"TENDER LOVE WILL NOT Leave Us Orphans"

Ps. 116:5, NIRV

    Some of the most tenderly beautiful promises in scripture are 

Jesus’ departing promises to his friends and followers (promises 

he is also making to us!).  Jesus’ promises are about his continuing 

intimacy and presence with his friends (us!) in spite of the fact that 

he would shortly be leaving this earth in bodily form.

     In Jesus' final discourse in the Gospel of John, he pledges: “… I will not abandon you or leave you as orphans in the storm—I will come to you”; Jn. 14:18. This especially lovely rendition is from the Living Bible paraphrase.  In another translation: “I shall not leave you as orphans; I shall come to you"; NJB.

     In the Gospel of Matthew Jesus makes a similar pledge and also tells us how long this promise will last.  Just before his final ascension to heaven, Jesus assures us: “And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age”; Mt. 28:20, NIV.  Or, in another translation: “[R]emember, I am with you always, even to the end of the world” (Phillips Trans.).

     But can we actually experience this Presence in our lives?  Let’s pause to consider the experience of someone who says Yes!  Joy Davidman Lewis is best known as the wife of C. S. Lewis, although she was a fine writer and a brilliant woman in her own right.  Joy had been married previously; it was a very difficult marriage.  In the narrative we consider, she had just learned from her first husband that he was probably gone for good, leaving her alone with two young sons.  Joy reports that she walked into the nursery where her boys were sleeping, feeling very alone in her fears and the silence.  Then she says, “[F]or the first time my pride was forced to admit that I was not, after all, ‘the master of my fate’ . . .”  Something then happened: 

[A]nd God came in. . . .  It is infinite, unique; there are no words, there are no comparisons. . . . Those who have known God will understand. ...  There was a Person with me in that room, directly present to my consciousness—a Person so real that all my previous life was by comparison a mere shadow play.  And I myself was more alive than I had ever been; it was like waking from sleep.  So intense a life cannot be endured long by flesh and blood; we must ordinarily take our life watered down, diluted as it were, by time and space and matter.  My perception of God lasted perhaps half a minute. . . .

     Joy did not immediately understand all she had experienced.  She read a great deal, including first discovering C. S. Lewis’s works (whom she’d not yet met).  Joy also turned to the Bible.  When she came to the Gospels, she found that “the One who had come to her appeared again: ‘He was Jesus.’”^[1]       

     Promises Jesus made in the first century were being fulfilled in the life of a twentieth century woman!

     The gospel writers were well aware that their words—and Jesus’ words—were for all time.  Thus we find these writers recording additional promises: wanting to be sure that they preserved each of Jesus’ promises of this type.

      In the Gospel of John there are at least two additional promises of continuing Presence made in Jesus’ final discourse (the last night of his earthly life).  Not only will Jesus come to us again and again, but we will know God in other ways as well.  Jesus says, "I will ask the Father, and he will send another Companion, who will be with you forever.  This Companion is the Spirit of Truth [Holy Spirit] . . . " ; Jn. 14:16-17, CEB.  Or again, Jesus says of those who seek him, “My father will love them, and we [each] will come to them and make our home with them”; Jn. 14:23, NIV.

     Thus Jesus is promising us that the entire Trinity—each of the three persons of the Trinity—will be with us after he has gone from the earth.  As Karl Rahner teaches, one way to understand the Trinity is in terms of God’s desire to be in every way as near as possible to us: to offer us the “most intimate possible knowledge of God’s being.”^[2]  We do not have a distant God!  Our God loves to be close to us—with us—in all ways!  Our God is always tenderly waiting at the door—waiting for our welcome (Rev. 3:20).

     The Gospel of Matthew likewise gives additional promises that focus especially upon Jesus’ lasting Presence.  In Matthew 18:20 Jesus promises: “For where two or three are gathered in my name, I’m there with them” (CEB).  And Matthew also teaches us that one of Jesus’ names is “Emmanuel”: “God with us” (1:23).  God with us for all time!

     In the Letter to the Hebrews we discover once again that this promise of Presence never changes.  We read: “. . . God has said, ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.’  So we say with confidence, ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid.’ . . .  Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever”; Heb. 13:5-8, NIV (quoting Ps. 118:6-7).

      There is a caveat, however, with all of these promises.  We must remember that God never barges in.  The saying, “God is always courteous and does not invade the privacy of the human soul” is attributed to St. Francis of Assisi.^[3]  Note that in Joy Davidman Lewis’s life a tiny door must have opened that had previously been shut.  She says, “[M]y pride was forced to admit that I was not, after all, ‘the master of my fate.’”  Her experience was the beginning of a Let go; let God! experience (as popularized by AA, etc.)  This allowed God to respond.

     There is another sense in which these promises are for all time.  Can words uttered in scripture really, truly still be for us today? one might ask.  A multitude of witnesses have said Yes!  For example, Marian Cowan and John Carroll teach us that "What he [Jesus] once said and did has now become eternity . . . [he] still approaches us through these events [promises, etc.]."^[4]   And Karl Barth writes, "What came to pass there and then [in scriptural revelation], comes to pass here and now, hic et nunc."^[5]

     Yes, these promises are every bit as much for us today!  Ask, seek, and 

knock (Mt. 7:7).  Jesus is still with us!  The Father is still here!  The Holy 

Spirit still waits at the door!  The Presence of each person of the Trinity 

is promised!  We are not orphans!  And never will we be!

