Judge

He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, 

Nicene-Constantinople Creed

Whoa. Trailing clouds of glory. Christians have been waiting for that one for over 2000 years, and yet the first time He came, He was poor, humble and hidden.

It should be no small relief to any of us that when the time comes for our life to be weighed, the one sitting there will be the God of mercy and his son who loved us so much he became one of us.

Ascended

He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. 

Nicene-Constantinople Creed

This isn't a dogma I struggle with; I just accept it. The post-easter stories are fascinating.  They don't follow any linear pattern so we can create a timeline of His activities but a few things are very consistent among them.

Key among them is that He came to them in bodily form not ghostly form. The Thomas story is the obvious case of that. Thomas had to touch and feel. (Our weekend assistant pastor says "Good for Him. We shouldn't always believe hearsay!") Luke repeats a similar story in which Jesus invites them to touch him. At Emmaus the recongized him when he ate with them. Luke and John have various stories of him eating with them.

He came, He visited, He ate with them, He continued to teach and then he was lifted up.

The Feast of the Ascension 2009

The meaning of Christ's Ascension expresses our belief that in Christ the humanity that we all share has entered into the inner life of God in a new and hitherton unheard of way. It means that man has found an everlasting place in God...Jesus Himself is what we call heaven.

Benedict xvi

Let us live in joyful expectation of His return in glory! 

to which I add--the time in which we join Him

Rose

On the third day he rose again in fulfillment of the Scriptures; 

Nicene-Constantinople Creed

This is the thing, this is the reality the first generation, the eye-witness generation was at great pains to tell us.   This is the miraculous thing.

Resurrection of the dead was not an unknown concept in the first century. We can see from the New Testament that it was a hot debate among Jews with the Pharisees (like Paul!) firmly holding that the dead would rise and the Sadducee's arguing against.

Is it any wonder Paul was ready to believe in Resurrection when he heard the voice of Jesus on his way to Damascus?  He would later write "he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead." Colossions 1:18

Luke claimed to have heard it from others but her wrote about events "just as those who were eyewitnesses from the beginning and ministers of the word have handed them down to us..." ( Luke 1:2: )

Was the author of 2Peter the apostle Peter? Scholars suggest not. Whoever wrote it wrote as if he too were an eyewitness, "We did not follow cleverly devised tales when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty." (2Peter 1:16)

And again Paul wrote "After that, he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at once, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep." (1Corinthians 15:6)

We have no such access to eyewitnesses. "We walk by faith and not by sight." (2Corinthians 5:7) That's as it should be; the saints walk with us. Is it not logical that he would go back to His Father?

Died

For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate; he suffered, died, and was buried.  

Nicene-Constantinople Creed

Why did Jesus have to die? Because he was a human being. To be born is to die; we start dying the day we're born. Every woman who gives birth gives birth to a child who will come to natural death eventually--or, God forbid, premature death.  The big thing was the Incarnation. Everything else flows from that.

Did God want His son to die? You hear that question, but I think it is absurd.  It sounds as if they sat around in heavan planning it out, "and then--crucifixion."  No, I don't think so. The decision was to be fully human. The will of the Father was "don't interfere." Don't interfere with their free will; don't interfere with nature; live it out to the very end. He took on our life and He took on our death.

Why crucifixion? Was that of His own choosing? Look to mankind for that. Men invented that and myriad other forms for torture, for control, for manipulation all designed to seek power over one another. He came, poor and humble, and subjected Himself to human nature. Was it inevitable? Tempting thought. Evil inevitably attacks good I think.

Man

For us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven; by the power of the Holy Spirit he was born of the Virgin Mary, and became man.   

                                                                 Nicene-Constantinople Creed

Of all the great tenets of Christianity, Incarnation is the most logical. God, being entirely Love by nature wants--needs--to draw men to Himself. We could not bridge the huge gulf dividing us from God, the gulf the Church calls Original Sin, or simply sin. Only God could bridge that gap.  We could not go to Him, He had to come to us.

and so, the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us...

