Pentecost 16 Holy Cross Sunday (Luke 15:1-10
I have found what was lost.
Jesus came to seek, to find, and to restore the lost.
The Biblical writers observe that the fundamental problem that defines the human race is separation from God. In our choice to separate from God we are now lost. Not only are we lost but we can’t find our way back. Even worse, we stubbornly refuse to be found.
The parable of the lost sheep and the lost coin illustrate this for us. Only the shepherd can find the lost sheep. The sheep has wandered off and cannot find its way home. Only the woman can find the lost coin for the coin is lost in her house and only she knows the house well enough to explore the hidden cracks and recesses where the coin lies.
Our Heavenly Father sent his co-eternal Beloved son into the world to seek the lost who refuse to be found. Human beings willfully and stubbornly hide from God yet yearn for a greater meaning and purpose in life that God alone can fufill.
Some people hide from God in religion. Jesus did not come to address the issue of which religion and which sect within that religion is the way to God. God so loved the world that he did not send a prophet to create a religion. God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten Son to be the Way by which the lost can be found.
Some people hide from God in philosophy or science. Some people hide from God in their pursuit of pleasure, possessions, prestige or power. Some people hide from God by defining God out of existence. Some people hide from God by saying all paths to God and all names of God are equally valid and equally efficacious. We create consumer driven cafeteria style religion.
God did not send his only begotten Son into the world to found a philosophical school, to debate scientific theories, or to affirm some human right to define life, the universe, other people and God himself according to our individual whims and desires.
God sent Jesus Christ into the world to seek the lost, to find the lost, and to restore the lost to what the lost chose to abandon and refuse to accept. In Jesus Christ God permanently and irrevocably unites his divinity with our humanity.
In Jesus Christ God finds us so we can find ourselves. As we find ourselves in Christ we discover the Great Mystery of divine love and compassion. We begin to live life in a new way, the way God intended for us when he created us.
The sign and symbol of this new life and this new way of living is the cross. The cross is a symbol of death, rebirth and transformation. Christ took the preeminent symbol of death, embraced it, experienced it fully, conquered it, then transformed it. He has done the same for each of us.
Our Heavenly Father has already found us and forgiven us in Jesus Christ. No religion, philosophy, science or mysticism can accomplish this. God has already done all of the work. God is not an idea to debate. He is not a power to manipulate. He does not play favorites with the various nations, tribes, families and individuals in the world. Jesus is the gift of Divine Love to all people.
Divine love is eternal. Divine love is the very nature of God. Divine love is not just an attribute of God. There is no way we can earn God’s love. There is no way we can lose God’s love. God is love. Jesus Christ is the co-eternal Beloved Son of God seeking the lost, finding the lost who stubbornly refuse to be found , restoring the lost to the original blessing we chose to reject, transforming the lost in the Joy of the finding.
The lost sheep simply accepted the shepherd who found it and rejoiced over it. The lost coin simply accepted the woman who found it and rejoiced over it. Only human beings stubbornly refuse to be found by the one God the Father has sent into the world to seek and to find.
During this church age it is our responsibility as servants of Christ to remind all people everywhere that God pours himself out to them in Jesus Christ. The ongoing work of the church is to cooperate with the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit speaks to every one in the world and he speaks the one word who is the co-eternal word of God: Jesus.
The church is not called to convert. Conversion is the work of the Holy Spirit. The church is called to share the Good News that God is real, God is personal, God is love, God is Jesus Christ. The church is called to evangelize the world one person at a time by offering all people everywhere the gift of God in Jesus Christ.
Do you seek God? Then rejoice, for God has already found you in Jesus Christ. His arms are wide open to welcome you into the new life of eternal love and into the new way of living that is holy and wholesome and transforming.
Do you reject the very concept of God? Then rejoice. Jesus has already found you. You have already rejected so much of what so many people use to hide from the living God. You have rejected the false images and self serving religions that people use to assert their will to power. Relax into the awareness of what you can observe. Jesus is there. He is there in every sunrise, forest, star, subatomic particle. He is the pattern by which, through which, and for which the world of matter, energy, time and space were created.
Have you accepted Jesus as your personal Lord and savior? Then rejoice. For you have not chosen him; he has chosen you. You are the beloved of the co-eternal Beloved. You are now on a path of discovery, adventure, and infinite possibilities as you relax into the Divine Love of Jesus Christ, as you surrender to the transforming Presence and Power of the Holy Spirit.
The great joy of the Holy Trinity is in the words of Jesus Christ as he looks at his church and says: I have found what was lost.
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Pentecost 13
Pentecost 13 (Luke 13: 10-17)
You are set free.
Jesus Christ is the liberator of humanity.
In this event the woman not only experiences personal and individual liberation, she represents the liberation God offers all people in Christ.
There are two basic aspects to liberation. There is that from which we are delivered. There is that to which we are set free.
The woman was physically crippled. She was so bent over that she could not stand straight. She could only look at the ground. Her ailment was physical. Her ailment was also spiritual.
As a physician, Luke understood the causes and cures of disease. He also understood that as a doctor he could cure a disease and still see the patient languish in illness. He knew there was an additional step in healing. That additional step is wholeness.
Luke tells us that the woman had a spirit that crippled her. From the text, it is clear this is not demon possession. Demons are not the source of this crippling condition. The text is clear that Jesus healed the woman; he did not perform an exorcism.
What then is the spirit that crippled the woman?
Modern physicians are beginning to discover what ancient physicians had observed for centuries. You can cure an illness and the patient can still remain sick. Illness is more than a physical event in the body. It touches our emotions, our thoughts, and our spirits.
The spirit afflicting the crippled woman was not a demon imposing itself on her from the outside. It was her own spirit. The Bible doesn’t directly address the cause. There is a hint as to the cause.
The hint is the day Jesus chose to heal the woman. It was the Sabbath Day. It was the day God set aside for people to immerse themselves into the Divine love and holiness by which, through which, and for which we were all created.
Somewhere in her personal history, the woman had made a choice that led to a series of choices. She had taken her eyes off God and become obsessed with the things of this world. Her physical ailment mirrored her spiritual malady.
In this respect, the woman is representative of the entire human species. All of us collectively have chosen to separate from God. Each of us chooses to look away from God in our own unique and personal choices.
More often than not, the choice to look away from God is subtle. It is not the so called great sins that lead away from God. It is the little sins. It is the choice to set priorities that place God second. If we place God second we place God last. Those little choices that place God second have a cumulative effect on our spirits. For some of us it leads to the more overt and dramatic sins. For some of us is leads to a spiritual stagnation. For all of us is leads to greater brokenness, isolation and alienation.
Human choice impresses the human spirit. Human choice proceeds from the inner depths of the soul. Our Heavenly Father designed our souls to be temples of the Holy Spirit so we could enjoy an eternal friendship with God the Son.
St. Augustine observed that there are only two fundamental loves for the soul to pursue. There is the love of self which leads to separation, isolation, sin and death. There is the love of God which leads to reunification, communitu, holiness and eternal life.
The Sabbath Day is the day God sets aside for people to immerse ourselves into the steadfast holy love of God. It is the guidance, the boundary and the invitation to choose the love of God as the love that forms our soul and characterizes our spirit. The preeminent means by which we do this is worship.
Through worship we participate in the holiness of God. The holiness of God is the wholeness of eternal love. The Pharisees missed this fundamental truth. They heard the outward and visible law of the Sabbath command but they missed the inward and spiritual grace.
Jesus clarifies the law for the Pharisees, his disciples, the woman and us as he comments: is this wqman not a daughter of Abraham?
The healing that leads to wholeness takes place in relationship. Jesus reminds us that God entered into a personal relationship with Abraham. God formed Abraham and his descendants into a chosen vessel of blessing. The meaning and purpose of the blessing is to bring the blessing to others.
The Pharisees were exclusive and judgmental. They missed the blessing of the Sabbath. They ignored the principle of holiness as wholeness. They sacrificed compassion for rigid definition and harsh judgment.
Jesus healed on the Sabbath because the Sabbath Day of rest is the day of holiness, wholeness and eternal love.
There are two important principles for us to consider. First: healing is more than curing. Healing of the body can only be completed through healing of the spirit.
The second principle is the principle of the Sabbath Day rest. God wants us to enjoy a personal relationship with Him through Jesus Christ. God sets aside one day in seven as a day of eternal love.
Every Sabbath Day is an invitation to immerse our selves, our souls and bodies into the reality of God’s blessing. When we resist the call to worship on the Sabbath Day we chose to re immerse our souls in the original “no” of original sin.
The resistance to the Sabbath Day of Rest is a “no” to God who invites us to meet him at the altar to receive the blessing. It is a “no” to other people to whom God wants us to carry the blessing. It is a “no” to our own souls which God formed to hold the blessing.
Jesus not only healed the woman of her disease, he restored her spirit to wholeness. He reminded her she was a child of God. He met her personally on the Sabbath Day of Divine Blessing. And, he reminded his students, his enemies, and us that the Sabbath Day is the eternal day God has set aside for us to meet him, receive his blessing, be transformed by his blessing and then carry that blessing into the world of time.
On the Sabbath Day, Jesus sets us free from the tyranny of time into the liberating blessing of eternal love. It is always our choice. As Jesus stood before the crippled woman so he stands before us.
