Monday Morning Music Ministry

8-24-20

“If you’re not for us, you’re against us.”

“The friend of my enemy is my enemy,” or variations.

“Decide this day who you will serve.”

… and a hundred similar aphorisms. These are not fortune-cookie sayings or snippets of advice. They truly are life-rules, and are best understood when put into use… when circumstances oblige us to make choices.

I have mentioned before how once when I visited Art Spiegelman, Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist (Maus) and his wife Francoise Mouly, now Art Director of The New Yorker, they were eager to have me explain, if I could, an ad they saw in a magazine. It offered T-shirts, one of which bore the legend “Don’t let Jesus spit you out.”

Surely a curious message for those who are not Christians (and, I’m afraid, many who are); or those who are not familiar with the challenging book of the Apocalypse, Revelation.

The full title of the Bible’s last book, in many translations, is The Revelation of Jesus Christ To His Servant John. The elderly Apostle was exiled to the island of Patmos off the Greek coast, a penal colony, for evangelizing in Ephesus. It was on Patmos that Jesus, through the Holy Spirit, inspired the words of End Times, messages to the major churches of the day, and, many believe, describing the stages of spiritual maturity of believers as represented by future history’s unfolding dispensations.

The words to the churches are… revelatory, and often harsh. Lessons to all believers. They should be read without confusion by Christians who identify with the challenges, shortcomings, and warnings. Some passages:

I know your deeds, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead…. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

… I am coming quickly; hold fast to what you have, so that no one will take your crown. He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he will not go out from it anymore; and I will write on him the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God, and My new name.

And to the Church at Laodicea, which many think is a picture of the Christian church of our times:

The faithful and true Witness… says this:

I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I wish that you were cold or hot. So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth.

Because you say, “I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing,” and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked, I advise you to receive from Me gold refined by fire so that you may become rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself, and that the shame of your nakedness will not be revealed; and eye salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see.

Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; therefore be zealous and repent.

Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me. He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

Can these words be true? Chilling, if so!

Jesus would prefer that you are totally sold out for Him (hot)? Or prefer ice-cold nominal Christians, or lax church-goers (cold)? Prefer over “lukewarm” Christians?

Of course it makes sense, and that fact, if lukewarm Christians would stop to think about it, should make them deathly afraid. Jesus does not even say, “Depart from Me; I never knew you,” another famous verse… because lukewarm Christians do not really know the Savior in the first place.

What can be more graphic than virtually “spitting someone out”? – Distaste, disgust, rejection. Jesus warns that He will do it… and that we can bring this on ourselves.

This is surely good theology; it was spoken by the Son of God, in a “letter” written directly to “the Church at ———” (you may supply your home address there).

Beyond theology, there is no better user’s manual, so to speak, in life.

It might not have application in every moment of life, through history (yes, it does, but that’s another message) but it surely resonates today! The threats in this world… the crisis in our nation… the turmoil on our streets, and parks, and neighborhoods, and churches, and government offices… demand that we not be lukewarm.

We cannot be lukewarm in the face of efforts to destroy our heritage. How can you be lukewarm about the destruction of police headquarters, and the homes and shops of average citizens and neighbors? We should be spit out if we are lukewarm about the assault on secular and sacred statues – the Founders of this nation, and of Jesus, Mary, and saints – as we merely watch on TV.

It should against the law to be lukewarm in the face of such things.

Actually, it is. Against God’s law.

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Click: Halleluyah in Jerusalem

8-17-20

History is a litany of humankind’s mistakes and regrets, no less than it is a record of progress and successes.

In other words, life. This view is neither new nor profound. In microcosm, every day of our own lives is constructed same way. If we go to sleep happy, we still acknowledge that there were were moments or decisions we would like to take back. And if we are gloomy, regretting moments of the previous day, we can always take comfort in some redeeming element.

These things not only are true, but should be true. Success keeps us optimistic and moving forward; regrets make us humble… inspire us to do better… keep us realistic about ourselves and about life.

Again, we do not choose this formula; but returning to the larger view about life, we are reminded that the Bible said “the rain falls on the just and the unjust.”

And Theodore Roosevelt – who I quote here often – once put it this way: “It is not having been in the ‘dark house,’ but having left it, that counts.”

