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Good morning bus riders!
Happy New Year! We have reached the year of our Lord two thousand twenty-two … there abouts … but as Jimmy Chong once said, “Time? Time’s relative man.” I hope everyone celebrated responsibly and all your clocks are set correctly.
I sent out the mass email with the link to today’s lectionary readings; so, I hope everyone was sober enough to read them all for today. Today we will talk about six, rather than the standard four; but the caveat today is there are three ‘optional’ Gospel readings.
Because I talk about all readings possible for one Sunday … they would not have been made possible if they were not relevant to todays’ symbolic meaning … the second Sunday after Christmas … they all get some ‘air time’ here.
For those of you who are still hungover and a little behind on your homework, as you pull up the lectionary page on your smart phones, let me tell you why there are three Gospel choices, rather than just two.
Today is called the second Sunday after Christmas, but not all years have a second Sunday after Christmas. Depending on what day of the week Christmas falls on, there might not be two Sundays pass before Epiphany. Epiphany is always on January sixth; and, the Christmas 'experience' is always twelve days.
<singing badly> “On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to meeeeee …”
We are now at the ninth day of Christmas, when nine ladies dancing should come out; but we could not afford dancers today. Just use your imagination.
Well, because this bus stop also cannot afford me to show up multiple times a week: for morning prayers, evening prayers, and special occasions – I’m just a once a week guy here – this coming Thursday is January sixth, therefore The Epiphany. One of the readings for today is the one and only Gospel reading for every Epiphany.
Every six years or so, Epiphany falls on Sunday and that year there is only one Sunday after Christmas. Thus, Matthew 2:1-12 is an 'optional’ reading for today, because of that.
I will save that reading for last, for that reason; but I forewarn you that the twelve days of Christmas and January 6th as The Epiphany are fabrications, with no truth to those numbers. If you recall last Sunday, when I spoke about the meaning of John and “the Word” and John the Baptist, December 25th is actually closer to the birthdate of John, not Jesus.
All this has become tradition, with subtle meaning being the intent, so Christmas and Epiphany are much like Santa Clause and the aha moment when you realized Santa Claus is a lie. You loved the idea of Santa Claus so much as a child that even realizing it was your parents, not him, that epiphany was not reason enough to hate Christmas.
In the same way, realizing Jesus was born in May, not December – John was born then – does not make you hate Jesus, or the Church, or the beliefs you had as an immature Christian growing up.
Does that make sense?
<Look for astonished faces.>
Okay then, with that said, let’s start the lessons for today!
In the song of Jeremiah today, it is easy to miss how it begins and ends by saying, “says the Lord.” In the Hebrew, Jeremiah did not write “the Lord,” he wrote “Yahweh.” This means the song is sung by Yahweh, through his wife-servant-prophet Jeremiah.
Jeremiah must be seen as a soul who was reborn with the soul of Jesus, because the name “Jesus” means “Yah Saves.” Thus, Jeremiah can be seen as saying, “says Jesus reborn within me.”
I hope you are catching hold of this concept. Christmas is not about putting on a party hat, blowing on a noise maker, and celebrating little baby Jesus having been born over two thousand years ago. That is what New Year’s Eve at midnight is all about. Christmas is about YOU being the birth of Jesus celebrated; and, that celebration makes one break out in song.
When Jeremiah’s first verse sings, “Sing aloud with gladness for Jacob,” the “gladness of Jacob” was his being Spiritually transformed, which was when he was told divinely, “You are now called Israel.”
The name “Israel” means “Who Retains God,” but the “el” part of “Israel” is the singular form of “elohim,” so the name really means, “Who Retains Yahweh as one of His elohim.”
An “elohim” – thus an “el” – is all the souls in fleshy bodies who marry Yahweh and receive His Spirit. They are His Anointed ones (i.e.: Christs), as His wives and servants – “angels in physical bodies.”
