Month: April 2017

As they drew near the gates of the city (Nain), behold, a man who was dead was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. Luke 7: 11- -17 (1)

The Scottish Essayist, Robert Louis Stevenson, tells us that one book that had a profound influence on him was the Bible, and in particular the New Testament.  Stevenson wrote:

I believe it would startle and move anyone if they could make a certain effort of imagination and read it freshly like a book, not droningly and dully like a portion of the Bible.” (2)

I invite you through the use of your imagination to experience this story as recorded in the Gospel of Luke.

Good morning.  My name is Ana.  I begin by acknowledging the fact that I am a Jewess.  As such, I honor the God of our Fathers: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  I have tried to live according to the Law of Moses, and though there have been times when I have failed in my attempt, God has never failed me.  My favorite passage from the Sacred Writings is where David talks about being in God’s house forever!  I think that is where I have spent my life and where I will at last spend eternity.  I am so delighted to tell you all that He is worthy to be worshiped and adored!

Ana, you are remembered in history as “the widow of Nain.” Why is that? And how does it make you feel?

You know, I am not the only widow in the world!  Nor for that matter am I the only widow in Nain!  Everyone’s story is different, as different as the individual who bears the grief.  Every broken heart has a  story to tell, and when one shares it, there ought to always be an ear to listen and a heart to feel the pity.  The one thing that all of us have in common is the abiding presence of God!  We are all different in our grief, but God’s compassion and tenderness are the same for all of us.  Yes, it is true that I am a widow – but I am also a mother; that fact along with the sustaining touch of God’s Hand made my widowhood bearable.

I suppose Luke did capture the essence of my life by telling you at the beginning that I am a widow. That essentially is what opened the door for me so I could step into the presence of God. There I found such compassion and understanding, and there I am still learning to understand the meaning of death.  Let me tell you how death nearly destroyed my home and me along with it!

Please do tell us. And thank you for baring your soul to us here.

We had a most remarkable home in Nain.  It was as close to ideal as we could make it.  I married a most wonderful man, and we were as happy as a couple could be.  Peter was a very honest, hardworking man.  His day began at the crack of dawn and sometimes did not end until the sun was about to bid the world good morning again!  He was so gentle and kind towards all creation.  Together we grew in our faith and love, and together we joined in the worship of the living God!  We were alone for some years! No words can capture the absolute wonder and the deep feelings of gratitude we both felt when God asked us to share our lives with the most beautiful child imaginable- and a little boy was born to us!

Peter took him in his arms and praised God!  “O Ana,” he cried, “We will call him Peter and one day he will be a fisherman just like me!” The Lord, our God, looked with tenderness upon our home!  We grew yet stronger in our love for each other.  Wee Peter grew to be more like his dad every day that passed.  It was a daily ritual with him: as soon as dusk settled in he would have me light the lamp and put it in the window so his dad would always see it as he came home from the fishing grounds.  Then there followed games and laughter as we joined in having fun together, and then the day always ended with Peter saying prayers and teaching his son to pray.

It all changed when Young Peter reached the age of five!  Peter had told his son, “When you are a big boy, say five years old, you can come fishing with me, and we will spend the day together on the Sea of Galilee. When it is getting dark, and the stars come into the sky, we will bring our fish home to Mother!” “Tell Mama,” wee Peter interjected, “to put the lamp in the window so we can see it.”

Our son never forgot that promise. And for weeks leading up to his fifth birthday, he counted the days. The evening before the big adventure both Peters were extremely excited. Careful planning went into every detail.  And that night little  Peter had to tell God all about the planned activities for tomorrow. Sometime later little Peter awakened with a severe fever. And daddy had to go on alone; but only after a solemn pledge to Peter that they would be together one day and he would see the light from the window welcoming him home!

It was late in the afternoon when of a sudden the wind changed, and I don’t think it ever blew harder.  At Peter’s insistence, we put the lamp in the window long before the sun went down!  I held my child in my arms and tried to assure him that the morrow would bring our hero home to us.  But as the next day wore on, and with the lamp still burning in the window, my own heart gave up its light!  I knew that my beautiful home was changing forever and the love of my life would not be coming home again.

It was then that God brought a candlelight into the window of my soul!  Better to light one candle than to curse the darkness!  God had spared little Peter!  It might have been both of them!!  And so through my unspeakable sorrow, I was comforted by the face of a little boy at the window and recalled that this little angel was my son!

