May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)
SEASON: LENT 5
PROPER: A
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: February 17, 2002
TEXT: John 11:1-44 – The Raising of Lazarus
Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him.” . . . Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even thought they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
ISSUE: Resurrection is not an issue of raising corpses. It is rather about the transformation of life. John’s account of Lazarus’ raising is a response to the early Christian Community when they cannot understand why they die. If Jesus were still with them, they would not. Mary and Martha a representative of that community. Jesus’ response is that he is the resurrection and the life, and that those who trust and believe in him are alive and live transformed lives. After Martha’s statement of faith, Lazarus seen alive.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
This beautiful passage from the Gospel of John is the last of the seven signs that are found in this Gospel account. It is interesting that in the synoptic Gospel (Matt., ark, Luke) Jesus crucifixion is the result of his cleansing the Temple and overturning the tables of the moneychangers, and Jesus’ reference to the leadership turning it into a den of thieves. In the Gospel of Matthew, the reason for the crucifixion of Jesus is the resurrection of Lazarus. Raising the dead is the last straw. Bring the ultimately depraved to life and vitality is more than can be handled by the establishment.
It is thought by some biblical scholars that one of the reasons that John the Evangelist tells this story is to address the concern of the early church. By the time that John is writing his Gospel, the Temple in Jerusalem had been destroyed. Many of the witnesses to Jesus had died off. The question is being raised by the early floundering church of John’s time, if Jesus were still with them they would not die but have eternal life. There was also a concern and expectation that Jesus would come again, but has not come. Why has he not come, and why are they dying off? John tells the story Martha and Mary, sisters of Lazarus who is sick and who dies as a response to that issues.
Lazarus, a friend of Jesus, is sick and dying. Mary and Martha, his dependent sisters, send for Jesus to come to his assistance. However, Jesus does not make an immediate response to the request. He waits two days saying that Lazarus’ serious illness is for the glorification of God. With some additional resistance on the part of his fearing disciples, who fear Jesus will be stoned in this territory, Jesus makes the journey to Bethany. Jesus tells his disciples, Lazarus has fallen asleep, an euphemism for being dead.
When Jesus arrives, he is told that in fact Lazarus is dead. The sisters are angry with Jesus. “If you had been here, my brother would not have died.” But Jesus assures her that Lazarus will live again. “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day,” says Martha. But Jesus responds to Martha, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even through they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this? Martha makes this great statement of faith before Lazarus is even raised from the dead, and before any hint that Jesus will perform the sign: “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.” It is so important in the Gospel of John that people believe in, trust in, keep being loyal, to Jesus Christ who is the Lord of life.
In this much of the story, you have the set up of John’s community of concern. If only Jesus were still here, the ones we need would still be with us. Mary and Martha are women without a man, like a church without a leader, how will they survive? The answer, by Faith! Jesus Christ is the messianic hope. Trust in him and remain loyal to him. He is your resurrection and your hope. He is the resurrection and life now, not on some vague resurrection day in the distant future. To reveal that truth, the story continues.
Jesus asks Mary and Martha to take him to the grave of Lazarus. They are weeping and all they Jews follow them to the grave. Jesus himself begins to weep. There continues that refrain that if Jesus were only there, “Lazarus would not have died.” “If he could heal a blind man, surely he could have healed Lazarus and kept him from dying.” Jesus weeps with his friends: Out of love for Lazarus? Perhaps. Is it his sorry over the human condition being expressed? Or, is there the possibility that Jesus is beginning to lament over his own ordeal and death that lies on the horizon, and over the sorry state of the human condition that is without faith and without hope? There upon, Jesus makes the momentous move: “Take away the stone.”
Martha interrupts, “Lord already there will be a stench because he has already been there four days.” Being dead four days, according to the belief of the time was significant. It was believed that the spirit of a dead person hung around for three days and then left the corpse. The point made here is that Lazarus is unquestionably dead, and will stink, the body by now is in the decaying process. But Jesus assures Martha’s trust, “Didn’t I tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?” He prays and cries out in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” Lazarus bound in his funeral wrappings appears at the entrance of the tomb. “Unbind him, and let him go.”
What’s the meaning here? Jesus Christ comes to the world that is weeping and dying. He comes entering into its sorrow, with all the risks involved, and willing to give up even his own life to death on the cross. But, trust in God and see the glory of God at work is the message. Jesus comes to an angry, frightened world (Mary and Martha), to the diseased, and the dying. (Nicodemus, Woman at the Well, Blindman at the pool, and dead Lazarus) He is coming to the sometimes stench filled world of sin and hostility to bring hope. And it is not just a hope that will come at the day of resurrection sometime in the very distant future. It is hope and life that comes now. This passage is not about corpses. It is about faith and hope. The resurrection is not about raising corpses. Resurrection is about transforming life into something new and honorable.
The opening sign in John’s Gospel account is Jesus turning water into wine. He will not allow the Bride and the groom to be shamed should the wine runs out. He saves the situation turning transforming water into wine. Jesus tells Nicodemus, you can be born from above and receive a new transforming spirit. Jesus transforms the life of the sinner woman at the well, giving her living water that will not dry up. He gives the blind man new insight into seeing the presence of God in his midst through Jesus Christ. Mary and Martha are devastated by the loss of their brother who was their social security in a man’s world. They were dishonored by the absence of best friends at Lazarus’ funeral. Lazarus is a symbol of a sometimes stinking, dying world. The situation is redeem. Martha claims a renewed faith. Lazarus, whose name means, one whom God helps, is raised to new life and hope. Christ is constantly coming to the world in the present into the future. Trust, be loyal, and have faith in Jesus’ resurrection.
For too long, too many Christians have lived with the idea that someday off in the distance after we die, we will be raised up in heaven, and we’ll be safe. If we think and believe that, then may Mrs. Yates wasn’t so crazy after all. No, resurrection is not about raising corpses. It is about raising the sinners and transforming their lives. It is about giving us all a new awareness of the wonder of the life we are living now, and becoming the disciples of Jesus Christ now. We are raised not after we die, but symbolically at our baptism! Up out of the water, out of the drowning we come to put on a new life with Christ. Resurrection came when Moses led his oppressed people out of bondage in Egypt. Resurrection came when Ghandi liberated the peasants in India. Resurrection comes when Abraham Lincoln raises the blacks up out of slavery, and when Martin Luther King, Jr., raised the blacks up out of social injustice.
Resurrection comes when a bad marriage ends and a person begins anew with faith. Resurrection comes when shamed people know they are forgiven by the love of God. Resurrection comes when a community, a nation, a church comes to love one another as much as it loves God. Transformation, Conversion, transfiguration are all forms of resurrection to new life with Jesus Christ as Lord. There are facts of life. We all shall die. We are made of dust, and to dust shall we return. It’s a fact of life. But first we are resurrected to be God’s people, to love God and to love one another. We serve with Him, our perfect freedom is to be with God in Christ. We are living in faithfulness and loyalty now. We believe now that whether we live or die . . . “then what can separate us from the love of Christ? Can affliction or hardship? Can persecution, hunger, nakedness, peril, or the sword? In spite of all, overwhelming victory is ours through him who loved us. For I (St. Paul) am convinced that there is nothing in death or life, in the realm of spirits or superhuman powers, in the world as it is or the world as it shall be, in forces of the universe, in heights or depths – nothing in all creation that can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:34f)
At the time of a family death and personal stresses, at the terrible events of September 11th, in New York, Pennsylvania, and Washington D.C., we hear the refrain, “If only God were there. Why did this awful thing have to happen?” And we weep. So does Christ. But, God was there, is there we believe and trust, and out of the dust and the ashes come resurrection and new hope for the transforming of the world now.
Sunday, February 17, 2002
Lent 1
May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)
SEASON: Lent 1
PROPER: A
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: February 17, 2002
TEXT: Matthew 4:1-11 - The Temptation of Christ Jesus
Jesus said, "Away with you, Satan! for it is written, 'Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.'"
ISSUE: This well crafted story, based on Israel's temptations wandering in the desert reveals the obedience and the true sonship of Jesus. In him and through him, we find our hope. Each of us struggles with our various temptations, shortcomings, and our slips in life. Jesus Christ who also struggled with temptation and the desire to discern who and what his life was about remained obedient and faithful. He is our hope, and the faithful servant who shows us the way to God.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Temptation of Jesus in the wilderness is thought to be a neatly crafted story in Matthew's Gospel. It depicts by and large a truly struggling Jesus. The account is best understood when we keep it in context in terms of when it supposedly happened, and it is also best understood in the context of Hebrew history, and the cultural aspects of the time.
It is very important to know that the Temptation of Jesus immediately follows Matthew's account of Jesus' baptism. John baptizes him. A dove comes down upon him, a spirit lights upon him, and voice from heaven is heard: "This is my own dear Son, with whom I am pleased." What follows is that a "spirit" leads Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted, or tested. He has had a great honor bestowed upon him, God's beloved Son. The testing is to determine if this is a true honor. Is he deserving of the title? Thus, spirits, the Devil, then tests Jesus.
It is important for us to appreciate that in this time the belief in spirits was a part of the culture. Spirits, both good and bad, were believed to be everywhere according to the lore of the time. They were particularly rampant in the wilderness areas. People wore amulets and often painted their doorsteps and window frames blue. Charms were worn to ward off evil and mischievous spirits. This practice was common to the period. However, note that none of the accounts of Jesus' temptation report him to be wearing blue clothing or any kind of protection. He is strictly on his own. Jesus is totally vulnerable to the spirit world.
Jesus goes into the wilderness for a period of forty days and nights. This period of time immediately associates Jesus with Moses and Elijah, highly honored leaders and prophets of Hebrew History. But what's more, and is important to appreciate is that the temptations are also very similar to Israel's wandering in the wilderness after their flight from Egyptian oppression under the leadership of Moses. Jesus is identified as the Son of God, but so had Israel been identified as God’s son. In the book of Exodus 4:22-23, Moses is instructed by God to tell Pharaoh, "Israel is my first born son". . let my son go so that he may worship me.
Jesus, Son of God, like Israel, is faced with three significant temptations:
First, The evil spirit challenges Jesus to turn stones to bread, but Jesus responds with a quotation from Deuteronomy 8:3, "One does not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God." When Israel had wondered in the desert the people had complained to Moses of their hunger. This hunger was seen as a testing that they must trust God. But the people were rebellious and disobedient, and cantankerous. They did not pass the test.
