Aloha Friday Message – March 10, 2023 – The Beginning of the End

March 10, 2023

2310AFC031023 – The Beginning of The End

Read it online here, please. And please – when you visit there – use one of the social media links at the bottom of the page to share this post. Thank you! And remember, we now have a READER VIEW available, so share this link or this email often. Do you know someone who enjoys Bible study, or who might like to read this? Ask them to email us or to subscribe on our blog-site.

Exodus 17:7 – 7 He called the place Massah* and Meribah*, because the Israelites quarreled and tested the Lord, saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?”
*Massah from Massah – “Test” derived from nasah to test, try, and Maccah – despair. Meribah – a place of contention,

Psalm 95:7 b-9 – O that today you would listen to his voice!
8 Do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah,
as on the day at Massah in the wilderness,
9 when your ancestors tested me,
and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work.

Romans 5:6, 8 – 6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 8 But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.

John 4:25-26 – 25 The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us.” 26 Jesus said to her, “I am he†, the one who is speaking to you.” † This can also be translated “I AM.”

Aloha nui loa, ʻŌmea! Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. Right off the bat, I want you to know that this is – in a way – a prequel to 2216AFC042222 – The End of the Beginning of the End. What we will examine today from the Gospel of John is the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, but not in the way described in the synoptic Gospels. John’s Gospel uses literary tools and symbolic language in a greater extent than found in those Gospels. If you, dear reader, are put off by nitty-gritty details, this may be a difficult post for you. I originally wanted to call this essay “The Point of No Return” because it was the real beginning of Jesus ministry. We have, of course, prior to this a “sign” at the Wedding Feast Canna wherein Jesus’ compassion and power are first shown at the suggestion of his mother. Preceding that ,we have the accounts of John’s Mission, Jesus’ baptism, the calling of the first Disciples, and a “family trip” to Capernaum (See John 2:12). There are a lot of cool details (IMHO) in this story, and I want to help “uncover” those. The Gospel passage for Sunday is really long, so we can’t hit every highpoint. With that in mind here we go!

I put the Old Testament passage first because this is a terrific example of how contentious the Israelites were. They were content enough to leave Egypt under leadership from Moses, and they took with them a great deal of wealth (“they plundered the Egyptians” who were truly more than glad to get rid of them See Exodus 12:33-42 ↔ Learning Link. This passage explains much about how they were able to cast “The Golden Calf” Seriously, read this sometime.) Now, out in the desert of Zin, (↔ Learning Link) there was no water there (as near as they could tell, though I sometimes wonder how hard they looked), so they “grumbled against Moses”) The grumbling and murmuring turned into a loud confrontation which made Moses turn to the Lord and basically say, “NOW what?!?!” They whined about not having food enough and NO WATER. This is the first incident wherein water came from a rock.

Millennia later, Jesus is at the site of the well dug by Jacob and is asking a Samaritan woman for water. Yep, there is a connection there – which we will get to eventually. Meanwhile, we can slip into the Key Verse from the Psalms for today. The Psalmist comes on the scene around 580 years (↔ Learning Link) after Moses. Israel has had a LOT of time to think about their mess in the desert, and Psalm 95 makes a point of recalling that error. Note that the Psalm calls for frequent and fervent worship of God for all his kindness and blessings. It leads smoothly to the Gospel for the Third Sunday in Lent.

Sunday’s Gospel takes place in an area where there are wide areas of barren desert. Going through Samaria in those days was a tough trip, but it was the most direct route between Judea and Galilee. The Gospel tells us in this passage that “Jesus had to go through Samaria” (See John 4:4). We can see perhaps four sorts of symbolism there. First, Jesus had to pass through a deserted and barren place to arrive at Galilee. Here we recall the wanderings in the desert. Although Jesus did not spend 40 days there, part of his journey at the start of his ministry included traveling in a desert. The trip from Judea to Galilee took about three days walking, so at this halfway point, Jesus and his Disciples were tired. He sat down by the well because he was thirsty, and in that region was the Well of Jacob [1] (↔ Music Link) – a very deep well with very good water. (It is still producing water (↔ Learning Link) after nearly 4,000 years!) He had to stop there because he and his companions needed food and water, but it was “siesta time” for that area which made the woman’s trip less conspicuous. A third, and maybe more esoteric reason is that he had to meet that woman, testify to her about his mission, and confer on her the role and blessing of evangelizing. After Jesus “told her everything she’d ever done,” (↔ Music Link) she went and told the townspeople. A fourth, and even more obvious meaning, is that Jesus established contact with a gentile who was a woman and who was shunned by her community because she was a blatant sinner who had five husbands. She was so excited about the prophecy Jesus made to her that she left her water jar and went back to the city. There she called her neighbors together saying 29 “Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?” Jesus had already told her “I AM he, the one who is speaking to you.” He had made a similar, though slightly veiled, declaration in Nazareth when he read from the Prophet Isaiah (↔ Learning Link). Once again, I must say that popular modern portrayals of Jesus as a bemused sort of hippie-guy with junk clothes and no tallit is far from reliable. “But I digress.” That leads us to the last remaining Key Verse from Romans. I’ll put it here to make it easier to see it.

Romans 5:6, 8 – 6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 8 But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us. Here we see another astonishing example of the Absolutely Perfect Plan. In this copied passage, I underlined a crucial clue: at the right time. If one averages out all the speculative ranges of time between Adam and Christ, we can come up with about 7,000 years. Science tells us that human creatures have been around for 2-3.5 times that or 14,000 to 24,500 years. That’s a pretty wide range which I interpret to tell us, “So what?” We’re not able to measure time as God does, so “at the right time” means exactly that and no more, no less. After all, it is God’s APP, and we only get to use it when and how he allows. I find that very liberating. If I had to use the whole thing, I’d be most certainly overwhelmed. When I do use it, I can rely on 2 Samuel 22:31 – 31 This God — his way is  perfect;
the promise of the Lord proves true;
he is a shield for all who take refuge in him.

If we cannot trust God to know what is going on inside his Creation (including us), then the APP is useless. I can attest that is absolutely, positively NOT useless!!

Now, let’s pull together some of the types (prefigurings of Christ) we find in the Gospels related to this incident at the well.

  • Jesus turned water into wine, and at the consecration wine becomes the Precious Blood.
  • The wine is mixed with water. We are like the water and Jesus helps us make an offering of ourselves. We offer Jesus to the Father in offering ourselves.
  • It is our right and just duty to offer all that we have (↔ Music Link).
  • The Holy Spirit “comes down like the dewfall.” Quietly, reliably, refreshingly, the Earth is watered without wind or storm. The Holy Spirit saturates the Sacrifice on the Altar and we are quietly, reliable, and completely refreshed in the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Christ.
  • When we hear Jesus offering himself up This is my Body, This is my Blood, we recall that THIS is important. (↔ Learning Link)
  • The Absolute Fullness of the Christ of God is shown to us as the chalice is raised.
  • We rejoice with the angels as we hear “Through him, and in him, and with him, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all Glory and Honor is YOURS forever and ever. AMEN!”
  • We are offering all of this and all of us to God because he has given everything to us, including the privilege of sharing in this Offering.
  • I am part of the Beginning which began with “let there be … .” I am part of the ending which will conclude with
    20 The one who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon.”
    Come, Lord Jesus!
    21 The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all the saints. Amen.     (See Revelation 22:17-21)

Maran atha! Marana tha! The Lord has come! The Lord is coming!

Belovéd, let us firmly commit ourselves to  hear HIS voice (↔ Learning Link) and to welcome his Word with Joy. Let us surrender our despair and drink deeply of the Living Water – the Holy Spirit of the Living God. Let us open our arms wide, open our hearts deeply, and make way for the Love of Christ. Let us remember Ezekiel 36:26–27) – I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. Let us follow him wherever he leads, (↔ Music Link) yes, even to Calvary. In this current Age we here in America do not suffer from violent persecutions for our faith. We do not live in constant fear of maiming or death as in tens-of-thousands of places around the World. (↔ VERY IMPORTANT Learning Link) We have not yet “resisted [sin] to the point of shedding blood.” (See Hebrews 12:4) Let us work hard together with the Holy Spirit at being more effective in battling evil (See Ephesians 6:10- 18) Let us make of ourselves, of our Faith, of our Stewardship for the Lord a bright light of Hope as we enter into the beginning of the end. Therefore, ʻŌmea –

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. (Colossians 3:16-17) May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. (Romans 15:13) I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him (Ephesians 1:17) And remember, get a “clean cup” to drink of the Living Water of the Holy Spirit because as it says in Romans 6:23 – 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

And now may the God of All Mercies be with you, both now and forever, in all that you think, do, or say. Why? Because we also know that the Messiah is coming, the one who IS The Christ of God! It is he who speaks to us, “Surely, I AM coming soon.”

Whatever, whenever, wherever, whoever, however, if ever, forever —
at your service, Belovéd!

Please pray with us here at Share-a-Prayer.

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

Creative Commons License
Aloha Friday Messages by Charles O. Todd, III is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License

[1] This is a slow and peaceful song suitable for meditation on this Gospel passage. You might want to just come back to it after completing all the other links

 

Aloha Friday Message – March 3, 2023 – That’s a YES for me! – Lent Week 2

March 3, 2023

2309AFC030523 – That’s a YES for me! – Lent week 2

Read it online here, please. And please – when you visit there – use one of the social media links at the bottom of the page to share this post. Thank you! And remember, we now have a READER VIEW available, so share this link or this email often. Do you know someone who enjoys Bible study, or who might like to read this? Ask them to email us or to subscribe on our blog-site.

    Genesis 12:1, 4 – ­1 Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 4 So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.

Psalm 33:22 – 22 Let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us,
even as we hope in you.

2 Timothy 1:8 b – join with me in suffering for the gospel, relying on the power of God

Matthew 17:9 – 9 As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus ordered them, “Tell no one about the vision until after the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.”

Aloha nui loa, ʻŌmea! I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him. I cannot account for it at the moment, but just as whose words came on the page, a number from Sister Act hit “broadcast” in my head – I will follow him (↔ Music Link). It still makes my eyes get all teary. Despite whatever feeling I might have for the writer, the star of the film, or the original intent of the song, when I sing it in my heart and make it about Jesus, that’s all I need to start jumping and singing, and clapping and exulting in the Lord! Isn’t strange that a secular song sung by secular artists, set in a semi-religious context can have such a deep and stirring effect?

I have come to realize that such a reaction can indeed occur anywhere along our Faith Journey, but it more likely to come towards the end after we have unlearned most of the prejudices and prideful error we collected between the ages of, say 17 and 67. That’s fifty years of mellowing, and it’s got to have an effect if we have truly given our lives over to our God and Savior Christ Jesus. We are certainly called upon do to things that are difficult, and Jesus himself told us that if this life is to be a bed of roses, we’re going to have to bear with the thorns. There are such tremendous joys (↔ Music Link) to be had in the Christian Life! But we also know from Genesis to Revelation, there is sacrifice and suffering for all who follow him.

We have often referred to our Old Friend Abraham(↔ Learning Link)  and the preparation God gave him before blessing him with Isaac. Have any of us ever wondered what Abram did before he wound up giving a Tithe to Melchizedek? How was it that God got him to travel nearly 300 miles from his home, and who went with him? Here’s a bit of biblical history we don’t talk about much: Joshua 24:2-3 – 2 And Joshua said to all the people, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Long ago your ancestors—Terah and his sons Abraham and Nahor—lived beyond the Euphrates and served other gods. 3 Then I took your father Abraham from beyond the River and led him through all the land of Canaan and made his offspring many. I gave him Isaac. Can you imagine what it must have been like to hear, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 4 So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.” I’m 75, and I find it hard to go from Kapaʻa to Lihuʻe – about 11 miles! In a car!!

