April 1, 2018 Chapter 33 The Uprising Begins (Easter Sunday)
Easter Sunday in April Fool's Day this year. It seems kind of funny doesn't it? It also seems pretty appropriate.
If you are regular in any of the parishes I have ever served you will know that the Easter Season is also Holy Humor Season. People will sometimes ask me why I do this and the answer is pretty easy. Easter is the day God laughed at death. Easter is the day God laughed at fear. Easter is the day that God laughed at destruction and pain and hurt. And yes, Easter is the feast that God played the ultimate April Fool's joke on the world. Death is not the end! Death has no power! And if death is no longer powerful over us, then really we have nothing to fear!
God's blessing on you and your family this Easter. Alleluia!
Saturday, March 31, 2018
Friday, March 30, 2018
March 31, 2018 Chapter 32C Doubt. Darkness. Despair. (Holy Saturday)
I've often said that Jesus resurrection would have been just as powerful if he had died at 3 p.m. and rose at 9 p.m. or 8 p.m. or midnight or 7 the next morning. But he stayed in the tomb for three days. Is that God's way of telling us that there would be times when we are caught int he tomb? Is that God's way of saying life's pains are not usually easy to overcome. When we have deaths in on ours lives (both literally and figuratively) it takes time to deal with the pain. It doesn't happen overnight...or even in three days...but it happens. And it happens because Jesus showed us the way.
Today I invite you as McLaren does to sit in the darkness. Rest in the moments of despair that come often in our lives. To allow yourself to experience the doubt of loss.
My spiritual director in seminary put it this way: sometimes we just need to sit in the shit! Sometimes we just need to lay in the tomb and allow God to be with us in the pain.
May this day allow you some time to do that.
I've often said that Jesus resurrection would have been just as powerful if he had died at 3 p.m. and rose at 9 p.m. or 8 p.m. or midnight or 7 the next morning. But he stayed in the tomb for three days. Is that God's way of telling us that there would be times when we are caught int he tomb? Is that God's way of saying life's pains are not usually easy to overcome. When we have deaths in on ours lives (both literally and figuratively) it takes time to deal with the pain. It doesn't happen overnight...or even in three days...but it happens. And it happens because Jesus showed us the way.
Today I invite you as McLaren does to sit in the darkness. Rest in the moments of despair that come often in our lives. To allow yourself to experience the doubt of loss.
My spiritual director in seminary put it this way: sometimes we just need to sit in the shit! Sometimes we just need to lay in the tomb and allow God to be with us in the pain.
May this day allow you some time to do that.
Thursday, March 29, 2018
March 30, 2018 Chapter 32B Everything Must Change (Good Friday)
Good Friday.
I must confess this day still confuses me a little bit.
What kind of God would ask his son to be sacrificed for our sins? It is really hard for me to comprehend. And perhaps maybe there is another way to look at this day.
What if God did not demand that Jesus die to satisfy his anger,
or wrath, or even as the just punishment for our sins?
What if Jesus didn’t need to die to persuade God to forgive us or love us?
What if God simply loved us because it’s in God’s nature to love?
What if God really is that loving parent who loves his/her children
no matter what they do, no matter how many times they fall?
What if God really is like the father in the prodigal son who runs to his child
and embraces him even after he has squandered all that he had to live on?
What if God really is that Good Shepherd who leaves the 99 in the field
and goes off searching for the one that is lost?
Maybe our God isn’t a God who needs human sacrifice at all,
not even for his own son.
And maybe, just maybe, we created that version of salvation,
not because God can’t tolerate sin, but because we just can’t
conceive of true, undeserved, unconditional love.
Why then did Jesus die, if not for the forgiveness of our sins?
Perhaps Jesus died not to convince God to love us,
but to convince us that we are loved by God.
Perhaps Jesus died to show us in a complete and total and final way
just how much he loved us…
No greater love is there than this to lay down one’s life for a friend.
Maybe, just maybe, that’s why we call this day Good Friday!
