Storing up the goods

This Sunday's reading is from Luke 12:13-21,

One of the multitude said to him, “Teacher, bid my brother divide the inheritance with me.” But he said to him, “Man, who made me a judge or divider over you?”  And he said to them, “Take heed, and beware of all covetousness; for a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”  And he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man brought forth plentifully;  and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’  And he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns, and build larger ones; and there I will store all my grain and my goods.  And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; take your ease, eat, drink, be merry.’  But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you; and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’  So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.”

The man asking for Jesus to help him to get half of an inheritance to which he had no right if he were the younger of the two is, as Jesus noted, guilty of covetousness. In the parable Jesus is talking about greediness which is a form of covetousness. 

We Americans are blessed with many possessions and need Jesus'  reminder that we must not let them possess us, and that we can't take them with us. 

Don't Say We Didn't Warn You

Needless to say this story from Fox News (who refuse to call transsexuals by their biological pronouns or sex) was predictable, 

A transgender woman incarcerated at a women’s only prison in New Jersey has been moved to another facility after impregnating two female inmates earlier this year, according to a local report.

Demi Minor, 27, was transferred last month from the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility in Clinton to Garden State Youth Correctional Facility, a prison for young adult offenders located in Burlington County, Dan Sperrazza, a spokesman for the state’s Department of Corrections (NJDOC), told NJ.com. 

Transferring this predator to a youth facility is as stupid as you can get. 

Sperrazza said Minor, who is serving a 30-year sentence for manslaughter, is currently the only woman incarcerated at the facility and was placed in the vulnerable unit. He couldn’t comment further on Minor’s housing situation due to NJDOC’s privacy policies, the paper reported.

He is not a woman! A woman cannot sexually impregnate another woman. 

In 2021, New Jersey enacted a policy to allow prisoners to be housed according to their gender identity following a lawsuit brought forth by a trans inmate who lived in men’s prisons for 18 months and the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey. The policy was mandated to remain in effect for at least one year.

Recall my post from April 6, 2022 regarding California prisons,

Female inmates in California have expressed opposition to a recently enacted law that allows the placement of male inmates who identify as female in women’s prisons, citing concerns for the safety of the female inmates in light of the biological differences between men and women.

One female prisoner recalled an interaction between a young female prisoner and a trans-identified man in the prison yard. “He spoke of ‘getting it on’ with the women and he had no intentions of getting rid of his penis,” she reported.

“These guys have been overheard saying to one another, ‘Stick to the plan.’ What exactly is the ‘plan?’” she asked. “We are not certain. I will not be surprised [when] the first female gets pregnant.”

I recently heard a commentator (Geraldo) on FOX say that Gavin Newsome (sp) was someone who would speak out against the woke culture, remembered this prison post, and I had to bang my head against the wall. 

Lord help us!

 

"Teach us to pray"

This Sunday's Gospel reading is from Luke 11:1-13,

He was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.’ He said to them, ‘When you pray, say:

Father, hallowed be your name.
   Your kingdom come.
  Give us each day our daily bread.
   And forgive us our sins,
     for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us.
   And do not bring us to the time of trial.’

And he said to them, ‘Suppose one of you has a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say to him, “Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; for a friend of mine has arrived, and I have nothing to set before him.” And he answers from within, “Do not bother me; the door has already been locked, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything.” I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, at least because of his persistence he will get up and give him whatever he needs.

‘So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for a fish, will give a snake instead of a fish? Or if the child asks for an egg, will give a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!’

I always wonder what those people who want to refer to our Father as their "mother" do about the Lord's advice in other places when they clearly ignore his instruction regarding on how to pray. Oh, I know what they do. They use the techniques of Biblical revisionism to spin Jesus' words or they ignore those words altogether.

Brainwashing Girls to be Boys, One Mom's View: A quarter of the girls in my daughter’s class identify as transgender.

