Aloha Friday Message – July 9, 2021 – The Heart of the Matter

July 9, 2021

2128AFC070921 – The Heart of the Matter

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.

A pile of keys outside an antique shop in Eton.

Mark 6:7, 12-13 – 7 He called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. 12 So they [The Twelve] went out and proclaimed that all should repent. 13 They cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.

John 13:1-2a – 1 Now before the festival of the Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. 2 The devil had already put it into the heart of Judas son of Simon Iscariot to betray him.

John 13:30 – 30 So, after receiving the piece of bread, he immediately went out. And it was night.

E pili mau na pomaika‘i ia ‘oe a me ke akua ho’omaika‘i ‘oe, ʻŌmea! (May blessing always be with you and may God bless you, Beloved!) I will begin today by asserting that it is an overwhelmingly powerful Grace that calls us away from a life of sin to a Life of Service. What a blessing it is to be numbered among the Disciples even after many centuries. When I reflect on events like we will hear about this Sunday – the first­ dispatch of Christ’s followers into the first mission of revival – I just wish that we really could take a look back in time and see what it was really like. While we do have “contemporaneous concomitance” (↔ Click Link) to think about, there certainly are some reasonable conclusions we can come to without too much drain on the brain. Take a look at the passage up there from Mark. Take notice that it says, “The Twelve.”

The twelve went out, the twelve came back. I imagine they were a bit dubious when they set out (can you imagine Peter and Thomas being paired off and going out to spread the Gospel?), but by the time they got back they were hopping with excitement. “Jesus, you should see what happened in Beth-Shemesh.” “Aw, James, that’s nothing! Wait ’til you hear what Judas and I did in Chorazin!” I can just see Jesus’ gentle smile wrinkling the corners of his eyes as he listened to their account. Wisely, he called them away for a little rest so they could unwind and talk themselves out enough to realize what an extraordinary blessing they had received by blessing others with the Power of the Living Word of God. I’ve been there, done that, got the T-shirt – and I can’t wait to go back! There’s nothing like seeing a stony heart melt into tender flesh as the Love of Christ takes hold through the Holy Spirit.

Now, did you catch the little unexpected clue in that account? Hint: Who went to Chorazin?

That’s good work, ʻŌmea. Judas was one of The Twelve. Judas was one of the first missionaries for Christ. Judas was someone Jesus called “friend.” Yes, that Judas was the same guy that hung himself three years later. WHAT HAPPENED TO Judas? Here’s where the Key Verse image for today provides another hint. When you see that many keys, it means there’s going to be nearly that many Scriptures presented (who made that groan?).

Let’s begin with another Key Verse from John 13: The devil had already put it into the heart of Judas … to betray him. Sometime, somehow, somewhere between their starting place (perhaps Bethany?) and the location of the Cenacle, Judas slipped out of the role of Disciple and into the role of betrayer, and it happened in his heart. We’ve commented in the past about the importance of “first mention” in Scripture as the establishment of a “type,” something that points to further development of a biblical concept. The first mention of “heart” is in Genesis 6:5 – 5 The Lord saw that the wickedness of humankind was great in the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil continually. Do you remember what happened after that? Noah and his family built, stocked, and sailed in the Ark. Eight people survived that; no one else did; the Ark was closed (↔ Click Link) to all but the righteous. As for the “impure of heart,” THEY DIED. So did Judas, “he went off and hanged himself,” and it seems perhaps the body wasn’t discovered for a time because in Acts 1:17-18 we read Luke’s “autopsy report” saying 17 for he was numbered among us and was allotted his share in this ministry.” 18 (Now this man acquired a field with the reward of his wickedness; and falling headlong [swelling up], he burst open in the middle and all his bowels gushed out. Let’s just refresh our memories about that, please.

Matthew 27:1-10 –1 Early in the morning all the chief priests and the elders of the people reached the decision to have Jesus put to death. 2 They bound him, led him away, and turned him over to Pilate the governor.
3 When Judas, who betrayed Jesus, saw that Jesus was condemned to die, he felt deep regret.* He returned the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, and 4 said, “I did wrong because I betrayed an innocent man.”
But they said, “What is that to us? That’s your problem.” 5 Judas threw the silver pieces into the temple and left. Then he went and hanged himself.
6 The chief priests picked up the silver pieces and said, “According to the Law it’s not right to put this money in the treasury. Since it was used to pay for someone’s life, it’s unclean.” 7 So they decided to use it to buy the potter’s field where strangers could be buried. 8 That’s why that field is called “Field of Blood” to this very day. 9 This fulfilled the words of Jeremiah the prophet: And I took the thirty pieces of silver, the price for the one whose price had been set by some of the Israelites, 10 and I gave them for the potter’s field, as the Lord commanded me. Common English Bible (CEB) Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible

* Judas did not repent, he felt regret – metamelomai met-am-el’-lom-ahee. Properly understood it means to experience a change of concern after a change of emotion and usually implying to regret, i.e. falling into emotional remorse afterwards. He did not repent. He did not seek and accept forgiveness. He “solved his problem” his way. He took the coward’s way of suicide. The Apostle John does not use the word metanoia – the 180º turnabout we call repentance in his Gospel referring to Judas’ death. He says Judas felt regret. Jesus knew how all this would turn out, and – although the actual details were obscure – all of Israel knew that the Messiah would come and would be betrayed by one considered a friend. That’s where Judas’ actions tie in with Sunday’s first reading where God calls Amos to prophesy and Amaziah, Priest of Bethel, kicks him out of town.

Amos blasts Israel – especially the Northern Kingdom – for their intolerance, lack of true justice in their religion, and the corruption of the government. For Amaziah he delivers this in Amos 7:17 – Therefore thus says the Lord: ‘Your wife shall become a prostitute in the city, and your sons and your daughters shall fall by the sword, and your land shall be parceled out by line; you yourself shall die in an unclean land, and Israel shall surely go into exile away from its land.’” Prophesy is always the Word of the Lord spoken to the People of the Lord calling them to obedience for the sake of his benediction. Disobedience always brings condemnation and correction. Think back to what we saw in Acts 1:17-18 – [Judas] was allotted his share in this ministry. Now we combine the prophecy in Psalm 41:9 – 9 Even my bosom friend in whom I trusted, who ate of my bread, has lifted the heel against me with John 13:18 (↔ Click Link for full context) – 18 I am not speaking of all of you; I know whom I have chosen. But it is to fulfill the scripture, ‘The one who ate my bread has lifted his heel against me.’; here we see the uniformity of prophecy. “As it is spoken, so let it be done.” Personal grief – regret – is not repentance. Here is something from the Apostle Paul to clarify that: 2 Corinthians 7:10 – 10 For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation and brings no regret, but worldly grief produces death.

Ephesians 1:3-7 – 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4 just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love. 5 He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. 7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace.

Let us look, therefore, at word of prophecy from the Lord himself: Matthew 18:6 – 6 As for whoever causes these little ones who believe in me to trip and fall into sin, it would be better for them to have a huge stone [millstone*] hung around their necks and be drowned in the bottom of the lake. Common English Bible (CEB) Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible. The one who entices another to sin instead of correcting them or catching them as they fall is complicit in the sin committed plus commits the sin of merciless abandonment. Here is an outcome of that sort of sin as explained quite clearly in 1 Corinthians 11:27-32 – 27 This is why those who eat the bread or drink the cup of the Lord inappropriately will be guilty of the Lord’s body and blood. 28 Each individual should test himself or herself, and eat from the bread and drink from the cup in that way. 29 Those who eat and drink without correctly understanding the body are eating and drinking their own judgment. 30 Because of this, many of you are weak and sick, and quite a few have died. 31 But if we had judged ourselves, we wouldn’t be judged. 32 However, we are disciplined by the Lord when we are judged so that we won’t be judged and condemned along with the whole world. Common English Bible (CEB) Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible. If you, if I, if we, if they receive communion while in a state of mortal sin (like publically advocating capital punishment, abortion, eugenics, euthanasia, sexual deviance, and other illicit acts) – they are condemned, but the person(s) enabling that sin are complicit in their condemnation. THAT is some heavy sin, heavy as a *millstone tied around one’s neck. Judas sat down at table with Jesus ready to betray him. Was he there for the institution of the Eucharist? Did he “receive unworthily?” I’ll let you read the Gospel account and make your own decision. I’ve made mine.

Luke 22:14-23 – 14 When the hour came, he took his place at the table, and the apostles with him. 15 He said to them, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer; 16 for I tell you, I will not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.” 17 Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks he said, “Take this and divide it among yourselves; 18 for I tell you that from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.” 19 Then he took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” 20 And he did the same with the cup after supper, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood. 21 But see, the one who betrays me is with me, and his hand is on the table. 22 For the Son of Man is going as it has been determined, but woe to that one by whom he is betrayed!” 23 Then they began to ask one another which one of them it could be who would do this.

“Honestly, Chick! All you ever do is rant about repentance! Can’t you think of anything else to write about?” Until God stops talking about it, I am bound to keep saying it. Am I the one with my hand on the table? Have we taken the Body and Blood treacherously as a betrayal of his Love? Have we allowed, encouraged, or permitted others to sin? I tell you from inside my deepest soul that if my Pastor had clear evidence of my living in mortal sin and did not offer Reconciliation or did not refuse me the Eucharist if I rejected Reconciliation, I would expect him to stop me for the sake of my soul and his. The prophecy against treachery may apply to all who partake of God’s mercies, and meet them with ingratitude.

Think of the two sons in the parable in Matthew. One says he will go to the fields, but does not. The other refuses, but goes. Matthew 21:29 – 29 He answered, ‘I will not’; but later he changed his mind and went. What is stopping us from changing our minds about changing the World? Remember this: Matthew 21:32 – 32 For John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him; and even after you saw it, you did not change your minds and believe him. Here’s a little musical prayer to make your heart all better. It’s called “Into My Heart.” (↔ Music Link) We must invite Jesus in, not allow Satan in. It is, after all, not what but Who is in our heart that matters so the heart of the matter is that we must choose to repent and believe (and share!) the Gospel. Please add this to your daily prayers:

Jesus, Meek and Humble of Heart, make my heart like unto your heart.”

