The Christian Response To Blasphemy

Father Dale Matson

“Today the blaspheming continues at the Edward Tyler Nahem Gallery on 57th Street, where the state-sponsored “artwork” Piss Christ [by Andres Serrano] goes on display for a month. The work, in case you missed the controversy that swirled around its debut in 1987, consists of a photograph of a crucifix floating in the artist’s urine.” http://hotair.com/greenroom/archives/2012/09/27/piss-christ-returns-to-new-york-along-with-piss-moses/

As a Christian, I am of course, outraged by this public and blasphemous exhibit. As a U.S. citizen, Serrano is exercising his first amendment right to publicly denigrate the most important Christian symbol, the Cross of our Savior Jesus Christ. For me, however, there is a larger issue. It is not just about the need for tolerance in a democracy. How does a Christian respond to this wretched display? How would Jesus Himself respond to this scatological representation?  “And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but the one who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven.” (Luke 12:10) A sinless and perfect Jesus, Who was innocent of the charges against Him did not utter one word in His own defense to Pilate. Christ even had the power at His disposal to prevent His own crucifixion. “Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels?” (Matthew 26:53) For Christ, It was never about Him and His reputation or glory. His power was used to heal others to reveal the heart of the Father. For Jesus, it was always about truth, forgiveness, love, the salvation of the lost and revealing His Father, the God and Father of all.

There is a certain irony presented here because to Christians, although the cross is so important and necessary, the cross is also an offense. The cross reminds us of the terrible cost of our sinfulness and the innocent suffering of Christ on our behalf. It was for each of us that He died and it was each of us who are responsible for His being on the cross. As St. Paul stated in 1^st Corinthians, “The message of the cross is foolish to those who are headed for destruction! But we who are being saved know it is the very power of God.” (1:18). The cross is offensive to our civic selves because Christ did not condemn or curse those who conspired against Him. He did not call out for vengeance or retribution. He did not call out for justice. He called for mercy. He asked God the Father to forgive them. “And Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” And they cast lots to divide his garments.” (Luke 23:34)  “ A greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends”. (John 15:13)

Jesus Christ is God the Son. He revealed to us that God is a God of love and compassion.  For Christians, the cross is the central point in human history. Christ died and rose from the dead. He defeated Satan and opened the door to eternal life for those who died with and in Christ.

So, how does a Christian respond? “But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you” (Matthew 5:44).

Prayers For The World

Fr. Dale Matson

I have been deeply grieved about recent events around the world. The anger and rage expressed have diminished our humanity and kindness toward each other. There is a loss of good will. On Wednesday, I offered mass for the deaths of our diplomats who were sent as peace makers. At times like this, it is easy to use these events for our own purposes. For me, it is a time to appeal to God. Only God is able to heal the hurts, support those who grieve and restore hearts filled with hatred. Only God can give us eyes to see others as part of the same family.    

For The Human Family

O God, you made us in your own image and redeemed us through Jesus your Son: Look with compassion on the whole human family; take away the arrogance and hatred which

Infect our hearts; break down the walls that separate us; unite us in bonds of love; and work through our struggle and confusion to accomplish your purposes on earth; that, in

your good time, all nations and races may serve you in harmony around your heavenly throne; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (Page 815 Book Of Common Prayer)

For Peace

Eternal God, in whose perfect kingdom no sword is drawn but the sword of righteousness, no strength known but the strength of love: So mightily spread abroad your Spirit, that all peoples may be gathered under the banner of the Prince of

Peace, as children of one Father; to whom be dominion and glory, now and forever. Amen. (Page 815 Book Of Common Prayer)

Another Model Prayer From Our Lord Jesus

East Lake - Kings Canyon National Park

Fr. Dale Matson

In our Gospel reading for today, we are given the High Priestly Prayer of Our Lord.

“And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.  But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves.  I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.  I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.  They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.  Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.  As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.

