Jezebel's Judgmental Christmas Spirit

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When the website is named Jezebel.com, one expects some irreverence and sarcasm. There is a bit of that, but the greater surprise is how closely the headline hits the mark by proclaiming, "Churches Admit They’ve Lost ‘War on Christmas’ by Canceling Christmas Day Services."

I remember my Christmas Eves at church as having an aura of the supernatural. We sat among comrades, not fellow attendees. Upon leaving the warmth of a candlelit sanctuary, the night sky was filled with starlight or snowflakes. Either way, creation was adding its testimony that provision had been made for Peace on Earth. I wanted that legacy for my children too. Each year it got harder to find a church that was committed to a reverent celebration.

2011, with Christmas falling on a Sunday, Jezebel declared, "churches are actually canceling or scaling back services on Sunday so that their parishioners and clergy can spend the day doing more Christmassy things like opening presents, eating, and watching Wal-Mart commercials with The Nutcracker Suite playing in the background." It is far more likely that it was a Proctor & Gamble, automobile, or cell phone ad, but except for that, she was right. Apparently folks don't want to be beleaguered with the effort of worshiping as a community on Christmas.

Jezebel ends her commentary with a pair of emblematic questions. "And if churches aren't really observing their own religion's holidays anymore, can we really call them churches? Wouldn't it be more accurate to just call them Song Singing Judgment Societies and be done with it?"

I will spot her the "Song Singing" part, but beyond that, can someone PLEASE explain to me where the Judgment comes in? From this spot along my rabbit trail, the view is one of Misjudgment, or possibly Lack of Judgment.

Footnotes ♦ Ryan, Erin G. "Churches Admit They've Lost 'War on Christmas' by Canceling Christmas Day Services." Jezebel, 23 Dec. 2011. http://jezebel.com/5870856/churches-admit-theyve-lost-war-on-christmas-by-canceling-christmas-day-services

Officially Winter

Winter comes tonight at 12:30 am EST


...and it is 64°F at midnight, and tomorrow is forecast to be warmer than today!

Solstices have always held a fascination for me. For awhile, I was cowed into feeling guilty about that because, face it, pagans have co-opted and corrupted these celestial holidays. But this year I found liberation in the form of a vocabulary word: naissance.

Naissance by itself (according to dictionary.com) means "a birth, an origination, or a growth, as that of a person, an organization, an idea, or a movement." I ran across this word when it was used to describe the biblical figure of Job as a Naissance Man, as opposed to a Renaissance Man, who would be re-naissance. (I have since learned that Naissance also happens to be the name of a maternity shop for belly dancers, but I digress.)

Job and his friends were Ivy League scholars of their era. They understood what we call natural science better than many scientists today, and they mixed it seamlessly with philosophy which gave them a broad outlook that is often lacking in this era of specialization. The Book of Job is a naturalist's extravaganza offering many insights about creation.

Then God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years." Genesis 1:14

Job and friends were fully aware of this. It is not a pagan thought. He clearly knew the difference between celebrating the grace of his Creator and idol-worshiping creation.

²⁶ If I have looked at the sun when it shone Or the moon going in splendor, ²⁷ And my heart became secretly enticed, And my hand threw a kiss from my mouth, ²⁸ That too would have been an iniquity calling for judgment, For I would have denied God above. Job 31:26-28

There is a grace that is accessed by knowing God in His creation. Finding enjoyment in His planning for for seasons is not an iniquity calling for judgment. Denying me the freedom to celebrate the strengthening of His Light might be.

11•11•11

I am not listening for spirit guardians. I am not into blackjack, (although I used to play the non-gambling version with my children while they were learning to add.) I do not have a wedding planned; (it's supposed to be a favored anniversary day.) Nevertheless, this picket-fence date does hold a certain fascination for me, so I thought I'd search the web and see what popped up.

#1. The Mayan apocalypse is still over a year away, so I'm not sure why it seems to be relevant in a search for today's date—maybe the pricey SEO is kicking in because this is regularly showing up near the top of lists.

#2. Egypt's antiquities authority sealed off the Great Pyramid, claiming the closure was unrelated to any 11.11.11 observance or ritual. Hardly anyone believes the official excuse of "maintenance." There are just too many rumors.

#3. The Great Blue Norther. 100 Years Ago. I was not familiar with this event by this name, but I do remember my 4th grade teacher talking about it. (It must have been a story her parents told her because even though she was pretty old when she was my teacher, she would not have been that old.) Here is what Wikipedia says:

The Great Blue Norther of 11/11/1911 was a cold snap that affected the central United States on Saturday, November 11, 1911. Many cities broke record highs early that afternoon. By nightfall, cities were dealing with single-digit temperatures on the Fahrenheit scale. This is the only day in many Midwest cities' weather bureau jurisdictions where the record highs and lows were broken for the same day.

