Bert Hielema–Columns and Writings

IT IS VERY GOOD.

When God started creating, actually, when God started speaking, (Psalm 33: 9 simply states: “God spoke and it came to be), when God started doing the human impossible, started acting beyond our ken, started stopping, yet never stopped stopping, he, HE, who lives in inapproachable light, who nobody can see or has seen, he, HE, surveyed the potential of what was to become, and which, in reality already was, HE simply said: “It is very good.”

In that ‘very good’ creation, he placed ‘Adam and Eve’. And placed us, you and me.

That same creation is God’s Kingdom.

And we, you and I, we live in that divine Kingdom,

  which has a cosmic character, because it embraces           the entire world, from the ocean’s depths to the highest planets.

Not only we humans are part of that Kingdom: it also includes the array of all animals and all the planet’s plants. Even the angels are part of this wider world: they too have a place in the harmonious totality of God’s Kingdom.

Perfection is the word

Perfection is the word: perfection is the Divine -WORD, where all parts are attuned to each other, where there nowhere is a false note, nowhere a dis­so­nant disturbing the unity: everything fits harmoniously into the greater scheme of its totality;

each particular specimen perfectly parks its place in the various circles or spheres found in creation.

The celestial bodies too have their orderly trajectories and do so according to God’s royal will, obeying his voice, and so, in their courses they sound a melodious note in the great concert in which all creatures participate. The mountains rise up high above the water?satu­rated earth, their summits piercing the clouds; they stand there in proud loftiness but even these mountains are nothing but servants of Him who has planted and secured them by his power.

All this is so totally harmonious because every instance in that great edifice of creation is, in its deepest sense, focused on the one common goal: devout obedience to the will of the Almighty, in which men and women, angels and animals, plants and stars, sun and moon, are united.

God’s world: our world.

That same world in which we live is a well?ordered world. We read in Scripture that God was very pleased when he saw what he had made, “and behold, it was very good.” (Gen. 1:31.)

An ever-changing Kingdom.

The nature of the Kingdom of God was not intended to be static but dynamic. It was not destined to continue for ever and ever in the same shape and form. On the contrary, from its very inception the Kingdom contained an incentive to develop, perfecting and unfolding all its potentials and powers contained in it. This means that from its very beginning the concept of history was entailed in the idea of the Kingdom.

Kingdom is history.

When we say Kingdom, we say history. The total reality of the Kingdom could only become manifest in history. From the very first day of creation the Kingdom had the full range of powerful options. It contained possibilities that would require a slow process to come to full fruition. The entire process, however, was subject to God’s will.

A radical change.

All this implies as well that whoever mentions history, mentions humanity. We, the human race, were predestined to fulfill a distinctive calling in that history. We, as humanity, were from the very first assigned an exceptional place in the greater context of the Kingdom. We were at one and the same time subjects but to some extent also co?rulers, viceroys over certain regions. Not everything was subjected to us: we were not given authority over the course of the stars and the planets or the tides of the never resting seas. But assigned to us were the earth and its plants and animals, to rule over them and to utilize them for God’s service, to fathom and under­stand creation’s hidden powers, and so bring to full deploy­ment the innate possibilities of creation. That is the meaning of the cultural calling allotted to us immediately after creation. (Gen. 1: 28–29.)

Two Humans.

Imagine these two humans, feeble man and woman, creatures among creatures, two tiny bits of the universe endowed with self?knowl­edge, two tiny bits of a world that has become self-conscious: there they were, not even controlling their own heart?beat. There they stood, fragile, weak: members of that overwhelming massive context of the Kingdom. But also, there they stood as rulers, as prince and princess among all creatures.

And they failed.

 The sin against the Kingdom

They – we – we have made ourselves God’s equals; we have pro­claimed ourselves Gods, and, by that act, have abandoned our fellowship with him.

We have withdrawn from his influence and have turned our backs on God. That is why we were banned from paradise, because where God dwells there is no place for a second god, and neither is there room for those who regard themselves as gods.

Now we face judgement, we face Climate Change, wars, earthquakes, typhoons, hurricanes, heat, drought, floods, because we believed we could do better than God.

Pray, Pray, Pray for Parousia. Pray, Pray, Pray for the Healer to come.

ON (MY) AGING

Some personal observations.                                                                        

There is that parable of the farmer who planted grain. Some of which fell on rocky ground, some on soil with little depth, and some on a fertile patch, with predictable results. Matthew 13 relates it in detail.

