The remaining three principles of authority from this chapter of Abba's Heart (last book at link, at time of posting); I may end up sharing more quotations from them later, but wanted to at least list them:
Authority grows with responsibility. There is a potential flip side, as well: the responsibility entrusted to us will not grow as long as we act outside of the Father's authority.
Authority is exercised through faith and by the words we speak. Personally, I would flip the "by" and "through" in that sentence, but the idea is sound. At the root of our exercise of the authority which Christ has restored to us is our underlying faith in the Father's love for us, and while we must also put it into action, our words are an expression of that authority.
The name of Jesus carries power. The reason for this is partially one of pure semantics: by "name" we mean "authority." "Stop, in the name of the law!" (or "the king!" or even "of love!"?) But the Father's authority flows to us only through out place in His Son, in whom alone we become adoptive sons and daughters of the King. This is why we are called to do everything in the name of Jesus.
Wednesday, March 30, 2016
Not my will, but thine
There are practical ways in which we each need to apply these words of Jesus, and they're different for each one of us. I think we get a little dismissive of this idea in some of the small things in our lives, especially habitual ways we've come to accept weaknesses over which we have more control than we give ourselves credit. But what if the ramifications are bigger than we think they are?
The resurrected life we're called to live depends on putting more faith in God's revealed plan for us than in our own limited vision. It isn't that God will withhold mercy from us at any point, but the abundant life He wants to give us gets undermined when we fail to walk under His authority.
Now, we need to be on guard against a self-righteous mindset in this, as if we are trying to earn for ourselves what God is freely giving us. After all, it is Christ in us that empowers us to walk in the ways that are best for us.
The resurrected life we're called to live depends on putting more faith in God's revealed plan for us than in our own limited vision. It isn't that God will withhold mercy from us at any point, but the abundant life He wants to give us gets undermined when we fail to walk under His authority.
Now, we need to be on guard against a self-righteous mindset in this, as if we are trying to earn for ourselves what God is freely giving us. After all, it is Christ in us that empowers us to walk in the ways that are best for us.
Monday, March 28, 2016
Number silliness
I'm a geek. I freely admit it. So, with that out of the way: this is the second possible time in a row that I've seen my pageview count when it was a palindrome. 43334 this time, 43234 the last time; this happens once every hundred (or so) views now, but I don't usually see it.
BTW: it would seem more appropriate if the word for the concept of a palindrome were itself a palindrome.
BTW: it would seem more appropriate if the word for the concept of a palindrome were itself a palindrome.
Principles of authority, part i
I just love this passage I read last week in this book; it has been in my mind all weekend, and strikes me as especially appropriate for Easter. I want to set the context for it, though: Neal is establishing five principles about authority that are crucial for Christians who desire to walk in the kingdom of God. (All quotations from Neal Lozano's Abba's Heart.)
1. Carrying our authority means submitting to Jesus' authority.
We tend to be fine with wielding authority, but not so much with submitting to it. Or: we're perfectly fine with submitting to Jesus' authority as long as we decide for ourselves what that means! Neal talks further about how Jesus' authority flows to us from the Father when we submit to Him, and that's worth reading, too. It's the second principle, though, that contains the passage in which I've been soaking:
2. Walking in one's identity and destiny requires exercising the authority God gives to His children.
This is why the first principle is so very vital for us. If we misunderstand or misapply God's authority in our lives, we lack the power to walk as children of the Kingdom. So here is what has been blessing me:
We discover our identities and fulfill our destinies as we wield His authority . . . The liberation of creation that began with the Son continues with the sons and daughters of God who exercise their Father's authority on earth. This authority was bestowed upon the firstborn over all creation, Jesus the King, and flows to all who receive Him. Jesus has defeated Satan, sin, and death so that He could bring us home. (!) Now we enter His place as a son or daughter and continue the battle in a war He has already won. Every day we enter a battle to become children of God in this world, while at the same time we belong to Him already.
Yes, this is it. We know that Jesus has done it all, and that is true, so we forget that we are the Body of Christ in the world, called to let Him continue to do it through us. So yes: the strife is o'er, the war has been won, but word of our enemy's defeat hasn't reached all the distant battlefields in his theater of operations. And why should it? We keep giving him victory in so many battles by not realizing the authority we have and wielding the loving power it brings to our defense.
