The Wisdom, Power, Glory Buried in Us

Blake said,“Why stand we here trembling around calling on God for help and not ourselves in whom God dwells?”Well, does he dwell in us as something other than ourselves or did he actually become us, become man? I will tell you, you are the being that became man, the being Blake refers to as God. God is your own wonderful human Imagination. It did not begin in your mother’s womb and it will not end in the grave. This is the pre-existing being, the being that existed before the foundation of the world, and you emptied yourself completely for a purpose. Tonight, we will try to touch on that purpose.

So Paul in his letter to the Philippians speaks now of God in action as Jesus Christ. He said, “Though he was in the form of God, he did not consider it something to grasp, but emptied himself”—a complete emptying of himself—“and took upon himself the form of a slave, and was born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form he humbled himself and took upon himself the cross” (Phil.2:6-9). This [body] is the cross that he took.

Now, this is all behind us. The being spoken of here we are that being. Now he tells it as though there is another and he said, “Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, that at the name Jesus every knee should bow, on earth, in heaven and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God” (Phil.2:9-11).

You read this and you think he is speaking of another. He is not speaking of another. It is you who completely emptied yourself. You had all the glory of God and all the power of God and all the wisdom of God, and you were not pretending when you became man and were nailed to this cross that is man. You couldn’t pretend it and accomplish anything. You had to completely empty yourself of your power, your wisdom and your glory; and actually take upon yourself the humility of a garment of flesh and blood which enslaves you. For you have to cater to it from the cradle to the grave. You feed it, you bathe it, you wash it, and when it cannot assimilate what you give it, it has to eliminate, and then having eliminated then you have to clean the body again. And so, from the cradle to the grave you are enslaved by this body on which you are crucified.

Now Christ is crucified on man. He is buried in man. When he rises in man, that is the risen Christ and there is conferred upon the risen Christ in the experience of men the divine name Jesus. Through this experience a new age is ushered in. So Jesus is simply a name conferred upon the risen Christ, but the risen Christ is present in every child born of woman. The word Jesus means the same thing as the word Jehovah, “Jehovah saves.” Jehovah’s name is I AM. So here, this is not another being other than yourself. You are suffering from total amnesia. You had to completely forget your power, your wisdom, and your glory, and actually become what the world thinks to be a little man, a little woman, born a few years ago who will play a little part and then depart this world. But there is an immortal you that is in it, buried in all. So then Blake said, “Why do we stand here trembling around calling on God for help and not ourselves in whom God dwells?” He dwells in us.

Everything in this world that you can think about is present. You can’t conceive of something that is not already worked out in detail. But they are shadowy to those who dwell not in them, mere possibilities; but for those who enter into them, they seem the only substances. When I enter into a world that is just like this, prior to my entrance into it it’s a possibility, an image. But let me now actually enter into that world so that my consciousness follows my vision and I enter, it seems more real than this room when I leave it tonight. At the moment I am in this image and this room is real. When I depart here tonight, it’s a memory image, just a memory picture, and wherever I am at that moment that’s more real than this room that is most real in my life. This is more real now than any part of my world. I left a home which was real when I left it and it’s now a memory image. But when I re-enter that room, it will seem to be the only substance in my world. When I came here, coming here it was an image. As I entered the room it took on all reality, all that was real.  Now, we think this is a normal procedure. No, everything in the world exists just as this room exists and your home that you left exists, and everything exists. The job you want exists. It’s only a dream, a mere image, while you’re not in it; but when you enter into it, it seems while you are in it to be the only reality. And you can’t conceive of a state, not one state that is not already worked out and finished, waiting for occupancy, waiting for someone who desires to experience that to enter into that state.

To come into this world you emptied yourself completely of your power and your wisdom and your glory. The day will come—having gone through the gamut the God in you, which is your very self, not another, he’s actually your very self—will rise in you and you are he. That rising in you is of the being that emptied itself. Then memory returns and then is conferred upon you that divine name, which we are told in that letter to the Philippians when it is heard every knee is bowed, in heaven and in earth and under the earth, and every tongue confesses that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God…because you are God. But in order to come here and take on this limitation, you could not pretend. No one can get anything out of this and pretend that they are a man. They had to actually become a man and take upon himself all the weaknesses and all the limitations of the flesh.

