In his Christmas message Prime Minister Justin Trudeau predicts that when the pandemic is over Canadians will be stronger and more unified.
There is more than wishful political thinking in the statement. If Canadians do not unite to insulate themselves from the covid-19 virus many will not know what the end looks like. Canadians will also lose their strength if they do not isolate themselves from the madness of American style politics and religion. The official opposition in Canada is traditionally on a shaky and decaying bridge and its contribution to the strength and unity of the nation had better not be hard to find.
People are strong when they work together. People prove their togetherness when they listen to and care for one another.
Christians do not live in a soup of miracles. There ought to be more stories of raven-delivered meals, over-flowing cupboards, storage bins that are bulging, and a dramatic reduction of hunger, poverty snd homelessness. Can it be that money makes the world go round and not love. God has not made a habit of serving up wonders when human intelligence and creativity are the perfect means for spreading the non-miraculous glory of God. God’s big moves have involved small players and his program proceeds triumphantly. Pandemic conditions are no reason to try to find the Saviour in circumstances we create.
Most of us would not go near a stable even if cash and a life of service was involved and some of us would change the lowly circumstances to luxurious lodgings. God was pleased to introduce His Son to the world in humility. Celebrating the arrival of the Christ-child ought to have an appreciation – jump right into a home without a bed, refrigerator or locks – of emptying oneself. Maybe like Sukkot!
The festival of booths. Sukkot!
42. You shall live in booths for seven days; all the native-born in Israel shall live in booths, 43. so that your generations may know that I had the sons of Israel live in booths when I brought them out from the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.’” 44. So Moses declared to the sons of Israel the appointed times of the Lord.
Leviticus 23:42-44
Since God’s mission was to become personally familiar with human circumstances it is important that humans embrace those circumstances that the Messiah came to. They should not be strange to us. By Christmas 2021 we each should each become capable of emptying ourselves by immersing ourselves in the humble lifestyles of our neighbours.
The manger where we meet the worshipping foreigners, the Saviour and his family is a sign of God’s ways being different from humans. It is a sign that the old ways of thinking and acting were heading to the exit. It is a picture of the decay in Judean life and the miracle of survival against all odds, something all naturally born humans can relate to against the background of the one sperm out of millions that made its way through a hostile environment to make the fetus that becomes a human being.
There are people hoping that the misfiring 45 will find a way to undo his defeat. Pastors praying, decreeing and declaring the dawn of the evangelical utopia are a sign of the delusion that has gripped the globe. Even if all the judges were extremist conservative bigots there would be no Christian nation and no righteous revolution.
Tumulty and Brooks on PBS Buffalo, peering into the remaining weeks until the Biden-Harris administration, forecast chaos and narcissism. I wholeheartedly agree. A thick cloud of wrongdoing has been on display since 2016 and it has been clear all along that the GOP and its leadership are worse than farm animals in not recognizing their owners.
45 has no peacemaking bones in his body and his love is clearly totally directed to himself. The chaos may reach beyond the borders of the United States and so let us, everyone, sound the alarm wherever you are!
Orienting the heart seems to be necessary before the actual change of the heart as forecast in by Moses and Ezekiel. While the mob in modern tmes has been trying to take credit for all of God’s work on the human family the people of Bible times were pretty sure that whatever innovation God was going to come up with was going to detour around Moses’ huge contribution. The evidence that a change was overdue in the civic, religious, and personal lives of people in New Testament times included the dominance of Rome, the corruption in the temple services, and the opposing religious or political factions. While the Hebrew Bible does not end with Malachi and the curse of apathy it does end with the people in exile and that situation has to, by any reckoning, has to find resolution in a temple in the Land of Promise. The prospect slipped away the focus on the heart dwindles. The last book of the Hebrew canon, 2 Chronicles, has more (42) references to heart (leb or lebab, bbl, bl@ or bb*l@) than all the minor prophets (31).
“Thus says Cyrus king of Persia, ‘The LORD, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever is among you of all his people, may the LORD his God be with him. Let him go up.’”
