The Widow's Mite as Judgment Upon the Institution

24 Pentecost 27 B November 7, 2021
1 Kings 17:8-16 Psalm 146
Hebrews 9:24-28 Mark 12:38-44

Lectionary Link

Imagine being in Jesus Movement just after the year 70, and most of the leaders of the Jesus Movement being Jews who grew up in the Temple and synagogue traditions.

And now you have had to be dispersed from Jerusalem and the nearby countryside because the Roman army had crushed Jerusalem and demolished the beloved Temple, the central edifice of Jewish identity.

How would you interpret these events?  Is this the end of Judaism as we know it?  Is this the end of the priesthood of the Temple?  Are suddenly the sons of Levites, and the Sadducean branch of Judaism put out of business, and only become persons, formerly known as priests.  And as a priest, how could you know that you and future priests would never enter the Temple in Jerusalem again?  And there was only one Jerusalem and so the Temple could not be built in another location to keep the priesthood an ongoing tradition?

How would you interpret these events?  And when you gathered as a Jesus Movement in small gatherings in home, how would you channel the voice of the Risen Christ to provide some guidance for how to live forward into the future in a completely different world, and increasingly outside of Palestine, dispersed through the cities of the Roman Empire?

Our Scripture readings for today have some themes.  The biblical widow.  The heavenly and spiritual temple and priesthood.  And the judgment upon the institution known as the Temple.

I would be remiss in failing to note how the church in the lectionary choice of readings likes to misread this Gospel about the famous widow and the mite, her last copper coin which she puts into temple coffers.

We, in the church, place this reading in the fall when we are doing every member canvass, so we use the widow as an example of proportionate giving to inspire us all to get our pledge cards in for budget planning next year.  I don't need this reading to remind you to get your pledge cards in.  And the widow really gave more than the tithe of one tenth; we are told that she gave her all, therefore she gave proportionately more than the big wealthy donors to the temple.

There is a more ominous meaning of the widow and her mite, in these oracle words of Jesus recounted in the gatherings of those hearing the words of the Marcan Gospel.

The widow's mite is a judgment of the Risen Christ upon the Temple and the institutions which surrounded it.  It goes hand in hand with cleansing of the Temple by Jesus from the money changers.

The widow in the Bible is a recurring figure.  We are told that the Lord cares for the widow, but apparently patriarchal societies did not, except in singular cases like Elijah the prophet.  Women were so dependent upon fathers, brothers, husbands, and sons, as sponsors that if they lost such sponsorship, they were in dire situations.

The Temple as an institution which should be upholding the fact that the Lord God cares for the widows, apparently had no alms or support for this poor widow.  In fact, they had convinced this widow that it was her duty to give to the Temple rather than be an institution of care and welfare for her.  She in her desperation was casting all of her money to God through the Temple institution in hopes that the care of God for widows would somehow be made true for her.  Her last coin were thrown as a desperation prayer to God.

If we read this widow story in context, it is followed by the prediction of the end and destruction of the Temple.  So, the story of the widow is actually presented as a judgment upon the Temple institution for in part, not fulfilling its function to care for the widows.

God cares for the poor and the widow, and when any institution whether Temple, synagogue, church, school, congress, statehouse, takes no obligation for the poor and the least in society, then these institutions are under the judgment of God.  Our country's institution might be said to be under God's judgment today, because we have not taken enough care of the poor.  Our institutions, for the most part have become too devoted to making sure that people with the most of the world's resources can get more.  The widow's mite message is a severe judgment upon us today.

How did the Jesus Movement respond and understand the destruction of the Temple and the end of being able to inhabit their beloved homeland and holy place?

The Jesus Movement spiritualized Israel, Jerusalem, the Temple, and the priesthood.  This is no more evident than the Epistle to the Hebrews written in the times of the ending of life in Jerusalem centering on the Temple.

The Jesus Movement became for the Paul the new Israel,  Jerusalem became a heavenly city, the Temple became located a heavenly place where Jesus as the High Priest entered the heavenly holiest of Holies.

