A Lost Art

I have lost a good friend, a loyal brother, a dedicated father, and a wise Grandpa. All of whom fit in a man who stood just five-foot three. He was the hero I called Arthur Hobbs. I feel his absence and I've filled the cold space with warm tears many times.  Five times while writing this single, insufficient paragraph, and I know there are more to come. Throughout this intolerable, heart-rending process, from my place behind the tears, I am reminded; Love is worth the pain. You see, the lessons I remember best are earned through suffering. From the deepest waters of my soul where the Breath of the Living God dwells I hear a whisper, Love is worth the pain.

I first learned this bittersweet lesson reading Matthew's gospel Chapter twenty seven. An image came to me of Jesus lying upon the Cross. A Roman soldier brought the hammer down and drove the nail home. In that moment, the Spirit opened my eyes to a startling fact, Jesus Christ willingly took the nails! The Lamb of God chose to be the Sacrifice. So that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting Life. Jesus made the conscious decision to show His Love through crucifixion. It's been there for all mankind to see through two-thousand years of human history. The lesson of Calvary reads: Love is worth the pain. Amen.

Today, I study this lesson once again. Here and now, with all of you who feel Art's empty space. We earn this lesson together; Love is worth the pain. Art was a humble man who put others first, and that reminds me of Christ. Art was humble but he did amazing things for ordinary people, even complete strangers. Whenever I really needed Art he was always there. That's Christ-like, too.

Art was a breed of hero in short supply. He wasn't faster than a speeding bullet, but he walked the distance plus a mile more. He wasn't more powerful than a locomotive, Art's prowess was demonstrated on the field of service to his community, his church, and our God. Art came to serve. He couldn't leap tall buildings in a single bound, but performed above and beyond the call of duty. Art loved God and Loved others as himself. Art was never a master, instead he was like the Master. Art never earned a degree, yet he possessed a wisdom that many great scholars never gain. The lesson is: Love is worth the pain.

Over the past weeks I've spent much time reflecting on my relationship with Art. My introspection has led me to another profound awareness. I remembered the fellowship, mentoring, common sense advice, and honest concern Art had for me. These were…no, these are the reasons I love Arthur Hobbs. Once more the Spirit opened my blind eyes to realize that Art Loved me long before I Loved him in return. That is the exact relationship history I have with the Crucified Rabbi from Galilee. Since history repeats itself, I will say it again, Love is worth the pain.

If there is any doubt that remains, ask a birth mother holding her child for the first time and she will say the same. Love is worth the pain.

I am in mourning now with many others. I weep with no shame. We are in darkness now, but like the Son we will rise again. So my friends until then please remember, Love is worth the pain.

Where Art is now,  there is no more pain, there is only Love.

Amen.

Preaching to the Chorus Line: Part IIl

This is the final straw...

The training wheels are off...

I believe that contemporary Christianity needs to look back to the Early Church, to a time of personal worship, small group fellowship often gathered in or around the intimate settings of the home. A spiritual hupostrephō, a “turning back” to the living relationship with our Living God as an alternative to the well rehearsed yet still wooden liturgy acted out before a choreographed mass of a hundred or more well-dressed semi-participants.

A look back two millennia to a infancy of Christianity when “Ekklesia”, the word we use to refer to the institution we know as “the Church”, meant an assembly of people. The Ekklesia/ Church/ Body of Christ was not a building in need of constant care, not a hierarchical power structure ruled from on high (rather than on High), not a human machination with a myriad of programs, outreaches, sub-ministries, and missions all led by capable handlers with the right skill set, presentation, and educational background to handle their "principality" in the kingdom of Man.

The Ekklesia was, and should be again, about and for the people. The more affluent the Church has become, the more its focus has been on broadcasting satellites, building edifices, and civil engineering in distant and exotic lands. Just look at all the amazing stuff we are doing! They're but monuments unto our own (ostensibly God's) Glory. The people could almost be mistaken as just a revenue source by which all these "great works" are accomplished.

It is the people which need constant care, maintenance, and support. It is the people for which Jesus Christ took the Cross, suffered, died, was buried, and on the third day rose again. The institutions and hierarchies shall pass away as all earthly things surely will, but the people (the Ekklesia) in Christ are eternal and everlasting.

