Advent One

• Today is November 20, 2008 on the calendar, but on the Church Calendar today is the New Year’s Day. Although we are 26 days away from Christmas today is The First Sunday in Advent, day one in 2009. Today is also the commemorative Feast Day of St. Andrew. Saint Andrew was one of John the Baptist’s disciples who saw Jesus and knew Jesus to be the Messiah and then told his brother, Simon that he had seen the Messiah. It is fitting that on the first day of the New Church Year, we commemorate the first man to tell someone about Jesus.
• In today’s Gospel reading we hear of the Sun, Moon and Stars being darkened and falling from the sky. Mountains and valleys represent the powerful and the weak in the world in Isaiah and the Gospels. The birds and the lilies are birds and lilies that Jesus uses to make a point. Think about our pagan ancestors and what they thought of the Sun, Moon and Stars; they gave them names of deities because to them they were gods and goddesses. Many of them were hunters and warriors, such as Orion, Sagittarius, Diana, Hercules, Apollo and Ares. These gods are still worshiped when worldly authority preys upon the weak and wages war on enemies.
• Pagan godlike behavior can be seen in the competitiveness of businesses and special interest groups lobbying and manipulating Congress. The Wall Street elite, before the latest crash called self-proclaimed them to be “masters of the universe” a true deifying title. They followed the god Mammon and accumulated wealth as their greed ran rampant. Celebrities as well are made into gods and goddesses when they can openly be naked and the media celebrates their life styles of sex, drunkenness and substance abuse. The media makes them into demigods and demigoddesses who can avoid legal punishment when they openly break the law. They do not have to pay the full penalty nor any penalty at all because they are seen as being above the law as gods and goddesses.
• Allowing these gods and goddesses to dominate us as well as the world leads to death and destruction. However, the One True God is loving and selfless. By living a life without fear we can live a life controlled by life and not by death; we can do this by obeying God who is light and love.
• This creates a big order of change not only for us but also for the entire world. This is a Spiritual Revolution called the Kingdom of God. This is usually seen as life inside ourselves and inside the four wall of a congregation. It is seen as having no place in the world, because it is a change for us only. I cannot imagine what life for me would be without the Gospel of Jesus Christ. How would anything in my life make sense at all? It just wouldn’t. The Gospel of Jesus Christ exists to be spread beyond the four walls of a congregation and into the whole world. There are too many victims suffering the results of the pagan worship of Mammon. These are the victims of sex and drug abuse. These are the victims of greed.
• It is the duty and joy of every Christian to be the light in the darkness about us to show that the One True God is love and light; He is selfless and cares for and cares about us.

Christ the King

How do we know Jesus is here and where is he? Jesus is present in Holy Communion in each of us and around us. We see Jesus in the poor and needy. We are giving to Jesus we give to the least of these among us--those who are in dire need. The Judgement of the Nations 31 ‘When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. 32All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, 33and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left. 34Then the king will say to those at his right hand, “Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; 35for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, 36I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.” 37Then the righteous will answer him, “Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? 38And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? 39And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?” 40And the king will answer them, “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family,* you did it to me.” 41Then he will say to those at his left hand, “You that are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; 42for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.” 44Then they also will answer, “Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?” 45Then he will answer them, “Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.” 46And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.’ Let us look at the criteria that are not there for Judgement. That is what is not being considered to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven--eternal life.

• Wealth--Social power and social position.
• Doctrine
• Gender
• Looks and Ethnicity
• Family and Ancestry
• No State forms or requirements
• Faith--not having to say I believe in Jesus or adhering to a Creed.
• Intelligence/Education
• Sex and sexuality
• What we eat.

It is easier to say I believe in Jesus but much harder to believe Jesus by living out the faith. Keeping the faith in practice is harder than it is to say that we believe.

So what is being Judged must be really important. We see this Genesis 1 when on the last day of creation humanity is created. This is not to be confused with Adam and Eve in chapter two, which is a separate story with a completely different message. In Genesis 1 all of humanity is given dominion over all creation. Humanity is given the fruit of the land to eat for nourishment. They ate fruits and vegetables. There was no war because everybody had enough. Gandhi said it best when he stated that there is enough in the world for every one's need but not enough for every one's greed.

Greed enters in as the separating factor for those who are left eternal punishment. They did not share what they had with those who were in need, the least of these, because of greed. They wanted to keep everything for themselves. We hear their reasons from the greedy people around us today. They won't share with those of different backgrounds or the poor who have too many children. They have their excuses for not sharing.

This parable isn't the end all be all of how we are to live. It certainly shows that loving one another and taking care of the least among us is very important. We know that Jesus taught us much more than this and we know that we are to grow up and do the right things because we can and we know better. Remember in Genesis 1 everything is shared. All creation belongs to God and is given to us, not as ownership but to possess and use and not abuse. We take possession held in trust.

The better translation of perfect in the Sermon on the Mount is mature. We are to grow up and be mature which means taking responsibility for our actions and taking care of those who we can.

