We depend almost exclusively on our cellphones for verbal communication. That’s our reality these days. On the day my cellphone became “comatose,” I could not call or receive calls. Suddenly, I was completely alone, out of touch, isolated from family, friends! My reality at that moment was radical isolation, irrational and frightening. I felt separated as the Psalmist did. “Why O Lord do you stand far off? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?” Psalm 10:1

Life in Christ calls for a new kind of seeing and knowing. So, I see this as a metaphor of being isolated from God. This is not a state of being I choose. Who would? I know in my heart God does not hide from me or stand far off from me. In the event, I had to imagine a place of quiet to comfort my soul. I took a deep breath and found in Psalm 131:3 hopeful words, “But I still my soul and make it quiet, like a child upon its mother’s breast; my soul is quieted within me.”

Sanctified imagination invited me into the context of our faith’s story. This kind of imagining helps us see how our faith expands our understanding. It gives us the courage to reach beyond the limitations of the dogmatic renderings of our faith. Sanctified imagination gives flight and color to the text in our time.
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During this feeling of isolation, uncertain in my faith, of my relationship with God, my instinct was to seize control, to try to get a hold of what I know about God. I tend to see this as a theological, intellectual problem rather than approaching God as someone with whom I’m in a loving relationship.

Jesus shows me the way into a deeper relationship with God through trusting, embracing with certainty that God knows me, does not abandon me. Yet, I am like those of whom Saint Augustine speaks: “They knew, but they did not know that they knew.”

Paul writes in 1 Corinthians, “For now we see only a reflection, as in a mirror, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known.”
So, how do I know but do not realize I know? I think this happens when I see expressions of quiet and certain faith; generous acts of kindness and acceptance; when I see someone embrace with hope and faith God’s healing presence; when I experience the immensity and beauty of pristine nature, when I worship God in community and in quiet prayer. And especially as I live in the tension of awaiting the ultimate fulfillment of God’s promises.

In that tension, I envision everyone, all those I love now and have loved, invited by Our Lord into eternal and abundant life, fade into that great cloud of witnesses.

“For there is nothing hidden except to be disclosed; nor is anything secret except to come to light” Mark 4:22
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Inspired by Charisse R. Tucker’s meditation in The Living Church magazine

“So now, O Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you? Only to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.” He is your praise; he is your God who has done for you these great and awesome things that your own eyes have seen.”

"Fear of the Lord" signifies a deep reverence, respect, and awe for God's power and authority, leading to a life of humility, obedience, and a desire to please Him, rather than a fear of punishment.

This text is a daily call for me to self-examine my life and my faith journey:

“Today, did I do what God requires of me?”

“Did I hold The Lord in awe today with deep reverence and wonderment?”
 
“Did I walk in God’s ways today? How did it show up in my life today that I love The Lord with all my heart and soul and my neighbor as myself?”

“Did I serve God today as I know I should have?”

“Was I humble in my ways, today, obedient to God’s commandments?”

“Have I been true to the promises I made to my Bishop at my ordination to the Diaconate?"
  
This is what I try to do every evening at Complin time, I pray Ignatius’ “Daily Examen”: “I thank you, Lord, for all the things I am grateful for today. I ask the Holy Spirit to help me recognize today’s failures. I thank you for the moments that went well, for the gifts your Spirit gave me today. I repent for my mistakes or failures and ask for forgiveness and healing.”

What else can I do? I can celebrate the idea of gift. I can respond to Gifts of the Spirit with all humility, with surprise, faith and thanksgiving. I acknowledge these gifts to me as power to bring love, foster humility, civility and usher in generosity.

“Lord, teach me to trust my heart, my mind, my inner knowing, the senses of my body, the blessings of the Spirit within me. Teach me to trust these things that I may enter your Sacred Space, love beyond my fear; and walk in balance every day.” from a Lakota Prayer

And so finally at the end, teach me, Lord, The I AM, “when the earth has turned under me and my voice seldom heard; gifts that blest my life slipped away and my mind is thick and hope is thin; when dark is all around me, . . . .to trust you will stand beside me until the Sacred Light of dawn.”

