When heaven remained shut

My Sunday Scripture 2010.1.31

Then he began to speak to them, 'This text is being fulfilled today even while you are listening.'

And he won the approval of all, and they were astonished by the gracious words that came from his lips. They said, 'This is Joseph's son, surely?'

But he replied, 'No doubt you will quote me the saying, "Physician, heal yourself," and tell me, "We have heard all that happened in Capernaum, do the same here in your own country." '

And he went on, 'In truth I tell you, no prophet is ever accepted in his own country.

'There were many widows in Israel, I can assure you, in Elijah's day, when heaven remained shut for three years and six months and a great famine raged throughout the land,

but Elijah was not sent to any one of these: he was sent to a widow at Zarephath, a town in Sidonia.

And in the prophet Elisha's time there were many suffering from virulent skin-diseases in Israel, but none of these was cured -- only Naaman the Syrian.'

When they heard this everyone in the synagogue was enraged.

Saint Luke 4:21-30


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My Reading Notes:
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May be this is the most terrible thing of all. And it might be true.
Heaven is not always open. Sometimes, it is shut. All the people on earth,
except a very very few, cannot reach help.

People will got angry only by hearing this. But it is true.

Some times, there was total darkness, even the most wise man on earth had become blind. For the older generation of China, they had all experienced the Cultural Revolution. By that time, all were blind. And the heaven was shut for them. There was nowhere for light, and nothing could help. People were all blind in the mind.

But why? but why? I can not understand this. May be that was a serious lesson to learn. We should open our eyes.

What is the good news?

My Sunday Scripture 2010.1.24

Seeing that many others have undertaken to draw up accounts of the events that have reached their fulfilment among us,

as these were handed down to us by those who from the outset were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word,

I in my turn, after carefully going over the whole story from the beginning, have decided to write an ordered account for you, Theophilus,

so that your Excellency may learn how well founded the teaching is that you have received.

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Jesus, with the power of the Spirit in him, returned to Galilee; and his reputation spread throughout the countryside.

He taught in their synagogues and everyone glorified him.

He came to Nazara, where he had been brought up, and went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day as he usually did. He stood up to read,

and they handed him the scroll of the prophet Isaiah. Unrolling the scroll he found the place where it is written:

The spirit of the Lord is on me, for he has anointed me to bring the good news to the afflicted. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives, sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim a year of favour from the Lord.

He then rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the assistant and sat down. And all eyes in the synagogue were fixed on him.

Then he began to speak to them, 'This text is being fulfilled today even while you are listening.'

Saint Luke 1:1-4; 4:14-21

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My Reading Notes:
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There was a time when, only words of the prophet can be of some comfort. Because people are all captives, are all blind. All human being are not free.

And there was a time when, Jesus had descended on earth, proclaiming to us the good news, that we could open our eyes and see. We are free. That is the biggest favor given to us people from the Lord.

We were all blind, and now that we could open our eyes. And that was the good news told us two thousand years ago.

Somehow, not every one on earth could reach the meaning behind it.

And I had found out, only Zhuang Zi had the similar meaning about free in the Chinese culture.

Can we turn ourselves into wine?

My Sunday Scripture 2010.1.17



On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee. The mother of Jesus was there,

and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited.

And they ran out of wine, since the wine provided for the feast had all been used, and the mother of Jesus said to him, 'They have no wine.'

Jesus said, 'Woman, what do you want from me? My hour has not come yet.'

His mother said to the servants, 'Do whatever he tells you.'

There were six stone water jars standing there, meant for the ablutions that are customary among the Jews: each could hold twenty or thirty gallons.

Jesus said to the servants, 'Fill the jars with water,' and they filled them to the brim.

Then he said to them, 'Draw some out now and take it to the president of the feast.'

They did this; the president tasted the water, and it had turned into wine. Having no idea where it came from -- though the servants who had drawn the water knew -- the president of the feast called the bridegroom

and said, 'Everyone serves good wine first and the worse wine when the guests are well wined; but you have kept the best wine till now.'

This was the first of Jesus' signs: it was at Cana in Galilee. He revealed his glory, and his disciples believed in him.

John 2:1-11

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My Reading Notes:
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Jesus had turned water into wine. And this could also be explained into an analogy: that Jesus had come to earth to turn human beings into a higher form
of human beings, that the higher form of human beings are the human beings who know love.

Can each of us, turn ourselves into wine through Jesus? and through our own effort?

And this process has been going for two thousand years. At least for the western culture, they had received Jesus for that long, and for us in the fareast,
we had come to know this for only a few hundred years.

Can we raise ourselves up a level?

Can I raise myself up a level?

Yes, I hope I can.

Where is God?

My Sunday Scripture 2010.1.10.

A feeling of expectancy had grown among the people, who were beginning to wonder whether John might be the Christ,

so John declared before them all, 'I baptise you with water, but someone is coming, who is more powerful than me, and I am not fit to undo the strap of his sandals; he will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

..................

Now it happened that when all the people had been baptised and while Jesus after his own baptism was at prayer, heaven opened

and the Holy Spirit descended on him in a physical form, like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, 'You are my Son; today have I fathered you.'
(Luke 3:15-16, 21-22)


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My reading notes:
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Recently I had got a photo of the Milky Way Galaxy. I wondered very much that in so vast a place, where is our fellow human beings. We as human being, is not in proportion with the universe. We have a mind and eyes and some short length organs to handle the nearby world. In such a big space, our tools, including our mind, simply cannot function.

Where is God?

Now that he had come, in the form of humanbeings. And the holy spirit had come too, the spirit had descended on him, in a physical form, like a dove.

We as human beings, do not have enough tools to handle subtle matters. So the spirit had to show himself in a form. We saw the dove and understand.

Where is God? Yes, this is God himself descended.

Can we turn the world over?

My Sunday Scripture 2010.1.3


After Jesus had been born at Bethlehem in Judaea during the reign of King Herod, suddenly some wise men came to Jerusalem from the east

asking, 'Where is the infant king of the Jews? We saw his star as it rose and have come to do him homage.'

When King Herod heard this he was perturbed, and so was the whole of Jerusalem.

He called together all the chief priests and the scribes of the people, and enquired of them where the Christ was to be born.

They told him, 'At Bethlehem in Judaea, for this is what the prophet wrote:

And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, you are by no means the least among the leaders of Judah, for from you will come a leader who will shepherd my people Israel.'

Then Herod summoned the wise men to see him privately. He asked them the exact date on which the star had appeared

and sent them on to Bethlehem with the words, 'Go and find out all about the child, and when you have found him, let me know, so that I too may go and do him homage.'

Having listened to what the king had to say, they set out. And suddenly the star they had seen rising went forward and halted over the place where the child was.

The sight of the star filled them with delight,

and going into the house they saw the child with his mother Mary, and falling to their knees they did him homage. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh.

But they were given a warning in a dream not to go back to Herod, and returned to their own country by a different way.

Saint Matthew 2:1-12



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My reading notes:
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Jesus had come to the world for two thousand years. He had brought us the good news:

That we must love one another. But for two thousand years, we have done very very little. Do we love one another? Do we have good political and economic systems to support love? Do we have enough knowledge to handle human matters and keep us in a loving environment?

May be the political and economic matters are not the most important. But how are we to spread love?

It might be a very simple way. Starting from ourselves.

Can we, by a very strong sense of love, turn the world over?