7 January 2021 - an acceptable year?

Today's Readings

(Audio)

Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit,

and news of him spread throughout the whole region. 

Jesus became famous by his teaching and his mighty deeds. But then he returned to Nazareth, where he had grown up, where people thought they knew him. It was easier for people in the surrounding regions to accept Jesus because they didn't have any expectations to limit him. But we ourselves are more like those of Nazareth. We grew up with Jesus in our communities. As a consequence we have a hard time believing him when he is doing something new. We doubt any manifestation of his power which we haven't already seen.

He came to Nazareth, where he had grown up,

and went according to his custom

into the synagogue on the sabbath day. 

Jesus can and does speak new words to us through Scriptures which we have heard before. But to hear them we must not be so fixated on what we already think we know that we are unable to listen. When we read familiar verses they do tend to evoke familiar explanations. In Church we may find ourselves writing a homily in our heads rather than listening to the preacher, or comparing the preacher to some existing content of knowledge we have about the verses. Instead we should learn to be present and to listen, especially for the unfamiliar, for those things which don't immediately resolve into the larger picture we think we have. And these new things themselves may well be in the words themselves rather than any new interpretation, even though they are words we may have heard so many times before.

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,

    because he has anointed me

        to bring glad tidings to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives

    and recovery of sight to the blind,

        to let the oppressed go free,

and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.

After the year that passed, how we need and desire a year acceptable to the Lord! How we need this great year of jubilee prophesied by Isaiah. But we still tend to assume that such a year would have a basis in politics or economics. We still, and perhaps especially now, don't realize that our problems run deeper than these.

“Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.” 

This confidently spoken explanation, full of divine authority, may have been extremely frustrating to the crowds in Nazareth. They had heard of the power of Jesus. They may have even been willing to accept displays of that power. But now it seemed as if he was saying something was the case when it was not, that black was white. Do we experience that frustration when we hear him speaking it with the backdrop of our own present circumstances, as insufficient or out-of-touch?

“Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.” 

Yet if we have faith we realize that in Jesus the acceptable year did arrive and was present in his own person. In jubilee years debts were remitted, slaves were released, and ancestral property was returned to families. These are all realities which were perfectly given to us in Jesus. Our debt to sin was remitted. Our slavery to the Evil One was ended. We received the promised inheritance of eternal life.

Jesus helps us to understand and to be poor in spirit so that we can receive his glad tidings to the poor. He releases us from our captivity to sin and any of its strongholds in our minds and wills, captivity that had the real effect of preventing us from making progress in our lives. Jesus opens to eyes of our hearts, giving us sight when we were blind. We who may at times feel oppressed by circumstances, we who experience oppression from the enemy that makes us unable to love God or neighbor well, from all of these we are set free in him.

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is begotten by God,

and everyone who loves the Father

loves also the one begotten by him. 

To receive the words of Jesus is to be transformed by them. To truly believe that he is the Christ, that the Spirit of the Lord is upon him, is to be united to him. It is to be begotten by God, becoming sons and daughters in the Son, loving both the Father, and loving those whom the Father loves, those who bear the image of his Son.

The acceptable year proclaimed by Jesus might seem to abstract or otherworldly to really matter. But it is only by believing it that we will see any manifestations in this world.

For the love of God is this,

that we keep his commandments.

And his commandments are not burdensome,

When the commandments are the starting place we do experience them as burdensome. But when faith is the basis they are not burdensome. We believe the truth about who we have become in Christ, that is, victors, more than conquerors (see Romans 8:37) through him.

for whoever is begotten by God conquers the world. 

And the victory that conquers the world is our faith.

People say they will believe this or that when they see it. But assuredly, we will only see the acceptable year if we first believe it. And it is believable because of him who speaks it.

Matt Maher - Isaiah 61

Paul Wilbur - Days of Elijah

6 January 2021 - love that calms the storm

Today's Readings

(Audio)

Whoever acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God,

God remains in him and he in God. 

When we acknowledge Jesus we do the work of God which is "that you believe in him whom he has sent" (see John 6:29). But it is not just words spoken hypocritically that matter. Not everyone who says 'Lord, lord' will enter the Kingdom (see Matthew 7:21). Yet it remains true that no one can say 'Jesus is Lord' except by the Spirit (see First Corinthians 12:3). 

No one has ever seen God. 

We see what God does in the world, but never his divine essence, which is beyond human comprehension. Yet, although we don't understand him by our intellect power we do experience his love for us. 

