Visions of Wonderment
18 Dec 2011 2 Comments
in 2Samuel, Advent, Bible Essays, Luke, Mary, Psalms, Romans Tags: Advent, annunciation, essays, Mary
In countless homes across America, the same scenario is being played out.
Trees are arriving on the roofs of cars, ornaments and decorations are coming forth from attics and basements. Cookies are baking. Ribbons and brightly colored paper are stacked in corners and closets are filled with shopping bags.
While the spice of cinnamon mingles with the scent of pine, children try desperately to “be good” all the while nearly shivering with anticipation.
That is the word that most perfectly describes this time–anticipation. And it is now beginning to reach a fevered pitch. All things are headed inexorably to one end: Christmas day.
Children reflect in rare moments of quiet just how it can be that Santa will visit every single house in one night. Wonder and miracle are the words of the day. Not only children, but even adults are subject to moments when pure magic seems in the air.
As our readings this week tell us, this sense of miracle and wonder are central to our faith lives at this time of year. Today we are astounded at how beautifully all comes to a head–the promise is about to be fulfilled. Anticipation fairly crackles in the air. Christ is Coming!
From Second Samuel to Luke we listen in awe. God has promised and God will make it so. So long after the promises Nathan reveals in Samuel, the final step is taken in Luke. The angel Gabriel visits Mary and gives her the astounding news that she is to be the Mother of God. In her will grow the fulfillment of the promise. God’s son will come to his people.
As we read, we quicken in our anticipation, even though we have been through this story and “the event” so many times before. It has that kind of power over us–the ability to reawaken within us that sense of wonder and miracle.
No matter how we view the story, we feel it. Was Mary really visited by an angel? Did she conceive this way?
Does it matter? In truth, no. For as with much of what we read in the stories of old, it is not always the actual facts that matter, but the beautiful truths being exposed.
No matter how it happened, Mary is to give birth to a man whom we believe is the Son of God, specially made and blessed with the ability to bring God to us in an extraordinary way. Through him, we will learn more than we can imagine about what it means to love God, to be God’s creation, to be loved beyond measure. God reaches out to us in this most personal of ways, in our simple humanity, and becomes REAL.
And Mary? Oh goodness, can there be a more perfect answer than hers?
“Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.”
Mary responds with the most radical of faiths. If I am to be a single woman and pregnant in a world that reviles and rejects such women, then let it happen, if that be God’s will. Mary asks no more that to do God’s will. Whatever the consequences to herself. She asks no favor, no explanation, no protection. She simply bows to her God.
Think of Moses and his arguing, and Jonah. Think of all the prophets, most of whom did whatever they could to refuse God’s command. How they hid in their “unworthiness” and limitations. It was just plain old fear. Fear that life would not be the same, and that it would be hard.
But not Mary. No, this simple girl is portrayed quite differently. She assumes no superiority, nor any objective bravery. She simply acquiesces, since she can imagine no other response to God.
That is a wonderment. That is a miracle. That is what stops my dead in my tracks as I read this beautiful story.
Could I ever do this?
Could any of us ever do this?
Never. But, we now know one thing. We must try.
Mary has defined faith. Will any of us ever be the same?
2Sm 7:1-5, 8b-12, 14a, 16 Ps 89: 2-3, 4-5, 27, 29 Rom 16: 25-27 Lk 1: 26-38
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Waffles Anyone?
17 Jul 2011 7 Comments
in Bible Essays, God, Holy Spirit, Matthew, Romans, Wisdom Tags: bible essay, God, hope, Kingdom, Love, parables
Have you ever made waffles? No I don’t mean open the freezer and pop a couple of frozen discs into the toaster. I mean make up a batter and heat up the waffle iron. Real waffles, the kind your mother used to make?
One has to learn the art of waffling. It’s not the batter, any good cookbook will give you the simple recipe. No, the art is in the pouring. Too little and the waffle is deformed with incomplete edges. Too much, and batter drips out of the iron and makes an awful mess.
