Author Archives: epiphaniesapologeticsexegeses

Taking Liberties

By D. Thomas

(sign for “No King Day”, June 14, 2025)

“Be dressed for action and have your lamps lit;” [LUKE 12:35].

Confession: I have been a bad follower of Jesus. I have been failing in those trials and temptations the times have generated.

My outrage and disgust and offense at actions, words, and legislations of the current administration in the United States have led me to judge, and to take liberties in my comments on Facebook, where I have at times fallen to name-calling and insulting, even saying such things as “trump sounds like he must have Alzheimer’s, Dementia, or syphilis that has reached his brain”, and calling I.C.E. agents and wannabes  “fascist  thugs;” almost wishing ill on a few of his fellows, or enjoying their moments of public shame– “If they can even feel shame!” I added , which is, again, that failure to love my ideological enemy.

I have also taken advantage of my civil liberty to defend our American liberties by protesting properly: assembling with others for local demonstrations, carrying signs, making phone calls and sending emails to Senators and Representatives.

I have prayed for them, though, regularly: “Lord, free them from the evil spirits which have fouled and corrupted their hearts and minds and mouths,” for I believe there are forces of evil using every opportunity to direct and lead the atrocities being enacted by humans against citizens and refugees and strangers in the land, spirits of evil fanning prejudices, fears, and passions. On both sides of the American argument, passions have been inflamed. Fortunately, the forces of good have kept protests and demonstrations against the current regime notably peaceful. We have gathered and carried signs, chanted and sung songs, marched and danced, collected food for food banks and handed out water. There are members of Congress fighting for human rights and dignities against cuts to agencies which aid the poorest, which help provide food and necessary medicines to children and senior citizens, veterans and young families, and people trying to escape violence and danger, seeking refuge, seeking employment, and citizenship.

“When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and He will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left. Then the king will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me;'” [MATTHEW 25: 31-35].

It is not a Christian failure to call evil actions evil, to call injustice what it is, or to defend with words, money, bodies, the rights of fellow humans to exist, here. Or to be angry about inhumanity, or heartbroken by what is happening and will be happening to people in prison/detainment camps and “red” rural counties- especially to children. Surely no regime which removes air, water, food, and product safety regulations, and slashes medical aid is trying to benefit anyone but its oligarchs. Surely no government which has curtailed and denied civil liberties, searching and seizing residents without criminal charge, and illegally imprisoning and deporting humans without trial, has been on the side of democracy, or “good”, or helped any but the authoritarians themselves.

It is not Christ-like or godly to take food and medicine away from children, mothers, older people, or to round people up and throw them into prisons without due process, without trial or proof of crime.

Jesus said “Better a millstone around the neck than to offend one of the little ones” (Matthew 18:6, Luke 17:2), and I think: “Am I supposed to be more generous to my enemies than praying and saying ‘God will attend to them, God will punish?’ Isn’t that what they say? That ‘liberals’ are disillusioned sinners, and God will punish us?’ I have written before about what is good and what is evil and who calls evil, good, and don’t know what to say any more: it is evil to say: “God says we should get rid of those people and make these wealthy White people Huge and more Rich and more Powerful!”

Jesus Christ never advocated imprisoning anyone, or conducting ethnic cleansing, mass deportations, giving perks and benefits to the already wealthy.

“‘I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me…’ Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food?. .And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?’ And the king will answer them, ‘Truly, I tell you, just as you did it to the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me. Then He will say to those at his left hand, ‘You that are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink…'” [MATT. 25: 36-42].

I am a bit depressed, and disappointed, again this Fourth of July. It’s supposedly a day to celebrate freedom in the ‘States. Or, a day to celebrate supposed freedom in these ‘States, of “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness”. But, I have never been able to be too excited about Independence day, when those who wrote the great, moving words of the Declaration did not include women, did not free Black slaves, and within the document called the indigenous people “merciless Indian Savages.”And this year we have a President infamous for taking liberties with women, now taking liberties with Rule Of Law and the powers or the executive branch to threaten and coerce and punish people he doesn’t like. But I got out my 1988 World Book Encyclopedia to read the document; some of the grievances are interesting, especially this spring and summer, with budget increases to I.C.E. in this Year, and Project, 2025 climate:

–“For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury–“

“For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offenses–“.

The reasons for declaring Independence from “Mad” King George and Britain include, that,

“Whenever any form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it, and to institute a new Government…Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long and established should not be changed for light, transient causes… but when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such a Government and to provide new Guards for their future security.”

(Sign for April 5, 2025)

Reading through the other great political document, the Constitution– one volume back, written a decade later– I realized that it can be interpreted, quoted, and applied to desired contexts on both sides of as many arguments as variably as the Bible–. This has been so with most administrations, infuriatingly so in this trump period, when Court orders and injunctions are ignored, and Congress and due processes are repeatedly by-passed, and bearing false witness is presidential.

What is this ”Freedom” that is celebrated? And threatened by the authoritarian Executive Branch?

Freedom might be defined as, a condition of being wherein one can make choices for ones’ self about what to think, to worship, to love, and to enjoy, and also free to abhor and avoid; wherein one can determine where to live, and how, pursuing goals of one’s necessity and choice. Communities of humans set the parameters of liberty, within, usually, moral guidelines, such as not killing or harming or stealing from or destroying other people. or their households and belongings.

Even in this age of authorized thugs and mass deportations, physical constraint of liberty does not destroy intellectual freedom.

We are free to act as the “sheep” or “goats”.

If free, we are free to be our best, and free to be our worst. We are free to hate each other, and we are free to love one another. We are free to decide what matters. I should not, then, damn anyone for feeling that the lives of Spanish-speaking Brown people they don’t know are less important than their own– for I do not know where any other is on their spiritual journey, or what turns their stories may take.

We are free to be hypocrites and sinners, but, more importantly, most importantly: we are free to repent of our sins and turn from our selfishness and meanness, free to ask Spirit Who Reveals the Truth About God to forgive us and help us to love.

Because I do not know what else to do but Show Up, donate, and Speak Up, I will continue to pray:

LORD and Christ, guard my heart and mind, help me to be generous and patient and courageous. Lead me, guide me, direct me, Holy Spirit, to Your works, in Your ways. Flow through us, use us. Open eyes and hearts, O LORD, that all may see the truth of what is good and what is evil. Convict us each of sin and righteousness, and help us to discern spirits; free those deceived and ensnared by the adversary, lead them to repent and be healed. Show me when I am wrong and guide me; use me as you will. Forgive the sins of all who do love. Deliver us from evil. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.

Jesus’ allegory concludes with the “goats” asking where He was:

“Then they also will answer, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?’ Then He will answer them, ‘Truly, I tell you, just as you have did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life. ” [MATT. 25:44-46].

(Photo by D.KT.)

“Consider the lilies, how they neither toil nor spin; yet, I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these… And do not keep striving for what you are to eat and what you are to drink, and do not keep worrying. For it is the nations of the world that strive after all these things, and your Father knows you need them. Instead, strive for His kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well.” [LUKE 12: 27, 29-31].

Crucifixion 2025

By D Thomas

(Photo by D.KT.)

“‘Don’t  you know that I could call on my Father for help, and at once He would send me more than twelve armies of angels…?'” [ MATTHEW 26:53].

“While he was still speaking, suddenly a crowd came, and the one called Judas one of the twelve, was leading them. He approached Jesus to kiss him; but Jesus said to him, ‘Judas, is it with a kiss that you are betraying the Son of Man?’ When those who were around him saw what was coming, they asked, ‘Lord, should we strike with the sword?’ Then one of them struck the slave of the high priest and cut off his right ear. But Jesus said, ‘No more of this!’ And he touched his ear and healed him. Then Jesus said to the chief priests, the officers of the temple police, and the elders who had come for him, ‘Have you come out with swords and clubs as if I were a bandit? When I was with you day after day in the temple, you did not lay hands on me. But this is your hour, and the power of darkness!’ Then they seized him and led him away;” [LUKE 22: 47-54a ].

“But this is your hour, and the power of darkness!”

There probably is not a lot to add.

When the so-called government of the richest, most powerful nation in the history of the planet turns the Keys To All Data in the federal computers over to an un-elected so-called businessman and his tech staff, and uses said businessman’s own company’s satellites and awards him astronomical contracts for federal space and tech; and the minions cut and slash programs and funds which help assure food and water, air and land, shelter and health care to orphans and widows, mothers and fathers and babies and grandparents in the nation and around the world; ignores the Courts declaring the orders and actions unconstitutional and illegal; fires or threatens physical harm or imprisonment for anyone who disagrees with them; and deports people without criminal records and who hold legal visas to foreign prisons notoriously foul as any Nazi prison camp–

It is hard not to go all Revelation, and say, Yes, this must be it.

“And the dragon gave his power and his throne and great authority [to the beast] . One of its heads seemed to have received a death-blow, but its mortal wound had been healed. In amazement the whole earth followed the beast. They worshiped the dragon, for he had given his authority to the beast, and they worshiped the beast, saying, ‘who is like the beast, and who can fight against it?’ The beast was given a mouth uttering haughty and blasphemous words, and it was allowed to exercise authority for forty-two months. It opened its mouth to utter blasphemies against God, blaspheming His name and His dwelling, that is, those who dwell in heaven. Also it was allowed to make war on the saints and to conquer them…

“Then I saw another beast that rose out of the earth; it had two horns like a lamb, and it spoke like a dragon. It exercises all the authority of the first beast on its behalf, and it makes the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose mortal wound had been healed. It performs great signs, even making fire come down from heaven to earth in the sight of all…” [REVELATION 13: 2b-7, 11-13].

These surely sound like trump and Musk, but I do not believe that vision and prophecy can ever be related point by point, or that any one event is the one spoken of. God being eternal means being outside of or other than or including all time; some foretold destruction did happen in 70 C.E. when Rome destroyed Jerusalem and its Temple, but the destruction has happened again and again.

In many kingdoms, Beasts have raised their horned, marked, blasphemous heads, and have committed atrocities. Revelation perhaps shows us: in every era or generation, the dragon, evil, seeks to rise, or does ascend to power, building itself up on the fears of the people, fears easily blown into hate, and hate into violence. It is not hard to create The Enemy, the group which threatens “Us,” “Our Money, Our Position, Our Lives”. Always there is hardship causing citizens to suffer, as in Germany after World War I, but inflaming fear and hatred is the ploy of the dictators and would-be emperors and kings, who offer no solutions to improve general well-being, but add fear to fear, create crises, accuse Them, and turn people’s unease and fury against people who are weaker, who are threatening no one, who have little or nothing themselves, and no power.

“..No one can buy or sell who does not have the brand, that is, the name of the beast or the number for its  name;” [REV.  13:17].

As the Chief Priests and Officers of the Law enacted evil, those still supporting evil leaders are like the Friday crowds who called for the murderer and insurrectionist Barabbas to be pardoned instead of the healer, Jesus.

By stating that I do not think trump and Musk are the actual beasts envisioned by John in the Book of Revelation, I do say that they are beasts in the pattern of the blasphemous, worship-demanding beasts in Revelation. trump may not be The Anti-Christ, but he and his have been showing themselves anti-Christ in heart and mouth and mind.

This  short Good Friday essay is being written for the purpose of making my public statement:

I believe and know to the depths of my being that trump and DOGE speak and do evil. The actions and executive orders of this administration are inhumane, unconstitutional, and illegal. trump should be impeached and arrested, Vance impeached, Elon fired, and DOGE dismantled.

We must resist. We must refuse to comply, we must record and speak truth, we must protect the vulnerable, make phone calls, insist on due processes, and perform all the services and acts of kindness and love that we can. Use our signatures, signs, dollars, voices, and better vision as we can.

Take rests– the horrible, despicable daily events can debilitate us; as a group, a resistance, we must practice stagger breathing- not all taking a break at the same time-.

And, if possible, remember that Easter, too, happens; Jesus who was executed for blasphemy, rose from death, and the movement of Loving One Another grew and spread, over almost the whole earth. Most of the gains in human and environmental rights and safeguards of European or Western culture have grown out of loving our neighbors, being generous to the strangers and aliens among us, and stewarding the earth– quietly beside the power-seeking explorations, invasions, colonizations, exploitations, and mass-productions.

