Are we looking or just waiting

 

The Mystery of Christmas includes the feasts of the Nativity and the Epiphany. In the Nativity we commemorate God’s humble entrance into human life, incarnated in Jesus. In the Epiphany we celebrate Jesus as God’s gift to the world and openly expresses our longing for intimacy with God. (Matthew 2: 1-12)

The Good News of Christmas and Epiphany is "Emmanuel", "God-with-us!" We, like the Magi need only the light of strong, unwavering faith to see Him, to find Him, to serve Him in the people around us: in the circumstances of our everyday living. We need only to trust in and know as did the Magi, God's love for us…then we will recognize His presence and His power in “sunrise and sunset, in storm and calm, in the faces of children and wisdom of the elderly, in moments of elation and heart-break. We will see His radiance and warmth behind every cloud of sorrow or failure that darkens our days.” (Dan Clendenin, The Journey with Jesus: Notes to Myself)

The Magi went to extraordinary lengths to look for the Christ Child. They serve to remind us that there are those who wait for the coming of the Jesus with those who make the effort to find Him. Like the magi, our search goes on - but so does Epiphany…Are we actively looking or merely waiting… and what gifts do we bring?

It doesn't take a village

 

While the Gospels speak little of Jesus’ life or The Holy Family, before Jesus’ public ministry, historical accounts point out that Jesus was born into a turbulent, dangerous world of political and social upheaval. Serenity and peace were at a premium.  This week our liturgical calendar celebrates The Presentation of Jesus in the temple Luke2:22-40 . Despite the many hardships and challenges, I’m struck by how diligent Mary and Joseph were in discharging their parental duties, as they faithfully adhered to the tenets and practices of their religion.

And so, here we have in Luke’s account of Jesus’ presentation, the ceremonial “brit milah” performed on the eight day following his birth.  Along with Jesus’ parents, there are two other attendants, Simeon and Anna, who upon seeing Jesus, praise and give thanks to God for granting them the opportunity to witness the arrival of the child whom they “recognize” as the fulfillment of the prophecy and the One for whom they waited.  

This story of Jesus’ first religious ritual prompts memories of our own parents’ involvement in the practices of our faith, and although our early memory is lost to our infancy, many of us still cherish the pictures and artifacts that call these rituals to mind, if only second-hand. These memories pay tribute to the personal commitments our parents and caregivers made with regard to our religious development. Like the child Jesus, our religious lineage began with the faithful hopes and practices of our parents and others who may have been responsible for our care.   

As with most of us, my mother and father were responsible for my attending weekly church services and as with most, I often resisted the call; after all, it was Sunday and I could sleep late or go out and play with those friends, who somehow were “excused” from Sunday services. As for the Church, except for worship, there was little in the way of social activities to keep me coming or hold me. We just went to Church and we returned home. Yes, there were choir practices and altar boy calls and during Lent we attended seasonal services, but it was my parents who established the practices, and saw to it that I followed their lead. I had no choice. So, we went, we listened, we learned and eventually patterns were established as requisite attendance became ingrained. 

The decline of the family unit has been linked to a myriad of economic and social problems in our country. It is a fact that our children suffer most from this decline and while we look for help from outside agencies, I often wonder if we are too quick to relegate the care of these precious lives to external resources. There’s a fine line between delegation and abdication. It seems that as the problems grow more severe, additional resources are proposed to expand support for childhood development, and to entrust the educational, social and even religious development of our children to institutions. While help is invaluable and with regard to education, essential, I do not believe that it takes a village to raise a child. Luke’s Gospel reminds me that Jesus didn’t just leap from the manger and begin performing miracles and preaching God’s love. Yes, the focus is on Jesus, but it reminds us of the role Mary and Joseph played in Jesus formative years. Sure times have changed but parental duties in the rearing of children, despite challenges and obstacles, still fall to the loving family unit.

Faith Knows; Belief Explains

 

The Gospel celebrate those events in the life of Christ that serve as models for us to follow and live. Over time many of our original scriptural interpretations that we were taught to believe were often challenged, leaving a void in which literal meanings no longer had  meaning. A sense of  knowing replaced the literal as the Words became flesh in us. The insights that evolved were clearer, simpler, and more beautiful. I’ve come to realize that I am comfortable with mystery and don't feel the need to explain what cannot be explained in words.  

Somehow, the mistrust of mystery and the need to explain mystery has led to a failure of the imagination, evidenced by the childishly comfortable language that we used  to explain it away. Our prayers become a self-centered recitations in which we purport to “confess” our weaknesses by citing our strength. These prayers are anything but the lifting of our hearts and minds to God. How can we listen if we are so busy talking? 