This means on the second Sunday after Christmas, we sing a Christmas song that sings praise for us having become “Israel,” just like Jacob. That led Jeremiah to sing as a saved Jacob: “Save, Yahweh [put Jesus into] your people, the remnant of those Who Retain Yahweh as His elohim.”
Jeremiah then sang verses about all the woes of mankind – especially those who claimed to be God’s chosen ones [or Jesus’ chosen ones, for Christians]. They are all blind, lame, weeping, wanderers that stumble hither and thither.
That miserable state of being is where Jacob was, when he was afraid of everyone he had cheated and made mad, keeping him wealthy materially, but poor of spirit. That is Yahweh singing through Jeremiah, saying “If you don’t reach rock bottom, your soul will not seek Me.”
When Jeremiah sang about “those with child and those in labor,” raise your hand if you have ever gone through the pains associated with childbirth.
<Look for adult women’s hands raising.>
I recall my first wife’s father telling his wife that birth pains were just like taking a “hard shit.” My mother-in-law replied to him, “I know what taking a hard shit feels like; and, the two are not the same.”
In other words, my father-in-law was trying to imagine the pain of giving birth. It is the same for all who imagine what it is like to reach rock bottom, having never actually been there (nor plan on that). I know what reaching rock bottom feels like; and, you cannot imagine that reality correctly, without having been there, done that.
I think my father-in-law was trying to make a statement something like, “We all know what hard times and pains are. They come and go. Once they are gone, everything returns to normal.”
Still, giving birth is not something that returns to normal when the pains subside. The after birth time is when a new love has been delivered.
Raise your hands … mothers … if you know this feeling.
<Look for women raising their hands.>
A mother sees the life that came from her womb and feels that the baby is still an extension of her, as if her soul was separated, with a part placed into her baby. That soul connection means that baby will always be that mother’s baby, no matter how long time goes after birth.
When Jeremiah wrote his most famous verse in this song: “for I have become a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn,” that is Yahweh singing through His prophet about the joy a woman feels after her baby is born.
The confusion comes from the names “Israel” and “Ephraim.” Those names mean little to us Christians today; but when the meaning behind the names is known, the transformation is amazing.
We’ve already discussed the meaning of “Israel,” but the name “Ephraim” means “Doubly Fruitful.”
This means the verse sings of Yahweh saying, “for I have become the father to one who retains Yahweh as His angel in the flesh, and doubly fruitful is my firstborn.”
Yahweh's Spirit is now part of a new life, which He Fathered. It says another Israel has become Yahweh's little angel, no matter how much time passes afterwards.
Here we must realize this is as Jeremiah wrote: “says Yahweh.” It says “Yahweh is the father of an angel in the flesh who serves Him fully.” It then says that fathered is not just fruitful, but doubly fruitful. That means the soul who was Yahweh’s wife, in whom He fathered a child, the child born now has two souls – that of His wife and that of His Son – Yahweh’s “firstborn.”
Raise your hand if you know who Yahweh’s “firstborn” is.
<Look for raised hands.>
Yahweh’s “firstborn” is the one who we call Adam – “Man.” Adam was the first “Yahweh elohim.” He was made to make “Man” be doubly fruitful [Ephraim]. The Old Testament is a series of books, of or written by those whose souls were “doubly fruitful.” Adam’s soul – Yahweh’s “firstborn” – would become Jesus … a name that means Yahweh Saves … but it is still the “firstborn” of Yahweh.
Thus, before Jesus was born, Yahweh was singing through His reborn Son in Jeremiah, saying, “Yahweh will be the Father of all His Christs, who all will be two souls joined together, led by Jesus’ soul.”
Now that is a Christmas song to sing loudly.
When we then turn the page in the ‘hymnal’ to David’s Psalm 84, we see him repeating “O Lord of hosts” three times. This, in actuality is written, “Yahweh of hosts.” A “host” must be seen as an “army” of angels; so, Yahweh is the one who creates multiple armies of angels that serve Him. The use of “hosts” includes “Yahweh elohim.”
