Thursday, June 28, 2018

True or Fake II (Lake)

Therefore I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities for the sake of Christ; for whenever I am weak, then I am strong.

 - From 2 Corinthians 12

It has gotten hard to take any argument seriously. Everybody goes to Snopes to debunk everything. We can't wait to tell others they're wrong. And some people particularly relish the correcting of their elders, a rather despicable attitude.

They go after you with "facts." They will claim that "Science" or "History" is on their side. Lacking that, they deploy ridicule and scorn. They will establish a definition of "cool" that ensconces them securely within it's confines, and you, out. 

They will resist "bullies," but celebrate their own bullies. They bemoan Groupthink, but rush to participate in this week's mob march.

Every point seems carefully devised to place themselves on solid rhetorical ground. Or if not that, on the emotional "right side" of the dispute. Whatever the case, at all costs, they must win a debate that seems to hinge on maintaining some good feeling, or emotional high, for themselves. 

But what is lacking is any sense of moral and human dignity. They do not value empathy, unless they are demanding it from you. They do not care to listen . . . but will yell in your face to be heard. 

Facts or Fake? Who really knows? It has come down to bias and opinion. We all have them. We all have our reasons. There is no reputable and reliable source for fact. Even Science facts are suspect. And we will all come at some issues based on values . . . and values are higher than fact. Values and principles trump Science. Values are invisible things that cannot be validated Scientifically. Values inform Science and Science is the servant of values. And this is where the rift begins.

The Apostle was a learned, credentialed man that nevertheless was ridiculed and scored, and worse. He was insulted . . . and what greater insult is there, than "You got your facts wrong"? That's pretty much an assertion of "You're an idiot." But Paul bore has travails well. He looked weak, but was his spirit held up, in super-human ways.

The current conflict is built around the strategy of breaking the spirit of the people of God. One of the tactics is to challenge "facts." But it's a tactic, that's all. Hold to your values. And be strong.

Monday, June 25, 2018

True or Fake I (Lake)

...for we have had more than enough of contempt, 
Too much of the scorn of the indolent rich, and of the derision of the proud.

 - From Psalm 123

Contemptthe feeling that a person or a thing is beneath consideration, worthless, or deserving scorn.
Scornopen dislike and disrespect or derision often mixed with indignation.
Indolentwanting to avoid activity or exertion; lazy.
Derisioncontemptuous ridicule or mockery.

So let's bring this excerpt down to as simple a statement as we can:

We're tired of lazy rich people, big shot celebrities, Ivy-league elites, and all the popular people, making fun of us, as though we're less than human!

This is in full display in American life today. All these marginalized groups that having nothing to do with each other; in fact in most cases their values are diametrically opposed to each other; yet because of an impression that something represented by Conservative Christians has been mean to them in the past, they have banded together to bring the Christians down.

They don't stop to think: the Christians can empathize with them. Christians have never had the upper hand in American society . . . but it serves some purpose to promulgate that myth. Every marginalized group needs a scapegoat, and for eons, the People of God have been a great target.

First - - - humans are rebellious to authority in the first place We choose instantaneous gratification over the long view, every time. We give up eternal life for something that feels good, this moment. And so it seems God is always trying to get in the way of that.

The Christians, who seem okay with God's strict rules, are present targets to help us act out our frustrations against God. 

Christians are called the worst things today: "Racist." "Misogynist." "Hater." "Deplorable." 

I don't know what you're supposed to do. It all comes from a moral standard that goes back to the dawn of time:

  • Honesty
  • Honor
  • Purity
  • Loyalty
  • Fidelity
  • Integrity
  • Compassion
  • Mercy
  • Ethics
What's wrong with that? We know we fall short. We know we're not perfect. If we articulate these values, it does not mean we are consistent in upholding them. They're just standards, that's all.

But Christians are mocked and derided. They're scorned and held in contempt. 

