Psalm 95
A Weekly Homily on the Lectionary Gospel Text
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Monday, March 28, 2011
Lectionary Notebook for John Chapter 9
Thoughts on the Gospel Reading
4th Sunday of Lent, Year A
(See TEXT below John Chapter 9)
April 3, 2011
4th Sunday of Lent, Year A
(See TEXT below John Chapter 9)
April 3, 2011
The Lectionary Gospel text for the 4th Sunday of Lent offers us a fairly dense reading for one homily. At best, the preacher will only be able to skim lightly over the reading, presenting a few understandings of the many this this scripture opens to us.
THE REALITY OF TOXIC RELIGION
First, I would suggest that this Gospel text aids us in understanding the reality of toxic religion. Here John writes: "So some of the Pharisees said, 'This man is not from God, because he does not keep the sabbath.'" (vs. 16)
This is the Pharisees' conclusion to Jesus' healing a man on the Sabbath. Clearly, when the tenets of our religion strangely prevents us from accepting the mercy of GOD, then there may be something deeply flawed about the understanding of our religion and its practices. The case in point from the text is ancient Judaism, but what I have in mind is Christianity.
The danger appears when our beliefs become settled in concrete and when for us our religion is without possibility of growth or change. To these Pharisees their fundamentalist understanding of sabbath keeping was settled, and any deviation made the other...well...the other, the rightfully-forthrightly neglected, the outcast.
In this toxic understanding of religion the leadership of the Holy Spirit is dismissed and we tell the GOD whom we say we worship that he is not allowed to grow us or change us. How silly, and how sad. In short, we miss GOD-in-the-moment.
I suppose the most powerful example of this occurred during what we call the "triumphal entry," when Jesus laments: “...If you only knew today what is needed for peace! But now you cannot see it! The time will come when your enemies will surround you with barricades, blockade you, and close in on you from every side. They will completely destroy you and the people within your walls; not a single stone will they leave in its place, because you did not recognize the time when God came to save you!" Luke 19:41-44)
THE TRUE LIGHT IN A DARK WORLD
Second, I would suggest that this Gospel text aids us in understanding the reality of the Christ as light.
At the outset of the text Jesus utters a stunning prediction just prior to his healing of the man born blind: "We have to do the works of the one who sent me while it is day. Night is coming when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world." (vss. 4-5)
This declaration about day and night is probably an allusion to his coming suffering and death, for we know that a foreboding rested on the heart of Jesus, always. And we also know that Jesus was concerned for his followers well-being after he had been taken from them. So this text served that end as a warning for his closest followers: "I have said these things to you to keep you from stumbling. They will put you out of the synagogues. Indeed, an hour is coming when those who kill you will think that by doing so they are offering worship to God. And they will do this because they have not known the Father or me. But I have said these things to you so that when their hour comes you may remember that I told you about them. "I did not say these things to you from the beginning, because I was with you. (John 16:1-4a)
But we are compelled to ask, since Jesus is no longer bodily with his people who is the light of the world now? Who is doing the the works of GOD now that Jesus has gone?
Said another way, doesn’t it seem the world is growing so much more darker than before; doesn’t it seem that the time of GOD's works has somehow slipped by us; doesn’t it sometimes seem that we have been left on our own?
This sense of abandonment is not without biblical precedent. One need only make a cursory reading of the Psalms to see this fear repeated over and over, and of course the LORD himself is abandoned by GOD on the cross -- “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?”
To be sure, I do understand that there is a huge segment of Christendom who sees glorious god-events behind every bush and multiple miracles galore, but, sadly, I must confess that I am not one of those fortunates.
Instead, I see a world of waste and violence and hate and greed, where the haves (that's me and if you're reading this then that's you) consume much more than we need; where a full one fourth of our children, here in the richest country in the world, are below the poverty level, and most of the rest of the world starves. Darkness? You bet! And I haven't even mentioned the world at war and the obscene cultural wars on women and children around the world.
Just where is the light? Here I am reminded of the question that Jesus asks, “When the son of man returns will he even find faith on the earth?”
But, we have to think more deeply; we have to see with the eye of faith. And when we do we understand that the light is still where it always was; the light is still found in the Christ.
