Blinded by the Light

4LentA, Sullivan Park Care Center, March 30, 2014 by Sr Annette Fricke, OP

            William Temple writes, “The man born blind from birth is every man.  For it is a part of that sin of the world which the Lamb of God beareth away that by nature we are blind, until our eyes are opened by Christ the Light of the world.” Jesus is the light of the world and in him there is no darkness at all or as put in this story, “As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”  This story is a story of contrasts: the bright light of Jesus and the darkness of blindness.  Jesus addresses both physical and spiritual blindness.  He also addresses the notion that sin is connected to physical defects.  Some of us have a tendency to feel abandoned by God when we are ill and we say to ourselves, “Why me? Why has this sickness come to me?  Why must I be the one to suffer?  What will become of me?”  That last question in particular is one asked by people who have been severely ill more than one time. The biggest worry for them is, “What if I die this time?” It is important to note that much of the discourse in the gospel text is when Jesus is not present.  Some say this story is a reflection of the early Christian community. Many people were believers in Jesus, but were hiding in fear of the Jewish community.  This account appears to be a story about the early community’s struggle to be a witness to the world around them.  At the same time, the stories of Jesus are continuing to circulate and become a source of comfort in the midst of suffering.

But bringing us further in time into the 21^st century, just what might this story mean to us? Words are used to describe what a person is thinking or doing.  Sometimes we say them to ourselves and sometimes we say them out loud.  We are taught from childhood what is proper in our language and behavior.  We hear people say things like, “That man is fat.”  “That woman is ugly.”  “That person is deaf.”  “That person is blind.”  We also hear meaningless descriptions like, “He has white hair and uses a walker or wheelchair.”  That is meaningless if you live in a skilled nursing or assisted living facility where that describes most men living there.  The problem with descriptions either used to your face or behind your back is that they can be interpreted negatively.  We are aware that in the time of Jesus, there were people who were physically impaired or less able that were not only social outcasts, but were also not allowed to worship in the temple.  Because of their so called deformities, according to the law of Judaism, they were truly seen as somehow less than other people.  If society deems certain groups of people as somehow not worth as much, those people and sometimes their families as well, also learn to feel lesser than others.  Some women feel insecure without a man.  It comes out in conversation when they project that value onto other women by trying to set them up with an eligible male relative or they constantly ask if you have a boyfriend.  They feel that is what makes them happy, so it should also make other women happy.  Other women will say things like, they have always been fat and people never knew when they were pregnant, because they were always fat.  They become preoccupied with being fat to the point that it becomes their whole identity and way of relating to the world.  They become preoccupied with being with a man that widowhood never quite feels right.  The same happens when a person who was fat becomes skinny. 

            That is one of the things this text tells us.  The man born blind, blind all his life has his whole identity, his whole sense of self tied up in what it means to be blind.  As a result, being a beggar is a way of life.  In my line of work, as a nurses’ aide, I don’t like to tell people that I was once a mental health counselor for this very reason.  People know what psychiatrists, psychologists, and counselors do.  It’s something deeper than being the one who sees only your outside body, cleans you from top to bottom, and watches out for your hydration and nutrition.  But if you treat someone as a person, as Jesus did the blind man, they can respond; and that is deeper than accepting the status quo. You are not your diagnoses. That is deeper than an aide who is paid only to do the physical work of an aide. The occupational hazard of being an aide is that people want to know who you are. Residents do not accept a mere robot to care for them even if that is all they are paid to do.  However, I have been counseled by my supervisor to not share personal things, because of the reason that is in this text; it causes arguments and controversy.  Relationships are messy no matter how one goes about it.

            The picture of God we have here in Jesus is that God knows who you are, accepts who you are, and expects you to be the best human you can be. On the surface, we may only see that the man born blind is simply asserting his belief in Jesus’ healing.  He asserts emphatically, “One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.”

            To demonstrate how profound a change it is to go from not seeing to seeing, I offer a true story about a woman who was deaf from birth.  The woman’s name is Joanne.  She is 40 years old and she is from the United Kingdom.  She was born with Usher’s Syndrome, a genetic mutation inherited from her parents. She never heard anything until she had an operation that gave her cochlear implants.  A week after her surgery, she had the implants turned on. Joanne, in a video shot of her sat across from a hospital employee who cautioned that her new sense of hearing might be overwhelming at first. As the worker begins to recite the days of the week, Joanne is moved to tears. Even though after the surgery she was still blind, she reacted further with verbal outbursts of joy when she continued to hear with her own ears another woman’s voice.  After that, she listened to John Lennon, a famous Beatle, singing a popular song.

            Our gospel text is a conversion story to be sure.  It is important to observe that as the blind man who now sees, continues to tell others about once being blind and now seeing.  Notice that each time the man talks about his healing experience and encounter with Jesus, his faith in Jesus grows.  As we draw near to the cross, our stories from the gospel of John get longer and more involved.  We come face-to-face with the arguments for and against Jesus.  Some support Jesus and others mock him.  The healing is there for all to see, it seems beyond denial.  There is a stark contrast between Jesus as the light of the world and the blindness of the Pharisees, those who dare to ask Jesus, “Surely we are not blind, are we?”

            In spite of opposition or the blatant indifference of neighbors, members of the Jewish faith, parents, and the Pharisees, the man is persistent in telling the story about how a man named Jesus brought him his eyesight.  He takes no heed when the emotions of all involved are stirred.  He is vocal about what he sees and hears about Jesus’ action on his behalf.  Jesus intervenes at the end and elicits a simple statement of faith from the man, another who has no name, like the Samaritan woman at the well.

            By nature, we are all blind.  The blind man had never seen just as Joanne had never heard.  To become a Christian is not to recover what was lost, but to receive that which was never possessed, namely, the grace of God. Jesus, Son of God, have mercy. Amen.

Confession in Reverse

Third Sunday, Lent, Cycle A: Sullivan Park Care Center: March 23, 2014“Confession in Reverse”

Last Sunday, we talked about a man named Nicodemus.  Today we will talk about an unnamed woman.  Nicodemus and this woman may or may not have been real people since the other gospels do not mention them.  Nicodemus seems to represent the people of Judah who are Pharisees, strict observers of the law; whereas, this woman is representative of the Samaritans.  The Judeans worshiped in Jerusalem whereas the Samaritans worshiped in a place called Mt Gerizim.  I would guess that you, like me, are more familiar with the Judeans, the worshipping community from which Jesus came.  These stories follow one another in the gospel of John and are quite the opposite of each other.  Nicodemus comes to see Jesus at night, Jesus sees the woman in the middle of the day.  Several people have observed that the darkness seems to represent not believing in Jesus as the son of God, and light represents those who do believe in Jesus as the son of God. They have very different responses to Jesus.  Nicodemus seems to have a minimal belief in Jesus although later, he is actually involved in procuring spices for Jesus’ burial.  We don’t hear anything about the Samaritan woman beyond this immediate encounter with Jesus, although we are told here, that she is pretty certain that he is the Messiah, an idea that Nicodemus only vaguely accepts.

