May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)
SEASON: Advent 1
PROPER: A
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: November 29, 1998
TEXT: Matthew 24:37-44 - Therefore, you must also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.
ISSUE: Matthew is preparing the early church for the fact that the Lord's second coming is delayed. People of that time had little sense of future. In sharp contrast, the people of today have little sense of the present and a greater sense of future, i.e. saving and planning. The gospel message is relevant to both situations. When the Second Coming occurs is not so much the issue, as our preparedness. We as disciples of Jesus Christ need to be constant in our faithfulness and forbearing in our ministries. The coming of Christ at Christmas is something of a metaphor for us and calls into awareness our need to be prepared to receive him. It is our time to examine our commitments.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
This Sunday marks the beginning of the Advent Season and the beginning of the new church year. The four Sundays of Advent (Advent meaning "coming" from the Latin.) are a time in our tradition for looking forward to the coming of Jesus Christ at Christmas. The purples and blues of Advent mark the season, in the church at least, a time for spiritual preparating through prayer, self-examination ushering in repentance and readiness for receiving the spirit of Christ into our lives. It is time of readiness and renewing of our own spirits. Needless to say, it is extremely difficult to think of Advent in our time as a season that is spiritual and penetential in a world that comes alive with hussle and bustle in shopping and partying. but then a goodly number of you are here today, so obviously we are continuing to plan and prepare for our spirits for the special holy time. I'm glad we are all here.
As we begin this new year, the church's lectionary readings shift to the "A Cycle" of readings. This year the emphasis on the majority of Sundays will be on the Gospel of Matthew. We left Luke's account of the Gospel behind last week. We'll still read some of Luke's writings this year, but it will not be the emphasis. Matthew's gospel was written, it is believed, sometime between 80- 85 AD. His emphasis was to address largely the early Jewish Christians, that is, those Judeans who were accepting Jesus as Messiah. You will find that much of Matthews writing deals with Matthew relating how Jesus was like or had an affinity to Jewish prophets out of the past, and how he was in many ways a continuing revelation of God out of Jewish writings in the Old Covenant.
We begin this morning with the Apocalyptic writing or section of Matthew. He calls upon these very early Jewish Christian followers to be prepared for the Second Coming of Christ, which was thought to occur after the end of time the age. The issue for Matthew is not merely that they look forward to the end of the page, but that they remain ready and prepared for it. In Matthew's time, people did not have much of a sense of future. Life didn't change much for them. There were limited goods and supplies. Day to day was pretty much the same. There was little planning for the future. You lived more day to day. Thus, the concept of the return, or Second Coming of the Messiah was not for these people something that was off in the future. For them everything was imminent. By the time Matthew is writing in 80 A.D., the Temple in Jerusalem had already been destroyed in 70 A.D. The destruction of the Temple for these Jewish folk was the end of the age. It was an end of an era. It was an enormous disaster. It was also about fifty years since the death of Jesus upon the cross. Thus, they expected that the end should have come. These early Judean-Christians are being taunted by non-Christians as to why their Messiah has not yet come. It may well be that the early Judean Christians are themselves becoming disenchanted with the idea that their deliverance has not come in all these fifty years and certainly not since the recent fall of the Jerusalem temple.
Matthew, then has Jesus saying that the church must not be concerned about when the end of the age will come, but that they must remain faithful and prepared for the coming of the Lord. It was like the time of Noah (and notice how Matthew uses an Old Testament Scripture example) people who were not prepared for the awesome day of the Lord when the flood came were washed away. Only Noah in his preparedness and faithfulness was ready when the time came. Women grinding in the field need to be ready for that awesome day, as the unprepared will be left behind, and the faithful taken into the hands of the Lord. If you know a burglar is coming, you stay awake and make yourself ready. So the work of the church for Matthew in his Gospel is that the church in times of uncertainty and despair must remain ready for the Lord and the Light, the new dawning whenever it may come.
In our time, we are quite different from the 1st century. We are very future oriented. We are great planners for the future. We buy big insurance policies. We plan for our retirement. We plan our future vacations. We begin putting away money for our childrens' education when some of them are still in diapers. (Some do.) We are rather future oriented. Time flies for us. Our digital watches quickly move us into the future. The end of the age is something that we are more inclined to put off into the distant future. The great majority of people live well into older ages. We are truly devastated by the death of young people or adults. We feel like we are owed longevity. Thus, we have to approach this Gospel reading from different perspective. We travel and move quickly as we are thrust ahead by plush automobiles and supersonic jets. So thrust into the future are we, that we miss dealing with the present. Sometimes things of the present get set aside, neglected. We can't take time so smell the proverbial roses and discover or re-discover the content and condition of our spirituality, of our faith and our spiritual attitudes. While we are future oriented, the fact remains that there are signs, signals of the end of the age, and abrupt endings.
A few years back many of were trained as children to hide under our desks at school in anticipation of a catastrophic cataclysmic nuclear end. We had to prepare. While the Soviet threat has passed, we now live with the threats of terrorist attacks with loosely guarded and unaccounted for nuclear weapons. We live with the threat of terrorist biological warfare. We live with the threats of serious illness; automobile accidents. Even as we live into what we hope will be a glorious future, we still live with the reality of our end. How is it that we wish to stand before our Lord? How do we see the deep spirituality and attitudes of our lives? These are the issues and the question of Matthew's Gospel. It is an issue of being aware of who we are in the here and now that is the issue. Is our life an expression of shame or fear of meeting the Lord or do we feel a sense of resonance with the Lord? Do we feel at peace and with a sense of comfort with the possibility of dying and being acceptable and worth of union with God?
The Season of Advent and this last of November and early December becomes one of the most frenzied times of the year. We looking ahead planning for the big day, December 25th. All the excitement is not all bad as we get ready for this wonderful feast. But we ought not let anything in our lives keep us from the evaluation and appreciation of the kind of lives God would have us to live. Christmas like other obsessions and drives of our lives can be demonic without reflection and study, and the desire to embrace the ways and teachings of our Lord. We must live now in the present that we might never be ashamed or afraid to die.
We might well ask ourselves how do we wish to be remembered, and how effective have we been in terms our witness to our Christian faith? What are the issues that have to be resolved? To be in love and charity with our neighbors is certainly one criteria. Do we really know our children and our spouses keeping faithful, and showing our children the values of uncompromising love and forgiveness? Are our lives an expression of sharing and generosity? It is not likely that we are perfect. We all know only too well the darkness of our lives. We know also that God came into the darkness and the despair of the world to enligten the darkness, and to raise up the fallen. This is the season when we seek to reclaim the grace that comes from Jesus Christ, and to become resonant with the Lord. Resonance is that physical principal whereby there is a transfer of energy. If I sing a note into the piano, the energy of the sound waves of my voice are transferred to the string inside the piano and it begins to vibrate at the same frequency. This season is the one where again, knowing full well that life is short, we seek to hear and receive the presence of Christ into our lives so that having become aware of his love and his forgiveness of us, aware of the transfer of the loving spirit of God we may be resonate with his divine energy, and live accordingly in our lives. Just as a light can be passed from one candle to another, may we receive the enlightenment of God in Christ and share it with others.
