In today's reading, Luke 13: 31-35, we read an interesting tale. Jesus has been doing psychic, emotional and physical healing and teaching. Now he is warned by some Pharisees that King Herod wanted him dead.
Two immediate problems come to mind. First, the Pharisees -- whose used religious authority to acquire personal wealth, power and influence -- were not supportive of Jesus' ministry and his strong attacks on their lack of ethics. They would likely be the last people to warn him of any real danger. Second, Herod was in fact fascinated by Jesus and sought out opportunity to hear him, not snuff him out.
Clearly an informed reading of this story will tell us that the Pharisees are simply trying to scare Jesus into abandoning his ministry. His response, without pointing to their mendacity, asserts his clear intention to proceed with today and tomorrow, and the "third day" when his activity ends in death and resurrection.
Next Jesus points out that he would reach out even to those who reject him. He uses a feminine imaging for God. Jesus, metaphor of God, is like a mother hen gathering her brood to keep them safe. Professor David Zazen, speaking of his time in Tanzania, recounts watching a hen actually display hostility towards a fox who had approached the coop. The surprised fox retreated and the fledgelings came out of hiding and returned to their mother's protection.
Whoever our detractors, our "foxes," may be, God has our back when we go out to do right in the world and will protect us in our life of advancing the Divine Kingdom.
Monday, February 22, 2016
Sunday, February 14, 2016
Lent I: Temptations
The wonderful poet Mary Oliver wrote that "there are so many stories more beautiful than answers." We Episcopalians pride ourselves on being people of the Christian Story and trying to ask the right questions rather than imposing someone's easy answers to life's hard issues.
The tale is told of a man and his son who moved into a house near a canal. Seeing that the water was polluted, the father ordered his son to stay away from the canal. A few days later, the son arrived home carrying a wet bathing suit. The father asked if the son had been to the canal and he admitted it, but noted that he was carrying the suit and, so, gave into temptation and swam. The father asked why he had a bathing suit with him while walking along the canal, and the son replied that he had it with him in case he was tempted! Perhaps many of us have a similar view of resisting temptation.
Jesus today is tempted in the desert for forty days (Jewish code term for a long time.) The gospel of Mark simply tells us that it happened, Matthew embellishes the tale with a three-prong set of grave temptations. In today's gospel reading, Luke (4: 1-13) repeats those three but changes the order of the temptations in order to present last the temptation addressing an issue of special importance in his community.
In the first temptation, Jesus refuses to convert stones into bread. Obviously One who can, and does, change bread and wine into his sacred body and blood could also change rock into loaves of bread. The point, however, is that we are not simply animals for whom satisfaction of physical needs and wants will suffice. We must have the spiritual dimension. Lent reminds us to turn away from self- centred desires to spiritual concerns. Our disciplines of fasting and abstinence keep us on that track.
The second temptation, in Luke's order, finds Satan showing Jesus all the kingdoms of the world. Jesus may have unlimited wealth and power if he will surrender to the Dark Side, but he refuses, reminding us that power must always be exercised for the good of others. That is a hard sell in our reactionary, pseudo-Christian culture. Jesus elsewhere even says that the passion for accumulating wealth is the single greatest danger to one's spiritual health. So now in Lent we find new avenues for the service of others.
In the final temptation, Satan transports Jesus off to the top of the Temple in Jerusalem and there challenges him to jump off the roof, so that God's protection will be shown miraculously by saving him before he hits the pavement. Jesus again survives this temptation, reminding us that we are not to try to force God's hand. God is not our cosmic bellhop or personal servant. God will do what God will do in God's good time. What we do will be fructified according to God's timetable, not ours. We must not attempt to manipulate the Divine for our personal purposes. We must be on God's agenda, exercising patience, and in that we will find blessing this Lent.
