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!

Drowning on the Cross

The crucifixion of Jesus, the Son of God, is jettisoned out of the physics of date and time in our cosmos. The illusive companions, yesterday and tomorrow, are shriveled up by the luminous glory of God in His holy Now. The reason for this phenomenon is so that one by one a child of man, a child of time, can join Christ there to be given the right to grow into an immortal child of God.

Adam and Eve were created in the image and likeness of God. They foolishly distrusted Him, and then disobeyed Him. The powerful result was for them to be flung out of communion with the source of life. They were to know good and evil intimately. They chose death and they received it as do their children’s children.

God sent to earth His only begotten Son, a new Adam, who with miracles of healing and power over nature demonstrated to humankind our potential. This Son of God was given the mission to reverse the fall of man. He had to undo, death. It is not only that His body had to be murdered, no. Jesus died; He left His father for an instant when He said, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?” That instant of distrusting God sent Jesus to the realm of the dead to set mankind free. Even more importantly, Jesus allows the living to merge with Him at the only point we possibly can, at Christ-death.

This is not magic; it is mystery. Aspiring immortals enter the kingdom of God through the door of the crucifixion, one by one. As each person is born into the world one by one, each person is born into the immortal kingdom of God, one by one. No one decides for him or herself to be born, our parents and nature decide that for us. So too most people do not decide to be crucified with Christ, our parents and super-nature decide that for us. What we do with this death and rebirth as children of God may be our choice. We can live as trusting children of God forever, or we can repeat Adam and Eve’s decision to prefer a mortal path through life full of distrust of God and with the knowledge of good and evil, that certainly ends in death.

The crucifixion is not a passion play to be watched like a baseball game or an opera. It is a timeless miracle to participate in, once physically and then mentally forever.

They have stripped me; naked I came into this world; naked I am being sent from it. My dearest friends have forgotten me; no one comes to my rescue. I hear myself cry “Abba why have you forsaken me?” My parents look on with satisfied grins on their faces, Pontius Pilates both of them sending me to my death. Abba, help me! The sound of our humanity pleads with the Father. We are baptized in golden tears, drowning. We cry and wail. The fear and the pain are greater than we can bear.

I did not choose this end. I pleaded to let this cup pass from me. My father chose it for me and in my humility I obeyed.

They gape at us, onlookers in the pews, and bystanders at the foot of my cross. I see them down there, some are crying, some simply frown, others are smiling, ridiculing me in my darkest hour. I thirst and am given blood to drink.

No one seems to hear my screams. What is wrong with them! Again and again and again we are immersed, stabbed to be sure that we are really dead.

It is finished. The world is dark and still. I see children holding candles; I hear thunder and the curtain of the temple sanctuary torn in two.

Here comes a friend too late. He has come to take my corpse. He carries me like an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes. Joseph of Arimathea, why did you not come sooner to rescue me?

Look! Hollow people walking through the walls and rocks! I see my ancestors gathering near. I cry with joy! See all the people waking up out of darkness. The pain is gone, I feel warm and suddenly peaceful. 

Time stood still; there is no yesterday and no tomorrow. There is one crucifixion; there is one baptism. There is no time. The crucifixion sweeps children of God into His Kingdom.

“Or do you not know that as many as have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into his death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, even so we also shall walk in the newness of life.”  Romans Ch 6.

Amen.

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!

Pascha Eviction

I don’t know about you, but all this bright week I have felt like I have been tossed out of the Garden of Eden by the collar. I was given the boot! Door slam in my face.

In floats my guardian angel who asks me, “Now what are you going to do?”

“I want to go back, I’ll do that! I’ll find the road and when I get to the royal doors, I’ll bang real hard.”

“That won’t work,” argues my angel, “the road has been hidden. Time and times have covered it with minute-dust so that you’ll never find it.”

“Then, I’ll just sit here and wait for it to appear again.”

“Evangeline, you know that’s impossible too. No one can stand still in time.”

I am beginning to think my angel to be a bit sinister. Whose side is he on anyway?

“Well then," I am desperate for the answer I want to hear “maybe I’ll just become a vegan. Or every time I eat meat I’ll think that the poor animal died for my sin. Then maybe I can at least feel light again. Why did they tell me that I couldn’t fast? I think it was part of the plot to get rid of me. I mean they didn’t say, you don’t have to, they said it is forbidden! Don’t you think all this meat and eggs swimming around my innards are making me drunk with animalness?”

