This year, we replaced the word Advent with awakening. The reason for doing that is advent means coming or arrival of Jesus. We should no more wait for the arrival of Jesus because he arrived 2000 years ago. What we need to do is, instead of waiting for Jesus, we need to wake up to him.
To help you do that, today's sermon is titled, from constipated consciousness to cosmic Christ. Let me explain what I mean I by that.
You know what physical constipation is. In hospice care, we deal with that quite a lot especially with elderly patients in nursing homes and assisted living facilities. They sit in their wheel chairs or lie in bed all day. They don't drink enough fluids. They take a lot of medications. I have patients who are on 15 different pills. Combine all that with the aging of the body, and you get a plumbing system, that is stuck. Physical constipation can be extremely uncomfortable.
How about spiritual constipation? If you have any of the following symptoms, you are spiritually constipated. Fear, anger, jealousy, anxiety, prejudice, judgmentalism, unwillingness to learn new things, unwillingness to let go of the past, feelings of superiority, close mindedness, refusal to change your opinions inspire of new evidence, lack of flexibility, getting stuck in your ways.( pardon the pun)
One of the top symptoms of a constipated consciousness is fear and there is plenty of it around these days. The other day, I was having breakfast with a friend of mine who said:” Paul, I am walking around with this terrible anxiety in my heart. After the events of 9/11 I have been on edge. But over the years, it had subsided. But the rise of ISIS and the recent events in Paris and California have shaken me up again.”
I am afraid, something like that could happen here. He said, imagine, a busy Saturday in December at the Saw Grass Mills Mall. A crazy person with a home made bomb could walk in there and easily kill hundreds of people. It could happen in the American Airlines Arena when a basket ball game is on or at the Dolphins stadium when a football game is on. My friend is living with a constipated consciousness. He does not experience the joy of living and it is a sad way to live.
I refuse to live like that regardless of what is happening around me now or what might happen in the future. That is not the abundant life that Jesus promised. That is not the peace that the angels promised at the birth of Jesus. Remember that announcement to the shepherds: “Glory to god in the highest, and peace to men of good will.” What happened to that.?
How can we experience that peace today in the middle of ISIS threat? How can we enjoy that peace while living in an apparently hostile and unpredictable world?
We can do that, if we are willing to wake up to a different way of celebrating Xmas.
I see 3 ways of celebrating Xmas. The first is based on the shopping mall. Most of the western world follows this model. Its focus is to buy the right stuff for yourself, and to find the ideal gift for your loved ones. It is centered around black Friday and Cuber Monday. You put all those stuff under the Xmas tree, open them on Xmas morning, have a great Xmas dinner with family and friends and the day after Xmas is just like nay other day. I owe, I owe, therefore off to work I go.
The second way of celebrating Xmas is based on the gospel of Luke. What do I mean by that? Only Luke writes about the baby Jesus being born in a manger. Only Luke tells us about the angels making birth announcement to the shepherds. Xmas songs like “silent night holy night”, “Joy to the world”, “O little town of Bethlehem”, and “O come all ye, faithful” would not have existed without the gospel of Luke.
For majority of Christians, their Xmas is centered around the events described in the gospel of Luke. Most of the third wold which is economically poor, celebrates Xmas the Lukan way. When I was growing up in India, we celebrated it that way. We had a small manger at home with statues of Mary, Joseph and Jesus, the three kings and a few ceramic sheep. We had no black Friday madness in the malls, because we had neither the malls nor a Thanksgiving weekend. We had no Cyber Monday shopping because we had no computers. It was very basic.
If you really want to experience the peace and joy promised at the birth of Jesus, If you really want to experience Christmas joy beyond Xmas day, you have to wake up to celebrating Xmas using a third way. It is based on the gospel of John.
The gospel of John, does not mention the angels or the manger. It does not mention the shepherds or the three wise men from the east. There is no holy family of Joseph Mary and Jesus and there is no virgin birth. None of the external paraphernalia that we associate with Xmas is in the gospel of John.
John describes Xmas in just 8 simple words.
“The word became flesh and dwelt among us.” (Jn 1:14)
The implications of those 8 word are huge. If you can wake up to the real meaning of those 8 words your life will change.
In Greek, the language of the Bible, word is Logos which means God. Logos is omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient God who is creator of everything. John begins his gospel with this declaration. “In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God and the word was God.”
We see the same phrase in the first verse of the first chapter of the book of Genesis “In the beginning, God created heaven and earth.” By using the same phrase, John is saying that Jesus is God.
Then he makes a startling statement: This all powerful God, this Logos, became flesh and dwelt among us. It doesn't say God became a holy man and dwelt among us, God became a Christian, a Jew, a Hindu, a Muslim, an American, a Canadian or a Cambodian and dwelt among us. But ..God became flesh.
In other words, anybody who is in flesh, which is everybody on this planet, 7 billion people belonging to 400 different regions, 38000 Christian denominations, living in 200 plus countries, speaking thousands of languages—every one of them, men women and children, black white and yellow, straight and gay, is an incarnation of god...every one them is God made flesh...in varying degrees.
