Becoming Citizens of the Kingdom

Thursday's Lenten reflection from The Rev. Dr. Michael Battle of CREDO:

"Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near." Matthew 3:2

The simple answer is to be citizens of the kingdom of God. The more detailed answer is that we must commit to God's way of life (which is really the only way to live). So, how do we live God's way of life? I think it is to live under the authority of God's rule, which is not manipulative; in fact, God gives us so much freedom that God doesn't even force us to believe in God. God's rule or God's power is much different from our own. God's rule of power means reform of mind and behavior. God's power is the ability to influence change without manipulation.

As we face incessant revolutions around power-the Arab Spring, the Occupy Movement, broken relationships, and politics of envy-we will do well to know that the world's sense of power seeks to replace the true self (dynamically made in God) with a commodity-self, which only serves the production of consumer things. This was also the problem of how slavery came to be--justifying a commodified self.

Jesus' work on the cross is to show us a truer way of life-a truer way of being yourself, myself. A life not in things, but in each other, through God's kingdom.

Let us pray: O heavenly Father, who filled the world with beauty:Open our eyes to behold your gracious hand in all your works;that, rejoicing in your whole creation, we may learn to serveYou with gladness; for the sake of him through whom allthings were made, your Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Can You See the Kingdom of God?

Today's meditation from The Rev. Dr. Michael Battle of CREDO:

But if it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come to you. --Matthew 12:28

The kingdom of God is a miracle because every sign of God's presence in creation is miracle. In other words, any time we behave like God-casting out demons, loving our neighbor as we love our self or doing less obvious things like a child playing with a puppy-we signify the reign of God breaking into the world. God's kingdom is that different worldview reminding us that our behavior is accompanied by a deeper sign: that God is always with us, even to the end of the world. This deeper sign gives us the witness of healthier people committed not only to our own well being but also to the well being of creation that groans and sighs to be well again.

Wait a minute, you say. Hold on. What is this talk about groans and sighs if God's kingdom is already among us? You know, this is a good question. But here's the thing. God's kingdom requires faith to see. This is no mere tautological argument in which we go around in circles trying to prove an argument; no, this is about how God's kingdom can only be observed through the lens of faith. And like Aristotle teaches us, we know what faith is not by knowing this simple truth: The opposite of faith is certainty. Maybe, this is why Jesus started the season of Lent for us by going into the wilderness to do battle with Satan. God's kingdom, shown to us through Jesus' temptation in the wilderness, requires our authenticity . . something also born out of our going into the desert. In other words, we'll never see God's kingdom until we can be truly who we are. St. Paul says this in another way,

. . . on my own behalf I will not boast, except of my weaknesses. But if I wish to boast, I will not be a fool, for I will be speaking the truth. But I refrain from it, so that no one may think better of me than what is seen in me or heard from me, . . . Therefore, to keep me from being too elated, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me, to keep me from being too elated. (2 Corinthians 12: 5-7)

We see God's kingdom only when we are free enough to stop pretending to be somebody other than who God has created us to be.

Let us pray,
Lord, you now have set your servant free to go in peace as you have promised; For these eyes of mine have seen the Savior, whom you have prepared for all the world to see: A Light to enlighten the nations, and the glory of your people Israel. Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen.

When We Get There, Will We Like God's Kingdom?

Today's meditation from The Rev. Dr. Michael Battle of CREDO:

Once Jesus was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God was coming, and he answered, "The kingdom of God is not coming with things that can be observed; nor will they say, 'Look, here it is!' or 'There it is!' For, in fact, the kingdom of God is among you." --Luke 17: 20, 21

I remember watching a Twilight Zone TV episode about a man who thought he was in heaven because he always got what he wanted. In the typical twists and turns of Twilight Zone episodes, the audience learns the moral lesson that it is precisely in getting everything that you want that you also get bored. The man discovered therefor that his boredom with food, sex, and wealth created his own hell.

In God's kingdom of heaven, we won't have this problem. The source of happiness will not be self-contained. God's kingdom continually converts us to God's whereabouts as we learn to love self through others. We'll be happier in ourselves as others also enjoy life to its fullest.

Finally, we come to the definitions and differences between the Kingdom of God and the church. The Kingdom of God is that place where our behavior and thought fully reflect our living in the presence of God; whereas, the church is the rough and tumble people of God on the way to this ideal state of being. The kingdom is the destination already in sight. The church is the van full of people trying to get there. God's kingdom beckons us to where God is- within us and outside us.

