Why are you, Father, so lively? I've realized that we should always realize that this is something we're daring to do. Because if we really knew you as Father, we would have the peace and confidence characteristic of Jesus, of yourself. Northwest, not only to call you father, but to know you as father. Yes, this Victor Simon, and my daughter Jeannie. Amen. I recall that Father Cynthia and Vangie Jeannie taught us the Old Testament. He said one time in class that the single most significant and novel revelation of the New Testament was the Fatherhood of God.

[01:05]

I remember this because at the time, I thought to myself, that's a good one to read. Actually, I did not dare challenge this. I didn't fear it the best. Everyone has the right to their private thoughts. I thought, oh, that is so common, everybody knows what it's about. How could that be such a radically new revelation, even in the Old Testament name, it was called One Son. I have come to believe, and I understand, I think, a great deal of truth in what he said. The trouble is that we don't Either we don't understand and appreciate the majesty of God, the sovereignty of God, the Calvinist contribution to Christianity, and therefore we call easily God Father because it's not the true God but some familiar idol, some infant of Christ.

[02:22]

which may be part of the revelation of God, but by no means all there is to God. Or, we don't really know what fatherhood means, how much goodness there is in fatherhood, how much creativity, how much fulfillment comes from the ultimate meaning of fatherhood. God as Father is God as Person. God in His final mystery, in His final ability to surprise. It's interesting to note that those first fundamental commandments of the Ten Commandments, the One Eternal Army of God, are concerned precisely with God as first.

[03:27]

You shall have no other gods before me. I delivered you from Egypt. What are you doing with these other gods around? I have earned your loyalty and your gratitude. It means you have forgotten who delivered you from Egypt. It means that you have forgotten that whoever were in Egypt You shall not forget that. Therefore, the bit of the other God, they did not know you in Egypt as I did. Father, the bit of the God who looked upon you in your slavery and your nothingness and made you something, made you a free person. And then, you shall have no kinships. no idols, no graven images. And we command and commandment to that, you shall not take my name in vain.

[04:34]

These two commandments are prohibitions of the magic. They have nothing to do with the holy day exercise. The holy day exercise is a wonderful organization, more power to Taking God's name in vain is not cursing, really. That may be one manifestation of it down the line, but that's a very secondary kind of thing. No, taking God's name in vain means using God's name in a magical incantation, in an abacadabra. And the reason why that is prohibited is because That is the ultimate insult to God and His person. That says to God what we do to other people when we manipulate them. Not that everybody at one time or another has been manipulated.

[05:36]

Someone doesn't come to you and ask you right on, I would like to have this. Trusting you as a person to understand God, dialogue, No, they pull strings here, push buttons there. They don't trust you as a person. God said, you shall not manipulate me. You shall not distrust me to the extent that you start pulling strings, using me like a slot machine. You shall not treat me impersonally. Now, there is a rigid parallelism between how we treat persons, human beings, and persons in God. It is impossible to treat God with respect in this deep sense, to treat God as a person, to treat Him with reverence, respect, awe,

[06:50]

and to disrespect human beings more firmly. That's what Saint John is going to do. Cannot love men whom we see. How can you say that you love God when you do not see Him? Now, we really feel the same way about God we feel about human beings, in their personal way. And we don't respect human beings, They're not ready to be surprised by them and ready to affirm their mystery, then we cannot say that we honor God. So the fatherhood of God is the empirical sovereignty of God understood as being for my benefit. God giving Himself to me. God making Himself a Father.

[07:54]

Now, I would like to pull some of these things together in the person of Jesus. Jesus is the ultimate Lord of God. He is God's definitive revelation. There is no other word than Jesus, which is an adequate revelation of God. Every other word, whether scriptural or theological or creedal, is an approximation. It's an attempt to say what God is, what God intends for us. Only Jesus is the perfect word, completely adequate word. So all our theological efforts are really directed toward trying to say the Jesus word more perfectly, in more human expressions.

[09:05]

Jesus participated in our bondage. This is, I think, the real meaning of the Incarnation. He entered our universe of Egypt, our human condition. The Incarnation is not just the birth of Jesus at Bethlehem. It is not just His becoming man. You want to press that, you can say it all was over in March 26th. Oh, please! No. He became man from the moment of conception until his death. His incarnation is his whole life. He was becoming man. He was becoming the incarnate.

