Our Part

The Beauty of Conspiracy

During the Nuremberg trials, top Nazi officials were tried for crimes against humanity. It was the first time that charges such as these were ever leveled against the leaders of a defeated enemy. It was also the first time that there was a semblance of a "world court" to hold anyone accountable for acts of conspiracy relating to the violation of human rights. This should be considered a victory for the entire human race.

These despots and their underlings had the audacity to claim that they were simply "following orders", or that they tried to tell "them", the others, that they were doing the wrong things. Yet, at no time did any one of these conspirators say, "I am them". Instead they chose to hide behind the "beauty of conspiracy", the lack of personal accountability for your own actions.

Somehow when we act in a group, a gang, or a mob, our own actions can appear to be justified. We do things that we, as individuals, would never consider let alone act upon. Once the mob begins to chant "Crucify him! Crucify him!" it ssuddenly seems not only acceptable but necessary. We want to be on the side of the mob. 

Do you remember the scene in Frankenstein, when the townsfolk were marching through the streets on their way to Castle Frankenstein to kill the monster with torches and pitchforks in hand? It didn't start out with a group of concerned people whom after careful deliberation came to a consensus, then took reasonable actions to ensure that their families were safe. No, it started out with a few individuals acting out of fear and spreading that fear until the gentle farmfolk of the community were whipped up into a bloodthirsty mob chanting, "Kill, Kill, Kill the monster!"

This was much the same mentality at work among the Nazis, and that very same mob mentality spread to an entire nation. The vestiges of these murderers still linger with us today. Some people idolize the perpetrators of these crimes, still clinging to the idiocy of racial purity. In the eyes of God all men, all women, are equal, but we look through human eyes. We see difference, we see "other", and we see with the myopia of the last 10,000 years of civilization that here is "us" and over there is "them". Madness, madness, all of it.

We are them. They are us.

The conspiracy that grew around Jesus did not come from a public outcry. It was nurtured in dark rooms filled with an influential few. Those who felt they had something to lose, and they did. They had everything to lose; respect, power, influence, and money Ah, yes money. As Paul would write many years later,

“But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.” – 1 Tim 6:9-11

Indeed, they were positive that their acts of "self-preservation" were justified by their concern for the Temple, their people, and their traditions. None of these would be spared. Not a one. Within a generation the Temple was razed to the ground by the Romans. The people lived on, but were scattered to the farthest reaches of the known world, and would never inhabit a unified nation again until 1948. All that remains of the second Temple to this day is the Wailing Wall.

Jews still flock to this ruin in search of the God who seemed to have abandon them. But, the Jews remain the chosen people of God. They always have been and always will be. 

We might look at their history and say, “How could they be favored by God? Look at what happened to them through the Holocaust, the Roman occupation, the Babylonian exile, the Diaspora, and today they are surrounded on all sides by enemies chanting, "Kill, Kill, Kill the monster!" except it comes out as, “Death to Israel!”

They say revolutions eat their own children, but it seems that conspiracy consumes it young, as well. That’s what ends up on the menu when man starts acting out of fear, ignorance, and greed. The Jews couldn't recognize the very God who had lead them out of bondage, fed them in the desert, lead them into the Promised Land, and told them He was coming. No, their God had been replaced long ago by vain ritual, an “all powerful” Caesar, and the Beauty of Conspiracy. Everybody bow down and pray to the idols of man.

A devout Jew praying at the Wailing Wall

There he is today, the beloved of God, the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob worshiping by a wall, a wall, built by the hands of men. Sure, he isn't praying to the wall itself, but he still can’t recall that God does not reside in buildings of stone or timber. Split the timber and He is there, crush the stone and He is there. He is everywhere, cutting through the stench of a 2,000 year old conspiracy that still hangs in the air. The Temple is gone, but God has not abandoned His people. He does not break promises, not a single one. Paul reassures him, them, and all of us, in the epistle to the Romans;

"In view of all this, what can we say? If God is for us, who can be against us?  Certainly not God, who did not even keep back his own Son, but offered him for us all! He gave us his Son—will he not also freely give us all things?  Who will accuse God's chosen people? God himself declares them not guilty!  Who, then, will condemn them? Not Christ Jesus, who died, or rather, who was raised to life and is at the right side of God, pleading with him for us!  Who, then, can separate us from the love of Christ? Can trouble do it, or hardship or persecution or hunger or poverty or danger or death?"  – Romans 8:31-35

We are them. They are us.