The years went by with steps of lead!  Often I wondered how I would buy bread for Peter and me! I decided many times that the only remaining course for me was to sell Peter’s remaining fishing nets.  But whenever I mentioned it I was always met with the same reaction.  “Mama, I am going to be a fisherman just like my dad. He promised that one day we would go fishing together and we would see the light in the window as we returned from the fishing ground.” 

I don’t know how my son views death, but surely he does not believe that death means the end!  Peter knows that there are some things that not even death can destroy!

Two years ago young Peter died.  I watched him day after day and night after night getting weaker and weaker!  O, how I pleaded with God!  Please, don’t take away the candlelight from the window of my soul and leave me in utter darkness again!  When Peter went, You let me keep our son!  How can I be expected to go on alone?  And it was then that little Peter spoke, and for a boy of ten such profound wisdom!  The Bible says a little child should lead them, and that sure proved to be so!

“Mother, I need to talk to my dad in the next room for a moment!  I need to learn from him everything there is to know about being a fisherman!  I want to learn from him because he was the best fisherman in this world!  You stay here with God, and make sure you keep that light in the window!  I won’t be long, and I’ll be right back………………….And then he was gone!

I was speechless!  What can a mother, or anyone else, say when a child speaks with such clarity and such faith?  I can’t believe that God would permit the child to be so completely deluded!  I tell you that my boy gave me a greater understanding of God than all the doctors and scribes of the law!

Then came the day of his funeral!  All that kept ringing in my ears was the sound of his voice!  Such childlike, sincere understanding of the mysteries that baffled me!  ‘You stay here with God! I need to talk to my dad in the next room! I’ll be right back!’  Whatever death is, Peter surely understood it to be very temporary!

And then I saw Him!  God was there with me just as Peter said He would be!  Through my tears, I saw the compassion of His face.  It was as bright as a lamp shining in the darkest night.  And I knew!   I knew things that I never dreamt possible.  Everyone there called Him Jesus, but I knew He was God!  I knew that there is a part of us that death cannot take away! I found myself looking into His eyes that were deep pools of blue compassion, and time stood still. Then I became aware of young Peter standing beside me. In that moment tears of joy and of sorrow; life and death; Heaven and earth all joined hands! Young Peter and I joined hands and danced our way home. We both know that a mystery beyond all measure remains with us forever.  Because He is there  I will never be afraid again.

Since Peter’s return to our home, I never ask him about what he experienced in that other world!  His happiness now is so contagious!  He is a very successful fisherman.  One night as we finished our prayers together, he offered quietly: “Dad keeps a lamp burning in a window in heaven for us you know. It is one of the stars.  Come outside, and I’ll show you which one! And it will burn until we are home from the sea! and he pointed to ‘ the evening star’

BEYOND THE SUNSET

______

(1)        Holy Bible RSV. See  Luke 7:12 p.62.

(2)         Robert Louis Stevenson. “Essays of Robert Louis Stevenson”  – GoogleBooks result.
https://books.google.ca/books?isbn=1465591958

John 2:16 To those who sold doves He  said,”Get these out of  here! How dare you turn my Father’s house into a market?”
John 2:30  The Jews replied, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?” But the temple he had spoken of was his body.(1)

An obvious need presents itself here to inquire after the meaning of the words “My Father’s House” as Jesus utters them in this instance, and again elsewhere throughout this Gospel. Herein, I believe is the secret that enables one to fulfill the command of Christ to “Follow Me.”

The first reference to ‘My Father’s House’ is the common usage known to all. Indeed to the Jewish participants in the present incident the ‘Father’s House’ was the temple, a place reserved for religious activities. It is a physical structure occupying measurable space in real time. A singular purpose inspires such a building project  – honoring God.  A far weightier consideration, however, looms on the horizon of human Spiritual development. There  is  found within these walls ‘ the Idea of the Holy,’ the ‘Mysterium Tremendum.’  Within these structures, so built, “the transcendent appears as a great mystery, that is, a mystery before which man both trembles and is fascinated  is repelled  and attracted.”(2) With that experience firmly fixed in the mind of worshippers,  this structure is forever set apart from all other structures and is nothing less than the dwelling place of God, or God’s House.

