“The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt: This month shall mark for you the beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year for you. Tell the whole congregation of Israel that on the tenth of this month they are to take a lamb for each family, a lamb for each household. If a household is too small for a whole lamb, it shall join its closest neighbor in obtaining one; the lamb shall be divided in proportion to the number of people who eat of it. Your lamb shall be without blemish, a year-old male; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats. You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month; then the whole assembled congregation of Israel shall slaughter it at twilight. They shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. They shall eat the lamb that same night; they shall eat it roasted over the fire with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but roasted over the fire, with its head, legs, and inner organs. You shall let none of it remain until the morning; anything that remains until the morning you shall burn. This is how you shall eat it: your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it hurriedly. It is the passover of the Lord. For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike down every firstborn in the land of Egypt, both human beings and animals; on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the Lord. The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live: when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague shall destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.
This day shall be a day of remembrance for you. You shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord; throughout your generations you shall observe it as a perpetual ordinance.”
——————–
This is the Old Testament reading for Proper 18, the fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost. It will be read aloud on Sunday, September 10, 2017. It is a story all adult Christians have heard many times, as it is the most important element of the book Exodus.
While few Christians observe the “perpetual ordinance” of the Passover (reason for this reading being spotlighted deep into the Ordinary Time calendar) and devout Jews recreate the meal ordered by God, symbolically, the sacrifice of young livestock (enough to feed millions) dwindled after the fall of the second Temple of Jerusalem. The smearing of goat or sheep blood on doorways appears to be a once-in-a-lifetime practice, because (after all) the freed Israelites did not have fixed housing in the wilderness of the Sinai. However, the element of blood has been replaced by the ceremonial cups of wine that are ritually consumed during the Seder meal.
Remember how Jesus referred to the Seder matzo as his body and the cup of wine as his blood? The cup of wine he referred to was the third ceremonial cup of wine, called the Kos Shlishi, which follows the Bareich (Grace after Meals). This third cup (poured before the blessing (Birkat Hamazon) is commonly called the Cup of Blessing.
In the Tarot, the 3 of Cups symbolizes reason to celebrate.
Therefore, the symbolism Jesus was pointing out was: A.) He was the unblemished sacrificial lamb, symbolized by unleavened bread; and B.) His blood must be smeared on the doorway of one’s soul, symbolized as alcoholic wine (not unfermented grape juice) being consumed that then circulates through the blood system, so when it reaches the heart one enters an altered state of being.
When Moses wrote what the LORD commanded of the Israelites – “This day shall be a day of remembrance for you. You shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord; throughout your generations you shall observe it as a perpetual ordinance.” – the focus placed on a “day” of “remembrance,” which is then seen as the calendar date the Israelites escaped death, the deeper purpose of this command is missed. Missing that deeper meaning means one misses the deeper meaning of the new covenant Jesus presented.
Christians may or may not feel an obligation to follow an order given by God to the Israelites. Christians may hate Jews because they think they denied Jesus of Nazareth as their Messiah. Jews may feel they are blessed by God because they ritualistically follow an order by God, through Moses; and Jews may believe that blessing remains intact, regardless of how most of them today are still waiting for that promised savior to come.
The reality is that nobody gets to heaven because they eat unleavened bread (matzo or wafers) or they drink commemorative wine (Mogen David, not Welch’s). The deeper meaning of all Scripture is found by looking beyond the physical meaning and realizing a personal relationship with God. God is speaking directly to YOU in all stories in the Holy Bible (Torah, Psalms, Prophets, Gospels, and letters from the Apostles). Therefore, YOU have to hear God telling the same instruction He told to Moses: “This day shall be a day of remembrance for YOU. YOU shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord; throughout YOUR generations YOU shall observe it as a perpetual ordinance.”
Because YOU (Christian or Jew) are not an Israelite in Egypt thousands of years ago, and YOU probably do not own any sheep or goats, much less know how to properly inspect one for blemishes or butcher one, YOU can only read God speaking those words to YOU symbolically. Jesus Christ is YOUR sacrificial lamb and YOUR human body is the home for YOUR soul. YOU will only escape the cycle of death that life on the mortal plane is when you stop making you (little tiny letters) the god (little tiny letters) of God’s soul.
Eternal death is the repeating of life in one physical body after another physical body, all temporal in their presence, while always seeing the Earth as your personal play world, with heaven little more than an idyllic dream world. Death is then reincarnation, where each human life is a repeated incarnation that leads to another physical end. It is like a record player reaching the end of a record and then beginning to play the same tunes again, only ceasing when one stops the record player from playing and takes the record off the turntable.
That breaking of the record, so to speak, can only occur when YOUR soul becomes protected by the Blood of Christ.
You are not filled with the Blood of Christ by professing faith and only eating wafers and drinking a sip of priest-blessed wine. When you have been reborn as Jesus Christ, then “YOU shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord.” The “day of remembrance” is when YOU stopped serving you (little tiny letters) and began serving God … as did Jesus of Nazareth from birth. This means YOUR Passover, from the reincarnation of death to eternal life, is a festival celebrated every day!
That day is like YOUR wedding day, when YOU married God, giving birth to the Christ Mind within YOU.
In the Tarot, the 4 of Wands symbolizes a wedding and the celebration that stability brings.
After that day, you are not just married one day each year, or for an hour each (or some) Sundays (or Saturdays), YOU are filled with the Holy Spirit forevermore.
At which point you act like God has set YOU free from you (little tiny letters).
I just thought it was important to point this out.
“Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery; You shall not murder; You shall not steal; You shall not covet”; and any other commandment, are summed up in this word, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.
Besides this, you know what time it is, how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers; the night is far gone, the day is near. Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; let us live honorably as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy. Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.”
——————————————————————————————————-
This is the Epistle reading for Proper 18, the fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost. It will be read aloud in Episcopal churches (and others) on Sunday, September 10, 2017. While a short reading selection, it is a powerful disclaimer message, one worth taking note of.
When Paul said – again, realizing that Paul spoke as did Jesus, “for the Father,” through the Holy Spirit – “Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law” means a true Christian (only Saints and Apostles) repays everyone to whom he or she ever associates with love. LOVE (which is grossly misunderstood, but what else is new?) has been given as God’s blessing, making LOVE the only currency that matters. Thus, LOVE is all a true Christian owes in return for receipt of the Holy Spirit.
When Paul wrote, “The one who loves another has fulfilled the law,” the message between that line is: “Jesus Christ is LOVE.” Think back to the encounter Jesus had with the young rich man, who asked Jesus, “How can I be assured of going to Heaven?” When Jesus said, “Of course, there is the Law,” he meant step number one was to LOVE.
The rich man mistook obedience to the Law of Moses as step one, when LOVE is the only way anyone can be so compliant to the demands that include “You shall not commit adultery; You shall not murder; You shall not steal; You shall not covet,” … on and on. We know he mistook what Jesus meant, when Jesus then followed up the young man’s happy acknowledgement of the religious legal maintenance requirements by saying (in essence), “Don’t forget how much you owe!” That means that Jesus telling the young rich man to sell what he owned and give to the poor, was him saying, “The love of the poor made you rich; now go and show your return LOVE, which is you debt that holds you in the material realm.”
That is what Paul was saying as he wrote, “Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.” Paul wrote that after stating the second greatest commandment that Jesus told an “expert of the law” (like a lawyer, only religious), when asked which was the greatest commandment. The first was, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind.” This means Paul was repeating that line of thought, speaking from the same Mind of Christ.
When Paul told the Christians of Rome, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” you have to realize the context. Romans ruled vast regions of the world as the Roman Empire; and they ruled as pagans, in the sense that they believed in many gods. Those Romans certainly did not believe in Jesus of Nazareth as the promised savior of Jews. Just as Jesus had his ministry for the Jews of Judea and Galilee (and the neighboring places where Jews lived), Paul was a Jew of Roman citizenship. Therefore, he wrote to the Jews of Rome, who were Romans. However, they were the lowest class of citizens of Rome, most of whom lived in the slums that Nero would burn, so he could build a more beautiful Rome.
Simply by understanding these logistics, where Roman domination saw Jews as little more than slaves to the State – which was certainly in the minds of most Jews – Rome was the enemy Gentiles that enslaved poor Jews. Jews were then neighbors only to other Jews, because they believed in the same YHWH – the living God, while giving honor to the Law set forth by Moses.
This means a “neighbor” is someone of like kind. Of course, it is normal for human beings to question my views, pondering just who is a “neighbor” in the eyes of Paul and Jesus. Much confusion has come in modern times, since the Christian world (primarily Europe and the Americas) has become so culturally blended. World wars pitted nations against neighboring nations, so perhaps the blending is a grand plan to confuse who neighbors are, with immigration, migration and refugee displacement testing the limits of Christian acceptance of foreign “neighbors.”
According to the various definitions of the word “neighbor,” it commonly is a word used to denote someone who lives next door or in the same general area; but the word also bears a most generalized meaning, as that of “a fellow human.” Non-Christians like to focus on that definition, such that everyone on the planets can be called a “neighbor.”
That, of course, makes it hard to differentiate a family member who lives in the house on the lower 40 acres of the family ranch, and the enemy who hates your guts, who lives near the same town where you buy groceries. That makes subsets of the “neighbor” set, so a “neighbor” is a separate subset that is exclusive of “family” and “enemies.” This means a “neighbor” has to be someone who lives nearby. When geographic areas are widened, so that “near” becomes the same country,” a “neighbor” easily becomes any fellow countrymen.
Because Jesus spoke of love that identified enemies, neighbors, and friends (and by association family), and because Jesus was a Jew, who as a group segregated themselves from those of other religious-cultural values, a “neighbor” was (and still is) clearly a reference to someone who believes in the same God and follows the same moral codes. These are personal and cultural values passed on over great lengths of time, and not government declarations.
As a Christian in the eclectic neighborhoods of the United States of America, a “neighbor” would be other Christians; but they would represent those that one was not in a close personal relationship with. Further, in America, where so many religious backgrounds have relocated that do not worship the same God, but a brotherhood exists as “Americans,” one would want to show the same love that you would expect in return as another American.
Because Paul was a true Christian, Apostle, and Saint, we Christians who truly want to be just like Paul (and just like Jesus) should read “Love your neighbor as yourself” and only think in terms of having the same Christian mindset. There is a commandment to love the rest of the world, so it is okay to differentiate “neighbors” as just being other Christians.
The Jews could truly call someone in their subdivision a “neighbor,” because the Jews lived among those of the same faith and did not mix with Gentiles. We do not have that same arrangement today, especially in the United States of America. We can identify people by race, creed, or national origin, such as “My India Indian neighbor” or “My Facebook Muslim friend” or “My son’s Catholic teacher at the parochial school,” but this is simply a sign that Americans have largely lost their Christian identity. Political correctness requires that everyone must be a friend, regardless of how little one knows about someone’s personal and cultural values. That is quite relative to the newfound inability to properly identify who we are supposed to love like we love ourselves.
Meet the neighbors through children and block parties.
Relative to that dawning, when Paul then wrote, “You know what time it is, how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep,” he was not referring to “time” as if wrist watches were common in 50 AD. He was referring to the “opportunity” that came with the presence of the Holy Spirit. He meant and other Apostles understood (thus “you know”) that the Holy Spirit made it the “right moment” to “rise up” and help their neighbors, as enlightened disciples. It was a presence that made putting on the armor of light possible: the protection of the Holy Spirit and the knowledge of the Mind of Christ. It was a light that easily identified friends, neighbors, and enemies … with LOVE.
The slumber they had awakened from was their prior state of confusion about the purpose of being a Jew. The Law had been difficult to incorporate into their daily lives and they struggled with the responsibility of be chosen by God, but not knowing what that meant.
Or dreams can become nightmares in the darkness.
The “works of darkness” kept neighbors divided against one another, while their fear of contact with their enemies led to disdain and animosity towards them by Gentiles. However, the presence of the Holy Spirit brought them to that state of understanding love automatically, especially in seeing all who welcomed Christ as their “neighbors.”
The Apostles found their love of God allowed them to “live honorably as in the day,” as shining examples of what God truly chose them to be – ministers of the truth and fishers of men’s souls. The light of day removed all fear of inadequacies and guilt that always surrounded them in a lustful world. As Saints, they could release that worry and realize the Christ Mind made them much closer to “salvation” than they ever thought they would be, when they first believed Jesus was their Christ.
The presence of the Holy Spirit being understood by the Romans to who the letter was addressed is the only explanation for how Paul could write, “Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.” The works of darkness are the imaginary dreams and fantasies of those asleep. Thus, being asleep is akin to being a mortal in a world that cannot sustain life eternally. To survive eternally is to awaken from the illusions of the world. That wake state is only possible when one “puts on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.” To “put on the clothing of Christ” means to be reborn as him.
“Jesus said, “If another member of the church sins against you, go and point out the fault when the two of you are alone. If the member listens to you, you have regained that one. But if you are not listened to, take one or two others along with you, so that every word may be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If the member refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if the offender refuses to listen even to the church, let such a one be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Again, truly I tell you, if two of you agree on earth about anything you ask, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.”’
——————————————————————————————————–
This is the Gospel reading that a priest will read aloud in church on Sunday, September 10, 2017. That Sunday will be Proper 18, the fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost, as listed in the episcopal Lectionary schedule. It is the Word of the Lord spoken by Jesus, defining what a church truly is and is therefore very important to understand deeply.
If one looks up these verses from Matthew’s Gospel, one can find a summary title in some versions of the Holy Bible. For example, one title says these verses are about “A Brother who Sins.” Other titles say they are “Dealing With Sin in the Church” or “Reproving Another Who Sins.” These titles influence the reader to think of that summary before reading the verses, when a title was never offered by Matthew. Therefore, the title is an outside opinion that usually is not the only correct summary.
