Born Again

What does it mean to be “born again”?

It is the discovery or awakening to the inner life of Divine Love.

Getting to this place of "discovery" or "awakening" has everything to do with the Cross of Christ.

“…so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.”

Christ is crucified in order to set us free from sin and death.

With this freedom to turn toward LIFE, we can become more aware of the Holy Spirit, we can become more aware of the Love of the Father who has created us.

To know and experience the Holy Spirit is to know and experience eternal life.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.”

This verse captures the entire Gospel!

God’s love is for YOU.

His Love keeps us from perishing.

To know His love is to be drawn into a life without end.

Lenten Journey into Love

Lent is a journey to the life and love of the Resurrection.

Lent amplifies the spiritual nature that should be inherent throughout the whole of our lives.

As we enter more deeply into the mystery of the Lord’s Love, as a church, let us strive to become more effective in drawing others into that very same Love and Life.

I like you

I really enjoy being around people who are positive and loving.

I also like being around people who are funny, people who are wise, people who are learned, people who are compassionate, people who are understanding.

Truth is, I like being around PEOPLE.

Not all folk can have all the good qualities that we enjoy seeing and experiencing in others. That's one of the reasons why community is so important - we benefit from the different gifts that different people have. St.Paul teaches us that the church is one body, with many necessary parts.

But if I had to choose which kind of a person or people I would like to spend time with, it would be people who are positive and loving.

There is more than enough negativity around us all, and love is often lacking. So I need people around me who influence me to also be positive and loving.

When the people of Israel were coming out of their slavery in Egypt, there was a lot of negativity, frustration and struggle. If Moses was going to be effective in leading them out of their bondage and darkness into the freedom and Light of Life, he needed to spend time with the Lord of Life.

Moses regularly spent time with the Lord in prayer, and the Lord showed Himself to Moses. And the people saw the difference. Moses radiated light, his faced beamed with the love and holiness of God - this experience influenced and encouraged others.

If we want to be loving and positive, and to influence others in being loving and positive, then we need to spend time in the Presence of Love and Life - Jesus.

How many times should I forgive another?

I remember a clergy person saying to me some time ago that they'd like to go to a church "where there were no people."

Wow! What a statement to make.  Obviously the person, who is a very good person, was making light of the real difficulties inherent in being community.

If we are honest, we would have to admit that it is a big enough challenge trying to live with ourselves!

Add just one person to our number, and the challenges are compounded, and so on as our relationships and community grow. Therefore it is not easy being family, community, church, organization, work environment. This is a fact because of our human brokenness and fallenness.

As humans, we are wounded with psychological, emotional, and spiritual pain; and we are burdened with our sin and imperfection. These human realities are relational factors when we seek to be in meaningful community with other people.

Should the obstacles and challenges to being in community with other people keep us from trying and persevering? Absolutely not!

We are Trinitarian people, made in the image of God - God the  Father who comes forth from Himself in the continuing act of Creation, God the Son, and Who reconciles and returns to Himself with the Divine movement of God the Holy Spirit. God is One.

We are made for relationship with God and with each other. We are made to be One. This is our purpose in life, and it alone will give us true happiness and joy.

But the only way for us to persevere in relationships and in being community and in being church, is to practice forgiveness.

Peter asked Jesus how many times he should forgive his brother or sister, 7 times? Jesus said no, not 7 times, but 70 times 7.

People nor communities are perfect. Yet we need both. The only solution to healthy communities is the practice of forgiveness. God's forgiveness, demonstrated fully in the Cross of Jesus.

Danny Bhoy: That's no Joke

My wife and I sometimes watch "Just for Laughs" on CBC. We know the importance of humour, and enjoy laughing and playing. One of the comics we saw on the program and liked was Danny Bhoy. CBC sensors the show, and what we saw was good and funny.

We heard Danny Bhoy was coming to St.John's, so we got tickets and went to see his show last night.

It wasn't sensored.

There was some language, some vulgarity, neither of which was over the top. Yet his show would have been just as funny without it. That's beside the point I want to make.

Some of his best material, I thought, was the stuff that came out of his experience. He could see the humour in his life - which is very good.

What I didn't like about his show, and it seems fairly normative in comedy, is to make jokes of Jesus and the Church.

In addition to a few "Jesus" jokes, Danny Bhoy said that he questions whether there is "eternal" life, and that he could never be part of organized religion.

Although Danny has some funny life experiences that we can all laugh at, it is too bad for him that he lacks the deeper experience of what Life is.

We all have funny life experiences that we can share and laugh at together.
But human life is of course a lot more than that.

In the stillness and silence of my heart, as I centre on the Word and Love that Jesus is, I encounter the Source of Life.

We all share this Source of Life, the Divine. It is what makes us equal and united as human beings.

The Church's role is to help facilitate, encourage, and support this spiritual and inner journey.
As this journey is shared with others, the Church's role is to organize people, to identify needs within the community, and to respond with love and compassion.

