"Corrupt mind and counterfeit faith"

       How timely. Doesn't this sound like it had been written just this morning?  Does this seem to describe the world around us and the world politic here in the United States? Doesn't this sound like so many so many pseudo Christian conservatives, the Evangelicals today? You can say it is fake news but this isn't a snippet, it is an entire passage right out of Christian scripture.

       It seems so obvious that we are not alone in being caught in the struggles of life and evil men. What advice might be offered to help us out. Throw us a bone, will ya?

       One day a few years back I pulled into my local Home Depot. There was a very heated argument going on between a husband and wife. Actually, it was a horribly abusive husband berating his wife who was apparently an employee at the depot. Two young children sat in the back seat of their car as witnesses and victims to all this.  People stared agape as it unfolded.  If this is a microcosm of the world, what are we to do?   Several people, throwing caution to the wind stepped forward. I presume the first one called police who arrived rather quickly. Others simply stepped between the couple to separate him from her.  This could have easily been a rather risky move but it was none the less undertaken swiftly and effectively.

        I recall a somewhat similar scenario involving a man of the cloth who had travelled south from New England to support the Selma Freedom Riders. This holy man, named in the Episcopal text, Holy Women, Holy Men, was subsequently shot and killed as he stepped in front of a young black girl who was at risk from the police. 

        We cannot let the corrupt minds and counterfeit faiths of those who seem in control of the insanity that seems to reign. We step up and step forward. It may be as simple as that and may be as dangerous as that. Your choice.  If you find the kind of 'Christian faith' that supports the actions, activities and opinions  of today's passage a real abomination then we have to ask ourselves what to do. The choice is to stand up and step forward. It is not with weapon in hand except for the weapon Jesus armed us with, that  God graces us with. The weapon is love and intellect. Passivity if we claim any kind of faith is not an option.  Even if all we do is stand up or step forward, it is a major blow to those whose evil runs unchecked.

       Step up, step forward. In love, in faith, in solidarity with the real Gospel message. 

2 Timothy 3:1-17

You must understand this, that in the last days distressing times will come. For people will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy,inhuman, implacable, slanderers, profligates, brutes, haters of good,treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to the outward form of godliness but denying its power. Avoid them! For among them are those who make their way into households and captivate silly women, overwhelmed by their sins and swayed by all kinds of desires, who are always being instructed and can never arrive at a knowledge of the truth. As Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these people, of corrupt mind and counterfeit faith, also oppose the truth. But they will not make much progress, because, as in the case of those two men, their folly will become plain to everyone.

 Now you have observed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, my persecutions, and my suffering the things that happened to me in Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra. What persecutions I endured! Yet the Lord rescued me from all of them.Indeed, all who want to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.But wicked people and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving others and being deceived. But as for you, continue in what you have learned and firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it, and how from childhood you have known the sacred writings that are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work.

I thought I was saved

       I thought I was saved as so many do. In Jesus' time, as now, there is that sense of suffocatingly arrogant assurance that if you obey all the rules you are safe.  Of course we all have our own opinion as to how to apply those rules, interpret those rules etc. Most of us for example would be free of the judgment levied by actually murdering someone. But have you demeaned someone? Killed their spirit in some way? Killed their reputation perhaps?

         Jesus more than anyone I have known of to date was quite transparent about following rules. He might caution that it is more important that the Ten be tempered by the two. That is, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”  I have always held that those two make the Ten even harder to apply and obey.  So yes, salvation isn't so assured if you are a rules person.

       Nowadays, when scientific facts and reality all seem to be questioned as "fake news" there is a further tendency to really cast our own very selfish and self serving interpretations on scripture.  You can apparently claim to be Christian and be intensely hateful, almost a minion of Satan, dismissing commandments and even the words of Jesus Christ himself. All you need is a snippet of scripture to support your agenda. It is all rather disheartening and maybe even frightening.