In truth the real darkness is in us, but we need not fear because Christ, the light-of-the-world, has overcome the world. This means we do not have to be overcome by the darkness, but instead we have been enabled (empowered) to live in the light, to walk in the light should we so choose.
This reminds me of something else St. John wrote: "...in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it."(John 1:4-5) Which in turn also brings to mind another poignant text from him. After a particularly difficult day for Jesus, when many of his followers decided to vote with their feet by abandoning the cause, Jesus asks the twelve, "Will you also go away?" To which Peter responds, "LORD, to whom shall we go? You alone have the words of eternal life." (John 6:67-68)
I say all this because we must constantly confront ourselves with the reality that Jesus is the promise of light and life, and the offer of a new life and a new way to live, but that we have a part as well. The healing miracle of the man born blind that John’s Gospel here describes is meant to help us to make that confrontation real. It is meant to trouble us with a choice: Will we walk in the darkness we see all around us (who sinned him or his parents?) or will we walk in the light (albeit a dim light) we see within us, which is the ongoing testimony of the Christ?
THE STARTLING EXPRESSION OF TESTIMONY
This leads us, finally, to this text aiding us in our understanding of just how startling is the sound and expression of testimony.
When, for the second time, the Pharisees confront the man whom Jesus healed with the question of the origin of his miracle, his challenging words of testimony are startling and strangely refreshing:
"So a second time they called the man who had been blind and said to him, 'Give God the praise! We know that this man is a sinner.' He replied, "If he is a sinner, I do not know. One thing I do know is that I was blind and now I see.'" (vss. 24-15)
I like this guy. "Hey! You big-shots! You decide for yourselves about this Jesus; you decide if your theological bromides are true or false. All I mean to tell you is this -- I once was blind, but now I see."
This, of course, is the essence of testimony -- we tell what we know; we tell what we personally have experienced. And this strategic sharing of story, our story, diverts attention away Bible arguments and disputes of religion. With testimony we mercifully move from questions of origins (how did the world begin), of theology proper (does GOD exist?) and of Christology (is Jesus more than a man), and we are forced to hear the testimony bearer’s personal eye-witness account.
The testifier simply says, “This happened to me, believing it or not is up to you, but this is my story and I’m sticking to it.” Which means the question stiffly confronts the hearer with this choice: “Will I believe this or not?” And the hearer is also challenged with a likely follow-up question: What will it mean to me? and what will it change if I do believe the story?
John Chapter 9
1 As he passed by he saw a man blind from birth. 2 His disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" 3 Jesus answered, "Neither he nor his parents sinned; it is so that the works of God might be made visible through him. 4 We have to do the works of the one who sent me while it is day. Night is coming when no one can work.
5 While I am in the world, I am the light of the world." 6 When he had said this, he spat on the ground and made clay with the saliva, and smeared the clay on his eyes, 7 and said to him, "Go wash in the Pool of Siloam" (which means Sent). So he went and washed, and came back able to see.
8 His neighbors and those who had seen him earlier as a beggar said, "Isn't this the one who used to sit and beg?" 9 Some said, "It is," but others said, "No, he just looks like him." He said, "I am." 10 So they said to him, "(So) how were your eyes opened?" 11 He replied, "The man called Jesus made clay and anointed my eyes and told me, 'Go to Siloam and wash.' So I went there and washed and was able to see." 12 And they said to him, "Where is he?" He said, "I don't know."
13 They brought the one who was once blind to the Pharisees. 14 Now Jesus had made clay and opened his eyes on a sabbath. 15 So then the Pharisees also asked him how he was able to see. He said to them, "He put clay on my eyes, and I washed, and now I can see." 16 So some of the Pharisees said, "This man is not from God, because he does not keep the sabbath." (But) others said, "How can a sinful man do such signs?" And there was a division among them. 17 So they said to the blind man again, "What do you have to say about him, since he opened your eyes?" He said, "He is a prophet." 18 Now the Jews did not believe that he had been blind and gained his sight until they summoned the parents of the one who had gained his sight.
19 They asked them, "Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How does he now see?" 20 His parents answered and said, "We know that this is our son and that he was born blind. 21 We do not know how he sees now, nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him, he is of age; he can speak for him self." 22 His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews, for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone acknowledged him as the Messiah, he would be expelled from the synagogue. 23 For this reason his parents said, "He is of age; question him."
