May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)
SEASON: PENTECOST 11 - HOLY BAPTISM
PROPER: B
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: August 27,2000
TEXT: John 6:60-69 - So Jesus asked the Twelve, “Do you also wish to go away?” Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.”
See also Joshua 24:1-2a,14-25 and Ephesians 5:21-33
ISSUE: - Each of the readings for this day are related to the making of covenants, the entering into solemn agreements. Joshua’s followers vow to be faithful. Paul see the devoted agreement in marriage like the devotion of Christ to his church, and the church to Christ. In John’s Gospel, Peter vows allegiance on behalf of the Twelve in the face of difficult times. Even Today we are faced with difficult times, distractions, and things that draw us from the love of God in Christ. But an authentic real (eternal) life comes only from Jesus Christ our Lord.
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It is not every Sunday that we have the three readings from the Hebrew Scriptures, the Epistle readings, the Gospel selection tied together in such a closely related theme as we do today. Each of the readings are essentially calling God’s people into covenant relationships. That is, God’s people are called into a mutual relationship, a solemn agreement with Him. In turn God blesses and honors his people. In addition to the readings we will all recall and renew our Baptismal Covenant at the Baptism of David and Joseph today.
In the Hebrew Scripture reading from Joshua, having taken over the leadership of Israel after Moses is about to lead the people of Israel into the Promised Land across the Jordan River. Before entering they are reminded that to be the people of God, they must put away their foreign gods, and they must keep faithful to the Lord God, Yahweh. They must keep their hearts inclined toward the Lord, the God of Israel. They swear their allegiance: “The Lord our God we will serve, and him we will obey.” They become a covenanted people as they enter a land where there will be many foreign gods and distractions. They have the protection of Yahweh in return for their faithful allegiance. The make the renewed decision to be the people of Yahweh.
In the Christian Scripture of Ephesians, written by St. Paul, there is another dramatic and intense kind of covenant that was unique to the early Christian Community. Out of reverence for Christ, in the marriage relationship, or in the marriage covenant, a woman is to be subject to and honor her husband being faithful to him. At the same time a husband is to honor respect and deeply love their wives as they loved themselves. This covenant is unique, because in the culture of this period, the marriage relationship was rather one sided. The man was the dominant figure to be respected by his wife. It was very one sided. But notice the difference. In Paul’s writing, the marriage relationship becomes mutual. It is a true covenant relationship. The marriage relationship is a metaphor for the Church which is in a covenant relationship with Jesus Christ. The Church, the people of God, are in a relationship with Christ. The church or people of God serve and love him faithfully in a bride and groom relationship. The mutual love and devotion of a husband and wife is a sign to the brokenness of the world of the love of Christ for his people, the church. The marriage relationship describes the covenant between Christ and his church, as well as the covenant between Christ and his Church describes what the marriage covenant is meant to be.
In the Gospel of John, this morning, you have the Evangelist addressing a very difficult and hard time in the life of the early formation of the Christian Church community. The followers of Jesus are now being cast out or excommunicated from the synagogues. It is a time of decision. Do you follow Christ as Lord, or do you deny Christ’s leadership. Do you stay with the synagogue? Do you, if you are a Gentile, pay homage to the Caesar as god? Again it is a time of great decision. The teachings and sayings of Jesus Christ are difficult and hard. Is Jesus Christ truly the Bread of Life. Do you eat the flesh and drink the blood of Jesus Christ? Do you consume the way and the spiritual teaching of Jesus Christ who offers the forgiving and unearned grace of God? Do you renounce all other allegiances and accept Jesus Christ as Lord, as the Anointed Son of God, as the outward manifestation of God, and follow in his way or not?
For many people of the time, they find the teachings difficult and it is extraordinarily hard to make that decision for Jesus Christ. Obviously it did not come easy. Jesus is extending love, forgiveness, grace, honor, dignity to a largely fallen and expendable group of peasant peoples. He is offering a graciousness of God unwarranted and unearned. He has become proclaimed as Son of God, Anointed one, Holy One of God who stands tall like Moses, Aaron, Elijah, Joshua, Samson. His parables were surreal. How can a father love such a rebellious and hateful son. His sayings speak of selling everything and follow me to a cross is not exactly terribly attractive. His restorations of the cursed and eating with sinners is scandalous. The ultimate claim by the early church followers that he is the Holy One of God is a lot to swallow along with his body and blood. By the time John writes his Gospel account, there are many who are falling away. The teaching is too difficult: who can accept it? We are told that many of his disciples turned back and no longer went with him.
Finally, Jesus asks those closest to him, “Do you also wish to go away?” Peter dares to speak for the Twelve (perhaps a code for the church?). Simon Peter responds with great faith, with great loyalty, with great devotion, “Lord to whom can we go? You have the words of authentic real eternal life.” For Peter and some others they have received the gift of faithfulness. God has granted them the trust and loyalty, the allegiance for Christ. In him they find a tremendous spirit of love, a spirit of hope, a spirit of renewal, a spirit of forgiveness, a spirit of servanthood that makes living truly worthwhile. No one else offers this kind of spiritedness, this kind of spirituality that is linked to a forgiving and very loving expression of God. God in Christ has become flesh, incarnate, and lived among them full of grace and truth. That is hard to accept, no doubt, but Peter by the grace of God dares to enter into that faithful covenant with Christ to serve him, as Christ served Peter and the people of God.
For us living today, for the church today, these sayings, the way and teaching of Christ is not easy. It is hard to put Jesus Christ, to put God first in our lives. There are many distractions and popular notions that draw us away. It is hard for human beings to surrender their pride in being self-made men and women. We like being our own gods, if you will. The Russians couldn’t quite swallow their pride to let other nations assist them with the immediate rescue of the Kursk Submarine. The shoe being on the other foot, I’m not so sure that the American Government would have done differently. It is not easy always to recognize our common need for one another and for God.
It is hard for us to give up hold on to grudges and old prejudices. We still harbor the feelings of an eye for and eye and a tooth for a tooth. Our various rages in our families and on the road bear witness to hard hearts that are not very forgiving. We stand in competition with people of other races and cultures as opposed to seeing in one another the multiple presentations of God in his people. We have a long way to go on the road to compassion and understanding.
Our popular values often determine what it means to be successful. Success is often determined by how much stuff we accumulate, by the quantity of our possessions, or which rung of the corporate ladder we achieve. Success in our culture is determined by materialistic gains, rather than by how much we serve and give. What do they say, “The guy with the most toys wins.” That’s in sharp contrast to “Sell all you have and give it to the poor, and follow me.”
We live in a culture where covenants and faithfulness are not popular. It has become something of a throw away culture. Elderly people become forgotten and seen a useless. We are slow to accommodate the handicapped and incorporate them into the mainstream of life. The poor in our time are still frequently viewed as the expendable. Yet is was for the very least and last that Christ came.
The ways and teachings of Christ are hard. It is hard for us to maintain loyalty. Relationships in marriage are far too flimsy. We come and go in our relationships with God like waves oscillating on the beach. Sometimes we’re hot, and sometimes we’re cold. But steady faithfulness is hard to come by.
Today we are called upon with this family, with David and Joey to renew our covenant with God. We are called upon to believe in, that is trust in, give our an unwaivering loyalty to God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We offer ourselves again unselfishly in service to all of God’s people respecting the dignity of every human being. We devote ourselves, as parents, Sunday School teachers, as faithful members of this congregation to raising and showing David and Joey a life of committed unwaivering faithfulness and loyalty.
