The Demise of Veracity

 What happens if we lose veracity?  Veracity means “conformity to facts and truth”.  Veracity synonyms include words like accuracy, credibility, honesty, and trustworthiness.  What happens if we lose these things?  I suppose what happens is the opposite, when the antonyms take over.  Antonyms of  veracity include words like deceit, dishonesty, falsehood, lying, and inaccuracy.

Nearly all of the Ten Commandments are concerned ultimately with persons.  In each instance, an act is seen as evil, not in abstraction, but in its effect on human beings, who are precious because they are made in God’s image.  Killing, for example, is evil, because it is persons who suffer and die.  Theft is evil because it is taking something that belongs to another person.  Lying is evil because it harms one’s neighbor. 

All these moral laws are simply ways of showing what it means to uphold the dignity and value of human life, including that of others as well as our own.  All of us seek the dignity and value of our own lives, but the moral law says we ought to seek the same for other members of the human family.  The moral laws are detailed applications of what it means to “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

Unless veracity is part of the foundation of our society and democracy, we labor in vain.

Hodge-podge

 Hodge-podge is a soup or stew.  I like hodge-podge, especially at this time of year.  Leftover ham, with onions, garlic, celery, carrots, beans, and other mixed vegetables has become a favorite. The really neat thing about hodge-podge is that you can put it together with almost anything (and everything) that happens to be in the fridge or the pantry cupboards. 

I suppose that is why the word “hodge-podge” has come to mean “a confused mixture” (rather than a soup or stew) in our modern vocabulary.  Synonyms for hodge-podge include words like:  agglomeration, assortment, grab bag, melange, potpourri, etc.  

This writing is a hodge-podge—an assortment of things that cause annoyance; a mixture of things that rankle in my mind and irk my soul on occasion. And believe you me, there are many!

The first annoyance came in reading a FaceBook post that said:  “God is watching over you, I know because I asked him to.”  This blows my mind.  Does the person mean that God only watches over those for whom he or she asks God to watch over?  Does it mean that “my will, desire, wish” is the only thing that will cause God to watch over another person? Does it mean that God does what I want God to do?  What kind of God is that?  

Another thing that often disturbs me is the prayer:  “God bless me and my family.”  Even “God bless America” irks my soul on occasion.  Why?  Because it eliminates most of God’s children, most of God’s beloved community.  Is God around only to bless America?  Is God only concerned with your concerns (my family)?  What about all the other people, all the other nations of this world?  Do we want only to be blessed ourselves and not ask or seek God’s blessing upon everyone and every nation?

The New Testament is not afraid to use the word “all.”  And we should not be afraid  to use the word in our thought and prayer.  In fact, the New Testament focus is on “all” and not just some.  “I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all (men) to myself.”  “…so also in Christ shall all be made alive.”  “God so loved the world…that he gave…”  “I have other sheep, not of this fold.”  Christ “gave himself as a ransom for all.”  

It is impossible to set limits to the grace of God—and yet we try to do so. Let’s stop doing it.  

Basking In the Joy of the Joys

It seems like only yesterday that I wrote:  “I’m basking in the “joy” of the Joys this morning.  Liam and Katherine Maria Joy of England (via FaceTime) shared that joy with us yesterday.  They are expecting their first child in November.  This anticipated joy of the Joys will be our third great grandchild.

Katherine Maria (aka Katie, and for me, her grandad, aka “Katydid”) is the daughter of our Rachel.  Katie is our oldest granddaughter.  We have only two, Katie and Eleni, and both, as the song goes, “light up my life.”  Matthew, Austin, Nick and Ethan, our grandsons, light up my life, too.  Our first two great granddaughters, Addison and Delaney, daughters of Rachel’s son Matthew and his wife, Emily, only add to the brilliance of that light, as will the joy of the Joys.”

I wrote the above in 2019. Elodie—the joy of the Joys—is now two years old.  We’ve only met via FaceTime.  COVID has prevented travel across the pond and  a face-to-face meeting. Yesterday, Katie called to share once again a joy of the Joys.  They are expecting their second child (my fourth great grandchild) in late July.  The joy of the Joys gives me great joy!

Elton Trueblood Speaks To Our Predicament

 

D. Elton Trueblood wrote a little book in 1944 titled “The Predicament of Modern Man.”  Reinhold Niebuhr said the book was “An able and profound analysis of the spiritual situation of our time.”   That “time” was 1944—we are now in the year 2022—and the “predicament” remains.

I was struck this morning by this passage from Trueblood's book:

“Just as some declare their faith in science without inquiring sufficiently into the structure that makes science possible, others assert that their faith is in democracy.  But a democratic way of life can by no means stand alone.  Its success or failure depends, not primarily on political issues, but on the unargued principles and premises that the citizens of a democracy already espouse.  Ultimately it depends on the faith of the people, and this fact is demonstrated by the failure of the most modern democratic societies when the supporting faith is weak or non-existent.

Democracy does not succeed by creating a system of counting votes.  It depends far more on whether we retain the essential dignity of man (human beings).  Can man, the individual, respect himself and his neighbors?  If he cannot, the most elaborate system will break down.  Lacking respect for himself and failing to trust others, he is easily appealed to by a demagogue who asks the citizens to trust him and him alone.  Loss of the sense of human dignity thus leads to (Caesarism) Authoritarianism.”

Democracy has “for its inner soul or substance a special and peculiar cluster of ideas,” said W.T. Stace in “The Destiny of Western Man”.  “I call them a cluster because they cling together.  They imply one another.  The chief members of this cluster are the ideas of (1) the infinite value of the individual; (2) the equality of all people…; (3) individualism; (4) liberty”.