” Now have come the salvation  and power and the kingdom of God and the authority  of His Messiah,  for the accuser of our brothers  and  sisters  has been thrown  down…they have conquered  him by the blood of the Lamb. Rejoice,  then, you heavens and those who dwell in them! But woe to the earth and sea, for the  devil  has come down  to you with great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!” [REV. 12: 10-12].

Light In Darkness:

(Restoring the Image of God)

By D.Thomas

(Photo by D.KT.)

“No one has ever seen God. It is God The Only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made Him known,” [JOHN 1:18].

Today is January 6, 2025. Four years ago on this day, armed supporters of Donald trump stormed the Capitol Building to interrupt the ratification of votes, an essential part of the peaceful transition of power, which has been a stand-out feature of American government from its beginning. To the horror and despair of many U.S. citizens, and much of the rest of the world, that same trump will be taking office again, later this month. To many, this is a sign of deep darkness.

We are in the depths of winter, in the northern hemisphere, have short days and long nights. November was, for me, a very dark month, and much of December, sad. But, there was the Solstice, when days begin to lengthen incrementally, and there has been Christmas.

The depression and grief has been real, but the darkness shall not steal joy.

The songs and scriptures and family fellowship kindled my small flame, blew up my light enough that I am not feeling despair now–the Dark will not win. I helped make music of praise and rejoicing, and I believe, that:

Humans who care about fellow beings and habitats will continue to fight evil, through courts, through feeding and taking water and clothing and medicine to those in need, through building shelters, as did our former President, Jimmy Carter who, sadly, passed away last week.

Some of the helping, light-bearing people will call themselves followers of and believers in Christ, and some will not, and I don’t think that matters; I use the Judeo-Christian Bible because I do believe in Christ, and because it tells of good news for all– all who believe, also all who are in need of God, also all who love, also all creation.

“For darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the LORD will arise upon you, and His glory will appear over you. Nations shall come to your light and kings to the brightness of your dawn,“[ISAIAH 60:].

Today is the Twelfth Day of Christmas, Epiphany, which is when the Christian church celebrates the arrival of the Wise Men or Magi, who followed the star to see the newborn king. The Magi were astronomers, astrologers?, philosophers, alchemists, priests, visionaries, prophets?– we do not know– from “the East.” They were not Jewish. They were Gentiles who believed the sky signs of divinity and kingship, and were prepared to travel to pay homage, to honor the Savior King being born to the Jews and the world.

King Herod, the text of Matthew tells us, heard of the star and the birth of the new King from these foreigner. Hearing of the Messiah’s birth in Bethlehem, Herod, the Puppet who paid tribute to Caesar, feared, and all Jerusalem with him” [MATT 2:3]: reaction from Rome if the King had come, but also, one supposes, they feared the need of repentance, of turning over whatever they had established for themselves in their small, proud provincial nation.

The priests and Pharisees and high officials had not seen or heard, but learned about this child from the Gentiles who came to worship.

The frightened men in the capitol were the wealthy rulers of the Temple and the Law; they were worldly and rich by local standards. The Messiah was born poor, and poor shepherds were visited by Angels and directed to the baby swaddled like a flawless lamb would be who was to be raised, carefully, to be a sin sacrifice; and those shepherds came away rejoicing and telling everyone about what they had seen and heard, the “Good news of great joy to all people” in Luke 2. Even in the Hebrew scriptures, God was never for the Jews only, but for all peoples.

“But there will be no gloom for those who were in anguish. In the former time He brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the later time He will make glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations. The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in the land of deep darkness–on them light has shined,” [ISAIAH 9: 1-2].

Herod, who was evil and had a city’s youngest children slaughtered, did not defeat the light, then, nor did Rome whose executions made martyrs, later, did not overcome the young community or “cult” of followers of this Jesus of Nazareth, who was born in a stable in Bethlehem, laid by his mother in a manger.

*

“Then you shall see and be radiant; your heart shall thrill and rejoice, because the abundance of the sea shall be brought to you, the wealth of the nations shall come to you. A multitude of camels shall cover you…they shall bring gold and frankincense, and shall proclaim the praise the LORD,” [ISAIAH 60:5-6].

“In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, asking ‘Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage.’ When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him; and calling together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. They told him, ‘In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it has been written by the prophet’…when they had heard the king, they set out; and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy,” [MATTHEW 2: 1-5, 9-10].

(Photo by D.KT.)

The star was an outward, physical sign of the light being born into the world. The light was not new in the world, only as the human being was it new. The light was the first creation, made by and from and in and of God Creator. If you do not believe, read the prophets and gospels as fascinating literature, mythologies and stories with lessons for us, often in the details that have come forward through the generations, through spoken words until written down, the copied and translated; see the types and archetypes, and this collection of writings which makes a book of knowledge (through experience and choices) of good and evil.

While the authorship of the Gospels and Prophets and the Pentateuch are oft questioned, the Epistles seem as trustworthy as any antique letters or journals we study; John son of Zebedee and Simon called Peter probably really wrote to believers; letters were not uncommon, copies of letters were made and circulated among a literary people. I realize that it still requires a leap of faith, but John begins his “first” letter:

“We declare to you what was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life— this life was revealed and we have seen it and testify to it, and declare to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was revealed to us,” [ 1 JOHN 1:1-2];

And Peter wrote or dictated,

“For we do not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we had been eyewitnesses to His majesty. For He received honor and glory from God the Father when that voice was conveyed to him by the Majestic Glory, saying, ‘This is my Son, my Beloved, with Whom I am well pleased.’ We ourselves heard this voice come from heaven, while we were with him on the holy mountain. So we have the prophetic message more fully confirmed. You will do well to be attentive to this as a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawns, and the morning star rises in your hearts,” [ 2 Peter 1: 16-19].

They might be deluded– but they might not.

Jesus was born to reconcile living beings with that Being Which Causes Life.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and without Him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in Him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in darkness and the darkness did not overcome it,” [JOHN 1:1-5].

What came into being was life: each life, life on earth, Jesus’ life, being.

“In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. Then God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light. And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness,” [GENESIS 1: 1-4].

“Then God said, ‘Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness….So God created humankind in His image, in the image of God He created them; male and female He created them. God blessed them,” [GEN. 1: 26-28a].

Jesus was born human to show and tell us that humans were created in the image of God, creative living creatures with imaginations, intellect, with self-awareness and awareness of others, and abilities to analyze and abstract, to theorize and to make, to love, to make poetry and art and music, and to sing.

Becoming children of God is to restore the image of God in humans– to rekindle the fire, to relight the lamp, to cleanse away the dirt and soot and dead ash (of death, depression, despair, and sin) and blow up the flame of our Light.

God was born into this world, planet Earth, as the human Jesus to reveal light and truth: to know God, to know life, we must be born “of water”— physical, biological beings, formed in fluids, born in floods, evolved from primeval waters, born –and “born,” also, in spirit– Spirit which blew upon the waters, breathed into humanity, gives breath and life and is also God.

God is the substance, Only Son, and the energy, Spirit and mighty wind and breath: the being of things and the life of beings.

Do we abide in Peace and Love and Joy immediately and forever after? No, for we are still in these changing bodies, in time, in flux, in physical uncertainty (according to quantum physics). Sometimes we feel only cold, sense only the dread and darkness; Jesus did not eliminate experiencing, suffering, life.

God separated the light and darkness in verse Genesis 1:4, and in 1:5 called them Day and Night, and then there was morning and evening: as soon as being was, photons and electrons, atoms and molecules, time was: there was motion and change, and cycles: life is cyclical, in circling galaxies, orbiting and rotating planets, in seasons of the year, and their seasons of life for all living beings on the planet.

“The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world came into being through Him; yet the world did not know Him. He came to what was His own, and His own people did not accept Him,” [JOHN 1: 9-10].

When the Serpent tempted the humans in the Genesis 2 story, he tells them that “God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” But they were already in God’s image. Eating at the urging of the Serpent, eating prematurely, their eyes were opened, but only partly, only in a very earthly, small way:

“Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves,” [Gen. 2:7]

Then they were ashamed to be naked before God their Creator who made them, in God’s image. They were still blind.

No deceivers or liars bring truth or true light.

But, the promise the true light brings is, this:

“But all who received him, who believed in His name, He gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God. And this Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen His glory…full of grace and truth,” [JOHN 1: 13-14].

God the Son came to restore us to God, to restore the light of God within us each. This is the Good News, the cause for rejoicing, for the death of the time-dwelling, time-worn, temporary body does not end the light, the energy; does not obliterate the atoms, but liberates the spirit within to be with Spirit– I don’t know what or how, none of us does, or knows exactly what this means. We don’t know the how or when or why of what we call the Big Bang, either, We barely grasp particles and waves and fields.”

The Good News of Jesus Christ is this:

“For God so loved the world that He gave His Only Son, so that everyone who believes in him shall not perish but may have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him,” [JOHN 3: 16-17];

“Those who believe are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God,”

The Scripture continues; it does not say that those who just can’t quite accept the too-simple, too-good, two- thousand- year- old story are condemned forever, for

“God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God and God abides in them,” [ 1JOHN16b ].

We retain our freedom to choose:

“And this is the judgement, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. But those who do what is true come to the light” [JOHN 3:19-21].

Seeing the light may be: seeing the light which is the life of one’s self, and of every living being, and the being of every molecule and atom, particle and wave, waves of song, waves of love and rejoicing, waves with peaks and troughs and cycles of morning and evening, the times of Day on earth, and the Nights,

“but if we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another,” [1 JOHN 1:7].

God– what we call “God” in our shorthand, but is incredibly greater and more than human words can say, more vast than can be contained in any book, but which is as close as our breath– is the provider of all the substance of living things, of all molecules and atoms thrown out by accelerating energies, cooled into star stuff– we and everything on our planet are made of star stuff, just like that in the star which led the wise men to Bethlehem.

“…Consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us. For all creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God…in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now,” [ROMANS 8: 18-22].

Through Christ, born as a human to reveal God and renew us, we have the Image of God in us restored, opening our eyes to God or Light in us and in everything that is, which is made in Them– and this can change everything.

“Arise, shine, for your light has come and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you,” [ISAIAH 60:1].

(Photo by D.KT.)

“Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you,” [ISAIAH 60:1].

We Choose

By D.Thomas

(Photo by D.KT.)

“So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast. The LORD said to Cain, ‘Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; its desire is to have you, but you may master it,” [GENESIS 4: 6-7].

I began essays three or four times over the year, but the World has been so strange that I have not known what to say– I was exhausted by it. The last attempt was in July:

“I think there is a virulent poison ivy cropping up in new places this summer, and that seems to be a good metaphor for this American season.

“It feels like the fire is being blown up, and this might be my public lament.”

I spent the first six months of the year trying to let only minimal details of the news in– if trump, the convicted criminal, is the Republican front runner– I cannot comprehend. His appointed Justices are anti-democratic, and if one considers according to even the simplest system of ethics, the man still comes off criminal…

What can Apologetics do when “Christianity” is sounding toxic, because “Christian nationalism” is not striking everyone as oxymoronic, and scriptures have been weaponized, convincing many formerly good Christian people that it is good to curtail human dignities and rights and freedoms, to ban books, eliminate reproductive rights, and dishonor human identities.

I still want to wrench the name of Christ and the following of Christ from the clutches of the deluded, deceived, and the evil, and raise up the Gospel: God loves you, even if you’ve screwed up, even if you’re not straight, white, and cis-gender.

I am terrified of the fires that might start burning, should trump end up in office. Project 2025, giving the office of President more dictatorial power over governance? Hitler, remember, was elected. I read in a CNN article that this man is supposedly calling for Liz Cheney to face a televised military tribunal for treason (the treason of not supporting him.) I am worried that trump is friends with Putin of Russia and Kim Jong Un of North Korea, so my projection fears an axis powder keg of nuclear-capable powers with megalomaniacs at the controls who could light a fuse with an insult; and should Netanyahu ally with them, the jihad would be explosive … trump says there’s a war on oil and gas? Climate disaster, increasing drought and wildfire, melting roads and and starvation would lie ahead on desert Earth.