[10:08]

He was taking on our human condition, our God. And if you notice in the Gospels, Jesus gets to Palestine and He adopts and takes upon Himself and makes part of His own life all these classic examples of human bondage and weakness. How does He do that? By identifying with them. Here is a public outcast. Jesus makes Himself an outcast with you. A leper. Jesus feels with him. Jesus identifies with all these different types. These are all ways in which he takes on our human condition. He identifies with everything that is characteristic of us, save personal, deliberate sin. That means he takes on the costiness of sin too.

[11:13]

Jesus was capable of fear. Jesus was capable of anxiety. There's an expression in the gospel, why has God forsaken me? I cannot believe that that is the way it acts. But that is the way men feel before death. Jesus wanted to be completely a man. He took on our bond which he was bound with the same bonds that bind us. He too feared death. He was liberated. He began to be liberated already in this period of incarnation by God's loving care. Liberated because he came to know God as Father. His discovery of God as Father is summed up in those statements.

[12:17]

The baptism, for example. You are my beloved son. I don't think that was just an episode. March 26th, I heard God saying today, you are my beloved son. March 26th, when I was in Galilee marching? No. I think these are summary statements of something that happened in the land of Jesus. I discovered Bradsley to march in April and May in June. God is God. I am his son. Now there may have been a moment in which this was actually spoken. I'm not going to go into detail about what that fighting was like. What was in that fight. But it wasn't an episode. isolated. No, it was God revealing itself as Father, Jesus being freed by that discovery, Jesus as man, being free to take on his mission.

[13:25]

We all know that freedom comes in resurrection, but at every step, Jesus is freed as Israel was by God's loving concern. If what is the covenant into which Jesus has entered as a result of this generation in that final desert, that final future in God's country, how can we possibly know? All we know about it is that it is a unity which is not possible in us. Father, that they may be one as you and I are one, someday. A unity which is ineffable, and yet, strangely enough, establishes the uniqueness of those who are partly still unit. So, Jesus becomes more distinct from the Father

[14:34]

The Lord is just one with Him. Now this oneness is built upon His love of the Father, which is, I am happy that you are a father. The Father says, I am happy that you are a son. So the Father becomes ever more Father, the Son ever more Son, and as they become more distinct in a certain way, they become more one. Which, by the way, of course, is the ultimate formula of all Christian unity. Real Christian unity does not make people blend, makes people more distinct. All the true, unique characteristics come forth because unity is based upon a love which affirms and cherishes that distinction. Why would anyone want you to be yourself, not like me? So as our love brings us closer together, we all become more unique.

[15:42]

This ultimately is the evident relationship of Jesus and the Father in the final liberation. Now in the life of Jesus, I have to say something about this process by which he comes to final liberation. The Synoptic Gospels are centered in three critical moments, and each of these is very similar. The first is the Baptist, the beginning of the public ministry. The final is the crucifixion, the death and resurrection, the second baptism, the final baptism. I have another baptism for which I yearn and I cannot wait and so forth and so on. Jesus calls it another baptism.

[16:44]

We all know that, baptism and baptism, beginning and end. But there is another central point which is also very much like a baptism, and that is the transfiguration. Recall that in the Transfiguration, just as at the Baptism, and in no other place in the Gospel, Jesus hears God saying, you are my Son. That alone would be sufficient to alert us that this is another kind of Baptism. Now, I don't want to go into detail on this in a moment of time, I'd like to point out some of the significance of this for us. I think what the Gospels are doing is showing us how Jesus gradually came to understand the implications of His ministry, and as He understood it, gave Himself freely and wholeheartedly to that, to the demands of His ministry.

[18:00]

So in the beginning, he stands with Israel, with John the Baptist and all the other Israelites, wishing to be baptized with them for the same basic reason. Baptism of readiness for God. Lord, we are ready. That's what John's baptism meant. We are ready. We hope we are ready. But he wasn't. Nothing happened. No voice from heaven. No response. But when Jesus came and was baptized, heaven opened. And in Jesus, as Israel, God responds. He said, I am ready, Lord. When we are ready, this is corporate action. God said, I am ready too. You are my son. Speaking primarily to Jesus, but speaking to all of Israel also. You are my son. The messianic age is here. whom I am well pleased.

[19:04]

This is a great liberating experience for Jesus and all men to begin to believe. There is no other way to come to believe than through that baptismal experience in one way or another. Discover the goodness of God and therefore one's own value and freedom, which is another way of saying sunshine. And with that freedom, Jesus assumed his mission. He began to preach what he had heard. He knew God is here. God is good. He has fulfilled his promises. Good news. Then he performed many miracles and was received by the people. And then, controversy began to develop. Pharisees did not like the way He performed His miracle. Six days we have on which to perform miracles. This father has to wait till the Sabbath.

