4 November 2017 - assigned seating

Today's Readings (Audio)

The LORD is inviting us to the wedding banquet of the lamb. He is calling us to come and join in the feast that unites heaven and earth. We must come as little children.

When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet,
do not recline at table in the place of honor.

The place of honor is not earned, it is given. There are not seats with labels like 'Prayed every day', or 'Gave most of his money to the poor', nor are they given based on any other achievement great or small. Yet there are seats of honor. They do exist. And if we are invited to the feast the real key is listen for where Jesus tells us to sit.

Paul helps the Gentiles not to see themselves as better than the Jews.  It seems like more of them are coming to the feast at the moment. Yet, the definitive seats are not yet given, Paul cautions. The Gentiles did nothing to merit their own place in the ceremony and the Jewish people's short-term refusal will not stop God from bringing in their full number.

Now if their transgression is enrichment for the world,
and if their diminished number is enrichment for the Gentiles,
how much more their full number.

Humanly, we would be all too ready at one time to praise the Jewish people and at another time to praise the Gentiles for accepting Jesus. We would get the assigned seating all wrong. Our assessment is wrong because, however well or poorly we see people respond to God's call, he is still at work in hidden and mysterious ways to bring as many people to places of honor as he can.

The Lord will not abandon his people.

So let us trust in him with humility rather than allow ourselves to become puffed up with pride because at the moment we seem to e the ones responding to the call.

For the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable.

3 November 2017 - love++

Today's Readings (Audio)

For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ
for the sake of my own people,
my kindred according to the flesh. 

This is the Holy Spirit at work within Paul. This is charity that is above and beyond what is natural for humans. It builds on a love that he already had for his people. But it turns that love into the self-sacrificial love of Christ. It changes merely human love into a love that is willing to do anything possible in order that others may come to know Christ overall and God blessed forever.

We hear a lot about the importance of self-care. We are told that it is important to secure our own oxygen mask before attempting to help others. And it is. But it cannot be an excuse for sitting happily in our seats watching the entertainment console as the plane crashes and burns. The Pharisees are basically doing this with the Sabbath. They aren't interested in others, nor even so much in their relationship with God, as they are with their own rest and their own self-image as followers of the law.

"Is it lawful to cure on the sabbath or not?"
But they kept silent; so he took the man and,
after he had healed him, dismissed him.

The Holy Spirit wants to help us love others the way that Jesus loves them. He wants us to be able to lay our lives down for them if need be. We know that if we are willing to seek first the kingdom without counting the cost we receive infinitely more than anything we stand to lose.

He has granted peace in your borders;
with the best of wheat he fills you.

2 November 2017 - soul purpose

Today's Readings (Audio)

The souls of the just are in the hand of God

Today we celebrate a hope full of immortality. It is the hope with which Jesus himself fills us.

Hope does not disappoint,
because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts
through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.

It is hope based on God's love for us. Christ died for us while we were still sinners. Our hope is strong because it is given to us not based on what we deserve or on what we earn, but based on the love of God.

But God proves his love for us
in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.
How much more then, since we are now justified by his Blood,
will we be saved through him from the wrath.

If he did all of that in spite of our sinful past do we suppose there is anything he won't do to bring us all the way home? The only thing he won't do is force us. He is the perfect gentleman. He asks us to walk in the newness of life, but it is an invitation.

If, then, we have died with Christ,
we believe that we shall also live with him.

Do we choose to share in the death of one for all? Do we choose to let it transform us? The souls of the faithful departed did choose to share in this death. Many of them are still being transformed. They are still experiencing the final throes of this death before their resurrection dawns. This is purgatory. This is the change, perhaps in the twinkling of an eye, to be made worthy of glory. This is the final bestowing of the holiness without which no one can see God (see Hebrews 12:14). When we pray for the deceased we have great cause for hope. They are a sign that God neither abandons us if we don't become holy on our own nor does he simply ignore the brokenness within us. The deceased show us that God will not give up on us if we do not give up on him. If we hold out to the end we will be saved.

And this is the will of the one who sent me,
that I should not lose anything of what he gave me,
but that I should raise it on the last day.

The LORD shepherds us through the dark valleys of life. He shepherds us through the final dark valley as well. He is the only one who can guide us safely through. Let us pray for the souls of those still on the way. We can experience great unity with them as we are transformed from one degree of glory to another. We can marvel at the hope we share.

Even though I walk in the dark valley
I fear no evil; for you are at my side
with your rod and your staff
that give me courage.

1 November 2017 - for all the saints

Today's Readings (Audio)

Poverty, mourning, hunger, and thirst, persecution and insult are hard things. It is difficult to see beyond them. Even relatively positive traits like meekness, mercy, and purity don't jump out and make us want them in the way that comfort, time, and treasure do. Jesus asks us to look more deeply. When we are poor are spirit we experience freedom. If we mourn earthly loss we can be comforted with heavenly blessings. Meekness may result in the powerful insisting on their way for the moment. But the ultimate truth is that the land belongs to one who is stronger than the strong. We experience that all that is his is ours when we stop insisting on what is ours apart from him. Even hunger and thirst have value. If we hunger and thirst for righteousness more than bread which does not satisfy and water which does not quench thirst for long we can know lasting satisfaction.

Rejoice and be glad,
for your reward will be great in heaven.

The reward is perfectly experienced in heaven. But we taste it even now provided we don't get hung up on the apparent negative aspects of choosing to value heaven more than earth. We need to seek first the kingdom without worrying about all these other things besides.

The Father calls us his children. His love transforms us and makes us more like him. It is this love that helps us love things in proportion to their value. We love the things of heaven more than the things of earth because we love God most of all.

We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him,
for we shall see him as he is.