The worship of the Judeans was burdened with a group that insisted on following laws regarding purity and being set apart.  The Samaritan woman shows an intimate knowledge of the purity laws of the Jews.  Jesus’ disciples were often ridiculed for not following those laws, especially when they were disregarded on the Sabbath.  The Samaritan religion was one that allowed the worship of other gods or idols.  They frequently adopted the religions of the people they conquered.  Both groups were at odds with Jesus.  What did Jesus want?  Jesus talks to a Samaritan woman—breaking the rules again.  She, in fact, points out the differences between the Samaritans and Judeans to Jesus.  But maybe that is just the whole point after all.  We all break the rules, the commandments of God.  We like the Samaritan woman, all struggle to live our lives and manage to disappoint our own expectations as well as the expectations of those around us.  Yet despite the disappointment of this woman’s many relationships, she is willing to dive in again, once she understands that Jesus is not really talking about the water in the well, but spirituality and relationship.  How many of us would have the response of the woman after Jesus basically told her everything about her?  Isn’t this like a confession in reverse? For those of you who have ever made a confession to a priest or to another person, you soon realize a pattern.  The first few times are really difficult because you realize that this person is not God and it makes you nervous because you really don’t want this person to know the bad things about you.  After you get over that, you realize that you seem to commit the same sins over and over.  Sometimes things will be better for a while, then the same sorts of sins pop up again, like a bad dream.  You realize that what Paul said is really true: the good I want to do, I don’t; and the evil I don’t want to do, I do.  What is it about humanity that no matter what we do, we can’t escape our humanness?  Why can’t we extricate ourselves from our need for control, our need for power, our need to look good in the sight of others?  As one of my professors put it, “It is not possible to be without sin.”  We all have our dark side and we all want to hide that dark side from others because we do not want people to think poorly of us.  And yet, sometimes people see more of us than we think they do. 

I would suggest that you have heard many sermons on this passage and many times, the interpretation of the woman was that somehow she was very immoral for having had five husbands.  But what if none of those broken relationships were her fault?  There is nothing in the text before us to suggest that she had any sin to be forgiven, nor does Jesus say anything about forgiving her for her sin, either past or present.  I would suggest that Jesus is the one here who breaks the law by not only talking to a woman in public, but a Samaritan woman to boot.  Jesus does not say in this case as with the woman caught in adultery, “Go and sin no more.”  We are not told the details, but I would suggest that if there were details, it would be more like death of husband, husband left her for another woman, and brother of husband refused to marry her, husband divorced her for something other than adultery.  Regardless of the reasons, women in that society were always dependent on males, usually husband or relatives, to be a provider.  I would suggest that her life was one of abandonment and struggle, far from being an easy one of leisure.  She has suffered many losses in her life and it was far from the stability of some whose marriages lasted a lifetime, which in those days was not all that long.  She probably figures that since Jesus spoke to her first, she will entertain the notion that she could at the very least engage Jesus in what we would term “chit chat” in which the conversation is about mundane things, like drawing water from a well.  After all, everyone needs water, especially on a particularly warm day.

Water is a life-sustaining force for all creatures of the world.  She understands that, but the conversation soon shifts to a different level and we are suddenly no longer talking about the water at the well. Jesus actually asks very little of the Samaritan woman, “Give me a drink.”  It’s like saying, “Give me an opening.”  Jesus is asking her for an entry point to engage in conversation, because immediately after that he is talking on a whole different level.  Jesus then shifts to giving to her something that is far better than the water in the well that only satisfies for a while and then you need more water.  The water Jesus gives will well up to eternal life. 

What we confess before God or another person doesn’t consist merely of a recitation of all our past sins or sins since our last confession.  We confess our struggles in life.  These are struggles that Jesus already knows about because Jesus is the Son of God and we are all made in the image of God.  We all come from God.  God knows about our struggles and accepts us anyway, just the way we are.  It doesn’t matter if we think we are not lovable or that we think we have committed some sin that is not forgivable.  God knows our concerns.  God knows everything about our lives, even all the bad things.  God knows all the good things as well.  God knows the whole bundle, the whole package that is our selves, our persons, our lives. And yet, God still accepts us and takes us in.  God’s love for us, for the whole world, is unconditional and will always be.  There is nothing that can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.  When we finally understand this or understand this again and again in our lives, we realize that it is good news; and it is that good news that will transform our lives into excitement.  When we realize God’s all encompassing love for us, it is exciting and we will burst over with joy, just knowing that.  The Samaritan woman is so excited by God’s love and care in Jesus, that she tells the whole village.  She is truly the first evangelist.  May we also find the strength and power of the Holy Spirit to witness as she did.  Amen.

            

Loved to Love

Lent2A, March15 and 16, 20014, Sullivan Park Care Center and St John the Evangelist Cathedral, by Sr Annette Fricke, OP

A prayer by Soren Kierkegaard: Thou who hast first loved us, O God, alas!  We speak of it in terms of history as if Thou hast only loved us first but a single time, rather than that without ceasing Thou hast loved us first many times and every day and our whole life through.  When we wake up in the morning and turn our soul toward Thee---Thou art the first---Thou hast loved us first; if I rise at dawn and at the same second turn my soul toward Thee in prayer, Thou art there ahead of me, Thou hast loved me first.  When I withdraw from the distractions of the day and turn my soul in thought toward Thee, Thou art the first and thus forever.  And yet we always speak ungratefully as if Thou hast loved us first only once.  Amen.

            I contend that what we miss most in life is usually right in front of us.  At the risk of being hard on Nicodemus, this is his problem.  He is a teacher of Israel, a Pharisee and maybe even a member of the ruling body, the Sanhedrin.  He’s up there, sort of like the dean of Harvard.  He should know all about what he is teaching and telling others about God and how God works in the world.  And yet, he doesn’t quite get it.  I will give him credit that he is at least somewhat open to what Jesus has to say.  He does seek Jesus out.

            The Gospel of John, which is full of the images of dark and light, has Nicodemus coming to him in the darkness.  If we recall that in John, Jesus is the light of the world, we might make the assumption here that Nicodemus only has a partial understanding of just who Jesus is, thus the darkness.  This is confirmed by his conversation with Jesus. In fact, Jesus seems rather annoyed that Nicodemus is a teacher of Israel but seems so far from understanding who Jesus is and what a relationship with God should be.

            God so loved the world—the entire world, everyone and everything in it, not just yours and my favorites.  God gave us the trees, the flowers, our neighbors, our families, our friends, our co-workers, our supervisors, our dogs and our cats, the snakes, birds, and lizards; everything—the whole she-bang.  God loved it all and continues to love it all each and every day.  This is not a past tense event in time and space, but an on-going, undying love, a love that will not quit.

            Nicodemus saw a glimpse of that love and wanted to learn more about it.  But Jesus says to Nicodemus and to all of us that love is all around us.  We must be born again, anew, from above. The spirit of God is here all the time and yet it is not something we can grasp.  It is like the wind, it comes and it goes.  It is here and it is gone.  And yet, Jesus says we cannot enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and the spirit.  Genealogy has nothing to do with it, nor knowledge of God.  Even belief in God is secondary.  We must be born of water and the Spirit. 

