March 13, 2011

We are now in the season of Lent a time of preparation for Jesus' death and his Glorious Resurrection.  

The book of Genesis is appropriate on the first Sunday of Lent.  It reminds us of Adam's fall where we all became victims of sin, as a result became sinful creatures.  Lent is a time of soul-searching and reminding ourselves that we are sinners, the creatures  for whom Christ died.  We are the people that Jesus loved.  It is only fitting that we reciprocate by preparing ourselves for his death and resurrection.

It is always struck me as strange that the story of the fall of Adam and Eve metaphorically is the story of the evolution of man.

Sometime in the distant past human beings led idyllic life is much is this much as we see in the higher apes indeed, these apes neither sow nor reap yet they live quite well.  At some point in antiquity man became self aware, and acquired the ability to choose a life that is self-destructive.  In other words, we humans were now able to choose to between being sinful or virtuous.  Just as Adam and Eve became self aware after eating of the tree of knowledge of good and evil a proper reading of evolution leads us to the same conclusion.

Another startling fact concerning human evolution was discovered a few years ago by scientists studying the makeup of mitochondrial RNA.  Mitochondrial RNA is passed from generation to generation only by women.  Scientists have been able to trace this RNA back to when it first appeared in the human race.  The upshot of this discovery was all of modern humanity sprang from a single female.  Yes, this means that really was an Eve.

A belief in the literal Garden of Eden or being a confirmed evolutionist makes no difference, in the eyes of God.  Both stories of the evolution of man are really the same.  It is inconceivable that a wandering tribe of nomads 8,000 years ago could understand the real meaning of evolution.  God had put the creation story in a format that they could understand and relate to; the story of Adam and Eve and their fall from grace is understandable to all, even today.  The simple fact is that humans were given the opportunity to act against God's will. We did, and we still do. 

Lent allows us to examine our unworthiness and try to express a real sorrow for our sins through meditation and acts of self denial.  Contrition is in order, we must remember the enormity of gift of life that Jesus Christ gave to us, 2000 years ago.

Giving up drinking, smoking, candy, or any other self indulgent pleasurable activity in Lent is well and good as far as it goes.  The problem with giving up these small vices is that these vices are things that are self-destructive and giving them up is that actually akin to the self-aggrandizement we heard in today's gospel.  Giving up something for Lent only has real meaning if it is accompanied by meditation on God's gift to us, his son.  An example might be giving up one meal a day and spending the time it takes to eat in meditation.  Meditation will allow us to partially understand the enormity of Christ's suffering and death and glorious resurrection. 

Christ has been referred to as the new Adam, the implication of this is that Jesus Christ is a harbinger of a new time his death and resurrection is a new beginning for all of humanity.  We all must experience this Lent as a time of preparation for a new beginning.   This personal world to which we are striving is one in which we all live in more Christ like life.  

In addition I would like to remind all the followers of this blog of the St. Bernard medals we are selling to help us offset the deficit that we incur in bringing a protestant presence to the mountain.  We have set up a e-mail address where you may order these beautiful medals.

The address is stbernardmedals@gmail.com.

February 21, 2011

An eye for an eye, a tooth for tooth is the human reaction to injury.  Both of today’s Old Testament and Gospel readings preach the same message.  We are to follow the spirit of the 10 Commandants, not just the letter of the law.  Obeying the spirit of the Commandants is extremely difficult because it often goes against our human nature.

Taken as a whole, Leviticus was an instruction manual for Levites (Old Testaments priests.)  The specific chapter in the Old Testament for last Sunday is referred to as the social chapter.  It tells us, “You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am Holy.”  This statement tells us that holiness cannot be an optional luxury in our lifestyle.  We are tasked to be holy, because God is holy.  This is a high expectation, one that none of us can actually achieve, but one we must strive to meet. 

The same expectation of holiness is expressed in Matthew 5:43 (last Sunday’s Gospel reading).  "Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly father is perfect."  This is a restatement of the demand for holiness made in Leviticus. 

Earlier in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus made the statement,   "I am here not to change the law, but rather as the fulfillment of the law."  Jesus clarifies that we are to return to God’s intent when he gave us the 10 Commandants to follow.  This is in contrast to the legalistic way the law was being interpreted by the Pharisees and Scribes.   

We must keep the spirit of the Commandants in our lives every day in every way.  We must take care never to use another’s person’s labor for personal enrichment.  It means giving the poor break.  This is much more than giving a dollar or two to a beggar.  Rather, it means we are expected to give the poor a way to earn a living.  Many Christians do hire people to do odd jobs around their homes, allowing those hired to subsist in our economy.  This is an example of following the spirit of the Law.

We are to avoid making distinctions among people.  Leviticus makes this clear when it states, “we are not to be partial to the poor, nor to defer to the great.”  Jesus was not the first to use the phrase “love your neighbor as yourself “Leviticus said it first.  God is forceful on this point.  He gave us his only Son knowing that Jesus Christ would be put to death in order to bring this message to us. 