Just a little food for thought.
Wednesday, March 28, 2018
March 29, 2018 Chapter 32A A Table. A Basin. Some Food. Some Friends. (Holy Thursday)
A few years ago I heard Sr. Barbar Fiand, SNDdeN speak about the Feast of the Foot Washers. The main point of her talk was that she believes that we have too easily separated the Eucharist that Jesus instituted on Holy Thursday from the washing of the feet that he did that same night. "Why," she asks, "Do we celebrate one each week and the other only once a year?" She then asks if it is really possible to separate one from the other?
I know her answer is that we cannot separate them. They are the same event. This bread is his body and so are we. We are called to be Eucharist through service to one another, by washing each other's feet.
That is precisely why I love inviting the entire congregation to have their feet washed and to wash another's feet. It is Jesus command just as much as the Eucharist is his command. When he says, "do THIS in memory of me." I believe the "this" is both the Eucharist and the washing of the feet.
May you do both today and every today to come!
A few years ago I heard Sr. Barbar Fiand, SNDdeN speak about the Feast of the Foot Washers. The main point of her talk was that she believes that we have too easily separated the Eucharist that Jesus instituted on Holy Thursday from the washing of the feet that he did that same night. "Why," she asks, "Do we celebrate one each week and the other only once a year?" She then asks if it is really possible to separate one from the other?
I know her answer is that we cannot separate them. They are the same event. This bread is his body and so are we. We are called to be Eucharist through service to one another, by washing each other's feet.
That is precisely why I love inviting the entire congregation to have their feet washed and to wash another's feet. It is Jesus command just as much as the Eucharist is his command. When he says, "do THIS in memory of me." I believe the "this" is both the Eucharist and the washing of the feet.
May you do both today and every today to come!
Sunday, March 25, 2018
Note to Readers: I am posting Palm Sunday Today (chapter 32). I will post the rest of Holy Week on the appropriate days. 32A on Thursday; 32B on Good Friday and 32C on Holy Saturday.
March 25 Chapter 32 Peace March (Palm Sunday)
I love Holy Week. I love the highs and the lows, the triumphs and the tragedies. We begin as we do all Holy Weeks with Palm Sunday.
I like the comparison McLaren makes between Jesus' humble entry on the East side of Jerusalem, simple, humble, riding on a colt of a donkey and how Herod would enter that same city on the other side: on a warhorse surrounded with chariots. Imagining those two entries we really can see the difference between the power that Jesus has with the power that Herod has. One power built on a promise of peace and the other power built on fear.
I am reminded of the young people who stand today speaking for life, be it the pro-life march commemorating Roe V Wade or the recent pro-life marches asking for a path to citizenship for dreamers or protesting gun violence on our schools. They have no power compared to the NRA, the President, Congress or even their school administrators, but they walk none the less calling us to imagine a better world.
I am reminded of Dorothy Day, St. Teresa of Kolkata, Archbishop Oscar Romero and others who chose the path to peace over the path to power.
And as I think about all that I have to ask myself what kind of Palm Sunday parade am I walking with my life? It is a challenge for me as I start this Holy Week.
March 25 Chapter 32 Peace March (Palm Sunday)
I love Holy Week. I love the highs and the lows, the triumphs and the tragedies. We begin as we do all Holy Weeks with Palm Sunday.
I like the comparison McLaren makes between Jesus' humble entry on the East side of Jerusalem, simple, humble, riding on a colt of a donkey and how Herod would enter that same city on the other side: on a warhorse surrounded with chariots. Imagining those two entries we really can see the difference between the power that Jesus has with the power that Herod has. One power built on a promise of peace and the other power built on fear.
I am reminded of the young people who stand today speaking for life, be it the pro-life march commemorating Roe V Wade or the recent pro-life marches asking for a path to citizenship for dreamers or protesting gun violence on our schools. They have no power compared to the NRA, the President, Congress or even their school administrators, but they walk none the less calling us to imagine a better world.
