30 April 2014 - can't hold me
the party of the Sadducees,
... filled with jealousy,
laid hands upon the Apostles and put them in the public jail.
We're all in one sort of prison or another. It may feel like house arrest. Or it may feel like Guantanamo Bay. But either way, it is keeping us from telling "people everything about this life." There is darkness. There are chains. We just don't feel the freedom or the magnanimity to go out and direct our lives toward others. We are too busy trying to survive.
So how do we escape? It isn't by figuring out the locks ourselves. It isn't by forcing the doors open. They are "securely locked" even after the apostles are gone. It is only by the Holy Spirit that we can experience this freedom. An angel setting the apostles free sounds too miraculous and too extraordinary to relate to us. Yet God wants us to know the same freedom that the apostles know. He wants us to proclaim everything about the Christian life we've been given just as much as he wants it of them. Our guardian angels stand ready to open impossibly secured prisons so that we may escape. We just need be willing to let go of the darkness and venture out into the light.
And this is the verdict,
that the light came into the world,
but people preferred darkness to light,
because their works were evil.
For everyone who does wicked things hates the light
and does not come toward the light,
so that his works might not be exposed.
But whoever lives the truth comes to the light,
so that his works may be clearly seen as done in God.
When the apostles find the prison doors open the leave at once. Why are they fearless about venturing into the light while we hesitate in the darkness? Does our fear of the prison guards outweigh our trust in the angels God sends? Hopefully not. God gives us so many ways to receive his grace and these can all set us free. The sacraments and the Scriptures are obvious, but prayer for deliverance from our brothers and sisters should not be underestimated. Do we realize this is a more powerful force than the chains of sin and suffering which hold us?
Even if we do realize that freedom is possible we may still hesitate in fear if we aren't motivated to go forth. The purpose that drives the apostles can fill us and make us courageous. We will insist on freedom because we need freedom to proclaim the kingdom of God. This is why, once they are free, the apostles immediately resume the proclamation that landed them in prison in the first place.
“The men whom you put in prison are in the temple area
and are teaching the people.”
This proclamation is now even more persuasive because there is now one more example of God's deliverance, of his fidelity, and of his love.
Glorify the LORD with me,
let us together extol his name.
I sought the LORD, and he answered me
and delivered me from all my fears.
The angel, we must remember, does not encamp only around the apostles. He encamps around all those who fear the LORD.
The angel of the LORD encamps
around those who fear him, and delivers them.
Taste and see how good the LORD is;
blessed the man who takes refuge in him.
In these prisons we experience the feeling of condemnation. But Jesus does not come to condemn us. This is a sign that there is another prison from which we need deliverance. Let us be confident of his love for us and his desire to deliver us. If we know this love and trust it no prison will hold us.
Wednesday, April 30, 2014
Tuesday, April 29, 2014
29 April 2014 - heavenly things
29 April 2014 - heavenly things
Yesterday Jesus invited us to share in his relationship with his Father. Our intellects are too limited for Jesus to explain who he is. Instead, he invites us to unite ourselves to him by virtue of our new birth, the power of our baptism. Then we experience, to the degree that we are open, who he is, beloved Son of the Father, for we too are made beloved children of our Father in heaven.
Today again Jesus explains why he is the only one who can reveal heavenly things to us. Jesus tells us that we won't even believe earthly things, that is, the truth about who we are, let alone heavenly things. What heavenly things? The truth about who God is and who Jesus is in him and all that truth means for us. But Jesus is here to reveal himself to us. He says we won't even believe the earthly things but fortunately for us Jesus comes "down from heaven" to reveal who God is. He tells us that if we have seen him we have seen the Father (cf. Joh. 14:9). The fact that he reveals himself makes us realize that God is for us, and that no one can stand again us (cf. Rom 8:31). In the light of this revelation we finally begin to believe the earthly things. We believe the truth about who we are, sinners who fall short of the glory of God (cf. Rom. 3:23). But even more so we believe the truth of who we are invited to become.
Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed. We do know that when it is revealed* we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. (cf. 1 Joh. 3:2).
The more we gaze upon Jesus the more he reveals us to ourselves. He does this by revealing to us the deepest truth of our potential the destiny which he intends for us.
And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. (cf. 2 Cor. 3:18)
It is only in the light of this revelation that we can understand the idyllic conditions enjoyed by the "community of believers" in Acts. How can it be that "no one claimed that any of his possessions was his own"? Only the selflessness of Jesus himself, manifested in his followers, can explain this. How can the community of believers be "of one heart and mind"? It is only possible in the "unity of the Spirit" (cf. Eph 4:3) which Jesus makes possible.
So let us look to the one who comes down to us from heaven. Let us behold more and more the truth of who he is.
The LORD is king, in splendor robed;
robed is the LORD and girt about with strength.
Yesterday Jesus invited us to share in his relationship with his Father. Our intellects are too limited for Jesus to explain who he is. Instead, he invites us to unite ourselves to him by virtue of our new birth, the power of our baptism. Then we experience, to the degree that we are open, who he is, beloved Son of the Father, for we too are made beloved children of our Father in heaven.
Today again Jesus explains why he is the only one who can reveal heavenly things to us. Jesus tells us that we won't even believe earthly things, that is, the truth about who we are, let alone heavenly things. What heavenly things? The truth about who God is and who Jesus is in him and all that truth means for us. But Jesus is here to reveal himself to us. He says we won't even believe the earthly things but fortunately for us Jesus comes "down from heaven" to reveal who God is. He tells us that if we have seen him we have seen the Father (cf. Joh. 14:9). The fact that he reveals himself makes us realize that God is for us, and that no one can stand again us (cf. Rom 8:31). In the light of this revelation we finally begin to believe the earthly things. We believe the truth about who we are, sinners who fall short of the glory of God (cf. Rom. 3:23). But even more so we believe the truth of who we are invited to become.
Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed. We do know that when it is revealed* we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. (cf. 1 Joh. 3:2).
The more we gaze upon Jesus the more he reveals us to ourselves. He does this by revealing to us the deepest truth of our potential the destiny which he intends for us.
And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. (cf. 2 Cor. 3:18)
It is only in the light of this revelation that we can understand the idyllic conditions enjoyed by the "community of believers" in Acts. How can it be that "no one claimed that any of his possessions was his own"? Only the selflessness of Jesus himself, manifested in his followers, can explain this. How can the community of believers be "of one heart and mind"? It is only possible in the "unity of the Spirit" (cf. Eph 4:3) which Jesus makes possible.
So let us look to the one who comes down to us from heaven. Let us behold more and more the truth of who he is.
The LORD is king, in splendor robed;
robed is the LORD and girt about with strength.
Monday, April 28, 2014
28 April 2014 - the spirit and the bride say come
28 April 2014 - the spirit and the bride say come
“Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God,
for no one can do these signs that you are doing
unless God is with him.”
Nicodemus is prompting Jesus to explain his connection to God. Nicodemus perceives that it is supernatural, enabling Jesus to do signs no one else can do, but doesn't quite get it. But Jesus doesn't directly enter this question. He tells us Nicodemus and ourselves that we must be born again to see God's kingdom. Why does he apparently change the subject to baptism? It is because rather than just explaining his own relationship to the Father he would rather that we experience that relationship ourselves. It is the only way to truly understand the relationship, because "What is born of flesh is flesh and what is born of spirit is spirit."
The apostles in Acts walk by this Spirit. They are closely united in the family bond it creates which is why they raise "their voices to God with one accord". Is this action charismatic? Is it liturgical? Perhaps it is both. The communal recitation of Scripture definitely sounds like it has the potential to be liturgical.
“Sovereign Lord, maker of heaven and earth
and the sea and all that is in them,
you said by the Holy Spirit
through the mouth of our father David, your servant:
Why did the Gentiles rage
and the peoples entertain folly?
The kings of the earth took their stand
and the princes gathered together
against the Lord and against his anointed.
But the way that this action is a response to the life experience of the community hints that it is also charismatic. The fact that Scripture directly speaks to that life experience hints that it is charismatic. And it feeds back in to their own lives and plans in a way that is definitely charismatic.
And now, Lord, take note of their threats,
and enable your servants to speak your word
with all boldness, as you stretch forth your hand to heal,
and signs and wonders are done
through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”
But these dimensions aren't meant to be separate. In the early Church they are not. The apostles go forth to spread the kingdom and proclaim the good news. They bring their prayer intentions and thanksgiving back to the communal life of the Spirit. It feeds, we speculate, into the early liturgy. In this liturgy they are filled with the Spirit and enabled to venture out again. We don't often imagine the liturgy even having an effect. It is something we just check off of our list of chores. At best, it is a beautiful meditation into which we enter but from which we make a too definitive break when we leave. Not so for the apostles:
As they prayed, the place where they were gathered shook,
and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit
and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.
So the nations may rage and the peoples may utter folly. The kings of the earth may rise up and the princes may conspire. Where do we find solace in the midst of the darkness of the world? When we enter into the liturgy in the power of the Holy Spirit we can hear the one throned in heaven laugh. We can feel the earth quake with the power that also renews our confidence.
Blessed are all who take refuge in the Lord.
“Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God,
for no one can do these signs that you are doing
unless God is with him.”
Nicodemus is prompting Jesus to explain his connection to God. Nicodemus perceives that it is supernatural, enabling Jesus to do signs no one else can do, but doesn't quite get it. But Jesus doesn't directly enter this question. He tells us Nicodemus and ourselves that we must be born again to see God's kingdom. Why does he apparently change the subject to baptism? It is because rather than just explaining his own relationship to the Father he would rather that we experience that relationship ourselves. It is the only way to truly understand the relationship, because "What is born of flesh is flesh and what is born of spirit is spirit."
The apostles in Acts walk by this Spirit. They are closely united in the family bond it creates which is why they raise "their voices to God with one accord". Is this action charismatic? Is it liturgical? Perhaps it is both. The communal recitation of Scripture definitely sounds like it has the potential to be liturgical.
“Sovereign Lord, maker of heaven and earth
and the sea and all that is in them,
you said by the Holy Spirit
through the mouth of our father David, your servant:
Why did the Gentiles rage
and the peoples entertain folly?
The kings of the earth took their stand
and the princes gathered together
against the Lord and against his anointed.
But the way that this action is a response to the life experience of the community hints that it is also charismatic. The fact that Scripture directly speaks to that life experience hints that it is charismatic. And it feeds back in to their own lives and plans in a way that is definitely charismatic.
And now, Lord, take note of their threats,
and enable your servants to speak your word
with all boldness, as you stretch forth your hand to heal,
and signs and wonders are done
through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”
But these dimensions aren't meant to be separate. In the early Church they are not. The apostles go forth to spread the kingdom and proclaim the good news. They bring their prayer intentions and thanksgiving back to the communal life of the Spirit. It feeds, we speculate, into the early liturgy. In this liturgy they are filled with the Spirit and enabled to venture out again. We don't often imagine the liturgy even having an effect. It is something we just check off of our list of chores. At best, it is a beautiful meditation into which we enter but from which we make a too definitive break when we leave. Not so for the apostles:
As they prayed, the place where they were gathered shook,
and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit
and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.
So the nations may rage and the peoples may utter folly. The kings of the earth may rise up and the princes may conspire. Where do we find solace in the midst of the darkness of the world? When we enter into the liturgy in the power of the Holy Spirit we can hear the one throned in heaven laugh. We can feel the earth quake with the power that also renews our confidence.
Blessed are all who take refuge in the Lord.
Sunday, April 27, 2014
27 April 2014 - encounter
27 April 2014 - encounter
Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, his love is everlasting.
His love is indeed everlasting and yet we often find ourselves sympathizing with Thomas. People tell us that suffering and circumstance has a deeper meaning. People tell us that things are totally changed from how they were before. But why have we been excluded? We wonder if his love is really everlasting or if it applies more to those who see and believe. And Thomas does eventually see and believe. But Jesus tells us that his love is everlasting toward those who do not see but believe as well. He wants those of us who don't see to believe just as much so that we may be blessed. He wants all of us to say with Thomas, "My Lord and my God!" We are told these things so that we may believe in Jesus, believe he is raised, and believe that everything is different now. He wants us to be blessed, and "have life in his name". Even our suffering is not without meaning.
In this you rejoice, although now for a little while
you may have to suffer through various trials,
so that the genuineness of your faith,
more precious than gold that is perishable even though tested by fire,
may prove to be for praise, glory, and honor
at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
So how do we actualize this blessing? Just as Jesus comes to Thomas so too does he come to all of us. We meet him in his Word, in his Mystical Body, and in the Eucharist. This is the risen LORD!
They devoted themselves
to the teaching of the apostles and to the communal life,
to the breaking of bread and to the prayers.
If we truly enter in to these we experience what the community of Acts experiences.
Awe came upon everyone,
and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles.
We experience a genuine encounter with Jesus Christ risen from the dead which can have no other explanation.
Although you have not seen him you love him;
even though you do not see him now yet believe in him,
you rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy,
as you attain the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
And when we fail, when we doubt, he is ready to meet us there as well. He meets Thomas in his doubt in order to establish a faith that he been tested and which now is strong enough to endure. Through his presence in the Church he meets us in our doubts and failures to make us new again.
“Receive the Holy Spirit.
Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them,
and whose sins you retain are retained.”
So let our houses say, "His mercy endures forever."
Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, his love is everlasting.
His love is indeed everlasting and yet we often find ourselves sympathizing with Thomas. People tell us that suffering and circumstance has a deeper meaning. People tell us that things are totally changed from how they were before. But why have we been excluded? We wonder if his love is really everlasting or if it applies more to those who see and believe. And Thomas does eventually see and believe. But Jesus tells us that his love is everlasting toward those who do not see but believe as well. He wants those of us who don't see to believe just as much so that we may be blessed. He wants all of us to say with Thomas, "My Lord and my God!" We are told these things so that we may believe in Jesus, believe he is raised, and believe that everything is different now. He wants us to be blessed, and "have life in his name". Even our suffering is not without meaning.
In this you rejoice, although now for a little while
you may have to suffer through various trials,
so that the genuineness of your faith,
more precious than gold that is perishable even though tested by fire,
may prove to be for praise, glory, and honor
at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
So how do we actualize this blessing? Just as Jesus comes to Thomas so too does he come to all of us. We meet him in his Word, in his Mystical Body, and in the Eucharist. This is the risen LORD!
They devoted themselves
to the teaching of the apostles and to the communal life,
to the breaking of bread and to the prayers.
If we truly enter in to these we experience what the community of Acts experiences.
Awe came upon everyone,
and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles.
We experience a genuine encounter with Jesus Christ risen from the dead which can have no other explanation.
Although you have not seen him you love him;
even though you do not see him now yet believe in him,
you rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy,
as you attain the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
And when we fail, when we doubt, he is ready to meet us there as well. He meets Thomas in his doubt in order to establish a faith that he been tested and which now is strong enough to endure. Through his presence in the Church he meets us in our doubts and failures to make us new again.
“Receive the Holy Spirit.
Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them,
and whose sins you retain are retained.”
So let our houses say, "His mercy endures forever."
Saturday, April 26, 2014
26 April 2014 - shout of victory
26 April 2014 - shout of victory
I shall not die, but live,
and declare the works of the LORD.
We are called to proclaim Jesus Christ risen from the dead. Most of us don't have advanced theological training. But that doesn't matter.
Observing the boldness of Peter and John
and perceiving them to be uneducated, ordinary men,
the leaders, elders, and scribes were amazed,
and they recognized them as the companions of Jesus.
Jesus gives us the strength to be bold for him. He sends his Holy Spirit to give us the words we need. They need not be complex theological expositions. In fact our first words about Jesus should always be simple. We say, "Jesus lives, though he was dead, and he loves you." We may have to expound from there. But what if we run into folks like the the companions of Mary Magdalene who do not believe her? What if we are like those to whom the two return? They say simply that they have seen the risen LORD. But the others do not believe.
