A Lenten Reflection.
Moses' journey through the desert took 40 years. It took 40 years to lead a nation from slavery and oppression to deliverance through a wilderness desert. Moses himself hid in the desert of the Midians for 40 years when fleeing Egypt from his crime of the manslaughter of an Egyptian who was abusing his fellow Jew before hearing the call of God. Forty (40) seems to be a significant coming of age number. Some mysteries of the Talmud were not taught until a man reached the age of 40.
Jesus spent 40 days in the desert wilderness under scorching sun and harsh windblown nights
while his soul was tempted by the devil before the final Act of his Redemption drama mystery.
That is why we spend this 40 days before Easter in Penance, Prayer and almsgiving to empty ourselves and purify our souls for the Easter drama mystery of redemption and eternal life in the hereafter through the saving Grace of Jesus' atonement. He didn't have to do it for us- Grace, it means an undeserved unmerited gift. God could have wiped us off the planet with another flood. But he keeps his covenantal promises and said he wouldn't do this again. So he had to send his son to save us.
This is our 40 days from slavery and oppression to deliverance from ourselves; deliverance from the sins that cripple our souls, the selfishness, the depravities, the self-righteousness, the self-promotion and attention seeking ego-driven power -tripping self -aggrandizement that alienates us from real Love and those sins that drag our souls into the nether-abyss of despair and joylessness. Sin is just another word for being fatally off-track of God's best for you according to his purposes. It's fatal because you can't escape the death of it. The wages of sin are still and always will be death. That is why we need a deliverer. A new Moses.
Sin creates a separation from a just God. Man's sin evicted him from Paradise which is a metaphor for a joyfilled blissful life in the fold of the eternal love of God.
This Lent is the exercise of the purgation of the spiritual winter fat that slothfully drags us to despondency so we can joyfully dance into Spring with all the Hope that the Easter drama mystery promises.
This pre-Easter Season it would be wise, we are told, to spiritually prepare in acts of penancy, serious prayer,and purgational sacrificial giving. Great Spiritual Sages of many faiths advise that the best kind of giving is giving away that which we want the most as acts of detachment from any earthly things creating idolotrous bondages. And it would be wise to
undergo this journey together with a nation of fellow souls seeking deliverance from the oppressions of all that binds them. There is strength in numbers for the journey. That is the purpose of church.
Some demons can't be driven out any other way than with prayer. Some greed can't be driven out any other way than sacrificial giving of that which we covet most. After all, there are no luggage racks on top of hearses and you have never seen one pulling a U-Haul. You can't take any of it with you.
There is a promising young Preacher who told a congregation comprised in part of a visiting Jewish Day School at St. Stephen Martyr Church in DC last Sunday named Br. John Chrysostom
(after Saint John Chrysostom http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Chrysostom) that the Lenten
penetential purgations and deprivations serve a deeper purpose of chipping off all spiritual soul scaring matter that distorts the image of God that we are. The goal is to recover and stay true to the Image of God that we are all created in- so that we can do the work of God with the Heart of God on earth, instead of spin in our own devices and distractions. We all have a divine purpose. It is in our DNA which is made after the image of God by God.
This is a promising young inspired Preacher (technically the Dominicans don't call them preachers until they have paid more dues, but he is now a preacher because the young Man preaches) .
He will be making another appearance this Wednesday evening at Saint Stephen Martyr at 7:00 pm (you are invited, just call the church, http://www.ststephenmartyrdc.org/) lecturing on what Paul thought of the "real presence." This is a Catholic doctrine adopted by some protestant congregations as well such as Anglicans/Episcopalians and Lutherans that the body and blood of Jesus is not merely symbolic but actually transubstantiated in essential physical property under the appearance only of bread and wine (see, John 6; http://www.usccb.org/nab/bible/john/john6.htm).
And why should it matter if we can't know for sure. (Some say they know for sure, some say it is unknowable and an act of Faith to believe, some say it's just those catholics getting spooky again.) This is the doctrine that Jesus himself said
would trip up folks and cause many to walk away from him. At the time he first popped this on his following crowds they said- that one is a hard one to swallow- we don't buy it.
Even today, the larger "church" universal struggles with whether the people who don't buy it, really just don't get it. (The Catholic church thinks they just don't get it, the Presbyterian World things it is just idolotrous crap and probably spin factored by some bad mistranslation at root.)
Why should it matter? If in fact that is the case, it is the most radical reality of the modern world.
I need to repeat that:
If in fact that is the case, it is the most radical reality of the modern world.
If in fact Jesus himself, in his "broken body" actually pierces the four dimensional earthly reality of existence to provide himself, his very atonement sacrificial body which serves as the sacrificial forgiveness of all our sins, to us to eat as the new manna that is our spiritual food for survival in the desert of the world into eternal life then it is clear that he is telling us that (a) we
need him-Jesus- can't live without him, to deliver us into and transition into and survive into the spiritual eternal world (b) we are all priests and (c) there is nothing more important than telling everyone on earth about this reality and bringing them into the Life that it represents and entails.
