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Joshua, Language, Teaching

Joshua 3:7-17 – Crossing the Jordan on dry ground [Twenty-second Sunday after Pentecost]

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The Lord said to Joshua, “This day I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all Israel, so that they may know that I will be with you as I was with Moses. You are the one who shall command the priests who bear the ark of the covenant, ‘When you come to the edge of the waters of the Jordan, you shall stand still in the Jordan.’” Joshua then said to the Israelites, “Draw near and hear the words of the Lord your God.” Joshua said, “By this you shall know that among you is the living God who without fail will drive out from before you the Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Amorites, and Jebusites: the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth is going to pass before you into the Jordan. So now select twelve men from the tribes of Israel, one from each tribe. When the soles of the feet of the priests who bear the ark of the Lord, the Lord of all the earth, rest in the waters of the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan flowing from above shall be cut off; they shall stand in a single heap.”

When the people set out from their tents to cross over the Jordan, the priests bearing the ark of the covenant were in front of the people. Now the Jordan overflows all its banks throughout the time of harvest. So when those who bore the ark had come to the Jordan, and the feet of the priests bearing the ark were dipped in the edge of the water, the waters flowing from above stood still, rising up in a single heap far off at Adam, the city that is beside Zarethan, while those flowing toward the sea of the Arabah, the Dead Sea, were wholly cut off. Then the people crossed over opposite Jericho. While all Israel were crossing over on dry ground, the priests who bore the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan, until the entire nation finished crossing over the Jordan.

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This is the Old Testament primary selection from the Episcopal Lectionary for Year A, Proper 26, the twenty-second Sunday after Pentecost. It will next be read aloud in church on Sunday, November 5, 2017. This is important as it tells of the Israelites’ entry into the Promised Land in the same manner that they departed Egypt, with all threats removed and the waters of emotional unbalance made dry.

It is easy to read this selection and think that God has told Joshua, “Not to worry, I’ll still be with you guys, making sure things go well for you.” But, that misses several important points that are stated in that assurance.

To read, “This day I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all Israel, so that they may know that I will be with you as I was with Moses,” the well-trained reading brain comes away thinking God said, “The Israelites will see Joshua as a big man;” but that fails to grasp God telling Joshua, “I will make you greater with the sight (or eyes) of Israel (the next place for the growth vision for a land of God’s priests).”

The Hebrew words “gad·del·ḵā bə·‘ê·nê” say, “to magnify you in the sight.” This is then a promise to “grow” the “sight” of Joshua, in the same way God gave “eyes” to Moses, through his prophetic dream state visions. The promise now says that Joshua will have the same talents of prophecy, as this is how God speaks to His prophets; but it still says that the Israelites will see this comparison to Moses in Joshua.  So, the Israelites will follow the lead of Joshua in the same manner.

Now, beginning in verse 8, the words “ark of the covenant” (“’ă·rō·wn hab·bə·rîṯ”) are found. That combination of words is then repeated (in variations) two more times (verses, 11 and 17), with “ark” stated alone, in verses 13 (“the ark of the Lord of lords”) and 15 (“the ark”). It should be noted that repetition is not to make one’s eyes tired, but to alert one to an important element being stated.  That awareness becomes important in this reading selection.

If one watches the plethora of programming on The History Channel, about “Ancient Aliens,” or if one reads any of the number of books that attempt to solve the mystery of the Holy Grail, one invariably comes across wild conjecture about the ark of the covenant. Some say, if you follow the directions given in Exodus 25 (verses 10 through 22) and repeated in Exodus 37:1-9, then you end up with a highly charged conductor of energy. The addition of a requirement that it should never be touched, thus carried by wooden poles, is another aspect of some device having been created that has super powers.

As ancient alien theorists believe, it connects to a spaceship somewhere, and God is more like the Wizard of Oz … just some guy behind a curtain.

The point I want to make about the carrying of the ark of the covenant into the ankle-deep waters of a swollen Jordan River, causing it’s waters to separate and the ground to be exposed and become instantly dry, a larger body of water was likewise effected by Moses and his staff. With all the mystery about the missing ark and if the Knights Templar found it and stole away with it, where is the mystery over the loss of the staff of Moses? Would Moses have been buried with his staff, when that staff had such amazing powers?

Perhaps it was not the staff as much as it was God. In the same way, perhaps it was not so much the electrical properties of a gold-plated cedar chest, but the presence of God in the holy men carrying those wooden poles (horizontal staffs). What if the ark of the covenant was symbolic of the powers of God, when He is placed inside a human body?

Imagine the diodes of the heart causing highly charged spiritual energy being fed through neural wires leading to the hands, eyes, ears, mouth, and of course … feet.

Anyone see the science fiction movie about a woman who accidentally gains psychokinetic powers, Lucy? I digress.

Not Lucy.

When we read or hear read, “Joshua then said to the Israelites, “Draw near and hear the words of the Lord your God,” this means he told them “the conditions set forth that must be met, coming from the LORD your God.” The Hebrew word “diḇ-rê” (root debar) means “speech” or “words,” but is also translatable as “commandments, conversations,” and ”conditions.” These “words” or “commandments” do not demand the Israelites recognize God had them craft a machine, in which to carry the stone tablets, as a chest that was radio-controlled from outer space and could zap anyone at will.

Joshua announced he was speaking as Moses had, allowing the words of the Lord God of Israel to use his voice to sound Spiritual instructions. We then see the conditions that were set said nothing immediately about an ark doing anything. Initially, we read that “Joshua said, ‘By this you shall know that among you is the living God who without fail will drive out from before you the Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Amorites, and Jebusites,’” The part that says “living God” is vital to grasp, as an ark is made of non-living materials.

“Among you is the living God” means “God is alive within you,” so the Israelites were the ones who had the power of God. It means that those human beings who were “without” that power within them (all those specifically named), they would “fail” to defend the land they had lived on. It would not be an ark leading the victories, as victories would be won by those with God’s power within them. Joshua, speaking “the words of the LORD,” then named all those tribes of people who were “without” the Holy Spirit, whose lands would be lost to the Israelites.

In a verse that precedes the selected verses above, in Joshua 3:5 is found: “Then Joshua said to the people, ‘Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you.”’ This order said to take steps to sanctify themselves and to take the necessary steps to be holy means the Israelites were prepared to be filled with God’s Holy Spirit.

The words translated as “the LORD will do wonders among you” can be read as “the LORD inwardly to be extraordinary.” As such, when Joshua gave instructions to the priests who carried the ark of the covenant (verse 3:6), where they were told to pass by the Israelites and lead the crossing with the ark of the covenant. The Israelites were filled with the Spirit of God within them, just as the ark contained their agreement with God inside it. That made the ark of the covenant symbolize those who followed it were empowered by the LORD.

When we read then in verse 11, “the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth is going to pass before you into the Jordan,” and in verse 13, “the Lord of all the earth, rest in the waters of the Jordan,” we find repeated “the Lord of all the earth.” The Hebrew word “eretz” means “earth, lands, or world,” such that the LORD is not simply a deity that rules over all humanity; but God created everything material, of which human bodies are formed and of which lands and their rivers are made. Therefore, God is the LORD of all anomalies of physics (metaphysics?), including those that stand still flowing waters and force them back, making wet soil become immediately dry.

In the Old Testament reading of Proper 25, where Moses was told by the LORD, “You will not pass over there,” as reference to both his going across the Jordan River and his passing over from life to death, the same meaning can now be seen here in Joshua 3.  The words translated as “passing before” (“‘ō-ḇêr lip̄·nê·ḵem”) are repeated in some variation, multiple times.  Joshua 3:1, 3:4, 3:6 [not read in this selection], plus Joshua 3:11, 3:14, 3:16, and 3:17, state either “passed” or “before” or both.

The root words are “abar panim,” or “pass over to face.” This, again, is a hidden statement about the First Commandment that says, “Thou shall wear no other face as a god in the presence of the LORD.”

This acts as a confirmation that the priests – one from each of the twelve tribes [or “two and ten men from the tribes of Israel”] – were filled with God’s Holy Spirit. By not being limited as Levites, the priests of the tabernacle in which the ark of the covenant was kept, choosing “ordinary Israelites” demonstrated they all were holy, by having a love of the LORD in the chest [their ark] that was their hearts. Therefore, all of Israel had consecrated themselves, so the face of the LORD passed over theirs, so all had the same face of holiness.