Jesus kept his Ministry simple, authentic, personal, and he did it with First Century technology. Our God is an intimate and personal God, this is why we call Him "Our Father", the setting for Worship and our Faith should reflect the same. Our Fellowship should reflect the care for His sheep, not a clubhouse where a memorial feast is reenacted which was first performed in a (most likely) rented room. I understand that many may disagree with my opinion based upon maintaining the Dignity of God and the Church. However, may I remind those voices that God tore down His own Temple three times (Solomon's, Herod's, and His human body). Perhaps, He was trying to make a point. The Temple was never about the building or God needing a mailing address, it was always about the people, His People. 

Megachurches are in fashion today where showmanship, excellent makeup, and studio post-production is quite nearly as important as the Word of God. Smooth delivery is almost equivalent to substance, and that all comes at a price, like any well managed show.

We're on the air on my mark in... three… , two… , one...

Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Welcome to God's Gospel Network! Blah, blah, blah. Have credit cards ready. Operators are standing by. Amen!

Jesus used the technology of the day, but He wasn't focused on it. What He did do without fail was personally acting out the things He spoke of to the people, His People. The people right in front of Him witnessed simple acts of love and compassion like washing His Disciple's feet to the Miraculous event which followed Christ speaking the words "talitha koum".

Yet, for many, Christianity has become a weekly passive spectator event even more remote than the game that follows. We love our local sports teams. We wear their jerseys as if they were our own. Their colors, our colors. Their triumphs, our victories. Their defeats, our heartfelt losses. We follow their statistics, injuries, and personal lives. They symbolize everything we wish to project, and what we wish for our children. We are invested in our home team. Maybe more so than the God we claim.

Do you play that game? 

Are you starting to get nervous reading?
Are you sensing a visceral queasy feeling?!

Before you feel like you have dropped the ball.
Keep in mind we're only human and we can't win them all.
Jesus was and still is a home team enthusiast, too.
He went first to the Jew, and then to all of you. 

Perhaps, the Church should be working on a different equation than bottom line accounting or long distance ministry. How about finding the X, Y, and Z axis point where your Spiritual Gift(s) (X) cross your personal skill set (Y) and your passion (Z). That is where your local devotion lay along with God's Purpose for you being right here. Miracles can happen at those crossroads.

I'm a Cubs fan, so I have no problem believing in Miracles...

It's Game 7 of the 2016 World Series, bottom of the 9th...

Cubs - 6

Indians - 6

...as I push

 

Preaching to the Chorus Line: Part II

He's doing it again...

This time with feeling.

Jesus is our focus, the proper pinnacle of our attention in the Church. He is the example of how to walk with God. All Christians agree on this basic foundation. Christ built His Church upon this rock, or maybe that rock was Cephas?

Christianity is not as monolithic as it appears to be, in spite of a powerful Roman or Orthodox top down Doctrine establishing what Christianity was and how it was to be practiced. Even the very basics of the Christian Faith like who is “in charge” of this relationship with God is a matter of dispute. We overcome this paradox by simply ignoring that it exists, at least that's what the Pope and Patriarch did for over a thousand years.

If they can't remember, “Blessed are the Peacemakers…” then they have no business being “in charge”, do they? If I am reading this Bible thingy right, it seems to me that Christ is in charge, and that's why He gets His Name in the title, Christian. He signs the front of the paycheck, the rest of us sign the back, and the Father cashes it for us. Pretty simple, really.

I'm not an educated man, but I do have an omniscient Father, and so do you. This is the Revolution Jesus lead in First Century Palestine. But like all Revolutions, the fervor of the Spirit fades when the Patriots give way to bureaucrats and apparatchiks who water down the idea into ideology. Pretty soon we're “reinterpreting”, “de-marbling”, and just plain making sh#t up as we go along. Down the road a piece, sacred cows aren't only a Hindu tradition, they graze in Churches every day.

