This Week’s Focus: Need a Hug?

 As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete. "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you.  I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another. John 15: 9-17

Dear Friends,

Wow! Read the Bible from cover to cover and you won’t find more love packed into so few lines anywhere else. In eight verses, love is mentioned nine times. If the New Testament is a love letter from God, then this passage is a great big hug from Jesus. Love is the essence of Jesus. As the gospel tells us, he gets it from the Father. And he gives it to us in overflowing abundance. It is ours for the taking and the sharing. We are links in a reciprocal chain of love … bound to each other and to the Father through the saving grace of the Redeemer.

But don’t let all this love stuff confuse you. There is nothing mushy or sentimental about the love of Christ. It is literally a matter of life and death. Jesus gave his life for us. He expects us to reciprocate – not as a transactional exchange, but as an affirmation of our inseparable union with the will of the Father, the love of the Son and the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

The life we give to Jesus is our timid, self-centered, mortal one. The life he gives us back is a joyful, blessed, immortal one. Not a bad deal. If only we were bright enough to take it and to keep it. But we are so easily diverted. Our devotion becomes distraction. We are fickle and lack focus. Yet Jesus loves us as we are. He is constant when we are confused. He cuts right through the silly trivia we have made our life’s priorities. Our feelings come and go. His love for us does not.

Fortunately, we are made in God’s image. He is not made in ours. C.S. Lewis makes the point that: “He is not proud. He will have us even though we have shown that we prefer everything else to him, and come to him because there is ‘nothing better’ to be had.”  Christ’s love may be our last resort, but it is always our best resort.

Fully aware of our failings, Jesus pays each of us the ultimate compliment. Our God calls us “friends.” He invites imitation of his love. He dissects and explains that love … its origins, its purposes, its ends and our unique place in his plan. As the old spiritual says: “What a friend we have in Jesus.”

We are strongly charged to pass on and share the love of Christ. Love your neighbor is not a suggestion. It is a bedrock commandment. In Romans 13, St. Paul tells us: He who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. As such, love supersedes the “shall not’s” Moses took down from Mt. Sinai.

But for all its lyrical beauty, in the starkest terms, this gospel contains Christianity’s essential challenge: that you love one another as I have loved you. Orders don’t get any taller than that.  Yet every step of the way, Jesus will be there to guide and comfort us. The further we get into prayer and scripture, the further we get into imitation of Christ, the more we’ll feel his arms around us in a hug that tells us: You are loved. You are protected. You are mine. Everything will be OK.

God love you!

Ann from Detroit. Love and Happiness, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN.http://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=54939 [retrieved May 8, 2012].

Reproduced from Revised Common Lectionary Prayers copyright © 2002 Consultation on Common Texts admin. Augsburg Fortress. Used by permission. A complete edition of the prayers is available though Augsburg Fortress

listen to ‘This Week's Focus: Connections’ on Audioboo

This Week’s Focus: Connections

 "I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinegrower. He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit. You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me.  I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples. John 15: 1-8

Dear Friends,

There’s an old expression that: it’s not what you know, it’s who you know. You need the right connections to get ahead. In this week’s gospel Jesus assures us that we’ve got the right connections. We’re not on our own. We’re connected. Jesus is the vine and we are the branches. He abides in us, and we in him.

“Abide” is such a lovely, arcane word. It conveys a sense of timeless commitment. It says that we not only live in the Lord, but we have a long-term, iron-clad lease.  Jesus is not the flavor of the month. He’s here to stay. And we are bound together so tightly, that in time it becomes hard to tell vine from branch. Our every thought reflects his will. Our every action serves his purpose.

We know that’s where we ought to be. It’s where we want to be. But how do we get there? To begin with, Jesus has done the hard work. He took our every sin with him to the cross. In him we are redeemed. But our state of redemption is not a passive one. In scripture we have learned that our salvation is a gift from God. We did not earn it. We cannot pay for it. But just as often Jesus tells us that we must partner in his work. We must witness his love. With redemption comes obligation.

