Pentecost 7 (Matthew 14:13-21) “They need not go away, you give them something to eat.”
Matter and energy can neither be created or destroyed but only changed in form.
This is one of the fundamental laws of science that I learned as a child. It is also a basic biblical principle. The Bible is clear that when God works within the created universe he works within the laws that he embedded into the universe. He does this because the laws that govern the universe reflect the pattern of the co-eternal Son of the Father.
When the Biblical writers describe miracles they speak of the sun behaving in an unusual way- but it is still the sun. They speak of the waters of the Red Sea parting- but it is still the sea. When Jesus performs his miracles he normally uses the ordinary things of this world. He infuses these things with grace. He releases their potential according to the more fundamental spiritual laws of abundance, compassion and unconditional love.
There is a significant difference between miracle and magic. Miracle works within the framework of God’s creation according to spiritual law. In the miraculous feeding of the five thousand men along with thousands of women and children, Jesus initiates the miracle by looking up to heaven. He acknowledges the reality of God within the context of prayer. The prayer Jesus prayed most often is “Heavenly Father, not my will but your will be done.”
In this miracle, Jesus demonstrates the attitude, action and pattern for miracles. That pattern is revealed to us in the model prayer Jesus gave us. The Lord’s prayer sets the forth the pattern, plan and purpose of God as God invites us to experience him.
If you are looking for a Bible study, either individually or as a group, I invite you to list the phrases in the Lord’s Prayer and then ponder their meaning. Question the invitation to grace that each phrase offers. Record your impressions. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you understand what Jesus is teaching us about God, ourselves and the world around us.
Miracle is not magic. Magic is rooted in the false belief that by will and knowledge we can impose our desire on the world around us. Magic is routed in the assertion: my will be done. Miracle is rooted in the aspiration: Heavenly Father, Thy will be done.
Jesus observed the problem. Too many people. Too little time. Too few resources. Jesus responded with compassion. The disciples saw only the outward and visible form of the problem. They wanted Jesus to send the people home.
Jesus told his disciples that the crowd didn’t need to leave. They wanted to be there. They wanted to be with Jesus. This is exactly why Jesus came to earth. This is exactly why Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to give birth to the one holy catholic and apostolic church.
Our heavenly Father want us to want to be with Jesus.
The Father never forces us to be with the Son, either in the here and now or in the hereafter. The reality of the relationship God offers is unconditional love. It is the reality God wishes to produce in each of us.
The people wanted to be with Jesus. Despite the growing darkness, lack of food and lack of shelter, they wanted to be with Jesus. And, Jesus wanted to be with them. They met him where he was and he welcomed them where they were.
The miracle emerges in the divine presence. It is the real presence of the infinite and eternal God in Jesus Christ that facilitates the miracle.
Jesus lifts up his gaze to heaven to demonstrate to people he is surrendering his will to the Divine will. He wants to be sure people understand he is not about to perform magic. He sets the context for the miracle in an attitude of prayer. The context is surrender to the divine will.
From the attitude proceeds the action. Jesus blesses the loaves and the fish. He just doesn’t give thanks over the food. He blesses, hallows and sanctifies the food. He sets it apart and places it into the very center of Divine Love and Compassion.
The attitude produces the action and leads to a result. The five loaves and three fish feed thousands. When the meal is over there is actually more food left over than what was present at the start.
Jesus used no special words that can produce an identical result. There was no thunder or lightning, no hosts of angels brining in baskets of food. The rocks did not turn into bread or the insects into fish.
The miracle was real and it proceeds from the real presence of God.
There was not enough food that night for everyone to eat. And so, Jesus prayed, blessed and gave. He gave unconditionally. He gave with abundance.
The abundance was already there as it is already in our world and in our lives. Jesus released the abundance through a miracle of love and compassion that drew from his own infinite and eternal substance.
There is amazing abundance in God’s creation yet a billion of people are starving. There is amazing abundance in God’s creation yet a billion of people lack the basic necessities of life. The problem is not a lack of resources. The solution is not in a political ideology or economic theory.
Jesus shows us the solution in this miracle. The solution is for each of us to place ourselves in the real presence of the living Lord. The solution emerges as we cultivate the desire to be with Jesus.
Jesus once said: if you have two coats and you know of someone who has no coat- that is your invitation from God to be the solution to that person’s problem. This is not how the world works right now. That is not what our culture teaches. It makes no sense in the context of any economic theory or political system. It only makes sense in the context of our personal relationship with the infinite abundance of God present to us in Jesus Christ.
Magic is the attempt to assert power to impose our will on other people and the world. Magic acknowledges no rational argument, accepts no compromise and blames other people for the world’s problems.
Science simply describes what is. Scientism draws the conclusion that the only reality is matter, energy, time and space.
Miracle proceeds from faith. It is the faith that comes to Jesus and desires to be with Jesus. It is a new life and a new way of living in the real presence of the divine that changes our attitude, produces an action and yields a result.
Jesus invited his students, his disciples, into an experience of faith. They were skeptical. They were trapped in scarcity. They were enslaved by fear. “We have nothing here,” they said. “Nothing, except these five loaves and three fish. Nothing.”
They missed their moment. They missed the obvious. They missed the basic math. 5 +3 does not = 0. They were not ready for the advanced math. 5+3 plus Jesus= infinite abundance. When you add Jesus to the equation, any equation, you add in a term that is both infinite and eternal.
This miracle is sometimes called the multiplication of the loaves and the fish. The multiplier is Jesus himself. Jesus is the real presence of the Divine who makes the miracle possible.
It isn’t magic. You can’t just ask for something and then add the phrase: in Jesus’ Name” and expect it will instantly appear. It isn’t subject to the laws of ordinary cause and effect, of basic math. You can’t reproduce the same conditions surrounding a miracle and produce the same result.
Miracles emerge in the particular and unique context of the Real Presence of Jesus Christ.
Matter and energy can neither be created or destroyed but only changed in form. Jesus did not create bread out of nothing. He did not even change rocks into bread. He released the abundance of the Creation through the five loaves and three fish his disciple had.
You who have come here today need not go away empty handed. Our heavenly Father has set this time and this place as the appointed moment for an ongoing miracle. It is here on the seventh day. It is here at the altar of sacrifice. It is now at this hour that Our Heavenly Father sends the Holy Spirit to touch ordinary bread and wine and transform them into the abundance of eternal life.
How much would you pay for an extra decade of life? What would you sacrifice for an extra year of life? God offers us the gift of eternal life here and now on the seventh day at the altar of sacrifice.
The bread is the abundance of infinite love. The wine is the extravagance of eternal life. The miracle is here. As it was then so it is now. The miracle is now. The miracle is the real presence of Jesus Christ in the bread and wine that will transform our every thought, emotion and choice. It is as we are transformed in this miracle that Jesus asks each of us to be a miracle for someone else.
We cannot be this miracle from a place of scarcity. We cannot be this miracle if we are enslaved by magical thinking or political ideology.
It is as we experience a change in attitude through this miracle of Real Presence that Jesus invites us to take action and produce a result. As we ponder the scandal of a billion human beings starving to death in a world rich with abundance Jesus tells us today as he told his disciples so long ago: “They need not go away, you give them something to eat.”
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Thursday, July 21, 2011
Pentecost 6
Pentecost 6 (Matthew 13:31-33,44-52) The Kingdom of heaven is like
The Bible says little about heaven.
The purpose of the Bible is to reveal the problem confronting humanity and the solution God offers.
From time to time people ask me about heaven. Usually the people who ask this question are very young or very old. The young want to know such things as whether their pet dog or cat will be in heaven. I normally give them the answer Billy Graham used to give. If you want your pet in heaven it will be there. The very old want some assurance that heaven is real and that they qualify to enter into it.
In Jesus’ day, virtually all people understood the Kingdom of Heaven to be here on earth. Jews and pagans alike believed heaven was the realm of the divine, earth was the place for human beings, and the underworld was the place of the dead.
When people in Israel heard Jesus proclaim the Kingdom of Heaven they had a very specific and detailed understanding about what that meant. They understood that the Messiah would crush the enemies of Israel, destroy Rome, establish Jerusalem as the capital of a new world empire, enslave the nations and bring wealth and prosperity to the faithful. They also believed the Messiah would select the one true expression of Judaism and then violently suppress all other sects and religions.
Jesus knew this story very well. He had grown up hearing it from his friends, neighbors, teachers and priests. He also knew it was simply not true. He knew it was not true for two reasons. He studied the scriptures and he immersed himself in the love of God the Father through worship and prayer.
Jesus knew the Kingdom of heaven was not a military, political, and economic structure. The Kingdom of heaven is the steadfast holy unconditional love of the Triune God made manifest to us and for us in Jesus Christ.
This was not what the people in Jesus’ time expected. It is still not what most people most of the time in our culture expect. Popular culture in the first century was looking for the right leader who would usher in the right government in order to establish the right religion. Fundamentalists in many religions in our time share this understanding.
What the mainstream culture seems to expect in terms of the Kingdom of Heaven is self indulgent entitlement. Some one once said that how we view God reveals how we view ourselves. Our image of the Kingdom of Heaven reflects the culture we live in more than the transcendent reality of heaven. We can test this idea by examining popular TV shows, movies and books that deal with the subject of the afterlife.
Jesus’ first century teaching about the kingdom is ideally suited to challenge twenty first century cultural assumptions. The parables in today’s gospel passage are drawn from ordinary life. They don’t use religious jargon or abstract philosophical concepts. The parables are short and to the point- well suited for the limited attention spans of modern people.
What is important to hear is the introduction to each of the parables. Jesus says: the Kingdom of heaven is like. This is a comparison of a transcendent spiritual reality to an ordinary aspect of our lives here and now. The Kingdom of Heaven is not a mustard seed. The Kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed. It is like a mustard seed insofar as it starts small.
When Jesus teaches what the kingdom of heaven is he states: the kingdom of heaven in within you. The kingdom of heaven is the steadfast holy unconditional love revealed to us and made real for us in Jesus Christ. The kingdom of heaven is made manifest in us through a personal relationship Jesus Christ.
Like a mustard seed, the kingdom starts small, almost imperceptible at first. It seems insignificant in comparison to the arena of politics, economics, law and war. Yet, like the mustard seed it contains the fullness of the pattern, plan and purpose of God. It grows and develops and transcends all expectations.