Just right? Ahh, now that is a thing to behold. You learn by doing. Pouring and then watching as the batter oozes and slides around the patterned nubs. When you have the right amount, it runs slowly like lava until it has covered the entire grid. Close the lid, and wait until it’s golden and you have perfection.
Today’s readings remind me of waffles.
Jesus relates a number of parables all of which have a common theme: that the Word infiltrates throughout the world.
The good seed grows up among the weeds and at harvest can be separated. The mustard seed grows, it fills out into branches and twigs and becomes a wonderful full shrub that can support and care for those who nest within its intricate structure. The yeast permeates the entire dough, leavening it all over time.
We learn that if we live as vital members of the Kingdom, we too permeate all of creation and leaven it for good. Some of our “good works”, our “good neighborly” voice rubs off on those around us. Or as the Buddhist might say, good karma draws good karma.
We look at the world around us and there is little to be happy about. Governments worldwide fail miserably to serve their people. Our misbegotten practices, designed to satisfy our own greed has seemingly turned Mother Nature against us. People argue and war against each other over real or imagined wrongs, greed, fear, and other negative emotions. It is easy to believe that we are “going to hell in a handbasket” as the old saying suggests.
These parables give us comfort in remembering that that is not so. In the Hebrew Testament from Wisdom, we are reminded that God is always just, and when we emulate that justice, that mercy, and that forgiveness, we are most like God and we can be assured that we are seeping into the cracks of a broken world, working the magic that is love. We are joining together, uniting a fractured community and binding it together. We knit a network that provides hope and security to a frightened people.
Paul reminds us in Romans that we do not act alone, but that the Spirit of God is ever with us, perfecting our words and actions so that they are more than the woeful efforts of our individual desire. The Spirit residing within makes our words more loving, more gentle, more powerful. We reap a greater harvest than we perhaps can be aware of. We remember to trust that our meagre efforts will yield a hundredfold.
We are not alone as souls lost among the evil of our times. We are lighthouses providing the guiding light that calls home the frightened and tired sailor. We form an interconnected network that upholds and uplifts humanity to an ever-growing awareness of God’s center in us all. We are a thread in the tapestry that creates the perfection that really underlies all the mud we seem mired in.
Or we can be. If we remember.
Amen.
Wisdom 12:13, 16-19 Romans 8: 26-27 Matthew 13: 24-33
It’s Always a Process
10 Jul 2011 4 Comments
in Bible Essays, Faith, Fundamentalism, Isaiah, Matthew, Romans, Spiritual Growth Tags: Faith, growth, Isaiah, Matthew, parable of the sower, Psalms, Romans, spirituality
Readings:
Is: 55:10-11
Ps: 65:10,11, 12-13-14
Rom: 8-18-23
Mt: 13:1-23
What these readings have in common is process. We sow seeds, rain falls, crops grow and are harvested. Even the reading from Romans suggests that process is the key. Creation is a process that is being worked out in time.
Typically, what is garnered from Matthew’s parable of the sower, is that we must be the fruitful seed. We must take the Word, let it enrich us, grow in us and we must then use it to facilitate the creating desire of God. And that is perfectly true.
Yet, it also bespeaks something about our faith and how it prospers or not. I often wonder how a fundamentalist reads this parable. Surely they don’t see themselves as seed that has fallen on rock or the path. They see themselves as seed that fell into rich soil. They do not let the cares of the world, or the vicissitudes of life interfere with their dedication to Jesus and the Gospel. They remain committed to their understanding of the Word.
But I suggest there is another way to look at the parable and the readings in general. They don’t necessarily relate to one’s tenacity in committment to “spreading the Word” but rather to the process of being in faith.
And what we see here is change. There is a process being announced. Seed, rain, soil, each is needed. The seed bursts forth, becomes a plant, sets seed, produces its fruits, and then is harvested. It’s not simply a matter of sowing day in and day out. It’s not merely a matter of reading the same passages again and again and reminding ourselves of the standard meanings.
Growth and change signify each of these readings, and that means ourselves as well as our duties to spread the “good news.”