To get the context of this element of Matthew’s Gospel, one needs to go back to chapter 17. At the beginning of that chapter, Jesus had transfigured before Peter, James, and John on the high mountain, Mount Hermon, in the northern reaches of Gaulanitis, beyond Caesarea Philippi, and actually into Phoenicia. By the end of the chapter, Matthew wrote: “When they reached Capernaum, the collectors of the temple tax came to Peter and said, “Does your teacher not pay the temple tax?” That says the group following Jesus had traveled south, reaching the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee. This was where Jesus gave lessons to the disciple, prior to them leaving Galilee and going to “the region of Judea beyond the Jordan” (as stated in the next chapter, Matthew 19:1b).
In this big picture view, one can fully grasp how chapter 18 of Matthew’s Gospel is a remembrance of Jesus giving personal guidance to the disciples in Capernaum. It may be that Jesus sat them all down and then rattled off everything in chapter 18; but it might rather be that these lessons and parables were told to them over a period of time, while the group was basically back home by the sea.
It then becomes easier to see a group of devout Jews together, all of whom saw Jesus as their rabbi (or as John wrote in John 20:16b: “in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”).” The lessons of Matthew 18 then might have been given on a Shabbat (or multiple Sabbaths), in a house that acted as a synagogue. The lessons might have been brought on due to readings from the scrolls, which then led to questions and discussion, which were memorable.
The element of “church,” at that time, was absolutely nothing like a modern mind tends to think. The disciples, at that time, were not Christians. In fact, the Greek words that begin this selected Gospel reading can most clearly be translated as saying, “If a brother of you sins against you, go reprove him, between you and him alone.” (Bible Hub Interlinear Bible). The translation that will be read aloud, “If another member of the church sins against you, go and point out the fault when the two of you are alone,” can then be seen like a title that influences you to make conclusion about this reading that may be incomplete or incorrect.
In actuality, Jesus was restating Deuteronomy 19:15-21, which gives strength to the notion that Matthew 18:15-20 was a clarification that Jesus made, relative to that text from the Torah, about “witnesses to a crime” (another one of those titles). That would mean Matthew wrote about how Jesus related ancient Scripture to his modern times. As such, the scroll reading (if translated into English) would have been this:
Deuteronomy 19:15 – “One witness is not enough to convict anyone accused of any crime or offense they may have committed. A matter must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses. 16 If a malicious witness takes the stand to accuse someone of a crime, 17 the two people involved in the dispute must stand in the presence of the Lord before the priests and the judges who are in office at the time. 18 The judges must make a thorough investigation, and if the witness proves to be a liar, giving false testimony against a fellow Israelite, 19 then do to the false witness as that witness intended to do to the other party. You must purge the evil from among you. 20 The rest of the people will hear of this and be afraid, and never again will such an evil thing be done among you. 21 Show no pity: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.” (NIV)
Seeing this parallel means the focus placed on “fellow Israelite,” who were all that were in the wilderness with Moses (no Gentiles involved in this instruction), is relative to the identifying word “adelphos,” meaning “a brother, member of the same religious community, especially a fellow-Christian.” (Strong’s) The New International Version (NIV) makes the leap from Israelite in a wilderness tent, and Jew in a Capernaum synagogue, to “member of the church.” There was no “church” then, at least not one as most Christians think of when they read the word “church.”
When the translation read aloud gets down to the point where the priest says, “If the member refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church,” the Greek word actually written is “ekklēsia,” which means, “an assembly, congregation, church; the Church, the whole body of Christian believers.” (Strong’s) Certainly, since the New Testament and the four Gospels lay the foundation of what has since become identified as “the Church” of Christianity, and this Scripture naturally is applicable to that translation, one cannot overlook how Jesus was discussing Jewish LAW with Jewish disciples that were not yet Apostles. Thus, it is more appropriate to grasp “the assembly” as the intent, more than something that can be as misleading as “the church.”
Keep in mind that God was dictating the LAW to Moses, so Moses could make a list of “must and mustn’t do’s” that an exclusive group of people – “the assembly” of Israelites – had to follow. Hopefully, when the Deuteronomy verses above were read, one noticed how Moses (speaking for God, just as Jesus spoke for the Father) wrote, “You must purge the evil from among you. The rest of the people will hear of this and be afraid, and never again will such an evil thing be done among you. Show no pity: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.” (Deuteronomy 19:19b-21)
This means this particular LAW was not about some nitpicking arguing Israelites taking revenge on others who enjoyed back-biting or spreading gossip or generally bad-mouthing someone. It was about purging “the assembly” of all evil-doers. End of story.
What seems to be lost in the freeing of the Israelites is they were actually enslaved to God, as His priests. The Israelites agreed to a promise of a land to call their own forever; but more than the incubator that was Canaan (like the first delegated seminary, with Dead David and Dean Solomon), the greater promise was to be freed from earthly servitude so their souls would be released to Heaven (the true Promised Land). Their role in that bargain was to serve the LORD with all their hearts and all their minds. Therefore, God chose totally committed Israelites as His representatives on Earth, with all the unfaithful Israelites ending up freed of the obligations to God, able to come back as reincarnated non-Israelites (i.e.: they died).
Here is the biggest surprise to Christians: The Laws of Moses were never intended to be applied to common human beings. All the sins of the world – the listed crimes and allowed sins of civilizations and governments – are fully expected to be a part of the world. Murder is what human beings do. Stealing is what human beings do. Coveting is what human beings do. Lying, cheating, and tricking others so one never goes punished for sins and crimes committed is what human beings do. Lawyers love to get the guilty freed and make the victims seek revenge illegally. It is what ordinary lawyers do. However, the ways of the evil world are NOT what priestly servants of YHWH do.
Thus, the wicked are culled from the righteous. It is a necessary process that can only be that. Evil is the way of the world (as Satan’s realm). Righteous is the way of the LORD.
The saying, “A chain is only as strong as its weakest link” means God does not allow common human beings to gain leadership over His flock. It is like another saying: One bad apple spoils the whole barrel. Jesus told parables about the weeds and plants that did not bear fruit. An Apostle has to be a responsible gardener.
This is the message Jesus was presenting to the disciples at that time, and it is what Jesus should be understood as saying to all human beings to heed, at all times, in particular those who are truly Christian. The element of “brothers” being two of “the assembly” means “the assembly” can only be strong when both are full-fledged Apostles, or at least truly devoted disciples who are earning their righteousness badges (100% on board). The message is that a true Christian is required to confront those caught committing crimes (sins) against the Laws and demand a return to righteousness (repentance). If the guilty party refuses to admit guilt, then denial of a crime committed means to lie before God, or to claim to possess the Holy Spirit falsely.
Matthew 11:30-32 addresses this, when Jesus said, ““Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters. And so I tell you, every kind of sin and slander can be forgiven, but blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.”
In essence, verse 30 says, “If you are not in Christ then you are not truly Christian.” Verse 31 says, “Repentance can mean forgiveness, but it is blasphemy to claim to be a reborn Jesus, through the Holy Spirit (say you are a true Christian), and be lying.” Verse 32 says, “You can speak against Jesus Christ and be forgiven, but you cannot claim the Holy Spirit tells you your crime is not a crime, without eternal condemnation.”
Thus, a true Christian addresses the blasphemy of professing righteousness, when one is not so. To confront one who has openly committed a sin in one’s presence is not only a required responsibility of the Apostle, confrontation is proof of Apostleship, because the Holy Spirit knows the truth, can spot a wolf in sheep’s clothing, and does not shrink in fear of confrontation. The progression of confrontation against one sinner, from one-on-one, to a small group of Apostles on one, and finally to the whole “assembly” or “congregation” confronting a sinner is totally for the purpose of gaining sincere repentance or forcing total expulsion from the flock. No half-ass professed Christians can be allowed to remain in “an assembly” of true Apostles and devoted disciples.
This has not changed one iota from when God told Moses to lay down that Law. Jesus did nothing to amend that Law.
Again, living a sin free life is not what common human beings do. The Law is not established to be like a school system, where getting a minimum percentage of things done right gains a passing grade. There can be no C- graduates sent out into ministry (with one or two D grades transferable). Again, using the Israel as a seminary analogy, that whole school eventually collapsed in utter ruin.
The Law of Apostlehood requires total subjection to the LORD, from a deep love of God. It is one’s total commitment to God’s will, which means every Law must be followed completely. To ensure that happens, God sends His Holy Spirit to lead an Apostle with the Christ Mind. While God would love the whole world to make this complete commitment to His service, the world is the place where the lure of sin is too great for everyone to make that sacrifice.
Therefore, God understands there will be MANY human beings who will choose life in a sinful world (born of death), than sacrifice everything here for eternal life (reborn in Christ).
Maybe it will help if you think of Jesus telling his disciples about the requirements demanded for a recruit to become a Navy SEAL. Half-ass does not make the grade, because the life of your fellow SEAL depends on one’s complete physical and mental competence, through total sacrifice of self, for the good of “the assembly.” You might get the point then. Like those washout standards, the world is where weak links abound and that is okay. However, weak links are not accepted by God (nor SEALs); and to pretend otherwise is not fooling God … it is the actor fooling him or herself.
Also remember, Jesus had twelve disciples, but one failed to graduate to Apostlehood (Judas Iscariot). This mean it is better to only have “two or three are gathered in my name” – two or three true Christians-Saints-Reborn Jesuses – than to have that number amid a sea of ordinary human beings prone to crimes against God. Wherever “two or three are gathered as reproductions of Jesus Christ,” there will be the true “assembly” … “the church” of God … where only His chosen priests gather together.
[Solomon assembled the elders of Israel and all the heads of the tribes, the leaders of the ancestral houses of the Israelites, before King Solomon in Jerusalem, to bring up the ark of the covenant of the Lord out of the city of David, which is Zion. Then the priests brought the ark of the covenant of the Lord to its place, in the inner sanctuary of the house, in the most holy place, underneath the wings of the cherubim. And when the priests came out of the holy place, a cloud filled the house of the Lord, so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud; for the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord.]
Then Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord in the presence of all the assembly of Israel, and spread out his hands to heaven. He said, “O Lord, God of Israel, there is no God like you in heaven above or on earth beneath, keeping covenant and steadfast love for your servants who walk before you with all their heart, the covenant that you kept for your servant my father David as you declared to him; you promised with your mouth and have this day fulfilled with your hand. Therefore, O Lord, God of Israel, keep for your servant my father David that which you promised him, saying, ‘There shall never fail you a successor before me to sit on the throne of Israel, if only your children look to their way, to walk before me as you have walked before me.’ Therefore, O God of Israel, let your word be confirmed, which you promised to your servant my father David.
“But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Even heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you, much less this house that I have built! Regard your servant’s prayer and his plea, O Lord my God, heeding the cry and the prayer that your servant prays to you today; that your eyes may be open night and day toward this house, the place of which you said, ‘My name shall be there,’ that you may heed the prayer that your servant prays toward this place. Hear the plea of your servant and of your people Israel when they pray toward this place; O hear in heaven your dwelling place; heed and forgive.
“Likewise when a foreigner, who is not of your people Israel, comes from a distant land because of your name —for they shall hear of your great name, your mighty hand, and your outstretched arm—when a foreigner comes and prays toward this house, then hear in heaven your dwelling place, and do according to all that the foreigner calls to you, so that all the peoples of the earth may know your name and fear you, as do your people Israel, and so that they may know that your name has been invoked on this house that I have built.
———————————————————————————————————-
This is an optional Old Testament selection from the Episcopal Lectionary for the Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Year B 2018. In the numbering system that lists each Sunday in an ordinal fashion, this Sunday is referred to as Proper 16. If chosen, it will next be read aloud in an Episcopal church by a reader on Sunday August 26, 2018. It is important because Solomon has followed in the steps of his father and moved the Ark of the Covenant from the place it had rested for years, to a new house built for it and God.
The whole of 1 Kings’ chapter eight is 66 long verses that tell of the moving of the Ark of the Covenant from the City of David to the new temple built by Solomon and his prayer and dedication of all of that. It was scheduled to be incorporated into the God-commanded feast of Sukkot (the Festival of Booths), so it happened on 15 Ethanim(aka Tishri), which was the equivalent of a modern September or October. As such, the dedication of Solomon’s Temple was during the seven-day harvest festival (Feast of the Ingathering – from Genesis), when the Jews also recognized the dependence of the people of Israel on God (Feast of Tabernacles – from Exodus).
So, while this reading is parsed down to just a fraction of that whole, it still reads (to me) like a state fair event, held in a capital city in early fall, when all the deep-fried butter on sticks, cotton candy, grilled corn on sticks, foot-long corn dogs, powdered sugar dusted funnel cakes, caramel apples and a wide assortment of carnival amusement rides are all waiting on the other side of the entrance gate that is blocked by a big blue ribbon and a bunch of dignitaries in suits holding a giant pair of scissors.
Solomon sounds like the governor that has come, bringing with him a posse of political party advisors and a gaggle of news reporters and photographers, to the dedication of the newest and biggest ride the fair has ever known. Of course, that would have never happened if the governor hadn’t used his sway with powerful connections; so, pats on the back for many are publicly made, so all to get some glory … and more votes. It reads like there was a lot of pomp and circumstance surrounding the opening of the fair, more than usual. However, the smells of the foods and the sounds of the carnival music make all the sweat from waiting for the speeches to end, on a warm day, is worth waiting for.
The people of Israel saw more animal sacrifices than could be counted. The altar was ablaze and the air was filled with barbecue smoke. The harvest was plentiful, as always while Solomon was king; so a fun time was had by all.
Still, the movement of the Ark from its tabernacle in the City of David, up the path less steep on Mount Zion, across the old city of Jerusalem to the height of Mount Moriah, was made in a more dignified manner than was when it was moved from the house of Abinadab to Jerusalem by David. Nothing says Solomon was skimpily dressed and dancing wildly before the Ark. I imagine Micah, daughter of Saul, would have been glad that a King of Israel acted stately and dignified.