• Intercessory prayer
• Meatless Fridays
• Hierarchical structures
• Excommunication
• Dietary restrictions
• Pilgrimages
• Rewarmed pagan holidays
• Gilded fictional facts are okay
• Fantastically wealthy/ regaled clergy over an financially/ Spirituality impoverished Faithful
• Compromise with\ by the Powers that be

Don't question the manure on the pew, that's why it's called a pew because something stinks around here. If the cow is sacred everything that comes out of it is sacred, too. Right?

Sacred cows slaughtered here daily, is part of my creed. Call it, “Bringing back the Ancient Ways”, thus says Yahweh. (Jeremiah 6:16)

God is not silent, but first you must step away from the crowd who believe that they speak for Him and listen to Him. Jesus Christ spoke to the people teaching them directly, this is His Way. The Helper was not a limited engagement only visited upon authority. All Authority was given to Him. He is the Way, the Truth, and the Light. Don't accept substitution, institution, or mitigation. Listen. God is not silent.

We have been listening to lies, not all lies, but how many are okay in the “Blessed Bovine” way? Today we're adding a dash of psychology to our theology, we're trying to harmonize the faith of Secularism (<- Stop and click that, it's worth it) which we live Monday thru Saturday with the “stuff” we are told on Sunday morning for a couple hours, before the game. If we're able to pay attention between the work pressures, the mortgage payment, the car repairs you never budgeted for, but have to cover. All the distractions that occupy our time and our mind...

“Please, God, can you cut me a check or at least a break?”

“Your sermon? Uhm… very good. Which part? The end? Gotta run, thanks for asking. God bless.”

What would happen if the pastor stepped away from behind the lectern and sat down on the step and asked, “What has the Spirit said to you?”

The Sacred Cows wouldn't be the only ones defecating in the Sanctuary. Pee you. Pew.

Most of the Faithful are stillborn “hopeful” to make it through the next seven days to sit in this same uncomfortable seat, watching the same liturgy with a ten minute action-packed message they can't recall, let alone apply in the morning.

Communion with the Almighty is embedded in the reminder of deficiency. When Jesus said, "Do this in memory of me", the Love Feast wasn't supposed to leave you feeling empty.

This is what God intended? This is the best, or at least the “nominal” experience of His Glory? Even the cows are raising their eyebrows and mooing, “You're kidding me?” or maybe that was the goats.

Get it? Goats… Kidding. 

Never mind. God's got a great sense of humor. I'm certain that He could tell a joke we would literally die laughing from hearing, but the good news is, He brought us something far better, He brought us Gospel. Good News, so why are so many in Christendom so miserable? Christ sent us out to spread the Good News, but it came off as conquests, crusades, coercion, and condemnation. That's not Christ-like, and neither is the message of “additional burden” we're spreading today. It's the new self-righteous Pharisaic standard just like the Jewish elites imposed. That was then and this is the same sh#t later. If it isn't Good and it isn't New, then there's something wrong. Maybe, Christ was just using dubious marketing tactic like false labeling or maybe we suck at keeping the Message, His Message (as opposed to the ”Party Line”) intact. Hmm?

I wonder how Caiaphas would have handled it?

The Way of the Path

What's the purpose of the Path? 

The path is both a literal and figurative journey that we walk through life and in our Journey towards and with God. All the way He is providing us with both Path and Journey, our way is His Way, though many of us have yet to know the Planner or the Work of His Hand. The difference between believer and unbeliever is the unbeliever thinks they are charting their own course. Like a kitten chasing a laser dot, they are certain the dot they're stalking is fleeing in fear of their claws. They never realize that someone else is involved and they are going where God wants them.

I can imagine God playing along, "Sure, you're an intellectually satisfied academician, a brilliant original thinker, the ascendant Homo Technicus, and you've got this whole life "thing" figured out. Bravo! Hooray! Good show!

Now, get that crazy dot, Kitty!"

As for me, I will acknowledge with gratitude that I'm not that original, cool, or evolved. I walk the Path my Maker made, and accept it as His. I may stumble or even fall along the Way, though the journey is long I know where I came from and to Whom I return. That's enough for a simple man. It's all I really need to understand as I walk His Path.

What's so important about faith?

We live in a faith based universe. We wake up because we have faith that our jobs are rewarding, our plans for the day will work out, or our children need us. We stand up next to the bed because we have faith that the floor will hold our weight. The same faith applies to each individual step down the stairs. We put the keys in the ignition because we have faith that they will start the car.

