And He speaks of what He sees along the way that we all might catch a glimpse of heaven.

To change one's thinking we must circle around and pound away. We dance around like Tinkerbell dropping gold dust of thought all around. Concepts, illustrations, stories. Sometimes the dust brings enchanting result. Sometimes it just evaporates. Sometimes both on the same day. We pound away like waves on the seashore. Soon the landscape is altered and it wasn't so sudden as it was gradual. People don't usually change as a result of one sermon or one experience or one story. It takes time, it takes patience, it takes on a life of its own.

That's why the results are so varied. It is not so much a science as it is an art. Sometimes we don't know what it is we are to create until we see it.

And then we might say...the results are more than me. Better than I. The landscape looks really different from the other side of a long journey.

If Christianity is to survive we cannot be fearful of shifting sands in our wake. Solid ground is not accepting everything it is trusting the One thing.

And the One thing is this. We are made for eternal. We are destined to forever. We are looking for a home. One is being prepped as I write. And the way there passes through the shifting sands of the desert.

 ³Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. ⁴In him was life, and that life was the light of men. ⁵The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood^[a] it.

 ⁶There came a man who was sent from God; his name was John. ⁷He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all men might believe. ⁸He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light. ⁹The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world.^[b]

 ¹⁰He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. ¹¹He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. ¹²Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— ¹³children born not of natural descent,^[c] nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God.

 ¹⁴The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only,^[d] who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

 ¹⁵John testifies concerning him. He cries out, saying, "This was he of whom I said, 'He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.' " ¹⁶From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another. ¹⁷For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. ¹⁸No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only,^[e][f]who is at the Father's side, has made him known.

"I want to be the whore at Jesus feet."

So of all the characters of all time this is who you chose. This is the person you want to be. Ok. Black nails and staged blood baths. Whatever.

Now I know. He was and is 'right'.

Mary, she knows
In a world that's dark
Torn apart at the seams
She lifts up her eyes
Up to the skies
And sings

"I am my beloved's
And he loves me as I am"

Sometimes it's hard
Though patiently
You wait for the time to see

Whose are you?
(Tell me)
Whose are you?

I am my beloved's
And he loves me as I am

Light of the world
Please, come shine on me

Sometimes I cry
In a world that's dark
Torn apart at the seams
Sometimes I cry
For I am weak

Light of the world
Please, come shine on me

What once was hurt, what once was friction

What left a mark
No longer stings..."--Bono

It had really gotten ugly; this long complicated disaster of a marriage between God and Israel. She had become a splinter in His side. A wound in His story. And He cried out 'I hate divorce' but there seemed no other way. In this fallen world even He could not stop her. How do you live with someone who continually sleeps with other men? All the time. And it left a mark. And it seemed over.

For God and His beloved Israel.

But just then, when the time had fully come, when time was so pregnant, just then, the water burst. And new life came.

Aren't so many stories just like this. At the final moment something turns the tide, changes everything. But it often comes with a price; bloody and broken. Shamed and humiliated. In the end she comes bearing a pearl. She commits herself to him. He to her. So beautiful she comes out. And what once was friction no longer stings. When the two cover one another as One.

A pearl comes from the Oyster. She is born out of a foreign irritation. The instinct of the shell is to 'cover' itself. The formation of a natural pearl begins when a foreign substance slips into the oyster between the mantle and the shell, which irritate­s the mantle. It's kind of like the oyster getting a splinter. The oyster's natural reaction is to cover up that irritant to protect itself. The man­tle covers the irritant with layers of the same nacre substance that is used to create the shell. This eventually forms a pearl.

God the shell. Israel the irritant. Jesus the pearl. It is the way it works.

And the two are one at last. And I swear on the days that are left we will walk in fields of gold. In a place called heaven. It could be Oz. It could be Neverland. It might be the 'walkabout' of Australia or the top of the staircase in The Titanic. It could be named anything. But it represents everything we ever want or need. It is a place that has to be believed to be seen. There is no place like home. And I will 'see it'.

One day. On 'that Day'.

All things will become new among the fields of barley.

Because God never makes promises lightly. And a covenant is a promise, no less. And He makes right all that went wrong along the way. It has already begun. But He could not do it alone.

It is not good to be alone so God created her again.

Many years have passed since those summer days
Among the fields of barley
See the children run as the sun goes down
Among the fields of gold

You'll remember me when the west wind moves
Upon the fields of barley

The west wind moved in Jerusalem after 430 years of silence. God had not spoke. The wind had been silent. But then, you could feel the storm coming, the wind picked up. When John the Baptist entered the scene saying; after me will come one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand... the wind began to blow on the fields of barley.

It still moves on those who watch. And with vision they can see the final act of this love story.

On these proverbial 'streets of gold' we will walk together. And they will be there, this pair. This Pearl, this Covering. This beauty; this bravery. And there will be children there. Created by the wind. Playing without any thought of the morrow. With laughter unabated. And I will be one of them. And the children won't remember the pain of the falleness. And either will you. Or Him. Or Her. We won't even know we were orphans once.