This is how I see Solomon treating God – like a side-show to his great accomplishment, the temple named after him. If you read the words of this reading selection carefully, Solomon talks to the Israelites and elders as if God had made a covenant to make sure Israel was always the greatest nation on earth. He even told God to take care of the foreigners who had come to Jerusalem, so the world knew how great Israel’s God was. Set the hoops up and let the tamer’s whip begin snapping!
P. T. Barnum would have been glad.
However, this is where one needs to be reminded of the past.
Solomon was officially king at age thirteen. The temple construction began when he was seventeen, in his fourth year as king. The temple was completed for the transfer of the Ark when Solomon was twenty-four, seven years later; but, Solomon’s Temple would be a work that lasted his entire reign. This history says that the dedication of Solomon’s Temple was made by a young adult king. While Solomon was highly intellectual (presumably Mensa genius level), he still was confronted with life situations that he had no personal experience to prepare him for, having to problem solve on the go. At the age of twenty-four, he still depended on prophets and priests to advise him on history, religion, and government issues.
In reference to his father’s history, Solomon had to have been told of father David’s plan to build a house of cedar for the Ark, so God would no longer have to live in a tent. Nathan the prophet agreed with David, knowing David’s thoughts were in line with God’s. However, God visited Nathan in a dream and told him what to say to David. This relates to the building of a permanent house for the Lord:
2 Samuel 7:12-16 – “When your days are over and you rest with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, your own flesh and blood, and I will establish his kingdom. He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his father, and he will be my son. When he does wrong, I will punish him with a rod wielded by men, with floggings inflicted by human hands. But my love will never be taken away from him, as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from before you. Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever.’”
Nathan was the prophet who advised David. He was still around to anoint Solomon as king and help with the elimination of David’s old enemies. It may or may not be that Nathan advised Solomon of Yahweh’s prophecy sent to David; but it is likely that Solomon, as the approved offspring that ascended to the throne of Israel, would be told it was his place to build a house for God. In a part not read today from 1 Kings 8, Solomon announced that he was fulfilling that prophecy delivered by God to Nathan, repeated to King David.
But … was that true?
For all of Solomon’s wisdom, he missed the point of who God would “raise up.” He overlooked the prospect of a kingdom lasting forever. He regularly made references to his father, David, and not to God as his father. The house that Solomon built, while new then was not a house that will last forever. Solomon knew that.
According to Jewish Encyclopedia and their article on Solomon, they say Solomon ordered secret underground rooms to be carved into the rock below the temple, in which the Ark could be placed at a later date.
Their article writes that this was because Solomon knew the temple would eventually fall into enemy hands (the wisdom of knowing that, strategically, Jerusalem was indefensible). When it did fall to the Babylonians, Solomon’s Temple was destroyed. After the Persians allowed the Jews to rebuild their lost temple, and the long beautification project begun by King Herod, the Romans would destroy that temple. The eventual eviction of Jews from the Middle East meant Mount Moriah became the home of a Muslim mosque on that mount. Therefore, history allows one to surmise that Solomon’s Temple was not what God had told Nathan an offspring of David would build.
What lesser god lives here?
The Temple in Jerusalem that was ordered built by Solomon was little more than an upscale version of David’s plan for a cedar house. When God told Nathan to tell David, “The Lord declares to you that the Lord himself will establish a house for you” (2 Samuel 7:11), God made it clear that He did not want any immobile, physical structure to ever be built for the Ark that held the Covenant within it, over which God presided.
When Solomon said, “Even heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you, much less this house that I have built!” he was smart enough to realize God did not reside in the Ark, or a tabernacle, or a temple of stone. Solomon should have figured out that God never asked for him specifically to build an everlasting house, when Solomon was part of the House of David God made. Solomon was a brick in that house built by God; but bricks have a way of crumbling to dust over time.
Solomon’s wisdom allowed him to see how dangerous it was to have the Ark placed on low ground, covered only by canvass. Anyone who became an enemy of Israel could easily take it into their possession; so higher ground made more logical sense. However, could it have been that David placed it where others could readily see it, knowing that God would protect the Ark, and Israel and its king, as long as all served the Lord with all their hearts?
That is the difference between having complete faith in God and having a Big Brain, greater than anyone anywhere at any time.
God told Gideon to send all the trained soldiers home and keep the three hundred that felt safe enough to lap water from the stream like dogs. That was enough to defeat the enemy; but would a Big Brain make that decision?
Of course, as Christians two thousand years removed from Jesus Christ, we know that the “offspring to succeed David,” of his bloodline, coming in the flesh, who would “establish his kingdom” was Jesus Christ. He was the offspring of David God told Nathan about. As such, we have a bigger brain than Solomon, in that one sense of understanding Scripture. Therefore, we are not Solomonists.
We are Christians.
Jesus has built the “house in the name of God,” which is the name an Apostle-Saint takes: Jesus Christ. Each true Christian is reborn as Jesus Christ and becomes a living temple of the LORD, in the house of that name. Apostles and Saints can then call God their Father, as they have all (regardless of human gender) become God’s Son, resurrected in the flesh. An Apostle is all about faith in God and absolutely nothing about strategizing.
The dedication of Solomon’s Temple and the prayer he said needs to be more closely examined. The reader says Solomon orated:
“O Lord, God of Israel, there is no God like you in heaven above or on earth beneath, keeping covenant and steadfast love for your servants who walk before you with all their heart, the covenant that you kept for your servant my father David as you declared to him; you promised with your mouth and have this day fulfilled with your hand. Therefore, O Lord, God of Israel, keep for your servant my father David that which you promised him, saying, ‘There shall never fail you a successor before me to sit on the throne of Israel, if only your children look to their way, to walk before me as you have walked before me.’ Therefore, O God of Israel, let your word be confirmed, which you promised to your servant my father David.”
The boastfulness of the Pharisees in the Temple make them seem like Solomonists.
That prayer was for God to live up to his promises to David, Solomon, and Israel. There was little there that says the Israelites have to do anything more than walk before a magnificent building … three times a year … to earn their side of the bargain made between the Israelites of Moses and God. Solomon spoke those words on a day during the festival of Sukkot, which is reminiscent of how the Israelites were placed in booths (tabernacles, tents, or dwellings) in the wilderness … as a sign that they owed everything to their God. The bounty of the harvest coincides with that dedication and devotion. However, Solomon spoke as if an eternal house of David had been established, so the rest was up to God to ensure.
After David brought the Israelites closer to God than they had ever been before, David’s sins with Bathsheba and against Uriah cut them loose and began their drift away from God. Solomon, as the offspring of that sin-born relationship, was given a Big Brain by which to steer the course of Israel to ruin. He asked for it and got his wish granted by God. Building a grandiose temple was one of many steps away from God that Solomon began taking, as his magnificent temple tried to imprison God in a man-made structure, enslaving God to do the will of Israel’s kings.
The House of David will last forever, but not because of Solomon’s Temple. Jesus Christ would build the house in the name of God. The Christ (Greek for Messiah) is the name given by God to His Son Jesus, born of a woman and raised in Nazareth. Jesus took the name of God by being the Christ. Jesus is then the cornerstone of the house in the name of God that will live forever. It lives forever through countless human beings losing their ego-driven sense of self-importance, and being reborn as Jesus Christ, servants of God. The true Temple of the LORD is then Christianity.
As the primary Old Testament option for reading on the fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost, when one’s own personal ministry for the LORD should be underway – one has cut the ribbon and opened the park to the public, in thanks for God’s blessing of a harvest – the message here is to dedicate one’s personal heart and soul to God. There is no building made of stone that God looks upon lovingly.
The Ark of the Covenant has been lost to the world. That physical case for stone tablets, robes, staffs, or whatever other holy material objects might have been placed inside it have been replaced by Jesus Christ. The Gospel theme the entire month of August (2018), from John 6, has been Jesus saying “eat my flesh and drink my blood,” which is (in essence) saying Christians must build the only temple that Yahweh will reside within. That must be built around their souls, using only the materials of Jesus Christ. The Ark is one’s heart and the Law that binds one to God and God to one is then written on that heart by God.
A “church” of Christians is not a physical place of building. It is wherever two or more people that possess the flesh and blood of Jesus Christ have come together. It is a gathering of those having become Jesus Christ reborn. It is the place where two or more come together in the name of Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ will be there, as will the Father. Therefore, a church of Christ is a house built of true Christians.
We read how Paul wrote letters to the churches of Greece (when Turkey was Greek) and the tendency is to think in terms of houses of worship. We see the Ephesians, the Philippians, and the Corinthians as being like a Christian church is today – filled with people who believe in Jesus as Christ, but none who will state, “I am Jesus Christ resurrected.”
I imagine that reading “church” and thinking “building” began when the Roman Emperor assumed control of Western Christianity. Over time, building cathedrals and basilicas became more important than building Saints. Basking in the glory of a huge building became more important than regular home study of Scripture and living a life of righteousness.
The Pope’s Temple?
There is probably a parallel between the rise of grandiose Christian churches and the decline of Apostles and Saints. Perhaps, this is due to reading about Solomon’s Temple and assuming that was a good thing to do. Putting God in a box that cost a lot of wealth and time was the easiest way to show one’s love of God. It was hard work, of course; but it was easier to do than give up sin.
A minister for the LORD is a mobile church, always on the move and in search of members to join that church. He or she is unlike a church building that is run by volunteers and a small handful of paid clergy [employees of an organization or institution]. They offer newcomers baskets of trinkets and free coffee with a possible snack – all designed to get one to come back. Their friendliness is built on a desire to have others help with their work; but it is an endless task that loses its sincerity over time. After all, a building gets old and begins to deteriorate, just like those who are sworn to maintain it.
A minister for the LORD is not seeking fellowship and human companionship through an organization that enslaves God by expecting Him to do organizational chores, while hanging Jesus on the cross over the altar. A building called a church that does not create true Christians is really only a building; and a church that creates true Christians usually will only have need for two or three chairs, because most members of that body of Christ will also be mobile churches, always on the move in search of members to join Christ with him or her. As long as the vine is alive and growing, the fruit that comes and goes with the seasons has served a purpose.
Still, remembering the words of the philosopher and storyteller Joseph Campbell, he told Bill Moyer in his interviews that there was something special about being inside a great cathedral. This is a feeling one experiences, usually the strongest when the building is empty. The hugeness of the building becomes like the greatness of God. In that case, a building promotes a sense of reverence.
That presence felt says that God watches over His Temples, His Cathedrals and His Basilicas, because they are part of the house of Christianity; and, God watches over those who seek Him. Therefore a building can be where God can be found; but as Solomon said, “But will God really dwell on earth? The heavens, even the highest heaven, cannot contain you. How much less this temple I have built!” – God cannot be placed inside a box.
God is everywhere. He watches the seekers, many of which enter buildings called churches. He gets to know those seekers who make themselves a church for the LORD. As Jesus said, “Ask and you shall receive.” Asking for God’s help can be done anywhere.
Just remember to ask God what you can do for Him and leave the asking what God can do for Israel to Solomon’s prayer.
Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem, and summoned the elders, the heads, the judges, and the officers of Israel; and they presented themselves before God. And Joshua said to all the people, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel:
“Now therefore revere the Lord, and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness; put away the gods that your ancestors served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. Now if you are unwilling to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served in the region beyond the River or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”
Then the people answered, “Far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods; for it is the Lord our God who brought us and our ancestors up from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, and who did those great signs in our sight. He protected us along all the way that we went, and among all the peoples through whom we passed; and the Lord drove out before us all the peoples, the Amorites who lived in the land. Therefore we also will serve the Lord, for he is our God.”
———————————————————————————————————-
This is an optional Old Testament selection from the Episcopal Lectionary for the Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Year B 2018. In the numbering system that lists each Sunday in an ordinal fashion, this Sunday is referred to as Proper 16. If chosen, it will next be read aloud in an Episcopal church by a reader on Sunday August 26, 2018. It is important because it says the option is up to the individual, as to what deity one chooses to serve.
This reading takes the introductory verses of this chapter and then jumps to verse fourteen. In between is a brief history of the lineage of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, with all the great signs given by God to them; and then it moves to the powers that protected the Israelites under Moses and their move into Canaan. Basically, every time there was an enemy trying to get in the way of that holy line, God caused the defeat of that enemy. With that history stated as a reminder for why the Israelites should completely devote themselves and their households to Yahweh (the LORD), Joshua gathered the elders of all the tribes of Israel to Shechem and asked them to commit to Yahweh or commit to some lesser god of prior.
This element of commitment makes this gathering read like an engagement party. Joshua was the first to announce his planned marriage to Yahweh. The history of Yahweh being with the children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob reads as the courtship, when the family came to know God on an intimate level. With Joshua’s announcement of his planned union, his entire household (family under Joshua’s direct control) was to be committed to the same One God. Such a thorough marriage would then be forever – till death do them part.
Prior to that pledge to “serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness,” Joshua was free to ‘play the field’. He knew of the polytheism of Egypt, where there was an individual god for each different aspect of life; and he knew the gods of the Amorites (the Philistines generally, but the Assyrians too), where similarly many gods were worshiped for many things. One could choose to be closer to a few “household idols” and ambivalent to the rest, until a special need arose. However, Joshua had been in a close relationship with Yahweh and that relationship was built on love; and there was nothing any other god offered that could persuade Joshua to leave the God of his heart.
When we read the introduction that states, “Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem, and summoned the elders, the heads, the judges, and the officers of Israel; and they presented themselves before God,” it is easy to presume that Joshua held the sway of a king. Certainly, Joshua was important in the settling in Canaan by the Israelites and his call for a gathering, so he could announce his engagement with Yahweh, would have been heeded. After all, Joshua was close to God and had defeated the Amorite enemies, with God’s helpful guidance. Still, the aspect of the tribes of Israel being presented before “elohim” (“gods,” the plural form of “el“) is a clue about the timing of this event.
The “gods” of other nations.