It was Terah who made the trip from Ur to Haran, and later Abram – before God bestowed the covenantal name Abraham. Their gods in Chaldea were most likely idols devoted to the moon. When God call Abram to go to an unknown place, he left his father’s grave, the bulk of his family, perhaps a considerable portion of his riches and made what preparations he could to travel. It seems that perhaps there was a considerable retinue with him, because when he learned his nephew Lot had been captured and hauled off to the area of Dan (↔ Map Learning Link), he took a small army (318 troops) and rescued Lot and recovered all the goods lost. {I recommend a little side trip sometime this weekend to read Genesis 13-15 (↔ Learning Link). We need to reacquaint ourselves with “Our Old Friend, Abraham.”} He traveled around as a shepherd (see, God has always loved shepherds!), became very rich, and finally ended up sending Lot off in one direction and took another direction toward Caanan while Lot moved toward Sodom. All of these things prepared Abram to be Abraham, the Father of many Nations. God prepared him for that role. Part of that preparation was getting up and leaving everything that made him comfortable and heading out to a place he’d never seen. What am I, you, we called to walk toward while leaving all behind? What hope have we that could match Abraham’s? More importantly, what faith have we that could match Abraham’s?

If we look far down the Bible timeline, we come upon one of Abraham’s descendants – King David. In a rather striking summary of Abram’s faith and later his loyalty to God, David says in Psalm 33:22 – 22 Let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us,
even as we hope in you. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Ishmael, Joseph, Moses, Aaron, all descendants of The Promise. Through Jacob, called Israel by the Angel of God, came the founders of the Twelve Tribes – Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Joseph, and Benjamin – and from them the whole history of the Nation of Israel has its generations of people, periods of splendor and periods of dissipation, periods of power and periods of subjection, until one day a sweet young woman named Mary said YES. “Here am I, the servant of the Lord (↔ Music Link); let it be with me according to your word.” (See Luke 1:38) Her fiat should be/must be our fiat, too. Why? Because our hope is in the Lord who made Heaven and Earth and everything in and around Earth because of Love. Dare we say YES to Love? Ah, ʻŌmea, dare we not say YES to Love? And yet if we do say YES, what then? Are we also saying YES to immeasurable blessings with persecutions? (See Mark 10:28-30) YES, we are! Why? Because Jesus said so, and Jesus is God, so that’s that – except that after all of those blessings and persecutions, there is Eternal Life. That’s not bad for just saying YES. But wait! There’s MORE!

We have that “cheery little note” from The Apostle Paul: 2 Timothy 1:8 b – join with me in suffering for the gospel, relying on the power of God. Whoa! That’s a heck of a club to join if all we’re looking for is party hearty. What happened to “Peace I leave you; MY Peace I give you” as we find in John 14:27? As Jesus spoke those words, he knew right well what his YES would cost him – hours of agony, death, a trip to Sheol to preach to the souls there, and a Resurrection. Why? Because of Love. “For God so Loved the World that he gave his only begotten son …” (See John 3:16-19, especially verses 17-18) At the moment of The Incarnation, Jesus, God as the Word made Flesh, gave a YES that literally killed him – but he did it, and to the maximum – Τετέλεσται, (Tetélestai) {teh-TEH-les-tie}. Jesus had not gone to his death completely unaware of what was happening, what would happen, or what the results would be. He fully understood what was in that cup he asked his Father about in Gethsemane. He completely emptied that cup so that it was fully-completed, made-to-order, exactly-right process concluded properly and correctly in every possible way. He completed that process in the same way that Adam had undone the perfection of creation. Adam’s fall and death came through the use of his free will to disobey. Jesus’ death and resurrection came through the use of his free will to obey. Adam said, “God, I know what you want, but I want to do it myself.” Jesus said, “Nevertheless, thy will be done.” Knowing what he knew, that was a very big and important YES, especially because of the mysterious promise he implied after his transfiguration.

As he and the three Apostles with him – Peter, James, and John – descended the mountain where Jesus was Glorified in the Presence of Moses and Elijah, he gave them this admonition found in Matthew 17:9 – 9 As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus ordered them, “Tell no one about the vision until after the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.” We read some additional information in Mark 9:10 – 10 So they kept the matter to themselves, questioning what this rising from the dead could mean. They were just a few days out from Jesus’ declaration that he “must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.” (See Mark 8:31-38). Jesus predicted his death at least three times in the synoptic Gospels. The dramatizations of his Passion in the Mass Media sometimes portray him as a helpless man spiraling down toward disaster without any understanding. That is a LIE, a favorite device of ha-Satan, the Accuser. His answer is always NO. It was his jealousy of the Power of God and God’s intention to bring man closer to himself and thus higher than the angels that brought death into the world as we read in Wisdom 4:23-24 –

 

Verse Explication
and they [the wicked] did not know the secret purposes of God [eternal life and beatitude with him]
nor hoped for the wages of holiness, [eternal life after the Resurrection at the end of time
nor discerned the prize for blameless souls; [everlasting, constantly renewed Life]
23 for God created us for incorruption, [to be with him forever]
and made us in the image of his own eternity [we are created in his image – eternal and Holy]
24 but through the devil’s envy death entered the world, [and our First Parents said YES to that!]
and those who belong to his company experience it [This deprivation of our original justice and original holiness ended our close spiritual familiarity with our Creator.]

GNT version (← Check it out!)

What can my YES cost me? Everything. What can my YES gain for me? EVERYTHING and MORE! We have often said here, “Why would you want anything less?” YES means more. NO means less. We’re going to do a quick deep-see on Mark 34-38, but particularly verse 36:

34 He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 35 For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel will save it. 36 For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? * 37 Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? 38 Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”

* Some translations have the word “soul” here. The Greek word is psuché {psoo-khay’} which is “the breath of life, the human soul.” It corresponds exactly to the Hebrew word nephesh {neh’-fesh} “a soul, living being, life.”

So, Belovéd, lose a life or save a life? Be alive or not alive? Be deprived of original justice and original holiness or be depraved and unwilling and unable to accept the Grace of God? Do I, do you, do we want to be back in the Presence of God for eternity? I want a seat close to the threshold of the Throne Room so I can hear the angels sing! That’s a YES for me! How about you, ʻŌmea? When we stand before the Trinity, the Word that has spoken will be the judge and tally up our YES’s to them. How many of those will be YES for God and how many will be YES for Satan? We struggle with that daily, but that’s why we have the Sacrament of Reconciliation. That’s also called the M.A.P., and all of this is the APP. In the Absolutely Perfect Plan, you and I have a part, a major role in fact. We are the ones who chose to stand up and say, “That’s a YES for me!” I think I hear the angles calling, “Heigh-Ho, Heigh-Ho, It’s off to Home we go.” Well, something like that anyway. 😉 Can I mark you as a YES, too?

If you would like to find a really mind-blowing reading, choose Wisdom, Chapter 11; you will conclude that the last three verses (24-26) apply to all who are called Earthlings.

Whatever, whenever, wherever, whoever, however, if ever, forever —
at your service, Belovéd!

Please pray with us here at Share-a-Prayer.

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

Creative Commons License
Aloha Friday Messages by Charles O. Todd, III is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License

Aloha Friday Message – February 24, 2023 – It is written – Lent week 1

February 24, 2023

2308AFC022423 – It is written – Lent Week 1

Read it online here, please. And please – when you visit there – use one of the social media links at the bottom of the page to share this post. Thank you! And remember, we now have a READER VIEW available, so share this link or this email often. Do you know someone who enjoys Bible study, or who might like to read this? Ask them to email us or to subscribe on our blog-site.

If you are reading this online, please scroll down to the credits for a special addendum.

    Matthew 4:10-11 – 10 Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! for it is written,
‘Worship the Lord your God,
and serve only him.’”

11 Then the devil left him, and suddenly angels came and waited on him.

Romans 5:18-19 – 18 Therefore just as one man’s trespass led to condemnation for all, so one man’s act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all. 19 For just as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.

1 Corinthians 15:21-22 [1] – 21 For since death came through a human being, the resurrection of the dead has also come through a human being; 22 for as all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ.

Genesis 3:1-5 – 1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other wild animal that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God [indeed] say, ‘You shall not eat from any tree in the garden’?” 2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden; 3 but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, nor shall you touch it, or you shall [surely] die[2] .’” 4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not [surely] die; 5 for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

Grace, mercy, and peace will be with us from God the Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father’s Son, in truth and love. Aloha nui loa, ʻŌmea! It is here! Lent has finally arrived – a seven-week observance of, and immersion in, Scripture, Tradition, and preparation for Resurrection Day. In years past, I have set up several series on certain aspects of faith or Scripture, but this year, after some prayerful reflection, we will continue our practice of looking into the readings for Sundays. “Let’s just stick with the B.I.B.L.E. and leave the rest of it alone.” OKIE-DOKIE! LET’S ROLL!

Before we get to today’s Key Verses, I want to thank all of you for the responses about last week’s post. To that I will add that there are other appetites from which we can fast. In a recent issue of the Hawaiʻi Catholic Herald, there was a great article about “A Different Fast” (↔ Click Link) Please check it out. Now, on to the key verse where Jesus give Satan the boot. After forty days of fasting in the desert, Satan came to tempt him with food, personal safety, and great power. Jesus refused all of those offers and refuted what Satan was saying (remember, Satan quoted Scripture?) with more Scripture. Each refutation was proceeded by “It is written.” You see? The Devil can quote Scripture, but Jesus can utilize Scripture as God intends. When the Devil quotes Scripture he bends its truth into a lie. We know that has caused many supposed Christians to make claims “based in Scripture” that are off the mark, and sometimes even outrageous. When we see that, it is sometimes shocking. In fact, the pervasiveness of lying is distressing.

Perhaps a few of you watch “America’s Funniest Videos.” Quite often there are little kids who are told to do – or more often, not to do – a specific thing. A parent might set out candy before her/his child and say “You must not eat the candy until I come back.” As soon as the parent is out of view, WHOOSH goes the candy. Or maybe there is a donut missing. Mom asks, “Did you eat that donut?” The kid’s cheeks look like a hamster’s and there’s crumbs and chocolate frosting all around his mouth, and he denies it by shaking his head since he cannot speak with a mouthful of donut. We’ve seen toddlers who are too young to speak, but not too young to pretend they are sleeping when mom comes to check on them. Babies who can only drool and babble can hear dad say, “Do not throw that food on the floor.” After 2 moves daring dad to come over, BLOOP! Everything’s on the floor. We all can recall similar incidents either with our own children, in our own childhood, or even just on TV. Disobedience seems to be hardwired into our humanity. How is this so widespread?

For just as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. How do we know this? What is the source of this knowledge? It is from Scripture, of course, and “16 All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work. (See 2 Timothy 3:6-17) Are we then to take a misbehaving child, sit them down, and read Scripture? Or should we preach to them against the habit of lying? How did they learn to do those things anyway? “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (See Romans 3:21-26 It’s INCREDIBLE!!) All of us “fall short of the glory of God, but God – in the Life, Passion, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus – completely and abundantly filled the deficit to overflowing! We have the power within us to overcome evil for ourselves and our children if we rely on that. Deceit is in all of us because this is the era in which the Prince of the Air is given rule over Earth. Because of that, unspeakable and horrific evil is directed against others all around the world. One especially clear target is Christians.

