Idolizing the Words, Ignoring the Word

There is a difference between divinely

inspired and divinely copyedited/translated

across multiple languages. We would do

well to not idolize the created thing.

Fightin' Words?

I just want to hold my grandchildren today and remind them I promise to make the world better for them. Even if they choose the need to make a difficult decision regarding a pregnancy, even if they discover they are gay or trans or whatever color of the rainbow they learn themselves to be, to keep them safe from classrooms riddled with dead kids, to promise to love them regardless and to never stop fighting to make the world safe for them.

Reminder for the Christians out there: We are called to be salt and light and make disciples as we go, never called to legislate our views of morality on the world in which we live. This world is not our home, and no political or religious extremism will ever make it so. Jesus never told his followers to get political power and change the Roman laws to be more like pre-King Israel.

There are believers on both sides of these issues. So for all you "I'm right, you're wrong" believers who feel like you have the hotline to God that the rest of us don't, remember that church history is filled with reformers who needed to correct the established church over and over again that they didn't have everything right any more than any of us do. Also, know that none of these issues are requirements for faith or indicators of its presence or its absence. Your understanding of scripture isn't absolute. Nor is mine. All believers would all do well to remember that.

When you come for bodily autonomy, you're targeting my daughter and my granddaughter. When you come for the right to marry your chosen human partner, you're targeting my nieces. When you come for the rights of trans folks to exist equally in the public square, you're coming for some of my best friends and my chosen family. So, yeah, damn right I'm gonna fight you on this. Know that well. 

False Dichotomies of Faith

Be careful, my fellow believers, when you start to divide things… Your job is to be salt and light, flavoring and shining, not separating.

There isn’t a separate sacred world and secular world. Although there can be sacred and secular mindsets. Nor are their sacred and secular jobs. Nor are their sacred and secular items (like music or pen sets or figurines). As believers, we unite the whole by being sacred in that one single world.

And we’re to enter into that one world with love and not as a clanging cymbal. We to be salt and light, not as a sort of morality police. We (as we go) make disciples one person at a time, not trying to change the world top-down from a place of cultural, political, or community power or authority, but grassroots, one at a time, from a place of lowness, humility, meekness, patience, long-suffering.

Sacred is the image of God that is part of creation. Too often, we define it as something it is not, i.e., an arbitrary (gnostic pretty much) grouping of things that are "God things" (like church and clergy, etc.) and secular as things that are "not-God-focused" like your regular job, your kids playing recreational sports, music, etc. 

It's a false dichotomy that came about with Kierkegaard in developing the move from reasonable faith to a leap of faith. He began with the physical (the real) and the spiritual (the woogie boogie, not his words, but the idea), and the culture of Christendom ran with it, dividing the clergy from the regular workers, the study of theology from the study of nature and science and literature and other God-infused disciplines, dividing sacred activities like prayer and reading scripture from secular activities like helping a neighbor build a house and tending to a garden (caretaking God's creation). 

We took it to its natural course post-Great Awakening by creating full subcultures of so-call sacred things and so-call spiritual things. That's given us such heresies as the Christian music "market" and Christian stationery sets, to avoid having to mess with their "secular" counterparts.

I'm referring not so much to the biblical ideal of sacred, which is defined as being set apart and is a matter of the heart (all over the old testament in regards to sacrifices) but the human ideas that get passed around as what sacred means in order to draw arbitrary lines in God's creation and in the great wealth of knowledge in that creation, whether originating from devotion (theologic) or discipline (rational/scientific/philosophical). Sacred in the OT pretty much only comes into play in regards to sacrifices and offerings. It is we believers who abused the word to make it mean something different. And that's the point of all my comments today. We keep trying to beat that same dead horse to divide between the right and wrong, when sacred has nothing to do with that. The divider is between sacred (set apart) and selfish (held onto) not sacred (spiritual) and secular (non-spiritual). 

I just don't believe in the myth of the "secular world." It's just the world. 

And the sooner we stop talking like it, the sooner we'll be better equipped to be actual salt and light rather than referees who stand on the side and judge.

Immigrant’s song

by John Fischer

It’s hard to talk about Christianity in American culture right now without getting tangled up in politics — something I prefer not to do from the Catch if I can help it. But on the currently contested issue of immigration, I can’t help it. Mainly because there is a biblical mandate, both New and Old Testament, to welcome and make room for the stranger and the foreigner. If we are going to be marketplace Christians, we need to exhibit God’s attitude toward strangers and foreigners regardless of what our government does, and God is always placing them first. We may disagree over what we want the country to do or how they do it, but there is no discussion when it comes to us individually.

This is true for us as believers wherever we are in the world. Over forty times in the Old Testament, the Jewish people are admonished to welcome the stranger and the foreigner. And both Jesus and Paul speak of the same thing to us as followers of Christ. Hospitality toward strangers is built into our spiritual DNA.

