A Sermon delivered to All Saints Anglican Church
March 18, 2007, based on 2 Cor. 5:17-21.
Imagine what it would be like to be a teenager in the bud of youth living happily in the midst of a loving family, comfortably asleep in your bed one night, when all of a sudden, you hear a violent kick to the door of your house and in storm mercenaries who carry you off screaming to a foreign land where you are put to work as a slave, tending sheep and pigs in the middle of nowhere. You have only a ragged set of clothes to wear, no overcoat, very little food, not a soul to talk to, and only stinking bleating sheep to look at! What would you do?
Do you think you would have the faith to pray to God? And if you did pray, would it be a prayer of humble supplication, or one of angry accusation towards God? Can you see yourself praying a hundred times a day, and enduring cold, frost, wind and rain in the open air – but finding such consolation in your prayers that you feel no discomfort from the cold, only energy and inspiration?
Can you imagine how you would feel towards those who took you captive and treated you thus? Can you imagine escaping your captivity and waling some 200 miles to the nearest seaport, finding a birth on a ship traveling to year another country, not your own, only to find that once you arrive in the new country that the land has been desolated by fighting, and the whole countryside is completely denuded of food? Then, after returning to your own country and family, can you imagine having a dream in which you are called to minister to the very people who enslaved you? – and responding positively?
If so, you might be able to catch a glimpse of St. Patrick’s life, and what drove him to go back to the land of his captivity in order to take the Gospel to a people who did not know the True god. Now further imagine if you will, having such a deep love and identification for and with the people that Patrick called himself an Irishman and almost single-handedly inspired the evangelism and transfiguration of an entire (hostile) culture, thus earning himself a permanent place of honor for all ages as witnessed by a hymn composed by fellow missionary Bishop, Secundinus. It reads in part:
“Hear all ye…the holy merits of the Bishop Patrick…How, on account of his good actions, he is likened unto the angels, and fro his perfect life, is counted equal to the Apostles” (from the Hymn of St. Patrick).
St. Patrick’s life illustrates vividly what Paul, in our reading for today, calls the Ministry of Reconciliation. Out of a deep love for the Irish, Patrick studied diligently for many years to become a priest, and later a bishop, in order to be sent out from Britain as a missionary to Ireland.
While we might expect the ministry of reconciliation to be very peaceful, one of the first things Patrick does on the mission field is to have a violent confrontation with the powers that be.
“It seems that [the warrior king] Laoghaire [the son of Niall, the chieftain of the raiders who had abducted Patrick, and who ruled from his castle at Tara] was fascinated by Patrick, aware that [Druid seers had prophecied the coming of an ‘adze-head’ , or Briton, who would convert the Irish to his religion, that] the newly consecrated bishop had powerful gifts of persuasion, and that he was every bit a match for the king’s own miracle worker, Lucat Moel. The challenge to Laoghaire’s supreme authority was quick and direct; immediately upon his arrival in the area on the eve of the Christian feast of Easter, without asking or awaiting permission, Patrick lit a paschal fire on a hillside visible from Tara. This defiance of the king’s and the druids’ authority was a capital crime. The various legends tell that Patrick was brought before the king and an explanation was demanded by the sword-wielding viscount, Lochru. Patrick miraculously lifted the warrior into the air, then let him drop to the earth, disabling (possibly killing) him” (The Wisdom of St. Patrick, by Greg Tobin, pg. 34).
While the king does not convert immediately, his wife and daughters do, and a great mutual respect arises between Laoghaire and Patrick.
So Patrick’s ministry of reconciling the Irish people to God begins with a confrontation of the pagan religion, a conflict in which works of power figure importantly. These power encounters lead the people to convert immediately, and/ or increase the respect for Patrick, grudgingly admitting that he’s on to something with this Christianity bit.
Thus, Patrick is an ‘ambassador of Christ”, through whom God makes his appeal to the Irish. The result is a transformed culture. Within Patrick’s lifetime, the entire country was converted. The slave trade was eliminated, the pagan and druidic system of tribal and shamanic government was replaced by a network of monastic communities in which the Abbot functioned as the tribal chieftain, presiding over monastic ‘cities’ that were to become great repositories of learning as the Roman empire crumbled and scholars fled the barbarians, bringing their books and learning with them to the safety of Ireland. Patrick’s successful ambassadorship eventually enabled the Irish to “Save Civilization” as historian Thomas Cahill (How the Irish Saved Civilzation) puts it.
What a challenge to us today! We live in a culture that is increasingly and self-consciously pagan, where people find themselves turned off by the traditional church and attracted to the earth-centered religious systems of Wicca and paganism, the allure of simple materialism, or captivity to various forms of addiction. What can we learn from Patrick in order to reach our culture the way he reached his?
First and foremost, Patrick was radically committed to Jesus Christ. As a young man, his faith had been tested in the white-hot crucible of adversity and refined into pure gold. Patrick was convinced, on a cellular level, of the Lordship of Christ over his own life, but also over Nature and every unseen spiritual power. He was so lined up with God’s Will that he was willing to lay down his life for the people God had called him to reconcile.
Second, Patrick had pressed through the oppression of his early life, allowing it to became his spiritual basic training, his ascetic preparation for the ministry to come. He had personal holiness and a dynamic prayer life
Finally, he was full of the Divine dunamis, or power. This power in turn enabled him to confront the false gods of the culture to whom he ministered. He went head to head with the idols of his day and he prevailed in his mission. Why? Because he was
Radically Committed,
Personally Holy, and
Powerful in God.
If we are to bring the Gospel to our culture, to be salt and light to people who sit in darkness and are enslaved to the gods of materialism, addiction and towering selfishness, we must be like Patrick and develop Commitment, Holiness and Power in our spiritual lives.
If we are to be instruments of Salvation to the people of our Tri-State region, we must cultivate our knowledge of God through Prayer, ascetic practice, study, and works of compassion.
There are still 75,000 people in Cabell and Wayne counties who need the saving grace of Jesus Christ. (God recently rescued one in our midst from Putnam County – and we didn’t even include his county in our statistics!) God has charged us as his people to take the Gospel to the whole world. Let us pray together that he will grant us the virtues of St. Patrick to be willing and useful vessels in the Ministry of Reconciliation. AMEN.