The irony of teaching Jesus as being a very physical incarnate, in the flesh being; it turns out that the Jesus Movement became more of a spiritualizing of the physical world and using the physical references of the Hebrew Scriptural themes in very spiritual ways.

The Jesus Movement became a spiritual movement, a movement of the beatitudes as a lifestyle spiritual martial arts to survive the times of living as an oppressed, secret and silent minority within the Roman Empire.

We do not really understand New Testament Christianity because we have always lived in Empire Christianity, as people of power within the majority who have not been persecuted for our faith.

But it is really the spirituality of the Risen Christ which is still the essential Christianity today.  Our Christian institutions are under judgment because our complicity with wealth and power Empires; the true religion of the Risen Christ is stealthy and like the effective unseen wind of the Spirit known in the effects of the poor being given hope and good news, the collection of the myriad deeds of kindness which for the most part are unseen and unrecognized.  The essence of Christ-likeness is less institutional and more personal when we through the power of God's Spirit act in kindness and goodness to overcome the evil of this world.  And the Empires of our world, institutionalize greed, which is not good for the poor and the widows.

Let us be very careful about over-identifying Christ with any government or institution unless they are taking care of the widow, the orphans, the sick, the poor, the prisoner, and the lonely.

The Risen Christ is doing an inside job on us today, so that we might bring kindness and love as people to influence our churches, governments, businesses, and all institutions so that in all our collective organizations we can prove that God loves and cares for the widows and all the needy people in our world.  Amen.

Sunday School, November 7, 2021 24 Pentecost B proper 27

 Sunday School, November 7, 2021    24 Pentecost B proper 27

Themes

The widow who gave her last coins

Widows often had to live in poverty because their support came from their husbands.  If they did not have families to return to, they often were in need.

Old Testament law had laws to help provide for widows and orphans because as it is written in the Psalms: "The Lord cares for the widow and the orphans."

How does our modern world take care of people who are in need?  What about the current refugee problem in our world?  People have been driven out of their homes and lost family members because of war.  What is the responsibilities of Christians to help the widow and the orphans? 

The Old Testament lesson is about how a widow provided food and a room for God's prophet Elijah and Elijah promised her that God would always give her enough food.

Jesus was with his disciples in the temple.  He observed how a poor widow had put her last two coins into the temple offering.  Jesus said that she had given more than anyone because she had given her all.

How is it that a poor person is still generous to give to God through the work of the Temple?  Shouldn't the Temple through the offerings be helping this poor woman and her children?

This is an important lesson in generosity.  A generous person does not regard himself or herself to be poor because a generous person is able to see how much God has given us with the beauty of the world.

Generous people include their good health, the sunshine, the beauty of the earth as a part of their wealth and so they always feel like they have something to give.

We learn from the example of the widow that generosity does not depend upon how much we have; it depends on whether we have a heart willing to share a portion of what we have.

The lesson from the letter to the Hebrews presents Jesus as the Great High Priest.  As the Great High Priest Jesus was not worry about his own wealth of goodness and perfection; he wanted to share all of his goodness and perfection with us.  He was willing to offer his life so that we could learn to be forgiven so that we could grow in goodness.  Jesus was generous with his goodness.  He gave us his very best.  He still shares his very best because he has sent a very generous Holy Spirit to live within us.

Sermon on a riddle about generosity

  Let me give you a riddle.  When are you giving a lot even if it’s only a dime?  And when are you giving a little even when it’s a thousand dollars?

  Let try a little exercise with some pennies.  I need some volunteers.

  I am going to give to one two pennies.  And to another I am going to give many pennies.

  Then I am going to ask each of them to give a gift to the church.  The one with two pennies will give one penny.  The one who has many pennies will give five pennies.

  So who gave the most pennies?  Who has the most pennies left?

  Sometimes we thing that people who give the most are the most generous; but that is not always true.  Sometimes people, who give just a little, only have a little left over to live on. Sometimes people, who give a large amount of money, still have plenty to live on.

  That is the lesson that Jesus was trying to teach his friends. 

  Sometimes we think that everyone should give an equal amount.  And sometimes we think that we have to give more than others.

