30 April 2022 - the deep end

Today's Readings

(Audio)

It had already grown dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them.

The sea was stirred up because a strong wind was blowing.

The disciples were stepping out in faith. In the absence of Jesus himself they were trying to follow his directions. "Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side" (see Matthew 14:22). But it was clear that this did not go as smoothly as they expected. It grew dark and a strong wind opposed them. They knew Jesus had miraculous power and yet they appeared to be left to fend for themselves alone and adrift against the storm. They probably expected a journey Jesus told them to undertake would be more of a direct and smooth path from to the distant side of the sea. 

When they had rowed about three or four miles,

they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat,

and they began to be afraid.

The storm was already a problem, but somehow the unexpected presence of Jesus was so awe inspiring as to relativize all earthly fear. They began to realize that this was no mere earthly king who entertained with miraculous party tricks to satisfy the crowds. This was something primal and potentially dangerous. It was an appearance so incongruous that they thought it might have been a ghost. And yet the more clearly it was revealed that this encounter was with Jesus himself the more afraid they became. A ghost was one thing, but this one who walked on the waves, who used the divine name, "I AM", as his own, was revealing himself to be true God from true God. The presence of God was more dangerous than any merely earthly storm, and mortals might well fear that such overwhelming power would consume them. But this was a healthy fear, the fear that is said to be the beginning of wisdom, the beginning of a disposition of heart that was sufficiently careful and attentive to the awesome power before them.

But he said to them, “It is I. Do not be afraid.”

As we seek to follow Christ we should not try to avoid all fear of God, demanding a God on our terms, who is safe, family friendly, and G rated. A healthy fear keeps us ready for a God who will continually surprise us, and keeps us safe from offending him by and incautious approach or dismissive reception, or a lack of gratitude after the encounter. What we should desire instead is the peace that comes on the terms of God himself, a peace that is possible precisely because of the fearful and awe-inspiring reality of his greatness and majesty. This is not an either/or situation. We can grow in fear of the Lord and by that means grow in turn in a peace that surpasses all understanding. We can more and more hold the right thing in fear, the love of which casts out all lesser fears.

They wanted to take him into the boat,

but the boat immediately arrived at the shore

to which they were heading.

Theophanies never last so long as we would like. The disciples would have been happy to remain on that boat with Jesus, worshipping him, forgetful of the mission that still awaited them. This was the same impulse that caused Peter to desire for Jesus to remain on the mount of Transfiguration. Indeed it almost seems unfair that the lengthy part of the experience was storm whereas everything after the appearance of Jesus concluded "immediately". 

He alone stretches out the heavens

and treads upon the back of the sea (see Job 9:8).

We too often find ourselves at sea, in the dark of evening, fighting strong winds. Our purpose in such difficulties should be twofold. First, let us continue to pursue the distant shore according to the directions already given by Jesus, not changing from his will when we meet desolation or difficulty. Second, let us be on the watch for Jesus himself. By our longing for him and by our searching we draw and invite him to ourselves. He may likely not come as quickly as we would like, and his appearance will by no means come as something under our own control. Our expectations will always be inadequate and shattered by how he chooses to reveal himself. But the revelation is something we cannot receive before being to some extent left to our own resources, left to come to terms with our own insufficiency. The revelation is something that we can only experience when we abandon our insistence that Jesus remain a tame and predictable God. But the consequence of this revelation is also twofold. First, Jesus himself speaks his peace to us in a way that even the storms cannot oppose. Second, we find ourselves suddenly unhindered on the path of our mission. Things that were once obstacles no longer stop us. We quickly, even immediately, arrive at the next waypoint on our journey.

They saw the works of the LORD,

the wonders of God in the deep.

He commanded and roused a storm wind;

it tossed the waves on high (see Psalm 107:24-25).

Hillsong UNITED - Oceans (Where Feet May Fail)

Newsboys - Deep End

29 April 2022 - well bread

Today's Readings

(Audio)

Now there was a great deal of grass in that place.

So the men reclined, about five thousand in number.

Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks,

and distributed them to those who were reclining,

and also as much of the fish as they wanted.

Jesus preferred to feed the crowds rather than sending them away, scattering them from what was meant to be the centrality of his presence. The place was remote and the hour was late. He did want to leave them to fend for themselves. He was acting as the Good Shepherd who would make his flock to lie down in green pastures (see Psalm 23:2). He was fulfilling the promise of God himself in prophecy of Ezekiel, "Yes, I will give them good pasture on the high hills of Israel. There they will lie down in peace and feed in luscious mountain pastures. I myself will be the Shepherd of my sheep and cause them to lie down in peace,” the Lord God says" (see Ezekiel 34:14).

When Jesus raised his eyes and saw that a large crowd was coming to him,

he said to Philip, “Where can we buy enough food for them to eat?”

because he himself knew what he was going to do.

It was not something that could be taken for granted, but in this instance, Jesus did desire to give a miraculous gift. The "Passover was near", and so the manna from heaven ought to have been fresh in the minds of his listeners. That would ensure that they had the proper context for this bread as a new manna, and Jesus himself as a new Moses, who would lead his people on a new exodus from sin and death unto eternal life. It was different than the time in the desert when the Devil tempted Jesus to produce miraculous bread. But we now see why that temptation was so cunning, is it very nearly matched what Jesus himself desired to do, only not quite. There was something perverse in that temptation that wasn't present here. The Devil wanted Jesus to satisfy himself and his own hunger in a way quite apart from his concern for his sheep. The Devil wouldn't mind the crowds seeing the spectacle as long as the result was that they carry Jesus off and make him a king. Jesus then, would have been someone who demonstrated the primacy of satisfying one's own hunger, and who purchased the loyalty of the crowds by promising in turn to meet their material needs. Rather than such a selfish approach that did not really care for the sheep Jesus provided materially for his disciples precisely in the service of mission, in a way that united them around himself as Messiah. When Jesus and his disciples picked grain on the Sabbath it was permitted precisely because they were participating in a greater mission that it was acceptable. The gifts of Jesus are always meant to be at the service of his mission, always meant to gather us around Jesus himself so that we don't need to wander to the world for answers when it is already evening. Satan seemed to say, 'Don't worry about the mission, the hunger is primary.' But that was a lie Jesus never believed. That it was a dangerous lie we can see from the crowd's response to the gift even when it was given in due season, at the proper time.