When you start thinking like that, your constipated consciousness about nationality, ethnicity and religiosity, loosens up, you expand your heart so wide to include all those people, which by the way, includes the ISIS terrorists, and the refugees too—you start experiencing the joy and peace of Xmas.
You cannot experience the peace of Xmas by excluding people from your circle of concern. Mother Teresa once said that we don't have peace because, we have forgotten that we belong to each other.
You cannot celebrate the birthday of the God made man, if you can't celebrate mankind with all its flaws and flavors. You cannot experience true Xmas joy if you cannot extend your hands wide and embrace the entire humanity which is 7 billion pieces of God made flesh spread around the planet.
Let me tell you a story. Few weeks ago, I was co-officiant at a Hindu-Catholic wedding. The bride was Catholic and and groom was Hindu. The bride had tried all the local Catholic churches in Broward and Palm Beach counties to find a find a priest. No priest would join the Hindu priest because that would give the false impression that both religions are the same.
In the mind of the priest, Christianity is a better region than Hinduism. By the way, if you harbor feelings of superiority with regard to other people or religions, you are downgrading the God made flesh in those people.
So, this bride sitting in her apartment in Chicago, clicked on a website called “rentapriest.com” where I am listed as a wedding officiant. She sends me an email asking if I was available for a Hindu-Catholic fusion wedding on Saturday November 28th. I replied yes. All I am thinking at that point is, I am going to be part of the life journey of two people whom I have never met and what a blessing that is.
I never thought about the superiority of Christianity over Hinduism. I didn't say to myself: “According to John 3; 16, the bride is saved because she believes in Jesus, but the groom is doomed to hell because his is a Hindu..these are all thoughts coming from a constipated consciousness.
I had none of those thoughts. I am going to be a witness to the love of two souls and thank you Jesus for making me a part of it. Period. End of story.
As soon as I replied yes my phone rang. It was the bride. Her name was Anona. As we began talking, I came to find out that her parents who live in Boca, are from the same state in India where I come from. In fact, her mother and I grew up in the same town.
The next day, her father called me and I went to visit the parents in Boca.
As soon I saw then, I recognized them. I had met them in 1988 at the house of a mutual friend in Coral springs. At that time, the bride was just 5 years old. I had no memory of the girl but I remembered her parents.
Fast forward 27 years, this girl who is 31 years old, is connecting with me to officiate her wedding. And I am connecting with her parents after a 27 year gap. The mystery of the circle of life.
It was a huge wedding with about 250 invited guests..more than half of them were Hindus. There were statues of Hindu Gods all around the wedding venue. The Hindu priest and I stood side by side on the podium. There were three readings from the Bible. I talked about the sacrificial love of Jesus as the basis of Christian marriage. The Hindu priest did several rituals invoking the name of Rama and Krishna in prayers.
I was totally comfortable and at ease, being with a group of people who were celebrating one of the most joyful events of life. There was so much joy, and laughter and love in that room.
The 250 people in that room regardless of their faith, or the gods they prayed to, the customs they practiced, the holy books they read from, were all—at the end of the day, children of the same God and part of a world God so loved.
At the end of the ceremony I said this. “My presence here today is no coincidence. I don't believe in coincidence, I believe in “God-incidence.” In the world wide web of humanity, all of us are connected by an invisible, but real bond. Very often, we are not conscious of that bond,because we place veils of separation such as religion, race, ethnicity, nationality, sexual orientation etc. and hide behind them.
But every now than, God lifts that thin veil of unconsciousness and gives us an opportunity to see that bond. This event is one such moment.”
Every interaction with another human being is an encounter with the Word made flesh. There is an invisible bond between you and all other humans on this planet. Awareness of that bond will help you see the Cosmic Christ in everything and in everyone.
We cannot meaningfully celebrate the birthday of the God-made-man, without acknowledging, accepting and celebrating humanity in its entirety. Anything less is dishonoring the “Word-made-flesh.”
Sunday, December 13, 2015
Saturday, December 12, 2015
SECOND SUNDAY OF AWAKENING: "Awaken to John 3:16"
This year we are preparing for Xmas in a different way. Instead of waiting for the coming of Jesus which is what advent means, we are talking about waking up to Jesus who has already arrived. He arrived 2000 years ago. The tragedy of Christianity is the lack of awareness of his arrival. So today I like to talk more about awareness, which is the same as consciousness or waking up. I also will talk about the importance of waking up and the process of waking up.
But before that, let me share with you a conversation I had last week with a friend of mine who is a priest. I told him that I am replacing the word advent with awakening. His first question was who gave you permission to do that. Because in his thinking, he has to get permission from his bishop to do anything like that.
It is usually children who need permission to do something. If you want your child to go on a school trip you have to sign a permission slip. Permission is also about control. You want to be in control of your child's whereabouts at all times. But true spirituality will never flourish in a childish, controlled environment. The holy spirit is a free flowing reality. That is why Jesus said, “the wind blows where ever it pleases. Your hear its sound. But you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with every one born of the spirit.(John 3:8). So, if you are constrained, consigned and cocooned in our life, the Holy Spirit may not be working in you.
So when I put the permission issue to rest, he raised another point-the issue of tradition. For 2000 years, the church has designated the four weeks before Xmas as the season of advent. The word advent is printed on all calendars. We have advent candles, advent wreath, advent liturgy. Who gave you the authority to change that. So, it is actually permission issue related to control.
