The King of glory this way comes

The crowds began to really surround him as all the pilgrims made their ways to the city of Jerusalem. All along the trail there were people who had witnessed the healing of the blind man in Jericho – Bar-Timaeus – and now Jesus himself was on his way to the Holy City for what many were expecting to be an awesome showdown with the Romans, the chief priests and scribes.

May be we need to consider how Jesus made the journey. Maybe such a consideration gets lost in everything else that happens on this day of Holy Week.  Have you noticed that it was not until they got within a couple of miles of the City that Jesus sent two of his disciples to find him a ride for the last part of the journey into Jerusalem.  So he must have walked miles with his disciples before that happened, as he had so many times before.

And have you ever tried to consider the triumphant entry into the city from the donkey’s point of view. First of all there was someone on his back riding him in the midst of people shouting and waving blankets and branches which were making the road difficult to walk on and spooky to walk through since he was now bearing a burden he was afraid to drop. The people around him were boldly calling out for God to save them and to restore the throne of King David so that the good old days. A couple of people came and got him from his usual post in the street where his own would leave him for the morning while he worked in the shop. Was this a joke? Why was he taken and not some other donkey? Why should he have to bear this burden, this situation, these people, and this man?

The donkey can (possibly unwittingly) teach us what is means to be a Christian. To bear the load that we have and recognize that while the load we carry is heavy, we are in the presence of the Almighty and that is enough to motivate us to move along.

This is the moment when we might as a community consider dropping the robes of the ruler and put on the towel of the servant. We need to consider how Jesus comes to the city, to this church, to you and to and be ready, like that donkey, be faithful in what we are being drawn to. It may be hard, scary, even messy and painful, but remember this, we are in the presence and within the peace of the one who rides as King. We move with the One who is bringing reconciliation, healing and salvation to this hurt, broken, separated and dying world.

Lift up your heads to the coming King, open yours gates and draw him in O City!

Rocks on the Road

Not long ago, I was remind of why we are careful and keep looking up at the hillsides around here when we are driving. There is one place near here called 'carwash rock'. Coming through that area this past weekend, I was reminded of the story below and so I share it with you.

Long ago there was a king who placed on one of his highways, a boulder. Then he hid himself nearby to wait and see if anyone would come along and remove the boulder from the roadway. Some of the wealthiest among his subjects, merchants and courtiers came to the boulder and simply walked around it. Many people loudly blamed the kings for not minding the condition of the roadway and keeping it clear, but did nothing to remove it themselves. Then came along a peasant, a poor farmer, pulling his load of vegetables. After struggle and toil the farmer finally moves the boulder out of the highway so that he could pass with his cart and vegetables. After he picks up his load he notices a purse on the side of the road with a note attached to it. Again he puts down his load and goes to the bag, retrieves the note and reads it. The note said that this bag contained many pieces of gold which the king gives to this man who took the time to remove the stone from the road. The peasant discovered that day what many of us need to learn: every obstacle presents an opportunity to improve his condition.

Look up for what you need, grace or justice

Which would you rather have in your life: justice or grace? There is a struggle that tends to pervade our humanity; we want grace beyond measure for ourselves while desiring ultimate justice, or more likely judgment, for everyone else. So many in this moment we need to recognize who and what exactly a Christian is. First and foremost, a Christian is not someone who is totally perfect but rather is someone who has found and understands forgiveness and is willing to practice it in their everyday, ordinary lives. And second, a Christian is someone who has found new life through being born again through the work of God.

The trouble that we run into in the life of the Church these days is that the average Christian seems to believe that they are “honourary” sinners. There are problems that need to be faced. There are places that are scary and difficult to be in, and the same is true of the times we live in. But we, all of humanity in general and all of within the Church seem to forget that we are part of creation and therefore we are the problem. We have forgotten that the world is in the state its in because we chose to honour ourselves above trusting and participating in life with God and in God’s real presence. So what can be done then about sin? Maybe we need to recognize, first of all that we are the ones who have walked away from God; that we are the ones who have fallen short and who have missed the mark. It is a necessary step to seeing who God sees and allowing ourselves to see who we are in the light of Christ.

