We should have the parables book ready by the weekend. Today I put together the cover art.
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Soul Seeds: Treasured Living
“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
“The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is is darkness, how great is that darkness!” (Matthew 6:19-23)
There’s not a whole lot of controversy on these two. However, I don’t often see them discussed together. It is likely what Matthew records here is a thematic collection of teachings which he gathered without reference to chronology, but I am certain these two came as a single unit. It only seems two different messages in our modern English translations, and in our modern Western culture. How sad if we miss the connection!
The lesson on treasure is so obvious, I’ve seldom seen or heard it twisted too far from the primary point. Jesus made much of getting His listeners to give this world and it’s goods a much lower priority than the Kingdom. He told the Rich Young Ruler (Matthew 19:16ff) it would really please the Father if he would abandon his worldly possessions and become a disciple, wandering with Jesus. Jesus wasn’t playing mind games with the man. Eternal living means a life unbounded by this world and its treasures. This was not precisely stated in the Law, but it was certainly implied.
The young man’s problem was his clinging attachment to his worldly possessions. Jesus never condemned wealth as evil, but described it as a tool. Material resources were simply one more means to serve God’s purposes in this world, just as musical talent, physical strength, etc., could all be held as gifts from God. He gave such gifts precisely so we could give them back to Him. They are His gracious provision for including us in something we have no right to expect. We all deserve to die a slow painful death, followed by an eternity roasting in Hell. Nothing we could give could purchase deliverance from such a fate, because it all comes from Him in the first place.
Perhaps the most frequent error believers make in reading the above passage is in not carrying it far enough. Worldly people treasure a lot of things, not just tangible property, or talents. Surely we could think of folks by name who treasure political power? How about a massive and thorough education, vast knowledge? How about the total freedom to do as one pleases? We could go on, but it’s enough to note the Rich Young Ruler was also being challenged to sacrifice his place among the elite of Jewish society, an elite who claimed to know God, but were His enemies.
Jesus reminded His disciples almost nothing humanity valued was really important. Even the Law says this, if anyone cares to read between the lines, as was intended. If we as believers can fully grasp how all those things are subject to loss at the whim of natural and human forces — indeed almost certainly would be lost sooner or later — then we could be free to focus on what really matters. We could see how all these things we have here are but the means to accomplish God’s calling. Things we do to please the Father cannot be lost or taken away, because such are treasured by Him. No power in Creation, or outside Creation, nor ever was, nor ever will be, nor ever could be, imaginary or unimaginable, can diminish the value He places on our loyalty to Him (compare with Romans 8:38-39).
But, there is something else we need to get us there: clarity of vision. Jesus was quoting a common rabbinical phrase, referring to the eye as the lamp of the body. It was a figure of speech to highlight a spiritual principle, another example of parabolic language.
The word translated as “good” in describing the eye is literally “singular” — indicating a singularity of commitment. A “bad” eye was literally “double,” and it’s obviously linked to our phrase “double-minded.” To see this world clearly is to see it as God sees it. To have our loyalties divided is dangerous. It compares favorably with being spiritually blinded. If your commitment to the Kingdom is uncertain, you are no better than the uncommitted, the spiritually blind.
Jesus goes on the draw the point more starkly:
“No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” (verse 24)
Never mind where the word “mammon” comes from; it’s all too obvious it means something on the order of worldly wealth. There are no half measures here. Anyone who has tried to placate more than one superior can tell you: It can’t be done, or even attempted, without going insane. Being caught between the two, a person ceases to exist; they dare not be themselves. Nor can you ever claim to have really obeyed either one.
God says: If you do not serve Him with a whole heart, you do not serve Him at all.
Posted in bible
Tagged mysticism, peace, scripture, worldly possessions
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The Prophetic Pen
I’m not at all the man I was even a couple of weeks ago. A decade is ancient history.
