Namaste

http://www.mikeydelamonde.com/default.aspx?date=7/25/2006

At today's vestry meeting we pondered the idea of being salt and light. This time, I read a particular phrase differently than I had before:

Matthew:5-15 No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house.

Previously I've just envisioned a basket being plopped on top, and the light being blocked. But for the first time I realized how ridiculous it would be to do what is described. Not simply because it would nullify the purpose of the lamp and waste a precious resource, but because it would be downright dangerous.

What happens if you put a basket over a flame?

Depending on the weave, the fire could go out. There might not be enough oxygen to keep it going. But if the flow of O2 is good the basket could easily catch fire. And the house, which should instead have been filled with light, could be destroyed.

If your salt loses it's saltiness, it is thrown away. Trampled. Returned to dust. Lost.

If your light is hidden under a bushel, your entire existence can be put in jeopardy. Turned to ash. Lost.

So don't do it. Don't hide your light.

Love.

Dance in being.

Add saltiness, and live.

One Holy Dwelling

Then Peter said to Jesus, "Lord, it is good for us to be here; if you wish, I will make three dwellings here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah." (Matthew 17:4)

I heard this passage as part of yesterday's gospel reading. The version we read continued on by stating that Peter didn't know what he was saying.

The cloud came next, out of which the Father spoke, instructing us to listen to His son. Then the cloud lifted, and Moses and Elijah were gone. Only Jesus remained.

Peter wanted to build dwellings, or as other translations call them booths, or even tabernacles. Three of them. One for the law, one for the prophets, and one for this newcomer, this Jesus.

Three monuments to three institutions.

But he didn't know what he was saying. There was to be only one.

One fulfillment.

One perpetual tabernacle.

Not rock to bread, but bread to Body

Sunday's readings included Matthew's account of Satan tempting Jesus in the desert, starting at verse 4:1:

At that time Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. He fasted for forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was hungry. The tempter approached and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become loaves of bread.” He said in reply, “It is written: One does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.”

I've read this passage a number of times throughout the years, without noticing the Eucharistic overtones. On Sunday I finally saw the connection but only through the last line, when I thought about Christ being THE Word, our bread, the bread of heaven.

Last night in reading it again, another piece of the Eucharistic message came through, in the words of the tempter himself.

He is jealous, Old Hairy Legs. He disdains humanity but also envies us. We humans co-operate with the Father in creating new eternal souls, something the angels can never do. Their numbers are finite, ours increase until the end of time. He doesn't like that, and yet he also looks down on our incarnation, our embodiedness. And so he tries to speak to what he perceives as fleshly weakness; Christ's hunger.

At the same time the devil seems to be hoping to lure Him into an action for which it is not yet time. He says "Go ahead, turn a stone into bread."

Jesus, of course, says no. He says that He will not turn rocks into bread, He will instead transform bread into Himself. He knows we cannot live on bread alone, not even bread that was miraculously changed from lifeless stone.

We need more.

We need bread become Word. We need Eucharist.

It awes me to continue finding these Eucharistic messages throughout the Bible, waiting to be unveiled.

(Click here for more ponderings on Satan's jealousy of humanity.)

The suffering servant

This week's OT readings center around Isaiah's suffering servant passages. On Sunday the Psalm was 22, which opens "My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?"

Matthew's passion narrative includes this phrase (in 27:46), when Jesus cries it out at about the ninth hour.

The phrase bothered me coming from His mouth. How could God abandon Him?

He couldn't.

First off, God is love, and He is Jesus' Father. He would never forsake Him. He never abandons us, let alone His own son. We only think He does, and Jesus would never be so lacking in understanding and trust.

But more importantly, God -couldn't- abandon Jesus, because Jesus -IS- God.

It would not be possible for God to abandon Himself. When one person of the Trinity is there, all three are present.

So the concept of abandonment was not possible, nor logical, nor explicable. And yet there Jesus is saying it, in black and white.

But a few years ago I found the explanation.

