Here Comes da Judge
Stories
Contents
“Here Comes da Judge” by C. David McKirachan
“A Little on Edge” by Frank Ramirez
Here Comes da Judge
by C. David McKirachan
Amos 8:1-12
Parenting is a constant dance between being involved with your children and letting them go. It seems both are necessary and both are wrong, depending on what’s going on with the children and what’s going on around them. To get too involved can crush initiative, short circuit responsibility, betray trust, not to mention creating a pattern of neurotic intervention that erodes respect. Not getting involved is a betrayal of the bonds of family, surrenders the raising of children to the dubious wisdom of the consumer culture and their peers, and risks the very life of the child. The horns of this dilemma are more impressive than any Texas longhorn.
The further they move through Piaget’s developmental stages the more finely tuned the adjustments must be to remain balanced. The needs of a four year old are simpler than those of a sixteen year old. As vociferous as a four year old can be, a teenager demands the attention of a moon shot. Trajectory is hard to work out.
Jesus told us to address God as our intimate parent. That’s not buddy, partner, lawyer, any more than a bit of all of them stirred into this broad and sometimes confusing role of parent. God is not tangled up in the fine tuning of this role as we are. God’s God. But we, on a constant and ongoing basis do get confused and downright rebellious in our attempt to live as God’s children.
It is a lot simpler to pay attention to what fits into our small boxes than to actually consider how to allow a family resemblance to shine through us. We’re real good at setting up categories of judgement that allow us to avoid altering our lives to more closely resemble the Lord. Adultery, murder, and public displays of rage tend to be easier for us to avoid than selfishness, arrogance, and greed. Amos announces God’s judgement with a list of injustices against the poor. Kinda sheds an unflattering light on our culture of affluence. Abba seems to be upset with our unwillingness to address such confusion. We are much more comfortable with “Jesus is coming, look busy.”
Amos says, God won’t leave you alone, won’t pass you by, this has gone on long enough. Such an announcement is not good news to kids who have been getting by with a life style of largely avoiding their parents’ instructions by putting on a nice front of “Yes sirs” and “No maams.” Such an announcement indicates a lowering of the boom and an up and coming intervention that is going to demand change.
Ahh, there’s the rub. Change. Excuses are of little help when change is demanded. Change or pay the piper. We work so hard to make our churches happen, to run the programs, to design and arrange worship that doesn’t drive people away, to foster good Stewardship, to do nice things for others. But are these a candy coating on a rotten apple? Where to we confront our unwillingness to make peace, to do it unto the least of these, to bring the homeless into our homes, to pray for our enemies and bless those who persecute us, to live in honest open love with the Lord and each other, having the mind of the crucified Christ among us, transforming us into identifiable children of God?
Such agendas are not only uncomfortable, they are downright counterproductive when we consider the tangle of priorities blaring at us from all sides. I am reminded of the conundrum of parenting again.
On time, in the midst of my frustration and confusion, I shared my inadequacy with someone who had survived the gauntlet of raising children. I remember their sad smile. They reflected, “Yes, it’s never easy, and there are no assurances that the choices we are making are the right ones. It seems we just have to plow ahead through the fog of the moment, doing the best we can.” They put a hand on my shoulder and nodded. “The only rule that is consistent, in every situation, is to make sure they know that they are loved. That’s not always easy and sometimes it’s downright painful, but it’s the only thing that lasts.”
I think God knows that rule. I think God invented it.
* * *
A Little On Edge
by Frank Ramirez
Luke 10:38-42
But Martha was distracted by her many tasks; so she came to him and asked, "Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me ." (Luke 10:40)
It’s not my intention to give medical or dietary advice here. Especially when that advice concerns what we eat and how it affects us. All advice is tricky and in the end thankless. Please turn to your doctor, your aunt’s niece’s best friend’s co-worker, or the latest infomercial instead.
There’s no question we’re all eating too much processed food, food with all these extra ingredients that probably aren’t good for us. Some foodies do tend to extol the virtues of raw vegetables. One is supposed to subsist on a diet of fruit and vegetables, according to one way of thinking. But the answer is not to eat more raw food.