Gerald May writes in The Dark Night of the Soul that “It is the same for all important things in life; there is a mystery within them that our definitions and understandings cannot grasp. Definitions and understandings are images and concepts created by our brains to symbolize what is real. Our thoughts about something are never the thing itself. Further, when we think logically about something, our thoughts come in a logical sequence – one after another. Reality is not confined to such linearity; it keeps happening all at once in each instant. The best our thoughts can do is try to keep a little running commentary in rapid, breathless sequence.”

Now in  the fourth week of Advent we focus on the Annunciation (Luke 1:26-38), a mystery of epic proportions that defies rational explanation. It stuns us to hear some attempt to reduce the virgin birth to a mere story of an unwed pregnant teenager. Have we come to a time when anything that did not stand up to reason or that we couldn’t explain, should be characterized as primitive and infantile? Why do we think that we can confine an almighty spiritual being to man’s intellect and his ability to communicate? Do we not see how metaphor and poetry reveal meaning, not explanation, on a much deeper and intimate level? 

A few years ago we had an opportunity to travel through Eastern Europe, making our way from the Black Sea to Amsterdam. I was taken aback by the devastation in human lives caused by the failure of the “great social experiment,” that created societies whose wealth was shared but only among those at the top. So great buildings were erected for the personal aggrandizement of the elite while sacrificing the welfare of the people who were desperate for food and who desired a modicum of personal enrichment. On the other hand, I was impressed with the number of churches and cathedrals that were reopened after decades of being forced to close. These were flourishing, and while they served as much to support tourism as worship, they were a major presence.

Looking at the beautiful classical paintings and art in these churches, made me wonder what it was that inspired the artists to create poetic images and visual metaphors depicting the “mysteries” of Christianity. It occurred to me that their art was conveyed in a language all its own and derived its source from spiritual inspiration and not the intellect or prescribed  religious interpretation, and while the cynic might deride the image of the Angel Gabriel appearing to Mary, the artist understood it completely.

Art and music are languages of the soul that bypass our senses and speak to us at a level, in a place we cannot explain or know but do we really need explanation for something we feel "way down deep?" 

When we allow God’s love to break through our consciousness as we contemplate the Mysteries of the Annunciation and Virgin birth, do we run from it? Do we ask it to explain what it cannot? Or are we “virgin” enough to surrender to our deepest self and allow it to penetrate our being? We cannot ask it to explain what it cannot.

 

Adversity can play a key role in honing our ability to hear what is beyond the usual scope of our ordinary consciousness. Facing stressful challenges outside the norm of our usual experience can heighten our awareness of events that otherwise would go unnoticed.

“Samuel Johnson put it well “Depend upon it sir, when a man knows he is about to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully.” It is precisely for such clarity and insight that people seek out desert experiences such as solitary retreats, in which we step away from many of the usual supports of life, family, friends, familiar surroundings and routine, in order to be open to God’s call.

Unlike John-the-Baptist in John 1:6-8, 19-28 , we don’t always get a chance to choose our desert times and places. They sometimes are provided for us in the form of illness, change in employment, failures in relationships, death of a loved one and even, natural disasters. Yet these deserts we’re told all hold new possibilities for hearing the word of God at ever deepening levels.

In the past year much of our focus has been centered on the devastating Pandemic which has altered our lives in ways we have yet to understand. Countless lives have been lost to the Covid 19 virus, which targeted the elderly, the infirmed, and people with co-morbidities. Following active infection ten percent of patients who survive continue to experience ongoing debilitating morbidities attributed to autoimmune "cytokine" storms long after the virus had been cleared from their systems. These patients are euphemistically labelled as “longhaulers.”

The pandemic’s devastating economic impact has resulted in the closing of many businesses, some of which were teetering on the brink of failure and yielded to a Darwinian-like winnowing fork, never to return. Countless jobs, originally furloughed by the demand for people to remain at home, were no longer there when in-person attendance resumed, leaving people who never were without a job, now unemployed for the first time in their lives. 

 Our elementary and schools of higher learning struggled to do whatever they could to salvage a precious year of education, once lost forever gone. 

And yet through what seemed like never ending bad news, there is hope as vaccines are coming available in an optimistic timeframe once considered wishful thinking. 