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

 

Aloha Friday Message – July 2, 2021 – Prophet and Loss, too

July 2, 2021

2127AFC070221 – Prophet and Loss, Too*

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. (And check out the BONUS at the end!)

     Ezekiel 2:2, 5 – 2 After he said this, his Spirit took control of me and lifted me to my feet. 5 Whether they hear or refuse to hear (for they are a rebellious house), they shall know that there has been a prophet among them.

2 Corinthians 12:9b – 9 But he replied, “My kindness is all you need. My power is strongest when you are weak.” So if Christ keeps giving me his power, I will gladly brag about how weak I am. Contemporary English Version (CEV) Copyright © 1995 by American Bible Society

Mark 6:6a – 6 And he was amazed at their unbelief. (NRSVCE)

May the God of peace himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. I will begin today by acknowledging two special events in our lives. The first is the holiday instituted to honor the founding of the United States of America through The Declaration of Independence wherein we find “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” As an “Air Force brat,” a Veteran, and a proud American I ask that you reread that document, and please recommit to using this ↓↓ OFTEN.

Secondly, a shout-out to my brothers Dan and Dave who were – as the song says – Born on The Fourth of July. My filial Love to these two wonderful men! Now, ʻŌmea, let’s find what this old man has in store for you today.

     This image represents Ezekiel, the visionary Prophet of God. Our El Shaddai-Olam gave him many extraordinary visions, tasks, and prophetic messages. You can get an idea of the structure and content of this exceptional poetic message collection here. He was a remarkable Priest and Prophet who lived during the Exile to Babylon (occurred about 722-538 BC). He was active from around 600-650 BC. He spoke whatever God told him to speak (there is another Prophet we will meet today who does that same thing), but the people refused to listen to him (or to the other guy either!), and so the natural consequences of sinful disobedience caught up with them. God told them to repent and behave. They didn’t. They died – except for a remnant taken from their homeland for some reconditioning. You may remember Ezekiel as the guy who prophesied over the dry bones, and who lay on his side for 430 days; his message foreshadowed the destruction of Israel because their behavior is so repugnant. This is followed by God’s promise and fulfillment of the restoration of his People. It is a reiteration of the entire message of Salvation: Turn to me with Love and I will make you Great among the Nations so that all will know that I AM God.

Being a Prophet was risky, hard, and probably quite frustrating – one of those jobs something like herding cats. One reason it is so difficult is because most people have no idea what a Prophet is, what the work of a Prophet must be, and don’t understand that men and women, boys and girls, any and all can be called upon to prophesy. Let’s take a look at Joel 2:28 – 28 Then afterward I will pour out my spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. The Apostle Peter refers to this in Acts 2:14-19 (↔ Click Link for context). We tend to think of prophesy as “foretelling the future,” in fact in the Old Testament, the persons who prophesied were referred to as “seers,” someone who sees God’s will, someone who is clairvoyant, can divine the future through supernatural powers. Later, though, prophecy was developed by God as a tool for him to communicate his plan, his will, and his Love to us. Let’s do a quick review of this idea of prophecy.

Originally posted under Aloha Friday Messages at https://aloha-friday.org – The Moon Beam Network at 1410AFC070714 – First Friday of Lent –There are words in the Bible that are translated as “seer,” and the persons associated with that word (usually the Hebrew חֹזֶה (cho-zeh) {kho-zeh’} or רָאָה (ra’ah) {raw-aw’}) are recognized as persons through whom God sends messages. We see this in 1 Samuel 9:9 (In former times in Israel, anyone who went to consult God used to say, “Come, let us go to the seer.” For he who is now called prophet was formerly called seer.) The Old Testament word for prophet is nabi (nabiy’) {nah-bee’}. There are some disagreements among scholars about the origin of that word, but one that is well-accepted is that this noun comes from the verb noba’ meaning to “bubble up,” “boil over”,” as in “to pour forth an abundance of words,” such as those who speak within divine inspiration. It is by and through the power and inspiration of God that a prophet speaks, and a prophet can’t help but speak when and what God commands any more than a boiling pot can stop bubbling. And that is the key. Those who have Divine Inspiration are True Prophets. The converse is that those whose “inspiration” is self-generated are the False Prophets. How then can we tell the difference? If we look at the verses following Jesus description of wolves in sheep’s clothing, the answer is clear. (See Matthew 7:15)

The answer is, “by their fruits you will know them.” And here’s where we run into trouble because these days there’s a lot of fake fruit on the table. The fake fruit comes to us through the tireless work of the Prince of Lies, the Devil, and he uses a few seeds of Truth and a ton of manure to raise a crop of bad advice. He wants us to change the names of things because it suits his purposes and not God’s. Anything that does not suit God’s purpose is, well, wrong; but Satan tries to convince us it is right to make these changes because “it is right to do this; you will be like God when you do.” Does that sound familiar, something you might have read recently in Genesis? And so we take something we know is wrong, call it by something we know can’t be right, and PRESTO! What was wrong is now right. Marriage is no longer sacred, family is no longer a community of love, amorphous “spirituality” is true religion, and God is me because I am God. Beloved, there are seeds of truth in what the World is telling us about these things, but to believe them, one must overlook the ton of manure that comes along with them. We have to be careful what we swallow and how many grains of salt it takes to get it down.

Originally posted under Aloha Friday Messages at https://aloha-friday.org – The Moon Beam Network at 1719AFC051217 – Stones and Thrones – As Prophets, we are graced with the opportunity to speak The Word of the Lord in our hearts and minds as well as in the hearts and minds of others – our families, communities, churches, and workplaces – through example and testimony. In Numbers 11:29, Moses scolds the Israelites, “Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his spirit on them!” We are the recipients of that Spirit of the Living God. In the Spirit of Prophecy, we teach our children and each other as witnesses to “The Way, the Truth, and the Life.” (See John 14:6)

Today we have many people – as God himself decreed – who speak from within God’s voice. Not often do we hear, “Thus says the Lord God,” but we do often hear things like, “God is expecting us to understand that …” These modern-day prophets speak out to us about the same things the Apostle Paul warned about: Fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, male prostitutes, sodomites, thieves, the greedy, drunkards, revilers, robbers – every kind of wickedness, evil, covetousness, malice, envy, vaunted pride, murder, strife, deceit, craftiness, they are gossips, slanderers, God-haters insolent, haughty, gluttonous, boastful, inventors of evil, rebellious toward parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, and ruthless. They know God’s decree, that those who practice such things deserve to die – yet they not only do them but even applaud others who practice them. (See Romans 1 and 1 Corinthians 5) To that list we must shamefully add murders of millions of innocents – babies, elders, political enemies, ethnic pogroms, and intentional destruction and failure of stewardship for our only home, Earth.

ʻŌmea, we can – must – rest in that all-sufficient Grace. “It’s so hard!” Only if you resist the Grace and Love of God will it be hard. Why fight it? We each have a built-in irresistible affinity for God. We cannot fight that. The answer is to have the faith to be weak so that Jesus’ power is manifested in us. Be weak, not strong. (↔ Music Link) Oh, my Belovéd, there is only one thing we need to remember when it comes to that moment: Jesus loves me (↔ Music Link), loves you, loves us. “I am weak but he is strong.” (↔ Music Link) The Bible is the Living word of God, so that means it speaks to us of God, God’s will, God’s way, God’s Wonder and Might, and God’s perfect integrity, Endless Mercy and Eternal Salvation through Christ our Lord. Forget that, deny that, fail to learn that, never hear that and we lose everything … ev-ery-thing – and we also lose the community of everyone who knows and believes God as a faithful follower of Christ who lives according to biblical precepts and Scripture, Apostolic Tradition, and the Magisterium. We must listen to the Prophet Ezekiel who was rejected in his own place. The Apostle Paul was beaten, stoned, whipped, tortured, reviled, and still he said he’d do it all For the sake of Christ, (↔ Music Link). And who else was rejected in his own place? Jesus of Nazareth went through that in his home town, and – like a True Prophet – he spoke only and all that God gave him to speak. According to Luke 4:16-30, his neighbors and fellow citizens were ready to kill him at the beginning of his ministry. “29 They got up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff. 30 But he passed through the midst of them and went on his way.

ʻŌmea, is there a Prophet speaking to you today? Do you hear in your heart the irresistible affinity for God’s love and is it telling you as we learned in Isaiah 30:21 – 21 And when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left, your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.” That word we hear is The Word. When we trust in the Lord, and we do his good will, what a glory he sheds on our way. Listen to the Prophets and we gain All that is Good. Shut them out and we lose that; but, God will still give us Blessings because he Loves us. My dear friends in Christ, let’s all go together to that Heavenly shore, walking closely together (↔ Music Link), arm-in-arm, heart-in-heart, hands holding onto Jesus as he speaks only and all that God gives him to speak. As we walk this lonesome valley, we shall listen and we will know a Prophet walks among us, too, so that we experience no loss. Perhaps Jesus will be gladdened by our stronger Faith!

*The sequel to 1841AFC101218 – Prophet and Loss

Jesus teaching at the Synagogue in Nazareth.

“A prophet is not without honor except in his native place
and among his own kin and in his own house.”

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

BONUS (↔ Music Link)

Aloha Friday Message – June 25, 2021 – Garments and Graces

June 25, 2021

2126AFC062521 – Garments and Graces

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.

     Mark 5:28 – 28 for she said, “If I but touch his clothes*, I will be made well.”

Matthew 9:20-21 – 20 Then suddenly a woman who had been suffering from hemorrhages for twelve years came up behind him and touched the fringe of his cloak*, 21 for she said to herself, “If I only touch his cloak, I will be made well.”

