6 May 2018 - friend request

Today's Readings (Audio)

It all begins with the love God has for us.

In this is love:
not that we have loved God, but that he loved us
and sent his Son as expiation for our sins.

We are called to remain in the love which we are first shown. The commandments tell us how we can avoid stepping outside of this river of love.

Remain in my love.
If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love,
just as I have kept my Father's commandments
and remain in his love.

We don't earn love by carrying out the commandments. The commandments draw boundaries to show us how we can safely live lives of love. To break a commandment is inherently a failure of love. Yet we are called to more than this principle of avoiding things that are less than love. We are called to actively love. We are called to give of ourselves.

No one has greater love than this,
to lay down one's life for one's friends.

Those who seek to gain there lives end up losing them. They seek after that which they cannot hold. But those who give their lives for others discover the true source of lasting joy.

I have told you this so that my joy may be in you
and your joy might be complete.
This is my commandment: love one another as I love you.

Those who embrace this approach to love become friends with Jesus. This self-giving love is so essential that we don't really understand Jesus enough to be his friends if we ignore it. It is impossible to have a real friendship with Jesus if we don't allow him to transform us with his own self-giving love and make us able to love that way ourselves.

No one has a particular advantage self-giving love. We all need the grace of the Holy Spirit to be made capable of it.

The circumcised believers who had accompanied Peter
were astounded that the gift of the Holy Spirit
should have been poured out on the Gentiles also,
for they could hear them speaking in tongues and glorifying God.

But God stands ready to send his Spirit at the slightest request on our part. He sits waiting and longing for us to ask for more of his Spirit. He wants to teach us to love and to make us his friends.

The LORD has made his salvation known:
in the sight of the nations he has revealed his justice.
He has remembered his kindness and his faithfulness
toward the house of Israel.

5 May 2018 - you do not belong to the world

Today's Readings (Audio)

We are sometimes reluctant to let Jesus fully into our lives. We don't want to keep his words or the words of his Apostles because those words might make the world hate us. Walking with Jesus means being in the world but not of it. We are called to be distinct, a city on a hill, and a beacon of hope. But that means that our behavior is different from that of the world. We live and testify to a different and better standard. Because of this the world feels challenged, not only by our words, but by our lives authentically lived in Christ.

Jesus said to his disciples: 
"If the world hates you, realize that it hated me first.
If you belonged to the world, the world would love its own;
but because you do not belong to the world,
and I have chosen you out of the world,
the world hates you.

This is not to say that there isn't much that can be adapted to the culture, to make it easier to understand.

On account of the Jews of that region, Paul had him circumcised,
for they all knew that his father was a Greek.

Paul allows Timothy to be circumcised all the while proclaiming that circumcision is not necessary for salvation for Gentiles. It's OK that it happens so that he doesn't stand out or cause problems. But Paul definitely often stands against the idea that it is necessary to join the new people of God formed around Jesus. As we walk with Jesus we need to understand this difference between what is essential, the message of the death and resurrection of Jesus and the salvation it makes possible, and what is merely accidental. The more we understand this difference the more we will be able to double down on what truly matters.

Above all we must be attentive to the Holy Spirit. He reminds us of everything Jesus says and guides us into all truth. If he is with us we don't need to be afraid of proclaiming the Gospel. If we try to say the wrong thing or go to the wrong place he will prevent us if we're paying attention.

When they came to Mysia, they tried to go on into Bithynia,
but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them

This discernment of what we are going to do but should not frees us to listen for new opportunities to which we are called.

During the night Paul had a vision.
A Macedonian stood before him and implored him with these words,
"Come over to Macedonia and help us."

We need to listen to the Spirit and follow the Spirit. He calls us back to the essential truth of what Jesus says. He is the light with which our city on a hill shines. He is the living water for which the world thirsts.

Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.

4 May 2018 - living for giving

Today's Readings (Audio)

Jesus shows us the meaning of life.

No one has greater love than this,
to lay down one's life for one's friends.

We find our lives only when we give them away. The more we try to get and hold the less we have that really matters. The more of our time, talent, and treasure that we are able to put in the altar the more meaning and fulfillment we discover.