In East Congo, around Goma for instance, rival ethnic groups fight against each other attempting to take over the region so as to control access to the rich mineral resources. The atrocities are far worse than what we are seeing now in Ukraine, and this war has been flaring up with terrifying vigor since 2004. Hundreds of thousands have been maimed, raped, murdered, executed, hacked to pieces in front of their families, and then their bodies are fed to other prisoners. How do these people do such heinous things unhindered by conscience, religion, or politics? It is a simple answer: They are under the influence of lying spirits, and they choose to submit rather than to obey God. (See Chapter 22 of 1 Kings) We can say with certainty that a child’s disobedience is minor compared to these brutalities, and yet, those episodes of defiance are precisely infractions against the 4th commandment “Honor your father and your mother, that it may be well with you, and that you may live long on the earth.” As The Apostle Paul says in Ephesians 6:1–3 – 1 Children, obey your (↔ Music Link) parents in the Lord, for this is right *. 2 “Honor your father and mother”— this is the first commandment with a promise: 3 “so that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth.” * (↔ Click Link for a fun story).

Looking at these examples we can see that “It is written” (↔ Music Link) means we have access to it if we make the effort. But having it written down is not good enough. It has to be lived out in our day-to-day lives. It may be natural to sin, but it should be natural for parents to counteract that tendency with careful instruction, by example in their own behavior, and by discipline when needed. Remember that discipline is different from punishment. What’s going on in the Congo requires punishment. What’s going on in our kitchens requires discipline – for child and parent. Discipline comes from the Latin word dicipilus which means student or pupil. Growing up in Denver during the late forties through the mid-sixties, our lives were pretty much patterned after Dr. Spock’s book Baby and Child Care first published in 1946, the year I was born. It became the substitute for the B.I.B.L.E. when questions on child-rearing arose. I will not discuss the validity of its recommendations, but I will say that it is still affecting the lives of millions of people who are now senior citizens and haven’t gotten over it yet. The 10th edition came out in 2018. I would much rather see parents using the Bible, the lived-out sermons of their day-to-day lives, and a well-structured system for teaching children manners, morals, and management of their own intellects. I am absolutely positive that “It is written” never applied to Dr. Spock’s books! What, then, do parents need to know well enough to teach their children? How about this?

1 Corinthians 15:21-22 [1] – 21 For since death came through a human being, the resurrection of the dead has also come through a human being; 22 for as all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ. (↔ Music Link) Is that too intangible for a child of 3 to understand? Perhaps, but if mom and dad truly understand it, the way that they live in the eyes of their children will show those kids what truth is. Having a Bible in the home is useless if it is not used. Take down that Bible every day and share it with them. Not sure how? Try BIAY (↔ Click Link). There are about 365 podcasts there. Let’s say some 6-year-old hears that passage from 1 Corinthians and asks about it. Did you know that you can look that up in the BIAY reading plan and listen to it? It will take about 20 minutes to listen to three Bible passages including that one. It’s listed on Day 338 of the Bible In A Year Podcasts. (↔ Click Link) There you will hear this (and much more): “The truth is, if I’m like everyone else, then I’m not like Jesus, … because the more and more I look like the world, the more and more I look less like Jesus.”

How can we portray that Spirit of Truth to kids? “It is written,” but to know that means you have to use that. After all it is the B.I.B.L.E. – Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth and Dr. Spock is a pale shadow lost in the neon blur of progressivism and self-gratification. IF you have a Bible, and IF YOU USE IT REGULARLY, the appeal to mothers to be more nurturing, to fathers to be more supportive, and to children to be more self-aware will sound like this part of the story told (↔ Learning Link) in Genesis 3:1-5. You see, once our First Parents had given in to deeply desiring the discernment between good and evil, the first thing Eve did was to lie and say that God had told them not to even touch the tree. That’s not what God said. Eve was already working at self-justification. Our end-goal should be to understand (↔ Music Link) Romans 5:18-19 and then apply it to our home life. Parents’ primary responsibility is to teach their children to live with morality, compassion, integrity, wisdom, and justice learned in Scripture for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work.

There is only one source for that kind of education – our Bible, because “It is written” leads directly to “It is read” and “It is lived.” If it doesn’t, who but God can save you from the pain of children who reject God and parents because what was written could not be comprehended because it was never used. Jesus will be with us until the end of the Age – this is the Age of The Church which includes the Old Testament and the New Testament, and all the teaching, wisdom, power, and Peace they contain. It’s all summed up here in the Bible as in Ephesians 6:4 – a continuation of the above passage. Go ahead and read it. It is addressed to fathers, but is truly applicable to anyone who has been given the responsibility to rear a child into good citizenship in the Kingdom of God. And if you do that, and they still prefer the lies? Pray with them and for them. Teach them to say “Away with you, Satan! for it is written, ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.’” They may yet repent and believe the Gospel. That’s in the Absolutely Perfect Plan, too.

For those of you who have chosen to read this online at the blog site, thank you! This addendum is just for you. When I received the title for this piece, I had no idea it would turn out to be about parenting. I thought we’d learn about reading, studying, digging into Scripture. Surprise, Surprise! I have mentioned one small area on earth where horrific persecutions are going on. There are heart-breaking torments in many places around the earth (↔ Learning Link). PLEASE remember to pray for them as a little something you can add to your Lenten Observance. Pray especially for the children whom Satan particularly covets because of their innocence. His desire is to separate them from God and keep them for himself. SNATCH THEM AWAY FROM HIM with your prayers for them, sacrifices for them, alms for them, penances offered for their enemies, and supplications to Our Father in heaven for their safety and Peace.

Whatever, whenever, wherever, whoever, however, if ever, forever —
at your service, Belovéd!
Please pray with us here at Share-a-Prayer.

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

Aloha Friday Messages by Charles O. Todd, III is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License

[1]  Please use the link to see the full context of 1 Corinthians 15:21-28

[1]  Please use the link to see the full context of 1 Corinthians 15:21-28

[2] מוּת (muth) {mooth} Die. Connotatively equivalent to “dead as a doornail” and often translated as “surely die;” to be so dead that there is no prospect of life returning.

Aloha Friday Message – February 17, 2023 – A Perfect Aloha Friday

February 17, 2023

2307AFC021723 – A Perfect Aloha Friday

Read it online here, please. And please – when you visit there – use one of the social media links at the bottom of the page to share this post. Thank you! And remember, we now have a READER VIEW available, so share this link or this email often. Do you know someone who enjoys Bible study, or who might like to read this? Ask them to email us or to subscribe on our blog-site.

    Leviticus 19:18 – 18 You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.

Psalm 103:12-13 – 12 as far as the east is from the west,
so far he removes our transgressions from us.
13 As a father has compassion for his children,
so the Lord has compassion for those who fear him

1 Corinthians 3:16-17 – 16 Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? 17 If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.

Matthew 5:48 – 48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with all of you. These Key Verses today are certainly challenging for us! Here we are just a few days after Valentine’s Day and just a few days before Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent. The Lenten Season is a time of preparation for the celebration of Easter. It is a time when the scripture passages we hear, read, and reflect on are reminders of our sure need for redemption which is supplied for us through the Passion, death, and resurrection of Christ Jesus. It is a time when we ponder our own weaknesses and strive to make some changes in our lives that will bring us closer to each other, and through that, closer to Christ. There is the lingering tradition associated with Lent of “giving something up for Lent.” In the past this meant that for the 7 weeks of Lent we consciously avoided some favorite food or activity – kids gave up candy, adults gave up smoking or drinking, many practice fasting and/or abstinence to varying degrees, all with the idea of denying oneself something that normally is pleasurable. It is still a good practice. I want to challenge you to do something more this Lent rather than something less. Here’s a little tidbit of wisdom to inform our topic today:

James 2:20 – 20 Do you want to be shown, you senseless person (kενός – kenos {ken-os’})*, that faith (πίστις – pistis {pis’-tis}) apart from works (ἔργων – ergon {er-gōn’}) is barren (ἀργή – (arge) – Useless thoughtless, empty, idle, unprofitable? *This word is shown to be ignoramus in some translations – strong stuff!

This passage from James, part of a treatise on ethical conduct, is one of many exhortations and warnings in this Epistle which is really more of an essay than a letter. It is addressed to the Jewish community that became the Early Church and was probably directed against the persons who claimed that their “immense knowledge” of the life and works of Christ gave them justification and salvation. James gently but firmly puts them down by pointing out the obvious fact that having the facts isn’t at all like having the faith. We see something of the same thing in our own day, often within our churches but more often outside of church communities – not just Christian communities, but all religious communities which advocate for ethical conduct and moral behavior. This errant group of “believers” in the Early Church were classified as the Gnostics, a pre-Christian and early Christian religious movement teaching that salvation comes by learning occult spiritual truths that free humanity from the material world, which they believed to be evil. Thus, in their point of view, knowledge was the antidote for evil. James contradicts this by reprimanding them for their empty-headed foolishness. Good works are insufficient unless they arise out of faith. Faith is insufficient if it is void of good works. We want to know and to Love and to serve God in this life so we can be with him forever in the next. Is that what Jesus means when he says we must be perfect? What we see in this passage from The Apostle James is that there is more to do – good works.

Good deeds, for some, arise out of the goodness of their hearts. How is it that many good things done by people who are irreligious or antireligious are significantly more generous and effective than those done by people who are religious? How can that be? James gives some insight into that. Doing a good deed is always a good thing whether you attribute that motivation to do-good in the Universe, the Force, the Intelligent Designer, or even random chance. It is noteworthy to realize that the motivation for this kind of charity always arises from within the self; it is self-centered and – even though it purports to be done in the service of social justice – it is always self-serving. It is at all times a better thing to serve social justice as an effect of Love, because all good things come from and through God. (See James 1:17) It is just plain silly to take credit for something you didn’t – and couldn’t – do without Grace from God – even if you don’t acknowledge him in any way whatsoever!

Is there any goodness in the World? It comes to us from God through the love of Christ and in the ministry of the Holy Spirit. As we approach the Lenten Season, please consider how and why we are stewards of God’s gifts, gifts that cannot be manufactured by us earthlings, and – in the end – glorify God because they begin and end in him. In fact, everything – including you and me – begins and ends in God when we acknowledge HE is indeed GOD.

James’ point is this: You can have good works without faith – any fool can do that. BUT you cannot profess to have Faith and refuse or avoid doing good works. That’s not faith; it’s just an air-head’s blather. It’s like having an isolated cogwheel with nothing to engage it.

When we think of good works, we recall the Spiritual and Corporal Acts of Mercy (↔ Learning Link). IF we have faith, but do not engage it to help strangers, love enemies, feed the famished, comfort those who are suffering (the anawim) – if we help only ourselves – we are failing to be perfect BIG TIME! We might need a reminder, so here we have an inventory:

 

Corporal Acts of Mercy
feed the hungry
give drink to the thirsty
clothe the naked
shelter the homeless
visit the sick
visit the imprisoned
bury the dead		 Spiritual Acts of Mercy
counsel the doubtful
instruct the ignorant
admonish sinners
comfort the afflicted
forgive offenses
bear wrongs patiently
pray for the living and the dead

 

Instead of only giving up chocolate, or liquor, or some other creature comfort, how about adding some of these Acts of Mercy? Pick one, or two, or a handful and do something, knowing we will be held accountable not only for good what we do, but also for what good we do not do.