* Talliit טַלִּית [taˈlit] is a Jewish prayer shawl, a covering worn as a cloak over the shoulders with two corners in front and two corners in back. At each corner there are twisted/braided threads called Tzizit – צִיצִית usually white threads and blue threads.

Aloha nui loa, ʻŌmea! Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Christ Jesus our Lord. Today we will take a deeper look into a familiar story and hopefully gain some insights that will enhance our understanding of the content. In this Sunday’s readings we have two “plot lines.” The first is about a twelve-year old girl at the point of death. The second is about a woman who has been gravely ill for twelve years. The combination of the stories would have been very edifying for the members of the early church, especially those in Jerusalem. So let’s begin with a Spoiler Alert – SHOCKER! Jesus was a Jew!

Now why would that be important in understanding this passage? It is something we don’t really think about much because “it seems so obvious.” We should also remember that the people who became Apostles and Disciples also referred to him as Rabbi (teacher) or Rabbouni (Master Teacher). In the popular modern images we see of Jesus in the media like films and TV, Jesus is dressed a bit like the ragtag fishermen he called. I want us to envision him in the Synagogue or Temple, and extend that to his travels.

Although the New Testament is written in Greek – and Jesus had at least conversational expertise in it – he taught as a Rabbi in Aramaic and Hebrew when in Synagogue or Temple. While there he would wear a Tallit (tall-EET), a garment worn by men and women with very specific characteristics and purposes. It is primarily woven of fine white wool. The warp threads are tied off around the edges to make little fringe-like tufts. The blue-dyed wool is generally woven in horizontal stripes. The blue color represents royalty. Sometimes there is a prayer (in Hebrew) woven into the pattern. In this illustration, you’ll see that I added some ovals around the tassels hanging from the corners. Those are called Tzizit (sounds as it looks TZT-zit). One might think of it as a shawl – indeed it is; it is a prayer shawl that can be pulled up over the wearer’s head while praying. Jesus wore a Tallit like this because all Jewish men were required to wear one. It was positioned so that two corners were in front and two in back. For the Biblicist folks, Tallit and Tzizit won’t be in your KJV or NABRE per se. However, we have evidence of it in this passage: Numbers 15:37-40 – 37 The Lord said to Moses: 38 Speak to the Israelites, and tell them to make fringes on the corners of their garments* throughout their generations and to put a blue cord on the fringe at each corner. 39 You have the fringe so that, when you see it, you will remember all the commandments of the Lord and do them, and not follow the lust of your own heart and your own eyes. 40 So you shall remember and do all my commandments, and you shall be holy to your God. So scroll up and take a look at that note I inserted after our Key Verse. Here is an image of a set of Tzizit for a closer look. These devices were attached, as God had directed, to the four corners of the Tallit. Everyone had them, everyone knew what they were, everyone knew what they represented. When the woman with the twelve-year hemorrhage reached out to Jesus’ garment, she reached for his Tallit and held onto one of the Tzizit on the back. This is how the early Church would have understood this message. Sometimes we hear it was “the hem of his garment” and think of a long robe hemmed at the bottom. Sometimes we think it might have been the warp-tufts of his tunic (nope – woven in one piece from top to bottom). Her hope, her faith, her understanding of her role in life as a Jewish woman would have made the Tzizit the thing to touch. And what it touch it must have been! Here’s how it happened as reported by Luke in Luke 8:46-47 – 46 But Jesus said, “Someone touched me; for I noticed that power had gone out from me.” 47 When the woman saw that she could not remain hidden, she came trembling; and falling down before him, she declared in the presence of all the people why she had touched him, and how she had been immediately healed.

Twelve years of suffering ended instantly! And yet somehow Jesus knew what had happened. This in itself seemed incredible because Jesus was in the middle of a large and noisy crowd. Jesus had just crossed from Gennesaret to Capernaum. In Gennesaret he had cast out the demon horde called Legion. Now, as he moved along the shore and into the town, a Synagogue official named Ya’ir (God enlightens) come to Jesus to beg for his daughter’s life – he asks Jesus to come lay hands on her. The crowd jostles and jabbers all around him, and then POW! A woman in that mass of people gets complete healing after twelve years. Jesus tells her “Daughter, your trust has healed you. Go in peace, and be healed of your disease.” In Jewish tradition, twelve is the number indicating completion, perfection, control. There were twelve sons of Jacob and twelve sons of Ishmael and from those sons were formed twelve tribes of the two nations. There are twelve months, twelve hours of day, twelve major constellations. And at the end of twelve years of suffering there was complete and perfect healing because of her faith – her trust in Jesus was “paid in full.” Now Jesus follows Ya’ir, and as they start off, someone from Ya’ir’s household breaks the news to Jesus that the child is on his way to see has died. Now it is time to pay attention to the girl’s age.

She is twelve. Coincidence? Not likely. Remember what we just said about the importance of the number 12. This child was at the age of her bat mitzvah, the coming of age for Jewish women. At that age the young woman is ensconced in the community and is subject to all Jewish Law. It is a time of completion, the “end of childhood” and the beginning of adult responsibilities – including the wearing of a Tallit, knowing the prayers, and going to Synagogue as an adult must. As they near the house, the professional mourners and some of Ya’ir’s family and friends are causing quite a commotion because of the child’s untimely death. Jesus tells Ya’ir, “Just trust and believe. She is not dead. She is only asleep.” They laughed at him, but he took the parents and Peter, James, and John (three witnesses for Truth, remember?) and went to her bedside. He took her hand and spoke in Aramaic saying “Talitha koum” – little girl, arise. She recovered immediately and completely, then got up and walked around. He cautioned the parents and witnesses to tell no one what he had done and told them to give her something to eat. What does this combination of episodes tell us?

A woman who had reportedly spent nearly all her money on useless cures from physicians put her faith in the powerful witness to The Law and God’s Holiness called a Tzizit, and after twelve years of suffering on a long road to what surely must have ended in death, she is restored to perfect health. A child who was ready to become a Jewish woman at her bat mitzvah is near death, but is restored to perfect health because of the faith of her parents. It both cases, the investment of faith is “paid in full” (↔ Click Link) with a miracle. For the woman, the girl, the parents, and the Rabbi this meant that at the next service in Synagogue, everyone would be dressed like this because everyone would be offering God the beautiful sacrifices he most desires – adoration, thanksgiving, praise, justice, and kindness. Now we have one additional incident involving the number 12. It’s also a very familiar story. Can you guess what it is? Here’s a hint: It involved the Holy Family in Jerusalem. I think you got it! Yes, Jesus was twelve years old, the last year of preparation before his bar mitzvah. It was at that age when he realized and accepted that his mission in life was to do the works of his Father. He got his first Tallit after that. And on the corners of the Tallit were the Tzizit.

The Graces these Jewish women received were not in or on the garment, they were not in the words of love and encouragement spoken to the parents. The Graces were in the Faith they all possessed, faith that Jesus could and would bring everything to perfect order again so that everything and everyone moved ahead twelve-by-twelve. If we will remember these stories with that in mind then we, too, will shall be holy to our God. ʻŌmea, it is precisely for that that he created us to be.

Remember him this way: Mark 6:53-56 Complete Jewish Bible (CJB) – 53 After they had made the crossing, they landed at Ginosar and anchored. 54 As soon as they got out of the boat, the people recognized him 55 and began running around throughout that whole region and bringing sick people on their stretchers to any place where they heard he was. 56 Wherever he went, in towns, cities or country, they laid the sick in the marketplaces. They begged him to let them touch even the tzitzit on his robe, and all who touched it were healed.

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 – June 18, 2021 – A Novel Graphic

June 18, 2021

2125AFC061821 – A Novel Graphic

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.

Job 38:8-11 – 8 “Or who shut in the sea with doors when it burst out from the womb?— 9 when I made the clouds its garment, and thick darkness its swaddling band, 10 and prescribed bounds for it, and set bars and doors, 11 and said, ‘Thus far shall you come, and no farther, and here shall your proud waves be stopped’?”

2 Corinthians 5:14 – 14 For the love of Christ urges us on, because we are convinced that one has died for all; therefore all have died.

Mark 4:36-39 – 36 And leaving the crowd behind, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. Other boats were with him. 37 A great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped. 38 But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke him up and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” 39 He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm.

Aloha nui loa, ʻŌmea! Grace and Peace to each of you from God our Father and our Lord, Jesus the Christ, in the Power of the Holy Spirit. Today I’m going way out on a limb and I’m going to help you see what I mean instead of read what I mean.

    Mark 4:36-39 – 36 And leaving the crowd behind, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. Other boats were with him. 37 A great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped. 38 But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke him up and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” 39 He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm.

They “took him … just as he was.” How do we take Jesus? Where do we carry him? Would Jesus be able to rest in the turbulence of our lives? Are we not sure of the answer? Then we can rest assured that he will take us as we are. (↔ Music Link) And what about the guys in the other boats. Can you imagine what they thought when the storm suddenly stopped?

     Job 38:8-11 – 8 “Or who shut in the sea with doors when it burst out from the womb?— 9 when I made the clouds its garment, and thick darkness its swaddling band, 10 and prescribed bounds for it, and set bars and doors, 11 and said, ‘Thus far shall you come, and no farther, and here shall your proud waves be stopped’?”

If you know how bad a basilisk is, you know that what’s devouring our world, our Peace, and our Sanity is far worse than any legendary creature in mythology. It is the real, living, voracious Power of Evil – coming upon us like a tsunami and carrying away much that is precious while leaving behind much that is heaps of wreck and ruin – material, physical, and spiritual devastation. But we have a God who can control the sea, the weather, the things that go bump in the night, and HE has given us HIS deliverance from whatever the Foe stirs up.