Since Jesus knew that they were going to come and carry him off

to make him king,

he withdrew again to the mountain alone.

Jesus still desires to be the Good Shepherd who gathers the world around him. He has great promises for those who will allow themselves to be shepherded by him. But sheep would be foolish to seek the gifts and then ignore the shepherd. We will still need him even after we eat our fill, to keep us safe from wolves, and to lead us safely home. Yet we tend to eat, find satisfaction, tell Jesus "I'm good", and then leave for our own pursuits. When he satisfies us we sometimes set about making him a king, but a king whose reign only lasts so long as we stay fed. In view of the goodness of our shepherd who knows our needs better than we ourselves we ought to trust him more.

So they left the presence of the Sanhedrin,

rejoicing that they had been found worthy

to suffer dishonor for the sake of the name.

The disciples in Acts demonstrated the degree to which their faith in the shepherd had grown. They did not insist on the satisfaction of natural desires when there was something deeper and more spiritual at play. Unlike us, when they encountered suffering they were not surprised or unsettled, but rather saw that their Lord was putting them to a special and particular use. They trusted and even rejoiced that their shepherd deigned to chose such a role for them. It was because they were not dependent on merely physical bread that they were able to rejoice in that way and remain faithful. They had tasted the bread of life, and that bread had given them the strength and the confidence they needed for mission, because that bread contained in itself the presence of their shepherd.

Peter Furler - Psalm 23

28 April 2022 - without ration

Today's Readings

(Audio)

The one who comes from above is above all.

The one who is of the earth is earthly and speaks of earthly things.

On our own we are limited to speaking of earthly things. We can know something of God from his effects here on earth. But there is always a greater proportion about him that remains elusive. If God himself did not wish to become known the darkened minds of creatures could "perhaps feel their way toward him and find him" (see Acts 17:27). But the good news for us is that we don't have to figure things out from the bottom up by haphazard groping in the dark. Instead, God himself desired to be made known, and provided for us from the top down. The Father sent his Word to us, brim-filled with everything he himself had to give, a complete revelation about the truth about himself, mankind, and the world.

In times past, God spoke in partial and various ways to our ancestors through the prophets;

in these last days, he spoke to us through a son, whom he made heir of all things and through whom he created the universe (see Hebrews 1:1-2).

Jesus is therefore no ordinary messenger and neither is his message mundane, or trivial, nor for that matter optional. His revelation is something we need, something without which we cannot find our proper and intended place in God's creation. When we certify that God is trustworthy and use his revelation as the basis for our lives we begin to live a supernatural reality that is moving toward eternal life. Apart from his Word there is just no human way to receive that gift, no human path to find that life. We see this all around us, as things at a natural level are subject to constant deterioration. The last word we are able to perceive by listening to this world is not eternity but entropy. If our hearts remain fixated on the earthly that will be the only word we hear.

Jesus is not merely data about the Father and about heaven. He is himself the one who gives the Spirit without measure. He does not hold back, either in revealing the Father, or in sending the Spirit, because they are aspects of the same mission. It is the Spirit Jesus gives to us that makes us experience God as our Father and cry out "Abba!" together with him. The one word that most characterizes the existence of the living Word becomes, by the power of the Spirit, the reality that defines our lives as well. Clearly this gift is not merely something we can know about. He is a living reality is only really received in the measure that he himself takes hold of our minds and hearts. Hence John contrasts belief not with doubt or disbelief, but with disobedience.

Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life,

but whoever disobeys the Son will not see life,

Obedience at first might sound easy and natural enough. We go to mass and Sundays, tithe ten percent, we don't take the Lord's name in vain, or kill anyone, and so on. Are we not more or less there with the basics? Yet what happens when are obedience is tested and compliance is not so obvious or without consequence?

But Peter and the Apostles said in reply,

“We must obey God rather than men.

On our own we only avoid the sins that aren't are favorites, for the most part, when we feel like it. We recognize our track record is not so good when there are deeply rooted passions of anger, lust, or jealousy at play within us, or when forces from outside are threatening our comfortable and convenient lifestyles. Obedience in such situations has to go deeper than ourselves, must be rooted in some reality more ultimate than our own egos. This means that we need the Spirit, and, if we have him in some measure, more of him, since there is no limit in how much Jesus himself desires to give us. It is the Spirit himself who creates witnesses with more than mere words, but also of demonstrations of power, and of lives transformed.

We are witnesses of these things,

as is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him.”

Jesus Culture - Set A Fire

27 April 2022 - everyone who believes in him

Today's Readings

(Audio)

God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son,

so that everyone who believes in him might not perish

but might have eternal life.

Abraham had once told Isaac, his only-begotten son, that God himself would provide the lamb of sacrifice. God had indeed stayed Abraham's hand in order to spare Isaac. God desired from Abraham only the disposition that made him willing to offer even that which mattered most to him for the sake of the God whom he loved. But the sacrifice of Isaac would not have been sufficient for salvation unto eternal life. What God sought then was only the willingness, and it was this that paved the way for future blessings of Israel.

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world,

but that the world might be saved through him.

God did not merely want to exercise his rights toward the world vis-à-vis justice. Rather than coming to condemn the world for not offering to God what was his due, rather than coming to lay claim by destructive force to that which was his be right, God chose instead to give to humanity an offering sufficient to what they owed and what he deserved, his only begotten Son. Even the relatively good among the peoples of the world throughout history didn't have anything to offer that they hadn't first been given and that hadn't been tainted by some degree of sin. Only Jesus himself could offer himself freely and fully to the Father. Only his infinite value as true God from true God could be sufficient for salvation of the world unto eternal life.