  As we grow older, we have more to give than when we are younger.  So when other people don’t seem to give as much as we do, we often get upset.

  For example, when your younger brother or sister doesn’t have to do the same amount of work or chores as you do, it seems unfair.  But remember:  Giving is determined by our ability.

  That is the lesson that Jesus wanted to teach to his followers.

  The older we are, the stronger we are, the more knowledge we have, the more money that we have, then the more we are required to take care of those in this life who cannot take care of themselves and who need our help.

  Remember this lesson about giving.  It is not amount that we give…. It is the ability to give that should determine what we give.  And also, how much do we have left over after we have given?  If we have lots left over after we have given, have we given enough?

  And God has given us much and God will continue to give us much.  And God is always asking us to learn how to be generous according to our ability to give.  Remember God never asks us to give something we that we do not have.

Let us learn the secret of being generous today.  Amen.

Intergenerational Family Service with Holy Eucharist

November 7, 2021: The Twenty-FourthSunday after Pentecost

Gathering Songs: Hallelu, Hallelujah, He’s Got the Whole World, I Come with Joy, Christ Beside Me

Liturgist: Blessed be God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

People: And blessed be God’s kingdom, now and for ever.  Amen.

Liturgist:  Oh God, Our hearts are open to you.

And you know us and we can hide nothing from you.

Prepare our hearts and our minds to love you and worship you.

Through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Song: Hallelu, Hallelujah   (Christian Children’s Songbook, # 84)

Hallelu, Hallelu, Hallelu, Hallelujah, Praise ye the Lord. 

Hallelu, Hallelu, Hallelu, Hallelujah, Praise ye the Lord. 

Praise ye the Lord, Hallelujah, Praise ye the Lord, Hallelujah. 

Praise ye the Lord, Hallelujah, Praise ye the Lord.

Liturgist:         The Lord be with you.

People: And also with you.

Liturgist:  Let us pray

O God, whose blessed Son came into the world that he might destroy the works of the devil and make us children of God and heirs of eternal life: Grant that, having this hope, we may purify ourselves as he is pure; that, when he comes again with power and great glory, we may be made like him in his eternal and glorious kingdom; where he lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Litany Phrase: Alleluia (chanted)

O God, you are Great!  Alleluia

O God, you have made us! Alleluia

O God, you have made yourself known to us!  Alleluia

O God, you have provided us with us a Savior!  Alleluia

O God, you have given us a Christian family!  Alleluia

O God, you have forgiven our sins!  Alleluia

O God, you brought your Son Jesus back from the dead!  Alleluia

A reading from the Letter of Hebrews

Christ did not enter a sanctuary made by human hands, a mere copy of the true one, but he entered into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. Nor was it to offer himself again and again, as the high priest enters the Holy Place year after year with blood that is not his own; for then he would have had to suffer again and again since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the age to remove sin by the sacrifice of himself. And just as it is appointed for mortals to die once, and after that the judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin, but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.

Liturgist: The Word of the Lord

People: Thanks be to God

 

Liturgist: Let us read together from Psalm 146

Happy are they who have the God of Jacob for their help! * whose hope is in the LORD their God;

Who made heaven and earth, the seas, and all that is in them; * who keeps his promise for ever;

Who gives justice to those who are oppressed, * and food to those who hunger.

The LORD sets the prisoners free; the LORD opens the eyes of the blind; * the LORD lifts up those who are bowed down;

Litany Phrase: Thanks be to God! (chanted)

Litanist:

For the good earth, for our food and clothing. Thanks be to God!

For our families and friends. Thanks be to God!

For the talents and gifts that you have given to us. Thanks be to God!

For this day of worship. Thanks be to God!

For health and for a good night’s sleep. Thanks be to God!

For work and for play. Thanks be to God!

For teaching and for learning. Thanks be to God!

For the happy events of our lives. Thanks be to God!

For the celebration of the birthdays and anniversaries of our friends and parish family.

Thanks be to God!

Liturgist:         The Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Mark

People: Glory to you, Lord Christ.

