The Bible for Dummies

This is a book I got for $.89 on Amazon for Kindle. Fun quick read that gives you a good overview. If I was still teaching confirmation classes I'd begin with it.

Freedom and Bondage of the Will

Excuse me, every one and then I just have to wax theological.

It always intrigues me how people picture God.

Some picture God in very negative terms. For instance, God is that deity that is out to trick me, test me, hide from me, and the like. This God does not seem to desire our good, but to make life as difficult as possible so that but a few with secret knowledge can merit his or her benevolence and good will. Or as my college roommate mate’s mother would say, when he had done something she saw as wrong, would say, “God will get you for that.” This mean God seems to be popular with the type of evangelist that lays out the hoops a human being must jump through in order to earn their way into God’s graces and therefore earn eternal life. Theologian call this efficacious grace, you effect your own salvation through you acts of belief and actions. Even Jesus seems to picture the difficulty of getting into God’s graces when he says, “The path is narrow and few can follow it.” (I’ll get back to this sometime in the future if I don’t forget.) Some of the aforementioned evangelicals seem to say, “Ha, ha, ha, I’m saved and you’re not.” Is the path to salivation a competitive struggle, that only the most gifted may attain? Blalderdash! Egotistical balderdash.

Others see God as essential good wanting the absolute best for each and every human being and has devised a means by which the best for each and individual person is not only attainable but is assured; assured even before they were conceived of and born. To me, this is the God I see reflected in the scriptures. A God who seems hopelessly and passionately in love with each and every human being and seemingly blind to all that they would do to separate themselves from God.

Here we get to the free will discussion. The discussion generally begins with our definitions of our free will; egotists do that. But I would contend that is the wrong place to begin. We need to begin with God’s will and God’s intent. The biblical record of both the old and new covenants reveal this intent of God. “I will be your God and you will be my people.” Period. No discussion, ifs, ands or buts about it. You are my people. And God then proceeds to set about making this loving, intimate relationship possible for all eternity.

Many folk at this point stop and look at God’s commands to his people to enlist the faithfulness and happiness. They list all the” thou shalts” as tests we human beings must pass in order to be right with God. They miss the point. The ten commandments we a gift God gave to an enslaved people that would help them live as a free people after years of enslavement to other human beings. God lists the things that keep us away from a good relationship with God’s self and each other. The commandments and all of the law is to help us live well, happily and productively with each other not tests to pass to merit God’s love. God loves us anyway, even if God gets pissed with us from time to time. Living the good life is not just following the commandments of God but being grateful for the gifts of God and saying thanks and maintaining our most important relationship.

Thus the typical writer on the subject of free will talks about ability to say yes or no to God as the demonstration of free will. I in my independence can yes or no to God. If I say yes, then God owes me salvation for my great act and if I say no to God, I can do as I damned well please. Bullshit.

We must return to God’s will. I believe it is God’s will being to have an eternal relationship with all of his creatures that is full and abundant. And God put’s a plan in place that will absolutely assure that. Since, we human beings constantly alienate ourselves from God (wanting to be God), God provides a means by which that alienation is fixed. That is the gift of Jesus, a being who is both God and man, whose divine will and human will are the same; a unique human being. In that being God reconciles all human beings to him forever. Death is the symbol of the great separation from God and humanity, God being eternal and we being finite. Jesus dies and then is resurrection fixing that broken connection permanently. This is God’s will and it cannot be stopped, such is the nature of God.

Free will for human beings is not the ability to say no to God, but the ability to say yes to God. Theologians and layfolk alike constantly get that backwards. Saying no is no great trick, any two year old can do it. Saying yes is a great trick. A act that is so impossible for human beings it is only by God’s grace that we can say yes. That is saving grace.

Bondage to the will, our will, is to be enslaved to our own selfish ambitious, ideas, and the like; it is to say no to God and what God offers. Freedom of the will is to be freed by God’s grace to say yes to God and God’s intention for your life now and eternally.

Enough for now.

One wrote it this way. I'm free, free to do anything I want eat candy all day long. But if I eat candy all day long I'll get cavities and my teeth will hurt and I won't feel free and all and have to go to the dentist.