Now, does the Bible in any way suggest it? Yes, we are told in the Book of John, the very beginning, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (1:1). Now, “The Word became flesh and dwelt within us” (1:14). If he was with God and was God, that certainly implies pre-existence. “Before Abraham, was I AM” (8:58). Does that not imply pre-existence? “Tell me, master, who sinned, this man or his parents that he is born blind? I tell you, neither this man nor his parents, but that the works of God be made manifest in him” (9:2). Isn’t that pre-existence or did he sin in his mothers’ womb? Either he sinned in his mother’s womb and this is the result, or else here is implication telling us of a pre-existence. And yet he is blameless…this is a state that he had to experience. You don’t avoid anything…you play all the parts of the world.

Now we find in the 17th of John, he is asking, this is a prayer, and he’s asking the Father, which is himself—for he said “I and my Father are one” (Jn.10:30)—he wants everyone to be where he is. And then he tells you why he wants everyone to be where he is, “that they may see my glory that thou gavest me and the love with which thou loved me before the foundation of the world.” You and I were loved. We are part of the body of love. We were loved before the foundation of the world. But we came to do a job, to expand our power, expand our wisdom, and expand our glory. And to do it we had to come down and reach the limit of contraction which is man, the limit of opacity which is doubt; and completely forget the being that we really are, and doubt that we ever were, or that such a being ever existed. So here we are in this world, in the limit of contraction and opacity. Then comes that moment when the risen Christ now, Christ who is in us but so asleep he appears to be dead, completely dead…and then he is disturbed. The storm wind, which is Spirit itself, begins to stir him, and he wakes to find himself encased in his tomb. He comes out of his tomb…but it begins with his resurrection. He rises first before he is born from above. As he comes out of this tomb from above, there is conferred upon him this greatest of all names. It’s called the name, the name Jesus. So in the end there is only Jesus, the cosmic Christ—we are the Cosmic Christ—buried in all. When he rises individually, that name which is the name Jehovah, that’s the name of Jesus, is conferred. He is the Lord God Jehovah. Well, who is rising?—I am. What’s God’s name?—I AM.

What is David’s Father’s name?—I AM. That’s what scripture teaches. So here, the essence of all that man could ever experience stands before him personified as the crown of his journey. It’s a son, a son bearing witness to his victory over death. He actually died: he became man, entered the world of death, and rose out of it. And as each rises, each in that act of rising receives the name Jesus. So we can say in the end, after the transfiguration, Jesus only. All are gathered into one body and that one body is the Lord Jesus Christ.

So in this world all things appear to be, and as they appear to be, they become what they seem to be. Again, as Blake said so beautifully, “Those in great Eternity who contemplate on death”—and this is the world that they contemplate—“said thus: ‘What seems to be, is, to those to whom it seems to be, and is productive of the most dreadful consequences to those to whom it seems to be, even of torment, despair and eternal death; but divine mercy steps beyond and redeems man in the body of Jesus” (Jer., Plt.36, Ln.50). When it seems everything is lost, then you begin to awake and you awake within yourself. You don’t see another, it’s you who awakes, and it’s you who goes through every stage of the entire drama. It’s all in the first-person singular, it’s all in the present tense, and there’s not another, it’s you. You are the Christ Jesus spoken of in scripture: “Christ in you is the hope of glory” (Col.1:27). “Do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in you?” (2Cor.13:5). Well, where is he? Say “I am”…that’s he. So why call upon another? Why stand we here trembling around calling upon Christ Jesus as another and not ourselves in whom he dwells? He dwells in me as my own wonderful human Imagination…and there never was another.

