The Human Heart

Wednesday: 12 February, 2014 ––5th Week of Ordinary Time

Mark 7:14–23

The Human Heart

It is a common assumption and we often hear it stated: People are basically good. 

Here is what God says through the prophet Jeremiah: The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately corrupt; who can understand it? (Jer 17:9).

In today’s Gospel we hear Jesus expanding what this means: What comes out of a man is what defiles a man. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, fornication, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a man.  (Mk 7:20–23).

So often we try to fix the “outside.” This is what Jesus said many of the scribes and Pharisees were doing. In our own day we are inundated with an obsession of image. “Image” is a veneer. Image is what we present to the public. Image is marketed as the thing that can give us fulfillment. Even a “good” image, if that is all it is, is vacuous.

What is the desire of our hearts? Someone has said A man is what he does when he is alone.

Lord of the Flies is a 1954 novel about a group of British boys stuck on an inhibited island who try to govern themselves with disastrous results. As the imposed structures of civilization dissipate, the boys become increasingly selfish and cruel. The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately corrupt....

We see this is our own culture. As common civility goes in reverse––as disrespect and violence increase in our once-stable communities––it is because people are increasingly dismissive of God and truth.

The one thing that rescues our hearts is grace. When we find ourselves desiring the good.... when we restrain from being selfish and nasty.... we are under the effect of grace. What would this world be without the presence of the Holy Spirit and the Church? It would be hell.

How do we combat the evil of the human heart and the presence of original sin? We stay open to grace. We pray for grace. We do what St Paul told the Philippians: whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things (Phlp 4:8).

CHRISTIAN IDENTITY, UNITY AND THE CHURCH

January 26, 2014 –– 3rd Week in Ordinary Time

1 Corinthians 1:10-17

CHRISTIAN IDENTITY, UNITY AND THE CHURCH

There is a story about a young boy whose mother asked him what he had learned in church school that day. He decisively said, "The disciples drove a Honda." Now obviously this was not an answer the mom expected, so she pushed the issue a bit. "The disciples did not have a car, dear," she said to the blossoming theologian.  "Oh yes," replied the boy, "the teacher told us the Bible says the disciples were all in one Accord!"

Today Christianity is so fragmented we can hardly conceive of it being any other way. What does unity mean for Christian faith? One way to answer that is to see what it does not mean. Paul's prayer for the Corinthians is that there be no divisions among you, but that you may be united in the same mind and in the same purpose (v10). Does this mean everyone in the church is to be a clone? No, unity has never been intended to be “uniformity.”

And just as unity does not mean uniformity, diversity does not mean divisiveness. The Body of Christ has Spirit-given diversity. In our milieu of polarized issues today, we need to hear what the Holy Spirit is saying through St. Paul in this First-Century setting. The Corinthians were divisive, and Paul makes it clear that this is wrong. In fact, in other places Paul puts divisiveness in the same list of sins where he puts things like murder, sexual immorality, drunkenness and idolatry (e.g., Gal 5:19f)! When we hear someone stirring up dissent in the Church, do we really believe such a thing is just as odious to God as murder or adultery?

The Corinthians were falling out with each other over personalities. For some it was Paul, who planted the Corinthian church. For others it was Apollos, who came to Corinth after Paul. Paul also mentions those who rallied to Cephas (who was Peter)––maybe they were the original ultra-exclusive Catholics. Then there were those who proudly said they followed “only Jesus”––they were the early Fundamentalist Protestants. Paul says all of them are missing the point!

What is it that binds us together in the Church? There is more than one way to answer this. In the  Creed we profess one, holy, catholic and apostolic Faith. There is also, indeed, a Petrine unity in Catholic Faith. The answer to unity in today’s epistle is in v17: Our unity––our identity––is not based on the wisdom of human eloquence. Instead, St Paul says our identity is the cross of Christ. The cross of Christ is what so quickly separates human opinion from God’s Truth.

We become inoculated to the cross of Christ. The cross is a figure of speech we can hear without it evoking much of any emotion. The cross is the crucifix on our walls or on our necklaces.  The cross is part of “church-talk” that seems quite removed from our day-to-day lives.

You and I are part of the Church today only because we came by the way of the cross. The cross of Jesus Christ proclaims something human wisdom does not want to hear: every one of us is sinful and needy and lost apart from the cross. We are not self-sufficient.  We are not able to figure out the mysteries of life. We cannot find our own way. The cross of Christ is the basis for grace, mercy, and peace.