Growing up in the 1950's, 60's and 70's, the only time I saw men wearing dresses or women pretending to be men was when we passed through the French Quarter on our way for beignets at the French Market. We knew these things existed along with winos and bums, but were taught that they were aberrations, and they were not something to aspire to become, but today... well, it is an entirely different matter. It seems to be quite the rage for prepubescent kids to claim that their bodies are lying to them. These children must be receiving indoctrination from their schools as well as from the media. To illustrate this, I am copying the following post from Parents with Inconvenient Truths about Trans (PITT) in which one Mom gives us an insight into what is ruining so many young lives.

Mom: "A quarter of the girls in my daughter’s class identify as transgender. Seven out of 28...

...One of them has had four names this year, all from anime series."

"I keep seeing people say, both on the hell-site Twitter and in the popular media, that the trans population is a tiny minority, less than 0.1% of the population. If that is true, what is going on at my child’s school? What has made the number of trans-identified girls in one year group grow from a constant zero pre-pandemic, to 25% now?"

"Here’s my theory, and I know that this will be a familiar story for many parents.

The first issue is with what the school is teaching children. My daughter’s trans identity started when the school taught a module on ‘identity’ during which they told a group of 11-year-olds that, if you feel uncomfortable in your body, it means you are transgender. My daughter had just had her first period two months prior to this class. Of course she was feeling uncomfortable in her body. She went home, looked up ‘transgender’ on Tiktok, and that was it. She was now trans.

The second issue is a related one, and that is to do with the school’s non-stop celebration of LGBTQI+ identities. I used to be proud that my children attended a progressive school that is anti-racist, inclusive, and believes in social justice. We chose the school for these qualities. But in the last two to three years, this has meant a relentless stream of identity flags and rainbows. Transgender ‘heroes’ like Jazz Jennings are worked into any part of the curriculum that they even vaguely fit. This is a school for kids aged 9 to 13. I’m no prude, but I also don’t think a constant parade of sexual politics is appropriate for such young children.

The third issue is with how the school is approaching the children ‘coming out’. Their official policy seems to be to just go with whatever the kids say without informing the parents. If a child says they have a new name and pronouns, the school just rolls with it—and they create the scenario where an already distressed child ends up cycling through four names in six months.

(I say it ‘seems to be’ the policy, because this policy is nowhere written down or official. My child’s name and pronouns were changed by the school without my knowledge. We didn’t get so much as a phone call, when we have been at the school for years, we know the teachers well, and we have been active members of the school community.)

None of this would matter if it was just about flags and fun identities. But it is not. For my daughter, the name and pronoun change (which we foolishly went along with, on the advice of a therapist) was a tipping point into depression and self-harm. It has made her miserable.

When I spoke to the school about the harm they are doing, they would not hear it. They told me that they celebrate all identities, that they pride themselves on being inclusive. They cannot see the transgender issue as anything other than fun flags and inclusivity and respect. They do not see the dark side that we parents do: we are trying to protect our kids from bone-crushing puberty blockers; from taking cross-sex hormones when they’re too young to have had sex; from having radical surgery on their developing bodies. Some days it feels like we are holding back a tsunami.

I regularly speak to the parents of the other girls. Everyone has had a different response: some have started to medicalese, others are against it; some have bought binders, others not; some have gone with the name changes, others are resisting. The one thing that all the parents share is a sense of bafflement. What the hell is going on here? Why is a quarter of the girls in the class identifying as trans? 

'I guess in the 90s, a lot of us were in anorexic friend groups,' said one mother. I think the similarities are striking, but there is one major difference: in the 90s, no medical professionals were encouraging these groups of girls in their skewed perceptions of their bodies, and their self-harm. No school celebrated anorexia. But this time, the doctors and schools are helping the anorexics to diet."

For those adults who depend on public schools for the education of their children, it seems clear that they must protest this at their local school board meetings and at the ballot box just as they protested Critical Race Theory (CRT) this past year. Of course those that speak up at school board meetings against the LGBTQi indoctrination will be called homophobes, transphobes, any number of names, and possibly face retaliation at work or even in their neighborhoods just as the critics of CRT were and still are called racists.

