Christmas Musings Day #1

 Christmas Musings Day 1

Creation

Genesis 1:3 (ESV) ³ And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.

               When I was in High School, I devoured Science Fiction. I read all the greats and many not-so-greats. I also enjoyed, and still do, Sci-Fi movies and television shows. My brother justifiably claims that I do not discriminate between the good, mediocre, or bad, enjoying all. So this summer, when the new space-based telescope came on line and the marvelous images started to stream into my computer, I rejoiced. A new portal had opened onto vistas I’d only imagined before. Now along with excited astronomers, I could peer far out and back witnessing stunning, breathtaking beauty. It is almost as if I stand on the edge of time, witnessing the advent of the universe.

               Truly, any serious contemplation of Advent begins with creation. After all, God knew the outcome of creation. “Let there be light…,” implies a coming sacrifice. He knew the separation and suffering the initial burst of light would set in motion, and I speak of His separation from His Son and the suffering that they would endure to make things right. I find the whispers from long past transcendent with His glory. They blaze across my computer screen. But even they pale into insignificance when I consider what they herald. He’s coming and He knew he was coming when He breathed them into being. 

Still Teaching

 Still Teaching

I was watching my father slowly pass away. Two years ago, he was diagnosed with leukemia, a grim prognosis at the age of 84. Fortunately, as his condition progressed his primary symptom was tiredness and lassitude after chemotherapy. He never complained during the twice-weekly rounds of transfusions and infusions. Now, we were in that quiet place, the place of no return, the place of hushed whispers, periodic beeps, dim lights, and waiting. It is a calm and breathless place; one we knew was in our future but never spoke about except in brief elliptical phrases. We did everything we could to avoid it, but it arrived inexorably.

Here the moments drag on, but the hours race by. We make innocuous small talk all the while aching to say meaningful things. It is too late for a close hug, so we settle for a soft touch, a gentle press of the hand, a lingering brush. We gather in the hall, looking away and talking awkwardly as the nurses take care of those necessary functions we mastered so long ago and now have slipped away, lost as the shell crumbles. Task complete, we reenter the room and pick up where we left off, trying to reinforce connections forged long ago, now corroded by disease and infirmity. We engage in those anxious conversations, “Dad, do you have any instructions for your memorial service?”

Long moments pass. “Dad, if you have any wishes regarding your funeral now is the time to tell me.”

Again, long moments pass with no response. Worried that he has not heard, I lean in close, “Dad is there anything you want done for your funeral service?”

“No.”

“Are you sure?”

“Don’t care. I won’t be there.”

“Are you sure? After this conversation, I will not pester you about it anymore.”

Another long pause, “Finally, I’ve finally taught you to stop pestering me.”

Even as the shell crumbles, the sense of humor remains. He cannot let the moment for a good laugh pass. After this, the moments slip past more easily. Soon there is no response, only slow ragged breaths, quickly in and slowly out. “Sing to him,” a nurse urges, “Hearing is the last sense to go.” So, his wife and granddaughter gently sing favorite hymns. And then even the breathing stops. A nurse comes in checks for pulse and pupil reaction. She quietly notes the time and slips out as the tears slip in.

Now a few weeks later, I tap out these thoughts. Across the room, on a shelf, a nondescript white cardboard box sits. Another task passed on to a reluctant son. What do I do with this box of his mortal remains? As he would gladly note, he is not here, just some ashes to either store in a more appropriate container or scatter over a significant place in some sort of poignant ceremony which my brother and I will plan. My father always looked forward, not back, which was rather odd for a man who spent his professional life as a historian. But if you knew him, knew his own history, it made sense. So, I will sit down with my brother and sort through some ideas, developing what we think should be done. That is what we did with the memorial service, and it turned out nicely. 

A Walk in the Woods

  As with most people, I love coming to the mountains. Somehow the rugged terrain, dark swaying pines, and trembling aspens directs my gaze upwards. Or perhaps it is the billowy white clouds against a cobalt sky that draws me. Maybe, it is the delicate palate of the wildflowers poking out of emerald grass. No matter the cause, when I stand in an Alpine meadow my spirit soars in ecstasy reaching towards my maker. As I type this, those same clouds, now gray and pregnant with rain crowd around and soon refreshing rain will fall…at least that is what I expect. These marvelous mountains witness to Kohl Yahweh, the towering presence who conceived all of this. 

