14 Oct 2014 - not all washed up

Jesus sets us free so that we can be free. It sounds obvious. But we are more inclined to wear our freedom as a badge. We are more concerned with outward signs and symbols. What does that reveal about us? When we are concerned to appear a certain way before others it reveals insecurity within. We have something to prove. We are trying to add value to the intrinsic worth we have from God. When we start down this path we will never achieve it to our satisfaction.

Once again I declare to every man who has himself circumcised
that he is bound to observe the entire law.
You are separated from Christ,
you who are trying to be justified by law;
you have fallen from grace.

This is why Jesus himself is so insistent on integrity and so opposed to hypocrisy.

Did not the maker of the outside also make the inside?
But as to what is within, give alms,
and behold, everything will be clean for you.”

He wants everything to be clean for us, inside and out. He sets us free so that we can stand in freedom. If our inside is not clean we will always obsess over the externals, whether circumcision, ritual washing or their modern equivalents which let us be seen as religious people in the eyes of others. Maybe if we can convince them we can convince ourselves? It isn't going to work. He is the one that makes us free. It only happens with his grace.

But when the kindness and generous love
of God our savior appeared,
not because of any righteous deeds we had done
but because of his mercy,
he saved us through the bath of rebirth
and renewal by the holy Spirit,
whom he richly poured out on us
through Jesus Christ our savior (cf. Tit. 3:4-6)

So if that is true, what is this business about giving alms? Are we falling back into earning something? Are we trying to prove ourselves again? No, we are now called to be who we are. We are made free by Jesus.  He now calls us to stand in this freedom. We are a new creation. Now we need to act like it. And even this is only possible through grace. We have to rely on him or we will keep falling back into proving ourselves. We won't be satisfied with who we are and we won't have peace. Giving alms is hard enough. But we are called to do it without reference to the superficial reward to our self-image. This is humanly impossible. But this morning we are given the grace to stand in freedom.

His law is a beautiful thing when we he is the one which empowers us to keep it. With his word of truth his ordinances are changed from condemnation to hope.

Let your mercy come to me, O LORD,
your salvation according to your promise.
Take not the word of truth from my mouth,
for in your ordinances is my hope.
And I will keep your law continually,
forever and ever.

13 Oct 2014 - not a finger pointing to the moon

Rejoice, you barren one who bore no children;
break forth and shout, you who were not in labor;
for more numerous are the children of the deserted one
than of her who has a husband.

There is a break here. It is an interruption in the continuity that has been unchanged since the fall. Humanity is barren. We long for life but cannot really bring it forth. The life we do bring forth is subjected to slavery. It isn't the fullness of life. It doesn't have the freedom it is meant for. We are "those who through fear of death had been subject to slavery all their life" (cf. Heb 2:15). As humans, we know a lot about the frustration that life in this world brings.

But the life for which we long does indeed come, though not through human effort. It does appear, though not through the same old things we've been trying again and again throughout history. It comes not by way of effort but rather as a gift.

Humanity is first prepared. The barren woman eventually receives its most perfect form in the Virgin. She is cleansed from sin and made free. In this freedom she does not even attempt to give birth on her own. She is made to be entirely receptive to the gift that is to be given. She is given grace to be perfectly open to the gift and speak her fiat to it.

The gift she is given cannot be overstated. It is "something greater than Solomon"
and "something greater than Jonah". All other signs that are ever given in history point to this gift. This gift cannot be subverted to point to something else. No looking past it as if some other sign could be more significant than the thing itself will be tolerated.

Jesus is not a finger pointing to the moon. He is the moon. The healings he does, the gifts he gives, these are signs pointing to him. If we fixate on them we miss the point. He himself is the gift. In him we have freedom. When we let our gaze be drawn by his special effects we are submitting to slavery in small ways. We are given the old order of the world a power over us that it shouldn't have.

For freedom Christ set us free; so stand firm
and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery.