Like yeast, the kingdom works unseen and yet without fail to effect an amazing transformation in the lives of those who embrace it.
Like buried treasure it is a hidden wonder that we rejoice to discover.
Like the priceless pearl it is a treasure of worth and beauty for which we willingly sacrifice our time, attention and money.
Like a fishing net, the invitation to the kingdom is universal. All are welcome. All will be included who truly value and desire the gift.
The gift is the personal relationship God the Father offers us in God the Son, Jesus Christ, by the invitation of God the Holy Spirit at work in the world.
The great question is: do we value this treasure? Are we willing to devote our time and attention to the relationship as the treasure hunter and the gem merchant were willing to devote their time to acquire what they valued? Are we willing to grow in grace as the mustard seed grows slowly and surely into the greatest of shrubs? Are we becoming the treasure fit for the King’s house?
The kingdom of heaven is within you. It is the divine love, the agape, you choose to receive, value, cultivate and bring forth in your thoughts and words and deeds. It is not something we can earn. It is a gift. It is not a basic human right. It is the very pattern of the universe. It is not a religion or a ritual or a book, as important as they may be. It is a person. The Kingdom of heaven is the love that emerges from the personal relationship our heavenly father offers us in his Beloved co-eternal Son.
The Kingdom of Heaven manifests in our lives here and now as we hear the invitation from the Holy Spirit and make a real choice to receive the gift God offers. We manifest the kingdom of heaven in our lives as we choose to immerse our minds, hearts, and wills in the three forms of Love God offers.
The three forms of love are worship, service and transformation: love of God, love of others, love of our true self.
Do we value these three forms of love? Do you trust that these three loves will grow and develop like the mustard seed? Do we trust that these three loves infused into our souls produce a healthy nourishing benefit like the yeast in dough? Do we organize our time and resources around the principle of divine love?
The test is clear. The parables show us that the test is the action produced by our faith. The sower, the baker, the treasurer hunter, the jewel merchant and the fishermen all share one common trait. How they choose to act reveals what they value and what they believe.
Jesus wants us to consider carefully the amazing benefit from the choice to immerse ourselves in his steadfast holy unconditional love. He yearns for us to experience his love as a priceless treasure beyond imagination. He pours himself out to us in the blessed sacrament of the altar to infuse us with the richness of infinite blessings. Jesus is seeking friends who want to spend time with him, learn from him, and transform in him.
The Kingdom of heaven is like the seed, the leaven, the treasure, the pearl and the net. It is small yet powerful. It is undervalued in all human cultures. It is the reality of God present to us in the small choices we make. The small choices accumulate in this world of cause and effect and produce a result.
For those who hear the invitation and receive the invitation as Good News, the gift of a personal relationship with God the Father through God the Son, Jesus Christ, is beyond price and worthy of our highest priority. It is a new life and a new way of living.
Is this what you want? Are you willing to ask God the Holy Spirit to help you immerse yourself in this gift? Do you want a life transformed in steadfast holy unconditional love?
The Kingdom of heaven is not in Rome, or Jerusalem or any other city on earth. The Kingdom of heaven is within you. As you choose to bear the image and likeness of God in your life so you bring forth the blessing of the Kingdom in your thoughts, desires and actions. Heaven is a transcendent reality that we can enter into and experience in the here and now of our lives as we choose.
The Bible reveals that the Kingdom of heaven is like so many of the ordinary aspects, events and objects in this world of choice, cause and effect, and consequence. It is not those things. It is like those things. The very pattern of the divine nature is woven into the world. Jesus selected only a few examples in order to stimulate our curiosity and to encourage our questions. Perhaps the most important question we can ask ourselves: Is the Kingdom of heaven like me?
The Bible says little about heaven.
The purpose of the Bible is to reveal the problem confronting humanity and the solution God offers.
From time to time people ask me about heaven. Usually the people who ask this question are very young or very old. The young want to know such things as whether their pet dog or cat will be in heaven. I normally give them the answer Billy Graham used to give. If you want your pet in heaven it will be there. The very old want some assurance that heaven is real and that they qualify to enter into it.
In Jesus’ day, virtually all people understood the Kingdom of Heaven to be here on earth. Jews and pagans alike believed heaven was the realm of the divine, earth was the place for human beings, and the underworld was the place of the dead.
When people in Israel heard Jesus proclaim the Kingdom of Heaven they had a very specific and detailed understanding about what that meant. They understood that the Messiah would crush the enemies of Israel, destroy Rome, establish Jerusalem as the capital of a new world empire, enslave the nations and bring wealth and prosperity to the faithful. They also believed the Messiah would select the one true expression of Judaism and then violently suppress all other sects and religions.
Jesus knew this story very well. He had grown up hearing it from his friends, neighbors, teachers and priests. He also knew it was simply not true. He knew it was not true for two reasons. He studied the scriptures and he immersed himself in the love of God the Father through worship and prayer.
Jesus knew the Kingdom of heaven was not a military, political, and economic structure. The Kingdom of heaven is the steadfast holy unconditional love of the Triune God made manifest to us and for us in Jesus Christ.
This was not what the people in Jesus’ time expected. It is still not what most people most of the time in our culture expect. Popular culture in the first century was looking for the right leader who would usher in the right government in order to establish the right religion. Fundamentalists in many religions in our time share this understanding.
What the mainstream culture seems to expect in terms of the Kingdom of Heaven is self indulgent entitlement. Some one once said that how we view God reveals how we view ourselves. Our image of the Kingdom of Heaven reflects the culture we live in more than the transcendent reality of heaven. We can test this idea by examining popular TV shows, movies and books that deal with the subject of the afterlife.
Jesus’ first century teaching about the kingdom is ideally suited to challenge twenty first century cultural assumptions. The parables in today’s gospel passage are drawn from ordinary life. They don’t use religious jargon or abstract philosophical concepts. The parables are short and to the point- well suited for the limited attention spans of modern people.
What is important to hear is the introduction to each of the parables. Jesus says: the Kingdom of heaven is like. This is a comparison of a transcendent spiritual reality to an ordinary aspect of our lives here and now. The Kingdom of Heaven is not a mustard seed. The Kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed. It is like a mustard seed insofar as it starts small.
When Jesus teaches what the kingdom of heaven is he states: the kingdom of heaven in within you. The kingdom of heaven is the steadfast holy unconditional love revealed to us and made real for us in Jesus Christ. The kingdom of heaven is made manifest in us through a personal relationship Jesus Christ.
Like a mustard seed, the kingdom starts small, almost imperceptible at first. It seems insignificant in comparison to the arena of politics, economics, law and war. Yet, like the mustard seed it contains the fullness of the pattern, plan and purpose of God. It grows and develops and transcends all expectations.
Like yeast, the kingdom works unseen and yet without fail to effect an amazing transformation in the lives of those who embrace it.
Like buried treasure it is a hidden wonder that we rejoice to discover.
Like the priceless pearl it is a treasure of worth and beauty for which we willingly sacrifice our time, attention and money.
Like a fishing net, the invitation to the kingdom is universal. All are welcome. All will be included who truly value and desire the gift.
The gift is the personal relationship God the Father offers us in God the Son, Jesus Christ, by the invitation of God the Holy Spirit at work in the world.
The great question is: do we value this treasure? Are we willing to devote our time and attention to the relationship as the treasure hunter and the gem merchant were willing to devote their time to acquire what they valued? Are we willing to grow in grace as the mustard seed grows slowly and surely into the greatest of shrubs? Are we becoming the treasure fit for the King’s house?
The kingdom of heaven is within you. It is the divine love, the agape, you choose to receive, value, cultivate and bring forth in your thoughts and words and deeds. It is not something we can earn. It is a gift. It is not a basic human right. It is the very pattern of the universe. It is not a religion or a ritual or a book, as important as they may be. It is a person. The Kingdom of heaven is the love that emerges from the personal relationship our heavenly father offers us in his Beloved co-eternal Son.
The Kingdom of Heaven manifests in our lives here and now as we hear the invitation from the Holy Spirit and make a real choice to receive the gift God offers. We manifest the kingdom of heaven in our lives as we choose to immerse our minds, hearts, and wills in the three forms of Love God offers.
The three forms of love are worship, service and transformation: love of God, love of others, love of our true self.
Do we value these three forms of love? Do you trust that these three loves will grow and develop like the mustard seed? Do we trust that these three loves infused into our souls produce a healthy nourishing benefit like the yeast in dough? Do we organize our time and resources around the principle of divine love?
The test is clear. The parables show us that the test is the action produced by our faith. The sower, the baker, the treasurer hunter, the jewel merchant and the fishermen all share one common trait. How they choose to act reveals what they value and what they believe.
Jesus wants us to consider carefully the amazing benefit from the choice to immerse ourselves in his steadfast holy unconditional love. He yearns for us to experience his love as a priceless treasure beyond imagination. He pours himself out to us in the blessed sacrament of the altar to infuse us with the richness of infinite blessings. Jesus is seeking friends who want to spend time with him, learn from him, and transform in him.
The Kingdom of heaven is like the seed, the leaven, the treasure, the pearl and the net. It is small yet powerful. It is undervalued in all human cultures. It is the reality of God present to us in the small choices we make. The small choices accumulate in this world of cause and effect and produce a result.
For those who hear the invitation and receive the invitation as Good News, the gift of a personal relationship with God the Father through God the Son, Jesus Christ, is beyond price and worthy of our highest priority. It is a new life and a new way of living.
Is this what you want? Are you willing to ask God the Holy Spirit to help you immerse yourself in this gift? Do you want a life transformed in steadfast holy unconditional love?
The Kingdom of heaven is not in Rome, or Jerusalem or any other city on earth. The Kingdom of heaven is within you. As you choose to bear the image and likeness of God in your life so you bring forth the blessing of the Kingdom in your thoughts, desires and actions. Heaven is a transcendent reality that we can enter into and experience in the here and now of our lives as we choose.
The Bible reveals that the Kingdom of heaven is like so many of the ordinary aspects, events and objects in this world of choice, cause and effect, and consequence. It is not those things. It is like those things. The very pattern of the divine nature is woven into the world. Jesus selected only a few examples in order to stimulate our curiosity and to encourage our questions. Perhaps the most important question we can ask ourselves: Is the Kingdom of heaven like me?