Do we then have to expound some complicated theology to be persuasive? No! We just insist that we know what we know. Jesus is risen, alleluia! He has come to meet us and reveal that not even death can stop his love for us. Would it even help if Mary Magdalene or the two started into a complicated apologetic? Unlikely. Instead they must simply allow the impact which seeing the risen LORD has had on them to be visible to those around them. Let us not be shy about our own "shout of victory" in response to the resurrection!
My strength and my courage is the LORD,
and he has been my savior.
The joyful shout of victory
in the tents of the just.
This boldness prepares us for phase two of evangelism. What do we do in response to open hostility? What do we do when our joy in Jesus threatens the old order? Positions of worldly power and authority call us to silence so that they can hold on to their power. Jesus has a plan for human life? For sex and marriage? For everything? How dare we.
But so that it may not be spread any further among the people,
let us give them a stern warning
never again to speak to anyone in this name.”
So they called them back
and ordered them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus.
Peter and John are not the first to believe. They doubt before they accept the truth. They are not well educated. But now that they have encountered the risen LORD they are bold in a way that makes others recognize "them as companions of Jesus." Now that they are filled with the Holy Spirit they can't help but proclaim their own "joyful shout".
Peter and John, however, said to them in reply,
“Whether it is right in the sight of God
for us to obey you rather than God, you be the judges.
It is impossible for us not to speak about what we have seen and heard.”
Is it also impossible for us?
I shall not die, but live,
and declare the works of the LORD.
We are called to proclaim Jesus Christ risen from the dead. Most of us don't have advanced theological training. But that doesn't matter.
Observing the boldness of Peter and John
and perceiving them to be uneducated, ordinary men,
the leaders, elders, and scribes were amazed,
and they recognized them as the companions of Jesus.
Jesus gives us the strength to be bold for him. He sends his Holy Spirit to give us the words we need. They need not be complex theological expositions. In fact our first words about Jesus should always be simple. We say, "Jesus lives, though he was dead, and he loves you." We may have to expound from there. But what if we run into folks like the the companions of Mary Magdalene who do not believe her? What if we are like those to whom the two return? They say simply that they have seen the risen LORD. But the others do not believe.
Do we then have to expound some complicated theology to be persuasive? No! We just insist that we know what we know. Jesus is risen, alleluia! He has come to meet us and reveal that not even death can stop his love for us. Would it even help if Mary Magdalene or the two started into a complicated apologetic? Unlikely. Instead they must simply allow the impact which seeing the risen LORD has had on them to be visible to those around them. Let us not be shy about our own "shout of victory" in response to the resurrection!
My strength and my courage is the LORD,
and he has been my savior.
The joyful shout of victory
in the tents of the just.
This boldness prepares us for phase two of evangelism. What do we do in response to open hostility? What do we do when our joy in Jesus threatens the old order? Positions of worldly power and authority call us to silence so that they can hold on to their power. Jesus has a plan for human life? For sex and marriage? For everything? How dare we.
But so that it may not be spread any further among the people,
let us give them a stern warning
never again to speak to anyone in this name.”
So they called them back
and ordered them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus.
Peter and John are not the first to believe. They doubt before they accept the truth. They are not well educated. But now that they have encountered the risen LORD they are bold in a way that makes others recognize "them as companions of Jesus." Now that they are filled with the Holy Spirit they can't help but proclaim their own "joyful shout".
Peter and John, however, said to them in reply,
“Whether it is right in the sight of God
for us to obey you rather than God, you be the judges.
It is impossible for us not to speak about what we have seen and heard.”
Is it also impossible for us?
Friday, April 25, 2014
25 April 2014 - blocking the path
25 April 2014 - blocking the path
What is it with these builders? The structure that is at the center of God's plan throughout history needs a cornerstone. Until the resurrection it waits for the central weight-bearing piece. The resurrection reveals the one piece that will fit. It reveals the one piece that will make the whole structure stand and endure even beyond death.
He is the stone rejected by you, the builders,
which has become the cornerstone.
There is no salvation through anyone else,
nor is there any other name under heaven
given to the human race by which we are to be saved.”
What is it with us? Why are we so ready to cling to the way things have always been? If we don't recognize ourselves in the Sadducees and discover that we share a motivation with them we will not repent of it. If we don't repent we continue to subvert, consciously or unconsciously, the truth of the resurrection.
There is something within us which struggles with this truth. Something within rebels. But what? The disciples proclaim "in Jesus the resurrection of the dead" and suddenly we look uncomfortable. We begin shifting in our seats. We want to qualify this statement, explain it, and give it context. Why? Well, doesn't it seem like overkill that the resurrection of the dead should be embodied in one person? Doesn't it seem unfair that there is only one name under heaven given to the human race by which we are to be saved? We don't want to impose this truth on others. We don't want to believe in a truth that is true enough that it makes demands not just on us but on the whole world.
Yet this is what the Scriptures say. To the degree that we try to qualify it and explain it away we detract from its transformative power. We weaken the ability of this truth to change things for the better. Worse, we ourselves risk working against this change.
If we are being examined today
about a good deed done to a cripple,
namely, by what means he was saved,
The truth which frees is the only source of this transformation and healing. It is not necessarily the easy truth. It is not the truth which is the easiest to speak. But it is the true truth. Ultimately, that is what matters. So how should we proclaim it? We should be bold. We should be straightforward.
then all of you and all the people of Israel should know
that it was in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazorean
whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead;
in his name this man stands before you healed.
But even more than this there is one other element which should characterize our proclamation. With it bold truths cut to the heart and convert. Without it this truth is merely divisive.
Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, answered them,
Filled with the Holy Spirit we see how good it is that Jesus is the cornerstone. We are so filled with this truth that it becomes infectious and fills those who hear our words. They can see the joy with which it fills us. Before we even begin to explain why all this is fair after all peoples hearts will begin to change.
By the LORD has this been done;
it is wonderful in our eyes.
This is the day the LORD has made;
let us be glad and rejoice in it.
We have experienced Easter. Let us not return to our previous lives. Let us not return to our boats and to fishing. In some ways this feels right because the truth of the resurrection, if it is really true, demands a response so great that it makes us nervous. But we see today, by the power of the Holy Spirit, that this response is entirely worth it.
What is it with these builders? The structure that is at the center of God's plan throughout history needs a cornerstone. Until the resurrection it waits for the central weight-bearing piece. The resurrection reveals the one piece that will fit. It reveals the one piece that will make the whole structure stand and endure even beyond death.
He is the stone rejected by you, the builders,
which has become the cornerstone.
There is no salvation through anyone else,
nor is there any other name under heaven
given to the human race by which we are to be saved.”
What is it with us? Why are we so ready to cling to the way things have always been? If we don't recognize ourselves in the Sadducees and discover that we share a motivation with them we will not repent of it. If we don't repent we continue to subvert, consciously or unconsciously, the truth of the resurrection.
There is something within us which struggles with this truth. Something within rebels. But what? The disciples proclaim "in Jesus the resurrection of the dead" and suddenly we look uncomfortable. We begin shifting in our seats. We want to qualify this statement, explain it, and give it context. Why? Well, doesn't it seem like overkill that the resurrection of the dead should be embodied in one person? Doesn't it seem unfair that there is only one name under heaven given to the human race by which we are to be saved? We don't want to impose this truth on others. We don't want to believe in a truth that is true enough that it makes demands not just on us but on the whole world.
Yet this is what the Scriptures say. To the degree that we try to qualify it and explain it away we detract from its transformative power. We weaken the ability of this truth to change things for the better. Worse, we ourselves risk working against this change.
If we are being examined today
about a good deed done to a cripple,
namely, by what means he was saved,
The truth which frees is the only source of this transformation and healing. It is not necessarily the easy truth. It is not the truth which is the easiest to speak. But it is the true truth. Ultimately, that is what matters. So how should we proclaim it? We should be bold. We should be straightforward.
then all of you and all the people of Israel should know
that it was in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazorean
whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead;
in his name this man stands before you healed.
But even more than this there is one other element which should characterize our proclamation. With it bold truths cut to the heart and convert. Without it this truth is merely divisive.
Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, answered them,
Filled with the Holy Spirit we see how good it is that Jesus is the cornerstone. We are so filled with this truth that it becomes infectious and fills those who hear our words. They can see the joy with which it fills us. Before we even begin to explain why all this is fair after all peoples hearts will begin to change.
By the LORD has this been done;
it is wonderful in our eyes.
This is the day the LORD has made;
let us be glad and rejoice in it.
We have experienced Easter. Let us not return to our previous lives. Let us not return to our boats and to fishing. In some ways this feels right because the truth of the resurrection, if it is really true, demands a response so great that it makes us nervous. But we see today, by the power of the Holy Spirit, that this response is entirely worth it.
Thursday, April 24, 2014
24 April 2014 - resurrection paradigm
24 April 2014 - resurrection paradigm
The truth of the resurrection seems hard to believe. The reason for this is that for all human history prior to Jesus death has the last word. Great men live, they make some difference in history, but they die in the end, whether Socrates, Caesar, or Buddha. We try to fit Jesus into this context rather than imagining the possibility that the paradigm has changed. But Jesus is not just one among the historical dead. His resurrection is not a spiritual connection to some distant world of the dead.
“Why are you troubled?
And why do questions arise in your hearts?
Look at my hands and my feet, that it is I myself.
Touch me and see, because a ghost does not have flesh and bones
as you can see I have.”
Jesus wants to reveal to each of us the reality of his resurrection. He wants to show us that it is something which really impacts the concrete history of the universe. It is not mainly a new way to think or to contextualize the things which already are. It is indeed a new way to think and a new context. But it is these things because it is a new power in history which is heretofore unknown.
Lest we be taken totally by surprise, we are reminded that this is God's plan from the beginning. We just can't understand it until we encounter the risen LORD. Now that he is risen the Scriptures themselves share in the power of his resurrection. They make our hearts burn within us.
“These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you,
that everything written about me in the law of Moses
and in the prophets and psalms must be fulfilled.”
Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.
Our risen LORD, by the very fact of his resurrection, is able to open our minds in this way. Are our minds open to understand the Scriptures? It is our baptismal birthright! Let us not shrink from it. It isn't that we have to be scholars and understand abstraction and nuance. However, we must, absolutely must, experience his power in his word. It is a necessary precursor to the mission which he has for us and indeed for all Christians:
“Thus it is written that the Christ would suffer
and rise from the dead on the third day
and that repentance, for the forgiveness of sins,
would be preached in his name
to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem.
You are witnesses of these things.”
Only a real resurrection empowers real healings.
The author of life you put to death,
but God raised him from the dead; of this we are witnesses.
And by faith in his name,
this man, whom you see and know, his name has made strong,
and the faith that comes through it
has given him this perfect health,
in the presence of all of you.
And we doubt these for the same reason we try to downplay the resurrection. Our expectation is that suffering and death will continue as they always have. So let our minds be opened by the risen Jesus. His power in the Scripture can change our expectations. It can open us to his healing power. And finally, it can make us witnesses to the whole world. The world is in desperate need of "times of refreshment" and it longs for the "universal restoration". These things have long been promised in the Scriptures. But the Scriptures are locked until we meet the risen Christ. But now he opens our minds to understand them. We can no longer keep this promise of blessing to ourselves. Now that Jesus is risen the world can finally be restored. The dignity of man, which man was always meant to have, can be restored. People need to know it!
You have made him little less than the angels,
and crowned him with glory and honor.
You have given him rule over the works of your hands,
putting all things under his feet.
The truth of the resurrection seems hard to believe. The reason for this is that for all human history prior to Jesus death has the last word. Great men live, they make some difference in history, but they die in the end, whether Socrates, Caesar, or Buddha. We try to fit Jesus into this context rather than imagining the possibility that the paradigm has changed. But Jesus is not just one among the historical dead. His resurrection is not a spiritual connection to some distant world of the dead.
“Why are you troubled?
And why do questions arise in your hearts?
Look at my hands and my feet, that it is I myself.
Touch me and see, because a ghost does not have flesh and bones
as you can see I have.”
Jesus wants to reveal to each of us the reality of his resurrection. He wants to show us that it is something which really impacts the concrete history of the universe. It is not mainly a new way to think or to contextualize the things which already are. It is indeed a new way to think and a new context. But it is these things because it is a new power in history which is heretofore unknown.
Lest we be taken totally by surprise, we are reminded that this is God's plan from the beginning. We just can't understand it until we encounter the risen LORD. Now that he is risen the Scriptures themselves share in the power of his resurrection. They make our hearts burn within us.
“These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you,
that everything written about me in the law of Moses
and in the prophets and psalms must be fulfilled.”
Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.
Our risen LORD, by the very fact of his resurrection, is able to open our minds in this way. Are our minds open to understand the Scriptures? It is our baptismal birthright! Let us not shrink from it. It isn't that we have to be scholars and understand abstraction and nuance. However, we must, absolutely must, experience his power in his word. It is a necessary precursor to the mission which he has for us and indeed for all Christians:
“Thus it is written that the Christ would suffer
and rise from the dead on the third day
and that repentance, for the forgiveness of sins,
would be preached in his name
to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem.
You are witnesses of these things.”
Only a real resurrection empowers real healings.
The author of life you put to death,
but God raised him from the dead; of this we are witnesses.
And by faith in his name,
this man, whom you see and know, his name has made strong,
and the faith that comes through it
has given him this perfect health,
in the presence of all of you.
And we doubt these for the same reason we try to downplay the resurrection. Our expectation is that suffering and death will continue as they always have. So let our minds be opened by the risen Jesus. His power in the Scripture can change our expectations. It can open us to his healing power. And finally, it can make us witnesses to the whole world. The world is in desperate need of "times of refreshment" and it longs for the "universal restoration". These things have long been promised in the Scriptures. But the Scriptures are locked until we meet the risen Christ. But now he opens our minds to understand them. We can no longer keep this promise of blessing to ourselves. Now that Jesus is risen the world can finally be restored. The dignity of man, which man was always meant to have, can be restored. People need to know it!
You have made him little less than the angels,
and crowned him with glory and honor.
You have given him rule over the works of your hands,
putting all things under his feet.
Wednesday, April 23, 2014
23 April 2014 - road trip lessons
23 April 2014 - road trip lessons
Easter changes everything. Easter makes the healing power of resurrection available to confront and to overcome everything that afflicts mankind. Yet we live as if that power is still sealed in the tomb. We converse and debate about the more abstract meanings of the life of Jesus but we often miss him when he draws near.
And it happened that while they were conversing and debating,
Jesus himself drew near and walked with them,
but their eyes were prevented from recognizing him.
We resemble the crippled man at the beautiful gate. We have been scrapping by for so long begging for alms that we can't raise our expectations to anything greater.
And a man crippled from birth was carried
and placed at the gate of the temple called “the Beautiful Gate” every day
to beg for alms from the people who entered the temple.
But there is more for the man and there is more for us. How do we find it? Let us listen to Peter:
But Peter looked intently at him, as did John,
and said, “Look at us.”
He paid attention to them, expecting to receive something from them.
Peter said, “I have neither silver nor gold,
but what I do have I give you:
in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazorean, rise and walk.”
The man looks to Peter and John and sees not just them, but representatives of Jesus. He looks through them to connect with the presence of Jesus in his Mystical Body. It is by means of this relationship that Peter heals him.
Then Peter took him by the right hand and raised him up,
and immediately his feet and ankles grew strong.
We are called to be able to recognize the presence of Jesus as the cripple does. We are called to recognize his presence as the disciples on the road to Emmaus recognize it.
And it happened that, while he was with them at table,
he took bread, said the blessing,
broke it, and gave it to them.
With that their eyes were opened and they recognized him,
When we are slow to see him in the Eucharist and in his body what should we do? We should open ourselves to his Word. His resurrection power is present in the Eucharist the most profoundly, but it is also present in his Body, and in his Word. And they all feed into one another and strengthen our ability to recognize him in all of his forms.
Then they said to each other,
“Were not our hearts burning within us
while he spoke to us on the way and opened the Scriptures to us?”
As Blessed Teresa of Calcutta tells us:
Like the crippled man at the gate we won't just be healed. We will leap to our feet, walking, jumping and praising God. So let us look at Jesus. Let us keep looking until our eyes are opened.