My good people, many years ago, at the main entrance to Johns Hopkins Hospital on Broadway, you would be greeted when you entered the hospital by that incredible and wonderful statue of Jesus Christ. It is nearly two stories tall, and reveals the wounded barefoot Risen Christ in a flowing white robe. The hands are stretched out in the welcome. On the pedestal below the bare feet of the Christ are the words: “Come to me all you who travail, and I will give you rest.” What a powerful presence this statue is. However times have changed. Johns Hopkins like so much of the world has changed and grown. It is now an overwhelming statement of human success. Its achievements in the healing arts are notorious. It speaks well of the dedication of many men and women. At the same time it has renovated and changed and grown into an awesome institution, the front door of Johns Hopkins Hospital is now on Wolf St. And the magnificent once welcoming statue of Jesus Christ is now at the back door. It no longer stands in a place of honor.
Jesus Christ in our own grandly materialistic and secular world, demanding and over populated world frequently stands at the back door, at a place less honored. While sometimes the world for seems grand, it is still so lacking. There is still so much physical, emotional, social pain and suffering. Our edifices are often glowing, but empty of love, empty of genuine sacrifice and compassion, and filled with things that are not nurturing at all.
Just let me remind you that the Statue of Christ is still there! You have to seek it out, and if you ever go to Hopkins to search it out and stop momentarily for prayer. The stature of Christ though often in less honorable positions in our lives is still there. Dare to ask for the gift of faith, God renew us in our love and devotion of Jesus Christ who is the authentic life, the real life, the eternal light of love and hope.
Sunday, August 27, 2000
Sunday, August 20, 2000
Pentecost 10
May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)
SEASON: Pentecost 10
PROPER: 15 B
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: August 20,2000
TEXT: John 6:53-59 - “Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day; for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them.”
ISSUE: - This passage calls the disciples into an intimacy with Jesus Christ. It is a call to abide in Christ, to be assimilated into him. The language is startling today, as it was in John’s and Jesus’ time. Yet it expresses the fact that Jesus is not merely one to be remembered, as in do this in memory of me, but as the on going incarnation. In the beginning was the word, and the word became flesh, and dwelt among us. (John 1:1,14) Today we are fed a lot of stuff in terms of materialism, fads, modern philosophies, but people still feel empty. What is truly nourishing and fulfilling is the way of Jesus Christ.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The passage we read from John’s Gospel today is somewhat disconcerting to the modern ear and mind. Eating flesh and drinking the blood even of Jesus is grating upon human sensitivity. I’ve known little children who became reluctant to come to the Eucharist simply because of their discomfort with the idea that partaking of the bread and wine was the body and blood of Jesus. More mature persons understand the eating of the bread and wine of the Eucharist as a sacramental act of participating in the Last Supper of Jesus. Some prefer to think of it more as a memorial of the Last Supper. Yet John’s Gospel does not have an institution of the Eucharist like Matthew, Mark, and Luke do. John’s Gospel has Jesus saying clearly, “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.”
While the passage may seem strange to us, it was equally strange to the people who first heard it. There were taboos and Hebrew laws that forbid the consuming of the blood of anything. Leviticus 17:10,14 reads, “If any man of the house of Israel or of the strangers that sojourn among them eats any blood, I will set my face against that person who eats blood, and will cut him off from among his people. . . . For the life of every creature is the blood of it; therefore I have said to the people of Israel, You shall not eat the blood of any creature, for the life of every creature is its blood; whoever eats it shall be cut off.”
Last week, I talked with you about the fact that Adam and Eve had been cast out, driven out of the garden as a result of their disobedience. Yet Jesus in John’s Gospel says that anyone that the Father gives to him will in no wise be cast out. This statement is one of redemption, of renewal, of hope. All that was cast out is recalled never to be cast out. In this passage today, while eating of blood and flesh is forbidden by Hebrew Law. The blood is what belonged to God. In sacrifices the blood of the animal is given back to God as an offering. But here again is another reversal, and if not a reversal a significant catch twist that gets peoples attention, “Unless you eat of the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of Man, you can not have life within you.” What John is saying in this Gospel is startling and unique. When you eat Christ, you become one with him, the Son of God, and you become the children of God.
John is conveying that who Jesus is and what he did is not something merely to be remembered.. Rather the life and ministry of Jesus is incarnational. (John 1:1,14) In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The Word of God became flesh and dwelt among us. Jesus is the Word who who has come into the world and expresses what it is that God has to say to his people for all times and all places. We are to consume the Word, we are to partake of the Christ. We are to abide with him, live with him. We are to have a living on going real intimate relationship with Jesus Christ who lives. The church today continues to be the body of Christ, his flesh and blood living in the world with the message of God’s redeeming love.
In the synoptic gospel accounts, there is an institution of the Eucharist, or Last Supper. Just prior to Jesus crucifixion, Jesus breaks the bread and distributes the wine to his disciples and says, “This is my body, this is my blood which is given for you. Do this in memory of me.” The eucharistic action is seen as a memorial (Luke 22:14, Mk 14:22, Matt. 26:26) just prior to his sacrifice on the cross. It symbolizes the pouring out of Christ for his people. In John’s Gospel there is no Last Supper institutional words. Rather, there is the feeding of the 5,000 in the wilderness, followed by the demand, “Unless you eat the my flesh and drink my blood, you will not have life within you.” Christ is the Bread, the nourishment that feeds. He is the very spiritual presence of God for the people of God. He is the grace that passes human understanding.
In ancient times bread was extraordinarily important food. Fifty percent of all calories consumed came from bread. It was one half a person’s diet. Bread is what largely kept people alive. The Torah, that is the law, the instruction of God, was also seen as spiritual bread. John’s Gospel is saying Jesus is the new Torah, the new spiritual bread, and unless you eat of that bread, the flesh and blood, of Christ there is no spiritual life in you. What is involved here is that we have in the Word of Christ, in the teachings of Christ our nourishment. What’s more, in the participation in the Eucharist in the consuming of the Body and Blood of Christ in the Eucharist we have the sacramental participation in the eternal living presence of Christ in our lives. Thus, for us as Episcopalians we have a balance of the Word of Christ in Scripture and the continuing sacramental presence of Christ in the Eucharist. Its a healthy balance. Jesus is what God has to say. But Jesus Christ is more than just words on a page; Jesus Christ is a living presence as well upon which we may feed regularly.
There is a saying, and a book too, I believe that is entitled, “You become what you eat.” Eat fat and you become fatty. Eat leaner meats and vegetable you become less fat is what I would guess the basic premise of the saying is. Thus, to partake of Christ Jesus is to partake of the divine. It is to consume love and become loving in the way of Jesus Christ. It is to become forgiving. It is to become hopeful. It is to be intimately apart of the likeness of Jesus Christ and to become his body in the world. Let’s not get too carried away. No one can be Jesus Christ. But in a sharing corporate sense, we become the community of Christ in the world.
We Americans, and some of the British and Canadian folk, some Indian too, I suppose, are great consumers. In the American culture we consume and swallow a lot of stuff. Look at our attic, garages, and basements. Lots of stuff do we consume in a material sense. Look at the grandeur of some of greater Kingsville’s castles. Look too at the umpteen billion “Big Macs” that we have consumed. We love and spend much money on junk food. We Americans are also great gullible swallowers of many fads and philosophies. We like to indulge ourselves and feast upon many things from sports and athletics, TV, to alcohol, drugs. We become enamored with health programs, new age philosophy, and dieting. Yet we become a stuffed overweight sluggish society that is not fulfilled. Happiness, worth, dignity, fulfillment is often missing. Stuffed but empty. In the difficulties of our lives, we are not always supported and strengthened by all the things that we gather to ourselves, and that we consume. There is a fair amount of emptiness and meaninglessness in our world. We can possess many things and be very dissatisfied with our lives, what we do, who we are, the way we are. People can be perceived as happy, but underneath the surface depressed and downcast, starving for meaning. We can have many gifts, talents, abilities, but as St. Paul put it without love we are little more than clanging cymbals. We can have so much, and be so alienated from one another. Seeking more things and stuff, we can be come that much more spiritually malnourished.