Saturday, March 17, 2007
I AM Calling
A Sermon delivered to All Saints Anglican Church,
March 11, 2007, based on Exodus 3: 1-15
Last Sunday we talked about the Covenant that God made with Abraham and how important that is to Christians now. In today’s Old Testament lesson, we also have a very important moment in Salvation History, the Calling of Moses.
We pick up our story as Moses is out shephe4ding the flock for his father in law. You’ll remember that this was the same Moses that was put into a basket by his mother and pushed out into the water to be found by Pharaoh’s daughter, then subsequently raised as a “Prince of Egypt”. This is the same Moses who, when he grew up and found out that he was a Hebrew, saw an Egyptian soldier beating a fellow Hebrew slave, and in a fit of righteous anger, killed the soldier, necessitating his flight from Egypt into the wilderness of the Sinai Peninsula.
You’ll recall that he was taken in by a family, married their daughter, and became a shepherd for his father in law – probably the lowest position imaginable at the time. From highest to lowest – Moses had a retrograde career path up to that point!
Despite that however, Moses receives an unusual visit. The text says that ‘an angel of the Lord’ appeared to him in a blazing fire. In verse 4 we read that God called to him in the midst of the burning bush. From this, we understand that the angel of the Lord and God are one and the same.
Theologians have interpreted this as a pre-incarnate appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is similar to Jacob wrestling with the Angel, and Shadrach, Meschach and Abednego being accompanied in the fiery furnace by another who looked like a ‘son of man’. In hindsight we can see that Jesus had a plan for Moses all along.
Of course, Moses has no clue Whom he is dealing with, but is quickly told to take off his sandals – that the place where he is standing is Holy. He is then told that he is being addressed by the God of his fathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Moses very sensibly drops to his hands and knees and hides his face, fearing to look up.
(Friends, this is where we get the idea of fearing god. Put yourself in Moses’ position: He’s minding his own business, when all of a sudden, the Lord God, the Creator of the Universe pays him a call… We call God Holy. That means that he is separate from us, that he is so totally different from us that unless He revealed Himself to us, we would have no knowledge about him. He is the God of Glory – eternal weightiness. When He appears to humans, the brilliance of his presence is overwhelming, and we cringe before Him. This is why we naturally fear Him.)
Yet the fear we have for God is tempered by His Goodness. And this Glorious God has not come to destroy or terrify Moses, but to offer him a job – if indeed you can call it an offer. It’s more like a command. “Moses, take a message! Tell Pharaoh to let my people go. I’ve heard their cries and I want to deliver them from their oppressors!”
It’s a very emphatic message. The God of your forefathers has chosen you to be a special messenger and to do a great work for God. You should be honored and excited. But immediately, Moses starts edging out onto thin ice with God. “Who am I that I should go and do this?” Moses begins to question God’s judgment. He has some poor self-esteem goin’ on and he just doesn’t know if he’s the guy to do the job.
What is God’s response? “I will be with you.” He even offers to give Moses a sign – he would come back to Mt. Sinai and worship there. But Moses asks a second question:
“Who shall I say is sending me?” Here’s a guy who is interviewing God! It’s as if he is saying, “Now, who are you again, and what is it that you want me to do?”
But the Lord very patiently explains, “I AM WHO I AM has sent you.” This is God’s proper Name. When we say ‘The Lord’, this is a title. But ‘Yahweh’ is God’s first Name, the name by which he will be remembered for all generations.
“Now, Moses, go and tell’ em that the God of your forefathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob has sent you… and here are some more instructions,” says the Lord.
Reading beyond our text today into chapter 4, we read that Moses goes on to question God two more times: “What if they will not believe me?”, and 4:10: “I’m not eloquent!” Finally, he flat-out tells God to “Please send someone else!” (4:13).
And then comes one of the most chilling sentences in the entire Bible: “Then the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses…” (4:14).
If he wasn’t afraid enough till now, this is the time to start trembling in your boots! Brothers and Sisters do not ever do this! If God comes calling, do whatever he tells you! Be like Mary: “Yes, Lord, be it done unto me according to your will.” That’s the right response! Just obey and don’t argue! Do not get into a place where the anger of the Lord burns against you! It’s not a good thing.
At any rate, most of us will not experience such a very direct and confrontational call, or vocation, from God. In fact, as author Carolyn Gratton says:
"Vocation is a matter primarily of being". It is not simply what I do… but in its deepest Christian sense, our true calling is to live in unbroken harmony with God, just as Adam and Eve did before the fall. Our True Vocation is to reflect the Imago Dei as we live in covenant relationship with Him. Out of this basic knowledge of who I am comes the knowledge of what I should do.
Theologian Walter Bruggeman states, "Vocation means finding a purpose for being in the world that is related to the purposes of God."
Looking at the life of Jesus, he himself demonstrates this relationship between being and doing in his statements about Himself. As a boy of twelve he says to his astonished parents "Did you not know I must be about my Father's business?" Later he announces his ministry by quoting from Isaiah "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He anointed Me to preach the Gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, To set free those who are downtrodden, To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord." To His followers He proclaims, "I come that they might have life and might have it abundantly...And to the disciples, he says, "I am the Way the Truth and the Life; no one comes to the Father but through Me (Jn. 14:6)...He who has seen Me has seen the Father (Jn. 14:9)...the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many..(Mt 20:28) Prophesying his death he says, "(the Son of Man) will be delivered to the Gentiles, and will be mocked and mistreated and spit upon, and after they have scourged Him, they will kill Him; and the third day He will rise again (Lk.18:31).
These statements all show that Jesus' sense of being or identity was intricately linked with his sense of mission in the world. Both of these in turn constituted His Vocation. Expressed in a formula, it looks like this: Identity + Mission = Vocation.
(Deacon Mark Goldman then came and shared with us for a few minutes a little bit of his sense of calling to the priesthood.)
I think this will illustrate for us something of how God gets our attention and lets us know he has something for us to do – in addition to being something.
There is much more to say about discovering one’s True Vocation in life, and we have only really skimmed the surface, but may God give us the grace to hear what He has said to us today and apply it correctly. AMEN.