        The fact is, at some point we have to live the way Jesus really taught us and let the chips fall where they may for the people that abuse, confuse and follow their own self righteous arrogant agendas. It is not our job to judge but it is our job to educate, inform and most of all, to love.

         If we find that we can miraculously follow all the ten commandments fully enlightened by the great two, then we still have to love. If that entails giving everything away to the poor as Jesus told the man in today's passage, let it be so.  Just never have the audacity and arrogance to say " I am saved". ( Though I suspect we are ).

Mark 10:17-31

 As he was setting out on a journey, a man ran up and knelt before him, and asked him, ‘Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?’Jesus said to him, ‘Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. You know the commandments: “You shall not murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; You shall not defraud; Honour your father and mother.” ’ He said to him, ‘Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth.’ Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said, ‘You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.’ When he heard this, he was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions.

 Then Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, ‘How hard it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!’ And the disciples were perplexed at these words. But Jesus said to them again, ‘Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.’ They were greatly astounded and said to one another,‘Then who can be saved?’ Jesus looked at them and said, ‘For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible.’

 Peter began to say to him, ‘Look, we have left everything and followed you.’ Jesus said, ‘Truly I tell you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields, for my sake and for the sake of the good news, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this age—houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, and fields, with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.’ 

        I thought I was saved, so many did. In Jesus' time as now, obey all the rules

Divorce proceedings

       Can no one give me a straight answer? Is divorce allowed or not allowed? Is it called an 'annullment' or is it a divorce by any other name? In today's passage I am left wondering. Probably because I am divorced ( civilly ) and have had a marriage 'anulled' by the Roman church, I find a particular interest in today's passage.

        Of all the people we can consult, you would think Jesus was the definitive authority. Jesus speaks not only of no divorce but that the participants essentially commit adultery when moving on to another relationship. Perhaps it isn't what Jesus was speaking about but it seems a bit obvious and 'in your face'.

         As a devout Roman Catholic at one time, I steeped myself in the quasi logic of not believing in divorce but instead relying on annulments. Really, isn't it a religious annulment something that simply gives more power to the white European male dominated church? By any other name - still a divorce as long as an offering ($$) is in hand. 

         If I am going to bend the words of Christ as we seem to be willing to do in these cases, I prefer the Episcopal way. I prefer the way of Bishop Gene Robinson whose case is so similar to my own. That is, when facing a divorce, there should be of course ( #1 ), be a good reason. Secondly, if you agree that this is more than a civil marriage and that a Sacrament is involved, there should be some release of vows.  Perhaps there should be a meeting of the minds and hearts, some mending and moving on. This of course takes a large amount of control away from the Church. It might easily be prone to abuse I suppose but who will be sinning and who will be in control?  It might be considered the height of arrogance for a Church to come up up with some money laden way to do away with a marriage vow. In addition, who are they to judge what is in the hearts of people?  The Roman church does not have a terribly good track record in this regard. In fact their history of inquisitions, abuse, scandal and the obfuscation of scandal is legendary and paramount. Nobody does it better.

       As far as marriage goes, I do believe it is a Sacrament, capital "S".  But I do not believe in such things as 'impediments' that can miraculously negate a marriage vow.  We participate in Sacraments as totally as we can at any given moment in our lives.  I find it ridiculous to believe that anyone can judge the level ( partially or full ) of participation of a Sacrament based on their judgment of someones intellect, heart, damaged psyche , illness or whatever.

       Whatever we choose to believe about divorce, we must face our lives with honesty, faith and love. As with most of life, our relationship with others is the avenue to reveal ourselves and our love of God. Should our mistakes ( sins? ) be any less of an occasion to show how much we love, forgive and move on?

          

           

Mark 10:1-16

He left that place and went to the region of Judea and beyond the Jordan. And crowds again gathered around him; and, as was his custom, he again taught them.

 Some Pharisees came, and to test him they asked, ‘Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?’ He answered them, ‘What did Moses command you?’They said, ‘Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of dismissal and to divorce her.’ But Jesus said to them, ‘Because of your hardness of heart he wrote this commandment for you. But from the beginning of creation, “God made them male and female.” “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.’