In verses two through thirteen, Joshua differentiated the “elohim” of others and the “Yahweh ’ĕ·lō·hê yiś·rā·’êl” – “the LORD of gods of Israel.” Those who had worshiped “other gods” had been defeated – as their history told – by those who followed “the LORD of gods of Israel.” That remembrance, told to the leaders of the Twelve Tribes of Israel, was most probably done at one of the three God-commanded gatherings: Passover, Shavuot, or Sukkot. As Shechem was the holy city of Israel, where the Ark’s tabernacle was set up, attended by the Levite priests, the leaders of Israel would have naturally gathered in compliance to their Covenant with Yahweh. In that atmosphere of recognition, celebration and remembrance, Joshua stood before those leaders and stated his commitment to God forever.
In a gathering that was obligatory and with manna no longer falling each day to spiritually uplift each family of Israelites, strengthening their commitment to Yahweh, the Israelites were set amid peoples who served other gods. At a time when the Israelites were obliged to remember all that the LORD of gods of Israel had done, setting them free, delivering them into a Promised Land, and defeating all the enemies whose land was taken from them, they were spread out into places where the enemy might outnumber them. Set before the “elohim” of the Amorites and knowing in their history their forefathers knew the “elohim” of Egypt and Canaan, it would be much easier to allow their enemies the right to worship as they pleased, and even adopt some of the foreign rituals as their own, so everyone could live happily together.
A holy day like the Passover remembrance was kept so such reductions to the Laws of Moses would forever be avoided. Joshua’s engagement announcement was a call for all the Israelite tribes to likewise choose which of the gods they would be married to as one.
“Then the people answered, “Far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods; for it is the Lord our God who brought us and our ancestors up from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, and who did those great signs in our sight. He protected us along all the way that we went, and among all the peoples through whom we passed; and the Lord drove out before us all the peoples, the Amorites who lived in the land. Therefore we also will serve the Lord, for he is our God.”’
The Israelites all became engaged to Yahweh. All of the families under the leaders of Israel made the same commitment to become one with the LORD of gods of Israel. They would become His wives and serve him sincerely and faithfully forever. The leaders of Israel spoke a commitment that would bind generation after generation (“for me and my household”), to forever be married to Yahweh.
When they said “we also will serve the Lord, for he is our God,” that meant God was the husband betrothed to the Israelites (regardless of what tribal names they called themselves). “Our God” also stated they would serve “Yahweh,” for He was all “gods” (“elohim” translated as “God”) to them. Yahweh was the only God protecting a household, and the only God to whom one of that household should pray.
As the reading selection for the fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost, when one’s own ministry to the LORD should be underway – one should be married to Yahweh – the message here is to examine one’s past and see if one enemy after another has been miraculously defeated, with all credit for such victories due to God. If not, then one needs to examine who one faults for those setbacks.
Many people prefer to give the credit to the god of good luck and good fortune. Some say the god of chance swept into their lives. Others bow down before the altar of the god of self-accomplishment, the twin brother of the god of self-importance. Of course, there is the god of higher education, overseeing his sprites and fairies that specialize in the degree fields of universities: law, medicine, professional sports, acting, television series writing, and film (others don’t show a profit after student debt is calculated).
Those are all under the great god Mammon, whose favors drive away the lesser gods: famine, poverty, and sickness. No matter which god(s) one chooses to serve, one or more is the only option if one does not marry Yahweh, the LORD of the gods, making Him one’s only God.
You have heard of “Wearing one’s heart on one’s sleeve”? Well this is wearing one’s faith so nobody can mistake one as a simple person of faith.
A minister of the LORD knows that it is easier to announce one’s engagement to Yahweh than it is to actually follow through with the marriage. Rather than a gold ring with a huge precious stone, the engagement ring of Yahweh is a halo of righteousness (invisible to the naked eye).
This is because God requires virgin brides (again, human gender has nothing to do with that designation), which means a holy engagement is a promise that comes with sincere confession and a trial period of abstinence from sin. During that proving period, tests of one’s commitment to righteousness will be presented, with patience and restraint needed to be demonstrated. That is because during that period old lovers will be drawn to call upon one newly engaged, suggesting one last fling with: drugs, sexual ‘hook-ups’, lying, gossip, cheating, stealing, and all the things the lesser gods whisper in one’s ear, while nuzzling one’s neck: “It’s okay. No one will know.”
In the Roman Catholic Church news these days is the touchy subject of the Church failing to do anything to stop sexual predators – pedophiles – who held positions of trust that were: parish priests, dioceses bishops, and cardinals, all under the head of a series of popes. In other denominations, homosexuals have been ordained and even elevated into great leadership positions, some proudly pronouncing themselves as still actively homosexual. All of these men (and women) have announced their engagement to the One God, simply by their titles, the robes they wear, and the Sacraments they bless; but, at some point in their lives they reverted to paganism and turned away from Yahweh. They chose to serve Satan.
Now, they believe they can beg the people for forgiveness and then go on as if there is no sin that cannot be absolved. They absolve one another from confessed atrocities, while professing to be holy Apostles. They have fallen in love with the god of evil, who loves to mislead them to such beliefs. An Apostle of Jesus Christ does not break holy vows.
Jesus said, “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.” (Matthew 6:24) He said that to the Pharisees who loved to milk the Jews for their wealth, proving their love of Mammon. Had Jesus known of pedophile priests, bishops and cardinals, he would have told them the same thing, only ending his words with “You cannot serve God and lust.”
These uncorrected acts of abuse are reason for good Catholics to leave the Roman Catholic Church. There is no trust left when church leaders are led by lust in their hearts. They do not serve Yahweh, the LORD of gods. If a religious organization refuses to drive out the false shepherds, then the good shepherds will stand outside building owned by that organization and lead the flock away from corruption.
Staying with a corrupted Church (an organization) means the guilt of association spreads, spoiling all good priests that think serving God means protecting those who rape children. Priests swear oaths to their bishops, not to God. When an individual has committed the sin of using the LORD’s name in vain – by professing to be of holy cloth and acting in unholy ways – forgiveness has been placed in much higher hands than any human body can reach. Good priests and ministers must leave a corrupted Church, or they bow down to an institution and serve it.
God never said His priests must organize and institutionalize. God never authorized His wives to kill their children. God never gave His seal of approval to Jezebel and her priests of Baal. God did not send prophets to scream His condemnations at the blending of religions that overtook Israel and Judah, because God wanted it known that He does not approve of cheating wives.
What is different between the sacrifice of children by clerics in modern times and the sacrifice of children by those abusers that God told Jeremiah of:
“The people of Judah have done evil in my eyes, declares the Lord. They have set up their detestable idols in the house that bears my Name and have defiled it. They have built the high places of Topheth in the Valley of Ben Hinnom to burn their sons and daughters in the fire—something I did not command, nor did it enter my mind.” (Jeremiah 7:30-31)
A child trusting a man he or she has been told to call “Father”, only to lose his or her life of innocence to burning nightmares by a holy trust broken, is like being a trembling lamb in the hands of a priest holding a slaughter knife before the altar. Once the knife slices the neck and the life blood is forever spilled, there is undoing that act. No child harmed by a priest has ever been done in the name of the LORD – Yahweh. They are sacrifices made to lesser gods.
When the message of this reading is taken as simply being, “Choose who you will serve – God or god(s)” – the ambiguity leaves this open to thinking one’s choice leaves room for some affairs and flings from time to time. It is easy to see how Jesus and God forgive sins, as if each week new sins are gladly wiped off the heavenly ledger. An engagement to God that thinks sins will forever be forgiven, so go out and sin in the name of the LORD, is misguided. It mistakes modern families as the norm.
The looseness of how Westerners, including many Christians, see marriage today misleads many to think God and Jesus Christ have approved lower standards of morals. Gays of the same sex can now marry one another, even in services overseen by priests or ministers … in some Christian churches. Marriages can be ‘open’, so multiple partners are okay if both agree, with or without both of the married pair present during sexual liaisons. This corrupted way of life has always existed, but never deemed appropriate behavior for one married to God.
Divorce is so rampant that it belittles the lifetime commitment the marriage vows emptily state. Prenuptial contracts are signed because someone expects divorce. Couples more frequently choose not to have children, if they do choose to be limited to one spouse, simply because it is so difficult determining what to do with the offspring after the divorce. This is another example of child sacrifices done in the name of God, every time divorce follows a church wedding.
All of these lowered standards make it seem it is okay to cheat on Yahweh. No such changes have been made. The statement made by Jesus still hold true: “What God has joined together, let no one separate.” A man and a woman join together to make babies, which will forever be formed of the DNA of two parents. A marriage is a commitment to have children AND THEN raise those children until they get married. That is the oath of marriage. It is not a commitment to have sex, but a vow to serve God by being fruitful and then serving God by raising children to love God.
An oath to serve God is a greater oath than one made between two human beings. It is a pledge to complete and total subservience. It is not to be taken lightly. Therefore, no one is ever forced to marry God against one’s will. Therefore, choosing God and then living life like a sinner is breaking an oath.
Jesus said, during his “sermon on the mount”:
“Again, you have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not break your oath, but fulfill to the Lord the vows you have made.’ But I tell you, do not swear an oath at all: either by heaven, for it is God’s throne; or by the earth, for it is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King. And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black. All you need to say is simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.” (Matthew 5:33-37)
“Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help you God?” means one helps God by spreading the truth, not lies. Breaking that oath appears to be commonplace in the courts these days.
Jesus spoke those words after speaking wisdom about adultery and divorce, where oaths of commitment are broken. All of this can apply to the words of Joshua, where he said, “Now if you are unwilling to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve.” Each individual of adult age is responsible for making that choice. No one is forced to choose God. However, you cannot announce your engagement to God and then run out and cheat on Him with lesser gods (“elohim”).
Because Joshua gave all the Israelites that option out, there is nothing that says anyone must be a child of Yahweh. Yahweh chose the children of Israel; but Joshua’s challenge to the Israelites was to choose God too. It is a proposal that makes one choose the One God for one’s life. It requires an oath when one says, “Yes.” “Yes” means God does all the leading from then on, while the wife (male and female they are made) subserviently follows.
Before one chooses, or if one says, “No,” then everyone is free to play the ‘god field’ all their lives. Everyone is free to gamble his or her soul away. Everyone is free to choose to serve self at all times, walking over as many people as might dare to get in one’s way. God has given all souls the freedom from heaven, to do as they please on earth. People are free to commit the most heinous of crimes imaginable, because without morals creating laws, no crimes can be judged. It is up to each freed soul to decide when and if that soul wants to return and live with God.
Yahweh does not hang out in bars and nightclubs, looking for one night stands.
But, there comes a time when one has to stand and defeat evil, which requires an engagement to Yahweh [minimally]. Everyone is free to choose to be the wife of Yahweh and follow His orders completely. Equally, everyone is free to choose to be the wife of religions, governments, philosophies and all of that of the world, which breeds the arguments and disagreements that lead to wars.
One way or another, one has to fight for survival. Everyone has the freedom to choose who he or she will fight for or fight against. Everyone has the freedom to choose to fight for temporary pleasures, with death as their future; just as everyone has the freedom to choose to fight for temporal pains, with everlasting life as the future.
Choosing is not easy, just as marriage and commitment means hard work. Just keep in mind how the things earned through hard work and attention to details are the most rewarding. It is good to look back one one’s life and see where sacrifice paid off greatly later. Most likely, God played a role.
Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his power. Put on the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to withstand on that evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. Stand therefore, and fasten the belt of truth around your waist, and put on the breastplate of righteousness. As shoes for your feet put on whatever will make you ready to proclaim the gospel of peace. With all of these, take the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
Pray in the Spirit at all times in every prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert and always persevere in supplication for all the saints. Pray also for me, so that when I speak, a message may be given to me to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it boldly, as I must speak.
———————————————————————————————————-
This is the Epistle selection from the Episcopal Lectionary for the Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Year B 2018. In the numbering system that lists each Sunday in an ordinal fashion, this Sunday is referred to as Proper 16. It will next be read aloud in an Episcopal church by a reader on Sunday August 26, 2018. It is important because Paul states that the forces of evil are too much for human souls that are not protected by the armor of God.
It is important to remember that the places Paul’s journeys took him were all technically Greek. There he sought out the Israelite descendants and in the process of spreading the “Good News” of their Messiah having come, he welcomed the Gentiles there. They were mostly Greeks of pagan religious roots. This map shows Ephesus as one of the places where Greek culture had hold in Asia Minor, then called Galatia.
With that Greek heritage, it can be assumed that Greek mythology was still widely known and there were temples still standing, as well as monuments and statues of the many gods of importance that the Greek people worshiped. With Greece under the Roman Empire’s control, there might have been active temples to the gods who were the Roman equivalents of the Greek gods.
In this part of Paul’s epistle to the Christians of Ephesus, it seems he might be using Greek mythology as a way of making a point about God’s protection, where he wrote, “Put on the whole armor of God.” Besides the Greek word “Theou” not having the full effect of the Hebrew name for God – “YHWH” – or even “El, El Shaddai, Elohai, or Adonay – it is drawn from the implication of “a god,” implying one of the many gods known. Even capitalized, “Theou” could mean Zeus to some and Yahweh to others. This helps any implication that the armor was mythological metaphor.
For instance, the Greek theosHephaestus (Roman equivalent Vulcan) was the maker of special armor. He was considered the blacksmith of the gods. Special devices would be ordered by the Greek theoîn, who would have pieces of heavenly armor be worn by themselves or their chosen Greek heroes.
The mythological story that first comes to mind is that of Perseus, who needed help from the gods to kill the Gorgon Medusa. Athena asked Perseus to kill Medusa. In order to achieve that monumental task, multiple gods helped Perseus. He was given by Zeus a gemstone-metal curved sword and by Hades a cap of invisibility (the helm of darkness). A polished shield (that acted like a mirror) was given to Perseus by Athena and winged sandals, which allowed Perseus to fly, were lent to him by Hermes. The Hesperides (nymphs of the evening) gave him a special sack to safely put Medusa’s severed head in.
