"Jesus' Family as Refugees"

"Mary, Joseph, and the Child Jesus flee death by escaping to Egypt"

Question:  Was the advent period and the build up to Christmas Eve different from other years for you?   What insights or revelations did you learn from your experience this year? 

Dec 29 2013 Readings: Matthew 2: 13-23,  

We heard through scripture over the Advent weeks leading up the Christmas Eve, the struggles and hardships that both Mary and Joseph had to endure to bring Jesus into the world, yet the attributes of hope, peace, joy and love would be found in the midst of their difficult journey and the birth of Mary’s Boy child.  But the tranquility of the birth and the quietness of the stable was soon to disappear as we heard in the scripture this morning.  Jesus was no longer a baby but now a young infant living in Bethlehem when trouble begins to follow the Holy family once again.  Let us not forget the image of the Holy Family as refugees, fleeing oppression with the threat of certain death.  In fact that is what happened to them.  I believe we must include them as part of the refugee families that are fleeing oppression and the threat of death in many parts of our world today.  But as difficult as it was for Joseph and Mary to trust God they did, and God always came to their rescue.  In fact folks, the whole of the Old Testament is about God rescuing His children in times of despair.

The infant has just received extravagant gifts from exotic visitors from and foreign land, the Magi.  The meaning of His birth, the promise of His life seemed so momentous, so filled with hope, peace, joy and love, and now troubles are brewing once more.    Joseph is awakened by yet another visit from one of God’s angles in a dream.  “There is someone in search of the boy, and they want him dead.”  Can you imagine the panic?  Joseph is once again thrust into despair.  You can just imagine the frenzy of activity around their home, both Mary and Joseph quickly packing whatever they can gather together for yet another journey.  Now it’s out to the street, then to the road that leads to Egypt as fast as possible.   Joseph is now in fear every time he sees a Roman soldier on the road.  The nightmare doesn’t end when they reach their place of refuge either, as word of genocide reaches them, stained with the blood of the first born male of every Jewish mother in the region.  Their wailing and cries can be heard as far away as Egypt.  Can’t you just hear those without faith accusing God, “Heavenly Father why are you letting this happen, why do you not stop this bloodshed?”  We can assume that both Mary and Joseph would be fully aware of the reason why these children were being slaughtered, yet, at the same time in all this chaos and mayhem, they somehow have held onto their hope, trusting that God was weaving a safe path for both parents and child.   Mary and Joseph had been obedient to God’s will for their family.  They had been open, listening and attentive to the Angles nudges.  

For them and for us today the reality of our chaotic world doesn’t stop after the Christmas celebrations end.  For those who have experienced Jesus’ spirit being birth within themselves, it often intensives troubles and hardship for the believers, as it did for Mary and Joseph. Sing “Through It All”

The question we might ask here is: what in this story, can help us today?

May I suggest that God doesn’t interfere in our daily lives by stopping us from making choices, even if our choices create kayos for both us and our neighbor?  But God also doesn’t just stand aside, doing nothing.  No, no we must continue to trust as did Mary and Joseph that God is always working in the background on our behalf and in all situations, working for goodness to prevail, even when hope seems to have avoided us.

We can learn from Joseph and Mary’s choices here because they chose to put their trust in God and in God’s messengers.  The example for us here is: to continue to follow God’s nudging in life.  By them doing so, Jesus is safely returned to Jerusalem to fulfill his destiny.  I believe that same goes for us to.  This is where we must choose to follow our faith by putting our trust in God, for God will make us a way too.  Don’t give in to difficult circumstances but continue to keep hope, peace, joy and love alive in your life.   Do you know the song: “Over my Head I hear Music in the Air”

In the kayos and craziness of the material Christmas that many of us had been caught up in again this year, how attentive, open and listing to the spirit have you been this year?   The Apostil Paul often reminds us that we, like Jesus, have a loving parent who will not leave us stripped bare and alone to face worldly dangers.   As Mary wrapped her Child in the warmth of love and compassion, so God our parent offers to us, spiritual cloth to wrap ourselves in.  This special spiritual cloth contains the gifts of compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, love, forgiveness and peace.  May we seek and accept these gifts from God, and may we wear them in life-changing ways as we go forward.

In conclusion many have in their hearts already put away Christmas for next year?   May I suggest putting away the stable, the manger the oxen, sheep, shepherds and Magi, but less us not put away Jesus and his family.   They need to remain visible, to remind us of the story because there are many who still reject or ignore the message that Christmas brings.  

When times are difficult for you, when the road ahead looks bleak and there seems to be no way, God will make a way for you to.  Faith in God is more precious than the gifts of Gold, Frankincense and Mere Folks.   Let us continue our journey with the Holy Family in the next few days so we too can experience the complete Christmas.  And let us wait in expectation of the spirit being birthed in you, for He shall come again.    

    

"A Love Not Bound by Rules"

"The 4th Sunday of Advent is Love" 

A Spiritual Master said to his young student: "Rule # 1, Do not physically touch or look directly into the eyes of a women lest your human nature get the best of you"  Just then a rain storm turns a ditch into a river.  On the other side of the rushing waters, a beautiful young lady is pleading for help.  The Master carefully wades across the now river and picks the young lady up in his arms carries her to the other side, sets her down, looks straight into her eyes and tells her everything will be all right.  As the Master and his new student continue their walk, the student finally asks.  "Master rule # 1, I do not understand?"  The Master replies, "There are no rules when Love Calls." 