1. Carrying our authority means submitting to Jesus' authority.
We tend to be fine with wielding authority, but not so much with submitting to it. Or: we're perfectly fine with submitting to Jesus' authority as long as we decide for ourselves what that means! Neal talks further about how Jesus' authority flows to us from the Father when we submit to Him, and that's worth reading, too. It's the second principle, though, that contains the passage in which I've been soaking:
2. Walking in one's identity and destiny requires exercising the authority God gives to His children.
This is why the first principle is so very vital for us. If we misunderstand or misapply God's authority in our lives, we lack the power to walk as children of the Kingdom. So here is what has been blessing me:
We discover our identities and fulfill our destinies as we wield His authority . . . The liberation of creation that began with the Son continues with the sons and daughters of God who exercise their Father's authority on earth. This authority was bestowed upon the firstborn over all creation, Jesus the King, and flows to all who receive Him. Jesus has defeated Satan, sin, and death so that He could bring us home. (!) Now we enter His place as a son or daughter and continue the battle in a war He has already won. Every day we enter a battle to become children of God in this world, while at the same time we belong to Him already.
Yes, this is it. We know that Jesus has done it all, and that is true, so we forget that we are the Body of Christ in the world, called to let Him continue to do it through us. So yes: the strife is o'er, the war has been won, but word of our enemy's defeat hasn't reached all the distant battlefields in his theater of operations. And why should it? We keep giving him victory in so many battles by not realizing the authority we have and wielding the loving power it brings to our defense.
Friday, March 25, 2016
Good Friday reflection, 2016
Today was the first Good Friday I've worked in 22 years, but I did take half a day of PTO. Instead of trying to get my usual two hours in the middle of the night on Good Friday, I signed up for 5-6, and jumped at the chance to get a half hour from our deacon's two-hour 6-8 commitment. It worked out very nicely.
There was much proclaimed by the prophets about the mystery of the Passover; that mystery is Christ. (emphasis added) - From an Easter homily by St. Melito of Sardis, bishop, as quoted in yesterday's Office of Readings
St. Melito goes on to mention many of the ways that Christ was present in or revealed by the events of the Hebrew Scriptures. We can see Him in them, we can learn of Him and even encounter Him there, but any litany of them will fail to touch us unless we are willing to accept Him, that is, to acknowledge that God has an authority over our lives as a result of being Author and Creator and of setting aside His power in favor of His love and mercy. Jesus being the Passover only makes Him my Passover to the degree that I acknowledge that He is my only path from death to life, and begin to respond to the Father's love and mercy in a way that recognizes His Author-ity over my life.
Rescue my soul from the sword,
My life from the grip of these dogs.
Save my life from the jaws of these lions,
My poor soul from the horns of these oxen. - Ps 22: 21-22
David (I presume) was writing of his enemies in these derisive tones, so we must be careful with them. For while these images - dogs, lions, oxen - also represent us in our effect on Jesus' human life, we must not forget that it was perfect Love which caused Him to subject Himself to us and which calls us back to the Heart that has so desperately longed for our return that He would make Himself our sacrifice - even when we would sacrifice nothing of ourselves for His Love. Indeed, St. Paul makes the progression in the letter to the Romans of our still being helpless, then sinners, then enemies, when Christ gave Himself for us.
Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss? - Lk 22:48
How often we, too, do this. In our certitude that what we are doing is right - or, perhaps, that we have a right to do this, to wield our power in the way we deem best - we betray God's love, and mercy, and authority over us. We insist on our own authority and our own understanding, and so we apply the stamp of God's will on actions that are really rooted in our own.
It can be a quandary, because what appears to be mercy toward some can look like rejection of others, and even of God. God is always calling us closer, and that means He is always calling us to receive His love and to love as He does, not forsaking the truth, yet inviting judgment on ourselves rather than imposing it on others.
We misunderstand the nature and manifestation of Love, and as we act in our own misunderstanding, we betray Jesus with our embrace, too.
For if the blood of goats and bulls and the sprinkling of a heifer's ashes can sanctify those who are defiled so that their flesh is cleansed, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself up unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from dead works to worship the living God!" - Heb 9:13-14
Of course, the goats, bulls and heifer, as well as the ram in the thicket, and the lambs' blood on the Hebrew families' lintels, are but the faintest symbols of the true Lamb. Their greatest importance is to reveal Jesus, who in turn reveals the Father's heart of love for us as He fulfills the purpose of His earthly life. This viewpoint which Neal Lozano has emphasized in Abba's Heart parallels what St. John Chrysostom emphasizes in today's Office of Readings (about which I have reflected on previous Good Fridays).