Whoever believes in him will not be condemned,

but whoever does not believe has already been condemned,

because he has not believed in the name of the only-begotten Son of God.

We should see that the condemnation that is the result believing in Jesus is not God being arbitrary or mean. He sent to the world a rescue operation, a mission behind the enemy lines of a world in the grip of sin and the Devil. To each person, some awareness, however vague, of the choice to surrender and be rescued, or to stubbornly perish with a sinking ship is given. To those to whom that awareness is given more clearly a more definite response is necessary. But some response is necessary in all cases. To ignore Jesus is to choose to continue on the ship even as it begins to submerge beneath the seas. 

We were given free will as a gift from God, in order to be able to freely choose to love him, or, God forbid, to live apart from his love forever. Only such a destiny makes sense of this gift of free will and of the existence of time itself. For without this ultimate direction all choices are finally arbitrary, directionless, and valueless. No other narrative accounts so well for the freedom which we instinctively recognize in ourselves, nor the fallenness in our hearts that we all sense if we are honest, nor the thrill of hope when we discover that our lives may again be rightly directed and aligned with God's purpose, that we may yet choose in accord with the very reason we can choose at all.

And this is the verdict,

that the light came into the world,

but people preferred darkness to light,

because their works were evil.

To believe is not merely to accept a set of data about divine revelation. It is a change of paradigm so dramatic as to be called an enlightenment. It results, not in mere knowledge, but in conviction about sin, righteousness, and judgment (see John 16:8) as God himself understands those things. The risk of coming into the light is that we balk when we see what it reveals about ourselves, we whose "works were evil", and whose works even now aren't as improved as we would wish. 

But whoever lives the truth comes to the light,

so that his works may be clearly seen as done in God.

This call to live the truth is analogous to the call of Jesus in the Synoptics (see for instance Mark 1:15) to repent and believe the Gospel. It is a call to stop seeing ourselves as the center of the universe and think about our reality with a fresh new spiritual way of thinking that is God-given. This means that we must care more about coming to the light, and receiving the light of faith, than we fear whatever it may reveal about us. When we come to the light it not only reveals our shortcomings. It reveals still more how near God is to us, the heights and the depths of just how much he so loved the world. It enables us to do works that are no longer merely are own, but, when done drawn from our faith, are done in God himself, empowered by his very life within our souls. This can happen and becomes possible only if we are willing to vacate the throne at the center of our lives and favor of the one who is himself the light of the world and the source of all truth.

“We found the jail securely locked

and the guards stationed outside the doors,

but when we opened them, we found no one inside.”

What prison is preventing us from taking up our place in the temple area and telling people everything about this amazing life we have found in Christ? Whatever the walls, the chains, and the guards, however securely locked the doors, the Lord himself desires his message to go forward. Let us avail ourselves of the help of those unseen friends, angels and saints, when we feel too stuck or too trapped to move forward. For, as Paul said, "I am suffering, bound with chains as a criminal. But the word of God is not bound!" (see Second Timothy 2:9)

When the poor one called out, the LORD heard,

and from all his distress he saved him.

Let Us Exalt His Name Together

26 April 2022 - the wind blows where it wills

Today's Readings

(Audio)

The wind blows where it wills, and you can hear the sound it makes,

but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes;

so it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.

From an external, non-Christian perspective, the power motivating Christian life is hidden and mysterious. Christians born of the Spirit in Acts, for instance, were so united as to be of one heart and mind, so concerned for the poor that they sold their own excess until there was no needy person among them. The world, looking at Christians, would imagine that putting such emphasis on the good of their neighbor and the mission of witness to the resurrection of the Lord would be immensely burdensome. The expectation of the world is usually that if one is not responsible for one's own happiness, if she does not pursue it as her chief goal, she will be miserably enslaved to the wants and whims of others. Yet the Spirit blowing through the Christian community reveals something quite different. People are mysteriously free to give of themselves, to forgive their enemies, and welcome others even very different from themselves, free to reach out even to those with nothing to offer in return. The Spirit makes joy and peace manifest in the Christian community even when, from a worldly perspective, there are no grounds for either one. And is it not the saints of such communities, those who are most entirely committed to living for the Lord and for others, who seem to be the most full of joy?

‘You must be born from above.’

We will never make sense of the Christian life from the outside looking in. We will see all the signs of joy and peace, love and gentleness, and to those of us still on the outside these serve as an invitation. Are we willing to believe there is something real underlying what we seem to see, or will we rather dismiss it as fabrication and pretense? If we choose to hope in the truth what we see, we too can receive the Spirit in baptism, or open ourselves to more of him by expectant prayer. When the wind of the Spirit catches our own sail only then will we understand how the Christians we have seen are propelled and moved by a power beyond themselves, the very power that moves the sun and the other stars.

If I tell you about earthly things and you do not believe,

how will you believe if I tell you about heavenly things?

We are meant to pass from the sign to the thing signified. Parables point us to the Spirit, and the water of baptism is an efficacious sign that makes him truly present within our souls. If we refuse to acknowledge that there is something deeply spiritual at play we will not be able to correctly interpret the more difficult signs that are to come, chief among them, the cross, the sign of contradiction. Only by trusting in the one who has come down from heaven are we ever going to perceive the deeper meaning of this sign. To those who are earthly minded the cross can only appear as a failure. The ego, in a fear induced panic, can only reject any value therein. But the same sign which appears to be death, not only to Christ, but to our egos, is revealed by the Son of Man to be the only true path to life.

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.

The blowing of the Spirit hints to us that something is happening at a deeper level than our understanding, something worthy of trust. It implies that we too can be like the centurion at the cross, who perceived in Jesus something more than a condemned criminal. We can then more and more come to trust Jesus as the one who can reveal his exulted identity even as he breathes his last breath in love for the Father and for us. The heavenly meaning even of the crucifixion itself is finally revealed when eyes of faith see that the wind of the Spirit was precisely the wind that moved through Jesus even as he breathed his last.