Human souls, creatures of God need more than what the world offers. We need the spiritual fulfillment that can only come from God. We do need the Bread of Life that comes down from heaven. We need the food that only Christ can ultimately give. The food that Christ gives is love, a sacrificial love that forgives, respects and gives dignity to our lives. It is the love that gives worth to our being. It is the presence of Christ that brought healing to so many people, restoration of their worth and being.
What keeps the Christian Community, if really nourishes itself on Christ from becoming stuffed, overbearing, self-satisified, and self-righteous, is that partaking of Christ is partaking of the food that gives and serves. The point of eating the flesh and drinking the blood is that it nourishes us and strengthens us for service and mission. It strengthens us for accomplishing God’s Will and for serving God in others, as Christ has first served and come to us.
“Unless you eat the my flesh and drink my blood, you will not have life within you.” is one startling statement for sure. But it sure gets attention. It sure reveals one profound truth. Until we put away our junk, and junk foods, our selfish philosophies, our addictions to materialism and consumerism there will be no real life in us. It is only in feeding upon the Christ of Love, the God of Love and all that that implies that we become nourished to be the creatures we were meant to be . . . them that care for one another, that are their brothers keepers, good faithful husbands and wives, that care for those in need around the world.
SEASON: Pentecost 10
PROPER: 15 B
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: August 20,2000
TEXT: John 6:53-59 - “Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day; for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them.”
ISSUE: - This passage calls the disciples into an intimacy with Jesus Christ. It is a call to abide in Christ, to be assimilated into him. The language is startling today, as it was in John’s and Jesus’ time. Yet it expresses the fact that Jesus is not merely one to be remembered, as in do this in memory of me, but as the on going incarnation. In the beginning was the word, and the word became flesh, and dwelt among us. (John 1:1,14) Today we are fed a lot of stuff in terms of materialism, fads, modern philosophies, but people still feel empty. What is truly nourishing and fulfilling is the way of Jesus Christ.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The passage we read from John’s Gospel today is somewhat disconcerting to the modern ear and mind. Eating flesh and drinking the blood even of Jesus is grating upon human sensitivity. I’ve known little children who became reluctant to come to the Eucharist simply because of their discomfort with the idea that partaking of the bread and wine was the body and blood of Jesus. More mature persons understand the eating of the bread and wine of the Eucharist as a sacramental act of participating in the Last Supper of Jesus. Some prefer to think of it more as a memorial of the Last Supper. Yet John’s Gospel does not have an institution of the Eucharist like Matthew, Mark, and Luke do. John’s Gospel has Jesus saying clearly, “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.”
While the passage may seem strange to us, it was equally strange to the people who first heard it. There were taboos and Hebrew laws that forbid the consuming of the blood of anything. Leviticus 17:10,14 reads, “If any man of the house of Israel or of the strangers that sojourn among them eats any blood, I will set my face against that person who eats blood, and will cut him off from among his people. . . . For the life of every creature is the blood of it; therefore I have said to the people of Israel, You shall not eat the blood of any creature, for the life of every creature is its blood; whoever eats it shall be cut off.”
Last week, I talked with you about the fact that Adam and Eve had been cast out, driven out of the garden as a result of their disobedience. Yet Jesus in John’s Gospel says that anyone that the Father gives to him will in no wise be cast out. This statement is one of redemption, of renewal, of hope. All that was cast out is recalled never to be cast out. In this passage today, while eating of blood and flesh is forbidden by Hebrew Law. The blood is what belonged to God. In sacrifices the blood of the animal is given back to God as an offering. But here again is another reversal, and if not a reversal a significant catch twist that gets peoples attention, “Unless you eat of the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of Man, you can not have life within you.” What John is saying in this Gospel is startling and unique. When you eat Christ, you become one with him, the Son of God, and you become the children of God.
John is conveying that who Jesus is and what he did is not something merely to be remembered.. Rather the life and ministry of Jesus is incarnational. (John 1:1,14) In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The Word of God became flesh and dwelt among us. Jesus is the Word who who has come into the world and expresses what it is that God has to say to his people for all times and all places. We are to consume the Word, we are to partake of the Christ. We are to abide with him, live with him. We are to have a living on going real intimate relationship with Jesus Christ who lives. The church today continues to be the body of Christ, his flesh and blood living in the world with the message of God’s redeeming love.
In the synoptic gospel accounts, there is an institution of the Eucharist, or Last Supper. Just prior to Jesus crucifixion, Jesus breaks the bread and distributes the wine to his disciples and says, “This is my body, this is my blood which is given for you. Do this in memory of me.” The eucharistic action is seen as a memorial (Luke 22:14, Mk 14:22, Matt. 26:26) just prior to his sacrifice on the cross. It symbolizes the pouring out of Christ for his people. In John’s Gospel there is no Last Supper institutional words. Rather, there is the feeding of the 5,000 in the wilderness, followed by the demand, “Unless you eat the my flesh and drink my blood, you will not have life within you.” Christ is the Bread, the nourishment that feeds. He is the very spiritual presence of God for the people of God. He is the grace that passes human understanding.
In ancient times bread was extraordinarily important food. Fifty percent of all calories consumed came from bread. It was one half a person’s diet. Bread is what largely kept people alive. The Torah, that is the law, the instruction of God, was also seen as spiritual bread. John’s Gospel is saying Jesus is the new Torah, the new spiritual bread, and unless you eat of that bread, the flesh and blood, of Christ there is no spiritual life in you. What is involved here is that we have in the Word of Christ, in the teachings of Christ our nourishment. What’s more, in the participation in the Eucharist in the consuming of the Body and Blood of Christ in the Eucharist we have the sacramental participation in the eternal living presence of Christ in our lives. Thus, for us as Episcopalians we have a balance of the Word of Christ in Scripture and the continuing sacramental presence of Christ in the Eucharist. Its a healthy balance. Jesus is what God has to say. But Jesus Christ is more than just words on a page; Jesus Christ is a living presence as well upon which we may feed regularly.
There is a saying, and a book too, I believe that is entitled, “You become what you eat.” Eat fat and you become fatty. Eat leaner meats and vegetable you become less fat is what I would guess the basic premise of the saying is. Thus, to partake of Christ Jesus is to partake of the divine. It is to consume love and become loving in the way of Jesus Christ. It is to become forgiving. It is to become hopeful. It is to be intimately apart of the likeness of Jesus Christ and to become his body in the world. Let’s not get too carried away. No one can be Jesus Christ. But in a sharing corporate sense, we become the community of Christ in the world.