The Second temptation, Satan takes Jesus to the holy city (Jerusalem) and places him on the pinnacle of the temple and dares him to jump, quoting Psalm 91:11-12 "He will command his angels concerning you." and "On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone." Jesus quotes again a passage from Deut. 6:16, "Do not put the Lord your God to the test, as you did at Massah." It refers to another time when Israel tested God, and complained and distrusted God's protection of them. Here, Jesus recognizes it is he who is being tested, and it is inappropriate for him to test God. He remains obedient and faithful.
The third temptation, when the Devil takes Jesus up on a high mountain. High Mountains are always a special place of revelation for Matthew, like the Transfiguration Story of last week. Satan offers all the kingdoms of the world for but one moment of worship and adoration. Again Jesus responds from Deuternonomy 6:13: "Have reverence for the Lord your God, worship only him, and make your promises in his name alone." Israel, wondering in the desert, had failed to be faithful and obedient. But Jesus passes the test, and is true to his Sonship.
In Matthew's account of Jesus' temptation, I believe that Matthew is making two important points to his readers. The Israelites in their humanness failed to be obedient and trusting. Adam and Eve, Genesis’ symbol of all men and women, from the beginning had failed to be obedient, and succumbed to the temptation to eat from the forbidden tree. The world needed a messianic figure, a person of great obedience and faith to be the savior and salvation for God's people. They needed one who could master the evil spirits, deny them, and influences of the world. Matthew wants his readers to know that this Jesus was tempted as they were all the sons and daughters of God. He was confronted by the same powers that they had known and knew. But Jesus was faithful and obedient to this point. He alone passed the testing and maintained the title, Son of God, in the most profound sense. He does not succumb to temptations to be a big shot, to be magical, and a triumphant militant leader. His power is in his faithful obedience to God the Father. He obeys and accepts the word and teaching of God. And the good spirits, the angels, came and ministered to him.
A second important point is that Jesus' forty days in the wilderness, after his baptism, is a time of discernment. It is a time of reflection on the kind of life he will lead, in his case, what will be the shape of his messiahship. There are those who dare to say that it is plausible that Jesus could have become the Emperor of Rome. That thought might be presuming too much. But it is likely that Jesus could have become another militant messianic leader. The social and political situation in the time was ripe for that. Instead he leaves the wilderness prepared to take on the role of a suffering servant, as opposed to one to be served. He associates with the poor and raises them up, and gives them a profound sense of esteem, healing, and assurance that God is with them, that they are loved and adored by the creator. He conveys the presence of God in their lives. In their fallen nature he assures that God will reconcile and redeem and take them back. That spirited and spiritual anointed one will not merely last for a political seasons, or dynasty, but will last forever.
As we enter into the Lenten Season, and into this story, we might become aware of the various temptations and the failings of our own lives. Whether we believe in “evil spirits” or not, there are times when people will say, “I don’t know what got into me.” A parent says to a misbehaving child, “What in the world has gotten into you?” As the comedian Flip Wilson’s comic caricature Geraldine says, “The devil made me do it?” And we do laugh at and identify with Geraldine. The fact of the matter is that we are all tempted, and temptations in our culture are everywhere. You can call them evil spirits or not, but temptations are there, and we need to take full responsibility for our actions.
Today people are more inclined to take more responsibility for their actions. We laugh at Flip Wilson's Geraldine whose comic line that made us laugh was, "The Devil made me do it." While we may not believe in spirits like in Jesus' time, there may well be feelings and remembrances of times when we acted in such ways that were out of character. While we can be good people, there are other times when we are not. There are temptations to which we succumb. Some are easily tempted by sexual persuasions. Some are given to dishonesty and cheating. Some cannot give up their racial prejudices and the inappropriate character that is passed on from generation to generation. Some are caught up in the various things we will confess in the Litany of Penitence we will be using later in the service today.
We truly need the salvation and the grace, the hand of God, which is extended to us in Christ to lift of from the mire of our lives. For Christ Jesus alone was in the mire too and was the way of hope and salvation for us. Angels, the good spirits came and ministered to him.
This is a season for our reflection and discerning what kind of life we shall I live. What are my spiritual goals? How am I going to express my faithful obedience to God though the kind of life I shall live? What kind of a new Son or Daughter of God shall I become as we make our way with Christ Jesus to Easter together? There were temptations for Adam and Eve. There were temptations for the people of Israel. There were bad times of not living up to what was expected. But God has not left us alone. He has come among us to lead and guide us. To take the hand of Christ who is our Lord and our hope.
SEASON: Lent 1
PROPER: A
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: February 17, 2002
TEXT: Matthew 4:1-11 - The Temptation of Christ Jesus
Jesus said, "Away with you, Satan! for it is written, 'Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.'"
ISSUE: This well crafted story, based on Israel's temptations wandering in the desert reveals the obedience and the true sonship of Jesus. In him and through him, we find our hope. Each of us struggles with our various temptations, shortcomings, and our slips in life. Jesus Christ who also struggled with temptation and the desire to discern who and what his life was about remained obedient and faithful. He is our hope, and the faithful servant who shows us the way to God.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Temptation of Jesus in the wilderness is thought to be a neatly crafted story in Matthew's Gospel. It depicts by and large a truly struggling Jesus. The account is best understood when we keep it in context in terms of when it supposedly happened, and it is also best understood in the context of Hebrew history, and the cultural aspects of the time.
It is very important to know that the Temptation of Jesus immediately follows Matthew's account of Jesus' baptism. John baptizes him. A dove comes down upon him, a spirit lights upon him, and voice from heaven is heard: "This is my own dear Son, with whom I am pleased." What follows is that a "spirit" leads Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted, or tested. He has had a great honor bestowed upon him, God's beloved Son. The testing is to determine if this is a true honor. Is he deserving of the title? Thus, spirits, the Devil, then tests Jesus.
It is important for us to appreciate that in this time the belief in spirits was a part of the culture. Spirits, both good and bad, were believed to be everywhere according to the lore of the time. They were particularly rampant in the wilderness areas. People wore amulets and often painted their doorsteps and window frames blue. Charms were worn to ward off evil and mischievous spirits. This practice was common to the period. However, note that none of the accounts of Jesus' temptation report him to be wearing blue clothing or any kind of protection. He is strictly on his own. Jesus is totally vulnerable to the spirit world.
Jesus goes into the wilderness for a period of forty days and nights. This period of time immediately associates Jesus with Moses and Elijah, highly honored leaders and prophets of Hebrew History. But what's more, and is important to appreciate is that the temptations are also very similar to Israel's wandering in the wilderness after their flight from Egyptian oppression under the leadership of Moses. Jesus is identified as the Son of God, but so had Israel been identified as God’s son. In the book of Exodus 4:22-23, Moses is instructed by God to tell Pharaoh, "Israel is my first born son". . let my son go so that he may worship me.
Jesus, Son of God, like Israel, is faced with three significant temptations:
First, The evil spirit challenges Jesus to turn stones to bread, but Jesus responds with a quotation from Deuteronomy 8:3, "One does not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God." When Israel had wondered in the desert the people had complained to Moses of their hunger. This hunger was seen as a testing that they must trust God. But the people were rebellious and disobedient, and cantankerous. They did not pass the test.
The Second temptation, Satan takes Jesus to the holy city (Jerusalem) and places him on the pinnacle of the temple and dares him to jump, quoting Psalm 91:11-12 "He will command his angels concerning you." and "On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone." Jesus quotes again a passage from Deut. 6:16, "Do not put the Lord your God to the test, as you did at Massah." It refers to another time when Israel tested God, and complained and distrusted God's protection of them. Here, Jesus recognizes it is he who is being tested, and it is inappropriate for him to test God. He remains obedient and faithful.
The third temptation, when the Devil takes Jesus up on a high mountain. High Mountains are always a special place of revelation for Matthew, like the Transfiguration Story of last week. Satan offers all the kingdoms of the world for but one moment of worship and adoration. Again Jesus responds from Deuternonomy 6:13: "Have reverence for the Lord your God, worship only him, and make your promises in his name alone." Israel, wondering in the desert, had failed to be faithful and obedient. But Jesus passes the test, and is true to his Sonship.
In Matthew's account of Jesus' temptation, I believe that Matthew is making two important points to his readers. The Israelites in their humanness failed to be obedient and trusting. Adam and Eve, Genesis’ symbol of all men and women, from the beginning had failed to be obedient, and succumbed to the temptation to eat from the forbidden tree. The world needed a messianic figure, a person of great obedience and faith to be the savior and salvation for God's people. They needed one who could master the evil spirits, deny them, and influences of the world. Matthew wants his readers to know that this Jesus was tempted as they were all the sons and daughters of God. He was confronted by the same powers that they had known and knew. But Jesus was faithful and obedient to this point. He alone passed the testing and maintained the title, Son of God, in the most profound sense. He does not succumb to temptations to be a big shot, to be magical, and a triumphant militant leader. His power is in his faithful obedience to God the Father. He obeys and accepts the word and teaching of God. And the good spirits, the angels, came and ministered to him.
A second important point is that Jesus' forty days in the wilderness, after his baptism, is a time of discernment. It is a time of reflection on the kind of life he will lead, in his case, what will be the shape of his messiahship. There are those who dare to say that it is plausible that Jesus could have become the Emperor of Rome. That thought might be presuming too much. But it is likely that Jesus could have become another militant messianic leader. The social and political situation in the time was ripe for that. Instead he leaves the wilderness prepared to take on the role of a suffering servant, as opposed to one to be served. He associates with the poor and raises them up, and gives them a profound sense of esteem, healing, and assurance that God is with them, that they are loved and adored by the creator. He conveys the presence of God in their lives. In their fallen nature he assures that God will reconcile and redeem and take them back. That spirited and spiritual anointed one will not merely last for a political seasons, or dynasty, but will last forever.
As we enter into the Lenten Season, and into this story, we might become aware of the various temptations and the failings of our own lives. Whether we believe in “evil spirits” or not, there are times when people will say, “I don’t know what got into me.” A parent says to a misbehaving child, “What in the world has gotten into you?” As the comedian Flip Wilson’s comic caricature Geraldine says, “The devil made me do it?” And we do laugh at and identify with Geraldine. The fact of the matter is that we are all tempted, and temptations in our culture are everywhere. You can call them evil spirits or not, but temptations are there, and we need to take full responsibility for our actions.