It seems to me that this story – and Jesus was a great story teller – portrays my aging.  All of my life I have been bombarded with influences, some good, some mediocre, and some outright bad. The thing about aging is that there comes a harvest time when the balance sheet is shown, comparing it to Matthew 6: 33: But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

The Bible tells us God’s truth, telling us forthright that sin always has consequences, such as sins against the body, resulting in sickness, and sins against creation, resulting in Climate Change. Me, I see my body as God’s personal gift to me, indicating that neglecting or abusing it, is a sin against God’s grace. That also implies that whatever I consume, must be clean and body-friendly, that whatever I do, must take my body into consideration, that whatever I think and intellectually absorb, must be body and spirit enhancing.

That’s why I try to enrich my thinking continually, and engage my brains to enhance my intellectual capacity, and explore the outer limits of my infinity, because I only use a small portion of my potential. That’s why I constantly try to enrich my thoughts and read and expand my fields of inquiry and broaden my outlook.

I am fully aware that I will only know in part, and will always have a tiny understanding of what goes on in the world. That’s why I am constantly open to new avenues of thinking, always try to see through the fogs and mists that influence me through often wrongly focused ideas.

What’s my LIFE all about?

I see life as an entity where every minute I am influenced by others, by family traditions, by the media, by the toys we have, such as automobiles and mechanical gadgets, and thus I must constantly make choices, wondering how I can pursue the aims of the Kingdom, and choose directives that intimately involve God’s good creation, totally aware of my ignorance. Yes, God loves his creation so much that he offered his only Son to buy it back, reason why my living should reflect that Love, including love for creation, because it too is divine, as are my fellow creatures.

Approaching the end,

I now live in a retirement home, amidst older folk, a grand opportunity to foster new connections, and be exposed to new situations, so I set out to learn about ‘aged living’, as I myself belong to that category.

Here’s what I learned so far.

I discovered that I need at least eight to nine hours sleep each night. I also read that my diet should contains less meat and more plants, as both contribute to overall longevity.

I repeatedly learn that I must have a minimum of 150 minutes of moderate-intensity activity every week, or at least 20-25 minutes each day.

Well in my 97^th year, I believe that my long life has resulted from:

•  Continuous openness to new ideas and new concepts, and weighing them in the framework of the New Creation, our life in the World to come: “Seek first the Kingdom”, is Jesus’ direct command to me. That means always seeking the welfare of creation.
• Put time into new and existing relationships. In 1975, I sold my business, our house, moved from city to country: started a new life, new career, with the approval of my life-long marriage partner, a woman I had known from childhood, and meet new people and discover new aspects in humanity.
• This move forced us as a family, to adjust to changing and challenging new situations, prevented us from living a routine existence, and exposed us to down-to-earth, literally, life, while experiencing God’s grace in an immense manner.
• Now, a widower for almost 5 years, I am learning to share my life with others, having moved again in a new environment, learning again to adapt to new surroundings, new people, while renewing old friendships, and sharing my experiences with others, in reciprocal ways, fully realizing that we only have an obscured view of the new and perfect life to come.
• I repeat: My body is holy. It is God’s personal gift to me, and therefore I must look after it, and, with that sanctified goal in mind, do everything possible to preserve it, improve it, and treat it with the utmost care involving constant prayer, remembering that I am a threefold unity: Body, Spirit and Soul.

To thrive in old age means to live a fulfilling, purposeful and satisfying life despite the challenges that accompany ageing. I try to follow Jesus direct prescription: “I have come to bring LIFE, and that to the full”. (John 10: 10).

MARANATHA

I am a forward-looking person. My favorite word/concept/prayer-word is MARANATHA. The word is derived from Aramaic, a language closely related to Hebrew, and is composed of “Maran” (our Lord) and “Atha” (come or has come).

When I was still a regular runner along Highway 37 north of Tweed, my running mantra was ‘Maranatha’. Now that I no longer run, I walk every day, but still cling to this word to give me rhythm in my movement. When I wake up at night, this expression too pops up automatically, almost.

This gazing into the future really influences my thinking and my outlook on life. It, I confess, determines my being, my prayer life, my eating, drinking, physical behavior: in short, my totality.

That’s why the coming-again of the Lord is part of my make-up. Each day I scan the news for signs that give an indication of THE DAY approaching, and, given this attitude, and the openness to this frame of mind, I see plenty of indications out there.

However, this ‘Maranatha’ concept is not popular anymore.

