I was born within a five minute walk to the Atlantic ocean, and getting to the beach was not only a shared joy it was good for our young bodies. A couple of fresh water ponds nearby also provided walking and swimming opportunities, and yet I never became a strong swimmer. Being a grown and flexible person, I walk when there is no ocean, and where there is an ocean, I swim. Sometimes the ocean is not a part of any physical exercise besides hearing the sounds, smelling the surf, and seeing the sights.
One prophet describes a loser’s destiny as follows. “Alas, you who are longing for the day of the Lord, For what purpose will the day of the Lord be to you? It will be darkness and not light; As when a man flees from a lion And a bear meets him, Or goes home, leans his hand against the wall And a snake bites him. Will not the day of the Lord be darkness instead of light, Even gloom with no brightness in it?” (Amos 5:18-20, NASB)
Some of us will remember the Independent Counsel going after a questionable financial deal involving the Clintons and ending up with a sexual impropriety. By any reasonable analogy to that probe the Special Counsel looking at the mountains of corruption and criminality surrounding the 45th president is going to have a field day reeling in the fallen stars of the GOP, from Mitch McConnell to Mark Meadows and all the “trumpettes” between.
They saw, heard, and cared little
The 45th president announced his first candidacy with clear plans to engage in criminal conduct of the office. The flaws in his character were gaping holes in the walls of private integrity he never cherished. People heard him loud and clear.
“So when you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide My eyes from you; Yes, even though you multiply prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are covered with blood.”
Isaiah 1:15, NASB
When the power of the people is chained to self-centred ambition, racist animus, and the creation of barriers to the pursuits guaranteed by law, the people will show that they think that the fire alarm is a lullaby, “God bless America”. The lion and the bear are ravaging the fleeing and God is not listening to hypocritical prayers.
I may be somewhat out of the loop, but I will feel free to conclude that law enforcement officials and politicians are over paid and indolent. Every time there is a violent crime the two parties that taxpayers pay to keep us safe issue statements of shock that such a thing can happen in the affected community, and the statement that there is no room in our communities for such crimes falls like a meteorite. The media also publishes long soliloquies about the grief, and useless reports on the crime timeline.
There is no end to crime
Guns are virtually banned in Canadian cities and shootings are as frequent as morning coffee. Just watch the next federal election for insurrectionist politicians to lament about guns and violent crime. Watch for them to plot the path to richer corporate entities and create conflicts which corner provinces into using the notwithstanding clause of the Charter of Rights. No end is insight for any crime except for those removed from the criminal code. I do not put it past a political party to use crime statistics to justify fascist policy and martial law. White collar crime like Ford is suspected of committing in his handling of the COVID 19 pandemic and the Greenbelt land grab may also disappear just so Canadians can feel better about waking up. The goal ought to be reducing mortality. Everyone hates aging and death.
At the other end of the crime wave and the police lying and politicians creating unlikely scenarios, there are religious people who seem to think that their goodness and spiritual elevation are contributing to the reduction of crime. Perhaps we can expect regimes to arise that will copy the religious republics with their inhumane ideologies and hypocrisy and make more sinners feel better. I assure you there is a lot of room at the top of religious organizations for crime and violence and inhumanity.
Generosity and compassion are often intertwined with a nation’s cultural, social, and moral fabric. When these values are consistently reinforced through various channels and when individuals see the benefits of practicing them in their daily lives, they become intrinsic to a nation’s culture and identity. There is, however, no culture that does not need forgiveness, or has no criminality to punish and sins to confess, so it is fair to say that righteousness is everywhere tainted with illegality.
Intrinsic values routinely voided by emergency
Day by day, religious beliefs are used to rob citizens of their humanity, and consequently, humanity loses its precision as a definition of individuals and communities. When election debates and government policies prioritize economic interests over ethical demands people often end up holding the smelly bag. If a religious establishment’s priorities are loyalty and finances the chances are high that a smelly bag is going to be held by the people.
When good men are scarce
The world has been scraping by with a few good men who just happen to be violent and patriotic. Everyone who utters a slogan of allegiance to family, town, or country is a good man. As long as people are denied freedom in any country the globe is a prison with the power and money brokers as its wardens. The idealization of good laws and the proliferation of lawyers should not deceive anyone. The stories of gun-toting still darken the doorways of human progress. Some people want to deny that their great grandfather was a racist imperialist just because they have found religion. Apparently the nation builders and lawmakers are incapable of working together for the good of all people. They love crushing citizens with edicts and executions. Sudden destruction will befall them just when they announce their achievement of peace and safety. The strongest leaders of the nations are brats and champions of brutality.
I searched for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand in the gap before Me for the land, so that I would not destroy it; but I found no one.
“For the sake of Jacob my servant, and Israel my chosen one, I have also called you by your name; I have given you a title of honor though you have not known me.” (Isaiah 45:4)
Iranians and Israelis
When the people of Israel were in the care of the ancient Iranians God offered a title of honour to an ungodly person, the Persian King, Koresh, or Cyrus. It is reasonable to connect an ungodly person with one who does not know God. Persian Zoroastrianism can be credited for many civilized advances in government. The interest in the welfare of the exiled Jewish people expressed by two Persian kings may go unmentioned in the haste to assert power in the modern era, but it must be hard to forget that a Persian king did authorize mobs of Jewish people to plunder the Persian people.
The Persian Empire is finished
The mullahs in Iran, agitating for the destruction of the state of Israel, have a short memory. Cyrus, the great, was a tool for rebuilding Jerusalem and the province of Judea. Twenty-six centuries ago Persian wealth and goodwill was a global phenomenon, and denying Israel the right to life and liberty in the 21st century is a lesson in divine justice. If you don’t believe in justice then perhaps it is a lesson in unstoppable intervention.
