Mark 10:35-45
5 Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him. “Teacher,” they said, “we want you to do for us whatever we ask.”
36 “What do you want me to do for you?” he asked.
37 They replied, “Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory.”
38 “You don’t know what you are asking,” Jesus said. “Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?”
39 “We can,” they answered.
Jesus said to them, “You will drink the cup I drink and be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with, 40 but to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared.”
41 When the ten heard about this, they became indignant with James and John. 42 Jesus called them together and said, “You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. 43 Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, 44 and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. 45 For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
“To Give His Life As A Ransom For Many”
The disciples were good at missing the point. cf Mk 8:31-33, 9:30-35; 10:32-37,41-45.
It is hard to accept suffering as necessary. The only way to live without suffering is to not live...not touch anyone, love, hope, care, trust, get close to anyone.
Suffering belongs to the very nature of our world and our lives; it is not something we simply eliminate. it is something we accept, grow in, and find meaning through. It is a part of the paradox of life.
Suffering is holy ground. We don’t go looking for it, but we are to let it become redemptive when it comes to us. It is an integral part of the good that happens in our lives. It brings out the best in people, it draws us together, it enriches life, it even causes us to discover a deep thankfulness. It enables us to discover the most enduring love. And when we discover this we have discovered something of the love of God in Christ, who suffered that we might be saved.
“Not to Be Served But To Serve”
James and John asked Jesus to be given the favorite spots in the Kingdom. They wanted to know what they were going to get before they gave too much of themselves.
They wanted to be promised a special spot in the Kingdom before then served long and hard, and suffered much.
But God shows no partiality. God has no favorites.
Grace does not make us favorites with God. It equips us to be servants of God.
To be great in the Kingdom is to be a servant.
To be first is to be last.
To really live is to lose oneself in life in serving Jesus Christ.
Don’t ask what you can get, but what you can give.
Being a servant is more in step with Jesus then being a mighty one.
Servant means lowly in our world. In God’s Kingdom it is the highest office one can hold.
A servant is one who “finds grace to help in time of need.” Heb. 4:16b
Greatness, honor, deep meaning and fulfillment in life comes, in Jesus terms,
”...not in self-seeking, but in solidarity....not in accruing status, but in benefiting others,,,not in hoarding, but in giving...not in ruling, but in serving.”
Mother Teresa: “Humble as you are, it must be an extraordinary thing to be a vehicle of God’s grace in the world. But it is His work. I think God wants to show His greatness by using nothingness.”
Sunday, March 15, 2015
Thursday, March 12, 2015
March 15, 2015 Fourth Sunday in Lent
John 3:14-21
14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.”
16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. 19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. 21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.
“The Gift Of God”
One of the most difficult truths for us to handle is that it is...”by grace that we have been saved through faith; and this is not our own doing, it is the gift of God...There is nothing here to boast of, since it is not the result of our own efforts.” Eph. 2:8,9
We like to boast of how we have God in our control, as one ‘good’ Christian said recently, “God doesn’t hear Jewish prayers” - as if we know and control who God listens too!
When God becomes predictable, God also becomes impotent!
Grace means that God loves the person who first said, “God is dead.”
God has compassion for the person who rejects him.
For God’s primary concern is that we allow God to love us, to save us, to touch our hearts and change our living; to rescue us from our ability to self-destruct!
God makes it easy for us, as with the Israelites of old. Just look and you will live! Just look at Jesus and live! God wants us so badly that if we just give him the least little excuse, God will shower his grace upon us and call us his own! God is the waiting father!
God also trusts that once this gift of grace hits home, things will start happening in our lives.
For the person who truly lives by grace is the last person who can be judgmental towards others. That is simply a contradiction which leads to hypocrisy of the worst kind.
The line God draws is not a judgment line, but a grace line. To cross that live is to live in love and forgiveness. Faith is crossing that line and letting God have at you!
It is looking at Jesus, and living.
“This Is How Believing Works”
Sometimes the most common or familiar is the most difficult to hear, see, experience in a new and living way. This is true when we come to words such as today - “By grace you have been saved...” “For God so loved the world...”
There is more to this then just hearing it again in the same way. Believing in Jesus is a lot more then saying I believe. As verses 19-21 indicate, it is coming to the light of God’s truth, wanting it, yearning for it, searching for it, welcoming it when it comes; when it comes, as it always will, in human form.
This means that those who confess Jesus Christ as Lord should be the first to welcome the liberation of the black man, first to struggle with those who are struggling for then own identity, the first to listen to the other side.