Look out into the deep darks of space, filled with spinning galaxies and breathtaking nova, or look down into the microbial life of fungi working in concert with plants to cleanse our atmosphere of pollutants, threatening to choke us, and you find evidence of the towering intellect. Words fail to adequately capture this magnificence. One even hesitates to assign limiting gender with limiting pronouns such as him. The Lord, the God who designed all of this, lurks behind every trembling leaf, pointing pine, tiny mushroom, or spinning galaxy pinwheeling through the dark. That God would take note of me, deigning to reveal His presence to this minute insignificant blob, stumbling through this world amazes…and humbles. The sweeping vastness and beauty of God’s creative power amazes and drives one to worship. Yet, we so often miss the point.

We look at creation, this glorious creation, and turn it into a point of theological argument. I have friends that are convinced that creation took seven twenty-four hours periods, and other friends that are equally convinced that it took eons, both groups devout practicing Christians, and both equally convinced that the other is woefully misguided and bordering on lost. I am not a theologian, so I do not understand the need for such a strong stand on something no human witnessed. It just seems to me that the wonder and majesty of God’s handiwork ought to outweigh our mere human attempts to interpret whispers from past events we did not see. When I walk through dark forests or across sunlit meadows, my heart echoes the opening words of Psalm 19.

1 The heavens declare the glory of God,

    and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.

2 Day to day pours out speech,

    and night to night reveals knowledge.

3 There is no speech, nor are there words,

    whose voice is not heard.

4 Their voice goes out through all the earth,

    and their words to the end of the world.

   In them he has set a tent for the sun,

5     which comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber,

    and, like a strong man, runs its course with joy.

6 Its rising is from the end of the heavens,

    and its circuit to the end of them,

    and there is nothing hidden from its heat.

Through our intransigence we have turned what Yahweh intended to be a unifying force which draws us together in praise to God’s power, beauty, and might into an argumentative cudgel to beat each other with, or a wedge to separate. We miss the point. In our arrogance and pride, we assume that we can somehow plumb the depths of a misty past, arriving at a logical conclusion about issues we barely understand. Walk in the woods and breathe deeply of Adonai’s creative power and might. Revel and enjoy, be uplifted by the magnificence of God’s craft. Look deeply into the delicate balance and wonder. Look far out into the darkest reaches of space and be humbled by the titanic scale of the universe. Let this majestic creative work point you toward Elohim and drive you to your knees in worship. But please, do not use your feeble understanding as a weapon to divide God’s body. Instead, let us go out into creation and join with it in praise the Lord of all creation. 

Being Right

 29 Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. Ephesians 4:29

17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. Colossians 3:17

A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. Proverbs 15:1

I have enjoyed the pleasure of two exciting and stimulating careers, the Army and teaching. Both careers challenged me, requiring excellence and creativity. Not every moment in either profession brought the same level of fulfillment, in fact, both provided days of boredom, pain, and frustration; however, in both, I enjoyed getting up each morning and heading off to slay dragons. Both provided enough remuneration to keep my family in good housing, with an abundance of food, and other needful things. Both require a high degree of personal excellence.

Success in the Army and in teaching requires a devotion to being right. In the Army, lives depended upon my ability to make a right, or good, decision. Each day in the classroom, I stand and deliver instruction, often on a wide variety of topics, and this instruction will either help a young person move ahead in life or will hurt them if I am wrong. The ability to “be right” has circumscribed my entire professional life. Over the years I have grown confident in my ability to sort through a mass of data and come to a good defensible right decision. But how do I use my ability to come to a right decision?

I can be right in such a way as to make “the right” so odious that no one within the sound of my voice will choose that right. I can use being right as a cudgel, bludgeoning my way to victory over the emotional wreckage of those I am talking to. We can be right and still be woefully wrong. My daughter once told me that she did not like talking to me because I was always right, and she never was. Cut to the heart, I had to reevaluate what I had taught my “little” girl. Through my actions, I had inadvertently taught her that being right was the primary goal in any discussion and that being right was a tool to brandish until the other person submitted to your viewpoint. In my zeal to “win,” I had alienated my daughter, resulting in a closed-door of communication and an inability to influence her for good or ill. Fortunately, she said this when she was young enough for me to alter my behavior and begin the process of healing and reconciliation. Being right was different from loving communication. In my intellectual hands, I used being right as a weapon.

In our current culture, we use being right to pummel others into submission. We elevate the cutting sarcastic remark to the paragon of success in debate, and this is nothing new, one need only to read a little Shakespeare to find a well-spring of putdowns. We mistake being right with being convincing. We adore public figures that, “tell it like it is,” as if their pugilistic use of conversation itself deserved respect or envy. We pour out an unremitting stream of biting remarks and then wonder why no one is convinced despite our impressive manipulation of facts. This predilection for “being right” tears at our national and cultural fabric, rendering the cooperation needed for progress elusive and near impossible. We have forgotten how to temper our drive to be right with the traits of gentleness and kindness.

