For some reason the past few days and weeks have been quite busy and involved. Could it be spring is about to be “sprung and grass is about to be riz, and we will be wondering where the flowers is”. Sorry for the unsophisticated syntax but the words set off by quotation marks is an aphorism my father-in-law liked to say about this time of the year and it seemed fitting. As any writer knows, sometimes it seems the words get stuck between the brain and the fingers and this is where I have found myself lately—and this time of the year has made it urgent to take care of some things outside but I promise to get back in the groove shortly. Meanwhile, I would like to share another friend of ours with my readers as he writes down some thoughts about “musing”.

J. James Albert, or Jim to us, writes a regular epistle to some of his Christian brethren in a paper he calls the CALIFORNIA LETTER. Mostly he writes about specific portions of “religion” (or Christian living) as it affects the circle of friends on his mailing list and very poignantly reminds us that those things God wants us to do should not be regarded as a straightjacket of beliefs or some kind of “do this” or “don’t do that” list of moral precepts. Being a Christian is not some kind of awards keeping arrangement that we can show whoever meets us at the gates of Heaven as some kind of entrance requirements; being a Christian is a constant on-going way of life.

In the way of an introduction to our readers, I asked Jim to give me a short bio, which is as follows: “I taught 6th, 7th, 8th, and 12th grades in Ohio. I was a counselor for nine years, a vice principal for four, principal for two, and assistant superintendent for 15. All in Corcoran, California. Now I teach a psychology class each semester for the College of the Sequoias. Hope this helps.” With such data I believe Jim has had sufficient experience to qualify as an accurate observer of life and consequently able to share some observations about the subject of “musing.” Sit back; be prepared to ruminate about a similar exercise of musing.

THE WORDWRIGHT

MUSING

Prior to looking up the word "musing" in the dictionary I thought of it as casual or superficial thinking. My dictionary though defines the word as "meditation" or something "thoughtfully abstracted." The word "muse" is defined as "a state of deep thought." So there you have it. I didn't give myself credit for what I was doing. Ha! My detractors will say I'm delusional. Anyway, here is something I have been thinking about lately and I hope it provokes you to muse.

We live in what some people call the "Information Age." That's wonderful in many respects. We need to be informed. Nevertheless, don't you sometimes get tired of all the talk you hear; especially the political wrangling and the effort people make to appear to be "politically correct"? You can't process it all and frequently you don't know who's lying or telling the truth or who's right and who's wrong. Sometimes you get so you don't want to hear anymore or don't want to process anymore. Psychologically you just want to block it all out and isolate yourself or withdraw. I know people quit taking newspapers and won't watch news programs because they tired of it all.

An outgrowth or a spin-off of politics is more and new laws. At the beginning of this calendar year California had more than a thousand new laws go into effect. This confirms my opinion that we have too many laws. Let me give you a couple of examples of these laws. One is that you can't tie up your dog longer than three hours at a time. Locally, and this isn't included in the over a thousand statewide laws, you can't park your vehicle in your driveway for more than two weeks without moving it. Also, no longer are garbage trucks permitted to use the alleys, so you have to haul your garbage to the street in front of your house. Now places are passing laws to combat the unsightly appearance of the garbage containers left for days and longer on the street. It goes on and on.

The same thing is true in religion. In fact, religion is kin to politics in many ways. Incessantly you hear all kinds of talk relative to hundreds of issues. Everybody has an issue or a slant on something. There's a clamor to be "politically correct" and stay in the good graces of the denominational party or sects. Each thinks they exclusively represent God and are right, and in so many words assert to others: "Either do or see it my way or go to hell."

Then talk about laws and rules based upon inferences and interpretations! They abound. Amusingly, one rule is that we don't speak where the Bible is silent, but then proceed to enforce as law interpretations based upon the silence. Whole sermons are preached on how implications are binding. I could give you many examples from the frivolous to complex, but won't take your time now. The point is that all of this political wrangling and sectarian posturing is confusing and tiring, to say the least.

This is exactly the situation the rank-and-file Jewish people found themselves in when Jesus was here on earth. The Jewish religious leaders, particularly the scribes and Pharisees were bent on being "politically correct" and they had formulated hundreds of laws and rules for the people to follow. Not only couldn't you remember them all, some of them were ridiculous and silly. The leaders themselves were motivated to manipulate them to enhance themselves while still appearing to be "politically correct." Jesus called them blind and hypocrites and snakes.

