Unforgiveness Can Kill You (Proper 15)

 Unforgiveness is an unforgivable sin. In the Lord’s Prayer we ask to be forgiven as we have forgiven others. We in effect put a curse on ourselves so God can not forgive us if we do not foegive others. After sexual sins unforgiveness is the most destructive sin, polluting our soul and wounding our spirit. It separates us from God and other people. 

• Lucille and I have seen and experienced the horrific damage unforgiveness wreaks on families in our ministry
• I was under a dark cloud for 30 years never speaking to my ex wife - it went away when we asked each other for forgiveness
• In the Readings (2 Samuel 6.1-5, 12B-19) Davids wife Michal “despised him in her heart) - and had no children.
• In Mark 6.19 “Herodias nursed a grudge against John and wanted to kill him.”
• The Good News is that God has chosen us to be holy and created a way for us to be forgiven in Jesus and sanctified by the Holy Spirit.

1. We Are Chosen To Be Holy

Palm Sunday - New Covenant of Servant King

 Palm Sunday is a celebration of Jesus “coming out” and revealing His identity as the Servant King. Up to this point He has been keeping under the radar of the Roman and religious authorities,  teaching and healing people in more remote areas. With the raising of Lazarus just outside Jerusalem His identity and authority has become public – and very dangerous. I love  the line  from CS Lewis where Lucy asks if the lion Aslan, who represents Jesus, is dangerous. “Of course He is!!” is the reply. I chose this Feast for my ordination as a priest because it is where Jesus reveals the New Covenant of self-sacrificial love, forgiveness and eternal spiritual life of joy by coming humbly on a donkey as opposed to a king on a horse with an army. 

1. The Servant-King guides believers with the Holy Spirit

Love Binds and Looses (Proper 21a)

(Teaching available on John Gishler Youtube channel Aug. 22) 

Binding and loosing are words that many people may not be familiar with. Jesus reveals His identity as The Christ - the long expected successor to Moses, who will free His people not from political and military oppression, but from the much more dangerous spiritual deception and oppression of Satan. Jesus is talking about the love of His sacrificial death that broke the power of Satan. This enables forgiveness of sin and frees people from their bondage. Jesus love  binds us in a love relationship as the body of Christ. This binding and loosing is the essential work of the Church. The story of Moses birth illustrates how the fear of loosing the love of God strengthened the Egyptian midwives in disobeying Pharo’s order to kill male babies. 

The Romans reading (12.1-8) explains how the love of the members of the body of Christ grows and binds them to Jesus and each other as they exercise their spiritual gifts.

1. The midwives of Egypt were bound by “fear” of God

Deliver Us From Evil - Good News For Difficult Times

 

(Fr John is on vacation and will try to continue weekly Youtube services)

The readings are about faith. Faith is what holds us together in difficult times. Faith gives us the hope we need to carry on. It is very relevant to our present time. Joseph, the Cannanite woman and the apostle Paul all had faith that helped them get through difficult times. I found the Readings comforting after being reminded of the terrible corruption in American society watching a program on Hillary Clinton.

 

1. Joseph believed his hardship was God’s Plan

Right Relationships For Spiritual Life (Proper 13a)

(Available on John Gishler Youtube June 28)

 Today’s Readings challenge us to develop right relationships in this life as we prepare for our resurrection life in Jesus Christ. Last week we were challenged to love God more than family. This week we are challenged to die emotionally and spiritually to anything that competes with our love of God and to love our neighbour as ourselves. This involves painful challenges to the development and healing of our spiritual lives.

 

1. Right relationship with God

God’s Love Frees Us From the Spiritual Prison of Our Desires (Lent 4 Readings)

Lent is a time of self-examination and spiritual cleansing as we prepare for the great celebration of Easter. Self-examination is not designed to make us feel guilty or bad. Self-examination is meant to free us from feelings of guilt and shame that prevent us from living a life of joy. The Good News is that “…God so loved the world that he gave His only son so that all that believed in Him might have eternal life.” It is hard for us to grasp how great the love of God is. It includes all people of all races and religions. It is like a father who loves his children enough to do whatever it takes to rescue his children from their mistakes and restore them to a right relationship.

·         The Readings teach us how this works – how God has provided a way through Jesus Christ to pay the price for our sins and restore us to right relationship.
·         Sin – any rebellion against God’s law of love is very serious and can lead to the death of our personal spirit and soul
·         God is holy and pure and nothing unholy can survive in His presence
·         Spiritual dimension specific & legalistic – sin must be paid for by death
·         Good news is God allows Jesus to pay the price for our specific sins

1. The Hebrew People wanted more than manna

Transfiguration Was the Ultimate Epiphany Experience (Transfiguration)



An Epiphany moment is when we see something in a dramatic new way. In this case Peter, James and John see Jesus with his body and cloths changed in a dramatic, visible way; talking to Elijah and Moses (Mark 9.2-13). This is not a dream. There are three very awake and frightened witnesses. The witnesses are having the epiphany moment of their lives. They are seeing Jesus as part of another eternal spiritual dimension. This is nothing less than the heavenly kingdom in visible form intruding on our physical world.

 1. We have trouble with the Biblical supernatural worldview

We have been raised in a culture based on science and reason. The Age of Reason and Enlightenment rejected as Biblical myths. Modern Theological Liberals reject the supernatural as superstition

Baptism, Experience and Faith

Several people have asked me if I noticed the dramatic difference between my January (Anglican ) Sower article on the “Battle Belongs to the Lord” Conference at St. Peter’s, Okatokes; and the opposite facing article “Understanding Aspects of Christian Faith” (which questioned both sin and spiritual evil). I did, and believe this has given us an opportunity to reflect on how differences in our teaching and experiences of God can lead to very different interpretations of our Baptismal Faith. This points to a need to listen to those who have different experiences of spiritual life - as opposed to dismissing them as misguided. Allan Miller has done us a great service by raising basic questions about the Nature of God,  sin and evil and the meaning of Baptism which are on the minds of many modern people. It is not just theological ignorance, but differences in our personal experience of the spiritual dimension that affect our interpretation of Faith and understanding of Baptism.

1. The Nature of God