Then we need to go beyond the transaction of being revealed and being forgiven our falleness into allowing God to transform us into the people that he made us to be in the first place. In short we need to be judged, to be healed and then built up into the full stature of Christ himself. How is that possible? We tend to allow the thinking in our society that grace, hope, love are mutually exclusive from sin, judgment and justice. If we make a careful examination of Scripture we discover that this is not so. Remember John 3.16? it used be everywhere when you would watch televised sporting events in particular. It was referred to as the “everybody verse.” But we can see how God justice and love coincide in just this one verse. This is how I would translate the verse: God so loved this God hating world so much that he offered his one and only begotten Son so that those who would participate in him would not died but live abundant life eternally. In effect we chose to live or not live with Christ; we judge Christ and out of the judgment God honours the choices we make.

Having to look up and see the Saviour on the Cross is to help us see who we and to consider who God is. God is at work to return what rightfully belongs to him to its rightful place. What we need to learn in this life is to look up and in spite of what we think we see, to trust him for what is ahead. We need to learn to recognize that even when we fall and come short of what God wants and intends for us both personally and corporately that God still makes the way possible. When we are not the Christians and the Church that we are supposed to be, our Jesus is still the Jesus he promised he would be. Moreover, we need to recognize that Christ walks with us through the troubles, the pain and suffering rather than removing all the obstacles so that life is easy. He is with us and he provides for what is needed to move through. He is our daily bread.

So let us look up to him who is our bread, our life and live, to wait for his grace and his justice knowing that he is with us in all of life along the way to the Kingdom and eternity.

Finding God in ordinary lives

I wonder how often the average Christian in the pew connects what they believe with what they actually do? So let me ask you, where is faith and God in your ordinary, work-a-day life? And please understand that I am not talking about coming within the Church buildings walls and the things you do for fellow parishioners... where do you see God in your ordinary life?

There are a couple of things that we need to be aware of making such an examination. For example, many in my parents’ generation would point to living out the Ten Commandments. Do we really stop these days to remember what the Ten Commandments are all about? Essentially, the Ten Commandments are there to keep you from offending God and your neighbour. This is why we are told, “Thou shalt not” do certain things. It is to protect your relationship with God and to keep your neighbour healthy and happy. Obeying the commandments will make you a nice, maybe even a good person but God wants, desires and demands more than that. God desires his people to be holy as he is holy and let’s remember here that holiness and righteousness are not about who you are, but rather about who you are relating to. That’s why we are reminded at the beginning of the Ten Commandments, "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery."

The Law was given to a group of slaves who would be honed into being a royal possession, a holy nation and a royal priesthood for God. The Law was what people needed to know about their relationship with God and with each other to create community and there for a bond with each other.  Here are some other things about the Law that would be important to know:  

·         Of 613 Jewish commandments, 365 were negative (thou shall not) and 248 were positive (you shall).

·         Commandment is not so much a law as a principle....an ideal to be aimed towards

·         What we really need to do is ' unwrap' the commandments.

·         In the modern world, we have 35 million laws to enforce the 10 Commandments.

And all this has brought an interesting question to mind: if things were so good and if people were nice, then why did Jesus get angry and disrupt the Temple during the busiest time of the year (John 2.13-22)? It is not an easy answer but it might have something to do with what we have made of worshipping God. The Temple was the place where people from all over the earth were coming to approach God and meet with him. People had taken this meeting and made it into something else. The worship of God was being (albeit in a sort of kind way) subverted into something that was neither wanted nor intended by God.