But more and more scientists are coming to the conclusion that one reason we have bigger brains and are more successful than the other animals with which we share this globe is — fire. Fire, of course has many uses, but one of the most important involves cooking food! When you cook your vegetables and meat you can chew and digest it much more easily, so more of your energy goes to your brain instead of your gut!
And it turns out you waste a lot of energy chewing. Raw food is difficult to digest and break down into nutrients. Did you know that the chimpanzee, which is smaller than humans, has a colon three times as long as ours because its diet is so full of raw foods?
Richard Wrangham, in his book Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human and James C. Scott who wrote Against the Grain: A Deep History of the Earliest States both make the case for cooking hamburgers instead of eating steak tartare.
Now there’s a down side to all this. Wrangham says that one reason we’re all putting on so much weight is that we’re doing such a great job getting our hands on food, cooked or otherwise, that we don’t expend the calories we used to.
It gets worse. Scott says that the big downside of inventing fire and ceasing to be hunter/gatherers is that we grew grains to make bread. Instead of simply picking fruit in its season, where there’s no telling just when it’s going to get ripe, grains have a growing season dependent on the river rising or the rain falling. That means tax collectors can keep an eye on our crop and figure out how much and when we have to pay the government so it can support hierarchies of Pharaohs and Emperors and Kings and bureaucrats and soldiers and so on.
So were we better of eating all our food raw and not doing so much thinking?
Now I have no way of knowing what Martha was fixing for dinner in Bethany the day Jesus and a group of his disciples dropped by for food and fellowship. There might have been a plate of raw vegetables, dates, and figs, but if she was that stressed out I’m sure she was cooking something special, probably involving fish or lamb. That might explain why she was just a little on edge when her sister took the radical step of sitting at the feet of Jesus with the male disciples.
*****************************************
StoryShare, July 21, 2019, issue.
Copyright 2019 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to the StoryShare service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons, in worship and classroom settings, in brief devotions, in radio spots, and as newsletter fillers. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
“Here Comes da Judge” by C. David McKirachan
“A Little on Edge” by Frank Ramirez
Here Comes da Judge
by C. David McKirachan
Amos 8:1-12
Parenting is a constant dance between being involved with your children and letting them go. It seems both are necessary and both are wrong, depending on what’s going on with the children and what’s going on around them. To get too involved can crush initiative, short circuit responsibility, betray trust, not to mention creating a pattern of neurotic intervention that erodes respect. Not getting involved is a betrayal of the bonds of family, surrenders the raising of children to the dubious wisdom of the consumer culture and their peers, and risks the very life of the child. The horns of this dilemma are more impressive than any Texas longhorn.
The further they move through Piaget’s developmental stages the more finely tuned the adjustments must be to remain balanced. The needs of a four year old are simpler than those of a sixteen year old. As vociferous as a four year old can be, a teenager demands the attention of a moon shot. Trajectory is hard to work out.
Jesus told us to address God as our intimate parent. That’s not buddy, partner, lawyer, any more than a bit of all of them stirred into this broad and sometimes confusing role of parent. God is not tangled up in the fine tuning of this role as we are. God’s God. But we, on a constant and ongoing basis do get confused and downright rebellious in our attempt to live as God’s children.
It is a lot simpler to pay attention to what fits into our small boxes than to actually consider how to allow a family resemblance to shine through us. We’re real good at setting up categories of judgement that allow us to avoid altering our lives to more closely resemble the Lord. Adultery, murder, and public displays of rage tend to be easier for us to avoid than selfishness, arrogance, and greed. Amos announces God’s judgement with a list of injustices against the poor. Kinda sheds an unflattering light on our culture of affluence. Abba seems to be upset with our unwillingness to address such confusion. We are much more comfortable with “Jesus is coming, look busy.”
Amos says, God won’t leave you alone, won’t pass you by, this has gone on long enough. Such an announcement is not good news to kids who have been getting by with a life style of largely avoiding their parents’ instructions by putting on a nice front of “Yes sirs” and “No maams.” Such an announcement indicates a lowering of the boom and an up and coming intervention that is going to demand change.