Almost every single thing we do is based upon faith. As an example, the next time you make a deposit in your bank read the little Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation notice next to you, it reads,

"FDIC insurance is backed by the full FAITH and credit of the United States government."



The comedy in this little know leap of faith is the "Separation of Church and State" fanatics, who interpret "Freedom of Religion" as "Freedom from Religion", never argue the unconstitutionality of this form of Secular faith before the Supreme Court. Make no mistake about it, Secularism is a religion based upon faith. Our government, and all others, are faith based systems. Judging by the accounting our Congress employs and our annual budgets hemorrhaging red ink decade after decade, all we have to work on is faith. In faith we trust.

Many people believe that without millions of laws, rules, regulations, and a strong government to enforce them, there would be chaos in our streets, but in truth it is our FAITH that keep most of the barbarians howling outside the gates. The rest are already comfortably seated beneath the Capitol dome.

(Sorry, if you're a regular reader of my political blog, you know I can't resist.)

Why should we hope in a hopeless world? 

Simple answer, because as long as just one human being, just one of us has hope for the rest of us in the world, then it isn't really hopeless. Hope is to the human spirit what air is to a flame. Without hope our spirits grow dark, forlorn, and desolate. We need hope to keep us healthy spiritually, psychologically, and physically. Hope is human soul food.

But hope is fragile so we must be careful with our hope. We've all been in an intimate relationship that ended poorly. It was our hope that was wounded and we protect our fragile hope passionately. Hope runs ahead of us to find all the wondrous things that might or might not be. The problem is that hope is like an innocent child it can't tell the difference between the imminent and imaginary, hope only wants to see certainties.

We must be careful with our hope because if it becomes too battered and bruised hope can become despondence. Despondence is the trickster alter ego of hope. Despondence also runs ahead of us but all despondence sees is the darkness, the isolation, and the fear. It predictably and constantly reports back, "There is no hope out there."

Hope is always much stronger than despondence so the only way despondence can get the upper hand is when we are helping it by holding hope down. We hold hope hostage and that explains why there was no hope out there.

Let hope run ahead and make sure despondence is tied and gagged behind you both. Like any good parent, don't take every word the little one reports back as gospel fact, instead consider it a wonderful fantasy that just might be... Hopefully.

What's love got to do with it?

Everything and everyone accepts love. Love is the universal currency, with God as the Central Bank. Love binds husband to wife, parents to children, and grandchildren to grandma and grandpa. Which is a model for the Love economy. God pours out His Love upon us. We are the vessels and the instruments of His Love. When we are full, we share it with one another and then return it to God in Worship and prayer. The cycle of Love complete.

There are those who accept Love but refuse to return it, they are the hoarders of Love. They can't conceive of a limitless supply of Love, so why spend such a finite and precious resource when it's sure to run dry.

The hoarders don't understand the Love lesson the Hebrews were taught in the wilderness with Manna. The Manna fell every day, with a double portion in preparation for the Sabbath, but the Manna could not be kept for a single day. The hoarded Manna would rot and decay. This is exactly what hoarders do with God's Love . No wonder they're always so unhappy, so empty, and so ravenous. When it's Love, we only keep what we give away. Do it now and every day.

Remember what Christ said about the Greatest Commandments...

Love God. Love others.

The verb is Love and a verb is a call to action. Christ implores us to take an active part in His Creation. Take in the scenery, but do not be part of it. If we do all things in Love, we cannot commit sin.

God bless you as you walk your Path, the one He put in front of you.




In His Faith, Hope, and Love,

Retailers of War

Fair is Fare, equitably.

The following is based on a true story*

More than six thousand years ago, just before breakfast, someone considered that he wasn't going to be eating as nice a breakfast as someone else. This was obviously unfair and something had to be done about this grave injustice. He “convinced” his neighbors that he was unquestionably correct about this breakfast inequality issue and they took to immediate action, military action, specifically.