In recent weeks our Scripture Study discussions revealed that our “spiritual nerves” are raw and “closer to the top of our skin.” We, God knows, didn’t choose these cosmic events. Richard Rohr tells us that there may not be an external Designer and a micro-managing God working from the outside, but neither is the world devoid of His divinity. God’s divinity is so intimately present in the world, in us and through us, that the world can be regarded as an incarnate expression of the Trinity, especially in times of tribulation. The selfless dedication of emergency responders, medical personnel and ordinary people to provide comfort reminds us that God is intimately involved in our lives all the time. (adapted from Richard Rohr, A Spring Within Us “Reframing Our Cosmology”)

Can We Become Today's John The Baptist?

 

 

In recent weeks our world news and our discussions have focused on post-election unrest, and ongoing spikes in Covid 19 which had  dampened the spirits of our traditional Thanksgiving holiday and is proceeding to take aim at Christmas 2020. Despite our efforts to muster some semblance of a Holiday spirit, the tinkling symbols of the Fourth Estate lean to the side of hype as they report. Is it disease incidence or positive tests? Do they distinguish between or cases or lab values, or do they even know? And what about hospitalizations? Are all hospitalizations in the time of Covid due to the virus? The Pandemic has been a bonanza for media and politicians who have inherited a windfall of publicity they could never ever managed on their own. If I sound a little cynical, I am. I make no bones about it It’s a matter of trust in what we hear and what we can believe. Our support systems are more interested in their own interests than the people they serve. 

So, what does my rant have to do with our readings this week (Mark 1:1-8)? It's not a coincidence that The Baptist's time, like ours was a time of fear, distrust, unrest and confusion. Can we make  Isaiah’s words for us, in our time, right now?

A voice cries out in the desert prepare the way of the LORD! Make straight in the wasteland a highway for our God! Every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill shall be made low; the rugged land shall be made a plain, the rough country, a broad valley. Then the glory of the LORD shall be revealed.

 Alfred Delp, a Jesuit priest writes of another turbulent time in our history. “we need a blessed Advent, a transformation, a time to ‘put things back where the Lord God put them." The following is an adaptation of a piece he wrote in a Nazi prison camp, shortly before he was hanged in 1945:

May the Advent figure of John, the relentless envoy and prophet in God’s name, be no stranger in our wilderness of ruins. For how shall we hear unless someone cries out above the tumult and destruction and delusion? Not for an hour can life dispense with these John the Baptist characters, these original individuals, struck by the lightening of mission and vocation. Theirs is the great comfort known only to those who have paced out the inmost and furthermost boundaries of existence. They cry for blessing and salvation. They summon us to the opportunity of warding off - by the greater power of the converted heart - the shifting desert that will pounce upon us and bury us. 

The horror of these times would be unendurable unless we kept being cheered and upright again by the promises spoken….The first thing we must do if we want to be alive is to believe in the golden seed of God that the angels have scattered and still offer to open hearts. The second thing is to walk through the gray days oneself as an announcing messenger. So many need their courage strengthened; so many are in despair and in need of consolation; there is so much harshness that needs a gentle hand and an illuminating word, so much loneliness crying out for a word of release, so much loss and pain in search of inner meaning. God’s messengers know of the blessing that the Lord has cast like a seed into these hours of history. Understanding this world in the light of Advent means to endure in faith, waiting for the fertility of the silent earth, the abundance of the coming harvest. Not because we put our trust in the earth, but because we have heard God’s message and have met one of God’s announcing angels ourselves. 

“That God became a mother’s son; that there could be a woman walking the earth whose womb was consecrated to be the holy temple and tabernacle of God – that is actually earth’s perfection and the fulfillment of its expectations. (Be it Done Unto Me According to Thy Word)
So many kinds of Advent consolation stream from the mysterious figure of the Blessed Expectant Mary. The woman has conceived the child, sheltered it beneath her heart, and given birth to the Son. Advent is the promise denoting the new order of things, of life, of our existence. 

Advent comes in these three figures. This is not meant as an idyllic miniature painting, but as a challenge. My real concern is not with beautiful words, but with the truth. Let us kneel, therefore, and ask for the three-fold blessing of Advent and its three-fold inspiration. Let us ask for clear eyes that are able to see God’s messengers of  the annunciation; for awakened hearts with the wisdom to hear the words of promise. Let us ask for faith in the motherly consecration of life as shown in the figure of the Blessed Woman of Nazareth. Let us be patient and wait, wait with Advent readiness for the moment when it pleases God to appear in our night too, as the fruit and mystery of this time. And let us ask for the opening and willingness to hear God’s warning messengers and to conquer life’s wilderness through repentant hearts. 