This is how we know that we remain in him and he in us,

that he has given us of his Spirit. 

God can perhaps be likened to the sun, which can't be seen directly, but which is known by the warmth of its rays. This is why loving one another is so closely connected to experiencing that "God remains in us". It is in fact his own love that is warming us to love. When he loves through us we experience "his love is brought to perfection in us." 

Rather than something we can't observe directly, like the sun, we sometimes wish that God were more obviously tangible, like a mountain whose presence is known and agreed upon by all. But without the light of the sun we would all perish. And without God's love we would not exist. We actually tend to take the effects of both God and the sun for granted, because we can't see them directly, and because, paradoxically, of their prevalence. 

A common human tendency is to try to fit God into a predictable mold so that we can look at him more directly. After Jesus fed the five thousand the crowds wanted him to be a king according to an earthly paradigm. Even the disciples were not prepared for the possibility that he could walk on water and calm the storms around them. So it is that, oddly, when we try to make God more comfortable and predictable we actually limit the ways we can believe that he might choose to act.

But at once he spoke with them,

“Take courage, it is I, do not be afraid!” 

This is not to imply that we should be content with not knowing God. It is rather than we should learn to embrace the mystery, never missing the countless opportunities he gives us to experience the manifestations and revelations of himself. It is a reminder to stay on our toes because we cannot finally predict how he might choose to move. He is not, in the end, a static thing like a mountain or a sun. He is a person, a person with whom, though we can not comprehend him entirely, we can grow in relationship. This happens when he loves us and we love him and our neighbor by that love we first receive from him. This is a deeper realization than the comprehension of any truth. It is only a realization of this sort that enables us to say, 'Jesus is Lord' and to "have confidence on the day of judgment".

God is love, and whoever remains in love remains in God and God in him. 

Songs In His Presence - In Your Light

5 January 2021 - all ate and were satisfied

Today's Readings

(Audio)

“Give them some food yourselves.” 

Why are we as Christians apparently unable to make much impact in addressing the challenges of modernity? Why does it seem like the Church does not have enough to feed the nations, both spiritually and physically?

“Are we to buy two hundred days’ wages worth of food

and give it to them to eat?” 

He asked them, “How many loaves do you have?  Go and see.” 

And when they had found out they said,

“Five loaves and two fish.” 

If we look at our task it seems daunting. The crowd is vast. We have so little to give. Logistically, it is impossible. Why, we wonder, would God even set things up to depend on us, we who ourselves have so little?

When Jesus saw the vast crowd, his heart was moved with pity for them,

for they were like sheep without a shepherd;

Jesus wants us to have hearts like his heart, hearts that won't send the crowd away, that care enough that they won't make it fend for itself in an uncaring world. He wants to reveal his love through us.

Beloved, let us love one another,

because love is of God;

everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God.

If we think of love as a merely natural effort to good for others we see only part of the picture. The love to which we are called is only possible when we bring our natural efforts to Jesus and let him make more of them than we could on our own. There is always something supernatural and miraculous about love in this sense. Our ability to do it is always rooted in our rootedness in God, and so the result is always, in one way or another, a revelation of his power.

Then, taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, 

he said the blessing, broke the loaves, and gave them to his disciples

to set before the people;

The bread and the fish for which the world longs go to waste if we only consider what we could do with them alone. Every act of love is a loaves and fish paradigm. It is always our bringing our insufficiency to God and receiving from him a superabundance to offer others. 

They all ate and were satisfied. 

And they picked up twelve wicker baskets full of fragments

and what was left of the fish. 

If we sometimes seem to have enough to make a difference on our own apart from miraculous intervention, we should not be deceived. The crowds are much more vast than those who are before our eyes. The task is not so constrained as we would sometimes wish. It is indeed more than we can do on our own. But we are not alone. 

In this way the love of God was revealed to us:

God sent his only-begotten Son into the world

so that we might have life through him.

Jesus cares for the vast crowds. Because we ourselves have received this care, because we ourselves have received life through him, we are meant to become channels of that life and love to others. It is time to abandon a scarcity mindset. He who brought the dead to life again in him can certainly multiple whatever we bring to him so much that there will be an abundance left over.

The mountains shall yield peace for the people,

and the hills justice.

He shall defend the afflicted among the people,

save the children of the poor.