A Messy Christmas & A Merry Christmas

Christmas has always been messy (from the first one till now).  I don’t know why we have “decorated” it in such a way as to cover up that messiness.  But, that’s what we do year after year, and often times with great success.  We’ve convinced ourselves that what is “real” (the messiness in our own lives, the lives of others, and the brokenness of our world) becomes “unreal” at Christmas time.  In doing so, we do an injustice to what is at the very heart of the season.

Howard Thurman, in “The Mood of Christmas,” writes:  “The symbol of Christmas—what is it?  It is the rainbow arched over the roof of the sky when the clouds are heavy with foreboding.  It is the cry of life in the newborn babe when, forced from its mother’s nest, it claims its right to live.  It is the brooding Presence of the Eternal Spirit making crooked paths straight, rough places smooth, tired hearts refreshed, dead hopes stir with newness of life.  It is the promise of tomorrow at the close of every day, the movement of life in defiance of death, and the assurance that love is sturdier than hate, that right is more confident than wrong, that good is more permanent than evil.”

The clouds are heavy with foreboding in my world and yours. A worldwide pandemic exists. The cries of life are sounding.  We walk a crooked path over rough places.  Our hearts are tired and sad.  Our hopes are diminished.  The promise of tomorrow seems dismal.  Hate seems sturdier than love, wrong more confident than right,  evil more permanent than good.  To ignore this reality or to pretend it does not exist, makes the very message of Christmas meaningless.  It is the very “messiness of life” that gives Christmas meaning.  

A Promise Made--A Promise Kept

 We made the promise last January.  We would, we told Cher, finish the Quilt Book for her.   Cher had started it years ago in a loose-leaf notebook.  It contained her quilt designs and quilt photos.  She tried to finish the book last January, but could not.  That’s when we made the promise.

With the help of Paul, Rachel, and especially Luke (who pulled it all together for us), the promise made a year ago, has now been kept.  “Cherie’s Quilt Book:  All Things Bright and Beautiful” has been published.

Our promise made and kept reminds me of the Advent Promise, something I experienced, “breaking forth from the bud”, several years ago when we attended an Annual Christmas Concert at an Interfaith Center with our son, Paul, and his wife, Helen.

Hundreds of people were lined up waiting for the doors to open.  Hundreds of people filed into the auditorium filling every available seat.  “Three cheeks to a chair,” someone announced, so “everyone can have a place to sit” and the audience responded with laughter and three cheeks to a chair (COVID-19 was not a threat then). An orchestra of at least 40, a Children’s Choir of over 30, and an Adult Choir of nearly 100 were seated before us.  Above their heads a banner proclaimed:  “All Faiths, All Ages, All Races, All Sexes.”  

I looked at the program and noted the names representing many different nationalities and cultures:  Youstra, Scimonelli, Kim, Javadov, Onukwugna, Cueves, Ndekwu, and Williams.  I looked at the audience and saw the same wondrous thing.  There were people of many colors, ages and appearances.  Some in the audience were young, some were old, and some in-between.  What a mixture—people, some not so well off, others well-to-do (you can always tell)—all together in one place. This is God’s Promise, I thought, coming to fruition, “a friendly world of friendly folk beneath a friendly sky.”  This is the Promise of Advent (Emmanuel:  God with us), even now breaking forth from the bud.  

You see, only if Emmanuel is “born anew in us” can the Advent Promise be fulfilled—“All Faiths, All Ages, All Races, All Sexes.”  Only if Love becomes the norm, can the myriad pieces of humanity (colors, shapes, sizes—religions, lifestyles, politics, philosophies) be sewn together into a quilt.  The Promise was made—the Promise is kept (when we learn how to love one another in spite of our differences).

“Joy to the world! (we sang together that night) the Lord has come:  Let earth receive her King. Let every heart prepare him room, And heav’n and nature sing…”

Advent: If It Doesn't Happen Now--It Didn't Happen Then...

 I like the way Eugene Peterson speaks of Mary's annunciation in The Message: "You're beautiful with God's beauty. Beautiful inside and out!" We have to hear that before we can hear God say anything else. God loves us for what we are, who we are, and where we are. Don't ever doubt that!

Advent is about preparing, waiting, hoping, expecting, and praying that somehow God will come in some new way, not just to us personally, but to all people everywhere.  It is a time to look for a burning bush in the desert of life, for a pillar of cloud in the day, a pillar of fire in the darkness, a dream, or perhaps an annunciation.  Because God came once upon a time must mean that God can and will come now.  But how, when, where?  Will I be able to discern that coming?  Will I have eyes to see, ears to hear, mind to receive, and the sense to perceive such a coming?   How is God going to come this Advent?  How will Christ be born anew in me, in you, and in the world this Christmas?

Will some Gabriel come with an annunciation?  Does God have some special message for us?  Will we hear it  as Mary did or dream a dream as Joseph did?  Why not?  If it happened then it can happen now.   Now don’t get all disturbed, I doubt that God is going to announce that you are pregnant with child.  But God might very well announce that you are pregnant with love and that you have some special loving to do.  God might say you are pregnant with a word of hope you need to deliver to someone who is in doubt, pain, or crippled by difficulty.  God might say to me, “Hal, at 78-years-old, I’m not done with you.  I want your life to be wider and deeper than it is now.  I want you to see more, to learn more, to be more.  You have yet to become all that I mean for you to be.”  If it doesn’t happen now—it didn’t happen then!

Do you expect anything new to happen within you this Advent?  Do you anticipate God coming to you with an annunciation?  We’ve made the annunciations in the Christmas story so spiritual, religious, other-worldly, and angelic that most think it only happened then and will never happen again. If you don’t expect it to happen, don’t worry, it won’t happen.  Expect to hear, expect to dream some special dream—and maybe, just maybe—you will.  If it doesn’t happen now—it didn’t happen then!