"'For the mountains may be removed and the hills may shake,

But My lovingkindness will not be removed from you,

Nor will My covenant of peace be shaken,'

Says the LORD who has compassion on you"; Isa. 54:10, AMP.

* * * 

We close with thoughts for meditation, prayer/poetry/proverbs:

                                 

“‘Orphans’--Never! (a Meditation)” 

     (With reflection upon Jn. 14:18, 16-17, JB, CEB; 1 Pet. 2:25;

1 Kgs. 19:12, RSV; and Julian of Norwich and St. Teresa of Avila’s

titles for Jesus.[6])    

    Regarding the above meditative thoughts, Julian of Norwich says: "[O]ur 

Lord himself is supreme familiarity, and he is as courteous as he is familiar 

[intimate with us], for he is true courtesy."  And again, "For He loveth and 

enjoyeth us, and so willeth He that we love and enjoy Him and mightily 

trust in Him; and all shall be well."^[7]

* * *

“The Butterfly’s Liberty”

     (With reflection upon Jn. 8:36; Lk. 12:22-28.)

* * *

An opening to prayer/meditation:

     (With reflection upon Eph. 2:8; Rom. 9:25; Rev. 3:20; Duet. 33:12,

RSV, and a phrase from Walter Hilton's classic about one way we might

hear God’s whispering, quoted."[9]) 

* * *

An opening to prayer/meditation:

     (For example, note Ps. 131; Ps. 55:22, NIRV.) 

* * *

"A Meditation upon Matthew 18:3"

    (With reflection upon Ps. 131; Duet. 33:27; Mt. 18:3, RSV.) 

* * *

And finally, simply in celebration of the season (and its lessons):

“Morning Meditation & the Silent Music of the Earth”

Silent world of misty angels;

I love your tender forms!

The tiny evergreen--a lady fair.

The great oak curls up its arms--glorifies the sky,   

then sends a worship call that all might share!

Earth’s dome proclaims a music hushed.

The orchestra (the clouds) 

vibrates the soft-strung movement of the day.

The earth responds with reverence; 

its still heart hardly breathes.  It waits . . .

some angel’s mystic harp

may play.

"The heavens are telling the glory of God; and the firmament proclaims

his handiwork"; Psalm 19:1, NRSV.

Howard Thurman: “There must be always remaining in every life, 

some place for the singing of angels, some place for that which in 

itself is breathlessly beautiful, and [thus] . . . throws all the rest of

life into a new and creative relatedness . . . ” [10]  (Note Phil. 4:8.)

***

“Meditating upon 'Reason and Rhyme'”

 

   

 (With reflection upon Gen. 8:11, Ps. 55:6, Mt. 13:15-16.)

***

(See additional blog posts after the “Notes” in Newer/Older Posts.)

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

Notes:

1. Lyle W. Dorsett, “Helen Joy Davidman 1915-1960: A Portrait,” C. S. Lewis Institute:

Discipleship of Heart and Mind; www.cslewisinstitute.org/node/31.  (Also see Lyle W.

Dorsett, And God Came In [Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 1991].)

2.  J. A. Di Noia, OP, “Karl Rahner” in ed. David F. Ford, The Modern Theologians

(Malden, MA: Blackwell, 1997, 2001), p. 128.

3. Quoted by George Arthur Buttrick, commentary ed., The Interpreter’s Bible,

(New York: Abingdon, 1952) Vol. 8 (Luke), p. 323.

4. Marian Cowan, C.S.J. and John Carroll Futrell, S.J., The Spiritual Exercises of St.

Ignatius of Loyola: A Handbook for Directors (Cambridge, MA: Jesuit Educational

Center for Human Development, 1982), pp. 82-97.

5. Karl Barth, The Faith of the Church, ed. Jean-Louis Leuba, trans. Gabriel Vahanian

(New York: Living Age Books, Meridian, 1958), p. 55.

6. "Everlasting Friend": Julian of Norwich, Revelations of Divine Love, ed. Grace

Warrack (London: Methuen & Co. Ltd., 1901, 1949), p. 187.  "Companion": Teresa

of Avila, The Interior Castle VI, Chap. 7. (Also see Jn. 14:16-17, CEB.)

7. Julian of Norwich: Showings, trans. Edmund Colledge, O.S.A. and James Walsh, S.J.

(New York: Paulist Press, 1978), p. 331; Julian of Norwich, Revelations of Divine Love,

p. 170.

8. Meditations, prayer/poetry/proverbs by Lorraine B. Eshleman.  (Also see Note 7 above.)

9. “Truly, a hidden word has been said to me, and my ear has perceived the veins of

his [God’s] whispering”: Walter Hilton, The Scale of Perfection, trans. John P. H.

Clark and Rosemary Dorward, (New York: Paulist Press, 1991) Book Two, No. 46,

p. 302 (Hilton quoting Job 4:12: “veins of his [God’s] whispering”). In a bit of

poetic license I used “veins of GOD's whispering" and added capital letters).

10. Howard Thurman, Deep Is The Hunger, reprinted in AN ALMANAC

FOR THE SOUL by Marv and Nancy Hiles, Dec., 2013 (Vol. XXVI, No. 11).