[20:09]

And so forth and so on. We have to get resistance. And then finally it becomes clear to Jesus that this resistance is not just a dispute, not just a difference of opinion, by some messianic question, it becomes clear that these people are not going to accept Him in the way that He is defining Messiahship. They're going to make an issue of this. This point, it says, immediately before the Transfiguration, Mark, Scott, Matthew, all these prophets, it says, and Jesus began to tell His disciples, The Son of Man must suffer many things, and be put to death. You can't tell them about compassion.

[21:10]

He's going to die much younger than they thought, or maybe even that you thought. I personally think that Jesus did not tell them this because he just discovered this himself. There's no reason why he could not tell them this. by the command of his mission. I don't think Jesus knew at the age of 10 that he was going to crucify me. I see no need for it. It's contrary to all the gospel evidence. I think he discovered at a certain moment, this ministry is going to cost a lot more than I thought. I don't need that. They're going to make an issue out of this. I'm going to have to die. or else deny everything I've been saying. I couldn't do that, especially after seeing the hope in the eyes of these people. So he is in prayer in a sense.

[22:13]

And I think we can assume he is saying, Father, I'm ready again for this new dimension of my baptism. And he was transfigured before them. And I think the nature of this transfiguration can be deduced from what happened after it. After the transfiguration, Jesus set the direct course to Jerusalem and crucifixion. The middle point of the gospel, the watershed, one author says. I think the transfiguration was not so much an illumination from outside as if the Father said, well, the disciples need some encouragement, well, I'll just put this pleading light on Jesus for a little bit, illuminate Him, and then they'll say, oh, He is the Messiah after all, we went in for a while there. No, I don't think that happened. First of all, no indication that God put the light from outside, a ray of light that fell upon Him, because He glowed.

[23:23]

And He was glistening and shining like no forest, you know, no forest would make this clothing was radiant. Well, for the sake of where the light came from. And if it was for the encouragement of the disciples, it failed. Now, that's the way they lived in Confucius before. Now, I think that this radiance of Jesus came from within. And it was an ecstasy, an ecstatic experience and a halo comes from an intense personal experience of discovery. What was this intense, this ultimate discovery? The fact that dying is the way to life.

[24:25]

The wisdom of God is central. We'll get extraordinary paradigms. But coming to life is not evading death, human death. Not going under or around or over. But lo and behold, in the wisdom of God, it is dying that gives life. And after that, he goes straight toward his dying. Directly, no detours. almost cheerfully, joyfully. I think this transfiguration is very much like that middle point I talked about this morning. Child on the wall. Critical conversion of faith. Suddenly, I don't have to look behind me anymore for support. My support is in the one who is calling from ahead of me, from the ultimate future.

[25:37]

Dying is no longer some kind of absurd thing that I'm going to have to go through, God knows how, poke my nose and be fed of this thing. No, it is something I would not want to miss. Something I would not want to miss. I was given my options. I would say, no Lord, I'm calling, I don't want to miss dying. What do you think I committed as to what? What's the fun of living? That may be a little radical, but I really think that faith is not completely victorious until we can, at least in our better moments, you know, there are certain times in the day when we, you know, we have to expect to be a complete Christian. In our other high moments of faith, we should be able to say, I do not want to miss that. There is something so pure about the gift, which is in the acceptance of death, that it cannot be anticipated. It's the only time you can ever do that.

[26:39]

So, you want to miss a unique experience. Everybody has this experience. Everybody does, but think what a difference it would make if you really were not afraid of dying. I mean, dying in this good sense, I don't mean, you know, I'm a little distressed when people always want to die. I think people don't like this life, don't like the next one either. I mean, people like this life, but still know that dying is good because it leads to a better life. Better in the sense of, well, life with with God, with the Father, with Jesus. Well, this would be, of course, in this experience, Jesus hears God saying, You are my beloved Son.

[27:44]

With the second baptism, the second affirmation, and then He goes a little farther and says, Listen to Him. Now that He knows the place of dying, He can be a teacher as not before. Listen to him. And then he comes to the resurrection, passion. Well, in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus is dealing with a whole new reality. No longer is death something that's going to come early. and violently, with rejection. Well, the new reality is that death is tomorrow. No matter how well prepared we are, there's something completely unique about those last 24 hours. Death is tomorrow.

