Epiphany 4 (Mark 1:21-28)
“On the Sabbath, Jesus entered the synagogue and taught.”
The seventh day is the day of Real Presence.
The Sabbath day completes the creation of the universe. The world is not complete until our Heavenly Father forms time itself according to the Pattern of the co-eternal Word, the Beloved, Jesus Christ. Jesus is the real presence of the infinite and eternal God in the universe of matter, energy, time and space. God the Father designed the Sabbath to remind of the reality of the Son.
Under the Old Covenant, from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday is the day of Real Presence. It is the day God the Father set aside and sanctified. It is the promise of the Father woven into the very fabric of the universe that he is with and he is for us. It is the time when the timeless touches time, hallows time and holds time in the pattern of the Beloved.
Holy Mother Mary taught her son that the Sabbath Day is the day the faithful hear the call to worship and assemble to immerse our minds, hearts and wills in the steadfast holy love of God. God the Holy Spirit issues the call to worship on the seventh day as the invitation to the marriage feast. It is an invitation to celebrate. It is an invitation to receive the blessing God designed into the universe so we can live the blessing and be the blessing to others.
Throughout the time of the prophets most people in Israel most of the time ignored the Sabbath. As they ignored the call to worship so they very quickly abandoned God. As they abandoned God their perception of the world and other people narrowed. They lost faith and lived by fear.
By the time Jesus came into the world most people in Israel most of the time attempted to keep the Sabbath. Sadly, they thought of the Sabbath as a Law to keep in order to gain God’s favor and avoid God’s wrath.
They took a simple command to sanctify the seventh day and complicated it. The complication came in the desire to find the loop holes.
They understood that the Sabbath was a day of rest. They understood that they were called to stop work on the Sabbath Day. Sadly, they teased out the meaning of the command not to work and develop a way around the invitation to meet God at the time and place God appointed to meet them.
Once such work around was to sell their business to a Gentile, a non-Jew, for a day. The contract stipulated that the Gentile was obligated to turn the day’s profit over to the owner and to sell the business back to the owner on sundown Saturday. The Gentile would run the business on the Sabbath so the owner could keep the law and preserve his profit.
It was a law based solution to a fear based problem. The fear was lack of income if the business owner actually kept the Sabbath as God intended. Fear erodes faith. God created the seventh day to be a day of faith. Faith does not ask what is the minimum I must do to gain God’s favor and avoid God’s wrath. Faith is the door way to an experience of the infinite and eternal love of the co-eternal beloved.
Law based religion sees only the burden of the Sabbath. Faith based religion sees the Sabbath as the invitation to experience the personal relationship with the divine in a moment of time.
The religious culture of first century Israel tended to hold the outward forms of the Law and miss the inward grace. Not everyone took this approach. Certainly there were some who perceived the joy of the Sabbath. Many others experienced the Sabbath as a burden.
It is no surprise then that Jesus would encounter demonic presence on the Sabbath in the synagogue. In a fear based religious culture there is a profound distortion of Divine Law and Divine Love that opens a door for the spiritual distortion of the fallen angels.
The fallen angels fell because they rejected love and holiness in order to seize knowledge and power. They chose to separate from God long before God created the material universe. In that choice they lost the truth of their own nature. They yielded their original purity to Lucifer and Lucifer repaid them by murdering their true selves.
The fallen angels are now burnt out remnants of their former glory. They are spirits of spite who hate God from whom they separated, Lucifer who betrayed them, humanity whom they envy and themselves for what they have by their own choice have become. They sealed their spirits in separation through pride and now exist in a state of what the poet John Milton once called “heroic despair.”
Fallen angels, demons, will use fear based religion to bully and intimate human beings. Their attitude is: If I’m going down I will take as many of you with me as I can. They cannot force any human being to do anything. They can use fear to deceive and manipulate people. On a rare occasion they can even take possession of a human being.
On that Sabbath Day in the synagogue in Capernaum, Jesus manifested the Real Presence of the Living God on earth. Jesus fulfilled the very pattern of the Sabbath. In that pattern, Jesus brought the grace of God to all assembled. Jesus assured the people that there is no condemnation in God.
The people were astonished at Jesus’ teaching. There is no fear in Jesus. There is only infinite and eternal love. It was that love that our first parents Adam and Eve rejected. It was that love the fallen angels abandoned.
The demons possessing the man in the synagogue cried out in fear and anger as they recognized the Real Presence of God in Jesus. They had known his glory once in the Heavenly realms. They had abandoned him then in a vain effort to acquire his power. They now feared he would use that power to destroy them.
Love cannot co-exist with fear. Perfect love casts out fear. Jesus is that perfect love the fallen angels made an original choice to reject. They would not and could not embrace that love and so they fled from that love. Jesus released the man from the demonic powers by the Real Presence of Divine Love on the Day of Real Presence.
Everyone in the synagogue that day experienced the reality of the seventh day. The reality of the Sabbath is Jesus himself. The reality is the grace of God activated by the faith of people through the love of Jesus. Sadly, not everyone chose to enter into the joy of that reality through faith.
Jesus liberated the possessed man from the demons. Some saw his action as a manifestation of a superior knowledge and power. Some envied that power. Some coveted that power. Some reacted with an even greater fear of that power. Some responded by faith.
The seventh day of Real Presence in the New Covenant is the day of resurrection. The principle is still the same. It is the Day God the Father invites us to meet God the Son at the altar of sacrificial love to be transformed by God the Holy Spirit. It is the day God himself designed and created as the day of grace. It is the call to live by grace through faith.
It is the day of perfect love that transforms fear into faith. It is the blessing of the infinite and eternal touching time and transforming time.
On the Sabbath day Jesus entered the synagogue and taught. He taught that God just doesn’t have love God is love. The demons fled from that love. The spiritually oppressed found liberation in that love.
It is on the Sabbath Day of real presence Jesus meets us and completes us and sets us free to be the love of God.
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Epiphany 3
Epiphany 3 (Mark 1:14-20)
“The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. Repent and believe the Gospel.”
The time is fulfilled.
All things in this world and of this world have a beginning, a middle and an end. The birth of Jesus is the end of one phase of human history and the beginning of another. It is the end of the prophetic age. With the arrest and execution of John the Baptist the prophetic age ends. After John, there are no divinely appointed prophets.
With the death of the last of the prophets, human history moves into the Church Age. As Jesus calls people to follow him he begins to train the leadership for the Church.
