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Good morning bus riders!
I hope everyone had a good past week; and, I hope everyone received the email with the link to the lectionary page, so you have read all the readings possible for today.
You know I don’t just talk about one or a few of those. I discuss them all, because they are all relevant and need to be known.
So, with that said, let’s get started!
Today we read that “David slept with his ancestors, and was buried in the city of David.” This seems benign enough, as if it is just some historical facts of passing interest. However, it is a statement that needs to be seen as important.
The word translated as “ancestors” actually means “fathers” or “forefathers.” David’s father was Jesse the Bethlehemite. Bethlehem is in Judah, but Jerusalem is in Benjamin. For David to be buried in the city that bore his name, this is not a statement about an ancestral tomb. Instead, it is a statement that the history of David would go down with all the greats of Israel.
While the Book of Jasher was the history book of the Philistines, David’s history would go down in the books of Samuel, a prophet who was one of the greats of Israel. David's name would become synonymous with the Judges of Israel, beginning with Joshua and ending with Samuel.
David was chosen by Yahweh to be a judge of Israel. When we read, “The time that David reigned over Israel was forty years,” his age at death was seventy. So, the first thirty years of David’s life was spent as a judge.
Saul was the king when David was anointed as a judge. David rose to become king after Saul’s line ended. David was then a judge who became king, which marks a transition state for the nation of Israelites.
The last ten years, or so, of David’s reign was as a failed king, the likes of Saul. He failed to retain the heart of a judge; so, David’s story comes to an end in the Book of First Kings.
David’s history, however, mostly being good laid him to rest with the great leaders of the past, not the failures that would come to reign over Israel, beginning with Solomon.
The reading selection from First Kings jumps around, skipping over many details. When we read Solomon say to the voice in his dream, “I am only a little child; I do not know how to go out or come in” and “Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, able to discern between good and evil,” this paints a picture of a weakling, of one afraid to govern.
In the parts skipped over, we see that before David died he had a little ‘father-son’ chat with Solomon. He told Solomon about who to look out for, as there were those who did not follow David’s orders as king; and, they would be threats to young Solomon’s reign. After David died and was buried, Solomon followed his father’s suggestions and had three challengers to his reign killed.
Now, the unwritten question that should be asked by knowing this is this: Why didn’t David do away with all those threats himself, so a little boy king would not have to do it?
The answer, as I see it, is David had to test Solomon’s desire to rule. David never had that desire. His desire was to please Yahweh; so, David lead the Israelites to be extensions of his love of Yahweh. Because Yahweh was with David [as a judge] the people helped David move in the directions Yahweh saw best.
David knew Solomon was not anointed with Yahweh’s Spirit, because he was a child of David's sin. David had seen a fearful Saul when Goliath was the threat to his kingship. Thus, David left a few giants for Solomon to fight, for him to kill or be killed.
Solomon was not afraid to kill. Solomon was not afraid of Yahweh.
How do we know that?
Well, we read, “[Solomon] sacrificed and offered incense at the high places.”
Such acts are only allowed to the priests of the tabernacle, of which Solomon was not one.
One of the things David told Solomon before he died was, “keep the charge of Yahweh eloheka, walking in his ways and keeping his statutes, his commandments, his ordinances, and his testimonies, as it is written in the law of Moses, so that you may prosper in all that you do and wherever you turn.”
The first part of that – “keep the charge of Yahweh eloheka” – demands that Solomon sacrifice his self-ego in submission to Yahweh, so he would become one of Yahweh’s elohim – or gods on earth – Saints – Judges.
Solomon never gave up his self-ego; so, Solomon never became one charged as Yahweh's eloheka.
The confusion that comes from this reading comes when we read, “At Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night and God said, “Ask what I should give you.”
What is actually written says, “Yahweh appeared to Solomon in a dream by night and said, “elohim inquire what shall I give you.” The quotation marks are the additions of translation, so not written. However, this can be read as Yahweh saying, "You know son, those who make offerings and burn incense by the tabernacle altar are elohim, and they ask Me what I want them to do."
