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in your midst (zephaniah 3:14?20; luke 3:7?18)
Author: philmore (Kevin Roberts)
do you ever notice how the last pew is the most full? it is a physical reminder of how uncomfortable we are with people looking at our backs, that is, what is behind us, our past or our history. it is more comfortable, or self-calming, to sit in judgment in the back row, knowing no one can see us, thinking we have an advantage seeing them. well, here we are in zephaniah with our recurring theme, the kingdom of god/heaven is within you, or in this case, in your midst. this is important, to be mentioned twice in the same short passage, and is being emphasized. sounds nice, to have our (inner) enemies cast out, to fear (inner) evil no more; to have disaster removed from you and have your fortune ¡°before your eyes.¡±
¡°let not your hands grow weak.¡± i find this to be telling? it is the one thing asked of us, beyond singing and exult-ing with our heart. our hands/arms are what we embrace and reach out with, useful only for interpersonal relations, they don¡¯t help us run away. they are the visible physical manifestation of the heart; all energy pathways, or meridians, in the arms come from organs in the thorax, within the ribs, the most protected part of the body.
we talked briefly last week about the level of john?that of violence?so how is it that he can preach good news? let¡¯s look closer, using the vantage point of zephaniah. ¡°ye brood of [inner] vipers!¡± this ¡°brood,¡± that is, all the aspects of personality, or psyche, is told to bear good fruit or they will be cut down and thrown in the fire. the light of christ, or baptism, will be so strong as to burn away the inner chaff, leaving only the useful wheat behind.
and we get names for some of these inner brood, the multitudes, called tax collectors, soldiers, etc. and the inner parts that have more than their share give to other inner parts; they share protection from the external world (coats) and nourishment (food). do not rob, do violence, lie, etc.
interestingly enough, john himself says: ¡°god can raise up children from these stones.¡± yet he never notices that he is the stone. he does admit that christ is so far above him that his shoes are out of reach?that is, christ¡¯s lowest part is higher than his highest part, which jesus confirms in another passage, the least in the kingdom is greater than he (john). (fourth way students can look to the gaps occurring within octaves.)
so the brunt of this advent message is: can we see the multitudes in ourselves? can we see the soldier, the tax collector? if we take ourselves as a unity, this scripture is difficult to understand allegorically. yet so much of this gospel must be allegory in order to fit together with any real meaning. the teaching of christ is simple once we see the brood of vipers within. we must do battle to attain the kingdom.
i get a sense that if we get past all these gargoyles, we will see a light, a light that will lead us to an undeveloped being, a child, out back in the cow dung because there is no room for him at the ¡®inn.¡¯ but we all know how hard it is to get by the army, much less the taxman. and how many of this brood are sitting on the back row of our inner world, tucked away securely, out of sight?
#8. If you already know it is bad and do it, you commit a sin difficult to redress. peace- ¡°philmore¡± kevin roberts rmt http://www.somaZen.com 512 451 4121
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¡°. . . the work must be entertained by us and enter our will and not be left on the threshold. The water it offers must be drunk for water signifies spiritual truth?that is, psychological truth?and it must not be fastidiously re-fused. It must be drunk by the mind and become psychologically us, just as in the sacrament of the Wine and Bread the assimilation of the truth and grace of Christ into oneself is signified. For this Work has the power of making this psychological body we need, and the arrangement of its ideas is clearer than in the Gospels where things are not put in order.¡±?Nicoll, Commentaries, p. 1497
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In ordinary life, Philmore is called Kevin Roberts. He is a massage therapist and bed-and-breakfast owner in Austin, Texas. He lives with his wife and two dogs and is both a student and a teacher of esoteric Christianity, as presented by G. I. Gurdjieff. His bodywork method, somaZen, is the cutting edge of bodymind therapies, and his articles have appeared in many publications. You may contact him at philmore@kesdjan.com or check out his new book, Religion #5, at http://kesdjan.com/religion5.html. This article is part of the book.
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