 It is no longer ‘fashionable’ to have this notion of Parousia, the return of the Lord, even though Acts 2 tells a different story. There the new converts were so convinced that the Lord’s Return – Parousia – was imminent, so sure that it could happen at any moment, that they cashed in all their belongings and put them to use for the benefit of all community members. That desire, that longing for the Lord’s return, was foremost in the minds of all the new converts 2,000 years ago.

Why my preoccupation?

For decades now I start my day with the lectionary, published each November a year ahead, listing 365 Bible readings, featuring an Old Testament passage, a Psalm or a portion thereof, and a Newer Testament reading. When the Upper Room Publications issued a Journal in 1985, based on this lectionary, I used it daily to handwrite 400 words in the spaces provided, 800 on Sundays, based on this Bible journey. When this Journal was no longer available, I duplicated the lectionary – easily obtained from the web – and now write it on my word processor, first thing each morning. I can recommend this discipline.

This past week my lectionary reading was drawn to Amos 4. It relays how God punished Israel through natural disasters, and by this, I mean exactly what i write: through acts of the weather. Nature features prominently in the Older Testament. Both the eminent prophets Elijah and Elisha proclaimed God’s punishments through meteorological means: 7 years of drought. Time and again God uses God’s own creation as punishment. The 10 plagues in Egypt were mostly climate related. If that is true, and I think it is, then a ‘sin against creation’ is a sin against God. That ‘sin’ was the cause for the Ten Tribes of Israel disappearing without a trace. They were beyond reforming. Have we now reached that state also?

Bonhoeffer, my favorite ‘theologian’, equates God with Nature. In his ETHICS he writes, “I never experience the reality of God without the reality of the world or the reality of the world without the reality of God. Dr. Sabine Dramm, in her book, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, an introduction to his thought, summarizes her findings as follows: “What Bonhoeffer presents as specific to the Christian faith is the perception of God and the world as one.”

The story about Daniel and his friends are recorded in the Bible for a purpose: exile makes the heart grow fonder. I believe that, in a way, Christians today also are in exile. Our entire society is conspiring to exploit creation. Rather than regarding creation as holy, we keep on abusing it, and we now have reached the point where there is no way anymore to live pure, to honor God through his work of art. Take Bach, Shakespeare, Rembrandt as examples: suppose that we praise these great artists, while simultaneously despoiling their handiwork: but that’s how we treat God!

Now, our problems are so complicated and so wrongly formulated that they really are simply beyond remedy. We cannot expect the church to heal creation: the work of the church is to bring the call to conversion, to believe in the love of God in Christ, to prepare for Christ’ second coming and look for the future Kingdom of God, which always is imminent.

Today we are being judged, just as was the case in the Old Testament. Our current judgements, witness Climate Change, are cosmic in character, increasingly affecting us, as masters of the universe. The book of Revelation makes plain that humanity will be hit where it imagines itself to be strongest: in its technical know-how and its dominance over nature: Think AI. We already see how this is playing out: nature already is breaking all constraints, and these are just the opening salvos.

That’s why my prayer increasingly is MARANATHA, Lord, Come.

“GREAT EXPECTATIONS”.

“Great Expectations” is the title of a novel by Charles Dickens, first published in 1860-61. The book relates the coming-of-age story of Pip, a young orphan, against the backdrop of 19th-century England, exploring themes of social class, ambition, love, and personal growth. 

Dickens wrote in an era when Great Britain was great indeed: her golden Age, a period when the sun never set in her empire, which stretched from ocean unto ocean.

Eric Hobsbawm, a historian, born in Vienna, in his classics The Age of Empire and The Age of Revolution, stated that the 19^th Century began in 1815, with the Battle of Waterloo, and ended in 1914, with the onset of World War I.

He suggested that World War I – 1914-18 – really ended in 1945, when World War II, begun in 1939, concluded with the defeat of Hitler. In the same vein he proposed that the 20^th Century began in 1914 and ended in 1989, with the Collapse of the Soviet Empire, creating a 75 years century. In that short time-frame the world saw two global wars, the Spanish Flu and a severe economic depression: four events that swept away millions of lives and entire systems of government: 10 percent of people born in 1900, died violently before 1945. Also, then Communism became a messianic faith, peasants became city dwellers, housewives became workers—and, increasingly leaders – while populations turned literate, even as new technologies threatened to make print obsolete. Truly a remarkable era! 

And today? Lunacy looms.

