Whole hearted 

The Little People

Romans 16:12-23 (Contemporary English Version)

Greet Tryphaena and Tryphosa, who work hard for the Lord.
Greet my dear friend Persis. She also works hard for the Lord.
Greet Rufus, that special servant of the Lord, and greet his mother, who has been like a mother to me. Greet Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermes, Patrobas, and Hermas, as well as our friends who are with them.Greet Philologus, Julia, Nereus and his sister, and Olympas, and all of God's people who are with them. Be sure to give each other a warm greeting. All of Christ's churches greet you.

My friends, I beg you to watch out for anyone who causes trouble and divides the church by refusing to do what all of you were taught. Stay away from them! ¹⁸They want to serve themselves and not Christ the Lord. Their flattery and fancy talk fool people who don't know any better. ¹⁹I am glad that everyone knows how well you obey the Lord. But still, I want you to understand what is good and not have anything to do with evil. ²⁰Then God, who gives peace, will soon crush Satan under your feet. I pray that our Lord Jesus will be kind to you.

Genesis 22:1-14 (New International Version)

Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, "Abraham!"
"Here I am," he replied.

Then God said, "Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about."

Early the next morning Abraham got up and saddled his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about. ⁴ On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. ⁵ He said to his servants, "Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you."

Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on together, ⁷ Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, "Father?"
"Yes, my son?" Abraham replied.
"The fire and wood are here," Isaac said, "but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?"

Abraham answered, "God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son." And the two of them went on together.

When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. ¹⁰ Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. ¹¹ But the angel of the LORD called out to him from heaven, "Abraham! Abraham!"
"Here I am," he replied.
"Do not lay a hand on the boy," he said. "Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son."

¹ Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram ^[a] caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. ¹⁴ So Abraham called that place The LORD Will Provide. And to this day it is said, "On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided."

It’s exciting when we feel that the scriptures written so long ago still have the resonance of truth in our lives today. We feel sometimes that this world we live in is so drastically different from the one about which Paul was writing. Yet, here at the end of Romans we find instruction that was originally meant for that church filled with loving instructions that we can still apply today.

First we must bear in mind that the church in Rome was one that was truly near and dear to Paul’s heart. IN the previous lines of the reading today we hear of people who have been just like family, the words in verse 16 sounds almost like, give everybody a hug for me.

It is in this context that we are required to look at his last words of instruction for the new church. It boils down basically to three things:

1) Watch Out!

2) Keep yourselves focused

3) Hold out for God’s help

In the first place Paul tells the church to look sharp! And this goes beyond the boundaries of what we may initially consider. It is not a matter of NOT doing wrong, but of actively pursuing the right.

I’ve heard people comment on the old adage that if you can’t say something nice don’t say anything at all—the Christian turn on that phrase would have to be, “if you can’t say anything nice about someone, then tell them all the things you love about them.” We fail sometimes to see that inaction can be equally as harmful.

My father is an immensely safe driver. Growing up and riding in the car with him I always felt safe. His focus was only on his driving no matter what else; hands at ten and two, blinker used at every merger, everything was by the driver’s manual. One night as he was driving to visit his mother in Huntington, WV he dozed off at the wheel. Angels must have been with him, his car simply went into the median and stopped. But there is our example. Sometimes inaction is just as if not more harmful than the wrong action. Technically Dad did nothing during the accident (he was after all asleep and inactive), yet it could have been a great tragedy.

So here Paul is warning the church to stay awake at the wheel! Don’t let trouble makers take root in the church community, he asks. One translation includes at the end of verse (17) says, “Keep away from them!” But, I enjoy a different translation which comes out “Look sharply at them” Not only keep your eye on them, but make it known that they are outside the community of faith with their actions.

In a way this goes along with Paul’s second point, which is asking the church to stay focused on the goals at hand. They are there not to serve themselves, but Christ; they have important work and Paul asks them to be truly concerned with that and not with the flattery or fancy talk that the troublemakers bring.

The last part of his wisdom, Paul talks of the God of peace “coming to crush the adversary.” Hold out for God’s work, this says. Hold out for His help in these matters. These people who, again, I like the words of my translation, which read “those who put stumbling blocks before you.” These people, however, will be dealt with by God, or by his work. We can perceive the warning here; never act to try and protect our own pride, but instead keep an eye on those who would hinder the deeds of Christ with their attitude, and let God’s Will prevail with them.

It a hard distinction to make but an important one. It’s the difference between doing our will and the Lord’s.

