Aloha Friday Message – February 7, 2023 – Short and Simple

April 7, 2023

w2314AFC040723 – Short and Simple

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A pile of keys outside an antique shop in Eton.

Aloha nui loa, ʻŌmea! Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Christ Jesus our Lord. You might recognize ← this image. It means that this post is loaded with Scripture. The title – Sort and Simple – refers to the fact that each passage will be presented on its own, for the most part, with a few comments interspersed here and there.

Today is Good Friday (↔ Learning Link), and we are in the center of the Triduum – a very L-O-N-G single event that begins on Thursday evening and runs through Sunday morning. During that period, my hope is that you’ll will make time to review some of these passages – even use the links I’ve provided – and soak your soul in the sweetness of Holy Scripture. Before we get into that, though, just a little housekeeping.

Beginning tomorrow, April 8, Crucita and I will be on a little “stay-cation” up in Princeville on the North end of Kauaʻi. For next Friday’s post, I will send you only a link for something I will (or have already) post(ed) before we depart. It’s only around 25 miles away, but on some days it can take more than an hour to get from there to Kapaʻa, and 2 hours to get from Princeville to Lihuʻe. Whatever I chose or prepare will need to be read online. The link will also be posted to my Facebook page (I hope). Please remember: if you are using an iOS device, you can select “Reader Version” if you find it difficult to read light-against-dark printing colors. We also have a little rectangle in the upper-left corner of each post that will give you a non-dynamic text version. OK, then! We’re off to see the King! (↔ Music Link) As you approach each passage, I encourage you to read them aloud or at least “silently vocalize” (lip-sync) each of them.

We begin with some well-trod ground with phrases that are not Scripture, but are scriptural – the memorial acclamations used in the Eucharistic prayers before and after the revision of the Roman Missal beginning in 2008:

We proclaim your death, O Lord, and profess your Resurrection until you come again.

When we eat this Bread and drink this Cup, we proclaim your death, O Lord, until you come again.

Save us, Savior of the world, for by your Cross and Resurrection, you have set us free.

Dying, you destroyed our death; rising you restored our life. Lord, Jesus, come in glory.

Christ has died. Christ has risen. Christ will come again.

When we eat this bread and drink this cup, we proclaim your death, Lord Jesus, until you come in glory.

Lord, by your cross and resurrection, you have set us free. You are the Savior of the World.

Save us, Savior of the world, for by your Cross and Resurrection, you have set us free.

Here we begin with Scripture, but not necessarily in chronological order. As you speak them please try to sort them into their places in the History of Salvation fully aware that history is His Story.

Some of those should ring a bell, I hope, and as you read them please remember to speak them.

Luke 2:9-11 – 9 Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for see — I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: 11 to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord.

Genesis 3:15 –
15 I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and hers;
he will strike your head,
and you will strike his heel.”

Genesis 12:1 – 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.   

  Psalm 2:7 –
7 I will tell of the decree of the Lord:
He said to me, “You are my son;
today I have begotten you.

Psalm 51:15 –
15 O Lord, open my lips,
and my mouth will declare your praise.
(do you remember the response in the Prayer to the Holy Spirit which begins with the words “Incline unto?”

Isaiah 7:14 – 14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin will conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. World English Bible (WEB) Used with permission.

A REFLECTION ON WHAT IS HERE SO FAR:

He refused to save himself so that he could save all of us. Therefore, we have gratitude and we are given grace to understand so we can continue to fulfill our mission in his mission because we will have distractions which will require us to stay focused on Jesus. In the Life of Christian Service, and on our mission, we are broken and shared because a broken heart expresses, and exposes, its secret of seeing how beautiful is the body of Christ. (↔ Music Link)

Psalm 110:3
3 Yours is royal dignity in the day of your birth;
in holy splendor, before the daystar,
like the dew, I have begotten you.”

New Catholic Bible (NCB) Copyright © 2019 by Catholic Book Publishing Corp. All rights reserved. [Used by permission]

Psalm 110:4 –
4 The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind,
“You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.

We always remember, of course, the momentous event that brought us “ a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord” as it is told to us in Luke 1:28-38 – Our Holy Mother’s fiat. (OPEN THE LINK and meditate on the full content and impact of the event that led to the defeat of Ha-Satan)

The following were made available to us by our Brother and coworker in Christ, Nicholas J Stojakovich. They remind us that as Christians and Jews we are now targets of many hate-crimes; however, we have a fortress, a refuge, a Strong and Mighty Arm to defend us!

Genesis 50:20 – 20 Even though you intended to do harm to me, God intended it for good, in order to preserve a numerous people, as he is doing today.

Romans 8:28 – 28 We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.

Psalm 33:10 –
10 The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing;
he frustrates the plans of the peoples.

Psalm 21:11 –
11 If they plan evil against you,
if they devise mischief, they will not succeed.

Job 5:12-13 –
12 He frustrates the devices of the crafty,
so that their hands achieve no success.
13 He takes the wise in their own craftiness;
and the schemes of the wily are brought to a quick end.

