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From June 24 to August 4 seeking The Will Of God
During this season of disaffiliation, these collective interventions feel like the appropriate call
After joining the witness list, I began the assigned lesson: Isaiah 40-66
The Book of the Prophet Isaiah, Chapter 40, Verse One
First word: παρακαλείτε
Looks like parakeet
Sounds like Paraclete, which looks like
παράκλητος, which is sometimes translated
Helper-Comforter-Advocate
Derived from
παρα-- As in Close Beside
καλέω-- As in Make a Call
As if being close to the situation, the legal advisor makes the correct call and the client is
comforted
Sometimes symbolized as a White Dove or as a Red Flame
Never to my knowledge as a parakeet, a species of parrot with a potential lifespan of twenty
years unless living in pet confinement, in which case the average lifespan is cut by three-
fourths
One Part) Inadequate Nutrition
Two Parts) Poor Hygiene
Three Parts) Cages
Echoed in the final word of the first pericope: παρακαλέσει
As if Isaiah’s God is like a shepherd who comforts the pregnant ewes
by advocating for a healthy diet and a safe shelter and the freedom to rest in green meadows and
wander beside tranquil waters and then goes on to help them realize these rights
The first word of the prophecy is comfort. The last word of the prophecy is comfort.
As in, the Church called into being by the Paraclete will worship Isaiah’s God, and every one of its members will be close beside the comfortless, and its leaders will all teach the lesson that helping those in need of advocates is an act of worship, and this witness, spoken and lived, will distress the comfortable, who will confess and repent and will become a legal power that makes the correct call and protects the vulnerable, or they will leave the Church of Isaiah’s God and find a congregation that is not so distressing to their status quo.
Thus ends the first week of discernment.
