2325AFC062323 – Heard in Passing
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Matthew 10:32-33 – 32 Everyone therefore who acknowledges me before others, I also will acknowledge before my Father in heaven; 33 but whoever denies me before others, I also will deny before my Father in heaven.
Romans 5:15 – 15 But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died through the one man’s trespass, much more surely have the grace of God and the free gift in the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abounded for the many.
Psalm 69:9 –
9 It is zeal for your house that has consumed me;
the insults of those who insult you have fallen on me.
Jeremiah 20:10-11 –
10 For I hear many whispering:
“Terror is all around!
Denounce him! Let us denounce him!”
All my close friends
are watching for me to stumble.
“Perhaps he can be enticed,
and we can prevail against him,
and take our revenge on him.”
11 But the Lord is with me like a dread warrior;
therefore my persecutors will stumble,
and they will not prevail.
They will be greatly shamed,
for they will not succeed.
Their eternal dishonor
will never be forgotten.
Matthew 10:28 – 28 Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. (See also 2319AFC051223 – Sanctifying Fear)
¡Que la bendición esté siempre con ustedes y que Dios los bendiga, Amados! (May blessing always be with you and may God bless you, Belovéd!) We’re back in Ordinary Time again, and for this Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time, we start off with something that sounds like soundbites from a current political rally. It kind of reminds me of that old song by Fred Niel, Everybody’s Talkin‘. (↔ Music Link) There’s just so much YADA-YADA-YADA one can take in, and it comes from every direction, and of course every voice claims to be telling the unvarnished, unbiased, unmitigated Truth – to which we all reply, “Yeah. Right.” That’s for the Major Syndicated Media Outlets – MSMOs – and lately it’s been difficult to find a public information source that is consistently even half-right. That’s nowhere near the reputation for the information cited above. That is Scripture, and it is breathed into being by God in the Holy Spirit. It is maximally TRUE. Let’s see why we’re referring to these verses starting with Jeremiah.
This passage comes from the second section of the Book of the Prophet Jeremiah which is referred to as “Oracles Primarily from the Days of Jehoiakim.” Jeremiah was a remarkable 
Prophet who spoke the Lord’s words to the people of Judah and Jerusalem. The corruption of the kings of this era was … disgusting. “They did what was evil in the sight of the Lord.” Ultimately – in Jeremiah’s lifetime – the Babylonians captured and deported most of the people of Judah and Israel and held them captive for 70 years. There God told them through Jeremiah, “seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare. (See Jeremiah 29:4-7) That was a hard lesson! But, as time passed, they learned to long for God in ways they had forgotten in their defiance of him. What they heard in passing during this long “reset” of their relationship with The God of Hosts (aka Jehovah Sabaoth) was the story of how deeply God loves all his people; in fact, God loves all of his Creation and knows that all of it is Good because he made it so. He is their Creator and they are his creation and all creation rightly gives him joyful thanks and praise. But, they forgot, and it took them 70 years to remember well enough that they could go home.
Reflect for a moment on how many people in the World could use a good lesson in the adage, “Take care of the place where you live, and it will be a blessing for you.” Israel failed to take care of the homeland they were given, failed to heed the messengers – the Prophets – God had sent them, they failed to do the two simple things God required of them: To Love him, and to Obey him. Are we not all guilty of those two omissions at times? What if we never learned that lesson until we come to our deathbed? As we pass into eternity, would we hear words of regret, or words of hope? Certainly there were reasons for hope. Isaiah had told them that the Lord had said that Zion’s children would be brought home:
Isaiah 49:7-8 – 7 Thus says the Lord,
the Redeemer of Israel and his Holy One,
to one deeply despised, abhorred by the nations,
the slave of rulers,
“Kings shall see and stand up,
princes, and they shall prostrate themselves,
because of the Lord, who is faithful,
the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.”
8 Thus says the Lord:
In a time of favor I have answered you,
on a day of salvation I have helped you;
I have kept you and given you
as a covenant to the people,
to establish the land,
to apportion the desolate heritages;
Even so, Jeremiah had to deal with a false Prophet named Hananiah who prematurely claimed that Babylon would release the captives and restore all the sacred vessels taken from the Temple “within two years.” That ended up bringing an even harder oppression of the exiles by Nebuchadnezzar. Jeremiah had told them that the “wooden yoke” of Nebuchadnezzar was God’s will for the nation and its leaders. Hananiah thought he could gain fame and favor by contradicting that. The intrigue around the contest of wills between these two men gave folks a lot to say in passing, but it did not change God’s plan. (Remember, it is the Absolutely Perfect Plan). It is the person who stands firm in the Word who is the one consumed with zeal for the ways of the Lord, and indeed it is they who are assaulted with the insults of those who have insulted God.
Think of a time when you or someone you know has stood up for what is right only to be shouted down and insulted by those who know what is right but prefer to do wrong by choosing their own will and devices. We all know someone who did that. It actually got him kicked out of Heaven! This is why the Psalmist said, “It is zeal for your house that has consumed me; the insults of those who insult you have fallen on me. Satan just can’t stand being around anyone who stands up for God, remember? “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” (James 4:7) We can easily forget that’s a two-parter. Part 1 is “submit to God.” Part 2 is “resist the Devil.” A left-hook and an uppercut for the Prince of the Air! Now, that is another amazing gift of Grace from God. Let’s look back at what The Apostle Paul said to the Romans about it.