Darkness is widespread and deep
Chinese bullying in the south Pacific
Indian irresponsibly refuses to face its societal demons
The rise of the fascist banner in Europe
The proliferation of conservative lies and denials of historical reality
The legal embarrassment of lawyers in the service of criminal enterprise
Religion pulling out the wool to cover up misogyny, genocide, xenophobia and greed
The chosen can be anyone God chooses
“But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;”
1 Peter 2:9, NASB
“The people who walk in darkness Will see a great light; Those who live in a dark land, The light will shine on them.”
Isaiah 9:2, NASB
Just suppose there was a settlement
Societies that have never exorcised their racist demons are doing everything but weep in public to express solidarity with the grieving people of Israel. Politicians of questionable moral character are lining up to condemn the brutal and heinous murder of Jewish people by Hamas. Canada has put its withered half leg in the line up of people supporting the people of Israel and condemning the terrorists. You will not read the genesis of the bloodshed over the land of Canaan in the newspapers, and the sources of Iranian hatred of the Jewish people will be found nowhere but in the Bible. The darkness is global and deep. God’s light alone is the relief.
7) The One forming light and creating darkness, Causing well-being and creating calamity; I am the Lord who does all these. 8) “Drip down, O heavens, from above, And let the clouds pour down righteousness; Let the earth open up and salvation bear fruit, And righteousness spring up with it. I, the Lord, have created it.”
The leader of the Bloc Quebecois, Yves-François Blanchet, often sounds like he is going to say something thoughtful, and we expect another of his “Quebec First” rants. Recently he recommended that the Prime Minister call a meeting of federal party heads as a responsible thing to do. Then he, parenthetically, adds that he would not be waiting for such a call. Is that because he does not expect the PM to call it or is it because Mr Blanchet could not have a constructive participation in such a meeting? Parliamentary rights will stand up in parliament, but under the glare of the Canadian public a federal party that has little or no interest in the affairs of all Canadians is a party that has nothing to say about responsible behaviour among ministers eager to respect the Crown.
Sibling to Jesus is one of the most important confessions one can make. Leaders in the world of spiritual values and global interests a lot is leaders are so high on the pedestals they have created for themselves there is no chance of being a sibling with any benefits approaching equality. Women are especially at risk. Jesus had brothers and sisters, and we do not know how many sisters or what the sisters’ names were. Jesus’ brothers are James, Joseph, Simon and Judah. When Jude opens his letter with “I am Jude, servant to Jesus and James’ brother” he causes our eyes to look in two different directions. Cockeyed is good, because a great sigh of relief comes with the revelation that being brother to Jesus is either a millstone or a necklace of the most precious pearls.
Brothers compared
We have the written contribution of two of Jesus’ brothers and there are no clues to Jesus’ life before his public ministry. So let’s put that interest to rest. The gospel of John however puts the spotlight on the equality of all the siblings. It is strange that siblings would have a death wish for their big brother. Mary, on the other hand, is reported have kept diligently the wonders about her firstborn.
Mary’s devotion
While Yeshua was concerned about being assassinated in Judea, his siblings were urging him to go on and show himself publicly to everybody.
“After these things Jesus was walking in Galilee, for He was unwilling to walk in Judea because the Jews were seeking to kill Him.”
John 7:1, NASB
“Now the feast of the Jews, the Feast of Booths, was near.”
This was a 7-Day feast with lots of people in Jerusalem (Deuteronomy 16:16).
John 7:2, NASB
Therefore His brothers said to Him, “Leave here and go into Judea, so that Your disciples also may see Your works which You are doing. For no one does anything in secret when he himself seeks to be known publicly. If You do these things, show Yourself to the world.” (John 7:3-4, NASB)
Let’s see who these brothers were.
“Is not this the carpenter’s son? Is not His mother called Mary, and His brothers, James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? And His sisters, are they not all with us? Where then did this man get all these things?”
Matthew 13:55-56, NASB
Two directions strain the eye and corrupt the conscience
Jude is eager and diligent to talk about the common salvation, the dangers of satanic infiltration and the once-for-all-time delivered to the saints most holy faith. You will not find these themes in James’ letter. It is no wonder that the reformer Martin Luther regarding the book of James as a book of straw, and we have to assume that it is because of its neglect of the passion and glory of Christ as revealed to the eyewitnesses. James, even with the evidence of the missions of both Peter and Paul being wildly successful (Acts 15:7-11, and verse 23 respectively), tried to put the church in reverse gear (verses 14-21). In his letter also we see James pushing royal law and law of liberty with unambiguous reference to the Sinai Covenant.
The Roman Catholic idea of a holy household must admit a sobering review with a look at James and Jude. When the Lord Jesus was 30 something years old his brothers did not believe, and then we see James sitting in the chair in Jerusalem, and finally, two letters, one by James, and one by Jude which set them apart in very distinct ways. What kind of brother might your contribution to the family show you to be?
The people for whom Christ died includes us! Tares are people who just haven’t accepted him yet, and if they don’t that’s between him and them.
Jesus presented another parable to them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went away. But when the wheat sprouted and bore grain, then the tares became evident also. The slaves of the landowner came and said today him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’ And he said to them, ‘An enemy has done this!’ The slaves said to him, ‘Do you want us, then, to go and gather them up?’ But he said, ‘No; for while you are gathering up the tares, you may uproot the wheat with them. ‘Allow both to grow together until the harvest; and in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, ‘First gather up the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them up; but gather the wheat into my barn.’ (Matthew 13:24-30, NASB)
My God. I have heard the ranting and raving about people in the church who don’t measure up. We are going to love those tares, take care of them, and leave them alone. What are we going to do, start stoning sinners?
Life is Fun, But Not a Joke 