Today people are more inclined to take more responsibility for their actions. We laugh at Flip Wilson's Geraldine whose comic line that made us laugh was, "The Devil made me do it." While we may not believe in spirits like in Jesus' time, there may well be feelings and remembrances of times when we acted in such ways that were out of character. While we can be good people, there are other times when we are not. There are temptations to which we succumb. Some are easily tempted by sexual persuasions. Some are given to dishonesty and cheating. Some cannot give up their racial prejudices and the inappropriate character that is passed on from generation to generation. Some are caught up in the various things we will confess in the Litany of Penitence we will be using later in the service today.
We truly need the salvation and the grace, the hand of God, which is extended to us in Christ to lift of from the mire of our lives. For Christ Jesus alone was in the mire too and was the way of hope and salvation for us. Angels, the good spirits came and ministered to him.
This is a season for our reflection and discerning what kind of life we shall I live. What are my spiritual goals? How am I going to express my faithful obedience to God though the kind of life I shall live? What kind of a new Son or Daughter of God shall I become as we make our way with Christ Jesus to Easter together? There were temptations for Adam and Eve. There were temptations for the people of Israel. There were bad times of not living up to what was expected. But God has not left us alone. He has come among us to lead and guide us. To take the hand of Christ who is our Lord and our hope.
Lent 1 – reworked from Lent 1A, 1999
May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)
SEASON: Lent 1 – reworked from Lent 1A, 1999
PROPER: A
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: February 17, 2002
TEXT: Matthew 4:1-11 - The Temptation of Christ Jesus
Jesus said, "Away with you, Satan! for it is written, 'Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.'"
ISSUE: This well crafted story, based on Israel's temptations wandering in the desert reveals the obedience and the true sonship of Jesus. In him and through him, we find our hope. Each of us struggles with our various temptations, shortcomings, and our slips in life. Jesus Christ who also struggled with temptation and the desire to discern who and what his life was about remained obedient and faithful. He is our hope, and the faithful servant who shows us the way to God.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Temptation of Jesus in the wilderness is thought to be a neatly crafted story in Matthew's Gospel. It depicts by and large a truly struggling Jesus. The account is best understood when we keep it in context in terms of when it supposedly happened, and it is also best understood in the context of Hebrew history, and the cultural aspects of the time.
It is very important to know that the Temptation of Jesus immediately follows Matthew's account of Jesus' baptism. John baptizes him. A dove comes down upon him, a spirit lights upon him, and voice from heaven is heard: "This is my own dear Son, with whom I am pleased." What follows is that a "spirit" leads Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted, or tested. He has had a great honor bestowed upon him, God's beloved Son. The testing is to determine if this is a true honor. Is he deserving of the title? Thus, spirits, the Devil, then tests Jesus.
It is important for us to appreciate that in this time the belief in spirits was a part of the culture. Spirits, both good and bad, were believed to be everywhere according to the lore of the time. They were particularly rampant in the wilderness areas. People wore amulets and often painted their doorsteps and window frames blue. Charms were worn to ward off evil and mischievous spirits. This practice was common to the period. However, note that none of the accounts of Jesus' temptation report him to be wearing blue clothing or any kind of protection. He is strictly on his own. Jesus is totally vulnerable to the spirit world.
Jesus goes into the wilderness for a period of forty days and nights. This period of time immediately associates Jesus with Moses and Elijah, highly honored leaders and prophets of Hebrew History. But what's more, and is important to appreciate is that the temptations are also very similar to Israel's wandering in the wilderness after their flight from Egyptian oppression under the leadership of Moses. Jesus is identified as the Son of God, but so had Israel been identified as God’s son. In the book of Exodus 4:22-23, Moses is instructed by God to tell Pharaoh, "Israel is my first born son". . let my son go so that he may worship me.
Jesus, Son of God, like Israel, is faced with three significant temptations:
First, The evil spirit challenges Jesus to turn stones to bread, but Jesus responds with a quotation from Deuteronomy 8:3, "One does not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God." When Israel had wondered in the desert the people had complained to Moses of their hunger. This hunger was seen as a testing that they must trust God. But the people were rebellious and disobedient, and cantankerous. They did not pass the test.
The Second temptation, Satan takes Jesus to the holy city (Jerusalem) and places him on the pinnacle of the temple and dares him to jump, quoting Psalm 91:11-12 "He will command his angels concerning you." and "On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone." Jesus quotes again a passage from Deut. 6:16, "Do not put the Lord your God to the test, as you did at Massah." It refers to another time when Israel tested God, and complained and distrusted God's protection of them. Here, Jesus recognizes it is he who is being tested, and it is inappropriate for him to test God. He remains obedient and faithful.
The third temptation, when the Devil takes Jesus up on a high mountain. High Mountains are always a special place of revelation for Matthew, like the Transfiguration Story of last week. Satan offers all the kingdoms of the world for but one moment of worship and adoration. Again Jesus responds from Deuternonomy 6:13: "Have reverence for the Lord your God, worship only him, and make your promises in his name alone." Israel, wondering in the desert, had failed to be faithful and obedient. But Jesus passes the test, and is true to his Sonship.
In Matthew's account of Jesus' temptation, I believe that Matthew is making two important points to his readers. The Israelites in their humanness failed to be obedient and trusting. Adam and Eve, Genesis’ symbol of all men and women, from the beginning had failed to be obedient, and succumbed to the temptation to eat from the forbidden tree. The world needed a messianic figure, a person of great obedience and faith to be the savior and salvation for God's people. They needed one who could master the evil spirits, deny them, and influences of the world. Matthew wants his readers to know that this Jesus was tempted as they were all the sons and daughters of God. He was confronted by the same powers that they had known and knew. But Jesus was faithful and obedient to this point. He alone passed the testing and maintained the title, Son of God, in the most profound sense. He does not succumb to temptations to be a big shot, to be magical, and a triumphant militant leader. His power is in his faithful obedience to God the Father. He obeys and accepts the word and teaching of God. And the good spirits, the angels, came and ministered to him.
A second important point is that Jesus' forty days in the wilderness, after his baptism, is a time of discernment. It is a time of reflection on the kind of life he will lead, in his case, what will be the shape of his messiahship. There are those who dare to say that it is plausible that Jesus could have become the Emperor of Rome. That thought might be presuming too much. But it is likely that Jesus could have become another militant messianic leader. The social and political situation in the time was ripe for that. Instead he leaves the wilderness prepared to take on the role of a suffering servant, as opposed to one to be served. He associates with the poor and raises them up, and gives them a profound sense of esteem, healing, and assurance that God is with them, that they are loved and adored by the creator. He conveys the presence of God in their lives. In their fallen nature he assures that God will reconcile and redeem and take them back. That spirited and spiritual anointed one will not merely last for a political seasons, or dynasty, but will last forever.
As we enter into the Lenten Season, and into this story, we might become aware of the various temptations and the failings of our own lives. Sometimes we pass, and many times we fail. Whether we believe in “evil spirits” or not, there are times when people will say, “I don’t know what got into me.” A parent says to a misbehaving child, “What in the world has gotten into you?” As the comedian Flip Wilson’s comic caricature Geraldine says, “The devil made me do it?” And we do laugh at and identify with Geraldine. The fact of the matter is that we are all tempted, and temptations in our culture are everywhere. You can call them evil spirits or not, but temptations are there, and we need to take full responsibility for our actions. We have clearly seen in recent years how political and public figures in positions of power are tempted to misuse that power, and see themselves as above the law.
In every aspect of our lives we see the temptations that come to politicians who are inclined to be come more like rulers above the law and susceptible to bribes, and serving themselves rather than the common good. Popular sports figures and entertainers, and popular youth idols in our culture have seriously disappointed the public over and over again. Even religious leaders have been disappointing through unbecoming behavior. We know in our hearts that the temptations are there to make us less than we could be. We are surrounded in our culture by greed and materialism, by sexual promiscuity and the dishonoring of the preciousness of bodily humanness. Promiscuity is rampant, and the popular culture tells us its fun. Many of the TV sitcoms, and crude talk shows, that that promote sexual promiscuity rarely if ever reveal the pain and suffering that comes from AIDS, syphilis, gonorrhea, and herpes viruses. But sex in our culture is as promoted as new cars, and women as erotic furniture have often been used to help sell them, and many other things. The church’s stance and concern with human sexuality is often seen as stuffy, puritan, and out of date. When, in fact, the church is truly concerned for the health and welfare, the safety of human beings, and a moral stance that is wholesome.
Sex is hardly the one and only temptation in our culture. The Enron scandal, the All First Bank scandal, and so many others are related to greed and power. There is the temptation to keep filling ourselves full of too much. Many of us are just too fat and too wasteful. The God that calls us to health, healing, servanthood, concern for one another, and who calls us into his healing love and peace is often forgotten. The longest of all the commandments, the one given the most explanation in the Hebrew Scriptures, is the law to keep Holy the Sabbath, to stay peacefully in touch with God who is the source of all that is good, lovely, and of good report, that is strengthening and supportive to our defense against temptations of this world.
We truly need the salvation and the grace, the hand of God, which is extended to us in Christ to lift of from the mire of our lives. For Christ Jesus alone was in the mire too and was the way of hope and salvation for us. Angels, the good spirits came and ministered to him.
This is a season for our reflection and discerning what kind of life we shall I live. What are my spiritual goals? How am I going to express my faithful obedience to God though the kind of life I shall live? What kind of a new Son or Daughter of God shall I become as we make our way with Christ Jesus to Easter together? There were temptations for Adam and Eve. There were temptations for the people of Israel. There were bad times of not living up to what was expected. But God has not left us alone. He has come among us to lead and guide us. Take the hand of Christ who is our Lord and our hope, our forgiveness, and the one who helps us dance and rejoice with the angels.
SEASON: Lent 1 – reworked from Lent 1A, 1999
PROPER: A
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: February 17, 2002
TEXT: Matthew 4:1-11 - The Temptation of Christ Jesus
Jesus said, "Away with you, Satan! for it is written, 'Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.'"