Teaching in the temple, Jesus said, "Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, and to have the best seats in the synagogues and places of honor at banquets! They devour widows' houses and for the sake of appearance say long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation." He sat down opposite the treasury, and watched the crowd putting money into the treasury. Many rich people put in large sums. A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which are worth a penny. Then he called his disciples and said to them, "Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury. For all of them have contributed out of their abundance; but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on."

Liturgist:         The Gospel of the Lord.

People: Praise to you, Lord Christ.

Sermon:  Fr. Phil

Children’s Creed

We did not make ourselves, so we believe that God the Father is the maker of the world.

Since God is so great and we are so small,

We believe God came into our world and was born as Jesus, son of the Virgin Mary.

We need God’s help and we believe that God saved us by the life, death and

     resurrection of Jesus Christ.

We believe that God is present with us now as the Holy Spirit.

We believe that we are baptized into God’s family the Church where everyone is

     welcome.

We believe that Christ is kind and fair.

We believe that we have a future in knowing Jesus Christ.

And since we all must die, we believe that God will preserve us forever.  Amen.

Litany Phrase: Christ, have mercy. (chanted)

For fighting and war to cease in our world. Christ, have mercy.

For peace on earth and good will towards all. Christ, have mercy.

For the safety of all who travel. Christ, have mercy.

For jobs for all who need them. Christ, have mercy.

For care of those who are growing old. Christ, have mercy.

For the safety, health and nutrition of all the children in our world. Christ, have mercy.

For the well-being of our families and friends. Christ, have mercy.

For the good health of those we know to be ill. Christ, have mercy.

For the remembrance of those who have died. Christ, have mercy.

For the forgiveness of all of our sins. Christ, have mercy.

Liturgist:         The Peace of the Lord be always with you.

People:            And also with you.

Song during the preparation of the Altar and the receiving of an offering.

Song: He’s Got the Whole World (Christian Children’s Songbook, # 90)

He’s got the whole world; in his hands he’s got the whole wide world in his hands.  He’s got the whole world in his hands; he’s got the whole world in his hands.

Little tiny babies. 

Brother and the sisters  

Mothers and the fathers

 

Doxology

Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise Him, all creatures here below.

Praise Him above, ye heavenly host. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

Prologue to the Eucharist

Jesus said, “Let the children come to me, for to them belong the kingdom of heaven.”

All become members of a family by birth or adoption.

Baptism is a celebration of birth into the family of God.

A family meal gathers and sustains each human family.

The Holy Eucharist is the special meal that Jesus gave to his friends to keep us together as the family of Christ.

The Lord be with you

And also with you.

Lift up your hearts

We lift them to the Lord.

Let us give thanks to God.

It is right to give God thanks and praise.

It is very good and right to give thanks, because God made us, Jesus redeemed us and the Holy Spirit dwells in our hearts.  Therefore with Angels and Archangels and all of the world that we see and don’t see, we forever sing this hymn of praise:

Holy, Holy, Holy (Intoned)

Holy, Holy, Holy Lord, God of Power and Might.  Heav’n and earth are full of your glory.

Hosanna in the highest.  Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. 

Hosanna in the highest. Hosanna in the Highest.

All may gather around the altar

Our grateful praise we offer to you God, our Creator;

You have made us in your image

And you gave us many men and women of faith to help us to live by faith:

Adam and Eve, Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob and Rachael.

And then you gave us your Son, Jesus, born of Mary, nurtured by Joseph

And he called us to be sons and daughters of God.

Your Son called us to live better lives and he gave us this Holy Meal so that when we eat  the bread and drink the wine, we can  know that the Presence of Christ is as near to us as this food and drink  that becomes a part of us.

And so, Father, we bring you these gifts of bread and wine. Bless and sanctify them by your Holy Spirit to be for your people the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ our Lord.  Sanctify us by your Holy Spirit so that we may love God and our neighbor.

On the night when Jesus was betrayed he took bread, said the blessing, broke the bread, and gave it to his friends, and said, "Take, eat: This is my Body, which is given for you. Do this for the remembrance of me."