The Church Age is also the Kingdom Age. The Kingdom of Heaven has come in to the world through the incarnation of the co-eternal Word of God, the Beloved. In Jesus, God the Father offers all people everywhere the gift of a new life and a new way of living. The Kingdom of Heaven is that new life and new way of living.
The church is the body of Christ, the continuation of the incarnation. As we each individually unite with Christ in baptism we receive the new life of Christ to become the body of Christ on earth in our specific culture and generation. Jesus wants the Church to continue the mission he initiated when he lived on earth in person.
The mission is our Heavenly Father’s Plan of Salvation. It is the call to receive the gift of reunification with the Father through the Son. It is the call to enter a way of living characterized by personal transformation in thought, word and deed by the Holy Spirit.
The process of transformation is the new way of living Jesus offers. And the pattern in the process is repentance and faith.
In the process of transformation, Jesus shows us where we need to change. He shows us our particular sins. Those sins can be willful, ignorant and even inherited.
Willful sin is active rebellion against Divine Law. Divine Law is the impersonal aspect of God present in the world. Divine Law is revealed in the Bible. The Ten Commandments are Divine Law. During Lent we recite the Ten Commandments every Sunday to remind us of Divine Law.
All particular sins: lying, cheating, stealing, bullying, gossiping and all the others- are distortions of an original virtue. Lying is a distortion of Truth. God created us to tell the truth. The distortion of the virtue of truth into the vice of lying is a result of the original choice our species made to separate from God.
That separation killed a portion of our spirit and has left us all in a state of profound spiritual pain. It is the pain that distorts the virtues into vices. And it is the way of living from the place of separation that leads to our tendency to rebel against Divine Law.
The spiritual pain of separation is the defining power of the old life. The love of Jesus is the defining power of the new life God gives us.
The distortion of virtue into vice through particular sins is the way of living that proceeds from the old life. The transformation of vice back into its original virtue through repentance is the process of the new way of living.
The Holy Spirit convicts us of our complicity in a particular sin. Then, He invites us to repent, to say: “Yes, this behavior is contrary to God’s Law. I am sorry. I want to change”. Finally, he offers to transform the desire to sin into a desire to choose God’s standard of holiness. Then, the Holy Spirit actually transforms particular sins back into their original virtues.
Love is the foundation that infuses the new life into our souls. Faith is the substance that facilitates the choice to repent and transform.
Jesus calls all people everywhere to receive the gift of reunification with God the Father. The call to reunification is the invitation to salvation.
Once we make a real choice to receive the gift of salvation, reunification with God, Jesus sends the Holy Spirit into our souls to help us unravel the many distortions of thought, word and deed that we call sins.
There is willful sin. There is also the sin of ignorance. Sometimes we just don’t realize how our actions and attitudes are so damaging to our souls and to other people. We say: well, that’s just the way I am and God accepts me just as I am.
Jesus comes to you as you are. He loves you as you are. He offers the gift of salvation to you as you are. And, he sends the Holy Spirit, the Counselor, to show you where you need to change in order to live the new life of divine love and compassion. He reminds that nothing of the old life can enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.
Nothing of the old way of living can continue in the Kingdom of Heaven. The more we resist the active ministry of the Holy Spirit in the call to repentance and the power of transformation the less we will enjoy the new life Jesus gives us.
There is also inherited sin. This is the pattern of culture that forms the way we think and how we see the world. The Bible is very clear that all human culture is distorted by sin. From time to time the Holy Spirit will ask us to examine our cultural assumptions about God, life, other people and ourselves.
The time of the Kingdom of Heaven is now. It is not a future event we are preparing for. The Prophetic Age was the age of preparation. The current age is the Kingdom Age. In this age Jesus calls us to continue the reality of the Incarnation by receiving the gift of reunification with God in Him. We become who call created us to be and calls us to be as we yield our self will to Divine will through repentance and transformation.
The way forward in this Kingdom Age is by grace through faith. The Way forward for the Church as the Universal Body of Christ and for each of us as particular members of the universal Church is faith. Faith activates the power of the new life. The power of the new life is the real presence of infinite and eternal love in our souls. That real presence is Jesus.
Our Heavenly Father has fulfilled the time. Therefore receive the gift of a new life in Jesus. Make a real choice by faith to repent of your particular sins and allow the Holy Spirit to transform those sins back into their original virtues.
“The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. Repent and believe the Gospel.”
The time is fulfilled.
All things in this world and of this world have a beginning, a middle and an end. The birth of Jesus is the end of one phase of human history and the beginning of another. It is the end of the prophetic age. With the arrest and execution of John the Baptist the prophetic age ends. After John, there are no divinely appointed prophets.
With the death of the last of the prophets, human history moves into the Church Age. As Jesus calls people to follow him he begins to train the leadership for the Church.
The Church Age is also the Kingdom Age. The Kingdom of Heaven has come in to the world through the incarnation of the co-eternal Word of God, the Beloved. In Jesus, God the Father offers all people everywhere the gift of a new life and a new way of living. The Kingdom of Heaven is that new life and new way of living.
The church is the body of Christ, the continuation of the incarnation. As we each individually unite with Christ in baptism we receive the new life of Christ to become the body of Christ on earth in our specific culture and generation. Jesus wants the Church to continue the mission he initiated when he lived on earth in person.
The mission is our Heavenly Father’s Plan of Salvation. It is the call to receive the gift of reunification with the Father through the Son. It is the call to enter a way of living characterized by personal transformation in thought, word and deed by the Holy Spirit.
The process of transformation is the new way of living Jesus offers. And the pattern in the process is repentance and faith.
In the process of transformation, Jesus shows us where we need to change. He shows us our particular sins. Those sins can be willful, ignorant and even inherited.
Willful sin is active rebellion against Divine Law. Divine Law is the impersonal aspect of God present in the world. Divine Law is revealed in the Bible. The Ten Commandments are Divine Law. During Lent we recite the Ten Commandments every Sunday to remind us of Divine Law.
All particular sins: lying, cheating, stealing, bullying, gossiping and all the others- are distortions of an original virtue. Lying is a distortion of Truth. God created us to tell the truth. The distortion of the virtue of truth into the vice of lying is a result of the original choice our species made to separate from God.
That separation killed a portion of our spirit and has left us all in a state of profound spiritual pain. It is the pain that distorts the virtues into vices. And it is the way of living from the place of separation that leads to our tendency to rebel against Divine Law.
The spiritual pain of separation is the defining power of the old life. The love of Jesus is the defining power of the new life God gives us.
The distortion of virtue into vice through particular sins is the way of living that proceeds from the old life. The transformation of vice back into its original virtue through repentance is the process of the new way of living.