Yahweh spoke to Solomon as if Solomon were one of His bridesmaids, to whom God had proposed marriage to his soul. That union would have formed an elohim.” Thus, the proper answer from Solomon should have been, “Your presence is enough of a gift for me. Please take me as your obedient servant to guide and instruct.”
It is here that it becomes important to realize how badly Solomon had broken the laws of Moses, by making a thousand animal sacrifices and burning incense in high places [Gibeon].
The question posed by Yahweh was more in line with, "What punishment do you deserve? If not an elohim?"
Yahweh was not asking an impudent brat, "What free wish can I grant your highness?" ... like a genie would, if released from a bottle.
Solomon was so full of self-ego he heard the question and began some line of BS, about guiding the people of God, when Yahweh knew Solomon’s heart. Solomon had run out of people to kill, to make sure no one else could sneak up on a boy king and steal his power and control from him.
Solomon had everything his childish brain could think of; but in his dream he wanted to have an adult brain. He wanted to be able to discern good from evil.
If you recall the story from Genesis, where a wise serpent came up to Eve and told her the only thing that kept her from being a god was not eating the fruit of the tree Yahweh was afraid if she ate from it, then Yahweh would not be the only God.
Solomon just asked to be as wise as that serpent.
When he made that request – basically telling Yahweh, “No,” when asked about marriage – Solomon had turned his back to Yahweh …
So, Satan stepped in to make a promise to young Solomon.
Here, we read “It pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this. God said to him,” where the truth is Yahweh is no longer part of the conversation.
The actual translation says, “It pleased adonay that Solomon had asked for this. And elohim said to him.”
The word “adonay” means a lower-case “lord,” which were the demonic spirits that had led young Solomon to desecrate the tabernacle by his butchering and burning animals and incense. Yahweh is not an elohim. Yahweh is the creator of gods, which range from physical laws [like gravity], to angels, to Sons of man [like prophets, judges, and saints].
This change from "Yahweh" to "adonay" and "elohim" speaking comes after Yahweh had asked Solomon to marry His Spirit (and realize the errors of his youthful ways), when Solomon told Yahweh to take a hike.
It was Satan whose snaky ears perked up when Solomon asked for the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. That did not please Yahweh, it pleased Satan [the serpent cast out into the earth].
Eating that fruit means banishment from Yahweh’s kingdom. So, wisdom as a personal asset was not a good thing to ask for.
Can you see that?
<Look for nodding heads or quizzical looks.>
The Psalm that accompanies this reading is number 111. It begins with the word “Hallelujah!”
Raise your hand if you know what “Hallelujah” means.
<Look for people sitting on hands.>
This is actually two Hebrew words combined as one English reproduction. Those words say, “praise Yah,” where “Yah” is short for “Yahweh.”
Verse one of Psalm 111 then follows "Hallelujah!" to say, “I will give thanks to Yahweh with my whole heart.”
If you remember what Jesus said, after being asked what the most important law was, he said “to love God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.”
Remembering that makes it easy to see how David sang about giving thanks for a soul's marriage to Yahweh. He gave praise to Yahweh by giving Him one’s heart, soul, and mind.
David then sang, “The fear of Yahweh is the beginning of wisdom; those who act accordingly have a good understanding; his praise endures forever.”
First of all, that says a soul married to Yahweh automatically receives divine wisdom, which is far greater than the intellect contained by the biggest brains of the world.
More importantly, David's song lyrics say Solomon had no fear of Yahweh. We know that because he heard a voice in his dream and egotistically turned a question about marriage into a question that asked to serve Solomon. So, it was not Yahweh handing out the ability to discern good from evil.
Conversely, Solomon is given credit for writing Proverbs 9, where he said, “Wisdom has built her house, she has hewn her seven pillars.”
Solomon was singing praises to a goddess.
