Mass Prep Sunday September 23

Sunday September 23^rd, 2018   25^th Sunday Ordinary Time (Cycle B)

What kind of person are you?

The tie in between today’s readings: Pride vs. Humility

Wisdom 2:12-20, Psalm 54:1-8, James 3:16 - 4:10, Mark 9:30-37

     The Bible shows us that God is all about relationships. The Almighty is concerned with our standing with Him and how we treat each other. In today’s readings, we see three kinds of people: the atheist who doesn’t know God, the church-goer who thinks he knows God, and those that God knows. Let’s look at the categories, see where the shoe fits, and find out how a believer should react.

     In the book of Wisdom, we see how an atheist thinks. Because he believes that there is no God, then life is meaningless. Eat! Drink! And be merry for tomorrow we die! He is wise in his own eyes because he mocks the unproven superstitions of religion. Instead, he embraces the gospel of Star Trek. He is tolerant to everyone except the religious person who holds to absolutes concerning right and wrong. By their very existence they condemn the atheist’s world view without a word. Short of inventing a god-o-meter, the only thing a righteous person can do is to live with integrity!  A life filled with solid reasoning, care for others, and solid prayer; this is a spiritual battle (Psalm 54).

 

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     The person who thinks that he knows God is self deceived: a Pharisee. It’s all pride! (I must be careful at this stage because I may be one of these people myself.) This person keeps God in a container between his ears. He remakes the Almighty in his own image.  He believes all that he wants is good and prays to God the genie to rubberstamp his desires. We know that this is true because of today’s epistle. James is taking the CHURCH to task because of their self-centered carnality. The gospel reading also touches on it when the apostles argue over who is the greatest among them. James gives the remedy to this situation. He tells us to reject our pride, confess our sins, and submit to God (James 4:6-10). You have to see yourself as the Pharisee before you can confess as the tax collector. 

     A relationship with God turns our world upside down. The greater serves the lesser. The first shall be last. When you think that you are really something...you’re nothing. That’s why we need to be like children before Him. We have to see ourselves as having no rights, no strength, and maybe a little dumb. We have no hope in ourselves and nothing to offer but dependency and trust to the One who can take care of us. When He does accept us in His beloved Son, He gives us His Spirit, which then leads us to call God our Father. Just as a child plays dress up with their parents clothes, we show that we love Him; more importantly, that we are in love with Him, by imitating Him. Whoever loves God is known by God. It doesn’t get any better than that.

Mass Prep Sunday September 16th

Sunday September 16, 2018   24^th Sunday Ordinary Time (Cycle B)

Crosses Required

The tie in between today’s readings: Listen!

Psalm 116:1-9, Isaiah 50:5-9, James 2:14-18, Mark 8:27-35

     Let’s eavesdrop in on the conversation in today’s gospel.  “Who do you say that I am?” Peter answered and said to Him, “You are the Christ”. And Jesus said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven” (Matt 16: 17). Bravo, Peter!  As the gospel continues, Jesus began again to teach them about His upcoming death and resurrection. Peter, the now self appointed “smartest kid in the class”, takes Jesus aside to set Him straight.  Jesus rebukes him, “Get behind Me, Satan; for you are not setting your mind on God’s interest, but man’s” (Mark 8:33b). After being at the apex with his confession of Jesus, why did Peter then crash and burn? It all has to do with listening. In making his confession, Peter listens to God, in the second part he does not.  Sensing everyone’s anxiety, Jesus explains that to follow Him everyone must take up their own cross.  In other words: listen. Thy will be done is paramount in anyone’s walk with God. Faith requires that we listen to God when He doesn’t make sense.  But then, why have faith if you can’t test it?

      Isaiah 50 contains Messianic prophesies pointing to the crucifixion. In them, Jesus shows that He is listening and will go the distance to fulfill the Father’s will. This is no easy thing. The Bible is full of prophesies of Christ as the suffering servant. Jesus knows them all and is acutely aware of what’s coming. In light of this, you have to wonder how He was even able to sleep at night. I’m sure that it was not unusual for Him to bolt up out of bed in a cold sweat, pale and sucking air from yet another nightmare. Still, He goes to the cross because God is His Father. Their intimate relationship gives Jesus a confident faith. His Father loves Him and can keep Him. Jesus spent many a night in prayer because He knows that the God that He listens to is also listening to Him (Psalm 116). The apostle Paul puts it this way: For this reason I suffer all these things, but I am not ashamed; for I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until that day (2 Timothy 1:12). He trusts in the promises of glory and triumph that await Him beyond His ordeal. Because of this, along with the nightmares of suffering, Jesus can dream “The Impossible Dream” and in following His example so can we.