I’m not sure if I can peg when it was things began to change so much. My faith has grown steadily, yet some issues were single giant steps which shook my world. I’m thinking I finally came out into the light of the new spiritual dawn after my depression finally died. That would be just a few years ago. I still recall the day when my artificially induced sense of previous calling died, and the depression pretty much went with it.
So my writing style has drifted far, far from what it was back when I was a real grammar grouch. That hit its peak while I was still working in public education. I let a lot of that stuff slide over the years because I simply was not using it.
When the Lord told me I was a prophet full time, and nothing else I did would matter, I wasn’t sure exactly how that would change me, only that it would. As Misty and I work through this TMOC manuscript, I realize this was the first time I wrote something in a totally prophetic voice. It’s an entirely different mental process than writing anything else. It poured into my soul as fiery oral output, and I struggled to keep up with that voice as I posted chapter after chapter here. The product was just barely readable compared to stuff from just a couple years ago.
Don’t get me wrong; God used it and several told me how blessed they were. I doubt anyone can imagine how blessed I was in the privilege of putting it together into human language. Now a week later I’m still groping around and finding a lot of fixtures have been moved in my soul. I didn’t lose anything valuable. I’m not less of anything, just very different. In one sense, I’m much more than before. I know it can’t be explained sensibly to my readers. Then again, if your spirit burned with any of that same fire I had writing TMOC, you know what I mean.
You get to see up close and personal something of what it’s like to be a prophet, at least this one, anyway.
So while I can go back and rewrite my own stuff with all the editorial skill of days past when I made straight-A grades on my college papers, they also don’t really touch the fire in me. When I write from the fire, I’m not even the same person. It’s a side of me which lives, but is silent until there’s something to say. Then it drowns the old me. Nothing spooky, just too obviously different.
So while I continue posting the parables series, I may have that ready for publication first. Such is life. The second edition rough draft is here (site is gone) for those of you too impatient to wait. I’ve already replaced the old files with the newer edited material on my static site. So now the old links will pull up new pages, but the link above goes to a single file you can save your own copy. (Update: Book is published here.)
Can’t wait to see what’s coming next!
Posted in personal
Tagged mysticism, prophecy, psychology, writing
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Decentralized Holiness
A fundamental threat to humanity is the aggregation of power and wealth in few hands. Not because such is inherently evil, but it opens the door to all that is already evil in the fallen natures of men. The nature of Biblical Law is restraining sinful impulse, and concentrations of wealth and power inevitably lead to breaking restraints. Among humans there is a natural cycle of ebb and flow in centralization, and all attempts to delay the devolution of power and wealth is inherently evil.
Tony Cartalucci describes three current trends notable on the Internet which serve to disrupt the power of concentrated wealth and influence. Organic and natural food information is destroying the old guard multinational corporations seeking to gain a monopoly hold on all human nutrition. He doesn’t mention how various types of alternative medicine is breaking the bondage of allopathic dominance, too. I’m a big fan of alternative health strategies. Then he brings up file sharing, the whipping boy of the censoring industry, more commonly referred to as the intellectual property guardians. Since I tend to share all my writing freely, you don’t have to wonder where my sympathies lie. Finally, he talks about alternative media itself, all the new ways we share information through commodity networking. This blog is an element in that very thing. I participate in challenging the lock of religious authority in Christian faith.
Granted, there are human needs which cannot be met by these methods. For example, though I love Open Source software as a concept, it doesn’t always produce happy results. At this point, it has created a new tyranny of the coders, on the principle they have control by virtue of the huge investment in time and talent necessary to get a seat at the table. That your average Open Source developer is out of touch with average computer users is manifestly obvious. I’ve lately felt oppressed and constrained running Linux or anything similar. One man’s freedom is another’s chains. So in my case, the simplest answer is using Windows as it comes with the hardware, and installing things like Cygwin to broaden what’s possible on these machines — the best of both worlds. Microsoft doesn’t love average users, either, but is wise enough to accommodate a wider range of interests than Open Source project leadership does at this point in history. Yes, I take full advantage of my technology training and experience to make my computers stable and secure, but it’s never been easier, in spite of challenges never having been greater. It’s all a very conscious choice.