If I were the name the period in which we now live, 1989 to 2025, I would label it as THE AGE OF DECLINE, a world still filled with conflict, a world where nations increasingly quarrel about possession of the world’s diminishing resources, a world tired and suffering from old age, with a senior lunatic leader loose among the Republican USA elite.

This Trump regime, rather than carefully husbanding the planet’s dwindling possessions, acts exactly contrary to reality: it is accelerating the exploitation of the ever faster disappearing of the earth’s treasures. By his irrational interventions, he speeds up global financial collapse, and, makes true what is portrayed in Revelation 18: 11: The merchants of the earth will weep and mourn over her because no one buys their cargoes anymore.

Just imagine: Trump refuses to see that natural resources are becoming more expensive to extract; he ignores that fresh water is often inadequate for the world’s rising population; he adds debt while debt levels are already too high; he increases complexity to the breaking point; for many, an already inadequate standard of living is becoming even more unaffordable; and, while an increasing world population needs more food, his disastrous anti-environmental policies imperil the global food supply.

All these symptoms strongly suggest that the world economy is headed for collapse.

So, why Great Expectations?

In Charles Dickens’ time economic and national prospects were, indeed, glorious and full of promise. Now only demented politicians like Donald Trump tout triumphant times.

Still, there is a remnant, a faithful remnant, a tiny minority with a different view on future events, because of their ‘faith’. James, in his New Testament Bible book, bluntly states the ‘faith without works is dead.’  (James 2: 17).

That begs the question: How then shall we live? What sort of ‘works’ are we required to do?

A quick look back.

In the Middle Ages the struggle against the bad influences of the world resulted in a retreat to monasticism. Luther, who first entered a monastery, later saw the monastic solution as wrong, because it restricted the extent of responsible life to the walls of the monastery or convent.

Searching the Bible, Luther and Calvin saw that Reformation required the unity of God and the reconciliation of the world with God in Jesus Christ. Our world is holy, as Karen Armstrong has shown in her book, Sacred Nature.

All humans are appointed to this concrete responsibility; They must regard the world, first as being created and loved, then as condemned and again reconciled by God. Both church reformers believed that our daily actions must reflect this insight.

In other words: The ’state of the world’ is our responsibility, given to us in and through Jesus Christ, who became a fully ‘human’ person for that purpose, and will return soon in that fully ‘human’ form.

Those are the Great Expectations we look forward to. Because God in Christ assumed humanity, and, because God said ‘yes’ to us women and men, we have the responsibility, the right, but also the obligation to live and to act in the full realization that God’s world is and will become fully ours. (John 3: 16)

The question remains: “How to act ‘responsibly’. What is our ‘response’?

I believe that our ‘response’ has almost become impossible, as Evil – cars, wars, pollution – has become inescapable, leading to Collapse. Then God will return to rectify everything, and restore Paradise, the Garden of Eden, the New Earth where everything fits perfectly.

In the meantime consider Luther’s words, expressed in Latin: Pecca Fortiter, meaning, “Sin bravely’, while constantly anticipating the GREAT EXPECTATIONS.

PROPHETS AND PREDICTIONS.

In my ‘religion-dominated’ youth I was taught that every Christian was supposed to be ‘a prophet, priest and king’, a core Calvinistic concept. I can see myself as a priest, praying at mealtime, praying at bedtime. At home I also was taught that we humans are ‘the crown of creation’.

Today, 85 years later, my religious views have broadened: I now believe that through Jesus’ humanity, God and the world have become one; that I can’t love God without the world, and I can’t love the world without God.

That’s why I no longer see God apart from the world or the world apart from God. I see God and the world as one. Does this make me prophet?

What then is prophet?

A prophet is a person who follows Christ, and sees Christ not essentially as a teacher or legislator, but as a human being to the core, a real person like myself. That means that I should not – and I emphasize ‘not’ – be a mere adherent, and advocate of definite doctrines, but should always be a true human being, a real person before God.

It’s commonly believed that a prophet is a special person who speaks for God, a person who foretells the future, at least that’s what my dictionary tells me.

However, I take issue with this definition, because it would limit the office of prophet to crackpots, since nobody can predict the future. 

Am I a prophet? A closer look.

In the Bible prophets are called ‘seers’ not because they could see into the future, but because they could see the truth, could understand the deeper meaning of life and have a holistic view on events.

Prophets don’t concentrate on what’s going on in isolation, but they grasp the true consequences of the day’s happenings, and the deeper spiritual message of the present moment. They shed unblinking light on the pain and injustices of the present, both personal and societal.