#4. This blog lacks a strong conclusion.

Spookiness

Sun Still Stands

They say that history repeats itself. Except sometimes it does not. Take, for example, the story of Joshua's campaign into southern Canaan. Perhaps you know it as the Day the Sun Stood Still.

There was no day like that before it or after it, when the LORD listened to the voice of a man; for the LORD fought for Israel.
Joshua 10:14

When my rabbit trail doubled back to cross paths with this story twice in the same week, I figured it was time to do some investigating on my own. I will share my discoveries, but first, here is a copy of the scripture form Joshua Chapter 10, verse numbers indicated:

9 ... Joshua came upon them suddenly, having marched up all night from Gilgal. 10 And the Lord threw them into a panic before Israel, who struck them with a great blow at Gibeon and chased them by the way of the ascent of Beth-horon and struck them as far as Azekah and Makkedah. 11 And as they fled before Israel, while they were going down the ascent of Beth-horon, the Lord threw down large stones from heaven on them as far as Azekah, and they died. There were more who died because of the hailstones than the sons of Israel killed with the sword.

12 At that time Joshua spoke to the Lord in the day when the Lord gave the Amorites over to the sons of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel,

“Sun, stand still at Gibeon,
and moon, in the Valley of Aijalon.”
13 And the sun stood still, and the moon stopped,
until the nation took vengeance on their enemies.

Is this not written in the Book of Jashar? The sun stopped in the midst of heaven and did not hurry to set for about a whole day. 14 There has been no day like it before or since, when the Lord obeyed the voice of a man, for the Lord fought for Israel.

First off, notice that there is no mention of "running out of daylight." I had been taught that as a child, but that claim is never made. At best, it has to be deduced from the word "until," but when interpreted literally, there is no indication that Joshua was desperate for more time.

Next up. we need a map. This is courtesy a nice little (free) program called biblemapper.com North is straight up.



Notice the sun at Gibeon. The moon is over the Vale of Aijalon to the west. The only times that you can simultaneously see the moon in the west and the sun in the east are the first few mornings after a full moon. If the sun is to the east, it is still morning. If the army of Israel had pursued the enemy to Beth Horon, and if they see the sun to the east over Gibeon and the moon to the west over Aijalon, then Joshua was not yet running out of daytime. (Was he, perhaps, planning ahead?)

Curiously, it is the Book of Jasher that makes the direct claim that the day was declining. These are the pertinent verses from the Book of Jasher, chapter 88:

60. And the Lord confounded them before the children at Israel, who smote them with a terrible slaughter in Gibeon, and pursued them along the way that goes up to Beth Horon unto Makkedah, and they fled from before the children of Israel.
61. And whilst they were fleeing, the Lord sent upon them hailstones from heaven, and more of them died by the hailstones, than by the slaughter of the children of Israel.
62. And the children of Israel pursued them, and they still smote them in the road, going on and smiting them.
63. And when they were smiting, the day was declining toward evening, and Joshua said in the sight of all the people, Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon, and thou moon in the valley of Ajalon, until the nation shall have revenged itself upon its enemies.
64. And the Lord hearkened to the voice of Joshua, and the sun stood still in the midst of the heavens, and it stood still six and thirty moments, and the moon also stood still and hastened not to go down a whole day.
65. And there was no day like that, before it or after it, that the Lord hearkened to the voice of a man, for the Lord fought for Israel.

Another rather silly thing I was told as a child was that the earth stopped rotating. Forget the physics involved; I do not even want to go there! It is silly on a solely theological basis: Verse 14 said God listened to the voice of a man. The man never asked for the earth to stop, only the sun and moon.

If it were a global rather than a local miracle, Chinese, Mesopotamian and Egyptian civilizations were sufficiently developed at this time that if they had noticed a long day, it would likely have made their record books. In the Americas, where the Aztecs are known for their observation of the skies, there should be corresponding records or legends of a long night. It is also possible that the standing still of the sun and moon were limited to local observation around Beth Horon, and the reasoning for that possibility is linked to the hailstorm.

At least in the English translation, it seems that the hailstorm was occurring concurrently. For hail to be that deadly, it is likely that a combination of strong updrafts increased its size, and strong downdrafts increased the velocity of its fall. There were definitely some atmospheric peculiarities occurring at a fairly high altitude that day. True, hailstorms are usually short-lived, and neither lightning nor auroras look like the sun standing still, but it was a miracle, after all.

