24 May 2023 - unity in truth

Today's Readings

(Audio)

Lifting up his eyes to heaven, Jesus prayed, saying:

“Holy Father, keep them in your name

that you have given me,

so that they may be one just as we are one.

Jesus asked the Father protect his disciples just as Jesus himself protected them when he was present with them. The goal of this protection was "that they may be one" and the possibility of its realization was the same when Jesus was present as it would be after his departure, that being "the name that you have given me". The name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit is only one name, hence we do not say 'the names of'. We know that when the Scriptures refer to a name they refer to something more than the syllables that are spoken to address a person. The name conveys the whole identity of the person. Thus, the name of the Triune God brings with it the life that God himself enjoys including his unity. On earth Jesus drew his disciples into unity by his being a living revelation of his Father. They were able to witness the interplay of love with his Father that marked the entirety of the life of Jesus. This drew them up out of their personal squabbles, their merely human commitments, and their pride, making friends out of those who would not naturally have affection for one another. 

I know that after my departure savage wolves will come among you,

and they will not spare the flock.

And from your own group, men will come forward perverting the truth

to draw the disciples away after them.

We see the reason Jesus prayer was so necessary in the prophetic words of Paul. From their own group men would come and pervert the truth thus putting the unity for which Jesus prayed at risk. And we see also in Paul that this unity was no mere dogmatic conformity, but was rather something deeper. Truth was a fundamental prerequisite. But it did not stop at cold definitions or doctrinal statements but resulted in true brotherly affection.

They were all weeping loudly

as they threw their arms around Paul and kissed him,

for they were deeply distressed that he had said

that they would never see his face again.

Just as Paul did we too will face challenges in the world. Some of them will be so overwhelming that we might wish that Jesus had prayed to take us out of the world. But he preferred that we remain to be his presence in the world, to be in the world but not of it. To that end he prayed for us that we would be protected from the chief architect of disunity in the world, the Evil One. He made it clear that on our own apart from this prayer of his we would be susceptible and at risk. Rather than leaving us in this condition he prayed that we be consecrated by truth and for truth, set apart from all lies, and protected from the Father of lies. Jesus himself set himself apart for the Father and for truth and he prayed to share this consecration with us. It was in fact a priestly consecration fully realized when he offered himself to the Father. And in this world of marked by sin and idols competing for our allegiance the consecration in truth always comes by way of sacrifice. The deepest truth is love, which means to be a gift to others. And in our world this means being the grain of wheat that falls to the ground and dies. It means taking up our crosses and following Jesus himself. This consecration for which Jesus prayed applied in a special way to the ministerial priesthood. But we remember that we are all called to be priests, offering our lives as spiritual sacrifices unto God for the world.

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship (see Romans 12:1).

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light (see First Peter 2:9).

Todd Agnew - Romans 12:1

23 May 2023 - to know the Lord

Today's Readings

(Audio)

Father, the hour has come.

Give glory to your son, so that your son may glorify you,

just as you gave him authority over all people,

so that your son may give eternal life to all you gave him.

Jesus came to the hour of the cross intentionally and not accidentally. It was a choice and not a weakness or a failure. He did so as the culmination of a life lived in obedience to the will of his Father. He glorified the Father with all that he was and, as a consequence, the Father would glorify him in turn, making even his humanity reveal to the world the glory that was never lacking to him in his divinity. Jesus acted out of love for the Father and the Father out of love for his Son. But they both together also acted out of love for their creatures. Their mutual love overflowed in such a way that it became the source of eternal life for those who would believe.

Now this is eternal life,

that they should know you, the only true God,

and the one whom you sent, Jesus Christ.

The knowledge about which Jesus spoke was not abstract, but deeply personal. Biblically, we speak of the way a husband 'knows' his wife, and this is much closer to the mark in the present case. It is a knowing the implicates us in the mutual love of the Father and the Son (the love that the Spirit himself is!), making us partakers of the divine nature. At present we have access to this eternal life through faith, which is in some ways like a preview of coming attractions, but which really does in some sense make future realities present and effective even here and now for believers. 

Think of what is above, not of what is on earth.

For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

When Christ your life appears, then you too will appear with him in glory (see Colossians 3:2-4).

Jesus desired to impart his words to the disciples, but in doing so he was not dealing in dead letters. Rather, as the one who was himself the Word of God, he was attempting to impart to his disciple everything that he himself was. This is why it is so important for us that we not stagnate in our faith but to ourselves continue to grow in understanding of what it means that Jesus came from the Father, to more and more learn to treasure what that implies about the very precious words he has given us from him.

I pray for them.