Dec 23, 2018 Readings:  1 Corinthians 13: 4-7   Luke 1: 26- 38

One great thing about Christmas morning for both children and parents are the surprises.   When else in life do you get to pile 10 or 20 surprises all together at one time, then sit for an hour enjoying each of them? One after another, surprise after surprise.   Even though it is a material Christmas it is wonderful in that way. I can still remember how I felt as a child, the amazement, the astonishment of Christmas morning.  Even the tree seemed different, more alive, bigger and brighter.
Chuck Swindoll writes, “surprises come in many forms and disguises: some good, some borderline, some are amazing, some awful, some tragic, some hilarious.  But there's one thing they all have in common, surprises aren't boring.”   Let me tell you a true story about how God sometimes springs surprises on our lives.   It is a story about a professor who sat at his desk one evening working on the next day's lectures.   His housekeeper had place the day’s mail on his desk and he began to shuffle through them, discarding most to the wastebasket.  He then noticed a magazine, which was not even addressed to him but delivered to his post box by mistake.  When he opened it, there facing him was an article titled "The Needs of the Congo Mission".   Casually he began to read when he was suddenly consumed by these words: "The need here is great.”   We have no one to work the northern province of Gabon in the central Congo.  The writer went on to say “And it is my prayer as I write this article, God will lay His hand on one - one on whom, already, the Master's eyes have been cast - that he or she shall be called to this place to help us."   Well!  As Paul Harvey would say, now for the rest of the story.  That Professor name was Albert Schweitzer, and after closing the magazine, he wrote this in his diary: "My search is over." I shall give myself to the Congo.  In 1913, Albert Schweitzer opened his hospital, bringing modern medicine to the French Congo.    Now here in lies the surprise:  The magazine was not addressed to Albert, but somehow landed in his mail box, and then somehow fell open to that particular article.  That little article, hidden in a magazine which was intended for someone else, OR WAS IT!!!  It was meant for him.   Now I Ask You could that have been by Chance?  No, I believe it was it truly one of God's surprises.   Sometimes surprises have happen to us like this but in smaller ways, has that ever happen to you?   What mission has God been placed upon your heart, what mission or task are you being called to.    

This morning we heard another one of God’s great surprises, when an angel by the name of Gabriel appeared to a young teenager by the name of Mary.  Through Gabriel with the help of Mary and Joseph, God gave the whole world a surprise, by fulfilling an ancient prophecy.    A miracle was to be preformed through Mary and a convenient of unconditional love was to be made known to the world.  The surprise was that this love would be unlike any other kind of love the world had ever known.  Many today struggle to understand the difference between human love and God’s love.  In our world, human love is often confused with infatuation, personal pleasure, we sometimes have even been know to love things.  And most generally we look for confirmation that we are loved by a return.   This kind of love is fragile and in many cases similar to happiness because it doesn’t last long, let alone be forever.   Quite often People fall in and out of love quite easily.   The reason for and the difficulty with this kind of love is its tailings, meaning it has conditions.  In order to keep this love exciting and alive we need to have it reinforced, I love you and you should then in return, love me.  Often one of us needs to do something, to prove or to remind us how precious we are to them.  As strange as it may sound the need for acknowledgement becomes the flaw.  But there is other kind of love, God’s love, it is a love without conditions.  Here in lay the magic that makes it flawless, having no strings or tailings attached to it.  Here is another strange thing about God’s love.  The only way you know you have it, is when you share it.  It doesn’t come from others nor does it need reinforcement.  It is already within you.  It was placed in you when you were conceived, you were made in its image.  All you need is just to accept it, trust it, and believe in it and then share it.  Do you know why it makes you feel so good!  It’s not because the other person loves you, it is because of your love, love coming out of you.  Being the lovable person you were meant to be, even when and if others rejected it.  Rejection has no power over this love.   We know from 1 Corinthians 13:  that this kind of love isn’t like our human love, because it is always patient, always kind.  It does not envy, or boast nor is it proud, it is not rude, nor self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs, never delights in evil, but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, trusts, hopes and always perseveres.  You do not have to say or do anything physical to win it or retain it, it is already in you, in fact you are its truth when you share it.   This love was made visible for the world to see through Mary’s boy child.    This love is much harder to understand but much easier to accept and hold on to.  Here is another one of its surprises, if you accept yourself as the gift and embrace it, it can change the love you offer others and it makes it impossible for conditions to steal it away.  It also has the power to make other forms of human love tolerable, forgivable and workable.

It is pretty hard for us to conceive and live a love that only loves.   A love that says:

 I love you NO MATTER WHAT.  And here is another on of God’s surprises. When we examine the story of Mary and Joseph we can see the struggle with the conditional love of family and community.  You can imagine Joseph’s doubt with Mary’s pregnancy, how could she be with child, the Shame brought to their families.    It would also be shown to us through 12 disciples who struggle with their conditional human love for the Master.  Jesus’ love for them didn’t change when they rejected him in his final hour, nor did he stop loving those who were threatened by his love, those who hurt him, and even those who put his body to death on a cross.   Then in a super surprise this tragedy turns into the greatest act of unconditional love the world would ever know.   How did He do it?  He truly was God’s love incarnate.