After supper, Jesus took the cup of wine, gave thanks, and said, "Drink this, all of you. This is my Blood of the new Covenant, which is shed for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. Whenever you drink it, do this for the remembrance of me."

Father, we now celebrate the memorial of your Son. When we eat this holy Meal of Bread and Wine, we are telling the entire world about the life, death and resurrection of Christ and that his presence will be with us in our future.

Let this holy meal keep us together as friends who share a special relationship because of your Son Jesus Christ.  May we forever live with praise to God to whom we belong as sons and daughters.

By Christ, and with Christ, and in Christ, in the unity of the Holy Spirit all honor and glory is yours, Almighty Father, now and for ever. Amen.

And now as our Savior Christ has taught us, we now sing,

Our Father: (Renew # 180, West Indian Lord’s Prayer)

Our Father who art in heaven:  Hallowed be thy name.

Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done: Hallowed be thy name.

Done on earth as it is in heaven: Hallowed be thy name.

Give us this day our daily bread: Hallowed be thy name.

And forgive us all our debts: Hallowed be thy name.

As we forgive our debtors: Hallowed be thy name.

Lead us not into temptation: Hallowed be thy name.

But deliver us from evil: Hallowed be thy name.

Thine is the kingdom, power, and glory: Hallowed be thy name.

Forever and ever: Hallowed be thy name.

Amen, amen, amen: Hallowed be thy name.

Amen, amen, amen, amen: Hallowed be thy name.

Breaking of the Bread

Celebrant:        Alleluia! Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.

People:            Therefore let us keep the feast.  Alleluia!

Words of Administration

Communion Song:  I Come With Joy   (Renew! # 195)

I come with joy a child of God, forgiven, loved, and free, the life of Jesus to recall, in love laid down for me.

I come with Christians, far and near to find, as all are fed, the new community of love in Christ’s communion bread.

As Christ breaks bread, and bids us share, each proud division ends.  The love that made us makes us one, and strangers now are friends.

Post-Communion Prayer

Everlasting God, we have gathered for the meal that Jesus asked us to keep;

We have remembered his words of blessing on the bread and the wine.

And His Presence has been known to us.

We have remembered that we are sons and daughters of God and brothers

    and sisters in Christ.

Send us forth now into our everyday lives remembering that the blessing in the

     bread and wine spreads into each time, place and person in our lives,

As we are ever blessed by you, O Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Closing Song: Christ Beside Me   (Renew! # 164)

Christ beside me, Christ before me, Christ behind me—King of my heart;  Christ within me, Christ below me, Christ above me—never to part.

Christ on my right hand, Christ on my left hand, Christ all around me—shield in the strife:  Christ in my sleeping, Christ in my sitting, Christ in my rising—light of my life

Christ be in all hearts, thinking about me, Christ be on all tongues, telling of me; 

Christ be the vision, in eyes that see me, in ears that hear me, Christ ever be.

Christ beside me, Christ before me, Christ behind me—King of my heart; Christ within me, Christ below me, Christ above me—never to part.

Dismissal:   

Liturgist: Let us go forth in the Name of Christ. 

People: Thanks be to God! 

Saints and Souls in a Community of Beloved

All Saints' Day B, October 31, 2021
Wisdom of Solomon 3:1-9 Psalm 24
Revelation 21:1-6a John 11:32-44

Lectionary Link

The past and the present is absolute. Why? Because nothing can change that the past happened and the present is happening.

We may argue endlessly about why we happened and how we happened but that we happened cannot be denied.


We are like a brick in the wall of reality; the one brick cannot be removed from the wall of reality. On All Hallows' Eve, All Saints' and All Souls' days, we reinforce the reality that we and all people really existed and exist.


And that seems quite obvious, so what is the point?

Our existence is qualified by many factors. Like existing with and for whom? Like how did we live our lives with others? Like will our lives be like many of the lives of others before us, forgotten like most people who have existed in human history? And if we are forgotten and unknown by people of the future and if accessible records of our existence are extinguished, what happens to forgotten or unknown people?

So, we can be people very insecure in our mortality. And what do people insecure about their mortality do? They might want the drug of immortality called fame or glory. If I can be famous then I can create my own everlasting life in a way so that the memory of me might be registered by contemporary and future people.