(Watch for the Light, The Shaking Reality of Advent,”pp.90-91)

Be Watchful, Be Alert, You do not know when the time will come

 

Keep Awake for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or at dawn, or else he may find you asleep when he comes suddenly. These words have been repeated for over 2,000 years, yet somehow we still fear the end of our life on earth. Sure, we are comforted by the many parallels in nature that reveal death to be a precursor to new life, but the fear of death lingers in the shadows.  We have - or likely have - lived longer than our parents and grandparents.  We are better fed; we lose fewer babies, and modern medicine protects us from contagion and diseases that can shorten our lives... and yet, we are still afraid.   Why? 

Shortly after 9/11 the words “Fear Not” rang hollow and seemed a little out of place.  Surely we had every reason to be afraid.  After the three devastating attacks, the country held its breath wondering if there were there more to come. During the first few weeks following the attacks, the country was suspended in a state of watchful waiting. We were led to believe that it wasn’t a question of “if” but “when.” We carefully listened to those in authority speak of preparedness, but the summary statement always was, “we just don’t know.” It took a while but in time we began to live our lives with the knowledge that life must go on… but we were implored to remain vigilant and the words “If you see something, say something” became a national mantra. 

And is there any better year than the present, 2020, to reflect on the changes in our lives, the likes of which we have never or likely will ever see again. This time the foreign terrorist came in the form of a virus, an unknown novel virus whose virulence and pathogenicity confounded the greatest minds in infectious diseases. From an historical perspective, our lack of preparedness for flu pandemic went, for the most part, ignored as we exited the 2004 avian flu and the 2005 H2N2 seasons with plans in place but no tactical follow-through…falling back on an all too human response, “we’ll deal with it if and when it comes.” Well this time it came with a vengeance with atypical physiologic responses targeting every human organ leading to unknown morbidities and fatalities in people, especially those at risk. Ok will we stay awake now; are we even doing it now? 

 It doesn’t take much to see the connection between our gospel (Mark 13:24-37) and that fateful Tuesday or the winter of 2020. Our Spiritual journeys often get side tracked by the many distractions of the world, don’t they? In some ways it is understandable, we get relaxed and slack off a bit. Yet, we have been blessed to be living in the greatest country in the world. We are a “can do” people and from this disaster we will learn more than we ever knew and be better prepared in the future. But will we stay awake when the Master comes again? 

We know that in Christ's death and resurrection he relinquished his humanity as the divine Incarnation was complete in order that we could share in his resurrection and in so doing, remove our reasons to fear death forever. Knowing that God loves us and that there is nothing we can do to ever lose His love is a matter of faith, not intellect. So, we live out our lives enriched by Christ’s example when we resist the impulse to live for ourselves instead of others. It means being prepared to die again and again to ourselves, and to every one of our self-serving opinions and agendas. But about that day or hour no one knows.

Don't Ask, It's A Miracle

 

We celebrate those events in the life of Christ in the Gospel as stories that are meant to be lived as we are inspired to live them. I’ve come to the realization that it’s not a mystery when I really understand a concept and feel that I can explain it. Yet, we have this urge to do our best to try to explain that which defies explanation. Children never need to question mystery; they accept it and move on.

Somehow, the mistrust of all that has been handed down to us has stifled the imagination’s inability to take flight. How many times do we quickly turn the page because something we read in scripture challenges our ability to fully comprehend its meaning… instead of just letting it rest long enough in our hearts for it to speak to us without words?

So here we are just two weeks from the beginning of Advent which begins with the Annunciation, a beautiful mystery of epic proportions that defies rational explanation. It stuns us to hear that some will attempt to reduce the virgin birth to a mere story of an unwed pregnant teenager. Have we come to a time when anything that did not stand up to reason or that we couldn’t explain, should be characterized as primitive and infantile? Why do we think that an Almighty Spiritual Being would be confined to man’s limited intellect and his feeble language to communicate His message? Do we not see how metaphor and poetry reveal meaning, not mere explanation on a deep personal level to those of us who are willing to open our hearts and just know? After All, we are talking about the Incarnation of God in man and the Word becomes flesh in us.

