This Tuesday, Dean Baker offered a quote from Athanasius in his post. Usually, May 2nd would be celebrated as his “feast” day (meaning a day of remembrance and celebration); but he got bumped. Ascension Day (which is celebrated 40 days after Easter) took center stage yesterday, and that bumped Saints Philip and James. Since they were apostles, that meant they had to have a day in the sun, so they bumped into today, leaving Athanasius with no feast. Who in the world thinks it’s important to monitor all this, you might ask, and why?
Well, it all has to do with what made Athanasius famous in the first place. In the fourth century, followers of Jesus began to struggle over how to capture what is important about Jesus. For one or two centuries, most Christians thought the world would end very soon, so there was no need to define an enduring tradition. That didn’t happen, so Christians began to focus on capturing core truths they wanted coming generations (including us!) to receive. Athanasius and Arius were two participants in wider discussions about how to capture who Jesus was in words. Both felt strongly that the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus were a fulcrum in human history that changed everything, that Jesus brought new possibilities for humanity into being. Sadly, they couldn’t agree about how to describe Jesus himself so as to get this across. Athanasius wanted to emphasize that Jesus was God incarnate, bringing eternal, divine power into our condition. Arius wanted to emphasize Jesus’ true humanity, to underscore that his actions inure to the benefit of all humans.
We treasure apostles like Philip and James because they were first-hand witnesses. Without first-hand witnesses, none of the later saints would have anything to argue about. That’s why the feast for Philip and James takes priority today. I have always found what Athanasius and Arius agreed upon much more significant than their disagreements. The Gospel lesson for this coming Sunday concludes with these words of prayer from Jesus, “Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one.” (John 17:11). The spiritual feast Jesus brought to earth is for everyone, and today is a good day to remember that.
Friday, May 2, 2008
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Happy Ascension Day
Today, the church in the west celebrates “Ascension Day,” when the resurrected Jesus left the earth, no longer appearing in physical form. You might wonder why this is something to celebrate. Wouldn’t life be easier if the resurrected Jesus still made appearances in physical form? Then no one would need to doubt the truth of everything in the Gospels. Jesus could just keep teaching directly, so we wouldn’t have to take anything second hand.
Our tradition has special prayers (called “collects”) written for every special day. The one for Ascension Day gives thanks that, “Jesus Christ ascended far above all heavens that he might fill all things.” Ascension Day is really bigger than Christmas or maybe even Easter. It’s the day that the divine love revealed in Jesus was blasted free to be on the loose, available to complete the re-creation of everyone and everything. The author of 1 Peter (one of the early Christian letters preserved in the Bible) speaks of the Spirit of Christ in all and gives a great clue about how we can receive this divine “in-filling.” “Like good stewards of the manifold grace of God, serve one another with whatever gift each of you has received” (1Peter 4:10). Don’t tell Hallmark, but Ascension Day is perfect for gift-giving. But we can’t buy the gift we need to give this day and every day. We need to give of ourselves. Happy Ascension Day!
Our tradition has special prayers (called “collects”) written for every special day. The one for Ascension Day gives thanks that, “Jesus Christ ascended far above all heavens that he might fill all things.” Ascension Day is really bigger than Christmas or maybe even Easter. It’s the day that the divine love revealed in Jesus was blasted free to be on the loose, available to complete the re-creation of everyone and everything. The author of 1 Peter (one of the early Christian letters preserved in the Bible) speaks of the Spirit of Christ in all and gives a great clue about how we can receive this divine “in-filling.” “Like good stewards of the manifold grace of God, serve one another with whatever gift each of you has received” (1Peter 4:10). Don’t tell Hallmark, but Ascension Day is perfect for gift-giving. But we can’t buy the gift we need to give this day and every day. We need to give of ourselves. Happy Ascension Day!
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Theosis and Silence
I’ve been studying the Eastern Orthodox notion of Theosis (divinization.) In the Eastern Orthodoxy, theosis is the principal movement in the spiritual life. According to St. Athanasius, ”God became man so that man can become God.” In the Incarnation we are united with the Divine nature and the Christian spiritual life is a process whereby that Divine nature is more fully realized within us. I vaguely remember reading Athasasius in seminary but am enjoying delving more deeply in this line of thought.