Basically what he was asking was who gave you permission to think outside the box? How dare you Paul V. paint outside the frame? My answer to that is if you don't think outside the box, you will always live inside the box and such a life is a limited,controlled, constricted existence., a life devoid of spirit.
Let us say, you purchased a refrigerator. It was delivered on a Saturday morning. The guys installed it in your kitchen. And left the huge box in your garage for you to dispose of on garbage collection day. Instead of putting it on the curb, imagine you get into the box and living in it.
Your heart muscles will grow weak because it doesn't need to stretch to pump blood for a body that is actively living in the world. You will never know the beauty and elegance of the larger world out there. It is a suffocating existence smeared with drudgery, boredom and predictability. Religious life is like that for many people. There is no excitement or feeling of abundance in a choreographed life punctuated with rules, rituals, rubrics and traditions.
Speaking of traditions, I am always inspired by these words of Jeroslav Pelican who was a Lutheran pastor. He said; “tradition is the living faith of the dead and traditionalism is the dead faith of the living.” Now think about it for a moment. What we call tradition is something that was done in the past by our forefathers. Notice the words, past and forefathers.
They lived in the past and they did things that they found meaningful then. It was their living faith then. They are dead now. We cannot and should not just cut and paste their traditions into our life without examining and understanding it. When we do that it is called traditionalism and it becomes dead faith of the living. A lot of that is happening in religion and that is why even though the world is filled with religious people the world is not a paradise. The ISIS terrorism is an extreme example of this. They want to establish a caliphate based on the customs and traditions established by Mohamed in the 7th century.
A lot of people are going thru the motions. They are sleep walking thru life. They need to wake up. There is a famous 18th century bedtime prayer for children that goes like this:
I lay me down to sleep,
I pray the Lord my soul to keep,
If I should die before I wake,
Bless me Lord my soul to take.
I think we should change one line of that prayer. Instead of "If I should die before I wake" we should pray: "Wake me up before I die." Waking up in the morning implies, opening your eyes, shaking off the blanket, sitting up in your bed, then standing up and walking to the bathroom or kitchen or where ever you wan to go. So waking up requires a little shaking up. It requires coming out of the safety and comfort of the so called security blanket and out into the open. There is some discomfort involved in that. Unless we are willing to undergo that discomfort, we can't wake up and do what needs to be done such as get ready for work and go to work and earn a living and maintain a family.
Spiritual life is not any less different than that. If you want to have a vibrant spiritual life that brings love and peace and joy and hope into your life—which by the way, are represented by the four advent candles, be prepared to wake up and be open to some shake up. It is a good thing. It is a sign of life. Because the only place there is no movement, no sign of life, is when you are in the coffin.
Awakening is so important in life because, you are only affected by what you are aware of. You are only influenced by what is within your awareness or consciousness. Nothing else matters regardless of what it is or how much it is. It is like 2 trillion dollars circulating in the US economy any given day. What matters is what is in your savings or checking account. Awareness is like that. If you are not aware of something, it makes no difference for you.
If you are not aware that Jesus has already arrived but you are still looking for him on Xmas day, nothing changes for you. If you are unaware that the person standing in front of you is Jesus in disguise, you are unlikely to treat him with love or respect.If you are unconscious about the availability of abundant life now, you wont experience it now. You will expect it only after you die.
Let me tell you a story to prove to you that unless you are conscious of something, it has no no impact on you. In other words, only what you experience, understand and are conscious of can affect your thinking and behavior and ultimately your life. That applies to all areas of life-physical, emotional and spiritual.
We have a dog. Her name is Sally. She is a young, energetic, beagle mix who loves to run. If she gets a chance she will bolt thru the door and run wild thru the neighborhood. When that happens, and it has happened a few times until I put up a fence in the back yard- we become very anxious. We are worried that she would bolt across the street and get hit by a car or she would bite somebody and we will get sued.I am not a happy camper when that happens.
My wife would get into her ca and drive around the neighborhood looking for Sally. She will spot her somewhere, stop the car and call her ...the dog will come close and as soon as my wife tries to grab her, she would bolt again. She is playing. What do you expect from an unconscious animal? Every time it happens, it is a forty five minute to an hour of anxiety, anger, frustration and pure pain in the neck experience. And it is no fun.
A few months ago, I was home alone. My wife and son had gone shopping on a Saturday afternoon. I hear this noise outside the door and I see Sally standing there panting heavily..apparently she had escaped thru a hole in the fence and was gone for a while...running around the neighborhood. Since I had no awareness of her escape, I had no heart palpitations, no anxiety, no anger..I was just relaxing and watching TV the whole time. The point is that only what you are conscious of can make a difference in your life.
So on this second Sunday of awakening, I like you to wake up to the purpose of Jesus's birth as it is stated by Apostle John. Because that is the one you are most familiar with. Jn 3: 16. Every Christian, knows that phrase by heart. You see them as bumper stickers. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
Have you seriously thought about it or are you just repeating it? If you are just repeating it without understanding what it really means, if you are not conscious of its meaning, it won't transform your life and that seems to be the case with a lot of Christians. They will put it on their cars and proudly drive around town, but if you stop and ask them what it really means, they are unlikely to give a conscious answer.