And I fear that too many Americans have failed to realize how actions, decisions, laws, actually affect other people. Humans have become remote from each other, especially since the pandemic: others exist mostly on screens and in texts; reactions and feelings are emojis, and responses are “comments;” it is harder than ever to recognize that other humans are as alive, as conscious, as constant and as feeling as oneself, so that abstract “policy,” “regulation,” “law,” does not really do anything if I’m not the one busted for breaking the law, so that other people aren’t as real as “Me” until one of them assaults “Me.” History and the future are just memes.

There are are dozens of Bible verses that seem to describe trump to a T, but of course that is my reading and applying to him, which is not really the way one should read or use scripture; but I am going to stay in the Bible while I send out this cry for people of this nation to stand and shout (and vote) against the darkness, the corruption, the deceit and evil, because they are trying to use the Book to convince Christians of lies.

“Choice,” is, of course, the big point for many Christians, the dangerous word: the adversary is trying to convince people that “choice” is the opposite of “life:” if you are “pro-” one, you must be against the other.

And yet, choice implies options, more than one possibility. One might choose to save the baby and let the mother die, or to save the mother by removing the misplaced, dead, or otherwise life-threatening baby, to carry a baby to term and put them up for adoption, or to raise them, and to receive pre- and post-natal health care. These are all choices for sustainable life and lives.

The position of the leaders campaigning as “Pro-Life” are pushing for forced births, but not for universal health care for the mothers’ and babies’ well-being; they want to cut spending on welfare services; they tend ( and I admit to a generalizing which is not true of everyone) to be pro-2nd Amendment Right To bear Arms, despite gun violence now outranking even auto accident as the leading cause of death of children; pro- open- or concealed-carry, and in states governed by this party, there are stand-your-ground laws: if you feel threatened you can shoot, and it is not murder. They are restricting human rights, which is not in favor of life or even democracy.

One can be Pro-Choice without being pro-abortion; I don’t think anyone ever thinks it is a good thing, but it may be necessary, life-saving, or a woman’s means of self-defense. Surely she might defend her life, as much as the man with the gun who thinks the teenager in the hoodie walking his direction on the same sidewalk might want to mug him.

The adversary doesn’t tell you any of that. The adversary tells you lies, and then asks you to choose between the lies and the spun “facts.” Such as: the refugees and immigrants, sanctuary- or safety-seeking, legal and not, are criminals who want to rape your children, eat your pets, and take your jobs; or that America needs to be taken back from the communist elites (“take America back”? Is trump indigenous?), and high prices at the grocery store and gas station are the Democrats’ fault, or that true Americans are in grave danger from something, from everything except Mr. trump…And because America has become many’s Idol, White, straight, married, apple-pie America comes before all the world, so he has followers.

“Who has directed the spirit of the LORD, or as his counselor has instructed Him? Whom did He consult for His enlightenment, and who taught Hi the path of justice?…even the nations are like a drop from a bucket, and are accounted as dust on the scales…All the nations are as nothing before Him; they are accounted by Him as less than nothing and emptiness,” [ISAIAH 40: 13-17].

Satan offers falsities and twists and then asks us to choose.

A High Court convicted Jesus of blasphemy.

(Photo by D.KT.)

The stories in Genesis tell us about our early selves, and about God with creation from the beginning; they are stories with important human points, like most early tales, myths, epics, poetically describing the nature of human and other living creatures on this planet, in this cosmos. They are part of the collective unconscious of the human race. Cain and Abel, Adam and Eve and most of the Old Testament figures in this Hebrew Book of the Knowledge of Good and Evil are showing people doing good, and people doing evil (often the same people), and shows God using them and accomplishing God’s work and fulfilling God’s promises in spite of the unruly, inconsistent, and messy human beings who often make bad choices, and this can be read, as tales of psyche’s path of Individuation.

“Now the serpent was more crafty than any other wild animal that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, ‘Did God say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” The woman said to the serpent, ‘We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said “You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, nor shall you touch it, or you shall die.”‘ But the serpent said to the woman, ‘You will not die, for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’….” [GENESIS 3: 1-5].

The serpent begins with a falsehood, (“You must not eat from any tree…?”) which the woman corrects, and he follows that correction with another twist of truth (“You will be like God…”).

She is already like God, made in Their Image, and with Spirit breathed into her human race. Spirit which convicts us of sin and righteousness; Spirit is and is of and is from God, just as Creation, everything that is made, is made of the matter of which, from which, through which Jesus was made.

It nowhere says that it is bad, or even that it was unintended, that humanity should know the difference between good and evil.

God curses the serpent for leading the woman to disobey, and, indeed, for lying to the woman about God.

“The LORD said to the serpent, ‘Because you have done this, cursed are you among all animals…I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.’ To the woman he said, ‘I will greatly increase your pain in childbirth; in pain you shall bring forth children…’And to the man he said, ‘Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten of the tree about which I commanded you “You shall not eat, of it,” cursed is the ground because of you…'” [GENESIS 3: 1-5,14-17].

The woman was not cursed, but told that she would give birth in pain ( look at a baby’s head and a woman’s pelvis– how could it ever be otherwise before epidurals?)

The man himself was not cursed, but “the ground because of” him. His fault was not of listening to his wife, (or listening to a woman who should not rule over a man, or a woman because a woman is inferior to a man), but because he listened to what a human said over what God had commanded. The woman was the only other human around in this story, but the message is that the man broke God’s rule because of what a human told him, who had been lied to about, and had accepted the falsehood about, God.

The word Sin is not used.

Sin turns up when God speaks to Cain, when Cain is angry, understandably, and God tells him he has a choice, to act with the eager sin, or to do the right thing, and bring a better offering, an actual sacrifice. Cain chooses his action.

The first human sin was murder.

What “Original Sin” got humans expelled from the Garden of Eden, then? Perhaps not their act, but the Spiritual sin, Satan’s sin, of lying about God.

The unforgivable blasphemy, Jesus said, is against the Holy Spirit: calling The Spirit Who Reveals the Truth About God false, of Beelzebul, or: lying about God.

I have written before about the New Testament being recorded in relatively modern times, when the writing of documents and orders, and the recording of histories were well advanced: libraries existed, and many of the tales had been written down, and I believe the Gospels are as true and reliable as any texts, but you might not; in that case, read the stories as we read the others, of Eden and the exodus or flood, read Jesus as Creation Revealing Creator to humans of planet earth, materially and in history, (circa 30C.E.) because we humans are made of atoms and molecules and live at points in space- time.

(Jesus said) “‘I tell you, something greater than the temple is here. But if you had known what this means, “I desire mercy and not sacrifice,” you would not have condemned the guiltless. For the Son of Man is lord of the sabbath,’ He left that place and entered their synagogue; a man was there with a withered hand, and they asked him, ‘Is it lawful to cure on the sabbath?’ so that they might accuse him. He said to them, ‘Suppose one of you has only one sheep, and it falls into a pit on the sabbath, will you not lay hold of it and lift it out? How much more valuable is a human being than a sheep! So it is lawful to do good on the sabbath.’ Then he said to the man, ‘Stretch out your hand. He stretched it out, and it was restored, as sound as the other. But the Pharisees went out and conspired against him how to destroy him,” [MATTHEW 12: 8-14].

Before he began his teaching and healing, Jesus went to the wilderness alone to fast and pray and to face the Adversary, the Enemy, Satan Itself. The four Gospels record the Temptations, through which Satan, who says that he has been given all the kingdoms of the earth, offers Jesus ways to power that do not involve humiliating suffering or excruciating death, but Power and Glory, pomp and miracles, bread and circuses. He could lure all people to himself with miracle food if they followed him– they would never go hungry again– which Scar promises the hyenas in Lion King– or if he showed how the angels aided him, or if he worshiped the Spirit Of Worldly Wealth And Personal Power And Glory.

But Jesus came “not to be served but to serve” (MATTHEW 20:28, MARK 10:45) and even:

“…knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he came from God and was returning to God; so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet,” [JOHN13: 3-5a ].

With one candidate spinning lies and glorifying himself, firing staffers who did not agree with or pander to him throughout his political career, and who is convinced that he could only lose if it is all rigged against him, a cheat and a steal, who is depicted as a Rambo with guns and a six-pack and a semi-automatic and a flag and is followed no matter how many treasons and crimes he’s been tried for and found guilty of, I couldn’t help contrasting the man who humbly stepped aside for another candidate to run, because he knows that it was and is not about him, personally, but the goals of the party and needs of the voting people, whom he was still serving and will be working for as a public servant until the transfer next Inauguration day.

The checks and balances of the three branches of the U.S. Federal government., and the limit of Presidential terms are the admirable and revolutionary tenants of the Nation, which the right wing purports to support and defend, yet are the checks that the right wing plan is to alter, remove, granting one office– the one man’s office, greater power over even the Congress, opening his way to dictatorship, if all goes his way.

His way also involves drilling and pumping up all the oil and gas and ignoring the damage being done, the suffering and displacement of living beings of countless species in addition to our own.

His way is that of his own aggrandizement, power and glory.

These are the temptations and possibilities that Jesus rejected.

They are the temptations Satan put forth.

“But to the wicked God says: ‘What right have you to recite my statutes, or take my covenant on your lips? For you hate discipline, and you cast my words behind you. You make friends with a thief when you see one, and you keep company with adulterers. You give your mouth free reign for evil, and your tongue frames deceit;'” [PSALM 50: 16-19].

“‘Either make the tree good, and the fruit good, or make the tree bad, and its fruit bad; for the tree is known by its fruit…out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. The good person brings good things out of a good treasure, and the evil person brings evil things out of an evil treasure. I tell you, on the day of judgement you will have to give an account for every careless word you utter; for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned,'” [MATTHEW 12: 33-37].

American citizens have a choice to make in this upcoming election, which will affect themselves, and the hemisphere’s poor, and the peoples of the whole world because of the power, wealth, influence, and occupance of the U.S.A. and its interests, investments, allies, watchers, and enemies.

Choose wisely.

If you call yourself Christian or humanist or good, choose help and healing, choose feeding and sheltering and giving water to the poor and the stranger, not the withholding of the drink of water, the blanket, the dollar for the meal.

The hurricane devastation of Helene, and the pouring forth of aid, money and supplies, and the mule and pack teams getting them through has shown that we are better then those stirring up hatred and fear want us to remember.

Choose not just birth, but actually life and some chance of healthy life in the future. Choose love, not one puffed up with self-love, and self-glory.

When Jesus was accused of healing and of casting out demons by the power of Satan, when the religious rulers called the Spirit That Reveals The Truth About God and Is God and was the power upon him (when they called good evil and their evil, good), Jesus said,

“‘Therefore I tell you, people will be forgiven for every sin and blasphemy, but blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. whoever speaks against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come,'” [MATTHEW 12:31-32].

(Photo by D.KT.)

“

Is the Lord Still Waiting Patiently For Me?

By D.Thomas

(“Detail of a study for Mary,” drawing by D.KT.)

“Gaudete!”

“Gaudete” sings the chorus; but it is hard to “rejoice.”

The world has celebrated Hanukkah and Christmas and the Winter Solstice, and in America is Kwanzaa; I will talk about the Christian holiday and Judeo-Christian scriptures here, because that is my own faith, and I am still hoping to share the Gospel, which is Good News about Love.

Yuletide, and the Christmas Season: O happy time of people singing carols in the streets and hanging lights and green branches, of gatherings, concerts and post-season play-offs, of Snowflakes and waltzing Flowers, gift-givings and friendly greetings; and of longer nights and colder winds and the reaching of the dregs of another year: a season of happiness and despair, known equally for socializing (with and without attendant anxieties) and for loneliness.

O season of Light in Darkness, and the darkness.

It is easy and common to wonder, Did the birth and life of Jesus really do any good?

In the world, the commonplaces rage still: war, still: war, and the floods, fires, famines, shootings; it has been, again, the hottest year on record, and trump is somehow the front-running Republican, and has even pulled ahead of Biden in popularity over Israel, according to a recent Wall Street Journal poll…

In families, cancers and deaths, and aging, rounds of hospitals, of treatments and therapies, or of estrangements and abuses, difficult loves and silences,

I was depressed most of the fall– maybe most of the summer and fall and into Advent, and I know others struggling in the nets and snares of depression, dragging heavy- weighted issues along their own muddy, rocky, thorny wildernesses and city ruins where monsters and robbers hide out and ambush…

It took me so long to be able to write more than my journal that Christmas Day has passed (Oh! But there are twelve!)– but I want to backtrack, and look. And so:

In the Christian calendar, Advent is the four-week season leading up to Christmas, the time of preparing our hearts and minds for the coming of the Christ Child– not just our houses and tables, and itineraries.

