Church of the Good Shepherd CEC

Dear Church:

The following is our Patriarch’s Easter message. Given in our church Easter is more than just on Sunday but is also a season, I thought this message would still be timely.

God bless,
Fr. Guido

Patriarch’s Easter Message

Without the cross and the resurrection there is in fact no Christianity. But more importantly the historic and factual crucifixion and resurrection are the key events of all of human history. It is the moment in time when God has brought all of creation unto himself. It is the fullest and complete revelation of the love, mercy, and forgiveness of God.
Several years ago, after many years of longing, I traveled to Krakow, Poland to visit the tomb of St. Stanislaw of Szczepanowski the patron Saint of Krakow. St. Stanislaw was Bishop of Krakow in the early eleventh century. He was known for preaching, spiritual wisdom, and as a leader in reforming efforts in the Church. He eventually incurred the enmity of King Bolesluas the Bold and denounced the King for cruelties and injustice. Eventually St. Stanislaw excommunicated the King and stopped a Mass in the chapel when the King entered. Boleslaus himself killed St. Stanislaw while the Bishop was saying Mass in a chapel outside the city on April 11, 1079.

Not growing up Roman Catholic, I had little knowledge of this famous saint and my interest grew in him after reading a biography of John Paul II. As many know John Paul II came to the papacy from his episcopate in Krakow. The early life of John Paul II is fascinating. Like many great men of God he was one familiar with human suffering, his own and that of others. He grew up under the Nazi regime and then served in the Church of Poland at the time of communist reign. His words of faith and hope in the Risen Christ inspired many who led the non-violent overthrow of communism in Poland. The life of St. Stanislaw had a tremendous influence on John Paul II and on the lives of many in the resistance movement to both Nazism and Communism. It was these experiences and John Paul’s faith in the Risen Christ to proclaim over and over again to the people – Be not afraid.

Of course all of must recognize the great spiritual, theological and social leadership of John Paul II. He leadership is especially important to many in the Pro Life movement. Not only did he remain steadfast in his opposition to abortion but also was a voice for the sanctity of the family. His work “The Theology of the Body” will perhaps be recorded as one of the best theological works of the 20th century. John Paul II will be remembered as one of the great spiritual leaders of the century. And, we can expect that Rome will canonize this great man from Krakow.

We arrived in Krakow in the late fall and during the first evening of our visit it snowed slightly. Our hotel was right across from the old city not far from the Cathedral and the residence of the Cardinal. Looking out the window early in the morning and gazing at the new fallen snow is a memory that I cherish. Since Krakow was not bombed during World War II many of the buildings were old. There was an operational trolley car just below our window. Across the street was a Church – an old medieval building. It was early in the morning and yet the streets were filled with people heading off to work and school (a university is nearby). We had a brief Polish breakfast and headed off to Mass. It was midweek and when we entered the Church I was shocked to discover that it was filled with worshippers. This experience occurred over and over again in every Church we entered. No matter what time of day the Churches were filled. But filled not with elderly women saying prayers, but filled with young men and women caught up in prayer or in the Eucharist. Poland unlike other nations of Europe had a faith that was alive.

The second day of our journey we traveled to Auschwitz Concentration Camp. This is a place where the Nazi’s exterminated over one million Jews –men, women, and children. It was a key center for the Nazi’s plan called the Final Solution. There are not words to describe the horror of Auschwitz. And, when one goes through the camp and views the various exhibits describing the holocaust there is a sorrow that I have never felt before in my life.
There is not a question that the Nazi Final Solution, indeed the whole holocaust, was aimed at the extermination of the Jews. Nothing should distract us from remembering this fact. Yet, there were millions of others – disabled children and adults, the elderly with dementia, gypsies, political dissents, and homosexuals who died in the extermination camps. It should be remembered that the first group to suffer or die at Auschwitz were Poles. On the day it opened there were 728 Polish prisoners. For the first two years of the camps existence, the majority of the inmates were Polish. By the time the camp was liberated the largest group to die in the camp where Jews and the second largest group were Polish. Hitler swore, “All Poles will disappear from the world.” One week before the invasion of Poland, Hitler gave these instructions, “Kill without pity or mercy all men, women, and children of Polish descent or language…be merciless. Be brutal. It is necessary to proceed with maximum severity. The war is to be a war of annihilation.”
Over six million Poles -22% of the population – died in World War II. Of this group 5,384,000 died in prison, death camps, raids, executions, the obliteration of ghettoes, epidemics, starvation, overwork, or ill treatment.