I'm told their interpretations would make a book of over one hundred pages. What they did was make religion a burden. The people were tired. What did Jesus tell them? "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light." (Matthew 11:28-30)

Jesus extends an invitation to those weighed down to the point of exhaustion, either by the awareness of personal sin, or likely in this context, by the sheer weight of law keeping as advocated by scribe and Pharisaic casuistry. In contrast the yoke Jesus offers is "easy" and the "burden is light." It is grounded in the unique quality of Jesus' character. He said, "I am gentle and lowly in heart." This seems to indicate that faithful following of Jesus is not to be found in the precision of law keeping, but in a relationship with one who is filled with compassion and devoted to the service of others. Such a course does not produce tiredness caused by confusion and insecurity, but results in inner well-being and tranquility grounded in the faithfulness of God. In other words, rest for the soul.

Jesus' yoke does not throw a person upon his own efforts or cause him to rely upon the fickleness of human performance in keeping a multitude of burdensome legalistic rules as prescribed by the scribes and Pharisees, both of olden times and modern-day. He charts a course based upon trust in God and love of your neighbor as he stated in Matthew 22:37-39. "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind." and "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."

This contrast becomes readily apparent following Jesus' invitation as revealed by the events at the beginning of Matthew 12. Jesus and disciples were accused of violating the Sabbath by picking grain and eating it and healing on the Sabbath. Jesus said, "I desire mercy and not sacrifice" and indicated doing good takes precedence over "political correctness."

If our religion is a burden of meticulous rules and regulations which are all consuming, confusing, and dividing, and make our spirits tired and weary, then it is not the way of Jesus Christ. If our religion is contrary to common sense good doing as in the cases of the priest and Levite, and causes us to circumvent love of neighbor, especially brethren in Christ, it is not worship of God "in spirit and truth." There's something wrong if our spirituality is a burden that makes us psychologically disheartened, tired, and weary. Now you can muse.

J. James Albert a fellow wordwright
and Christian brother to THE WORDWRIGHT

Posted by Bill Venrick at 10:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

PROCRASTINATION

Hugh Singleton, a fellow member of the American Amateur Press Association, writes regularly in an e-journal he calls “THINGS IN MOTION”. The following is printed with his permission – I think it fits in with my series of "Ruminations", “chew on it” for a while, OK? “Thanks, Hugh!” THE WORDWRIGHT.

NO ONE is likely to be more aware of the tendency to put off doing anything that has no urgency than I am—it has been one of my most persistent dragons of discontent. Who is at fault? Who causes the needless delays in doing things long and sincerely planned? The acknowledged culprit is me, and no amount of self-condemnation has served to diminish by one iota the guilt that fills the baggage I carry on my back. What a shameful stain on the fabric of one’s character!

Those quick moments of regret that whiz by us in our younger lives acquire longer stretches of our attention as we creep into our senior days—the feelings of remorse seem to press heavier on our conscience and we are now and then moved to action, but so long as we feel no serious threat of death, we continue to shove a lot of worthwhile endeavors into the bin marked “later.” Most of us need to step back and take a hard look at “later” and exactly what it means to us.

When is it all right to put aside telling a friend that he or she has added greatly to our lives? Is there a time when we shouldn’t worry about the favor we promised to do for someone but never got around to doing it? And how about those things we promised ourselves: doing a painting or writing a poem; reading certain books and watching certain movies? From my own years I know that in time, all those things we planned to do later will become lost in the dusty corners of our memory and instead of satisfaction, we fill our last years with unnecessary regret and
thoughts of what might have been.