We should understand that when we get irritated by opinions that do not match our own.... when we get angry that decisions do not go our way.... when we hear another Christian express a differing view, even if we know it goes against Scripture and the teaching of the Church.... before we can hope to respond with a word of Truth, we need to let the Lord crucify our own selfish spirit––that proud part of us that always wants to be “right”––and receive his Spirit of grace and mercy and peace. When I live as if “unity” means conformity to my opinions, and if others around me assume the same thing, there will be no unity and there will be no peace.

We who are part of God's church––who, according to Paul, are called to be holy––should never forget that we all come to God and stand before him on the same ground: the cross of Christ. That is where we get our wisdom. That is where we are reminded that it is not my idea or your idea that matters. Popular opinion is not our source of wisdom or truth. Political issues are not the ultimate guide for making our commitments. We are not here to build our own kingdom based on personal convenience. We are here to be united on the one great eternal truth that each one of us needs so badly: Jesus Christ is our hope, our forgiveness, our life, our wisdom––grace, mercy, and peace. It is not what I think or what you think or what is politically correct. It is how much we are conformed to the character of the Son of God, and that comes only through the cross.

I need to be clear about one thing: This will not make “peace” with the world around us. We are in a spiritual war, and there is a spirit of antichrist which will never make peace with those who give ultimate allegiance to Jesus Christ. St Paul is writing to people in the Church. It is in the Church that we seek to make our personal agendas secondary (or even give them up), and thus model a life of grace, mercy, and peace to a world that desperately needs an alternative to the hatred and pain and death that are all too prevalent. 

Are you in the Church because of who Jesus is in your life––because you know the reality of his cross in your life? Are we willing to submit our personal desires to the purification of crucifixion? That is the identity of the Church. That is the foundation of our unity. If this is real and true in our lives, no other diversity can overshadow it. The cross of Christ in my life and yours is what will take us to the unity of grace, mercy, and peace.

Hymn: Eternal Light! Eternal Light!

I've been thinking recently of how much hymns have helped form my faith and continue to sustain me. Many of them seem to be almost unknown in today's world of "contemporary worship (sic)".  While I do indeed get a subjective thrill ("goose bumps") from a variety of musical styles, I find that lyric substance is much more important to my spiritual well-being than seeking a high from "three words + three chords + three minutes x 10".  Over the next days/weeks, I'll post the lyrics to some of the hymns that have formed me…. and sustain me.

The following was first introduced to me by the British revivalist, Leonard Ravenhill, when he held meetings at my childhood church. This hymn takes us to the heart of reverence for a holy God, and the reality that we cannot bear the Consuming Fire apart from his gracious choice to forgive and cleanse us…. (forgiveness is only part of "salvation").

Eternal Light! Eternal Light!

Eternal Light! Eternal Light!
  How pure the soul must be
When, placed within Thy searching sight,
It shrinks not, but with calm delight
  Can live and look on Thee.

The spirits that surround Thy throne
  May bear the burning bliss;
But that is surely theirs alone,
Since they have never, never known
  A fallen world like this.

Oh, how shall I, whose native sphere
  Is dark, whose mind is dim,
Before th’ Ineffable appear,
And on my natural spirit bear
  The uncreated beam?

There is a way for man to rise
  To Thee, sublime Abode;
An Offering and a Sacrifice,
A Holy Spirit’s energies,
  An Advocate with God.

These, these prepare us for the sight
  Of holiness above;
The sons of ignorance and night
May dwell in the eternal Light,
  Through the eternal Love.

Thomas Binney (1798-1874)

Clement 1 on Faith

From a letter to the Corinthians by Saint Clement I, pope

From the first, faith has been God's means of justifying men

God’s blessing must be our objective, and the way to win it our study. Search the records of ancient times. Why was our father Abraham blessed? Was it not because his upright and straightforward conduct was inspired by faith? As for Isaac’s faith, it was so strong that, assured of the outcome, he willingly allowed himself to be offered in sacrifice. Jacob had the humility to leave his native land on account of his brother, and go and serve Laban. He was given the twelve tribes of Israel.

Honest reflection upon each of these examples will make us realise the magnitude of God’s gifts. All the priests and levites who served the altar of God were descended from Jacob. The manhood of the Lord Jesus derived from him. Through the tribe of Judah, kings, princes and rulers sprang from him. Nor are his other tribes without their honour, for God promised Abraham: “Your descendants shall be as the stars of heaven.”