Glory in his holy name;
rejoice, O hearts that seek the LORD!
Look to the LORD in his strength;
seek to serve him constantly.
Easter changes everything. Easter makes the healing power of resurrection available to confront and to overcome everything that afflicts mankind. Yet we live as if that power is still sealed in the tomb. We converse and debate about the more abstract meanings of the life of Jesus but we often miss him when he draws near.
And it happened that while they were conversing and debating,
Jesus himself drew near and walked with them,
but their eyes were prevented from recognizing him.
We resemble the crippled man at the beautiful gate. We have been scrapping by for so long begging for alms that we can't raise our expectations to anything greater.
And a man crippled from birth was carried
and placed at the gate of the temple called “the Beautiful Gate” every day
to beg for alms from the people who entered the temple.
But there is more for the man and there is more for us. How do we find it? Let us listen to Peter:
But Peter looked intently at him, as did John,
and said, “Look at us.”
He paid attention to them, expecting to receive something from them.
Peter said, “I have neither silver nor gold,
but what I do have I give you:
in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazorean, rise and walk.”
The man looks to Peter and John and sees not just them, but representatives of Jesus. He looks through them to connect with the presence of Jesus in his Mystical Body. It is by means of this relationship that Peter heals him.
Then Peter took him by the right hand and raised him up,
and immediately his feet and ankles grew strong.
We are called to be able to recognize the presence of Jesus as the cripple does. We are called to recognize his presence as the disciples on the road to Emmaus recognize it.
And it happened that, while he was with them at table,
he took bread, said the blessing,
broke it, and gave it to them.
With that their eyes were opened and they recognized him,
When we are slow to see him in the Eucharist and in his body what should we do? We should open ourselves to his Word. His resurrection power is present in the Eucharist the most profoundly, but it is also present in his Body, and in his Word. And they all feed into one another and strengthen our ability to recognize him in all of his forms.
Then they said to each other,
“Were not our hearts burning within us
while he spoke to us on the way and opened the Scriptures to us?”
As Blessed Teresa of Calcutta tells us:
"All of us know that unless we believe and can see Jesus in the appearance of bread on the altar, we will not be able to see him in the distressing disguise of the poor."Jesus wants us to recognize him. He wants our hearts to burn within us when he speaks. Even when we don't fully recognize him (which, on this side, is always) let us plead with him, "Remain with us LORD". For the longer we spend in his presence the better able to behold him we are, to the degree that we don't even realize fully how much better until he goes.
Like the crippled man at the gate we won't just be healed. We will leap to our feet, walking, jumping and praising God. So let us look at Jesus. Let us keep looking until our eyes are opened.
Glory in his holy name;
rejoice, O hearts that seek the LORD!
Look to the LORD in his strength;
seek to serve him constantly.
Tuesday, April 22, 2014
22 April 2014 - spirit preaching
22 April 2014 - spirit preaching
“Let the whole house of Israel know for certain
that God has made him both Lord and Christ,
this Jesus whom you crucified.”
Whom we crucified? Yes. But look at the context. Even this brief exhortation doesn't accuse us without first pointing out the Cross is not the end. Jesus is now established as Lord and Christ. We crucify him, yes, but only as a part of his plan. He lays down his life for his sheep, no one takes it from him. We see our sins, no longer in isolation, but as part of God's plan for redemption.
The Apostles know this. Their preaching is anointed by the Holy Spirit. The crowd doesn't hear condemnation. They hear invitation. They hear the Holy Spirit on the lips of the Apostles. They know that there is something broken within their hearts. At a deep level they know they bear the blame for the death of Jesus. As we all do. But now there is hope.
“Repent and be baptized, every one of you,
in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins;
and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
The eyes of the LORD are upon us if we just hope in him. We hope in the kindness of the LORD which is greater than our own sinfulness.. He does deliver us from death and preserve us in spite of famine. Even when we are confused and the LORD seems distant he is not far off. Even when the circumstances of the world and the circumstances of our own brokenness seem insurmountable he is near us and calls our name.
Jesus said to her, “Mary!”
She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni,”
which means Teacher.
He has so united us to himself that we now share one Father with him. Let us repent and receive the Holy Spirit. Let us join the Apostles in witnessing to the fact that, yes, we are broken, but now there is hope.
“Let the whole house of Israel know for certain
that God has made him both Lord and Christ,
this Jesus whom you crucified.”
Whom we crucified? Yes. But look at the context. Even this brief exhortation doesn't accuse us without first pointing out the Cross is not the end. Jesus is now established as Lord and Christ. We crucify him, yes, but only as a part of his plan. He lays down his life for his sheep, no one takes it from him. We see our sins, no longer in isolation, but as part of God's plan for redemption.
The Apostles know this. Their preaching is anointed by the Holy Spirit. The crowd doesn't hear condemnation. They hear invitation. They hear the Holy Spirit on the lips of the Apostles. They know that there is something broken within their hearts. At a deep level they know they bear the blame for the death of Jesus. As we all do. But now there is hope.
“Repent and be baptized, every one of you,
in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins;
and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
The eyes of the LORD are upon us if we just hope in him. We hope in the kindness of the LORD which is greater than our own sinfulness.. He does deliver us from death and preserve us in spite of famine. Even when we are confused and the LORD seems distant he is not far off. Even when the circumstances of the world and the circumstances of our own brokenness seem insurmountable he is near us and calls our name.
Jesus said to her, “Mary!”
She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni,”
which means Teacher.
He has so united us to himself that we now share one Father with him. Let us repent and receive the Holy Spirit. Let us join the Apostles in witnessing to the fact that, yes, we are broken, but now there is hope.
Monday, April 21, 2014
21 April 2014 - new life
21 April 2014 - new life
What is the basic truth of Christianity? It is the resurrection!
This man, delivered up by the set plan and foreknowledge of God,
you killed, using lawless men to crucify him.
But God raised him up, releasing him from the throes of death,
because it was impossible for him to be held by it.
Something broken in us makes this death necessary. It is our sinful hearts which kill Jesus, using lawless men to crucify him (so that we may keep a safe distance from such horrors). Everyone sins and falls short of the glory of God (cf. Rom. 3:23). And sin is, implicitly or explicitly, rebellion against the King. We act toward him as any enemy. We act as the prodigal son, taking his inheritance, implicitly wishing his father dead. But while we are yet sinners Christ dies for us (cf. Rom. 5:8). It seems like our brokenness leads to tragedy, but this has been part of his set plan and foreknowledge from the beginning. He is the "lamb slain since the foundation of the world" (cf. Rev. 13:8) because he is not content to leave his sheep straying and lost:
And you who once were alienated and hostile in mind because of evil deeds he has now reconciled in his fleshly body through his death, to present you holy, without blemish, and irreproachable before him (cf. Col. 1:21-22.).
Maybe we need one more reminder of how bad things are without the resurrection of Christ:
For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, deluded, slaves to various desires and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful ourselves and hating one another (cf. Tit. 3:3).
Do we know that or do we sugarcoat it? But now his resurrection power is available to us. It is the solution to the sin problem and ultimately to the death problem. His death unlocks the blessings of the Holy Spirit in which we can now partake.
God raised this Jesus;
of this we are all witnesses.
Exalted at the right hand of God,
he poured forth the promise of the Holy Spirit
that he received from the Father, as you both see and hear.”
This Spirit makes all the difference. We can now live lives of holiness which are pleasing to God.
For what the law, weakened by the flesh, was powerless to do, this God has done: by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for the sake of sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, so that the righteous decree of the law might be fulfilled in us, who live not according to the flesh but according to the spirit (cf. Rom. 8:3-4).
Now our hearts can be glad and our souls can rejoice because this life we live is no longer futile. It is no longer just running down the clock. The resurrection empowers us now morally and spiritually in a way proves us that we are God's children, in a way that makes us cry, 'Abba, Father!' This power in us is the hope of our resurrection on the last day.
Therefore my heart is glad and my soul rejoices,
my body, too, abides in confidence;
Because you will not abandon my soul to the nether world,
nor will you suffer your faithful one to undergo corruption.
You will show me the path to life,
fullness of joys in your presence,
the delights at your right hand forever.
So even if we are fearful like Mary Magdalene and the Other Mary let us also be overjoyed and run from the tomb to announce this to the world. Let us hear Jesus quell our fears as he says, "Do not be afraid." Galilee lies ahead. Our risen LORD is there. Let us go to meet him!
What is the basic truth of Christianity? It is the resurrection!
This man, delivered up by the set plan and foreknowledge of God,
you killed, using lawless men to crucify him.
But God raised him up, releasing him from the throes of death,
because it was impossible for him to be held by it.
Something broken in us makes this death necessary. It is our sinful hearts which kill Jesus, using lawless men to crucify him (so that we may keep a safe distance from such horrors). Everyone sins and falls short of the glory of God (cf. Rom. 3:23). And sin is, implicitly or explicitly, rebellion against the King. We act toward him as any enemy. We act as the prodigal son, taking his inheritance, implicitly wishing his father dead. But while we are yet sinners Christ dies for us (cf. Rom. 5:8). It seems like our brokenness leads to tragedy, but this has been part of his set plan and foreknowledge from the beginning. He is the "lamb slain since the foundation of the world" (cf. Rev. 13:8) because he is not content to leave his sheep straying and lost:
And you who once were alienated and hostile in mind because of evil deeds he has now reconciled in his fleshly body through his death, to present you holy, without blemish, and irreproachable before him (cf. Col. 1:21-22.).
Maybe we need one more reminder of how bad things are without the resurrection of Christ:
For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, deluded, slaves to various desires and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful ourselves and hating one another (cf. Tit. 3:3).
Do we know that or do we sugarcoat it? But now his resurrection power is available to us. It is the solution to the sin problem and ultimately to the death problem. His death unlocks the blessings of the Holy Spirit in which we can now partake.
God raised this Jesus;
of this we are all witnesses.
Exalted at the right hand of God,
he poured forth the promise of the Holy Spirit
that he received from the Father, as you both see and hear.”
This Spirit makes all the difference. We can now live lives of holiness which are pleasing to God.
For what the law, weakened by the flesh, was powerless to do, this God has done: by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for the sake of sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, so that the righteous decree of the law might be fulfilled in us, who live not according to the flesh but according to the spirit (cf. Rom. 8:3-4).
Now our hearts can be glad and our souls can rejoice because this life we live is no longer futile. It is no longer just running down the clock. The resurrection empowers us now morally and spiritually in a way proves us that we are God's children, in a way that makes us cry, 'Abba, Father!' This power in us is the hope of our resurrection on the last day.
Therefore my heart is glad and my soul rejoices,
my body, too, abides in confidence;
Because you will not abandon my soul to the nether world,
nor will you suffer your faithful one to undergo corruption.
You will show me the path to life,
fullness of joys in your presence,
the delights at your right hand forever.
So even if we are fearful like Mary Magdalene and the Other Mary let us also be overjoyed and run from the tomb to announce this to the world. Let us hear Jesus quell our fears as he says, "Do not be afraid." Galilee lies ahead. Our risen LORD is there. Let us go to meet him!
Sunday, April 20, 2014
20 April 2014 - risen indeed
20 April 2014 - risen indeed
There are a lot of ideas about who Jesus was out in the culture. And most people aren't so generous as to suggest that he is a prophet or Elijah, let alone the Son of God. Was he just a revolutionary? A spiritual leader teaching universal spiritual truths?
We might profitably ask, 'why does he appear in history at all?' And if we want to ask this question we ought to ask it of those who put him there: his disciples. What do they have to say about him?
They put him to death by hanging him on a tree.
This man God raised on the third day and granted that he be visible,
not to all the people, but to us,
the witnesses chosen by God in advance,
who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.
This resurrection is not simply a spiritual reality. The terminology, NT Wright demonstrates, can only refer to bodily resurrection. We may have a hard time comprehending such a thing. But the disciples clearly understand that the normal laws of death and decay have been reversed.
When Simon Peter arrived after him,
he went into the tomb and saw the burial cloths there,
and the cloth that had covered his head,
not with the burial cloths but rolled up in a separate place.
Then the other disciple also went in,
the one who had arrived at the tomb first,
and he saw and believed.
This is how they understand it. Resurrection forms the core of the earliest parts of the New Testament. Almost without exception the witnesses to it gain nothing by their witness. They are martyred for this truth for generations. They are able to do this precisely because it is a real thing, not a subjective strategy for having good spiritual feelings.
“The right hand of the LORD has struck with power;
the right hand of the LORD is exalted.
I shall not die, but live,
and declare the works of the LORD.”
Because it is real they believe that where Jesus goes they will also follow. His resurrection power even now gives them power to spread the good news. It gives us the same power. And together we even hope to share in the resurrection of the body on the last day.
For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
When Christ your life appears,
then you too will appear with him in glory.
Christ is risen! The tomb is empty! Let us "seek what is above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God." Let us seek the resurrection power which he even now pours out through his Spirit in us. This is how we prepare ourselves and the world for last day when all will rise, some to eternal death. But for those of us with this new life within us we hope to rise to life eternal with Jesus, seated on high with God.
There are a lot of ideas about who Jesus was out in the culture. And most people aren't so generous as to suggest that he is a prophet or Elijah, let alone the Son of God. Was he just a revolutionary? A spiritual leader teaching universal spiritual truths?
We might profitably ask, 'why does he appear in history at all?' And if we want to ask this question we ought to ask it of those who put him there: his disciples. What do they have to say about him?
They put him to death by hanging him on a tree.
This man God raised on the third day and granted that he be visible,
not to all the people, but to us,
the witnesses chosen by God in advance,
who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.
This resurrection is not simply a spiritual reality. The terminology, NT Wright demonstrates, can only refer to bodily resurrection. We may have a hard time comprehending such a thing. But the disciples clearly understand that the normal laws of death and decay have been reversed.
When Simon Peter arrived after him,
he went into the tomb and saw the burial cloths there,
and the cloth that had covered his head,
not with the burial cloths but rolled up in a separate place.
Then the other disciple also went in,
the one who had arrived at the tomb first,
and he saw and believed.
This is how they understand it. Resurrection forms the core of the earliest parts of the New Testament. Almost without exception the witnesses to it gain nothing by their witness. They are martyred for this truth for generations. They are able to do this precisely because it is a real thing, not a subjective strategy for having good spiritual feelings.
“The right hand of the LORD has struck with power;
the right hand of the LORD is exalted.
I shall not die, but live,
and declare the works of the LORD.”
Because it is real they believe that where Jesus goes they will also follow. His resurrection power even now gives them power to spread the good news. It gives us the same power. And together we even hope to share in the resurrection of the body on the last day.
For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
When Christ your life appears,
then you too will appear with him in glory.
Christ is risen! The tomb is empty! Let us "seek what is above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God." Let us seek the resurrection power which he even now pours out through his Spirit in us. This is how we prepare ourselves and the world for last day when all will rise, some to eternal death. But for those of us with this new life within us we hope to rise to life eternal with Jesus, seated on high with God.
Saturday, April 19, 2014
19 April 2014 - live with him
19 April 2014 - live with him
God blessed them, saying:
“Be fertile and multiply;
fill the earth and subdue it.
Have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air,
and all the living things that move on the earth.”
We are unique amongst the whole creation in that we are made for our own sakes. Creation is good and we must guard it precisely as the gift to us that it is. Only after the sixth day when we are made is the creation not just good but very good.
Yet we treat created things as our masters. Rather than beholding the fruit which we aren't meant to eat we allow ourselves to be coerced to wickedly reach out and take it. This is the pattern for all sin. Lesser things begin to dominate the higher. Rational beings are subservient "according to the elemental powers of the world and not according to Christ."
When we relinquish our role as steward-rulers of creation the connection of the world to God, the connection which we are meant to mediate, is lost. This is how "creation was made subject to futility". This is the source of all disease, sickness, and sorrow. But the structure of creation is such that all of these unfortunate consequences can point the way back to God. They are waiting in hope to be transformed. They are waiting for the Lord to send out his Spirit to renew the face of the earth.