***

But why are these people here? So, even in the earliest days of the church there were those who, much to the chagrin of the other Saints, stood in the way of faith led people taking action? Or, was Paul’s warning even deeper to include the leaders themselves? Perhaps the better question than “why are those people around?” is “how do we keep from becoming like them?”

For the Why and for an understanding of those who would place the stumbling blocks in our path, we are in luck that our reading this week is matched up with the familiar Old Testament tale of Father Abraham.

My own father actually doesn’t like this story very much at all. He has a hard time perceiving not only the act but why God would ever even ask it of Abraham in the first place. I suppose as his son the fact that this idea is so foreign to him is comforting somehow…

And it is a difficult story to read. Poor Abe! After years of waiting is finally able to rejoice in the blessing of a son, the promise made so long ago has come to fruition only for God to go and ask for the gift back! I am sure I would not have been able to stand up to the task. Some can say that God is unfairly baiting Abraham, waiting for him to fail, hinging the promise on some gruesome act. Others would say that it is a test for Abraham, a monument to his faith if he is able to truly draw the knife across his son’s throat. The latter, I think, is more correct.

It is a test, but here we have to understand the deep relationship that Abe and the Lord of Heaven shared between them. In essence God had been testing Abraham since he was a young man, commanding him to leave the valley of Ur and travel far to the west. And ever since his story started he is tested again and again and again. God makes a most special promise to him and as the holder of the line; God must come to know Abraham intimately. To know Abraham better than his wife ever knew him. To know Abraham better than his own mother knew him. And God knows of course that action speaks so much more loudly than words. Not but a few weeks ago we read from the 7^th chapter of Matthew, “Not every who says to me Lord, Lord will enter the Kingdom of Heaven…” Honestly this all reminds me of the song Eliza Doolittle sings in My Fair Lady:

Don't talk of stars burning above; If you're in love,
Show me!

Tell me no dreams filled with desire. If you're on fire,
Show me!

And so, I can imagine God saying those exact same things. If you love me. Show me. If you are on fire. Show me. Thus has it always been for Abraham. What I meant when I originally said we must understand the relationship so as to understand the real meaning of the tests, was that Abraham’s life wasn’t really a test as we think of it, but more like all our lives are, truly, a succession of Opportunities to show God our true heart. This is the only way he has of getting to know us… With Abraham it is only more so. God will allow nothing to get between him and his chosen Steward of the Promise. If anything in Abraham’s life is going to get in the way of God’s Will, it is going to be his son.

The son who is the culmination of decades of waiting. The son who, to Abe at least, represents the entirety of God’s promise to him. It is a symbol of their connection even. But God, as we know, is a jealous god, and will let nothing be between them. So, the call comes out... Give me your son. Show me. Understand here though that Abraham’s love was not in question here, but instead God questions the placement of his heart. Which is it? Your son and all he represents, or continual obedience to my Will, not matter what that may be. No matter if you will or won’t understand it.

It’s a hard question. And yet the same is asked of use all every day in a thousand ways we are constantly provided with the opportunities to show our God how we love Him.

So why must we bear the troublemakers who divide the church? Because, they are only those who have come up short in the question of heart placement. And, yes, we are asked to separate ourselves from the doctrine of foolish talk that they come out with, but we are commanded to watch them, because what is the true purpose of the church if not to take people when they fail the Test of Abraham, and guide them, and love them to more opportunities for continued reconciliation with God?

So we take Paul’s last words of his letter to a beloved church, and we remember not to “fix” people as we see them in need, but we respond in love to them as God guides us to do. Because the last part of verse (20) echoes to us out of the ages: “I pray that Jesus will be kind to you.” A lasting warning from Paul, “Follow what I am asking of you, because sooner or later we are all on the receiving end of Grace, and in need of Christ’s compassion.”

oh and here is me kicking ass in Rtype...w00t 

Dot Be fooled-Illus-From BBC 

Don't Be fooled

I was reading this news article the other day where they were interviewing the Jewish settlers in Gaza who were having to relocate... They were actually wingeing about having to move! And about how it was unfair for the government to expect them to, blah blah blah... TOTALY ignorant or wishing to be so, of that fact that they themSELVES are the interlopers in this situation. Those stinking yahoodii KNEW full well that it was Palestinian land when they moved onto it. Palestinian homes were demolished to make way for their own settlements and they have the actual BALLS to sit there and complain about it when retribution is served. The BBC is casting a pretty sympathetic light to it all too, but by no stretch not to the extent the Americans are.
Above is a little map to illustrate.....