We are supposed to prepare and await with eager expectation the coming of God into the world, God among humans, God With Us is His Name (Immanuel).

Over the four Sundays, candles on a wreathe are lit in most churches and many homes, first one, then two, until we light the central Christ candle on Christmas Eve. The candles commonly represent Hope, Peace, Love, and Joy.

Hope? When, despite all the information about the devastation of climate change if we do not alter our human ways, the USA extracted its highest volume of fossil fuels ever in 2023, while the war in Ukraine continues past Americans’ eagerness to send aid or post supportive pics of President Zelensky, and war has broken out yet again in the Holy Land.

Isaiah, who wrote and prophesied roughly 800 years before the Nativity, said:

“Now the LORD is about to lay waste the earth and make it desolate, and He will twist its surface and scatter its inhabitants. And it shall be, as with the people, so with the priest; as with the slave, so with his master.. as with the creditor, so with the debtor…the earth dries up and withers, the world languishes and withers; the heavens languish together with the earth. The earth lies polluted under its inhabitants; for they have transgressed laws, violated the statutes, broken the everlasting covenant. Therefor a curse devours the earth, and its inhabitants suffer in their guilt; therefore the inhabitants of the earth dwindled, and few people are left,” [ISAIAH 24:1-6].

Can we keep hoping, when every year is hotter, and the cities and nations continue oppressing, hating, killing?

What do we hope, anymore? For Peace on earth?

Peace? When the harshest war in decades is destroying the Gaza Strip, when Hamas terrorists bombed thousand, and Israel has been destructively retaliating, to the point that Christmas festivities were cancelled in Bethlehem this year.

Isaiah wrote:

“Therefore justice is far from us, and righteousness does not reach us; we wait for light, and lo! there is darkness; and for brightness, but we walk in gloom… Justice is turned back, and righteousness stands at a distance; for truth stumbles in the public square, and uprightness cannot enter. Truth is lacking, and whoever turns from evil is despoiled… The LORD saw it, and it displeased Him that there was no justice. He saw that there was no one, and was appalled that there was no one to intervene, [ISAIAH 59: 9; 14-16].

Peace on earth? Often it seems that the only peace will be brought by entropy, when everything has drifted far apart, molecules, even, losing cohesion, and motion slows to a standstill and the first or fifty-billionth earth and heaven just stop.

(Photo by D.KT.)

Love? Where, then, is the Love?

“So His own arm brought Him victory, and Hi righteousness upheld Him. He put on righteousness like a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on His head…and He will come to Zion as Redeemer, to those in Jacob who turn from transgression, says the LORD,” {ISAIAH 59:16-17, 20].

“For God so loved the world that He sent His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him may not perish but have eternal life,” [JOHN 3:16];

“What came into being in Him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness does not overcome it,” [JOHN 1:3b-5].

“Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him,” [JOHN 3:17].

*

The season of Advent is also supposed to be that of preparing our hearts and minds for the arrival of Christ Jesus in the world again, the “Second Coming”– but do we know what that means? John describes:

“...A white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and makes war, His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns…he is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God. The armies of heaven were following him, riding on white horses,” [REVELATION 19: 11-14;]

And Matthew records Jesus saying,

“Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see ‘the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven” with power and great glory. And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other,” [MATT. 24: 30-31;]

“All creation waits,” Saint Paul writes in Romans.

If Christ is going to return to destroy the wicked, to throw the Beast and Satan into the pit and so forth, and Set Things Right– what is He waiting for? How bad do things have to get? we ask, and it gets harder and harder to have faith enough to show others, or to believe at all. Is God waiting ’til we nuke ourselves, or destroy all but a last third of the population and habitable planet? How is that Love? No wonder many do not believe (aside from not believing in mythological Monsters and Angels and dynasties).

“Creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God; for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God,” [ROMANS 8:19-21.]

The world is groaning, the planet parched, starving Earth is crying out in her distress.

“We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now; and not only creation but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies,” [ROMANS 8:22-23;]

This isn’t very cheery or Christmas-y sounding, and doesn’t turn all mourning into dancing right off, does it? But wait– labor pains? God in Creation is bringing forth, birthing something out of all this? Paul says next,

“For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what is seen? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience,” [ROMANS 8: 24-25.]

Looking out at the gloomy, depressing facts of the world, consider: we do not hope for what is seen, but what is not seen yet– but coming into being?

“Once Jesus was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God was coming, and he answered,

‘The kingdom of God is not coming with things that can be observed; nor will they say, “Look, here it is!” or “There it is!” For, in fact, the kingdom of God is among you,'” [LUKE 17:20-21.]

God is with God’s kingdom– is Creation not God’s Kingdom? The Living God, Spirit, is moving in Creation and God’s creations, so that even when we are overwhelmed, lost or buried in helplessness, we can call out, we can pray. And, somehow, prayer works. I like to think that the words or thoughts of someone praying disturb and excite particles, stir (psychic?) fields or forces, which react.

“The Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God,” [ROMANS 8: 26-27.]

My own depression and feeling-alone-ness had me at the edge of my darkest pit; the lip was slippery with inky sludge, and I could feel myself sliding into despair and acedia and suicidal ideations, and I knew I needed help: this was my own Solstice.

I emailed a circle of the people I sing with, asking for prayers, confessing my need of spiritual help. I wanted to make it through the day, the holidays, my father’s remaining lifetime, and to be gentle with him, and efficient, and maybe useful, and, anyway, less gloomy.

People responded quickly, even taking me out for fresh air and a walk beside my favorite places, and I could feel by the next morning that my deep chasm had closed again, I’d been lifted away from the dangerous, unstable edge, and was okay.

I was able to sing “Gaudete,” with some joy with those singers:

“Gaudete, gaudete! Christus est natus ex Maria virginie! Gaudete!” — a joyful Medieval chorus which has been dancing in my head since.

I would have been content with a lift out of the worst, scariest mental state, but Spirit Who Prays For Us and Answers Prayer worked more deeply; a week or so later it struck me that my dim, dreamless outlook with my wish to go home once my Dad and my cat have gone, is the sin of Acedia again– of not caring. It was saying No to God, saying No, I didn’t care if God might or does have something in mind for me to do later, in my later years, for which this time is preparation. I was rejecting future roles and works in feeling that there would be nothing and I would be all alone. My despondency had trapped me within myself until I didn’t care to look out at the world, and could not see much of anything at all to hope or work for or toward.

I do not mean that Depression is Sin, but, whatever else it is, it is a spiritual sickness, and surely Pandemic. One can easily slide into sin from depression: our demons know us well, and whisper enticements most when our strength is low.

Then there was a sermon which highlighted Mama Arlene (Brown), a local woman who was called to move to Africa and open a home for children in Rwanda at the age of 65.

Mary was very young, but ancestor Sarah and cousin Elizabeth bore their first children when old and “past bearing,” (in Genesis and Luke), and Anna the prophet who saw Jesus when his parents brought him to the Jerusalem Temple for his dedication and circumcision, who spoke of him to all around (LUKE 2: 36-38), was a widow for or of 84 years, after seven years of marriage. Abraham was old when he was promised children and blessings on the world, and Moses was old when he saw the burning bush.

If I throw my future back with a No thank you, is that not turning away from God, God’s plan, God’s good creation?

I have had the title of this essay in mind, and on drafts, since early summer; I have seen the sin I’d slid into, but kept not writing about it even in my notebook until the first or second day of Christmastime, reluctant even still to try out hope, tentative, because– because repentance is hard, because armor is heavy, because I do not yet know what there will be, what I might be called to, and it is extremely difficult to hope or trust in the Anthropocene– but only by serving creation, serving living creatures, serving m neighbors, can I serve God and help make things better, help heal.

“Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you; therefore He will rise up to show mercy to you. For the LORD is a God of justice; blessed are those who wait for him.

“Truly, O people of Zion, inhabitants of Jerusalem, you shall weep no more. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry; wen He hears it He will answer you. Though the LORD may give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your eyes shall see your Teacher. And when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left, your ears shall hear a Word behind you, saying, ‘This is the way; walk in it.'” [ISAIAH 30:18-21]

And when we cast away our idols– of Gold, of Empire, or Hard Work, or Nation or Spirituality or Self,

“He will give rain for the seed with which you sow the ground, and grain, the produce of the ground, which will be rich and plenteous. On that day your cattle will graze in broad pastures; and the oxen and donkeys that till the ground will eat silage, which has been winnowed with shovel and fork. On every lofty mountain and every high hill there will be brooks running with water,” [ISAIAH 30: 23-25a ].

I am in a little more peace, and not as heavy or dark as I was, and want to remember to:

“Finally, be strong in the Lord and the strength of His power. Put on the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places,” [EPHESIANS 6: 10-12];

(Photo by D.KT.)

For, in Their Love, God has given us the Holy Spirit Who Tells The Truth About God and convicts us of sin and righteousness, Who leads us and comforts us and gives us spiritual gifts with which to serve God and our neighbors; the Spirit and the Word of God are the Power and the Light that defeats the darkness,

And God Creator Who Loves the Created Beings has given us a world of incredible beauty, of awesome birds and towering trees and communicating funguses, and grand mountains and canyons and seas; and when we can look and meet Nature, Creator’s world, and can experience awe, wonder, delight, we are in the midst of Love and a breath from Joy.

Is the LORD still waiting patiently for me? For us?

Yes.

““But do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the LORD one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years is like one day. The LORD is not slow about His promise, as some think of slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance,: [1 PETER 3:8-10].

“Some sat in darkness and in gloom, prisoners in misery and in irons, for they had rebelled against the words of God, and spurned the counsel of the Most High .Their hearts were bowed down with hard labor; they fell down, with no one to help. Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble, and He saved them from their distress; He brought them out of darkness and gloom, and broke their bonds asunder. Let them thank the LORD for His steadfast love, and His wonderful works to humankind,” [PSALM 107: 10-15].

“Sing for joy, O heavens, and exult, O earth; break forth, O mountains, into singing! For the Lord has comforted His people, and will have compassion on His suffering ones.

“But Zion said, ‘The LORD has forsaken me, my LORD has forgotten me.’

“ Can a woman forget her nursing child, or show no compassion to for the child of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. See, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands; your wails are continually before me.” [ISAIAH 49: 13-15].

“The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness– on them light has shined…

“For a child has been born for us, a son given to us; authority rests upon his shoulders; and he is named Wonderful Counselor, Almighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace…the zeal of the LORD of Hosts will do this,” [ISAIAH 9: 2, 6-7].

(Photo by D.KT.)

Gaudete, Gaudete! Christus est natus! Gaudete!

Disaffection, or: I Wait Impatiently For The LORD

By D.Thomas

(Photo by D.KT.)

“If you invoke the Father as one who judges all people impartially according to their deeds, live in reverent fear during the time of your exile…Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, so that He might exalt you in due time.” [1 PETER 1:17; 5:6].

I have been struggling to write. (“Be angry but do not sin,” [EPH. 4:26]). I let Easter pass, and Earth Day, and Worm and Flower Moons, and have remained depressed, uneasy, and, even, though not exactly for myself, afraid.

We are told to not fear, that love casts out fear, but I have not been able to shake my fear of “the world,” or of the spirits out there, running to and fro and gloating over the surface of the earth. I fear, and do not trust myself– I have been weak and too easily charmed astray into sins; I don’t trust my judgement when it comes to people.