Thus Joseph, also named by the Apostles Barnabas

(which is translated son of encouragement”)

When the Spirit catches our sails we too are meant to become sons and daughters of encouragement. Encouragement here is related to the word Paraclete (see John 14:16) because it is precisely this Spirit within Barnabas that made him such a force for positivity. It is not a matter of wearing rose tinted glasses or of ignore the deeply problematic things happening in the world around us. It is rather the communication of the experience of being moved by a power within us that is greater than the power at work in the world (see First John 4:4).

Peter Furler - Greater Is He

DC Talk - Mind's Eye

Newsboys - Shine

25 April 2022 - cast your cares

Today's Readings

(Audio)

So humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God,

that he may exalt you in due time.

How do we humble ourselves, how do we put on this garment of humility? For instance, does Peter show any concern with how we think about ourselves, or implicate that we ought to spend time meditating on our liabilities and failures, to meditate on the negative about ourselves? Such meditation is what we often imagine humility to be, in contrast to thoughts about our greatness and sense of entitlement which we recognize as pride. But both of these are different poles of the same sort of pride that keeps us trapped within the prison of ourselves. It has been said that humility is not primarily a matter of thinking less of ourselves but rather thinking of ourselves less.

Cast all your worries upon him because he cares for you.

The prideful person responds to anxiety either with boastful self-assurance or with a sense of despair in the face of the impossible. The humble person does not insist that all depends on herself and instead actively chooses to rely on God. She does not simply develop such a fortified persona of virtue that anxieties just bounce off like arrows against armor. This desire to be so put together that one doesn't need to respond again and again to anxiety is probably an illusion, and certainly not where we begin. Rather, the impetus to anxiety does come to us, and we do feel it, but the choice of what to do then remains. We can cling to it ourselves as though it is a problem we should be able to solve or we can instead cast it upon God who himself cares for each of us. 

God opposes the proud

but bestows favor on the humble.

It is a great illusion that we can fight our battles apart from God's help. And so, as we do fight, he calls us in to remember our need for him, and to actively rely on his assistance. The history of Israel was replete with success when they were willing to entrust their battles to the Lord, and with failure when they insisted on doing things in their own way according to their own desired timetables.

He said: “Listen, King Jehoshaphat and all who live in Judah and Jerusalem! This is what the Lord says to you: ‘Do not be afraid or discouraged because of this vast army. For the battle is not yours, but God’s. Tomorrow march down against them. They will be climbing up by the Pass of Ziz, and you will find them at the end of the gorge in the Desert of Jeruel. You will not have to fight this battle. Take up your positions; stand firm and see the deliverance the Lord will give you, Judah and Jerusalem. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Go out to face them tomorrow, and the Lord will be with you.’” (see Second Chronicles 20:15-17)

It is not natural for us, at least insofar as we are fallen creatures, to entrust a battle to the Lord. Battles seem to be too urgent, pressing, and life threatening to risk to something as ethereal and elusive as faith. But we are called to remember that our battles are not finally about flesh and blood, but spiritual realities unseen under the the surface. The opponent is ultimately the devil, the lion that roars with hunger to devour us. To try to handle this opponent on our own is certainty of failure. Victory is only possible for those humble enough to entrust their battle to the Lord.

The LORD will fight for you, and you have only to be silent (see Exodus 14:14).

Does trusting the Lord for victory imply that we might not have to suffer "a little"? According to Peter it is rather implied to be certain that we will. It can be seen as a test of trust, a purification of our faith. God wants us to know how we behave when times get tough. Do we continue to rely on him or do we fall back on our own limited resources? Yet the promise for relying on him is great.

The God of all grace

who called you to his eternal glory through Christ Jesus

will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you

after you have suffered a little.

With each victory that the Lord wins in our lives we become more and more able to trust him about the future, less and less unsettled by the brief momentary afflictions that come to us, as we await the hope of eternal glory (see Second Corinthians 4:17).

Humility is the prerequisite to fight the battle for the soul of the world, to take up the great commission of Jesus to evangelize every creature and all nations. We are told that we are not to worry about what we are to say, and can only do this if we heed the advice of Peter to cast those cares upon the Lord. We are told that the Lord himself will work through us and confirm ours words with accompanying signs. But we ourselves cannot produce or demand such signs. It is humility alone that can receive them. Those who speak new languages, handle serpents and poison without harm, and work mighty deeds of healing are not those who are entrapped in a subjective analysis of their own merits. Rather we must become like Peter who was utterly convinced that the healing of the paralytic had absolutely nothing to do with him, but was the work of Jesus himself. He who knew his own limitations all too well was nevertheless able to be bold about the power of Jesus that could work even through him.

And when Peter saw it he addressed the people: “Men of Israel, why do you wonder at this, or why do you stare at us, as though by our own power or piety we have made him walk? (see Acts 3:12).

What of us? Is God able to work through us, or do we see our liabilities and faults as insurmountable obstacles to his power? Let us learn to be humble, both in regard to our strengths and our weaknesses, and bold in the power of the cross of Christ.

so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” (see First Corinthians 1:31).

It is this boldness that assures us of victory, and which makes us "know the joyful shout" as we walk the light of the Lord's countenance.

Maranatha! Music - The Battle Belongs To The Lord

24 April 2022 - locked/unlocked

Today's Readings

(Audio)

On the evening of that first day of the week,

when the doors were locked, where the disciples were,

for fear 

Though it is not the Judeans that we fear our Church today still often resembles this image of an inchoate body hiding behind locked doors, oppressed by evening darkness. Two inseparable things were necessary to bring the early Church from fear to boldness and confidence. The first was an encounter with the risen Lord himself. The second was the gift of the Spirit.

Jesus came and stood in their midst

We will find that simply gathering and reenacting the repetition of routine is not enough to give us the powerful and victorious lives Jesus promised to us. Only an encounter with him has the ability to do so, for the life he gives is the gift of the Spirit, and only he himself can give it.

and said to them, “Peace be with you.”