Do you wish to be set free to enjoy the blessings God offers? Jesus has come into the world to bring the reality of liberation through the call to holiness, the call to wholeness, the call to eternal love.
For those who desire to receive the blessing Jesus speaks a new reality into our souls, our soirit, our lives: you are set free.
You are set free.
Jesus Christ is the liberator of humanity.
In this event the woman not only experiences personal and individual liberation, she represents the liberation God offers all people in Christ.
There are two basic aspects to liberation. There is that from which we are delivered. There is that to which we are set free.
The woman was physically crippled. She was so bent over that she could not stand straight. She could only look at the ground. Her ailment was physical. Her ailment was also spiritual.
As a physician, Luke understood the causes and cures of disease. He also understood that as a doctor he could cure a disease and still see the patient languish in illness. He knew there was an additional step in healing. That additional step is wholeness.
Luke tells us that the woman had a spirit that crippled her. From the text, it is clear this is not demon possession. Demons are not the source of this crippling condition. The text is clear that Jesus healed the woman; he did not perform an exorcism.
What then is the spirit that crippled the woman?
Modern physicians are beginning to discover what ancient physicians had observed for centuries. You can cure an illness and the patient can still remain sick. Illness is more than a physical event in the body. It touches our emotions, our thoughts, and our spirits.
The spirit afflicting the crippled woman was not a demon imposing itself on her from the outside. It was her own spirit. The Bible doesn’t directly address the cause. There is a hint as to the cause.
The hint is the day Jesus chose to heal the woman. It was the Sabbath Day. It was the day God set aside for people to immerse themselves into the Divine love and holiness by which, through which, and for which we were all created.
Somewhere in her personal history, the woman had made a choice that led to a series of choices. She had taken her eyes off God and become obsessed with the things of this world. Her physical ailment mirrored her spiritual malady.
In this respect, the woman is representative of the entire human species. All of us collectively have chosen to separate from God. Each of us chooses to look away from God in our own unique and personal choices.
More often than not, the choice to look away from God is subtle. It is not the so called great sins that lead away from God. It is the little sins. It is the choice to set priorities that place God second. If we place God second we place God last. Those little choices that place God second have a cumulative effect on our spirits. For some of us it leads to the more overt and dramatic sins. For some of us is leads to a spiritual stagnation. For all of us is leads to greater brokenness, isolation and alienation.
Human choice impresses the human spirit. Human choice proceeds from the inner depths of the soul. Our Heavenly Father designed our souls to be temples of the Holy Spirit so we could enjoy an eternal friendship with God the Son.
St. Augustine observed that there are only two fundamental loves for the soul to pursue. There is the love of self which leads to separation, isolation, sin and death. There is the love of God which leads to reunification, communitu, holiness and eternal life.
The Sabbath Day is the day God sets aside for people to immerse ourselves into the steadfast holy love of God. It is the guidance, the boundary and the invitation to choose the love of God as the love that forms our soul and characterizes our spirit. The preeminent means by which we do this is worship.
Through worship we participate in the holiness of God. The holiness of God is the wholeness of eternal love. The Pharisees missed this fundamental truth. They heard the outward and visible law of the Sabbath command but they missed the inward and spiritual grace.
Jesus clarifies the law for the Pharisees, his disciples, the woman and us as he comments: is this wqman not a daughter of Abraham?
The healing that leads to wholeness takes place in relationship. Jesus reminds us that God entered into a personal relationship with Abraham. God formed Abraham and his descendants into a chosen vessel of blessing. The meaning and purpose of the blessing is to bring the blessing to others.
The Pharisees were exclusive and judgmental. They missed the blessing of the Sabbath. They ignored the principle of holiness as wholeness. They sacrificed compassion for rigid definition and harsh judgment.
Jesus healed on the Sabbath because the Sabbath Day of rest is the day of holiness, wholeness and eternal love.
There are two important principles for us to consider. First: healing is more than curing. Healing of the body can only be completed through healing of the spirit.
The second principle is the principle of the Sabbath Day rest. God wants us to enjoy a personal relationship with Him through Jesus Christ. God sets aside one day in seven as a day of eternal love.
Every Sabbath Day is an invitation to immerse our selves, our souls and bodies into the reality of God’s blessing. When we resist the call to worship on the Sabbath Day we chose to re immerse our souls in the original “no” of original sin.
The resistance to the Sabbath Day of Rest is a “no” to God who invites us to meet him at the altar to receive the blessing. It is a “no” to other people to whom God wants us to carry the blessing. It is a “no” to our own souls which God formed to hold the blessing.
Jesus not only healed the woman of her disease, he restored her spirit to wholeness. He reminded her she was a child of God. He met her personally on the Sabbath Day of Divine Blessing. And, he reminded his students, his enemies, and us that the Sabbath Day is the eternal day God has set aside for us to meet him, receive his blessing, be transformed by his blessing and then carry that blessing into the world of time.
On the Sabbath Day, Jesus sets us free from the tyranny of time into the liberating blessing of eternal love. It is always our choice. As Jesus stood before the crippled woman so he stands before us.
Do you wish to be set free to enjoy the blessings God offers? Jesus has come into the world to bring the reality of liberation through the call to holiness, the call to wholeness, the call to eternal love.
For those who desire to receive the blessing Jesus speaks a new reality into our souls, our soirit, our lives: you are set free.
Friday, August 13, 2010
Pentecost 12
Pentecost 12 (Luke 12:49-56)
I came to bring fire to the earth.
Jesus is the fullness of God in human flesh. Jesus has come to restore to humanity what we lost. What we lost is the fire of divine love.
Jesus says he has a baptism with which to be baptized. That baptism is his death on the cross. It is a baptism into death through his own life’s blood.
The Fire Jesus has come to kindle is the Pentecostal fire of the Holy Spirit. It is the divine wind and the divine flames that gave birth to the one holy catholic and apostolic church. It is the new life and the new way of living Jesus wants to give us.
Jesus understands very well that the new life will cause division and strife. As Jesus suffered opposition from his own people so those who receive his gift and proclaim his gift will also suffer opposition from their families and friends.
For the first three hundred years of the Christian Faith it was illegal to be a Christian. The Synagogues denounced the Christians for blasphemy. The blasphemy was the incarnation, the teaching that God became a particular human being in Jesus Christ.
Pagans denounced the Christians for atheism. The pagans could not understand how the Christians could ignore the hundreds of deities the world honored and worshipped.
No one is born a Christian. Jesus taught that all who are born into this world exist in a state of separation from God. Jesus taught that all people need a second birth, a spiritual birth.
The first birth leads to a life of fear, self will and pride. The first birth leads to a life of separation, sin and death. The second birth leads to reunification with the eternal love of God. The second birth produces a new way of living.
Jesus’ followers initially described themselves a followers of the Way. The enemies of the church called them little Christs, Christians. The believers took an insult and turned it into a badge of honor. They said- yes, we are little Christ’s because we have received the gift of reunification with God in Christ.
It would have been so easy to make the necessary compromises to avoid persecution. It would have been so easy for the apostles to assure the Synagogue that they were speaking metaphorically not literally. It would have been so easy for the church to say to the pagans: there are many ways to God. We honor your way even as we seek to follow our way. It would have been so easy to compromise if in fact the apostles had not personally experienced the reality of divine love in Jesus Christ. It would have been so easy to compromise if in fact the apostles had not experienced the reality of the Holy Spirit in the Pentecost fires.
Jesus did not come to Earth to offer an opinion about God. Jesus did not die on the cross to offer one religious option among many possible religious options. Jesus did not rise from the dead and conquer death to condemn anyone.
Jesus came and died and rose again to restore lost souls to the divine love of God the Father through the Pentecostal fires of God the Holy Spirit. The apostles faithfully proclaimed the Good News that in Christ God offers all people everywhere forgiveness of sin, transformation of sin, and liberation from sin.
The message of Christ is a life or death message. That is why Jesus understood very well that his presence on this planet would enkindle a reaction of fear and self will that would lead to his death. Jesus did not die as a martyr for a cause. He died to trap death in his own body so he could transform death into eternal life by the power of eternal love.
Jesus never authorized any of his followers to kill for him. Jesus has never authorized holy war. Nevertheless, Jesus understood that a lost, sinful and rebellious humanity would violently oppose the Plan of Salvation. Jesus understood that the world of sin and death can only bring forth sin and death.
That is why Jesus warned his followers that those who receive the second birth into the kingdom of love and life will meet opposition, persecution and sometimes death.
More Christians died for their faith in the twenty century than in all previous centuries. A world of sin and death can only react to the Plan of Salvation through rebellion, opposition and violence.
The stakes are high. The stakes are life and death. Jesus warns us that as we are loyal to him we will experience division. Jesus promises us that as we are loyal to him we will experience the Pentecostal fires of divine love.
Jesus died to save the world. The apostles died to bring the gift of salvation to the world. Countless numbers of Christians through the centuries have died because of their loyalty to our heavenly Father’s Plan of Salvation in Jesus Christ.
The signs of the times are in loyalty, opposition and indifference. An indifferent church is a dead church. It meets little or no opposition because it has little or no message. A loyal church, loyal to the person of Jesus Christ and the Plan of Salvation he embodies, will meet opposition. A loyal church will also receive the gift of the Pentecostal fires of divine love.