The Holy Spirit convicts us of our complicity in a particular sin. Then, He invites us to repent, to say: “Yes, this behavior is contrary to God’s Law. I am sorry. I want to change”. Finally, he offers to transform the desire to sin into a desire to choose God’s standard of holiness. Then, the Holy Spirit actually transforms particular sins back into their original virtues.
Love is the foundation that infuses the new life into our souls. Faith is the substance that facilitates the choice to repent and transform.
Jesus calls all people everywhere to receive the gift of reunification with God the Father. The call to reunification is the invitation to salvation.
Once we make a real choice to receive the gift of salvation, reunification with God, Jesus sends the Holy Spirit into our souls to help us unravel the many distortions of thought, word and deed that we call sins.
There is willful sin. There is also the sin of ignorance. Sometimes we just don’t realize how our actions and attitudes are so damaging to our souls and to other people. We say: well, that’s just the way I am and God accepts me just as I am.
Jesus comes to you as you are. He loves you as you are. He offers the gift of salvation to you as you are. And, he sends the Holy Spirit, the Counselor, to show you where you need to change in order to live the new life of divine love and compassion. He reminds that nothing of the old life can enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.
Nothing of the old way of living can continue in the Kingdom of Heaven. The more we resist the active ministry of the Holy Spirit in the call to repentance and the power of transformation the less we will enjoy the new life Jesus gives us.
There is also inherited sin. This is the pattern of culture that forms the way we think and how we see the world. The Bible is very clear that all human culture is distorted by sin. From time to time the Holy Spirit will ask us to examine our cultural assumptions about God, life, other people and ourselves.
The time of the Kingdom of Heaven is now. It is not a future event we are preparing for. The Prophetic Age was the age of preparation. The current age is the Kingdom Age. In this age Jesus calls us to continue the reality of the Incarnation by receiving the gift of reunification with God in Him. We become who call created us to be and calls us to be as we yield our self will to Divine will through repentance and transformation.
The way forward in this Kingdom Age is by grace through faith. The Way forward for the Church as the Universal Body of Christ and for each of us as particular members of the universal Church is faith. Faith activates the power of the new life. The power of the new life is the real presence of infinite and eternal love in our souls. That real presence is Jesus.
Our Heavenly Father has fulfilled the time. Therefore receive the gift of a new life in Jesus. Make a real choice by faith to repent of your particular sins and allow the Holy Spirit to transform those sins back into their original virtues.
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Epiphany
Epiphany 2012 (Matthew 2:1-12)
“They saw the young child with his Mary his mother and they fell down and worshipped him.”
Where is God?
Who or what is God?
People sometimes assert that if God is real He is distant and silent. The people who wrote the Bible had a very different perspective. They summarize the “mystery” of God by observing that God is constantly revealing himself to us in a myriad of ways.
The problem is not that God isn’t speaking to us. The problem is that we are not listening.
One of the most highly educated Biblical writers is St. Paul. He told the people of his day that in every generation and in every nation God provides a witness to his reality and his identity.
The wise men, the three kings, were Chaldeans. They were not descendants of Abraham. They were not even descendants of Judah. They were pagan astronomers and mathematicians. They used math to understand the movements of the sun, moon, planets and stars. And, they used their understanding of celestial mechanics to form calendars, clocks, engineering and philosophy.
They practiced science and applied science through the very ancient principle: “as above so below.”
Ancient peoples believed the reality of the divine manifested meaning and purpose to the realm of humanity through the movement of planets and stars. This belief found expression in four ways: science, philosophy, religion and superstition.
The science of ancient astronomy helped farmers understand the seasons and helped engineers create massive public buildings.
The philosophy formed an explanation for the mathematical order of nature in the concept of the logos. The logos is the pattern, plan and purpose that gives form to the order in the universe.
The religion attempted to regulate and restrain the tendency in human nature to ignore and rebel against this fundamental order that is infused in the natural world.
The superstition is the active rebellion against reason that seeks a hidden and secret meaning through knowledge and power. At the risk of offending anyone, astrology is a blend of polytheism, mysticism and occult speculation that re works the math and science of astronomy into a fanciful system by which people seek to acquire power through so called secret knowledge.
The Chaldeans were both astronomers and astrologers. They held reason, faith and superstition in a delicate balance. God spoke to them where they were and invited them to make a journey to a more complete understanding of who God is.
God initiated the journey for the wise men. He got their attention as they stood in their observatory in Babylon and pondered the appearance of a bright star.
In that star they recognized the pattern, plan and purpose of the logos, the very word of God. They traveled west to the place of the prophets. As with most educated people of that time and place they were familiar with the Old Testament observations of human behavior and human belief. They did not follow the star in total ignorance. They did follow the star with a mix of reason, faith and superstition.
They perceived the word of God. They paid heed to the word of God. They sought the advice of religious scholars in Jerusalem. Those scholars told them exactly what they needed know to complete their journey.
The scholars gave them the missing piece to the puzzle. From the revealed word of God in the Bible the scholars in Jerusalem directed the Chaldeans to travel to Bethlehem. It was in Bethlehem that they found what they were seeking. They found Mary. They found Jesus. They found and were found by God.
God does not leave himself without a witness. In every age and in every culture and for every person the Logos continually and consistently reveals himself. Some times he reveals himself in the beauty and order of the natural world. Sometimes he reveals himself in the patterns of math and science.
For the Chaledeans, he attracted their attention in a star. Then he directed them to Jerusalem to consult the scriptures. Finally, he spoke to them through the religious scholars to complete the journey of faith to meet Mary and Jesus in Bethlehem.
God speaks to all people everywhere in a myriad of ways to lead us to faith, hope and love in Jesus Christ. Jesus is the word of God, the logos, in human flesh. Jesus is the pattern, plan and purpose of life. God speaks to us where we are and always leads us to his Son, Jesus.
The reality is not the science, the philosophy or the religion. Those are the instruments God employs to help us in our journey to the reality. The reality is a personal relationship with the living God in the living Lord Jesus Christ.
Jesus finds a lost and rebellious humanity in his own person. He gives us the gift of eternal life through reunification with God. He meets us where we are, loves us as we are, and offers to transform us by his own infinite love to be more fully and completely who God created us to be.
That is why the Chaldean wise men, the three kings, honored Mary and worshipped Jesus. All who seek the truth find the truth and they find the truth in Jesus Christ.
“They saw the young child with his Mary his mother and they fell down and worshipped him.”
Where is God?
Who or what is God?