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Pentecost 5
Pentecost 5 (Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43)
So it will be at the end of the age.
All things in this world of duality have a beginning, a middle, and an end.
This is very confusing and frustrating for one and only one terrestrial species. Humanity has the gift of self awareness. In that gift we perceive that there is the possibility for something greater and more enduring than birth, life and death. We can dream of and yearn for immortality. We can sense the reality of the eternal.
Having said that, humans can also choose to reject the reality of the eternal realm. We can choose to assert that this world of duality is all that ever was, is or will be. We have no direct evidence to support that assertion. There is substantial evidence in nature and in the way we think and feel and make choices to suggest at least the possibility that there are more things in heaven and earth than we can observe and analyze in our limited experience of the world.
Moses, the prophets and the apostles all teach that the reality of the Eternal Realm, of God, should be self evident to human beings. Moses, the prophets and the apostles also observe that most human beings most of the time reject that reality. We are lost in a very narrow self limiting reality that we ourselves create and maintain.
The logical question to ask is: why?
Jesus provides the answer to that question in today’s parable of the weeds.
The Bible, the written word of God, starts with the words: in the beginning God. The Bible never seeks to prove that God exists. The Bible assumes that God exists. The Bible makes this assumption because the person who commissioned the Bible, who invited scores of men and women over a thousand year time period to contribute to the Bible, and who over saw the writing and editing of the Bible is God.
God is not the subject of the Bible. Humanity is the subject. The Biblical writers observed human behavior, classified human behavior, developed some theories about human behavior, tested those theories and then came to a conclusion. The conclusion is that our species has chosen to separate from God. In that separation we rebel against God. In that rebellion we fall into fear, self will and pride. In that fall we manifest sin in our personal lives and in our societies. The final consequence of separation is death.
Jesus tells us this morning that in the beginning the co-eternal Son sowed good seed in this world. The good seed is the rich potential in each of us for life and love and holiness.
A tiny seed barely visible to the human eye contains all of the information needed to use sunlight, water, earth and air to build the most complex and beautiful plant, or flower or tree.
The seed contains the full potential of the mature plant. It is a blueprint that holds the pattern, plan and purpose for the plant. It is not just a passive set of data. It contains a motive potential that will respond to environmental conditions and activate the birth, direct the growth and complete the maturity of the organism it is designed to produce.
Pine seeds always produce pine trees. Sunflower seeds always produce sunflower plants. Pine seeds never produce sunflowers. The genetic data within the seed and the design within the data are specific.
So it is with the spiritual seed of grace. The Bible very clearly teaches that God the Father created the world and our species by the power of God the Holy Spirit according to the pattern, plan and purpose of God the Son. Unlike plants and animals, part of our design is real choice.
Humans can chose to alter the way the design manifests in the world, and in our own lives. We can choose how we will be human.
It is clear that many people do not have faith in God. It is evident that for many who proclaim to have faith in God that faith is not a priority. Jesus uses the parable of the good seed and the weeds to offer an explanation for the world as it is and as we experience it.
The world as we now experience it is the world of duality. Some have faith some do not. Some center their lives on their faith and some do not. The world of duality is the world of choice. It is the world of the “either or”.
The Son of Man, Jesus, scatters the seed of grace universally. Satan scatters the seeds of self indulgence and self righteousness universally as well. The children of the Kingdom are those who choose to become who God created the human race to be.
God created all people to be the loving companions of the co-eternal Beloved Son, Jesus Christ. Despite our original choice to reject this wonderful purpose and even more wonderful person, Jesus continues to send the Holy Spirit to sow the seed of grace in the souls of all people.
The seed of grace contains within it the plan, the pattern and the purpose of the Person, Jesus Christ. We can choose to receive the seed of grace and then grow and develop according to the pattern of grace. Or, we can make another choice.
Satan has also sown spiritual seed in the world. He scatters his seed as well. This is the seed of self will, fear and pride. It is the seed that holds the pattern of self indulgence and self righteousness. Those who choose to develop according to the pattern of this seed enter into a state of spiritual dissolution. We become less of what God created us to be. We enter into a state of devolution and disintegration.
Jesus warns us very clearly that the seed of grace produces a pattern and person of faith. The person of faith sets priorities and makes choices in this world of duality from the principle of unconditional love and compassion.
The seed of Satan is the seed of the will to power. It produces a pattern of living that is self absorbed and self indulgent. It bears the fruit of pride, cynicism, and rebellion. For such a soul there can be no room in the Kingdom of Divine love and holiness.
It is not that God refuses to give that soul a reward or a right. The reality is that the soul which rejects the seed of grace has chosen to develop according to the pattern of Satan, the pattern of the will to dominate.
Such a soul refuses to accept the reality of Jesus Christ in this life and continues to reject and rebel against Jesus in the next life. Each of us chooses our eternal destiny here and now in the realm of choice, the world of duality.
We all choose from one of two patterns of personal development. The pattern is implanted in our souls by the seed of grace or the seed of Satan. We make the choice which seed to cultivate. The Law of Love confirms our choice in the world of cause and effect and produces a result. The result is eternal.
Which pattern have you chosen to follow in order to become the person God intended you to become? Whose plan for life are you following? Our Heavenly Father has given us Jesus Christ as the plan of salvation and the pattern for life. Satan’s Plan of Damnation is any path other than Jesus Christ.
Where do you seek meaning and purpose in your life? Is it in the things of this world of duality, the world of change and the world of temporary pleasure? Is it in the will to power that proudly rejects God? Is it in the indifference of cynicism that refuses to accept even the possibility that God is real, God is personal, God is love, God is Jesus Christ. Who do you think Jesus was and is? How do you choose to accept Jesus, reject Jesus or simply ignore Jesus?
How have you chosen to live and move and have you being in this world of choice, cause and effect, and consequence?
This world is the world of duality, the realm of choice. Jesus has sent the Holy Spirit into the world in love to sow the seed of grace to produce faith and yield a harvest of blessing. Satan has sent his slaves, the fallen angels, into the world in spite to sow the seed of self will, fear and pride that will produce a rush of pleasure through rebellion and yield a harvest of despair.
As we choose in the here and now, so it will be at the end of the age. Choose wisely. Choose love. Choose Jesus.
So it will be at the end of the age.
All things in this world of duality have a beginning, a middle, and an end.
This is very confusing and frustrating for one and only one terrestrial species. Humanity has the gift of self awareness. In that gift we perceive that there is the possibility for something greater and more enduring than birth, life and death. We can dream of and yearn for immortality. We can sense the reality of the eternal.
Having said that, humans can also choose to reject the reality of the eternal realm. We can choose to assert that this world of duality is all that ever was, is or will be. We have no direct evidence to support that assertion. There is substantial evidence in nature and in the way we think and feel and make choices to suggest at least the possibility that there are more things in heaven and earth than we can observe and analyze in our limited experience of the world.
Moses, the prophets and the apostles all teach that the reality of the Eternal Realm, of God, should be self evident to human beings. Moses, the prophets and the apostles also observe that most human beings most of the time reject that reality. We are lost in a very narrow self limiting reality that we ourselves create and maintain.
The logical question to ask is: why?
Jesus provides the answer to that question in today’s parable of the weeds.
The Bible, the written word of God, starts with the words: in the beginning God. The Bible never seeks to prove that God exists. The Bible assumes that God exists. The Bible makes this assumption because the person who commissioned the Bible, who invited scores of men and women over a thousand year time period to contribute to the Bible, and who over saw the writing and editing of the Bible is God.
God is not the subject of the Bible. Humanity is the subject. The Biblical writers observed human behavior, classified human behavior, developed some theories about human behavior, tested those theories and then came to a conclusion. The conclusion is that our species has chosen to separate from God. In that separation we rebel against God. In that rebellion we fall into fear, self will and pride. In that fall we manifest sin in our personal lives and in our societies. The final consequence of separation is death.
Jesus tells us this morning that in the beginning the co-eternal Son sowed good seed in this world. The good seed is the rich potential in each of us for life and love and holiness.
A tiny seed barely visible to the human eye contains all of the information needed to use sunlight, water, earth and air to build the most complex and beautiful plant, or flower or tree.
The seed contains the full potential of the mature plant. It is a blueprint that holds the pattern, plan and purpose for the plant. It is not just a passive set of data. It contains a motive potential that will respond to environmental conditions and activate the birth, direct the growth and complete the maturity of the organism it is designed to produce.
Pine seeds always produce pine trees. Sunflower seeds always produce sunflower plants. Pine seeds never produce sunflowers. The genetic data within the seed and the design within the data are specific.
So it is with the spiritual seed of grace. The Bible very clearly teaches that God the Father created the world and our species by the power of God the Holy Spirit according to the pattern, plan and purpose of God the Son. Unlike plants and animals, part of our design is real choice.
Humans can chose to alter the way the design manifests in the world, and in our own lives. We can choose how we will be human.
It is clear that many people do not have faith in God. It is evident that for many who proclaim to have faith in God that faith is not a priority. Jesus uses the parable of the good seed and the weeds to offer an explanation for the world as it is and as we experience it.
The world as we now experience it is the world of duality. Some have faith some do not. Some center their lives on their faith and some do not. The world of duality is the world of choice. It is the world of the “either or”.
The Son of Man, Jesus, scatters the seed of grace universally. Satan scatters the seeds of self indulgence and self righteousness universally as well. The children of the Kingdom are those who choose to become who God created the human race to be.
God created all people to be the loving companions of the co-eternal Beloved Son, Jesus Christ. Despite our original choice to reject this wonderful purpose and even more wonderful person, Jesus continues to send the Holy Spirit to sow the seed of grace in the souls of all people.
The seed of grace contains within it the plan, the pattern and the purpose of the Person, Jesus Christ. We can choose to receive the seed of grace and then grow and develop according to the pattern of grace. Or, we can make another choice.
Satan has also sown spiritual seed in the world. He scatters his seed as well. This is the seed of self will, fear and pride. It is the seed that holds the pattern of self indulgence and self righteousness. Those who choose to develop according to the pattern of this seed enter into a state of spiritual dissolution. We become less of what God created us to be. We enter into a state of devolution and disintegration.