Let us pray,
O heavenly Father, who hast filled the world with beauty: Open our eyes to behold your gracious hand in all your works; that, rejoicing in thy whole creation, we may learn to serve thee with gladness; for the sake of him through whom all things were made, your Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Are We There Yet?

Today's Lenten reflection adapted from the message of The Rev. Dr. Michael Battle of CREDO:

"On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many deeds of power in your name? 'Then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; go away from me, you evildoers.'" --Matthew 7: 22,23

The people of God (the church) are still on a long road trip to the Kingdom of God. We still get lost from time to time. Our GPS still needs Aristotle's sharp mind of telling us where not to go.

We learn from Jesus in today's passage from Matthew that the reign of God is not a matter of great religious experience -- unless it leads to concern for others. Simply doing religious things is not enough unless such religion integrates the individual and the community. The "I never knew you" is Jesus' way of saying that the community never benefited from "you." In other words, when we practice religion, let us practice it not for ourselves alone, but also for others. This kind of balanced spirituality with ethics helped to guard against the wandering charismatics who misled many in their apocalyptic ideologies. "Many will plead with me, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name? Have we not exorcized demons by its power? Did we not do many miracles in your name as well?' Then I will declare to them solemnly, 'I never knew you. Out of my sight, you evildoers!'"

Jesus is inviting us into a deeper truth. A Roman Catholic theologian, Michael Crosby, helps me explain in his book, The Spirituality of the Beatitudes. Crosby gives good advice that Jesus' three judgments ("I never knew you . . . Out of my sight . . . You evildoer . . . ") come whenever someone stresses deliverance from demonic possession only for an individual without wanting to address the demonic possession of the powers and principalities both within self and in violent institutions that structurally deny life and, therefore, God. As Christians, we have a duty to live out our Christian faith both as individuals and as members of our communities (in civil society and the church).

Let us pray,Be our light in the darkness, O Lord, and in your great mercy defend us from all perils and dangers both day and night; for the love of your only Son, our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

Moving From Church to Kingdom of God

Sunday's Lenten reflection from The Rev. Dr Michael Battle of CREDO:

"I tell you, many will come from east and west and will eat with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, while the heirs of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer
darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."--Matthew 8:11,12

When teaching, Jesus often uses hyperbole. Upon hearing Jesus talk about outer darkness, weeping and gnashing of teeth, there is no problem with giving Jesus our attention. We're eager now to know what Jesus means . . . we're eager to know about this place called God's kingdom.

Again, before we define anything, let's use Aristotle's method. The Kingdom may look differently than what you may expect. Aristotle teaches us first to define something by what it is not.
God's reign is not simply a matter of rules and regulations. God's kingdom is not run by human politics consisting of pragmatic rules and regulations. In God's kingdom, God doesn't set up a nation state so that only a segment of the population can enjoy the nurturing bread of political social arrangements. For those against God's kingdom, if God can be made an idol to reinforce
dysfunctional ideologies that legitimize certain actions, so much the better! For example, apartheid in South Africa was a theo-political arrangement for why white people should benefit the most in human societies. Apartheid is a theological term that means "holiness," to be set apart. This, however, is not God's kingdom.

This brings Jesus' hyperbole: "I tell you, many will come from east and west and will eat with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, while the heirs of the kingdom will be
thrown into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."
-Matthew-8: 11,12

Let us pray,
Gracious Father, whose blessed Son Jesus Christ came down from heaven to be the true bread which gives life to the world: Evermore give us this bread, that he may live in us, and we in him; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

The Church: Embracing the World

Today's Lenten Meditation from The Rev. Dr. Michael Battle of CREDO:

Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. When they saw him, they worshipped him; but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make
disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age." --Matthew 28:16-20

Jesus sends us out into the "Reaping" not only for self-survival. How can we better see that what is good for me is also good for you?

Like the well-written book and trilogy, The Hunger Games, the church today is experiencing "the Reaping"--trying to survive in harsh conditions. The contemporary emphasis in churches today is on our dynamic and self-determinative nature in which our only moral imperative is to actualize our own life by choosing among the numerous weapons of survival which our social world presents to us. In other words, the main challenge facing the current church, especially the Episcopal church, is individualism. As a result of becoming self-creators, the church is constantly readjusted to the nuances and ambiguities of our individual ethical choices and
experiences. "Responsibility" in this context names the fact that we often fall back on ourselves as individual authorities in moral crises. Like Katniss in The Hunger Games, the church falls into competitive orders in which we concede to a Darwinian process of natural selection in which groups vie for power and control so as to survive against those who may be threatening one's certain condition of life.

