That God Remarks to the Angels Every Day About Us
1. “They sure like to talk.”
2. “Why do they all want to be so different from each other?”
1 Thing You Can Do in this Season
Listen to the Angels
Fortunately, we know what they sound like.
We are informed of what they foretold–what they beckoned into being.
It may be a little difficult to accomplish since everything is so noisy. There is a maddening blending of complacency, nastiness and anger that threatens to generate a dreary spirit.
We just have to remember what the angels said:
“Glad Tidings.”
And what are these?
Purposely seeking to find good news.
“Great joy.”
Actually allowing ourselves to be affected by a good thing and expressing happiness over it.
“For everybody.”
It’s time to strike out against class and racial warfare, and dare to focus on one another’s noses, realizing how much we have in common.
“Peace on Earth.”
The best way to achieve this is to cease chasing the latest war, insisting it’s inevitable. Peace is not the absence of conflict—but rather, bypassing it to acquire serenity.
“Goodwill.”
When did it become more interesting to discover something wrong in one another than to untangle the pretzel of human life and retrieve some virtue?
It is time to listen to the angels.
There’s enough that’s devilish in humanity already–without us welcoming an indifferent approach to the Christmas miracle.
Cracked 5 … August 24th, 2019
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Answers to the question, “Why Are We Here?”
A. Why are we here? Really horny chimpanzees
B. Why are we here? Needed a place for mentally retarded angels
C. Why are we here? God is playing again
D. Why are we here? ‘Over there’ didn’t allow fat, homely people
E. Why are we here? To divide up in colors and kill each other
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Good News and Better News … December 25th, 2017
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I went to church today.
There was no choir. There were no pews. There was no sermon. There was no invocation, except the squealing delight of children. There was no real benediction, but for the promises of those who had gathered to stay more in contact.
There was no threat of damnation, nor promise of streets of gold. There was so much contentment in being together that intimidation was unnecessary, and coercion, meaningless.
You see, I’m a father.
As a father, I do not evaluate my children by how much they adore me or praise my name. I determine the health of my children by how much they love each other–because it would be easy for them to despise their siblings so as to gain my favor, and perhaps, secure a sweeter inheritance.
So praising Daddy does not mean nearly as much as honoring one another.
In the church service this morning, there was respect for humanity. There was anticipation in the eyes of those who were giving, and a nervous jubilance twitching in the fingertips of those who were preparing to receive. An electricity filled the air that could only be adequately fueled by a perpetual flow of sweets and treats.
It was a worship of the Christ child–a salute to a simple birth, which simply ushered in the possibility of “peace on Earth, good will toward men.”
It was an intergenerational feast day of emotion and anticipation, culminating in the removal of all vexation, curses and grudges.
It was the kind of meeting of souls that causes the angels to sit back in awe, pricked in the heart with a bit of jealousy over not being human.
For we do everything best just as we do everything worst. We are God’s creation, who knows both the knowledge of good and the depths of evil.
Oh, but when we want to be good…we can be amazing.
We can bring tears to our Heavenly Father’s eyes when we tenderly take our human flesh and extend it from His mind and soul to reach into the hearts and lives of others.
Today I went to church. Some people would call it Christmas morning.
The good news is that Christmas morning is church.
The better news is, the more we take every church service and make it like Christmas morning, the more blessed the world would be.
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Jesonian … December 23rd, 2017
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A baby being born in a sheep stall in Bethlehem of poor Palestinian parents is not difficult to believe. After all, poverty extracts much of the comfort of good cheer.
Maybe the angels seem a little far-fetched to you (but you know how it is with stories about your young’uns.)
Believing that a year-and-a-half later, a troop of astrologers made their way into town to proclaim this child the hope of the world and the King of the Jews does seem highly unlikely–yet there are always people who have their eccentric ways and live them out because they have enough money to fund them.
Comprehending that there could be a leader of a nation who was so insecure that he was frightened of any competition, and scared a young family away, fearing for their lives, does not seem improbable. Matter of fact, it could be ripped from the headlines. One more refugee family ending up in a foreign land where they have neither kin nor kind is certainly well within the grasp of reality.