To welcome the light of God’s love into our lives is to open ourselves up to all the evil which is within us...our greed, selfishness, bigotry, envy, jealousy, lust, pride. It is to have it all out in the light of day.
Woman in NY: “If you’re not interested in the rats in my apartment, I”m not interested in your Jesus.”
Judgment words on me; it exposes me rather then giving me reason to condemn others.
First act of faith is to confess often that I love darkness more then light.
This leads to true forgiveness and the good deeds which follow; as I then live in the light of God’s love and share it with others - not judgment but compassion.
AA is a good example of this dynamic at work.
Sunday, March 1, 2015
March 8, 2015 Third Sunday in Lent
John 2:13-22
13 When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14 In the temple courts he found people selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. 15 So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. 16 To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!” 17 His disciples remembered that it is written: “Zeal for your house will consume me.”
18 The Jews then responded to him, “What sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?”
19 Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.”
20 They replied, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?” 21 But the temple he had spoken of was his body. 22 After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken.
“Remembered...and Believed.”
I memorized the 10 commandments and meanings by the 5th grade. I knew them better then, than I know them now. Yet I know them better now than I ever could have then. For I have gotten them wrong enough times to begin to know what they might mean and are all about.
The people in the temple where getting it all wrong. That is why Jesus drove them out. They were mixing greed with worship, and all but destroying worship.
We get it wrong often. We start to get it right when we have something to remember...
that I am loved with a relentless love
that I can be defeated but now destroyed
that I can blow it, but not lose it.
A key word in finally getting it right is “remember”.
The disciples understood this experience after the resurrection and they remembered. Then they got it right.
It is the same for us. We get it right finally, when we remember the grace and forgiving love of a God who never gives up on us and never forsakes us. A God who’s love never dies, and who’s dazzling grace always is.
“Jesus, the Intruder”
Jesus had two faces. He was “meek and lowly in heart”; and “he looked at them with anger”. (Mk 5:5) He was gentle but not anemic, as when he called Herod a “fool” or told Peter “Get behind me, Satan!”
Nor was He anemic when he cleansed the temple. He was a violent intruder, disrupting their comfortable little set up. It must have been a wild scene! The disciples must have been stunned, even embarrassed. The people likewise.
Jesus was not always an easy person to be with. For example, when he said:
“Leave the dead to bury their own dead; for as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” Lk. 9:60
“No own who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.” Lk. 9:62
“He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.” Mt. 10:37, 38
This may sound harsh and in some ways it is. It is also an expression of God’s awesome love which will not let us off easy, but expresses itself even in punishment for sin. It is as Luther prayed, “Ah, God, punish us, we pray Thee...but be not silent...toward us.”
Jesus, would be an Intruder in our lives, harsh though it may seen, to awaken in us our need for a Savior, and then Jesus would be the Savior we need.
13 When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14 In the temple courts he found people selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. 15 So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. 16 To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!” 17 His disciples remembered that it is written: “Zeal for your house will consume me.”
18 The Jews then responded to him, “What sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?”
19 Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.”
20 They replied, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?” 21 But the temple he had spoken of was his body. 22 After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken.
“Remembered...and Believed.”
I memorized the 10 commandments and meanings by the 5th grade. I knew them better then, than I know them now. Yet I know them better now than I ever could have then. For I have gotten them wrong enough times to begin to know what they might mean and are all about.
The people in the temple where getting it all wrong. That is why Jesus drove them out. They were mixing greed with worship, and all but destroying worship.
We get it wrong often. We start to get it right when we have something to remember...
that I am loved with a relentless love
that I can be defeated but now destroyed
that I can blow it, but not lose it.
A key word in finally getting it right is “remember”.
The disciples understood this experience after the resurrection and they remembered. Then they got it right.
It is the same for us. We get it right finally, when we remember the grace and forgiving love of a God who never gives up on us and never forsakes us. A God who’s love never dies, and who’s dazzling grace always is.
“Jesus, the Intruder”
Jesus had two faces. He was “meek and lowly in heart”; and “he looked at them with anger”. (Mk 5:5) He was gentle but not anemic, as when he called Herod a “fool” or told Peter “Get behind me, Satan!”
Nor was He anemic when he cleansed the temple. He was a violent intruder, disrupting their comfortable little set up. It must have been a wild scene! The disciples must have been stunned, even embarrassed. The people likewise.
