Seeing Christ in the Other

[The Word] was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him.--
John 1:10,11

The Kingdom of God is that reality where our behavior and thought fully reflect our living in the presence of God. God's Kingdom demands that we deeply experience God's presence within us that we might be converted continually to God's authority. I say converted because as John indicates in his Gospel, the inclination is not first to accept God's reign. Matthew's Gospel goes so far as to say that God's Kingdom may look differently than what you may expect--that all kinds of people, not considered part of God's community (8:11), will come within God's reign. And what makes it even more confusing is that oftentimes citizens of the Kingdom of God become members without even realizing it (25:38,44).

In this season of Lent, let us learn to move beyond who is in and who is out. When the Word is near us, let us make sure that our attention is focused on it so that we will not repeat the mistake that "The Word was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him."

Let us pray,
Holy and Mighty One, whose beloved Son Jesus Christ blessed the pure in heart: We give you thanks for the life and teachings of John Cassian that draw us to a discipline of holy living for the sake of your reign. Call us to turn the gaze of the eyes of our soul always toward you, that we may abide in your love, shown to us in our Savior Jesus Christ; who with you and the Holy Spirit is one God, living and true, to the ages of ages. Amen.

Temptation is Sneaky

In this morning's passage from the Gospel of Mark, we heard Mark's rather abbreviated version of Jesus baptism. After Jesus is baptized, a voice is heard from heaven, saying, "You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased." Then, we are told, the Spirit "immediately drove him out into the wilderness. He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan. . ."

In his sermon this morning, The Rev. Dennis Winkleblack talked about temptations great and small. Some make relatively difference in the scheme of the world -- Will I or will I not eat that donut? Will I eat one or two pieces of chocolate? But other temptations can be life changing.

Pastor Dennis shared another important observation: We tend to acknowledge temptations that play to our weaknesses. Dennis' weakness, for example, for glazed donuts -- especially the ones with lots of dripping sugar. Or my weakness for the three-piece fried chicken and biscuit lunch when I go over to the store planning on buying the grilled chicken salad.

Consider this: The temptations that Jesus faced from Satan did not play to his weaknesses, but to his strengths: He was invited to settle for giving earthly, tangible bread rather than heavenly bread. Satan tempted Jesus in his Godliness, not in his humanity.

In what ways are you tempted that play not to your weaknesses, but to your strengths? In what ways are you tempted to use your God-given gifts to your own advantage rather than in the service of God's mission? How can you turn that around?

Less Finger Pointing - More Dialogue

A Saturday Lenten reflection from The Rev. Dr. Michael Battle of CREDO:

If you remove the yoke from among you, the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil, if you offer your food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, then your light shall rise in the darkness and your gloom be like the noonday.
--Isaiah 58:9,10.

What strikes me about this passage from Isaiah is the wonderful phrase, "the pointing of the finger." It's easy to do. I see finger pointing every day-"You never clean up your room!" or "Why don't you listen to me?" The contemporary emphasis is on our self-determinative nature in which our only moral imperative is to actualize myself. What if, however, the only way to know myself is through God? After all, God is the one who created self-awareness. So, before we use our index finger to take the speck out of someone else's eye, we would be better served to have the responsibility of removing the two-by-four from our own eye. "Responsibility" in this context names the fact that we often fall back on ourselves as individual authorities who make decisions that often have no mutual consensus. We do this in the modern world, we do this in politics, we do this often as we fall into competitive relationships (rather than mutual ones) in which pointed fingers quickly turn into swinging fists.

Isaiah is right-the finger pointing must stop because we need the more profound context of God who reminds us of our responsibility to situate what we think we know so well into dialogue with others who think they too know so well. Hard work, I know. But well worth it. If God becomes our large context of knowing, not only will the finger-pointing stop but also our deep listening will begin--and perhaps, even my room will get cleaned up.