I will close with prayer this morning. These are two prayers from the (old) 1928 Book of Common Prayer Book, page 588 from Forms of Prayer to be used in Families.
Let us pray.
Dedication of Soul and Body to God's Service, with a Resolution to be grwoing daily in Goddness.
And since it is of thy mercy, O gracious Father, that another day is added to our lives; We here dedicate both our souls and our bodies to thee and thy service, in a sober, righteous, and godly life: in which resolution, do thou, O merciful God, confirm and strengthen us; that as we grow in age, we may grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Prayer for Grace to enable us to perform that Resolution.
But, O God, who knowest the weakness and corruption of our nature, and the manifuld temptations which we daily meet with; We humbly beseech thee to have compassion on our infirmities, and to give us the constant assistance of thy Holy Spirit; that we may be effectually restrained from sin, and incited to our duty. Imprint upon our hearts such a dread of thy judgments, and such a grateful sense of thy goodness to us, as may make us both afraid and ashamed to offend thee. And, above all, keep in our minds a lively remembrance of that great day, in which we must give a strict account of our thoughts, words, and actions to him whom thou hast appointed the Judge of quick and dead, thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
May this season be truly an occasion of preparation for the coming of Christ into renewed, prepared, and ordered lives.
Sunday, November 29, 1998
Sunday, November 22, 1998
Last Pentecost
May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)
SEASON: Last Pentecost
PROPER: 29 C
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: November 22, 1998
TEXT: Luke 23:35-43 - Then he said, "Jesus remember me when you come into your kingdom." He replied, "Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise."
ISSUE: The passage reveals another great reversal. Jesus is King, indeed, but totally unlike the human concept of King. His kingship is revealed in this suffering servanthood, as a faithful obedient servant. The passage reveals Jesus as once again being tempted: save your self, save us, come down off the cross and start a war. Instead of plucking that apple, he remains faithful, and the new garden, the Garden of Paradise is restored to all who embrace Jesus as Lord. For each of us in our lives and living as we accept Jesus as Lord we find our paradise, our meaning, our relationship with the will and purposes of God.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
This Sunday marks the end of the church's year. It is called the Last Sunday of Pentecost, and more recently the Sunday which celebrates that Jesus is Christ the King. In the passage it is written "This is the King of the Jews." Of course, that sign over the cross was a mockery of Jesus, put there by the Romans to severely aggrevate and humiliate the Judean population. Only in time did the church come to proclaim that in fact Jesus is Christ the King.
We must, however, keep in mind that Gospel of Jesus Christ is full of great reversals. We have in recent months been reminded of how Jesus attempted to reverse much of the thinking of his time: the first shall be last, and the last first. The old widow lady gets her justice before the judge. Those who come last to work in the vineyard get the full days wage. The outrageous prodigal son is forgiven, and his righteous brother chastised. It is the good Samaritan that lifts up and rescues the vicitimized traveler. It is the Samaritan leper that returns to give thanks. The least, the last, the lost, the sinners are the ones who are lifted up in Jesus teachings and parables to the great and surprising shock of the people of his time, and even to our own.
Today there is another great reversal when it comes to the understanding of what a King is. Kings are thought of a lofty, above their subjects. They are the holders of power, and the bearers of authority. They are perceived as the wealthy. People bow and curtsy and give honorable titles to the world's potentates. We have a symbol we refer to as Christ the King, or The Christus Rex. The Christus Rex, which means Christ the King, often portrays Jesus dressed in royal robes and wearing a crown on the cross. There are some who are quite critical of this symbol as they see it as imposing our concept of kingship upon Jesus. When in fact, what we see as Christ the King in the Scripture is not like the world's image of royalty. It is the complete reverse: Jesus on the cross is not a ministry of power, manipulation, military might, or wealth. His crown is thorns, and this scepter is a cross of suffering. So unlike the king who is above his people, here is Christ the king who is in the midst of his people whose only power is in love and forgiveness to those around him. His kingship is marked not by crowns and power, but by a suffering servanthood in an effort to reveal to people the underserved love and forgiving grace of God.
As we come now to the end of the church's year, to the time of winding-up, taking stock, and revewing the past year, we see the shear humility of the Lord Jesus who comes into the very midst of his people. He does not lord himself over us, no cojoling, no manipulation, no force imposed, he comes only to simply teach in parables, search out the lost, heal the deaf, the dumb, the lame and the blind. He simply offers to reclaim all those alienated from the love of God.
Biblical scholars believe that his passage told by Luke of Jesus on the cross has a profound and significant meaning. It is another temptation story. Remember that when Jesus was baptize and began his ministry he was tempted by Satan. He was challenged to turn stones into bread, to bow down in worship Satan in exchange for the world, to throw himself down from the cross. Jesus passed the test, and did not succumb to Satan's temptations. According to the story, Satan reprted left him for awhile. (Luke 4:1f) In this account of Jesus on the cross there are another three temptations. The Judean leaders dare Jesus to come down from the cross, "He saved others let him save himself." The Romans mock and tempt him, offering sour wine and putting the sign over his cross, "If you are the King of the Judeans, why not save yourself? And finally, the thief, probably a freedom fighter, a zealous rebel dares him, "Are you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!" If only he will take on authority and power as the world knows it, he then can be the legitimate savior, because this is the stuff that people think will save them: might, power, wealth, success, prestige, trickery.
The scene is very much like, similar to, the early Garden of Eden story of Adam from Genesis. This story was the one where it all began. Adam is in the garden. God says to Adam, do not eat from the one tree, just be faithfully obedient and the Garden is yours. But Satan tempts him to be like God in the sense of taking on power and might in your life. So he takes the forbidden fruit from the tree and has to live outside the garden. His children, Cain and Abel, fight and Cain is killed, and the human mess begins. Humans are not and cannot be God. They have to be human servants of a loving God.
What Luke is conveying to the people of this time is that here is another Garden. Here is a new Adam who has passed the temptation test by faithful sacrificial obedience. Here is another tree that God has given. This tree is the cross. On this tree hangs another fruit of life. One poor lost thieving soul says, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." To which Jesus replies: "Truly, today you will be with me in paradise." The new Adam, the saving fruit is Jesus Christ is and to see him as King, as suffering servant, to be next to him is Paradise, the new Garden of Eden, the new Garden of God.