Knowing that detail of divine gifts of armor, look now at what Paul says God gives to His “hero” Apostles-Saints:
• The belt of truth,
• The breastplate of righteousness,
• The shoes to proclaim the gospel of peace,
• The shield of faith,
• The helmet of salvation, and
• The sword of the Spirit.
With all of this armor on, one looks like this:
Physical armor weighs one down to the material realm, so that one is unable to fight from spiritual purity. To stand on even ground “against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places,” one has to be elevated to a force of righteousness by the forces of good in the heavenly places. Innocence defeats evil in the battles between God and the gods of Satan.
With heads bowed, eyes closed, and hands palm to palm, one is armored by the presence of Yahweh, the LORD. Prayer is how one is “strong in the Lord and in the strength of his power.” Prayer is one’s submission to the One God, so one cannot hear “the wiles of the devil.” God hears them and speaks through His servants, putting Satan in his place. Like Jesus, the strong say, “You shall not tempt the Lord your God” and “You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.” (Matthew 4:7 & 10)
Prayer leads one to see through the lies of “the rulers,” the cunning of “the authorities,” and prayer shines the light of truth upon all the worldly ploys (“the cosmic powers” – “kosmokratoras”) that hide in “this present darkness,” which is ever-present in the material realm. Prayer leads one to seek humble positions, rather than be like those who seek prideful roles of leadership and authority. Prayer brings one the light of “day,” so all “evil” is exposed, stripping it of its power to confuse and mislead.
Paul wrote these words of encouragement to the Christians of Ephesus so they would pray for all the “heroes” of God who wore the armor that comes with being reborn as Jesus Christ. An Apostle-Saint is never alone in this battle between good and evil, as Father, Son and the Holy Spirit are always surrounding the soul of life. Still, Apostles and Saints are related to their brothers and sisters in Christ, who gain strength and courage from the prayers that unite all members of the same body, all fighting for the same purpose … in different ways … determined by God.
The belt of truth is the insight of the Christ Mind, which “girders one’s loins” and makes one’s back capable of shouldering any heavy load.
The breastplate of righteousness is one’s heart being protected from external attempts to upset one and cause one to acts irrationally, due to unstable emotions.
The shoes that allow one to spread the truth contained in Scripture means one is always walking towards someone seeking peace in their lives. Comfortable feet says one will never hesitate going wherever the LORD leads one, because one is always feeling good to go.
The shield of faith means that whatever flaming arrows of condemnation are cast at one, in attempts to silence the truth unwanted to be told, nothing will bring harm to the one speaking God’s Word.
The helmet of salvation is an Apostle-Saint’s promise of eternal life in heaven, washed clean of sin by the baptism of the Holy Spirit; and the sword of the Spirit is “the word of God,” which cuts through all twists, turns, and spins of Scripture done by false shepherds.
As the Epistle selection for the fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost, when one’s personal ministry for the LORD should already be underway – one is wearing the armor of prayer constantly – the message here is to trust in “the strength of [God’s] power” and “be strong in the LORD” by removing all doubt that keeps one from picking up the shield of faith.
A minister of the LORD knows the difference between belief and faith. Believing in something is a mental exercise, where study and listening to lectures makes sense. It is like learning to do math problems on paper and making good grades on math tests, but never actually applying the principles of math in the real world. One believes math can solve any problem; but knowing how to break the world down into mathematical equations requires faith.
It is the difference between compliance and ownership. Complying with ideals, principles, and concepts means sometimes we are told to go against personal wants, desires and reasons. Against one’s will, one finds a force that makes one comply or be punished. These external forces are often laws written by rulers and authorities. We often have to choose what is right and wrong, based on the wiles of the devil. Too often we are told to project one’s personal problems on those far away, pitting us against them – as “enemies of blood and flesh.” When government and religion bleed together and clear boundaries are changed or erased, one complies with regret; and that bring about doubts of one system of rule or the other.
Religious compliance is like being a fence-sitter. On one side of the fence is faith in God and on the other side of the fence is faith in self. For all the recommendations to jump off the fence and join with God there are many more suggestions to forget all that promise of eternal salvation stuff and come back and play with the pleasurable sins one knows all about.
One can have faith that sin exists, because one knows sin. Because one has yet to actually KNOW God, it is common to fear taking a leap of faith into the unknown.
Faith takes hold when one takes ownership of Jesus Christ. It happens after one has come to KNOW God as His wife (regardless of human gender), so two have become united as one, with the result of that union being the resurrection of the Father’s Son, Jesus Christ. When one is reborn as Jesus Christ, one has put on the full armor of God, just as that which Jesus of Nazareth wore. At that time, all of the metaphor of Paul’s words is known as the truth of God’s Word, spoken through a Saint. One KNOWS God because one experiences God personally, not secondhand.
Ownership is seen through the words of Jesus, when he said to his disciples:
“Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves. Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.” (John 14:10-14)
Jesus experienced God the Father personally. They were united as two in one.
The words spoken by Jesus to his disciples not only asked eleven disciples (Judas had already left to betray Jesus) to believe his words and his prior acts – that he was one with God the Father – and that they should believe they will be reborn “in [Jesus] name” (as Jesus Christ), doing more acts of faith than Jesus had done, Jesus’ words speak to everyone who has ever read them. They speak to all reading this today.
The disciples were committed to complying with the commands of Jesus, because they believed he was the Messiah; but those words had no effect on their faith at that time. This is known because after Jesus was arrested they ran and hid in fear. They were filled with doubts, not faith … and they lived in the presence of a real flesh and blood Jesus, having personally witnessed his miraculous acts. That luxury of personally knowing Jesus of Nazareth is not possible today. If those disciples ran and hid in fear, then the same natural fear of the unknown is expected by all disciples of Christ today (those calling themselves Christian, based on belief of words written and spoken).
It is natural to doubt because one KNOWS fear. One has been there and done that, so often that one has ownership of that automatic response to frightening external stimuli. Doubt comes so easily one does not have to think, “What did the professor say to do when scared stiff?” This natural reaction is how one needs to KNOW God, so one’s automatic reaction to “the wiles of the devil” is to say what Jesus said, “Get outta my face, Satan.”
No fear.
That emotional absence can only come from KNOWING God and having the ownership of “I am in the Father and the Father is in me.” This is when one wears the full armor of the LORD and knows “the strength of his power.” Otherwise, one is walking behind the memory of Jesus of Nazareth, afraid to be Jesus Christ reborn.
Prayer is how one calls upon God to enter one’s heart. Prayer is how God comes to give His armor to Saints. Prayer is how one leads others to come to KNOW God too.
Jesus said, “Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like that which your ancestors ate, and they died. But the one who eats this bread will live forever.” He said these things while he was teaching in the synagogue at Capernaum.
When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?” But Jesus, being aware that his disciples were complaining about it, said to them, “Does this offend you? Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? It is the spirit that gives life; the flesh is useless. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But among you there are some who do not believe.” For Jesus knew from the first who were the ones that did not believe, and who was the one that would betray him. And he said, “For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted by the Father.”
Because of this many of his disciples turned back and no longer went about with him. So Jesus asked the twelve, “Do you also wish to go away?” Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.”
———————————————————————————————————-
This is the Gospel selection from the Episcopal Lectionary for the Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Year B 2018. In the numbering system that lists each Sunday in an ordinal fashion, this Sunday is referred to as Proper 16. It will next be read aloud in an Episcopal church by a priest on Sunday August 26, 2018. It is important because it tells how Jesus knew how difficult it would be for those who followed him to walk in his footsteps as Christ reborn.
For five Sundays now the Gospel reading has come from John’s chapter six, focusing on Jesus telling those who followed him from the flood plain of Bethsaida, where five thousand Jewish men were served bread and fish miraculously, that they should stop seeking physical food (free handouts from Jesus) and instead eat his flesh and drink his blood. Today we read how hard that message was for the followers of Jesus. They stopped following him, because it seemed he was saying they had to cannibalize him. Because that message is so hard to grasp, and so difficult to swallow, the Church has meted out John’s retelling of it in small bites. A little more Jesus food is served each week, so eating his flesh and drinking his blood will seem more palatable.
Nibbling on the flesh and sipping the blood of Christ?
Last Sunday (August 19, 2018), we ended that reading with verses 56, 57, and 58. This week we repeat them, by beginning with those verses and then finishing the chapter, except for verses 70 and 71. Those last two verses are actually important to this whole series of readings from John 6, which began with the feeding of the five thousand [we read of that and the walking on water from Mark]. The last two verses of John 6 are important because they point to Judas Iscariot.
The unread verses state: “Then Jesus replied, “Have I not chosen you, the Twelve? Yet one of you is a devil!” (He meant Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, who, though one of the Twelve, was later to betray him.)”
If you have been keeping up with my interpretations over the past five Sundays, you might recall that I pointed out that the ones who followed Jesus to Capernaum were those who were not spiritually affected by being fed spiritual food on the plain of Bethsaida. Those who were filled with the Holy Spirit left that event changed men, beginning new lives as Apostles. A fraction, however, were not; and I surmised the number could calculate to one-twelfth of five thousand (about 417), which would have been those served by Judas Iscariot – the one being the devil that would betray Jesus.
This naming of Judas (by John, as an aside), who Jesus referred to as earlier as being a disbelieving follower – “among you there are some who do not believe” – is the whole reason Jesus went off in the flesh and blood direction. The one disciple that followed Jesus because he saw Jesus as some masterful conman (that Judas hoped to figure out), Judas saw Jesus as a path to wealth and fame. Judas was an intellectual who lived for the material world (thus he held onto the money for the group).
Judas was then a disbeliever who passed out bread and fish to like-minded Jews. None of them wanted spirituality, because all of them wanted a physical advantage over others. Their minds were closed to spiritual language, thus spiritual food was nothing more than bread and fish. We can deduce this because Jesus said, “No one can come to me unless it is granted by the Father.” Therefore, God set it up so a disbeliever of Jesus and spiritual matters would serve disbelievers.
As for speaking of flesh and blood being eaten, that was not much different than when Jesus tried to tell Nicodemus (another intellectual that profited from religion) about being reborn of the Spirit. Nicodemus could only think in physical terms, so he thought Jesus was the one talking crazy talk. Nicodemus heard Jesus say, “No one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again,” but he could only grasp that in physical terms. His ignorance caused him to ask Jesus, “How can someone be born when they are old?”
How can anyone eat the flesh and drink the blood of Jesus? Intellectualizing that statement misses the point.
The encounter with four hundred (plus) Nicodemus-like, close-minded Jews demanded that Jesus use the same approach he told to Nicodemus: “I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things?” It was in that vein of understanding disbelievers that Jesus told those who followed after him (in essence), “The food you were fed on the flood plain was based on your needs. You obviously seek physical food, not spiritual nourishment.”
How more earthly could Jesus get than to say, “Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me”?
If they had understood heavenly things, then they would have gone out into the world spiritually changed men, after being fed spiritual food. Because they followed Jesus to Capernaum, they demonstrated their ignorance. Jesus had a way of spotting ignorant Jews, before they could open their mouths.
Nothing Jesus could have said to a group of blind idiots would have been any less misunderstood than was “eat my flesh and drink my blood.” Jesus said this after he originally told them, “Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.” (John 6:27) That flew over their heads to, as they asked “What must we do to do the works God requires?”
To those who do understand, Jesus saying, “eat my flesh and drink my blood” is recognized as being no different than his saying one must be “born again” to “see the kingdom of God.” It just makes it clearer that “born again” now means human beings must become walking, talking resurrections of Jesus Christ, as his new “flesh and blood.” Jesus did not expect anyone to whip out a knife and fork and begin carving up the body of Jesus. He meant after he died his flesh and blood would be that of those who had been spiritually nourished by the living Jesus. Jesus Christ was to be reborn into different living bodies, but with the same Spirit of Jesus joining with the souls of those bodies. Those reborn as Jesus Christ would then be doing the works God requires.
For Jesus to say, “This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like that which your ancestors ate, and they died. But the one who eats this bread will live forever,” this is (again) repeating what was read last Sunday. Jesus said (in essence), “I am not manna. I am spiritual food. I am like that spiritual food we handed out on the flood plain, appearing as morsels of bread and fish, but nourishing the soul instead of the stomach. People who physically eat material things are only kept from hunger for a short while. I have to be consumed in whole being – Spiritually eaten and Spiritually drank – at which point I become one with another for eternity.”
The repetition is important because the concept of physically eating Jesus and drinking his blood is still alive and well in the Nicodemian minds that think a priest can call down from heaven the spirit of Jesus Christ (like ‘Christ tamers’ – <whip snap!>) and make him become one with a bowl of wafers and a carafe of wine. It makes Communion come off to disbelievers like comedian Mike Meyers acting like Fat Bastard, saying to Jesus, “Get in my belly!”
YOU CANNOT EAT THE FLESH OF JESUS OR DRINK HIS BLOOD BY THE ‘OVER THE LIPS, PAST THE GUMS, LOOK OUT STOMACH HERE JESUS COMES’ MENTALITY!!!
To even be reborn spiritually, one must become a resurrection of Jesus Christ in the flesh (not drunk from new wine). To get to that point, one has to fall deeply in love with God (Yahweh, the LORD of gods) and become His wife (regardless of human gender). As a wife of God, God speaks and His wives (like ALL the Prophets) only say, “You know, Lord.” A wife can then ask God any question and God will respond with inner wisdom.
From that union, where one’s heart becomes married to God and the Holy Spirit has washed away all past sins FOREVERMORE, little baby Jesus is born from that union. One is reborn as Jesus Christ when one becomes an Apostle of Christ, taking on his name.