We Americans, and some of the British and Canadian folk, some Indian too, I suppose, are great consumers. In the American culture we consume and swallow a lot of stuff. Look at our attic, garages, and basements. Lots of stuff do we consume in a material sense. Look at the grandeur of some of greater Kingsville’s castles. Look too at the umpteen billion “Big Macs” that we have consumed. We love and spend much money on junk food. We Americans are also great gullible swallowers of many fads and philosophies. We like to indulge ourselves and feast upon many things from sports and athletics, TV, to alcohol, drugs. We become enamored with health programs, new age philosophy, and dieting. Yet we become a stuffed overweight sluggish society that is not fulfilled. Happiness, worth, dignity, fulfillment is often missing. Stuffed but empty. In the difficulties of our lives, we are not always supported and strengthened by all the things that we gather to ourselves, and that we consume. There is a fair amount of emptiness and meaninglessness in our world. We can possess many things and be very dissatisfied with our lives, what we do, who we are, the way we are. People can be perceived as happy, but underneath the surface depressed and downcast, starving for meaning. We can have many gifts, talents, abilities, but as St. Paul put it without love we are little more than clanging cymbals. We can have so much, and be so alienated from one another. Seeking more things and stuff, we can be come that much more spiritually malnourished.
Human souls, creatures of God need more than what the world offers. We need the spiritual fulfillment that can only come from God. We do need the Bread of Life that comes down from heaven. We need the food that only Christ can ultimately give. The food that Christ gives is love, a sacrificial love that forgives, respects and gives dignity to our lives. It is the love that gives worth to our being. It is the presence of Christ that brought healing to so many people, restoration of their worth and being.
What keeps the Christian Community, if really nourishes itself on Christ from becoming stuffed, overbearing, self-satisified, and self-righteous, is that partaking of Christ is partaking of the food that gives and serves. The point of eating the flesh and drinking the blood is that it nourishes us and strengthens us for service and mission. It strengthens us for accomplishing God’s Will and for serving God in others, as Christ has first served and come to us.
“Unless you eat the my flesh and drink my blood, you will not have life within you.” is one startling statement for sure. But it sure gets attention. It sure reveals one profound truth. Until we put away our junk, and junk foods, our selfish philosophies, our addictions to materialism and consumerism there will be no real life in us. It is only in feeding upon the Christ of Love, the God of Love and all that that implies that we become nourished to be the creatures we were meant to be . . . them that care for one another, that are their brothers keepers, good faithful husbands and wives, that care for those in need around the world.
Sunday, August 13, 2000
Pentecost 9
May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)
SEASON: Pentecost 9
PROPER: B
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: August 13, 2000
TEXT: John 6:37-51 - Everything that the Father gives me will come to me, and anyone who comes to me I will never drive away; for I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of my Father, that all who see the Son and believe in him may have eternal life; and I will raise them up on the last day. . . . . This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.
ISSUE: The passage beautifully addresses the issues of Jesus’ time when people were often alienated from God, and also at the time of John’s writing when the Christians and Jews were splitting. The passage reassures that no one shall be cast out from the presence of God. Jesus is the new nourishment, the new manna or bread to give spiritual sustenance to human alienation and division. In our own world where issues of success, materialism, and other spiritual depravities seem to alienate and divide people from the presence of God, the passage gives great hope. We are called upon to respond to the Grace.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
In the passage from the Gospel of Jesus we are dealing with essentially two levels of understanding. The first level deals with what Jesus himself may have been attempting to convey to the people of his time and in his specific ministry. The passage also deals with what was happening well after Jesus’ ministry. John is influenced by what is happening at the time of his writing of the Gospel.
In Jesus’ time, he is dealing with a very large population of people, largely peasants, who feel separated and alienated from God. Unable to keep all of the rules and regulations of the law by virtue of their poverty, there is the sense of standing outside the realm of God or Kingdom of God. They are people oppressed and without much standing or honor. The poor, the sick, blind, deaf, and lame have no right to enter the temple. These people were often seen as the cursed and damned, and thought to be sinners having caused their predicament and banishment. Thus, it is Jesus’ ministry that confronts the whole sense of human degradation before the throne of God.
In addition to this idea of spiritual depravity and unworthiness, by the time that John is writing his Gospel, there is a dissension developing between the followers of Jesus and the traditional Jews of the synagogues. Jesus’ followers are now being excommunicated from the synagogue community. The whole idea of Jesus being held up to a place of honor of which he is thought to be unworthy is seen as an overall dissension between early Christians and the Jewish community of the period. Thus, you have the two levels of concern in this passage assigned for reading this day.
It is curious, if not interesting that these two levels still exist today. In the same way that the religious community of Jesus’ time often looked down upon the poor, oppressed, and afflicted, there is often that same kind of disdain in the church today toward the poor and what we call the underprivileged. At the same time there can be trouble within the religious ranks. There can be within a parish, or within a denomination, or between denominations of Christendom considerable feuding on varieties of issues. The gay and lesbian issue is one of the more pronounced issues of contention in and among churches today. Abortion is another kind of issue that creates tension among various communities. Within some congregations there can be tensions over any variety of issues in terms of building a new Sunday School or Church, when some want to keep things the way they are and others do not. We can get very fussy as Episcopalians over how our worship services will be conducted and as to which rite in the Prayer Book. These tensions are often epitomized by the feelings that some have the right answer over those who do not. We also act as if the persons who differ from us are then some how less than Christian or less than Godly, or in some way do not have the real interest of the church at heart. We can in our differences become very very judgmental and righteous with all factions believing that they are on the one and only right track. I’d suppose that we are talking about basic issues of the human condition, which is often inclined to separate itself, to blow itself apart. This tendency occurs as well, even in some of our personal human relationships and we become driven apart and alienated from one another.
In the early pages of Genesis, one of the significant themes is that of alienation. It seems to be a basic ancient problem of the human condition. Human beings become alienated from God, as Adam and Eve are disobedient and seek to be self-serving. They are cast out of the garden that God had provided for them, and with that comes the pain, the suffering, the perpetual agonizing of the human condition. In a sense Adam and Eve are alienated from one another in terms of the loss of equality. Shortly thereafter, Cain and Abel, the two brothers become alienated and Cain resorts to the murder of his brother Abel. These stories lay out the human condition. Thus, begins the human condition of “murmuring” against and complaining about one another and God. Even when the Hebrews are delivered from slavery in Egypt, and have been delivered by Moses across the Sea of Reed and are wandering in the wilderness, there is murmuring, complaining, that God is not good enough to feed them. There is a kind of perpetual whining, dissatisfaction, fear, a kind of expressed troubled human inadequacy. There is an spiritual famine. Adam and Eve select the wrong or forbidden apple. The Hebrews complain over the inadequacy of the manna.
It is to this kind of human alienation, estrangement, and spiritual famine that John’s Gospel passage is addressed. Thus, Jesus is portrayed as the antidote to the alienation of the people of God, and in a sense as the new apple of God. In John’s passage Jesus says: “Everything that the Father gives me will come to me, and anyone who comes to me I will never drive away (cast out); for I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing at all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. This is indeed the will of my Father, that all who see the Son and believe in him may have eternal (quality) life. . . . I am the bread of life that came down from heaven.” Jesus is the revelation of God’s healing grace and the spiritual food that gives quality to human life.
This passage is significant good news to people who had felt alienated from God, cast out. This passage is profound good news to all who were seen as expendable, unwanted, and unneeded. Simply to be healed and restored to a right relationship with God is nothing more than to believe in, to trust in Jesus Christ as Son of the living God, who reveals the love and the forgiveness of God. Jesus Christ is the one who will raise up all of God’s people on the Day of the Lord, in the realm and Kingdom of God. Thus, whether you felt expendable and unworthy in your existence, whether you felt cast out of the garden of God, or whether you were cast out of the synagogue, the issue was that to turn in faith and trust toward Jesus Christ, you are not cast out, but restored. He is the new bread, the new food of which you are worthy to partake, and Christ is the spiritual food of God’s Kingdom. Christ is the food of love, of forgiveness, of healing and restoration. Through faith, you are God’s and restored to his presence: “Taste and see that the Lord is good. . . .” (Ps.34:8) The will of God is that his creation be restored, that it be raised up to its place of honor, worthiness, and dignity. The terms are quite simple receive with trust and belief, the wonderful undeserved, unearned, free grace of God. It is God’s will that nothing be condemned nor lost. That’s the great gift and the extraordinary message of this passage of Scripture from the Gospel of John. This Jesus Christ is the gift of God’s food that gives to you and me a quality life or real life worth living.