    2 Corinthians 5:14 – 14 For the love of Christ urges us on, because we are convinced that one has died for all; therefore all have died.

How we gonna get there if we don’t go and leave? I know, you know, we know “No matter how you struggle and strive / You’ll never get out of the world alive.” But what does it mean “all have died?” all in Christ have died with him in the baptism of his death on the cross, so all live in him because he died for all. He’s coming back. Could be tomorrow, could be a thousand years from now, but he is coming back. He said it, we believe it, and we’re stickin’ to it.

     Revelation 19:11-14 – 11 Then I saw heaven opened, and there was a white horse! Its rider is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. 12 His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems; and he has a name inscribed that no one knows but himself. 13 He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is called The Word of God. 14 And the armies of heaven, wearing fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses.

The bride and groom in a Jewish wedding were crowned with small diadems or coronets. This Kingly Groom on a white stallion is “crowned with many crowns” (↔ Music Link) for the Bride of Christ, the Church. It will not be a pleasant visit for those who have made of him an enemy, a mockery, or insignificant.

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.”

For those who have kept the Law, for those who have loved God above all and Neighbor among all, there is great rejoicing in Heaven. On that Last Day, will there be time for the wicked to say, “What shall I do to be saved?” We are told that on that day, what we have done will judge us, and we may be held wanting (Read the fifth chapter of Daniel, but especially Daniel 5:24-28 – 24 “So from his presence the hand was sent and this writing was inscribed. 25 And this is the writing that was inscribed: mene, mene, tekel, and parsin. 26 This is the interpretation of the matter: mene, God has numbered the days of[a] your kingdom and brought it to an end; 27 tekel, you have been weighed on the scales and found wanting; 28 peres,[b] your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.”

That’s no fairytale, and it did come true. It can happen to anyone who rejects God’s gifts, disrespects God’s power, or exploits his children.

     Another lesson from my old friend, Abraham. What was his answer when God spoke? “Ready!” always obey immediately. “If you haven’t got time to do it right the first time, when will you have time to do it over?” Now substitute these words for “time”: inclination, will, Love, Faith, and discernment. See what I mean? WE choose God or WE choose N0-God and in NO-God there is NO Good. Better then to pray for wisdom (See Proverbs 9:10 (↔ Click Link)

     “Why worry when you can pray?” (↔ Music Link) Many of us prefer to worry. It’s like we don’t want to “bother God” with our trivial pursuits. Well, we’re just not listening, because he already knows everything we do before we do it, so what’s the point of avoiding him? Pray-in-faith-believing is a reeeaaly good strategy. Think about those Disciples in the boat with Jesus. NOW we know that when things get all story in our lives, we just go to Jesus and say H-E-L-L-L-L-P! They hadn’t learned that yet (although the did have plenty of reasons to understand it). They panicked. We do the same thing sometimes. We must remember that this Jesus, ths God the Creator without Whom nothing was made – John 1:1-5 (↔ Click Link).

     Look, remember Genesis 1:31 – 31 God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day. Like we often say, “It’s all good.” If God can create and control the Universe – of which each of us is a miniscule part – then probably he can handle anything stupid we can come up with. Is that too blunt? I have a good deal of expertise in “stu-ped” and there’s nothing better as an antidote than

REPENTANCE. It is always the best way to win in a battle with Satan. Just remember to put on the Full Armor of God (↔ Click Link) and then …

WE have the Gift of Life, and the gift is only useful if we use it for others.

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

 

Psalm 116:12-19 (12-14 excerpted) – 12 What shall I return to the Lord for all his bounty to me? 13 I will lift up the cup of Salvation and call on the name of the Lord, 14 I will pay my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Aloha Friday Message – June 11, 2021 – How does God get it done?

June 11, 2021

2124AFC061121 – How does God get it done?

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.

Follow the ► for an important prayer request. READ THE WARNING FIRST.

Ezekiel 17:24d – I the Lord have spoken;  I will accomplish it.

2 Corinthians 5:9-10 – 9 So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him. 10 For all of us must appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each may receive recompense* for what has been done in the body, whether good or evil.

Mark 4:33-34 – 33 With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it; 34 he did not speak to them except in parables, but he explained everything in private to his disciples.

*recompense – κομίσηται: I receive back, receive what has belonged to myself but has been lost, or else promised but kept back, or: I get what has come to be my own by earning; recover. I get what’s coming to me because I earned it.

Aloha nui loa, ʻŌmea! Grace and Peace to each of you from God our Father and our Lord, Jesus the Christ, in the Power of the Holy Spirit. This is another surprise topic. With this set of readings, I usually talk about seeds and growth. One of the main features of this coming Sunday’s readings is TREES. In the passage from Ezekiel, God speaks of propagating trees by a number of different means. His spoken words make it clear that no matter what method he uses, it will succeed so well that even the birds will come to make their homes there. In the second letter to the Corinthians, the Apostle Paul says we are courageous because we walk by faith and not by sight. Although he does not express it directly, he is – in a way – saying that we see neither the forest nor the trees because we are not looking at either of those; we are only following our faith and that faith is leading us to our Home with the Lord. In the Gospel Jesus gives two parables – one about scattering seed for a crop and one about the mustard seed which – though tiny – grows into a pretty good-sized bush, a bush big enough for birds to nest in it. There is another, and perhaps more subtle but at least equally important commonality among these passages: They tell us how God does what he does. We’re going to take a quick Bible tour so you can make a good guess at the answer to the question in today’s title – How does God get it done?

Please scan the Key Verse entries again and look at the verbs. In the passage from Ezekiel, the Lord says, “I the Lord have spoken.” Does that ring a bell? How about over 70 bells? At least that many times in the Bible a passage contains the phrase “God said.” Probably the passage most of us call to mind containing that statement is found in the first chapter of Genesis. “And God said, let there be … And it was so … And God saw that it was good.” Another familiar passage is Genesis 6:13 – 13 And God said to Noah, “I have determined to make an end of all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence because of them; now I am going to destroy them along with the earth …” When God speaks, change happens, and the change is always what God wills to be. Whatever God speaks becomes reality. Sometimes when God speaks Creation happens as we see in the first 3 chapters of Genesis. Sometimes when God speaks devastation happens. It can come upon a single person or upon thousands. This is a fairly long passage, but I want to include it because it’s one of those “OH WOW” moments in Scripture, I am asking you to use the link to see in context what I’m going to quote for you. What you will see here would be “shocking” to some of our more Worldly acquaintances, but remember “When God speaks, change happens.” Read the excerpt, then check out the context: Exodus 32:24-34 – 27 He [Moses] said to them, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Put your sword on your side, each of you! Go back and forth from gate to gate throughout the camp, and each of you kill your brother, your friend, and your neighbor.’” 28 The sons of Levi did as Moses commanded, and about three thousand of the people fell on that day.  That is a WOW, right? The “why” is in the context.

Another “action phrase” we see very frequently is “Thus says the Lord,” which is often coupled with “the God of Israel.” Usually when we see that phrase pops up, it means devastation is moments away.

Going back to Moses standing before Pharaoh, we have this which combines God speaking and instructing his Prophet (remember a Prophet is one who speaks the Will of the Lord on the Lord’s behalf) and the Prophet passing God’s declaration to Pharaoh: Exodus 4:21-22 – 21 And the Lord said to Moses, “When you go back to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders that I have put in your power; but I will harden his heart, so that he will not let the people go. 22 Then you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the Lord: Israel is my firstborn son. Well, we all know what happened after that! Later, as Israel moved toward Canaan, there were more problems. Do you remember the story of A’chan? It is found in Joshua Chapter 7 – try check it out (↔ Click Link). After the fall of Jericho, Joshua had warned the people they were not to take any of the spoils because God had said the place and its people and cattle and riches were to be utterly destroyed. A’chan disobeyed and grabbed a bunch of goodies and buried them in his tent. It ended badly for A’chan and his whole family.

Read the story, and you’ll know how God’s spoken word saying “So you shall purge the evil from your midst” (↔ Click Link) ended up separating the chaff from the wheat among the wandering Israelites. Wherever we read that God spoke – either directly or through his prophets – change happens. Considering the obliterations God Willed in the Scripture we’ve reviewed, it should be plain to us that it is better to please God than to offend him. As we have seen repeatedly in these pages and this post, failure comes with deadly consequences. But certainly we wouldn’t make that mistake, to fail to obey God? Hmmm. Yup, we are still sinners, but we know there is a way to do right things better and better things right. Let’s look more closely at the passage from 2 Corinthians. The Apostle Paul says (inspired by the Holy Spirit who is God) “9 So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him.” “Aiming to please” sounds familiar, yes? We all aspire to please – Mom and Dad, maybe even our siblings, certainly some of our favorite teachers, and – yes – even God. It is our hope that we can always be pleasing in God’s sight. I’m sure you’ll agree with me that it not always a piece of pie to do that (“easy as pie”).

I sin, you sin, we sin and we know we sin. We tell God we’re sorry. We tell the people against whom we’ve sinned we’re sorry and – if we can find a way – we attempt to make restitution as we seek and (hopefully receive and accept) from them their forgiveness thereby blessing our forgiveness by God. It’s The Absolutely Perfect Plan. That outcome is certainly more appealing than the alternative. Remember this: 10 For all of us must appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each may receive recompense for what has been done in the body, whether good or evil. In every management course, every religious education program, in dealing with my children, in all things where I can help speak The Word of the Lord, I will state: THERE ARE NO INCONSEQUENTIAL ACTS because we are being watched!

Who sees us and everything we do? (Hint: it’s not Santa Claus) Who knows our thoughts, the paths we take, the words we speak, the very mystery of when we were being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. (See Psalm 139) Belovéd, that Psalm should be read by ever Christian and non-Christian daily! How easily and conveniently we forget that there is no hiding anything from God, and what he sees he will judge, and what he judges will be changed. If we think we’re getting away with it, we are – literally – dead wrong. That means wrong and dead. Why is that true? Sin is wrong. Sin is Death. Therefore wrong is Death. Oh, if only there was someone or something to speak to us, to say, “Hey you! That’s wrong! Stop it!” Ahhh, Belovéd, but there is. There is the Voice of God.