                                                                       John 1:14

One in Being

...the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, one in Being with the Father.  Through him all things were made.                                                                                                 Nicene-Constantinople Creed

 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came to be through him, and without him nothing came to be. John 1:1-3

The Trinity falls into the area of "things too wonderful for me" to understand. What I do get is that God is Love and there is a logic to the assumption that in Love there must be a lover, a beloved and the love that passes between them.  The Son, the Word is the beloved part of the one Love. 

Obviously, as John 1 shows,  Christians were clear on the "One in Being" part by the beginning of the second century AD. 

Lord

We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ... Nicene-Constantinople Creed.

Lord--Κύριον or Kyrie in Greek--Dóminum in Latin--we now use "Lord" almost exclusively to mean "God."  

Social relationships shifted greatly between the first century and, for example, the twelfth, Our own concepts for kings and lords come entirely from the middle ages and from European aristocracy stretching into the 19th century.  American romance novels are full of "yes my Lord" and "His Lordship."  The idea seems oddly out of place in 21st century America.

But what did Kyrie mean when the Old Testament was translated in 100BC? I gather that the earlier Hebrew was Adonai for Lord and synonymous with "God."  The Septuagent translaters used Kyrie. Paul would have read "Kyrie" as God. He uses Kyrie/Dominus for Jesus in the first century and there it is in the fourth century Nicene language: Kyrie/Dominus.

So if Kyrie is synonymous with God, what is the connotation? What does it say about our relationship with God?

My search of Latin dictionaries brings back "master" as the meaning of Dominus. It comes from the same root as the English "dominate," that is the Latin Dominari, to rule.  I can't help wondering if it isn't also related to "Domus" or household--implying that to rule is to be head of the family or household. I wasn't able to document that.  

I found "master" and "ruler" as alternative translations of Adonai.  Regardless of the era or the social context, "Lord" always implies the man in charge, the one to whom some sort of obedience is owed.   What do we have in our own era that conveys such meaning? "Boss" doesn't seem to cover it. 

Household implies family--authority, yes, but loving authority.

I believe in one Master, Jesus Christ.  That fits. That is what I believe. I am of the household of Jesus and he is the Master of the household.

Maker

We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is seen and unseen. Nicene-Constantinople Creed

Here's the easy one, the beginning of what I believe: Wake up. Look around. Wow--who made this? 

For this part the Baltimore Catechism hit it just right. Who is God? God is the supreme being who made all things. Who made me? God made me.   

Then it gets complicated. Why did God make me? He made me to know, love, and serve Him in this world and to be happy with Him in the next. 

I was twelve when I asked the question, "Is there a God? Because if there isn't this religion thing doesn't make much sense." The experience that followed the question is hard to describe.  What it left me with was the sure knowledge that God is and that He is the hub around which my existence revolves. He is the centering reality that gives form to my life.  Everything else is secondary.

Winter

And perhaps I shall stay or even spend the winter with you, so that you may send me on my way wherever I may go. 1 Corinthians 16:6

Sometimes you have to begin again. Late winter, just before Lent is one of those times.

My journey never stopped but this blog dropped by the wayside along the way. This seems like a good time to pick it up again. This time I hope to reflect on two topics: 1) what I believe and 2) marriage. What do I believe? I'm a Nicene Christian--and  Roman Catholic. 

I still struggle with discerning God's will for my future, but less than before. It isn't really necessary to see the entire road map, only to continue the journey, "wherever I may go" and to trust that he is leading one step at a time. His word is a lamp to my path.

Plans

In his mind a man plans his course, but the LORD directs his steps.
Proverbs 16: 9

The old joke: How do you make God laugh? Tell him your plans. If you do a full-text search of the Bible on "plans" you get dozens of references to the plans of men, must of them about frustration. Rarely do you see that word in reference to God.