As the church, our actions are indeed acts of self-determination, but they need not be for ourselves alone. In the church's past, present and future, we reaffirm what we have been and
determine what we will be. I think in the Anglican tradition, we have a wonderful opportunity to help define the church with our own peculiar history of being Roman Catholic and Protestant and having a deep affinity for the Eastern Orthodox. Our Christian traditions are means of making sense of a holistic Christian church. Early Anglicans in the 16th and 17th centuries, such as George Herbert and Jeremy Taylor, gave us a sense of the universal church as
community. And in the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries Kenneth Kirk, F.D. Maurice, Evelyn Underhill, Maggie Ross, C.S. Lewis, Malcolm Boyd, Desmond Tutu, Katharine Jefferts Schori and others lead us into reflecting upon God's experience in the world. They teach us that society is not "out there" waiting to be seen, but is continually created by the kind of people we are, called the church.

Let us pray,
Almighty God, in your providence you chose your servant Patrick to be the apostle of the Irish people, to bring those who were wandering in darkness and error into the true light and knowledge of you: Grant us so to walk in that light that we may come at last to the light of everlasting life; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

How Can the Church Behave Better?

Here is today's Lenten meditation from The Rev. Dr. Michael Battle's series:

"Now they know that everything you have given me is from you; for the words that you gave to me I have given to them, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. I am asking on their behalf; I am not asking on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those whom you gave me, because they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been glorified in them. And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one." --John 17: 7-11

It is interesting to reflect upon what we mean by the church today. Some people believe the church is something you go to, others believe it is a building, still others imagine a denomination,
while others conclude that it is something that happens on Sunday morning.

I think though, a better definition for us to work toward in being the church is this: the community of all persons whose spirituality reflects their experience of God's reign which, in turn, they make present in the world. In other words, the church reflects God's experience in the world. I like it. The church is God's experience. Becoming God's experience in the world will continually entail a process of becoming more and more like God . . . of behaving more and
more like God. How do we know how God behaves? God has made it easier on us to answer this question because God gave us Jesus. We practice better behavior as the church when we follow Jesus' way, truth and life.

Let us pray,
Everliving God, whose will it is that all should come to you through your Son Jesus Christ: Inspire our witness to him, that all may know the power of his forgiveness and the hope of his
resurrection; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

To whom (or to what) do you give your allegiance?

Today's Lenten reflection from The Rev. Dr. Michael Battle of CREDO:

Bob Dylan sang,

"You're gonna have to serve somebody, It may be the devil or it may be the Lord. But you're gonna have to serve somebody..."

They cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them. --Mark 6:13.

When we talk about kingdoms there are many strange events; so, I want us to take seriously what it means to seek first God's kingdom rather than our own domestic kingdoms. To make a long story short, we must first seek God's kingdom--implying that none of us owns the monopoly of where such a kingdom exists. We must struggle to find it. We struggle to encounter God's kingdom in other people . . . in ourselves . . . in economics . . . in religion . . . etc. To find God's kingdom we must first confess that we don't quite know where it is, and in the same breath confess that we know exactly where it is.

One place where God's kingdom should surely be is in the church. Tomorrow, as we continue to move through the season of Lent, let us begin to talk a bit about common understandings of what the church means and then what God's Kingdom means. Then let's try to see the problems which often hinder our clear vision of both the church and God's kingdom. And finally, let us practice being a better church for the sake of God's kingdom.

