News from the Kingdom of God. David Breeden

one hundred-twenty times yield from others.

      Meditation

      The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke all contain this parable, with the Jesus of Mark later explaining the parable to his disciples: “The sower sows the word.” This is the understanding that has come down to us through Christian tradition.

      What if, however, the sower sows fire, as in the following saying . . .

      10

      Jesus said:

      I have cast fire

      upon the world;

      look, I watch

      as it burns.

      Meditation

      What if fire

      Is the seeds

      The sower casts?

      What if fire

      Is the word?

      What if

      What’s sown

      Is thinking anew?

      In 1 Samuel 10, Samuel tells the young Saul this,

      . . . as you come to the town, you will meet a band of prophets coming down from the shrine with harp, tambourine, flute, and lyre playing in front of them; they will be in a prophetic frenzy. Then the spirit of the Lord will possess you, and you will be in a prophetic frenzy along with them and be turned into a different person.

      11

      Jesus said:

      This sky will pass away,

      and the sky above that

      will pass away.

      Those who are dead do not live,

      and those who live will not die.

      When you eat what is dead,

      you make it alive.

      When you come to be in light,

      what will you do?

      When you were one,

      you became two;

      but when you become two,

      what will you do?

      Meditation

      Meister Eckert said,

      We fight the dark

      Not knowing that

      The knower

      And the known

      Are one. Confused

      People imagine—

      Meister Eckert, mystic,

      Said this somewhere—that

      Confused people see

      The sacred as if it stood

      Over there and we here.

      And so it is

      We fight the dark,

      Thinking and thinking

      That the sacred is there,

      Not here.

      Meister Eckert said,

      The sacred and I—

      (Which means the sacred

      And you

      And me)

      We are—the sacred and us—we are

      One in knowledge.

      12

      His followers said to Jesus:

      We know that you will leave us.

      Who will lead us then?

      Jesus answered:

      Wherever you are,

      turn to James the Just,

      for whose sake heaven

      and earth came into being.

      Meditation

      In the Book of James we read,

      What profit is it, my sisters and brothers, when we say we have faith but we have no works? Can faith save us?

      If a sister or brother is naked and destitute of daily food, and if one of you says to that person, “Depart in peace, be you warmed and filled,” yet you do not give that person those things that a body needs, what profit is your faith?

      Even so faith, if it has not works, is dead by itself. Yes, someone might say, “You have faith, and I have works: show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.”

      You believe that there is one God; in that, you do well; but the demons also believe this, and tremble. But will you understand, oh hollow person, that faith without works is dead?

      Was not our father Abraham justified by works when he had offered his son Isaac upon the altar? See how faith created his works and by works his faith was made complete?

      This is how the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned unto him as righteousness.”

      Abraham was called the friend of God. So, you see how works justify a person, not faith alone.

      Likewise, was not Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she had received the messengers and had sent them out another way?

      For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.

      13

      Jesus said:

      Think of metaphors.

      What am I like?

      Simon Peter said:

      You are like an angelic messenger.

      Matthew said:

      You are like a philosopher.

      Thomas said:

      Teacher, my tongue cannot tell what you are like.

      Jesus said:

      Thomas, I am not your teacher.

      You are intoxicated on the bubbling spring

      that I have measured out.

      Then Jesus took Thomas aside and said three things to him.

      When Thomas returned to the group,

      they asked him what Jesus had told him.