We must begin to understand that this love is different.   Those who try to exist on human love alone will never see the flaw, nor gain the gift.  This year let Christ be birthed in you. Let that be your surprise gift, that you too are love, accept it now, it is what you are meant to be, you will never be the same again as it has the power to turn your human love into something beautiful. 

"The Universal Christ"

The Universal Christ

 From the Beginning of Time

Christ is the radiant light of God’s glory and the perfect copy of God’s nature, sustaining the universe by God’s powerful command. —Hebrews 1:3, Jerusalem Bible

Christ is not Jesus’ last name. The word Christ is a title, meaning the Anointed One, which many Christians so consistently applied to Jesus that to us it became like a name. But a study of Scripture, Tradition, and the experience of many mystics reveals a much larger, broader, and deeper meaning to “the Christ.”

The above passage from Hebrews says that Christ “sustains the universe.” The concept of Christ can be used to describe reality in an archetypal, symbolic, and profound way. But it names the shape of the universe before it names the individual who typifies that shape, the one we call Jesus Christ. All of creation first holds God’s anointing (“beloved” status), and then Jesus brings the message home in a personal way over thirteen billion years later!

This is a different way of thinking for so many Christians. The three synoptic Gospels are largely talking about Jesus, the historical figure who healed and taught and lived in human history. John’s Gospel presents the trans-historical “Christ” (which is why so very few stories in John coincide with Matthew, Mark, and Luke). This Christ frequently makes universal “I AM” statements and claims (see John 6:35, 48; 8:12, 24, 58; 10:9, 11; 11:25; 14:6; 15:1), mirroring the unspeakable name of the Holy One (Exodus 3:14).

Many people don’t realize that the Apostle Paul never met the historical Jesus and hardly ever quotes Jesus directly. In almost all of Paul’s preaching and writing, he refers to the Eternal Christ Mystery or the Risen Christ rather than Jesus of Nazareth before his death and resurrection. The Risen Christ is the only Jesus that Paul ever knew! This makes Paul a fitting mediator for the rest of us, since the Omnipresent Risen Christ is the only Jesus we will ever know as well (see 2 Corinthians 5:16-17).

Jesus’ historical transformation (“resurrected flesh”) allows us to more easily experience the Presence that has always been available since the beginning of time, a Presence unlimited by space or time, the promise and “guarantee” of our own transformation (see 1 Corinthians 15:1-58). In Jesus, the Timeless Christ became time bound so we could enjoy the personal divine gaze (see 1 John 1-2).

Whenever the material and the spiritual coincide, there is the Christ. Jesus fully accepted that human-divine identity and walked it into history. Henceforth, the Christ “comes again” whenever we are able to see the spiritual and the material coexisting, in any moment, in any event, and in any person. All matter reveals Spirit, and Spirit needs matter to “show itself”! I believe “the Second Coming of Christ” happens whenever and wherever we allow this to be utterly true for us. This is how God continually breaks into history—even before the first homo sapiens stood in awe and wonder, gazing at the stars.

"The Christmas Blues"

What does the season of Advent mean to you?

Nov 29 2015 Advent 1 Readings:   Psalm 25   Luke 21: 25-36

It seems to me that no matter how hard we try, every year at the beginning of Advent we become preoccupied with pre-programed Christmas traditions and the stress of keeping them up.  Many have forget what the season of Advent is really all about.   We get doing, doing, and doing, often out of some form of obligation to church, family or community.  These activities often cloud out our reflective critical thinking about what Advent and Christmas is all about.  Does this sound familiar to you?   

Did you know that Advent is actually the beginning of the New Year for the Christian Church.   It is the first season of the liturgical year for Christians.  First there is Advent, then Christmas, Ordinary Time or as some demonization’s refer to it as a Time after Epiphany, then Lent, Easter, and Ordinary Time  or as some refer it as a Time after Pentecost.    Advent begins on the fourth Sunday before Christmas Eve and as many do not know, includes the four preceding Sundays? 

The general meaning of the word Advent means, the appearance or arrival of a notable person, thing or event?    

The four Sundays leading up to Christmas Eve were originally meant for preparation. It was never meant to be a season of rushing around like chickens with our heads cut off, trying once again, to get it all in. The holiday shopping, the push to attend or put on the events and the festivities that have become our traditions.  Many North Americans have bought into the new commercial shopping craze called “BLACK FRIDAY”.  Did anyone here see the shoppers beating each other up over a sale item on the TV last week?  How crazy is that.   Often for many, it has become a time to lose our good sense do doing, spending, and indulging.   Many work themselves into a frenzy trying to keep up the seasonal traditions of family, community, church and gift giving.   Does any of this sound familiar to you?

 Two elderly gentlemen are strolling, one shares.  "Live for the moment is my motto.  You’ll never know when your time is up".  "You could step out into the street tomorrow and WHAM, you get hit by a cement truck!  You'd be sorry then, if you didn't fill your bucket list.   That's what I say - live for the moment."  What about you,    "What's your motto?"  His friend replies:  "My motto is, if you’re going to step out into the street, you had better first look both ways.”  Critical reflective thinking during our moments of Advent just might be a good thing to do forks.  