     There is another lesson in listening to God that is picked up in James 2: 14-18. Because we are so busy with our own lives, we often miss it. I call it: God put you in my way. It is a line from the movie, The Four Feathers, not the old one, the 2002 version. In the movie an Englishman (Heath Ledger) is rescued and aided in his quest to save his friends by a black mystic. When asked why he is helping, the mystic says, “I have no choice. God put you in my way.” Personal piety is important part of listening to God in the Christian life, but our faith becomes genuine in the world when we help someone in need. Let’s look and listen for opportunities from God for the people that He puts in our way and besides just saying, “I’ll pray for you”; make them a pot roast too.

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     To conclude: God loves you as you are, but loves you too much to leave you as you are. Crosses are required! He wants you to carry the image of Jesus in your life. God will guide you by His still small voice, by scripture, or when He puts someone in your way. Go with it! He that began a good work in you will finish it (Philippians 1:6). But, you need to listen.

Mass Prep Sunday September 9th 23rd Sunday Ordinary Time (Cycle B)

Sunday September 9, 2018   23^rd Sunday Ordinary Time

I’ve Got Good News and Bad News

The tie in between today’s readings: “…by His wounds we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5)

Psalm 146:7-10, Isaiah 35:4-7, James 2:1-5, Mark 7:31-37

     Today’s readings, Psalm 146, Isaiah 35, and Mark 7, all focus on God as a healer. Let’s be clear from the start: Jesus does not do tricks. All of the healing accounts in the Bible actually did happen, but miracles are not recorded for their own sakes. They are metaphors pointing to the nature of salvation through the gospel. Jesus pulls this together in Matt 11:4-5, where He associates His healings with the preaching of the gospel. So what is the gospel? Other than saying that it is the good news, could you explain it clearly to someone who doesn’t know? Sadly, most of the people in the pews cannot. I’ve best understood the gospel message by the old line: “I’ve got good news and bad news.” So, today let’s drill down and get a better understanding of it by examining the most quoted verse on the gospel, John 3:16: For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.

     First the good news: God so loved the world. Stop! Don’t gloss over this. This is a big deal. In our pride and self absorption, we can easily take God’s love for granted. Why wouldn’t He love me? I love me! I may not be perfect, but what’s not to love? The thing is that our sins have made us so odious to the celestial realm that, if we were to walk into heaven right now, the angels would vomit. We start out as the enemy of God in our sin: loathsome, pitiful, and hideous. But God demonstrated His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8).

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     That He gave His only begotten Son. That’s the “died for us” part of the gospel. Jesus came, born to die, as the sacrificial Lamb of God to take away the sins of the world. This is where the miracle metaphors of healing, mentioned in the Bible, come in as a sign of our desperate spiritual condition. Hopeless and helpless like the infirmed, the leprous, the widow, and the orphan, Jesus rescues us from our plight. We cannot stand before a holy God in our sins with any hope of gaining heaven. Through the crucifixion, Jesus served as our stand-in. God made Jesus who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we may become the righteousness of God in Him (2 Corinthians 5:21).

     That whoever believes in Him. It’s all done by faith. You can’t earn it. You don’t deserve it. All you can do is accept it as a free gift from God. But what is this faith? First and foremost, it’s the assent to the facts of the Bible that Jesus was crucified and took the punishment of your sin on Himself. His resurrection on Easter Sunday proves that He was successful in His mission. He offers heaven and eternal life to all that would receive His sacrifice as substitute for their sin. But, it’s not just agreeing with the facts alone that gets you into heaven. Satan knows the facts and they’re not doing him any good. Faith goes deeper still. You have to totally identify with Jesus, which means that you must see yourself up on the cross with Jesus spiritually facing God for your sins. When Jesus rises on Easter Sunday, you also resurrect with Him, spiritually. You are now spiritually born again to a new life in Christ. As Paul says, “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life that I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me” (Galatians 2:20). Saving faith is hard to explain. All I can say is that you have a “knowing” about it. I examine it in another way in my article “A Sacramental Illustration of Saving Faith” in the Insights section of this blog. Check it out. Now, get ready for the bad news.

     Should not perish. That means going to hell. The Bible places you under the sentence of hell right now. Whatever hell is: a lake of fire, separation from God, death forever, all the above. It is bad and it is final! God is holy. God will not mark on a curve where He lets you slide into heaven with a 51% good rating. The standard for heaven is sinless perfection. You cannot achieve it. If there was any other way to escape damnation other than the cross of Christ, then God would have released Jesus from His passion when He asked for options at the garden of Gethsemane. But, because He did go to the cross, Jesus now becomes YOUR option. Take Him as your Savior for: “How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation” (Hebrews 2:3a).

