Yak, yak, yak

The first lie says God is full of hot air.  Macho, bullying bravado born from His own weak male ego.  That we can be adults too, deciding for ourselves what's right for us, threatens to topple His self-image as the only legitimate Decider.  But we, just as much as He, are the goddess Gaia.  So, on the contrary, self-empowerment strongly supports our owning a piece of that fruit.

In January 2010, I read a concise regurgitation of this deception by one of our American Eves.  An Episcopal priest and shrink (appropriately), Ms. Astress was cited in the Denver Post as helping revive the popularity of meditative labyrinths.   

"We're always told what to believe, what to do.  We're told.  We're told.  We're told," she said. "The labyrinth evokes our own deep intuitive wisdom about ourselves."

Church of the Happy Clappies & Old Farts

Luke 5

And after these things he went forth, and saw a publican, named Levi, sitting at  the receipt of custom: and he said unto him, Follow me.  ²⁸And he left all, rose up, and followed him.

²⁹And Levi made him a great feast in his own house: and there was a great company of publicans and of others that sat down with them.  ³⁰But their scribes and Pharisees murmured against his disciples, saying, Why do ye eat and drink with publicans and sinners?

³¹And Jesus answering said unto them, They that are whole need not a physician; but they that are sick.  ³²I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

³³And they said unto him, Why do the disciples of John fast often, and make prayers, and likewise the disciples of the Pharisees; but thine eat and drink?

 ³⁴And he said unto them, Can ye make the children of the bridechamber fast, while the bridegroom is with them?  ³⁵But the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then shall they fast in those days.

³⁶And he spake also a parable unto them; No man putteth a piece of a new garment upon an old; if otherwise, then both the new maketh a rent, and the piece that was taken out of the new agreeth not with the old.  ³⁷And no man putteth new wine into old bottles; else the new wine will burst the bottles, and be spilled, and the bottles shall perish.  ³⁸But new wine must be put into new bottles; and both are preserved.  ³⁹No man also having drunk old wine straightway desireth new: for he saith, The old is better.

Interesting how it seems that Jesus identifies his ministry while on earth as new stuff, but concludes that the aged, older stuff is better.   As I read this passage, I think He is telling us that while there is nothing wrong with us enjoying those temporary events that might come our way in life, we shouldn't expect them to last, nor cloud the deeper values.  In fact, what is new and fresh and happy and stimulating now will start to mellow and soak in and become part of the living history and fabric of our being.  He's telling us how to look at our lives and appreciate what's happening from cradle to grave.

There's Levi, fresh from a lively life of worldly action.  Big house, successful job, lots of money, lots of friends; but obviously something is missing and gnawing at him at how all this is going to waste in the grave and he won't really mean anything in the long run.  Not that there's something wrong with any particular element, it's just that a key ingredient has left all the parts without perspective and lasting purpose.  So what good is it to "have it all" when you can already taste the sour rot it's all infected with?  When you can feel the powdery dust of age and decay developing on the fine furniture?  It's all empty without that ..., what is it?  What's missing?

We're not told in Luke what Levi saw in Jesus.  Obviously he was primed and ready though.  In keeping with the attributes that made him a good businessman, he jumped on the opportunity when it came his way.  He saw in Jesus the answer; all the pieces of the puzzle.  Now it all made sense, and he jumped in with both feet.

Levi immediately put all his stuff to good use.  If it's all gonna burn, he's gonna make a torch out of it, and light the way as best he can so others can find their way to the Answer.  Feast and furniture will bring friends over to become exposed to the Truth.  I don't want to waste my stuff.  It's best use is to joyfully show off Him whom we love.

A new Christian, or a newly revived, often shows a bit of intoxication and stupor to us crusty, dusty, oldies.  They sing interminable "I love you Jesus" choruses, arms softly swaying.  They hug you and every neighbor with hippy flair.  Years later, nearly to a man, they've either left the church altogether or taken on a moderate, peaceful calm with touch of cautiousness.  They've either moved their foolishness to another venue, or they've seen their happiness turn to a wise joy.

