The Lost, the Found, and the Grail Within; a parable of length

Foreword

This book is very different from what I normally write. I’ve been writing some pretty dark stuff, some humor, a gaming tactics guide, and I’ve started a science fiction series. On the other hand, that makes four different categories, right there. So, maybe different for others is more same for me.

The Lost, the Found, and the Grail Within is a mixture of fiction in Part 1, nonfiction in Parts 2 and 3, and undiluted Christian Philosophy in Parts 4 and 5.

The word undiluted might have gotten your attention. I hope so. I’ll explain about my choice of that word in a little while.

While Jesus’ parables were always short and direct, they carried a moderately veiled meaning, well-hidden for those who were the subject, and for those who didn’t care to hear truth. Or, maybe, they refused to understand the parable. …or at least claimed not to. If they admitted that they understood it, they might also have had to admit that they were deficient according to their own standards. …if not admit it to others, then to themselves, at least.

My parable is in five chapters, averaging about nine small parts each for the last four of those. So, it isn’t all that short. The meaning isn’t really all that hidden, either. The moral is even included.

That being the case, I suppose you could call my parable a failure. Technically, I suppose it is. I can’t and won’t argue that point.

But, here’s a thought.

Does considering my parable a technical failure actually have anything to do with my parable, my writing, or me?

Each chapter in Part 1 deals with a particular timeframe.

Rather than specific made-up people, the characters are supposed to portray a number of different mindsets that people have where Christianity is concerned. These mindsets are quite real, in fact. Some of the characters are designed to include more than just one of those mindsets, as do many people. In doing it this way, it’s entirely possible that some aspect of any one, or more, of the main characters could resemble you or some specific person you might personally know.

This is unintentional, of course.

It’s not any given person, living, dead, or fictional, who should be recognized, as much as it is just the general category. As you read my parable, it’s probably better if you don’t think in terms of trying to recognize anyone you might know. Hopefully, you’ll recognize that one or more of the characters could possibly be a reflection of you. If you don’t see yourself, and only see others, then you’ve probably missed the point. But if I can get you even that far, then I may be coming close to what I’m attempting to accomplish. And I have to admit that, at one time or another in my life, I can see a little of myself in just about all of them, and a whole lot of me in some. …like Erich, Mike, and Matthew.

Except for one character, I haven’t added much of a physical description for any of them. Some are given a few minimal personal characteristics. Most items of description are only implied. This is entirely intentional. The specific color, race, geography, economic class, gender, age, names, and whether they might be a redheaded stepchild (like me, according to some), or whatever, isn’t what’s really important about any of the people in this book. Adding physical descriptions could help you see someone you know. If you can’t specifically visualize most of the characters at all, then you might be on the right track.

The situation in my parable notwithstanding, this book is about Life. And it’s about looking inside you, at the core of your being.

I’ve done this. …looked at my own core. …a number of times. I didn’t much care for what I saw when I actually started looking. I’m improving, and I very well know that I’m far from perfect. And I know that I’m not the ultimate authority on anything. Not even close. …particularly on Jesus or Christianity. I know a large number of things about me where I absolutely need to improve a huge amount more. …which isn’t to say that there are only that many. I need to improve in all of them. All of them need work. A lot of work. Some just need a heckuvalot more work than others.

So, life. Yes.

Life is a process of learning. We all make mistakes. I’ve made plenty of my own, and I still do. I’ve probably made enough for me and the next five people, as well. If everything works on averages, then somebody out there is doing great!

But, we learn from most of those mistakes. Or should, anyway.

It’s not just the mistakes we don’t learn from that are the most dangerous. …regardless of whether we (or anyone else) consider them mistakes, or not. …or whether they actually are mistakes, or not. The accuracy and truthfulness of the information that we’re given … regardless of when it was given to us, or by whom … on which we base the choices that we make, however, is right up there close to the top of the list of dangerous things to learn from.

That by whom thing is going to be a tough one. But, we’ll get to that.

That’s something thing else I want to address, though … accuracy and truthfulness … using nothing that isn’t already open and available to everyone. …not just to Christians, but to everyone who has eyes to see and ears to hear. In a nutshell, I’m talking about the Christian Bible, with nothing added or removed. That would be why I chose the word undiluted. I am going to try, however, to point out how a few items of current wisdom aren’t quite as accurate as we think.

While this book initially appears to be about Religion, that isn’t exactly so. It is, however, about Philosophy and Truth. …the Truth according to the Christian Bible, without being watered down, or modified to be contemporarily palatable or politically correct. …and without 2,000 years of baggage that has been added onto it.

Ouch! That one may have gotten your attention.

But, yes. Truth. The way that it appears that Jesus intended it, according to New Testament. However, even if you’re a lifelong Christian, it’s probably not quite the same truth you grew up with. It’s certainly not the same truth I grew up with, being raised Catholic, in a small town in northern Vermont. This is the unassuming and unadulterated Truth straight from the New Testament, in Jesus’ words where possible, without focusing on any one part, sentence, verse, chapter, or book.

My purpose is to bring up some of the misconceptions and half-truths that have been allowed to accumulate over the centuries, and present the information as it seems it was originally intended. I will bring up passages from the entire Bible, though, to illustrate my points.