In verses seven and ten David specifically wrote “Yahweh elohim,” while using forms of “elohim” or “el” seven other times. This means David was like Jeremiah, in the fact that Yahweh spoke through him in his psalms. David personally knew what it felt like to have been born doubly fruitful, by the Father.
In the first verse, David sang, “How dear to me is your dwelling, Yahweh of hosts!” In that, the word translated as “dwelling” actually says “tabernacle” or “tent.”
The “tabernacle” of Yahweh of hosts was David’s soul, therefore David’s flesh. Yahweh did not only live and abide in David, but equally in all the “tabernacles” of Yahweh’s “hosts.”
This means that when David sang in verse two: “The sparrow has found her a house and the swallow a nest where she may lay her young,” Yahweh is the tree, our bodies are the nests, and our souls are the female birds [like angels with wings] that give birth to those new souls that make us become doubly fruitful.
When David then went on to sing: “Happy are they who dwell in your house! they will always be praising you. Happy are the people whose strength is in you! whose hearts are set on the pilgrims' way,” this sings praise to that new birth.
After all the pains of labor, happiness abounds! It leads to an uncontrollable desire to sing Christmas carols with joy! Above all, it sends us out anew into the world, as ministers. A saved soul becomes so elated it is driven to go out and try to have other souls be saved too.
He is Yahweh of hosts. He cannot be limited to the Father of Adam, a.k.a. having only Jesus as His Son. Yahweh made Adam-Jesus to share his soul with the other souls of the world!
Yahweh is big enough to have everyone be His Christs, all then being His Son reborn.
In Paul’s letter to those Christs reborn as Jesus he left behind in Ephesus, we read his writing, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” That is a mouthful of capitalized words, the first of which is “Blessed.”
The capitalized word written by Paul is “Eulogētos,” which is a word that means “speak well of,” when written in the lower-case. In that spelling it becomes the root word for the English words “eulogize” and “eulogy.” However, when found capitalized it means “Blessed.”
The reference HELPS Word-studies says this about the translation as “Blessed:” This meaning “is only used of God the Father and Christ (God the Son).” That means that Yahweh is the only one who can “Bless” anything. Yahweh himself is not “Blessed,” because Yahweh has no need to change His state of being to one higher. Yahweh IS, with nothing possible to be higher.
So, Paul was not like the woman at the checkout in a grocery store, who says “Have a blessed day.” That is wishful thinking, at best; and, playing god at worst. Paul was writing as an extension of Yahweh, to others who were extensions of Yahweh, saying all involved had been “Blessed” by Yahweh.
When we read Paul saying “Blessed be God,” that becomes pretentious. It sounds like Paul is also acting as god, by his blessing God. That is not what was written.
Paul wrote, “Blessed this God,” where the ‘article’ between “Blessed” and “God” is a statement about “this” - of themselves having been “Blessed.” All credit must be given to “God.”
For them to be "Blessed" by "God," all their souls had each married Him, so the "Blessing" was each of them having received His Spirit. In marriage they each took on the name of Yahweh, which is "Israel," and that "Blessed" them.
Where we read “and” the reality is the word “kai” is written. That word says a state of importance must be realized from one having been “Blessed” by “God.” That importance is “God” then becomes “Father” of those “Blessed.” That becomes a familial relationship that only comes to those BLESSED by God.
In other words, only Sons of Yahweh get to call Him “Father.” To possess that right, a soul must be “Blessed” as a wife-soul, who then gives divine rebirth to Yahweh's Son, His firstborn.
When Paul then wrote “Father of our Lord,” one needs to stop right there and understand what that means.
Whenever Jeremiah and David wrote in Hebrew “Yahweh” the translators of Hebrew into English make us read “the Lord.” This means we do not know the name of the One who could “Bless” our souls and become our “Father” Spiritually. But, to think of God as “Lord” is not what Paul meant. Yahweh is not the "Father" of Yahweh. Yahweh IS … always.