This then leads to the statements, “When the soles of the feet of the priests who bear the ark of the Lord, the Lord of all the earth, rest in the waters of the Jordan” and “when those who bore the ark had come to the Jordan, and the feet of the priests bearing the ark were dipped in the edge of the water,” where “feet” become a focus. This brings back in mind the Psalm quoted by Jesus to the Pharisees (110:1), in the Proper 25 Gospel selection: “Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet,” or “until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.”

The Hebrew word translated as “your enemy” is “’ō·yə·ḇe·ḵā,” where an “enemy” is a “foe” or “adversary.” When Joshua named the tribes of Canaan who would “fail” before the “living God of Israel,” he was naming the “enemies” who would become “the footstools under the feet” of God’s priests. Thus, they would be defeated by God, with the priests being God’s agents, who were given the powers of the LORD.

As the LORD of the world, nothing material could overcome this power, meaning not even a swollen Jordan River could oppose the children of God entering into the lands the LORD had promised them; and, as with the difficulty factor of escaping Egypt in the face of a great sea, no earthly barrier can be a match for those who bear the power of the LORD.  Anything is possible to the LORD.

Because we read, “the waters of the Jordan flowing from above shall be cut off; they shall stand in a single heap” and “the waters flowing from above stood still, rising up in a single heap far off at Adam, the city that is beside Zarethan, while those flowing toward the sea of the Arabah, the Dead Sea, were wholly cut off,” after we read of the “feet” in the Jordan, this feat cannot be attributed to the ark of the covenant.  It was “the feet” of those carrying the ark of the covenant that entered (barely) the waters of the Jordan.  Because of that realization, one needs to see the subsequent actions involving water to be attributed to the human factor as the cause, more than the mechanisms of the ark of the covenant.

Consider how the wayward Israelites (under the priest Eli) had caused the loss of the ark of the covenant to the Philistines (1 Samuel 4). They lost it because they thought using the ark would bring about victory; but the ark had no effect that day in battle, when 30,000 foot soldiers died, the ark was captured and two sons of Eli (tabernacle priests) died. Without the human factor, where the Israelites became like the ark of the covenant, filled with the love of the LORD and the powers He bestows, the ark of the covenant is only a reflection of whose face one wears as a god before the LORD.

Then, the Israelites wore their own faces and depended on Eli, who had two sons committing atrocities that he would not punish.  They had turned away from God, selfishly.  The Palestinians wore the face of Dagon, their idol god, before which they placed the prize ark of Israel.  That act provoked the LORD, we are told (1 Samuel 5), and the Philistines would rue that act of putting the idol of another god before the LORD.

Ancient alien theorists don’t give much thought to this negative power that surrounded the ark of the covenant. If the ark of the covenant were some amazingly powerful energy generator, why would water be stopped, when water is a conductor of electricity? Why were the priest not electrocuted, once their feet touched the water? In the hypotheses of the Templar Knights, if they had found the ark of the covenant AND THEN STOLEN IT, would they not soon realize the same negative powers of an angry God, so the plague-ridden remainders of those knights would have left the ark out in the open land of southern France with a sign on it saying, “Do not touch unless you are a Saint”?

The point here is the power of God was in His priests, who bore the sacred chest that held the sacred tablets that represented the total commitment of the Israelites to the LORD their God. That love consecrated them, so their faith turned back the waters of the Jordan, in the same manner that the faith of lepers, blind men, possessed people, and the lame equally created miracles, as told in the Gospels. Jesus was a totally committed human, who represented the reappearance of the ark of the covenant, which had been lost by the time the Israelites lost the Promised Land [the Covenant broken was no longer stored away]. Therefore, Christians can make water (symbolic for emotions) “stand in a heap,” as the conduits of God’s powers on earth.

When we are then told the extent of the cessation of waters flowing, “rising up in a single heap far off at Adam, the city that is beside Zarethan,” this needs to be grasped both physically (actual locations) and spiritually (why those places bore those names). Here is a map that someone who has written about Joshua has posted online:

This map shows the physicality of what is stated. The Wadi Nimrin represents a dry ravine during the dry season, but since the text states, “Now the Jordan overflows all its banks throughout the time of harvest,” the wadi would have been flowing a lot of water into the Jordan, causing it to overflow its banks. Just north of Adam is the Jabbok River, which flows into the Jordan, and just to the south is where the Wadi Tirzah had its confluence. The sheer size of this area affected (15 miles roughly) must be seen as a necessary space that could accommodate a great number of Israelites.  If that many who were filled with the Holy Spirit of God were ready along the banks of the Jordan, awaiting Joshua’s commands of the LORD, the feet touching far away to the south would have started a backwards flow northward.

On a deeper level of thought, my opinion (which will not be found commonly stated in scholarly interpretations of Joshua) is that one has to ponder what the presence of the two names and what that means. All names presented in the Holy Bible are symbolic statements of meaning. Names were not made up because they sounded funny or cool back then. Names stood for people, places, and things for reason and purpose; and that reason and purpose needs to be examined here.

It does not take a biblical rocket scientist to see the name Adam and think of the Son of God, the one who used to live in the “eretz” (“land”) called “the garden of Eden.” Of course, little-a “adam” is Hebrew for “man,” but some say the word implies “red man,” or even “mud” (I assume “reddish clay”). In that case, the name of a place known as “Adam,” could be because of the muddy land surrounding it, where two rivers join – like a red delta. Still, after Adam and Eve were found to have sinned, they were cast out of Eden, with God placing cherubim to the east of Eden. Such a place where Adam could have begun to toil, working the land, could very well have been where this place named Adam was. The purpose of the name was that settlement identity.  While outcast, Adam might have still wanted to stay close to his old home, so he only went as far as just beyond where he was no longer allowed.

Now, the name “Zaretan” [a.k.a. “Zarethan”] means “the Fortress” or “Narrowness of Dwelling Place,” according to Abarim Publications. The map above shows where a place named Zaredah was located, and this is presumed (by some) to be the same place as Zaretan. As this location is about as far away from Adam (north), as Adam was from the crossing point opposite Jericho (south), it is not near and certainly not “beside” it.

In that regard, the word written (“miṣ·ṣaḏ”) means “beside, to the side,” or “an arm of.” This means the reference to “from the city” (“hā·‘îr“) means Adam was a place of “excitement,” as “towns” are (from “iyr”).

In the picture above, the southern tip of the land between the Jordan River and the Jabbok River is to the eastern side of Adam.  That land appears like an arm reaching down, with its hand almost touching the “town” of “Adam.” This can then be seen as defining that land as a “Narrowness of Dwelling Place,” with purpose and reason behind that name. As such, Zaretan can be read as descriptive of a delta formation of land that is next to the city (or town) that was Adam; and that could infer that Adam, the son of God, toiled that earth, from that place of “excitement.”

Beyond Joshua making a statement about how far north the Jordan River backed up, the symbolism states a claim that this crossing is into holy land, which is then backing up the flow of time, to the time when Adam lived in Eden, prior to his expulsion. It says the ark of the covenant and the Israelites filled with God’s Holy Spirit are returning to their ancestral home, as Adam’s heirs, through Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

From seeing this statement of two names that do little more than create surface confusion, as to “Why?” the continuation that is translated as: “while those flowing toward the sea of the Arabah, the Dead Sea, were wholly cut off,” then speaks of those who had migrated into that holy land (which Joshua, as a spy, had said was “flowing with milk and honey”).  To read “toward the sea of the Arabah, the Dead Sea,” where people were “wholly cut off,” the inference is cut off from that holy lineage.  The ones named held no rights of ownership.

As such, “the sea of the plain” (“yam ha-arabah”) and “the sea of salt” (“yam ham-melah”) are references to the sea of mankind that was “Arab” (“Arabah” is the Hebrew feminine form of “Arabia”). This means a statement of waters not being replenished to the south is something Captain Obvious would say, as it adds nothing of value to the miracle of waters backed up 15 miles.  The people there were “of the plain,” thus not “elevated” through consecration.  They were the “salt” of the earth, but the Salt Sea is known also as the Dead Sea, meaning the “salt” was mortal, not everlasting.  As the descendants of Ishmael and Esau, they were “wholly cut off” from knowing the LORD Yahweh.

When the reading then makes its conclusion by stating, “While all Israel were crossing over on dry ground” and “the priests who bore the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan,” this element of dry ground is repeated. The Hebrew word “be·ḥā·rā·ḇāh” has that meaning, but implies a “desert.” This means more than the powers of God stopping the flow of rivers and wadis that were swollen with fall rains, backing those up 15 miles, and instantly making hard earth be under the feet of men holding the ark of the covenant. It means, despite the amount of annual rainfall, the land was void of spiritual recognition of Holy Land.  That earth was dried of all emotion for the true God, because the people had become lost.