For those who can homeschool or send their boys and girls to private schools, do it, but still vote in your local school board elections for candidates who oppose this brainwashing of what my teachers used to call "shapeless lumps of clay". 

Distractions

 This Sunday's reading is from Luke 10:38-42,

"Now as they went on their way, he entered a certain village, where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to what he was saying. But Martha was distracted by her many tasks; so she came to him and asked, ‘Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me.’ But the Lord answered her, ‘Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.’"

Poor Martha did not have the luxuries that we have such as ovens that don't need to be fed wood, dishwashers, clothes washers, vacuum cleaners. At least she had an excuse for not sitting down with Jesus. What is our excuse?

The world we live in presents us with limitless distractions that keep us from paying attention to "the better part" of life which is to live with Christ. This blog becomes another distraction when I stray from writing about Jesus and issues that affect we Christians. 

So, as the late John Prine sang, "...blow up your T.V., throw away your paper, try to find Jesus on your own..."

Oops, sorry for the distraction.

 

The Long Game

The other day I was reading an article, "Herbert and Ferrar: The Quiet Resistance",  by Fr. Dwight Longenecker about a pair of priests in England during the early 1600's, a time of considerable Anglican/Catholic trouble. Fr. Long concludes, 

"When faced with corruption in the church, immorality in the culture, heresy, apostasy, and atheism in the culture, one can go down the path of blame and complain, or one can choose the path of activism and engagement in the culture wars, or one can follow the third way, the way exemplified by Ferrar and Herbert and many other saints down the ages: One can simply get down on one’s knees, then roll up one’s sleeves and do what one can with what one has where one is. At the time, this course may seem unproductive—a failure even. However, God plays a long game, and those who are faithful are never a failure. The seeds of truth, beauty, and goodness eventually bear a rich harvest."

Didn't the apostles engage in their cultural wars by preaching the Gospel of Christ boldly, teaching a new set of cultural values at the cost of their lives? To some extent we shall always have to deal with the culture wars. 

As far as corruption in the church goes, in their time Ferrar and Herbert did not have the option that we have, and that is to go to the next church down the road. 

I know that there are still a few Episcopal priests who are trying to follow the path of Ferrar and Herbert, but I believe that the long game will pass them by. Stay they might, but those priests will produce more fruit if they let their congregations move on to more fertile ground.

Rolling up yours sleeves certainly involves  feeding your sheep, but shepherding also demands that you fight off the wolves by night or the culture wars by day.

How you choose to play your role role in the long game is up to you. Just don't worry too much about the final score. We know who is going to win.

Jesus as the Good Samaritan

 This Sunday we read the Parable of the Good Samaritan found in Luke 10:25-37

 Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus. ‘Teacher,’ he said, ‘what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ He said to him, ‘What is written in the law? What do you read there?’ He answered, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbour as yourself.’ And he said to him, ‘You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live.’

But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, ‘And who is my neighbor?’ Jesus replied, ‘A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan while travelling came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, having poured oil and wine on them. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, “Take care of him; and when I come back, I will repay you whatever more you spend.” Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?’ He said, ‘The one who showed him mercy.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Go and do likewise.’

I have heard so many sermons based on the notion that the priest and the Levite were legalistic and thus would not touch the half dead man because he was unclean that I looked around for another point of view and found one from Ian Paul in "Seven surprising things about the Good Samaritan in Luke 10".

"... it occurs to me that there are a number of common misuses of this text.

1. Antinomianism: ‘Jesus wanted to do away with legalism and the Mosaic law; in the end, all that matters is caring for people’.
2. Reductionism: ‘Jesus only gave us two commandments, and both of them were positive’.
3. Moral ‘oughterism’: ‘Jesus told us that we ought to care for people, so this I what we ought to do.’
4. Liberal inclusivism: ‘The parable uses a despised outsider as the model of right action, so the truth is found in the lives of the marginalised.’"

