{"id":27851,"date":"2026-11-04T10:15:52","date_gmt":"2026-11-04T15:15:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=27851"},"modified":"2026-11-04T10:50:43","modified_gmt":"2026-11-04T15:50:43","slug":"27851","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=27851","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Abide With Me | Christian Church Hymn | Choral Version (SATB) with Lyrics | Sunday 7pm Choir\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/PzmvagnGTYY?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A Windfall of Delight<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Wednesday, November 4, 2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Those who bless the world in the lifelong process of learning to ripen \u2026 are those who have mastered the art of <strong>sustained effort, infused with a surrender to hidden sources of grace.&nbsp;<\/strong><br>\u2014 James Finley &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>CAC faculty member James Finley shares his thoughts on spiritual maturity as a form of ripening:&nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We ripen in holiness and spiritual fulfillment as we learn to<strong> sit in the sun of God\u2019s mysterious, sustaining presence that energizes and guides our efforts, <\/strong>bringing us to realms of grace that are beyond, way beyond, anything we can achieve by our own efforts alone\u2026.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The lifelong process of ripening brings about a corresponding ripening of our ability to understand the fundamentals in a wiser, peace-giving manner\u2026.\u202fAs a person ripens in unsayable intimacies in God, they ripen in a paradoxical wisdom. They come to understand God as a presence that protects us from nothing, even as God unexplainably sustains us in all things. <strong>This is the mystery of the cross\u2026. It does not mean that God prevents the tragic thing, the cruel thing, the unfair thing, from happening. Rather, it means that God is intimately hidden as a kind of profound, tender sweetness that flows and carries us along in the intimate depths of the tragic thing itself\u2014and will continue to do so in every moment of our lives up to and through death, and beyond\u2026.\u202f&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We might say that, as fruit ripens, it fulfills itself in giving itself to us. In\u202fa similar way, <strong>we do not undergo the transformative process of\u202fripening for\u202fourselves alone, <\/strong>but rather that<strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"> our transformed presence might be a source of nurture to others.&nbsp;<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Then too, there is the fruit that, in\u202fremaining unharvested, falls onto the ground and dies. The lesson here is in Jesus\u2019s words, \u201cUnless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone, but if it dies, it brings forth fruit\u2026\u201d (John 12:24).&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And so it is with us. As we grow old we realize that, in all we have been through, Love has been using us for its own purposes. And for this we feel immensely grateful. We know, too, that our inevitable passing away, in which we fall into the ground and die, is <strong>not the end of our ripened and transformed life. It is rather our passage into an infinite and deathless fulfillment<\/strong>. Saint John of the Cross [1542\u20131591] talks about a windfall of delight. [1] When fruit becomes very ripe, the slightest wind can cause it to fall to the ground. This is also true of us, and not just in the sense in which we learn to be undone and fulfilled in all the unexpected little blessings that come to us throughout the day. The windfall of delight pertains as well to <strong>our last breath, which we know and trust will send us falling forever into the deathless depths of God.&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>================<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><\/h1>\n\n\n\n<p><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/bradleyjersak124315.substack.com\/p\/john-1010-and-the-problematic-of\" target=\"_blank\">John 10:10 and the Problematic of Divine Violence&nbsp;<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/substack.com\/@bradleyjersak\"><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/substack.com\/@bradleyjersak\">BRADLEY JERSAK<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>OCT 29, 2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>A Very Problematic Hermeneutic:<br>\u201cIt is God who kills, steals, and destroys,&nbsp;<br>but Jesus came to give life to the full.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>\u2014Wm. Paul Young<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>During a conversation with Paul Young (author of&nbsp;<em>The Shack&nbsp;<\/em>and&nbsp;<em>Return to the Shack)<\/em>, he observed how common it is for Bible readers to infer disturbing theologies of divine violence that undermine Jesus\u2019 revelation of God. He also noted dangerous ethical corollaries among Christians that result from these missteps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><a href=\"https:\/\/substackcdn.com\/image\/fetch\/$s_!rPnH!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep\/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F7f2d1f24-a1d0-472b-aa10-fc38d7a82e91_772x778.png\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/substackcdn.com\/image\/fetch\/$s_!rPnH!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep\/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F7f2d1f24-a1d0-472b-aa10-fc38d7a82e91_772x778.png\" alt=\"\"\/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><strong>Lethal Injection Crucifix<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>First, you\u2019ll note that Paul is obviously riffing off Jesus\u2019 words in John 10:10:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>\u201cThe thief comes only to steal, kill, and destroy;<br>I have come that they have life,<br>and have it to the full.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jesus\u2019 claim is indeed central to both our theology and our hermeneutic (interpretive system). Paul and I believe that when Jesus spoke, he spoke as the Word of God\u2014or as Brian Zahnd says, \u201cJesus is what God has to say about himself.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That\u2019s not a scandalous thought for any Christian who remembers Jesus\u2019 words,&nbsp;<em><strong>\u201cAnyone who has seen me has seen the Father\u201d (John 14:9).