Parable of the Talents

Jobs—Whom do we really work for? We are all working for God. God wants us to learn and learning is fun. The jobs God wants us to do include, learning, praying, singing and loving one another. Today in Matthew we hear the parable of the talents. Matthew 25:14-30 to be exact. It is the third slave that really stands out in this parable. Rather than replying as the other two did with this what you gave me and this is what I did—identifying God through action, the third slave gives his prepared answer to what God is. “I knew you were a harsh man” With this statement the slave blames his master, he is saying it is your fault. He goes on, “I was afraid, you reap where you don’t sow.” If the master had not returned the first two slaves would have had nothing for themselves, because they invested the talent, whereas, the third slave would have kept his talent because he buried it and it was his to keep. Perhaps the third slave responded as he did because his master returned and ruined his scheme. The Rabbinical rule of the day was that a trust of money was to be buried to keep it safe. The third slave represents the Priestly traditions that Jesus argued against. The argument becomes for us then “do we identify God by His actions or by what we believe Him to be? We put labels on God, Omnipresent, Omnipotent, and Omniscient should we be thinking of God in these terms or in terms of what he is doing? He loves us, cares for us, is present with us, and knows us. The slave made a judgmental statement concerning his master. The first two made a \statements of action, you gave me talents and here are more. Is God a reaper? In the parable of the sower much earlier in Matthew’s Gospel it is clear that God sows everywhere with no direct method, He takes off and scatters seed everywhere, on the road, the high rocky ground, among the weeds, and then among the fields. Mark 4:1-20 Again he began to teach beside the lake. Such a very large crowd gathered around him that he got into a boat on the lake and sat there, while the whole crowd was beside the lake on the land. 2He began to teach them many things in parables, and in his teaching he said to them: 3‘listen! A sower went out to sow. 4And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path, and the birds came and ate it up. 5Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and it sprang up quickly, since it had no depth of soil. 6And when the sun rose, it was scorched; and since it had no root, it withered away. 7Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain. 8Other seed fell into good soil and brought forth grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirty and sixty and a hundredfold.’ 9And he said, ‘Let anyone with ears to hear listen!’ God is a God of abundance. There are Mosquitoes are over 3,000 known species of mosquitoes exist worldwide. More than 160 species have been documented in North America. There are probably more than 100 billion (1011) galaxies in the observable universe. There are a lot more varieties and amounts of life and energy in the universe than is necessary. God shows us abundance throughout of all creation. None of us are important to the function of the universe, yet here we are. Nothing is here because it’s necessary. Everything that is exists is a miracle. The first two servants took a risk; the third servant played it safe and obeyed the Priestly understanding that God is harsh. Near the end of the book of Job God talks about large frightening creatures and mountains that He cares for. God is generous and sows His love everywhere far beyond the our ablity to reap. God is not harsh but generous. He treats the third servant at the servant’s prejudice dictates. Are we ready to be joyful, or are we going to be scared or harsh? Being joyful with what God has given us lays open our hearts and minds. God is the joyful master. There is an understanding that is parable promotes capitalism. There are many types of capitalism, industrial capitalism and laissez-faire capitalism, finance capitalism and state monopoly capitalism, rony capitalism, and liberal Captialism. In this parable, all the profit goes to God. What shall we call this then, divine captalism, perhaps? Warren Buffet is a good example of how this works. He lives modestly in Omaha, Nebraska and gives away most of his money. He strives for excellence but does not do it for greed. We have a living example of this parable in Warren Buffet. We are here because God made us out His abundance. We are here because God called us to be here, despite how unnecessary we are to the universe.Therefore, let us be joyful and reap what God has generously sown.

Pentecost 26

Parable means a parallel story with two meanings. Jesus used parables to show how secular matters are parallel to spiritual matters. The 10 virgins in this parable are divided into wise and foolish. The wise ones brought extra oil. Wisdom comes from experience and involves taking care of someone; Wisdom understands how our actions affect others. The Bridegroom is Jesus. The passage in 1Thessolians is not talking about the believers going into the sky and staying there. Paul is using Imperial language. In the First Century, the Roman Emperor would announce that he was coming to a city or town and the residents would work hard to fix and beautify their residence and public places. When he arrived trumpets would sound and the people would come to greet him outside the town and then proceed with him into the city limits. Jesus, the true Emperor, will descend from on high and those who are living will greet him in the sky and come to earth with him. Matthew 25:1-13. Being wise and gaining wisdom are not catch phrases in our culture. How to define Wisdom? Wisdom is experience and learning from it. It is being able to look ahead and seeing what happens. It is being compassionate. Wise people do not lead a lot of things, and they know what to expect. The fear of The Lord is the beginning of Wisdom and Wisdom gives insight. To be wise you don’t have to be wealthy. When you fear The Lord you fear nothing else. Wisdom allows you to multi-task while keeping the big picture in you mind so that it is understood how the pieces fit together. We are living in foolish times. It seems we are living the motto of the film Wall Street: Greed is good as spoken by Gordon Gekko as played by Michael Douglas. Oliver Stone’s message in Wall Street was that pursuing greed that everything falls apart around you. The virgins were foolish for not joining into the procession. The Bridegroom might have helped the situation by either giving them oil or pointing out that it didn’t matter. Foolishly it didn’t occur to them to show up anyway even if the didn’t have the oil. Our culture follows other gods such as, Mammon, Death, Terror and Aphrodite. Following other gods leads others away from Wisdom. Our job is to invite them in and meet the Bridegroom.