The Jews marching for 40 years into the desert from slavery to deliverance and freedom needed Manna to live. They would have died without it. This wasn't something that naturally grew in the desert. It came directly from the hand of God from the heavens. God himself fed his people in the desert. God himself still does. It is the Eucharist.
Jesus is the sacrificial lamb- God spared Abraham the anguish of sacrificing Isaac his only son and provided himself the lamb for the sacrifice- this prefigured Jesus. Jesus on the cross is the sacrificial lamb on the altar. That is why you will often see images of lambs in stained glass windows in churchs and carved in altars.
When a Jewish Priest sacrificed a lamb, it had to be pure, without blemish, and Jesus was a sinless man born of a Virgin not of fornication but of the Holy Spirit itself. Jesus was the son of God. When a Jewish Priest sacrificed a lamb he ate of it.
Jesus took the bread at the table of the last supper and he broke it and said the blessing. He said "This is my body which will be broken for you, for the forgiveness of sins" and he told them to eat it. This made us all priests. He thus annointed all of us. All of us. The Priesthood of all believers. We all partake of his atoning sacrifice. A Royal Priesthood. A Race of Believers. A Remnant of Saved by the Sacrifice. The ONLY acceptable one in our age.
If this is true, there is nothing more important than ushering people into belief into and partaking of this communion meal. This is why Catholics believe that the Eucharist is the "source and summit" of the faith; not because they worship the manna not the Creator of it, but because
this is more than manna--this is the for all time atonement sacrifice for the sins of all who just believe it- the only acceptable Sacrifice to God, because he himself provided the ultimate Lamb,
so that we would be, through his broken body and blood, brought to the Love of God forever. It is the only acceptable sacrifice that expiates, does away with the sin that separates us from the Love of God. so now, nothing, neither heights nor depths, principalities powers, angels nor demons can separate us from the love of God. Because of Jesus.
You owe it to yourself to be still with God this Lent and listen to him, and to his beloved Son, in whom he is well pleased.
You owe it to yourself to try to really get what Easter really means beyond the cultural couchings of colored eggs, chocolate bunnies and potted lillies.
Easter means God loves you so much in an unbelievably radical way. It means he keeps his promises even when it kills him. It means he is dying to love you. And it means he saved you,
and all he asks is that you look him in the face as he is hanging there on that cross and say that you believe him.
Moses' journey through the desert took 40 years. It took 40 years to lead a nation from slavery and oppression to deliverance through a wilderness desert. Moses himself hid in the desert of the Midians for 40 years when fleeing Egypt from his crime of the manslaughter of an Egyptian who was abusing his fellow Jew before hearing the call of God. Forty (40) seems to be a significant coming of age number. Some mysteries of the Talmud were not taught until a man reached the age of 40.
Jesus spent 40 days in the desert wilderness under scorching sun and harsh windblown nights
while his soul was tempted by the devil before the final Act of his Redemption drama mystery.
That is why we spend this 40 days before Easter in Penance, Prayer and almsgiving to empty ourselves and purify our souls for the Easter drama mystery of redemption and eternal life in the hereafter through the saving Grace of Jesus' atonement. He didn't have to do it for us- Grace, it means an undeserved unmerited gift. God could have wiped us off the planet with another flood. But he keeps his covenantal promises and said he wouldn't do this again. So he had to send his son to save us.
This is our 40 days from slavery and oppression to deliverance from ourselves; deliverance from the sins that cripple our souls, the selfishness, the depravities, the self-righteousness, the self-promotion and attention seeking ego-driven power -tripping self -aggrandizement that alienates us from real Love and those sins that drag our souls into the nether-abyss of despair and joylessness. Sin is just another word for being fatally off-track of God's best for you according to his purposes. It's fatal because you can't escape the death of it. The wages of sin are still and always will be death. That is why we need a deliverer. A new Moses.
Sin creates a separation from a just God. Man's sin evicted him from Paradise which is a metaphor for a joyfilled blissful life in the fold of the eternal love of God.
This Lent is the exercise of the purgation of the spiritual winter fat that slothfully drags us to despondency so we can joyfully dance into Spring with all the Hope that the Easter drama mystery promises.
This pre-Easter Season it would be wise, we are told, to spiritually prepare in acts of penancy, serious prayer,and purgational sacrificial giving. Great Spiritual Sages of many faiths advise that the best kind of giving is giving away that which we want the most as acts of detachment from any earthly things creating idolotrous bondages. And it would be wise to
undergo this journey together with a nation of fellow souls seeking deliverance from the oppressions of all that binds them. There is strength in numbers for the journey. That is the purpose of church.
Some demons can't be driven out any other way than with prayer. Some greed can't be driven out any other way than sacrificial giving of that which we covet most. After all, there are no luggage racks on top of hearses and you have never seen one pulling a U-Haul. You can't take any of it with you.
