RevThread # 86
Resolve
1/ My New Year’s resolutions are pretty useless. Ditto the passing thought when I see myself in the mirror getting out of the shower -- “I really ought to lose some weight.”
Resolve
1/ My New Year’s resolutions are pretty useless. Ditto the passing thought when I see myself in the mirror getting out of the shower -- “I really ought to lose some weight.”
2/ Other resolutions, though, shaped my life: to marry my wife, to follow Jesus. They were not taken “lightly or unadvisedly, but reverently, deliberately, and in accordance with the purposes for which they were instituted by God.” (The Book of Common Prayer, pg 427)
3/ In both cases, I remember struggling. I didn’t feel good enough or strong enough to handle the trust that was being given me. Somehow, I committed.
I remember praying,..
I remember praying,..
4/... then looking in the mirror before both the wedding and the ordination and saying, “Listen, stupid, don’t f this up.” I set my face like a flint.
5/ Isaiah 50: 7 goes like this:
“But the Lord God helps me; therefore I have not been disgraced; therefore I have set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame.”
“But the Lord God helps me; therefore I have not been disgraced; therefore I have set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame.”
6/ It was said of Jesus, when He headed towards Jerusalem for the final showdown, that He “had set his face like a flint for Jerusalem.” Friends in the #resistance: It’s face-setting time.
7/ Just as the disciples had no idea of the scope of evil they would encounter in Jerusalem, so in our time, our situation is not yet fully in view, though we can all sense that what we’re up against is way more than one rogue actor getting elected.
8/ What appears likely to emerge in the next few months is this:
Organized crime syndicates have either seized control or been invited to share control of the governments of major countries and of several smaller ones, including China, Russia, Venezuela, Turkey, ...
Organized crime syndicates have either seized control or been invited to share control of the governments of major countries and of several smaller ones, including China, Russia, Venezuela, Turkey, ...
9/..the Philippines, Hungary, and Poland. Most of these countries have shifted from being democracies [governments of the people by the people and for the people] to kleptocracies [governments of the people by the lawless for the greedy]. That process has begun in the US.
10/ The signs of it happening include: a corruption of the soul; a dismissal of any truth that would check greed; the ascribing of evil to any opposition;...
11/.. the omnipresence of a central authority figure over every hour of the day for everyone; scapegoating of minorities; contempt for the law; fear of free speech and especially free press; and constant projection of inner evil onto others.
12/ Scripture screams against this. Our history reminds us of our ancestors’ struggle to throw off the yoke of those deluded “superior” ones controlling all the wealth of their days.
13/ In 2016, in a time of relative peace and prosperity, we betrayed our legacy and traded the adventure of liberty and equality for the re-establishment of white domination.
14/ We elected a man driven to self-enrichment and dedicated to the erasure of all traces of the period when a non white person was our leader.
15/ Against all this we must set our face like flint.
16/ Trump’s considerable popularity will grow. His prejudice against our non-white neighbors will become more acceptable. The rallies will continue to roar against our fellow human beings. Foolish and greedy religious leaders will help build up his support.
17/ The evil has not yet fully matured. Against it we must bear witness, we must set our face. And then the boil will be lanced.
18/ The strategy is simple: We have to visit with and persuade all who are persuadable to vote for Trump-resistors this fall so that congress can actually check him rather than collude with him in the destruction of our democracy.
19/ Then we have to nominate and support a candidate who can decisively defeat him in 2020.
20/ And then will come the big tasks: tearing down the remnants of this mafia era, and pointing the sacrificial way towards a sustainable future.
21/ Set your face like a flint towards a future of honest democracy. And guard your heart-- keep it soft and compassionate.
22/ Lots of our fellow citizens are being led astray in this mob moment. They are not our enemies.
23/ Our enemies are greed and self-righteousness -- the calcifiers of the heart.