But then, as now, there are many whose actions decidedly will not comply with any such spiritual designation; those who determine to make no distinction between the sacred the secular. We observe this in the attempts  in our times to create  an exclusive secular society. In the Scripture under consideration, there is no hesitation, whatsoever in taking advantage of a  celebratory situation, to benefit one’s self. The  Passover is a  sacred celebration in the Jewish community and marks a pivotal moment in their collective past. It is that moment  again  when the transcendent appears to reveal Himself as the One whose mysterious Presence had led their ancestors  out of slavery in Egypt.  It is little wonder that Jesus rebelled against the intrusion of worldly, and self centered activities into the  moment when  sincere suppliants  gather seeking the awesomeness of God’s House. “How dare you turn my Father’s house into a marketplace.” Jesus rebukes them. In an instant, not only the intensity of the moment increases but the whole mystery of what Jesus means by the words ‘My Father’s House’ also deepens.

In the conversation between Jesus and his interlocutors over their use of the temple, Jesus goes one step deeper into this mystery of ‘My Father’s House.’ To the complete amazement of all who were  there, already perplexed by His zeal in defending the Temple, Jesus  adds: “Destroy this Temple, and I will raise it again in three days.” “That is not only an impossibility, but it is also entirely irrational” retorted His enemies.

It is John, known as ‘the beloved disciple,’ who enlightens us all with the most gracious of all promises. According to John, Jesus opens the door into a greater mystery than any that has gone before.  And invites us to join Him! ” Jesus,” John informs us, is using another word now to convey the thought of  “the temple,” “the House Of God,” “My Father’s House” He now uses the words ” My Body” to convey the same meaning. Here is the most glorious of all Christian truths. Here is the very epitome of the Gospel encapsulated for us and in us! It is the assimilation of the same mystery that changes bricks and mortar from being a structure in time and space to an edifice constructed to impart the Mysterium Tremendum, the transcendent, divine Presence. The divine mystery begins to unfold further revealing the ultimate challenge. Philip said to Jesus, “Show us the Father and that will satisfy us.” Jesus responded He who has seen me had seen the Father! Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and that the Father is in me?”. (John 14: 8 – 12 ). In the final analysis is this, not the ‘ raison d’etre’ for every follower of Christ. Is our mission not merely to show the world around signs of Christ’s likeness but to be the Father who alone makes it possible for anyone to show anything of Christ’s image. I believe that Jesus’ challenge to each of His followers is to be able to say,” He who has seen me has seen the Father”! This proposition is successfully engaged by those willing to throw wide the doors of their lives and permit the Father to make His Dwelling place within. With that complete, we will go forward with one melodious song always echoing: ” In God’s House Forever more my dwelling p[lace will be “! (Psalm 23:6)
Harriet Auber expresses this great  truth:

He came sweet influence to impart,
A gracious, willing Guest,
While He can find one humble heart
Wherein to rest.

And every virtue we possess,
And every victory won,
And every thought of Holiness
Are His alone.

Spirit of purity and grace,
Our weakness pitying see;
O make our hearts Thy dwelling – place,
And worthier Thee. Amen.  (3)

________________________

1. Holy Bible NIV  Here and in all other instances, the   quotations from the Holy Bible are from the New
International Version NIV
2.   Rudolf Otto, German theologian in THE IDEA OF

THE  HOLY. w.w.w. bytrentsacred.co.uk>otto: The Idea of the Holy
3.    Harriet Auber in Our Blest Redeemer stanzas

1,3&6. #162
in HYMNARY, United Church Of Canada.

John3:8 The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit. (1)

Modern day science does much to satisfy our intellectual inquiry about the wind – the whys and the wherefores.
-But who can unravel the mystery of the cool evening breeze that seems like the brush of an angel’s wing on our bodies after a scorching summer day?

-Who will speak of the unseen hand in the gentle breeze that tousles one’s hair when he is all alone in his boat on the bay, and the crimson sunset is all around him, and the seagulls are calling?

Who can explain the loving transport of sons, fathers and brothers into the inner sanctum of one’s soul when fierce gales known too well by those who go down to the sea in ships threaten to harm them? (2)

I have listened to the sound of the wind and tried to understand the mystery that lies beyond it. When a person speaks it is not the mere sound of the words that are of the most significant importance; it is what the words are meant to convey: the thought, the idea, or some truth which continues long after the sound of expression has long vanished.