Ahh, there’s the rub. Change. Excuses are of little help when change is demanded. Change or pay the piper. We work so hard to make our churches happen, to run the programs, to design and arrange worship that doesn’t drive people away, to foster good Stewardship, to do nice things for others. But are these a candy coating on a rotten apple? Where to we confront our unwillingness to make peace, to do it unto the least of these, to bring the homeless into our homes, to pray for our enemies and bless those who persecute us, to live in honest open love with the Lord and each other, having the mind of the crucified Christ among us, transforming us into identifiable children of God?
Such agendas are not only uncomfortable, they are downright counterproductive when we consider the tangle of priorities blaring at us from all sides. I am reminded of the conundrum of parenting again.
On time, in the midst of my frustration and confusion, I shared my inadequacy with someone who had survived the gauntlet of raising children. I remember their sad smile. They reflected, “Yes, it’s never easy, and there are no assurances that the choices we are making are the right ones. It seems we just have to plow ahead through the fog of the moment, doing the best we can.” They put a hand on my shoulder and nodded. “The only rule that is consistent, in every situation, is to make sure they know that they are loved. That’s not always easy and sometimes it’s downright painful, but it’s the only thing that lasts.”
I think God knows that rule. I think God invented it.
* * *
A Little On Edge
by Frank Ramirez
Luke 10:38-42
But Martha was distracted by her many tasks; so she came to him and asked, "Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me ." (Luke 10:40)
It’s not my intention to give medical or dietary advice here. Especially when that advice concerns what we eat and how it affects us. All advice is tricky and in the end thankless. Please turn to your doctor, your aunt’s niece’s best friend’s co-worker, or the latest infomercial instead.
There’s no question we’re all eating too much processed food, food with all these extra ingredients that probably aren’t good for us. Some foodies do tend to extol the virtues of raw vegetables. One is supposed to subsist on a diet of fruit and vegetables, according to one way of thinking. But the answer is not to eat more raw food.
But more and more scientists are coming to the conclusion that one reason we have bigger brains and are more successful than the other animals with which we share this globe is — fire. Fire, of course has many uses, but one of the most important involves cooking food! When you cook your vegetables and meat you can chew and digest it much more easily, so more of your energy goes to your brain instead of your gut!
And it turns out you waste a lot of energy chewing. Raw food is difficult to digest and break down into nutrients. Did you know that the chimpanzee, which is smaller than humans, has a colon three times as long as ours because its diet is so full of raw foods?
Richard Wrangham, in his book Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human and James C. Scott who wrote Against the Grain: A Deep History of the Earliest States both make the case for cooking hamburgers instead of eating steak tartare.
Now there’s a down side to all this. Wrangham says that one reason we’re all putting on so much weight is that we’re doing such a great job getting our hands on food, cooked or otherwise, that we don’t expend the calories we used to.
It gets worse. Scott says that the big downside of inventing fire and ceasing to be hunter/gatherers is that we grew grains to make bread. Instead of simply picking fruit in its season, where there’s no telling just when it’s going to get ripe, grains have a growing season dependent on the river rising or the rain falling. That means tax collectors can keep an eye on our crop and figure out how much and when we have to pay the government so it can support hierarchies of Pharaohs and Emperors and Kings and bureaucrats and soldiers and so on.
So were we better of eating all our food raw and not doing so much thinking?
Now I have no way of knowing what Martha was fixing for dinner in Bethany the day Jesus and a group of his disciples dropped by for food and fellowship. There might have been a plate of raw vegetables, dates, and figs, but if she was that stressed out I’m sure she was cooking something special, probably involving fish or lamb. That might explain why she was just a little on edge when her sister took the radical step of sitting at the feet of Jesus with the male disciples.
*****************************************
StoryShare, July 21, 2019, issue.
Copyright 2019 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to the StoryShare service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons, in worship and classroom settings, in brief devotions, in radio spots, and as newsletter fillers. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