A great beginning reference on theosis, if you are interested, is found here: http://kevinburt.wordpress.com/2007/07/10/hang-up-1-theosis/
An unrelated gem was found in one of the comments on this blog. A reader, Craig Brown, wrote, “I have spent my life hunting God in words. Now I wait for Him in silence.” While I’m still hunting God in words (and Lord knows I speak many) I have reinvigorated my practice of silent prayer since my recent encounter with my Buddhist friends. It has been a nice homecoming.
If any are interested, Trinity Cathedral is hosting a workshop on Centering Prayer this Saturday.
Blessings.
Brian Baker
http://blogs.deanbaker.org/
A great beginning reference on theosis, if you are interested, is found here: http://kevinburt.wordpress.com/2007/07/10/hang-up-1-theosis/
An unrelated gem was found in one of the comments on this blog. A reader, Craig Brown, wrote, “I have spent my life hunting God in words. Now I wait for Him in silence.” While I’m still hunting God in words (and Lord knows I speak many) I have reinvigorated my practice of silent prayer since my recent encounter with my Buddhist friends. It has been a nice homecoming.
If any are interested, Trinity Cathedral is hosting a workshop on Centering Prayer this Saturday.
Blessings.
Brian Baker
http://blogs.deanbaker.org/
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Uncle Stand-In
‘In him we live and move and have our being’
1 John 2:1-14
Christ Our Advocate
My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.
Now by this we may be sure that we know him, if we obey his commandments.
Whoever says, ‘I have come to know him’, but does not obey his commandments, is a liar, and in such a person the truth does not exist; but whoever obeys his word, truly in this person the love of God has reached perfection. By this we may be sure that we are in him: whoever says, ‘I abide in him’, ought to walk just as he walked.
***
In the name of God, source of all being, eternal word and holy spirit - AMEN.
In the book of Acts we travel a long journey with the apostle Paul, from Saul the self-righteous persecutor to Paul the missionary. He begins his journey appealing to the Law – even against the Spirit and the Son of God. But last and least appeared to him the resurrected Jesus – and he became his messenger to the nations.
From Ephesus and Thessalonica and Tarsus and Damascus, where he had been able to speak in the synagogues – for a while – he goes to Athens; the capital of sophisticated discourse, of philosophers. He cannot appeal to the Law, the law they do not know: he can only appeal to the law they know in their hearts; as their own poets said, ‘for we too are his offspring.”
Paul proclaims to the Athenians that the god unknown that they have built an altar to is the god who needs no altar, who is not confined by time or space, certainly not by shape or form in stone or wood or metal, and indeed not by anything in all their philosophy – he is supreme, creator, One: he is the source of all being. And he is not simply the ‘mover unmoved’ – the original push (or bang) that got the universe started; he is the God who sustains life and gives breath to all his creatures.
He made all nations of the earth from one ancestor, Paul proclaims, and so planned the times and places of the lives of all people so that they would seek him – and, perhaps, ‘grope for him and find him – though indeed he is not far from us.’
Paul contends with the philosophers, the intellectuals, the coffee house crowd, honoring them and showing them that what they have sought is coming to pass: the one that they all have been seeking is seeking all of them. Indeed, he has sent a man to be their advocate, their vindicator, their righteous judge, and assured us of this by raising him from the dead.
Jesus comes to them, even the pagan world, not to condemn them but to bring them to life, full life, abundant life – that which they have worshipped in the dark – in ignorance – now they will be enabled to worship in the light of a new day.
What is dawning is an enlightenment born of God – and of the Spirit. Therefore what they hear in Paul’s proclamation is a completion of the groundwork God laid in the very foundation stones of creation. Earth and sky and sea testify to him – and now in fulfillment of his plan God sends one, his own, to call all to repent, and begin turning, turning home, to the home they never knew – to the one in whom we live and move and have our being, the God revealed in Jesus Christ.