In Jesus' day, the psalms were sung by good Jewish families, and Psalms were referred to by stating their first line. So when Jesus hung on the cross and and said "My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?" He was not asking the Father a question. He was reminding those on the ground below Him of Psalm 22.


Psalm 22 is a prophecy of His death. But it ends exultant in the triumph of His ultimate victory.

He was telling those who loved Him that that the scriptures were being fulfilled, but that Easter was coming and not to be afraid.

The explanation made sense. I was happy.

And then a few days ago, as I thought further about this around the supper table, it occurred to me that Jesus doesn't use the word God when communicating to the other persons of the Trinity. He refers to the Father, and to the Spirit, but not to "God".

So that further cemented it for me.

It is good when confusing things get cleared up...

Day 8: So much for commitment

Given that I do not have my friend Pranayama mama's gifts, I've decided to rescind my promise to self re. posting thoughts daily unless they make worthwhile reading. I'm still committed to actually having a thought or two, I've simply changed my mind about inflicting them on you.

Today I actually have something to pass along.

Last week I wrote about hashing through Matthew 14:22-36 with a dear friend. This same friend comes to my Tuesday woman's group in which we eat breakfast, discuss the gospel reading for the day, and pray for eachother. Here's how generous God is:

Today's reading was this exact passage.

It is amazing how attentively God watches and interacts with us, and that He would ordain things in just such a way. He likes to show us that He is paying attention.

Unbelievable.

Day 5: It's hard to hear Him while rushing

No news flash this: it's hard to hear God while rushing around in the busyness of life.

Slept in today (ah bliss!) and then drove to visit my Mom for the afternoon.

I increasingly love to drive longish distances for the chance it provides to gaze at the world and think, though my thoughts didn't go very deep either to or fro. No great mystery of life solved.

Thought more about the Matthew passage in which Peter walks on water, and suspect that it might have been intended to connect with OT water miracles such as the parting of the Red Sea and the Jordan. Interesting that instead of parting the waters for Peter, He gave him power directly over them.

I still need to dig more deeply into this passage and see what Matthew was trying to tell the Jews about who Peter was.

Day 1 of a month-long voyage

I've decided to dedicate the next month to exploration of God's communication with me, and am committing myself to capturing the key message He delivers each day.

Figure if I put it out before you, my beloved reader, that I will actually do it.

So, here goes for day 1.

A dear friend has been struggling through the startup of a new ministry. The leaders of the ministry have faced a number of trials throughout the process, and one woman struggles particularly with discouragement. As my friend prayed about what she was to do to help this woman and the ministry overall, she heard from God that she should trust Him and get out of the boat. Her initial response was that she was to withdraw from leadership; that the boat was the ministry and that she was to exit it and let Him work out the details.

In typical style, she dropped that bombshell on me via text message, and then wouldn't answer my phone calls. She said she was about to send off an email about it. I pleaded via text that she slow down and pray more, not having any details about what she had heard in prayer.

The email didn't come through, and she eventually did call and fill me in. In talking with her more about Matthew 14:22-33, I pointed out that Peter did the opposite of what she would be doing. He stepped out of the relative calm and protection of the boat and into the unknown and fearful wild. Into the turmoil and drama. If she left the ministry, she would be leaving the drama instead of entering it and trusting Yeshua to bring her through. He said to Peter, and says to her, "Why did you doubt?"

The reality is that God's desire is for the discouraged woman to recognize the attacks of the evil one and begin to develop strategies for fighting them off. He desires increased freedom for her, and will grow her into that freedom through this ministry. And my friend is part of that journey toward freedom. She plays a key role in this woman's life, at this time and place. But she must walk out upon the troubled waters, and expect the miraculous to result from her obedience.

Oh, and by the way; the reason I didn't receive her resignation email? Her keyboard began acting up, and some of the keys wouldn't work. One of them was the letter "H", the first letter in the name of the ministry, and it's acronym, which she tried to type.

So what did I learn from this, on Day 1 of my own voyage of discovery? That God is -so- in charge.

Matthew 25:6

“At midnight the cry rang out: ‘Here’s the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’”