Awakening Transformation - Fr. Rob Lord+

I am a Happy Father and Grandfather today!

 

Love to Jon, Jenni and Scott, Ashlynn and Andrew! You are all the best!

Dad and PaPa.

For Fathers Day - Remember

This video should inspire us all in our relationships with our Fathers, children and grandchildren.

Awakening Transformation, Rob+

Archbishop's Reflections On Pentecost

Icon of The Fathers Love

Icon:  a sign or representation that stands for its object by virtue of a resemblance or analogy to it.

This photo is of a Great Grandfather embracing and blessing his Great Grandson, my father David, and my grandson Andrew Robert Palmer.

I see it as an icon of God the Father. As Fr. Henri Nouwen put it in his reflections of Rembrandt's painting of the Prodigal son:

"Though I am both the younger son and the elder son, I am not to remain them, but called to become the Father."

If this kind of relationship and generational love is possible in this life, imagine what it is revealing. An icon invites us to see through the image into the reality.

"Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called children of God: and such we are." 1 John 3:1

Awakening Transformation,

Rob+

P.S. The Photo was taken by Jenni Palmer, grand daughter of David and mother of Andrew.

Judas and Jesus: Is there Grace for the Wounded Soul?

During Holy Week, our Diocesan Clergy List Serve had quite the discussion on the fate and destiny of Judas: Heaven or Hell? Here is what I contributed:

My understanding of Judas’s destiny was deepened and stretched when I was at Fuller Seminary in 1995 working on my D. Min. I took a class on the “Family System and the Church’s Ministry” with Dr. Ray S. Anderson, Professor of Theology and Practical Ministry, and Presbyterian pastor.  Fuller is not known as a progressive liberal institution!

That is why I was intrigued with what Ray Anderson was about to share with us. One of the issues he addressed was the experience and consequences of betrayal in families, churches and relationships. This is something, we have all encountered in one degree or another. I have some scars that can prove this pastoral reality, both as betrayed and betrayer.

Betrayal.  He asked us: “What do you do when there is failure? Implicit in every covenant is the certainty of betrayal. Embedded in every act of covenant promise is the reality of disillusionment, disobedience, and disheartenment. Only where there is love and friendship can betrayal occur. Betrayal is a desperate act where love has failed. The act of betrayal destroys the fabric of community; it threatens the core of all relationships. For the betrayed, it is an outrage which no punishment can satisfy. For the betrayer, it is a crime for which self-abuse is the only atonement.” He then went on to speak of the destiny of Judas and how his life teaches us about betrayal and reconciliation.

1991 theologian Ray S. Anderson wrote a book many considered provocative because it suggested that through God’s grace Judas, traditionally considered as the betrayer of Jesus and thus responsible for the ultimate heinous act, should be understood as forgiven (Judas and Jesus, Amazing Grace for the Wounded Soul.)

He taught that the story of Judas is the story of each of us, to some degree. The past cannot be corrected nor failures erased by remorse. I suspect that the wounds to the soul of Judas were deep and devastating, particularly because they were largely self-inflicted. It hurts to have failed others and even more to have failed ourselves. Judas is the voice within us that will not be put to rest with platitudes nor silenced with sensible palliatives for nonsensical pain. Where human love, even self love, turns away with regret, or even disgust, divine love persists and prevails as the amazing grace of God.

Harrowing of Hell. The Christian idea of the Harrowing of Hell may allow Judas to come face to face with Jesus. The icon used in the Eastern Orthodox tradition shows Christ, clad in white and shining with glory, pulling Adam and Eve out of coffins, their death defeated by Jesus.

We believe that Jesus descended into hell.  Could Judas have met Jesus in that place? Is it unreasonable to ask? What would Jesus have said to Judas? Could it have been “My choosing you as one of the twelve counts more than your betrayal”.

Through God’s grace I have discovered that the calling of God by which we become children of the kingdom does not rest upon our faith alone, but upon his faithfulness toward us. Calvin said, “No one can truly repent except they have received the grace of God.”  I believe that repentance follows grace, doesn’t precede it.

Is Christ’s calling of Judas greater than Judas’ betrayal? Maybe these questions are bigger than the limited texts we have concerning Judas can adequately address, questions that cannot be answered on this side of the Second Coming of Christ.

Eugene Peterson endorsed Anderson’s book this way: “Anderson courageously probes the Judas experience in order to help us get in touch with the depths of despair and hopelessness within ourselves. He finds there, where we often least expect it but should dare to embrace it, the forgiveness of Jesus, the grace of the risen Christ.”  -Eugene H. Peterson, Professor Emeritus of Spiritual Theology, Regent College, Vancouver, Canada.

I share these thoughts with you, simply to say that perhaps there is more to the destiny of Judas that we can ever really know or be completely certain of. And, that when we preach on the Judas story, we are touching one of the deepest wounds a soul can endure – the wounds of betrayal. Is there a remedy? Yes, and it is nothing less than the Gospel. “For God has reconciled the whole world unto himself, not counting their sins and trespasses against them.” Holding to this view, does not mean embracing universalism.  It does convey that God’s act of reconciliation in Jesus “is the perfect offering for our sins, and not for ours only, but for the sins of the whole world.” 1 John 2:1-2

Blessed Easter Season,

Rob+

The word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

I find these words regarding the meaning of the Cross by N.T. Wright, to be among the best I have ever read. I am very uncomfortable with too much emphasis on a certain oversimplification: such as the medieval model of a vengeful father being placated by an act of gratuitous violence against his innocent son. In fact, the scripture is too rich and varied to support that kind of reduction of the truth.

While noting the obvious problems with a crude doctrine of propitiation (a loving Jesus placating a malevolent God) we can also go to an opposite extreme.