At the end of the day, a very long day, we are left with the inexplicable. The key point is God's choice of control: he listened and provided a completely unique answer.

My rabbit trail came upon this subject because my pastor has read the book Sun Stand Still by Steven Furtick. It is a book that pumps up one's audacity to pray for big things. When the pastor was giving his sermon on this, the Walter Mitty in me wanted to stand up and scream out, "You know that God getting the sun to obey him isn't very daring, don't you? Of course His sun, moon, and clouds will do what they are told! The truly bold prayers are prayed by people who ask God to change the wicked, because the wicked rarely listen to God by free choice."

Summer's End

What do a sixteenth century painter and a herdsman who lived eight centuries before Christ have to do with a basket of summer fruit?



Caravaggio lived in the late 1500s. He painted people. He painted fruit. He even painted people with fruit. He painted fruit with wormholes, rotten spots, and scab lesions. His paintings were so realistic that modern horticulturalists can diagnose fungal pathogens, nutrient deficiencies, and the presence of specific bacterium with long Latin names. He wasn't above painting a fly on the fruit either. He painted fruit at the end of its season, fully ripe and ready for the taste test.



Amos was a herdsman and fig farmer around the year 785 B.C. He was not one of the guild prophets, but was called by God to prophesy. He had four major visions, and one of them was about fruit.

1 Here is what Adonai ELOHIM showed me: there in front of me was a basket of summer fruit. 2 He asked, "'Amos, what do you see?" I answered, "A basket of summer fruit." Then ADONAI said to me, "The end has come for my people, I will never again overlook their offenses.

No great stretch of the imagination is needed to bring the term "ripe for destruction" to mind while reading Amos's vision. Likening the imminent judgment to a quickly decaying basket of summer fruit is a strong visual metaphor. Although Amos was sent specifically to the Northern Kingdom and the most literal meaning of his message applied to those ten tribes of Israel, summer fruit is seasonal and a new crop grows up each year.

The injustices committed by oppressors, the selfishness of the powerful, and an emphasis on materialism—the very things that brought judgment then, are still found in abundance in our society today. But that is not really news, and this blog will not become a political or religious harangue.

Rather, in my life along the rabbit trail, I have come to understand that when people achieve their goal by perverting justice, when people can achieve their end by making false accusations, and when people see only the material and exclude the spiritual, the result is a devaluation of righteousness.

Righteousness makes a nation great. We have God's word on that: Righteousness exalts a nation, Proverbs 14:34. Conversely, the devaluation of righteousness debases a nation.

This last day of summer (in the northern hemisphere) is a good day to inspect fruit before God decides it is time to add to his compost pile.






~ Scripture from Amos 8:1, 2; Complete Jewish Bible online
Footnotes in many translations point out the play on words with Hebrew words for end [Hebrew: ketz קֵץ ] and summer [Hebrew: kayitz קַיִץ ] fruit sound similar

Two Towers Stumped - A 9/11 Lesson

I arrived at church this morning thinking thoughts of 9/11, the 2001 version. From a church-goers perspective, that event had beefed the attendance and had created a congregation of two mindsets. Those who had confidence in their eternal salvation were thinking eschatologically, while those who lacked such assurance were seeking hope for their souls.

Now, a decade further into world history, another fair September day, a special service had been set to focus on the current phase of mankind's long war against God and God's prophesied plan for the restoration of Israel.

I was walking up to the front doors when I saw it. Another two towers had fallen, chopped down by another intentional act of violence. These two towers were trees. For as long as I have attended this church, I have watched these two trees grow. Last spring they were a delight to see as their leaves emerged in perfect symbolic cadence with the Resurrection season. This summer they had been a joy as the trees were finally large enough to offer serious protective shade for after-church chatting. Now they were gone. Two stumps greeted the worshipers that day.

I asked if they had been diseased. I had not noticed any disease, but sometimes an insect attack can take out healthy trees in just days. No, the answer that I received was that they were tired of raking leaves!