 Then in the house the disciples asked him again about this matter. He said to them, ‘Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her; and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.’

 People were bringing little children to him in order that he might touch them; and the disciples spoke sternly to them. But when Jesus saw this, he was indignant and said to them, ‘Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs.Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.’ And he took them up in his arms, laid his hands on them, and blessed them.

The thrust of our lives

       When you look at the life of almost anyone, you can catch a glimpse of what drives them, what the focus of their life is. Is it family, work, charity, equality, mission work ?  We all have things that seem to be focal points or things that seem to touch our soul. Clearly, one of mine is equality, especially as it pertains to being gay.

       With Jesus we might say it is love of the Father; being fully human might be another. You might also focus on what he seemed passionate about. How could we ignore his penchant for railing against the Pharisees? In so doing Jesus is speaking against a human condition that we all seem to possess. We want rules and more rules as if that will make us whole or holy or guarantee salvation. A major focus of Jesus' ministry though seems to be anti-rules. Focus more on love. Today's passage from Mark makes the case.  ‘If any of you put a stumbling-block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea. THAT is what Jesus thinks about all the rules and rubrics that the Pharisees brought to the people. The answer is not anarchy but thoughtful, bendable and loving rules if you will. 

        But the real focus of today's passage seems to be what is the focus of our lives. What do we put in our own path that stymies us from reaching the fullness of humanity within us? Jesus makes the case rather intimate. Life, hands, foot, eyes. The meaning to me then is to find out what in our own lives is a stumbling block. If we spend all our efforts at work             ( making that our god ) and in the process abandon or ruin our family, that is a pretty big nut to crack. No one ever lay on their deathbed and proclaimed " I wish I had spent more time at work".  Pornography could be a stumbling block. Do you get so wrapped up in the gluttony of skin that you miss out on real relationships?  Anything in life that holds value to us can become a stumbling block for us. At the same time that we look into ourselves for self reflection, let us look at how we actually spend our time and efforts in our daily lives. Is it obvious to others what our goal in life is, to be a better and more loving person? It seems that really should be a major thrust of our lives if we are godly people.

Mark 9:42-50

 ‘If any of you put a stumbling-block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea. If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life maimed than to have two hands and to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame than to have two feet and to be thrown into hell.^, And if your eye causes you to stumble, tear it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and to be thrown into hell, where their worm never dies, and the fire is never quenched.

 ‘For everyone will be salted with fire. Salt is good; but if salt has lost its saltiness, how can you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.’

A cutting question

         How do you judge some one's sincerity about a cause? You may make a judgment based on how much money they devote to a cause. Time also seems a good basis for judgment. The ultimate price to pay for a cause of course is laying down your life. We honour those who have died in the line of duty and heroes to our country. Our life and literature pay homage to those who have died for us whether it is our country ( patriots ) or our faith ( martyrs ). Of course the biggest example of all is our savior. Would the saving graces of Jesus be with us today if Jesus had merely offered and not actually died for us?  Our faith is not just about the offer, Jesus' power and glory is not in the offer but in the death and especially in the resurrection. We believe in the transition and transformation, the power of life and death and resurrection. All intimately physical.  It is something we can understand because if we cherish no one else's life, we cherish our own and understand the import and depth of giving up our life. Serious stuff.

          In Galatians today the argument is about circumcision, cut or uncut if you will. That too is an intensely personal aspect of our life. It may be an excruciatingly personal part of our life. Who does not cherish the family jewels so to speak. To 'cut' or have cut is a monumental decision especially when you are older than a few days old when you will forget the trauma rather easily. Adult circumcision would be a real scorcher it seems to me. It must have been a rather emotional argument for those early gentiles come Christians. We do base judgments on physical decisions and attributes. This is not a light topic for most.