BarlowGirl - Enough

Joy Williams - Hungry (Falling on My Knees)

4 January 2021 - a simple truth

Today's Readings

(Audio)

And his commandment is this:

we should believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ,

and love one another just as he commanded us.

What God asks of us is not so abstract or complicated as to be unobtainable (see Deuteronomy 30:11). But listen to what John learned first hand from Jesus. Faith must be the starting place. It is not equally true to say that we should love one another and believe, because believing is the basis by which we love.

Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” (see John 6:28-29).

We are not called to love according to our preferences or predilections. Rather, we are called to love others as Jesus loved us (see John 13:34). Unless we know this love by faith our love for others will be lacking. Because he remains in us we are able to keep his commandments, provided, that is, we believe and remind ourselves that he is living within us. If we forget, we will be like someone with a lighter who tries to light every fire with flint and tinder. Eventually we'll be worn out.

Those who keep his commandments remain in him, and he in them

There are a lot of lies that surround us, that we are invited to believe, that are indeed pressed upon us to accept. There are many false prophets in the world whose priority is something other than Jesus Christ come in the flesh. How many spirits not only do not acknowledge Jesus but try to forbid or limit the freedom of others to do so? This is a real thing in our world, and its origin, while not always conscious, is demonic. 

The Spirit was given to guide us into all truth (see John 16:13) and to remind us of everything that Jesus taught (see John 14:26). He can help us to navigate the arguments and conflicts that surround us and keep us grounded in the fundamental realities of our faith. The Spirit assures us that Jesus remains in us, that the victory is already ours, and thus gives us the strength of hope to pursue the unfolding of that victory.

You belong to God, children, and you have conquered them,

for the one who is in you

is greater than the one who is in the world.

The world and the lies it espouses are complicated. But we are called to a simple faith that does not paralyze our ability to act in love but rather empowers it. 

He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? (see Micah 6:8).

We need only make sure that we are allowing the Spirit to make the faith we profess a reality in our minds, in our wills, and therefore in our lives. Have we given parts of ourselves over to what the world tells us to be the case? Are we judging ourselves or others based on the standards of this world rather than the love of God? Are we desperate, fearful, proud, or covetous? These are ways that the world tells us that we are, ways that it wants us to describe ourselves. But if we have given in, it is never too late to change our minds.

From that time on, Jesus began to preach and say,

"Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand."

It is this turning toward the truth that makes Jesus a great light, not just for Zebulun and Naphtali, but for our own lives each day. And in his presence, those things which we thought defined us turn out to not have the final say.

He went around all of Galilee,

teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom,

and curing every disease and illness among the people. 

Peter Furler - Greater Is He

3 January 2021 - we saw his star

Today's Readings

(Audio)

I see him, but not now;

I behold him, but not near.

A star will come out of Jacob;

a scepter will rise out of Israel (see Numbers 24:17).

Balaam had prophesied that a star would appear and rise to show a new royal birth. It is interesting not only that the magi knew of this prophecy but that they were so eager to see it fulfilled. It is said that the magi were probably Persian astrologers. During Israel's exile in Persia God manifested his power and knowledge particularly through Daniel, and through Hananiah, Azariah, and Mishael. The nation responded to them and the King Cyrus ultimately showed favor to the Jewish people, allowing them to return to their own land. Perhaps some Jewish traditions were maintained in Persia even after they were permitted to return. Perhaps a memory of the goodness and the power of God lived on in that land.

behold, magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying, 

"Where is the newborn king of the Jews?

We saw his star at its rising

and have come to do him homage."

The magi gave every appearance that they were seeking someone who was greater than a mere earthly king. The birth of a Jewish king might seem to matter little during a time of Roman occupation. But if the prophecy of Balaam were true it might matter quite a bit. If the birth of that king would bring with it the freedom of Israel from all oppressors, if in him false claimants to the Davidic throne, imposters like Herod, would finally be deposed, it might matter very much indeed. If even Rome could not prevent the reign of this new king who then must he have been? The degree to which the magi knew and remembered the power and the goodness of the God of the Jews would have been strong motivation to undertake a long and dangerous journey to meet this newborn king.

When King Herod heard this,

he was greatly troubled, 

and all Jerusalem with him.

Though Herod was appointed "King of the Jews" by the Roman authorities his claim was false. He was an Edomite, whose dispossession was foretold by the Balaam's prophecy (see Numbers 24:18). Indeed, the newborn infant would bring about the fall and rising of many. All pretenders and false claimants to authority would be challenged by his coming. 