I am pretty sure they destroyed over a thousand dollars worth of property value by hewing down those two trees. If these trees had been lost as a result of a storm or by vandalism, there surely would have been an insurance benefit. The International Society of Arboriculture uses a copyrighted formula to determine the value of landscape trees. Texas A & M also has an appraisal method. Both take four things into consideration when determining value, and the two trees at my church would have rated well on all counts.
• Size – Trunk diameter is measured a couple feet above ground level. This would have been a little tricky because the trees were an ornamental that grew in a clump. They had grown almost ¾ of the way to their mature 40' spread.
• Species – From what I have been able to determine on a web search, these were bore-resistant ornamental trees, valued for landscaping.
• Condition – I have never seen the roots, but the above ground structural integrity seemed fine. If leaf loss was a problem, I will comment on that later.
• Location – The placement, functional and aesthetic contributions of these trees were wonderful. The root systems did not threaten sidewalks or parking lots. They had exfoliating bark that added interest even in winter.

The Lesson – Weary of raking leaves.

One cannot grow trees, children, or churches by getting tired of raking leaves

All year long our church has been proclaiming "The Year of New Beginnings." Every week the people have been met with a visual of a seedling to promote the concepts of refreshment and renewal. Our pastor is on a much needed sabbatical this month. Apparently the men in charge of grounds keeping need a sabbatical too. What will they do when that new seeding gets big enough to shed its leaves?

Leaf fall is part of the normal cycle for deciduous trees. When drought comes, a tree will shed its leaves early as a defense mechanism to save itself. When a tree is losing leaves in August instead of October, the answer is not to run for the nearest chainsaw. The answer is to get out the hosepipe and give it some water, for crying out loud!

Our congregation's stated vision is to restore abundant life. That takes water, not an axe.

I am positive that no one was "led" of the Holy Spirit to cut down those trees. I highly doubt anyone even prayed about it. If they did, tell me and I will come back and print a retraction.

The trees did not chop themselves down. They were not "asking for it" either. By dropping their leaves, they were only protecting what God had given them. If I were in charge, I would not let anyone touch those stumps! If by some miracle they put out new shoots in the spring, I would let them grow. It would be a bittersweet reminder of what happens to lives that are destroyed by other fools and of how God is faithful.

Grace is a Wonderful Thing

The sun rose over the world this morning and for the first time in over 96 years, it rose on a world without my father. Pop, as he was always called by everyone except his grandchildren, who called him Papa Stone, was a two-time hospice survivor.

In theory, no one should survive a hospice. It is where one goes to die. Yet he returned twice, once in 2003 and again in January of this year. Such events define his life. He was a different drummer on the road less taken.

His last few months were filled with many sleepy times. During some of these periods he seemed to be not completely "present." This is sometimes referred to as traveling, but unlike an intentional attempt to achieve spiritual enlightenment via astral projection, this 'traveling' is more like a sorting of old memories to find validation. I do not think that it is traveling as much as it is preparation for a journey. During these times, a person is likely to 'talk it out' with himself.

That is the setting for the story I am about to tell, but first, a bit more background information is needed. For most of my life, I have had no clue as to whether he had accepted Jesus as his personal savior, the defining element of being saved. His sister said that he had gone forward at an altar call when he was 17, and he had certainly been active in a church when he met and married my mom. But all of that was before my time. By the time that I was old enough to have clear memories, my mother's Baptist background had found my dad's Presbyterian Church somewhat lacking. After a counseling session with her old Baptist pastor, mom picked out a "compromise" denomination for the family. Ultimately, she ended up taking us kids to church by herself, because as soon as we became a two-car family, my dad spent Sunday mornings visiting his (by then) mostly bedridden mother.

It was a complex situation, but the salient point is that communication had broken down, and no one knew exactly what my dad thought when it came to spiritual issues. Fast forward to last month:

My dad's caretaker was fixing a meal in the kitchen when she heard my dad talking in another room. She went in to where he was sitting. His eyes were closed, so she rubbed his forearm to bring him back to the present. He opened his eyes, looked straight at her, and said, "Grace is a wonderful thing." She could scarcely believe that she had heard him correctly and asked him to repeat it. Whereupon he said, "Grace is a wonderful thing, isn't it?"

From that point on, she said, the "traveling" stopped. The day he died, he awoke alert, ate a big breakfast, showered, dressed, and began a good day. Then his breathing became shallower and shallower. The visiting home nurse who had seen him that morning was surprised that he passed on that afternoon.

He left us with his belief that grace is a wonderful thing.



This photo was taken by Ed Rybczynski at sunrise on 27 Aug 2011, the last day of Pop's earthly life. I find it a perfect statement of passage.

[used by permission — Mr. Rybcznski is documenting a year of sunrises at http://www.edrybczynski.com/page1]

And Another Sheep Bites the Dust.

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And another sheep bites the dust... figuratively and literally.

One of the hazards of growing up attending Sunday school regularly is that, unlike many of my contemporaries who came to the Lord later in life, I have an entire library of sanitized Bible stories within my memory banks.

