Jesus Has Come

And the world knew Him not. He came in poverty, borrowed stable, harried from His home first by Romans, then by Herodians hounded out of His country. After living an anonymous childhood He grew up into a rebellious man, challenging all authority and power until finally they executed Him agonizingly as a criminal.

 

This is the story behind the pretty-fied manger of our Christmas season, and He said that we could expect the same done to us if we followed Him. So, anyone following Him, good morning, but are you sure you are really following Him, or is it the pretty-fied manger we replaced Him with?

 

 

Well Done

Been considering the liturgical year during the November. I know most don't have a liturgy so maybe most don't have much time for it, but with Christmas coming and then next year Easter again, perhaps you should give it another glance so the season is more relevant than Father Christmas and the Easter Bunny. Season's greetings to you all, by the way.

That said, the bible readings for the Thanksgiving period of November seem to be centered around judgement - the final one, that is, which I know is not everyone's favourite subject and we all would like to be told there "well done, thou good and faithful servant" so we can be waved in with a slap on the back from St. Peter.

How is this a realistic reading of what is expected of us though. May some of us be startled to find, when our work is tested by fire that we 'suffer loss even though we will be saved'?.

 

 

Nothing

Nothing compels a vote for anyone; nothing of That Which is Written even suggests the least bad of two alternatives might substitute for the Word of the Almighty. Events have asked us simply to trust God to know what He wants, and trust in His ability to go about ensuring His purposes, unaided by us. Because He has had a plan from before the beginning of time, before even the first theologian began to compromise with debauchery or dishonesty for the sake of this life only.

Galatians 6:7 Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life.

For an example of how not to give God a hand, read my poem Father Abraham.

 

 

Chump Change

Poverty California style…. E-Bay ex Meg Whitman had $100 million of spare cash  she could throw away trying to become the governor of California a few years ago .....or.... is a savvy business woman throwing it away.....what if she had expected a return on her investment, how much would  that have amount to... Where would it have come from......and who would have been poorer because of it.  Or is it just a measure of an obese ego.

 

And by the way, those of us who do not have $100,000,000 or more in petty cash .....have you ever wondered what understanding or sympathy someone with that much chump change has of how it feels to be under financial pressure. What might you do with $100 followed by six zeros....or even one zero?

 

There’s another fallacy around says successful businessmen would make good politicians....well yes at the cynical level they appear to have some similar characteristics, take the other California CEO turned wannabe politician, Carli Fiorena for example.

But really....no, I mean seriously. When bad business times come we get unemployment because the business answer is to lay off and cut payroll ......but can or should government do that to the unemployed population?.....do you want to be laid off the U.S. people list?

 

So does a businessman turned politician intend to wash hands of the unemployed in the tried & true model business response to eliminate red ink in the budget’s balance sheet?  If not what is the proposal?

 

 

Complexity.....seems we are all swamped with it. F’rinstance Twitter, Facebook and all those great social web sites each has their own password, along with just about everything else under the cyber-sun. I tried Twitter once, and yes it is a great way to stay in touch,  just taking a very few minutes to send a quick tweet, I can do it anywhere (tweet, that is).....waiting for Pauli in the coffee shop at lunch time and so on ....but oh, I forgot my more than six digit password -- you know, the one with the strange non logical combination of characters  Fr5&m12P+. So bang went that idea and now sadly this bird  only ever tweets softly on rare occasions.

I want to make my stuff as simple as possible, cut through the codswallop invading my life and stealing my time. So I make my web site simple and try to keep it as uncluttered as I would like my bedroom to be.....no cyber underwear tossed on the floor or reminders of hastily snatched fast food advertisements to link me with the Google community. I expect that most everyone who reads this (does anyone, I wonder) will be young enough not to remember how it was before complexity.  I am a few years younger than Methuselah so I still retain the ghost of a memory of how it used to be. My magic carpet ride would take me to when we all had hopes of changing stuff, time before the realization set in that our stuff would take over and change us instead.

 

 

Communication

Have you noticed everyone seems sooo angry these days and confrontation glorified as the new the standard for inter-human communication? Great substitute for real thinking, huh, folks.

I was watching (briefly) a British “comedy” show on Acorn last week because I like and share the English sense of humor....only now I need to say, used to share. Instead of slightly intellectual, witty Pythonesque lampooning I was looking forward to I was dished up with an occasionally funny shouting match between two idiots in an inane situation.

Whatever happened to personal opinions co-existing, with real dialogue? Why demonize people with different opinions? Hey everyone, what happened to truth? lying just proves your arguments are too flabby to stand up on their own, like an overweight couch potato. Or could the aggro be an early symptom of a new disorder.... Potato Mind?

OK Potato Minds how about the health insurance debate? Shouting learned platitudes is no substitute for reasoned debate in a discussion forum. And yes there is a place for demonstration, if there are enough of us for a peaceful demo, but is the potato mentality fit enough to march the Golden Mile if it can ever lever itself out of the car seat? And then would the demonstration even be peaceful?

 

 

Values

I was in Portland  recently and went to the Chinese Gardens there, just an incredible oasis of peace in the edge of downtown, and the contrast between inside and out was striking.....how could two city blocks be so different.  Yes, I know, they were designed that way and produced by two different cultures but I wanted to dig deeper than superficial observations, into the underlying values. It would be (should be, ought to be)

possible to build a western style city with the same sensitivity, same attention to aesthetics but that never seems to be the way of things. Have you noticed how modern cities around the world have all merged into a cosmopolitan blur of sameness  that ages badly into ugly miscreant tenements....am I in Chicago, or Madrid or....add your own location. What is it about city planners and about city dwellers.....are we really such grubby, grotty  snotbags, or are we perhaps subtly mesmerized into perverted compliance?

 

Those winter olympics.....each time, they seem to more closely resemble a ring full of circus performers...who can throw their partner furthest, who can rotate their skis the fastest without breaking  every bone in their body, all with instant gratification replays of the goof-ups. What happened to the grace and elegance of the athlete’s performances?  Even they (athletes) are beginning to revolt a little (rebel, I mean, not nauseate, guys) and we heard last time the Luge was shortened. .....so who had made it that long to begin with.... Are the other “they” the ones responsible for our endless greying conurbations too? And who are the “they"

anyway?

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