March 2019 – Clinging To The Rock

INTEGRATION AND AUTHORITY

Mark 1: 21-22; 27 – 28 “They went to Capernaum, and when the Sabbath came, Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach. The people were all so amazed that they asked each other, “What is this? A new teaching -and with authority! He even gives orders to impure spirits and they obey him. News about him spread quickly over the whole region of Galilee.”

I am not at all surprised that word about Jesus spread quickly following this incident under our consideration here.
The performance of miracles is, beyond dispute, a recognizable drawing card for multitudes who embraced the infant Christian faith. Tragically we have over time, and more critically at present, permitted the erosion of Christian faith. Multitudes have become content with owning ” a wooden Christ upon a wooden cross.” Whenever people today take Jesus Christ with real seriousness, miracles happen as they did 2000 years ago. “The person who does not believe in such miracles, cannot pray. We fail to take the promises of God seriously.” (1)
The miracle that occurs in this incident must not be fixated upon a cursory observation of the reparation of a personal ailment, as essential and as possible as that healing remains for anyone even today. This incident, taken in its entirety, addresses more than that. It reveals how, in Jesus Christ, body, mind, and spirit are integrated. On the occasion of being asked, “Of all the commandments which is the most important?” Jesus’ response is: “Love the Lord thy God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” Jesus’ answer, thus involves the whole self in response.
The occasion of this incident is the hour of Sabbath worship in the city of Capernaum. In Worship, the desire is to produce integration within the individual worshipper. The environmental mantra in the spoken word, in singing and contemplation, instills a sense of God’s Presence which evokes the essence of the first and greatest commandment. This required surrender to Presence allows God to access every phase of a person’s self, thereby initiating a complete integration.

Approaching worship with that expectation would change completely our ‘ church going’ experience! For without the integrated self we remain the divided, ineffective, indecisive beings, and something less than God’s prescription for His Kingdom builders.
There was a compelling milieu in the Capernaum Synagogue on that Sabbath Day, bringing many of the worshippers present, to the very doorstep of admission into ‘the higher self.’ The people present had no difficulty identifying what was different about the moment. It was the authority in the way Jesus presented both Himself and subsequently the message He delivered! The secret they quickly and rightly observed came from a wholly integrated self. They witnessed in Jesus the example par excellence of the fulfillment of the greatest Commandment: “Love the Lord thy God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’
The daunting expectation inside the synagogue became almost palpable! The longing for personal integration was showing itself everywhere. To be like Him, knit together; to have a single focus; to be ONE instead of owning the name Legion, was captivating beyond words! There was little doubt that Heaven had ‘ come down their souls to greet.”

Then that sacred moment is intercepted by the disturbing evidence of human disintegration. The stark evidence of human brokenness could wait no longer to present itself.
“Just then a man in their synagogue who was possessed by an impure spirit cried out, “What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are-the Holy One of God!” ( Mark 1: 23 – 24)

Notice the symptoms of this poor fellows’ disintegration. In the first instance, something inside of him recommends to him the fellowship of believers. And as wanting as his understanding of why this is, Hope remains. Tucked away in his mind there are memories of religious affiliations and perceptions as incomplete as they are. He vocalized theological concepts wich some of the more pious attendees did not embrace: ” I know who you are – the Holy One Of God.” ( Mark 1:24)

While there are many positive attributes present here, they are but individual building blocks, waiting to formed into a temple of the Living God. There are words here longing to find expression with authority. It remains true to this present moment that now is the right time, this, the right place, and the right Person is present to perform the miracle of integration, and He waits to authenticate one more builder of the Father’s Kingdom!

PRAYER TO FOLLOW THIS MEDITATION

Holy God, You hovered over the formless void at creation until the earth appeared in the Cosmos, as something that brought rejoicing to Your heart of Love.

Let your Holy Spirit hover over me, Until I am the creation of Your desire, thereby bringing You honor and glory.

Let Your love hold my thought processes captive until my heart refuses to germinate the seeds of hatred, scorn, and segregation towards anyone.