People sometimes assert that if God is real He is distant and silent. The people who wrote the Bible had a very different perspective. They summarize the “mystery” of God by observing that God is constantly revealing himself to us in a myriad of ways.
The problem is not that God isn’t speaking to us. The problem is that we are not listening.
One of the most highly educated Biblical writers is St. Paul. He told the people of his day that in every generation and in every nation God provides a witness to his reality and his identity.
The wise men, the three kings, were Chaldeans. They were not descendants of Abraham. They were not even descendants of Judah. They were pagan astronomers and mathematicians. They used math to understand the movements of the sun, moon, planets and stars. And, they used their understanding of celestial mechanics to form calendars, clocks, engineering and philosophy.
They practiced science and applied science through the very ancient principle: “as above so below.”
Ancient peoples believed the reality of the divine manifested meaning and purpose to the realm of humanity through the movement of planets and stars. This belief found expression in four ways: science, philosophy, religion and superstition.
The science of ancient astronomy helped farmers understand the seasons and helped engineers create massive public buildings.
The philosophy formed an explanation for the mathematical order of nature in the concept of the logos. The logos is the pattern, plan and purpose that gives form to the order in the universe.
The religion attempted to regulate and restrain the tendency in human nature to ignore and rebel against this fundamental order that is infused in the natural world.
The superstition is the active rebellion against reason that seeks a hidden and secret meaning through knowledge and power. At the risk of offending anyone, astrology is a blend of polytheism, mysticism and occult speculation that re works the math and science of astronomy into a fanciful system by which people seek to acquire power through so called secret knowledge.
The Chaldeans were both astronomers and astrologers. They held reason, faith and superstition in a delicate balance. God spoke to them where they were and invited them to make a journey to a more complete understanding of who God is.
God initiated the journey for the wise men. He got their attention as they stood in their observatory in Babylon and pondered the appearance of a bright star.
In that star they recognized the pattern, plan and purpose of the logos, the very word of God. They traveled west to the place of the prophets. As with most educated people of that time and place they were familiar with the Old Testament observations of human behavior and human belief. They did not follow the star in total ignorance. They did follow the star with a mix of reason, faith and superstition.
They perceived the word of God. They paid heed to the word of God. They sought the advice of religious scholars in Jerusalem. Those scholars told them exactly what they needed know to complete their journey.
The scholars gave them the missing piece to the puzzle. From the revealed word of God in the Bible the scholars in Jerusalem directed the Chaldeans to travel to Bethlehem. It was in Bethlehem that they found what they were seeking. They found Mary. They found Jesus. They found and were found by God.
God does not leave himself without a witness. In every age and in every culture and for every person the Logos continually and consistently reveals himself. Some times he reveals himself in the beauty and order of the natural world. Sometimes he reveals himself in the patterns of math and science.
For the Chaledeans, he attracted their attention in a star. Then he directed them to Jerusalem to consult the scriptures. Finally, he spoke to them through the religious scholars to complete the journey of faith to meet Mary and Jesus in Bethlehem.
God speaks to all people everywhere in a myriad of ways to lead us to faith, hope and love in Jesus Christ. Jesus is the word of God, the logos, in human flesh. Jesus is the pattern, plan and purpose of life. God speaks to us where we are and always leads us to his Son, Jesus.
The reality is not the science, the philosophy or the religion. Those are the instruments God employs to help us in our journey to the reality. The reality is a personal relationship with the living God in the living Lord Jesus Christ.
Jesus finds a lost and rebellious humanity in his own person. He gives us the gift of eternal life through reunification with God. He meets us where we are, loves us as we are, and offers to transform us by his own infinite love to be more fully and completely who God created us to be.
That is why the Chaldean wise men, the three kings, honored Mary and worshipped Jesus. All who seek the truth find the truth and they find the truth in Jesus Christ.
Epiphany 2 (John 1:43-51) “Follow me”.any 2
Epiphany 2 (John 1:43-51) “Follow me”.
Jesus is God’s invitation to a new life and a new way of living.
Epiphany season reminds us that life is a journey. It is a journey through time as we age. It is a journey through space as we leave home and make our own way in the world. It is a journey of discovery.
The new life in Jesus derives from the very nature of God. That nature is love. That love is infinite and eternal. The journey Jesus invites us to choose is a pilgrimage of exploration and delight in love.
In Jesus God finds us and calls us where we are. Through Jesus God reveals himself to us and offers to walk with us. We become more of who God created us to be as we make a real choice to cultivate the friendship God offers to us in Jesus.
Jesus is the way human beings can discover more about God, more about human nature, and more about our own unique identity.
Certainly, Peter and Andrew, James and John, Philip and Nathaniel all heard the invitation to follow Jesus as a personal invitation to enter into a new life and a new way of living through a new relationship.
At first, the relationship was of a teacher and a student. The three sets of brothers who heard Jesus were intrigued by his teaching. As with many people of their generation they were deeply religious but frustrated and confused by contradictory and competing claims to truth. They asked the question: which is the right religion? They also asked: who is the right teacher? What is the truth? How can we know the truth?
They thought Jesus would answer those questions. They weren’t prepared for the answer Jesus brought. They were looking for an answer in an institution, a set of laws and rituals, and in the categories of culture.
Jesus lived within that religious system and its expectations but he brought something radically new to the question. Jesus presented himself as the answer to these and other questions people were asking.
Jesus didn’t command people to follow a set of rules, perform a set of rituals or submit to one particular political agenda. Jesus said: follow me. Follow me.
Only Jesus could issue such an invitation. Only Jesus is the fullness of God in human flesh. Jesus issues the invitation with a mixture of infinite compassion and deep humility. The invitation “follow me” respects the process of choice God gives to every being God has created to experience love.
The most amazing, awesome and indeed terrifying import of Jesus is that He holds each of us in the center of Divine Love. He meets us where we are in time, in space, in culture and as individuals. His presence reveals to us that the activating principle of love for all created beings is real choice.
The testimony of Moses and the prophets is the reality of real choice. We are personally responsible to complete our own creation though the choices we make.
God the Father created us according to the pattern, plan and purpose of God the Son by the power of God the Holy Spirit. That pattern is open ended, creative, active dynamic. As beings created by love, through love and for love we have the real choice to follow the principle of love in the path of love. We are responsible to complete our own creation by following the path of love.
It is a real choice. The vast panorama of Biblical history shows us how our choices enter into the world of cause and effect and produce a result, a consequence.
Jesus is the very pattern of love. His invitation to follow him is a more particular and personal expression of the call to worship revealed in the first four of the Ten Commandments.