24 So a second time they called the man who had been blind and said to him, "Give God the praise! We know that this man is a sinner." 25 He replied, "If he is a sinner, I do not know. One thing I do know is that I was blind and now I see." 26 So they said to him, "What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?" 27 He answered them, "I told you already and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you want to become his disciples, too?" 28 They ridiculed him and said, "You are that man's disciple; we are disciples of Moses!
29 We know that God spoke to Moses, but we do not know where this one is from."
30 The man answered and said to them, "This is what is so amazing, that you do not know where he is from, yet he opened my eyes. 31 We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if one is devout and does his will, he listens to him. 32 It is unheard of that anyone ever opened the eyes of a person born blind. 33 If this man were not from God, he would not be able to do anything." 34 They answered and said to him, "You were born totally in sin, and are you trying to teach us?" Then they threw him out.
35 When Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, he found him and said, "Do you believe in the Son of Man?" 36 He answered and said, "Who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?" 37 Jesus said to him, "You have seen him and the one speaking with you is he."
38 He said, "I do believe, Lord," and he worshiped him. 39 Then Jesus said, "I came into this world for judgment, so that those who do not see might see, and those who do see might become blind."
40 Some of the Pharisees who were with him heard this and said to him, "Surely we are not also blind, are we?" 41 Jesus said to them, "If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now you are saying, 'We see,' so your sin remains.
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Monday, March 14, 2011
Lectionary Notebook for Matthew 17:1-9
1st Sunday of Lent, Year A
See TEXT below Matthew 17:1-9
March 20, 2011
TODAY is the Second Sunday in the Lenten Season, and the Gospel reading from the Lectionary offers us the rather mysterious account of Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration.
What are we to make of this strange text that includes glowing lights and conversations with long-dead people from Hebrew history? I would suggests there are at least three insights which offer us a perspective on this Gospel account.
The first insight we gain from the text is the perspective that GOD Almighty confronts Jesus and his inner-circle with and extraordinary experience of the HOLY. They go up the mountain only to uniquely meet GOD's unshrouded glory.
Rudolf Otto, in his seminal work, The Idea of the HOLY,
reminds us that there are the weaker (I would say normal) experiences of the HOLY: Feelings of gratitude, trust, love, reliance, humble submission, and dedication. These feelings of dependence (Schleiermacher) bring to us a "creature-feeling, a sense of dependence." But, Otto asserts that some have had other experiences of the HOLY, experiences when GOD's presence literally crashes in on human terrain with an awfulness that leads to "tremors" or "shudders." Here the HOLY shatters the human with an overpowering majesty that reveals GOD as unapproachable presence, an energy that conveys an urgency of life and power and activity, an utter aliveness. Otto calls this experience of the HOLY the mysterium tremendum.
The point at which Otto is driving in his description of GOD who is there is wholly other -- or as I have often said GOD who is mystery. To experience the HOLY, unmediated, is to be brought low to the ground and to blanche in the soul because of our own sinfulness and utter finiteness. Said another way, quoting the German preacher Gerhard Tersteegen, "A GOD comprehended is no GOD."
Should we ever experience GOD such as these texts describe we would not be able to comprehend the HOLY, but we would immediately comprehend our own need for cleansing and redemption, as when Peter confesses, "LORD, is it good that we are here?"
This reminds one of the famous scene from Isaiah Six when the prophet is confronted by the HOLY:
1 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty; and the hem of his robe filled the temple. 2 Seraphs were in attendance above him; each had six wings: with two they covered their faces, and with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. 3 And one called to another and said: "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory." 4 The pivots on the thresholds shook at the voices of those who called, and the house filled with smoke. 5 And I said: "Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!" 6 Then one of the seraphs flew to me, holding a live coal that had been taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. 7 The seraph touched my mouth with it and said: "Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out." 8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" And I said, "Here am I; send me!" (Isaiah 6:1-8)
This, of course, is the message of the cross and the message of the Christ. GOD, existing as unapproachable power and incompressible light; GOD, the wholly other, has become part of the human condition in order to reclaim the world toward which he constantly moves and to which he has inexplicably bound himself. This is why it is called Good News.
The second insight we gain from the text is the perspective of Jesus' reliance upon his inner-circle of disciples -- Peter, James and John.
