2336AFC090823 – Marana tha!
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Ezekiel 33:9 – 9 But if you warn the wicked to turn from their ways, and they do not turn from their ways, the wicked shall die in their iniquity, but you will have saved your life.
Romans 13:10 – 10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.
Psalm 95:7-c – 8-a – O that today you would listen to his voice! Do not harden your hearts (R. If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.)
Matthew 18:19-20 – 19 Again, truly I tell you, if two of you agree on earth about anything you ask, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. 20 For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.
Aloha nui loa, ʻŌmea! May mercy, peace, and love be yours in abundance. Today’s Key Verses point toward paying attention to what God expects from us. We are to do good, be good, and work for good in all things. We’ll pick those Key Verses apart in a bit, but first a comment about the title. Why did I choose that? I don’t know. I didn’t choose it. As I prayed about working on this in the early morning (before drifting off again), I was thinking about the world situation. Some commentators (the talking heads on the MSMOs) are promoting the idea that we either have to force Peace in Ukraine or fight a war with Russia – either/or. Some say that if the US-of-A gets further tangled up in other nations’ messes, China will clobber Taiwan with massive force, and Palestine will join with Syria to pummel Israel. That’s too much to think about at 3 AM! I knew at the time that it was Wednesday, so I left behind the World’s woes and asked what we’d be writing about today. The answer was Marana tha.
We’ve used that phrase several times in the past, but let me just put a reminder here of 
that that means. Here is a sampling of the words’ origins and meanings, starting with the Greek words: Μαρανα θα! Μαραν αθα! Maranâ thâ‘! (↔ Click it) Maran ‘athâ’ (Aramaic: מרנאתא) – Come Lord! Our Lord has come! This word occurs only once in Scripture in 1 Corinthians 16:22 (follow this to see multiple translations of how this is used – and sometimes abused!) These Greek words are formed by assigning Greek letter to the spelling of an Aramaic word – (מרנאתא). The splitting of the saying – some might call it an epithet – gives two slightly different meanings. The first shown here – marana tha – is “Come Lord!” and the second – maran atha – connotes “Our Lord has come.” Either way, there is the connotative sense that the Lord is present and there is a prolonged effect of his presence. The Lord God is present among us, and he’s not going anywhere but here.
If he’s here, there must be something happening as we gather together across miles and miles of ocean and land. Are we gathered together in his name? Perhaps, but there are things we can do together even when we are alone. We can pray with and in the Holy Spirit, and when we do Jesus IS WITH US, because wherever the Holy Spirit is there too is the Son and the Father surrounding us in Love because God is Love. If we look at the 
Gospel Key Verse, in this section of the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus is giving instructions on “fraternal correction.”
We are supposed to have faith, trust in the Lord, do the right thing, love God and neighbor, and keep an eye on the folks around us – especially our fellow Christians. Wha-a-a-a-a-t? Let me give you some examples. We can start with a quote from Sunday’s Gospel from Matthew 18. Jesus is telling the Apostles how to deal with “backsliders,” and folks who misrepresent the values and practice of Christian living. What Jesus tells them is too 1 – privately alert them, 2 – meet with them and 2-3 witnesses, and 3 – if all else fails, take the matter to the Church – the Fellowship of Saints to which you both belong. If the errant member will not accept the rule of the Church, that one is to be treated as “Gentile or a tax collector,” that is, as someone outside the fellowship of the Church. Does that seem inconsistent with our beliefs about “Christian values?” Hmm, maybe it is not only consistent, but also necessary.
Take a look at the Key Verse passage from Ezekiel. God (The Holy Trinity) tells him he must convince sinners to repent. If he does, he and the sinner will live – be able to carry on with their lives. If he cannot convince the sinner, the sinner will die and the sinner’s death will be Ezekiel’s (hence therefore our) fault! In that passage, Ezekiel – who is at that time a 30-year-old Priest of God – is commissioned to be God’s Prophet and to rein in the rebellious Israelites so that they would return to their heritage as God’s chosen people. One guy against the entire nation. Someday, just for fun, read the first three (↔ Learning Link) Chapters of Ezekiel. There are some mighty strange things in Ezekiel’s visions! Nonetheless he was an effective Prophet for God and helped Israel recover from their deportation to Chaldea (Babylon).
Ezekiel was sent to prophesy against Israel because there were “a rebellious house” according to the Lord’s judgment. He calls them that eight times in the passage recommended above. This also ties in with the Psalms Key Verse for today. There is a reference in Psalm 95 to the rather noisy incident where Moses and The People quarreled (place-name Meribah) over the lack of water and tested God (place-name Massah). From the git-go they were a contentious bunch, and many seers, judges, and prophets were sent 
to them by El Elyon (God Most High) to straighten them out. It’s safe to say, it never fully worked because even in the presence of the Messiah, Yeshua, they were still arguing – mostly about things that were of human, not divine, concern. The psalmist is telling us, “Listen for HIS voice (and turn yours off) and don’t try to be quarrelsome. There’s no point in arguing with God.” We know that, don’t’ we? Still, as with Israel, we forget and get hard-headed anyway. That hard head leads to and supports a wagging tongue. Go back and look at James 3 (↔ Learning Link) where he says “no one can tame the tongue—a restless evil, full of deadly poison.” (See James 3:8).