To cast in iron the meaning of any parable or any passage is to stop growing. And to stop growing is death. We can wave the banner of faith, but if it is a faith that is stagnant, unyielding in its interpretation, then we are failing quite simply to honor Jesus’ words.
Faith is messy as some have suggested. It is, and should be full of starts and stops, turns, flips, inquiry, doubt, doubling back, and throwing up our hands in confusion. We should get angry sometimes, we should find deep peace at others, joy often, confidence–in other words, faith involves the entire panoply of our emotions.
Faith is a living thing. For we are in the process of a creation, one that is still ongoing, still unfolding. And we are deeply a part of that process. The very evidence that our world is not as it should be is all the evidence we need. It is not complete because we are not complete.
Faith is work. It’s not easy nor always pleasurable. Talk to those of advanced spiritual growth and they will explain all the months and sometimes years of deep meaningless agony that must be fought through. To the degree that we attempt to avoid that, but painting a picture of faith as steady and unchanging, we contribute to the stalling of creation unfolding from us. We become the rocky soil, the path where fruitless sowing has occurred.
It is like walking along with a handful of seeds and each step turns to concrete before us. We can sow seed all day long, and we will produce nothing. The vessel is sterile, and can generate no life.
That is what seems to me is the fundamentalist. The fundamentalist has deeply erred in concluding that any question, any confusion about what the Word might mean, is not faith and thus must be avoided at all costs. Fear becomes the stick that guides the fundamentalist.
We must realize that we are in process as believers. It is okay to say, I don’t know. It is okay to say, I can’t agree with that this seems to say, therefore, I must dig deeper to uncover its meaning. It is okay to conclude that perhaps the writer was wrong! But it is right to seek answers that satisfy one’s heart, because that is the truest location of good judgment.
It is all about growth. Jesus called his disciples to grow out of their old thinking into new thinking, and in doing so, he shows us how to as well. Remember, on more than one occasion Jesus made clear that there was ever so much more to tell and to learn, more than he had time for in his short time in our world. So he taught us a method–simply love your God with all your heart, mind and soul, your fellow human being as yourself, and be servant to all.
That is how we grow: by each day making a new effort to proceed throughout that day mindful of those directives.
Amen.
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Living Water
27 Mar 2011 5 Comments
in Exodus, Fundamentalism, God, Jesus, John, Lent, Romans, Spiritual Growth Tags: "the way", Jesus, Lent, water
Water is foundational to Christianity. It arises in the very beginning of Genesis, as the watery chaos depicted in Jewish cosmology. It is turned from this dangerous foreboding entity to life-giving gift throughout both the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament.
In today’s readings, water features prominently. God reminds humans that he gives life, and he alone saves life. When the people are without water in the desert, God brings forth water from the rock at Meriba and Massah, and it “flows” for the people. [Ex 17:6]
In Paul’s letter to the Romans, God’s love is “poured” into our hearts. [Rom 5:5].
And in Jesus encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well, Jesus tells us:
“but anyone who drinks the water that I shall give will never be thirsty again: the water that I shall give will turn into a spring inside him, welling up to eternal life.” [Jn 4:14]
Notice that Jesus refers to the water springing up “inside” and “welling up”. These are important indications that Jesus is speaking of something very different from what the woman understands. She is giddy with joy; in the next verse she asks for this “water, so that I may never be thirsty or come here again to draw water.”
She takes Jesus quite literally, as do his disciples a bit later when they urge him to eat, and he replies that he has “food to eat that you do not know about.” The disciples ponder whether “someone has brought him food.”
It’s all quite amusing in one sense.
Yet, something very serious is about, and the Samaritan woman does seem to see that. She goes into the village and tells everyone about this man who has told her “everything she has done.” She becomes in the eyes of many a theologian, the first true apostle.
Sometimes I wonder what Jesus thought as he witnessed the “fundamentalism” of his disciples and those whom he taught. Taking his words literally when he sought to speak of deeper things, things of the heart. Jesus was talking about inner transformation and the water and food are metaphor for his words which lead us to growth.