Freedom, equality, democracy. These all come directly out of the Christian religion, and over the centuries, and across nations and peoples, have formed the democratic society that we enjoy in Canada today.

There is eternal life.
There is an absolute need for organized religion.

That's no joke.

House Cleaning

If we are to live a more purposeful life,
a life with meaning,
a life that satisfies,
a life that is loving and relational,

then we have to learn to identify the different voices within us that call us in different directions,
directions that are not always life giving.

That's what happened to Jesus when he was led into the wilderness to be tempted by the enemy to life.
Jesus had to choose which voice he was going to listen to: the voice of death or the voice of life.

There is a spirituality to such inner recognition and choice.
It is a spirituality that needs to be learned and practiced.

But that's only part of the story.

In order to listen for the voice of Life and Love, we need to clear away the clutter and distractions that are also within us.

Inner noise, clutter and distraction may seem harmless enough, but if it is consuming all of our consciousness, then there is no room left for us to be aware of the Love that is God, and to cooperate with that Love in how we relate to others.

We are actually temples of the Holy Spirit.
We are made in the image of God.
Made to be in open and intentional relationship with God and every other person.

Such intentional relationship is the purpose of our lives.
It is at the heart of the mission of the Church.

In order for us to cooperate with God's Divine Life within us, we will need to do a little house cleaning.
Jesus cleanses the temple of the idols that do not reflect the will of the Father.
Likewise we need to put aside the unimportant things that are taking up too much of our heart and mind and leaving us tired and grey.
And then to focus on the Love which alone can brighten our day and give us life.

2nd Sunday of Lent

Lent 2, 4 March 2012

Mark 9:2-10, The Transfiguration

Today’s Gospel is about that mountain experience of the human with the Divine.

It is to encounter a love that transforms us.

It is to encounter a love with which we love the world.

We all have an interior mountain that we need to learn to climb in order to draw nearer to the Transforming Love of God.

Moses’ Mountain revealed God in the burning bush, and later the 10 commandments.

Elijah’s Mountain revealed God in the still, small voice.

The Apostles Mountain on Tabor reveals God in Christ, “This is my beloved Son, listen to him.”

These are mystical experiences that since Pentecost, the whole people of God are called to enter into.

Notice that the Word of God is at the center of each Divine experience

• Moses and the Burning Bush (“I AM sent you”)
• Elijah and the still small voice.
• Jesus’ Temptations (Jesus quotes Scripture in response to the tempter)
• The Transfiguration (Moses and Elijah, Law and Prophets)

The Sacred Scriptures are at the heart of our Lenten journey to the Promised Land of Resurrection

We need to learn to center on the Word of God in order to be consumed by the burning bush of God’s love, to hear God’s still, small voice in holy silence, to know and abide with the Risen Christ.

Acts of Justice on behalf of others are some of the consequences in drawing near to God

1. After the burning bush, Moses led the people of Israel out of slavery.
2. After the still small voice, Elijah returned to his people and led them out of the errors of a culture turned from the living God.
3. After the Transfiguration and Resurrection, the apostles lived and proclaimed Love, forgiveness and liberty in Jesus Name to the entire world.

As we are transformed in our relationship with God in Christ, we as the Church, have a natural responsibility and desire to reach out to those around us trapped in darkness and despair, not knowing the transforming love of Christ.

Sharing in the ministry of Salvation

Our Lenten pilgrimage is not just about renewing and deepening our own knowledge and experience of the Divine, it is about committing ourselves to the Church’s mission to reach out to, meet and draw others into the Promised Land of Freedom, the eternal life of Love in Christ Jesus.

Forgive them, for they know not what they do

Forgiveness.
Human beings have an absolute need for forgiveness.
Although sharers of God's nature, we are not God, not perfect, therefore we make mistakes, we fall short, we sin.

The medicine for sin, the cure for our mistakes, is two fold - forgiveness and repentance (or change of attitude and behaviour).

How wonderful and powerful it is to receive forgiveness when we have done something wrong and offended another.

How freeing it is, to all parties involved, when we can offer forgiveness to another who has wronged us.

When Jesus, who is like us in every way yet without sin, was being nailed to the cross, he prayed "Father forgive them, for they know not what they do."


Saint Aelred, in his "Mirror of Love," writes "Who could listen to that wonderful prayer, so full of warmth, of love, of unshakeable serenity—Father, forgive them—and hesitate to embrace his enemies with overflowing love?"


Whether the one who has offended us desires forgiveness or not, our freedom is in our forgiving anyway. The behaviour needs to be addressed, but we are not to be held in bondage by the offence - like Jesus, we are to be free and forgive, and to be open to Love even in the midst of darkness. 

Saint Aelred reminds us again that "If one wishes to savor the joy of brotherly and sisterly love with greater perfection and delight, he must extend even to his enemies the embrace of true love."

The way for us to love our enemies, to love even those who injure us, is to keep our inner, spiritual eyes fixed on the Risen Love that is Christ, that neither sin nor death can keep down.