The Nazi’s went after the Catholic Church in Poland, in particular, but also the Protestant community. By 1939, 80 percent of the Catholic clergy including five bishops were sent to concentration camps. In Wroclaw, 49% of the clergy were dead; in Chelmno, 47%; in Lodz, 36%; in Poznan, 31%. In the Warsaw Diocese, the future Diocese of John Paul II, 212 priests were executed. Through the Nazi Empire thousands of Bishops, Priests, and Nuns faced incarceration in Concentration Camps. In Dachau Concentration Camp of the 2,720 priests held 1,034 did not survive. Of that group the majority were Polish priests – 868.
With the so-called liberation of Poland by the Communists the persecution of Jews and Christians continued.

Such suffering had occurred in Poland. Such darkness covered the country for decades. This was not a suffering of hundreds of years ago but a suffering that happened in the lifetime of my parents and of my early life. Here I was standing in a country soaked in the blood of innocent people – Jews, Christians and others. A country where to have faith in God was a crime punishable by death. Yet it was the very Church that suffered so much under the hands of Hitler and Stalin that was to rise up and in a few short decades be free from tyranny. This country is a center of Christian renewal that gave us the spiritual giant of John Paul II.

Today around the world there are still groups of people facing horrific evil expressed in genocide. The fall of the Nazis and the Communists has not been the end of evil. We can’t forget the Killing Fields of Cambodia or the Genocide in Rwanda. Our hearts must be awakened to hear the cries of those who still face genocide in the Sudan or wholesale murder in parts of the Congo.

But the Holocaust of Nazi Germany, particularly in Poland, is a reminder that the Church is victorious because Christ conquered death, defeated Satan, and has freed us from sin. The Christian is a resurrected person. Scripture says, “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you walked…But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ – by grace you have been saved – and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” (Ephesians 2.1-6) The fact that Jesus has been resurrected and that we who have believed in Him and come to Him in baptism have not only shared in His death but also in His resurrection. This is our hope – a hope that can allow us to sing “Alleluia” even at the grave.

What the purveyors of evil and the culture of death don’t understand is that Christianity is not a philosophy like National Socialism or Communism. What they can’t comprehend is that Christianity is about a living relationship with the Risen and victorious Christ Jesus.
This victory is experienced every time a person comes to Christ by faith. Whether it be a young drug addict or prisoner who meets Christ in a prison chapel, or a man or women who answer an “altar call in Church”, or married couple who make Jesus the center of their marriage, or a Masai warrior who turns his life to Christ, or a business man who tried to find “joy in money” but has now found the joy of the Lord – this is the victory of the Risen Christ. This is the fulfillment of the mission of Christ that all who believe in Him and call upon his name shall not perish but have eternal life beginning now. This is the testimony of the martyrs not that they would eventually see Jesus – though that be truth – but that they already knew and participated in eternal life with the Risen Christ NOW. The resurrection faith proclaims that we have been “raised…up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”
This year is the 20th anniversary of the International Communion of the Charismatic Episcopal Church. From the small beginnings at St. Michael’s Church in San Clemente we now have churches around the world – United States, Canada, Bermuda, Puerto Rico, Brazil, Philippines, DR Congo, Burundi, Rwanda, Nigeria, Kenya, Sudan, Pakistan, Germany, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, France, Belgium, Tanzania, Italy, Portugal, and Spain. Soon we will have Churches in India, Ghana, Southeast Asia, and Argentina.