I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them that they may be one even as we are one.” (John 17:11-22)

I want to offer some thoughts as I read this prayer. I think of the very different structure Jesus uses in this prayer than in the prayer he gave us to pray. In the Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6: 9-13), we have a vertical relationship with God the Father. In the Lord’s Prayer, we acknowledge God’s Glory and position. Our petitions are on bended knee. In the High Priestly Prayer of Jesus, I am struck by the sense of unity with God the Father that Jesus expresses in this prayer. It is a work already accomplished for the elect by Jesus and the Father. They have a partnership and a loving collaborative relationship that is revealed in this prayer. It is a prayer of supreme faith since Jesus has not even been arrested. Jesus as God is calling things that are not (yet) as though they were. (Romans 4:17) He even prays for you and me. “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word” In the Lord’s Prayer, we are praying to God for ourselves. In this prayer, we are prayed for by Jesus. In this prayer we are prayed into unity with God. This is also a prayer of salvation. This prayer is a model for us also. While the Lord’s Prayer is a prayer of praise, position and petition, The High Priestly Prayer is a model for us of intercession, faith and unity.  Our Epistle lesson from Jude states, “Keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.” (Jude 21) What better verse to confirm the statement from Jesus that He is the way, the truth and the life. I especially like John Wesley’s explanation of this verse. “By these means, through his grace, keep yourselves in the love of God, and in the confident expectation of that eternal life which is purchased for you, and conferred upon you, through the mere mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ.” I believe if we reflect on this prayer with the help of God the Holy Spirit, we will not only see Jesus in a clearer light, we will understand our relationship with Him and the Father in a much deeper way. Amen

Feast Day of John Henry Hobart Bishop of New York 1830

  

A Pilgrim’s Progress And The John Muir Trail II

Book description

I have completed the John Muir Trail in sections over the last decade. During this time I have been changed by the events of life in general and specifically the JMT. The JMT has unrivaled beauty, requires considerable effort and is a type of spiritual pilgrimage whether one is particularly religious or not. This book is a photographic record of the 211 mile journey from Yosemite National Park in the North to the summit of Mount Whitney in the South. I have also included 10 essays related to specific reflections on experiences in the wilderness and the journey along the JMT as a kind of metaphor for life itself. We are sometimes exhausted and can go no further until we rest. While our vista is beyond description, our path is narrow and the footing uncertain. It is also a statement that to a point less is better. One learns about possessions that the larger the backpack, the larger the burden.

Available now on Amazon with color photographs for those that have a color Kindle. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0097GFWZG and available as a paperback with B&W photographs.

Fr. Dale Matson

Goals As New Benchmarks: A Means Of Moving On

Fr. Dale Matson

As we mature, we hopefully gain a sense of mastery and self-efficacy. From a developmental standpoint, we grow in many domains including intellectual, physical, emotional and spiritual. There are certain necessary developmental end points such as limits on physical growth. As fluid intelligence diminishes, we compensate with acquired knowledge. Spiritually, we develop our entire lives. The Christian lives in the present with eyes looking toward the future. The three theological virtues of faith, hope and love do not look back. They do not dwell in the past.

My sadness and pain is for those I know who have become mired down and live in the past. They have established a developmental beachhead or benchmark by which they orient their lives. Often it is a mishap or a perceived injustice. They have not learned to view the experience through God’s eyes. They have circled the wagons and ended their development. They have chosen a life of victimhood. They are bitter and angry. They are hyper reflective and increasingly isolated. They have chosen the path of death. It is death on the installment plan but it is surely death. This is a no risk, no gain, dried up, and stuck existence. Sentences begin with, “I suppose I should but….” The point of orientation for their lives is in the past. The gravitational pull toward the past is a seemingly irresistible force. Like many Israelites, they have returned to the captivity of the past in Egypt. They are no longer pilgrims.