Quickly now, what can you remember about Samson? He was strong. He pulled down an entire building. He had a dalliance with Delilah, for which he paid dearly. And those who have a really good memory, (or a proclivity toward either the mystic encounters or pyrophilia,) might recall that his mom had a visit from an angel before he was born, or that he tied torches to the tails of 300 foxes to burn the fields of the Philistines.

The Sunday school versions of the story usually leave out the part where his father-in-law gave his wife to his best friend. They probably also left out the part where God split open the rock basin in Lehi to revive Samson with spring water, and in some bizarre time warp, they may have omitted the fact that he judged Israel for 20 years. At least mine did. I was left with the impression that Delilah had been his rebound relationship. The Sunday school handouts didn't portray Delilah as a national hero wannabe for the Philistines, and they did not address how Samson's parents didn't raise him to be that way. (Oh, the heartbreak!)

It is understandable why Bible stories are adapted for children, but it can lead to inadvertently passing along wrong ideas. I discovered one such case this week.

One of my Sunday school "Classics" was the 23rd Psalm: The Lord is my Shepherd.

My Sunday school teacher left us with the impression that life could be like the old style Disney movies, the ones made when Walt Disney was still alive, where birds and forest creatures were ushering the Peaceable Kingdom with lilting arias. To my child's mind, any green pasture worth lying down in is going to have lots of bedding. Much like this photo by Pam Brophy from the Geograph project:




But this week my rabbit trail took me to a website called Follow the Rabbi. It was there that I found another picture, one that is likely to be an accurate portrayal of the prototype pasture for Psalm Twenty-Three. It's hilly. It's rocky. Shade is scarce. And in-between the rainy seasons, any grass that might remain after a herd of sheep has grazed there is likely to be dusty. The grazing sheep literally bite the dust.


Figuratively, this second picture seems to be closer to the kind of world the psalm was written for. The sheep in the first photo have so much grass that they could stay there forever—sort of like heaven. The sheep in the second photo will need to be led in paths of righteousness. Their food supply is rather short, (in more ways than one.) They will need to make a journey, just as a life in pursuit of God is a journey. Goodness and mercy cannot follow if one does not move on down the path.

Reference link to the 23rd Psalm



If the 23rd Psalm is a metaphor for the providence of God, which picture should we be teaching to our children? The question is fodder for thought. Do you show your child the God of the luxuriant meadow or the God of the wilderness pasture?

When God reveals Himself to my children, I want the pictures to match.










Sheep Pasture at Shinfield © Copyright Pam Brophy and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence

Why Homeschooling was cutting edge 25 years ago— And still is.

I found this great animated talk that can tell you in about 10 minutes what it would take me a half-hour to say.

Tropical Depression

Tropical Depression Emily. I guess it is official now. There is a satellite picture to prove it. My name is Emily, and I'm tropically depressed.

I was surprised by the accuracy, actually. The 'legendary' colors show a sad blue exterior surrounding a vibrant core. Furthermore, it has bearing and momentum—North at 10 mph, so even if I am not getting anywhere fast, at least I am not headed south, quite the opposite! Look closely and find a thin silver lining!

Only the depression is headed out to sea. The rest of me intends on sailing over the bounding main and making landfall.

Someday I will make landfall. Someday.

Sailing, sailing over the bounding main
Where many a stormy wind shall blow
'Ere Jack comes home again
Sailing, sailing over the bounding main
Where many a stormy wind shall blow
'Ere Jack comes home again

photo from wunderground

Riding the Volcano — from Pad 39-A to the Sea of Tranquillity

Forty-two years ago, a lunar module landed on a barren surface beneath a black sky. It had a plaque affixed to its descent stage which would be Left behind as a monument to its historic trip. it read:
HERE MEN FROM PLANET EARTH
FIRST SET FOOT UPON THE MOON
JULY 1969, A.D.
WE CAME IN PEACE FOR ALL MANKIND

One can hardly miss the parallels and contrasts between this message and that of another space traveler—one who had not only traveled through the universe before, but also happened to have created it. Earthmen had traveled to a barren, colorless world, but His destination was full of color and teeming with life. His message was:
I HAVE COME AS LIGHT TO THE WORLD
SO THAT EVERYONE WHO BELIEVES IN ME
WILL NOT REMAIN IN DARKNESS

You might recognize that as John 12:46. The physical world was bright with sunlight, but the spiritual world had been darkened by sin. The other Space Traveler brought a way to restore what had been lost in the Garden of Eden, and it is the most giant leap that anyone can take. Philosophers call it a leap of faith.