Jesus warns us very clearly that the seed of grace produces a pattern and person of faith. The person of faith sets priorities and makes choices in this world of duality from the principle of unconditional love and compassion.
The seed of Satan is the seed of the will to power. It produces a pattern of living that is self absorbed and self indulgent. It bears the fruit of pride, cynicism, and rebellion. For such a soul there can be no room in the Kingdom of Divine love and holiness.
It is not that God refuses to give that soul a reward or a right. The reality is that the soul which rejects the seed of grace has chosen to develop according to the pattern of Satan, the pattern of the will to dominate.
Such a soul refuses to accept the reality of Jesus Christ in this life and continues to reject and rebel against Jesus in the next life. Each of us chooses our eternal destiny here and now in the realm of choice, the world of duality.
We all choose from one of two patterns of personal development. The pattern is implanted in our souls by the seed of grace or the seed of Satan. We make the choice which seed to cultivate. The Law of Love confirms our choice in the world of cause and effect and produces a result. The result is eternal.
Which pattern have you chosen to follow in order to become the person God intended you to become? Whose plan for life are you following? Our Heavenly Father has given us Jesus Christ as the plan of salvation and the pattern for life. Satan’s Plan of Damnation is any path other than Jesus Christ.
Where do you seek meaning and purpose in your life? Is it in the things of this world of duality, the world of change and the world of temporary pleasure? Is it in the will to power that proudly rejects God? Is it in the indifference of cynicism that refuses to accept even the possibility that God is real, God is personal, God is love, God is Jesus Christ. Who do you think Jesus was and is? How do you choose to accept Jesus, reject Jesus or simply ignore Jesus?
How have you chosen to live and move and have you being in this world of choice, cause and effect, and consequence?
This world is the world of duality, the realm of choice. Jesus has sent the Holy Spirit into the world in love to sow the seed of grace to produce faith and yield a harvest of blessing. Satan has sent his slaves, the fallen angels, into the world in spite to sow the seed of self will, fear and pride that will produce a rush of pleasure through rebellion and yield a harvest of despair.
As we choose in the here and now, so it will be at the end of the age. Choose wisely. Choose love. Choose Jesus.
Saturday, July 9, 2011
Pentecost 4
Pentecost 4 (Matthew 13:1-9;18-23)
“A sower went out to sow.”
A sower has one job and one job only: sow the seed. In the ancient world and in many parts of the world today the sower began his day with a sack of seed. His job was to walk a path and a pattern over a field. He sowed seed by reaching into his sack, taking a step forward, pulling out his hand and throwing the seed over the land from left to right or right to left.
The pattern of sowing is reach, step, scatter, step.
Sowing is unskilled labor. Any one can do it as long as you follow the rule and the pattern.
Older children and younger teens are ideal sowers. In technologically developed countries machines do the sowing but follow a similar pattern.
There is a certain pragmatic extravagance in sowing seed in large fields. You just can’t take the time to pick and choose where to sow. You just can’t risk the decision as to where to sow on the sower. You get the seed out there with the understanding some will never grow and bear fruit but most will.
This story of the sower is a parable. A parable is a story that is drawn from ordinary life to communicate a fundamental spiritual truth. The effectiveness of parables is based in the more profound revelation that our Heavenly Father designed the world according to a very specific pattern, plan, and purpose. That pattern, plan and purpose is, as the beloved apostle John tells us, the Logos. The Logos is the co-eternal Word of God. Parables work well as teaching devices because the world from which the parable draws itself reflects the pattern, plan and purpose of God.
John also tells us that the Logos, the co-eternal Word of God, became a particular human being at a particular place and in a particular time. The pattern, plan and purpose of God embedded in the creation is also revealed to us in a single person: Jesus Christ.
Jesus’ use of parables reveals two fundamental aspects of the Creation. The pattern, plan and purpose of God is embedded in the ordinary events, activities and substance of life. And, human beings more often than not miss the meaning.
The thousand year record of human behavior recorded for us in the Bible shows us that people consistently reject God. The parable of the sower is a summary of that thousand year record of human behavior in a very short, succinct and powerful image.
The sower is in fact God himself. The Father sends the Holy Spirit into the world according to the plan, pattern and purpose of the Son. The Sower sows the seed of the Kingdom, which is the seed of grace. This is not something strange or unusual. It is not secret information available to only a few who claim enlightenment or righteousness.
The Sower scatters the seed of grace with extravagance and with abundance. This is the pattern of the co-eternal Beloved Son. It is the pattern of unconditional love pouring himself out to all people everywhere.
This is why even Jesus’ own disciples reacted to the parable of the Sower with confusion. It didn’t fit their preconceived ideas about who God was and how God acted.
Jesus not only takes the time to explain the parable but helps his disciples to perceive why they had trouble understanding it. The barriers to understanding this parable are the same barriers that create resistance in the human soul to perceiving the reality of God in nature.
The barriers are threefold. To use the Biblical language they are the world, the flesh and the devil.
Jesus says it better in the parable.
The seed that falls by the wayside, off the path, outside the field, is the arena of those for whom God is just one option among many. Those are the ones who are easy prey for the birds who come and devour the seed. The birds represent the devil, Satan.
Satan can snatch the seed of grace from those who choose to live in the wayside because they do not value God for who He is or for what He offers. They are indifferent to God. In their indifference they ignore the seed of grace.
The principle of the wayside is that if we place God second in our lives we place God last. If we place God last we will not value who God is and what God offers us. If we place God last then Satan steps in and takes from us the very gifts God offers.
Satan is a thief, a liar, and a murderer. But, he cannot violate the law of love. The law of love is the law of self responsibility. We make a choice. That choice enters into the pattern, plan and purpose of the creation in the realm of cause and effect. That choice produces a consequence.
Those who live by the wayside choose to place God second and so they choose to place God last. They are not evil, at least by the standards of the world. They are simply indifferent. That indifference enters into the world of cause and effect and produces a consequence. The consequence is that Satan steals the gift and the people don’t even care.
How can we discern whether we are living by the wayside? Moses gives us a simple test. Where are you on the day of worship? If we place God first we are where God calls us to meet him on the seventh day, the day of worship.
The next place the seed falls is the stony place. This is the place of the flesh. The prophet Ezekiel laments that people have a heart of stone when it comes to their love for God. The flesh is the disordered and distorted desires of the heart. The distortions proceed from the place of original separation. They are distortions of love. The main distortion is self indulgence. Self indulgence generates the belief that if God is love then God must give me what I want when I want it.
We want many things over the course of our lives. Some things are age appropriate. Some things are never appropriate. Some things require patience and persistence. Self indulgence issues a demand to God backed by a threat. The demand is: give me what I want now. The threat is: if you don’t give me what I want I will stop believing in you.
Many people are sunshine believers. As long as we are living well and not experiencing pain we believe in God, we come to church, we rejoice in the apparent blessings of life. Yet, we always encounter the storms of life. Sadly, sunshine believers interpret these storms as evidence of God’s wrath or God’s absence. Sunshine believers abandon God in the false belief that if God doesn’t give then what they want when they want it, then God is either cruel or non existent.
Job shows us the way to deal with the distortion of self indulgent love in his statement: the Lord gives; the Lord takes away. Blessed be the Name of the Lord.
The third challenge to faith is the challenge of the world. The world is the surrounding culture. It is all the expectations, assumptions, and patterns of behavior we learn from school, entertainment and the various institutions of our society. These things choke out faith as we choose to give them our time, attention and life energy.
The test to discern the influence of the world is the test of priorities. The Biblical text we can use is St. Paul’s 13th chapter in his first letter to the church at Corinth. This is some times called the love chapter. The test is to substitute your name for the word love in the chapter. Are you living up to that statement? If not, why not? What is the obstacle to living life from the principle of unconditional love?
One of the most direct challenges the world offers is the temptation to love money and to use people. If our first priority is money we make no room for grace. The money is not the problem. The problem is where we direct our love. The test is how we set our priorities.
The seed that falls on good soil always produces a harvest. The harvest is the blessing of God that begins with grace and grows in faith. The key is in hearing God’s word, believing God’s word, reading, studying and memorizing God’s word, then acting on God’s word.
The world attempts to drown out God’s word. The flesh seeks to diminish and distort God’s word. The devil seeks to steal God’s word from us. The solution to these problems is Jesus.
Jesus is the word of God in human flesh. The solution to the problem we face as a species and as individuals is in a personal relationship with the personal God, Jesus Christ.
Religion seeks to impose lists of laws between us and God. Secular society encourages self indulgent indifference to God. Jesus offers us a new life and a new way of living in a new experience of unconditional love.
The Way of Jesus is open ended, spontaneous, active, dynamic and creative. Jesus invites us to experience the infinite and eternal in the ordinary events and objects of the here and now. The Way begins in the quiet moments of our lives when the Holy Spirit offers us divine grace, the gift of God in our daily experience of the creation, other people, ourselves and God.
Our Heavenly Fathers sends the Holy Spirit to speak to us the invitation to receive the love of the co-eternal Beloved Son as the sower sows the seeds: with extravagant abundance according the plan, the pattern, the purpose and the person of Jesus Christ. Amen.
“A sower went out to sow.”
A sower has one job and one job only: sow the seed. In the ancient world and in many parts of the world today the sower began his day with a sack of seed. His job was to walk a path and a pattern over a field. He sowed seed by reaching into his sack, taking a step forward, pulling out his hand and throwing the seed over the land from left to right or right to left.
The pattern of sowing is reach, step, scatter, step.
Sowing is unskilled labor. Any one can do it as long as you follow the rule and the pattern.
Older children and younger teens are ideal sowers. In technologically developed countries machines do the sowing but follow a similar pattern.
There is a certain pragmatic extravagance in sowing seed in large fields. You just can’t take the time to pick and choose where to sow. You just can’t risk the decision as to where to sow on the sower. You get the seed out there with the understanding some will never grow and bear fruit but most will.
This story of the sower is a parable. A parable is a story that is drawn from ordinary life to communicate a fundamental spiritual truth. The effectiveness of parables is based in the more profound revelation that our Heavenly Father designed the world according to a very specific pattern, plan, and purpose. That pattern, plan and purpose is, as the beloved apostle John tells us, the Logos. The Logos is the co-eternal Word of God. Parables work well as teaching devices because the world from which the parable draws itself reflects the pattern, plan and purpose of God.