Disruptive technologies and philosophies in general help to dethrone the abusive powers-that-be. So rare is anyone not abusing their position, it becomes worthy of remark. Cartalucci is not perfect, nor do I claim any hint of perfection, but neither of us are trying to steer the results from sharing our perceptions. Our only urging is for folks to disconnect and think for themselves, and to do what little is possible to weaken the abusive powers we all face every day. I’m not trying to get you spun off and out there alone and vulnerable, and I certainly don’t want you dependent on me. Rather, I’m asking you to seize the independence which is manageable, and to leave the rest to the one authority you can trust: God Himself.
How you go about employing your freedom to choose is on you. Holiness is by its very nature a decentralized affair at our level of existence.
Soul Seeds: Salt and Light
“You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.
“You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house.
“Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in Heaven.” (Matthew 6:13-16)
I could not believe my ears. They were actually arguing about whether salt could be chemically changed into something less salty! As if that were even important enough to justify a debate. I walked out of that class shaking my head.
Now, of course the salt used in Jesus’ day wasn’t like ours. What you and I buy in the stores is more or less artificially produced in a highly purified form of 99.99% sodium chloride. The salt used in the first century AD was not so pure, usually. It was mined from the earth, so it was essentially dirt or soft rock. It was often slightly colored gray or brown, and when broken up for food use, faintly yellow. It contained all sorts of other minerals. Perhaps we could debate whether it was any healthier than what we use today, but that also would be missing the point.
All that matters is this: If salt from a mine was not salty, what was it? Dirt. It was the same stuff as the ground on which we walk. So if salt didn’t do what salt was intended to do, if it didn’t serve the purpose for which folks worked hard to dig it out of the ground, then why bother keeping it separate from the ground? It’s just dirt.
What is it salt does, making it worth all the trouble to dig? Two things are obvious: taste and preservation. In a world where spices were a luxury, the one thing to prevent food from being bland was salt. We could easily get bogged down in yet another debate over whether the desire for salted food is learned or natural, but that’s also missing the point. Jesus simply used an illustration even poor folks would recognize — they liked some food with salt. Some of what they had to eat was frankly unpalatable without it.
In this world, were it not for people who love the Lord, and earnestly desire to please Him, humanity would be downright unpalatable to God. Ask the generation of Jonah how many of those folks cared at all what Jehovah thought of their lives. They all ended up floating carcasses. What holds back another flood of destruction is God’s promise and His command humans live in civility. Human civilizations may well fail to understand that command, but we who are spiritual have no excuse. As we seek today to serve the Father, we are often what holds back another flood of destruction — though He promised it would not be literal water the next time.
Salt serves another, perhaps more important purpose: preservation. In a time when refrigeration meant hauling stuff up into the highest mountains above the snow line, salt was literally a life saver. Until rather recent human history, meat was for many a delicacy, expensive and not served at every meal. When meat could be had, it was often not in convenient serving sizes. One would purchase a leg of some animal, take it home and attempt to preserve it from rot and decay until it was all eaten. The easiest way was to salt it down. Indeed, given so very much of what meat was eaten then was salted, it may account for why we all prefer it that way, even today.
Depending on whom you ask, it is plausible to assert much of what is today called “Western Civilization” was the result of some sort of Christianity. When the Apostles first began spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ, it was quite new. Rome officially persecuted Christians off and on for the next 300 years after the Ascension. Eventually, politics shifted and claiming Christ became officially tolerated, then officially supported. While it thus suffered some corruption by its mixture with politics, it nonetheless remained a positive force for change in the world, particularly in culture. As the old Christian Rome fell to the pagan Germanic tribes, Christianity seemed to disappear for awhile. Yet, a short time later it became the new religion of one very powerful Germanic king, who then conquered and exported his new faith among his kindred. Thus, from the ashes of a Europe overrun by German hordes, the light of partial civilization dawned on them, as well.
