7. Preaching

SORRY TO BE

It is written like this, in Paul's first letter to the Thessalonians, chapter 5, verses 4 to 11:

"But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober. For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night. But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation. For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him. Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do."

One can assume a contradiction in life, between the ideal and the material, between light and darkness, between God and man, and if this contradiction is insisted on, it will passivate. The material, as distinguished from the ideal, is the determined, i.e. that which is cursed. As if cursed, the individual is passivated. As if in the dark, the individual is regular and boring. But we negate the contradiction by being bright. For the sake of perspective, one can think of a jacket, which is either fastened together in the front by means of a zip or by means of buttons. At the zipper, the opposite is locked. But at the button the contradiction is open. Any button will do. The button just can't be too small, and not too big, to fit into the buttonhole. It must fit.

We want to be one with God, but we do not want to be cursed, as with the zipper, by obeying certain values and norms. We do not want to lock God into being instructive. We want to be bright, and make God working in our way. Nevertheless, it can be like that in life that you occasionally, or all the time, feel that you are cursed. One can be ostracized, for various reasons, condemned, or weak due to stress, injury or illness. If so, it is time to light. We are bright, and it is important to light the light so that one is truly sorry in the meaning of merry. We don't happily find ourselves comfortable as like united at the zipper. We are God's children and in that sense enjoy God's freedom.

There is joy, and there is sorrow, and sorrow can be excruciatingly dark. It is necessary to ignite the joy of grief. It is important to think of yourself as light and avoid darkness and despair by creating, however you do it. If one is placed in darkness, the opposite will be dark, as judging or instructing. If you are drunk during the day, you will be drunk at night. If you is gloomy and dark during the day, you will be gloomy and dark at night. It is important to keep spirits up, and this is what we can help each other do. That is what Paul exhorts us to in the aforementioned scripture.