[28:46]

When he fell to this consciousness in the Garden of Gethsemane and wrestled with it, in accepting this final demand. Can it not pass away about next week? What about next year? One year is like nothing to God in His eternal, quote from Psalms. This is what Jesus said, and that will be tomorrow, for goodness sakes. With all that time, yes, forget it. I know it has to be tomorrow. Because next week will be the same thing. It won't be any different, it won't be any easier. Okay, I accept. Tomorrow. Not my will, but mine should not. So in every case we have this readiness, this acceptance. And we would expect to hear the Father's voice again a third time.

[29:51]

and asked if he was ready to say, I too am ready. Now you are indeed, finally, definitively, wasn't for all, my beloved son. You're nothing. You're nothing. And this is the part of me, because you're there kind of like hanging, waiting for it, looking for another page of the scriptures. Well, then it dawned on me that he did say it. This is what the resurrection is. I didn't say it in so many words because Jesus has already passed out of our history when this happens. We can't fear this final affirmation because we haven't died yet. Let's reserve it for those who die in this final way, ultimate way. but the father embraces his son in resurrection, welcome home my son.

[30:56]

He acts out the words, you are my beloved son. This is the final act of nation receiving of Jesus into his home. Now, the implication for us I think is that We have to muster up all our courage and our freedom and say, I am ready. I am ready with men who are seeking salvation. I am ready. When God's affirmation comes as He promises it will, then we go out and do what this freedom allows. Knowing, however, that this will lead to new discoveries, new demands, We have no idea how much any decision will cost. This requires a new readiness and will guarantee another acceptance and affirmation.

[32:08]

And gradually this leads then to the final affirmation, approval, which is resurrection. who have received the word of God, and have heard the good news, to be a Christian, to believe, means to be ready for and open to the goodness in life, in the difficult phases of life. And other people, especially in those who don't seem obviously to be good, in situations where they're not promising, in the unknown future full of threat and danger and the circumstance of death.

[33:14]

And God, the Great Unknown One. I don't think there's any person in the Bible besides Jesus himself who illustrates this attitude toward life. It is so much more important than reciting the Creed. No other person besides Jesus knows Jesus better than King David. Why have to have so big a spirit just to begin to talk about him under such an idolization? Well, the dreamers are optimistic to try something like that. King David. He lived about a thousand B.C. Jesus is called the Son of David. I think, personally, more because he was the great and final David figure, the ultimate expression of the David attitude and David spirit, far more than because, in some tortuous way, his genealogy can be traced to David.

[34:26]

Actually, I think a pretty good dog followed his trail. Funny turn, that genealogy. But even aside from that, there's no question that Jesus is a new David. And as David and his counterpart, his spoils, saw Jesus too as his Judas. And both of them committed suicide. So it's a very serious business whether one slips into the attitude of David or Saul, or Jesus or Judas. Saul is a faith person. I recall Jennifer and Justin Keller saying, oh, poor old Saul. But he would say, he'd say, mother was a laughing fish.

[35:32]

I say, The man who failed. Well, when Luther saw Mike's own, he had himself having some sympathies for him. He was punished very severely for sins which had extenuated circumstance. Two major sins mentioned in the Bible are the fact that he took upon himself to offer sacrifice in preparation for battle, for this was not permitted for the king. only the prophet could identify for sure. And he waited for seven days for Samuel to come, and Samuel didn't show. First, the ministers, and then the church, and the priestess, but he got lost, unfortunately, and left. He didn't show. Seven full days he waited. And finally he did. His men were leaving. The army was breaking up. He was assuming that animal. He sacrificed him.

[36:34]

Then when he did so, Paul, Samuel, appeared out of the woods and said, you made a lot of mistakes. You never do things right. And then he went down to one of the Amalekites, and he was supposed to kill everybody, and he brought back my God and some of the fast cows. He celebrated whole, not to spare them, but to show them that whole. Then he came back and said, did you do what I told you to, sir? Well, what then is that blowing of the cows in my ear? Oh, I was going to go back and get a piece of hope. Yes, blow it again. You shall no more rule over my people Israel. Well, maybe I'm over emphasizing these extenuating factors, but I think Saul's intentions were basically good, even though his judgment was poor.

[37:36]

And yet he is rejected his king, he becomes bitter, cured of insanity, eventually he loses his army, and he commits suicide. Tragic things. Although it's the bottomless tragedy. And then they say, They just made some real big shit out of it. I took a deep breath and went and got into this whole problem with that she-goat. Well, I understand that. But then when he was about to be embarrassed because of what was going to happen, and Mariah could not be convinced he would do something foolish to cover it up, He planned his murder, and succeeded. Cold-blooded, premeditated murder to get out of a tight spot.