What is the remedy for such a wretched life headed toward death? St. Paul often used the race as a metaphor for life. Each race however requires training, self-discipline, and incremental stages of progress. Training is “goal specific”. Muscle development is task specific. You cannot swim a mile by running a marathon and you cannot run a marathon without incrementally increasing a long run. Training for a goal is future oriented. It pulls us forward. This is not just true in the physical domain. It is also true in the other domains of life as well. Completing an interrupted college degree can be a new point, a benchmark for the future.  Goals are our pillar of cloud by day and our pillar of fire by night.

Have you or someone you knew lost a great deal of weight and are no longer obese? This is how God intended us to be. He gave us a heart, lungs, organs and bones for our skeletal frame. As a backpacker, I know what an obese person is carrying in extra weight. Our joints simply break down sooner with the enormous weight. Having a goal of weight loss can set a waypoint in our future which will become a new benchmark. It will become a new point of orientation. It will make us forward looking but this too must be an incremental goal.

God understands incremental preparation for the future. Yes, David faced Goliath but before that he had killed both a lion and a bear. There are few goals beyond the ordinary person who applies disciplined training. It is the realization and desire to employ the talents given us by God. It is a decision to leave the past hurts behind and to continue the pilgrimage. Rivers of living water are to come from the belly of the Christian. We are streams not stagnant ponds with no inlet and no outlet. God calls us forward and it is a call to life not death. Find a realistic, measureable goal and work incrementally toward it. It is a way out of the misery of the past and a way toward the Kingdom. “See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil.” (Deuteronomy 30:15). Each day the choice is ours. Now is the acceptable time.       

A Pilgrim’s Progress And The John Muir Trail

Looking South from Forester Pass Elevation 13,200' 

John Muir Trail

Fr. Dale Matson

There any number of things that one can do as a form of deep and extended play. All of us need these avocations to help sustain and repair us. It is also possible to say that many of these things could be metaphors for life itself.  St. Paul used the metaphor of the runner and the race as a means of describing the disciplined, dedicated and steadfast life of the Christian.

“Pilgrim’s Progress” is an allegory describing the journey of life with all of the trials and tribulations of the Christian on a journey toward Heaven. Homer offered us “The Odyssey” which is both a journey of exploration and a heroic effort to return home. These journeys can bring a testing, overcoming and an occasional failure. It is seeking and self-discovery too. It is also a way to carve a spot in the ego to accommodate more humility, as we realize our limitations. It does not automatically mean that the journey with the hardships and triumphs of the pilgrim will form the pilgrim for the better. Swift’s Gulliver was embittered by his travels.

John Muir a self-taught naturalist, the founder and president of the Sierra Club, was an explorer and a seeker. He fully understood the redemptive value for “civilized” humans introduced to nature in general and the Sierra Nevada Mountains in particular. His goals were to educate and introduce the civilized to his gospel of the wilderness. For Muir, the wilderness was not only their elixir; it was their salvation. He was an evangelist for and the high priest of the wilderness. He was also an activist against careless exploitation of the wilderness. I believe he so identified with the Sierra wilderness that he put aside his Christian roots and viewed creation itself as God. He remained a spiritual man but not a religious man.

The magnificent and arguably the most beautiful trail in the world, was named in his honor. The John Muir Trail (JMT) was the vision of another seeker, Theodore Solomons, who at age 14 stood in a field near Fresno and envisioned a trail stretching along the west side of the Sierra Nevada Mountains.  Many of the eight mountain passes on the JMT like Mather, Muir, Pinchot and Forester are named for important men who helped make the trail a reality. The Golden Staircase and Forester Pass in particular would not be possible without extensive human sculpting of granite and the use of dynamite. There are also bridges along the trail that affect the course of creeks and rivers. Would the current leadership of the Sierra Club file legal action against the construction of such a magnificent trail if it were proposed today? What started as a flexible vision and a desire to share the wilderness with others seems to have become a perceived obstructive legalism intended to protect the environment from human encroachment and influence. There has been a shift in the balance between human use and wilderness protection based on a shift in the understanding of humans and their role on this earth.