At this point in the conversation I think my angel is beginning to feel sorry for me; exactly what I was hoping would happen!

He says, “Maybe if you ate less earth food and more spirit food you’ll feel better, but I’m afraid you can’t go back. All you can do is keep walking the circle.”

Now I get whiny (even ashamed of myself.) “But the more I walk the farther away I get.”

“Today is Sunday, my child. You can go home.”

“It’s not the same, I was home, I mean the real forever-home. I want to be there. It was so wonderful and fresh and clean. Now I’m stuck back here with the news and all of these blind people who I don’t even feel sorry for anymore.”

“Evangeline, did you feel evicted then?” Now my angel is acting like a psychiatrist and I play along.

“Yes, I did!” I reply stubbornly.

“Well, Evangeline my dear. You are right. You are out here, evicted, or booted as you put it. My advice to you is to work on your own perception of where you are. When you get that chip off your shoulder that irritates you so much and weighs you down, then you’ll see the value and purpose of the eviction.” Then my angel gets mean. “Perhaps the Master was wrong to allow you to enter heaven at all. Wake up, you will find pieces of light on the circle that you can use to see more when you reach the pinnacle again. Stop fretting my child over what you have lost. You must just work on your purification out here. A little less friendly environment, a little more difficult, but you should be stronger now and more up to the task than before you visited heaven. ”

“Thank you angel. Let’s go home before they say we can’t go in there either.”

He was being very nice now as he reached for my hand. 

My Epiphany

As the Son of Man I have had to learn patience. I must wait for signs from my Father to act. These last years have travelled slowly through my soul. Day after hour-filled day of observing human life form stacks of multicolored lumens, bright pink joys, purple prayers, green labors, red sorrows. How difficult is has been to look upon the ill and not to cure them. Time forbid; slow ripening grievous cruel Time. The gymnasium of life strengthened me and taught me what I must know for this day of my theophany.

Brother John, servant of my Father, how well you have gathered the flock. How did you attract sinners like moths to a flame who shunned the synagogue with their hearts if not their bodies but rushed to your deadly life-renewing waters*?

Today I too will surrender my body to the deadly water of life that these years of waiting and maturing may disappear into the Past.

Receive me deadly water. Freely do I give you my impatience, my anonymity. Let This Body fall into your grip, that My Spirit may catapult me into the life for which I was born. I am ready.

Look at the crowds. No longer do they argue; no longer does the one seek power or prestige over the other. Glorious day that my eyes see such widespread humility-acceptance of their inability to trust the Father, to let Him invoke good in their lives, to relinquish vanity. Certainly fear delivered them to these waters; Brother Fear, guide My People home.

Father, keep them in your care when they emerge from the waters of death- to-self. Let them forever be mindful of this moment of new birth.

Give them to Me. I will teach them and heal them and cover them with my wings like a hen gathers her chicks.

John, receive Me as one of the people; don’t forbid this body. Did they hear my Father speak? Of course this holy herd, this humble repentant heard of lambs heard my Father introduce Me. Oh Lord, am I ready for this moment for which I have so long prepared? I must speak with you. Wait for me in the desert.

*Note: Water is an agent of cleaning because it ‘kills’ the filth and delivers purity. Water is an agent of death in drowning, water is a life giver and life sustainer.

Christmas Speaks

The Tree

The tree of Life planted in the garden, to be the antidote for the poison apple, is an evergreen. (Genesis 3:22) Perhaps now we can eat of it and live forever. But where is its fruit?

The Lights

Twinkling lights fill our tree to remind us that “the people who sat [walked] in darkness have seen a great Light, (Matthew 4:16) and for those who sat [dwelt] in the land [of intense darkness] and shadow of death Light has dawned." [Isaiah 9:2]

Because

"The true Light, which enlightens everyone, is coming into the world." (John 1:9). It’s more than beautiful.

The Balls

 Shiny reflective balls and satin ones too hang on our tree.

Let’s eat this fruit with our eyes and fill our hearts with the joy of Life.

The Ornaments

 Little people, birds, angels, and all kinds of things hang on our evergreen tree limbs. We hang samples of the whole wide world on our tree because it is this world that is being illuminated with the Light. Hallelujah!

Do you add tinsel for sparkling rain, or ribbons of popcorn or satin to dance around your tree of light and life?

The Star

We stretch to place that star on top of the tree because it is the star that guided the wise men to the infant King. Here it is, landed at its destination, and here it rests forever. Mission accomplished!