March 11, 2007, based on Exodus 3: 1-15
Last Sunday we talked about the Covenant that God made with Abraham and how important that is to Christians now. In today’s Old Testament lesson, we also have a very important moment in Salvation History, the Calling of Moses.
We pick up our story as Moses is out shephe4ding the flock for his father in law. You’ll remember that this was the same Moses that was put into a basket by his mother and pushed out into the water to be found by Pharaoh’s daughter, then subsequently raised as a “Prince of Egypt”. This is the same Moses who, when he grew up and found out that he was a Hebrew, saw an Egyptian soldier beating a fellow Hebrew slave, and in a fit of righteous anger, killed the soldier, necessitating his flight from Egypt into the wilderness of the Sinai Peninsula.
You’ll recall that he was taken in by a family, married their daughter, and became a shepherd for his father in law – probably the lowest position imaginable at the time. From highest to lowest – Moses had a retrograde career path up to that point!
Despite that however, Moses receives an unusual visit. The text says that ‘an angel of the Lord’ appeared to him in a blazing fire. In verse 4 we read that God called to him in the midst of the burning bush. From this, we understand that the angel of the Lord and God are one and the same.
Theologians have interpreted this as a pre-incarnate appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is similar to Jacob wrestling with the Angel, and Shadrach, Meschach and Abednego being accompanied in the fiery furnace by another who looked like a ‘son of man’. In hindsight we can see that Jesus had a plan for Moses all along.
Of course, Moses has no clue Whom he is dealing with, but is quickly told to take off his sandals – that the place where he is standing is Holy. He is then told that he is being addressed by the God of his fathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Moses very sensibly drops to his hands and knees and hides his face, fearing to look up.
(Friends, this is where we get the idea of fearing god. Put yourself in Moses’ position: He’s minding his own business, when all of a sudden, the Lord God, the Creator of the Universe pays him a call… We call God Holy. That means that he is separate from us, that he is so totally different from us that unless He revealed Himself to us, we would have no knowledge about him. He is the God of Glory – eternal weightiness. When He appears to humans, the brilliance of his presence is overwhelming, and we cringe before Him. This is why we naturally fear Him.)
Yet the fear we have for God is tempered by His Goodness. And this Glorious God has not come to destroy or terrify Moses, but to offer him a job – if indeed you can call it an offer. It’s more like a command. “Moses, take a message! Tell Pharaoh to let my people go. I’ve heard their cries and I want to deliver them from their oppressors!”
It’s a very emphatic message. The God of your forefathers has chosen you to be a special messenger and to do a great work for God. You should be honored and excited. But immediately, Moses starts edging out onto thin ice with God. “Who am I that I should go and do this?” Moses begins to question God’s judgment. He has some poor self-esteem goin’ on and he just doesn’t know if he’s the guy to do the job.
What is God’s response? “I will be with you.” He even offers to give Moses a sign – he would come back to Mt. Sinai and worship there. But Moses asks a second question:
“Who shall I say is sending me?” Here’s a guy who is interviewing God! It’s as if he is saying, “Now, who are you again, and what is it that you want me to do?”
But the Lord very patiently explains, “I AM WHO I AM has sent you.” This is God’s proper Name. When we say ‘The Lord’, this is a title. But ‘Yahweh’ is God’s first Name, the name by which he will be remembered for all generations.
“Now, Moses, go and tell’ em that the God of your forefathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob has sent you… and here are some more instructions,” says the Lord.
Reading beyond our text today into chapter 4, we read that Moses goes on to question God two more times: “What if they will not believe me?”, and 4:10: “I’m not eloquent!” Finally, he flat-out tells God to “Please send someone else!” (4:13).
And then comes one of the most chilling sentences in the entire Bible: “Then the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses…” (4:14).
If he wasn’t afraid enough till now, this is the time to start trembling in your boots! Brothers and Sisters do not ever do this! If God comes calling, do whatever he tells you! Be like Mary: “Yes, Lord, be it done unto me according to your will.” That’s the right response! Just obey and don’t argue! Do not get into a place where the anger of the Lord burns against you! It’s not a good thing.
At any rate, most of us will not experience such a very direct and confrontational call, or vocation, from God. In fact, as author Carolyn Gratton says:
"Vocation is a matter primarily of being". It is not simply what I do… but in its deepest Christian sense, our true calling is to live in unbroken harmony with God, just as Adam and Eve did before the fall. Our True Vocation is to reflect the Imago Dei as we live in covenant relationship with Him. Out of this basic knowledge of who I am comes the knowledge of what I should do.
Theologian Walter Bruggeman states, "Vocation means finding a purpose for being in the world that is related to the purposes of God."
Looking at the life of Jesus, he himself demonstrates this relationship between being and doing in his statements about Himself. As a boy of twelve he says to his astonished parents "Did you not know I must be about my Father's business?" Later he announces his ministry by quoting from Isaiah "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He anointed Me to preach the Gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, To set free those who are downtrodden, To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord." To His followers He proclaims, "I come that they might have life and might have it abundantly...And to the disciples, he says, "I am the Way the Truth and the Life; no one comes to the Father but through Me (Jn. 14:6)...He who has seen Me has seen the Father (Jn. 14:9)...the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many..(Mt 20:28) Prophesying his death he says, "(the Son of Man) will be delivered to the Gentiles, and will be mocked and mistreated and spit upon, and after they have scourged Him, they will kill Him; and the third day He will rise again (Lk.18:31).
These statements all show that Jesus' sense of being or identity was intricately linked with his sense of mission in the world. Both of these in turn constituted His Vocation. Expressed in a formula, it looks like this: Identity + Mission = Vocation.
(Deacon Mark Goldman then came and shared with us for a few minutes a little bit of his sense of calling to the priesthood.)
I think this will illustrate for us something of how God gets our attention and lets us know he has something for us to do – in addition to being something.
There is much more to say about discovering one’s True Vocation in life, and we have only really skimmed the surface, but may God give us the grace to hear what He has said to us today and apply it correctly. AMEN.
