The holiday season is here, heralded by decorations in stores, 24-7 holiday music on the radio, silly commercials- and we haven't even had our Thanksgiving turkey yet. There is a lot of worried hand wringing on the news regarding the impact of the current economic disasters in our culture and how it will impact shoppers and businesses this season. I feel for those who are feeling a drastic cut in their livelihood this year, and pray for their happiness. At the same time, I welcome them to the world of those who deal with bad times constantly. This is not a cynical statement made in bigotry against the comfortable, just a mild rant in honor of reality.
In thinking more about this situation, I think about our experience as human beings at this time in our culture. If we're lucky, we grow up in a world of marvel and fantasy as children, we then learn how things work and we go to work in relationship with things and people. We gather experiences, create hopes and dreams, some realized, some not, depending on what we've been taught, and what we've been willing to sacrifice for them. While we're doing all of this life passes by without notice and, suddenly, we're old. We fight our emotions, our mental illnesses, addictions, choices, and even if we succeed materially, we may fail miserably as humans, or at least, at what we believe a human being should be.
Along the way it is very easy to become despondent, to give up, to check out. Reference the young man who recently killed himself on line while countless others watched as if it were just another act, just another spectacle created for their viewing pleasure. No one intervened until it was too late, the tension was just too sweet to interrupt. And what of the thousands of people out there who reach this point and take their lives with no one watching? What of those we tend to think of as nothing more than human debris, those who pollute the web with every type of debauchery imaginable in search of - what? Something, anything. The prisoners, the junkies, the disabled, the cast offs of pop culture. What a downer to even have to think of them.
This holiday season, when its time to carve the big 25 pound turkey and chase it down with a few bottles of vintage zinfandel that had to be opened from the stash we were saving, we can thank goodness that at least we have our sanity. OK, I guess that was a little cynical. Sorry. There is just so much more than all of this. There is much more than to try and drink away the pain and heartache caused by the lost value of the old 401k or the shrunken equity in the overvalued, overpriced and over-commissioned house we live in. So much to be thankful for.
Thanksgiving in times of economic despair? Yes! My wife challenged my family to cut up pieces of paper and write things we were each thankful for and put them in a bowl to be taken out and read during thanksgiving dinner. Two teenagers and two adults, suffering economic disaster like nobody's business, how can there be thankfulness? The bowl was not big enough to contain the slips and now they've moved into a large vase.
Happy Thanksgiving and God bless everyone.
Monday, November 24, 2008
Thursday, November 20, 2008
And now, a word from James...
"Come now you rich people, weep and wail for the miseries that are coming to you. Your riches have rotted, and your clothes are moth eaten. Your gold and silver have rusted, and their rust will be evidence against you, and it will eat your flesh like a fire."
The stinging words of the author of the Letter of James from the New Testament. Appropriate for this day and this time? Sounds a little harsh. Is it more biblical justification that the rich are to be despised, that their wealth is a sinful shackle around their fat necks that can only be thrown off by relieving them of their riches and - what? Use them to enrich others? What good would that do?
The Letter of James, written to an unknown audience (perhaps not even a "letter" at all), was not considered part of the Church canon until the fourth century. Martin Luther tried to get rid of it because the author apparently does not believe in justification by faith alone, as did he and other reformers after him. So, why should we even consider it after all this time and controversy? Especially since it speaks with such class hatred of the rich?
It does seem that James is speaking to, comforting, a group of poor people, as alluded to later in the same passage, so it is understandable that he may point out the folly of riches to those who do not possess them. Pointing out the folly of placing one's hope in riches (not necessarily condemning rich people) is a common theme of the New Testament, one spoken to by Jesus himself on many occasions. Riches, material things, easily become a place of security, a place where we run for solace and protection against the inherent unfairness and confusion of life. Worried about recession and a crashing stock market? What easier way to feel better than to look in that hefty savings account, or the equity in the residence, or the collection of anything we've stored up for it's perceived value. Easy to look there first, and to think that when all else fails, I've got my stuff. Where is God in that?