“But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died through the one man’s trespass, much more surely have the grace of God and the free gift in the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abounded for the many.” Here the Greek for “free gift” is charisma (↔ 
Learning Link) – a gift of Grace, a gift of undeserved favor. The form is more directly translated as a Grace-Gift – an endowment, a legacy, a superb bequest – and it is given for the purpose of edifying the Church by enlightening the Believers. That is the Gift of the Absolutely Perfect Plan – that Jesus emptied himself of all his Glory and Power to become one of us so that he could willingly offer himself up as atonement for our sins. He did “our hard time in Babylon” all by himself and all in himself once for all souls and all time. The magnitude of that Grace-Gift cannot be measured in human understanding. Now, let’s look out the window and see who and how many will gratefully receive that gift by submitting to God and resisting the Devil. All we need to do is look at the MSMOs perfectly unbiased reporting, and we know the answer. Fewer and fewer are willing to submit to God. Jesus has something to say about that:
Everyone therefore who acknowledges me before others, I also will acknowledge before my Father in heaven; but whoever denies me before others, I also will deny before my Father in heaven. Who will we acknowledge and serve? (↔ Music Link) Imagine what those who are denied by Jesus before our Father will experience. PRAY FOR THEM AND FOR THEIR SOULS! Remember, he also said Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. (See 
2319AFC051223 – Sanctifying Fear) These are the folks who are convinced that everyone else is wrong and only they are right. We who are the Children of God through adoption know that all of us are wrong and only Jesus is right. It is hard for me to think of the death of such persons who cause so much division. [Please See 1829AFC072018 (↔ Click Link [1])] I think it pains me more than the deaths of any others because they have chosen and earned eternal suffering.
For me the passing of a loved one – family, friend, acquaintance, or any person for that matter – is another opportunity to think about “what if.” What if when we die it is not as we expect? I think of four scenarios.
- Nothing happens. Life ends, there is no afterlife, and no more concern for eternity.
- Something happens and it is that there is an afterlife in a way that is neither eternal bliss nor eternal agony.
- Something happens and there is an afterlife of eternal bliss.
- Something happens and there is an afterlife of eternal agony.
I’ve based my whole life on the belief that #1 is not true, and agreed with the premise of Pascal’s Wager – See more HERE. (↔ Click Link) So even if there is nothing that is even vaguely like an afterlife with God, it is best to take steps to (and actually arrive at) a belief in God, and that brings me to a belief In Jesus the Christ and everything that goes along with that decision. Therefore #1 is not an option for me.
The second scenario is like what Catholics think of a Purgatory, Jews might call it Olam Ha-Ba (↔ Learning Link). It is a place where the righteous wait for God’s plan to be completed and then every living soul he created will be rewarded for the righteousness they achieved. If it is very great righteousness, the reward will be very great bliss. Not so great, the reward is less blissful. Unrighteousness rather than righteousness, the reward goes the other way toward greater and greater agony.
That of course brings us to scenarios three and four – Heaven and Hell. You have heard 
me say that dying is like getting into a little elevator. When the door closes, you notice that there is just one big, blue button to push. On the button there is one big white H. You push the button. Will you be surprised at the direction the elevator goes? Heaven? Or Hell? If you believe in one, you have to believe in the other, for sure. There are thousands of years of arguments and apologetics about that question, but I come down on the side of “yes, there’s an afterlife, and yes, I’m shooting for the blissful one.”
But in the final analysis, whichever of the four scenarios is true, this also is true: The one who has died has been freed for having to choose between righteousness and unrighteousness. There is no more sin, no more knowledge of choices, no more to worry about, nothing to do but be elsewhere. We always say things like “She’s in a better place,” and “At least he’s not suffering anymore.” Yes. And Amen. Whichever of these four scenarios s/he is experiencing right now, it is different – and probably better – than anything s/he experienced in her/his earthly life. That is sufficient for me. Mourning is for the living. The dead have found their place and our mourning is for the absence we feel when they have gone from us.
Because of this, I have great Hope which shines like a Light to drive away the darkness and draw me and everyone I meet to God’s Perfect Integrity, Infinite mercy, Everlasting Love, and Eternal Salvation through Christ Jesus our Lord. I expect to hear in my passing from this life to the next the voice of my Guardian Angel saying, “Finally! Let’s get going! Heaven is waiting for you.” For those who will not submit to the Lord and resist the Devil, my heart aches to think of the screeching howls of demons as the souls of the unrepentant are sucked down into everlasting torment. I have been with dying people, and have seen both kinds of death described here. All this is written for you today so that in your passing you, too, will hear, “Heaven is waiting for you!” Then you may push that Big Blue Button with heavenly and blissful confidence. Even though we forget, God will always want us to come Home and to Grow Where He Sends Us. (↔ Learning Link) And here’s a Bonus (↔ 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
[1] Look for the words calamities and division.