At that time, one can be deemed “a priest” who serves God Almighty in the name of Jesus Christ. Therefore, no priest – who IS Jesus Christ resurrected – would ever be so sacrilegious as to pretend to be able to command the spirit of Jesus Christ to hop into a cracker or dip into some wine. No one in the name of Jesus Christ would ever feed bread and wine to disciples as supplemental replacements to falling in love with God and giving rebirth to Jesus Christ, for the purpose of filling the world with more Apostles and Saints in the name of Jesus Christ.
The Sacraments of Communion are symbolic replications of God’s commandment to the Israelites to forever observe the Passover. They do that with bread and wine. In Jesus’ last Seder meal observance with his disciples, he told them “whenever you eat (or drink) this (the unleavened bread and the wine cup of thanksgiving) remember Jesus. That remembrance is because Jesus Christ is the yeast that give rise to flat bread; and Jesus Christ is the high of spiritual awareness that the alcoholic beverages cannot match. Still, remembering Jesus at Passover means one has been freed from the bondage of the material world by being reborn as Jesus Christ.
The wafer is not the flesh of Jesus. A true Christian is that flesh. The wine is not the blood of Jesus. A true Christian is that blood as the Son of Man, born of the Father’s spiritual blood.
As hard and hurtful as this might seem, especially to Roman Catholics and the splinter churches that are modeled after that style of sacramental pretense, such a reality slap in the face is the message of this conclusion to John’s sixth chapter. It is a strong challenge to Christians, to find God’s truth swell up within them in order to understand difficult words. The Jews in the synagogue of Capernaum struggled mightily as their reaction to Jesus, as John wrote: “When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?”’
You have to ask yourself, “WHY?” “Why is this teaching so difficult to accept?”
The answer is no different today than it was that Sabbath in Capernaum, when Jesus taught in the synagogue. It is no different than any other time in the two thousand years since, when people of belief have been served “useless flesh” when spiritual food should be the fare of the day. The answer is “useless flesh” keeps disciples always coming back for more “useless flesh,” whereas spiritual food transforms disciples into Saints. The responsibilities of a Saint means going out and teaching the same message as did Jesus of Nazareth in Capernaum.
It is difficult to accept Jesus Christ in one’s flesh. It is difficult to accept the blood of salvation in one’s heart. It is not easy to receive that Spirit within one’s being, when one is programmed that such a feat is impossible. The Jews marveled at the miracles of Jesus, but found his ‘out of the box’ ideas about Scripture hard to take. Christians who have lived their entire lives not knowing “Why?” are shocked that they might not be doing all they should be doing, if heaven is their goal.
Just as Judas Iscariot wore the face of Jesus Christ as he walked before roughly 417 pilgrims and smiled as they took food that amounted to bread and fish that satisfied them until the next morning, priests, pastors, ministers, and preachers of Christianity have long failed to serve themselves as Jesus Christ to disciples who want to be Jesus Christ also. That failure is from having never truly “eaten the flesh and drank the blood” of Jesus Christ themselves. Since church leaders cannot beget Apostles from a disciple’s ignorance, and the irresponsibility of self-love (as theological intellectuals), is is the blind leading the blind (as always). Difficult to interpret passages of Scripture are avoided or whitewashed with simple stories that are easy to swallow and desirable to accept.
Good boy! [or girl!]
Jesus said, “The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But among you there are some who do not believe.” That means “words” that are from God require one be given His Spirit and possessing His promise of eternal life (through marriage vows), in order to understand what Jesus said. Those who do not have this God-given ability to understand holy words do not fully believe the Word of God. Laypeople try to learn what works the Lord requires, but without the resurrected Jesus there to inform them, the constantly beat their chests and rend their clothes in exasperation. They want to know how to not sin, but no one has ever told them how to eat the flesh and drink the blood of Jesus.
Having the people kept in the dark means some will purposefully profit from those who are blind, like them, but want to be close to someone who speak of God’s words (holy texts) with authority. Because they have never found any teacher who could actually transform any students into the Messiah, they can easily slip on the clothes of a shepherd. Often, seeing the complete trust their clothing brings, those trusts are violated. When violations are exposed (and they will be), belief turns to disbelief, with faith nowhere to be found. Judas was such a disbeliever who profited in this manner.
Today there are plenty resurrections of Judas Iscariot serving as priests; so why not more Jesuses?
John then wrote, “For Jesus knew from the first who were the ones that did not believe, and who was the one that would betray him. And he said, “For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted by the Father.”’ Jesus had earlier said, “It is written in the Prophets: ‘They will all be taught by God.’[Isaiah 54:13] Everyone who has heard the Father and learned from him comes to me.” (John 6:45) That means this later quote is a statement about one’s commitment to God, through spiritual marriage. To “come to Jesus,” one must go through God first.
Jesus then said (in essence), “You cannot be reborn as me unless you have come into union with the Father.” Those who could not believe in Jesus were known as disbelievers by Jesus, because Jesus was in the Father and the Father in him, with the Father knowing the hearts of all, including those who had rejected His proposal.
All Christians must know that God wants to marry them. Therefore, anyone who is not a duplication of God’s Son (regardless of one’s human gender) has rejected that offer. One has to ask oneself why that is.
This means Jesus knew Judas’ heart when he first was given a seat at the table of Christ, accepted as a disciple that would betray him. Jesus knew a betrayer was necessary for his ability to be reborn in others, following the release of his soul at his death. Therefore, Judas Iscariot was granted that seat by the Father, and Judas’ insincerity was known by the Son immediately (that’s why Jesus picked him to handle the money).
We then read, “Because of this [misunderstanding of “eat my flesh” and “drink my blood”] many of his disciples turned back and no longer went about with him,” the use of “disciples” [from the Greek “mathētōn”] is different from the use of “twelve” [from the Greek “dōdeka”]. Here, the “disciples” were “students” that were pilgrims that came to Capernaum from the Bethsaida plain (and others), who sought to learn from Jesus, seeing him as a worthy “teacher” (rabbi). However, because his lesson that Shabbat was too hard to swallow, those newcomers left Jesus.
[Keep in mind there was a crown of pilgrims who would later scream out, “Crucify him!” They probably heard a lesson that was hard to swallow too.]
When Jesus then turned to “the twelve,” asking those closest followers, “Do you also wish to go away?” it is vital to understand that Judas Iscariot was one of the twelve. This is why not reading the verses that name him and identify him as one who caused doubts and disbelief – stated in the asides that remember him as the one who betrayed Jesus – makes grasping Judas’ role more difficult.
Judas was asked if he wanted to leave, but he did not get up and go, nor did he speak out. Peter spoke (as usual) for the group of twelve, giving Jesus a mild vote of confidence. He said that after they found out of John the Baptizer’s beheading. When Simon-Peter said, “We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God,” that truth was based on the material miracles they witnessed, not their still-to-come Sainthood.
When Jesus said in the unread verse 70, “Have I not chosen you, the Twelve? Yet one of you is a devil!” Jesus made it clear that he knew the hearts of each of those twelve Jews that followed his lead. Jesus knew Judas was a necessary evil; and one who had no plans on leaving at that point in time. Judas is believed to have been the intellectual who tried to pick Jesus’ mind; but Jesus knew how much the brains of all his disciples led them and how befuddled and confused Jesus’ words made them.
They were not going to leave Jesus, but they were no different than the befuddled and confused 417 (there about) pilgrims walking away from Jesus. Those “pupils” were no longer looking like lost sheep running to their master, as they did at the Bethsaida plain. To them, it was like Jesus had just told them, “To be good sheep, you have to eat some haggis and drink some bloody goat milk.”
Run away! Run away!
As the Gospel selection for the fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost, when one’s personal ministry for the LORD should be underway – having come to believe and know that Jesus is the Holy One of God – the message here is know that “among you there are some who do not believe.” This includes those intellectuals that follow Jesus, even though their soul is possessed by the devil, like Judas.
It must be understood that Judaism then stood as the religion of God’s chosen people. This was before Christianity was begun by true Christians – Jews and Gentiles filled with God’s Holy Spirit that were transformed into Saints spreading the truth of God, as Jesus Christ reborn. The Judaic system of religion taught the words memorized and written onto scrolls, but it could not wholly interpret those words. That system was called out by Jesus as being the blind leading the blind, because teachers gained respect (and wealth) simply by knowing more memorized words than the majority.
With all that brain power, no one could teach how to fall in love with God, hear His proposal in one’s heart, accept that proposal and become a prophet that spoke for God – them in the Father as the Father was in them.
While Christianity spread rapidly because it was Saints touching the hearts of seekers of truth, who then married God and became the resurrections of Jesus Christ themselves, the institutions of that religion have long since ceased that growth. It has pruned the living vine, greatly reducing the good fruit that has been produced. It is not yet a stump in the ground, but it is like the fig tree that did not produce fruit.
In that regard, the present state of Christianity is no different than that past state of Judaism. The blind still lead the blind; and some profit, while the majority feels lost. This is because Christians today fail to accept the words that say, “You have to be Jesus Christ reborn, in order to gain eternal life in the kingdom of heaven,” spoken as “eat my flesh and drink my blood [to] abide in me, and I in [you].”
The present state of Christianity is that it has not been taught to receive the Holy Spirit, through complete submission to God out of love. It has been taught to follow Jesus in the same way the Jews were taught to follow Moses’ Laws. To hear a teacher say today, “It is the spirit that gives life; the flesh is useless,” explaining that those words mean one’s soul is responsible for eternal life in God’s kingdom and satisfying the desires of the flesh will never achieve that heavenly goal,” many Christians today would walk away from that teacher. It is hard to accept responsibility. Thus, it is easy to do like the Jews of Capernaum did to Jesus, saying, “This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?”
One cannot let Jesus of Nazareth become an idol of worship, where one feels safe and secure doing all the sins of the worldly domain. To see Jesus Christ as an absent ruler – in heaven with God the Father – Christians are just like the Israelites that went to Samuel saying, “Give us a king so we can follow decrees made for us.” Each Christian is expected to be an ordained priest of God, authorized to teach as Jesus of Nazareth did. Believing that idol will forgive one’s continuing to sin each week AND make it easier for some to get wealthy from sins, is an error of reasoning (intellectualism).
How is this possible? The pope is supposed to be the equivalent of Jesus Christ. Prayer yes. Confession no.
Baptism by the Holy Spirit is a one-time cleansing of sins, such that absolutely no sins will again be done by the flesh, after that cleansing of one’s soul. No human flesh can absolve anyone of earthly sins. Confession is an act of one’s relationship with God, not man. A soul is free to choose a life of sins (with the death of one’s flesh that then comes, over and over again) or choose eternal life (where the flesh is useless to the soul). A soul is then responsible for the choices made in that regard.
This reading places focus on Jesus turning to his closest followers, with John stating, “Jesus, being aware that his disciples were complaining about it, said to them, “Does this offend you?” That same awareness is held by Jesus Christ and God the Father.
Knowing that “eating the flesh and drinking the blood” of Jesus means becoming a reproduction of the Son of Man, does that offend you?
Do you think it is sacrilege to think anyone other than Jesus of Nazareth can be Jesus Christ, resurrected in flesh and blood?
If you do, then “What if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before?” With Jesus of Nazareth ascended into heaven, gone to sit in a seat at the right hand of the Father, who then becomes the flesh and blood of righteousness on earth? No one?
What about the Saints? Are they just good men and women that used to walk the earth, trying to be righteous by utilizing will power? Can you believe in Saints when there are so few of them these days?
There just are not enough people who can preach a sermon while walking home after being beheaded wrongfully. Why no more Saint Denis’?
“Jesus asked the twelve, “Do you also wish to go away?” Likewise, Jesus asks you, “Are you a Christian because you love God as your Father, or are you a Christian so you can betray Jesus every time you sin, telling others he forgives so easy?”
There are people wearing sacred robes who are professed sinners. They commit sins that have been condemned in Scripture. For them to change the word to suit their wants and desires, saying it is okay to sin: “Come and let us forgive you! Jesus loves you no matter how much you sin!” … are they not those “who do not believe”? Are they not those seated at the table for the purpose of betraying Jesus, as the devil?
This reading brings to a close a month of Sundays where the Gospel is centered on eating the flesh of Jesus. Jesus never said it was okay, if his message was difficult to swallow, to “Just chew it a little bit at a time and that will be a good start.” It is a call to do as he said or not, with no in-between place having merit. You are Jesus Christ reborn or you are not truly a Christian.
Can you accept that teaching? Or is it too difficult to accept?
You, mortal, I have made a sentinel for the house of Israel; whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me. If I say to the wicked, “O wicked ones, you shall surely die,” and you do not speak to warn the wicked to turn from their ways, the wicked shall die in their iniquity, but their blood I will require at your hand. But if you warn the wicked to turn from their ways, and they do not turn from their ways, the wicked shall die in their iniquity, but you will have saved your life.
Now you, mortal, say to the house of Israel, Thus you have said: “Our transgressions and our sins weigh upon us, and we waste away because of them; how then can we live?” Say to them, As I live, says the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from their ways and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways; for why will you die, O house of Israel?
——————–
This is an important reading that might not be one many people are familiar with. It comes up in the Episcopal Lectionary schedule every third year (Year A), on the fourteenth or fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost (always Proper 18), but it falls under the “Track 2” designation, so it might always be overlooked. I want to focus primarily on what this reading says on a deeper level, while then tying it together with the other readings commonly accompanying it. Pull up a chair and grab a refreshing drink and learn what God has spoken through the prophets for your benefit.
“You, mortal” is written “wə·’at·tāh – ben-’ā·ḏām,” which pulls from the words “attah, ben, and adam.” This means “You, mortal” actually is an address that begins by saying “and you are” (or “and you’re”). The Hebrew root, “אַתָּה,” can be either masculine or feminine, singular or plural. Because of that flexibility coming from Yahweh, He was speaking to the male named Ezekiel, while also talking in eternity to all of “you,” who “are” the “son of man.”