Remember, this inner-circle accompanies Jesus to Jarius' home to raise his daughter from death; these three (plus Andrew) ask him privately to further explain his words about the coming destruction of the Temple; and in Gethsemane, when he is so deeply stressed that he sweats great drops of blood, it was this inner-circle which he took a little farther into the garden in order that they could share his heart and offer him support during this great calamity.
Did Jesus choose these men as his inner-circle to train them especially? Did he choose them because they were more fervent in their devotion? Were these three chosen at all, or did they just hang closer to their leader than others? We do not know.
But the really important question is this: Could Jesus rely upon these men? How reliable were they? At first blush we must conclude that in fact they were not very reliable at all. In the present text Peter, out of sheer and utter awe offers: "If you wish, I will make three tents here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah," hardly appropriate to the occasion. But this is just one of many gaffs and missteps he makes, even to the point were Jesus roughly rebukes the fisherman saying, "Get behind me Satan."
Jesus is constantly reminded that these guys are weak and sinful, but he continues to rely upon them anyway. Perhaps he figured he had to work with what material he had, blockheads and all!
The question is, how are we any different? How are we any more reliable that they? And , if Jesus experienced their discipleship unreliability, just what does he experience with our discipleship?
Perhaps there is another way of understanding Jesus' purpose here, however. Perhaps Jesus sees in them, and us, something we do not see? Perhaps he sees the potential of greatness. Perhaps he finds within the folds our soul the heartbeat of a titan, the promise of a true disciple.
The third insight we gain from the text is the new perspective offered to us about Jesus himself.
Jesus, on the mountain with his inner-circle, is suddenly changed in appearance, and begins to glow with light. He is somehow joined by Moses and Elijah and they begin a conversation. Then suddenly, there is a voice from heaven speaking in response to Peter's idea that three booths be built in honor of the occasion.
Matthew Hare, in his commentary on Matthew
, reminds us that the transfiguration comes on the heels of Peter's confession that Jesus is the Christ (Mt. 16:13-20), and Jesus' passion announcement (Mt. 16:21-28). Hare asserts that the the voice speaking is meant by Matthew as a confirmation that Jesus, as the suffering-servant Messiah, was pleasing to the LORD, and that Jesus' approach to his Kingdom project was true to GOD's will.Contextually, this sounds right, but the question that needs to asked is who needs to know this information, the disciples or Jesus? Presumably, not Jesus he has just glowed in the light from a heavenly encounter with the Almighty. No, the heavenly voice comes in response to the disciple's need to know that Jesus is truly GOD's Messiah, his agent of grace and truth (John 1:14).
And in fact this moment does just that, it informs the disciples that Jesus stands uniquely representing GOD. Peter, for one, never forgot this moment. Years later he recalls:
We have not depended on made-up stories in making known to you the mighty coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. With our own eyes we saw his greatness. We were there when he was given honor and glory by God the Father, when the voice came to him from the Supreme Glory, saying, "This is my own dear Son, with whom I am pleased!" We ourselves heard this voice coming from heaven, when we were with him on the holy mountain. (2 Peter 1:16-18)
This means this morning’s text brings back to us the moment when Jesus became to us the living Christ. This text reminds us of the hour when Jesus' person became to us more than a man of history, but grew to be the cognitive motivator of our life-purpose and the orientation for our faith-mindset (beliefs that determine behavior).
This new perspective offered to us about Jesus from the heavenly voice only mirrors our own new frame of mind, experienced when we met the Christ, for in that meeting our entire course of life was altered and directed toward GOD's and the kingdom project.
Matthew 17:1-9
Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them; his face shone like the sun and his clothes became white as light. And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, conversing with him. Then Peter said to Jesus in reply, “Lord, it is good that we are here. If you wish, I will make three tents here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud cast a shadow over them, then from the cloud came a voice that said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.” When the disciples heard this, they fell prostrate and were very much afraid. But Jesus came and touched them, saying, “Rise, and do not be afraid.” And when the disciples raised their eyes, they saw no one else but Jesus alone.
As they were coming down from the mountain, Jesus charged them, “Do not tell the vision to anyone until the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.”
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Ash Wednesday Homily, 2011
A Song of Christ the Servant (1 Peter 2: 21b-25)
Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps. He committed no sin; no guile was found on his lips. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return
When he suffered, he did not threaten;
but he trusted to him who judges justly.
