BLATANT BLASPHEMY

The greatest blasphemy of all, according to Jesus, is to assert that God, in and through the work of the Holy Spirit, has no place in our life. For to deny the necessity of the Holy Spirit to be part of our lives is to assert that we can live a life without God. Even more, it is to deny God’s existence and, in effect, make ourselves to be God. It is to say that we need no one and nothing. We are self-sufficient. To believe that and live like that is surely blasphemous.

It is blasphemy because it is so wrong. Perhaps there are times in our lives when we, for whatever foolish reasons we may have at the moment, try to live such a life. We go it alone and never ask God’s help nor ask anyone else for help. We are self-sufficient, we say or want to believe and certainly act that way. Foolishness, to be sure; but sometimes we do play the fool, don’t we?

It is only when we are overwhelmed by the mess we have made or find ourselves in that we come to our senses and realize that we cannot live this life alone, that we need not only the love and support of others, but also and more importantly the grace and strength of our God that comes through the Holy Spirit,. So often it is only then that we begin to repent of our foolishness, our stubbornness and blasphemous ways and thoughts, and return to the Lord.

To believe in God for us who call ourselves Christians means to rely on the grace and strength of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is manifested in our lives, is made alive in our lives. How is that done? For the most part most of the time is done and manifested in and through the love and support of the Christian community, our brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ, that’s how.

Those who believe in Jesus and try to live the life he has taught us to live, who gather as the Christian family, the church, the fellowship of believers, they are those who make the Holy Spirit alive in the world. Moreover, our being part of this community is what helps and enables us to live our lives as we know we should live them and as we would want to live them. Without the support of our faith family, without the grace of the Spirit living in and working through each one of us, we would not be able to make it in this life in this world. And, again, to insist that we could would be blasphemous.

It is easy, at times, to forget the importance of the faith community in our lives, even to assert that we do not need that community to live out our life of faith, especially when we seem to have life by the tail. But, again, to think or act that way is truly blaspheming the Holy Spirit. If we say that we do not need others, we are also saying we do not need the Holy Spirit – and that is blasphemy!

We need to put away blasphemous thoughts and actions and be thankful for being a part of the Christian community that surrounds us. We need to be mindful of and thankful for their love and care and support in helping us live out our life of faith. We also need to be as loving and caring and supportive to them as they are for us.

DOES FOLLOWING JESUS EMBARRASS US?

From the very beginning of his ministry it is obvious from the Gospel accounts that Jesus was an embarrassment to his family, or at least to some members of his extended family. For whatever reason, they wanted to stop him from doing what he was doing. Jesus had quickly attracted a crowd of followers or at least a crowd of hangers-on who were hanging on to his every word and action. Why they were hanging around only they knew. His family obviously had no clue as to why he was so popular. After all, he was only the son of a lowly carpenter, a carpenter himself with no formal education to be considered a leader of people in any way, shape or form.

Some, perhaps, were following Jesus because they felt he could do something for them: work a miracle, give the needed word of encouragement, whatever. Others, perhaps, were hanging around because what Jesus was saying and doing made them believe that perhaps, just perhaps, Jesus might really be the Messiah and they wanted to be on his side when he came into his power. Still others stayed close by because they were truly being fed by what Jesus was giving them.

All these people were so wrapped up in their own wants and needs that oftentimes they did not even give him the courtesy to eat a meal in peace or to spend some time with his family let alone to go off by himself to spend time in spiritual and physical refreshment. They were in need and they believed that Jesus could take care of their needs and they were just not going to go away or even give him any time to himself until he responded to their pleas for help.

Times have not changed nor have the reasons changed why people hang around Jesus even today, have they? Our hanging around, of course, takes on different forms but not for different reasons. Some of us, like those beating a path to Jesus’ door and almost beating the door down, beat up on Jesus, if you will, with our own agendas. We beg; we plead; we may even rant and rave, demanding that Jesus not only give us his attention, his immediate attention, and not only listen to our needs but respond to them as we would have him so respond.