Written by Hugh Singleton, a good friend of mine in Florida.
THE WORDWRIGHT

Posted by Bill Venrick at 9:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

When Jesus uttered the above words he was letting his hearers know, even when the literacy rate was probably much less than it is today, people were personally responsible to know essentials. In the first century (A.D.) the Jews probably learned most of religion and the Holy Scriptures orally taught at synagogue and the Temple. Perhaps questioning them as to what they “read” could well have meant, “Have you not heard?” Regular exposure to hearing the Scriptures read is an age-old method of teaching. Modern tape sets of the Bible can be valuable to our biblical education:

“Listen to the entire Bible on tape. Listen to an entire book at one sitting. Pay attention, but do not worry about understanding difficult parts, backing up the tape, and so forth: just let the tape play. If you do this every day you will have heard the entire Bible after just two months. When you are finished, do it again, and again. Three times in all. After six months you should be pretty well familiar with the contents of the whole Bible.” Credit: Ten Steps to Biblical Literacy by Michael D. Marlowe

So, even then, to “know” something could be accomplished by reading or hearing something taught. The above teaching method (tape sets) further establishes it is possible to know that which we have only heard and thus does not give us an excuse for not knowing how God “works”. The Jews were not without an excuse even if they could not have read.

In our modern world, whenever there is some catastrophe the question is asked, “Why does God let such things happen?” That question was probably asked thousands of times when the World Trade Center was leveled to the ground as the result of terrorists flying two jet airliners into both towers. When a mother of six children dies in an accident or a disease the same question is asked. When a tornado strikes and hundreds of homes are laid waste like so much kindling the question is thrown on the table again, “Where was God?” With the war going on during the Bush Administration, Bush and God both are not let off the hook because people like to personalize the President and God as well and think they have really presented a question of the age with the words, “Why did Bush get us in this war? Or, “Where was God when…?”

I have already written an essay answering that question (“God Does Not Do 9-11’s” [see link at end of this essay]) so I will not address this question again. What I do want to say is, “Have you not read?” Read what? God has received enough bad press in the thoughts mentioned above but what I do feel very strongly about is to challenge people to read all the good things God provides. The Old Testament Law has every kind of circumstance imaginable covered in the books of Leviticus and Deuteronomy. We are not exempt from knowing (reading or hearing) these laws.

Where did benevolence come from? From where does concern for the alien and poor come? From where does the seed of generosity come? From where does the idea of treating animals properly come? From where does the concept of infection or disease come? Where did man learn the virtue of truth and forgiveness? All these virtues, and more can be found directly from reading Bible. It is not like God had no concern for the sick, diseased, distressed, disenfranchised, terrorized and homeless; rather God made provisions by implanting in His people the concepts of providing for all such people. The books of Leviticus and Deuteronomy provide detailed instances and reactions for the Jews (and later Christians in the centuries following the establishment of Christianity) that would very appropriately deal with such calamities.

The excess crops raised by the Jew were to be set-aside for the poor. Leviticus 19:9, 10: “When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Do not go over your vineyard a second time…. Leave them for the poor and the alien.”

Deuteronomy 24:19-22 – “When you are harvesting…and overlook a sheaf, do not go back to get it. Leave it for the alien, the fatherless and the widow, so that the Lord God may bless you in all the work of your hands. When you beat the olive from your trees, do not go over the branches a second time. Leave what remains for alien, the fatherless and the widow. When you harvest the grapes in your vineyard, do not go over the vines again. Leave what remains for alien, the fatherless and the widow.

What was the lesson for the Jews? God not only commanded them to follow these precepts (and principles) but reminded them: “Remember that your were slaves in Egypt. That is why I command you to do this.”

When does a treat become a hog’s share? “If you enter your neighbor’s vineyard, you may eat all the grapes you want, but do not put any in your basket. If you enter your neighbor’s grain field, you may pick kernels with your hands, but you must not put a sickle to his standing grain.” There’s a difference – and this detail provides the principle for the Jew’s life in having a treat while going through another man’s field.

So you see, God is indeed “doing something” at times of a disaster because His people all over the world are doing what they were taught to do. Delegation of authority or work (responsibilities) is a specialty with God. Even though we know the three “omni” words: omnipresent, omnipotent and omniscient -- that God who is “everywhere, and all powerful and knows all things” has not left the needs of the world without resources – that is what His children are to do, “take care of those in need” using the same principles that have been around such the giving of the Ten Commandments. It is essential to remember that God did not stop with just TEN commandments because the books of Leviticus and Deuteronomy reveal every need and every circumstance covered by the concern and considerations imbedded into the minds of the Jews (and later Christians adopting the same precepts and principles in regard to others).

LINK to previous essay mentioned above:
http://www.thewordwright.org/2006/10/god_doesnt_do_911s.php

THE WORDWRIGHT

Posted by Bill Venrick at 11:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)