First Sunday after Christmas

First Sunday after Christmas

12/29/2024 

    Welcome back friends. We have arrived at the first Sunday after Christmas. Buckle in because today we are going to be exploring a vast topic. We are going to start to dig a little deeper into our discussion of the nature of God, and try and understand a little more what is being referred to when we talk about the Trinity. But we are also going to be introducing some terms and ideas that come from outside the western, Christian way of thinking. My hope at the end of today's reading to have successfully introduced what I think the Bible teaches about the nature of God and about the universe, His creation.

    As always you can find a link to all of today's readings at the bottom of the post. Today we are going to be focusing on the Gospel reading, John 1:1-18. We will also refer back to Deuteronomy (not part of this week's reading) as I try to expand on the message in the Gospel reading.

    The Gospel of John starts out much differently than the other 3 Gospels. Instead of recounting Jesus' lineage or reviewing a prophecy about Jesus or his cousin John, the 4th Gospel tackles a much deeper and richer aspect of History. It starts with "In the Beginning was the word." However, John is not talking about the beginning of his Gospel, he is talking about the beginning of the Universe. He is speaking about the beginning of time, as we understand and live it, when all of the universe was created. And when John says "the Word" he is referring to Jesus himself. Jesus, the man who John followed for about 3 years until he was crucified by the Roman authority, was the Word, and he was there "in the beginning". 

    The second sentence of the opening verse pushes our understanding even further. The rest of verse one says "The word was with God, and the Word was God." So here we are deep in the discussion of who or what is God and what does it mean when we say that God is a Trinity. Because here in the opening verse of the Gospel of John we are faced with the Word, who is Jesus, was with God, and was God. So there is a God, let's say "the Father", who Jesus was with. But also, don't forget, Jesus is himself God. So there we have individual 1 and 2 of the Trinity. Where is the third "person"? 

    Let's take a quick look at verse 3, and then a look at Genesis 1:2. Verse 3 says "All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being." Now if we have a look back at Genesis, we see who was at work carrying out the words being spoken by God. It reads "And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters". Right there in the second verse of the first book of the Bible we are introduced to the third aspect of God, the Holy Spirit. The Word, Jesus, God the Almighty, and the Spirit of God were all there at the creation and all being recounted here in John's Gospel. The stage is being set for us to grapple with the very Nature of God, while at the same time we are being given a deep look at Jesus, the incarnate, so we can come to understand our salvation.

    Now I am going to put a pin in this topic, the Trinity, and introduce some ideas from a different religious tradition. I am going to introduce 3 different words and try and give a general definition for each. It is very important to state that I am not trying to create a 1 to 1 mapping between the 3 aspects of God that we find in the Trinity and these 3 terms. In my opinion they are related concepts, and I do not think the number 3 is an accident, but they are not equivalent concepts. The 3 concepts are Prana, Akasha and Prakriti. These words come from the Sanskrit language and are key terms in Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism, although each teaching has its unique take for each term.

    First let's look at Prana. Prana can be translated to "life Force", "Vital energy", or "breath". The simplest way to think of Prana is to think of it as the very breath that you breath, without which you could not survive. On a deeper and more spiritual level Prana is the vital element that animates and sustains all life. 

    Next we will look at Akasha. Akasha is also a Sanskrit word that is often translated at "ether" or "sky". It is a vast expanse of the universe as well as the essence of all everything. Akasha is also considered to be the origin of sound. The Akasha is the subtle, fine medium that allows for the existence p of all things.

        So that brings us to the third term. Prakriti is the fundamental substance from which the universe is formed. Prakriti is thought to be in constant change. It is in permanent flux, always in motion is the space provided by Akasha, guided and powered by the Prana.

So these two things Prana and Akasha I would like to present to you as aspects of God. Akasha is the vast space that God holds.  Prana is the divine power of God. It is the Prana, moving in and through the Akasha that gives rise to all the forms of Prakriti that we experience. The Power of Prana expands and animates the invisible material and makes it visible to us. We may want to think of the Akasha as everything that we find in an atom and as Prana as the force that pulls those atoms together. The result is the world we see, the ever changing Prakriti.

    So how is Prana, Akasha and Prakriti in any way related to the Trinity. The answer that I would give you is they both give us a picture to use to struggle with to understand the nature of God. God is no more an atom than he is a father or a burning bush. These are words we use to capture some aspect or characteristic of God when we want to try and provide a label that we can understand. But when we are speaking in Christian terms we always have to come back to the truth that God is beyond our ability to understand. Just as a vast divine ether empowered by breath is beyond our ability to understand. But we can view these different pictures to try and grasp God.

