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Bible Readings for Saturday, September 17th, 2011

– The Week of The 14th Sunday After Pentecost *Click on each bible passage to expand the text. Psalm 145:1-8 1. [Praise. Of David.] I will extol you, my God and King, and bless your name forever and ever.

2. Every day I will bless you, and praise your name forever and ever.

3. Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised; his greatness is unsearchable.

4. One generation shall laud your works to another, and shall declare your mighty acts.

5. On the glorious splendor of your majesty, and on your wondrous works, I will meditate.

6. The might of your awesome deeds shall be proclaimed, and I will declare your greatness.

7. They shall celebrate the fame of your abundant goodness, and shall sing aloud of your righteousness.

8. The LORD is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. Zephaniah 2:13-15 13. And he will stretch out his hand against the north, and destroy Assyria; and he will make Nineveh a desolation, a dry waste like the desert.

14. Herds shall lie down in it, every wild animal; the desert owl and the screech owl shall lodge on its capitals; the owl shall hoot at the window, the raven croak on the threshold; for its cedar work will be laid bare.

15. Is this the exultant city that lived secure, that said to itself, “I am, and there is no one else”? What a desolation it has become, a lair for wild animals! Everyone who passes by it hisses and shakes the fist. Matthew 19:23-30 23. Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly I tell you, it will be hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven.

24. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”

25. When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astounded and said, “Then who can be saved?”

26. But Jesus looked at them and said, “For mortals it is impossible, but for God all things are possible.”

27. Then Peter said in reply, “Look, we have left everything and followed you. What then will we have?”

28. Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man is seated on the throne of his glory, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

29. And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold, and will inherit eternal life.

30. But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.

Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised; his greatness is unsearchable. – Psalm 145:3

Is this the exultant city that lived secure, that said to itself, “I am, and there is no one else”? What a desolation it has become, a lair for wild animals! Everyone who passes by it hisses and shakes the fist. – Zephaniah 2:15

But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first. – Matthew 19:30

Yeshua’s Language of Allegory and Symbol

My God is a frustrating God!

Always a God of allegory and riddle, opposites and purposeful dissonance. Nothing is immediately clear, no seeming truth ever stays what is seems. Yeshua layered his Great Truths in a way that each “Eureka!” of understanding brings another puzzle, another seemingly contradictory statement.

But it’s what we need.

The humans heart does not think as clearly in the spoken word as it can in the language of music. And the power of music to communicate to the human heart pales in comparison to the language of symbol and allegory.

Symbol and allegory is the language of the divine, able to communicate vast tracts of unspoken meaning to a heart that is not even conscious it is being taught! And what glory, then, is reserved for the heart which is aware of the moment, actively learning through the presentation of parable.

Why then did Yeshua love to teach in parable and allegory? Because it was difficult to unravel the meaning immediately. Like a sword that sits unused, time and lack of care will dull it’s edges, so goes the spiritual heart, mind and soul if neglected. Alas, the renewal of the razor-edge of the sword cannot be immediate, for we possess no such faculties. The sword must be cleaned, edges straightened, and carefully sharpened. These things take time to accomplish, as should the unraveling of a set of holy allegories!

The first will be last, and the last will be first.

In our reading today from Matthew 19 Yeshua utters this seemingly cliche sentence:

Matthew 19 30. But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.

Yeshua choose to couch the saying in the context of worldly wealth and sacrifice, but the deeper meaning is much more expansive: the Kingdom of God is a Kingdom of opposites. Why? Because it is through experiencing the dichotomies of life that the human soul can become more and more complete. It is good to know “both sides of the coin”.

But this is not always possible in a single human life. Therefore some world religions have opted for reincarnation as a solution: the repetitive rebirth of a soul into material existence until the soul can learn all the lessons of the Truth. This is a beautiful view of the purpose of life, and it imbues the practitioner of these faiths with a hard-wired sense of purpose as well. They work everyday towards the willful and intentional refinement of their soul and the attainment of Nirvana.

Alas, this simple purpose is more muddled in Western faiths.

We do not believe in reincarnation. The soul gets one game, no overtime. Learn what you can learn, do what you can do and love what you can love before the game-clock runs out. But what then, is the mechanism for perfecting the human soul in Western religion? Are we simply to remain unchanged and never attain holistic fulfillment? No, as Yeshua teaches, “But Jesus looked at them and said, “For mortals it is impossible, but for God all things are possible.” (Mt. 19:26)

We’ve also lost the concept of our “Nirvana”, our Kingdom of God on Earth. For just as Nirvana wasn’t relegated to “somewhere else” – it could be attained and experienced in this life – so too the Kingdom of God can be experienced in this life. And our lives could be similarly imbued with the divine purpose of realizing the Kingdom!

But alas, we have relegated the Kingdom of God to “somewhere else” – after death.

Similarly, we have reduced the scope of “the first will be last, and the last will be first” to the realm of material possessions. Yes, yes, the scripture itself directly teaches that this is in reference to possessions, but we are taught to look past the first scriptural layer and look deeper… always.

The purpose of opposites in the Kingdom of Heaven as well as the Kingdom of God on Earth is to teach the spiritual heart exactly what it needs to know:

Possible “Opposites” Experienced in the Kingdom of Heaven The soul who was rich in life becomes poor for a time to learn charity and the need for Grace.

The soul who was poor in life becomes rich in life to learn generosity and the cost of greed.

The soul who ruled others in life becomes the servant to learn humility and selflessness.

The soul who served in life becomes the ruler to learn leadership and the cost of choices.

The soul who was violent in life becomes the victim to learn mercy and to stand against violence.

The soul who was a victim in life becomes the abuser to learn hate and to control it.

The soul who was a man in life becomes a woman to know beauty, wisdom and what it means to nurture.

The soul who was a woman in life becomes a man to know brute strength and logic.

There are many, many more possible “opposites” of the Kingdom, and it would behoove every human soul to meditate on those endless possibilities daily, as a reminder of our short-comings and their diametric opposites. For it is through learning the opposite of hate – love – that we defeat hate. Through charity we defeat greed. Through selflessness we defeat selfishness… and so on…

And the truly great news is that the experiencing of all these “opposites” is possible in one human lifetime. An enlightened soul is one who has experience to many opposites that they transcend the generic human descriptors and understandings and enter the realm of the divine. I can sense I’ve started down this path because Yeshua’s teachings are slowly starting to make more and more sense, and in an interconnected fashion as well.

To what end? For salvation? No, that is accomplished.

For the sake of the world, for the sake of others, for the sake of the Kingdom.

Thanks be to God!