Perhaps we can learn something from our Jewish friends. A recent article I read from a reputable source pointed out that there is a strong movement among Jews in America to aid and assist their Muslim neighbors and provide hospitality toward Muslim refugees among others. Syrian refugees can take English courses through a free program at a New York synagogue. One Rabbi claims that the current attitude of shunning immigrants being exhibited in America is “a betrayal of what this country stands for, what we Jews stand for, and is a terrible recollection of our own history… There has been an incredible coming together of synagogues around the country to welcome Muslim refugees. Jews really understand what it is to be ‘the other’ and to arrive in a strange country.” And now this same hospitality is being extended to Afghan refugees. 

What is it to be “the other?” Many of us don’t know.

Read the full article: https://catchjohnfischer.com/2021/09/14/immigrants-song/#more-18081

John 15:13

Embrace sacrificing your
rights for others' safety. 

Make America Groot Again!

Celebrating Independence (and independence of thought)!

Yesterday was a day for celebration, but today is a day for reflection. 

Just a reminder that Independence Day did not in fact bring independence to any but the former Europeans who declared they were no longer citizens of the Crown, and had little bearing on the then freedom of the new country's members of the population who were (a) still not seen as citizens or (b) given the right to vote or (c) still legally owned by others as slaves. Women, folks who didn't own land, and slaves still had a long way to go toward freedom, equality, and independence. It's good to enjoy the holiday as the beginning of something awesome but history is important and reminds us that it wasn't true independence for all (who were supposedly "created equal"). It's also okay to love your country and see it as a work in progress, not a finished system. It was a fantastic and radical first step, but it still had a long way to go and a lot of other people to include.

There is a school of thought out there that I think honestly believes that if you criticize something about the U.S., you can't be a patriot or love being American and be thankful.  (Not directed at anyone in particular. Just a general acknowledgment from being on social media.) I find that an odious thought.

If my job as a citizen was to simply to say that all our history and all our national documents and all our ideals are all above critique and we shouldn't question them because that makes us U.S.A. haters, then where does the opportunity to learn from our mistakes come from? Particularly if we refuse to admit we make any because we're 'Murica, dammit." Where can the opportunity to see our documents as living drafts that need to change as our country grows come from? 

I love my kids, but they still have issues to learn from and to change, just like I do. I love my country the same way.

For me, loving America means so much more than having the biggest flag on the block. It means so much more than relegating patriotism to whether or not someone stands or kneels during the national anthem. It means I'm proud of some of what we've done, and I have the freedom to change the other things I'm not proud of us about. It means I have the freedom to understand and acknowledge that we have a mixed bag in our history of both good and evil, and I have the right to confront the evil. It means I have the freedom to make a statement by my words and actions. It means I can respect and love my country without seeing its symbols as synonymous with its goals or even its ideals. I can love freedom and even turn away from the flag because I honor the sacrifices of those who gave their lives to keep us free. It doesn't mean I always need to turn away though, but if I feel the country is in need of understanding a shortcoming, I have the freedom to address it as it behooves my conscience. 

For me loving my country means loving it with my whole heart warts and all, but instead of calling those warts triumphs, I can freely admit what they are and apply a balm to repair them and makes us even better. For me loving my country means I have the freedom and the responsibility to speak out even during times of national celebration without it diminishing my love for it.

15 Most Personal Songs (a musical apologetic) -- #1 The Beatles, "Eleanor Rigby"

As a child of the 70s and 80s, I didn't have the luxury of computer games and social media to shape my thoughts. Instead, a lot of it came from the music I listened to. 

These are the top fifteen songs that helped to make me who I am and help keep me on track as a genuine person in this human experience. #STformativesongs

#1 - "Eleanor Rigby" by The Beatles

There has always been a sort of profound sadness in this song to me. So many people go unnoticed all the time. How can I dare say I'm being salt and light in the world if I let them continue to go by unnoticed and unloved. 

Some people say I'm too friendly, that I treat total strangers as if I've known them all my life when I strike up conversations in grocery store lines, at the coffee house, or in a waiting room while my car is being fixed. I just ignore them and think of this song again. 

==================

Ah, look at all the lonely people

Ah, look at all the lonely people

Eleanor Rigby

Picks up the rice in the church where a wedding has been

Lives in a dream

Waits at the window

Wearing the face that she keeps in a jar by the door

Who is it for?

All the lonely people

Where do they all come from?

All the lonely people

Where do they all belong?

Father McKenzie

Writing the words of a sermon that no one will hear

No one comes near

Look at him working

Darning his socks in the night when there's nobody there

What does he care?

All the lonely people

Where do they all come from?

All the lonely people

Where do they all belong?

Ah, look at all the lonely people

Ah, look at all the lonely people

Eleanor Rigby

Died in the church and was buried along with her name

Nobody came

Father McKenzie

Wiping the dirt from his hands as he walks from the grave

No one was saved

All the lonely people (ah, look at all the lonely people)

Where do they all come from?

All the lonely people (ah, look at all the lonely people)

Where do they all belong?