By giving them his peace he was giving them with it a victory over the world (see John 16:33), for his peace had already survived the worst that sin and death could throw at him. His word of shalom was no merely idle wish. He was not simply sending good thoughts out into the void. Rather, he was bestowing the gift of the Holy Spirit, among whose fruits were first listed love, joy, and peace (see Galatians 5:22-23). Seeing Jesus again already gave their hearts the gift of joy, filled them brimful with joy again just as he had promised (see John 16:22). It was a durable, Spirit-filled joy that was given not a result of circumstances in the world aligning in just the right way, but rather given as a characteristic of life of the risen Jesus himself shared with us, the very joy he himself had in his victory, the "joyful shout of victory in the tents of the just" as today's Psalm has it.

Jesus made explicit that he was giving them the Spirit as a gift and that it was a gift mediated through the instrumentality of his human nature. The Spirit was not a plan b chosen because of the unfortunate fact of his crucifixion and death. It was precisely at the cross that the font of the living water of the Spirit was unsealed. It was now only here, through a Jesus who himself still bore the wounds of that cross that the Spirit would be given.

And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them,

“Receive the Holy Spirit.

Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them,

and whose sins you retain are retained.”

The Church was in a sense the new Eve taken from the side of Christ, the new Adam, when his side was pierced on the cross. Here, new life was breathed into the body of a new creation just as God first breathed the ruah, or Spirit, into Adam at the beginning of the old creation. But Adam had squandered the spiritual aspect of that gift, and retained the physical manifestation only until death claimed him. This new breath of life was, like the fruits of the Spirit, more durable than death. The thing that had finally forced Adam to surrender his breath to death was accounted for in the new gift. Sin would no longer hold dominion over humanity, and eternal death need no longer be our destiny, for the solution was a gift built in to the very structure of the new world inaugurated by the resurrection.

So the other disciples said to him, “We have seen the Lord.”

But he said to them,

“Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands

and put my finger into the nailmarks

and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”

We are often like Thomas when we hear others tell us of things that sound too good or too fanciful to be true, when we hear but do not feel the shouts of victory in the tents of the just. We, like him, have been scarred by the very real tragedies that surround us in our fallen world. As for him, nothing but the very wounds of Jesus himself will be able to offer sufficient answer for the problem of suffering. In spite of whatever pain we might feel, whatever absence we of Jesus we might perceive, we should not remain absent when the body of Christ gathers together as Thomas did during the earlier appearance of Jesus. For though the mode of the revelation of Jesus to us is different than that which was given for Thomas it still meant to happen in the context of his people gathered "on the Lord's day". It can be a difficult decision to make to come together with the group, when all of this resurrection joy seems to belong to others but not us. But it only in the gathering, Jesus himself present in word and Sacrament, that we can have the encounter ourselves that Thomas had. 

Jesus came, although the doors were locked,

and stood in their midst and said, “Peace be with you.”

Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands,

and bring your hand and put it into my side,

and do not be unbelieving, but believe.”

Thomas answered and said to him, “My Lord and my God!”

This encounter of Thomas was, in some sense, the same encounter John had when he worshipped in the Spirit on the Lord's day, resulting in the same belief in the divinity of Jesus himself. John said his purpose in writing his Gospel was to make that same revelation available by faith to future generations, including our own. John demonstrated that the supernatural reality of the resurrection need not be lessened for we who have not seen, provided we accept the invitation to believe.

He touched me with his right hand and said, “Do not be afraid.

I am the first and the last, the one who lives.

Once I was dead, but now I am alive forever and ever.

I hold the keys to death and the netherworld.

Do we feel as though we wished ourselves be among those who were able to see and believe rather than being, we might say, forced, to depend on our faith. It is not meant to be a punishment, but a privilege. For when the vision of sight must fade in this world. But faith, hope, and love remain, and allow us to remain faithful, hopeful, and loving, connected to the Jesus who ascended and is yet ever present to his Church. Let us pray that our Church may move from the locked rooms in which we confined ourselves before encountering the risen Lord and out onto the streets of our world, with all of the power and the confidence about which we read in Acts. May we not be afraid to show forth our own wounds, even as we demonstrate the still greater power of the resurrection.

Thus they even carried the sick out into the streets

and laid them on cots and mats

so that when Peter came by,

at least his shadow might fall on one or another of them.

A large number of people from the towns

in the vicinity of Jerusalem also gathered,

bringing the sick and those disturbed by unclean spirits,

and they were all cured.

Andy Park - I See The Lord

Tom Booth - The Jesus Song

David Ruis - Mercy Is Fallings

23 April 2022 - have you seen him?

Today's Readings

(Audio)

When Jesus had risen, early on the first day of the week,

he appeared first to Mary Magdalene,

out of whom he had driven seven demons.

Mary Magdalene was one who had been forgiven much and therefore loved much. She had been set free from seven demons and demonstrated the love that resulted by being among the last to remain with Jesus at the cross, and even after by her vigil at the tomb. Her love for Jesus made Mary Magdalene a model for contemplatives throughout the ages. It transformed her into an icon of the woman from the Song of Songs.

I will search for the one my heart loves.

So I looked for him but did not find him.

The watchmen found me

as they made their rounds in the city.

“Have you seen the one my heart loves?” (see Song of Songs 3:2b-3)

It was this genuine seeking, this way in which Christ had absolute priority in her heart, regardless of the darkness of the circumstances, that disposed her to receive the grace of the revelation of the resurrection.

Scarcely had I passed them

when I found the one my heart loves.

I held him and would not let him go (see Song of Songs 3:4).

From Mary Magdalene we can learn that witnesses are not primarily those who have studied the case for Christianity that can be made from history, though it is solid. It is not necessarily those who have mastered CS Lewis's trilemma or who can state point for point NT Wright's assertions in "The Resurrection of the Son of God" even though such mastery and expertise is indeed valuable and answering objections. It is lovers who become true witnesses, and it is love alone that can open the heart to not only know facts about but to experience the reality of the resurrection. 