ISSUE: This well crafted story, based on Israel's temptations wandering in the desert reveals the obedience and the true sonship of Jesus. In him and through him, we find our hope. Each of us struggles with our various temptations, shortcomings, and our slips in life. Jesus Christ who also struggled with temptation and the desire to discern who and what his life was about remained obedient and faithful. He is our hope, and the faithful servant who shows us the way to God.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Temptation of Jesus in the wilderness is thought to be a neatly crafted story in Matthew's Gospel. It depicts by and large a truly struggling Jesus. The account is best understood when we keep it in context in terms of when it supposedly happened, and it is also best understood in the context of Hebrew history, and the cultural aspects of the time.
It is very important to know that the Temptation of Jesus immediately follows Matthew's account of Jesus' baptism. John baptizes him. A dove comes down upon him, a spirit lights upon him, and voice from heaven is heard: "This is my own dear Son, with whom I am pleased." What follows is that a "spirit" leads Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted, or tested. He has had a great honor bestowed upon him, God's beloved Son. The testing is to determine if this is a true honor. Is he deserving of the title? Thus, spirits, the Devil, then tests Jesus.
It is important for us to appreciate that in this time the belief in spirits was a part of the culture. Spirits, both good and bad, were believed to be everywhere according to the lore of the time. They were particularly rampant in the wilderness areas. People wore amulets and often painted their doorsteps and window frames blue. Charms were worn to ward off evil and mischievous spirits. This practice was common to the period. However, note that none of the accounts of Jesus' temptation report him to be wearing blue clothing or any kind of protection. He is strictly on his own. Jesus is totally vulnerable to the spirit world.
Jesus goes into the wilderness for a period of forty days and nights. This period of time immediately associates Jesus with Moses and Elijah, highly honored leaders and prophets of Hebrew History. But what's more, and is important to appreciate is that the temptations are also very similar to Israel's wandering in the wilderness after their flight from Egyptian oppression under the leadership of Moses. Jesus is identified as the Son of God, but so had Israel been identified as God’s son. In the book of Exodus 4:22-23, Moses is instructed by God to tell Pharaoh, "Israel is my first born son". . let my son go so that he may worship me.
Jesus, Son of God, like Israel, is faced with three significant temptations:
First, The evil spirit challenges Jesus to turn stones to bread, but Jesus responds with a quotation from Deuteronomy 8:3, "One does not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God." When Israel had wondered in the desert the people had complained to Moses of their hunger. This hunger was seen as a testing that they must trust God. But the people were rebellious and disobedient, and cantankerous. They did not pass the test.
The Second temptation, Satan takes Jesus to the holy city (Jerusalem) and places him on the pinnacle of the temple and dares him to jump, quoting Psalm 91:11-12 "He will command his angels concerning you." and "On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone." Jesus quotes again a passage from Deut. 6:16, "Do not put the Lord your God to the test, as you did at Massah." It refers to another time when Israel tested God, and complained and distrusted God's protection of them. Here, Jesus recognizes it is he who is being tested, and it is inappropriate for him to test God. He remains obedient and faithful.
The third temptation, when the Devil takes Jesus up on a high mountain. High Mountains are always a special place of revelation for Matthew, like the Transfiguration Story of last week. Satan offers all the kingdoms of the world for but one moment of worship and adoration. Again Jesus responds from Deuternonomy 6:13: "Have reverence for the Lord your God, worship only him, and make your promises in his name alone." Israel, wondering in the desert, had failed to be faithful and obedient. But Jesus passes the test, and is true to his Sonship.
In Matthew's account of Jesus' temptation, I believe that Matthew is making two important points to his readers. The Israelites in their humanness failed to be obedient and trusting. Adam and Eve, Genesis’ symbol of all men and women, from the beginning had failed to be obedient, and succumbed to the temptation to eat from the forbidden tree. The world needed a messianic figure, a person of great obedience and faith to be the savior and salvation for God's people. They needed one who could master the evil spirits, deny them, and influences of the world. Matthew wants his readers to know that this Jesus was tempted as they were all the sons and daughters of God. He was confronted by the same powers that they had known and knew. But Jesus was faithful and obedient to this point. He alone passed the testing and maintained the title, Son of God, in the most profound sense. He does not succumb to temptations to be a big shot, to be magical, and a triumphant militant leader. His power is in his faithful obedience to God the Father. He obeys and accepts the word and teaching of God. And the good spirits, the angels, came and ministered to him.
A second important point is that Jesus' forty days in the wilderness, after his baptism, is a time of discernment. It is a time of reflection on the kind of life he will lead, in his case, what will be the shape of his messiahship. There are those who dare to say that it is plausible that Jesus could have become the Emperor of Rome. That thought might be presuming too much. But it is likely that Jesus could have become another militant messianic leader. The social and political situation in the time was ripe for that. Instead he leaves the wilderness prepared to take on the role of a suffering servant, as opposed to one to be served. He associates with the poor and raises them up, and gives them a profound sense of esteem, healing, and assurance that God is with them, that they are loved and adored by the creator. He conveys the presence of God in their lives. In their fallen nature he assures that God will reconcile and redeem and take them back. That spirited and spiritual anointed one will not merely last for a political seasons, or dynasty, but will last forever.
As we enter into the Lenten Season, and into this story, we might become aware of the various temptations and the failings of our own lives. Sometimes we pass, and many times we fail. Whether we believe in “evil spirits” or not, there are times when people will say, “I don’t know what got into me.” A parent says to a misbehaving child, “What in the world has gotten into you?” As the comedian Flip Wilson’s comic caricature Geraldine says, “The devil made me do it?” And we do laugh at and identify with Geraldine. The fact of the matter is that we are all tempted, and temptations in our culture are everywhere. You can call them evil spirits or not, but temptations are there, and we need to take full responsibility for our actions. We have clearly seen in recent years how political and public figures in positions of power are tempted to misuse that power, and see themselves as above the law.
In every aspect of our lives we see the temptations that come to politicians who are inclined to be come more like rulers above the law and susceptible to bribes, and serving themselves rather than the common good. Popular sports figures and entertainers, and popular youth idols in our culture have seriously disappointed the public over and over again. Even religious leaders have been disappointing through unbecoming behavior. We know in our hearts that the temptations are there to make us less than we could be. We are surrounded in our culture by greed and materialism, by sexual promiscuity and the dishonoring of the preciousness of bodily humanness. Promiscuity is rampant, and the popular culture tells us its fun. Many of the TV sitcoms, and crude talk shows, that that promote sexual promiscuity rarely if ever reveal the pain and suffering that comes from AIDS, syphilis, gonorrhea, and herpes viruses. But sex in our culture is as promoted as new cars, and women as erotic furniture have often been used to help sell them, and many other things. The church’s stance and concern with human sexuality is often seen as stuffy, puritan, and out of date. When, in fact, the church is truly concerned for the health and welfare, the safety of human beings, and a moral stance that is wholesome.
Sex is hardly the one and only temptation in our culture. The Enron scandal, the All First Bank scandal, and so many others are related to greed and power. There is the temptation to keep filling ourselves full of too much. Many of us are just too fat and too wasteful. The God that calls us to health, healing, servanthood, concern for one another, and who calls us into his healing love and peace is often forgotten. The longest of all the commandments, the one given the most explanation in the Hebrew Scriptures, is the law to keep Holy the Sabbath, to stay peacefully in touch with God who is the source of all that is good, lovely, and of good report, that is strengthening and supportive to our defense against temptations of this world.
We truly need the salvation and the grace, the hand of God, which is extended to us in Christ to lift of from the mire of our lives. For Christ Jesus alone was in the mire too and was the way of hope and salvation for us. Angels, the good spirits came and ministered to him.
This is a season for our reflection and discerning what kind of life we shall I live. What are my spiritual goals? How am I going to express my faithful obedience to God though the kind of life I shall live? What kind of a new Son or Daughter of God shall I become as we make our way with Christ Jesus to Easter together? There were temptations for Adam and Eve. There were temptations for the people of Israel. There were bad times of not living up to what was expected. But God has not left us alone. He has come among us to lead and guide us. Take the hand of Christ who is our Lord and our hope, our forgiveness, and the one who helps us dance and rejoice with the angels.
Wednesday, February 13, 2002
Lent 4
May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)
SEASON: Lent 4
PROPER: A
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: February 13,2002
TEXT: John 9:1-38 – “Lord, I believe.” And he worshiped him.
ISSUE: The most important thing to see in this passage is God’s grace, God’s unwarranted forgiving and recreating love. It gives to us the ability to have self-esteem, and to see effectively the human need around us. It enables us to see that without God’s redeeming love in Jesus Christ we remain blind living in darkness of past misinterpretations and lack of understanding about the love of God..
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The long passage concerned with the healing of the blind man reveals a period of great struggle. It ends concerned with the question of who Jesus really is. The passage is almost like a court scene where Jesus is on trial.
There is a great deal of argument in the passage related to the healing of the blind man. There is argument over whether or not the community has the identity right of the blind man. Was this man in fact blind, or was it someone else. It’s hard to prove identity in a world where there is no social security numbers, or photo ID’s. There is argument with the blind man’s parents. Is he really their son? If he is, was he really blind from birth? Blindness was a curse, and blind people were a part of the expendable people in this society. He must be a sinner, or if born blind, his parents may have sinned to cause his blindness.
If this man is truly the man born blind, and he is cured, then who is Jesus? Is he some demon come to claim his own cursed people, or is he of God. If he is of God, when then would he cure a blind man on the Sabbath, which was against God’s law? There is so much struggle in this passage, tension, uncertainty, and yet hope that God has in Christ come into the world to bring a new enlightenment.
John’s gospel was written in a time of great tension and anxiety within the early church. The disciples and those who had know Jesus had died off by the time of his writing this account of the Gospel. There was tension and anxiety. Christian believers were being expelled from the synagogues. Maintaining the importance and the identity of who Jesus was and allegiance to him for the early church was a struggle in the midst of persecution from both the Judeans and the Romans.