Jesus was not always an easy person to be with. For example, when he said:
“Leave the dead to bury their own dead; for as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” Lk. 9:60
“No own who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.” Lk. 9:62
“He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.” Mt. 10:37, 38
This may sound harsh and in some ways it is. It is also an expression of God’s awesome love which will not let us off easy, but expresses itself even in punishment for sin. It is as Luther prayed, “Ah, God, punish us, we pray Thee...but be not silent...toward us.”
Jesus, would be an Intruder in our lives, harsh though it may seen, to awaken in us our need for a Savior, and then Jesus would be the Savior we need.
Sunday, February 22, 2015
March 1, 2015 Second Sunday in Lent
Mark 8:31- 38
31 He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. 32 He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.
33 But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. “Get behind me, Satan!” he said. “You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.” 34 Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 35 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it. 36 What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? 37 Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? 38 If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.
“The Great Paradox”
When I try to find life I end up loosing it. When I give up trying to find it or save it and simply lose myself in it, I find it.
This is true of faith also.
“He who would take all the uncertainty out of life, will lose it. He who would live with uncertainty in Jesus name and the gospels, will find it.”
It is not the purpose of faith to take all the uncertainty out of life. To have all the answers; to save life from its human experience of surprise, shock, disillusionment, fear, doubt, perplexity, confusion and all the rest of the uncertainties which come our way. To do so would be to destroy the human experience of life.
The most honest expression of faith in the NT; may well be, “Lord I believe, help mine unbelief.”
It is in the face of the uncertainties of life that we discover the truth that
“suffering produces endurance,
endurance produces character,
character produces hope,
and hope does not disappoint.” Rom. 5:3
“Have In Mind The Things Of God”
It is not always possible to know what someone “has in mind’ by what they say, or even by what they do. It can all be very deceptive. Even in our faith journey. Even when we try to be open and honest. Peter faced this in Jesus words and we do too.
To have in mind the things of God is not something we ever do perfectly. It is a process by which we are being changed into God’s likeness day by day. it has to do with our attitude, pride, lust for life; our wanting to make it and make it big. It has to do with our wanting to bribe God so we will have it easy as we make it.
God has it in mind that we are to be servants, not lords; givers, not takers; helpers not hoarders. God is not really interested in how successful we are, nor how important, nor how secure, nor even how devout we are. God doesn’t have these things in mind. God has in mind how helpful we are, how sensitive we are, how compassionate and loving we are - especially toward the helpless.
To have in mind the things of God is to have in mind the awesome truth that to know God’s love is to share God’s love and to walk as a servant in a world which abuses servants.
The bottom live with God is lowly servant hood - having in mind the things which make for love and letting the love we cherish be felt n the lives we live.
31 He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. 32 He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.
33 But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. “Get behind me, Satan!” he said. “You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.” 34 Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 35 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it. 36 What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? 37 Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? 38 If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.
“The Great Paradox”
When I try to find life I end up loosing it. When I give up trying to find it or save it and simply lose myself in it, I find it.
This is true of faith also.
“He who would take all the uncertainty out of life, will lose it. He who would live with uncertainty in Jesus name and the gospels, will find it.”
It is not the purpose of faith to take all the uncertainty out of life. To have all the answers; to save life from its human experience of surprise, shock, disillusionment, fear, doubt, perplexity, confusion and all the rest of the uncertainties which come our way. To do so would be to destroy the human experience of life.
The most honest expression of faith in the NT; may well be, “Lord I believe, help mine unbelief.”
It is in the face of the uncertainties of life that we discover the truth that
“suffering produces endurance,
endurance produces character,
character produces hope,
and hope does not disappoint.” Rom. 5:3
“Have In Mind The Things Of God”
It is not always possible to know what someone “has in mind’ by what they say, or even by what they do. It can all be very deceptive. Even in our faith journey. Even when we try to be open and honest. Peter faced this in Jesus words and we do too.
To have in mind the things of God is not something we ever do perfectly. It is a process by which we are being changed into God’s likeness day by day. it has to do with our attitude, pride, lust for life; our wanting to make it and make it big. It has to do with our wanting to bribe God so we will have it easy as we make it.
God has it in mind that we are to be servants, not lords; givers, not takers; helpers not hoarders. God is not really interested in how successful we are, nor how important, nor how secure, nor even how devout we are. God doesn’t have these things in mind. God has in mind how helpful we are, how sensitive we are, how compassionate and loving we are - especially toward the helpless.