Jesus is God up front and personal. Jesus is God making his appeal to us to accept personal responsibility for our lives.
Those first disciples of Jesus heard the call and made a real choice to respond to the call. Their understanding was limited and in many ways distorted. They would need to learn to think in different categories. They would need to grow and mature. It was a process that began at a single point in time and continues forever. It continues forever because Jesus is forever.
Jesus himself is the answer to the question: what is truth? The answer appears, unfolds and evolves in a personal relationship.
Nathaniel made a real choice to listen to Jesus and to respond to Jesus. Jesus assured him that choice was pivotal. Through that choice to follow Jesus, Nathaniel would discover greater things than he had ever imagined. He would discover the real presence of the infinite and eternal God in a particular person at a particular place in a particular time.
The call to worship is the call to salvation. The call to salvation is the call to find ourselves in the center of divine love and compassion in Jesus Christ.
For Nathaniel and his brother Philip it was a call to spend the next three years following Jesus on his mission to preach, teach and heal. It was a journey that led the brothers to Jerusalem and Jesus to the cross. It was a journey that seemed to end tragically. That tragic end became a glorious new beginning.
For Nathaniel and Philip the journey led to the ends of the earth in the outpouring of apostolic evangelism in the first century.
In every generation and in every nation Jesus continues to invite people to follow him. As we make a real choice to follow Jesus we enter into a new relationship. The challenge of that relationship is the challenge of where we place our priorities, where we devote our time and attention.
The challenge of following Jesus is the choice to follow where he leads. He leads us to the alar of sacrifice in worship. He leads us to discipleship through Bible study and prayer. He leads us to service through acts of kindness, compassion, and fellowship. He leads us to participate in the proclamation of the Good News that God is real, God is personal, God is love, God is Jesus Christ.
Our response to Jesus sets the pattern and purpose for our lives here and now and forever.
Jesus calls to us today as he called to Nathaniel. Follow me. Follow me into the Real Presence of Divine Love and Compassion at work in the world today. Follow me and become the active dynamic creative love of God at work in the world today. Follow me.
Jesus is God’s invitation to a new life and a new way of living.
Epiphany season reminds us that life is a journey. It is a journey through time as we age. It is a journey through space as we leave home and make our own way in the world. It is a journey of discovery.
The new life in Jesus derives from the very nature of God. That nature is love. That love is infinite and eternal. The journey Jesus invites us to choose is a pilgrimage of exploration and delight in love.
In Jesus God finds us and calls us where we are. Through Jesus God reveals himself to us and offers to walk with us. We become more of who God created us to be as we make a real choice to cultivate the friendship God offers to us in Jesus.
Jesus is the way human beings can discover more about God, more about human nature, and more about our own unique identity.
Certainly, Peter and Andrew, James and John, Philip and Nathaniel all heard the invitation to follow Jesus as a personal invitation to enter into a new life and a new way of living through a new relationship.
At first, the relationship was of a teacher and a student. The three sets of brothers who heard Jesus were intrigued by his teaching. As with many people of their generation they were deeply religious but frustrated and confused by contradictory and competing claims to truth. They asked the question: which is the right religion? They also asked: who is the right teacher? What is the truth? How can we know the truth?
They thought Jesus would answer those questions. They weren’t prepared for the answer Jesus brought. They were looking for an answer in an institution, a set of laws and rituals, and in the categories of culture.
Jesus lived within that religious system and its expectations but he brought something radically new to the question. Jesus presented himself as the answer to these and other questions people were asking.
Jesus didn’t command people to follow a set of rules, perform a set of rituals or submit to one particular political agenda. Jesus said: follow me. Follow me.
Only Jesus could issue such an invitation. Only Jesus is the fullness of God in human flesh. Jesus issues the invitation with a mixture of infinite compassion and deep humility. The invitation “follow me” respects the process of choice God gives to every being God has created to experience love.
The most amazing, awesome and indeed terrifying import of Jesus is that He holds each of us in the center of Divine Love. He meets us where we are in time, in space, in culture and as individuals. His presence reveals to us that the activating principle of love for all created beings is real choice.
The testimony of Moses and the prophets is the reality of real choice. We are personally responsible to complete our own creation though the choices we make.
God the Father created us according to the pattern, plan and purpose of God the Son by the power of God the Holy Spirit. That pattern is open ended, creative, active dynamic. As beings created by love, through love and for love we have the real choice to follow the principle of love in the path of love. We are responsible to complete our own creation by following the path of love.
It is a real choice. The vast panorama of Biblical history shows us how our choices enter into the world of cause and effect and produce a result, a consequence.
Jesus is the very pattern of love. His invitation to follow him is a more particular and personal expression of the call to worship revealed in the first four of the Ten Commandments.
Jesus is God up front and personal. Jesus is God making his appeal to us to accept personal responsibility for our lives.
Those first disciples of Jesus heard the call and made a real choice to respond to the call. Their understanding was limited and in many ways distorted. They would need to learn to think in different categories. They would need to grow and mature. It was a process that began at a single point in time and continues forever. It continues forever because Jesus is forever.
Jesus himself is the answer to the question: what is truth? The answer appears, unfolds and evolves in a personal relationship.
Nathaniel made a real choice to listen to Jesus and to respond to Jesus. Jesus assured him that choice was pivotal. Through that choice to follow Jesus, Nathaniel would discover greater things than he had ever imagined. He would discover the real presence of the infinite and eternal God in a particular person at a particular place in a particular time.
The call to worship is the call to salvation. The call to salvation is the call to find ourselves in the center of divine love and compassion in Jesus Christ.
For Nathaniel and his brother Philip it was a call to spend the next three years following Jesus on his mission to preach, teach and heal. It was a journey that led the brothers to Jerusalem and Jesus to the cross. It was a journey that seemed to end tragically. That tragic end became a glorious new beginning.
For Nathaniel and Philip the journey led to the ends of the earth in the outpouring of apostolic evangelism in the first century.
In every generation and in every nation Jesus continues to invite people to follow him. As we make a real choice to follow Jesus we enter into a new relationship. The challenge of that relationship is the challenge of where we place our priorities, where we devote our time and attention.
The challenge of following Jesus is the choice to follow where he leads. He leads us to the alar of sacrifice in worship. He leads us to discipleship through Bible study and prayer. He leads us to service through acts of kindness, compassion, and fellowship. He leads us to participate in the proclamation of the Good News that God is real, God is personal, God is love, God is Jesus Christ.