Saturday, March 03, 2007
The Narrow Door
A Sermon delivered to All Saints Anglican Church
March 4, 2007
Have you ever thought of yourself as being ‘narrow’? If you have, have you ever thought that being narrow was a good thing? (and I’m not just talking weight loss here…). Most of the time when we hear this word applied to matters of faith, it is used with negative connotations, as in: You are narrow-minded, bigoted and homophobic… It’s not really a good thing to be known as being narrow.
Yet Jesus seems to think that Narrow is a good thing. “STRIVE to enter through the narrow door”, he says. “For many will try to enter and will not be able.
…What is Jesus talking about? Let’s first set the context and ask, “With whom is Jesus talking?” The answer is: his people, the Jews. He is telling them that many if not most of them will not enter the Kingdom of God with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Strangers from the four corners of the earth will come and take their place and they will be cast out into a place of weeping and gnashing of teeth!
Why? Because they are trying to enter through the broad way instead of the narrow door.
In addition to being inflammatory, Jesus’ words must have struck the people as nonsensical. He was proclaiming something that likely didn’t make sense to most of them. Why? - Because of their notion about the nature of Covenant.
You see, the Jewish people understood themselves to be children of Abraham. God had come to Abraham and made a Covenant with him, telling him that He would be Abraham’s God and that He would make Abraham’s descendants as numerous as the stars. God had even ratified the Covenant by passing through sacrificial animals with his own Presence, represented by a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch. He spoke to Abraham in the words of Genesis 15:18: “To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates”. How then could it be that Jesus had the audacity to suggest that most of the children of Abraham would not inherit the kingdom of God? It was their birthright, for cryin’ out loud!
I think it’s because the Jewish people missed something. In a word, that something was Faith. Look at Genesis 15:6 again: “…And he, Abraham, believed the LORD, and the LORD reckoned it to him as righteousness.” (By the way this is where we get our Appalachian use of the word “reckon”. It is a perfectly good and precise word that means to count, as in to “reckon” or justify accounts.) In this case, God counted or reckoned Abraham’s belief as Righteousness. He imputed or put onto Abraham Righteousness based on his belief, or faith.
The apostle Paul refers to this seminal moment in Romans chapter 4, vv 13-25, where he explains why those who believe in Jesus Christ will be saved while those who observe the Jewish law will not be saved: Abraham was not justified or reckoned righteous by the works of the law, but by his belief in God.
You see, the Jewish people should have understood this. They should have known that God has no grandchildren, only children. It’s not enough to look back to your grandpa and say “He was a great man of faith”. You yourself have to exercise faith, just as Abraham did, by believing God.
Paul goes on: …”the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith…it depends upon faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring – not only to the adherent of the law but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham… (Rom. 4:13, 16).
What then is the faith of Abraham for us? - To believe that Jesus Christ was sent by God to be the Savior of the World.
In Romans 3:21, Paul tells us that the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law… for the righteousness of God [comes] through faith in Jesus Christ (v.22).
So we have a parallel between Abraham, who believed God when God said that He would make Abraham the father of many nations … and the individual Christian, who believes that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. All who believe in Jesus Christ are the real descendants of Abraham. We are the ones whom God reckons as righteous and who will inherit the Kingdom. We are the ones who go through the narrow door, Jesus, to enter heaven.
The terms of God’s Covenant with us are very specific. God says he will be our God if will believe Him and trust in Jesus Christ to be our righteousness before Him. There is no other way to be right with God. It is indeed, as the saying goes, ‘set in concrete’.
Now many people today want to concoct their own way to God. They want to say, “My way is as good as yours to get to God”, and “Don’t be exclusive by trying to keep me out of Heaven.” This is completely obtuse. It would be like asserting that someone born in Russia and still living there should be granted US citizenship, complete with voting rights, just because he had once read the Constitution and had warm feelings in his heart towards Democracy. It just doesn’t work that way.
If you want in to the Kingdom of God, you gotta go through the door, the Narrow Door, Jesus Christ. How does one enter the Narrow Door? Paul again from Romans 10:9-11: “…if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved… For everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.”
How much clearer can it be? Believe in your heart and confess with your mouth. It’s easy enough for a child to understand and profound enough for the most sophisticated philosopher. (And incidentally, this is also why it is important to pray out loud. When we speak something out loud, it creates a reality that is heard by the listening principalities and powers on both sides. It is as if your verbal prayer is making an oral agreement with God, an agreement that has a certain legal quality to it. This agreement would stand up in God’s court. Silent prayer is good, but verbal prayer is also essential for our spiritual well-being.)
So God has established a very clear way to enter the Kingdom. And lest someone claim that God is a big meany and doesn’t want people to get in to the Kingdom, look at what Jesus says about Jerusalem: “How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!” YOU were NOT willing!
Jesus weeps over Jerusalem. He knows that in 70 AD the Romans will come and destroy the City and he is heartbroken for her. Friends, God has a seeking heart towards the world. He is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to the knowledge of the truth (II Pet. 3:9). Had the Jewish people somehow been able, as a people, to understand and exercise the faith of Abraham, they would have continued to be God’s conduit for the salvation of the world. But they rejected the message. “He came to his own, and his own did not receive him” (Jn. 1:11). This is why the Gospel message went out to the Gentiles after the Jewish people had rejected it – so that all the world would have the opportunity to hear the Good News of Jesus Christ.
We Gentiles are most blessed to have received the Gospel and to be adopted into the family of God, to become the true descendants of Abraham. All the promises made to Abraham now apply to us – although they are fulfilled spiritually in Christ, not literally in terms of inheriting a specific plot of ground. Therefore we rejoice greatly that our names are written in the book of Life (Rev. 3:5;20:15) and we look forward to spending Eternity with God.
But there is a caution here. As we see in our reading from Philippians today (3:17-4:1), it is possible to name the Name of Christ and live licentiously, to call oneself a Christian, but to literally live like Hell. Tragically, I believe we are seeing just this in many corners of the Christian world today (let the reader understand). For such people, who set their minds on earthly things and the indulgence of every fleshly desire, there is no protection in the Gospel Covenant. Jesus warned that even though ‘we ate and drank with you’… cast out demons, and did miracles in your name…he will shut the door to them saying, “I do not know where you come from; go away from me, all you evildoers!” (Lk. 13:26; Mt. 7:22).