Now, giving up those creature comforts is certainly sacrificial – perhaps only mildly so, but still it’s good discipline for the soul. It could be better discipline if “giving up something for Lent” also mean giving up something forever, period. Still smoking? Give it up for Lent and then don’t go out and buy a pack Easter Monday. Tippling a little extra after work? Give it up for Lent and then don’t go out and buy a bottle after Easter Mass. On top of that true sacrifice which we turn into repentance, we can be merciful as Our Father in Heaven is merciful. We know that if we take vengeance or bear a grudge against anyone, we cannot be merciful. What is the command? It is you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus called this the second of the Greatest Commandments. In his Good News the Law and the Prophets were summed up in two things: Love God entirely, and Love our neighbors equally well. A great start on that would be to do something GOOD for someone other than ourselves. Recall the “Rich Young Ruler” and his question about being saved in Matthew 19:16-22:

He started off by asking, “Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?” Jesus told him to keep the commandments, to which the enquirer responded he was already doing that followed by “I have kept all these since I was a youth; what do I still lack?” Jesus’ response floored the guy: “If you wish to be perfect, go, sell your possessions, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” That young man’s job was to leave comfort behind and follow Jesus. He didn’t, as far as we know. He was looking for “that one thing” we all want to do to get Eternal Life. “That one thing” is to do the right thing all the time. If we want to give up “a little something” for Lent, Jesus challenges us to give up ALL of it. Jesus, ruler of all Nature  (↔ Music Link), did. By comparison a box of chocolate or a bottle of wine looks pretty puny. “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect” seems utterly humongous compared to my small sacrifices. We need a full commitment to Faith, to Love, and to Mercy.

In the passage from Matthew, the Greek word for “perfect” is τελειώσω teleiōsō] (↔ Click Link). This word is closely related to the word for “paid in full” – Τετέλεσται, (Tetélestai) {teh-TEH-les-tie} consummated, completely fulfilled; or to complete a process all the way through the final step which means everything that needed to be done has been done as in Jesus’ final declaration on the Cross “It is finished.” He knew what needed to be done and did it.

God prepared him for that just as God prepared Abram to be obedient and faithful enough to get up and wander across hundreds of miles to the Promised Land. He even prepared Abraham to sacrifice his only son. Perhaps God has prepared us to be faithful and obedient to lesser degrees; nonetheless we still must be faithful and obedient – perfect. The connotation is that we commit to perform all necessary works to consummate the particular goal for which God has prepared us. WE have to make our own spiritual journey “in Faith believing.” Merely believing in Christ Jesus is something that is consequential but not salvational. Having faith in Christ Jesus is salvational, but not maturational. Full faith in Christ Jesus – and therefore in the only One, True, Almighty and Everliving God – is transformational. We come to the fullness of Faith when our lives are lived as a daily sacrifice, wholly holy and acceptable to God, a sacrifice offered in Spirit and in Truth. God’s Love is Everlasting, and it is freely given to us because he wills to do so. He also wills that we give his Love to others, and then return that Love of others to him as our Gift of Love in return. For the sinful, broken, stumbling human beings that we are, that is (to coin a phrase) “one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind” because if we keep that going, if we add just a wee bit more of all he has given to us to the Gifts we give to others, we are transformed all the more. And what is the result of that transformation?

16 Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? 17 If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.” That is why we can pray –

Come Holy Spirit. Enter the hearts of thy faithful and enkindle in them the fire of Thy Holy Love. Send forth Thy Spirit and they shall be created and thou shalt renew the face of the Earth.
O God, who by the light of the Holy Spirit has instructed the hearts of the faithful, grant that in that same Spirit we may be truly wise and ever rejoice in His consolation.
Through Christ our Lord, Amen.

Thou, O LORD, shalt open my lips,
and my tongue shall announce Thy praise.
Incline unto my aid, O God.
O LORD, make haste to help me.
Glory be to the Father, … AMEN.

Ah, Dearly Belovéd, what great things might be changed in our lives if we intentionally spent two minutes in prayer for another’s greater need? What if we went to church daily during Lent? What if we read all the daily readings every day during lent, and then continued that until death? What if we read the Bible or the Catechism every day until we read every word, then did it again? What if we visited the sick on a regular basis? What if we gave up on believing in our own perfection and allowed the perfection of the Holy Spirit to shape our lives? What if we just Loved God with our entire being and Loved our neighbors with the same intensity and nonjudgmental Compassion as Our Heavenly Father does does?  12 as far as the east is from the west,
so far he removes our transgressions from us.
13 As a father has compassion for his children,
so the Lord has compassion for those who fear him

What if God looked at us this Aloha Friday, saw something he Loved, and he said to your heart, “Wow kid, that was perfect.”?

Happy are those who trust in the Lord, for theirs is the fullness of life (See Jeremiah 17:7-8). Let go and let God so that all we have and are we no longer claim to hold. What are we going to lay down for Lent, and what are we going to take up so as to truly follow him?  What is in the Absolutely Perfect Plan for us this Lent that we can take with us until Eternity?

Whatever, whenever, wherever, whoever, however, if ever, forever —
at your service, Belovéd!
Please pray with us here at Share-a-Prayer.

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

Creative Commons License
Aloha Friday Messages by Charles O. Todd, III is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License

Aloha Friday Message – February 10, 2023 – Searching in The Dark

February 10, 2023

2306AFC021023 – Searching in The Dark

Read it online here, please. And please – when you visit there – use one of the social media links at the bottom of the page to share this post. Thank you! And remember, we now have a READER VIEW available, so share this link or this email often. Do you know someone who enjoys Bible study, or who might like to read this? Ask them to email us or to subscribe on our blog-site.

    Sirach 15:19-20 –
19 his eyes are on those who fear him,
and he knows every human action.
20 He has not commanded anyone to be wicked,
and he has not given anyone permission to sin.

1 Corinthians 2:9-10 – 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.

 Mathew 5:19 – 19 Therefore, whoever breaks* one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
*Annuls, contravenes, unties, loosens up, disregards, or ignores

¡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!) I am glad to be with you again even if it’s only on these written pages. I got off to a strange start with this topic. I accidentally looked up 1 Corinthians 1:9-10. It didn’t make any sense to have that in with the other verses. Once I cleared that up, the sense came together and I saw that we would be going to the opposite side of Creation – the darkness which God had separated from the light. We are Light, children of the Light and Life, (↔ Music Link) brothers and sisters of the Christ of God, chosen before time to walk in his marvelous light (See 1 Peter 2:9 at that link). Belovéd, we know that’s how it’s supposed to be; after all it’s in the Absolutely Perfect Plan. We also know that sometimes darkness, gloom, or even the terror-of-the-night falls over us. We have to look for that key that unlocks the door to Light as we see in the icon for today’s Key Verses. We know there is Light because we’ve been there. Many or most of us are still there. Some of us are searching for the Light, and we are surrounded by darkness and “how great is that darkness.” (See Matthew 6:22-23 – 22 The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light; 23 but if your eye is unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!)

The last reading this week from the Gospel of Matthew is a quite long collection of sayings that begin with, “You have heard it said …,” and then Jesus says something that is astoundingly opposite in tone. The one chosen for today is about fudging on the commandments. Jesus has told the crowd that he’s not there to do away with the Torah (תּוֹרָה Law), but to fulfill it. At that moment, the folks hearing him speaking probably expected the skies to open and he’d be stuck with lightning and fire. He said emphatically that not one smithereen, not one letter, not one pen-stoke of the Law would or could be lessened, excused, overlooked, distorted, or left out. It is important to remember that “The Law” is not limited to The 10 Commandments. There are 613 laws in the Misvot, (↔ Learning Link) and they pretty much cover every aspect of human life. The 14th and 15th, for example, decree that nothing should be added to or taken out of the Torah. What Jesus had told them then, was that all of the tiny little marks used for letters, vowels (13 very small but important marks called the nikud) – all of that had to be followed to the exact “letter of the Law.” Jesus was there for the fulfillment of all of those laws as well as to show people how easily their lives failed to conform to, fulfill, the Law. Failure to fulfill the Law was failure to obey God. Who, then, could ever hope to be saved?

We understand this better now because over the past 20-some centuries, God has continued to reveal himself through Scripture, through catechesis, through scholarly studies, through Church Councils, and in the Holy Spirit. We know that Jesus saves even those who we might deem irredeemable. I find myself asking my El Shaddai-Olam often, “Why did you choose me to receive Grace?” His answer is always the same, and yet I cannot seem to get it through my thick skull because it is “too simple for my complex mind.” His answer always, always, always is “Because I AM – LOVE.” That Love comes from God the Father through Jesus the Son in the Unity of the Holy Spirit. Now, that word “unity” is worth taking another good look-see. We saw it in last week’s post as “the community, the fellowship, the koinonia (Grk: κοινωνία) shared eternally among the three persons in the Trinity.” Kononia is the fellowship, the Unity of Love, which is passed on for and to us so that “Through him, and with him, and in him, O God, almighty Father, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory and honor is yours for ever and ever. Amen.” This is the final doxology of the Eucharistic Prayer. It is the assurance of our fellowship with the Real Presence presented before us. What does/should that mean to us?

It means that we have a share in the Divine Fellowship of Light, Love, Hope, Fulfillment, Heaven ON EARTH. We are in the Light. The Light is in us; that is, UNLESS we are in Darkness. Nearly everyone at some stage of life enters that “dark night of the soul.” Sometimes we put ourselves there (well, honestly, most of the time we do), and sometimes God allows darkness to overtake us. This is how the Absolutely Perfect Plan works. God sends us his Love through his Christ in the Holy Spirit, and we receive that light if we honor the Giver by accepting the Gift. God (the Triune Divinity) has not commanded anyone to be wicked, and he has not given anyone permission to sin. Breaking or even fudging The Law is sinning. That’s another super-simple mystery because it’s so clear, and yet so unattainable because we are sinners, plain and simple. God’s eyes are on those who fear him, and he knows every human action – good or bad. When we plunge ourselves into darkness, we do so at our own peril. We could get stuck there in what we have termed “habitual sin.” There’s always a way out of that kind of darkness. It is called Grace. In The Love and Mercy of God “all things are possible.” (See Matthew 19:23-26 and Luke 1:37 I really do hope you are using all these links.)

In the darkness of sin and death, it is often frustrating, and sometimes even terrifying, to realize we cannot see the Light. In the same passage as our Gospel Key Verse, Jesus says that the eye is the light of the body, and if the eye sees poorly – or not at all – then there is no light in the body. What this shows us is that our eyes are what we use to navigate through our world. In this sense, Jesus shows us that our spirit is that part of us that is most like our El Shaddai-Olam. If that Light of our existent is dimmed, distorted, injured, trapped, blinded, or lost, then the Light has “gone out of us.” This comes about when we let PEGSLAW (↔ Learning Link) usher in Darkness. When we let Worldly wants and cares to fill up our view of the spiritual landscape, we can’t see how to help others because we can’t help ourselves. Jesus addressed this in Matthew 7:3-5. (← Check it out!) I would paraphrase that as, “Take the World out of your own eye (soul), then you will see clearly to take the Darkness out of your neighbor’s eye.” How do we take that blinding Worldly desire out of our own eyes? How can we stop groping around in the Dark and come into the Light? “Can a blind person guide another blind person?” What did Jesus tell us about that in Matthew 15:10-14? He said, (in part; use the link for context)”13 […] “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted. 14 Let them alone; they are blind guides of the blind, And if one blind person guides another, both will fall into a pit.” What this means to us is that if we try to follow someone who is spiritually blind, we’re in real danger of serious consequences, the most extreme of which is the reality of Hell.

To get shed of the obstructions caused by that Worldly darkness, we need to turn to someone or something already living in and filled with the Light of Life and Love. The only way we can know that Darkness is not where we belong is to know we have been in Light, and remember that Light is in us. Remember, God is used to hearing us say, “I forgot.” He forgets stuff all the time – for example sins for which we have been forgiven. Through baptism we make our lives open to the Grace of God, and when we accept that Grace, it becomes our YOLO-F source of Light. Turn off the light, close the curtains, draw down the shade, and the darkness returns – BUT THE LIGHT NEVER LEAVES! The Light is separated from the darkness, and if we turn our spirits to walk toward and into the darkness, the Light is always right behind us – so, what do we do? (I never get tired of this!) We repent and believe the Gospel! We open the door or window or ceiling or floor or whatever it takes to let the Light back in for getting back in the Light. (↔ Music Link). We get out the M.A.P. and check our whereabouts. More concisely, we stop searching in the Dark because that is not where the Light can be found. God always knows where we are, and he never gets caught up in Darkness even in the times when we do!

