Friday, November 29, 2024
(click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
Freedom
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, because the former heaven and the former earth had passed away, and even the sea was no more.
But what seems to me a disaster – no more sea – is instead a miracle of God, a miracle that moves us out of the old world into the new heaven and new earth. Quoth the Raven, “NEVERMORE,” and we lift up our voices to greet the new dawn, all of us singing at the top of our lungs.
Can you imagine, singing like that, with every neighbor on your street, outdoors watching the rainbows rise like upside-down fireworks, hearing every bird echoing the words, “Nevermore! This old world is done for. Come Lord Jesus!” And can you imagine understanding them, those birds that never sinned at last communicating clearly with us humans who HAVE sinned, and all together celebrating something promised, and now gained.
Freedom! I hear I hear Richie Havens at Woodstock singing out out as loud as he can as long as he can (at least fifty minutes), while the birds fly headlong through the air singing too, and while we dance in the streets of gold. We laugh, and praise God, and see each other through the eyes of our Father. All of us, beautiful souls learning on the fly to live how our Father made us to live.
Here God lives among his people. My heart and my flesh cry out to the living God. Even the sparrow finds a home and the swallow a nest in which she puts her young, O blessed are they who dwell in your house! Now continually we praise you.
Can you imagine? Just stand up straight. Stand erect and raise your heads, because your redemption is at hand. The old world, the only world we’ve ever known, turns out to be just a shell, and as it falls away we see we are standing at last on solid ground. Made by God. Inhabited by God.
FREEDOM!
When you see these things happening, know that the Kingdom of God is near. Amen, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place.
Jesus’ words seem false. Many generations (as we call them generations) have come and gone. All of us fall short of the glory of God. All of us one day die and walk no longer on the earth. What might Jesus mean?
Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
How could I ever allow my ego, which seems so necessary for my survival, to think it has all the answers and doesn’t need to account for my conception, my birth, my upbringing, or my last days. I am not the generation Jesus means, nor are any of the thousand generations that came before me. As Jesus said with fear and trembling:
Something greater than Jonah is here.
And in the same breath I hear him whisper.
Oh my brothers, do not be afraid. The Kingdom of God has withstood all challenges, the Kingdom of God is here.
(Revelation 20, Psalm 84, Luke 21)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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