CP 296 Day 8 - A sunset conversation

CP 296 Day 8 – A sunset conversation Gabriel: My God and Lord, all the angels are outraged at what the humans have done today. Your glorious name has been dishonoured and your perfect will has been scorned. All my fellow angels are asking what they can do to bring you comfort? We are ready to serve as you desire. The Lord God: Thank you Gabriel. It has been a sad day. But I declare to you now that this dishonouring of my name will be overturned. What has happened today cannot stand! I will not accept this abomination in my creation. This evil will be undone. Whatever is required to turn back this wickedness, whatever it takes, we will do. Gabriel: Holy Lord, the humans have surrendered the glorious dominion with which you blessed them. Your image in them is now so defiled that it is barely recognizable at all. This could not have happened if you had not given the humans free will and a free choice. The Lord God: Gabriel, it could be no other way. I fashioned the man and woman in my own image to have joyful and free fellowship with me. It was always a risk, but there is no joy in the friendship of puppets. I cannot seek worship and fellowship from souls that are as robots. The humans had to be allowed the possibility of turning away from me. If they are to live in my presence, if they are to be with me, it must be their free choice to worship and honour me. Michael: God and Lord, we cannot understand how the man and the woman, whom you created to bless with your perfect communion, could do this evil thing and treat your holy loving heart with such contempt? Their actions have brought a darkness over the creation. Do you wish us to destroy them? The Lord God: Michael, it is true that this is an evil day. However, it is not my will, nor is it in my heart, to remove them completely from my care. Even though their actions are a rejection of me I want them back. I will forgive them and restore them. Yes, I want them back! Michael: We know that behind this evil thing that has happened against you there is Lucifer, who also challenged your glory and your will. Surely now you will to bring him to account. All those angels you have placed under my charge stand ready to do battle for vengeance on your behalf. We await your orders. The Lord God: Michael, Lucifer will suffer my wrath. We will deal with him at the right time and destroy the basis for all the power he has. It will happen in a way that he cannot expect or plan for. Michael: Do you mean, Lord, that you already have a plan for him? The Lord God: Yes Michael, I do. However, there is much to do before he will experience the fullness of my wrath. I will reduce him to the point of complete powerlessness. His impotence will be his final – and worst - eternal punishment. But first, we will reverse what was done. Sometime later… a more intimate conversation The Son: Father, this situation calls for deep thought. If we are to succeed with our goal to overturn what Adam and Eve have done, surely someone will need to go from here to the earth. The Father: My Son you are right. We made Adam in our image but he has been rebelliously unfaithful to me. He chose to believe the lie of the great liar. The one we send on our behalf must be ever-obedient while he is there. He must be holy, and prove himself by remaining holy in the face of any and all attacks from that murderer and deceiver. The Spirit: Yes Father, I see both the wisdom and necessity in what you say. Perfect faithfulness to you and to your word will be essential for whichever servant undertakes this mission in your name. The Son: Yes, Spirit, you are right. Whoever goes must go as a servant, a servant who breathes with a heart of unrelenting humility and love. Father, Adam was the shining star among all we created. There was nothing humble about his abject surrender to the temptation of selfish ambition and pride. We created him in your image, but it remains true that he was created. The creature grasped upwards to be equal with us. The mission of our servant will be lowly and lonely. Father: Of course. For that very reason the servant we send must be fully human. His call will be to confront the evil one in the same nature as Adam. That means it will not be possible to gift him with the majesty, knowledge and powers that we ourselves have at our disposal. The Spirit: Then his mission will be very difficult. The man Adam was quickly overcome by the guile of the tempter. Our servant will have to be tempted in every way and yet not sin. The Son: Difficult certainly. Our servant will need to guard his heart with great care. But not impossible. It can be done provided our servant listens to you Father and draws all the strength and knowledge he will need from every word you speak. He must rely on you at all times. That will be the only way he can live on Adam’s behalf the life that Adam failed to live. The Father: That is correct. What causes me to tremble is that a perfectly obedient and faithful life, on its own, is not enough. More is required. Much more. The Spirit: Father, I know you are saddened by the events of this day, but I sense a deep reluctance about what will be commanded of the servant. The Father: O my Spirit, we understand each other very well. I have said that it is my will to forgive the humans their mortal sin, and then restore my image in them. For that to happen my servant must not only live a perfect life on behalf of the humans but he must also willingly draw their sin into himself. Not only that. Since the humans are now subject to death the Redeemer must therefore also die a worthy death on their behalf. It will not be enough to confront sin and death. The one I send must embrace sin and death. That will be the only way the power of sin and death, and the power of the evil one, can be destroyed. It is the only possible way Adam and Eve, or any of their offspring, can ever again live with me. The Spirit: Father, I shudder at what you have just said. The one we send will go to live and die as a substitute for the couple and their offspring. He will be called to go without the personal possession of any of our majesty or powers. His acceptance of his task must be free and he will be called to be utterly reliant on us, and faithful and obedient to us. He will undertake a noble work in your name. Yet even now, I sense that you have still another word to speak. The Father: Yes, there is still one more thing. We already know it will be necessary for my servant to give his life in exchange for many. One human could give his life for another human. That is the value of a life. But my servant’s life must cover the value of all human lives. In other words, the one who goes in my name must also share in my divine nature. That is the only way our servant’s life can be the ransom price for Adam and his descendants. [In an instant all movement in the heaven ceases. A holy silent awe permeates the heavens. Within the silence there is intense grief. There is also a swelling hope. It is a time of raw love. The Spirit engages the Father and the Son with comfort and wisdom. The Son receives what the Spirit is giving and beholds the face of the Father. The Father too draws in the grace of the Spirit and looks with unfathomable love on his beloved Son. The silence continues. The whole company of heaven holds its breath…] Finally the Father speaks: ‘Whom shall I send?’ It is the Son who responds: ‘Here am I! Send me.’ ************************************************************************** The mindset of Christ Jesus: ‘Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; 7 rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death - even death on a cross! 9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name…’ Philippians 2:6-9 ************************************************************************* ‘For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.’ John 3:16 RSV ‘A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit. 2 The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him— the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of might, the Spirit of the knowledge and fear of the LORD - 3 and he will delight in the fear of the LORD.’ Isaiah 11:1-3 ‘The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.’ John 1:14 ‘And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.’ 2 Corinthians 3:18 Fred Veerhuis