1547AFC112014 – Somewhere Listening (Be sure to use the 2 special MUSIC LINKS!)
Read it online here, please.
John 18:37c – Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.
E pili mau na pomaika‘i ia ‘oe a me ke akua ho’omaika’i ‘oe, ʻŌmea! (May blessing always be with you and may God bless you, Beloved!) Who is the King of Glory? This time of year, as we approach the beginning of Advent next week, we take a day to remember the LORD as King of the Universe – and we often hear David’s Psalm of praise of Jehovah – the One we have called El Shaddai Olam, Almighty and Ever Living God. He is the King of the Universe. All that ever is, or was, or ever will be belongs to him, comes from him, and returns to him – and that includes you and me. Since all of everything and everyone is of God’s creation and God’s Dominion, no one else has the right to add to or take from what he has placed in his own choice of order. Animal, vegetable, mineral, spiritual – all are his. The Earth – and by it, the Universe – are inhabitable because he has placed in the universe he created for it. He alone is supremely sovereign as he alone is perfectly Holy, perfectly Integral, Perfectly One. The Earth and all Creation is full of God, but the Earth and all Creation is not God; they are his handiwork and testimony to his nature – Omnipotent, Omniscient, Omnipresent, and Omnibenevolent. God alone is God and no other gods can do as he has done.
God has chosen his people who are to be peculiarly – particularly and especially – his own. His people are those who love, worship, and obey him. He has revealed himself to be the source of ineffable wisdom beyond our ability to describe. His wisdom is Love, and with Wisdom he created all that is; without Love nothing would have been created. He Loves his creation, especially his chosen children whom he created to love him and be loved by him and for him. He made that love known to us through his Only Begotten Son. In the Gospel of John, the Apostle testifies to this, John 1:14 – 14 And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth. “Like Father, like Son,” Jesus is the Truth of Love and the Love of Truth. In him there is only Grace and Love without judgment or condemnation for Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. (John 3:17) From the beginning of human sinfulness, God promised Salvation through a Redeemer – the seed of a woman, the Spirit of Life in a child made incarnate through his servant, Mary. Thus he is Divine, the True and Only Son of God generated – conceived of – begotten through the union of human and Divine nature. He is Love. He is Truth. He is Salvation.
In this verse from Sunday’s readings, Jesus tells Pilate that Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice. The structure of that shows Jesus’ Kingdom is comprised of all persons who know Truth because – made in the image of God – they can recognize the deliberately evident and self-supporting testimony that God is Truth. Everyone who hears Truth hears Jesus. Everyone who hears Jesus hears Truth. Everyone who refuses to hear Jesus, refuses to accept him as the Only Begotten Son who is Divine and the Christ of God, does not hear Truth; the Truth is not in them, and they cannot know the Truth. Thus, whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ of God is a liar, and as a liar and ally of the Devil. Satan is the originator of lies. Recall what Jesus said in John 8:44 – 44 You are from your father the devil, and you choose to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks according to his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
Let’s take just a minute to look at how that word TRUTH is used in our scriptures. In this passage from John, this word, “truth,” in Greek is ἀλήθεια (alétheia) {al-ay’-thi-a} and it has the connotation of “the true notions of God” which are open to human reason without his supernatural intervention in such a way that it leads to that honesty of mind which is free from affection, pretence, dissimulation, falsehood, or deceit. It is Truth that is true without having to be verified by, with, or for anything or anyone because it is genuinely TRUE. That is how it is used throughout the New Testament.
In the Old Testament, a commonly used word for Truth is אֱמֶת (‘e-meth) {eh’-meth} and caries the connotation of testimony and judgment, inexorably true by divine instruction which is reliable, stable and continuous as in Isaiah 45:19 – 19 I did not speak in secret, in a land of darkness; I did not say to the offspring of Jacob, “Seek me in chaos.” I the Lord speak the truth, I declare what is right.
God IS what God IS – Truth, righteousness, justice, freedom, salvation, love, light, glory, power, caring, parental, knowable, divine, community, Trinity, wisdom, knowledge, joy, unity, kindness, forgiving, merciful, patient, tender, gentle but capable of defending or correcting his children, infinite in all things, yet generously grants free will to all earthlings. He is never distant, unapproachable, singularly alone, unknowable, aloof, vindictive, uncaring, or hateful. He seeks to heal, not harm. He acts with mercy, not intolerance. He is generous, not selfish. He promotes life, not death. He is Goodness, not evil. He is YHWH, not Allah.
Everyone who belongs to the Truth hears his voice, sees his works, tastes his mercy, feels his love, recognizes the fragrance of knowing him (See 2 Corinthians 2:14) becomes a child of God – a son or daughter of The Most High. Everyone who is open to Truth, rather than enmeshed in deceit perpetrated by the Greatest Deceiver who is the anti-Christ, will share Eternity with El Shaddai Olam. All who hear the Voice of Truth and ignore or deny it, who are closed to the Truth, they will share Eternity with Satan. Remember this as you read the following:
Proverbs 12:17 – 17 Whoever speaks the truth gives honest evidence,
but a false witness speaks deceitfully.
And again:
John 1:14 – 14 And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.
The Kingdom of God is the Kingdom of Truth and Mercy, and God is the King of Glory. David said it so well:
Psalm 24:7-8 – 7 Lift up your heads, O gates! and be lifted up, O ancient doors! that the King of glory may come in. 8 Who is the King of glory? The Lord, strong and mighty, the Lord, mighty in battle.
David knew a little about battle! Recall his confrontation with Goliath:
1 Samuel 17:45-47 – 45 But David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with sword and spear and javelin; but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. 46 This very day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down and cut off your head; and I will give the dead bodies of the Philistine army this very day to the birds of the air and to the wild animals of the earth, so that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, 47 and that all this assembly may know that the Lord does not save by sword and spear; for the battle is the Lord’s and he will give you into our hand.”
The LORD is King over all the Earth (Psalm 47:7). Sing his praise with songs of joy. Wherever you are, whatever you’re doing, whenever you can, listen for the sound of his voice for it is the sound of Truth. Do not harden your heart, else you will not hear the King. Click on this link for a song about that! (← Music Link #1)
Psalm 95:8 – If today you hear his voice, Harden not your heart. (← Music Link #2)
Aloha Friday Messages by Charles O. Todd, III is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License
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.
Biblical languages inserts from Bible Hub (Bible Hub: Search, Read, Study the Bible in Many Languages) Visit at http://biblehub.com