She went and told his companions who were mourning and weeping.

When they heard that he was alive

and had been seen by her, they did not believe.

Apart from sufficient love, that is ready to believe all things (see First Corinthians 13:7) our habits of thought are not often sufficiently objective to receive the truth. Even when there are people worthy of trust telling us that something is true we may remain trapped in old ways of thinking defined by the limited possibilities with which we ourselves have been familiar by experience. Such stinking thinking causes us to mistrust witnesses who speak of hope. We are compelled to believe the worst and imagine that the story of the resurrection, and the hope that it implies, is merely an "idle tale" (see Luke 24:11).

After this he appeared in another form

to two of them walking along on their way to the country.

They returned and told the others;

but they did not believe them either.

The good news for us is that even if we have not been as devoted as Mary Magdalene Jesus nevertheless does not abandon us to our hopeless assumptions. He desires to reveal himself to us much more than even Mary Magdalene desired to see him again. As proof of this he provided the Eucharist, the breaking of the bread as a lasting reality where he could open hearts and reveal himself, just as he did for the two on the road to Emmaus.

But later, as the Eleven were at table, he appeared to them

and rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart

because they had not believed those

who saw him after he had been raised.

Why did Jesus permit his first witnesses to be ineffective? Perhaps it was so that those who finally did realize that those witnesses had spoken truly would be sympathetic with future generations who were slow to faith and hard of heart. Just as Jesus did not give up on the Eleven so in turn must we not surrender hope for those whose unbelief and hardness of heart has prevented them from yet accepting our own testimony. Our witness is valuable, even necessary, but it is not sufficient. It must coincide with the movement of Spirit, who is not beholden to our timelines. We must be ready to be disbelieved, to speak of a hope that seems too good to be true, so that hearts may be prepared to receive that revelation of hope when Jesus himself is pleased to grant it.

He said to them, “Go into the whole world

and proclaim the Gospel to every creature.”

Jesus demonstrated his presence among the people through the sign of healing worked by Peter. Even the Sanhedrin were unable to deny the facts. But their hearts were not yet disposed to receive the reality implied by those facts to the degree that they even sought to suppress a truth that was not to their liking. Had Peter and John thought that the truth depended on their effective argumentation they might have been inclined to give in when they could not persuade, to yield to threats rather than to insist on what they knew. But they had grown beyond such limited thinking. They had experienced the risen Lord in their midst, acting, making himself known, and bringing thousands to belief. The power of the resurrection of which Peter and John were now witnesses was the reason that they themselves were now fearless, even in the face of opposition.

“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.”

We too need boldness to proclaim the Gospel, boldness on an order that can only be the result of the power of the resurrection revealed to us. Facts and arguments are great, useful, and worthwhile. But they often run into the brick walls of human hearts. For our part, we know, or need to learn, that walls and locked doors have never been able to keep the risen Lord from entering.

Open to me the gates of justice;

I will enter them and give thanks to the LORD.

This is the gate of the LORD;

the just shall enter it.

Hillsong Worship - Jesus Lover Of My Soul

22 April 2022 - a fish story

Today's Readings

(Audio)

Simon Peter said to them, “I am going fishing.”

They said to him, “We also will come with you.”

So they went out and got into the boat,

but that night they caught nothing.

This incident of fishing all night with no catch was meant to remind us of the earlier incident when Peter and had done the same thing (see Luke 5:5). On that morning Peter had his first experience of the miraculous power of Jesus himself. But in today's Gospel, it seemed that Peter somehow reverted to his condition before his encounter with Jesus. He had already experienced the fact of the resurrection but he did not yet know how this fact was meant to impact his life. The way in which Jesus was present after the resurrection was markedly different and even more unpredictable than ever. He would appear in a locked room to reveal himself, or show up with travelers on a journey to give a direction. Following this risen Jesus would now need to take on a different character, for his disciples could not appear and disappear at will with him. But in the absence of the old way of following Jesus it seems that they were all too ready to fill their time with the mundane routines that defined their lives before become followers in the first place.

When it was already dawn, Jesus was standing on the shore;

but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus.

Jesus seemed to have prevented the disciples from recognizing him when he wanted to focus their eventual recognition on some specific characteristic of his, some defining feature of his presence as the risen Lord.

So he said to them, “Cast the net over the right side of the boat

and you will find something.”

So they cast it, and were not able to pull it in

because of the number of fish.

In this case the lesson Jesus gave was the repetition and completion of the earlier lesson. As a teaching, it was what Jesus meant when he said "Without me you can do nothing" (see John 15:5). As a revelation, it demonstrated that it was only the presence of Jesus himself that could give meaning to any task. Anything done as a distraction from the Kingdom would only lead to frustration. Jesus entered the situation of despair as the one who was himself the only true source of meaning. But was this sufficient in light of the resurrection when it seemed that Jesus might come and go at will, when he might not be there when needed? This was the confusion that veiled his presence. But he had in fact promised to be with his disciples always, and to send them another advocate, the Holy Spirit, to guide them into all truth. These promises meant that nothing henceforth needed to be done as a mere distraction from the mission. No net, whether for literal fish or converts to the Kingdom, ever needed to be cast without being put at the disposal, as it were, of Jesus himself.

So he said to them, “Cast the net over the right side of the boat

and you will find something.”

So they cast it, and were not able to pull it in

because of the number of fish.

So the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord.”

When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord,

he tucked in his garment, for he was lightly clad,

and jumped into the sea.

Jesus demonstrated that he would take providential care over all the fishing that would define his followers in the future. He would provide for miraculous catches of fish of many different kinds, yet he would ensure that the net would remain in tact, and that Peter and his successors would have miraculous strength to aid them in their task.

So Simon Peter went over and dragged the net ashore

full of one hundred fifty-three large fish.