You might recall how often Jesus referred to himself as the “Son of man,” with the Greek written being “Huios tou anthrōpou.” (Matthew 12:8 used as an example.) Wikipedia reports on this as such: “The expression “the Son of man” occurs 81 times in the Greek text of the four Canonical gospels, and is used only in the sayings of Jesus. The Hebrew expression “son of man” (בן–אדם i.e. ben-‘adam) also appears in the Torah over a hundred times.” They then add that another thirty-two times it is written in the plural, with “sons of man,” with that seen as a reference to “human beings.” Another way of stating that would be “mortals.” However, that is summed up in the plural form of “anthrōpou” (“anthrōpos,” as found used in Hebrews 13:6).
Hebrew does not used capital letters, as does Greek, so one needs to realize that the presentations of “Huios tou anthrōpou,” as a reference made by Jesus about himself, were capitalized by Apostles who wrote with a higher understanding of what they heard, when they were mere disciples of Jesus of Nazareth. The vocalization of the word “son” has no means possible to convey capitalization to the one hearing the word. That is, unless the mind recalling a word spoken is inspired through divine memory, where the spoken word is realized to be a statement about one’s relationship to God (Yahweh). This means the Gospel writers were well aware, through the Christ Mind that possessed their brains, that Jesus was indeed the “Son” of Yahweh, while having been sent into this world as “a mortal” or “man” – “human being.” Capitalization in Greek denotes a word that must be discerned as having a higher level of meaning, relative to the divine.
In Ezekiel’s case, where Hebrew has no indication of capitalization, the mere fact that Yahweh was speaking to him, addressing his as “ben-adam,” says that Ezekiel, like Jesus, was a “Son of man.” Ezekiel wrote his book as the equivalent of an Apostle, which means all the Apostles were like Ezekiel when they wrote their Gospels and Epistles. It means they were all like Jesus (including Ezekiel), because all were the “Sons” of God (Yahweh) and elevated above mere human being status (mortals).
That is why the disciples of Jesus told him the people (and most likely themselves too) thought he was one of the prophets (after naming John the Baptizer, Elijah, and Jeremiah). Normal people cannot hear the voice of God speaking to them. Prophets do. Thus, Ezekiel, as a recognized prophet, was like Jesus, who was also one who heard the voice of God speaking to him. Yahweh then placed His Holy Spirit into Simon Peter, causing him to speak the word of God (beyond the capabilities of his own brain), saying, “Sy ei ho Christos , ho Huios tou Theou tou zōntos .” – “You are the Christ [Messiah] , the Son of God of the living .“
When Simon Peter blurted those words out of his mouth, he was known by Yahweh to become an Apostle later. His heart was known to be devoted to both Him and to His Son. Simon Peter was thus receptive to the Holy Spirit and therefore easily moved to speak the Word of God. This is then how one should read this lesson from Ezekiel, because Yahweh told him AND ALL LIKE SERVANTS FOREVERMORE: “whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me.”
The translation that states “warning” is accurate, but reading that is misleading, in particular to those who feel they know God, thus they do not think they need His warnings. The Hebrew written is “wə·hiz·har·tā,” which pulls from the root verb “zahar.” The literal translation says “and illuminate” or “and enlighten,” as the root word means “to be light or shining.” This then converts to a “warning” that one is walking in darkness, and darkness is metaphor for sin, which lurks everywhere in the realm of death. Human beings, as mortals – a word that means death, as those born to die – walk in darkness as “sons of man” [not a statement about human gender]. Therefore, God (Yahweh) sends His Prophets to shine light to the world, which comes as a “warning” to stop sinning or suffer the known outcome of being mortal.
We know this is what the light of truth, spoken through God’s prophets, is meant to cease, because Ezekiel wrote multiple times in this reading the word (eight in the above translation) “rasha” and “resha” (as “lā·rā·šā,” “hā·rā·šā” and “rā·šā,” as well as “mê·riš·‘ōw“), meaning “wicked” and “wickedness.” The Hebrew word “rasha” means “wicked, criminal,” where “criminal” must be understood as meaning one who breaks the Laws of Moses. Still, Strong’s lists NASB Translations of this word as being: “evil (1), evil man (1), evil men (1), guilty (3), man (1), offender (1), ungodly (1), wicked (228), wicked man (21), wicked men (2), wicked one (1), wicked ones (3).” This makes the purpose of God’s prophets (including Jesus) be to warn mere mortals not to sin against God.
The crux of this reading says: If you hear the voice of God telling you to shine light onto sinners, so they will see their sinful acts and change, then you will save your own soul from the condemnations of the sinful – whether or not the sinful change, from heeding the message brought by God’s messenger (a Greek word identifies such as “aggelos” or “angeloi“). If you hear the voice of God telling you what to tell sinners, but you do not give them God’s message, then the sins of the sinful become the responsibility of the failed prophet. Therefore, the warning that must be shared is to the prophet, warning him or her not to hide the light of God’s truth (divine illumination) under the cover of secrecy or personal privacy.
This is then a reading paired with Jesus giving the instruction to his disciples: “If another member of the church sins against you, go and point out the fault when the two of you are alone.” That lesson is compounded by a failed prophet refusing to listen to another prophet of the Lord, such that an escalation of talks follow – a small group of prophets, followed by the whole congregation (all of whom are prophets). All of this direct consultation must then be seen as God verifying what was heard by a failed prophet within his head (or her head) restated by external voices of God, all telling the failed prophet the same thing. The process eliminates any confusion one might claim as justification for sinning. Everyone involved must then be Apostles that hear the voice of God, meaning a church of Jesus Christ does not involve novice students or adoring fans. [They are the ones Apostles preach to.]
This brings up the need to clarify “If another member of the church sins against you.” This translation comes from Matthew 18:15, but the word “ekklésia,” meaning “church,” does not appear in this reading until verse seventeen, when the congregation is called up to speak. What is written is this: “Ean de hamartēsē <eis se> ho adelphos sou,” which literally states, “If indeed now does wrong *among you* this brother yours.”
An observant reader will have noticed the use of two “angle brackets” that surround “eis se.” According to the Wikipedia article entitled “angle bracket,” when used in “terminology,” the definition is this: “〈 〉, used to enclose the name of the domain in which a concept and a term is used.”
This sets apart the “domain” as being this statement by Jesus [recalled by Matthew], where the “concept” of “church” is presented in the “term” “among you.” Because the concept is relative to the translation of “eis se,” the first thing to do is fully understand “eis.” The translation (NRSV) is “against,” setting the term as “against you,” making this “term” important to grasp. I have translated this as “among you.”
The Greek word “eis” is said by Strong’s to aptly translate as “to or into (indicating the point reached or entered, of place, time, purpose, result)” [its definition], with it also meaning “into, in, unto, to, upon, towards, for, among” [its usage]. HELPS Word-studies adds this about “eis“: “properly, into (unto) – literally, “motion into which” implying penetration (“unto,” “union”) to a particular purpose or result.”
Seeing how the translation of “against you” implies one’s sins “penetrate you” this is hard to discern. Translated differently (according to legitimate options), the use of “among you” gives a strong impression of a wolf (sinner) having penetrated the sheepfold (a church). This says “you” reflects the one first coming to that awareness. [Certainly, led by the Holy Spirit to uncover the sins and the sinner.]
Still, there is another element of this untranslatable set of symbols that must be considered. In Scripture, where all words written are those spoken by God to His devoted servants (Ezekiel, Jesus, and now Matthew), it becomes a bold move to see groups of words and read them as if they only have one meaning. A perfect example is “Son of man.” Christians see those three words and immediately think “Jesus,” without realizing the importance of “Son,” the value of “this” (the article between Son and man), and how all readers are named generally in the one word “man.” This means that the angle brackets surrounding two words draw one’s attention away from two separate marks, one of which is a “less than” symbol, with the other being a “greater than” symbol. This needs to be taken into account.
Seeing this, the word “eis” becomes “<eis,” where the symbol is pointing out a “lesser than” state that is relative to all the aforementioned translation possibilities for “eis.” Here, it becomes important to realize verse fifteen began with a capitalized “If” (a “big If”), which places a scenario of possibility to the statement. The “domain” is then one of choice, which is relative to the “concept” of true Christianity, which had not yet begun when Jesus was giving this instruction. At the time Jesus spoke these words, Judas sat and listened. Judas was a specific “you” in the group of disciples, such that he was “among” the others, but no one (other than Jesus) knew he was “against” what Jesus offered. Judas then becomes an example of one of the group who proves to be “less than” the rest. This needs to be read into the whole of the term “among you.”
In this translation I have placed two asterisks, rather than angle brackets, because each word needs to be individually understood, before the whole can leave an impression. The next Greek word, translated as “you,” needs to be understood similarly as was “<eis.” The Greek transliteration written here is “se,” which is the second person singular accusative form of “sú.” In this word written is another of the marks that are untranslatable. This mark is “>,” which is a “greater than” symbol. The actual word written is then “σέ›” and that has to be seen as meaning Jesus speaking as God to a collective of disciples, each of whom were second person singular “you,” with the greater than symbol indicating each of their souls will have then become married to the Holy Spirit (a greater than indication). Relative to the concept of a “church,” each disciple (including Judas) was then warned by Jesus speaking the word of God, as they would become true prophets of Yahweh, not run-of-the-mill disciples. Any “failures among you saints” (“<eis se>”) must be addressed.
By realizing that small nuisance (one that requires close inspection of the written text, not just a translation), one can then see how the use of “brother” becomes a statement of that “greater than” state of being. The word “adelphos” becomes more than just a group of guys (male versions of “anthrōpou“), but they all (males and females who would become part of the true “ekklésia“) are elevated as “brothers” in the name of Jesus Christ, as “Sons of God” [Huioi tou Theou], with “Huioi” translatable as “Children.” The lower-case assumes this elevation to a capitalized meaning, simply because of that little-bitty “greater than” symbol.
Simply by realizing what Jesus said, based on the divinely inspired writing of Saint Matthew, one can see how this Gospel reading becomes a mirror of that written by Ezekiel. Jesus spoke instructions that say what God told Ezekiel. If one has been filled with God’s Holy Spirit, then one hears the voice of God within one’s soul. If one claims to be filled with the Holy Spirit and is indeed able to hear the voice of God within one’s mind, but then does not speak the warning to those in darkness: “O wicked ones, you shall surely die,” then that failure needs to be addressed accordingly.
This become the truth of the phrase, “A chain is only as strong as its weakest link.” The chain is formed by all who are prophets of the Lord, each who is a link between Him and human beings. Christianity is the chain, where the only links that comprise it are those who are linked together in the name of Jesus Christ. That is not a chain link forged by one saying, “I believe in the concept that Jesus is the Christ.” A true link that joins into God’s chain is one who is reborn as Jesus, so all links share the strength of God as Sons of man (regardless of human gender). Anyone claiming to be a true Christian, who either cannot hear the voice of God (a liar) or will not share the voice of God (a failure) are then the weak links that break the chain; and this is why that weakness must be eliminated, not allowed to continue.
The reading from Ezekiel is often in competition with a reading from Exodus (Exodus 12:1-14), which tells of the commanded ritual of the Passover, including how the blood of lambs had to be spread over the doorposts of the homes of the Israelites. That compliance would prevent their deaths, when the Lord told Moses: “I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike down every firstborn in the land of Egypt, both human beings and animals; on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the Lord.”
God spoke a warning that was heard by Moses. Moses was then a prophet of Yahweh, who spoke the warning to the Israelites as instructed, saving his life as well as all the Israelites who listened and obeyed. Moses was then like Ezekiel and Jesus, as a Son of man.
Also paired with the Ezekiel reading is the psalm of David (Psalm 119) that begins by singing, “Teach me, O Lord, the way of your statutes, and I shall keep it to the end.” It ends with the verse: “Behold, I long for your commandments; in your righteousness preserve my life.” David wrote his song lyrics by listening to the voice of the Lord within his heart, pouring it out through his harp as he sang. He taught the Israelites to sing the psalms and love them just as he did. As such, the words of God were learned by all of Israel and loved. Thus, we see David was another Son of God, in the form of mortal flesh.
Finally, Paul’s letter to the Romans is read, where we read, “It is now the moment for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers; the night is far gone, the day is near. Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; let us live honorably as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy. Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.” Paul wrote to saints in the name of Jesus Christ, telling that “church” not to let any weak links remain. He listed how a weak link looks back to the past ways of the world, not to the future ways God had blessed them with – shown the light of truth, which must be shared.
Paul was led by the voice of Yahweh to tell those who could also hear the voice of God speaking to them, to shine the light of truth that says, “Do not stop. Do not let your attention be distracted by the lures of the world. Do not become a weak link in the chain of Christianity.” Thus, Paul was also a Son of God, as Jesus Christ reborn into the flesh of a man, united with his soul.
There is beauty in these words that come from God through various servants. Those who need to listen to prophets speaking the truth, in order to believe and become transformed, rely on the words of human beings whose holiness is invisible, keeping saints from looking any different than anyone else. The people living in darkness are all who hear the voice of Satan in a world that pretends to offer delights – as Paul wrote, “provisions for the flesh, to gratify its desires.”
They are the ones who need to be shown the light of warning (“hiz·har·tā” stated by Ezekiel), so they can put on the armor of light (“hopla tou phōtos” stated by Paul) and find eternal life be felt in the strength given by God, His Holy Spirit, and the Christ Mind of Jesus. As a seeker of truth, finding it spoken means it is possible for them to transform into new chain links of Christianity. The failure of them not hearing the truth spoken then falls upon the heads of those who claim to offer the truth of God, but do not have that ability (liars).
God told Ezekiel that the seekers of redemption will say to the prophet, “Our transgressions and our sins weigh upon us, and we waste away because of them; how then can we live?” Yahweh then told Ezekiel to tell Israel, “Say to them, As I live, says the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from their ways and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways.”
Jesus told his disciples to address failed prophets in the same way, because “whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” There, to bind means to set the rules straight and to loose means to break or destroy. An Apostle’s work, as a servant of Yahweh, is to make sure the links in the chain of Christianity are strong, otherwise removed.