Do you understand, then, how Christ has united His bride to Himself and what food He gives us all to eat? By one and the same food we are both brought into being and nourished. As a woman nourishes her child with her own blood and milk, so does Christ unceasingly nourish with His own blood those to whom He Himself has given life. - from the Catecheses by St. John Chrysostom, bishop, as quoted in today's Office of Readings
Even motherhood is a type for Christ. I have so often marveled at the rest of this great reading that I have missed its wonderful conclusion! We are indeed bone from Christ's bone, and flesh from Christ's flesh , sacrificed for us to make us a new creation, an eternal creation, imbued with everlasting life. (Likely most importantly, we are spirit from Christ's Spirit!)
____
Now I want to invoke Fr. Neuhaus a bit, even though I haven't been reading him this season. We call this "Good Friday," even as we rightly acknowledge the role our sin and guilt play in our (my! For each of us, it must be "my," even while it must be also "our") Savior's suffering and death. Perhaps we should call it Great Friday. Redeeming Friday. Delivering Friday. Victory over Sin Friday. Sanctifying Friday. Transforming Friday. All-the-Difference-Making Friday. Perfect Love Friday. It is worth reflecting on in its own right. (Rite, right?)
I look above the tabernacle where my Savior is present, where I have come seeking to be with Him during His trial and knowing that it is really He who is with me during mine, and through the textured glass of this chapel I see the illuminated crucifix in the main church. As Fr. Neuhaus encourages me, I don't skip ahead. I confess the link between Christ present in this tabernacle and His sacrifice this day on the cross of my sin. He has defeated the power of both the physical cross and my sin to cause death. As I sit and pray with Him in the garden, and observe Him before the Sanhedrin and Pilate, walk with Him along the Via Dolorosa, mourn His death on the cross, and as His blood and water flow down over me, it is not His lifeless body which I embrace, but His life-giving sacrifice and eternal Sonship.
I closed out this time with a return to Abba's Heart, but I will share of that in a separate post.
There was much proclaimed by the prophets about the mystery of the Passover; that mystery is Christ. (emphasis added) - From an Easter homily by St. Melito of Sardis, bishop, as quoted in yesterday's Office of Readings
St. Melito goes on to mention many of the ways that Christ was present in or revealed by the events of the Hebrew Scriptures. We can see Him in them, we can learn of Him and even encounter Him there, but any litany of them will fail to touch us unless we are willing to accept Him, that is, to acknowledge that God has an authority over our lives as a result of being Author and Creator and of setting aside His power in favor of His love and mercy. Jesus being the Passover only makes Him my Passover to the degree that I acknowledge that He is my only path from death to life, and begin to respond to the Father's love and mercy in a way that recognizes His Author-ity over my life.
Rescue my soul from the sword,
My life from the grip of these dogs.
Save my life from the jaws of these lions,
My poor soul from the horns of these oxen. - Ps 22: 21-22
David (I presume) was writing of his enemies in these derisive tones, so we must be careful with them. For while these images - dogs, lions, oxen - also represent us in our effect on Jesus' human life, we must not forget that it was perfect Love which caused Him to subject Himself to us and which calls us back to the Heart that has so desperately longed for our return that He would make Himself our sacrifice - even when we would sacrifice nothing of ourselves for His Love. Indeed, St. Paul makes the progression in the letter to the Romans of our still being helpless, then sinners, then enemies, when Christ gave Himself for us.
Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss? - Lk 22:48
How often we, too, do this. In our certitude that what we are doing is right - or, perhaps, that we have a right to do this, to wield our power in the way we deem best - we betray God's love, and mercy, and authority over us. We insist on our own authority and our own understanding, and so we apply the stamp of God's will on actions that are really rooted in our own.
It can be a quandary, because what appears to be mercy toward some can look like rejection of others, and even of God. God is always calling us closer, and that means He is always calling us to receive His love and to love as He does, not forsaking the truth, yet inviting judgment on ourselves rather than imposing it on others.
We misunderstand the nature and manifestation of Love, and as we act in our own misunderstanding, we betray Jesus with our embrace, too.