The lesson we are to learn from both of these readings is to rise above our human nature and do what is required to become more God-like.  We are to avoid persecuting others.  We must not call others to task nor seek revenge when we are being persecuted.  We must love our persecutors.

The Unites States and much of Europe are in the middle of a struggle with enemies that persecute us by attacking us where we work and live.  We must somehow learn to combat all threats like this with love, because this is what God does for us when we sin against him.

Being Godlike is difficult.  As difficult as it is, this is what God demands of us. This means loving those who hate and persecute us.  God’s love for us is all powerful and we can, by his grace, share his love through our action toward others.

January 30, 2011

An important part of Christian worship is a blessing that is embedded in our services each Sunday.  In the celebration of the Eucharist we end the service with a blessing.  A blessing is God's way of telling us that we are okay and are one of God's people. 

In today's gospel, Jesus, God the Son, is telling us the attributes that a blessed person possesses.  When examining the Beatitudes one must remember that Jesus was speaking to the core of those followers, the disciples, who believed he was the Son of God.  Through the 2,000 years since Jesus life on earth this core has expanded to include all of us who profess Jesus as our Savior.

The Beatitudes are addressed to the entire faith community, rather than to the individual.  Very few followers of Christ can claim to be meek, merciful, and pure in heart; however in every congregation there are persons of meekness, people who minister out of mercy for their fellow man, and workers for peace.  These individuals’ presence and activity among us is a sign of God's blessing and a call to all of us to make our common life more consistent with the values of God’s kingdom.

We must remember that Christianity is not an activity to reduce stress, lose weight,  nor can just being a Christian preserve us from illness.   To help us make sense of the Beatitudes we will examine two of the attributes that Jesus tells us exists in a functional faith community. 

One of the Beatitudes that most of us have heard over and over is, “blessed are the poor, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”  The Beatitude actually reads, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”  Most Christians have a way of not remembering the words “in spirit.”  The insertion of these two simple words radically changes the meaning of this beatitude.  The words poor in spirit, refer to a spiritual void in each of us; that can only be filled by God.  The poor in spirit know that their lives are not in their own control, and that they are totally dependent on God.

Persons who hunger and thirst for righteousness are those who neither long to be personally pious nor are they dreamers or do-gooders.  They are persons who long for the coming of God's kingdom and the victory over sin that comes with this yearning.  Righteousness in the beatitudes is more akin to the hope we all have to attain eternal salvation.  Our Christian faith is a way of living based on the firm and sure hope that meekness is the way of God, that righteousness and peace will finally prevail.  We must live in the realization that the future will be a time of mercy rather than cruelty.

We must remember that trying to use the Beatitudes as a way of life will in the end be vindicated by God and we will be truly blessed.

The blessings that we receive on Sunday’s service and in the daily office are the outpouring of Gods love for us.  These blessings serve to strengthen us so that we can live up to the standard set by Jesus in the Beatitudes.     

January 17, 2011

We humans tend to celebrate, as in party, Martin Luther King Jr. day rather than remember his vision.  In his famous “I had a dream” speech he told us that his hope was for an America which did not have any barriers to the basic freedoms out-lined in the Declaration of Independence.  Specifically, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights.

King’s dream was truly a calling from God toward action.  In today’s gospel John the Baptist answered a call when he stated publicly that he was not fit to tie the sandal of Jesus.  John’s two disciples immediately left John and followed Jesus answering their call from God.  One of the two, Andrew told his brother Simon that he had found the messiah and Simon felt the call to follow Jesus.  We all know that Jesus welcomed Simon when Jesus renamed him Cephus or Peter.

These callings to John and the three original disciples mark the flowering of the tree which grew from the root of Jessie.  Jesus was the messiah promised in the Old Testament.  This was the beginning of Christianity, our religion which was founded in love.  Christianity grew from this simple beginning to a movement that the world had never seen before. God used humble men and women to accomplish great deeds. Through out history we humans have demonstrated a proclivity to wander away from the basic civility Jesus taught us.

        God incessantly calls on humans to do something to correct wrongs that plague our world. Historically we see individuals answering the call by God.  The Emperor Constantine embraced Christianity as the official religion of the Roman Empire. We see it again in Jan Hus's defiance against the church in Rome's failure to meet the needs of the common man.  Martin Luther heeded his call when he protested the practice of selling indulgences to raise money. The call of these men to right the wrongs that were being perpetuated by the powers within the world is remarkable.

        Obedience to the call of God comes to all of us, not just the great.  Each of us receives a call to action by God.  Our call may be as simple as helping a neighbor who is in difficulty financially or physically. It is our answer to God’s call that marks us as Christians.

        When answering our call, we are celebrating our remembrance that Christ Jesus died for our sins on the cross.  Christ, God the Son, being obedient to God the Father’s call makes our salvation possible.        

January 3, 2011

A few thoughts concerning love, trust and obedience.

Love, trust, obey, these three simple words sum up the lives of Mary and Joseph.  Both of them were loyal observant Jews who loved God with their whole being.  Out of this love there was an implicit trust in God and, most important, an obedience to the wishes of God.  It is out of this simple trust in God that our savior, Jesus was born and reared by the holy family.