John also tells us that the Logos, the co-eternal Word of God, became a particular human being at a particular place and in a particular time. The pattern, plan and purpose of God embedded in the creation is also revealed to us in a single person: Jesus Christ.
Jesus’ use of parables reveals two fundamental aspects of the Creation. The pattern, plan and purpose of God is embedded in the ordinary events, activities and substance of life. And, human beings more often than not miss the meaning.
The thousand year record of human behavior recorded for us in the Bible shows us that people consistently reject God. The parable of the sower is a summary of that thousand year record of human behavior in a very short, succinct and powerful image.
The sower is in fact God himself. The Father sends the Holy Spirit into the world according to the plan, pattern and purpose of the Son. The Sower sows the seed of the Kingdom, which is the seed of grace. This is not something strange or unusual. It is not secret information available to only a few who claim enlightenment or righteousness.
The Sower scatters the seed of grace with extravagance and with abundance. This is the pattern of the co-eternal Beloved Son. It is the pattern of unconditional love pouring himself out to all people everywhere.
This is why even Jesus’ own disciples reacted to the parable of the Sower with confusion. It didn’t fit their preconceived ideas about who God was and how God acted.
Jesus not only takes the time to explain the parable but helps his disciples to perceive why they had trouble understanding it. The barriers to understanding this parable are the same barriers that create resistance in the human soul to perceiving the reality of God in nature.
The barriers are threefold. To use the Biblical language they are the world, the flesh and the devil.
Jesus says it better in the parable.
The seed that falls by the wayside, off the path, outside the field, is the arena of those for whom God is just one option among many. Those are the ones who are easy prey for the birds who come and devour the seed. The birds represent the devil, Satan.
Satan can snatch the seed of grace from those who choose to live in the wayside because they do not value God for who He is or for what He offers. They are indifferent to God. In their indifference they ignore the seed of grace.
The principle of the wayside is that if we place God second in our lives we place God last. If we place God last we will not value who God is and what God offers us. If we place God last then Satan steps in and takes from us the very gifts God offers.
Satan is a thief, a liar, and a murderer. But, he cannot violate the law of love. The law of love is the law of self responsibility. We make a choice. That choice enters into the pattern, plan and purpose of the creation in the realm of cause and effect. That choice produces a consequence.
Those who live by the wayside choose to place God second and so they choose to place God last. They are not evil, at least by the standards of the world. They are simply indifferent. That indifference enters into the world of cause and effect and produces a consequence. The consequence is that Satan steals the gift and the people don’t even care.
How can we discern whether we are living by the wayside? Moses gives us a simple test. Where are you on the day of worship? If we place God first we are where God calls us to meet him on the seventh day, the day of worship.
The next place the seed falls is the stony place. This is the place of the flesh. The prophet Ezekiel laments that people have a heart of stone when it comes to their love for God. The flesh is the disordered and distorted desires of the heart. The distortions proceed from the place of original separation. They are distortions of love. The main distortion is self indulgence. Self indulgence generates the belief that if God is love then God must give me what I want when I want it.
We want many things over the course of our lives. Some things are age appropriate. Some things are never appropriate. Some things require patience and persistence. Self indulgence issues a demand to God backed by a threat. The demand is: give me what I want now. The threat is: if you don’t give me what I want I will stop believing in you.
Many people are sunshine believers. As long as we are living well and not experiencing pain we believe in God, we come to church, we rejoice in the apparent blessings of life. Yet, we always encounter the storms of life. Sadly, sunshine believers interpret these storms as evidence of God’s wrath or God’s absence. Sunshine believers abandon God in the false belief that if God doesn’t give then what they want when they want it, then God is either cruel or non existent.
Job shows us the way to deal with the distortion of self indulgent love in his statement: the Lord gives; the Lord takes away. Blessed be the Name of the Lord.
The third challenge to faith is the challenge of the world. The world is the surrounding culture. It is all the expectations, assumptions, and patterns of behavior we learn from school, entertainment and the various institutions of our society. These things choke out faith as we choose to give them our time, attention and life energy.
The test to discern the influence of the world is the test of priorities. The Biblical text we can use is St. Paul’s 13th chapter in his first letter to the church at Corinth. This is some times called the love chapter. The test is to substitute your name for the word love in the chapter. Are you living up to that statement? If not, why not? What is the obstacle to living life from the principle of unconditional love?
One of the most direct challenges the world offers is the temptation to love money and to use people. If our first priority is money we make no room for grace. The money is not the problem. The problem is where we direct our love. The test is how we set our priorities.
The seed that falls on good soil always produces a harvest. The harvest is the blessing of God that begins with grace and grows in faith. The key is in hearing God’s word, believing God’s word, reading, studying and memorizing God’s word, then acting on God’s word.
The world attempts to drown out God’s word. The flesh seeks to diminish and distort God’s word. The devil seeks to steal God’s word from us. The solution to these problems is Jesus.
Jesus is the word of God in human flesh. The solution to the problem we face as a species and as individuals is in a personal relationship with the personal God, Jesus Christ.
Religion seeks to impose lists of laws between us and God. Secular society encourages self indulgent indifference to God. Jesus offers us a new life and a new way of living in a new experience of unconditional love.
The Way of Jesus is open ended, spontaneous, active, dynamic and creative. Jesus invites us to experience the infinite and eternal in the ordinary events and objects of the here and now. The Way begins in the quiet moments of our lives when the Holy Spirit offers us divine grace, the gift of God in our daily experience of the creation, other people, ourselves and God.
Our Heavenly Fathers sends the Holy Spirit to speak to us the invitation to receive the love of the co-eternal Beloved Son as the sower sows the seeds: with extravagant abundance according the plan, the pattern, the purpose and the person of Jesus Christ. Amen.
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Pentecost 3
Pentecost 3 (Matthew 11:16-19;25-30) “Come to me.”
Jesus asked: “To what will I compare this generation?”
Every generation is beset by a common problem. That problem is separation from God. Separation from God produces a spiritual pain that envelops and enslaves the soul. That pain results in the distortion of our thoughts, emotions and wills.
As every human being is unique so every generation is unique. Every generation manifests the common problem of separation in the unique circumstances of its particular culture.
The culture Jesus grew up in was a religious culture. It was a religious culture of pride, fear, and the will to power. It was a religion of rewards and punishments. It was a culture of rigid categories that produced criticism, contempt and condemnation.
Jesus compares his generation to a group of children sitting in the marketplace. They are sitting still. Not moving. Inert. Frozen. Stagnant. They remain aloof in the pride of their own self sufficiency.
A child comes to the group and invites them to stand up and move around and join him in playing a game. That child is John the Baptist. John preached repentance from sin and preparation for the coming Messiah. John proclaimed a lament for the status quo and an urgent call for self examination and transformation.
That generation of religious leaders refused self examination. They were in fact self satisfied and self sufficient. They refused to enter into a process of transformation because they already considered themselves righteous. They listened to John but did not hear him. They remained seated, stationary, stagnant. John did every thing he could to encourage them to move even the slightest step forward. They refused.
Jesus came playing the flute. Jesus proclaimed the goodness of God and the joy of the Messianic Kingdom. Jesus came celebrating the Divine Presence in the ordinary events of life. He invited the sedentary religious leaders to stand up and join in the celebration.
As with John’s call to repentance, so it was with Jesus’ call to celebration. That generation resisted both John and Jesus. They were set in their ways. They were stuck in their programs. They were defined by their pride of position and power. They were resistant to both repentance and to celebration because they feared change.
They were like pouting petulant children trapped in their own demand to define life, other people and God. They thought they were righteous. They thought they had understanding. They thought they had God figured out. But, they lacked humility. Because they lacked humility they lacked wisdom.
Wisdom starts from the place of humility.
The great tragedy of the sin nature is pride. We can identify pride in our lives whenever we make non negotiable demands backed by a threat.
The way of wisdom is the way of Jesus Christ.
The book of Proverbs is a book about wisdom. The eighth chapter of Proverbs gives a very clear and concise summary of wisdom.
The way of wisdom is the way the co-eternal Son of God adopted when he came to earth. He surrendered every aspect of his divine prerogatives that the religion of his generation valued. He came helpless as an infant. He lived the life of the ordinary working poor. He came in the spirit of the Messianic prophecy announced by the prophet Isaiah: a bruised reed he will not break; a dimly burning wick he will not quench. He came with healing. He came with unconditional love.
This humility confused, bewildered and angered almost every one Jesus met during his three years of public ministry. This was not what anyone expected from the Messiah. The expectation was that the Messiah would support and reward the programs already developed by the righteous. The expectation was for a very material reward in terms of money and power.
The reality was not in the reward but in the relationship Jesus offered.
Jesus is very clear on both the problem confronting the human race and God’s solution to the problem.
People, all people, are lost in separation.
Religious people are lost in religion when we use religion to impose our will on other people; and, when we use our religion to place demands on God. The religion of Jesus’ generation was the religion of the loophole. People asked themselves and their leaders: what is the least I have to do to be considered righteous? What is the minimum requirement for me to avoid wrath and to gain my reward?
Secular people are lost in the pride of knowledge and the despair of superstition. Pride says “I don’t need God.” Despair says: “even if God exists he could never help me.” The secular assert: “it is all up to me and all about me.” The secular also say: “it is not my fault; some one else is to blame.”
Jesus teaches what the religious and the secular do not want to hear. Jesus teaches the personal responsibility of every individual to receive the gift our Heavenly Father offers us. The gift is a person: Jesus Christ.
Jesus angered everyone by proclaiming that he alone knows the Father.
Jesus confused everyone by offering that knowledge to all people as a gift. You can’t earn it. It is not a human right. It is a gift.
Jesus is God pouring himself out to each of us and to all of us in the person of his only begotten Son. Jesus is the real presence of the Infinite and Eternal inviting us to repent and to celebrate.
The invitation is one word: “Come”.
Are you weary? Come. Come to Jesus.
Are carrying heavy burdens? Come. Come to Jesus.
Are you feeling enslaved by your own impossible demands on life? Come . Come to Jesus.
Are you frustrated, confused, agitated by too much or too little knowledge about the world? Come. Come to Jesus.