    And why would we do that? Why do we need to understand anything about God? Because we are called to be in relationship with Him. Our highest and deepest calling is to know the one who created us. Each of us will find that after all the fun, all the work, all the rewards, and all the suffering we can experience we still just have a simple longing. A longer that we may not be able to describe or understand. That longing is the longing to connect with God. God is the source of all creation. If we consider God to be Akasha and the Prana, then he is not only the source, but also the material essence and sustaining power behind and within all creation. And we long to relate to that creator.

    In the future we are going to look more at the idea of God, being the material substance that makes up all of his creation. And if that is true then what does that mean about each of us, and about all the other living and non-living things in the universe around us. But that is for another day. 

    For today I will close by taking us back to the Gospel of John, verse 4 "in him was life, and the life was the light of all people." We are all looking for the light. The light that will lead us in the right direction. The light that gives us the strength and motivation to continue. It is the light that helps us move forward even when we fear that the darkness of the world may be closing in around us and be too great for us to endure. The Light of the world has arrived. He shines for us. He shines in us. He is the power that sustains us, our very breath. All we have to do is reach out and take hold of even the faintest light that we can see, and the power we need will be there.

Thanks for reading.

David

Want to know why I am writing these articles? Look here.

You can find all of the readings for today at this link.

https://www.episcopalchurch.org/lectionary/christmas-1/

Advent 4

 

Advent 4

December 22, 2024

    This week is the final week of advent. If you would like to read all of the scripture from today's reading you can find it here. Today's we are going to make a topic shift as Advent draws to a close. For the first 3 weeks of advent the scripture has focused on preparing the way for the Messiah. Last week we zoomed in on John the Baptist and his message to those who came out into the wilderness to hear him preach. This week we are go to take a deeper look not at the message of those preparing the way, or even the message of Jesus himself, we are going to take a look at the final messenger himself, Jesus. Not just Jesus the man, or Jesus the soon to be born infant, we are going to be looking at God. In this article we are going to look at the the many ways that he is talked about in the reading for today.

    We are going to walk through the Gospel passage in Luke 1. We are going to take the longer route and cover verses 39-55. The passage opens with Mary, the mother of Jesus, showing up at the house of her cousin Elizabeth. Elizabeth is about 3 months farther into her pregnancy.  Verse 41 says "When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the child leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit." The Holy Spirit, is not just a mystical feeling that Elizabeth experienced, that name refers specifically to the Lord God making himself know in the world. That is the Spirit that hovered over the earth at the time of creation. It is the Spirit that appeared as fire in a bush to Moses in the desert. It is the Spirit that has inspired God's prophets for generations. But it is a not a servant of God, who does God's work and it is not a messenger of God who brings his word. The Holy Spirit is God in it's deepest nature. This is mystery of the Trinity. One God, that presents its self as 3 unique and distinct "persons" but all are God in its totality. 

    Now this message could very quickly take a turn into the topic of the Trinity and never return to true point of our fourth and final advent message. That is not what I want to do today, but it is a topic we will see again and again, because the nature of God, and our ability to understand It, and relate with It is the entire point. But for today lets just take a minute to talk about the Trinity, with the plan to come back and dig deeper in the future. To talk about the Trinity we have to start with one hard and immutable fact. God is one, and he is indescribable, unnamable, unchangeable and eternal. I promise that in the future we are going to look at every one of those adjectives and try and understand how they apply to God, and what that means for us. Today we are just going to list them, and know they are just the very start of the list, before returning to the fact that God is one. There is one God. We can say God or He or Him or She or It. God is not offended because God is outside of any label that we can possibly try to put on Him. I almost always default to Him. Not because I think God was a man in heaven but because that is what I grew up hearing. I don't like to use It because that feels like making God a thing. But maybe that is the best because go is not just a thing he is everything thing. God is one, and from him was all the universe and world created.

    So if God is One, then what is the Trinity. The Trinity is the way the Bible and humanity has tried to understand the unknowable that is God. The Bible identified 3 primary "modes" or "manifestations" of God to the world. I hesitate to use words like modes because they can so easily create simplifications in our mind. We may begin to think that God just picks a "mode" that he needs for a task and takes it on. Then changes back to something else when he is ready. But this is for to simplistic a way to think about God. But again, for today, we are going to draw some limits around out discussion of the Trinity so lets keep moving. 

    The first and most often thought of form of God is often thought of in Christianity as "The Father". He is the Lord. The second is the Holy Spirit, who filled Elizabeth when Mary arrived. The third aspect of the Trinity is Jesus, the humane incarnated son. What I want to stress about these 3 aspects of God today are they are all God. They are all distinct from one another. They are all eternally existent. They are in relationship with each other. But, God is one. One God in 3 persons, that is the mystery of the Trinity.