We see two strands in the appearance of the star, and both are important. The first is the hope that it indicates, hope for the restoration of Israel and for the inclusion of the Gentiles of the covenant.

Nations shall walk by your light,

and kings by your shining radiance.

The second strand is our own pretense of authority must be surrendered if the new King is to be blessing and not threat to us. We must be willing to prostrate ourselves and do homage to the Lord. We must be willing to lay our treasures at his feet. We too will be called to return a different way than we came.

"No one who ever meets Christ with a good will returns the same way as he came."  

- Fulton Sheen

If we are to seek the star we must have the hope for the promise of fulfillment that it entails. Ours should be a hope that is so much greater than that of the magi, for in Christ the plan of God was made fully known. 

It was not made known to people in other generations 

as it has now been revealed

to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit: 

that the Gentiles are coheirs, members of the same body,

and copartners in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.

We should be more able than the magi to undertake whatever the Lord asks of us in this journey of life. We have so much more than a star and a snippet of prophecy. We have the Spirit shining, and the living Word to guide us. Like the magi we should understand that this journey is a privilege. In response let us offer all that we have and are to the newborn king.

the wealth of nations shall be brought to you.

Caravans of camels shall fill you,

dromedaries from Midian and Ephah;

all from Sheba shall come

bearing gold and frankincense,

and proclaiming the praises of the LORD.

Barenaked Ladies w/Sarah McLachlan - God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen/We Three Kings

Robert Punzalan - Isaiah 60 (Arise)

2 January 2021 - a finger pointing

Today's Readings 

(Audio)

The mark of a great teacher is to put students directly in touch with the thing taught. It is important for the teacher not to interpose his own personality or pet ideas onto an existing body of knowledge. No matter how good these ideas may be they are never the same as direct contact with the subject itself. This is difficult for most, because it is just there, in that which they perceive to be their unique contribution, that they feel they have value. This temptation is at least as great for preachers of Christ, and the damage done when they succumb to it can be far greater, a version of Christ in their own image and likeness. John the Baptist is an example of one who never gave in to this temptation.

He admitted and did not deny it, but admitted,

“I am not the Christ.” 

John was one whose whole life, value, and mission was found in being a voice preparing the way for another. He built anticipation for the one whose sandal strap he was not worthy to untie. He pointed him out as the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world (see John 1:29). He rejoiced to hear the bridegroom's voice, to himself decrease, so that Jesus would increase (see John 3:29-30).

In John's shoes, we might grumble. 'Where's my part?', we might ask. 'What part of my life is my own?' We often believe that if we aren't curating a private interior space which is entirely our own we cannot be happy. We balance obligation to speak the word and point to the Christ against this imagined font of our happiness. 

The more we try to create happiness for ourselves the more elusive it becomes. Though we are not called to automatically seek those things which are hardest for us, or to remove from life the natural pleasures we enjoy, nevertheless these things cannot become an end in themselves if we want to continue to enjoy them. Only when we seek first the Kingdom and allow the rest to be added to us by God can we truly enjoy and appreciate the things of this world for what they are (see Matthew 6:33).

We only find life when we give it away. We only discover ourselves in a complete gift of self. This is not a call to think poorly of ourselves or to treat ourselves badly. We are indeed called to love ourselves as God loves us. But just as Jesus was able to forget his own rights in order to come to save us we too are called to self-forgetfulness in the service of others.

The world wants to deceive us about where true happiness can be found. Every lie of the enemy is a promise of fulfillment that will fail or a seed of mistrust against God's own design for our fulfillment. We need to let what we have heard from the beginning remain in us.

If what you heard from the beginning remains in you,

then you will remain in the Son and in the Father. 

John shows us that letting the doctrine we learned once continue to impact and direct our lives, to continue to protect us from the new forms the lies of the enemy continue to take, we need the anointing that shows us how to live the truth we know in any circumstance with which we are faced.

As for you,

the anointing that you received from him remains in you,

so that you do not need anyone to teach you. 

This anointing sometimes makes us seem radical. It may cause us to do things which to the world seem to be the opposite of happiness. Jesus manifested the anointing of the Holy Spirit at his baptism, as the Spirit descended like a dove, but was immediately drawn to the desert. 

The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness (see Mark 1:12).

The anointing of the Spirit teaches us to seek true and lasting fulfillment over and against illusions. The anointing shows us how to walk in faith even when what we are called to do something which seems dangerous or unreasonable. It will turn out to be above reason and not below it, but at the time our only guide is the anointing we have from Christ.