OK… See everything in RED? NONE OF THAT SHOULD BE THERE. GAZA is part of PALESTINE. A SEPARATE COUNTRY from Israel. And yet the Israelis feel that it is ok for them to MOVE IN AND SETTLE there? Do you see in any way what is wrong with this picture??

somehow the snakes aquired a battle cry as the fell... 

THEY SUCK EYEBALLS

So... when I was a camp counselor yeah verily and long ago, I got really sick of having to tell the kids to watch where they were going because (especially the little ones) were always tripping and then we would have to stop and coddle them until they stopped crying and you could never say some thing like, "You call that a scratch? You little pissing whiner how dare you was my time for this little nothing! I'll well give you something to bloody cry about if I have stop one more time, do you get me?" Stupid child services. Survival of the fittest I say! Regardless I devised my own little way of making those little anklebiters stay focused on marching... I mean... Hiking...

See, I told them (and honestly I have to tell you that this really started out being a little experiment in how much children would believe--it's not my fault they are gullible) that in this section of the forests there were snakes. But these were tree snakes who spent almost their entire lives in the trees. They would be attracted to noises made by hikers and they would drop down out of the trees and fall on the faces of the campers and SUCK OUT THEIR EYES. They were all properly horrified.

They asked, how the snakes knew when to dive, and I told them that when they would see the gleam of eyeballs they would know that their snack approached. So the only defense was to be quiet and to keep your STINKING GOB FACING THE GROUND. Ok I put it a tidge more delicately, but you get the idea.

So anyway this brilliant plan was working really well, until an irate parent said that her son was drawing pictures of these tree-snakes at home the week after they returned from camp...

Soda Girl2 

The art of Small Talk

Picture it. You’re sitting with two close friends, sharing a meal. Your years have progressed together, you’ve grown old together, you’ve seen other friends come and go, you’ve seen children grow up and forget, but through it all you few have survived together. So as you sit with them, sharing a meal together, what do you talk about? Is it how much these two have meant to you? Is it about the fears you share about you inevitable death, are you dealing with your own mortality? About the pride of loved ones? The sorrow of loss? The joy of a life led? Goodness no.
Why waste your precious few years on earth that you have left to be with friends this way on such base trivial matters. Most likely we will talk about the same things we practiced talking about all of our lives. Our ailments. What’s wrong with us, our lives, the world in general. There’s a truly depressing thought. What we talk about to day and tomorrow will be the same things we will talk about for the rest of our lives.
So if you’re excusing yourself by thoughts of you as a wizened elder someday, sharing the deep knowledge that you have acquired, think again. Most likely you’ll be having the same squabbles, the same discussions, the same everything that you trained yourself to talk about your whole life. In most instances you and I will die wondering when the “age of enlightenment” was supposed to fall upon us.

Unfortunately we spend the majority of our time in conversations complaining, and as our lives draw to a close it will be no different. The terms will change, the situations will be different, but the emotions will be the same. What are you getting removed, why, and how much is it going to cost. There is no real age of enlightenment for us, but we can’t blame older folks for talking the way they do. In a lot of ways they are simply reciting what they spent a lifetime practicing. Small talk.

But we, that is every generation, are professionals at small talk. We ask questions that have no meaning or worth, and we readily accept the same in reply. “How are you,” has lost nearly every ounce of meaning in our world. For the most part in the simplest of conversations say between you and the doorman we are caught up entirely in the familiar meter:

How are you

Oh, fine, and you.

Fine, thanks. See you.

See you later.

It looks ridiculous when you write it all out lie that doesn’t it? But the fact is that is how we talk to people, people we could very well, every day of our lives.

The truth of it is that we don’t even know how to ask each other about the other’s true and honest well being anymore. And as for those few people who do try to go the extra mile are seen are freaks because they are too “spunky” and those who refuse to play our clever little banter games are see as cold and rude because they don’t respond with our classically expected responses.

So in fact we have trained ourselves not to want anything else but the cool sobriety of “small talk.” And after a while we forgo that there was ever a time that existed in which we actually cared about conversation and the meaning behind words we spoke. Of course I suppose that not every person in our societies today could have possibly forgotten those times all together. There are those people who still genuinely care, regardless of what we as a society have taught them. These people actually want us to respond to the questions they ask, who want to hear what we have to say as individuals, who actually care about those taboo ideals like heart and spirit. We label them as optimists, dreamers, fools, et cetera. . . We make it our soul mission to seek these people out and break their spirits if it is at all within our power. Secretly we are jealous that they posses the ability that so many of us blindly allowed ourselves to loose. It makes us angry to realize that they constantly are reminding us that there is a better way to approach people. As just that instead of objects that feed us prerecorded responses. I wonder why Furbees were so popular.

