June 15, 2014 The Holy Trinity

Matthew 28:16-20  (The Message)

16 Meanwhile, the eleven disciples were on their way to Galilee, headed for the mountain Jesus had set for their reunion. 17 The moment they saw him they worshiped him. Some, though, held back, not sure about worship, about risking themselves totally. 18 Jesus, undeterred, went right ahead and gave his charge: "God authorized and commanded me to commission you: 19 Go out and train everyone you meet, far and near, in this way of life, marking them by baptism in the threefold name: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 20 Then instruct them in the practice of all I have commanded you. I'll be with you as you do this, day after day after day, right up to the end of the age.”

The Holy Trinity is a mystery.  After all is said and done to help us try understand it,
the mystery still remains.  Which is the way it should be.

Without mystery God becomes something less then God.
Without mystery life looses something deep and beautiful.

On Holy Trinity Sunday we celebrate this mystery as we worship God the Father, creator of all things; God the Son, Redeemer of all humankind, and God the Holy Spirit, Sanctifier of all who believe.  (And maybe even those who don’t seem to believe.)

“Great indeed…is the mystery of our religion.”  I Tim 3:16



“I didn't need to understand the hypostatic unity of the Trinity; I just needed to turn my life over to whoever came up with redwood trees.”
― Anne Lamott,

June 8, 2014 Day of Pentecost

John 20:19-23  (The Message)

19 Later on that day, the disciples had gathered together, but, fearful of the Jews, had locked all the doors in the house. Jesus entered, stood among them, and said, "Peace to you." 20 Then he showed them his hands and side. 21 Jesus repeated his greeting: "Peace to you. Just as the Father sent me, I send you." 22 Then he took a deep breath and breathed into them. "Receive the Holy Spirit," he said. 23 "If you forgive someone's sins, they're gone for good. If you don't forgive sins, what are you going to do with them?”


“Love implies forgiveness.  It is hard for us to realize, but actually the only requirement the loving Father places on us, once we come to know Him...is that we forgive as we have been forgiven.”  “The Other Side of Silence”, Morton Kelsey, p. 68

Forgiveness is a gift of God’s spirit.  It is central to ALL that Jesus said and did.
It is central to what the Church is ALL about.  It is a powerful, renewing, uplifting, hope filling, smile producing, releasing gift which in no way is meant to control or dominate the lives of others.  It is meant to set one free to really live, with new choices and chances, and renewed vigor.  We are to work at being forgiving until forgiveness works!

The goal of not forgiving is not to not be forgiving.  The goal of not forgiving is to help the process get to the placed where we can forgive.  For that is what love always wants to do, and must be ready to do.  For we have been forgiven much!






              “Love implies forgiveness.”
                           Morton Kelsey

June 1, 2014 Easter 7

John 17: 10-11  (The Message)

Jesus is praying: “10 Everything mine is yours, and yours mine, And my life is on display in them. 11 For I'm no longer going to be visible in the world; They'll continue in the world while I return to you. Holy Father, guard them as they pursue this life that you conferred as a gift through me, So they can be one heart and mind
11 I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one.”

 “The petition that this community of believes be kept in God’s name is in effect a petition that love be the sign and seal of their common life.  Just as love marks the unity of the Father with his Son, and of the Son with his followers, so love shall mark the unity of God’s people and provide the power for their mission.”  From Proclamation

Our unity lies not in our sameness but in our love which transcends, embraces, encourages, applauds differentness.





“Living in love, not sameness, is the mark of unity.”

May 25, 2014, Easter 6

John 14:15-21  (The Message)

15 "If you love me, show it by doing what I've told you. 16 I will talk to the Father, and he'll provide you another Friend so that you will always have someone with you. 17 This Friend is the Spirit of Truth. The godless world can't take him in because it doesn't have eyes to see him, doesn't know what to look for. But you know him already because he has been staying with you, and will even be in you! 18 "I will not leave you orphaned. I'm coming back. 19 In just a little while the world will no longer see me, but you're going to see me because I am alive and you're about to come alive. 20 At that moment you will know absolutely that I'm in my Father, and you're in me, and I'm in you. 21 "The person who knows my commandments and keeps them, that's who loves me. And the person who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and make myself plain to him."