This is where it is vital to realize that we have life in otherwise dead matter, because of Yahweh breathing a soul into that matter that is us, when we are born. That soul becomes the lower-case “lord” over our individual bodies.
Yahweh is not our “lord” once we are born. Our souls are our “lords.” The problem with that is those “lords” end up being swayed by the dead flesh (especially when puberty hits) to serve the needs of that flesh. So, the body becomes the “lord” over its “lord.” That conundrum causes our souls to realize guilt, after we sin.
We wish we could have the strength to make our souls become the “lord” over our flesh again, like it was when we were children and life was simple. Only when wishes change into heartfelt sobs of true repentance does Yahweh listen and lend us a hand.
That is one of those 'rock bottom' times of life.
Paul capitalized the word “Kyriou,” which elevates the word to a divine level of meaning. The meaning here is Yahweh is the “Father of” – a statement of possession – the “Lord,” who comes and takes control over our wayward flesh. As the “Father of the Lord,” that says the “Lord” of one “Blessed” by Yahweh is the Son of Yahweh – Adam, renamed Jesus.
Yahweh is the "Father" of Adam-Jesus, which is the "Doubly fruitful" soul that joins with our souls [fallen "lords"], becoming the "Lord" over our bodies of flesh.
That is why Paul then wrote the possessive form “of Jesus.” That becomes the name “of us,” who have the Son of Yahweh one with each of our soul-flesh entities, as "our Lord.” The name Jesus means “Yahweh Saves,” so one who can rightfully claim to be the Son of Yahweh, as Jesus reborn, being one both “in the name” “of Jesus” and “in the name of God” – whose real name is “Yahweh.”
When Paul then wrote the possessive form “of Christ,” the meaning of the word “Christos” is “Anointed one.” David was “Anointed” by Yahweh, so was Jeremiah, and so was Paul. Jesus is the name of all whose souls have his soul resurrected within – doubly fruitful – so all are “Anointed ones” and all are “of Christ.”
This is like being in the name "Israel." It is the gift that should have been received on Christmas – when a mass of souls became Christs.
Because everything written by Paul – and all the Epistle authors – is so deep, I ask you to read what I wrote and posted on my website. To see the depth come forth is important; but the Epistles were not written for bus stop homilies. They are too deep for bus schedules to accommodate.
Please read what I wrote about this reading from Ephesians and ponder in your minds what I said and what he wrote. Being Christian is a ‘full-time’ calling, so reading Scripture must become a part of one’s discernment for the truth. You have to see it for yourselves, in order to have faith in that understood.
Due to the time constraints of the bus schedule, it will also be impossible to make three Gospel readings fully unfold before your eyes. You need to see the truth that is written there too; so, again, read the individual commentaries I have published on my website. Read all three. For now, I will present the ‘Readers’ Digest’ summaries.
In the Matthew reading that is not the one for Epiphany, we read that Joseph is told to take his family to Egypt. From there Jesus could return and fulfill a prophecy that says, “Out of Egypt I have called my son.”
The name “Egypt” has a meaning that (depending on how one pronounces it) says, “Temple of Ptah” or “Married to Tragedy.”
As for “Temple of Ptah,” I found that Ptah was the Egyptian “creator-god who had created the world via his thought and his word, and he also became patron of craftsmen.” Seeing that, I figured, “Egypt would be a good place for Joseph to learn a craft, like carpentry.”
Because Joseph was not warned to fear Herod … or fear anything other than Yahweh (losing His presence within) … going to Egypt was more to fulfil a prophecy than to escape death. Jesus would have an ability to escape danger always; so because Herod would die before that "appointed time," Yahweh knew there was nothing to fear coming from Herod.
As for the prophecy that comes from Hosea 11:1, it now can be seen to say, “when a child who retained Yahweh as one of His elohim [Israel] and I loved him and out of tragic marriage [Egypt] I called my son.” That (when the names have been changed to their meanings) says a child was born to a wife of Yahweh; and, because of the tragic marriage that was Judea under Herod the Great, Joseph was called.”