Very often it is used as a statement of exclusivity..that Jesus is the only son God. If you don't believe in him, you will perish. But if you do, you will have eternal life. Believing in him is usually understood as believing in certain doctrines about Jesus..that he was born of the Virgin Mary, that he is the son of God, that he died on the cross for our sins, that he rose again and will come again to judge us at the end of the world. And if you believe all that, you are eligible for eternal life, which his usually life after death.
If that is all you know about that verse, you are unconscious. Understanding John 3.16 like that will not give you the Xmas experience of love, peace joy and hope.
You have to wake up to the real meaning of that verse. First of all, focus on the first line: It says,God so loved the world. It doesn't say, God loved America, Israel, India, Canada or God loved the Christians, the Jews, the Muslims;God loved the world which means the whole world with its 7 billion people and the entire creation. If your love is exclusively for only certain group of people, or let us say, you dislike some religions like Islam or some groups like the gays, you cannot have full Xmas experience of love peace and joy.
If you think that those who don't believe in Jesus will perish as as John 3.16 implies, you won't enjoy the Xmas experience because more than half of humanity does not believe in Jesus. If you take john 3.16 literally, you will have to sent 1.2 billion Chinese into hell because they don't believe in Jesus. What kind of Xmas experience of joy and peace do you expect to have after consigning the entire Chinese population to hell?
Look at the current refugee crisis in light of john 3.16. The Syrian refugees who flee their homes with the clothes on their back and the kids on their shoulders are part of the world that God so loved. We know that 31 state governors including ours have told the president, we don't want them here, because we are afraid of them..some of them could turn into terrorists...
How can we celebrate the birth of the son god of we are afraid of other sons and daughters of God who are suffering in this world that God so loved? If you are unsympathetic to the refugee crisis you will sleep walk thru the advent season. I like you to wake up to the fact Jesus is the son of refugees.Mary and Joseph were like refugees in Bethlehem because they had no place to go. They ended up in a manger and gave birth to Jesus. But he was not safe there because King Herod wanted to kill him like Asad is killing hundreds of Syrians now. So Mary and Joseph had to pick up Jesus and escape to Egypt.
The irony is that during the Christmas season, Christians will display manger scenes in front of their homes without realizing that they are displaying a refugee family...
They will pay homage to baby Jesus in the crib who is the son of refugees and at the same time oppose admitting Syrian refugees into the country.
It is that disconnect that makes our Christmas so meaningless. That is why I am talking so much about the need for awakening.
When we wake up to the truth that every human being—all 7 billion of them-that includes the terrorists and the refugees-- is part of a world that God so loved and we open our hearts to love them as God did, you will start experiencing Xmas in a whole new way... and that is my prayer for our congregation this year.
But before that, let me share with you a conversation I had last week with a friend of mine who is a priest. I told him that I am replacing the word advent with awakening. His first question was who gave you permission to do that. Because in his thinking, he has to get permission from his bishop to do anything like that.
It is usually children who need permission to do something. If you want your child to go on a school trip you have to sign a permission slip. Permission is also about control. You want to be in control of your child's whereabouts at all times. But true spirituality will never flourish in a childish, controlled environment. The holy spirit is a free flowing reality. That is why Jesus said, “the wind blows where ever it pleases. Your hear its sound. But you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with every one born of the spirit.(John 3:8). So, if you are constrained, consigned and cocooned in our life, the Holy Spirit may not be working in you.
So when I put the permission issue to rest, he raised another point-the issue of tradition. For 2000 years, the church has designated the four weeks before Xmas as the season of advent. The word advent is printed on all calendars. We have advent candles, advent wreath, advent liturgy. Who gave you the authority to change that. So, it is actually permission issue related to control.
Basically what he was asking was who gave you permission to think outside the box? How dare you Paul V. paint outside the frame? My answer to that is if you don't think outside the box, you will always live inside the box and such a life is a limited,controlled, constricted existence., a life devoid of spirit.
Let us say, you purchased a refrigerator. It was delivered on a Saturday morning. The guys installed it in your kitchen. And left the huge box in your garage for you to dispose of on garbage collection day. Instead of putting it on the curb, imagine you get into the box and living in it.
Your heart muscles will grow weak because it doesn't need to stretch to pump blood for a body that is actively living in the world. You will never know the beauty and elegance of the larger world out there. It is a suffocating existence smeared with drudgery, boredom and predictability. Religious life is like that for many people. There is no excitement or feeling of abundance in a choreographed life punctuated with rules, rituals, rubrics and traditions.
Speaking of traditions, I am always inspired by these words of Jeroslav Pelican who was a Lutheran pastor. He said; “tradition is the living faith of the dead and traditionalism is the dead faith of the living.” Now think about it for a moment. What we call tradition is something that was done in the past by our forefathers. Notice the words, past and forefathers.