2Chr. 36:23
The sign of change can be best tagged to a Gentile king, accepting a commission from Yahweh to build a house in Jerusalem. This puts Gentiles in the stream of people for whom the divine name is a priority.
The paths of the province of Judea since the return from exile stayed close to ignorance about about Abraham’s larger family; the innumerable Gentiles who are among the elect. Xenophobia made no sense after the unmistakeable call of God on the life of a Gentile king. It was not going to be overcome by simply revisting the ancestral heritage. The pride of being Abraham’s descendants was not going to cut it (Luke 3:8). Jews and Gentiles enter God’s kingdom by exactly the same route, a fact trampled by the Pharisees (and James!) in their attempt to turn Gentiles coming to faith in Christ into Jews (Acts 11:2, 12, 17)
But some men came down from Judea and were teaching the brothers, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.” Acts. 15:1
But some believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees rose up and said, “It is necessary to circumcise them and to order them to keep the law of Moses.” Acts. 15:5
We can see how the heart needed reorientation within the Jewish family and towards the rest of the world’s people. The arrival of Christ was satisfying news for all people.
And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Luke. 2:10
The achievement of humanity’s destiny is rooted in God’s person from eternity. If the problem of the Sinai arrangement was one of the human heart the resolution has to be a new arrangement of matters of the heart (Deu. 5:29). Let us now survey the heart-moving developments of the Christmas story.
Preceding the Messiah to prepare the heart is John the Baptist, who, by message and lifestyle proclaimed a break with the past
and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared.” Luke. 1:17
this was necessary for the right balance between the past and the future
the disobedient can only be a reference to the kingdoms of Judah and Israel, whose record of treachery and rebellion is without dispute. Indeed since New Testament times more convincing evidence of wrong-heartdness and resstence wto wisdom stands in the empty spot where the temple, the place for Yahweh’s name, used to be the centre of Jewish life.
and all who heard them laid them up in their hearts, saying, “What then will this child be?” For the hand of the Lord was with him. Luke. 1:66
People’s response was more than “Oh, that’s interesting” or “How nice!”. The people put the things they had heard in their hearts. That is equivalent to
Heart-moving developments relate the importance of the heart in the coming revelation and visitation. Without a work in the heart there is no value to a relationship with the God of Abraham. People were interested and proud of their descent from Abraham, and all the people who were part of the Spirit’s intervention in the lives of Zechariah, Elizabeth, Mary and Joseph, and Simeon, paid attention to what was happening to the human heart.
Descent from Abraham was irrelevant.
And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’ for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. Matt. 3:9
Prideful thinking of oneself brings divine judgment.
He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts; Luke. 1:51
The heart as the storage device for unfolding matters.
But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. Luke. 2:19
Mary appears more diligent towards the things she had heard. She tagged and kept putting them together, fully believing.
The exposure of the dark side of the human heart was also on tap and God inspired Simeon to inform Mary that her motherhood was not going to be just joy, blessing and honour, but also extreme discomfort.
She was destined for a soul piercing with the result that the contents of many hearts were going to be exposed.
(and a sword will pierce through your own soul also), so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.” Luke. 2:35
We die so we can live. That is the arrangement that glorifies God. Positive thinking is the lunch of a fool who had no breakfast and does not care for supper. Keeping the faith is not using what we have. Faith is the thing God introduced, sparingly in ancient times, but full blast in the unveiling of His pleasure.
Delimiting God and self = nobody needs to be saved
The Gift from God is his Son for the salvation of individuals from sin. Try positive thinking sin and rebellion away! You know that is neither the way, nor the truth, nor the process nor the soutce of life. We have to deny Christ to drive that car. That is why “Jesus” is a tack-on in many books, sermons, and soundbytes. Denial of the truth leaves people scrounging for the things of this life, victories and changes of standing in society.
Positive thinking is a fool’s lunch
If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, 15) and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,” and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that? 16)
Expectations have been high since the defeat of the 45th president in November 2020 that pardons would be in the works for his criminal supporters. We are not surprised that his disciples are hoping for (a) the use of force to affirm the defiance of truth by unhinged politicians and the vote of the people, or (b) a court appears that does not care about facts. If either of these happens no partisan rejoicing will be heard, and Russian, Arab and Chinese moneychangers will replace the gods of democracy and vanity.