One of the astronauts described the launch from pad 39A as "riding a volcano." The journey began in fire and flames, but the destination was the Sea of Tranquility. In many ways, it was a Pilgrim's Progress for the 20th century. The journey demanded total commitment. Bailing out was not an option. Only mission control had the authority to abort. The astronauts had to follow the directives from mission control; their lives depended on it. The goal was a successful landing in a place of peace. The reward was glory.

Mankind is called to make that trip to the Sea of Tranquility where Jesus is our Peace.

Apollo 11 Saturn V Launch (HD) Camera E-8 from Mark Gray on Vimeo.

Sacred and undeniable? Or Self-evident?

The rabbit trail of my life has intersected with a fair number of history buffs. I have never taken the time to analyze if I am attracted to history lovers because they know interesting stuff, or if they are attracted to me because I am willing to listen to them. Either way, there is some sort of affinity there, and as a consequence, every few years someone is sure to inform me that Independence Day is really on July 2nd, and not on the 4th.

On July 2, 1776, Congress adopted Richard Henry Lee's Resolution that “these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states....and that all political connection between them and The State of Great Britain is, and of right ought to be, totally dissolved.”

In the days when social tweeting was limited to our avian friends, no one in England knew about that decision yet. It was Thomas Jefferson's highly edited version of The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America that was approved on July 4th. (Notice that "united" was just an adjective at that time and not part of the name of the new country.) It was on the 4th of July that we gave our well-reasoned account for declaring our independence. I have met several invidious Jezebel-types who have tried to tell me that our country was founded on violence. They are dangerously ignorant and just as bone-headed as King George. Unfortunately, they worked for the government. (And, no, Sheryl, 'King George' does not refer to Washington!)

Back on June 11, 1776, Congress had asked Jefferson to be part of a committee of five men who would draft a list of reasons for separating from England. (Other committee members were John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Robert R. Livingston and Roger Sherman; in perspective, Jefferson wasn't that well known outside his home colony of Virginia yet.) Jefferson was chosen to write the Declaration because (a) he had a splendid vocabulary and had shown a flair for writing, (b) he was still sort of 'grunt' status in Congress, Adams and Franklin being better known and having fuller schedules, (c) it was a providential assignment by God, or (d) all of the former reasons. Personally, I will go with d.

The Archiving Early America website added another reason: they say that Adams wanted a Virginian to write it, and I have no reason to doubt that. In fact, the second paragraph, the remainder of this one, and the paragraph that follows ought to have that website cited as the source, continuing with: "All told, in writing the document, Jefferson — together with his colleagues — made forty-seven alterations in the text, presenting it to Congress 17 days after the Committee had been named."

"Congress also changed Jefferson's original phrase "sacred and undeniable" truths to "self-evident," which appears in the document today. But to its everlasting credit, Congress saw fit to retain what has become “one of the best-known sentences in the human language” and “the most potent and consequential words in American history."

And so, Congress approved this wording: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights...

Which do you like better? Sacred and undeniable? Or Self-evident? Personally I prefer "self-evident." When rights are endowed by our Creator, calling them sacred and undeniable is redundant.

Bonus Round: Link to news article where Obama has misquoted the Declaration

A Midsummer Night

Steep thyself in a bowl of summertime. ~ Virgil, 70 - 19 BC


I love that quote from Virgil. Steep means to extract the essence of by soaking; and anyone who has experienced the liquid humidity of a Georgian summer knows that is right on the mark. Nothing else captures summer quite the way a pool of bright green pond scum does.

Midsummer actually falls on the solstice. The "mid-" part comes from old calendar systems where summer begins with May Day. Although astronomically, we are just beginning summer at solstice, it is the mid-point of the maximum daylight, so it all works.

For much of the English-speaking world, due in large part to Playwright Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream, the faeries of Celtic mythology are still remembered and associated with this festival day. To create a setting for his comedy, Shakespeare drew upon the ancient belief that summer solstice created a "thin place" in the cosmos where one could travel between the mystical and the physical realms.

When the first Christian missionaries visited the Celts, they found a people who believed that the divine pervaded each facet of life—that the spiritual and physical coexisted. It was a culture that fit the descriptions in Acts where scripture says that God did not leave Himself without witness, in that He did good and gave you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness. and that the divine Creator of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands. Despite some dissension between factions and conflict with the papal hierarchy, the more effective early missionaries did not fuss over changing the culture and converting the Celts into "good Roman Catholics." What came of it was a style of Christianity that emphasized the handiwork of the Creator more than the approach that came out of Rome.