Our first obligation is to know God. It is the prerequisite to loving him, to praising him, to serving him. And like any other task we take seriously, knowing God begins with the basics. It starts with reading, studying and meditating on the Bible. And that takes time, commitment and discipline. That investment in knowing the Lord leads inexorably to abiding in the Lord … an intimate and sustaining presence, a serene sense of “connectedness” with the will and the work of Jesus.

Our connection with Christ was never meant to be a nodding acquaintance on holidays. In the starkest terms possible, Jesus tells us our connection comes with an obligation to be fruitful. At times being fruitful can seem such an impossible stretch. We feel so spiritually needy. Our faith can be so frail. But we are not on our own. That is the beauty of being a branch. Over time we draw health and vigor from the vine. With the turn of each season, the fruits of grace and Christian sanctity swell within us, ‘til they burst forth to the glory of God … in worship and fellowship, in service and stewardship, in love and in joy. And so we pray: I am yours, Lord. Abide in me. Nourish me. Make me fruitful in your service.

God love you!

God,

You sent you Son into the world

that we might live through him.

May we abide in his risen life

So that we may bear the fruit of love for one another

and know the fullness of joy. Amen.

Reproduced from Revised Common Lectionary Prayers copyright © 2002 Consultation on Common Texts admin. Augsburg Fortress. Used by permission. A complete edition of the prayers is available though Augsburg Fortress

True Vine, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. http://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=54148 [retrieved April 30, 2012].

This Week’s Focus: Crying Wolf

"I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand, who is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away--and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. The hired hand runs away because a hired hand does not care for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again. I have received this command from my Father." John 10: 11-18 

Dear Friends,

To his listeners, this story was taken right from real life. They were farmers and fishermen, craftsmen and laborers, maybe even a few shepherds. They related immediately to the long hours, the vigilance and the dedication required to protect the livestock from predators. They knew the damage wolves could do if they ever got in among the flock. They lived on very thin margins and they understood that the loss of a single sheep could make a big difference. The message, its meaning and the pivotal role of the messenger were all self-evident.

Not surprisingly, things have changed a lot in two-thousand years. We don’t run into many shepherds on the streets of Bay Shore. The wolves we see are on the Animal Channel. And our pride bristles at being equated with sheep. Has the Good Shepherd lost its relevance? Has the parable outlived its usefulness? Not a chance.

Look around you; the wolves are out in force. And they are howling for our souls. From relentless economic and social pressures to a coarsening of community standards; from a growing lack of civility to increasing insensitivity, isolation and alienation; from purposeless personal drift to depression and despair; from enslaving addictions to family violence; from ubiquitous internet porn to the horrors of child abuse… we are under constant assault. And before these merciless demons, we are as helpless as sheep. The world, the flesh and the devil know exactly what buttons to push … the poor me button … the I deserve it button … the grass is always greener button … the get even button … the  nobody ’s looking button … the everybody does it button ... the just this once button. We are wired from head to toe with vulnerabilities. And undefended, we don’t stand a chance.

Enter the Good Shepherd. He lays down his life for his sheep. No one took it from him. He gave it in perfect sacrifice as a timeless example of unconditional love. Under assault he is our protection. In our sins he is our redemption. Know with certainty, that at some time in our lives every one of us will be the lost sheep. Every one of us will be sought out and called for. Every one of us will need to be carried back to the fold; to be nursed and restored. For some of us it is a regular round trip. But as long as we have the will and the grace to cry out, the Shepherd will be there. That’s not an invitation to abuse God’s love. The Shepherd knows his sheep. We should know him. He is all merciful, but he is all just. If we prefer the company of wolves, we might get what we wish for. We may deserve it, but: “Good riddance to bad rubbish” are not the words or the wishes of the Good Shepherd. To our last breath, he is listening for our cry. Let’s not make ourselves hard to find. Stay close. Live in his love and protection. And keep an eye out for wolves.

God love you!