To deny God's condemnation of sin, as some would do today as they have for hundreds of years, is to deny the depth and weight of sin and the deeper depth and heavier weight of God’s redeeming love. The word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.  I hope you hear that story proclaimed from those entrusted with the high call of preaching this week.

Read this prayerfully:

"Face it: to deny God's wrath is, at bottom, to deny God's love. When God sees humans being enslaved,  if God doesn't hate it, he is not a loving God. When God sees innocent people being bombed because of someone's political agenda, if God doesn't hate it, he isn't a loving God. When God sees people lying and cheating and abusing one another, exploiting and grafting and preying on one another, if God were to say, 'never mind, I love you all anyway', he is neither good nor loving. The Bible doesn't speak of a God of generalized benevolence. It speaks of the God who made the world and loves it so passionately that he must and does hate everything that distorts and defaces the world and particularly his human creatures." - Bishop N.T. Wright.

The cross is the place where, and the means by which, God loved us to the uttermost.

With you on the Journey of the Great Three Days,

Rob+

Holy Week: Love Was His Meaning

The invitation to walk with Christ, to be his companion on the way, has now been given once again.

Yesterday in my Palm Sunday homily I mentioned the following words of Julian of Norwich: "You want to know our Lord's meaning in this thing? Know it well: love was His meaning. Who showed it to you? Love. What did He show you? Love. Why did He show it? For love."

That we are beloved by God is good news.  Yet, Holy week not only tells us of God's love, but it reveals what love is and how that love has been given. The really Good News of the Christian faith is that God has done something in the giving of his Son that delivers us from our bondage to sin and death.

As, again, William Temple wrote, “This is the heart of the Gospel. Not ‘God is love’ – precious truth but affirming no divine act for our redemption” (Readings in John’s Gospel, p. 48). Love is good. But love that does nothing to change our reality is just sentimental."

Here is where I find my greatest hope. Not simply in words of love, but the love which has changed my reality, and opened the door to the journey of transformation, healing and a new, unending kind of life.

The cross, said Luther, is "the test of everything" (Crux Probat Omnia). For Luther, Christian thinking about God comes to an abrupt halt at the foot of the cross. The Christian is forced, by the very existence of the crucified Christ, to make a momentous decision. Either he will seek God elsewhere, or he will make the cross itself the foundation and criterion of his thought about God.

Human theological intuitions are always suspect. Some argue that Jesus crucifixion was not salvific only a metaphor, or even worse, simply a footnote.  I am not among them. The cross breaks down our preconceptions regarding everything about God – and, if we see with the eyes of faith, rebuilds them.

Love was his meaning. The Cross is the test of all.

Awakening Transformation,

Rob+

A Lenten Prayer

Lord Jesus Christ,
you are for me medicine when I am sick;
you are my strength when I need help;
you are life itself when I fear death;
you are the way when I long for heaven;
you are light when all is dark;
you are my food when I need nourishment.

- Ambrose of Milan (340-397)

All Saints Parish Weekend

It was an exceptional weekend here at All Saints. Over 250 gathered for a celebration of our life together as we entered into Lent, this past Friday Evening and Saturday.

The theme for the weekend was from Philippians 1:21 " For me, to live is Christ."

Dr. Woody Anderson, Professor of New Testament at Nashotah House Theological Seminary, ( my Alma mater), did an outstanding presentation of Paul's letter to the Philippians.

Woody's presentations were as follows:

1. A Path Toward Joy:  Living for Something Bigger than Ourselves

2. The Secret of Harmony: Living for Someone Besides Ourselves

3. Discontented Contentment: Living for Something Beyond Ourselves

He combined a very careful exegesis but also a relevant and pastoral application of this epistle to our lives today. 

For example, on the subject of "Getting Serious  About Joy," Dr. Anderson said: "Joy is not make believe, but true belief. It is not a denial of reality; it is the embracing of  a deeper and larger reality. God does not oblige us to deny reality. God want us to have joy. It his gift to you, and it is your obedience to him."

He had so many memorable sayings that will shape this community for quite a while. For example: "When we lose our sense of mission, we lose our unity. It is not imposed conformity, or being uniform in opinion. It is rather to have and to seek the mind of Christ." 

What a great joy to have sound, dynamic, faithful biblical teaching for the parish and to be shaped by God's word as a community of learning. If you would like to listen to or download Dr. Anderson's teachings, they are available on the All Saints Web site on the "presentations" page, or just click this link. Dr. Woody Anderson at All Saints 

Awakening Transformation, 

Rob+ 

Ash Wednesday: The Enourmous Privilege

This is Ash Wednesday. It is one of the most grateful days of the year for me. Why? This is a day that we set aside for the most searching self-inventory before God, and the most honest appraisal of our sin and brokenness that we can possibly offer him.

It is not easy. We are tempted to evade this .  All sins are attempts to fill voids in our lives, in the deepest places of our soul. Yet, sin in some measure is our only hope. For when we consciously acknowledge the seriousness of our predicament before God, at the same moment we recognize God as the one who extends mercy to us even in the midst of the truth of who we are. As Paul wrote: "While we were yet sinners Christ died for us." ( Romans 5:8).

And so we must remember that we are mortal, that “To dust you will return.”  This, too, is good for us because we live in so much denial. Facing our mortality and sin in the shadow of Christ’s cross and impending resurrection is the healthiest way to deal with the truth of who we are.

Yet that is not the last word. “We are dying, says Saint Paul, and behold, we live.” It is, in one sense, a description of everyday experience, the fact that all of life is fragile, but that in the midst of it we are sustained by God’s presence and love as we make our journey home.

My prayer for each of you today is that you will return to the loving Father, the relationship he desires with you, and to acknowledge just how much you truly need his forgiveness, healing and love. Take one step today, and he will run towards you.

Awakening Transformation,

Rob+