Jesus looks at the church and tells us: I have come to bring fire to the earth. It is the Pentecostal fire of the Holy Spirit. It is the new life of the second birth. It is the new life of transforming grace. The sign of the Pentecostal fire is in the passionate loyalty to Christ we express in our lives.
It is the Holy Spirit who empowered the apostles and generations of Christians to live for Christ and to die for Christ. He will empower us as well. As reunification with God is Christ’s gift to us, so the indwelling Presence and Power of the Holy Spirit is His gift to us.
Ask. Ask that you may be filled with the power of the Holy Spirit to live the new life Christ offers. Ask that your new life would help you to interpret the times in which we live. Ask that you may live the Way the truth and the life God offers in Jesus Christ.
I came to bring fire to the earth.
Jesus is the fullness of God in human flesh. Jesus has come to restore to humanity what we lost. What we lost is the fire of divine love.
Jesus says he has a baptism with which to be baptized. That baptism is his death on the cross. It is a baptism into death through his own life’s blood.
The Fire Jesus has come to kindle is the Pentecostal fire of the Holy Spirit. It is the divine wind and the divine flames that gave birth to the one holy catholic and apostolic church. It is the new life and the new way of living Jesus wants to give us.
Jesus understands very well that the new life will cause division and strife. As Jesus suffered opposition from his own people so those who receive his gift and proclaim his gift will also suffer opposition from their families and friends.
For the first three hundred years of the Christian Faith it was illegal to be a Christian. The Synagogues denounced the Christians for blasphemy. The blasphemy was the incarnation, the teaching that God became a particular human being in Jesus Christ.
Pagans denounced the Christians for atheism. The pagans could not understand how the Christians could ignore the hundreds of deities the world honored and worshipped.
No one is born a Christian. Jesus taught that all who are born into this world exist in a state of separation from God. Jesus taught that all people need a second birth, a spiritual birth.
The first birth leads to a life of fear, self will and pride. The first birth leads to a life of separation, sin and death. The second birth leads to reunification with the eternal love of God. The second birth produces a new way of living.
Jesus’ followers initially described themselves a followers of the Way. The enemies of the church called them little Christs, Christians. The believers took an insult and turned it into a badge of honor. They said- yes, we are little Christ’s because we have received the gift of reunification with God in Christ.
It would have been so easy to make the necessary compromises to avoid persecution. It would have been so easy for the apostles to assure the Synagogue that they were speaking metaphorically not literally. It would have been so easy for the church to say to the pagans: there are many ways to God. We honor your way even as we seek to follow our way. It would have been so easy to compromise if in fact the apostles had not personally experienced the reality of divine love in Jesus Christ. It would have been so easy to compromise if in fact the apostles had not experienced the reality of the Holy Spirit in the Pentecost fires.
Jesus did not come to Earth to offer an opinion about God. Jesus did not die on the cross to offer one religious option among many possible religious options. Jesus did not rise from the dead and conquer death to condemn anyone.
Jesus came and died and rose again to restore lost souls to the divine love of God the Father through the Pentecostal fires of God the Holy Spirit. The apostles faithfully proclaimed the Good News that in Christ God offers all people everywhere forgiveness of sin, transformation of sin, and liberation from sin.
The message of Christ is a life or death message. That is why Jesus understood very well that his presence on this planet would enkindle a reaction of fear and self will that would lead to his death. Jesus did not die as a martyr for a cause. He died to trap death in his own body so he could transform death into eternal life by the power of eternal love.
Jesus never authorized any of his followers to kill for him. Jesus has never authorized holy war. Nevertheless, Jesus understood that a lost, sinful and rebellious humanity would violently oppose the Plan of Salvation. Jesus understood that the world of sin and death can only bring forth sin and death.
That is why Jesus warned his followers that those who receive the second birth into the kingdom of love and life will meet opposition, persecution and sometimes death.
More Christians died for their faith in the twenty century than in all previous centuries. A world of sin and death can only react to the Plan of Salvation through rebellion, opposition and violence.
The stakes are high. The stakes are life and death. Jesus warns us that as we are loyal to him we will experience division. Jesus promises us that as we are loyal to him we will experience the Pentecostal fires of divine love.
Jesus died to save the world. The apostles died to bring the gift of salvation to the world. Countless numbers of Christians through the centuries have died because of their loyalty to our heavenly Father’s Plan of Salvation in Jesus Christ.
The signs of the times are in loyalty, opposition and indifference. An indifferent church is a dead church. It meets little or no opposition because it has little or no message. A loyal church, loyal to the person of Jesus Christ and the Plan of Salvation he embodies, will meet opposition. A loyal church will also receive the gift of the Pentecostal fires of divine love.
Jesus looks at the church and tells us: I have come to bring fire to the earth. It is the Pentecostal fire of the Holy Spirit. It is the new life of the second birth. It is the new life of transforming grace. The sign of the Pentecostal fire is in the passionate loyalty to Christ we express in our lives.
It is the Holy Spirit who empowered the apostles and generations of Christians to live for Christ and to die for Christ. He will empower us as well. As reunification with God is Christ’s gift to us, so the indwelling Presence and Power of the Holy Spirit is His gift to us.
Ask. Ask that you may be filled with the power of the Holy Spirit to live the new life Christ offers. Ask that your new life would help you to interpret the times in which we live. Ask that you may live the Way the truth and the life God offers in Jesus Christ.
Pentecost 11
Pentecost 11 (Luke 12:32-40)
Do not be afraid, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom.
God wants to bless us. God not only wants to give us the Kingdom, it is Father’s good pleasure to give us the Kingdom.
The Kingdom is characterized by three fundamental virtues: faith, hope, and charity. The Kingdom is a new life and a new way of living.
The new life begins in the waters of baptism. God uses ordinary water to be a sign and a reality of the gift of that new life. In the sacrament of baptism, God the Father pours forth God the Holy Spirit to give us a new birth into the risen life of God the Son. We receive the gift of the Kingdom through the waters of baptism.
The new way of living is nourished through the bread and wine of Holy Communion. God the Father sends God the Holy Spirit to transform bread and wine into the body and blood of God the Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus infuses his own divine light, and life and love into our souls through the blessed sacrament of the altar.
The Good News Jesus brings to the world is that it is God’s good pleasure to give us the Kingdom. The Kingdom is a gift. We can’t earn it. It is available to everyone.
God wants to bless us. The obstacle to the blessings of the Kingdom of God is three fold: fear, self will and pride.
In the gospel reading this morning Jesus sets before us a reassurance, an assignment, and a goal.
The reassurance comes in the words “do not be afraid.” Jesus knows that much of human life is distorted by fear. Fear erodes and destroys faith. But, grace can transform fear back into faith.
The great fear that people in Jesus’ day felt was the fear of divine anger. People believed in a god of rewards and punishments. This god made many demands as a condition for his rewards. Sadly, those who live with fear also live with anger. Those who live by religious principles of rewards and punishment also bring forth an ethic of rewards and punishments in the way they treat other people. As people expect God to punish any misbehavior or imperfection so they feel justified in treating other people in the same way. So people adopt an attitude towards life, other people, even God that if we get what we want we will be nice in return. If we don’t get what we want we will retaliate in some active or passive aggressive way.
Fear and anger produce a spirit of pride. Pride states that I and only I know who God is and what God wants. Therefore, I am righteous and you are not. Since I am righteous and you are not I am perfectly justified in imposing my will on you, life, and even God.
Jesus reassures us that God is not angry. He does not relate to us on the principle of rewards and punishments. If you are suffering it is not a sign that you sinned, that God is angry with you, and that you are being punished. It is OK that you are not perfect. It is Ok to learn and grow. God will transform our sins back into their original virtues. The reassurance Jesus gives us is in the words: it is God’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. God delights in giving. God is the eternal fountain of blessings.
That fount of blessings sets free from the narrow brittle rigidity of rewards and punishments into a new life of compassion. God fills us with the eternal abundance of uncreated love. That love liberates us from the narrow constriction of fear into the abundance of faith, hope, and charity. From that fount of blessing we can immerse ourselves in the abundance of blessing and become a blessing to others.
Fear always limits abundance and produces scarcity. The antidote to fear is faith. Jesus came into the world to demonstrate God’s grace. Jesus is the gift of God. Jesus reveals God’s nature and God’s character by his own actions.
Jesus is the abundance of eternal life pouring himself out to all sorts and conditions of people. In his self giving he invites us to live by faith. He invites us to transform self will into love.
The love Jesus demonstrates is the active, dynamic, creative self giving love of God. We cannot generate this kind of love. We can experience it. We can open our souls to receive the outpouring of this love and become living channels of this love.
Jesus commends the way of active compassion as a means for us to open to the gift of divine love so we can become the living channels of grace.
Since God gives us the kingdom as a gift, since God gives us faith to transform fear, Jesus gives us an assignment to practice our faith through acts of charity: giving alms. It is more blessed to give than to receive. Giving opens our souls to become channels of grace. As we give we become a blessing to others. As we become a blessing to others we live life from the place of blessing.