Our response to Jesus sets the pattern and purpose for our lives here and now and forever.
Jesus calls to us today as he called to Nathaniel. Follow me. Follow me into the Real Presence of Divine Love and Compassion at work in the world today. Follow me and become the active dynamic creative love of God at work in the world today. Follow me.
Friday, December 30, 2011
Holy Name of Jesus 2012
The Holy Name of Jesus 2012 (Luke 2:15-22)
“He was called Jesus.”
Love and love alone is salvation.
Our Heavenly Father named his incarnate son Jesus. This is the name the archangel Gabriel announced to Holy Mother Mary at the moment of the incarnation.
The angel brought the Father’s message to the holy mother to name her son Jesus. Jesus means savior.
The people of that time looked for a savior. The Romans looked to the emperor to save them from political chaos. The Greeks looked to philosophers and scientists to save them from ignorance. The Jews looked to a messiah to save them from Roman imperialism and Greek polytheism.
The Romans feared political instability and so reacted by creating a immense and powerful imperial system.
The Greeks feared ignorance and so reacted by creating highly complex and diverse philosophies.
The Jews feared the loss of their identity and so reacted by creating rigid and restrictive religious systems to purify the people for the Messianic leader who would destroy the corrupting influences of Rome, Greece, and unrighteous Jews.
Each civilization felt a great and overwhelming fear. Each civilization attempted to express that fear in ways they could understand, manage and control. Each civilization drew back from the cause of that fear. The cause of that fear is separation from God. The outward and visible sign of separation is death.
Death is the fear that people do not want to name. It is beyond our control. It is beyond the influence of politics, philosophy or religion.
Jesus came to save all people everywhere from the power of death.
Jesus saves all people everywhere from death by making a real choice to embrace death on the cross. For every who has ever lived or will ever live the embrace of death is fearful and final. For Jesus, death is a distortion to be transformed.
Jesus just doesn’t conquer death or destroy death. Jesus saves the entire human species from death by willingly embracing death. The embrace of Jesus is the embrace of a love that is infinite and eternal. In that embrace Love transforms death back into life. In that embrace love transforms fear back into faith.
Jesus saves us from fear and death through Love. Only Jesus has this love because only Jesus is this love. Jesus is the co-eternal Beloved of God the Father who is love.
Jesus is the universal savior for all people because Jesus is the transcendent pattern by which the Father created all people.
Jesus is not only the source of life he is the meaning and purpose of life. God the Father creates every human being through God the Holy Spirit to be the unique and forever friend of God the Son, Jesus, the Beloved.
Jesus is the Father’s gift to all people everywhere. Jesus is a true gift and a real gift. Jesus came to earth as a helpless infant to reassure a fearful humanity that he holds in his sacred heart only grace and compassion.
There is no condemnation in Jesus because there is not condemnation in God. There is no condemnation in God because God just doesn’t have love- God is love.
\
There is no compulsion in the universal savior. Jesus offers himself to us as the one pure holy gift of divine love and compassion. The active principle of love is choice.
Jesus offers salvation to all people everywhere with no condition and no restriction. Salvation is Jesus. Only Jesus has embraced sin and death and transformed it back into love and life. Only Jesus has faced fear, embraced fear and transformed fear back into faith.
The call to worship is the call to reunification with the Father, through the Son, by the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit.
The call to worship is the universal invitation to all human beings everywhere to receive the gift of divine love and compassion, to find a new life in that love, and to be transformed by that love.
The call to worship is the name Gabriel delivered to Mary and Mary joyfully gave to her son. It is the name of love himself. Love and love alone is salvation.
The name of love is Jesus.
“He was called Jesus.”
Love and love alone is salvation.
Our Heavenly Father named his incarnate son Jesus. This is the name the archangel Gabriel announced to Holy Mother Mary at the moment of the incarnation.
The angel brought the Father’s message to the holy mother to name her son Jesus. Jesus means savior.
The people of that time looked for a savior. The Romans looked to the emperor to save them from political chaos. The Greeks looked to philosophers and scientists to save them from ignorance. The Jews looked to a messiah to save them from Roman imperialism and Greek polytheism.
The Romans feared political instability and so reacted by creating a immense and powerful imperial system.
The Greeks feared ignorance and so reacted by creating highly complex and diverse philosophies.
The Jews feared the loss of their identity and so reacted by creating rigid and restrictive religious systems to purify the people for the Messianic leader who would destroy the corrupting influences of Rome, Greece, and unrighteous Jews.
Each civilization felt a great and overwhelming fear. Each civilization attempted to express that fear in ways they could understand, manage and control. Each civilization drew back from the cause of that fear. The cause of that fear is separation from God. The outward and visible sign of separation is death.
Death is the fear that people do not want to name. It is beyond our control. It is beyond the influence of politics, philosophy or religion.
Jesus came to save all people everywhere from the power of death.
Jesus saves all people everywhere from death by making a real choice to embrace death on the cross. For every who has ever lived or will ever live the embrace of death is fearful and final. For Jesus, death is a distortion to be transformed.
Jesus just doesn’t conquer death or destroy death. Jesus saves the entire human species from death by willingly embracing death. The embrace of Jesus is the embrace of a love that is infinite and eternal. In that embrace Love transforms death back into life. In that embrace love transforms fear back into faith.
Jesus saves us from fear and death through Love. Only Jesus has this love because only Jesus is this love. Jesus is the co-eternal Beloved of God the Father who is love.
Jesus is the universal savior for all people because Jesus is the transcendent pattern by which the Father created all people.
Jesus is not only the source of life he is the meaning and purpose of life. God the Father creates every human being through God the Holy Spirit to be the unique and forever friend of God the Son, Jesus, the Beloved.
Jesus is the Father’s gift to all people everywhere. Jesus is a true gift and a real gift. Jesus came to earth as a helpless infant to reassure a fearful humanity that he holds in his sacred heart only grace and compassion.
There is no condemnation in Jesus because there is not condemnation in God. There is no condemnation in God because God just doesn’t have love- God is love.
\
There is no compulsion in the universal savior. Jesus offers himself to us as the one pure holy gift of divine love and compassion. The active principle of love is choice.
Jesus offers salvation to all people everywhere with no condition and no restriction. Salvation is Jesus. Only Jesus has embraced sin and death and transformed it back into love and life. Only Jesus has faced fear, embraced fear and transformed fear back into faith.
The call to worship is the call to reunification with the Father, through the Son, by the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit.
The call to worship is the universal invitation to all human beings everywhere to receive the gift of divine love and compassion, to find a new life in that love, and to be transformed by that love.