Psalm 21:11 –
11 If they plan evil against you,
if they devise mischief, they will not succeed.

And in the same way we are certain that “they will have their reward.” (See Matthew Chapter 6 for multiple examples. Understanding these lessons from Jesus is essential to Christian life.)

We also know that God commands that HIS rules for the universe are what we are to follow, the moral criteria for living a Blesséd Life, and not the amoral or contra-moral laws implemented by political vermiforms such as these:

1 Corinthians 6:9-11 – 9 Do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived! Fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, male prostitutes, sodomites, 10 thieves, the greedy, drunkards, revilers, robbers—none of these will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And this is what some of you used to be. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.

God (remember that’s the same as “Trinity” in these pages) does not permit anything or anyone contaminated with unrepented evil to enter his house, so here are some additional wise words for those folks who think they can outsmart God by going, “Nyah-nyah-nyah-nyaaah-nyah! You can-a-an’t catch me!” Take a moment to let the underlined words sink in when it comes to so-called “refuge cites” that decry and defy moral law and tout their immorality – like Honolulu for instance.

   Proverbs 6:16-19 –
16 There are six things that the Lord hates,
seven that are an abomination to him:
17 haughty eyes, a lying tongue,
and hands that shed innocent blood,
18 a heart that devises wicked plans,
feet that hurry to run to evil,
19 a lying witness who testifies falsely,
and one who sows discord in a family.

It is the Lord who judges, and his judgment is just. He knows the heart of each of us and rewards us according to his Perfect Integrity, Endless Mercy, Everlasting Love, and Eternal Salvation through Christ our Lord. Sometimes during Mass, if we are listening carefully to the Eucharistic Prayer, we might hear these words:

Eucharistic Prayer IV – Intercessions (partial) Remember also those who have died in the peace of your Christ and all the dead, whose faith you alone have known.

This weekend we are given extra and very special time to be contemporaneously concomitant (↔ Learning Link) with Jesus as we listen to the whole array of Messianic Scripture, prayers, and Rites that comprise the Triduum. The most beautiful, the most important, and the most dear of these treasures from the hand of God are these:

Matthew 26:26-30 – 26 While they were eating, Jesus took a loaf of bread, and after blessing it he broke it, gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.” 27 Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you; 28 for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many* for the forgiveness of sins. 29 I tell you, I will never again drink of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.” ** πολλῶν (pollon) from πολύς (polus) {pol-oos’} – signifies ‘many, numerous’; with the article it is said of a multitude as being numerous or abundant, plenteous; many, a large part of mankind. This is similar to the Hebrew word רַב (rab) {rab} – much, abundant, abounding, great or great in numbers. (↔ Learning Link)
30 When they had sung the hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.

(See also Mark 14:32-42; Luke 22:39-46)

We can also seek the will of God when it comes to our choices. How is it possible that we can so easily betray Someone whom we love so much?! Our prayer can also be “Not my will but yours be done.” Often times we end up praying “Not thy will but mine be done. Here’s my list.” Let’s not, and say we know better. If we focus on our intentionality as Disciples, we must know that without Calvary there is no Easter, and without Easter, there is no Bride of Christ. When we struggle with the rigors of obedience and humility, it will be those four words that will make our struggle fruitful – THY WILL BE DONE. (↔ Music Link) It’s a short and simple way to rest against The Master’s shoulder and know that we are finally safe at Home. We arrive at living with Jesus by Living For Jesus (↔ Music Link) That’s the Power in the Blood that animates the Absolutely Perfect Plan.

God bless you always and all ways. See you in two weeks, but watch for a link after seven days.

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

BE SURE TO SEE OUR PRAISE REPORT HERE!

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 – 033123 – Obedience Or Humility?

March 31, 2023

2313AFC033123 – Obedience Or Humility?

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.

    Matthew 27:46 – 46 And about three o’clock Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” [1]

Mark 15:34 – 34 At three o’clock Jesus cried out with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (↔ Music Link)

Isaiah 50:5-7 –

5 The Lord God has opened my ear,
and I was not rebellious,
I did not turn backward.
6 I gave my back to those who struck me,
and my cheeks to those who pulled out the beard;
I did not hide my face
from insult and spitting.

7 The Lord God helps me;
therefore I have not been disgraced;
therefore I have set my face like flint,
and I know that I shall not be put to shame;

Isaiah 53:10 –

10 Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him with pain.
When you make his life an offering for sin,
he shall see his offspring, and shall prolong his days;
through him the will of the Lord shall prosper.

Philippians 2:7b-8 – [he was] born in human likeness.
And being found in human form,
8     he humbled himself
and became obedient to the point of death –
even death on a cross.