All things will become new among the field of barley.

We need this more than anything else ever.

More

written by Brian Doerksen

More than oxygen, I need Your love
More than life-giving food the hungry dream of
More than an eloquent word depends on the tongue
More than a passionate song needs to be sung

More than a word could ever say
More than a song could ever convey
I need You more than all of these things
Father, I need You more

More than magnet and steel are drawn to unite
More than poets love words to rhyme as they write
More than the comforting warmth of sun in the spring
More than the eagle loves wind under its wings

More than a word could ever say
More than a song could ever convey
I love You more than all of these things
Father, I love You more

More than a blazing fire on a winter’s night
More than the tall evergreens reach for the light
More than the pounding waves long for the shore
More than these gifts You give, I love You more

And all our yesterdays have lighted fools the way to dusty death. Out, out brief candle! Life is but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon a stage and then is heard no more; it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. --Shakespeare

Songs sing and movies tell tales. Plays are about the playwright as much as about the play. But one could not exist without the other. Stories give us more truth and fill in the holes that words leave empty. In the end the Bible is like the story, the song, the movie, and the play we've seen over and over again but can never get enough of. I hear the story in nearly every song and story I see. Perhaps it is a blessing, maybe a curse; some might say it is the product of a vivid imagination. Never matter. It hangs around me like an echo, a breath, a voice. We are insatiably made with this hunger for a happy ending. 'A tale told by an idiot' is not what we need or want and it is certainly not our intended finale. We need a better story to finally set our hearts to rest.

Macbeth was wrong. We are made for more than this. Things may fall apart around us. We die. We seem destined to lose. But it is in the losing that we find life. We can rest in a better story. If we look with our soul we will see.

A story that contains all our hope.

One is out there.

The surprise ending of the Story told in scripture is the mystery unveiled by the Christ, spoke of extensively by the Apostle Paul. The revelation of Jesus should be likened unto the opening of a curtain on a stage in the final act of a play. It is revealing, surprising and disorienting to the traditional powers and in the end to ‘power’ and domination itself. The Christ event is clearly the commencement of one way (Christianity) and the conclusion of another (Judaism). It, the Christ event, is the center point of the history of mankind. It is when the way of a man and a woman is unveiled in the most beautiful way. In this we find love. In this we see the glory of God. It is here that we must know what God has been ‘up to’ and how this story goes. I have presided over many weddings. The final act of the processional is the coming out of the bride. It always comes in the end in white.

It is here we see what really was done on that cross.

A new way is unveiled. Naked and unashamed.

We can make the Bible about whatever we want it to be, we have in the past, we do in the present, and we may in the future, but I am convinced of this: The resolution of the dilemma of God, and the release of the cosmos from the tyranny of the fall, is the key question answered in the Bible. It is the purpose of the Bible. All else hinges on this issue...all else falls like so many dominos, once this issue is brought to terms and laid to rest. This is Biblical, Pauline language for the work of God in Christ. The curtain has fallen and the epilogue is being played out. We live in this story and it feels familiar at times. Déjà vu is the feeling that we have been in a present emotion at another time. There is something familiar going on. This story told in scripture being everyman’s story—is just like that.

You can't eat the orange and throw the peel away - a man is not a piece of fruit.
Death of a Salesman
Willy Loman, Act 2

And then Jesus breathed his last breath, gave up his spirit, and finally at last this is over, 'it is finished'. And if someone strikes you on your cheek then turn the other cheek; and they might strike you again and again perhaps 40 times or maybe more until you are bruised and battered and unrecognizable.

I was bruised and battered
And I couldn't tell what I felt
I was unrecognizable to myself
Saw my reflection in a window
I didn't know my own face

Oh brother are you gonna leave me wasting away
On the streets of Philadelphia

I walked the avenue till my legs felt like stone
I heard the voices of friends vanished and gone
At night I could hear the blood in my veins
Just as black and whispering as the rain
On the streets of Philadelphia

Ain't no angel gonna greet me
It's just you and I my friend
And my clothes don't fit me no more
I walked a thousand miles just to slip this skin

The night has fallen, I'm lyin' awake
I can feel myself fading away
So receive me brother with your faithless kiss
Or will we leave each other alone like this
On the streets of Philadelphia

They can even kill you in the end; and they might; but they cannot take your pride, your faithfulness, your love. And Jesus bowed his head and said 'into your hands I commend my spirit'

My clothes don't fit me no more
I walked a thousand miles
Just to slip the skin

Free at last, free at last, thank God almighty, I am free at last

'Now if you will obey me and keep my covenant, you will be my own special treasure from among all the peoples on earth; for all the earth belongs to me. And you will be my kingdom of priests, my holy nation'

And in the end of the very end Israel did just that. She kept the covenant in the One seed. And in ths way it all came to pass that the covenant was fulfilled and she is truly 'God's special treasure'...and her name will be called Jesus.