I know a lot of people like to think that someday when they die, and go to Heaven, they will be with God in the Garden. Wonderful! But Jesus says to the thief in misery, ' I tell you that today you will be, you are with me now, through your faith in Paradise. People like to think that they have to earn their way into heaven by being good, and if you become good enough you get a prize, called heaven. Jesus dares to say to the lost thief that it is by his faith in him, by faith in God, by loyalty, and trust that we are in Paradise already. To be next to Jesus Christ is Paradise. To be next to Jesus Christ, the New Adam, is to be in the Garden of God.
What Luke is conveying to the people of his time was that even though there was suffering, revolution, hardships, persecutions, the faithful were already in the Garden of God. To be next to Christ is Paradise come what may. It means that God is with us whatever the situations of our lives. He is in the midst of us, as he was in the midst of the suffering of the thieves. There may be a lot wrong with our world, and things may not go as we wish, but God in Christ is still with us. The saving loving forgiving grace of God is with us always, even at the worst of times.
Most all of us, I suppose have fantasies of life being without problems, pain, or suffering. We'd like to think that life could alsways be on some kind of an even keel without any kind of stress or distress. We might like to think of God as the greater fixer of all broken things, and Jesus as his kind of Superman on earth. If this kind of live were possible, would we not be more like robots or puppets than humans, and life so very dull. A heaven of bliss where all you do is push the clouds around could be so very dull. Is not life as it is something wonderful, miraculous, in its own rite? Is it not in the stuggles, the wrestling, the pain, the hardships, the anxieties and uncertainties of life that we find challenge and struggle for meaning? Have there not been times when things seemed at their worst that families and people pulled together, and the best that humanity has to offer came out of those situations?
What's important to me is not so much that life be perfect and always wonderful, or even that heaven be that way, but that knowing God is with us. This God revealed in the ways and teachings of Jesus reveals a God in the midst of human struggle and giving to it forgiveness, compassion, understanding, and love. God gives to us a freedom to live our lives as we wish, and at the same time of loving presence to be there for us whatever comes. As we embrace life and the loveliness of the suffering Christ, we embrace also a way of joining God in being people of love and forgiveness. The very ideal that we can be in partnership with God through the ways and teachings of Jesus Christ is another one of the great reversals. But a world and a life with all of its problems, agonies, and holocausts is still God's world; it is still his paradise, his garden when we accept the love and forgiveness, the hope revealed in Jesus Christ as the way, the truth, and the life. God in Christ Jesus is with us.
SEASON: Last Pentecost
PROPER: 29 C
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: November 22, 1998
TEXT: Luke 23:35-43 - Then he said, "Jesus remember me when you come into your kingdom." He replied, "Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise."
ISSUE: The passage reveals another great reversal. Jesus is King, indeed, but totally unlike the human concept of King. His kingship is revealed in this suffering servanthood, as a faithful obedient servant. The passage reveals Jesus as once again being tempted: save your self, save us, come down off the cross and start a war. Instead of plucking that apple, he remains faithful, and the new garden, the Garden of Paradise is restored to all who embrace Jesus as Lord. For each of us in our lives and living as we accept Jesus as Lord we find our paradise, our meaning, our relationship with the will and purposes of God.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
This Sunday marks the end of the church's year. It is called the Last Sunday of Pentecost, and more recently the Sunday which celebrates that Jesus is Christ the King. In the passage it is written "This is the King of the Jews." Of course, that sign over the cross was a mockery of Jesus, put there by the Romans to severely aggrevate and humiliate the Judean population. Only in time did the church come to proclaim that in fact Jesus is Christ the King.
We must, however, keep in mind that Gospel of Jesus Christ is full of great reversals. We have in recent months been reminded of how Jesus attempted to reverse much of the thinking of his time: the first shall be last, and the last first. The old widow lady gets her justice before the judge. Those who come last to work in the vineyard get the full days wage. The outrageous prodigal son is forgiven, and his righteous brother chastised. It is the good Samaritan that lifts up and rescues the vicitimized traveler. It is the Samaritan leper that returns to give thanks. The least, the last, the lost, the sinners are the ones who are lifted up in Jesus teachings and parables to the great and surprising shock of the people of his time, and even to our own.
Today there is another great reversal when it comes to the understanding of what a King is. Kings are thought of a lofty, above their subjects. They are the holders of power, and the bearers of authority. They are perceived as the wealthy. People bow and curtsy and give honorable titles to the world's potentates. We have a symbol we refer to as Christ the King, or The Christus Rex. The Christus Rex, which means Christ the King, often portrays Jesus dressed in royal robes and wearing a crown on the cross. There are some who are quite critical of this symbol as they see it as imposing our concept of kingship upon Jesus. When in fact, what we see as Christ the King in the Scripture is not like the world's image of royalty. It is the complete reverse: Jesus on the cross is not a ministry of power, manipulation, military might, or wealth. His crown is thorns, and this scepter is a cross of suffering. So unlike the king who is above his people, here is Christ the king who is in the midst of his people whose only power is in love and forgiveness to those around him. His kingship is marked not by crowns and power, but by a suffering servanthood in an effort to reveal to people the underserved love and forgiving grace of God.
As we come now to the end of the church's year, to the time of winding-up, taking stock, and revewing the past year, we see the shear humility of the Lord Jesus who comes into the very midst of his people. He does not lord himself over us, no cojoling, no manipulation, no force imposed, he comes only to simply teach in parables, search out the lost, heal the deaf, the dumb, the lame and the blind. He simply offers to reclaim all those alienated from the love of God.
Biblical scholars believe that his passage told by Luke of Jesus on the cross has a profound and significant meaning. It is another temptation story. Remember that when Jesus was baptize and began his ministry he was tempted by Satan. He was challenged to turn stones into bread, to bow down in worship Satan in exchange for the world, to throw himself down from the cross. Jesus passed the test, and did not succumb to Satan's temptations. According to the story, Satan reprted left him for awhile. (Luke 4:1f) In this account of Jesus on the cross there are another three temptations. The Judean leaders dare Jesus to come down from the cross, "He saved others let him save himself." The Romans mock and tempt him, offering sour wine and putting the sign over his cross, "If you are the King of the Judeans, why not save yourself? And finally, the thief, probably a freedom fighter, a zealous rebel dares him, "Are you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!" If only he will take on authority and power as the world knows it, he then can be the legitimate savior, because this is the stuff that people think will save them: might, power, wealth, success, prestige, trickery.
The scene is very much like, similar to, the early Garden of Eden story of Adam from Genesis. This story was the one where it all began. Adam is in the garden. God says to Adam, do not eat from the one tree, just be faithfully obedient and the Garden is yours. But Satan tempts him to be like God in the sense of taking on power and might in your life. So he takes the forbidden fruit from the tree and has to live outside the garden. His children, Cain and Abel, fight and Cain is killed, and the human mess begins. Humans are not and cannot be God. They have to be human servants of a loving God.