William Wordsworth  gives a poignant expression of this truth as he relates his admiration of Nature:

“I have felt
A presence that disturbs me with the joy
Of elevated thoughts: A sense sublime
Of something far more deeply interfused,
Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns,
And the round ocean and the living air,
And the blue sky, and the mind of man;
A motion and a spirit, that impels all things,
All objects of  all thought, And rolls through all things”. (3)

Jesus urges Nicodemus to listen to the sound of the wind.
That is more than a verbal invitation to listen to the murmuring of the wind; Nicodemus (a scholar of The Jewish religious expression) knows that the Hebrew words for ‘wind’ and ‘Spirit’ derive from the same root. Therefore, Jesus is preparing Nicodemus for a deeper and more profound experience of The Spirit.

I have heard that wind!  It is entirely different from the wind that billows the sheets drying on a clothesline and sometimes uproots trees and flings the salt spray high into the air. This other wind gently touched my Spirit, and when I listened,  as I eventfully learned to do, the sound I heard was the sound of my name on the lips of God. This wind, the breath of God, is far more potent than the strongest gale that ever ripped its destructive path through forests or destroyed cities and towns. The Breath of God is the epitome of unconditional love.

The Breath Of God is even now whispering in each person’s life! It has power to transform your terror into calm, to cast your frightening storms and impregnable mountains into the sea of forgetfulness. (4) The breath of God at work in all creation results in the sparrow building its fragile nest on the altar of God for protection from the wind’s fierce fury. (5)  This wind is blowing for everyone, but everyone must hear it themselves!  I imagine Jesus’  conversation with Nicodemus went something like this: ‘I know that you have been seeking the power and glory of the transformed life. Nicodemus. But do not permit anything to distract you, like the empty noises of the wind. It is easy to become distracted by the sounds of this world that are no more than the vacant sound of the wind. I am with you, listen now to the sound of God whispering your name!

Prayer To Follow This Meditation

O God, Whose creative Spirit once hovered over the formless void to create this beautiful earth. Come closer to us now and create such beauty in us that the sound of our voices will blend in with all things that join in singing a Hallelujah chorus for the Glory of God and the hope of restoring beauty to Your whole creation once more. Amen
Editorial Notes

1. The Holy Bible. NIV. John 3:8 p.636
2.  The Holy Bible.NIV. see  Psalm:107: 23-31p.935
3. William Wordsworth. https://interestingliterature.com/2018/11/tintern-abbey-a-poem-by-william-wordsworth
4. The Holy Bible. NIV. See Psalm 46:1-3 p.870

 

Psalm 125: 2 – As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds His people both now and forevermore. (1)

This text creates powerful images of home for me! The most beautiful spot in all the world to me is girdled round by hills that end on either side of two massive headlands thrusting into an open sea. The village lies surrounded by hills except for that one window that opens toward the sea; that is the place of my boyhood.

As a youth growing up there, one of my favorite hymns was:

Ye fair green hills of Galilee,
That girdle quiet Nazareth,
What glorious visions did ye see,
When He who conquered sin and death
Your flowery slopes and summits trod,
And grew in grace with man and God? (2)

Perhaps, even then, so many years ago, I felt the mysterious strength of the hills and experienced something of the nearness of the Divine presence.

The writer of Psalm 125 joins our company to celebrate the mystery and majesty of the mountains; he offers the most beautiful metaphor ever: “Like the hills that surround Jerusalem, so God surrounds His people both now and always!”
There you have it! We are one with God! Nothing else matters if you know that!Without that knowledge of God, life is incredibly barren!

This same image that evokes such warmth in the secret places of our being also provokes our most severe criticism of the eternal. There emerges the strange dichotomy of a love-hate relationship. We demand to know: How can we be surrounded by God, shut in with the eternal, and still be in the presence of such sorrow, such devastation, such hatred, such inexpressible tragedy, such crippling fears?

Our inquisition stops when the shadow of a cross appears upon a barren hill. That unbelievable happening confounds us. It is not in some far-flung reaches of the kingdom, beyond the surveillance of God, some domain that the devil has managed to wrest from the ownership of God, that this deed takes place. But this execution is carried out in the same Jerusalem of which the Psalmist said: “As the hills surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds His people both now and always.” It all happened within the encirclement of God’s everlasting arms. God permits the forces of evil to gather for their most vicious assault upon God’s sovereign rule. The forces will yet experience the victory of God: And He will reign forever and forever!