 “Seek the Lord while he may be found; call on him while he is near.” Isaiah 55: 7

“He said to them, “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?”  And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?” Mrk 4:40-41

Jesus’ closest friends ask: “Who then is this?” I wonder about that question. Like the disciples in that boat perhaps I should also ask that about Jesus. “Who then is this?"

I am baptized into the Body of Christ. I have opportunity and desire to receive the faith as fully as I can. I read and study the scripture narratives of Jesus’ life.

I meditate and reflect on his life and message. I worship sacramentally with a community of believers. The creeds are my formal statements of belief. I have at my disposal centuries of theological reflection.

With all that, will I or we ever or be even capable to fully know Jesus here in this life? And through him, fully know God? Never fully it seems because we are only human. More to the point realistically for this life here and now, am I or we ever, day in and day out fully aware of the Holy Spirit residing within me?

The first letter, John tells us the way to know Jesus and through him know God. “Now by this we know that we have come to know him if we obey his commandments. By this we know that we are in him: whoever says, “I abide in him,” ought to walk in the same way as he walked.

Frederick Buechner from a quote in the Cowley Magazine: “Jesus comes into the very midst of life at its most real and inescapable moments. He freely enters into the maelstrom of our lives, into our questions and our doubts.” We must walk in the same way Jesus walked. We become his hands, his feet.

In the letter to the Romans, Paul gives us hope if we have love in our hearts: “We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose."

Are Paul’s words enough? Is it enough to say all good things come from us who are called by God to do God’s work according to His purpose?

From St. Thomas Aquinas: “Three things are necessary for humanity’s salvation”:
to know what we ought to believe: Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again.
 to know what we ought to desire: to seek and serve Christ in all persons.
 to know what we ought to do: strive for justice, peace and the dignity of every human being.

Isaiah 6:9; and 63:1b depicts the Lord “Who is this so splendidly robed, marching in his great might? It is I, announcing vindication, mighty to save.”  Isaiah reminds us victory does eventually come after evil has been judged and justice restored. This is true for our world, our communities, and our hearts. The struggle continues. This is about our spiritual and moral health. This is about the moral and spiritual health all people. I believe now we are at a real and inescapable time. We are called to meet today’s challenges. We need courage and faith every day to do God’s work in the world, to fulfill God’s purpose. I believe it is God calls us now at this time to advocate for the human dignity of our migrant brothers and sisters. Are we listening? Are we seeing? Do we understand?
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Yet we “Keep listening, but do not comprehend; keep looking, but do not understand.”
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I have lately been bereft of inspiration. It isn’t about the boutons, those nodes of association flickering in and out in my brain. It’s more about paying attention to the Holy Spirit, always steadfast and immanent in my life. I was unresponsive to the Spirit active and constant inspirations.

Something within me blocked the Holy Spirit’s call to me. What removed that block and opened my heart is an obvious reality of life. It has lately dawned on me it’s not always about me. Maybe it’s seldom about me or never! So, who or what is it about in my life?
Regard Abram. The Lord tells him to leave his home country and Abram goes. The Lord blesses and names him Abraham and makes his name great. Regard Moses. God tells him to go back to Egypt. He argues with the Lord: “O my Lord please send someone else.” Moses does what the Lord commands, returns to Egypt and leads his people out of slavery. They coalesce into a new people.

I believe all this is about having the courage to believe in God’s Providence, God's care and guidance at work in the world, God’s plan and purpose for everything. God guides us on our journey of faith, and provides for the journey, if we listen for that provision.

The hardest thing for me is not navigating the obstacles in my path. It is believing and knowing the Holy Spirit prepares a path for me. Willing to give up constantly trying to find my own way.

Paul tells me it’s not about me in his letter to the Church at Ephesus
“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God— not the result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.” Ephesians 2:8-10

One day, the Holy Spirit’s call pulled me out of my inertia. I looked for and prayed about the meaning of that insistent call. In my weaknesses I simply wanted to know God as I am known by God. And I realized in my journey of faith it’s not always about me. It’s about God’s enabling Spirit in my life, God’s pro-vid-ence for me.

I pray God draw my heart dedicated to your glory. Holy Spirit inspire and guide my imaginations to your purposes. Christ Jesus help me faithfully follow you on my own journey.