This understanding then allows one to see the flow of living waters – spiritual waters that never need replenishing – coming back into the land that was once the garden of Eden. Without that presence of God being the source of the bounty of the land, since Adam had been cast out, and since Melchizedek, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had last dug wells and given life to that land, it had become a desert, as far as Spirituality was concerned. Therefore, when “the entire nation finished crossing over the Jordan,” so the garden was again in bloom. The Spirit of the LORD was being reinstated into the heart of the land, with the sacred ark becoming the central pump of the Holy Spirit to the far reaches of the Twelve Tribes of Israel.

1 Thessalonians, Language, Teaching

1 Thessalonians 2:9-13 – Witnesses of Yahweh speak the truth of Jesus [Twenty-second Sunday after Pentecost]

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You remember our labor and toil, brothers and sisters; we worked night and day, so that we might not burden any of you while we proclaimed to you the gospel of God. You are witnesses, and God also, how pure, upright, and blameless our conduct was toward you believers. As you know, we dealt with each one of you like a father with his children, urging and encouraging you and pleading that you lead a life worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory.

We also constantly give thanks to God for this, that when you received the word of God that you heard from us, you accepted it not as a human word but as what it really is, God’s word, which is also at work in you believers.

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This is the Epistle selection from the Episcopal Lectionary for Year A, Proper 26, the twenty-second Sunday after Pentecost. This will next be read aloud in church on Sunday, November 5, 2017. This is important as it makes clear the work that is involved in being truly Christian.

To repeat what I posted previously about Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians, the statement above that says “brothers and sisters” is not what was written in this letter. The Greek word Paul wrote is “adelphoi,” which is the plural form of “adelphos” and says “brothers.” We can accept “brothers and sisters” in translation, because “brothers” was used in the epistles of Paul to denote “members of the same religious community, especially fellow-Christians.” (Strong’s) However, to translate it as both masculine and feminine Christians can become confusing, when one gets to the part where Paul wrote, “We dealt with each one of you like a father with his children.”

This is confusing because Paul treated the Christians of Thessaly “like a father.”  The deeper meaning in that statement says it was the Father’s love of Paul in him which Paul then modeled behavior from. God raised Paul to raise others like Paul, so all would have the same love of the Father within them, with all modeling their behavior after God the Father. This is why priests are addressed as “Father.”

This issue will be further addressed by Jesus in the Gospel reading that accompanies this epistle reading in 1 Thessalonians (Matthew 23:1-12). That was when Jesus made the remark that Pharisees and those of the Temple liked to be called “rabbi,” but they never taught by example. They were never the “Fathers” of the Jews, as those lowly people were raised as if they were orphans. So, when Paul said, “We dealt with each one of you like a father with his children,” all the “sisters” could be confused about what that means.

My wife is an Episcopalian priest. In seminary, she had a woman professor who was referred to as “Mother.” When my wife was ordained, the parishioners began calling her “Mother.”  In my mind, this is not a complimentary title.

Before I comment on that, let me also say that I have sat in some Episcopal churches and read along in the Prayer Book, for the Eucharist Rite II, Prayer C: “Lord God of our Fathers; God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,” only to hear the priest (a male) say, “Lord God of our Fathers and Mothers; God of Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, and Jacob, Rachel and Leah.”

What?

I asked a different male priest, who did not make those additions for the wives of Patriarchs (Pater is Latin for Father), why some priests did and some did not. He said it was up to the priest; but it was a modern way of making unofficial changes to the Prayer Book, which took into consideration the role women play in the Church.

If that is why “adelphoi” is translated as “brothers and sisters,” then it misses the point of the Father as the teacher of His children, with Jesus Christ the Son of God, where ALL Christians are “brothers” [male and female He made them], as reborn Jesuses.  If that is why a female priest of the One God is called “Mother,” it misses the point of who is teaching, what is being taught, and how children know the difference between mommy and daddy.

It misses the point that ALL Christians are called to be “the brides of God” [male and female He calls them], with the consummation of that marriage bringing about the baby boy Jesus, with the Mind of Christ – who sits at the right hand of the Father, as the male heir to the throne – making a human being become One (a Trinity) in the flesh.

It misses the point that Christians are ALL “brothers,” because nobody speaks their sex organs as a servant of the LORD. The FATHER speaks, while Christians just open their pie holes and let the words come out.

Now, that said, let me inform whoever reads this that I had no father around when I grew up. I had a mother, and that was it. My mother did lots of things a father could do, such as go to work and leave me in someone else’s care, or go to work and leave me alone at home. Occasionally, my mother spanked me with a belt, but she never made me so afraid of punishment that I felt compelled to toe the line. In all actuality, I was allowed to do as I pleased, more and more the older I got.

My mother saw me as the “man of the house.” My mother loved me. My mother sacrificed for my benefit. My mother gave me as much as she could afford to give, and was sorry she could not give more. My friends with fathers AND mothers never had as much as I had; and as I grew older, I felt guilty for having too much … as a lower, middle-class male. (I call it middle-class because my mother bought a house to raise me in.)

From that personal historic background and experience, when I hear a priest of the LORD referred to as “Mother (fill in the blank),” it gives me the impression of one who is permissive, more than demanding.  It makes me think that “parent” is there to make all my boo boos feel better, more than tell me to get up when I fall … “Rub some dirt on it!”

Without the presence of a real father in my life (my father visited on some holidays – he was not dead, just very absent), I grew up male, but knowing very little about things boys with fathers are taught. As some model by which I could become an adult male, with eventually a wife and family and responsibilities of fatherhood, I looked to other fathers. Some were real fathers I spent time with, as a friend of their sons; and some were fictional characters on TV.

At no time did I ever learn any adult male skills from my mother. I watched other males and learned through observation.  Male teachers and gym coaches were the ones who told me how to become a man and do manly things; and I absorbed that knowledge like a sponge. Of course, my peers helped me learn too, by leading me down all the wrong paths of masculine ignorance.  Without a real father to guide me, I found trial and error was my best teacher.

In defense of my mom, she was always buying things that I was tasked to put together and she bought some tools that I could use in that effort. Indirectly, my mother taught me to read the directions first, not after you try to put something together wrong … over and over again … never thinking to read the print under the pictures.

The point that I have made in the past and still make today is this: A priest (or pastor, minister, reverend, padre, et al titles) is THE Father, via the Holy Spirit, regardless of one’s human gender. Paul said this when he wrote how he, Silvanus and Timothy had been acting like a father to his children, “urging and encouraging you and pleading that you lead a life worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory.”

It was not those three men who were acting like fathers, because they called the Thessalonians “brothers.” They acted as “God” who was within them.  God is “who calls you into his own kingdom and glory.”

The modern Western rationale now is to find equality in the sexes (which is the same rationale that is applied to all efforts calling for equality).  This is little more than a philosophy of man that seeks (through the Big Brain) to lower those who have been artificially elevated, and to raise those who have been downtrodden. This is good when the ones pointing our all the mistakes in others comes from THE Father, and not some personal agenda.  That message, again, is the point made in the accompanying Gospel reading for Proper 26, where Jesus said, “All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and all who humble themselves will be exalted.”  He was referring to the usual suspects in Jerusalem (Pharisees, scribes, et al).

I am reminded now of the lyrics of a song written by Roland Orzabal (Tears For Fears video), about the humbling of Spain, due to its devotion to the philosophy of Salic Law and Patrilineal or Agnatic Succession, where only male heirs could wear the crown.  In two verses the song lyrics sing, “Did you know your father was an island Did you know your mother was the sea” and “Did you know all mothers come from heaven Did you know all fathers come from hell.”  The lack of a male heir in Spain was then symbolically stated as a lack of a fixed (island) and ruthless (hell) ruler, which led to the ultimate ruin of the Spanish monarchy.

The Spanish refused to make a Queen their supreme leader, as that would be recognizing Mother Spain as capable of being inspired by God THE Father.  A nation was not allowed to be ruled by changing emotions (the sea) or the nebulousness of spiritual faith (heaven) in the physical realm.

The Spanish did this (I presume) because the Pope had become their father figure, by whom Spain was raised.  The Vatican denied women the right to serve God as His priests, for Christians.  Therefore, Queens had no rights to serve God as His national rulers, over Christian lands.

That philosophy crumbled when a King of Spain sired no male heirs before dying.  The War of Spanish Succession ensued.  Because of that war, the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles IV, declared it would be legal for his daughter to become the Empress upon his death; a transition that was challenged by the War of Austrian Succession.  All the while, the English had managed to do fine with the succession of Queens, mixed with Kings.