It is obvious, therefore, that none of these owed their honour and exaltation to themselves, or to their own labours, or to their deeds of virtue. No; they owed everything to God’s will. So likewise with us, who by his will are called in Christ Jesus. We are not justified by our wisdom, intelligence, piety, or by any action of ours, however holy, but by faith, the one means by which God has justified men from the beginning. To him be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

What must we do then, brothers? Give up good works? Stop practising Christian love? God forbid! We must be ready and eager for every opportunity to do good, and put our whole heart into it. Even the Creator and Lord of the universe rejoices in his works. By his supreme power he set the heavens in their place; by his infinite wisdom he gave them their order. He separated the land from the waters surrounding it and made his own will its firm foundation. By his command he brought to life the beasts that roam the earth. He created the sea and all its living creatures, and then by his power set bounds to it. Finally, with his own holy and undefiled hands, he formed man, the highest and most intelligent of his creatures, the copy of his own image. “Let us make man,” God said, “in our image and likeness. And God made man, male and female he made them.” Then, when he had finished making all his creatures, God gave them his approval and blessing: “Increase and multiply,” he charged them.

We must recognise, therefore, that all upright men have been graced by good works, and that even the Lord himself took delight in the glory his works gave him. This should inspire us with a resolute determination to do his will and make us put our whole strength into the work of living a Christian life.

Three Gifts

January 5, 2014 –– Epiphany Sunday

Isaiah 60:1–6 / Matthew 2:1–12

Three Gifts

I want you to think about three kinds of gifts today––and three givers. The Magi gave gold, frankincense, and myrrh. God gives grace, mercy, and peace. We ourselves give.... well, I’ll end with that.

Over the next several weeks we are giving prominence to the themes of grace, mercy, and peace. It is our prayer that such a focus will penetrate the entire parish in ways that open us to new things from our Lord. As a bit of orientation, I offer one way to think of these words:

Grace is being given good things we do not deserve.

Mercy is not being given the bad things we do deserve because of our sins.

Peace is the result of understanding that we have been given grace and mercy through Jesus.

We live in a world that often gets things upside down and backwards. Possessions are substituted for meaning and purpose. Sex is isolated from relationships. The pleasure of the moment is exalted beyond higher rewards that can come from delayed gratification. The world thinks we gain personal peace by getting our own way and fulfilling our own desires.

We see this with Christmas. Our culture jumps into what it calls “Christmas” (or, at least, it used to call it that before “Holidays” usurped it). While the Church is calling us during Advent to get ready for the Coming of the Son of God, we are inundated with a party-spirit of buying and decorating and increasingly silly music. And just when the Church calls us to the joy of celebration, the world around us dismantles everything, shuts off the music and turns its attention to a one-night party where a ball drops.

The world does things upside down and backwards. We need to remember this when we are tempted to let transitory or even artificial issues dominate our minds. We need to remember this when we realize that we have become distracted from living in the awareness that the Son of God truly has come into our world to save us. The temporal things of this world come and go. Some of them do affect us, even in big ways, but none of them alone are worthy of our allegiance. They certainly do not give us peace. In every situation of life we have an invitation to bow before the King of kings and Lord of lords and give him the true worship of our hearts. It is there we find the peace the angels sang about to the shepherds.

Today is Epiphany Sunday. This is the Sunday that the Church’s readings take us to the Magi. This is also the first Sunday of a new year, and there is a bizarre juxtaposition: As the world gives attention to all the things to which it gives an obscene amount of money and attention, we in the Church are directed, like the Magi, to the King of kings and Lord of lords.

The Magi were searching for God. [It might help to rethink our understanding of the Christmas manger scene. The shepherds were at the manger; the wise men probably were not. The Magi came later. Matthew says “they entered the house” where Jesus was, not the stable or cave where the manger would have been.] They are accurately described as “wise men”––they were interested in understanding wisdom and mysteries. The prophet Daniel had been promoted to the rank of Magi when he served the Persian Empire.

About the year 6 B.C. (according to our present calendar), an unusual “star” appeared. St. John Chrysostom rejected the idea that the Star of Bethlehem was a normal star or similar heavenly body because such a star could not have specified the exact place where Jesus was found, being too high in the sky to be that specific. Also, he notes that stars in the sky move from east to west, but the Magi would have travelled from north to south to arrive in Palestine from Persia. Instead, Chrysostom suggested that the star they followed was a miraculous occurrence, comparable to the fiery cloud mentioned in Exodus as leading the Israelites out of Egypt.

Early Christian tradition names three Magi as Casper, Melchior and Balthasar. Their journey took perhaps two years. There is a legend that the Christ-Star replenished their supplies of food and water so they had no need to stop on the way to Jerusalem, but I think the reality is that those men traveled for months in very inconvenient circumstances to find the One their hearts hungered for. God says, “You will find me when you seek me with all your heart.” These men gave themselves to search for God. They modeled humble belief as they knelt with their gifts. 