Many of these Churches function with little or no resources and under terrible conditions – some under fear of persecution. Yet, we move forward because the Risen Christ is with us. No matter how dark it gets or hard it becomes we are already risen with Christ and nothing will every separate us from His love.
I pray as many as possible will find a way to come to Madrid, Spain July 10-12, 2012. We will celebrate the presence of Christ in our midst. We will hear from Archbishop Hines who for over three decades has ministered in Asia sometimes under extreme difficulty with no resources and only his faith as a weapon. We will hear from Bishop Bernard Njoroge, who was one of the authors of the Kenyan Constitution and remains a leader in the Kenya government while at the same time planting a Church in the largest slum in East Africa. And we will hear from Abp. Charles Jones who God has used in a mighty way to bring healing to thousands of people and now speaks prophetically to the nations. These are men who have one thing in common- a living relationship with the Risen Christ. We will gather and we will go to the streets of Madrid with the message of life and our young adults will lead us. The same adults that I believe will bring an end to the holocaust of abortion and euthanasia. But most importantly we will gather every day for the Eucharist where will stand in the heavenly courts in the presence of the Risen Lord Jesus and be empowered by Him and Him alone to be life for the world.

Alleluia Christ is Risen. Yes, Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death-by-death and giving life to those in the tomb.

Under His mercy,
The Most Rev. Craig W. Bates,
Patriarch, ICCEC

Good Friday Reflection

Death is a final thing.
What could have been is gone.
Hope slips away.
Words seem not to suffice
There seems nothing good to say.
And you can barely pray. Maybe not at all.
I can only imagine what Jesus followers felt on the day of His death.
What did His mother and family think?
How deep into the depths of despair did they sink…
We know Mary was there, with her heart as if pierced by a sword.
Fear gripped his closest friends, only John managed to stand by and see it happen all.
The feeling of fortunes having changed fast,
Of nothing being stable, of nothing that will last .
All that was left was to weep,
What faith was there to keep?
It was all a mess of flesh and blood and wood and nails and seemingly needless toil.
Or sure it surely seemed.
That perception was their reality,
Gone was their beloved friend, brother, son and deliverer from Rome.

But more was at work.

Freedom was being purchased,
A new union between God and man was being forged.
God in His son was disarming death, overcoming its finality.
Those who would receive the Son would have eternal life,
Without his death, there would be no life for us.

But let us not forget what it cost Jesus.
Let’s affirm his full humanity, along with his full divinity.
Which that meant, and means, is that the cross hurt!
It was painful,
It was disorientating,
It was devastating,
The devil thought he won, thought Jesus was undone
But it was the precursor for our Lord’s victory.
He is our Christus Victor!
His suffering was for our life!

Let the price he paid sink deep into our souls this day,
As we pray.
With sobering thanksgiving,
And remember Good Friday.

Maundy Thursday/Holy Thursday

If nothing else, Maundy Thursday, also known as Holy Thursday, should impress upon us at least one thing: God’s desire for our relationship.
In the ancient world, more so than today, sharing a meal with someone was a mark of fellowship. It spoke of a certain level of intimacy. The particular meal that we remember on Maundy Thursday is a decidedly unique one that reveals the divine initiative for relationship. Gathering around with his disciples, Jesus celebrates the Passover meal. Instituted generations before, the Passover meal was meant to remind Jewish believers everywhere of that great formative event in their history: The Exodus out of Egypt. On the night before their deliverance, God instructed the Israelites to prepare the Passover meal according to a specific set of instructions. The blood from the lamb sacrificed was used to mark the posts of the entranceway of the homes of God’s people. This would be a sign to the angel of death to Pass Over their homes. Only those homes that were unmarked would have their oldest son taken by death (Exodus 12:1-14).

On Maundy Thursday, the symbolism of the Passover meal found its fullest expression. Like the lamb of the Old Testament Exodus, Jesus would die sacrificially for the sake of sinful humanity so that death would have no final victory over them. But in contrast to before, now the effects of the spiritual sense of death would also be removed through the blood of Christ and the physical aspect of death would be overcome through the resurrection. At the table that night, Jesus was inviting those present, and all who would believe in Him down through the centuries, to come to relationship with Him. It was a divine invitation for fellowship, purchased in the blood of God’s own very son. That invitation found expression when Jesus took the bread, blessed, broke it and gave to his disciples declaring it to be His body. Likewise, the took the cup of wine, blessed it, and gave it to his disciples declaring it would the blood of the New Covenant, given so that those who accept Christ may live in Him both now and in the hereafter ( 1 Corinthians 11:23-26). Therefore, every time we gather around the altar of the Lord today, we are somehow, mysteriously, joining back in that moment in history where Jesus extended his life giving relationship to us through the elements of bread and wine.