            Now some interpreters would say that this is a clear allusion to baptism.  Many in the early church thought of this passage in this way.  Just as the baptism of Jesus is always associated with the Spirit’s descent, the working of the Spirit and baptism continued to go hand in hand. We see that several times in Paul’s writings and in the book of Acts. If you are to watch the 700 Club on TV, you will see testimonies about people who claim to have been slain in the Spirit.  This is what they describe as being born again.  A woman was on who said that she was baptized at age 13 in an Episcopal Church, then right after she took her first communion, she fell to the floor. Some would have us think that we need a dramatic experience such as this or speaking in tongues---that would indicate that we have the Holy Spirit.  However, that is not the sense I get from this text.  This text seems to point to something that is ongoing.  Even though the first disciples after the physical Jesus left this earth experienced the Holy Spirit as something quite extraordinary, even supernatural, it was an empowering presence which enabled them to do the work of God in the world.  It was their transformation and strength of will to spread the good news of the gospel to all people.  And it helped them step by step, gradually to understand more and more the universality of God’s love for all people. They also began to see that God’s love is unconditional.  You do not earn your way to heaven.  You do not earn God’s love.

            What does it mean to be born from above or to be born anew?  We all know, just as Nicodemus, the obvious; no, we cannot go back into our mother’s womb and be born a second time.  Just imagining that scenario is rather hilarious.  But notice that Jesus also never gives a definitive answer either.  He talks about the Spirit like that of the wind.  You can’t pin the wind down.  There are times in the history of the church when we can clearly see the working of the spirit and there are other times when it’s quite difficult to pinpoint where and how the Spirit is working in our lives as the church, the body of Christ.  And to complicate things further, what we see as the Holy Spirit’s work in our lives, someone else will see it at as something entirely different. We see humanity around us as well as the church doing a mixture of good, bad, and something in between.  There are good and not so good intentions behind those deeds.  It is sometimes mind-boggling to try to figure out a direction both as an individual as well as a church or a small part of that church.  Should we do things the way we always have or should we consider something a bit different?  Just how open are we to the working of the Holy Spirit?

            Nicodemus appears to be an objective man who wants to remain objective.  His perspective is that of one who is on the outside looking in.  Jesus intrigues him.  He sees Jesus and recognizes him as being with God.  After all, he passed the litmus test of Judaism, Jesus performed signs. Where Nicodemus’ footing becomes unsure is that his understanding is incomplete.  He does not understand that Jesus is God incarnate.  He does not understand that Jesus and God are one.  He sees Jesus as a great teacher, but his understanding takes him no further.  Nicodemus does not understand what Jesus is talking about, at least that is true for this story about him. 

            God wants us to be sharers in the divine life!  God is not to remain aloof and transcendent, off somewhere in a book we leave on a shelf or somewhere in our intellectual minds. Like the Old Testament lesson from last week, we were made for God to till God’s garden.  We are to be God’s children who care for all that God has created. In order to do that, we must get it through our heads, hearts, and minds that God loves us and cares for us every single day.  We must put God’s love into action in our lives, daily.  We must act on behalf of God in order that God’s love may be made known to all.  We belong to God. “Thou who hast first loved us, O God, alas!  We speak of it in terms of history as if Thou hast only loved us first but a single time, rather than that without ceasing Thou hast loved us first many times and every day and our whole life through.”  Let us walk in that love.

Original Goodness

First Sunday in Lent A, March 9, 2014, Sullivan Park Care Center, by Sr Annette Fricke, OP

            “This is my Son, the Beloved, with him I am well pleased; listen to him!”  I cannot help but hearken back to the words so plainly stated in last week’s gospel text.  Almost a direct parallel is found in today’s Old Testament lesson.  Here, it is God in the garden who is expecting Adam and Eve to listen.  God commends a pure and simple obedience; that is all.  But what do we do with that?  The beginning of the world starts out with trust and obedience in God and a relationship of intimacy with God. 

The relationship between God and humanity is a perfect one, unblemished, but then something happens.  The serpent and Eve have a conversation questioning what God said and the serpent even tries to get Eve to misquote God.  What did God say?  That you couldn’t eat of ANY tree in the garden?  Eve actually defends her relationship with God when she says, “No.  God did not say we couldn’t eat of ANY tree.  We can eat of any tree EXCEPT the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.”  This is a test of logic.  If you only know good, how can you know what evil is?  Wouldn’t you like to know so you know the difference?  In the image of God, God made them.  The image of God was that of goodness.  If you look closely at this passage which is the quoted source of the doctrine of original sin, you can also see that it is also just as plausible to see it as a story of original goodness.  If humanity was made in the image of God and we say that God is good, we were born in original goodness.  This story is descriptive of what humans are like.  It is not proscriptive, that from then on we are to be cursed to live a life of suffering by the tilling of the soil and childbirth.

The story states that humans lived well; they thrived in the Garden of Eden.  If you wanted to eat, you simply plucked off fruit from a tree. A stream would rise from the earth and water the whole face of the ground.  Adam, before Eve was there, would till the ground.  This was the purpose of man: to till and keep God’s garden. Individual parts of creation are declared good, but the whole of creation is very good.  The trees were pleasing to the sight and good for food.

The purpose of humanity is to live in relationship to God: to till the ground, working in God’s garden.  God provided for the man creatures of all kinds as well as a woman to be his partner.  We were not created for ourselves.  We were created for God and for all of God’s creation—to till it, to keep it, to take care of it.  We are to take care of the animals as well as the environment. We are to preserve and protect all of God’s creation, without exception, because it is all God’s and it is all very good.

But all of this is more than a purpose.  It is our mission.  We are God’s servants and living our purpose fulfills God’s intention for us as the people of God.  We are the instruments or the tool of God’s created order.  Our mission is to do God’s work in the world.  This is not a leisurely activity or a never-ending getaway.  God’s mission through us is to work in the garden, to care for it, to plant, to nourish that garden.  If we sustain the garden, it will sustain us for our journey through this life.

The problem comes when we get distracted.  People will tell us to do other things.  We will pass the day being idle and talk about doing foolish things.  We will actually do foolish things.  We will drink wine and do foolish things.  We will become jealous of our neighbor’s possessions or success in life.  We will talk badly about people we don’t even know.  We will use our brain to rationalize doing things that are not part of God’s mission.  We will even repeat the same wanderings from God, all to pursue what looks good to eat or good to indulge our cravings, only to be disappointed, depressed, and dejected.  We will go along with the crowd even though we strongly disagree with them because we don’t want to stick out.  We will be proud of our accomplishments to the point of giving only ourselves credit, and not God.  We will be charming one moment and mean the next.  We will say, “Let the young people do it.  I’m too old.  I can’t do anything.”  We make up excuses for all kinds of behavior and words that fall from our mouths.

In all of this, our disobedience to God comes in the form of wayward desire.  Our erosion of trust leads us into temptation.  Our estrangement becomes alienation from God, between humans, between humans and animals, between humans and the environment.  All of this happens because we do not want to listen to God. 