       As both physical and spiritual beings, if we really believe that, the physical is merely a transcendent phase. Our power and glory is our essence in who we are.  Our physical nature is a small portion of that which in the scheme of things is truly minuscule. I would not however be one to flippantly argue then that 'what does being cut really matter'.  I would say that it is an obfuscation and a sad human way to judge people's faith. I think that the Apostles came around to that same conclusion otherwise we'd all be circumcised.

       All this talk about cut and uncut is then moot. What is truly important? What do we have to do to show or prove our faith? Die? No, not at all. If we are not to judge by our own physical death then it must be our lives that count. We must live life to the full, love well and in reckless amounts just as God loves each one of us with reckless abandon. We must cherish life, cradle to grave, not merely shouting and barricading as a pro-birther does. Life in all it's forms, life in every corner and plane of existence. That is a good judge of our faith. Do we cherish what God has created? Do we respect ourselves? Do we respect all of God's creation? Our planet? The resources we have been graced with?  Put aside circumcision, rules and rubrics. How do we live life?

        How do we live life and love? That is the question. 

Galatians 6:11-18

 See what large letters I make when I am writing in my own hand! It is those who want to make a good showing in the flesh that try to compel you to be circumcised—only that they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ. Even the circumcised do not themselves obey the law, but they want you to be circumcised so that they may boast about your flesh.May I never boast of anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. Forneither circumcision nor uncircumcision is anything; but a new creation is everything! As for those who will follow this rule—peace be upon them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God.

 From now on, let no one make trouble for me; for I carry the marks of Jesus branded on my body.

 May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers and sisters. Amen.

Peter with a past

       Yesterday we had delightful company and we chatted and reminisced quite a bit. At one point, referring to dating, someone said that they were not looking for someone without baggage, everyone has baggage. They simply wanted to find someone who had baggage that somewhat matched their own. Interesting and insightful. 

       I am reminded of that this morning when this passage notes that Simon ( Peter ) states ‘Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!’  Peter has a history it would seem by his own admission. Peter has baggage and I would ask so what? God chooses whom She chooses, who are we to judge? The proof is in the moving forward, the proof is in a change of heart and how we act in contrition and in concert with the Spirit. The past it seems is not as critical to God if based on today's passage information.

         As if to highlight that God makes her own decisions and offers solutions in the oddest places and people, see what happens to the fishermen ( Peter, et al. ) in today's passage. These rough and tumble guys are strong, professional fisherman. It is Jesus, the professional carpenter who tells them after an apparent useless night of fishing to set out their nets once again.  I could easily hear the fisherman saying to the carpenter, 'listen bud, you may know the word of God and how to make a fine bench but we know how to fish. The fish aren't out there today.' But the fact is, they did listen and their bounty was to point of sinking their boats with the catch.  Don't you find that interesting?

       I also find it interesting that this fisherman with some kind of past is the one Jesus chooses as "the rock" on which to build his church on earth. I might have done a better job search, maybe held some interviews, someone at least with some experience. Not so God. 

        As if Jesus isn't radical enough with his message, we need to know that God too is a radical in whom is chosen. Guess what, we are all chosen! The peoples that we might judge as least likely or the ones that society marginalizes, they are the ones that God not only chooses but is the source of our answers, the unexpected solutions to our questions and problems. Just as Jesus was not what the Jews were expecting as a savior, just as Jesus the carpenter was not who was expected to solve the fisherman's failed night of work, just as Peter with a past was not who would be expected to lead, so too are we the unexpected solutions, no matter our past.

      We move forward in faith today and tomorrow, loving, caring, trying to listen to the word of God and how the Spirit guides us to greater love and heaven here on earth.

Luke 5:1-11

Once while Jesus was standing beside the lake of Gennesaret, and the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he saw two boats there at the shore of the lake; the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little way from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat. When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, ‘Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.’ Simon answered, ‘Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets.’When they had done this, they caught so many fish that their nets were beginning to break. So they signalled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both boats, so that they began to sink. But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, ‘Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!’ For he and all who were with him were amazed at the catch of fish that they had taken;and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. Then Jesus said to Simon, ‘Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people.’ When they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him.