To solidify that last point, I close with an ancient Chinese tale. A poor boys' horse is stolen, and when the boy tells his father, the father says "Maybe that is good, maybe that is bad." Next day the boy spots a wild herd of horses, and tells his dad, who says "Maybe that is good, maybe that is bad." On the following day the boy tries to break one of the horses and is lamed. When he hobbles home, the dad comments, "Maybe that is good, maybe that is bad." The next day the Chinese Army comes to conscript all the able-bodied young men to war.
The tale is told of a man and his son who moved into a house near a canal. Seeing that the water was polluted, the father ordered his son to stay away from the canal. A few days later, the son arrived home carrying a wet bathing suit. The father asked if the son had been to the canal and he admitted it, but noted that he was carrying the suit and, so, gave into temptation and swam. The father asked why he had a bathing suit with him while walking along the canal, and the son replied that he had it with him in case he was tempted! Perhaps many of us have a similar view of resisting temptation.
Jesus today is tempted in the desert for forty days (Jewish code term for a long time.) The gospel of Mark simply tells us that it happened, Matthew embellishes the tale with a three-prong set of grave temptations. In today's gospel reading, Luke (4: 1-13) repeats those three but changes the order of the temptations in order to present last the temptation addressing an issue of special importance in his community.
In the first temptation, Jesus refuses to convert stones into bread. Obviously One who can, and does, change bread and wine into his sacred body and blood could also change rock into loaves of bread. The point, however, is that we are not simply animals for whom satisfaction of physical needs and wants will suffice. We must have the spiritual dimension. Lent reminds us to turn away from self- centred desires to spiritual concerns. Our disciplines of fasting and abstinence keep us on that track.
The second temptation, in Luke's order, finds Satan showing Jesus all the kingdoms of the world. Jesus may have unlimited wealth and power if he will surrender to the Dark Side, but he refuses, reminding us that power must always be exercised for the good of others. That is a hard sell in our reactionary, pseudo-Christian culture. Jesus elsewhere even says that the passion for accumulating wealth is the single greatest danger to one's spiritual health. So now in Lent we find new avenues for the service of others.
In the final temptation, Satan transports Jesus off to the top of the Temple in Jerusalem and there challenges him to jump off the roof, so that God's protection will be shown miraculously by saving him before he hits the pavement. Jesus again survives this temptation, reminding us that we are not to try to force God's hand. God is not our cosmic bellhop or personal servant. God will do what God will do in God's good time. What we do will be fructified according to God's timetable, not ours. We must not attempt to manipulate the Divine for our personal purposes. We must be on God's agenda, exercising patience, and in that we will find blessing this Lent.
To solidify that last point, I close with an ancient Chinese tale. A poor boys' horse is stolen, and when the boy tells his father, the father says "Maybe that is good, maybe that is bad." Next day the boy spots a wild herd of horses, and tells his dad, who says "Maybe that is good, maybe that is bad." On the following day the boy tries to break one of the horses and is lamed. When he hobbles home, the dad comments, "Maybe that is good, maybe that is bad." The next day the Chinese Army comes to conscript all the able-bodied young men to war.
Saturday, February 13, 2016
Ash Wednesday
On the evening of Fat Tuesday, the palms from last years' Palm Sunday are burnt and the char used the next day for imposition of ashes. The ritual is deeply rooted in our ancient Jewish heritage. The imposition of ashes on the head, as a sign of human mortality and of personal penance, is described within the Old Testament books of Ezekiel, Judith, and I Maccabees. The Church has continued the practice to this day, applying the ashes while saying, "Remember you are dust, and to dust you shall return."
I find it helpful to reflect on another imposition on the forehead, which is the administration of the chrism -- holy oil created and blessed by the bishop -- at baptism. Having baptised the candidate with water in the name of the Trinity, the priest, administering the oil says, "Your are sealed by the Holy Spirit and marked as Christ's own forever." This serves two purposes: first to signify entering the royal priesthood of all believers (not to diminish the ministerial priesthood) and also as a sign of ownership. In the Roman Empire, the slave was branded on the forehead with the master's symbol, thus saying I belong to my master, and I am also under his protection. [The small cap worn by Lady Liberty on our early US coinage actually represents the cap bestowed when a Roman slave was freed. Thus people would not molest that person based on still having the branding of the forehead.]