The cleansing of the Temple was about righteous anger and about divine justice. Jesus, being God, wanted to return his people to the way things were before the sin and fall of the human race. Therefore he sought to put things right so that he could offer back to the Father what belongs to him. Thus, is it possible then that anger might show what we are truly passionate about and therefore show what we would truly live and maybe even risk dying for?

So let’s bring things to our level then. Jesus drove out the animals, tossed the tables, and upset the clergy. Why did he do that? Because Jesus wants to show us how to live the counter intuitive, cruciformed lives of the kingdom within the life of the community we live in. So what things are there in your life that need to be tossed out, tipped over, driven out with a whip or burned down? Maybe we need to see Jesus in a different light. If we change our attitude towards Jesus then maybe our attitudes towards God and neighbour will change for the better too. And if that is the case then our approach to the worship of the Almighty will begin to be more real and deepen in terms of praise, in prayer and in worship.

Remember, Jesus is leading this parade, this exodus in to the Kingdom of God. He is leading us from the old Temple that is made of stone into the new Temple made of living stones and of which we will become part. And thanks be to God for that.  Let's go and discover God in our ordinary lives.

Getting busy - living or dying

In this week’s gospel reading (Mark 8.31-38), Jesus makes the first of his passion predictions, telling the disciples that he is on his way to the City of Jerusalem and that he will be betrayed, suffer and died but then three days later, he will rise again. Peter’s reaction to this news causes him to take Jesus to the side of the road and in front of the others, begins to take Jesus to task over the notion that he must suffer and die. Doesn’t it make you wonder what it is that Peter might have said in that moment? I can imagine that he painted a great and grandiose scheme where Jesus is suppose to rout the Romans, restore his great grandfather’s kingdom and kept it there for eternity. OH! Let’s not forget that Peter and the others were going to be ministers in the government that will never fail and never fall. And you need to take into account that Peter has just watch Jesus heal a blind man and has just declared Jesus to be the Messiah. It is all pretty heady stuff especially when one considers that Jesus tells them not to tell others that he is the Messiah or about what they know.

Why does he do this? Maybe it is because of how people react when they think they have something: especially when one believes they are getting sick... our culture tells us that there is always a pill or a purchase or an action that is going to make us feel better or righter or whatever, so that you do not have to feel the way you do now.

Maybe I can make my point better this way: A few years ago, a large department store tried marketing a doll in the form of the baby Jesus. The advertisements described it as being washable, cuddly, and unbreakable," and it was neatly packaged in straw, satin, and plastic. To complete the package, the manufacturer added biblical text appropriate to the baby Jesus. To the department store executives, it looked like a sure-fire winner, a real money maker. But they were wrong. It didn't sell. In a last-ditch effort to get rid of these dolls, one of the store managers placed a huge sign in one of the store windows. It read: “Jesus Christ, reduced to half price, get him while you can.”

There is a reality at work here. People would rather build a temple than be one. There are many people who are religious and many more who are nice people. Jesus did not come and die that we would be religious or nice – he came and died that we might be holy. He gave himself that we would be God’s own possession, a holy nation and a royal priesthood. The community Jesus came to build is a work of faith both on the part of us and on the part of God not a walk into success. The secret is not in being successful, but in giving and being faithful. So maybe we need to get busy living or get busy dying so that we can move into the kingdom and into greater life that is with God, after the three days is over.

The Lion who would be Goat

There is a great story that I heard the Rev. John Claypool, an Episcopal priest from Texas, tell a few years back about a lion who though he was a goat. It didn’t start out that way. The young lion cub was born into this world and very shortly after his birth, his mother died. It was an accident but the young lion cub found himself alone in the world. As he sat there in the field a few paces from his mother’s body, he sat and cried. Passing by was a herd of goats who heard the sad tones of the cub and they came to check things out. And in the kindness and compassion that is in the world the herd looked on the sight of this pitiful creature and decided that they would invite the cub to come and join the herd. And the cub willingly went along. As time pass there were changes in the cub as he grew: massive muscles and bones, large teeth and a very swishy tail. Yet he also took on all the qualities of “goatness” and became one of them bleating, jumping and playing and chew on grass and bushes.