When we meet Jesus we are set free. We are free indeed. But we know that we all must still taste death. The freedom he gives doesn't (usually) change that. It is something even more significant. It is freedom, not from death, but from the futility of death. It is freedom to truly live and embrace the full will of God for each one of us. Sickness, suffering, and death are now subverted to God's purpose for each of us. Which is not to say that he doesn't often show his power over those things. But he does this so that his preeminence may be revealed. He displays in these actions the truth of his position at the top of the metaphysical hiearchy. These actions are not salvation, though. They cannot be. He isn't just going to do a patch job on the old order. He has a whole new wineskin (cf. Mat. 9:17).

From the rising to the setting of the sun
is the name of the LORD to be praised.
High above all nations is the LORD;
above the heavens is his glory.
Who is like the LORD, our God,
who looks upon the heavens and the earth below? 

What frustrates us today? What seems futile? We are given the grace to stand firm in the freedom of Christ. These things may continue, but Jesus frees us from the power they have over us.  Blessed be his name forever!

12 Oct 2014 - free to feast

Jesus is inviting us to the feast, "a feast of rich food and choice wines, juicy, rich food and pure, choice wines."

But isn't it true that we find 'better' things to do? Don't we ignore the invitation and go away, "one to his farm, another to his business"? Isn't it true that we are so protective of our time that we become almost violent to defend our right to spend it how we please? In that way we are like the rest who "laid hold of his servants, mistreated them, and killed them." It seems extreme until we realize how aggressively we defend our prerogative of scheduling our own lives.

Somehow we insist on choosing much less enjoyable things than feasts. We insist on the daily grind. We can't let ourselves celebrate, rejoice, or rest, because of this ever present drudgery that demands our attention. We feel as though we must be ever vigilant or everything will fall apart. Therefore it is to those who know that life is beyond their control that these invitations go.

Then he said to his servants, 'The feast is ready,
but those who were invited were not worthy to come. 
Go out, therefore, into the main roads
and invite to the feast whomever you find.’
The servants went out into the streets
and gathered all they found, bad and good alike,
and the hall was filled with guests. 

Paul has the freedom to come to the feast. He is an example for us. He knows how to live in whatever circumstances life deals him, be they humble or abundant. He doesn't trust in himself to pad his own life with abundance. He "can do all things in him who strengthens" him. He knows that "God will fully supply" whatever is necessary. His grip on his life is loose enough to accept God's invitation to the feast.

The LORD is spreading a table before all of us this morning, the good and the bad, before friends and even in the sight of enemies. All are invited to the feast of the Eucharist. We need to set aside our need to carefully regulate everything, just for a moment. We need to just be open to the goodness and kindness the LORD wants to show us.

The LORD is inviting us to this table in order to wipe away tears. He is inviting us, ultimately, to destroy death forever. He clothes us in robes of purest white and calls us to rejoice and be glad with him.

On that day it will be said:
"Behold our God, to whom we looked to save us!
This is the LORD for whom we looked;
let us rejoice and be glad that he has saved us!"
For the hand of the LORD will rest on this mountain.

Today is that day! Let us not be too busy to receive it.

11 Oct 2014 - all the things

He replied, “Rather, blessed are those
who hear the word of God and observe it.”

But we can't observe it, not completely. "Cursed be everyone who does not persevere in doing all the things written in the book of the law" (cf. Gal. 3:10).  We do some of the things, but never all of them. This should make us ask, "Who then can be saved?" (cf. Luk. 18:26).

Yet in spite of these barriers, in spite of this apparent impossibility, we know that the womb that carried Jesus and the breasts at which he nursed are indeed blessed (cf. Luk. 1:42). We despair of our ability to keep God's word. "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible." Mary has to hear the same thing. She has to hear the angel say, "nothing will be impossible with God" (cf. Luk. 1:37). The only reason she can hear the word of God and give her fiat is because she is given the grace by God himself. This is why the angel calls her "full of grace".

Jesus elevates our minds from the fleshly and merely natural. Blessings don't simply come from genetics or bloodlines. He elevates our minds even from the realm of our own effort and will, still bound by the limits of nature. He reveals that true blessing is supernatural. True blessing is the grace to receive the word of God as Mary does. 