“Eye has not seen (↔ Music Link), ear has not heard …” This Key Verse is a paraphrasing by The Apostle Paul of Isaiah 64:4 –
4 From ages past no one has heard,
no ear has perceived,
no eye has seen any God besides you,
who works for those who wait for him.
Paul replaces “for those who wait for him” with “for those who Love him.” We can recall the words of the embolism (↔ Learning Link) used during the Lord’s Prayer: Deliver us, Lord, from every evil, and grant us peace in our day. In your mercy keep us free from sin and protect us from all anxiety as we wait in joyful hope for the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul’s words have been shanghaied by a few blind guides to speculate what glorious things might await us in the Presence of El Shaddai-Olam after we die. The point of the passage is actually in verse 10 – these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.

Everything that God has in store for those who long for him – gratefully, joyfully, expectantly watch for him – have been revealed to us in the Holy Spirit. Why? How? Why: because God is Love. How: the Holy Spirit – the bond of Love between the Father and the Son, the Wisdom of Creation, the Lord who is the Giver of Life – has fathomed and divulged everything that can be understood about the ecology and economy of El Shaddai-Olam because the Holy Spirit is God who knows us and wants to be known by us, for us, and in us. Repeating for the sake of emphasis: the Holy Spirit is God who knows us and wants to be known by us, for us, and in us. We don’t have to go anywhere near the Darkness to figure that out. It’s standing right in front of us in unapproachable light so brilliant that only God could BE it.  That’s the Light The Apostle John knew when he said in John 1:5 – 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.

Don’t even turn around to look how far we’ve trudged out of the Dark. No benefit comes from searching in the dark. The Darkness is still there behind us where it is supposed to be. Leave it behind, but do not leave it alone; take the adelphos (↔ Learning Link) with you. That might just be me who needs your guidance.

Whatever, whenever, wherever, whoever, however, if ever, forever —
at your service, Belovéd!
Please pray with us here at Share-a-Prayer.

(Scroll past the credits to see MORE.)

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

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Aloha Friday Messages by Charles O. Todd, III is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License

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Aloha Friday Message – February 3, 2023 – Who aren’t you?

February 3, 2023

2005AFC02323 – Who aren’t you?

Read it online here, please. And please – when you visit there – use one of the social media links at the bottom of the page to share this post. Thank you! And remember, we now have a READER VIEW available, so share this link or this email often.

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    Isaiah 58:6-7 –
6 Is not this the fast that I choose:   to loose the bonds of injustice,   to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free,   and to break every yoke? 7 Is it not to share your bread with the hungry,   and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover them,   and not to hide yourself from your own kin?

Psalm 112:4 – 4 Light shines in the darkness for good people,   for those who are merciful, kind, and just. (GNT)

1 Corinthians 2:2 – 2 For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified.

Matthew 5:14 – 14 You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid.

John 8:12 – 12 Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.”

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ,  who gave himself for our sins to set us free from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father,  to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

For today’s key verse marker, I probably should have used one of those images with a big bunch of keys because today the passages just keep landing on my heart and sliding out over the keyboard. For starters, I need to reference a song from the past by The Who. The song has “explicit lyrics,” so we won’t link to it today, but the opening chorus was “Who are you? Who? Who? Who? Who?” It’s been the theme song for CSI Vegas, and Crucita loves to sing along with it when the show starts. But that’s not what we’re asking today.

We’re asking “Who aren’t you?” What’s bubbling up inside me as I write is being affected by the work I’m doing while studying The Catechism of the Catholic Church presented by Ascension Press (and featuring Fr. Mike Schmitz) called The Catechism in a Year (↔ Click Link). Some of you are familiar with his rapid-fire, ebullient, and exciting teaching style. The program is similar to The Bible in a Year (↔ Click Link) Today I want to start with a startling statement made by Jesus: You are the light of the world. “Hang on! I thought Jesus was the light of the world!” Let’s try taking a Deep See Dive on that idea. I hear the best place to start something is in the beginning, so …

Genesis 1:1-5 – 1 In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, 2 the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. 3 Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. 4 And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day. The Hebrew word for light used in this passage is אוֹר (or) {ore}, and in Greek it is φῶς (phos) {foce} and describes anything emitting or showing (reflecting) light. The first command spoken in Creation generated LIGHT. And who was with the Light, in the Light, and of the Light? It was the Light of the World – Jesus. Now, let’s look at the first five verses in the Gospel of John:

John 1:1-5 – 1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being 4 in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it. That’s the Light of Christ (↔ Music Link) the living, flesh-and-blood Son of the Father. God’s beginnings always start with Light. Before the Light there was darkness, but also there was God. God parted the darkness with the Light, and he did that with his Word. We have stated here many times that God is community, and recently (↔ Click Link) we said, “In the beginning there was only a formless void … and God!”

God’s Spirit moved over that void like a mighty wind tearing through the darkness. Then God spoke the Word as Light. There, in that moment, we see the Love of God who is the Lover of Creation, we see the Word of God who is the Belovéd of Creation, and the Relationship of the Community of Love as the Spirit of God, the Lord, the Giver of Life.” I’m borrowing from Fr. Mike Schmitz here when I tell you that the most sacred surprise in the nature of God is found in 1 John 4:16b – God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them. The reason we can say, “God is love” is because of the community, the fellowship, the koinonia (Grk: κοινωνία) shared eternally among the three persons in the Trinity. We attest to that every time we proclaim the Nicene Creed:
“I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten Son of God, born of the Father before all ages. God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father. Through him all things were made.” This is also why we often say here …

(Music Link ↔) LIGHT ≡ GOD ≡ TRUTH ≡ WAY ≡ LIFE ≡ ETERNAL ≡ LOVE

I am, you are, we are created in the likeness and image of God, so guess what: His Light is in us. God is Light, so wherever God is, there is Light; wherever Light shines, there is God. How do we get that Light in and around us? We’ve been here before, so give a listen to Alan Jackson again as he sings Turn your Eyes Upon Jesus. (↔ Music Link). Yes ʻŌmea, it is Jesus who will Light up our lives, (↔ Music Link) and how bright is that Brightness! IF we are in God, then we are in Light, certainly; but also, if God is in us, then we are the Light of the World, a light that can shine brightly enough that those who walk in darkness may truly see the great Light of God as Jesus himself told us in John 8:12 – 12 Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.” What shall we say then, that we prefer the darkness or that we spurn the Light? Absolutely not because we have the Light in us and on us. We are Children of the Light and we walk as such. Well, if that’s who we are, who are we not?

We are not darkness, we are not without Truth, we are not lovers of the World. We are the People chosen, and choosing, to be Good because as we read in Psalm 112:4 – 4 Light shines in the darkness for good people, for those who are merciful, kind, and just. (GNT) [A] When we are surrounded by those who walk in, work in, live in darkness, we have Light to help us to see – and it also help them to see! Those people whom we love even in their darkness are also created in the image and likeness of God. They just don’t know how to flip the switch (or is it more like switch the flip?) and let their Light shine (↔ Music Link).

What am I not? I am not afraid. (↔ Music Link) I’m not afraid of the dark because HE has overcome the dark. I’m not afraid of dying – I’m getting there a step and a stop at a time. I’m the sinner who wants to give God back his rainbow, but not the sinner who wants to take back my heart from Jesus. Belovéd, we are not the ones who lay down our armor because it’s too heavy, or toss our cross because it’s too painful. We are not of this World although we are in it. We are not the people who are encumbered by the yoke of sin. We are not unjust or merciless. We are not walking in darkness. We are not abandoning our families, friends, neighbors, enemies, or whichever strangers are seeking our help. We are not spoiled salt. We are not the Devil’s amusement – we are his dread. We have the freedom of Light and Love because of who and what we know. As The Apostle Paul told us in 1 Corinthians 2:2 – 2 For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified.

It is important for us to know who we are not. We are the people who acknowledge our sins and repent, confess our sins and do penance, we avoid sin and the desire we have of being tempted, and we seek and accept God’s forgiveness because Jesus said he would do that. God is Truth, and we have known that from Days of Old:

Numbers 23:19 – 19 God is not a human being, that he should lie,
or a mortal, that he should change his mind.
Has he promised, and will he not do it?
Has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?

We aren’t the ones expecting God to behave like us. He is expecting us to behave like him. That’s the Power of the Absolutely Perfect Plan.

Sirach 1:8 –
8 There is only one who is wise,
and we must stand in awe before his throne. (GNT)

Whatever, whenever, wherever, whoever, however, if ever, forever —
at your service, Belovéd!
Please pray with us here at Share-a-Prayer.

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

Creative Commons License
Aloha Friday Messages by Charles O. Todd, III is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License

[A]  Scripture quotations marked (GNT) are from the Good News Translation in Today’s English Version- Second Edition Copyright © 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.

Aloha Friday Message – January 27, 2023 – The Discipline of Discipleship

January 27, 2023

 

2304AFC012723 – The Discipline of Discipleship

Read it online here, please. And please – when you visit there – use one of the social media links at the bottom of the page to share this post. Thank you! And remember, we now have a READER VIEW available, so share this link or this email often. Do you know someone who enjoys Bible study, or who might like to read this? Ask them to email us or to subscribe on our blog-site.

     Zephaniah 2:3 – 3 Seek the Lord, all you humble of the land,
who do his commands;
seek righteousness, seek humility;
perhaps you may be hidden
on the day of the Lord’s wrath.

Psalm 146:1 – 1 Praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord, O my soul!

1 Corinthians 1:29-31 – 29 This means that no one can boast in God’s presence. 30 But God has brought you into union with Christ Jesus, and God has made Christ to be our wisdom. By him we are put right with God; we become God’s holy people and are set free. 31 So then, as the scripture says, “Whoever wants to boast must boast of what the Lord has done.” (See Jeremiah 9:24) Good News Translation (GNT) Good News Translation® (Today’s English Version, Second Edition) © 1992 American Bible Society.

Matthew 5:3 – 3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit *, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. → * [5:3] The poor in spirit: in the Old Testament, the poor (’anāwîm) עֲנָוִ֣ים anawim They are those who are without material possessions and whose confidence is in God alone. They are the meek and lowly, the downtrodden and marginalized, the persecuted and neglected, the ones held in lowest esteem by all including themselves but without boasting about it. (See Key Verse from 1 Corinthians 1:29 above) (↔ Click Link)

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!) I am bringing in a couple of Guest Authors to get things started today. The first is from one of the Church Fathers, St. Jerome.

St Jerome  ~~ “Do you dread poverty? Christ calls the poor blessed. Does toil frighten you? No athlete is crowned but in the sweat of his brow. Are you anxious as regards food? Faith fears no famine. Do you dread the bare ground for limbs wasted with fasting? The Lord lies there beside you. Do you recoil from an unwashed head and uncombed hair? Christ is your true head. Does the boundless solitude of the desert terrify you? In the Spirit you may walk always in paradise. Simply turn your thoughts there and you will no more be in the desert. Is your skin rough and scaly because you no longer bathe? He who is once washed in Christ does not need to wash again. To all your objections the apostle gives this one brief answer: ‘The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory’ which shall come after them, ‘which shall be revealed in us.’ You are too greedy of enjoyment, my brother, if you wish to rejoice with the world here, and to reign with Christ hereafter.” (See Romans 8:18)

     Psalm 22:26 – 26 The poor shall eat and be satisfied;
those who seek him shall praise the Lord.
May your hearts live forever!