Aloha nui loa, ʻŌmea! Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. There is so much I want to share with you today, but if I put it all into one post … well, it wouldn’t be prudent. Nonetheless, I want to pluck some bits of Scripture from this fascinating set of readings and make a few comments – call them reminders – about what we hear every year. We will be hearing about 1] the entry into Jerusalem; 2] the institution of the Eucharist and Priesthood; 3] the agony in the garden; 4] the arrest and trial of Jesus; 5] Peter’s denials of Jesus; 6] Judas’ regret – not repentance – and suicide; 7] the release of Barabbas (whose name means “son of the father’); 8] the cruel scourging of Jesus, the mockery of the soldiers, and the crown of thorns; 9] the demands of the crowd stoked by the Pharisees; 10] the Way of the Cross, and conscription of Simon of Cyrene; 11] the barbaric crucifixion of Jesus and two criminals; 12] and the death of Jesus. Today we’ll pull up some tidbits from the readings, from previous posts, and from whatever sources inspire comment. This will happen in two parts – all done today. Buckle up! We’re gonna do another deep see dive.

Part 1 – Scripture Before the Passion
The first Key Verse for today is from the 7 Last Words series. Here is a quick analysis of it:

Mark 15:34 – At three o’clock Jesus cried out with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

Greek Text:
᾿Ελωΐ, ᾿Ελωΐ            λαμὰ             σαβαχθανι
Eloi,    Eloi               lema             sabachthani
(elói,   elói)              (lema)           (sabachthani)
{el-o-ee’, el-o-ee’}    {lem-ah’}       {sab-akh-than-ee’ or sab-akh-than’-ee}

Matthew 27:46 – And about three o’clock Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

Greek text:
Ἠλὶ*,   Ἠλὶ*              λεμὰ             σαβαχθάνι*
Eli,      Eli,                lema             sabachthani
(éli)     (éli)               (lama)           (sabachthani)
{ay-lee’, ay-lee’}       {lam-ah’}       {sab-akh-than-ee’ or sab-akh-than’-ee}

Psalm 22:1 – My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
    Why are you so far from helping me, from the words of my groaning?

Hebrew Text (from right to left):
עֲזַבְתָּ֑נִי                     לָמָ֣ה               אֵ֭לִי                  אֵלִ֣י
‘ă·zaḇ·tā·nî             lama             ’ê·lî               ’ê·lî
a zahb thāh nee      lā māh ale-ee           ale-ee

Now, why does this old man want to look at this? First, we sometimes wonder what language Jesus was speaking. The final analysis given by most scholars is that it’s Aramaic – sort of. In Mark’s transcription, it’s partially Hebrew. That’s a minor point. The important point is why Jesus said that. Did God the Father really, really, ignore, dismiss, or abandon Jesus? Of course not! Jesus was never abandoned by the Father! Why? Because the Father Loved the Son and the Son Loved the Father. Jesus – as God the Son – could not be abandoned by the Father; but, he could feel in his humanity the agony of death, separation, and aloneness. The humanity of Jesus certainly felt the abandonment of being alone in his death throes while most of his trusted companions for the previous three years were in hiding. God did not abandon Jesus to suffering, but Jesus perhaps felt the same sense of hopelessness that all humans feel in times of great duress: “Where is God in all this suffering? Surely a good God would not allow this?” Remember – he told his Disciples he must suffer greatly and be killed.

Why was it the will of the Lord to crush him with pain? Was it because God enjoyed seeing his Son suffer? Of course not! Was it because God was taking out his vengeance for all of our sins on Jesus? Not really. Remember, Jesus willingly laid down his life. (See John 10:18) this was part of God’s Absolutely Perfect Plan. Whose plan was it? God’s plan. And just to check our understanding of what that means, what should be our understanding of who GOD IS with regard to that plan? Was it God the Father who said, “Son, I’ve got some Good News and some bad news.”? Was it God the Son who said, “Father, I think I have an idea that will clear up this whole mess.”? Was it God the Holy Spirit who said, “How long should we wait before we proceed with our plan?” You have guessed the correct answer! It was ALL of the above! God has always been a community of Love. There wasn’t any “imposition of will.” There was only congruity of will! If, then, “everybody” in the Trinity was in agreement, everything went according to plan.

Every (good) plan has achievable goals and clear objectives. The Goal in this plan was to restore us (every living soul who ever sinned – and that’s plenty of us!) to the Community of Love that existed among God and Earthlings before sin entered into the World. The objectives were 1] God takes on human form (humility) 2] grows up according to human customs, 3] preaches to humans about being humbly obedient, and 4] dying the death he helped plan with his Father and his Holy Spirit for our Salvation. God’s Plan of Salvation was not for his benefit – although as we have seen it pleased him to formulate it and bring it to fruition – but while God was pleased to create this Salvation, he is all the more pleased to bless and approve this plan for our benefit. He is especially delighted, joyous, pleased-as-punch to see that we are redeemed by this plan. “By his stripes we are healed.” What kind of language is that for prophesy? Shouldn’t prophesy be future tense? Yes, you are right again! God has no future tense, no past tense, only present tense all the time everywhere. That pleases God who are always happy to destroy the barriers between God and Man. He who gave himself as a ransom for us all (↔ Music Link), he who paid in full (↔ Learning Link) all the debts of all your, my, and our sins, including death, he who willingly sought to please God so that God might be pleased to welcome us back into fellowship with Him – HE is pleased that WE are once again fully HIS. Is that cool or what!?!?!