The real message, in my humble opinion, is that things hold nothing for me in the way of salvation or comfort. Things do rot and rust. And when it comes right down to it, when there is nothing left but me versus death, the ultimate recession, what really matters? I never want to have God's love for me blotted out by the glow of a plasma screen television, or feel so connected to my SUV that I can't connect with another person, one who is most assuredly hurting in some way too, probably more than I am. None of this is easy for me, but it is worth trying.
The stinging words of the author of the Letter of James from the New Testament. Appropriate for this day and this time? Sounds a little harsh. Is it more biblical justification that the rich are to be despised, that their wealth is a sinful shackle around their fat necks that can only be thrown off by relieving them of their riches and - what? Use them to enrich others? What good would that do?
The Letter of James, written to an unknown audience (perhaps not even a "letter" at all), was not considered part of the Church canon until the fourth century. Martin Luther tried to get rid of it because the author apparently does not believe in justification by faith alone, as did he and other reformers after him. So, why should we even consider it after all this time and controversy? Especially since it speaks with such class hatred of the rich?
It does seem that James is speaking to, comforting, a group of poor people, as alluded to later in the same passage, so it is understandable that he may point out the folly of riches to those who do not possess them. Pointing out the folly of placing one's hope in riches (not necessarily condemning rich people) is a common theme of the New Testament, one spoken to by Jesus himself on many occasions. Riches, material things, easily become a place of security, a place where we run for solace and protection against the inherent unfairness and confusion of life. Worried about recession and a crashing stock market? What easier way to feel better than to look in that hefty savings account, or the equity in the residence, or the collection of anything we've stored up for it's perceived value. Easy to look there first, and to think that when all else fails, I've got my stuff. Where is God in that?
The real message, in my humble opinion, is that things hold nothing for me in the way of salvation or comfort. Things do rot and rust. And when it comes right down to it, when there is nothing left but me versus death, the ultimate recession, what really matters? I never want to have God's love for me blotted out by the glow of a plasma screen television, or feel so connected to my SUV that I can't connect with another person, one who is most assuredly hurting in some way too, probably more than I am. None of this is easy for me, but it is worth trying.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
What is needed...
Words attributed to Jesus, "fear is not what is needed, but faith". A little girl was dying, or thought to be dead, the family had given up. Jesus changed all that and brought her to them, renewed in life. Fear is not what is needed, but fear nearly always wins.
The Gospels contain many messages regarding fear, and why not? The early followers of The Way were persecuted, despised, hunted. Fear was part of their every day condition. They were reminded, that faith trumps fear, that living in Jesus, God's anointed, they had no reason to fear. As the psalmist wrote, "I am not afraid, what can a mere mortal do to me?" Many died believing and holding on to words such as these when there was nothing else to grasp, never recanting.
As the daily news brings stories that are rooted in fear, there is no other way than to remember God's word. We are after all, just a breath in time. Fear of leaders, financial ruin, whatever it may be, these things are nothing more than stand in's for truth. Things get bad, they get better. In the meantime, we all have to be. I choose to be, in the light of God, where I can live in Jesus and be fully free and fully myself, no matter what my portfolio contains.
Peace.
The Gospels contain many messages regarding fear, and why not? The early followers of The Way were persecuted, despised, hunted. Fear was part of their every day condition. They were reminded, that faith trumps fear, that living in Jesus, God's anointed, they had no reason to fear. As the psalmist wrote, "I am not afraid, what can a mere mortal do to me?" Many died believing and holding on to words such as these when there was nothing else to grasp, never recanting.
As the daily news brings stories that are rooted in fear, there is no other way than to remember God's word. We are after all, just a breath in time. Fear of leaders, financial ruin, whatever it may be, these things are nothing more than stand in's for truth. Things get bad, they get better. In the meantime, we all have to be. I choose to be, in the light of God, where I can live in Jesus and be fully free and fully myself, no matter what my portfolio contains.
Peace.
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