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Jesus sounds quite angry in today’s gospel. One thing I love about him as a person is that he has so much anger. He doesn’t present himself as someone who is always calm and peaceful. He can get feisty. He can become quite impatient. He’s quite skilled at turning over tables. In today’s gospel, he does it again. He wants to say what’s in his heart not simply to express himself but to awaken people from illusions that God is somewhere up there.
This morning I want to do something different than usual. I like to share with you how Jesus would say if he were born in our time. I imagine him saying this morning, “Don’t you ever think I’m like those “holier-than-thou” people. You know who I’m talking about. You don’t know? Well, I’m specifically calling out you Pharisees, Sadduccees, theologians, and those in power. I’m not one of you. I see you as hypocrites. I’m not going to water down how I really think of you.” Then Jesus continues, “You think I’m going to be that peaceful, all around nice guy? You got me wrong. I’m far from it. I’m here to bring division. Yes, you heard me correctly. Division. But this division in your family is just an example that has been happening even before I was born. Don’t get too caught up literally in all this talk of ‘father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.’ This has been happening. Look at your own family. Look, I didn’t cause it. You all caused it all. What I’m really talking about is from now on, you will see more clearly all the divisions in your lives, in your world.” Jesus is not done yet so he goes on, “Get this right, my friends. I’m not saying I won’t bring any peace. I will. But peace comes at a price. This peace I’m talking about comes only after I reveal all the divisions in this world and in yourselves. My mission of revealing all the divisions among people, particularly the division between you and God, will get me killed. You will hang me on the cross because of the division in you. I reveal today how far you’ve been walking away from the loving God even though he is already within your heart. I also reveal even if you want to be far from God, you really can’t because God loves you just too much! My resurrection is God’s eternal and unconditional love for you.” Jesus then looks at those religious and political leaders in the crowd. I told you he’s fearless. Once he gets angry or pissed off, especially when facing injustice done to people, he doesn’t stop. Let’s listen to him, “Now, I’m talking to you religious and spiritual hypocrites. You teach people wrong things. You mislead them to believe that they have to do something to get closer to God, that they have to obey your teachings and rules to feel closer to God, that they have to look for God outside. You are an obstacle between God and people. You try to divide God and people when you yourselves haven’t experienced God in you! I’m exposing the division you’re creating in people. And you will kill me for this. This is why I say I have a baptism to undergo. I got physically baptized before by my cousin John at the river Jordan. This baptism I’m talking about is how the division you’re creating in people and God will kill me. This baptism is my death and resurrection. Only through this baptism, I will then bring peace!” Up to this point is the first part of today’s gospel lesson. Now we may be the audience for the second part. Jesus asks us whether we ourselves know how to interpret the present time. This task of interpreting the present time of our own requires a very special skill. That is to see things as they are. When Jesus talks about division in the family, I imagined Jesus saying that we shouldn’t get too caught up in that provocative image of son and father going against each other and so on. Simply because that kind of family dispute has been going on all the time ever since there was any understanding or concept of what a family is. Don’t we all have a dysfunctional family whether we like it or not? What is more important is naming the obvious. Without actually interpreting what’s happening, we must see what’s actually happening. This is why we need to see things as they are if we want to interpret the present time. So, how do we interpret the present time? First, see what’s really happening. So, Jesus talks about families. I’m not sure when but I frequently hear the most important thing about our lives is our family. I’m sure most people would agree with this. But the reality of that most important thing in life is rather messy. Not just son against father but son against mother as well as son against