As we reflect on Maundy Thursday, let’s consider this: God wants to fellowship with us. This offer God extends to us knowing full well our failings. Remember, Judas also was at the table that night of Holy Thursday. God did not move away from Him, but sadly, Judas did that himself. Let’s not move away either, to our peril, but rather present ourselves humbly before the Lord trusting in His open invitation. And like the disciples that night remained, let us allow Jesus to wash us from all uncleanliness we may have as we present ourselves to Him. We do not have to come clean, just open to His cleansing.

God bless,
Fr. Guido

Holy Week: A Holy time to remember

This upcoming Sunday is Palm Sunday and it marks the beginning of Holy week. Holy week is the week set apart to remember the last week of Jesus’ life on earth leading up to his crucifixion. On Palm Sunday we recall how Jesus entered into Jerusalem the week before the yearly Passover festival. On that occasion he rode into the city on a Donkey while the crowds hailed him shouting, “Hosanna! Hosanna!” The people were hailing him as the long awaited Messiah whom most expected would usher in the Kingdom of God with the decimation of the Romans and their rule. Though he was the King of Kings, Jesus did not fit the popular expectations of the time and some of those who acclaimed him on Sunday called for his execution on Friday. We reflect on all of this on Palm Sunday as we are reminded to be open to the work of God that is all around us, often coming to us in unsuspecting ways.

The Thursday following Palm Sunday is called Holy Thursday or Maundy Thursday. On that day we focus on God’s invitation to commune with us. In our church we call the last supper Holy Communion. It was on Holy Thursday that Jesus identified himself as the one who would offer his life on behalf of humanity. He took bread during that Passover meal, broke it, gave it to his disciples and invited them to eat declaring that bread was His body, broken for them and their salvation. He took the cup of wine, blessed it, gave it to his disciples and invited them to drink and declared it to be the blood of the new covenant, shed for them and all for the forgiveness of sins. Jesus at the last supper took the common elements of bread and wine and set them apart for the Holy purpose of using them as a means to commune with his disciples. And He still communes with us today through the bread and wine of Holy Communion whenever we gather in his name. Hence why this time is called a Holy Communion.

On Holy Thursday we also remember the example of service our Lord set before us. After the Passover meal was over, Jesus took off his outer garments and put on only a towel in the manner of a slave, and proceeded to wash the feet of his disciples. This was a task that only the lowliest slave would perform. In performing this simple act, Jesus communicated the depth of his love for us and indicated to us the type of life He was calling his disciples, and all those who would follow, to embrace. Therefore on Holy Thursday we as believers literally wash the feet of one another to remind us of our call to serve in the way of Christ.
We close our time together on Holy Thursday by clearing all the items in focal area of our worship space at the head of our church. The lights are darkened as well. All this is to remind us of the journey Jesus made from the last supper to the cross, through a night of darkness that seemed to overcome the light.

Among the reasons we call the Friday we remember Jesus died on Good Friday is because it reflects His goodness to us. It is His goodness that becomes our own when we receive Him. It is the darkness of our sin that Jesus takes away through His death on the cross. We come to Good Friday to remember the price Jesus paid for our salvation. The price he paid so we can know God starting right in the here and now, extending to the life hereafter.

Easter is a celebration! It is a time to rejoice in what we have in and through Christ-Resurrection life. This is a kind and way of life that transforms. It is a life lived in and animated by the Holy Spirit. It is a life lived in a personal relationship with God at our center, defining who we are and all we will become. It is a life of knowing God, being loved and loving God. In Christ, all believers are one body and one people animated and kept by the Holy Spirit, to the Glory of the Father.

If you would like to journey with us as we go through Holy Week, come join us! We are the Church of the Good Shepherd CEC and we meet on the campus of the King’s Home, formerly known as the King’s Ranch, on 201 Kings Home Dr in Chelsea. Check out our website for more information at www.goodshepherdchelsea.org Palm Sunday Services are at 10:30 on Sunday, Holy Thursday on Thursday at 7 P.M. and Good Friday Service on Friday at 7 P.M. Easter Sunday Services is at 10:30 A.M. followed by an Easter Egg hunt and fellowship lunch at one of our member’s home. You can call us at 602-9194. God Bless!
Fr. Guido (Rector/Pastor)

We live in a media saturated society, dominated by the sound bite. It occurs to me that because this is so we are perhaps subconsciously being conditioned to think of life in terms of sound bites. The problem with sound bites is that they highlight the “big story”, which is usually sensational. Two things here come to mind. One is that most of our lives involve things media will deem “ordinary”. We get up, we go to work, we interact with others, and we wrestle with problems or work though the effects of problems. Then we come home and perhaps eventually crash out in bed or zone out watching T.V. Hopefully, in all those hours of our waking life we spend time with the ones we love. Second, because of the sound bite, we may come to think that God is only interested in the sensational things of life or that He only responds to these.