Let us pray,
O God, you made us in your own image and redeemed us through Jesus your Son: Look with compassion on the whole human family; take away the arrogance and hatred which infect our hearts; break down the walls that separate us; unite us in bonds of love; and work through our struggle and confusion to accomplish your purposes on earth; that, in your good time, all nations
and races may serve you in harmony around your heavenly throne; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Accepting Jesus as Change Agent

We continue today with perhaps one of the most challenging of this Lenten series by The Rev. Dr. Michael Battle of CREDO:

" . . .unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit."--John 12: 24

Jesus' agricultural parables usually teach us about interdependent Christian community and how our relationships always need to mirror God's life. When we look at this world,
however, we can easily think Jesus' words are idealistic.There is a play by the existentialist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre called Morts sans Sepultre (The Living Dead)--in French it is literally called, The Unburied Dead. The particular scene that illustrates how we are all interdependent takes place in the attic of a house in France during the Second World War. In the attic are a half-dozen captured members of the resistance. Abuse is rife as these prisoners wait anxiously for the next morning when they will be taken out one at a time and tortured for information. They innocently wait for their execution because there is nothing to do but wait, and then suffer, and then die.

An unexpected thing happens, the attic door opens and the soldiers throw another man in. It turns out that this man is the true leader of the resistance, but the Nazi soldiers do not realize
this. The Nazi soldiers simply think the man was caught after curfew.The other prisoners of course think differently and their anxiety turns to courage. They tell their leader, "Don't worry. We will hold our tongues." The leader responds, "I thank you, for myself, for the Resistance, for France. Your courage and your sacrifice will not be forgotten."Suddenly, one of the prisoners, who is eventually revealed as his fiancée, says, "Oh, shut up. Nothing you have to say could possibly mean anything to us. I am not blaming you. It is not your fault. But the fact is that you are a living man and I am a dead woman, and the living and the dead have nothing to say to each other. Tomorrow you go out that door to freedom and life, and I go out to torment and death, and that fact puts an impenetrable barrier between us. I do not hate or envy you. I simply do not see you as a meaningful part of my universe. Now go sit down over there, and leave me to talk and hold hands with my brothers and sisters, the people with whom I shall be dying in a few hours."

When we look at this world, we can easily get angry, angry at the leader of resistance.
We can easily become the fiancée to Jesus. It is easy to get angry at the leader of resistance if such a leader seems to have little effect on changing our outcomes of death and sin. Scenes of African poverty or incessant war or the church in division can make the strongest of faith use Jesus' words, "Now my soul is troubled" (John 12:27).

Let us pray,O God of all the nations of the earth: Remember the multitudes who have been created in your image but have not known the redeeming work of our Savior Jesus Christ; and grant that, by the prayers and labors of your holy Church, they may be brought to know and worship you as you have been revealed in your Son; who lives and reigns with you and the
Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen

Jesus Redefines Kimship

Then Jesus' mother and his brothers came; and standing outside, they sent to him and called him. A crowd was sitting around him; and they said to him, "Your mother and your brothers and sisters* are outside, asking for you." And Jesus replied, "Who are my mother and my
brothers?" And looking at those who sat around him, he said, "Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother." --Mark 3:31-35

From the Nun Study, I ask two questions of us? First, to what extent can one find community that in fact helps us live longer and better lives? I will quickly venture an answer to this
first question. I think such community is all around us. The great gift of church communities is that we practice being the presence of community for others. Sometimes, community can even seem to be too much or overwhelming, especially for leaders or those for whom the survival of the community depends. For such leaders, I encourage the resources of CREDO and other ways in which a handle can be gained on your circumstances.

The second question is this: Is the truest community biologically connected? If so, how does one interpret Jesus' revision of true community through how he describes his true family in
Mark 3: 31-35. As I indicated in the beginning, what I am afraid of is that seeing we do not perceive. The Nun study helps us see that how we normally live our lives may or may not increase our quality and quantity of life. If we don't understand how our common destination is in God's presence and reign on earth, then we will fail to see the benefits of long life. C.S. Lewis once said a fish doesn't know it's wet. Well, we learn from the Nun Study that most of us are
wet with individualism--and it is shortening our life and vision of God. The Nun Study provides a dramatic contrast to what happens when there is community, namely long and better life.

Let us pray,
Almighty God, the giver of all good gifts,
in your divine providence you have appointed various orders in your Church: Give
your grace, we humbly pray, to all who are [now] called to any office and
ministry for your people; and so fill them with the truth of your doctrine and
clothe them with holiness of life, that they may faithfully serve before you, to
the glory of your great Name and for the benefit of your holy Church; 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.

