FROM OUR BRETHREN... A CHRISTIAN DENOMINATION THAT IS IN UNION WITH US IN OPPOSING THE FALLACIES OF THE RH/RP "LAW" AND THE OTHER DEATH BILLS: "God's People Consent to His Love"

"God's People Consent to His Love"

November 3, 2013

The 24th Sunday of the Christian Season of Ordinary Time/Kingdomtide/Time of the Church

Isaiah 1: 10 – 20/Psalm 32: 1 -7/2 Thessalonians 1: 1 – 12/Luke 19: 1 - 10

His Excellency

The Most Reverend Ariel Cornelio P. Santos D.D.

Auxiliary Bishop and Locum Tenens

of the 

Archdiocese of Manila

the 

National Church in the Philippines 

and the 

Territorial Church of Asia

International Communion of the Charismatic Episcopal Church

For two Sundays in a row, tax collectors had been a subject by the gospel.  It seems like God is speaking to us on something – of people who take advantage of their people.  Could He be speaking to us against certain systems in government?   It may be a certain electric company who claim to be just the collectors.  They would say, “Don’t hate us.  We are just collecting.  We are not the ones charging you, but we are just collecting for those who charge us.”  People hate them nonetheless because they are collectors and as collectors, they have big buildings, offices and good perks for their executives. 

If we do hate a company like that and politicians and supposedly civil servants who take advantage of their fellow citizens and get their money from them unjustly, then, this is what tax collectors in Jesus’ time were.  They were notorious.  The hatred for them by people is not just because they were like beneficiaries of the pork barrel or collectors for electric bills, but they made money on the people’s taxes. They also worked and supported the Roman, oppressive occupation and hated them.  We see two oppressive reasons for the people to hate the tax collectors. 

Zaccheus was a chief tax collector.  Picture him as one of the three kings of a certain department of government.  He was richer than the common tax gatherer.  Zaccheus heard about Jesus and he simply wanted to see Him.  Imagine Janet Lim Napoles with heavy security because her life is in danger.  Imagine her joining the masses during the Black Nazarene feast in Quiapo.  She will be conveniently, easily, maybe purposely and intentionally crushed and trampled upon. 

Zaccheus was more hated than she is.  He was small in stature.  Can you imagine the mob just trampling upon Zaccheus?  It wasn’t wise for him to stand in the crowd.  He runs ahead of Jesus, climbs up a sycamore tree, and waits for Him to pass under.  Jesus does and stops under the tree and calls Zaccheus by name.  Imagine the reaction of the people.  That would probably be a moment of ridicule for somebody like Zaccheus, a small guy, hanging on a tree wanting to see Jesus because it was too dangerous and embarrassing for him to join the crowd. 

Jesus tells him, in the hearing of the crowd, “I will have lunch at your home today.” The ridicule now turns to amazement, to surprise, to shock, to bewilderment but also contempt.  The people did not like Zaccheus and Jesus, too, because the Pharisee said, “This Man eats with sinners and tax gatherers.  Does He not know that they are bad people?”  But in Zaccheus heart, his notoriety now turns to security because he wanted to see Jesus and actually meet Him. 

Like most of us, Zaccheus have heard about Jesus.  He was a Jew.  He grew up being read in the Jewish religion.  Like most of us, he knew about God, but he did not have a personal relationship with Him. 

For historical information, our Church was an independent, Protestant, Charismatic Church.  We were not liturgical.   We did not have a historical root – an apostolic succession.  God started us on a journey, twenty plus years ago.  I remember one time, we were having a seminar educating us on the history of the Church and how that we need to learn the history of the Church – the riches, the treasure; and how that we need to join ourselves to the one, holy, catholic and apostolic church. 