The Greeks called the goddess of wisdom Athena, who the Romans called Minerva. Solomon had married an Egyptian princess. That arranged marriage was made for the boy king as an alliance that kept Israel from war with Egypt. That says human marriage was seen by Solomon as better protecting Israel than a marriage to Yahweh.
The Egyptian goddess of wisdom was named Seshat.
No matter what name wisdom takes, Solomon did not write Proverbs 9 as praise for a male deity.
When I was contemplating the meaning of the number “seven,” as the “seven pillars,” I was led to see the Hindu chakras, with those numbering seven. The first chakra is located at the top of the head, where “knowledge, fulfillment, spirituality, and self-realization are received. The second is called the third-eye – the forehead-brow area of the head - where “intuition, visualization, Imagination and Clairvoyance” are received.
The Hindu goddess of wisdom is named Saraswati, although I doubt Solomon knew that, in all his wisdom.
Last Sunday we read about Elijah 'going to sleep' under a broom tree. Spiritual food - bread and water - were placed by his head. The head is the place of the brain; and, the brain controls the flesh. The soul controls the brain; but the soul can be possessed spiritually.
A divine possession by Yahweh's Spirit brings a masculine presence within the soul, which controls the brain.
A divine possession by adonay or elohim of the material universe will also take control of the brain; but the spirits of the physical realm bring a feminine essence, unlike that of Yahweh.
This means all of these different named goddesses are the elohim of Satan. They are all called upon by meditations that are designed for mastering self in the physical realm.
In Proverbs 9, Solomon wrote, “You that are simple, turn in here!”
In one’s soul being subjected to Yahweh, one takes on a submissive role that become “simple-minded.” Like Ezekiel answered when asked by Yahweh, “Mortal, can these bones live?”
Ezekiel answered as one who was “simple,” saying, “You know.”
Solomon preferred to have the ability to respond to Yahweh as an equal, stating, "I know ...."
In regards to that response of submission, Solomon mocked: “To those without sense she says, “Come, eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed. Lay aside immaturity, and live, and walk in the way of insight.”
That is the anthesis of what Jesus said to the Jews who followed after him for physical bread, not the spiritual bread of life. He told them, "You do not seek signs ... you seek food that perishes."
Solomon was singing praises to all the worldly gains that come from being smarter than the average bear. [A “Yogi-ism.”]
Again, the Psalm of David that is the companion to the Proverbs reading sings, “Fear Yahweh, you that are his saints, for those who fear him lack nothing.”
To fear Yahweh means to follow the commandment to fear only Yahweh; but it also says fear becomes motivation to do everything to please Yahweh. Fear of losing the blessing of his presence – fear of losing being sacred as a servant in ministry – means never being distracted by the “bread and wine” of mortal life.
In David’s Psalm 34, he sings about teaching the sons of Israel to “fear Yahweh.” That was not teaching kids to be afraid of knowing what to do to get ahead in the world. It was preparing them to marry their souls to Yahweh, as David had done as a boy. It seems the positive effect David had was when he was filled with Yahweh’s Spirit and the Israelites were led by his positive example.
Solomon having been born from David’s cursed life meant he was led by the example of a lustful king, not a soul married to Yahweh.
When David sang, “Turn from evil and do good,” Solomon must not have learned what those lyrics meant, as he did the opposite.
Paul then wrote to the true Christians of Ephesus, saying “Be careful then how you live, not as unwise people but as wise, making the most of the time, because the days are evil.”
In that, the first word is capitalized, which gives a divine level of meaning to “Discernment” or “careful Perception,” using “exacting” measures about how one should “conduct one’s life.” Paul followed that up by saying such care in how one lives is not “foolish,” which is the meaning of “unwise.”
When Paul said to instead “be wise,” this was less about being the top graduate in a university program of study. It meant to be “learned, cultivated, and clever.” Still, that ‘street smarts’ was based on personal experience with sin, as Paul had and as all the true Christians of Ephesus had … prior to marrying their souls to Yahweh.