Strength in Community

Today's Lenten reflection from The Rev. Dr. Michael Battle of CREDO:

Jesus answered him, "Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them." --John 14:23

A study was done on the convent of the School Sisters of Notre Dame in Mankato, Minnesota. For 15 years, elderly Catholic nuns had their genes analyzed and their balance and strength measured. They were tested on how many words they could remember minutes after reading them on flashcards. They were asked how many animals they could name in a minute and whether they could count coins correctly. Early autobiographical essays they wrote when they took their vows were scrutinized, their words analyzed for meaning. And as they died, their brains have been removed and shipped in plastic tubs to a laboratory where they are analyzed and stored in jars.

Before we begin to think this too macabre, the experiment, called the Nun Study, done by David Snowdon in his book called Aging with Grace, is considered by experts on aging to be one of the most innovative efforts to answer questions about who gets Alzheimer's disease and why. In this Nun Study, we can learn why we need a communal reference point to know long life (not just in quantity of life but also in quality). These nuns teach us that those who live in community--live longer and better.

Let us pray,
Almighty Father, whose blessed Son before his passion prayed for his disciples that they might be one, as you and he are one: Grant that your Church, being bound together in love and obedience to you, may be united in one body by the one Spirit, that the world may believe in him whom you have sent, your Son Jesus Christ our Lord; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
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Opening the Eyes of Our Faith

For if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. --Romans 8:25

At the 75th General Convention of the Episcopal Church, The Rev. Miguelina Espinal preached a powerful sermon using the following story: Diego had never been to the sea. His father, Santiago, took him on a journey to discover the sea. They traveled south. The sea was beyond the tall sand dunes, waiting for them. When the boy and his father finally stood at the peak of the tallest sand dune, the sea exploded before his eyes. The sea's vastness, beauty, and brilliance were so great, that the boy became silent. When he finally spoke he was so overwhelmed that he said to his dad, "Help me see!"

Like Diego, we seek to see beyond our scope or frame of reference. But we have learned not to outdo ourselves as in the case of saint Peter. We must learn to see and perceive. When transcendence impresses upon our ordinary experience, how do we see it? This is the problem we encounter in Lent. In many ways the problem is first posed by Jesus, "Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven," Jesus says in Matthew 18. Jesus makes earth contingent with heaven. Such a perspective is problematic, to say the least. Let me try to explain again with the Rev. Miguelina Espinal's sermon. It was fascinating listening to this fine sermon next to a man at our 75th General Convention. He was white, elderly, and frustrated with the General Convention's liturgy. The problem was this: he did not know Spanish and thought there was no English translation. The solution was already made available to him, as provisions for English translations of her sermon and the liturgy were resting on the table right in front of him (like Diego's ocean ebbing and flowing right before his very eyes and yet he could not see and perceive it). I tried to explain the situation to my new friend, this man sitting at my table trying to worship in Spanish, but he had given up on understanding the sermon and the liturgy and his seemingly strange environment overwhelmed him. He felt threatened and said to me, "I should have just stayed home rather than sit here and not understand."

Let us pray,
O God, whose blessed Son made himself known to his disciples in the breaking of bread: Open the eyes of our faith, that we may behold him in all his redeeming work; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Thinking twice about righteousness . . .

Today's Lenten meditation from The Rev. Dr. Michael Battle of CREDO:

"For I tell you," Jesus says, "unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." --Matthew 5:20.

Lent makes us stop, and even perhaps chuckle, when realizing the deep irony of Jesus. Christian folk need to actively imagine and practice the way that Jesus perceives the world, not only for particular individuals but for all people. After all, those in Matthew's context who were supposed to be going to heaven--the righteous--were reinterpreted by Jesus as being the furthest from heaven.The irony here was that sinners--like thieves, prostitutes and tax collectors--were closer to heaven because they knew they needed God; whereas, professional religious leaders were farther away because they thought they had God figured out. In Lent, Jesus makes us see differently. Those who are supposed to go to heaven are now seen as getting in the way of heaven.It is crucial that we understand Jesus' irony: "Seeing, they do not perceive." This insight of Jesus not only redeems the image of Christianity in the world, but it also allows Christianity to do genuine good, to grow into its global purpose of facilitating diversity and unity through its humility of knowing that only one is perfect--Jesus of Nazareth. In this season of Lent we must listen deeply to Jesus' call to such humility so that we can usher in the reign of God.

Let us pray,
Eternal Father, you gave to your incarnate Son the holy name of Jesus to be the sign of our salvation: Plant in every heart, we pray, the love of him who is the Savior of the world, our Lord Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.