To really grasp with understanding the meaning of this passage requires that we translate its meaning to our relationships with people around us. If God’s grace is freely extended to us, it is also extended to others of faith as well. It is not for us then to judge or condemn, to ostracize or excommunicate. God’s redeeming presence and grace through Jesus Christ is extended to all who believe and feed upon Him. The mission of the Jesus, the disciples, and eventually the church was to convey the message of grace, that none need go with feeling their sense of worth, and none need feel spiritually empty nor depraved because of the all encompassing acceptance of God. “All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out,.” is the Prayer Books’ version of this passage in the Burial Office. (p.484) Many of us have differences of opinions. We have different ways of seeing and appreciating things. We all come from different cultural, ethnic, political, and economic backgrounds and varieties of ways of having been raised. It is a very pluralistic world, even within the church. What we must avoid is categorical condemnation and judgment upon that which God in Christ has already received. While there are great and significant differences among us, our lives can be enriched by varieties of thinking, our own insights can be broadened. Our “rightness” and fixed way of thinking may be challenged to our own good. What lies, however, at the very heart of the Gospel of Christ is love, the call for serving one another, treating one another with dignity and worth, as Christ lifted up to the light every one who sought the loving presence of God. In time, we shall all be taught by God. (Isa. 54:13) And at the same time we shall respect “the dignity and worth of every human being.” Different though we may all be we still gather around the same loaf, the same cup, to feed on the Christ who gives us our worth and dignity. Jesus Christ dared to show the way, and to reveal the grace. May we be as daring as to live into his wisdom and grace. Being hospitable, welcoming, warm, cordial, accepting becomes the essence of grace in an often too judgmental, cruel, and divisive world.
SEASON: Pentecost 9
PROPER: B
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: August 13, 2000
TEXT: John 6:37-51 - Everything that the Father gives me will come to me, and anyone who comes to me I will never drive away; for I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of my Father, that all who see the Son and believe in him may have eternal life; and I will raise them up on the last day. . . . . This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.
ISSUE: The passage beautifully addresses the issues of Jesus’ time when people were often alienated from God, and also at the time of John’s writing when the Christians and Jews were splitting. The passage reassures that no one shall be cast out from the presence of God. Jesus is the new nourishment, the new manna or bread to give spiritual sustenance to human alienation and division. In our own world where issues of success, materialism, and other spiritual depravities seem to alienate and divide people from the presence of God, the passage gives great hope. We are called upon to respond to the Grace.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
In the passage from the Gospel of Jesus we are dealing with essentially two levels of understanding. The first level deals with what Jesus himself may have been attempting to convey to the people of his time and in his specific ministry. The passage also deals with what was happening well after Jesus’ ministry. John is influenced by what is happening at the time of his writing of the Gospel.
In Jesus’ time, he is dealing with a very large population of people, largely peasants, who feel separated and alienated from God. Unable to keep all of the rules and regulations of the law by virtue of their poverty, there is the sense of standing outside the realm of God or Kingdom of God. They are people oppressed and without much standing or honor. The poor, the sick, blind, deaf, and lame have no right to enter the temple. These people were often seen as the cursed and damned, and thought to be sinners having caused their predicament and banishment. Thus, it is Jesus’ ministry that confronts the whole sense of human degradation before the throne of God.
In addition to this idea of spiritual depravity and unworthiness, by the time that John is writing his Gospel, there is a dissension developing between the followers of Jesus and the traditional Jews of the synagogues. Jesus’ followers are now being excommunicated from the synagogue community. The whole idea of Jesus being held up to a place of honor of which he is thought to be unworthy is seen as an overall dissension between early Christians and the Jewish community of the period. Thus, you have the two levels of concern in this passage assigned for reading this day.
It is curious, if not interesting that these two levels still exist today. In the same way that the religious community of Jesus’ time often looked down upon the poor, oppressed, and afflicted, there is often that same kind of disdain in the church today toward the poor and what we call the underprivileged. At the same time there can be trouble within the religious ranks. There can be within a parish, or within a denomination, or between denominations of Christendom considerable feuding on varieties of issues. The gay and lesbian issue is one of the more pronounced issues of contention in and among churches today. Abortion is another kind of issue that creates tension among various communities. Within some congregations there can be tensions over any variety of issues in terms of building a new Sunday School or Church, when some want to keep things the way they are and others do not. We can get very fussy as Episcopalians over how our worship services will be conducted and as to which rite in the Prayer Book. These tensions are often epitomized by the feelings that some have the right answer over those who do not. We also act as if the persons who differ from us are then some how less than Christian or less than Godly, or in some way do not have the real interest of the church at heart. We can in our differences become very very judgmental and righteous with all factions believing that they are on the one and only right track. I’d suppose that we are talking about basic issues of the human condition, which is often inclined to separate itself, to blow itself apart. This tendency occurs as well, even in some of our personal human relationships and we become driven apart and alienated from one another.
In the early pages of Genesis, one of the significant themes is that of alienation. It seems to be a basic ancient problem of the human condition. Human beings become alienated from God, as Adam and Eve are disobedient and seek to be self-serving. They are cast out of the garden that God had provided for them, and with that comes the pain, the suffering, the perpetual agonizing of the human condition. In a sense Adam and Eve are alienated from one another in terms of the loss of equality. Shortly thereafter, Cain and Abel, the two brothers become alienated and Cain resorts to the murder of his brother Abel. These stories lay out the human condition. Thus, begins the human condition of “murmuring” against and complaining about one another and God. Even when the Hebrews are delivered from slavery in Egypt, and have been delivered by Moses across the Sea of Reed and are wandering in the wilderness, there is murmuring, complaining, that God is not good enough to feed them. There is a kind of perpetual whining, dissatisfaction, fear, a kind of expressed troubled human inadequacy. There is an spiritual famine. Adam and Eve select the wrong or forbidden apple. The Hebrews complain over the inadequacy of the manna.
It is to this kind of human alienation, estrangement, and spiritual famine that John’s Gospel passage is addressed. Thus, Jesus is portrayed as the antidote to the alienation of the people of God, and in a sense as the new apple of God. In John’s passage Jesus says: “Everything that the Father gives me will come to me, and anyone who comes to me I will never drive away (cast out); for I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing at all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. This is indeed the will of my Father, that all who see the Son and believe in him may have eternal (quality) life. . . . I am the bread of life that came down from heaven.” Jesus is the revelation of God’s healing grace and the spiritual food that gives quality to human life.