That certainly pleases me. It also blesses me because it blesses God. It pleases us because when we say “God Bless YOU,” we mean that blessing to be in present tense in the same way that God is in present tense – all the time and everywhere. We have been given the remarkable Gift of Free Will so that when we finally hear and understand that “he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors” (See Isaiah 53:12), we will know why Isaiah says, “through him the will of the LORD shall prosper,” (See Isaiah 53:10c).

Part 2 – Scripture during the Passion

We’re going to skip ahead to the trial and then work out some things around that historical point. Here’s an example from the Old Testament –
Isaiah 50:5-7 –
5 The Lord God has opened my ear,
and I was not rebellious,
I did not turn backward.
6 I gave my back to those who struck me,
and my cheeks to those who pulled out the beard;
I did not hide my face
from insult and spitting.
7 The Lord God helps me;
therefore I have not been disgraced;

During the so-called trial of Jesus, as he was shuffled back and forth between persons of authority, he did not answer questions, did not debate, did not call down fire and brimstone or lightning on those who struck him, stuck him, or tried to trip him up. “Like a lamb to the slaughter … ” he opened not his mouth. In the Garden of Gethsemane his humanity was sorely tested as he contemplated the duress he would suffer as he took up the final objective in God’s Absolutely Perfect Plan. I’d like to come up with some beautiful words to sum that up, but The Apostle Paul said it best here in Philippians 2:7b-8 –

[he was] born in human likeness.
And being found in human form,
8      he humbled himself
and became obedient to the point of death –
even death on a cross.

Now that we have come to this point, we begin to see why the topic for today is “Obedience Or Humility?“. We might ask ourselves, “Did Jesus have to be humble to be obedient, or did Jesus have to be obedient to be humble?” Which is the antecedent disposition – humility or obedience? The best answer seems to be “both,” but I’m going to risk picking one. By asking a few questions.

Q: What was the foundation of the lie the Serpent used in the Garden?
A: God doesn’t want you to be like him, but you can get around that by doing this.
Q: Of the Seven Cardinal Sins, which is most directly connected to this temptation?
A: Pride, because when we choose to determine our own destiny rather than rely on God’s Absolutely Perfect Plan, we throw humility to the winds, and fly away with all its blessings. We know God wants a heart that is contrite and humble. Do we obey him when we try to achieve that? Or do we start with humility and work our way up to obedience by becoming meek and lowly? Are we coming to the conclusion that we need both simultaneously? Can we be obedient without being humble – without submitting to another (or Another) out of Love, respect, or even fear (not reverence -real fear). Can we be humble without being obedient? If that’s what God wants, then we must humbly set aside our own silly little plans and live by the APP.  But what about contrition? Is that humility or obedience? Let’s see what Scripture says.

We offer our contrition because it opens our hearts and lives to God’s forgiveness and forgetfulness:

We can begin with a very familiar verse which is often cited when discussing the moral condition of the Nation and the World: 2 Chronicles 7:14 – 14 if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, pray, seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. To be contrite is to feel sorrow and/or pain when we acknowledge of sins. There are four steps: Humbly acknowledge our sins, seek and accept forgiveness, continual awareness of God’s presence and care in one’s life, and fully repent by avoiding sin and the desire to be tempted – the “near occasion of sin.” Then we can rely on God who says unequivocally, “I will heal you.”

Isaiah 43:25 – 25 I, I am He
who blots out your transgressions for my own sake,
and I will not remember your sins.

The Apostle Paul  reminds us that this is God’s plan instituted the day Adam and Eve turned against him. Acts 3:19-21 – 19 Repent therefore, and turn to God so that your sins may be wiped out, 20 so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Messiah appointed for you, that is, Jesus, 21 who must remain in heaven until the time of universal restoration that God announced long ago through his holy prophets.

The Apostle Peter adds: Acts 2:38 – 38 Peter said to them, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Why does God even care if we repent? Because of his everlasting intentional Love. He doesn’t want the sinner to die. He wants us to acknowledge our need for repentance, and then do it.

Luke 15:7 – 7 Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance. Can you imagine that? When we repent, HEAVEN REJOICES?!? Luke 15:10 – 10 Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents. Jesus know that all of that was possible for only one reason:

Luke 24:46-47 – 46 … and he said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, 47 and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.”

How can this be? How can God forgive me, forgive you, forgive us who have sinned and will doubtless continue to sin? Romans 5:5b-8 – 5b … because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us. 6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. 8 But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.

By now, the answer is becoming clearer. It is Humility AND Obedience continuously working together in our hearts that bring the Light of Salvation to our souls. There is a “secret” to making these actions work together smoothly. We combine them, support them, and utilize then that arises out of Trust in the perfect integrity, endless mercy, everlasting love, and eternal salvation that is ours only in our El Shaddai-Olam – the Almighty-Everliving God – through the passion, death, and Resurrection of Jesus, the Christ of God. That combination is the antecedent of the pain and sorrow we know in our contrition. Check out Psalm 51:17.

