YES, HE is Talking to YOU! (continued)

Love is the Fulfilling of the Law

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

We finished yesterday looking at the concept of Light and, in both a biblical sense and a physical sense one could say that all is Light. Light is a concept of the universe. it is the radiation of all things. In the days of the Master Light was produced with candles and torches; this was actual flame light and in the 2000 years since we have moved somewhat beyond this. Today we can produce many specific types of light through any of a large variety of devices that we may choose. It is written in the Book of Genesis that God said “Let there be light: and there was light” (Genesis 1:3); since that miraculous happening we are able to simply say that Light IS. It is a fundamental aspect of God. We need to break away from the idea of the light of a lamp of yesterday and today and expand, as we did yesterday, into the metaphorical Light which is the Light of which the Master speaks and of which the virgins lamps were but a metaphor. The Light that is our understanding in consciousness is derived from within, from our Souls, and we can no more explain this than we can explain how a tree grows. Not the theoretical science of the growing but the how and the why.

There are answers and we continue to discover them in science and in this discovering the spiritual should play a more important part than just inspiring the scientists. Their Light is real and dynamic and it flows to them and they see and they hear much the same Christ told us about. Though they may not be spiritual men they are still hearing the call of their Souls, the Light if you will, as we are and they are filtering out, all but what it is that they want to take from it. In the combination of one’s nature and his nurture and his proclivity he becomes what he is as a conscious personality and through this we filter the Light of the Soul. We could say that in a way the scientist attracts the ideas and the understanding that fits with and matches his personality and this would be a fairly accurate statement; this is however living as a personality and there is still the matter of living the spiritual life. So we can be disciples and scientist, disciples and politicians or disciples and ministers of the word, it is all a matter of focus. If we are focused on the Earthly part we remain in that part and when we focus on the spiritual part we add the part of discipleship to it and our focus is on the Lord. The Light of the Soul is ever present with us in this form life and it inspires us to many great things based on what we have become as men and what we may be predisposed to. The scientist, the politician and the minister and  whatever else all live in their fields of expertise and some of them, because of some degree of Soul contact, will receive, will hear and heed, the ideas and concepts through which they can rise above others in their field. Albert Einstein, Martin Luther King, Abraham Lincoln, Billy Graham; these are all examples of men who have found the ability to rise above and this comes to us from the Soul. All of these and all of us have also the ability to become disciples of the Lord, to step out in the fullness of that Soul Light and not just a part of it and this is, whether we understand it or not, our spiritual destiny.

What does this have to do with Light? Just that it is Light. Both above and below the limited spectrum of light that we can see is an infinite array of wavelengths of light that we cannot see. We could say that it ranges from the darkest dark to that Light which IS God. And, in all of this we should know that Light is energy and that all is energy; that even the chair on which we sit is energy which then can be said to be Light as well. This is all of course a rather unscientific look at this and this is because I am not a scientist, I am an aspiring disciple of the Master and I have been one for as long as I can remember. For much of this time I aspired and did not act but I could not, I did not, escape the promptings of my Soul. I can tell you from experience that it is rather easy to escape even the strongest promptings when the lust and desires for the world of things plays louder in your ear that the word of God.

There are two parables that we will cover next that are said to be about persistence and they may well be. This interpretation however is apparent in the stories and that which is evident is generally not the full meaning of the teachings of the Master. Let us explore these which are call the Parable of the Friend at Midnight and the Parable of the Unjust Judge. Let us begin with the Parable of the Friend at Midnight; this parable is found only in the Gospel of Luke and it appears just after the giving by the Lord of the Great Lord’s Prayer and just before a series of sayings regarding asking. It goes thus:

“And he said unto them, Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go unto him at midnight, and say unto him, Friend, lend me three loaves; For a friend of mine in his journey is come to me, and I have nothing to set before him? And he from within shall answer and say, Trouble me not: the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give thee. I say unto you, Though he will not rise and give him, because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him as many as he needeth” (Luke 11:5-8)

And it is followed by this:

“And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?” (Luke 11:9-13).

For our purposes we will consider all of this as a part of the parable as they are all interrelated statements given in a series which seems to start without relation to the prayer itself. In the first part of the story we should note that the idea of friend is used. Now we know there are degrees of friendship and while one may think himself a good friend to another, that other person may consider him just a casual friend. Add to this the understanding that good friend or not, midnight is not a time to be arousing your ‘friend’ and his family for something so trivial as having bread for another friend; nor is it a good time for the presumably unannounced arrival of a friend. Both parties here are inconvenienced by a friend and both respond in aid; the one leaves his home to find bread for another and the other rises from his sleep and gives bread to another.  Let us put ourselves into the role of both of these and decide how we would feel and then how we would act. But this is not the meaning, this is the story itself and the facts should be clear.