The Gifts

Hidden inside pretty packages, that are as much a mystery as the mystery of Christ Himself, we discover the joy, or comfort, or relief from need that good gifts bring.

The gifts we give each other send a message of love. They say, “In this moment of giving and receiving we connect to each other.” Love is a connection.

Not until we make the effort to tear away the paper, open the boxes, no, not until we make the effort to find Christ (to understand the mystery of His miraculous life) do we get the happiness inside.

The Wreath

No beginning and no end. Christ’s life is timeless. Jesus the Christ (Gr. Messiah) was with God when the earth was created, along with everything on the earth both visible and invisible. After the crucifixion He showed that He was still alive. Death did not destroy Him. He is alive today.

His disguises keep changing (John 21:14) but His personality never changes. He is funny, sarcastic, compassionate and demanding. There is no beginning and no end to His love.

The Music

Joy to the world; we can’t be silent! The news is too good! So we burst out in song. With harmony, melody, and lyrics, a chorus expresses the explosion of mirth in our hearts. And in this chorus we are, if only for the moment of song, united to each other, as always it should be.

The Food

What is life without food? As our souls are nourished by this joyous occasion, so do our bodies join in the celebration. Ah Christmas flavors; tongues and noses, tummies too rejoice together! I say rejoice!

The Bills

Love is a sacrifice. The commercial debt we owe is nothing compared to the debt we owe God, the Father. It’s significant that debt is part of this occasion. The world asks to be paid by work, Heaven asks for recognition and conformance to His image. Let’s pay up and be free!

The Point of it All

“For unto us is born this day in the city of David a Savior,  who is Christ the Lord.” (Luke 2:11) Jesus, the Christ (Gr. Messiah) was sent to earth, with a pocketful of miracles, gifts of healing and wisdom to illuminate our path back to the Father God who is our Creator, and the source of our Life.

We were not created just to consume and die.

We were created to become a part of the wreath of Life without beginning or end.

The infant Jesus is an illusion. The small and helpless disguise is deceiving. The gift is inside not out. The baby is a seed of a great tree. He is the Tree of Life that shines in the darkness.

He is the Tree of Life that heals us from the poison apple.

The Christmas tree, from the sparkling star on top,  to the colorful wrapped gifts beneath is life in Christ.

As you light your Christmas candles, pause from time to time to consider how

the light and love of Christ makes your world better every day.

And as you burn your candle let it remind you that to be a light in the world

you must give up some of your self. 

It’s worth it!

Merry 2,008th Christmas Day,

my aspiring immortal friend.

The Outside-In Christmas

The Tree

The tree of Life planted in the garden, to be the antidote for the poison apple, is an evergreen. (Genesis 3:22) Perhaps now we can eat of it and live forever. But where is its fruit?

The Lights

Twinkling lights fill our tree to remind us that “the people who sat [walked] in darkness have seen a great Light, (Matthew 4:16) and for those who sat [dwelt] in the land [of intense darkness] and shadow of death Light has dawned." [Isaiah 9:2]

Because

"The true Light, which enlightens everyone, is coming into the world." (John 1:9). It’s more than beautiful.

The Balls

Shiny reflective balls and satin ones too hang on our tree. Let’s eat this fruit with our eyes and fill our hearts with the joy of Life.

The Ornaments

Little people, birds, angels, and all kinds of things hang on our evergreen tree limbs. We hang samples of the whole wide world on our tree because it is this world that is being illuminated with the Light. Hallelujah!

Do you add tinsel for sparkling rain, or ribbons of popcorn or satin to dance around your tree of light and life?

The Star

We stretch to place that star on top of the tree because it is the star that guided the wise men to the infant King. Here it is, landed at its destination, and here it rests forever. Mission accomplished!

The Gifts

Hidden inside pretty packages, that are as much a mystery as the mystery of Christ Himself, we discover the joy, or comfort, or relief from need that good gifts bring.

The gifts we give each other send a message of love. They say, “In this moment of giving and receiving we connect to each other.” Love is a connection.

Not until we make the effort to tear away the paper, open the boxes, no, not until we make the effort to find Christ (to understand the mystery of His miraculous life) do we get the happiness inside.

The Wreath

No beginning and no end. Christ’s life is timeless. Jesus the Christ (Gr. Messiah) was with God when the earth was created, along with everything on the earth both visible and invisible. After the crucifixion He showed that He was still alive. Death did not destroy Him. He is alive today.