It is this grace that allows Mary to trust in God. This grace allows her to have faith. It is this faith that unites her to Jesus more than just flesh and blood. The power of the Holy Spirit comes upon her and covers her with his shadow because she has the faith to believe that God's promise to her will be fulfilled. That is why Elizabeth says, "Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her!" (cf. Luk. 1:45).

Jesus elevates our minds to this grace because "through faith you are all children of God in Christ Jesus." This same faith that makes Mary the mother of Jesus unites us as her children, children of the one Father, and brothers and sisters of Jesus. 

If blessedness was about bloodlines we would have no entry into it. If it was about our own effort we would fail. But it is a gift. It is freely and generously given in baptism. We are united and clothed with Christ. It is grace!

He is faithful to us. He never forgets us. Not even for a moment. Because of this we receive the grace to respond in faith.

The Lord remembers his covenant for ever.
Sing to him, sing his praise,
proclaim all his wondrous deeds.
Glory in his holy name;
rejoice, O hearts that seek the LORD!

10 Oct 2014 - finger of god

Without Jesus, the world is in the possession of the enemy. It is in the possession of principalities and powers, the world rulers of this present darkness (cf. Eph. 6:12). Jesus transfers us from kingdom of darkness to his own kingdom (cf. Col. 1:13)? Wait, what? We're in the kingdom of darkness? Yes, that is where we find ourselves on our own.  "All of us once lived among them in the desires of our flesh, following the wishes of the flesh and the impulses, and we were by nature children of wrath, like the rest" (cf. Eph 2:3).But we need not fear or despair.

But when one stronger than he attacks and overcomes him,
he takes away the armor on which he relied
and distributes the spoils.

Finally "one stronger" has arrived. The enemies possessions are no longer safe. The dominion of the world, the flesh, and the devil is no longer safe.

“Enemy-occupied territory---that is what this world is. Christianity is the story of how the rightful king has landed, you might say landed in disguise, and is calling us to take part in a great campaign of sabotage.” - CS Lewis

This stronger one is no blunt instrument. He arrives to heal and cast out demons with a delicate and artistic precision. It is by the finger of God that this is done.

But if it is by the finger of God that I drive out demons,
then the Kingdom of God has come upon you.

As we read in Galatians earlier this week, the one who does mighty deeds among us does not do them by works of the law. We see that this kingdom has a supernatural power source. We can't give it any more power than it has even by our best efforts. What we can do, indeed what we must do, is to open ourselves to this kingdom through faith.

that the blessing of Abraham might be extended
to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus,
so that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

What is it that tempts us to say, “By the power of Beelzebul, the prince of demons, he drives out demons”? Why are we sometimes willing to write off God's power at work in our midst? Often times we prefer power which we control, which we regulate, which corresponds precisely to our efforts. Power that is not so easily controlled can be scary. It brings radical freedom, transformation, and healing. Faith is the gateway to this power. But once it is unleashed there is no predicting it or regulating it.

Once  we embrace the life of the Spirit through faith we must be careful to remain open. If we close ourselves to the Spirit and end in the flesh we find ourselves easy picking for the enemy. We come to rely on a supernatural strength to resist temptation. When we forget about that strength we resist, perhaps, even less than we did when we were trying to do it through simply natural strength. If we live by the Spirit we need to walk by the Spirit (cf. Gal. 5:25) lest the "last condition of that man" be "worse than the first".

The LORD does not forget us. He will give us the grace to remember him, too. He wants to give us all of the blessings that the enemy holds back. He genuinely desires to bless us. Therefore we shall not fear. Therefore we shall trust in him and not our flesh.

He has given food to those who fear him;
he will forever be mindful of his covenant.
He has made known to his people the power of his works,
giving them the inheritance of the nations.

9 Oct 2014 - knocked in

I want to learn only this from you:
did you receive the Spirit from works of the law,
or from faith in what you heard?