The gist of All Hallows' Eve, All Saints' and All Souls' today centers upon how we sanctify the human need for fame, glory, recognition, and esteem. What is the best way to access personal esteem? How do we baptize the energy of wanting fame and glory?


It centers upon the difference between fame and excellence of the virtuous kind.

There are lots of famous people in history; many remembered people of whom have been deemed infamous: the Caesars, Genghis Khan, Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot and many more.

The great contribution of America to fame is Hollywood fame; glamor marketing value fame summarized in the proverbial Andy Warhol’s, "fifteen minutes of fame," for everyone. Today we have the tabloid effect; no publicity is regarded to be bad, just as long as one dominates the headlines for one’s constant fame.



How do we deal with the "wanting to be known and remembered" impulses of human life? How do we do this without being trapped in the psychologically determined state of narcissism?

I believe the Gospel secret to these questions has to do with the ultimate spotlight of fame and esteem which can be shone upon anyone. It involves the events and the continuous occasion of knowing that we are loved by God.



The events of heavenly fame occurred in the baptism of Jesus and on the Mount of the Transfiguration when the heavenly voice said, "You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased." This signified the coming out of Jesus as the saintliest of all the saints. This signified an event which could be known in the lives of every person who comes to the moment of deep familial identity: "You are my beloved son, my beloved daughter, with you I am well pleased."



This is the baptismal reality which we promote in the church for every person.



So, what do we do with this baptismal event? We accept ourselves as beloved and do so without getting what is called a "messiah" complex. It seems as though many of the vocal broadcasted preachers and other public figure blowhards get the "messiah complex," without truly understanding the blessed esteem of being beloved by God.



If coming to this occasion of knowing that one is loved by the greatest Being of all is the "saint-making" event of our lives. How do we live saintly lives? We become prism personalities refracting the beloving of God by letting others know that they are beloved with this same "God is love" energy of life. Easier said than done; why? This "God is love" energy has to have endless strategies within many situations to all of the people in our worlds.



The saints of All Saints' Day are the people who refracted the loving energy of God in such impactful ways that the memory of their lives went beyond their regions and their time. Why? Because we as a human community need living examples of how to live well, and how to refract the love of God in different ways in a multitude of settings. The saints are reminders to us that we need to be at the work of expressing strategies of love to reach the people in our lives whom God has brought to us to declare to: You are God's beloved child; and God is pleased with you. God did not make a mistake with your existence."



The Souls of All Souls' Day are the people who have been beloved in our lives and who helped to share with us that we too are beloved. And today is a great day of celebrating our connection with a beloved community of people who left us such a legacy, as a reminder that we are to be a living beloved community, who are still in the business of declaring the chief event in life for anyone is to know that one is beloved by God. If we have this spotlighting event, then it is enough.



But it didn’t always seem to be enough. Why? Become in the harshness of life and the cruelty of some imperfect nurture, we have been malformed about our own belovedness. This is why we need the saints and local mentoring souls to let us know a human love that can bring us to the big event of knowing that God in a profound way is a loving heavenly parent. The saints and mentoring souls in our lives help lead us to knowing ourselves as God’s beloved people in a community of the beloved.



So, why have All Saints' and All Souls' Days? With medical care, good health practice, and cosmetics, we try to preserve longevity of life or at least the appearance of healthy life. And what does death teach us? It teaches us that we will fail. And what do we do with this failure? We preserve the memories and the contributions of people as part of our community lore for as long as we can. We create our canonized saints as our Hall of Fame, and we have our own little hall of fames of our local family heroes. But we know that we who try to preserve the memories of others,  will also die.



And when all preservation has failed, which it surely will; we will have the ultimate act of faith, namely, to commit ultimate preservation to the active and profound memory of God, who better than Artificial Intelligence with endless terabytes of memory, can preserve with divine memorial units the reconstituted continuity of our existence into the future, something which we call in our faith, resurrection life.