To have in mind the things of God is to have in mind the awesome truth that to know God’s love is to share God’s love and to walk as a servant in a world which abuses servants.
The bottom live with God is lowly servant hood - having in mind the things which make for love and letting the love we cherish be felt n the lives we live.
Sunday, February 15, 2015
Feb. 22, 2015 First Sunday in Lent
Mark 1:9-15
9 At that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. 10 Just as Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. 11 And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”12 At once the Spirit sent him out into the wilderness, 13 and he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and angels attended him.14 After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. 15 “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”
“Repent: Let Go Of”
The word repent is a pivotal word between us and the Kingdom of God. It means to turn around; to change one’s mind, to let go of something so something better can come.
It may be stimulated by something negative or positive, yet it is the first positive step towards the Kingdom of God.
What we believe is in need of repentance as much as what we don’t believe. For our beliefs can keep us from seeing the Kingdom of God in our midst as much as our disbelief. Jesus had more difficulty with the religious then with any other group. What they believed kept them from seeing what he called them to believe.
To repent and believe the good news is to let go of what ever it is that keeps us from living in the Kingdom now. Even what we hold as sacred, so we can discover what is really sacred - God’s promise to love us always. Nothing can stop God from loving us!
“Temptation - No Easy Thing”
Mark keeps it short and simple; sounding easy.
Matthew & Luke add more details but make it sound like just a quick quote of scripture and the devil is on the run. But really, was it that easy for Jesus? Is it that easy for us?
Or is Nikos Kazantzokis closer to the truth when he depicts Jesus temptation ending with this struggle and cry:
“Jesus fell on his face. His mouth, nostrils and eyes filled with sand. His mind was blank. Forgetting his hunger and thirst, he wept - wept as though his wife and all his children had died, as though his whole life had been ruined.
“’Lord, Lord’, he murmured, biting the sand, ‘Father, have you no mercy? Your will be done: how many times have I said this to you until now, how many times shall I say it in the future? All my life I shall quiver, resist and say it: Your will be done!””
The Last Temptation of Christ, p. 252
This is no casual thing which is happening. It is the beginning of a life of testing and staying true to the will of God for his life. It was necessary for Jesus to be tempted for only when he could say no to God was he free to say yes.
Temptation is not something to be eliminated from our lives. For to be so pure we are not temptable, probably means we are also so anemic, so passionless, so flat and cautious that nothing exciting and alive can touch us either.
Sometimes we have to get it wrong - and repent - before we can get it right.
As Alan Jones says in “Soul Making’:
“I wander far from my Trinitarian and communal home and this wandering can be very important because it is the only way I ever learn anything - by getting it wrong.”
When we do get it right we are with Jesus on the road to discovering the joy of living with God in God’s Kingdom, being servants rather then masters. All the time being loved beyond our wildest dreams and being asked to do more then we ever dreamed possible.
p.s. And remember , God loves us when we are ‘ naughty’ as well as ‘nice’!
When we get it wrong trying hard to get it right!
9 At that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. 10 Just as Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. 11 And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”12 At once the Spirit sent him out into the wilderness, 13 and he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and angels attended him.14 After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. 15 “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”
“Repent: Let Go Of”
The word repent is a pivotal word between us and the Kingdom of God. It means to turn around; to change one’s mind, to let go of something so something better can come.
It may be stimulated by something negative or positive, yet it is the first positive step towards the Kingdom of God.
What we believe is in need of repentance as much as what we don’t believe. For our beliefs can keep us from seeing the Kingdom of God in our midst as much as our disbelief. Jesus had more difficulty with the religious then with any other group. What they believed kept them from seeing what he called them to believe.
To repent and believe the good news is to let go of what ever it is that keeps us from living in the Kingdom now. Even what we hold as sacred, so we can discover what is really sacred - God’s promise to love us always. Nothing can stop God from loving us!
“Temptation - No Easy Thing”
Mark keeps it short and simple; sounding easy.
Matthew & Luke add more details but make it sound like just a quick quote of scripture and the devil is on the run. But really, was it that easy for Jesus? Is it that easy for us?
Or is Nikos Kazantzokis closer to the truth when he depicts Jesus temptation ending with this struggle and cry:
“Jesus fell on his face. His mouth, nostrils and eyes filled with sand. His mind was blank. Forgetting his hunger and thirst, he wept - wept as though his wife and all his children had died, as though his whole life had been ruined.