I am struck by the thought that our God is a God of the ordinary, as well as the extraordinary. That His presence is actually known as we go about doing ordinary things like washings dishes, folding clothes, typing on our computer, going grocery shopping or commuting on the road. Several centuries back, a “lowly” French monk named brother Lawrence spoke of practicing the presence of God. What he meant by this was our need to continually seek to be intentionally aware of God in our lives. This is something that I believe God wants of us, to be intentionally aware of Him. John 17.3 reminds us that Jesus came so we could know the one true God and to know Him is life.

How does that awareness come about? We ask for it and by God’s empowerment, which He freely gives, we seek to be intentional about inviting God into our day. So, before our feet hit the ground in the morning, we can say, “Lord I acknowledge you, and invite you into this day.” Right before our first meal of the day, we can acknowledge Him with thanksgiving. We can read a passage of the Bible and ask God “to speak to us.” When we get on the road we can ask God to lead us into the paths of His life. Perhaps in our work space we can have reminders of God; crosses, a picture, a verse from scripture are all possibilities. As things come up in our work day that challenges us, we can invite God to come and work in our lives. When we have our lunch, we can give thanks again and offer up prayer for ourselves or others. We can pay attention to our thought life. What is on our minds? Does the Bible have anything to say about what is going on in our heads? More than we realize. As the day comes to a close, we can be reminded that just as the sun sets every day, so another day of our life has set and one day will set permanently. We do not live forever here on earth. Let’s allow nature to witness to us that we only have so much time in our ordinary lives. Let that motivate us to seek the things then that will span beyond this life, to acknowledge God and our relationship to Him and others.

As the day closes, we can say with the Psalmist, “Behold all you that stand in the presence of the Lord, let us bless Lord”(Psalm 134)….Let’s bless Him for this day He has given us and ask for His protection and rest as we lay ourselves down to sleep.

Our lives are ordinary lives made up of ordinary concerns that God extraordinarily cares about. God’s promise is that He will reveal Himself in the ordinary circumstances of life. Let’s acknowledge Him in all that we do by His grace so we can know Him in the ordinary things of life. To know Him is life. And that is extraordinary!

“Follow me” This is what Jesus tells Peter in John 21.19 He has just asked Peter three times if Peter loved him. In the original Greek that this passage was written, the word Jesus uses for love when he speaks to Peter is Agape. Agape is an all encompassing kind of love, the God kind of love. When Peter responds to Jesus and says he loves Him, the Greek word Peter used for love was the word Phileo. This word indicates a kind of friendship love, the kind of love that has great affinity. It is not the same kind of love as Agape. Only God can love agape. But God does not turn away our Phileo. God takes us where we are and leads us into the depths of His Agape. He says to us, like He did to Peter, to follow Him. Where He leads us will challenge us but we need to know that even these challenges are saturated with His agape love.

It strikes me that this thinking is reflected in the following quote by Chinese Christian Watchman Nee in his book, The Normal Christian Life:

“My giving of myself to the Lord must be an initial fundament act. Then, day by day, I must go on giving to Him, not finding fault with His use of me, but accepting with praise even what the flesh finds hard. That way lies true enrichment. I am Lord’s, and now no longer reckon myself to be my own but acknowledge in everything His ownership and authority. That is the attitude God delights in, and to maintain it is true consecration. I do not consecrate myself to be a missionary or a preacher; I consecrate myself to God to do His will where I am, be it in school, office or kitchen or wherever He may, in His wisdom, send me. Whatever He ordains for me is sure to be the very best, for nothing but good can come to those who are wholly His.”

May we give ourselves to God everyday and follow where our Lord leads!