The cream has gone sour
Ephraim was a watchman with my God, a prophet; Yet the snare of a bird catcher is in all his ways, And there is only hostility in the house of his God.
Hosea 9:8
God unwilling to forgive
3) Surely at the command of the Lord it came upon Judah, to remove them from His sight because of the sins of Manasseh, according to all that he had done, 4) and also for the innocent blood which he shed, for he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood; and the Lord would not forgive.
2 Kings 24:3-4
The pardons for known and loathsome criminals apart from the justice department’s clemency procedures tells us that the justice system, which also executes citizens, is neither final nor absoiute. We know that many Christians ive in fear of being lost after being saved, making a mockery of divine power, chading wealth and miracles. They have left the door wide open for criminals to extend their dastardly deeds into every house of nobility and decency.
Rebellion is political witchcraft
If you watch American television you will have seen the parade of medications by which terrorism gets a new face.
The belief that divided entities can defy God’s design
Election results by God to provide opportunity to smash the popular voice
The pardons of a criminal head of state are like the Mosaic leprosy treatments
Good riddance to the unprincipled predator that the American people elected four years ago and who has stood up for all that is ugly and reprehensible in American history and the humsm psyche.
Some people think that they can pray away things that God predicts, even the very things we need as believers to help us learn dependence on God, while even a mention of the darkness that defines all of humanity is hard to find. Fantasy has no place in the delivery of hope and support to an adult population and therefore we find ourselves walking away from the bargains of the decades-long evangelical revolution.
John 9:39-41
39. And Jesus said, “For judgment I came into this world, so that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may become blind.” 40. Those of the Pharisees who were with Him heard these things and said to Him, “We are not blind too, are we?”
Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no sin; but since you say, ‘We see,’ your sin remains.
Darkness on the face of the deep
Darkness stalks us primarily because we were in that deep – the primeval abyss – of which the world was hatched. Our attempts at fixing our problems seem only to plunge us deeper into the cave where light gets scarcer.
Neither sun nor moon
The time is right for us to be shielded from the light. When light parades as police brutality and public service is billed as corrupt, and violent self-defense is a human right, who needs light?
Psalms 121:5-6
5) The Lord is your keeper; The Lord is your shade on your right hand. 6) The sun will not smite you by day, Nor the moon by night.
The night of the day
I know, everyone wants a cloudless day every now and then, and some strange people think that the light humans need can be created in a lab or industrial complex and, to satisfy the buyers and sellers, never turned off. In a way we have, in some places, no difference between night and day. I also know people who talk a great light show who are really employees of the father of lies.
But in this period – how many days are still unknown – of dark days there is the sense that a death angel is visiting.
If the sunlight is not breaking through the clouds it is dark. Even with the moon nights are dark
The bright nightThe day after
I am pretty certain that Hades, with its big mouth gaping, is right now gobbling up another batch of victims. The darkness into which the American and Canadian) churches have just plunged with their support exposure for a deeply flawed mouth speaking abominable things without a rebuke from the messengers of light marks the deepening of trouble and a betrayal of the poor and marginalized. In that same darkness we will find a refuge.
Between the murderous and the lifesaving programs of today’s religions is a hard line of conspiracy, not the hard line of mercy and compassion. There is no Christian morality apart from the work and person of Christ.
Guess who matters more to Jesus and any God we can name? It is not the rich and successful, those who want to be listed as loyal to high virtue, who refuse to sell and give to the needy. I can just hear the hard bargain of the status quo: “what poor, what vulnerable, what injustice?” and “Let them enjoy their three and four jobs”. Obviously there is no positive thinking or praying that turns around the death toll. What God did for the Syrian military commander while Israelites were being ravaged by leprosy is not happening in the United States . The bargains promised by what-he’s- done-for-others-he’ll-do-for-you profiteers are not worth a half-penny.
Life is Fun, But Not a Joke 