Choose Wisely

The Christian Faith, like all religions, is malleable plastic - we can pretty well shape it as we please - anything from Thomas Merton to John Birch, from Joan of Arc to Mother Teresa, from Paula Poundstone to Paula White.

As a Christian, I can master every page of the Bible and know Christian tradition inside and out, but it's still up to me to make my decision as to what I'll believe and how I'll live. It's all there in bits and peaces, but scattered about defying any effort to put it all together into a coherent whole where every piece fits nicely, snug and tidy, relieving me of ever again having to think, heaven forbid.

The puzzle is never done ... just when it's all put together, more pieces appear ... "O crap," we say ... and either ignore the new pieces, throw 'em away, or labor on, creating an ever larger picture of faith, hope and love.

There is no God telling me, or anyone else, the specifics of the deal. To imagine such is to engage in a horrible illusion, and such illusions mostly prove deadly, if not for their violence, then passivity, while others suffer and die.

Things get really whacky when we look at the creation of our own hands and say, "God decreed it," or the equally illusionary phrase, "Well, it's in the Bible."

We like to put it on God, or some "sacred" text so we can "believe" without responsibility, and belief without responsibility is ideology. "The devil made me do it," or "God made me do it," amounts to the same thing: the abandonment of responsibility.

So, go ahead and be a person of faith, but remember the faith you choose is your choice, and not God's decree. God appreciates the effort, but above all, God desires honesty, which is the heart and soul of humility, a virtue some people of faith find utterly abhorrent.

So, go ahead and choose ... and like the old knight said to Indiana Jones, "Choose wisely."

You can choose to hate, you can choose to love ... you can choose arrogance or humility, you can condemn all other traditions and beliefs, or you can see the hand of God in all of it ... you can speak in tongues or be quiet, you can raise your hands and fan the heavens as some rock band wannabes pound away with flashing lights, videos and pics blinding the true believer, or you can worship with organs, incense, high altars and clergy vestments that cost an arm and a leg, you can go to church or stay home and watch CNN, you can claim to believe, or you can shrug your shoulders, you can fret and fuss about folks going to hell, or you can believe in universal salvation, or you can believe than when we die, that's it, job done, poorly or well, but job done, and back to the dirt we go.

God has decreed the "confusion of tongues," so that human responsibility would be preserved, and that we would never form some monolithic tower to the heavens, but spread out upon the face of the earth and learn how to live together - the original mandate of the Garden story, and the one thing humankind has always hated, and has always been willing to trade away for security and blind belief.

And that's the way it is ... maybe. Ha.

Morning Meditation - Jeremiah 5, the Poor and the Rich

The Lord has a complaint against the people: They have refused to take correction.
They have made their faces harder than rock.
They have refused to turn back.

In defense, Jeremiah says:
These are only the poor, they have no sense; for they do not know the way of the LORD, the law of their God.

Let me go to the rich, says Jeremiah.
And speak truth to them.
Surely they know the way of the LORD, the law of their God.

But they all alike had broken the yoke, they had burst the bonds.

Jeremiah seeks to defend the hard-hearted and the obtuse by

suggesting to God that they are disadvantaged, they're the poor; they simply haven't the wherewithal to make sound judgments.

Well, for what it's worth, hats off to Jeremiah for trying to find some defense of the people in their social and economic status. In other words, they're disadvantaged.

So, don't blame them, O LORD. Give them a break.

I'll go to the rich instead, says Jeremiah, who have all the advantages of life: status and schooling, learning and leisure, the wherewithal to know what the truth would be and your ways, O God. Surely, they'll know. The burden belongs to them, to those with much advantage in the race of life. Those to whom much is given, much is expected.

But, alas alack. It is not the case, as Jeremiah finds.

The rich, who ought to know to better, don't. They have broken the laws of life and love; they, too, have hardened their hearts against the will of God.

Those who should know better, don't.

And along with the poor, whom the rich have manipulated, the whole of the nation turns from God and, in willfulness and desire, seeks its own way.

Psalm 148 - Healing and Truth in Praise

Just read Psalm 148, the Psalm of total praise - let everything, anything, the whole of the universe, and all of the earth, praise the LORD.

And why?

Because God is some neurotic being that needs constant praise in order to survive?

Hardly.

Rather, it's a function of truthfulness and healing.

There is healing in praise, especially for human beings who are so easily centered within themselves, so easily convinced that we and our efforts are mighty and grand, that the world is beholding to us, and we can do with it as we please.

Praise opens our eyes to the glory around us - glory we didn't create, and glory given to us by the hand of the Creator, and in praise, we ponder our relationship to the world around us. It's not ours, but we're certainly its caretakers, and if caretakers, than we acknowledge that it belongs to another. And that recognition, that acknowledgement, is healthy for us, as it puts us into a mutual relationship with all creatures, great and small, and the mountains and the seas and deserts and the wind and the rain, that yearn within themselves to praise, to sing joyful and freely in their realms.

And if the whole of creation belongs to another, then we're accountable to the Other who has been kind enough to entrust creation to us, trusting enough of us to put what's precious into our hands, and we might, from time-to-time, ask ourselves: What does the Creator require of us? What does care for the creation look like? What are our daily tasks as we care for this world - from the stones beneath our feet to the creatures of the hills and to the persons beside us?

And herewith a sobering realization - how can the earth praise God when it's pillaged and spoiled by human disregard?

How can air and water praise God when they're despoiled and fouled by our irresponsible behavior, driven, as it often is, by our greed, our fear, our rapacious spirit, our drive to own and make it our possession?

Praise liberates us from the illusions of our own grandeur and power and places us into direct and responsible relationships. Praise is healing for our troubled spirits, too long drunk on our own power and presumed place. Praise lifts our spirits to another level where the wind blows free and clean. Praise is truth: we are not our own, but belong, to a faithful Creator who gives this to us all, for our caretaking and our use, a careful use that promotes the welfare and fecundity of the world.

It's good to offer praise to another human being - who knows, they may need it now and then to lift their spirits and encourage them. And we need to offer praise, to step outside of ourselves, to see beauty and goodness, and to simply say, Thank You!

There's healing for our soul in such moments of simple acknowledgement, and it's the truth that sets us free!

Thank You, O LORD. Thank You!