And in honor of the Feast of Christ the King, this from Pope Benedict XVI:

God does not have a fixed plan that he must carry out; on the contrary, he has many different ways of finding man and even of turning his wrong ways into right ways...the Feast of Christ the King is therefore not a feast of those who are subjugated, but a feast of those who know that they are in the hands of the one who writes straight with crooked lines.

So we plunge ahead confidently, remembering to listen, trying to do so, and trust Him to make sense out of the tangle of our lives.

Words

'Who gave a person a mouth?' Yahweh said to him... Is it not I, Yahweh? Now go, I shall help you speak and instruct you what to say.'
Exodus 4:11-12

God was very specific with Moses--where he was to go, what he was to say. Perhaps Moses just listened better. Perhaps it was the shepherding, and the time alone it gave him. Perhaps it was remembering to go up to the mountains, like Jesus did.

How do we listen? Where is the word?

Or perhaps, when you are the messenger, you just know.

Death and Aging

Jesus, who destroyed death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel...
2 Timothy 1:10

I look at the skin on my hands and it is withering, like the leaves that are turning brown, curling up and falling to the ground. Death is heavy with me this Autumn. Is it delayed reaction to my father's death last winter? He took with him the last buffer between me and the next world. Is it the whisper of the Holy Spirit? He whispers, "Life is temporary, let go of attachment to it."

My natural reaction is rage. We are called to be more than that. Only in Jesus is there strength in the face of bodily death.

Plans

I know well the plans I have in mind for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare, not for woe! plans to give you a future full of hope.
Jeremiah 29:11

I've heard that the one way to make God laugh is to tell him you have plans. The rest of my life is stretching out in front of me. I need a job, and the only thing certain is that I don't want to be "Director" of anything. Perhaps God has other ideas. My suspicion is that, while He values human work, He isn't terrible concerned about specific jobs. Perhaps I'm wrong.

I know he gave me marriage and family as my primary concern and that won't change. I know he wants me to write. The inclination is most certainly from him. But what shall I write? I won't tell him my plans. He might laugh. He sends me ideas when I remember to listen.

You will surely have a future, and your hope will not be cut off.
Proverbs 23:18

Writing

If you bring forth the precious without the vile, you shall be my mouthpiece.
Jeremiah 15:19

How do we bring for the precious without the vile? By taking in only the precious but not the vile? How do we live in the world without being a part of it? How do we then speak to it?

The word says "If you repent so that I restore you..."

To tell real stories about real people, is to deal with the ugly along with the beautiful, the good along with the bad. We have to sift for the precious in the midst of the crass. Between the vast moral wasteland of popular culture and the contrived fictions of inspirational romance and family-friendly programming lie the lives of real people making their way to God. To tell those stories requires the hand of God.

The Jerusalem Bible translation is this:

If you come back,I will take you back into my service;and if you utter noble, not despicable, thoughts,you shall be as my own mouth.

1. Repent
2. God acts to take you into his service
3. Utter nobel thoughts
4. God is in charge of the results.

That will work.

Quaerere Deum

Oh that today you would listen to His word!
Psalm 95

Listen carefully, my son to the Master's instructions and attend to them with the ear of your heart.
Rule of Saint Benedict

That is the constant conumdrum--how to listen, not talk. Spiritual advisors give us libraries full of advice on practice and piety--words to say. Occasionally we get a hint of how to listen. The Zen masters gave more listening advice that Western spiritual experts (says she, muttering).

Here's one from Magnificat: "Deaf though we may be to the Word of God, God never ceases to send us messengers..." The skeptic wonders, where are they in my life? Jeremiah, are you there? The believer acknowledges that the scripture sits unopened on the desk, and on the table. The writer goes on, however. "...homilies, hymns, prayers, persons, events, experiences--to break through our deafness that we might hear and live." The skeptic again wonders how we know which of the many people and events--and prayers, homilies and hymns--are the ones we should listen to.