They lived in the past and they did things that they found meaningful then. It was their living faith then. They are dead now. We cannot and should not just cut and paste their traditions into our life without examining and understanding it. When we do that it is called traditionalism and it becomes dead faith of the living. A lot of that is happening in religion and that is why even though the world is filled with religious people the world is not a paradise. The ISIS terrorism is an extreme example of this. They want to establish a caliphate based on the customs and traditions established by Mohamed in the 7th century.
A lot of people are going thru the motions. They are sleep walking thru life. They need to wake up. There is a famous 18th century bedtime prayer for children that goes like this:
I lay me down to sleep,
I pray the Lord my soul to keep,
If I should die before I wake,
Bless me Lord my soul to take.
I think we should change one line of that prayer. Instead of "If I should die before I wake" we should pray: "Wake me up before I die." Waking up in the morning implies, opening your eyes, shaking off the blanket, sitting up in your bed, then standing up and walking to the bathroom or kitchen or where ever you wan to go. So waking up requires a little shaking up. It requires coming out of the safety and comfort of the so called security blanket and out into the open. There is some discomfort involved in that. Unless we are willing to undergo that discomfort, we can't wake up and do what needs to be done such as get ready for work and go to work and earn a living and maintain a family.
Spiritual life is not any less different than that. If you want to have a vibrant spiritual life that brings love and peace and joy and hope into your life—which by the way, are represented by the four advent candles, be prepared to wake up and be open to some shake up. It is a good thing. It is a sign of life. Because the only place there is no movement, no sign of life, is when you are in the coffin.
Awakening is so important in life because, you are only affected by what you are aware of. You are only influenced by what is within your awareness or consciousness. Nothing else matters regardless of what it is or how much it is. It is like 2 trillion dollars circulating in the US economy any given day. What matters is what is in your savings or checking account. Awareness is like that. If you are not aware of something, it makes no difference for you.
If you are not aware that Jesus has already arrived but you are still looking for him on Xmas day, nothing changes for you. If you are unaware that the person standing in front of you is Jesus in disguise, you are unlikely to treat him with love or respect.If you are unconscious about the availability of abundant life now, you wont experience it now. You will expect it only after you die.
Let me tell you a story to prove to you that unless you are conscious of something, it has no no impact on you. In other words, only what you experience, understand and are conscious of can affect your thinking and behavior and ultimately your life. That applies to all areas of life-physical, emotional and spiritual.
We have a dog. Her name is Sally. She is a young, energetic, beagle mix who loves to run. If she gets a chance she will bolt thru the door and run wild thru the neighborhood. When that happens, and it has happened a few times until I put up a fence in the back yard- we become very anxious. We are worried that she would bolt across the street and get hit by a car or she would bite somebody and we will get sued.I am not a happy camper when that happens.
My wife would get into her ca and drive around the neighborhood looking for Sally. She will spot her somewhere, stop the car and call her ...the dog will come close and as soon as my wife tries to grab her, she would bolt again. She is playing. What do you expect from an unconscious animal? Every time it happens, it is a forty five minute to an hour of anxiety, anger, frustration and pure pain in the neck experience. And it is no fun.
A few months ago, I was home alone. My wife and son had gone shopping on a Saturday afternoon. I hear this noise outside the door and I see Sally standing there panting heavily..apparently she had escaped thru a hole in the fence and was gone for a while...running around the neighborhood. Since I had no awareness of her escape, I had no heart palpitations, no anxiety, no anger..I was just relaxing and watching TV the whole time. The point is that only what you are conscious of can make a difference in your life.
So on this second Sunday of awakening, I like you to wake up to the purpose of Jesus's birth as it is stated by Apostle John. Because that is the one you are most familiar with. Jn 3: 16. Every Christian, knows that phrase by heart. You see them as bumper stickers. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
Have you seriously thought about it or are you just repeating it? If you are just repeating it without understanding what it really means, if you are not conscious of its meaning, it won't transform your life and that seems to be the case with a lot of Christians. They will put it on their cars and proudly drive around town, but if you stop and ask them what it really means, they are unlikely to give a conscious answer.
Very often it is used as a statement of exclusivity..that Jesus is the only son God. If you don't believe in him, you will perish. But if you do, you will have eternal life. Believing in him is usually understood as believing in certain doctrines about Jesus..that he was born of the Virgin Mary, that he is the son of God, that he died on the cross for our sins, that he rose again and will come again to judge us at the end of the world. And if you believe all that, you are eligible for eternal life, which his usually life after death.
If that is all you know about that verse, you are unconscious. Understanding John 3.16 like that will not give you the Xmas experience of love, peace joy and hope.
You have to wake up to the real meaning of that verse. First of all, focus on the first line: It says,God so loved the world. It doesn't say, God loved America, Israel, India, Canada or God loved the Christians, the Jews, the Muslims;God loved the world which means the whole world with its 7 billion people and the entire creation. If your love is exclusively for only certain group of people, or let us say, you dislike some religions like Islam or some groups like the gays, you cannot have full Xmas experience of love peace and joy.
If you think that those who don't believe in Jesus will perish as as John 3.16 implies, you won't enjoy the Xmas experience because more than half of humanity does not believe in Jesus. If you take john 3.16 literally, you will have to sent 1.2 billion Chinese into hell because they don't believe in Jesus. What kind of Xmas experience of joy and peace do you expect to have after consigning the entire Chinese population to hell?