What Luke is conveying to the people of this time is that here is another Garden. Here is a new Adam who has passed the temptation test by faithful sacrificial obedience. Here is another tree that God has given. This tree is the cross. On this tree hangs another fruit of life. One poor lost thieving soul says, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." To which Jesus replies: "Truly, today you will be with me in paradise." The new Adam, the saving fruit is Jesus Christ is and to see him as King, as suffering servant, to be next to him is Paradise, the new Garden of Eden, the new Garden of God.
I know a lot of people like to think that someday when they die, and go to Heaven, they will be with God in the Garden. Wonderful! But Jesus says to the thief in misery, ' I tell you that today you will be, you are with me now, through your faith in Paradise. People like to think that they have to earn their way into heaven by being good, and if you become good enough you get a prize, called heaven. Jesus dares to say to the lost thief that it is by his faith in him, by faith in God, by loyalty, and trust that we are in Paradise already. To be next to Jesus Christ is Paradise. To be next to Jesus Christ, the New Adam, is to be in the Garden of God.
What Luke is conveying to the people of his time was that even though there was suffering, revolution, hardships, persecutions, the faithful were already in the Garden of God. To be next to Christ is Paradise come what may. It means that God is with us whatever the situations of our lives. He is in the midst of us, as he was in the midst of the suffering of the thieves. There may be a lot wrong with our world, and things may not go as we wish, but God in Christ is still with us. The saving loving forgiving grace of God is with us always, even at the worst of times.
Most all of us, I suppose have fantasies of life being without problems, pain, or suffering. We'd like to think that life could alsways be on some kind of an even keel without any kind of stress or distress. We might like to think of God as the greater fixer of all broken things, and Jesus as his kind of Superman on earth. If this kind of live were possible, would we not be more like robots or puppets than humans, and life so very dull. A heaven of bliss where all you do is push the clouds around could be so very dull. Is not life as it is something wonderful, miraculous, in its own rite? Is it not in the stuggles, the wrestling, the pain, the hardships, the anxieties and uncertainties of life that we find challenge and struggle for meaning? Have there not been times when things seemed at their worst that families and people pulled together, and the best that humanity has to offer came out of those situations?
What's important to me is not so much that life be perfect and always wonderful, or even that heaven be that way, but that knowing God is with us. This God revealed in the ways and teachings of Jesus reveals a God in the midst of human struggle and giving to it forgiveness, compassion, understanding, and love. God gives to us a freedom to live our lives as we wish, and at the same time of loving presence to be there for us whatever comes. As we embrace life and the loveliness of the suffering Christ, we embrace also a way of joining God in being people of love and forgiveness. The very ideal that we can be in partnership with God through the ways and teachings of Jesus Christ is another one of the great reversals. But a world and a life with all of its problems, agonies, and holocausts is still God's world; it is still his paradise, his garden when we accept the love and forgiveness, the hope revealed in Jesus Christ as the way, the truth, and the life. God in Christ Jesus is with us.
Sunday, November 15, 1998
Pentecost 24
May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)
SEASON: Pentecost 24
PROPER: 28 C
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: November 15, 1998
TEXT: Luke 21:5-19 - "You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, by relatives and friends; and they will put some of you to death. You will be hated by all because of my name. But not a hair of your head will perish. By your endurance you will gain your souls."
ISSUE: Jesus deals with issues concerning the end, an appropriate reading for the near end of the church year. Luke has Jesus predicting the events of the Temple's destruction, and the emprisonment of various disciples as told in The Acts of the Apostles. But hope resides in the endurance of the faithful. They will gain their souls through endurance and by the Spirit will be given the words to speak. There is the implied promise that through faithfulness, even in the face of clamity, God will save his faithful people. In each of our own lives we face anxieties, calamaties, and uncertainties. Yet repeatedly in scripture that which fall is raised by God and made new. This message is at the heart of a resurrection faith.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
We are now fast approaching the end of the Church Year. Next Sunday will be the Last Sunday of Pentecost, Christ the King Sunday. Today's reading from Luke is a discussion of a time of great calamity which was for some an indication of the end of time. It is Luke's Apocalyptic writing. It is appropriately assigned as we do, in fact approach, the end of the Church's Year, and as we wind-up this year's emphasis on the Gospel account of Luke.
The passage is set in the context of a group of people commenting upon the beauty of the Jerusalem Temple. It was indeed an extraordinarly beautiful structure in its time. The Temple Gates were gold, and were reported to be so bright when the morning sun shone upon them that they were as blinding as looking directly into the sun itself. It's forty foot gleaming white columns could be seen for miles from the hills surrounding Jerusalem. Yet Jesus begins to prophesy that the day will come when all of the marble stones and the golden gates of the Temple will be torn down, and a time of insurrections and and wars. The time will come when those disciples that follow his way will be arrested, persecuted, and even put to death. Some will be brought before kings and governors to defend themselves. It will be a time when family members themselves, parents, brothers, relatives and friends, will betray them. Yet, the faithful are to endure the great tribulation, and they will gain their souls.
In order to be able to put this prophecy into proper perspective is to understand that Luke wrote this Gospel some years after the death and resurrection of Jesus, probably around 80-85 A.D. Whether or not Jesus literally and actually predicted the fall of Jerusalem it is hard to say. It is likely he had, as many perceptive people of his time may as well, a pretty good idea that Israel was a great risk. In 70 A.D. the Temple was completely destroyed, and every stone was torn and down, and it was and has never been rebuilt. The Roman seige of the city of Jerusalem and of Israel was horrendous. Many of the people were reported to have been reduced to cannibalism to surrive. The Romans did not deal lightly with insurrection.
What's more, according to Luke in the Book of the Acts of the Apostles, the apostles were on many occasions arrested and persecuted. Saul before his conversion to becoming Paul sought out and participated in the death of members of the early church. St. Paul himself, according to Luke, after his conversion was brought before governors and kings to defend himself. Early church members had been persecuted and disowned, betrayed, by their own families, as they accepted new membership in the new family of Christians. Luke heightens the prophetic image of Jesus in his indicating that Jesus predicted that these things would come to pass, and they in fact did. Just as Jesus himself died on the cross, and suffered significantly, the early church and this world could expect the same. Yet Luke's close deep and profound appreciation of Jesus was a very positive one. Whatever happens, endure and be faithful, and through that faithful endurance though everything else seems lost and ended, you will have gained your souls.
The apocalyptic writing of Luke was not new. The Old Testament Book of Daniel is apocalyptic written at a time when Israel dealt with severe persecution at the hand of a foreign pagan king. John's Revelation in the New Testament is a vivid expression of the great horrors of the Roman regimes and their persecutions. Many ages had their difficult times, and religious leaders often called their people to repentance and faith to stand firm through difficult times and ordeals. Even in the reading today from Malachi (3:13-4:2a,5-6), God's people complain that the arrogant evil doers seem to be the prosperous. Malachi calls them to remain faithful, and God will send to renew the world. Repeatedly Scripture calls the people of God to a persistent and enduring faithfulness with the assurance that God's redemption will prevail even in times of great difficulty.