Jesus tells the jaded and prideful, using leaders that the Levis of this world should be expected to have a bit of a comparatively shallow approach, all dancy and happy.  How often does the perfect storm of Truth and Goodness and Love and Joy touch down right in front of you?  Life will soon enough knock them down. John and all the old dead guys more deeply and accurately saw the larger picture, so fasting and prayer had become permanently mixed into their blood.  Both are right.  Neither should be rejected, but you will see the lighter duty become deeper and more solid with time.

Old farts need to give space to and have patience with the excited new guys who've just discovered the world.  Maybe we can regain and remember a piece of what this whole thing is about.  And the charismatic, frenetic lovers ought to occasionally put some energy into sitting down with and exploring the perspective of some of the wise old lords.

Left behind as a good thing.

37As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. 38For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; 39and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. 40Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. 41Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left.

The flood "took ... away" unsuspecting unbelievers.  At the end, when Jesus returns to cut short the tribulation afflicting His own, few will see it coming.  Like a tsunami, the wave of glory will wipe out those not anchored in faith and connection to Jesus.  Those left standing, those "left behind", will be looking up in newfound peace and rapturous wonder.

The message:  hang on, love until He pulls you up or clears all the debris around you.  

King James appreciation

I like the King James version because the guys prepping it did not mind leaving it a bit "raw" and with a lack of elegance when all the pieces didn't naturally fall into place.  Like having pieces of a jigsaw puzzle where the punch blade was a bit dull, so some pieces had little extra stuff attached.  It feels like KJ boys held an underlying assumption that they were not up to the challenge of knowing all the time exactly how to trim those pieces.  So they settled for leaving the extra on, trusting God would take it from there.

That's helpful for me, because it keeps some clues stuck on passages I would otherwise be even more clueless about.

Prayer Book Service at Home

Grabbed the Book of Common Prayer off the shelf today to do a little "church at home."  Despite being the 1979, the girls and I went through Morning Prayer (Rite One).  This exercise needs a lot of modifications when you've got kids who can't read.  But still, I could see the potential of having a few families meeting at a home and doing this regularly.  As a sermon, we just read Matthew 1.

First Church of Craig's List Denver part two

I forgot to get to the church part in that last blurb. The reason I started talking about the gay marriage radio program was not so much to theorize on the issue, but to trace a line to why I think we need more churches interested in teaching and living better doctrine. Teaching and living.

I'm living in a big metropolis and I can't find one church suitable for me. I know that sounds conceited and elitist. There are plenty, just about all, in fact, where there are lovely people I can serve and be served by. What I mean is that it is frustrating not being able to find an assembly which gets, or rather the leader gets, the need to attempt self-conscious submission to the Bible and it's perspective. As I see it, this should result in:

• lots of interaction
• lots of learning

That interaction should often have strong ceremonial elements, especially in regular worship. But the context for that worship should be a community of believing friends and family who come together to interact. We need to eat together, work on projects, help out ourselves and our neighbors.

We should have a building that serves as a focal point. We should have a school, including for the homeschoolers. We should find a way to get all the parents and their kids inside this or a similar nonpublic school environment. We should have a kitchen and pantry. We should have thrift store like garage for needy people to get things from and richer people to give to. Speaking of a garage, we should have a shop where the guys and their boys can come and hang out and work on their stuff together, and also do some work on the cars of needy church members and others.

By membership, I mean those whom we understand to be members of Christ's body, as in saved. We take people to be saved if they say so, and if we can't see evidence to the contrary. And we take others to be saved even if they don't say so, but we do see evidence that they are. Children of ours, for example, I understand to be His. And if you are His, you are ours.

