Pentecost - Queen of Days

Every year we squeeze ourselves into that upper room and wait. We imagine how wonderful it will be to instantly speak another language; this year I hope it is Italian. Every year we wonder what it really looked liked to see tongues of fire hovering over men's heads. Every year we are amazed and grateful.

This year let's fly to the throne room in heaven, behind the curtain of this firmament and visit God as He prepares to penetrate men's souls.

On the wings of this wish and prayer our hearts soar. Hold my hand, let us dare to approach the conference room where the Holy Trinity has gathered. Sh..., listen to that mighty wind about to descend to earth. It reminds me of the wind of God that swept over the waters on the first day of creation. Can you hear God speak?

"Today I will baptize My people with My Spirit and with fire. We will undo the separation among men that I caused at the tower of Babel. They will be reunited with each other in understanding even as they are reunited with Me.  I will bring together men of all nations Africans and Asians, Arabs and Greeks, Jews and Romans; no man shall be overlooked.  To commemorate the day in which I handed my Laws to Moses I distribute My Spirit to all people. Correctly is it written that from this day forth men will no longer need books because I will write My precepts on their hearts."

As I listened, I thought, "Who can hear these words and not be shaken to the core?" then I heard God speak again.

"From this day forth, everyone who calls on My name shall be saved from destruction at the end of the age. To them I will make known the ways of life and make them full of gladness with My presence. Look below and see the peoples gather to repent and be baptized one by one.  Now let each man receive that which You Jesus promised when You said that it is to mankind's advantage that You go away so that the Advocate could be sent.  Spirit of truth the hour has come for You to go forth upon the earth to guide men in all truth and to help them unto the ages of the ages."

Suddenly I was blinded by a great light and I felt myself falling through the skies. The mighty wind was carrying me back to earth. Time was going by, but it was a pure empty kind of time. A kind of time that I never before experienced. I felt peaceful in its emptiness. Then sound entered our space. Just as I felt the earth approaching, I heard God's say, "On this day I give birth to my Bride, the Church."

Ascension-The Homecoming

“Oh the Son is coming back, the Son is coming back. How glad the Father will be. How joyous the Son. Lets us prepare for His return,” exclaimed Angel Sebastian.

The angels and archangels in heaven were elated when Gabriel told them that the time had come for Jesus to return. You never saw such merriment. The expedition into humanity and onto earth had been a kind of death to them who missed the Son the most. Some of the angels had gone down to participate in the Grand Mission, but most were only given reports of Christ’s activities.

It wasn’t enough to watch Him and to minister to Him in His most difficult hours. They wanted Him back so heaven could be “normal” again.

The Holy Spirit heard that sentiment and corrected Sebastian saying, “It will never again be as it was. Oh, of course We are happy to receive the Son into Our arms, there is much to discuss about the Mission. However, now I must leave to travel the face of the earth, and soon our heavenly realm will be populated with human souls. You must help them to adjust to life here. No, it will never be the same again.”

At that the bellowing sound of French horns, tubas, and trumpets invaded the air heralding the coming of the King of Kings. All the angels quickly fell into formation in rows and rows of Powers flanking the last miles of the pathway to the golden entrance of the heavenly kingdom. Once past the entrance into the kingdom, the Powers were replaced by rows of Principalities who for this occasion were permitted to leave their guard over the nations and leaders of the world.  Behind the Principalities were three rows of Archangels lead by Michael and Gabriel.

Flanking the entrance of the Throne Room for this holiest of occasions hovered the cherubim in disciplined stillness but not in silence. Stringed instruments played Beethoven’s 6^th Symphony, the Pastoral. Beyond the entrance on pedestals stood two majestic thrones with bright red sapphires and sparkling emeralds, amethysts and topaz jewels embedded into the purest gold frame the eye of man has ever beheld.

Hugging these two thrones, except for the wide isle in front of it, were rows of Seraphim to greet the Lord of Hosts, the Chief Commander of all angelic beings. The Throne usually stand around the throne of God, those four winged and four faced charioteers with their fat cheeked faces, who sparkle like the color of burnished brass. Not today. The thrones will return to their posts after the festivities.

Of all the ranks of angels only the guardian angels had to stay back on earth; who could not be involved in the home coming.

“Here they come; here they come!”  Indeed, the brilliant shining Virtues were seen escorting the ascending Christ to the throne of God the Father.

As the Christ approached the throne room, sections of angels followed sections of angels chanting Hosanna in the highest, alternately with long melodious chants of Alleluia.

Only the Seraphim could actually see the face of God when His eyes first beheld the return of His Son, and the holy hug that followed the Son’s deep lunge to His knee.

Following the blessed greeting the Son took His place on His own throne nestled in the sound of all the angels cheering together, and all the instruments sounding, and all the wings fluttering, and all the trumpets trumpeting. This was no cacophony but a rather a symphony of activity so strong and so beautiful that it was hard to believe how quickly the silence returned at the sound of a bell.

God spoke. “There is work to be done. The earth phase of My Son’s mission was only the beginning of the My purpose to immortalize humanity. For now, we celebrate.”