In addition to giving alms, Jesus also gives us an assignment to be dressed for action, Light your lamps, and prepare. He uses the parable of the servants preparing for their master’s return from the wedding banquet. They don’t know when he will return. The servants are focused on the preparation to receive the master when he returns. That preparation is their priority.
To dress for action is to live the principle that faith produces action. A soldier dresses for military action so he can fight effectively. A farmer dresses to work in the field so he can work effectively. A servant of Christ dresses for a life of faith by wearing the robes of faith. Metaphorically, the robes of faith come from the new life of grace, the new way of living in the abundance of love and compassion.
Faith is the basis for the choices we make in life. The choice to light the lamps is a choice to wake up and to live in the light of truth. The truth is that God is love. The truth is that God is holiness. The truth is that God gives himself to everyone in Jesus Christ. The truth is that as we receive the gift of God in Jesus Christ we receive the gift of a new life and a new way of living. We live from a place of active creative transforming love and holiness.
We dress in the garments of faith for action. We light the lamps of holiness to prepare for the master to return. We offer our minds, and hearts and wills to be transformed by God. We prepare for the King to return as we reset our priorities to accomplish his plan and purpose for our lives, the church and the world. We prepare for the King to return as we offer God our sins to be transformed back into their original virtues. Do not be overwhelmed by your sins. Do not shrink back from recognizing your sins. Your sins are the hidden jewels of the treasury of heaven that the Holy Spirit will transform to shine in their original brightness. Acknowledge your sins and present them to God to be transformed back into their original virtues.
Jesus reassures us that God gives us a new life from the infinite abundance of his love. There is no punishment. The reward is Jesus himself.
Jesus gives us an assignment to live a new life by immersing ourselves in self giving and personal transformation. Jesus sets before us a goal for our lives. Be ready.
Be ready to welcome the personal return of Jesus Christ to this planet. Be ready by making a real choice to ask the Holy Spirit to transform fear, self will and pride into faith, hope and love. Be ready by seeking the blessing of God, by receiving the blessing of God, and by being the blessing of God.
Life is difficult. Life has many challenges, many joys and many sorrows. Apart from God, people react to the challenges of life with fear. Fear produces the demand of self will . Self will justifies its demands through pride. Life becomes a struggle to endure, a vicious cycle of fear, frustration, anger, and demand.
Jesus offers us a different way of living. It is the life of grace. It is the reality that God is love even when bad things happen. The reality of God is not in rewards and punishments of wealth or poverty, pleasure or pain, power or defeat. The reality of God is in the personal relationship God offers us in Jesus Christ.
The Kingdom of God is that relationship. It is the Father’s good pleasure to give us, and all people everywhere, those blessings of faith, hope and love in the gift of Jesus Christ.
Do not be afraid, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom.
God wants to bless us. God not only wants to give us the Kingdom, it is Father’s good pleasure to give us the Kingdom.
The Kingdom is characterized by three fundamental virtues: faith, hope, and charity. The Kingdom is a new life and a new way of living.
The new life begins in the waters of baptism. God uses ordinary water to be a sign and a reality of the gift of that new life. In the sacrament of baptism, God the Father pours forth God the Holy Spirit to give us a new birth into the risen life of God the Son. We receive the gift of the Kingdom through the waters of baptism.
The new way of living is nourished through the bread and wine of Holy Communion. God the Father sends God the Holy Spirit to transform bread and wine into the body and blood of God the Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus infuses his own divine light, and life and love into our souls through the blessed sacrament of the altar.
The Good News Jesus brings to the world is that it is God’s good pleasure to give us the Kingdom. The Kingdom is a gift. We can’t earn it. It is available to everyone.
God wants to bless us. The obstacle to the blessings of the Kingdom of God is three fold: fear, self will and pride.
In the gospel reading this morning Jesus sets before us a reassurance, an assignment, and a goal.
The reassurance comes in the words “do not be afraid.” Jesus knows that much of human life is distorted by fear. Fear erodes and destroys faith. But, grace can transform fear back into faith.
The great fear that people in Jesus’ day felt was the fear of divine anger. People believed in a god of rewards and punishments. This god made many demands as a condition for his rewards. Sadly, those who live with fear also live with anger. Those who live by religious principles of rewards and punishment also bring forth an ethic of rewards and punishments in the way they treat other people. As people expect God to punish any misbehavior or imperfection so they feel justified in treating other people in the same way. So people adopt an attitude towards life, other people, even God that if we get what we want we will be nice in return. If we don’t get what we want we will retaliate in some active or passive aggressive way.
Fear and anger produce a spirit of pride. Pride states that I and only I know who God is and what God wants. Therefore, I am righteous and you are not. Since I am righteous and you are not I am perfectly justified in imposing my will on you, life, and even God.
Jesus reassures us that God is not angry. He does not relate to us on the principle of rewards and punishments. If you are suffering it is not a sign that you sinned, that God is angry with you, and that you are being punished. It is OK that you are not perfect. It is Ok to learn and grow. God will transform our sins back into their original virtues. The reassurance Jesus gives us is in the words: it is God’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. God delights in giving. God is the eternal fountain of blessings.
That fount of blessings sets free from the narrow brittle rigidity of rewards and punishments into a new life of compassion. God fills us with the eternal abundance of uncreated love. That love liberates us from the narrow constriction of fear into the abundance of faith, hope, and charity. From that fount of blessing we can immerse ourselves in the abundance of blessing and become a blessing to others.
Fear always limits abundance and produces scarcity. The antidote to fear is faith. Jesus came into the world to demonstrate God’s grace. Jesus is the gift of God. Jesus reveals God’s nature and God’s character by his own actions.
Jesus is the abundance of eternal life pouring himself out to all sorts and conditions of people. In his self giving he invites us to live by faith. He invites us to transform self will into love.
The love Jesus demonstrates is the active, dynamic, creative self giving love of God. We cannot generate this kind of love. We can experience it. We can open our souls to receive the outpouring of this love and become living channels of this love.
Jesus commends the way of active compassion as a means for us to open to the gift of divine love so we can become the living channels of grace.
Since God gives us the kingdom as a gift, since God gives us faith to transform fear, Jesus gives us an assignment to practice our faith through acts of charity: giving alms. It is more blessed to give than to receive. Giving opens our souls to become channels of grace. As we give we become a blessing to others. As we become a blessing to others we live life from the place of blessing.
In addition to giving alms, Jesus also gives us an assignment to be dressed for action, Light your lamps, and prepare. He uses the parable of the servants preparing for their master’s return from the wedding banquet. They don’t know when he will return. The servants are focused on the preparation to receive the master when he returns. That preparation is their priority.
To dress for action is to live the principle that faith produces action. A soldier dresses for military action so he can fight effectively. A farmer dresses to work in the field so he can work effectively. A servant of Christ dresses for a life of faith by wearing the robes of faith. Metaphorically, the robes of faith come from the new life of grace, the new way of living in the abundance of love and compassion.
Faith is the basis for the choices we make in life. The choice to light the lamps is a choice to wake up and to live in the light of truth. The truth is that God is love. The truth is that God is holiness. The truth is that God gives himself to everyone in Jesus Christ. The truth is that as we receive the gift of God in Jesus Christ we receive the gift of a new life and a new way of living. We live from a place of active creative transforming love and holiness.
We dress in the garments of faith for action. We light the lamps of holiness to prepare for the master to return. We offer our minds, and hearts and wills to be transformed by God. We prepare for the King to return as we reset our priorities to accomplish his plan and purpose for our lives, the church and the world. We prepare for the King to return as we offer God our sins to be transformed back into their original virtues. Do not be overwhelmed by your sins. Do not shrink back from recognizing your sins. Your sins are the hidden jewels of the treasury of heaven that the Holy Spirit will transform to shine in their original brightness. Acknowledge your sins and present them to God to be transformed back into their original virtues.
Jesus reassures us that God gives us a new life from the infinite abundance of his love. There is no punishment. The reward is Jesus himself.
Jesus gives us an assignment to live a new life by immersing ourselves in self giving and personal transformation. Jesus sets before us a goal for our lives. Be ready.
Be ready to welcome the personal return of Jesus Christ to this planet. Be ready by making a real choice to ask the Holy Spirit to transform fear, self will and pride into faith, hope and love. Be ready by seeking the blessing of God, by receiving the blessing of God, and by being the blessing of God.
Life is difficult. Life has many challenges, many joys and many sorrows. Apart from God, people react to the challenges of life with fear. Fear produces the demand of self will . Self will justifies its demands through pride. Life becomes a struggle to endure, a vicious cycle of fear, frustration, anger, and demand.
Jesus offers us a different way of living. It is the life of grace. It is the reality that God is love even when bad things happen. The reality of God is not in rewards and punishments of wealth or poverty, pleasure or pain, power or defeat. The reality of God is in the personal relationship God offers us in Jesus Christ.
The Kingdom of God is that relationship. It is the Father’s good pleasure to give us, and all people everywhere, those blessings of faith, hope and love in the gift of Jesus Christ.
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Pentecost 10
Pentecost 10 (Luke 12:13-21)
Take care. Be on your guard against all kinds of greed.
Greed kills.
Greed is one of the seven deadly sins. The essence of sin is separation. It is separation from God, other people and from the image and likeness of God imprinted on our souls. The end result of sin is always the same: death.