"...The parable has been interpreted in a wide range of different ways, and one of the best known (though least persuasive for modern readers) is the allegorical reading first proposed by Origen:

The man who was going down is Adam. Jerusalem is paradise, and Jericho is the world. The robbers are hostile powers. The priest is the Law, the Levite is the prophets, and the Samaritan is Christ. The wounds are disobedience, the beast is the Lord’s body, the [inn], which accepts all who wish to enter, is the Church. … The manager of the [inn] is the head of the Church, to whom its care has been entrusted. And the fact that the Samaritan promises he will return represents the Savior’s second coming. (Homily 34.3)

This reading was virtually universal throughout early Christianity, being advocated by Irenaeus, Clement as well as Origen, and in the fourth and fifth centuries by Chrysostom in Constantinople, Ambrose in Milan, and Augustine of Hippo—whose version is perhaps best known:

A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho; Adam himself is meant; Jerusalem is the heavenly city of peace, from whose blessedness Adam fell; Jericho means the moon, and signifies our mortality, because it is born, waxes, wanes, an dies. Thieves are the devil and his angels. Who stripped him, namely; of his immortality; and beat him, by persuading him to sin; and left him half-dead, because in so far as man can understand and know God, he lives, but in so far as he is wasted and oppressed by sin, he is dead; he is therefore called half-dead. The priest and the Levite who saw him and passed by, signify the priesthood and ministry of the Old Testament which could profit nothing for salvation. Samaritan means Guardian, and therefore the Lord Himself is signified by this name. The binding of the wounds is the restraint of sin. Oil is the comfort of good hope; wine the exhortation to work with fervent spirit. The beast is the flesh in which He deigned to come to us. The being set upon the beast is belief in the incarnation of Christ. The inn is the Church, where travelers returning to their heavenly country are refreshed after pilgrimage. The morrow is after the resurrection of the Lord. The two pence are either the two precepts of love, or the promise of this life and of that which is to come.

There are all sorts of problems with this approach to the text, not least that it appears to have little connection with what Jesus actually meant, but also that it appears to annul the moral imperative. But the modern reaction to such a reading is to head in the opposite direction, and reduce the impact to mere practical morality, devoid of any Christological significance and detached from what the rest of the New Testament says about sin, atonement and ethics.

In fact, Luke’s careful approach to numerical composition helps us here. The turning point of the story is that the Samaritan sees the man, and is ‘moved with compassion’ (some ETs blunt this a little by saying ‘had pity on him’). The Greek term here, splagchnizomai, ‘literally’ means ‘his bowels were moved’ (hence the AV translates the cognate term in Phil 1.8 ‘I yearn for you with the bowels of Christ’). This term only occurs three times in Luke’s gospel:

• Luke 7.13    The raising of the widow’s son
• Luke 10.33    The parable of the man who fell among thieves
• Luke 15.20   The parable of the two sons and the forgiving father

And in each case, not only is this verb the narrative turning point of the story—it is also the word which is numerically at the centre of each pericope, with an equal number of words before and after this term, to emphasize its importance. (This also tells us something about the care with which Luke has composed his gospel!).

And the striking thing is that, in the other two instances, it is Jesus who is moved to compassionate action. This implies that, whilst the allegorical reading has major problems, it has at least noted one thing of importance: it is the Samaritan who is taking the part of Jesus in the story. We might want, then, to reflect further and understand theologically that, beaten and bruised as we have been by sin, it is Jesus who has refused to pass by on the other side, but who has brought us help and healing by paying the price that was needed for us.

This is not to rob the story (pun not intended!) of its moral force—but it shifts the register. We do not help others because we ‘ought’ to, but because we have received for ourselves from Jesus the life-changing compassion which we then share with those around us, as part of sharing the love of God in word and deed."