Now, that is a Beautiful Conspiracy! Amen. Praise God!

We will all go up together.

Not a single seed will be lost!

Amen.

The Lord's Prayer... As you never read it before.

While many theologies claim to offer a path to the divine, many represent either a harsh and demanding deity such as Allah, or a nebulous (undefinable) spirit such as the karmic wheel that controls our destiny. Our God is not such a being. He can be easily understood by His metaphors:

"Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing.” - Matthew 23:37

What a beautiful and poetic image of a mother hen gathering her chicks this verse paints for us, even when the subject is the murder of God’s prophets, those sent as emissaries of the Almighty.  Hens are known to cover their chicks in this manner when storms threaten their young. She takes the brunt of the storm while protecting her precious brood, kept warm by her body, and safe from the weather. This is the kind of God I want to worship, not out of obligation or fear of retribution, but because I love Him. Although I can’t love Him in the unconditional way that He loves me, but I am willing to love Him as completely and without reservation as I am humanly capable.

How about you?

While you consider that question, here is food for thought… 

We have recited the Lord’s Prayer since we were children, but how often have we thought upon the words and their relational meaning?

Our Father…

He is our parent. OUR, that’s all of us. We have a trustworthy, present protector in God, and we are His children. We are all brothers and sisters, one God, one family, all of us. We are unified and identified as His through God, our Father. Amen!   

Who art in heaven

Jesus is leaving no doubt that the Kingdom of Heaven is not vacant while He resides in human form on earth. He isn’t a solitary being, only capable of being in one place at a time as we are. He is capable of manifestation in both multiple (infinite) forms and multiple (infinite) locations simultaneously.  Try doing that yourself. Jesus is also reminding us that heaven is a tangible place, a real place in which we will soon reside for all of eternity with Our Father. Amen.

Hallowed be Thy Name

Hallowed is a form of the word “holy”. It sounds like something sacred, right? Well, it means “set apart”. Not common, but special, very special, and uniquely of God. His name is set apart from all the other gods. He alone is God. You all know what God’s name is… Yahweh. I AM.  It is the complete form of the Hebrew word for a state of being. I AM at ALL times, IAM in ALL places, and I AM in ALL dimensions. There is no place or time where God is not fully present. Imagine that.

Amazing, isn’t it?

Thy Kingdom come

But wait, how could His kingdom come if He is already in ALL time, in ALL places, and ALL dimensions?

A kingdom has a king but it must also have subjects, and those subjects are us. We aren’t in the kingdom yet. But we will be. That’s a promise from God, and you can count on that. When He washes our sins away as Jesus washed his disciples’ feet, we will be worthy to be His subjects. We will enter the Kingdom making us co-rulers with Christ. He did all the work; we enjoy the benefits, just like the chicks under those mother hens’ wings.

It is a trustworthy statement: For if we died with Him, we will also live with Him; if we endure, we will also reign with Him; if we deny Him, He also will deny us;  - 2 Timothy 2:11. But we can’t deny Him, 'As surely as I live,' says the Lord, 'every knee will bow before me; every tongue will acknowledge God.' - Romans 14:11

This is the restoration of God’s original system. We will walk with God as Adam and Eve did before the fall. What a beautiful kingdom we will rule as crowned princes and princesses, although there is no gender in heaven, you get the idea.