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,

because he has anointed me

to proclaim good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives

and recovering of sight to the blind,

to set at liberty those who are oppressed,

to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” (Luke 4:18-19).

Our baptism is the reason why we share this anointing with Jesus. Just as the Spirit descended upon him at his own baptism and the Father acknowledged him as his Son, so too do we receive the Spirit, so too does the Father call us sons and daughters.

If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit (see Galatians 5:25).

Finally, let us remember who receives an anointing: priests, prophets, and kings. The words Messiah and Christ mean anointed one. The Holy Spirit is himself the anointing on Christ, and it is an anointing which we share by his mercy. Let's stop living like we've been left to our own devices. Let us walk by the Spirit we have been given.

Jesus Culture - When You Walk Into the Room

Jesus Culture - Set a Fire

1 January 2021 - sons and daughters in the son

Today's Readings

(Audio)

When the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son,

born of a woman, born under the law, 

to ransom those under the law, 

so that we might receive adoption as sons.

If Jesus had not been born of a woman, born under the law, he would not have been able to bear the curse of the law for our sake. He was fully human, like us in all things, but sin, so that he could be our great high priest.

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin (see Hebrews 4:15).

Had he not been the Son of God, who was God, and who was with the Father in the beginning (see John 1:1), he could not have brought us forgiveness and healing. Only because he was infinitely worthy as God could his sacrifice avail for all humankind. Only because of his complete divinity could he perfectly respond to the will of the Father, and in doing so heal our own broken wills, elevating those who would welcome that healing to become partakers of the divine nature (see Second Peter 1:3-4).

It was from Mary that he had a human will to perfect and offer to the Father. It was from the life he shared with the Father that he had the power to offer it, and that made it a worthy offering. But because these two truths came together in the one person of Jesus we ourselves were given an entry point from which we could come to share in fruit of that offering. We were made able to become sons and daughters in the Son

As proof that you are sons, 

God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, 

crying out, “Abba, Father!”

So you are no longer a slave but a son, 

and if a son then also an heir, through God.

Although Aquinas maintained that God could have chosen other ways in which to redeem us, nevertheless the incarnation was the most perfect way. It was a means that embraced humanity in an intimate way, that wrought transformation from the inside out. It was so much more than a mere declaration from outside.

What has not been assumed has not been healed

- St. Gregory Nazianzus

Nothing about the incarnation was accidental. Jesus had a human mother because he himself desired to be like us, because in being like us he could be near us, and in being near us he could most perfectly heal and raise us up. But she was more than a generic figure who could be replaced with any woman. Only with Mary did the fullness of time arrive. This is because the God who gave the commandment, "Honor thy father and thy mother" desired that his human mother be immaculate, so he could perfectly fulfill that commandment and, as man, honor his mother. That he chose to have a human mother only made sense because in doing so he desired to elevate humanity in her. It is no great leap from that to understand why he chose to make her the mother of us all as well, that all generations would call her blessed (see Luke 1:48).

the rest of her offspring—those who keep God’s commands and hold fast their testimony about Jesus (see Revelation 12:17).

All who are given blessings are meant to become blessings. It is as though Mary's very life is an embodiment of the prayer of priestly blessing given to Moses:

Say to them:

The LORD bless you and keep you!

The LORD let his face shine upon

you, and be gracious to you!

The LORD look upon you kindly and

give you peace!

It is because of Mary that the face of God was made to shine upon his people. It was because of her that we received Jesus, who himself is our peace (see Ephesians 2:14).

We are permitted to have great intimacy with one who, though not divine, knew her son more intimately than other creature knew him. If we simply come to her and allow her to be the mother to us that she is meant to be she will reveal her son to us, the very things which she kept and reflected on in her heart. 

And Mary kept all these things,

reflecting on them in her heart.

In particular, Mary can help us to see how Jesus is the one in whom God and man meet in a single person. She reveals his humanity, because he has it from her. She reveals his divinity because it was she who first welcomed the divinity by her fiat.

Let us follow the shepherds and join Mary and Joseph around the manger, learning from the mother to marvel at the son. If we do, our return to daily life will not be unchanged.

Then the shepherds returned,

glorifying and praising God

for all they had heard and seen, 

just as it had been told to them.

Elevation Worship - The Blessing

Josh Groban - Angels We Have Heard On High