While noting sadly the strong element of politics and paganism mixed in to this Medieval Christian religion, it was the same Jesus and His teachings which helped tame the savage hordes, however poorly His teachings might have been understood. It was a dramatic change. Since then, Christianity has often been a symbol of less change, and a conservation of tradition. This is because most of that tradition reflects an assumption of biblical virtue, one mixed with something purely cultural at times. While we might disagree about what is and is not moral — i.e., Christlike — that there is a morality easily recognized by all is quite an achievement in itself. Bring Christianity to any culture, and there will be demands for change. Try to undo those changes later and Christians, such as they are, will likely protest. Silence their voices, remove their witness, and the culture will rot and become worse.
While there is something we might call a distinctive Christian culture, most generations have falsely assumed their own brand of sub-culture is the most Christian of all. They project their own biases back onto Scripture. Christian culture is essentially tribal, living as an extended household, or several extended households within a clan or tribal village. Instead of human DNA, it’s about spiritual DNA, as it were. It’s all about persons and family, and any other organizational framework is a mistake. Sadly, we find it much easier to assume the trappings of our secular cultural surroundings as something we simply cannot change. If we do not change, we cannot really have a witness to our world.
And thus we are brought back to the point of this parable: We are to be a light to the people around us. We as believers are the source of God’s revelation to our world. It is the nature of light to bring into stark clarity where and what everything is. Simply grappling with everyday things from an eternal standpoint is itself revealing. That we care and seek to promote what really and truly matters to God is our first and best sermon to all we touch. It is inevitable that some things offered us must be rejected, because Our God is Holy, and expects the same of us. That we may also get a chance to explain the nature of our objections is all we can hope for. Where it goes from there is God’s business.
With the images of both salt and light, there is an implied warning. If we fail to be what salt ought to be, if we fail to do what light by its nature does, we dishonor Him Who called us salt and light. Jesus’ half-brother James would say, “A faith which is hidden is no faith at all.” Even when folks around us don’t know what to label it, there must be an obvious difference between our presence and our absence. If our presence makes no significant difference, then why do we exist? Why does He mine us from the ground of common humanity; why does He set our hearts on fire?
We must make a difference. It is our nature.
Real Men of the Bible
With all the blather about Alpha Males in the manosphere, I keep running into all this pitiful, silly overwrought detail chasing so characteristic of failed Western Civilization.
(If you are new to this blog, I’ll take a moment to point out we who strive to follow Jesus, or at least claim a general concern for pleasing the God of the Bible, had best get to know the intellectual culture of the Bible. God created a unique brand of philosophy in which to reveal Himself, and the West is hostile to that. If you are blissfully unaware of the difference, you’ll either have to learn it or simply take my word for it.)
The best way to learn biblical manhood is to absorb it on a level above the intellect, to contemplate and chew on it in your mind until the brain begins to obey the Spirit. The quintessential image of biblical manhood is the shepherd. What can we learn about the shepherd of the Bible?
The Real Man of the Bible has a mission. Nobody has to tell him he’s in charge. Either the sheep follow or he has better things to do. His sense of mission does not depend on community, because fellowship with others is icing on the cake and nothing more. He is driven against reality itself, when it comes right down to it, because any real mission from God starts with acknowledging reality is false. That’s why he has a mission. He has to make it obvious, while he may not have the power to correct the falsehood, he surely has the power to expose it. Every mission from God always relates somehow to exposing the truth.
He’d rather not go it alone, but will if necessary. Exposing the truth is a two-edged sword: You do it because you have to, and because you know it will help. If any sheep follow, he will take responsibility for making development of truth perception as plausible as the context allows. He tries to put the necessities in reach, or moves the sheep to where those things are. Simply having a powerful sense of mission and truth tends to make at least a few want to share the mission. He goes where the mission requires. While it may not be fun, and he feels the pain of sorrow the sheep experience, all he can offer is the comfort of his shepherd’s caring soul. It’s the caring sense he gets from the God who made him. It’s limited, and he doesn’t take responsibility for anything beyond those limits.