Thy will be done

It’s no accident that things happen as they do. Everything belongs. We don’t understand how this could be since the world is not in line with what we imagine to be an all loving, all knowing, and all powerful Gods’ will, but it is. A perfect God has a perfect plan. Whatever made us think otherwise? Our human nature makes us second guess everything about God from His existence to His intentions. We forget that it was us who tried to derail the Plan. But this too, was part of the Plan. Mankind had to fall. We had to experience sin, its corrosive effects, and learn to make right choices. Otherwise, we would remain innocents, like infants. Would you put an infant in charge of a Kingdom? Neither would God. The sin that separates us from the Divine will be forgiven, expunged, and justified through Christ, not of our own doing. We can’t make it right, but an all loving, all knowing, and all powerful God can. Praise God. Praise His will. Praise His mercy.

On earth as it is in heaven

His will is not confined to the heavens; it is manifest here on earth too. He isn’t limited by location. It’s one God, One Creation, One will, One Plan. We win! We win! We win! We lose the sin!

Give us this day our daily bread

Do you think that sandwich for lunch came from your hard earned labor? How about that cup of coffee or the air you’re breathing? Not one atom was your creation. It was God’s Creation, all of it. The clothes you wear, the car you drive, the house you live in, these are all the products of God. “Made by the Almighty”, should be stamped on every product to remind us of His provision. We live on a tiny blue ball filled with abundant resources, while every other planet we have knowledge of is hostile, barren, and lifeless. Is that a coincidence? I don’t believe in coincidence, I believe in God and I thank Him every day for my daily bread. So should you.

Forgive us our trespasses (our sins)

That’s what we need, we want, we must have. All else is optional. Without forgiveness we are all screwed. We spend 80 years if we’re lucky on this planet and then what, nothing, non-existence? What’s the point of collecting houses, cars, bank accounts that we can never keep? There are no U-hauls on the back of a Hurst. We cheat, lie, steal, and murder for things we can never really own. It all goes away. Like playing Monopoly, do you think you own those Houses, those hotels, those properties, railroads, utilities? They all go back in the box when the game is over.  And the game is nearly over. Forgiveness is what it’s all about, that is the hard currency. It’s the only commodity with true intrinsic value. So, how can we earn it? We don’t, it’s given to us...

…As we forgive those who trespass against us (their sins)

There is a relationship here. Remember the parable of the wicked servant?

“Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand bags of gold[b] was brought to him. Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt.

 “At this the servant fell on his knees before him. ‘Be patient with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay back everything.’ The servant’s master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go.

 “But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred silver coins. He grabbed him and began to choke him. ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ he demanded.

 “His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay it back.’

 “But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. When the other servants saw what had happened, they were outraged and went and told their master everything that had happened.

 “Then the master called the servant in. ‘You wicked servant,’ he said, ‘I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’  In anger his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.

 “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.” - Matthew 18:21-35

OK, now connect the dots.

“This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.” – Matthew 18:35

See the picture? It’s all there. It has been all along. But you never saw it until now. Now put the knowledge into application, for knowledge without application is useless.

And lead us not into temptation

Just to reiterate the point, there is a relationship here. The temptation to sin, like the fruit in the Garden, is a matter of choice. We have free will. We have choice. That’s up to us. We can choose good or evil at any point in our lives. God already knows what choices we will make. He doesn’t make them for us. His plan includes the choices we have already made. He exists in the future. ALL time. He looks backwards and forwards while we can only see now, and our choices of the past. He leaves the future unknown to us, so we can make our choices. He is already ahead of us, leading us. No matter what we choose, He is still ahead of us and still in the lead.

But deliver us from evil.

This one is a given. We can’t escape evil on our own. It’s part of our human nature. It is innate. Only God can deliver us from evil. Remember, you have free will, but so does God. You make your choices, and then God makes His. He gets to make the final call.

Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with what is my own? Or is your eye envious because I am generous?' "So the last shall be first, and the first last." – Matthew 20:15-16

You make your decisions, and then God makes His. God was first, and we came last in Creation.  What a merciful God! Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with what is my own? We are God's own. He is Generous! He will deliver us from evil. He is God and there is no other. I’ll let God have the last Word…

For thine is the Kingdom Forever and ever. Amen.