Jesus made his presence known as the one who calls the names of individuals, as the one present in the breaking of the bread, and as the one alone who could give meaning to life. These encounters with the risen Lord paved the way for the disciples to receive ongoing access to his presence by the infusion of the Holy Spirit. Once that fire had fallen they were able to speak with conviction to those who accused them, no longer concerned about any residual risk to themselves. They themselves knew for sure the one in whom they had believed (see Second Timothy 1:12), and now felt the need to convey that truth with all of the motivation that made Peter jump from the boat and swim toward Christ.

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.

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.

Newsboys - Fishers Of Men

21 April 2022 - peace be with you

Today's Readings

(Audio)

While they were still speaking about this,

he stood in their midst and said to them,

“Peace be with you.”

The Prince of Peace came among them and wished them peace, just as he had instructed his disciples to wish peace on houses where they would stay on their missionary journeys (see Luke 10:5). Jesus himself was uniquely qualified to offer peace, "since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (see Romans 5:1). The peace Jesus proclaimed was able to restore relationships at all levels, with God, with one another, and with ourselves.

But they were startled and terrified

and thought that they were seeing a ghost.

The disciples were, however, still traumatized and immobilized by fear, unable to immediately receive the peace Jesus offered. To be fair, his sudden appearance in their presence must have been jarring. But even having heard that Jesus was raised they were still unable to receive it when they saw him. They chose even the most outlandish alternative theories rather than accept the truth that the had heard. Perhaps they were afraid that Jesus himself would be angry at the way that none had stood by him, that none had waited for his resurrection with firm trust and hope, and that most had been on the way resume their previous ways of life. They may have suspected not only a ghost, but an angry ghost, come to condemn them or even to take revenge. It was just not on their radar that something as horrible as the cross could have been a part of the plan. Since they were only able to recognize the cross as a fluke or a failure the resurrection remained beyond what they could understand or imagine.

Then he said to them, “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 was patient in the way he delt with his traumatized disciples. Yes, they were slow to believe, but he allowed for a contact that was able to transcend all of the doubt and despair. He demonstrated that he was indeed the same Jesus, whom they could see and touch. The fact that he, while having his wounds, invited them to touch him, made clear that he held no grudge. The wounds themselves were revealed to be not in spite of his plans, but rather because of them, because of his love for his followers.

And as he said this,

he showed them his hands and his feet.

While they were still incredulous for joy and were amazed,

he asked them, “Have you anything here to eat?”

The disciples were restored to table fellowship with Jesus, proof that their relationship had been fully restored. And it was in the very ordinary nature of a shared meal that the truth of the resurrection finally began to come home to them. He was not a ghost, nor a mere apparition, but he was the same friend whom they had known before. 

Jesus had explained already the truth that Moses and the prophets wrote about him. But this was not something that the disciples could understand or fully accept before they saw the resurrection. Their own ways of thinking, of reading Scripture, were too limited, to constrained to the letter and not the Spirit, to interpret them in the way that Jesus did. But it was vital now that the resurrection had occurred for the disciples to learn the true nature of the story of Jesus, for it was to be their story as well. 

Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.

Only after they understood this grand drama and their own role in it could they become witnesses who would preach in his name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. We too need to receive the Scriptures, not as mere words, but as the truth of our own story, and a description of our role in the world. This is not something we can do simply by purchasing more commentaries or listening to more teachings or even by receiving impressive degrees. Only Jesus himself, by the power of his Spirit can bring the Word from an external reality to one of which we ourselves are a part. We would not in fact dare to believe it if it was except because  Jesus himself is offering to share his own central role in that story with us who can in turn become his hands and feet.

Repent, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be wiped away,

and that the Lord may grant you times of refreshment

and send you the Christ already appointed for you, Jesus,

whom heaven must receive until the times of universal restoration

of which God spoke through the mouth

of his holy prophets from of old.

Peter and John clearly came to understand this message that Jesus taught in today's Gospel. They began to see their entire lives as defined by the mission of Jesus, based on his interpretation of Scripture. They now read the world according to the Word and not the Word according to the world. 

Perhaps we ourselves are still more like the paralytic, unable to move forward on mission; more like the disciples before they saw the risen Lord, still frozen with fear. Jesus himself wants to visit us, to respond to the trauma that he knows all too well that we have faced, and to demonstrate that his offer of peace nevertheless remains available. He himself wants to open our hearts more to the Scriptures, teaching us to read them now more by Spirit than by letter. Our worldview can henceforth look forward to "times of refreshment" knowing with certainty that the final word in the story will be "times of universal restoration". Knowing all of this, how can we not become witnesses?

Newsboys - The Mission

20 April 2022 - the breaking of the bread

Today's Readings

(Audio)

That very day, the first day of the week

The first day of the week: that is, the Lord's day, the day on which Christians commemorate the resurrection of Jesus himself. But these disciples on the road to Emmaus did not yet realize the new meaning of the day. To them it was just one more repetition of the cycle of the old creation, which alternated between initial hope and final disappointment. From Adam to Moses to Noah to David there had been moments of profound hope, that restoration and renewal had finally come. But the disappointment that ensued always seemed to outweigh the hope. 

One of them, named Cleopas, said to him in reply,

“Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem

who does not know of the things

that have taken place there in these days?”

These disciples had a limited and conventional understanding of what had happened to Jesus. They thought they were at the end of one more cycle that had begun in hope and ended in despair. Jesus himself did not immediately correct them. He did not interject with a, 'Well, actually' but rather listened to first understand the story in which the disciples believed themselves to be, asking "What sort of things?" We can imagine the undercurrent of amusement as Jesus himself was the only one who really did fully understand "the things that have taken place there [in Jerusalem] in these days", a playfulness expressed as patience with the old and incomplete narrative they were able to offer.

“The things that happened to Jesus the Nazarene,

who was a prophet mighty in deed and word

before God and all the people,

how our chief priests and rulers both handed him over

to a sentence of death and crucified him.

But we were hoping that he would be the one to redeem Israel;

The knowledge of the resurrection makes it impossible on the one hand to be too serious about the world's narratives of despair. But on the other hand it does not on that account make us indifferent or impatient with those who still believe such stories. Rather, from the resurrection we gain the patience and perspective that allows us to respond with empathy. Jesus himself took the time to hear what the disciples believed to be the case so that his response could correct it and provide the more complete account.