We need to remember that often there is more than one “right” answer. We can let someone think otherwise without loss. Also, when listening to someone explain their views, we discover facts that may lead us to modify our own views. Letting someone hold their own view is a mark of respect and does not necessarily mean that we agree with their views. If life and death are not involved, we may need to let someone be wrong. Gentleness in speech may tamp down the level of acrimony, allowing time for careful consideration of the issues involved. Gentleness may be the salve needed to preserve precious relationships.

When we batter each other in a never-ending quest to “be right,” we damage relationship. We may win the transitory argument; but, when we force the issue, it often shuts the door to relationship. Giving other people the room to be wrong shows respect for the person. We can respectfully disagree without loss of face. We need to make sure that we stay on topic, eschewing the tendency to equate the issue with the person and then descending into personal attack. We should always frame our discussions around the idea under consideration and actively listen to what the other person is saying. Being gentle with each other preserves the relationship, leaving the door open for further communication, and perhaps, compromise. Graciousness in communication helps ease the way to better understanding. And we should never forget that we might be mistaken. The point of discussion, or even debate, is to make a better-informed decision. When we replace informed decision-making with being right, we harden our position, trying to make it as defensible as possible. Maintaining relationship whenever possible should be one of our signal considerations. When I discard, or damage, relationship just to be right, I have not done or said things in love. I cannot help but wonder how things might be different in our homes, schools, and nation if we took a deep breath and allowed others to be different, to hold different opinions, and to be wrong without censure?

The 4th

 And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor. U.S. Declaration of Independence.

 It’s the Fourth of July. My flag is out, my version of carnitas are on the smoker, and soon I’ll be reading a good book in the cool shade. Later, family members will join us for a late lunch. That is how I choose to celebrate. I often think about patriotism. After twenty-plus years of service in the Army, this idea remains at the forefront of my daily thinking, but I do not appreciate the jingoism that pervades most expressions of patriotism these days. I especially do not like the snarky memes that traffic in false patriotism…well I do like the “Happy Fourth, You Ungrateful Colonists.” Those are funny. But what does patriotism mean today and who are the true patriots?

 I like the quote from the Declaration of Independence. Those men understood sacrifice and peril, the sacrifice required to make our nation possible, and the peril of taking that step. They also understood the concept of personal honor and what that kind of life required. True patriotism always involves some sort of self-sacrifice. We tend to limit that to falling in battle; however, many among us demonstrate true patriotism through the tenor of their lives. Their actions that make our nation better cost them something. For some, such as teachers, they choose a life that entails hard work and low remuneration, nurses and public servants do the same. Some display their patriotism through volunteering in often quite unnoticed acts of selflessness. These men and women truly display their patriotism with no real thought of reward.

 True patriotism includes honor and to maintain one’s personal honor one must embrace fidelity to the truth. Sadly, many of our leaders ignore the truth, perhaps hoping it will go away. They embrace a lie to maintain some sort of hold on power, place, and privilege. They fly the flag, wrapping themselves in red, white, and blue bunting while hoping that we will not notice they build on a foundation of lies. They have no honor and are not true patriots. We need patriots that unflinchingly look for and embrace truth to grow as a nation and live up to the ideals laid out in our foundational documents. This fourth of July, let us recommit ourselves to the ideals of truth, justice, kindness, mercy, and compassion, those things that all true patriots espouse and what will make our nation truly great.

What's Next...

 5 Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, 6 who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. II Corinthians 3:5-6

Across our nation, men and women of good conscience celebrated the U. S. Supreme Court’s decision which rolled back Roe v. Wade. Like me, they mourned the death of voiceless innocents. But, if we place our faith in dubious political machinations gained through gaming the system, we lean upon a weak reed indeed. I remember a world before Roe v. Wade, a world in which abortions took place. It was also a world in which many Christians counted that as a decision between a woman and her doctor. Changing the law, while a good thing, will not solve the foundational problems.

We still exist in a culture that glorifies violence in its many guises. Just as Roe v. Wade was transient, this current change is transient. Given the nature of our political system, so dependent upon voter energy, a few election cycles may bring in a new crop of justices willing to reinstate an updated version of Roe v. Wade. The group of politicians, willing to carefully engage in a long-term campaign designed to game the system and place justices of their own stripe on the bench, may find themselves among the retired ranks next cycle, leaving behind a judiciary far out of touch with the citizenry as a whole and bereft of credibility. And we will be no closer to solving the problems which result in so many abortions. I find it astonishing that a group of people who decry the ability of law to solve human problems placed so much faith in changing the law and not working on the conditions that brought about such carnage. Now, those angered by this change will be all the more animated in reversing the change, leaving us a much more difficult task. If we truly believe in the sanctity of life, we must address the current cultural conditions which devalue life, starting with our infatuation with violence. 

