THE DIFFICULT PARTS OF OUR FAITH

       

 

Whenever someone takes their Christian faith seriously they discover that there are parts of our faith that are difficult to live and put into practice.  Living out our Christiaan faith is not about what I am willing to put forth. It is all about living up to the demands that God makes of his people. 

 

God is not indifferent to the way that we humans treat each other. We are very reluctant to try to express the anger  in the heart of God over the way that human beings bomb each other in war. Is not God angry when Russian bombs hurt and destroy the lime and the home of a little Ukranian  grandmother? 

 

Is not God joyful when two teen age boys rush forward to lift an elderly person who has slipped on the ice while trying to board the city bus to go downtown?

 

Now the first part of divine revelation is in the act of creation when God has made woman and man in the image of God. Each human being carries within their very body, the sign, the value and the love of the Creator God. Each and every human being, no matter how limited, carries the very image of God. 

 

When we reflect on how well the parts of our body function ,we are amazed that each one of  is  a living miracle. Reflect on the functioning of your kidneys. They work twenty-four hours of day removing excess water from our blood and all sorts of wastes from our blood stream. They keep us incredibly healthy – twenty-four hours a day. 

 

Are you not a living miracle?

 

\Now the difficult part is recognizing that every human being is a walking, talking image of God. There are no exceptions. No matter what color their skin, what age, how brilliant and competent they are, no matter how mobile or immobile they are or no matter how intellectually function they are.  This one is the image of God!

 

Every day we are confronted with this challenge. As we live and work with people who are different from ourselves, we are being challenged to see the image of God in the other. We are called to respect and treat with kindness the divine image in the other.

 

Jesus challenges us in the Last Judgement (Mt. 25, 31-46). When we come before God the risen Jesus does not say “you did good to another.’ Rather Jesus identifies with the action towards our fellow human being. “I was hungry and you gave me food.” All good done to another is good done toward the Son of God.

 

Daily life is a challenge to see the image of God in the other. 

 

How wonderful that our Christian faith challenges us to live, breath and walk like the Son of God!

 

 

WHO REALLY COUNTS WITH GOD?

 

How do you help people who think they have a strong grip on God ? Th real God is always somewhat beyond them. From day one, humanity has always tried to shape the person of the divine in an image that human can control and bargain with when things get tough.

 

This Sunday we are  presented with the people that are fortunate, blest and lucky to be alive today. If anyone thinks that a successful life is material security, esteem and control over the forces of life, they will be disappointed in the teaching of Jesus. 

 

Jesus did not come to give us a set of rules to measure whether life is successful. He gives us the Beatitudes. (Mt. 5,1-12)  When we hear each of the statements that begin with “blessed” we need to understand that word in terms of the original Hebrew word. It carries the sense   “ lucky are you\;”’ you are fortunate. These are the successful ones in the eyes of God.

 

Follow the words of Jesus. He begins, “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” He does not list the rich and the powerful as being fortunate. It is the little ones, the woman and men who know they need God and their fellow human being to get along.  When you hear this teaching begin with the people at the edges of your society and then move into all of our nursing homes. The little ones are so very close. So often they need to help of God just to get through the day. But it is the recognition of their need and connection to God and to one another denotes them as the ‘lucky” ones. Society may not count them as important but at the bottom line (that is God’s line) they are the fortunate ones.

 

Work through the Beatitudes.  This will upset many of the values that we think are important. What does it teach us about who actually counts with God.  The Word became flesh to lift up all the little ones of this earth to himself. 

 

As you read and study the Beatitudes what is this actually teaching you about God and what God values? What does God want of us human beings?

 

 

FAITH MUST BE SHARED

  

 

Who was the ancient philosopher who observed that “you cannot step in the same river twice.” He recognized that the river is moving, changing, adapting. And so is the life of the society we are living in. Things are different from when you grew up.

 

In North America we have been moving more and more into a very individualistic society. We look after ourselves and do not need other people or institutions to thrive. We have been on this course in a very determined manner for the past sixty-five years.

 

This is the same social phenomenon happening in our society. People are dropping out of all forms of organized churches and mosques; all the volunteer social organizations have disappeared; citizens are concerned that their fellow citizens show no interest or participation in the political life of the country/community. Last of all, people are dropping out of marriage and family life. 

 

People are asking the question, “Will my great-grandchildren even know what family they belong to?”

 

It is in the atmosphere that believing Christians must go back to their roots. Christiaens began as a renegade religious belief. They believed in the divine-become-human Jesus Christ. They lived and believed that they shared in the very life of the divine; the risen Jesus lived and moved within their personal lives.