This year, 2024, marks the 800th anniversary of the birth of Thomas Aquinas.  I mention this because Thomas’s great work, “Summa Theologica” was the basis of my four years studying Thomistic Theology and Philosophy.  This course of study taught me to think, to be curious, to doubt, to question. I was young and my Dominican professors were very forbearing!

Thomism is the faint, distant hue coloring how I now articulate my spiritual journey, of where I am now, of the never-ending constructing of what I believe, about where will my future be, the final end of my life here.

A clue from Heidegger’s concept of Time and Being, could categorize me as an “Existential-Thomist.” I perceive existence beginning before time, being in time and being out of time, eternally being.

So, begins my reflection on being created in the image of God.
“So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them.”  “Then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being” Gen 1:27, 2:7

I think the ancient authors of Genesis’ first chapters describing us created in God’s image comes from great, wonderful, God inspired insight. I recently discovered the phrase, “Radical Inclusion”.  It led me to believe the ancients are saying being created in the image of God, each of us is radically included, fundamentally integrated into, our being embedded in, living into, the primary source of being. I should say the only source of being, from eternity into time and back to eternity.

“From the primal elements you brought forth the human race, and blessed us with memory, reason and skill.” BCP Eucharistic prayer C, page 370

The words from this Eucharistic prayer always strike me as evident truth. It evokes the belief God’s image is in all creation, is in the Church and is in each of us, even given the scientific validity of evolution as how it happens.

But, made in the image of God, me?

That question redounds and echoes in my mind. How am I created in the image of God. What does that look like? What meaning does that have in my life? Because this must have significance. I just don’t see God’s image in me. I recently read of Bonhoeffer’s conviction that “we are incapable of recognizing any hint of the image of God in ourselves.” We experience, we see, God’s image only in others, within our relationships with others. I think I am beginning to see that. I only see and experience others. In a sense I really don’t see me the way I see others. (I’m getting my mind around this idea bit by bit. I need Wisdom to come and help me. I hope she’s around.) I have the beginning of an epiphany!

My fellow traveler on my journey in the Kingdom here on earth sees everyone as living souls, in God’s image. If he is seeing God’s image in everyone, BEHOLD! HE SEES GOD’S IMAGE IN ME! 
   
“While I was still young, before I went on my travels, I sought wisdom openly in my prayer.

Before the temple I asked for her, and I will search for her until the end.” Sirach 51:13-22

Covenant: So many times, I see the word in Scripture, in commentaries of biblical texts, occasionally heard preached about. I feel a need to better understand this idea of “covenant” as it relates to my relationship with God, with Christ (if different than), with The Holy Spirit (if different than).

I wonder, is the biblical concept of “covenant” just a pact, a contract, between God and us? Perhaps the Israelites saw the early covenants as legalistic, depending on observance of God’s Law and commandments. Punishment for non-observance.

Jeremiah makes this prophecy of God’s everlasting promise to Israel: “But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts.” (Jeramiah 31:32) God promises to bless and protect them if they faithfully keep the law God gives them.

Jesus takes a loaf of bread, gives thanks and gives it to his disciples: “Take, eat; this is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me. He did the same with the cup of wine. “Drink from it all of you for this is the blood of the covenant poured out for you.”

Texts like these emphasize the importance of covenant in the history of God’s intervention into the history of humankind. So, why is covenant so important as I reflect on the meaning of covenant for my faith journey?

I wonder about this “new covenant” Jesus speaks of. I believe this New Covenant is not one in the legalistic sense. God forgives sin and restores communion with those whose believe in His Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus is the mediator. He defeated death by His resurrection and restored life for those who believe in Him.

We are baptized into the Body of Christ by a personal faith in Christ Jesus, sacramentally sealed in baptism, sustained by his flesh and blood. We make credal promises to God. God through Christ promises us eternal life. God’s offer of covenant relationship becomes operative. We become bound to a divine love and loyalty that is unwavering, transcending all of our failings.

It is the promise of intimacy with God, through His Son with God’s Spirit deep within each of us. It is personal interaction of offer and acceptance.

God’s covenant from the ancient times to now, into the future is God’s love in action. It is God’s desire to know us from the beginning, who we are, who I am.

God offers relentless, unwavering, steadfast love that never ends. I understand it is impossible for me to perfectly reciprocate or deserve God’s never-ending love. How does that stand within a covenant relationship?