The arms that surrounded God’s people remained steadfast! God still embraced those who performed this deed. “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

The Gospel sounds with clarity like a thousand silver trumpets on the frosty air of morn. Evil did not defeat Him! God is still in control! Evil is conquered and is taken a prisoner in the arms that remain stronger than even death itself. “Father, into Your hands I commend my spirit” Jesus prayed at last.

And, for us? Here is the experience the hymn writer, George Matheson, knew, and thousands of others like him:
O Love that wilt is not let me go,
I rest my weary soul in Thee;
I give Thee back the life I owe,
That in Thine ocean depths its flow,
May richer, fuller be. (3)

Is that not our only comfort forever? When the darkness of uncertainty overshadows, when we are tempted to be fearful for ourselves and those we love, when a thousand questions chase away the last signs of sleep, when we think about the child about to leave home for the first time and we ponder their preparedness for their new journey; where then shall we turn for comfort if not to the faith that tells us we can never drift beyond His love and care?It is not pedantic or childish to place them and ourselves in the hands of God, knowing that He will make known to all the clasp of His everlasting arms!

What if the far country extends its boundaries, tempting our sons and daughters beyond their endurance? Perhaps the enduring qualities of friendship may not be as dependable as once they were. We cannot bear to think of our children abandoned and alone, maybe hungry and cold. Temptations call even now from the doors of our homes. Now is the time to train ourselves and our children to be faithful and firm in the faith that we are never alone. It may appear that temptation and evil reign, but the victory is won by God.

Perhaps we have been negligent in proclaiming a Theology of Victory? We may not have fully understood the importance of David’s vision in the twenty-third Psalm: “(God) prepare(s) for me a table in the presence of my enemies” (4). Here there is celebrating the victory of God while in the company of the enemy. That is what needs to be happening in this hour! David’s vision is merely a shadow of the victory God has accomplished through Jesus Christ. If the hills of Jerusalem mirror the constant presence of God surrounding His people forever more, then the cross spans eons to bring that blessing to us. The victory of Jesus is for each one of us. The power of God’s spirit in Jesus challenges the world to look up and see that God’s arms surround us still and herein is our victory.The victory is already God’s! We need to appropriate it! We must proclaim it!

Our mission is to remind ourselves, our children, and the children of others, that the ultimate meaning of life impinges upon the discovery of God’s everlasting arms, epitomizing unconditional love. Jesus’s story of the prodigal son is as relevant now as  ever. “I will arise, and go to my Father.”

Finally, the text throws more than a few effulgent rays upon what one day will be the last mile of our life’s journey toward the everlasting hills. It will be the same hills; the same arms are waiting to give that final embrace! We travel from God to God, as Wordsworth reminds us. If we set out in the morning of life, seeking His presence to accompany us, in the future, when the way is rough and the testing is severe, we inadvertently discover His loving arms, and then we can be certain of them forever!

Concerning all this, St. Paul wrote, “Now we know in part, then shall we know even as we are known! When that day dawns and the shadows flee, may we know that we go to walk among hills well known to us, and there we will lie down and rest awhile!

Still, still with Thee, when purple morning breaketh, (5)
When the bird waketh, and the shadows flee;
Fairer than morning, lovelier than daylight,
Dawns the sweet consciousness, I am with Thee.

Alone with Thee, amid the mystic shadows,
The solemn hush of nature newly born;
Alone with Thee in breathless adoration,
In the calm dew and freshness of the morn.

Still, still with Thee! As to each newborn morning
A fresh and solemn splendor still is given,
So does this blessed’ consciousness awaking,
Breathe each day nearness unto Thee and heaven.

So shall it be at last, in that bright morning,
When the soul waketh, and life’s shadows flee;
O in that hour, fairer than daylight dawning,
Shall rise the glorious thought – I am with Thee.

(Excerpts from a sermon preached at Nashwaaksis United Church)
____________________________________________________
1. Holy Bible, NIV. Psalm 125 :2
2. Eustace Rogers Conder, “Ye Fair Green Hills Of Galilee” #84 p71. The Hymnary: The United Church Of Canada.
3. George Mattheson, “O Love That Wilt Not Let Me Go”
vs 1 #84  p.71. The Hymnary. The United Church Of Canada.
4. Holy Bible. NIV. Psalm 23: 5
5. Harriet Beecher Stowe. “Still, Still With Thee” #539 p435.
The Hymnary. The United Church Of Canada