The wisdom Paul was talking about was from a new perspective of having been “redeemed” or paying back the ransoms their sins had placed on their souls. That is the truth of the words translated to say “make the most of the time.”
When Paul warned that “the days are evil,” the meaning of “days” is relative to the light of truth that comes from having become one with Yahweh’s Spirit. Each day brings about another temptation to tase the bread and wine of the physical world. To resist that needs personal experience that reminds one, “This is what got my soul in trouble before.”
That is why Paul followed that warning up with the recommendation, “So do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.” One can only “understand what the will of the Lord is” by having been reborn as “the Lord,” which is the soul of Jesus being resurrected within one’s soul-body lifeform.
The Mind of Christ, which comes with that rebirth, gives one not only the ability to know what Yahweh wants one of His wives to do, the presence of Jesus gives one the power to reject all temptations to sin. Without the presence of Jesus within, sin always tricks us into taking a bite of the apple.
That is why Paul said next, “Do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery; but be filled with the Spirit.” In that, wine is again the physical drink. Spirit is that poured out upon one’s soul by Yahweh, which makes a soul be transformed into His Christ.
This is vital to understand.
Jesus said, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”
He told that to a bunch of wise Jews who figured out where to go, in order to find Jesus; so they could demand he do some spiritual tricks for them. The apostles that were not named Judas Iscariot did such signs for the majority of five thousand Jewish menfolk.
They all came to town in preparation for the Passover, so they brought plenty of “bread and wine” with them on their trips. Those Jewish men shared with other Jewish families; and, all they got in return was a flimsy sermon and just a taste of bread and fish. They were wise enough to figure out – after listening to the other satisfied Jews – that they were shortchanged.
A couple of Sundays back they found Jesus, calling him “My rabbi,” meaning their wisdom said they owned Jesus, because they handed out their own bread and wine for others to eat and drink. Jesus responded to them saying, “you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves.”
When Solomon was told by the elohim Satan, “Because you have asked this … for yourself understanding to discern what is right … I give you a wise and discerning mind … I give you also what you have not asked, both riches and honor all your life” – that says Solomon was just like the Jews that found Jesus.
Yahweh came to Solomon in a dream at night. Solomon did not want to submit to anyone he could not see. He wasn’t about to stop doing as he wished and serve Yahweh as His wife. Solomon had sacrificed a thousand bulls in his own honor, as the new king of Israel. He had burned incense to show that he could do anything he wanted as king. He was not about to be punished by begging Yahweh to forgive his sins, promising never to break the laws again.
When the Jews looked at each other with surprise about what Jesus had said, they asked, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” In a way, Solomon asked, “How can you serve me by giving me your Spirit to submit to?”
Both were unable to discern what was said to them. For all the mental capabilities they had, they could not understand the language of Yahweh. Jesus spoke what the Father had him speak.
Jesus told those brainiacs, “unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.” When Yahweh spoke to Solomon in the dream, he said, “elohim ask what I shall give you.”
In both cases, the humans were told by the divine, “If you want to live long and prosper – the promise of eternal life – then you have to receive the Spirit and become one with Yahweh. You have to become Jesus in your flesh, with your blood his blood, as Sons of man.”
Something overlook in the reading is when Yahweh did speak again to young Solomon, He said: "If you will walk in my ways, keeping my statutes and my commandments, as your father David walked, then I will lengthen your life."
David lived seventy years. Solomon only lived sixty. That matter of fact says Solomon did not live up to any of the conditions set by Yahweh before him.
In Matthew 11:25, a Proper 9, Year A reading, Jesus said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children.”
That means Scripture is written by prophets in the name of Yahweh so that smart people – the rulers, the leaders, the heads of state, industry, and religion – cannot understand what the true meaning is without divine assistance.
Divine assistance come from marriage of a soul to Yahweh's Spirit. Jesus call that divine assistant the "Advocate." The soul of Jesus resurrected within one's flesh is that "Advocate."
Jesus said in the reading today, “Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me.”