Having that young boy return to his alleged home town at age seven, carrying all the trappings and mannerisms of the heathen, would certainly make growing up difficult, not to mention the colliding wills of an every-growing collection of siblings.
Thinking that this boy would have no interest in carpentry, but instead, a precocious passion for humanity and the things of Spirit, is not implausible. After all, he’s the ugly duckling, whom we assume might one day become a swan. He grew in wisdom and stature, and even though he was a foreigner, gradually gained the favor of his neighbors.
It’s not difficult to believe that he lost his Papa, his only real connection with the village of Nazareth, and like many young men, launched out to find some purpose, ending up at the Jordan River, interacting with a wild and wooly cousin named John.
You can certainly believe he got baptized, and probably went out into the wilderness for a while, just to find himself, coming back with claims of interfacing with the devil. You might even forgive his youthful explanation, knowing that to some degree, we all wrestle with our demons.
But the story stalls.
He is rejected by his home town, moves to Capernaum next to the Sea of Galilee, encompassed by a sea of apathy, picks up some friends and followers, and starts traveling the countryside. It is hit-and-miss at best.
It is at this point that many folks who consider themselves to be intelligent and reasonable become cynical about a miracle-worker who calms the waves and casts out demons. But to a certain degree, even those sardonic souls might be able to explain away this and that, but still maintain their interest in the story–especially since he begins to hammer away at religion, loses the favor of the crowd and opens the door of the hierarchy to plot against him, find a betrayer, try him, beat him, nail him to a cross and kill him.
If the story ended there, the baby born in Bethlehem had a life that was a complete failure. His friends are scattered in every direction, his movement was about to become a joke–a piece of farcical history.
So this is where faith comes in. That’s right–you don’t really have to use much to this point. You can just glide along with the story, picking and choosing at will.
But the tale that unfolds, spoken of by those who claimed to be eyewitnesses, is that this baby of Bethlehem rose from the dead.
Now … faith is in full function and also full demand.
Did Jesus of Bethlehem, Egypt, Nazareth, Jordan River, wilderness, Capernaum and Mesopotamia end his life as a failure, beaten down by his critics?
Or did God, the power of the Ethos and the Spirit of the Universe, choose to resurrect him to give the message one more chance?
It’s a very important decision.
It changes this story from a baby shower to a heaven-ordained miracle.
For as we know, several weeks later, a hundred and twenty people in an Upper Room believed it was true. Twelve disciples gave their lives as martyrs, insisting they had witnessed a resurrection.
And at last count, 2.2 billion humans still living two thousand years later have taken their faith beyond the crib, past the crypt … and placed it in the Christ.
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PoHymn: A Rustling in the Stagnant … December 13th, 2017
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I Am Christmas
I need a virgin mind
To process what I find
I need the Spirit to birth
Some peace upon our Earth
Give me a simple place
To reach the human race
The angels from on high
Descend from the sky
To inhabit my human frame
The message to proclaim
“Good will to men and women,” you see
Let the tenderness begin with me
Stars in my eyes
Reject vicious lies
Follow the dreamer’s path
Abandon the King of Wrath
Shepherd my thoughts toward grace
See God in my neighbor’s face
My heart is the gold I bring
Blessing is the song I sing
It’s Jesus, Prince of Care
The only wisdom I know to share
For the Word has become my skin
Free at last of the burden of sin
I will dwell among my likeness
To humbly share with kindness
For I am Christmas–come and see
The manger child reborn in me.
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Cracked 5 … December 12th, 2017
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If Amazon Sent a “Complete Christmas Package” for You and Me from Bethlehem.gov it would include:
A. One carton of the finest virgin olive oil from the Middle East
B. Three shepherd pies from the ovens of Scotland
C. The complete video series of The Three Stooges–lots of wise-crackin’ from the “stars”
D. Matching lambs-wool, angel-soft sweaters from Jerusalem International Fashion Gala
E. The latest book: “Nighttime Meditations for the True Seeker” by Joseph Carpenter
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