I do not pray for the world but for the ones you have given me,

because they are yours, and everything of mine is yours

and everything of yours is mine,

and I have been glorified in them.

We do not struggle on our own to penetrate dense mysteries that are far too exulted for the human intellect. Rather, that we proceed it all in this faith and knowledge is a consequence of the fact that the Son himself asks it of the Father who in turn delights to answer his Son's every desire. This prayer of Jesus manifests in us as the Spirit who draws us by love into the one who is love itself.

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love (see First John 4:7-8).

The results of becoming docile to the Son's gift of the Spirit is visible and evident in Saint Paul. We can see in Paul a heart that was shaped in the mold of the heart of Jesus himself, desiring nothing but to be give all that he himself had received. Life in this world no longer held sway over his mind or his desires because he was already attaining by faith to the eternal life that is the knowledge of God and Jesus Christ whom he sent.

Brotherhood of Hope - To Love You And To Make You Loved

22 May 2023 - Spirit of victory

Today's Readings

(Audio)

Behold, the hour is coming and has arrived

when each of you will be scattered to his own home

and you will leave me alone.

But I am not alone, because the Father is with me.

Jesus said he told his disciples this specifically so that they might have peace in him. The alternative was to allow a false pride and a premature sense of understanding to grow in the disciples. They said they realized that Jesus knew everything and that he came from God. But when that belief was tested by the dark hour of the cross it proved not to be robust. Truly living out what they professed to believe would have meant following Jesus fearlessly even unto death. But when it came to crunch time, their words proved to be mere bravado, thin posturing for approval in the eyes of Jesus. 

Jesus knew his disciples would leave him. He told them in advance not so much in order to cut them down to size as so that they could later return and repent. It was as though he told them, 'In my mercy I see your coming abandonment and look past it to your restoration'. 

Jesus knew what he was getting with his disciples, and the same is true for us. He knew what sins we would commit, how we would betray him, and the moments we would leave him alone, even as he was creating us, restoring us in baptism, and feeding us with his own body and blood. None of our sins surprise him. None present a true obstacle to his plan as long as we are confident enough to return and repent. Therefore, the source of our peace in the world is not our own ability to be perfectly holy at all times, it is rather our confidence in the infinite mercy of the heart of Jesus.

I have told you this so that you might have peace in me.

We are in a better position than that of the disciples who were scattered. We are united to Jesus in a deeper and more unshakable way. Just is he himself was never alone because the Father was with him so too need we never be alone because the Triune God has come to dwell in our hearts. For us that means that, in spite of all appearances to the contrary, in spite of all the real and difficult troubles we encounter in the world, we nevertheless even now share in the victory of Christ who has already overcome them all. His victory, applied to our lives, becomes courage.

But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ (See First Corinthians 15:57).

For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith (see First John 5:4).

On our own we can't think or act our way into a victorious life. Our efforts leave us tired and disheartened. The one who makes it possible for us to live out the victory of Christ in our own daily lives is circumstances is the Holy Spirit. Yet we often relate to the Spirit only distantly, only vaguely aware that there even is a Spirit at all. Yet we have in fact received him in baptism and in the laying on of hands we experienced in our confirmation. Even so, he often remains relatively dormant and inactive within us. Especially as we approach Pentecost we ought to look to rekindle the gift we have been given, and to fan cooling embers into a robust flame.

For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands (see Second Timothy 1:6).

TobyMac - Catchafire (Whoopsi-Daisy)

21 May 2023 - kingdom go?

Today's Readings for the Ascension

(Audio)

He presented himself alive to them

by many proofs after he had suffered,

appearing to them during forty days

and speaking about the kingdom of God.

Jesus had taken great care to appear to his apostles, demonstrating that he the cross had not been a defeat, but that death itself had in fact been conquered. He was not merely a vision or a spirit or an apparition. He was present to them bodily. He ate and drank with them and was able to be touched and embraced by them. He continued to speak of the kingdom of God which had always been his most frequent theme. Yet he did not use this apparent new found invincibility to go forward into the wider world, bringing about his kingdom by conquest. 

When they had gathered together they asked him,

“Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”

The disciples were still expecting something different of the kingdom than what Jesus himself intended. Their expectations were probably growing by the day, as all of his appearances to them seemed to be preparing them for something. They not doubt recalled that he had promised that they would sit on twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel (see Matthew 19:28). Was he now gathering the twelve to go forward with him to establish this kingdom on earth? Indeed he was, but not in the way they imagined. The kingdom would not be some visible and immediate change in worldly structures of power. 