All Saints and All Souls day, really are just another reason for us to say: Alleluia, Christ is Risen, the Lord is Risen, Indeed. Alleluia. They are days of being a part of the preservation of the belovedness that God has bestowed upon each person, now and forever.



We thank God for giving us the great succession of saints and souls, who like Jesus, accepted their status of the beloved of God. Let us accept today our ultimate fame and glory as being beloved by God. And as we sing the song of the saints of God, lets also pray: "God help me to be one too." Let us go forth and be and share this endless beloved community of Christ. Amen.

God, What Can I Do to Get into Where I Already Am?

23 Pentecost 26B October 31, 2021

Deuteronomy 6:1-9 Psalm 119:1-8
Hebrews 9:11-14 Mark 12:28-34

Lectionary Link

How can one agree with Jesus about the law and still just be near the kingdom of God and not in it?  Sounds like another word riddle of the Gospels; distinctions without difference or what?  Why the word games or is there some highly nuanced spiritual and religious point?

And the solution to the word riddle of Jesus is this.  How does one do better things, associate with the right people, have the correct religious pedigree so that I can get into the room where I am not standing?

What do I have to do Jesus to get into the room where I am already?

Jesus if I agree with you that loving God and loving my neighbor are the greatest of the laws, will that allow me to get into the room where I am?

Can we appreciate the wisdom of Jesus.  You can't get to somewhere that you already are, so what is the big problem?

The problem is our internal alienation, the lack of understanding regarding the extent of God's realm in space and time.

What is the internal alienation?  Why is it that I don't think God's realm is already my location?  If I am not living in God's realm, then whose realm am I living in?

I live and move and have my being in my house, in my city, in my state, in my country, in my hemisphere, on the earth, in the solar system, in the universe, and in God, in totality, within the edges of the expanding universe.

If we can conceive of the universe as as location, then what realm is beyond the universe physically and spiritually in complete inner space, the totality of the inner lives of all people who ever have or can exist; what realm is beyond?  And do I not live there?

There was a total realm which pre-dated my existence; there will be a total realm which will post-date my death in my body.

What kind of internal alienation prevails to believe that the lesser realms are final and determining of my entire life?

Jesus was trying to teach biblical cosmology.  "Sorry, you religious people, you cannot be more religious to attain the status of being made in God's image and belonging to God in God's realm."  You cannot erase the image of the divine from your life; you can deny your heavenly parentage, but your heavenly parent will not deny the divine genetics of your life and the location of your life in space and time.

You are God's and you live and move and have your being in God and you cannot doing anything to get and be what you already are.

The Gospel program of Jesus is to deprogram us from our alienation about who we are and about the telling and most significant realm of life, the kingdom of God.

Why do people need to be deprogrammed?  Because they have been alienated from reality.

One might characterize a large sector of our population today as being alienated from reality.  Many people have come to believe lies as truth, science as unbelieveable, and many religious people have re-defined the kingdom of God as their own little groups with Q-Anon like reality of existence.

There are religious people today who say you have to believe their politics and their predictions about political leaders to really be in God's kingdom and be the true believers.  Any program of exclusivity is false, because one can never make oneself more in the Realm of God.  That was done and established long before we came into this world.

So what is the point Jesus?  The point is accepting that one lives and moves and has one's being in God, and being contained in God, one has access to the Spirit of God to engage in the human vocation with excellence.

Being in the kingdom of God, what is our vocation?  To love God and our neighbor and to have the Spirit of God help us to do this well.

If one is trying to promote that one is more correct, of a better race, have a superior baptism, have more of the Spirit, belong to the largest group of correct believers, of the correct sexual orientation, as a marker of knowing God better, one has missed the point of Jesus.  One persists in alienation.

There are many superior religious people in our country who believe they are more in the kingdom of God than others, as if their little formula of asking Jesus into their heart got them into the kingdom.

No, you can't get somewhere, where you already are, and that is Gospel of Jesus.  Don't keep adding born again rules, salvation rules to try to prove you did the right thing to get where you already are.

God made you and the entire place where you reside; accept that humbly and then accept the flow through the arteries of the universe, the Spirit of God to go forth and love God and our neighbors.  Amen.