When we accept God’s offer of covenant relationship by turning our hearts towards God, we become bound to a divine love and loyalty that is unwavering, transcending all of our failings. The Lord is ever faithful, his mercies never end. They are new every morning!

“If you direct your heart rightly, you will stretch out your hand toward him; your life will be brighter than the noonday, its darkness will be like morning and you will have confidence because there is hope. Let me have silence and I will speak, and let come on me what may.” Job, 12:13; 13:13,17-18 

​"Almighty God, to you all hearts are open, all desires known, and from you no secrets are hid: Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love you, and worthily magnify your holy Name; through Christ our Lord.”

Archbishop Cranmer positioned the Collect for Purity at the beginning of the communion liturgy in the 1549 and 1552 Books of Common Prayer. He took one of the most beautiful prayers of the Catholic tradition, known only by clergy and made it available to be heard by the whole congregation. The 2019 Book of Common Prayer allows the entire congregation together to pray the Collect for Purity at Eucharistic Prayer A.

From the beginning of my Episcopal worship experience, I was immediately struck by the beauty and power of the Collect for Purity. I believe this prayer captures the essence of our being followers of Jesus Messiah, of being God’s children. For me, it is the crowning expression of Christ centered worship.

This prayer of the people brings me experiences of joy, harmony and community at the beginning and during my worship experience. It prepares me to be present authentically, gratefully and joyfully to God and Christ in worship. It freshens the life of my soul. Incorporated in Christ, I am nourished by him in the bread and the wine, and sanctified by the Holy Spirit, by God’s grace, by living in Christ.

“It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20, ESV)

The Holy Spirit, ever present in my life, invites me to certainty that God knows what’s in my heart, knows my desires and my secrets. God, my loving parent, grants me mercy, and love, not condemnation and warrants me free will to do ill or good in my life. God’s Grace is free, sovereign and unrestricted.

“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.”  Romans 8: 1-2,14

I recently came across a phrase, “the quality of openness.” It means for me being freely accessible, receptive, to listen quietly, deeply with an open heart to what the prayer challenges me to do. It calls me to true piety, true devotion, perfect love.

“You shall love the lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Matthew 22:37-39

Encoded within this prayer are patterns of practice shaped by how I live these words. Striving for a life of healing, wholeness and liberation, a life of mercy, love and delight. A life of prayer and study in which I discover again and again the very nature and being of God and God in us.

“Holy Spirit, take my life and let it be, consecrated, Lord, to thee." (BCP, p. 321).
 
“Sweeten my heart and fill me with light, And give me the strength to understand and the eyes to see.
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Help me, for without You I am nothing.” (excerpts from Black Elk’s Lakota Prayer) 

“When we bear into the future the full knowledge of our past, we walk with hearts unfolded. We see that nothing is preserved, and no child or grandchild is saved, without brash acts of love and wild visions of continuance.” from “All That She Carried,” Tiya Miles

In “Being and Time”, Martin Heidegger asks: Why does time only run forward? Why can’t it go backward? Heidegger’s answer, “because all our hopes and desires lie in the future. Everything we want in life lies ahead of us. It would be meaningless for us to go back.” Mark’s Gospel opens with this announcement by Jesus: “The time is at hand.”

Why do these words resonate with me now: continuance, the future, time? I believe it’s about spending time reflecting on the arc of my life. Which, surprisingly, continues into my ninetieth decade, with a loving family extending into great-grand-children. I’m at a time where my mode of life is waiting, with patience, for that which my faith tells me is surely to come. I wonder, am I over-burdened with a yearning for that future, for what is inevitable, and beyond my control? Am I left without recourse, looking only at the horizon, neglecting the present?  
When I pay attention to the now, The Spirit instructs and comes upon me. It is the reality of a blessed mystery of Grace allowing me to continue to grow in knowledge and faith. As I reflect on my life, The Spirit leads me to the Book of Job. I can relate to Job who is so agonizingly a suffering human.

“What is my strength, that I should wait? And what is my end that I should be patient?”  Job 5:25-25,6:11

My recourse is God, faithful, merciful and loving.  “As for me, I would seek God, and to God I would commit my cause.”
God tells Job his future in what could well be a foretelling of my future.