There is a promising young Preacher who told a congregation comprised in part of a visiting Jewish Day School at St. Stephen Martyr Church in DC last Sunday named Br. John Chrysostom
(after Saint John Chrysostom http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Chrysostom) that the Lenten
penetential purgations and deprivations serve a deeper purpose of chipping off all spiritual soul scaring matter that distorts the image of God that we are. The goal is to recover and stay true to the Image of God that we are all created in- so that we can do the work of God with the Heart of God on earth, instead of spin in our own devices and distractions. We all have a divine purpose. It is in our DNA which is made after the image of God by God.
This is a promising young inspired Preacher (technically the Dominicans don't call them preachers until they have paid more dues, but he is now a preacher because the young Man preaches) .
He will be making another appearance this Wednesday evening at Saint Stephen Martyr at 7:00 pm (you are invited, just call the church, http://www.ststephenmartyrdc.org/) lecturing on what Paul thought of the "real presence." This is a Catholic doctrine adopted by some protestant congregations as well such as Anglicans/Episcopalians and Lutherans that the body and blood of Jesus is not merely symbolic but actually transubstantiated in essential physical property under the appearance only of bread and wine (see, John 6; http://www.usccb.org/nab/bible/john/john6.htm).
And why should it matter if we can't know for sure. (Some say they know for sure, some say it is unknowable and an act of Faith to believe, some say it's just those catholics getting spooky again.) This is the doctrine that Jesus himself said
would trip up folks and cause many to walk away from him. At the time he first popped this on his following crowds they said- that one is a hard one to swallow- we don't buy it.
Even today, the larger "church" universal struggles with whether the people who don't buy it, really just don't get it. (The Catholic church thinks they just don't get it, the Presbyterian World things it is just idolotrous crap and probably spin factored by some bad mistranslation at root.)
Why should it matter? If in fact that is the case, it is the most radical reality of the modern world.
I need to repeat that:
If in fact that is the case, it is the most radical reality of the modern world.
If in fact Jesus himself, in his "broken body" actually pierces the four dimensional earthly reality of existence to provide himself, his very atonement sacrificial body which serves as the sacrificial forgiveness of all our sins, to us to eat as the new manna that is our spiritual food for survival in the desert of the world into eternal life then it is clear that he is telling us that (a) we
need him-Jesus- can't live without him, to deliver us into and transition into and survive into the spiritual eternal world (b) we are all priests and (c) there is nothing more important than telling everyone on earth about this reality and bringing them into the Life that it represents and entails.
The Jews marching for 40 years into the desert from slavery to deliverance and freedom needed Manna to live. They would have died without it. This wasn't something that naturally grew in the desert. It came directly from the hand of God from the heavens. God himself fed his people in the desert. God himself still does. It is the Eucharist.
Jesus is the sacrificial lamb- God spared Abraham the anguish of sacrificing Isaac his only son and provided himself the lamb for the sacrifice- this prefigured Jesus. Jesus on the cross is the sacrificial lamb on the altar. That is why you will often see images of lambs in stained glass windows in churchs and carved in altars.
When a Jewish Priest sacrificed a lamb, it had to be pure, without blemish, and Jesus was a sinless man born of a Virgin not of fornication but of the Holy Spirit itself. Jesus was the son of God. When a Jewish Priest sacrificed a lamb he ate of it.
Jesus took the bread at the table of the last supper and he broke it and said the blessing. He said "This is my body which will be broken for you, for the forgiveness of sins" and he told them to eat it. This made us all priests. He thus annointed all of us. All of us. The Priesthood of all believers. We all partake of his atoning sacrifice. A Royal Priesthood. A Race of Believers. A Remnant of Saved by the Sacrifice. The ONLY acceptable one in our age.
If this is true, there is nothing more important than ushering people into belief into and partaking of this communion meal. This is why Catholics believe that the Eucharist is the "source and summit" of the faith; not because they worship the manna not the Creator of it, but because
this is more than manna--this is the for all time atonement sacrifice for the sins of all who just believe it- the only acceptable Sacrifice to God, because he himself provided the ultimate Lamb,
so that we would be, through his broken body and blood, brought to the Love of God forever. It is the only acceptable sacrifice that expiates, does away with the sin that separates us from the Love of God. so now, nothing, neither heights nor depths, principalities powers, angels nor demons can separate us from the love of God. Because of Jesus.
You owe it to yourself to be still with God this Lent and listen to him, and to his beloved Son, in whom he is well pleased.
You owe it to yourself to try to really get what Easter really means beyond the cultural couchings of colored eggs, chocolate bunnies and potted lillies.
Easter means God loves you so much in an unbelievably radical way. It means he keeps his promises even when it kills him. It means he is dying to love you. And it means he saved you,
and all he asks is that you look him in the face as he is hanging there on that cross and say that you believe him.
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