Greed is one specific form of sin that diverts the mind, the heart and the will from God and redirects it to material objects. Greed is deadly in the same way heroin is deadly, in the same way all of the seven deadly sins are deadly.
Greed is subject to the law of diminishing return. That law states that the more you have, the more you want, and the less you are satisfied. That is how sin kills. It offers us a substitute for God that distorts and diminishes our desire for a loving relationship with God. Sin substitutes some else for God.
The substitute always brings some initial pleasure. That pleasure always carriers a price. The price is the disintegration of our souls.
We don’t always experience the disintegration at first. There are warning signs that we have departed from the path of life. Those signs come in many ways. Usually, the signs come from a twinge of conscience that alerts us to the danger. Deadly sins are deadly because they appear to promise so much. Deadly sins are deadly because they stimulate our senses and appeal to our pride.
The object of greed is generally material possession. There is nothing wrong with the objects. The allure of greed is the pleasure we derive from the possession. There is nothing wrong with pleasure. God designed human beings to experience pleasure.
The corrosive quality of greed is the human will to power. That will to power is grounded in the pride that says: “I and I alone decide what is true, what is valuable, what is God.”
This is why Jesus would not intervene in the dispute over the inheritance. The dispute set the terms and conditions of what the family valued. Jesus revealed to the man who asked for justice that he was really motivated by greed.
Jesus saw very clearly that the man had come to define life in terms of money. That is why Jesus said: life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.
There is nothing inherently wrong with money. There is nothing inherently wrong with material possessions. The problem lies in the choice people make to define the abundance of life in terms of money and possessions.
Jesus came to preach and teach and demonstrate that the abundance of life is the relationship God offers us- all of us- each of us- through him.
Jesus once sadly acknowledged that there will always be poverty until he returns. Greed is one of the seven deadly sins that produces poverty.
The parable of the rich farmer demonstrates this. God had blessed the man with material abundance. God had even revealed through Moses and the prophets that God expects those who have been blessed with material abundance to share the blessing with the less fortunate.
Pride steps in and declares: I have accumulated this wealth by my own will. By my own work and righteous living I have become wealthy. What then shall I do? The prophets say: help others. That is foolish. Let them work. Let them perform righteous acts to earn the blessing of God. I did it on my own. Let them do the same.
The rich farmer decides to hold onto his material abundance heedless of the moral, ethical and spiritual principles that God has woven into the pattern of life. Moses and the prophets reveal those principles. Jesus repeated them and then lived them to demonstrate to us how it is possible to make a different choice in life.
The conclusion of Jesus’ parable is in a single word of God to the wealthy self made man. The word is “fool”. It is an echo of Psalm 14 which begins with the words: the fool has said in his heart there is no God.
The parable is a warning to the man and to us. Where is our heart/ What do we value most? How do we respond to the material abundance God gives us? By what principle do we make choices to use our money?
God gave Moses the principle. It is: make the love of God the first priority in your life. God comes first. Worship, prayer, Bible study, the sacraments come first. The second priority is to love other people.
Worship comes first because worship is the only way a human being can offer love to God. Service to others comes next. Service answers the question the rich farmer in the parable posed to himself. What then shall I do with my money and possessions?
The rich farmer answered the question by declaring his intent to build larger storage facilities so he could hold on to everything he had. Jesus recommends we answer the question by refocusing on God.
The rich farmer could have reframed the question from what shall I do to how shall I help? There was and still is overwhelming poverty in the world. No one of us can solve the entire problem of poverty. Each of us can make a difference.
Jesus identifies greed as a barrier to the abundant life.
It seems counter intuitive. It seems illogical that the pursuit of wealth and the acquisition of material possessions fails to satisfy. It takes faith to perceive the reality and the root of the problem.
The faith comes as we hear the word of God in the Bible. That word is a thousand year record of human behavior and human suffering.
That faith comes as we hear the word of God in Jesus Christ. Jesus just doesn’t speak God’s word. Jesus is God’s word. Jesus is the plan and pattern of creation.
That faith comes as we hear the word of God that God speaks to us in worship, in prayer, and in human need. Poverty is God’s invitation for people to share their abundance.
Jesus tells us and shows us that the blessing of abundance comes in the way we choose to live our lives. The blessing is not in the money or the possessions. The blessing is in how we choose to use the money and the possessions.
Take care. Pay attention. Ask yourself and God: how am I doing today? How am I doing in fulfilling the law of love?
Be on your guard. Temptations come from many sources. The world culture is for the most part contrary to the values God reveals through Moses and the prophets. Our own pride leads us to reject divine principles of love and compassion. Our own self will leads us to rebel against the person and plan and pattern of reality in Jesus Christ.
Hear the principle. Life does not consist in the abundance of possessions. The abundant life is a life immersed in the steadfast holy love of God in Jesus Christ. The abundant life is rich towards God in the time and attention we offer to God to fill with the abundance of his love. And, it is rich towards God in the choices we make to become channels of blessings to others.
Jesus fed the hungry, healed the sick, comforted the lonely, worshipped weekly in the synagogue, offered himself daily to God in prayer. This is the abundance of spiritual treasure that brings us an eternal blessing here and now.
Take heed. Be on your guard. Choose the abundance which is inexhaustible and fulfilling. Choose the Way of Life revealed in the pattern, plan and purpose of life in Jesus Christ.
Take care. Be on your guard against all kinds of greed.
Greed kills.
Greed is one of the seven deadly sins. The essence of sin is separation. It is separation from God, other people and from the image and likeness of God imprinted on our souls. The end result of sin is always the same: death.
Greed is one specific form of sin that diverts the mind, the heart and the will from God and redirects it to material objects. Greed is deadly in the same way heroin is deadly, in the same way all of the seven deadly sins are deadly.
Greed is subject to the law of diminishing return. That law states that the more you have, the more you want, and the less you are satisfied. That is how sin kills. It offers us a substitute for God that distorts and diminishes our desire for a loving relationship with God. Sin substitutes some else for God.
The substitute always brings some initial pleasure. That pleasure always carriers a price. The price is the disintegration of our souls.
We don’t always experience the disintegration at first. There are warning signs that we have departed from the path of life. Those signs come in many ways. Usually, the signs come from a twinge of conscience that alerts us to the danger. Deadly sins are deadly because they appear to promise so much. Deadly sins are deadly because they stimulate our senses and appeal to our pride.
The object of greed is generally material possession. There is nothing wrong with the objects. The allure of greed is the pleasure we derive from the possession. There is nothing wrong with pleasure. God designed human beings to experience pleasure.
The corrosive quality of greed is the human will to power. That will to power is grounded in the pride that says: “I and I alone decide what is true, what is valuable, what is God.”
This is why Jesus would not intervene in the dispute over the inheritance. The dispute set the terms and conditions of what the family valued. Jesus revealed to the man who asked for justice that he was really motivated by greed.
Jesus saw very clearly that the man had come to define life in terms of money. That is why Jesus said: life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.
There is nothing inherently wrong with money. There is nothing inherently wrong with material possessions. The problem lies in the choice people make to define the abundance of life in terms of money and possessions.
Jesus came to preach and teach and demonstrate that the abundance of life is the relationship God offers us- all of us- each of us- through him.
Jesus once sadly acknowledged that there will always be poverty until he returns. Greed is one of the seven deadly sins that produces poverty.
The parable of the rich farmer demonstrates this. God had blessed the man with material abundance. God had even revealed through Moses and the prophets that God expects those who have been blessed with material abundance to share the blessing with the less fortunate.
Pride steps in and declares: I have accumulated this wealth by my own will. By my own work and righteous living I have become wealthy. What then shall I do? The prophets say: help others. That is foolish. Let them work. Let them perform righteous acts to earn the blessing of God. I did it on my own. Let them do the same.
The rich farmer decides to hold onto his material abundance heedless of the moral, ethical and spiritual principles that God has woven into the pattern of life. Moses and the prophets reveal those principles. Jesus repeated them and then lived them to demonstrate to us how it is possible to make a different choice in life.
The conclusion of Jesus’ parable is in a single word of God to the wealthy self made man. The word is “fool”. It is an echo of Psalm 14 which begins with the words: the fool has said in his heart there is no God.
The parable is a warning to the man and to us. Where is our heart/ What do we value most? How do we respond to the material abundance God gives us? By what principle do we make choices to use our money?
God gave Moses the principle. It is: make the love of God the first priority in your life. God comes first. Worship, prayer, Bible study, the sacraments come first. The second priority is to love other people.
Worship comes first because worship is the only way a human being can offer love to God. Service to others comes next. Service answers the question the rich farmer in the parable posed to himself. What then shall I do with my money and possessions?
The rich farmer answered the question by declaring his intent to build larger storage facilities so he could hold on to everything he had. Jesus recommends we answer the question by refocusing on God.
The rich farmer could have reframed the question from what shall I do to how shall I help? There was and still is overwhelming poverty in the world. No one of us can solve the entire problem of poverty. Each of us can make a difference.
Jesus identifies greed as a barrier to the abundant life.
It seems counter intuitive. It seems illogical that the pursuit of wealth and the acquisition of material possessions fails to satisfy. It takes faith to perceive the reality and the root of the problem.
The faith comes as we hear the word of God in the Bible. That word is a thousand year record of human behavior and human suffering.