Seek ye first the Kingdom of God-Matthew 6.33
Why does God ask us to seek first the kingdom? What does it mean to seek? What is the kingdom to be about? God asks us to seek first the kingdom because it is what matters most. In the verses prior to this one, Jesus asks His disciples to consider that heavenly wealth outweighs earthly ones.

Money in the bank now has a place, but what will far outweigh that are the things we do as disciples of the king. Things like the little details, those acts of service toward others that go often unnoticed or unappreciated. Like the people we pray for day in and day out, sometimes unbeknownst to them. Like the little acts of kindness done not because others deserve them but because they are worthy of our king.

We live and act for the benefit of others but not because of others. We live everyday seeking the will of the Lord in all the circumstances we encounter. We know He leads us, if we ask Him. Sometimes when we do not ask Him. And that is God’s faithfulness to us. He leads us where we need to go, for our own sake and growth, and for the sake of others.
Which is why we must seek Him. It is a choice we make. We seek Him when we listen for the still, small voice of the Lord. We must be attuned to the providential circumstances He is arranging. We have to allow Him to order our thinking with Godly reason. We have to have His Word in our heart, soul, spirit and mind. We must hear the voice of the Lord in a multitude of counselors. We must encounter Him at the table of the Lord. God calls us and we must answer. He persists but does not override us.

God invites us to join Him in establishing His kingdom. His Kingdom is meant to come on earth as it is in Heaven (Matthew 6.10). As lives are surrendered to the way of Christ, the kingdom is established. It is God’s work, but we are called to be a part of God’s work of saving the lost, setting free the bound up, healing the brokenhearted, and building up the people of God. And as we do that, we experience God ourselves and have His life. Or we are the recipients of His life imparted to us through others whose lives have been surrendered to Him. God is good and so are His ways, even when it may not feel like they are. May we then seek Him always, for our sake and that of others.

“Get thee behind me Satan, for you are not mindful of the things of God” (Matthew 16.23).
These are tough words. Jesus spoke them to Peter, not because he was Satan but because Peter’s mindset reflected the influence of Satan. Some might say also that Jesus was speaking directly to Satan that He saw influencing Peter. Either way, the key idea here is being mindful of the things of God.
What does it mean to be mindful of the things of God? It means to see things from how He sees things. But how do we know how God sees things? What is His heart, His way, His attitude, His intent toward us and our lives? How can we know these things?

By getting to know Him! How do we know Him? By meeting Him every day as we read the Scriptures. As we read and seek to understand it over time, we are molded and crafted by the Holy Spirit to grasp God’s perspective on life. Over time, we increasingly become mindful of the things of God.

We meet Him also everyday through our prayers. As we pray, we seek to be silent before the Lord and listen. Prayer is so much more than making requests. It is being quiet and silent so we can hear God! It is have that inner attentiveness that discerns the presence and way of God as we go through our day. As we seek to hear Him day in and day out, throughout whatever circumstances in life we find ourselves, we will become mindful of the things of God.

We meet God also in the everyday interactions we have with others. As believers, we need a community of faith. How often God comes to us through others through a word of encouragement, or even correction. How often does God touch our lives through people by what they say or do, directly or indirectly. And sometimes these interactions and not even with believers! Through our spirit directed interactions, we become mindful of the things of God.

We meet God as we worship Him. As we bow down and worship, either at home, in church or on the street corners of life, in good times and bad, we experience God. We become mindful of His greatness, His ability beyond our ability, His tender love or His awesome Holiness that brings us to reverence, respect and Holy fear. Our God truly is an awesome God.

And let us not remain unaware. Satan is still at work in the world seeking to keep up from being mindful of the things of God. May we seek to know God more everyday and become mindful of Him and His ways! Our God is good.

To God be the Glory, Holy and Almighty Trinity, One God.
Amen.

Psalm 38.5-“For in you, O Lord, have I fixed my hope; you will answer me, O Lord my God

God knows us. Better than we know ourselves. He knows the challenges we face, the things that trouble us and seek to keep us up at night. He knows the road ahead. Whether that looks or is good or bad, God’s promise is the same. “I will be with you”. We can hope in many things, but the hope spoken of above does not mean a forlorn wistfulness that something may happen because maybe God cares and is listening. No. Rather it is said in the knowledge that God is truly with us. He is the most solid thing in existence, as the Hymn says, “the solid rock”. We are meant to build our lives on that mighty stone. God truly is forging a path ahead that He wants us to know and wants us to follow. Our God is a speaking God. We have only to listen. Take a moment today and be still before the Lord, knowing He is God, which means all things are under His control and He is with you. Seek to listen, God is speaking. He will answer us! Let Him lead us into His plans.