I am reminded of Dorothy Day, St. Teresa of Kolkata, Archbishop Oscar Romero and others who chose the path to peace over the path to power.
And as I think about all that I have to ask myself what kind of Palm Sunday parade am I walking with my life? It is a challenge for me as I start this Holy Week.
Sunday, March 18, 2018
March 19, 2018 Chapters 30 Why We Worry, Why We Judge & Chapter 31 The Choice is Yours
People will often ask me how I can hear someone's confession and not think less of them when I see them outside the confessional. The answer is really simple. It is because I know how much I am a sinner. I look at my own faults enough to know that I really have no business judging anyone else's faults. My mom use to say it this way, "Each time you point a finger at someone else, you have three pointing back at you."
The simple point McLaren makes in this chapter is that when we give our lives to God and to God's ways, God takes care of us. Anxiety, Judgmental-ism, and Self-loathing (not realizing we are loved) all diminish when we give ourselves completely to God.
In Chapter 31, Jesus reminds us that each of us have a decision to make. Which gate will we enter; which road will we travel; which vine will we eat from; which house will we build? We each have a choice and it is a choice that we need to make each day. It is not as simple as I made this choice years ago and I am set. I make the choice to live my faith each time I make any kind of decision because in each and every decision of my life I either affirm or deny my original choice.
I play a little bit of Texas Hold-em poker. In each and every hand I have an opportunity to go "all-in"--to throw all my chips into the pot. Following Jesus is a choice---but it is a choice that asks me to go all in--to give it everything I am.
People will often ask me how I can hear someone's confession and not think less of them when I see them outside the confessional. The answer is really simple. It is because I know how much I am a sinner. I look at my own faults enough to know that I really have no business judging anyone else's faults. My mom use to say it this way, "Each time you point a finger at someone else, you have three pointing back at you."
The simple point McLaren makes in this chapter is that when we give our lives to God and to God's ways, God takes care of us. Anxiety, Judgmental-ism, and Self-loathing (not realizing we are loved) all diminish when we give ourselves completely to God.
In Chapter 31, Jesus reminds us that each of us have a decision to make. Which gate will we enter; which road will we travel; which vine will we eat from; which house will we build? We each have a choice and it is a choice that we need to make each day. It is not as simple as I made this choice years ago and I am set. I make the choice to live my faith each time I make any kind of decision because in each and every decision of my life I either affirm or deny my original choice.
I play a little bit of Texas Hold-em poker. In each and every hand I have an opportunity to go "all-in"--to throw all my chips into the pot. Following Jesus is a choice---but it is a choice that asks me to go all in--to give it everything I am.
Sunday, March 11, 2018
March 12, 2018 Chapters 28 A New Path to Aliveness & 29 Your Secret Life
As we delve farther into the sermon on the mount we get to what I believe is the heart of Jesus' message. He raises the bar. He says things like, "Unless your holiness surpasses that of the scribes and the pharisees..." and "You have heard that it was said...but now I say..." and "You know how the scribes and pharisees make their greatness felt...it cannot be that way with you."
These two chapters offer more challenge. It is a challenge I feel every time I read these passages as part of the Gospel readings at Mass. I always wonder if my life is measuring up to Jesus' standards.
A couple of things that McLaren states give me a little but of comfort. The first thing he says is that it isn't a question of obeying the rules or not obeying the rules, it is about finding the greater intent of the rule maker. (page 131)
The second thing he says in chapter 29 and I want to quote it directly. "Some people shame the poor, as if the only reason poor people are poor is that they're stupid and lazy. Some shame the rich, as if the only reason people are rich is that they're selfish and greedy. Jesus doesn't shame anyone, but calls everyone to a higher kind of wealth and a deeper kind of ambition." (Page 139)
That to me is at the crux of Jesus' message. He raises the bar so that he can raise us not just to do more, but to be more.