Mighty God,
in whom we know the power of redemption,
you stand among us in the shadows of our time.
As we move through every sorrow and trial of this life,
uphold us with knowledge of the final morning
when, in the glorious presence of your risen Son,
we will share in his resurrection,
redeemed and restored to the fullness of life
and forever freed to be your people. Amen.

Reproduced from Revised Common Lectionary Prayers copyright © 2002 Consultation on Common Texts admin. Augsburg Fortress. Used by permission. A complete edition of the prayers is available though Augsburg Fortress

Image: Mauve, Anton, 1838-1888. Landscape with Shepherd and Sheep, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. http://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=51139 [retrieved April 25, 2012].

This Week’s Focus: I Told You So

While they were talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, "Peace be with you." They were startled and terrified, and thought that they were seeing a ghost. He said to them, "Why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself. Touch me and see; for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have." And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. While in their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering, he said to them, "Have you anything here to eat?"  They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate in their presence. Then he said to them, "These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you--that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled." Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and he said to them, "Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.  You are witnesses of these things. Luke 24:35-48

Dear Friends,

Any fair assessment of this week’s gospel would rate the disciples as pretty slow on the uptake. In various accounts, this is the fifth time Jesus appears and explains that, as prophesied, predicted and promised, he has died and is risen. He is not a ghost, but their friend and teacher, returned in triumph over death. No wonder they are dumb founded. Their instincts, reason and experience tell them: what’s dead is dead, end of story. Yet here is Jesus … to see, to hear, to touch. How can that be?

We have been raised in the gospel of God’s new covenant. We have more than a few Easter’s under our belts. We have read the scriptures and heard the stories over and over. Yet the idea of life after death remains a profound mystery that both challenges our reason and defines our faith.

Brilliant theologians have dedicated scholarly careers to expanding on the proofs of the historical Jesus and evidence of his Resurrection. Yet to date they have never established the absolute fact of the Resurrection unsupported by faith. But that is the whole point. We are called to believe, not to litigate the evidence. Oxford theologian John S. Whale reinforces the point that: “The Gospels do not explain the Resurrection; the Resurrection explains the Gospels. Belief in the Resurrection is not an appendage to the Christian faith, it is the Christian faith.”

Not surprisingly, no one could better sum up the centrality of the Resurrection than Jesus. Before, not after, he went to the cross, Jesus told us: I am the Resurrection and the life. He who believes in me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in me shall never die. (John 11:25-26) In scores of sick rooms, Jesus has repeated this message to me over and over. I have been privileged to see the proof with my own eyes. I have seen the body succumb to the ravages of time and disease, while the soul goes home to God … sometimes in glory, other times in peace, many times in fear … but always in the hope of the Resurrection.

It is very rare that anyone can predict with certainty the exact moment of their physical death. It is common to all Christians that we can fix the precise moment of our eternal life as “the hour I first believed.” So if you are looking for proof of the Resurrection, look around you. We are the living witness to Christ’s love in the world. Amid the continuous chaos of the times, our lives proclaim: He is risen. And, by God’s grace when we stand before him, he will remind us: I told you so.     

God love you!

Duccio, di Buoninsegna, d. 1319. Christ Appears to the Disciples at the Table after the Resurrection, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. http://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=49184 [retrieved April 11, 2012].

This Week’s Focus: Case Closed 

Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him." Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went toward the tomb. The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, and the cloth that had been on Jesus' head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself. Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead. Then the disciples returned to their homes.But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. They said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping?" She said to them, "They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him." When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?" Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away." Jesus said to her, "Mary!" She turned and said to him in Hebrew, "Rabbouni!" (which means Teacher). Jesus said to her, "Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, `I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'" Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, "I have seen the Lord"; and she told them that he had said these things to her. John 20:1-18

Dear Friends,

For the Romans it was a useful lesson to discourage other trouble makers. For the Sanhedrin it was just punishment for a blaspheming pretender. For his disciples it was disillusionment and despair. For his mother it was indescribable pain watching her boy destroyed. It wasn’t supposed to end this way. And of course it didn’t.