The Son never looked so radiant, so peaceful and so at home. 

I God You my Valentine

When a child I was told that God is love. That information made me feel all warm and fuzzy. I imagined that it meant He was like my Teddy Bear who always smiled and let me hug him all night without squirming away.

When Jesus said to love my enemies, to be good to them because God is kind to the ungrateful and wicked I had to think just a little bit harder about what love is. I wondered if God is kind to me when I am ungrateful and wicked; if He patiently waits for me to be kind too. God’s love is not as void as my Teddy Bear’s.

Love has to overcome some pretty powerful resistance to be itself. Being impatient and angry is like sledding down a snowy hill, when really love is walking back up. I suppose I would much rather be loved then to love others.

If I can be loved by God and anyone else who is foolish enough to try hard to become like God who loves His enemies, the wicked and ungrateful, then I don’t have to do anything at all.  I can even be unkind and wicked. I can lie and cheat and steal and hate my sister and God will still love me because He can’t help Himself. He is love and the only way He relates to anyone is via the love channel.

God’s love for each person is a compulsive love which sometimes is appreciated and reciprocated and sometimes it is ignored. Poor God.

I think God tries very hard to be loved and I feel sorry for Him because He doesn’t have anyone above Him, like His own God who must love Him no matter what He does. The way I see it, God works hard for our love.  He teaches, and gives amazing gifts and He heals. These are some of the reasons I love Him so much. I know I can trust Him because He is honest, He never ever lies to me.

I am so happy to know that I don’t have to work as hard to be loveable as God does. I suppose one of the reasons that God wants people to follow Him, to be exactly like Him is for the relief He experiences of being loved no matter what happens in their lives, even bad things that aren’t fixed right away like sickness and poverty or even loneliness.

Okay, I won’t be silly anymore because those thoughts make me feel too sad; it is all so unfair.

God is love. I want to be like Him, just like Him in every way, even when it means climbing up a snowy hill, and loving people who are mean to me or ignore me just as He does. This way God will know He found someone in me that loves Him too, no matter what.

My dear Valentine, you don’t have to be a Teddy Bear for me to love you because of what God taught me. But it would help. :-)    

The Slow Birth of the Bride

It is written that God made man on the sixth day, and that it was a terrible disappointment how he turned out because man disobeyed God’s warning not to eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, so the man and his woman died of distrust and disobedience. God does not make mistakes. He knew that was only the first step in the creation of His most glorious opus—self replication for the purpose of creating His Bride.

After many thousands of years when the creation had time to settle in, God’s magnificent endeavor was ready for the next phase. During Passover, the miraculous escape from the tyranny of slavery of the children of Abraham-Isaac-n-Jacob extracted from humankind a chosen body.

Fifty days after Passover Moses brought down from the mountain Sinai the Tablets of Law. Shavuot is marked by the harvest of winter wheat, the Festival of Reaping. From His place on high God sent wheat and words to live by. The Lord provides. The chosen were to replicate God by being Law abiding people. Heppy Shavout or as the Greek-Jews would say, ‘Heppy Pentecost.’

After many thousands of years when the chosen of God had time to settle in, His magnificent endeavor was ready for the next phase. Just as the first step of the sixth day birth of mankind was not a failure; the second step of replication by Law was not a failure either. They were the slow deliberate steps-necessary for the formation of the immortal Bride of God, a single golden thread of light glimmering in the woof and weave of earthly life. Birth takes time.

The third trimester began at Pascha/Easter after the miraculous escape of the natural body from the tyranny of death by the archetypal Golden One among the chosen ones, the immortal Christ Jesus.

Fifty days later, from a mountaintop light-years higher than Sinai, the gift of the Law was supplemented by the gift of the Holy Spirit. God’s opus to create His Bride, His helpmeet, His counterpart was complete. She was born in a room filled with men of the Law of Likeness. She spoke in words everyone could understand. She was crowned with tongues of fire. This Bride of God gives birth to children of God, filled with His Holy Spirit to replicate Him throughout the world and unto the ages of the ages!

This, my aspiring immortal friend is why and how it took so very long for God’s Bride to be born. The Pentecost of the Law and the Pentecost of the Spirit mark release from slavery into freedom, from darkness into light, and release from mortality to immortality with one purpose, to replicate God in His Bride.  In English Her name is Church, Ecclesia in Greek. She is Jewish and she is gentile. E pluribus Unum, ‘Out of many, One.’ She is One, Holy, Universal, and Apostolic, a genuine beauty!

Heppy Birthday Bride of God. Let’s get our white gown ready! I hear the Bride Groom coming!

We Are Risen!

  

Alleluia. Christ is risen! Since we, the baptized and aspiring immortals, died with Christ, then what does it mean for us to be risen?

Christ came back from the dead and ate and drank with people to prove He wasn’t dead. When we were baptized we put on new clothes and received communion (like Christ ate too). He stayed for forty days back in this old time zone, but for me it has been decades.

The SURPRISE moment of showing up again after being taken for dead, was so much fun, but surprises wear off fast and then you’re just at the party. What next for us after the crucifixion/baptism?