The anointing with oil assures the baptised person of belonging to Christ and being under his divine protection. The imposition of ashes says: "Yes, you are but you have screwed up. Repent and return to your Lord!"
I find it helpful to reflect on another imposition on the forehead, which is the administration of the chrism -- holy oil created and blessed by the bishop -- at baptism. Having baptised the candidate with water in the name of the Trinity, the priest, administering the oil says, "Your are sealed by the Holy Spirit and marked as Christ's own forever." This serves two purposes: first to signify entering the royal priesthood of all believers (not to diminish the ministerial priesthood) and also as a sign of ownership. In the Roman Empire, the slave was branded on the forehead with the master's symbol, thus saying I belong to my master, and I am also under his protection. [The small cap worn by Lady Liberty on our early US coinage actually represents the cap bestowed when a Roman slave was freed. Thus people would not molest that person based on still having the branding of the forehead.]
The anointing with oil assures the baptised person of belonging to Christ and being under his divine protection. The imposition of ashes says: "Yes, you are but you have screwed up. Repent and return to your Lord!"
Monday, February 8, 2016
Quinquagesima: Get your Glow on
Several years ago my wife Shelby and I had an opportunity to meet and have a conversation with Archbishop Desmond Tutu. The one thing she and I most remember is how the archbishop literally glowed with the love of God. The few exceptionally holy people I have known have had that suffusion of glow.
In our gospel pericope (Luke 8:28-36) Jesus has taken his Executive Committee -- Peter, James, and John -- up a mountain for a retreat. There Jesus is transfigured; and the apostles see the glow. The context is Sukkoth, the feast of Booths, in which Jews to this day dine and spend time outdoors in a shelter, a sukkah, as a reminder of the years when the Hebrews of old were camped out in the desert enroute Sinai. Jesus is soon flanked by Moses and Elijah, representing the Law and the Prophets, in fulfillment of the expectation that thsee two ancestors would come to attest to the Messiah in his time. Once again, Luke doesn't quite grasp the meaning of a Jewish practice, thinks the booths are shrines, and, so, has Peter proposing to build three: one for Jesus, one for Moses, and one for Elijah. At that moment there is a theophany, as God speaks out from a cloud, endorsing Jesus as Son and the two spiritual ancestors vanish from sight.
Like Moses in our first reading, we may find ourselves beginning to glow from interaction with God. Opportunities are in Word and Sacrament, prayer and devotions, fasting, confession and meditation -- all that two thousand years of Catholic Christianity offer us. If we see Lent as a time to grow closer to God, we too may hear that divine voice assuring us of the Lordship of Jesus, so that with him and in him we can be transfigured into the people God wants us to be -- aglow with his love.
In our gospel pericope (Luke 8:28-36) Jesus has taken his Executive Committee -- Peter, James, and John -- up a mountain for a retreat. There Jesus is transfigured; and the apostles see the glow. The context is Sukkoth, the feast of Booths, in which Jews to this day dine and spend time outdoors in a shelter, a sukkah, as a reminder of the years when the Hebrews of old were camped out in the desert enroute Sinai. Jesus is soon flanked by Moses and Elijah, representing the Law and the Prophets, in fulfillment of the expectation that thsee two ancestors would come to attest to the Messiah in his time. Once again, Luke doesn't quite grasp the meaning of a Jewish practice, thinks the booths are shrines, and, so, has Peter proposing to build three: one for Jesus, one for Moses, and one for Elijah. At that moment there is a theophany, as God speaks out from a cloud, endorsing Jesus as Son and the two spiritual ancestors vanish from sight.
Like Moses in our first reading, we may find ourselves beginning to glow from interaction with God. Opportunities are in Word and Sacrament, prayer and devotions, fasting, confession and meditation -- all that two thousand years of Catholic Christianity offer us. If we see Lent as a time to grow closer to God, we too may hear that divine voice assuring us of the Lordship of Jesus, so that with him and in him we can be transfigured into the people God wants us to be -- aglow with his love.