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you,

Jesus taught that the kingdom of God was in the midst of his listeners. And this was true precisely because he was the king, and the kingdom consisted of everyone gathered around him. But there were limits to the ways in which the human body of Jesus could be present to the multitude. Therefore, to accelerate the coming of his kingdom he desired to shift the mode of his presence from visible, through his body, to invisible, through his Spirit. 

and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem,

throughout Judea and Samaria,

and to the ends of the earth.

The disciples were being prepared to do more than sit back and watch the king conquer. They were being prepared to serve as his own hands and feet in the world. They were being prepared not to be conquerors, nor to build up the kingdom by battles with flesh and blood, but witnesses, building up the kingdom through the warfare of the Spirit. The kingdom would be found anywhere Jesus himself was welcomed. This meant that the enemies of the kingdom were not Romans or Jews or any other flesh and blood, but the powers of darkness.

are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?

Although there was to be a time when the kingdom would go forth in a hidden and invisible way it was nevertheless still the case that a day would come when the kingdom was fully restored and the king himself reigned completely. His reign would not remain forever heavenly and invisible but would one day restore all things even within the visible order of creation. However, the timing of the coming of the kingdom was to remain elusive. The disciples had no guarantees about any specifics regarding the spread of the Gospel, nor about when this project would reach its culmination. Jesus promised them something better than specific details. He promised his abiding presence. He promised that his own power, the power of the Holy Spirit would fill his body of believers from on high.  This was to be an age of trust in the invisible power and presence of God in our midst, the age of the Holy Spirit.

And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.

Our celebration of the Ascension can often find us like those "standing there looking at the sky". But the Ascension is not a time to lament the visible absence of Jesus, but rather to celebrate the new fullness of his invisible presence. We are not to simply wait longingly for the kingdom to happen. Rather, the kingdom is still in our midst because Jesus himself is with us. We must learn to let this reality define our lives as disciples and to invite others to experience it for themselves. 

The Holy Spirit is the one who alone can transform us from disciples immobilized by fear and confusion into effective and courageous members of the body of Christ in the world. It is this revelation that Paul prays be given to his readers in our passage from Ephesians. Let us hear ourselves as included in this prayer:

May the eyes of your hearts be enlightened,

that you may know what is the hope that belongs to his call,

what are the riches of glory

in his inheritance among the holy ones,

and what is the surpassing greatness of his power

for us who believe

Because of the Ascension and the gift of the Spirit we are joined to Jesus in a better way than merely physically close to him. From heaven he reigns as head over all things as head the the Church which is his body. He is even now moving to more and more fill all things in every way. Let's stop staring aimlessly at the sky and allow him to equip us with the power we need and then use us as he himself desires.

God mounts his throne amid shouts of joy;

the LORD, amid trumpet blasts.

Sing praise to God, sing praise;

sing praise to our king, sing praise.

Songs In His Presence - Psalm 47: God Mounts His Throne

East B Music Ministry - You Shall Be Clothed With Power

20 May 2023 - whatever you ask

Today's Readings

(Audio)

Amen, amen, I say to you,

whatever you ask the Father in my name he will give you.

We must ask in order to receive, seek in order to find, and knock so that the door may be opened to us. God does much in his providential care for us even when we do not ask. He does not ignore us or wait until we come to him to love us. He loved us before we had our first thought of him and indeed before we were capable of any thought at all. We were known and loved before we were formed in the womb (see Jeremiah 1:5). And yet God reserves many of his gifts to those who ask. This is meant to make us realize that their reception by us is no accident which in turn trains us both to open ourselves in receptivity and to respond with thanksgiving.

Until now you have not asked anything in my name;

ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be complete.

When we ask the Father in the name of the Son we are in effect trying to conform to the image of the Son, molding ourselves in his likeness. We go to the Father not through our own merit nor chiefly for our own desires. Rather, we go to the Father through the merit of the Son, trying to ask as the Son would ask. We should try to use this credit we have from the Son with the Father as the Son himself would spend it. How chaotic and unreconcilable it would be if everyone prayed to the Father in his own name for the desires of his flesh. By contrast, how great a symphony is the unity of prayer among believers united in the Son. It is prayer of this sort that keeps the world turning and keeps history on course to its ultimate goal of consummation in God himself. One consequence of being a part of this process for we who participate is joy. It is a joy that transcends circumstances and reassures us, in spite of appearances to the contrary, that God is in control and that we ourselves are safely on the path.

The hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figures

but I will tell you clearly about the Father.