Some of us hang around the fringes of faith in Jesus, doing the minimal, professing belief but not much more, because, just in case it takes faith in Jesus to get to heaven, we don’t want to be left out. Come judgment day there are those of us who want to be able to say that we were baptized or confirmed, went to church on occasion, never denied our faith even if we were not all that particular about it. At least Jesus could not say he did not know us even if what we said and did hardly gave a clue to that kinship.

And some of us hang around Jesus because we know, as Peter would profess later on, that Jesus has the words of eternal life, and that not only eternal life, but life itself flows from Jesus. Even so, and we trust that it is so, we must never take our faith for granted but live it and live into it more and more fully each day. What that means, of course, is that we never feel embarrassed when we live out our faith and especially never so embarrassed that we do not.

BEAT PITT IN ‘22

There are some future events in life that, I guess, are really worth waiting for. The other day when Arlena and I were back in our old stomping grounds of West Virginia, she having been born there and I having served there for over 17 years, we saw a huge sign in one of the store windows that read “Beat Pitt in ’22”. You had to be a part of that rivalry to really understand.

Years ago, and not too many at that, the game between the University of Pittsburgh, near where I grew up and where we now live, and West Virginia University was called “The Backyard Brawl.” It was that and sometimes more than that. What made it even more interesting was that many a player from each team grew up in their now-rival’s backyard. It was always a fun time for the alumni.

But Big Money reared its ugly head. West Virginia went off to the Big 12 where its closest rival is half a continent away in Oklahoma, the majority of the rest being in Texas. Pitt is now in the Atlantic Coast Conference composed of almost all southern universities. No more backyard brawls and none in the offing as no university for either of them will ever be considered to be in their backyard.

The leveler heads in both schools decided that something important was going on when there was a true rivalry, something that one could not pin down but knew it was important just as it happened when that other backyard brawl, Pitt vs. Penn State was dissolved when Penn State went packing to the Big Ten because of financial considerations. It’s always about that, isn’t it?

Well, Pitt and Penn State are back at each other’s throats and it’s been good for both schools even if the head coaches hate giving up a patsy to play a meaningful game that a loss might cost them when bowl bids come a begging. But the Pitt and Mountaineer fans will have to wait until 2022 to renew the backyard brawl. And for some Mountaineer fans they just can’t wait. So up went the sign.

Now one might consider waiting almost five years for a meaningless football game to be silly, but one would not be a Mountaineer fan. I tend to think Pitt fans might be a little blasé about that game, but not by very much. That game will not be meaningless for either university even if, God forbid, both teams were truly awful. God forbid even more at that thought! Doesn’t life revolve around football?

Sorry about that. But just think: wouldn’t it be something wonderful if we Christians could get as excited as football fans when it comes to living out our faith? Yes, there are some things in life that are worth waiting for, some more than others, even football games for many. But wouldn’t the world, and we ourselves, be so much better if we couldn’t wait for the next opportunity to live out what we believe?

CONFRONTING THE TRUTH

If someone were to ask me, I would assert that my favorite part of the Bible is the first part, namely the first eleven chapters of Genesis. I read them as parables that speak to our humanity and are a reminder that we are all one and the same, no matter who we are, where we live or even when we live or have lived. Take the story of Adam and Eve after they have eaten from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. (By the way, there was no apple. Look it up is you don’t believe me.)

It is an excruciatingly painful experience to be caught red-handed, or, in the case of Adam and Eve, caught naked, literally and figuratively, which they were. No one wants to stand naked before anyone else, again, literally and figuratively. We all have flaws and would prefer that those flaws be seen only by ourselves. If another must see them, that other must be someone who loves us, as we are, unconditionally, flaws and all. Yet even then, we are often uncomfortable exposing those flaws, those failings and shortcomings, be they physical, personal or spiritual. For there are some truths about ourselves that we find are simply too painful to expose.