    Now back to Luke's Gospel. In Luke 43 Elizabeth shouts "And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me?" This word, Lord, is not a word a simple ruler or even a King, but for God. Here we have Elizabeth introducing us to the babe in the womb of Mary, Jesus, as her Lord. What she is declaring is the third aspect of the Trinity, the incarnate son, Jesus. To this Mary replies "My Soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior". Here we have Mary rejoicing in the first aspect of the trinity, the Lord and Father, because it was He who brought this blessing to her. She also goes on to call Him her Savior. We often speak about Jesus as the savior, and we are not wrong to do so, but here Mary is speaking  about the Father aspect of God and calls him her Savior. This is part of the difficulty in understanding the Trinity. Passages like this can lead us to think God is "sometimes the Father" and "Sometimes the Son" but we have to remember that that is a simplification that may make it easier to understand but can also strip away the richness of the doctrine of the Trinity. The understanding of the true nature of God is the key to understanding the kingdom of God.

    So in our passage from Luke we see Elizabeth and Mary speaking about the Holy Spirit, the Lord, and the Savior. We are shown the 3 aspects of the Trinity as a ground work for our future understanding. The end of the verse takes a turn and it starts to talk about what life is going to be like for man under the rule of the "Mighty One" that is coming. The passage speaks of mercy and strength. It refers to the humbling of the proud and the feeding of the hungry. In other words it is talking about the coming kingdom of God that we read about in the first 3 weeks of advent. And it is making clear that Jesus, the babe still in the womb, is the final messenger that is going to come and bring the kingdom into existence.

    In week 2 of advent Malachi told us that the purpose of the refining fire was to cleanse the soul of the sacrifices until they were able to present offerings to the Lord in Righteousness. Malachi told us it was about the heart and soul of the sacrifice, and he said nothing about the significance of the sacrifice itself. In light of this I am going to give the last verse of today's epistle reading, Hebrews 10:10, and then give it again with an edit. It reads "And it is by God's will that we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all." However, based on the lessons from John the Baptist and Malachi, might it have simply read "And it is by God's will that we have been sanctified through the offering of Jesus Christ once for all." Only 3 words have change in the second sentence "of the body" but how much do those words change our understanding. Is it God's will that we have been sanctified because "the body of Jesus Christ" was sacrificed? Or, is it God's will that we have been sanctified because of "the offering of Jesus Christ".  

    I believe it is the latter. Jesus came as the messenger who was refined. Pure as any silver or gold that man could prepare. He was righteous in his very nature, because he was God. Since he was the well prepared and righteous one, that made him alone worthy of making a sacrifice to the Lord. It was his making of the sacrifice on our behalf that was enough to sanctify us. However, what could he sacrifice? He was God, in the process of making a sacrifice to God. What aspect of the creation of God could possibly be worthy to be laid on the alter before God, by God, but God himself. Jesus sacrificed himself because their was nothing else worthy to be placed on the alter, but Jesus sanctified us by the act of being the righteous one, sacrificing on our behalf.

    This is why we are called to sacrifice ourselves. This is why Jesus said we are to take up our crosses as he did. The price has been paid by the One and only person who was truly worthy and righteous and could make an offering to God. That ended the call to sacrifice, that moved us beyond the Jewish system. That made us whole. But Jesus did not leave us and say it was good enough. He called us to continue to sit before the refiners fire so that we too could be purified. His expectation was that we to could be cleaned and refined and made worthy of making an offering to God. He also knew that if ever we were cleansed then we would need something to offer. We would need something worthy not only of God, who we stood before, but worthy of ourselves in our righteous condition. So he told us to prepare ourselves to make the offering and then to offer ourselves in the process.

    We are in the presence of God and we have been given the opportunity to worship him for eternity. We have been sanctified by the one who was worthy to make a sacrifice to God on our behalf, but we are invited to prepare ourselves. To cleanse ourselves. To submit to the scrubbing and the refining so that we can be made ready and we can make our offering in righteousness. And if we get there to the alter, before God, standing in righteousness, we would dare not place anything less then ourselves before Him.     

Thanks for reading.

David

Want to know why I am writing these articles? Look here.

You can find all of the readings for today at this link.

https://www.episcopalchurch.org/lectionary/advent-4c/

Advent 3

 

Advent 3

December 15, 2024

Have you ever encountered a truly skilled salesman? Someone who speaks smoothly, anticipating your questions before you ask them. A smooth salesman knows how to read his customer and knows just what to say to put any doubts they may have aside. On the downside, a salesman like this can be a little loose with facts, or a little creative with the details they are sharing. Their goal is to sell you something and they know how to use the emotional, financial and social buttons that can help them finalize that sale.