Anyone who has ever tried to parent or babysit children knows what this is.  The very thing you tell a child not to do is what he or she does.  It happens all the time.  Emily, don’t stick your fingers in the cake.  What does Emily do?  I don’t even have to answer that.  So you call Emily in to talk to her and you say, “I thought I told you to keep your fingers out of the cake.”  Emily confirms by saying, “You did.”  “Then why did you do it?”  “I don’t know.”  The child knows that nothing he or she comes up with will be accepted. The next time you bake a cake, you better figure out a better way to hide it because you know it is likely to happen again. Either that, or make another cake.  The same thing happens with all food prepared for a picnic or pot luck. There’s always an excuse.

So why do we insist on being contrary and giving in to our temptations?  For some of us, that little kid in us never goes away.  I guess the rational answer to that question would be that we somehow think that we are smarter than God.

Never forget that we are to be in relationship to God and each other. When you truly love someone, it is your passion, your mission, and your calling to do that which is tending God’s garden. Oswald Chambers has this to say, “If we do something simply out of a sense of duty, we are trying to live up to a standard that competes with Jesus Christ.  We become a prideful, arrogant person, thinking we know what to do in every situation.  We have put our sense of duty on the throne of our life, instead of enthroning the resurrection life of Jesus.  We are not told to “walk in the light” of our conscience or in the light of a sense of duty, but to walk in the light as He is in the light.  When we do something out of a sense of duty, it is easy to explain the reasons for our actions to others.  But when we do something out of obedience to the Lord, there can be no other explanation---just obedience. 

The beginning of the world starts out with trust and obedience in God and a relationship of intimacy with God.  God invites us every day to live that life once again through our union with Jesus Christ, God’s son.  What are you going to do with your time today?  Resist that temptation to sit and watch TV hour after hour.  Do something different, like reaching out to a neighbor or a new resident.  Make that person feel welcome, just as you would welcome a relative---because that person is a relative, he or she, just like you, is a child of God made in God’s image. Amen.

Transfiguration--what does that mean?

Transfiguration SundayA, March 2, 2014, Sullivan Park Care Center, by Annette Fricke

            Those who would discard the Old Testament would have great difficulty interpreting just what was happening on the mountain of transfiguration.  What does all of this mean, anyway?  First of all, what is transfiguration? Simply put, transfiguration is a complete change of form or appearance into a more beautiful or spiritual state. The transfiguration is about Jesus’ relationship to the law and the prophets. It is a revealing once again as to Jesus’ identity and why we should follow him.

            Bible scholars think the likely location of the Transfiguration was Mount Hermon, a 9,200 feet snow-capped mountain, the runoff of which flows into several streams which merges into the Jordan River. Moses represented the law and Elijah the prophets. Jesus, the promised Messiah, is the fulfillment of the law and prophets and is greater than both. Both Moses and Elijah had seen a vision of the glory of God on a mountain, Moses on Mount Sinai and Elijah on Mount Horeb. The disciples were terrified because they saw a rare peek into God's invisible kingdom, merging with the physical realm of earth. Jesus' glory shone through from inside him, revealing him as God in the flesh. God the Father appeared as a cloud, a mask frequently seen in the Old Testament. His words echoed the same thing he said at Jesus' baptism. When he ordered the disciples to listen to Jesus, it meant the gospel would replace the law as God's plan of salvation.

            This scene with Jesus is utterly overwhelming.  This is a display of just how much God, the almighty God, creator of heaven and earth, of all that is, the infinite and eternal desires to be in relationship with humanity.  There is no doubt that this is what the author of Matthew wants us to know.  And about that relationship with humanity, Jesus tells us to go—it is a commandment---and do not be afraid.  To illustrate this further, I quote from a friend of mine:

Jesus Moment: (the moments when the Heavens open and God says, I have been telling you that all along and now you're getting it?!) [While I was switching cars with my wife in the parking lot of Taco Bell and I saw two ladies standing out in front of a car with the hood up, gingerly touching the engine (like you would try to pick up a squirmy bug, but you know you're never really going to, let's be honest). So I told Jess I was going to stay behind and ask if they needed help (and no, I am not a mechanic the only further step I can go to is unscrewing knobs that I don't know connect where to where and then rub my hands together with a napkin like I am the Taco Bell mechanic). I step out to ask if they need help and they are so excited. For which I now feel I should really know more about cars when I ask to help others with theirs. Turns out it overheated because there was no antifreeze of which she happened to have a couple liters of. [I]poured it in and let the car run and soak in the green goodness that soothed its radiator heart and it purred like a kitten. As I walked away I had this Jesus moment....At the end of a long week where life can get long, the days can drag your emotions can be consumed in good ways and in bad all you want is that unwind time. When I helped these ladies it felt like I had just had the best week of my life and that was 3.5 minutes compared to countless hours in the week. When you feel bad, help someone else in their needs and experience a joy that can overcome any kind of week. I praise God for bringing that car and those ladies into my path if only for a moment.
It was a Jesus moment.

            This is what the transfiguration is all about, it is allowing the transformative power of Jesus to take us to an unselfish place, forgetting ourselves, despite our resistance, our excuses as to why we should not do something. It is living in the resurrection of Jesus on a daily basis.  Oswald Chambers put it this way, “We need to rely on the resurrection life of Jesus on a much deeper level than we do now.  We should get in the habit of continually seeking His counsel on everything, instead of making our own common sense decisions and then asking Him to bless them.”  Our text makes it plain along with other places before it in the gospel of Matthew, “Get up, and do not be afraid,” or as in another translation, “Rise, and do not be afraid.”  We are first to follow the command of Jesus, then to not be afraid, remembering that God goes with us as resurrection people.

            How do we know that God is working through us?  Another friend of mine tells me this story.  As Sandy was praying in her apartment, completely unaware of time and space, she woke from her half dream state and thought, “It’s Wednesday and time to go to choir practice.” So she got her coat on, vaguely aware of the rain as it poured from the sky and drove to the church.  When she got to the church, she tried the doors to the church.  They were locked.  She’d forgotten that choir was on break after Christmas.  She went back to her car to make the journey home again when she noticed that someone parked next to her needed help.  The driver of the other car had locked her keys in her car.  Sandy remembered that she had AAA on her phone plan, so she called and the other driver was able to get into her car to take her son home from a Boy Scout meeting.

            Both of these examples are true stories and illustrate how God can work in simple, direct ways.  Both are what I would call God’s work through humans who wish to do God’s will in their lives.  Both are caring and compassionate to those around them. Both were open to allowing God to work through them to help others.

            The transfiguration is both a looking back to Jesus’ baptism where a voice from heaven says, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”  Now we have something added.  In this story, the voice from heaven says, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with him I am well pleased; listen to him!”  Now that you know who Jesus is, do as he commands. It is an awesome task, but what God expects is not really that difficult if you are willing to look away from your own needs to that of someone else, even a complete stranger.  But it isn’t you that is the doer or the one who should get the credit.  It is God to whom we owe our very lives.  It is God who is to be given the glory.  Every day, every moment, we should be thanking God for the opportunity to serve in Jesus’ name.