Over the past fifty years or so, we have carefully constructed a culture that glorifies violence in many different forms and venues. Movies, music, video-games, all contain many graphic and realistic depictions of violence in all its forms. The glorification of violence extends to sports. We love a good smashing hit in football or hockey. Motorsports fans ooh and ahh over a multi-vehicle crash that reduces cars to spinning, rapidly disintegrating, often flaming hulks. We must look at how our predilection of violence has spread to national and local policy. We increasingly look to armed force as the first solution to problems. This misalignment drives ever-growing military budgets. Increasingly police patrol our streets kitted out with all the equipment of military forces going into battle. We would do well to take a pause and reconsider how our devotion to and enjoyment of violence reflects a culture devoted to death instead of life. We need to reeducate ourselves concerning the ways of peace.

If we wish to defend life we need to pour more of our resources into education. We need to stop bleeding off precious resources into various schemes that target the wealthy and focus our efforts on strengthening the public institutions that serve the more vulnerable sectors of our body politic. The public education institutions, and those who work in them, shape the future. They need our support and help, not continual badgering. We must invest in their well-being through adequate salary, appropriate resources, and fewer intrusions into the classroom. Our children spend eight hours a day with them for most of the year, and the future health of the nation depends on them.

We must also continue to address healthcare. Far too many of our nation perish through inadequate healthcare. It is to our shame that the most prosperous nation in the world neglects so many of its citizens by not providing basic healthcare. We stand alone in the developed world in our intransigence regarding providing healthcare. All other developed nations provide some sort of universal healthcare; but, we continue to shirk this responsibility, claiming that it is too problematic, too hard. Surely, we can do much better than this, and we must if we truly believe in the sanctity of life. We have the resources at hand, we just lack the willingness to redirect them into this needful activity. Many suffer from a much-degraded quality of life due, in large part, to a simple lack of resources.

Those of us who honor the sanctity of life should also honor work. We need to address the tremendous wage inequity that exists in our culture. Since I graduated from high school, in 1979, wages for the top one percent of earners have grown by 179%, while wages for the bottom ninety percent have grown by twenty-eight percent. 2 The resulting wage gap forces many to maintain two or three part-time jobs just to make ends meet. Due to their expertise, the upper echelons will always enjoy greater remuneration for their labors; however, those of us that embrace the right to life ought to embrace the concept of a living wage for all workers, including appropriate benefits. Without adequate pay, we consign large sectors of our society to lives of endless work, near poverty, and no hope of improvement. Many families endure an existence that is only one problem away from homelessness and abject poverty. Their pay provides for a minimal life just above poverty, and nothing else. They rarely take vacations, live in fear of significant illness, drive marginal cars, and have no real hope of elevating their, or their children’s, expectations. We need to develop a culture that honors work through appropriate pay and benefits. We have the resources; we just need to strengthen our empathy.

 Much of this discussion revolves around our ability to feel empathy and express it through actions and policy. Too often we hide behind the bromide of, “the church should do this kind of work.” I agree that the church should labor in these areas of endeavor, and some are doing splendid work; however, the need is great. Also, as Christians, we ought to raise our voices and cast our votes for compassionate policies and practices. We exist in a time of unprecedented riches and abilities. Our nation enjoys great prosperity. We need to adjust our priorities, and our priorities need to include helping the less fortunate among us. There is plenty of room at the table. 

1. https://www.apa.org/pi/prevent-violence/resources/violence-youth.pdf 

2. https://bit.ly/3QXFUVN 

Party Peril

 However combinations or associations of the above description may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely, in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people, and to usurp for themselves the reins of government; destroying afterwards the very engines, which have lifted them to unjust dominion. George Washington’s Farewell Address 1796 1

When I was a shavetail lieutenant, a presidential candidate came to Augusta, Georgia where I was stationed. A couple of LT’s decided to swing by the rally to check it out. While there, a national news team filmed them and aired a clip of them on a national television network during the evening news. The next day the commanding general called them to his office and summarily dismissed them from the service. They had no particular party affiliation and went to the event simply to gawp; however, they attended in uniform, unwittingly giving some the impression that the Army sided with a particular candidate and party, something the Army steadfastly seeks to avoid. Throughout my tenure as an enlisted soldier and commissioned officer the Army eschewed any linkage to party. It was not until late in my career that the Army summoned the temerity to encourage soldiers to vote. Consumed with day to day mission efforts, normally you had no idea of the political leanings of those around you and those who commanded you. We served at the pleasure of the president, whatever party they came from. I served every president from Ronald Reagan through Barrack Obama and did so without a qualm. Each of them did things I liked and things I did not like. Party did not matter. Now as a retired officer, I look out on the landscape of a country convulsed and divided by rampant party affiliation. 