     Have everlasting life. Jesus Christ didn’t come to make bad people good or to make good people better. Jesus came to make dead people alive! In Christ, we are born again to a new life here on earth and to eternal life in heaven. This is the gospel: by faith take the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross as payment for your sins and make God the master of your new life on earth as you prepare for heaven. Take God up on His offer of salvation through Jesus, today.  “…by His wounds, we are healed” (Isaiah 53.5).

Mass Prep Sunday September 2nd 2018

Sunday September 2^nd 22^nd Sunday Ordinary Time (Cycle B)

Freedom

The tie in between today’s readings: There is No Liberty Without God

Psalm 15:1-5, Deuteronomy 4: 1-8 , James 1: 17-27, Mark 7: 1-23

     Have you ever wondered what a Theocracy under God would look like? In today’s Old Testament reading, Deuteronomy 4: 1-8, God is preparing His people to take possession of the Promised Land. They have a priesthood to worship Him and His law to guide them with prophets and judges to maintain order. There is no legislature because God is their king. If each person sticks with the framework, they will not only posses their inheritance promised by God, but they will live in a society whose shared moral code is outlined in Psalm 15. He is setting up Israel to become a beacon to the world. Israel will be great because Israel will be good to the glory of God, as long as they can avoid incidences like the one at Baal-peor.  

     Baal-peor is the culmination of a very interesting story between a sorcerer named Baalam and Balak the Moabite king (Numbers 22-25). Essentially, a Moab/Midianite coalition would not be able to defeat the Israelite army in the field. Baalam suggested a plan to destroy Israel from within by corrupting the worship of Jehovah with Baal worship. The plan worked very well. The leadership got sucked into the trap and many of the people followed.  In a Theocracy, this is tantamount to high treason.  God slew 24,000 of His own people and declared war on Midian to finish them off for their treachery in the matter. Throughout the Old Testament, God takes dramatic and decisive actions against idolatry and sin because it strikes at the heart of a shared moral code necessary for a free society. Without it, a nation descends into chaos, totalitarianism, and destruction as Israel eventually does. 

     “You shall not add to the word which I am commanding you, nor take away from it” (Deut. 4:2a). In Mark’s gospel, Jesus confronts the Pharisee’s lip service to God’s law.  The traditions of men, such as keeping the Sabbath, or ritual washing, add to God’s words with a veneer of misguided righteousness. Their teachings about divorce and Corban use a little lawyerly slight-of-hand to nullify the intent of scripture. Unlike the open rebellion of idolatry, these are a hidden contempt for the Almighty. God is not mocked. Even today, we play these games with Him. God hates an empty “go through the motions” religion, transforming worship into a clueless chore done out of duty. He also despises the replacement of sound doctrine with our uninformed self speculations.  As in ancient Israel, both are a breeding ground for sin and undermine the shared moral code.  Our practical idolatry with worldly things and our lack of concern with Biblical teachings has brought us to the point where we are asking the question: “Is there anything wrong with anything?” We need to take a good look at ourselves.

Isaiah 5:20-24 New International Version (NIV)

²⁰ Woe to those who call evil good
    and good evil,
who put darkness for light
    and light for darkness,
who put bitter for sweet
    and sweet for bitter.

²¹ Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes
    and clever in their own sight.

²² Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine
    and champions at mixing drinks,
²³ who acquit the guilty for a bribe,
    but deny justice to the innocent.
²⁴ Therefore, as tongues of fire lick up straw
    and as dry grass sinks down in the flames,
so their roots will decay
    and their flowers blow away like dust;
for they have rejected the law of the Lord Almighty
    and spurned the word of the Holy One of Israel.

     A free society starts with the individual. In James 1: 17-27, today’s epistle, he compares the word of God to a mirror. Lip service people give a casual glance into God’s looking glass, disregard their unflattering reflection, and turn away unchanged. Preferring sin, morality breaks down and bedlam ensues. Society gives up freedom for order. A strong centralized government arises, which will threaten all established rights or worse. We need to be the people who intently look at God’s word and conform to it. James calls it the perfect law of liberty. “If the Son shall set you free, you shall be indeed free” (John 8:36). So now it comes full circle. God’s implanted word in my life will transform me into a Psalm 15 kind of person, who loves God and neighbor. Belief in the God of the Bible creates the Church, which fosters a culturally shared moral code. This moral code acts as a law unto itself and keeps society together without the need of a police state. We can be free because we are good. This is not the current situation in our country. We are losing our common moral code. But it’s not too late. God has given a way back:

2 Chronicles 7:14 New International Version (NIV)

¹⁴ if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

Mass Prep August 26th

Sunday August 26, 2018 21^st Sunday Ordinary Time (Cycle B)

Where Shall We Go?