Mary who was to be the mother of Jesus was a teen aged virgin engaged to Joseph a skilled carpenter.  Mary demonstrated love and trust in God when the angel of the Lord came to her and informed her that she was to be the mother of the Son of God.  She trusted God.  Her response to the angelic visit as recorded Luke 1, 41-45 was:

My spirit rejoices in God my Savior.
For He has regarded the low estate of His handmaiden,
For behold, henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.
For He who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is His name.

Joseph was engaged to a Mary whom he loved.  He was distressed when discovered Mary’s pregnancy.  He knew he was not the father of the unborn infant.  His first impulse was to marry her to prevent her being persecuted and possibly killed for having a child out of wedlock.  He resolved to divorce her after an appropriate period of time.  His love and trust in the Lord was put to the test when in a dream an angel of God asked him to fully accept Mary because she was to have God’s son.  Joseph was instructed to name the new born Jesus.  Thereby Joseph and Mary provided a normal home for Jesus.  Mary and Joseph made this possible by their love and trust in God as evidenced in there obedience to God’s will.

Joseph’s love and trust in God was put to the test a second time just 12 day’s after our savior’s birth.  Joseph was once again was told in a dream by an angel of the Lord to take Mary and Jesus and flee to Egypt.  They were to remain there until told they could leave.  Once again Joseph obeyed Gods request out of his love and trust for the almighty.  He took Mary and the new born Jesus to Egypt.  The reason for this visit by the angel of the Lord was Herod’s plan to have all male children under age of two killed.  Herod ordered the killing of infants to prevent the birth of the king of the Jew’s (Jesus) from threatening his throne. 

The third and fourth instances of Joseph’s trust in God and obedience to his will also occurred after visits of angels in his dreams.  An angel of the Lord informed him of Herod’s death and instructed him to leave Egypt and return to Israel.  After the holy family’s return the angel returned in another dream and told him to leave Judea and move his family to Nazareth in the district of Galilee to insure Jesus’ safety .

It was through the love, trust and obedience of both Mary and Joseph that Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ, Emmanuel, the Prince of peace came to us to conquer sin and save all of humankind.

Thank you Mary and Joseph for the love, trust and obedience to God that allows us to pray,

“Eternal Father, you gave to your incarnate Son the holy name of Jesus to be the sign of our salvation: Plant in every heart, we pray, the love of him who is the Savior of the world, our Lord Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, in glory everlasting.”

December 27, 2010

Today I would like to share some of the comments I have received about our Christmas Service and Snowshoe Community: 

“Our family feels very blessed for this is our eighth Christmas in this lovely quaint place.  We would like to express our gratitude to you – a church that welcomes visitors with open arms!  Not one year have we left your church without feeling the magic and warmth of the Christmas spirit and that makes our stay extra special!

We are sure that there are needs in your community.  Please use this money where it is most needed.

With kindest regards may you & your loved ones have a blessed Christmas.”

Name withheld

The kind contribution of this guest will be used for outreach to some needy person in the Snowshoe area.

Another comment:

“I recently watched a couple of those sappy, ie, heart warming Christmas specials. You know, the ones about a community always coming together, helping about, caring about each and actually going out of their way to help strangers (no matter how dumb they are)  That’s when I realized, Hell, that’s where I live.”

          Name withheld

The last statement is a good comment about each of us.

I appreciate your comments and can’t help but sharing the great ones.  I hope you had a merry and holy Christmas and wish you all a happy and blessed New Year.

Jim+

December 25, 2010

Yesterday, Christmas Eve was magical on Snowshoe Mountain.  The trees were encased in snow white crystals.  The sunlight reflecting over the snow covering made for a truly memorable Christmas Eve service at Chapel on the Mount (St. Bernard’s Chapel).  The congregation in the Chapel included 300 guests and home owners.  The choir was outstanding (Martha, Sue, Thomas, Mike, Doug, Sally, Doris, Caroline and Gillian).  The service went smoothly.  I would like to thank the ushers (Fred, Jay, Martin, Rodney, Michael, Ronnie and Tim).  The service would have been much poorer without the assistance of Hannah, Ashley, Connie and Steve.

Yesterday Sally Adkins sent me a poem by her brother the Reverend David Kirk , I would like to share it with you:

“Special Grace”

Tis the time of special grace

Eternity touches troubled earth

Shows us a merciful face

Tis the season of God’s birth.

Tis the time of special grace

Light invades the darkest night

Illuminating every earthly place

The poor are rich, the blind have sight.

Tis the time of special grace

The gift of love is on display

I see it now in your face

This love, this truth, the way.

Tis the time of special grace

Sound the chimes, a child is born

A son given to the human race

Ring the bells, blow the horns.

Tis the time of special grace

Peace comes to touch the earth

Hope enters our deepest space

Tis the season of God’s birth.

David Kirk

May you and yours have a joyous and holy Christmas and a happy and prosperous New Year

Jim+