During that seminar, my friend told me, “Well, we shouldn’t have left the Roman Catholic Church.”  We both grew up in that.  I said, “I disagree.”  I asked him, “Did you not meet a real personal Jesus when He introduced Himself to you outside of that Church?” He took us on a journey and it just so happen, it wasn’t inside that Church that we grew up in.  We met a real and personal Christ and we knew God, through Him, because of that.    I said, “Now, He is taking us back to His legitimate Church.”  God took us a on a journey which otherwise would not have happened. 

The way that God did it was such that we would meet Him like Zaccheus - in a personal and real way.  Since that day, Jesus became real to us.  It is not somebody whose name we pronounced during a Mass.  It is not somebody we hear of, preached, but somebody we walked with everyday of our lives and worship on Sundays.  The worship became more real because we know Him.  He is not a stranger to us. 

This is what happens when we meet Christ, and moreso, when we dine with Him.  Emptiness, loneliness, rejection are turned to joy.  It is salvation – meaning when we consent and obey though our sins are scarlet, He can make them white as snow.   Zaccheus demonstrated this change that Jesus caused in him because Jesus said that He came to seek and to save that which was lost. 

“Lost” means out of place or not where it is supposed to be.  In our Men’s meeting, I mentioned that the meaning of redemption and salvation is, “Jesus restoring what Adam lost.”  Adam lost the image and likeness of God.  When he sinned, he ceased living out the image and likeness of God.  Salvation is not making it past the door of heaven.  Salvation and redemption is restoration that which Adam lost. 

Asking the Holy Spirit, don’t we sing, “Strive till that image Adam lost, new-minted and restored in shining splendor brightly bears the likeness of the Lord.”  The image was lost when Adam fell.   At Christmas, we also sing, “Adam’s likeness now efface (erased).  Stamped Thine image in its place.  Second Adam from above, reinstate us in Your love.” We lost, through Adam, the image and likeness of God when he sinned.  The second Adam restored us from being self-centered, which is sin also. 

A real man is outwardly focused, not inwardly focused which is selfish, self-centered.  He looks outwardly for the needs of others and forgets himself.  This is what Adam was made – in the image and likeness of God. 

Today, the world entices us to be inwardly focused and to be self-centered.  They teach us to emphasize the pronouns “I” and “My”.   You have your I-pads, I-phones, My-phones, My Documents; My Computer; My TV; my life, my body, my career, my feelings.  In Church, we say, “My calling”, “My ministry”, “My Church.” 

It is God’s calling, God’s ministry, God’s Church.  He lets us in them as a privilege and honor that we participate in His work.  We don’t assert our calling, our gift.  We say, “You make room for my gift because this is mine.”  No, God lets us in and it is a privilege extended to us. 

When we assert our “I” or “My” or “Mine,” divorce results.   I have witnessed that first hand in a restaurant.  A couple came in smiling and ordered their food.  Something went wrong with the order and they fought and left without eating.  I said, “This is how a divorce starts.”  It is over small things, but with the assertion of “I”, “Me” or “Mine.”   It is a culture of divorce.  It is a culture of, “You are the most important thing.” 

A song verse says, “Learning to love yourself is the greatest love of all.”  This is not true at all, not in the kingdom of God.  God appoints.  We serve on His terms.  He is the Lord.  Lord means He is the Boss, but instead of being inwardly focused, we say, “Grant that I may never seek so much to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand others; to be comforted as to comfort others; to be given because I have need, but to seek the needs of others.” 

This is outwardly focused because we overcome the world’s pull away from God’s image and likeness.  The world can only impair our God-given, God-empowered, God-designed human faculties only if we let the world do that to us because we have been restored in the image and likeness of God. 

Jesus, the second Adam, saved our humanity and showed us the way.  When Adam fell and we did, all of creation was also lost and was cursed.  Romans 5:12 says, “Through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin,” and so, as Genesis 3 says, all creation was cursed.   The same way, as through one man sinned and entered into the world, salvation also was restored through one Man, Christ, and through men. 