For many of us mystery became an adversary; unknowing became a weakness. The contemplative spiritual life is an ongoing reversal of this adjustment. It is a slow and sometimes painful process of becoming ‘little children’ again in which we first make friends with mystery and finally fall in love again with it. And in that love we find an ever increasing freedom to be who we really are in an identity that is continually emerging and never defined. We are free to join the dance of life in fullness without having a clue about what the steps are…Confusion happens when mystery is an enemy and we feel we must solve it to master our destinies. And ignorance is not knowing that we do not know. In the liberation of the night, we are freed from having to figure things out and we find delight in knowing that we do not know. (Mystery & Freedom, May, Dark Night p.133)

 

Come Share Your Master's Joy

 

How many of us grew up thinking of God as one whose “performance standards” were rigid and unbending? Weren’t many of us taught to believe that this God requires us to work at and earn our salvation, and that it was up to us as to whether we enter the Kingdom? Yet, we are told that we are loved and there is nothing we can do to lose God’s love. And we don’t earn salvation; the Kingdom is ours just because we are children of God. Which is it? While it’s not my place to say that we have no “skin in the game,” and can’t do anything to earn it, I do believe we are “required” to live a God centered life as Jesus did…even if the Kingdom is our “entitlement.” And yet the word entitlement rubs me the wrong way. I’m not sure why. I wonder what this says about my faith?  It just seems to me that somehow, someway we play a role in our own eternal destiny. 

It gets confusing doesn’t it? On the one hand Jesus tells us the Kingdom of God is at hand, and on the other hand he seems to be telling us that there are certain standards expected of us.  Last week’s parables of the “foolish virgins” (Matthew 25:1-13) had more to say about being prepared than reward and punishment. It called for us to lead a God-centered life embodied in the Two Great Commandments and the Spirit of the Beatitudes. As such we are required to take personal responsibility in living our Christian faith. 

Life, love and faith, like investments require taking risks in order to increase. And risks require relationships and true relationships require that we have the courage to be open, to be vulnerable, to let go of pretense and give our egos a rest. We must take risks and be willing to invest our lives in one another. Life in Jesus is all about relationships. 

When we put our talents to work in the service of God, we take risks (Matthew 25:14-30). When we are willing to be imperfect and reveal our humanity we are capable of being open to one another and we see ourselves in the other. Many who have participated in the Twelve Step program will tell you that its success depends on one’s ability to mirror one another: “The pain in me recognizes the pain in you; the love in me recognizes the love in you; the God in me loves the God in you.” This is risky business and taking risks is not easy; its consequences can cause anxiety. When we invest ourselves in one another, the outcome cannot be guaranteed. But, so what…we have a “safety net.” Matthew says those who were given much went to others for help in increasing it. That can do spirit grows everything it touches.

We Need a LittleThanksgiving

Take a look around. There is plenty of cause to be worried: we are in the throes of a bitter run up to the election for President this Tuesday which by the time this blog is published may already be decided. But then based on the mood of the polarized parties, and the antics that likely will ensue on Tuesday night, it’s unlikely we will know who the 46^th President of the United States will be. There is plenty of blame to go around and while it’s easy to blame it on the current cast of characters running for office or residing in Congress, the lack of civility or decorum in politics has been increasing over the last 20 years to the point that we have almost become immune to the name calling by politicians, the media, and especially social media.

 

And we haven’t even talked about the burden that Covid19 has heaped on our confused and frightened citizens, households and work-places.

 

So is my call for a prayer of thanksgiving even credible or make any sense? Perhaps lament might be more appropriate? But as I reflect on our reading selected by John B. for our discussion this Wednesday, I am reminded that of all of our responses to events blessed or challenging, great or small, are almost always overlooked,  is that of thanksgiving.

 

In this passage from Luke (Luke 17:11-19) , Jesus runs into a group of ten lepers -- unclean and outcast. They approach him with a plea for healing but also keep their distance, and here it’s not just “social distance,” the annoying parlance of 2020. In response, Jesus instructs them to go and show themselves to the local Jewish priest, since being cured, custom required them to be cleared by the priest as no longer outcasts. Of the ten, one turns back to express his gratitude, falling at Jesus’ feet in a posture of worship to give thanks. We should note that note that the other nine did nothing wrong and received the blessing promised them.

 

However the one who turns back is identified by Jesus, recognized and affirmed that he not only saw that he was healed but returned to give thanks, and was then blessed a second time. Blessed a second time? Yes, because Jesus instructs the man to rise and go on his way and saying that his faith has made him not only physically well, but also “whole” and, indeed, saved. The man who returned the blessing of healing and the blessing that comes from recognizing that he was blessed

 

Jesus reveals in this parable our conscious awareness of being blessed for even the tiniest gift or occasion multiplies the blessing. Thanksgiving is like that. It springs from perception and our ability to recognize a blessing. In the prayer we double down on our gift no matter how inadequate our words may seem at the time. Every time sight and word come together in thanksgiving we double our blessing.