I got a card today from Norway. Many of you know this lady, and she reminded me in the card that she said to me on occasions if there is one place in this world that she would like to visit it would be Norway. But she felt she couldn’t afford it…she could ill-afford to live here, far less go to Norway. But if she could go to Norway it could be to make a picture, to appear in a picture. Well, she writes from Norway today stating that she is working on a picture being done in Norway, and her dream has come true, and here is this lovely picture of one of these beautiful inlets in Norway. So there she is! How she got it I don’t know…it doesn’t really matter. But it was a mere shadow in her world prior to this, standing here talking to me, voicing this request. And I said to her as I would say to you, “Dwell in it. If you were in Norway, how would you see the world? You would see it from Norway. You wouldn’t see it from Los Angeles if you were in Norway. Don’t ask me how you are going to get there. So you have no money, you can ill-afford to buy food, but you want to go to Norway. Well, it costs money, but you will render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and you’ll go if you apply this principle and you dwell in Norway. Tonight when you sleep, you sleep as though you were in Norway and then this state into which you go will seem the only substance. You may fall into it this night and have a dream where you are in Norway and it seems so real.” Well, she doesn’t confess in her card to me that she had any such experience, only that she did dwell in the state as though she were there. Then comes the casting, then comes the picture, and she’s making a picture in Norway.

So you move into any state. I don’t care what the state is, it’s already done. Everything is completely worked out in detail, the most minute detail, and you simply step into it. From a shadowy substance or a shadowy state it becomes the only substance. Everything seems so on the outside and so shadowy when you only think of it. When you enter into it, it takes on reality and everything seems as completely real as this room seems real now.

So here, the being that is housed in you when you say “I am,” that was in the beginning with God, and it was God: “In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” You are not another. You are the creative power and wisdom and glory of God. But you as God had to completely empty yourself of this glory, this wisdom and this power, and not pretend you are entering the graveyard called earth.And these unnumbered bodies are all graves, that’s what they are…every body is a grave. And you actually came down and took upon yourself and entered the grave; and because you are an immortal being your presence animates it. You made it alive because you are in it. It couldn’t breathe unless you were there because you are breath.The words breath and Spirit are the same in both Hebrew and Greek. It just couldn’t breathe if you had not entered these graves called men. I mean generic man, male, female. So you came right down into it, and animated it for a purpose, and you completely forgot so you don’t recognize your own brothers when you see the other, and you war against them as though they were others.

You are told in this passage that I quoted tonight in the 2nd chapter of Philippians, it starts with this lovely thought: “Let each of you think not only on his own interests, but also on the interests of others. And let this mind be in you, the mind that you have with Christ Jesus” (2:4). The same mind…it’s not another. You can’t tell it any better. How could you tell it more beautifully than “my interest should be your interest, and then it should be our interest” because, really, basically we are one when these garments are finally taken off? They are taken off one by one and we re-enter the one body that fell. In the end, only one being, the glorious being that is the Lord God who is the Father of the entire drama.

So, I got this letter this week, in fact, I got it last Monday. All are coming close to it. He gave me a series of dreams, all on a single night. The final one is the cue to the dream, like three stages. In it he saw a being and to him it was a huge monkey, a horrible thing, and it clung to his back. He said, “I wasn’t afraid of it, but it seemed unclean and strange. I wished it would go away, but it wouldn’t. And then it began to make love to me and that annoyed me, but I was not afraid. I didn’t want to hit it or tear it off, because I thought it could even kill me. But even then I was not afraid of it, though I felt it had the power to kill me. Then as it continued in its love match, I tore it off, and in the tearing off from my back, I awoke.”

It’s a perfect vision.One day he will see the complementary side. This is the “dweller on the threshold.” This is man’s symbol of his misuse of the creative power of God, that is, the misuse of his Imagination. Every man has one…let no one boast…everyone has one. Every time you have misused your Imagination by imagining something unlovely either of yourself or a seeming other you feed this monster. You brought him into being by your misused Imagination. You also brought into being one that he didn’t see but he will one day, a glorious being, an angelic being, beauty beyond measure. And she is the personification of every lovely imaginal act of man. One day you will meet them together, and you will see this monstrous being, just like a huge I would call it an ape or orangutan. But it speaks…it has this guttural voice and it speaks. Then you will see this glorious being that is also your creation, but you don’t know it.

