus offers to our offense is not blind submission to a religion. The solution Jesus offers is in the personal surrender to love through love. It is the total immersion of our reason, will and emotion in the divine love and compassion God offers all people everywhere in Jesus Christ.

The first step for those who do not accept Jesus Christ is to ask questions. What is real? What is truth? Who is Jesus Christ?

Jesus wants to be found. He is not hiding from us. We are hiding from him. If we can only find a place of genuine desire to seek the truth the Holy Spirit will guide us to find the truth. And we will find the truth in Jesus Christ.

The next step for those who have made a profession of faith in Jesus Christ is to ask: where do I take offense at Jesus? Where do I resist the clear and direct teaching of divine truth? Where do I bring to life the demand: my will be done. Where do I fear making changes in my priorities, changes in how I spend my money, changes in my interpersonal relationships?

The offense manifests as resistance to grace. The resistance to grace is the invitation to immerse our souls in the divine love and holiness of the co eternal Son of God.
Jesus’ question to his followers, does this offend you, is the invitation to an experience of faith in a moment of grace.

We need to pay attention to that place in our mind, heart and will where we resist Jesus. It is in that resistance that the Holy Spirit helps us transform fear into faith, and pain into eternal love.
Jesus presents to each of us the fullness of God in human flesh. His teaching is not speculative or even insightful. His teaching is truth itself. Our growth in grace comes when we recognize the place of offense in our own souls. That is why Jesus asks the question not of his enemies but of his followers: does this offend you?