His disguises keep changing (John 21:14) but His personality never changes. He is funny, sarcastic, compassionate and demanding. There is no beginning and no end to His love.

The Music

Joy to the world; we can’t be silent! The news is too good! So we burst out in song. With harmony, melody, and lyrics, a chorus expresses the explosion of mirth in our hearts. And in this chorus we are, if only for the moment of song, united to each other, as always it should be.

The Food

What is life without food? As our souls are nourished by this joyous occasion, so do our bodies join in the celebration. Ah Christmas flavors; tongues and noses, tummies too rejoice together! I say rejoice!

The Bills

Love is a sacrifice. The commercial debt we owe is nothing compared to the debt we owe God, the Father. It’s significant that debt is part of this occasion. The world asks to be paid by work, Heaven asks for recognition and conformance to His image. Let’s pay up and be free!

The Point of it All

“For unto us is born this day in the city of David a Savior,  who is Christ the Lord.” (Luke 2:11) Jesus, the Christ (Gr. Messiah) was sent to earth, with a pocketful of miracles, gifts of healing and wisdom to illuminate our path back to the Father God who is our Creator, and the source of our Life.

We were not created just to consume and die. We were created to become a part of the wreath of Life without beginning or end.

The infant Jesus is an illusion. The small and helpless disguise is deceiving. The gift is inside not out. The baby is a seed of a great tree. He is the Tree of Life that shines in the darkness.

He is the Tree of Life that heals us from the poison apple.

The Christmas tree, from the sparkling star on top, to the colorful wrapped gifts beneath is life in Christ.

As you light your Christmas candles, pause from time to time to consider how the light and love of Christ makes your world better every day.

And as you burn your candle let it remind you that to be a light in the world you must give up some of your self. 

It’s worth it!

Merry 2,008th Christmas Day,

my aspiring immortal friend.

A Christmas Letter

Dear Aspiring Immortal,

Driving down the street I noticed a small house outlined in bright white lights. In the center of the roof lay a large white cross. Please, I thought, don’t remind me of the fate of the baby whose birthday triggers this worldwide annual celebration.

The gaity of the season eludes me this year because several people who are dear to me have passed away. In this melancholy mindset I wonder why mankind would be so happy--knowing what this infant Jesus lost in power, wealth, and peace to become one of us.

Doesn’t anyone else think this is very sad? After all, not only did this precious babe lose so much, His short life was spent suffering ridicule, rejection, and poverty. How can celebration be the proper response to the beginning of a life of sorrows? Instead of tinsel and bells, shouldn’t we show a little more sympathy by hauling out the black arm bands and drawing our shades in shame?

Why is the world working so hard to be happy now? Are we so crazy that we prepare hams and sugarplum feasts and exchange elegant gifts because God went through so much for us? This seems so one-sided, so self-centered. Don’t we care about His homeless life of suffering and buffeting the arrogant at every turn?

The answer dawned on me. Love. Being torn from the heavenly realm, loss of power, rejection, and ridicule weigh little compared with love. As hard as it is to imagine, even His assassination pales in the light of His love--for mankind. It is not so much that the baby came to earth to pay for our impulses, indulgences, selfishness, and poor judgement and that we should be ashamed of the need for this. But that He was first in demonstrating how small darkness is, and how much bigger love is than anything on earth.

And because of this quintessential act, we have more than the knowledge of good and evil, we have knowledge of love. Love takes the sting away from calamity of every kind, it heals and transforms.

When you look at the baby in the manger, and I hope you will have a moment to do so, the response should not be to cry at his fate, or to consume a lot, but the only proper response should be to show love. Truthfully, the most appropriate would be for us to show love to the least deserving person we can find. Then this spirit of Christmas, of the birth of this baby, will echo in our hearts. What a nice gift to give and to receive at the same time!

Sincerely yours,

Evangeline

The Christmas Night Light

God made Adam in His luminous image and likeness. Adam was more spirit than animal, intelligent, verbal, creative, emotional, and free. Adam kept the image and tossed the likeness when he ate the knowledge of good‘n’evil fruit and blamed his wife. A good son of a good God would not cave to the lure of “You will not die (i.e. God lied to you. Don’t trust Him.); for God knows that when you eat the fruit your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil (i.e. God doesn’t want you to be as smart as He is; knowing good and evil will make you powerful-eat up!)”