The Old Testament is the same as the Tanakh. …although there are people who will point out nitpicky details and claim they don’t resemble each other at all. Since Jesus was a Jew, the same as most of the earliest Christians, it was included to give us a basis for understanding for Christianity. While the Old Testament contains the origins of everything, it’s mostly the history of the ancient Jews. It tells about their own origins, what was required to be or become a Jew, and how most of them were incapable of remaining focused on and trusting in the Lord. More importantly, it foretells the coming of the Messiah. …the Christ. It also illustrates many abject lessons in Faith. …the rewards the Jews received for having it firmly in place, and the consequences if they didn’t.

It wasn’t Moses getting lost that had the Jews wandering around in the desert for forty years, as the old joke goes. The Lord was leading them as a pillar of cloud during the day and a pillar of fire at night. They had a reliable guide. He could have brought them into the Promised Land at any time. And, in fact, he did. They were afraid to go and claim that land from the giants. They didn’t trust that the Lord would help them, as he’d specifically promised them. That lack of trust was what turned them back into the desert, and kept them wandering until the decision-makers, almost the entire older generation, were dead.

Much of the Old Testament, after the writings of Moses, relates events just like that one.

The Jews wanted a king, just like everyone else had. The Lord had always said that they were to control themselves. …govern themselves with only him as their guide. But he assigned them their king, as they wished. Saul, who was questionable, at best.

He didn’t give them their king because they asked for one. He gave them their king to teach them an important lesson. He used the situation to be a catalyst for other events, the same as God will use both good and bad things to teach us all, and to usher in the fruition of his plan, when it becomes time.

So. The ancient Jews were … deficient. Okay. Great. I don’t think I’m going to dwell on that point. I am, too. We all are. Anyone who doesn’t understand that one single, simple thing is going to be in for a pretty big surprise, sooner or later.

God still does the same things now as he did then. He gives us plenty of opportunities to figure it all out, and put our faith and trust where it ought to be. In him. Some of us do. Most of us don’t. …pretty much like the ancient Jews.

However. Just because the Old Testament has to do with the Jews, that doesn’t make it entirely invalid. It applied to a different time and people, and a different set of circumstances. …and it was always intended to be built upon.

Matthew 5:17 - Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.

The later prophets, when they weren’t trying to bring the ancient Jews back to where they were supposed to be, were often foretelling … and quite accurately, I might add … the coming of the Christ. The Messiah. Jesus.

Jews, before the time of Jesus, were very big on History. Reciting lineages was evidence of this, and they could recite them at length. …those lineages being moderately equivalent to a person’s credentials. They didn’t have movies, TV, internet, or phones. They didn’t even have books, for the most part. Information, for most people, was passed by word of mouth on a daily and nightly basis over the course of millennia.

History was told and repeated so many times before Moses, it’s possible that there could have been some data erosion. But data erosion doesn’t exactly matter for our purposes.

The Old Testament has its greatest relevance if used as a reference to understand how the coming of Jesus matched the foretelling of it. Jesus was born a Jew, and he was a model of what they were supposed to be. But … the same as in so many things, if we can actually see them … the Jews were only part of the journey. They weren’t the destination.

Most political statements made in the last two decades have been presented without context. As opposed to those political statements, I’ve tried hard to keep my Bible citations within the original context. But, regardless of whether I’ve stated things to your satisfaction, or not, you should research and verify anything I say about the Bible and Christianity. Come to your own conclusions.

I’ve found that I like the New International Version Study Bible the best. Notes and comments are included to make it easier to understand the more difficult and obscure concepts and verses. They also make the Bible far easier to read, considering those explanations. I’ve read it completely through, including all those notes, more than a half-dozen times.

While I’ve also included a few opposed opinions, I’ve proceeded on the assumption that anyone hostile to Christians, or not open to a reasonable discussion of this sort, probably won’t be reading this book. Subsequently, I won’t be heaping abuse on myself in these pages the way Erich, from the parable, probably would.

So. That’s the point we’ll start at.

That all being said… Please expect and excuse any foul and harsh language the characters in the parable may use. While I don’t use that kind of language, personally, I do tend to make my characters as lifelike and believable as possible. I’ve included it in my parable only to illustrate a number of valid points.

February 2018

Part 1

The Parable

Chapter 1: The Beginning

Who’s onsite doing the pre-vals? The man in the charcoal grey pinstriped silk suit asked.

The stiffly starched cuffs of his white broadcloth cotton shirt showed past the ends of the jacket sleeves only far enough that the sparkle of the 24K gold and black onyx cufflinks could be seen. You would have had to get a little closer to see that the image on the cufflinks and the matching tie tack and lapel pin had all been engraved with a likeness of the Archangel Michael preparing to drive a spear into a serpent. Small but noticeable differences in the images would have been proof enough that the onyxes had all been hand carved. The creases in his pants looked like they’d been pressed nearly to the point of being able to shave hair.

He reached to the side without looking. He knew the tray would be wherever it needed to be. It had better be there, anyway.