You know I think that is what happens too many at Christmas time, it is as though we have the blinders on and don’t see it coming.  The aftermath I mean, of what is being created by some of our mindless doings. 

I think that living for the moment is not a bad thing to do but not if you are so busy that you are not present to the moments taking time to assess and reflect on what is really important in your life.   Living without checks and balances being conscious and present to the moments I mean, can cause a great deal of grief in a person’s life.     In order to be present during Advent, may I suggest that would include, some form of scriptural readings, discernment and reflection upon your experiences of Christmases past along with looking to a future that is filled with hope.

Remembering that our hope does not exist in past events, or in the things we already know or have.  Our Hope is reserved for things that are hidden, unknown or unseen and for those who have hope, their lives can be transformed and changed so as to experience something new.  

Christmas for many is still all about the past, because most of us live Christmas through our past experiences.  Christmas hope therefor cannot even be preparing for the child that has already come, because as I have already stated hope cannot be found in past or in something we already know.  Advent “Hope” is for what then?   Our Hope here, is reserved for the second coming of Christ as you heard in the reading from Luke this morning.  Luke 21: 27 At that time they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.    

May I suggest that the first Sunday in advent is a time to reflect on and re-evaluate the way in which we have responded to Christmases past?   To dis-guard the sentimental false hopes we have built up around this time of year.   But it is also meant to be a time when we look with hope to our future, a time for transformation and change?   It was never meant to be a shopping party folks.   I would also like to suggest to you that many of us have lost the reality and true meaning of Christmas over the years.  Many have traded it in for a mixture of secular and Christian traditions.  The commercialization of the season has stolen away its meaning for many Christians and their church gatherings.  The Advent season was not meant to be a repeat of Christmases past as many of our traditions demand, but to re-evaluate what has become meaningless, mundane and extravagant.  The season leading up to Christmas Eve is often over flowing with excessive food, money and doing. Often we run the risk of burn out because we think we have to keep on keeping up with the many traditions of family, community and church, much of which is written in concrete obligations, things we feel we must do. 

Mary, Joseph, and Jesus would probably be appalled at what we have done with this loving intimate and transforming moment in our history.   But behold our hope does not lay in a manger some 2000 years ago either, it lay in the transforming unseen risen Christ who is to come again.  For the promise is, that He will continue to come again and again until every knee shall bow and ever tongue will confesses that Jesus is Lord or all.   

The Season of Advent is not meant as a time to relive the events of Christmases past, but to be present to the really of the risen Christ who will come again just as the scriptures have promised.  Our hope also lay in a Kingdom free from violence, war, material wealth, power and control over its people for personal gain.  Christs’ kingdom will be a kingdom ruled by the unconditional love of God.   The very image in which we were created.  My challenge for you during the season of Advent is this:  begin reading and reflecting on being present to Advent with the hope that his spirit will transform and change you this season.  Let us pray.   

"When EGO Gets the Best of You"

         

          Jesus said:  “My Kingdom is not of this world.” What do you think he meant?

Nov 25, 2018       2 Samuel 23: 1-7   John 18: 33-37

As you heard the words of King David written in 2 Samuel this morning what picture of David comes to mind?  Is it of a humble fearless shepherd boy who is eager to slay the lion who would do harm to his flock, the shepherd boy who is eager and ready to face the giant Goliath?   A humble boy who puts his trust, wisdom and strength in the hands of the almighty, a boy who listens to God’s messenger the prophet and obeys his command, or do we hear something else coming from David’s words.     What did you hear?    A little egocentricity maybe.

In today society the word EGO has been portrayed as negative entity within humankind by many a writer, psychologists, and psychiatrists especially when “I” in me gets to big, giving a distorted understanding of oneself or the building up of a false self as some writers describe it.   Any world leaders come to mine?? 

  

Eckhart Tolle in his book the “The Power of Now” describes ego as an entity within humans and in order to survive it needs to be feed.  It doesn’t care what it feeds on, a positive or a negative feed is all the same to ego.  Your Ego has one goal, to survival and that requires feeding it.  Some of our World leaders today give us examples of Ego at its worst.   

What Kind David is telling us here in the first reading is not a lie and at first glance you may not see the ego feeding but if you look closer and read on to see his full story, you will see how David’s ego plays havoc in his later life. This is a common problem in much of our lives as well.  We sometimes like to build ourselves up or on the other hand often like to build up someone else.  Often thought of as a good thing to do now and again.  But the question is, when we do this, does it really build confidence and self-esteem or does it give us a false sense of who we or others really are.    