They seem completely independent of your perception of them. This one, you see nothing leading to you, and here you see this beautiful creature, an angelic being, you see nothing attached to you. Suddenly as this one begins to speak it calls this one “Mother” and you are so annoyed with this monstrous thing calling this angelic being mother you pummel it, you beat it. You realize it gloats and it grows on violence. Every blow it becomes stronger and it loves it. It loves every violent act of yours even on itself. It’s like a masochist appealing to you to be violent even on it. Then you realize this is my creation. And so is this one. This is all that is good in my world personified and this is everything that is evil and horrible in my world symbolized. And you make yourself a pledge, for there is no one to whom you can swear. God has no one to swear but himself. So finding no one, he swore by himself. And you will swear by yourself that if it takes you eternity you will redeem this monstrous thing that should not live. It never should have been brought into being…but your misuse of power brought it into being.

As you pledge yourself that you will redeem it if it takes you eternity, at that very moment it dissolves. It dissolves before your eyes and leaves no trace of ever having been present. But as it dissolves the energy isn’t wasted, it comes back to you, and you feel a power that you have never experienced before. That is, you don’t remember ever having such power…because the whole thing returns to you. It’s only misused power and power cannot be wasted. It will simply coalesce into a garment like this. But it cannot be wasted, so it returns to the one who used it and misused it. And on the other hand, as it returns to you and you begin to feel the power that returns, this beautiful creature glows like the sun. And then you awake.

So everyone will one day be confronted with these two. They are self-creations, and man goes through in this world creating both of them. He feeds this one with every lovely, noble thought he ever entertained; and he feeds this one with every ignoble thought he ever entertained. As he goes into violence, this one gloats and it grows in it; and this one remains un-phased. But every time you entertain a lovely thought on behalf of another, this one is fed and it gets more and more glorious, more and more beautiful. So this thing that clung to him like a monkey or like a cat, the same element would take their form, as someone wrote concerning a cat. It was a vicious thing that seemed about to claw the hand. He wasn’t afraid of it and yet he didn’t like it. That’s only the symbol of the misspent imaginal power that is God. For God in man, that divine body that is crucified upon man, is man’s own wonderful human Imagination. There never was another God and there never will be another. That’s the only God.

So while we are unmindful, because we gave up everything, we can still hear the voice of one who has heard it from within, the voice of one who has risen from the grave, and believe him to the point of testing it. Put this to the test as this lady either wittingly or unwittingly put it to the test, and then she can write from Norway. Well, she couldn’t afford the passage of a ferry boat. She wouldn’t know if there were a ferry between here and Catalina…she couldn’t take it. She was reduced to that state and yet she can write me from Norway where she is making a picture…all because she dared to imagine she was in Norway. She reminded me of that moment with me when she simply expressed the desire of all the places of the world that she would like to see it would be Norway. But she got a job in a picture and there she is now making her picture.

So don’t discount this principle. Just test it! As we are told in that 13th chapter of 2nd Corinthians: “Do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless of course you fail to meet the test” (13:5). I trust you will not discover that we have failed in the test. And so he knew exactly what he wanted and he entered the state, and the state took on substance, and became to him real. I have gone into world after world, and when I step into these worlds it is the only reality; and this that I leave behind like my apartment tonight it’s only a shadow now, just a shadow. I expect to return to it to find it wrapping itself around me and taking on substance, taking on reality. But at the moment this room is far more real to me than any place I’ve ever visited. It may not be as thrilling, but it’s more real at this moment. And wherever I am at that moment, that place is real, it takes on substance…but it’s only an image.

So I walk into an image. Whether I walk physically from here into another image or whether I do it as I do it constantly from my chair or from my bed, I see a world and into that world I step, and the world becomes real and surrounds me. People are real just like these and everything about it is real. The body that I wear is real. Where did the body come from? Isn’t that also in my Imagination? Where did the clothing come from? I sleep in the nude. I’ve slept in the nude for the last forty-odd years regardless of winter, summer, spring or fall. If it’s ten below, I get under those and in a matter of seconds I am warm if I have enough covers on me. But it gives me the freedom I enjoy…having once tasted the freedom of sleeping in the nude. Well, I was in the nude when I stepped into this world and yet I’m clothed. Where did the clothing come from? Where did the body come from? I knew the body was on the bed I knew that much, and I knew that body was in the nude, and here I am clothed and I am in a body. I know my identity; I know exactly who I am, so where did it all come from? The power begins to return and that power can clothe itself in any form in the world. It’s a protean being, yet that identity remains unchallenged forever and forever; yet you will bear the name, that divine name that is above every name, and the name is Jesus.