I don’t know about you, but this sometimes sends a shiver up my spine. I would hate to think that I spent the last 30 years of my life working for Jesus only to someday fail to inherit eternal life! As the Psalmist cries out(Ps 27: 12,13):
Hide not your face from me, nor turn away your servant in displeasure.
You have been my helper; cast me not away; do not forsake me, O God of my salvation.
Bless God, however, If we hearken to the LORD and seek His face (vv.10,11), He gives us the assurance “that I shall see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the Living” (v. 17).
If we put our trust in Jesus Christ as our Savior, we will dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of our lives (v. 5). If we call out to the LORD to have mercy on us, He will answer us (v.10) and set us high upon the Rock (v. 7). And if we seek Him in his temple, (v.6), he will be our Light and our Salvation (v. 1).
I invite you now to do just that. Let’s take a silent moment to search our hearts. If during that time, you discover that you have never believed in and put your faith in Jesus Christ, simply ask Him to forgive you of your sins and cleanse you from all unrighteousness. Then you may come to me later and we can talk about the condition of your soul. (Keep silence) AMEN.
March 4, 2007
Have you ever thought of yourself as being ‘narrow’? If you have, have you ever thought that being narrow was a good thing? (and I’m not just talking weight loss here…). Most of the time when we hear this word applied to matters of faith, it is used with negative connotations, as in: You are narrow-minded, bigoted and homophobic… It’s not really a good thing to be known as being narrow.
Yet Jesus seems to think that Narrow is a good thing. “STRIVE to enter through the narrow door”, he says. “For many will try to enter and will not be able.
…What is Jesus talking about? Let’s first set the context and ask, “With whom is Jesus talking?” The answer is: his people, the Jews. He is telling them that many if not most of them will not enter the Kingdom of God with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Strangers from the four corners of the earth will come and take their place and they will be cast out into a place of weeping and gnashing of teeth!
Why? Because they are trying to enter through the broad way instead of the narrow door.
In addition to being inflammatory, Jesus’ words must have struck the people as nonsensical. He was proclaiming something that likely didn’t make sense to most of them. Why? - Because of their notion about the nature of Covenant.
You see, the Jewish people understood themselves to be children of Abraham. God had come to Abraham and made a Covenant with him, telling him that He would be Abraham’s God and that He would make Abraham’s descendants as numerous as the stars. God had even ratified the Covenant by passing through sacrificial animals with his own Presence, represented by a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch. He spoke to Abraham in the words of Genesis 15:18: “To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates”. How then could it be that Jesus had the audacity to suggest that most of the children of Abraham would not inherit the kingdom of God? It was their birthright, for cryin’ out loud!
I think it’s because the Jewish people missed something. In a word, that something was Faith. Look at Genesis 15:6 again: “…And he, Abraham, believed the LORD, and the LORD reckoned it to him as righteousness.” (By the way this is where we get our Appalachian use of the word “reckon”. It is a perfectly good and precise word that means to count, as in to “reckon” or justify accounts.) In this case, God counted or reckoned Abraham’s belief as Righteousness. He imputed or put onto Abraham Righteousness based on his belief, or faith.
The apostle Paul refers to this seminal moment in Romans chapter 4, vv 13-25, where he explains why those who believe in Jesus Christ will be saved while those who observe the Jewish law will not be saved: Abraham was not justified or reckoned righteous by the works of the law, but by his belief in God.
You see, the Jewish people should have understood this. They should have known that God has no grandchildren, only children. It’s not enough to look back to your grandpa and say “He was a great man of faith”. You yourself have to exercise faith, just as Abraham did, by believing God.
Paul goes on: …”the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith…it depends upon faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring – not only to the adherent of the law but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham… (Rom. 4:13, 16).
What then is the faith of Abraham for us? - To believe that Jesus Christ was sent by God to be the Savior of the World.
In Romans 3:21, Paul tells us that the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law… for the righteousness of God [comes] through faith in Jesus Christ (v.22).
So we have a parallel between Abraham, who believed God when God said that He would make Abraham the father of many nations … and the individual Christian, who believes that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. All who believe in Jesus Christ are the real descendants of Abraham. We are the ones whom God reckons as righteous and who will inherit the Kingdom. We are the ones who go through the narrow door, Jesus, to enter heaven.
The terms of God’s Covenant with us are very specific. God says he will be our God if will believe Him and trust in Jesus Christ to be our righteousness before Him. There is no other way to be right with God. It is indeed, as the saying goes, ‘set in concrete’.
Now many people today want to concoct their own way to God. They want to say, “My way is as good as yours to get to God”, and “Don’t be exclusive by trying to keep me out of Heaven.” This is completely obtuse. It would be like asserting that someone born in Russia and still living there should be granted US citizenship, complete with voting rights, just because he had once read the Constitution and had warm feelings in his heart towards Democracy. It just doesn’t work that way.
If you want in to the Kingdom of God, you gotta go through the door, the Narrow Door, Jesus Christ. How does one enter the Narrow Door? Paul again from Romans 10:9-11: “…if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved… For everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.”
How much clearer can it be? Believe in your heart and confess with your mouth. It’s easy enough for a child to understand and profound enough for the most sophisticated philosopher. (And incidentally, this is also why it is important to pray out loud. When we speak something out loud, it creates a reality that is heard by the listening principalities and powers on both sides. It is as if your verbal prayer is making an oral agreement with God, an agreement that has a certain legal quality to it. This agreement would stand up in God’s court. Silent prayer is good, but verbal prayer is also essential for our spiritual well-being.)
So God has established a very clear way to enter the Kingdom. And lest someone claim that God is a big meany and doesn’t want people to get in to the Kingdom, look at what Jesus says about Jerusalem: “How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!” YOU were NOT willing!
Jesus weeps over Jerusalem. He knows that in 70 AD the Romans will come and destroy the City and he is heartbroken for her. Friends, God has a seeking heart towards the world. He is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to the knowledge of the truth (II Pet. 3:9). Had the Jewish people somehow been able, as a people, to understand and exercise the faith of Abraham, they would have continued to be God’s conduit for the salvation of the world. But they rejected the message. “He came to his own, and his own did not receive him” (Jn. 1:11). This is why the Gospel message went out to the Gentiles after the Jewish people had rejected it – so that all the world would have the opportunity to hear the Good News of Jesus Christ.