And he said to them, “Oh, how foolish you are!

How slow of heart to believe all that the prophets spoke!

Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things

and enter into his glory?”

Once the disciples came to the end of their story Jesus revealed what was the case in actual fact. They believed themselves to be in one story but he revealed that they were in another entirely. They were expecting liberation from Rome but he brought liberty from sin, liberty from the cycles of hope and despair of the old creation. Yes, he called them foolish, but not as a condemnation. They indeed would want to be foolish in this light because it meant that what they had believed heretofore was no longer final or ultimate. What was this new story that they were called to believe?

Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets,

he interpreted to them what referred to him

in all the Scriptures

It was in one sense the old story but seen with new eyes and from a new perspective. The Scriptures had spoken of Jesus all along, of the necessity of his death and the inexorable certainty of his resurrection. The disciples simply hadn't had eyes to see it, because such eyes were only given as a result of the intervention of the Holy Spirit. This is why they would later exclaim, "Were not our hearts burning within us while he spoke to us on the way and opened the Scriptures to us?"

The Scriptures themselves are not ultimate, but are meant to prepare us for the revelation of Jesus himself. As with these disciples that revelation comes to us most fully in the Eucharist, the breaking of the bread, that we receive at mass.

With that their eyes were opened and they recognized him,

but he vanished from their sight.

The visible presence of Jesus was taken from them, but his presence within them was beginning to become a reality. From doubt and despair they were transformed into witnesses who themselves spoke his word, as they "recounted what had taken place on the way".

Peter and John knew that although the visible presence of Jesus was no longer with them he was not on that account less present. He was still moving among his body, teaching, healing, and giving freedom by the power of his name.

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.”

We have been with Jesus on the road to Emmaus, but we still sometimes lack the assurance of his presence in his body that came to define the early Church. Let us look to the breaking of the bread with expectation that Jesus will reveal himself to be even more present than we have yet dared to guess. Only then will we truly become his body and begin to manifest his presence to the world, a presence of more value by far than silver or gold.

Look to the LORD in his strength;

seek to serve him constantly.

Lynn Deshazo - More Precious Than Silver

Jim Cowan - This Is Jesus

19 April 2022 - by name

Today's Readings

(Audio)

And they said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?”

She said to them, “They have taken my Lord,

and I don’t know where they laid him.”

Even when angels themselves tell us not to seek the living among the dead it is difficult for us to imagine the reality of the resurrection. Our assumptions about the permanence of death are hard to overcome. The fact is that God, who created all things, who sustains all things in being by his word of power, could, with no strain on his part, speak a new creative word to turn all of our assumptions on their head. And this fact is fairly easy to grasp intellectually. But it is harder to receive pragmatically at the level of the heart, especially for hearts afflicted by trauma, as most who survive in this world eventually become. The angels may have beautiful appearance and persuasive words. They may indeed by impressive enough that we ought to believe them if we could only see clearly through the tears of our grief. But like Mary Magdalene, we often need more than the mere ethereal or intellectual to bring the truth of the resurrection home to us.

When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus there,

but did not know it was Jesus.

We imagine ourselves to be better positioned than Mary Magdalene here in the present day, that we who know about the resurrection would recognize the presence of our Lord in our midst. Yet how often do we still not recognize him at first! He comes to us in so many ways, ways that are at first often veiled from our eyes.

Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?

Whom are you looking for?”

She thought it was the gardener

We have the tendency to believe ourselves to still be in the old story of creation where the Adam, the gardener of the garden, had doomed the human race to death. We believe that we ourselves are the woman who believed the lie of the snake and let trust of God die in our hearts. We set about making the best of the years we have left, but with our expectations tempered to prepare us for inevitable grief. We still see the external evidence of this fallen reality all around us, shouting down, as it were, all the small and fragile signs of hope that we encounter.

Jesus wants to reveal to us that we need no longer dwell in the fallen reality of the first garden. If we recognize him to be the new Adam and embrace him we ourselves can come to share in the blessings that he, as the bridegroom, came to bring to his bride, the new Eve. We ourselves can dwell in a new garden, receiving from the cross, the tree of life, all of the fruits of the Holy Spirit. But the facts of a new creation, a new garden, and wedding gifts to a spotless bride all have the liability of sounding at first like fairytales. We are jaded and cynical in a way that makes us deeply suspicious of such promises.

Sir, if you carried him away,

tell me where you laid him,

and I will take him.”

The only way to enter the new reality that Jesus rose from the dead to make available to us, the way beyond our preconceptions and our doubts, is a personal encounter with him.

Jesus said to her, “Mary!”

She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni,”

which means Teacher.

Somehow, when Jesus speaks our name, it comprehends all of our grief, all of our doubts about stories that seem to good to be true, and, precisely by knowing us so thoroughly, assures us that they are true, that this one who knows us at this deep level could only be Jesus himself. Once he calls our names we can begin to see everything with new eyes, to live in the new creation of the resurrection even as we continue to live our mortal lives on earth.

Jesus said to her, “Stop holding on to me,

for I have not yet ascended to the Father.

Jesus sometimes requires us to let go of the merely human ways in which we desire him to be present to us precisely so that he can become more abundantly and deeply present.

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.

Just as Jesus cut Mary Magdalene to the heart by calling her name, so too did Peter's Pentecost proclamation cut the crowd to the heart. This is the power of the Spirit at work, calling people by name, in all of their unique individuality, and inviting them into the Kingdom. Jesus knows our names. If we spend time listening, he himself will speak. If we open ourselves, he will release in us more of his Spirit so that we can not only recognize the new creation but help to make it a reality in the way we live.

See, the eyes of the LORD are upon those who fear him,

upon those who hope for his kindness,

To deliver them from death

and preserve them in spite of famine.

Matt Maher - Resurrection Day

Behold the Lamb by Paul Beckman - Cover by Paul Harvey