So no one sees him here, but we will all know him because all will be Jesus. In the meanwhile, the power of God which is Christ is buried in us, the wisdom of God is buried in us, and the glory of God is buried in us. And when it is raised in us the power is enhanced and so is the wisdom and so is the glory. So you are a pre-existent being. You did not begin in your mother’s womb; you cannot end in the grave. You were before the foundation of the world. That’s the being of whom Paul speaks when he addresses that letter to the Philippians. He is addressing it to posterity and he is addressing it to you, to me, to everyone, for he is speaking from experience.

Now tonight, I can speak from experience, for I have had all the experiences that are recorded in scripture concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. I mean all of them. And yet, I am just as weak while this garment remains, just as limited, and will continue to be until one day I’ll take it off. At that moment that I take it off, I return to my former state but glorified beyond it. So I, too, can say, “Return unto me the glory that was mine, the glory I had with thee before that the world was. I have finished the work that thou gavest me to do” (Jn.17:5). What work? He proclaimed through his servants the prophets what would come to pass and only God could fulfill them. So God himself emptied himself of his wisdom and his power and his glory and took upon himself the opacity and the concreteness of death, and then went through the entire gamut, and then he came out victorious over death. And when he comes out as the victor over death, his power returns, his wisdom returns, and his glory, but by reason of the experience each is enhanced. And now he expands beyond what he was prior to coming into the world of death.

So let no one scare you, let no one frighten you. You are a prenatal being, a being that has preexistence. And the existence did not begin some 6,000 years ago; it was before the foundation of the world. So when our scientists tell us…and they change it every year, they jump by billions…so when they say the universe is not now so many billions, but it’s so many trillions of light years, let them put any number of zeros next to that number, it doesn’t make any difference. Whatever number they come up with, before that you are. Before the foundation of the world, I am. So it doesn’t matter how many billions of light years they think it is, whatever they come up with, before that the world was, I am. So he says, “Father, return unto me the glory that was mine, the glory that I had with thee before that the world was” (Jn.17:5). Why?—that they may see my glory, the glory that thou gavest unto me. For I radiate that center called Father and yet as I radiate it I am the Father. I also reflect that center of the Father. And now he goes beyond that…he not only wants them there to see his glory, but he makes this statement, “And the love with which thou loved me before the foundation of the world.” Here, God, infinite love, loves us all. He foreknew us all, he chose us all in him, all his one being, and all together fell. One man fell carrying with him all into the world of death.

But bear in mind, as we’re told in the 32nd chapter of Deuteronomy, he has set bounds to the peoples of the world. In other words, not one child can be born unless there is a Son of God which is Christ Jesus housed within that child. He set bounds to the people according to the number of the sons of God. If he was not in us, we couldn’t breathe. He is the breath of us…couldn’t breathe. And when he removes his breath, you are that breath. You are he who came in. And your friends cry over the garment that you wore. They do not know the occupant of that garment was God himself. And you who had a child, that child you called it Grace, call it by some other name, that child was Christ. That child is destined to receive the name which is Jesus, and no power in the world can stop it from receiving that name eventually. Meanwhile, he’s Christ…everyone in the world is Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God (1Cor.1:24).

And then he is resurrected. When does it start? You’re told in the first chapter in the Book of Romans, “He is designated Son of God in power through his resurrection from the dead” (1:4). He’s walking the earth as a man. Maybe he’s the mason, maybe the carpenter; maybe he’s a musician, maybe a professor or some other thing. No one knows him, he’s playing his part, and one day he is resurrected. At that moment, he is returned to his power, to his glory, to his wisdom. So he is designated now Son of God in power through his resurrection from the dead. He looks back and sees his whole vast world and knows that everyone is destined to be resurrected as he has been. Everyone is destined to form into the one body, as now he is, and in the end one glorious brotherhood, transcending the wildest dream of love in the world, all sharing in that divine love. For, love is the human form divine.