Funny thing happened. Adam became unlike God for the first time in his life. Eating the knowledge of good‘n’evil fruit was like eating a delicious piece of salmonella filled chicken. Worse. Adam opened himself to the evil parasite and suddenly Adam and his species could pollute and corrupt good as evil does! In fact, Adam & Co. couldn’t help but lie, kill, cheat, and steal, et cetera to get whatever they needed to fabricate a semblance of good. Adam believed the lie that 1. God knew evil in the same way that Adam 2. should. Wrong. Wrong. Before the bite, God and Adam could see the infectious fruit tree. God never ate from it.

The farther infected-humans stray from the likeness of God the darker the world gets. The sun masks the stench of death. To a few, a very few out of this death-laden sunny-darkness God spoke. Noah, Abraham, Hagar, Job, and Moses heard His voice beckon them with paternal guidance. To Moses God presented a way of life that helped his people distinguish between good and evil, light and darkness, the likeness of God and death. The Law is life because the Law tells us what God likes: recognition, honesty, respect, loyalty, obedience... Ten Commandments, hundreds of rules all designed to resurrect God’s likeness and trust in Adam’s children.

The Law ushers humankind in restorative steps to the likeness that befits its image. Inasmuch as humankind would not, could not adequately and consistently follow the Law to its holy destination, it needed and still needs help.

Anyone who has witnessed a sun rise, who has seen darkness vanquished by a speck of light, has been to the manger where Christ was born.

Jesus Christ is the light of the world because He reflects the pure image and likeness of God, who invented light. Jesus Christ emanated from God the Father as light did at Creation. He is the light of Light.

Deny the Virgin birth.

What cannot be denied is that the likeness of God is reflected in Jesus the Christ. Not since Adam did a man, not Moses, not Abraham, not Mohammed, not Buddha, demonstrate both the intelligent spiritual image of God and the pure likeness of God as did Jesus Christ. As tempting as it was, Jesus did not eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He trusted Adam’s Father and His Father to the death.

Deny the healings, deny walking on water, doubt the transfiguration, doubt the feeding of five thousand.

What cannot be disputed is that Jesus Christ forged a new way of life that leads humankind to the likeness of God with the means to distinguish between good and evil. What would Jesus do? Spiritually, Jesus Christ purges evil even as antidotes reverse poison or as antibiotics kill bacteria. Jesus is the second Adam that shines true light onto a very dark world. Born in the darkness of exile, poverty, political oppression and foreign occupation, with His first breath Jesus said, “Let there be Light.”

Doubt that the keys of Hades were relinquished. Doubt the resurrection.

What are indisputable are the presence of His Light through the centuries and the detoxifying medicine of His Image and Likeness, His Body and Blood. The light of Jesus Christ may wane from time to time and place to place but it will not be extinguished until darkness is expelled and evil is obliterated, when every one of us aspiring immortals is pure good in the luminous land of the living.

Christmas, my friend, is the sunrise of a never-ending day.

Bells can’t help but jingle with joy.

Toddlers giggle.

Wrinkled faces sparkle.

The Law is relieved for the help that is born.

Life rings out loud.

Happy Birthday Patricia!

The First Transfiguration

The story goes that one day Jesus, the son of Mary and Joseph, climbed a nearby mountain called Tabor and he took three men from his troop with him. When they reached the top of the mountain they saw their friend Jesus lit up as if he had just eaten the sun. If that wasn’t alarming enough, suddenly ancient Moses and ancient Elijah appeared, and before the terrified friends could pinch themselves a loud voice came from a cloud that bellowed, “This is my Son in Whom I am well pleased, listen to Him.” So they fell flat on their faces until their hearts stopped racing.

Mortals don’t believe this story and aspiring immortals just love the idea that immortality visited old planet earth at least once a couple of thousand years ago. For a split second we can imagine what real life will be like when time doesn’t matter anymore. Moses and Elijah appeared to remind Jesus that he too was immortal. And then the never-visible God came to also remind Jesus that he was immortal and beloved. So when in the near future he would have to leave his body behind, it wouldn’t really kill him.

You don’t have to believe this story because it didn’t happen to you. But it helps to know that just maybe one day a long time ago a few immortals got together on this old earth. It makes you wonder how often it has happened without being written for all the world to read. Time and blood are not as essential as some people think, are they? As one aspiring immortal to another, my wish for you today is that your transfiguration is less spectacular and more lasting. And that in your heart you too can hear God say that you are his child and He loves you.

Have a wonderful day!