The tie in between today’s readings: Faith Grounded in History is Trusting for the Future.

Psalm 34: 2-3 and 16-21, Joshua 24: 1-2 and 15-18, Ephesians 5: 21-32, John 6: 60-69

     So, I’m watching TV when an advertisement for a Mutual Fund comes on. The narrator is explaining to me that this is a great investment because of the success it has had in the market for the past five years.  Despite the disclaimer that past performance doesn’t indicate future outcome, he still asks you to trust them and buy their fund because of history. Like investments, trust or faith is grounded in history and tries to make a sensible calculation of the future. At times you will be wrong, but try to live your life without it. Buying a gift, planning a vacation, or even getting married: it all takes faith.  In the Bible, our faith pleases God because it acknowledges His attributes and gives Him credit that He’ll do what He says.  Faith has you act with a divinely ordered set of priorities as you live your life based on God’s promises and direction.  

     Our reading is Joshua chapter 24. Joshua gathers the nation together and reviews their history with God from Abraham up to their present situation. Based on this, the people pledge their faithful to God for the future. David, in Psalm 34, also encourages us to trust in God for our future based upon his own history with the Lord.  Jesus speaks spiritually about Himself being the Bread of Life. No one understands it. No one believes it and the crowd leaves, shaking their heads and thinking that the man they wanted to be their earthly king is nuttier than a Pay Day© bar. Jesus asks the Apostles if they will also leave Him. They don’t know any more theology than the people turning away, but they know Jesus. Their history leads them to trust Him. Peter asks a perceptive question: “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life. We have believed and come to know that You are the Holy One of God.”  It’s all faith based on history.

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      Now the hard part: In the Christian life, faith translates into obedience. “God said it. I believe it. That settles it!” Great in theory, but the real challenge is when God tells you to do the hard thing that grates against your very fiber: like forgive your enemy, or give up a habit, or even submit to your husband. In today’s reading, Paul in his letter to the Ephesians gives a beautiful picture of how the marriage relationship mirrors the union of Christ and His Church. This passage is often resisted by the wife in this age of feminism. There’s a breakdown somewhere. It’s difficult for a woman to let herself become venerable. Can you blame her?  Look at the man she is supposed to be subordinate to. Husbands have the daunting task of loving, caring, and cherishing their wives as Jesus cares for His bride. A lot of times they’re MIA. Guys! Your wife’s submission has to be earned by a consistent Christ-like walk within your relationship. So, love her, die for her, and take out the trash!

     Bottom line is: we walk by faith not by sight. We have a personal God who does not lie or fail. We know that, in this case, past performance does indicate future outcomes. We believe that the One who has proven Himself in history can guide us through the flow of life. A door closes, another opens. A struggle comes and is overcome.  We don’t have to understand it all and we’re not going to. But, we can face life’s challenges, as they come, with confidence, knowing that the One who loved us, even to die on a cross, hasn’t brought us this far to drop us now. Where else would you even want to go? The Christian life is an adventure with God. All adventures require faith; why have faith if you can’t test it?

Mass Prep August 19th

Sunday August 19, 2018 20^th Sunday Ordinary Time (Cycle B)

Don’t Ask the Fish

The tie between today’s readings: Wisdom is a gift from God

 Psalm 34: 2-7, Proverbs 9: 1-6, Ephesians 5: 15-20, John 6: 51-58

     The first step in gaining wisdom is humility. The God who loves us has opened up “Wisdom House” (Proverbs 9) and advertises to the world to come and learn His ways…free lunch provided. Our problem is that we become more and more proud with each new technical breakthrough to make our lives longer, easier, and better. Our heads swell with “progress” as we unlock the secrets of the universe and push the Almighty into a smaller and smaller corner of irrelevance. Who needs God? He is us. Yet, despite this, no one can seem to answer the big question: If we’re so smart, why can’t we live together in peace… or even with ourselves?  Political leaders, doctors, and philosophers give their opinions and diametrically opposed solutions for our disintegrating culture, but to no avail. That’s because we have knowledge without wisdom. Knowledge is awareness that a tomato is a fruit, but we foolishly keep heaping it into our fruit salads.