Pause with me for just a few moments so we can try thinking about God – the Almighty Everliving Omnibenificent Creator. Let’s begin with this quote from another Church Father:
“Our very incapacity of fully grasping Him affords us the idea of what He really is. He is presented to our minds in His transcendent greatness, as at once known and unknown. And this is the crowning guilt of men, that they will not recognize One of whom they cannot possibly be ignorant.”  ~~ Tertullian

A few years ago I sent you this image, and it captures the idea in this quote. I share it with you again, and ask you to please reflect on what you see.

For this wonderful picture (used with permission from the artist):
Art created by Pat Marvenko Smith, copyright 1992, 2002. To order prints visit her “Revelation Illustrated” site, http://revelationillustrated.com . Contact us and let us know which one you need to use. If you wish to use more than one, you should purchase the 40 image CD .You will also be required to add a right-click copy protection code to each image. For use as wallpaper on your computer, just let us know which one you need. For use as a screensaver, please go here where you can get information on the new “Revelation Illustrated” screensaver program.
Pat Marvenko Smith
Revelation Productions http://www.revelationillustrated.com/
THIS MATERIAL IS COPYRIGHTED SO RESPECT THE ARTIST’S WISHES. ~~ CT3

We want to get to Heaven, but cling to what we have on earth. We want to be called “good and faithful servants,” but we lack the will to truly serve. We pray for forgiveness, but keep on sinning anyway. We say we want to be like Jesus, but end up pretending Jesus is like us. Jesus is like us in all ways EXCEPT SIN. We want to be God’s children, and we are through baptism, but we fail to behave as God’s children. When we do so, we fret against that discipline. “NO! I DO IT MYSELF!” Here is some sage advice from another Church Father who was loved enough be Jesus to be personally called as an Apostle:

Hebrews 12:4-8 – 4 In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. 5 And you have forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as children —
“My child, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord,
or lose heart when you are punished by him;
6 for the Lord disciplines those whom he loves,
and chastises every child whom he accepts.”
7 Endure trials for the sake of discipline. God is treating you as children; for what child is there whom a parent does not discipline? 8 If you do not have that discipline in which all children share, then you are illegitimate* and not his children.

*If you follow that link you’ll see that in other translations, The Apostle Paul calls the adelphos who will not accept Christ’s discipline bastards. That’s some pretty strong language! Remember that The Apostle Paul was a Pharisee and was quoting from Proverbs 3:11-12. Also remember, in his day there was no New Testament – he was writing it as he traveled – and when he spoke or wrote to the churches he had founded, his thought were based on his extensive education as a scholar of Scripture – including what he learned from Jesus himself and from the other Apostles and Disciples of Jesus. Sometimes, I believe, we also wish to be Disciples while hoping to avoid the price of Discipleship: Discipline that brings us humility.

The Apostle Paul had learned discipline all his life – not learned about it, but learned by experiencing it. After his calling on the road to Damascus, he endured great suffering for the sake of the Gospel. He was beaten with rods, scourged and whipped, stoned and left for dead. He toiled with his hands day and night in his trade of tent-maker. Still, he never stopped preaching the Gospel. There is a good reason for that: he believed what he taught because he was humbled by the discipline it took to teach it. We might wonder if he had heard the account Mount and the Beatitudes.

In the list of The Beatitudes, (or the Be-Attitudes) the first among them is Humility – the exact opposite of the foundation of sin – Pride. There is not one among us who would not deeply desire to have Jesus answer the prayer saying “Jesus meek and humble of heart, make my heart like unto your heart.” No matter how deep and genuine our desire, despite our greatest yearnings to emulate his life, we always “fall short of the glory of God.” (See Romans 3:23) We rightfully decide on being humble, but predictability rarely make it. Nonetheless “We should never be discouraged; take it to the Lord in prayer.” (↔ Music Link). It’s hard to be humble enough, often but not always, to do that. Back in 1974 a fella by the name of Mac Davis released a song called “It’s Hard To Be Humble.” It was a novelty song, and really kind of fun because we all find it hard to be humble when it comes right down to it. (You can check that out here.) (↔ Music Link) Most of us would agree that it is better to be humble than to be humiliated. Humility and humbleness are not highly valued in our competitive, phony-baloney society. As kids we learned it is important to “Stand up for yourself,” and to “be proud of who you are and where you come from.” “Don’t let anyone put you down. Hold your head up high and take pride in your work.” I found a few interesting old sayings about servants (↔ Click Link) .

If we do desire to be Disciples, we must accept the discipline that comes along with that goal. Part of that discipline is fearlessly accepting that it will be a rough road. Go look at Mark 10:30 and Acts 14:22. Jesus himself told us we would suffer because of his Name. Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of evil against you falsely because of me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven.” (See Matthew 5:11-12)

How can anyone live like that and not be profoundly depressed?!? As we have learned to expect, the Holy Spirit has prompted The Apostle Paul to give us the answer which we find in Philippians 4:4-8 – 4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. 5 Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. 6 Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
8 Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. You may remember GIGO – Gospel In, Gospel Out. When we live like that, being a Disciple is so very rewarding that we don’t notice how “meek and lowly, the downtrodden and marginalized, how persecuted and neglected, and among those held in lowest esteem by all.” “If God is all you have left, you have all you need.” It is Only In God (↔ Music Link) that we find our rest, our Hope, our greatest Love. If you, if I, if WE can just cool our jets long enough to honor the Giver by accepting the Gift, we’ll be embraced in the Peace surpassing understanding and move forward toward Heaven.

Therein we find the will, the ability, and the strength to rest in God’s hand as his Disciple because in, by, and through his discipline we give delight to the Lord.

Proverbs 3:11-12 – 11 My child, do not despise the Lord’s discipline
or be weary of his reproof,
12 for the Lord reproves the one he loves,
as a father the son in whom he delights.

As our dear friend in heaven, St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta said, “Do small things with great Love.” There’ a wise adage stating “Take care of the small stuff and all the rest will fall into place.” I usually chuckle about that because it reminds me of this riddle – Q: How do you eat an elephant? A: One bite at a time. Q: How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice, practice, practice. Q: How do we get to Heaven? A: One humble step at a time. Q: How do we learn to be humble? A: 5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
and do not rely on your own insight.
6 In all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make straight your paths. (See Proverbs 3:5-6) and furthermore, you will end up singing and dancing and shouting
Praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord, O my soul!

In other words seek righteousness, seek humility. That’s one of the Core Principles in the Absolutely Perfect Plan. Check out your Study Guide (the B.I.B.L.E.) for additional principles on the Discipline of Discipleship. You will find a passage marked with this bookmark, a gift from El Shaddai-Olam:

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

Aloha Friday Messages by Charles O. Todd, III is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License

Aloha Friday Message – January 20, 2023 – Take a Look at the Good Book

January 20, 2023

2303AFC012023 – Take a Look at the Good Book

Read it online here, please. And please – when you visit there – use one of the social media links at the bottom of the page to share this post. Thank you! And remember, we now have a READER VIEW available, so share this link or this email often.

Do you know someone who enjoys Bible study, or who might like to read this? Ask them to email us or to subscribe on our blog-site.

A pile of keys outside an antique shop in Eton.

Psalm 27:13-14 – 13 I believe that I shall see the goodness of the Lord
in the land of the living.
14 Wait for the Lord;
be strong, and let your heart take courage;
wait for the Lord!

Isaiah 9:2 – 2 The people who walked in darkness
have seen a great light;
those who lived in a land of deep darkness—
on them light has shined.

1 Corinthians 1:10 –  oon 10 Now I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you be in agreement and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same purpose.

Matthew 4:17 – 17 From that time Jesus began to proclaim, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” (Belovéd, I urge you to follow that link to see this passage in context in The Good Book. There is a demonstration of the fulfillment of the prophecy in the passage from Isaiah.)

Grace, mercy, and peace will be with us from God the Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father’s Son, in truth and love. Belovéd, this coming Sunday is the Third Sunday in ordinary time. In 2019, Pope Francis published an Apostolic Letter Motu proprio (under his own authority) titled “Aperuit illis”. The title, as is customary with such works, is based on the first two words in Latin of the Letter’s words “He opened.” Pope Francis opens with the words from the story The Road to Emaus wherein we read “Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures,” (Luke 24:45-48) and in this Apostolic Letter, he established the Third Sunday in Ordinary Time as Word of God Sunday. It is Pope Francis’ intention that all believers have abundant opportunities to expand their knowledge and application of Scripture. We are encouraged to do so in addition to Mass.

Scripture is used extensively in the Mass which begins with a passage of Scripture used as the Entrance Antiphon. Then there are several more readings – Old Testament, a Responsorial Psalm or Canticle, a reading from the Epistles, an Alleluia verse before the Gospel reading, a specified reading from one of the Gospels, a rite based on Luke 7:6-7 during the Eucharistic Prayer (Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof), and a communion antiphon. That’s 10 Scripture passages in each Sunday Mass. In weekday masses there is generally one passage fewer. Over the course of a three-year cycle, about 90% of everything in all 73 books of the Bible is heard during Mass. Pope Francis wants us to hear more, to learn more, to understand more, and to use the Written Word of God to help us to understand better and to Love better the Living Word of God, his only Begotten Son, Jesus the Christ of God. You can read the full text of the Pope’s letter here. (↔ Click Link)

Let’s continue looking into the Good Book with the entire Church and consider the Key Verse from Psalms. The Psalmist says he doesn’t have to die to see the goodness of the Lord. He can see that goodness in his own life. God will continue to bless him in due course as he waits in joyful hope for the Presence of God to deliver him from the enemies surrounding him. They seek to discredit him, but he knows that God will always take up his cause and put down his enemies. We, too, can now that God is our Light and our salvation (Psalm 27:1) and that he will never abandon us even if our own family turns against us. The radiant hope we have in God is because of his steadfast love and forgiveness. We know this Hope when we “seek the face of the Lord.” (Psalm 27:8) He will not forsake us when we sustain our lives with prayer and Love. The Psalmist exhorts his “weaker self” – the part of his heart (and ours!) that doubts – with the strength of his Faith in God, and therein comes the Victory.

    In the passage from Isaiah, we also see that bright Hope. Though born into a world of darkness, we who hope and trust in the Lord will be filled with the Light of his Love. When our own personal actions in the darkness of sin turn us away from that Light, he continues to reach out to us, to direct and protect us, and when we turn back to him with all our hearts (↔ Music Link), we rejoice greatly because the yoke of sin has been removed from us if we have repented and believed the Gospel. It is one of the most beautifully mysterious aspects of God’s Absolutely Perfect Plan – his Love is everlasting (↔ Music Link). We also know that at the end of our lives we will join in Divine Worship before God’s Throne as we await the return of Christ and then the Resurrection. Indeed, his mercy endures forever. He created us to Love him because he Loved us enough to create us. Isn’t that just astounding? Oh! What a GOOD God we have! We gratefully acknowledge that his first choice was to give us Apostles, men who would share the words of the Living Word everywhere they went. (See 1 Corinthians 12:28 from last week again)

The Apostle Paul wrote our Key Verse from the Epistles in his first letter to the Corinthians which we are using today. As the Apostle to the Gentiles, his message consistently urged everyone in the churches founded by the Apostles and first Missionaries to be of one mind, to avoid divisions over pointless arguments, and to stay true to the Gospel which all the Apostles spoke with the authority Christ had given them in the Cenacle. One additional example of The Apostle Paul’s teaching on this is in Ephesians 4:1-6 – 1 I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4 There is one body (↔ Music Link) and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all. This is another dimension of the APP – it is so thoroughly consistent from beginning to end – that’s why it is THE Absolutely Perfect Plan! Repent! For the Kingdom of God is at hand! Hallelujah!