            The transfiguration looks to the future.  It describes for us not only that Jesus will continue to be beloved of God and fulfill all that God requires of him, it also tells us what we are to be as his disciples.  We are to walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself for us, an offering and sacrifice to God.  We should not neglect to do good and to share what we have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.  All thanks be to God who has given and continues to give us the power and strength to continue our ministries in God’s name.  To God be the glory, who by the resurrection of Jesus, has given us resurrection lives that see beyond ourselves. Amen.

Justice and Healing for All

ThirdSundayafterEpiphanyA, Sullivan Park Care Center, January 26, 2014 by Sr Annette Fricke, OP

                The sequence of events is just a bit muddy as one of my companions pointed out.  John’s gospel is not the same and that was the gospel reading last Sunday.  This Sunday, we switch back to Matthew.  Matthew, unlike John, tells the story of a temptation in the wilderness after baptism. Matthew seems to further test and purify Jesus prior to ministry, bringing forth from many temptations, a pure, strong human, ready for anything that may come.  It is not unlike the rituals of some Native American tribes who do this sort of thing with young men as a rite of passage into manhood in which you must prove yourself.  In the same way, the ancient liturgy of the church follows this notion of a prayer for purity before God prior to the prayer of confession. This is also implied in the Catholic rite where just prior to communion the people say, “Lord, I am not worthy to receive you, but only say the word and I shall be healed.”

            Each of the gospel writers had something slightly different in mind when they made the decision to write about Jesus.  Just as the gospel of John talks about Jesus as the light of the world, the writer of Matthew is also interested in presenting his gospel in relationship to Old Testament prophecy.  In fact, he uses a passage from the Old Testament that we read today, “the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death light has dawned.”  Matthew is not so concerned about who Jesus is as much as what Jesus does and teaches.  Matthew identifies Jesus as the one who brings light and life to people sitting in darkness.

            The Roman government had certainly put a cloud of darkness on all who would practice their religion.  The Romans wanted strict adherence and allegiance to the emperor of the Roman Empire only.  Those who did not obey the emperor were actually called atheists because in their minds, the emperor was the only god.  The government was so strong that you can see why Judaism longed for a Messiah who would set them free from its bondage.  The people only partially comprehended what Jesus was all about and following Jesus came at different times in Jesus’ ministry.  It began with John the Baptist.

            We take up the narrative again with the occasion of the imprisonment of John the Baptist.  One ministry squelched; another begins.  John the Baptist has been imprisoned, so Jesus follows the pattern presented by John the Baptist.  He calls for repentance, “Repent for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”  What should I do with my life? The same thing that John the Baptist taught; With God’s help, I should turn it completely around. Someone even greater than John the Baptist is here, telling people the same thing.  It is Jesus and he wants me to live fully into his kingdom. John the Baptist is no longer on the scene, but the ministry he began is now being taken over by Jesus and Jesus says that we should repent.

            We should repent because it prepares us for ministry to and for others.  It helps us to get outside of ourselves and our own ruminations, our own preoccupation with our problems in life.  We all have our struggles, but we die spiritually if we stay in them or disengage from those around us, not connecting with others.

            Barbara Brown Taylor describes it this way, “The wisdom of the Desert Fathers includes the wisdom that the hardest spiritual work in the world is to love the neighbor as the self--to encounter another human being not as someone you can use, change, fix, help, save, enroll, convince, or control, but simply as someone who can spring you from the prison of yourself, if you will allow it. All you have to do is recognize another you ‘out there’--your ‘other self’ in the world--for whom you may care as instinctively as you care for yourself. To become that person, even for a moment, is to understand what it means to die to your ‘self.’ This can be as frightening as it is liberating. It may be the only real spiritual discipline there is."

            To begin his ministry, John the Baptist chose the desert. Similarly, Jesus’ ministry does not begin in Jerusalem or any other large Jewish city.  We are told that Jesus goes to Capernaum, which is a small agricultural and fishing town.  He simply was strolling around the Sea of Galilee, saw a bunch of men out fishing, and invited them to follow him.  This is not an earthly king with all the pomp and circumstance of one who lives in high places and sits on a throne for consultation with his underlings.  He didn’t call the disciples to be his subjects. We hear nothing of Jesus asking the disciples to call him, “Your royal highness.” Rather, Jesus comes to them as a normal, average person and calls these average persons of the society of his day to be his disciples. They are ordinary people doing ordinary things, living their lives as providers for their families in the humble occupation of fishing, probably in that time what we would now call a blue collar job. He does not use lofty words; he calls them with simple words that anyone can understand. It is likely that the attraction of the first disciples to Jesus had something to do with knowing that they were on the bottom rungs of society.  They were thinking, “Here is a leader who will help us to overthrow the oppressive Roman Government.”  Think about Israel and Judah’s prophets in the past.  This is what they were about.  They sought government and religious freedom, even the Gentiles did because the government oppressed all the people through taxation.  That was the initial attraction to Jesus.  He ignored what they were likely thinking and said to them in plain language, “Follow me.”  “Follow me and I will make you fish for people.”  In other words, “I will teach you how to make disciples.”

            Jesus had a new idea, a dream of what life could be.  He did not go to the rich and the elite.  “As a Jew in Roman-controlled territory, Jesus locates himself among the marginal, with the poor not the wealthy, with the rural peasants not the urban elite, with the ruled not the rulers, with the powerless and exploited not the powerful, with those who resist imperial demands not enforce them. He continues the gospel’s preference for the apparently small and insignificant places and people who, nevertheless, are central for God’s purposes.”[i] 

            You, despite where you feel you are among the people of this earth, are central to God’s purposes.  You may feel that you are totally ignored, insulted, abused, used, forced to comply with all the needs and wants of the nursing staff and the upper rankings of this facility.  You may feel that all the pills, shots and testing of your bodily fluids are for unfounded or made up reasons.  You may feel that all the testing and prodding, the needles, wipes, and showers have no real purpose.  You may, like Jesus’ first disciples, feel oppressed by the institution or the government.  And, you may be right.  Jesus came for you.  Jesus came to set you free from that oppression, perhaps not quite in the same sense in which you hope.  Jesus came that we all may be one, regardless of class distinction or other social stratum or status.  Jesus came that we might have dignity as the sons and daughters of God who live with equal status in his kingdom which is here and now.  Now is the time to work for justice and healing for all people. Amen.

---

[i] William Carter (Matthew and the Margins)

We are not Here Alone

SecondSundayafterEpiphanyA, Sullivan Park Care Center, January 19, 2014 by Sr Annette Fricke, OP

            After showing up for and working nine days in a row, I had the privilege of accompanying one of my friends on a couple of pastoral care visits.  My other friend was home with the flu.  My friends are not like me and I must say that there is one way in which they are very different from me: both of them talk out loud in order to process what is going on with them in their lives.  Not all of my friends are like this, but in particular, these two are.  Also, unlike me, they have at least one parent who is still alive.