Virgil, Shakespeare, or whomever, whether or not you celebrate Midsummer's Eve with faerie dances and bonfires, it is a good time or year to remember your Creator and thank Him for a universe that runs with such precision that we have a summer solstice to celebrate.

Scripture from Acts 14:17 and 17: 14

Fathers' Day at the Geezer Service

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Protestant churches have caught on to what the Catholics were pioneering when I was a kid—the hootenanny mass. They wanted to make God more attractive to the youth. ( pause for reflection...   It would behoove us to realize they ended up with the Flying Nun.) So we have two services. Same sermon, different flavor.

If there was ever a concept that mixes cluelessness with an equal amount of absurdity, it would be that of mankind attempting to make God attractive.

Anyway, I'm not sure what goes on at the youth service, but the geezer who led the prayer this morning used a phrase worth repeating: entrusted with manhood.

That is a provocative (in an intriguing sort of way) take on fatherhood.

It resonates with a segment of 1 Thessalonians 2:4 — we have been approved by God to be entrusted
(The King James uses "allowed" rather than "approved," but all four literal translations I checked used "approved" and another lexicon used "deemed fit.")

This is probably one of the most under-preached secrets to fatherhood and parenting in general: being able to trust the trustworthy. Raising a child to be trustworthy is only a portion of the job. The child then has to be entrusted. That is how a father-God develops a son's self esteem, no, make that his value. God the Father entrusted his Son with Saving the World!

But, on a smaller scale, it is fundamental to raising (not razing) really good kids.

"Entrusted" is a concept that is lacking in the secular-psychology paradigm for creating self-esteem. Parents are told that they need to "affirm their child's value." But that misses the mark, and it is not how God treats His kids, at least, not the primary way.

God did not say, "Abram, I'm choosing you because you have value!" Rather, He said, "I'm choosing you because you can be entrusted to teach your children to keep the way of the LORD." (loosely paraphrasing Ge 18:19) In other words, he was chosen because of his values. The choosing of David and Daniel and most of the prophets follows a similar course. God did not affirm the individual's value. He affirmed the values the individual held.

It is just one little 's' that makes a world of difference. Compare:

Affirm a child's value. vs. Affirm a child's values.

It is the noble values of a child's heart that ought to be affirmed and established.

The 50th Day

In one of the ironies of life, the fairly fundamental and liturgical church where I grew up always celebrated Pentecost Sunday. The altar cloths were changed to a fiery red and the organ played hymns heard only once a year from the special Pentecost section of the hymnal. It was our one dalliance into anything remotely mystical. The early verses of Acts Two were, of course, explained away as a one-time event.

¹ While the Day of Pentecost was running its course they were all together in one place, ² when suddenly there came from the sky a noise like that of a strong driving wind, which filled the whole house where they were sitting. ³ And there appeared to them tongues like flames of fire, dispersed among them and resting on each one. ⁴ And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to talk in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them power of utterance.

But verses 16 -18 made the minister a little nervous.

¹⁶ But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel:
¹⁷ "'And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
and your young men shall see visions,
and your old men shall dream dreams;
¹⁸even on my male servants and female servants
in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy.

For one day out of the year, it was permissible to contemplate portents in the sky above and signs on the earth below: blood, and fire, and vapors of smoke. The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before that great and terrible Day of the Lord.


As I began to say, in one of the ironies of my life, the miracles-died-out-with-the-apostles church where I grew up always celebrated Pentecost Sunday. But throughout my adult life, spent mainly in churches with an end-times outlook and Pentecostal flavor, very seldom has Pentecost been mentioned as a festal day. Today's geezer service, to the pastor's credit, did sport a hymn about the Holy Spirit, a very singable melody in ¾ time. I am not sure what happened in the contemporary service, but seeing as how waltz music is hard to clap to, no doubt they opted for something else.


Now I am going to have to point out my point because I am pretty sure I have not made it yet. My point is, one has to be responsible for his or her own spiritual life because every church is going to leave stuff out. There is a Day of the Lord coming, and whether you find it 'great and terrible' or 'great and resplendent' depends upon how you plan for it. Don't trust your church to have it covered.

School's Out! ♦ Time for Windsock Parenting

A windsock is just about as good an image for the end of a school year as anything else.


It's Tethered Freedom.

Certainly in parent-directed homeschools there is never a complete severing of the ties that bind growing minds to scholarly exploration. Even in families where formal schooling is relegated to the paid professionals, learning does not come to a complete standstill over the summer months. Like a windsock, real learning is free to flutter in new directions once the student leaves the scripted classroom setting.