I’m not sure how familiar you are with the story of Moses, another great man from the bible.  In fact he is the most important prophet spoken of in Judaism.  Moses was to free the Jews from slavery in Egypt and take them to the Promised Land.  Yet even he falls prey to ego at the very end of his journey and is not to be the one who accompany the Jewish people into the Promised Land, it would be His brother Aaron.  Moses makes a very poor choice in the desert during the very last leg of the journey.  The people are dying of thrust.  Moses prays for deliverance.   After receiving instruction from God, Moses taps a might rock with his staff and water comes pouring out.  But his ego gets the best of him as he boasts “here is the water “I” give you.”  We too run great risks when we steal away God thunder.  We often do not see or know the circumstances ego is building around our own lives.   Especially when we take credit for our generosity or for the things we seemingly have achieved on our own, but let this illusion be exposed folks for no one every completely does anything on their own.  What’s the old saying “It takes two to -----------.

The fact that you have life, that you exist, is a gift from the one who creates life.   Your ability to do well for yourself or to do acts of goodness are blessings given to you by God.  Arrogance, and ego are full of their own punishment and can bring with them circumstances that create kayos in your or someone else’s life.  God in His infinite Grace has given us tools to combat such kayos: repentance and forgiveness.  These two things become precious gems l in the tool box of righteousness, meaning: when we learn from our mistakes, we will turn away from those things that create pain and suffering in our lives.  Repentance sets us free from our bondage to sin and forgiveness allows us another change to begin the work of doing what is right good and holy.  These two tools, repentance and forgiveness of self, become our pathway back to wholeness a place where we can start all over again.  Now Isn’t that GREAT!

    

Jesus is the master of wholeness, humbleness and obedient to His Father’s will, Jesus never misses the mark.   He illustrates this for us in the passages we read from John today.   Pilate speaks:  “I am a Roman not a Jew and it wasn’t the Romans who handed you over to me.   What have you done?   Here you can see he is trying to get Jesus’ goat.   Trying to anger him, to get to boast about himself or to show His so called hand of power or authority.   Jesus’ response confuses Pilate.  He doesn’t boast about his “Kingship” but carefully chooses His words saying:  “My Kingdom is not of this world”.   Meaning it is not a Kingdom that bows down to worldly power, wealth, greed, injustice, discrimination, or violence.  It is a not a kingdom of affliction, suffering and condemnation.   Because if that were true Jesus says, “my servants would fight to the death for me”.   In other words Jesus is describing a Kingdom free from waring violence, greed, material wealth, and controlled force over peoples for personal gain.  Jesus’ kingdom is a kingdom ruled by a humble servant King who is forgiving, loving, compassionate, with mind of God.  It is a Kingdom rooted in love, justice, mercy, and grace. Confirmation here can be found in Micha 6:8.  “What does the Lord require of You”
Two separate Kingdoms within the same world.  He also makes it clear in his statement that those who seek to serve Him would also be free from violence and oppression, that which is not found in Pilate’s worldly kingdom or the present Kingdoms of our modern world.         

Then Pilate finally gives in saying “You are a king then!    Jesus replies:  “You are right in saying I am a King Pilate.  In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to that truth.  Everyone who hears the truth, and accepts it listens to me.  The lyric of this song tell it all!    “There’s something about that name” 

I guess the question we are left to ponder with for the coming week might be this.  Have you surrendered your life to Jesus?  Have you taken Him into your heart so as to be a reflection of His ways in your family, your church, your community?  If you have, you have entered into His Kingdom and you to will be ruled to by the mind of God.  Your work then, is to help spread the Good News of the Gospel wherever you may be.  

"Are All Man Made Structures At Risk?"

                                               

Nov 18, 2018 Readings:  Hebrews 10: 11-14, 19-25, Psalm 150 VU p 874, Mark 13: 1-8

As the disciples walked out of the Temple in Jerusalem Jesus paused, looked back at the Temple and predicted, "Do you see all these great buildings. Not one stone will be left on another." To the disciples this was bedrock. Jerusalem was the foundation of everything they believed in.   Nothing could bring down these walls. "Look, teacher! What massive stones! What magnificent buildings!" they said to Jesus. 

We know today from history that the smallest stones in that structure weighed 2 to 3 tons. Many of them weighed 50 tons.  In fact the largest existing stone, is still part of the Wailing Wall, and you can see it today.  It is 12 meters in length or 360 feet and 3 meters high, or 36 feet and it weighs hundreds of tons! The stones were so immense that neither mortar nor any other binding material was used between the stones. Their stability was attained by the great weight of the stones. The walls towered over Jerusalem, well over 200 feet in one area history tells us. 

Do you think this passage is about the end times, a time when the world as they and we know it will come to its end, perhaps, but please do not stop there, for I believe that this was not Jesus’ only intent here.   I believe Jesus’ illustration was also challenging the very foundations of humankind, meaning the things they and we put our hopes, dreams and security in will not last, could they possibly be all for not. The things that we think are important for our future and are sometimes thought to be indestructible, as the old saying goes, solid as the rock or Gibraltar.   How many of you remember that saying, I believe it was the slogan for “Prudential life” in its hay day.  Well everything man made has its hay day folks, doesn’t it, but then change forces it to transform or come to its end. 