Their leader organized them into ranks and they all marched off to straighten out this whole-wheat affair with maces, spears, and some horsies. The leader stayed safely behind to eat his pitiful morning scraps. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Many will die for the lack of it while a few will kill to take their fill and call it “justice”. Those who delineate good from evil seldom risk their skin or kin in the warfare game. History illuminates the dead, wounded, and maimed, the ones who bleed without need, are really “just us”.

Fair is fair, subjectively.

The battle won, this first chapter of the book closed quickly but the history of the Retailers of War reads on endlessly. Finally, their new Prince ate a “fair” and “balanced” breakfast as he deserved, at least for a little while.

The vultures, crows, and rats ate like Princes, too. Some may claim that war is inherently inequitable, however the consumers of carrion unanimously disagree.

Some time later the people they mêléed for the “fair” meal deal came with more men, more maces, more spears, and a whole bunch more horsies to take back what they thought was “fair”. Their new God-King declared, “Turnabout is fair play.”

The vultures, crows, and rats ate like kings, too. War is as equitable as can be, you see.

We've always found things to fight over, against, and for. Sometimes, those things aren't even important things like breakfast things, they're abstracts; ideas, concepts, or beliefs. Usually, underneath all those pretty abstracts, the stuff that we are willing to kill another human being for is just stuff, ordinary things. The abstracts maketh murder more palatable, some of the carrion craving class would say “delectable”.

Whilst they snack, we're finger painting pretty pictures in crimson red all the same, very equally. Murder is murder unless the Retailers of War claim it's for truth, justice, equality, freedom, a free meal, or God. Suddenly, everything sounds delicious regardless of who's seated at the table or what is eventually placed upon it.

The vultures, crows, and rats aren't all that interested in the abstract, they are far more concerned with the meat of the matter. Meat, sinew, bile, and marrow, they make no bones about it. No matter who it happens to be. They will eat the flesh happily, dividing and carving up humanity, equal as can be.

This all seems rather silly and far-fetched. Who in their right mind would kill another human being over breakfast? It reminds me of another story that is set in the distant past about a woman who decided that she was willing to die for a piece of fruit that didn't belong to her.

However, the vultures, crows, rats, even the Serpents all agree, and that's a majority, it's a fair trade equitably.

Over the past six millennia we’ve established a couple certainties: "Old habits die hard. We die easily."

The story is our story, which has always been written by the victor in the blood of his brothers. Some claim that civilization can be traced back to the fertile crescent in a land named Sumeria, where city-states battled for centuries over the rich agricultural farm lands between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. We’re still fighting over that same ground today. We have become comfortable killers, haven't we?

The Carrion Call

Preaching to the Chorus Line: Part I

Keep in time. You're doing fine.

In Memoriam... Marty Osten

Marty Osten, he was a Chicagoan. So, we'll call him “MO” for short. I know Marty and I know his MO. You see, he came from the same place I do. 

I shared in his struggles. Sometimes, every day was a struggle. I shared his triumphs. There can never be too many of those. I watched Marty shoot for the stars, and accept something much closer to ground floor reality. Yes, Marty and I, we come from the same place. 

Marty had his heart broken by a woman who he still loved. He carried her picture with him everywhere he went. He'd pull it out and look at it once in a while to remind himself that the love was worth the pain. Yes, it's true, Marty and I come from the same place.

Marty was a computer guy back before the dot-com bubble burst, and though he was outpaced by technology, he never grew tired of the chase. Sometimes all we have to live on is faded glory from yesterday's race. Yup, Marty and I come from the same place.

There were many times I would find Marty at the library, and he'd have his aging laptop and connected external drives splayed out before him like a personal corporate network. He'd developed an amazing system to file all his stuff that never took him where he wanted to go. Marty and I, we're from the same place. Yes, we are.

He struggled with addictions. He was a decent man. I'd lend him five or ten bucks when he needed it, and he always paid it back. He was a humble man who wasn't afraid to share his doubts and fears. That's something I will miss about Marty. We shared a bond of trust deeper than I can share here, because Marty and I we came from the same place.

Once in awhile, we'd talk about the place we come from in whispers because it was a public library and people might take offense. Marty was sensitive to others, and he wanted to be well liked. In all his strengths and all his frailties, in all his superhuman dreams and all his humanity, Marty and I come from the same place... just like the rest of you gathered here today. 

