Jesus! A Fundamentalist??

Love [people] even in [their] sin, for that is the semblance of Divine Love and is the highest love on earth. Love all God's creation, the whole and every grain of sand in it. Love every leaf, every ray of God's light. Love the animals, love the plants,  love everything. If you love everything, you will perceive the divine mystery in things. Once you have perceived it, you will begin to comprehend it better every day. And you will come at last to love the whole world with an all-embracing love. —Fyodor Dostoyevsky

May I suggest that God is a God who rescues and restores rather than condemns and punishes, which is a much higher notion of how things are “justified” before God. The full and final Biblical message is restorative justice, but most of history has only been able to understand retributive justice.  Now, I know you’re probably thinking of many passages in the Old Testament that sure sound like serious retribution. And I can’t deny there are numerous black and white, vengeful scriptures, which is precisely why we must recognize that all scriptures are not equally inspired or from the same level of consciousness. (This is why models of human development like Spiral Dynamics can be so helpful.) Literal interpretation of any Holy Scripture no matter the religion is the Achilles’ heel of  fundamentalism. The deeper question here is personal and would be:  do you see and understand the historical Jesus to be a fundamentalist?

Yes, you have to begin with dualistic thinking, just as you must first develop a healthy frame before you can move beyond it.  Jesus often made strong binary statements, for example, “You cannot serve God and money” (Matthew 6:24); “The Son of Man will separate the sheep from the goats” (Matthew 25:32-33). We must first be capable of some basic distinctions between good and evil before we then move higher. Without basic honesty and clarity, nondual thinking becomes very naïve. We must first succeed at good dualistic thinking before we also discover its final inadequacy in terms of wisdom and compassion.  Not surprisingly, Jesus exemplifies and teaches both dualistic clarity and then non-dual wisdom and compassion: “My Father’s sun shines on both the good and the bad; his rain falls on both the just and the unjust” (Matthew 5:45).

The ego prefers a dualistic worldview where bad people are eternally punished and good people (like ourselves) are totally rewarded. The soul does not need to see others punished to be happy. Why would anyone like the notion of somebody being tortured for all eternity? What kind of psyche or soul can condemn others to hellfire? Certainly not Divine Love. {This perspective may be challenging to some folk to say the least.}

As long as your ego is in charge, you will demand a retributive God; you’ll insist that hell is necessary. But if you have been transformed by love, hell will no longer make sense to you because you know that God has always loved you in your sinfulness. Why would God change policies after death?  Again literal interpretation of scripture is the Achilles’ heel of the fundamental follower of any religion including Christianity.

May I suggest to you that we are all saved by mercy and grace without exception—before, during, and after our life in this world?  Could God’s love really be that great and universal? Love is the lesson, and God’s love is so great that God will finally teach it to all of us. Who would be able to resist it once they see it? We’ll finally surrender, and God—Love—will finally win. God never loses. That is what it means to be God. That will be God’s “justice,” which will swallow up our lesser versions of retributive justice.

The content of this article is taken from the writings of Father Richard Rohr “Daily meditations.”  

"The Bad and The Good"

Everyone constructs an image of God in their own mind, may I ask what is yours?  Everyone in their own mind has an image of the Devil, may I ask what is yours? 

Feb 19 2017    Readings:   Galatians 5: 16-26, Matthew 5: 38-48

Have you ever wondered why God allows bad to exist in the world anyway?  If God is all powerful why doesn’t God just zap out the bad and leave all the good to live in peace and harmony on earth.  In biblical times these same questions were being ask. Why do the innocent die, why do bad thing happen to good people and why is it that evil in our world seems to get away with murder.    In the readings from Galatians and Matthew this morning, Paul and Jesus gives us a bit of insight behind some of Gods amazing creative wisdom about bad and good.    May I suggest to you that in the moment of conception all are innocent?   Now folks think about this for a moment, just as in the garden narrative before Adam and Eve exercised their free will, innocence prevailed and everything was as it should be.   So, in the womb when your conception took place everything had to work together just as God intended, otherwise you would not be hear listening to me this morning.   Once we emerge from of the womb our innocence is stripped away as we are birthed into a broken world where the wages of sin have already taken root and have become a part of everyone’s life.  No one escapes this reality.  And so sing songs like: Amazing Grace or

“Softly and Tenderly”  

Softly and tenderly Jesus is calling,

Calling for you and for me;

Patiently loving He’s waiting and watching,

Watching for you and for me.

