PTVA or 5S Faith

PTVA or 5S Faith

Man has tried many and varied approaches in his attempts to connect with the Other.  That which was lost in Eden has seemingly remained just beyond our grasp, but whispers in the wind leaving aromas that pique deeply hidden, nearly forgotten memories.  It seems that man has failed, miserably, in his attempt to reach up to the heavens.  Stories of Heaven coming down to man are part of our lore.  But, our myths and legends tell contradictory and conflicting stories.  Is He holding a scepter, a gavel, a hammer, a lightning bolt, …?  Is He smiling, scowling, frowning, sighing…?

Prophets have come and gone.  Their followers have taken up their mantle and made attempts to carry on the muse, repeating the message, but soon becoming decaying monuments.  And, some of the prophets have spoken for themselves, not the Other.  Intuitively, a humble, honest heart senses that love is the way, not hate.  Lost in the baggage is the hope, the faith, the mercy, the grace.

We have created “5S” faith – searching, studying, schooling, systematizing, and sealing it all with a synod.  This is my heritage.  But, the preserves are not the fresh fruit?!  Maybe it is because the fruit does not come every month?  I read that the Tree will then bear its fruit every month!  We ate the fruit, and lost our taste for fresh fruit?  We wanted knowledge and became darkened in our ignorance and stupidity!

I recently was reading what the disciples of Merton had to say about him and just closed my newfound thrift store find, shaking my head.  But, I am reading ABOUT Merton, more specifically, about his thoughts.  But, I am not reading his writings.  But, even then, I would not be following Merton, but just reading him.  He did end up in some weird places in his thinking.  But, “weird” is a word that points to the Other?!

Today, in SS class, we read of the meeting between Peter and Cornelius, in Acts 10.  I read of prayer, a trance, visions, even angels.  This does not fit “5S” very well.  I am sitting there marking up my text debating comments heard decades ago from “giants” in my tradition.  Hmmm?!  This Spirit thing is “weird” and difficult to predict, preserve, …

My mind turns to Paul, the valedictorian of Gamaliel University, and his “man caught up into the third heaven…” and then I think on John, the fisherman, and his experience with the Apocalypse.  The Augustines write history, or at least the history of Christian thought.  The desert fathers fade into obscurity, but perhaps their influence lives on, even only as postscripts and fragments?

(John 14) ¹ “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. ² My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? ³ And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. ⁴ You know the way to the place where I am going.”

⁵ Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”

⁶ Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. ⁷ If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”

⁸ Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”

⁹ Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? ¹⁰ Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. ¹¹ Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves. ¹² Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. ¹³ And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. ¹⁴ You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.

¹⁵ “If you love me, keep my commands. ¹⁶ And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— ¹⁷ the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. ¹⁸ I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. ¹⁹ Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. ²⁰ On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. ²¹ Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.”

2 Corinthians 12:2

I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know—God knows.

Revelation 1:10

On the Lord’s Day I was in the Spirit, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet,

Revelation 4:2

At once I was in the Spirit, and there before me was a throne in heaven with someone sitting on it.

Revelation 21:10

And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God.