"Keeper of the Keys"

Have you ever heard the words “Keeper of the Keys”?  What does it mean for you?  

How many of us here today have trouble when it comes to giving things over, to give something up, or to use a biblical term to surrender something.  What do you cling to?  Are there things that you just can’t seem to let go? 

Physiologist are often baffled by this human characteristic of clinging.  It starts in childhood but later translates in adulthood, and for some, it becomes a real problem for them throughout their lives.  Often the results affect the person’s physical and mental health.   It can produce in them a desire to look for, or seek a sense of security or well being within material “things” within their achievements, or a search for power and riches.  Try to take, remove or deprive them of having it and some will fall into moments of deep depressions, others will try to hide in their lonely emptiness by turning to chemical stimulants.   Often, but not always, this leads to a life of sex, drugs, power and material riches.   For the average person clinging turns to wanting, which usually brings with it jealousy.   Anger is often the result and that produces not a better life but to a life of self-destruction, but only if they do not find ways of surrender.   Happiness, as the world teaches it, required you to obtain and hold onto "things."  In contrast to that, Jesus teaches us that true joy, which is deeper than happiness, requires you to let go of "things."  Do you know the lyric to: I surrender all, I surrender all, all to Jesus I surrender, I surrender all.  Try singing it.

Many Physiologists and Theologians alike suggest it is almost impossible for us to willing surrender everything as did Jesus on the cross but they all agree that surrender is the antidote.  Giving up the status quo, or an old life for a new way.   Folks that is so biblical but it is also very difficult for some to do.   May I suggest a beginning antidote here, or a step in the right direction for anyone who is struggling with surrender?  Swap a bad habit for a better one?  Exchange whatever it is that is controlling or consuming your life, for something that is life giving.  It’s not rocket science folks,  AA members who have been in the12 step program know what this is all about.  I think a 12 step program for non-alcoholics wouldn’t hurt any of us, and just might give us the opportunity to develop a new and deeper relation with family, life and with God.  Why, because the12 steps are based on the teachings within Holy Scriptures and they work because Jesus lived them.       

Regardless of our age folks, we are all still clinging to some sort of security blanket.  We need to feel anchored in our lives, something we can rely on to give us stability and security: it could be – family -  a familiar routine we follow every day - bank accounts, investments, pension programs  - good health and physical fitness  - lots of friends… but, and it is a "BIG BUT"!   “Will your anchor hold in the Storms of life”. When the clouds unfold their wings of strife? When the strong tides lift, and the cables strain, Will your anchor drift or firm remain?    We have an anchor that keeps the soul, steadfast and sure while the billows roll, fastened to the Rock which cannot move, grounded firm and deep in the Savior's love.
There are all sorts of grown-up security blankets that we hold on to for dear life, to give us a sense of stability, certainty and comfort.   We spend a lot of time, money, and energy trying to find some anchor, some foundation, for our lives. We keep trying to control our own fortunes and our own destiny.  We keep trying to play God, just as in the beginning story of our humanity, when they ate from the tree of knowledge, so they would know what God knew, to make the world work the way they though it should.  But sooner or later we discover, sometimes tragically, that the ultimate answers in life, the security and safety we long for, simply cannot be found in “things” folks,  the answer to a full life is beyond anything this world can offer you.    

In our reading this morning from Romans 8, the Apostle Paul tells us some amazing things.  This single chapter offers us more wonderful promises of God than we can hardly handle.  Paul tells us that we do not even know how to pray or what to pray for, but God in his mercy, through the power of the Holy Spirit, interprets our prayers in ways that benefit us and are for our good.  Paul tells us, "If God is for us, who can be against us?"  And then he gives us one of the greatest and most comforting promises in all of Scripture:  "For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God found in Christ Jesus our Lord."  The question here is; do you believe that?   What a wonderful, powerful promise, full of hope and assurance. Nothing you have done, or did not do, nothing bad or good in the past, present or future blocks out Gods seeking you, wanting to reconcile the relationship that God had with you while you innocently waited in your mother’s womb. That is why Jesus so often used a child to point to the Kingdom and if you do not see yourself as a child of God you will never see the kingdom.