I can’t describe it to you save in a few words, but how can I describe the mood that possesses you when love stands before you, when love embraces you? I can’t describe it. It is an ecstasy beyond anything that the word ecstasy could describe. You speak of ecstasy, it can’t describe it. It can’t describe that body that embraces you, and then you are incorporated into the one body, the body of love, knowing that everyone in the world must come, but everyone must come because he loved all before the foundation of the world. And not one could be lost because God would be lost. How could one be lost? And in the end all are vindicated. Yes, the cutthroat, the murderer, the thief…I don’t care what he has done…in the end everything is vindicated like the blind man in the 9th chapter of the Book of John: “No, not this man nor his parents but that the works of God be made manifest in him.”

One day I was confronted with this huge sea of the imperfect, and I played all those parts. They were waiting for me to redeem them, for they were the costumes that I wore; all these were the garments that I wore. And then when I was lifted up on high, I walked by and every one was made perfect because I was perfect. “Be ye perfect as your Father in heaven perfect” (Mat.5:48). And where is heaven?—“Heaven is within you” (Luke 17:21). So when he has made it perfect and you are perfect, you are lifted up and you walk by all the parts and every one is made perfect. You could not improve it, because you can’t improve upon that which is perfect, or it was not perfect. There is no room for improvement in the perfect. And everyone was made perfect as I walked by. In the very end the chorus sang out, “It is finished”…the last cry on the cross…“It is finished” (Jn.19:30).

And then, you come and you tell it. Tell it to everyone who will hear you. But eventually all will hear. So you will depart the world and others will pick it up just where you left off. They will have the similar experiences and they will tell it, and then others will tell it. Don’t expect to find 100 percent acceptance. There are those who will believe because you have used scripture to support your argument, and those who will disbelieve, doesn’t really matter. Leave them just as they are and you go about your Father’s business telling exactly what happened to you. For, when I tell you what has happened to me, I can speak more convincingly than if I am theorizing. I can speak with conviction when I am telling you what I actually know from experience. For, the truth man knows from his own personal experience he knows more thoroughly than he knows any other thing in this world, or than he can know that same truth in any other way. I may hear someone tell me what he has experienced and I believe him, I trust him, and I will say yes, I believe you implicitly, but I can’t speak with authority; it’s hearsay. I can’t go into a court and be a witness unless I witnessed it myself by experience. I can’t come in and say, “Well, I heard it said”…that doesn’t matter. I must come in and say “I know.” Here is an assured “I know,” not I believe nor I think, but I know. How do you know?—because I experienced it.

And so, bring me two witnesses. I have one on the outside…that’s scripture. Now I must parallel scripture. Well, have I had experiences that parallel scripture? Yes…then there are two witnesses and when two agree in their testimony then that is conclusive. Here is scripture and here is mine dovetailing scripture. Well then, I have two witnesses: one is the written word and one is the living word interpreting the written word. And so, step into the kingdom, for you brought back the truth of God’s word. He sent you the living word to interpret and verify the written word which he gave to his servants the prophets. Now that you have actually interpreted scripture yourself by unfolding scripture within you, enter the kingdom. For that’s the only purpose for living. There’s no other purpose he said in these words of the 8th chapter of 2nd Corinthians: “You know the Lord Jesus Christ, who though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, that by his poverty you might become rich” (8:9). In dollars and cents, no. He was rich in power; he was the power of God. He was rich in wisdom; he was the wisdom of God. He was rich in glory; he glorified God. Gave it all up and became poor, and entered the world of death, that by his poverty, now you may become rich. So when you awake you are the Lord Jesus Christ…and there never was another. There is no other.

Now let us go into the Silence.

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Now are there any questions, please?