And if they reach their breaking point and help elect a President you find the most deplorable of all . . . well . . . what did you expect? The Church's adversaries gave up all pretense of having the enumerated high values, a long, long time ago. 

Our culture war has gone beyond just hurt feelings. Everybody wants science on their side now. 

They want the intellectual high road. My news is real. Yours is fake. 

It seems like it's getting so cluttered and confused. But not to me. 

The clear view is that there's bias in everything. Fox News is biased. MSNBC is biased. And CNN and NPR is biased. Even the BBC is biased. Let's just own that and move on.

And if everyone is biased, that means that we should give even "fake news" the benefit of the doubt. That other person's world view is informed by their perspective and experiences. Who are you to second-guess them?

Respect and dignity for all. For ALL. Stop mocking others. Because mockery is the thing that hurts most of all. People are so sick of it that they elected Donald Trump. And  beyond that, there's a God that gets sick of it too. 

Saturday, June 23, 2018

Silence and Action X (Haas B)

Whether they hear or refuse to hear . . . 

 - From Ezekiel 2

Why would a loving God . . . ?

That's a good question. At the start of the career as a prophet, Ezekiel is reminded by God, that Israel has been a stubborn, and rebellious people. God says that it has been generations, and generations . . . and He has pleaded with his people. Act justly toward others. Take care of widows, orphans, and immigrants.

Did I just say "immigrants?"

Aren't the same people that mock the Church, saying "Enough thoughts and prayers! Let's have action!" the same ones that remind us over and over again, with their knowledge of a dozen or so Scripture passages (that someone pointed out to them), that God commands us to be welcoming to immigrants?

When they do that, they lay bare a reality going back to the rebellious and stubborn Israelites of Ancient times: don't pick and choose Scriptures . . . and don't use them to mock God and His people. 

Satan himself, when tempting Christ, used Scripture. He could have taken this angle: "Why are your judgments so harsh? Don't you care about the millions of children that will be forever separated from their parents? Aren't we supposed to be as children, to enter the Kingdom of God? Renounce Your Father and help me save the parents of these these innocent children!"

Evil always masks as Good. None of want to be bad. We just want to be rebellious, too. We want to do what feels good . . . don't we deserve to be happy?

Why does a loving God stand by while his people choose instant gratification, convenience, selfish desires over real needs of truly needy people?

If we knew that our collective, aggregate choices, to choose purity and obedience to God, would save children, feed the hungry, house the homeless, heal the sick . . . wouldn't we just choose the obedience and purity? 

God places mercy with purity. They go hand in hand. And when taken together, they work miracles. 

God's demands for purity aren't meant to take fun and happiness away from us. It's to take our focus off of ourselves and onto the needs of those that are less privilege. 

And in the end, nothing is more fun than turning around lives of brothers and sisters that had been destitute. Nothing makes us happier, than to make others happy. 

Our silence lets us hear God. It also lets us hear the cries of the truly needy. And it magnifies real needs around us. And even if we say exactly the right thing . . . or do what really will help . . . if it has anything to do with God the Creator, people aren't going to listen anyway.

So let's have silence. Because that is the solution that works. 


Thursday, June 21, 2018

Silence and Action IX (Haas B)

We have waited in silence on your loving-kindness, O God ...

 - From Psalm 48

Are we there yet?

I'm bored.

I'm tired.

I'm hungry.

We recognize these declarations, common to a long family vacation by car. The older your child gets, the less likely you are to hear there protestations. Maturity brings with it the ability to entertain, or occupy, oneself. The young adult does not complain, as much, in these circumstances, but has a book to read, a playlist to enjoy, a movie to queue up. The older child can nap. 

Or the best option yet: Simple enjoy the passing countryside . . . take in every detail. Even a two-hour stretch through Nebraska is fascinating, if one is mature. 

The Millennial Generation can't wait for anything. And yet, the ultimate solution to our most dangerous problems is patience

Silence, and waiting

Our culture does not value the delay of gratification. Therefore, we get angry young men that cannot wait for someone to make them happy . . . so they engage the ultimate quick fix of removing others.