That faith comes as we hear the word of God in Jesus Christ. Jesus just doesn’t speak God’s word. Jesus is God’s word. Jesus is the plan and pattern of creation.
That faith comes as we hear the word of God that God speaks to us in worship, in prayer, and in human need. Poverty is God’s invitation for people to share their abundance.
Jesus tells us and shows us that the blessing of abundance comes in the way we choose to live our lives. The blessing is not in the money or the possessions. The blessing is in how we choose to use the money and the possessions.
Take care. Pay attention. Ask yourself and God: how am I doing today? How am I doing in fulfilling the law of love?
Be on your guard. Temptations come from many sources. The world culture is for the most part contrary to the values God reveals through Moses and the prophets. Our own pride leads us to reject divine principles of love and compassion. Our own self will leads us to rebel against the person and plan and pattern of reality in Jesus Christ.
Hear the principle. Life does not consist in the abundance of possessions. The abundant life is a life immersed in the steadfast holy love of God in Jesus Christ. The abundant life is rich towards God in the time and attention we offer to God to fill with the abundance of his love. And, it is rich towards God in the choices we make to become channels of blessings to others.
Jesus fed the hungry, healed the sick, comforted the lonely, worshipped weekly in the synagogue, offered himself daily to God in prayer. This is the abundance of spiritual treasure that brings us an eternal blessing here and now.
Take heed. Be on your guard. Choose the abundance which is inexhaustible and fulfilling. Choose the Way of Life revealed in the pattern, plan and purpose of life in Jesus Christ.
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Pentecost 9 Year C
Pentecost 9 (Luke 11:1-13)
Father, hallowed be thy name.
God’s name is holy. God’s name is holy because God is holy. Holiness is not just an attribute or an aspect of God. Holiness is the essential nature of God.
God is love. That love is holy.
When the disciples observed Jesus praying they asked him to teach them to pray. They were probably asking for a specific prayer. Rabbis and other religious leaders some times gave a special prayer to their students. It was a unique prayer that expressed the teaching and helped build the group identity.
The prayer Jesus taught, in its original form. Is more of a prayer outline. It reflects the outline but not necessarily the exact words Jesus used in his prayer life
Prayer is a conversation with our heavenly Father. While God never changes we do. The prayer of a seven year old is very different from the prayer of a seventeen year old and even more different than that of a twenty seven year old and a seventy year old.
Our needs, desires and concerns change over time and circumstance. Our maturity level evolves, hopefully.
As our conversation with our own children changes and evolves over time, so it is with our conversation with God. This is the purpose of prayer. It is an ongoing conversation with someone who cares for us and seeks a personal relationship with us.
Prayer does not change God. Prayer changes us. So it is that Jesus’ prayer outline begins with the words: Father, hallowed be your name. The invitation to prayer is the invitation to personal holiness.
Jesus shared with his disciples his experience of prayer. It is the experience of a son speaking with his father. It is the personal experience of divine love. Jesus asks his students, if your son asks you for a fish will you give him a snake? If he asks for an egg will you give him a scorpion?
People have many misconceptions about God. Through his teaching on prayer, Jesus reminds us that God is real, God is personal, God is love. God is our heavenly Father who delights to hear from us.
Many people perceive God as an impersonal force. For these people, prayer is a form of magic. If you say the right words at the right time in the right way you can access and use divine power for your benefit.
Many people perceive God as a blind judge. If you ask for something in the right way God will reward you by giving you what you want. If you ask the wrong way, God will with hold what you want and may even give you something you don’t want.
Many people perceive God simply as an extension of their own needs and desires. They reason, if God is real then God will give me what I need and what I want. If I do not receive what I need and want it can only mean God is not real.
When the disciples ask Jesus to teach them a prayer Jesus first wants to clarify who it is they think they are praying to. Is it the impersonal God, the blind judge, the indulgent God? Jesus clarifies who God is by describing how he prays. When Jesus prays he addresses God as Father.
Father is not only personal it is intimate. It is a recognition that God has a deep and abiding love for us. It is a recognition that prayer is not about manipulating divine power to get God to give us what we need or want. Prayer is personal conversation with a Father who cares for us.
Such prayer is open, evolving and transforming. God is always our Father. We are always God’s children. As we grow and develop in life so God invites us to grow and develop in our relationship with him. Prayer facilitates this growth.
The first petition in the outline of prayer Jesus gives us is about God. Jesus teaches us to pray according to the principle of personal holiness. “Hallowed be your name. May your name, God, be holy.” God is holy. We are not asking God to be anything other than he is. In that request we yield our inclination to define God.
The great challenge humanity faces in its relationship with God is our demand to define God. Humans have even invented a right to define God however we choose. God is God. He cannot be defined. He can only be experienced.
We experience God in prayer as we enter into the personal relationship God himself offers us. We grow into that relationship as we declare our intent to accept God for who God is.
The great obstacle to human relationships is our tendency to define people according to our needs and desires. It is the tendency to see in another person only that which appeals to us and brings us pleasure. This is the experience of infatuation.
None of us has that power. As the illusion of who we want the other person to be for us wears thin and begins to evaporate so the infatuation vanishes. More often than not, we feel betrayed that the other person is not who we thought he was.
Our relationship with God takes the same form. We create God in our own image and then feel betrayed when that God fails us. In his teaching on prayer, Jesus instructs us that we need to pray in spirit and in truth. We need to enter into a conversation with some one who has gone on record in the Bible over the course of a thousand years of history to reveal himself, his personality, his nature, and his name.
Jesus sets the example by naming God “Father”. Jesus sets the intent by forming the first petition with the words” Father, may your name be holy.”
May you name be holy in the heavens. May you name be holy in the creation. May your name be holy amongst the nations. May you name be holy in my life.
Holiness is personal as love is personal.
Personal Holiness is God’s goal for our lives. As we pray that God’s Name, God’s nature, would be universally recognized as holy, so we ask God to release us from our rebellious tendency to redefine God.
The first four of the ten commandments offer a practical guide how we can fulfill this petition. I am the Lord your God, you shall have no other gods except me. Keep the Sabbath day holy. Do not make idols. Do not take the name of God in vain.
There is a lot there in those four statements. The secular demand to remove the ten commandments from public life has less to do with the six moral commandments than the absolute nature of the first four commandments about God. Human beings in general resist and rebel against the Lord God who declares himself in the words: I am.
Be sure you understand what you pray and to whom you pray if you choose to use the outline of prayer Jesus taught. The outline sets the definition of terms in the first few words.
God is real. God is personal. God is our loving heavenly Father. God is holy. The remaining categories in the outline all derive from this introduction. The additional petitions only make sense and become real as we begin to appreciate and live into the first words.
Jesus reveals to us that it is the personal relationship with our Heavenly Father that rescues prayer from the realm of magic, manipulation or empty ritual. As the relationship is open ended, evolving, and transforming so is the conversation, the prayer.
We grow in prayer as we spend time in prayer. Our lives change and transform as we immerse our thoughts, words, desires and will in the holiness of God’s Name, God’s nature.
God spoke to Moses and through Moses to all Israel and through Israel to all people everywhere: you shall be holy for the Lord you God is holy. Do not pray the Lord’s prayer, the Our Father, if you do not believe God is personal steadfast holy love.
Do not pray the Lord’s payer if you do not wish for God to recreate you in every aspect of your life according to the plan and the pattern and the purpose of holiness. Moses observes that every aspect of human nature is distorted by sin. The prophets teach that every aspect of human nature needs to be reclaimed and recreated. Jesus not only shows us the way to the recreation of fallen and distorted human nature, Jesus is the Way. If you want to know what personal holiness looks like in terms of thoughts, words and deeds- study the life of Jesus Christ as it is recorded in the four apostolic biographies of Jesus. Receive the fullness of that life in the real presence of Jesus in the sacraments.
Jesus taught his students an outline of prayer to help us enter into the process of prayer. The words of the Lord’s Prayer are a starting place for the conversation to begin. The conversation develops and deepens and becomes more meaningful as we ponder the words and seek God’s help to live into the words.
The first step in prayer is always the same. The first step is for us to surrender our self will to the divine Love of God in Jesus Christ. The disciples took this first step when they asked Jesus to teach them.
The second step is to declare with Moses and the Prophets that there is only one God. He is who he is. We take this next step when we accept Jesus’ revelation that God is our heavenly Father and we pray the words Jesus taught us: Our Father.
The third step is to follow Jesus into the plan and pattern and purpose of God. We take that step when we pray: Father, hallowed be your name. May your name be holy. May your name be holy in your world, in your people, and in my life.
That third step is the journey through life that is formed and transformed by our personal conversation with God in prayer. As we take the next step into that journey, how much more will our heavenly Father give us the Holy Spirit to guide and direct us to become more fully who he has created us to be and redeemed us to become.
Father, hallowed be thy name.
God’s name is holy. God’s name is holy because God is holy. Holiness is not just an attribute or an aspect of God. Holiness is the essential nature of God.
God is love. That love is holy.
When the disciples observed Jesus praying they asked him to teach them to pray. They were probably asking for a specific prayer. Rabbis and other religious leaders some times gave a special prayer to their students. It was a unique prayer that expressed the teaching and helped build the group identity.