It is the resurrection of Jesus and the descent of the Holy Spirit into our hearts that allow us to hear and understand clearly about the Father. The Spirit of love fills our hearts more and more, making us love Jesus, and as a consequence, making us like him. We come to embody our identity more and more as sons and daughters united in the Son. Therefore the Father himself recognizes us and hears in our prayers the very desires of his only begotten Son himself. The same love with which the Father loves the Son is what moves him to answer us when we pray. Is it any wonder that an overflow of joy into our hearts is a consequence of this?

Jesus sometimes has to revert to figures instead of plain speech for those who us who are reluctant to embrace the paschal mystery. It is only in the transformation made possible by the cross that we become able to open ourselves to the love dynamics of the Triune God. It is from that cross that Jesus poured out living water on the world. In doing so he refashioned human nature twisted and closed in on itself by sin and made it able to love as he himself loves. And it is this cruciform love that Jesus himself imparts to us by the Holy Spirit that his Father recognizes and to which he responds in us.

I came from the Father and have come into the world.

Now I am leaving the world and going back to the Father.

Jesus returned to the Father but his power is still present in the world. The power of his death and resurrection is still transforming weak and sinful creatures, making them joyful, and giving them power to advance the Kingdom in our midst. 

He began to speak boldly in the synagogue;

but when Priscilla and Aquila heard him,

they took him aside

and explained to him the Way of God more accurately.

We see in Apollos an example of someone moving through the stages of transformation, becoming increasingly conformed to the image of Jesus. The first level for him was the ability to speak and teach accurately about Jesus. But these were, more or less, figures of speech. The next level was the sacramental baptism of the Church which united him with Jesus and brought the Trinity to dwell in his heart. This was when he began to learn "clearly" about the Father, not through words as much as through experience. And it is clear that this increased depth of relationship gave him increased power to act in the name of Jesus.

After his arrival he gave great assistance

to those who had come to believe through grace.

He vigorously refuted the Jews in public,

establishing from the Scriptures that the Christ is Jesus.

Those of us who have been baptized often neglect to avail ourselves of the fullness of the gift we have received. We are reluctant to ask for much, telling ourselves that if something is God's will he will do it regardless. Yet this is clearly at odds with revelation. Joy and the fullness of life are meant to be things which we don't receive accidentally, but which we are given from his abundance as a response to prayer. Yet it isn't all about us. Nor is it primarily for our sakes that we must ask. Our prayers are meant to make present Jesus and his mission and Kingdom in the world. We neglect them only at great peril. Let us learn more accurately the Way of God so that we may ask the Father in the name of the Son. Then we will finally begin to taste this joy we say we want. Thus far we have not pursued it with much tenacity. May that change beginning here and now.

Jesus Culture - Break Every Chain

19 May 2023 - joy no one will take

Today's Readings

(Audio)

Amen, amen, I say to you, you will weep and mourn,

while the world rejoices;

you will grieve, but your grief will become joy.

The disciples wept and mourned during the crucifixion and death of their Lord. At the same time, the world, that aggregation of all of the powers hostile to God in society, religion, and politics came together to rejoice. They rejoiced that the enemy who sought to expose their corruption, who would not leave the status quo unchallenged, appeared to have been defeated. Their joy was marked by hostility, by mockery, and by callous indifference to suffering. They enjoyed the death of Jesus as though it was nothing more than a spectacle, as one might watch a TV show. They shouted, as it were, it the screen, and took pleasure in supporting, as they thought, the winning side. How disappointed and unsettled they would be when they heard the tomb was empty.

This pattern of the cross and resurrection was not only descriptive of Jesus, but is also emblematic of Christians who are called to take up our crosses daily and to follow him. Just as Jesus endured suffering and persecution for the joy set before him so too must those who would be his disciples. To be able to do so we must internalize this perspective of Jesus that puts our Godly grief in the proper context of our impending joy. We are called to remember that no matter what suffering we must undergo in our earthly lives that "the bad inn lasts for only a night" as Saint Teresa of Avila said. Or, as Paul said, "this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison" (see Second Corinthians 4:17).

When a woman is in labor, she is in anguish because her hour has arrived;

but when she has given birth to a child,

she no longer remembers the pain because of her joy

that a child has been born into the world.

How much strength it must give a woman to know that her labor pains are leading to the joy of childbirth. How different the experience would be if those pains were borne without any understanding or explanation. But we are often like those in labor pains that do not remember toward what those pains are tending. Rather than timing our breathing and efforts to cooperate with the process we lose heart. At best this takes the form of seeking distractions. At worst it leads us on the path of sin. 

The world is not willing to concede that much of what it celebrates as happiness and joy is limited, sinful, and corrupt. It cannot see beyond its own horizon to recognize the places true joy can be found. It is constrained to try to maximize pleasure in this present age and so fails to value things that transcend our earthly lives, not only God and his Kingdom, but even interpersonal relationships with other men and women. For the world things become a zero sum game where every individual must eek out for himself such pleasure as he can.

