You enjoy God's favour

"Sunday first" because of the message of today; such a message as of today is like
"lift up your hearts" to a life of a higher level.

Gn 12.1: Abram is called to leave from his standpoint for the Land God will show him.
               Abram got a high promise: Father of a great Nation and for all a Blessing.
               The wonder is: He goes...
The Call and the Promise, we see today as valid for the Church: to go into a unknown future and become a great Community and a Blessing for all: A Community serving Humanity !
And oh wonder:  The Church is really going, on the way, sorry sometimes very slowly....

2.Tim 1.8-10  This "going/walking into the future for the sake of the Good News is Hardship!
                      The Church will make it... if she takes as a Reality the fact: that
                      "The GRACE of a Call and of Salvation is already granted"  pls believe it !!!
                      (revealed by the live of Jesus Christ)
                      therefore we are on the resurrection way..   into the fullness of Life.

Mt.17.1-9  The famous Transfiguration...
                 The "risen Lord Jesus Christ" that is "the incorporation of the Spirit of God",
                 that is the Church !!! is transfigured / is recognisable as like the sun as like light...
                 and the cloud-voice is clear (as it was on the Jordan):
                 The risen Lord Jesus Christ, "the incorporation of the Spirit of God", the Church
                  is beloved by the Mystery of God; the Church, the Community serving Humanity,
                  enjoys God's favour...
                  (Mt made it clear: such a Vision is valid only after the event of the Resurrection
                  has taken place ! It's a view for the future after the death of Jesus...
                  and St. Peter is clever enough to acknowledge: in this "risen future" we need
                  not one tent but at least three: the Moses-People, the Elijah-People and the
                  Jesus-Movement...   unity in diversity !!!

How we bring this high level message to our Sunday-Community ???
You enjoy God's favour !!!
 
                       

"lift up your hearts"

The Lenten-Time starts on Wednesday with the vocation to be an Ambassador for the unkown Kingdom of God. And on Sunday we got the challenge to "lift up our hearts", to become up-right-persons. We are not any more only nature (dust) ,we need much more,
we are word-able; we are not any more powerless, we are self-deciding; we are not any more captivated but liberated to the Mystery of God - we are stardust!
"The Church must be a sign of Life, a Community serving serving Humanity"

I have translated this message into 3 little daily stories:

1.) The girl says: "Meme, I'm hungry, pls give me bread".
The good Meme answers: "Voila, here is bread".
The better Meme: "Wait, first look self after bread or better: make self your bread.
The best Meme: "Sure; but tell me, do you need something more than bread?
                            pls. tell me all what you need - and I tell you who you are".
This is the intervention of Jesus: bread - yes! but it's nature; you as a human needs to need much more ...  to become a human being - "all what you need is love".
In the Lenten-Time 2017 we make an analysis of all our needs... how high I'm going ???

2.) The boy says: "Tate, I like to change the whole world".
Tate: "Very good ! but tell me: who will help you ?
The boy: "God will help me; he is the one who makes the impossible possible"
And this is the intervention of Jesus: Yes - God is good! But God is not your helper...
don't put God to the test! He is the Total-Creator and you may activate His Spirit...
But God is not the one who helps you to perform your will; not at all!

3.) The youngster likes to admire the stars. What more...  ???
This is the intervention of Jesus: Sure, the world is a beauty...  but as a human being
you are never satisfied by "something"... in the admiration-list the priority belongs to the Mystery of God. If you admire first the Source of Grace, the Founder of All...
nothing can captivate you... you are a free person.

You get a chance...

                                               Ambassador for an "unknown At Home"

Mt (6.1...) gives us an interesting promise...   we will get "great reward" if...
(the conditions are well known: don't behave like an hypocrites).
We asks: Which kind of reward ???  In the religious language: Heaven, eternal Life,
Paradise, the real final At Home,  the fullness of Life, Grace in abundance, ...

In the meantime, Paulus (2. Cor 5.20) makes the proposal, we may understand ourselves as "Ambassador". We are sent into Exile to work as Ambassador of the Kingdom of God.
1. It's a real honour to be called to represent the Kingdom of God in this World.
2. An Ambassador shows a best behaviour to contribute to the honour of his "at home".
3. An Ambassador likes his Exil, his host, his situation (but will never forget the"At Home").
4. An Ambassador feels "between" (the "host Home" and the "At Home").

But something is very strange: We as Ambassadors do not know our "At Home".
We never have been there. We have imaginations, pictures,ideas...  but nobody knows Heaven. It means, all Ambassadors must come together and find out the best way HOW
we show to the people around our "unknown At Home". It's a very urgent ecumenical task. Because our "At Home" is unknown we must together carefully decide HOW we present this "At Home" as a possibility for everyone.

Now on Ash-Wednesday we got the Ash-Cross; it's a mark, to be an Ambassador in the Spirit of Jesus Christ. It shows: between birth and death we got the CHANCE to work as an Ambassador. This chance is established millions of years ago - but now is the time for us to take on the chance.

Remember:    "You are stardust - to stardust we return."
"You got a Chance - never miss it"    "turn around and proclaim the Good News".