2317AFC042823 – Deeper than always
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Acts 2:38 – 38 Peter said to them, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”
Psalm 23:5 –
5 You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies;
you anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
2 Corinthians 9:8–11 – 8 And God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance, so that by always having enough of everything, you may share abundantly in every good work. 9 As it is written,
“He scatters abroad, he gives to the poor;
his righteousness endures forever.” (Cf. Psalm 112:9)
10 He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness. 11 You will be enriched in every way for your great generosity, which will produce thanksgiving to God through us
1 Peter 2:23-25 – 23 When he was abused, he did not return abuse; when he suffered, he did not threaten; but he entrusted himself to the one who judges justly. 24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that, free from sins, we might live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. 25 For you were going astray like sheep, but now you have returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls.
John 10:9-10 – 9 I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly. (See also 1718AFC050517 – Seeds and Sheep)
Aloha nui loa, ʻŌmea! [We] pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth (of His Love), and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. (See Ephesians 3:18-19)
Once again, we have a surprising topic (at least, it surprised me). “Deeper than ever,” or “Deeper than the deep blue sea” might be things we’d think of when a phrase starts would with the words “deeper than.” “Deeper than always” might spark a memory of Dolly Parton’s hit Longer Than Always (↔ Music Link) The lyrics (↔ Learning Link) are “kind-of-close” to something like a religious song as in Sister Act. Jesus certainly made it clear that he will love us “longer than always” and we certainly want to love God that way, too. But I digress. What about “Deeper than always?” How deep is that? We might want to ask a little fish about it (↔ Learning Link for “A Fish Tale” by Steve Brown). Just how deep is deeply Loving?
We know God is deeply Loving because God IS Love. God the Father Loves God the Son and that Love is so powerful that it lives as a Person named The Holy Spirit. These three persons eternally Love one another, otherwise we could not say “God IS Love.” Now, if you’re in the community of believers studying the Catechism In A Year, you’ll recognize that; but, if not, we can all recognize that Love is one of the fundamental characteristics of God. As a reminder, we recall that Perfect Integrity, Endless Mercy, Everlasting Love, and Eternal Salvation through Christ our Lord. Here’s how I think of that; it goes back – way back – to 10th grade and Plane Geometry with Mr. Hughes at TJ Hi. A line segment is a connection of points that has a beginning point and an end point. That’s like our earthly, physical life. A LINE is a straight path on a plane that extends endlessly in two directions – left-right, up-down, there-there. That’s like the Trinity – there is no beginning and no end. A RAY is a line segment that has a beginning point, but then extends continuously in one direction with no endpoint. That is like YOLO-F. Those four fundamental characteristics (four out of infinite) are but a few of the totality of the Eternal God. Moreover, the “line of existence” for God is endless in any and all directions. The deeper, the farther, the higher, the lower, the longer, the shorter, the all-in-all of that Divine Existence is completely humanly incomprehensible. Ahh, but the Love extant in that Existence is not. When we are touched by such Wondrous Love as This (↔ Music Link), we cannot keep from singing (↔ Music Link) as the Psalmist wrote in Psalm 71:8, 15-16 –
8 My mouth is filled with your praise,
and with your glory all day long.
15 My mouth will tell of your righteous acts,
of your deeds of salvation all day long,
though their number is past my knowledge.
16 I will come praising the mighty deeds of the Lord God,
I will praise your righteousness, yours alone.
We who love the Lord can barely fathom how much Joy there is going to be as God immerses us in such endless Joy, and the endless echoes in our souls as we sing together with each other, all the Saints, and all the Angels. That’s pretty deep, but that Joyous Life will go deeper than deep because one Day we will sing an AMEN that has Perfect Integrity, Endless Mercy, Everlasting Love, and Eternal Salvation when the trumpet sounds and the dead shall be raised and sing God’s praise until Forever is Always every endless day!
THAT IS DEEP!
Belovéd, we are headed in that direction – quintazillions of rays with decazillions of intersections all going to and through the same place all at once forever. (If you don’t recognize those numbers, it’s because I made them up, but don’t tell Mr. Hughes.) Now, of course we can’t understand that, but guess what? WE DON’T HAVE TO UNDERSTAND IT TO BE LIEVE IT! I believe it because that’s HIStory, and I’m stickin’ to it! A certain Nobel-Prize-winning poet (↔ Learning Link) once said, “I was born a long way from where I belong and I am on my way home.” Encountering Life that is actually (not virtually) endless changes us if we try to embrace it. Sometimes whatever seems impossible to believe is confirmed for us in things that have no tangible connection to Faith. I’d like to show you an example of that – a quote from a guy who ran full-force, head down, smack into a brick wall – a prison wall. His name was Charles “Chuck” Colson.