These thoughts were prompted by the current craziness in society (that characterization sounds like a trivialization; but I think it extremely serious), and they inevitably prompt thoughts of History.

We live in a profoundly anti-intellectual and anti-historical age. Late-night comedians squeeze countless routines from “on the street” interviews, confirming over and over that average Americans don’t know from whom the Colonists gained independence; who was president during the Civil War, or who were the combatants; who were the enemies in the World Wars. Ask your neighbors how many members of Congress there are; or the names of the Supreme Court justices; or the guarantees listed in the Bill of Rights.

I want to correct myself. I think this is an anti-intellectual age. But, concerning history, most Americans are not “anti” history – they rather think it is irrelevant, which is a far worse thing.

To deny aspects of history might be an academic exercise, a difference of opinion. But the mobs infecting parks, streets, business districts, and residential neighborhoods don’t want to be bothered with history; it is irrelevant to them, except when they need to “pin” a grievance.

What it means is that they act without regard to historical context. They refer to no philosophical bases or previous revolutions. They have no heroes, cite no precedents. They engage in pure destruction, borne of hate.

This does not mean that the street thugs in Portland and uncountable other cities have no agendas. In fact growing evidence suggests they act from scripts and follow orders. But that is not an intellectual underpinning, something that fueled other revolutions throughout history. Which makes them mindless shock-troops of destruction – nihilists. To the extent they think, beyond following orders, they choose to hate.

They hate Christianity; so they pull down statues of Jesus, and they set fire to churches.

They hate America; so they burn the flag, and they occupy government buildings.

They hate rules and laws; so they kill policemen and set fire to police cars.

They hate order in society; so they riot in the streets.

They hate decency and people who make a living; so they loot and burn stores.

They hate the family unit and Americans’ dreams of neighborhood life; so they seek to dissolve marriage, eliminate gender differences, and occupy peoples’ homes.

These things are far beyond a “black lives matter” impulse. Black Lives Matter, the organization, is openly Marxist.

I very much dislike complaining from the sidelines. I do that here, because I think we – all of us – need definition. But unlike the thugs, our actions must be based on thoughts, beliefs, knowledge, tradition, and values. And we must act. And counter-act.

I began, here, addressing “regrets.” The ugly mobs and allies – whether willing, or willing dupes – build their grievances on regrets. That cannot sustain a movement or be its foundation.

Blacks regret slavery. So do I; I shudder that it existed and that some “normal” people enabled it. But the whole gamut of responses from public housing to reparations is misguided: collective guilt and collective dependence. But every life starts its journey anew.

My grandparents came to America with not one “privilege.” Our family has no corporate moguls, but we are comfortable, having lived the “pursuit of happiness.” So can anyone.

When I hear that members of an ethnic group are bothered, say, by being stopped more often then others at routine police checks (often by black officers!), I suggest that in this “middle period” of societal evolution, they direct their anger at the number of their fellows who create that response from authorities. It will end… but not by bitching.

In the same manner, if a large percentage of rioters and looters on TV are not registering civil-rights theses but rioting and looting, “get your own house in order.” Getting jobs, getting married, being good fathers and sons and husbands, pulling up pants and helping cops keep neighborhoods safe… might keep you too busy to riot and loot.

Regrets. When society has no standards, it has no values and then has no rules and has no respect. Regrets has replaced respect. “Not my job, man”… “Not my fault”… “You owe me”… “Who says you’re right?”…

“I have a pulse, therefore I can do what I want” turns the Cartesian postulation Cogito, ergo sum on its head.

Building a philosophy, a movement, a protest, a political campaign on regrets is self-swindling foolishness. It can win the moment, or attract a few nitwits and malcontents, but is doomed to go nowhere else.

The one exception is that it can accomplish the destruction of a society. This has happened in history – a negative consequence.

Can it happen here? At the moment it is happening here. Pastors do not condemn their churches burning, but criticize a president for standing in its doorway with a Bible? Politicians endorse mass protests and violence, but close schools and churches, even meeting by Zoom?

God abolishes regrets through repentance and forgiveness. Today there are monsters roaming our streets who take no heed of God’s example, filling their minds with hate, and their actions based on bitter regrets.

Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Do you regret that Isaiah 5:20 is being fulfilled before our eyes?

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Click: Highway to Heaven – Jessy Dixon