We Gentiles are most blessed to have received the Gospel and to be adopted into the family of God, to become the true descendants of Abraham. All the promises made to Abraham now apply to us – although they are fulfilled spiritually in Christ, not literally in terms of inheriting a specific plot of ground. Therefore we rejoice greatly that our names are written in the book of Life (Rev. 3:5;20:15) and we look forward to spending Eternity with God.
But there is a caution here. As we see in our reading from Philippians today (3:17-4:1), it is possible to name the Name of Christ and live licentiously, to call oneself a Christian, but to literally live like Hell. Tragically, I believe we are seeing just this in many corners of the Christian world today (let the reader understand). For such people, who set their minds on earthly things and the indulgence of every fleshly desire, there is no protection in the Gospel Covenant. Jesus warned that even though ‘we ate and drank with you’… cast out demons, and did miracles in your name…he will shut the door to them saying, “I do not know where you come from; go away from me, all you evildoers!” (Lk. 13:26; Mt. 7:22).
I don’t know about you, but this sometimes sends a shiver up my spine. I would hate to think that I spent the last 30 years of my life working for Jesus only to someday fail to inherit eternal life! As the Psalmist cries out(Ps 27: 12,13):
Hide not your face from me, nor turn away your servant in displeasure.
You have been my helper; cast me not away; do not forsake me, O God of my salvation.
Bless God, however, If we hearken to the LORD and seek His face (vv.10,11), He gives us the assurance “that I shall see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the Living” (v. 17).
If we put our trust in Jesus Christ as our Savior, we will dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of our lives (v. 5). If we call out to the LORD to have mercy on us, He will answer us (v.10) and set us high upon the Rock (v. 7). And if we seek Him in his temple, (v.6), he will be our Light and our Salvation (v. 1).
I invite you now to do just that. Let’s take a silent moment to search our hearts. If during that time, you discover that you have never believed in and put your faith in Jesus Christ, simply ask Him to forgive you of your sins and cleanse you from all unrighteousness. Then you may come to me later and we can talk about the condition of your soul. (Keep silence) AMEN.
Fasting and Temptation
A Sermon Delivered to All Saints Anglican Church
February 25, 2007
The Old Testament Lesson:
To begin with today, I can’t resist some comments about our Old Testament reading. I know it’s a stretch to apply the Word this way, but the coincidence just seems too rich.
When we began this church, our first Sunday’s Old Testament lesson was Joshua 3:1-17, how the people of Israel crossed over Jordan and into the promised Land? We developed a three point challenge form that passage:
Step out in faith
Step up to the challenge
Step into the promise
Today we read: When you come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you…This is literally true is it not? This week, we have taken possession of the land that the Lord has given us! Let’s take this reading from Deuteronomy and enact it as a way of showing our gratitude to the Lord for what He has done for us. I’ve asked Tom to place the names of Tom, Walter and Harry in a basket. These names represent the ‘first fruit’ of those whom we believe the Lord will rescue from addictions and other maladies through the ministry at 1410 Charleston Avenue
Read: " When you have come into the land that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance to possess, and you possess it, and settle in it, you shall take some of the first of all the fruit of the ground, which you harvest from the land that the LORD your God is giving you, and you shall put it in a basket and go to the place that the LORD your God will choose as a dwelling for his name. You shall go to the priest who is in office at that time, and say to him…"
Tom comes up from the back with the basket and says, “Today I declare to the LORD your God that we have come into the land that the Lord challenged us to pray for.”
Andy takes the basket from Tom and sets it down before the altar.
The people together say, “ A wandering Aramean…O Lord you have given me....
Andy says: Let us bow before the Lord our God and celebrate with all the bounty that the Lord your God has given to you and to your house”
Let us now have the offering of our tithes and gifts.
Sermon:
Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit …was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing at all during those days, and when they were over, he was famished.
Our observance of Lent is based upon this experience of fasting for forty days. But the experience of fasting is basically anathema to our culture. It seems that our whole economy is based on people seeing things and being consumed with getting them. Then when they finally get them, they find that the must-have item does not really satisfy at all.
So for most of us to contemplate fasting in order to gain some kind of spiritual benefit seems odd.
On second thought, does it really though? Fasting is known as an “ascetical” practice, from the Greek word ‘askesis’ or ‘athletic’. If we were to stop and think a moment about an athlete and what he or she does to prepare for their sport - we don’t find it at all unusual that they would practice every day, lift weights, run, and limit their diet. That would be part of their training, which is designed to help them win the championship or the gold medal. As a culture, we admire this and we put the images of these champions on boxes of Wheaties.
But if we, as Christians, were to tell our friends that we are giving up something for Lent, we might feel a little embarrassed and our friends might even comment that we are being too ‘religious’ or too ascetic. This is ‘bad’, to be too ascetical. One shouldn’t have to suffer anything for one’s faith. It should make you feel good all the time. If you have to experience hardship, there’s something wrong with God. …Now admittedly it is appropriate to look askance at those who practice severe discipline of the body for legalistic reasons. Neither fasting nor all-night prayer vigils will save you or cause God to love you any more than he already does.
But just like an Olympic athlete, such as Mary Lou Retin, knows that her father loves her, she also knows that if she’s not stronger, quicker and more adept than her competitors, that she will end up with second place instead of first. Often the difference in performance is only hundredths of a second. So she has to be the very best she can be in order to succeed. Therefore, rigorous training is a must, and athletes are willing to devote years of their lives to the single-minded pursuit of the goal, a goal which is ultimately passing and meaningless in view of eternity.
Contrast the athlete in training with the Christian. We also have a Father that loves us and has saved us, but God offers us a much more worthy goal: Namely, something called ‘Theosis’. Theosis is union with God, becoming “Christified’ as the Orthodox say – a state where Christ has totally penetrated and softened our heart and we become completely at one with God. The whole aim of the Christian life is seen as reaching the goal of being ‘divinized, of sharing the divine nature as Peter says. ( II Peter 1:4).