So I want a church that's lively with real church home centered activity and purpose. That's the context for the worship, that would then be like a celebration of what we're already doing as a group. We've already got our arms around each other, so to speak, when we come in to worship. We've already been crying with each other, eating together, helping each other and others. We come in pretty much knowing all of what's up with each other and now we're ready to surround the throne, banish the sorrows and let our songs abound, as the Watts hymn goes.

I would like to characterize the "worship experience" of my ideal church as exuberant, boisterous yet dignified enough. I think that a lot is going to depend upon the pastor. He is going to have to be very strong in purpose, very connected with and in tune with what is happening in the congregation. A ceremonial style would be peachy, IF you had a super strong leadership. On the other hand, standard modern repetitive choruses, long bible study style sermons, or ritualistic perfunctory liturgy is not so helpful.

Besides the worship time, we need to offer the regular good long bible study and other teachings we nixed from the worship. We need to feed and nourish the mind and set the backdrop to our actions. So where can you find this perfect mix?

That's where I thought of Craig's List. Maybe there are others out there hungering for the same thing.

First Church of Craig's List Denver

It's funny how long it takes to try to get things somewhat clear in my head. Somewhat, and at least noticeably more clear than they had been for me!

Last night I had listened to an archive from last Friday of Ronn Owens' KGO radio talk program. He was jubilant as he celebrated with San Francisco's mayor the California court decision recognizing the rights of homosexuals to marry. It came to me that these nice folks don't see how they are floating along blissfully down to Niagara. They have undercut any argument they might have had against, say, accusations of their own "bigotry" in opposition to the right of Washington Elementary's second grade class to be a married family. One happy, polygamous band of flies.

If the Constitution is understood to recognize the rights of all individuals as more or less autonomous, then let's not stop with the marriage rights of a consenting adult male-female couple. On what basis? We have rights because we're human, gay or straight, black or white. OK, you get nicked if you commit the type of crime against others that requires us to restrict some or all of your rights -- especially hate crimes, like restricting the rights of others. That's important, because many Christians will soon be so accused by virtue of their anti rights doctrines.

So if being a live human is the playing field, why is it level only for 18 year olds and up? Up until now, their unchallenged assumption has been that "naturally" this was for the children's own good. Just like "naturally" marriage is between a man and a woman? They will be forced to admit their doctrine of human rights rests on only one thing -- the right of "I want." We are endowed by our Creator with the right to pursue whatever makes us happy, as long as we don't hurt others -- so they preach. If I want, nobody has the right to stop me.

Up until now, those Washington Elementary seven year olds have been prohibited from exercising marriage rights because they were considered incapable to properly do so. Like that's a valid argument, in light of the I Want doctrine. Age inhibits their ability to properly engage in and enjoy marriage, they have been told. And who gave you, oh parent, the right to withhold this enjoyment, in the first place. Why, this is a form of slavery!

Ageist, biggotrous arguments against child rights (to spell out what they will be charged with) is nothing but residual (and warped) Christian thought that will eventually be challenged.

They are saying: "You don't get all our rights yet, little Susy. It's because your brain hasn't grown enough. We're not saying you're not human, just not yet human enough. You need to be mature enough in thought power to sustain independence outside the care of your guardians. It seems arbitrary, we know, but we figure eighteen is the average age most folks come into their full humanity. Full enough, anyway. It's for your own good. When you cross the threshold into what we deem sufficient mental ability, then you can do whatever you want, as long as you let me do what I want."

Of course, if God or other humans place laws on them for their own good, restricting them from what they want, they object. Once they hit eighteen, no fair. Says who? Well, common sense. And who says their common sense should be taken as the guide?

Bottom line, it's one big scheme. It's the best we can come up with to legitimize our desire to get what we want. It keeps us looking respectable to ourselves and our acquaintances as we pursue our interests, our passions, our divorces and maybe our homosexual predilections, our pornography, our pot, certainly our selfish and self-centered avarice, but mostly our self-determination. I see the apple. I want it. That should be enough. Nobody has the right to stop me.