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]  Jesus was on the cross for about 6 hours. The Earth and all that is in and around it – including the Earthlings – was created in 6 days. The Number of Completion is 6. The day of Christ’s passion began in chaos and ended in completion just like his Creation. God’s Absolutely Perfect Plan is always right.

 

Aloha Friday Message – March 24, 2023 – Believer! Come Forth! – Lent Week 5

March 24, 2023

2312AFC032423 – Believer! Come Forth! – Lent Week 5 (↔ Music Link)

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.

     Ezekiel 37:12a – Thus says the Lord God: I am going to open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people;

Isaiah 25:7-8 – And he will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people, and the veil that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth: for the Lord hath spoken it.

Romans 8:8-9 – 8 Those who obey their human nature cannot please God. 9 But you do not live as your human nature tells you to; instead, you live as the Spirit tells you to — if, in fact, God’s Spirit lives in you. Whoever does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. Good News Translation (GNT)[1]

Happy Aloha Friday, Beloved. We are already at the fifth Friday of Lent, and this coming Sunday the Gospel is about Lazarus, the brother of Mary and Martha. The account of Lazarus’ death and resuscitation is powerful emotionally and spiritually. This family was one of Jesus’ favorites. You can tell by the intimacy he enjoyed there that Jesus loved this trio of believers. It was Mary who anointed Jesus feet with fragrant spikenard ointment and dried his feet with her hair shortly before his Passion and Crucifixion, and this act prefigured his donning a towel and washing the feet of the apostles on that holy night. Jesus was at their house often, and perhaps they had known each other since before he began his ministry. We can imagine how these three people lived in their home in Bethany. There is no mention of other family or parents. Bethany was close to the Mount of Olives. Jesus passed through there on his way to Jerusalem more than once. It was near Bethany that the Disciples witnessed his Ascension. These three, then, were people Jesus really, really cared about. He loved them in a very special way.

Around the time of this event in Jesus’ life, there was a strong movement among some of the people to capture him and kill him. His Apostles, Disciples, and other friends were very concerned about these constant threats on his life. Jesus knew about the threats, and he also knew how it would all turn out, he knew what would ultimately happen to him near Bethany, in the Garden of Olives. He knew what had happened to Lazarus, too; despite knowing all the pain associated with that knowledge – Lazarus was dead and Jesus would soon be crucified – Jesus stayed with his mission of teaching and healing. When someone tracked him down to tell him about Lazarus, Jesus told them, “He is only sleeping.” They took that to mean Lazarus was resting and getting better. He told them point-blank that Lazarus had died, but his death would not be the end of the story or his life. Finally he says he will go to his friends’ house so that he can demonstrate God’s power and will. That’s when one of my favorite Bible characters pops into view again. Here’s the passage from John 11:1-45 (← Check it out!):

John 11:16 16 Then Thomas (also known as Didymus) said to the rest of the disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.” Thomas fascinates me! He always seems to be a beat behind, or maybe he was just a strong pessimist, “Oh, well, if we’re going to Bethany, we’re all gonna die!” Then again, he might have been the bravest one in the bunch, ready to die with his Master and friend. Later on (John 14:5), Jesus is telling them – in the Last Discourse, “Don’t worry. Everything will be alright. You know where I’m going. I’ll come back and get you.” Thomas pops up again and says, “How can we know where you are going? We don’t know where you are going so how can we know the way?” And of course Thomas is most famous for saying, “I won’t believe he’s back until I see him for myself.” Thomas wasn’t in the Cenacle – the Upper Room – when Jesus first appeared to the 11 after his resurrection, and so he got stuck with the moniker “Doubting Thomas.” Odd that he should doubt Jesus was resurrected because he had been a witness to the resuscitation of Lazarus. He stood there with Jesus, Mary and Martha, and all the other mourners as Jesus, his heart stirred emotion and tears in his eyes, and he shocked them all with what he said in John 11:38-39:

38 Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. 39 “Take away the stone,” he said.

Everybody there went, “What?!?! It is not a good idea to move that stone. It’s going to smell really bad, and … you don’t really want to do that now. You should have come a week ago when he got sick and you could have healed him, but now, it’s too late. He’s rotting away in his grave.” Jesus must have given them quite a look before he turned toward the tomb where Lazarus had been placed. He told Martha straight out, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?” Somebody, maybe several people, maybe even Thomas (although there’s no way to know for sure who moved the stone) had the courage to lift that stone out of the way. Then THE Moment in John 11:43-44:

43 When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” 44 The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face.

Lazarus, come forth!

     Lazarus came out of the tomb all wrapped up in the trappings of death. He came out to new life. He came out to fresh air, sunshine, solid ground, and within a short time, he and Jesus were reclining at the table enjoying a feast prepared by Martha and enjoying the fragrance of the ointment Mary was lovingly massaging into his feet.