Part of my Lenten reading this year is the book The Mountain of Silence by Kyiacos Markides. In it he describes his conversations with a monk by the name of Fr. Maximos. Fr. Maxiomos talks with Kyriacos about the heart and how various things can harden the heart:
“Over preoccupation with worldly affairs, focus on physical pleasures, and obsession with wealth are passions that toughen the heart. They rob the power of the heart to channel its energy toward God. We consume vital energy with worldly preoccupation and the allurement of all the things around us. Our attention becomes fragmented, scattered.” (Quoted in The Mountain of Silence, by Kyriacos Markides, pg. 59.)
Psalm 51: 18 says ‘a broken and contrite heart you will not despise. The opposite of having a tough, hard heart is to be broken and contrite, to have your heart crushed by God. While it is true that we can simply pray that God gives us a broken and contrite heart, Fr. Maxiomos reminds us that “it happens through systematic askesis: fasting, ceaseless prayer, all-night vigils, work and the like. Beyond that, and most important, it is when human beings learn how to have patience with the many and unavoidable sorrows that they will encounter in life.” (op cit. pg. 60). Through experiences of grief, human beings have the opportunity to place the stone of their heart into a grinder and turn it into dust. …Through grief they may come out victorious… Life itself is a form of aksesis…
Here then is the rationale for Jesus being led out into the desert. Although he was one with God already, it was in the desert that He continues his identification with the plight of human being and suffering. In the desert, alone with God, he faces the essence of human existence. There is nothing there to distract him from experiencing the presence of God, no physical sensations of pleasure to take him away from direct experience of the Father. In depriving the physical body of food, we gain mastery over it, just as Jesus himself was later to say, “Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the Father.”
Jesus’ experience of fasting in the desert both strengthened him, and thrust him into the grips of temptation from Satan. Again, it seems odd to us that God in the flesh would have to undergo these privations and temptation from his enemy - unless we remember that the Greek word for temptation, peirasmos also means ‘trial’ or ‘test’. Trials and tests can be from the devil as we see in our lesson today, but they can also be from God in order to help us progress on our spiritual way. (op cit. pg. 62). Temptations are allowed by God in order to help us grow in our spiritual lives. They are a normal part of the Christian life, as the Apostle Paul tells us in I Cor, 10:13: “No temptation (trial) has overtaken you, but such as is common to man, and God is faithful who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you can endure, but with the temptation will also provide the way of escape, that you might be able to endure it.”
Here is what we so often miss: God provides the way of escape that we might be able to “endure” it. And the way of escape is God himself and His Word. Notice how Jesus is able to refute Satan so skillfully. When the adversary misquotes or misrepresents God’s word, Jesus comes back with the counter, quoting the right sense of Scripture. Jesus was able to confute Satan because he had spent time memorizing God’s Word, fasting extensively and no doubt going without sleep while praying constantly, perfecting his ascetical practice in order to could defeat his enemy.
Down through the ages people like Anthony of Egypt, Pachomius and Simon the stylite have taken seriously the injunction to be like Christ and have followed him literally into the desert. Others have adopted a monastic life that is ideally constructed to perfect one’s spiritual skills in order to defeat the enemy and attain Theosis. Through a life-time of askesis, a monk or nun is able to so master the body and the passions that he or reaches a state of ‘apathia’ or liberation from egotistical passions, thus becoming a vessel of the Holy Spirit. “Then, whatever that person wishes is given because it is what God actually wishes. The consiousness of the saint is fully attuned with the spirit of God.” (op cit. pg. 81).
Can you imagine living in such a place that what you want is what God actually wants? I confess that this is too awesome for me imagine most of the time. I have seen glimpses of it perhaps in my life, but to reach a place of being so at one with God, that in a sense, God defers to me in my desires… this is mind-blowing.
But this is indeed the goal for every Christian. Our small attempts at askesis during Lent must be seen as the upward striving for this state of Theosis. Only then will it make sense to give up something or take on something for a period of time. Only when we realize that “whatever good or bad things happen to us, they have only one single purpose, to awaken us to the reality of God and help us on the path toward union with Him (pg. 77)…we will be able to truly appreciate the holiness and spiritual profit of the Lenten season. May God give us the grace to understand this, and the will to perform it. Amen.
February 25, 2007
The Old Testament Lesson:
To begin with today, I can’t resist some comments about our Old Testament reading. I know it’s a stretch to apply the Word this way, but the coincidence just seems too rich.
When we began this church, our first Sunday’s Old Testament lesson was Joshua 3:1-17, how the people of Israel crossed over Jordan and into the promised Land? We developed a three point challenge form that passage:
Step out in faith
Step up to the challenge
Step into the promise
Today we read: When you come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you…This is literally true is it not? This week, we have taken possession of the land that the Lord has given us! Let’s take this reading from Deuteronomy and enact it as a way of showing our gratitude to the Lord for what He has done for us. I’ve asked Tom to place the names of Tom, Walter and Harry in a basket. These names represent the ‘first fruit’ of those whom we believe the Lord will rescue from addictions and other maladies through the ministry at 1410 Charleston Avenue
Read: " When you have come into the land that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance to possess, and you possess it, and settle in it, you shall take some of the first of all the fruit of the ground, which you harvest from the land that the LORD your God is giving you, and you shall put it in a basket and go to the place that the LORD your God will choose as a dwelling for his name. You shall go to the priest who is in office at that time, and say to him…"
Tom comes up from the back with the basket and says, “Today I declare to the LORD your God that we have come into the land that the Lord challenged us to pray for.”
Andy takes the basket from Tom and sets it down before the altar.
The people together say, “ A wandering Aramean…O Lord you have given me....
Andy says: Let us bow before the Lord our God and celebrate with all the bounty that the Lord your God has given to you and to your house”
Let us now have the offering of our tithes and gifts.
Sermon:
Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit …was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing at all during those days, and when they were over, he was famished.
Our observance of Lent is based upon this experience of fasting for forty days. But the experience of fasting is basically anathema to our culture. It seems that our whole economy is based on people seeing things and being consumed with getting them. Then when they finally get them, they find that the must-have item does not really satisfy at all.
