My Blog

Tag: Human Being

  • The Flesh Became Word

    SAC Ascension Window

    Ascension Window – St. Andrew's Cathedral

    We are in the days leading up to the Day of Pentecost and in a period sometimes known as Ascensiontide. The Ascension (Luke 24:44-53  / Acts 1:1-11) is probably not the best known of the feast days on the calendar, but it is one that takes on increasing depth and importance the more you think about it and experience it.

    The Ascension is not about gravity, or the physical location of heaven, or any of that. It is about God.  In fact, even though it comes toward the end of Eastertide, the Ascension is most closely related in meaning to Christmas. At Christmas we celebrate the Incarnation, God becoming flesh and living among us. 

    What was begun at Christmas is brought full circle and proclaimed again in a different way at the Ascension. In the Incarnation, what it means to be God became fully a part of what it means to be a human being. In Jesus, the human and the divine become united in the person and life of one man. In the Ascension, this human being became a part of who God is.

    It was not the spirit of Jesus, or the essence of Jesus, or the divine nature of Jesus, or the invisible part of Jesus, or the idea of Jesus, or anything like that, that ascended to the Father. It was the resurrected body of Jesus: a body that the disciples had touched, a body that ate and drank with them, a real, physical, but gloriously restored body-bearing the marks of nails and a spear. This humanity has become a living, participating part of Divinity.

    The Ascension tells us that it is a good and holy thing to be a human.  It is so good and holy a thing that God became human. The fullness of God now includes what it means to be a human being.

    So we are able to approach God with confidence and with joy. Because we are not only dealing with the Creator of the universe and the Sovereign of all time and of eternity; we are also drawing near to the One who lived our life, has shared our fate, who knows us, and cares about us.

    I'll see you in Church!

    Ron Short Blue Sig Cropped

     

     

     

     

    The Very Reverend Ronald D. Pogue
    Interim Dean
    St. Andrew’s Cathedral
    Jackson, Mississippi

    P.S. You just can't beat Charles Wesley when you need a hymn for an occasion like Ascension Day!  Here's  the Choir of Tewkesbury Abbey singing his rousing hymn Hail the Day That Sees Him Rise. (Be patient, the audio file loads slowly.)

     

     

  • Sermon at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Jackson Hole ~ October 4, 2015

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    The Nineteenth Sunday After Pentecost

    Listen to the Sermon for October 4, 2015  

    Read the Sermon for October 4, 2015

     

     

  • Stewardship is in our DNA

    Dna_500Like many other congregations in America, ours is emphasizing stewardship of financial resources at this time of year. On October 11, we’ll do everything possible to persuade everyone in the congregation to make a new, and hopefully increased, pledge of financial support of God’s work for the coming year.

    I'm not sure why we have to work so hard to get Christians to do something so central to the Chris-tian way of life. It came to my attention years ago that a substantial number of Christians consider the topic of stewardship to be less popular than some other ones. On several occasions, I’ve had church members suggest that I soft-pedal stewardship because some people might get upset. I’ve never taken that advice and here’s why.

    Over half of the recorded sayings of Jesus Christ concern possessions. Jesus knew how possessions interfere with our relationships with God, our neighbors, and our spiritual identity. Don’t most wars, lawsuits, family feuds, and legislative battles finally boil down to who possesses what and how much?

    A rich man approached Jesus and asked, “Master, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus told him to sell all his possessions, give the money to the poor, and follow Jesus. The man couldn’t do it. Why? He was possessed by his possessions. He derived too much of his identity, security, and status from his possessions.

    Jesus was not condemning wealth. Jesus was trying to help a man find the freedom and joy that comes from living in a right relationship with his God, his neighbor, and his stuff! Like Jesus, I want to help people have a healthy relationship with their possessions so that all the other relationships of their lives will be healthier and they will know the kind of freedom Jesus called “eternal life.”

    The story of stewardship is grounded in the story of creation. When God created human beings, our role as stewards was imbedded into our DNA. As the only creature made in the likeness of God, humans have the distinct privilege and responsibility of managing God’s resources in ways that further God’s creative and redemptive purposes.

    When we abdicate our role as stewards, we lower ourselves in the pecking order of creation. Before long, we make idols that stand between us and our God. In exercising the vocation of stewardship we become more fully human and fulfill our God-given destiny in creation. We need to give!

    Finally, it is important to help the community of Christian people see how necessary the work and witness of the community is to the ongoing redemptive mission of Christ. The first thing Jesus did in his public ministry was to form a community. Throughout his ministry, he worked to shape that community into an apostolic, missionary force. The last thing he did before his Ascension was to send that community into the world to bear his message and transform lives. When the community of Christ's followers is healthy and vibrant, the apostolic witness impacts the mission field at our doorstep in powerful, divine ways. We can't be faithful stewards if we neglect the community into which we are baptized and to which Christ has entrusted so much of his redemptive work.

    When our lives are focused on stewardship instead of ownership, we experience greater freedom. When we embrace the pattern of Jesus’ life that is characterized not by having but by giving, our relationships are transformed. When our giving strengthens the Church, the divine mission given uniquely to the Church can be accomplished.

    As a Priest, why would I want to soft-pedal something like that?

    I'll see you in Church!

    Ron Short Sig Blue