We are so impatient that the aging process scares us. Our eternal bearings are not sound, so the end of life strikes us as a desperate, frightful prospect. We urgently try to renew our youth, through divorce, substance abuse, and the continual preparation for the next holiday.

We so undervalue the ultimate virtue of patience, that when it is the most needful thing in society, our celebrities exhort us "We want action!!" And receive thunderous applause. 

He also serves who only sits and waits.

I remember a co-worker: a particularly strung out and strung up, wound-up, chain smoking thrice divorcee. As a deadline loomed and she was signaling her own mastery of what's "realistic," would sardonically boast "Patience is a virtue." The expected response, which others were always too ready to satisfy, was "No, Linda . . . you have a right not to be patient now," "accompanied by feigned, awkward laughter. 

Patience is a virtue. And yes a majority of people probably love mocking the idea. But the road to eternity is straight and narrow, and few find it. 

The lonely path to Truth, Justice, Mercy, and Love gets narrower and narrower. But the person that has reached full actualization is a perfectly patient person. 

Enough noise. Enough reactionary actions. 

We need silence, and patience, and waiting. And we need to be okay with that. 

Tuesday, June 19, 2018

Silence and Action VIII (Haas B)

Look, we are your bone and flesh . . . 

 - From 2 Samuel 5

When the people of Israel came to King David at Hebron, he was not yet king over all of Israel. He was just the king of Judah, which had been his position for about seven years.

Now the point needs to be noted, every time it comes up: Israel and Judah were not the same. We lost site, in our modern Bible study, that Judah was a separate entity then Israel. For a brief period of time, Israel and Judah were united (mostly under David and Solomon), and when united, the entire nation was known as "Israel." 

The people of Judah were known as "Jews." Later on, when the land was known as "Judea," the name of "Jews" became fixed. And Jesus was known as "King of the Jews." But the descendants of the non-Judeans, through time, came to be known as "Samaritans." The story of Israel, going back to Jacob, and Isaac, and Abraham, is one of brothers becoming estranged from brothers; of countries spitting apart and reforming. 

It is a story of people taking their eyes off the ball, losing their sense of mission and purpose, letting themselves be divided so that they can be conquered by outside nations that hate them. 

The most important lesson of history is the most forgotten lesson. You reject the ways of your forefathers, and split from your brethren, at your own peril. Great nations become materialistic. They become libertine. They lose their morality and their devotion to higher, eternal values. And in doin so they make easy prey for their enemies. And great nations, even when good, are always hated by others. 

Why? For the same reason people that are not fans of the New York Yankees hate them! Because they're Number One.

At the very beginning of the greatest example of national unity, in world history, is a statement of vision:

"We are your bone and flesh."

At the root of the resentment felt by the Millennial generation, which gets expressed in partisan anger, pointless defiance of authority, easy disposal of inconvenient relationships, and at its extreme, acts of random violence committed in schools and movie theatres, is a deep feeling that they do not belong.

They have not been claimed by parents that would rather relive their own teens than bond with their teen-aged kids. They cannot create eternal memories spending weekends in the homes of grandparents, because the grandparents live too far away and are not married to each other anyway. They are not taught to value family and community. They only have one or two cousins, that are ten years older or younger than they. They are not taken to reunions. They can't name their living great-great aunts and uncles - they can't even name their living great aunts and uncles. And if they saw them they might mock them as old people with hateful views and funny nervous disorders.

They love to criticize the home town that gave them all good things, that accepted them unconditionally, because it is "backward."

"We are your bone and your flesh" is an ultimate declaration of belonging. It's a point of survival. The family is the ultimate club . . . where you are a member whether you want to be or not. It is where you are forced to love others unconditionally.

You can't reject your family and then go talking about social justice. It is incompatible.

We want "action"? We wanted action forty years ago . . . when social changes began that draw a direct line to Columbine and beyond. 