Jesus offers rest to the weary.
Jesus offers release to the burdened.
Jesus offers renewal to the frustrated.
Jesus offers to refresh our mind, heart and will continually by his own Real Presence.
What Jesus offers is not a program, a set of laws, or a quick fix. What Jesus offers is a new life and a new way of living.
If we accept Jesus as our personal Lord and Savior we reject all other masters. To take the yoke of Jesus is to forsake all other claims on our loyalty, our time, our priorities.
As we take that yoke of Lordship we enter into an active, dynamic, never ending journey of transformation in unconditional love.
That journey is grounded in our souls through the spirit of humility Jesus gives us. It isn’t easy. And, it doesn’t happen over night. It is the only way we can know God. It is the only way we can live the blessing God offers us.
Jesus compared his generation to sullen spiteful children who wouldn’t respond to the call to repentance or the call to worship.
To what does Jesus compare our generation?
How do we respond to the call to repentance, conversion and transformation? Do we say, “Yes Lord?” Or, do we say, “not now?” What do we say? Do we respond with humility or do we react with pride?
How do we respond to the call to worship? The call to worship is the call to the total immersion of the soul in the steadfast holy unconditional love of God. Do we say: “Yes Lord.” Or, do we look for loopholes to avoid the invitation. Do we respond with humility or do we react with pride?
The blessing God offers is in the relationship God offers in Jesus Christ. The relationship sets us free from fear, self will and pride to enjoy a new life and a new way of living in renewal and celebration as we hear the invitation of Jesus Christ in the words: “Come to me”.
Jesus asked: “To what will I compare this generation?”
Every generation is beset by a common problem. That problem is separation from God. Separation from God produces a spiritual pain that envelops and enslaves the soul. That pain results in the distortion of our thoughts, emotions and wills.
As every human being is unique so every generation is unique. Every generation manifests the common problem of separation in the unique circumstances of its particular culture.
The culture Jesus grew up in was a religious culture. It was a religious culture of pride, fear, and the will to power. It was a religion of rewards and punishments. It was a culture of rigid categories that produced criticism, contempt and condemnation.
Jesus compares his generation to a group of children sitting in the marketplace. They are sitting still. Not moving. Inert. Frozen. Stagnant. They remain aloof in the pride of their own self sufficiency.
A child comes to the group and invites them to stand up and move around and join him in playing a game. That child is John the Baptist. John preached repentance from sin and preparation for the coming Messiah. John proclaimed a lament for the status quo and an urgent call for self examination and transformation.
That generation of religious leaders refused self examination. They were in fact self satisfied and self sufficient. They refused to enter into a process of transformation because they already considered themselves righteous. They listened to John but did not hear him. They remained seated, stationary, stagnant. John did every thing he could to encourage them to move even the slightest step forward. They refused.
Jesus came playing the flute. Jesus proclaimed the goodness of God and the joy of the Messianic Kingdom. Jesus came celebrating the Divine Presence in the ordinary events of life. He invited the sedentary religious leaders to stand up and join in the celebration.
As with John’s call to repentance, so it was with Jesus’ call to celebration. That generation resisted both John and Jesus. They were set in their ways. They were stuck in their programs. They were defined by their pride of position and power. They were resistant to both repentance and to celebration because they feared change.
They were like pouting petulant children trapped in their own demand to define life, other people and God. They thought they were righteous. They thought they had understanding. They thought they had God figured out. But, they lacked humility. Because they lacked humility they lacked wisdom.
Wisdom starts from the place of humility.
The great tragedy of the sin nature is pride. We can identify pride in our lives whenever we make non negotiable demands backed by a threat.
The way of wisdom is the way of Jesus Christ.
The book of Proverbs is a book about wisdom. The eighth chapter of Proverbs gives a very clear and concise summary of wisdom.
The way of wisdom is the way the co-eternal Son of God adopted when he came to earth. He surrendered every aspect of his divine prerogatives that the religion of his generation valued. He came helpless as an infant. He lived the life of the ordinary working poor. He came in the spirit of the Messianic prophecy announced by the prophet Isaiah: a bruised reed he will not break; a dimly burning wick he will not quench. He came with healing. He came with unconditional love.
This humility confused, bewildered and angered almost every one Jesus met during his three years of public ministry. This was not what anyone expected from the Messiah. The expectation was that the Messiah would support and reward the programs already developed by the righteous. The expectation was for a very material reward in terms of money and power.
The reality was not in the reward but in the relationship Jesus offered.
Jesus is very clear on both the problem confronting the human race and God’s solution to the problem.
People, all people, are lost in separation.
Religious people are lost in religion when we use religion to impose our will on other people; and, when we use our religion to place demands on God. The religion of Jesus’ generation was the religion of the loophole. People asked themselves and their leaders: what is the least I have to do to be considered righteous? What is the minimum requirement for me to avoid wrath and to gain my reward?
Secular people are lost in the pride of knowledge and the despair of superstition. Pride says “I don’t need God.” Despair says: “even if God exists he could never help me.” The secular assert: “it is all up to me and all about me.” The secular also say: “it is not my fault; some one else is to blame.”
Jesus teaches what the religious and the secular do not want to hear. Jesus teaches the personal responsibility of every individual to receive the gift our Heavenly Father offers us. The gift is a person: Jesus Christ.
Jesus angered everyone by proclaiming that he alone knows the Father.
Jesus confused everyone by offering that knowledge to all people as a gift. You can’t earn it. It is not a human right. It is a gift.
Jesus is God pouring himself out to each of us and to all of us in the person of his only begotten Son. Jesus is the real presence of the Infinite and Eternal inviting us to repent and to celebrate.
The invitation is one word: “Come”.
Are you weary? Come. Come to Jesus.
Are carrying heavy burdens? Come. Come to Jesus.
Are you feeling enslaved by your own impossible demands on life? Come . Come to Jesus.
Are you frustrated, confused, agitated by too much or too little knowledge about the world? Come. Come to Jesus.
Jesus offers rest to the weary.
Jesus offers release to the burdened.
Jesus offers renewal to the frustrated.
Jesus offers to refresh our mind, heart and will continually by his own Real Presence.
What Jesus offers is not a program, a set of laws, or a quick fix. What Jesus offers is a new life and a new way of living.
If we accept Jesus as our personal Lord and Savior we reject all other masters. To take the yoke of Jesus is to forsake all other claims on our loyalty, our time, our priorities.
As we take that yoke of Lordship we enter into an active, dynamic, never ending journey of transformation in unconditional love.
That journey is grounded in our souls through the spirit of humility Jesus gives us. It isn’t easy. And, it doesn’t happen over night. It is the only way we can know God. It is the only way we can live the blessing God offers us.
Jesus compared his generation to sullen spiteful children who wouldn’t respond to the call to repentance or the call to worship.
To what does Jesus compare our generation?
How do we respond to the call to repentance, conversion and transformation? Do we say, “Yes Lord?” Or, do we say, “not now?” What do we say? Do we respond with humility or do we react with pride?
How do we respond to the call to worship? The call to worship is the call to the total immersion of the soul in the steadfast holy unconditional love of God. Do we say: “Yes Lord.” Or, do we look for loopholes to avoid the invitation. Do we respond with humility or do we react with pride?
The blessing God offers is in the relationship God offers in Jesus Christ. The relationship sets us free from fear, self will and pride to enjoy a new life and a new way of living in renewal and celebration as we hear the invitation of Jesus Christ in the words: “Come to me”.
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Pentecost 2
Pentecost 2 (Matthew 10:40-42)
Whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me.
Jesus is the fullness of God in human flesh.
If you really want to know God look at Jesus. Everything in the Old Testament prepares us to understand Jesus. Everything in the New Testament helps us to receive Jesus. The sole purpose of the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church is to help people experience the living reality of the living Lord Jesus Christ.
All religion is human speculation about God. Only Jesus Christ is God reaching out to the human race.
All religion asks some basic questions: who or what is God? What does this Deity or Deities want from me? How does this make a difference in my life? Our Heavenly Father answers this question in a very unusual way. That Way is Jesus.
Most forms of religion assume a rewards/punishment pattern to human interaction with the divine. For most people most of the time, the good things in life are the reward and the bad things in life are the punishment.
Virtually every atheistic I have ever listened to tells the same story. I don’t believe in God because God failed me. God failed the implicit bargain religion teaches. That bargain can be stated: if you do good you get good; if you do bad you get bad. This is not the way the world works. It is the demand of the human soul. It is a demand that leaves us empty and seeking something new or something different to satisfy our longing.
People desire many things. People long for happiness, justice and love. As St. Paul wrote: the greatest is Love. As Moses wrote: God brings forth steadfast holy love. As King David sang: O Lord, I will celebrate your love forever. As the prophets proclaimed: The Lord yearns to bless his people as a groom longs to bring happiness to his bride.
As the beloved apostle John wrote and experienced: God just doesn’t have love; God is love. Jesus is the Love of the Eternal Father in human flesh.
The reason we exist is because our Heavenly Father created us to live in an active dynamic transforming relationship of infinite and eternal love with the co-eternal son.
The Archangel Gabriel directed the Blessed Virgin Mary to name her son Jesus, savior. Our Heavenly Father has audibly declared Jesus’ name in eternity is: The Beloved.
If you receive Jesus as your personal lord and savior you receive the co-eternal Beloved. Jesus himself is the reward. The reward is the new life and the new way of living that comes from entering into the new relationship God offers all people everywhere.
What does God want?
God wants us to make a real choice to immerse our mind, our heart, our will in the real presence of the co-eternal Beloved, Jesus Christ. This is the one thing God wants from us. All other things Moses and the Prophets and the Apostles taught all derive from this one thing.
The reward of the prophets and the righteous is the immersion of the soul in the steadfast holy unconditional love of God.
This is why the Holy Spirit led Moses into the wilderness. He was too distracted by the pleasures and the power and the pride of his position as a Prince of Egypt. He had to learn love by becoming a shepherd of sheep. From among the highest in human society Moses became the lowest. In that journey from the palaces of Egypt to the Sinai desert, Moses learned what only the desert could teach him. Moses learned unconditional love.
In learning unconditional love, Moses prepared himself to hear what very few people have ever heard. Moses prepared his mind, his heart, his will to hear the Word of God.