Living in Three Worlds

Today's Lenten reflection from The Rev. Dr. Michael Battle of CREDO:

"I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven." Then he sternly ordered the disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah. From that time on, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and undergo great suffering at the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, "God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you." But he turned and said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things." --Matthew 16:19-23

All of us trying to follow Jesus relate to the disciple Peter. But sometimes Peter out does even himself. Can you believe it? Peter actually pulled Jesus aside and began to rebuke Jesus.

Jesus turned and said a very interesting thing to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things" (Matthew 16:19-23). Jesus is literally saying to Peter that he is going beyond himself into the choppy waters of evil.

What I learn about Peter I also learn about myself. Within this brief narrative between Jesus and Peter we are invited into the essence of Lent--that is, overcoming suffering and evil. These turbulent waters between heaven and hell are illustrated through Jesus' simultaneous rebuke of Peter and Satan. This turbulent space is also illustrative of how Peter also contains the keys to heaven and can bind and loose the connections between heaven and earth. In other words, Peter simultaneously acts in heaven, earth and hell. These worlds seem to be contiguous based upon one's connection to the suffering Jesus.

Just as Jesus does not advocate for Peter to become Satan, so he does not advocate for any to go to hell or be separated from heaven. Those who think Jesus wants some to go to hell do not understand how Jesus teaches through parables; and such exegesis or biblical interpretation misses Jesus' point about the kingdom of heaven. Jesus' essential point is this: "Seeing they do not perceive."

Let us pray,
Almighty God, whose Son our Savior Jesus Christ is the light of the world: Grant that your people, illumined by your Word and Sacraments, may shine with the radiance of Christ's glory, that he may be known, worshiped, and obeyed to the ends of the earth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

A Vision for Unity

"To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. For to those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away. The reason I speak to them in parables is that 'seeing they do not perceive, and hearing they do not listen, nor do they understand.' "--Matthew 13:11-13.

Today's Lenten Meditation from The Rev. Dr. Michael Battle of CREDO:

Christian spirituality offers us a powerful way of life in which to practice God's reign on earth. In such spirituality we have a responsibility to become visionaries; as the biblical prophets remind us, without vision, people inevitably perish. This is an important discussion because increasingly, religion (and Christianity in particular), has acquired a bad rap for dividing rather than uniting people and communities. And perhaps I am no better as I present to some a controversial version of Christianity -- one concerned less with personal salvation in isolation, and more with the salvation of persons in whole communities. In fact, I argue that personal salvation is unintelligible apart from communal salvation. Jesus was often controversial not only to His enemies but also to His disciples, who half the time couldn't understand Jesus. But Jesus was not some ethereal or otherworldly person in isolation; on the contrary, Jesus was the vision of God's communal presence continually wrapping us up in God's midst. More particularly, Jesus taught that salvation was wrapped in our relationships with God and neighbor. And Jesus taught through his parables that the kingdom of heaven is recognized and cooperated within how God is already acting in our relationships and communities. Jesus taught the disciples: "To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven." As I imagine the scene, however, the disciples continue to look at Jesus like deer in headlights. A good interpretation of these scriptures does not imply that Jesus is trying to further divide us with talk of parables and secrets. In other words, Jesus is not speaking in parables to confuse us; rather, the parable is the judgment against confined ways of thinking-of boxing in God. Jesus is trying to coax us away from our limited way of understanding reality.

Let us pray,
Give us grace, O Lord, to answer readily the call of our Savior Jesus Christ and proclaim to all people the Good News of his salvation, that we and the whole world may perceive the glory of his marvelous works; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Between Mother Teresa and Bill Gates

Today's Lenten Meditation from The Rev. Dr. Michael Battle of CREDO:

The day was drawing to a close, and the twelve came to him and said, "Send the crowd away, so that they may go into the surrounding villages and countryside, to lodge and get provisions; for we are here in a deserted place." But he said to them, "You give them something to
eat." They said, "We have no more than five loaves and two fish-unless we are to
go and buy food for all these people." For there were about five thousand men.
And he said to his disciples, "Make them sit down in groups of about fifty
each." They did so and made them all sit down. And taking the five loaves and
the two fish, Jesus looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke them, and gave
them to the disciples to set before the crowd. And all ate and were filled.
What was left over was gathered up, twelve baskets of broken pieces.--Luke 9:12-17

It is a daunting challenge when Jesus tells you to do something--as is the case with the disciples, tired and exhausted at the end of a long day.

