Acorns from Oakes

It occurred to me that…there was finally the first Christian who opened that book and read, “He was a tender shoot that grew out of dry ground.” There was a scripture that came alive for the first time to one person, and when they saw, “He was led as a lamb to the slaughter” – nowhere in the margins of the scrolls had there been a picture of Calvary painted – but there was the first Christian for the first time who looked at Isaiah 53, and dropped it and threw up their hands and said, “Oh, my God!” And they rushed to the church and they said, “Pick up your book!” and read Isaiah 53. And for the first time, in a prophetic community, the scripture was brought clear in the light of Calvary.

The task of the Church is to get on with implementing the victory of the cross; and if we grasped that vision and lived by it, we would be able at last to address some of the problems in the Church and the world that loom so large and seem so intractable.

Jesus’ vision of God’s kingdom…grew directly out of his knowledge and love of Israel’s God as the God of generous grace and astonishing, powerful, healing love. This was the God whose life-giving power flowed through him to heal; this was the God to whose kingdom he was committed.

Until we come to terms with WAR as the context of our days we will not understand life. We will misinterpret 90 percent of what is happening around us and to us. It will be very hard to believe that God’s intentions toward us are life abundant; it will be even harder not to feel that somehow we are just blowing it. Worse, we will begin to accept some really awful things about God.

Question of the Day: How do I know when I am transformed?

Paul uses a wonderful and telling phrase: “I no longer live, but Christ lives in me” (Galatians 2:20). It is a radically different sense of self that he is trying to describe. Until I have come to that realization myself, I have not been transformed, spiritually speaking.

Contemplative prayer draws us to our True Self, who we are “hidden with Christ in God” as Paul says in Colossians 3:3. This is the only self that actually exists. We came forth from God and our deepest DNA is divine. We are not human beings trying to become spiritual; we are already spiritual beings and the profound question is always, “What does it mean to be human?” I believe that is why Jesus came as a human being and consistently called himself a “son of man” more than the Son of God.

Stanislavsky once wrote that you could play well or badly, but play truly. It is not up to you whether your performance will be brilliant - all that is under your control is your intention. It is not under your control whether your career will be brilliant - all that is under your control is your intention. If you intend to manipulate, to show, to impress, you may experience mild suffering and pleasant triumphs. If you intend to follow the truth you feel in yourself - to follow your common sense, and force your will to serve you in the quest for discipline and simplicity - you will subject yourself to profound despair, loneliness, and constant self-doubt. And if you persevere, the Theater, which you are learning to serve, will grace you, now and then, with the greatest exhilaration it is possible to know.