The call to worship is the name Gabriel delivered to Mary and Mary joyfully gave to her son. It is the name of love himself. Love and love alone is salvation.
The name of love is Jesus.
Friday, December 23, 2011
Christmas 2011
Christmas 2011 (Luke 2:1-14)
“Fear not; I bring you good tidings of great joy.”
The great mystery of Christmas is Jesus Christ.
In Jesus God the Father united God the Son with human nature.
God became as we are so that we might become as God is.
The Christmas angel announced to the shepherds and to the world: fear not. This world and your lives are neither random nor meaningless. There is no condemnation in God. The Good News the angel brought to the poorest of the poor that night echoes throughout the centuries to all people everywhere.
The great joy of Christmas is that God is real, God is personal, God is love, God is Jesus Christ.
Where so many people ponder the question of whether God exists or who God may be, God himself answers that question once and for all, fully and completely. The answer is Jesus Christ.
In the infant of Bethlehem we see how the co-eternal Beloved Son of the Father set aside his omnipotence and omniscience to become one of us. Fully God and fully human. A particular man at a particular time in a particular place to reveal the infinite eternal real presence of Divine Love and Compassion for all of us and to each of us.
Jesus is the transcendent Beloved of the Father. Jesus is God with us and God for us in the manger with Mary and Joseph, the animals and the shepherds, the kings and the angels.
Jesus is the real and personal love of God for everyone. Jesus excludes no one and welcomes everyone to receive the gift of eternal love. That love has no beginning and will have no end. As we make a real choice to be found by that love and to immerse our souls in that love we reclaim the Original Blessing our species once rejected.
In Jesus God calls us to be who He originally created us to be. God the Father calls us to be the beloved of the co-eternal Beloved, Jesus Christ. Jesus fills us with that infinite love and compassion who is eternally the Holy Spirit.
In Jesus, God finds us wherever we are. In Jesus God found Mary and Joseph in the working class town of Nazareth. In Jesus, God found the shepherds in the fields. In Jesus God found the three kings in their observatory pondering the vastness of the universe. In Jesus God finds each of us where we are here and now.
The Christmas angel proclaims: Feat not. God is real. God is love. God is personal. God is Jesus Christ for you and forever. Amen.
“Fear not; I bring you good tidings of great joy.”
The great mystery of Christmas is Jesus Christ.
In Jesus God the Father united God the Son with human nature.
God became as we are so that we might become as God is.
The Christmas angel announced to the shepherds and to the world: fear not. This world and your lives are neither random nor meaningless. There is no condemnation in God. The Good News the angel brought to the poorest of the poor that night echoes throughout the centuries to all people everywhere.
The great joy of Christmas is that God is real, God is personal, God is love, God is Jesus Christ.
Where so many people ponder the question of whether God exists or who God may be, God himself answers that question once and for all, fully and completely. The answer is Jesus Christ.
In the infant of Bethlehem we see how the co-eternal Beloved Son of the Father set aside his omnipotence and omniscience to become one of us. Fully God and fully human. A particular man at a particular time in a particular place to reveal the infinite eternal real presence of Divine Love and Compassion for all of us and to each of us.
Jesus is the transcendent Beloved of the Father. Jesus is God with us and God for us in the manger with Mary and Joseph, the animals and the shepherds, the kings and the angels.
Jesus is the real and personal love of God for everyone. Jesus excludes no one and welcomes everyone to receive the gift of eternal love. That love has no beginning and will have no end. As we make a real choice to be found by that love and to immerse our souls in that love we reclaim the Original Blessing our species once rejected.
In Jesus God calls us to be who He originally created us to be. God the Father calls us to be the beloved of the co-eternal Beloved, Jesus Christ. Jesus fills us with that infinite love and compassion who is eternally the Holy Spirit.
In Jesus, God finds us wherever we are. In Jesus God found Mary and Joseph in the working class town of Nazareth. In Jesus, God found the shepherds in the fields. In Jesus God found the three kings in their observatory pondering the vastness of the universe. In Jesus God finds each of us where we are here and now.
The Christmas angel proclaims: Feat not. God is real. God is love. God is personal. God is Jesus Christ for you and forever. Amen.
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Advent 4
Advent 4 “Here am I, the servant of the Lord, let it be with me according to your word.” Luke 1:26-38)
It is important to know who you are. It is even more important to know whose you are.
When the archangel Gabriel greeted Mary he used the formal greeting of the time. The Latin equivalent is “Ave”, Hail. The archangel recognized who Mary was and whose she is.
From scripture we learn that Mary was a young woman, a teen. We see that even as a teen she memorized scripture. And, we have evidence from Mary’s actions that she made worship in the Temple a priority.
Mary was one of the working poor who paid high taxes and lived in a state of constant fear. The working poor feared the Roman occupation army. Even more than the Romans they feared the Tax Collectors Rome hired to bring revenue to the Empire. And, they feared the religious authorities who used their position and power to intimidate and bully the people through a religion of legalism and submission.
People frequently allow the sufferings and the uncertainties of life to define them.
Mary lived in a culture of fear but made a real choice to cultivate the three virtues of faith, hope and love.
Mary made a real choice to use the grace God pours out on all people to define her very being. She chose so completely to immerse her soul in grace that the archangel described her personality as being full of grace.
Grace is a gift. It is a gift of the Real Presence of the Living God. It is a gift not a command. The Bible is very honest in its observation that most people most of the time reject the gift. We reject the gift to preserve our separation from God. In that separation we trade the blessings of God for the illusions of power, prestige, position, possessions and pleasure.
The rich seek more money.
The powerful seek more power.
The poor and dispossessed are paralyzed by fear.
Mary made a different choice. Mary chose to receive the gift and define her life by the gift.
The gift of God is God Himself.
A fundamental principle of scripture is that human beings do not seek out and find God. God seeks out and finds us. Our choice is not formed by our initiative but by our response to God’s intiative.
Mary is the penultimate personality in the plan of salvation. Where so many people for so many centuries said no to God Mary said yes. Where so many people insisted on their right to define God according to their needs and desires, Mary simply acknowledged the core truth of Creation: Behold, I am the Lord’s servant.
The way of Mary is the way of grace. It is the way of faith. It is the truth that God seeks us and finds us.
The issue is not which is the right religion. The issue is not whether every religious and spiritual path is a valid way for human beings to seek God. The issue is how we choose to react or respond to the active dynamic Real Presence of God seeking us and offering us Himself in Jesus Christ.
