Advent day 9

Luke 5:17-26          Advent day 9

         There is an arrogance sometimes in organized religions, as if what they say is the word of God in an unbroken chain that no one else can command. We all can hear the word of God. God is constantly trying to communicate with us. However fallible we are, God chooses to speak with us because he loves us. He created us. A danger that we have and that organized religions have is that they interpret and decide what is supposed to be the definitive word of God.  This is how the world has wound up with so many religions. This is how we have wound up with Christianity in schism with countless denominations.

          We get a hint of what I am talking about in this reading.  Jesus tells a paralyzed man his sins are forgiven. The Pharisees are indignant that he should say such a thing. Who is he anyway? Then Jesus really reaches into his pocket for a curve ball and heals the man so that he can walk. Jesus raises the ante.  Look, God is not bound by anything, least of which is what man says.

            Every indication is that we have a creator who is loving, merciful, forgiving and in point of fact, was willing to - and  did - die on a cross for each and every one of us. Jesus' whole life was a revelation of what God is. He rebuked the arrogance of the Pharisees and showed by example how loving, inclusive and forgiving he is.

           Of course God might never have been known as our loving God with the attributes I point out if Jesus had not come and walked the earth among us, to be one of us.  What a gift that is to us. Can we comprehend that for every single human experience, emotion, want and need, Jesus gave us the gift of knowing that he too understands?

          Star of wonder, star of night, star of royal beauty bright.  Something to think about for today, this 9th day of Advent. God walking along side us on our journey because he knows everything there is to know and has experienced it, just as we are today. What a gift, an Advent present.

One day as Jesus was teaching,

Pharisees and teachers of the law,

who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and Jerusalem,

were sitting there,

and the power of the Lord was with him for healing.

And some men brought on a stretcher a man who was paralyzed;

they were trying to bring him in and set him in his presence.

But not finding a way to bring him in because of the crowd,

they went up on the roof

and lowered him on the stretcher through the tiles

into the middle in front of Jesus.

When Jesus saw their faith, he said,

"As for you, your sins are forgiven."

Then the scribes and Pharisees began to ask themselves,

"Who is this who speaks blasphemies?

Who but God alone can forgive sins?"

Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them in reply,

"What are you thinking in your hearts?

Which is easier, to say, 'Your sins are forgiven,'

or to say, 'Rise and walk?'

But that you may know

that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins?"

he said to the one who was paralyzed,

"I say to you, rise, pick up your stretcher, and go home."

He stood up immediately before them,

picked up what he had been lying on,

and went home, glorifying God.

Then astonishment seized them all and they glorified God,

and, struck with awe, they said,

"We have seen incredible things today."