As we delve farther into the sermon on the mount we get to what I believe is the heart of Jesus' message. He raises the bar. He says things like, "Unless your holiness surpasses that of the scribes and the pharisees..." and "You have heard that it was said...but now I say..." and "You know how the scribes and pharisees make their greatness felt...it cannot be that way with you."
These two chapters offer more challenge. It is a challenge I feel every time I read these passages as part of the Gospel readings at Mass. I always wonder if my life is measuring up to Jesus' standards.
A couple of things that McLaren states give me a little but of comfort. The first thing he says is that it isn't a question of obeying the rules or not obeying the rules, it is about finding the greater intent of the rule maker. (page 131)
The second thing he says in chapter 29 and I want to quote it directly. "Some people shame the poor, as if the only reason poor people are poor is that they're stupid and lazy. Some shame the rich, as if the only reason people are rich is that they're selfish and greedy. Jesus doesn't shame anyone, but calls everyone to a higher kind of wealth and a deeper kind of ambition." (Page 139)
That to me is at the crux of Jesus' message. He raises the bar so that he can raise us not just to do more, but to be more.
Sunday, March 4, 2018
March 5, 2018 Chapter 27 A New Identity
(Note to readers: If you have been following along on this blog I need to make a slight change. The next two weeks i will be covering two chapters. This will allow us to read chapter 32, 32 A, B & C during Holy Week as McLaren intends.)
We have moved into part three of McLaren's work and in this first chapter he challenges us to be people who are different. He invites us to be "brave and determined activists for preemptive peace..." (page 128) and "creative non-conformist" (page 129). He then goes on to point out that like the people who heard this sermon the first time, we are left to think about it, marinate in it, reflect upon it and grapple with it.
And I'm glad he gives us that permission because that is where I find myself all the time. I wrestle with the question is my life radical enough for Jesus? Not radical as in violent protests or civil disobedience, but radical in the sense that my life really shouldn't make sense to someone who doesn't get it--someone who doesn't follow Jesus completely. Have I given into the mainstream of religion--(something Jesus never did) or is my life simply that along the lines of all the others who have "dabbled" in a life with Christ.
What does it mean to be a "brave and determined activist?" What is the call to be a "creative non-conformist." And to use Jesus' words, am I light? am I salt? Do I hunger and thirst for righteousness? Am I poor in spirit? Am i persecuted for the sake of righteousness?
As I said, I am glad McLaren gives us permission to grapple with question of "who we are and what kind of person we want to be in the future." (Page 130) Because with or without his permission that is exactly where I find myself most of the time.
(Remember, next week we will do chapters 28 & 29.)
(Note to readers: If you have been following along on this blog I need to make a slight change. The next two weeks i will be covering two chapters. This will allow us to read chapter 32, 32 A, B & C during Holy Week as McLaren intends.)
We have moved into part three of McLaren's work and in this first chapter he challenges us to be people who are different. He invites us to be "brave and determined activists for preemptive peace..." (page 128) and "creative non-conformist" (page 129). He then goes on to point out that like the people who heard this sermon the first time, we are left to think about it, marinate in it, reflect upon it and grapple with it.
And I'm glad he gives us that permission because that is where I find myself all the time. I wrestle with the question is my life radical enough for Jesus? Not radical as in violent protests or civil disobedience, but radical in the sense that my life really shouldn't make sense to someone who doesn't get it--someone who doesn't follow Jesus completely. Have I given into the mainstream of religion--(something Jesus never did) or is my life simply that along the lines of all the others who have "dabbled" in a life with Christ.
What does it mean to be a "brave and determined activist?" What is the call to be a "creative non-conformist." And to use Jesus' words, am I light? am I salt? Do I hunger and thirst for righteousness? Am I poor in spirit? Am i persecuted for the sake of righteousness?
As I said, I am glad McLaren gives us permission to grapple with question of "who we are and what kind of person we want to be in the future." (Page 130) Because with or without his permission that is exactly where I find myself most of the time.
(Remember, next week we will do chapters 28 & 29.)
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