The Trinity

Gospel: John 3: 16-18

The Trinity is ultimately a mystery we cannot hope to ever understand.  However, this doctrine gives us a number of important implications for us human beings.  The first is that God is a community of persons so united to one another in love that they form one single entity.  From this first truth comes the second - that God is inherently relational and communal to human beings and the cosmos at large which God created in a free act solely in love.  

Since the relations of the three persons in God are perfect, we seek to perfect our own relationships in the world.  The Spirit enables us to re-store that which was lost: the sin of Adam marred our relationship with God; the sin of Cain fractured our relationships with one another; the sins of Noah's time separated us from union with the cosmos; and the sin of Babel laid bare the structures of sin we create as humans.  All of these were restored at Pentecost; we are able to have more perfect relationships in each sphere.

We human beings are inherently relational and communal beings as well.  Though our relationships are imperfect, we have a God who inspires and urges us forward each day to renew and re-create our relationships - with God, with one another, with the whole created order, and with that which we ourselves create - so that they may be more just, more loving, and more like the relationships within the Triune God who has created us in this relational and communal image. 

Mocking the Good

Gospel: Mark 11: 27-33

Jesus went about healing people from all their infirmities.  He liberated people from the demons that oppress and hold them bound.  He nourished people at table.  In today's Gospel portion we find Jesus challenging the injustices of the Temple system that exploits the poor for profit.  He calls out the hypocrisy of the religious leaders and wealthy of his day who speak of law and order, but oppress the poor and marginalized.

Throughout the Gospels we find Jesus' opponents objecting to the good he does.  In today's portion we find them asking on what authority he does such things.  Neither Jesus nor anyone else needs permission to do good for other people. Permission is not needed to defend the weak and powerless against those who oppress them.  It is truth and goodness that provide all the warrant and authority one needs to heal, liberate, nourish, and challenge the systems of oppression in our world.

In our own times we find the oppressor and hypocrite seeking to appropriate Jesus for their own ends.  They claim his authority in their oppression of the poor, in creating more poor and marginalized people through war, in neglecting and exploiting the immigrant, migrant, and refugee.  Here again truth and goodness will be the light that shows us the way to follow the Lord Jesus in the Gospels, the light that will repel the darkness of evil in our world today and always. 

Fig Tree and Temple

Gospel: Mark 11: 11-26

The fig tree exists in order to produce figs so that other beings may be nourished by its fruit.  When a fruit tree no longer produces fruit, a farmer does not waste space in his orchard by keeping it.  The tree is cut down and its wood used for fuel to provide warmth or fire for cooking.  It is the life cycle of every tree that at some point it will cease to bear fruit and eventually be used for firewood, and its place in the orchard will be taken over by another new tree that will bear fruit.

The same pattern exists in organized religion, as today's Gospel portion alludes.  The temple was no longer nourishing people.  It became an end in itself to make money and look pretty, as many houses of worship in our time do.  Yet, they produce no nourishment for people's bodies or souls.  And so they close and their space is used for other purposes, and people will seek and find nourishment elsewhere for the life of the spirit.  

So, we need not be surprised at the decline of religion and the plethora of closed houses of worship.  When their only purpose is to raise money so that the clergy can live the lifestyle of comfort to which they have grown accustomed, when they no longer nourish and meet the spiritual needs of the people, then it is time for their removal from the orchard and their replacement by those who will provide that nourishment.  It is the way of all things.