He is risen. Love has triumphed over evil. The message has not been muzzled. And the messenger walks among us. It did not all end on the cross. It was only the beginning. He is with us in worship this Easter morning. We are risen with Jesus. And we share his victory over death, through a lifetime of Christian witness and beyond. This is no poetic illusion. It is as real as life gets. Anyone who has returned from a life of darkness will tell you what a blessing it is to live in the light of The Resurrection… to rejoice in it ...to share it.

In “Peter Pan” there is a very effective scene where Tinker Bell is expiring and can only be revived if the children in the audience believe in fairies. The risen Christ is no Tinker Bell. He is and was God before all time. He will reign beyond all time. That reality is not dependent on our belief. We, however, are another matter altogether. In Christ we are saved. Reject him and we are on our own. But even then our case is not closed. God calls us to him constantly, to live in the Resurrection … to choose eternal life over death.

God made us, knows us and loves us in our imperfection. The frailty of our faith is no secret to him. Few of us are living saints. None of us is sinless. The diaries of Mother Theresa reveal her dark night of the soul; surrounded by suffering, questioning God’s love and very existence. Yet she continued on, driven by a will to believe, struggling toward the light. On Easter morning the light of the risen Christ beckons brighter than ever. This is a time to banish our doubts, to burnish our beliefs, to reconnect with baptismal grace and recommit to live in and for Jesus.

Easter is the time we say “yes” to Jesus, to live in our hopes not our fears. No matter how many times we fall, we are a resurrection people. No matter what our condition, Jesus wants us for his own. It was not in the power of the Romans or the Sanhedrin to close the case on Jesus. It is not in the power of the world, the flesh or the devil to close the case on any of us. That power is in our own hands. We can rise with Jesus or choose to sit out the Resurrection. Let’s throw open our tombs. Choose life. Choose love. Choose joy. Choose Christ. Alleluia! He is risen.

God love you!

Love divine,
in raising Christ to new life
you opened the path of salvation to all peoples.
Send us out, with the joy of Mary Magdalene,
to proclaim that we have seen the Lord,
so that all the world may celebrate with you 
the banquet of your peace. Amen.

Reproduced from Revised Common Lectionary Prayers copyright © 2002 

He, Qi. Easter Morning, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. http://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=46116 [retrieved April 3, 2012].

listen to ‘Easter Joy from St. Peter's by-the-Sea: "Case Closed"’ on Audioboo

This Week's Focus: Focus on Forgiveness

St. Mark’s account of the passion and death of Jesus is not as long and as detailed as that of St. Matthew. But it is sufficiently long and detailed to convey the complete sacrificial surrender of Jesus in the face of betrayal, torture and execution. As such, this week’s gospel speaks for itself and requires little or no explanation or expansion. Let us focus instead on a single, powerful lesson: Forgiveness – the very first fruit of redemption. 

Forgiveness is a cornerstone of our new covenant with God. It repairs the rupture of sin that invaded Eden. It tempers the Old Testament wrath that rained fire and brimstone. It moderates the ritual rectitude of Leviticus. But the forgiveness of Calvary is no mere theological abstraction. It is a reality written in the blood of Christ. Throughout his passion he spells out plainly that to love is to forgive…and to forgive …and to forgive. That is how love works.

In Luke Jesus asks forgiveness for his tormentors: for they know not what they do. Then he forgives the penitent thief for a whole life-time of crime, saying: today you will be with me in Paradise. Conversely in Mark, the message is as much in what Jesus does not say, as it is in what he does say. Pilate is amazed at his silence in the face of obviously trumped-up charges. Mark records Christ’s silent submission continuing up to and on the cross – no rebuttals, no recriminations, no threats of revenge.

In Mark only at the last minute does Jesus break his silence: My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? At first glance it is a cry of despair. On further examination, it is a direct quote from David in Psalm 22, which precisely predicted the method of Christ’s execution – more than five hundred years before the Romans introduced crucifixion into Israel. To the end, in obedience to the Father, Jesus shows us he is fulfilling the laws and the prophets. Then finally from the weight of sin, as much as from the agony of crucifixion, he gives up his spirit.