 

David Lose writes “I think gratitude is the noblest emotion. Gratitude draws us out of ourselves into something larger, bigger, and grander than we could imagine and joins us to the font of blessing itself. But maybe, just maybe, gratitude is also the most powerful emotion, as it frees us from fear, releases us from anxiety, and emboldens us to do more and dare more than we'd ever imagined. (Working Preacher 10-3-17)

 

And that’s what the nine missed. It’s not that they did anything wrong; it’s that they didn’t acknowledge their good fortune in thanksgiving and missed out on in Jesus words being “made whole.”

 

Needless to say, our world seems to be filled with more troubles than we ever experienced in our lifetime. Without a doubt, the pandemic makes it unique to our time. Yet, we are constantly reminded of ordinary citizens stepping out of their comfort zones to ease the burden of others, and the caregivers, emergency responders and scientists who are still working to help us get through it.  And what about the parents and teachers who are faced with the challenge of taking care of our children as they tirelessly work to maintain a semblance of normalcy in their children’s lives so that one day our children will remember this as “something” that happened in 2020… just as we remember the polio pandemic of our youth.  

 

This world is full of blessing and challenges. Which will we focus on? Truth be told, there is a time for lament and cries for justice and activism. But given that we live in a culture filled with blame and accusation and almost devoid of thanksgiving, maybe by remembering the tenth leper, we can give thanks  and be filled with words of gratitude and in this way not only experience a second blessing but also share it with the world.

 

Speaking of which, let me offer my own words of gratitude and thanks to John for suggesting this reading. It’s been a while since I’ve read it. This time around, the word came alive for me and I say thank you and thank God for you with whom I share the Word.

 

Do Not Let Your Hearts Be Troubled

 

We are taught to read literature as though it is newspaper. Time is sequential and one–dimensional, in which the words on the page are an assemblage of letters to communicate information in real time. What you see on the surface is literal and is in black and white. This is not the case with reading the Gospel, especially John’s. 

Brother David Steindl-Rast writes: “to understand John’s word images in the way they were intended, we need to develop a sense for poetic language. These images speak to us through an intuitive dimension beyond the literal…Tuning in to this language requires an acquired ability to read between the lines.’” Marcus Borg writes “John invites his hearers to know in a radically new and different way. He appeals to the imagination, to a place deep within, which invokes a palpable sense of knowing outside the bounds of any anatomical natural human sense.” 

When John writes In the beginning was the Word and the Word was God (verse 1)…And the word was made flesh and dwelt among us, he announces the incarnation of God in Jesus. By extension, he informs us that that the Word becomes flesh in us too. “The Word speaks to us in a place deep within that we intuitively sense and know.” 

So in (John 14:1-12) as Jesus is preparing his apostles for his departure, he comforts them and says: Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe  also in me. Trust me. Trust God— you have seen God in me. I am enough. Trust that you will find me in the community as we come to see God in one another. 

Andrew Prior writes: “I do not think we can overstate the love and the intimacy of the household of God and our place in it. What we can miss, however, is that it is not a geographical place at a certain time. It is a relationship in eternity into which we can enter; in which we can place our trust. We will not be left alone, or orphaned.” 

We know that Jesus was killed for political reasons: he violated the “status quo” of the prevailing Jewish law that caused the Judeans, not all Jews, to want him removed. The Judeans were those who aligned themselves with Rome to maintain “control” of their “religion” and maintain their “status quo.” As such, their religious leaders collaborated with Imperial Rome to have Jesus “removed.” 

Throughout his life, Jesus made it clear that he resisted the man-made rules of “organized religion” as they existed. I wonder what he would think about the religions of today.  How different are some of its members from the Pharisees who resisted change? History reminds us that Jesus was not the last to be persecuted for bucking the “status quo.” Leave things alone I’m comfortable with the way things are; hey, I read the scripture and preach the Gospel; isn’t that enough?  But where is the Love that was Jesus? 

Gary Wills tells us that “Jesus opposed any religion that is self-righteous, quick to judge, wallows in gossip that destroys and divides the community in order to serve its own purpose and not God’s.” And how do we relate to Jesus’s words in our Gospel: Do not let your hearts be troubled…I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.

What do You Think?

 

In his parables Jesus invites his audience to be part of the story by relating explicit scenarios that are relevant to the listener’s world. These parables also serve as implicit invitations for them to see something else beneath the narrative. As we discussed in last week’s blog, Seeing is Believing, Jesus would sometimes insert a clever device such as a visual element or use a provocative form of speech, e.g., an aphorism, which would prompt the imagination to know his meaning beyond what any literal interpretation could do, causing it to become an indelible memory. And so it is in this week’s Gospel (Matthew 22:15-22) Jesus uses the Roman coin to illustrate and memorialize in the mind’s eye of the listener (and for us forever) the answer to his question, “what do you think?”