We probably have no idea how amazing is the upward call given to each one of us. Our minds are so polluted with the earthly and the negative that we have a hard time seeing beyond the negative when we read the beatitudes. But the life that is to come, the life that we can taste even now, is worth so much more than any earthly good.

Amen. Blessing and glory, wisdom and thanksgiving,
honor, power, and might
be to our God forever and ever. Amen.

In the saints we have examples of people who choose to live this life here and now. They are not the worse for it. The experience the deepest joy, the most complete peace, and the most perfect happiness. Let us ask them to intercede for us as we strive to imitate their reckless pursuit of God.

Such is the race that seeks him,
that seeks the face of the God of Jacob.

31 October 2017 - the hope we knead

To what can I compare it?
It is like a mustard seed that a man took and planted in the garden.

The Kingdom of heaven starts small. It's growth is hidden.

Again he said, "To what shall I compare the Kingdom of God?
It is like yeast that a woman took
and mixed in with three measures of wheat flour

The process is almost invisible to an observer until the results are seen. This can be frustrating. Even if we aren't control freaks we like to know that we're heading in the right direction. We like to see results as vindication of our choices. But the Kingdom is more about trust than trial and error. It is more about faith in the one who gives the growth than any special skill we ourselves possess. It seems to only become more true as we grow in holiness. God works within us in ways that is by necessity hidden from our awareness. But the thing that is not hidden, or should not be, is that God is indeed at work. He is with us because he promises to be.

When it was fully grown, it became a large bush
and the birds of the sky dwelt in its branches.

We await the full grown bush and the leavened dough. We await the glorious freedom of the sons of God. A common pitfall for us is to use our suffering as an indication that we're doing something wrong. But it is not necessarily so. It might be. If we suffer because we fail to follow God then that is not a good thing. But rather than trying to change course as a response to our suffering let us instead try harder to follow God. The actual inner workings of the Kingdom are too hidden for any other approach to work. This is why we need hope.

For in hope we were saved.
Now hope that sees for itself is not hope. 
For who hopes for what one sees?
But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait with endurance.

We know that the glorious freedom of the children of God awaits us even if right now we feel suffering. We don't have to get into competition with that suffering to bring about the kingdom ourselves. Instead we trust in God whole will one day set creation itself free from slavery to corruption and give us the freedom for which we long. We cling to him.

Although they go forth weeping,
carrying the seed to be sown,
They shall come back rejoicing,
carrying their sheaves.

30 October 2017 - by the Spirit

Today's Readings (Audio)

But the leader of the synagogue,
indignant that Jesus had cured on the sabbath,
said to the crowd in reply,
"There are six days when work should be done.

The crowd doesn't understand the purpose of these laws. If they truly respected the Sabbath they would come to an ever deeper relationship with God. That relationship would compel them to offering what mercy they were able to offer to those in need even on the Sabbath.

The crowd is thinking as "debtors to the flesh". We witness here what the flesh does to twist laws which are good and just. It all stems from fear and the need to protect oneself. Laws are then used as part of an aggressive campaign designed to protect our comfort. The Sabbath is not used for relationship as it is meant to be. It is rather used against love of neighbor. It is used to minimize our responsibilities. But this is not what the law is really about.

This daughter of Abraham,
whom Satan has bound for eighteen years now,
ought she not to have been set free on the sabbath day
from this bondage?

How do we prevent our flesh from twisting God's laws in this way? We live by the spirit instead. That means we put to death the deeds of the flesh by the supernatural power of God.

For those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.
For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear,
but you received a spirit of adoption,
through which we cry, "Abba, Father!"

The power we need begins with the Spirit crying out Abba in our spirit. This cry enables us to live beyond the fears that constrain our flesh. It allows us to believe in God and to trust the plans he has for us no matter what circumstances bring.

The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit
that we are children of God,
and if children, then heirs,
heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ,
if only we suffer with him
so that we may also be glorified with him.

Let us allow the Spirit within us to convince us that we are children of a loving Father. Let that knowledge lead us beyond fear into selfless love.

The father of orphans and the defender of widows
is God in his holy dwelling.
God gives a home to the forsaken;
he leads forth prisoners to prosperity.

29 October 2017 - the greatest

Today's Readings (Audio)

"Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?" 

In other words, how can we set one commandment against another? We want to say that we can't carry out the one because we must carry out the other. And it's hard to blame us. There are so many commandments that to do them all seems impossible. It seems like we always have to choose one thing at the expense of another. We want to feel OK with these omissions. We want to minimize that which is expected of us. But Jesus will have none of it.

He said to him,
"You shall love the Lord, your God,
with all your heart,
with all your soul,
and with all your mind.
This is the greatest and the first commandment.
The second is like it:
You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 

Rather than giving us a flow chart of possible choices Jesus instead shows the motivation that must underlie every choice. Rather than allowing the commandments to be divided up and set in opposition he reveals the unifying principle of love that binds them all together. First comes the love of God, and from that we are called to love what he loves. There is no other choice that makes sense when it is put this way. We can choose to love God and to love what he loves or we can choose something less. This means we don't choose between loving aliens and the poor and loving God. These things are one and the same. That is why whatever we do to the least of our brothers and sisters we do to Jesus himself.

This love to which we are called is not a human love. We can't seem to love anything wholeheartedly, let alone follow God in that way. But Jesus wants to show us the way.

And you became imitators of us and of the Lord,
receiving the word in great affliction, with joy from the Holy Spirit

If we receive the word in this way we become evidence to the world that God is real. We reveal that his promises are solid and true.

but in every place your faith in God has gone forth,
so that we have no need to say anything. 

The LORD invites us to love him today. He wants to be our strength. Let us respond with all that we are.

I love you, O LORD, my strength,
O LORD, my rock, my fortress, my deliverer.