Jesus’ tender sympathy for these friends shows us the very human side of his person. His heart is deeply moved, and he groans inwardly because of their pain. He joins them in shedding tears, but he is also hearing the cries of the mourners and sees the impact the loss of Lazarus has on this tiny community of Bethany. Together they had shared in the joys of life, in the happiness of Jesus’ visits, and now they shared in the mourning, weeping, and immense sorrow of these two sisters who had lost their beloved brother, a brother who had entertained Jesus in his home. In fact, these sisters hoped and prayed that they would be reunited with their brother. They just did not expect it to happen that day!

Some of the bystanders had insinuated that if Jesus could make the blind see, he could surely have gotten here in time to save Lazarus’ life. Jesus’ actions deliberately counter that idea. He gave them something much more powerful than a healing to talk about. He gave them a restored life in broad daylight in front of many witnesses.

So, let’s get to the point. For whatever reason we doubt God’s love or Jesus’ saving power, he is always ready and able to exceed all our expectations, even if it seems to us he is four days late! (↔ Music Link) Whether we go to our death with him from bravery or loyalty or from a sincere fatalism that recognizes our frailty, if we die with him we shall rise with him. And when we rise with him he will take us where has prepared a place for us. But we need to respond when he calls. Why? BECAUSE WE BELONG TO HIM just as Lazarus did. As The Apostle Paul said in our Key Verse from the Epistles today, But you do not live as your human nature tells you to; instead, you live as the Spirit tells you to — if, in fact, God’s Spirit lives in you. In many translations that phrase “if in fact” is rendered as “if only.” We must be wary of any spirit other than the Holy Spirit who keeps us in the heart and mind of Jesus. When we are humble and obedient as Jesus is humble and obedient, then the Spirit of God does indeed dwell within us because we belong to Jesus. (↔ Music Link) The way of the World is pride and disobedience – the sources of original sin – but the way of the APP is humility and obedience – the sources of Salvation. IF ONLY the Holy Spirit of God dwells within us (See 1 Corinthians 6:19) so that we are his temple, then the Absolutely Perfect Plan is also living within us to “guide us to all Truth.” (See John 16:13) When we live in the Light of Truth, then the veil of death (see Key Verse in Isaiah) will be taken away and we shall rise up with him on That Day.

Take away the stone even if you have to do it yourself! The stone in front of your tomb. Move it! Yes. Take away whatever it is you are hiding behind, whatever it is that keeps you in your tomb of death, and step out to meet our Lord in the Light of his Word. He calls all of us to come away from the death of flesh to be alive in Spirit, alive in our Creator, our King, our Savior, or as Thomas put it so well, “My Lord and my God!” We can come away from the death of sin and come alive, renewed, revived, and resuscitated from our former self. Shed the wrappings of death, and the stench of decay. Listen with our ears and hear with our hearts. Strip away the things that bind us to our death. Loose the things that stop us from walking into his Light, his Everlasting Love and Eternal Salvation. Be freed of the trappings of death. Take away the stone! He is calling you, calling me, calling US! to come forth!!

     And here is something to think about: Jesus did not move the stone. Lazarus did not move the tone. Neither Martha nor Mary moved the stone. The friends of Lazarus (↔ Music Link) moved the stone. Sometimes we are liberated by the love of others around us from those things which have us paralyzed as if we were dead . They take away the stone, they open the way to new life. They can help us pull off the wrappings of death and support us in new life – a Life everlasting because of the Love given to them by God and shared by them to us. WE can be counted among the Friends of Lazarus. WE have to get up and go out of the tomb and back into life! WE have to respond with every fiber of our being when the people who love us call, as Jesus did, WE can be deeply moved enough to stand at the door of death and cry out in faith –

“Beloved, come forth!”

In humility and obedience we do as he says. Rise up. Go to him. Live. He has already swallowed up death in victory!

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

Originally posted under Aloha Friday Messages at https://aloha-friday.org – The Moon Beam Network See 1414AFC040414 – Believer! Come Forth! Edited for content and images.

[1] Good News Translation® (Today’s English Version, Second Edition) © 1992 American Bible Society. All rights reserved. For more information about GNT, visit www.bibles.com and www.gnt.bible. Used by permission. Approved by USCCB  for use.

Aloha Friday Message – Light For Sight – March 17, 2023

March 17, 2023

2311AFC031723 – Light For Sight –Lent Week 4

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!  There are quite a few music links here (for the purpose of REJOICING) so look for the (↔ Music Link) signs and use them.   John 9:5-7 – [Jesus said,] 5 “As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” 6 When he had said this, he spat on the ground and made mud with the saliva and spread the mud on the man’s eyes, 7 saying to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means Sent). Then he went and washed and came back able to see.