It is a significant passage of struggle, but at the same time a passage of hope and enlightenment, and a call to faithfulness. Jesus is a folk healer who sees a blind man with all of the degradation that went with the disease. He dares to touch and deal the man, unlike the regular physicians of the time. Jesus takes earth, and mixes it with his spittle. Spit was believed to have curative power. Didn’t your mother ever spit on her hand or handkerchief and wife a scratch on you finger, and tell you it would be okay. And it was! Jesus makes a mud pack for the man’s eyes, and sends him to wash in the pool of Siloam, which means sent. (Notice the word sent. It is used throughout the Gospel of John in a significant way, which seeks to tell that God sends Jesus to the world, and Jesus is sending others as well to the world for healing. It is a motif throughout the Gospel of John.) But what we are seeing in this passage is a man who is blind, an expendable sinner, who be no effort of his own, is becoming a new creation. Here comes the creation of a new man who is re-shaped and re-formed out of the clay, the spittle of God, and scooped up out of the water with the ability to be enlightened and who can stand in the light and the love of God. It is unearned merciful grace that is granted through Jesus Christ the Lord. Can it be so? Is there such grace, forgiveness, and love possible from God? Hence, all the tension and the argument, and all of the anxiety! Jesus returns to the man born blind who is driven out by the Judeans from the synagogue, and asks:
“Do you believe in the son of Man?”
The blind man answers, “And who is he, sir? Tell me, so that I may believe in him.”
Jesus says, “You have seen him, and the one speaking with you is he.”
“Lord, I believe. And he worshiped him.”
God’s bounteous grace is given, and a sinner man responds in unrelenting faithfulness.
What is given to the blind man in this story? He is made a new creation of God’s. He stands in the light of God. He is given a whole new sense of self-esteem as a forgiven and loved child of God. He is given the insight to see the pain and the suffering of others around him, and he is sent with Christ to bring healing, hope, love, forgiveness, and enlightenment to the world.
See clearly what is happening in this story. Those who are thought to clearly see, the Judeans, are really quite blind to the loving grace that has come among them. Those that were thought to be able to see are spiritually blind, and the one that was blind through his faith is the one who truly sees the grace of God come to him in Jesus Christ. Therein lies the message of this Gospel reading.
I’ve just returned from a trip flying across the country. When you look down from 39,000 feet, the earth looks scored by farmlands, and you can make out little towns and villages. You can make out snowy mountains, and if you’re lucky you might even see the mighty Mississippi River dividing the country. But from that height and distance, what you don’t see is people and moving vehicles. The country can look empty. It is only when we get back down to earth that we see the real beauty of this earth: it’s people and children, the colors of the flowers and loveliness of the trees and the real splendor of magnificent snow capped mountains, and the shining waves of the seas. It is only then you know there are pain and suffering, and beauty and hope in people’s lives. We have to be closer to one another and to this earth to really see well.
We must stay close to God in and through the Spirit of God and Jesus Christ. We have to get close to Muslims and Jews, to blacks and Hispanics, to people of other races, to the poor and needy to really see and too understand what is going on with them in their lives, and to see their pain and suffering as well as their joys and who they really are as children of God. The message and the power of God in this passage tells us of God’s grace and his desire to open the eyes of the blind that God’s love and glory may be seen without prejudice and misunderstanding, and without hardness of heart. God has come close to us in Jesus so that we may see his love and grace, and to send us to see one another in that same spirit of insightful love and grace.
SEASON: Lent 4
PROPER: A
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: February 13,2002
TEXT: John 9:1-38 – “Lord, I believe.” And he worshiped him.
ISSUE: The most important thing to see in this passage is God’s grace, God’s unwarranted forgiving and recreating love. It gives to us the ability to have self-esteem, and to see effectively the human need around us. It enables us to see that without God’s redeeming love in Jesus Christ we remain blind living in darkness of past misinterpretations and lack of understanding about the love of God..
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The long passage concerned with the healing of the blind man reveals a period of great struggle. It ends concerned with the question of who Jesus really is. The passage is almost like a court scene where Jesus is on trial.
There is a great deal of argument in the passage related to the healing of the blind man. There is argument over whether or not the community has the identity right of the blind man. Was this man in fact blind, or was it someone else. It’s hard to prove identity in a world where there is no social security numbers, or photo ID’s. There is argument with the blind man’s parents. Is he really their son? If he is, was he really blind from birth? Blindness was a curse, and blind people were a part of the expendable people in this society. He must be a sinner, or if born blind, his parents may have sinned to cause his blindness.
If this man is truly the man born blind, and he is cured, then who is Jesus? Is he some demon come to claim his own cursed people, or is he of God. If he is of God, when then would he cure a blind man on the Sabbath, which was against God’s law? There is so much struggle in this passage, tension, uncertainty, and yet hope that God has in Christ come into the world to bring a new enlightenment.
John’s gospel was written in a time of great tension and anxiety within the early church. The disciples and those who had know Jesus had died off by the time of his writing this account of the Gospel. There was tension and anxiety. Christian believers were being expelled from the synagogues. Maintaining the importance and the identity of who Jesus was and allegiance to him for the early church was a struggle in the midst of persecution from both the Judeans and the Romans.
It is a significant passage of struggle, but at the same time a passage of hope and enlightenment, and a call to faithfulness. Jesus is a folk healer who sees a blind man with all of the degradation that went with the disease. He dares to touch and deal the man, unlike the regular physicians of the time. Jesus takes earth, and mixes it with his spittle. Spit was believed to have curative power. Didn’t your mother ever spit on her hand or handkerchief and wife a scratch on you finger, and tell you it would be okay. And it was! Jesus makes a mud pack for the man’s eyes, and sends him to wash in the pool of Siloam, which means sent. (Notice the word sent. It is used throughout the Gospel of John in a significant way, which seeks to tell that God sends Jesus to the world, and Jesus is sending others as well to the world for healing. It is a motif throughout the Gospel of John.) But what we are seeing in this passage is a man who is blind, an expendable sinner, who be no effort of his own, is becoming a new creation. Here comes the creation of a new man who is re-shaped and re-formed out of the clay, the spittle of God, and scooped up out of the water with the ability to be enlightened and who can stand in the light and the love of God. It is unearned merciful grace that is granted through Jesus Christ the Lord. Can it be so? Is there such grace, forgiveness, and love possible from God? Hence, all the tension and the argument, and all of the anxiety! Jesus returns to the man born blind who is driven out by the Judeans from the synagogue, and asks:
“Do you believe in the son of Man?”
The blind man answers, “And who is he, sir? Tell me, so that I may believe in him.”
Jesus says, “You have seen him, and the one speaking with you is he.”
“Lord, I believe. And he worshiped him.”
God’s bounteous grace is given, and a sinner man responds in unrelenting faithfulness.
What is given to the blind man in this story? He is made a new creation of God’s. He stands in the light of God. He is given a whole new sense of self-esteem as a forgiven and loved child of God. He is given the insight to see the pain and the suffering of others around him, and he is sent with Christ to bring healing, hope, love, forgiveness, and enlightenment to the world.
See clearly what is happening in this story. Those who are thought to clearly see, the Judeans, are really quite blind to the loving grace that has come among them. Those that were thought to be able to see are spiritually blind, and the one that was blind through his faith is the one who truly sees the grace of God come to him in Jesus Christ. Therein lies the message of this Gospel reading.
I’ve just returned from a trip flying across the country. When you look down from 39,000 feet, the earth looks scored by farmlands, and you can make out little towns and villages. You can make out snowy mountains, and if you’re lucky you might even see the mighty Mississippi River dividing the country. But from that height and distance, what you don’t see is people and moving vehicles. The country can look empty. It is only when we get back down to earth that we see the real beauty of this earth: it’s people and children, the colors of the flowers and loveliness of the trees and the real splendor of magnificent snow capped mountains, and the shining waves of the seas. It is only then you know there are pain and suffering, and beauty and hope in people’s lives. We have to be closer to one another and to this earth to really see well.
We must stay close to God in and through the Spirit of God and Jesus Christ. We have to get close to Muslims and Jews, to blacks and Hispanics, to people of other races, to the poor and needy to really see and too understand what is going on with them in their lives, and to see their pain and suffering as well as their joys and who they really are as children of God. The message and the power of God in this passage tells us of God’s grace and his desire to open the eyes of the blind that God’s love and glory may be seen without prejudice and misunderstanding, and without hardness of heart. God has come close to us in Jesus so that we may see his love and grace, and to send us to see one another in that same spirit of insightful love and grace.
Sunday, February 10, 2002
LAST EPIPHANY
May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)
SEASON: LAST EPIPHANY
PROPER: A
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: February 10,2002
TEXT: Matthew 17:1-9 – The Transfiguration of Jesus & The Divine Approval
“And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white. Suddenly there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him. . . . . . . . . While he was still speaking, suddenly a bright cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud a voice said, ‘This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!’”
ISSUE: The Transfiguration of Jesus is a momentous Epiphany of Jesus. Matthew’s account calls for his disciples and all who experience this event to ‘listen to him.’ In the context of Holy Baptism in the Parish, this mysterious event demands that we hold Christ before us at all times as Son of God, and Beloved. It calls us to him as our living Lord to accompany us along our way, and to share in his grace. In this spiritual event we raise our children, and give our selves as an example to the world.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
This Sunday marks the Last Sunday of the Epiphany Season. The Gospel reading tells of a mysterious and remarkable manifestation, or “epiphany” experience of Jesus, referred to as The Transfiguration. The story reveals the divine approval of Jesus by the Father, “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am will pleased; listen to him! This verse is an echo and refrain of the beginning of Jesus’ ministry at his Baptism. This transfiguration announcement comes of Jesus as the Son of God, with whom God is pleased comes in the middle of the Gospel account. It is a moment of transition, between Jesus’ ministry of teaching and healing, and now his readiness to approach Jerusalem where he will ultimately be crucified.
One of the things that Matthew’s gospel account does repeatedly is to associate Jesus with the great leaders of the Hebrew Scriptures. Both Moses, the giver of the Law, and Elijah the great prophet had had significant mountain top experiences. The reading from Exodus 24:12-18, tells of Moses the great Law Giver of Israel ascending Mount Sinai. The mountain was covered with the glory of God for six days. Now six days is not an unimportant number. Six days is reminiscent of the Creation Story, which took six days. Thus, there is the suggestion that God is renewing creation and giving the Ten Commandments to Moses as a new beginning and covenant with his people. While Moses is there the glory of God is revealed in the light of a brilliant devouring fire. Moses himself was said to return to his people with the commandments and with a radiant face.