In order for this to work we can't rely on ourselves. Our hearts are enslaved to things which are not only not God but which are not even persons. They are enslaved to drives and pulls of irrational matter. In Eden we walk so closely with God that we can use all of these things as he intends. We have the freedom to name them. But sin creates distance from God. With that distance between us we are unable to understand the meaning that these things are supposed to have. We abuse them and are abused by them.
We are called to lay down this selfish and prideful part of our lives. We are called to lay down our own plans, our own understanding, and even our right to our own inheritance, just as Abraham is called. God has promised us all an Isaac in whom the blessing of creation can be restored. But we need to be willing to surrender this blessing into God's hands. Left to our own we pervert the blessings he wants to give. Left to our own such gifts will never quite bear the fruit which he intends for them to bear. But it isn't sufficient to lay them down. God must act. Hence Isaac is spared and the ram is offered.
“Do not do the least thing to him.
I know now how devoted you are to God,
since you did not withhold from me your own beloved son.”
As Abraham looked about,
he spied a ram caught by its horns in the thicket.
So he went and took the ram
and offered it up as a holocaust in place of his son.
His blessings take many forms but if we do not understand that he himself is our "inheritance" we will not fully know "the path of life, the fullness of joys in your presence, the delights at your right hand forever."
We find ourselves enslaved in Egypt. We try to run but the immovable waters of the sea are before us. God is not content to leave us in our sins. He says to us now, "Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the LORD will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again" (cf. Exo. 14:13). "The LORD is a warrior" and his arm is strong enough to save us.
The consequences of our sin sometimes make us doubt that God loves us. But it is because he loves us that he doesn't let us abide in the wretchedness and misery of sin.
Though the mountains leave their place
and the hills be shaken,
my love shall never leave you
nor my covenant of peace be shaken,
says the LORD, who has mercy on you.
He is preparing today to take pity on us "with enduring love". We realize that "his anger lasts but a moment" when compared to amazing love he shows us. We may weep on Good Friday. We may weep on the morning of Holy Saturday. But this coming dawn, more than any other, brings rejoicing. And we do nothing to earn it, can do nothing to earn it. The water of life that flows from the side of Christ is given freely. This water, the Holy Spirit hovers over the tomb of Christ waiting impatiently to fill him with life. He hovers over the dead parts of our own lives ready to give us life.
All you who are thirsty,
come to the water!
Let us raise our hopes to him because he tells us that we "will draw water joyfully from the springs of salvation."
Finally when we drink from this water we have the wisdom that we are meant to have. We are finally able to please God. Our existence, ordered by this wisdom of the Spirit, becomes like that of the "stars at their posts" who "shine and rejoice" before God. And where is this wisdom? Where is this water of life? This Spirit of God?
Lord, you have the words of everlasting life.
Let us heed his words as they call us to drink deeply of the Holy Spirit. In particular at Easter we are called to drink deeply of the sacramental grace of the Church.
For I will take you away from among the nations,
gather you from all the foreign lands,
and bring you back to your own land.
I will sprinkle clean water upon you
to cleanse you from all your impurities,
and from all your idols I will cleanse you.
We are called to long for this "Like a deer that longs for running streams". Let us raise up our hope. We settle for too little in the face of the kingdom God wants to give us. He wants to impress the truth of this hope on us tonight.
If, then, we have died with Christ,
we believe that we shall also live with him.
Tonight he wants us to know life like we have never known it before.
I shall not die, but live,
and declare the works of the LORD.
As the stone begins to roll away from the tomb may our hearts run and soar to meet the risen King of kings in praise and hope and adoration.
God blessed them, saying:
“Be fertile and multiply;
fill the earth and subdue it.
Have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air,
and all the living things that move on the earth.”
We are unique amongst the whole creation in that we are made for our own sakes. Creation is good and we must guard it precisely as the gift to us that it is. Only after the sixth day when we are made is the creation not just good but very good.
Yet we treat created things as our masters. Rather than beholding the fruit which we aren't meant to eat we allow ourselves to be coerced to wickedly reach out and take it. This is the pattern for all sin. Lesser things begin to dominate the higher. Rational beings are subservient "according to the elemental powers of the world and not according to Christ."
When we relinquish our role as steward-rulers of creation the connection of the world to God, the connection which we are meant to mediate, is lost. This is how "creation was made subject to futility". This is the source of all disease, sickness, and sorrow. But the structure of creation is such that all of these unfortunate consequences can point the way back to God. They are waiting in hope to be transformed. They are waiting for the Lord to send out his Spirit to renew the face of the earth.
In order for this to work we can't rely on ourselves. Our hearts are enslaved to things which are not only not God but which are not even persons. They are enslaved to drives and pulls of irrational matter. In Eden we walk so closely with God that we can use all of these things as he intends. We have the freedom to name them. But sin creates distance from God. With that distance between us we are unable to understand the meaning that these things are supposed to have. We abuse them and are abused by them.
We are called to lay down this selfish and prideful part of our lives. We are called to lay down our own plans, our own understanding, and even our right to our own inheritance, just as Abraham is called. God has promised us all an Isaac in whom the blessing of creation can be restored. But we need to be willing to surrender this blessing into God's hands. Left to our own we pervert the blessings he wants to give. Left to our own such gifts will never quite bear the fruit which he intends for them to bear. But it isn't sufficient to lay them down. God must act. Hence Isaac is spared and the ram is offered.
“Do not do the least thing to him.
I know now how devoted you are to God,
since you did not withhold from me your own beloved son.”
As Abraham looked about,
he spied a ram caught by its horns in the thicket.
So he went and took the ram
and offered it up as a holocaust in place of his son.
His blessings take many forms but if we do not understand that he himself is our "inheritance" we will not fully know "the path of life, the fullness of joys in your presence, the delights at your right hand forever."
We find ourselves enslaved in Egypt. We try to run but the immovable waters of the sea are before us. God is not content to leave us in our sins. He says to us now, "Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the LORD will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again" (cf. Exo. 14:13). "The LORD is a warrior" and his arm is strong enough to save us.
The consequences of our sin sometimes make us doubt that God loves us. But it is because he loves us that he doesn't let us abide in the wretchedness and misery of sin.
Though the mountains leave their place
and the hills be shaken,
my love shall never leave you
nor my covenant of peace be shaken,
says the LORD, who has mercy on you.
He is preparing today to take pity on us "with enduring love". We realize that "his anger lasts but a moment" when compared to amazing love he shows us. We may weep on Good Friday. We may weep on the morning of Holy Saturday. But this coming dawn, more than any other, brings rejoicing. And we do nothing to earn it, can do nothing to earn it. The water of life that flows from the side of Christ is given freely. This water, the Holy Spirit hovers over the tomb of Christ waiting impatiently to fill him with life. He hovers over the dead parts of our own lives ready to give us life.
All you who are thirsty,
come to the water!
Let us raise our hopes to him because he tells us that we "will draw water joyfully from the springs of salvation."
Finally when we drink from this water we have the wisdom that we are meant to have. We are finally able to please God. Our existence, ordered by this wisdom of the Spirit, becomes like that of the "stars at their posts" who "shine and rejoice" before God. And where is this wisdom? Where is this water of life? This Spirit of God?
Lord, you have the words of everlasting life.
Let us heed his words as they call us to drink deeply of the Holy Spirit. In particular at Easter we are called to drink deeply of the sacramental grace of the Church.
For I will take you away from among the nations,
gather you from all the foreign lands,
and bring you back to your own land.
I will sprinkle clean water upon you
to cleanse you from all your impurities,
and from all your idols I will cleanse you.
We are called to long for this "Like a deer that longs for running streams". Let us raise up our hope. We settle for too little in the face of the kingdom God wants to give us. He wants to impress the truth of this hope on us tonight.
If, then, we have died with Christ,
we believe that we shall also live with him.
Tonight he wants us to know life like we have never known it before.
I shall not die, but live,
and declare the works of the LORD.
As the stone begins to roll away from the tomb may our hearts run and soar to meet the risen King of kings in praise and hope and adoration.
Friday, April 18, 2014
18 April 2014 - friday called good
18 April 2014 - friday called good
Pilate is on the fence about Jesus. His wife suffers on account of him in a dream. He has the sense that there is something wrong with the way in which the people seek to have him crucified. He says "I find no guilt in him" and yet he hears shouts of "Crucify him, crucify him!" Why would they want to crucify this one? Why does his wife suffer on his account? Something is amiss. And Jesus tries to help him realize what it is when Pilate tries to ask.
“Are you the King of the Jews?”
But Jesus is not concerned now with what others say about him. He is concerned with what Pilate says about him. He is concerned with what you and I say about him.
“Do you say this on your own
or have others told you about me?”
Pilate answered,
“I am not a Jew, am I?
Jesus is actually pleased with this response. Pilate moves from on from what the Jews say about him. He continues to try to figure out just what this one has done to be handed over to him. Jesus gives him a hint, a kingdom is involved, but it is not a kingdom in the way Pilate or the Jews imagine it.
“My kingdom does not belong to this world.
If my kingdom did belong to this world,
my attendants would be fighting
to keep me from being handed over to the Jews.
But as it is, my kingdom is not here.”
And Pilate begins to understand a little more.
“Then you are a king?”
But the problem for Pilate is that Jesus demands faith. Faith is the "the evidence of things not seen" (cf. Heb. 11:1). The kingdom which does not belong to this world can only be apprehended by faith. Pilate isn't ready to take that leap. Sure, it is odd that Jesus creates such a strong reaction in the Jews who bring him to Pilate. Sure, his wife has a weirdly prophetic dream suffering on his account. Even Pilate himself no doubt has the sense that something is different about this one.
Jesus explains the leap that must be made, the leap of faith:
For this I was born and for this I came into the world,
to testify to the truth.
Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.”
Jesus calls Pilate to trust in his voice more than what Pilate's own eyes can behold. Pilate is a practical man. He doesn't want to punish an innocent unnecessarily. But he is concerned about order in the area he governs. He is concerned about his obligations to Caesar. Worldly powers and circumstances all suggest that the truth which Jesus speaks be ignored. If he trusts this voice what will happen to his kingdom, to the areas of the world he governs, and even to his governance of his own heart? Riots? Will anything be left? Practically, there is much to worry about. But if he can just listen to the voice of Jesus he will hear him "speak of peace to his people and to his faithful" (cf. Psa. 85:9). But Pilate isn't ready for this leap.
Pilate said to him, “What is truth?”
Even so, it is the leap we are all called to make. We are called to believe that the death of this one who lived so long ago is the most important fact of every moment even though nothing our eyes behold will prove this to us. This is why this story is told at all. It is not told to stir up pious feelings of love and devotion, though those may be good. We behold the lamb led to the slaughter, who bears our infirmities, who endures our sufferings, who is pierced for our offenses and crushed for our sins that we may believe in him, first and foremost. This is vital, because only when we believe can we receive all the blessings it entails. Only when we believe can we have life in his name (cf. Joh. 20:31).
An eyewitness has testified, and his testimony is true;
has testified, and his testimony is true;
he knows that he is speaking the truth,
so that you also may come to believe.
We struggle with this, but we "we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses". So even when we struggle and doubt let us turn to him.
So let us confidently approach the throne of grace
to receive mercy and to find grace for timely help.
He enables us to have the belief he requires. We cannot even believe on our own. But he is happy to have us depend on him for strength and salvation. This has always been his plan for us.
Let your face shine upon your servant;
save me in your kindness.
Take courage and be stouthearted,
all you who hope in the LORD.
Pilate is on the fence about Jesus. His wife suffers on account of him in a dream. He has the sense that there is something wrong with the way in which the people seek to have him crucified. He says "I find no guilt in him" and yet he hears shouts of "Crucify him, crucify him!" Why would they want to crucify this one? Why does his wife suffer on his account? Something is amiss. And Jesus tries to help him realize what it is when Pilate tries to ask.
“Are you the King of the Jews?”
But Jesus is not concerned now with what others say about him. He is concerned with what Pilate says about him. He is concerned with what you and I say about him.
“Do you say this on your own
or have others told you about me?”
Pilate answered,
“I am not a Jew, am I?
Jesus is actually pleased with this response. Pilate moves from on from what the Jews say about him. He continues to try to figure out just what this one has done to be handed over to him. Jesus gives him a hint, a kingdom is involved, but it is not a kingdom in the way Pilate or the Jews imagine it.
“My kingdom does not belong to this world.
If my kingdom did belong to this world,
my attendants would be fighting
to keep me from being handed over to the Jews.
But as it is, my kingdom is not here.”
And Pilate begins to understand a little more.
“Then you are a king?”
But the problem for Pilate is that Jesus demands faith. Faith is the "the evidence of things not seen" (cf. Heb. 11:1). The kingdom which does not belong to this world can only be apprehended by faith. Pilate isn't ready to take that leap. Sure, it is odd that Jesus creates such a strong reaction in the Jews who bring him to Pilate. Sure, his wife has a weirdly prophetic dream suffering on his account. Even Pilate himself no doubt has the sense that something is different about this one.
Jesus explains the leap that must be made, the leap of faith:
For this I was born and for this I came into the world,
to testify to the truth.
Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.”
Jesus calls Pilate to trust in his voice more than what Pilate's own eyes can behold. Pilate is a practical man. He doesn't want to punish an innocent unnecessarily. But he is concerned about order in the area he governs. He is concerned about his obligations to Caesar. Worldly powers and circumstances all suggest that the truth which Jesus speaks be ignored. If he trusts this voice what will happen to his kingdom, to the areas of the world he governs, and even to his governance of his own heart? Riots? Will anything be left? Practically, there is much to worry about. But if he can just listen to the voice of Jesus he will hear him "speak of peace to his people and to his faithful" (cf. Psa. 85:9). But Pilate isn't ready for this leap.
Pilate said to him, “What is truth?”
Even so, it is the leap we are all called to make. We are called to believe that the death of this one who lived so long ago is the most important fact of every moment even though nothing our eyes behold will prove this to us. This is why this story is told at all. It is not told to stir up pious feelings of love and devotion, though those may be good. We behold the lamb led to the slaughter, who bears our infirmities, who endures our sufferings, who is pierced for our offenses and crushed for our sins that we may believe in him, first and foremost. This is vital, because only when we believe can we receive all the blessings it entails. Only when we believe can we have life in his name (cf. Joh. 20:31).
An eyewitness has testified, and his testimony is true;
has testified, and his testimony is true;
he knows that he is speaking the truth,
so that you also may come to believe.
We struggle with this, but we "we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses". So even when we struggle and doubt let us turn to him.
So let us confidently approach the throne of grace
to receive mercy and to find grace for timely help.
He enables us to have the belief he requires. We cannot even believe on our own. But he is happy to have us depend on him for strength and salvation. This has always been his plan for us.
Let your face shine upon your servant;
save me in your kindness.
Take courage and be stouthearted,
all you who hope in the LORD.
Thursday, April 17, 2014
17 April 2014 - loved us to the end
17 April 2014 - loved us to the end
Jesus knew that his hour had come
to pass from this world to the Father.
He loved his own in the world and he loved them to the end.
What does Jesus do as a result of this love? He washes the feet of his disciples. It is, to be sure, a profound act of humility. Though in the form of God he once again does not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped (cf. Phi. 2) and empties himself even of the "outer garments" he wears, even of his own life in the flesh.
Yet when we hear that he "loved them to the end" don't we expect something with more lasting significance than a purification from dirt and dust? If we look, we will find it. John the Evangelist knows that when we read the story of Jesus we expect at this point to hear the institution narrative:
“This is my body that is for you.
Do this in remembrance of me.”
In the same way also the cup, after supper, saying,
This cup is the new covenant in my blood.
To omit it now is a conscience decision for the purpose of calling it to mind and setting it parallel to the washing of the feet.
Then he poured water into a basin
and began to wash the disciples’ feet
and dry them with the towel around his waist.
In loving his disciples to the end the Cross and the Eucharist are inseparable. The Eucharist reveals the Cross to be a saving sacrifice, not just an unfortunate execution. And this symbolic act of humility reveals the meaning of both. It reveals the Cross as Jesus laying down his life for us, not having it taken from him. It reveals the fruit of this offering to be purification, cleansing from sin.