You might remember him as a Watergate felon. His experience in that life seemed to change his direction. What happened goes back to that plane geometry lesson about lines, rays, and segments. Chuck’s life was a ray in politics, then he hit a point when his sins marked out a segment in his life and sent a ray in another direction – a proper direction. He eventually became a much-respected and often-quoted evangelist. Here’s how his experience for his criminal acts opened his heart to the Truth of the Resurrection:
“I know the resurrection is a fact, and Watergate proved it to me. How? Because 12 men testified they had seen Jesus raised from the dead, then they proclaimed that truth for 40 years, never once denying it. Every one was beaten, tortured, stoned and put in prison. They would not have endured that if it weren’t true. Watergate embroiled 12 of the most powerful men in the world-and they couldn’t keep a lie for three weeks. You’re telling me 12 apostles could keep a lie for 40 years? Absolutely impossible.” That’s deep, Belovéd, but not as deep as always, and definitely not “Deeper Than Always.” Is there anything we know that is that deep, deeper than always? The answer I always get when I ask that question is one of God’s most-favorite answers to prayer: “Not yet, but I have something even better in mind.” “I see,” says I, “I guess I’ll keep walking.” I know he will set me on the right path (See Psalm 25:4-5) and keep me there when I try to turn a ray into a segment (See Isaiah 30:21). I know he will lead me if I follow him (↔ Learning Link), so where he leads me, I will follow (↔ Music Link). As he told his chosen one, Israel “do not be afraid, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you,” (See Isaiah 41:10), and all we have to do is say “Yes” (See 2136AFC090321 – Opened to Hear, Closed to Fear). See also 1718 and 2201 “seeds and sheep” and “like a shepherd.” In the Key Verse from 1 Peter about having gone astray like sheep, we, too, must return to the Good Shepherd.
“Yes” seems like such a simple, perhaps even shallow, word – “Yes.” But look what happened when a certain you woman said “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.” (See Luke 1:38) Belovéd, that’s deep! About 33 years later, her Son – born of the flesh and in the Spirit – said “Yes, Thy will be done.” Belovéd, that’s deeper than deep! Because why? Because that means that death is not just the endpoint of another segment joined to another ray. It means that death is now a sign of Hope because Life is an Always thing, not a no-way thing. What comes next is still part of a ray which we have come to call a Ray of Hope. You know the Scripture: 28 “For ‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we too are his offspring.'” (See Acts 17:28) There has been some … discussion (read “nitpicking”) over The Apostle Paul’s quote from a well-known poet (probably Aratus who had written that line around 300 years before The Apostle Paul spoke it here). His familiarity with that level of literature is an indicator of the multicultural education Saul of Tarsus had acquired before his conversion. Using that quote in the Areopagus in Athens would have certainly drawn closer attention to his speech. We have no “Epistle to the Athenians,” but we do have two epistles to the Thessalonians who had just thrown The Apostle Paul out of town, threatened his life, and even came to Athens to stir up more trouble for him. We also have two epistles to the Church in Corinth, and The Apostle Paul doesn’t mince words with them either. In 1 Corinthians 12:12-31, he lays out the image of the Church as one Body, the Body of Christ. In 1 Corinthians 12:27 he says 27 Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.
Let that sink in a minute.
We are one body, The Body of Christ. (↔ Music Link) The Church is the Body of Christ. The Church is the Bride of Christ. The Church is revealed to everyone through the Holy Spirit as both visible and spiritual and is preparing all believers and nonbelievers for the End of the Age. The Church is here as the pathway to holiness and Heaven for whomsoever will respond to her mission of always restoring humanity to its intimacy with our Creator. That restoration will be the fulfillment of every prophecy, every prayer, every Scripture inspired by the Holy Spirit and that, my Belovéd Sisters and Brothers in Christ is about as close to Deeper Than Always as we can envision because “eye has not seen” (↔ Music Link). As we close today, please spend a moment thinking about Isaiah 64:4 and 1 Corinthians 2:9-13 – 9 But, as it is written,
“What no eye has seen, nor ear heard,
nor the human heart conceived,
what God has prepared for those who love him”—
10 these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. 11 For what human being knows what is truly human except the human spirit that is within? So also no one comprehends what is truly God’s except the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit that is from God, so that we may understand the gifts bestowed on us by God. 13 And we speak of these things in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual things to those who are spiritual. What we learn from and through the Holy Spirit, therefore, is always deeper than always. The Apostle Peter started his ministry with the same words Jesus used when making present the Kingdom of God: Acts 2:38 – 38 Peter said to them, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”
Day by day he makes himself known to us. Today we are asking that you read aloud all of the Key Verses and that you take a few moments to reflect on each before going to the next one. Go higher up and deeper in. Love so as to Love deeper than always so that, free from sins, we might live for righteousness.
Whatever, whenever, wherever, whoever, however, if ever, forever —
at your service, Belovéd!
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Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture passages are from the New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (NRSVCE) New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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