So eloquently he offers us that if we listen to his words, accept “the Way”, we will have a spring within us, welling up to a journey’s end in eternal perfect union with God.
Did he chuckle as his disciples whispered about someone sneaking him food? Did he smile softly as the woman hoped for relief from her daily trudge to the well for water? Certainly these feelings would have been tempered with a degree of sadness.
As one reads and rereads the scripture, especially with the help of expert biblical exegetes and theologians, one I think, begins to tease out the depth of the real teachings of Jesus. His teachings were so radical, so “outside the box” that few if any understood them in their totality.
Arguments are made that John perhaps “got it” and certainly many believe Mary Magdalene did, as well as some of the more gnostic writings.
If we see Jesus teaching as mostly an interior change of being, and as a pathway to union with God in the closest sense, than many difficult passages open up to us to a deeper more metaphorical reading.
When Jesus speaks of water as becoming a spring and welling up within and that his food is that which they don’t know about, we see clearly that we are being asked to surrender to a new way, or “the Way.”
Today, look within and drink from the spring that wells within you.
Amen.
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What Have You Done?
06 Mar 2011 Leave a Comment
in Bible Essays, Deuteronomy, Faith, Fundamentalism, Jesus, Lent, Matthew, Romans, Spiritual Growth Tags: bible essays, Deuteronomy, Faith, Matthew, Romans, works
We are a silly species when you really think about it. Really we are. More to the point, we are a people of convenience. We tend to interpret the world and especially our “values” and our “principles” in ways that make things easy for ourselves.
I think of the movie the Godfather, which portrayed, correctly or not, the Italian mafia. The men plotted by day the demise of other men or the stealing of their property, but on Sunday they genuflected and crossed themselves as they accepted communion. Convenient?
I few days ago, a commenter on another blog related that after a woman had said really nasty things about the President in not repeatable graphic fashion, he asked, “and I suppose this is an example of Christian charity?” The woman responded with a certain self-righteousness, “God will forgive me any sins I have just by asking him to.” Convenient?
The readings today, remind us that our self-serving definitions and interpretations may not serve us well at all. The words of Moses come to us in Deuteronomy 11:18.26-28.32.
“See I set before you today a blessing and a curse: a blessing if you obey the commandments of the Lord our God that I enjoin on you today; a curse, if you disobey the commandments of the Lord your God and leave the way I have marked out for you today, by going after other gods you have not known. You must keep and observe all the laws and customs that I set before you today.”
Moses makes it clear: DO right, don’t just mouth right. Obedience is an action, not an afterthought. You don’t have a perpetual “get out of jail” free card.
Now, I don’t believe in literal concepts of heaven and hell. I believe that we seek unity with God. That is the goal. To have God perfectly present to us in every moment. That is the unity of singleness that Jesus achieved and attempted to teach us. That is how we are as Spirit, and it is how we are able to be in our humanity. If we work at it–actively.
When we emulate the teachings of Jesus, we move toward that unity and we find peace and joy in our lives. When we go it alone, acting out of our baser evolutionary beginnings, we generally spend a lot of time in fear, and that is not a happy state to be in.
Yet, we don’t like to think about these Jesus truths. Why? Because we are busy going after other gods as Moses put it. We are intent on money, and fame, and fortune, and things. And so we turn to what Paul appeared to say to the Romans:
“[We] are justified through the free gift of his grace by being redeemed in Christ Jesus who was appointed by God to sacrifice his life so as to win reconciliation through faith since, as we see it, a man is justified by faith and not by doing something the Law tells him to do.” (3:21-25.28)
So many of our believing friends love words like this, since it “lets them off the hook.” Paul appears to say that works, or DOING mean nothing, it is pure faith that saves. And we all know the types don’t we? Those who invoke God every third sentence, yet don’t ever seem to DO anything that suggests they have gotten the message. Jesus is avoided, Paul seems much easier to follow.