He may not always be in charge of the sheep, but he is always in charge of his own mission. He never acts like a frightened sheep. He refuses to be pushed down into that role. He never gets so distracted with petty personal need he can’t see something outside himself demanding his attention. He never forgets his mission. Thus, he does not take himself too seriously, and he absorbs a lot of petty personal crap because it simply does not matter. It’s part of the mission to ignore some lies. But he takes the mission seriously, and may well kill you for going to far in interfering with the truth. He doesn’t confuse his grasp of truth with the truth itself, but knows when something threatens the very integrity of his calling, when something is so hideous he has no choice but to strike back or risk losing his grip on the truth, and truth’s grip on him.
He gladly lets others share the mission, the task of shepherding. He can make tentative assessments, subject to refinement, of how the mission responsibilities can be shared. He can negotiate and give others room to fail, knowing he will himself. He has only one life partner (at one time, at least) whom he hopes to trust with his inner sense of identity. He recognizes her limits and trusts her to fail, too. He builds grace into his associations with everyone, because he knows that’s how people get along. He wants them to have their own mission calling, and prefers to company of other shepherds more than sheep, even as he expects the sheep to eat up all they can get of him. He guards those things he can’t afford to give away.
Still, shepherding can be very lonely. The shepherd has lots of time to look inside, to acknowledge the truth of what he finds there. That’s the basis for change, and the shepherd is so in love with the truth, he can’t be bothered to hide the changes which inevitably follow such introspection. Whatever it might cost him is entirely affordable. He can afford to be generous with some things, simply because they don’t really matter. God will supply a refill or make him strong enough to do without.
Everything is his best estimate within the context, and failure is sure to come at any moment. The Real Man of the Bible offers what he has to clean up his own mess, but doesn’t waste time trying to fix things out of his reach, things only God can mend. His only real question is not, “Who is responsible for this mess?” It’s always, “What do I do now?”
Real Men of the Bible expect to be driven. They seek to identify, as much as possible, the imperatives of their existence. Such an imperatives outlast his human life, and he never forgets that. He treats his human dreams and hopes as children who don’t always get it, can’t trusted, and can’t be pampered lest they destroy everything.
Get the flavor; taste the real manhood of the Bible. You’ll work out the details for yourself once you develop an appetite for it.
Posted in prophecy
Tagged biblical manhood, manhood, mysticism, psychology, scripture
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New Series: Getting the Parables Right
Working title: Soul Seeds: Jesus’ Parables (SSJP) — One of the readers commenting on the previous book asked if I could explain some of the parables. I wrote these lessons some ten years ago. I’ve decided to update them in preparation for publication. Please feel encouraged to comment and we can make this one somewhat Open Source.
Introduction
He told me, “You can’t make a parable walk on all fours.” In his quaint rural dialect, this very wise country preacher was telling me something which should have been a matter of common sense. Many people over-work the teachings of Jesus, delivered mostly in parables, in an attempt to extract every possible detail. I often think Jesus would have been horrified at what has been made of some of His lessons.
First, a little background. In our modern culture, a real education, including the full range of Liberal Arts — the Classics, multiple foreign languages, history instead of propaganda, etc. — is very much a rarity. While this is not a screed to criticize modern education, it’s important we note the facts. It’s no secret our Enemy will do all in his power to block the Truth. Rather than placing blame for this state of affairs, it’s enough to note what burden this places on those aspiring to teach God’s Word: We have to fill in the gaps so God’s People can intelligently decide how to follow Him.
Even with the best Liberal Arts education, we are still far removed from the time and culture of Jesus. So very much of what we read in Scripture is hard to follow because most of it was written in a totally foreign setting. Many of the assumptions we bring to God’s Word confuse the issues completely. Rather than an attempt to promote a Christianity where the Bible is regarded as safe only in the hands of an elite caste of high priests with the “proper” education, my aim is to raise all believers to that high status.