John the Baptist was not that kind of guy.  He certainly did not see himself as a salesman to begin with, but as someone with a message. When it came to that message he was straight to the point. In this week's gospel passage in Luke:3-18 we begin with John speaking to the crowd by saying “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” John was not making any effort to craft a message that would entice the casual listener.  John had been given the task of being the messenger who would prepare the way for Jesus to begin his ministry. His method was firm and direct. He shared the truth that God had given him, and it was because of the truth of that message, and not the delivery of John, that the people surged forward to be baptized.

In the very next verse John begins to set the expectations that exist for those who want to follow his message. He also makes short work of any claim of salvation by heritage that anyone in the crowd may be holding onto. Verse 8 starts by stating “Bear fruits worthy of repentance”. The expectation is clear, not just repent, but repent in such a way that the fruits of your life change. John is not speaking a message about beliefs only. He makes it clear that the fruits of those believe are to be visible. Then he gives a warning, still in verse 8, “Do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our ancestor’; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham.” This doesn’t mean that the children of Abraham were not special and set apart. It does mean that just being set apart is not enough. God is not looking for people who are aware of His kingdom, he is looking for people who are actively producing fruit in it.

His message is clear, despite being “children of Abraham” if a person does not produce fruit, he will be cast aside. So what are we to, they ask. Here we get to the heart of the message of both John and Jesus. First and foremost the response they get meets then directly where they are. They are not told to change one single thing about themselves before they are to begin bearing fruit for the kingdom. He says in verse 11 “Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none; and whoever has food must do likewise”. He is simply telling them to love their neighbor. To share with them and treat them as they would treat any family member. He does not say, start a coat drive, or build a food pantry, he just says do what you can, with what you have for those who are in need. A simpler message can not be found any other part of the Gospel.

He then gets questioned by particular people. Some of these people would have been very unpopular in their time (and possible now). The tax collector and the soldier both ask what they must do. His answer is simple, and again focuses on where they are at that moment. He does not tell either that they need to abandon their job even though he knows both jobs give them the power to abuse people. He does not say a tax collector can never repent and bear fruit. Instead, he says “Collect no more than the amount prescribed for you.” In other words, treat people fairly. John, like Jesus after him, recognized the government's authority, and even their right to tax. He tells those with that power to treat people fairly and not to cheat them in order to line their own purse. In other words he tells them to show love. His answer is similar to the soldiers. They are not instructed to abandon the government that they serve. He simply tells them to treat the people fairly during the course of doing their duty. The fruits of the repentant tax collector or soldier can be seen simply in the fairly treated citizen. 

So here John is the messenger preparing the way for Jesus, and he is doing so by sharing the same kind of message that Jesus will share throughout his ministry.  Repent what you are doing but stay where you are. Love your neighbor. Don’t take advantage of others. These are the key pieces of the messages of both John and Jesus.

Now the last few versus of our passage today change focus from talking to the people about themselves and begins to talk about Jesus. Luke 17 says “His Winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.” Now when we first here this passage, if we have much evangelical exposure to the gospels we think first and foremost of the “unquenchable fire” of Hell being made ready to burn the sinner amongst us. We think of judgment. We may even think about the separating of the sheep and goats. However, I don’t believe this is at all what John is talking about. 

First, let’s have a look at the difference between judgment between sheep and goats and between wheat and chaff. Sheep and goats are both animals unto themselves. Both living things are distinct from one another. A goat is not a sheep, can’t ever become a sheep. In other passages about judgment when it talks about separating sheep and goats the passage is talking about two different things being judged and separated based on those differences. This passage is about wheat. Wheat is the living thing being talked about. Not wheat and corn or wheat and grass, but just wheat. So in this analogy every person is a grain of wheat. 

Why is this important? Because in this passage John is talking to everyone and everyone who hears him is wheat. Wheat is the fruit that is being harvested and every person is producing fruit. Producing fruit was the entire reason that John was telling the crowd to repent.  Not to be “good” or “holy” but fruitful. And the unquenchable fire is not coming to burn up some of the wheat and leave other grains of wheat untouched. That is picture of judgment and hell for those who “deserve” it. But here every single piece of wheat is facing the winnowing fork. Every stalk is being tossed in the air and exposed to the threshing. Every grain of wheat is being separated from its stalk, and broken out of its hull.  The judgment is not for the unrepentant grains, it is for all the grains. For every grain of wheat, just like every person, has something it is clinging to that it does not need.

The unquenchable fire is a purifier. Stalks and husks, while they may stick to the grains a long time, are not very strong.  It does not take much heat to totally consume of dry stalk of wheat, once all the grains have been separated from it. John is telling the crowd that Jesus is coming to separate and refine the wheat. The wheat is the people. But Jesus is not coming to separate this group of people from that group. He is coming amongst the people to separate the chaff that holds on to each person, from the grain of value that they truly are before God, and before man.