Choirs:  Come home, come home he who are weary come home

Earnestly softly Jesus is calling, calling oh sinner come home  

Why should we tarry when Jesus is pleading,

Pleading for you and for me?

Why should we linger and heed not His mercies,

Mercies for you and for me?

Choirs: --------------

Oh, for the wonderful love He has promised,

Promised for you and for me!

Though we have sinned, He has mercy and pardon,

Pardon for you and for me.

As we heard read in Galatians 5: 16- 26  the Apostle Paul knows that our struggle in life will be between our two natures.  First we have our human nature, sometimes referred to as the “The Beast,”  found in all of us.  Now I do not know about you but it has reared its ugly head in my life a few times.   Then we have our spiritual nature, sometimes referred to as the “Divine Presence, God within” which is also found in all of us and is shown to others through acts of humility and compassion.   

As strange as it may be, God gave us both natures to live in contrast side by side some good and some bad.  But let us not forget as Genesis 1 teaches us, everything God created was meant for good.   

Our human nature finds it’s kinship in mischief and mayhem.  Its primary source of attraction and strength will come from the world and worldly teachings.  Like money brings happiness but we all know money attracts thieves don’t we.   On the other hand, we have our spiritual nature, which finds it kinship in God’s unconditional love and in loves forgiveness, now that’s true happiness because the Spirits love is indestructible and its forgiveness is stronger than the greatest sin.   Its primary source of strength comes from God and the teachings found in our Holy Scriptures and so we often sing that wonderful old hymn:

”Bind Us Together Lord:

 Bind us together Lord, Bind us together
With cords that cannot be broken.
Bind us together, Lord, Bind us together,
Bind us together with love.

There is only one God, There is only one King;
There is only one Body, That is why we sing:

Everyone is born into our broken world, yet while we await birth in the womb we remain innocent.  We have no conception of hatred, lying, stealing, greed, anger, pride, jealously, self-centeredness or lust but as the writer Paul explains we have been given a human nature, that is susceptible to these things, and it is only natural that we will be exposed to them, learn and respond to them over time.   On the other hand, while still in the womb we also have no conception of unconditional love, grace, peace, joy, goodness, charity, forgiveness, and truth, but as Paul points out again, we have been given a spiritual nature that is susceptible to these things and it is only natural that we will be exposed to them, learn and respond to them over time.

 FOLKS! Here is the wisdom tip for today if you have the ears to hear it.

I need you to consider the attributes of the 2 natures I just spoke about.   Whichever nature gets feed the most in you, that is the nature that will denominate your personality, your behavior, your response to life and eventually your death.   Folks we need to take time to listen to the words in this great hymn:

“Take Time To Be Holy”     

Take time to be holy, speak oft with thy Lord;
Abide in Him always, and feed on His Word.
Make friends of God’s children, help those who are weak,
Forgetting in nothing His blessing to seek.

Take time to be holy, the world rushes on;
Spend much time in secret, with Jesus alone.
By looking to Jesus, like Him thou shalt be;
Thy friends in thy conduct His likeness shall see.

Take time to be holy be calm in your soul

Each though and each motive beneath his control

Thus lead by his spirit to fountains of love

You soon shall be fitted for service above.

As we grow in spirit, even under the worst possible circumstances as many have to endure, we the faithful have been given a choice in the matter of good over evil concerning our lives.     God does not force us to choose but life does!!!  God’s gift to us is both natures and the option to make choices.  Our free will can be our best friend or our worst enemy.   It is up to us to choose to develop and strengthen our spiritual nature so we can weather the storms of life. 

The Devil, why he gives you no choice, as he tricks your human nature into

believing and trusting in worldly ways that keep you from choosing the ways of

the Spirit.    Here in lies the human dilemma, the struggle we all have between

good choices and bad, God gives us the freedom to choose, and so we live side

by side the good and the bad as it was meant to be.   The difference here for the

Christian is that we believe Gods grace and love are sufficient for all and in all

circumstances and that God will never forsake or leave us even as we choose

poorly.  And so I leave you with this quote from Isaiah 49:  I will never forget you my people.  I have carved you on the palm of my hand.  I will never forget you I will not leave you orphaned I will never forget my own.    

                                               "Come Lord Jesus, Come To Us"

         

"Of Law OR Of Love"

In your opinion, and we all need to have an opinion,  what ingredient makes God’s love different from our human expressions of love?   In the gospel reading this morning you will hear the word persecute, what image comes to mind when you hear that word?