I imagine it was the costs of wars over succession that led some to reflect on how priests of Rome could call themselves “Father,” when they were denied marriage, by edict, thus denied all capability of actually having children.  That system came tumbling down when brains began pondering, “Why can’t women be priests, if a queen can rule England?”

Still, men and women are different, or they would be called the same word (without gender application necessitating separate words). The same goes for fathers and mothers: They are different and not the same, because each was created for specific purpose, as compliments of the other.  The Commandment to honor your father and your mother recognized the equality of separate responsibilities.  Both sexes have equal value in the production of offspring and raising those children to serve a purpose.  However, anyone who exalts him or herself because of gender (this is called “Pride,” which is a Deadly Sin) is then destined to be humbled in the eyes of THE Father.

The Israelites went to Samuel and asked to be given a king, to be like other nations.  No man (and thus no woman) can ever be more than a human figurehead, because God told Samuel, “they have rejected me as their king.”  “All who exalt themselves will be humbled,” as only THE Father  leads His subjects to the true Promised Land.  Mother Earth is the ruler of the physical and material, and as harsh and/or as gentle as she can be, she can only offer ashes to ashes and dust to dust as the rewards for serving her.

This means to call oneself “Father,” simply because one is a male graduate of a seminary, ordained into a job for a religious order that brings that title of masculinity, because one is masculine, is wrong. Likewise, to call oneself “Mother,” simply because one is a female graduate of a seminary, ordained into a job for a religious order that brings that title of femininity, because one is feminine, is wrong. To deny women the right to be THE Father to a congregation is equally wrong.

It is wrong because everything religious is then reduced to the human level of gender identification, rather than being elevated Spiritually.  The trick question of the Sadducees put to Jesus, about who would be the rightful husband to the widow of seven brothers (where none produced a male heir), was answered by Jesus saying, “At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven.”  That means the soul has no gender.  It is placed into flesh that may or may not be reproductive on earth.

Humans love attaching gender to angels. Gender is a human trait for reproduction. Angles are immortal and cannot reproduce.

The model of THE Father as being the one who sets the rules for a congregation to follow, and then fairly making sure those rules are followed – “urging and encouraging you and pleading that you lead a life worthy of God” – is God (Yahweh, the LORD). Moses did not make anything up from his own brain, such that a human male was written in stone as the only gender of humanity that could ever lead the Israelites. We know this because in the Book of Judges we are told of the Priestess Deborah, who God used to lead the Israelites back to leading lives “worthy of God.”

You might note that the Priestess Deborah was not referred to as “Mother Debbie.” She did not become a Judge of the Israelites because she knew how to raise children. Deborah was a prophet of the God of the Israelites, while also being recognized as being “a counselor, warrior, and the wife of Lapidoth.” As a wife, she presumably had babies, so that would mean she also was a mother; but her human roles, based on gender, had nothing to do with her saving the wayward from ruin. She was the physical embodiment of THE Father.

When Paul said God “calls you into his own kingdom and glory,” he did not mean a call for you to imagine your soul floating away to some magical place, where if unicorns do exist, then they run and play in heaven; and the ghost of Jesus is there to pick flowers with you, after Saint Peter allows your soul to enter that kingdom and glory, where God is the cloud that surround everyone. Paul said “God calls you.” His call is for you to be the physical embodiment of His own kingdom. Receiving that call means you become “the unspoken manifestation of God” (from the Greek word “doxa”).

To be my Brother as the Son reborn into flesh.

There is no sexual bias attached to this call “into his own kingdom and glory.” All are welcomed to open their hearts and become engaged to the LORD. Once married, your ego becomes completely subservient to the LORD. You are God’s committed wife (till death does your soul depart your flesh), so you stand to the rear as the LORD speaks out of your mouth. The LORD speaks as THE Father, just as He spoke through Jesus, as the Mind of Christ fills the newborn baby (reborn Christian) of that marriage.

In this arrangement, you are not alone. God takes on as many wives as He can afford (and He can afford every human being). You are summoned to marry God, and His proposal is that message brought by Apostles (male and female), and served as a father to his children.  Acceptance means you become “brothers” with all the other wives of the LORD. You all become like Paul and seek new Christians to raise, like a father does to his children. God calls you to be a Father, in the name of His Son, Jesus Christ.

In this way all Christians “accepted it [the words of proposal to marry God] not as a human word but as what it really is, God’s word.”  It does not matter what human form God takes, as it is not their gender uttering those words.  All words spoken by Saints come from THE Father.

Language, Matthew, Teaching

Matthew 23:1-12 – The do not practice what they teach [Twenty-second Sunday after Pentecost]

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Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat; therefore, do whatever they teach you and follow it; but do not do as they do, for they do not practice what they teach. They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on the shoulders of others; but they themselves are unwilling to lift a finger to move them. They do all their deeds to be seen by others; for they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long. They love to have the place of honor at banquets and the best seats in the synagogues, and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, and to have people call them rabbi. But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all students. And call no one your father on earth, for you have one Father– the one in heaven. Nor are you to be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Messiah. The greatest among you will be your servant. All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and all who humble themselves will be exalted.”

———————————————————————————————————-

The is the Gospel selection from the Episcopal Lectionary for Year A, Proper 26, the twenty-second Sunday after Pentecost. It will next be read aloud by a priest in church on Sunday, November 5, 2017. It is important because Jesus pointed out how people who stand highly as religious leaders, in the eyes of human beings, will be humbled in the eyes of the LORD. This means the most exalted Spiritual teachers on earth will serve only God.

Verse two of this selection has Jesus telling his followers (both general listeners and valued assistants), “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat.” This is the only specific reference to “Moses’ seat” in all the Holy Bible. Some take this statement as meaning there was some physical “seat, chair,” or “bench,” upon which Moses sat. Some say the Roman Catholic Church and the Pope now sits on that figurative “seat,” as the See of St. Peter.

Some might sell tickets in the Holy Land, for pilgrims to have their picture taken by the “seat of Moses.”

Found in Chorazin, which is just north of the Sea of Galilee … a place Moses never went.

To best understand this statement by Jesus, one has to grasp how “Moses’ seat” was a reference to the state of Judea then, where Jerusalem was a place that had been set aside for exilic Jews to play the game, “What if?”

“What if our ancestors had not lost our land?” they would say. Then they would surmise, “We would be returned to the days when Judges would be sent by God to save us.” It was the Judges of Israel, before the Twelve Tribes had a king, and before they had a powerful prophet of the LORD in Samuel, who every 80 years would snap the wayward children of Israel back from their pagan ways, getting them to remember their Covenant to be righteous in the eyes of the One God.

The Judges of Israel sat on “Moses’ seat,” just as Moses had judged the Israelites prior to their entrance into the Promised Land. Thus, “Moses’ seat” stands for “Tradition,” which is the claim the Vatican has made. The Pope and his entourage sit as Judges of Christians. Unfortunately, that makes Rome the epitome of what this Scripture says, where Jesus warned the Jews around him, “Do not do as they do, for they do not practice what they teach.”

This statement of “Moses’ seat” is best understood from careful examination of Exodus 18 (as all examination of Scripture should be … carefully done … as if one cares about the truth being revealed). Here is a link to that chapter, which the New International Version has entitled, “Jethro Visits Moses.”

Jethro was the father-in-law of Moses, the father of Zipporah, and a priest of Midian. In Exodus 18:13 we read, “The next day Moses took his seat to serve as judge for the people, and they stood around him from morning till evening.” (NIV) The actual Hebrew states, “way·yê·šeḇ mō·šeh liš·pōṭ,” rooted in “yashab Mosheh shaphat,” meaning “Sat Moses to judge.” The act of sitting implies a “seat, chair” or “bench,” but that specificity was not directly stated. Moses could have “sat” on the ground; but the implication of “sitting in judgment” implies an elevated position, like a mound that overlooked the people.

Today, furniture manufacturers sell “Judge’s chairs,” which have high backs, much like a king’s throne. In a courtroom setting, such a Judge’s chair would be set upon a raised floor (24”), higher than the people’s benches and the chairs of the jurors’ (set on a floor raised 12”).  This could imply the “seat of Moses” was a high-back chair, which went wherever the Tabernacle went, along with some platform to set the chair on.

In Exodus 18, the wisdom of Jethro is imparted to Moses, after Jethro saw Moses being the Judge of the Israelites. In Exodus 18:17 we read, “Moses’ father-in-law [said], “What you are doing is not good.” Jethro saw that doing everything alone was too heavy of a burden to bear; so he recommended that Moses choose “good men” to do the majority of the judging, so that only the major problems came before Moses.

