JESUS STRUGGLED WITH RELIGION

 

When we gather each Sunday for the Eucharist we read a small segment from the Bible. Over a three year period we read the entire New Testament accompanied by significant passages from the Old Testament. The idea of the three year cycle of readings is to bring the people of the Church to deal with the entire Scripture and not just the passages they like. It is meant to be a time for the Church to wrestle with the Word of God; when it is consoling and when it is very challenging. 

 

On this Third Sunday of Lent (year B) we hear of Jesus cleaning out the buyers and sellers in the Temple area (remember the Temple was like a modern day mall with several sections). The people could not bring in any money from the Roman or Greek government (they contained the image of the emperor whom the pagans regarded as divine). The pilgrims had to exchange this for ‘holy money’ that could be used within the precincts of the Temple. It was there that pilgrims could also purchase birds and animals for their sacrifices.

 

What started out as a thoughtful practice soon generated into a money making proposition. Remember, all the merchants took a cut on every b business transaction.

 

Jesus abhorred this practice and faithful to his mission, he sought to get rid of a religion that did all the right things but was not concerned about  living the right way. The outward forms of the religion were correct but the heart was corrupted! Jesus was trying to get rid of this religion. When he cleaned out this business section of the Temple he also was cutting into the profit-making business of the sellers.

 

When we tell the story of the cleaning out of the temple, we need to  examine where we as Christian people have put too much emphasis on acquiring material wealth, putting the meaning of our life in success and fame and looking for our security in power and our personal skills. Where have we been doing all the correct religious things but not been concerned about the transformation of our heart?

 

What type of religious practices and attitudes would Jesus want to eliminate from our religious framework?

 

Fortunately, we are living in a time when Pope Francis is challenging the people of the church to get out of their beautiful buildings (i.e., he labels them museums) and get out onto the streets to care for the poor and suffering. Listen to his speeches and homilies and discover what he is asking the church/Christianity to let go and embrace the heart of the ‘poor Jesus.’

 

This is a strong challenge for the Third Sunday of Lent. What kind of religion does Jesus want to get rid of?

 

 

 

 

 

 

CAN WE TRUST GOD?

 

 

From the moment you took your first breath until your last breath, the big question of your life is ‘can I trust the other to care for me?”  Trust of others is more essential to life than food or water. Everyone here had parents and grandparents who immediately assumed care of you from the very first moment you entered this world on your own. 

 

As we grow older, we learn that there are people and situations that you cannot trust Most often it is only when your parents are very elderly that you learn that there were some people in their lives that they did not trust. 

 

The very next time you pull up to a stop sign and the Canadian traffic stops (even though there is no other vehicle at the same corner), you appreciate how much we can trust our fellow citizens to follow the traffic rules. We trust each other to obey the traffic rules.

 

We also must apply this to our relationship with God. Is God trustworthy? Faithful? 

 

The second Sunday of Lent this year we are given the story of Abraham and his dilemma to trust that God would be faithful to the promises made in the covenant between God and Abraham/Sarah and the people. He had been promised to be the father of a great nation. The promise was to be fulfilled through the birth of his son, Isaac. 

 

Along the line Abraham understood  he was to sacrifice this son (the child of promise) to God, the great One. Can you imagine the struggles and the contradictions that Abraham felt in his heart?

 

We know that Abraham trusted in God and was delivered from this horrendous sacrifice by the angel sent from God. Abraham was faithful and trusting and named the place “The Lord will provide.”

 

There are moments in our life with God when we also are put to the test. Crushing events happen to us, such as the accidental overdose of our twenty-four year old. How could we lose our only child? A liquor store in Winnipeg was robbed and your cousin was injured in the robbery. Where is God in all this senseless suffering?  Does God not protect us?

 

Why was this story of the sacrifice of Abraham in the Bible (child sacrifice was absolutely abhorrent to the Jews)? The only possible explanation is that when the story of Abraham was told the Jewish people were also telling their own story. They had suffered so much in the seventy years of exile in Babylon. They had learnt through many tears to trust in God. When they told this story they were telling their own story at the same time. 

 

This Sunday, take the story of Abraham and substitute your own painful situation and the moments that you cried out to God for protection.

 

Reflect back through your tears and frustrations when God proved to be faithful to your life and your family. When did you experience that “The Lord will provide?”

 

 

 

 

IT IS A STRUGGLE IN THE DESERT

 

It is Lent!

 

Why does the season of Lent have such staying power? Why is it so meaningful to generations of generations of Christian  people? We know that the practice of Lent goes back to about twelve hundred years. Now, that is staying power!