Joseph was the one called – to and from – so that was to develop his craft from Essene priest to Jewish carpenter.
Jesus is mentioned in the second part of the reading, where it says, “He will be known as a Nazorean.” That requires understanding.
Nazareth means “Place of Nazarites,” which are the “Consecrated” priests of the temple on Mount Carmel, built and maintained by the Essenes. Nazareth was ten miles away, in Galilee, which was where the priests of the temple would live. A Nazarite comes from Numbers 6, which is described as “an Israelite consecrated to the service of God, under vows to abstain from alcohol, let the hair grow, and avoid defilement by contact with corpses.” To call Jesus a Nazarene is wrong, because that means one born in Nazareth; and, Jesus was born in Bethlehem.
All in all, the reading from Matthew says Yahweh called his son Joseph to go to Egypt and misdirect the way people saw Jesus, after Joseph returned. This was to ensure nobody found out or even had any idea that Jesus might have been one of the infants Herod had ordered killed. If you think about it this way, when Pilate sent Jesus to stand before Herod Antipas, had Antipas known Jesus was born in Bethlehem, then end of story there. There would be no need to have him sent back to Pilate, because Jesus was speaking heresy that the elite of the Temple complained about. Jesus was already a condemned man, because of the truth of his birth place and birth date.
As for the reading from Luke, this is a leap in time to when Jesus was twelves years old. That might be confusing as a reading on the second Sunday after Christmas; but it is a standard on this Sunday, only possible to be read on this day every year.
To see the birth of Jesus here, you have to look deeply at his being found in the Temple. We read, “They found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions.”
This is a weak translation.
The truth says, from the Greek written, “they found of himself among the temple , seated in the midst of these teachers , kai listening to themselves kai questioning themselves .”
That says Joseph and Mary found Jesus as the temple … himself … meaning his soul enveloped those around him, more than the columns and walls of Herod’s Temple.
It then says the soul of Jesus was within the souls of the teachers, in the same way it was within Joseph and Mary. Jesus made the scholars be "doubly fruitful." Because Jesus’ soul had entered those scholars, Jesus was listening to their thoughts and driving their own souls to ask themselves questions … led by Jesus.
This was astounding and amazing to the teachers, as well as to Joseph and Mary.
When Mary scolded Jesus for causing them panic, for him not being with them on the way back to Nazareth, Jesus retorted (in essence), “You have no need to seek me, because I am already within you.” He then said, “I am the house of my Father, as I can be nothing else.”
The implication was the teachers were so empty of knowledge of Scripture that Jesus found a greater need for him to stay behind in Jerusalem, just to fill the souls of the teachers, who the other Jews depended on for their spiritual knowledge.
That is the true meaning of Christmas. Jesus is the house of the Father who brings questions and answers about Scripture into one’s "midst" … one's "inner parts" … one's soul. That is the gift that never stops giving.
This then leads to the Matthew reading normally read on Epiphany. This is the story of the Magi.
It was this story that dawned upon me in late November of 2016. That dawning made the Christmas stories all become clear to me. From that awareness that I was divinely inspired to be shown, I prepared and then presented a six-week class at my wife’s church, which I videotaped and posted on YouTube – twelve hours of enlightening stuff.
The lecture series was based on realizing the “star of Bethlehem” is the Sun.
I then wrote a book and published it in September 2020, entitled The Star of Bethlehem: The Timing of the Life of Jesus. I sell that book on my website and on Amazon, for the lowest price possible. The book goes well beyond what I presented in a twelve-hour class.
Again, I wrote an in-depth commentary that explains [free of any costs] this reading, which I invite everyone to read later. It is on my website Katrina Pearls, under the “Blog” heading.
Basically, knowing the Magi were astrologers and the Sun is key to creating forecasting charts, they would have seen such an amazing array of planets – all based on them knowing the Sun’s position each day and then adding the other orbs, knowing the predictable movements of the orbs in our Solar system. From routine, the Magi saw an amazing array of celestial lights.
