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The Sacramental Life, one of Transformation
Devotional Thought of the Day:
1 Jesus again used parables in talking to the people. 2 “The Kingdom of heaven is like this. Once there was a king who prepared a wedding feast for his son. 3 He sent his servants to tell the invited guests to come to the feast, but they did not want to come. 4 So he sent other servants with this message for the guests: ‘My feast is ready now; my steers and prize calves have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast!’ 5 But the invited guests paid no attention and went about their business: one went to his farm, another to his store, 6 while others grabbed the servants, beat them, and killed them. 7 The king was very angry; so he sent his soldiers, who killed those murderers and burned down their city. 8 Then he called his servants and said to them, ‘My wedding feast is ready, but the people I invited did not deserve it. 9 Now go to the main streets and invite to the feast as many people as you find.’ 10 So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, good and bad alike; and the wedding hall was filled with people. 11 “The king went in to look at the guests and saw a man who was not wearing wedding clothes. 12 ‘Friend, how did you get in here without wedding clothes?’ the king asked him. But the man said nothing. 13 Then the king told the servants, ‘Tie him up hand and foot, and throw him outside in the dark. There he will cry and gnash his teeth.’ ” 14 And Jesus concluded, “Many are invited, but few are chosen.” Matthew 22:1-14 (TEV)
In a radically converted, evangelically Catholic life, the love of Christ has transformed the disciple and brought him or her into an earthly experience of the love shared by the Holy Trinity— an experience of atonement, of being “at one” with God, made possible by the Paschal Mystery and the gift of the Holy Spirit. 29 That experience changes everything. It is the driving force behind the deep reform of the Church. (1)
In just a week, we come to Maunday Thursday, the day in which the church remembers the Last Supper, (even though some of us do every week, and some have the opportunity and blessing to do so daily.)
As a child, the celebration of the Lord’s Supper, the Eucharistic Feast was what I loved the most about church, and it didn’t matter which parish I was at. St Joseph’s, which was our home parish, a more modern stone facility, or the dark and damp St Francis, where I went to school. Or the Maronite church, or the Christian Formation Center – each place, each priest that celebrated it, whether the people communed at an all altar rail, or simply processing toward the priest and then returning to their seats, this was the highlight of the mass.
Now as a Lutheran Pastor – it still is. My sermons, my homilies, are hopefully something that strengthens the trust that people have in God, and the reading of God’s word is promised never to be without return – without a gain. But there is something incredible, as I see people receive the Body and Blood of Christ. There are bodies that visibly sigh, and relax, as burdens are taken, and peace descends upon them. There are others, who realizing the great love of God, are moved to tears. There are those who struggle with sin, that… struggle and squirm a little there, for they know, even if only intuitively, that they have hurt and pained the heart of God – who so desires them to come to repentance…to the transformation that is theirs, because Jesus was crucified for them.
The Body and Blood of Christ, given and shed for YOU. O how I love to point that out! O that all people would realize the depth of God’s love, the love in which we abide.
It is what comforts our soul, this love beyond measure, it is that love – that as Wiegel says above – transforms us, and bring us into the love that exists within the Trinity itself. As we dance and celebrate with great joy the fellowship, the communion, the love of God that changes us.
3rd quarter of 16th century (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
And it not only transforms us, it will transform the church, our parishes our families. It assures the sinner of forgiveness, of love – of a welcome home.
May we be like the bad and good on the street – who once we are invited, come in to the feast…. the incredible feast….
and realize,,,
The Lord is with us!
Weigel, George (2013-02-05). Evangelical Catholicism (p. 48). Basic Books. Kindle Edition.
Related articles
- The Body of Christ, united in Love…. that which remains! (justifiedandsinner.com)
- Evangelical Catholicism – an interesting read.. (justifiedandsinner.com)
- Revealing rather Lecturing: Evangelical Catholicism II (justifiedandsinner.com)
Morality and Adoration
Devotional thought of the day:
As I wander through the updates of Facebook, I see two basic reactions to immorality.
The first encourages and defends it, asserting that no one has the right to interfere with another’s choices. It doesn’t matter what is immoral, whether it be greed, or lust, or envy. Dare you challenge someone on an immoral act, and you will find great opposition, even to the extent that you will be demonized for opposing that which they have every right (incurring free speech) to do. Result, immorality proposers.
