A Silence for a Seven

I haven't posted anything for seven months because I have had no need or desire to do so. While the Spirit has remained, the words that burn from the inside which can only be extinguished by the flow of ink on paper have been silent... until today.


The loss of Art hit me much deeper than I would have expected had I considered the prospect of his passing eight months ago. Aside from the reality vs. concept aspect of his death, it was the shock, the guilt, and the anger that tore into me. Art was eighty and that is about the life expectancy for an American man on the actuarial tables, but no matter how statistically foreseeable and mathematically probable his loss may be, I was still deeply shaken. 

Perhaps, I realized that Art and I shared the same "Immortality Project"(1), volunteering at our local food bank. So, if Art's Immortality Project failed, which it obviously did at his time of death so would mine in time. 

Maybe, it was that Art was a big part of my motivation to jump out of bed on Monday morning. 

Maybe, I just loved the old coot. 

Seven months later, I remain undecided, but I have found the Faith that God knows and this is sufficient.

Over then course of these past months, I've been afforded the opportunity to explore these feelings of guilt and anger. Understanding such feelings when they are understandable is not only a journey within oneself, but an exploration of those "deep waters" in which we all swim. When we return from our journey, we are better equipped to help others navigate their own deep waters. Here is what I found many fathoms down...

• THE GUILT was pervasive because I should have been more aware of his persistent cough. I could have asked him about his heart a week earlier. I know that a persistent cough often precedes a heart attack. I could have done or said something. I failed. 

That's me applying for the part of God, and feeling guilty for not getting the job.

• THE ANGER, that's so common I shouldn't have to explain. It makes me angry just considering how damn angry I was, and it's not soothing in the least that I have to confront it rationally right here, right now. 

That's me being mortal and at the core of my mortality lay my rage for not being more than an ordinary man. 

My good relationships, like the one I shared with Art, should last forever because that's exactly how I plan them. Don't you? 

So, when we hit a terminus that shouldn't be there, we get angry. It wasn't in our plan. That's the plan we're following. Aren't you?

But...It's God's Plan and we are just a mortal men and women. Here is the place where we must find the Faith to trust in a God who knows what He is doing and this is sufficient.

A Perfect God has a Perfect Plan. We don't have a competitive product, but that's not how we behave. As the Apostle Paul wrote many failed plans ago...

What remains is Faith, Hope, and Love. 

That's the raw materials that we have to work with. Prescience, flawless planning, and deft execution are not among them.

Faith, Hope, and Love. That's all we have and that is sufficient. 

Faith that God has His Hand in our every breath. Which He does. 

Hope that we will see the Resurrection of the living ad the dead.

Love for our God and one another. We should plan and perform a lot more of that because we'll be spending eternity together.

Art is one mighty step closer to the Almighty and that, my friends, is the purpose of His Plan and our Path. 


Now, We move on.




(1) Thanks to Ernest Becker for the concept

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.