“Come and listen, all you who fear God, and I will tell you what he has done for me.” – this is the psalmist’s summons – and the psalm carries us on to the next step. Beyond argument there is devotion – and prayer – and the petitions of the psalmist have not gone unheard.
“I called out to him with my mouth, and his praise was on my tongue. If I had found evil in my heart, the Lord would not have heard me; but in truth God has heard me; he has attended the voice of my prayer.”
Far from rejecting the plea of the unknown God fearer, the Lord hears the cry of the seeking soul, and all, Jew and Gentile, far and near, sophisticated and plain vanilla, can echo the psalmist’s thank offering and praise:
“Blessed be God, who has not rejected my prayer, nor withheld his love from me.”
In the second lesson, from the first letter of Peter, the days of reassurance are far away – and the days of persecution ‘for the sake of my name’ are close at hand. Do not fear, do not be intimidated – nothing the world can throw at you can separate you from God.
In your hearts sanctify Christ as Lord – let your conduct reflect his glory, and your speech confess the hope that is in you – the hope of Glory. With a clear conscience – made clear through the resurrection of Christ Jesus – you can hope.
For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you to God. He was put to death in the flesh in deed, but he was made alive in the spirit. His life and death and resurrection and ascension give us freedom from fear forever – we no longer need be intimidated by the world’s judgments. We are already vindicated before the highest court – and in the name of Christ we are welcomed into God’s favor. And so Peter, like Paul, reminds us to be worthy of our calling and of the name of the one in whom we receive life.
In the Gospel of John we continue to hear the words of comfort and assurance, and of exhortation, that are part of the long discourse at the end of the Passover meal – remember, Judas has left, to go ‘do what he has to do’, and now the rest of the disciples are coming to terms with what it will mean when Jesus goes. How are you to go on living when the one who is the very principle of life has gone?
This is the dilemma and the bereavement that the disciples face, on the eve of the crucifixion: how are they to live in the absence of their master, their teacher?
Many teachers would leave their students feeling abandoned, orphans – this is the image used of the followers of men like Socrates. But such is not our fate – as followers of Jesus we are heirs to the promise made to the disciples on that first Holy Week, that Jesus will ask the Father – he will be our advocate to the Father, and make petition to him on our behalf – and what he asks for we receive: another advocate, to be with us forever; the spirit of truth.
Jesus makes of the spirit’s coming an ‘open secret’ – the spirit is only revealed to those in whom he makes his home. In Christ and through Christ, in the Spirit and through the Spirit, in the Father and through the Father – in all these ways, the three persons of the Trinity, we abide in God – and God abides in us. This is the promise Jesus is making on the eve of his own departure – that, in the spirit, he will be present. He will not abandon his disciples – and he does not. The world no longer sees him, but he lives – he lives in the Father, and we in him, and he in us. This is the promise of the spirit, of the abiding of God with us and us in him.
How heady this all is! And yet, the practical steps are laid out before us: to know him, is, well, to love him – and this is the love not of emotion but of obedience: if you love me you will follow my teachings; the one who keeps my word – and carries it out in the world – this is the one who loves me, and knows I am here.
Jesus’ promise is to send a ‘paraclete’ – originally a legal term, a “paraclete” was an advocate, a counselor, or a stand-in: someone who would speak on your behalf before the court. And a paraclete can be a teacher, and a comforter.
For example: when Sarah was ready for her ‘coming-out’ party all the girls were to gather every weekend to receive dancing lessons, together with their fathers, so that on the day of the big dance they could be presented, and escorted, and dance together, fathers and daughters.
Sarah’s father had died three years before, and so her Uncle was to escort her. But he lived in Texas. And so he could not attend the weekly dancing lessons.
But an old friend of Sarah’s father stepped in – he offered to go with Sarah to all the lessons, - he said, “I’d be glad to be your Uncle stand-in” and so she, the only girl without a father present, was not alone. Frank learned all the dances and taught them conscientiously to her uncle, who performed them perfectly on the day of the dance. It was a great success. And so I was especially glad, when I met Sarah’s family, to meet “Uncle Stand-in” – representative, comforter, and teacher.