In the end these three remain...faith, hope, and love and the greatest of these is love. But what do we know of love? We will be shown. We will see? What we don't know we can discover in the relationship of Father, Lover, and Spirit...for God who is three is really One in love.

I saw my reflection in a window I didn't know
My own face
Oh brother are you gonna leave me
Wastin´away
On the streets of philadelphia

I walked the avenue till my legs felt like stone
I heard the voices of friends vanished and gone
At night I could hear the blood in my veins
Black and whispering as the rain
On the streets of philadelphia

Aint no angel gonna greet me
Its just you and I my friend

My clothes don't fit me no more
I walked a thousand miles
Just to slip the skin

The night has fallen, Im lyinawake
I can feel myself fading away
So receive me brother with your faithless kiss
Or will we leave each other alone like this
On the streets of philadelphia

Believing in something can bring us down to the river. And Jesus drowned there. And so do I. We all go under in the sea of despond. In a horror of sorrow. Whether it is on a mud-caked mount or a wind wrecked sea doesn't matter. It's the dying dream which tells the story. And don't you think He was disappointed. And don't you think it was hard. And don't we want to make it better. Don't we want to sooth the hurt and aren't we eager to look away from the tragedy. 'I act like I don't remember, Mary acts like she don't care'. And we certainly avoid the river at all cost. But it is waiting for us. Memories haunt us, trail us, shadow us till they catch us.

Here it is. Crushed and broken. A bruised reed. They crucified my friend. No, not them. This diappointment. This dream dashed. This thing called the fall.

It didn't turn out. For a tragedy to be true there has to be a low. It is in the bottem of the river.

That's why the results are so varied. It is not so much a science as it is an art. Sometimes we don't know what it is we are to create until we see it.

And then we might say...the results are more than me. Better than I. And that is good.

This is what Jesus said, "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.

I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished."

The question(s) then become...Did he mean it; What did he mean by it; and did he accomplish it?

The Torah (law and prophets) had a central intent. It was 'to show' what it means to be a partner of God to a fallen world. Most dramatically it was about faithfulness, both Israel's and God's. What Jesus does in the end (after a final agonizing, heartfelt, sincere call to Israel to repentance) is reenact the story with Himself as the faithful partner so that the world might see what true love and faithfulness looks like. The idea is that the world would be drawn to this story, this way. It came undone when Israel 'slept' with other gods and committed spiritual adultery. This was disastrous because it essentially undermined the central purpose and dream of God. When she went after 'other lovers' the world could rightfully say 'you are just like us, you are not a Man, control your wife, you are weak...who wants what you have?' It tarnished his reputation. It made void his promise of another way. It made it impossible to have the type of spiritual children that should have come from this union. And God would have to, for the sake of love and faithfulness, endure this contempt.

Jeremiah 2:20

"Long ago you broke off your yoke
       and tore off your bonds;
       you said, 'I will not serve you!'
       Indeed, on every high hill
       and under every spreading tree
       you lay down as a prostitute.

 ²¹ I had planted you like a choice vine
       of sound and reliable stock.
       How then did you turn against me
       into a corrupt, wild vine?

It all went down. It all fell apart. When things fall apart chaos is not far behind.

So what Israel didn't do...Jesus does. He will reenact the story with a better ending...and a new beginning. He will make straight want went crooked. He will save and renew the reputation of God.

This reenactment contains another theme of scripture repeated again and again--the idea of second chance; new beginning, forgiveness and restoration. What was once found in exile has returned, been made new, and now found (Luke 15). Jesus stands in sharp contrast to another son of legend. Absalom is the rebellious son of King David. Once banished from the land because of David's great love and compassion he is allowed to return from the exile. He proves himself faithless to the 'second chance' and presses David into a delicate position. Faithlessness in the face of love brings demise. In the end we observe the tragic ending of a rebellious child, hung by his own sin. Absalom is like Haman in his own gallows. We. too, have laid a trap for ourselves. We need a second chance lest we in the proverbial way 'hang ourselves'. Jesus, like the other son, Solomon, proves faithful and is given the 'right' to build the temple.

What is revealed is His faithfulness to the story (including the covenant). This was always on Jesus mind. This is Torah fulfilled and accomplished.

In one way the cross is more about Jesus' faithfulness to God's dream and passion...than it is a sacrifice for us. The second is surely true but is a result of the first. Out of this union children are the natural outcome. The Spirit brings forth the children and presides over this 'act of love'. Out of this union life is created. First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes (place name here) in a baby carriage. I couldn't resist.

His death is proof that he did not go back (Hebrews 11) but instead stood firm (without wavering) to the end. I believe this is what Jesus is saying when he breathes 'it is finished'. In the end the cross may appear to be the end of the line.

But it is not the end of the story.

And they live happily ever after.