We hear that Voice in our hearts, in our mind, in our whole being. We can heed or ignore, change or die. What an elegantly Absolutely Perfect Plan! But wait! There’s more! Act now and you can receive double the blessing or double the curse! Obedience begets forgiveness while disobedience begets destruction. Can it really be that simple? All we have to do is hear the Word of the Lord, do what the Word says, and Live? Quick, someone tell me how that relates to the Gospel! Look, hear, perceive, and understand the Word of the Lord: 33 With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it; 34 he did not speak to them except in parables, but he explained everything in private to his disciples. We are his Disciples if we hear his Word and treasure it in our hearts so that when any or all of the events in Psalm 139 happen, we will Trust and Obey. Yes, I’m going to give you that same music link for Trust and Obey (↔ Music Link) as well as the post from April 2013 (↔ Click Link). There is a four-word phrase that is the greatest enabler for sinners: “It is too hard.” There is a four-letter word that teaches us how to make it easier: FROG Faithfully Rely On God. We can Trust God – we’ve got his Word on that.

We can Obey God – we’ve got his Promise on that in The Absolutely Perfect Plan (The APP) found in our End-User Manual, the B.I.B.L.E.; but guess what! Ya gotta use it or you’re gonna lose it. If you do the sin, you cannot win … unless you stick with The APP. Yep, there’s an APP for that, but it’s not on our phone or our tablet or pad. It’s in our hearts and we can download it at the APP Depot. Just look for this personal ad: Jeremiah 31:33b – I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. You see, God has chosen us (↔ Music Link) People of God, AWAKE! The “woke” walk among us and are the Shades of Death. Ahhh, Belovéd, what do you suppose will be the change when God speaks to each of us in our hearts? Hmmm, hold up your hand(s) if you know where we can find the answer to that one. BINGO! Good for you! It’s in the B.I.B.L.E. at 2 Corinthians 6:16 – 16 What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, “I will live in them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Let us make his people our people by being The People of God using the APP he gave us. In the APP there are NO INCONSEQUENTIAL ACTS and we are promised we will get what’s coming to us because we earned it. God has spoken. When God speaks, change happens “whether good or evil.” THAT, Belovéd, is how God gets it done – whatever he says … is.

Ohhh, I just LOVE this stuff, don’t you?!?!?   ▼▼▼ Scroll down

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

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► Let’s ask God to speak against the horrid medical experimentation (↔ Click Link) on aborted fetuses as is written in Habakkuk 1:2-4 – The Prophet’s Complaint 2 O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not listen? Or cry to you “Violence!” and you will not save? 3 Why do you make me see wrongdoing and look at trouble? Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise. 4 So the law becomes slack and justice never prevails. The wicked surround the righteous— therefore judgment comes forth perverted.

WARNING!! THIS VIDEO IS DISTURBING.

VIEWER CAUTION IS ADVISED.

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Aloha Friday Message – June 4, 2021 – The 411 of the 808

June 4, 2021

2123AFC060421 – The 411 of the 808

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.

     Exodus 24:7 – 7 Then he took the book of the covenant, and read it in the hearing of the people; and they said, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.”

Hebrews 9:11-12 – 11 But when Christ came as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and perfect tent [Tabernacle] (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation), 12 he entered once for all into the Holy Place, not with the blood of goats and calves, but with his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption.

Mark 14:26 – 26 When they had sung the hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.

E pili mau na pomaika‘i ia ‘oe a me ke akua ho’omaika‘i ‘oe, ʻŌmea! (May blessing always be with you and may God bless you, Beloved!) Say, how about that title up there? Kinda weird and mysterious, huh? Some of you – especially our members in Hawaiʻi – will know that 808 is the Area Code for Hawaiʻi. It is one of our “identity tags.” It’s on T-shirts, bumper stickers, TV ads, pretty much everywhere. Being part of the 808 is quite a blessing – you know, “living in Paradise” (despite many valid complaints it’s being paved over and turned under for more houses, condos, resorts, and “Big Box Stores”). I put it in the title today because I am one of those silly people that gets excited about numerical happenstances like February 1, 2021 being 2/1/21. Well, today is our 808th post! Who’dathunk? The other number, 411, is technically a slang term for information, the real skinny, and/or the way to find phone numbers – “Just dial 411.” Today’s post, then, is information about the 808th post which also happens to be information about the long-cherished Solemnity (special feast) that lots of us old folks call Corpus Christi – the Body of Christ. It is the official name for commemoration of the institution of the Eucharist – The Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ. We take a whole day to remember the Covenant the Lord made with Moses and The Chosen People, the Israelites.

In the reading from Deuteronomy, Moses reads the Book of the Covenant to them – The Law – as (in the same words and meanings) God has given it to him. There is an account in this passage of the holocausts and sacrifices of young bulls as peace offerings to the Lord. He takes half of the blood from the sacrifices and splashes it on the altar of twelve pillars he has constructed for this offering. This sanctifies the pillars, the altar, and the offering. The other half he sprinkles on The People. This sanctifies The People, and their promise in response to the offering for the Covenant they will be bound to obey. We have commented in the past that “there is no remission of sin without the shedding of blood.” (See Hebrews 9:22)

In the first Key Verse, you notice I included The People’s promise to be obedient. This is something they do over, and over, and over in the Old Testament. As you know quite well, they didn’t keep that promise long, and in fact went as far as they thought they could get in the opposite direction from God’s commands without having to be clobbered by a swift kick in the head to help them remember The Covenant. You know what happened. Here’s a direct quote from last week’s lesson. It bears repeating because we, Belovéd, are not that much different from The People when it comes to being obedient to The Law: “They witnessed it. They passed it down through generations. They wrote it into the Torah. God sent them Judges, and Prophets, and Kings, and Priests, and Rites, and Laws, and they really should have had it all ‘down pat,’ as we say. There shouldn’t be any questions such as ‘who is God and what did God do?’ It’s all right there in front of us for millennia.”

The Apostle Paul often pointed out that Jesus, the Christ and our High Priest (he is the Priest, the Sacrifice, and the Offering) sanctified his own Body and Blood by voluntarily sacrificing it “for the remission of sin” for all who would believe in him. The Apostle Paul outlines God’s Absolutely Perfect Plan for Salvation through the Absolutely Perfect Sacrifice of his Absolutely Perfect Son so as to make an Absolutely Perfect once-and-for-all expiation of sin. That’s a great word – expiation. Some ways to think about it are reparation, apology, recompense, penitence. It means the removal of guilt for sin as in paying a ransom, to “buy out of bondage” a prisoner or slave (of or to sin), to pay the penalty for whatever caused that bondage – like forgetting The Covenant. As The People evolved into The Nation of Israel, the rites for communion with God and for the expiation of sin also grew. The Tent of Meeting was eventually replaced by the Temple built by Solomon. It took a long while to get to that point; however, the basic process did not change. The Law was broken, an offering was required and presented for consecration, blood was shed, expiation was granted, and that lasted until the Law was broken again. No matter how often that cycle was repeated, the need for completing it never went away. Then God moved, and he fixed it.

To fix that cycle, God sent his Only Begotten Son to willingly shed his blood by entering “once for all into the sanctuary” and WHAM! Sin and the wages of sin – Death – were G  O  N  E  GONE – in the eyes and memory of God. There is still the breaking of The Law, but the blood has already been shed, the price has been paid, and we have the forgiveness of sins through the one and only Great High Priest. (Let us not forget that in Mosaic Law, the forgiveness received from God also came through the office of the Priesthood.) We can still ask God directly for forgiveness, but it is still through the office of our Great High Priest that forgiveness is available to those who repent, believe the Gospel, are baptized, and confess their sinfulness and sins, and seek and accept forgiveness. When the Apostle Paul says “then through the greater and perfect tent,” he is referring to the Tabernacle, the Holy of Holies. The Apostle Paul names the Tabernacle to be the Body of Christ and the Blood which he shed for our sins. This is THE perfect sacrifice, this pure and holy sacrifice – greatly exceeding all the sacrifices of sheep and rams and goats and bulls and pigeons and turtle doves and all of the blood they shed over and over up until the final, perfect, one-and-done sacrifice of Christ Jesus our Lord. Folks, that is some GOOD news!! It’s Good News because he accomplished that “with his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption.”

That is why every year about nine weeks after Easter we commemorate The Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ. We remember how he loved us to his death (↔ Music Link). He and he alone provides us with the expiation of our sins. Expiation means to remove something. In biblical terminology, it has to do with removal or eliminating guilt by means of paying a ransom or by offering an atonement. It means to pay the penalty for something often on behalf of someone else. Thus, the act of expiation removes the problem by paying for it in some way, in order to satisfy some demand. It is the concept of “PAID IN FULL” we have spoken of so often here.

To get an idea of how often this comes up, you can go to https://aloha-friday.org/ and in the search box in the right column and type in tide AND evil as seen here:

You will find quite a few posts that talk about the “advancing tide of evil” such as – 1046, 1143, 1337, 1346, 1743, 1750, 1813, 2023. You’ll also be able to use the same BOOLEAN search for tsunami AND evil. That “advancing tide” has arrived, and it’s a TOWERING TSUNAMI!! Here, in this 808th post, we remember why we remember what it is about Jesus’ Life, Passion, Death, and Resurrection that makes us wholly holy and whole.

Maybe you noticed the teensy Key Verse I took from the Gospel. There is so much richness in the passage the Church chooses for this Sunday’s Gospel (Mark 14:12-26 ↔ Click Link), so why just that one?