The young woman had to reposition the tray quickly as he dropped the empty glass onto it. Then she had to reposition it quickly again so when his fingers closed, they would close on the next whiskey on the rocks in a lowball glass waiting for him, replacing the one he’d just finished.

The glacier-ice cubes in the glass were so cold they had already brought the temperature of the otherwise straight three fingers (four of hers, and the amount had to be exact) of Johnny Walker Blue Label to an almost painful level. That was, however, the temperature at which he preferred it.

Even though the dehumidifier ran constantly, the glass had condensed enough moisture out of the air that water began to pool around the base. Setting the glass on a napkin was unacceptable, because the napkin might stick to the glass. Instead, the coasters contained a well of silica gel pellets to absorb what excess moisture they might.

If the glass dripped as he took it, he wouldn’t be pleased, and he would say so. …and probably harshly. But if it did, it also meant the Johnny Blue would likely be watered down enough by the melting ice that he’d probably say something about that, too. She would have to time it closer for next round … which should be in about twenty minutes … or she wouldn’t likely stay in this job much longer. She hadn’t had it that long, as it was.

He was not a patient man. She’d found that out quickly.

His impatience was already showing. …not at her, yet. It probably would, shortly though, unless he started getting some answers that he liked. The rest of the staff was aware of that, too.

He normally drank an entire fifth in one sitting; a little more than three shots in each glass, with imported ice from the icebergs floating in the Antarctic Ocean.

There’s a market for everything. …if you can afford it.

This was only his second round. He wouldn’t notice if it was watered down after this one.

In Orlando?

No, genius. In Texas. Get y’alls head outta y’ass. Of course, in Orlando! Where did you think I was talking about?

Bart, Jimmy and Pete.

Who did them up in New York?

Jimmy, John and Johnny.

And who did the guy that didn’t fall?

Jimmy.

Good. He pointed at Silas with his index and little fingers, while the other two and his thumb held the glass of whiskey. "Y’all can tell Jimmy he better get it right this time, or he’ll find his godforsaken-self in the unemployment line quicker’n snake shit. They’re supposed to fall! Every goddamn one of them! If they don’t fall, then the folks don’t have their revelations. No revelations, no donations. No donations, and all’a’y’alls salaries will take the first hit. They know what I need. …the people whose disabilities are all in their heads. Either that, or the ones that are so deep into it they believe they’ve been cured until we can get them out of sight.

This ain’t a faith measurement they’re supposed to be putting them through. It’s a whole damn psych evaluation! I got bills to pay, and if there’s nothing left after the bills, I can’t very well give anything to all those poor, suffering, underprivileged children in South America! And I gotta give ’em something, or it looks very bad for me. He added after a short pause, "…and it’s y’alls job to make sure I always look like a Saint." He narrowed his eyes with a glare and poked the still pointing finger directly at Silas as the glass dripped its condensation onto his pants. The whiskey sloshed enough to make the ice clink against the leaded crystal, but not enough to add to the spot the drip had created.

The attendant had been watching. She’d held her breath, trying to keep his drink in his glass by sheer force of will.

Silas could tell the evangelist was starting to feel the effects of the alcohol. He thought a second time, and didn’t go so far as to comment on the fact that they really didn’t normally send all that much to South America. There wasn’t a lot left after paying for the private jet, the crew, the fuel, all the insurance, the restaurants and hotels, and then the ground transportation to get from the plane to the stadiums. …much less commenting on the daily cost of Chris Christian’s twenty million dollar estate. …that he was very rarely in because of all the travelling required to do all the shows to pay all of those bills.

Chris wasn’t in a good mood to begin with, and as much as the man was a fraud … a genius, but a fraud nonetheless … Silas liked his job. Most of the time, anyway.

I nearly had to push the sunuvabitch over! At least he staggered backward, and it looked like he almost fell. It’s a real damn good thing there wasn’t a mic anywhere near him, and the crowd was too busy and loud doing the oooh and aaahh thing. No one heard him get mouthy.

I was able to escort him away quickly, though, Silas added. Fast enough that he didn’t have time to give anything away.

And THAT’s a goddam good thing, too! I’d have had y’alls ass on the grill, cooked medium rare, and served at some homeless shelter where they don’t care what the meat tastes like, so long as they get to eat!

*****

George shook his head as he stood there listening to the discussion between Chris Christian and his right-hand scam. …er … man. …Silas. George had been with the company for a while. …long enough to know that the whole thing was a total fraud to the point where none of them even used their original names. The name he was supposed to go by was Thaddeus. Aaron’s, his copilot, was supposed to be Matthias.

Yeah. Right?

But piloting the private jet paid very well. So, he kept his mouth shut, and just flew the plane to wherever it was Christian wanted to go.

In a few more years, he’d probably be able to retire. Then … maybe he’d write a book.

…or not, on second thought.

He’d likely be tarred, feathered, and run through a half-dozen states if he ever tried to expose the real Chris Christian. Christian was absolutely loved-loved-loved by so many people. And those people tended to be fanatic zealots. …not for God, but for Chris Christian. Christian had somehow managed to replace God in all those lives.

But, hey! It’s a great job!

The pilot thought no more on the donations, the people doing the donating,