A prophet is first and foremost a believer who openly and unabashedly dares to look to what is happening ‘out there’ and, as a consequence, fully embraces his or her responsibility for the immense challenges evident in our rapidly deteriorating society. 

Thus, a prophet is not an extraordinary gifted person who knows the unknown, a sort of fortune-teller who magically foretells what is to come. No, a prophet is first and foremost a believer who refuses to nostalgically wallow in the past, but is convinced that our new present requires new thinking and different approaches.

A prophet is first and foremost a believer who has the courage to critically look at past decisions, including those involving doctrines, to test them on their relevance for today and tomorrow.

A prophet is first and foremost a believer who, from his or her perspective on life today, acts to keep creation viable for our children and grandchildren and strives for a church in which young people feel at home.

A prophet is first and foremost a believer who by seeing Scripture as a lamp for their feet and a light for their path in God’s wonderful creation, knows that Christ, as the Son of Man, the Ben-Adam, the Son of the Soil, will return to make all things new. That’s why a prophet, in spite of all the sin and evil in this world, looks to the future with full confidence.

A prophet is first and foremost a believer who now already can visualize what this future will be like and thus can critically evaluate the present in the light of the glorious future that is coming. 

Prophets are unpopular, of course.

Prophets are unpopular because they question the status quo; prophets are unpopular because people hate change; prophets are unpopular because people are comfortable; prophets are unpopular because politicians avoid controversy at all cost, hate to be bringers of bad news, even though they know better; prophets are unpopular even in the church as it plain from even a cursory reading of the Old Testament prophets, where both the major and minor ones reveal that organized religion in the days before Christ resembled today’s rulers: they want to please everybody. And not much has changed in the after Christ institutions.

Here’s how I see society today.

God has disappeared. Technology has become an end in itself, with a soul of its own. Its symbol is the machine, in the form of computers and automobiles and airplanes and satellites. They all embody the violation and exploitation of nature, God’s good creation, clear evidence of human arrogance which tries to set up an anti-world in the face of the world that was created by God. AI – Artificial Intelligence- is the latest and last expression of this attempt. The benefits of technology pale into insignificance beside its demonical properties.

That is my prophecy and prediction, based on trends and tendencies in contemporary society. 1 John 5: 19 comes to mind:

We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one.

Bottom of Form

PONDERINGS ON A PARABLE.

What is a parable? My dictionary defines it as a simple story used to illustrate a certain truth.

Off and one for decades I have tried to make sense of the Parable of the Ten Virgins. I am sure that many are familiar with it, but just in case, a synopsis.

The parable mentions ten Bride’s maids, young girls, I imagine, who are responsible for preparing the bride to meet the bridegroom. Five of them Jesus calls foolish, five of them wise.

Jesus starts this unusual story with the words, “At that time.” At what time? I believe this phrase refers to the previous chapter, Matthew 24, which deals with the End of Days, the Day and Hour we don’t know.

Imagination.

One of my rules for writing is ‘letting my imagination go wild’. So, if I were to film this scene I would see ten excited young women, invited to an important wedding, and play a part in the proceedings. They are quite a relaxed bunch. The tension whether they would be invited is over. They made the cut and still a bit nervous, so they entered the hall with some trepidation, and when they had seen how the others were attired, they felt better and actually quite pleased with themselves.

But, somehow Jesus made a definite distinction in the group. Five he called foolish. Five he called wise. That’s one thing I found questionable. Why are the foolish called foolish? We know that the foolish are labeled that way because they had not taken extra oil along for their lamps.

Tell me: What would you have done had you been among the chosen Ten? The wedding is in the afternoon, say three o’clock. They were all there at least an hour before. The party is somewhat later, but certainly well over before midnight, because tomorrow is another busy day. The lights are needed for that short trip to the wedding hall, so, until that time the lamps are trimmed to a tiny flame. With a full tank there’s plenty of oil for the entire proceeding, with fuel to spare. Plain common sense. The bridegroom was known to be a punctual man, so why take along extra jars of that stinking and expensive kerosene? Suppose that the heavy crock pot would break and spill its contents all over the new dress. These containers weren’t like the metal or plastic ones we have:  no, they were frail, cumbersome and heavy. Mother was right: just to carry a lamp with a full tank would be enough. Also, how to carry the food, when one hand is needed to carry the light and another the extra oil. I agree with the so-called foolish maidens. Their action made perfect sense.