That’s what Jesus tells us in our Key Verse from the Gospel. He repeatedly told people the Kingdom was near. It is such a simple thing for our complex minds. “Where is this ‘Kingdom’? Where are its boundaries, and what is its geography?” The Kingdom of God is not a thing, not a place. It is a “he.” It is the Presence of God among us, in our hearts and in our minds. The Law is fulfilled in Jesus and we who are in Jesus are freed by his sacrifice (See Romans 6, especially v. 14). Do you recall what Moses told God’s people about the Law God delivered to their doorstep? In Deuteronomy 30:11-14 he said– 14 No, the word is very near to you; it is in your mouth and in your heart for you to observe. They were to keep the Law in the front of their hearts and minds at all times. As we know, they often failed at that, and so God gave them Judges (strong military leaders) and Prophets to remind them. In the passage of 1 Corinthians 12:28, do you recall what the second Spiritual gift was? “And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, …”  Flashback to Moses again in Numbers 11:29b – “Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his spirit on them!” Through Christ Jesus we have become a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people – in him we are citizens of the Kingdom of God. (See 1 Peter 2:9) The Kingdom was and is, and will always be the Word who was there from “In The Beginning” and will return to us “At The End.” How do we know? (↔ Music Link) The B.I.B.L.E. tells us so! Why? 2 Timothy 3:16-17 – 16 All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work. 

      When I was growing up, nearly all non-Catholic Christians had their own Bible which they carried to Sunday School, Church, and Prayer Meetings. I still have several of the Bibles I have owned over the years. My latest is the Little Rock Catholic Study Bible. I keep it right next to my workstation and use it often even though I also have access to online Bibles and multiple digital versions. It is no exaggeration for me to say “I love my Bible!” With equal intensity, I also enjoy sharing it – especially with you, Belovéd. I usually don’t put any ads in my posts, but I would like to mention for your benefit a couple of resources you might enjoy. They are available “for free” from Ascension Press and feature podcast episodes by Fr. Mike Schmitz. You may have seen him on the Internet or social media. He’s a great speaker who covers a lot of material in a short time thanks to his rapid-fire speech. There are two year-long podcasts series he has on file. The fist one was The Bible in A Year (↔ Click Link). It’s always online, always available, always “free” – and I put that in quotes because they do ask for support financially and spiritually – and I can attest that the episodes are edifying and enlightening. The second is in the same format and it is called The Catechism in A Year (↔ Click Link). I’m currently listening to that one. You can use whatever device and/or service you use for other podcasts (e.g., Apple or Spotify). There are many available resources provided for a price from Ascension. There are social media groups in the most-popular formats. There are notebooks, indexing tabs, bookmark ribbons, supporting study notes, and rock-solid teaching on the content of the catechism and its applications in our lives. “Try it. You’ll like it.” Here’s a sample from The Bible In A Year– a bit longer than most – so you can get some sense of how exciting this is. This is about the first Council of the Church before any of the New Testament was written. Listen for the names of the men among the first Missionaries were also Prophets. As St. Jerome said, “Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ.” If you or anyone you know has ever thought “Nah, I don’t need the Scriptures. I hear enough in church,” then you are, in effect saying, “Nah, I don’t need Christ. I’m good without all that.” Like my grandma used to say, “Come over. We’ll talk.”

Belovéd, you are my Belovéd, and I am praying for you every day! Please make the Bible part of your day every single day. There are periodicals for devotionals as well as hundreds of online resources. I encourage you to go to Google Play or the APP store and find the APP Laudate. There are so many Bible applications, too. Bible Gateway is the one I use for these posts. Let me close with just this: We all need to be listening to the Word of God every day because it is his Word, his Voice. If we’re not listening, it is possible to miss that voice behind you saying, “This is the way. Walk in it.” (That’s Isaiah 30:21 again) We’re walking this long stretch of the Road Home together, and while we listen to each other, we most certainly need to listen to him all the more. Take a good look at the Good Book, good pilgrims. It is indeed our Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth!

Whatever, whenever, wherever, whoever, however, if ever, forever —
at your service, Belovéd!

Please pray with us here at Share-a-Prayer.

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

Aloha Friday Message – January 13, 2023 – The Word of Love and the Prophets

January 13, 2023

2303AFC011323 – The Word of Love and the Prophets

Read it online here, please. And please – when you visit there – use one of the social media links at the bottom of the page to share this post. Thank you! And remember, we now have a READER VIEW available, so share this link or this email often.

Do you know someone who enjoys Bible study, or who might like to read this? Ask them to email us or to subscribe on our blog-site.

     Isaiah 49:1-6 –  

     1 Listen to me, O coastlands,
pay attention, you peoples from far away!
The Lord called me before I was born,
while I was in my mother’s womb he named me.
2 He made my mouth like a sharp sword,
in the shadow of his hand he hid me;
he made me a polished arrow,
in his quiver he hid me away.
3 And he said to me, “You are my servant,
Israel, in whom I will be glorified.”
4 But I said, “I have labored in vain,
I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity;
yet surely my cause is with the Lord,
and my reward with my God.”

5 And now the Lord says,
who formed me in the womb to be his servant,
to bring Jacob back to him,
and that Israel might be gathered to him,
for I am honored in the sight of the Lord,
and my God has become my strength—
6  he says, “It is too light a thing that you should be my servant
to raise up the tribes of Jacob
and to restore the survivors of Israel;
I will give you as a light to the nations,
that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”

Psalm 40:8-9 – 8 I delight to do your will, O my God;
your law is within my heart.”
9 I have told the glad news of deliverance
in the great congregation;
see, I have not restrained my lips,
as you know, O Lord.

1 Corinthians 1:3 – 3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

John 1:29-31 – 29 The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him and declared, “Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! 30 This is he of whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who ranks ahead of me because he was before me.’ 31 I myself did not know him; but I came baptizing with water for this reason, that he might be revealed to Israel.”

Aloha nui loa, ʻŌmea! Grace and Peace to each of you from God our Father and our Lord,  Jesus the Christ, in the Power of the Holy Spirit. Today’s greeting is paraphrased from our Key Verse from the Epistles, 1 Corinthians 1:3 and includes the miraculous manifestation of the Holy Trinity at the moment of Jesus’ baptism as we read in Matthew 3:14- 17 – 14 John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” 15 But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented. 16 And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. 17 And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” For every earthling – past, present, or future – that moment was like a spiritual supernova! It almost carries as much weight as Genesis 1:3 – 3 Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. And the Word was the Light.

We can remember that in John 1:1-5 – 1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being 4 in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it. The Light of the World is Jesus (↔ Music Link), the First, the Last, the Always Living Word of God. In the beginning there was only a formless void … and God! God’s Spirit moved over that void like a mighty wind tearing through the darkness. Then God spoke the Word as Light. There, in that moment, we see the Love of God who is the Lover of Creation, we see the Word of God who is the Belovéd of Creation, and the Relationship of the Community of Love as the Spirit of God, the Lord, the Giver of Life.

Then, the Lover of all Creation took a wad of clay from what he had created and formed it into Adam, the Man of God, so that God and Adam could love one another as Lover and Belovéd. This was because God had created Adam in his own image and likeness. God placed the man in Paradise and gave him wonderful gifts of plants, and creatures of the earth, the sea, and the sky. He made us for and out of Love which he deemed we would share with him. In my heart I hear a poem by James Weldon Johnson called “The Creation.” I memorized it in high school because it was so remarkable. It was from a slim volume of prayers and poetry called God’s Trombones [1](↔ Learning Link). It was quite a bit longer than works my classmates had memorized, and I loved sharing it because it spoke to the deepest parts of my heart. To this day it still give me goosebumps. It starts out with God saying “I’m lonely – I’ll make me a world.” It ends with this declaration:

“Then into it he blew the breath of life,
And man became a living soul.
Amen. Amen.”

He made us for and out of Love which he deemed we would share with him, and right from The Beginning, he made it possible for us to share his Love instead of merely receiving his Love. He allowed us to choose to return the love he had given to us. To top it all off, he created Eve from Adam so that Adam could Love Eve just as God Loved (↔ Music Link) both of them – expecting them to Love him even as he had loved (↔ Learning Link). God’s Gift of Love manifested his Perfect Integrity, Endless, Mercy, Everlasting Love, and Eternal Salvation through Christ our Lord. They were perfect for and in him as well as in and for each other – but they forgot about the pureness and completeness of God’s Love and decided to choose a love of their own in place of choosing to Love him. This poor decision cost them their place in Paradise – temporarily. It also cost them the ease with which they cared for the earth and its creatures. Eventually this first sin against the Love of God led to poverty, slavery, and oppression. In Genesis 3:15 (↔ Important Learning Link), God prophesied to Eve that he would provide a remedy for sin and the death it brought. In the Preface III for Mass in Ordinary Time we hear, “you [God] came to the aid of mortal beings with your divinity and even fashioned for us a remedy out of mortality itself, that the cause of our downfall might become the means of our salvation, through Christ our Lord.” The choices made by subsequent generations became more and more evil. God chose one man and his family to continue the race of earthlings and the rest he destroyed in a flood. The covenant God made with Noah preserved all creatures and humans that had been created. Still, evil once again disrupted history when God found it necessary to scatter the Peoples at Babel.

Eventually God chose a wealthy and intelligent military strategist of great Faith, named אַבְרָם – Abram – to be the Father of Multitudes dedicated to God as his Chosen People, the Children of Abraham. Abraham received a blessing from Melchizedek, and a covenant of lands, a kingdom, and worldwide blessings. The Absolutely Perfect Plan was running according to schedule – because it is Absolutely Perfect! It started with “Let there be light,” and came to fulfillment in The Light to the Nations the Christ of God, the Second Adam

ALL of this is because of Love. God created us for Love, in Love, and with Love to be Loved by him. He is the source of everything we should be, everything we should have, everything we will need, and everything he Loves. He does not, however, Love sin because sin is death, and death puts an ending on immortality. Because he does not wish for any of us to die, he sent Prophets to us to tell us about the Absolutely Perfect Plan, and gave us examples of how humanity can dwell with God. Abraham was such a Prophet. Around 7,000 years after Noah’s covenant with God, Moses was called to tell God’s chosen people they were to be delivered from their enslavement in Egypt. In Deuteronomy 18:15-19, Moses tells the Israelites 15 The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from among your own people; and at the end of that passage he says 18b I will put my words in the mouth of the Prophet, who shall speak to them everything that I command. 19 Anyone who does not heed the words that the Prophet shall speak in my name, I myself will hold accountable. We recently reviewed how The APP brings that prophecy to fulfillment in 2252AFC122322 – No Deposit. No Return. Here is an excerpt:

He is the reflection of God’s glory and the exact imprint of God’s very being, and he sustains all things by his powerful word. It is HIS word that will be our judge. We will recall John 12:48-50 – 48 “The one who rejects me and does not receive my word has a judge; on the last day the word that I have spoken will serve as judge, 49 for I have not spoken on my own, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment about what to say and what to speak. 50 And I know that his commandment is eternal life. What I speak, therefore, I speak just as the Father has told me.” Was John the Baptist the last Prophet? Honestly, I don’t know – if I did know then I, too, would be a Prophet. I recall in The Apostle Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians: 1 Corinthians 12:28 – 28 And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers; then deeds of power, then gifts of healing, forms of assistance, forms of leadership, various kinds of tongues. These gifts must also be discerned and tested to be true.