Calvary marks a change in our relationship with God. He is no longer the distant, omnipotent umpire calling balls and strikes. He is the accessible, ever loving, ever forgiving Creator/Redeemer/Sanctifier, the source of all unconditional love. But that does not mean that God has become the enabler in chief. There is a world of difference between condoning and forgiving. God always forgives; he never condones. St. Augustine cautions us that: “No one is redeemed except through unmerited mercy, and no one is condemned except through merited judgment.” We can always rely on God’s mercy. We should never presume on it as a license to sin.

 In the Lord’s Prayer, only one petition is conditional: that our trespasses will be forgiven as we forgive those who trespass against us. Surely, we all have need of forgiveness, so we all have a need to forgive. It is a simple and benign concept, until it is seriously challenged. And then it becomes a harsh reality. Overlooking a minor faux-pas is easy. But what about relationships that become contests …when words become weapons… when attack breeds counterattack …when lives are wasted and families destroyed over arguments that have long since lost their meaning? All that calls for some really serious forgiving.

The Yellow Pages are replete with listings of family conflict counselors. The libraries are stocked with volumes on reconciliation. Doubtless, they have merit. But the true path to healing relationships is the way of the cross…to forgive…and forgive…to repent and reconcile…to pray and to love. Then to forgive again… knowing that beyond the Calvary of our conflicts lies the joy of resurrection. Peace is always within our reach, through the door of forgiveness. Jesus has shown us the way.

God love you!

Morgner, Wilhelm, 1891-1917. Entry of Christ into Jerusalem, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. http://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=54247 [retrieved March 28, 2012]

HOLY WEEK 2012 - Praising God, Serving Neighbor

          at St. Peter's Bay Shore, New York

 Monday of Holy Week – April 2

Holy Eucharist at 7:30 PM 

Tuesday of Holy Week – April 3

Mass for the Renewal of Vows and Blessing of Holy Oils

Cathedral of the Incarnation at 11:00 AM

Holy Eucharist at 7:30 PM 

Wednesday of Holy Week – April 4

Holy Eucharist at 7:30 PM 

Maundy Thursday – April 5

Solemn Choral Eucharist at 7:30 PM

The Mandatum and Stripping of the Altar

All Night Prayer Vigil in St. Edmund’s Chapel

Good Friday – April 6

Morning Prayer at 8:00 AM in St. Edmund’s Chapel

The Stations of the Cross at 12:00 Noon

The Solemn Liturgy of Good Friday at 7:30 PM

Holy Saturday – April 7

The Great Vigil of Easter at 5:00 PM

  

The Resurrection of the Lord – Easter Sunday – April 8

Holy Eucharist Rite I at 8:00 AM  

Solemn Choral Eucharist with Orchestra at 10:15 AM

(Children’s Easter Egg Hunt follows)

This Week’s Focus: A Game of Inches 

And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.”Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God." John 3: 14-21

Dear Friends,

I’ll let you in on a trade secret. Most young preachers are a lot like rookie baseball players. When we first mount the pulpit, we hope we’re going to hit a home run every time. We pray that God will inspire us to share the exactly right, dramatic, life-changing message for a soul in need. Over time we learn that life, like baseball, is more a game of inches. Rather than swinging for the seats, we usually just try to make contact. We stick to the fundamentals and we try not to make any errors.

So what to make of this week’s gospel? Jesus is obviously not just another preacher. His every message is a grand slam – and none grander than this: For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. Perhaps the most frequently cited reference in the Bible, John 3: 16, has been called the whole gospel in a nutshell.

It is a limitation of our language, and perhaps of our imagination, that God’s love is presented in the past tense. For the truth is that God has loved us, does love us and will love us with the same intensity that sent Jesus to the cross. It is not that we are so lovable, but that God is love. Loving is what he does. Loving is what he is. And again, our language and experience fail us. God’s love is not emotional or hormone driven. Feelings come and go. God’s love does not. His love is not transactional. It does not require reciprocity. God delights in loving us. It is the essence of his being.