The Judgment John is telling about is not about judging one man against another and selecting the better. No Jesus is not coming to pick out the best amongst men and shame the rest. He is coming to touch each and every man. He wants to reach out to them and touch them, and then to help them to see the chaff that exists in their life. The straws and hulls that obscure the spirit of God from shining inside them and reaching the outside world. He comes as the unquenchable fire, not to burn the damned soul in hell, but to free each soul from the chaff of the world that clings to them.

The unquenchable fire of Jesus is still at work in the world. It is at work this very day and wants to work with you to free you from the things that hold you back and wants to help you become the valuable fruit that you were created to be. 

Thanks for reading.

David

Want to know why I am writing these articles? Look here.

You can find all of the readings for today at this link.

https://www.episcopalchurch.org/lectionary/advent-3c/

Advent 2

Advent 2

December 8, 2024

The second Sunday of Advent has arrived. This week we continue to think about the arrival of Jesus. If you would like to read all of this week’s scriptures you can find them here: https://www.episcopalchurch.org/lectionary/advent-2c/. Our discussion this week is going to look primarily at the passages from Malachi and Luke.

Last week our Gospel reading came directly from the mouth of Jesus as he spent time talking about the kingdom of God. This week our Gospel passage is about John son of Zechariah and his role in preparing the way. He was preparing the way for Jesus directly, but he was also preparing the way for all of mankind to encounter the kingdom of God. In the passage from Luke the words of Isaiah are used to describe the mission and message of John. Luke 3:4-5 reads in part, “The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every Mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth;” I think this passage has a double meaning.

The first meaning is speaking of the path that Jesus the Messiah shall walk. It is speaking to the people, and the creation itself, to prepare the way for the arrival of Jesus. Make the path straight and the valleys and mountains smooth is a directive to prepare the landscape, the world, for the arrival. It speaks to things that man can have some control over, like is the street or trail clear and passable. It also speaks of things that are far outside the control of man.  Especially outside the possibility of something that man can prepare quickly.  Given enough time and energy a valley can be filled or a mountained leveled, but it could not be done immediately at the word of John, or any man. So this part of the instruction is speaking of things beyond human capability, or understanding. However, while we can not change the landscape of the world, we have control over the landscape of our hearts. Is the path to our heart smooth and open, or is it congested.  Is it filled with greed or envy or anger, or some other thing that can hinder Jesus’ approach. John is telling the people that the Messiah is coming not just to the city, but to them, personally, and they must make ready the path.

The Second meaning is not the path Jesus will walk, but the path that God himself has set out for us. From the time of Exodus the words of God have been clear. Keep to the path, not turning to the right or the left. That path he is speaking about is the path that he has created and given to us. That path leads to only one place, into deep fellowship with him. So John is not only calling out to the people to clear a path in themselve for the Savior to follow but also for them to evaluate the path they are walking. He is reminding them that God has set out a path and told them to turn not to the right or the left but to follow the path of God.

Now this path of God is not a physical thing. If it were it would have physical lefts and rights. The world we live in is full of obstructions and challenges that must be navigated. Oftentimes that navigation requires that we swerve our path in order to proceed. This is why we must understand where the physical and metaphorical meet, and where they are separate.  While the path of God is straight and true, that certainly does not mean that it is short or direct. It can be the twists and turns that we encounter that build our character and prepare for the mission that we are on. A road full of turns and challenges may be the path God has set for us, and taking the straight route could be us missing God for a time.

So why is John talking so much about the path, literal or metaphorical? Does it matter how we get there, as long as we arrive at the destination? I would say most definitely it does. Arriving at the right place with the wrong tools or without enough experience to accomplish the task before you can be just as dangerous to our journey as not arriving at all. 

Now, let us have a look at Malachi and the message he has for Israel in today's reading, chapter 3 verses 1-4. Since the passage is short I am just going to share it all from the NRSV translation.

1 See, I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple. The messenger of the covenant in whom you delight—indeed, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts. 2But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap; 3he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the descendants of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, until they present offerings to the Lord in righteousness. 4Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord as in the days of old and as in former years.

So while this is Malachi speaking he is giving a prophetic message from God.  Malachi is warning his hearers that the Lord is sending his messenger, and the purpose of that visit is to prepare them to be worthy to make an offering to the Lord. The messenger comes like a refiner’s fire and fullers’ soap. He has the tools required to cleanse those who receive him. 