Over the centuries, this famous passage has framed societal attitudes toward the relationship between religion and government. There are those who believe that Jesus is establishing two separate realms, Caesar's and God's. This interpretation may strike many Americans as obviously correct, given our separation of church and state. Looking at this more closely, Jesus was less concerned with taxation or political authority. These were in his world but not his world. Let’s face it, we’re told that in the first century Jews paid many taxes:  customs taxes, and taxes on land and of course, tithes to the Temple. Yet, in this parable the question posed to Jesus was not about how many taxes they paid but rather whether it was lawful to pay taxes After all, taxes were paid to Caesar, who as the emperor of Rome and the son of Augustus, was deemed to be the “son of God.” As such, the Jews believed that even possessing the coin with the image of Caesar, was idolatry and in violation of the commandments.  

 

So back to the question put to Jesus in our Gospel. What do you think?  A “yes or no” answer either way would have gotten Jesus in trouble. "Yes" would have discredited him with those who found the imperial domination system unacceptable. "No" would have made him subject to arrest for sedition.  By avoiding the trap Jesus asks us to recognize that while we may owe the rulers of this world earthly things like taxes, we owe God our spiritual being, our whole selves. For me, this Gospel and specifically the Roman coin, are the most effective of all Matthew’s devices to illustrate the Kingdom of God. The coin exists in the world while its facades metaphorically reveal two realms of our reality, earthly and spiritual. What do you think? 

 

Father, I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world.  My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them...while they are still in the world  

John 17. 

Seeing is Believing or is it?

 

Our culture is highly visual. It’s hard to believe that anyone lecturing today would not draw on the myriad of audiovisual aids available. Visuals are powerful. They say things that words cannot say. As the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words. Pictures reach places that words may fail to reach, penetrating the closed mind or imagination allowing us to see things that words might only obscure.

This passage is probably the most strategic text for explaining why Jesus performed miracles. In some miracle stories considerable attention is given to the occasion, setting and nature of the miracle. In Luke 11:15-26 all these elements appear in a single verse.  It is a miracle story turned upside-down in which it’s less the miracle and more the commentary on the miracle that counts. Here scripture departs from the standard form and uses the miracle as its own series of metaphors for the source of Jesus’ message.

As Jesus makes his way to Jerusalem Luke deals with religious leaders’ question regarding the source of his healing power. Not willing to accept Jesus Divinity as the source of his power, they ascribe it to Satan. In the midst of this growing opposition there is the call to know what miracles mean and to understand the times. 

Two options are suggested by those who have doubts. First, some attribute his capabilities to Beelzebub, the prince of demons. They clearly have Satan in mind and imply strongly that Jesus is demonically controlled.

The second alternative is a wait-and-see approach. Some want more proof through some sign from heaven. It is unclear what this might have involved a heavenly sign or just more miracles? In any case, not all are persuaded that demonic control is the answer.

These two possibilities well summarize reactions to Jesus today. Some reject him; others want to see more from him. But clearly, those who were exposed to Jesus realized that they could not ignore his actions or claims. His ministry demanded that people consider his identity.

For those who believe, know proof is necessary; for those who don't, no proof is necessary. Stuart Chase

Many Are Called But Few Are Chosen

A few years back we received a hand delivered rather large 8 x 10 envelope by a private messenger service. Not recognizing the return address I was at first unwilling to accept the envelope, but noting the considerable expense of the courier service, I decided to accept it. To our amazement, it was a strikingly beautiful embossed invitation to a private celebration along with an accompanying letter describing specific instructions as to travel and lodging. The invitation was to honor Tony Bennett’s 91st birthday and lifetime achievements in music and art. Of course I thought it was a promo to lure us into buying vacation property. But then as I read the details covering the invitation, I realized that it was legitimate.

Why us? We met Tony Bennett with his wife years ago at a nightclub in the City in which John Pizzarelli was performing. I became friends with John, a local boy whose career I had followed over the years. We spoke often of Tony and his ability to maintain his art, despite his advanced age I often said how I would love to have a one-on-one conversation with Tony about music and his career. But I never thought that we would have the opportunity.