      

Pack it in and pack it out is the familiar refrain from those issuing wilderness permits for travel there. It is a good policy and a metaphor for life also. Our material impact should be minimal. Backpacking is a great reminder of how little we really need in life, even in the wilderness. Incarnate examples of this minimalist life are the back country rangers, who are genuine monks of the wilderness, welcoming and assisting the weary pilgrims.

John Muir loved both wilderness and his fellow humans. His goal was to reacquaint modern society members with the wilderness. This was the focal point of his activism and much of his political lobbying. Also through his efforts, national park and wilderness areas were set aside for this purpose and to protect these pristine areas from commercial exploitation. It was intended as a kind of legacy to be handed down to future generations to enjoy. Both Muir and Solomons were visionaries more than legalists. Like evangelists they wanted to share their discoveries with others and helped make that possible. I am only one of those beneficiaries and indirectly share the trail and their journey with them. Muir, Solomons and I are spiritual brothers on this trail. All are spiritual brothers and sisters who have or will travel it too. The journey can be transformative.

 

Thanks to visionaries like Muir, Solomons and others, I also have had the opportunity to experience the wilderness and to discover the JMT in bits, pieces and chunks over the last 20 years.  There are easy access points where the trail runs close to roads in Tuolumne and Red’s Meadows, Whitney Portals and Happy Isles. Florence Lake, Edison Lake, Happy Isles, Roads End require more effort. There are also access trails to the JMT from the East side of the Sierras that were originally “use trails” of Native Americans.  Each of the passes on this trail culminates in a moment of exhausted elation following the struggle against incline and thinner air. Each time the admission price was worth the view. Isn’t overcoming obstacles about gaining perspective anyway?

Like Muir, I have Scottish blood and lived in Wisconsin. I ran on the ice age trails of the Kettle Moraine area of S.E. Wisconsin, also named after Muir. Like Muir I came to California and fell in love with the Sierra wilderness. Like Muir the monastic side found peace in that wilderness. Each of the sections of the JMT that I have completed holds special memories for me and serve as unique benchmarks over the last 20 years of my lifes journey.  Unlike Muir who was the high priest of the wilderness, I am simply a priest who spends time in God’s wilderness.  

God Is The Author Of Our Experiences

 Looking North From Glenn Pass With Rae Lakes Below

(John Muir Trail-Kings Canyon National Park)

Fr. Dale Matson

*“Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures.” (James 1:16-18, ESV)

Some of the continuing struggles I have are understanding my experiences in light of God's guidance.  The questions are twofold. 1. Is this experience bad?  2. Is this experience from God? I was hiking last week and met a bear on the narrow switchbacks as I ascended. A bear is something I always feared both in reality and my dreams. It surprised me that I had no fear during or after the encounter. God was saying to me that anticipatory fear is not faith. The weather began to deteriorate as the Sierras tend make their own weather. It began to rain as I continued to climb. Then it began to thunder and lightning around me. I was considering turning around and wondered if God was in this hike with me or wanted me off the mountain. I was about 14 miles out from the trailhead and only needed 10 more miles to reach my overnight destination at Rae Lakes. I could still get back to the trailhead by dark if necessary. Sometimes I wonder where the line is between fearfulness, appropriate fearfulness and foolishness.

I decided to continue hiking, knowing that my gear would stay dry and my rain jacket would keep me from getting wet also. As I continued to climb up to Glenn Pass before dropping down to Rae Lakes, the sky began to clear the rain began to stop. I said, “Lord, I guess You wanted me to keep going.” At that point, I thought of three reasons why the rain had been good. The rain settled the dust on the trail. It made much of the climb cooler and I needed less water. Finally, it made the air clear and the photographs were not just clear but the light was outstanding. It reminded me that God is the Father of light and all that may pass between us including clouds and rain does not change His nature. He remains the same. He is Good, He is light and His gifts are good.

Finally, I was reminded of the verse from Romans, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” Knowing and believing this, is there any other prayer than “Thy Will be done” that we should be praying without ceasing? 

* Epistle reading for Feast Day of Joseph of Arimathaea Wednesday August 1st.