his siblings and so on. We see division in our families all the time whether it is small or big. The key to Jesus’s example of family isn’t how we come to peace with our family members but simply to name what’s happening in the family. That is division. We are somehow divided in the most fundamental human unit which we value so much. So in order to accurately interpret our own family, we must see what conflicts or divisions are there rather than glossing them over as if nothing happens and we are a happy family superficially. You see a cloud rising in the west and accept that there really is a cloud rising in the west. Then you’ll say, “It’s going to rain.” When you see the south wind blowing and really accept that it is really blowing, then you will say, “There will be scorching heat.” Seeing a cloud as it is is the first step to interpret the weather correctly. Seeing the wind blowing southward as it is is the first step to interpret the weather correctly. But let’s say you don’t want to see it, that you don’t want to accept it. Even though you see a cloud rising in the west but don’t want the rain, then you’ll falsely believe it will not rain. This is self-deception. Say you don’t want scorching heat tomorrow. Then you’ll deny the south wind blowing. All these examples point us to one thing. How do you interpret not the present time in general, but your present time, your here and now? As I said, the key to interpret correctly is to see things as they are. So, looking at yourselves, what do you see things around you and within you at this present time? What is your life filled with right now? Is it a worry about tomorrow, dissatisfaction, happiness, sorrow, resentment? What is in your heart at this present time? Is there any division in you? Are your minds divided and fragmented? You can name those things and people in your hearts before making any kind of judgment whether negative or positive. See what they are. But most importantly, remind yourselves and believe it is the Holy Spirit who is most intimately present within you here and now at this present moment while forgetting all your thoughts and feelings. Through your baptism, you have received the Holy Spirit dwelling in you. And no one can take away from you. This intimacy of the Holy Spirit who is at the core of our existence is what we must see first at the present time. Then we can interpret our present time, which means we know what we ought to do at this present time that we’re given. As we see things as they are, as we see the Holy Spirit within us as she is at this present time, we interpret the present time, meaning we follow the guidance of the Holy Spirit in our world. Without seeing the Holy Spirit resurrecting us in our very existence, we become hypocrites. Joining God’s mission in the world without first seeing the Holy Spirit in us is impossible. So, my friends, let us first see and experience the Holy Spirit in us. See the fire in us that Jesus has brought through our baptism. Receive the body of Christ and drink his blood, sacramentally becoming one with you, living in you. Then we will have the eyes of wisdom to see things around us clearer than ever. With the eyes of the Holy Spirit, we can see divisions all around our country, which gives us a reason to talk about peace, not just any peace but the peace that our crucified and risen Christ has brought. With the help of the Holy Spirit eternally working in us, we can truly follow daily in the blessed steps of Jesus Christ in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Would it be too much of a stretch to say that God in the first lesson sounds like he's talking about the current situation of our country? The vision Isaiah receives is God’s rejection of any sacrifices of the kingdom of Judah. God refuses to accept whatever Judah does in the name of God or for the sake of God. The reason is clear. God says, “Your hands are full of blood.” We may all agree that the hands of the United States are full of blood as we reflect on the recent shootings in Dayton and El Paso as wells as the border crisis. Innocent people are murdered and treated inhumanely. Whether one is politically on the right wing or left wing, I think most people can agree to believe that something is definitely wrong in our country. We create sufferings for one another instead of working to relieve them. As we hear all these tragic and heart wrenching stories, we also suffer. In this situation of human-made sufferings, no wonder why God would not accept any sacrifices coming from the hands full of blood. And of course, many thoughts and prayers God will not listen to either.