Me ke aloha pumehana, ʻŌmea! Already we are past the half-way point this Season of Lent. Sunday is Laetare Sunday so named because of the introit (entrance antiphon) which in Latin begins with “Laetare Jerusalem: et conventum facite omnes qui diligitis eam: gaudete cum laetitia, …” which means “Rejoice, O Jerusalem: and come together all you that love her: rejoice with joy, …” For this special Sunday, the vestments and church appointments are rose-colored (“pink”). Rose vestments are also used during Gaudete Sunday, the Third Sunday in Advent (see gaudete above).We are reminded that we are now joyfully looking forward to Jesus’ continuing final journey from Capernaum, through the Samaritan town of Ginae, on through Jericho, Bethany, Bethphage, and then his triumphal entry into Jerusalem. That is of course followed by his Passion, Crucifixion, Death, and Resurrection. For many parishes around the world, it is also the Sunday for the Second Scrutiny when the Elect. who are preparing for the Sacraments of Initiation – Baptism, Confirmation, and First Holy Eucharist – will testify with their godparents or sponsors that they are ready to proceed on their final journey to these Blesséd Sacraments. On this Sunday, we hear the story of “the man born blind,” or “blind from birth.” There are several such stories in the gospels. Here is a summary of sorts:

 

Passage Content Summary
Mark 8:22-26 A single blind man in Bethsaida [a] – Βηθσαϊδά (Béthsaida) { bayth-sahee-dah’} “House of Fish” – is brought by others. Jesus spits on his eyes, touches him once, and the man sees but indistinctly. Jesus then touches him a second time and looks at him intently and heals him.
Mark 10: 46-52 A single blind man called Bartimaeus cried out “Son of David, have mercy on me.” Jesus tells others to bring the man to him. Cloak is thrown aside. [b] Requested to see. Spoken word healed him.
Matthew 9:27-31 Two unnamed blind men – “Have mercy on us, Son of David!” “Do you believe I can do this?” Healed through spoken word without touch. Occurred at “the house”, probably in Capernaum
Matthew 12:22 A blind and mute man who is demon-possessed (“a demoniac”), probably in Capernaum just after leaving Jairus’ house, is brought to Jesus and he casts out the demon. The man can see and speak.
Matthew 20:29-34 Two unnamed blind men by the roadside as Jesus was leaving Jericho. “Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David!” Moved with compassion, Jesus touched their eyes.
Matthew 21:14 14 The blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he cured them.
Luke 7:21 Possibly in Nain where he raised the widow’s only son: 21 Jesus had just then cured many people of diseases, plagues, and evil spirits, and had given sight to many who were blind.
Luke 18:35-43 As Jesus is going toward Jericho, a blind man sitting by the road calls out “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” Jesus asks, “What do you want me to do for you?” the man replies, “Lord, let me see again.” Jesus says, “Receive your sight; your faith has saved you.”
John 9:1-41

The Gospel for March 19, 2023

Second Scrutiny

 Jesus seems to be in Jerusalem where he saw an unnamed man, blind from birth. It may be that Jesus, who was a frequent visitor to Jerusalem, had seen him there previously and knew of his condition; the scripture does not describe how Jesus and his Disciples knew his condition was congenital. He makes clay with his saliva which he smears on the man’s eyes, and sends him to the Pool at Siloam. The man is able to see. He returns to his neighborhood and people wonder about how he can see. The Pharisees investigate, and the man testifies “32 Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind.” Jesus upbraids them for their spiritual blindness.

 

[a] A small fishing village on the western shore of Lake Gennesaret, home of Andrew, Peter, Philip and John or a village in lower Gaulanitis on the eastern shore of Lake Gennesaret, not far from where the Jordan empties into it.

[b] There is a very important lesson here about evangelization. Follow the link to learn more about it.

Jesus uses this healing to make a point about the spiritual blindness of the Pharisees. In the Gospel of Matthew he chides them eight times for their obstinate and persistent duplicity. As we study these passages, we are also cautioned about being blind to the Love and the Power of God. Your surely remember this first verse from the hymn Amazing Grace: (NOT ↔ Music Link)

Amazing grace! How sweet the sound (↔ Music Link)
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found;
Was blind, but now I see.

Blindness is a human condition that has been around since Old Testament days – at least! Not being able to see is a serious condition for almost any animal. We know there are some animals (↔ Learning Link) that do not have eyes; but, of those that have eyes, when the eyes do not function, there are other compensatory behaviors that develop. These include everything from increased sensitivity of other senses to physical assistance from a sighted person – a person who can see – or from a “seeing-eye” service animal. We find ways to adapt to the evident limitation caused by blindness. Rarely would one become intentionally blind – at least physically. We know that blinding a person was a form or tortuous punishment – thinking here of Samson – but one would not do that to one’s self.