Hint please.

Okay John, what did you say in your gospel? “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of will of man but of God.”

I was reborn into this world by the will of God, a new kind of human being, a new creation. Mmmm…what does that mean?

Okay Paul, help me out. “So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And He has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making His appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.”Corinthians

Wait, I think it’s becoming clear! Christ stayed in the time zone for 40 more days after shocking the world with His return from the dead. But since I died with him, and you too, then we are as good as Christ having united with Him at the crucifixion/baptism and so from God’s point of view we are Christ’s ambassadors on earth whose job it is to continue to reconcile people to God, the Father--with the help of the Holy Spirit. (Thank God!)

Easier said than done!

I spent all of Lent trying to know what it means to be in Christ and to have Him in me, when all along, we are not two people joined together like partners but more like one new kind of person. I was trying to find Christ in me when all along I should have picked up my mystical mirror. No wonder I had such a tough time; all of me is He. When He returned and looked like a stranger He showed us that it doesn’t matter how different we look from Christ, He can still be us, and people can recognize Him in each of us.  

I don’t mean to sound like a cynic, but how can I, a twenty-first century Christ, reconcile others to God without the healing power (God knows I’ve tried) and all the other miracles. I’m sure it would have been hard, even for Christ to be so effective in reconciling people to God if He didn’t help them out in so many miraculous ways.

Perhaps He didn’t reconcile human beings to God through the miracles. He reconciled humanity to God by sacrificing His life for them. I can’t die or be baptized again, but I can put others first and I can show them the way to Kingdom Come, because I know the way and so do you.

This is the bottom line. We aspiring immortals are the only Christ some people will ever know.  Rise and shine!

Rise and Shine

Every August I feel like a stretched rubber band that snaps back from Transfiguration amazement to Mary-land of my mind. In the evenings me and my aspiring immortal friends get together and sing her to sleep, her own special night’s sleep that wakes her up near her Son again. I love to imagine Elijah hopping in his chariot yoked to magical white horses and flying up to God, only mother Mary is in there with him too.

No cancerous pain to battle, no stinky cold hospital room, no box for the cold stiff shell to be stored in or no hopeless fire to ashify! I know that a whole big lot of people think it’s a good idea to be burned after they leave their bodies, but I wonder if that isn’t like saying either, “I don’t believe the part where our bones will rise from their graves and God will dress them with new flesh.” Or, they think that God can put the ashes together just as well.

Nope, I don’t dare expect God to assemble a puzzle of ashes and I wish those I love the most wouldn’t either. What if expecting that is like when Satan suggested to Jesus that He fling himself from the mountain because God could catch Him. He said that He wouldn’t put God to the test. Well, I wish we aspiring immortals wouldn’t put God to that test either. I ask God for a whole lot of things that He doesn’t want to do, and He doesn’t do them. I sure don’t want to find out in the end that He doesn’t want to look for such tiny pieces of me during the most intense moments in all of history since the beginning of the world.

The best way to avoid the problem of burning or burial is to just disappear altogether like Elijah and Mary did. Mary and Elijah never had to leave their bodies at all. They just ascended when God said they were finished here, like it was time to go to Church...forever.

Maybe you and I will ascend too, like Mary and Elijah did. Of course I mean when the aspiring immortals, maybe millions of us, will meet Jesus in the sky on the last day. The most exciting thing to think about is that it can happen next week. While everyone is reading the newsy political blogs and getting all upset about this or that we are quietly packing the bags of our hearts to make sure that we love enough, forgive enough, and we are obedient enough to give our bodies the kind of lift that Mary had.

”Fret not, neither let your heart be troubled” is another way of saying, lighten up to make your hearts like helium balloons, it will make it easier to fly.

Happy Birthday Alayne.

The Wonderful Baptasion!

Today is my very favorite holy day in the whole wide world and it’s not just because August 6th was the holy day my old grandfather, Emmanuel, went to be with the Lord which I always thought was very cool! It is because God told me once a long time ago that Transfiguration Day is the culmination of the most spectacular baptism that ever did and ever will happen, of course I mean Jesus’ baptism.

Think about it. On January 6^th Jesus Christ walked into the Jordan River with John the Baptist, no sooner did he descend into the depths of the watery grave than God the Father bellowed for everyone to hear, “This is My Son in whom I am well pleased!” No greater introduction has human flesh known than that.”

But Jesus’ baptism did not end there because on August 6^th, nine months later...enough time for a baby to go from seed to ripe fruit, God lifted his Son Jesus from the holy font of the Jordan River way up high in the sky. High as the tippy top of a mountain and said it again! “This is My Son, whom I love, listen to Him.” And Jesus’ face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light.

So, the next time you see a cute baby go into the baptismal font, naked and slippery and then lifted up out of the waters and as high as the priest’s hands can lift it, be very quiet. Maybe you too will be able to hear God say, “This is my child whom I love.”

God told me, and now I am telling you that the spectacular transfiguration of Jesus was actually the finale of His amazing baptism! May this Transfiguration Day find you full of light too. Shine on!