The action needed is to know your own flesh and blood, to cling to it as though your life depends upon it . . . and to protect all of your members, as your own flesh and blood.

Because they are. 




Sunday, June 10, 2018

Silence and Action VII (Haas)

I bring low the high tree, I make high the low tree . . . 

 - From Ezekiel 17

Over the past two weeks, I have been putting in my garden. 

I make it sound like it's something I always do. It's not. My Dad always puts in a garden. That is, until his death fourteen months ago. The only year he missed, was 2016, the last summer of his life. From 1972 until 2015, every summer, he put in a garden on about a quarter-acre. The size of the garden decreased each year, until 2015, when he planted a few tomato plants and squashes. That year I contributed some carrots, okra, and peas (which were consumed by rabbits before we could enjoy them).

But this year, I planted. I have done everything using manual (non-powered) tools. I hoed and chopped up three rows so far, that are planted with corn. After the fourth row, I will plant some potatoes, and then put in some rows of okra. With whatever space is left, I may do some pumpkins, just for fun. My space is about a sixteenth of an acre. The goal is to get it all in, and all of my sunflower seeds planted, by the 27th: one week prior to July 4th. Yes, it's late. It may not all grow up in time. 

But gardening, it seems, is mostly about the waiting. You wait and you hope. You put the effort to get the seed in the ground . . . and then you wait and see. It's no wonder farmer's tend to be good church-goers. Once you've done your part, it's up to God. 

Yesterday, I noticed my first couple of corn plants breaking through. Fascinating. 

Society today mocks the idea of "thoughts and prayers." As a celebrity said "I want action." 

What would action look like to a gardener that has planted everything, and gets impatient? 

Maybe, after two days, I wonder if I planted the seed too deep. I go and dig up several seeds and look them over. Maybe I soak them in some water and replant them.

Maybe after two weeks, they don't seem big enough. And besides I want to eat some corn as soon as it's possible. I dig up all the little blades of grass . . . maybe I need to soak them some more. Maybe the're no good. Maybe I'm just curious to see what they look like. 

After a couple months, the corn stalks begin to emerge. These little embryonic ears are starting. I can't wait to eat some, so I pick them off, shuck them . . . just to see what's in there and if I can eat some. 

See what I'm doing there? We are all more than familiar with the fable of the goose that laid the golden egg. This is the same lesson. But we forget to apply it to modern times. 

The gardener has to wait. He has to be patient. When we pray that God protect kids in our schools, and that He change the hearts of kids, their parents, their teachers, and society itself, that is the seed being planted. It's not back-breaking work, as it is to hoe a row. (But you'd think it is, by how infrequently we do it). But prayer is the seed . . . and now we must wait. 

But shouldn't we do something? Yes, we should . . . but we do all the time. Our acts of kindness, our affirming of others, our adherence to what's right, our own exercising of patience and best practices . . . this is the weeding and watering that may be required along the way. We respond to the growth of weeds, or the drying of the plants. And God has provided what we need to address those problems. Waiting is the same as being watchful, and being ready. 

Social Justice is going to happen. God said He will make the small trees big, and the big trees small. But for us it takes patience, and trust, and faith . . . and a responsive spirit to the opportunities around us, to tend God's garden.

Wednesday, June 6, 2018

Silence and Action VI (Haas)

Grant you your heart's desire and prosper all your plans....

 - From Psalm 20

We spoke about David, son of Jesse, future King of Israel. 

He was a quiet, solitary young man. He was not handy, not good with a hammer. He was not invited to the cool parties, and did not hang around with the guys.

He was musical and artistic. And cared for his sheep with a fierce passion. His greatest asset was his ability to hyper-focus on a goal, and not care an ounce what other people thought about it. He was not needy in that way. 

David was not thought of as a hard worker. He was not invited over for big building or repair projects. 

And yet . . . he became King. And God was faithful to grant David's heart's desire and to prosper all his plans. David barely lifted a finger, yet he had great success. How is this?