President Washington addressed party affiliation and various other issues in his final missive. With the help of Alexander Hamilton and James Madison, Washington composed in his “Farewell Address,” to provide guidance for the new nation. With great prescience, Washington understood the seductive nature of political parties and their attendant perils, particularly the lever they provided “cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled” individuals in tearing down the institutions of our government while maintaining the façade of democracy. We see this sad inclination at work every day.

Sooner or later parties seek to gain and maintain power as their primary goal. Born out of the desire of like-minded individuals to band together to secure change, they eventually become focused on continued existence and continued control of the levers of government. When this occurs, they shift from being a legitimate participant in the exercise of government to something else. They no longer serve the people, they serve themselves. Unscrupulous individuals exploit them, and their unsuspecting supporters by mouthing party-line platitudes all the while taking actions primarily designed to consolidate power and influence unto themselves. Washington understood the threat this posed to the healthy development of democracy and the overall health of the nation.

Intense feelings of party affiliation shape the landscape of contemporary American culture. According to a Public Religion Research Institute poll the percentage of Americans that would be unhappy if their son or daughter married someone of a different party has grown from the single digits in the 1960s to forty-five percent in 2016. 2 This percentage exceeds the percentage of religious people who would be unhappy if their children married outside their faith by a substantial margin. The Army measured my worth by my competence and willingness to do what was required to secure mission accomplishment. Now in the civilian world, many, if not most, judge my fitness based on perceived party affiliation. I know that in the teaching field, teachers carefully measure what they teach against the prevailing party yardstick in their community. They understand that should they depart from the community “norm” they will have to answer to belligerent parents, a hostile school administration, or some combination of both. Instead, they engage in self-censorship, degrading classroom instruction, and students suffer. All of this in the name of party, a failed human institution. This ought not to be.

No party gets everything correctly. Each party, conceived of and constructed by humans, espouses certain things incorrectly. When I join a party, I join all their platform. I cannot in good faith do that. Recently a major party added a “plank” to their platform that promulgated belief in something demonstrably false. If I were to join that party, I would join myself to something I know to be untrue. This would be the case for any party. We are human and we are failed, anything that proceeds from the mind of man bears the indelible imprint of failure, which is why I choose to be an independent voter. Washington understood the perils of factions, as parties were known then, and counseled for nurturing an independent American political landscape. Most would enjoin that the world Washington inhabited was fundamentally different than ours today. In Ecclesiastes, the writer addresses this idea.

9 What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun. 10 Is there a thing of which it is said, “See, this is new”? It has been already in the ages before us. Ecclesiastes 1:9-10 English Standard Version

While our world differs greatly from the world Washington knew, people have not changed. We still connive and grasp after power. Parties do simplify things. The party leadership sits down and determines the appropriate response to various issues and then promulgates the party platform and all the associated planks, saving you and me from the difficult task of research and thought. We place our trust in men and women far removed from our daily walk and individual belief structures. We do not know them or what their personal motivations and beliefs. And we incorrectly assume that those who wear the Donkey or Elephant on their lapel, bumper-sticker, or yard sign hold to the things we think are important. We also make the invalid assumption that those who wear the opposite trappings are somehow the enemy. Parties serve to isolate us in intellectual laziness, prejudice, and ignorance. We do not know the other and assume that we do. We spend our time and effort policing what we think is doctrinal purity, while failing to address the pernicious issues which confront us. We evaluate our elected officials based on perceived adherence to some sort of party litmus test instead of their ability to get things done. We glare at each other across the canyon carved by party purity and fail to lift a finger to solve the challenges we all face as a community. We fall into the trap of pursuing power and influence over working toward actual solutions to the problems that vex us. Washington saw this day coming and warned us. We desperately need to work on the problems we face, not savage each other for belonging to the “wrong” party. We need to resurrect the idea of an independent voter who carefully examines the issues and holds their elected officials accountable for their actions, not their clever sound bites. 

1. https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/resources/pdf/Washingtons_Farewell_Address.pdf

2. https://www.prri.org/research/american-democracy-in-crisis-the-fate-of-pluralism-in-a-divided-nation/