Of course, we cannot discount the importance of proper training and education for our spiritual leadership. Somewhere in the complexity of relying on God — recognizing that 2000 years of Christian history cannot be ignored, avoiding past abuses, not reinventing the wheel, and so forth — we do well to place a higher priority on one’s calling, and secondarily on professional preparation. The called-but-unprepared will eventually get what God wants for their preparation, provided they are faithfully pursuing His will. God save us from highly professional leaders who are self-called.
The reader will likely have considered the difficult balancing act of deciding on whom to rely as a fit spiritual leader. This writer obviously seeks your open mind, hoping to give evidence first of the calling, and also of the education. As I rely on the Holy Spirit to guide this writing, I must rely on Him to convince the hearts and minds of readers.
In addressing the parables of Jesus, we must first grapple with the gulf of understanding between us today and the people of Jesus’ time. The cultural differences, while numerous, can be broached best by making one broad generalization: Our modern Western civilization is built on what is called “inductive reasoning,” and “deductive reasoning,” while the ancient Hebrew culture was initially built on symbolic reasoning, often mistaken for formless mysticism. Rather than chase tangents in defining the full meaning of those terms, I will risk overly simplifying here, relying on the reader to keep in mind such generalizations are generally accurate, but never precisely true.
It matters not how we operate intellectually as individuals; our Western Civilization is based on certain assumptions of how knowledge is gained. How do we know things? Inductive reasoning is the habit of mind which attempts to survey and observe all available to us. We gather piles and piles of facts, then attempt to organize them and build categories. We test things under various conditions, and attempt to explain the hows and whys based on what we can discern from the tests. This is by far the best way to understand the basic rules for living in this world. If we see fire, and touch anything close to that fire, finding it hot to the touch, even painful, we reasonably decide fire itself will hurt us even more. Thus, we gain a working knowledge of our world. The facts are inducted into a body of knowledge.
Induction is a poor means to learn everything we need to live. Instead of experiencing everything first hand, we rely on others to share with us their experiences. We then take that knowledge given and deduce from it broader implications as we match it to our own experiences.
Induction and deduction alone are unfit to approach things which stand outside the world of human experience. The Ancient Near Eastern Mystical culture approaches life from the opposite end, so to speak. That which is eternal, which transcends the senses, is the place to start. This is more than mere deductive reasoning, because it requires allowing revealed truth to reshape our very being, not merely our intellectual grasp. Over the ages, things have been revealed from powers beyond this world, and are clues to how we should view what takes place here. Indeed, what takes place here can merely symbolize what goes on there. There are no general principles given, but the Person of God is pointed out by how He acts on this level. Truth is a Person, not mere principles. Our daily experiences of life are to be fitted into that Person, giving them a personal meaning. What can be seen is an illustration of what cannot be seen. Facts which do not seem to fit the image of the Person are put aside for a time, until their place is discerned. We don’t waste too much time on knowing facts, but invest effort into knowing that Person.
In the latter viewpoint, the great wise man is one who has striven to embrace that Person early on, then spent sufficient time contemplating the events of life to see where they fit in the image of revealed Truth. In the Western mold, contrary to that, the great wise man is one who has paid attention to all the details of life, observed them in all possible settings, and constructed a complex framework which adequately accounts for all those details. It is an exercise in fixing a static and impersonal entity called “truth” — but always devoid of God as Person.
It would be wholly misleading to say that the Jews of Jesus’ time never used inductive nor deductive reasoning. Nor do we today have no use for symbolic reasoning. The primary reason for Jesus’ miracles was to present Living Truth which challenged the static framework Jewish leaders had adopted, cast in stone, of what was assumed to be Truth. Anyone who had actually read the Old Testament, rather than relying on the vast pile of commentaries from generations of rabbis past, would recognize what Jesus taught was consistent with God’s Word. By the time Jesus was born, the concept behind the term “The Law of Moses” had become corrupted, a mockery of what it had once been. Thus, while in the strictest sense Jesus was teaching Moses, He was contradicting what the Jewish leaders associated with Moses.