Do we earn our salvation? We know that the answer is no on an intellectual level. Jesus Christ crucified is obviously something we cannot earn. We begin with the Spirit that pours from the wounded side of Jesus. We experience many things. We see mighty deeds that only God can do. When we bother to notice we realize that there is no way that these are deeds which we can earn and boast about. We are made worthy to share the lot of the saints in light. We are rescued from the powers of darkness and brought into the kingdom of Jesus Christ (cf. Col 1:12-13). The Spirit teaches us to call cry out to God as "Abba! Father!" (cf. Rom 8:15) It should be obvious that we can't earn that.

Yet over time we all become somewhat "bewitched" just like the "stupid Galatians". The thing is that we need persistence.

I tell you, if he does not get up to give him the loaves
because of their friendship,
he will get up to give him whatever he needs
because of his persistence.

It is the one who endures to the end who shall be saved (cf. Mat. 24:13). It starts to sound a lot like work. It starts to sound a lot like we are in fact trying to earn something. But when the man goes to his friend at midnight to borrow bread his persistence does not pay for the bread even though it is necessary to receive it. What is happening here? In fact, we are being trained.

And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us (cf. Rom. 5:4-5).

All of this is only possible because of the Holy Spirit. Our endurance in suffering is made possible by the Holy Spirit. Only he transforms suffering into something which does not disappoint us. That is why Paul gets so frustrated with the Galatians. Once they start trying to earn their salvation they are neglecting the one hope which does not disappoint in favor of their own efforts.

The Father wants to bless us. We close ourselves to his blessings when we start to try to earn them for ourselves. It helps to hear him say, "ask and you will receive".  We need to deeply know "how much more will the Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?" We need to realize that even the persistence he asks of us is his gift. 

When we know his goodness and his faithfulness our spirits are free to worship. We are able to praise him from the depths of our being, with all sincerity. We worship in Spirit and truth, no longer held bound by fear.

This was the oath he swore to our father Abraham:
to set us free from the hands of our enemies,
free to worship him without fear,
holy and righteous in his sight
all the days of our life.

8 October 2014 - father's embrace

Sitting at the feet of Jesus is the better part. He longs to share himself with us. And the most essential and deepest part of himself that he can share is his relationship with his Father. We read that "no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him" (cf. Mat. 11:27).

This relationship makes a real difference for Jesus himself.  Even as a child his joy is to be in his Father's house (cf. Luk. 2:49). Later, when they try to make merchants make it a marketplace he takes it personally and chases them out. His relationship with his Father is more vital to Jesus than food. He says, "My food is to do the will of the one who sent me and to finish his work." It goes deep. The " Son can do nothing on his own, but only what he sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, the Son does likewise" (cf. Joh. 5:19).

As he shares this relationship with us we become his brothers and sisters. We begin to share in a partial way the same relationship which Jesus enjoys in fullness. "For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother."

This is the goal of the prayer Jesus teaches us. It begins with that word: Father. It acknowledges, hallows, and treasures that name. It continues by embracing the will and plan of the Father, that which is the hidden food to which Jesus refers. It acknowledges our daily needs and then stops worrying about them. "For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all" (cf. Mat. 6:32). And it insists the sins not separate us from the Father or from our brothers and sisters. We are family. We are to be one even as Jesus and the Father are one precisely because the Father's heart is wounded by disunity among his children.

This is why Paul has the boldness to address Peter when "he began to draw back and separated himself, because he was afraid of the circumcised." Paul is bold because he knows that the Father wants Jews and Gentiles to come together as one. He wants us all to be united by the Spirit in the bond of peace (cf. Eph. 4:3).

This prayer of Jesus can make a real difference for us. It can spare us from being overcome by the "final test" by the grace it imparts. When we face such tests it allows commend our own spirits into the hands of the Father as Jesus does. On our own we are not strong enough to face such trials. But with the grace that is offered to us we can find deliverance and strength.

We have a Father in heaven. Today Jesus teaches us how to embrace that relationship. He teaches us to receive all that the Father offers, all that he himself receives. Ultimately this is nothing less than becoming partakers of the divine nature (cf. 2 Pet 1:4).

Praise the LORD, all you nations,
glorify him, all you peoples!
For steadfast is his kindness toward us,
and the fidelity of the LORD endures forever.