( I have been more accurate in my intuitions of global-historical, international movements of the spirits on the earth– my [unpublished] “Great Dystopian Novel,” The Resistance, conceived in my freshman year of college as Anti-Nuke, and rough-drafted in 1990 as anti-nuke and Anti-Corporate Imperialist, is set on the streets outside, and the suites within, a city of “crystal towers” built following Eco-disasters [nuclear accidents and terrorist attacks], by The Corporation which runs the world and which manufactured drugs and pharmaceutical-grade petroleum products. When p.c.s became common, I projected “Town Halls” and live discussions at UN events at which every one with their own or public- use computers could participate in real time; I wrote volumes about the evils of nuclear weapons, armed and aimed and waiting around the globe, and the madness of Mutual Assured Destruction policies, and I have raged against budget cuts to programs of aid, of food and medicine and the welfare of the poor [the hungry five year olds who can’t get jobs], and I have not wanted to join the world in which human lives are merely ID- numbered digits plugged into percentage tables, logarithms, algorithms and statistics, or wedges of color on a pie chart, and “acceptable Losses” can be calculated in nuclear/fossil fuel/”Grub Hub” scenarios and acquisitions, world run with hypocrisy and schizophrenia and greed. Fearing and wanting to stay as much out of the mainstream “World” as possible is, I suspect, my main sin, and the root of most of my anxieties, failures, and shortfalls–

“Finally, be strong in the LORD and in the strength of His power. Put on the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil,” [EPHESIANS 6:10-11]).

And then I lost my voice.

This era of What trump And Supporters Represent has, naturally, freaked me out– but at least evils bubbled to the surface to be obvious, and no longer ignorable. What I have hated most of this national situation has been the so-called evangelical churches which have spit much of the hatred and forced most of the oppressions — I began “blogging” to write of Christ Jesus and the Good News of Love and Light and Life and the forgiveness of sins in this darkness. God is Love– who hates his brother or sister or neighbor is not of God.

One thing which has been grieving me this year, holding my imagination in dread and heavy reluctance about writing even what I believe is truth, is: the ugly breakup going on in the United Methodist Church– the Disaffiliations.

I was confirmed in and have worshiped and served in one of the hundreds or thousands of First United Methodist Churches; I left after high school to wander and seek as do many, and I returned, relieved that the denomination believes that science has learned facts about the natural world– that evolution and creation are not mutually exclusive or irreconcilable, and that has favored education and study, not only of the Bible, but of it. I was not and am not necessarily loyal to or much concerned with Denomination– but this one supports some beautiful woodland camp and retreat sites that I dearly love, and UMCOR, the United Methodist Committee on Relief, which is renowned for early, boots -on -the- ground, hands- on disaster relief.

(Because this can all be looked up, and the UMC website offers a lot of information and clarification on the subject, I will only give the briefest background).

For generations there has been disagreement about “issues of sexuality”– namely whether LGBTQ+ persons should be ordained and able to lead churches, and this has included disagreement about same-sex marriage and officiating by UMC pastors, once this became legal. Such issues are argued and voted on by Judiciary Committees of Bishops; the church, which is worldwide, has a complex hierarchy governing the by-laws and finances; all the UMC churches basically follow the Book Of Discipline (rules of policy and government), and the churches’ properties are held by the Conferences in trust– the congregations with their trustees and councils have stewardship of the buildings and lands, not ownership. Pastors are appointed and periodically moved to new charges as a means of checks and balances of power, since Pastors have influence over congregants by the very position they hold.

So far, or, as of the last General Conference Special Session (2019) to vote upon the one paragraph in the Book of Discipline about ordination of clergy and sexuality, Paragraph 304.3, the has been, narrowly, that “self-avowed, practicing homosexuals” are denied ordination.

I was sorry to hear this, but the UMC states that members can disagree, that it’s an ongoing discussion; rules and by-laws are changed and ammended as in elected governments, and there seems to be a feeling in the air that this may change at the next General Conference, 2024.

The UMC realized that this vote was hurtful to many, and created a pathway (Paragraph 2553) for churches who disagreed to separate from the denomination, keeping their physical churches and congregations who desired to stand for a more inclusive rule.

This opportunity to Disaffiliate by way of Paragraph 2553 ends December 31, 2023. A church which decides it wishes to by a 2/3rds majority vote puts in the request to disaffiliate to its District or Conference, and at its Annual Conference, it is voted on and ratified or not.

There are two points over which a congregation can disaffiliate: either that it disagrees with the rule barring gay clergy or that it is angry over the fact that there are two gay Bishops in the UMC despite the rule, or “selective disciplining”/failure to discipline.

What is ironic is that the majority of churches in the disaffiliating flurry of the last year or so, are the conservative congregations, breaking away and some establishing the Global Methodist and similar, new denominations, or going independent (this has been happening largely, it turns out, in “Red,” rights-revoking, and book-banning, states).

(Photo of original manuscript pages of The Resistance),

Jesus barred no group from love, from forgiveness, from discipleship, or from ministry in the church founded through the apostles; even difficult Paul says that we are the same in Christ. male female, slave free, Jew Gentile– the divisions were broken down as the world was overcome. In the book of the Acts of the Apostles, the Ethiopian eunuch was baptized with water and the Spirit, and the only people who were turned away from the family of adopted children of God were: first, Ananias and Sapphira, the husband and wife who sold property to give money to the common store, but kept some of the money for themselves, secretly and hypocritically: Peter called them out not for lying to the people but lying to God {ACTS 5: 1-11), and they both fell down dead; and, secondly, Simon, a magician, who tried to buy the gift of the Holy Spirit from Peter and John with silver. (ACTS 8:9-24).

I am grieved that the church I have given time and tithes and gifts to has chosen to disaffiliate on that second point– that despite the ruling, there are two Bishops (in the world) who are “avowed homosexuals.” That they have decided that humans can indeed judge what humans are fit or unfit to preach and teach the word of God to fellow humans, or anyway that they don’t want to pay money into ministry shares which pay into their retirement funds.

This is sad, and to me this point seems awfully Pharisitic and legalistic, but this is not exactly what has been darkening, weighting, burdening and burning on my heart. The ways and means are– because of which, I am not sure of the leaders’ and movers’ intended ends.

There are clear, careful guidelines for congregational decisions on the matter, but not all the churches have been following them.

“For our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places,” [EPHESIANS 6:12.]

The authorities, or, in some translations, “Powers and principalities” are to some extent, the spirits of groups, institutions, nations; — think “school spirit”; “team spirit,” generally thought to be a good thing, can erupt after a big football loss into destructive and even deadly riots. Things are done “in a spirit of”–.

The Devil, the Powers and Principalities and forces of darkness are in a way Satan/Lucifer and the Angels who fell with and fall with him, in the wars in the heavens– that Satan who tempted Jesus in the wilderness, whom he saw “fall from heaven like a flash of lightning” when the 72 disciples were sent out to preach the good news in pairs, in the stead of Jesus, and returned with joy, , excited and triumphant (“Lord, in your name even the demons submit to us!”), as in LUKE 10:17-18; Satan who yet a little while later led Judas to betray Jesus in Gethsemane; and, the forces of this present darkness are, also, the joined motives, desires, spirits of the people who determine the policies and make the decisions which affect the lives of many on the earth, and the earth itself: Emperors and Kings, Councils, Congresses, Boards of Directors, Parties, mobs and legions.

Powers and authorities are co-created by human groups and the spiritual forces which motivate and drive or inspire them. And here, I think, is where ways and means reveal intentions.

How the universal Christian Church does things, how the local administrations and congregations act does matter: people in the world will not desire to know what hope and peace we have when the institutions using Christ’s name are, at their worst, assaulting children, dressing up in white hoods at night, having extramarital affairs, embezzling funds, or sitting in staff meetings slandering, or encouraging racism, sexism, or xenophobia.

Evil usually comes disguised; what tempts one to sin or evil usually looks and sounds and seems like something good, good for Me or good for us, or even “good for everyone.”

If decisions are made– about stewardship of properties, about hiring and dismissing staff– behind closed doors and almost in secret, and without satisfactory reasons being given, even current congregants can lose trust in their leadership. If, then, a “discernment process” before a vote to request to disaffiliate consists of having the people sit in the pews as on a Sunday morning or Ash Wednesday, to listen to the pastor who is in favor of leaving the denomination present the case( with which he led the first-term and brand-new Lead Council members to agree and already draft the request-to-disaffiliate letter which is to be sent if-)-; presenting no other point of view, and including no Conference representative to help answer questions, and permitting no break-out sessions or talk-among-yourselves breaks, so not really giving people time to even come up with questions, it becomes an issue and even vote of: “Do you trust me or not?”

I have been distrustful for several years of a seemingly tightening, opaque, “inner circle” of leadership, and I’ve been disaffected by several actions it took during (and covered by), quarantine-era and late COVID; in fact I was “boycotting” and worshiping elsewhere until I was moved, reluctantly, to go back– not long before this diasaffiliation process started; — but I am not making accusations here: I am an asker of questions. I can imagine all sorts of scenarios easily, where, at each of three “listening” (not “discussion”) sessions, money came up most: somehow that Paragraph 304.3 led quickly to issues of finances and ownership of property (in the UMC, Conferences own the properties, which the churches run on a Trust clause, practicing stewardship rather than ownership); at the third basically-identical session, “matters of theology” were not once spoken of once without the sentences going on, “but…” to money, finances. In fact, the leaders explained that the decision for the church to act on disaffiliation now was because of the percentage/price drop of doing so, rather than the election of a gay bishop in the Western Region (USA) last November.

Being an avid reader and writer of fiction, and lover of film noire , I give no weight to my fancies, but the fact that they have foundations in the notes and observations I’ve made and kept on paper and digital files is disturbing–a church ought not to set up anyone or anything, boards or commissions or councils, such that they might look, to a new seeker, and atheist enemy, or a skeptical outsider, like nepotism–.

Something has been disturbing the Force.

“Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God; for many false prophets have gone out into the world.” [1 JOHN 4: 1].

I do not know ill of anyone. I do know that, just as

“… false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring destructive opinions,” [2 PETER 2:1].

I don’t always know when the glass is a window or a mirror, and I must watch my own motives and intents and remember

“ Like a roaring lion your adversary the devil prowls around, looking for someone to devour;” [1 PETER 5:8].

My voice returned when I’d decided to try to write this, but: what can one say, what can one do to share Christ with those who do not know the love and forgiveness of God Who Is Love, who need water and shelter and food and healing of body and psyche and soul here in this dark and stormy, watching world in which the church is untrustworthy?

From the beginning, the first and most beautiful of the angels, the Morning Star, set Self ahead of God, and fell, and has been charming and coercing and enticing humans to follow.

From the beginning of his ministry, one of Jesus’ closest disciples, one of the Twelve, was Judas Iscariot who betrayed him.

From their beginning as legitimate organizations with offices and influence in the time of Constantine, preachers and churches have been segregating ‘usses” and “thems”, and “lining their own coffers” and motivating kings and kingdoms to wars and witch hunts.

So, How? Who? What does one do?

One can volunteer, can sing and dance and worship at other churches and out of doors, pray and praise– and lament. One can cry out, one can holler, one can weep– and all of these are prayers.

We who believe, may take courage because: despite all the evils, all the harms and abuses and frauds, the executions and wars, the Gospel of Christ Jesus has been shared; around the world, in almost all nations, among people of all ages, ethnicities, economic positions and genders, people have come to believe and to this very day people are joining churches– even United Methodist churches, and people are sharing Holy Communion, and people are being baptized, and people are offering gifts of time, talents, and money to helping others, to serving and succoring and marching and speaking up for the voiceless, are repurposing buses and trucks to serve needy youth centers, services, and schools, are giving coats and giving drinks of water, are visiting people in their myriad prisons, adopting rescue dogs and cats, adopting orphans, planting trees.

Christ is risen indeed, Christ is greater than the one who is in the world, and Christ has overcome the world. So, for myself, and for those who this personal essay may have stung, I remember and I pray:

“Be still before the LORD, and wait patiently for Him; do not fret over those who prosper in their way, over those who carry out evil devices. Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath. Do not fret– it leads only to evil…

“…Our steps are made firm by the LORD, when He delights in our way; though we stumble we shall not fall headlong, for the LORD holds us by the hand,” [PSALM 37: 7-8;23-24].

“God’s Country”: White American Mythos

By D.Thomas

(“Cartoon After American Progress” by D.KT.)