The prayer Jesus taught, in its original form. Is more of a prayer outline. It reflects the outline but not necessarily the exact words Jesus used in his prayer life
Prayer is a conversation with our heavenly Father. While God never changes we do. The prayer of a seven year old is very different from the prayer of a seventeen year old and even more different than that of a twenty seven year old and a seventy year old.
Our needs, desires and concerns change over time and circumstance. Our maturity level evolves, hopefully.
As our conversation with our own children changes and evolves over time, so it is with our conversation with God. This is the purpose of prayer. It is an ongoing conversation with someone who cares for us and seeks a personal relationship with us.
Prayer does not change God. Prayer changes us. So it is that Jesus’ prayer outline begins with the words: Father, hallowed be your name. The invitation to prayer is the invitation to personal holiness.
Jesus shared with his disciples his experience of prayer. It is the experience of a son speaking with his father. It is the personal experience of divine love. Jesus asks his students, if your son asks you for a fish will you give him a snake? If he asks for an egg will you give him a scorpion?
People have many misconceptions about God. Through his teaching on prayer, Jesus reminds us that God is real, God is personal, God is love. God is our heavenly Father who delights to hear from us.
Many people perceive God as an impersonal force. For these people, prayer is a form of magic. If you say the right words at the right time in the right way you can access and use divine power for your benefit.
Many people perceive God as a blind judge. If you ask for something in the right way God will reward you by giving you what you want. If you ask the wrong way, God will with hold what you want and may even give you something you don’t want.
Many people perceive God simply as an extension of their own needs and desires. They reason, if God is real then God will give me what I need and what I want. If I do not receive what I need and want it can only mean God is not real.
When the disciples ask Jesus to teach them a prayer Jesus first wants to clarify who it is they think they are praying to. Is it the impersonal God, the blind judge, the indulgent God? Jesus clarifies who God is by describing how he prays. When Jesus prays he addresses God as Father.
Father is not only personal it is intimate. It is a recognition that God has a deep and abiding love for us. It is a recognition that prayer is not about manipulating divine power to get God to give us what we need or want. Prayer is personal conversation with a Father who cares for us.
Such prayer is open, evolving and transforming. God is always our Father. We are always God’s children. As we grow and develop in life so God invites us to grow and develop in our relationship with him. Prayer facilitates this growth.
The first petition in the outline of prayer Jesus gives us is about God. Jesus teaches us to pray according to the principle of personal holiness. “Hallowed be your name. May your name, God, be holy.” God is holy. We are not asking God to be anything other than he is. In that request we yield our inclination to define God.
The great challenge humanity faces in its relationship with God is our demand to define God. Humans have even invented a right to define God however we choose. God is God. He cannot be defined. He can only be experienced.
We experience God in prayer as we enter into the personal relationship God himself offers us. We grow into that relationship as we declare our intent to accept God for who God is.
The great obstacle to human relationships is our tendency to define people according to our needs and desires. It is the tendency to see in another person only that which appeals to us and brings us pleasure. This is the experience of infatuation.
None of us has that power. As the illusion of who we want the other person to be for us wears thin and begins to evaporate so the infatuation vanishes. More often than not, we feel betrayed that the other person is not who we thought he was.
Our relationship with God takes the same form. We create God in our own image and then feel betrayed when that God fails us. In his teaching on prayer, Jesus instructs us that we need to pray in spirit and in truth. We need to enter into a conversation with some one who has gone on record in the Bible over the course of a thousand years of history to reveal himself, his personality, his nature, and his name.
Jesus sets the example by naming God “Father”. Jesus sets the intent by forming the first petition with the words” Father, may your name be holy.”
May you name be holy in the heavens. May you name be holy in the creation. May your name be holy amongst the nations. May you name be holy in my life.
Holiness is personal as love is personal.
Personal Holiness is God’s goal for our lives. As we pray that God’s Name, God’s nature, would be universally recognized as holy, so we ask God to release us from our rebellious tendency to redefine God.
The first four of the ten commandments offer a practical guide how we can fulfill this petition. I am the Lord your God, you shall have no other gods except me. Keep the Sabbath day holy. Do not make idols. Do not take the name of God in vain.
There is a lot there in those four statements. The secular demand to remove the ten commandments from public life has less to do with the six moral commandments than the absolute nature of the first four commandments about God. Human beings in general resist and rebel against the Lord God who declares himself in the words: I am.
Be sure you understand what you pray and to whom you pray if you choose to use the outline of prayer Jesus taught. The outline sets the definition of terms in the first few words.
God is real. God is personal. God is our loving heavenly Father. God is holy. The remaining categories in the outline all derive from this introduction. The additional petitions only make sense and become real as we begin to appreciate and live into the first words.
Jesus reveals to us that it is the personal relationship with our Heavenly Father that rescues prayer from the realm of magic, manipulation or empty ritual. As the relationship is open ended, evolving, and transforming so is the conversation, the prayer.
We grow in prayer as we spend time in prayer. Our lives change and transform as we immerse our thoughts, words, desires and will in the holiness of God’s Name, God’s nature.
God spoke to Moses and through Moses to all Israel and through Israel to all people everywhere: you shall be holy for the Lord you God is holy. Do not pray the Lord’s prayer, the Our Father, if you do not believe God is personal steadfast holy love.
Do not pray the Lord’s payer if you do not wish for God to recreate you in every aspect of your life according to the plan and the pattern and the purpose of holiness. Moses observes that every aspect of human nature is distorted by sin. The prophets teach that every aspect of human nature needs to be reclaimed and recreated. Jesus not only shows us the way to the recreation of fallen and distorted human nature, Jesus is the Way. If you want to know what personal holiness looks like in terms of thoughts, words and deeds- study the life of Jesus Christ as it is recorded in the four apostolic biographies of Jesus. Receive the fullness of that life in the real presence of Jesus in the sacraments.
Jesus taught his students an outline of prayer to help us enter into the process of prayer. The words of the Lord’s Prayer are a starting place for the conversation to begin. The conversation develops and deepens and becomes more meaningful as we ponder the words and seek God’s help to live into the words.
The first step in prayer is always the same. The first step is for us to surrender our self will to the divine Love of God in Jesus Christ. The disciples took this first step when they asked Jesus to teach them.
The second step is to declare with Moses and the Prophets that there is only one God. He is who he is. We take this next step when we accept Jesus’ revelation that God is our heavenly Father and we pray the words Jesus taught us: Our Father.
The third step is to follow Jesus into the plan and pattern and purpose of God. We take that step when we pray: Father, hallowed be your name. May your name be holy. May your name be holy in your world, in your people, and in my life.
That third step is the journey through life that is formed and transformed by our personal conversation with God in prayer. As we take the next step into that journey, how much more will our heavenly Father give us the Holy Spirit to guide and direct us to become more fully who he has created us to be and redeemed us to become.
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Pentecost 8
Pentecost 8 (Luke 10:38-42)
You are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing.
Worry and distraction erode faith.
Jesus had chosen to visit Martha and Mary. Martha received Jesus into her home them promptly ignored him. She turned to the hustle and bustle of work. In that flurry of activity she felt frustration and anger that her sister, Mary, wasn’t helping her. She missed the point of Jesus’ visit.
Jesus was visiting Martha and Mary to get to know them. He was not interested in being entertained. He was not interested in a formal dinner. He came to visit.
Mary understood this. She perceived the gift Jesus was offering. She responded to that gift and sat in Jesus’ presence. She gave Jesus her time and attention. She listened to him.
Martha avoided Jesus. She with held her time and attention from Jesus and directed it to business. She was worried and distracted. In that worry she chose fear over faith.
Perhaps she was fearful that Jesus would think less of her if the house was not perfectly spotless. Perhaps she was fearful that Jesus would judge her if the meal she prepared was not perfectly cooked, perfectly, presented, and perfectly served. Perhaps she was fearful that she lacked something that she should have, something more, something different, something perfectly suited to honor and to impress her guest.
The fear came from her own interior demand to make everything perfect. Her faith in Jesus eroded as her demand to be in control of the situation shifted her attention from Jesus to her own self will.
Martha was also distracted. Distractions are usually self created. Distractions come when there is a higher priority we seek to evade.
The priority may be a homework paper due the next day. The distraction may be the sudden realization that you need to completely reorganize all of your comic books and baseball cards.
The priority may be getting to work on time. The distraction may be the sudden realization that you couldn’t possibly leave the house until the beds are made, the laundry is folded and the furniture is rearranged.
The priority may be to receive an honored guest who offers his friendship. The distraction may be the feeling that you really aren’t interested in the friendship as much as you are impressing an important person who could very easily become the next King.
Fear creates the worry. Worry creates the distraction. Distraction substantiates the fear. The fear is that unless I am perfect I am worthless. The fear results in anger.
Martha complained to Jesus that her sister should abandon him and help her. Martha wanted Mary to turn her back on Jesus so together they could create the perfect meal for Jesus.
Sadly, the worry and the distraction are the clues that Martha missed her moment of grace. She acted as though the moment was all about her. Since the moment was all about her she had to assert her will and make everything perfect.
Jesus very gently, and I believe with a compassionate humor, responds to Martha’s complaint by showing her the folly of her choice. Martha- you’ve chosen to make my visit into an occasion for worry and distraction. Mary has chosen to make my visit into a moment of grace. Mary has made the better choice.