"You give them something to eat," Jesus told them.

When I was a seminarian, I remember being jubilant upon meeting Mother Teresa in Calcutta, in India. When I returned to my seminary, I conveyed my enthusiasm to one of my professors back in the United States. He quickly deflated my idealism when he told me that he would
prefer the work of a rich Christian individual (someone like Bill Gates) who could affect systemic change for poor people rather than the work of a Mother Teresa who simply helps individuals in an ad hoc manner.

As I look back on that touchtone experience, I am all the more grateful to be an Episcopalian who thinks beyond our either/or mentality of Mother Teresa or Bill Gates. We need them both.
Making a significant difference in bettering the world is not a matter of choosing between the work of Mother Teresa or Bill Gates; rather, it is about garnering an imagination capable of seeing beyond the limited ways and means we set for ourselves. In other words, without the extraordinary example of Mother Teresa, my seminary professor would have lacked his subsequent vision for a Christian Bill Gates. One could not exist without the other. I imagine the
exhausted disciples had the same problem with Jesus' command: " You give them something to eat." The disciples in their limitations needed Jesus' command to help them move into miracles.

Let us pray,
O God, the strength of all who put their trust in you: Mercifully accept our prayers; and because in our weakness we can do nothing good without you, give us the help of your grace, that in keeping your commandments we may please you both in will and deed; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

God's way -- or our way?

Today's reflection from The Rev. Dr. Michael Battle of CREDO:

So, Jesus teaches his disciples, "Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, was praying thus, 'God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.' But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even look up to heaven, but was beating his breast and saying, 'God, be merciful to me, a sinner!' I tell you, this man went down to his home justified rather than the other; for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted."--Luke 18:10-14

When I lived near Washington, DC (and I suspect in many of your communities), I often heard questions like: Why aren't there visionaries like Mother Teresa and Martin Luther King Jr. anymore? And, will we ever have them again? Indeed, Mother Teresa and Martin Luther King were special people who embodied supernatural vision, I think, but I believe the previous questions are really not about two individuals. I believe these constant questions point to deeper crises of faith--will human beings continue to dream of and envision a world reflective of heaven on earth?

This is a crisis, and this crisis is a religious one in which our competitive religious worldviews often make for more trouble rather than presenting solutions to a desperate world. We get in trouble because oftentimes our religion points to what is infinitely best for "me" or for a particular group of people. As the Christian crusades illustrate, people can do horrible things in the seeming best interest of a certain group. Most of all look at what happened to Jesus--well-intentioned folk thought they were doing a good service by having Jesus crucified. With a lack of vision, those who often have good intentions use horrible means to reach their near-sighted goals. We continue to long for visionaries like Mother Teresa and Martin Luther King because they are signifiers of a deeper reality among us. Jesus reminds us of it as the tax collector was justified rather than the religious figure. Visionaries are needed because in their dreams they help us see God. Their dreams and actions tell us that if the Christian faith is to be maintained and expressed authentically, we must turn our attention to the new heaven imagined by God and meant for everyone (not just meant for those we think deserve it).

Let us pray,
O God, who wonderfully created, and yet more wonderfully restored, the dignity of human nature: Grant that we may share the divine life of him who humbled himself to share our humanity, your Son Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Seeing Christ in "The Other"

Today's Lenten Meditation from The Rev. Dr. Michael Battle of CREDO:

. . . Jesus sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal. He said to them, "Take nothing for your journey, no staff, nor bag, nor bread, nor money-not even an extra tunic. Whatever house you enter, stay there, and leave from there. Wherever they do not welcome you, as you are leaving that town shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them." They departed and went through the villages, bringing the good news and curing diseases everywhere.--Luke 9:2-6

When I grew up in Raleigh, North Carolina, I attended Athens Drive High School. Even though this was in the 1980s, I would argue that the reality remains the same today. If you walk in the cafeteria at lunchtime, you'll see black kids sitting with black kids. The nerds sit with nerds; jocks sit with jocks, rich with rich, and poor with poor. Although I am dating myself with some of these descriptions (e.g., now there are categories like Goths), this disparate reality remains the same. We lack the ability to truly be in proximity beyond our natural tribalisms. It is understandable, however. After all, who wants to sit and eat with someone different--it makes it difficult to digest your food if you're nervously trying to make conversation with a stranger. But it is precisely around a meal that Jesus is most present--most in proximity to us in the Eucharist.