Q: (inaudible) A: My dear, from the time I was a little boy I had things I could not understand, so I can’t go back to that. But I had mystical or psychic experiences that I did not understand that scared me to death. My one great one that began it all was when I was taken into the divine assembly and brought before the risen Lord. I’ve told you that story and I have written it. Well, that happened in 1929, in the summer of ’29. Thirty yeas later began the unfolding of these mighty acts of God within me: the resurrection and the birth, the discovery of the fatherhood of God, the splitting of the curtain of the temple and the descent of the dove. All these came after the resurrection….that began the great, dramatic thing in me, but it was preceded by that union with God by thirty years. So you are told in scripture, again, that he began his ministry when he was about thirty years of age. Yet in the Book of John which is chronologically perfect, you read all the time, “My hour has not yet come.” Yet, even though a few hours later he is going to go up to Jerusalem, he turns to his brothers in the 7th chapter and says, “My hour has not yet come”…can’t go now. So everything is measured as though it is a play. You can’t make your entrance before your cue, and you can’t depart the stage before your cue. Everything is done on cue and so he says, “My hour has not yet come.”

All through the Book of John it is so beautifully done chronologically…the great play. Well, in the Book of John they said, and these are the words and it struck me forcibly, “You know our father Abraham, and you are not yet fifty years of age?” Well, if you want to add, in the month of July 1959, I was not yet by six months fifty years of age. That’s how he does it, it’s a play. “You know Abraham and you’re not yet fifty years of age?” (Jn.8:57). Well, I was forty-nine and a half, being born in 1905 in the month of February…and July 20th, add it up, not yet fifty years of age.

It’s a play. The whole story is about us. You are the Christ of scripture, but as you’re told in John, “I cannot go up” when he said to his brothers, “If you can do all these things, go up to Jerusalem and demonstrate it, show your wonder-working power.” He said, “My hour has not yet come.” So everything is done chapter after chapter on a chronological basis: you came in on cue, you depart on cue. And without the resurrection this would be the most horrible play in the world. There would be no escape. There would be a recurrence like a squirrel in a cage. And so we are told in the Book of Ecclesiastes, “There is nothing new under the sun.” It’s a constant recurrence, but man has no memory so he can’t remember. But comes now the fullness of time when the being who came down and died, literally died, resurrects. And he knows he’s not alone, he knows from now on he is speaking for the whole vast world. Because not one child born of woman, yes, even the imbecile, that which came in without any intelligence whatsoever, or that couldn’t see, couldn’t hear, couldn’t taste, could do nothing, yet it breathes. God was present or it couldn’t breathe. God is breath. You know that every being in the world is going to be redeemed, because God is going to redeem himself.

So no one is going to be better than the other. Forget this so-called being better than. You go to a play tonight and the king comes through and then all of sudden the other one comes through that is the servant, but at the end of the play when the curtain comes down, who was the star? It could have been the servant. When you go to see Hamlet, there are kings and queens in it, but who is the star? Prince, yes, but there are other plays where the star is not like Tobacco Road. You want to see a play where the star was really the bum of bums…but he was the star. And so, don’t judge from appearances. This one is presented to you as though she or he is most important, and they will tell you, “You know, she makes a million dollars a year.” I say, “Isn’t that nice, can she enjoy a nice sweetbread any more than I can? Or would she know what it’s all about? Can she really enjoy a lovely meal and let that palate really be exercised, or is she on a diet to keep her weight down?” And so you go through the entire gamut.

This one is important and they will tell you why: has money. It seems to be the one standard today. Tomorrow morning’s obituary in the New York Times or the L. A. Times only mentions those who have money and tell you he’s a millionaire. He’s dead now, the richest ghost in the graveyard, but while he was here, oh, he was important because he had money. They don’t tell you how he got it…no, that’s hushed. I’m not saying you shouldn’t have money.If that’s your dream have it. It’s all here, but it’s all vain anyway, it’s all vain. You need it to pay rent, buy clothes, food, you need it, but Caesar is going to take it all from you. In the end, you’re going to pay it out in taxes or leave it to those who will waste it. It’s from shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in just a few generations, and it goes on that way. But we still give credence to these false values in the world.

Thank you.