“But,” says Jesus, “those wise women took the trouble of lugging these heavy jars with them.” Why would they do this? Ridiculous, really. How could they properly attend to their task preparing the bride, and also carry the extra wine and food? That smelly stuff could easily mix with the other provisions! Nothing could be more impractical.

Those who Jesus called ‘wise’ do things totally beyond the call of duty, needlessly complicating their lives. To me the Foolish make much more sense.

Can you think of one reason why Jesus calls the practical teens foolish and the overcautious wise? Jesus must have a reason, so let me make a guess, and for this I will take a little detour.

The routine of Sunday, of hearing a sermon and attending a Christian Institution, can be compared to the normal supply of oil.
But we all know, there is more to meeting the bridegroom than routine matters. That’s why the super cautious oil bottle bearing women are called wise. They are prepared for more, and they probably don’t even know what that more is. However, they find this out when the bridegroom took long in coming.

I try to see the context of this parable. It is set after Matthew 24, with its heading, “Sign of the End of Age” and “The Day and Hour of Jesus’ Return Unknown.” Jesus, after a long sermon on the final days of humanity, speaks this parable. He begins, “Then” or “At his particular moment, at the End of Days”. I think that Jesus knew that at the End of Days Oil would again be a key element in the world. Jesus had a perfect overview of history from the embryo beginnings to the pollution- saturated end.

So, when the young girls, exhausted after extending their teenage chatter well beyond their usual bedtime – which was at sun down, as oil was too expensive to use for extended periods – the wedding feast turns into a slumber party. All Ten are sacked out on couches and across the floor of the verandah where they were keeping a lookout.

Then, finally, at midnight, there was a cry, “There comes the bridegroom. Wake up to meet him.”

The parable portrays the practical reality of life: The unexpected does happen. Trees go up in flames. Arctic ice is melting at a record rate. Glaciers are disappearing.  Suddenly the doomsters have substantial evidence for their message. The unexpected does happen. Before you realize the Lord is there, while we slumber the time away.

“Then all the maidens rose and trimmed their lamps.” They all straightened out their dresses, quickly combed their rumpled hair, turn to their lamps and five of them discover that they have practically run out of oil. They are not ready anymore to welcome the bridegroom. All the wick-trimming in the world, all the shaking and trying is useless: their lights are dead. The unexpected did happen. The Oil is gone. The always reliable, punctual bridegroom was late for his own party.

What does it all mean?

What does this all mean? God has taken so long to do anything that the world has dug its own grave. The lights are going out in this world.

Unless there is something other than the wisdom of the world to help it, there is no way that the world can straighten out the mess, politically, ecologically and economically.

So, what do we do? Well, listen to the rest of the parable.

“And the foolish said to the wise, “Give as some of your oil, for our lights are going out.” But the wise replied, “Perhaps there will not be enough for us and you. Go to the fuel dealer and buy some.”

How is that for a Christian answer? Aren’t we supposed to share things with others? Try to buy some fuel at midnight!

That was another mystery for me. For a long time, I really did not know what to think of that rather snotty reply of the Five Wise Women. Now it seems to me that this answer suggests that there comes a time, and perhaps has come, that we have to shrug our shoulders and go our own way. Time does run out as it always does in real life.

The parable suggests to me that a day will come when it will be too late to reform society.

It’s on that note that the parable ends. “While they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready, those who had the extra oil, went with him into the marriage feast and the door was shut. Afterwards the others came, knocked and said, ‘Lord, open up.’ But he said, ‘Sorry, I don’t know you’.”

Isn’t that a strange reply? The Lord doesn’t say, “I have never called you, or I have never loved you.” No, he says, “Listen, you have never bothered to get to know me. You never really took the time to seriously find out what I really stand for and what my creation is all about.

“What about preparing your selves so that the entry into the Kingdom, the renewed creation, is not a shock, but has become the next logical step in your life. Since you did not understand that to be my follower is to love creation for whose redemption I died. That’s why I now reject you. You were so caught up in the system and assumed that the commonly accepted, pragmatic solution was the norm, I now don’t know you.”

I set out with: What is a parable? My dictionary defines it as a simple story used to illustrate a certain truth.

We, as children of love, must show that we love God and thus his creation, and love neighbors as we ought to love ourselves. Our eyes, minds, hearts, must be focused on Christ’s truth: always! Even when his return, his Parousia, is long in coming.