We are not alone. Come, Holy Spirit, advocate and guide, be with us, to teach, to comfort, to lead: and bring us into the presence of the living God, in Christ. Amen.
1 John 2:1-14
Christ Our Advocate
My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.
Now by this we may be sure that we know him, if we obey his commandments.
Whoever says, ‘I have come to know him’, but does not obey his commandments, is a liar, and in such a person the truth does not exist; but whoever obeys his word, truly in this person the love of God has reached perfection. By this we may be sure that we are in him: whoever says, ‘I abide in him’, ought to walk just as he walked.
***
In the name of God, source of all being, eternal word and holy spirit - AMEN.
In the book of Acts we travel a long journey with the apostle Paul, from Saul the self-righteous persecutor to Paul the missionary. He begins his journey appealing to the Law – even against the Spirit and the Son of God. But last and least appeared to him the resurrected Jesus – and he became his messenger to the nations.
From Ephesus and Thessalonica and Tarsus and Damascus, where he had been able to speak in the synagogues – for a while – he goes to Athens; the capital of sophisticated discourse, of philosophers. He cannot appeal to the Law, the law they do not know: he can only appeal to the law they know in their hearts; as their own poets said, ‘for we too are his offspring.”
Paul proclaims to the Athenians that the god unknown that they have built an altar to is the god who needs no altar, who is not confined by time or space, certainly not by shape or form in stone or wood or metal, and indeed not by anything in all their philosophy – he is supreme, creator, One: he is the source of all being. And he is not simply the ‘mover unmoved’ – the original push (or bang) that got the universe started; he is the God who sustains life and gives breath to all his creatures.
He made all nations of the earth from one ancestor, Paul proclaims, and so planned the times and places of the lives of all people so that they would seek him – and, perhaps, ‘grope for him and find him – though indeed he is not far from us.’
Paul contends with the philosophers, the intellectuals, the coffee house crowd, honoring them and showing them that what they have sought is coming to pass: the one that they all have been seeking is seeking all of them. Indeed, he has sent a man to be their advocate, their vindicator, their righteous judge, and assured us of this by raising him from the dead.
Jesus comes to them, even the pagan world, not to condemn them but to bring them to life, full life, abundant life – that which they have worshipped in the dark – in ignorance – now they will be enabled to worship in the light of a new day.
What is dawning is an enlightenment born of God – and of the Spirit. Therefore what they hear in Paul’s proclamation is a completion of the groundwork God laid in the very foundation stones of creation. Earth and sky and sea testify to him – and now in fulfillment of his plan God sends one, his own, to call all to repent, and begin turning, turning home, to the home they never knew – to the one in whom we live and move and have our being, the God revealed in Jesus Christ.
“Come and listen, all you who fear God, and I will tell you what he has done for me.” – this is the psalmist’s summons – and the psalm carries us on to the next step. Beyond argument there is devotion – and prayer – and the petitions of the psalmist have not gone unheard.
“I called out to him with my mouth, and his praise was on my tongue. If I had found evil in my heart, the Lord would not have heard me; but in truth God has heard me; he has attended the voice of my prayer.”
Far from rejecting the plea of the unknown God fearer, the Lord hears the cry of the seeking soul, and all, Jew and Gentile, far and near, sophisticated and plain vanilla, can echo the psalmist’s thank offering and praise:
“Blessed be God, who has not rejected my prayer, nor withheld his love from me.”
In the second lesson, from the first letter of Peter, the days of reassurance are far away – and the days of persecution ‘for the sake of my name’ are close at hand. Do not fear, do not be intimidated – nothing the world can throw at you can separate you from God.
In your hearts sanctify Christ as Lord – let your conduct reflect his glory, and your speech confess the hope that is in you – the hope of Glory. With a clear conscience – made clear through the resurrection of Christ Jesus – you can hope.
For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you to God. He was put to death in the flesh in deed, but he was made alive in the spirit. His life and death and resurrection and ascension give us freedom from fear forever – we no longer need be intimidated by the world’s judgments. We are already vindicated before the highest court – and in the name of Christ we are welcomed into God’s favor. And so Peter, like Paul, reminds us to be worthy of our calling and of the name of the one in whom we receive life.