It is the same Word Moses heard in the desert that the prophets heard and proclaimed. It is the Word that became flesh in Jesus Christ and dwelt among us in complete humility.
If you receive Jesus you receive the one who sent him. If you receive Jesus you receive the one who prepared Moses and the Prophets to announce his coming. If you receive Jesus you receive the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
The reward is the relationship.
In this present world of duality there will be good times and bad times. In this world of cause and effect we will know success and we will know failure. We will know pleasure and we will know pain. In this world as it is, Jesus offers us himself.
He stands at the thresh hold of this world and knocks. He stands at the door to our individual souls and knocks. Jesus never imposes himself on us. He did not and will not come into this world to command and control. He came and continues to come into this world to offer himself to us.
The question implicit in Jesus’ teaching on this second Sunday of Pentecost is: will you welcome me?
For just a moment forget the religion. Focus on the relationship. For just a second forget the doctrine. Focus on the person. Listen. Pay attention. Here and now in the space of a single breath Jesus is calling to us. Here and now within a single heart beat Jesus invites you to receive an eternal treasure that will transform your life.
That treasure is a personal relationship with the co-eternal Beloved of the eternal Father. That treasure is the Holy Spirit infusing love into our souls by the presence of his own infinite and eternal love.
What does God want? He wants to call us the beloved of the co-eternal beloved. He wants to immerse our souls in the love of that relationship. He wants to transform our fear, anger, frustration, pain, pride and despair in the active dynamic of that relationship.
That is what God wants.
What do you want?
Will you allow Jesus to be who he is?
Will you surrender the urgent and impossible demand of the sin nature to define other people, the world and even God?
Will you yield your self will to be transformed by divine will and discover the liberation of free will in Jesus Christ?
Will you this day at this time and in this place just as you are welcome the Living Lord Jesus Christ as your personal forever friend and companion?
Wealth and power will pass away. Friends and partners will disappoint you. Only Jesus is the eternal Beloved of the Eternal Father.
The reward Jesus offers is himself. The reward is the relationship that will never pass away. The relationship will only get better as we discover in Jesus the reality of the infinite and eternal love of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me.
Jesus is the fullness of God in human flesh.
If you really want to know God look at Jesus. Everything in the Old Testament prepares us to understand Jesus. Everything in the New Testament helps us to receive Jesus. The sole purpose of the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church is to help people experience the living reality of the living Lord Jesus Christ.
All religion is human speculation about God. Only Jesus Christ is God reaching out to the human race.
All religion asks some basic questions: who or what is God? What does this Deity or Deities want from me? How does this make a difference in my life? Our Heavenly Father answers this question in a very unusual way. That Way is Jesus.
Most forms of religion assume a rewards/punishment pattern to human interaction with the divine. For most people most of the time, the good things in life are the reward and the bad things in life are the punishment.
Virtually every atheistic I have ever listened to tells the same story. I don’t believe in God because God failed me. God failed the implicit bargain religion teaches. That bargain can be stated: if you do good you get good; if you do bad you get bad. This is not the way the world works. It is the demand of the human soul. It is a demand that leaves us empty and seeking something new or something different to satisfy our longing.
People desire many things. People long for happiness, justice and love. As St. Paul wrote: the greatest is Love. As Moses wrote: God brings forth steadfast holy love. As King David sang: O Lord, I will celebrate your love forever. As the prophets proclaimed: The Lord yearns to bless his people as a groom longs to bring happiness to his bride.
As the beloved apostle John wrote and experienced: God just doesn’t have love; God is love. Jesus is the Love of the Eternal Father in human flesh.
The reason we exist is because our Heavenly Father created us to live in an active dynamic transforming relationship of infinite and eternal love with the co-eternal son.
The Archangel Gabriel directed the Blessed Virgin Mary to name her son Jesus, savior. Our Heavenly Father has audibly declared Jesus’ name in eternity is: The Beloved.
If you receive Jesus as your personal lord and savior you receive the co-eternal Beloved. Jesus himself is the reward. The reward is the new life and the new way of living that comes from entering into the new relationship God offers all people everywhere.
What does God want?
God wants us to make a real choice to immerse our mind, our heart, our will in the real presence of the co-eternal Beloved, Jesus Christ. This is the one thing God wants from us. All other things Moses and the Prophets and the Apostles taught all derive from this one thing.
The reward of the prophets and the righteous is the immersion of the soul in the steadfast holy unconditional love of God.
This is why the Holy Spirit led Moses into the wilderness. He was too distracted by the pleasures and the power and the pride of his position as a Prince of Egypt. He had to learn love by becoming a shepherd of sheep. From among the highest in human society Moses became the lowest. In that journey from the palaces of Egypt to the Sinai desert, Moses learned what only the desert could teach him. Moses learned unconditional love.
In learning unconditional love, Moses prepared himself to hear what very few people have ever heard. Moses prepared his mind, his heart, his will to hear the Word of God.
It is the same Word Moses heard in the desert that the prophets heard and proclaimed. It is the Word that became flesh in Jesus Christ and dwelt among us in complete humility.
If you receive Jesus you receive the one who sent him. If you receive Jesus you receive the one who prepared Moses and the Prophets to announce his coming. If you receive Jesus you receive the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
The reward is the relationship.
In this present world of duality there will be good times and bad times. In this world of cause and effect we will know success and we will know failure. We will know pleasure and we will know pain. In this world as it is, Jesus offers us himself.
He stands at the thresh hold of this world and knocks. He stands at the door to our individual souls and knocks. Jesus never imposes himself on us. He did not and will not come into this world to command and control. He came and continues to come into this world to offer himself to us.
The question implicit in Jesus’ teaching on this second Sunday of Pentecost is: will you welcome me?
For just a moment forget the religion. Focus on the relationship. For just a second forget the doctrine. Focus on the person. Listen. Pay attention. Here and now in the space of a single breath Jesus is calling to us. Here and now within a single heart beat Jesus invites you to receive an eternal treasure that will transform your life.
That treasure is a personal relationship with the co-eternal Beloved of the eternal Father. That treasure is the Holy Spirit infusing love into our souls by the presence of his own infinite and eternal love.
What does God want? He wants to call us the beloved of the co-eternal beloved. He wants to immerse our souls in the love of that relationship. He wants to transform our fear, anger, frustration, pain, pride and despair in the active dynamic of that relationship.
That is what God wants.
What do you want?
Will you allow Jesus to be who he is?
Will you surrender the urgent and impossible demand of the sin nature to define other people, the world and even God?
Will you yield your self will to be transformed by divine will and discover the liberation of free will in Jesus Christ?
Will you this day at this time and in this place just as you are welcome the Living Lord Jesus Christ as your personal forever friend and companion?
Wealth and power will pass away. Friends and partners will disappoint you. Only Jesus is the eternal Beloved of the Eternal Father.
The reward Jesus offers is himself. The reward is the relationship that will never pass away. The relationship will only get better as we discover in Jesus the reality of the infinite and eternal love of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Trinity
Trinity Sunday 2011 (Matthew 28:16-20)
Remember, I am with you always.
The Trinity reveals the pattern, plan and purpose for human life.
The reality that the one God is three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit can only come through divine revelation. The key to that revelation is Jesus Christ.
Certainly, Moses and the Prophets experienced the reality of God the Holy Spirit as that personal Presence of God the Father who called them into ministry and empowered them for ministry. They also looked forward to the coming of the Messiah.
The word “Trinity” is not used in the Bible. It is a word the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church chose to describe the reality of God as set forth in the Bible and as experienced in the lives of the apostles.
The teaching that the one God is three persons is grounded in the Incarnation. In Luke we read how our Heavenly Father sent the Holy Spirit to effect the incarnation of the co-eternal Logos, the Beloved Son of the Father. In John we read how the Word was always with God and always is God. That Word became incarnate in Jesus Christ.
At Jesus’ baptism in the river Jordan, God the Father speaks audibly and declares: this is my Son, The Beloved. God the Holy Spirit appears visibly in a form the witnesses could only describe as similar to a dove. The Holy Spirit anointed Jesus to be the Christ, the anointed one.
In the Transfiguration the Holy Spirit appears visibly to the senses of the apostles as a luminescent cloud. Once again, God the Father speaks audibly and declares Jesus to be His Son, The Beloved.
At Pentecost, the Holy Spirit appears visibly as fire and audibly as the sound of a mighty rushing wind.
Jesus himself refers to God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. In the gospel reading this morning, Jesus gives us the baptismal formula as the simple, direct and explicit statement of the reality of the Trinity.
Most people who are not Christians tend to describe the Christian belief in the Trinity as tri-theism. They cannot understand how the one God can be three persons so they tell us we really believe in three gods. No less a person than Sir Isaac Newtown was so troubled by his inability to comprehend the Trinity intellectually, that he rejected the teaching in his effort to make God fit into the mathematical precision of the world of matter, energy, time and space.
God is not limited by that world. God is infinite and eternal. God is greater than the universe. Those of us who live in the universe are limited in our understanding. All of us participate in our first parents’ choice to separate from God. As a consequence of that original choice, we are lost in separation and do not wish to be found.
The record of scripture through Moses and the Prophets is that people do not seek God. People flee from God. Religious people flee from God by creating God in their own image according to their own desires. Secular people flee from God by rejecting the very concept of God.
The first ecumenical councils met to formulate the Nicene Creed in response to a serious challenge to the teaching of the Incarnation and the Trinity. A priest by the name of Arius decided the doctrine of the Trinity was incomprehensible and confusing. He came to believe this doctrine was the cause for anti-Christian persecution.
Arius asserted that there was only one eternally self existent God. That God created the Son in a moment of time, thus removing the complexity of the co-eternal Son. Having rejected the Son as co-eternal with the Father, Arius redefined the Holy Spirit as an impersonal force emanating from God.
Arius accomplished what Sir Isaac Newtown would later assert: he fit God into the limited categories of human understand. He redefined God in human terms. God will not be defined by any one. God is God. God is the great “I am”. The Bible is very clear that the One God is three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
The Ecumenical Councils struggled to find the words to express this Divine Mystery revealed in the Bible and made real for us in Jesus Christ. They found the words in the subtly of Greek Philosophical thought. After much prayer, Bible study and debate, the First Ecumenical Council in the year 325 AD wrote the Nicene Creed. The second Ecumenical Council met in the year 381 AD to respond to further challenges to the creed and gave us the creed in its present form.