Giving our lives away does not imply that we remain advantaged people giving our favor to those who are less than us. It does not imply superiority. Rather our love seeks to lift those others up to sit on the same level on which we ourselves sit. They then join us in spreading the love of God.

I have called you friends,
because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father.

This kind of love is the secret of bearing fruit that lasts. It is love that is ready to forget any imagined superiority and to lift others up just as we are first lifted to sit in heavenly places. This kind of love allows a devote Jew like Paul to love Gentiles without insisting on distinctions that don't really matter.

It is the decision of the Holy Spirit and of us
not to place on you any burden beyond these necessities,
namely, to abstain from meat sacrificed to idols,
from blood, from meats of strangled animals,
and from unlawful marriage.

Of course doctrine is important. The law of the LORD gives joy to the soul. The commandments are not burdensome. But we stand based on grace so the law is no point of pride for us. It is not intended to be a distinction between us and those we love. We are meant to grow together in the love which Jesus shows us. We give our lives away and lift others up with us so that all artificial distinctions give way to the unity of the Spirit.

I will give thanks to you among the peoples, O LORD,
I will chant your praise among the nations.
For your mercy towers to the heavens,
and your faithfulness to the skies.

3 May 2018 - apostolic mission

Today's Readings (Audio)

Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you for so long a time
and you still do not know me, Philip?
Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.

We have experienced a lot more than we realize. We often say ask, 'Just show us Jesus and that will be enough for us.' Yet we see Jesus at least every week in the Eucharist. We ask for more experience of the Father and of the Holy Spirit, yet the Father, the Spirit and Jesus are one. Because Jesus dwells in us so too do the Father and the Spirit.

Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?

When we receive Jesus in the Eucharist his Father and his Holy Spirit come to dwell in us as well. These are things which we tend to take for granted that we need to learn to appreciate. When we are giving thanks to God we should remember these blessings and intentionally believe in them and thank God for them.

Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me,
or else, believe because of the works themselves.

We are not Apostles in the way that Philip and James are Apostles. But Jesus does appear to us if we have eyes of faith. Jesus is risen, not just in the pages of Scriptures, but in each week of our lives. We need to realize this and become witnesses to these things.

For I handed on to you as of first importance what I also received:
that Christ died for our sins
in accordance with the Scriptures;
that he was buried;
that he was raised on the third day
in accordance with the Scriptures

Jesus is risen and we are meant to be his witnesses. Let us ask for a deepening of faith to recognize him when he appears to us in each of our lives. Then let us ask for boldness to join with creation in proclaiming the glory of God.

Through all the earth their voice resounds,
and to the ends of the world, their message.

2 May 2018 - pruned Jews and Gentiles

Today's Readings (Audio)

He takes away every branch in me that does not bear fruit,
and everyone that does he prunes so that it bears more fruit.

Are there parts of us that need to go? Beyond the initial call from Jesus, beyond the initial pruning by his word that saves us from our sins, are there parts of our lives that aren't bearing good fruit? Are there parts of our lives that are disconnected from Jesus and from his Kingdom?

Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit,
because without me you can do nothing.

This doesn't mean that everything we do is specifically relgious. It does mean that it all bears fruit. What sort of fruit?

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law (see Galatians 5:22-23).

We don't tend to discern our own actions very well. We subject ourselves to things that give us anxiety rather than peace and consternation rather than joy. We allow ourselves to be mastered by things which should at most be recreational pursuits. Or else these pursuits simply leave us empty, drained, and certainly no more able to love or to show forth the goodness of God. Not everything we do is specifically religious. But God should be able to work through absolutely everything we do and be present in every circumstance in order to make us more able to bear fruit.

By this is my Father glorified,
that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.

When we get good at being pruned we will be better at welcoming others into God's Kingdom. We won't subject them to our own hangups. Our preconceptions won't limit us. Instead, we'll be willing to submit our own judgment to that of the Church, guided as it is by the Holy Spirit.

it was decided that Paul, Barnabas, and some of the others
should go up to Jerusalem to the Apostles and presbyters
about this question. 

How much of our own lives and practices are we willing to offer to God? If he finds anything in our hearts which is not helpful and not bearing fruit let us ask him to prune it from us. It may not seem like joy at first. But it is the only way to joy.

