Worth Doing Badly

Jesus’ salvation of cross and resurrection unmasks the ruinous effects of giving into the temptation to find the fullness of life in personal pleasure, the will to power and self–preservation as appealing and destructive.

Life is either transfiguring or disfiguring. We are either on a path of ascent to liberation from death or on a path of descent into the disappointment of death.

"Love your enemies..." Epiphany celebrates the Christ’s catholic outreach to all peoples, everywhere and for all time. Jesus’ hometown listeners wanted to kill him because his radical outreach was offensive. Nowhere is this offense more existentially experienced than when we are to love our enemies with no expectation of love being returned.

"Blessed are you..." Jesus’ blessedness shifts our focus from this passing present to our eternal future. In a word, the blessed life we have in Him is hopeful.

"Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men." Luke 5:10b Peter did not want to follow Jesus. He rather fell down "at Jesus’ knees, saying, "Depart from me, Lord, because I am a sinful man!" How could a fallen and flawed man speak for God? This call would remain incomprehensible until after the resurrection, where humanity’s absurd desire to defeat death became a fact in history.

"Ha! What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are-the Holy One of God." Luke 4:34. Jesus has no intention of leaving any of us alone to remain comfortable in our life-destroying fallen and fevered state.

The Epiphany season expresses the confidence that Jesus’ "Good News" is universal in that it promises the fulfilment of all human desire to all people, everywhere for all time. Having this confidence means coming to grips with the abrupt movement from the crowds initial attraction to Jesus’ appropriation of Isaiah to the crowds murderous rejection of Jesus.

Jesus’ sign at the Wedding at Cana revealed His glory, namely that He is the Word that in the beginning brought the natural world to life.

Luke’s contrast between John and Jesus’ baptisms casts light on the Epiphany confidence that Christ is the desire of all nations.

The Evangelist Luke connects Jesus’ progress in wisdom, physical strength and in nearness to God and others to Jesus’ listening to and asking questions of the temple’s teachers. This connection stakes the outrageous claim, as Mary and Joseph experienced it, that nothing was as important as Jesus’ listening to and asking questions of God’s teaching.

Simeon’s song helps us get used to living in the new realty of Christ’s Incarnation. The song does this by making the contestable claim that the Incarnation changes the meaning of death. The claim is that Christ’s presence somehow deprives death of its fearfulness, so the departing are dismissed from this life in peace.

Jesus’ way to eternal life corresponds with the natural way all humans come to mortal life—through a slow gestation that gains momentum in the stillness and smallness of the womb.

Prophetic greatness does not play it safe like a reed that bends to whatever wind is blowing nor does it seek the security of castles nor wears soft clothing. A prophet’s greatness is that he is trusted because he believes what he proclaims even to the point of death.

A voice crying in the wilderness. John the Baptist is an isolated voice living in desert deprivation, declaring that the fullness of life begins with repentance.

"If these were silent, the very stones would cry out" Jesus could have been praised by a box of rocks, but he wasn’t because he desires to involve free souls in his salvation.

[Jesus said:] "From the fig tree learn this lesson..." We are meant to see the passing of material existence as a return to the primordial chaotic state ready for a second creation by the eternal Word. When these things take place, the "lesson" passes away and real life begins.

After predicting a terrifying future, Christ said "do not be anxious." Anxiety is forbidden because it is a deception and deceptions distract us from seeing the truth. The truth is that Jesus’ fall-resistant up-rightness could never be realized by a material building, institution or culture. So, rather than being anxious when the material falls apart, we are to be alert and attentive to the birth...

Blessed? Understanding Jesus’ version of the blessed life lies deep within our experiences of hardship and misfortune.

Jesus stakes the claim that knowing him will satisfy eternally the human desire for liberty.

Jesus asked blind Bartimaeus, “What do you want me to do for you?” The question did not seek obvious information but to show those who were embarrassed by Bartimaeus’ cries that no one lives without God’s mercy.

Astounded by Jesus’ dismissive view of wealth, Peter wondered "Who can be saved?" Wealth supported the institutions and teachers necessary for worship and study without which, Peter presumed, salvation was impossible. Jesus explained that salvation, like creation, is humanly impossible because it is God’s work.

Jesus refused to let a rich young man call him "good teacher" because the man did not yet understand God as the source and destination of all good. Goodness is good because it originates as a gift from God to draw us back to Him. The rich man confessed to understanding the origin of goodness but not the implication that God draws us to himself by giving and taking away his good gifts.

Jesus’ severe limitation of divorce was the negative side of his positive teaching on the desirability of God’s faithfulness. Over time, the faithfulness expressed in the marriage vow transformed the promiscuity of Roman culture which gave women and children the necessary security to flourish. Jesus’ rejection of divorce neutralized the threat to the economically vulnerable.

To teach His disciples the right way of peace, Jesus first attacked their desire to have peace by dominating others. This sort of "peace" is like gaining control of one’s body by amputating the offending member. Jesus’ alternative peace is salt-like drawing out and joining together foods’ flavours without notice until it is missing.

Jesus’ disclosure of his coming betrayal, murder and resurrection was a sacrifice too fearful for the disciples to consider. So Jesus patiently helped the disciples come to grips with their fear by asking them about their recent argument regarding which of them was the greatest.