Modern critics of the Council assert that the Church invented the Trinity to appease the pagan Roman mind. Nothing could be further from the truth. Even Arius recognized that it was the doctrines of the Trinity and the Incarnation that confused the Romans and led them to persecute the Christians under the treason laws.
Other critics say that the Nicene Creed became the official teaching of the church by the narrowest majority of one vote. This is also not true. The overwhelming majority of the bishops who attended the Council understood what was at stake. The debates were not so much about whether the incarnation and the Trinity were Biblical. The debate was over how to express these divinely revealed truths in the most precise language possible.
By the end of the First Ecumenical Council only two of three hundred bishops refused to sign the decision.
Why is the teaching of the Trinity important?
During the debates in the Council a phrase emerged that helped clarify the issue. The phrase is: What he (Jesus) did not assume he could not redeem.
The apostolic witness in the New Testament is very clear. Only God can save. No prophet, priest, king or angel has the power to transform sin into love and death into life. Salvation is Jesus Christ because only in Jesus does the Eternal and Infinite Love of God unite divinity with humanity. Only in that union can Jesus transform sin and death into love and life.
The apostolic witness is very clear that salvation touches the very essence of our being. It is, to use the language of philosophy, ontological not just legal.
The Council relied most on the apostle John’s writing in his gospel. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God… and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.
It is only the co-eternal Beloved of the Father, incarnate in Jesus Christ, who can reunite a lost broken and rebellious humanity with God. It is Jesus Himself who describes the Holy Spirit as coming from God, having a unique and defined personality, and as being co-eternal with the Father and the Son.
In the end, the Ecumenical Councils recognized there was no other way of describing what the apostles experienced in their lives and wrote in the New Testament than what is set forth in the Nicene Creed.
The Trinity is not a reality the human mind can analyze and prove. The Trinity is the reality of God Jesus invites us to experience.
The Bible never seeks to prove God’s existence. Moses and the Prophets never attempted to prove God’s existence. Jesus is himself the proof of God’s existence yet virtually everyone he knew rejected him, abandoned him and betrayed him. God is “I am”. He is the infinite and eternal self existence that created the universe and became a particular human being within the confines of the universe to rescue human beings from self imposed separation.
We cannot logically prove the Trinity any more than we can logically prove the existence of God. Jesus invites us to experience the reality of the Trinity by faith through grace.
Jesus is himself the key.
Jesus reveals that the one God is not static transcendent inapproachable perfection. Jesus reveals that the One God is an active dynamic outpouring personal love. Within the reality of the eternal, God actively expresses his essential nature in the dynamic out pouring of love. God the Father is the Eternal Lover, the one who loves. God the son is the co-eternal Beloved of the Eternal Father. God the Holy Spirit is the Presence and Power of that love. One way of experiencing the Trinity is to participate in the new life of The Divine Lover, The Beloved and The Love.
Salvation is a new life in the active dynamic and infinitely creative eternal outpouring of divinity in the three persons of the One God.
We baptize into the Trinity to reunite with life.
We experience sanctification of our minds, hearts and wills in communion with the Trinity to be transformed in holiness.
We enter into eternal unconditional self giving love most fully and completely at the altar of sacrificial worship in the Divine Presence of the Trinity.
Jesus assures us and encourages us to remember that he is always with us. Through Jesus Christ we who live in a universe of matter, energy, time and space are also actively participating in the Divine Life and Love of the One God in three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Remember, I am with you always.
The Trinity reveals the pattern, plan and purpose for human life.
The reality that the one God is three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit can only come through divine revelation. The key to that revelation is Jesus Christ.
Certainly, Moses and the Prophets experienced the reality of God the Holy Spirit as that personal Presence of God the Father who called them into ministry and empowered them for ministry. They also looked forward to the coming of the Messiah.
The word “Trinity” is not used in the Bible. It is a word the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church chose to describe the reality of God as set forth in the Bible and as experienced in the lives of the apostles.
The teaching that the one God is three persons is grounded in the Incarnation. In Luke we read how our Heavenly Father sent the Holy Spirit to effect the incarnation of the co-eternal Logos, the Beloved Son of the Father. In John we read how the Word was always with God and always is God. That Word became incarnate in Jesus Christ.
At Jesus’ baptism in the river Jordan, God the Father speaks audibly and declares: this is my Son, The Beloved. God the Holy Spirit appears visibly in a form the witnesses could only describe as similar to a dove. The Holy Spirit anointed Jesus to be the Christ, the anointed one.
In the Transfiguration the Holy Spirit appears visibly to the senses of the apostles as a luminescent cloud. Once again, God the Father speaks audibly and declares Jesus to be His Son, The Beloved.
At Pentecost, the Holy Spirit appears visibly as fire and audibly as the sound of a mighty rushing wind.
Jesus himself refers to God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. In the gospel reading this morning, Jesus gives us the baptismal formula as the simple, direct and explicit statement of the reality of the Trinity.
Most people who are not Christians tend to describe the Christian belief in the Trinity as tri-theism. They cannot understand how the one God can be three persons so they tell us we really believe in three gods. No less a person than Sir Isaac Newtown was so troubled by his inability to comprehend the Trinity intellectually, that he rejected the teaching in his effort to make God fit into the mathematical precision of the world of matter, energy, time and space.
God is not limited by that world. God is infinite and eternal. God is greater than the universe. Those of us who live in the universe are limited in our understanding. All of us participate in our first parents’ choice to separate from God. As a consequence of that original choice, we are lost in separation and do not wish to be found.
The record of scripture through Moses and the Prophets is that people do not seek God. People flee from God. Religious people flee from God by creating God in their own image according to their own desires. Secular people flee from God by rejecting the very concept of God.
The first ecumenical councils met to formulate the Nicene Creed in response to a serious challenge to the teaching of the Incarnation and the Trinity. A priest by the name of Arius decided the doctrine of the Trinity was incomprehensible and confusing. He came to believe this doctrine was the cause for anti-Christian persecution.
Arius asserted that there was only one eternally self existent God. That God created the Son in a moment of time, thus removing the complexity of the co-eternal Son. Having rejected the Son as co-eternal with the Father, Arius redefined the Holy Spirit as an impersonal force emanating from God.
Arius accomplished what Sir Isaac Newtown would later assert: he fit God into the limited categories of human understand. He redefined God in human terms. God will not be defined by any one. God is God. God is the great “I am”. The Bible is very clear that the One God is three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
The Ecumenical Councils struggled to find the words to express this Divine Mystery revealed in the Bible and made real for us in Jesus Christ. They found the words in the subtly of Greek Philosophical thought. After much prayer, Bible study and debate, the First Ecumenical Council in the year 325 AD wrote the Nicene Creed. The second Ecumenical Council met in the year 381 AD to respond to further challenges to the creed and gave us the creed in its present form.
Modern critics of the Council assert that the Church invented the Trinity to appease the pagan Roman mind. Nothing could be further from the truth. Even Arius recognized that it was the doctrines of the Trinity and the Incarnation that confused the Romans and led them to persecute the Christians under the treason laws.
Other critics say that the Nicene Creed became the official teaching of the church by the narrowest majority of one vote. This is also not true. The overwhelming majority of the bishops who attended the Council understood what was at stake. The debates were not so much about whether the incarnation and the Trinity were Biblical. The debate was over how to express these divinely revealed truths in the most precise language possible.
By the end of the First Ecumenical Council only two of three hundred bishops refused to sign the decision.
Why is the teaching of the Trinity important?
During the debates in the Council a phrase emerged that helped clarify the issue. The phrase is: What he (Jesus) did not assume he could not redeem.
The apostolic witness in the New Testament is very clear. Only God can save. No prophet, priest, king or angel has the power to transform sin into love and death into life. Salvation is Jesus Christ because only in Jesus does the Eternal and Infinite Love of God unite divinity with humanity. Only in that union can Jesus transform sin and death into love and life.
The apostolic witness is very clear that salvation touches the very essence of our being. It is, to use the language of philosophy, ontological not just legal.
The Council relied most on the apostle John’s writing in his gospel. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God… and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.
It is only the co-eternal Beloved of the Father, incarnate in Jesus Christ, who can reunite a lost broken and rebellious humanity with God. It is Jesus Himself who describes the Holy Spirit as coming from God, having a unique and defined personality, and as being co-eternal with the Father and the Son.
In the end, the Ecumenical Councils recognized there was no other way of describing what the apostles experienced in their lives and wrote in the New Testament than what is set forth in the Nicene Creed.
The Trinity is not a reality the human mind can analyze and prove. The Trinity is the reality of God Jesus invites us to experience.
The Bible never seeks to prove God’s existence. Moses and the Prophets never attempted to prove God’s existence. Jesus is himself the proof of God’s existence yet virtually everyone he knew rejected him, abandoned him and betrayed him. God is “I am”. He is the infinite and eternal self existence that created the universe and became a particular human being within the confines of the universe to rescue human beings from self imposed separation.
We cannot logically prove the Trinity any more than we can logically prove the existence of God. Jesus invites us to experience the reality of the Trinity by faith through grace.
Jesus is himself the key.
Jesus reveals that the one God is not static transcendent inapproachable perfection. Jesus reveals that the One God is an active dynamic outpouring personal love. Within the reality of the eternal, God actively expresses his essential nature in the dynamic out pouring of love. God the Father is the Eternal Lover, the one who loves. God the son is the co-eternal Beloved of the Eternal Father. God the Holy Spirit is the Presence and Power of that love. One way of experiencing the Trinity is to participate in the new life of The Divine Lover, The Beloved and The Love.
Salvation is a new life in the active dynamic and infinitely creative eternal outpouring of divinity in the three persons of the One God.
We baptize into the Trinity to reunite with life.
We experience sanctification of our minds, hearts and wills in communion with the Trinity to be transformed in holiness.
We enter into eternal unconditional self giving love most fully and completely at the altar of sacrificial worship in the Divine Presence of the Trinity.
Jesus assures us and encourages us to remember that he is always with us. Through Jesus Christ we who live in a universe of matter, energy, time and space are also actively participating in the Divine Life and Love of the One God in three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
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