Matthew tells that after six days, Jesus ascends another mountain, taking some of his disciples, Peter, James and John, just as Moses had taken his assistant Joshua. The six days passing hints again at a new momentous mystical concept of something new and profound about to happen. While they are on the mountaintop, Jesus is transfigured, that is, he becomes dazzling and brilliantly white and overshadowed in the mysterious cloud, as Moses had been. Peter, James, and John stand there in utter awe of what is happening. They see Jesus in mystical splendor. He stands honorably with Moses and Elijah; he stands with the most important and the most honorable. Then comes the voice of God: This is my Son, the Beloved, with him I am well please; listen to him!”
What we have in this mysterious mystical scene is a vision given to the disciples. Peter doesn’t know quite what to do with it. He wants to memorialize the moment, capture it, keep it forever by building a tent, or tabernacle. But, mystical visions and experiences cannot be captured and held. It is a wonderful, profound, but fleeting moment in which the disciples see and realize, and come to internalize the Glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. And when they have finished the marvelous experience, Jesus comes and ‘touches’ them. Through Jesus Christ, his divinity and his humanity, God is reaching out to his disciples and to us touching their humanness and ours, and assures, ‘Don’t be afraid; just keep following even to the cross.” The ministry of sacrifice, compassion, forgiveness and servant-hood begins.
This passage of Jesus’ Transfiguration has at various times been a difficult passage of scripture for me to talk about. It is more than likely a difficult passage fro many of you to appreciate. It is difficult because it is a mystical experience, and Jesus says to his disciples tell no one about the “vision,” until after the Son of man has been raised from the dead. Matthew tells us this is a vision, mystical, as all the dazzling glory and clouds imply. American culture is not comfortable with visions and mystical experiences, also known as alternative forms of consciousness. Most other cultures are far more comfortable with such incidents. We’re more scientific and matter of fact, and skeptical of what is hard to explain, and what is mysterious. People who have visionary experiences, unique dreams in our culture are seen as suspect and peculiar. Our need for proof and explanation is certainly to our advantage. We are not easily duped. However, to completely remove our selves from the mysterious and the visionary and the meaning in some of these experiences may not be to our best advantage either. God and God’s love is awesome; God’s unearned love, we call grace is precious. It is not something of this world that we readily appreciate. Maybe at times we just need to be in touch and allowing the mystery of God to touch us in a new and wonderful way.
I recall as a youngster sitting in a pew, barely able to se over the top of it. There in the front of the church were two candelabras of seven candles on each side of the altar. A gold (brass, really, but I thought it was gold) cross was in the center. Across the altar were the words, “Holy, Holy, Holy.” And above the altar was a stained glass window, which I’d not seen anywhere else, depicting Jesus embracing children and holding one on his lap. The clergy and the choir were all dressed in strange vestments. The music was accompanied by a pipe organ. This place was so very different to a child. It revealed and mysteriously spoke of something wholly other from the world. Yet it was in the world. To a child’s innocence it was so mysterious, visionary. It was as if I were hear what Isaiah had heard in his vision at a time when he enters the Temple of God. (Isaiah 6:1f) – “In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord. He was sitting on his throne, high and exalted, and his robe filled the whole Temple. Around he flaming creatures were standing, each of which had six wings. Each creature covered its face with two wings, and its body with two, and used the other two for flying. They were calling out to each other: ‘Holy, holy, holy! His glory fills the world.’” Isaiah has a unique vision of the presence of God who wants justice, love, and hope for his people, and wanted Isaiah to be his prophet. There are experiences in our lives, if we permit them, to bring the presence of God to us. Are they emotional experiences? Probably, but to be emotional is to be human too.
Some people will claim that a great painting, or a violin concerto “speaks to them.” It gives them goose bumps. Something they can’t explain but reveals a perfection, a wholly otherness that comes through the artist. Art, music, speak beyond words; religious experiences can speak to us too, saying things sometimes that words themselves don’t quite accomplish, and give us a sense of greater wonder, hope, and glory in our world. Jesus on the mountaintop bathes his disciples in enlightenment. It reveals the honorableness of Jesus in the sight of God. It reveals that the human Jesus and his ministry is of God, is from God. Stand in his light and be dazzled by his love and glory.
We can’t always have dazzling experiences. There are the hard facts of life that confront us. For Jesus and his disciples it would be the crucifixion. But they carry on having had the experience to charge them and to give them the hope to face the future. We are now coming up on Lent. What does God expect of us: Do justice, love compassion, and walk humbly with your God. Yes, and be prayerful, know scripture, look and make opportunities to be in union, in the presence of God through meditation, through worship. The world is a tough place. People kill people. People terrorize one another. People rob and cheat and cheat and cheat one another, ie. ENRON employees and Irish Allied Banks can tell us all about that. These are some of the hard harsh realities. We desperately need the visions, the religious experiences, the mystical experiences of God every bit as much as we need and know the harsh facts of life.
May God help us to be bedazzled, and mysteriously aware of his presence and potential for new hope and new creation. May God increase in us a spiritual dimension that breaks through the barriers of a mere materialistic factual understanding of the world, and self-satisfaction, and total unsatisfactory self-reliance. May we see in the humanness of Christ Jesus in his transfiguration on the mountain us the face of God which reveals love and servant-hood, and sacrifice of a Lord who enables us to face the harsh hardness of the world with the conviction of hope. May we be always listening to him, and listening for him.
Today we are also baptizing Morgan Ann. To her parents and to her Godparents may I ask and encourage you to enable this child to grow up in the love of the Lord. You want for her all that she needs, I’m sure. You want her to be educated; to have some semblance of a secure and happy life. But give her a balanced life. Be sure she gets the Christian religious life that she may be well aware that Jesus is Lord. That Jesus Christ is her hope and her strength in life. Let her know and learn his ways and his teachings. Help her through a prayer life, a moral life, and sacramental life to feel and experience the very presence of God through her relationship with Jesus Christ. Let her be exposed to opportunities to know the mysterious and wonder of God’s creation and his longing to have her as his own. May she, with Christ, be his Beloved, with whom God is well pleased. Teach her to “Listen to him; to listen for him.”
SEASON: LAST EPIPHANY
PROPER: A
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: February 10,2002
TEXT: Matthew 17:1-9 – The Transfiguration of Jesus & The Divine Approval
“And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white. Suddenly there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him. . . . . . . . . While he was still speaking, suddenly a bright cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud a voice said, ‘This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!’”
ISSUE: The Transfiguration of Jesus is a momentous Epiphany of Jesus. Matthew’s account calls for his disciples and all who experience this event to ‘listen to him.’ In the context of Holy Baptism in the Parish, this mysterious event demands that we hold Christ before us at all times as Son of God, and Beloved. It calls us to him as our living Lord to accompany us along our way, and to share in his grace. In this spiritual event we raise our children, and give our selves as an example to the world.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
This Sunday marks the Last Sunday of the Epiphany Season. The Gospel reading tells of a mysterious and remarkable manifestation, or “epiphany” experience of Jesus, referred to as The Transfiguration. The story reveals the divine approval of Jesus by the Father, “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am will pleased; listen to him! This verse is an echo and refrain of the beginning of Jesus’ ministry at his Baptism. This transfiguration announcement comes of Jesus as the Son of God, with whom God is pleased comes in the middle of the Gospel account. It is a moment of transition, between Jesus’ ministry of teaching and healing, and now his readiness to approach Jerusalem where he will ultimately be crucified.
One of the things that Matthew’s gospel account does repeatedly is to associate Jesus with the great leaders of the Hebrew Scriptures. Both Moses, the giver of the Law, and Elijah the great prophet had had significant mountain top experiences. The reading from Exodus 24:12-18, tells of Moses the great Law Giver of Israel ascending Mount Sinai. The mountain was covered with the glory of God for six days. Now six days is not an unimportant number. Six days is reminiscent of the Creation Story, which took six days. Thus, there is the suggestion that God is renewing creation and giving the Ten Commandments to Moses as a new beginning and covenant with his people. While Moses is there the glory of God is revealed in the light of a brilliant devouring fire. Moses himself was said to return to his people with the commandments and with a radiant face.
Matthew tells that after six days, Jesus ascends another mountain, taking some of his disciples, Peter, James and John, just as Moses had taken his assistant Joshua. The six days passing hints again at a new momentous mystical concept of something new and profound about to happen. While they are on the mountaintop, Jesus is transfigured, that is, he becomes dazzling and brilliantly white and overshadowed in the mysterious cloud, as Moses had been. Peter, James, and John stand there in utter awe of what is happening. They see Jesus in mystical splendor. He stands honorably with Moses and Elijah; he stands with the most important and the most honorable. Then comes the voice of God: This is my Son, the Beloved, with him I am well please; listen to him!”
What we have in this mysterious mystical scene is a vision given to the disciples. Peter doesn’t know quite what to do with it. He wants to memorialize the moment, capture it, keep it forever by building a tent, or tabernacle. But, mystical visions and experiences cannot be captured and held. It is a wonderful, profound, but fleeting moment in which the disciples see and realize, and come to internalize the Glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. And when they have finished the marvelous experience, Jesus comes and ‘touches’ them. Through Jesus Christ, his divinity and his humanity, God is reaching out to his disciples and to us touching their humanness and ours, and assures, ‘Don’t be afraid; just keep following even to the cross.” The ministry of sacrifice, compassion, forgiveness and servant-hood begins.
This passage of Jesus’ Transfiguration has at various times been a difficult passage of scripture for me to talk about. It is more than likely a difficult passage fro many of you to appreciate. It is difficult because it is a mystical experience, and Jesus says to his disciples tell no one about the “vision,” until after the Son of man has been raised from the dead. Matthew tells us this is a vision, mystical, as all the dazzling glory and clouds imply. American culture is not comfortable with visions and mystical experiences, also known as alternative forms of consciousness. Most other cultures are far more comfortable with such incidents. We’re more scientific and matter of fact, and skeptical of what is hard to explain, and what is mysterious. People who have visionary experiences, unique dreams in our culture are seen as suspect and peculiar. Our need for proof and explanation is certainly to our advantage. We are not easily duped. However, to completely remove our selves from the mysterious and the visionary and the meaning in some of these experiences may not be to our best advantage either. God and God’s love is awesome; God’s unearned love, we call grace is precious. It is not something of this world that we readily appreciate. Maybe at times we just need to be in touch and allowing the mystery of God to touch us in a new and wonderful way.