Unfortunately, we do not naturally gather in proximity with those who are different from us. This should give us strong Lenten pause to consider how this is all the more problematic given how the one most different from us is God. In other words, a theology of proximity gives us language for how we easily (perhaps even naturally) worship idols of God rather than the living God whose ways are not our ways. Left to our own devices we may not even realize we have settled for the counterfeit god rather than the authentic one. I guess this is why I appreciate the childlike trust of the disciples to go out and proclaim the kingdom of God where nerds eat with jocks. And I appreciate the perseverance that when times get rough, simply shake off the dust and keep proclaiming the Kingdom.

Let us pray,
Most loving Father, whose will it is for us to give thanks for all things, to fear nothing but the loss of you, and to cast all our care on you who care for us: Preserve us from faithless fears and worldly anxieties, that no clouds of this mortal life may hide from us the light of that love which is immortal, and which you have manifested to us in your Son Jesus Christ our Lord; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Practicing the Presence of God - Really

Today's meditation from The Rev. Dr. Michael Battle of CREDO:

And as Jesus sat at dinner* in Levi's house, many tax collectors and sinners were also sitting with Jesus and his disciples--for there were many who followed him. When the scribes of the Pharisees saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, they said to his disciples, "Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?"--Mark 2: 15, 16.

In the major religions of the world, there are practical steps toward practicing the presence of God. First, spend daily time in prayer. This process begins with seeking and finding God, because the deep wisdom of faith is that we cannot control God's presence in our lives. If we could, then the presence would not be God. We see this occurring with Jesus eating with sinners and tax collectors. Those who thought they were most religious had figured out the boundaries for God--or so they thought. Herein is the value of Lent--to both uncover our assumptions and make us pay better attention to God's presence which no one can control.

The second practical step toward practicing the presence of God is to be a friend to the poor. This is important because the reign of God is always identified with the dignity of each person made in God's image, and the need for all people to share in the abundance of this earth. Possessions, the wealth we have in the form of power, property, and prestige, are to be used to reverse conditions of poverty in the world that most contradict the breaking in of the reign of God.

Let us pray,
Heavenly Father, whose blessed Son came not to be served but to serve: Bless all who, following in his steps, give themselves to the service of others; that with wisdom, patience, and courage, they may minister in his Name to the suffering, the friendless, and the needy; for the love of him who laid down his life for us, your Son our Savior Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Whatever We Do Can Be Our Ministry

Today's message from The Rev. Dr. Michael Battle of CREDO:

So deeply do we care for you that we are determined to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you have become very dear to us.--1 Thessalonians 2:8

What is beautiful about this passage of Thessalonians is its accompaniment. What I mean is that "not only the gospel of God" is shared but also the accompaniment of the one sharing the gospel. Always, if you think about it, the gospel must be accompanied by our very selves. Good news must be accompanied by a deeper sign: the witness of our lives committed to those in need.

A Catholic priest gives an illustration of why the gospel must be accompanied by our very selves. Before the recent economic meltdown, this priest had a conversation with an international vice president and chief economist of a major automobile company.

"When I go to meetings in New York," the priest said, "I often stay at one of the our Eastern Province's parishes on the lower east side of Manhattan. As I walk there from the Delancey Street subway stop, six blocks away, I get the feeling that the thousands of people in that neighborhood don't really matter to our corporate world, especially a corporation like [yours]. Is this the case?" the priest asked the corporate executive.

"Well, Mike," he responded, "I hate to say it, but this is the only way it can be. We can't be concerned about them because they are outside our market projections."

St. Paul reminds the Thessalonian Church and the 21st century church to accompany the gospel with our very selves. The gospel can neither be abstract nor detached from ourselves. Both must accompany the other. When material resources become ends in themselves, when the goods of the earth take control over the people of the earth, there is no accompaniment. The process of turning our lives over to the power of God and coming under God's life-giving influence involves the dynamic of seeking and finding the reign of God.

Let us pray,
Almighty God our heavenly Father, you declare your glory and show forth your handiwork in the heavens and in the earth: Deliver us in our various occupations from the service of self alone, that we may do the work you give us to do in truth and beauty and for the common good; for the sake of him who came among us as one who serves, your Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.