<\/strong><\/em><strong>&nbsp;<\/strong>The epistle to the Hebrews doubles down:&nbsp;<em><strong>\u201cHe is the radiance of God\u2019s glory and the exact imprint of God\u2019s very being\u201d<\/strong><\/em>&nbsp;(Hebrews 1:3).&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To creedal Christians from Jerusalem to Alaska, from Argentina to India, the confession is that God is one\u2014and that Father, Son, and Spirit share one&nbsp;<em>ousia&nbsp;<\/em>(being or essence). The conviction is that Jesus reflects the same nature of the God he reveals, and conversely, that God is known through the Son who has made God known. Theology 101 speaks of three persons sharing one divine identity, so Jesus can say \u201cI AM\u201d and claim God&#8217;s very character.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To those who accept and conserve the ancient faith, John 10:10 becomes a powerful theological statement, although the math is profoundly simple:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol>\n<li>1. Jesus says,&nbsp;<em>\u201cIt is the thief who is the death-dealer. I am the life-giver.&nbsp;<\/em><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>2. Jesus says,&nbsp;<em>\u201cTo see me is to see the Father.\u201d<\/em><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>3. Thus, \u201cGod is&nbsp;<em>not<\/em>&nbsp;the death-dealer. That\u2019s the thief.&nbsp;<em>God is the life-giver.\u201d<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Destructive Theological Inferences&nbsp;<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>And yet\u2026 another theology emerged and became dominant in the Protestant West (though not only there) that abandons Jesus\u2019 claims in just the way Paul Young describes.&nbsp;<em>It proclaims God as a death-dealer, punisher, and destroyer\u2014a vengeful God exacting justice through never-ending violence from whom Jesus must come to save us.&nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Do you see the theological problems in this model?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol>\n<li>1. God is not like Jesus. God is wrath. Jesus is a redeemer.&nbsp;<br>God is who we\u2019re redeemed from.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>2. Jesus does not share one essence, nature, or character with God.<br>Jesus and God are not one. They are different.&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>3. Jesus is not the perfect image of God. Jesus is other than God.<br>Jesus is not God.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Dubious Interpretive Methods<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>And so on. How do Christian theologians slip into such obvious, egregious errors? This involves a basic hermeneutical error: departing from the \u201cEmmaus Way\u201d of reading Scripture, where a Christian reading of the Old Testament must always begin with Jesus as the means and end of interpreting the Bible.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In this case, we start with John 10:10 as a theological non-negotiable and read the Old Testament through Jesus\u2019 picture of God. God is not a death-dealer; God is a life-giver. Okay, so then what about Old Testament narratives of divine violence?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Indeed, what about them? Years ago, Archbishop Lazar Puhalo put it this way (some readers will recall):&nbsp;<em>Any Scripture that claims to reveal God must bow to the living God when he came in the flesh.&nbsp;<\/em>In other words, descriptions of God enacting or commissioning stealing, killing, or destroying must be subordinated to Christ, our final authority for faith and practice.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Then what do we do with those texts that seem to say otherwise? The fathers and mothers of the Great Tradition trained us and modeled how to read those texts long ago, so our modern amnesia is actually without excuse. (I review their approach thoroughly in&nbsp;<em>A More Christlike Word<\/em>)<em>.&nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We must&nbsp;<em>not<\/em>&nbsp;start our reading with the destruction texts and treat them as primary, infallible descriptions of God, nor read them literally without reference to Jesus, who said,&nbsp;<em><strong>\u201cYou have heard it say, but I [God\u2019s self-revelation] say [otherwise]\u2026\u201d&nbsp;<\/strong><\/em>That\u2019s the crack we trip over, inevitably landing us in the Christological errors mentioned above.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Dangerous Ethical Corollaries<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>I mentioned up front that Paul also exposed some dangerous ethical corollaries connected to these theological and hermeneutical stumbles. It boils down to imagining ourselves as God\u2019s appointed agents of divine violence. With God as the author of destruction and wrath against the wicked, how do these divine judgments take effect in this world?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Christians often attribute divine design to pandemics, geological calamities, and catastrophic weather\u2026 but we rarely stop at leaving retribution to \u2018natural law\u2019 or \u2018acts of God.\u2019 We have a track record of appointing ourselves as God\u2019s executioners, whether on foreign crusades or domestic death rows. Rather than \u201covercoming evil with good\u201d (as per Romans 12), we take a two-step approach: first, the loyalist church affirms death-dealing via the state sword (Romans 13), then campaigns to assume control of the state and so wield it ourselves (via Christian nationalism).&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This hideous outcome starts somewhere\u2026 but it also goes nowhere if we, as theologians, Bible interpreters, and peacemaking disciples of the Life-Giver, plant ourselves firmly in the good news gospel of John 10:10.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Windfall of Delight Wednesday, November 4, 2026 Those who bless the world in the lifelong process of learning to ripen \u2026 are those who have mastered the art of sustained effort, infused with a surrender to hidden sources of grace.&nbsp;\u2014 James Finley &nbsp; CAC faculty member James Finley shares his thoughts on spiritual maturity [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27851"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27851"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27851\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27859,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27851\/revisions\/27859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}