Burden my mind with the understanding of how quickly and how easily, the slightest expression of hatred, spreads on social media throughout the world; and further, to remember the sub-human consequences that often follow our” INNOCENT” expressions of so-called”Free Speech.”

Knit me together once more, entirely, from start to finish, not using the materials of worldly ambition, over-powering political jargon, and with that unhealthy portion of suspicion of everyone else and everything. But rather, knit me together from the materials that outlast all generations namely, from, Faith, Hope, and Love.

Father, forgive us for breaking the world and for reducing it to a mass of Lego-like blocks! We cannot put it back together on our own, because it’s our own disintegration and loss of our God-given authority that has produced this present state. This undertaking depends upon Integrated people, authenticated byYour power in Jesus Christ. Here I am Lord, I hear You calling in the night! I will go and You will lead me! For the sake of You Love in Jesus Christ we pray.Amen.

Hymn: Nearer, My God To Thee

https://youtu.be/v1mQT1u_45I

EDITORIAL NOTES

It will be helpful to the reader in understanding the Meditation in this post if the suggested Scripture be read in advance.All Scripture references throughout are from The New International Translation.

This is not a direct quote but a reflection of a thought expressed by Emil Brunner in OUR FAITH. https://www.christianbook.com/our-faith-emil-brunner/9780334047490/pd/047493
Hymn: Nearer My God To Thee https://www.doovi.com/video/andre-rieu-nearer-my-god-to-thee-live/v1mQT1u_45I
Photo: under the auspices of my friend William Tibbo of Grand Bank. Many thanks for this magnificent photo, my friend.

IMPRISONED SPLENDOR

Suggested Scripture Readings: Numbers 20: 1-20;
John 14: 1 – 14

Scripture Reference: NUMBERS 20: 11 Then Moses raised his arm and struck the rock twice with his staff. Water gushed out, and the community and their livestock drank. (1)

This rock appears to be quite ordinary in every respect. It was just another large chunk of lifeless granite. It offered no relief, whatsoever, from the monotonous stretches of desert aridity, as far as the eye could see in every direction.
The landscape prompted a somewhat menacing suggestion of the Creator, who, having wearied of sharing lifelessness more uniformly throughout creation, had just left rocks and burning sand everywhere on this desert floor. Could this landscape veil an even more ominous fact? Following unwittingly their self-acclaimed leader, Moses, from Egypt to some ever-receding destiny, would not these travelers leave their fossilized remains on the desert floor, as one more stark reminder of the reward of foolhardiness?

It is not an entirely unknown phenomenon that humans often bear revealing evidence of the surroundings they experience, and the fortunes or misfortunes that reward them. Deprivation, here in this text, is the hallmark of the Hebrews’ present experience. Food and water are in dangerously short supply, and the daily vision of the lifeless desert does nothing to quench their thirst; to lessen their pangs of hunger or to provide an appropriate setting to talk about God! The ubiquitous whispers of death creep through their souls!

I have observed the evidence of the environmental phenomenon on the faces of some of the residents of a large fishing community which I once served. Several sea disasters had left many families bereft of their loved ones. The pathos that follows such a disaster is captured forcefully in a poem by E.J. Pratt, a Newfoundland poet.

” Erosion” (1931)
“It took the sea a thousand years,
A thousand years to trace
The granite features of this cliff,
In crag and scarp and base.

It took the sea an hour one night,

An hour of storm to place
The sculpture of these granite seams
Upon a woman’s face.” (2)

Neither is it hard to imagine how vulnerable those Hebrews felt! What human resources can be mustered to meet the stark prospect of certain death, made visible by the stark nothingness of the desert! Fearfully they turn to Moses, the leader of this expedition. ” Why did you not leave us alone, in Egypt? Slaves, indeed we were there, but we were slaves who had food and water! There we had life, but here, there is nothing for us but certain death! You and your glib talk about ‘ God’ and a land of hope and promise somewhere ahead! What can even God do in the face of desert dryness? Tell us, Moses, Can He reverse the onward march of death, towards us?”