Winding Down in the South

Sadly, our time in Florida is drawing to a close and we will soon rejoin our frozen, flooded brethren and sistern (not a word but I like it anyway) in the north. We've had a grand time, I think the best weather of all our southern sojourns and the nicest place we've stayed. Of course, this included golf galore as a part of the package. I golfed practically every day and Doreen a couple of times a week. Highlights including Doreen getting her first birdie (she now expect to birdie that hole every time she plays [a birdie is scoring one under par for you non golf aficionados; two strokes to put in the hole instead of the three which was par for that particular hole. I have also managed to score two eagles, on in league [that two under par;birdies and eagles do not mean killing the little birdies on the fairways.] In the men's league I've done well generally scoring well enough to ear chits (that's what we get instead of money). Chits can redeemed at a local golf store. I've never won a single league event, there is this one guy who always manages to score a bit better than me. He will not doubt be moved up the ladder to a more difficult league.

Besides golf, we have had lots of wonderful friends and family visit. We've met new folk who have been very gracious and welcoming and encouraging us to return to the Highland Lakes community. We delighted in seeing the new Dali museum in St Pete's. But mainly we just enjoyed the area and the environment and each other. We both have done a lot of reading. I've have found there is a ton of cheap and free books available for the Kindle and Doreen has made great use of the free library here at Highland Lakes. I'm currently reading a treatise Martin Luther wrote in response to Erasmus of Rotterdam on the subject of free will. If you don't what out I'll tell you about it but in far fewer words than they use. Other books I just down loading include: Calvin's Commentaries; A sample of Mirianne Williamson's, A Return to Love; Irish Magic and Tuatha De Denaans; The Bible for Dummies; The Bhagavad-Gita; Fatal Fixer-Upper (sample); Instituties of the Christian Religion by John Calvin; God Hates You, Hate Him Back (a sample); The Religion Virus (a sample); The Christian Atheist (sample); Simpicity: Zen, Taoism...; The Book of Common Prayer; and Video Poker.

I haven't been doing much posting lately, so I'll be catching up a bit. Remember, the idea is for all of to do posting here, not just me.

Later...

Books and Movies

Many of you have probably read or seen the movies based on Stieg Larsson books: The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo; The Girl Who Played with Fire; and, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets nest. If you haven't, you have a treat in store for you.

Doreen and I have seen all the movies via NetFlex, and I've read all the books on my Kindle. I my opinion, the books are inevitably better then the moives, but they are all good.

They are so fun to read the books are hard to put down and you don't want the movies to end...thrillers. The background on the author would also make a good book/movie.

Enjoy.

Guilt

I feel guilty! I feel guilty about not expressing my love to Doreen, my family, and my friends enough. I feel guilty about sharing more of my wealth with those in need. I feel guilty about constantly judging people according to my particular standards. I feel guilty about not being a better pastor than I was. I feel guilty for not sharing my pastoral gifts more in my retirement. I feel guilty about playing too much golf (but not very.) I feel guilty for not reading more than I already do. I feel guilty for feeling superior to others and inferior to others. I feel guilty about weighing more than I should. I feel guilty for thinking my religious beliefs are better than others’ beliefs. I feel guilty about feeling my political thinking and motives are more rational than others politics. I feel guilty for judging people for having too many children in an over populated world. I feel guilty for never having or raising a child myself. I feel guilty for stepping on ants. I feel guilty for not living up to what I think are God’s expectations of me and fully using the gifts God had given me...

I feel guilty because I am guilty of all these things and many many more. It is not some societal trip or bad parenting that caused it (though they may have had a hand in the coping mechanisms.) Let me say it again, I feel guilty because I am guilty.

And the best coping mechanism for dealing with that guilt? Confession. Confession, not justification or rationalization, such as comparing myself with others on a badness or goodness scale.

You are guilty too, if you are a human beings (not sure about dogs). So what does one do with all that guilt, accept it and let God forgive it. God sees us as guiltless because of what Jesus did. Amazing.

P.S. This is a reflection upon guilt, not good and bad. That is another story but we tend to confuse the two.

A Political Fix: should Warren Buffet have more votes than you?

Many of us complain over and over again about the political system in this country that seems so unresponsive to the needs of the people and so acquiescence to certain vested interests. Negative campaigning drives us nuts but we also respond to it and vote accordingly. Debate used as a search for truth appears nonexistent replaced with meaningless sound bites. And we wonder if the system is so broken that it is beyond repair and perhaps it is.