This clearly was seen [perhaps with some divine insight helping] as the birth of the Jewish Messiah – the king of the Jews.
When Herod spoke to the Magi privately and “inquired exactly in the presence of them the timing of the appearing star,” that is one of the three pieces of information for casting a natal chart. The date is one, the place is two, and the time is the third piece of information needed to cast an accurate astrological chart.
The point of realizing the Magi came because they had a chart that told them, “Go to Jerusalem for this birth,” they did not travel by night and they did not appear in Jerusalem twelve days after the birth time they knew ahead of time. The time for reproducing that chart was what Herod was trying to get out of them. They knew when the birth would take place, maybe a year in advance. They scheduled and prepared for a trip, with the King of Persia's approval [and financing].
I understand astrology. I can cast charts and read the symbols presented in a chart. I have been led to realize what Herod was trying to get from the Magi; and, I have seen an astrological natal chart that is so clearly amazing and special, it is one that would lead advisors of Jewish ancestry living in Persia, advising the king of coming events, to expect a miraculous birth in Jerusalem. With all their charts and notes, they would have told the King of Persia, “We need to go to Jerusalem and anoint this baby for Yahweh, our God.”
By seeing that chart, I know exactly when Jesus was born. That timing makes everything told that develops the Christmas stories fit perfectly together, like a glove.
Not too long ago, I was telling you here that Jesus was born in May, when the Sun was in the sign of Gemini. I also said John the Baptist was the one born on December 25th.
Last Sunday’s Gospel reading from John – “In the beginning was the Word” – told how John wrote about John the Baptist. He wrote that “the Word became flesh and dwelled among us.” That was the same as Jesus being found seated amid the teachers, at the temple.
Jesus was dwelling within them. That became the "Christmas" experienced by those scholars in the Temple.
John the Baptist was an example of a soul having been saved by being joined with the soul of Jesus. So, Christmas is when we become like John, with Jesus’ soul resurrected within our souls. That says the Father has sent the Son to make a sinful soul become doubly fruitful … Saved by Yahweh.
I see the bus is rounding the curve; so, I will end here. I encourage everyone here to take the time to read what I have written. Take the time to see for yourselves what is actually written and what that actually means.
Christians naturally fear astrology. Christians naturally fear me saying things like, “Jesus was born in May, not December.” Christians fearing the unknown is what makes them be like the Jews, who feared Jesus and his strange way of making sense of things that astonished and amazed them [not always in a good way]. Jesus said things so against what was seen as normal explanations of Scripture, his words became a source of their anger. They hated Jesus for saying things that went against their traditions … traditions that had led their ancestors to lose everything they possessed.
It was hatred Yahweh planned on, so the soul of His firstborn would be released on a crucifix. That use of hate to bring death was so countless other souls could be saved, as those who married Yahweh, becoming the mothers in whom Jesus would be resurrected as the Son.
Christians are called to fear only Yahweh. When a soul is married to Him, then reading about astrology is harmless. Seeing John the Baptist as the one to celebrate and recognize on December 25th does nothing to take away all the pagan rituals of the Winter Solstice celebrations.
That date coincides with the longest night, which lasts three days … when the Sun appears dead in the sky. December 25th is when the Sun again appears to move. The days slowly become longer. The Winter Solstice celebration says, "We have reached rock bottom! Thank God we have entered into a rebirth of light!"
Jesus was born in May to fit symbolically the timing suitable for the Father; but Jesus was reborn in John, and many times over in true Christians. That is why the celebration is called Christmas, not Jesus-mas.
Think of this as the Magi appearing before you, to let you know the king of our souls has been born; so they say, "Let us see your new baby Jesus (or John)."
I hope everyone has made some New Year’s resolutions that involve marriage of your souls to Yahweh. Show Him you are interested. Give Him some signs you want to know Him better. You will be surprised.
Until next Sunday, I hope everyone has a good week ahead.
Amen
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