Month: December 2013

Loving with your whole heart is not easy

‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’

This is the Advent devotional I wrote for the FOCUS churches this year. It had to be based on a particular Scripture lesson (Matthew 22:34-46), be of a certain length, and end with a prayer. For your convenience, I’ve followed the piece with the Scripture.

In the Scripture lesson, Jesus is being tested theologically. The religious leadership of the day is constantly trying to trip Him up, asking a bunch of questions. What IS the greatest commandment? To love God, and likewise, to love each other.

We are often tested trying to follow these dictates. Sure we may see ourselves as “good” and “nice” people. Maybe we go to church, quote Scripture. Do we REALLY love God with all our heart, mind, and soul? I think God knows that a mysterious and disembodied deity may be sometimes difficult to comprehend.

Fortunately, Jesus has equated loving each other with loving God. How are we doing with that presumably easier task? Yes, you may love your friends and family. What of that seemingly unlovable coot in the office, or that obnoxious teenager – love them too! How do we find a way to do THAT?

We follow the example of Jesus’ loving-kindness. We show patience and generosity. In what we do to the least of God’s people, we show our love to God.

In many ways, that is what the FOCUS ministries are designed to do. It’s not merely feeding people, which is a good and right thing to do. It is showing love. The peculiar thing about giving love is that one often gets as much in return as one expends.

Dear Lord,
May we share the love that we have received so that, by our words and actions, God’s love can reach those in need of that love.
***
Matthew 22:
34 Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. 35 One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: 36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”

37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Whose Son Is the Messiah?

41 While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, 42 “What do you think about the Messiah? Whose son is he?”

“The son of David,” they replied.

43 He said to them, “How is it then that David, speaking by the Spirit, calls him ‘Lord’? For he says,

44 “‘The Lord said to my Lord:
“Sit at my right hand
until I put your enemies
under your feet.”’

45 If then David calls him ‘Lord,’ how can he be his son?” 46 No one could say a word in reply, and from that day on no one dared to ask him any more questions.
**
You ever taken a writing assignment, know what you’re going to write, then NOT write it, then end up knocking off something under the gun? I’m afraid that’s PRECISELY what happened here. Wish I had written it right away. Ah, well, lesson learned (or probably not…).

V is for Vulcan

I blame New York Erratic, and those ears, for this post about Vulcan.

When I was in fifth or sixth grade, I learned the word vulcanization. It had to do with a heat process involving the manufacturing of rubber tires, usually involving adding sulfur to the mix. The word was derived from Vulcan, the Roman god of fire, from which the word volcano also evolved.

Thus, I was somewhat confused when I started watching the original Star Trek television series. I was not a big enthusiast initially, but my father was. The first officer was a character named Spock, not to be confused with the then-famous pediatrician Dr. Benjamin Spock.

This Spock was part Vulcan and part earthling, AND he was FROM the planet Vulcan, which didn’t make a bit of linguistic sense to me at all. Someone from Venus is a Venusian, or a Martian is from Mars, and the fact that “Vulcan” was used as both the noun and the adjective bothered me somewhat.

I was not enough of a fan to know this: “Its inhabitants were originally called Vulcanians; a name used by Spock in the Original Series episode ‘A Taste of Armageddon’, by Federation colonists in ‘This Side of Paradise’ and by Harry Mudd in ‘Mudd’s Women’.” Now THAT makes much more sense.

Of course, that TV show lasted only three years (1966-1969), and that was that for Star Trek. Well, except for the animated series (1973-1974); four spinoff television series that ran from 1987 to 2005, sometimes concurrently; and a dozen films, starting in 1979, which has kept the Star Trek universe alive, if not most of the Vulcans. Or Vulcanians. (Is that a spoiler?)

(I blame New York Erratic, and those ears, for this post.)


ABC Wednesday – Round 13

Rhythm, or inertia, or whatever works

If I can’t write something at least every couple days, it feels quite likely that I won’t ever do so ever again.

I always remember this conversation, over 15 years ago, with my friend Dorothy. She was suggesting blowing off going to church choir rehearsal so so I could hang out with her and my future wife. As tempting as that might have been, I declined. It is better for me musically to get as much rehearsal as possible. Moreover, it would easily become the case that if I blow off one rehearsal, to blow off another, and another.

That’s because I’m basically lazy, and would rather read all day, or visit with y’all.

For me, the rhythm thing has long been true of exercise. When the local Y closed a few years ago, my opportunity to play racquetball regularly, which I had done for over 25 years, went with it. There was some recent minor holiday when I COULD have played racquetball at Siena College nearby, but it simply never entered my mind.