            In addition, Thursday night, I had the honor of meeting one of the daughters of our residents.  She informed me that she was a daughter I had not met---probably in order to clarify any confusion I might have---and she was a nurse who lived in Portland.  Apparently, the decision was made that she would now take on the Designated Power of Attorney position for her dad.  She wanted to inform us of the change, so as the charge nurse just happened to be in our midst, I said, “This is the person with whom you should speak.”  I related to her and in my own mind, the similarities with my own family and that the POA for my dad was my nurse sister as well. She looked like another friend of mine, a Physician’s Assistant from the cathedral.  We left the unit together; I needed to return a hot pack to the first floor and she was planning to exit from the same floor. As I went down the elevator with her, my thoughts returned to the conversation I had with a resident just prior to her shower.  She had wanted to know where my co-worker was because she promised her that she would be the next one to do her shower.  I tried as best I could to explain that we all had the same schedules, with days we worked and days off.  She, like many on the unit, has difficulty understanding that we are not there every day or when they get up in the morning.

            The point of all this is that we sometimes think we have the big picture of what is going on, but we don’t.  Other times, we really want to know the big picture, but refrain from asking because we might not understand it anyway.  And if we point something out to someone, will they accept our interpretation or adamantly deny our perceptions of their behavior.  How do we break out of our personal and cultural webs in order to be effective members of the body of Christ?  That is really the bottom line of it all.  We are all called to be missionaries in one form or another, yet we also need to be mindful that we all have our specific gifts. We are called to care for each other as Christians as our vocation in life, yet some are clearly not called to be part of a pastoral care team. Is there some point of view or illustration by which we can be enlightened?

            A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him. When the class began, he wordlessly picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls. He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was. The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls. He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was. The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else. He asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with a unanimous ‘yes.’ The professor then produced two Beers from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar effectively filling the empty space between the sand. The students laughed. ‘Now,’ said the professor as the laughter subsided, ‘I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life. The golf balls are the important things—-your family, your children, your health, your friends and your favorite passions—-and if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full. The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house and your car. The sand is everything else—-the small stuff. ‘If you put the sand into the jar first,’ he continued, ‘there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls. The same goes for life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff you will never have room for the things that are important to you. Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. Spend time with your children. Spend time with your parents. Visit with grandparents. Take your spouse out to dinner. Play another 18. There will always be time to clean the house and mow the lawn. Take care of the golf balls first—-the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand. One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the Beer represented. The professor smiled and said, ‘I’m glad you asked.’ The Beer just shows you that no matter how full your life may seem, there’s always room for a couple of Beers with a friend.

My niece sent this to me and she asked where in all of this God is?  I responded that God is in and through everything. Some people want nothing to do with the Old Testament because they do not see its relevance to their lives as Christians.  And yet, without the old, we lose perspective on the new.  Just as if we were to discard as irrelevant our own pasts.  We continue to learn from our past, just as we can continue to learn from the Old Testament which was very much a part of how Jesus related to the people during his time in the flesh on earth.

            I find myself torn between the Isaiah text and the gospel lesson for the day.  I don’t think justice is done to the texts without the context in which they were written and the audience for whom they were intended.  However, sometimes, no matter how much us, as preachers, intend to be true to the text and historical context, we do have to take out the culture in which it was written to apply it in some way to today.  The text in John asks a very important question of us, “What are you looking for?”  From a cultural perspective, we also, on some level ask daily, “Who am I?” and “Where am I?”  They are intertwined because identity is always involved in what we are looking for in our lives.  Throughout the gospels, we see that the disciples are frequently in a dissonant chord with Jesus.  I see people like that frequently, even at an advanced age.  I am not talking about dementia.  I felt comfortable with the nurse family member because she fits in with the familiar of the family with which I am a part.  At times, I do not feel comfortable with my own friends. Some people dismiss those with whom they feel uncomfortable.

What can we learn from someone who makes us feel uncomfortable? We can learn that different people have different priorities, different opinions as to how to go about ministry to others, believers, non-believers, the in-betweens and those who follow other religious paths.  Most of all, I think we can learn that none of us have all the definitive answers and we need to listen to each other.  We are not here alone, but united by the God who created us and loved us from the very beginning of time.  We do well to keep in mind with each interaction that we are all children of God, intended to live out the same love God has for us to and with each other.  Amen.

Baptism is a verb

Baptism of our LordA, January 12, 2014, Sullivan Park Care Center by Sr Annette Fricke, OP

            The Baptism of Jesus in the river Jordan is attested to in all four of the gospels in our Bibles.  The mere fact that it is, is testimony that baptism itself was very important to the early Christian Church, especially at the time that these gospels were written to summarize the faith.  At the time of Matthew’s composition, unlike Acts where baptism was done in the name of Jesus, it is clear that baptism was to be done in the name of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  It is clear that our own baptisms are to follow the example that Jesus gave.  Although some of the particulars have changed throughout the centuries, the basic rite has remained the same.  The author of Matthew writes at the end of his gospel, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.”

            There is nowhere stated in all of the New Testament that baptism is a graduation and yet there continues to be people who live their lives as though it is.  Those who have continued to stay with the church have seen it happen many times.  Once the baptism is performed, eternal life is guaranteed, so we can go off and live our lives as we please.  That is a gross over-simplification of baptism that has been repeated over and over.  It is like reading the first part of the Matthew text and leaving out the part or paying no attention to the second part: teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. It’s like saying, “OK, you are a Christian, now you can go home. It’s over.”  Rather, it is a commencement, not a graduation.  It is the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, not the end.  It’s like omitting everything in Matthew between the story of Jesus’ baptism and the last paragraph.  And while we are at it, we could eliminate the part about evangelism as well.  Why should we tell others about Jesus if all it takes is baptism?

            All four gospels agree that baptism is the very beginning of Jesus’ ministry and is the preparation for that ministry.  Since it is God that acts in baptism, God also prepares us for our ministries as God’s people.  This, above all else appears to be the main purpose of baptism.  Matthew does not mention anything further than this basic message.  Matthew drives home the point further that Jesus is greater than he, therefore deserving of all manner of respect and honor, and the leader par excellence of a ministry that far exceeds any previous prophet.  Jesus is the supreme prophet that we are to emulate throughout our lives and model our ministry and the way we live after him.  The question about those of us who sin and Jesus being without sin does not even come up.  No matter how great the prophets before him, Jesus surpasses them all.  It is an awesome task, but that is what being baptized in his name means.

            Jesus says to John, “… it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness”. The response satisfies John, who proceeds to perform the baptism, leading to the appearance of God and divine approval of Jesus of Nazareth. John recognizes that Jesus is the fulfillment of all righteousness.

            The extended narrative in Matthew’s account forces us to consider the significance of righteousness as a foundation for the beginnings of Jesus’ ministry. Righteousness is one of those biblical terms with elusive meaning. The New Testament usages of “righteousness” associate the term with fair and equitable dealings. Righteousness leads to integrity, virtue, piety, and godliness. It reflects concepts of generosity, while ascertaining values of goodness and justice. We see this spelled out later in Matthew in particular when Jesus teaches these precepts of the Sermon on the Mount.