 

TGPO: Thank God Pride's Over

 The only good thing about Pride month (June) is when it is over. This year I am sad to report that my former Episcopal parish did this, 

I knew it was coming when I shook the dust from my feet several years ago. 

I shared this with my Bible study group as we were reading about the warnings to the church in Revelations chapter 2,

12 “To the angel of the church in Pergamum write:

These are the words of him who has the sharp, double-edged sword. 13 I know where you live—where Satan has his throne. Yet you remain true to my name. You did not renounce your faith in me, not even in the days of Antipas, my faithful witness, who was put to death in your city—where Satan lives.

14 Nevertheless, I have a few things against you: There are some among you who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to entice the Israelites to sin so that they ate food sacrificed to idols and committed sexual immorality. 15 Likewise, you also have those who hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans. 16 Repent therefore! Otherwise, I will soon come to you and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth.

17 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious, I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also give that person a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to the one who receives it.

18 “To the angel of the church in Thyatira write:

These are the words of the Son of God, whose eyes are like blazing fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze. 19 I know your deeds, your love and faith, your service and perseverance, and that you are now doing more than you did at first.

20 Nevertheless, I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophet. By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols. 21 I have given her time to repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling. 22 So I will cast her on a bed of suffering, and I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely, unless they repent of her ways. 23 I will strike her children dead. Then all the churches will know that I am he who searches hearts and minds, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds.

24 Now I say to the rest of you in Thyatira, to you who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned Satan’s so-called deep secrets, ‘I will not impose any other burden on you, 25 except to hold on to what you have until I come.’

26 To the one who is victorious and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations— 27 that one ‘will rule them with an iron scepter and will dash them to pieces like pottery’[b]—just as I have received authority from my Father. 28 I will also give that one the morning star. 29 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. 

I know that these words would fall on deaf ears if the angel of my previous church communicated this message to the rector and to those remaining in the congo. 

Sexual immorality may have been stricken from modern books, but it still remains written in The Book as a warning to us of its deviation from God's original plan, its dangers to us all, and our need for repentance.

Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. 

 

You Won't Hear This In Church: Jesus really did say that some will go to Hell

In churches that use the Revised Common Lectionary (RCL), this Sunday's reading from Luke 10:1-11,16-20 has another of those curious omissions (verses 12-15). I have highlighted them in red, 

After this the Lord appointed seventy others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go. 2 He said to them, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest. 3 Go on your way. See, I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves. 4 Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals; and greet no one on the road. 5 Whatever house you enter, first say, “Peace to this house!” 6 And if anyone is there who shares in peace, your peace will rest on that person; but if not, it will return to you. 7 Remain in the same house, eating and drinking whatever they provide, for the labourer deserves to be paid. Do not move about from house to house. 8 Whenever you enter a town and its people welcome you, eat what is set before you; 9 cure the sick who are there, and say to them, “The kingdom of God has come near to you.” 10 But whenever you enter a town and they do not welcome you, go out into its streets and say, 11“Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet, we wipe off in protest against you. Yet know this: the kingdom of God has come near.” 

12 I tell you, on that day it will be more tolerable for Sodom than for that town. 13 ‘Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the deeds of power done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. 14 But at the judgement it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon than for you. 15 And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? No, you will be brought down to Hades. 

16 ‘Whoever listens to you listens to me, and whoever rejects you rejects me, and whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me.’ 17 The seventy returned with joy, saying, ‘Lord, in your name even the demons submit to us!’ 18 He said to them, ‘I watched Satan fall from heaven like a flash of lightning. 19 See, I have given you authority to tread on snakes and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing will hurt you. 20 Nevertheless, do not rejoice at this, that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.’

The strong language used by our Lord is the language of someone who wants us to be saved from the fate of evil doers. When His words of warning go unheard by the lowly sheep in the pews, guess what the sheep will do? 

Evil.

How many generations raised on a tamed Jesus (tamed by the editors of the RCL) must go by before those churches that use the RCL die off?