Doesn’t that sound an awful lot like Jesus telling his disciples, “On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you”? [John 14:20]
<Look for nodding heads or quizzical looks.>
This past Easter I read the stories of Jesus being found resurrected – at the tomb looking like a gardener, on the road to Emmaus looking like a pilgrim traveler, and inside the room where the disciples hid behind a locked door – and for the first time I saw the same words that tell those stories expose to me a new way of seeing those scenes.
Those of you here who heard me talk then might remember my saying that Jesus did not appear as an external body of flesh when he was amid the disciples. His soul was one with them ... in their midst - their souls. They saw themselves – their flesh – as Jesus resurrected.
You might recall me saying the forty days Jesus spent teaching the disciples was Jesus’ Spirit within them, where they all had to learn how to be Jesus reborn.
Do any of you remember me saying that back then?
<Look for raised hands.>
What I saw then for the first time is now summed up in Jesus prophesying “Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them.”
When Thomas put his fingers in the wounds of Jesus, to prove it was him risen, he was putting his fingers in the wounds that appeared in either his own flesh or the flesh of one of the other disciples who appeared as Jesus. When Jesus asked if they had any food and he took a piece of fish and ate it, it was Jesus possessing the body of an apostle who was eating a piece of fish as Jesus reborn.
When Cleopas and Mary invited a stranger into their home in Emmaus and let the stranger break bread and say the blessing, the stranger disappeared when they realized it was Jesus; but Jesus was not longer external to them. Jesus was resurrected within both of them.
Jesus said, “This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like that which your ancestors ate, and they died. But the one who eats this bread will live forever.”
Last Sunday the optional reading from First Kings told of Elijah falling asleep under a broom tree. Sleep is metaphor for death. An angel brought spiritual bread and water for Elijah’s soul to eat and drink. Elijah reentered his body of flesh and was united with the angel.
This is what Jesus was explaining to the wise men who followed Jesus Capernaum, to get what their big brains figured they deserved. They heard those words and scoffed. They thought Jesus was crazy.
As Christians hearing these words read aloud by Episcopal priests, read from the aisle of a church, in the midst of the congregation, how many of those priests then go to their high place of oration and tell the people Jesus meant you have to be Jesus in your own flesh?
<Look for shaking heads.>
How many tell you it is up to you to marry your souls to Yahweh, so you all become the Sons of man [regardless of human gender] and by being Sons, then Yahweh becomes your Father and Jesus your brother ... so the blood everyone shares is that of Yahweh's Anointed - His Christs?
<Look for shaking heads again.>
They cannot say that, because are full of seminary wisdom. None are married souls who are the wives of Yahweh. If any of them ever preached self-submission to Yahweh' Spirit, becoming a Saint in ministry, then their churches would go out of business. All who listened to sermons like that - taught by true Saints - would sincerely open their hearts and soul to Yahweh, praying to become His Son resurrected within their flesh.
That is how Christianity began. That is how Christianity grew so great.
Instead of our world today being filled with Jesuses, all doing miracles and taking spiritual food and drink to the seekers, we have a world full of Solomons. The Solomons have all sold their souls so they could be all-knowing little “g” gods. They tell us we can think our ways to heaven. They teach us to follow Jesus around because they figure he owes us Salvation …
They say Jesus died for us. That is like Solomon hearing Yahweh say, "What shall I give you for your disobedience?" and only hearing the "What shall I give you?" part.
They teach us to expect some trick or sign to prove Jesus is the real deal.
But, then Jesus starts talking crazy about eating his flesh and drinking his blood ….
They say nothing about that.
It is much easier to keep Jesus as some external icon … and idol to worship … than it is to do the work involved, which comes from submitting our egos to Yahweh and being reborn as His Sons.
I see the bus is coming, so I will end here. Please, think about what I have said.
The life of your souls depend on understanding what Jesus said. Being wise and intelligent is what makes that difficult. You have to reduce your egos to that of children.
Until next Sunday, have a great week.
Amen