Moses listened to Jethro and did what he advised; so we read in Exodus 18:26: “They [the “good men” chosen by Moses] served as judges for the people at all times. The difficult cases they brought to Moses, but the simple ones they decided themselves.”  Thus, the seat of Moses was only for matters that needed to be petitioned to the LORD.  It would be more in line with America’s Supreme Court, rather than a lesser court.

For Jesus to say, “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat” (in the plural number), the intent was to point out how the wisdom of Jethro was missing in the Temple of Jerusalem’s justice system. That system revolved around a series of changing High Priests, with Joseph Caiaphas the ruler of that roost at that time. His appointment was based on support from “the scribes and the Pharisees,” in the artificial environment that made the Second Temple (Herod’s Temple) be like Disneyland (a Magical Kingdom), in the midst of Roman empirical domination.

The logic of that system was, “We lost our land because of our failure to follow the Laws of Moses, therefore we will model Judaism after the times when Judges sat on the seat of Moses, until God sends us our next Savior Judge.”  The idea of a Messiah (or a Christ) was thought to be a strong warrior-leader; but when the Roman Empire was the current champion whose title belt needed to be taken in a fight to the death, few scribes and Pharisees gave that prophecy any chance of ever happening.  If you ask a Jew today about that prophecy, he or she will say they are still waiting.  To wait 3,000 years for a prophecy to come true means one does not believe it will ever happen, but faith calls for polite patronizing.

This means those judges were sitting upon the seat of Moses, like Moses did prior to taking the advice of Jethro. The scribes and Pharisees eschewed such wisdom and shunned any thoughts about sharing the responsibilities of judgment, keeping that heavy burden all for themselves. After all, that system of Kings replacing Judges had failed miserably … to the Assyrians and the Babylonians. Thus, when Jesus said, “Do whatever they teach you and follow it; but do not do as they do, for they do not practice what they teach. They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on the shoulders of others; but they themselves are unwilling to lift a finger to move them,” they had no problem with bearing a heavy burden, because they only had to pass judgments that benefited themselves, at the expense of others.

Because Jesus told the crowd and his disciples to do as they taught, he was saying they taught the Laws of Moses.  All the descendants of the Israelites must follow those rules. As for not allowing those judges to be their personal role models, the actions of writers and lawyers would only lead the crowds, and disciples who followed their leads, to lives of corruption.

When Jesus said, “For they make their phylacteries broad,” I imagine most Christians are like me and hear a word like “phylacteries” and wonder, “Hmmm what the heck is that.” Then, the majority of Christians ignore that thought and keep on reading, never doing anything to learn what Jesus said and what that meant.

These are “phylacteries.”

They are defined as: “two small leather boxes worn during morning prayers by Orthodox and Conservative Jews after the age of 13 years and one day. Each box contains strips of parchment inscribed with verses from the Scriptures: Ex. 13.1–10; 13.11–16; Deut. 6.4–9; 11.13–21. One box is fastened to the forehead and the other to the left arm; they are intended to serve as a reminder of the constant presence of God and of the need to keep Him uppermost in one’s thoughts and deeds, thereby safeguarding the wearer against committing a sin. They are not worn on the Sabbath or holy days, since these days are in themselves a reminder of God. Phylacteries are also called tephillin.” (Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, via The Free Dictionary by Farlex) The word is Greek for “safeguard,” just as is the meaning of the Hebrew word “tephillin.”

When Jesus said, “They make … their fringes long,” this is what that refers to:

By increasing the size of two symbols of devotion to God, which made it easier for everyone to notice, the scribes and Pharisees were skilled in the art of deception.  They knew the power of suggestion.  They understood that acting a part makes people believe you are the character whose role you are playing.  And it technically wasn’t lying, if you never said you were what you led people to believe you were … erroneously.

The point made by Jesus saying the scribes and the Pharisees was that they were quite showy about their religious pedigree. They put on airs.  The saying, “The clothes make the man” (Mark Twain, as a paraphrase of Shakespeare: “Apparel oft proclaims the man”) means that the way one looks is how others will think of that one.

In the words of Billy Crystal (pretending to be Fernando Lamas): “You dahling? You look mahvelous!”

If Jesus were to reappear as Jesus before the crowd and his Christian disciples today, he would be pointing out the same flaws still present in religious clothing.

Popes
Archbishops
Televangelists

Jesus said of the writers (scribes) and the lawyers (Pharisees), “They love to have the place of honor at banquets and the best seats in the synagogues, and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, and to have people call them rabbi.” Those translated words make it easy to see the special societal favors that were expected by high-ranking Jews in ancient times. However, do the same words not identify these modern personalities, who “teach” as idols?

Tricky Dick
Hey hey hey
The wheels on the bike go round and roun

Seeing how such glittering stars in politics, acting, and sports have risen to the top and fallen to the depths of their popularity, after their public images have been exposed as unworthy of worship, Jesus spoke the truth when he said, “Do not do as they do, for they do not practice what they teach.”

We look up to teachers (rabbis) that surround us, blindly trusting that they are there to help us. Then, time and again, the truth comes out that our idols were only helping themselves. They were taking advantage of common ignorance.

Jesus warned the crowd and his disciples, “You are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all students.” Our only teacher is God, who sent us laws to live by, through Moses. The only thing that can be taught of true value is this: “Listen to the LORD.” The word of the LORD can be recited for us, but only fear of God will make one obey that word.

Then, Jesus went on. He added, “And call no one your father on earth, for you have one Father– the one in heaven.” This applies to the interpretation that I did on Paul’s first epistle to the Thessalonians, where he wrote, “We dealt with each one of you like a father with his children, urging and encouraging you and pleading that you lead a life worthy of God.” (1 Thessalonians 2:11-12) Paul was not a genetic parent to adults he met in his evangelism. Paul was filled with the Holy Spirit of the Father; therefore he taught the Thessalonians how to be Christian, as the Father in heaven told him.

For that reason, Jesus then said, “Nor are you to be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Messiah.” The “Messiah” is the “Christ.” This means Paul was an instructor, just as Jesus was instructing the crowd and his disciples in Jerusalem. If you ponder that instruction carefully, then you will see that every Apostle becomes an instructor, just as did Paul, Silvanus, Timothy, and those of Thessaly, the same way Jesus became one – God sent His Holy Spirit to be One with the faithful, allowing all to become “the Messiah,” “the Christ.”

I have said it before, and I will repeat it once again now: You fall in love with GOD and accept His proposal for marriage (males AND females). The you consummate your love of GOD by doing acts of faith, until you give birth to a new you, which is the rebirth of Jesus Christ in your body. Just as Jesus was “Christ Jesus,” you become “Christ (fill in your name here),”

The birth of Jesus Christ as you means you cease trying to “have the place of honor at [awards] banquets and the best seats in the [houses of worship], and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces [places of employment, where so many sell their souls routinely], and to have people call [you] role model [based on the materials you amass].” You stop serving self and begin (forevermore) serving Yahweh. Thus, Jesus said, “The greatest among you will be your servant.”

To be reborn as Jesus Christ means “the abundance” [“the greatest”] of “the Christ” will be in “yourselves,” as within “you” [meanings of the Greek word “hymōn”]. This presence will ensure “you” or “yourselves” [repetition of “hymōn”] of becoming a “servant” or “waiter” or “anyone who performs any service.” As a “servant” of “the Messiah,” you will do exactly as Jesus of Nazareth did, and repeatedly say, “I speak the truth, for the Father.”

This way of grasping verse 11 makes understanding verse 12 easier. “All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and all who humble themselves will be exalted,” says that you choose which path you take in life. Do you lie, cheat, steal, prostitute yourself and covet those who wear the finest clothes and get into the most exclusive nightclubs and restaurants? Or, do you thank God for what little you have, while praying for those who are destroying the fabric of our society? One way will raise you to the heights the world has to offer. The other will raise you to the heights heaven holds for those who serve the LORD.

Either way, you will be humbled. As the old Fram oil filter commercial said: “You can pay me now or you can pay me later.” One way or the other, you are going to pay for your life choices.

When you play this forward to modern times, then you understand what Jesus meant, when he said what to watch out for. Can you see holy looking men and women that are “tying up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and laying them on the shoulders of others [Christians raised to think the Laws were etched in stone]; but they themselves are unwilling to lift a finger to move them”?

Are political challengers not interpreting Scripture in ways that seek to destroy all links between Christianity and American laws, through the pollution of the representatives who sit on the seat of Washington D.C.?  Jesus pointed out the writers of law (the scribes) and the enforcers of law (the Pharisees) were in no way holy, because they did not talk to God.  When they used holy Law as their excuse for leadership, then they were repeating what Moses had brought down from the mount to the people.  The long-standing fairy tale of the United States of America was it was founded as a nation of Christians (Protestants), who (collectively) did not want a King or a Pope sitting on the seat of Law in the New World.