He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree,
that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.
By his wounds you have been healed. For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Guardian of your souls.
Glory to the Father and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit;
as it was in the beginning is now
and will be forever. Amen.By his wounds you have been healed. For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Guardian of your souls.
THIS IS THE WORD OF THE LORD
Today we begin the LENTEN Season. Today we begin a journey together. Today we look toward Resurrection Sunday, but we do so not with the stare of triumph and the voice of the victory song.
No, we begin this journey with a serious and steady gaze inward at the state of our heart. We begin by staring into the depth of our soul and seeing what really resides there.
And when we look, what do we find?
Often we find sloth, and sin and the triumph of self. Often what we find in ourselves are those things we like least about who we are. Often what we see are those things we wish were gone from us. This means there is a heaviness about LENT. This means LENT comes to us with the heaviness of the carried cross.
LENT, a word which comes from the German for springtime, can be viewed as a season of spiritual spring-cleaning. It is a season for taking spiritual inventory and then cleaning out those things which hinder our corporate and personal relationships with the Christ, and our service to him.
If we seriously pay heed to the forty days of LENT, therefore, we will pattern ourselves after Jesus who was led by the Spirit into the wilderness for forty-days prior to the onset of his public ministry. Jesus in the desert leads us to a time of serious heart-preparation, and it involves personal soul-searching and an honest, clear-eyed assessment of the state of our relationship with the GOD who is there. Here the desert Christ offers us a season to renew our practices of Christ-likeness.
LENT, therefore, reminds us that we are not our own, that we were bought with a price and we are called to glorify GOD with our bodies and with our lives. LENT reminds us that we are not to become weary in well-doing, and that we will reap the the peaceful fruit of righteousness if we do not faint. LENT reminds us to keep our eyes on the Christ, who for the joy set before him endured the cross. LENT reminds us that we must run this race with endurance and patience, looking to the one who is the author and finisher of our faith. And LENT reminds us that we can do all things, but only through the Christ who strengthens us.
How, then, do we make a good LENT? How do we do this serious heart-preparation and this clear-eyed assessment?
The traditional practices associated with the Lenten season are fasting, the denial of the self, Godly repentance, daily conversion, sharing our resources with the other, and a simplicity of life. These practices bring us an ancient wisdom, a wisdom that enables us to remove the emphasis from the self to the other. In short, LENT is about self-sacrifice and the way of the cross.
Monday, March 7, 2011
Lectionary Notebook for Matthew 4:1-11
1st Sunday of Lent, Year A
See TEXT below Matthew 4:1-11
March 13, 2011
Today is the first Sunday in the Church Season of Lent.
Lent is a time of heaviness; it is a time of serious heart-preparation for Resurrection Sunday. Lent involves personal soul-searching and an honest, clear-eyed assessment of the state of our relationship with the living, risen Christ.
The goal of Lent is for us to seek the Christ and to renew our practices of Christ-likeness. These practices associated with the Lenten season are fasting, the denial of the self, Godly repentance, daily conversion, sharing our resources with the other, and a simplicity of life. In short, Lent is about self-sacrifice and the way of the cross.
This emphasis on personal renewal toward the Christ actually fits very well as the invitation for these past few Sundays when we have been thinking-through the Sermon on the Mount and the calling of ourselves toward doing the will of the Father and the walking of the Jesus-way.
With Lent, however, the emphasis shifts from Jesus' sermon to his wilderness sojourn. We see Jesus paused, in hesitation, not immediately practicing his kingdom project. In fact, we see Jesus being led from the glorious, mountain-top moment of his Father's profession -- "this is my beloved son," and his Father's direction -- "listen to him," straight to a time of stillness and solitude and struggle.
Does it surprise you that the Father saw the need to prepare Jesus' heart for the treacherous journey which lay ahead? Does it surprise you that Jesus needed a period of quiet soul-provision before GOD, prior to his mission project?