I have a thought. What if we could create a ground roots system where we would all contact our respective elected representatives with one mandate? That mandate being that no solicited or unsolicited funds could be used to run political campaigns. The only funds that would be available would be from the two dollars designated money when checked on the income tax returns (I would want it mandated.) We could state that unless they enact such legislation during their term in office we would not vote for them again thus making them one term legislators. I don’t care whether they are republicans or democratic or anything else or what other positions they hold, this one thing is paramount, and until it is rectified all other issues are secondary. We could further state in the mandate that any politician who uses negative campaigning will immediately loose 10% of their funding. The idea that they state clearly what their positions are so they may be compared to their opponents. Lying about their opponents would carry the same penalty.

I hate one issue campaigns, but in this case, it is the only way I can see to rebuild the system to make it accountable to the whole electorate rather than a few. Our recent history is that the richest or the canniest buy legislators to do their bidding. And that is why we have a tax system that is so biased towards the rich. They literally own the current system.

A follow up to this is that I believe that the funds designated to run a political office ought to be vastly increased, perhaps doubled. While the increases the cost of the government doing business, it would also make them more independent from outside influences. Currently most legislation is drafted by special interest groups (lobbyists) and then given to the political representative, cheap for the official’s office but almost guarantees the pushing of vested interests. Congressmen ought to do their own work. They are the one that should ensure the agencies that work for them are getting their work done properly. They are the ones that should be responsive to the changing needs of society and enacting legislation that meets those needs. They need the dollars and personnel to get that done.

Japan

Our prayers for the Japanese and all those affected by the earthquake and its incredible destruction. For me the most poignant of the pictures is two young women holding onto each other as the sisters in our family might do in a similar circumstance. So sad.

Guests and Golf

It’s been awhile since I’ve blogged..We’ve had lots of wonderful company so the mind has been elsewhere. Our buddy Marj Kammueler was down for about a week  Loel and Carol Gorden were with  us a few days and we connected along the line with Jerry and Mary Lowery. Then granddaughter Megan and her paramour Bob came for a few days. Tomorrow we will be getting together with Don and EB Frey for lunch, then it is just us for the rest of the time here unless Megan and or Bob pop up somewhere. What a delightful time.

Megan’s beau Bob works for TV sports on golf shows all over the country (some job eh) so they took a few days down here before he goes to work in Orlando for a tourney there. While here I got to golf with Bob, well all of us golfed, but I remember most golfing with Bob.  After a good deal of speculation I’ve got it figured out now that Bob uses special golf balls with afterburners built into them. He gives the ball a mighty whack and away it goes into the air, then, magically the afterburner kicks in and the ball soars heavenward with incredible vigor. It is a wonder to behold. He’s also very easy going and fun to play along and appears 

very tolerant of those of us with lesser skills and play with afterburnerless golf balls.

My golf career included a tourney here before and during their time with us. 176 men entered this tournament from the community. We are in various classes of golfers: A, B, C, D, E, F. The E class is very competitive, that’s the one I’m in. We mainly make jokes about each other’s golfing prowess, or lack thereof, hook our golf clubs to yank on each other’s crutches or walkers, mouth words making our cohorts adjust their hearing aids then blow an air horn; fun stuff like that. Actually, they are all quite jovial and fun to play with. We will be having a luncheon next Wednesday where the prizes will be handed out. I am expecting zilch. Almost everyone in my flight is less than a hundred years of age; I think there might even be one younger than me.

Speaking of golf, as though I speak of little else, I unveiled my new golf weapon on the last day of the tournament. Golf aficionados know that many of the new drivers on the market have broken tradition and are white. Now not wanting to pay the price for one of these new drivers, I went to WalMart and bought a can of spray on Krylon white paint and painted my old Vulcan driver white. It looks pretty good if I do say so myself. One of my golfing buddies asked it if it helped and I told him it gave me a good 50 yards more, whereupon he replied, “Reverend, you’re full of shit!” I assume he was referring to my golf winnings here which are given out in chits; he must have misspoken. I do have 10 chits left and I’ll keep them and come back next year and win more I should be able to buy of lot stuff with my chits.