If we are honest with ourselves we know from experience that nothing resists the forces of change, that everything mankind has ever made no matter how well designed or built it was in the beginning, eventually crumbles under the weight of change. The earth is an organism birthed from the Universe, and it is programmed to evolve.  Even the very building we are sitting in this morning is being affected by the changes that our religion will have to face tomorrow.  We will either accept the change and be transformed or we die.  Yet our faith teaches there is one thing that never changes, and we can trust it to guide us through change.   It is the same yesterday, today and will be there for all our tomorrows.  What is it!  God’s unfailing unconditional love!  It does not change and it is there for all His children, not just a few, nor for a chosen race, but for all God’s children.  This is where our belief and trust belongs, with God’s unfailing love, I will never forget or leave you for I have carved your name on the palm of my hand, Isaiah 49.  "I will never Forget You" 

Church buildings are closing their doors all around us as I speak and the status quo does not seem to know where these changes will take us.  But there are some who are facing this truth today and are beginning to take steps towards rebuilding their future.   “Is the Christian religion and its churches as we now know and understand them at risk?   Of course they are if we take Jesus seriously when he tells his disciples that the stones that hold their and our lives together will all eventually crumble.   We are mortal and eventually under the weight of stress or age we too will be torn down.  We don’t know when but our bodies will return to the dust from whence they came.  May I suggest that Jesus was indicating that all man made structures and systems are doomed to fail the final test.  The stones in what we think the foundations of our lives are secure will be the dust of tomorrow.  You know this might be a good time for us to stop and contemplate our own mortality or the mortality of our church congregations. To start, we need to ask ourselves these questions:  What can we consider as stones in our foundation and how does our connection to these stones affect our relationship with God?   We have a stone of wealth.  How much emphasis is put on wealth today?   How much of our time is dedicated to securing buildings and the wealth to maintain them.  Take a look around at the homes that are being built today or the churches that had been built in the past and the cost of maintain them.  We have a stone often referred to as church doctrine and worship.   A stone of possessions, all that we have.  A stone of accomplishment, all we have done.  A stone of seeking to be loved by our families and friends.   A stone of personal importance in your life or the life of your church.    

Imagine them as the stones in the building Jesus and the disciples were looking at.  A building containing thousands of stones, stones which represent those things that we seek out, those things we turn to for a sense of permanence, stability, for comfort, for peace of mind, all built into a building that, when there is trouble in our lives we make our place of refuge, and when there is joy we make the place for our thanks offering. "Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down." A hard image to get hold of is it not?   We, just like disciples, want to reject these thoughts.  For some - the question is - how could this happen?  For others the image is a challenge - something to work with not to resist.   Here we must learn to work together not as individuals.  God has not abandoned us, God has not removed our ability to bounce back by taking risks.  In fact when we have come to the edge of all that we know and are about to step off into the darkness once again, we can trust that one of two things will happen.  On the other side of our darkness we will find the light, something solid for us to stand on, or we will be taught to fly but we will not be forsaken or abandoned.  That we can trust in thanks be to God   

"Give until it Hurts"

What does the old saying “give until it hurts” mean to you? 

We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give.

When you learn, teach. When you get, give.

What is true generosity?  Could be summed up like this “You give your all, and yet you always feel as if it costs you nothing.”

Never get tired of doing little things for others, sometimes those little things occupy the biggest parts of their hearts.

Nov 11, 2018 Readings:  Psalm 127   Mark 12: 38-44

I would like to share two observations from the reading found in Mark today: 

At first reading, today's gospel passage from Mark appears to have a lot to do with money.  Jesus is watching people put their offerings into the money box.  There were several boxes in the temple where money could be placed.  Some were for collecting the temple tax from Jewish males, others were for freewill offerings.  It was the freewill offering box that catches Jesus attention.  He notes that there is one who gives more than all the rest.  May I suggest here that what Jesus is trying to point out to his disciples and to us is that in giving it is not about the amount, for there are others who give much more than this widow gave.  The value of a gift is not determined by its amount, but by the spirit in which it is given.  A gift given grudgingly or for recognition loses its value for you.  This teaching is very difficult for many to achieve not only those within the church but for many outside the church as well. 

I think most of us would agree that it is good to give and we give generously.   Giving of our time, our talent or our money is good thing to do.  Not only for others but also for ourselves.  Giving offers hope to the recipient and it also helps to builds within us faith and trust in the promises of God.  The teaching is We shall receive proportionately, according to our giving, how we love and forgive.   Give generously is the call of the scriptures.  Blessed are those who can give without remembering, for it is in the remembering that the gift can lose its value for you.   And if we take what Jesus says to his disciples about the widow seriously, we might even agree that giving till it hurts is good, in fact, giving till it has gone way past hurting may even be better.   Strange concepts not only for the rich of Jesus’ day but for us also.  We must admit though, to give all, we would have to give until it hurts.  Not many and I must include myself here, are willing to trust God that far, at least not yet, but we are working on it, aren’t we.  

However, I believe that there is more to today's gospel than just the amount of money given in this situation.  Jesus isn’t condemning those who are making their offering from their abundance but, because Jesus is identifying himself with this poor widow and noting that she is giving of her poverty, this makes that status quo uncomfortable.  The poor giving more than we?   This financially poor women has given all that she had.   She held back nothing for herself.  Now, no one I know, gives their all without some understanding or reassurance, that somehow they will be taken care of, that they will be replenished.   As I studied this piece of scripture the thought that came to me here was; can I trust God enough to give myself back to that which created me?  Can I give all of myself.?   May I suggest here that this women is not only generous but that she has riches greater than any amount of money, time or talent, what she has is, a faith rich in trust.   You think about this folks, no one could give their all without blind trust.  She must truly believe that she will continue to be provided for even after she has given her last penny.   Now that’s Faith!!  

