Authentic or Contrived?

Performance and production can be manufactured; a growing, humble, and teachable heart is given only to those who seek it.

Came upon these verses today while planning services for the Season of Epiphany:

Micah 6:
6 “With what shall I come before the Lord,
and bow myself before God on high?
Shall I come before him with burnt offerings,
with calves a year old?
7 Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams,
with ten thousands of rivers of oil?
Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression,
the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?”
8 He has told you, O mortal, what is good;
and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God?

Humility and ceremonial precision can be faked; a character being shaped through the power of the Spirit, cannot. Remember what is most important to God as we seek to be spiritually disciplined and obedient to him. The Church of Jesus Christ does not need more moralists and religious sycophants who fit the Kingdom of God into their lives as it is convenient. God calls us to be humble and courageous followers of Jesus, no matter what the risks to our insecurities and need to find our worth using the values of the world.

A False Community

 

"In a false community everyone protects himself against everyone else. Everyone tries not to be known, except in ways he or she chooses. Everyone tries to work out ways in which all relationships will be smooth. This is not community.

There is a vision in the writings of Saint Hermas, one of the seventy disciples of Christ, a vision: he sees the angels of God building the city of God, the new Jerusalem, and he sees that they choose square stones with sharp edges and place them next to one another, cementing them together. And then there are stones that seem so beautiful in their material, so smooth in their shape -- round, oval -- and they are rejected. Because it is only those stones that can be fitted together and cemented together that can be used for the building of these walls of the Heavenly Jerusalem. And when we try to create a society in which every one of us is safe from the other, are we not creating a society of people who are like smooth, rounded stones that can in no way be fitted together with others? What is needed then is a hammer that will break the smoothness and reshape them."

- Metropolitan Anthony Bloom, "Churchianity vs Christianity," pp. 114-115

Breaking the Rules

 

When is it OK to break the rules?

I am thankful that I was raised in a house where I was taught manners and respect for other people. I was taught, in keeping with the teaching of Jesus to “do unto others as you would have them do unto you”. This kind of mutual respect and honor is in part what keeps any human group or human society from turning into chaos. Today, in the United States, in the broader sense of our popular culture and our national debates, good manners seem be the exception rather than the rule.

But at what point does a person’s or societies’ view of “good manners” or “appropriate behavior” become manipulative, unduly restrictive, and/or downright abusive? Every human family or group, no matter how large or how small, has unwritten expectations and “acceptable manners”. This does not mean that their definitions are healthy or to be adopted.

When Jesus came to live among us, he walked into both civil and religious structures with many assumed and expected manners and rules. Those under the power of these leaders knew the consequences of thinking outside of their holy and elevated rules and used their so-called prestige and knowledge for their own selfish desires. This not only bothered Jesus, but it also often infuriated him to the point of rebuke and at times even name-calling for specific theological application.

Jesus knew the importance of the Law of God in the Old Testament, and he knew the authority and power of the truths of the Old Testament Scripture in general. However, he also knew, that human rules, established to give limits and boundaries to facilitate structure and order, were to be contextually applied based on the core, Godly characteristics of righteousness/justice, mercy, and shalom as God had revealed it to his people.

However, those who love POWER over their love for God, revel in rigidity and simplicity – laying aside a patient, gracious, and thoughtful discerning of truth and error or right and wrong. Jesus never pursued the leadership of Israel to change them. They pursued him as a threat. When Jesus pushed back at their duplicity and parasitic behaviors, the Jewish leaders saw Jesus as a disrespectful, rebellious, and dangerous prophet. Of course, any prophet in the Old or New Testaments that pushed against corruption, injustice, or the disobedience to God’s Word also faced these same responses.

Our text for Sunday comes from the Gospel of Luke chapter 13 (see the link below). Jesus again, chooses mercy over the strict interpretation of current man-made applications regarding the sabbath. The RIGHT group, the POWERFUL group was non-too-pleased. But the powerless, marginalized, and ill woman who was healed were ecstatic and gave praise to God!

How might we be a people who give this “gospel” news and love to others who know only the marginalization and power structures so valued by the world? How can we avoid this kind of off-putting, Holy Spirit dousing, and selfish approach to leadership at St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church? To the Church of Christ?

"Controlling the Rules" - Luke 13:10-17

Accepting the Challenge

 

When it came to the genuine, foundational, character problems of the Jewish religious community of their day, Jesus often meddled. I submit that if a person is actually honest with the clear revelation of Holy Scripture in the Gospels, there is just no way around it. While we can definitely say that Jesus was careful and strategic about how he taught, when he taught, and who he was teaching, he was also at times prophetic so as not to be brushed aside or misunderstood (He risked offence and misunderstanding in the beginning, middle, and end of his ministry on earth). Our text on Sunday is one of those stories where everyone who is listening would likely have been bristling.

When Jesus tells a parable in answer to the question of a certain lawyer of the Mosaic Law, ("who is my neighbor?") the crowd got an answer for which they had not bargained. Are we Christians today anymore ready for such challenging answers from Jesus? What did the Jewish leaders and the people do with the repeatedly challenging teaching of Jesus? What do we do?

Jesus had a clear understanding of where the Jewish Covenant People of God were headed with their many religious and political compromises in concert with the powerful rulers of the day. This, of course, culminates in the destruction of the Temple and the decimation of the Jewish people in Israel a mere 60+ years later (70 AD). As Jesus looks at the direction and future of the American Church in the years to come, what does he see?

Jesus often specifically identified the hard-heartedness of the Jewish leadership. Yet, the overwhelming majority of everyday worshippers were just fine tolerating their leaders as long as they themselves didn't experience too much disruption. Yes, their leaders were bankrupt theologically and corrupt in practice. Yes, these same leaders manipulated and took a buffet approach to Holy Scripture, picking and choosing from their pages the truth that fit their presuppositions and desires. However, in the end, the challenges of Jesus, as will be revealed Sunday with the "Good Samaritan", largely fell on deaf ears. Jesus just seemed too extreme. Those that did continue to follow him before and after his death and resurrection only ended up doing so at great risk.

It will take effort on our part to stay open and teachable to Jesus. It will take evaluation, meditation, and courage to evaluate why we hold some of the beliefs that we hold and why we hold them so tightly.

However, if we choose to listen and pursue the teaching of Jesus through the preached Word, with a reliance on the aid of the illuminating work of the Holy Spirit speaking to our hearts and minds, we truly have nothing of substance to lose, and everything eternal to gain.

Fr. Thomas Reeves

The Love Test - Video Sermon

Living or Fabricated?

 

Authentic people discern reality and truth as they present themselves, so that love and wisdom may be rightly applied. 

Inauthentic people create the narratives they must have, and then desperately try to manipulate others and situations for their own happy returns. One approach reflects the character of God. The other, the power brokers of this world.