“’Lord, Lord’, he murmured, biting the sand, ‘Father, have you no mercy? Your will be done: how many times have I said this to you until now, how many times shall I say it in the future? All my life I shall quiver, resist and say it: Your will be done!””
The Last Temptation of Christ, p. 252
This is no casual thing which is happening. It is the beginning of a life of testing and staying true to the will of God for his life. It was necessary for Jesus to be tempted for only when he could say no to God was he free to say yes.
Temptation is not something to be eliminated from our lives. For to be so pure we are not temptable, probably means we are also so anemic, so passionless, so flat and cautious that nothing exciting and alive can touch us either.
Sometimes we have to get it wrong - and repent - before we can get it right.
As Alan Jones says in “Soul Making’:
“I wander far from my Trinitarian and communal home and this wandering can be very important because it is the only way I ever learn anything - by getting it wrong.”
When we do get it right we are with Jesus on the road to discovering the joy of living with God in God’s Kingdom, being servants rather then masters. All the time being loved beyond our wildest dreams and being asked to do more then we ever dreamed possible.
p.s. And remember , God loves us when we are ‘ naughty’ as well as ‘nice’!
When we get it wrong trying hard to get it right!
Sunday, February 8, 2015
Feb. 15, 2015 Transfiguration Sunday
Mark 9:2-9
2 After six days Jesus took Peter, James and John with him and led them up a high mountain, where they were all alone. There he was transfigured before them. 3 His clothes became dazzling white, whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them. 4 And there appeared before them Elijah and Moses, who were talking with Jesus.5 Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.” 6 (He did not know what to say, they were so frightened.)7 Then a cloud appeared and covered them, and a voice came from the cloud: “This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!”8 Suddenly, when they looked around, they no longer saw anyone with them except Jesus.9 As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus gave them orders not to tell anyone what they had seen until the Son of Man had risen from the dead.
“What Are We For?
The transfiguration was a unique moment which could not be repeated nor fully comprehended. It also was a moment which could not be shared openly; it was to be kept to themselves.
Nor were they able to stay there. Life is not lived on the Mt. top. The Mt, top is important to both go to and experience. Then we return to the valley to live our lives.
Mountain top experiences can help us keep in touch with who we are and what we are living for. It is easy to lose our way and live for the wrong reasons. To go chasing rainbows. Jesus needed the transfiguration experience to keep him on his redemptive course.
What are we for? We are for intimacy with ourselves, others and our God.
Lose sight of this and we will lose out on life!
“Bold In Our Being”
There are some things too precious and holy to shout from the mountain tops; to easily and blatantly share with others. First there has to be a relationship and an experience through which this special moment can be understood. For Peter, James and John, that relationship is with Jesus and the experienced which would make sense of the mystical experience of the transfiguration is the resurrection.
They are to tell no one, just stay with Jesus and listen to Him.
This is what makes sense when nothing else does - to be loved with a love which will not let us go and to live in a dazzling grace which always is.
We are called to be bold in our witness to the transforming power of God in Jesus Christ.
We cannot always shout it out, but we can and are empowered by that which we cannot tell to do that which is very telling - which causes people to recognize that we have been with Jesus.
To have had a transforming experience, is to have a spirit within which empowers us to live as those who know we are loved by God. And that means someone else is going to be better off!
2 After six days Jesus took Peter, James and John with him and led them up a high mountain, where they were all alone. There he was transfigured before them. 3 His clothes became dazzling white, whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them. 4 And there appeared before them Elijah and Moses, who were talking with Jesus.5 Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.” 6 (He did not know what to say, they were so frightened.)7 Then a cloud appeared and covered them, and a voice came from the cloud: “This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!”8 Suddenly, when they looked around, they no longer saw anyone with them except Jesus.9 As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus gave them orders not to tell anyone what they had seen until the Son of Man had risen from the dead.
“What Are We For?
The transfiguration was a unique moment which could not be repeated nor fully comprehended. It also was a moment which could not be shared openly; it was to be kept to themselves.
Nor were they able to stay there. Life is not lived on the Mt. top. The Mt, top is important to both go to and experience. Then we return to the valley to live our lives.
Mountain top experiences can help us keep in touch with who we are and what we are living for. It is easy to lose our way and live for the wrong reasons. To go chasing rainbows. Jesus needed the transfiguration experience to keep him on his redemptive course.
What are we for? We are for intimacy with ourselves, others and our God.
Lose sight of this and we will lose out on life!