A few years ago, that verse jumped right off the page at me and another of those “Oh yeah, no?” moments of epiphany happened: When they had sung the hymn … Jesus could SING!! In the realization of that fact I found another reason to believe in and to respect the humanity of Jesus. I love to sing, he sang, too. Note iT says, “the hymn.” The word in the Greek is ὑμνήσαντες (hymnēsantes). We don’t know for sure exactly what they would have sung, but most likely it was all or at least part of the Hallel, consisting of six psalms, from Psalm 113, to Psalm 118. I include that again this time because if we are commemorating the Body and Blood of Yeshua bar Yehosef, then it is fruitful to remember that with that Life, that Body and that Blood, Jesus could sing with his Apostles about the Steadfast Love of God as he resolutely headed of the Mount Olivet to meet his betrayer as planned.

You see, it really was an Absolutely Perfect Plan, and that’s the 411 on this 808. We love him because he first loved us (↔ Click Link). That Love is what gives us the Faith, the discernment, the patience and perseverance, and the humility to seek him (↔ Click Link) while he may be found so that we, too, may please him as sharers in the Body and Blood of Christ. We would not seek him if we had not the Faith that he truly exists because “without faith it is impossible to please God, for whoever would approach him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.” We seek – in joyful Faith – The Precious Body and Precious Blood (↔ Music Link) of the Bread of Life.

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 – May 28, 2021 – Believe it or else.

May 28, 2021

2122AFC052821 – Believe it or else. 

     Deuteronomy 4:33-35 – 33 Has any people ever heard the voice of a god speaking out of a fire, as you have heard, and lived? 34 Or has any god ever attempted to go and take a nation for himself from the midst of another nation, by trials, by signs and wonders, by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and by terrifying displays of power, as the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your very eyes? 35 To you it was shown so that you would acknowledge that the Lord is God; there is no other besides him.

Romans 8:15-17 – 15 For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, “Abba! Father!” 16 it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ—if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.

Matthew 28:16-17 – 16 Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. 17 When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted.

Aloha nui loa, ʻŌmea! Grace and Peace to each of you from God our Father and our Lord, Jesus the Christ, in the Power of the Holy Spirit. I use that form of greeting often in these pages. It is based on the Apostle Paul’s greetings for many of his epistles. All three of the Persons in the Holy Trinity are mentioned, and so when I read it, or think it, or say it I give a slight bow of my head. (See GIRM §275 Bows.) Critics of Christianity tell us that nothing we believe is credible, and that such “rituals” we call Sacraments are meaningless. They refuse to know God, and fail to understand the Unity of God’s Diversity. That is why last week’s topic on Pentecost is so baffling to non-Christians. Frankly, a lot of Christians have difficulty grasping it. Nonetheless, God himself has given us so many signs and wonders to understand who and what God is. God is our Creator, our Deliverer, our Savior, and our Mystery.

These three passages for our Key Verses today give a thumbnail history of God’s relationships with us – we, the earthlings he created. First, he tells us that no other “little-g god” can do what he has done for Israel. They witnessed it. They passed it down through generations. They wrote it into the Torah. God sent them Judges, and Prophets, and Kings, and Priests, and Rites, and Laws, and they really should have had it all “down pat,” as we say. There shouldn’t be any questions such as “who is God and what did God do?” It’s all right there in front of us for millennia.

Second, in the reading from the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Romans, the Holy Spirit tells us through inspired writing that we are the adopted children of God – as he promised! He spoke through the Prophet Hosea in Hosea 11:1 – 1 When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son. God loved his chosen people as his children. Popular culture has it that every earthling is a child of God. That’s the point-of-view from the World. Even then, Hosea – who prophesied toward the end of the Divided Kingdom and was for a time a contemporary of Isaiah and Micah – it was clear that God’s plan of Salvation was headed toward the birth of the Messiah who would be Immanuel – God among us, born of a virgin and therefore human. Thus Immanuel, God’s only-begotten Son, was our Brother, and as our Brother he makes us joint heirs of all of God’s covenants … IF WE LOVE AND OBEY HIM.

Lastly, we are heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ—if only, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.

Whoa, now wait a minute! “Joint heirs,” “with Christ,” “suffer with him,” and “glorified with him.” It’s the Family Tradition, so if you want the benefits of that Tradition, you gotta be part of the Family! And how does that happen? Well, in Matthew 28:19,(↔ Click Link to see this in context) just a couple of verses down from our Key Verse, Jesus says, “19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, …” That is how we get into “The Family.” You remember how that works: Repent. Believe the Gospel. Be Baptized. Like it says in John 1:12 – 12 But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, …

Belovéd it’s all in The Book, you know, the Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth. Now, I want us to focus on what that Key Verse from Mathew says, the one before Jesus gives his Great Commission. Think about this: It is quite likely there were more than just The Eleven remaining Disciples there. This was at the end of the 40th day after the Resurrection – the day of Ascension. He’s been with up to 500 persons at a time – although we don’t know how often. They’ve watched him, talked with him, ate with him, learned with him, and they know that it is HIM. Why would they doubt? Looking back at the history of Israel’s relationship with God, we know they frequently needed a “faith-lift.” But, could it be that maybe he did look a wee-bit different? Does a glorified body have a little bit of shimmer from that Sh’khinah Glory of the Living and True God? Might they be wondering – as they see him in that Glory – is this really the same guy? No one among them, I am sure, had ever seen a Resurrected and Glorified Body. And he was giving such new instructions like making Disciples of all nations. What? We’re going to convert Gentiles? Baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Now think: This is before Pentecost, right? How does that formula work, and what does it mean to baptize “in the name (singular) of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit (Triune)?” We shouldn’t be surprised that maybe a few of them – hopefully none among the Eleven now that Thomas got it straight – might be a little fuzzy-minded about what happened, what’s happening, and what’s gonna happen. Can we call that doubt? Perhaps.

I confess that even after 2000+ years, there are still things about those first 40 days of the establishment of the New Covenant that I just have to blink at twice and say, “O-o-o-o-K. I got it (I hope).” We also know that at some point (or two) in Jesus’ ministry some of the followers decided it was all a bunch of hooey, and left the pack. They never got to be part of The Family – that is unless they repented, believed the Gospel, and got baptized. We don’t often think of it this way, but there really is a fourth part to that – it is the Confirmation of Faith we obtained when we received the Holy Spirit. That is your Membership ID for The Family. It’s like the Apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 12:3c – (↔ Click Link) no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except by the Holy Spirit. How are we going to get to that point in our faith-walk unless remember that

  1. God is God, and he’s told us that about a gazillion times
  2. We are not God, and that should be pretty easy to figure out based on what we cannot do
  3. Jesus is God, because His Father said so, and so did Jesus
  4. Jesus gives us the Holy Spirit who is God so that we can finally know God as God is
  5. We receive the Holy Spirit when we repent, believe the Gospel, are baptized, and are confirmed in the Holy Spirit.

    As I always say “PIECE OF PIE!” (I’m not that fond of cake.) So, May the Piece be with you, with me, with us because within that piece of pie, which is easy as pie to understand and to enjoy, is the Grace and Peace of God our Father and our Lord, Jesus the Christ, in the Power of the Holy Spirit. That is the Family Tradition. We keep and reinforce that tradition through our prayers because … (c’mon now, you know this one!) – THE FAMILY THAT PRAYS TOGETHER STAYS TOGETHER! Want some clues on how that works? Try this: 1522AFC052915 – Whole in One. I’m praying for you. Please pray for me. Pray for this ruptured America. Pray for each other. Pray for everybody everywhere anywhere all the time because we’re all in the same canoe (↔ Music Link). PRAY, PRAY, PRAY, PRAY!!! All things that are Good come together in our El Shaddai-Olam, the Living and True God in Three Persons – Blesséd Trinity (↔ Music Link) for They alone are HOLY.

Let us pray: O glorious God who have given us all things that are good, grant that we who call upon Thee as Family may live to embrace all that is perfect in Thee and nothing that is contrary to Thy holiness, Thy perfect integrity, Thy endless mercy and Thy eternal Salvation through Christ our Lord who lives and reigns with you in the Unity of the Holy Spirit, God for ever-and-ever. AMEN

Belovéd, if we do not believe, what else can we expect except the “or else” of eternal separation from The Family? Matthew 10:30-33 – 32 Everyone therefore who acknowledges me before others, I also will acknowledge before my Father in heaven; 33 but whoever denies me before others, I also will deny before my Father in heaven.

Believe it or else. He said it, I believe it, and I’m stickin’ to it! It’s a joy to be Part of The Family of God!! (↔ Music Link) My Abba wants all of us to join in on Chapter 1, Verse 12 of John.

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

Please pray with us here at Share-a-Prayer. (Puh-LEEEZ?)

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 – May 21, 2021 – Together Again

May 21, 2021

2121AFC052121- Together Again

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.

    John 20:19-20 – 19 When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” 20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.  

    Acts 2:1-4 – 1 When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. 2 And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. 3 Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.

Aloha nui loa, ʻŌmea! Grace and Peace to each of you from God our Father and our Lord, Jesus the Christ, in the Power of the Holy Spirit. And HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Yes, Pentecost is the birthday of the Church. We’re going to look at two of the readings from the Mass During the Day on Pentecost. The first occurs on the Day of Resurrection – the first day of the week. Jesus had a busy day on that first day of the week. First the Resurrection, then instructing Mary Magdalene to carry a message to the Apostles, a walk with two other Disciples on the Road to Emmaus, and then – that evening – a surprise appearance in the Cenacle – the “Upper Room” where a number of his closest followers were gathered together as they tired to figure out what to do next.

Can you imagine how frightened they were? Jesus, the Messiah in whom they placed their hopes for the restoration of Israel, had been arrested, severely beaten, dragged through a preposterous trial, and the Jewish leaders and the Romans conspired to crucify him! He died. Right in front of his Mother and a handful of close friends, he died. Were his followers next? If they could capture and kill the Messiah who was God’s anointed Savior, what would they do with a bunch of common men and women whose only “crime” was loving and following the Man who they believed was the King of Heaven.