SERMON:  Of Law and Of Love                                                                      

Readings:  Dout 30: 15-20 Psalm 119 Matt 5: 21-30

One day Abraham invited a beggar to his tent for a meal.  When Abraham began giving God thanks for the abundance of food, the man began to curse God, declaring that he could not bear to hear God’s name.  Seized with indignation, Abraham drove the cursing beggar out of his home.  That evening when Abraham was saying his night prayers, God spoke to his heart,” Abraham, the man you sent away from your tent today, this man has cursed and reviled me for fifty years, and yet I have given him food and shelter to eat every day.  And you Abraham!!  Could you not have put up with him for a single meal?"

This story should give us something to think about folks, because Jesus teaches us not to see others as different, as though we have done nothing to offend God in our lives.  Jesus teaches us there is no black or white, nationalist or foreigner, this is double mindedness or dualistic thinking.  In the eyes of God we are all genetically of the same family, Jeremiah 31:  “I’ll be Your God You’ll be My People” children of the light folks!

St. Valentine's Day is this Tuesday and I want to tell this simple but profound message from God  – love each other.  Love each other - not with the love that depends on chemistry, or mood, or feelings -  not with a the love that depends on the behaviour of others or ourselves either,  but love each other with the kind of love that Christ offers to us.  Jesus never taught or thought of people as them and me, He died to make visible God’s unconditional love for all of us.  You know the kind of love I mean -  it is the love that goes beyond our emotions and yes even what sometimes seems to go beyond the human mind that wrote the law because this love is truly unconditional, no strings attached folks.  This love is a love from the heart.  It is a love that contains the Spirit of what God wants for us, it is a love that compels us not to judge each other but to love and accept each other with a oneness that honors the song we often sing: “We are One In The Spirit”  Do you know the lyrics.    This love compels us to feed the hungry, to administer to the sick, to lift up the poor in our midst, to be an example of God’s grace to in the world, offering peace wherever turmoil or kayos exists.  It is a love that values others, regardless of who they are or what they have or have not done no matter what country they have come from, their religion, their color, their race or their gender.    

I recall reading that a colleague once caught WC Fields { a confirmed atheist} reading the Bible. "What are you doing Fields?" asked the person.  "Looking for loopholes", Fields replied.   With God’s unconditional love my friends - there are no loophole, no escape hatch, and no clauses that say that God’s love can be revoked if this or that “condition” is not met.  God’s love is total, it is never incomplete.  But our love often has conditions, you know what I mean, love with the unspoken “IF”.  You see it is the condition that renders love to be mere emotion or infatuation.   Think of the words we heard in the readings this morning.  They were words addressed to a people often looked for loop holes to compromise or to altering love's demands, so it would be easier to fulfil.  The Law of Moses says  “thou shall not murder - but Jesus takes it a step further, telling us that anger is the root cause of killing and so if you are angry with your brother or sister - you will be subject to angers judgement.  The Law of Moses says “thou shall not commit adultery”, but Jesus tells us that everyone who looks with lust is already guilty of the offense.  Lust meaning to desire adore or to crave with passion.  The Law of Moses say ,” thou shall love your neighbor as you love yourself ”, but Jesus’ love goes even deeper as He tells us to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us..." Did you know that to persecute someone means to show predigest, or malice, harming someone not with just physical violence but with words as we often see people doing to one another on the internet or Facebook.  Often I have caught myself having predigest thoughts never thinking I was persecuting someone in the process.   There are no loopholes to be found in Jesus' words—here we learn to call a spade a spade folks. – there are no compromises, no deals, no escape hatches. Jesus’ love is totally and completely unconditional, no one is forsaken or abandoned, Isaiah 49 tells us:  “I will Never Forget you My people”

What Jesus does is crystallize the issues involved in loving God and our neighbours so that we can know - without doubt – just where we stand, and exactly what we need to strive for. 

An old pilgrim was making his way to the Himalayan Mountains in the bitter cold of winter when it began to storm.   The inn keeper said to him, "How will you ever get there in this kind of weather my good man?"  The old man answered cheerfully - "My heart has always been there, and so it's makes it easy for the rest of me to follow."   Now here is profound wisdom folks!  

The gospel of Jesus Christ teaches that we can meet all the demands of unconditional love, but our hearts must go there first, and to accomplish that we must take upon ourselves the heart of Christ. I urge you - let your heart go first - love God and love each other as deeply as you can. When you do - you will find, no matter how many mistakes you may make on the way, goodness and blessedness will blossom along your path, and all that God has planned for you will come to pass.  As we come to share in the bread of life this morning let us remember his selfless act of unconditional love for all.