I recall as a youngster sitting in a pew, barely able to se over the top of it. There in the front of the church were two candelabras of seven candles on each side of the altar. A gold (brass, really, but I thought it was gold) cross was in the center. Across the altar were the words, “Holy, Holy, Holy.” And above the altar was a stained glass window, which I’d not seen anywhere else, depicting Jesus embracing children and holding one on his lap. The clergy and the choir were all dressed in strange vestments. The music was accompanied by a pipe organ. This place was so very different to a child. It revealed and mysteriously spoke of something wholly other from the world. Yet it was in the world. To a child’s innocence it was so mysterious, visionary. It was as if I were hear what Isaiah had heard in his vision at a time when he enters the Temple of God. (Isaiah 6:1f) – “In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord. He was sitting on his throne, high and exalted, and his robe filled the whole Temple. Around he flaming creatures were standing, each of which had six wings. Each creature covered its face with two wings, and its body with two, and used the other two for flying. They were calling out to each other: ‘Holy, holy, holy! His glory fills the world.’” Isaiah has a unique vision of the presence of God who wants justice, love, and hope for his people, and wanted Isaiah to be his prophet. There are experiences in our lives, if we permit them, to bring the presence of God to us. Are they emotional experiences? Probably, but to be emotional is to be human too.
Some people will claim that a great painting, or a violin concerto “speaks to them.” It gives them goose bumps. Something they can’t explain but reveals a perfection, a wholly otherness that comes through the artist. Art, music, speak beyond words; religious experiences can speak to us too, saying things sometimes that words themselves don’t quite accomplish, and give us a sense of greater wonder, hope, and glory in our world. Jesus on the mountaintop bathes his disciples in enlightenment. It reveals the honorableness of Jesus in the sight of God. It reveals that the human Jesus and his ministry is of God, is from God. Stand in his light and be dazzled by his love and glory.
We can’t always have dazzling experiences. There are the hard facts of life that confront us. For Jesus and his disciples it would be the crucifixion. But they carry on having had the experience to charge them and to give them the hope to face the future. We are now coming up on Lent. What does God expect of us: Do justice, love compassion, and walk humbly with your God. Yes, and be prayerful, know scripture, look and make opportunities to be in union, in the presence of God through meditation, through worship. The world is a tough place. People kill people. People terrorize one another. People rob and cheat and cheat and cheat one another, ie. ENRON employees and Irish Allied Banks can tell us all about that. These are some of the hard harsh realities. We desperately need the visions, the religious experiences, the mystical experiences of God every bit as much as we need and know the harsh facts of life.
May God help us to be bedazzled, and mysteriously aware of his presence and potential for new hope and new creation. May God increase in us a spiritual dimension that breaks through the barriers of a mere materialistic factual understanding of the world, and self-satisfaction, and total unsatisfactory self-reliance. May we see in the humanness of Christ Jesus in his transfiguration on the mountain us the face of God which reveals love and servant-hood, and sacrifice of a Lord who enables us to face the harsh hardness of the world with the conviction of hope. May we be always listening to him, and listening for him.
Today we are also baptizing Morgan Ann. To her parents and to her Godparents may I ask and encourage you to enable this child to grow up in the love of the Lord. You want for her all that she needs, I’m sure. You want her to be educated; to have some semblance of a secure and happy life. But give her a balanced life. Be sure she gets the Christian religious life that she may be well aware that Jesus is Lord. That Jesus Christ is her hope and her strength in life. Let her know and learn his ways and his teachings. Help her through a prayer life, a moral life, and sacramental life to feel and experience the very presence of God through her relationship with Jesus Christ. Let her be exposed to opportunities to know the mysterious and wonder of God’s creation and his longing to have her as his own. May she, with Christ, be his Beloved, with whom God is well pleased. Teach her to “Listen to him; to listen for him.”
Sunday, February 3, 2002
EPIPHANY 4
May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)
SEASON: EPIPHANY 4
PROPER: A
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: February 3, 2002
TEXT: The Beatitudes of Jesus: Matthew 5:1-12 “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.’”
Micah 6:1-8 – He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?
I Corinthians 1:18-31 – But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are, so that no one might boast in the presence of God. He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus who became for us wisdom from God.
ISSUE: The readings for this day are instructions for the people of God, and more particularly The Beatitudes of Jesus are instructions to his disciples and close followers. Committed Christians are called upon to understand what it is that God truly honors and blesses. We need to be aware of that honor as we attempt to discover our ministries and make our witness to our Lord. The honor of our Lord is quite different from what the world honors.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Last weeks Gospel reading told of Jesus’ selection of some of his disciples, more particularly the fishermen: Simon (Peter) and Andrew, James and John. The time was right for them to begin following Jesus and being a part of his ministry that would involve teaching and healing, and certainly his comments and grievances against a world that was often unfair and unjust, and which stole dignity from human beings.
The Gospel reading for today from Matthew is essentially a training period or training session for the disciples and close followers Jesus. After the selection of disciples, Jesus took them with him and began his ministry of healing and teaching. As the crowds increased, we are told that Jesus took his own close followers away from the crowds up on a mountain. Matthew always likes to associate Jesus with Hebrew scripture where important events often took place on mountains, as for instance the giving of the Ten Commandments to Moses, and Elijah’s Mt. Carmel experience of setting the sacrifice to God on fire by soaking the wood with water. The mountain experience is associating Jesus with some of Israel’s most important leaders. (Luke’s version of the Beatitudes of Jesus is taught on a plain.) In this quiet away from it all session, Jesus is taking his disciples aside for some instruction.
Rabbi teachers of this period often took their disciples aside and a part of their style was to try to summarize their teachings and God’s laws. For instance, Jesus summarizes the Law of God on one occasion by saying: ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, your soul, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the rest of the laws and prophetic teaching.’ You get another instance of this summarization in the lesson from the Prophet Micah. Micah poses the question to his listeners: ‘What is it that God really wants? “O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”’ Which is, I am told, one of the most quoted passages from the Hebrew Scriptures, and quite consistent with the teachings of Jesus in his Beatitudes.
In the 5th, 6th, and 7th Chapters of Matthew, you have a picture of Jesus summarizing, condensing, and using images to teach his disciples what his ministry is about, and what it is that God demands. Here on the mountain, the inner group is getting the Word. This teaching was heavy stuff. It was a calling of the disciples like Micah into a covenant, not a contract. A contract can be broken, but a covenant, like a marriage is something you keep forever. Now Jesus addresses his disciples. The first part of his teaching is the Beatitudes, or also known as the Sermon on the Mount.
Get the pictures straight. Jesus gathers his closest disciples to him on the mountain after having been with the larger crowd. In essence he is saying, what is the most important basic value in life? And the basic important value of the time was a person’s honor. In much of the Middle Eastern culture it still is. Well says Jesus let me tell you what God thinks is real honor. Here it comes again, Jesus’ reversal of what the world thinks and believes to what is the way of God. I tell you says Jesus that what God honors down there at the bottom of the mountain are those who are the poor in spirit! God seeks to raise up and bless the poor, while the world often condemns the poor, and ignores them, or sees them as the unimportant cast a offs. The world sees the successful and the noble and the hot shots, and pompous religious leaders and politicians as the honorable, but God sees the least as his own, and the most honorable. You disciples, honor them too.
God honors (blesses) those who mourn. God blesses and honors with all his might, the widows and orphans, and those who have had their property confiscated from them. God honors those sensitive to human need. God will comfort them, and you do the same. God is not taken, according to Jesus, with the grandiose and the successful, but honors and gives honor to the merciful and the compassionate and those who long for a true and pure simple relationship with God. God honors and loves those who hunger and thirst for justice, righteousness, and those who are peacemakers, not merely the apathetic lovers of peacefulness. There’s a big difference. God honors those who have been persecuted and beaten down by the injustices of the world.
And to you disciples who will be persecuted in teaching what new honor is, and what is really important in the world, God will hold you in high esteem, as were the prophets of old who were persecuted when they demanded justice for the poor in a world that only held the rich, those of high position, and elegant status to be people of honor.
The Beatitudes, teachings of Jesus, which describe what it is that God really honors and blesses are a spelling out of Micah’s “Do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God.” We also see in the entire ministry of Jesus a man committed to doing justice, who himself honors and had a profound affection for the poor, the disenfranchised, and those held in low esteem by the world. We see in Jesus Christ a modeling of kindness for Jew and Gentile alike in his healing ministry and compassionately restoring those who were cast out by the society. And certainly we see in the Gospel of Jesus a man walking humbly with God, exposing the love of God and God’s forgiveness. He himself in his great humility accepts humbly the cross, and the unjust persecution. Death on a cross in Jesus’ time by the Romans was the most dishonorable thing that could happen to a person. You were tied and left to hang on the cross, naked and exposed before the whole community. You were left there and scorned until you were finally dead from exposure, and in many cases then attacked and eaten by wild dogs, which were unclean animals. St. Paul’s writings made it clear that this treatment of Jesus was scandalous. For the Jews, the end of Jesus’ ministry was considered to be the very last thing expected by most people of the day who could not believe the Messianic hope would end in such worldly dishonor. Greek philosophy and their leaders were all seen as grand heroes, and great victorious warriors. Jesus’ end by world standards was a huge failure, a folly. And yet, what the world believed to be mere foolishness and failure has become what is most honorable: a simple human life given in the pursuit of justice, compassionate and mercifully kind, that walked humbly with God. For thousands of years now, we’ve seen a new value of God proclaimed by Jesus and his discipleship that has been a challenge to the world’s way of popular thinking. Christ’s departing was certainly another great reversal in terms of the way the world thinks.
In modern American Culture today, there is certainly the popular notion that what is the most important thing is to be able to consume as much of the world’s goods as possible. It used to be said that if you don’t work you don’t eat. Even St. Paul’s teachings made this point to lazy Christians. But in our cultural way of doing things the saying now goes: If you don’t eat, you don’t work. If you are not consuming and using up the world’s resources you are going to be laid off. American culture is a consumptive culture today. We are building rather large homes, expensive to maintain, to heat in the winter, and cool in the summer. They seem to be signs of status, success, and honorableness in the community. These are they who have made it.