That, I think, is the message of this short parable. The writer is employing a very understandable simile to get across a very important message. When we are caught doing what we know we should not be doing, it is similar to standing physically naked for the entire world to see. To be sure there may be some exhibitionists who couldn't care less if anyone saw them in all their glory, which is how they would see it. The rest of us would be too embarrassed just as we are embarrassed when others sees us doing what they and we know we should not.

I suspect that it is more the fear of being caught naked that keeps us on the straight and narrow than it is our moral principles. Yes, we know what is right and wrong; but if we knew we could get away with doing wrong without anyone catching us in the act or ever discovering our deed, we would go ahead and do the wrong and enjoy the pleasure of it all. In fact, we do it all the time. Most sins we commit, the vast majority of them, are done with the belief that no one will ever know and that we can get away with the sin without ever being seen or caught.

But because we know we might get caught or because we are afraid of being caught, because we do not want to be exposed, and only because of that, do we refrain from doing what we are so often tempted to do. In the biblical story Adam and Eve never thought they would be caught. What was even worse was that they had no idea about how they would feel after they did what they did - and they only caught themselves, which, I think, is the point.

No one has to catch us in sin. We catch ourselves and are often surprised about how badly we feel afterwards. The truth is that standing in front of a mirror and confronting our own nakedness (sinfulness) is the most painful experience of all. Sometimes not wanting that feeling and only that keeps us on the right path. Sometimes but not always.

THERE'S ALWAYS THE HUMAN ELEMENT

 It was many years ago during the Offertory of the Family Eucharist on Christmas Eve. MacKenzie, who was always forthright and to the point was sitting next to his Mom. The ushers were taking the collection. When they came to MacKenzie, he turned to his mother and said in a stage whisper, "Mom, why do we have to pay to go to church? Our oldest, Christy, who was sitting with Arlena and her sisters in front of MacKenzie, overheard MacKenzie's question. She so wanted to turn around and answer: "So that my sisters can go to college."

There is always the human element, isn't there? When we get to the subject of money, there is always the human element, perhaps especially when it comes to the subject of money. Sometimes I think humanity doesn't get any lower than it does when it comes to that subject. Our lowest, basest instincts come to the fore when we are talking about money: how it is raised, how it is spent, what it is to be used for, and so forth, and not just any money: our money, my money.

And as MacKenzie so innocently and so honestly noted, even in church we are not immune to the baseness of the reality of money. It is not only Congress, Legislatures, School Boards and County Commissions who have to argue about and grovel over money, so do churches, although groveling and arguing are unseemly in church settings. We just beg and pass the plate. But, again, it is the human element from which we cannot escape.

This is not a plea to support your local parish. That would be unseemly of me! It is simply a reminder that no matter how spiritual we may think we are or are to be, and no matter how spiritual we believe the church is and is to be, we can never escape the human element. Nor should we. If we could or should, Jesus would never have come among us. But Jesus, the Son of God, became one of us, immersed himself in our world and in our life, in the human element, not to condemn it but to sanctify it and to remind us that we can't encounter the divine without first encountering the human. Rather, the human and the divine are two sides to the same coin.

It is another way of saying that we can't get there from here. As a church we are always confronted with the human element. Whether that element is as base as money or as majestic as a bricks‑and‑mortar edifice, we are surrounded by the human, the earthly all the time. The only escape is eternity, which most of us are not in that much of a hurry to encounter. In the meantime our encounters are very much of this world and very much of the human variety. And they are as simple, as earthy and as base (as in basic) as Christy's wanted‑to‑say words to MacKenzie.

There is no escaping the human element in everything we think or do or say, in everything we are, even in the midst of a celebrating profoundly spiritual event as the Eucharist, and the Christmas Eucharist at that. I don't know if MacKenzie was shocked, surprised or scandalized by having to "pay" to go to church. I hope he was merely amused. Come to think of it, so was Christy, so was I when she told me the story and so should we be when we realize that the human element follows us everywhere. Smile.