Knowing this means it is hard to find one claiming to be Christian that sets any rules as hard and fixed. There are few these days that will try to destroy those who sin, while they are putting gifts of offering into felt-lined trays. Instead of telling a gathering assembled, “God will pass through this land and anyone whose body of flesh has not been painted with the blood of Jesus Christ will lose his or her life.” Rather than tell an audience that does not want to hear the truth, “O wicked ones, you shall surely die,” or “If you do not long to keep God’s commandments, then your life will not be preserved through the righteousness of the Lord,” the people will stand and cheer that failed leader, that liar.
Without one filled with the Holy Spirit saying to those believing they are Christians, “Let us lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light, so we can no longer be reveling in drunkenness, in debauchery and licentiousness, and no longer be quarreling over petty jealousy,” the people will never change their ways.
It then becomes the responsibility of the serious disciple of Jesus to realize this shortcoming in their leaders. They need to address their priests and pastors as Jesus said to do. The reason is as God told Ezekiel: “If you do not speak to warn the wicked to turn from their ways, the wicked shall die in their iniquity, but their blood I will require at your hand.”
Save a minister by telling him or her to stop preaching politics and racism, because the world is going to Hell because of liars and failed prophets, too selfish to risk losing a paying customer.
Jesus said, “If another member of the church sins against you, go and point out the fault when the two of you are alone. If the member listens to you, you have regained that one. But if you are not listened to, take one or two others along with you, so that every word may be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If the member refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if the offender refuses to listen even to the church, let such a one be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Again, truly I tell you, if two of you agree on earth about anything you ask, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.”
——————–
The key instruction in this reading is: “if the offender refuses to listen even to the church, let such a one be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.”
Americans are members of the ‘church of income taxes’ and they are gathered in your name, payabel to the Internal Revenue Service
That says Gentiles and tax collectors are sinners and sinners cannot possibly be “gathered in my name.” That is because it means sinners are those whose souls have not been merged with the Holy Spirit and therefore not reborn as Jesus Christ.
The Greek word “ekklēsia” (also “ekklēsias“) translates as “church.” When Jesus was speaking these words to his disciples, they were all happy Jews, all of whom went to synagogues regularly. None of them had yet become “Christians,” so there was no such thing as a “church,” per se. This means the true translation of the Greek is as “an assembly, a (religious) congregation.” (Strong’s)
When Jesus said, “For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them,” think about what that means. Jesus was there among his disciples, when he said that. Judas was there as well. Jesus was still three Matthew chapters (19, 20, 21) away from his triumphal entry into Jerusalem for his final Passover. That means (minimally) Jesus was with an assembly of twelve. However, at that time none were gathered in his name. They were all gathered in their names, as disciples that followed Jesus around.
In verse 20, when Matthew wrote the word “onoma,” which is translated as “name,” that word also translates as “a name, authority, cause” [Strong’s definition], but also as “character, fame, reputation.” [Strong’s usage] HELPS Word-studies adds the following:
“3686 ónoma –name; (figuratively) the manifestation or revelation of someone’s character, i.e. as distinguishing them from all others.
Thus “praying in the name of Christ” means to pray as directed (authorized) by Him, bringing revelation that flows out of being in His presence. “Praying in Jesus’ name” therefore is not a “religious formula” just to end prayers (or get what we want)!”
This then follows (in brackets): [“According to Hebrew notions, a name is inseparable from the person to whom it belongs, i.e. it is something of his essence. Therefore, in the case of the God, it is specially sacred” (Souter).]
Simply from realizing all that, to say “gathered in the name of Jesus” does not mean, “Here meets the club that calls itself a gathering of those who like Christ.” In the name of Jesus means one is related to Jesus, as the Son of man reborn Spiritually, so all true Christians are Jesus Christ reborn. Anything less than that does not qualify as being in the name of Jesus. It qualifies as being in the name of Gentiles and tax collectors.
There is no such church on planet earth today that has pews with sinners sitting in them that would ever dare to confront someone claiming to be a true Christian, when there is nothing about his or her character, fame, reputation, authority or cause that says, “I walk the path of righteousness, as did Jesus, healing the sick, casting out demons, and explaining the Word of God for all who seek to know to become my brothers, in my name.” Therefore, the only way to confront this absence of another who needs to be called out is to stop hanging out with Gentiles and tax collectors and pray for God to send His Holy Spirit upon oneself.
The only ‘spirit’ in an arena like this is the ‘spirit’ to give to the rich, as if an installment plan on the stariway to heaven.
That makes a “church” of one, but when that “church” is where Jesus Christ truly resides, then it is just a matter of time before one can touch two or more others, so the Holy Spirit has brought about a true gathering of those in the name of Jesus Christ. Because Jesus will be there, two thousand years after his death-resurrection-and-ascension, the truth of that statement is Jesus will be there physically as those who are in his name, as him resurrected.
The only ones who profit from a church that is led by and filled only with a bunch of heathens pretending to be something they are most assuredly not are those who charge customers money [call it tithes, dues, club membership fees, pledges, or any amounts under 100% of a member’s ownings]. They pass off charging customers as though customers need to pay for the right to sit in a building that is supposed to be one God ordered built. They want the customers to pay the salaries of those who are hired hands (working for false shepherds), who do little towards keeping the building nice and clean. So, the warning Jesus gave to his disciples (including Judas) says, “Do not fall for those who claim to be the Christ, but are not, do not believe them.” (paraphrased from Matthew 24:23)
Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his power. Put on the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to withstand on that evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. Stand therefore, and fasten the belt of truth around your waist, and put on the breastplate of righteousness. As shoes for your feet put on whatever will make you ready to proclaim the gospel of peace. With all of these, take the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
Pray in the Spirit at all times in every prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert and always persevere in supplication for all the saints. Pray also for me, so that when I speak, a message may be given to me to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it boldly, as I must speak.
——————–
This reading from Paul is scheduled for public presentation in Episcopal churches on the Sunday after Pentecost in years designated as B, known as Proper 16. This will next occur on August 22, 2021, which will designate the Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost in that year. It was last read aloud on Sunday, August 26, 2018, then designated as the Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost.
This reading is important as it is Paul clearly stating that each and every Christian must himself or herself be a priest to the temple of God. The temple is one’s own body of flesh. The soul within that flesh must become a priest that serves the high priest of the temple, who is the soul of Jesus. The strength then comes from a marriage with Yahweh, the union of one’s soul with the Holy Spirit, which makes one wear the armor of the Christ.
The metaphor of that comes from Paul writing to “fasten the belt of truth around your waist, and put on the breastplate of righteousness.” This metaphor should be seen, along with the footwear [sandals or shoes] that gives one the expectation to walk the priestly path, as the clothing worn by a high priest of the Tabernacle.
When Paul wrote, “Put on the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil,” the whole armor can only come through the marriage with God. God is the completion that brings wholeness. Without that presence within one’s being, then one is incomplete and all armor of God is based on knowledge that keeps God external. The Holy Spirit has not been received and Jesus has not merged with one’s soul. Without that inner strength, one easily becomes prey to Satan.
The Greek word “methodeia” is translated as “wiles,” but it can equally state “scheming, craftiness, deceit.” This should be realized as being ever present, with the greatest times when one is vulnerable being when one feels within a safe environment. For many Christians, a church building, or being amid church members, represents such a safe haven. This is where the warning comes to beware false shepherds and hired hands, who appear to be there for one’s benefit but in reality they are there for their own benefit and no one else’s. Without the full armor of God on – filled with the Holy Spirit as a stand-alone temple to the Lord – the devil sows the weeds of doubt, fear, and knowledge as a replacement for God.
This is seen supported in Paul writing, “For our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” The translation of “enemies” can be misleading, as the Greek word “palē” is written, which means “wrestling, a wrestling bout; hence: a struggle, fight, conflict, contest.” (Strong’s usage). This says one’s struggle to avoid the influence of Satan is less about one’s heritage [“blood”] and one’s presence [“flesh”] – the inner self struggle as a Christian [or Jew] to commit to righteous living – and more about the powers over self that one gives freely to those who are external to one’s being – governments, philosophies, and influences advocating the denial of God.
The Greek words translated as “rulers” and “authorities” are “archas” and “exousias.” In the setting of Paul, who (as Saul) was both a Roman citizen and a Jew, his “rulers” were Roman, which included all that empire’s vassals (such as in Judea). His “authorities,” however, were those who exerted influential powers over all who were Jews, being the Temple “authorities.” It was those “authorities” who had fallen away from God, having turned instead to worship the profits they saw as obtainable in the earthly realm. It is that realm where exists “the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places,” where “epouraniois” (“heavenly realm”) should be read as those who rule over one’s soul.
This external danger is one that exists commonly and is prevalent in all people lacking true faith in Yahweh. Paul wrote, “Therefore take up the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to withstand on that evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm.” The Greek word “stēnai” translates as “to stand firm,” but also means one must become one with God in order “to be steadfast” in the ability to resist a most common attack. The commonality of evil in the world cannot be avoided; without God’s help one will succumb to that power. The meaning of “having done everything” is emphasized by the word “kai” preceding it, meaning everyone is born a sinner and knows sin all too well. Thus, to “take up the whole armor of God” means one has to allow oneself to be “raised up” spiritually.
Paul then wrote these words of encouragement: “Stand therefore, and fasten the belt of truth around your waist, and put on the breastplate of righteousness. As shoes for your feet put on whatever will make you ready to proclaim the gospel of peace. With all of these, take the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” His words spoke of the visual armor worn by Roman soldiers that were prepared to do battle. However, the metaphor speaks for one who is prepared to do battle against Satan and his realm of evil, as one filled with the Holy Spirit and enabled to “stand fast,” armed with the “truth” of God’s enlightenment, a heart filled with God’s love, an ability to walk the walk of righteousness, more than talk the talk of goodness, because one’s “faith” is an elevation that protects the soul, which comes from having sacrificed self-will for divine “salvation.” The “sword” of God is the Christ, which comes out of one’s mouth and speaks double-edged words of truth.
When Paul then wrote, “Pray in the Spirit at all times in every prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert and always persevere in supplication for all the saints,” the purpose of prayer is to “at all times” remain in direct communication with God, through His Son’s Holy Spirit within one’s being (Jesus Christ reborn). The use of “supplication” takes this communication beyond simple chitchat and makes it earnest, heartfelt direction. When Paul used the term “hagiōn” (“saints”), this was not some measly designation of one who wears vestments and says he or she can call upon the name of the Lord to bless crackers and wine. The designation of “saints” becomes a statement of truth: one has been made sacred by God as set apart from all influences of evil in the world. To a saint, prayer and supplication is the conversation between Yahweh and His Son taking place as one’s soul listens and one’s flesh does as commanded. It is less about self-preservation than it is about bringing others to the same presence within themselves.
As such, Paul then spoke to the saints of Ephesus, saying (per the translation): “Pray also for me, so that when I speak, a message may be given to me to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it boldly, as I must speak.” In actuality, this is the Greek of what Paul wrote here:
“kai hyper emou , hina moi dothē logos en anoixei tou stomatos mou , en parrēsia to mystērion tou euangeliou , hyper hou presbeuō halysei , hina en autō parrēsiasōmai , hōs dei me lalēsai .“
This literally translates to state: “kai on behalf of me , that of me may be given divine utterance in the opening of the mouth mine , with freedom of speech to make known the mystery [revelation] of the coming of the Messiah [Christ] , for which I am older in a chain , that in it I may speak freely , as it is necessary to speak .“
Notice how there is no repeating of the word prayer. That has been transposed from earlier in a translation effort to create a separate sentence of Paul, with the repetition meaning that has already been stated prior. These segments of word build from Paul stating the word “saints.” The word “kai” is then an indicator for the reader to take notice of how the creation and maintenance of “saints” was the purpose of Paul [and all like him – those also filled with God’s Holy Spirit]. Thus, saints are Paul’s “concern” (from “huper” meaning “over, beyond, on behalf of, for the sake of, concerning”), because making and maintaining saints is what saints do.
This then leads Paul to say that saints are made by his speaking divinely. This does not mean his “divine utterances” (“logos“) are explaining Scripture so well that people’s brains swell with thoughts of devotion. It means his presence, being joined with the presence of Jesus Christ, makes his words bear the same effect as did Jesus. The souls readily willing to sacrifice of themselves for service to God will “hear” those words divinely and receive the Spirit.
The saint is then speaking on such a higher level than physical words can ever bear [the reason Scripture needs explanation] that a seeker of truth’s soul will “hear” the truth in a “secret” or “mysterious” way, where “mystērion” means: “a mystery, secret, of which initiation is necessary; in the NT: the counsels of God, once hidden but now revealed in the Gospel or some fact thereof; the Christian revelation generally; particular truths or details of the Christian revelation.” (Strong’s usage) That “secret” is the passing on of the Holy Spirit, which means “the coming of the Messiah [Christ]” into a new saint.
Paul then stated that he was “an elder” (“presbeuō“) in a “chain,” which means he married God before those who came after him, but as a chain (“halysei“) all are equal links, with the same strength coming into them as Jesus Christ reborn. The purpose of his being a link in longer standing becomes meaningless, as his pending death would simply mean more equal links would be needed to replace him and keep the chain growing.
Everything is then dependent on all links in the chain freely speaking the Word of God, as Jesus Christ reborn. This is the necessity of Christianity. This does not come from years of having learned what to say from classes taken, books read or lectures heard. All of that simply prepares one to seek for higher truth, with a history of learning being seen by God and known to be where one’s heart lies. Where the heart leads the head will follow. The Jesus Spirit replaces the brain with Mind of Christ. Still, one needs to hear God speaking, in order to receive the Holy Spirt and become His Son reborn, becoming another link in a most divine chain, where all links are temples unto the Lord and each link is a priest that serves the High Priest Jesus Christ. At that time the whole armor of God is surrounding one’s soul and one is prepared to battle evil.
Explaining the Readings 