Praying the gay away?

       

Sometimes even in the midst of a crowd we can seem all alone. In today's passage from Mark there are huge crowds, people seem to be swarming and running towards Jesus and his disciples. And then there is that son, the young man apparently ill from birth. I am sure  he is not cognizant of any crowds, he must feel terribly alone in the midst of the throngs.  Nothing has helped him, not even the efforts of the disciples.

        I am reminded  of people of faith who swear by prayer alone. I recall my own efforts at addressing my growing angst over the thoughts I might be gay. For quite some time I had been having these 'thoughts' that I was being told were the devil trying to make me act in errant ways. The devil certainly did not want me to devote my life to God, THAT is what these thoughts were. Or so I was told. Pray some more they said. To me it was more like doubling down on my ignorance. I was in fact ordained and then the problems really began.

        I had an array of my own 'disciples', fellow seminarians, who seem to each have there own idea of how to help me, none really having a full grasp of what I was dealing with. Unlike the no nothings that think you can simply pray the gay away, here is the real solution.

Yes, pray is in the mix. The best way to describe this is to keep the conversation going with the Creator who only has your best interests at heart and wants you to be the whole and beautiful being you were created to be. That 'conversation' is called prayer.

       On the more practical side there is therapy and learning all you can about your 'affliction'. Consult experts, see the specialist, talk to friends, advisers and professionals. That is faith in action.  Then you come to know, wait a minute, there are gay people in the bible?  ( John 4:46-53; 1 Samuel 18 ) Is the "disciple whom Jesus loved" also a reference to a homosexual relationship? Then you come to see the extent of homosexual relationship in nature and that God actually created the world this way. Therapy helps you realize that being gay is not a sin. Being gay is a part of who you are. Being gay does not mean rampant sex and promiscuity any more than it does if you say you are straight. The rub there though is that the straight lifestyle is the one more associated with promiscuity, one night stands and mindless sexual encounters. It is adultery that made it onto the top ten list of sins in the Ten commandments.

      Then, through prayer and therapy and opening your eyes and heart and mind to God's love you see that I'd rather take a lifetime being gay than any day being straight. It is who I am and who God created me to be. Prayer? You bet. Therapy and seeing that there really is no problem at all? The best. I want to be the best "gay" I can be in glory to God. 

         

Mark 9:14-29

 When they came to the disciples, they saw a great crowd around them, and some scribes arguing with them. When the whole crowd saw him, they were immediately overcome with awe, and they ran forward to greet him. He asked them, ‘What are you arguing about with them?’ Someone from the crowd answered him, ‘Teacher, I brought you my son; he has a spirit that makes him unable to speak; and whenever it seizes him, it dashes him down; and he foams and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid; and I asked your disciples to cast it out, but they could not do so.’ He answered them, ‘You faithless generation, how much longer must I be among you? How much longer must I put up with you? Bring him to me.’And they brought the boy to him. When the spirit saw him, immediately it threw the boy into convulsions, and he fell on the ground and rolled about, foaming at the mouth. Jesus asked the father, ‘How long has this been happening to him?’ And he said, ‘From childhood. It has often cast him into the fire and into the water, to destroy him; but if you are able to do anything, have pity on us and help us.’ Jesus said to him, ‘If you are able!—All things can be done for the one who believes.’ Immediately the father of the child cried out, ‘I believe; help my unbelief!’ When Jesus saw that a crowd came running together, he rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, ‘You spirit that keep this boy from speaking and hearing, I command you, come out of him, and never enter him again!’ After crying out and convulsing him terribly, it came out, and the boy was like a corpse, so that most of them said, ‘He is dead.’ But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he was able to stand. When he had entered the house, his disciples asked him privately, ‘Why could we not cast it out?’ He said to them, ‘This kind can come out only through prayer.’