Living in this cruel world, what are we Christians called to do? Within our church, which is quite well known and accepted as one of the liberal Christian denominations, it is not hard to hear the voices that are shouting for social justice in our country. But few seem to take any actions and more seem to not know what to do about them. I’m not saying this to blame our lack of ability or social justice strategies. Rather, I suspect we might miss something much more important in our Christian calling that can give us some clear direction on these social issues. It’s like we all know Jesus calls us to be the salt of the world, yet we don’t know how salty we ought to be in the world. When we don’t know that, we simply become too bland or unnecessarily too salty. Or to put it differently, we ourselves haven’t really experienced what it is to be the salt of the world and we have no clue what we as Christ’s followers can offer to this suffering world. We as Chrsitians should be able to say what we are recently facing in our country is a spiritual problem in that our country is spiritually bankrupt. And also we need to face that the reality in which we don’t know what to do about it is our spiritual crisis. In this midst of encountering our spiritual bankruptcy and spiritual crisis, today’s gospel is the light from God which redirects us as well as reminds us of Jesus’s gospel. Often we forget about the gospel Jesus actually proclaimed. It’s not about “Become Christians.” The good news Jesus proclaimed is rather simple: The kingdom of God has come near. The kingdom of God is within you. In today’s gospel, Jesus tells the same thing to the disciples, “Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” God desires to give you the kingdom. And that kingdom is already within you. (If you heard my homily last Sunday, I’m repeating the importance of the kingdom within us again.) Only after telling the disciples that God’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom, Jesus says, “Sell your possessions, and give alms.” It is because the kingdom given to us is more precious than any possessions we can have in this world. Discovering this kingdom of God within us is like having a purse that does not wear out or gaining an unfailing treasure in heaven where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. This is the kingdom in us that is eternal. Imagine when you have something so valuable. You wouldn’t care so much about anything else. Say you are given a million dollars for free in cash and you have some singles in your wallet. You see a homeless person who asks you for changes. Wouldn’t you just give everything in your wallet or your entire wallet itself to that person? And this kingdom of God is nothing comparable to money or fame or honor. What Jesus then tells the disciples or all those who have heard his message of the gospel is quite shocking and rather too radical. He’s saying that this kingdom of God which is unmeasurably precious and valuable is already given to us and is within us. Well, who would believe that? When it is too easy to get or doesn’t require any effort, it is just hard to believe its legitimacy. Now, I ask all of us the same question. Do you believe what Jesus tells you? Do you believe that the kingdom of God is already within you? Do you believe that when you say the Lord’s prayer, especially the part where you say “thy kingdom come,” it means “thy kingdom come” in your heart first? Or do you experience the kingdom of God in you from time to time if not right now? I imagine we want to say “yes” to all but our honest response would be “no” or “not really” or “are you crazy?” We want to believe what Jesus has proclaimed but we don’t know how to make sense of it or we haven’t yet experienced that kingdom Jesus talks about. I think this lack of experiencing the kingdom of God in us may explain why we feel so lost or we have nothing to offer to the suffering world. This morning, I would like us to experience this kingdom of God in us. As you all know me quite well, I won’t do anything crazy but ask you a simple question. I invite all of you to close your eyes and answer my question. “Who are you?” How did you answer? Did you simply say your name? But that’s not who you are. That’s your name that your parents gave you or how people refer you to. Who are you really? Another question. When you see, feel, touch, and think, you say, “I see, I feel, I touch, and I think.” Who is that I that sees, feels, touches, and thinks? You’re not simply your seeing, your feeling, your touch, your thinking. Who is that I? To both questions, “Who are you?” and “Who is that I that sees, feels, touches, and thinks?” the answer is “I don’t know.” Yet, you know you are there. If you don’t know who you are, you are right there and I see you. Remember the experience when you genuinely say, “I don’t know.” In the medieval tradition, it is called the “Cloud of Unknowing.” In this Cloud of Unknowing, all your thoughts and feelings are suspended and cut off. All there is in you is simply your existence. That existence you’re experiencing is where God dwells, therefore the kingdom of God within you. It doesn’t go anywhere just as we often say God doesn’t go anywhere. When we Christians say God is with you or God is in you or in your life, we rather mean it in a literal sense. God is within you. The kingdom of God is within you. But we are so caught up in our