A Modest Proposal

main image

In this era of fake news, we must be vigilant against politically motivated literature. With this in mind I recently came across a most dubious show. It depicts an accountant who takes care of London's most wealthy. In those olden days the captains of industry were allowed to pass on their vast sums without fear of taxation. His assistant, a man called Cratchett, had a handicapped son who lost his insurance because the same parliament said it couldn't afford it. Some urchins in their street had been brought to the great city as infants but now faced deportation, while others begged since the welfare from the poorhouses was also being cut. Even worse, the show had a ghost of  the future who said people would remember the old man ill - what a cruel thing to say!

My modest proposal is that some reasonable newspaper buy out those malcontents producing such a show. and while they're at it, cut all this christmas cheer humbug.

 

+GRS

Fun. Silly. Wrong.

main image

Getting into an argument with a green, three-foot Jedi with pointy ears is ridiculous.  We go to a Star Wars movie for shoot-em-up special effects, complete with 3D glasses, for good guy vs. bad guy, and weird lizard creatures at the bar.  If there is a message to take away, it is that the Empire can be resisted, and that Vader is more complicated than we thought, and both are worthwhile themes.

The theologian of culture, James K.A.Smith, sees liturgies everywhere, not only in Church, but at the mall, in the parade, and at the movies.  In this spirit, it is valid to call "The Last Jedi" to task, if only a little.  Early in the (too long) movie, Yoda appears to exhort the now-retired and burned-out Luke Skywalker to get back in the game. He reassures him that everything he needs to know of The Force is in his heart already, and he is free to burn the ancient Jedi books.  Really Bad Idea!  For our culture, in its experientialism, does think something like that, but Christianity thinks the opposite. The latter teaches us to interrogate what’s in our heart based on what we hear in our ancient texts called "the Bible."  Only in that way does the name and character of the Force come clear, both in and around us. 

And I haven’t spoiled the ending for you really at all…

Peace,

+GRS

12...66676869707172737475 ... 132133

Complete the Race (II Timothy 4:17)

At the end of our vacation we find ourselves in Chicago for its Marathon weekend (the fastest, I have read this morning, perhaps because it is cool and relatively level). Marathons offer many good things. You can see world-class athletes from places like Ethiopia and Kenya. There is a feel of fiesta with signs by family members, getups by some for-fun runners, and food for sale.

But as I looked out my hotel window at 7:30 a.m., I watched the race of competitors who have lost legs or their use. Wheeling vehicles by arm for 26 miles means serious fitness and determination.

Those competitors were to me, this morning, a symbol of the Church too. For each is wounded. The larger family cheers them on. Each by grace has risen up to run the race. Ahead is the goal, the prize, the welcome home. We find the companionship of Jesus the Lord, there, and along the route too.

Amen.

GRS