The second is an attempt, rather than dealing with immorality on an individual basis, to legislate it, to prohibit and publicly protest it. We see this all the time, as Christians attempt to sincerely make a difference, or at least try to appear like they are making a difference. In trying to legislate the morality of a culture that is patently immoral, we easily become crusaders or compromisors, willing to give up on this issue, to make a stand on that issue, Eventually, we simply make token stands, like the one church leaders made last year – protesting the requirement for mandated coverage for abortion for those whose work is affiliated with religious ministry. ( Don’t we trust our own people enough that they won’t take advantage of such, but they will come to us for assistance in crisis? For that matter, do we doubt the moral fiber of those we shepherd to not get “into trouble” in the first place?)
So what do we do about morality and immorality? What will radically change the behavior of our country? What will help people not only be able to distinguish what it moral and beneficial to themselves and society, but see a desire to live morally, and to seek remedy and assistance when one fails, (as we all do)
There is an easy answer.
Adoration.
Simply put, when we find ourselves in the midst of a Holy, Righteous, Perfect God, who welcomes us, cleanses us, loves us, we find ourselves in awe, and that awe transforms to joy and that joy into adoration and love. And the more we fall in love with the God who loves us, and blesses us, and makes our life a masterpiece, that awe grows. And as that awe grows, the more the moral fabric of our lives changes.
Look at the stories of the “big-time” saints. St. Paul, St Augustine, St Francis, or the great revivals like the Great Awakening, or the Welsh Revival. In each life, in each revivial, the moral fabric changes, even without being addressed. Like Zacchaeus, an encounter with God leaves us wanting to change, and more than that – seeing the changes created inside us, impelling us, transforming us, renewing and re-creating us in all of His glory.
Some theologians will disagree with me, they will point to the natural law, and the “civil use” of the law. I’ll deal with that some other time – the answer is simple – found in Romans 2-8. But you cannot deny, someone madly in love with God, who is responding to God’s love for them being revealed – they will be transformed, and the more they dwell, the more they live in the presence of His love, the more they will be unable to tolerate sin, and immorality. Within themselves, they will rush to forgiveness, to the places it is promised. They will meditate on their Baptism (see Titus 3:2-8), they will feast on the Body brokem and the Blood shed for the forgiveness of sins, they will confess their sins and hear that they are cleansed of them and all unrighteousness. ANd they will see their brother, their neighbor, those those still fighting for freedom to sin, and they will fight to free them from sin, not simply restrict the ability to.
Adoration result in morality, not as a primary result, but simply as a side affect.
But if it is a moral society you really desire… desire instead the presence of the One who accounts us moral, and righteous, and beloved.
Do I need to say “I’m Sorry?” No, however…
Quote of the Day:
I agree. You acted badly, out of weakness. But what I fail to understand is how, with a clear conscience, you have not repented. You cannot do something wrong and then say, or think, that it is something holy, or that it is of no importance.
One of the challenges, in talking so much about God cleansing us of our sin, is that we somehow believe the sin isn’t a big deal. It is so easy to deal with, so easy to know God has forgiven us, do we grieve our sin anymore?
Do we grieve over the sin committed against us? Not grieving that it was committed against us, but grieving that the environment that we are part of, that results in people being compelled to sin? For sin isn’t just the sin of the person who did the act, but it is in part due to our being people who sin. How can I find the person who betrayed me by lying to me any more sinful than I am, as part of the issue is that my sin prevents them easily finding me trustworthy. Do we grieve these kinds of environments that lead people to sin through a sense of self-preservation?
For that matter, do we see sin as an individual issue, or that of the community? ( I will make the case in a later blog – that sin is always a communal issue in cause, and in need for healing)
Back to the quote by St. Josemarie, do we repent of our sin? Do we even bother to take the time to say “we are sorry”, or do we just dismiss the damage, ignore the pain, hide from bringing the issue to be healed, reconciled, the relationship restored. What happens if we don’t seek the transformation that is what we are called repentance. What if we don’t seek healing? What if we do the unthinkable, and begin to justify what we did, in hope our conscious would be relieved?