So for most of us to contemplate fasting in order to gain some kind of spiritual benefit seems odd.
On second thought, does it really though? Fasting is known as an “ascetical” practice, from the Greek word ‘askesis’ or ‘athletic’. If we were to stop and think a moment about an athlete and what he or she does to prepare for their sport - we don’t find it at all unusual that they would practice every day, lift weights, run, and limit their diet. That would be part of their training, which is designed to help them win the championship or the gold medal. As a culture, we admire this and we put the images of these champions on boxes of Wheaties.
But if we, as Christians, were to tell our friends that we are giving up something for Lent, we might feel a little embarrassed and our friends might even comment that we are being too ‘religious’ or too ascetic. This is ‘bad’, to be too ascetical. One shouldn’t have to suffer anything for one’s faith. It should make you feel good all the time. If you have to experience hardship, there’s something wrong with God. …Now admittedly it is appropriate to look askance at those who practice severe discipline of the body for legalistic reasons. Neither fasting nor all-night prayer vigils will save you or cause God to love you any more than he already does.
But just like an Olympic athlete, such as Mary Lou Retin, knows that her father loves her, she also knows that if she’s not stronger, quicker and more adept than her competitors, that she will end up with second place instead of first. Often the difference in performance is only hundredths of a second. So she has to be the very best she can be in order to succeed. Therefore, rigorous training is a must, and athletes are willing to devote years of their lives to the single-minded pursuit of the goal, a goal which is ultimately passing and meaningless in view of eternity.
Contrast the athlete in training with the Christian. We also have a Father that loves us and has saved us, but God offers us a much more worthy goal: Namely, something called ‘Theosis’. Theosis is union with God, becoming “Christified’ as the Orthodox say – a state where Christ has totally penetrated and softened our heart and we become completely at one with God. The whole aim of the Christian life is seen as reaching the goal of being ‘divinized, of sharing the divine nature as Peter says. ( II Peter 1:4).
Part of my Lenten reading this year is the book The Mountain of Silence by Kyiacos Markides. In it he describes his conversations with a monk by the name of Fr. Maximos. Fr. Maxiomos talks with Kyriacos about the heart and how various things can harden the heart:
“Over preoccupation with worldly affairs, focus on physical pleasures, and obsession with wealth are passions that toughen the heart. They rob the power of the heart to channel its energy toward God. We consume vital energy with worldly preoccupation and the allurement of all the things around us. Our attention becomes fragmented, scattered.” (Quoted in The Mountain of Silence, by Kyriacos Markides, pg. 59.)
Psalm 51: 18 says ‘a broken and contrite heart you will not despise. The opposite of having a tough, hard heart is to be broken and contrite, to have your heart crushed by God. While it is true that we can simply pray that God gives us a broken and contrite heart, Fr. Maxiomos reminds us that “it happens through systematic askesis: fasting, ceaseless prayer, all-night vigils, work and the like. Beyond that, and most important, it is when human beings learn how to have patience with the many and unavoidable sorrows that they will encounter in life.” (op cit. pg. 60). Through experiences of grief, human beings have the opportunity to place the stone of their heart into a grinder and turn it into dust. …Through grief they may come out victorious… Life itself is a form of aksesis…
Here then is the rationale for Jesus being led out into the desert. Although he was one with God already, it was in the desert that He continues his identification with the plight of human being and suffering. In the desert, alone with God, he faces the essence of human existence. There is nothing there to distract him from experiencing the presence of God, no physical sensations of pleasure to take him away from direct experience of the Father. In depriving the physical body of food, we gain mastery over it, just as Jesus himself was later to say, “Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the Father.”
Jesus’ experience of fasting in the desert both strengthened him, and thrust him into the grips of temptation from Satan. Again, it seems odd to us that God in the flesh would have to undergo these privations and temptation from his enemy - unless we remember that the Greek word for temptation, peirasmos also means ‘trial’ or ‘test’. Trials and tests can be from the devil as we see in our lesson today, but they can also be from God in order to help us progress on our spiritual way. (op cit. pg. 62). Temptations are allowed by God in order to help us grow in our spiritual lives. They are a normal part of the Christian life, as the Apostle Paul tells us in I Cor, 10:13: “No temptation (trial) has overtaken you, but such as is common to man, and God is faithful who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you can endure, but with the temptation will also provide the way of escape, that you might be able to endure it.”
Here is what we so often miss: God provides the way of escape that we might be able to “endure” it. And the way of escape is God himself and His Word. Notice how Jesus is able to refute Satan so skillfully. When the adversary misquotes or misrepresents God’s word, Jesus comes back with the counter, quoting the right sense of Scripture. Jesus was able to confute Satan because he had spent time memorizing God’s Word, fasting extensively and no doubt going without sleep while praying constantly, perfecting his ascetical practice in order to could defeat his enemy.
Down through the ages people like Anthony of Egypt, Pachomius and Simon the stylite have taken seriously the injunction to be like Christ and have followed him literally into the desert. Others have adopted a monastic life that is ideally constructed to perfect one’s spiritual skills in order to defeat the enemy and attain Theosis. Through a life-time of askesis, a monk or nun is able to so master the body and the passions that he or reaches a state of ‘apathia’ or liberation from egotistical passions, thus becoming a vessel of the Holy Spirit. “Then, whatever that person wishes is given because it is what God actually wishes. The consiousness of the saint is fully attuned with the spirit of God.” (op cit. pg. 81).
Can you imagine living in such a place that what you want is what God actually wants? I confess that this is too awesome for me imagine most of the time. I have seen glimpses of it perhaps in my life, but to reach a place of being so at one with God, that in a sense, God defers to me in my desires… this is mind-blowing.
But this is indeed the goal for every Christian. Our small attempts at askesis during Lent must be seen as the upward striving for this state of Theosis. Only then will it make sense to give up something or take on something for a period of time. Only when we realize that “whatever good or bad things happen to us, they have only one single purpose, to awaken us to the reality of God and help us on the path toward union with Him (pg. 77)…we will be able to truly appreciate the holiness and spiritual profit of the Lenten season. May God give us the grace to understand this, and the will to perform it. Amen.
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