This passage is significant good news to people who had felt alienated from God, cast out. This passage is profound good news to all who were seen as expendable, unwanted, and unneeded. Simply to be healed and restored to a right relationship with God is nothing more than to believe in, to trust in Jesus Christ as Son of the living God, who reveals the love and the forgiveness of God. Jesus Christ is the one who will raise up all of God’s people on the Day of the Lord, in the realm and Kingdom of God. Thus, whether you felt expendable and unworthy in your existence, whether you felt cast out of the garden of God, or whether you were cast out of the synagogue, the issue was that to turn in faith and trust toward Jesus Christ, you are not cast out, but restored. He is the new bread, the new food of which you are worthy to partake, and Christ is the spiritual food of God’s Kingdom. Christ is the food of love, of forgiveness, of healing and restoration. Through faith, you are God’s and restored to his presence: “Taste and see that the Lord is good. . . .” (Ps.34:8) The will of God is that his creation be restored, that it be raised up to its place of honor, worthiness, and dignity. The terms are quite simple receive with trust and belief, the wonderful undeserved, unearned, free grace of God. It is God’s will that nothing be condemned nor lost. That’s the great gift and the extraordinary message of this passage of Scripture from the Gospel of John. This Jesus Christ is the gift of God’s food that gives to you and me a quality life or real life worth living.
To really grasp with understanding the meaning of this passage requires that we translate its meaning to our relationships with people around us. If God’s grace is freely extended to us, it is also extended to others of faith as well. It is not for us then to judge or condemn, to ostracize or excommunicate. God’s redeeming presence and grace through Jesus Christ is extended to all who believe and feed upon Him. The mission of the Jesus, the disciples, and eventually the church was to convey the message of grace, that none need go with feeling their sense of worth, and none need feel spiritually empty nor depraved because of the all encompassing acceptance of God. “All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out,.” is the Prayer Books’ version of this passage in the Burial Office. (p.484) Many of us have differences of opinions. We have different ways of seeing and appreciating things. We all come from different cultural, ethnic, political, and economic backgrounds and varieties of ways of having been raised. It is a very pluralistic world, even within the church. What we must avoid is categorical condemnation and judgment upon that which God in Christ has already received. While there are great and significant differences among us, our lives can be enriched by varieties of thinking, our own insights can be broadened. Our “rightness” and fixed way of thinking may be challenged to our own good. What lies, however, at the very heart of the Gospel of Christ is love, the call for serving one another, treating one another with dignity and worth, as Christ lifted up to the light every one who sought the loving presence of God. In time, we shall all be taught by God. (Isa. 54:13) And at the same time we shall respect “the dignity and worth of every human being.” Different though we may all be we still gather around the same loaf, the same cup, to feed on the Christ who gives us our worth and dignity. Jesus Christ dared to show the way, and to reveal the grace. May we be as daring as to live into his wisdom and grace. Being hospitable, welcoming, warm, cordial, accepting becomes the essence of grace in an often too judgmental, cruel, and divisive world.
Sunday, August 6, 2000
Transfiguration
May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)
SEASON: Transfiguration
PROPER: B
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: August 6, 2000
TEXT: Luke 9:28-36 - And while he (Jesus) was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became dazzling white. Suddenly they saw two men, Moses and Elijah, talking to him. They appeared in glory and were speaking of his departure (exodus), which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. . . . . Then from the cloud came a voice that said, “This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!”
ISSUE: - The Transfiguration is a mystical experience. It involves the mountain top experience coupled with the dazzling garments and angel like appearances of Moses and Elijah, and the cloud of the presence. The mystical event proclaims Jesus is Lord, beloved or chosen of God. It is an epiphany and manifestation that brings the purpose and mission into focus. Modern people often find these mystical dreams and visions as strange or peculiar. We are scientifically oriented. Yet there is a yearning for mysticism that often gets perverted. We need to reclaim prayer, dreams, visions as a way in which God may be speaking and revealing himself to us, that our lives might be guided.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
There is a passage from the Hebrew Scriptures that has fascinated me. It comes from the Book of the Prophet Joel, 2:28. It reads: “Thereafter the day shall come when I will pour out my spirit on all mankind; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams and your young men see visions; I will pour out my spirit in those days even upon slaves and slave-girls.” Joel describes a time of great mysticism when people shall dream dreams and have visions. The will experience the spirit of God within themselves, and their lives as the people of God will be guided and their mission and purpose as the people of God will be clear. Their lives and purpose, and will be in focus in an age to come.
The scriptures, and especially the Hebrew Scriptures a full of mystical experiences of dreams and visions. In the Joseph Story, Joseph is a dreamer and an interpreter of dreams. The calling of the great prophets are often immersed in a vision or mystical experience. Isaiah (6:1-13) has a vision: In the year that King Uzziah’s death, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the skirt of his robe filled the temple. About him were attendant seraphim and each had six wings; one pair covered his face, and one pair his feet, and one pair was spread in flight. They were calling ceaselessly to one another, ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory.’ . . . . . Then I heard the Lord saying, Whom shall I send? Who will go for me? And I answered, Here am I; send me. He said, Go and tell . . .
Jeremiah the prophet (1:ll-19) has a vision in which God speaks to him and gives him of a vision of An Almond in early bloom, which is a sign of God’s early readiness to have Jeremiah speak God’s word to his people. There is a vision of a cauldron on fire, fanned by the wind, which is a sign of impending disaster for Israel which had become a nation burning sacrifices to other gods.
Ezekiel (1:4-2:8) also has a vision of God speaking to him in mysterious images: in wind and storm and lightning, in winged creatures, in wheels inside of wheels, and the voice of God says Man, stand up, and let me talk with you. As he spoke a spirit came into me and stood me on my feet, and I listened to him speaking. He said to me , Man, I am sending you to the Israelites, a nation of rebels who have rebelled against me.
In the Christian Scriptures, the Book of Revelation, is full of the visions and dreams: where God speaks through the trumpet, and calls John up to the top of high mountain to see the glory of God. (21:10) “The Spirit took control of me, and the angel carried me to the top of a very high mountain. He showed me Jerusalem, the Holy City, coming down out of heaven from God and shining with the Glory of God.”
Luke’s gospel account this morning is the story referred to as The Transfiguration. It is also a very mystical experience. Jesus goes to a mountain top to pray. He takes with him a select group of his disciples - Peter, James, and John - who share in a mysterious event. In something of a dream state they witness Jesus becoming changed. His face is changed, and his clothes become dazzling white. He appears to be conversing with Moses the law giver, whose face became radiant in the presence of God. He is also seen with the healing Elijah, the great prophet of Israel. They are discussing his departure, or more literally his exodus. The three gathered disciples are overwhelmed by the experience. They find themselves encompassed by a mysterious cloud. The cloud in Scripture is almost always associated with God’s presence. They hear the voice of God speaking to them: This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!”
Some scholars again, like the walking on water story, see the Transfiguration story as a post Easter story, which often pictures Jesus in white robes of glory. The two men surrounding him are like the two angels that Luke reports tell the women that Jesus has risen. But the story as it is placed in Luke is a mystical experience that marks the beginning of Jesus journey to Jerusalem, to the cross and crucifixion, and ultimately to his resurrection. Thus, the story sort of pre-figures the resurrection event. The story elevates the honor and place of Jesus. He is associated with two of Israel’s greatest leaders and heroes, Moses and Elijah. Moses had led God’s people out of bondage and gave them the law for their direction, and set them on their way to the promised land. Elijah was seen as God’s man, his name means “Yahweh is my God.” In this mystical occasion Jesus is held up in Glory and is revealed as God’s man, God’s Son, the Chosen, Listen to him. He too will lead his people out of fear, separation from God. The poor, the least and last are given hope and honor. He will die for them in love, and be raised up and make the whole creation new.
The voice of God had spoken when Jesus was baptized coming out the heavens when his ministry begins: “This is my beloved, my Son, with whom I am pleased.” Now prior to Jesus pilgrimage toward his crucifixion in Jerusalem, the voice is heard again: “This is my Son, my Chosen, Listen to him!” Jesus had by this time a number of friends and followers in his company. But he by this time he also had a significant number of enemies in high places. The mystical experience declares his glory and honor and remarkable status, and it also declares his authority to his friends, Listen to him! That is, stay obedient and faithful as you did for Moses and Elijah, for this is not merely a messengers, but God’s Son, the Chosen anointed Christ, Listen to him!