The messenger does not come to be the sacrifice, or even to make the sacrifice. He comes to make those that receive him ready to give their own sacrifice. The passage goes on to point out that those who receive the messenger, and his refining, will be able to make an offering pleasing to the Lord as in the days of old. He is not coming to create new worshippers, but to restore the current generation to a worthy position.

And how does this cleansing take place? While the text uses stark images like a refiners fire, or a scrubbing with a fullers’ soap it does not speak about the people being either burned or scrubbed. In fact the only tool that the messenger is going to use to prepare the people is simply His message. Just as John is called to be one in the desert calling out to the people, so is the messenger that Malachi speaks about just coming with his words to prepare the way.

  

What is required to bring the people back to righteousness, to restore them to the status of former years is simply for them to hear, and respond. Be sure, hearing alone is not enough to restore the people. Neither those who listened to Malachi nor those who listened to John were transformed by the hearing. They were invited to hear and respond. That response, in the case of John, was going to him in the Jordan river and being baptist.  Not because the baptism alone was any more cleansing then the message, but because the baptism was the first step of heartfelt response. 

The passage in Luke concludes by telling us “6and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.“.  The salvation of God here is the same thing that Jesus was talking about last week. To have the salvation of God is to live in God’s kingdom. Malachi and John shared a single purpose. They came to declare the coming of the messenger, whose message would have the power to cleanse them like a refiner's fire. It would have the strength to fill the valleys and level to mountains in order to make the path of God straight. To help the hearers find and walk the path of God into the kingdom of God. It was not Malachi or John’s calling to whip the hearers into shape. To hold their feet to the fire until they had their failings burned away. Their calling, our calling, is to make known the message of the Messenger. A messenger who has the great power to burn and cleanse, but who comes instead to shine the light and show the way. He brings the message that restores the holiness of the heart that hears the message.

In this second week of advent, we are reminded that Jesus comes as the great messenger. While he comes with great power and authority, he does not come to rule, but to lead and guide. He invites all to hear his voice and then choose to walk the path, not turning right or left, but directly to God. He is showing how that path is to be walked as the living example. He is preparing a way for each of us to be able to stand before the Lord and make an offering in righteousness. We have seen many times God say, He does not need our offering or our sacrifice. It was never about the thing we give God, or his need for it. It has always been about the condition of our heart and our soul as we stand before God to make the offering. Take head of the message of Christ. Walk in his example as you go about your day. Full of love and peace. Slow to anger and full of Grace. That is how we make the path within our own lives straight and smooth. That is how we return to the days of old that were pleasing to God. That is what we are reminded to do on this day, and every day.

Thanks for reading.

David 

Welcome to the New Year.

Advent 1

December 1, 2024

Year C

Welcome to the New year! Isn’t it a bit early you might be saying, but I am not talking about the new Calendar year. I am talking about Advent being the start of the new Church liturgical year. That’s right, the church has a calendar that starts new each year 4 Sunday’s before the Celebration of Christmas.  Each Sunday a celebratory step towards the Great celebration of Christ’s birth.

So first things first, let me make a quick review of the calendar year of the church and about the Lectionary, and then we can get on to discussing this week's reading.  The church calendar is broken up into the following phases.

• Advent - The 4 Sundays before Christmas

• Christmas - One of the 7 principal feasts in celebration of Christs birth

• Epiphany - The celebration of Christs manifestation, his baptism and his Miracle at the wedding feast in Cana, followed by ordinary time until Lent

• Lent - The season of penitence leading up to Easter

• Easter - The resurrection of Jesus and the 40 days that follow

• Pentecost - The Day to remember to coming of the Holy Spirit to the disciples, and all believers

• Ordinary Time - The time after the major celebrations of the life of Jesus, when we are called to walk out our Journey

        I know, that is a lot to take in if you have not ever heard about the Liturgical calendar before. The thing to remember is that the point of the calendar is to organize the scriptures around the significant events each year, to remind us of the roots of our faith, and then spend the remainder of the year helping us to grow into those roots. The Liturgy is not to tie us down nor is it to drag us along. It is there to be a guide to keep us grounded in scripture and to grow us in the kingdom of God.

So that brings us to this first reading of the new year.  To make sure we don’t get bored with the Liturgy, or think we already know everything that God has to teach us, there are actually 4 unique years of Liturgy.  They are called, cleverly, Year A, Year B track 1, Year B track 2, and Year C. If you are asking why year B repeats with just a minor change, that is a great question and maybe in two years when we get to Year B track 1 we can explore that in detail.  But since today we are starting Year C, I think we will just gloss over Year B for now. Why am I talking about all this stuff instead of just writing about this weeks reading? Simple, I want to set the groundwork for what will be a 156 week investment. Each week for the next 156, I plan to publish a short article every Sunday morning discussion the Liturgy for the day.  So if you find this remotely interesting, check back and I promise to get to it a little faster next time.