In our lesson this morning, Paul also says in verse 28, "We know that “all things” work together for good for those who love God, for we are called according to his purpose."  All things Paul says: the good things and the bad folks.  If Paul’s ruthless past and it was ruthless folks, didn’t keep God away from him, then be reassured neither will yours.   Our joys and our sorrows - our celebrations and disappointments, -our successes and failures -our goodness and badness.  Everything has a good purpose in the end, therefore put your trust in the teachings of Jesus Paul would say. 

As Christians, we believe that our destiny and the destiny of this world is not ultimately in our own hands, nor is it in the hands of world leaders, advanced technology, pension plans, or health foods.  No, as Christians we believe that our ultimate destiny, and therefore our ultimate security, is in the hands of God - The same God who has been faithful down through the centuries - The same God who continues to work through human history  - The same God who revealed his love and grace to us through the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus the Christ.   We believe in the providence of God.  We believe that God, in his divine wisdom and goodness and love, holds the future in his hands.  We believe that God's will, will ultimately be done. This is what Paul means when he says that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. Often our problem is that there are many times, there are many circumstances, where we simply do not see or believe that all things work together for good. Have faith, trust in God, trust in Christ.   

"War Begets Only War not Peace"

The Peace we all seek can never be found on the other side of conflict.  This illusion have been the center piece of War since the beginning of time.  This video of a Vet from Canada who served his county at Dunkirk needs to be seen and shared all over our world please pass it along.  Our world needs to hear his message, and heed his wisdom.

" Atonement or an Act of Love You Decide"

Theologian, Teacher and Franciscan Rev Richard Rohr presents:

Substitutionary Atonement

 This week we will look more closely at some Christian beliefs that have caused a great deal of damage, namely substitutionary atonement “theories.” These views have dominated Christianity over the past century, but it wasn’t always that way.  Early Christianity my have more insight for us to consider.   Theologian Marcus Borg (1942-2015) points out that the substitutionary understanding of Jesus’ death “was not central in the first thousand years of Christianity.” [1] Borg explains:

[The] first systematic articulation of the cross as “payment for sin” happened just over nine hundred years ago in 1098 in St. Anselm’s treatise Cur Deus Homo? [Why Did God Become Human?] Anselm’s purpose was to provide a rational argument for the necessity of the incarnation and death of Jesus.

He did so with a cultural model drawn from his time and place: the relationship of a medieval lord to his peasants. If a peasant disobeyed the lord, could the lord simply forgive if he wanted to? No. Because that might imply that disobedience didn’t matter that much. Instead, compensation must be made. Nothing less than the honor and order of the lord were at stake.

Anselm then applied that model to our relationship with God. We have been disobedient and deserve to be punished. And yet God loves us and wants to forgive us. But the price of sin must be paid. Jesus as a human being who was also divine and thus perfect and without sin did that. [2]

Unfortunately, this became the primary lens through which the Hebrew Scriptures and New Testament were read. The substitutionary atonement “theory” (and that’s all it is) implies that the Eternal Christ’s epiphany in Jesus is a mere afterthought when the first plan did not work out.

While animals were sacrificed in the Judaic temple, Marcus Borg argues that this “was not about payment for sin” but “making something sacred by giving it as a gift to God”; sacrifices were about “thanksgiving, petition, purification, and reconciliation,” not substitution. [3] The temple metaphors of atonement, satisfaction, ransom, “paying the price,” and “opening the gates,” are just that—metaphors of transformation and transitioning. Too many theologians understood these in a transactional way instead of a transformational way.

Why would God need a “blood sacrifice” before God could love what God had created? Is God that needy, unloving, rule-bound, and unforgiving? Once you say it, you see it creates a nonsensical theological notion that is very hard to defend. What would God ask of me if God demands violent blood sacrifice from God’s only Son? A violent theory of redemption legitimated punitive and violent problem solving all the way down—from papacy to parenting. If God uses and needs violence to attain God’s purposes, maybe Jesus did not really mean what he said in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5):

A Nonviolent Atonement

“In the thirteenth century, the Franciscans and the Dominicans invariably took opposing positions in the great debates in the universities of Paris, Cologne, Bologna, and Oxford. Both opinions usually passed the tests of orthodoxy, although one was preferred. The Franciscans often ended up presenting the minority position. Like the United States’ Supreme Court, the Church could have both a majority and a minority opinion, and the minority position was not kicked out! It was just not taught in most seminaries. However, it was taught in some Franciscan formation centers, and I was a lucky recipient of this “alternative orthodoxy” at Duns Scotus College in Michigan from 1962-1966.