“You shall know that your descendants will be many and your offspring like the grass of the earth. You shall come to your grave in ripe old age, as a shock of grain comes up to the threshing floor in its season.”

As I reflect back on my own life, all the turnings and dead ends, if this or that happened or not, I would be in a very different place. I realize learning to be grateful for the doors that weren’t for me. My life would be very different when the Army sent me to Germany instead of Korea in 1955. In Korea I might have been a combat casualty or KIA! I am eternally grateful for my loves and my life.

Think about the freedom of knowing we are powerless to know the future. In the beginning, God creates an interchange of light and darkness. It is as true for the sky as it is for the soul. Paul in Ephesians tells us the eyes of our heart will be enlightened with as much light as we can bear. Waiting invites patience for that which will come in the fullness of time.
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“I waited patiently upon the LORD; he stooped to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the desolate pit, out of the mire and clay; he set my feet upon a high cliff and made my footing sure.”  Psalm 40:1-2
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Hell, the theologians say, is total aloneness; not being connected to anything; totally unconnected.

We hardly ever hear about hell anymore. I believe hell is the direct opposite of community. Sometimes opposites are the only way to express realities. This definition places the idea of community as the opposite of this idea of hell.

Both – hell and community - are based on the reality that we are created as social beings. It is in our very nature to be social, to be in community. We are created in God’s image and likeness. God’s nature is relational in the Trinity, so we are relational in our lives.
Hell is a condition that happens as a result of putting oneself so consistently ahead of others in one’s life that the capacity for empathy is lost. Empathy, that bridge to others, completely and totally breaks down: no empathy, no connection, no life.

Community was important to Israel in the 7th century BC when the core of the book of Deuteronomy was developed. Israel was an agricultural society then and was slowly emerging into a commercial society by the time of the exile in the 5th century BC when the book was edited and amplified.

Deuteronomy brought together the internalizing of religious commitment, the emphasis on action and attitude, obedience and gratitude, based on love of God. The community through prophets and sages called upon the individual, not just the priests and cultic leaders, to respond to God in obedience arising out of deep heart-searching and self-examination. The teachings contained in this book were a major influence on the New Testament writers in their search to connect Jesus’ life and teachings to the Law and the Prophets.
Jesus’ life was totally one of obedience to his Father, even to dying on the cross. Jesus’ teaching of the first and most important command-ment found in the Gospels of Mark, Matthew and Luke is a quotation from this book.

From Mark Chapter 12: “Listen, Israel, the Lord our God is the one, only Lord, and you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: You must love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.’"

Deuteronomy speaks of the “year of remission,” occurring every seven years. The original legislation was for an agricultural society that all farmland remains uncultivated for a year. The natural cycle of the land as God’s gift would be honored and the earth’s vitality renewed. In the society of tribes and clans, farmland and herds were held in trust within the group.

In the later urban society, commerce and property ownership gave rise to individuals amassing great wealth and acquiring influence and power. There developed a wide separation between the “haves” and the “have nots.” The year of remission was calculated to alleviate conditions of economic poverty by releasing debts incurred by a member of the community. So, within the evolving commercial society, there was concern with protecting the weaker and less fortunate members.

Throughout the Book of Deuteronomy, we hear the voice of compassion for the less fortunate, and respect for all in the community. And we hear that voice today. The Deuteronomist cries out to us, "Open your hand to the poor.”

We can assume with some certainty that Paul studied Deuteronomy; that he was raised in this tradition of compassion for the less fortunate in his community.  He organizes a collection to help the Church in Jerusalem. Now, Paul writes to his Corinthians about the collection. He praises the efforts of the Macedonians “in rich generosity” in spite of “severe trials and extreme poverty.” He exhorts the Corinthians with flattery to “excel in this grace of giving, in this generous undertaking.” Just, he tells them, as you excel in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness and in your love for us.” Paul is onto some-thing. Believers give because God has given to them. The first letter of John says, “We love because God first loved us.”