Jesus warned His opponents they didn’t understand the Law, and often corrected their mechanistic concepts with the living Law, a Law He said was summed up in love — loving loyalty to God, and loving others enough to regard their welfare as our own. For many reasons, He most often used parables to say things. In keeping with the ancient Hebrew mindset, He would make reference to something in everyday life and show how it illustrated some higher element of Living Truth. It wouldn’t do to milk the illustration for every detail, as if it were a mere allegory, with a shallow one-to-one equivalence He could easily have said in plainer terms. The point was to indicate something for which there were no words. In so doing, there was usually a single point to make, not a stack of details. When the details of the story did matter, Jesus would say so.
My fear is Christian writers too often attempt to show how clever they are in drawing out numerous little applications from some parables. Thus, they are guilty of transgressing one of our own modern parables: “can’t see the forest for the trees.” In chasing details — this tree, and that tree — they never see the whole as it makes up a rather simple concept. Since writing was an art practiced by few in ancient times, instruction had to be simple and memorable. Pithy illustrations could be recalled in their general application, not as precise dissertations which must be remembered word-for-word, as if each word was some code for a full paragraph.
We will examine the parables of Jesus from as much of His own frame of reference as we can grasp, beginning with Matthew’s Gospel and passing on through to John’s. Nothing here suggests you can’t arrive at a different answer, a different application to any of these parable. Taking a cue from Solomon’s grand collection of parables, Proverbs, let’s keep in mind: “As iron sharpens iron, So a man sharpens the countenance of his friend” (Proverbs 27:17).
I suppose I should warn my readers not every illustration used by Jesus would classify as a parable. There is parable and there is parabolic language. Webster defines “parable” as a short fictitious story, normally used to illustrate some higher principle. Over the centuries, Bible scholars have fudged the boundaries a bit, including some comments which were not exactly stories. We can’t even say it’s a matter of differentiating between the literary devices we know as “simile” and “metaphor.” Rather than slavishly follow any particular pattern, I will select passages over which I have seen and heard much foolishness in the past. Thus, we will adhere to the original purpose, and the title, of the series.
We Don't Purge
Your first duty as a Christian Mystic is to know yourself. That encompasses a whole lot of territory.
Jesus told the Samaritan woman at the well her religion was bogus, that Samaritans didn’t really know who God was. He also said a Samaritan could live justly and be called our neighbor in the parable of the Good Samaritan.
I teach here your theology and religious expression of life is simply your response to something bigger than all of us together. It is rooted far outside our reality, and calls us to live some shadow of that higher reality until it’s our time to leave here. Anything we do, say, even our very intellectual processes, are merely an approximation of our encounter with that Eternal Truth. Your theology and your religion — as an expression of your devotion to that truth — are yours. It may be shared among many, few or none, but the starting place for theology is only what we can know, and religious devotion is limited to what we can do. This is why rituals aren’t held as the same as what they symbolize.
You and I are limited, and the truth is not. Pretensions to offering an orthodoxy is risky business, at best. I can claim to build on the clear record of Scripture, but my teaching itself recognizes there are very strong differences in how people approach the Bible before they start.
I can tell you I can’t work with you. That may be as much a purely human limitation between us as it would be something of spiritual substance. People can only do what they can do. If you like hanging out with me for whatever reason, I’ll have a very hard time telling you to go away. Our souls feed and grow from a sense of affinity shared with others. Granted, with so many bearing such a shallow interest in anything at all, including themselves, that means having to put up with a lot of silly people who cling like some succubus. You can only give so much of yourself before it depletes your resources. You have to construct barriers for very human reasons.