Today there are, I understand, some great concerns over our coming to the millienium, 2000 A.D. For some people this is a time of great trepidation. There are those who are concerned as to what is going to happen as a possible result of computers. Major power failures and possible economic collapse are the more frightening predictions. You may have even heard of people who after a serious earthquake, or volcanic eruption will begin to predict the end of time. Recent motion pictures prediciting the falling of asteroids have doomsday implications, and foresee the possible end of time. People are often inclined to take Biblical passages from the past and try to apply them in a literal way to the future.
What is really at the heart of Scripture is the fact that it reveals that every age does have its difficult times, as well as every person's life. Ancient people suffered under horrendously evil rulers. The Israelites and the early church suffered significantly at the hands of the Romans. Even today the world know significant suffering. Consider the enormous hardship of the people in South America, in Honduras and Nicaraugua. With a death toll of nearly 10,000 or more there is great mourning and grief. These are people whose countries are devastated by the Hurricane Mitch. Suddenly with a deluge of wind and rain their world is washed away.
Last week I was reading the Sunday Sun, the great difficulty that some of our American farmers in the mid-west are facing as world economies change and prices fall drastically. Many farmers are losing their livelihood for which they were trained and their traditional way of life. For these people it is as if the end of the world has come.
Many of us gathered here today who have lost people we love, or whose marriages have failed, or who have lost good jobs must have felt like the world was ending.
Persecution has been significant in our generations. We witnessed the terrible horrible suffering of the Jews at the hands of the Nazi's. In Saudi Arabia it is against the law to openly practice Christianity. Christians have suffered significant persecution in China and the former Soviet Union. At the same time Christians have not had a lily white record either when it comes to the treatment of Moslems, black peoples, and native Americans. All of us human beings are under the judgment of God, and all of us have experienced and are at the mercy of difficult times. The beautiful stones of every generation have a way of being torn down and tarnished. I often hear of people's great devotion to our church and its beauty, and its great meaning in our lives. But even it's great beauty and significance is at great risk. One match, a significant change in the economy, a natural disaster: any of these things can greatly change and effect our lives.
How do we live into a world that is constantly changing and where there is a prevailing climate of disaster, uncertainty, anxiety? How do we live into the end of time, when the bottom seems to fall our of our lives? For the church it has always been a matter of trust and loyalty. We trust that inspite of what happens God is with us, that amidst the valley of dry bones the Spirit of God shall prevail to raise them up. In the parables and the teachings of Jesus, there is a great reversal of thinking: the lost, the last, the least, the sinners, the lonely, the sick, the dying are the very ones who are being raised up. In the life giving sacrifice of Jesus, there comes the risen Christ and the new age. The ministry of Jesus is the constant claim that all who stand in the fallen world are being invited to step into the Kingdom of God. For us the way to God is found in the way of Jesus Christ as the way, the truth, and the life. In him we find enormous love, unfathonable forgiveness and great compassion. Thus, in the midst of shaking and uncertain foundations, when the rug seems to be pulled from underneath us. When the old is passing away, we trust in God's renewing presence to raise up and renew. We live into the way of God expressed in Jesus Christ. We continue to be a people who love peace and justice as opposed to shrines, museums, and temples. As we endure the varioius traumas of the world and of our lives we live like the people of Christ in such a way that whatever happens we still have our souls that cannot be washed away or taken away.
SEASON: Pentecost 24
PROPER: 28 C
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: November 15, 1998
TEXT: Luke 21:5-19 - "You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, by relatives and friends; and they will put some of you to death. You will be hated by all because of my name. But not a hair of your head will perish. By your endurance you will gain your souls."
ISSUE: Jesus deals with issues concerning the end, an appropriate reading for the near end of the church year. Luke has Jesus predicting the events of the Temple's destruction, and the emprisonment of various disciples as told in The Acts of the Apostles. But hope resides in the endurance of the faithful. They will gain their souls through endurance and by the Spirit will be given the words to speak. There is the implied promise that through faithfulness, even in the face of clamity, God will save his faithful people. In each of our own lives we face anxieties, calamaties, and uncertainties. Yet repeatedly in scripture that which fall is raised by God and made new. This message is at the heart of a resurrection faith.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
We are now fast approaching the end of the Church Year. Next Sunday will be the Last Sunday of Pentecost, Christ the King Sunday. Today's reading from Luke is a discussion of a time of great calamity which was for some an indication of the end of time. It is Luke's Apocalyptic writing. It is appropriately assigned as we do, in fact approach, the end of the Church's Year, and as we wind-up this year's emphasis on the Gospel account of Luke.
The passage is set in the context of a group of people commenting upon the beauty of the Jerusalem Temple. It was indeed an extraordinarly beautiful structure in its time. The Temple Gates were gold, and were reported to be so bright when the morning sun shone upon them that they were as blinding as looking directly into the sun itself. It's forty foot gleaming white columns could be seen for miles from the hills surrounding Jerusalem. Yet Jesus begins to prophesy that the day will come when all of the marble stones and the golden gates of the Temple will be torn down, and a time of insurrections and and wars. The time will come when those disciples that follow his way will be arrested, persecuted, and even put to death. Some will be brought before kings and governors to defend themselves. It will be a time when family members themselves, parents, brothers, relatives and friends, will betray them. Yet, the faithful are to endure the great tribulation, and they will gain their souls.
In order to be able to put this prophecy into proper perspective is to understand that Luke wrote this Gospel some years after the death and resurrection of Jesus, probably around 80-85 A.D. Whether or not Jesus literally and actually predicted the fall of Jerusalem it is hard to say. It is likely he had, as many perceptive people of his time may as well, a pretty good idea that Israel was a great risk. In 70 A.D. the Temple was completely destroyed, and every stone was torn and down, and it was and has never been rebuilt. The Roman seige of the city of Jerusalem and of Israel was horrendous. Many of the people were reported to have been reduced to cannibalism to surrive. The Romans did not deal lightly with insurrection.
What's more, according to Luke in the Book of the Acts of the Apostles, the apostles were on many occasions arrested and persecuted. Saul before his conversion to becoming Paul sought out and participated in the death of members of the early church. St. Paul himself, according to Luke, after his conversion was brought before governors and kings to defend himself. Early church members had been persecuted and disowned, betrayed, by their own families, as they accepted new membership in the new family of Christians. Luke heightens the prophetic image of Jesus in his indicating that Jesus predicted that these things would come to pass, and they in fact did. Just as Jesus himself died on the cross, and suffered significantly, the early church and this world could expect the same. Yet Luke's close deep and profound appreciation of Jesus was a very positive one. Whatever happens, endure and be faithful, and through that faithful endurance though everything else seems lost and ended, you will have gained your souls.