It’s accurately descriptive of work. I check my e-mail and whatnot in the morning. That first reference question is usually the hardest to finish. Once I’ve gotten my “reference rhythm”, I can generate more reference, unless stopped by a meeting or some other force.

I was thinking on this because, prior to this year, I had a very regimented pattern of going to donate blood every eight or nine weeks, barring illness or other legitimate circumstances. I’ve donated over 18 gallons over the years. But I did the apheresis thing early this year, and somehow that’s thrown off my standard clock so that I didn’t donate again until June.

This blog is much the same way. If I can’t write something at least every couple of days, it feels quite likely that I won’t ever do so ever again. Whereas writing begets writing. When I get stuck scribing one thing – “why won’t it write itself?!”, as I am wont to say – and as of this writing, I’m really stuck on one particular piece, I’ll put together something, ANYTHING -even if it’s a puff piece like this one.

I IMAGINE we’ve gotten it wrong, John, so far

It was 33 years ago, as the now bitterly ironic “Just Like Starting Over” was climbing the charts, when John Lennon was gunned down.

“Imagine all the people living life in peace,” some guy who died in 1980 said. And this is supposed to be this period where we talk about “peace on earth.” Of course, I’m also reminded of Jeremiah 6, which reads: “For from the least of them even to the greatest of them, Everyone is greedy for gain, And from the prophet even to the priest Everyone deals falsely. They have healed the brokenness of My people superficially, Saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ But there is no peace. Were they ashamed because of the abomination they have done? They were not even ashamed at all; They did not even know how to blush.”

I think we humans will always disagree, but must we, as the saying goes, be disagreeable? This post by Dustbury reminded me of this; a simple fast food encounter where the patron’s job, it seems, was to be a schmuck.

“Nothing to kill or die for.” Here’s a list of active wars and conflicts in the world, most of which you have never heard about. Many of them I never knew about.

“Imagine no possessions.” Global Wealth Rises as Gap Between Rich and Poor Grows, as reported by FOX Business News, no less.

Well, I could go on. Guess I’m feeling a little melancholy about the world, especially on this day, for it was 33 years ago, as the now bitterly ironic “Just Like Starting Over” was climbing the charts, when John Lennon was gunned down, by a fan, of course.

I’ll be less cranky tomorrow – probably.

Church and state: Francis I

If a Catholic priest were to echo Francis’ complaint about the rich-poor divide, that might be safe territory.

I found this graphic really interesting. The Socialist US Senator is embracing the Pope’s condemnation of “doctrinaire capitalism, ‘deified markets,” trickle-down economics, and the finance industry. He decried the growing gap between the rich and the poor, tax evasion by the wealthy, and characterized ruthless free-market economics as a killer that was inherently sinful.” I assume this will mean that the Pope will be painted as a socialist.

Francis, moreover, launched a broadside against former President Ronald Reagan’s signature economic theory, which continues to serve as conservative Republican dogma.

Of course, he’s in the Vatican, so he’s insulated from the US political issue. But I’m always re-examining what “separation of church and state” means. (And so is Dustbury.) I will make the case that being a good Christian – in my definition, obviously – could be, may be perceived as a political statement. If a Catholic priest were to echo Francis’ complaint about the rich-poor divide, perhaps by calling for raising the minimum wage, that might be safe territory. But if he were to name names, such as calling out the late 40th US President, that might well be crossing the line to partisan political talk that could theoretically get one’s tax-exempt status yanked.

Certainly promoting, or denouncing a political party or candidate can be a treacherous path, whereas, say, praying for the President and Congress and the federal courts to do good and just actions is OK. Calling for the closing of the wage-productivity gap is OK, but calling out the politicians who created the system, not so much.

It was weird watching Peggy Noonan on ABC News’ This Week with George Stephanopoulos this past Sunday. She was SO pleased by the new pope, who was bringing back some of the disaffected Catholics, even though he was directly dissing her former employer and mentor, Ronald Reagan, who she clearly adores (present tense). It’s enough to give other denominations a case of pope envy.

Francis still stubbornly traditional positions on women’s ordination and other issues notwithstanding, I’m liking this Pope; the fact that his position is considered radical by some tells how far from Christ’s teaching some of the church has become.
***
Bill O’Reilly speaks on behalf of Jesus about the scourge of Food Stamps

No, the US is NOT closing the Vatican embassy.

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