In her worry and her distraction Martha is not present to Jesus. He is right there in her house. But for Martha, he might just as well be on the other side of the world. He might just as well not exist at all. She experiences only her own demands, fears, distractions and anger even as Jesus is offering her the most amazing gift possible- the gift of reunification with God, friendship with God.
That is what Mary chose. At that moment- that was the priority. Jesus commends Mary’s choice. He comments that Mary’s choice is not only the better choice but it is also the choice with eternal value. Mary’s choice will never be taken away from her.
Martha’s choice not only fails to satisfy but immediately falls apart. Her demand for perfection is unattainable. Her desire to impose her will is fruitless. She needs to stop. Reflect. Repent. Change her sense of priority. She needs to turn to Jesus and receive the gift of his friendship.
There is a time and a place for housework, cooking and serving. There is a time and a place for doing. There is also a time and a place for being. The being comes as we receive the gift Jesus offers us. The gift is himself.
Jesus is the incarnation of the co-eternal Son of God. Friendship with Jesus begins in a moment of grace. Jesus seeks us out amid the worries and distractions of the world. He finds where we are caught in our self created frustration, fear and anger. He offers himself to us in a moment of grace. But, he never imposes himself on us. The choice is ours.
Distractions come from within the soul. The dist5raction are not in the outer world. The distraction are in our personal interior world. We choose to create distractions to avoid our moment of grace.
Anything can become a distraction. It may be frivolous or it may have some importance. We choose doing over being in an effort to create the illusion we are in control. Distractions are always a means to avoid our moment of grace.
The moment of grace is that moment in time when God reveals to us that life is not about our will. Life is not about us.
The moment of grace is that moment when God reveals to us we are not perfect and by our own efforts we can never be perfect. In fact, the more we focus on our own demand for perfection the greater the anxiety we experience.
The moment of grace is that moment when God reveals to us we are lost and broken and he has come to us to find us and to heal us.
That is what Jesus does. That is who Jesus is. Jesus saves us from sin and death by saving us from ourselves- our own self will, fear and pride. As we open to the moment of grace Jesus offers that moment sets us free from fear into a new life of faith.
Even in the physical presence of Jesus Christ, Martha continued to assert her self will to control the moment. Mary released her will into the moment. Martha experienced anxiety, fear and anger. Mary experienced the real presence of God in Jesus Christ. The real presence of God in Jesus Christ is eternal love.
The Holy Spirit inspired St. Luke to record this event in the life of Martha and Mart to reveal to all future generations the nature of real choice. Real Choice opens the mind, the heart and the will to the eternal love of the real presence of Jesus Christ.
The message of Christ is the reality of a new life and a new way of living. That new life comes from the personal relationship God offers us and all people. It is the personal relationship that recreates the moment. It is the personal relationship that offers the promise of a life of transformation.
As with all relationships, our relationship with Jesus Christ requires time and attention. As with the most important relationships in our life, our relationship with Jesus Christ can only be as meaningful as it becomes our priority.
Martha devoted her time and attention to becoming the perfect hostess who would produce the perfect dinner for a guest she largely ignored. Her sister Mary chose to devote her time and attention to listening to Jesus and speaking with him.
Which was the better choice? Which is the better choice for us? Jesus himself answers this question as he speaks to Martha, and as he speaks to us today: You are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing.
That one thing is the new life and the new way of living in a personal relationship with the co-eternal Son of God, Jesus Christ.
You are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing.
Worry and distraction erode faith.
Jesus had chosen to visit Martha and Mary. Martha received Jesus into her home them promptly ignored him. She turned to the hustle and bustle of work. In that flurry of activity she felt frustration and anger that her sister, Mary, wasn’t helping her. She missed the point of Jesus’ visit.
Jesus was visiting Martha and Mary to get to know them. He was not interested in being entertained. He was not interested in a formal dinner. He came to visit.
Mary understood this. She perceived the gift Jesus was offering. She responded to that gift and sat in Jesus’ presence. She gave Jesus her time and attention. She listened to him.
Martha avoided Jesus. She with held her time and attention from Jesus and directed it to business. She was worried and distracted. In that worry she chose fear over faith.
Perhaps she was fearful that Jesus would think less of her if the house was not perfectly spotless. Perhaps she was fearful that Jesus would judge her if the meal she prepared was not perfectly cooked, perfectly, presented, and perfectly served. Perhaps she was fearful that she lacked something that she should have, something more, something different, something perfectly suited to honor and to impress her guest.
The fear came from her own interior demand to make everything perfect. Her faith in Jesus eroded as her demand to be in control of the situation shifted her attention from Jesus to her own self will.
Martha was also distracted. Distractions are usually self created. Distractions come when there is a higher priority we seek to evade.
The priority may be a homework paper due the next day. The distraction may be the sudden realization that you need to completely reorganize all of your comic books and baseball cards.
The priority may be getting to work on time. The distraction may be the sudden realization that you couldn’t possibly leave the house until the beds are made, the laundry is folded and the furniture is rearranged.
The priority may be to receive an honored guest who offers his friendship. The distraction may be the feeling that you really aren’t interested in the friendship as much as you are impressing an important person who could very easily become the next King.
Fear creates the worry. Worry creates the distraction. Distraction substantiates the fear. The fear is that unless I am perfect I am worthless. The fear results in anger.
Martha complained to Jesus that her sister should abandon him and help her. Martha wanted Mary to turn her back on Jesus so together they could create the perfect meal for Jesus.
Sadly, the worry and the distraction are the clues that Martha missed her moment of grace. She acted as though the moment was all about her. Since the moment was all about her she had to assert her will and make everything perfect.
Jesus very gently, and I believe with a compassionate humor, responds to Martha’s complaint by showing her the folly of her choice. Martha- you’ve chosen to make my visit into an occasion for worry and distraction. Mary has chosen to make my visit into a moment of grace. Mary has made the better choice.
In her worry and her distraction Martha is not present to Jesus. He is right there in her house. But for Martha, he might just as well be on the other side of the world. He might just as well not exist at all. She experiences only her own demands, fears, distractions and anger even as Jesus is offering her the most amazing gift possible- the gift of reunification with God, friendship with God.
That is what Mary chose. At that moment- that was the priority. Jesus commends Mary’s choice. He comments that Mary’s choice is not only the better choice but it is also the choice with eternal value. Mary’s choice will never be taken away from her.
Martha’s choice not only fails to satisfy but immediately falls apart. Her demand for perfection is unattainable. Her desire to impose her will is fruitless. She needs to stop. Reflect. Repent. Change her sense of priority. She needs to turn to Jesus and receive the gift of his friendship.
There is a time and a place for housework, cooking and serving. There is a time and a place for doing. There is also a time and a place for being. The being comes as we receive the gift Jesus offers us. The gift is himself.
Jesus is the incarnation of the co-eternal Son of God. Friendship with Jesus begins in a moment of grace. Jesus seeks us out amid the worries and distractions of the world. He finds where we are caught in our self created frustration, fear and anger. He offers himself to us in a moment of grace. But, he never imposes himself on us. The choice is ours.
Distractions come from within the soul. The dist5raction are not in the outer world. The distraction are in our personal interior world. We choose to create distractions to avoid our moment of grace.
Anything can become a distraction. It may be frivolous or it may have some importance. We choose doing over being in an effort to create the illusion we are in control. Distractions are always a means to avoid our moment of grace.
The moment of grace is that moment in time when God reveals to us that life is not about our will. Life is not about us.
The moment of grace is that moment when God reveals to us we are not perfect and by our own efforts we can never be perfect. In fact, the more we focus on our own demand for perfection the greater the anxiety we experience.
The moment of grace is that moment when God reveals to us we are lost and broken and he has come to us to find us and to heal us.
That is what Jesus does. That is who Jesus is. Jesus saves us from sin and death by saving us from ourselves- our own self will, fear and pride. As we open to the moment of grace Jesus offers that moment sets us free from fear into a new life of faith.
Even in the physical presence of Jesus Christ, Martha continued to assert her self will to control the moment. Mary released her will into the moment. Martha experienced anxiety, fear and anger. Mary experienced the real presence of God in Jesus Christ. The real presence of God in Jesus Christ is eternal love.
The Holy Spirit inspired St. Luke to record this event in the life of Martha and Mart to reveal to all future generations the nature of real choice. Real Choice opens the mind, the heart and the will to the eternal love of the real presence of Jesus Christ.
The message of Christ is the reality of a new life and a new way of living. That new life comes from the personal relationship God offers us and all people. It is the personal relationship that recreates the moment. It is the personal relationship that offers the promise of a life of transformation.
As with all relationships, our relationship with Jesus Christ requires time and attention. As with the most important relationships in our life, our relationship with Jesus Christ can only be as meaningful as it becomes our priority.
Martha devoted her time and attention to becoming the perfect hostess who would produce the perfect dinner for a guest she largely ignored. Her sister Mary chose to devote her time and attention to listening to Jesus and speaking with him.
Which was the better choice? Which is the better choice for us? Jesus himself answers this question as he speaks to Martha, and as he speaks to us today: You are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing.
That one thing is the new life and the new way of living in a personal relationship with the co-eternal Son of God, Jesus Christ.
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