The Lord Will Provide

We have all heard a priest or a minister deliver the words, "The Lord will provide." The lips that utter these words do so with fervor and zeal. They are honest words and, take it from me, they are generated from personal experience. These words can lead directly to a discussion of lust of result as a detriment to magical operations, but not just yet.

St. Thomas Didymus, the "Doubting Thomas" isn't the only skeptic to have been in church. Besides the more famous--"Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe (John 20: 25)"--he earlier replies to Jesus, the man himself, "Lord, we do not know where you are going; so how can we know the way?" (John 14:5) [This question is posed during the Last Supper scene, just after Judas Iscariot leaves]. If Jesus isn’t being clear with one of the chosen, then what hope does a minister have with his/her congregation? Further, what business does a priest of minister have assuming his/her personal experience is relevant to the audience? It is true that the Lord will provide--that when you turn your life over to the spiritual aspect of humanity--the mental and physical realms will fall into place--the Truth will continue to be made manifest and you will be aware.

Hey, Padre!--the reality is that too many of the people listening to you are too busy working forty hours a week plus overtime and a commute--eating--sleeping and generally coping to benefit from your epiphany. They want to believe; they may suspend their disbelief and curb their skepticism--but they can’t relate. Here is a passage to contemplate, "My friends, what good is it for one of you to say that you have faith if your actions do not prove it? Can that faith save you?  Suppose there are brothers or sisters who need clothes and don't have enough to eat. What good is there in your saying to them, God bless you! Keep warm and eat well!--if you don't give them the necessities of life? So it is with faith: if it is alone and includes no actions, then it is dead" (James 2: 14-17).

In short, Uncle Al Crowley was on something, I mean--on to something when he wrote, "the few shall lead--the many shall follow." The Lord will indeed provide, the minister, but for the traditional church to function--the congregation needs money. It can be a small gathering of affluent people, recommend the minister espouse how wealth and material success are a sure sign of God’s grace or a larger group of working folks, in this church you might promote the promise of paradise to come as a reward for putting up with the crap you do in life. Ringing any bells? I hope the ringing in my ears doesn’t bother you.

Where does this leave the ECoD, a Gnostic community? We are experiencing the full range of emotions and consequences of living, we seek Truth and we apply ourselves to enhancing the greater human condition, we are broke and coping.

Thanks for asking.

Rev. Stu

Feast of Enheduana, 2014