Ensign: From The Heart Of "Once Upon A Time"
All ye inhabitants of the world, and dwellers on the earth, see ye, when he lifteth up an ensign on the mountains, and when he bloweth a trumpet, hear ye. (Isaiah 18:3)
AN ENSIGN ON THE MOUNTAINS 22 May 2015
There was an enchanted forest filled with all the classic characters we know.
Or think we know.
One day they found themselves trapped in a place where all their happy endings were stolen.
Our World.
This is how it happened...
So began nearly four years ago the TV series Once Upon A Time, where the fairy tale characters we grew up with like Snow White, Prince Charming, Rumpelstiltskin, and so many others found themselves cursed to live in our world, with (mostly) all their memories gone. Nearly thirty years later in the series' timeline, the daughter of Snow and Charming finds her way to their place of exile and becomes convinced that all these fairy tale characters ARE real (by her own son, no less) and becomes "the Savior" who restores their memories and their magic, eventually becoming pretty good with the stuff herself!
One of the things magic users can do within the bounds of Storybrooke (the community set up "where all their happy endings were stolen") is take the hearts out of other people's chests and either speak into them to control the person whose heart it is or crush the hearts, killing them. So it's not too messy with blood spurting everywhere, the hearts out of body appear as pulsing ruby like stones. And they become lighter or darker depending on the "good" or "bad" that the person whose heart it is has done through their lifetime. For the last episode of this now-fourth season Rumpelstiltskin's heart was nearly all black and had to be purged, but his darkness had to go to someone else ...
It's that "good" or "bad" in Once Upon A Time, or for that matter any aspect of the lives we live that is such a slippery slope. For how are we measuring what is "good" or "bad" for another person? We want to say that being good is what helps and being bad is what hurts others, but what is good for you may not be good for someone else. Even Jesus, when HE was called good by whom Matthew's gospel calls the rich young ruler (see Matthew 19:16-22 in the sense of "Good Master") sought to deflect the praise off Himself. He knew, not only as the divine Son of God but also as the human son of Joseph and Mary walking the earth, that all the praise and the credit for anything He did (and does) has to go back to God Himself.
Let's keep going for a few with this dialogue. Jesus tells the young ruler in verse seventeen, to answer how he may have eternal life, to keep the commandments. And the young ruler who you'd think would know what we now know as the Ten Commandments (or the Mosaic Law if you're Jewish, I believe) was already looking for wiggle room when he asked "Which?" commandments -- in verse eighteen -- did he need to keep. Jesus emphasized from verses eighteen and nineteen: do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not lie (modern English version of not bearing false witness), honor your father and mother (kids listen!) and love your neighbor as yourself.
Sounds easy enough, but they're really hard to do, I assure you! But the young man, like most young men and women I expect, told Jesus according to verse twenty that I have done all this: I haven't killed anybody or cheated on my spouse or dishonored my parents, etc. since I was young. That's a lie in itself, for we've all sinned -- acted to break God's Word -- and fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23) and we do so continually even after we've asked Jesus in as our Savior and Lord. Then the young man asks "what lack I yet?" Which is honest, for he knows and is not afraid to admit to Jesus that he's missing something. You can keep the commandments until you're blue in the face, but without the salvation we're offered through Christ it's all empty. It's filthy rags.
Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect [in our English, "complete"], go sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come follow me.
Does verse twenty-one turn your stomach too? It did the rich young ruler's, for verse twenty-two tells us "he went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions." Jesus is NOT saying there's anything wrong with possessions, but it's when they tie you down that they own you, and not the other way around. This shows that the young man was lying (again) for he was not loving his neighbor as himself -- a true disciple of Jesus Christ cannot walk by people who are lacking and do nothing when it's in our power or ability to do it. It is not a choice, it is a commandment given to us the same as though Jesus were holding our heart and speaking right into it.
Because somebody has your heart, and mine, right now. The difference between those who are called -- not necessarily those who call themselves -- Christians and those who are not is that we have given our hearts freely, taken them out of our own chests, and given them to God to give the orders. We are not mindless robots but mindful people of belief -- we own things, but we (or at least we should) put them in their proper perspective; ultimately, they're JUST things. What's that saying: Love people and use things. If we are not manifesting the love of God through ourselves, the love of our Creator for all of us, then we are what Paul in 1 Corinthians 13 called a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.
Without love, without charity, without heart, we are nothing upon a time.
David
P.S. I write this weekly devotional to keep in touch with you, and I hope it encourages you too. If I'm not or you want me to get lost, please let me know -- thank you!
Thank You, Lord, that we CAN come to You in praise and prayer and that You do provide for all our needs, even the ones we don't know we have! Let us pray for the peace of Jerusalem on both sides of the fence there and around the world.
Thank You, Lord, for all of us in leadership and service here and abroad, as well as for the opportunities we have and the promise of new life! I pray that we all seek and have a blessed week, AMEN.
Let's keep going for a few with this dialogue. Jesus tells the young ruler in verse seventeen, to answer how he may have eternal life, to keep the commandments. And the young ruler who you'd think would know what we now know as the Ten Commandments (or the Mosaic Law if you're Jewish, I believe) was already looking for wiggle room when he asked "Which?" commandments -- in verse eighteen -- did he need to keep. Jesus emphasized from verses eighteen and nineteen: do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not lie (modern English version of not bearing false witness), honor your father and mother (kids listen!) and love your neighbor as yourself.
Sounds easy enough, but they're really hard to do, I assure you! But the young man, like most young men and women I expect, told Jesus according to verse twenty that I have done all this: I haven't killed anybody or cheated on my spouse or dishonored my parents, etc. since I was young. That's a lie in itself, for we've all sinned -- acted to break God's Word -- and fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23) and we do so continually even after we've asked Jesus in as our Savior and Lord. Then the young man asks "what lack I yet?" Which is honest, for he knows and is not afraid to admit to Jesus that he's missing something. You can keep the commandments until you're blue in the face, but without the salvation we're offered through Christ it's all empty. It's filthy rags.
Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect [in our English, "complete"], go sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come follow me.
Does verse twenty-one turn your stomach too? It did the rich young ruler's, for verse twenty-two tells us "he went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions." Jesus is NOT saying there's anything wrong with possessions, but it's when they tie you down that they own you, and not the other way around. This shows that the young man was lying (again) for he was not loving his neighbor as himself -- a true disciple of Jesus Christ cannot walk by people who are lacking and do nothing when it's in our power or ability to do it. It is not a choice, it is a commandment given to us the same as though Jesus were holding our heart and speaking right into it.
Because somebody has your heart, and mine, right now. The difference between those who are called -- not necessarily those who call themselves -- Christians and those who are not is that we have given our hearts freely, taken them out of our own chests, and given them to God to give the orders. We are not mindless robots but mindful people of belief -- we own things, but we (or at least we should) put them in their proper perspective; ultimately, they're JUST things. What's that saying: Love people and use things. If we are not manifesting the love of God through ourselves, the love of our Creator for all of us, then we are what Paul in 1 Corinthians 13 called a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.
Without love, without charity, without heart, we are nothing upon a time.
David
P.S. I write this weekly devotional to keep in touch with you, and I hope it encourages you too. If I'm not or you want me to get lost, please let me know -- thank you!
Thank You, Lord, that we CAN come to You in praise and prayer and that You do provide for all our needs, even the ones we don't know we have! Let us pray for the peace of Jerusalem on both sides of the fence there and around the world.
Thank You, Lord, for all of us in leadership and service here and abroad, as well as for the opportunities we have and the promise of new life! I pray that we all seek and have a blessed week, AMEN.
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