I share this background to illustrate that my understanding of the atonement theory is not heretical or new, but has quite traditional and orthodox foundations, beginning with many theologians in the Patristic period.

Thomas Aquinas and the Dominicans agreed with Anselm’s (by then mainline) view that a debt had to be paid for human salvation. But Franciscan John Duns Scotus (c. 1266-1308) said that Jesus wasn’t solving any problems by coming to earth and dying. God did not need Jesus to die on the cross to decide to love humanity. God’s love was infinite from the first moment of creation; the cross was Love’s dramatic portrayal in space and time. That, in a word, was the Franciscan nonviolent at-one-ment theory.

Duns Scotus built his argument on the pre-existent Cosmic Christ described in Colossians and Ephesians. Jesus is “the image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15) who came forward in a moment of time so we could look upon “the One we had pierced” (John 19:37) and see God’s unconditional love for us, in spite of our failings.

The image of the cross was to change humanity, not a necessary transaction to change God—as if God needed changing! Duns Scotus concluded that Jesus’ death was not a “penal substitution” but a divine epiphany for all to see. Jesus was pure gift. The idea of gift is much more transformative than necessity, payment, or transaction. It shows that God is not violent, but loving. It is we who are violent.

Duns Scotus firmly believed that God’s freedom had to be maintained at all costs. If God “needed” or demanded a blood sacrifice to love God’s own creation, then God was not freely loving us. For the Franciscan school, Jesus was not changing God’s mind about us; he was changing our minds about God. If God and Jesus are not violent or vindictive, then our excuse for the same is forever taken away from us. If God is punitive and torturing, then we have permission to do the same. Thus grew much of the church’s violent history.

Jesus’ full journey revealed two major things: that salvation could have a positive and optimistic storyline, neither beginning nor ending with a cosmic problem; and that God was far different and far better than religion up to then had demonstrated. Jesus personally walked through the full human journey of both failure and rejection—while still forgiving his enemies—and then he said, “Follow me” and do likewise (see John 12:26; Matthew 10:38). The cross was not necessary, but a pure gift so that humanity could witness God’s outflowing Love in dramatic form.

 References:

[1] Marcus Borg, “Christianity Divided by the Cross,” October 25, 2013, http://www.patheos.com/blogs/marcusborg/2013/10/christianity-divided-by-the-cross/.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Borg, “The Real Meanings of the Cross,” October 28, 2013, http://www.patheos.com/blogs/marcusborg/2013/10/the-real-meanings-of-the-cross/.

Richard Rohr, Things Hidden: Scripture As Spirituality (Franciscan Media: 2007), 20

Adapted from Richard Rohr, Dancing Standing Still: Healing the World from a Place of Prayer (Paulist Press: 2014), 70-73.

 Reproduced from morning devotions by Richard Rohr.

"We Judge Ourselves"

Did you have any movie or TV hero’s when growing up?  What about villains who were they?  What characteristics today for you separate the bad guys or gals from the good?

  

July 23 2017  Reading Genesis 28: 16-17 Psalm 139  VU Page 861 Matthew 13: 24-30,36-43

This morning we heard that Jacob woke from his sleep and said "Surely the Lord is in this place - and I did not know it!"  Well now, I often wonder if all the Christians attending church this morning around the world would agree with Jacob. "Surely the Lord is in this place”   and do I know it? 