            While Christian orthodoxy often correlates righteousness to an inner holiness in the context of salvation, the New Testament understandings of righteousness do not separate inner spirituality from outward action. Jesus’ action was that of his ministry here on earth, to reconcile us to God.  Jesus acts out of his identity.  Jesus is proclaimed at his baptism to be God’s Son in whom God is well pleased.  Although we may not be Jesus as God’s Son with a capital “s”, in baptism, we do become God’s sons and daughters, with a small “s”.  Think of the times you want to cry out your identity, to rip Clark Kent's glasses, you know what I’m talking about---Superman--- from your nose, to emerge from the shadows and claim your true name. And admit the irony that the only ones who truly seem to know you--the real you--are your demons: your self-doubts, your anxieties, your weaknesses toward vice.  The demons know your identity, even when no one else does.

Except that today, above all other days, we are reminded that there is more truth than this, greater truth.  On this day of the Baptism of our Lord, we are called to remember into whom we are baptized.  At his own baptism, God spoke to Jesus, and half a Gospel later God spoke to the disciples, saying, "This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased."

That only is truly Jesus.  That is his identity.  And in baptism, in this sacrament that rehearses the action to which Jesus consented at the hands of John the Baptist, Jesus' identity becomes our own true selves.  We emerge from the water reborn into him. Baptism is the sacrament in which we declare--in which God declares--that we no longer need Clark Kent's glasses.  We no longer need to mute our tongues from declaring who we are.  We no longer need to duck into the shadows for fear of exposure to the world.  Because who we are--who you and I only and truly are--are the sons and daughters of God.  That identity is etched upon us more deeply than any mask.  Its beauty transforms all ugliness.  Its truth silences the mocking laughter of the demons.

It turns out that even we did not truly know ourselves.  What we secretly thought we were, in both our best and our worst moments, was wrong.  We are not expert or fraud, the angel or the monster, either the beauty or the beast.  The truth of us is far simpler and far more glorious.  We are the baptized, bearing the seal of the Holy Spirit on our brows just as the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove alighted on Jesus.  We can walk the streets of our neighborhoods, the hallways where we live and where we work, sit and meditate in the rooms of our homes--indeed, we can look in the mirror every morning and evening as we brush our teeth or wash our faces--and say, "Look at me, the real me.  I am a child of God.  I am beloved, and with me God is well pleased." 

The words beginning at the second verse of a popular baptismal hymn seem very appropriate, “Then cleansed be every life from sin; Make straight the way for God within, And let us all our hearts prepare For Christ to come and enter there. We hail you as our Savior, Lord, Our refuge and our great reward; Without your grace we waste away Like flowers that wither and decay.  In the sacrament of Baptism, we find that grace upon grace mentioned in the gospel according to St John last week.  That grace of baptism is ours for the journey, it is indeed, strength for the journey.  Being a Christian is not a static noun, it is a verb that calls us to action.  Amen.

 

 

               

Love to Overflowing

2ChristmasA, Sullivan Park Care Center, January 5, 2014 by Sr Annette Fricke, OP

            It is now January; the New Year has begun.  It is all new and yet it is all the same. It is another January, not unlike all the previous 56 Januarys of my life. I was with a church choir that practiced on Wednesdays and now I am with one that practices on Thursdays. This past Thursday night, as I arrived for choir practice eight minutes early, I voiced my opposition to practice, revealing my mood and by questioning reality, “Do we have practice tonight?  There’s nobody here.”  My passenger and fellow choir member asked me to back up because she did not want to walk too far after practice.  As I backed the car up, the vehicles of other choir members appeared by ones and by twos.  I became quickly assured that indeed there was choir tonight.  I entered the cathedral and walked to my spot where I hesitated to shed my coat.  I sat down ever so briefly, then, with quicker steps, hurried to the kitchen where usually there’d be coffee and hot water for tea.  I removed a cup from a stack and poured some hot water for tea.  Not expecting anything else in particular, I noted an array of sweets; among them was a container of Mozart chocolate candies.  How appropriate, I thought.  As I sat back down, devouring the sweets still in my hand, my thoughts returned to the outside.  Outside was a blanket of fog---had been for several days straight---a fog so thick that it was terrifying to drive anywhere and a contributing reminder of past causes of sadness and sorrow. For those of us who long to see the sunshine, it can be a source that promises to uplift and to cheer us on dreary, short winter days.  As a society, we see artificial lighting as a way to cope with the darkness of the season.  Some begin as early as Halloween putting up lights. People spend big money on lights for display and an abundance of candles adorn sanctuaries in churches, beginning with the Advent wreath candles that increase with each Sunday. Light makes the winter darkness bearable.  My own thoughts also briefly edge on the memory of Dad’s death near Christmas four years ago.

            For some, Christmas is over and the presents have been passed and the tree is down.  The only thing left is returning the gifts that did not fit our fancy and shopping once again for the best bargains. The extravagances of Christmas now become the reality of returning to the ordinariness of everyday life. The joy of the Christmas carols and processions, the greening of homes and churches become a distant din. Even further from the joy and the ordinariness, sometimes, the world overwhelmingly presents to us as a great fog.  The fog is so great; at times, we cannot see what may be right in front of us.  We want so much for the world to conform to our ideas that we often miss the opportunities to serve that are right in front of us.  We see Jesus plainly at Christmas as a baby, yet we fail to see the needs of those who are right in our own neighborhood.  We fail to see the needs of others because we still have our own issues that overwhelm us and block our view.  We are in constant need of self-examination, though we are sometimes blinded from seeing even that. And even with self-examination, we still need the will to change our selves because this fog will continue to blind us into thinking that all is well when it is not.

            Despite all that, it is God who gives us the grace in Jesus that is so great and far-reaching that no matter how badly our own relationships here on earth may have been, God’s grace is greater and will never fail.  It is rather like this story of a young child’s memory about burnt biscuits. 

            When I was a kid, my Mom liked to make breakfast food for dinner every now and then. I remember one night in particular when she had made breakfast after a long, hard day at work. On that evening so long ago, my Mom placed a plate of eggs, sausage and extremely burned biscuits in front of my dad. I remember waiting to see if anyone noticed! All my dad did was reach for his biscuit, smile at my Mom and ask me how my day was at school. I don't remember what I told him that night, but I do remember watching him smear butter and jelly on that ugly burned biscuit. He ate every bite of that thing...never made a face nor uttered a word about it! When I got up from the table that evening, I remember hearing my Mom apologize to my dad for burning the biscuits. And I'll never forget what he said, "Honey, I love burned biscuits every now and then." Later that night, I went to kiss Daddy good night and I asked him if he really liked his biscuits burned. He wrapped me in his arms and said, "Your Mom put in a hard day at work today and she's real tired. And besides--a little burned biscuit never hurt anyone!" As I've grown older, I've thought about that many times. Life is full of imperfect things and imperfect people. I'm not the best at hardly anything, and I forget birthdays and anniversaries just like everyone else. But what I've learned over the years is that learning to accept each other's faults and choosing to celebrate each other’s differences is one of the most important keys to creating a healthy, growing, and lasting relationship.

            The daddy in the story gave an honest answer out of love and in the spirit of grace.  When in a loving relationship, the particulars do not matter near as much as the big picture.  The big picture is what we all need to keep in mind whenever we are tempted to complain about our lives or the relationships we have with others.  It is our responsibility to make things better.  It is usually not within our power to change other people, but it is in our power to change ourselves and how we respond to others.  Through the grace of God, we are given that power. The choice is ours every day as to how we will respond to that grace.

