Blog Archives
The Journey Home is Never Enough to Satisfy…
Thoughts which drive me to the Cross, and to Jesus
“Indeed, you are my shelter, a strong tower that protects me from the enemy. I will be a permanent guest in your home; I will find shelter in the protection of your wings. (Selah)” (Psalm 61:3–4, NET)
“Now the Word became flesh and took up residence among us. We saw his glory—the glory of the one and only, full of grace and truth, who came from the Father. John testified about him and shouted out, “This one was the one about whom I said, ‘He who comes after me is greater than I am, because he existed before me.’ ”” (John 1:14–15, NET)
There is no sin in being on the pathway; the spiritualists are wrong. But there is a sin in loving our road instead of our home;
“[T]he ‘original’ sin is not primarily that man has ‘disobeyed’ God; the sin is that he ceased to be hungry for God and God alone.… The only real fall of man is his noneucharistic life in a noneucharistic world.”
This liturgical mysticism does something to the sacraments, too. If you taste and see, you will see that you have not tasted enough yet. The sacraments are not designed to fulfill our appetites, they are designed to increase those appetites.
First, a confession, I have become to lax in my spiritual diet! What was one day away because of distractions quickly became three, and then I find myself 15 days behind in my readings. God used it I think, because of out of a time to “catch up” I saw somethings in larger segments, and was blown away by reading more than a paged here and a page there.
In the last few years, I have lost a number of my early mentors. as they have died. The last time I saw one of them in person, he asked me and another pastor type how much we talked about heaven. As he aged, he became more and more aware of tendencies in the church to be focused on this life, and give no attention to eternity.
While we talk some about how to “get” to heaven, the work of Christ redeeming us, uniting us with iIs death and resurrection – we often don’t talk about why getting there is a good thing!
We have, to used the words of the quote in blue – fallen in love with the road home, and forgotten about the goal of the road is home. We’ve talked about overcoming the power of sin, and being forgiven, but forgotten the reason that is important – that it removes from us the barrier to getting home– from being in that refuge, that shelter of the Lord’s presence.
For in heaven we will dwell in the presence of God, we will exist in His glorious love which unites and will have healed every bit of us that was broken, We will know a peace that is not just an absence of conflict, but pure serenity….of knowing the greatest comfort, of being welcome, of being home.
That is the eucharistic world, the world of thanksgiving that comes from God re-uniting us to Himself through Christ. It is what the sacrament hint at, give a momentary experience or taste of, causing us to want more, not because of the physical act, but because of what is experienced in that moment of communion between God and His people.
I want more of that… I know WE need more of that…To help us endure the road, and keep focused on the destination. To live lives that are based on on hope–not that the road will be easy or smooth- but that the destination is Home.
Home with our Father… and the Son, and all of the Family of God.
May our appetites and desires grow for that moment… and may our time contemplating the gospel and receiving the sacraments cause that desire to be unquenchable…
Fagerberg, D. W. (2019). Liturgical Mysticism (p. 107). Emmaus Academic.
Fagerberg, D. W. (2019). Liturgical Mysticism (p. 110). Emmaus Academic.
Fagerberg, D. W. (2019). Liturgical Mysticism (p. 115). Emmaus Academic.
Where Are We Headed?
Devotional Thought of the Day:
4 Then the word of the LORD of Hosts came to me: 5 “Ask all the people of the land and the priests: When you fasted and lamented in the fifth and in the seventh months for these 70 years, did you really fast for Me? 6 When you eat and drink, don’t you eat and drink simply for yourselves? l 7 Aren’t these the words that the LORD proclaimed through the earlier prophets when Jerusalem was inhabited and secure, m along with its surrounding cities, and when the southern region and the Judean foothills were inhabited?” Zechariah 7:4-7 HCSB
Look! God’s dwelling is with humanity, and He will live with them. They will be His people, and God Himself will be with them and be their God. 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will no longer exist; grief, crying, and pain will exist no longer, because the previous things e have passed away. Rev. 21:-3-4 HCSB
Speaking with God must be a progression in and for ourselves—a progression in the literal sense of the word, that brings us forward, that moves us toward God and away from ourselves.
Many Christians have a routine for how they relate to God. For some, it is a walk, every day meeting Him, and traveling with Him. For others, it is a weekly, thing, as they pray with others on Sunday and Wednesday night. Some only react to God when facing a challenge.
While I would desire that all interact with God more and more, it is not just the amount of time invested that matters. It is also about how we interact with Him. The prophet Zechariah writes of this, as the words of God are given through the prophet to challenge us all.
Why do we pray, fast, go to church and Bible study? Is it just to feel good about ourselves? Is it just to appease our own feelings of guilt or inadequacy? Is it just to be assured that we won’t spend eternity in hell?
Or is it because of the glorious promise we see in Revelation. When we shall dwell with God, in all of His glory! Is it because, having seen revealed in part how much God loves us, we need to explore it, we need to adore Him, we find ourselves craving His presence? For as we find we are loved, that unbelievable fact must be explored, its height, its depth, its width, and breadth. We want to experience it more, no, we need to!
This transformation we need to be patient with, it needs to be nurtured, it needs to be guided. This journey happens in community, it is the nature of communion. It ebbs and flows, and this means we need to look out for each other and be there for each other. For it is to easy to be dragged away by the cares of the world, it is too easy to be trip and fall off the path (one of the definitions of is exactly that!)
And yet it happens, as we look to the end of the journey, as our hope is found in God’s promise that He will draw us to Him. As prayer, speaking and hearing God causes that progression, and the Holy Spirit’s presence assures us, comforts us and enables us to see God’s love.
Prayer isn’t important in and of itself Every religion prays, even atheists. Gathering with people to study religious doctrine doesn’t either, every religion does that, including those who are agnostics, or secularists. What makes the difference is the loving God who loves us is who draws us to pray, to commune together, to celebrate the love which drove Jesus to cross, looking forward to the eternal relationship cleansing us from sin would bring.
It’s all about the end, the end which is a glorious, wonderful moment, when we see God face to face!
Lord Jesus, help us to encourage each other, as the day of Your return draws closer, as the Holy Spirit draws us closer, and into the relationship that You have with the Father. Help us to do the things we do, adoring You more and more, as we realize Your love for us. AMEN!
Ratzinger, J. (1992). Co-Workers of the Truth: Meditations for Every Day of the Year. (I. Grassl, Ed., M. F. McCarthy & L. Krauth, Trans.) (p. 344). San Francisco: Ignatius Press.