The apocalyptic writing of Luke was not new. The Old Testament Book of Daniel is apocalyptic written at a time when Israel dealt with severe persecution at the hand of a foreign pagan king. John's Revelation in the New Testament is a vivid expression of the great horrors of the Roman regimes and their persecutions. Many ages had their difficult times, and religious leaders often called their people to repentance and faith to stand firm through difficult times and ordeals. Even in the reading today from Malachi (3:13-4:2a,5-6), God's people complain that the arrogant evil doers seem to be the prosperous. Malachi calls them to remain faithful, and God will send to renew the world. Repeatedly Scripture calls the people of God to a persistent and enduring faithfulness with the assurance that God's redemption will prevail even in times of great difficulty.
Today there are, I understand, some great concerns over our coming to the millienium, 2000 A.D. For some people this is a time of great trepidation. There are those who are concerned as to what is going to happen as a possible result of computers. Major power failures and possible economic collapse are the more frightening predictions. You may have even heard of people who after a serious earthquake, or volcanic eruption will begin to predict the end of time. Recent motion pictures prediciting the falling of asteroids have doomsday implications, and foresee the possible end of time. People are often inclined to take Biblical passages from the past and try to apply them in a literal way to the future.
What is really at the heart of Scripture is the fact that it reveals that every age does have its difficult times, as well as every person's life. Ancient people suffered under horrendously evil rulers. The Israelites and the early church suffered significantly at the hands of the Romans. Even today the world know significant suffering. Consider the enormous hardship of the people in South America, in Honduras and Nicaraugua. With a death toll of nearly 10,000 or more there is great mourning and grief. These are people whose countries are devastated by the Hurricane Mitch. Suddenly with a deluge of wind and rain their world is washed away.
Last week I was reading the Sunday Sun, the great difficulty that some of our American farmers in the mid-west are facing as world economies change and prices fall drastically. Many farmers are losing their livelihood for which they were trained and their traditional way of life. For these people it is as if the end of the world has come.
Many of us gathered here today who have lost people we love, or whose marriages have failed, or who have lost good jobs must have felt like the world was ending.
Persecution has been significant in our generations. We witnessed the terrible horrible suffering of the Jews at the hands of the Nazi's. In Saudi Arabia it is against the law to openly practice Christianity. Christians have suffered significant persecution in China and the former Soviet Union. At the same time Christians have not had a lily white record either when it comes to the treatment of Moslems, black peoples, and native Americans. All of us human beings are under the judgment of God, and all of us have experienced and are at the mercy of difficult times. The beautiful stones of every generation have a way of being torn down and tarnished. I often hear of people's great devotion to our church and its beauty, and its great meaning in our lives. But even it's great beauty and significance is at great risk. One match, a significant change in the economy, a natural disaster: any of these things can greatly change and effect our lives.
How do we live into a world that is constantly changing and where there is a prevailing climate of disaster, uncertainty, anxiety? How do we live into the end of time, when the bottom seems to fall our of our lives? For the church it has always been a matter of trust and loyalty. We trust that inspite of what happens God is with us, that amidst the valley of dry bones the Spirit of God shall prevail to raise them up. In the parables and the teachings of Jesus, there is a great reversal of thinking: the lost, the last, the least, the sinners, the lonely, the sick, the dying are the very ones who are being raised up. In the life giving sacrifice of Jesus, there comes the risen Christ and the new age. The ministry of Jesus is the constant claim that all who stand in the fallen world are being invited to step into the Kingdom of God. For us the way to God is found in the way of Jesus Christ as the way, the truth, and the life. In him we find enormous love, unfathonable forgiveness and great compassion. Thus, in the midst of shaking and uncertain foundations, when the rug seems to be pulled from underneath us. When the old is passing away, we trust in God's renewing presence to raise up and renew. We live into the way of God expressed in Jesus Christ. We continue to be a people who love peace and justice as opposed to shrines, museums, and temples. As we endure the varioius traumas of the world and of our lives we live like the people of Christ in such a way that whatever happens we still have our souls that cannot be washed away or taken away.
Sunday, November 1, 1998
All Saints' Day
May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)
SEASON: ALL SAINTS' DAY
PROPER: C
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: November 1, 1998
TEXT: Matthew 5:1-12 - THE BEATITUDES OF JESUS
"When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. Then he began to speak, and taught them saying 'Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.'"
ISSUE: Jesus collects his disciples around him to teach and instruct them as his disciples. He lays out for them what genuine and true honor really is in the eyes of God the Father. God honors the poor and those who mourn; they are the blessed in contrast to whole the world and the culture so often honors. The Beatitudes are not another list of commandments, but give a deeper insight into what Jesus' spiritual ministry was about, what it means to be a disciple of Christ, and a saint in his kingdom. Into this spirituality may we all and especially the children we baptize today be immersed, like so many of the saints of God.
See also Epiphany 4A, Jan. 28,1996
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The beautiful passage of Scripture for All Saints' Day taken from Matthew's account of the Gospel is truly the scriptures poetry. We refer to the passage as The Beatitudes of Jesus, or the Blessedness of Jesus. They seem to reveal the mysticism of Jesus:
Blessed are the poor in spirit . . .
Blessed are they that mourn . . .
Blessed are the meek . . .
Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness ...
What is peculiar to this passage is that Jesus gathers his dixciples around him on a mountain. The Beatitudes are a part of what we call The Sermon on the Mount. Being on the mountain top is indicative of something special happening. Many of profound spiritual events occur on mountain tops. Moses receives the Ten Commandments on a mountain. Elijah the prophet calls down fire upon his drenched sacrifice on Mt. Carmel. Jesus is transfigure before Peter, James, and John on a mountain. The crucifixion takes place on Mt. Calvary. Here in the story today, Jesus goes to a mountain, and gathers his new select disciples around him, and begins to train them, if you will, in what true Blessedness is. He sits which was the common teaching position of the time.
In this instance when Jesus says, "Blessed are the poor, . . . those who mourn, . . . the merciful, . . . the pure in heart, and so on" the word blessed some times translated as "Happy" or "congratulations" more accurately means "honored." In his training session with his disciples, Jesus is teaching what true honor means in the sight of God. In his time a man's honor was more important than anything else. Men sought honorable positions in the community. Sometimes honor came simply through the family you were born into. If you were challenged or offended in anyway, you had to avenge any insults. It was expected. You might kill to preserve your honor. You achieved honor through gift giving, and you needed always to return favors. You defended your family honor at all costs. The religious, powerful, and the some of the Pharisees and religious types were considered those with the most honor.