Jesus is our model of compassion for those vulnerable in our community whatever their social status. Mark illustrates this in the story of Jairus’ dying daughter. Just before this scene, Mark tells of the curing of the woman who suffered from hemorrhages for twelve years. She had spent all she had for cures but was getting worse. This woman is at the opposite end of the economic scale to Jairus. He is a leader of the synagogue, responsible for worship, teaching and discipline. He was probably wealthy and influential, used to sending others to do his bidding. Yet, he is as desperate as that woman. The fact that he comes himself instead of sending a servant to ask Jesus to heal his child shows how desperate he is. He throws himself at Jesus’ feet and begs him repeatedly. And just as the healing of the woman with a hemorrhage was so dramatic and immediate, Jesus raises the little girl to life.

Jesus tells the woman that her faith has cured her. He responds to the faith of this desperate father telling him, “Do not fear, only believe.”

The lesson here is that we who receive God’s grace must pass it on, must direct God’s love, overflowing in us, to someone else. This is awesome. Think what it says about us in our daily routine.

It says that every encounter with another person is an opportunity to be a channel of God’s grace, God’s love. Not to think of God’s grace in this way is to regard it as a possession whose only effect is for us as individuals and not for us as a community.

We become like a deep well fed by underground streams of water.  The well will continue to be replenished only if water is regularly drawn out. When the water is not drawn from it, the well will eventually dry up from disuse. We are like that well. The water feeding us is God’s grace. If we don’t draw up that grace and pass it on to others, we dry up. We think that God’s grace is just for us alone. We become self-absorbed, eventually disconnected and alone.
No empathy, no connection, no life!

Grace comes into the world finding expression through people. God’s grace becomes what it is meant to be only as it reaches more and more and more people. That can only happen through us – through you and me, as individuals and in community.

Prophets, in Jeremiah’s time and in ours, who have nothing else to say but “peace my friends, all is well with us” may be doing nothing but reinforcing the desire for the status quo. Because many in the community are enjoying the good things in life, we hear what we want to hear.  So, we respond, “Don’t change anything. We’re doing fine just the way it is.” Therein is the danger. Such complacency ignores the obvious ills and sickness of our larger society. The point in Jeremiah is that prophets do bring good news when they proclaim a time for change from that complacency, when they bring the good news of God’s favor to those who are the poor, the downtrodden, those who think all is lost.

But that voice usually turns out to be the minority voice. That whisper of a voice that calls us all to account and judgment. That voice is a counter point against the norms and criteria of the community with a status quo attitude. And it’s calling for justice and righteousness, to do no wrong or violence to the stranger, the orphan or widow, to respect the dignity of every human being; words often not welcome to our ears, much less to our hearts and minds. Yet this is exactly what we commit ourselves to in our Baptismal promises

We hear the psalmist’s cries to God: “Arise O God, and rule the earth. Rescue the weak and the poor; defend the humble and the needy.”

God’s Word illuminates. It also consumes like fire. God’s word can shatter what it addresses.

“Am I a God when near and not a God when far away? Can anyone hide somewhere secret without my seeing him?  Do not I fill heaven and earth? Is my word not like fire; is it not like a hammer shattering a rock?

So much so that, prophets who proclaim change for the sake of justice and God’s kingdom, as Jesus reminds us, are killed and their words rejected. The example in our own time is the life and death of that latter day prophet, Martin Luther king. His proclamation for justice and dignity brought division, violence and death in our own lifetime here in our own country.

As Jesus leads his disciples toward Jerusalem, with somber warnings, Jesus tells them, “I have come to cast fire upon the earth. Do you think I came to give peace in the earth? Not that, I tell you, but division.”
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In the beginning, Jesus’ disciples were amazed at his teachings, full of joy, celebrating the Good News that the kingdom of God is at hand. But they became fearful because Jesus was overturning all that they had been taught.  And, they became transformed into new persons just as we are in our Baptism. For the disciples then, and us as believers now, transformation means change and division: a separation from the old ways, the old attitudes, from injustice. We have the same free gift of faith as they did. We have the same hope of resurrection. We continue the work of Jesus in our own life and times.

And as a resurrection people, the Body of Christ, the gathering of believers, we are called to justice and righteousness. We are called to do no wrong or violence, to respect the dignity of every human being, but even more, to help the stranger, the orphan and the widow, the oppressed, the hungry, and the vulnerable among us.
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In other words, to become more and more like Jesus.