When we truly believe that God comes to us in Jesus––that he gives us grace, mercy, and peace ––there is a shift in the way we see things. We begin to understand that the world indeed does things upside down and backwards. Peace comes from God and not through a convenient arranging of our circumstances. The Magi came looking for God, and when they found him they gave their best gifts. We live in a world where attention is so often focused on what we can get–– “what’s in it for me?” We live in a climate of growing hatefulness that does not want even to hear of Jesus. Personal “peace” is offered in almost any way other than one that honors what God has done through Jesus Christ. Yet we are given an opportunity on this Epiphany Sunday to confess that Jesus has come into our world. We are invited to come to him―like the Magi.

One of the songs I love to hear at Christmas is In The Bleak Mid-Winter. The last verse is so appropriate as we seek to hold on to the true season of Christmas and remember the Magi with their gift of worship exemplified by their material gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh.

What can I give Him, poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb;
If I were a Wise Man, I would do my part;
Yet what I can I give Him: give my heart.

In this world that is so often upside down and backwards, we come to give our worship to the Son of God who came to save us from all that is so inverted and twisted. We are offered the gifts of grace, mercy, and peace. You can receive those gifts when you give Jesus the one thing you have. Give him your heart.

God Is With Us

December 24, 2013 –– Christmas Eve Vigil

Matthew 1:18–25

God Is With Us

Christmas takes us into the heart of what it means to be human. Humanity has not changed so much over thousands of years. When the Lord gave the first promise of a “young woman” bearing a son, King Ahaz was worried about enemies that hated him. The threat was destruction and death. We find ourselves threatened the same way today. Whether it is the destruction and death that comes from terrorism and war, the destruction of a natural disaster or bodies that wear out,  or death by accident, local violence or disease, human existence lives under a constant threat. Eventually we die.  We cannot grasp the incredible power of Christmas unless we face the truth of the things that threaten us and our too-real fears.

We have a new baby in our house. Our daughter, who for now lives in a small studio apartment in our basement, gave us our fourth grandchild a month ago. He’s a boy, and we’ve not had a child this young in our house for about thirty-seven years––more than long enough for me to have forgotten how fragile and dependent an infant is. When I prepare his bottle I often think of the many infants in this world who do not have enough to eat. I think about the evil that even now threatens my tiny grandson.

This new baby boy in our home, whose needs (and cries) seem to take priority over everything else, has been a fresh and ongoing reminder to me of the incredible thing God did. In the birth of Jesus Christ, the Father almighty, the maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible condensed himself into a human baby. That kind of vulnerability, freely taken by God in order to come close to us and show us his love, is beyond comprehension. God is with us! What does this really mean?

We have come here tonight in the name of Jesus Christ. Christians do not have a “holiday” celebration for its own sake. We are not gathered here merely to add one more thing to a list of seasonal festivities. This is something God promised over 2700 years ago through the prophet Isaiah, and the promise was fulfilled.

Yet we in the Church have heard this all our lives, so much so that we can become immune. The world hears it, and modern presuppositions say it can’t be true―a nice story, maybe, but not true. It’s further complicated because no one can fully comprehend it.... Son of God and Son of Mary.... divine and human. The eternal becomes encapsulated in time. The Creator becomes one of the created. The Mighty One comes as a helpless babe. The Holy One is rubbing elbows with the sinful.

If we are honest, there is something about God getting so close that is frightening. While we want some way to escape a world that threatens and hurts, we would like for it to come so that we are still in control. For all the hope that Christmas offers―and I mean the real Christmas, in contrast to so much of the silliness and materialism that tries to dilute the literal story in the Bible―it seems obvious that an unbelieving world wants to keep this Son of God and Son of Mary at a distance. It’s okay to sing in public about Frosty the Snowman, but not about Jesus the Savior.

When King Ahaz was offered a special baby as a sign of God’s deliverance, he did not want it. When Joseph first heard about Mary’s baby he did not want it; he was ready to break the engagement. What do we do when God starts getting close in our lives? Especially in a way that appears uncomfortable?

Ahaz and Joseph went in two different directions. If you read the OT story, Ahaz went ahead with his own plan for deliverance in spite of God’s word. Joseph, on the other hand, listened and obeyed when the angel spoke to him in the dream: what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins (Mtt 1:20b–21).