Yet there are others things that plague our society and our world. Things like not being able to get along well with one another, and isolating ourselves from the community and its needs. We seem to honor past glory without participating fully in what is important human need in the world today. We lose sight of the difference between a contract and a covenant of lasting commitments. The Baptismal Covenant we make and renew when a child or person is baptized has nothing to do with how you or the baptized person is going to make it big in the world. It is about walking humbly with God the Father, the Son, The Holy Spirit. It is about actively continuing in the ways and teachings of the apostles of Jesus Christ and having supper with him, and conversation in prayer. It is about renouncing injustice, prejudice, and hatred. It is about respecting the dignity of every human being, striving for justice (not paying lip service to it), being a peace (maker) among all people. The Baptismal Covenant relationship with Jesus is an ongoing lasting commitment.
There have been many saintly witnesses to this way of Jesus Christ in the past. There have been many in recent years, notably, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Sister Teresa in India. These are folk who understood what God truly honors and blesses, and whose lives have been given in sacrifice. Many mothers and fathers have done the same in more modest ways, but are no less extraordinary witnesses to their family and friends. The church of Jesus Christ, you and me, the members of Jesus in the world have a significant calling and partnership with Christ. We must be so careful that we don’t lose our focus by merely seeing church buildings as an old historic memento of the past to be preserved, rather than a living vital organism that is called upon to bless and honor God’s living world of the present.
The call to sacrificial caring and involvement in the world of today is hard for us, and surely can seem to be very demanding. But we have to keep in mind that we are called upon to be a servant people who give respect, allegiance, and honor to a sacrificial God. God hates oppression and the lack of freedom, not the story of Moses. God hates to see people victimized, depraved, dishonored with prejudice and hatred. God hates vengeance among his children. Note the wonderful gift of Jesus Christ to renew, raise up, and provide the world with forgiveness, love, hope. To do what we are called to do is simply and clearly committing ourselves to the ways of God and to participate in our calling to the best of our ability, and to be assured of God’s grace.
SEASON: EPIPHANY 4
PROPER: A
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: February 3, 2002
TEXT: The Beatitudes of Jesus: Matthew 5:1-12 “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.’”
Micah 6:1-8 – He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?
I Corinthians 1:18-31 – But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are, so that no one might boast in the presence of God. He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus who became for us wisdom from God.
ISSUE: The readings for this day are instructions for the people of God, and more particularly The Beatitudes of Jesus are instructions to his disciples and close followers. Committed Christians are called upon to understand what it is that God truly honors and blesses. We need to be aware of that honor as we attempt to discover our ministries and make our witness to our Lord. The honor of our Lord is quite different from what the world honors.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Last weeks Gospel reading told of Jesus’ selection of some of his disciples, more particularly the fishermen: Simon (Peter) and Andrew, James and John. The time was right for them to begin following Jesus and being a part of his ministry that would involve teaching and healing, and certainly his comments and grievances against a world that was often unfair and unjust, and which stole dignity from human beings.
The Gospel reading for today from Matthew is essentially a training period or training session for the disciples and close followers Jesus. After the selection of disciples, Jesus took them with him and began his ministry of healing and teaching. As the crowds increased, we are told that Jesus took his own close followers away from the crowds up on a mountain. Matthew always likes to associate Jesus with Hebrew scripture where important events often took place on mountains, as for instance the giving of the Ten Commandments to Moses, and Elijah’s Mt. Carmel experience of setting the sacrifice to God on fire by soaking the wood with water. The mountain experience is associating Jesus with some of Israel’s most important leaders. (Luke’s version of the Beatitudes of Jesus is taught on a plain.) In this quiet away from it all session, Jesus is taking his disciples aside for some instruction.
Rabbi teachers of this period often took their disciples aside and a part of their style was to try to summarize their teachings and God’s laws. For instance, Jesus summarizes the Law of God on one occasion by saying: ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, your soul, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the rest of the laws and prophetic teaching.’ You get another instance of this summarization in the lesson from the Prophet Micah. Micah poses the question to his listeners: ‘What is it that God really wants? “O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”’ Which is, I am told, one of the most quoted passages from the Hebrew Scriptures, and quite consistent with the teachings of Jesus in his Beatitudes.
In the 5th, 6th, and 7th Chapters of Matthew, you have a picture of Jesus summarizing, condensing, and using images to teach his disciples what his ministry is about, and what it is that God demands. Here on the mountain, the inner group is getting the Word. This teaching was heavy stuff. It was a calling of the disciples like Micah into a covenant, not a contract. A contract can be broken, but a covenant, like a marriage is something you keep forever. Now Jesus addresses his disciples. The first part of his teaching is the Beatitudes, or also known as the Sermon on the Mount.
Get the pictures straight. Jesus gathers his closest disciples to him on the mountain after having been with the larger crowd. In essence he is saying, what is the most important basic value in life? And the basic important value of the time was a person’s honor. In much of the Middle Eastern culture it still is. Well says Jesus let me tell you what God thinks is real honor. Here it comes again, Jesus’ reversal of what the world thinks and believes to what is the way of God. I tell you says Jesus that what God honors down there at the bottom of the mountain are those who are the poor in spirit! God seeks to raise up and bless the poor, while the world often condemns the poor, and ignores them, or sees them as the unimportant cast a offs. The world sees the successful and the noble and the hot shots, and pompous religious leaders and politicians as the honorable, but God sees the least as his own, and the most honorable. You disciples, honor them too.
God honors (blesses) those who mourn. God blesses and honors with all his might, the widows and orphans, and those who have had their property confiscated from them. God honors those sensitive to human need. God will comfort them, and you do the same. God is not taken, according to Jesus, with the grandiose and the successful, but honors and gives honor to the merciful and the compassionate and those who long for a true and pure simple relationship with God. God honors and loves those who hunger and thirst for justice, righteousness, and those who are peacemakers, not merely the apathetic lovers of peacefulness. There’s a big difference. God honors those who have been persecuted and beaten down by the injustices of the world.
And to you disciples who will be persecuted in teaching what new honor is, and what is really important in the world, God will hold you in high esteem, as were the prophets of old who were persecuted when they demanded justice for the poor in a world that only held the rich, those of high position, and elegant status to be people of honor.
The Beatitudes, teachings of Jesus, which describe what it is that God really honors and blesses are a spelling out of Micah’s “Do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God.” We also see in the entire ministry of Jesus a man committed to doing justice, who himself honors and had a profound affection for the poor, the disenfranchised, and those held in low esteem by the world. We see in Jesus Christ a modeling of kindness for Jew and Gentile alike in his healing ministry and compassionately restoring those who were cast out by the society. And certainly we see in the Gospel of Jesus a man walking humbly with God, exposing the love of God and God’s forgiveness. He himself in his great humility accepts humbly the cross, and the unjust persecution. Death on a cross in Jesus’ time by the Romans was the most dishonorable thing that could happen to a person. You were tied and left to hang on the cross, naked and exposed before the whole community. You were left there and scorned until you were finally dead from exposure, and in many cases then attacked and eaten by wild dogs, which were unclean animals. St. Paul’s writings made it clear that this treatment of Jesus was scandalous. For the Jews, the end of Jesus’ ministry was considered to be the very last thing expected by most people of the day who could not believe the Messianic hope would end in such worldly dishonor. Greek philosophy and their leaders were all seen as grand heroes, and great victorious warriors. Jesus’ end by world standards was a huge failure, a folly. And yet, what the world believed to be mere foolishness and failure has become what is most honorable: a simple human life given in the pursuit of justice, compassionate and mercifully kind, that walked humbly with God. For thousands of years now, we’ve seen a new value of God proclaimed by Jesus and his discipleship that has been a challenge to the world’s way of popular thinking. Christ’s departing was certainly another great reversal in terms of the way the world thinks.
In modern American Culture today, there is certainly the popular notion that what is the most important thing is to be able to consume as much of the world’s goods as possible. It used to be said that if you don’t work you don’t eat. Even St. Paul’s teachings made this point to lazy Christians. But in our cultural way of doing things the saying now goes: If you don’t eat, you don’t work. If you are not consuming and using up the world’s resources you are going to be laid off. American culture is a consumptive culture today. We are building rather large homes, expensive to maintain, to heat in the winter, and cool in the summer. They seem to be signs of status, success, and honorableness in the community. These are they who have made it.
Yet there are others things that plague our society and our world. Things like not being able to get along well with one another, and isolating ourselves from the community and its needs. We seem to honor past glory without participating fully in what is important human need in the world today. We lose sight of the difference between a contract and a covenant of lasting commitments. The Baptismal Covenant we make and renew when a child or person is baptized has nothing to do with how you or the baptized person is going to make it big in the world. It is about walking humbly with God the Father, the Son, The Holy Spirit. It is about actively continuing in the ways and teachings of the apostles of Jesus Christ and having supper with him, and conversation in prayer. It is about renouncing injustice, prejudice, and hatred. It is about respecting the dignity of every human being, striving for justice (not paying lip service to it), being a peace (maker) among all people. The Baptismal Covenant relationship with Jesus is an ongoing lasting commitment.
There have been many saintly witnesses to this way of Jesus Christ in the past. There have been many in recent years, notably, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Sister Teresa in India. These are folk who understood what God truly honors and blesses, and whose lives have been given in sacrifice. Many mothers and fathers have done the same in more modest ways, but are no less extraordinary witnesses to their family and friends. The church of Jesus Christ, you and me, the members of Jesus in the world have a significant calling and partnership with Christ. We must be so careful that we don’t lose our focus by merely seeing church buildings as an old historic memento of the past to be preserved, rather than a living vital organism that is called upon to bless and honor God’s living world of the present.
The call to sacrificial caring and involvement in the world of today is hard for us, and surely can seem to be very demanding. But we have to keep in mind that we are called upon to be a servant people who give respect, allegiance, and honor to a sacrificial God. God hates oppression and the lack of freedom, not the story of Moses. God hates to see people victimized, depraved, dishonored with prejudice and hatred. God hates vengeance among his children. Note the wonderful gift of Jesus Christ to renew, raise up, and provide the world with forgiveness, love, hope. To do what we are called to do is simply and clearly committing ourselves to the ways of God and to participate in our calling to the best of our ability, and to be assured of God’s grace.
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