John 3:16 is a very basic Christian verse of Scripture, “God so loved the world(our creation) that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him will not perish.” Who does the believing?  It is not the plants or animals, but man!  Salvation is also through man.  When man believes, he is saved and all of creation, which was cursed through his fall, will now be saved through his believing. 

Romans 8:19 says, “For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God.” One translation says, “For the revealing who the real children of God are.” Another translation says, “For on that day, (when man is revealed), thorns and thistles, sin, death and decay – the things that overcame creation against its will – will all disappear, and the world around us will share in the glorious freedom from sin which God’s children enjoy.” “No more let sins nor sorrows grow, nor thorns infest the ground. He comes to make His blessings flow far as the curse is found.” 

Another translation says, “Everything God made was changed to become useless, futile, not by its own wish, but because God wanted it and because all along, there was this hope:  that everything that God made would be set free from ruin to have the freedom and the glory that belonged to God’s children.”Another translation goes, “Against its will, all creation was subjected to God’s curse.  But with eager hope, creation looks forward to the day when it will join God’s children in glorious freedom from death and decay. Curse is no more.” 

2Thessalonians says that Jesus comes to be glorified in His saints on that day and to be marveled at among His brothers all who believed. The wonder of the plan of God!  He will not let His creation fail. 

Zaccheus demonstrated his salvation.  He was a cheater and dishonest.  He took advantage of the people – his fellow Jews and his brothers in the Lord – and served the enemy on top of that.  He was inwardly focused, but all that turned into outwardly focused and became honest, considerate, kind and generous.  He stopped thinking of himself – “my riches,” “my money,” “my dollars,” my drachmas,”  so should we be turned to a real son of God, a son of Abraham. 

I mentioned “lost” which means out of place or not in its place.  The word “ordained” means to set in place.  This is the 24^th Sunday in Ordinary Time.  “Ordinary” came from the root word ordained which means that these days, this time has been set in place by God for us to walk in His ways. 

You are all ordained.  You have been baptized and confirmed.  At your baptism, somebody made vows for you because you were an infant then.  Baptized as an adult, you made your own vows.  In your confirmation and every Sunday when we recite the Creed, we make vows.  Those are ordination vows because at our ordination, we made a vow to follow our Lord, Christ, and make Him Lord, meaning that His will is done in our lives. 

The question is:  are we lost again?  Did we get out of place again as far as not fulfilling our vows is concerned?  If we do not fulfill our vows, we are out of place.   We are not supposed to be where we are not supposed to be.  Lost, we need to be restored back in place; set back in place.  God puts us where we need to be.  He ordains; He sets in place. We need to be set in place in order to fulfill our mission to also seek and save that which is lost, including all of creation. 

The prodigal son was lost and was found, but the older brother protested against his restoration, his redemption and salvation.  Last week, the Pharisee despised his lost brother who was a tax collector.  The Pharisees and scribes grumbled against Jesus’ receiving and eating with Zaccheus and the tax gatherers and sinners.  Men went out of place and needed to be put back in the right place and be restored. 

Our attitude should be is to rejoice with them because they have been lost and found. We have brothers that are lost.  I dare say, “In and out of Church.”   They are in a place where they are not supposed to be.  We don’t shut the door on them. 

As the people of God, we are to be Jesus to Zaccheuses and bring salvation to their houses.  Be instrumental in the bringing of salvation to their houses because they, too, are children of Abraham and sons of God. God uses us as instruments.  We are to yield ourselves to his using us and to his leading.  This is what happens when we consent to His love.

 This is the way it is in the kingdom of our God!

LET US CONTINUE OUR REFLECTION 

WITH

HIS EMINENCE, THE MOST REVEREND LUIS ANTONIO "CHITO" GOKIM TAGLE  D.D.

ARCHBISHOP OF MANILA, 

CARDINAL OF HOLY MOTHER CHURCH

AND 

VENERABLE PRIMATE

OF THE PHILIPPINES

THROUGH

THE WORD EXPOSED