The Dream Factory

Come and See - Advent Gospels - Day 3

SolLuna, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

 

11/30
John 1:35-42

The next day John again was standing with two of his disciples, and as he watched Jesus walk by, he exclaimed, "Look, here is the Lamb of God!"

The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. When Jesus turned and saw them following, he said to them, "What are you looking for?"

They said to him, "Rabbi" (which translated means Teacher), "where are you staying?"

He said to them, "Come and see."

They came and saw where he was staying, and they remained with him that day.

It was about four o'clock in the afternoon. One of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. He first found his brother Simon and said to him, "We have found the Messiah" (which is translated Anointed).

He brought Simon to Jesus, who looked at him and said, "You are Simon son of John. You are to be called Cephas" (which is translated Peter).

Some of the big questions are answered best in proximity.

John is standing. Jesus is walking by.

The new recruits came and remained. One follows. One brings another.

Everyone is on the move.

Jesus says, "Come and see."

In the process, questions are asked and insights imparted:

What are you looking for?

Where are you staying?

The first words of the passage are invitation and admonition. "Look," John says, "here is the Lamb of God."

Here he is and he is urging people to investigate him by coming and seeing for themselves. Whatever question is in their minds will be answered in time and in proximity to him.

This discipleship was relational. All discipleship is relational.

Proximity to Jesus changes us. In some cases, it even changes our names, how we are known to all and how we are known to ourselves. We come to know ourselves and be known to others the way that God already knows us. Simon becomes Rocky.

Advent is about God moving into proximity to us and about us moving closer to him by hearing the words of Jesus, "Come and See."

 

Who Is this? - Advent Gospels - Day 2

SolLuna, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

11/29
Matthew 21:1-11

When they had come near Jerusalem and had reached Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, "Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her; untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, just say this, 'The Lord needs them.' And he will send them immediately. "

This took place to fulfill what had been spoken through the prophet, saying, "Tell the daughter of Zion, Look, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a donkey."

The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them; they brought the donkey and the colt, and put their cloaks on them, and he sat on them. A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. The crowds that went ahead of him and that followed were shouting, "Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest heaven!"

When he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was in turmoil, asking, "Who is this?"

The crowds were saying, "This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee."

Who Is this?

Sequence Not!

Advent will mess with your sense of sequence sometimes. Gospel portions will jump around in the life of Jesus thematically and defy chronology.

We are taken to the last week of Jesus' pre-passion earthly life to see preparation of a different sort. Here, he is preparing to enter Jerusalem for his final show-down with death.

"The Lord has need of them," seems to be enough for the owner of the donkey to allow the disciples to untie hisproperty.

"This took place to fulfill," introduces an age-old message of hope that the prophet announced centuries before. Jesus is intentionally acting it out as a message to this generation of oppressed people, "Your king is coming!"

The large crowd, without rehearsal or preconception shout, "God save!" which we record as, "Hosanna!"

"Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest heaven!"

The Advent question is the same as the question the people asked then, "Who is this?"

Who is this indeed?

That is why we have holidays, symbols, and rituals. they occasion the most important questions.

Who is this?
What is this?
What does this mean?

The faction of the crowd that believed they knew answered the faction of the crowd that was asking. There was probably a good amount of overlap in the factions, but the answer, to the best of their understanding, was, ""This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee."

Who is this to you today in this decade of the 21st century in a time of pandemic and political-ideological-religious division?

Who is this and why are the crowds all worked up about him?

 

 

The Last Word - Advent Gospels - Day 1

SolLuna, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

 

 

11/28
Luke 21:5-19

When some were speaking about the temple, how it was adorned with beautiful stones and gifts dedicated to God, he said, "As for these things that you see, the days will come when not one stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down." They asked him, "Teacher, when will this be, and what will be the sign that this is about to take place?"

And he said, "Beware that you are not led astray; for many will come in my name and say, 'I am he!' and, 'The time is near!' Do not go after them. "When you hear of wars and insurrections, do not be terrified; for these things must take place first, but the end will not follow immediately."

Then he said to them, "Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and plagues; and there will be dreadful portents and great signs from heaven. "But before all this occurs, they will arrest you and persecute you; they will hand you over to synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors because of my name. This will give you an opportunity to testify. So make up your minds not to prepare your defense in advance; for I will give you words and a wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to withstand or contradict. You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, by relatives and friends; and they will put some of you to death. You will be hated by all because of my name. But not a hair of your head will perish. By your endurance you will gain your souls."

THE LAST WORD

This last word in this translation of the passage is ψυχὰς (psychas) in Greek. In English scriptures, it has been variously translated "soul," "life," and "mind," depending upon context and preference.

I think it takes all three concepts to make sense.

It is the totality of who a person is, their life, their personality, their mind, and whatever endures when the body is gone.

Jesus is promising to preserve even those who are put to death. He is encouraging endurance.

Only one candle flickers through the first week of Advent. Just one.

The message and the scriptures of the day point to ultimate victory in the Parousia of Christ, but that hop is symbolized with a single candle.

Just one.

"Endure," Jesus adjures us.

In spite of and because of the difficulties, hardships, horror, and harrowing, endure. Endure the whole way through.

Don't worry about how you will defend yourselves. Don't worry about holding your ground. Don't worry. Endure.

Advent reminds us that we will come through all of this.