Look at the current refugee crisis in light of john 3.16. The Syrian refugees who flee their homes with the clothes on their back and the kids on their shoulders are part of the world that God so loved. We know that 31 state governors including ours have told the president, we don't want them here, because we are afraid of them..some of them could turn into terrorists...
How can we celebrate the birth of the son god of we are afraid of other sons and daughters of God who are suffering in this world that God so loved? If you are unsympathetic to the refugee crisis you will sleep walk thru the advent season. I like you to wake up to the fact Jesus is the son of refugees.Mary and Joseph were like refugees in Bethlehem because they had no place to go. They ended up in a manger and gave birth to Jesus. But he was not safe there because King Herod wanted to kill him like Asad is killing hundreds of Syrians now. So Mary and Joseph had to pick up Jesus and escape to Egypt.
The irony is that during the Christmas season, Christians will display manger scenes in front of their homes without realizing that they are displaying a refugee family...
They will pay homage to baby Jesus in the crib who is the son of refugees and at the same time oppose admitting Syrian refugees into the country.
It is that disconnect that makes our Christmas so meaningless. That is why I am talking so much about the need for awakening.
When we wake up to the truth that every human being—all 7 billion of them-that includes the terrorists and the refugees-- is part of a world that God so loved and we open our hearts to love them as God did, you will start experiencing Xmas in a whole new way... and that is my prayer for our congregation this year.
Friday, December 11, 2015
FIRST SUNDAY OF AWAKENING: "Awaken to Mt: 28:20b"
Time flies is isn't it? I was just the other day we celebrated Christmas and it is Christmas again in less than a month. And then a few weeks later we will start the season of Lent and then Holy week, and Easter. As we go thru these seasons and celebrations, what happens to us? Does anything really change in our lives or are we just going thru the motions?
My feeling is that we are doing all this because that is what we are supposed to do as Christians. These seasons and celebrations are part of being a church. But beyond that, I am not sure what does all this mean?
This year we are entering Christmas season in the shadow of the Paris Massacre. The huge tragedy that shook Paris a few weeks ago. I was watching TV and this breaking news came on and sat there and began weeping...this deep sadness pervaded my heart...sadness for the suffering of those innocent victims who were enjoying a meal in a restaurant or music in a theater.
What saddened me even more is the fact that it was done in the name of God. As they were shooting, the terrorists were chanting Allahu Akbar which means “God is great.” I have no ideas who that God is...but they are convinced that their God wants it this way. What are we to do? How are we to process a horrific event like that? What are we to think of a God like that?
So, on an international level, we have ISIS wreaking havoc—Beirut, Paris, Mali. There is a huge refugee crisis going on in Europe where families are displaced, lives are lost and hope for a peaceful world seems to be diminishing each day. And we are entering a season of of Advent in the middle of all this.
And then there is more. Look at what is happening nationally here at home. The election season is heating up and it is nasty out there. A certain segment of the population is extremely angry and you can see that anger and frustration finding voice thru the vitriolic speeches from some candidates. It is cut throat competition out there in the campaign field.
So we have international problems, National problems and thee is at least one more thing we have to add to that. Our personal problems. I don't know what you may be going thru, but I am sure we all have something, right? Cheryl is taking care of her ailing mom, which is a very difficult job.
In the midst of all these unrest and uncertainty, problems and challenges, what is the season of advent and celebration of Christmas going to do for us?
If the past is any indication, the answer is, nothing much. Today we will observe the first Sunday of advent and will light one candle, next week, 2 candles, and then three, and four and a then during Christmas eve ,..all four candles will be lit, Christmas songs will be sung, we will wish merry Xmas to each other...go home open our presents..watch some parades or sports...enjoy the weekend and Monday morning..back to work. I know the drill, because I have been there. We all have been there.
This year I want it to be different for us. I don't want you to go thru another traditional advent and Christmas season. So, I am going to propose a few changes. Change is hard, but stay with me, have an open mind and watch what happens. What is the harm in trying something new. We have done the traditional stuff for so long and nothing much changed. So let us give it a try. We have nothing to lose. So be open minded and be excited.
In fact, I am not going to say anything new. It is very old, as old as the scriptures..Either you have not been told the real meaning of things or you have not really understood some basic stuff about being a christian.
I promise you one thing. I will stick with Jesus..If anything I say in this church during the weeks and months ahead, is against the teachings of Jesus and what you read in the four gospels, I want you to challenge me and even ban me from coming back.
Don't argue using a verses from the Old Testament or a single verse from St. Paul's letters to contradict something I might say. Stick with the four gospels, because that is where we meet Jesus. Even there, we won't be able to meet the 100 percent real Jesus because Jesus is presented there thru the eyes of Mt, Mk, Luke and John. That is why they are called gospel “according to”
Having said that, let me propose a simple change..it is just the change of a word..but the implications are huge. This year, let us delete the word “advent” from our vocabulary and our consciousness. Where ever you see the word advent, replace it with Awakening.
Now, why is that important you might ask. It is important f because words do matter.
Let me tell you a story. There is an experiment about the power of words. A man sat at the corner of a NY subway station with a cardboard sign which said: “I am blind, please help”. Some people threw money onto plastic cup placed on the sheet in front of him. In one hour he collected $15.37.