Yet, if read carefully, Paul only means that faith is a gift freely given. And we cannot, truthfully, work out way into heaven. Yet, he also tells us that those who have accepted their faith and really believe what has been preached, NATURALLY act it out in various good works.
And this is precisely what Jesus says in Matthew 7:21-27:
“It is not those who say to me, ‘Lord, Lord’ who will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the person who does the will of my Father in heaven. When the day comes many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, cast out demons in your name, work many miracles in your name?’ Then I shall tell them to their faces: I have never known you, away from me, you evil men.”
Don’t in other words strut around the streets and church pews spouting my words, shouting your faith to the heavens. DO what the Father wants. Feed the hungry, tend to the sick, free the imprisoned, clothe the naked. DO the works of LOVE. DO, not say. DO, not judge. DO, not preach. DO, DO, DO.
It strikes me today, as Lent approaches, that doing is a better way of experiencing this most important of seasons. Doing rather than “giving up X”. What are you planning this Lenten season? What can you DO to evidence your faith and your seeking?
Joyous Preparation
05 Dec 2010 4 Comments
in Advent, Bible Essays, Catechumenate, Isaiah, Matthew, Romans, Seasons Tags: Advent, Catechumenate, Isaiah, Matthew, Romans
Those of us who chase our faith know that this time of year is more special than anything non-believers can experience in this season.
Chase our faith? I mean by that those of us who are not content to “believe in God,” attend church now and then (mostly weddings and funerals and perhaps midnight Mass and Easter), and otherwise give lip service to faith. We are out there seeking, running God down and demanding with humility but sincere intensity, “I want a relationship with YOU!”
Today we welcomed and accepted into our community those seeking full admission into the Church and full communion with God. The Catechumenates and Candidates were presented at Mass, and we promised to “stand with you and pray for you, child of God”. They received the sign of the cross upon their foreheads, eyes, mouths, shoulders, hands and feet. They were presented bibles. They are entering the final few months before reception into the Church at the Easter Vigil.
I remember the time well. It was more exciting that I can tell you. Along with all the preparations for the holidays, the shopping, the parties, the decorating, baking, wrapping, and so forth, there was all this wonderful mysterious, glorious newness–the new person I was becoming. I was awed, humbled, bubbling with excitement and joy. I couldn’t wait for the next week, the next class, the next opportunity to grow in knowledge and faith.
I saw that in the eyes of the assembled class today. The shining eyes, the bright smiles, the reverence. It was all there, and took me back to those days. That in fact is a good reason for doing this ceremony in public. We are all reminded of our days of preparation for full communion with the Church.
It is no accident that the timing of all this coincides with Advent, the annual time of preparation of the entire Christendom for the coming of the Lord. As our Catechumenates and Candidates stand in a special relationship with Jesus– actively preparing to be joined to him in the most intimate and perfect way, they also join in the Church’s preparation. Doubly blessed!
We, the congregation, also get to recall our own time in similar shoes, as I have said, and we too join this with the entire Church in her readying for our Savior.
We prepare our secular lives, and we prepare our spiritual lives. We are all about preparing. In our readings today, Isaiah reminds us of the Kingdom to come when our Lord returns. Paul in Romans, tells us that our preparing is done by way of “putting on the mind of Christ,” in other words, by treating others in the “same friendly way as Christ treated you.”
Matthew concludes with the teaching of John the Baptist, who called all to repentance in preparation. Thus we know what to look for, and what to do.
We leave the Church on Sunday, renewed, refreshed, and joyous. Our steps are a little livelier, our smiles a bit broader. We are kinder and more gentle with friends, strangers and family. We have a secret.
We are not just preparing the feast, the gifts, the parties. We are in an intimate and beautiful dance with the Lord as we confide in him, feel his steady comfort and guidance. It is all so very special and personal. Every Christmas light takes on a special twinkle, we find ourselves misting up at the silliest of things.
We know that the Lord is close. We are walking on holy ground.
Amen.
