Wednesday, November 25, 2020

Giver

Each of you must give as you have made up your mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. 

 - From 2 Corinthians 9

It's not so much a question of whether or not people should help those less fortunate than themselves, sometimes known as "the poor." That's indisputable. We should help the less fortunate. In a healthy and functional society, we would be well-acquainted with the reasons to be charitable:

  • Because some day you might need help
  • Because there is a surplus of resources (cash, food, clothing, housing) that must not go to waste
  • Because we don't want people to become resentful against us
  • Because charity is actually investments that come back to benefit the Giver
  • Because God told us to
There's no question. We should be charitable. When we serve others, we all benefit. The unselfish person receives back many times over, what they gave. We are wired to feel good when we give, (this topic of feeling "good" is something I would like to investigate later). 

So, nobody argues this. At issue are . . . how to give; to whom to give; when to give; how much to give.

The questions that we never ask, but that we should ask, in a society that lauds "science" as much as ours does, in 2020, include the following: 
  • What is/are the objective(s) of our giving?
  • How do we know that our giving is working? (What are our metrics?)
  • What happens when we achieve or surpass our giving?
  • Is there an end-game? Is there a point when we say "Okay, that problem's solved, let's move on to another"?
We're stuck in partisan nonsense, because we never ask these questions. This bespeaks a bigger problem - we'd rather be mad at each other. We quite prefer winning elections and lording it over The Other. We think it feels better to be mad and cynical, than actually to help a person that actually needs help. 

If we really cared about God's position on all of it, we would see that He wishes us to give cheerfully. This means that, if a person hates paying taxes for social programs, because s/he can demonstrate that it's wasteful, we should support that person in attaining lower taxes, and then join with them in direct assistance to the needy. 

It seems the height of cruelty and petulance, to insult and degrade a person for preferring direct aid to the poor, over government bureaucracies. 

It's really quite simple. 

Tuesday, November 24, 2020

Clamor

You still the roaring of the seas, the roaring of their waves, and the clamor of the peoples. 

 - From Psalm 65

Something has happened. Did you notice?

In the wake of the election, weeks ago, the clamor seems to have ceased, at least for now. 

 . . . the clamor  that has been present for four years, rising to a peak over the summer. 

What are some definitions of "clamor"?

  • noisy shouting
  • a loud continuous noise
  • a vehement, insistent public expression
When we pray, we should expect the prayers to be answered. We also should expect them to be answered in ways we did not expect. I prayed for two things, ardently, beginning last summer:
  1. That covid would go away
  2. That the riots would end
And the riots have ended . . . for now. Everything is relatively at peace, as we move towards Thanksgiving and Advent. This is good. 

Yes, it may have taken a cultural notion, that Donald Trump did not win re-election, to calm the crowds. But they are calmed, just the same. We needed a reprieve. And how it all came about, for whatever reason, gave us the reprieve we needed. 

Likewise . . . covid has been both a partial cause of, and a willing partner to, the clamor of angry crowds. Covid itself is a clamor. And deaths are way down. Treatments are being perfected, that are accompanying victims of the virus toward rapid recovery.

Positive tests are up, yes. Of course they are. It is to be expected in any epidemic. But that may be the price we pay, to see fatalities begin to come down, and recoveries to ramp up. 

In the Scripture reference, the Psalmist put "the clamor of the peoples" in the same category as a natural disaster. It's almost like it's a phenomenal event, and there is little that humanity can do, to control it. Clamoring crowds are like a hurricane, or a pandemic! They are apparent random events that run through society, wreaking havoc, destruction, violence, and injustice. 

Riots are like "acts of God." Maybe that's exactly what they are!

We pray to God, to keep the forces of nature at bay - - - to protect us! To calm the winds!

Christ could just as easily wander into a crowd of protestors, say, in Minneapolis, in the summer of 2020, and cry out PEACE! BE STILL!

And every single person would stop, turn around, and begin their walk home. 

My prayers for the summer are answered, for now. Both covid and the clamoring crowd are at bay. 

This is one thing for me to be thankful for, two days from now. 

Friday, November 20, 2020

Gates

Enter his gates with thanksgiving . . .  

 - From Psalm 100

Thanksgiving Week begins. 

Today is Friday, the 20th of November. 

Where are God's "gates"?

The easy answer is: the doorway to a church. But that's too limited. God does not inhabit buildings made of stone and wood. He's everywhere, and everywhen

But if we limited the definition of God's "gates," to a church's entryway . . . how often do we do so, with thanksgiving? Shouldn't that be our driving thought, our purpose, the moment we enter God's House? It is called a "sanctuary." A sanctuary is a safe place, a haven for people that are on the run, or that are homeless. If you were fleeing some dire threat, or evil, and turned a corner to see a church, knowing that when you entered, you would be completely safe from what had been pursuing you . . . you would feel Thanksgiving then!