The accompanying letter described our pre-arranged all expenses paid travel to and lodging in a villa in Florence. We were to provide our passport information to an intermediary who had scheduled our travel via private jet leaving and returning to Teterboro airport at a specific date and time. Information as to the celebration was private and confidential. As such we were asked to sign a security bond insuring our willingness to comply. No other communications were required or frankly permitted.

Needless to say, we were excited at first but then began to wonder how we would fit in with this group. While we had the requisite formal apparel required for the party, we began to wonder how we would interact with an elite jet set of luminaries, likely to be in attendance. I am usually not at a loss for words and can pretty much talk to anyone, however, I’m not a professional musician and would be out of my element rubbing elbows with people who, with the exception of my love for music, had little in common. And while we really love Florence, we realized we would have little time to ourselves and be somewhat confined to our designated luxurious villa with lots of strangers for 3 days.

Needless to say we came up with enough reasons (or excuses) and decided that it wasn’t worth it, so we regrettably declined the invitation, although we did sign the confidentiality agreement pledging secrecy. What would you have done if you were in our shoes? Most of our family and friends thought we were nuts for declining this once in a lifetime opportunity.

Our readings in (Matthew 22:1-14) this week speaks of a wedding. Jesus tells of a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son and invited everyone to attend. But they all declined. Hurt and insulted he sent his servants into the streets to collect anyone and everyone and see to it that they came to the wedding. One attendee came without being properly groomed or dressed and was thrown out.

Throughout the gospels, Jesus makes curious comments about the marriage of heaven and earth and our being prepared for the event. OK, our invitation to Tony Bennett’s birthday celebration would have been a dream come true but it was unfortunately fictitious; it was made up and, not unlike Jesus’ parables, intended to bring the question home. What would I really do? What would you do?

Forgiveness: Joseph and His Brothers

 

 

Near a town in the state of Washington, millions of gallons of radioactive atomic wastes are being stored in huge underground tanks. The tanks have a life expectancy of 20 or 30 years. The wastes within them will remain deadly for about 600 years. We live in a society which, like those tanks in Washington, can no longer contain its anger and bitterness, which in some cases has led to violence and destruction. Haven’t we learned that this anger and inability to let go of hurt, real, imagined or manufactured is a societal cancer. It's particularly troubling  to know that we allow the not so subtle transition from justifiable anger to a carefully manufactured agenda to destroy our society.  Why do humans find it easier to hold on to anger than to let go and find a way to forgive. Over the past months our readings and discussions of Matthew remind us that our forgiving and our being forgiven is what it means to be Christian.  

No character in the book of Genesis  better illustrates the fundamentals of forgiveness than Joseph, and no chapter more clearly defines and describes the essentials of forgiveness than the last, chapter 45(Genesis 45). The years that Joseph spent in slavery and prison could have been the occasion for a slow burn that might have ignited into an explosion of anger at the sight of his brothers. 

And how angry was Joseph with God who he "credits" for getting him into such a situation? Yet through it all Joseph recognized that God was with him in his sufferings and that these trials he believes  were from the loving hand of a sovereign God. Most of all, Joseph could have been angry with his brothers, who had callously sold him into slavery. While we justifiably credit Joseph being a model for forgiveness, I am puzzled by the number of times God is “credited” for setting up obstacles for Joseph that creates threatening situations for him as if it were God’s plan. This Genesis reading leaves us deep in the mystery of God and how God’s interacts with humans. Some folks see God directing their lives, while others express God’s presence in other ways. Genesis was just the first book of the Bible. Where and when did the concept of a punitive, retributive God begin in these very early writings? The universe is about 14 billion years old; Genesis was written only 5,000 years ago. God didn't just show up when man started to write about him. 

Personally, I have a difficult time believing that the God of love as made flesh by his incarnation in Jesus, would purposely inflict pain and entrap us in order to test our faith. It just doesn't make sense. But then, that’s what I believe and I suppose we all must come to terms with this question; some will be comfortable with Joseph’s theological speech and others will not. The great benefit of the text is the opportunity to ponder what we believe and why.  

Ok, back to Joseph, the high point of Joseph’s relationship with his brothers comes in chapter 45. Here reconciliation was made possible on the brothers’ part by their genuine repentance, regretting their sin with regard to Joseph, and reversing it when a similar situation was presented with regard to their youngest brother, Benjamin. Joseph’s reconciliation was achieved through his sincere and total forgiveness of his brothers for the evil they had committed against him. Forgiveness is pivotal to what it means to be a Christian. It is essential to our relationship with God.  

Based on The Fundamentals of Forgiveness (Genesis 45:1-28), Bob Deffinbaugh, May 2004.