In the face of such overwhelming humility we see why we can't try to figure out for ourselves how Jesus ought to save us. We either insist of too little...
He came to Simon Peter, who said to him,
“Master, are you going to wash my feet?”
Jesus answered and said to him,
“What I am doing, you do not understand now,
but you will understand later.”
Peter said to him, “You will never wash my feet.”
...or demand more than we need...
Jesus answered him,
“Unless I wash you, you will have no inheritance with me.”
Simon Peter said to him,
“Master, then not only my feet, but my hands and head as well.”
Jesus said to him,
“Whoever has bathed has no need except to have his feet washed,
for he is clean all over;
We do need cleansing. Our feet inevitably grow dirty as we walk, even when we follow Jesus. Blood and water flow together from his wounded side on the Cross. The one cleanses us and the other marks us as his own. They are two aspects of the same gift of life. He wants his blood to "mark the houses where" we are. We are cleansed from our sins and marked off as his own people, marked by the precious blood which protects our souls from every threat.
That Jesus should do this for us reveals his love for us. How are we to respond? By embracing the gift with thankful hearts:
How shall I make a return to the LORD
for all the good he has done for me?
The cup of salvation I will take up,
and I will call upon the name of the LORD.
As he washes our feet we are cleansed by the water which initially washes us in baptism and we are again (since this washing is also the Eucharist) marked as his own by his blood, the blood we receive in the "cup of salvation".
Jesus knew that his hour had come
to pass from this world to the Father.
He loved his own in the world and he loved them to the end.
What does Jesus do as a result of this love? He washes the feet of his disciples. It is, to be sure, a profound act of humility. Though in the form of God he once again does not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped (cf. Phi. 2) and empties himself even of the "outer garments" he wears, even of his own life in the flesh.
Yet when we hear that he "loved them to the end" don't we expect something with more lasting significance than a purification from dirt and dust? If we look, we will find it. John the Evangelist knows that when we read the story of Jesus we expect at this point to hear the institution narrative:
“This is my body that is for you.
Do this in remembrance of me.”
In the same way also the cup, after supper, saying,
This cup is the new covenant in my blood.
To omit it now is a conscience decision for the purpose of calling it to mind and setting it parallel to the washing of the feet.
Then he poured water into a basin
and began to wash the disciples’ feet
and dry them with the towel around his waist.
In loving his disciples to the end the Cross and the Eucharist are inseparable. The Eucharist reveals the Cross to be a saving sacrifice, not just an unfortunate execution. And this symbolic act of humility reveals the meaning of both. It reveals the Cross as Jesus laying down his life for us, not having it taken from him. It reveals the fruit of this offering to be purification, cleansing from sin.
In the face of such overwhelming humility we see why we can't try to figure out for ourselves how Jesus ought to save us. We either insist of too little...
He came to Simon Peter, who said to him,
“Master, are you going to wash my feet?”
Jesus answered and said to him,
“What I am doing, you do not understand now,
but you will understand later.”
Peter said to him, “You will never wash my feet.”
...or demand more than we need...
Jesus answered him,
“Unless I wash you, you will have no inheritance with me.”
Simon Peter said to him,
“Master, then not only my feet, but my hands and head as well.”
Jesus said to him,
“Whoever has bathed has no need except to have his feet washed,
for he is clean all over;
We do need cleansing. Our feet inevitably grow dirty as we walk, even when we follow Jesus. Blood and water flow together from his wounded side on the Cross. The one cleanses us and the other marks us as his own. They are two aspects of the same gift of life. He wants his blood to "mark the houses where" we are. We are cleansed from our sins and marked off as his own people, marked by the precious blood which protects our souls from every threat.
That Jesus should do this for us reveals his love for us. How are we to respond? By embracing the gift with thankful hearts:
How shall I make a return to the LORD
for all the good he has done for me?
The cup of salvation I will take up,
and I will call upon the name of the LORD.
As he washes our feet we are cleansed by the water which initially washes us in baptism and we are again (since this washing is also the Eucharist) marked as his own by his blood, the blood we receive in the "cup of salvation".
Wednesday, April 16, 2014
16 April 2014 - should have guest it
16 April 2014 - should have guest it
‘The teacher says, “My appointed time draws near;
in your house I shall celebrate the Passover with my disciples.”`
We are preparing to celebrate the Passover of the LORD, when he passes from death to life. We celebrate the Passover from our own sinfulness to freedom and grace. So let's not let the disciples at our door take us by surprise as we get ready for the Mass which starts tomorrow and ends on Easter. How do these modern disciples we find in the Church call us to prepare? They call us to show them the "guest room" which we have open for Jesus. In other words, we need to have the space within our hearts to welcome Jesus. How do we ensure this?
There is a reason that a week of penance services precedes Holy Week. We need to examine our consciences. We need to make sure there is nothing taking the throne of our hearts which Jesus should occupy. We need to make sure our guest room is not filled with other concerns, with no room for Jesus. We ought not just assume he is first in our hearts without examining our lives to see how that theory actually plays out day to day. We ought to recognize our own weakness, our own tendency to self-deception. We should ask Jesus himself if he holds the position he wants to hold.
And while they were eating, he said,
“Amen, I say to you, one of you will betray me.”
Deeply distressed at this,
they began to say to him one after another,
“Surely it is not I, Lord?”
Let us join with the Church in searching our own hearts to see if there is anything in them which might betray Jesus. Hopefully we hear from him that it is not us. But even Paul tells us to, "work out your salvation with fear and trembling" (cf. Phi. 2:12). Knowing his own weakness he even says that, "I for my part do not consider myself to have taken possession" (cf. Phi. 3:12).
We need to recognize that we all have the potential to turn traitor. At one point Judas was a sincere follower. We read that he "became a traitor" (cf. Luk. 6:16) not that he always was one. What pushes Judas over the edge? We can guess. It seems like Jesus isn't fulfilling his role of Messiah in the way that Judas prefers. Judas ultimately wants Jesus to be a proxy to his own will and plans even though these plans aren't necessarily bad at the beginning. By time Mary anoints the feet of Jesus with the aromatic nard Judas is already pretty far gone. He "used to help himself" to what was in the money bag. He objects to the anointing, not really because it doesn't go to the poor, but because it doesn't go through him to it's destination. Perhaps he still imagines that he might do some good with it. But the drive to have these resources in his own control may be the reason he accepts the price of thirty pieces of silver for the life of the man who was once his friend.
Let's keep our guestroom open for Jesus. We might be able to get thirty silver coins for it, but they are so infinitely much less than the Passover he wants to celebrate in us.
Who disputes his right to this guestroom? At times we all do. At times we are the ones who pluck his beard, beat him, and spit on him. But even so morning after morning he does not rebel from the mission to save us. The glory of Easter vindicates his claim on the guestroom of our souls. Let us examine ourselves so that we may be witnesses to the resurrection and avoid the fate of Judas. Even though we all deny him at times as Peter does yet we may still hope to witness the resurrection like he does, forgiven and new.
‘The teacher says, “My appointed time draws near;
in your house I shall celebrate the Passover with my disciples.”`
We are preparing to celebrate the Passover of the LORD, when he passes from death to life. We celebrate the Passover from our own sinfulness to freedom and grace. So let's not let the disciples at our door take us by surprise as we get ready for the Mass which starts tomorrow and ends on Easter. How do these modern disciples we find in the Church call us to prepare? They call us to show them the "guest room" which we have open for Jesus. In other words, we need to have the space within our hearts to welcome Jesus. How do we ensure this?
There is a reason that a week of penance services precedes Holy Week. We need to examine our consciences. We need to make sure there is nothing taking the throne of our hearts which Jesus should occupy. We need to make sure our guest room is not filled with other concerns, with no room for Jesus. We ought not just assume he is first in our hearts without examining our lives to see how that theory actually plays out day to day. We ought to recognize our own weakness, our own tendency to self-deception. We should ask Jesus himself if he holds the position he wants to hold.
And while they were eating, he said,
“Amen, I say to you, one of you will betray me.”
Deeply distressed at this,
they began to say to him one after another,
“Surely it is not I, Lord?”
Let us join with the Church in searching our own hearts to see if there is anything in them which might betray Jesus. Hopefully we hear from him that it is not us. But even Paul tells us to, "work out your salvation with fear and trembling" (cf. Phi. 2:12). Knowing his own weakness he even says that, "I for my part do not consider myself to have taken possession" (cf. Phi. 3:12).
We need to recognize that we all have the potential to turn traitor. At one point Judas was a sincere follower. We read that he "became a traitor" (cf. Luk. 6:16) not that he always was one. What pushes Judas over the edge? We can guess. It seems like Jesus isn't fulfilling his role of Messiah in the way that Judas prefers. Judas ultimately wants Jesus to be a proxy to his own will and plans even though these plans aren't necessarily bad at the beginning. By time Mary anoints the feet of Jesus with the aromatic nard Judas is already pretty far gone. He "used to help himself" to what was in the money bag. He objects to the anointing, not really because it doesn't go to the poor, but because it doesn't go through him to it's destination. Perhaps he still imagines that he might do some good with it. But the drive to have these resources in his own control may be the reason he accepts the price of thirty pieces of silver for the life of the man who was once his friend.
Let's keep our guestroom open for Jesus. We might be able to get thirty silver coins for it, but they are so infinitely much less than the Passover he wants to celebrate in us.
Who disputes his right to this guestroom? At times we all do. At times we are the ones who pluck his beard, beat him, and spit on him. But even so morning after morning he does not rebel from the mission to save us. The glory of Easter vindicates his claim on the guestroom of our souls. Let us examine ourselves so that we may be witnesses to the resurrection and avoid the fate of Judas. Even though we all deny him at times as Peter does yet we may still hope to witness the resurrection like he does, forgiven and new.
Tuesday, April 15, 2014
15 April 2014 - one way
15 April 2014 - one way
The death and resurrection of Jesus save us from futility:
Though I thought I had toiled in vain,
and for nothing, uselessly, spent my strength,
Yet my reward is with the LORD,
my recompense is with my God.
The wages of sin is death (cf. Rom. 6:23) and our world seems to be on a constant collision course with it. We try to do some good but the darkness seems inescapable, the good we manage so very temporary. Everything we try seems tainted because we know that nothing lasts here. Fear of this inescapable reality actually keeps us enslaved (cf. Heb 2:15) and we can't break free on our own. We are strapped into a "world in its present form" which "is passing away" (cf 1 Cor. 7:31) and we don't know how to get off.
There is, in fact, no way out...
“Where I am going, you cannot follow me now,
...until Jesus makes a way for us...
though you will follow later"
...by becoming the way for us...
Jesus said to him, “I am the way and the truth* and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
Jesus creates a way through the futility of death to the superabundance of life eternal. He creates a way where there is no way. By his death our own toil can now find reward and recompense in God. Provided, that is, that we get on board with this new world. We know that we still have the same weakness that consumes Judas and which causes even Peter to deny Jesus. We "should put away the old self of your former way of life, corrupted through deceitful desires, and be renewed in the spirit of your minds" (cf. Eph. 4:22-23). This is where the transformation which will one day renew even our physical bodies begins.
This is the renewal we find only in Jesus. Only the way through death he opens has the power we need to free us from futility. So let us take refuge from this dying world in him. He is our refuge from death itself. Let him be our rock when everything seems to be falling apart. Let him be our refuge when this world seems full of danger. Most profoundly, let him be our hope. If our hearts our fixed on him in this way he will certainly deliver us and incline his ear to us until we finally sing of his salvation. And when we choose to seek him in this way, to take refuge in him, we do not abandon those around us. We are not, in fact, in a coccoon of isolationist salvation. We reveal his saving power to the ends of the earth.
And I am made glorious in the sight of the LORD,
and my God is now my strength!
It is too little, he says, for you to be my servant,
to raise up the tribes of Jacob,
and restore the survivors of Israel;
I will make you a light to the nations,
that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.
The death and resurrection of Jesus save us from futility:
Though I thought I had toiled in vain,
and for nothing, uselessly, spent my strength,
Yet my reward is with the LORD,
my recompense is with my God.
The wages of sin is death (cf. Rom. 6:23) and our world seems to be on a constant collision course with it. We try to do some good but the darkness seems inescapable, the good we manage so very temporary. Everything we try seems tainted because we know that nothing lasts here. Fear of this inescapable reality actually keeps us enslaved (cf. Heb 2:15) and we can't break free on our own. We are strapped into a "world in its present form" which "is passing away" (cf 1 Cor. 7:31) and we don't know how to get off.
There is, in fact, no way out...
“Where I am going, you cannot follow me now,
...until Jesus makes a way for us...
though you will follow later"
...by becoming the way for us...
Jesus said to him, “I am the way and the truth* and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
Jesus creates a way through the futility of death to the superabundance of life eternal. He creates a way where there is no way. By his death our own toil can now find reward and recompense in God. Provided, that is, that we get on board with this new world. We know that we still have the same weakness that consumes Judas and which causes even Peter to deny Jesus. We "should put away the old self of your former way of life, corrupted through deceitful desires, and be renewed in the spirit of your minds" (cf. Eph. 4:22-23). This is where the transformation which will one day renew even our physical bodies begins.
This is the renewal we find only in Jesus. Only the way through death he opens has the power we need to free us from futility. So let us take refuge from this dying world in him. He is our refuge from death itself. Let him be our rock when everything seems to be falling apart. Let him be our refuge when this world seems full of danger. Most profoundly, let him be our hope. If our hearts our fixed on him in this way he will certainly deliver us and incline his ear to us until we finally sing of his salvation. And when we choose to seek him in this way, to take refuge in him, we do not abandon those around us. We are not, in fact, in a coccoon of isolationist salvation. We reveal his saving power to the ends of the earth.
And I am made glorious in the sight of the LORD,
and my God is now my strength!
It is too little, he says, for you to be my servant,
to raise up the tribes of Jacob,
and restore the survivors of Israel;
I will make you a light to the nations,
that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.
Monday, April 14, 2014
14 April 2014 - #winning - the victory of justice
14 April 2014 - #winning - the victory of justice
So Holy Week. How do we do it right? Committed Catholics are, at this point in the liturgical year, concerned about best practices, worried about missing opportunities for growth. We are looking for the formula to get closer to God. We want to know, with all that we have to do out in the world, what is the best use of the time we have to give God.
But of course, there is no formula. Or if there is, it is this: love recklessly! Love as Mary loves:
Mary took a liter of costly perfumed oil
made from genuine aromatic nard
and anointed the feet of Jesus and dried them with her hair;
the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil.
Jesus does not primarily approach our use of time from a perspective of resource management. Resource management lacks the heart. It is an important aspect of prudence but, when isolated, it conceals evil intentions.
Then Judas the Iscariot, one of his disciples,
and the one who would betray him, said,
“Why was this oil not sold for three hundred days’ wages
and given to the poor?”
He said this not because he cared about the poor
but because he was a thief and held the money bag
and used to steal the contributions.
Jesus is meek and humble in heart (cf. Mat. 11:28). He brings justice to the nations but the way he does so is not violent, it is not self-insistent. When our love is fragile and vulnerable like a "bruised reed" and "a smolder wick" he will not break or us our quench or flame. We can come to him with intense devotion without the fear that he will reject us if we don't get things just right.
So Jesus said, “Leave her alone.
Let her keep this for the day of my burial.
You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.”
We must be on guard that we don't let our desire to control our situation be our main motivation. Our use of resources and our accounting often sounds as noble as that of Judas but simply conceals our sinful desires. On the other hand, acts of love that might seem imperfect, imprudent, or overly extravagant, are yet borne of a more perfect desire to love.
We gather around a table with those who were dead but now live again. The very witness of this banquet is hard for those who insist on control to bear. To the degree that we insist on control we run the risk of becoming violent toward any threats to that control, even if they come from God. We can't accept this perfuming of Jesus even if the whole "house was filled with the fragrance of the oil" lifting the minds and hearts of all who smell it. We can't even accept the presence of Lazarus who was dead but lives again.