“Bold In Our Being”
There are some things too precious and holy to shout from the mountain tops; to easily and blatantly share with others. First there has to be a relationship and an experience through which this special moment can be understood. For Peter, James and John, that relationship is with Jesus and the experienced which would make sense of the mystical experience of the transfiguration is the resurrection.
They are to tell no one, just stay with Jesus and listen to Him.
This is what makes sense when nothing else does - to be loved with a love which will not let us go and to live in a dazzling grace which always is.
We are called to be bold in our witness to the transforming power of God in Jesus Christ.
We cannot always shout it out, but we can and are empowered by that which we cannot tell to do that which is very telling - which causes people to recognize that we have been with Jesus.
To have had a transforming experience, is to have a spirit within which empowers us to live as those who know we are loved by God. And that means someone else is going to be better off!
Tuesday, February 3, 2015
Feb. 8, 2015 5th Sunday of Epiphany
Mark 1:29-39
29 And immediately he left the synagogue, and entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. 30 Now Simon's mother-in-law lay sick with a fever, and immediately they told him of her. 31 And he came and took her by the hand and lifted her up, and the fever left her; and she served them. 32 That evening, at sundown, they brought to him all who were sick or possessed with demons. 33 And the whole city was gathered together about the door. 34 And he healed many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons; and he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him. 35 And in the morning, a great while before day, he rose and went out to a lonely place, and there he prayed. 36 And Simon and those who were with him pursued him, 37 and they found him and said to him, "Every one is searching for you." 38 And he said to them, "Let us go on to the next towns, that I may preach there also; for that is why I came out." 39 And he went throughout all Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and casting out demons.
“Alone - To Pray”
Jesus needed to get away from it all. To be alone. To pray. To keep in touch with himself, his purpose, and his Father who sent him. This was no game he was playing. He needed this to stay on target!
This is what prayer is, at its deepest level. It is being with God, and letting the energy which pours forth from God renew us, as pure love can.
Meditation - and eastern art - is a tool of prayer.
Silence - a lost art is prayer too deep for words.
Perhaps our new motto should be: “Don’t just do something, sit there!”
Be with God at the deepest level of our being, in solitude and silence.
Henri Nouwen, a Catholic theologian of renown, suggests that solitude - time alone with God - helps us get in touch with a oneness with all people, which leads to less judgment and more compassion on our part.
“In solitude we realize that nothing human is alien to us, that the roots of all conflict, war, injustice, cruelty, hatred, jealousy, and envy are deeply anchored in our own heart! In solitude our heart of stone can be turned into a heart of flesh, a rebellious heart into a contrite heart, and a closed heart into a heart that can open itself to all suffering people in a gesture of solidarity.” The Way Of The Heart, p. 20
Mark 1:29-39
29 And immediately he left the synagogue, and entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. 30 Now Simon's mother-in-law lay sick with a fever, and immediately they told him of her. 31 And he came and took her by the hand and lifted her up, and the fever left her; and she served them. 32 That evening, at sundown, they brought to him all who were sick or possessed with demons. 33 And the whole city was gathered together about the door. 34 And he healed many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons; and he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him. 35 And in the morning, a great while before day, he rose and went out to a lonely place, and there he prayed. 36 And Simon and those who were with him pursued him, 37 and they found him and said to him, "Every one is searching for you." 38 And he said to them, "Let us go on to the next towns, that I may preach there also; for that is why I came out." 39 And he went throughout all Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and casting out demons.
“Alone - To Pray”
Jesus needed to get away from it all. To be alone. To pray. To keep in touch with himself, his purpose, and his Father who sent him. This was no game he was playing. He needed this to stay on target!
This is what prayer is, at its deepest level. It is being with God, and letting the energy which pours forth from God renew us, as pure love can.
Meditation - and eastern art - is a tool of prayer.
Silence - a lost art is prayer too deep for words.
Perhaps our new motto should be: “Don’t just do something, sit there!”
Be with God at the deepest level of our being, in solitude and silence.
Henri Nouwen, a Catholic theologian of renown, suggests that solitude - time alone with God - helps us get in touch with a oneness with all people, which leads to less judgment and more compassion on our part.
“In solitude we realize that nothing human is alien to us, that the roots of all conflict, war, injustice, cruelty, hatred, jealousy, and envy are deeply anchored in our own heart! In solitude our heart of stone can be turned into a heart of flesh, a rebellious heart into a contrite heart, and a closed heart into a heart that can open itself to all suffering people in a gesture of solidarity.” The Way Of The Heart, p. 20
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