Getting Ready
28 Nov 2010 4 Comments
in Advent, Bible Essays, Isaiah, Jesus, Matthew, Romans, Seasons Tags: Advent, Isaiah, Jesus, Matthew, Romans, time
We have made it! Advent begins today, and a whirl of parties, cooking, buying and trimming are at hand.
Yet, there is, to the believer, so much more to the season. The readings for the first Sunday of Advent speak to what we really need to be preparing for: a celebration of the birth of the Lord, and most especially we prepare ourselves for the second coming of Christ.
All our readings speak to this today. Isaiah speaks in 2:1-5 of our hope in the coming Kingdom, a place and time of peace and goodwill. I time when war is gone forever, when we join together in unity among all.
So too Saint Paul who reminds the Romans that the time is close at hand and we should be practicing only those things that are of God. All those things that we tend to hide under darkness of night, we should finally and forever put aside. With the “armor” of Christ, we can rise to our highest selves. We will be ready to receive our Lord. (Rom 13:11-14)
And Jesus himself reminds us himself in the gospel of Matthew to be ready, for we know not the day nor hour. (Mt 24:37-44)
Ready means of course to be ready to be judged before God. And thus Paul and Jesus say the same thing–prepare by living a blameless life, don’t put it off until tomorrow, because you may be caught unawares, and thus found not worthy before your God.
Yet, none of us is very good at taking care of business as we should. We lead lives often so busy that we need lists and reminders to just get us to where we need to be some days. We are constantly having to juggle and prioritize to get most of what we need done. All too often, the first and most expendable “should” is that time we devote to Godly things, prayer, meditation, reading, studying, and just plain living out our baptismal promises.
And to be truthful, it is wrong, I think to place all this on one event only, the second coming of Christ and the full coming of the Kingdom. There is more to it than that, I venture. It is certainly true that the early Christian community expected the return of Christ to be within their lifetimes or soon thereafter. As time passed and that did not happen, the community had to rethink that proposition.
There is dispute as to whether Jesus himself believed that the full kingdom would arrive, with him in short order. Scholars disagree. Yet, if we only focus on the “end times” as what our preparation is for, we are always sure to fail. For life does get in the way. More than two thousand years have gone by. It is quite easy to put off our spiritual responsibilities for a week or so, or a month?
We should not limit ourselves in this way of thinking. Preparing is necessary now, because we needs be prepared to receive God’s grace, love, forgiveness, and love today. At any moment our world can come crashing down around us and we will desperately need all the support and hope that God offers. We must be prepared, if we are to see that and to receive it in fullness. Otherwise our suffering will be magnified, we will feel abandoned and alone. This God does not want.
So Advent reminds us to work every day in anticipation of the Lord’s return and also the day when we shall call upon the Lord to hold us most tightly as travails assault us. We know not when that will happen, but as humans, we know it will. It is part of life.
Our priest sang to us this morning, the opening lines of Jim Croce’s song “Time in a Bottle.” You surely remember it:
If I could save time in a bottle
The first thing that I’d like to do
Is to save every day
Till Eternity passes away
Just to spend them with youIf I could make days last forever
If words could make wishes come true
I’d save every day like a treasure and then,
Again, I would spend them with youBut there never seems to be enough time
To do the things you want to do
Once you find them
I’ve looked around enough to know
That you’re the one I want to go
Through time withIf I had a box just for wishes
And dreams that had never come true
The box would be empty
Except for the memory
Of how they were answered by youBut there never seems to be enough time
To do the things you want to do
Once you find them
I’ve looked around enough to know
That you’re the one I want to go
Through time with
Father Neal suggested that this might be Jesus’ song to us. There is never enough time in our lives, but Jesus offers us eternal time and he stands ready and waiting to go though time with us, making every wish a memory of love and unity with God.
Make this Advent special. Remember to devote time every day to prepare to receive God’s love and support in your life.
Amen.
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- And So It Begins… (biblicalpaths.wordpress.com)
- A Candle of Hope — Advent Lectionary Meditation (pastorbobcornwall.blogspot.com)
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