 

They lived the wrong political belief. They rejected that Caesar (the great source of power) was divine. There was a price to pray for holding the  wrong political beliefs.

 

Now this is where we as believing Christiaens must reclaim our roots. We must begin again, calling these nice human beings with whom we work and play hockey to come to believe in Jesus Christ. We are asking them to discover the new life, the new meaning that comes from living the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Once again, we are calling our fellow citizens to turn toward what God is working in and through Jesus Christ.

 

Once again, we must evangelize, share the gospel of Jesus as the Good News from God that it actually is.

 

Every  human being has a deep hole within themselves for the divine. Just like hunger, the need for connection and meaning that only the divine can give, is active within each one of us. We can ignore our need for God because we feel self-assured that we are doing a good job of living. But sooner or later, the need for God will surface. 

 

Now, believing Christiaens must be alerted to reaching out, to asking their co-workers, fellow curlers to move toward belief in Jesus Christ. We must be like the first Christians who reached out to the people around them and shared with them how great and wonderful it is to live, breath and believe in Jesus Christ.

 

 

WE ARE A COMMUNITY OF CONVERSION

 

 

When a parent takes out their teenage child to practice their driving skills they will often discover that they are becoming more careful drivers by teaching their own child. There is a different set of learning skills happening here, but it does make a difference to the driving practice of the parent (the adult).

 

The same thing happens in our journey of faith. When we try to teach others about the mystery of Jesus Christ and how we live our life as his disciples, we are learning ourselves. Now the people of the Church call the convert to conversion, but the convert calls the people of the Church to conversion. Often the newcomer will point out, “but look at so-and-so, look how they are not living by Christian values.”

 

It is all true. So many people within the Church may pray correctly but can have such racist attitudes towards others who are different from themselves.

 

The truth is – we are all on a journey of conversion. The Christian life is all about the work of the Holy Spirit, working within the life-space of each one of us, to change us into the likeness of Christ. Each believer is meant to have Christ (the person and the mission of the Son of God) happen in their own space and time. 

 

There is never a point in life that we can say that we have it made. If the truth be told, there is so much more in our lives that can and will be converted. 

 

The first part of our faith is the creation of the world/humanity. Every part of creation is the gift of the love of God. Even if we cannot understand why rocks and mountains  exist, they come from the loving God.

 

Now, the first step in our faith-life is to live and respond to the love of God, beginning with creation. Each human being has been created in the image o f God. Each human being bears the love of God in their existence. Now, our task, is to respond to the love of God given in creation.

 

When we are loved, we respond with equal love. Watch the child, grow and respond to the love of parents, grandparents, teachers and friends. Our faith life is to live and respond to the love of God poured out in the creation of our human life and the love that comes from others. Love is actually meant to be like a prairie fire: it ignites whatever it touches.

 

We have been brought into life, into union, with the very person of Jesus Christ. We share divine life, love and compassion. But this sharing in the life of Christ is always meant to be dynamic. We are meant to be changed more and more into the likeness of Christ. There is much more work for the Holy Spirit in our lives.

 

How well do you understand your Christiaan life as a life of conversion, growth and change? 

 

 

 

 

 

GOSPEL: A COMPASSIONATE LIFESTYLE

When Christians get into the Bible they are surprised how often the Hebrew people are challenged about their selfishness and neglect of the poor. This was not a society like ours with built-in social safety nets. If you did not live and function in a family that was very supportive, you could quickly become homeless and jobless. Survival was a daily issue for the majority of people in the ancient world.

 

Look at the scorn the prophets hurl at the rich who feast on their beds of comfort and do not pay the labourers their proper wages. The language of the prophets is harsh and very damming to those who neglect the poor (i.e., the widows and the sick).

 

Now, move into the four gospels. Jesus breaks all the social boundaries. He upsets those with the power and the money. He eats (there were definite rules around whom you could and could not eat with) with the poor. He accepts invitation from tax collectors. These were the people who worked for the enemy (i.e. collected taxes for the Roman occupiers) and were regarded as turn-coats towards their own people.

 

Now Jesus sets the standard to who God actually is.  Jesus lives out in human flesh how God lives and acts in heaven and on the earth. Also, remember that the lifestyle and values of Jesus were followed before he was worshiped. Just his human way of living inspired people – and still inspires the great majority of his disciples.

 

From the beginning of Christianity we worked it out very clearly. Our religion does not have any sacred places we must visit; we do not  have any style of dress, nor do we have any dietary restrictions. The only thing to identify a Christiaan will be by their good deeds. It will be in our actions that we make clear what we believe.