God knows your name. And He knows what street you live on. For some of us it is Just Barely Making It Street. For others it is Heartbreak Avenue. May it is Hopeless Place or Sun-Setting Highway. Then there is always Confusion Court, Perplexity Way, Dysfunction Junction, Sobering Station, Boredom Bypass and the Blvd of Broken dreams. Luke 4:16-20 tells us that God is intent on intersecting with our lives. He has come anointed in the power of the Holy Spirit (verse 18). In other words, He came down to where we live. Into our world of pressures, people, pain, problems, etc., etc. etc. He came to bring positive, powerful change. The kind the world hopes for but apart from the divine does not know or see. God is at work everywhere around us. We only need eyes to see. God came to preach the Gospel to the poor (verse 18). Who are the poor? You and me. Though we may or may not have financial means, we are all poor. We all have need of God. Even in our best moments, we have to come to terms with our limitations and imperfections. Despite our best intentions, we often fall short. God knows that. Only He was ever meant to be our sufficiency. Our poverty comes in our unwillingness or inability to recognize that. Particularly in our western world, where God had blessed us in so many ways, allowing us to make so many advances, we find ourselves poor because of our forgetting that God is truly what we need, and if we could see it, who we really long for. Our poverty comes in not being able to see His goodness, our struggling to be honest about doubts because we fail to see He can handle our doubts and can answer them with the loving presence of Himself. God gives us Himself and in that awareness of His majesty, we understand everything has a place though we may not know exactly how. This is more than a doctrinal acceptance based upon blind faith about an abstract God that feels distant. No, this is about a personal encounter with the divine whose evidence is concretely woven into the fabric of our time and space in a way whose existence our minds can grasp yet not fully understand. God came to us so we could know Him. And to know Him is to know that He is love but that His ways are not our ways. God in Christ came to heal the brokenhearted (verse 18). He knows our pain. Though fully God, Jesus was still a human being and on earth choose to live within the limitations of humanity. Though the reasons why we hurt vary, as people we all know a solidarity in suffering and pain. It is part of living in a fallen world. Jesus knew that suffering too. Let us look to the cross if we ever doubt it. But He endured the cross for the joy that was set before Him. His suffering was a means to a greater end: the joy of resurrection life. And this joy of resurrection life transcends all time and space to all those who offer their broken hearts to Jesus. He is the great physician. Jesus came to set the captives free (verse 18). And we are those who are captive to the short sightedness of sin; the sin that has separated and separates us from God. The sin that feels good for a time but only brings that haunting sense of hollowness that we feel the need to fill with more thrills, political or even religious causes apart from God and the incessant need not to remain still long enough to hear the voice of God calling to us. The sin that leaves us with that sense of perennial purposelessness, a vague or sharp disconnect we try not to reflect upon because it brings us back to wrestle with God. God wants to set us free from that unending cycle. And He wants to set us free from all those behavior patterns that hurt ourselves or others. God wants to give our blind eyes the ability to see (verse 18). See the world from a different plane of perspective, to hope in something more than the now which in turn makes the now full of hope. For us to have eyes to see what has always been there. God wants to see free the oppressed (verse 18). And this is not primarily political in nature thought it does touch upon it. The oppressed in reference are those oppressed by evil spirits. In a word: demons. Demons that seek to harass, confuse, drag down, distort and diminish all things in our lives. They are smarter and stronger than us; but not greater than God. In Jesus, those of us who are oppressed by demons are set free to live life in God to the fullest. Jesus came to give us life and life to the full (John 10:10). Jesus came to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord (verse 19). What is the year of the Lord? It is the time of freedom in the here and now for all I have tried to describe in the above and more. God wants to bring us His freedom where we live that only comes with His presence so that where ever we are we can live on Son-Rise Blvd. Open your heart to Him this day and every day. Come Lord Jesus! In the name of the most Holy Trinity. Amen.