Tuesday, February 2, 2016
Candlemas: On Obedience and Gratitude
Today is a double-header, both the feast day of the Presentation of Our Lord Jesus Christ in the Temple and also the feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary. In the East, it is the feast of the Meeting of Our Lord with Simeon, also an appropriate appellation, as the three events are portrayed within in the confines of our text (Luke 2: 22-40). Saint Luke is a gentile and often misstates Jewish matters. Today is a good example, as he has Jesus and someone else, either Joseph or Mary, about to be "purified" with him. Not so. Jesus will be redeemed, Mary will be purified, and Joseph is just along for the ride..
Every male child born in Israel had to be dedicated to God in memory of the deliverance of the Israelites in the Egyptian saga, and bought back from God by the family through sacrifice. The requirement was not, as Luke states, two birds. The Law required a yearling lamb and one bird, except that the poor, like Mary and Joseph, could substitute a second bird for a lamb. If the child was also a first-born like Jesus, the family had to deliver five shekels to the priest in the Temple, something Luke also doesn't seem to know. In any event, Jesus is redeemed.
Mary, as a recent birthgiver, had to be purified. After a waiting period of forty days, the woman underwent a water rite of purification and, only then, could touch holy things and be restored to the worshipping community. The practice, with modification, continued into the Church. The 1928 Prayer still contained the rite for "Churching of Women," the rite of purification after childbirth! In the current book, that rite has been replaced with "Thanksgiving for the Birth or Adoption of a Child."
Any knowledgeable Catholic Christian will know that Jesus did not need to be redeemed and his Blessed Mother did not need to be purified. But here we see obedience to the requirements ot the Law as a family value for observant Jews. Likewise, we today are called on to be obedient to God's promptings in our own lives today.
The key part of today's story is the encounter with Simeon. When Mary places Jesus into Simeon's arms, two different dispensations meet and the elderly Simeon is ready to die, having seen the one who is to enlighten gentiles and be a blessing to Jews. And Jesus' nature is further proclaimed by the old prophetess Anna. That reminds me that we Christians ought to be grateful, as Saint Paul says, that we have been grafted onto the Vine of Israel, becoming a new people in a new covenant of love, mediated by Jesus and open to all..
Every male child born in Israel had to be dedicated to God in memory of the deliverance of the Israelites in the Egyptian saga, and bought back from God by the family through sacrifice. The requirement was not, as Luke states, two birds. The Law required a yearling lamb and one bird, except that the poor, like Mary and Joseph, could substitute a second bird for a lamb. If the child was also a first-born like Jesus, the family had to deliver five shekels to the priest in the Temple, something Luke also doesn't seem to know. In any event, Jesus is redeemed.
Mary, as a recent birthgiver, had to be purified. After a waiting period of forty days, the woman underwent a water rite of purification and, only then, could touch holy things and be restored to the worshipping community. The practice, with modification, continued into the Church. The 1928 Prayer still contained the rite for "Churching of Women," the rite of purification after childbirth! In the current book, that rite has been replaced with "Thanksgiving for the Birth or Adoption of a Child."
Any knowledgeable Catholic Christian will know that Jesus did not need to be redeemed and his Blessed Mother did not need to be purified. But here we see obedience to the requirements ot the Law as a family value for observant Jews. Likewise, we today are called on to be obedient to God's promptings in our own lives today.
The key part of today's story is the encounter with Simeon. When Mary places Jesus into Simeon's arms, two different dispensations meet and the elderly Simeon is ready to die, having seen the one who is to enlighten gentiles and be a blessing to Jews. And Jesus' nature is further proclaimed by the old prophetess Anna. That reminds me that we Christians ought to be grateful, as Saint Paul says, that we have been grafted onto the Vine of Israel, becoming a new people in a new covenant of love, mediated by Jesus and open to all..
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