Jesus is led by the Spirit to open his heart to the Father through fasting and prayer. It is in the wilderness where he prepares his heart by being alone with the Almighty, and by thinking-through how the Holy Scriptures applied to his calling. This is a lesson for us. Here Jesus models the necessity of the disciple's withdrawal into a close communion with the Almighty as the way to prepare the heart for the challenges of a world at war with itself. (More on this in a moment)
Like Jesus, we must often preserve our hearts and review the commitment to our calling, and Lent is specifically opened toward this endeavor. This personal renewal is needed for us because the stench of sin and the bitterness of life experiences can easily turn us aside from the narrow-way, offering us a false ease and and a premature rest. But we know there is no rest from discipleship.
Let us now turn to the text and briefly find what is there for us today.
First, we see Jesus is led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted. We would do well to remember that Jesus of Nazareth is being led by GOD's Spirit to do his Kingdom project, and that it is was not of his own design. That is, Jesus is about the Father’s business. Having said that, why would the Spirit lead Jesus into the wilderness to face the tempter? Is it not our prayer, "lead us not into temptation?" How is temptation's trial part of the Kingdom project?
At least as a partial answer, listen to this unusual text from the Book of Hebrews: "In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to the one who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. Although he was a Son, he learned obedience through what he suffered..."(Hebrews 5:7-8. See also Hebrews 2:10)
This statement comes in the section in which the author describes Jesus as the great high-priest, and it opens to us the Christological reality that Jesus carried the burden of learning just as we do.
Again, we might well ask just what he learned in this forty-day desert crisis (and what especially he learned in Gethsemane and Calvary). I would assert that he began to learn the reality of the human condition. He learned temptations are real and bitter; deprivation is frightful and consuming; life can be hateful and violent.
The upshot of this is that we now have a high-priest who can be moved by our struggles and disasters. By living through these experiences that comprise humanity he now understands with personal empathy what we face daily.
For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin. (Hebrews 4:15)
Second, we see from the text that Jesus fed his soul from GOD's word. Three times we are told that the tempter comes to ply his trade, and each time Jesus counters these offers with Holy Scripture. It does not take speculation too far to imagine that throughout those forty-days of fasting Jesus is spiritually feasting off the Hebrew Bible.
St. Luke tells us that not long after these wilderness struggles Jesus goes to his hometown of Nazareth where he attends synagogue on the sabbath as was his custom. When the scroll of Isaiah is handed to him he finds this text:
"The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me; he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners; to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn..." (Isaiah 61:1,2)
Could it be that in the wilderness crisis he clarifies his true vocation, learning just what GOD would have him do? Could it be through his deprivation and temptation that his mission for the nation and the world is brought to the clear light of the desert sun by his meditation through the Spirit on the memorized Word of GOD?
Third, with both the destitution of being without food and the temptations grinding his soul, Jesus confronts the selflessness that would capture his daily practice and his daily pilgrimage to the cross. When later he offers this council to his followers, "Deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me," he clearly knows whereof he speaks. His self-denial was breached during his forty-day desert trial.
For the disciple, the issue of self-denial is of paramount importance. Daily the disciple must carry the cross of sacrifice. Daily we are to say no to selfishness. Daily we are to push away false desires from the promptings of the flesh, the coveting from what we see and want, and the pride from being esteemed by others.
Clearly, the disciple cannot practice this self-sacrifice apart from silent-time spent alone before the GOD who is mystery and empowerment. Clearly, the disciple, without daily prayer, is a disciple in name only.
The decision, then, to "make a good Lent" begins with the understanding that to deny self -- as un-American and un-therapeutic as this sounds to the post-modern ear -- and to offer oneself to the silence of prayer, is actually the only path to discipleship.
Matthew 4:1-11
A Reading from the Holy Gospel of St. Matthew
At that time Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. He fasted for forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was hungry. The tempter approached and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become loaves of bread.” He said in reply, “It is written: One does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.”
Then the devil took him to the holy city, and made him stand on the parapet of the temple, and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down. For it is written: He will command his angels concerning you and with their hands they will support you, lest you dash your foot against a stone.” Jesus answered him, “Again it is written, You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test.” Then the devil took him up to a very high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in their magnificence, and he said to him, "All these I shall give to you, if you will prostrate yourself and worship me.” At this, Jesus said to him, “Get away, Satan! It is written: The Lord, your God, shall you worship and him alone shall you serve.” Then the devil left him and, behold, angels came and ministered to him.
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Young Texas pastor found dead
Thursday, March 3, 2011
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