 

Now, we know from long experience that the closer a person draws toward God, the closer they will draw to their fellow human being.  Simply put: the closer we are to the heart of God, the closer will move toward the pain and suffering of others. Christian belief moves us out of our selfish centers and into a life-style of compassion and charity.

 

It was Christians who supported and nourished abandoned children. Often in ancient times children were abandoned because single mothers could not care for them. It was out of church communities that food was provided and shared with those who had so much less. 

 

If I am asked, why am I a Christian I would point out that it is the good example of my fellow Christians who move out of their comfort zones to help the homeless, the aged and the marginalized. It is the good example of my fellow believers that binds me to the Church.

 

When we look at the secure life-style that so many Canadians actually experience, I cannot help conclude, “What an opportunity to do good and care for those who have so much less!”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DEALING WITH DISHONESTY IN CHRISTIANITY

 

What wise philosopher, about two thousand years ago, cautioned us to “Know yourself?”

 

Every human being, every government, every school has its bright side, but it also has a dark side. The people you admire because they are generous, thoughtful and practice justice (their light side) may have a sharp dark side (being very critical of those who cannot match up). We are all a combination of light and darkness.  

 

Being a believer, practicing a religion is no different. We must struggle to be honest with our dark side. In other words, what part of your life is not redeemed?

 

In some countries, some white people are very threatened by the arrival of immigrants from cultures and countries that are not white, not of European decent. There is a small part of the Church community that may insist that it is “white Christianity” that is the authentic way to believe. 

 

Or they may be very threatened that the immigrants are taking away our jobs. There is resentment having to  deal with people who have a different English accent and look different from the white majority. And they may justify the\r resentments with religious language. 

 

There may be Christian people who refuse to deal with the question of sexual abuse and violence toward women and children. They will handle the issue and use silence  to protect themselves from dealing with the pain and the issue these cause others.

 

This is the black side of religion. When the American bishops  took issue with the blatant roundup and deportation of illegal immigrants (without a legal hearing) there were Catholics criticizing  the bishops to “keep in their own lane.” It is permissible to teach about the issue of abortion, but mistreatment of illegal immigrants is off the table for dialogue??

 

Every reader of t his column can add many other instances of the black side of the life of believers. We carry our sins, our short comings, in our pockets. No part of the believing community is perfect and sinless.

 

Be honest and unafraid to call all people to consistency. It is good to name the sins and faults that are out there, but also include your own shortcomings. It is good to call out abortion, but it is just as honest, to call out the mistreatment and the refusal to recognize the human dignity of the illegal immigrants on our own shores.

 

The Christiaan life is a life of conversion, accountability  and change. How is the Holy Spirit working on you today?

 

 

 

 

 

 

WE NEED WONDER

The Christmas holidays are a very busy time, but a noisy time. We seem to be rushing too much! 

 

What we need this season is not more invitations or events to attend. We are tired of having to run so much.

 

What we need is to be recaptured by the sense of wonder and awe.

 

Now, wonder and awe are not something that is easy to put into words. You live, you experience and your breath wonder. You are in the presence of a reality that is much larger than yourself. Your mouth drops open. There are no words that can come out. You are awed struck, silent and every so appreciative.

 

In Saskatchewan, if you wait long enough with your cup of morning coffee, you can experience the beautiful sunrise. The winter sunrises can be so beautiful, so overpowering – but there are no words to express how awed you feel in the presence of such beauty. It comes so quietly, daily, that you wonder how come your miss this moment of beauty at the beginning of this winter’s day.

 

Your neighbor hits the ditch on a patch of black ice. Her vehicle is almost buried in the deep ditch snow. Along comes a farmer (you only catch his name as Keith) . He stops. Picks you up and drives you to the toe-truck operator.  He refused any compensation for his efforts . And then he drives off, unknown, except for his black pick-up truck. 

 

What generosity! What kindness!

 

Now, come before the Christmas crib in your local church or school. Stand before the difficult story of the birth of this child in Bethlehem. This is God chosing to come among us and bring us healing and forgiveness. This is the great outpouring of the very heart of God; a heart of mercy, compassion and healing.

 

And remember that God comes among us when we humans are bombing the working poor in the Ukraine; blocking food distribution in Gaza and displacing thousands of innocent families in the Sudan. Why would God care about such evil people, such heartless people? Be awed by the pain and struggles within the heart of God over these unbelieveable atrocities.

 

Stand before the Christmas crib and allow all that God is doing among human beings. Be attentive to how God is moving human hearts to greater compassion, and healing and love for the stranger.

 

The sense of wonder can only be lived, beathed and experienced. It is very difficult to put into words – but it is so real in your body and your soul.

 

Now, how does God want to move you when you stand before the Christmas crib?