The sign that had been promised so long ago was coming true. A son was about to be born, a baby that was both Son of God and Son of Mary. The result of this is a Savior, the very thing all of us need so badly. God has come, and he has come to save us.

One of the Christmas carols that probably all of us know well has a verse that is a great prayer:

O holy Child of Bethlehem, descend on us we pray;

Cast out our sin and enter in, be born in us today....

O come to us.... abide with us.... 

our Lord Emmanuel

May that be the prayer of your heart. There is nothing more important. It is what this night is all about. God is with us.

Merry Christmas

Waiting

December 15, 2013 –– Third Sunday of Advent

Isaiah 35:1–10 / James 5:7–10 / Matthew 11:2–11

Waiting

Waiting is hard for most people. Waiting for Christmas Day is hard for children. It’s hard to wait when a big turkey dinner is cooking; the smell fills the house, and you are hungry. Waiting is hard when you are in a supermarket and have just a few items, then you get to the checkout and the lines are backed up with people who have full carts. Waiting is hard when you hit some problem on the interstate where traffic is backed up for several miles. For some of us, waiting is even hard when you just missed the green light and have to wait though a whole cycle.

Long-term waiting seems like an extinct species in our culture. It is common for people who want some expensive, but non-essential, item not to wait and save for the money to buy it; they go into debt to have it now. More and more couples who are “in love” do not wait for marriage before sexual intimacy. There is a surrender in our society to a spirit that says, “I want it, and I want it now!” Do we in the Church understand that embracing this attitude is sin?

A major emphasis of Advent is waiting. Throughout the Bible God’s people are waiting more than anything else. God is not in the instant-gratification business (but we might consider the evidence that the devil is). Getting what we want is rooted in selfishness. Satan made selfish desire ultimately appealing to Eve. Getting what we want now compounds it. Because we are broken, waiting is a hard thing. Yet God uses waiting to develop faith and hope in us. Satan tries to use waiting to defeat us―for us to become so obsessed with what we want and when we want it that we allow unfulfilled desire to affect everything else.

Advent is a time to take a head-on look at this issue of waiting. Today’s Scripture texts help us see three ways that waiting can affect our spiritual lives. We are warned not to allow waiting to cause us to be discouraged, distracted or demanding.

Think about John the Baptist. After an initial popular ministry he was put in prison. He had preached that One greater than himself was coming, but sitting in a jail can dampen one’s enthusiasm. Maybe John was waiting for the Coming One to make everything right―including a rescue from jail. Finally he sent some of his disciples to ask Jesus: Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?

Why did John ask this? He was probably discouraged. He was stuck in prison and waiting. John’s discouragement may have been exacerbated once it was clear that no popular Messianic expectations were being reported. So often we nurture our ability to wait by thinking God is going to work a certain way, but if God doesn’t work the way we think he should, it discourages our waiting.

Is it accurate to suggest that a spiritually discouraged person is a complaining person? How easily little irritants in life turn us into complainers! (I am preaching to myself.) James exhorts, Do not complain, brothers and sisters.... He reminds us of the patience a farmer needs (most of us are so far removed from basic agriculture that the example doesn’t connect). He commends the example of hardship and patience that we find in the prophets. They faced real hardships––like John being put in prison. We live in a world that tries to convince us that life needs to be easy and pleasant all the time, and if it’s not, it is our “right” to be discouraged and complain.

Once we are discouraged, we are vulnerable to distraction. We find other ways to compensate for the pain of waiting. The world will always offer us something that seems innocent, but it can cause spiritual weakness. We may no longer feel “discouraged”―but it’s because we are distracted. Something else can give us temporary comfort and joy, then we are not focused on our Lord and waiting on his promise to come.

And if that state of mind goes for too long, we develop demanding spirits. We embrace an attitude that all but insists that we get what we want and that we get it now. Surrendering to an attitude like this is spiritual death. The person who refuses to wait patiently―the person who demands his own way―is cutting himself off from the Spirit of Jesus.

Advent is a time of expectation. The question today is: What are you waiting for? Are you waiting for God to do things your way? Could it be that God isn’t even part of the equation, but you are simply waiting for what you want (and you’ve decided you can’t be happy until you have it)? Or, on the other hand, are we waiting on the Lord? Maybe it would help to reflect on the idea of Christians as people living in a Waiting Room! Advent calls us to this, and the Church has wisely built this time into the rhythm of our spiritual lives to help us not become discouraged, distracted or demanding. You see, as we live in this world, we can be waiting on the Lord wherever we are and whatever else we are doing.  Advent is waiting.... on the Lord.