Over the years before I entered ministry and even after, I have met and become friends with people in all walks of life.  Some of whom others may consider, just a little better than the devil herself or himself.  Does the devil have gender? A good question for later discussion.   I have personally gotten to know and love prostitutes, drunkards, cheats, thieves, and adulterers.   A short stint in prison ministry in Springhill Nova Scotia Canada, before I entered into fulltime ministry allowed me to become friends with some inmates who had committed murder, and some of these I still consider to this very day, brothers in Christ. Because of my experiences I have come to one conclusion about all these people who have crossed my path, and that conclusion is that you cannot know what is going to come next, nor can you pin down just where God is or isn’t {as many often in their minds do} and or whom God has befriended.  Does some of that fit your own life experience?

I want you to hold onto that thought today - I want you to hold onto it when you meet people that strike you as bad, evil or different.   I want you to hold onto it when you watch the evening news or read the daily newspaper.  I want you to hold onto it when you hear the neighborhood gossip making its rounds and I want you to hold onto it when you feel that you yourselves are often out of Gods reach. 

We do not know what is going to come next, nor can we pin down just where God is or isn’t and what God is about.  This is the message of Jacob's story - the Jacob who cheated his brother and stole his birthright - the Jacob who feared that he would be killed if he stayed at home.  Yet for all that he did wrong God did not abandon him. Jacob’s story is a story for us, read it, study it, it will show you a bit about yourself and about your family, your neighbor and about your enemy.    

Have you ever been in God's presence and hardly noticed it?  Whom has ever looked into the eyes of a newborn and not felt wonder, power and miracle as God gives life.  How many of you in your faith journey suddenly realized that God had been with you long before you knew he was there?  Have you ever been or felt excluded or rejected only to discover God is with you as you suffer?   Have you ever judged or painted a picture of someone only to discover that they or the light around them has shifted - that the person you thought you saw - has completely changed?  Changed for the better?  Have you ever painted a picture of yourself - a picture in which the colors are all blue - all depressed - all unlovable - only to discover that someone really does loves you?  That someone believes in you?  That you are more than welcome in God's presence?  Does that fit with any of your life experience?  Do I hear an AMEN!! 

No one is excluded within the love of our heavenly parent, we are all precious in our Fathers sight.  Judge not folks, not yourself or you neighbor or for that matter someone you may consider evil or your enemy.  This political election on the island of Bermuda has once again brought out the best in some of us, but the worst in others.  While getting out of the heat to have a cold drink in Somerset on Wed I was listening and sharing in local conversations, my conclusion was, it truly is sad how we act, judge others and yes even ourselves at times. 

In the reading from Matthew today we heard the parable of the wheat and weeds. 

Jesus has an instructive message for us today here folks.  

 We do not know what is going to come next, nor can we pin down just where 

God is or isn’t and what God is about.   

Consider Moses - a murderer, King David - an adulterer, the Apostle Paul - a persecutor of the early church, or the disciple Peter - a hypocrite and a coward. How far down the ladder must we go?   Who would think that God would love and work with them?  That God would be present in their lives? That God would continue to guide them and make great out of what man would consider evil?  That God would grant unto them the blessings of the kingdom?   This make no sense within human logical when it comes to what is reject-able and what is acceptable.  But it is true, Why? Because: we can't even be sure that the weeds about us will remain weeds and we who think we are wheat, well, will we be able to remain wheat?   A great theologian and preacher once said:  I suppose, if I get to heaven I’ll be surprised as to whom is there, and I suppose there will be some who are surprised that I made it.

Now may I suggest that often we misjudge ourselves?  So my question is what judgement do you make upon yourself?  Look closely as your judgements reflect yourself.  The biblical answer folk is, that we judge not.  Judge not ourselves, your neighbor, not even those whom you consider evil or the enemy.   No - says the master - for in gathering the weeds you may uproot the some of the wheat along with them.  Wait till harvest time comes scripture tells us.   

Where is God?  What is he doing?  We do not know what is going to come next,

nor can we pin down just where God is or isn’t and what God is about.  But we can be sure of one thing - we can know one truth we can rely on, one fundamental belief - and that is - God will surprise us. 

We are all precious and unique in Gods sight.  We all have special gifts to share with those who are in need, but let us never forget that we all are tainted and have fallen short of the mark.   Even thou God’s love is unconditional and has enough forgiveness for all.   Thanks be to God.                     Bob Marley   " Judge Not"