But God is also the wellspring of truth. So there is no effort to sugar coat his message of love. If you have been shown the light and prefer the darkness, that choice is yours. While there is yet life in us, the light of Christ burns for us. The saving love of Christ beckons. Eternal life or eternal death – in every passing minute of our very precisely allotted life-times, it is the ultimate choice we make over and over. In this gospel Jesus calls us to choose life, to choose light, to choose love. In this Jesus is more than a high-powered preacher. He is the message, as well as the messenger.

As C.S. Lewis put it: “God, who needs nothing, loves into existence wholly superfluous creatures in order that he may love and perfect them.” And then he sent the Son to give us a human-scale window into his infinite love. There never was and never will be a quid pro quo for creation and salvation. God knows how hard it is for us to understand and return his love. As long as he remains a distant abstraction, we will always love things and people more than God. He knows our limitations. He’s not angry with us as long as we earnestly commit to loving him every day. Except for the rare dramatic conversion, growing in God’s love is a game of inches – sticking to the fundamentals, avoiding errors. And if we really honestly try, every inch of the way, God is waving us home.

God love you!

This Week's Focus: Spring Cleaning with Jesus

The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables. Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple, both the sheep and the cattle. He also poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. He told those who were selling the doves, "Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father's house a marketplace!" His disciples remembered that it was written, "Zeal for your house will consume me." The Jews then said to him, "What sign can you show us for doing this?"  Jesus answered them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." The Jews then said, "This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three days?" But he was speaking of the temple of his body.  After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this; and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken. 

John 2:13-22

Dear Friends,

Jesus is in the temple and he means business – his Father’s business. He’s come to proclaim the new covenant, even though he knows it will cost him his life. But Jesus is not a go-along-get-along guy. For openers, he won’t preach the good news surrounded by the commercial corruption that has come to permeate the house of the Lord. So he overturns counters, dumps the cash drawers and drives the merchants and their livestock from the temple. Jesus is all about love. But his love is consistently obedient to the Father. The prophets had foretold about Jesus that: Zeal for (God’s) house will consume (him.)

It seems straight forward enough, ‘til we realize that once again Jesus is operating on more than one level. The temple that he says will be destroyed and rebuilt is a direct reference to his own approaching sacrificial death and resurrection. And indirectly he tells us that if we are to live in the house of the Lord, we have to do it with reverence and respect.

It is useful to stop and consider that the people he drove from the temple are the very same people he came to save. The people who questioned his legitimacy and authority are the same people he would soon lay down his life for. Jesus loves us all. He knows us all. He died for us all: in our sins, in our arrogance, in our cruelty, in our stupidity. Jesus does not love us for whom we ought to be or for whom we want to be. He loves us as we are -- in our falls and in our resurrections.

Jesus wants us to live in and for his love. To do that, like Jesus, we have some serious cleaning up to do. Paul tells us: Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? (1Cor 3:16.) Lent is set aside for each of us to give our temples a really thorough spring cleaning. Hopefully we’re spiritually sprucing up all year round. But Lent is reserved for the heavy-duty jobs – the rigorous personal inventory: What significant opportunities do we have to witness Christ’s love? What obstacles exist? What weaknesses can we isolate and eliminate? What strengths can we build on? What about our relationships: family, neighbors, co-workers? What are our priorities? How do we spend our time?

This isn’t a complete list. But it’s a good start. Tackle your own spiritual spring cleaning list. It will make your life neater, healthier, happier. Roll up your sleeves and pitch in. If you ask him, Jesus will lend a hand – throwing out the guilt, polishing up the joy, making room for love. Spring cleaning with Jesus – that’s what Lent is for.   

God love you!

JESUS MAFA. Jesus drives out the merchants, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN.http://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=48271 [retrieved March 6, 2012].