It s Not the Process, It s the Promise! Preached first by the Right Reverend Grant Lynn Ford at the Sunshine Cathedral on Sunday, Sunday, November 18, 2001; revised and preached again on Sunday, November 7, 2004. The Written Word The Light of the Ages Malachi 4:1-2 1 "That Great Day is right around the corner," says the Almighty One. "It will be as hot as a furnace. All arrogance and evil will be like dry grass before a raging forest fire. Nothing -- not a root, not a branch -- shall be left that is not good! 2 But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings, and you will go out dancing like calves released from the stall." The Light from a Teacher of Truth High Mysticism - Emma Curtis Hopkins I look now to the Son of God, the Angel of God's Presence, the cure and peace and strength of all humanity. I look to Everlasting Life, shedding forth the radiance of the Everlasting Kingdom. All are gathered into life ever renewing, into health ever restoring, into wisdom ever brightening and rejoicing... gathered and upborne in beauty and love and might by Thee, O Free Spirit, victorious Christ Jesus facing me, with face shining as the Sun and raiment white as the light, transfiguring the whole earth with living truimph! The Light of the Master Teacher Luke 21:25-28, 36 25 "There will be signs in the sky, anguish on the earth, anxiety at the angry sea. 26 It will be a time of terror, and people will wonder what's happening in the heavens and on earth. 27 That's when you'll see the Son of Humanity appearing in a cloud of power and glory. 28 That's the time to stand erect! Lift your heads high, because redemption is on the way." 36 "Stay alert! Watch and pray! Then you'll escape the calamities and be able to stand before the Son of Humanity." Page 1 of 8
The Proclaimed Word The Prairie Home Companion shared this as one of their 1999 jokes: A long time ago, a man named Tate invented a compass which was the best compass there ever had been. For years every sailor, navigator and traveler had Tate's Compasses. Then, for some unexplainable reason, all Tate s compasses failed to give a true reading. Thus the saying, "He who has a Tate s is lost." Hesitation? Could be compared with antipcipation. The early church was filled with both. They couldn t imagine that their Master would die and leave them all alone. Many had heard the story of Jesus resurrection, but that story too had him rising to heaven in a cloud, leaving them ultimately abandoned and all alone. At times like that, they would recount things Jesus had said: Stay alert! Watch and pray! Then you ll escape the calamities and be able to stand before the Son of Humanity. Page 2 of 8
It never occurred to them that the return that Jesus had spoken of could have been fulfilled on the Day of Pentecost, when the same anointing that had filled Jesus now filled his disciples, indeed, all of them... and us, too. They understood that they were to be strong, but they also believed that Jesus would literally come back to rescue them from the ills of society. After September 11 th it would be tempting for us to look for the same kind of rescue! This is a tough world we live in. It would be easy to chalk up all the ills to a literal devil, rather than owning the responsibility that we are to Stay alert! Watch and pray! We are to resist every negative force and bring the powerful positive force of peace into our world. We are to stand before the Son of Humanity and indeed, to stand in his place, doing what he did, not looking to escape culpability for our world s present condition, but to be responsibility to bring about world peace and a new consciousness. Page 3 of 8
In the early church and in our world today there are two words that stand staring each other face to face across the chasm of human intellect: literal and metaphor. If we read the Bible literally, then Jesus was instructing us to return to our mother s womb to be born again. Jesus himself said that idea was ridiculous, that being born again was a metaphor, a word-picture that describes a deep spiritual consciousness or beingness. Do we somehow worship the sun when we read the Sun of Righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings? Do we literally become bovine babies when we experience the redemptive freedom of release and go out dancing like calves released from the stall? Only a metaphor would describe the Kingdom of God as a mustard tree, a field with healthy wheat and noxious weeds, a loaf of bread rising with yeast and so on. None of these are literal; every one of them is a word-picture. Page 4 of 8
Those who insist on interpreting the Bible literally all the time must put their minds into neutral. Jesus words are filled with metaphors, similes, folk legends and parables. So why should we be looking for a literal physical return of Jesus to earth to rescue us, especially when he gave us the power to be victorious over all powers and principalities? May I suggest that rather than looking to be rescued from the ills of our society, as so many have in the past two thousand years, that we see these difficulties as birth pangs as we pass through the birth canal from this present day into the Great Day of the Lord, the millennial reign of the Christ- Spirit in and through us. There is a poetic transliteration of the Book of the Revelation 5:10 which reads: We are your people, our Lamb and our Lion, a priesthood and royal by birth. You who are worthy to open life s secrets give us the dominion on earth. Page 5 of 8
The whole book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ to Saint John the Divine, which you find way at the back of your Bible, tells us that we will ultimately be victorious with powerful positive truth and that this truth shall reign in and through us. Don t get hung up on the process; rejoice in the promise. One day in 1789, the sky over Hartford darkened ominously. Some of the members of the Connecticut House of Representatives, glancing out the windows, feared the end was at hand. Quieting a clamor for immediate adjournment, Colonel Davenport, the Speaker of the House, rose and said, "The Day of Judgment is either coming or it is not. If it is not, there is no cause for adjournment. It it is, I choose to be found doing my duty. Therefore, I wish that candles be brought." If Jesus returns physically, I ll be happy to join in the welcoming party. But if he delays his coming, or if his coming has already been accomplished spiritually, then I ll just keep doing what I m doing, knowing that God will work in me, through me, as me Page 6 of 8
to bring me and my world into that higher consciousness called the Kingdom of God. Let us affirm that Jesus the Christ is manifested in everything we do and say. Let us, along with Emma Curtis Hopkins, praise the Free Spirit, victorious Christ Jesus... with face shining as the Sun and raiment white as the light, transfiguring the whole earth with living triumph! We can continue his work with the Christ-power in us, if we so choose. We can transform our lives, our community, our world. We can make a difference... and that s the Truth! Page 7 of 8
The Affirming Word I look not to past or future; I celebrate Christ here and now. This is my healing and health, The end of all dis-ease; This is my abundance, My end of want and need: This is my fulfillment, The end of fear and despair: This is my fullness of love, The end of my lonely hearts club: Not the Jesus of yesterday, Not the Jesus of tomorrow, But the right here, right now Page 8 of 8