Is there anyone here feeling so much pressure after hearing Jesus’s words about what we are as well as Prophet Isaiah’s rebuking words about what we ought to do. Isaiah’s saying can be summarized in Martin Luther’s famous saying, “God doesn’t need your good works, but your neighbor does!.” It’s simply, “Do the right thing for those in need, and only then God will answer you!” His criticism of Israel for its deceiving acts that do not reflect God’s love and justice seems to be relevant to our time. We as Christians gotta do the right thing if we really want God to answer and help us. I’m sure there’s no one here who will deny this call to do the right thing for justice is what God wills, but the real problem we face is our seemingly impossible nature of doing it or our lack of competency or desire to do it. Another saying of Jesus that presses us down even more is “You are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the world.” We might want to correct Jesus that he is the salt of the earth and the light of the world, not us. We might not want to take his words into our hearts, but the truth is that he really means what he says about us.
Then we might want to ask ourselves at least the following two questions. 1) Why don’t I feel like I can be the salt of the earth and the light of the world? I feel like I don’t have any useful saltiness that can make things tasty. I don’t see any light in my life. It’s just so mundane, and there’s nothing particularly bright. The other question is, 2) how can I become the salt and the light? How can I live up to Jesus’s expectation of me? How can I do the thing Isaiah urges the people of Israel to do for mercy and justice? I like to believe I am asking the real questions we are struggling in our lives as Christians. We want to do the right thing but we don’t seem to do it. We have this desire to do it but don’t seem to have a strong will and determination to actually take action. We want to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world but our presence neither tastes like salt nor radiates any light in this dark world we live in. Now we might be quite discouraged by this reality, yet there’s always a way out. We must change the way we think of our faith as well as ourselves. We first have to accept that we have no capability to do the right thing, that is, the will of God, on our own without faith. This faith is the faith St. Paul talks about in our second lesson today. This faith depends on the power of God, not on mere human wisdom or knowledge. This is the type of faith that seems foolish to the world. It is unseen, unheard of, and inconceivable among people without faith. This faith is not about believing in certain doctrines or theories but about experiencing God that goes beyond our thoughts, feelings, and senses within and without. In this encounter with God, we experience the power of God, or to say correctly God Itself, the unseen, the unheard, the inconceivable, the unborn, yet revealed in Christ through the Spirit. Without this reality in us, we cannot have the faith that rests on the power of God. This explains why we can’t live like the salt of the earth and the light of the world. So,it’s unfair that you blame yourself for not doing the right thing. You never had the ability or power of God to do the work of God. Now knowing this, what are we going to do? First, we want to have this faith. We want to experience God within us. We want to meet God who waits for us so that God can reveal Itself but this only happens until our minds are empty. When our thoughts and feelings fall away, what is left is God in whom we live, move, have, and are one. From this oneness with God, we gain our strength to do the right thing. In our union with God, we bring our saltiness to the earth and shed light on the darkness of the world. Rather than having our ego-consciousness clutter and block the access to God’s presence in us, we need to be constantly mindful and aware of this state of being one with God. It’s not something completely unreachable but something that has never ever left us since it is simply this sense of being and existing like we never stopped breathing. And this something is God’s oneness with us that still goes on even when our breathing stops. When something is too subtle and easy, we take it for granted and consider it irrelevant. But our Christian spirituality calls us to pay attention to that subtle, quiet sense we always have, which is being there, being myself, existing as I am. This week, I came across a thought-provoking and eye-opening definition of spirituality. It’s Sister Elaine MacInnes’s simple yet powerful description. She says, “Spirituality is what you do with those fires that burn with you.” The fires that burn with you are the living flame of God’s love, which is our fuel to do the right thing. Discovering the divine fires that burn within us leads us to do the will of God for those who are oppressed, hungry, homeless, poor, naked, and afflicted. My friends, let the Holy Spirit, the breath of God breathe through you. Let the living flame of love within you burn what’s distorted in you and in this world and radiate and shine before those suffering. 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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