For if the blood of goats and bulls and the sprinkling of a heifer's ashes can sanctify those who are defiled so that their flesh is cleansed, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself up unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from dead works to worship the living God!" - Heb 9:13-14
Of course, the goats, bulls and heifer, as well as the ram in the thicket, and the lambs' blood on the Hebrew families' lintels, are but the faintest symbols of the true Lamb. Their greatest importance is to reveal Jesus, who in turn reveals the Father's heart of love for us as He fulfills the purpose of His earthly life. This viewpoint which Neal Lozano has emphasized in Abba's Heart parallels what St. John Chrysostom emphasizes in today's Office of Readings (about which I have reflected on previous Good Fridays).
Do you understand, then, how Christ has united His bride to Himself and what food He gives us all to eat? By one and the same food we are both brought into being and nourished. As a woman nourishes her child with her own blood and milk, so does Christ unceasingly nourish with His own blood those to whom He Himself has given life. - from the Catecheses by St. John Chrysostom, bishop, as quoted in today's Office of Readings
Even motherhood is a type for Christ. I have so often marveled at the rest of this great reading that I have missed its wonderful conclusion! We are indeed bone from Christ's bone, and flesh from Christ's flesh , sacrificed for us to make us a new creation, an eternal creation, imbued with everlasting life. (Likely most importantly, we are spirit from Christ's Spirit!)
____
Now I want to invoke Fr. Neuhaus a bit, even though I haven't been reading him this season. We call this "Good Friday," even as we rightly acknowledge the role our sin and guilt play in our (my! For each of us, it must be "my," even while it must be also "our") Savior's suffering and death. Perhaps we should call it Great Friday. Redeeming Friday. Delivering Friday. Victory over Sin Friday. Sanctifying Friday. Transforming Friday. All-the-Difference-Making Friday. Perfect Love Friday. It is worth reflecting on in its own right. (Rite, right?)
I look above the tabernacle where my Savior is present, where I have come seeking to be with Him during His trial and knowing that it is really He who is with me during mine, and through the textured glass of this chapel I see the illuminated crucifix in the main church. As Fr. Neuhaus encourages me, I don't skip ahead. I confess the link between Christ present in this tabernacle and His sacrifice this day on the cross of my sin. He has defeated the power of both the physical cross and my sin to cause death. As I sit and pray with Him in the garden, and observe Him before the Sanhedrin and Pilate, walk with Him along the Via Dolorosa, mourn His death on the cross, and as His blood and water flow down over me, it is not His lifeless body which I embrace, but His life-giving sacrifice and eternal Sonship.
I closed out this time with a return to Abba's Heart, but I will share of that in a separate post.
Thursday, March 24, 2016
Authority
Oh, I completely forgot to add this thought I had while working on this morning's post, which struck me as especially apropos for today. Jesus showed us the true exercise of His authority: I give you a new commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. He said this after washing their feet, so that in the long view they would have the true context of His Passion and thereby know how to wield authority. Elsewhere He contrasts clearly: those who are in authority lord it over them, but you are not to be like that. Whoever would be greatest must be the last of all and the servant of all.
Trying not to wander off
I suppose I've been afar again over the last few days. I have still been reading, briefly, but haven't taken time to write. That has been partially due to quite a flurry of activity at work, which I was fortunate to know in advance would be finished by yesterday. I think it went well. We'll see.
This chapter of Abba's Heart deals with the issue of authority. We must invoke the Father's authority, represented by the ring which the father of the prodigal places upon his finger when he returns home, if we are to have the power to live as sons and daughters rather than as forsaken, wandering orphans.
A few quotations:
Authority is not the same things as power. Power is the ability to make something happen; authority is the right to use that power for a righteous purpose. As children of God, we carry the Father's authority. As we walk in His authority, He empowers us to carry out His will. - Neal Lozano, Abba's Heart
But there's a thing about authority: if I try to use the authority which has been delegated to me to do something that is clearly not the Father's will, then the power which He makes available to me under His authority will be revoked, as well.
Some people have a negative view of authority because someone in authority abused them. Others have witnessed the abuse of authority toward others. Mistrust of authority is rampant, often for good reasons. - ibid.
This gets to the core of why so many of us have difficulty relating to God as Father, when our own examples of fatherhood were less than exemplary. IThat isn't exactly the same thing as the blanket rejection of authority, but it is close.