On the other had there were many who had little or no honor, by virtue of birth, or occupation. Prostitutes had no honor. Innkeepers, shepherds, actors, tanners, were all shameful. To lose status, property, inheritance through bad luck, or injustice was to be shamed. To be among the outcasts, the sick, the deaf and blind, was to be without honor. To be a widow without an adult son was to be without honor or status.
What Jesus is teaching his disciples is a whole new reversal of thinking. Jesus teaches that in the eyes of God: Blessed and honorable are the poor. Blessed and honorable are those who mourn, who are the sick, the dying, the lost, the lame, the blind, the lepers. Blessed and honorable are the outcasts and the widows who mourn the loss of everything precious. These are the very ones that God honors and blesses. Jesus is giving a new honor code awhole new way of approaching life through the eyes of God. It is not the hot-shots, those who are politically and socially correct, it is not those who are good at taking revenge, it is not those of pure race, and those of pure stock, and those who inherit honor and power as the world sees it that are the honorable. It is the the poor, those who mourn, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.
Look at the overall ministry of Jesus as he lives out what he teaches. He is the healer of the sick and the oppressed. He is the one who honors and holds up the widows in his parables. He is the one who receives the lepers. He is the one who calls the children to come to him. He is the one who gathers the multitude of 5,000 hungry people and gives them an incredible feast again on a grassy hillside.
In his warnings agains the Teachers of the Law, and the Pharasees, the honorable types of Jesus' time, he condmened them: "You lock the door to the Kingdom of heaven in people's faces, but you yourselves don't go in, nor do you allow in those who are trying to enter!" (Matt.23:13)
"You give to God one tenth even of the seasong herbs, such as mint, dill, and cumin, but you neglect to obey the eally important teachings of the Law, such as justice and mercy and honesty. These you should practice without neglecting the others." (Matt. 23:23)
Instead of being pure in heart, "On the outside you appear good to everybody, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and sins." (Matt. 23:27)
Jesus' encounter with his disciples in this training program on the mountain is his challenge to the ways of the world. Honorableness was often hypocritical, stagnant, and empty. The honorableness of God is to love the poor, to mourn with those who mourn, to hunger and thirst for justice, to be merciful instead of vengeful, to not merely love peace but to enter into the process of peacemaking. These are the things of God. In Jesus' time for so many people it was unthinkable that God honored the poor, the mournful, and the outcasts. But Jesus is conveying a startling and renewing spirituality. He is training his selected disciples in a profound reclamation of what it means to be truly honorable in the sight of God. Indeed they could well expect to face persecution, reviling, insults. Certainly Jesus did during his life time and culminating on the cross. Yet god would be with them and they would know God's honor not man's.
In our own world today, the code of honor is unlike that of the first century mediterranean world. Shame and honor are no longer the issues they may have been, or are in other cultures different from our own. In fact, ours is a culture that has no shame. In our world there are, what Marcus Borg a professor of religion and culture refers to in his book, "Jesus A New Vision" 1996, the major American values that have little or nothing to do with Christianity. They are affluence, achievement, appearances, individualism, competition, power, and consumption. I would have to add another primary value to be aggressiveness. Our present world, and our nation particularly, is infatuated with being the most powerful and keeping it that way. We value those who are great achievers, and who can gather the most stuff, or toys. These are the ones seen as the winners. The more we can consume, the more fulfilled we seem to be. We will fight for what we haven't got, please note the violence in our streets and in our world. We value our individualism and what we cherish as our own personal way of thinking and doing to the exclusion of the needs of the community.
To this kind of a world Jesus words are a challenge: Honorable are the poor, those that mourn, those that are hungry seeking what is right and just for all. Blessed are those who seek God, and who act out of mercy and compassion as opposed to consumption and greed. The Beatitudes of Jesus are not another list of commandments. They are a basic spirituality. Essentially there is nothing wrong with being achieving in our fields, or even affluent for that matter. Occasional competion is invigorating, I would suppose. Nothing wrong with asserting our God given indidualism, our talents and abilities. But to have no basic spirituality, nor inner sense of Godliness is to act our values in a destructive and dangerous way, which is the cause of so much alienation, hostility, hatred, suspicion, and violence in our world.
Jesus takes the disciples aside from the world and what it declares to be honorable and valuable, and he injects what God sees as honorable, the spirituality of compassion, mercy, hungering for right for all, and seeking to be in union with Godliness, and recognizing full well that Godliness is not without its enemies in the world, and those who are indifferent to true Godliness.
Today we are celebrating two closely related things. We celebrate around the world and throughout Christendom the Feast of All the Saints. We remember that the saints were not merely outstandingly religious figures who end up in stained glass. The saints were people with weakness as well as strengths. Like all of us with our sins and virtures we celebrate being the people of God who are called to be the channels of his grace in the world. At the same time we are celebrating the fact that we are making three new saints in the children that we baptize today. Symbolically we are drowning them, encouraging them to die to the ways of the world and raising them up as new born Christians, people of God in the likeness of Christ. They are being immersed into the Christ's spirituality that they may appreciate what genuine honor and blessedness is. They are to understand that all who are poor, all who are in mourning and suffering, all who struggle and hunger for righteousness and justice. All who want to be compassionate. These are the one's that God honors. In their own poverty, uncertaintly, and anxiety, God will love them. God will love them in their desire to be compassionate people. Parents, and this congregation must continually immerse our children in this faith so that they may not be overcome by and only know the cruel aggressiveness, the rank individualism, the discompassionate competitive, consumptive affluence of the world. Help them to know Jesus, to know and love God. In showing them the way we all shall be renewed in true sainthood and blessedness.
SEASON: ALL SAINTS' DAY
PROPER: C
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: November 1, 1998
TEXT: Matthew 5:1-12 - THE BEATITUDES OF JESUS
"When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. Then he began to speak, and taught them saying 'Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.'"
ISSUE: Jesus collects his disciples around him to teach and instruct them as his disciples. He lays out for them what genuine and true honor really is in the eyes of God the Father. God honors the poor and those who mourn; they are the blessed in contrast to whole the world and the culture so often honors. The Beatitudes are not another list of commandments, but give a deeper insight into what Jesus' spiritual ministry was about, what it means to be a disciple of Christ, and a saint in his kingdom. Into this spirituality may we all and especially the children we baptize today be immersed, like so many of the saints of God.
See also Epiphany 4A, Jan. 28,1996
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The beautiful passage of Scripture for All Saints' Day taken from Matthew's account of the Gospel is truly the scriptures poetry. We refer to the passage as The Beatitudes of Jesus, or the Blessedness of Jesus. They seem to reveal the mysticism of Jesus:
Blessed are the poor in spirit . . .
Blessed are they that mourn . . .
Blessed are the meek . . .
Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness ...