Then non-Christians began elevating themselves into the government of the people, for the people to become as screwed as were the Jews of Judea and Galilee, when Jesus pointed out this is not preventable.  It is the common way of the world.  It is the way things will always deteriorate, degenerate, corrupt, and disintegrate, when led by self-serving men and women.

Moses spoke to God and then Moses passed on what God demanded to those who listened to Moses.  The Judges of Israel who sat on that same seat of holy Law did the same thing.  David did it with the help of Samuel.  Elijah, Elisha and other Prophets helped other kings, with less and less compliance to what God demanded.  Those holy people all  spoke holy Law  – the Word of the LORD – and then the people did what they wanted.

When Jesus said the scribes and the Pharisees were making up interpretations of holy Law, while quoting God’s Commandments, they were creating huge burdens for God-fearing Jews.  By saying, ” they themselves are unwilling to lift a finger to move them,” the key word to understand is the Greek word “kinēsai,” which means “to move,” as “to set in motion, excite, stir up.”  That says the written laws of Jerusalem, enforced by the lawyers of Jerusalem (the Disneyland police), never helped any typical Jews be inspired by explanations that said “God will reward you,” coming from anyone who said they sat on the “seat of Moses.” It was always demand more money and threaten punishment for sins.

Today, little has changed.  Who can be “moved” by a government that is in gridlock because two parties hate one another?  The members of Congress sit on the seat of legislative laws, which do little to “lift a finger” to cut taxes, guarantee health, welfare, and safety of the citizens; although they will pass benefit packages for themselves, none of which are commonly available for “regular folk.”

The Judicial Branch is petitioned by lawyers and law checkers, challenging any right to actually legally punish cities that break Federal laws, because local ordinances have been written that are contrary (approved by local voters).  Lawsuits have forced judicial reason to justify removal of monuments that are representative of Judeo-Christian faith, justify a redefining of marriage (which went unchanged for millennia prior) to meet modern needs, and to justify the killing of babies while people scream for the preservation of the lives of heinous criminals.  It has become a hate crime to defend America as a nation standing for Christianity, if that means trying to keep those who hate Christians out of America.

Jesus was not telling the crowd nor his disciples to rise up in rebellion and overthrow a world gone to the dogs.  Nope.  The world is the homeland of sin.  It will always find a way to rewrite the laws that makes good stand out of the way of evil.  Jesus was simply pointing out how you cannot be led by any human, no matter how big they smile, how fancy they dress, and how much of the world they promise can be yours.  People always talk a good game; but then they play by the rules they make up as they go.

You can only do what God’s Law says; and that means looking within, not without.  The only role model to follow is Jesus Christ, who fills one’s Mind, through the love of God.

If you listen to your heart, you know Jesus is talking to you when he said, “Do not do as they do, for they do not practice what they teach.” They are hypocrites, which means “actors” and “pretenders.”

Ron & Jerry

Language, Revelations, Teaching

Revelation 7:9-17 – Before the throne of God

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After this I, John, looked, and there was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands. They cried out in a loud voice, saying, “Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!” And all the angels stood around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, singing, 

“Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.” 

Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, robed in white, and where have they come from?” I said to him, “Sir, you are the one that knows.” Then he said to me, “These are they who have come out of the great ordeal; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.  “For this reason they are before the throne of God, and worship him day and night within his temple, and the one who is seated on the throne will shelter them.  They will hunger no more, and thirst no more; the sun will not strike them, nor any scorching heat; for the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of the water of life, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”

——————–

This is the designated “First Lesson” presented by a reader, en lieu of the place normally held for the “Old Testament” reading.  It is the purposeful selection because it will be read aloud on All Saints Day.  It will next be read on Sunday, November 1, 2020.  That date will represent the twenty-sixth Sunday after Pentecost.

It is important to realize that All Saints Day is always November 1, with All Souls Day always being on November 2.  Those recognized Church events do not usually fall on a Sunday, so the Sundays that are neither November 1 or 2 (the closest Sunday to them, post-Halloween) becomes a combo-Sunday for Saints and souls.

Every living human being has a soul.  Not every living human being is a Saint.  According to the Wikipedia article entitled “All Soul’ Day” the distinction between the two is officially stated.  They report this: “In the Catholic Church, “the faithful” refers specifically to baptized Catholics; “all souls” commemorates the church penitent of souls in Purgatory, whereas “all saints” commemorates the church triumphant of saints in Heaven.”

While “Purgatory” is from the imaginations of men wearing religious robes over their flesh animated by a soul and not a real place [ask the reincarnations of Pharisees who believed in Sheol], their assessment is still worthwhile, simply because it states a belief that souls are denied “Heaven,” while saints are not.  This should be realized as why the Episcopal Church sets aside a special Sunday in the middle of the Ordinary season after Pentecost, for the express purpose of recognizing the backbone of any true Church is its Saints.

This means every reading selected is meant to convey this importance.  Whoever ran the Church long ago and established the lectionary schedule first, he or she was certainly filled with the Holy Spirit – therefore a Saint.  The goal of ALL Christians is to be a Saint.  Anything short of true sainthood is failure and failure is rewarded with the imaginary place the Roman Catholics call “Purgatory” [and long gone Pharisees called Sheol].  All Saints Day is designed so sheeples don’t lie on their deathbeds and feel the tap of an angel on their soul, hearing a voice saying, “Time to come out the vaginal opening and try again.  Maybe the next seventy human years will make it easier to realize being a Saint is much better than being just another soul.” 

This is where the original Church was not some organization that hired people to run a business, but a gathering of Saints and those who wanted to become the same.  Just to use the example of the educational system, where “teachers” are expected to graduate students, not expected to forever see the same failures back in their classroom, year after year; a true church is expected to graduates Saints.  Since that system has been replaced with souls who are not teaching other souls to be Saints [it takes one to graduate one, as there is no other way to that end], the same people sit in pews year after year, thinking their soul is going to heaven.

Please, take this as me simply stating my opinion and nothing more.  Prove me wrong by reading what I will present about Revelation 7:9-17 and then go to your church of choice and see a reader pleading with you as he or she reads the words of John [his first letter is also scheduled to be read], as a Saint speaking with the same power as had Peter and the eleven on Pentecost Sunday.  Then, listen to the priest read great emotional feeling into the Beatitudes [Matthew 5:1-12].  Hear his or her sermon that says the blood of Jesus Christ flows within, so a Saint is truly standing in your midst.  If that is your experience, then you should be ready to go spread the Gospel message to others after church.

I wish you the best and pray there are Saints about everywhere.

This reading is very deep.  All Scripture has the same power of depth, but the writings of the Apostles [i.e.: Saints] cannot be read quickly and simply.  It is the expansive nature of the Holy Spirit guiding their minds to write the most meaningful words that come from the Mind of Christ, direct from God.

I will now present the above reading in a new format, one I have used here before [often with Paul’s letters], so it should be seen that a whole day could be spent reading, discerning, and discussing this reading.  A whole day [the purpose of the Sabbath, which God intended to be twenty-four hours of prayerful recognition of God and His Word] could be spent just on Revelation 7:9-17.  It is so important because it is John writing of his experience with God and His Saints.  That says John is explaining what God said to him, to tell others what it takes to be a Saint.  Please keep that in mind as you read this new format.

For anyone who has read my posting here regularly, you will know that I say the Greek use of “kai” is not the common conjunction “and” being stated.  It is a marker word that signals the reader to sit up and take notice, because everything that follows the word “kai” is most important to remember.  In this presentation, notice there are twenty-nine uses of the word “kai,” both capitalized (extra importance noted to follow) and lower case, with some in the middle of a line (not following a comma mark or semi-colon).

This is a literal translation, so no liberties are taken to not translate some words (prepositions deemed not translatable), nor use the most common translation (those shown by the NRSV), when there is a better choice to use.  I translate literally, based on the case of the written text [shown in the Biblehub.com reproduction of the Greek], so I only capitalize what was capitalized, without exception [even though Biblehub will imply “Him” as meaning God or Christ, when “him” is written].  I maintain all punctuation as shown in the Greek text, without exception. 

Keep in mind that John was out of body at the time of his experience, which means he had entered the spiritual realm.  He wrote while possessed by God’s Holy Spirit [he might even have been blind at the time his Apocalypse was written, so it was orally transmitted to another human writer], so every word reflects the truth of Jesus Christ within John’s vision.

