In the end, we die...and are raised to eternal life.

Early riser in Buckland Park, Brighton NY

Remember your Creator in the days of your youth,before the evil days comeAnd the years approach of which you will say,I have no pleasure in them...Before the silver cord is snappedand the golden bowl is broken,And the pitcher is shattered at the spring,and the broken pulley falls into the well,And the dust returns to the earth as it once was,and the life breath returns to God who gave it.  Ecclesiastes 12:1, 6-7.

No matter how carefree the days of youth might be, everyone makes the journey to death at the end of life.  The author of the book reminds us to be mindful of that fact and to judge all in our lives in light of that fact.  His iconic saying is simple, "All is vanity."

All those things which concern me, even worry me, make no difference in my ultimate destination of death.  Why worry?  In the end I die.  In the end Bill as he has existed, no longer exists.  the "life breath" that somehow enlivened my body and soul returns to the Divine One and the flesh (body and soul) expires only to be raised to a new kind of life within the very Divine One.  What that life will be like is impossible to tell.  By definition it is beyond my understanding and imagination.

Even Jesus had to go through this human reality as much as his followers did not want to believe that.  In Luke, as he travels to Jerusalem, he tells them in different ways of his impending death.  They cannot accept that; they are afraid.  Even the Son of Man must experience death, in his case a horrible and public execution and torture.

I am called to keep this reality ever in mind so that my appraisal of my reality is firmly based in the fundamental reality that I come from the Divine One and in death somehow return to the Divine One.

Who do you say that I am?

Diversity in the back garden

Then he said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”Peter said in reply, “The Christ of God.”  He rebuked them and directed them not to tell this to anyone. Luke 9:21

 This the question for me and all of us.  Who do I say Christ is for me today, right now in my life.  What does it mean to say now that he is the Christ of God?  The meaning within the context of first century Jewish belief is clear but what does it mean today?  A messiah or Christ is one who saves, who delivers us from evil.

For me that can only mean a relationship that saves me from the evil of which I am capable.  It is no longer one who saves me from others but from myself.  By entering into a relationship with Jesus, I come to an understanding of who I am in the deepest sense.  I join him in the interior life of the Triune Divine One both sacramentally and in some way in reality.  All this leads toward a fullness of life when I enter into that life completely and finally.

So for me, Jesus is the one who takes my hand and walks with me into that eternal reality for which I was formed and birthed.  Can I live my life today in light of that reality?  That is the question.

Join the family

Cabbage for food and display in Queenston

He said to them in reply, “My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and act on it.”  Luke 8:21

There are several times in scripture where Jesus makes what appear to be "hard" saying about his family.  Here he seems to discount his mother and his brothers who have come to town to see him.  Of course, he is making a point to us, to me really, about my life.  Jesus invites me to join his family, not his earthly family but the intercommunion of the Divine One.  He invites me to enter into the interior life of the three persons in the one divinity.  I enter that life as his brother; I enter in his place so to speak, not to replace him but to join him.

All I have to do is accept the invitation, one that is offered to every person.  It is not just by saying yes but by hearing the word of God and acting on it in my life.

So the central question is always, "What is the Divine One saying to me today, here in my life as it really is?"  That word is surely different in some ways today than the word to me twenty years ago, or forty years ago, or ten years from now.  This is the question on which I am to reflect today to see if I can hear that word.

Do I really know what I want?

Manhattan Beach sunset

"And no one who has been drinking old wine desires new,for he says, ‘The old is good.’ " Luke 5:39

There are two ways to understand this passage.  "I have exprienced fine, well aged wine (life of the spirit) and thus have no interest in new wine (life of the world)."  Or, "I am geting along fine with the old wine (religious practices) and have no interest in newer wine (spirit filled justice and mercy.)

My own experience confirms the second as the one that has meaning for me.  If I am getting along OK the way I am, why would I expend energy to make changes in my life?  If human behavior arises to meet needs and my needs are being met well enough, why would I change?  For someone in my life circumstance (healthy, secure, and loved), the answer can only be that somehow I sense that I could be or have more.  That "more" can be expressed in terms of the material things and relationships of the world, or that "more" could ex experienced as the fullness of life about which Jesus spoke.