Why take such a complex way of dealing with it? Why embrace pain unnecessarily? Why set ourselves us, because we’ve been correctly found untrustworthy, to be sinned against, to be sinned against? Though life is pain (see my other blog today) we don’t need to cause ourselves more pain, either directly or indirectly.
Why not see what scripture calls is gifted and granted to us. For repentance requires more than we are capable of in the first place. It’s not just saying, “I’m sorry”, for how many of us struggle to accept those words over and over and over. Repentance is much deeper. It is a very change of how we think, what we say, what we do.
I love the word picture in Greek – literally to have a brain transplant. Or as my geek friends would say – a completely new OS (operating system) That changes everything – and causes us, requires us, calls us to depend on God ever more deeply. We cannot repent unless that ability is granted to us, unless it is a gift. So the apostles recognized,
11:16 Then I thought of the Lord’s words when he said, ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ 17 And since God gave these Gentiles the same gift he gave us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to stand in God’s way?” 18 When the others heard this, they stopped objecting and began praising God. They said, “We can see that God has also given the Gentiles the privilege of repenting of their sins and receiving eternal life.”
Acts 11:16-18 (NLT)
We have been given this gift, this ability to have our minds transformed, replaced, so greatly they have been cleansed that we are considered new, changed, alive instead of death. It is then, that we are realize how damaging our sin was, and that it grieves us – not just our sin, not just that we’ve been sinned against, but that we live in an environment that so encourages sin.
The more we grieve, the more we learn to run to the only place we have hope – the One who cleanses us, the One who heals us (note the plural here) the One who welcomes sinners, not saints, that He can give us the gift that makes us saints in His Father, our Father’s eyes.
Lord, have mercy upon us… and help us to rejoice as we are healed together… of the sin which has ensnared us.
The Greatest Change…
A Radical Change…We Needed
Isaiah 35:4-7a
† In Jesus Name †
As God’s hand guides us through this valley of sin and death, may we so know His presence, may we so experience His love and mercy and peace, that we do not fear…but find ourselves alive in His strength
Change
It is a word that can cause great anxiety, even fear, or terror. We make jokes about our inability to change – for example, How many Lutherans does it take to change a light bulb? Change?
Perhaps for men it is because we associate change with a need to get dirty. I mean one of the ways the word is used – that will cause any man to cringe and hide in fear are the words, “Honey can you change the baby’s diaper!”
Politicians promise it – yet their changes are often something to fear, because of what is called the “law of unintended consequences.”
I mention that change can create anxiety, I should have said it does, as we try to find ways to cope with it. We can try to bargain, we can just simply deny it is happening, we can get angry about it, we can get depressed, we can accept it, but even then, is that acceptance done with a sense of defeat, or a sense of expectation, and are those expectations real?
To those experiencing such anxiety, the prophecy of Isaiah speaks to you, indeed it speaks to all of us who experience change:
35:4 Say to those who have an anxious heart, “Be strong; fear not!”
Isaiah was even to give them the reason for their strength, the reason they didn’t need to fear.“Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God. He will come and save you.”
Now that is a radical change, that is the most radical change we will face in our lives, and my friends it is a radical change we needed.
I will even make the promise that the coming of Christ into our lives is the most radical change our lives will ever endure. And most of us, whether we have realized it, have already seen that change made in our lives.
Isaiah’s then and now
In three verses today, Isaiah has a “top ten list” – ten ways he describes the change that comes, when God bursts on the scene, and brings salvation to His people. When He delivers them from the bondage of sin, from the oppression of satan and his demons, and when he frees us from anxiety about death.
So let’s look at this “top ten” list. Isaiah’s top 10 ways of describing the change that takes place in a life which encounters God.
Number 10, Our Anxious hearts find Strength in knowing God is here, saving us.
The word in Hebrew for anxious and anxiety is also the word for frantic. To use an old saying, being anxious looks like someone running around like chicken with its head cut off. Anxiety drives us to want to do something, anything, to find a way to cope, or to find a distraction from all that worries us.
Yet when God comes into our life, when we know we can have faith in Him, trust Him, we learn something amazing, we can be still, and know that He is God. He’s in charge and the promises that go with that are wondrous! What a change!
Number 9 We are changed from being blinded, to being able to see.