Of course I would hate to make generalizations, however (actually, I make that statement solely out of courtesy) the worst of it seems to be concentrated in our cities. Actually that’s not quite right. The epidemic is concentrated in the cities, but it is not the fault of those people who actually live in the city. It is the fault of the people who work there and then retire to the suburbs.

Ah yes, Suburbia, the American Dream. Each family’s “Little Piece of Heaven.” The dog, the wife, the children – almost as neatly placed as the rows of homes up and down the block. Though, lets not get off topic here and start off on the insidious construction of the American suburban home; it’s not the construction of the homes that is really the problem, but, rather, the people that reside within them. The people that have raised themselves there. There is some relationship between the cities and their suburban leeches that goes beyond economics.

Either one on their own would not breed cold arrogance and ignorance so well as the two do together.

As I said before the problem really isn’t with the people that actually live in the cities. Within cities there are “small towns” that keep the city as a whole alive. In any city it happens, the city becomes simply too large to sustain any kind of social group as a whole, so the entire thing breaks down into sections, which in some cases can become almost exactly like small towns, with all of the social attitudes that go with that. In some cases you will have people living in one section of a city who have never really ventured out to other parts of the same city. Though we all say how horrible it is when we hear that the old woman in the small southern mountain town has never seen beyond 30 miles of her home, when there are women and men in cities who could say very much the same thing. I wonder why that is? Each community would generally consist of 3000-4000 people. by this breakdown though I am not referring to gangs though even they are a part of that small town environment. The fact is that every town has gangs of teenagers, it’s a part of how youths in that age range find their place in the world and within themselves.

I have a friend who was in lament over the fact that I had decided not to spend the larger portion of my adult life in the city. Now originally we were both from small towns in what you might call the mid-west, which were for the most part semi-rural areas. By that I mean that within 20 minutes you could be in a mall or a national forest. However, for him, in order to “progress” into the next stage of life it was required that he go to a city. It was like he was upgrading.

The things that make it comfortable for us to keep this façade of small talk going however are ‘false walls.’ We create them out of our interests, our locals, our features. It becomes a real game we play, City vs. Country, Rock vs. Classical, Black vs. White, Posh vs. Poor. The keep us comfortably surrounded and cut off in the face of the most important and taxing times in our lives (this is why people explode into tears at funerals—it take someone dying to finally put a chink in their walls). The Art of Smalltalk allows us to reside in that comfort indefinitely. Never reaching into someone else’s box to offer a moment’s worth of real comfort, or letting someone see the reality of what we feel.

I was in a staff meeting in which I confessed to the group a great sadness that had become part of my home life. I had been taking Fridays off for about four weeks and this was the reason behind it. I was spending more time with a close member of the family who needed to know that I cared for him still. During my speech I was obviously upset and yet after I finished one of the staff, instead of offering any words of comfort tried to lighten things by telling a joke. The whole staff got a good chuckle obviously relieved that the mood had been shifted and the woman probably got points for being someone who “takes control of the situation.” I sat there, trying to smile to save face, but incredulous on the inside. Not one single person at that meeting acknowledged that I, someone with whom they had been working with for months, was troubled and in pain. Instead they hid behind the comfort that levity brought them. A wall of humor. Or small talk.

Small talk is for small minds. Now I’m not saying that there isn’t a time for asking about the weather, or the latest game, but there is a reason that we call it SMALL talk. It takes no mental skill, no wit, no emotional commitment, no effort. You put so very little into communicating with someone like this that your reward for doing so is that the relationship and the conversation respond in equally small doses.

Picture this. A husband and wife are sitting across from each other. They’ve been married for years. They only talk to the waitress. They have come to dinner, they sit. They sip beer. They nibble chips, they don’t look at each other; they don’t smile. They fidget. He sucks at his teeth. Takes account of his wallet. They sit. Nibble more chips. They sip more beer; he folds and refolds the check. They sit in silence. Clean their molars. He looks at the check again. They never smile. She touches up her lipstick. They are ready to go. Talking about the weather. They leave. And I wonder why they bothered at all.

The magnolias are blooming...