     If you want to know what water is like, don’t ask the fish. (Chinese Proverb) Like the fish, we lack the objectivity to make judgments about life because we are so deeply entrenched in it. We can’t see the forest for the trees. Wisdom, the correct application of knowledge, has to come from a higher, outside cause and effect perspective. It must be true, experienced, and universal. It has to come from God. We must give up our own self important positions and submit to Him for guidance. God, from His vantage point judges even the wisest among us as foolish, but He has not left us alone to our devices.

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     The Gospel reading today, once again, illustrates the foolishness of man who can’t comprehend the wisdom of God: “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves.” Drilling down to the core of the issue, in a Temple sacrifice, each penitent person would eat part of the offering as a way to be intimately connected with it. The sinner is stating the he deserves the fate of the dead animal standing in for him. To eat and drink the flesh and blood of Jesus is to intimately partake in His sacrifice. You can’t have an arm’s length Communion.  You need to see yourself spiritually on the cross with Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away YOUR sin. You eat the bread, the Body of Christ, and physically make a connection with His crucifixion. The Bible also says to present your body as a living sacrifice (Rom 12:1); in effect you’re responding to God, “This is my body which I give up for you.”  With this communion you are a part of a whole community of believers: the Church, in the power of the Holy Spirit, serving one another in Christ (Eph 5: 15-20). This mandate also goes out to the whole world as Jesus commands us to love even our enemies as we appeal to our fellow man to be reconciled to God and eat of the Bread of Life.  So Christ, the Wisdom of God, answers the deepest problems of existence, co-existence, and beyond. When you were born, God gave you this big box called “Life”. It has many wonderful and curious pieces in it. If you’re having trouble fitting the parts together, why don’t you try reading His manual? Go to Him: be humble, be wise.

Mass Prep August 12th

Sunday August 12, 2018 19^th Sunday Ordinary Time (Cycle B)

Heroes

The tie between today’s readings: Heroes come in different ways.

Psalm 34: 2-9, I Kings 19: 4-8, Ephesians 4:30-5:2, John 6:41-51

     Heroes come in many ways: our brave military personnel, firefighters who rush into burning buildings, paramedics and doctors in the ER, and even the person who runs for coffee so that we could meet a looming deadline, or at least we tell them that. God is in the hero business and He is always looking for new talent. You don’t have to be super smart. You don’t have to have lion-like courage, although heroes are braver than they think. You don’t have to be rich. You don’t even have to be in shape to be a hero. No experience necessary. You get on the job training set down by the Master. In the Bible, God gives us a template to follow as He shows Himself as a rescuing hero, a healing hero, and a sacrificial hero.  All you need is the willingness to follow His lead and step up when you’re called…and there are so many calls.

     The most familiar way that we think about God is as the rescuing hero. King David, our psalmist today, rejoices when he remembers how God delivered him from a tough spot. David was in a lot of tough spots in his life, maybe that’s why there are so many Psalms. David not only recalls his own experiences, but points to many other times when God’s saved the day for His people. God is there for the little guy when we cry out to Him, or for an entire nation facing destruction. He camps His angels around those who fear Him and rescues them. His power is unstoppable.  He always wins. But God is not all shock and awe. He has a softer side.

     God comes as the healing hero.  After a long career serving God, Elijah came off a great victory where he destroyed the prophets of Baal at Mt. Carmel. Now, he is on the run from Queen Jezebel, who has a contract out on him. Crushed with battle fatigue, Elijah sits under a tree and prays to die. God provides food for His clinically depressed servant and prepares him for the road ahead. God the healing hero knows our weaknesses and cares for us at our points of need.  He meets the believer with the promise that all things will work out for our good; giving strength and peace in the trial. He meets the unbeliever with an open hand and an invitation to be delivered from an even bigger crisis.

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     Jesus in our gospel reading shows Himself as the sacrificial hero: “I came down from heaven and give My flesh for the life of the world.” The sacrificial hero is God’s greatest role. Greater than physical healing and more profound than rescuing a nation, God makes a way for a man to escape the horrors of his own destiny: death and hell forever. The hero Jesus dies on a cross and with His Resurrection once and for all conquers these greatest enemies of mankind. Now we have a future!  By destroying everyman’s curse; Jesus becomes everyman’s hero.  We only need the faith to cry out to Him for rescue from our sins. He will save us and with this salvation He gives us new lives as children of God.

     Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. (Eph 5:1) Your church life isn’t supposed to be a dead end routine of rituals. Christianity is an adventure of growth and transformation of your life into the likeness of Jesus. God has a plan for you. He wants you to become like His Son and get into the family business. Die to yourself, so that you may live for others and by this earn a hearing for the Gospel.  You have His power! You have His gifts! You have His purpose! Step up! The world needs heroes.