The world will mock our Christian hope. It can't help itself but to do so. It will often be critical of Christians, calling us irresponsible, ignoring how we do our best to build up the earthly city, even as we seek first the Kingdom. We must be ready to be misunderstood and yet stand our ground as we pursue something more than temporary pleasure.

But I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice,

and no one will take your joy away from you.

Now it is clear that the fullness of this "see you again" will be realized for us when Jesus comes to bring us home. And yet, as we die to self and learn to live in love more and more, as we open ourselves to the Holy Spirit and his fruit, we begin to experience this unrelenting and unshakable joy even in this life. Already the divine life becomes fruitful within us and we become compelling signs of God's action in our midst to a world without hope.

It is clear that Paul's missionary life was marked by joy. We see that it was not a joy dictated by circumstances but one that required a higher explanation. It no doubt fed into the desire of others to persecute him. But to others it made him irresistible. If we desire the world to see what we have to offer as more than a matter of arguments over doctrine and titles we must embrace this paradigm of Jesus so that the joy he desires to pour out can be a sign to the world that he is himself alive and at work among us, an invitation to those who are barren to come to him to find life.

All you peoples, clap your hands,

shout to God with cries of gladness,

For the LORD, the Most High, the awesome,

is the great king over all the earth.

Newsboys - Joy

18 May 2023 - afraid to ask?

Today's Readings (non-Ascension)

(Audio)

So some of his disciples said to one another,

“What does this mean that he is saying to us,

‘A little while and you will not see me,

and again a little while and you will see me,’

and ‘Because I am going to the Father’?”

So they said, “What is this ‘little while’ of which he speaks?

We do not know what he means.”

Jesus would have known that his disciples couldn't take this teaching in right away. They wanted to know what he meant but seemed to be afraid to ask. So instead, they speculated amongst themselves. Rather than bring the difficult matter to Jesus for definitive judgment they preferred to remain in the realm of subjective opinion. It was true that even in that realm the saying they discussed still seemed quite dark and dire. But at least it wasn't pinned down to something specific. 

The disciples modeled a response to difficult things that we seem wont to imitate. We are all too ready to speculate among ourselves about all manner of things, but are not always ready to bring them to God for his definitive judgment. For what if that judgment includes weeping, mourning, and grief? But by not bringing something to Jesus we allow it to have power over ours minds. By bringing it to him he can put it in its proper place and perspective. Yes, we may first weep and mourn. But in Jesus way may look forward in hope to our grief turning to joy.

Jesus knew that they wanted to ask him, so he said to them

Jesus desires to interrupt our closed and isolated conversations and break in with his good news that, whatever the cross might be, in him, it will always lead to the joy of the resurrection. He will wait patiently for an opportunity to do so, a moment when we let our guard down and stop speaking incessantly of our own opinions about things so that he might get a word in edgewise. Better still, though, if we remember to ask him what he thinks and then to listen for his answer. It may for a moment be chastening to hear of the sorrow that must yet come. But when we know the joy to which it can lead we grow strong and can endure, just as Jesus himself did.

looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God (see Hebrews 12:2).

Mourning and grief might be a part of the picture but Jesus taught that the one who mourned was blessed (see Matthew 5:4). This was not for the sake of the grief itself, but because it was a necessary waypoint on the path to joy. There is on the one hand a worldly grief that is not helpful and leads nowhere. But there is on the other hand a godly grief that leads ever nearer to salvation.

For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death (see Second Corinthians 7:10).

Why are we so eager to keep our worldly grief? What keeps us so attached to it and yet shuns withdraws from Godly sorrow? Do we do this because we feel somehow more in control? Do we do it out of fear of the unknown? Are we afraid of the metamorphosis Godly sorrow might require and catalyze in our souls? Let us learn to trade this worldly sorrow along with our control for something better. Even if we can't know exactly where it leads we can nevertheless trust in our leader to guide us safely. Even if we pass through the valley of the shadow of death we can have courage with him at our side.

Learning not to fear what the world fears and not to avoid what the world avoids were prerequisites to Paul's missionary success. He was not swayed by persecution from Roman authorities nor from lack of acceptance by his listeners. He knew that God could somehow turn even such apparent setbacks as this to joy. He learned through his own experience that, "for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose" (see Romans 8:28).

Crispus, the synagogue official, came to believe in the Lord

along with his entire household, and many of the Corinthians

who heard believed and were baptized.

Darrell Evans - Trading My Sorrows