What then is the meaning? There are two key words here and they are friend and importunity. Of friend we have understanding of the meaning but let us look at this in bible terms so to be sure. The word translated as friend is the Greek word philos of which the lexicon tells us: friend, to be friendly to one, wish him well; a friend, an associate; he who associates familiarly with one, a companion; one of the bridegroom’s friends who on his behalf asked the hand of the bride and rendered him various services in closing the marriage and celebrating the nuptials². Of course we can eliminate the last idea as it is not pertinent to this topic. Strong’s gives notation of the Strong’ number for an array of related words ranging from to love to philosopher, all with the same philo root; the definition is given simply as (a) friendly; (n) friend (male or female)³. Vine’s sees this a bit differently saying of philos : primarily an adjective, denoting “loved, dear, or friendly,”; he notes that it is used by James in calling Abraham “the friend of God” and is also used derogatorily as calling sinners “a friend of the world“⁶. It would be fair to say here that we do not know the import of usage of friend here but can likely pick out the ideas that are not appropriate to these verses. Let us assume that these are two pairs of friends; more than friendly and leaning toward the Vine’s idea of loved as this seems to be the Master’s use of the word in other settings as in John’s Gospel where He chooses to call the disciples friends instead of servants (John 15:14-15).

The other key word here is the Greek word anaideia which is translated importunity. The lexicon tells us that this word means: shamelessness, impudence², while Strong’s tells us in one word that it means boldness³. Vincent tells us that this word is only used here in the New Testament. A very striking word to describe persistence. Lit., shamelessness⁴. Vine’s tells us that anaideia means shamelessness, importunity⁶. Both Vincent and Vine’s also offer a bit of commentary on the meaning which gives some understanding of how this word is seen; Vine’s adds that it is used in the Lord’s illustration concerning the need of earnestness and perseverance in prayer, Luke 11:8. If shameless persistence can obtain a boon from a neighbor, then certainly earnest prayer will receive our Father’s answer⁶. Vincent comments that as related to prayer, it is illustrated in the case of Abraham’s intercession for Sodom (Gen. xviii. 23-33) and of the Syro-Phoenician woman (Matt. xv.22-28). Both of these comments are interesting and well framed and show that their understanding, and that of others as well, is that this parable is to do with the foregoing Lord’s Prayer. For us however, we will take these comments on prayer as the idea that leads up to the story and, from the definitions we will use the main understanding of shamelessness, which is the literal translation. We do no want to see it as a negative word however in the context that it is used here by the Master. In the English context the word importunate means troublesomely urgent; unreasonably solicitous; overpressing in request or demand; urgent; teasing; Hard to be borne; unendurable¹. These ideas do not fit well into this parable as neither the attitude of the petitioner nor view of the friend and they are contrary to the end of the story as we will paint it.

Taking the story back to the beginning we have in Act One a man at home and who is visited by a friend around midnight; apparently unannounced and apparently hungry. There was no such thing in those days as to call ahead or even write to announce one’s arrival. So we will say that this man at home is made to react to his friend’s arrival and his hunger and that he likely did not want to be woken around midnight but he does what he can for his friend; not because he is his friend, but because his friend is arrived and can not be turned away. Then we have Act Two; a man whose friend has arrived unannounced and hungry; not knowing what to do he turns to his friend and neighbour for help. While he does not want to wake him at midnight, he goes to his house anyway and knocks at the door; the man needs help and turns to a friend. The friend says “Trouble me not: the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give thee”.  It then comes to him that if his friend saw the need to come to wake him at midnight that this must be important and, because the man is there at the door, the friend gives to him what he needs. Both this man and his friend the neighbour recognized the need of another and did what they could to help; neither helped because of the fact that the other person was a friend but he acted because a friend was there and was asking. The idea of importunity or shamelessness is not to be viewed from part of the friend that is giving; it is to be viewed from the perspective of the friend that is asking….the asking friend feels no shame in asking for this thing from his friend.

So the friend gives because he is asked and not because of persistence or even shameless persistence and here Vincent ties this for us to the Syro-Phoenician woman noted above (see In the Words of Jesus part 141) who came to the Master humbly asking for healing for her daughter who is healed because she asked. We had referenced this woman’s coming to the Master as an act of faith and so it was but here we see it from the Master’s perspective; He heals her because she asks. Jesus goes on next into the second part that we have attached as a part to this parable and that is the simple and basic idea that if you ask you will receive and if you seek you will find and if you knock it will be opened to you. Vincent helps us here with a quote from Trench saying: Ask, seek, knock. “these three repetitions of the command are more than mere repetitions; since to seek is more than to ask, and to knock than to seek” (Trench, ‘Parables’)

For us the ideas here of ask, seek and knock are deeper still than is painted by the Master as He is reflecting on the Fatherhood of God as the giver and to whom one should ask and this is a True thing. We know however that the way to the Father God is through His Son and this is represented to us by the Christ Within. We, as men in form, as conscious personalities, must be ever seeking more Light and more Love from Him and, as we ask and we seek and we knock, the Light and the Love will pour into our consciousness and it is thereby that we are transformed. There is no limit to the asking nor the seeking nor the knocking; these are a constant demand for more Light and more Love. Note finally how the Master ends this saying in this Gospel of Luke; how he frames what it is that we are asking for: “how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?“. In Matthew’s version the Father will give “good things to them that ask him” (Matthew 7:11) which is in many places interpreted as physical plane desires but which we can see here are really things of the Spirit and not of the Earth.

Note on the Quote of the Day