This profound experience, this vision, this dream state for Peter, James, and John, this mysterious ethereal vision for the early church proclaimed in a wonderful way the glory and authority of Jesus Christ as Lord. Jesus and the disciples, then leave the mountain top and carry on with the ministry and what must be done.
The question for us, I suppose, is how do we deal with mysticism in our modern world. Bible stories such as the Transfiguration are hard to accept in a serious way. Did Jesus really glisten and have Elijah and Moses return from the dead? It is just weird by modern standards.
People who claim to have some kind of mystical experience, vision or dream, are often deemed as suspicious or demented. We try to explain away the phenomenon of vision and dreams, as psychotic, or at least bordering on the strange or bizarre, or as a person trying to get attention. Mystics in our time are often discounted.
I have heard people refer to what happens in the church, at least in the more catholic-like churches, to be dabbling in mumbo - jumbo. We listen to these strange mysterious stories, and claim to believe in them, as we respect the Bible. The priest and liturgical participants dress in white robes and mysterious chasubles on the part of the priest. We come forward to the altar rail with the claim that we are eating the body of Jesus Christ, and drinking his blood. Our music is led with the pipe organ, which has now become a very foreign instrument to may people. They whole setting surrounded in stained glass and light with candles and sometimes immersed in the smell of incense has all become suspect and strange to much of the world, and especially to our world culture today.
Our age is one in which is locked into science, proof. We say that we trust only that which is real. We don’t trust dreams and visions. Hard science is that in which we put our ultimate trust. Now, I for one, am very happy with what science has brought to us. It brings us many many significant blessing. Vaccinations have both thwarted and ended many diseases. We can cure and prevent many serious illnesses. We can fly across the country in hours, around the world for that matter in record time. We can communicate around the world in our own homes by pressing a few buttons. We can communicate with cellular phones anywhere we want to for that matter. We also have an extraordinary amount of information and education through the Internet, which is not without its problems, but still in all, a remarkable scientific instrument and tool.
Even the church has been and is becoming quite entranced with science. We set the organ aside for more modern instruments and high-tech sound systems. Preachers and biblical scholars speak of Jesus as having walked beside the water rather than on the water. We think of the healing stories of Jesus as psychosomatic events, giving them a kind of Freudian interpretation. That is, when Jesus forgives someone their paralysis is relieved because their guilt is taken away. Many churches have moved away - cost being surely a factor - from the stone gothic structures to more functional contemporary theater like styles.
Yet have you noticed that in spite of the acceptance of science and technology, there is still a very real and peculiar yearning for the mystic. I’ve noticed an increasing interest in oriental mysticism, like Buddhism. A significant number of people have become infatuated with New Age Music, which is a kind of ethereal wandering music. There has been a curious development of people interested in witchcraft. Halloween has become a really big holiday, with the purchase of decorations that rival Christmas. The drug culture of recent decades has been for some people an experimentation with an effort to have a psychedelic mystical feel-good religious experience. These things seem to suggest that in the scientific technological world we live in there is still a deep spiritual need that is part of the human experience that often goes lacking in our culture.
The mystical events in the Bible, like the Transfiguration, were revelations, epiphanies, that somehow they could reach out and experience God. In the Transfiguration experience, Peter, James, and John, relate a profound wonderful experience of seeing into the depths of the meaning and purpose of Jesus Christ. In him with him, they become surrounded with the mystical presence of God in the cloud. The love, forgiveness, the sacrifice of the Savior surrounds them in a way that an intellectual experience could never do. They just feel it, sense it know it profound. This is the Son, the Chose, the one to be listened to and embraced.
Good and beautiful music touches the human soul. Poetry says things and provides sensations and feelings, and knowledge, mysterious understands that prose and other mediums of expression cannot. A beautiful painting can inspire mystery, wonder, and expressive feelings. Did you ever notice that when you are in a gothic cathedral that you cannot look down. The architecture always keeps you looking up, longing and yearning for the wonder of God’s presence in his creation.
The development of and the acceptance of our spiritual life and dimension is an imperative. Today we gather in the subtle hues of stained glass.. We stand and sing praise accompanied by an instrument driven by the wind, by the breath, by the spirit. We hear mystically strange miracle stories that make us wonder and stand in awe of an awesome power we call God. We kneel in prayer that strangely and boldly we are worthy to approach the presence of God and make our needs concerns known. We reach out to the presence to be fed with the body and blood, the mysterious essence of God, to empower us and commission us to deal with the world around us. For some it’s only mumbo - jumbo. For some it is the completion or fulfillment of our lives. For us it is a deep and profound awareness that God is with us and that we are his sons and daughters who dream dreams and who are never without visions of God, God’s love, grace, and hope, of resurrection and renewal, of everlasting quality of life now and in the world to come.
SEASON: Transfiguration
PROPER: B
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: August 6, 2000
TEXT: Luke 9:28-36 - And while he (Jesus) was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became dazzling white. Suddenly they saw two men, Moses and Elijah, talking to him. They appeared in glory and were speaking of his departure (exodus), which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. . . . . Then from the cloud came a voice that said, “This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!”
ISSUE: - The Transfiguration is a mystical experience. It involves the mountain top experience coupled with the dazzling garments and angel like appearances of Moses and Elijah, and the cloud of the presence. The mystical event proclaims Jesus is Lord, beloved or chosen of God. It is an epiphany and manifestation that brings the purpose and mission into focus. Modern people often find these mystical dreams and visions as strange or peculiar. We are scientifically oriented. Yet there is a yearning for mysticism that often gets perverted. We need to reclaim prayer, dreams, visions as a way in which God may be speaking and revealing himself to us, that our lives might be guided.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
There is a passage from the Hebrew Scriptures that has fascinated me. It comes from the Book of the Prophet Joel, 2:28. It reads: “Thereafter the day shall come when I will pour out my spirit on all mankind; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams and your young men see visions; I will pour out my spirit in those days even upon slaves and slave-girls.” Joel describes a time of great mysticism when people shall dream dreams and have visions. The will experience the spirit of God within themselves, and their lives as the people of God will be guided and their mission and purpose as the people of God will be clear. Their lives and purpose, and will be in focus in an age to come.
The scriptures, and especially the Hebrew Scriptures a full of mystical experiences of dreams and visions. In the Joseph Story, Joseph is a dreamer and an interpreter of dreams. The calling of the great prophets are often immersed in a vision or mystical experience. Isaiah (6:1-13) has a vision: In the year that King Uzziah’s death, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the skirt of his robe filled the temple. About him were attendant seraphim and each had six wings; one pair covered his face, and one pair his feet, and one pair was spread in flight. They were calling ceaselessly to one another, ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory.’ . . . . . Then I heard the Lord saying, Whom shall I send? Who will go for me? And I answered, Here am I; send me. He said, Go and tell . . .
Jeremiah the prophet (1:ll-19) has a vision in which God speaks to him and gives him of a vision of An Almond in early bloom, which is a sign of God’s early readiness to have Jeremiah speak God’s word to his people. There is a vision of a cauldron on fire, fanned by the wind, which is a sign of impending disaster for Israel which had become a nation burning sacrifices to other gods.