 

Lent puts us in touch with something that is very deep within the human spirit. We feel within ourselves an urging that moves us out of our ordinary structures and into the season of searching for the divine. Moving out into the wilderness, searching for the divine is found in many other religious traditions. It is a season within the life of the seeker;  they move out into the wilderness (i.e., what is uncommon) to search for the divine.

 

This year, begin with the gospel selection from the Gospel of Mark. The time of seeking that Jesus entered into is very briefly mentioned. It was the Spirit of God that drove Jesus into the path of seeking. But I ask you to pay attention to two little details: Satan and the angels! 

 

Discovering what God wanted of the life and mission of Jesus did not come easy. Jesus was a determined seeker. He struggled. 

 

When it is mentioned that he was tempted by the Satan (i.e., the opponent of God) we know that the forces of evil were trying to move him away from service of God and to seek his own glory and power. This is shocking to so many of our born-Christiains. They have  much difficulty that Jesus could have struggled, that Jesus could have been tempted to pull away from God.

 

And then he was cared for by angels. Angels are the worker-bees of God. Jesus was not abandoned but he was  supported  and encouraged by God; and directly by the hands of angels!

 

Now, as we begin Lent place yourself in the shoes of Jesus. Walk out into the wilderness and actively search for the divine (for a deepening of God’s life within you). 

 

The temptations of the evil one (i.e., the devil) may come in not wanting to have our daily schedule changed. We do not want to make time for daily prayer. Or, we may be annoyed that our perfectionist streak is disturbed by God wanting us to help another who is a hap-hazzard accident waiting to collapse on the floor. Our personal struggle with the evil one may come in the form of wanting complete control over the details of our life. We do not want people to come for help at an inconvenient moment.

 

The helping had of the angels (God’s assistance to us) may come in the Scriptures when a text or phrase that we just read over reaches out and gives us strength and insight at this particular moment.  It may be a reminder that comes to us unexpectedly, perhaps in prayer or perhaps when we are doing the evening dishes, that the care and assistance that we are bringing to our confused niece (age 18) is all worthwhile. It may be the subtle reassurance that we are doing the right thing in trying to help this emerging adult.

 

Begin your Lent close to Jesus in the wilderness. Listen to see that so many of your struggles and moments of grace are also the moments of Jesus’ struggles and the moments of divine assistance.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

OUR FAITH BEGINS IN THE NOW

 

It is so beautiful to see the new born child. They are so small and need all our care. They immediately become the center of attention. These are very sacred and precious moments. When this particular child is shown to family and friends, we need to be touched by the truth that this is the beginning of creation. The only difference between the first human beings that appeared on the face of the earth and this child, is the number of years in-between. Creation is beginning in this precious moment with this precious child.

 

It is the same with our Christian faith. Whoever coined the phrase   “God has no grandchildren, but only children born of the Spirit,” was right on. Each person must be called to a living faith and take the step to become a living disciple of Jesus.

 

Too many people that have been born into the church (note that I did not say born into the faith) see the ceremony that was performed over then when they were babies and that they made their sacraments in grade school, now constitutes them as good believers. 

 

Each adult must come to terms with the call of Jesus to live and share in the life and mission of Christ. We may have to go through some trials and struggles but the direction that our faith leads us is to become living disciples of Jesus. Our lives are meant to become a living extension of the life and compassion of Jesus Christ. 

 

Simply put: the believer must now become the Christ! Each person must become the living face of Jesus.

 

One of the very weak parts of our Church is the absence of a living sense that each person has the mission of Christ to the world.  Our faith is much more than just doing religions things in church. We have the final blessing at the end of each Sunday Eucharist that sends of forth into the world to be the living hands of Jesus Christ. 

 

Live your faith in the world!

 

At work, there are two new refugees from the Ukraine who are trying to learn the language and function in this Canadian society. You take time to help them; even repeating yourself ten times on a particular word or practice. Be Christ in your work situation.

 

You have a classmate from high-school days who is heavy into the drugs. You feel very helpless and have serious anxiety over what might happen to him. All you can do, and you do it with energy, is pray for him. Sometimes you think that you are literally pounding the  door of heaven, asking for a breakthrough in this man’s addiction struggles.

 

Your teenagers can make some foolish decisions and must now live with the consequences of their decisions. You try to support them through this difficult phase of life. I can understand your decisions, but I certainly cannot agree with your decisions. I will hot reject you, but I will walk with you through this searching phase of life.

 

We want to strengthen that sense that we have a mission in the world. We are chosen by Christ to become his living face in the world.  Our religion is not confined to the interior of the church building but is meant to be empowering to do the work we have been called to  make Christ present in the workplace, the hockey arena and the hospital waiting room. 

 

Our baptism commits us to doing the work of Christ in our time and place. We have been sent by Christ to the world!