Make Straight the Way of the Lord!

Prepare ye the Way of the Lord!
Make his path straight in the wilderness!
But how do we do this? First, by proclaiming the Kingdom of God, and then explaining it to those who ask what that means. This is an outline of the project for evangelists.

A. Why we believe in God as good creator.
B. What the concept of Messiah means.
C. God always wanted to be Israel's king.
D. Who is Jesus of Nazareth?
E. Why Israel failed to accept Him.
F. Jesus asks us to be merciful and holy.
G. Jesus died for us and resurrected.
H. He really IS coming back very soon.

We tell them:
1. Listen long enough to Understand.
2. Suspend your Disbelief.
3. Hold back your Skeptical Arguments.
4. Consider the Reasons & Evidence.
5. Observe your own Life Honestly.
6. Open your Heart to Truth.
7. Accept the Lord's Gift.
8. Respond with Gratitude & Obedience.
9. Love One Another.
10. Receive the Holy Spirit.
11. Pray without Ceasing.
12. Trust God to Do All Things Well.
13. Reconcile your Life to the Truth.

Know this, and do not be complacent:
1. This is the Laodicean Age, neither hot nor cold. Get off the fence! Wake up!
2. Satan is real, personal and powerful, and he wants to deceive and destroy you.
3. You must live out the Way, the Truth and the Life. Walk the walk, not just talk.
4. The time is near. Today is like the time of Noah, seeking only wealth and pleasure.
5. The baptism of the Holy Spirit is manifest by zeal for God and reform in your life.

Jesus asks us to be merciful, just as our Father in Heaven is merciful, so we try to perform the corporal works of mercy whenever we see a need. But even so, we still have to depend on the mercy of Jesus. Our own works are nothing. Only his cross can grant us forgiveness and righteousness. What we do "for the Lord" or "in his Name" is only a fraction of our due gratitude for what He has done for us. Without Jesus to speak for us, we still carry our sin. Works are not enough for salvation.

Twelve Corporal Works of Mercy:
(Matthew 25:34-40)
1. Feed the hungry.
2. Give drink to the thirsty.
3. Welcome the stranger.
4. Clothe the naked.
5. Care for the sick.
6. Visit the prisoner.
(Isaiah 58)
7. Pay a fair wage.
8. Hold back your wrath.
9. Shelter the homeless.
10. Ransom the captive.
(Tobit 1)
11. Give alms to the poor.
12. Bury the dead.

When Jesus described the Last Judgment,  He gave us this example: To those who came to Jesus for mercy, He said: "What you have done for the least of my brothers and sisters, you did also for me." But to those who thought they were good enough to list good works, He replied: "What you failed to do for the least of my brothers and sisters, you failed to do to me." It's all or nothing. We only have Jesus.

When the young man who was called asked leave to go first to bury his father and return, why would Jesus have said, "Let the dead bury their dead"? Because he was letting his family stand between him and Jesus, as if that was more important than the Kingdom. It is how we care for our brothers and sisters in Christ that reveals our place in Heaven. Those who put anything else first may as well have rejected Him. They have already excluded themselves.

Meanwhile, as the opportunity to serve the physical needs of others may not often arise, we should not pass up the chance to care for their spiritual needs as well. We begin with preaching the Gospel and recounting the life of Jesus and his deeds. But for some, their need involves spiritual care and healing.

Seven Spiritual Works of Mercy:
1. Counseling the doubtful.
2. Instructing the ignorant.
3. Admonishing the sinner.
4. Comforting the sorrowful.
5. Forgiving injuries.
6. Bearing wrongs patiently.
7. Praying for those in need.

So we know how to apply the works of mercy among each other, but what about holiness? Mercy is only one side of the coin Jesus asks of us. Isn't there more? Indeed, the concept of sin itself is tied to the need to obey the Law handed down by Moses. To obey the commandments is to imitate God's holiness.

