3rd Passiontide 2019, Soul Deaf

Giusto

3^rd Passiontide

John 8:46-59 (adapted from Madsen)

[Jesus said,] Who among you convicts me of error? Why do you not trust in me, since I am proclaiming the true existence to you? Whoever is of God receives the words of God. The reason why you do not receive them is that you are not of God.

 The Jews answered him, “Are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and are possessed by a demon?”  Jesus answered, “I have no demon within me. Nothing but reverence for the Father lives in me; but you dishonor me. Yet I do not seek my own glory; there is One who wills it and he will be the judge.  Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever keeps my word in his heart is free of the sight of death through all earthly time.”  

The Jews said to him, “Now we know that you are possessed by a demon. Abraham died, as did the prophets; and you say, ‘If any one keeps my word, he will never taste death for all time.’ Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died? And the prophets who also died? Who do you think you are?”  

Abraham's Vision, Tissot

Jesus answered, “If it were my own aim to reveal my being, such a revelation would be worthless. But it is my Father who reveals me, and although you call him ‘our God’, you do not know him.  But I know him. If I said, I do not know him, I would be deceived as you are; but I do know him, and I bear the power of his word within me.  Your father Abraham rejoiced that it was granted to him to see the coming down of my being; he saw it and was filled with joy.”  

The Jews then said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?”  Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, from before the days Abraham was born, I existed as the I AM.”  So they took up stones to hurl at him; but Jesus was concealed from them and left the temple.

3^rd Passiontide

April 7, 2019

John 8: 46-59

As we get older, we may begin to lose our hearing. As the high tones disappear, we start to miss parts of words. If a key word fails, we may miss the meaning of the whole sentence. As the loss progresses, we may eventually become stone deaf, unaware that someone is speaking to us at all.

Our souls can go deaf too. At first, we miss little things. Indeed we are often unaware that we are missing anything at all, for the noise of living glosses it over. Gradually our souls and spirits become ‘hearing-impaired.’ We may only become aware of it when in inner crisis, our prayers and pleas fall into a great inner silence.

The Pharisee in all of us wants to insist that the truth be rational, literal and physical, and loud. Anything else is the senseless babbling of a madman, only worth throwing mental and verbal stones at.

It is part of Christ’s passion, his suffering, to go unheard, unrecognized and unacknowledged. Because of the inner deafness caused by hardening of our hearts, he is unable to do what he came to do—to open our soul’s ears to the words of the spirit.

“Why do you not trust in me, since I am proclaiming the true existence to you?” John 8:46

Tissot

Our true grounding is within the spirit. The solidity of the certainty of Christ’s existence is the truth upon which we can stand. The heart is the ear of the soul, a resonating chamber for the words he wants to speak to us. His word pours life into our hearts and spirits. His word strengthens and clarifies. His word enlivens, lives in our hearts as his eternal life.  Taken in, his word grants us existence in the realm of the spirit: For as He said, “Whoever keeps my word in his heart is free of the sight of death through all earthly time.” John 8: 51 

Visit our website!

4th Michaelmas 2018, The Name

2^nd 3^rd or 4^th Michaelmas Sunday

Revelation 19, 11-16

And I saw the heavens opening up. And behold, a white horse! And the rider who sat upon it is called faithful and true, who judges justly and battles for justice. His eyes are like flames of fire, and his head wears many crowns, inscribed with a name which no one knows but he himself. The cloak that covers him has been dipped in blood, and he is known by the name “Word of God”.

And the warriors of the sky ride behind him upon white steeds, clad in clean, white linen. And he has a sharp-edged sword coming out of his mouth with which to subdue the nations, and he will shepherd them with a staff of iron. He treads on the winepress holding the wine of the wrath of the will of God, the ruler of all.

And written on his cloak and on his thigh is the name: King of all kings, Lord of all lords.

4^th Michaelmas

Oct 21, 2018

Revelation 19:11-16

Dore

The Rider on the White Horse has a name that only He Himself knows. It is a name only He can say: I AM. I AM the I AM, who was, who is, and who is to come. Many crowns I have, for I have ruled over many ages. Once I appeared in a burning thorn bush. Now I appear as a Kingly Shepherd-Warrior. I Am cloaked in blood because blood is the carrier of living Selfhood.

We too, miraculously, bear the name that is both common and secret. For no one can mean what I mean when I say ‘I.’ This name is God’s gift to us, His gift of the seed of His divine essence. We too bear many crowns, the symbols of all that we have overcome.

The White Rider rides in our blood. One might say He helps us to conquer the nations in us, that is, to overcome our genetics and heredity. The warriors in white are all those overcomers who have already crossed the threshold before us. They come to His aid, and ours, in battling that which would subdue our true selfhood, put it to sleep; they come to do battle with that which would destroy the seed of the divine in us. The sword of the Word—I AM—cuts us free from deceptions, delusions, fear.  For only one force is true, faithful and truly sovereign—the greater I AM.