[38:39]

That's sin. Yes, David. No duck smelling my throats. So, it seems unfair. It's solved. It's made fit. Everything he touches turns to gray, gold. David has his golden touch. But a cat, no matter how high you throw him, he rams into the street. He turns a ceiling into an orchard. He repents and he's better off than he was before. Well, I don't think we can compare just what they did. I think what the Bible is telling us is that these two men had two fundamentally different attitudes towards life. Paul believed that God was good. The father was a troubled and tortured man, filled with anxiety, fear, doing foolish things, swearing that anybody touched food or drink for the next 24 hours would die, and then it happened to be his son, John.

[39:48]

And he was very clever. People said, no, he can't become stupid like that. Well, I guess not. But he was always doing, you know, impulsive, irrational things. I think this gave him the fact that he was not in touch with the goodness that in his life felt. The fact that his life was too studied, too rehearsed, he was not in touch with the reality. He believed that God is good, the composition. But I think for me, back in the day, he did not believe that life is good. The people are good, the situations are good, the song is good, but the future is good. It didn't act like a man believed that, but David did. One can almost say that David could be defined as the man who expects his good things to happen.

[40:49]

And because life is good and the future is good and God is good, well, good things happen. He permitted them to have. He was ready for them. So, when he sinned, he was ready for repentance and forgiveness, and it's us. And in every situation, he was ready for the good in us. He had much tragedy in his life. Incest in his own family. Brother murdering Christ. Rebellion absolutely against his own father. And yes, enough to remain positive, optimistic, hopeful. Now, this is not a story about David at all, truth is going to figure. Everybody has a David and a Saul in them, and it's extremely important

[41:55]

The big David's in the ascendancy. Big David's up and Saul down. They're all too easy for Saul to gradually take over. One becomes a chronic complainer, full of bitterness. Maybe he don't live in the same one for a while. Business is not thoroughly finished. You know, you can't see reality anymore. There's so many ways in which it extracts itself. The person who is ready for good things to happen seems to be lucky. But it's not luck. That's the need of getting when the good happens. All the Florians, novice masters, they've been established in many, many years. Now again, Father Florey used to insist, I'm not suggesting this to the President here, he used to insist that the novices play cards with you.

[43:00]

You don't know how to play cards, learn. That was far more important to him than all the psychological examination. He wanted to know, to observe, how they handled the adversity. The adversity of the field. The irrational appeal, which is so much like life. What do you know? Of course, anybody can face it. What do you do with the two and the three and the four? I haven't studied one near David at all. I know there are a lot of you, and I have another one for, I think, the 12th of January. Just don't think of anybody particularly, huh? But you know the night. It's only card playing, it's no problem, but there's some questions. I don't know if I can carry it over into life. No, I've never been a decent man. Well, you know, I could play like the rest, too. No, you know, a good card player is one who knows how to play the spots.

[44:06]

How to make the best of imperfect situations. As a dentist told me one time, I just said something, he said, I just stood there for a second, one of these, one of these men here was just watching me, he said, just followed me here for a while, and he said, why don't we do something around here, if we're gonna be like this, with all these men, with all this talisman, we don't do anything, the trucks are drifting along, and we could, you know, why don't we do something? And I said, well, well, well, it would have spurred me a lot, I think we are doing something, and then I thought about it, and then he said, fuck, why don't you come down to us, I only have the cards that were dealt to me. And I think he was tempted to say, you are a jack. Well, you know, there's so much truth in that. We only have the cards that are dealt to us. What do you do with it?

[45:20]

Complain? Reject it? Make excuses? Or play it? David played his card. He expected good things to happen. Jesus played his card. Jesus expected the best to happen in the worst possible situation. He looked into the absolute color of darkness. and fall away. Not resurrection. Now, let's use the optimist in expecting good things to happen. Abraham looked at his body as good as dead, Paul said. Well, if you've seen a man's body 99 years old, aged a bit over four, someone's lost, then the rest of his core Oh, that's terrible. He looked at his body and spurned his death.

[46:21]

He got mad the way he was. Oh, shriveled up. And he believed in life. And they considered the womb of Sarah, which was filled with death. And they believed that God could give him a son. In the midst of death, they expected life. Like this. Also, this seems like good jobs. White resurrection. Those who all do nothing.

[46:53]

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