Ezekiel (1:4-2:8) also has a vision of God speaking to him in mysterious images: in wind and storm and lightning, in winged creatures, in wheels inside of wheels, and the voice of God says Man, stand up, and let me talk with you. As he spoke a spirit came into me and stood me on my feet, and I listened to him speaking. He said to me , Man, I am sending you to the Israelites, a nation of rebels who have rebelled against me.
In the Christian Scriptures, the Book of Revelation, is full of the visions and dreams: where God speaks through the trumpet, and calls John up to the top of high mountain to see the glory of God. (21:10) “The Spirit took control of me, and the angel carried me to the top of a very high mountain. He showed me Jerusalem, the Holy City, coming down out of heaven from God and shining with the Glory of God.”
Luke’s gospel account this morning is the story referred to as The Transfiguration. It is also a very mystical experience. Jesus goes to a mountain top to pray. He takes with him a select group of his disciples - Peter, James, and John - who share in a mysterious event. In something of a dream state they witness Jesus becoming changed. His face is changed, and his clothes become dazzling white. He appears to be conversing with Moses the law giver, whose face became radiant in the presence of God. He is also seen with the healing Elijah, the great prophet of Israel. They are discussing his departure, or more literally his exodus. The three gathered disciples are overwhelmed by the experience. They find themselves encompassed by a mysterious cloud. The cloud in Scripture is almost always associated with God’s presence. They hear the voice of God speaking to them: This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!”
Some scholars again, like the walking on water story, see the Transfiguration story as a post Easter story, which often pictures Jesus in white robes of glory. The two men surrounding him are like the two angels that Luke reports tell the women that Jesus has risen. But the story as it is placed in Luke is a mystical experience that marks the beginning of Jesus journey to Jerusalem, to the cross and crucifixion, and ultimately to his resurrection. Thus, the story sort of pre-figures the resurrection event. The story elevates the honor and place of Jesus. He is associated with two of Israel’s greatest leaders and heroes, Moses and Elijah. Moses had led God’s people out of bondage and gave them the law for their direction, and set them on their way to the promised land. Elijah was seen as God’s man, his name means “Yahweh is my God.” In this mystical occasion Jesus is held up in Glory and is revealed as God’s man, God’s Son, the Chosen, Listen to him. He too will lead his people out of fear, separation from God. The poor, the least and last are given hope and honor. He will die for them in love, and be raised up and make the whole creation new.
The voice of God had spoken when Jesus was baptized coming out the heavens when his ministry begins: “This is my beloved, my Son, with whom I am pleased.” Now prior to Jesus pilgrimage toward his crucifixion in Jerusalem, the voice is heard again: “This is my Son, my Chosen, Listen to him!” Jesus had by this time a number of friends and followers in his company. But he by this time he also had a significant number of enemies in high places. The mystical experience declares his glory and honor and remarkable status, and it also declares his authority to his friends, Listen to him! That is, stay obedient and faithful as you did for Moses and Elijah, for this is not merely a messengers, but God’s Son, the Chosen anointed Christ, Listen to him!
This profound experience, this vision, this dream state for Peter, James, and John, this mysterious ethereal vision for the early church proclaimed in a wonderful way the glory and authority of Jesus Christ as Lord. Jesus and the disciples, then leave the mountain top and carry on with the ministry and what must be done.
The question for us, I suppose, is how do we deal with mysticism in our modern world. Bible stories such as the Transfiguration are hard to accept in a serious way. Did Jesus really glisten and have Elijah and Moses return from the dead? It is just weird by modern standards.
People who claim to have some kind of mystical experience, vision or dream, are often deemed as suspicious or demented. We try to explain away the phenomenon of vision and dreams, as psychotic, or at least bordering on the strange or bizarre, or as a person trying to get attention. Mystics in our time are often discounted.
I have heard people refer to what happens in the church, at least in the more catholic-like churches, to be dabbling in mumbo - jumbo. We listen to these strange mysterious stories, and claim to believe in them, as we respect the Bible. The priest and liturgical participants dress in white robes and mysterious chasubles on the part of the priest. We come forward to the altar rail with the claim that we are eating the body of Jesus Christ, and drinking his blood. Our music is led with the pipe organ, which has now become a very foreign instrument to may people. They whole setting surrounded in stained glass and light with candles and sometimes immersed in the smell of incense has all become suspect and strange to much of the world, and especially to our world culture today.
Our age is one in which is locked into science, proof. We say that we trust only that which is real. We don’t trust dreams and visions. Hard science is that in which we put our ultimate trust. Now, I for one, am very happy with what science has brought to us. It brings us many many significant blessing. Vaccinations have both thwarted and ended many diseases. We can cure and prevent many serious illnesses. We can fly across the country in hours, around the world for that matter in record time. We can communicate around the world in our own homes by pressing a few buttons. We can communicate with cellular phones anywhere we want to for that matter. We also have an extraordinary amount of information and education through the Internet, which is not without its problems, but still in all, a remarkable scientific instrument and tool.
Even the church has been and is becoming quite entranced with science. We set the organ aside for more modern instruments and high-tech sound systems. Preachers and biblical scholars speak of Jesus as having walked beside the water rather than on the water. We think of the healing stories of Jesus as psychosomatic events, giving them a kind of Freudian interpretation. That is, when Jesus forgives someone their paralysis is relieved because their guilt is taken away. Many churches have moved away - cost being surely a factor - from the stone gothic structures to more functional contemporary theater like styles.
Yet have you noticed that in spite of the acceptance of science and technology, there is still a very real and peculiar yearning for the mystic. I’ve noticed an increasing interest in oriental mysticism, like Buddhism. A significant number of people have become infatuated with New Age Music, which is a kind of ethereal wandering music. There has been a curious development of people interested in witchcraft. Halloween has become a really big holiday, with the purchase of decorations that rival Christmas. The drug culture of recent decades has been for some people an experimentation with an effort to have a psychedelic mystical feel-good religious experience. These things seem to suggest that in the scientific technological world we live in there is still a deep spiritual need that is part of the human experience that often goes lacking in our culture.
The mystical events in the Bible, like the Transfiguration, were revelations, epiphanies, that somehow they could reach out and experience God. In the Transfiguration experience, Peter, James, and John, relate a profound wonderful experience of seeing into the depths of the meaning and purpose of Jesus Christ. In him with him, they become surrounded with the mystical presence of God in the cloud. The love, forgiveness, the sacrifice of the Savior surrounds them in a way that an intellectual experience could never do. They just feel it, sense it know it profound. This is the Son, the Chose, the one to be listened to and embraced.
Good and beautiful music touches the human soul. Poetry says things and provides sensations and feelings, and knowledge, mysterious understands that prose and other mediums of expression cannot. A beautiful painting can inspire mystery, wonder, and expressive feelings. Did you ever notice that when you are in a gothic cathedral that you cannot look down. The architecture always keeps you looking up, longing and yearning for the wonder of God’s presence in his creation.
The development of and the acceptance of our spiritual life and dimension is an imperative. Today we gather in the subtle hues of stained glass.. We stand and sing praise accompanied by an instrument driven by the wind, by the breath, by the spirit. We hear mystically strange miracle stories that make us wonder and stand in awe of an awesome power we call God. We kneel in prayer that strangely and boldly we are worthy to approach the presence of God and make our needs concerns known. We reach out to the presence to be fed with the body and blood, the mysterious essence of God, to empower us and commission us to deal with the world around us. For some it’s only mumbo - jumbo. For some it is the completion or fulfillment of our lives. For us it is a deep and profound awareness that God is with us and that we are his sons and daughters who dream dreams and who are never without visions of God, God’s love, grace, and hope, of resurrection and renewal, of everlasting quality of life now and in the world to come.
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