“Love is, as much as it is anything, a struggle together that is always seeded with new possibilities and challenges...even in old age.”    Eugene Kennedy

Jesus is talking about such a struggle in our text for today.
He is not talking about a comfortable system for getting into heaven.
He is talking about the struggle inherent in loving one’s neighbor as one’s self!
(This is how we love him!)

Jesus can be very demanding.  To know of his amazing grace is also to learn of his demanding love.  For once we are loved and know it, we have to love so others know it.

This is no extra curricular activity we are called to do. This is the heart of it all.  
We have been loved with a great love!  We are to love with a great love!







 

May 18, 2014 Easter 5

John 14:1-7  (The Promise)

1 "Don't let this throw you. You trust God, don't you? Trust me. 2 There is plenty of room for you in my Father's home. If that weren't so, would I have told you that I'm on my way to get a room ready for you? 3 And if I'm on my way to get your room ready, I'll come back and get you so you can live where I live. 4 And you already know the road I'm taking." 5 Thomas said, "Master, we have no idea where you're going. How do you expect us to know the road?" 6 Jesus said, "I am the Road, also the Truth, also the Life. No one gets to the Father apart from me.


Even with words we have heard many times, we must listen for what we have never heard before.  And with words we know,  we must listen for the unknown  

The words of John 14, which we often use to make an exclusive defense for Christianity, were spoken in a powerfully intimate moment.  They are not meant to be used as a smug statement of egotistical arrogance, but an expression of the extent of God’s love.

We are not called to save people; that is God’s task.  We are called to love people, as God has loved us. This is the greater work we are to do - trust in and live out the way of love over hate, the truth of forgiveness over condemnation, and the life of faith which dares keep compassion at the center of life.

"Perhaps Christianity has more to do with being redemptively human than being superhumanly spiritual.  It involves the conversion, not from human being to spiritual hero, but from inhuman to human.  God will be known in and through our humanity."  William E. Peatman, National Catholic Reporter

"God will be known in and through our humanity."  William E. Peatman 

May 11, 2014 Easter 4

John 10:10

"I have come that you might have life, and have it abundantly."     Jesus

In the book, “The Little Prince”, the following conversion takes place between a boy and a fox:    The fox is speaking to the boy:

“I have no need for you, and you, on your part, have no need of me.  To you, I am
nothing more than a fox like a hundred thousand other foxes.  But if you tame me, then we will need each other.  To me, you will be unique in all the world.  To you, I shall be unique in all the world.”

That’s the key to an abundant life, to be unique to someone!
And when that someone is God, life is abundant indeed!

God won’t live our lives for us; God will live our lives with us.
This is the uniqueness of faith, which becomes "a power and passion in authority
among the powers and passions of life."  P. T. Forsyth
And opens us up to an abundant life.

May 4, 2014 Easter 3

Luke 24:13-16(The Message)

13 That same day two of them were walking to the village Emmaus, about seven miles out of Jerusalem. 14 They were deep in conversation, going over all these things that had happened. 15 In the middle of their talk and questions, Jesus came up and walked along with them. 16 But they were not able to recognize who he was."

The challenge for us is to recognize Jesus walking with us, even when at first he is hidden from our sight.  For he often comes hidden in human acts of kindness, even those which seem so insignificant.

We were in Amman, Jordan, in a Orphanage for “throw away children”.  Children who were so severely challenged, both physically and mentally that they could do little for themselves.  We fed them, played with them, took them outside.  We tried to be hospitable with them.  Little seemed to make much difference in their miserable existence.

Then on Friday morning a well dressed man entered the Orphanage.  Suit, tie, very “western” looking.  As soon as he entered all the children began to squeal and make what ever noise they could.  We stood in awe as he removed his suit coat and began one by one to call the children by name and gently but firmly move their twisted limbs.
It look like it might hurt.  It did some.  They enjoyed every minute of it.   And each had their turn.

When he was finished he sat with us.  He told us he was a Physical Therapist, a Muslim who instead of going to Mosque came weekly to the Orphanage to spend some time
with the children.  The children who were hopelessly deformed and for whom he could do little good.  Except give them a few moments of loving touch.

When he left we all agreed that we had seen Jesus - in that man and in the love of his touch!  We were surprised by the discovery; and overjoyed to have our eyes opened to see that Jesus walks with all who touch in love!

"All gestures of love, however small they be,
in favor of the poor and the unwanted,
 are important to Jesus."
                                Mother Teresa