I rejoiced because they said to me,
"We will go up to the house of the LORD."
And now we have set foot
within your gates, O Jerusalem.

1 May 2018 - an inseperable peace

Today's Readings (Audio)

It is necessary for us to undergo many hardships
to enter the Kingdom of God.

Paul and Barnabas knew this all too well. After all, Paul had just been stoned and left for dead. But a hardship can be endured in two ways. We can grit our teeth and try to bear it on our own. Or we can endure it with the peace that comes from Jesus.

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.
Not as the world gives do I give it to you.

The peace that the world gives can only run away in the face of many hardships. Or else that peace must be maintained with violence. Only the peace of Jesus can persist right in the midst of our trials. Jesus helps his disciples come to a deeper trust in him. He is going to the Cross. He wants his disciples to stick with him as long as they can. Those who truly internalize this lesson are able to stand by his side as he gives his life for the salvation of the world. Those who merely look to Jesus to supplement their experience of the peace and comfort of this world end up running away. The ruler of this present darkness has no power over those who know the peace of Christ.

If you loved me,
you would rejoice that I am going to the Father;
for the Father is greater than I.

In order to experience the peace of Jesus we need to believe that God has a plan. We need to trust that plan. We don't necessarily need to understand it. It may be given to us to understand bits and pieces of it and this may be important. But we can't depend on our understanding for peace. Peace comes from trust alone. We can trust that God makes all this work together for the good of those who love him and who are called according to his purpose (see Romans 8:28). This enables us, like Paul and Barnabas, to proclaim the Kingdom no matter the cost to ourselves.

Let all your works give you thanks, O LORD,
and let your faithful ones bless you.
Let them discourse of the glory of your kingdom
and speak of your might.

30 April 2018 - loving memory

Today's Readings (Audio)

Whoever loves me will keep my word,
and my Father will love him,
and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him.

Judas, not the Iscariot, wonders why it seems like Jesus is not doing more to reveal himself to everyone. This Judas suspects that the message of Jesus is so important as to matter to the whole world and he is correct. But perhaps the answer to his question is one of timing. In another place Jesus mentions that it is from the Cross that he will draw all men to himself. The invitation given on the Cross is open to anyone. Jesus reveals his love to the world to see who will respond in turn by loving him. 

Those who love Jesus and keep his word receive more than some distant afterlife in heaven. We receive the divine presence living in us here and now. We forget about all that God offers. We experience little bits and pieces of all that Jesus has for us. But we are quick to get used to them pieces, mistake them for all there is, and compartmentalize them to a spiritual part of our lives. Because we don't go deep enough we don't find enough grace to fill our whole lives. Our lives, then, quickly revert to the Sunday only mode. We find enough grace to live that way, but not much beyond. We need the Holy Spirit who lives within us to remind us of everything Jesus says, everything he has for us.

I have told you this while I am with you.
The Advocate, the Holy Spirit 
whom the Father will send in my name --
he will teach you everything
and remind you of all that I told you.

We prefer a comfortable faith that never notices when someone might have the faith to be healed.

He listened to Paul speaking, who looked intently at him,
saw that he had the faith to be healed,
and called out in a loud voice, "Stand up straight on your feet."
He jumped up and began to walk about.

Instead of a comfortable faith Jesus promised us that we would do greater works than him. He shows us the magnitude of what it means for the Holy Trinity to live in our hearts. These healings come from the power of the cross. They are part of the inspiration that draws all people to Jesus. When the Spirit asks them of us they are not optional. What would have happened to the crippled man, and indeed the crowds of Lycaonian, if Paul had been content with Sunday only grace, if he had not been listening to the Spirit reminding him of what Jesus had said?

Let's not shrink from our task. Even without us God bestows his goodness. But by grace, the goodness he wants to bestow on the world through us is of a different order entirely.

In past generations he allowed all Gentiles to go their own ways;
yet, in bestowing his goodness,
he did not leave himself without witness,
for he gave you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons,
and filled you with nourishment and gladness for your hearts.

Let's ask the Spirit to remind us of the words of Jesus. This is a good question not just for Sunday but for all the circumstances in which we find ourselves.

Not to us, O LORD, not to us
but to your name give glory
because of your mercy, because of your truth.
Why should the pagans say,
"Where is their God?"