What is peculiar to this passage is that Jesus gathers his dixciples around him on a mountain. The Beatitudes are a part of what we call The Sermon on the Mount. Being on the mountain top is indicative of something special happening. Many of profound spiritual events occur on mountain tops. Moses receives the Ten Commandments on a mountain. Elijah the prophet calls down fire upon his drenched sacrifice on Mt. Carmel. Jesus is transfigure before Peter, James, and John on a mountain. The crucifixion takes place on Mt. Calvary. Here in the story today, Jesus goes to a mountain, and gathers his new select disciples around him, and begins to train them, if you will, in what true Blessedness is. He sits which was the common teaching position of the time.
In this instance when Jesus says, "Blessed are the poor, . . . those who mourn, . . . the merciful, . . . the pure in heart, and so on" the word blessed some times translated as "Happy" or "congratulations" more accurately means "honored." In his training session with his disciples, Jesus is teaching what true honor means in the sight of God. In his time a man's honor was more important than anything else. Men sought honorable positions in the community. Sometimes honor came simply through the family you were born into. If you were challenged or offended in anyway, you had to avenge any insults. It was expected. You might kill to preserve your honor. You achieved honor through gift giving, and you needed always to return favors. You defended your family honor at all costs. The religious, powerful, and the some of the Pharisees and religious types were considered those with the most honor.
On the other had there were many who had little or no honor, by virtue of birth, or occupation. Prostitutes had no honor. Innkeepers, shepherds, actors, tanners, were all shameful. To lose status, property, inheritance through bad luck, or injustice was to be shamed. To be among the outcasts, the sick, the deaf and blind, was to be without honor. To be a widow without an adult son was to be without honor or status.
What Jesus is teaching his disciples is a whole new reversal of thinking. Jesus teaches that in the eyes of God: Blessed and honorable are the poor. Blessed and honorable are those who mourn, who are the sick, the dying, the lost, the lame, the blind, the lepers. Blessed and honorable are the outcasts and the widows who mourn the loss of everything precious. These are the very ones that God honors and blesses. Jesus is giving a new honor code awhole new way of approaching life through the eyes of God. It is not the hot-shots, those who are politically and socially correct, it is not those who are good at taking revenge, it is not those of pure race, and those of pure stock, and those who inherit honor and power as the world sees it that are the honorable. It is the the poor, those who mourn, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.
Look at the overall ministry of Jesus as he lives out what he teaches. He is the healer of the sick and the oppressed. He is the one who honors and holds up the widows in his parables. He is the one who receives the lepers. He is the one who calls the children to come to him. He is the one who gathers the multitude of 5,000 hungry people and gives them an incredible feast again on a grassy hillside.
In his warnings agains the Teachers of the Law, and the Pharasees, the honorable types of Jesus' time, he condmened them: "You lock the door to the Kingdom of heaven in people's faces, but you yourselves don't go in, nor do you allow in those who are trying to enter!" (Matt.23:13)
"You give to God one tenth even of the seasong herbs, such as mint, dill, and cumin, but you neglect to obey the eally important teachings of the Law, such as justice and mercy and honesty. These you should practice without neglecting the others." (Matt. 23:23)
Instead of being pure in heart, "On the outside you appear good to everybody, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and sins." (Matt. 23:27)
Jesus' encounter with his disciples in this training program on the mountain is his challenge to the ways of the world. Honorableness was often hypocritical, stagnant, and empty. The honorableness of God is to love the poor, to mourn with those who mourn, to hunger and thirst for justice, to be merciful instead of vengeful, to not merely love peace but to enter into the process of peacemaking. These are the things of God. In Jesus' time for so many people it was unthinkable that God honored the poor, the mournful, and the outcasts. But Jesus is conveying a startling and renewing spirituality. He is training his selected disciples in a profound reclamation of what it means to be truly honorable in the sight of God. Indeed they could well expect to face persecution, reviling, insults. Certainly Jesus did during his life time and culminating on the cross. Yet god would be with them and they would know God's honor not man's.
In our own world today, the code of honor is unlike that of the first century mediterranean world. Shame and honor are no longer the issues they may have been, or are in other cultures different from our own. In fact, ours is a culture that has no shame. In our world there are, what Marcus Borg a professor of religion and culture refers to in his book, "Jesus A New Vision" 1996, the major American values that have little or nothing to do with Christianity. They are affluence, achievement, appearances, individualism, competition, power, and consumption. I would have to add another primary value to be aggressiveness. Our present world, and our nation particularly, is infatuated with being the most powerful and keeping it that way. We value those who are great achievers, and who can gather the most stuff, or toys. These are the ones seen as the winners. The more we can consume, the more fulfilled we seem to be. We will fight for what we haven't got, please note the violence in our streets and in our world. We value our individualism and what we cherish as our own personal way of thinking and doing to the exclusion of the needs of the community.
To this kind of a world Jesus words are a challenge: Honorable are the poor, those that mourn, those that are hungry seeking what is right and just for all. Blessed are those who seek God, and who act out of mercy and compassion as opposed to consumption and greed. The Beatitudes of Jesus are not another list of commandments. They are a basic spirituality. Essentially there is nothing wrong with being achieving in our fields, or even affluent for that matter. Occasional competion is invigorating, I would suppose. Nothing wrong with asserting our God given indidualism, our talents and abilities. But to have no basic spirituality, nor inner sense of Godliness is to act our values in a destructive and dangerous way, which is the cause of so much alienation, hostility, hatred, suspicion, and violence in our world.
Jesus takes the disciples aside from the world and what it declares to be honorable and valuable, and he injects what God sees as honorable, the spirituality of compassion, mercy, hungering for right for all, and seeking to be in union with Godliness, and recognizing full well that Godliness is not without its enemies in the world, and those who are indifferent to true Godliness.
Today we are celebrating two closely related things. We celebrate around the world and throughout Christendom the Feast of All the Saints. We remember that the saints were not merely outstandingly religious figures who end up in stained glass. The saints were people with weakness as well as strengths. Like all of us with our sins and virtures we celebrate being the people of God who are called to be the channels of his grace in the world. At the same time we are celebrating the fact that we are making three new saints in the children that we baptize today. Symbolically we are drowning them, encouraging them to die to the ways of the world and raising them up as new born Christians, people of God in the likeness of Christ. They are being immersed into the Christ's spirituality that they may appreciate what genuine honor and blessedness is. They are to understand that all who are poor, all who are in mourning and suffering, all who struggle and hunger for righteousness and justice. All who want to be compassionate. These are the one's that God honors. In their own poverty, uncertaintly, and anxiety, God will love them. God will love them in their desire to be compassionate people. Parents, and this congregation must continually immerse our children in this faith so that they may not be overcome by and only know the cruel aggressiveness, the rank individualism, the discompassionate competitive, consumptive affluence of the world. Help them to know Jesus, to know and love God. In showing them the way we all shall be renewed in true sainthood and blessedness.
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