Here we are, week 1 of year C.  If you would like to have a look at all the scripture for today here is a link  https://www.episcopalchurch.org/lectionary/advent-1c/. Otherwise just keep reading along and I will bring out the points that I am going to cover as we go.  

The Gospel reading to today comes from Luke chapter 21, verses 25 - 36.  Luke chapter 20 is during the week between Jesus’ grand entrance into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday and his Crucifixion on Friday. The entirety of chapter 20 is a collection of small interactions Jesus is having with his disciples or a larger crowd.  The first interaction in our reading, verse 25 - 28 has a mystical ring to it.  Jesus begins this short section by talking about the signs in the sun, the moon and the stars. He goes on to speak about fear and foreboding and the “powers of heaven” being shaken. Seems to be a short passage charged with symbolism. We will come back and unpack a little of the symbolism in a bit.

The next passage, verses 29 - 36, seem to be speaking in more practical terms. He is speaking about the trees and how the people are familiar with the leaves. He reminds them how everyone, when they see the leaves, are able to know the season of the year is changing. This doesn’t seem nearly as magical as signs in the sun and the moon. However the very first sentence states “Then he told them a parable:”. Why would the Bible be so quick to point out this was a parable, when the meaning seems so clear. A parable is a short story that illustrates a lesson. The passage goes on to say “as soon as they sprout leaves you can see for yourself and know that summer is already near.”.  This does not seem to be a very deep lesson.

Can we look a little deeper? What does it mean to say that summer is already near? Where has summer been before now? We tend to look at the world as a very small place. We may think when the heat begins to fade and the leaves turn colors and autum arrives that Summer ends. From our perspective summer is no more, we have come to fall and will soon face winter.  But as this passage says, we see the leaves returning and we know summer is near. In our mind we think nearness means that summer will soon start.  But this isn’t exactly true.  Summer never stopped, it never came to an end, it just moved passed our small view of the world. In reality summer never ends. Summer just makes it’s way around the earth.  While we are welcoming in the new leaves and thinking summer is about to arrive, someone else far away is seeing the leaves in their trees change colors and fall away.

I think that is a the deeper lesson we can take from this parable. Simply put Summer is not beginning, it is just arriving from another part of the world. The difference between seeing the seasons starting and ending, based on our position on the earth and what we can witness, vs the idea that summer and winter always exist on the earth, just not at the same place that we find ourselves. The very next verse, verse 31, ties pack to the symbolic events from verses 25 - 36 and compares them to seeing the leaves.  It says “So also, when you see these things taking place,  you know that the kingdom of God is near”. These things are the singes and events he was talking about, and instead of being like leaves pointing to the arrival of summer these more mystical things point to the arrival of the “kingdom of God”.

I think most people when they read this they get a vision of Jesus’ grand return.  The end of the earthly kingdoms of man.  It is a great vision of streets of gold and pearly gates. But is that the only thing it can mean?  Before we try to answer that question let’s take just a minute to look at another question.

What is “the kingdom of God”.  This is something that Jesus has been speaking about since his ministry began. What is this kingdom?  Does it exist now or is it coming in the future? How do we know? I would say that long before there was man, there was God.  God created the universe and then brough man into it.  God’s kingdom was in the universe long before the first kingdom of man ever took shape. 

We live in a time when our lives are ruled by a multitude of overlapping kingdoms. We are faced with political kingdoms, economic kingdoms, and social kingdoms, the list is endless, but we may not think of them as kingdoms.  Each of them are areas of life that we have to deal with.  There are people or groups who hold power in each of these kingdoms.  We may be amongst the powerful in one area of our life, but feel like a peasant in another. We may be so busy in our work life that we don’t even realize there are social and political battles raging around us.  Or, perhaps we are so focussed on our family that we hardly notice what going on with our friends, something that may have dominated our thinking earlier in life.

All these different kingdoms are going on around us all the time, and the kingdom of God is no different.  From the time of creation God’s kingdom has been in motion and we may spend much of our time never even noticing. Much like our tiny view of the seasons stopping and starting based on our experiences, the kingdom of God is Much larger than our own experiences.  

That is why I believe we should not sit back waiting for a future “kingdom of God” to begin.  We need not look to the sky expecting a triumphant and mystical return of Jesus, but instead we are to look at every sign around us.  Just as the leaves indicate the return of summer to our area, so miracles and blessings of life indicate the presence of God, and his kingdom in our lives. The kingdom of God does not mean the end of man or the end of earth. It is right here with us and we can choose to make it out highest priority. 