 

First Sunday of Advent - Be Alert

 

The Problem of Evil and the Mercy of God

By Dianelos Georgoudis - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0,

I have studied the problem of evil since I learned to think philosophically, psychologically, and theologically.

I have all the easy answers in a short file.

I have the really tough ones in the question box.

We can dismiss it all with the word "sin," but that three letter word is far larger than we think or know. It is so deep and so pervasive that it requires divine intervention, sacrifice, and planning to correct. (While at the same time, requiring far less from us when we come to dealing with our own).

It is so nagging that, even after repentance and regeneration, the Apostle Paul still struggled with its residual effects.

It is simple, but it is not simplistic.

It is both human and dehumanizing.

It is a distortion of reality, yet part of our daily reality.

Does evil exist?

Some philosophical systems suggest that evil is but an illusion. If it is, it is like the apparition that can frighten someone to death.

Some days, the best I can do is to look at the evil, bitterness, coldness, anger, and bigotry in my own heart, cry out in despair, shake my head, and lift my voice to God, "Have mercy upon me!"

Leaning and Seeing

"We live with dying and we die with living. "

"By faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph and worshiped, leaning on top of his staff." - Hebrews 11:21 (NKJV)

He worshiped, leaning ...

Faith, in itself, is a kind of leaning. Blessing others, we lean into them. Proclaiming the blessing as if already accomplished, is a leaning into the future with faith. Worshiping is leaning into God.

"Leaning on the everlasting arms," we need a bit of support.

Jacob had a staff.

It worked, but still, he was dying.

But aren't we? We live with dying and we die with living.

Jacob chose faith in his dying days, he envisioned a future, and he fell upon his staff and found God supporting him. Thus he worshiped.
I am not exactly sure how this day will unfold, but I am leaning toward a faith that shall not falter with faith that cannot fail because it leans forward on a Father who receives my faith as an expression of worship.

The secret of endurance as discovered by Moses:

"... he endured as seeing Him who is invisible." (Hebrews 11:27b, NKJV)

Seeing the invisible God.

It really goes to the heart of faith for people of faith. We deal in that realm that an outsider might legitimately view as subjective ... and yet we see.

All people of vision, whether people of faith or not, see things that others do not see.
Some see the future.

Some see possibilities.

Some see realities too small or far away for the naked eye to surround.

If it can be captured and perceived through the optical nerves, it may not be faith and it may not be enough to produce endurance. If it requires a leap into the uncharted unknown, one has lengthened the distance of vision and shortened the gap between what is and what can be through the Eyes of the One Who Is.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGbxrNqK4-4

or - the wonderful Hillary Klug!!!

Talking to Ourselves

 

I wonder what I would tell this kid if I met him in some time-warped, celestial vestibule during a meet and greet.

 

Could I tell him anything?

 

Or should I just play dumb and let him figure it out as best he could ... which ...

 

I suppose he did.

 

Would you actually try to tell your younger self anything if you had the chance?

 

We cannot love our neighbor without tears.

Photo by Nina Strehl on Unsplash

We cannot love our neighbors as ourselves if we refuse to take the effort to see the world through our neighbors' eyes or try to imagine life in his or her skin.

We cannot love our neighbor without learning to sing the songs of lament and the entire book of Lamentations.

We cannot love our neighbor by telling him or her what he or she should be or not be feeling.

We cannot love our neighbor without tears.

We cannot love our neighbor by having an answer for every word our neighbor speaks in fear or frustration.

We love our neighbor more with our ears than our words.

When we do use words, we love our neighbor more by what we speak on behalf of our neighbor than what we say to that neighbor.

We cannot love our neighbor by taking our scripts from Job's friends and having all the trite answers organized and ready to spout.

We cannot love our neighbor without working at it and putting aside our own interests and opinions long enough to understand.

We cannot love our neighbor while belittling our neighbor.

And we cannot love God without loving our neighbor.

 

Fresh Tomorrow

 

 

Tomorrow us a fresh new day.

 

Everything is new.

 

Opportunities are going to come our way that we have not yet imagined.

 

Hope will be reinforced.

 

Life will be enhanced.

 

Blessings will be spoken. Admonitions will be given and received with grace and mercy culminating in reconciled relationships with God and man. Grace will flow from our lives and be received with humility and gratitude.

 

Love will saturate all our words and deeds, molding our motives, fashioning our responses, filtering our perceptions.

 

Everything about today is released from the power of yesterday and any destructive influence of the past.

 

We are free. We have been set free. Our pain will be turned to gain as we embrace that pain as a teacher.

 

The God of all comfort shall comfort our souls. The wonder of new life will inspire us.

 

We shall meet our challenges with courage and our criticisms with a desire to learn, but assurance of who we are in Christ and a knowledge that whatever our failings and flaws, we are beloved.

 

We shall walk in the light of purpose and the confidence of a guiding hand upon our shoulders.

 

We shall quickly confess our sins and gratefully accept the forgiveness that is freely given.

 

We shall seek justice for the oppressed and extend the hand of mercy and healing to the broken, the hurting, and the lonely .

 

We shall live as people of God this new day and celebrate the joy of the Lord.

 

Rejoice!

 

And may it be so, amen and amen, in the name of Jesus, by the power of the Spirit and through the outreached hand of our Abba, our Father.

 

Amen.