So let us give up that false sense of control. Let us enter fully into this banquet. When we let God take control we can trust him no matter the circumstances.
Though an army encamp against me,
my heart will not fear;
Though war be waged upon me,
even then will I trust.
This is what we need. Without it, we have no recourse "When evildoers come at me to devour my flesh". But with it we "shall see the bounty of the LORD in the land of the living" no matter what circumstances bring. And it is meant for everyone. May the whole world see this trust transforming lives from within until, with "the coastlands", everyone "will wait for his teaching."
I formed you, and set you
as a covenant of the people,
a light for the nations,
To open the eyes of the blind,
to bring out prisoners from confinement,
and from the dungeon, those who live in darkness.
So Holy Week. How do we do it right? Committed Catholics are, at this point in the liturgical year, concerned about best practices, worried about missing opportunities for growth. We are looking for the formula to get closer to God. We want to know, with all that we have to do out in the world, what is the best use of the time we have to give God.
But of course, there is no formula. Or if there is, it is this: love recklessly! Love as Mary loves:
Mary took a liter of costly perfumed oil
made from genuine aromatic nard
and anointed the feet of Jesus and dried them with her hair;
the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil.
Jesus does not primarily approach our use of time from a perspective of resource management. Resource management lacks the heart. It is an important aspect of prudence but, when isolated, it conceals evil intentions.
Then Judas the Iscariot, one of his disciples,
and the one who would betray him, said,
“Why was this oil not sold for three hundred days’ wages
and given to the poor?”
He said this not because he cared about the poor
but because he was a thief and held the money bag
and used to steal the contributions.
Jesus is meek and humble in heart (cf. Mat. 11:28). He brings justice to the nations but the way he does so is not violent, it is not self-insistent. When our love is fragile and vulnerable like a "bruised reed" and "a smolder wick" he will not break or us our quench or flame. We can come to him with intense devotion without the fear that he will reject us if we don't get things just right.
So Jesus said, “Leave her alone.
Let her keep this for the day of my burial.
You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.”
We must be on guard that we don't let our desire to control our situation be our main motivation. Our use of resources and our accounting often sounds as noble as that of Judas but simply conceals our sinful desires. On the other hand, acts of love that might seem imperfect, imprudent, or overly extravagant, are yet borne of a more perfect desire to love.
We gather around a table with those who were dead but now live again. The very witness of this banquet is hard for those who insist on control to bear. To the degree that we insist on control we run the risk of becoming violent toward any threats to that control, even if they come from God. We can't accept this perfuming of Jesus even if the whole "house was filled with the fragrance of the oil" lifting the minds and hearts of all who smell it. We can't even accept the presence of Lazarus who was dead but lives again.
So let us give up that false sense of control. Let us enter fully into this banquet. When we let God take control we can trust him no matter the circumstances.
Though an army encamp against me,
my heart will not fear;
Though war be waged upon me,
even then will I trust.
This is what we need. Without it, we have no recourse "When evildoers come at me to devour my flesh". But with it we "shall see the bounty of the LORD in the land of the living" no matter what circumstances bring. And it is meant for everyone. May the whole world see this trust transforming lives from within until, with "the coastlands", everyone "will wait for his teaching."
I formed you, and set you
as a covenant of the people,
a light for the nations,
To open the eyes of the blind,
to bring out prisoners from confinement,
and from the dungeon, those who live in darkness.
Sunday, April 13, 2014
13 April 2014 - home stretch
13 April 2014 - home stretch
The Lord GOD has given me
a well-trained tongue,
that I might know how to speak to the weary
a word that will rouse them.
Lent is drawing to a close. We enter Holy Week. Many of us feel weary. Many of us sympathize with the disciples, with Peter, James and John who "could not keep watch" with Jesus. We feel this failure all the more deeply in light of the magnitude of the events which are about to transpire.
But Jesus knows how to speak a word that will rouse us. Have we not done much this Lent? Have we started off well but become complacent? And even if we have been faithful to know, don't we need him to call us onward? Listen, then: "Are you still sleeping and taking your rest? Behold, the hour is at hand when the Son of Man is to be handed over to sinners." Let him speak this word to us, "Get up, let us go."
Jesus rouses us from our complacence by his own example of obedience.
Morning after morning
he opens my ear that I may hear;
and I have not rebelled,
have not turned back.
It isn't just that he sets a good example. This obedience to the Father is the deepest truth of who he is.
he emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave,
coming in human likeness;
and found human in appearance,
he humbled himself,
becoming obedient to the point of death,
even death on a cross.
We are fickle. We praise him with "Hosanna" cries when he enters Jerusalem. We lay our palms before him. Yet before long we shout "Crucify him!" Before long we deny him "in front of everyone" like Peter. Jesus himself has every reason to be weary. We do plenty to weary him. When he does not manifest the kingdom in the way we want we taunt him. We hear our own voices say "come down from the cross" and "let him deliver him now if he wants him." When God seems silent, when "darkness came over the whole land", we condemn him as loudly as we can.
But in spite of our rebellion Jesus lets the Father open his ears in obedience time and again. He does not rebel or turn back from the plan. For Jesus, this turning to the Father is constant. It is not a one time only thing. More than once he asks, "let this cup pass from me" but he never insists. He stays, he listens, and ultimately says "yet not as I will, but as you will." This reckless abandonment to his will is something which the Father cannot overlook.
Because of this, God greatly exalted him
and bestowed on him the name
which is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus
every knee should bend,
of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
His obedience is more than obedience. It is love, love for his Father and for us. And because of this love and obedience the name of Jesus itself is the word that can rouse us now to walk fearlessly into Holy Week, to walk fearlessly with Jesus to Jerusalem, and to the Cross. Roused by the name above every name we too can obey and not turn back. Buffets and spitting won't stop us this week. Our faces are set like flint because of the strength we receive from Jesus.
We are empowered to obedience by the name of Jesus. Because of this new power within us, this power by which we will live this Holy Week, God can't help but respond to Jesus within us. He can't help but fill us with life at Easter. Feelings of abandonment give way to praise.
I will proclaim your name to my brethren;
in the midst of the assembly I will praise you:
“You who fear the LORD, praise him;
all you descendants of Jacob, give glory to him;
revere him, all you descendants of Israel!”
The Lord GOD has given me
a well-trained tongue,
that I might know how to speak to the weary
a word that will rouse them.
Lent is drawing to a close. We enter Holy Week. Many of us feel weary. Many of us sympathize with the disciples, with Peter, James and John who "could not keep watch" with Jesus. We feel this failure all the more deeply in light of the magnitude of the events which are about to transpire.
But Jesus knows how to speak a word that will rouse us. Have we not done much this Lent? Have we started off well but become complacent? And even if we have been faithful to know, don't we need him to call us onward? Listen, then: "Are you still sleeping and taking your rest? Behold, the hour is at hand when the Son of Man is to be handed over to sinners." Let him speak this word to us, "Get up, let us go."
Jesus rouses us from our complacence by his own example of obedience.
Morning after morning
he opens my ear that I may hear;
and I have not rebelled,
have not turned back.
It isn't just that he sets a good example. This obedience to the Father is the deepest truth of who he is.
he emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave,
coming in human likeness;
and found human in appearance,
he humbled himself,
becoming obedient to the point of death,
even death on a cross.
We are fickle. We praise him with "Hosanna" cries when he enters Jerusalem. We lay our palms before him. Yet before long we shout "Crucify him!" Before long we deny him "in front of everyone" like Peter. Jesus himself has every reason to be weary. We do plenty to weary him. When he does not manifest the kingdom in the way we want we taunt him. We hear our own voices say "come down from the cross" and "let him deliver him now if he wants him." When God seems silent, when "darkness came over the whole land", we condemn him as loudly as we can.
But in spite of our rebellion Jesus lets the Father open his ears in obedience time and again. He does not rebel or turn back from the plan. For Jesus, this turning to the Father is constant. It is not a one time only thing. More than once he asks, "let this cup pass from me" but he never insists. He stays, he listens, and ultimately says "yet not as I will, but as you will." This reckless abandonment to his will is something which the Father cannot overlook.
Because of this, God greatly exalted him
and bestowed on him the name
which is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus
every knee should bend,
of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
His obedience is more than obedience. It is love, love for his Father and for us. And because of this love and obedience the name of Jesus itself is the word that can rouse us now to walk fearlessly into Holy Week, to walk fearlessly with Jesus to Jerusalem, and to the Cross. Roused by the name above every name we too can obey and not turn back. Buffets and spitting won't stop us this week. Our faces are set like flint because of the strength we receive from Jesus.
We are empowered to obedience by the name of Jesus. Because of this new power within us, this power by which we will live this Holy Week, God can't help but respond to Jesus within us. He can't help but fill us with life at Easter. Feelings of abandonment give way to praise.
I will proclaim your name to my brethren;
in the midst of the assembly I will praise you:
“You who fear the LORD, praise him;
all you descendants of Jacob, give glory to him;
revere him, all you descendants of Israel!”
Saturday, April 12, 2014
12 April 2014 - miracle worker
12 April 2014 - miracle worker
But some of them went to the Pharisees
and told them what Jesus had done.
Do they mean well? They are among those who witness what happened to Lazarus. Many of them believe in Jesus. But this implies that some do not even after seeing someone raised from the dead. Interestingly, everyone knows what happened. They know Lazarus lives. It is, in fact, hard to dispute. But people still respond to it in very different ways.
It is unclear into which group these people who talk to the Pharisees fall. Regardless, the Pharisees are so overwhelmed by the sheer quantity of testimony that they concede that Jesus "is performng many signs." Jesus does these signs to reveal that he is in the Father and the Father is in him. But all the Pharisees ignore the deeper significance that signs must have, choosing to focus instead on their temporal concerns.
If we leave him alone, all will believe in him,
and the Romans will come
and take away both our land and our nation.”
This does sound significant. But why do they miss the significance of this unity of Jesus with the Father? If the Father is so present with them, surely they can trust him with the rest.
How then do the Pharisees miss this? Well, the Jews only tell them "what Jesus had done" without explaining what that necessarily means about who he must be. If it is all about things that are done, things about which the Pharisees mostly hear rather than see or experience, they may feel like outsiders. They may have a hard time rejoicing in these signs and wonders when they don't know what they signify. They themselves walk a very delicate balance between Jewish observance and Roman law to keep their circumstances in check. They feel that the slightest derivation from this path may be disaster. Signs, even great signs, simply threaten this control which they so value. It isn't enough to talk of miracles. Our testimony must be to the miracle worker to be profitable. Then, the threat to our control is coupled with an invitation to give that control to the one who is with the Father, the one in whom the Father dwells.
Isolated miracles will never be enough for us to let go of rigid control over our lives. We are perfectly capable of seeing Lazarus rise and then plot to kill him too, because he is a threat to our control (cf. Joh. 12:10).
This is why the content of our message must always be Jesus himself. Jesus is the one who heals. He is the shepherd into whose care we should entrust our souls. We are worried about our land and our nation. We are worried about the oppression of the Romans, the circumstances of our lives. But now we know that if we are worried about these things the LORD is still more concerned.
Hear the word of the LORD, O nations,
proclaim it on distant isles, and say:
He who scattered Israel, now gathers them together,
he guards them as a shepherd his flock.
The land on which he desires us to live is something more permanent, something better, than the land and the nation about which we are concerned. Yet we can only truly realize this when we give ourselves over to the care of the Good Shepherd, the shepherd who will even lay down his life for his sheep.
and there shall be one shepherd for them all;
they shall live by my statutes and carefully observe my decrees.
They shall live on the land that I gave to my servant Jacob,
the land where their fathers lived;
they shall live on it forever,
This is, after all, why Jesus wants us to know about his relationship to the Father, his closeness to him, and the unity they share. This is the purpose of the signs. He wants us to trust him. What he wants for us, ultimately, is joy with him forever.
Then the virgins shall make merry and dance,
and young men and old as well.
I will turn their mourning into joy,
I will console and gladden them after their sorrows.
But some of them went to the Pharisees
and told them what Jesus had done.
Do they mean well? They are among those who witness what happened to Lazarus. Many of them believe in Jesus. But this implies that some do not even after seeing someone raised from the dead. Interestingly, everyone knows what happened. They know Lazarus lives. It is, in fact, hard to dispute. But people still respond to it in very different ways.
It is unclear into which group these people who talk to the Pharisees fall. Regardless, the Pharisees are so overwhelmed by the sheer quantity of testimony that they concede that Jesus "is performng many signs." Jesus does these signs to reveal that he is in the Father and the Father is in him. But all the Pharisees ignore the deeper significance that signs must have, choosing to focus instead on their temporal concerns.
If we leave him alone, all will believe in him,
and the Romans will come
and take away both our land and our nation.”
This does sound significant. But why do they miss the significance of this unity of Jesus with the Father? If the Father is so present with them, surely they can trust him with the rest.
How then do the Pharisees miss this? Well, the Jews only tell them "what Jesus had done" without explaining what that necessarily means about who he must be. If it is all about things that are done, things about which the Pharisees mostly hear rather than see or experience, they may feel like outsiders. They may have a hard time rejoicing in these signs and wonders when they don't know what they signify. They themselves walk a very delicate balance between Jewish observance and Roman law to keep their circumstances in check. They feel that the slightest derivation from this path may be disaster. Signs, even great signs, simply threaten this control which they so value. It isn't enough to talk of miracles. Our testimony must be to the miracle worker to be profitable. Then, the threat to our control is coupled with an invitation to give that control to the one who is with the Father, the one in whom the Father dwells.
Isolated miracles will never be enough for us to let go of rigid control over our lives. We are perfectly capable of seeing Lazarus rise and then plot to kill him too, because he is a threat to our control (cf. Joh. 12:10).
This is why the content of our message must always be Jesus himself. Jesus is the one who heals. He is the shepherd into whose care we should entrust our souls. We are worried about our land and our nation. We are worried about the oppression of the Romans, the circumstances of our lives. But now we know that if we are worried about these things the LORD is still more concerned.
Hear the word of the LORD, O nations,
proclaim it on distant isles, and say:
He who scattered Israel, now gathers them together,
he guards them as a shepherd his flock.
The land on which he desires us to live is something more permanent, something better, than the land and the nation about which we are concerned. Yet we can only truly realize this when we give ourselves over to the care of the Good Shepherd, the shepherd who will even lay down his life for his sheep.
and there shall be one shepherd for them all;
they shall live by my statutes and carefully observe my decrees.
They shall live on the land that I gave to my servant Jacob,
the land where their fathers lived;
they shall live on it forever,
This is, after all, why Jesus wants us to know about his relationship to the Father, his closeness to him, and the unity they share. This is the purpose of the signs. He wants us to trust him. What he wants for us, ultimately, is joy with him forever.
Then the virgins shall make merry and dance,
and young men and old as well.
I will turn their mourning into joy,
I will console and gladden them after their sorrows.
Friday, April 11, 2014
11 April 2014 - human dignity
11 April 2014 - human dignity
Who rescues the life or the poor from the power of the wicked? The LORD!
Jesus faces circumstances so bleak that there is no human hope.
The breakers of death surged round about me,
the destroying floods overwhelmed me;
The cords of the nether world enmeshed me,
the snares of death overtook me.
He hears the "whisperings of many:"
“Terror on every side!
Denounce! let us denounce him!”
All those who were my friends
are on the watch for any misstep of mine.
“Perhaps he will be trapped; then we can prevail,
and take our vengeance on him.”
He faces in full the hopelessness of the human condition apart from God. This hopelessness is all the world has apart from God. It is all we have apart from him. It is futility which ends in death. The difference, for Jesus, is that he is not apart from God.
But the LORD is with me, like a mighty champion:
my persecutors will stumble, they will not triumph.
In their failure they will be put to utter shame,
to lasting, unforgettable confusion.
The Father hears the cry of Jesus, who, though rich, becomes poor for us (cf 2 Cor.9). The LORD is with him. Became this proximity to God makes him unlike anyone else in history, when Jesus faces the hopelessness and despair that are the results of sin it is hopelessness and despair themselves that stumble and are put to shame. Death itself is now fit for mocking.
Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?” (cf 1 Cor. 15)
This is why we need to know that "the Father is in me and I am in the Father." Jesus knows that it is difficult for us to believe this and even to understand it. But it is so important that he says, "even if you do not believe, me, believe the works", 'believe what I show you even if you don't understand what I tell you.'
Our understanding is limited in a lot of ways. Jesus tries every approach he can to bring us to deep faith. He knows that way have a paradigm, a worldview, and a set of expectations. His works and signs are things which reveal the limitations of that paradigm. They are an invitation to look beyond the way we imagine things to be. He also appeals to things we do understand to raise our minds to things that we don't.
“Is it not written in your law, ‘I said, ‘You are gods”‘?
This is actually deep. It isn't just an obscure verse from the Old Testament used for proof-texting. God is saying, 'Look at just what Man is. Look at his dignity. Look at his rational mind and his will. Look at his role as head of creation. If I have thus exulted Man in the natural order do not be so surprised if I exult him further in the supernatural order by taking on human flesh myself.'
And here is a strategy for evangelization we can learn. We can move from affirming human dignity, which everyone claims to believe, to the source of that dignity. We can show that the fact of that dignity cries out for a destiny beyond death and despair.
And the destiny awaits us who know that Jesus is in the Father and the Father in Jesus. Jesus allows us all to share in his song of victory, the song of resurrection, the song of life eternal.
Sing to the LORD,
praise the LORD,
For he has rescued the life of the poor
from the power of the wicked!
Who rescues the life or the poor from the power of the wicked? The LORD!
Jesus faces circumstances so bleak that there is no human hope.
The breakers of death surged round about me,
the destroying floods overwhelmed me;
The cords of the nether world enmeshed me,
the snares of death overtook me.
He hears the "whisperings of many:"
“Terror on every side!
Denounce! let us denounce him!”
All those who were my friends
are on the watch for any misstep of mine.
“Perhaps he will be trapped; then we can prevail,
and take our vengeance on him.”
He faces in full the hopelessness of the human condition apart from God. This hopelessness is all the world has apart from God. It is all we have apart from him. It is futility which ends in death. The difference, for Jesus, is that he is not apart from God.
But the LORD is with me, like a mighty champion:
my persecutors will stumble, they will not triumph.
In their failure they will be put to utter shame,
to lasting, unforgettable confusion.
The Father hears the cry of Jesus, who, though rich, becomes poor for us (cf 2 Cor.9). The LORD is with him. Became this proximity to God makes him unlike anyone else in history, when Jesus faces the hopelessness and despair that are the results of sin it is hopelessness and despair themselves that stumble and are put to shame. Death itself is now fit for mocking.
Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?” (cf 1 Cor. 15)
This is why we need to know that "the Father is in me and I am in the Father." Jesus knows that it is difficult for us to believe this and even to understand it. But it is so important that he says, "even if you do not believe, me, believe the works", 'believe what I show you even if you don't understand what I tell you.'
Our understanding is limited in a lot of ways. Jesus tries every approach he can to bring us to deep faith. He knows that way have a paradigm, a worldview, and a set of expectations. His works and signs are things which reveal the limitations of that paradigm. They are an invitation to look beyond the way we imagine things to be. He also appeals to things we do understand to raise our minds to things that we don't.
“Is it not written in your law, ‘I said, ‘You are gods”‘?
This is actually deep. It isn't just an obscure verse from the Old Testament used for proof-texting. God is saying, 'Look at just what Man is. Look at his dignity. Look at his rational mind and his will. Look at his role as head of creation. If I have thus exulted Man in the natural order do not be so surprised if I exult him further in the supernatural order by taking on human flesh myself.'
And here is a strategy for evangelization we can learn. We can move from affirming human dignity, which everyone claims to believe, to the source of that dignity. We can show that the fact of that dignity cries out for a destiny beyond death and despair.
And the destiny awaits us who know that Jesus is in the Father and the Father in Jesus. Jesus allows us all to share in his song of victory, the song of resurrection, the song of life eternal.
Sing to the LORD,
praise the LORD,
For he has rescued the life of the poor
from the power of the wicked!
Thursday, April 10, 2014
10 April 2014 - ungrateful expectations
10 April 2014 - ungrateful expectations
What stands between the proimise...
I will make nations of you;
kings shall stem from you.
I will maintain my covenant with you
and your descendants after you
throughout the ages as an everlasting pact,
to be your God and the God of your descendants after you.
...and it's fulfillment?
Our human expectations are conditioned to expect less than God wants to give us. We prefer to try broken human king after human king no matter what happens to society while we watch. We prefer to reign on the thrones of our own lives no matter how imperfect the results. We prefer to keep trying to keep the covenant on our own strength no matter how many times we fail. All this we do because we don't want to take the risk of letting God in. We don't want to take the risk of trusting that he has our best interests at heart. We feel as though if we surrender to him we will, by virtue of our lost control, be even less happy. But God is for us, he is God with us. He wants to be intimately close to us. He wants to unite us as family. But we prefer to keep him in the waiting in the wings as a handy concept to tie up the loose ends of our world views.
The Jews can't recognize Jesus because they have such a rigid view of Abraham and the prophets. They may imagine themselves to be pious in doubting the words which Jesus says as they ask, "Are you greater than our father Abraham"? But it isn't not really piety that holds Jesus at a distance. Just as we may use God as a concept and hinder his ability to affect our real day to day lives so to do the Jews use Abraham as a concept to keep Jesus at a safe distance.
Jesus is the true king who stems from Abraham. That kings will stem from Abraham is promised to Abraham himself. The promise that starts with him is not finished. It looks forward to fulfillment in Jesus. This is because even though the "Lord remembers his covenant for ever" we find ourselves singularly unable to do so. We can't truly be his people and he our God if we keep rebelling like this. So we wait until Jesus arrives on the scene. Only Jesus transforms us from within so that we ourselves are empowered to keep his "covenant throughout the ages."
It is precisely because only Jesus can affect this transformation that he can also say to each one of us:
“Amen, amen, I say to you,
whoever keeps my word will never see death.”
If we keep his word, the word of Jesus Christ, we are transformed so that we can experience what God really means by the promised land. We experience what it truly means to be his people and he our God. To be the people of the God who existed before Abraham liberates us from the bondage to time and decay. Only in Jesus do we know this freedom because only he can say "before Abraham came to be, I AM."
So let us respond with our whole hearts!
Look to the LORD in his strength;
seek to serve him constantly.
Recall the wondrous deeds that he has wrought,
his portents, and the judgments he has uttered.
What stands between the proimise...
I will make nations of you;
kings shall stem from you.
I will maintain my covenant with you
and your descendants after you
throughout the ages as an everlasting pact,
to be your God and the God of your descendants after you.
...and it's fulfillment?
Our human expectations are conditioned to expect less than God wants to give us. We prefer to try broken human king after human king no matter what happens to society while we watch. We prefer to reign on the thrones of our own lives no matter how imperfect the results. We prefer to keep trying to keep the covenant on our own strength no matter how many times we fail. All this we do because we don't want to take the risk of letting God in. We don't want to take the risk of trusting that he has our best interests at heart. We feel as though if we surrender to him we will, by virtue of our lost control, be even less happy. But God is for us, he is God with us. He wants to be intimately close to us. He wants to unite us as family. But we prefer to keep him in the waiting in the wings as a handy concept to tie up the loose ends of our world views.
The Jews can't recognize Jesus because they have such a rigid view of Abraham and the prophets. They may imagine themselves to be pious in doubting the words which Jesus says as they ask, "Are you greater than our father Abraham"? But it isn't not really piety that holds Jesus at a distance. Just as we may use God as a concept and hinder his ability to affect our real day to day lives so to do the Jews use Abraham as a concept to keep Jesus at a safe distance.
Jesus is the true king who stems from Abraham. That kings will stem from Abraham is promised to Abraham himself. The promise that starts with him is not finished. It looks forward to fulfillment in Jesus. This is because even though the "Lord remembers his covenant for ever" we find ourselves singularly unable to do so. We can't truly be his people and he our God if we keep rebelling like this. So we wait until Jesus arrives on the scene. Only Jesus transforms us from within so that we ourselves are empowered to keep his "covenant throughout the ages."
It is precisely because only Jesus can affect this transformation that he can also say to each one of us:
“Amen, amen, I say to you,
whoever keeps my word will never see death.”
If we keep his word, the word of Jesus Christ, we are transformed so that we can experience what God really means by the promised land. We experience what it truly means to be his people and he our God. To be the people of the God who existed before Abraham liberates us from the bondage to time and decay. Only in Jesus do we know this freedom because only he can say "before Abraham came to be, I AM."
So let us respond with our whole hearts!
Look to the LORD in his strength;
seek to serve him constantly.
Recall the wondrous deeds that he has wrought,
his portents, and the judgments he has uttered.
Wednesday, April 9, 2014
9 April 2014 - bound to succeed
9 April 2014 - bound to succeed
They answered him, “We are descendants of Abraham
and have never been enslaved to anyone.
How can you say, ‘You will become free’?”
Jesus wants to make us free. Do we realize that we need freedom? We have a lot of the type of freedom that society glamorizes, the type which doesn't matter. We are free to be entertained how we want, when we want, and with whom we want. But we are not free in regard to virtue. When we are wronged, are we free to love? When excess indulgence is set before us are we free to be temperate? Or is it rather than the indulgence which we think ourselves free to enjoy has enslaved us?
As followers of Jesus we still allow ourselves to be content with a freedom that is less than what he wants for us. Once we are free from mortal sin we are often content to rest on our laurels even while we are powerless to resist less grave sins. Our complacency is similar to the Jews in today's gospel reading. It is worth noticing that these are Jews "who believed in him" and not those openly opposed to him. Yet they think that they already have the freedom they need, and this becomes a huge liability, threatening their walk with him. It is an attitude of inheritance. Because of something in the past, they think they don't need to be concerned at present. Never mind how their reading of the past utterly disregards what actually happened. Israel was, after all, constantly enslaved in its history. Why would they selectively forget that? But even without regard to the past, our response in the present is primary.
I know that you are descendants of Abraham.
But you are trying to kill me,
because my word has no room among you.
Wait, what? Trying to kill Jesus? But aren't these the ones "who believed in him"? They may well be, but as they say in mutual fund commercials, 'past performance does not guarentee of future results.' The key thing which Jesus says that starts this conversation is that we must "remain" in his word. We can't just stop by once, or even for key life events, or even every Sunday. His word has to be our home. If we don't dwell in his word we will not know the truth and we won't be free. Dwelling in his word allows him to reveal to us the places where we are not free. It allows him to reveal the false freedoms to which we cling for what they are: empty.
Shadrach, Meschach, and Abednego cling to God's word no matter what.
If our God, whom we serve,
can save us from the white-hot furnace
and from your hands, O king, may he save us!
But even if he will not, know, O king,
that we will not serve your god
Those who seem the least free in the eyes of the world, for instance, priests, cloistered religious, and hermits, are often the most free. Because these three cling to God's word they experience extreme freedom even as they are bound and cast into the furnace:
He ordered the furnace to be heated seven times more than usual
and had some of the strongest men in his army
bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego
and cast them into the white-hot furnace.
Within the furnace they are "unfettered and unhurt" walking with one who "looks like a son of God." Can freedom really be found in circumstances like this? We can hardly deny it when we hear the song of praise they sin:
“Blessed are you, O Lord, the God of our fathers,
praiseworthy and exalted above all forever;
And blessed is your holy and glorious name,
praiseworthy and exalted above all for all ages.”
They answered him, “We are descendants of Abraham
and have never been enslaved to anyone.
How can you say, ‘You will become free’?”
Jesus wants to make us free. Do we realize that we need freedom? We have a lot of the type of freedom that society glamorizes, the type which doesn't matter. We are free to be entertained how we want, when we want, and with whom we want. But we are not free in regard to virtue. When we are wronged, are we free to love? When excess indulgence is set before us are we free to be temperate? Or is it rather than the indulgence which we think ourselves free to enjoy has enslaved us?
As followers of Jesus we still allow ourselves to be content with a freedom that is less than what he wants for us. Once we are free from mortal sin we are often content to rest on our laurels even while we are powerless to resist less grave sins. Our complacency is similar to the Jews in today's gospel reading. It is worth noticing that these are Jews "who believed in him" and not those openly opposed to him. Yet they think that they already have the freedom they need, and this becomes a huge liability, threatening their walk with him. It is an attitude of inheritance. Because of something in the past, they think they don't need to be concerned at present. Never mind how their reading of the past utterly disregards what actually happened. Israel was, after all, constantly enslaved in its history. Why would they selectively forget that? But even without regard to the past, our response in the present is primary.
I know that you are descendants of Abraham.
But you are trying to kill me,
because my word has no room among you.
Wait, what? Trying to kill Jesus? But aren't these the ones "who believed in him"? They may well be, but as they say in mutual fund commercials, 'past performance does not guarentee of future results.' The key thing which Jesus says that starts this conversation is that we must "remain" in his word. We can't just stop by once, or even for key life events, or even every Sunday. His word has to be our home. If we don't dwell in his word we will not know the truth and we won't be free. Dwelling in his word allows him to reveal to us the places where we are not free. It allows him to reveal the false freedoms to which we cling for what they are: empty.
Shadrach, Meschach, and Abednego cling to God's word no matter what.
If our God, whom we serve,
can save us from the white-hot furnace
and from your hands, O king, may he save us!
But even if he will not, know, O king,
that we will not serve your god
Those who seem the least free in the eyes of the world, for instance, priests, cloistered religious, and hermits, are often the most free. Because these three cling to God's word they experience extreme freedom even as they are bound and cast into the furnace:
He ordered the furnace to be heated seven times more than usual
and had some of the strongest men in his army
bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego
and cast them into the white-hot furnace.
Within the furnace they are "unfettered and unhurt" walking with one who "looks like a son of God." Can freedom really be found in circumstances like this? We can hardly deny it when we hear the song of praise they sin:
“Blessed are you, O Lord, the God of our fathers,
praiseworthy and exalted above all forever;
And blessed is your holy and glorious name,
praiseworthy and exalted above all for all ages.”
Tuesday, April 8, 2014
8 April 2014 - cross purposes
8 April 2014 - cross purposes
Where do we look for help? When we're in trouble where do we turn? Yesterday we read that Susanna lifts her eyes to heaven whereas the corrupt judges do not allow their eyes to look to heaven.
Today we are again exhorted to lift up our eyes. In our society and in our own individual lives we are surrounded by the serpents of sin. Their poison is toxic and they are all around us. Looking to the earth we find no escape.
Fortunately the LORD first looks "down from his holy height" before we look up to heaven. He hears "the groaning of the prisoners, to release those doomed to die." He hears the Israel say "We have sinned in complaining against the LORD". The people quickly understand how harmful their sin is when it stings them and poisons them. The reality of it is entirely tangible, its severity palpable. Their inability to escape it on their own is also an inescapable fact. Probably they expect the LORD to go through the serpents one by one to rid the people of them. But the LORD doesn't simply treat symptoms. One serpent lifted on a pole stands for the condemnation of all of them.
Yet with the serpents gone, sin continues. Their bite is no longer a threat but the poison of sin remains in our hearts even after the poll is lifted up for us to behold. The serpents may be gone but they represent something which is within us, which remains in us. The trouble is that we are at once the serpents and the people whom they afflict. In the desert the serpent can be condemned for all to see. But to truly condemn what the serpent represents is to condemn ourselves, the people God wants to save.
Which is why God had to do something more much more ingenious and loving than merely lifting up the serpent. "And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life” (cf. Joh. 3:14-15). The serpent is ultimately condemned while still allowing the prisoner to go free.
Paul explains how God solves the problem to the Romans that "what the law, weakened by the flesh, was powerless to do, this God has done: by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for the sake of sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, so that the righteous decree of the law might be fulfilled in us, who live not according to the flesh but according to the spirit" (cf Rom. 8:3-4).