Waiting for Epiphany

The first few days after the birth of anyone are magical. The baby jerks and coos; wincing eyes seek knowledge and soak up information. Wise men, women, and children come to visit with gifts of earthly necessities, mostly clothing. Soon after the baby arrives the threats begin. For little Emily or Jason it is scarcity, ear infections and milk supply; for the Christmas baby, Jesus, it is assassination.

The years go by fast for Emily and Jason, but even faster for Jesus who turns thirty in twelve calendar days.

Each of us is born with a mission. For some, the mission is clear and being pursued; for others God only knows the mission and we can only hope it is achieved. By the time we are thirty most of us are in full mission mode. When he was thirty, Jesus was ready to turn his world upside down, talk to foreign women, heal on the Sabbath and destroy death. He knew the spirit of the Law better than anyone and aimed to demonstrate it. But first He needed a nod from God. Without it, Jesus may have been crucified a lot sooner.

On January 6^th, Jesus went to the Jordan River to be baptized by John. No sooner did he emerge from the sea than the Holy Spirit descended in the form of a dove and landed on his shoulders. Then a voice came from heaven which said, “You are my beloved son, in you I am well pleased.” That was when the special connection between Creator and Son first went public.

On the day when God lets the people around you know how special you are to Him, hopefully you won’t have to be half naked in the middle of a river. Hopefully, you will be able to proceed with the power to make your world a much saner and compassionate place where the spirit of the Law reigns supreme.

Most businesses have mission statements that define who they are and what they aim to achieve. A personal mission statement is a good idea. Describe your mission in a paragraph and then aim to live it one day at a time. Start it with the epiphany that you are God’s own creation and that you want to please Him.

Christmas Goodies

Are you enjoying the buttery-sweet delights of the season? Now, please take a moment to gobble up this delicious morsel of Christmas food for thought.

The Christmas miracle is that a young virgin became pregnant and birthed the Son of God. That is hard to believe. After all, what creative teenage girl would not want to come up with an excuse like that? Yet, as creative as any girl can be, God is a much more original thinker.

By giving the Virgin Mary a spiritual chromosome so real that it could unite with her own, God not only created His own fleshly Son, He created the prototype for all children of God. Think about it. Every child of God has had a similar conception. Every time a person is baptized, the physical mother Church links with the invisible Holy Spirit of God the Father and poof, a brand new person is conceived!

Yes, baptism is a reenactment of Easter when we die with Christ but it is also when we are born as He was too! An immortal Christian is born like Jesus, lives like Him and never dies like Him. The virgin birth is really not so hard to believe; it happens every time a person is baptized. The Christmas miracle is not only true; it is repeated in each and every potentially immortal child of God. See Christmas; think about your own virgin birth. Celebrate.

Immortals Beware: Christmas is Coming!

Immortals love Christmastime. It’s hard not to be deliriously happy that Jesus Christ was born. Without this birth we would still be bouncing around the planet aimlessly, working and sleeping, playing and fighting like pinballs trying to hit little goals for imaginary wealth.

The birth of Jesus is a birth of brilliant potential. He looks like a baby, probably cries and sleeps like one too but we know that this helpless living doll will demonstrate what God made humanity to be like. God made human beings to dominate nature, to be compassionate, to love Him and to trust Him implicitly. God made human beings to be like Himself! God made Adam immortal, and a few thousand years or so later, God made Jesus immortal. When that Christmas baby grows up, he will not only show his friends and neighbors how to be the kind of guy that makes God proud of humanity, he will give humans all the help they need to become immortal too.

See the baby, know his mission; celebrate. Remember yourself as a baby or as a little child, then see yourself as one of God’s chosen persons living with Him on the new earth. Think ahead, look back…don’t get dizzy.

Little baby Jesus grows up to usher human beings, one at a time, to the land of immortality. Celebrating Jesus Christ’s birth is celebrating the man who trusted God better than Adam did. He helps the children of men to know and to love the unknowable Creator of our planet and of our universe, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of Ishmael and Muhammad, the one God of Plato and Socrates. Peace, we share loving the multi-faceted God. In unison let’s give three cheers for that baby!

Immortals beware; Mr. Grinch and Mr. Scrooge want to steal your joy! They want you to feel stressed and to give grudgingly. They want you to cower in the face of a kind of multiculturalism that erases Christ from Christmas, and then erases Christmas. At this beginning of the dawn of Christmastime, get centered, think about the best way that you can give and receive joy. Do no more, and no less. Plan a joyous season to receive one. Christmas is the buzzword for being unabashedly brave about trusting God. Say it as often as you can. It makes the baby giggle.