Let us pray,Almighty and everlasting God, whose will it is to restore all things in your well-beloved Son, the King of kings and Lord of lords: Mercifully grant that the peoples of the earth, divided and enslaved by sin, may be freed and brought together under his most gracious rule; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

The Dynamics of Power

A Lenten meditation by The Rev. Dr. Michael Battle of CREDO:

Then they prayed and said, 'Lord, you know everyone's heart. Show us which one of these two you have chosen to take the place . . [of] Judas . . . .'--Acts 1: 24,25

Power. We can't live with it and we can't live without it. Such a dilemma is a good thing to reflect upon in Lent. Like fire, power can be used for both good and evil. Maybe, Judas would've benefited from a deeper awareness of power. This is also deeply true for those of us who lead the church. The problem here was that Judas thought he had God's power figured out. If we're not careful, we'll follow Judas's lead and also think we can mastermind God's plan. It would do us well to reflect upon how to safeguard power and use it effectively for only good. I think we do this first by looking at our assumptions.

What I most assume the church is not, is: First, another power group among others in society; and Secondly, the church is not the same as society.

God wants us to pay attention. Think of how an organism of people behaves just like a rapidly turning school of fish. And how such an organism of people insists upon the primacy of faith, worship, and justice known in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And as our attention span increases, we realize that our true power is in Jesus, who quickly gave such power away. It is from such detachment from power that I conclude we, as the church, should have trouble excluding people and even recognizing enemies. We should always be too busy turning to Jesus and away from our Judas-like power.

Let us pray,Almighty God, who in the place of Judas chose your faithful servant Matthias to be numbered among the Twelve: Grant that your Church, being delivered from false prophets, may always be guided and governed by faithful and true leaders; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

How do we become "church?"

A meditation from the Rev. Dr. Michael Battle of CREDO:

"Do not fear what you are about to suffer." --Revelation 2:10

In Lent, it is important to reflect upon deep things such as the meaning of the church.

Some think the church is something you go to. Others picture a building. And yet, others think of a denomination or a time on Sunday morning.

As we wade through Lent, a better definition of the church is this: A community of all persons who reflect God's reign on earth. We see these reflections through a smile, random acts of kindness, wellness, and of course, much more. In this respect, we know God's reign when we see it. Becoming a person under God's reign, however, entails a purgative process of becoming more and more of who you are. The more mature we become, the more we see who we are in the light of God. When such light burns, do not turn away. Let it burn the scales from your eyes. Like metal refined in fire, take courage in your suffering to know that God is shaping you to be marvelously made to reflect heaven on earth.

Let us pray,
O God, the maker of heaven and earth, you gave your venerable servant, the holy and gentle Polycarp, boldness to confess Jesus Christ as King and Savior, and steadfastness to die for his faith; Give us grace, following his example, to share the cup of Christ and rise to eternal life; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Our Lenten Project: Reconciliation

Ash Wednesday Sermon:
Trinity Episcopal Church
Hartford, Connecticut
Ash Wednesday, 2012

Reconciliation. It is a word that we hear quite frequently, particularly in religious circles. It means to bring together, to bring into harmony, to bring two objects or people or concepts or sets of data that are not in harmony naturally to be compatible with one another.

When celebrity couples get divorced, the reason is often – as it is here in the State of Connecticut – “irreconcilable differences.” This literally means that the two people are so estranged on virtually every conceivable aspect of their relationship that these two people who once deeply loved one another cannot possibly find common ground to put their differences aside and bring it all back into some form of harmony.

We encounter this word “reconcile” in another venue of our lives – balancing our checkbooks. At the end of each month, we need to check our bank statements to make sure that everything you THINK you spent is accounted for or – more usually – that you didn’t forget about something that you did spend. The process of bringing these two disparate concepts together – what we think we have and what we actually have in the account – is called “reconciling” the account.

And so Paul tells us this morning that “reconciling” ourselves with and to God is a major theme of the Christian life. “On behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God,” Paul writes. Paul himself was trying to be reconciled with the members of the church he founded in Corinth, having been challenged by the teachings of others. And one of the reasons reconciliation is so important to Paul is that he recognizes that reconciliation was the primary work of Jesus – in fact, Paul writes, that is why Jesus came to earth, or, as Paul writes, God “made him to become sin who knew no sin.” That is why Jesus was born, and it is the reason he died.