Let us not miss the humility of the sinless one taking the shape that is also the very source of poison and death. He is willing to do it for you and me. He forgoes his right to honor and glory out of love for us.
So Jesus said to them,
“When you lift up the Son of Man,
then you will realize that I AM,
and that I do nothing on my own,
but I say only what the Father taught me.
The one who sent me is with me.
When we see the love he shows we begin to realize the truth of who he is. He is not just innocent but purity itself. Seeing him do this should bring us to an acceptance of our own guilt. We realize with the good thief that "We are punished justly" when we see the only one who is truly innocent display his love for us. When we see this love we are convicted of the righteousness of God. Until we see this we begrudge him the serpents. We blame him for problems we ourselves create. But now, seeing this, we realize that not only are his ways fair they are more than fair. They are rich in mercy. It is a love so great it can only be divine.
Jesus speaks some harsh words today when he tells us that if we "do not believe that I AM," we will die in our sins. "Because he spoke this way, many came to believe in him." And if we believe in him he is able to save us. He is able to give us the blessings he wants to bestow culminating in life everlasting. So let us hear him speaking and lift up our eyes to the cross that we may partake in his victory over sin.
Where do we look for help? When we're in trouble where do we turn? Yesterday we read that Susanna lifts her eyes to heaven whereas the corrupt judges do not allow their eyes to look to heaven.
Today we are again exhorted to lift up our eyes. In our society and in our own individual lives we are surrounded by the serpents of sin. Their poison is toxic and they are all around us. Looking to the earth we find no escape.
Fortunately the LORD first looks "down from his holy height" before we look up to heaven. He hears "the groaning of the prisoners, to release those doomed to die." He hears the Israel say "We have sinned in complaining against the LORD". The people quickly understand how harmful their sin is when it stings them and poisons them. The reality of it is entirely tangible, its severity palpable. Their inability to escape it on their own is also an inescapable fact. Probably they expect the LORD to go through the serpents one by one to rid the people of them. But the LORD doesn't simply treat symptoms. One serpent lifted on a pole stands for the condemnation of all of them.
Yet with the serpents gone, sin continues. Their bite is no longer a threat but the poison of sin remains in our hearts even after the poll is lifted up for us to behold. The serpents may be gone but they represent something which is within us, which remains in us. The trouble is that we are at once the serpents and the people whom they afflict. In the desert the serpent can be condemned for all to see. But to truly condemn what the serpent represents is to condemn ourselves, the people God wants to save.
Which is why God had to do something more much more ingenious and loving than merely lifting up the serpent. "And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life” (cf. Joh. 3:14-15). The serpent is ultimately condemned while still allowing the prisoner to go free.
Paul explains how God solves the problem to the Romans that "what the law, weakened by the flesh, was powerless to do, this God has done: by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for the sake of sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, so that the righteous decree of the law might be fulfilled in us, who live not according to the flesh but according to the spirit" (cf Rom. 8:3-4).
Let us not miss the humility of the sinless one taking the shape that is also the very source of poison and death. He is willing to do it for you and me. He forgoes his right to honor and glory out of love for us.
So Jesus said to them,
“When you lift up the Son of Man,
then you will realize that I AM,
and that I do nothing on my own,
but I say only what the Father taught me.
The one who sent me is with me.
When we see the love he shows we begin to realize the truth of who he is. He is not just innocent but purity itself. Seeing him do this should bring us to an acceptance of our own guilt. We realize with the good thief that "We are punished justly" when we see the only one who is truly innocent display his love for us. When we see this love we are convicted of the righteousness of God. Until we see this we begrudge him the serpents. We blame him for problems we ourselves create. But now, seeing this, we realize that not only are his ways fair they are more than fair. They are rich in mercy. It is a love so great it can only be divine.
Jesus speaks some harsh words today when he tells us that if we "do not believe that I AM," we will die in our sins. "Because he spoke this way, many came to believe in him." And if we believe in him he is able to save us. He is able to give us the blessings he wants to bestow culminating in life everlasting. So let us hear him speaking and lift up our eyes to the cross that we may partake in his victory over sin.
Monday, April 7, 2014
7 April 2014 - eye on it
7 April 2014 - eye on it
“Teacher, this woman was caught
in the very act of committing adultery.
Now in the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women.
Our own sinfulness renders us unfit to carry out God's justice. Our own sinfulness means that we are likely to use God's law as a pretense to satisfy our own passions. We may know some of the letter of the law but we are unable to let our eyes look to heaven to validate our understanding.
They suppressed their consciences;
they would not allow their eyes to look to heaven,
and did not keep in mind just judgments.
Our sinfulness makes us prone to condemn the innocent. They hold back from the passions in which we still indulge. Our flesh insists that they join our revelry and when they hold back it arouses anger and even violence in our hearts.
Our sinfulness makes us prone to twist even justice to the guilty. Instead of genuine concern for the law, for holiness, or especially, for people involved in the situation themselves, the Pharisees are only interesting in validating their own holiness. They are willing to destroy other peoples lives in order to emphasize their own supposed holiness. We are often all too willing to hurt other people's reputation for the same reason. Why else do we spread gossip and tell stories about others which reveal what ought to be concealed? Jesus hears us tell these stories and in response to these we hear, "Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone".
Jesus wants to purify us from these motives. He wants to make us like Susanna who is able to trust in God even in the face of her human oppressors, even in the face of an apparent death sentence. Because she looks to heaven she is able to trust in his justice.
Through tears she looked up to heaven,
for she trusted in the Lord wholeheartedly.
It is this trust in God's justice that causes her to realize that "it is better for me to fall into your power without guilt than to sin before the Lord." Human concern for justice would quickly dismiss this concern. It is oriented toward the survival of the prideful flesh. It is unable to lift its eyes to heaven. It is ultimately a facade. But the absence of true concern for justice leaves a vacuum which the flesh readily fills. Without lifting our eyes to put God first there is nothing else with which to fill our hearts except self love.
We are not so surprised to see the innocent vindicated in Susanna. But in Jesus we are surprised. We realize that we do not truly understand justice because the guilty, including the woman caught in adultery, go free and the innocent, the only one who is truly innocent, Jesus Christ, dies for us all. This is the justice to which we must lift our eyes. It is the cross. It is intimately tied to God's love and mercy. Selfishness can make no sense of it at all. But to those who can lift their eyes it inspires profound hope.
The whole assembly cried aloud,
blessing God who saves those who hope in him.
Therefore let us trust in God. Let us lift our eyes to him even when the times are dark. If we do not lift our eyes to him we will only see the dark valley which surrounds us. We will be pushed into survival mode. We will consume ourselves and one another. But when we trust in him, great are his promises to us.
Even though I walk in the dark valley
I fear no evil; for you are at my side
With your rod and your staff
that give me courage.
Even though we stumble in this valley if we just keep lifting our eyes to him we hear:
Has no one condemned you?”
She replied, “No one, sir.”
Then Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you.
Go, and from now on do not sin any more.”
And not only are we not condemned but we are welcomed into the eternal banquet where Jesus himself is our portion.
You spread the table before me
in the sight of my foes;
We are welcomed into the very house of the Father to dwell for all eternity.
And I shall dwell in the house of the LORD
for years to come.
“Teacher, this woman was caught
in the very act of committing adultery.
Now in the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women.
Our own sinfulness renders us unfit to carry out God's justice. Our own sinfulness means that we are likely to use God's law as a pretense to satisfy our own passions. We may know some of the letter of the law but we are unable to let our eyes look to heaven to validate our understanding.
They suppressed their consciences;
they would not allow their eyes to look to heaven,
and did not keep in mind just judgments.
Our sinfulness makes us prone to condemn the innocent. They hold back from the passions in which we still indulge. Our flesh insists that they join our revelry and when they hold back it arouses anger and even violence in our hearts.
Our sinfulness makes us prone to twist even justice to the guilty. Instead of genuine concern for the law, for holiness, or especially, for people involved in the situation themselves, the Pharisees are only interesting in validating their own holiness. They are willing to destroy other peoples lives in order to emphasize their own supposed holiness. We are often all too willing to hurt other people's reputation for the same reason. Why else do we spread gossip and tell stories about others which reveal what ought to be concealed? Jesus hears us tell these stories and in response to these we hear, "Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone".
Jesus wants to purify us from these motives. He wants to make us like Susanna who is able to trust in God even in the face of her human oppressors, even in the face of an apparent death sentence. Because she looks to heaven she is able to trust in his justice.
Through tears she looked up to heaven,
for she trusted in the Lord wholeheartedly.
It is this trust in God's justice that causes her to realize that "it is better for me to fall into your power without guilt than to sin before the Lord." Human concern for justice would quickly dismiss this concern. It is oriented toward the survival of the prideful flesh. It is unable to lift its eyes to heaven. It is ultimately a facade. But the absence of true concern for justice leaves a vacuum which the flesh readily fills. Without lifting our eyes to put God first there is nothing else with which to fill our hearts except self love.
We are not so surprised to see the innocent vindicated in Susanna. But in Jesus we are surprised. We realize that we do not truly understand justice because the guilty, including the woman caught in adultery, go free and the innocent, the only one who is truly innocent, Jesus Christ, dies for us all. This is the justice to which we must lift our eyes. It is the cross. It is intimately tied to God's love and mercy. Selfishness can make no sense of it at all. But to those who can lift their eyes it inspires profound hope.
The whole assembly cried aloud,
blessing God who saves those who hope in him.
Therefore let us trust in God. Let us lift our eyes to him even when the times are dark. If we do not lift our eyes to him we will only see the dark valley which surrounds us. We will be pushed into survival mode. We will consume ourselves and one another. But when we trust in him, great are his promises to us.
Even though I walk in the dark valley
I fear no evil; for you are at my side
With your rod and your staff
that give me courage.
Even though we stumble in this valley if we just keep lifting our eyes to him we hear:
Has no one condemned you?”
She replied, “No one, sir.”
Then Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you.
Go, and from now on do not sin any more.”
And not only are we not condemned but we are welcomed into the eternal banquet where Jesus himself is our portion.
You spread the table before me
in the sight of my foes;
We are welcomed into the very house of the Father to dwell for all eternity.
And I shall dwell in the house of the LORD
for years to come.
Sunday, April 6, 2014
6 April 2014 - preview of kingdom coming attractions
6 April 2014 - preview of kingdom coming attractions
I trust in the LORD;
my soul trusts in his word.
More than sentinels wait for the dawn,
let Israel wait for the LORD.
This is how much we are called to trust in the LORD. It is how much Martha trusts him.
“Lord, if you had been here,
my brother would not have died.
But even now I know that whatever you ask of God,
God will give you.”
Her soul trusts in his word. But even with this level of trust she still doesn't fully understand how Jesus desires to work. It can be hard to understand at times.
And I am glad for you that I was not there,
that you may believe.
He allows this evil to come although he is not happy about it. "Jesus wept" because of this. People around him take notice, "See how he loved him." But some of them say what we're all thinking.
“Could not the one who opened the eyes of the blind man
have done something so that this man would not have died?”
Wouldn't it be better to prevent the evil in the first place? If Lazarus did not die Jesus would not be able to reveal himself as the resurrection and the life (cf. Joh. 11:25). Jesus dies and rises again to reveal himself as LORD of the dead and the living (cf. Rom. 14:9). Lazarus is the first stage of this revelation. If Jesus simply restores his health he does not speak to all of those in the history of the world have already gone to the grave, the sentence of sin. He doesn't come to patch old cloaks of mortality but comes to clothe us with immortality (cf. 1 Cor. 15:54).
Because Jesus permits the evil he reveals his power over even the grave. He prepares Mary and Martha to see the horror of the cross and yet hold on to faith in him. He reveals to the world a plan to give us a life beyond that which we can ask for or imagine. He does not just repair, he makes new.
He reveals more deeply who he truly is. The LORD of the dead and the living, the resurrection and the life, cannot be just another prophet. He must be the LORD of all!
Then you shall know that I am the LORD,
when I open your graves and have you rise from them,
O my people!
We are destined to rise on the last day, as Martha knows. But there is more than this. She is able to wait for him and trust in his word because even when she doesn't understand his plans she knows who he is. This is like Peter when Jesus reveals the Eucharist. He doesn't get it but he knows that Jesus alone "has the words of eternal life" (cf. Joh. 6:68).
She said to him, “Yes, Lord.
I have come to believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God,
the one who is coming into the world.”
Jesus shares the resurrection with Lazarus in advance of his own to reveal himself and his kingdom. But now that Jesus is risen we can all begin to share this life even now, even in mortal bodies "dead because of sin".
But if Christ is in you,
although the body is dead because of sin,
the spirit is alive because of righteousness.
If the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you,
the one who raised Christ from the dead
will give life to your mortal bodies also,
through his Spirit dwelling in you.
So then, no more acting like zombies. We have a source of life which this world cannot touch. It is the same source that makes Lazarus walk after four days. It is the same source which cannot be killed by crucifixion. This unquenchable life is meant to revel Jesus in when the circumstances look like death.
Now many of the Jews who had come to Mary
and seen what he had done began to believe in him.
Let his life burn brightly in us!
For with the LORD is kindness
and with him is plenteous redemption;
I trust in the LORD;
my soul trusts in his word.
More than sentinels wait for the dawn,
let Israel wait for the LORD.
This is how much we are called to trust in the LORD. It is how much Martha trusts him.
“Lord, if you had been here,
my brother would not have died.
But even now I know that whatever you ask of God,
God will give you.”
Her soul trusts in his word. But even with this level of trust she still doesn't fully understand how Jesus desires to work. It can be hard to understand at times.
And I am glad for you that I was not there,
that you may believe.
He allows this evil to come although he is not happy about it. "Jesus wept" because of this. People around him take notice, "See how he loved him." But some of them say what we're all thinking.
“Could not the one who opened the eyes of the blind man
have done something so that this man would not have died?”
Wouldn't it be better to prevent the evil in the first place? If Lazarus did not die Jesus would not be able to reveal himself as the resurrection and the life (cf. Joh. 11:25). Jesus dies and rises again to reveal himself as LORD of the dead and the living (cf. Rom. 14:9). Lazarus is the first stage of this revelation. If Jesus simply restores his health he does not speak to all of those in the history of the world have already gone to the grave, the sentence of sin. He doesn't come to patch old cloaks of mortality but comes to clothe us with immortality (cf. 1 Cor. 15:54).
Because Jesus permits the evil he reveals his power over even the grave. He prepares Mary and Martha to see the horror of the cross and yet hold on to faith in him. He reveals to the world a plan to give us a life beyond that which we can ask for or imagine. He does not just repair, he makes new.
He reveals more deeply who he truly is. The LORD of the dead and the living, the resurrection and the life, cannot be just another prophet. He must be the LORD of all!
Then you shall know that I am the LORD,
when I open your graves and have you rise from them,
O my people!
We are destined to rise on the last day, as Martha knows. But there is more than this. She is able to wait for him and trust in his word because even when she doesn't understand his plans she knows who he is. This is like Peter when Jesus reveals the Eucharist. He doesn't get it but he knows that Jesus alone "has the words of eternal life" (cf. Joh. 6:68).
She said to him, “Yes, Lord.
I have come to believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God,
the one who is coming into the world.”
Jesus shares the resurrection with Lazarus in advance of his own to reveal himself and his kingdom. But now that Jesus is risen we can all begin to share this life even now, even in mortal bodies "dead because of sin".
But if Christ is in you,
although the body is dead because of sin,
the spirit is alive because of righteousness.
If the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you,
the one who raised Christ from the dead
will give life to your mortal bodies also,
through his Spirit dwelling in you.
So then, no more acting like zombies. We have a source of life which this world cannot touch. It is the same source that makes Lazarus walk after four days. It is the same source which cannot be killed by crucifixion. This unquenchable life is meant to revel Jesus in when the circumstances look like death.
Now many of the Jews who had come to Mary
and seen what he had done began to believe in him.
Let his life burn brightly in us!
For with the LORD is kindness
and with him is plenteous redemption;
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