The challenge for those of us who claim to be faithful followers of Jesus, especially when it comes to our giving’s is this:  It’s not about the amount of the time, talent or moneys we give, the most important thing is, do we have the faith to believe that we too will be taken care of even if we were to give all we have, even our lives.  Many will be remembered today for giving the ultimate sacrifice.  But not only the soldier for we must remember the police officer, the firefighter, the rescue worker, volunteers, doctors, nurses, pastors, priests and everyday folk who have also offer their lives for the sake of others.  We must never forget. 

Here is the other interesting observation I would like to add to the story today.  May I suggest here that by identifying with the poor, Jesus becomes very unpopular with the rich and the middles class of his day.  Why is this?   Because he is consistently bringing to the attention of the status quo the social gospel, which include racism, injustice, the conditions of the poor, the sick and marbleized outcast folk of his day.   This may sound ironic but whenever people today begin to identify with the social gospel and the poor of the world, it brings light our responsibilities concerning same.  At first they are lifted to hero status like Jesus was, but it doesn’t last long before all that changes.   Once the changes or giving begins to interfere with the status quo comfort zones, monies power or lifestyles you may get labelled as did the apostles Paul, Peter, Thomas, or in our modern day a Martin Luther King, Gundi, a Nelson Mandela, Desman Tutu and what happens to them- they are gotten rid of, jailed crucified or assassinated or excommunicated.   This is the fate of those who give until it really hurts.  Jesus knew this first hand.   You or I may not be called upon to go to war and offer ourselves for the injustices of our world.   You might not be called upon to march in Tiananmen Square, or to go to India and fight for rights of young women to get an education, but there is lots of opportunity for all of us to give and offer ourselves right in our own church, school, our town, village or city. Yes it is risky business folks but someone has to have the courage to offer.  Remembering that true giving has nothing to do with the size or the amount of the gift, but by the spirit in which it is given.

 We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give.

May God bless you in your giving’s.   

"LOVE"

“Love”  by Richard Rohr

The Most Essential Thing
Sunday, October 28, 2018

The most powerful, most needed, and most essential teaching is always Love. Love is our foundation and our destiny. It is where we come from and where we’re headed. As St. Paul famously says, “So faith, hope, and love remain, but the greatest of these is love” (1 Corinthians 13:13).

My hope, whenever I speak or write, is to help clear away the impediments to receiving, allowing, trusting, and participating in a foundational Love. God’s love is planted inside each of us as the Holy Spirit who, according to Jesus, “will teach you everything and remind you of all that I told you” (John 14:26).

Love is who you are. When you don’t live according to love, you are outside of being. You’re basically not real or true to yourself. When you love, you are acting according to your deepest being, your deepest truth. You are operating according to your dignity. For a simple description of the kind of love I am talking about, let’s just use the word outflowing. This will become clearer as we proceed.

All I can do is remind you of what you already know deep within your True Self and invite you to live connected to this Source. John the Evangelist writes, “God is love, and whoever remains in love, remains in God and God in them” (1 John 4:16). The Judeo-Christian creation story says that we were created in the very “image and likeness” of God—who sets the highest bar for this kind of outflowing love (Genesis 1:26-27). Out of the Trinity’s generative and infinitely flowing relationship, all of creation takes form, mirroring its Creator in its deepest identity.

We have heard this phrase so often that we don’t get the existential shock of what “created in the image and likeness of God” is saying about us. If this is true, then our family of origin is divine. It is saying that we were created by a loving God to also be love in the world. Our core is original blessing, not original sin. Our starting point is “very good” (Genesis 1:31). If the beginning is right, the rest is made considerably easier, because we know and can trust the clear direction of our life’s tangent.

We must all overcome the illusion of separateness. It is the primary task of religion to communicate not worthiness but union, to reconnect people to their original identity “hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:3). The Bible calls the state of separateness “sin.” God’s job description is to draw us back into primal and intimate relationship. “My dear people, we are already children of God; what we will be in the future has not yet been fully revealed, and all I do know is that we shall be like God” (1 John 3:2).

Henceforth, all our moral behavior is simply “the imitation of God.” First observe what God is doing all the time and everywhere, and then do the same thing (Ephesians 5:1). And what does God do? God does what God is: Love. God does not love you if and when you change. God loves you so that you can change!

"Spiritual Blindness"

When you think of the word blindness what comes to your mind?   Being in the darkness, mobility, not being able to get around, aloneness, a burden to others.

There are the physically blind and then may I suggest there are those who are spiritually blind.

Readings:  Job 42: 1-6, 10-17, Psalm 34  Mark 10: 46-52

We heard two stories this morning that suggest there are two kind of blindness, not one but two.  There is physical blindness as in the case of Bartimaeus but in the case of Job, we find a great example of spiritual blindness.  