However, spiritual blindness is abundant, and those who are spiritually blind often cling to their blindness with tenacious defiance. When we call attention to their refusal to “see the point,” we sometimes say something like “What! Are you blind? Can’t you see what you’re doing?” This kind of intentional spiritual blindness is usually associated with arrogance and self-righteousness; other words for that combination are hypocrisy, duplicity, insincerity. We describe people like that as being two-faced, liars, pretentious, and having double standards. That’s what Jesus chastised the  Pharisees about in the Gospel of Matthew. Matthew 23:13-29. In this passage, Jesus refers to the Pharisees as “blind guides” and “blind fools.” Eight times he says “Woe to you …” Jesus is slamming them for their hypocrisy; the Pharisees are deeply angered, and the crowd is stunned by Jesus’ tone. The Disciples are trying to understand how Jesus – whom they now know to be the Messiah – can speak in such a disparaging way to the men considered the most-righteous among the Jews. Naturally, the Pharisees were pretty upset to be publicly rebuked like that. And – as we earthlings with big-headed pride often do – they tried to argue their way out of the doghouse. Of course, that backfires, and they slink off scene smoldering with anger and hatred.

We find the idea of “making the blind to see” throughout Scripture, and it is usually expressed as a physical recovery of sight. Here are a couple of examples from the Old Testament.

Psalm 146:7b-8 – 7b The Lord sets the prisoners free; 8 the Lord opens the eyes of the blind. The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down; the Lord loves the righteous.

Isaiah 42:1-9 – I have given you as a covenant to the people; a light to the nations, to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness.

In the Gospel of John we find a curious saying from Jesus” John 9:39-41 – 39 Jesus said, “I came into this world for judgment [c] so that those who do not see may see, and those who do see may become blind.” – [c] Κρίμα (krima) { kree’-mah} This word signifies a judgment, a verdict; sometimes implying an adverse verdict, a condemnation. These verses describe for us a spiritually symbolic meaning of the restoration of sight; the Pharisees are not the innocent blind, willing to accept the testimony – guidance – of others. They are intentionally blind, preferring their own reason and wisdom about their careful observance of The Law to the plain truth of Jesus’ message of redemption through Christ’s Law of Love. Those who surrender to The Law of Love gain sight while those who cling to only The Law and The Prophets remain intentionally blind to the salvific grace of God’s redeeming love. The Pharisees are offended by The Truth from Jesus, but at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, Jesus has this to say about them in Matthew 11:4-6 – 4 Jesus answered them, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: 5 the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them. 6 And blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me.”

When Jesus went to Nazareth at the beginning of his ministry, he read from the scroll of Isaiah, sat down, and then told everyone in the synagogue that “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” To compare what he read with what he said, check out these two links: Isaiah 61 ↔ Luke 4:16-21 (Go ahead. It won’t take long, and you’ll be enriched by seeing how the passages fit together so well, especially in the CJB.) Jesus is, as we see in our topic-verse for today, the Light of the World.” (↔ Music Link) After he sent us his Spirit, the Holy Spirit, We are the Light of the World. (↔ Music Link)

Here’s something the Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Corinth. See 2 Corinthians 4:2-4 – 2 We have renounced the shameful things that one hides; we refuse to practice cunning or to falsify God’s word; but by the open statement of the truth we commend ourselves to the conscience of everyone in the sight of God. 3 And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. 4 In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

This is precisely what Isaiah was talking about in Isaiah 29:9-11 – 9 Stupefy yourselves and be in a stupor,
blind yourselves and be blind!
Be drunk, but not from wine;
stagger, but not from strong drink!
10 For the Lord has poured out upon you
a spirit of deep sleep;
he has closed your eyes, you prophets,
and covered your heads, you seers.

11 The vision of all this has become for you like the words of a sealed document. If it is given to those who can read, with the command, “Read this,” they say, “We cannot, for it is sealed.” How is it sealed? It is sealed to those who are unworthy to open the seal. Who is unworthy? The unworthy are those who will not see the Goodness of God in his Mercy and Love.

Belovéd, are we blind to the Goodness of God in his Mercy and Love? Jesus resolutely set his face toward Jerusalem. You can follow that journey beginning at Luke 9:51-53 and continuing on through Luke 19:44. Pretty much 11 of the 24 chapters in Luke’s Gospel detail this journey. Jesus and his Disciples made that journey. Will you walk it with him, or must he walk it alone (↔ Music Link) – without you? Maybe we can catch a ride on that chariot (↔ Music Link)  God sends for the Saints! Or perhaps we can just open our eyes and see Jesus’ Glory beyond the agony of Good Friday. That will be our glory as well for “we shall see him as he is.” (See 1 John 3:2) In keeping with our running theme of repentance this Lent, perhaps we need to go and wash, and then come back able to see. If we can see here, we shall certainly be ready to see there. We know this because we know God’s Absolutely Perfect Plan.

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.


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

Biblical languages inserts from Bible Hub (Bible Hub: Search, Read, Study the Bible in Many Languages) Visit at http://biblehub.com

Originally posted under Aloha Friday Messages at https://aloha-friday.org – The Moon Beam Network 1712AFC032417 – See Here. Edited for content and dates.

See 1848AFC113018 – 2018 Advent Series #1

 

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.

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Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture passages are from the New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (NRSVCE) New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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

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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.

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 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.

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