            “Grace and truth” did not cause their own appearance on earth. It happened to them. These all “came to be” because of a power beyond their control—namely God, who made and continues to make it happen. By God’s word, creation happened. By God’s will and miraculous conception, Jesus is born, the Word becomes flesh. By God’s activity, grace and truth were revealed to the world. So it is with our “becoming” children of God—or “being born from God.” Birth was something that happened to us. We didn’t make it happen. That is true whether we are talking about our first birth or our second birth as God’s children. Becoming children of God is something God does to us. The power of the incarnation, God becoming flesh in Jesus, is the power that makes us children of God. It is ours through faith— “believing in his name.”

            This text in John does not apply only to the first disciples or Christians, those who have gone before us in the faith; it applies equally to us.  This is an articulation of what we believe about God and what God has done for us by sending Jesus in the flesh to earth.  This is the faith that empowered them and this is the faith, if we believe what they have handed down to us throughout the ages, which empowers us---we who live here and now in this place. 

            Christmas cannot be just something that happened in the past in one point in time and space.  It is not just the joy and excitement of the heavenly hosts and the people of a far away time in a land many of us may never visit in our lifetimes.  Rather, Christmas is the fulfillment of God’s love for us in a concrete form.  It is about God’s love for all of humanity.  It is about God’s love for us, God’s everlasting love from before time.  Take hold of the love right now and allow the Holy Spirit to fill you with that love to overflowing and spilling out to all you meet. Amen.

           

A Case for Ignorance

Christ the King Sunday C, November 24, 2013, Sullivan Park Care Center, by Sr Annette Fricke, OP

                O infinite Creator, who in the riches of Thy wisdom didst appoint three hierarchies of angels and didst set them in wondrous order over the highest heavens, and who didst apportion the elements of the world most wisely: do Thou, who art in truth the fountain of light and wisdom, deign to shed upon the darkness of my understanding the rays of Thine infinite brightness, and remove far from me the twofold darkness in which I was born, namely, sin and ignorance.  These are words of a prayer often prayed by St Thomas Aquinas. 

            Today is Christ the King Sunday, or in some traditions it is known as The Reign of Christ.  A number of people object to the assertion of Christ as King perhaps because of the legacy of numerous kings that reigned on earth that were probably best described as the exact opposite of what Jesus, in his earthly ministry stood for, did, taught and modeled.  It is not surprising that the shapers of the revised common lectionary which I and many others follow chose this Lucan text for the gospel lesson for this day.  Here we see the opposites juxtaposed; the mockery, scoffing, utter lack of respect for one who only did the will of God as he, in his wisdom saw it.  You really could make a case for ignorance.  Jesus failed in many ways to get his message across to the people.  The people were largely unable to grasp that this was God’s son before their very eyes.  It would take years to sink into God’s faithful Christians just who this Jesus was and is.  There are still many who are ignorant, including even us, who profess belief in him.  People have argued for centuries in many branches of Christendom as to whether it is sin, ignorance, or both that separate us from God and God’s love for us.  In fact, if we leave out the verse that appears to have been added to Luke at a later date, it is ignorance that is the focus of this text as well as it is in Luke 2:50, “But they did not understand what he said to them.”  Luke 9:45, “But they did not understand this saying.”  Finally, Luke 24:45, “Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures.”  The gospels of Mark and John are even fuller of the notion of not understanding or ignorance.  In Acts, the sequel to Luke, we recall a conversion story of an Ethiopian where he asks for guidance to understand the scriptures he is reading.  As I have stated before, Luke is a gospel of opposites.  In this case, the blind will see, but not in a physical sense, but rather, a spiritual sense.

            What is the blindness or ignorance that Luke would speak to today?  I would say hands down that it is self-sufficiency. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me has been replaced by I am able to do all things by myself.  I can and will do whatever I want because I know what is best for me.  We live in a culture that has the inability to see beyond the self.  There is no group cohesion or thinking that is brought about by a community of shared values. We are self-satisfied individuals in our world, chasing after other gods, thinking that in doing so; we will find happiness and even joy.  We wander here and there expectant, yet so many times we are disappointed, forgetting that our greatest joy is in the words we hear spoken, read and digested from the gospel. We are no different from the government leaders, the soldiers, and the others who witnessed the crucifixion. And yet, what Jesus says to the criminal whom we have a strong dislike for if not outright hate, is what we long for the most.  “Today, you will be with me in Paradise.” All we have to do is put our trust, belief, and obedience in Jesus.  That’s it.

            As CS Lewis put it, “If we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at sea. We are far too easily pleased.”

            We are simply attached to the wrong things in life and we allow the little things to lure us down paths that don’t really matter in the long run, the larger vision of life.  When the people of the Old Testament asked God for a king, God did not understand. God said that they didn’t need a king because God was their king.  I Samuel chapter 8, verse 7 reads, “…and the Lord said to Samuel, “Listen to the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them.”  Even back then, there was the concept of God as king.  But asking for a king to rule over the people of Israel was an act of rebellion against the commandment of God.

            However, the concept of a king was misinterpreted by the people.  It was about the people keeping the law.  As time continued, the various leaders of the Jewish people interpreted the law differently.  They could not allow the law to be ambiguous.  And we are the same today.  We want someone to set things straight for us.  We want the structure of what is right and what is wrong because we also do not like to live with ambiguity.  However, Jesus came along teaching us that we are not to set up a law, but to proclaim Christ because Jesus is both the fulfillment and the cancellation of the law.  It is not our self-achievement, but God’s alone.  To be a disciple is to share in Jesus’ suffering, his rejection, and crucifixion.  Only the person who is dead to one’s own will, can follow Christ.  We do not need to understand more than that.  God’s grace really is sufficient. It is proven over and over in the New Testament and it is proven in the exchange between Jesus and the criminal who said, “Jesus, remember me in your kingdom.”  That was a simple request made in pure faith.  It had nothing to do with sin or making a confession.  It was simply an act of humility before God, a trust in God’s mercy.  It is a parallel to the story of the prodigal son.  The father forgave the son even before the son said anything and the father embraced him and welcomed him home.  That is what the kingdom of God is like.  If in Jesus is the fulfillment and cancellation of the law, then there is no sin and therefore no judgment. We are simply called to be disciples of Jesus and to walk before God and all that God has created with the grace and the compassion given us to make this world a better place in the present.

            If we are to take Jesus at his word in Luke, “Today you will be with me in Paradise.” means that Jesus’ fulfillment of the law occurred when here on earth before the crucifixion.  Today, it means we are living in that paradise as believers in him. The salvation of God is happening in the present.  It is happening each and every day that we take that leap of faith in him.  Eternal life begins before we die in this earthly frame and continues beyond our death.  We do not die.  We are all eligible for life with God when we place our trust in Jesus.  Today, Jesus offers salvation to us, all of us, as unlikely as that might seem.  Our sins are forgiven.  Our wounds are healed.  We may enter Paradise with Jesus.