A classic story of how to become a Saint. A king possesses God on the throne within. Removing the sword from that stone is easy with God’s presence within – as one chosen by God for marriage.  Possess the sword and possess the right to be king. However, a king without a sword is a land without a king.

I feel it is most important for each individual see him or her as called to do as John did and have a conversation with God.  Knowing that “the throne of God” is not in some magical place, like in outer space or in the clouds, but in your hearts; you provide the seat upon which God sits, in your heart.  You are therefore called to be “the Lamb,” which means you are expected to sacrifice your soul on the altar at the temple that is you, as an offering to God that is pleasing [the sacrifice of marriage].  A soul cannot also be a Saint.  It is one or the other.  Since you already have a soul, you need to realize that soul serves your flesh and not God, until your soul changes [“You cannot serve two masters.].  Please, read this slowly and meditate on what John’s word say to you.

9

After these things I looked  ,

kai  behold  ,

a multitude great  ,

which to number it no one was able  ,

out of every nation  ,

kai  tribes  ,

kai  peoples  ,

kai  tongues  ,

standing before the throne  kai  before the Lamb  ,

having been clothed with robes white  ,

kai  palm branches in the hands of them  .

10

kai  they were crying aloud in a voice great  ,

saying  :  This salvation thereupon God of us  ,

thereupon sitting on the throne  ,

kai  thereupon Lamb  !

11

Kai  all them angels made to stand around the throne  ,

kai  the elders  ,

kai  the four living creatures  ,

kai  they prostrated before the throne the faces of them  ,

kai  worshiped thereupon God  ,

12

saying  ,

Truly  !

this praise  ,

kai  this renown  ,

kai  this wisdom  ,

kai  this gratitude  ,

kai  this honor  ,

kai  this ability  ,

kai  this strength  ,

thereupon God of us  ,

to the ages of the ages  !

13

Kai  spoke one from out of the elders  ,

saying to me  ,

These this having been clothed with the robes the white  ,

who are they  ,

kai from where have they come  ?

14

Kai   I said to him  ,

Lord of me  ,

you know  .

Kai  he said to me  ,

These are them coming out of the affliction of the widest sense  ,

kai  they have washed the robes of them  kai made white them in the blood of the Lamb  .

15

because of this  ,

They are before this throne this of God  ,

kai  serve him day  kai  night in thereupon temple of him  ;

kai  he sitting on the throne will have his tabernacle over them  .

16

not they will hunger anymore  ,

neither will they thirst anymore  ,

neither none shall fail above them the sun  ,

nor any kind of burning heat  ;

17

because this the Lamb in the center of the throne will shepherd them  ,

he will lead them to the living fountains of waters  ,

kai  will wipe away every tear from the eyes of them  .

Just as an aside, the Episcopal Church only places importance on John’s Revelation in a limited capacity.  According the Reverse Lectionary for the Episcopal Lectionary, reading from Revelation come most frequently during the Easter season, when not on All Saints Day. This connection becomes important to see as a statement (without words) that points out how Easter is less about remembering the death and resurrection of Jesus each year and more about it marking the death of a soul in the flesh and resurrection of Jesus Christ in a Saint, in a way that is deeply personal to a true Saint every year, even though the date of personal transfiguration is different for each Saint.

The readings selected from John’s Revelation for church reading only come from chapters 1, 5, 7, 12 and 21.  To me, that avoidance says the Church is afraid of the nerves touched when an unprepared soul [a priest] is trying to avoid an End Times theme, while preaching to potential donors.  Instead, a true church [anywhere two or more are gathered as Saints] should be teaching the Word, no matter what the Word says about the common failures that make it routine for souls not to become Saints.  Certainly, that downfall has been ongoing for quite some time, to the point that few Saints still hang out in church buildings.

Now, let me briefly go through this very deep reading.  What I am about to offer is by no means everything that could be said.  It is what popped into my mind as I re-read the Biblehub.com Interlinear version of Revelation 7, looking for the “kai“s.  I wrote notes on a Word document, which I could copy and paste at the end here.  You might want to print the following on a sheet of paper (or two) and then re-read the new format presentation, glancing at the notes offered here.  I will do this according to the “kai” number – 1 through 29.  

1 – the importance of seeing in a way you had never seen things before.

2 – the importance that Saints are not limited to any one race of people.

3 – the importance that Saints are not limited to characteristics that define “people” – men-women; rich-poor; well-sick.

4 – the importance that Saints are given an ability to speak in the divine language of God.

5 – the importance of the word “before” (“enōpion”), where the flesh is before the throne that is within oneself; but the face worn is your flesh that is before what is underlying, hiding from view the Lamb – Jesus Christ.  That signifies one’s sacrifice of self to be reborn in that name.

6 – the importance that one become the fruit of the vine or the branches that bear fruit (dates from a palm).  The fruit of the Lord comes from the work of His servants … His holy hands.

7 – the importance that Saints do not hide Christ under a basket.  They cannot be stopped from crying out with joy.

8 – the Greek word “tō” translates as a conjunction as “then, thereupon,” meaning “kai” marks the importance of having become the “Lamb,” as “thereupon” the Lamb has come to one.

9 – capitalized “Kai” shows the great importance ALL Saints become the “angels” of the Lord, where the word “angeloi” means “messengers.”

10 – the importance of understanding that Saints become the leaders of all churches – “the elders.”

11 – the importance of knowing a Saint becomes the foundation of a church [the symbolism of “four”], which turns dead flesh into “living creatures.”  The use of “four” says Jesus Christ is the cornerstone of a Saint.

12 – the importance of knowing a Saint must prostrate oneself to become the throne of God by sacrifice of self-ego.  A “face” not raised (lowered) means the face of God is worn by a Saint.

13 – the importance of knowing a Saint totally worships God and nothing less.

14 – the importance of knowing the “praise” a Saint gives to God recognizes His being their source of “renown.”

15 – also the source of their wisdom coming from the Christ Mind.

16 – also a Saint gives God all credit, with great gratitude.

17 – all the “honor” of being a Saint comes posthumously, as persecution and rejection comes with the “price” paid by a wife of God, as recognition as righteousness can only be seen in hindsight by common souls.

18 – all “abilities” possessed by a Saint come from God.

19 – all “powers” possessed by a Saint is God’s Holy Spirit flowing through a servant.

20 – a capitalized “Kai” states the great importance of letting the “elder” within (Jesus Christ) do all the speaking, just as Jesus only spoke what the Father told him to speak.

21 – the importance of realizing a Saint was once a sinner, just as all who are not Saints.

22 – a capitalized “Kai” states the great importance that a line of communication is held by a Saint and Jesus Christ, where understanding is taught, with one always speaking with understanding.

23 – a capitalized “Kai” states the great importance of knowing a Saint does the speaking of Jesus Christ, as a vehicle of God.

24 – the importance of knowing a Saint is “washed” through baptism of the Holy Spirit.

25 – the importance of knowing a Saint is made pure through baptism, never again to be soiled by sin.

26 – the importance of knowing a Saint serves God as the light brought to the world (the “day”).

27 – the importance of knowing a Saint has found the death of “night” by self-sacrifice, becoming the temple of the Lord.

28 – the importance of knowing a Saint has been led to eternal life (“living waters”) by Jesus Christ.

29 – the importance of knowing that a Saint has had all the tears of sins and human failures to serve God totally have all been “wiped away,” when one has become a Saint.

I hope you also read the article that I posted some time back about the Beatitudes.  I felt called to write deeply about Matthew 5:1-12 when it was not a scheduled reading.  Before I realized that reading was the Gospel selection for All Saints Day, I read the Beatitudes with new eyes.  I saw the repetition of “Blessed” as being Jesus’ way [speaking for God] of stating the various “blessings” he named can only come from having become a Saint.  I have not re-read that article, but I recall I transformed every place where is read “Blessing to those” as saying something like “A Saint is those.”  Check it out.

Again, All Saints Day is a mega-important day that should be realized.  It comes the day after All Saints Eve, also called All Hallows Eve or Halloween.  I know people who dedicate many hours of their time, putting much energy into decorating their houses, preparing for trick or treaters, and dressing up themselves in costumes.  In essence, they are making their worship be (symbolically) to the charade of life, where dead souls walk in human flesh that seems to be alive, but is not.  From all that effort to be able to tell the world, “I love the sin of zombies and ghouls,” how many have any time to deeply study the lessons of All Saints Day?

How many of you will spend the majority of All Saints Day pondering what it takes to become a Saint?