And maybe that's the type of Thanksgiving we are talking about. 

The Americans celebrate Thanksgiving at the end of Harvest. God has given us a good year. We have enough provisions to make it through the winter. We remember to thank Him. And even if it is words only, and our hearts are not truly into the "thanks" still, we believe that by going through the motions, we are doing some good. God can bring life even to our vain wordings. 

We enter HIS gates. "Enter" meaning, we pass from one place into another. One moment, we were outside God's presence, His safekeeping. But the next moment, we have passed through some portal, and now we behold the magnificence of God, Who is so close we can touch Him! We are completely safe. 

Safety reminds us of the best moments of our lives. Ordinarily, our memories of Thanksgivings past are of a crowd of loved ones seated around a large table. Delicious food is plentiful. We are warm. We are happy. We have no worries. 

We are safe.

You enter God's gates . . . and you are supremely thankful. Because, now . . . you are safe.


Wednesday, November 18, 2020

Feed

I will feed them with justice. 

 - From Ezekiel 34

Some day, I want to spend some sustained time, exploring the concept of eating, and feeding - - - food that is not material - - - in the Bible. 

Ezekiel is told to eat God's scroll, or His Word. It tastes sweet in his mouth, although the words are about judgment and destruction which is to come to Israel. In Revelation 10, John is told, also, to eat a scroll. This too, tastes sweet, but it upsets John's stomach.

The bread and wine of communion, are taken through our mouths. 

It is all symbolic of how we are to treat God's word. Eat it, consume it. Let it metabolize and become our very cellular structure. Let our very being be comprised of God's Word, itself. Jesus is called "The Word of God."

The Words of God . . . His thoughts . . . His breath . . . these are all more real, more tangible, than we are. We can consume all of it, and live. 

But in our times; in 2020, the forces of darkness seem overwhelming. They are relentless and tireless. They bring destruction and violence with them, and leave devastation in their wake. They are hungering for . . . what? Something drives them to such desperate ends. Why would so many people participate, so willingly, in what cannot have a good ending?

It think they are driven by a sad desire, simply, to be noticed. Our impersonal world, with absent parents and teachers that are unable to empathize with children, has yielded a generation that is so lonely and abandoned, that they strike out in anger, at anything that looks like the people that hurt them: successful, "happy" people in happy families. In popular culture, these are the conditions upon which classic villains, like Loki, or the Joker, prey. 

They are easy prey. 

But everybody gets filled, eventually. Believers will be filled with God's Word. The end is eternal life. 

God's enemies will be filled with justice. The ones crying the loudest for justice, will get exactly that. They will be forced to feed upon it, and feel the bitter pain of an endless, and miserable, hangover. What feels good does not always result in good. And at some point, violence feels good . . . else people would not engage in it so much.

Eternal life or judgment? Eat ye all of it. 

Wednesday, November 11, 2020

Children

... we will not hide from their children. 

 - From Psalm 78

Everything is duty to the elders. Or to the ancients. 

The Psalmist doesn't even view the children of his time, as his own children. They are their children. That is . . . they belong to their forbears; our forbears. Our ancestors. 

One of the best ways to pay back our ancients, for the sacrifices they made, is to honor their values, and steward the property and legacies they bequeathed to us. Everything was always about receiving the baton successfully, and passing it on to the next generation. 

We are to see the generations as an extension of our own families. Our extended family is an integral and intimate link that connects us to the past and the future. 

Our placement in history, in the chronological timeline, is essential to our understanding of eternity. 

When you're only focused on yourself, you do not have a sense of your ancestors. You cannot access the future effect of the decisions you make today. 

There is some awareness currently, of something called "The Seventh Generation." This comes from native cultures that would evaluate everything they do in terms of . . . will it benefit our descendants, seven generations from now? 

Tracing my "Darr" surname back . . . I get to Gottieb Durr in Baden-Wurttemberg in modern-day Germany. It is the middle 1700s. He lived only about 40-50 years. His grandson, Adam Darr, was barely known to his grandson, Roscoe Darr, my father's grandfather. Seven generations back, is my grandfather's grandfather's grandfather's father. 

There is no chance of personally knowing someone in your family, that far back. Seven links from me. Seven family members, closely connected. Take out the years in between, and we are more closely connected to them, than we realize. 

My children are the legacy of Gottlieb Durr of 18th Century Germany. He, and everybody between him and me, devoted their lives to building something that ultimately belongs to my daughters. A seventh generation focus helps you regard your children as being, not just the children of your ancestors . . . but the children of God Himself. Your emphasis on past and future generations connects you with eternity. 

We can touch an ethic of native cultures, unspoiled by modernity . . . and begin viewing everything we do, through the prism of the seventh generation back; and the seventh generation forward.