This is where faith enters in.  That fullness of life is a participation in the interior life of the Triune Divine One, something is simply unknowable within the confines of the world, its values and its thought.  It is only through some kind of personal relationship with the Divine One that I can begin to glimpse this fuller possibility.  Because of this glimpse, I am offered the opportunity to take a sip of the new wine...if I dare.

Tips on how to love your neighbor as yourself

View from breakfast veranda at Riverbend Inn, Niagara on the Lake

Even though I am free of the demands and expectations of everyone, I have voluntarily become a servant to any and all in order to reach a wide range of people: religious, nonreligious, meticulous moralists, loose-living immoralists, the defeated, the demoralized—whoever. I didn’t take on their way of life. I kept my bearings in Christ—but I entered their world and tried to experience things from their point of view. I’ve become just about every sort of servant there is in my attempts to lead those I meet into a God-saved life. I did all this because of the Message. I didn’t just want to talk about it; I wanted to be in on it! - 1 Corinthians 9:19

Today's readings (above from Paul and the gaspel from Luke 6:39-42) give us some clues on how to love our neighbor as ourself.  We need to remember that Jesus includes everyone in that designation of "neighbor" not just people we are close to or those who tend to be like us.  Our American pattern of housing segregation by economic and racial status can make this inclusiveness elusive for us.  How do we love as ourselves those people who are different from us?  That's the key question.

Paul did this by becoming like them.  He didn't lose his own core values but he became like other people so that he could understand the world from their perspective.  In that way be became like them and, important to his mission of preaching, he could communicate effectively.  In the process, of course, he was changed in fact.  His experience of faithful Christians who were not Jews led him to conlcude that Christians did not have to become Jews first.  He would never have understood this if he had not been able to see the world from the Gentile point of view.

The gospel reading confirms this.  Jesus tells his disciples that a blind man cannot lead another blind man.  We need to remove the beam from our own eye before we can even seen the speck in another's eye.  In other words, being a judgmental hypocrite is not what Jesus is talking about.  He is talking about getting into the skin of another, to see the world from their perspective and thus develop the empathy and compassion essential to a Christan life.

Whose wisdom will it be?

Sunset at Lock 33

"Let no one deceive himself.
If anyone among you considers himself wise in this age,
let him become a fool, so as to become wise.
For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in the eyes of God..." I Cor 3:18-19

There appear to be two options here:  the wisdom of the Divine One or the wisdom of the world.  Paul seems to make quite clear that it is one or the other.  Any attempt to blend the two won't work.  How do I understand the wisdom of the Divine One?  Is it not the very mission of Jesus:  to love the Divine One and to love our neighbor as ourselves.  Is not the wisdom of the world focus on one's self interest and to maximize that self interest.  In doing the latter, even if one does not intend to harm others, it inevitably happens because one is not aware or sensitive to what is happening to others.  I can experience my lie as good and secure and be oblivious to the fact that many people have been left behind.

The warm, soul satisfaction of a father.

Watching four of my children enjoying each other's company

"From heaven the LORD looks down;
he sees all mankind."  Ps 33:15

Two weeks ago, my son, Galen, visited us along with his daughter, Maggie.  Toward the end of his visit, Brendan unexpectedly visited with his son, Brock.  Even though we had had a family dinner two days before at Erin's.  We all gatehered again for some barbecue and visiting.  

As I looked out our windows and saw four of my children and others visiting, laughing, and telling stories, I experienced a warm sense of satisfaction.  I was not part of that scene but was observing it.  Every time I look at that photo, I re-experience that sensation.

Surely this must be what the Divine One feels when observing humanity when we are acting at our very best:  Relating to each other out of fondness, love and concern.  I saw charity and mercy being played out on my deck in a very natural and ordinary way, without pretense and without conern about who was "best."  If I had witnessed the opposite, I would have been sad and sorrowful.  Surely these, too, are the feelings on the Divine One when observing what Paul calls "living in the flesh" and not the spirit.