We all come from the same place and we will surely all return to Him. That place is God, and Marty he just fell asleep on the ride.

Sleep tight Marty, we'll be joining you soon.

My Friend Sharon

I spent some time today helping a great friend and Sister in Christ. Her name is Sharon, and she was moving from her home to her home. I know that is redundant, but that's what she was doing and I was helping her put it all together. Putting it all together is what we do when we move after taking it all apart. That's the evolution of moving from home to home. We take the old apart and rebuild it all anew, only the location changes… or maybe there is more to this moving thing that we should consider.

Moving can be frustrating, intimidating, and stressful in more ways than we can ever be prepared for, since no matter how well we plan our move, there are always the actions of others which we cannot predict or even comprehend after the fact. However, a move from home to home can also be fun, exhilarating, and filled with hope for something better than we had before. In most cases, that is why we move, we are more pleased with the potential of the new home and all that it offers, such as; community, schools, property appreciation potential, and comfort over the old home.

My friend Sharon had a beautiful home, the first she ever owned, which held many fond memories within its walls.

• Our coffee and cigarette times on the front porch
• Our Bible studies in the living room
• The times she and I wept for (many) joys and (a few) sorrows
• Our granola disaster in the kitchen
• Here compulsive vacuuming throughout
• Our landscaping conundrums in the yard
• Her indecision and my vexation

Those are just the ones I had the pleasure of enjoying with her, and I am just one of her many loving friends and family.

There were also some more recent, not so heart-warming memories which I will gladly fail to enumerate herein. These along with all the positive things is what helped her decide to move forward from home to home.

I pray that she will soon discover that the wonderful memories from which she avulsed herself  are no longer held within the walls of the home she left behind because they made the move with her. As for the unpleasant ones, I pray that she will leave them to die in the cellar of the past where they belong. Amen.

The past is that which we leave behind, the present is that which we carry, and the future is where we're going with…  all the taped and labeled boxes, wrapped China, bundled pictures, the stuff we know we took but will never find, and most importantly all the perfectly preserved and safely packed beautiful things we've been a part of before we left home for home.

God's Hegelian Dialect Part lII: Reaction

In Part II, I offered my understanding of, and reason for Creation. I also filled in how our human race fit into this grand design. It may be more accurately expressed, “How the grand design was tailored to fit us.” Yet, it seems that we are either improperly made or poorly installed parts in this wondrous system. Whales don't struggle with these issues, neither do axolotls (See images below). One look at this guy and you know that he'll fit in anywhere.

You may also realize that he is part of the whimsical Provision of God discussed in Part l.

Not so long ago, Christendom erroneously placed the Earth at the center of the solar system not by the testimony of Scripture, but by compiled human error and an assumption about what Scripture “should” (by human understanding) imply.

How did such a bizarre twist of reason come to be de facto Doctrine?

In the late second century, a pagan astronomer named Ptolemy of Alexandria formulated the geocentric system which placed the the earth at the center of the solar system with the sun and all other planets orbiting around us. Ptolemy's error remained “scientific” fact and was later adopted as Christian dogma which lasted into the Age of Reason. It made sense to the now powerful Christian hierarchy that God's Creation would place us at the center. The Faithful who dared question Church authority on such matters were at risk of being declared heretics and punished accordingly. It took until 1992 for the Catholic Church to own up to its mistreatment of Galileo who promoted a  heliocentric solar system which placed the sun at the center.

Throughout Church history there have been countless martyrs of science who have paid a heavy price for standing on their God given reason in opposition to Church doctrines. As a result, today there are many in the field of science who hold a grudge.

On the other side of this implied duality, many within the Body of Christ feel that science has demoted humanity from divinely created beings to mere chemical accidents. Scientists who support this worldview will claim that the ekklesia have it all wrong. In fact, it’s been a promotion for humanity from fortuitous chemical accident to quick-witted, mostly hairless descendant of apes. This has not brought solace to those who put their trust in God, and they hold a grudge, as well.

More's the pity, in my opinion.

What I find most egregious about this centuries old feud for the heart, mind, and soul of mankind is how baseless much of it is on both sides.