Then he changed the words on the sign. It read: “It is a beautiful day, but I can't see it.” Now throngs of people began putting money into his plastic cup and it overflowed into the sheet on which the cup was placed. In one hour, he collected $123. 10 cents. That is the power of words.
So how is replacing the word advent with awakening going to help us spiritually? First let us look at the meaning of the word advent. It literally means, coming or arrival. It comes from the Latin word venire, to come.
So what we have been doing for centuries is, set apart four weeks before Christmas to prepare ourselves for the coming or arrival of Christ. On the first Sunday of advent we usually read about John the Baptist preparing the the crowd for the coming of the messiah.
The notion of “coming” or “arrival” of Jesus masquerades the reality that Jesus is already here. It perpetuates the notion that we have to “wait” for him rather than “witness” to him. When you are expecting Jesus, you fail to experience him. The fact of the matter is that Jesus has been already here for 2000 plus years. The question is not, “How to prepare for his he coming?” but “Have I met him?” So instead of “waiting” for his arrival, we need to “wake up” to his presence within us and around us.
Now you know why the bulletin says First Sunday of Awakening. Jesus is in your hearts already. He was born in your heart the day you were formed in your mother's' womb. You need to wake him up..commune with him, consult with him, take him with you where ever you go. You have to make a conscious decision to do that.
Jesus—that is a powerful name. The man behind that name is the savior of the world. There is no other name given under the sun by which man may be saved, says apostle Peter.
We don't have to wait for another four weeks to meet him. You don't have to do extensive preparations to welcome him on Christmas night. Jesus said to his disciples: And surely, I am with you always, till the end of times.” Those are the last words of Jesus according to the gospel of Mt. That is the last verse of the last chapter of Mathew's gospel. It is a promise and a guarantee from the Lord. I want you to wake up those words.
I am with you always. Jesus didn't say, I was with you for 3 years, now that I am dead, I am sorry, I can't help you, you are on your own. He didn't say, I “will” be with you at a later date, in the future. If you get into trouble, or you can't manage things by yourself, call me and I will help you in the future.
He said. I AM with you Always...now in real time..There is not a moment in our lives when Jesus is away from us. We may be away from him plenty of times during the week, but he is not.
So, wake up to those five powerful words: I am with you Always....Don't wait any longer and be miserable and unhappy in the meantime. Waking up to those words mean, become conscious of it.
When you become conscious of the presence of Jesus with you and around you all the time, advent and Lent will become unnecessary. You will feel like Christmas every day; you will live risen life every day. Not just 4 weeks before Xmas and 6 weeks before Easter.
On the other hand, if you are aware of the presence of Jesus only during Xmas and Easter time, that is a tragic way to live a Christian life.
Waking up to Jesus means two things. It is not actually two separate things, but two aspects of the same reality. First, you have to feel the presence of Jesus inside you.. Don't live your life feeling empty inside or fill the inside with feelings of anger, jealousy, frustrations and bitterness and all those negative stuff.
When you do that, Jesus is dead inside. With a dead Jesus inside, you cannot see the living Jesus outside.
What you see outside is a reflection of yourself. You see the world as you are, not as it is. That is why Wayne Dyer said: A happy person lives in a happy world, a miserable person lives in a miserable world.
When Jesus is alive on the inside, you will start seeing Jesus in others. “Whatever you did to the least of my brothers, you did it to me.” Those words of Jesus would become alive for you.
My feeling is that we are doing all this because that is what we are supposed to do as Christians. These seasons and celebrations are part of being a church. But beyond that, I am not sure what does all this mean?
This year we are entering Christmas season in the shadow of the Paris Massacre. The huge tragedy that shook Paris a few weeks ago. I was watching TV and this breaking news came on and sat there and began weeping...this deep sadness pervaded my heart...sadness for the suffering of those innocent victims who were enjoying a meal in a restaurant or music in a theater.
What saddened me even more is the fact that it was done in the name of God. As they were shooting, the terrorists were chanting Allahu Akbar which means “God is great.” I have no ideas who that God is...but they are convinced that their God wants it this way. What are we to do? How are we to process a horrific event like that? What are we to think of a God like that?
So, on an international level, we have ISIS wreaking havoc—Beirut, Paris, Mali. There is a huge refugee crisis going on in Europe where families are displaced, lives are lost and hope for a peaceful world seems to be diminishing each day. And we are entering a season of of Advent in the middle of all this.
And then there is more. Look at what is happening nationally here at home. The election season is heating up and it is nasty out there. A certain segment of the population is extremely angry and you can see that anger and frustration finding voice thru the vitriolic speeches from some candidates. It is cut throat competition out there in the campaign field.
So we have international problems, National problems and thee is at least one more thing we have to add to that. Our personal problems. I don't know what you may be going thru, but I am sure we all have something, right? Cheryl is taking care of her ailing mom, which is a very difficult job.
In the midst of all these unrest and uncertainty, problems and challenges, what is the season of advent and celebration of Christmas going to do for us?