Let’s face it with them! There are times when we do feel vulnerable, when we lift our eyes and behold the vast armies set to take us down, by mocking all the dreams that have kept us ardent in our search for our promise land. Then to “Talk” about God seems like adding insult to injury! The time for mere talk about God is past! Now the demand is, ” Show us the Father, and that alone will satisfy us, nothing less will do!”
In this day and age, we may be depending too much upon
‘ words’ alone. It is why God decided,long ago, that Words are never enough! And so ” THE WORD BECAME FLESH AND DWELT AMONG US.” If words are not enough, and religious language fails to relieve the human dilemma, then what’s left? “From whence cometh our help?”

Continuing with the narrative of Moses and his Hebrew followers through the threatening desert of Zin, it bears witness to something reassuring, as well as to something awe-inspiring, in and of itself.

Further theologizing and philosophizing in answer to persistent arguments, are under ban by the Great Silencer, God Himself. Without further commentary, He commands, ” Strike the rock, there in front of you, with the rod you have in your hand, which symbolizes My presence with you all!” Moses obeys. Forthwith there gushes life-saving water, as well as the gripping evidence that God’s resources are available to the obedient. Resources are available, even though the senses strenuously deny that possibility!
Do not ever suppose that God’s imprisoned splendor shown in this inanimate object, ends with this incident in ancient history. Even more relevant for us are the words of Jesus, in the New Testament, ” Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he also do; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.” ( John 14: 12). Words and deeds must never be divorced from the reality of the ” Imprisoned Splendor” of the Holy Spirit in the souls of those who call Him Lord. Be not surprised at the life-giving stream that results from a renewed connection to the “Imprisoned Splendor” in your life, waiting to flow forth, to bless the world. The only retardant to that life-giving flow is unbelief. All attempts to do anything less, than wait upon the Lord for the fulfillment of His promise to produce through us His Life-giving water, are like pointing to a mirage in the death-ridden desert, as a way to satisfy the thirst of a dying person!

“For what are men better than sheep or goats
That nourish a blind life within the brain,
If knowing God, they lift not hands of prayer
Both for themselves and those who call them friend?
For so the whole round earth is every way
Bound by gold chains about the feet of God.”(3)

PRAYER TO FOLLOW THIS MEDITATION

O God, of our awe-struck wonder,
Come ever closer to us now as, in this solitude, we seek to focus our shot-spanned attention upon ‘The Wonder Of It All”, as it pertains to You.
We wonder how it is possible that those same hands that formed the complex intricacies of this magnificent universe, took the time to create a baby’s smile, that fills a mother’s soul with love.

How is it possible that the clod of earth from which we are formed develops a personality and bears the likeness of God?

How is it possible that Your hands worked upon that same clod of earth turning it into ” A Temple Of The Living God?”

How can it possibly be, that even when the influences of this world turn that clod of earth into a heartless stone, You make sure that within there is a hidden splendor that will one day burst forth?

We praise You, O God, that with the tenderness and the patience that forever characterizes our Heavenly Father, You make Jesus available to be present with us. We experience all kinds of wonders. We are somewhat like children returning home from kindergarten after our first real encounter with life. Keep us wondering and keep us curious to the end of our journey. Keep our faith in Jesus strong, for to such belong the Kingdom of God. Amen.

HYMN: The Wonder Of It All ( Click)

EDITORIAL NOTES

1. It is strongly recommended that a reading of both scriptures prior to the reading of the meditation be undertaken since the story will enhance one’s understanding of the meditation

2. EROSION. poem by E.J. Pratt

E.J. Pratt: Complete Poems. ed. Sandra Djwa and R.G. Moyles. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1989.

3.’Idylls of the King’ (1842-85) ‘The Passing of Arthur’ (1869) l. 414

4. PHOTO: MUSKRAT FALLS, Newfoundland And Labrador