But since all authority originates from God, a blanket rejection of authority puts us in opposition to Him. The rejection of authority is in essence part of mankind's rejection of the Father Himself. - ibid.
I can hear people saying that "it isn't the same thing," and maybe it isn't, but I agree with Neal that it is, indeed, related. I see and hear so many people who don't understand how they are rejecting God's authority over us.
The word authority contains the idea of an author, a creator and source. - ibid.
I don't suppose I need to beat the reader over the head with this idea. It's a wonderful thought, though, so don't fail to dwell on it. And what a wonderful story of love He has written!
The first creed of the church was "Jesus is Lord," which meant that we willing accept the authority of Jesus over our lives. - ibid.
Too often, we pay lip service to this. We accept the idea that Jesus should have authority over us, while rejecting any agent through whom He might be directing us in a way other than the one we have chosen for ourselves. This rejection of the authority of Jesus is the reason we become powerless when we are prodigal. Without living under His authority, we have none of our own to exercise. As the living Body of Christ tasked with carefully exercising His authority in love (as it can only be used), even the Church allows that we have a responsibility to exercise our informed conscience in our particular circumstances with regard to her teachings. I have friends who do this very carefully, acknowledging the Church's teaching while humbly concluding that their own circumstances require them to act in a different way - yes, I'm thinking of you, dear friend. I know of others who reject Church teaching because and whenever it conflicts with their own circumstances. One preserves our obedient adherence to Christ's authority, the other breaks it.
It is nearly impossible to truly embrace God's redeeming, transforming grace, let alone to live a spiritually empowered life, while we reject the Father's and Jesus' authority. And the spiritual influences that enter our lives as a result of that decision do not often openly reveal their true nature.
This chapter of Abba's Heart deals with the issue of authority. We must invoke the Father's authority, represented by the ring which the father of the prodigal places upon his finger when he returns home, if we are to have the power to live as sons and daughters rather than as forsaken, wandering orphans.
A few quotations:
Authority is not the same things as power. Power is the ability to make something happen; authority is the right to use that power for a righteous purpose. As children of God, we carry the Father's authority. As we walk in His authority, He empowers us to carry out His will. - Neal Lozano, Abba's Heart
But there's a thing about authority: if I try to use the authority which has been delegated to me to do something that is clearly not the Father's will, then the power which He makes available to me under His authority will be revoked, as well.
Some people have a negative view of authority because someone in authority abused them. Others have witnessed the abuse of authority toward others. Mistrust of authority is rampant, often for good reasons. - ibid.
This gets to the core of why so many of us have difficulty relating to God as Father, when our own examples of fatherhood were less than exemplary. IThat isn't exactly the same thing as the blanket rejection of authority, but it is close.
But since all authority originates from God, a blanket rejection of authority puts us in opposition to Him. The rejection of authority is in essence part of mankind's rejection of the Father Himself. - ibid.
I can hear people saying that "it isn't the same thing," and maybe it isn't, but I agree with Neal that it is, indeed, related. I see and hear so many people who don't understand how they are rejecting God's authority over us.
The word authority contains the idea of an author, a creator and source. - ibid.
I don't suppose I need to beat the reader over the head with this idea. It's a wonderful thought, though, so don't fail to dwell on it. And what a wonderful story of love He has written!
The first creed of the church was "Jesus is Lord," which meant that we willing accept the authority of Jesus over our lives. - ibid.
Too often, we pay lip service to this. We accept the idea that Jesus should have authority over us, while rejecting any agent through whom He might be directing us in a way other than the one we have chosen for ourselves. This rejection of the authority of Jesus is the reason we become powerless when we are prodigal. Without living under His authority, we have none of our own to exercise. As the living Body of Christ tasked with carefully exercising His authority in love (as it can only be used), even the Church allows that we have a responsibility to exercise our informed conscience in our particular circumstances with regard to her teachings. I have friends who do this very carefully, acknowledging the Church's teaching while humbly concluding that their own circumstances require them to act in a different way - yes, I'm thinking of you, dear friend. I know of others who reject Church teaching because and whenever it conflicts with their own circumstances. One preserves our obedient adherence to Christ's authority, the other breaks it.
It is nearly impossible to truly embrace God's redeeming, transforming grace, let alone to live a spiritually empowered life, while we reject the Father's and Jesus' authority. And the spiritual influences that enter our lives as a result of that decision do not often openly reveal their true nature.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)