All Saints Day is not fantasy or wishful thinking.  It is about your soul being told the End Times story of your fate.  Saints exist for the purpose of carrying serious messages from God to the world … near (family) and far (beyond across the street).  They all say: “Hear!  Believe!  Act! Only Saints get to Heaven!  Unrighteous souls get recycled back to the earthly plane!  That is an important message sent by God to you!”

If you reject a Saint’s message, they go into the streets and declare, “The kingdom of God has come near!”  Then, once your soul has left your deathbed (if you make a Saint give you that warning), the scales of justice will ask your soul to remember the times you rejected God’s messengers.  AND your soul will have perfect memory of them all.  All souls know the judgement of God is fair, as all the gnashing of teeth in the outer darkness is self-caused.

And that is why I hold the opinion that Christianity has become as lost as the blind leading the blind can get lost.  The hole they will eventually stumble into is called a grave.  For all the avoidance of the End Times, everybody has an end time coming.  It should not matter if one dies individually, due to accident, old age, disease, or disgust with living.  Likewise, it should not matter if one is vaporized instantly, along with millions of other souls in the same vicinity, from some nuclear holocaust.  Death is death and there is no safety in numbers.  Death always means one soul leaves one body of flesh.  Matter is constantly changing its state of being; so losing a soul means nothing to clay.  A soul is immortal and cannot die; but to stay on the earthly plane it needs fresh clay.  Still, a souls knows it must change spiritually, before God kisses its spiritual cheek and sends it into reincarnation, which means a soul is aware of the need to kick its addiction to flesh.  

So, if you want to avoid the Purgatory that will be created when mankind has finally found a way to destroy the entire planet, when returning wayward souls will no longer be able to get lost in the beauty of a paradise made by God’s Hand, only able to find an immortal soul wandering a destroyed environment … the reality of Purgatory will be where zombies are souls returning to animate some nuked-out carcass of death.  Dragging a dead body around for eternity becomes a soul crying out for someone to blow its dead brain away!  If being a Saint in this life is too boring or too hard, well then just imagine that scenario!  

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!   TRICK?  OR TREAT?

1 John, Language, Teaching

1 John 3:1-3 – The children of God the Father

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See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is. And all who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.

——————–

This is the Epistle reading selection for All Saints Day, Year A.  It will next be read aloud in an Episcopal church on Sunday, November 1, 2020.  It is important because John the Beloved is the John of Patmos, who also wrote The Apocalypse  (not John of Zebedee, or John the Apostle-Evangelist) and whose reading from Revelation 7 is paired with this reading from 1 John 3, as relative writings of what makes one a Saint.  On All Saints Day, it is important to know what a Saint says about becoming a Saint.

Because this is a writing of a Saint in epistle form.  All of the Epistles are deeply inspired words that come directly from God, via a Saint that has been reborn as Jesus Christ.  Paul, Peter, and John (et al) are representative of the return of Jesus , who comes Spiritually into a body of flesh.  They are thereby Jesus reborn, who likewise speak for the Father, as His Son.  This is what a Saint is and can only be.

This means John’s words that will be read aloud in churches around the world on All Saints Day should be read by one possessing God’s Holy Spirit, himself or herself also a Saint.  When divine words are read by divine flesh that accommodates the Holy Spirit, then the power of the words is imparted upon those listening and seeking to also become Saints.  This is the true purpose of a church that is truly Christian.

The above translation presented by the Episcopal Church is one prepared in English by the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV), which is not divinely inspired.  It is syntax inspired.  Therefore, the one who teaches the divine inspiration of John’s words must likewise have the power of the Holy Spirit allowing him or her to speak the truth, as a servant of God [not an organization that hires specifically educated employees to manage a franchised business].  That power recognizes the truth of what is written, which is clouded by the mist of human language.

Here is what John was divinely inspired to write, literally presented, maintaining all case and punctuation.  The words of God are never meant to be limited to one meaning, but rather to expand to all accepted translations possible.

1 Behold what love has given to us the Father  ,

in order that children of God we should be called  —-

kai  we are  !

on account of this  ,

the world not knows us  ,

because not it knew him  .

2 Beloved  ,

now then children of God are we  ,

kai  not yet has been revealed what we will be  .

we know that when he appears  ,

like him we will be  ,

for we will see him as he is  .

3 kai  everyone having this the hope this in him  ,

purifies himself  ,

just as that one pure is  .

In these three verses there are five capitalized words.  A mark ending a sentence does not predicate a capitalized word to follow.  As such, a capitalized word shows great importance, such as is found in two of the capitalized words “God” (“Theou“).  The other three are “Behold, Father, and Beloved.”

“Behold” is the importance of having one’s blinders removed, so one can “See” and “Experience” the presence of God.  The Greek word “Idete” also means, “to perceive, attend to,” with the understanding it is a statement of Seeing with the mind, as inward spiritual Perception.

“Father” is a major statement of relationship with God.  As human beings, all have physical fathers.  The name of the father is passed on to his children.  The common word ‘father’ says there is a genetic lineage that cannot be removed, regardless of how one feels about his or her paternal progenitor.  The power of “Pater” is it is an important statement that the “children of God” can truthfully call God their “Father,” because their souls have merged with God’s Holy Spirit, causing them to be reborn with a new “Father” in a divine manner.

“Beloved” is capitalized to denote the importance of divine Love, which can come only from God.  The word in its capitalized form is read by many to mean Jesus Christ.  This importance then says John’s letter is not a general misuse of all eyes that read his words are loved by God, but a powerful statement that his words can only be discerned by those who have been reborn as Jesus Christ and can “See” through the eyes of God.

When John wrote the marker word that indicates importance follows – “kai” – he emphasized that the true children of God are those who can sincerely call God their Father.  He then explained that the world cannot realize that relationship, because the world is not of that spiritual family, unable to know God as His children do.  It means a normal human being can meet a Saint and never be able to tell that person has been reborn as Jesus Christ, as the Son of God.  It means that if John the Beloved was to tell a normal human being, “Hello.  My name is John, but I gave up that identification.  Call me Jesus Christ,” then that normal human being would outright reject that Saint, in the same way that the rulers of Jerusalem outright rejected Jesus.

After John identified the children of God as those truly “Beloved,” he emphasized by writing “kai” – “not yet has been revealed what we will be.”  That importantly states that a Saint has sacrificed his or her self-ego, so no Big Brain is getting in the way of God’s lead.  One does not become a Saint because one has planned how high and might one will be in the world, once “I” have gained control of God.  A Saint has no ego invested in what one will do with God as his or her lackey – like one holds the power of God as a genie in a bottle.  A Saint becomes the epitome of the saying by Tennyson: “Ours not to reason why, ours but to do and die.”  A Saint does not propose a plan for God.  A Saint is an obedient wife and servant that waits for God’s command and then does as commanded … with great Love and affection.

  When John wrote, “like him we will be,” this is a statement of holiness.  A Saint lives as did Jesus – righteously and without sin.  When he added, “for we will see him as he is,” a Saint will look in the mirror and see how Jesus Christ looks exactly as one looks.  This means a Saint wears the face of God, because one has surrendered one’s self-ego.  A Saint has married God and taken on His name, as do all good wives.  The name of God in human flesh is Jesus Christ.  Saying “in the name of Jesus Christ” says one is a Saint, because to say that and not be a Saint is to break the Commandment and use the Lord’s name in vain.

When John then introduced verse three with the word “kai,” he stated the importance of “hope” in the world.  That “hope” is Salvation.  That “hope” is delivered to seeker through Saints.  A Saint means the presence of Jesus Christ, who is sent by God to offer the same opportunity to all who will receive His Spirit.  The “hope” is the marriage proposal sent by God’s servants to the world.  A Saint is one who accepts that proposal and puts on the wedding gown of righteousness.

That is understood by John writing, “purifies himself,” where the only option for becoming a wife of God is to be washed clean of all sins, which can only come through baptism by the Holy Spirit.  This spiritual cleansing replaces the blood of a human father with the blood of Christ.  The blood of Christ becomes the self has become the sacrificial Lamb of God, such that the blood of Jesus Christ has then filled one’s veins, like blood painted on the doorpost of oneself.  The angel of death has passed over one’s flesh, purifying a soul for eternal life in Heaven with God.

When John ended this reading by stating “just as that one pure is,” this is saying one’s soul is worthy of sitting at the right hand of God.  A Saint has receive the Holy Spirit and become saved by being forever changed by the presence of Jesus Christ.

This is why John 3:1-3 is selected to be read on All Saints Day.  It is imperative to hear the truth, so one’s heart can crack open and receive message sent by the Holy Spirit.