If the past is any indication, the answer is, nothing much. Today we will observe the first Sunday of advent and will light one candle, next week, 2 candles, and then three, and four and a then during Christmas eve ,..all four candles will be lit, Christmas songs will be sung, we will wish merry Xmas to each other...go home open our presents..watch some parades or sports...enjoy the weekend and Monday morning..back to work. I know the drill, because I have been there. We all have been there.
This year I want it to be different for us. I don't want you to go thru another traditional advent and Christmas season. So, I am going to propose a few changes. Change is hard, but stay with me, have an open mind and watch what happens. What is the harm in trying something new. We have done the traditional stuff for so long and nothing much changed. So let us give it a try. We have nothing to lose. So be open minded and be excited.
In fact, I am not going to say anything new. It is very old, as old as the scriptures..Either you have not been told the real meaning of things or you have not really understood some basic stuff about being a christian.
I promise you one thing. I will stick with Jesus..If anything I say in this church during the weeks and months ahead, is against the teachings of Jesus and what you read in the four gospels, I want you to challenge me and even ban me from coming back.
Don't argue using a verses from the Old Testament or a single verse from St. Paul's letters to contradict something I might say. Stick with the four gospels, because that is where we meet Jesus. Even there, we won't be able to meet the 100 percent real Jesus because Jesus is presented there thru the eyes of Mt, Mk, Luke and John. That is why they are called gospel “according to”
Having said that, let me propose a simple change..it is just the change of a word..but the implications are huge. This year, let us delete the word “advent” from our vocabulary and our consciousness. Where ever you see the word advent, replace it with Awakening.
Now, why is that important you might ask. It is important f because words do matter.
Let me tell you a story. There is an experiment about the power of words. A man sat at the corner of a NY subway station with a cardboard sign which said: “I am blind, please help”. Some people threw money onto plastic cup placed on the sheet in front of him. In one hour he collected $15.37.
Then he changed the words on the sign. It read: “It is a beautiful day, but I can't see it.” Now throngs of people began putting money into his plastic cup and it overflowed into the sheet on which the cup was placed. In one hour, he collected $123. 10 cents. That is the power of words.
So how is replacing the word advent with awakening going to help us spiritually? First let us look at the meaning of the word advent. It literally means, coming or arrival. It comes from the Latin word venire, to come.
So what we have been doing for centuries is, set apart four weeks before Christmas to prepare ourselves for the coming or arrival of Christ. On the first Sunday of advent we usually read about John the Baptist preparing the the crowd for the coming of the messiah.
The notion of “coming” or “arrival” of Jesus masquerades the reality that Jesus is already here. It perpetuates the notion that we have to “wait” for him rather than “witness” to him. When you are expecting Jesus, you fail to experience him. The fact of the matter is that Jesus has been already here for 2000 plus years. The question is not, “How to prepare for his he coming?” but “Have I met him?” So instead of “waiting” for his arrival, we need to “wake up” to his presence within us and around us.
Now you know why the bulletin says First Sunday of Awakening. Jesus is in your hearts already. He was born in your heart the day you were formed in your mother's' womb. You need to wake him up..commune with him, consult with him, take him with you where ever you go. You have to make a conscious decision to do that.
Jesus—that is a powerful name. The man behind that name is the savior of the world. There is no other name given under the sun by which man may be saved, says apostle Peter.
We don't have to wait for another four weeks to meet him. You don't have to do extensive preparations to welcome him on Christmas night. Jesus said to his disciples: And surely, I am with you always, till the end of times.” Those are the last words of Jesus according to the gospel of Mt. That is the last verse of the last chapter of Mathew's gospel. It is a promise and a guarantee from the Lord. I want you to wake up those words.
I am with you always. Jesus didn't say, I was with you for 3 years, now that I am dead, I am sorry, I can't help you, you are on your own. He didn't say, I “will” be with you at a later date, in the future. If you get into trouble, or you can't manage things by yourself, call me and I will help you in the future.
He said. I AM with you Always...now in real time..There is not a moment in our lives when Jesus is away from us. We may be away from him plenty of times during the week, but he is not.
So, wake up to those five powerful words: I am with you Always....Don't wait any longer and be miserable and unhappy in the meantime. Waking up to those words mean, become conscious of it.
When you become conscious of the presence of Jesus with you and around you all the time, advent and Lent will become unnecessary. You will feel like Christmas every day; you will live risen life every day. Not just 4 weeks before Xmas and 6 weeks before Easter.
On the other hand, if you are aware of the presence of Jesus only during Xmas and Easter time, that is a tragic way to live a Christian life.
Waking up to Jesus means two things. It is not actually two separate things, but two aspects of the same reality. First, you have to feel the presence of Jesus inside you.. Don't live your life feeling empty inside or fill the inside with feelings of anger, jealousy, frustrations and bitterness and all those negative stuff.
When you do that, Jesus is dead inside. With a dead Jesus inside, you cannot see the living Jesus outside.
What you see outside is a reflection of yourself. You see the world as you are, not as it is. That is why Wayne Dyer said: A happy person lives in a happy world, a miserable person lives in a miserable world.
When Jesus is alive on the inside, you will start seeing Jesus in others. “Whatever you did to the least of my brothers, you did it to me.” Those words of Jesus would become alive for you.
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