Sometimes the conflict is actually of substance. That usually drives thinking people apart on its own, if it matters. It really depends on what brought them together in the first place. I fully expect my work here as prophet, and simply claiming a prophetic calling, provides a strong barrier. That still leaves a pretty large slice of humanity who can swallow the idea, at least provisionally, because something here calls their name. Somehow the fire in my soul shines through the words tumbling from my fingers. Something they want or need calls out to stop and absorb some of that light and warmth.
I walk the talk, at least insofar as I believe my God is able to take care of His business in me. I don’t fear association with oddballs, kooks, and cranks. Depending on whom you ask, most would put me under one of those definitions. I’m no better than you, and surely believe myself worse in ways I may not want to discuss. You don’t need to hear about the dark corners of my soul, only realize I have some, just like yours. We are all an unfinished work of art until we are dead. I probably need your help with at least a few details in the execution of the artistry. I’ll offer my help to you.
Why in the world would I want to kick people out? Only when I find it impossible to do what I have to do when they are around. I am accountable to some voice in my soul, and I find it impossible to act as if God isn’t at least part of that voice. I’ll do what that voice demands, and I won’t let you get in the way. But you won’t find it that hard to stay out of the way, and still hang around for the entertainment value, at least. If I can’t see where you are interfering, and there is no sense of danger because of something weird you do or believe, then you can stick around. That should leave an awful lot of room for you to pursue your own theology and religion, or none at all. Will your presence change me? How could it not? On the other hand, my theology says God is able to keep me where He needs me regardless what may be inside you and your influence on me.
Jesus hung out with a lot of people His society didn’t tolerate too well. Honestly, the forceful presence of Roman troops saved a lot of lives from silly Jewish prejudice. Rome gave some Judeans a chance to answer a call the Sanhedrin wanted to pretend God couldn’t make. I’m not a member of any Sanhedrin. If you find me tolerable, and you aren’t in the way, stick around. Let’s be friends. In seeking to the know the mind of Christ, I can’t afford to waste time on purging my associations of people who want to be here. Nothing about this ministry requires strict orthodoxy and purity; that stuff takes place in the individual soul.
We don’t purge.
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Tagged friendship, human limitation, mysticism, oppression, scripture, spirituality
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Zephaniah 2
Having warned them Jehovah would bring His wrath upon all the known world in the previous chapter, Zephaniah warns the people of Judah they may as well gather themselves and save God the trouble. Like stalks and chaff from the wheat, they would be collected for disposal. It would only be worse if they tried to hide, and perhaps they could take the opportunity to repent. Meanwhile, those who humble themselves before Him and obeyed the Covenant may yet escape the worst. If they do not repent, they are no different than any other nation, except for their much higher accountability to God, since they claim Him and He made them from nothing.
What would happen to the other nations, the ones with no special responsibility to God?
With a delicious poet assonance, Zephaniah talks about the Philistine coast. Gaza would be a ghost town, Ashkelon an ash heap. Ashdod would be the half-day town, driven out by noon. Ekron would be evacuated, too. The invading forces would leave no permanent buildings standing, and the surviving faithful remnant of God would use the ruins for their sheep pens at night.
The Lord never forgot the arrogant taunting of Moab and Ammon, making obscene suggestions about Jehovah and His people. He promises to make their homes about as habitable as the ruins of Sodom and Gomorrah. Their possessions would be plunder for the faithful. The taunting would be turned around, and all the pagan gods would be embarrassing to the people who worship them. In fear, the nations would turn to Jehovah. By implication the prophet warns his own nation is hardly so wise.
The ruling dynasty of Egypt at that time was Ethiopian, and they had harassed the same little kingdoms, but in their vast greatness they would be destroyed and humbled. Assyria, the imperial power everyone feared at that time, would be destroyed, too. Their vast imperial capital at Nineveh would become a wild animal sanctuary. Oh, see how special she is! People will taunt her ruins.
If God has such firm plans to deal thus with pagan nations who don’t even know Him, what will He do to His own people? He will by no means let them escape His wrath.