Scientists under the erroneous instruction of Christian theologians who misinterpreted the first few chapters of Genesis became a smoldering hot spot between these two factions. (Remember that fear and faction do not exist independently.) Genesis was never intended to be a scientific textbook for the Creation. Much of it is allegory as the Jews, who wrote it, understand. Somehow in the original schism between Jews and Christians this minor fact, which turned into major factions, was overlooked.The problems that we struggle with most as individuals, communities, and denominations are the ones we cause ourselves.

I look for harmony where there is discord between science and Scripture. For instance, the Flood story recorded in Genesis 6 correlates nicely with what anthropology calls the "population bottleneck", a time when humans nearly disappeared from the planet. Both worldviews support a near extinction event in our recent past. If we insist that it must include a man named Noah on a boat with all non-marine creatures on-board, then we have ample fodder for discord. But, if we allow the Flood to be allegory of an anthropologically supported event, which I believe it is, it resonates in both heart and mind. A “perfect pitch” I find to be exclusively reserved for God. Here is the common ground we as people of faith, reason, and reasonable faith should be seeking and taking with each other. Instead, religion and reason continue as adversaries both believing it's either one or the other.

While today in the year 2016 (or 5776 by the Hebrew calendar) we, with few holdouts, accept that the earth is not the center of the solar system. It isn’t even a very significant planet when compared to many of our local neighbors. The Earth has only one moon, no rings, no giant spots, or other immediately distinguishing features. One might say our pale blue dot of a planet is somewhat boring at first glance, but God is a Creator who focuses on content over superficial appearance. This may explain why He humbled Himself to come as a man from the rural backwater of Galilee to walk with us, His precious Creation, even when we refused to walk with Him.

Our solar system is nowhere near the center of our Milky Way galaxy. We are out in the boonies of our galaxy, nestled in an unassuming location between two notable spiral arms. Nothing seems to indicate that there is anything important here by our human conception. We'd expect to be up front and center where the Supreme Being presumably “should” have placed us. However, being a bit closer to that “prized galactic real estate” would kill us. The radiation levels near galactic center are far in excess of our capacity. The dead center is occupied by an inactive black hole that if it were active could gobble up our solar system like a snack. We are placed in what seems to be a very safe, quiet backwater, a lot like that undistinguished place called Galilee. This kind of overlooked corollary demonstrates to me that we have a much smarter God than we anticipate, appreciate, or even dare to imagine.

“For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God”, rings as true today as when it was first written. When we look at the empirical data, we have a most (fasten your seat-belts, please) anthropocentric Universe. (Both cosmologists and animal rights activists just found a new common enemy in me. Ah harmony!)

Consider, what this Universe offers us, it meets our every human need from simple matter (which is far from simple) to awesome wonder (quantum levels of complexity beyond the “simple” stuff.) Here we sit perched atop the Animal Kingdom, not by a slim margin but head and shoulders above our nearest intellectual rival. (Animal rights activists hate me even more and evolutionary biologist are now signed on), I feel perfectly capable of pointing out to my loyal opposition that humans are the only species capable of taking offense at my comments. Prove me wrong, but until then…

Q.E.D.

Rather than working with science, many of the cloth have turned against science. Many of the lab coat have turned against a God of seeming irrationality and increasingly scant probability. That is our reaction. We are divided by our beliefs. Partisanship is the glue which divides Theists and Atheists, Catholics and Protestants, Creationists and Evolutionists, Blacks and Whites, Republicans and Democrats, Capitalists and Communists, Monists and Dualists, Christians and Jews, us and all. This is a very poor reaction.

While we may disagree on God or an afterlife, we can surely agree that we will all pass through the great equalizer, the final harmonizer we call death. Maybe we should just "Be kind for everyone you meet is fighting a great battle."* Along the way we might recall that Jesus often evoked quarrelsome reactions from His disciples by providing the right answer to their wrong question.

* The origin of the quote, "Be kind for everyone you meet is fighting a great battle" is a matter of great controversy attributed from another alumni of Alexandria, Philo of Alexandria, or maybe it was Plato, or John Watson, or Ian MacLaren which is John Watson's real name? 

"Oh, bother!"  ~ Winnie the Pooh (for sure!)