One day the King of the Lions was passing through that part of the world and he happen upon this goat herd with its young lion in tow. The king moved in to see this sight and when his presence was realized the heard scattered, leaving the lion cub to bleat nervously and continue to chew on a blade of grass.  The King called to the cub and took him to the river. The King fed the cub lion food and then took him to the river and showed him his reflection in the water. And he looked at himself he then saw the reflection of the King there beside him. The King said to the cub, “I am sorry about what happened to you. And what happened was an accident and getting involved with the goats was a mistake. Come with me now and become the grand creature you already are.”

There is a lot about animals in this week’s reading and so I thought fitting to use this story to help us reflect on where we are with God and with ourselves as we begin another Lent. But if there is one thing that I would reflect for you in this moment, it is that we are to be who we are, as we have been created in Christ. There things we want to give up. There are things that we are persisting in prayer to God about. There are things that we can give and offer to others and to God as an offering, as gifts, and as a sacrifice. So maybe we need to consider carefully this Lent how we live everyday in Christ as baptised people. This examination is not just for Lent, but for everyday walking. Where is the Kingdom of God lived in your life and in the life of your family? Lent is an opportunity to reorder our lives and bring them into line with what God asks and demands of us. After all, as Martin Luther might remind us, baptism “takes only a few minutes to do and a lifetime to finish.”

So maybe this Lent is as much about endings and beginnings as the story about lion cub would suggest. The end of things shows that we like the lion cub recognize that there is something new and real that is taking place, in the light of the new relationship that is his with the King. There are things that are beginning to take shape and that has cause something that have been, like the life that had been lived with the herd will now become life with the King and his pride, his family. And both are happening all at the same time.

So take some time to go to the river this Lent, to look in the river and to see both your reflection and then the King’s, that you may become more and more his and that life spring eternal from what he offers you to eat and to drink.

Live the Mountaintop in the Valley

Almighty God, on the holy mount you revealed to chosen witnesses your well-beloved Son, wonderfully transfigured: mercifully deliver us from the darkness of this world, and change us into his likeness from glory to glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

             - Collect, BAS Last Sunday After Epiphany

From time to time I tend to look at and consider the collects and what they have to tell us about the Gospel and God. For example, when I look at this week's collect I am only two words in and I have to stop already. Why? Because I have to stop and consider just how powerful God really is. I like to think that I am strong physically and mentally; even powerful. But then human strength and that strength isn't even as strong as God's weaknesses. God weakness is stronger than the greatest strength we can put forth. Imagine that. There is someone strong than us.

That same strength - not just raw power but power under control for that is what strength is - is housed in the person of Jesus Christ. And God has revealed this to us through Jesus. The strength to deliver us and to complete the mission of salvation and recreation is found in the person of Jesus. It has all been planned. It has all been declared and Moses and Elijah are there to help witness it. Jesus is here to transfer us from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light. He has come that we might be transformed into the people that God has created us to be and we are called to follow him through the think and the tin, even back down into the valley of the shadow of death. And we are to do it because we need to live what we see and hear on that mountain top back down in the valley for the sake of those who were not there.

We are to live in such a way that we will draw others into the procession of the exodus that Jesus has begun and leads us in. We are to draw others into the great and swelling train of followers who are moving into the kingdom and the eternity that God has prepared for those who will come to him. We are to be merciful people, like Jesus, who are willing to stand between people and their disasters, call to them with hands out stretched to use all the strength in us and in God to draw them in. As we are reminded by the prophet, "it is not by power, nor by might, but by my Spirit," says the Lord.


And all this comes from and through Jesus Christ, who with the Father and the Spirit are one God and live eternity. So let us witness to the power of God's grace, mercy and love and actively witness to his kingdom that others might come in. So let us live the mountaintop down in our valleys and let us go immediately.