As God enters our lives, it is very much like having a cataract removed. That’s what the Hebrews pictures – something growing on our eye, that stops us from being able to see anything – it is removed – and we can see so clearly, that we can comprehend what is going on around us, what is truly important – our senses come alive! And we can being to perceive God’s plan in this world around us, and again, rest knowing His love!
The 8th way Isaiah’s prophecy describes the change of God coming into our lives! The deaf are able to hear!
Imagine never being able to hear, then the first words you can hear are, “I love you!”
To hear God’s word read and when He says, over and over, “You will be my people, and I will be your God, “ what sticks with us, is that He is talking to us, we are His people, He is our God! He will care and provide for us, comfort and protect us. What an incredible change!
Number 7 change that comes when we are transformed in Christ – the lame are able to leap like a deer! How tremendous is this change pictured, as everything which hobbles us, everything that binds and weakens us is removed! Sin cannot grasp us, shame and guilt cannot immobilize us, such an incredible picture this prophecy, this promise of Isaiah brings to our lives!
The sixth way in which in which we are changed brings to mind the move Braveheart –when Mel Gibson cries out– Freedom! For the sixth way this change that takes place in our lives is described is that the mute able to should cry! But the word for cry is a specific word, not just any cry, but the jubilation cry – the shout every 50 years when every debt is cancelled, everything is made right and restored. This shout accompanies the trumpet is sounded as the man of God cries out that we are– healed and FREE!
The fifth change pictures the change of flood waters breaking forth in the desert, as if some dam can no longer hold that which is keeps behind its wall – and the love of God, the mercy and grace pours out over us, overwhelming us as it transforms us into His image!
As it the fourth way in which we are changed – as streams appear on the Arabah – not just in valleys, but wadi’s, oasis appearing at the top of desert mountains. So incredible the change, so incredible the life of God that is manifest in our lives! This isn’t to say that we won’t need to rest, that there won’t be times were the world overwhelms us, but indeed God will give us the rest and provide that which we need!
Number Three also is a picture as hard cracked ground becomes pools, for the ground becomes so completely saturated, that the water above is still and deep. Ground that was formerly so dry, so lifeless that the sun could baked it to the point where it cracked is now so changed. Over and over these ways keep noting the change – more and more radical – but the difference only testifies to the need we had, when we were dominated and anxious because of the power that sin had over us! And we can never forget the change that many others still need!
The number 2 ways in which we are changed – this dry thirsty ground of our souls are so changed they become springs and fountains! Picture we become like Old Faithful! Lives that we sucked dry, that were in so much need of attention and care, become like lives that cannot stop pouring out the very thing that they have received – the water of life, the grace and mercy and peace of God
And the last way the transformation that happens when God comes to us, and rescues us sounds perhaps the oddest. The place where Jackals live, the dry dead ruins becoming like a wetlands. Life teams all over the place, and the area that once was so barren that rabid scavengers would fight to the death over the smallest tidbit – now is a place rich with food, rich with life. So to our lives change when we realize that God has it all under control – life becomes so different, we are no longer anxious over what there is for us, and we gladly begin to share of what we’ve been blessed with!
It is a greater change even than the one we fear the most…death
In three verses, Isaiah’s prophecy has described a dramatic change that will happen in the future for those who were his contemporaries. For those of us that get anxious about change – this most incredible change has already happened to you – the promise has occurred – when God came to you, and claimed you as His.
When you were brought to life in Christ.
No other change you will ever experience – even physical death, is as great as the one which has been made in your life. You have gone from spiritual death, and quickened into life by the very power of God!
you can see Him, so you can hear of His love, so you can leap and shout for joy, for He is with you. So a life that was dry and hard and sucked everything in, and was self-centered and focused on getting what you could, could become an incredible oasis of peace.
When we experience any change, there is a time where we have to get used to it. That’s is where we are at now – that is why this feast, and these times were we are gathered are so crucial, for they remind us, we are being changed, recreated, transformed, for God has come, and took vengeance on all sin when Jesus bore it all on the cross.
And we are saved..just as was prophesied, we just need to get used to it!
So rest, strong in Christ, and let the anxiety of life slip away. For the peace of God, which passes all understanding, guards your heart and minds in Christ Jesus. AMEN?