Mary chose to set aside her fear so that she could experience faith. Mary chose to surrender her self-will to Divine Will so that she could receive God’s gift. Mary used the grace of God to transform the pride of separation back into the original blessing of union with God. Humility is the chalice of the Original Blessing.
Mary sought no position and exercised no rule. She lived and breathed and moved in the grace of God. In that grace she chose the way of faith. In that faith she immersed herself in divine love through worship. And, in that love she fulfilled God’s call for her to become who God created her to be. She became the hagios theotokos, the holy mother of God.
The joy of Mary is that from the moment of his conception, Jesus was fully human and fully divine.
The life of Mary is largely a life of quiet obscurity governed by her care and nurture of her son. God the Father entrusted Mary to bear and raise Jesus because Mary lived from the place of steadfast holy love.
The sorrow of Mary begins as Jesus emerges from the waters of baptism and enters a public ministry that ended in his betrayal, arrest, torture and execution.
The glory of Mary is the reflected glory of the resurrection: the victory of eternal love over death.
The ministry of Mary was to enlighten the teen age apostle John about the ineffable Mystery of the person of Jesus Christ.
The Queenship of Mary, depicted for us at St. Luke’s in the reredos over our altar, is the Queenship of humility, compassion, and the witness of a soul filled with the superabundance of grace and immersed in the infinite and eternal love of God.
On this fourth Sunday of Advent we honor Mary as the person who discovered her true self in the love of God by grace through faith.
On this fourth Sunday of Advent Holy Mother Mary asks us with all compassion and humility to give up our search for meaning, purpose, self and God so we can discover that is it God who is seeking us. It is God who has found us and reveals to us our true self and true purpose in Jesus Christ.
Mary said and continues to say: let it be. Let God be God. Let us each surrender to the Great Mystery of eternal love made flesh in Jesus Christ. Be who God created you to be. Be the living chalice of grace filled with grace. Discover who you are in Christ and then be who you are and whose you are in Christ.
Holy Mother Mary pray for us that we may rejoice in the midst of sorrow and discover the glory of who God created us to be in the proclamation: behold I am the Lord’s servant may it be unto me according to God’s Word made flesh, Jesus Christ. Amen.
It is important to know who you are. It is even more important to know whose you are.
When the archangel Gabriel greeted Mary he used the formal greeting of the time. The Latin equivalent is “Ave”, Hail. The archangel recognized who Mary was and whose she is.
From scripture we learn that Mary was a young woman, a teen. We see that even as a teen she memorized scripture. And, we have evidence from Mary’s actions that she made worship in the Temple a priority.
Mary was one of the working poor who paid high taxes and lived in a state of constant fear. The working poor feared the Roman occupation army. Even more than the Romans they feared the Tax Collectors Rome hired to bring revenue to the Empire. And, they feared the religious authorities who used their position and power to intimidate and bully the people through a religion of legalism and submission.
People frequently allow the sufferings and the uncertainties of life to define them.
Mary lived in a culture of fear but made a real choice to cultivate the three virtues of faith, hope and love.
Mary made a real choice to use the grace God pours out on all people to define her very being. She chose so completely to immerse her soul in grace that the archangel described her personality as being full of grace.
Grace is a gift. It is a gift of the Real Presence of the Living God. It is a gift not a command. The Bible is very honest in its observation that most people most of the time reject the gift. We reject the gift to preserve our separation from God. In that separation we trade the blessings of God for the illusions of power, prestige, position, possessions and pleasure.
The rich seek more money.
The powerful seek more power.
The poor and dispossessed are paralyzed by fear.
Mary made a different choice. Mary chose to receive the gift and define her life by the gift.
The gift of God is God Himself.
A fundamental principle of scripture is that human beings do not seek out and find God. God seeks out and finds us. Our choice is not formed by our initiative but by our response to God’s intiative.
Mary is the penultimate personality in the plan of salvation. Where so many people for so many centuries said no to God Mary said yes. Where so many people insisted on their right to define God according to their needs and desires, Mary simply acknowledged the core truth of Creation: Behold, I am the Lord’s servant.
The way of Mary is the way of grace. It is the way of faith. It is the truth that God seeks us and finds us.
The issue is not which is the right religion. The issue is not whether every religious and spiritual path is a valid way for human beings to seek God. The issue is how we choose to react or respond to the active dynamic Real Presence of God seeking us and offering us Himself in Jesus Christ.
Mary chose to set aside her fear so that she could experience faith. Mary chose to surrender her self-will to Divine Will so that she could receive God’s gift. Mary used the grace of God to transform the pride of separation back into the original blessing of union with God. Humility is the chalice of the Original Blessing.
Mary sought no position and exercised no rule. She lived and breathed and moved in the grace of God. In that grace she chose the way of faith. In that faith she immersed herself in divine love through worship. And, in that love she fulfilled God’s call for her to become who God created her to be. She became the hagios theotokos, the holy mother of God.
The joy of Mary is that from the moment of his conception, Jesus was fully human and fully divine.
The life of Mary is largely a life of quiet obscurity governed by her care and nurture of her son. God the Father entrusted Mary to bear and raise Jesus because Mary lived from the place of steadfast holy love.
The sorrow of Mary begins as Jesus emerges from the waters of baptism and enters a public ministry that ended in his betrayal, arrest, torture and execution.
The glory of Mary is the reflected glory of the resurrection: the victory of eternal love over death.
The ministry of Mary was to enlighten the teen age apostle John about the ineffable Mystery of the person of Jesus Christ.
The Queenship of Mary, depicted for us at St. Luke’s in the reredos over our altar, is the Queenship of humility, compassion, and the witness of a soul filled with the superabundance of grace and immersed in the infinite and eternal love of God.
On this fourth Sunday of Advent we honor Mary as the person who discovered her true self in the love of God by grace through faith.
On this fourth Sunday of Advent Holy Mother Mary asks us with all compassion and humility to give up our search for meaning, purpose, self and God so we can discover that is it God who is seeking us. It is God who has found us and reveals to us our true self and true purpose in Jesus Christ.
Mary said and continues to say: let it be. Let God be God. Let us each surrender to the Great Mystery of eternal love made flesh in Jesus Christ. Be who God created you to be. Be the living chalice of grace filled with grace. Discover who you are in Christ and then be who you are and whose you are in Christ.
Holy Mother Mary pray for us that we may rejoice in the midst of sorrow and discover the glory of who God created us to be in the proclamation: behold I am the Lord’s servant may it be unto me according to God’s Word made flesh, Jesus Christ. Amen.
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