thoughts, feelings, and senses so we don’t experience God’s dwelling not so much. When you’re encountering the “I don’t know” stage, experience your existence only in which God dwells eternally. This is something every single human being shares with. In this existence, in this kingdom of God, there’s no fear or anxiety. Wherever God is, there’s peace and joy. There’s love and compassion. In today’s gospel, Jesus also urges us to be ready for his coming because he comes at an unexpected hour. This simply means to wake up, to be in touch with the kingdom of God in you, to be connected with your very existence. In other words, live out the kingdom of God which is within you. When you truly experience this kingdom in you, you will see the kingdom in others. You will see God in them. God in us and God in them are the same God whom we share our very existence with and in whom we exist. So as Christians, our calling whether lay or clergy is to bring this kingdom of God in us out to the suffering world as well as to bring out the kingdom of God hidden in others. Our Christian mission in this cruel world is then to see the kingdom of God in those who are murdered and separated from their loved ones as well as in those who are shooting and torturing others. But without first experiencing the kingdom of God in ourselves, this is an impossible task. It is my fervent prayer that we all encounter the very existence in which God dwells. This whole experience is the coming of the Holy Spirit upon us. So, may God grant us the spirit to think and do always those things that are right, that we who cannot exist without God, may be enabled to live according to the will of God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Let’s imagine Jesus is physically (not just sacramentally) with us right here. What is that you want to ask him to do for you? What problems or struggles would you ask him to solve? We don’t have to try to come up with something that is not related to our lives. I think the key is truly being honest with ourselves before Jesus. What bothers you? What boggles your mind? What is in your way? It can be something like “Can you tell my colleague at work to have some decency?” or “Why is my brother not acting in his age?” Whatever question or request you have for Jesus, it is where you begin your conversation with Jesus.
In today’s gospel lesson, there’s this man in the crowd who asks Jesus to solve his family problem. We might consider his question not so spiritual or theological. We might think why he would request Jesus such a stupid thing. While his request is not theologically deep, this man is at least honest. Having a brother, probably older, who is not willing to share the family inheritance is his real problem. It doesn’t matter to him whether his request or question is spiritual or not. What matters to him the most at this stage of his life is to take some part of the family inheritance from his older brother. Since Jesus is well known among people as a wise teacher and a righteous prophet, he may be the only one who can convince his greedy brother to share the family inheritance with him. Jesus, however, fails this man’s expectation. Jesus in a way disappoints him. He is not the one who can resolve his family disputes. Jesus then asks the man, “Friend, who set me to be a judge or arbitrator over you?” This question is not really a question. It is Jesus’s answer to the man with the family problem. We can imagine Jesus saying something like “My friend, your family problem is not a real problem.” Jesus knows what real problem this man has. He then tells him the parable of the rich man. As you already heard the story, I won’t go into the details but only two things we can reflect this morning. The first thing focuses on the rich man’s saying and the second on God’s saying. First, notice that the rich man is completely self-focused. He believes everything his land produced to be his. Let’s listen to his own words, “What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops? I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods.” My crops, my barns, my grain, and my goods. Me, me, me, my, my, my, and mine, mine, mine. There’s no room for others in his mind. He’s only concerned with himself. There’s no love of neighbor. Greed is the vice that has no capacity for gratitude and other human beings. Greed is never satisfied and fulfilled. It’s like pouring water into a bucket full of holes. Nothing remains in that greedy person’s soul. Only restlessness and busyness. The rich man whose heart is filled with greed will try to build more barns once he is finished with the first one. His project of storing his crops will never stop. Even if he builds more than 100 barns, his soul will find no rest. His soul will not be so merry. That’s the nature of this vice called greed or avarice. And in this nature, one “turns away from the divine good by cleaving to a temporal good.” (ST II.2.Q118.A5) The second thing I would like us to reflect on this morning is about the finitude of life. God in the parable appears and sounds like scolding the rich man, “You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?” What God says in the parable is painfully realistic. No one can take anything with themselves upon death. All the possessions of the rich man will be someone else’s. Who knows this parable would’ve been the personal story of the man who asks Jesus to solve his problem with