Then there were those outlandish reports from Mary, from Peter and John, and from the pair who saw him disappear from the dinner table in Emmaus. It was all unbelievable. Nothing like that could possibly happen. Then Jesus simply popped into the room unannounced without so much as opening the door and says, quite calmly, “Peace be with you.” Talk about a “Kodak Moment!” Fear was converted to incredulity, disbelief transmuted to Joy, sorrow and grief were disintegrated in an explosion of validation. “Look at my hands and my feet. Reach in and feel the wound in my side. Here, WHOOOOOSH, receive the Holy Spirit. Now you can forgive or bind sins just like me.”

For forty days, he met with them, taught them further about the kingdom of God, appeared to hundreds of them at a time, ate with them, walked with them – I’m willing to wager he even laughed with them, maybe even sang some songs like the ones they sang (↔ Click Link) just before he was arrested. At the end of those forty days, they were still struggling with what happened to Jesus and to them. And what about this clear and stern warning to stay in Jerusalem, a very dangerous place for all of them? Here’s a little memory refresher on that commandment found in Acts 1:4-5 – 4 While staying with them, he ordered them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for the promise of the Father. “This,” he said, “is what you have heard from me; 5 for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” John the Baptist had talked about that, but what did that really mean anyway? And why on Pentecost? What does that mean, “When the day of Pentecost had come “?

To help answer that we need to know about the Convocation Festivals ordered by God for the nation of Israel. Pentecost: It is the central Convocation Festival (↔ Click Link) in the list of observances Jehovah commanded should be celebrated by Israel. Here are the feasts described in Leviticus 23, the section of Leviticus devoted to “Holiness Laws”: 1. Passover (Pesach) – 2. Unleavened Bread (Chag Hamotzi) – 3. Firstfruits (Yom Habikkurim) – 4. Pentecost (Shavu’ot) The Feast of Weeks or Festival of Harvest – 5. Trumpets (Yom Teru’ah) – 6. Atonement (Yom Kippur) – 7. Tabernacles (Succoth). The “Feast of Weeks” was a festival of seven weeks. All Jewish males were required to travel to Jerusalem to attend the rites and rituals for this Harvest Feast. It occurs exactly fifty days after the Feast of Firstfruits. It is one of the Three “Solemn Feasts” 1. Passover, 3. the Feast of Weeks, and 7. the Feast of Tabernacles. All able-bodied males were required to attend these festivals and to offer specific sacrifices. Jesus’ resurrection is characterized as the “First Fruits of them that sleep.” (See 1 Corinthians 15:20) Then, in accordance with God’s Perfect Plan, Jehovah commanded that eight days be set aside by Israel to celebrate Passover. For Christians, there are eight days from the start of Christ’s passion on Palm Sunday through the Day of Resurrection. Jesus was the “Passover Lamb” sacrificed for all earthlings, the pure and spotless victim of our sin and the curse of death. Fifty days later, Peter preached a real whopper of a sermon, remember? (↔ Click Link) On rare occasions – like this year – the feast of First Fruits occurs on the Day of Resurrection.

   On Pentecost Sunday, Peter preached at Solomon’s Portico, and BOOM! The Church happened when 3,000 new believers were claimed in the name of Jesus, chosen by God (↔ Click Link) for eternal life. As Jesus had commanded, the Gospel went out beginning in Jerusalem (See Luke 24:44-49) as the Holy Spirit Jesus had promised ignited the hearts, minds, and spirits of thousands upon thousands – the First Fruits of the Church – in a matter of days! You have experienced how we Christians are always telling each other “God is good.” “All the time.” “All the Time.” “God is good.” Well, there it was – the New Spiritual Harvest of the New Covenant – just as God planned it! (and remember Belovéd, “as” ≡ “important”).

Alright, so on the Day of Resurrection, Jesus popped in and started convincing the Apostles and other Disciples that it was really him. Have you ever wondered why the Resurrected Jesus asked them to touch his wounds or why he is shown with the marks of the nails and spear still there? That is to show that his Resurrected Glorified Body is the same human body that was tortured to death on the cross, but now it is restored to the Divinely Ordered body as it was in Adam before his sin. The new Adam is like the original Adam, only now without sin and death.

I’d like to show you something that I made at least 25 years ago, but have never used – until today! Here is what I call “The Seven C’s of the Catholic Church.” The things we celebrat as Catholic Christians are included in this little diagram:

    If we “sail the Seven C’s” we cover the essential parts of our catholicity. Everything is centered around building and being Community in  Christ because God is community. We should know and understand our Creed, the summary of our faith. We should understand the celebration of Word and Sacrifice in the Mass. We should understand the value, importance, and Divine institution of the Sacrament of Reconciliation often called Confession. We should confirm and sustain our commitment to the Gospel, to the Magisterium, and to Apostolic Tradition. We should understand that we the people of God are The Church and that when the Mass has ended we should be evangelizing as soon as we reenter the World. Lastly, we should know that Communion, the Eucharist which is “the source and summit of our faith” is participation in the Divine Life of Jesus Christ and that to receive it in an unworthy manner is a grave sin. We should “sail The Seven C’s” every moment of every day. To do that, we must open our hearts and minds and spirits to the indwelling of the Holy Spirit as Pentecost is upon us again – and this time it can happen like is did in the Second Chapter of Acts not just once, but every day! We will find that doing that does indeed bring us “all together in one place,” and in that place, the Holy Spirit will refresh The Church. (↔ Music Link) Knowing that, Belovéd, let us pray:

Prayer to the Holy Spirit
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.

Romans 15:13 – 13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

 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 – May 14, 2021 – Important As This.

May 14, 2021

2021AFC051421 – Important As This

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.

THIS WEEKEND MANY PARISHES AROUND THE WORLD WILL BE COMMEMORATING THE SOLEMNITY OF THE ASCENSION. THAT EVENT OCCURS ON A THURSDAY (MAY 13TH THIS YEAR), BUT THE CELEBRATION IS OFTEN TRANSFERRED TO SUNDAY SO THAT MORE OF THE FAITHFUL CAN PARTICIPATE. I HAVE WRITTEN ABOUT THE ASCENSION MANY TIMES IN THESE PAGES, SO FOR TODAY, I AM GOING TO LOOK AT THE READINGS FROM THE SEVENTH SUNDAY IN EASTER. THERE ARE SOME REAL GEMS IN THOSE READINGS. You can find those readings HERE. If you read them, you will see that indeed God is our Help. (↔ Music Link)

   John 17:16-21 – 16 They do not belong to the world, just as* I do not belong to the world. 17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. 18 As* you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. 19 And for their sakes I sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth.

20 “I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one. As* you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.

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. Today we will link up with some previous posts as background for today’s peek into Scripture. A couple of years ago there was an Aloha Friday Message called 1917AFC042619 – THIS is important. It was referenced later in “2021AFC052220 – What is doubt?” and “2024AFC061220 – Call it what it is.” Today’s title is like the one in 2019. We’re going to look at another tiny word that doesn’t seem to have much “oomph” to it; but, it is in fact one of the most powerful and most used words in the Bible. The word we are looking at today is “as.”

You’ll recall, I hope, that I’ve told you the New Testament was written in Koine Greek, not Aramaic, or Hebrew, or Latin. Koine Greek is a hybrid blend of four dialects of ancient Greek. Each had their own strengths and weaknesses. After Alexander the Great took rule over Macedonia, he invited all the peoples he conquered to be citizens – not slaves – in his empire. He insisted that the entire empire speak one united language, and gradually Koine Greek solidified. It developed, expanded, intensified, and spread across the known eastern hemisphere up to and beyond the time of Jesus.

For verbs there is tense, voice, mood, person, and number. Each of these components can be added to a root verb to make a very precise and very complex word with intensified meaning. Nouns have case, number, and gender. In the same way that verbs take on accretions of meaning, nouns and pronouns also take on deeper meanings with additional very slight modifications. Adjectives have the same types of modifiers as nouns, so an adjective plus a noun connected to a verb speaks volumes. There can be a paragraph of meaning in English for just a few words in Greek. If we throw in some adverbs, we have indicators for time, place, and manner all related to actions. It grows more and more precise with each part of speech added to the composition – participles, prepositions, conditional “if-then” phrases, and conjunctions. I share this with you to help you understand that one tiny word with one tinier modification can have very clear and intense meaning when surrounded by other words which are also minutely, but precisely modified. If you would like to delve into that more deeply, a good place to start is Grammar & Morphology of Koine Greek by Dr. Todd Bounds.

Now with that background in mind, let’s see what wondrous things we can find in a tiny two-letter word, “as.” In today’s Key Verse I highlighted each occurrence of As*. Here’s what we find in the Koine Greek version of that passage. “As” is καθὼς kathos {kath-oce’} kathōs. It is an adverb. When an adverb modifies a verb, it tells us how, when, where, why, how often, or how much the action is performed. They often, but not always, end in -ly. This word, kathos, is derived from two other Greek words which carry the denotative meanings of “according to,” and “compared to/to the extent of.” Kathos, then is “in proportion, to the degree that” and the connotative meaning is “just as, fully, exactly as, even as, to the same degree.” Thus, when Jesus says, “ They do not belong to the world, just as* I do not belong to the world. 17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth” the message to the first-century reader of the Gospel (and to you Belovéd and patient reader) is “They do not belong to the world in precisely that same way and for the same reasons that I do not belong to this world.”