Apparently, thoughts and prayers are more effective than action. Or, put another way: begin with thought, follow with prayer . . add a little more thought . . . and the actions will follow. It will be hard to avoid doing the right thing. 

I believe that, in the school shooting crises, it's not that we don't pray enough . . . it's not that we don't do enough. We have to pray for the right thing, and be okay with waiting.

Pray that God protects our schools. And then wait.

That little opportunity to be kind to someone, may actually be the seed that prevents a future shooting. 

Follow David's path to success: Pray. And wait. 

Monday, June 4, 2018

Silence and Action V (Haas)

Rise and anoint him; for this is the one.

 - From 1 Samuel 15

The appointment of the greatest human king in history happened with very little fanfare .Somewhere near, or in Bethlehem, the Prophet Samuel called for Jesse to bring his sons, one by one, in front of Samuel, so that the Lord could point out His anointed King for Israel. 

Now, God knew who it was going to be before any of this started. God seems to like to draw things out, and He has a flare for the dramatic. The youngest son of Jesse, David, was the least impressive. He sat out in the fields all day, writing songs, watching the sheep. 

David was not handy. He couldn't fix or build things. When they needed help baling hay, they did not invite him. Although he was described as being very good looking, he wasn't always out having his way with throngs of adoring girls. 

He was happy just being left alone. He loved watching the sheep, and being outdoors, under a shade tree, with his lyre. 

But he was very good at that . . . and he knew how to keep the sheep safe from predators. He watched them with a hawk-life stealth. His music could lull both sheep, and solves, with a sense of safety which was, for the sheep realistic, but for the wolves, deadly. 

God had His plan. The people wanted a King . . . now. In their impatience, they got Kind Saul, who "looked" like a king, talked like a king, commanded like a king . . . but was a horribly ineffective and insecure narcissist. 

God's man would take time getting ready. And we would have to wait for him. Greatness cannot be rushed. And big problems are not solved instantly. 

Like our current environment. The prayers and thoughts of the faithful are mocked. "How about action?" demands Hollywood. 

Action, indeed. We will have faith in our prayers, that God will make our schools safe. We'll believe it . . . and God will act . . . in His time. 

Sunday, June 3, 2018

Silence and Action IV (Haas)

... and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how.

 - From Mark 4

Faith is so frustrating to non-believers. People want somebody to do something, but here go those Christians again, with their praying, but doing nothing.

Even within the Church, there is a contingent of those that really disdain a life of prayer, solitude, service, and teaching.

I had been a virtual 20-hours a week servant in a local church, for years. I was on paid staff, but only for about ten hours per week. I had hoped to be asked to serve on some committees, invited to teach; to "climb the ladder," if you will. But it never happened. I asked one of the half-dozen full-time pastors why that is. He said something like "Gordon, you don't seem to have any evidence of being successful."

This blew me away. From an organization that follows an itinerant preacher?

We want to see people doing something. We don't even want a particular result. We just want to see the "face time." I had a boss once, who commented to me that "Gordon, you get good results, but nothing ever seems to bother you, and it drives me crazy!" I didn't appear to be under any stress. Real doers are always urgent about something.

In the parable, a gardener just scatters seed along the ground. And from then on, he just sleeps, eats, and keeps an eye on it. That's all. Yet, it grows. The gardener doesn't know how it happened. But later on in the season, he enjoys his harvest. 

It takes a lot of faith to scatter seed and then wait. We're so tempted to kill the goose to see if we can figure out how she makes those golden eggs. At least then we'd be doing something.

People of faith need to remember this. If your response to tragedy is to pray and think . . . then make sure it's based on faith. Go in there today, and pray that shooters are stopped, before they can do damage. But from now on . . . believe it will come true.

And then be looking for the little blessings in the forms of opportunities, where you can actually change the lives of people that might become shooters. This is not the "do something" that scoffers are talking about . . . but they're going to have to be okay with it, because it works.