For Lent I'm Giving Up...

From Ash Wednesday, which is today February 13 2013, to Maundy Thursday which falls on March 28th (and will be a future blog entry) Catholics and Christians celebrate the season of Lent. The 40 days of Lent are to commemorate Jesus' 40 days of temptation in the desert. During this time three traditional practices will be taken up with renewed vigor: prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. I find it interesting that these three practices which Catholics and Christians are emphasizing during lent are the three major tenants of the Jewish religion. (Do you think the average catholic realizes that?)

Growing up a catholic in a very catholic area I was taught that the season of Lent was a big deal. Primarily everyone would give up something that you enjoyed; chocolate, ice cream, TV, what ever you enjoyed the most. It's a form of penance. And of course giving up meat on Friday was a big thing about the whole season. I'm not saying that we went vegan, we just gave up meat. Instead of bacon and eggs for breakfast we'd have bagels or cereal. Tuna sandwiches or PB&J were the mainstay for lunch and for dinner: Fish Fry! A traditional Western New York Friday fish fry is a thing of joy and wonder: a beer battered chunk of haddock big enough to cover a steak platter, cole slaw, potato salad, macaroni salad, french fries, a slice of rye bread, and enough tarter sauce to cover that flank of leviathan you're about to delve into. Anything less was completely unacceptable, and anything more was nearly impossible. 

OT Tuesday: Shady Lady of Jericho

(Note: with the heavy events of the past few days weighing on my mind; the pope resigning, the North Koreans detonating a nuclear device they built with technology given them by the Clinton administration, I decided instead of writing about the Psalm 83 war as I had intended, I would write about something a bit lighter. A prostitute.)

It was a tough time for for the Israelites as they stood on the border of their new homeland. There were many obstacles in their way and the first of them was the town of Jericho. Their leader Moses was gone, and he was the only leader the Israelites ever knew. Every single Israelite who had known anything except endless wandering in the wilderness was gone, it was now time to settle down.

As the Israelites camped by the Jordan river at a place called Shittim, their leader, Joshua, decided a little intel was in order so he had two men cross over the Jordan and scout out the land “especially Jericho.” he ordered them. So they went to see a prostitute and hung out at her house. You may think - 'Hey, after wandering the wilderness for forty years a little R&R may be in order' - but you'd be wrong. Joshua was an awesome commander, he didn't send Privates Sad Sack and Snafu into town for some time with the ladies, he sent men who knew what they were doing. 

Emergent Monday: Send In The Clowns

When people are called sheep in the bible, it's not really a compliment. Sheep are pretty clueless creatures, they walk around and eat grass and get dirty and need haircuts, but other than that their only  other redeeming quality is that they are edible, which combined with their dull wits make them the number one ingredient in wolf chow. To get them to go anywhere you need to smack them with a stick, and they tend to follow any large sheep (or goat) that's standing in front of them for no good reason what so ever. Even though it's a pretty good allegory for people and even though sheep aren't much smarter than the grass they're eating, the biblical references to sheep are affectionate references to followers of the Good Shepard, Jesus Christ.

Goats on the other hand, not so much affection there. Goats are the unrepentant sinners, the unbelievers, the spiritually dead. In fact the term goat in the bible is less than insulting, its damning:

³² All the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; ³³ and He will put the sheep on His right, and the goats on the left...  ⁴¹ “Then He will also say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels; ⁴² for I was hungry, and you gave Me nothing to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me nothing to drink; ⁴³ I was a stranger, and you did not invite Me in; naked, and you did not clothe Me; sick, and in prison, and you did not visit Me.’ (Matthew 25:32-43)

All Religions Reach God? FACT CHECK

I hear it over and over, there are many paths to the same God. Being a saved Christian my response is a hearty "Surely you jest!" but then I realized that the folks uttering this line never actually researched the issue, and if they did, they did it without discernment. Most likely they just aped the line that they heard their new age buddies uttering. 

The concept is simple, if you believe in a higher power you're obviously going to heaven when you die if you follow your religion's tenants. Interesting concept and if you don't look at it more deeply than what's listed in the previous sentence it makes sense. So let's fact check this claim:

Satanism: The only commandment in Satanism is "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law" which was penned by the father of modern Satanism, Aleister Crowley. So in Satanism you do what ever you want then you go to hell. That pretty much blows this "all paths lead to God" concept out of the water. But let's press on:

THAT'S MY KING!

A few years ago SM Lockridge gave one of the most moving sermons I've ever heard. It's available here on Youtube, but I love it so much (can't listen without tearing up in joy) that I am posting a transcript:

The Bible says

He’s the King of the Jews
He’s the King of Israel
He’s the King of Righteousness
He’s the King of the Ages
He’s the King of Heaven
He’s the King of Glory
He’s the King of Kings
and He is the Lord of Lords
Now that’s my King!