Bartimaeus was physically blind, he had no sight, but medical science tells us that if we lose one or our senses often other senses kick in and become more acute.  With physical blindness hearing and the ability to listen usually improve considerably.  Just recently science has discovered that the blind have sonar abilities were never completely understood before.  They can with training, actually detect objects and there position by using clicking sounds. Their hearing is so acute to sound that they hear an echo our ears are not trained to hear.   Some have gotten so good at it they can tell you the size and description of the object and it distance.  For the blind often scents and odors become more alive, more distinct, touch or taste more sensitive, they become more open to others. Listening for them opens up new possibilities.  May I suggest here that listening better, just may help many sighted persons? Do I hear an Amen?   The opposite occurs with Spiritual blindness.  The lack of spiritual awareness can cause people to become desensitized to their neighbor, their surroundings, nature and to presence of God in their lives.  People who suffer from spiritual blindness can easily become paranoid, more fearful, more self-centered, narrow in their thinking, reluctant to change and new possibilities.   These conditions exists not only with individuals but within groups, governments and even some religions.  Ecologists, theologians and environmentalists are suggesting today that many of those who hold the power within governments, religions and science have the blinders on.  That they are misleading us with their untruths, personal agenda, or personal ideologies.   Spiritual blindness is causing us to use up all our resources faster than we or nature can replenish them.  This kind of blindness can lead us into a world of protectionism, chaos and eventual self-destruction.   

Bartimaeus’ blindness was considered by the people of his time to be a curse from God because of some sin that he or one of his family members committed.   This way of perceiving God, a God who punishes sin with affliction is still being preached in some religious circles today.  Jesus exposes this non truth by reaching out to heal both physical and spiritual blindness.  If you allow Jesus to touch your heart, He can heal both kinds of blindness in you.   God heals because God is a God of rescue, a God of unconditional forgiveness and love not a tyrant who punishes.   Not trusting that God has our best interest in mind, regardless of our personal circumstances helps to add to our Spiritual blindness.   When we commit to personal sin or miss the mark as the Hebrew would say, unleash both conscious and unconscious consequences.  God doesn’t need to punish us, because God gave us the ability to punish ourselves.  It’s built right in to your choices folks, it’s called consequences.  Do something bad to yourself or to others behold consequences.    On the other hand, do something good to yourself or to others and behold consequences.  One might say that the first is spiritual blindness and the other is spiritual awareness.     

Take a long hard look at the Old Testament stories and your blinders will began to be removed.   Jesus isn’t trying to heal or save us from God’s punishment, Jesus wants to heal and save us from that which can become our worst enemy, ourselves. Is that not at the true core of salvation where We can be our own worst enemy as we create our own Hell.    Job is one of the stories that can help us with this deadly form of spiritual blindness. 

He was a righteous man whom loved God, yet God doesn’t stop misfortune, or disease from befalling him.  Yes even good people have a human nature that causes trouble in their lives.  Spiritual blindness allows us to think like Job’s friends.   That we are puppets on a string, that God manipulates us with a system of rewards and punishments.   Job’s friends wrongly assume that suffering always comes as a result of something we had done to upset God.  Job knows this is not so and maintains his faith no matter what the devil throws at him, even though he can’t understand the workings of God.  Spiritual blindness here makes us question the goodness of God especially when our expectations are not met or when we have to endure suffering because of a choice we or someone has made.  God’s wisdom is greater than our understanding.  God has allowed our human nature and our minds the ability to choose.  God doesn’t force control over our human nature but with Jesus’ help we can.   Here we need to remain faithful regardless of our circumstances, trusting, believing and relying on Him.     Spiritual blindness allows us to think that we can figure out and understand the wisdom of God.  Let me remind you of Isiah 55: 9 “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

God is God and we are just his children no matter how mature we think we have become.  Spiritual blindness allows us to think we can be Gods ourselves.

Listen to these lyrics:  “The Spirit Song”

Many people today make the claim that they are not spiritual.    I believe that Jesus would disagree with them because that suggests that only some of what God created is spiritual.  To be human, to be part of creation is to be spiritual.  You can’t separate the two.  Everything in existence is spiritual.  God breathed into existence everything by the spirit.  According to the Gospel of John 1: everything in the cosmos both in heaven and on earth were created by the Word, and the word was light to the world.  In verse 3 we read “ through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.  In him was life” and that life became a light to the world, it brings spiritual awareness, to a world full of darkness, full of the spiritually blind.   Therefore we could conclude that everything in life that has ever existed is sacred and spiritual.    If we have eyes to see, and ears to hear, all things, the rocks and trees, the flowers, and the bees, the oceans and all of its contents, the land, the insects and animals are all spiritual.   We humans are special, we are not like anything else that was created and we were given spiritual awareness and stewardship over all things in creation.  Stewardship seems to have lost its meaning for church folk today.  If you are not sure of it meaning, may I suggest that you google it when you get home or look it up with Webster’s.

Many feel this special spiritual connection to each other and to our world.     Many of us feel this connection when we commune with nature, or with certain people.  Our spirits seems to be on the same wave length, and there is a sense of peace and contentment when we are in each other’s company, even if you do not have to agree with each other’s perspective you still sense the connectedness.  Spiritual blindness can prevent us from experiencing this unexplainable joy and oneness with others, with Jesus, and with nature.   Let us pray