Never Underestimate the Swivel Clip.

It is not alluring or flashy. It does not catch your eye and hold you under its enchantment. In fact, the best ones are easily overlooked. Good parenting is often like the swivel clip. It holds securely enough to keep a child grounded, to keep him from breaking loose and falling away; yet gives him his 360°s of mobility for room to grow.

So, What Do YOU Have Against the Resurrection Rabbit?

For one brief week I thought, perhaps, I had escaped the Resurrectionists this year.

Resurrectionists, (not to be confused with insurrectionists, although I do consider them radicals,) will never wish you a Happy Easter. They are passionate about using the term Resurrection Day instead. They would surely disagree with Shakespeare and contend that "Arose" by any other name smells.

So Easter 2011 had passed, and I was happily rationing my Cadbury mini-eggs to last another fortnight when BLAM! Out came the double barrels aimed not only at the term Easter, but a shot was taken at Easter eggs too. Suddenly, I was being judged guilty of supporting the pagan god Ishtar! Ishtar is the ancient Sumero-Babylonian fertility goddess. According to my accuser du jour, Ishtar encouraged her worshipers to indulge in springtime orgies to propagate a new crop of infant sacrifices for the following year. Apparently Ishtar did not have much faith in the math proficiencies of her subjects, because they had to use eggs as counting markers to make sure they got the numbers right.

One of the problems with that explanation is that this happened centuries before Jesus rose from the dead. One really cannot have an "origin" for Easter that pre-dates Jesus' arrival on Earth. Any claim that early Christians were foolish enough to adopt Ishtar's pagan rites is culling the wrong mission field.

A second problem is that linguistic evidence supports the idea that "Easter" came, not from Babylonian culture, but from the Anglo-Saxons. Old English 'Eastre' was the goddess of the sunrise in Northumbria. The root is austra-, and in Proto-Germanic languages it meant "to shine" or "of the east."

Early missionaries to the Angles, Saxons, and Celts followed a philosophy somewhat in line with the Wycliffe Bible Translators of today: minimal impact on indigenous cultures. Unlike the missionary endeavors that sprang from the Reformation Era and resulted in major upheaval among the North American natives, emphasis was on changing the heart, not on effecting outward change in tribal customs.

From my perspective, that is neither adopting nor adapting paganism. It is, rather, incremental restoration of the original Creation. The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof... Psalm 24:1

The term "Easter egg" does not appear in English until 1825. The symbolism of new life is so obvious to anyone one who has ever observed a hatchling emerge from its shell that it is almost ludicrous to posit that we "learned" this from pagans. Time, space, and the Holy Spirit all sever me from the celebrations from ancient Babylonia.

But for those who have connected with the occult, there may indeed be a need for caution. In 1 Corinthians 10:23, Paul writes that all things are lawful. With unbelievers, he eats meat without concern so that he won't come off as priggish and ruin his testimony. With new converts, he abstains— for the sake of their conscience, not his. In verses 29 and 30 he gives his rationale for this apparent contradiction: For why should my liberty be determined by someone else's conscience? If I partake with thankfulness, why am I denounced because of that for which I give thanks?
English Standard Version

On a whim, I decided to check that verse in another translation. Perhaps you will be as delighted in the reference to eggs as I was.

But, except for these special cases, I'm not going to walk around on eggshells worrying about what small-minded people might say; I'm going to stride free and easy, knowing what our large-minded Master has already said.
1 Corinthians 10:29 — The Bible in Contemporary Language, Copyright © 2002 by Eugene Peterson.

Truly an Earth Day

Good Friday and Earth Day are crammed into the same calendar square this year.

If you are looking for an Earth Day scripture that fits the pop-culture rhetoric, try Isaiah 24:5
The earth is also polluted by its inhabitants...

But now try putting it in context by adding the next line:
The earth is also polluted by its inhabitants, for they transgressed laws, violated statutes, broke the everlasting covenant. Therefore, a curse devours the earth, and those who live in it are held guilty.

God isn't talking about oil spills or greenhouse gases. He clearly tells mankind what pollutes the earth way back in the earliest chapters of the Bible. We see it in the story of Cain and Abel. By the time mankind advances to the Book of Numbers, it is codified into law:

So you shall not pollute the land in which you are; for blood pollutes the land and no expiation can be made for the land for the blood that is shed on it, except by the blood of him who shed it. Numbers 35:33

And THIS is what makes Good Friday truly an Earth Day. The blood of Christ was shed for the clean-up of the Earth.

Spring 2011

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap110221.html