Now let's go back to the more mystical, less practical, first party of the reading. Verse 28 reads “Now when these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near”. As a reminder “these things” refers to signs in the stars, shaking in heaven, and Jesus “coming on Clouds”, all pretty mystical stuff. But can these things “happen” in a practical way in our lives, that we can see and react to?  Can the signs in the stars be us becoming aware of the kingdom of God around us instead of living in one of the many earthly kingdoms that compete for our attention?  Stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near, may be a much more personal directive then we understand it to be. It may not be saying that the world is ending and Christ is returning at all.  It may be saying that we are to stand up and notice the kingdom of God as it passes us by yet again and when we do our redemption begins.  The kingdom does not start when we see it, but our participation in it can start or be renewed, when we take notice of the kingdom.

Today may be the day, not that Christ returns and the world ends, but that we have an encounter with the kingdom that causes us to take notice. It is in the noticing of God’s spirit that we are shaken to our core. That shaking does not mean the world is ending, but it may mean that we are able to step out of the everyday human kingdoms that are so eager to occupy our minds and step into God’s kingdom. It is where we came from, it is where we have been invited to live, and according to Jesus in Luke 17:21 “The kingdom of God is within you”. Right here where we are, even more than that, right inside of what we are is where the kingdom of God can be found. We just have to stop noticing the signs of the kingdoms of man and look for the signs of the kingdom of God.

Thanks for reading.

David

Want to know why I am writing these articles? Look here.

You can find all of the readings for today at this link.

https://www.episcopalchurch.org/lectionary/advent-1c/

Becoming Episcopal & Writing through the Lectionary

  

    This past spring, after 2 years in Chatham, we moved back to Carlinville. We bought a house on South Broad and right across the street is this great little Episcopal church built in the 1830's. Right away I felt like we should visit.  It didn't take long for Cindy to agree and on Palm Sunday we attended our first service.  Since that initial visit we have only missed a couple of Sunday's.  We are now faithful attenders to the Morning Coffee and Context Bible study each Sunday as well as the Sunday morning service and coffee hour.  Cindy and I help with the Altar Guild about 1 weekend per month.

    In addition to attending services and helping with the alter we are both looking for other ways to get connected.  Cindy has started a women's book club that has 3 or 4 people attend each month.  We both took part in the hanging of the Greens this past Sunday to prepare for advent and Christmas. Most significantly we completed a 5 week course with Father Carter and now await a visit from the Bishop where we will go through the service to be accepted as members of the congregation.

    Since the start of that 5 week class I have been spending 20 minutes each morning reading the Morning Prayer servicer from the Daily Office and then meditating for the balance of the time.  Last week I began sitting for 15 minute around lunch to read the Noon Prayer from the Office, and then meditate.  This week I plan to add the evening prayer between 4 and 4:30, before I go upstairs for dinner.  I can already say the Office has become a daily practice for me but I think the inclusion of Noon and Evening prayers is going to deepen that practice a great deal.  

Last week was Proper 29 , the 26th and final week after Pentecost, before Advent starts.  Proper 29 is Christ the King Sunday, and the final week of the Church year.  We just finished Lectionary Year B Track 2 and next week we will begin Lectionary Year C. I have had some experience with the lectionary growing up a Methodist, but it was just something in the background. The Lectionary did not play an obvious role in our services.  I was aware that the scripture each week came from a source, but we didn't really discuss the Lectionary.  

I have grown to have a real connection with the Lectionary and with the Daily office.  The idea that many people around the world are reading the same passages and praying the same prays as I am each day is powerful. Likewise, the idea that pulpits around the world are being illuminated by different speakers making different point all around the same passage of God's work speaks to how significant and alive the word of God truly is. So I feel called to put grow even closer to the Lectionary in the year ahead.

My plan is to read and meditate on each upcoming reading and write a short 4 - 6 page article about each Sunday Lectionary for the entirety of this Church Year.  I plan to write them in a way that I could easily stand up and preach them, not that I have any expectation to do so.  I want to do this, because I want to challenge myself to dig into the word enough to not just think about it, but to be able to speak and write about it each and every week.  There are 52 weeks in the lectionary year.  So after 156 weeks I will have read and written on every Gospel passage that makes up the entire Lectionary.  This is something I want to do.

I write this entry today just to set the tone for what is going to follow.  Every Sunday morning at about 8:45 am I will post my article for that weeks Lectionary readings.  Some weeks may be well presented articles, and some may be little more then scribbled notes, but I am committed to this process for the next 156 weeks. December 1, 2024 will be the beginning of my journey.  However I did get some notes together for last week, which was Christ the King Sunday.  I may post those this week, just as a primer to what lies ahead.

Thanks for Reading,

David