In the Gospel of John we continue to hear the words of comfort and assurance, and of exhortation, that are part of the long discourse at the end of the Passover meal – remember, Judas has left, to go ‘do what he has to do’, and now the rest of the disciples are coming to terms with what it will mean when Jesus goes. How are you to go on living when the one who is the very principle of life has gone?
This is the dilemma and the bereavement that the disciples face, on the eve of the crucifixion: how are they to live in the absence of their master, their teacher?
Many teachers would leave their students feeling abandoned, orphans – this is the image used of the followers of men like Socrates. But such is not our fate – as followers of Jesus we are heirs to the promise made to the disciples on that first Holy Week, that Jesus will ask the Father – he will be our advocate to the Father, and make petition to him on our behalf – and what he asks for we receive: another advocate, to be with us forever; the spirit of truth.
Jesus makes of the spirit’s coming an ‘open secret’ – the spirit is only revealed to those in whom he makes his home. In Christ and through Christ, in the Spirit and through the Spirit, in the Father and through the Father – in all these ways, the three persons of the Trinity, we abide in God – and God abides in us. This is the promise Jesus is making on the eve of his own departure – that, in the spirit, he will be present. He will not abandon his disciples – and he does not. The world no longer sees him, but he lives – he lives in the Father, and we in him, and he in us. This is the promise of the spirit, of the abiding of God with us and us in him.
How heady this all is! And yet, the practical steps are laid out before us: to know him, is, well, to love him – and this is the love not of emotion but of obedience: if you love me you will follow my teachings; the one who keeps my word – and carries it out in the world – this is the one who loves me, and knows I am here.
Jesus’ promise is to send a ‘paraclete’ – originally a legal term, a “paraclete” was an advocate, a counselor, or a stand-in: someone who would speak on your behalf before the court. And a paraclete can be a teacher, and a comforter.
For example: when Sarah was ready for her ‘coming-out’ party all the girls were to gather every weekend to receive dancing lessons, together with their fathers, so that on the day of the big dance they could be presented, and escorted, and dance together, fathers and daughters.
Sarah’s father had died three years before, and so her Uncle was to escort her. But he lived in Texas. And so he could not attend the weekly dancing lessons.
But an old friend of Sarah’s father stepped in – he offered to go with Sarah to all the lessons, - he said, “I’d be glad to be your Uncle stand-in” and so she, the only girl without a father present, was not alone. Frank learned all the dances and taught them conscientiously to her uncle, who performed them perfectly on the day of the dance. It was a great success. And so I was especially glad, when I met Sarah’s family, to meet “Uncle Stand-in” – representative, comforter, and teacher.
We are not alone. Come, Holy Spirit, advocate and guide, be with us, to teach, to comfort, to lead: and bring us into the presence of the living God, in Christ. Amen.
Saturday, April 26, 2008
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Dean Baker speaking in NYC
Path to Heaven: Speaking in NYC
I was invited to speak with Geshe Michael Roach and Lama Christie McNally ( http://www.starintheeast.org/teachers.html) last weekend. They had just released a book that looks at teachings of Jesus from a Tibetan Buddhist perspective. They are interested in teaching Christians Buddhist practices to help them achieve heaven in this life (”The Kingdom of Heaven is at Hand”) and they wanted a Christian minister to speak at their talks about a Christian perspective on Heaven. The questions I was asked to answer were: What is the human condition? What is Heaven? How does one get there?
Read more (w/ photos and video) HERE
I was invited to speak with Geshe Michael Roach and Lama Christie McNally ( http://www.starintheeast.org/teachers.html) last weekend. They had just released a book that looks at teachings of Jesus from a Tibetan Buddhist perspective. They are interested in teaching Christians Buddhist practices to help them achieve heaven in this life (”The Kingdom of Heaven is at Hand”) and they wanted a Christian minister to speak at their talks about a Christian perspective on Heaven. The questions I was asked to answer were: What is the human condition? What is Heaven? How does one get there?
Read more (w/ photos and video) HERE
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