“Jesus answered,’My kingdom is not from this world. If my kingdom were from this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here.” Pilate asked him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.” [JOHN 18:36-37, NRSV]

This essay is bound to offend a lot of people; but I am writing about those who have made of the Nation an Idol, who have made the Constitution an Idol, who have made Gain an Idol, or Self their god, and who seek their own Power and Glory in the Kingdom of America, here on the earth.

The American Dream: that anyone in America, wherever they were born and with however much or little money can be anything they want to be. Guns, and land can be owned by anybody.

Anyone can rise, be successful, become rich by selling at a profit. By buying an apple for five cents and selling it for ten, and buying two and selling them for ten cents apiece, and so on in this Land of Opportunity. Hero Henry Ford mass-produced the Model-T.

Liberty, Equali– oh wait, that’s France.

Streets Paved With Gold, that’s the American Myth, its hero the Self-Made Millionaire, in a Horatio Alger’s rags-to-riches story.

Capitalism and the Robber Barons.

The White American Mythos: this is the greatest nation on earth, and its people are the righteous, who make their own ways, pull themselves up by their own bootstraps, defend their wives and houses, and think their own thoughts, believe what they determine in their own minds to be true. (Those wives will be as tough, between pregnancies, as any man when homesteading, but as soon as they have two-story houses, they’ll be happy with fine clothes and furniture, ornaments and jewels– after all, diamonds are a material girl’s best friends– and letting the men run the country.)

The God-anointed mission to spread the democratic American Way over the continent and world as a new holy people: “Manifest Destiny.”

The Europeans came to the continent to mine and harvest gold, coffee, sugar cane, cotton– to make money. Younger sons who did not inherit lands came to settle virgin land in this “New World.” As soon as there were many new, European settlers, the existing residents, the natives of the forests and plains of the continent, had to be met and fought and forced out of the way, off the lands the influx wished to farm, and make money from selling what they grew or mined or manufactured from resources on the land they now “owned”.

They invaded and conquered the continent like barbarian hordes–

My prejudice shows.

The side bar to white American history: the estimated population of native people was 60.5 million prior to 1492; by 1600, 90% had died from disease (smallpox especially, which came from Europe) and warfare. In the 19th century over half the remaining indigenous people were killed, and about 8-8.5 million Native Americans live in the U.S. today.

The American Western: the Wild West is the mythical home of the great American Cowboy Heroes– the gunslingers, the train robbers and the sheriffs, the loners, Rangers, and, vigilantes. John Wayne and Clint Eastwood getting justice done. Individualists, living by their own laws of just retribution. The action hero, avenging his family outside the Law.

Early American literature gave the world Thomas Paine, Benjamin Franklin, W.E.B. DuBois, and the American gothics of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, The House of Seven Gables, and The Crucible, Washington Irving’s Legend Of Sleepy Hollow; Edgar Allan Poe, Herman Melville’s Moby Dick, and Emily Dickenson, the recluse, and Thoreau, Walden.

In Europe, the commedia dell’arte had long used white-face for pantomime, clowns, and such characters as Pierrot, Columbine, and Harlequin. White America introduced Black-face as entertainment: the songs and dances originated with the Black slaves, but in theaters for whites, only white actors could entertain white audiences, and I suspect that while the white people loved the music, they would not admit to admiring the (supposedly “inferior”, “3/5ths human”) musicians, and the problem was solved by the minstrel shows, where white singers and dancers and clowns made themselves up to look, mockingly, like Negroes and performed the songs professionally, toured and some became famous, and even starred in Hollywood’s first Talkie.

America is also birthplace of the new religion of Mormonism, which is roughly Christian, but with additions: the prophet Nephi of Jerusalem is said to have sailed to the American continent in 600 B.C., and his and his descendants’ writings were passed down, and Jesus’ visit to them on the new continent recorded; after hundreds of years the prophet Mormon copied the writings onto sheets of metal or gold tablets, and passed these on to his son, Moroni. In 1823 Joseph Smith was visited by Moroni, now an angel, who told him where to find and how to translate the tablets, which became the Book of Mormon, followed by the Latter Day Saints to this day. They profess to be Christian, believing in Christ and the Holy Spirit and God the Father Who has a wife.

Last month on Facebook, someone put up an illustration a Gospel of Luke text (Luke 10:19) about Jesus giving the disciples the power to tread on serpents (I don’t recall why or to what purpose this was posted, but); I was struck by the picture, a drawing of a bare foot coming down upon a rattlesnake. Echoing the image of the rattlesnake who says “Don’t tread on me.”

The Gadsen Flag: the snake has raised its head, about to strike; the tail is up, rattling. Under its coils is the motto, “Don’t Tread On Me”.

In this century, this flag is being waved by Libertarian, southern, and Conservative groups, and it rankles, raises the back-of-the-neck hairs of others the way that the waving of the Confederate flag does, crying (to many) Racism and White Supremacy.

“Now the serpent was more crafty than any other wild animal that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, ‘Did God say, “You shall not eat from any tree in the garden”?’ The woman said to the serpent, ‘We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden; but God said, “You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, nor shall you touch it, or you shall die.” ‘ But the serpent said to the woman, ‘You will not die; for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like gods, knowing good and evil;'” [GENESIS3: 1-5.]

Didn’t Martin Luther King Jr. say that the logical end of racism is genocide?

Should we ask Black Elk or Sitting Bull?

The imagery, the symbolism of the snake daring or threatening any who would tread on or strike it on the head rattled me (the arrogance! The evil?) I was more shaken when my research showed that, while the South has most commonly used or claimed it, the flag in fact comes from the Revolutionary War. The snake, rattlesnake especially, was already a symbol of America for the revolutionaries as representing those who would not back down when provoked, or if their rights were infringed upon, insisting on individual rights and freedom.

But beware of those who speak with forked tongues.

“The LORD said to the serpent, ‘Because you have done this, cursed are you among all animals…I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will strike your head, and you will strike his heel;'” {GEN. 3:14a, 15.]

The flag is credited to Christopher Gadsen, a slave owner and slave-trading politician from South Carolina.

Tragic irony in this: the Revolutionaries who wrote the great documents of human rights and humanistic, elected rule shipped, bought, sold, used and abused Black humans even as they signed their Declaration and penned its Constitution. Thanks to a friend obsessed with the musical Hamilton, I know that John Laurens, for one, pushed for the Constitutional abolition of slavery at the birth of the revolutionary nation.

The American Revolution was one of the strangest of all time for that matter: it was not a case of oppressed, colonized peoples fighting to be free of the colonizing European Empire, but the white European emigrants fighting their own countrymen and king, to be free of the taxes and authority of their governing British homeland.

What was truly revolutionary was the establishment of elected governors and rulers without hereditary seats or titles, and without classes of white property-owning males, a government based on humanism, which had spread through Europe through the Renaissance years of exploration and ocean voyage, the rise of city-states and scientific astronomy, and the printing press and translations of the Bible into spoken languages, and the Reformation this heresy, as it was thought, provoked. .

But: think of Mount Rushmore: was any monument to ruling men so grandiose built since the Pyramids?

( I can honestly say that I grew up confusing, or thinking them the same: the Founding Fathers and the Patriarchs, “God’s Country” and “The Promised Land,” and I was an adult, probably dating someone in retail before I realized that “Black Friday” was not another, better name for “Good Friday”.)

The greatness of the American documents and the founders’ ideas and ideals I do not argue, and a mark of its greatness is: that I will hit “Publish” and this essay will be online for anyone in the world to read, and I have no fear of being arrested for it or detained, or shot.

Of course, I am cis-gender, hetero, and white.

In 1700 there were around 30,000 enslaved Africans in north America and Britain; by 1770, slaves were about a fifth of the total colonial population; between the War for Independence and the Civil War, the number of enslaved humans rose from 700,000 to 4 million.

And Cotton was King.

Economics trumped human rights.

Gain is always for Ego, as is Power which must be Power Over others, if it is not the humble healing power of the spiritual children of God and true followers of Christ Jesus, who with his great power and authority over demons and diseases and storms, washed his disciples feet and let himself be beaten and, though he could call upon legions of angels at any moment, let himself be crucified by Roman soldiers.

(“Betrothed” by D.KT.)

Ego is fragile, and must be protected from others and from knowledge of itself– what we cannot face about ourselves, what we have felt or thought or done that is shameful or against everything we believe and profess becomes hidden; what we reject and hide “in” our unconscious is or becomes, in Jungian terms, our Shadow; our Shadow, hated by our Ego-selves for being abhorred by the cultural Super-ego (of Law and mores imposed from without, from parents, schools, religions, and laws), is what we tend to see in our enemies, is that which we try to eradicate by converting or killing our enemies, be they bloodthirsty savages, godless communists, subhuman inferiors, Scarlet Women, the Red Dragon, or the Church. We each have our own personal projections, and groups which have group or national spirits have group and national projections of what they exclude and hate. Ego hides Shadow. The way to “remove” the undesirable Shadow is: to bring it out to the light, to let the light shine on it; to name it, admit it, and to let it be healed and transformed.

“For there is noting hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be known or brought out into the open,” [LUKE 8:17].

What is the Shadow hiding? What is our vulnerability? Our fear? Is hatred not fear striking out?

“There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. We love because He first loved us. Whoever claims to love God yet hates his brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. And He has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister;”[1JOHN 4:18-21].

Tyrants fear showing weakness.

In these days of political extremism in America, of book banning and rollbacks of Women’s reproductive rights and environmental protections, it seems that it is “white man’s” fear of losing his freedoms, advantages, ways, his superiority in the world, the nation, his own home (if women can rule their own lives and bodies) which has the snake still and now rattling his tail and lashing out at aliens and others. The Other is the Enemy, and in political seasons is made to be the enemy of anyone who is “Our” friend, the Enemy of those “like us” who want to keep America great for the ones for whom it has been so for lo these two hundred-plus years; the Enemy might be those Communists, Feminists, Gays, Blacks, Jews, Socialists, Chinese people responsible for COVID and Latinos who are trying to come in illegally to take our welfare checks and jobs– they are all out to destroy ‘merican, John Wayne Culture.

There is Power in the Spin: who controls the narrative, gives which facts from what angles, leads our decisions.

We fear weakness: we all fear being helpless and alone.

Men have deified “Mother” (and her child, Youth?); which has proved double-edged.

Women have sacrificed themselves to Marriage to prevent being unwanted and all alone.

Of course these I am making sweeping generalities that do not fit every white person. Always, there have been humble and fair and good Christ-loving, God(-as-they-understand-Creator-God)-loving people of all stations, genders, races who love mercy and act justly, and white people– William Lloyd Garrison, Harriet Beecher Stowe– pressed for the abolition of slavery all along, and helped runaway slaves escape north, and stood, marched, ate with Martin Luther King Jr., and fight oil and gas extractors to preserve natural habitats and wilds, and to defend women’s rights to life, liberty, and pursuit of survival, and mental health, work, and a reasonable happiness in this life. In the Civil War there was Clara Barton; in the “South” there was Flannery O’Connor showing sin, Carson McCullers showing hearts, Tennessee Williams, William Faulkner, Truman Capote showing psyches, shadowy patches.

It is my belief that the healing power of Christ Jesus, through Great Holy Spirit, can heal the worst sicknesses and forgive the ugliest crimes, and make any human new, starting the moment one cries out for help repenting of the old.

Yet:

The United States has more guns than people. There have been, as I write, more mass shootings than days so far this Year of our Lord 2023. And states are banning books.

The flash points of Poltics and American society come down to: Who regulates the births and deaths.

(Is the Shadow of the White American Ego, the “White Devil?”)

Who controls Population has Power.

(Is the Shadow of the great Democracy, White Supremacy? And of equal rights, force at gunpoint?)

The rattlesnake still strikes me as a symbol more of evil than of good or God.

“A great portent appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pangs, in the agony of giving birth. The another portent appeared in heaven: a great red dragon…Then the dragon stood before the woman who was about to bear a child, so that he might devour her child as soon as it was born. And she gave birth to a son, a male child, who is to shepherd all the nations… her child was snatched away and taken to God and to his throne; and the woman fled into the wilderness…And war broke out in heaven; Michael and his angels fought against the dragon…The great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world–he was thrown down to earth, and his angels were thrown down with him…the dragon was angry with the woman, and went off to make war on the rest of her children, those who keep the commandments of God and hold the testimony of Jesus;” [REVELATION 12: 1-9, 17.]