Looking at the next occurrence, “ As* you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world” we see a conditional form of statement – as and so. “In the exact manner and circumstances you sent me on a mission to do your works in the world I have sent them into the world in that fashion, too.” In verse 21, then, we have, “ As* you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” I know you are familiar with the “identity symbol” – the ≡ sign. We could substitute that symbol for “as”: ≡ you, Father are in me and ≡ I am in you, ≡ may they also be in us ≡ the world may ≡ believe that you have sent me. As you can see in this image, Jesus goes on to say – 22 The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be ≡ one,  ≡  we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become ≡ completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as  ≡  you have loved me. (John 17:22-23) In this we can glimpse the immensity and totality of the Love of God for his Son and, through and in Jesus, for us. “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you,” and then he prayed for every single one of us to be One with the One God – El Shaddai-Olam – as his friends, as his children, as his Belovéd. ʻŌmea, that is so beautiful as to bring tears to our eyes!

Now, you see that the little word “as” is not a gnat but an elephant. It carries a lot of weight. What if we looked at another “as” verse in the same way? In the 1917AFC042619 message, we looked closely at the phrase “This is my body.” When Jesus says, “this is my body,” his declaration is that what he is about to share – pieces from the broken loaf of bread – IS HIS Body. He is not saying, “this represents my body,” “this is like my body,” “this is a symbol of my body,” or “pretend my body is bread.” He means what he says: “this is my body.” In the next sentence, there is another declaration in the form of a command: “Do this in remembrance of me.” We could employ the same identity equation format here and say “bread ≡ body,” and “do ≡ act in remembrance of me.” Where else do we have a very clear command from Jesus? Well, as you know there are about 150 places where he gives very specific directions, but one that people seem to remember easily is in John 13:34 – 34 I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. ≡ love you, ≡ one another. Or how about John 15:9 – 9 As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide (↔ Click Link) in my love. ≡ Father has loved me, ≡ I have loved you; stay connected to us in our love. And again in John 15:12 – 12 This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. As ≡ my commandment, ≡ you love one another ≡ I have loved you.

What Wondrous Love (↔ Music Link) we share!! We carry such a treasure, held in earthen vessels, (↔ Music Link) as our Great Joy (↔ Music Link). Shall we refuse to Love One Another (↔ Music Link)?

Belovéd, as Jesus loves us, let us love as Jesus, and in Jesus, let us love one another as he commands because God Is Love – 7 Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. 9 God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us. (1 John 4:7-12) As we listen, as we pray, as we worship, remember THIS as is important. Now we know that in Scripture we should hear more than AS when we hear as in our hearts and minds as Jesus intended it. Let us hear not only “as” but also “≡,” because Important ≡ THIS.

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

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

I entreat you to at least mention the Intercessory Prayer List in your daily prayers. You can also visit the webpage often. We are counting on your prayers.

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 – May 7, 2021 – You are here by choice

May 7, 2021

2119AFC050721 – You are here by choice

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.

     Acts 10:34-35 – 34 Then Peter began to speak to them: “I truly understand that God shows no partiality, 35 but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.

Psalm 98:3b-4a – 3b All the ends of the earth have seen the victory of our God. 4a Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth; break forth into joyous song and sing praises.

1 John 4:10-11 – 10 In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another.

John 15:16-17 – 16 You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. 17 I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.

John 15:9 – 9 As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love.

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with all of you. Thank you for your kind messages regarding my stasis ulcer! We’re trying everything the good doctor knows to get it to heal. It’s been gradually growing since January, so – quite frankly – has our impatience. Also, I appreciate those of you who have gone to https://www.catholic365.com/ to read Renewed Again – Part 1 and Part 2. Mahalo nui loa!

This coming Sunday is the Sixth Sunday in Easter. The readings focus on the growth of the Church. It is growing because the leaders of The Way have been gifted with extraordinary courage, insight, and Power in the Holy Spirit. Peter – Cephas – is so greatly transformed one would hardly recognize him. The rough-hewn fisherman whose pride and confidence were completely reworked after Jesus’ resurrection now speaks to large crowds as if he has done it all his life. One might even say he has the same sort of crowd-pleasing pull his Master, Jesus, had. Young John, “the Belovéd Disciple” is right there with Peter and some of the others as they stare down their fear and boldly do what they have been trained to do – spread the Good News, the Gospel of the Kingdom of God. They all know that at any moment the Romans or the Jewish leaders or both could come down on them with deadly force. They kept testifying anyway – and ʻŌmea, you remember what “testify” means; you know its root is the same as the root for our word martyr. They know death is just one sly betrayal behind them. How did they find that strength?

1 John 4:10-11 – 10 In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. They remembered HIS love (↔ Music Link), and that was enough. Every Disciple suffered martyrdom; pious tradition has it the Belovéd Disciple John survived his death penalty (some sources attest he was plunged alive into boiling oil, but survived that martyrdom) and was banished to the Isle of Patmos. Further traditions (non-biblical) place him later in Ephesus where he died around the close of the first century AD. It was Love that kept them together. How could they be so fearless?! Here is what John said about that in 1 John 4:18-19 – 18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love. 19 We love [him] because he first loved us. He Loves us. We Love him. We Love each other. He Loves us again.

Does that make us special? Of course it does! No one would claim that being Loved by God is not extraordinary. God Loves every­body, right? So why doesn’t everybody love God? Why are there so many hateful haters in the World? Did God really pick just a few people to be saved? I’m going to give you a link to part of Peter’s speech at Solomon’s Portico and quote just a small section of it. I really want you to follow the link and see the quoted passage in the context of Acts 2:22-24. Here is what I want you to weigh in your own mind: 3 this man, handed over to you according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed. Here is what the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) says in §600 To God, all moments of time are present in their immediacy. When therefore he establishes his eternal plan of “predestination”, he includes in it each person’s free response to his grace: “In this city, in fact, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.”395 For the sake of accomplishing his plan of salvation, God permitted the acts that flowed from their blindness.396 Now, let’s compare that with what Peter said to the

New Testament 3 Production Still Photography

Centurion, Cornelius: “I truly understand that God shows no partiality, 35 but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.” Let’s try the old, “phrase by phrase, precept by precept” approach on that.

First he says God shows no partiality. No partiality in what? Did he not choose Israel to be his nation, “a particular people,” and set them aside as his sanctified friends and servants? Yes, he did that and we know that the purpose for that election was to provide for the installation of a Messiah who would reverse the curse of sin and death. Every living soul has access to that reversal, which is why Peter says, “but in every nation.” Peter now understands that souls outside the Chosen are also beneficiaries of the salvific Grace in Jesus’ Gospel, Life, death, and resurrection. It is not just Jews who are chosen by God; it is anyone from any nation.

Next he says “anyone who fears him and does what is right.” Ahhh, there’s a familiar concept – Do The Right Thing. (↔ Click Link) Now most readers will know that in this context “fear” doesn’t mean frightened; it means reverence – to show God respect, admiration, awe; to worship, to venerate, to trust and obey. And Belovéd, why would we do all those things? We love [him] because he first loved us. He Loves us. We Love him. We Love each other. He Loves us again. It’s a LOVE thing (↔ Click Link).

Lastly he says is acceptable to him. Altogether, then, God has decreed there is no partiality, no exclusivity, not a speck of prejudicial treatment when it comes to Salvation. It’s ours for free if we take it, it’s ours if we honor the Giver by accepting the Gift, it’s ours whenever we Love. Think about that for a moment. I’ve often asked in these pages, “Why would you want anything less?” (↔ Click Link) How would you feel (how should you feel) if anything and everything you did that was wrong simply disappeared? See if this comes close: 3b All the ends of the earth have seen the victory of our God. 4a Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth; break forth into joyous song and sing praises. These days, it seems to be acceptable form that instead of applause, a crowd gives up raucous screams, whistlings, and fist pumps. That’s kinda like grabbing every musical instrument you can find and playing them all at once while shouting and dancing and singing and just celebrating until we fall over – the ultimate happy dance! And not just us, but all the earth rejoices as well. That would be celebrating something we should recognize by now – We love [him] because he first loved us. He Loves us. We Love him. We Love each other. He Loves us again. How do we deserve to be so blessed that we can go back to him!?!? (↔ Music Link)

Ready for a bit of a curveball?  Here we go:

16 You did not choose me but I chose you. You see, that’s what I mean when I say, “You are here by choice.” God has chosen me, (↔ Music Link) chosen you, chosen us as the recipients of the Perfect Gift of Love. Why is it a Perfect Gift? Because no matter how much of that Love we give away, there is always more than we can give because he first loved us. He Loves us. We Love him. We Love each other. He Loves us again. You get it now, right? What is the point? Like me, perhaps sometimes you turn tearfully to God and say, “Why have you chosen me? (↔ GREAT Music Link) Q: What did we do to deserve this? A: Nothing, for there is nothing we can do to deserve that perfect Integrity, endless Mercy, and eternal Salvation. How then did he choose us? And what does he mean when he says, “I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last“? The word here for “appointed” is ethēka meaning planned or ordained. In this context, Jesus is saying, “My plan has always been for you to take the Gospel to the ends of the Earth. It is the Work of my Father which I now pass on to you so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. 17 I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.” That is the choice he made – the choice to make us his own. Honor the Giver by accepting the Gift. The Gift is the very paragon of one-sided Love.

“Huh? How can that be – One-sided love? But what about that we-Love-each-other thing?” An Illustration: Do you love your Dad, or your Mom? Is there a sibling you love? Is there a spouse you love? If you stopped loving that extraordinary person in your life, WOULD THEY STILL LOVE YOU? I can tell you this – my Mom and I didn’t always get along really well. We had many tense moments before I went out to the World. But, I always knew, no matter what, my Mom loves me (yes, present tense). That’s one-sided love. It becomes two-sided love when we give someone our one-sided love – completely given with nothing held back. When we give that sort of love to Someone who gives us Love, Perfect, Endless, Selfless Love, we are chosen in HIM to bear much fruit, and to receive the gifts from the Father because the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name.

Why would we ever want anything less? John 15:9 – 9 As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. Now we know: In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. He chose us to receive the atonement from that sacrifice. We are here by choice  – his choice.

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

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