It is not very hard to read the Torah and find the Ten Commandments in the Decalogue and the two "Greatest Commandments" in the Shema. Jesus gave us two long sermons about how we should pray and treat others the way we would want to be treated, that we should share with the needy and love our enemies, and how we should give for the sake of charity. He released us from the demands of only eating kosher, but scolded us for using foul language, swearing and curses. And, He said that if we would do this, we need not worry about whether our efforts would be blessed. If we seek first of all the Kingdom of God, we will be given everything we need. Then, at the very end before He returned to the Father, He gave us one more thing we must do because we love Him. He said, "Love one another as I have loved you."

Jesus asked us to be the light of the world, to spread his message far and wide, and to try to resist the corruption that is ruining society. We do that by remembering and obeying the moral commandments and setting the best example we can for others to follow. Of course, we don't always do this, but when we fall short, we can come to Jesus to confess our sins and ask forgiveness and strength to keep trying. We need to resolve to grow in understanding and in obedience, reminding ourselves to remain humble and trusting, like little children, for of such is the Kingdom of God.
.

Why does Mother Mary pray for us?

Let me begin with a disclaimer, as this is going to sound like I am denying a central tenet of the faith. I'm not, and indeed this is not all that critical an issue to determine whether we are to be saved. And yet, let me say, I love Mother Mary, and I pray the Rosary frequently. I have even written an expanded set of daily mysteries that I call the Wildflower Rosary, to make it more useful for teaching about Jesus. I think it would be edifying for Protestants also to pray the Rosary, even if they feel they would need to alter it somewhat. They can say decades of the "Jesus prayer" that Orthodox Christians say, in place of the "Hail Mary," if they want. But here, I begin my rant.

The Catholic Church has gone too far in its teaching about Mary. This is a case where the "traditions of men" have grown into accretions on the faith. We need to discern, instead, the earliest teachings of the Church, and fortunately, those are clear. Yes, she is certainly the Mother of God and the Queen of Heaven, whom we love as the Mother of the Church. That much can be supported from the Scriptures. Thus, we can reverence her, and speak to her in prayer, but we must not worship her. She is only human, like us. She can indeed pray to God, in the person of her Son, on our behalf, but that is the same intercessory prayer that we can do for others. 

The Early Church Fathers have always taught that we can pray to Mary and the Saints. In the creeds, we call it the "Communion of Saints," and that's why we keep track of canonized saints, to know whose prayers are most effective. The Saints can hear us, and like the Angels, they observe the living and see how we behave here on Earth. They can pray for us, but they do not act as mediators for us. Mother Mary, too, can pray for us, and her prayers are often quite effective, but she is not the royally authorized "Mediatrix" pleading our case to Jesus that the Catholic Church has lately promoted her to be.

Only Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God, can stand as our Mediator before the Father. It is sure and certain what He said: "I am the Way and the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except by Me." 

There is only one person who can act as Mediator between you and God the Father, and that is Jesus, the uniquely divine and human Son of God. He is the one who paid the penalty for our sins on the cross, and He died so that we might live. Only Jesus will stand beside us on the Day of Judgment, and He can declare that we are covered by his blood and our sins are forgiven. Jesus knows the quality of our faith, and whether we love Him. He does not need anyone to stand for us, to speak for us. We stand before Him all by ourselves, and He will either commend or deny the way we have lived our faith for Him. 

But Jesus can also hear how many voices speak to ask Him to grant us mercy, just as we have prayed for others. He hears his Mother asking Him to overlook our sins and see only our faith, to be generous with his mercy. It's just like the day He heard her ask Him to do something when the wedding at Cana ran out of wine. There is no sense of compulsion, but how can He refuse his beloved Mother? And has she not asked us to "do whatever He tells you"? Of course, Mary will pray for us because we are also her children. It's her natural response to our request. That is not mediation. It's petition and supplication, and it's what we too are supposed to do for those who need our prayers.