“The seventy returned with joy, saying, ‘Lord, in your name even the demons submit to us!’ He said to them, ‘I watched Satan fall from heaven like a flash of lightning. See, I have given you authority to tread on snakes and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy;’ “[LUKE 10: 17-19.]

In the Days of Christmas

By D.Thomas

(photo by D.KT.)

I am going to present something different this time; I wanted to put up one more this year, , but the “topics” in mind need more prayer and patience than the remaining hours provide, so:

I am sharing some Christmas poems, which are rough drafts of some of the songs and poems which, reworked, revised, rewritten, added to and worked again, became the text of an Advent Cantata, instigated and composed, arranged, and conducted by my dear, beloved and late friend Tom Shellenberger.

Who am I, a poor sinner, to speak of our Lord

Who created the heavens and earth with a word,

Who has ordered the seasons and bright stars above,

Made the angels and oceans, the lion, the dove,

Who is Master of lightning and winds and of rains

Of trees at the rivers, of mountains and plains,

Of cattle and oxen, and sheep in the fold,

Of midsummer heat and the deep winter cold;

He sent forth His angels years ago to the mild

To tell of the birth of the Savior, the Child.

Now He’s told us to go, to tell the world of

These things He has done for us in His love.

We had turned from God.

We loved the works of our own hands.

We desired crowns of gold

At the cost of our fellow man.

Summers earth was hard as iron,

Winters water was like stone;

We feared that God had turned away;

Our sin was all our own.

As He promised long ago

God our Father made it so,

Sent His perfect Son to win

Souls of men out from their sin

Who released the prisoners chained

And washed clean the sick and stained.

As He promised in the past

In darkness and ‘mid icy blast

This the new thing He has done

New covenant made, new life begun;

His word His children doth sustain

Makes deserts flower as with rain.

As He promised, He has done

His Son, His love, our soul has won

From that fiend who held us bound

In sin and darkness all around;

Born as man in a stable plain,

Who died yet lives: Salvation reign.

The days are short and the colder winds blow;

The harvest was brought in weeks ago.

The wood has been stacked by the kitchen door,

The straw laid thick on the cowshed floor.

The ox turned the ground for the last time this year;

And it’s up to God to feed the deer.

Now, hardy shepherds, wrap up and go

Fetch the flocks from the mountain before the deep snow.

The path was long and the way was slow

But lit by a star that seemed hung low,

Seemed more bright than the moon, and maybe more near,

At least it gave them some warming cheer;

The men and the dogs had no thought for sleep

With the dozens of woolly beasts to keep;

They guarded their flock by the star’s golden glow

Never expecting what else it would show.

Down at the barn, hear the gentle ox low

To the in-coming donkey half covered with snow

And the man and the woman she’d carried all day

Who settled to rest in the sweet dusty hay;

The animals welcomed them into the fold

And knelt near enough to help block out the cold;

What was coming– did the quiet beasts know

On that blessed night many winters ago?

Hush and hear the heavens pray,

Shepherds, hear the Angels say,

There now in that plain cow stall,

That tiny thing is Lord of all.

Come and hear the heavens rejoicing,

Come and hear the Angels voicing

Glorias to the newborn King;

Let the happy chorus ring!

Come and sing, rejoice and praise,

Come and bring a voice to raise:

Ordained by God with men to dwell,

He is born, Emmanuel!

If you meet a poor sinner who has any need

Give him water or wine. serve him food with all speed,

Play music, invite him to fireside cheer

And be blessed for your kindness with all you have here;

For remember that Jesus made foolish the wise

And often does come in poor ragged disguise.

And now let our Alleluias rise!

“Pie Jesu” and Passaggio

By D. Thomas

(Photo by D.KT. of rehearsal copy of “Pie Jesus” by Gabriel Faure, with singer’s notes)

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.

“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us,” [JOHN 1: 1-2, 14a.]

In singing, the passaggio is the switch from, or the range of notes where a singer must switch from “chest voice” to “head voice.” Chest voice is one’s lower register, created by the thicker vocal folds, which is also the one we normally speak in, and head voice is produced by thinner cords, creating higher notes. The singing voice is made to vibrate at the frequencies wanted by the song by activating parts of the vocal cords and larynx — where instruments have short strings or pipes to make high tones and long strings or large bodies to play low notes as they vibrate at their faster or slower frequencies, the human voice does not have so many separate strings; the manipulation of the mechanism is really more akin to working the abs: we target “upper” and “lower” abs to define the long, sternum-to-pubic-bone rectus abdominis muscle; pulling the ribs toward the hips activates the upper parts of the fibers first, and pulling your hips toward your ribs activates the lower part of the muscle first, but the whole muscle contracts. In our throats, two flaps or folds of tissue come together and separate along the larynx, moved by the breath and ligaments, and the rates of vibration determine the notes sung or spoken..

Vocal register, separate from tone, involves force of air and generation of energy, so that using chest or head voice can be like singing a G or B-flat 4 with brass or string; the singer must determine and create the best timbre for the phrase or movement.

How one switches from “chest” to “head” is impossible for me to explain– you just do, and then feel and analyze what you did, and, if you want to sing well, you practice it, do exercises to make the transition smooth , because it can be problematic– the voice can catch, break, skip, lose tones with poor coordination. You can practice extending the range of each register, singing lower notes in head voice, higher notes in chest, singing scales and practicing intervals from one note to another so that you can choose when to make the change, if you still must, least noticeably, and maybe at a phrase break, or with the next inhale.

One’s exhale begins the vibration which goes out the mouth into the world, pressure waves disturb particles in the air — compressions and rarefactions, traveling to God’s ears and to listeners’– which is where pitch comes in, and why correct pitch matters. Each note in a phrase, from every voice and each instrument, sends out waves of individual amplitudes and frequencies, and they will sound harmonious together, or not. The waves displacing particles which displace near particles must create tones which together create music– and each single note, being resonant, has root tones and overtones and undertones– a note sung has displaces particles which move forward and back, bouncing back, bouncing again forward, and each segment of the area between vibrates with pitch– roughly: one note passes through all its related tones, the thirds and fourths, fifths and octaves; the choir and orchestra must hope everyone is tuned the same and hits the centers of their notes for all the excitations and disturbances to sound just right.

There is not usually auto-tuning at a live concert; there is practice.

The air waves and broad bands are full of movies and jingles, advertisements, sales; retailers hope to get “out of the red” on “Black” Friday; everyone in America is urged to scurry to buy and to put up and plug in all the trimmings and trappings of the gift-giving “Christmas” Season.

“For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder; and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace,” [ISAIAH 9:6].

To Christian churches, this is the first week of Advent, of-r preparation for the coming of Christ Jesus. Not only the birthday party Baby Jesus, but the Second Coming, when evil shall be destroyed and harmony restored to all creation.

The Christian faith is that Christ as Jesus was born, lived and died among us, rose from the dead, and will return in His glory. “The trees in the woods will shout for joy when the LORD comes to rule the earth,” (says 1 CHRONICLES 16:33). Who of us is prepared for the destruction of all that is evil, in our own deepest, darkest, secret places, really? In self-examination, or calling upon God to search us, we learn what Fear of the Lord is, and that we each need grace. “Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ,” [JOHN 1: 17b ].

“May my cry come before You, O LORD; give me understanding according to Your Word,” [PSALM 119: 169.]

Back at the time of Jesus’ nativity (that “First Noel”), on earth, only Mary and Elizabeth and Joseph were preparing for him. Israel awaited its Messiah, but the records indicate that it was not prepared for His arrival among them. Despite the Prophets; there had been no (known, canonically-included) Word from the LORD in Judea for four hundred years– until the message to the priest Zechariah about his soon-to-be-conceived son, to be named John, who would be the great prophet coming before the LORD. Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth were both old, and she had been barren, so Zechariah doubted and questioned the Angel– even though he should have been familiar with old Abraham and old Sarah, and their promised son Isaac– so the Angel struck him mute until John’s birth and christening.

When Elizabeth was six months pregnant, the Angel Gabriel appeared to Mary, and the girl went to spend three months with her older relative– which is one of my favorite parts of the story, showing the compassion of this God of Miracles, at least as recorded by Luke in his first chapter.

Blessed Jesus developed in Mary’s womb, and was duly born after nine months, in the stable in Bethlehem, and the hosts of angels sang Gloria in excelsis Deo and sent the shepherds, who “spread the word concerning what they had been told about this child” and “returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told,” [LUKE 2: 17 and 20].

And so began the earthly life of Jesus, born a baby, growing through toddlerhood and childhood; he went through puberty and grew to his adulthood, traveled his small area (Galilee, Samaria, Judea) preaching and healing, getting tired sometimes, getting hungry and thirsty and needing to pee; after some years he was arrested by disturbed priests and executed for blasphemy.

It is such a simple story, like a children’s story, and because of this, so hard to believe. So hard for us to believe. If there is a “God” at all, a Creating Force or Spirit carrying out a Design or Plan or Direction, why did It or They become a vulnerable human and die in such a brutally ugly way? Could not the Creator of the Universe change things, destroy all evil and uplift the righteous, cure all diseases and unhappinesses, with, say, a snap?

But if God did, who would stand?

*

The Vagus nerve is a two-part parasympathetic nerve, the longest in the human body, which runs from the brain stem to the colon and from the colon to the brain, through the major organs of digestion and of respiration and of phonation, the breathing, vocalizing, and food-swallowing throat, the heart, the immune system; it carries information from the body to the brain, and instructions down from the brain (and parallels the Kundalini energy through the chakra system of yogic tradition). Acid reflux, dizziness, hoarseness, gagging and difficulty swallowing, bloating and stomach pains are common signs of Vagus nerve problems–of something wrong somewhere. Our stressors, our habits, our lives, affect our bodies, and we know that conditions of our bodies affect our daily lives.

This body is what Jesus was born to.

Jesus was born, the Word Made Flesh, I believe, God With Us, Immanuel. His passage through human infancy, childhood, adolescence, and adult life in a society gave Divinity information about being human which could be gotten no other way than first-hand; God which has sent humanity His word through prophets, poets and seers, has, I believe, taken our weak, limited, confused, mortal experience to God, and because of this we can be freed from sin, freed from our prisons of fear, hatred, addiction, obsession, jealousy, fantasy, greed– and eternal death. On our own this is almost impossible, but Spirit is with us, to lead and guide us along our paths of right action.

Jesus himself, in his first lesson in a local synagogue after his baptism by Elizabeth and Zechariah’s John explained, reading a scroll of Isaiah 40:

“‘The Spirit of the LORD is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor.’

“Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him, and he began by saying to them, ‘Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing,'” [LUKE 4:18-21].

What happened next was that the people were “furious” and drove him out of town (4:28-30).

People often do not want to be free of their prisons or their blinders, their habits or addictions, their ways, their excuses and cycles. Change is uncomfortable– disturbing; many are unhappy, and want things to change– but we tend to want everything around us, the others to change to make existence more comfortable or “beautiful,” peaceful, or even “spiritual” for us as we are.

Believing and accepting Jesus means that we accept change, however, in our unconscious selves, in our objectives; in our lives. The promise is of Salvation, of forgiveness of and freedom from sin and everlasting death, and of (not ongoing human, but) eternal life.

Sin is being off–and there are not really levels or valuations of sin; what societies tend to consider worse or lesser sin shifts over time, with circumstance, as do musical and clothing styles and political situations, but most of the world agrees that to sin is to do a kind of wrong. A wrong implies a right; righteousness is performing right action, which is following God’s law or the Tao, or laws of Dharma. Consider: each of us is like a string with its proper tone, or frequency of vibration, struck at birth, and sounding; each of us has an own or “inner” path or Way that is most in harmony with Nature or Being which, to the God-believing, is that which is God-willed; when one is out of tune, one is out of that best, clearest flow of divine force– how far into the depths and wildernesses, pits and dens of iniquity we wander is up to us, and we deal with the consequences– this is human life– and our individual human lives bump– contact– disturb other human lives, and others touch ours, and displace or disturb us.