There is absolutely no point in arguing with God, nor is there any reason to hand him a checklist of change-orders. Get together with your adelphos and recall that “if two of you agree on earth about anything you ask, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. 20 For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.” Now, some folks claim that this applies to the series of admonitions for fraternal correction. That conclusion requires a bit of what I call “hopscotch logic.” One has to make some irrational connections to make it work. So, get together as 2, and Jesus is the third – maybe. I tend to think he’s the first. Because why? Because he’s always with us if we are with him.
That’s the best reason I can think of to know about and utilize maran atha – the Lord has come (and he’s right here with us … TODAY! NOW!) OH, WOW! It’s time to follow Ezekiel’s example and quietly receive the Word of God in our mouth and to digest it so it becomes the Word of the Lord. And what is that Word? Belovéd, you might be sick of this by now but it is “Repent and Believe the Gospel.” Ezekiel’s mission was to warn the wicked that judgment will weigh heavily upon them if they do not turn from their wicked ways. God’s Justice is served with generous Mercy. In Ezekiel 33:11 God says, “I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from their ways and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways; for why will you die, O house of Israel?” From the moment the Serpent handed over the fruit, God has been restoring us through justice and penance. Since we still couldn’t seem to handle it, he himself made the restoration. Yet, we can’t seem to get it though our thick, flint-hard skulls that all God wants from us is to be his … not ours, but his. “If today you hear is voice …” Turn your radio off? (↔ Music Link) Take a look at Luke 11:24-28 – 24 “When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it wanders through waterless regions looking for a resting place, but not finding any, it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ 25 When it comes, it finds it swept and put in order. 26 Then it goes and brings seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and live there; and the last state of that person is worse than the first.”
True Blessedness
27 While he was saying this, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to him, “Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts that nursed you!” 28 But he said, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it!” Yup, like that song says, “Turn Your Radio ON!” If we turn it off, we can’t hear the Word of Christ being preached. Romans 10:17 says – 17 So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the word of Christ.
Belovéd, when we receive the Word of God and digest its power in our hearts so that it flows sweetly into our minds, we are empowered with the Grace to Love God and Live in and through his Word. I feel most of us would agree that we can often be hardheaded, but if we stick to that, it only makes it more difficult to be soft-hearted to the kernels of truth – the κήρυγμα, Kerygma (English transliteration), the core of the Gospels, the proclamation of the Life of the Christ and Word of God. Remember, the people of Nineveh – a huge pagan city-state that represented antipathy against God – repented at the preaching of Jonah, who had to die in order to accept his mission of conversion. (See Jonah 1:17 – 2:9, especially verse 2:2). Jonah would have been much better off had he not defied God and tried to run away. So would we, Belovéd; so would we.
What is the point of this “Repent and Believe the Gospel?” What sort of things shall we turn away from? Of what sinfulness are we convicted when we truly listen to and hear the Gospel? To help answer that, I invite you to look back to earlier this week for Terrific Tuesday – a very serious Terrific Tuesday. We looked at 1 Corinthians 13:13 – 13 And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity. [Authorized (King James) Version (AKJV) KJV reproduced by permission of Cambridge University Press, the Crown’s patentee in the UK. Used with permission.] I have learned recently in studying the Catechism of the Catholic Church that Charity is giving God Primacy in our exercise of Love. Now, this will be true no matter what how or where you read this chapter. First a quote from the CCC, Part 3, Chapter 1, Article Seven, Paragraph 1822 (↔ Click Link). There is a bit of information in that one short sentence that one can overlook. I’m going to copy it here:
Charity is the theological virtue by which
we Love God above all things for his own sake,
and our neighbor as ourselves for the Love of God.
In the original Greek, the word used for Charity is agape (ἀγάπη), and that is the purest and utterly supreme Love shared with God as The Holy Trinity. God is Love and those who abide in Love abide in God and God in them. (See 1 John 4:16) That is the goal of Repent and Believe the Gospel – as The Apostle Paul put it, “Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.” How can we do that? It sounds so simple – love God and love your neighbor as one loves one’s self. The best I can come up with is maran atha, marana tha. If the Lord, present to us, is our director – our leader, our teacher, our mentor, our shepherd, our Savior, and our God – then it would be best for us to hush and listen as we stroll through his Garden (↔ Music Link) because there we will not be alone. Being accompanied thus, we are better disposed to prayer “where two or three are gathered.” Even so, come Lord Jesus. My heart is longing for you. (↔ Music Link) Maran atha, maran atha, marana tha.
Psalm 95:1-2 –
1 O come, let us sing to the Lord;
let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!
2 Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving;
let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise! (↔ Music Link)
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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Aloha Friday Messages by Charles O. Todd, III is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License