his brother? What’s left behind the rich man can be the cause of all the family disputes. The point of Jesus’s parable is that those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God will always end up losing everything when they die. In other words, it means: Be rich toward God. Do not let your eyes be blinded by greed. Greed blinds you from seeing what is most important. Greed only makes you see what’s temporal, not what’s eternal. Therefore, it distances you from loving others as yourself which ends up distancing yourself from God. The one driven by the vice of greed is the one who is clothed with the old self that St Paul talks about in the second lesson. Now, what are we taking away from today’s gospel lesson? I can easily say, “My friends, let’s get rid of greed in our hearts. Instead, let’s be rich toward God. Let’s focus on what’s eternal, not what’s temporal. Let’s us strip off the old self and clothe ourselves with the new self.” But how!? How do we get rid of greed? How do we become rich toward God? How do we focus on what’s eternal in this temporal world? How do we strip off the old self and clothe ourselves with the new self? My friends, I must tell you this is almost an impossible task without first experiencing what’s eternal in ourselves. It’s not just information or knowledge you have to subscribe to so that you can instantly strip off all the bad habits our old selves are disposed to. It is the, not just any, experience that changes us. It is the experience of our new selves in Jesus Christ that grant us virtues to desire what’s eternal, which is God himself. Then where do we experience this new self? Where do we experience what’s eternal? Don’t look outside. It’s not out there. It’s not after death. You can only experience deep within yourself. When Jesus says “The Kingdom of God is within you,” this we must take literally. The Kingdom of God is really within you. This is the same as that which we are all created in the image of God. The image of God which we have in us is the very existence of God’s kingdom. I’ve mentioned a few Sundays ago about the Hindu greeting of namaste. It means “The divine in me honors the divine in you.” This simple practice of greeting is a much deeper practice of our belief that all human beings are created in the image of God as well as Jesus’s saying that the Kingdom of God is within us. So, we can say, “The Kingdom of God in you honors the Kingdom of God in you.” The image of God in me honors the image of God in you. And that image we all share is God’s very own son Jesus Christ. This image of God in us, this presence of God’s kingdom in us is something eternal whereas everything else is all temporal. Since it is eternal, it doesn’t go anywhere. The reason why we don’t sense it is because we don’t pay too much attention to it. Spirituality in our Christian faith is simply living life in the Spirit. In other words, it is to pay attention to the divine in us. All of you have experienced this kingdom of God, the divine in you. You might not remember or have not recognized it or didn’t know what to call it. I can give you some examples. When you feel deeply moved by something such as singing a hymn that touches your heart and brings you a sense of love, hope, joy, and peace, that’s the kingdom of God in you. That’s when you’re connected with your inner self. What about when you’re in nature, looking at a beautiful waterfall or putting your feet in a river that refreshes your body and soul? You’re connected with your inner self in which the kingdom of God is. This doesn’t mean you can only connect with your inner self, the image of God in you when you’re in a good mood. What about when you hear horrible news such as a diagnosis of your illness or death of someone you care about? What about the domestic terrorism in El Paso? We become silent before all these horrible news and tragedies. In a way, you’re in touch with your inner self, your very existence that you know what matters the most in our lives. In our busy lives, we tend to forget this very existence of our own which makes who we really are in Christ. If we completely ignore this image of God in us, we become like the rich man in the parable. We lose sight of what’s eternal which is and has been in us. The sacrament of baptism is the very public entrance into the new self in Christ and our conscious acknowledgement that we confess that we are created in the image of God which is restored and resurrected in Jesus Christ. In doing so, we become God’s children. And as we partake the Body and Blood of Christ, we are sacramentally connected to our inner selves and God’s very own flesh and blood. So, my friends, this morning I ask you to be in touch with your very own existence. When you deeply connect with your inner self, you will realize God is in you and has never left you. God has been in you ever since you came to this world. The more we are aware of God’s kingdom, God’s reign in us, the richer we are toward God, the deeper our new selves grow, the closer we come to Jesus, the more we become loving to our neighbors in suffering, the more we become truly who we are in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. |
Paul"...life up your love to that cloud [of unknowing]...let God draw your love up to that cloud...through the help of his grace, to forget every other thing." Archives
January 2025
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