Perhaps the answer is all of them.

Memorial Day (or, Mourning Again)

I went about mourning as though for my friend or brother. I bowed my head in grief as though weeping for my mother.

Psalm 35:13-15

Here's to those fallen in battle, may we revere their memory always. Here's to the mangled and maim who come back to us, they deserve our care and thanks.

Here, also, is tribute and respect to the living dead, the walking wounded, the ones who left their life on a battlefield somewhere, and filled out the rest of their days in a kind of grey half life, never quite the husbands or fathers they were before, never living the lives they would have led. Long before modern psychology named it PTSD they were among us.

Here, above all, is a salute to those who got back husband, brother, friend, father but never really got him back. I weep for my mother.

The Desert Again

A voice of one crying out in the desert: 'Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths.
Mark 1:3

From an interview with Bruce Feiler regarding Walking the Bible:

I went looking for all these rational questions, and could I make it connection with my kind of secular, rational world, and then I realized that was just this kind of crutch that I was relying on. And that what I really learned was that going into the desert, in particular, you have to learn to let go of those crutches and the civilized world, and open yourself up to something higher.

I think that one thing that Judaism, Christian and Islam have in common is that they are the story of a man - at their heart - the story of a man who leaves the civilized world and goes into the desert, has a transforming experience, and then comes back to the civilized world to share that experience with others.

The key thought here is that when you go into the desert you can't use reason and intellect as a crutch. You have to confront the higher realities. It reads like a primer on my own spiritual dilemmas.

Prayer

And when you are praying, speak not much, as the heathens. For they think that in their much speaking they may be heard.
Be not you therefore like to them, for your Father knoweth what is needful for you, before you ask him.
Matthew 6:7-8

It came to me suddenly, how I pray.

Dear Lord, show me what you want from me; Thy will be done. Now, here's what I'm going to do for you. 1)...

God says, if you'll stop talking, perhaps I can get a word in edgewise. Let me know when you are ready.

Emptying Out

Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves
Philippians 2:3

If anything at all in faith runs contrary to the values of this world it is this: we are called to put the other--each and every 'other' in our lives--ahead of ourselves. Modern psychology screams out that this cannot be so; healthy ego demands attention to the self first. Faith argues that a truly health ego has no need of focus on self. Humility demands that we cease thinking about the self and simply live with what is.

Does this mean the person of faith should put up with abuse? Clearly not. To love the other is to prevent the other from being an abuser. To collaborate in the abuse by allowing your own victimization is not humility, it is self centered weakness.

Does this mean the person of faith is at the beck and call of every demand and whim of everyone he/she meets? Clearly not. To love the other is to keep your eyes on the true good, the long term well being of the the other and the bigger picture. It isn't about reaction, but about where you put your eyes.

If one of those given to you is irritable or angry the response is not "You're mean." or "I'm right you aren't." Nor is it "That's ok, treat me as you will." It is "What is behind this, and how can I help heal it with God's help?"

The emptying of self does not make one weak. On the contrary, it plants one on the firm foundation of God's power.

Mourning

For my days are vanishing like smoke
my bones burn away like a fire.
My heart is withered like the grass.
Psalm 102

April 4

There are losses that can never be replaced. Sadness and loss can swamp you unexpectedly long after you thought you were healed. Are you letting God down?

There are losses that make you acutely aware of your own failures. There is death, and there is the failure to give life. Can you refuse God's forgiveness and healing?

April, always April. "Breeding flowers in a dead land." MLK died April 4, 1968. Many perished in Xenia April 4, 1974, and one died a distance away at the same time. All deaths are equal in God's eyes. All life is from him. Can you refuse life?

No. Before you there is life and death. Choose life, with all its cyclic pain and rebirth, joy and sorrow, death and resurrection.

It's the blight that man was born for. It is Margaret that you mourn for. (cummings)