Grace is the forgiveness and return from our wanderings and fallings out of tune in our ignorances, iniquities, transgressions, debts, and trespasses against neighbor, enemy, stranger, and family member. Every sin is against God.

“Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me,” [MATT. 25:40.]

Passaggio is a “passage”, on a ship from one land mass to another, or on a staircase from one level to another, or a doorway from one space to another, or a sheepgate from one pasture to another; it is also a transition or movement through life, a going through of an experience, suffering a situation, and the “passing” from this world to the next.

The words of the “Pie Jesu,” the fourth movement of Faure’s Requiem, are:

Pie Jesu Domine, dona eis requiem, sempiternam requiem.

(“Blessed Lord Jesus, grant them rest; grant them everlasting rest.”)

Everlasting. In a life-span and beyond.

Passaggio may be the passing from this world to the next– and from that other world to this, for Lord Jesus Christ.

Researching sound waves– pressure agitating particles which displace particles which displace particles on and on expanding outward– has made a speaking of creation into existence more imaginable, and “the Word” more resonant. Perhaps, working the other direction, prayer, mouthed, breathed, spoken, wept, or sung prayer, may influence existence toward God, as the long nerve talks to the brain..

A Christ-believing faith is that, when the Blessed Lord Jesus returns in glory, earth will change. The heavens and earth will be shaken, scriptures say, the old gone, a new heaven and new earth, and new people, new life, will be in its place, God with what is God’s, and what is God’s with God. In tune.

“And the glory of the LORD will be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken it,” [ISAIAH 40:5].

I don’t know, and again I can’t prove anything of God except in my own experience of leaping in faith and “being caught,” which is anecdotally but not scientifically demonstrable. But many scientific theories can’t really be demonstrated, either–cosmic bounces and quantum strings and so forth.

Science and experience do tell us that a simple way to calm an overactive, or stimulate an underactive, Vagus nerve is to hum.

Hum or sing.

Advent hymns and Christmas carols might work.

(page of the score of Handel’s MESSIAH, “For Unto Us A Child Is Born”)

Fall, and Requiem Season

By D.Thomas

(Photo by D.KT.)

“Jesus said, ‘Simon, Simon!Listen! Satan has received permission to test all of you, to separate the good from the bad, as a farmer separates the wheat from the chaff. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith will not fail. And when you turn back to me, you must strengthen your brothers,'” [LUKE 22: 31-32].

The trees have been throwing down their acorns, chestnuts in smooth and spiky balls, pine cones, and seeds in abundance. The chipmunks and squirrels have been busy gathering, birds feasting at the cups and loaves of seeds on flower stalks, and the deer and my cat are getting their thicker fur: the signs say that winter may be coming early, and hard. But the second growth, the new greens, the fall blooms, finer strands of grass, full of water from all the rain that has followed the heat and dryness of our summer. Aster blooms, snakeroot in white clusters, leaves green and green and lush, and in these wet dusks, looking purple. There is nectar, there is food. The oldest, last original beech tree is golden yellow, and the oak our front has some red on its sunrise side, gold facing sunsets.

While I have been thinking of what to write, what with harvest time and mid-term elections coming up here in the USA, and investigations and hearings and trials of the Jan 6 insurrectionists going on– which I am not following, wanting only to know results, not play-by-plays, I have had Gabriel Faure’s Requiem playing on repeat, for a concert in November.

A Requiem is initially or officially a Catholic mass for the dead, but secular and student chorales perform them as classical or masterworks: our Civic Chorus did Mozart’s a few years ago (made famous again by the movie Amadeus), and I can sing good chunks of text and la-ah along with most of John Rutter’s from memory; Faure’s is new to me and there is meaty, funereal text with which I’m unfamiliar (“With trembling I am seized and with fear, until the trial to come, also the coming wrath”); Lycoming College is rehearsing Durufle’s– I had not heard of him till last night– and it was our Civic director who said, “It’s Requiem season.”

Which goes with the autumnal darkening to winter, the Day of the Dead, and All Hallows’ Eve.

Requiem aeternum dona eis, Dominie, et lux perpetua eis.

(Rest eternal grant them, O LORD, and may light perpetual shine on them.)

The book that caught my eye about a fortnight ago, while I was waiting for a lead to an essay, is one that I bought at a thrift shop or something somewhere decades ago and read once, and which has been in the basement for years– our house being so full of books and notebooks that the attic and basement and bedrooms are crammed: The Smoking Mountain: Stories of Germany During the Occupation by Kay Boyle. This book is from 1950, when her War Department husband was part of the Miltary Government in the American Zone. She reported a trial of Heinrich Baab, a former low-level Gestapo officer, for murders in its service, as her introduction. The following stories are based on people she observed and met living in defeated, post-War Germany.

The Allies had won World War II, and were policing the devastated country; Nazi and Gestapo officers were being tried as war criminals in Nuremberg by the International Military Tribunal, and in Frankfurt, Munich, by German courts.

I was reading this book during Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, the celebration of the birth or creation of the world with “Adam,” humanity, at its earthly head– the steward or “ruler” in Genesis; this new year celebration involves the blowing of the shofar, the ram’s horn ( the horns blown which crumbled the walls of Jericho), which has a fantastical, frightening, unearthly and inimitable voice, minor and mezzo, I think– joyful and mournful at once. Like flesh. Like life; like death, like a Requiem.

Rosh Hashanah involves self-reflection, repentance of sins– turning from them, casting them away (casting bread on waters), for ten days. God is judging the people in this time, and inscribing their names in the Book of Life (“It is those who have sinned against me whose names I will remove from My book,” the LORD said in Exodus 32:33.)

I am pounding out and backspacing through the rough of this on that tenth day, which is the first day of Yom Kippur, the High Holy Day of Atonement.

In Leviticus 16, “The LORD gave the following instructions“: Aaron, brother and assistant of Moses, had to go into the Most Holy Place in the mobile temple or Tent Of The LORD’S Presence, bathe, offer the sacrifice of a bull to atone for his own personal sins, and then cast lots to determine which of two goats was “For the LORD” and which “for Azazel”. The one for the LORD was killed as an offering for the sins of the people. These sins were transferred to the second goat, who was driven out of the camp– the yearly scapegoat.

I am embarrassed at how little I know about Jewish Holy Days, despite my European lit. and Bible studies, and childhood church upbringing. I had to look these Days up. Gentile American culture does little or nothing to recognize Jewish holidays, Holy Days, which are not, I guess, marketable with evergreens, tinsel, and toys or chocolate bunnies and marshmallow eggs.

This brings me back to The Smoking Mountain, and the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.The Nazi Germans had been defeated in the war, but that did not mean that the Nazi Party members, the citizens, the shop-keepers and clerks, businessmen, lawyers, teachers, bankers, who had not emigrated, escaped, been arrested or exterminated had changed their minds, had suddenly seen the error of their ways, and given up their prejudices. They had to, grudgingly, do business with the remnants of the Jewish locals and the Amis policing them, but they did not have to like it– and recent history has shown resurgences of White Supremacist Nationalists throughout Europe and the United States, along with ancient ethnic and territorial wars everywhere.

In the story “The Lost,” one of the displaced orphan boys who was working and sheltering with American G.I.s wanted to go to the United States to live with the Sergeant who wanted to take him in at home, but the repatriating powers-that-be said that it would not be possible for the white kid Janos to live with the Black man in Tennessee, USA, in 1949 or ’50.

I suspect that, though the Confederate Army lost the Civil War, its officers, soldiers, and supporters did not right away give up their prejudices, nor did their children and children’s children: a hundred years later, lynchings were common enough for the touring Billie Holiday to write “Strange Fruit,” and nearly half a century after 14-year-old Emmet Till was brutally grabbed, tortured, and killed, an unarmed teenager named Trayvon Martin was shot dead, becoming the face of racism’s destructiveness. Not very long after, the last words of George Floyd killed famously on camera, became the chant of activists around the world in demonstrations and marches against the apparently-government-sanctioned murders of unarmed black men by uniformed police officers. Men I know had to think about ‘how not to scare anyone today’ when stopping at a mini-mart or pumping gas; people had their phone cameras on for their own safety or records of their fates at the hands of cops when pulled over, apparently, we said, for the high crime of Driving While Black– cops who didn’t care how they appeared on Facebook Reels or You Tube. Or were proud.

Not all whites, not all white southerners are racist or anti-Semitic, and not all Germans were Nazis, of course. But too many. Book burners; the book-banners.

A lot of the Proud Boys and MAGA trump-supporters and Alt Righters seem to have big tricked-out trucks. Or Hummers. And guns. They have armories and ammunition.

Tremens factus sum ego timeo, dum discussio venerit, atque ventura ira.

The Gubernatorial and Congressional elections next month are frighteningly important– have the majority of Americans learned that we have to change our ways to save the planet, defuse fascist controls over women’s rights, and medical care, and over people of color through mandatory sentencing (and the loss of voting rights for the incarcerated) and private jails? (“Surely the nations are like a drop in a bucket, they are regarded as dust on the scales” [ISAIAH 40:15].)

“A dispute arose among them as to which of them was considered to be greatest. Jesus said to them, ‘The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those who exercise authority over them call themselves Benefactors. But you are not to be like that. Instead, the greatest among you should be like the youngest, and the one who rules like the one who serves. Who is greater, the one who sits at the table or the one who serves? Is not the one who sits at the table? But I am among you as one who serves;'” [LUKE 22:24-26].

I do not know why the Jews have been feared and despised and scapegoated throughout so-called “Christian” Europe for centuries (read Shakespeare, read Dostoevsky); I do know that Germans, devastated and impoverished by World War I, sought and “found” the “evil among them”, the cause of financial ruin and starvation was placed at the teller windows and interest rates of moneylenders and Rothchilds; the fringe, far right National Socialist Workers’ Party gained leverage when citizens were starved for bread.

I do not comprehend the leap from politics and blame or even hunger to genocide. I leave the mystery of that evil to the Devil and God.

“But you, O Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, you descendants of Abraham my friend, I took you from the ends of the earth, from its farthest corners I called you. I said, ‘You are my servant’; I have chosen you and not rejected you. So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. All who rage against you will surely be ashamed and disgraced..” [ISAIAH 41: 8-11a.]

*

“Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for, that she has received from the LORD’s hand double for all her sins. A voice of one calling: ‘In the desert prepare the way of the LORD, make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God. Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain. And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all mankind together will see it, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken it.” [ISAIAH 40:1-5.]

“Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him and he will bring justice to the nations; … “I, the LORD, have called you in righteousness; I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you and will make you a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles, to open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness;” [ISAIAH 42:1, 6-7.]

Rosh Hashanah, the time of reflecting upon the past year is also about facing the sins we have committed, so we might repent.

Repentance is turning away from the sin, the idol-worship or self-pride, to God. We might rail and rage at God– or at the world; we might lament, demand justice, beg for mercy; we might not know, and ask God to search us and cleanse us– there are plenty of Psalms to read to help with all that.

Repentance is not simply assigning our sins to something, someone else, the external cause. We must, like a Jungian analysand, or Luke Skywalker, face our Shadows, our own dark places, our dark thoughts, desires, prejudices, our secret wishes that so-and-so would fall or fail. Unacknowledged desires or sins, intensifying inner conflicts, become our neuroses, our glitches, our crashes, self-sabotages, blind spots, psychotic breaks. These are easy to see in other nations, other times, other people whom we don’t like, our current “enemy”, but: we must look at these ugly wishes and emotions of our own, and see them, name them, and say that though this is part of me, I do not want to be ruled by this, but to see what it is covering which needs to be heard or healed, and to be freed of it’s influence. And we usually need a friend or partner or doctor or God to help us with that. Forgiveness expunges records.

Now, I believe in my heart that Jesus who lived on earth was killed as the sin sacrifice for humankind, atoning for our sins– past, present, and to come, and that our names are inscribed in the palms of His hands” ( Is. 49:16)– but that is all I want to say on that here.

“As the Scripture says, ‘Anyone who trusts in Him will never be put to shame.’ For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile–the same LORD is LORD of all and richly blesses all who call on Him, for, ‘Everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved;'” [Romans 10:11-13.]

Hallowed be Thy name.

Kyrie eleison.

(Lord have mercy)

Exaudi orationem meam.

(Hear my prayer)