The test of a true Prophet is that what s/he says proves to be true. Prophets do not speak on their own, and their words are not their own opinion, guidance, or warning. They speak what the Holy Spirit tells them, and therefore what they say is True. In the Acts of the Apostles (chapters 13 & 15), we have accounts of certain prophets such as Agabus, Barnabas and Silas, Judas, and Lucius. Who is prophesying today? I don’t think we really know, but I do believe that the Holy Spirit continues to work with men and women to convey to the World how God’s Absolutely Perfect Plan is unfolding, little by little, and helping to draw us closer to the words of the Angels spoken in Acts 1:11 to the Apostles at Jesus’ Ascension: “Men of Galilee, why do you stand here] looking up into the sky? This same Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven] will come back in the same way you saw him go into heaven.” (New English Translation (NET) NET Bible® copyright ©1996-2017 by Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. http://netbible.com All rights reserved. Used with permission.)

Jesus is our Light because he is a Light to the Nations. He is with us until the end of the Age. The authority of his Voice is heard throughout Scripture – yes, including the old testament – because , as it says in 2 Timothey 3:16-17 – 16 All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work. The Word became flesh and lived with us; he is alive in Scripture as well. That is why each of us can say –
8 I delight to do your will, O my God;
your law is within my heart.”
9 I have told the glad news of deliverance
in the great congregation;

Whatever, whenever, wherever, whoever, however, if ever, forever —
at your service, Belovéd!
Please pray with us here at Share-a-Prayer.

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

Aloha Friday Messages by Charles O. Todd, III is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License

[1] Johnson, James Weldon, God’s Trombones, New York NY. Viking Press. 1927 pp 17-19 please follow the link and read this remarkable and important book

 

Aloha Friday Message – January 6, 2023 – I dreamed a dream …

January 6, 2023

2301AFC010623 – I dreamed a dream …

Read it online here, please. And please – when you visit there – use one of the social media links at the bottom of the page to share this post. Thank you! And remember, we now have a READER VIEW available, so share this link or this email often.

Do you know someone who enjoys Bible study, or who might like to read this? Ask them to email us or to subscribe on our blog-site.

   Isaiah 60:2 – 2 For darkness shall cover the earth,
and thick darkness the peoples;
but the Lord will arise upon you,
and his glory will appear over you.

Psalm 72:11 –
11 May all kings fall down before him,
all nations give him service. 

Ephesians 3:5-6 – 5 In former generations this mystery was not made known to humankind, as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit: 6 that is, the Gentiles have become fellow heirs, members of the same body, and sharers in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.

Matthew 2:12 – 12 And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road.

Aloha nui loa, ʻŌmea! Grace and Peace to each of you from God our Father and our Lord, Jesus the Christ, in the Power of the Holy Spirit. Today is the Feast of the Epiphany. It is also called the Feast of the Theophany, Three Kings Day, and the Twelfth Day of Christmas. It commemorates the manifestation – the arrival, the coming, the showing forth, the discovery – of Jesus by and for the Gentiles. In this showing forth – especially in the term Theophany – The Magi represent the Gentiles, all the non-Hebraic nations of the world. That word in Greek is Θεοφάνεια – Theo for God and phaneia for shown forth.

In the biblical account found only in the Gospel of Matthew, the number of visitors from the east is not given. We assume it was three because of the gifts mentioned – gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Because of the expensiveness of the gifts, readers of Matthew’s Gospel thought perhaps the visitors must have “kingly wealth,” hence, “we Three Kings.” Isaiah and David had both predicted that the Messiah would be worshiped by kings from across the world (Isaiah 60:3 and Psalm 68:29 for example), and so even though there was no evidence for the visitors to be kings –they are referred to only as Magi which is the plural for the Greek word magos μάγος, who were priests of Zoroaster (a/k/a “Zarathustra” as in “Thus Spake Zarathustra”). Zoroastrianism was an ancient religion associated with astrology, magic, and fortune telling – a sorcerer. One such famous sorcerer was the Samaritan, Simon Magus – “Simon the Sorcerer” – who was a convert to Christianity thanks to the ministrations of the Apostle Philip, even though he tried to “buy” the Anointing of the Holy Spirit (Read the eighth chapter of Acts). A further bit of information we often overlook in the Nativity Scene is that Matthew says the magi followed the star to a house, but says nothing about a stable, shepherds, a manger, or even of Joseph. (Matthew 2:9-11).

An epiphany is a showing forth, or shining forth. It modern times it has come to mean a sudden realization that puts everything into perspective – a paradigm shift where our understanding is “suddenly” brighter and clearer. I put that “suddenly” in quotes, because generally an epiphany comes about after much laborious thinking and working. Those “A-HA” moments are rare, but they are usually preceded by intense effort even if the moment of understanding seems to come effortlessly. Famous “epiphanies” in recent history might include Isaac Newton and Arthur Fry (he invented Post-It Notes), and there have been a few in politics recently which we will not mention today. The basic idea is that genuine innovation comes through inspired thinking based on hard work. They are wonderful experiences whether we feel them ourselves, or watch others “see the light go on.” That experience is the Central Joy of Teaching! I think about that when I read our Key Verse passage from Isaiah – the entire world in darkness, then suddenly A GREAT LIGHT – the Hope of Israel, and now the Hope of all earthlings.

For Christians, Epiphany is the commemoration not so much of the visit by the magi, but the fact that Jesus is revealed to the whole world – Jew and gentile, rich and poor, righteous and sinner, young and old, and whatever other earthling set of opposites you can think up. He came here for every single soul on earth before or after his birth so we can be sharers in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel. All of us can turn our eyes toward Jesus and see God with us – Emanuel. That always gives me goose-bumps. God. With. Us. The Manifestation of The Christ. Born of a virgin in abject poverty in a tiny village outside Jerusalem, he grew up in obscure places in Egypt and Galilee, and was anointed with the Holy Spirit at about age 30 (we assume). A few years later he died a horrible death as a criminal falsely accused of sedition against Rome.

When Jesus entered into the world as that tiny baby on a cold night in a tiny village a few miles away from the capital of a nation once again under foreign domination, he carried with him a power of Grace so immense that it could actually redeem every soul that has now, has ever had, or will ever have been born of a woman and still there would be an immeasurable amount of that grace left over. The magi demonstrated that God sent that child for all the world to know and to love. It doesn’t really matter if they rode camels or donkeys, if there were three or two or even thirty of them. It doesn’t matter if they didn’t kneel around the manger. It doesn’t matter if we named them Caspar, Balthasar, Melchior. It might matter a little bit that the gifts were highly symbolic. Myrrh is an aromatic resin. It was used in preparing the dead for burial.  Gold reveals that the baby born to a virgin and at someone’s house under a special star is actually a king. The frankincense tells us that the King the magi came to honor was none other than God incarnate. And the capper is that the myrrh tells us that he has come to die.

Myrrh means “bitterness.” It was used in perfumes for centuries, but it was also used  for embalming a corpse, and as an antiseptic, as well as to reduce pain. Of the three gifts given to Jesus only myrrh is mentioned at the beginning of his Life as a gift from the magi and at the end of his life as a gift from a friend. “Nicodemus, who had first come to Him by night, also came [with Joseph of Arimathea], bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds weight. So they took the body of Jesus and bound it in linen wrappings with the spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews” (John 19:39-40)

He was wrapped in swaddling clothes at birth, in a shroud at death. Never owned a place of his own. Had a simple tunic woven from top to bottom all in one piece, but little else other than the most basic items of clothing. We don’t know what happened to the gifts, but perhaps some of that came in handy on the way to, for a time in, and on the way back from Egypt. Maybe Mary had kept some of the myrrh and gave it to Nicodemus? No one knows what happened to any of the gifts except the True Gift. He came here to show us God (↔ Click Link) his Father. He came here to redeem us from everything that had gone wrong (↔ Click Link) in the world. He did all of this “even for us.” (“etiam pro nobis” in the Latin version of the Credo). Praying the Creed of Faith – The Apostolic Creed or Nicene Creed – is a way to be immersed in Jesus’ epiphany. (See contemporaneous concomitance by following that link)

Take the risk of finding your own epiphany. Make this  phrase part of your personal statement of faith – your “this is mine” Credo – to say etiam pro me quoque. “Even for me also.” And you don’t have to bring some fancy treasure. Be like The Little Drummer Boy (↔ Music Link) and bring what you have – you. For your gift-wrap use a smile as the bow and your heart as the box. Jesus will look at your gift, and say something like “Oh, WOW! You brought that for ME?!?!? And you can tell him “Etiam tibi.” Even for you.

I sometimes ask you to use the Moon Beam Network Prayer (↔ Click Link). I do that because we are invited as intercessors to pray for, with, and about each other and the entire world (as in Psalm 72:11) The MBN Invitation reads, in part,

  • When we pray FOR each other, we act as intercessors, “in-the-place-of” praying. It’s making a prayer on behalf of someone else rather than on behalf of ourselves.
  • When we pray ABOUT each other, we’re making prayers that are intended to be blessings. We ask God for this favor or that outcome for one another. I might pray about your health or you might pray about me to find strength in a trial.
  • When we pray WITH each other, ah, there’s a power in that. Usually this is focused on something outside of both of us, like the people who are suffering in Southeast Asia, or a child who has been kidnapped.

One of the goals I set at the inception of the MBN was to “pray without ceasing” for each other. It’s just a short little prayer, maybe 30 seconds or less, but it is a prayer that covers all of us – and many, many more people – with the intentions of Light and Love and Life.

There is a deep spiritual reason for asking our El-Shaddai-Olam to grant all of us that trio of blessings on a daily basis. The reason is that it helps us to follow Christ’s command to “love one another (↔ Music Link) as I have loved (↔ Learning Link) you,” and to “let your light shine before all.” Your day-to-day life is given to you so that you can show the world the Light and Life of the Word. We use a special word for that – MANIFEST: demonstrate, show forth, exhibit, make plain, or reveal. We are to let the Light and Life of the Word become so obvious in us that it allows others access to a Spiritual Epiphany so that they, too, know the Light and Life of the Word.

The Feast of Epiphany is a commemoration of the Epiphany – the showing forth, the revealing – of Christ to the World by recalling the visit of the Magi. Long story short, Jesus was revealed to the lowest and poorest (shepherds), the purest (Anna and Simeon), and the most clearly-defined outsiders (the Magi), before his own nation learned who he was. The “Three Kings“(↔ Music Link) knew Jesus as THE King, the fulfillment of prophecy. The Shepherds were told “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.” Anna and Simeon knew Jesus to be “a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.” Both of these prophets were walking in the Holy Spirit because “the Holy Spirit rested” on them.

Beloved, guess what? THE HOLY SPIRIT RESTS ON US, TOO! Not only can we recognize Christ when he is shown to us, others can recognize Christ in us when we show him to them. That is AWESOME!! And I mean “awesome” in the way that it should be defined – overwhelming, amazing, awe-inspiring, wonderful, evoking respect, reverence, esteem, worship, adoration, praise, glory, and veneration. In John 8:12, Jesus says, “I am the light of the World. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” He is the Light. That’s the main point of the APP. But remember this: He also says in Matthew 5:14-16 “You are the light of the World … let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.” How can HE be the Light and WE be the Light? You know the answer; his is in us and we are in him and the Spirit rests on us in unity with God the Father. If God had a dream, it would be about us because everything he did, he did for us. I dreamed a dream, and in it I saw God’s dream for us. It might look a little like this:

Epiphany me!

Whatever, whenever, wherever, whoever, however, if ever, forever —
at your service, Belovéd!
Please pray with us here at Share-a-Prayer.

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

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Aloha Friday Messages by Charles O. Todd, III is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License

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