Going back to the divorce analogy, God surely had plenty of good cause to want to divorce us due to irreconcilable differences. But instead of cutting us off as a stern judge, God instead acted as creator and became one of us and sent his son, Jesus to be one of us in all things but sin, so that he might reconcile us to God once again.

And so our project for the Lenten season is to work on our relationship with God. We need to work on the relationship between ourselves and God, in the one-on-one of our daily lives. But to do this takes work. Couples going through a tough time in their marriage can often benefit from marriage counseling – which is a process that helps them to identify problem areas and begin to explore questions related to those areas. Those of you who were here last Sunday may recall the story of the prophet Elisha as he deals with the departure of his spiritual father, Elijah: He asked the right questions, he listened in silence for the voice of God to learn the answers, and then he acted on what he heard.

But it’s hard for us to ask questions, particularly if they cause us to look deeply at parts of ourselves that are uncomfortable or hard to look at. Many couples in troubled relationships never seek counseling because they feel like that is admitting failure. We all probably have a friend or relative who will never go to the doctor because they are afraid of what the doctor might find. And credit counselors and attorneys will tell you they have had clients facing bankruptcy who will admit that they have not even opened many of their bills for months. The theory is the same in all of these cases: ignorance is bliss – but only temporarily. When the arguing becomes incessant, when our bodies finally break down, when the sheriff comes to the door to serve the papers – we pay the price for sticking our heads figuratively in the sand and ignoring the problems that eat away at our spirit and stifle our soul. No one likes to admit mistakes, but pretending they don’t exist gets us only a temporary reprieve. There is an old saying that is as applicable to our lives as it is to the payment of debts: Pay me now, or pay me later with interest. We can run, but we can’t hide. We can close our eyes, but that’s like playing the childhood game of “peek-a-boo” – with the same results. The reality remains the same.

No one likes to admit mistakes – and no one likes to confess sins. But that is the work God calls us to in Lent. That is what Paul means when he writes, “we urge you also not to accept the grace of God in vain.” Jesus came to heal the relationship between us and God, and when we call ourselves “Christian,” we bind ourselves to that mission, not just when it is easy or convenient, but especially when the going gets tough.

Today we begin the season of Lent, and St. Paul calls us into reconciliation with God and God’s mission in Jesus Christ. Just as with illness, we can’t know the cure until we have asked the right questions about the illness; Just as a troubled couple cannot begin to address their differences until they agree to get help and ask the right questions; so it is with our spiritual health and our relationship to God. We can’t experience God’s healing mercy and grace unless and until we identify and understand the causes of our estrangement from God. Lent is a great time for us to enter into that work. With God as both judge and therapist, we know that God wants a good result. All we have to do is accept God’s invitation to enter into the conversation.

I wish you a blessed and holy Lent. AMEN.

Observing a Holy Lent: Ash Wednesday 2012

As we prepare to inaugurate a new website at Trinity, part of my Lenten discipline will be to share a daily reflection in this space -- either one of my own or sharing the reflections of another. Today I wish to share with you, for Ash Wednesday, an opening reflection from The Rev. Michael Battle, who is preparing them for the CREDO organization. Here is Michael's reflection:


February 22, 2012 Ash Wednesday

And whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray . . . so that they may be seen by others. —Matthew 6:5.

Jesus does not intend for us to use Ash Wednesday to give up chocolate. Jesus has a deeper intention as the following story illustrates.

While teaching his students, a Rabbi asked, “What is the difference between night and day?”
The students in their pride tried to give their best existential reasoning, “Is it the difference between a cloned sheep and a natural one? Between a boat and a car? All of their reasoning was wrong. Fed up with being wrong, the students asked, “Then what is the difference?”
The Rabbi answered, “When you look in the face of another person and do not see your sister or brother.”

For us in Lent, the answer goes even deeper. It is when we look in the face of God through Jesus’ sufferings, and do not see the extent of God’s love (indeed, God’s passion).

Let us pray, Almighty and everlasting God, you hate nothing you have made and forgive the sins of all who are penitent: Create and make in us new and contrite hearts, that we, worthily lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness, may obtain of you, the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Question for Reflection: Where -- and when -- am I best able to see the face of God?